The Puryear's Place

Car issues

2012-01-19T09:51:00.002-06:00

On Tuesday, (my birthday) I went to lunch with co-workers to celebrate. I decided to drive since my wonderful husband had my car detailed the day before. When we came back out to my car after lunch, someone noticed that my driver's side rear window was slightly down about an inch. He asked if I had rolled down the window, and I said no. What I soon realized was that the window motor was probably out. This is the 4th time this has happened. Knowing that 3 of the 4 window motors in my car had gone out within a year when I was in college, it was only a matter of time before the 4th took a dive too. I'm actually surprised it lasted this long. This is the last of the four windows, so hopefully it won't happen again!

Luckily there is an automotive shop near our house that does great work with reasonable prices. They fixed the window in a day, and I didn't have to miss any work!

Bad news is that the automotive guy said that my car is leaking oil. So Andrew has to take my car back to the oil change place tomorrow to see if it was their fault (since he had my oil changed about a week ago). Hopefully they will fix the problem! If not, I guess I will be taking it back to the auto place to have that fixed as well.

It's lovely having car problems! :) Here's to hoping nothing else will come up again this year.

I joke with Andrew quite a bit that maybe it's time to look into a new car for me since this one is now 10 years old. :) He's not quite on board yet. But if I were to start looking at cars, I would start with these two...

Lexus RX 350

Jeep Grand Cherokee Overland

It's fun to dream!! :)

26 and one to grow on...

2012-01-18T16:48:00.001-06:00

Yesterday was my birthday! I definitely don't feel any older. On Saturday night, Andrew took me to the restaurant Five Sixty by Wolfgang Puck in the Reunion Tower (otherwise known by me as the Big Ball in downtown).

http://www.wolfgangpuck.com/restaurants/fine-dining/3917

We had a great time. The view was amazing and so was the food! We tried the 7 course tasting menu that included prime rib, pork, fish/shrimp, quail, sorbet, lamb, and dessert! Here are some pictures from the night.

Pork

Fish/Shrimp

Quail (my favorite)

Lamb (my least favorite)

Dessert

Since the server said he didn't feel that we had the service that we deserved, the manager gave us free drinks and an extra dessert! The whole experience took about 2 1/2 hours. We rotated 3 times around the "ball" to see all of Dallas. I love it, especially at night!

Monday night we met my parents in Rockwall for dinner, and Tuesday night I had dinner with a few girlfriends. It was nice to do the celebrating over several days.

It was a great birthday!! Looking foward to another wonderful year!

Christmas is over

2012-01-07T11:04:00.001-06:00

We are finally going to take down the Christmas tree today...my least favorite thing to do after Christmas. I love sitting on the couch and looking at the tree during the holidays.

Daydreaming of Colorado

2012-01-06T08:12:00.001-06:00

Wish I were in Colorado...

where I took this picture. But since I'm not...I'm so glad it is Friday and almost the weekend! It's been a crazy week back to work after the holidays, and I am in need of some down time.

Happy Friday!

2011 Reflection

2012-01-05T17:47:00.000-06:00

2011 was a great year for us! I started out the year in busy season as an auditor and quickly realized that it was not for me long-term. I started looking for a new job in March and started my new job in April. I am so happy with my decision! Andrew also changed jobs in November. He left Bernstein to go to work for UBS in their private wealth management division. We have been so blessed with successful careers, and I have to give all the credit to God for opening the right doors! It is so amazing to see how God has guided us over the past year to where we are today.

We celebrated our 2nd anniversary this July and went to Colorado in August to celebrate. We stayed in Vail, which was so nice! The weather felt great and the mountains were beautiful! Andrew's been doing very well at SMU and went on a trip to Hong Kong in December. He had an amazing time there! Maybe some day I will go back with him. Andrew should finish classes at the end of June and graduate in August, and I couldn't be more proud of him!

My mom finally took the plunge and retired this year from teaching. It's been a good change for her! My parents put aside plans for a pool this year, only to buy a lake house to remodel. I was skeptical at first, because I had great plans for that pool. But as soon as I saw the plans for the lake house I forgot about the pool! The house is still under construction and will hopefully open in Spring 2012! (Fingers crossed) I can hardly wait!

Andrew and I promoted out of our newly wed Sunday school class this fall, and we are now trying to decide between classes for young married couples. We have made so many great friends from church! We joined a Care Group (Bible Study) that meets every other week.

We started training for the White Rock Half Marathon in August and ran in the race on December 4th. It was raining and cold, but we made it through with smiles on our faces! I am so proud of us for accomplishing that goal. 13.1 miles is a long run! We are thinking about doing it again next year, but no plans to ever run a full marathon... half is plenty!

We are so thankful this year for family, friends and our health. We look forward to a wonderful 2012! Can't wait to see what the Lord will do in our lives in this year!

