To Belle, From Brontie

Dear Belle-
Wow! I have so much to tell you about, but first of all, I really miss you! I can’t wait to see you again on Sunday. I know Mom misses you too. She keeps talking to me about how much she wishes you were with us and how she is wondering how you are doing. But I know that you are being spoiled by Aunt Amy and Grandma and Grandpa, so I don't really feel that bad for you.  So, let me tell you a little bit about what I have been doing. I think you would be so proud of me, because I have used a lot of the cool tricks you told me about on this trip.

First of all, Mom and Dad took me along on this hike that was really neat. But I don’t think you would have liked it. I think it would have made your arthritis hurt real bad. Even I couldn’t last as long as Mom and Dad. So, I did what you told me to do. When I didn’t want to go anymore, I just plopped down right there on the trail and wouldn’t move. And you were so right! They would either wait for me and give me some time to rest, or even better, they would pick me up and carry me. I owe you big time for teaching me that one. I am going to milk that one for all it’s worth.

It really hit me that I should not feel sorry for you on the first night we camped. It was cold and wet, and I just couldn’t stop thinking about how you were warm and cozy in our house sleeping in a nice soft bed. There I was, on a hard mat outside the tent, and my only protection from the cold weather was a rainfly. The next night, when it came time to go to bed, I asked myself, “What would Belle do?” And, I knew exactly what you would do. You would sleep in the tent, and no one would even question it. So, when they put me in that same stupid spot again, I refused to lay down. I just fidgeted and paced around until they unzipped the door, and then I waltzed right in that tent as if I owned the thing. And they let me stay!

Okay, but are you ready for the best news of all?!? I was so excited when I heard this, I couldn’t stop doing my bunny hop.  Okay, well here it is. Mom convinced Dad that we should go on a camping trip to the beach and take YOU along! I am so excited, and so is Mom. I CAN’T WAIT!

I love you and miss you ALOT!

Love,

Brontie (with a little help from Mom)

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Fun Dog Video

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Kim's an Adult

Last weekend, we went over to Kim's new place to have a barbeque.  Kim is officially on her own, spending her first summer in her very own place.  She and some friends rented a huge townhome near Biola.  This place is amazing and significantly larger than my house.  But, they are cramming about 8 girls in there, so I guess that makes sense.

{The cute little hostess and the delicious food}

Kristina and Sean were home for the weekend, so they got to join in the fun, as did all three dogs.

Those dogs knew what they wanted, and their Grandpa/Dad made sure to spoil them.

Yay for family barbeques!

Nick and I are off to Plaskett Creek in Big Sur to camp for a couple of nights, then we are headed to Turlock for the lovely Molly Kinnier's wedding shower!  I can't wait!

Man,this is my fifth blog post in a row, after a 3 week absence.  I love having time!  If only it could be summer year round.

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The Harbor

A few weeks back, we took the dogs down to Dana Point Harbor for Brontie's first outing there.

People can't seem to stop talking about how much Nick and Brontie look like each other.

Brontie is still getting used to a leash and walking like a normal dog.  If it was up to him, he would get to walk backwards while being nose to nose with Belle as she walks forwards.  He loves to run in front of her and turn around and face her when we walk the two of them together.  He has not quite learned the concept of a curb yet either.  He falls off the curb at least 10 times every walk we go on.  It is so cute.

The very next day, Kristina was out visiting, so we did a little garage sale-ing and had lunch at the harbor again.  She brought her little dog Lily, so we had all three dogs there.

Brontie is about as big of a fan of posing for pictures as Nick is....actually all the dogs are.

Dogs are so much fun!

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Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day

To the man who taught his girls to be ladies (as you can see).

I love you dad! 

Thanks for always being there for us and for being so much fun!

And to my grandpa:

I still adore you and always will.

So, Happy Father's Day to my favorite dad ever, to my grandpas in heaven, and to my incredible father-in-law, who I am oh so lucky to be the daughter-in-law of.
I love you all!

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It's Baby Time

Over Memorial weekend, Esther and I took a trip to Phoenix to see our friend Brittney as a pregnant lady and celebrate with her at her baby shower.  She is due to give birth in just about 2 weeks...CRAZY!

{Brit and her sister....balloons can be so much fun.}

We played all sorts of games at the shower, and I was determined to win at least one of them.

