How 'bout them Cowboys?

So, last night Steve had some extra tickets to the Verizon suite for the final Cowboys game in Texas Stadium - sweet!

We were super excited to go. I had never been in the suites at Texas Stadium and since it is no longer going to be the stadium, this was my last chance. Plus, it was a relatively important game as both teams were vying for playoff spots.

We had a great time even though the Cowboys threw the game away. We were able to go with Karen, Steve, Jason, Robyn and Jason's sister, Beth - fun! Jason made sure to order us some yummy food.

Oh and btw, it is super cold in Dallas again - what the heck? Looks like it is going to be another super cold winter - sad!

Founding Fathers Kick

We are currently watching the John Adams mini-series that was originally on HBO. Andy has us getting them from our Netflix account and we love it. It kind of has us on a founding fathers kick and we are realizing how blessed we are that our nation had that certain group of men to help launch the founding of our country, its laws and institutions.

As a result, I am planning to read their biographies and have started with the John Adams one. I also wikipedia all the others - ha. So I wikipedia'ed Ben Franklins this morning and found it interesting that he wasn't uber-religious but more of a Deist - believing in a higher power. But he was very pro-religion in general and was always involved in helping to establish churches and faiths of all denominations. He did so b/c he thought morality was fundamental to a democracy b/c of the need to have virtuous men not exploiting the govt and other men.

He wrote to Thomas Paine: "If men are so wicked with religion, what would they be without it."

Of course, man can be virtuous without religion too... But I wonder with all the corruption that has come to light of our financial institutions, politicians, etc... whether we are in trouble simply because there are fewer people in positions of power who are virtuous.

I was talking to my brother about the Cowboys game we saw last night and mentioned to him that the owner, Jerry Jones, was boo'ed and I thought he said it well - well, he's a thief who has broken no laws. Just b/c something is legal, doesn't mean it is right. It just seems that many of our current leaders in business and politics don't have that sense of right and wrong. And it seems like it is impossible to pass laws and regulation for everything without creating an overwhelming burdensome overhead.

Things I don't understand...

Normally I feel like I can understand both sides of arguments. I think my parents did a good job at always asking us to think about what was the other side of an argument and this helped us to become independent thinkers. Andy might disagree with this... ;-)

But I really don't understand the whole "Merry Christmas" thing. I don't understand who would be offended by it. Obviously, the holiday season exists because Christmas is a Christian holiday that blew up in popularity. And although Christian in origin, it has a lot of secular aspects to it now including Santa, etc...

So why would people care if you say "Merry Christmas" to them? I guess some would argue it's exclusive, but I think it is the opposite. I would not be offended if someone wished me "Happy Hanukkah" just like I am not offended by "Happy Chinese New Year". I think it is nice when people wish me a greeting and I join in on holidays of other faiths and cultures as heck, why not? The more the better. I am definitely not offended and it makes me happy to celebrate. At work we celebrated all the Indian holidays with them because we had such a large Indian population and it was fun. And they loved celebrating our holidays and learning more about them. I wouldn't do any religious celebratory aspects of a holiday that would violate my faith and I get that, of course, others wouldn't want to either.

But why is it an issue? Is someone actually offended by a Merry Christmas card? I hope not because I am sure the person sending it really is just wishing you a Merry Christmas :-). And I know for me, I am celebrating Christmas and so I want to send Christmas cards. And for someone else, celebrating another holiday, I would love to get that card. Seems to me, people are creating an issue when there is none.

Merry Christmas, y'all!

Spiderman

Well, Andy had his dream come true. Our friends Karen and Steve had a Super Hero birthday party for their son's, Hunter's, birthday party. So Andy and Brian dressed up as the special guests, Spiderman and Venom (apparently a bad spiderman character).

Andy, of course, wanted to be Spiderman and he was quite the hit!

Christmas Lights

One of the benefits of not working is actually having time to do all those holiday things we never got around to doing in the past like putting up lights. The last time I actually put up lights was when my brother did it for me when I was still living in my house on Richard, pre-marriage :-).
So this year, I actually had the time to put up lights. Of course, I got a bit stuck. Our roof is very steep so I had climbed on it, but got scared and decided to wait for Andy to finish the final bit of lights.
Unfortunately, Andy has been working really late because he is still doing his old job while also doing his new job and so he hasn't been getting home early enough to be able to help. And all of our weekends until last weekend were completey filled with first travelling back from Thanksgiving and then from hosting this Christmas party we do every year.

So this past weekend we were able to finish putting up the lights and they came out beautifully! I am very happy that we are not the scrooge on the street! Andy was really great. He borrowed a ladder from the neighbors so neither of us had to get on the roof and risk our necks :-).

Thanksgiving!

A little late posting about Thanksgiving as it is almost Christmas, but we had a great vacation with the whole family. We went on the annual Cutcher family cruise, but this year Andy's mom and stepfather joined us too! It was a great chance for our families to really get to know each other. On my side of the family our entire immediate family was there including my parents, my siblings, Jay & Evie, and Evie's family, John (Eve's husband), Kate (11), Claire(9) , Luke (6) and sweet baby, Jill (almost 2). We left out of Miami and then stopped in San Juan, St. Thomas and St. Maarten. San Juan was a night port and so we did an evening bus tour. St. Thomas we did an island tour and then went to the beach. In St. Maarten, we did this America's Cup tour which was great. Basically we got to crew a boat that raced in the America's cup sailing regatta. We were on the True North which was the boat that Canada raced and we raced against The Stars & Stripes which was the American ship that actually won the America's Cup.

Well we were assigned to the True North and we won the race! We had a great time. Andy and Jay were primary grinders. Daddy was the bartender and I was the time-keeper and captain.

It was great to see all of our families with Evie's family and Andy's family being far away. We don't get to see them as much as we would like.

Good news - I guess

Well, Andy and I are trying for a baby and I have to say I was disappointed we didn't get pregnant right away. We have now been trying for 5 months and typical me, I was getting nervous and wanted to get ourselves checked out since we aren't super young. Well, turns out, we are okay. Andy has checked out and I have too - so far. Enough so that the doctor basically is like - it takes most people up to a year to get pregnant so we'll talk more if you don't by then. I am having one more test this month but I am guessing if that is okay then we will just have to be patient :-). I know this is not very wise, but I was hoping for some drugs that would make me ovulate like crazy and give us a chance of having twins - which I know everyone says not to wish for that, but I figure it would be great to get two for the price of one :-). I also think it would be fun since Andy is a twin.

Oh well, looks like that isn't going to happen since I ovulate regularly and those drugs apparently actually make you less fertile if you are ovulating on your own - isn't that interesting?

I also was thinking we could do IUI to speed things along, but talking to the doctor he explained why really that would be pretty much a waste of money since those guys are probably getting to where they need to be getting.

So, we'll just have to learn to be patient and keep on keeping on - Which really isn't such a bad thing :-).

Christmas in the Park

Last night was the annual Christmas in the Park which is a party that Andy is a host for every year (and now that we're married, I am officially a co-host). Hosts essentially fund this party and each get about 35 invitations to the party which admits a couple. The party benefits a local charity and each guest is asked to bring a gift for needy children. It is always a fun time, but this year was especially fun. We actually got there relatively on time this year thanks to Karen planning dinner prior so we were late to dinner but not to the actual party. I feel like it was 1 am before I knew it and time to head home.

Unfortunately we didn't get pictures of Andy and me because we forgot our camera, but Janet took a picture of her and me so at least we have that! We had a really great time and I feel like the Christmas season has officially begun!