ABC's of me

2011-10-27T12:03:00.000-05:00

A. Age: 25
B. Bed size: King
C. Chore that you hate: dusting or putting away clean laundry
D. Dogs: 1, Wrigley
E. Essential start to your day: watching GMA/news
F. Favorite color: red
G. Gold or Silver: gold
H. Height: 5' 4.5"
I. Instruments you play: piano (a long time ago)
J. Job title: CPA
K. Kids: none
L. Live: Dallas
M. Mother’s name: Yvonne
N. Nicknames: Britt
O. Overnight hospital stays: none!
P. Pet peeves: Crazy drivers, being late
Q. Quote from a movie: "It's so fluffy!" -Despicable Me (We use this to refer to Wrigley after his bath)
R. Right or left handed: right
S. Siblings: 1 older brother
T. Truth or Dare: truth
U. Ultimate Vacation: Fiji or Italy
V. Vegetable you hate: steamed spinach or mushrooms
W. What makes you run late: sleeping too late, forgeting what time something starts or getting lost
X. X-Rays you’ve had: teeth, hand, knee, and ribs
Y. Yummy food that you make: apple pie
Z. Zoo animal: panda bear

Greystone Communities and Life Update

2011-09-16T10:57:00.000-05:00

This post is long overdue! I decided to leave PwC back in April and started with Greystone at the end of April. I have now been with Greystone about 5 months, and I'm loving it! I'm an analyst on the financial management side of Greystone. Greystone works with mostly non-profit organizations to help plan, finance, develop, market and ultimately manage continuing care retirement communities (or CCRC's). You can learn more about the company by going to http://www.greystonecommunities.com/home/home.asp. I love this job and the people I work with.

My goal is to start trying to keep up with our blog now that I have more time (since I have a better work/life balance). I'm settling in nicely at Greystone, and my new job jitters are gone!

Andrew is still at SMU working on his MBA. He was accepted into an extra class where he learns/helps to manage a small part of SMU's endowment. (At least that's my understanding!) He likes it a lot, but it adds one more class to his already busy schedule. We only have dinner together one night a week, because he has class every other night. His next module will only be two classes (starting in October). I can't wait to have him around more! And honestly, can hardly wait until he is completely done in August!!

Andrew is also going on a trip for his MBA program in December to Hong Kong. He is super excited about it! He will be gone for 10 days. This is a once in a lifetime experience, and I'm so glad he decided to do it! I will miss him during the holiday season though.

Finally, Andrew decided to get invisalign for his teeth! His teeth look fine cosmetically, but the dentist felt like the crowding on his bottom teeth would cause future problems (cavaties, gum problems, etc), and his current bite is causing him to grind his teeth. I felt like it was a good idea to go ahead and do it now rather than later. So he will start his year-long plan in about 6 weeks! I did invisalign back in high school, and I think it's a great way to avoid having to use traditional braces to fix your teeth.

That's all for now! No promises, but I'm going to try to be better about posting :)

The Farm

2011-01-08T17:49:00.002-06:00

My parents bought a Kawasaki Mule for farm use and hunting purposes. It's awesome! We took it out to the farm over Thanksgiving and drove around looking at all of the land. It has a speaker system as well, so that's definitely a perk! Thanks to mom for insisting on that ;) Here are some pictures from our drive around the farm.

Duck Hunting

2011-01-04T19:38:00.006-06:00

We went duck hunting a couple of times over the Christmas break. Darla was our duck retriever.

This is a video I took while duck hunting one morning over Christmas. I decided to sit this one out so I could take the video. People shooting: Jay, Andrew, and a friend Ethan.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jI9M3daXKW8

We ended up shooting our limit! (24)Me and Jay

In front of the blind. I'm trying to keep the blood from getting on my clothes. Plus it was really heavy!

Thanksgiving

2010-12-27T09:17:00.004-06:00

For Thanksgiving, Andrew and I went to my parents house in Mt. Vernon. My mom's extended family came over for the Thanksgiving meal. We had a great time enjoying everyone's company.

My Grandma and Meemaw enjoying some time with sweet Gable.Thanksgiving is full of wonderful food, especially desserts! These are some delicious cookies my mom ordered.

I decided to make three pies for Thanksgiving, which ended up being quite ambitious. I was able to do it all in a night, but I probably won't try it again. I made a pumpkin pie, apple pie and a version of a pecan pie. I managed to snap a few pictures before all of the pies were gone. The pecan pie was definitely the hit. It was gone so quick! I got the recipe from Donny Owens, who is a wonderful cook. I had never made it before, but I knew it would be good. Of course it was!

While staying at my parents, Andrew slept on a blowup because there is just a double bed at my parents house in my old room. The bed is not big enough for the both of us AND the dog. While we were getting ready for bed, Wrigley decided that he would take the blowup bed.
Trying to take a family picture for my parent's Christmas Card.

The one my mom used turned out really well.

Thanksgiving was so great! I am so thankful for God, our families, friends and all that we have been blessed with.

Header image

2010-12-07T14:03:00.002-06:00

So as you can see from the header image, I am not too savvy at blogging. I had the great idea to change the image on my header, and now I can not get the image to fit in the area. I check the "shrink to fit" box and that doesn't work. I have no other ideas on how to fix it either. Unfortunately I can't find the image that I originally had as my header. I'm out of luck. Does anyone have any ideas about how to fix my header image? Thanks!

Christmas is Near

2010-11-21T21:59:00.003-06:00

I am completely in the Christmas spirit, and it's not even Thanksgiving yet! Andrew and I put our Christmas lights on the house today and it looks great. Of course, Andrew won't let me light them up at night until after Thanksgiving. We also got our Christmas tree out and set up. I need to fluff it and decorate it. We will probably wait until after Thanksgiving to do that. I have already completed most of my Christmas shopping. I am way ahead of the game this year. I have all of Andrew's presents wrapped and under the tree! Andrew hasn't even bought me one thing yet...that I know of. I will post some pictures of our Christmas decorations as soon as I get the tree done.

