Christmas Pickles!

Last December you might have seen this awesome stop motion video that my agency, Firehouse (www.firehouseagency.com), created around Christmas.  Thanks to the outstanding response we received form the video - 40,700-ish youtube views, embedded on a host of blogs/animation sites, featured on the top animation podcast, won both Best use of Video and Best of Show at the DWF interactive media awards - we have now been chosen to be part of a FOX-Aniboom Holiday Animation Competition.   Winning this would be extremely exciting for our agency!  

That said, if you could take a minute to vote for our video on the site that would be amazing!  To vote you need to click here and set up an account (I know that's not not always convenient but it's really really fast!) and then to vote you rank the video one out of five stars (preferable 5 stars :)) 

I really appreciate it!  

8 things

I have been tagged by my friend Bekah to do do a little personal inventory -
so here we go:


Instructions:

* Mention the person that tagged you
* Complete the list of 8 things
* Tag 8 of your wonderful bloggy friends - not planning on doing this
* Go tell them you tagged them - so this won't be necessary

8 Things I Look Forward To:
Mat coming home next Thursday
The end of the Barbados project
Hearing Matt Chandler speak at The Village 
Planning a vacation
Seeing my Delta friends 
Getting more furniture for our home
The end of my detox - Tminus 21 days!
Completion of the Greenway Place pool

8 Things I did Yesterday

1. Finished phase 1 of the detox
2. Cried during church
3. Took a late night walk with Mat
4. Wished my mom a happy mothers day
5. Went to Central Market - Only spent $26!
6. Went to the office to work
7. Bought fun postcards 
8. Mat & I each picked out a new book to read - Mat: The Great Divorce Kels: Twelve Ordinary Men

8 Things I Wish I Could Do:
Speak Spanish
Drink a beer
Plan a mission trip
Meet more girl friends in Dallas
Visit Fayetteville more often
Play the piano
Add hours to the day

Give Mat John Legends wardrobe 

8 Shows I Watch:
Grey's Anatomy
Private Practice
Brothers & Sisters
Burn Notice
House
Letterman
NBA Basketball - any game really

Ace of Cakes

Cupcakes and Competition

I love cupcakes and I love basketball.  I really love both of those things together and Zack's birthday (HAPPY 27th!) was a great excuse to watch the Jazz play the Sun's while eating a cupcake and drinking a glass of wine (if you remember my earlier post reference my love for basketball and wine, maybe I just love basketball and all types of food and drink).  

I also made a pretty fantastic herbed chicken parmesan for the celebration of another year passed and sweaty sports.  Only downer was that the Jazz did not win.  

Dewitt Wedding

Middle of March we made a trip to Fayetteville for Sean and Mikki's wedding.  The only picture I took of the whole experience was of Mat and I in the grocery store after the rehearsal dinner, great picture really - cut off Mat's face, in front of the soup display, I will probably have to frame this one some time - a joke of course. 

We had a great time and are so excited for the new Dewitt family.  The rehearsal dinner was at James at the Mill, perfect place!  Best part of the whole weekend was that I got to see so many friends that I hadn't seen in a long time.  for some reason, it just worked out that most of my groups of friends are also friends with Sean somehow so I got to see a whole mix of great folks. One of those being Emily Bell, I don't get to see that girl often enough and getting a huge hug and so much time just talking and hanging out makes me miss having her around, MOVE TO DALLAS BELL'S!     

The wedding was beautiful! It was at Pratt Place Barn and so was the reception, catered by none other than Noodles Italian Kitchen so you know the food was pretty fantastic.  Sean and Mikki had the same band that Mat and I had at our wedding so that was a fun flashback for us!  When the band took their break I spent most of the time dancing crazy like with one of my favorite people, Courtney Matthews, she was in my cell group the past 6 years and I love her like my sister. 

After the wedding we headed to the bar at Theos with the Areas, the Bells and the Rhode's. Good conversation and a good vodka tonic never hurt anybody.  

Our little surprise for the weekend was when Mr. Dewitt gave the room at the bed and breakfast to Mat and I for Saturday night.  The place was so pretty, every room is named after a type of tree and has a colonial feel.  It was a great place to spend Saturday night and when we got up Sunday morning we had scones & sweet bread waiting on us along with fresh coffee and fruit.  I could go for that every morning really.   

