National "love your pet day" {recipe!}

Guys!

It's national "Love your pet day!"

Although I celebrate my love for my pups everyday, I plan on making today extra special for them!

We're going to take a trip to Petsmart, (Melvin needs a harness), then go play at Walnut Creek Park.

I have another surprise up my sleeve for them, Frosty Paws! We just picked some up last night (for free I might add, Thanks Floyd)! Dog ice cream, imagine that! We don't even buy ourselves ice cream! They're going to think it's their Birthday or something! 

If you're an Austinite, 365 things to do in Austin posted a fun list of things you and your pet can do together. Check it out!

And if you're feeling extra generous, you can make these very easy Dog-I-Y treats!

via

• 1/2 cup milk, low or fat free
• 1 cup peanut butter, natural or organic
• 3 cups rolled oats

Combine milk and peanut butter.

Stir in the oats.

Scoop out the peanut butter balls with a cookie scooper or ice cream scoop. With wet hands, roll into a ball.

Place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and refrigerate for one hour! 

Meetup Connections

In this post, I told you that I joined a meetup group.

Well, I got my first invite to a wheaten meetup! Melvin and I have a date to West Austin dog park tomorrow. I'm excited to meet more wheatens and their parents. I'm curious if Melvin will act any differently.

And although that's going to be fun, I have even more exciting news!

I was browsing the group and looking at the other wheaten parents and ended up coming across Nicole(and Claire, her puppy). I commented on how cute she was, and Nicole emailed me back and we got to talking. She said they wouldn't be at the meet up on Saturday because Claire was getting spade that day. I told her Melvin just got neutered a few weeks ago and to not worry, they get over it quickly. It occurred to me that they were around the same age. I replied back to her asking where Claire came from... Turns out they came from the same breeder at Kaven ranch.

They are not only from the same breeder, but they have the same parents and they are the same age. We discovered that Melvin and Claire are brother and sister!

You best believe I was freaking out when I found that out!!! Ok, I know there aren't a ton of breeders in Texas, but for them to be the same age and have same parents, just makes my heart happy!!!

Claire is among Melvin in these pictures. Can you believe it?! I can't wait for them to meet. I wonder if Melvin will even know? I wonder what their reactions will be.... I'm excited to find out!

Formula 1

If you haven't been watching the news lately, then you're probably unaware of the big thing that happened over the weekend in the US!

Formula 1

If you're like me, then you probably don't know much about formula 1 racing. In Brooke terms, it's these itty bitty cars that zip around a winding race track, trying to fit as many laps as they can into a certain amount of time. I might add it's nothing like nascar, people.

There are formula 1 tracks all over the world! I thought of it almost like sport fútbol, or soccer, because it's so well known all over the world, with hardcore fans that travel to see their drivers hopefully win.

Austin is now another home to formula 1 racing, the only track in America. Pretty cool, huh?!

 This weekend kicked off the grand opening, and of all places, it's basically in my backyard!
 
I'm sure you can only imagine how busy Austin was this past weekend. Circuit of the Americas brought so many people to our city. Sure some Austinites were unhappy with the crowds, traffic, and events. But for someone who experienced the "traffic," it actually wasn't bad at all! It HAD to bring a lot of revenue to our city too, so that's always a good thing.

Be sure to turn down your volume, these cars are LOUD!

I was amazed with the diehard fans, the diverse culture, the speed of the f1 cars, the amount of Ferrari's I saw at one time!, how loud the f1 cars were, and the whole set up! I seriously felt like I was in a different country. It didn't have that weird Austin feel. Lots of logo attire, cologne, and fancy clothes. It was all so different than what I've ever experienced before. Super fun to say the least!

 

The Ferrari's racing! My favorite part! They played dirty, and I loved it. Who woulda thought!

Until next time, Circuit of Americas!

Austin City Limits

also known as

ACL 

ACL is a huge music festival held in one of Austin's best known parks, Zilker Park.
3 days.125 bands.Beer
Don't think it get's better than that!

Although I am pretty sad I won't be spending my first weekend with Melvin. Don't worry, we got a sitter for during the day. Thanks mama Hamilton!

This year is the 11th anniversary of ACL and if I'm correct, I think Scott has been to every one of them! This will be my third time in attendance. I've never been this late in the year, so I'm really hoping for some cooler weather!(and no rain!)

ACL 2011

There are a ton of bands that I want to see this year. Some of my favorites are Ben Howard, Black Keys, M83, Michael Kiwanuka, The Avett Brothers, and Two Door Cinema Club. I featured one of Michael Kiwanuka's songs in this post if you're interested in checking him out.

Here's my schdule in pictures

Friday

 Saturday

 Sunday

Terrible pictures... sorry about that!

Are you going to ACL this year? Who are you most excited to see?

said YES to the dress!

This weekend I've got exciting plans! I am going to purchase and get sized for my wedding dress!!! I am so very excited! 

I wish I could reveal a picture of it, but then I'd give the surprise away and you don't want that!

Let me tell you a little bit about it instead :)

• It is designed by Lazaro Perez, a part of the Tara Keely collection. 

• I'm buying it from Blush Bridal Lounge here in Austin. I highly recommend this little boutique. They have a great selection of dresses spanning from $700-3,000 which is reasonable for mostly anyone's budget for their wedding dress. They were super helpful and accommodating. They have deals there that if you buy your dress, veil, head piece, etc, then they will offer a discount of 20% off. Pretty awesome, huh?

• It was the very first dress I tried on and after about 20, I'm still in love with the first one.

• ....and it's white :)

I don't want to give away too much but I can say that it is very me and exactly what I was looking for!  I can't wait until I get to show everyone, especially Scott.

Buuuuut you'll have to wait another 8.5 months :)

Hello Corporate World

long post sorry! 