 There was the "guess what's in the diaper" game....didn't win that one...that was all Esther.

{gotta love Brit's face in that bottom picture}

There was the "guess the celebrity baby" game....didn't win that one.

There was the "whose ice cube with a frozen plastic baby inside melts the fastest and floats to the top first" game....didn't win that one.

And then there was the "who can suck the most vitamin water from a baby bottle" game...yep...definitely won that one folks.

 Ahhh...it was such a fun weekend and made me miss being with Brit on a more regular basis.  We did live together for many years after all, so having her in Arizona is not fun.

But now she is about to be a mom, so she wouldn't have time for me anymore anyways.

I love you Brit, and I can't wait to see your baby girl! 

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i.love.summer

School's out!

This is how we celebrated my first day of summer....

With this little guy sitting by our table the whole time.

{His little collar says, "Will work for crab."}

Oh how I love you, Ramos House Cafe.

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The Windy City

Wow, these last few weeks have been CRAZY. 
Let's see...I have been to Chicago and then to Phoenix,  Brontie has quadrupled in size, all of the end of the year things to do at school piled up all at once, I almost had to have emergency surgery on my hand, Belle had a near death experience, and I had a nervous breakdown or two (or 3 or 4). 
But I think most of the craziness is over,  Belle and Brontie are now doing great, summer is almost here, and I am no longer an insane person...at least for now.

So, I have lots to catch up on and lots of posts to work on.

All the craziness started a few Sundays back when my family called a business meeting.  Yes, we have decided to go into business together and were meeting to plan our new venture, which I will share more about later.  Someone (my father) had the brilliant idea of looking into conventions that we could attend to help us get started.  He just so happened to find the very convention we needed to be at starting that Tuesday....in Chicago.

So, Sunday was spent booking plane tickets, making hotel reservations, renting a car, signing up for the convention, etc, etc.  The plans were finally completed around 3:30 in the MORNING on Sunday night (which in actuality was Monday morning).  I had opted out of the trip at about 12:30 in the morning when the planning was getting a little too difficult (we had little money to work with).  But, then when I woke up on Monday morning I was feeling rather sad that I would be missing out on this little expedition and decided that I wanted to go.  So, my dad spent the rest of that day figuring out a way for me to get there cheaply.  We rendezvoued at the Orange County airport that evening and were off to Chicago.

This trip was filled with stories that I am sure would entertain you, but I will spare myself the effort of typing them all out and just give you a little glimpse into what the trip looked like. 

First of all, this trip included my father, Amy, Kristina and myself.  Seeing as how Kristina lives in Atlanta, she did not get to experience the privilege that I did of traveling with my dad and Amy.

When the three of us got to Chicago, we went to rent our car.  My dad's license was expired, so I said that I would be the driver.  I went to pull my license out, and it was no where to be found.  My entire purse was dumped out on the floor of the rental car office while I frantically searched for the license.  No luck.  It is probably still on that plane, flying around the world.  That left one person to be the driver and three very unhappy people.  Me distraught over my missing license, Amy as the driver and my dad as the backseat driver....not a good combination.  And, if I were to launch into the many stories about the trip, they would mostly be about how my dad told Amy what to do while she was driving and how Amy freaked out at him to stop telling her how to drive and how Kristina and I sat in the back and rolled our eyes at each other.

And, as if that was not enough drama for one day, when we got to our hotel in the middle of the night, they didn't have a room for us.  Lovely.

But we made it to the convention, and everything worked out in the end.

Until my flight home was delayed 6 hours.

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one of those

Since getting Brontie, I have been hearing a lot of jokes about Belle and her age (actually these lame jokes were happening even before getting Brontie).

People have even asked me,

"So now that you have Brontie, you're probably just waiting for Belle to die."

(Yuck...it feels wrong to even type that.)

So, I have a little story to tell about Belle.

A couple weeks ago when I was having a particularly crappy day thinking about the injustice that is my life, I came in and laid down on the ground next to Belle's bed and started crying.  I reached my arm up to pet her face.  As I did that, she took her two front paws and wrapped them around my arm, leaned towards me and started licking my face. 

She knows me. 

She loves me. 

And, I love her.

So, the next time someone asks me if I am waiting for Belle to die, I will kindly respond,

"No, actually I am waiting for you to die."

