My kind of Thanksgiving

So, it's been a while and I know I said that I would be posting often buuuuuut that didn't happen so I am going to write a super long post today about my Thanksgiving. :) This year we got to spend Thanksgiving with my family!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Can you tell that I was excited about that? The past two years were spent with Dom's and it's not like we missed it this year, we did everything we would have done on the actual day with them just two weeks earlier. I have just missed all of my traditions and being surrounded by my family and being in a familiar environment that I was just so excited to go home.

The past two years I have made Spanish Rice and brought it to Dom's family's house just so I could have a taste of home but it's not the same. I missed the Enchiladas at every meal, the tortillas, papas, over easy eggs, Spanish Rice and Tapatío and boy did I get my fill of it this year. I am still stuffed from our trip. :)

We left last Tuesday and arrived with enough time to visit with my friends before we headed out to Arizona (were my Grandparents live) the next morning. It was SO great to see everyone. We got caught up on each others lives and recounted memories, which we can't help but do aaaaaaannnnnddddd I sold a hat!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Again, something I am really excited about.

I started this crocheted hat that morning on the plane to keep my self occupied and finished it up while hanging out with everyone and one of my friends bought it off me!!! She was very generous too, I kind of feel bad seeing as how I would have given it to her as a gift but she insisted. Also, I got an order for three more hats and a scarf! I wish you could have seen me jumping up and down with Dom after I left but then again I looked like a tard so maybe it's a good thing. I want to start my own Etsy shop but I don't know if I would enjoy having to knit under a deadline and you have to sell original creations, I work from patterns. Maybe I'll figure something out one day but this is a nice segue into selling my knitting.

Anyway, Wed. through Sun. was spent at my grandparents and we ate, went quading, ate, went quading, ate, shopped and then went quading........and then ate again. Seriously, it was the best. My Grandpa makes the most amazing breakfast you will ever have in your life and no one can duplicate it, trust me, we've tried. I couldn't get enough of it.

Quading was fun as always, everyone who wanted to go had a seat and Dom got to drive the Rhino and a quad so he got a good feel for my traditions. My mom, Grandma, cousin and I went shopping in Henderson, NV on Black Friday and that was the only big event separate from the quading adventures. We did get to go shooting and drove through Laughlin............I spent a total of $5 at the casino. Most of which was a the nickle slots. :)

Here are a few pictures from the trip:

Dom and the Rhino

Dom and Logan

Us, all ready to go for a ride :)

Thanksgiving Dinner

So much yummy food

A little Monopoly and a little Knitting


The boys went on a long ride while the girls shopped

My Grandpa's Birthday

The Christmas Tree

Hiking after a ride

Indian Hieroglyphics



You get a bit dusty after a ride :)

The whole gang and all the bikes

I crocheted the same I hat I sold for my cousin while I was there.

Hit up the best doughnut shops at home before leaving

My wonderful parents :)

It was all so much fun and I'm glad I got to go home this year. It had been too long. Hope you enjoyed all of the pictures.

Louis Vuitton Needs Me?

Alright, so I'm not one of those girls who is obsessed with designers, I just happen to subscribe to InStyle Magazine and would do anything for a Louis Vuitton hat box suitcase. Honestly though, most of my wardrobe is from either Ross or Forever XXI, but I have always dreamed of owning a gorgeous, durable hat box suitcase and Louis Vuitton happens to make one that fits my every need: quality, durability, looks and size. Observe:

The fact that it costs more than my husband and I make in a month is a bit discouraging but not a complete turn off. This will just have to be one of those items I'll dream about owning and would purchase if I ever had such a disposable income.

Back to the point, my husband's jewelry shop does repair work for the Nordstrom's in our area and they referred Louis Vuitton to us! So, since I go in and pick up the repairs, I get to go to Louis Vuitton too!!!!! :) I think by the number of times I have said Louis Vuitton in this post you can understand how excited I am. This means I will be spending about 20 minutes in front of my closet to come to the conclusion that I have nothing to wear and how it would all be better if I just owned a Louis Vuitton hat box..........then I'll throw something on that I picked out in the first 5 minutes and rush out the door because I will inevitably be late.