Can't wait for the Thanksgiving break coming up soon! Ready to go home and see the family.

Ranch Retreat Weekend

2010-11-10T16:18:00.002-06:00

Andrew and I went on a Ranch weekend retreat with our Newlywed's Sunday School class this past weekend. The Pryor's Ranch is right outside of Glenn Rose, Texas. We had so much fun!

We rode four-wheelers, played games, sat by the fire, and camped out. It was pretty cold Saturday night, but we made it! I loved getting to know the other couples in the class better.

See the link below to a fun video someone in our class made of the weekend.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMJ3Wd61fHs

Sunday School

2010-09-13T21:50:00.002-05:00

Yesterday, Andrew and I tried Sunday School at Park Cities Baptist Church (PCBC). We have been going to Church (big church) at PCBC for awhile now, and I finally conviced Andrew that we need to try out a Sunday school class. We visited the newly-weds class and really enjoyed it! We even went out to lunch with the group afterwards. So many people we met either went to Baylor or live in Lake Highlands (or both!). We are both excited to go back again next week. I feel like God is really leading us to join in fellowship with other Christian couples at PCBC that are in our same stage of life. We already have so many great friends in Dallas, and this will only bring more friends that are blessings in our life!

Labor Day Weekend

2010-09-11T15:50:00.003-05:00

We went to Mt. Vernon for the long weekend break to visit family. We are so lucky to have most of our family in the same town. We can see everyone in just one visit!

Saturday night we went to Jay and Kristen's to visit new baby Gable and the rest of the family. Olivia loves her new swing set that Yaya and Scoop gave her. Andrew had fun pushing her on the swing.

Jay's newest puppy, Blue. He is so cute!

Big Red :) He is such a gentle giant. Love him!

Sunday night the whole family came over to have dinner, including grandmothers.

Here is a sweet picture of my mom holding Gable.

Could a baby be any cuter?!

Grandma and Meemaw with Gable. What proud great-grandmothers!

Meemaw holding Gable.

Wrigley was exhausted after he went outside to play basketball with Andrew, Jay and my dad. He slept well that night!

New Addition to the Family

2010-09-11T15:22:00.004-05:00

My brother and sister-in-law just had their second daughter. Gable Rose Scott was born on August 31, 2010 at 1:53 pm, weighing 7lbs 3oz. She is precious!! I went to the hospital after work to see her beautiful face. I didn't have my camera with me then, but I had one when we went home for the weekend for Labor Day. Here are a couple of pictures of sweet Baby Gable.

Close call

2010-09-11T14:51:00.008-05:00

I've come to the conclusion that I don't blog as much as I would like because of work. I sit and stare at a computer all day long. When I come home from work, the last thing I want to do is get back on a computer. I've been wanting to blog about several things lately and just couldn't motivate myself to get on a computer!

So I'm going to have a series of posts with an update on our life over the last couple of weeks.

A couple of weekends ago, Andrew and I went out for an early dinner and came home to relax on a Friday night. We get a knock on the door and it's our neighbor. She said that the fire department just left because a transformer caught on fire and fell near our backyard fence. We went out to look at it and this is what we saw.

Our neighbors told us that the people across the alley from us saw the transformer catch on fire and immediately called the fire department. Apparently they are a little skittish when it comes to fire since the house two doors down from them burned down a few years ago.

God truly has angels watching over us. The garage is directly behind this fence. We would not have seen the fire until our garage was in flames! And no telling what is in the garage that would have blown up! (gas cans, paint cans, etc)

I can only thank the Lord that the damage was so minimal.

SMU Begins

2010-08-23T15:20:00.002-05:00

Andrew had his first MBA class on Saturday morning. He has already spent a significant amount of time preparing for each class and working on homework! He has his second class on Thursday night, and I can tell this is going to be a major time commitment for him. I'm so excited for him, because I know he will love every minute!

Chicagoland

2010-08-20T19:32:00.003-05:00

A few weekends ago, Andrew and I flew to Chicago to visit Austin and Haley. Austin and Haley just moved to Chicago so that Haley can attend optometry school. We had so much fun! Here are some pictures from our trip.

Haley, Austin and I taking a break on the Magnificent Mile after eating a Chicago-style hot dog. Delicious!!

We went to Navy Pier that evening and ate at Harry Caray's Tavern.

I love this pictrue with Chicago in the background!

Austin and Andrew in front of the Wrigley building.

Have to get a picture of the Wrigley building! I mean, we did name our dog Wrigley.

The silver bean that reflects the city.

We went on an architectural boat tour with Wendella Boat Rides on the Chicago River. I won't post a ton of pictures of the buildings because I don't think you will appreciate it unless you hear the history. I really loved hearing about all of the buildings.

When we were done with the boat tour, Haley and Austin said that Transformers 3 was filming down the street. Well of course we had to go check it out! My pictures aren't too great since I had to take them while continuing to walk. I thought it was really neat to see this! They were changing scenes when we were walking by so I didn't see anyone famous. The guy in the picture below looks like he might be a stunt double or something. Haley was lucky enough to see Josh Duhamel when they first discovered the filming!

