YouTubesday: A Very Potter Musical

This just makes me happier than a tornado in a trailer park. I love me some Harry Potter and I love musicals. This must have taken a lot of rehearsal hours, but it was well worth it. Check it out:

There's tons more where that came from so click on the video if you want to check the rest out. And now, if you haven't seen this wedding video yet, check it out:

My sister is getting married in December, and this video made us both laugh and then cry. And I think she should make us all learn a dance to perform at some point during her wedding. It's only fair-I made her read a poem at my wedding.
Meredith--for your consideration:

I think we could make it work.

Have a great day!
Love,

Elle Bunny

These are a few of my favorite things

• The hydrangea on my dining room table. It reminds me of my wedding, which was the best day of my life.


• The deck my husband (and my Daddy and brother-in-law) have worked very hard on. It is absolutely beautiful and will be perfect for barbecues throughout the rest of the summer.
• The book that is getting me through the day at work. God bless J. K. Rowling.
• The clear plastic ball filled with pink glitter that I won at work. It sits on my desk. It is a constant source of entertainment, especially during difficult calls. When I shake it all up and the glitter clouds the surface, it looks like the globe Glenda the Good Witch comes in to visit Oz.
• Smarties. The best candy ever!
• When the sunlight breaks through a canopy of tree limbs. The feeling when you're right under that slat of sunlight is my favorite sensation in the world.
• Last Sunday, I got everything done that I needed to and still had plenty of time left over to spend with my two favorite beings, Mr. Bunny and Strut. It was one of those wonderful summer days that seemed to go on forever.
• Thursdays--I love anticipation. Looking forward to the weekend is sometimes better than actually getting there.

What are your favorite things?

Love,

Elle Bunny

Memories, like the corner of my mind...

I've been thinking a lot lately about how Mr. Bunny and I met. And the more I think about it, the more overwhelmed I become by the idea that we could have lived our whole lives and never even run into each other. It makes me really sad to think about, because I'm so happy with my life. But without Mr. Bunny, I'm not sure what I'd be doing now. I know my life would be completely different. When you think about it, everyday we make decisions that could effect the rest of our entire lives. But as a silly 19-year-old girl, there was no way I could have predicted what fate had in store for me the night of January 2, 2004.
I heard about Mr. Bunny before I ever met him. I'm pretty sure I was 16 or 17 the first time his name came up. One of my closest friends from high school, Justin, had an obnoxious, yet oddly endearing older brother named Chris. Justin's family lived in Washington state until he was 15. Chris had several good friends from Washington who would come down to visit Austin and stay with Justin's family. I met them all at some point or another.
There's Rickey, Justin's sweet, good-natured cousin who loves Jesus candles. There's Matt, the youngest and the wittiest, with rumored Canadian roots. I met Todd at Chris's wedding--he's the gentle giant, a hippie who became a dad just after high school. His love for his son is apparent in everything he does. I met Josh right after he lost his mom to breast cancer; he is one of the funniest people I've ever met, and used his humor to mask the sadness. Then there's Bill*, a Marine, one of the smartest people I know--I had quite a crush on him at 16. Little did I know he was gay (I didn't find that out until Mr. Bunny told me three years later).

I met all of them--except for Mr. Bunny. But his name came up over and over. These boys were all about 4 or 5 years older than me and my friends, and as teenagers, we were in awe of them. We listened to their stories of high school hi-jinx with intense interest. I remember hearing about my future husband and the parties he hosted in high school. I heard about the quirkiness of my mother-in-law long before I got to see it with my own eyes. Josh once told me that Mr. Bunny got him a job at the factory where he had his summer job. Josh couldn't force himself to come back after lunch the first day. This was in part because he found out that Chris had been diagnosed with leukemia (Today Chris is healthy as a horse and still stubborn as a mule). But Josh also told me that the half day of work at that factory was the hardest job he ever had. Mr. Bunny worked there for two whole months. Now that I know Mr. Bunny, I'm not surprised-he's a very hard worker.
I always figured I would meet Mr. Bunny eventually, and we came close to meeting each other nine months before we ended up crossing paths. When Chris (Justin's brother) got married, Mr. Bunny was this close to coming down for the wedding. Something came up, and he wasn't able to make it. The wedding took place a month before I graduated from high school-when I think about how different things might have been if he had come to visit then, it scares me. I know that we wouldn't have started dating. As high school girls we were seen as off limits (at least we were then).