So wish me luck, I am hoping to impress them so much with my outfit and pizzazz that they want to offer me my choice of any one item for free, which would of course be my beloved hat box, and that they don't solely focus on the childish smile and awe on my face coupled with the pinch of discomfort from my 4" tall high heels, which I love but need to learn to walk in. :)

The Usge

(Disclaimer: He only wears the headphones when his old roommate is playing online)

The husband and I spent a lovely Saturday doing the usge, knitting and playing XBOX, he does one while I do the other. I'll let you figure out who does what. You would think this would get old or that we would try to spice it up a bit but nope, we are happy doing this day in and day out.......now don't get me wrong, this isn't all we do, but mostly what we do. The end of the day did consist of a rousing game of walleyball (said sarcastically since I had to stop early for my aching tummy) followed by a movie, Paranormal Activity. Only half of us did that since the other half is a pansy........Dom. So you see, we do have lives, it's just that we like to relax and that's how we do it.

Plus, I just got this amazing yarn! It's baby alpaca, which happens to feel like heaven in a skein. I am making a cowl for my mom and it's just so much more fun knitting with nice yarn. I ran out so I have to go back to the yarn shop on Monday, boo-hoo. My list of supplies is growing quite rapidly since I have more time to look up patterns that I want to knit. I blame Dom for this since I wanted to go today to get more but unfortunately he has developed an aversion to yarn shops, scarred by years of his mother dragging him and his brother to them, apparently against their will. Lesson learned, get a baby sitter when you have little boys and feminine hobby shopping to do. Well, I think it's time to get back to the needles, said while my husband just assassinated the enemy. :)

Questions

The other night I was at my knitting group and we were all sitting down eating dinner together. Well, one of the girls in the group is 13 and in 8th grade, she is our youngest member, and the other women in my group asked her a very simple, traditional question for a child of that age, "So, how was school?" I seriously stopped what I was doing because I was taken back about 6 years to when I was the age where my parents asked me that question. It has been so long! I started laughing because I didn't expect to feel all nostalgic about a question like this but there you have it.

Ciara, the 13 year old, is special. She likes to talk and so she went on and on about her day but usually when parents ask this question you hear the traditional answer, "Fine." This got me thinking about when I am a parent of a child who's in school. I don't want to hear the traditional answer. I want Dom and I to ask deeper, more interesting questions about their day so that we hear something more than just, "Fine." They don't have to be serious, "How many kids did you catch picking their noses today?" would work but I think that if you want a serious answer than you need to be specific. "How was school?" is so broad. Something more like, "What was the most interesting thing you learned today?" or "Which new math fact interested you the most?" That last one is because I'm a math nerd. I LOVE math but it's been a while so the intimacy has faded a bit. I want them to have a passion for learning and I think by asking them more about the specifics they learned and even allowing them to teach me can aid in that.

So here's to being a creative parent when the time comes and not hearing one word answers. :)

Too busy to stop being lazy

That's right ladies and gentlemen, I am still in my pajamas. I was taking Scramble out on his afternoon walk and I strolled around my apartment building wearing this little number:


I'm wearing pink, polka-dot, fleece pajama pants, with a bright red Awana shirt to match. I always hope that I don't run into anyone when I do this but it never fails, the second I come outside the whole neighborhood decided it's time to go to the store or sit out on their patios or just pop their heads out of their caves to inspect and I never let them down. I'm writing like this is some special occurrence when actually this happens quite often, really, I should blog about when I actually do leave the apartment in normal clothing before 5pm.