We had a wonderful time in Chicago, and I can not wait to go back to see more!! I'm sure we will have plenty of chances since Haley and Austin should be there for awhile.

My sweet Wrigley

2010-08-20T19:13:00.002-05:00

Wrigley is such a joy in my life! I'm so glad that Andrew came home one day and said that we could get a dog. He has been a perfect fit for us. We could not have asked for a better dog!

I think Wrigley played soccer before he came to live with us. He sure loves to chase a ball around and even holds it under his paw to stop it from moving! I took him for walk around the school yesterday, and kids were having soccer practice on the playground. Luckily there was a fence between us and the kids because he would have chased them all over to get at that ball!

Pet-Sitting

2010-07-25T21:47:00.004-05:00

This weekend we kept Paco, a friend of our's dog. He is about the same size as Wrigley, so they had a ton of fun playing. I took some pictures of them with my new Nikon camera. I'm loving my new camera! I don't know all the features yet, but I have some free classes from Wolf Camera that I will be attending soon.

On saturday night, Andrew took me to the Rascal Flatts concert in Friso. It was a lot of fun! The concert was outside, which was the only downfall since it's July in Texas. I still completely enjoyed the music!

Here are some pictures of the sweet puppies.

Wrigley chilling under the coffee table.

Wrigley and Paco playing tug-of-war with a toy.

Yawning after a log weekend of playing with Paco!

Here today, gone to Maui!!

2010-07-12T15:43:00.010-05:00

I was so excited when we landed in Maui! We booked most of our activities in Maui, and I was ready to get started! We arrived in Maui around 6pm and headed to the Westin hotel on Kannapali beach.

I took this picture on our drive to the hotel. The scenery was just beautiful. I couldn't quite capture it with my camera.

This is the Westin lobby as we arrived the first night.

The Westin had several beautiful waterfalls in the middle of the resort.

The first morning we woke up early and went on a snorkel/sail tour with Trilogy. We stopped at two different locations to snorkel. We saw a lot of fish, coral reef, and sea turtles. The turtles were my favorite! Here are some views from our tour.

View of Maui from the boat as we were sailing back.

That night we went to a luau in Old Lahaina.

We watched as they uncovered the pig for dinner.

The sunset at the luau was amazing!

The next day we had a surfing lesson. I have pictures on another cd that a photographer took while we learned. (I'll post some later.) We actually did pretty well! It was a ton of fun! Later that day we had a massage at the Westin Spa. It was so nice and relaxing after a morning of hard work (surfing).

The Westin had several pools, but we mainly went to the adults only pool. It was more peaceful there.

This was my view one day by the pool. It's a little fuzzy because my camera had fogged up from the temperature change.

The Westin had several parrots around each day.

The last day and a half we spent relaxing by the pool and enjoying Maui. It was an amazing trip! I can't wait to go back!!

View from where we had lunch on the last day.

First Anniversary!

2010-07-12T14:47:00.003-05:00

Yesterday was our first anniversary! It was so fun to talk about the wedding again and what we were each thinking. We cooked steaks together Saturday night to celebrate and went out for dessert at La Duni. We ate some of our wedding cake on Sunday that my mom saved in her freezer, and to my surprise it was actually still pretty good.

We have had the most amazing and blessed year! Andrew is such a caring and loving husband. I love him so much! Key memorable moments include moving into our first home, starting my job at PwC, Andrew's acceptance into SMU grad school, traveling to Cabo and Hawaii, family vacations, and much more. We are so thankful for our families and friends. Our first year in Dallas has been amazing, and we can't wait for many more!

Honolulu, Hawaii

2010-07-09T11:16:00.011-05:00

We arrived in Honolulu around 2pm local time. It felt like dinner time to us! We were greeted at the airport terminal by our shuttle service with Lei's. I loved the fresh smell of flowers!

This is Andrew with his lei on at the Sheraton. We were upgraded to a corner room with an ocean view because we were celebrating our anniversary. They also brought champagne to the room later that night. So nice!

Views from our balcony.On the way to Hawaii, we sat by a girl who lives on Oahu. She recommended we eat at a place called the Yard House. After we settled into our room, we walked around for awhile looking for somewhere to eat and ran into the Yard House. The food was delicious. We liked it so much we went back the next night too!
The next day we woke up at a decent time and ate a large buffet breakfast at the hotel. I had an omelette, as I did most mornings in Hawaii. We left for the bus stop to take us to Pearl Harbor. We didn't arrive at Pearl Harbor until 10 am because of the hour long public bus ride out there. We had no idea it would take that long. So we went straight to get our passes for the Arizona Memorial, which weren't until 1:30. We decided to see the U.S.S Missouri Battleship before the Arizona Memorial since we had some time to kill. Below are pictures from the U.S.S. Missouri.

I don't remember exactly what this was that Andrew is standing by. We used the headsets to listen to what we were looking at most of the time. I am not a huge history person, but I loved going through this battleship! We spent over 2 hours walking up and down through the ship.Aboard the U.S.S Missouri, looking at the Arizona Memorial ahead.If I remember correctly, this is where the men would go to get snacks and soda on breaks. The ship was nicknamed the "Big Mo."

After the U.S.S. Missouri tour, we headed to the place where we met to take a boat out to the Arizona Memorial.

