"Gerrard Rhapsody"

In order to ensure that the following video is viewed in the appropriate frame of mind, I feel that it is necessary to provide some background information. Obviously, the musical inspiration is Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody." The inspiration for the subject matter and lyrics is also drawn from a British influence, Liverpulian to be more precise.

As I am sure most, if not all of you are aware, I am a Manchester United supporter. Manchester United's arch rival in the English Premier League has always been and will forever be Liverpool Football Club. This is an extremely heated rivalry, exacerbated even more so this year as Manchester United sits poised to tie Liverpool's record of 17 English League titles at season's end. The focal point of the video is Stephen Gerrard, Liverpool's long time captain. Gerrard was arrested in a Liverpool area pub after cold-cocking a fellow patron because the poor lad changed the song on the jukebox. Gerrard's arrest in late January, along with the multiple criminal charges that followed, provided the Aussie masterminds with their inspiration to make this video.

Quick Vocabulary Lesson:

Scouser - derogatory term referring to anyone who plays for, supports, or hails from Liverpool
Rafa - Liverpool's manager (head coach), also known in Mancunian (Manchester United) circles as FSW (Fat Spanish Waiter)

New York, New York!

Megan (I kept waiting for this post so I could link her...and she still hasn't started her blog!) and I went to NYC over the MLK Day weekend. Jordan graciously let us stay at her apartment...and we had a blast!

Here are some pictures from our weekend getaway:

We're Back!

Sorry for the long absence - it looks like I'm a good once a month blogger! It's been on my to-do list since MLK Day...but I'm just now getting to it. That's ok - I'm pretty sure that everyone who reads this blog already knows what is going on with us anyway!

First, Mark is done with Practice Court! I don't think that I realized how much of a difference it would be - he doesn't have to read until 2 am every night and he's in such a better mood. I guess it really was a good thing that I didn't know any different since the entire time we've been married he's been in practice court.

Another thing you might have missed is Mark's cast!



We thought he might have broken his hand, but he actually ruptured the sheath around his tendon. He did this while trying to change my tire from one of my flats (I've had about 5 or 6 in the past year - I like to say that it's better to have a flat than a wreck!!). My Lexus has wheel locks on it which means that you have to use a key to get the tire off of the wheel - but since I have had so many flats, the key was stripped and it was impossible to remove the tire. Stubborn Mark tried for more than 2 hours to get that flat tire of my car - he never succeeded. BUT, he was vindicated when the tow truck driver using his air gun, and Discount Tire couldn't remove the tire with their machine. They ended up having to break the wheel lock to remove the tire. Mark was a great husband in fixing my tire and working with the AAA Tow Truck man! My tire is now fixed, and he warned me that the next time I get a flat tire, I have to deal with it. Luckily, the Reitmeier's continued our AAA coverage!!

In other news, the plywood on our wall is gone! We are waiting for the wall to be textured and painted - but unpainted drywall is much better than plywood!

Coming up...pictures from my New York City weekend!

Some of our Christmas Loot!

We were very fortunate this year and received gifts aplenty!

Some of Mark's include:

Sirius Satellite Radio:

A King Ranch Duffle:

Mini Duff:

A Big Bottle of Crown:

a neat grill set:

some Christmas money spent on these:


and some of Lauren's:

a cute & trendy Tory Burch purse:
some Christmas dishes:


UGGS!


New perfume:

a day after Christmas Reitmeier women surprise (Lindsay & Edith have similar ones):

a cute apron I can't wait to wear!



...and so much more!
We are so blessed - thank you so much to everyone who made this such a great Christmas. We love you!!

Christmas adventures...and a fire.

We've had an exciting past few weeks - sorry about the lack of posts!!

Our Christmas season started out with a viewing of the Nutcracker at Waco Hall. The ballet company was from Russia, so I figured they should be pretty good. It was a lot of fun and we had great seats!



We also took a weekend getaway to San Antonio and stayed at a wonderful boutique hotel on the Riverwalk, Hotel Contessa. We stayed there right after it opened for KOT semi-formal Mark's senior year and knew we loved it. It's a really fun hotel, and it had its suites 1/2 off!

We got there early Saturday morning, wandered along the riverwalk, had Margaritas and Mexican food for lunch, visited the Alamo, and then relaxed at the hotel that night. We ate at the restaurant in the hotel and had a wonderful meal. Mark had his first mussels (he liked them) and we finished the meal off with some churros.






We came back to Waco with everything ready for Christmas - all the presents were wrapped in coordinating colors...
and I managed to keep our tree alive with all ornaments in tact! Our first Christmas was going great...until Mark called me at work the afternoon of the 23rd to tell me to come home quickly.

It turns out that the back wall of our apartment houses all of the electrical boxes for our entire building - about 10 units. One of the wires from another unit caught on fire and had started to smoke and burn inside of OUR wall. Luckily, Mark was not in class and he was able to call the fire department (after putting Rocky in his truck, safely away from the smoke). Mark grabbed our laptops before the fire department arrived with about 6 different engines! [I guess Mark now knows his answer to the question what would you grab in a fire: the cat and the computers!]

We were very fortunate that we caught the fire when we did - we ended up with a hole in our wall, but nothing burned, all Christmas presents were salvaged, and none of my beautiful Christmas ornaments were broken!





Crisis averted!! We enjoyed a great Christmas Eve in Dallas - Mark experienced his first Sims/Hendricks Christmas Eve mayhem - and we were blessed by very generous presents.
We stayed in Dallas for Christmas Day lunch and then headed back to Waco for a Colvin Christmas.

I made it through about the first 2 rounds of gift opening before I got sick and spent the rest of the night puking. No fun - and I missed getting to see what everyone got!!

Lindsay and Nick were in Waco through January 3rd so even though we were not planning on an extended stay in McGregor - we had a fun time spending Christmas with them..and Mark and Nick especially enjoyed playing their new FIFA soccer game on the big screen!

We also went to Barkin' Ball on New Year's Eve - a fun change from our usual pj's and Eastern Time New Year's!



We're back at our apartment now - the plywood on the wall is holding up well! - and we're very lucky to have such a generous and loving family, and to still have our apartment. All in all, this was a great first Christmas!

ps - If you are looking for a good way to get rid of fruit flies - a glass of Screw Kappa Nappa works well!

Our First Tree - part 2

And here is the finished tree - complete with a few presents already under the tree!

It was great to have several nice ornaments to add to the tree this year! Thanks mom for collecting ornaments over the years for me - they look great!

Our First Tree - part 1

We finally have our first Christmas tree up and decorated! It took a couple tree stands and a few days - but Christmas has fully arrived at our home. Above is a picture of how the tree looked last night - the tree stand was too big and the tree had a definite list to it.



The tree doesn't have a topper yet - that's because he commandeered the topper I originally got - a peacock with a great feather tail that matched our ornaments. Rocky found it before I had even taken it out of the Target bag. We decided it was easier to just let him have it rather than try to keep him from climbing the tree! Here you can see him with his new toy.

And here are some in progress decorating pictures...