Looking back, I'm sure of the fact that I wasn't ready to meet him yet. I was too young, too naive, and had little experience with matters of the heart. I remember being impatient, and wondering when I was going to find somebody to love. But I don't think I could have fully appreciated the wonderfulness that is Mr. Bunny that April. I was 18 at the time and I met him right after turning 19, which may seem to make little difference, but that year had a big impact on me. I went off to college, had some silly dalliances with boys, and I learned a lot about myself. At 18, I was very immature, and I'm pretty sure I would have annoyed him.
Mushy as it sounds, I truly believe that love has a way of finding our hearts when we are ready for it (and in my case, when I least expected it).
Do you want to hear more of this story? I know the majority of you know me, therefore you know all about me and Mr. Bunny, so I don't know if you're interested. If you are, I could make it a multi-part serial, a smaller Elle Bunny version of Black Heels and Tractor Wheels. Bonus points if someone could help me figure out what to name it. "Bunny Hops and Big Dreams"? "The Bluebonnet and the Bunny: A Love Story"? Discuss.
Have a great day!

Love,

Elle Bunny

*Bill is not his real name. If you know me, you most likely know who I'm talking about.

The dog days of summer

It is incredibly hot right now. In my neck of the woods we've had record-breaking temperatures 22 out of the last 26 days. Or something like that (I'm not a meteorologist). The heat brings out the cranky. And I know this doesn't just apply to me; everywhere I turn, there's somebody in a bad mood, whether it's on the phone at work, talking with someone in person, or just casually observing people in line at Subway. There has to be a solution to this epidemic. Here are some of my ideas:

1) Cute baby/animal/baby animal videos on YouTube. Here are two of my faves:

2) Ice Cream. If you're on a diet like me this can be a sore subject, but there's always the glorious Skinny Cow products.

3) Find things to laugh about. Even if they're not really that funny.

Today I laughed off and on for twenty minutes about something I overheard at work. Somebody got a caller who couldn't hear very well, and my coworker had to yell the letters of a word out so that the person on the phone could understand. This person works clear across the center from me, so I honestly have no idea who it was, but all of a sudden I hear someone yelling "No, P as in Papa, the Pope, or Potato." Makes me giggle right now just thinking about it (it might be one of those things you have to be there for. My coworker's delivery was pretty funny).

4) Find a new series and read it. I have finally started reading the Harry Potter books. I may be 10 years late to the party, but I'm finally there. I'm on the second book and enjoying every minute of it. I can't help but smile when I think about Hagrid.

So there are some ideas. If you have any suggestions of ways to get through the dog days of summer sanity intact please share them in the comments section. They are greatly appreciated.

Have a great day!

Love,

Elle Bunny

Strut the Wonder Cat

I have a really incredible cat. Sometimes he meows so loud, I wouldn't be surprised if they could hear him in the next county. He also is able to leap up onto our mantle and pace back and forth on it without knocking anything over. Now I know that these are all normal cat things. But trust me, he's special.

The main reason that Strut is so special is that he honestly believes in his heart of hearts that he is a dog. It's written all over his face. He's constantly smiling, always congenial. He follows us around, always nipping at our heels. He has a voracious appetite and he runs around the house. He loves a belly rub and I can literally stretch his legs out in all directions and he doesn't get mad. He sleeps at the foot of our bed. He's playful and funny. He comes into the room when you whistle for him. Lately, we've been watching the first season of 30 Rock on Netflix and he always lays on the top of the back of the couch and watches with us. He told me his favorite character is Kenneth. I think he identifies with him. They are both always so eager to please.

Which is why I wasn't surprised that he didn't belly-ache when Meow-Meow (my mom) gave him this collar. He wore it with pride.

So basically he's the perfect combination of a dog and a cat. He's sweet and eager to please, but he isn't hard to take care of. Just put bowls of food and water out and give him a litter box and he's good to go. I love Strut with every fiber of my being. I'm looking into having him cloned.
Have a great day!

Love,
Elle Bunny

Decor: I love the little touches

Over the last few months, we've been decorating our new home. Mr. Bunny is actually very involved and interested, and luckily we have very similar taste. I have found that when it comes to decorating, the things I love the most in our home are usually inexpensive and/or little. Don't get me wrong, I also get a kick out of Obamatron (the flat screen television we bought with some of our first-time home buyer credit money) and the more expensive things like our really nice Hotel brand towels (they literally hug you when you get out of the shower) and Pottery Barn bedding (note how Strut refuses to move from it--this is because it feels like a giant cloud). But the things that make our house feel like a home are much more meaningful than that. Here are some of my favorite items in our home and the stories behind why I love them so much.