Anyway, I sort of have an excuse this time. I have been super busy this morning with work. Data entry, booking flights for co-workers and getting back to people who wrote me yesterday. So you see, none of these things required me getting ready for the day and all of them together did not allow me to even try. So, now that it's pushing 4pm I think that I shall change and freshen up, after all, I am about to leave the apartment again and I am hoping to shock the neighbors with a second dazzling appearance.

Happy Scram = Happy Candice

Yesterday my husband asked if I wanted to go for a walk and said we could take a Scram. I am always up for going on walks with him but when he says we can bring the baby Scram then I am raring to go. He didn't tell us where we were going and ended up taking us on this dirt trail that follows the train tracks behind our apartment building. We were able to keep Scramble off his leash the whole time.

We walked about a mile down while watching Scram tumble through the bushes and wrestle in the sand. He would run ahead and then circle around to check in with us, whilst spraying us with his slobber and some dirt. He was such a happy camper and that made me so very happy. I guess it's the small things in life that really bring you joy but I just can't get enough of a happy Scramble. :)

I guess I'll take it as a compliment.

So last night Dom and I are on our computers when all of a sudden he starts cracking up, I mean he was dying laughing. I look over and he is looking at his phone and I am now curious, so I ask him what's up? He proceeds to let me read a text message he just received:

"Hey, do you remember me, Tim, I sold you that boom stand a little while back. A buddy of mine is shooting a porn, it's going to be 3 volumes, you get paid $2,000 per volume and only do about 20 hours of shooting, you would be just the body type for what he is looking for. Would you be interested?"

Yep, my husband just got asked to be in a Porno.........gross yet, hilarious. He bought a boom stand, which is a stand for a boom microphone. He found him on Craigslist, bought it and moved on with his life but apparently made an impression on Tim. What I find great is that this wasn't just a mass text saying hey, do you want to get down and dirty, no, he took the time to explain who he is and the business proposition because he remembered what my husband looked like................I guess I'll take this as a compliment.

Dom wrote him and said, uh, thanks but as a Christian I believe this is wrong. I, however, have been having a field day with this information. My comments to him now center around his body build and whether or not he should negotiate for more. This is now one of my favorite stories. If you ever meet Dom please ask him how his "career" is going. ;) JK.

Clutter

Oh man, since the sickness, visitor and overall laziness I have converted our apartment into a Hoarders: Buried Alive episode. No joke. I finally got some motivation and cleaned up the nastiest part, the kitchen. I took out two full trash bags, boxes and empty containers and then cleaned the dirty dishes. I felt so good after but unfortunately this was only the beginning. I didn't take pictures of the kitchen because that would just be too embarrassing, I prefer to retrieve my humilation by typing out detailed descriptions for the whole world to see. :) Anyway, I did take pictures of some of the mess that collected on top of my desk:

This was what was piled up on top of my desk, sky hi. I had all of this teetering on the corner while I still typed and surfed. Once it started falling onto my keyboard and messing up my messages I decided it was time to clear it off.

It may look like a tornado hit but there is a method to my madness. Each one of these piles has a classification: put away, file away, find a home, go through.....etc. I don't know if anyone else uses this method or if you happen to be too mature to even implement a system like this since you put things away when you get them........whatever, but I find it strangely therapeutic to take an absolute mess like this and organize it. I don't use this as an excuse to go crazy with my messiness but when it happens, and I finally get around to cleaning it, I am left felling good about myself. I just push away the truth that I would never have had to do that if I had just been organized in the first place. Repression never hurt anybody right?

Now, I can finally see the bottom of my desk:

It's still not perfect but I'm getting there. I awoke with the intention of going on a cleaning rampage but work actually got in the way. I know, I actually had more than a couple hours of work to do today. :) I have some errands to complete but when I get home I will continue to blast my awesome new playlist and clean my apartment. I wonder if my neighbors are getting tired of "Like A G6" yet?