Last but not at all least, I spend all of Saturday afternoon with my good friend Bekah.  We hadn't had time just the two of us since I don't know when and it is always refreshing to spend the day with her.  We ate at Noodles, looked at furniture, and gave book recommendations at Barnes and Noble, and ended the day sharing a cookie at Panera.  It was fantastic.  We have a date to teach Bek how to use twitter.  Thats going to be a good day!

Thanks for getting married Sean and Mikki!  Sure made for a great weekend! 

The older of my younger sisters, Kristin, flew into Austin for a long weekend at the beginning of March.  Mat and I love Kristin and we love Austin and we love our friends in Austin so going for the weekend was really a no brainer.  

We drove up there on a Saturday morning and went shopping with my two sisters and my parents at the outlet mall just outside of Austin.  I love shopping it is a fantastic way to spend the afternoon if you ask me, if you ask Mat he may disagree.  I happen to think it's a great way for usb to get the best of both worlds.  I can spend money on new clothes but also save money because we got them at the outlet...compromise, that's what marriage is all about right!  

After shopping we went back to the hotel and changed into our favorite jeans and boots before we had dinner and went two stepping with the fam.  We were headed to the Broken Spoke - if you are ever in Austin and want a true Texas two stepping experience I suggest the Broken Spoke.  

We had called and asked Kara and Adam Anthony if they wanted to meet us at the Broken Spoke to dance, they were excited to join us.  Then we called Parker to see if he wanted to come as well, always a tough sell.  Parker kept his schedule open just in case a better offer came along but in the end we hassled him enough that he showed up!  (Side note: The Anthony's and Parker are probably one hundred times the two steppers Mat and I could ever hope to be)  Well the fam stayed for quite some time and then the Anthony's, Parker, and the Hency's closed down the Broken Spoke.  Be jealous, it was so fun. 

Sunday after a quick breakfast at Central Market with Mom, Dad, Kristin and Kate we headed back to Dallas.  Good weekend though. 

What we have been up to

So, it's been a long time since I posted, a month and one day actually.  Ridiculous, I should be ashamed, I promise to do better.  Mat actually asked me yesterday if I had given up on the blog.  The answer is no, no I have not, I have just been busy.  Well here is a recap of the last month and one day.  Scroll up for multiple new posts!

Sunday Naps

I like pretty much everything about Sunday's except they usually mean that Mat is going to leave the next day.  But, if the day before he left has to be I am glad it's a Sunday.  On Sunday's Mat and I like to take naps.  Mat actually prefers to sleep, once he is out a minimum of two hours is required and it's usually in everyone's best interest to let him wake up on his own.  I usually ignore those facts and take about a 30-45 minute nap on the couch with Mat and then proceed to let him know I am awake and would like to spend time with him, preferably while he is awake as well.  

Disclaimer: The above picture is just a pretend nap, if we were really napping someone else would have to take the picture and that isn't possible.  

Full beer number 2!

I like wine.  I like it a lot really.  A glass of Pinot Grigio is guaranteed to make me more relaxed, smiley, a little tired and if I haven't eaten much probably something Mat likes to call "winey", you know really smiley and really chatty and usually in a higher pitched little girl voice.    But this post is not about wine it's about beer.  I don't like beer.  It's unfortunate really.  I wish I did.  I desperately want to eat pizza and drink beer and watch basketball, but i eat pizza and what basketball while I drink wine.  

Well my friends the above picture is of the second, thats right number 2, beer that I have ever completely finished.  The number one beer was actually a Boulevard Wheat at Hugo's, I think it was Ben Rectors birthday (check out his album, Songs That Duke Wrote, I think you will  like it), I know it was after the "candle incident" between Hunter and Blake.  That was first semester senior year people!  We are talking about two years ago, that's a long time.  

My  hope is that this continues.  As you can see it was a Michelobe Ultra.  Mat felt uncomfortable purchasing that feminine a beer because he was going to get the same thing I got, he figured history would repeat itself and he would actually be drinking the beer that i picked up and didn't want to mix brews on this particular occasion.  

Now Who's Who Burgers in Highland Park Village will forever be special to me.  
This is Mat being super excited that I finished the beer, maybe a little disappointed that he didn't get his Texas Micro Brewery beer, the one with the state of Texas on the cap, don't know what it's called but I know he drank a Michelob Ultra instead - now thats love. 
This is all the proof I have that this event actually took place. Do you see anything coming out of that bottle?  No, no you don't, that sucka's empty.  

