You've Been Famous Since Your Birth

I'm patiently waiting for my favorite dinner (veggie pot pie) to finish cooking so I thought I'd update the bloggy blog a little. Also, I have this obsession with Tetris Live that I need to get over. Actually, the computer should just be taken away from me! 

Jonathan went back to school today (kids come next week) and I still have this week left and two more weeks until students come back. I guess that will allow to hopefully be pretty productive in preparing for the school year. Have I mentioned how excited I am to have a real job again? And feel like an adult?! I did a little school clothes shopping today which got me excited even more :) I just need to replenish my shoe supply! 

Our foster babies are doing well, although I think one of them has a kitty cold. Another day or two and they can venture around our house and play with the dogs, as long as they're all healthy. Jake is in love with them. If you know Jake, you'll know he's a mama's boy. If I go downstairs, he follows; if I go to bed, so does he. Not now. He sits in front of the gate that separates the kitties room and stares at them like he's watching TV. It's the cutest thing ever. Hopefully he doesn't eat them once he meets them. Chase, on the other hand, could care less. Anyone that takes away our attention, he doesn't like. 

Tomorrow I'll be meeting my cousin and mom for dinner since my cousin is in town for work. Then we're meeting for book club on Wednesday at La Bocca, yum! Also, I'm looking forward to Flagstaff in less than two weeks! We'll be going for the Cardinal's scrimmage game plus a beer festival of sorts called the Big Red Pour. Yay! Actually, I could go to Flagstaff to drive around and be happy :)

The oven's beeping. Time for din-din!

Savoring the Moment

Hello!

I've been savoring the last few days of summer with the both of us home, hanging out in our cool cave, determined to stay out of the heat and sun. Jonathan's been playing Madden like it's the end of the world. The songs are constantly in my head from the Madden soundtrack (circa 2008!). I've been reading, baking, doing laundry, playing with our new foster kitties, and relaxing.

Know what else I've been savoring? The last few pages of The Help. Our book club was pushed back a week because other people have real jobs and kids and couldn't be reading on the beach or on airplanes as easily as I was. So I didn't feel too much pressure to finish it all at once. I have about 40 pages left and I'm reading a few pages at a time because I don't want it to end! It's such a delicious read!

Our (4) foster babies are doing well. The babies are super adorable at 4 weeks old and mom is starting to warm up to us. Unfortunately (or fortunately) they need to be secluded for about a week. We have the kiddie gate up in our extra room and Jake is in love with one of them. He sits and stares at him for a long time and when Jake leaves the kitty meows for him. So cute! We do need names for all of them. Isn't that fun, we get to name them? The one with the eye patch is the curious, noisy type. The black one loves his mama and eats all of the time. The other one is chill and super duper cute with funny eyes.

I'm about to start on our new puzzle (seriously, I used to be cool). Katy inspired me when I visited her in Cali and J wanted to do one so why not?!

Stay cool!!

West Coast Represent

I'm back from my wonderful time spent in California with the Russell's. That was my last "hurrah" before it's time to get back to the real world of... WORK! I'm very excited to start working again, as I've said before ;)

Cali was nice. We had a lot of down time, which was fine by me. Beaches and pools took up most of our time. We did have a fun time at the Angels game last night, with tickets courtesy of John. It was fun to go to a new stadium and take the train there. It was sort of a hassle because I left my phone on the train on the way back (AHHHH!!) but luckily I realized it soon enough so I was able to pick it up this morning in San Diego. That's what train drinking does to you.

The drive home today was long, hot, and my book on CD (Firefly Lane) was putting me to sleep. I tried to pull over to shut my eyes for a few minutes (probably not the safest idea) in a gas station parking lot but after about 30 seconds I was sweating and suffocating from the heat. I decided to get out of the car, use the restroom, and get a Wild Cherry Pepsi. Not delicious, especially since I could taste the cup. Soda has been pretty much eliminated from my diet, but I wanted something naughty since I was by myself. Hehe! I was excited to see my boys and be sweaty in my hot house. The Russell's froze me out with their AC!

Jonathan was going to take me to our neighborhood restaurant, Amano's, for dinner. We pulled up and they were closed! We decided to go to Cibo instead, which was nice. Crowded and noisy, but we had a nice time. I opted for dessert instead of wine (Nutella + bananas, hello!!) and we ended up taking the equivalent of a full pizza home. It's nice to go out to dinner once in a while but we really like cooking a staying in. Although I'll probably be pizza-ed out since our book club meeting for The Help is this week at La Bocca. I did score a sweet coupon to use there, however. We'll have to decide what our next book will be. So many options!

Currently I'm watching J play Madden 08 (what year is it?!) and sweating. Really. I'm excited to sleep in my bed and do some more relaxing tomorrow. The end of summer is near... working a few days this week and then one more week before it's time to go back! And hopefully it starts cooling down. Where's the monsoons? I live for rain and thunderstorms!

Must catch up on magazines. Obviously my mind is all over the place.

P.S. I posted some pics from vacay on Facebook, as well as my photo blog http://picturexthis.wordpress.com.