Excuses, Excuses

So, I know I said that I would be posting at least twice a week but some things have come up like sickness, visitors, and laziness. The last time I posted was when I got back from my trip home when I thought I was getting better, I went to a baseball game for crying out loud, but my sickness took a turn for the worst after that game and decided to take up residency in my body forever. Not really, but I have been sick for about a month now. I finally feel better, I just have remnants of a cough and side-splitting pain from the muscle I pulled in my ribs from coughing but no big deal, that's why God invented Advil.

My goal is still to post twice a week I just honestly didn't do anything while I was sick. Didn't change, eat (as much as I normally do, not much deters me from eating), sleep or clean. It was quite gross and now I feel up for it, as well as, blogging. :)

Now that I have given you all of my excuses and you might still have rolled your eyes I'm just going to get into updating you on what I did this past week. I'm not going to back track a month because, 1: I can't remember and 2: I don't think it was anything that interesting. So moving on, one of my best friends Brooke came to visit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

She came up with her family and boyfriend (OOOooo) to San Francisco. They have family friends there that just happen to own two large homes and one is empty but has everything visitors need. We got to stay there fo free and they provided a ton of food for us that Brooke's parents made delicious breakfasts with, I love waking up to the smell of french toast and sausage! Dom and I went up on Friday night and Saturday, us youngsters/couples went into San Francisco. We walked from Pier 1 to Ghirardelli Square and back. If you aren't familiar with the layout of San Francisco, that's effing far but it was way fun and I LOVE San Fran so I was cool with it.

We moseyed around Pier 39, saw the seals, which apparently Brooke didn't remember from our Senior Class visit there but we took a picture this time just so it would stick. Then we walked Fisherman's Warf and had some Starbucks and then hit up a wax museum. Brooke's boyfriend went to one in Washington D.C. and said it was amazing but sadly that was NOT the case this time. These wax figures were some scary version of our beloved historical figures and celebrities.......It was still a fun experience and I would show you pictures but, like a loser, I left my camera battery charging in our room. Oh well, Brooke took her new camera and will eventually give me pictures.......................................we'll see. After the wax museum we got some yummy ice cream and chocolate at Ghirardelli Square. This was our last stop and on the way back to the BART station at Pier 1 this huge fog cloud rolled in and enveloped the whole city. It was amazing and gorgeous. It looked like it was 5am. I took one picture with my phone:

Sooooo pretty. :)

Sunday was spent lounging around and then we took Brooke home with us after her family and boo left. Monday was awesome, sleep in, shop and then go out to dinner. We were celebrating Brookie's Birthday! Her actually birthday was on Tuesday but she was leaving in the afternoon so we celebrated early. April, Brooke's close friend since Elementary School and my friend since Jr. High, who happened to move up here right before I did and who happens to be my hairdresser now, came and celebrated with us. Dinner was SO good and here is a picture of us girls:

(Brooke, April, Me)

We went back to the apartment after dinner and talked and hung out while my lovely husband made us a large Pizookie of our own (we went to BJs for dinner and got a free mini pizookie for Brooke's B-Day, not enough). Did I mention he made it from scratch? Yeah, he's pretty amazing. Anyway the crazyness continued:

It was a fun night. The next day I got to say Happy Birthday for real but I also had to say goodbye to Brookie. :( It was such a fun trip and I love my friends and husband so I couldn't have been happier!

I Remembered

So I did it, I remembered to take pictures at the game. It was quite a fun night. We thought we were going to be late since it was the last game of the regular season and traffic was gross but we made it right on time. We had awesome seats too, only ten rows away from the field. See:


I was all ready for the game too. I had my hat I told you about and I managed to find a baseball shirt to wear too, fitted and cute. I didn't go all out on the dolling up but my eyes were pretty dolled, unfortunately you can't see that very well. I didn't get anything free, even though they were giving away free stuff all night but my husband thought I was cute so score. Here's the hat:


Now buying food at games is ridiculous so I packed some contraband since you're not allowed to bring in food or drinks. I just put them in plastic bags and then put those in a make-up bag, so I was prepared when they made me open my purse to check for said contraband. Yum.