1) Guiding Light I love this lamp. It cost somewhere around $45 and there is never a night that I don't admire it's beauty before turning it off. I bought it with my mom at a furniture store's closing sale. It's my fave. If I were a lamp, this is how I would want to look. Unfortunately, it was the only one left, so I don't have a matching one for Mr. Bunny's bedside. But we found a complimenting more masculine lamp at Wal-Mart for around $20 which we use on his side. I think it does a really good job of bringing out the colors in the bedding and I consider the lamp combo to be my version of Shabby Chic.

2) Writing's on the wall.

In case you can't read it, it says "Once in a While, Right in the Middle of an Ordinary Life, Love Gives You A Fairy Tale." When Mr. Bunny and I were dating, I went on a girls trip to the coast with my friends. I found myself missing him badly on the day we went shopping in Galveston. We walked into a store called the Funky Monkey and I saw this sign. The quote was so sweet and reminded me so much of our relationship that I started tearing up right there. I didn't buy the sign then, but when we came back from our Honeymoon Cruise a couple of years later we ended up in that store and we bought that sign. It means a lot to me--I actually used the quote on our Save the Dates. I like that it hangs over our bedroom door because it always reminds me how lucky I am to have found Mr. Bunny.

3) These three pictures tell a story...

I have never found an individual picture that I liked more than the three of these which hang above our bed. I got these pictures from a book of Alfred Eisenstaedt photographs which I bought at Half Price Books for $9.99. I picked out my three favorite photos that he took in NYC and found these frames at Wal-Mart and paid around $30 altogether for them. I love looking at these photos and wondering what the people were thinking. The one of the woman walking her dog always makes me smile.

4) When you find something you like, why not do it again?I liked the three picture idea so much, I decided to try it in the guest bedroom. I bought them at Target for around $30 overall. People always comment on how cute they are.

5) Thank you for being a friend.

When I graduated from college, my bff made me this picture. I can't explain why but it just looks like us in every way. When we moved into this house I hung it in the most appropriate place I could think of-in my closet, over my shoe rack.

She incorporated the words to one of our favorite songs, "Ain't No Mountain High Enough." It obviously has many meanings, but my favorite reason is that this is the first song to which we ever tried our Michael McDonald impersonations. The back side of this picture is even more ridiculous, with a picture of Michael McDonald and Karen Carpenter. Love it!

6) A bunny at the door.

Because of our love of bunnies, there are some little bunny touches throughout the house. This is a picture we have in our entryway. I bought it at Hobby Lobby for $9.99. It always makes me giggle.

7) A bunny on the mantle.

Above our mantle, we have this picture (which is from Ikea and was around $80)

I love the picture, but because of it's scale, I didn't want a bunch of clutter on the mantle. Only the littlest items would do.

Mr. Bunny got this for me in Frederickburg, TX. In case you can't tell, it's two bunnies kissing. And I don't think there could be a better gift. Nothing makes me happier than that little figurine.

8) You can call me flower if you want to.I love plants and flowers. But so far, since we moved into our house, I have killed three plants (with help from Strut). I have a decidedly brown thumb. This floral arrangement (which is fake, naturally) is from Hobby Lobby. I think it was around $35, a bit of a splurge, but I consider it a deal considering it was originally $70. I love the beading around the top of the vase. I love seeing this when I walk through our front door.

9) My cross wall (not to be confused with a crosswalk).All of these crosses were inexpensive, but the majority of them hold special meaning for us. We bought one of them on our honeymoon in Mexico, one on our first anniversary and one on our second anniversary. One was a wedding present. They all make us happy, and Mr. Bunny recently pointed out to me that they are hung in the shape of a heart. This makes me happy and I am considering the cross wall done for the time-being.
Now for some reason, I'm crazy about bathroom accessories. I love them. Check out some of my favorite items in our guest bathroom.

10) Soap dish.

We bought that soap at a small shop in La Villita in San Antonio. It is Chocolate Mint and smells heavenly. I can't wait to have our next overnight guest, so I can encourage them to use it!

11) Walking in high cotton.

I know it's ridiculous, but this jar of cotton balls just makes me smile. It's the little things, you know? The jar is from Target and cost very little, but it looks exactly like I pictured it.

12) Love.More important than any of these items, what makes our house a home is love. I'm so lucky to have Mr. Bunny and Strut and all of our friends and family who come by to visit.

Anyway, that's all for now. Let me know if you would like me to blog more about home decor (that rhymed) and I will do a couple more blogs about it.