You could see the Arizona under the water. The Arizona Memorial didn't take long, so when we returned to shore we headed over to tour the U.S.S Bowfin, which is a submarine.

The submarine was hard to walk through because it was very small quarters. I'm not sure that I could live on a submarine without feeling somewhat claustrophobic.

Andrew and I both loved Pearl Harbor. We spent pretty much all day there. When we got back to the hotel it was time for dinner again, and that's when we decided to go back to the Yard House.

The next morning we asked for a late check-out so that we could go to Waikiki beach. The beach was really nice that morning, and about the time we decided to leave it was starting to get crowded. The water was very pretty!

We went back to the hotel to clean up and headed to the airport for Maui!!

Beaver's Bend

2010-06-11T11:35:00.003-05:00

Last weekend we went with my family to Beaver's Bend National Park in Broken Bow, Oklahoma. We had a blast! We stayed in a cabin at the park. We had some good times sitting by the camp fire, fly fishing, riding a train with Olivia, grilling out, playing board games, and just relaxing. I can't wait to go back!

This is a picture of the cabin we stayed in. Glorified camping! ;)

Laura's Wedding

2010-06-11T11:20:00.003-05:00

On Memorial Day weekend, my good friend Laura got married. I was an honored attendant in the wedding. The weekend started with her bachelorette party on Thursday, Bridesmaid's luncheon on Friday, along with the rehearsal, and the wedding on Saturday. It was a wonderful weekend! I'm so happy for Laura! Here are a few pictures from the weekend.

Laura's Bachelorette party! Good times!

Laura getting ready before the wedding.

Laura with her honored attendants before the wedding.

Olivia's 2nd Birthday

2010-06-11T11:00:00.004-05:00

May 25th was my neice Olivia's 2nd birthday. The weekend before we went to visit Mt. Vernon to celebrate her birthday. The theme was Yo Gaba Gaba. The cake was done by Kristen's sister. Isn't it amazing!?

Cupcakes for everyone to enjoy!
A bounce house! It was really fun!

Olivia's present from us. We got her sand box toys and a color wonder coloring book.

Olivia and Andrew playing in the sandbox with the gift we gave her.

Olivia in the sandbox.

We had a wonderful time in Mt. Vernon!

Golfing

2010-05-20T10:49:00.003-05:00

Last Saturday, Andrew and I went golfing with Matt and Anna. We had a great time! We played the whole 18 holes too! We started around 3 PM and finished around 7. We did our own variation of a scramble, which was fun. We usually ended up just playing from where Andrew hit it, but we occasionally played my ball (if we couldn't find his! haha).

Here's Andrew about to hit the ball.This squirrel was so close and cute! I couldn't help but take a picture. Wrigley would have had a blast because there were so many squirrels that he could have chased around!

Pony Up!

2010-05-10T13:22:00.003-05:00

Andrew received his official letter from Southern Methodist University this weekend welcoming him into the Professional MBA program. I am so proud of him!

He will start classes this fall. The program lasts 2 years, which isn't that long considering he will continue to work and attend classes in the evenings and weekends. His first year will include Thursday night and Saturday morning classes. We will not be traveling much the first year because of his schedule.

I could not be more proud of him right now! He has worked so hard to get into grad school, and this has been a dream of his for awhile.

I sent Andrew Tiff's Treats at work today to congratulate him, and I will be cooking a delicious dinner tonight in his honor. We plan on going out to celebrate this weekend. He deserves it!

Hawaii

2010-05-03T08:56:00.002-05:00

It's official! We are going to Hawaii! We finally booked our vacation last night with our travel agent. I'm so excited!! We are flying into Honolulu and spending two nights there, then traveling to Maui for four nights.

In Honolulu, I'm looking forward to seeing Pearl Harbor and hearing all of the history. In Maui, I'm looking foward to the beauty, relaxation and fun activities (such as surfing!).

If you have been to either location, please send me your thoughts on activities, restaurants, etc. We would love input!

Here are a couple of pictures off the web of the Sheraton in Honolulu.

This is the Westin in Maui where we will spend most of our time.

This is going to be an amazing trip, and I can hardly wait!!

Maya's Birthday

2010-04-29T09:13:00.003-05:00

Happy Birthday Maya! Emily and Kolby Kerr have a beautiful dog named Maya. We went to a dog park last night to visit and let the dogs play for her birthday. Guests included Wrigley, Bentley (Emily's brother and sister-in-law's dog), and Riley (Laura Slattery's dog). We all had a great time.

This was Wrigley's first experience at a dog park. He did very well! He was pretty shy at first because we were in the "big dog" part (30 lbs and up) of the park. A lot of the dogs were more than double his size! We took him down to the "small dog" section for awhile, and he really enjoyed that. He gradually relaxed and would venture off to meet other dogs. I think it will just take time for him to be completely comfortable and playful with new dogs.

It's also good to know that off of his leash Wrigley is very responsive to his name and sticks pretty close to us. I don't have a big fear of him running off. I'm looking forward to taking Wrigley to the dog park more often.

Maya, Bentley, Riley and Wrigley (left to right)

Grilling Weekend

2010-04-27T10:58:00.006-05:00

Haley and Austin came in last weekend to Dallas to visit on Saturday night. We decided to grill shrimp and steak kabobs and play games in the backyard. We also invited Matt and Anna to come over.