So the game was pretty interesting. The River Cats started out killing Vegas but about half way through the tables turned and then they just ended up getting spanked. Final score, 15-10. We lost. There were a ton of home runs and a great double play so all in all, good game.

Baseball

That's right, my husband wrote me yesterday saying, "How about we ditch small group and go to a baseball game instead?" Me being the epitome of a good Christian replied, "Yes! That sounds like a blast." I've been a bit disappointed with my small group lately but that's a whole different story. Anyway, Dom got us tickets to a local baseball game for tonight and I am stoked to go. I used to have this bomb, all black cap but I lost it, so yesterday, as I was doing the grocery shopping, I bought this really cute one that says Ford on it. It has the mesh back like a trucker hat and it's all tattered in the front. I'll try to remember to take pictures at the game to show you. I wanted to look like an authentic baseball fan, since I like watching live baseball but have only been to a few games in my life.

My plan is to get all dolled up in the hopes of scoring a free T-Shirt or something and if not, I'll settle for looking cute for my husband. :) I love it when he does stuff like this and since it doesn't happen every other day, I really appreciate it and enjoy it when it does. It makes it special. So, I'm off to start the dolling up process. Hopefully my next post contains some pictures of the fun night to come.

Vacation

Well, obviously my vacation has been a blast since I haven't written yet right? Right. First off we had a long road trip.........8 hours in a car with my brothers sitting right by each other can get a little old. They fight, my parents yell, then we all get along again until the next little tiff. What family isn't like that though? I did get to knit on the trip which was nice but knitting a cable pattern hat in the car can be challenging.

I finished a couple days ago and it looks wonderful it just happens to be about 5 sizes too small. I guess I should heed the warnings the pattern gave me about coming out small. It doesn't even fit my youngest brother and he has a small head. Oh well. Some little girl will be happy, I just need to figure out which little girl.......any suggestions?

We went to Big Bear first before we came home and it was lovely. We only stayed there one night but what was fun was the next day, as we were at breakfast, this huge rain storm came through. It was super warm, bright blue skies and totally clear when all of a sudden the rain fell like there was no tomorrow and then there was lightning and thunder, it was awesome. We left and when we got to the desert we were welcomed by 115 degree weather.......it was like the surface of the sun. It took a while for me to get used to this weather again, especially all of the air conditioning. Outside it's sweltering but inside it's freezing. Unfortunately I picked up a sore throat because of it but it's not that bad yet. Actually I am drinking hot tea (yuck!) to try and ease the pain and heal it but I just ended up burning my tongue.

Throughout the week there was been a lot of lounging around, swimming in the jacuzzi sized pool and family time. When the weather is warm like this the pool feels like bath water, it's so nice when you can just hop in without the shock of the water temperature. My mom did treat me to a spa day yesterday. It was heavenly. This beautiful spa in La Quinta that had powder rooms, locker rooms (nice ones), showers, a steam room, jacuzzi, and lounging rooms. We both had a facial then we got our eyebrows waxed, took a couple minutes in the steam room before we couldn't breath and were drenched in sweat and enjoyed their super pressure showers. It was so nice, I love girl days. :) I do have this lovely picture of me and my mom in our spa robes but she said I couldn't post it cause she doesn't like how she looks in it. What a girl.

After that we went out for sushi. Now some of you are all wow, the spa and sushi, sounds great. Well, I don't like sushi but apparently my family has sushi Friday and so we all packed up and went to Sam's Sushi. I ordered Miso Soup and that's it......they made me try a mango, spicy tuna wrap and this was my reaction:

Needless to say, I didn't like it. Now we are getting ready to head to San Diego for a night. My parents are going to the taping of Sean Hannity and I am going to hang out with Brooke, Drew, and Whitney, good friends. :) I'm excited but now I have to go pack an over night bag and scout around for some throat lozenges. Talk to you tomorrow.

