Classic movie update...

So as you may remember from this post Josh and I have been working on our classics. It's not going too great. Some of the films are very old and the camera movements are hard to watch. But, Russells aren't quitters, so here it goes:

-Lawrence of Arabia (I fell asleep and Josh didn't feel like finishing it)
-French Connection (weird, I didn't get it)
-Singin' in the Rain (cute, but Josh decided not to finish it with me)
-African Queen (not at all like the title sounds)
-North by Northwest (we both really liked this one)
-Double Indemnity (just arrived from Netflix)

Can I also send a shoutout to Netflix? It has been life changing. One low monthly fee to get 2 movies at a time all month long, you can stream from your computer, or through your tv with the Wii/PS3/XBOX 360. Now they have an iPhone app where you can watch from your phone. (of course they do) I can also show TONS of PBS videos in my classroom from my laptop at work. Why hadn't we made the switch sooner?

Look at my med stud(ent)

first day of second year 2010 ;) Better late than never.

Mini trip to Austin

So early Monday morning I hit I35 North to Austin! The plan was to hang out with my sister on Monday and have lunch with 2 good friends: Callie and Taylor on Tuesday. Josh had two huge exams on Monday and Wednesday...so why not head our for a little adventure?

I arrived a little before lunchtime at my sister's apartment. Which is in Barton Creek and I love it! I wish they had apartments like hers near the medical school. We got ready and went to lunch at Mimi's Cafe. They have tons of fun salads to choose from and it comes with a muffin...random lol.

Afterwards we went shopping and found some great clothes at Nordstrom rack. I also found Josh a pair of brown Cole Haan dress shoes for $40! (originally $160) Finding shoes for a size 17 feet is not easy! When he was trying them on I asked him to pose so I could put a picture on the blog and this is what he did. Obviously I wasn't joking!



Later on that night we went to the Hula Hut on Lake Travis. What a fun restaurant! It's kind of like Chuy's meets Joe's Crab Shack. The view on the water was beautiful and the food was awesome.





We stayed up late and drank skinny girl margaritas (YUM) and watched the Teen Choice awards. The next day I met Callie and Taylor for lunch at Sushi Sake. (another great find) It was so great to catch up. We went by the Domain and it is definitely one of the nicest shopping places ever. We found a peacock bench and had to take a picture on it. They laughed at me because I asked a random guy if he would take our picture and please not runaway with my camera. (gotta hold onto this one!) He wanted to take 2 pictures, and our tushes were burning on the metal bench! Overall I had a blast on my day trip before going back to work...sad day.

Back to school...

Yup people, it's offically time to go back to school. We have cluster meetings with the 5 other schools in our system from Wednesday thru Friday of this week. Then the following week we have meetings at our school for just our staff. The kids go back on August 23. Sadly I'm excited!

Look at these awesome stamps that my sister gave me! (for grading papers)



Which leads me to the next topic, it's crunch time people! I have got to get my classroom decorated! (I put it off this past week...shh don't tell) My Mom, sister, and I will be going to Joann's this coming weekend because they have an awesome discount for teachers. I kind of want to get some fabric for my bulletin boards. I think that it will last longer. I promise to add pictures of the finished product. Now...it's time to decide what outfit I will wear on the first day ;)

Look who has pinchable cheeks

So last week I got to hang out with the Lindsay and the boys twice! It makes me sad because I go back to work tomorrow and I know I wont get to see them as much as I have this summer. While I was there, I got a call from my Dad and told him where I was. He asked me to send him a picture of me pinching their cheeks. If you know my Dad, he is OBSESSED with baby's cheeks! I actually just saw on my fb newsfeed where my he wrote on somebody's wall that he got to pinch his baby's cheeks at church lol. Anyway, just wanted to document the situation ;) (disclaimer: no babies were harmed while taking these pictures...I don't pinch very hard!)

Presley went first!



Next it was Cyrus's turn! (this was after many "Moose kisses" lol)



These boys are seriously the sweetest babies ever! I'm so glad that med school brought us all together.

Trip to the vet...

