Day 6

Day 6 - A photo of an animal you'd love to keep as a pet.


I have no idea why but i absolutely LOVE hippo's! I know it is not realistic AT ALL to have one as a pet but if i could i definitely would :)

Day 5

Day 5 - A photo of yourself two years ago

This was taken on the strand in galveston during mardi gras 2 years ago. This was 6 months after Ike and you could see the Ike water line on all the buildings.

Day 4

Day 4 - Your favorite photograph of your best friend.

Well I have to do a few photographs because my best friend is so pretty :)

This one has been my favorite for years...its just us being our goofy selves.

The next picture is my new favorite....its my 2 favorite girls!

Day 3

Day 3 - Your idea of the perfect first date.

Perfect first date...hmmm. Is there such a thing as a perfect first date? I think just being able to spend time together and get to know each other is perfect. However, the first time Layne and I spent time together was pretty awesome :) We had known each other for a couple years before we got together and our first "date" was a weekend at Lake Conroe. We had a blast and it was so awesome to spend time together. So I guess that would be my perfect first date... i think it worked out pretty well! hehe


P.S. - I am well aware that I am behind on my posting, but I'm trying! :)

Day 2

Day 2 - A picture of something you ate today

I LOVE me some cinnamon toast crunch :)

30 Day Blog Challenge

Ok... so we all know I am not a good blogger but I saw this and thought maybe it would help me to be a better blogger, at least for 30 days! :) So much has happened lately but a post to catch you all up would take FOREVER. Instead I'm going to start this challenge and maybe that will help catch yall up.
Hey ya'll. Do I even need to explain that I was burned out on blogging once again? Well, I'm back (for at least 30 days, ha!) with the 30 day blog challenge. Hopefully this will motivate me to start blogging on a regular basis again! Anyone care to join me? :)

Here's the challenge:

Day 1 - A photo of yourself and a description of how your day was.
Day 2 - A photo of something you ate today.
Day 3 - Your idea of the perfect first date.
Day 4 - Your favorite photograph of your best friend.
Day 5 - A photo of yourself two years ago.
Day 6 - A photo of an animal you'd love to keep as a pet.
Day 7 - Your dream wedding.
Day 8 - A song to match your mood.
Day 9 - A photo of the last item you purchased.
Day 10 - A photo of your favorite place to eat.
Day 11 - What's in your makeup bag?
Day 12 - A photograph of the town you live in.
Day 13 - Your favorite musician and why?
Day 14 - A TV show you're currently addicted to.
Day 15 - Something you don't leave the house without.
Day 16 - Your celebrity crush.
Day 17 - A photo of you and your family.
Day 18 - Something you crave a lot.
Day 19 - Another picture of yourself.
Day 20 - The meaning behind your blog name.
Day 21 - A photo of something that makes you happy.
Day 22 - A letter to someone who has hurt you recently.
Day 23 - 15 facts about you.
Day 24 - A photo of something that means a lot to you.
Day 25 - What's in your purse.
Day 26 - A photo of somewhere you've been.
Day 27 - A picture of you last year and now and how have you changed since then?
Day 28 - Your favorite movie.
Day 29 - Something you could never get tired of doing.
Day 30 - A photograph of yourself today + three goof things that have happened in the past 30 days.


Day 1 - A photo of yourself and a description of how your day was.

The picture below is a HORRIBLE picture of me, but it was such an awesome day and I love looking at my baby girl :)

Today was Ainsley's first day of daycare :( She will be 7 weeks old tomorrow and it was rough leaving her for the first time but I just talked to them and they said she has been great and hasn't cried all day! Other than that my day has been pretty average...just working on getting back to the grind at work.

Photography

I have recently become very interested in photography and over the last year have started looking at some nice digital slr cameras. After lots of research (and saving) I purchased an Olympus E 620. I am very much a novice photographer and have a long way to go but I LOVE taking pictures with my new camera and take it with me EVERYWHERE!

I thought I would post a few pictures that I have taken over the last month while I've been practicing with my new camera :) As I said I am very new at this so any advice or tips/tricks would be greatly appreaciated.

Our Lilly Monster :)

Layne and the fur baby

This is the "Please Stop Taking My Picture" Face

Lilly has the same face

Our Nephew playing with Lilly

The view from my SIL's house in Cuero

Flowers from our wedding :)

I'm working on putting together a post from our wedding this past weekend...hopefully I'll have that done soon! Oh and also, in case anyone didn't know, we are having a girl!

