Favorite Songs 2015

here are some of my favorite songs of 2015! some are old, some are new, but they are the songs that I listened to the most throughout the year. enjoy! 

 

the Muse

for Jason's Christmas present I took him to see the Muse in concert. we have regretted not going to their show almost ten years ago when they came here (I think they've been back since then) and we didn't want to miss them this time. that show was in 2006 and we didn't have a lot of money then to buy tickets, so we went to Mesa amphitheater where they played and we listened from outside. we found a spot in between two buildings where the sound reverberated and we could hear really well. it didn't make up for being inside though where we could see the performance. this time we were able to get tickets for cheaper than face value because we bought them the day of from some guy who needed to get rid of extra tickets. we were so glad we went and they put on an incredible show. they are a lot more popular than a lot of bands we listen to and although I usually prefer smaller more intimate shows, there is something fantastic about large shows like this one. the show was at Gila River arena which is huge with the stage in the center. the light show was incredible and they sounded even better live. singer Matt Bellamy has an amazing voice with huge range with extremely impressive guitar playing skills. it felt like a real rock concert!  

these giant drone spheres came down from the ceiling at the beginning of the show and they were awesome. I forgot my camera so we just have these OK cell phone pics. 

 one of the coolest parts of the light show was this giant hand on the screen that moved while the band played and made them look like puppets.

it was a great night!

Oh, Deer!

our Halloween costumes this year were pretty simple but they were still fun. I was a mounted deer head and Jason was the hunter. I had a lot of other couple costume ideas but that was the only one Jason would agree to. I made the antlers and the dear head plaque which were pretty simple and fun to make. I dressed up for a party on Friday (while Jason had to work) and on Halloween Jason dressed up with me. on Halloween we went to a little party at Jason's sisters and she had their photo booth set up. both nights were fun and I always love seeing other peoples costumes.

Jason's sister and fam looked pretty great as characters from the movie Labyrinth.

for Gigi

about 3 weeks ago we lost our sweet Maltese dog Gigi, and today would have been her 15th birthday! it was very hard to lose her especially since I've had her since I was 13. although she was a family Christmas present from my parents, I was the once that loved her the most and gave her the most attention. I worked hard to get her to love me more than my mom and eventually I won her over.

she had crazy colored hair way before the trend started! :) Brin and Steve colored her hair pink with kool-aid one day. 

 

 

Jason and I brought her to live with us about a year after we got married. she seemed really happy with us immediately and acted like she had always been with us. I pampered her immensely when we first got her and let her fur grow long and she looked more beautiful than she ever had. we loved her so much. Jason even gave her a personality with a raspy old lady voice which we thought was hilarious (even though other people that heard might have just thought we were crazy).

 she got to go to California with my family one year.

 she loved Halloween :)

 

when we got Tarley as a puppy I began giving more attention to her as Gigi aged and wasn't as energetic as she used to be. we still loved Gigi though and she and Tarley became good friends.  

 

the past year Gigi slowly went downhill and became more senile and began having more accidents. when we got back from our road trip Gigi had developed a really bad cough. we took her to the vet and they said she had heart failure. we didn't want to spend 1000's of dollars on additional testing just to get her meds since we knew she was old and probably wouldn't live much longer no matter what we did. we decided to give her some natural supplements and aspirin which seemed to help and her cough pretty much disappeared. she seemed more energetic and would even try to play with Tarley. it seemed to happen so fast that one day she started having a hard time breathing and she stopped eating. it was so hard seeing her that way and I decided to try again to get her some real meds. that night after Jason got home from work about midnight I carried her outside to go to the bathroom because she wouldn't go outside. I noticed as I was holding her how skinny and frail she had gotten. I put her on the ground and after she went pee she started walking crooked and then suddenly she fell over on her side. I picked her up and raced her inside yelling for Jason to help. I laid her on the living room floor and Jason said that this was it and that she wasn't going to make it. I started panicking, running around the house to look for my phone to call my parents to see what to do. I wanted to take her to the emergency vet but Jason said she wouldn't make it there. I had to go in the other room because it was too hard to watch. Jason called me back in and told me to stay with her and pet her. we both pet her over and over telling her we loved her and that she was a really good dog. Jason listened to her heart and it slowly stopped beating. Jason hugged me as I started bawling, it was so hard to lose her. after I calmed down we just looked at her and I thought I could see her breathing but Jason said it was the fan blowing her fur. the one thing I was grateful for though was that Jason was there with me when it happened because it would've been awful to have to go through that alone. it was almost like she waited for Jason to get home because it happened just 10 minutes after he got there. we buried her the next day in my parent's backyard and made a little grave for her. 

we were so sad to lose her but now she is at peace and isn't in pain anymore. I was really sad for a few days after and I missed her so much. I went through all of my pictures through the years and made a folder for all the pictures with her. although a lot of the pictures aren't the greatest quality and have bad flash lighting they still mean a lot to mean. it made me a little sadder to see the dog she was before her health started going downhill. I was only able to find one puppy picture of her has been bothering me because I know there are more. I hope eventually I can find them. Gigi was there for me all through my teens and for most of my 20's. she was a really good dog and we will always love and miss her. we will be having pizza day (the best day of the week according to her :) ) today in her memory!