And the festivities continue all through the weekend

So we had a wonderful anniversary weekend, beginning last Thursday. We started off the day the way any couple would, really, with a visit to a surgeon to discuss removing my implants. 'What?!', you say? 'But they're hardly even noticeable!'

I know, I know, but they've been driving me crazy since the day I had them put in. And they really haven't given me the quality of life improvement I was hoping for. They may be small, but the battery pack and leads under the skin just rub me the wrong way. I'm talking of course about the spinal cord stimulator system that I had put in last year. I guess you would just call it one implant though I have two incisions for the two surgical sites. To put it mildly, it hasn't helped at all, so I've decided to have it taken out.

Anyway, back to the anniversary. You may remember we've booked a cruise in November as the actual celebration - a sort of commemorative trip, since that's what we did for our honeymoon. And the hurricanes should explain why we waited til November to travel to the Caribbean.

But it seemed a shame to let the occasion go without some type of celebration, so this weekend we thought we'd go out of town on a little mini-vacation. Only we really didn't feel like traveling since we have so many other trips going on this year. Instead, we stayed in downtown Austin, which turned out to be just perfect. A little "gettin' to know ya" for this new city we now call home.

We stayed at the Embassy Suites on South Congress, Friday through Sunday. After letting them know it was our anniversary, we found ourselves in one of their best rooms - a corner suite with spectacular views of the city, Capitol building and river. The first night we enjoyed the hotel happy hour and reminisced about how we stayed at an Embassy Suites resort for our first anniversary - where I'm pretty sure I broke my butt by doing a canon ball into the shallow end of the pool. Ah, the memories. I kept the festivities under control at this happy hour though, and we didn't go swimming.

On Saturday we walked all around town, beginning with lunch at a new Irish pub we found in the warehouse district. Very enjoyable, but too dim to get any good pics. After that, we hiked the rest of the 14 blocks to the Capitol and enjoyed a self-guided tour like regular old tourists. That afternoon we did go swimming, sans canon balls.

Saturday night we hit the town. We started at the historic Driskill Hotel on Sixth Street. We enjoyed a piano concert in their lounge. Next, we went to the Speakeasy, back down in the warehouse district. This is our favorite find so far. There is a rooftop terrace, with a great view of the city and tons of big loungy couch-type seating with big pillows. Finally, we had a bite to eat at a place called Saba next to the Cedar Street Courtyard, where perhaps the best 80s cover band ever to play the earth was rockin' out, mullets blowing in the breeze of the fans on stage. By then it was midnight, a good two hours past our bedtime, so we called it a night.

Sunday we walked all around the retro shopping district on South Congress ("SoCo") and enjoyed another great band at an original coffee shop named Jo's. Can't recall the name of the band, but they were probably the best music we heard all weekend. We finished the day by visiting the legendary Whole Foods downtown, and having lunch at the Waterloo Ice House.

Ok, I'd say that's more documentation of a weekend than anyone would ever want or need. We had a lot of fun, but believe it or not, we're about to have an even better weekend coming up, because our best friend in the world - Bob Sherwood - is coming to visit. CAN'T WAIT!!

PICS FROM THIS WEEKEND AT THE GALLERY.

Happy Anniversary to Us!

Today is our 10th anniversary; our story has been 15 years in the making ... more than half our lives.

I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to share a little bit of our history, and I've been thinking about this posting for weeks. But what I've discovered is there is just way too much to share in one sitting (or in my case, standing). So for the next few weeks, I'd like to reminisce on our lives together. Not just me and Michael, but all of our friends and family as well who have helped shape the past 15 years.

Michael and I met in 1992, the summer before our Freshman year of high school. For some reason, I remember exactly what I was thinking the first time I saw him. It's permanently embedded in my memory, in a pretty blue color and very straight lines. Oh wait, I know why.


August 24, 1992. (Click the image to read, I'm very embarrassed but you are worth it, my faithful blog readers). I, in all of my 14-year old dramatic female angst, used to write journal entries on fancy binder paper from time to time, and yep - I still have a few. You just can't, like, make this stuff up. It's too rad. On an unrelated note, "Melissa" came to our wedding ... with her newborn baby. Oh, also for anyone who doesn't know - Michael went by Ryan (his middle name) when we met.

Michael (Ryan) and I grew up and dated in a time long before cel phones, email, or instant messaging (omg!). We lived far enough apart in those days to be "long distance", so we could rarely talk by phone because we couldn't afford the phone bill (you know, after we were old enough to have a job and such). So we wrote letters, all the time, and mailed them to each other. We spent hours drawing cute little pictures and telling each other how we were so mature, and how we would one day get married and live happily ever after. So because I love you all so much, and because I got his permission, here's a little tidbit from my future husband-to-be, dated August, 31 1993.