These two guys are really excited about my accomplishment.  They were outside the window playing hide and seek.  Alexandria and I told the guy who's face is not covered up by a monster mask zip up hoodie where the other one was hiding.  They thought we might like to take a picture of them so the posed. Guess they were right, there's the picture.  

Thomas and Alexandria were even more excited about my accomplishment than Mat because it means there's hope for me to be even more fun than I already am in the future.  

Keep me in your thoughts as I try to ramp up my beer consumption.  Maybe this month I will finish beer number 3.  I will keep you updated. 

Wedding Season is back!

Last summer we went to so many weddings I was sure that no other year could come close to comparing on sheer number attended.  We kicked off wedding season with my favorite wedding so far, our own :)  And then went to Emily & Austin then Justin & Tricia then Bekah & Dallas then Kendall & Keith then Darcy & Matt, then Kate & Matt, then in December to Hunter & Sydney then Stacia & Chris.  (I left someone out of that list I think,  I am sorry if I left you out and you are reading this I promise you are important in our life).  Thats 7 weekends out of the Summer that we were at weddings...after our wedding we didn't spend two weeks in a row at our new home until July.  

Now it's time to start again!  Tomorrow we kick off our second wedding bells marathon with Oscar & Meredith!  We are very excited for this one!  Unfortunately Oscar was unable to be in our wedding because he was out of the country helping to save the world but Meredith made the drive from Austin to the Ville to be there and we were so very happy to have her!  They are a great friends and are very excited to welcome them into the married club.  

The schedule continues after Oscar & Meredith to Sean & Micky then John & Krista to Flora & Chris then Jeni & Sam. 

Here's how it goes:

Rehearse, eat, speech, laugh, cry, drinks!, makeup, hair, boys eat, girls don't, tux, flowers, the dress, the bouquet, the aisle, the vows, the kiss, pictures, the cake, the party, the meatballs (you know 8 out of 10 weddings serve the little meatballs - not me, Blake or Hunter though), dancing, more laughing, more drinks, sore feet, the bouquet, the garter, hugs, bubbles/rose petals/sparklers,  limo, cleanup, group breakfast on Sunday and see you again next week!  

I love wedding season! 

Been a long time

Well everybody, I planned on writing a long post over how fantastic Valentines Day went but I currently can't look at the computer screen for more than 5 minutes before I feel a headache coming on.  This is not good considering I pretty much need to look at my computer all day.  Right now I am handwriting all of the things I need to get accomplished with the intention of typing them out later.  I will write a long post about how fun it was to spend the whole day with Mat later.  

Conner, Stacia, Collin, John, Krista - anyone else in any sort of med school, feel free to call me with suggestions on how to get rid of a headache I have had for a week and as of this morning a very slight fever.  I will be anxiously awaiting the cure I know someone out there has.   

Procrastination

It is fun to paint walls fun colors that you have coordinated with your things.  It is NOT fun to paint walls that are fun colors that coordinate with your things - to beige.  Now that Mat and I have moving into our town home we have to go back to our apartment and re-paint it to the original color, which is probably officially called "blah".  My good friend from work, Joela, brought her super nice boyfriend, Kevin, to the apartment last week and we got all but one wall painted back.  It's only one wall but neither Mat or I want to go do it.  We didn't go yesterday because Mat had to work and the more I think about going over there the more tired I feel.  "It's only one wall...It's only one wall...It's only one wall...."

Friends + Food

Raqib and Dana made it to Dallas!  Though the plan to make it here on Friday turned into Sunday all that really matters is they made it.  Raqib and Dana both worked with me at Saatchi and are so very fun to have around.  We took them to Villa O (great mashed sweet potatoes even though it's an italian place).  They are driving from Arizona to Michigan - quite the trip.  Raqib brings out the most sarcastic part of me for some reason so for the next few hours I will be thinking that I am quite funny even though I probably am not as funny as I believe myself to be.  

Central 214

So as most of you know Mat and I's time together is well, spotty.  He loves his job but the travel means we don't get to spend as much time together as we would like.  The upside to this is that when Mat comes home he says things like "I want to take you out".  This is not the same as "Lets go to dinner", the latter translates to "What places serve food in a half mile radius from where we are".  "I want to take you out" translates to "It's ok if we spend a little bit of money."  I like it when he says "I want to take you out" so of  course I was down.  We decided to go to the restaurant inside the Palomar Hotel.  We had been there once in September for my cousins birthday dinner and loved it but hadn't been back since.  I remembered that we had fun and that the food was great but forgot how cool it felt to be there - big difference from my usual vegetable soup  and salad by my lonesome whenever I happen to get home from work.  I love the neutral but geometric plates they serve things on.    