Andrew took care of the grilling.

Wrigley enjoyed being outside with all of us. He did pee on the game board though...I think he just wanted to be a part of the fun.

Delicious kabobs!
Matt and Anna playing the bean bag throw.

Austin and Haley

Austin throwing the bean bag.

We ate dinner on the patio because the weather was so nice outside. Then we went to dessert at La Duni for some Quatra Leches cake. It was delicious!! We had so much fun!

My Precious Wrigley

2010-04-27T10:27:00.004-05:00

Wrigley does some of the sweetest things. Sometimes I think it might just be me that thinks he is so adorable, but I don't care. He steals my heart everyday! Wrigley has a habit of bringing his teddy bear to bed with him. Here are a couple of pictures of him sleeping with his teddy bear.

Wrigley is laying on the bear in this one. The bear's foot is on the left side of his face.

Last night he got on the bed and was looking around and wouldn't lay down. I realized his bear was on the floor, so I picked it up and gave it to him. He immediately layed down on it. That's when I snapped these two pics with my phone. He's too precious!

Laura's Kitchen Shower

2010-04-26T14:32:00.006-05:00

On Saturday, April 17th, I hosted a shower for my good friend Laura Slattery at my home here in Dallas. It was so much fun! I had three great girls helping me out: Meredith Rogers, Lynn Nottoli, and Katelyn Foster. I couldn't have done it without their help! My mom and dad also helped me a ton in getting my house ready for visitors! It was a lot of work to get the house ready, but so worth it. We finally did stuff around the house that we've been meaning to do since we moved in. Here are some pictures of the shower.

The table set with all of the food. The flowers are hydrangeas and lilies. Thanks Mom for all of the beautiful glassware!

The sign-in table as you walk in.

Laura, the guest of honor, with her mom and sister. Laura with her mom and future family. Laura and friends. Laura dressed in the apron and kitchen items we used to play a memory game with the guests.

Laura and hostesses.

Other random pictures of guests.

Patio

2010-04-26T11:20:00.003-05:00

Andrew and I finally picked up the patio area and put some plants outside so that we could enjoy the beautiful weather we have been having recently. We love eating dinner on the patio right now! I took a few pictures of our patio and the flowers I'm trying to keep alive. I've only managed to partially kill one so far! That's not bad for me! Luckily the plants seem to be pretty resilient. Does anyone have any watering tips? I always tend to over/under water.

Christmas!!

2010-03-30T21:13:00.009-05:00

Yes, I'm just now posting about Christmas... I blame my lost (and now found) camera charger and the fact that I've been working like crazy for the past few months. Andrew and I decorated our first tree together and this is what it looked like. It was so nice to look at everyday.

Wrigley's routine in the winter was going outside and coming back to bed to lay by the heater while Andrew and I got ready for work.Christmas at the Puryear's house.

Wrigley asleep with his new toy!
The Puryear family Christmas.

Christmas at the Scott's house. I was busy baking sweet treats for the grandparents when we took a minute to take a family picture.

Wrigley posing in front of the Christmas tree.

Sweet Wrigley asleep in my arms! He makes me melt! It wouldn't be Scott family Christmas without some duck hunting. If you can't tell, that's me on the left. I'm pretty good at hiding from the ducks! ;)

We are so glad that Austin joins us on our hunting trips!

Oklahoma

2010-03-30T19:30:00.007-05:00

These pictures are way over due. I decided to go ahead a post them because we are going back to Oklahoma on vacation with my family again in May! My mom found a great cabin to rent at Beaver's Bend in Oklahoma last summer. We had so much fun that we decided to go again this year. This is the cabin where we stayed.

Andrew, Jay, and my dad had a guided fly fishing trip. They took some pictures of each other fishing. My mom and I stayed back at the cabin to take care of Olivia. We took a walk down by the river too. It's so beautiful!

Tree Trimming

2010-03-26T09:16:00.002-05:00

The other day, Andrew and I called a guy to come to the house to give us a quote for trimming the trees in our front yard. Since Dallas is way behind on bulk trash pick-up, we decided to go ahead and have the trees trimmed and pile the limbs on the sidewalk for when the trash people come around to pick it up. It's a lot cheaper than having the person haul off the limbs. See below for the picture of our pile. We are not the only ones on the block with a pile this high!

Spring is finally here!

2010-03-23T11:56:00.002-05:00

Hey everyone! So I've been really bad about keeping my blog up-to-date. Spring is officially here, meaning my busy season at work is finally over! I'm excited to get my life back to normal.

Since my last post, Andrew and I have both had birthdays! Mine was on January 17 and Andrew's was on March 13. We went home to Mt. Vernon on both our birthday weekends. We enjoyed spending that time with our families.

We have also been frantically preparing our house for a shower that I am hosting for a dear friend, Laura, in April. We have purchased a couch, two leather chairs, wall decor and more in an effort to have furniture/decorations in the house for the shower.

We are also having the front yard trees trimmed and cleaned up, which will hopefully look very nice! I plan on posting pictures of the house and front yard soon.

*I have no pictures to post this time, because I left my camera charger in Mt. Vernon (since Christmas).

Wrigley

2010-01-05T13:04:00.003-06:00

It's been awhile since my last post. I thought I would have time over the Christmas break to update the blog, but that didn't happen. There is always something else to do.

