the new baby

this is just a super quick post to introduce etta james browne, the newest member of the family browne. she is a precious little angel, and details about how she came to join our little zoo and how my husband is the awesomest person of all time will be forthcoming.

eat your greens

in the infamous words of wesley willis, i am sorry that i got fat, i will slim down. in all seriousness, the browne family has been very lacking in the health department of late. before this summer (yes, i know that was a long time ago), we cooked all the time. vegetables and fish and lean meats and whole grains and goodness. we also exercised. not excessively, and not like we never cheated, never ate anything bad for us or whatever, but we both made it to the gym at least 3-5 times a week, took walks, and were often found to be engaged in push up contests.

flash forward to now, when we eat anything and everything we want (this usually equates to cheeseburgers) and i haven't been to the gym really since july. woops. how does this happen?

anyway. in an effort to reverse this unfortunate trend, i just signed us up for the johnson's backyard garden CSA. every other week, we get a big ol' box of fresh, local veggies. i picked up our first one last night. omg deliciousness. new potatoes right out of the ground, heavenly herbs, perfect peppers. yum. i can't wait to start cooking this stuff. and maybe that will help me get my arse back in gear and my running shoes back on my feet.....

it's beginning to look a lot like christmas....

my husband and his mad photography skills took this photo of our tiny little tree. it's a cute one this year - a noble fir from the optimist club place on guadalupe and san gabriel. we put it up on a table this year, which is really nice because it has more of a presence and the pets can't drink water out of the base....there has been so much going on as of late, i feel like it just needs to be listed, in no particular order:

- longhorns are going to the national championship game, despite sucking it up against nebraska

- saints are still undefeated because drew brees is the awesomest qb ever

- i am almost done (8 more days) with my second-to-last semester of grad school

- jb and i have decided to stay in austin, despite a really cool job opportunity in sf - it was really hard, but definitely the right choice

- it fake-snowed in austin on friday, which left none of the white stuff, but tons of dead plants

i guess that's all for now....check out this story if you have a few minutes - crazy and super inspiring.

holiday time

holy gees november flew by. really, all of 2009 did. have we really been in the 21st century for a whole decade? my mind is blown.

thanksgiving was different this year. my mom and dad came to town the weekend before because mom was in a wedding the day after turkey day. we did the traditional dinner on sunday, so we had tons of leftover turkey.

i got sick on monday, and it got progressively worse, so the long weekend was slightly hampered by my incessant coughing. a close college friend and his adorable girlfriend were also in town, so we managed to spend some time with them. we also did lots of hiking and outdoor adventures, of which ollie was a big fan. all in all, a fun time, if very much untraditional. i did find the time and energy to make the annual turkey and sausage gumbo (solo attempt - turned out pretty good), as well as leftover turkey pot pie. so, even though we didn't do the whole crazy dinner extravaganza, our waistlines didn't really get much of a break....

anyway...outtake of christmas card photo is above. have i mentioned how much i love this dog?