When we walked in they told us we could wait or sit at the "Chef's Bar" which was  code for the counter in front of the kitchen that no one really likes to sit at.  When we said we would sit there I thought we might have made their night.  I loved sitting there because I got to see how the kitchen was set up and how many people they had working each position and all of that stuff no one who didn't manage a restaurant for a few years cares about.  
While we were sitting there the Chef came by and told us that Bradie James, a Dallas Cowboys football player, was having a charity dinner there that night.  She pointed him out, she actually said "He is the tall dark choloatsicle and he likes to give out hugs".   It was not hard to find him.  The 27 year old tall, athletic black man at a table of obviously rich white people who were all flirting with 60 years old.  

Our dinner was awesome.  Hopefully Mat will say "I want to take you out" again sometime soon.  

Tacos and Basketballs

A couple of weeks ago my youngest brother Kampbell, who I call Kampus, came to Dallas with his friend Bobby and stayed the weekend with me while Mat was in New Orleans for Oscars Bachelor Party.  Me and two 15 year old boys, I am sure you are thinking, "What could possibly be bad about that".  So two highlights of their visit (I will channel my inner Matthew Bond and list them with numbers in front, this blog is about both of us you know).

1) Fuel City -  When I heard they were coming my first thought was, "What the heck am I going to do with two 15 year old boys for three days!".  Insert twitter.  Naturally I sent out a 140 character message to my "Tweeps" (twitter peeps that is) and asked if anyone had any suggestions.  Joel Thomason (@JoelThomason or @10lunches) to the rescue.   Joel, the soon to be hero, had told me about his out of this world awesome trip with Ben Rector to Fuel City tacos while we were at Hunters rehearsal dinner - and I totally forgot about it.  Lucky for me he responded to my desperate tweet with a reminder that Fuel City was a great option, actually he said "Take them to Fuel City".  It was almost a command, how could I ignore that? 

 I don't know if you caught the Texas Monthly cover story titled "59 Tacos You Must Eat Before You Die" but in case you missed it Fuel City Tacos are number on on the list, yup number one, #1, most appropriately- numero uno.   Fuel City is a gas station.  Awesome, I know.  There is a window you walk up to and order tacos from a couple of Mexican ladies who are in a little tiny kitchen.  Each taco cost less than a dollar!  We walked up and ordered, picked out our bottled drinks imported from Mexico (made with real cane sugar - none of the High Fructose Corn Syrup crap) and waited for our tacos.  Once we got them we opened them up on the back of my car and dug in....FANTASTIC.  These things were incredible.  Kampbell said "Oh my gosh these things are amazing.  If this is a real taco nothing I have ever eaten before this qualifies as a taco."   We ate the tacos (Kampbell - 8, Bobby - 6, Kelsey - 2) while we listened to Karaoke in spanish that was taking place in the parking lot, watched longhorn cattle graze to the side of us, and talked about how we might not ever eat anything that great again.

2) Jazz vs. Mavs:  Kampbell had never been to a professional basketball game and the thought of coming to Dallas to see one of Fayetteville's Finest (Ronnie Brewer, Duh!) and the German Hero (Dirk Nowitzki) was too good to turn down.  So we went to Victory Park pre-game and walked around.  The boys needed a picture in front of the massive screen on the side of the American Airlines Arena, looking hard of course. 
The highlight was really after the game.  Ronnie was so nice to give us passes to hang out after the game and see the Jazz players.  Bobby was so excited he literally started screaming and talking like a little girl.  Kampus kept his cool and got a great picture with Ronnie.  

Disclaimer: Kampbell is not as tall as Ronnie he is actually no fewer than two steps above him on the bleachers. 
Jazz lost but thats OK it was a great weekend!  Can't wait to do it again - and maybe the Jazz will win next time!

Getting Started

So, it's been a long time coming but the Hency blog is finally up and going!  There are a few things I want to change but I figured an OK blog up and going was better than no blog up and going.  Be looking for frequent life updates from the Hency house!