Christmas 2008 in Louisville

What a great Christmas! The first picture is of Ben and I (with Ralph and Jane) at Lynn's, the restaurant where we had our first date. The second picture is of Ben and Ralph at the American Printing House for the Blind, where Ralph works. Last, but not least, the whole Bartley clan (minus Zach, Jessica's boyfriend). Take a close look at the Webkin Madison (in the dark pink) is holding. One of her tentative names for him is "PugPuggy Jr." - adorable!

She's At It Again!

PugPuggy moved her "spot" in our guest room (aka "PugPuggy's Room") from a few feet inside the door (see blog posting Dec. 9, 2009 "PugPuggy's a Little Creepy") to right at the edge of the carpet and tile. Why? So she could look at me (Megan) as I did dishes at the kitchen sink. Awwwee! Ok, PugPuggy, I take back calling you creepy. You're a sweet cuddly pug (especially when it's 34 degrees outside!).

PugPuggy Meets "The Laser"

Ben got a laser pointer for Christmas... and we put it to good use - giving PugPuggy a good workout. Oh... it really is the little things in life that matter.

Ben's Birthday - December 20th

Ben turned 34 on Saturday, December 20th. We had a great day. Ben got some cool presents, we went to Central Market for breakfast, browsed a camera shop, tried a new sushi restaurant (thumbs down), met some friends for drinks, saw "MILK" at the Alamo Ritz, and watched the Master Pancake guys perform their sketch (yes, John is supposed to be Jesus - hilarious!). Happy birthday Ben.

PugPuggy's A Little Creepy

PugPuggy totally creeped me out today. I went looking all over the house for her and found her in our guest bedroom sitting statue-like facing the door (as seen in the picture above). I tried to get her to move - calling her to come - but she just sat there. Finally I noticed she was in one of her beds playing with a toy. 5 minutes later she wasn't in her bed anymore. Again, I went searching and found her in the guest bedroom, in the same spot, same postion. The above pictures are from each of the two times I found her, just for proof. Hmm... should I be worried or something?

Proceed with Caution

I'm not known for my baking skills, but man, did I have to laugh at myself for this one:

In an attempt to make molasses cookies (my favorite this time of year) I accidentally put garlic in the dough instead of ginger. Why is this, you might be asking... Well I didn't have any powdered ginger but I did have a jar of "fresh" ginger that looked just like my jar of "fresh" garlic. And I was in a bit of a hurry (had to catch my favorite t.v. program that started in 20 mintues). So needless to say, I mistook the garlic for ginger. The funniest part was that as I was making it I kept thinking it smelled funny, that maybe I wasn't used to the ginger smell or something. I even stuck the dough in the fridge to chill and then the light bulb went on - Duh! That funny smell was garlic, not ginger! So I threw away the dough and made a new batch with ginger. They came out excellent. So maybe I'll be known for my baking skills after all...

Why did we use the names BlogBloggy and BartBartley?

Ever since we named our pug, PugPuggy, a friend of ours jokes that we'll need to name our first child, Bart Bartley. Ben and I weren't sold on this name for one of our children (who have yet to be born or conceived) but we've always joked about the name. For instance, this ongoing conversation has sparked naming our new SMART car, SmartSmarty.

When thinking of a blog name, naturally BlogBloggy was our first option but it was already taken. Since the blog had been inactive for years we commented on that blog to see if he was willing to relinquish the blogspot name. Since we haven't heard anything from him we decided to go ahead with BartBartley. And now that BartBartley has been used we unfortunately can't name one of our children Bart - oh, darn!

Thanksgiving in Tucson

What a weekend! We had a great time playing poker, playing golf, hanging out with Jen & Darrell, figuring out if there is such thing as a Siamese Jack Russell Terrier (I mean really... can you tell where one begins and the other ends? I can't.). I (Megan) even got a chance to catch up with some friends at the church I used to work for. It was great to remember how loved and cared for I was/am at Trinity - thanks guys!

Megan's Latest Project

Times are hard and I need to make money so I've started stripping - my cabinets that is! Ha ha! This will be a slow process but it will look great when I'm done!

Missouri

Ben's cousin Brad married Michelle on Saturday, November 8th. This was our 5th out-of-state wedding this year. What a marathon! Next year it looks like 3 of the 4 weddings on the calendar are in Texas.

The picture of Ben and I are at his grandparent's farm in Union. Below is a picture of (from L-R) Jane (Ben's mom), Jen (Ben's older sister), Ben, Ralph (Ben's dad), and Jodi (Ben's younger sister). Missing is Ben's youngest sister, Jessica, who was back in Milwaukee working hard!

Halloween

PugPuggy was a dinosaur, Ben was Peanut Butter Jelly Time (YouTube it, it's hilarious!), and Megan was a lamp (see cord coming out of pant leg).

Weddings Galore

This year was the year for out-of-state weddings.
We had five total. In October we had two weddings on back-to-back weekends in two different cities. Tyler and Sherwin were mary'd in Seattle(Megan went to UW with Tyler). Darrell and Jennifer's wedding was in Tucson (Ben went to UofA with Darrell).

Austin City Limits Festival - September 2008

We did it up right this year and attended Austin City Limits Festival - or ACL for local Austinites. Freddie and Heather came to join us in the festivities. It was a blast!