Home on the Ranage

Gooooood morning!

I'm fueling up on breakfast right now because I took a run this morning. I was hoping to avoid the sun but in order to do that I would've had to wake up at 5, which didn't sound fun. Instead I opted for 7:30 and 90 degrees. Besides literally dripping with sweat the whole time, the last few minutes on my way home were TOUGH!

It's nice to be home from our vacation. As much as I love traveling, I love coming home even more. I missed the doggies and my bed. We did have a good time and it was nice to show Jonathan parts of my childhood. I took him around to some houses I lived in in Wisconsin (I lived in a LOT!) and reminisce about the days there.

In Chetek, we partook in a ton of eating and drinking, hence the running I'm doing. We went to the street dance which we were very disappointed with. It was small and you had to pay to get through a fence so we stood outside the fence for a few minutes. There were a lot of boat rides and bar visits, which we were not able to do when we were younger, of course :) The house we stayed in was great and it was nice being with family!

In Milwaukee, we went to a Brewer's game with my dad and step-mom. It was my first time at Miller Park! My dad drove us around the lakefront afterwards where I got to see the house that I always claimed when we drove past it. Still looks the same! We also went to Bastille Days downtown. We probably should've waited to eat until we got there because there were so many food options. We had a few beers and watched the start of the run and called it a night. On Friday we went to the museum, which is one of my favorite places. Phoenix has nothing to even compare to it. Not much has changed inside that museum!

On Wednesday I will be going to San Diego to visit Katy (so far, that's the plan!). The week after that, J has to go back to work :( I won't be going till August 2nd. I feel bad since he only has a few days off before going back. Such is life!

It's time for coffee. Some time today I need to get an oil change and that's my big plan for the day :) I hope everyone is enjoying their summers!

I'm Baaaaack

Gosh a week is a long time away from my doggies :*( I'm glad to be back!!

After a long day of traveling and having to work early tomorrow, I'm off to bed but will update soon. I had a great time!

You can see some of my pictures at http://picturexthis.wordpress.com 

Adios

Life Up North

One of my favorite memories of growing up in Wisconsin was traveling up north to Chetek and my great-grandma's lake home. I was pretty young, so some of my memories may be jumbled, but these are events that stick out the most and I think they all include my cousin, Nicole:

• going to the Miss Chetek pageant at the local high school
• going to Ben Franklin with my aunt and cousin to purchase fake flowers and everything needed to have our own beauty pageant 
• taking the canoe out and "accidentally" flipping it over in the middle of the lake (family was not happy)
• calling my cousin porcupine legs because she shaved her legs (obviously not that well) and we had to sleep together and her legs rubbed up on mine
• going to the street dance and digging for money in a pile of sawdust
• watching the church lady on Saturday Night Live
• watching the men butcher the fish they caught that would later be our dinner
• betting that our family couldn't tell the difference between Nicole and I's handwriting...they told us to spell "guess" and I spelled "geuss". Fail. 
• picking green beans at the neighbor lady's house
• visiting the cemetery with my grandma and placing flowers on deserted graves

Ahh, good times. I reminisce because we will be there on Saturday. Not the same house but the same small town. I think back now about how much you take for granted when you are a child. What we would give to still have that property in our family, right on the lake! We'll be in a newer cabin and will still get to do all of the fun lake stuff. I wonder if I'll remember any landmarks there and how much it has changed. Now we can go out with the adults and experience what they did when we were wee ones :) I'll update with fun pictures on my photo blog http://picturexthis.wordpress.com (hopefully if the technology is available!). Most of all I'm excited to cool off! Have you walked outside today? Ick! It's 101 degrees, humid, and not even 11:00 a.m. 

I must clean the house for our house/dog sitter. Enjoy your day!

Fur Mommy and Daddy

On Sunday I went to an orientation for the Arizona Humane Society. Since the AHS and I are Facebook friends (haha) I knew that they were in desperate need for foster homes for their kiddos. I thought I would go see how we could help. Since we can't really get any more pets until we have a giant house with oodles of land, we could at least help out with some animals that needed it. The duration will be from a few days to a few weeks. If we happen to get an animal of a deployed service person, it could be far longer than that.  We signed up for kittens/cats and puppies/dogs (no ferrets or mice allowed!). They may be injured, too young, under-socialized, or may need to gain some weight (not hard to do in this house!). Once we get back from vacation, we are ready and open for foster parenting!

I'm a huge lover of the Humane Society and an advocate of adopting your animals from there. Considering we got both of our babies from the AHS, I know there are cute, lovable, forever pets there! Do not support those mall pet stores and even breeders! And get your pets spayed and neutered!

That is all. 

Anyways, today I sure wish I was at Warped Tour! Well sort of. There's really one band I want to see badly enough to endure the god awful heat for and I don't really have anyone to go with (people work, ya know?). Hopefully they are touring this fall!!

I'm getting excited for our vacation to Wisconsin on Friday. Ready for water, boats, thunderstorms, cool weather, etc. And of course to see family :) You know what else I'm excited about...babies and weddings! All over the place! 

Forgive me, I've had Starbucks today. First time in a while.