So last Friday I took Mr. Brody for his yearly checkup and vaccinations. Thank goodness we only live 0.4 miles from the place. (yep I googled it!) He was shouting the entire trip there. Whew...very stressful.

Here he is mad at me while waiting for the vet to see us.



Talking about it...



Overall, it went pretty good. BUT, he weighs a whopping 13.5 pounds! So the vet said to give him 10 pieces of food twice a day. So it's dieting all around in the Russell house! Hope everyone has a happy Monday ;)

Prayers for Ronnie

So on Tuesday we found out that my father-in-law Ronnie had fallen while at Seth's football practice. He thought he could shake it off, but after while realized that something wasn't right. Boy was that true. He broke a rib, broke his thumb, and broke a bone in his other wrist. Poor thing! He was in such good spirits when I talked to him on Wednesday. Please say a little prayer for him, get well soon Ronnie!

Hey look!

A package from our BFFs in NC!



What could it be? A souvenir from the long lost aquarium? Some NC BBQ? A pony? lol



Nope, sadly none of those. It's our camera that SOMEONE (aka Josh) left on top of Kristen's car, which inevitably got run over :( sad day. His only saving grace was that he uploaded all of our pictures from the trip to his laptop the night before. Lucky dude. So now we're in the market to buy a new camera. Any suggestions? Here is our criteria:

-must survive being dropped or run over by a car
-must last a long time so we can take good pictures of our future kiddos
-must take videos and do cool black and white effects

Thanks in advance for your help! In other good news...



my blood, sweat, and tears from August 2009-June of 2010 has finally paid off! I'm now a certified teacher! Yay me :) Hope everyone has a good weekend!

My Parentals

So I thought I'd do a little tribute post to my Mom & Dad since they rock! The picture above is them circa 1983...aren't they cute? They were high school sweethearts that met before my Mom's junior year and my Dad's senior year. There is a questionable possibility that they met at a middle school dance and my Mom turned my Dad down when he asked her to dance...but we won't mention that ;) My Dad "thinks" he was a nerd but as you can see by the picture his nerdiness was the fact that he was smart, not in the way he looked. So they got hitched in 1983 after my Dad's first year of dental school. They then went on to have two beautiful daughters (ahem). Poor Dad, surrounded by all those women. At least he had golf! huh, honey...

Yeah, still can't believe that happened. I was 18 at the time and pretty embarrassed of my Dad's "joke" on national television. But it was a great experience we shared and something I'll always have to talk about. I love them so much and hate that I live so far away from them...boo.

Brody and me

So, as most of you know I have a spunky 4 year old cat named Brody. We found him as a kitten at PetCo and decided we could give him a good home. Let's just say from day 1 we knew he wouldn't be normal. Brody loves any attention, even negative attention! Don't get me wrong, he has his good moments, but most times I find him doing something he shouldn't be. I consider him to be the cat version of Marley and me. (Oh and yes, these pictures are all from my Blackberry. I always have it with me when he does something funny. Plus, we'll not talk about what happened to our real camera.)

Here he is helping me grade papers.


Asking me not to throw away streamers from my birthday party.


He really finds Josh's lap quite comfortable (or maybe he knows that Josh didn't like cats and after dating me was forced to accept them. Oh yeah, and my Mom has 3 cats at home)


If you leave a drawer or cabinet open, he will think it's his new hiding spot.


This one still cracks me up. He was a fan of my Grandpa's diabetic shoes last Thanksgiving. I swear this cat has a shoe fetish. We have to keep our closet door closed or he will find one to chew on...is this normal? Both of our pairs of crocs are ruined. Luckily, neither of us were sad to see them go.


Lastly, if you need a good knitting partner he is available for hire. His strong points include: chewing through your yarn, sitting on your lap to distract you from it, and sneaking up on you. I don't take my knitting out anymore because of him.


On Friday night, I got back to SA from being home all week. It was late, but we decided Brody really needed a bath since he has been going outside all day. Sadly, I don't have any pictures of that but it was hilarious. He was pretty mad/scared. The funny thing is we gave him some treats after drying him off and he had already forgotten about it. I'll leave you now with a video of him fetching, yes he can fetch. Sorry for the clothes in the background...gotta love laundry day!