The memories we've created on paper are priceless to us. And I think I will share a few more with you over the next few weeks, along with some photos we've spent the past week scanning and cropping. Unfortunately, the first ten years of our relationship happened Before we had a Digital Camera (or what I call "B.D.C."). But much of the last five years has been documented on our gallery.

I don't know if this makes us narcissistic, to share so much that perhaps people don't really care about, but it seems we've just always been an open book, and it gives us great honor and pleasure to share our lives, and our home, with the people we love. So I hope you don't mind if I continue to document our past as well as our present and future. In any case, it's great for us to reminisce for the benefit of posterity. And it's easier than writing on binder paper.

*** You may want to take a break, go to the bathroom, get something to drink, this is a lot of stuff ***

To begin, we've posted 3 videos on YouTube that we made for our wedding. Keep in mind we shot these in 1997 - which meant filming actual photographs with a camera the size of a small coffee table, and manually recording them to the beat of our favorite songs of the time. In other words, it took days, and occasionally the pictures would fall down while we were filming but we were too tired and stressed out to care.

Part One is all of our baby and childhood photos, up until our first date at Freshman Homecoming, 1992. Parts Two and Three chronicle our dating years and high school life, up until our wedding photos. Caution: these videos are long and may be perceived as totally boring to anyone besides ourselves. Somehow we got away with showing all 15 minutes worth at our rehearsal dinner and at the wedding. I guess our obsession with sharing photos and personal information came long before michaelandsharon.com.

I've also posted pictures from our wedding and the preceding events on our gallery. If you promise to come back soon, I've got hundreds more photos of our friends and families to share, along with many more memories. It will just take some time, it's my anniversary, you know? We're headed out of town tomorrow for the weekend.

Anyway, it's been an awesome walk down memory lane at the Matthew house this week. We've realized how blessed we are to have all of you in our lives, many of you for the past 15 years or longer.

So Happy Anniversary, to all of us!


PS: It would mean the world to me if you would leave a comment to let us know you stopped by. You can even just say "present" or "was here" :) .

**New Cel Phone Numbers**

We've become full-fledged Texans -- now with all-natural Texas digits and more real bbq flavor! Please update your phones, because even though they can conduct a $41 billion merger, Cingular/AT&T is apparently incapable of providing a forwarding message when you change your number.

Michael: 512-965-3481
Sharon: 512-965-3482

Home/Office: 512-553-0316

Local Family Has Too Much Fun In One Day

Permanent Smiles Give Way to Delirious Exhaustion

Yesterday we finally made it over to McKinney Falls State Park, which is just 6.5 miles from our current abode. We were more than pleasantly surprised at the scenery, to say the least! The water was tantalizing, the current swift and refreshing. We picnicked under the tall oaks along one of the hiking trails, just yards from the creek which feeds the falls. The majority of our afternoon was spent floating and swimming around the base of the falls, with - yes - permanent smiles in place.


Of course, the day wouldn't have been complete without famous Elgin Sausages on the charcoal bbq. Or, a leisurely float down the stream. Really couldn't ask for a better day.

View the pics at the gallery!

This just in ....

Phew! I thought there was a chance they would find Michael guilty.
[Click to watch]


(no, it's not really real ... just one of my fav faux news sources :)

Waiting in vain ...

... but at least not in the rain.

Last night we met my parents, Anna & Rick down by the South Congress Bridge to view one of Austin's most famous attractions - BATS! You may remember last year Michael and I came here during our first visit, and the bats performed beautifully.

Unfortunately, they suffered a bit of stage fright this time around, and failed to appear before we all decided to leave, long after sunset. So we'll try again some time soon. But still, I think the story of the bats migrating here is so interesting. Read more about it here.

This time of year is supposed to be perfect for viewing this eco-extravaganza as the mother bats have given birth to their young, who are now ready to join the nightly excursions.

That the bats have chosen Austin as the perfect location to start their families reminds me of this other remarkable species I know of. The Barberious Matthewsian et soon Bernsteinicus, orginally native to California, recently migrated to Austin for the same reason - it just seems to be a beautiful place to raise their young.

When you work at home taking lunch is such hard work

Now that we've had a bit of a reprieve from the previous 40 days and 40 nights of rain, we've been enjoying our makeshift backyard paradise.

Amazing how two lounge chairs, some tiki-torches, misters and a mini palm tree can transport you just about anywhere. Figuratively speaking anyway. I give all the props to Michael for insisting we make the most of it, and for further insisting I get out there to work on my tan as much as possible.

Priorities, people.