Have a great day!
Love,

Elle Bunny

5 things you never knew about me

By the end of this, you may wish I had kept it that way. And if you are my bff or related to me than you may already know the majority of these. But you never know, you might find some of these things surprising.

1) Out of all the US Presidents, I find Abraham Lincoln the most attractive. I'm not sure why. I know he's not conventionally good looking, like JFK, but I still like him. I think it has something to do with how tall he is. And the beard. I'm a fan of beards. And the rumors of Liam Neeson playing him in an upcoming biopic are made of win.

2) I've never eaten a Twinkie. Or Spam. Just looking at either one makes me want to vom.

3) I know all of the State postal abbreviations and capitals. I can also tell you what state you're in if you give me the zip code. In addition, I'm able to name most of the area codes in Florida and Texas. Ah, the joys of working in a national call center.

4) When I was 10 years old I talked with Leonardo Dicaprio on the phone. My cousin was in a movie with him and they became friends. My cousin called me and my sister and we sat at our kitchen bar and chatted with Leo. This was before Romeo and Juliet or Titanic. While I would love to claim we had an in-depth discussion about the role of violence in movies or how he enjoyed working with Bobby DeNiro, that was not the case. He asked me what my favorite soft drink was and if I rode horses to school. Apparently I was a real conversationalist at 10, so I asked him what his favorite soft drink was (for inquiring minds, it's Sprite) and giggled for about five minutes after he asked about the horses. I think this is all that can be expected of a conversation between a girl of 10 and a movie star of 20. For the record: my cousin is no longer acting in movies. He currently works at Home Depot.

5) I swallow gum. I know it's supposedly bad for you, but I haven't died yet. I think the whole staying in your system for 10 years is a myth. My sister swallows her gum as well. And it's a hard habit to break. I'm not sure why we started doing it--my mom always got mad at us when we did it. We were odd children. To bring things full circle, I also have a distinct memory of swallowing a penny as a young child (and throwing it up afterwards). And my presidential boyfriend, Honest Abe is on the penny.

Have a great day!

Love,

Elle Bunny

Youtubesday: My 2nd Wedding Anniversary

Corey (aka Mr. Bunny) and I got married two years ago today. Our first dance was to this song:

Don't you just love Al Green? This has always been our song, and it is the song for a million other couples, but there's a reason for that. Every word rings true. We're surrounded by couples that break up and make up; divorces abound. Even in the best of relationships, life can sometimes get in the way of realizing how lucky you are to have found one another. But, corny as it might sound, I can honestly say that Corey always makes me feel brand new. And I look forward to the next 200 years together (it's possible--somewhere along the way we plan on becoming vampires; if that doesn't work out, I'll be looking into having us cryogenically frozen in a lucid dream state a la Vanilla Sky).

I think it is important to focus on that love and make it a priority to stay together. Every year I'm with Corey, my life gets better and better. We both encourage each other to try new things and pursue our dreams. I believe in him and he believes in me.

In closing, I apologize if all of this gushing about how in love I am has made you want to hurl. What can I say, I'm a hopeless romantic. I can't believe Corey and I have been married for two years. I still feel like a newlywed who just got married two or three months ago.

Have a great day and Happy Anniversary Mr. Bunny!

Love,

Elle Bunny

The Neglectful Blogger

Good title for the Lifetime Movie Biopic of Elle Bunny, no? I'm also considering "New Shoes...Gotta Break 'Em In" (Chronicling my life in shoes), "My Own Personal Brand Of Heroin" (Chronicling my life spiraling out of control as I become dependent on Taco Cabana and Twi-Gossip) and "I Want a Bunny" (Chronicling my relationship with Mr. Bunny and the constant begging for an actual bunny). I would like to be played by either Ellen Page, Anne Hathaway, or Meredith Baxter-Burney (Tori Spelling might be a candidate if she gained 40 pounds).

Unfortunately, I'm going to have to take a mini-hiatus from blogging. This will last for at least the rest of April (barring death or marriage of anyone in the cast of New Moon), and may run a little into May. I'm sure this is very upsetting the five of you who sometimes scan the blog, but unfortunately I've got to focus on work for the time being. I can't get into too much detail because it is technical and would put you to sleep, but suffice it to say, I need to spend less time on the interwebs and more time pretending to be a good employee. It's more of a personal challenge than anything else. It's part of what I like to call "Operation Elle Bunny Gets a Raise".

But don't worry and don't abandon my blog--I will be back!

Have a great day!