Anyone Still Out There???

Not sure if any of you still read my blog... i know i've been a horrible blogger but I am going to try to be better at it (key word being try). Well, so much has happened since i last posted and it would take me months to catch everyone up but the most important thing :

We're Pregnant!!!! :)

I'm currently 19 weeks and due on December 25th, that's right folks...i'm due on Christmas day! I just hope that the baby is a litte early or a little late because i'm afraid growing up they might not enjoy their birthday so much with it being on Christmas. Any of you have a christmas birthday or know someone who does??? How do they feel about it?

So, being that i'm a first time Mommy i thought I would blog about some interesting things that i have learned so far in this pregnancy. For those who alredy are mommies... you will probably laugh at some of these and feel free to give me any pointers! :)

• Bella Band - pretty much the greatest invention ever! If you are not yet pregnant but planning to do so, invest in one (or five) of these
• Bras - I assumed that I would not have to buy a larger bra until closer to the end of my pregnancy...for obvious reasons(sorry if this is an overshare), but that is definitely not the case. For any first time mommies or ladies planning to get pregnant - you will need bigger bras much sooner than the end of your pregnancy
• Sense of Smell - I had never heard of a hightened since of smell, but especially during the first trimester I could smell EVERYTHING. If someone is a smoker and had walked inside after smoking that is ALL i could smell. After cooking dinner i could smell it in the house for the entire next day and ugh don't get me started on public bathrooms!
• Weird dreams - I have had the strangest dreams since i've been pregnant...most of them don't make any since but are weird and i just don't feel well rested. Hopefully those will go away soon.

That is all i can think of for the moment, although i'm sure there is much more to share. I promise not all of my posts will be baby related we are just really excited right now :)

The New Addition!

Sorry for the lack of posts lately guys, work has just been really busy and when I get home after sitting in traffic for an hour and half the last thing I want to do is get back on the computer! lol

Getting back to my post title, we have a new addition to the family ......

This is Lilly :)

She is a black lab mix although we are not sure what she is mixed with. Everyone seems to think she is all lab but we don't really care. We love her!


Lilly's mom passed away when the puppies were just shy of two weeks old. So we got her when she was 15 days old.



She had to be bottle fed for the first few weeks so she came with me to work every day and there were many nights of waking up to feed her at 2 or 3am. I considered it practice for me if I ever do decide to have kids :) hehe.

When we first picked her up her eyes had just opened and she couldn't see too much, so she stuck pretty close to us. The last week or two she has gotten much more energy and she is growing so fast!

Climbing on Layne the day after we got her. She was so tiny!

Cuddling with her stuffed animal

Playing with Tucker!

Tucker is Layne's family's dog. He is probably the sweetest most docile dog I have ever been around. Tucker is 120 lb lab so he really makes Lilly look small.

How adorable is she??? Ok, maybe I'm a little biased...but she is stinkin cute! ;)

This is probably my favorite picture so far.

P.S - On a side note I have started looking at a new camera. I am looking at Nikon Digital SLRs right now but wanted to know if any of yall use a camera that you L-O-V-E. I could use any tips tricks or advice you have !

Shame On Me...

I am a bad blogger :(

I really do log in and start posts all the time but then I get busy or distracted and never finish my posts. So, I thought I would just give you a few updates on what has been going on.

Layne's Birthday was a few weeks ago and we went to Spaghetti Warehouse downtown. It was so so so yummy:) For those of you who don't know, it is supposed to be haunted! So after we ate we went upstairs to take a few pics in the most "Active" part of the building. Do you see any ghosts in these pictures???

We also went out for our Friend Katya's 21st Birthday too!

All of the Lovely Ladies

Layne and I

Me and the Birthday Girl

Layne's Brother Chris and Me...apparently I did not want to smile ???

I was so not ready for this picture...can you tell???

On Sunday my Parents had a big bar-b-q for Mother's Day so we all went over there for the day. It was so nice to relax by the pool. I somehow didn't get any pics with my step-mom but here's a few from our day.

In case you did not notice, I have discovered a love for big floppy hats :) I decided I need more of them...I think one in every color ;)

This weekend I have the CF walk on Saturday and then a wedding to go to Saturday Night. By the way...it is not too late to donate! Please please please donate if you can!!!!

All The Cool Kids Are Doing It!

On Saturday May 16, I will be joining my friend Cara Durnin again, to walk on her team Cara's Corps for Great Strides. This is a great opportunity to help raise money and awareness for a devastating genetic disease that Cara is all too familiar with.