On November 14, 2009, we added a new member to our family. His name is Wrigley. He is a 2 year old West Highland Terrier mix. Andrew's colleague, Danielle, helps to foster dogs for City Pet Rescue in Dallas. She told Andrew that City Pet Rescue would be at PetsMart that Saturday afternoon. When Andrew told me this, I immediately got online to look at all of the dogs that would be there for adoption. I convinced Andrew to "just go look." (Of course that's not what happened...:) )

We arrived at PetsMart and played with some of the dogs, but weren't just taken by any one of the dogs there at the time. One of the ladies informed us that more dogs would be coming to PetsMart later in the day. So Andrew and I left, but I had a strong urge to go back to see the other dogs later that day.

We went back a couple hours later, and that's when we met Wrigley. He looked pretty rough because he had been living outside. He had not been groomed in awhile. I knew he was the one when he sat in my lap and was still rather calm despite all of the chaos around us. Wrigley was originally named Kilo, but we weren't fond of the name so we changed it. He was an owner surrender to the rescue. His family could not afford to keep him any longer. We are his third family in two years, and we plan on being his last.

Here is a picture of me, Andrew, and Wrigley at Christmas with my family.
Wrigley is truly a blessing in our lives. He makes us laugh on a daily basis. He has been such the perfect dog for us. He is so loving, and he loves to cuddle with me! I can't imagine not having Wrigley to light up our lives.

More pictures of Wrigley to come!

Possum!

2009-10-31T21:31:00.002-05:00

Who would have thought that I would walk out the front door one morning and see a possum in the middle of Dallas?! I tried to snap a quick photo and ended up taking a short video on accident. I was so flustered by the whole ordeal! I tried to upload it on here, but it wouldn't work. Andrew and I left for work with it sitting on our fence. We haven't seen the critter since, and I'm glad!

Grillin' Time!

2009-10-31T21:18:00.006-05:00

With wedding money, Andrew and I purchased a gas grill. We decided that we would assemble it ourselves, instead of buying it pre-assembled. Here are a few pictures of us during the two hour assembly process.

The final product!

NO Time!

2009-10-31T20:59:00.002-05:00

Sorry that I have been so busy that I forgot to update my blog!

The newest thing in our life is that I finally started work with PricewaterhouseCoopers. Andrew is very happy about this! I work as an auditor for PwC. In the next year, I'm hoping to finally earn the title of CPA. I have passed all of my exams, but I'm working on fulfilling the work hours to earn the official title.

Work hasn't allowed me much time to update everyone on our lives, but I'm going to try to do better!

Football Season is here

2009-09-14T12:39:00.002-05:00

Andrew is a big fan of college football, but those who know him already know this. I like watching some football, but not all day. I especially like watching the Baylor Bears, Sic'em!, or the Dallas Cowboys. I thought this was a funny comment Andrew made to me today, so I wanted to share:

"I'm trying to be flexible since not everyone's life in the fall revolves around college football schedules, but its hard." -- Andrew

I have to give him credit for trying!

Weekend update

2009-08-18T10:31:00.003-05:00

This weekend, Andrew's sister Kathleen came to visit us here in Big D. We had a great time! Friday night we went for dessert at La Duni after cooking dinner. I HIGHLY recommend the quatro leches cake! Saturday, we went to see the movie "500 Days of Summer." I enjoyed it. It was very artsy. We went to lunch at Texas de Brazil Express at Preston Center and went for dessert at Sprinkles cupcakes. We then headed back for a nap at the house until dinner. After the nap, we went to dinner at The Blue Fish for sushi. It was delicious! The next morning we went to church and took Kathleen to meet her mom in Rockwall.

Over the weekend, I also took care of my uncle's dogs Hudson and Tess. They are so much fun! Hudson is a border collie, and he is very obedient. Tess is a stray so I'm not exactly sure what breed she is, but she looks similar to a greyhound except she's black. She is very athletic and more of a free spirit than Hudson. I really enjoyed playing with them. Maybe someday soon Andrew will decide we can have a dog. :)

Saturday was my friend Emily's birthday, so Sunday evening I went to dinner in Frisco with some of her friends and family. We had a great time catching up. Andrew wasn't able to attend because he just started back a Bible study for the new school year, where he helps teach and mentor 9th grade boys.

That's all for now!

Big Cedar Lodge

2009-08-10T11:37:00.012-05:00

Welcome to Big Cedar! Andrew and I took a vacation with his family to Big Cedar Lodge outside of Branson, Missouri. We left early Thursday morning for our 7 hour road trip. The trip wasn't too bad. We made it to Big Cedar by 3:00.

This is a picture of the Falls Lodge where we stayed.

This is how our rooms were decorated. Don't miss this animal heads and rodent skins on the wall ;) It didn't bother me, but we had a stuffed racoon perched on the tv cabinet in our room! Pretty funny.

The view from where we sat by the pool. The swimming pool is behind me in this picture, and the pool you see below is a hot tub. Very nice! Table Rock Lake is in the distance. Before we ate dinner at the Buzzard Bar and listened to the "Singing Cowboy." He tells jokes and sings songs. It's very entertaining!

One of my favorite pictures! After we arrived back at the Falls Lodge after dinner, we took a family photo in front of the massive stuffed bear in the lobby. Go Bears!