Don't mess with my babies.

Yeah, I'm one of those dog owners.

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A Quarter of a Century

Today my sister Kristina is 25.

That is kind of a big birthday.

It sounds so mature.

And she is so not mature.

I mean look at her.

But I love her, and I guess you have to be kind of mature in order to live across the country from the rest of your family.

Kristina,

I hope you have a fabulous day celebrating.

Come home soon so we can celebrate with you.

Happy Birthday!

I love you!

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on being thirty...

Last night, two girls guessed that I was 23.  That felt good.  But this other woman, who is probably in her early 40's, kept calling me honey.  That did not feel so good.  I wanted to shout at her that I am thirty and you don't call people who are 30 honey anymore.  When I told Nick both of these stories, he said that I can't have it both ways.  Whatever.

So, my opinion of thirty is that it kind of sucks.

I am getting wrinkles.  I started using wrinkle cream, but I fear it is too late.

When Amy was editing our Christmas card picture this last year, she was removing the wrinkles and dark circles under my eyes.  She was flashing back and forth between the before and after pictures when my mom walked in.  When my mom looked at the screen, she asked Amy why she kept putting those dark marks under my eyes.  Yeah, so if you saw our Christmas card picture, now you know that it was one big fat lie.  And the really pathetic thing is that I still have wrinkles in the picture even after the editing.

The original picture, wrinkles and all.

But that is besides the point.


That is not the reason why I think thirty sucks. 

Thirty sucks because it makes me think about all the things that I have not accomplished yet in my life.  Okay, really it makes me think about one thing I have not accomplished yet.

I keep meeting people who have kids, like multiple kids.  And when I meet them, I automatically assume they are older than me.  Then, I find out they are either my age or younger.  This automatically sends me into a flustered panic and gives me a serious inferiority complex.

I don't have kids yet, at least not human ones. This is quite obvious, since you see doggy pictures instead of kid pictures on this blog.  Just know that i would rather be showing you cute babies than cute dogs.  But, for complicated reasons that are beyond my control and that I won't go into at the moment, I don't have cute babies yet.


Being 30 reminds me of that fact.


If it was up to me, babies would be abundant in our abode.


I just thought you should know.  Because I know that when people are thirty and have been married for 5 years, other people start to wonder.  Maybe it makes me feel a little less inferior to have you know that.

And I guess if I look like I'm 23, then waiting a little longer to have kids is not the end of the world.  I just have to make my uterus believe that it is only 23 too.

Me when I really was 23.

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The Doggy Diaries

Well, I have had an interesting first couple of days with my new mom and dad.  And, I have a new sister.  But, she seems more like she could be my grandma's age...or even my great grandma's age.  Maybe that's why she doesn't want to play with me that much.  I try to climb on her and bite her, but she just keeps walking away from me.  I don't get it.  She did let me take a nap near her today though.  It was nice to have another dog to sleep next to.  It makes me miss my real mom less.

My dad keeps saying he is going to take me out on his paddleboard.  I can't wait for that.  I think I will fit right in with all the surfers with my sweet fauxhawk.  And my mom says that she will lay out on the beach with my new sister, Belle, and watch us.  Gosh my parents are cool. 

So, this new dog came to live with us.  At first, I thought maybe he was just visiting, but he doesn't seem to be going anywhere, so I'm afraid he's here to stay.  I guess he's not so bad.  I am trying to be patient with him.  When he gets annoying (which is often), I just calmly get up and walk somewhere else.  My mom (who is not really my mom, but is my sister, but kind of became my mom when I came to live here...confusing, I know.  I don't even know what to call her), anyway, she told me that I am allowed to growl at him and nip at him if he is bothering me, but I don't want to scare the poor little guy.  He is pretty cute after all, at least when he sleeps.

Now, if you want to feel sorry for me, don't.  I may be old, but I still have a puppy face, and it's the cutest face around.  And soon enough, the new little guy won't be so new or so little anymore, and he will stop getting all the attention.  Plus, my sistermom is so worried about me feeling neglected that she won't stop giving me treats and kisses and cuddles and backrubs.  My sad beagle eyes are sure helping me out in this category.  All I have to do is look at her and she caves and give me anything I want.  I could get used to this.

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Our New Little Addition

We welcomed our little labradoodle, Brontie, into the family last night.
Isn't he so cute!!!