Cara was diagnosed with CF on her first birthday, and at the time her parents were told she would not make it to kindergarten. Thanks to medical advancements made possible through donations Cara is now a Healthy 27 year old! Unfortunately the average life expectancy for someone with CF is 37, which is not good enough. Since there are only 30,000 Americans diagnosed with CF, their research does not receive federal funding.

Cara is an amazing person with an infectious smile and an unstoppable drive to enjoy life to its fullest. She is a friend, a daughter and a wife.

If you would like to walk with us it does not cost anything, all you have to do is harass your friends, family and co-workers, like me :) Even if you are only able to raise $5, that is $5 that goes towards a cure!!! If fund-raising isn't your cup of tea, please consider making a donation to help Cara's Corps reach our TEAM goal of $10,000!

Please follow the link below to show your support for Cara's Corps. Making a donation is easy and secure! This link will take you to my Great Strides fund-raising page where your donation will be credited towards my team.

http://www.cff.org/Great_Strides/BrittanyLudwig

Thanks for all of your support, and thanks to those who donated in 2008! With your help we were able to raise almost $10,000 for cystic fibrosis research last year!

I have also included a link to a video about Cara if you would like to learn more! Also, please pass this on…you never know who might be willing to help!

Galveston - 5 Months Later

Layne and I decided to go to Galveston yesterday for the day, this was the first time we had been down there since the storm. Although there has been a ton of stuff cleaned up it is still crazy to see all the damage and destruction. I thought I would share some pictures with yall from our trip.

The pictures below are from Layne's Grandfather's house. They sold it a little over a year ago. I never saw it but was told is was a gorgeous 3 story beach house.

The slab was completely gone in the middle of the house.

They wrote their last name on the slab when it was built. I took this pic to show his mom.

This is the house Layne's Family had when he was little.

Here's another house that we saw on the beach.

Waiting in line for the ferry. I hate waiting in line for the ferry :(

They had a bunch of stuff set up on the Strand for Mardi Gras, we were walking to some of the shops when we noticed this :

They had a line around one of the buildings showing how far up the water was. Many of the stores and shops had been gutted and we re-doing everything.

We took pictures standing by the "Ike Water Line," keep in mind we are standing on a sidewalk about 2 ft off the street. It was HIGH!!!

This one is just me being a dork as usual! I tried to talk Layne into letting me buy it ... he said no :( haha

I just had to take a picture of the sunset on our way home. So pretty!

Comic Relief

Well, this week at work has been crazy, hectic and beyond stressful. I feel like I have been at my Wit's end all week.

Lets just say I do not work in the best area of town and there are quite a few people who stand by the underpasses with signs asking for money. I do not give money to them nor do I condone it, however there is one guy who lately has had some very funny and original signs. With this hellacious week i have been having some of these signs really made me laugh...it was some much neededed comic relief from my day!

So, i thought i would share some of these with yall :

1. In Need Of Economic Stimulous

2. Family was captured by Ninjas. Need money for karate lessons.

3. Why lie, i just want a beer.

4. Family was captured by Aliens. Need money for flying saucer and flying lessons......and a ray gun. <--- This one really made me laugh!

Hope these give yall a little chuckle on this gorgeous Friday!

Microsoft Project....

Is the DEVIL. That is all.

25 Randoms

Ok, so I have been tagged a few times now for this one and finally broke down. So here are 25 randome things about me!

1. I don't like it when my food touches. Yes, I am well aware that this is weird and Layne makes fun of me all the time for it. I think food has different tastes for a reason I don't like it when they are all mixed together. For this reason I can not eat Pot Pies.

2. I am freakishly and un-naturally afraid of raoches.

3. My entire closet is color co-ordinated and it really bothers me if something is in the wrong place.

4. I used to wear green contact because I didn't like my brown eyes.

5. My favorite drink is a dirty martini.

6. I do not like living in the city and my goal one day is to have a home in the country.

7. I am a big Daddy's girl and will still call my dad to talk about any and everything.

8. I am perplexed by people who enjoy drama and surround their life with it. I will purposely stay away from places if I know there are people there who enjoy drama. I don't understand why some people thrive off of it.

9. I have always wanted to sky dive.

10. I am a sucker for chick flics and have no problem watching them over and over but I can't stand any kind of sci-fi movie.