Well friends...

 I got the job!!!

Last week I was called in for an interview and I was actually really nervous about it. I've only been to a handful of interviews so it's not something I am really familiar with. Anyways, I got the call yesterday and was offered the job, and of course I accepted it. It's kind of crazy because I will go to orientation on Monday! They're not wasting any time, are they?

A number of people have asked me what my interview was for and what I'll be doing... So now that I know I will for sure be employed there, I will share! It's kind of complicated/confusing if your unfamiliar, so I'll generalize it and try to make it easy to see how this job became an option for me... 

Having graduated in December with a degree in Elementary Education, I was looking for teaching jobs. Some of you may know that the market is pretty tough right now and teaching jobs can be few and far between. It had been six months since graduation and no leads for jobs. I was really unhappy with my current job and needed a change, and quick...

So I applied for a state job through the Attorney Generals Office with the Risk Management agency.

I know, you're probably thinking, how and where did you find out about that job and what made you want to go for it...

Well, I have a history of family members that have worked for the state, and the idea had always been in the back of my mind. My aunt currently works for the office of Risk Management and there happened to be a position that became available in her agency. I was more that thrilled! I applied online and a week later was called for an interview. I'm making it sound easy, but trust me it wasn't. There were a lot of different loops I had to jump through to get to that position. 

1. I had to go to the work force commission to submit my application. (work in Texas website is a doozy to work with and is not user friendly at all)

2. I almost wasn't able to make it for an interview because there was only a Friday time slot available and I was leaving that same morning for New Mexico.(They were able to fit me in on Thursday morning)

3. There were only two positions available with quite a few people interviewing. Two of those people being in-house recommendations, which was a bit nerve-racking.

So it definitely wasn't easy. I do owe some props to my aunt Kim for helping me out! These days it seems like you have to have an in with someone to get somewhere. The market can be so competitive! 

Oh, and job details: I'll be working for the office of risk management. What they do is provide state employees insurance and pay medical bills/income while out of work. Also provide state agencies risk management skills to reduce injury at work. 

 pros and cons

Pros:

1. Working at an office building downtown

2. Dressing nice for work

3. The amazing benefits

4. Working with my aunt Kim!

5. Nights and weekend off 

6. Having a normal schedule and seeing Scott, hallelujah!

Cons:

Not teaching

I haven't given up on the teaching gigs, but I will definitely be happier where I'm going than where I was! :)

Thanks again for your prayers because they paid off! I'm truly grateful!

XOXO Brooke

Stephanie & Brooke play day

Yesterday I spent the day with my good friend Stephanie. We are always out doing who knows what. We love to go on nature walks, go geocaching, play yoga, or whatever! She's an easy going gal and we get a long just dandy!


So yesterday we went to a 2:30 yoga session at black swan. Have y'all ever been there? It's really neat if I do say so myself! I'm fairly new to yoga so I've only been a handful of times. I can already tell that I love it. It's really healing, and peaceful. Love that you can go in with a mindful and come out with a clean slate, not to mention what it does for your body. Stephanie is my yoga buddy and she got me to go for the first time. I will say that as a beginner if can be a little intimidating, but once you get the hang of it, it will come much more natural. After all, it is your practice, not anyone elses :)

After our yoga session, we headed down to sno beach for a snow cone... I don't usually like to go there because their tigers blood is not real tigers blood. It's a muted red color and tastes really bland! If you can tell, I don't recommend it. I went with regular, safe watermelon. Stepho chose strawberry. I will note that I got my snow cone for free because I started following googleatx on twitter. Don't have to tell me twice :)

cute stepho

Then from there we went to Barton Springs. If you're unfamiliar with the springs, it's a local swimming pool in Austin that is fed by the main Barton spring. It's located in Zilker Park and is open to the public to swim for a whopping $3. It is an Austin landmark and is definitely weird. There's always a good crowd to see, or hear. There's people playing music, "hooping" and sometimes topless... Oh and the water is about 70 degrees aka FREEZING! It's always a great time and SO refreshing, that is if you get the courage to jump in. It will take some build up to get the urge to jump in, but once you do, you won't be sorry...Ok I lied. You will be sorry but only for like 30 seconds :)

Here's to another day in paradise! I love my city.

Where are you from? What are some cool things to do in your city?

*Brooke*

Engagement Celebrations!

Hi y'all! Happy weekending! 

I realize it is 9:20pm on a Friday, and yes I am blogging!  I just got home from a fabulous time spent with some dear friends of ours. We went over to Chris and Amelia's house for some grilled hot dogs and hamburgers. The food was delicious, but the company was soo much better!!! Chris is a long time buddy of Scott's and is also going to be a groomsman in our wedding in April! Amelia is his very talented wife that has given us so much advise on different wedding vendors, ideas, etc. She's a professional wedding photographer and really knows what she's talking about. Did I mention they have the CUTEST boys ever! They played in the pool most of the night while we all hung out and talked about life. It's so funny watching kids be kids. I love seeing Scott interact with them, it's very sweet! Scott, believe it or not, actually volunteered to babysit one night soon! I actually can't wait, it will be a lot of fun! (no turning back now, it's in writing!)

So speaking of Amelia, she actually referred us to our wedding photographer, Allen Doberenz! They frequently shoot together and I knew I could trust Amelia's judgment on anything wedding related! We just received some "teaser" Engagement photos today and I am so excited to share!!! 

We went all around the downtown/south Austin area for the session so here are a few from that day!

 

Ahhh I'm in LOVE!!! I can not wait to see the other 70 pictures!

This weekend we will be celebrating our Engagement with some of our closest friends and family. We are going to have a casual party on Sunday, and I can't wait to display some of these pictures! I am overly excited for this weekend!!!

I hope you have a super great weekend!!!