Andrew and I played a little tennis one morning with Austin and Haley. I was exhausted after we finished and we were both sore the next day! Andrew and I should play more often. We really enjoyed it.

We took a trip in to shop at the outlet mall and to eat dinner at Branson Landing. We probably bought more than we should have. But I needed some work clothes, so it was justified! We then ate at Cantina Laredo. It was really good!

The next morning we had a lake day on Table Rock Lake. We rented a boat and took it out to enjoy the water and tube a little. This is Andrew and I getting ready to tube. Don't worry; I fell in trying to get on the tube from the boat. Luckily, the water felt great!

This is me and Andrew tubing. I had a hard time staying on! I'm not posting any pictures of the others tubing, but we all had our turn.

Fun in the sun!

A beautiful sunset from our balcony.

Our last dinner at Big Cedar. I had a shrimp pasta, and it was delicious!! I wish we could go back tomorrow. We had so much fun! We are looking forward to many more family vacations in the future.

Honeymoon

2009-07-29T15:41:00.026-05:00

Our honeymoon was so much fun! We went to Cabo San Lucas and stayed at the Riu Palace all-inclusive resort. We stayed a total of six nights in Cabo. I have lots of pictures from the trip. I put as many pictures as I could stand to wait to download on this post. Enjoy!

This is a picture I snapped as we were arriving at the Cabo airport. This was my first experience at getting off of the plane without a terminal. We had one of those tall stair cases to get out of the plane. We were so happy to finally be in Mexico, after a two hour delay at DFW.

We finally arrived at the resort! When we first arrived, the lady told us that we had booked a room with two double beds...so I told her it was our honeymoon, and we would REALLY appreciate a king bed. She was nice enough to upgrade us free of charge. Thank goodness!

This was the view from the bar on the top floor of the resort. We took this picture after we got settled into the room and went for a drink.

This is Andrew in the lobby. Everything but the room was open air, so no air conditioning. It was pretty hot in Cabo. It felt like we were still in Texas during the day. Luckily it cooled off at night because of the nice ocean breeze.

This is the infinity pool that we liked to lay out by. There were two pools on the resort, but this was the "quiet" one. The spa is the building on the right, and the ocean is straight ahead. We liked to lay where we could see the beach and ocean, but also have easy access to cool off in the pool.

This is our "partial ocean view" from our balcony. We liked sitting on the balcony in the evening when it had cooled off, and we would listen to the music being played in the entertainment area.

This was also the view from our balcony. We could watch people eat at the buffet at night from here. We ate at this buffet for breakfast and several dinners.

Our first evening in Cabo, we ate at a French fusion restaurant. Andrew got a steak and loved it! I had salmon, and I thought it was good too.

View from the top floor bar after dinner.

We went on a city sight-seeing tour of Cabo San Lucas and San Jose del Cabo. It lasted 4 1/2 hours. We had a lot of fun. This was our first stop on the tour. It is the Westin hotel in Cabo. Very nice view.

This was another stop on the tour. There is a nice view of Cabo in the background.

We stopped and had a tequila tasting in San Jose del Cabo. Some were good, and some were not so good.

Another stop was at a glass-blowing factory. That was a lot of fun to watch. I bought a heart ornament to remember our trip and some fun drink stirs.

This is a view of the marina behind us. Over Andrew's right shoulder is where people can "swim with dolphins." We did not do that excursion. To end our tour, we took a boat ride out to see the famous Arch of Cabo.

On the boat tour with the Arch in the background.

One of the many beautiful sunsets.

Before dinner at the Mexican food restaurant. I thought it would be my favorite, but Andrew and I actually liked it the least of all the restaurants.

The marina.

The EcoCat. This is the huge catamaran that we took our sunset dinner cruise on. I'm glad we decided to do the cruise, because I had a lot of fun.

On the cruise!

View of our resort from the water.

Dinner at the Japanese restaurant. It was my favorite! We had wonderful sushi for appetizers.

Dinner at the Japanese restaurant.

We headed back to Dallas the next morning. We were lucky enough to arrive at the airport early enough to catch an earlier flight. We were back in Dallas by 5:30! I was ready to get home and start living our everyday lives together.

Wedding!!

2009-07-28T15:44:00.008-05:00

So, the wedding was amazing! I loved every minute of it. As I have been looking back through pictures the last couple of weeks, I told Andrew that I wish we could go back and relive it one more time. Everything just flys by!

My Uncle Ronny was the photographer for the wedding, and he has posted pictures online for everyone to look at.

The website is: http://www.collages.net/

Username: Brittany and Andrew

Password: 4932

I will post just a few pictures courtesy of my maid of honor, Anne Roseman. I just picked a few because she had 120 photos for me to look through! Thanks Anne!

This is my brother Jay, me, and my sister-in-law Kristen after the rehearsal dinner.

Preparing in the Bridal Room before the wedding ceremony.

Dancing our first dance to "Then" by Brad Paisley.

Me and Anne, maid of honor, after tossing the bouquet. She caught it ;)

Andrew removing my garter.

Leaving in the horse and carriage. What a fairytale ending!

Getting Started!

2009-07-28T15:39:00.002-05:00

So, this is my first experience with blogging. I'm just going to try to figure things out as I go. If anyone has any good tips on how to blog, etc. I would appreciate the advice. Does anyone know how to get a better background/layout?