11. I am 23 and have only had 2 cars. My mustang i got when i was 16 and my altima that i have now and LOVE

12. I love the summer time and heat, i wish i could be at the beach or by the pool everyday.

13. I wear heels so much that it hurts my calves and knees when i wear flat shoes.

14. I am A-D-D-I-C-T-E-D to my crackberry, i could live off of blackberry messenger...its the greatest thing ever.

15. I want a big family one day

16. I really like scary movies but I am a big baby and can not watch them alone.

17. I have Road Rage...bad! On top of that i live almost an hour from my office(with no traffic) so it makes my drive to and from work hellacious!

18. I hate when people scrape their teeth on their forks. To me it sounds like nails on a chalkboard! (Same thing when they scrape their fork on their plates)

19. I love chocolate covered pretzels, my favorite are Flipz but i rarely buy them b/c I will eat the whole bag in one setting.

20. I love love love to eat crawfish!.

21. I love big purses and bags, I am only 5' and between my work bag and my purse I'm sure i look rediculous when i walk into work but they are just so frieken cute!

22. I play with my hair when I'm upset.

23. I am trying to plan a vacation this summer for Layne and I to go to a B&B in the hill country. If you are interested check out this website www.hat.org they have awesome B&Bs around Texas and you can get special packages.

24. I love to read, and always take reccomendations for good books. I can usually finish a bood within a couple days if I like it. I actually read the Twilight series after the hurrican when we had no power for two weeks.

25. I am totally craving sushi right now and there is no good place to go by my office :( ....Hey it said random ;)

I am not going to tag anyone else just thought yall might enjoy! Have a Great Thursday!

Tuesday 10-10 Great Things About Texas

Being a true Texas girl born and raised, I decided to do today's Tuesday 10 on just that!

1.THE PEOPLE. This is probably my top reason that Texas is great! I lived in Las Vegas very briefly and learned to appreciate the southern hospitality even more. Whether it is people holding doors open for you, a smile from a stranger, a hug from someone you just met or making friends with a complete stranger in Target(oh yes i have done that), people here are genuinely caring and thoughtful.

2. THE SHOPPING. I love love love to shop, although I don't know too many girls who don't love it, Texas has some awesome shopping. From the Galleria in Houston, to Fredricksberg, to The Stockyards in Ft. Worth and Market Square in San Antonio. No matter what you are looking for you are sure to find it, and if you are a Turquoise Fan like myself The Stockyards are definitely your best bet!

3. TEXAS PRIDE. You would be hard pressed to find a Texan or Native Texan who doesn't light up when they talk about Texas :) I would highly doubt there are any other states who display their flag and heritage as proudly. So many people are so proud to be a Texan they even tattoo it on themselves(not innocent little me though :P). 4.THE FOOD. You can find every kind of cuisine here : Good Old Fashion Country Cookin, Amazing Steaks, The Best Mexican Food, Seafood, Italian, Sushi....you name it we have it...and it is all sooo good. There is also the fact that since many of the founders of Texas were German we have some awesome food like Kolaches...ymmmmm. 5. RODEO. Not only do we have the biggest paying rodeo in North America right here in Houston, but there are tons of rodeos all over the place. They are all so much fun and you can feel the excitement in the air as soon as you walk onto the grounds! 6. THE SCENERY I absolutely love driving through the Texas Hill Country. It is so relaxing to me to see all the gorgeous rolling hills and open plains that you see outside of all the "Big Cities" 7. NEW BRAUNFELS has so much to do and see. You can go camping, go tubing down the river(my personal favorite) or go to Schlitterbahn Water park. If shopping is more your thing you can head to Gruene, and while you're there be sure to check out The Gristmill! If live music is more your thing then you should definitely check out Gruene Hall or River Road Icehouse.

8. SPORTS. I love to watch baseball and football especially going to the games. Even when we have some not so great seasons we are true fans tailgating and cheering our hearts out!

9. THE WEATHER. Although humidity is not great for anyone's hair I absolutely hate cold weather so South Texas is the best place for me! On a cold week we might have 4 cold days in a row followed by days in the 70's. We can usually start laying out and going to the beach in late March and can still have pool partie's up through the first part of October! I love warm weather so the more warm days I can get the better!

10. MUSIC. Some of the best songs you will ever hear are from our Texas Singer/Songwriters! There is not a weekend that you can't find a concert or two and the crowd is always a blast. If you are new to Texas Country then I definitely reccomend Eli Young Band and Aaron Watson.

I'm sure I could come up with 1,000,000 more reasons why Texas is the Greatest State, but that is my Tuesday 10 for ya!