Love,

Elle Bunny

I'm boycotting April Fools Day

I'm not kidding. Does anybody else think that April Fool's Day is just an excuse for Jackasses to act like Jackasses? Maybe I'm taking it too seriously, but I'm getting kind of annoyed. The Lex has turned into LexiKalebCon for the day. I went to YouTube and all the videos are upside down. I've come across the following few stories:

Finally, Twilight stars Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart's audition tapes are released

Robert Pattinson to Retire from Acting in 2010

Robert Pattinson Replaces Tobey Maguire in Spiderman 4

All of these are bogus. Maybe I need to get a sense of humor. Where do I buy one of those? Or maybe these jokes are only funny to the people playing them. This is what I've been thinking in my head all day:

Ah, The Smiths. Morrissey. That's a sense of humor I can respect. What's funnier than Girlfriend in a Coma?

Either way, the only reason I enjoy April Fool's Day is it is the day that the universe smiled on my family and brought this treasure into the world:

Abby has been a member of our family since I was in the 8th grade. When we got her she was 4 months old and we estimated that it meant she was born in early April. So we said she was born on April Fool's Day.

But Abby is nobody's fool. She is the Queen and we are her subjects (as is the case with most cats). But she is also so sweet and loving. We are so lucky to have her as a part of our family.

Happy 11th Birthday Abby!

Enjoy your Vanilla Pudding!

Have a great day everyone! I hope no one plays a stupid prank on you.

Love,

Elle Bunny

To Twitter or Not to Twitter...

That is the question. Twitter scares me. It's like the great unknown to me. It feels a little too much like Big Brother. Not that I'm an extremely private person (I do blog my life away)...I'm just not sure if someone needs to know where I'm at or what I'm doing all the time. It makes me nervous to update my Facebook status. (My current Facebook Status states that I feel like taking a 4 hour nap). Thoughts start racing through my mind--what if a skank I went to high school misreads my Facebook status and tells everyone that I have a sleep disorder? What if someone reads it that doesn't understand my sense of humor or how late I stayed up last night watching Golden Girls, and thinks to themselves, "she is such a Debbie Downer." What if I don't get to update my status for the next 3 months and everyone thinks that I'm still taking that much needed nap? I understand that everybody has control over how much they update their Facebook Status and twitter or tweet or whatever you want to call it; but I think in my case Twittering can only lead to one thing: TMI. I have a problem with over sharing when I'm in a weird mood. Not as much as say Simon Van Kempen from Real Housewives of New York, but I have my moments.
For those of you who might have been living under a rock, Twitter is a social-networking site and according to it's Wiki page, Twitter enables its users to send and read other users' updates known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 bytes in length. Updates are displayed on the user's profile page and delivered to other users who have signed up to receive them. And while I might be scared to Twitter myself, I do find myself reading other peoples Twitters (or Tweets...still haven't figured that out yet).
I'm oddly fascinated with celebrities on Twitter. It's so ridiculous to me that all of these people who are so concerned with having private lives constantly let everyone know what's going on in them. Twitter is supposedly the reason that Jennifer Aniston dumped John Mayer--she reportedly couldn't take his addiction to Twittering his every move. On the other hand, Demi Moore somehow hasn't divorced Ashton Kutcher yet for posting this picture of her on his Twitter. And I have found myself losing respect for Demi after reading her Tweets. She can't spell and she writes inane things like "ahhhhh friday indeed....I am taking a moment to appreciate the small things like guacamole and chips!" and "the gift of life is upon us..breathe and recognize the power you hold!" As my Dad would say, where's a hand grenade when you need one?

I feel lukewarm about John Mayer's Twitter page While I monitor it, in the same way I monitor his career, I find myself alternating between loving him when I see a glimpse of what he used to be (I'm an old school John Mayer fan and am amused by statements like "The next time you happen to hear Muzak, pretend that the song is being performed by kittens.") and marveling at the tool that he has become ("Be yourself today. Be wildly yourself.")

Twitter can also be a tool to help you realize the absolute awesomeness of people. Such as Christopher Walken. Who I've always thought was kind of awesome (how could you not after watching that Fatboy Slim video?), but have grown to love so much more by reading musings on his Twitter page.

"There's a kid on a Pogo stick in front of my house. It's nearly midnight so let's assume he's been drinking. This should end well for him."

"I claim to be frightened of horses but do so only to get out of attending parades. It's peculiar but has served me well. The horses get it."

"A neighbor kid shows up from time to time dressed as Superman. I think it's him anyway. Very difficult to say for sure without the glasses."

How could you not love that?

Please share your thoughts on Twitter with me. I can't decide how I feel about it.

Have a great day!

Love,

Elle Bunny