{Brontie was the name he was given when he was born.  We have debated keeping it or changing it, but it seems to be sticking, so we will see.}

Before he joined us, we decided to let Belle be Queen For The Day on Saturday. We took her down to Dana Point Harbor for breakfast and walked around a bit.  Then she came with us everywhere we went that day.She is still so stinkin' cute at 15 years old.  I just love her to death.

Our last picture as a family of 3

Then, last night, we picked up our little pup

We brought him home to meet Belle

Belle was pretty indifferent towards him at first, but I was relieved that she did not seem sad that there was another dog around.  My stomach was in knots the whole way home with Brontie because I was so worried about her.  I just don't want her to feel like she is being replaced.

They had to test each other out for a bit.  Brontie was really timid around her, and Belle was only mildly interested.

But they warmed up to each other, and I was so excited that Belle let Brontie snuggle up next to her on the couch.

Bronty even started to take up a lot of space so that Belle was hanging off the edge of the couch, but she didn't complain.  She let him have his space.

This morning was a different story though.  Brontie got a little too comfortable with Belle and started climbing all over her.  He is used to being able to play rough with his brothers and sisters, and Belle's hips are not used to being jerked around...they hurt enough without the extra weight on them.  So, they both still have some adjusting to do. 
I just really want them to be best friends.
They are way too cute together to not be.

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Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day!  

Our family has decided to celebrate Mother's Day on Tuesday when all of my mother's daughters will be home. (We are missing 2 right now.)  But, I still have to wish my mama a Happy Mother's Day because I love her and think she is the greatest!

So, Happy Mother's Day to my beautiful mom, to my wonderful grandma, and to the amazing mother of my husband.

I love you all!

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if only I could cover all my walls with this

This is what you call slatwall, and I am in love with it.

This was the one project I cared about getting done over Spring Break.

It was so easy to do….at least for me.  Nick might tell you another story.

But, he doesn’t have a blog….so here’s my story:

When my parents closed their store, they had so much slatwall.  They sold a lot of it, but we made sure to stash away some pieces for ourselves. (When I say we, I do not mean Nick and me.  He was not a fan of this idea.  When I say we, I mean the rest of my pack rat family and me).  At the time, Nick and I were living in an apartment and had no use for the slatwall and no place to store it, but I knew I would NEED it in the future.  I promised Nick that I would find a place to keep it and he wouldn’t have to worry about it.  For a while, it resided in my parent’s garage, and when they moved, it found a home in my sister’s garage.  But then she moved too.  From there, I cannot remember the trek this little wall took, but it has seen many-a-garage.   Nick had to move it every time (so much for not having to worry about it).  That made him a very pleasant person to be around because he really likes lifting awkward, heavy things and moving them all over Orange County, especially when they are for his wife who he adores. 

After touring the garages of Orange County, the slatwall finally ended up in our garage when we moved into our house.  You’d think that was the end of the story….but you’d think wrong. 

That slatwall sat and sat in our garage.  We were, after all, doing tons of work to the house, and hanging slatwall was not top priority.  So, it sat in a very annoying spot where it was blocking everything.  And, every time Nick would try to work in the garage, his frustration levels would reach all time highs.  People don’t think there is anything that can get Nick mad, but they are wrong.  That slatwall could really piss him off.  (Me, on the other hand, I never piss him off).  Just as he was about to blow his top, we (as in, the rest of my pack rat family and me) found a brilliant little place to store it, where it would be out of sight, out of mind.  And so it was….

…Until the day finally arrived when we were able to put that slatwall to good use….

 All we had to do was cut it to the right size and screw it into the wall.  Then we framed it with some leftover framing from the store. (When I say we, I mean Nick.)

I loaded it up with supplies for all the scrapbooking and knitting that I never do.

And then I sat and stared at it, drooling over its magnificence.

This part of our house once was a laundry room.  The washer and dryer hookups were moved into the garage long ago, so we decided to make this a space for some extra storage.  I knew that this would be the perfect place for the slatwall as soon as we moved into the house.   

I love it!  

***If you want to do this yourself, just go to a bookstore that is going out of business (sadly, there are a lot), and buy some of their slatwall.  Make sure that you also buy the acrylic to go on it.  It's cheap and easy!***

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