Last Minute

Alright, so it's still Sunday for me even though it's past midnight, but I still haven't gone to sleep yet so the day isn't over for me, meaning I made it in time for the second post this week. Phew! I have been running around the apartment cleaning all night. Why you ask? Because my family is coming into town tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh yeah, I get to be around the people I grew up with who understand why I put my dishes in the dishwasher right away or why I like spicy food, because they taught me to. :) Another bonus of them coming into town tomorrow is that we no longer have to take care of Piper. Now I know that in an earlier post I raved about how adorable she is and how I was never going to give her back.......things changed. She is still completely adorable but after a couple weeks of "special surprises" in the apartment our friendship took a turn. Now I am looking forward to having just one dog to look after again, one where all I have to do is put the trash can and my knitting up before I leave and I am good for about 6 hours.

Until they arrive though, I have a million things to do. Laundry, present wrapping, dropping off Scram, packing and making dessert. Oh yeah, did I mention that I am tagging along with them as they head home? I'm so excited to visit with them for a week. We are going to hit up Big Bear and San Diego. I can't wait to relax and hang out with my lovely family. I hate to leave Dom, who can't go with me because his job sucks......I mean because he has work, but he will survive and it's always fun to come home to a food deprived husband, then my cooking tastes fantastical. Jk. I will seriously miss him and wish that he could come along. In the meantime our separation will be reminiscent of when we were dating, which is always fun. Well, time to get back to my tons of chores. Next time I write I will be back in my favorite place, Southern California. :)

How long will this last?

Alright, I never blog anymore. I should since I am home all day and don't have anything better to do but that's exactly the problem, I'm home all day! What could I possibly have to write about? How many Scramble hairs I found in my cereal? Or the number of times I actually left the couch? How about what time I actually changed out of my pajamas and brushed my teeth? See, nothing much to write about but I am going to try anyway. If it's too boring then you can peace out mid-paragraph and check back again later but I am going to try and post at least a couple times a week........I know right? A couple times a week, don't overexert yourself Candice. I know me though and I am innately lazy, a couple times a week is like practically asking me to throw together a novel for you.

I just want to warn you that my blog posts will be like my iTunes playlists, random. I might actually write about which TV show interested me the most that day or how many times I bump into that neighbor I am trying to avoid but I'm sure that once in a while, or at least I hope once in a while, I will write about something with substance, something that is worth while and when that happens you'll know that I actually left the apartment that day. Until then I leave you with this, don't hold me to it.

The Little Piper

My family goes to the Midwest each summer, for the whole summer. These past couple of years they have done a road trip on the way, which may take a week or two. This time around though, they have a new addition to think about, I'm talking about their new dog Piper. Well it's hard enough finding a hotel at the last minute anyway and making sure that they cater to dogs makes finding one at the last minute even harder.

Piper is a 10 month old Maltipoo, which is a cross between a Maltese and a Poodle. She is 8 lbs. and absolutely adorable. See for yourself. :)


It has been a bit more responsibility watching her in an apartment. Instead of just throwing her outside to go potty I now have to take a turn for both dogs. Oh well though, she is just too cute to care about all of that. It's such a change from having a big dog. You lose her so much easier just because she'll walk behind you and you didn't notice. Or she can step all over you and you barely feel it. I love being able to pick her up and snuggle next to her fluffy, little body.

Scramble gets a little jealous but I think he likes having someone to play with even if he thinks of her as a squirmy chew toy. We have had her for a month now but we'll have her until the end of August. I am going to be so sad to see her go and sometimes I just think I am not going to give her back but I am sure my mom will pry her from me somehow.

Nightmares

I hate nightmares. The ones where you think they are so real it takes you a minute to catch your breath and realize it was a dream, or the ones where you wake up and your face hurts because you were crying so hard. They don't always start out this dramatic but I feel like they gain in their potency with age. When I was little, I used to have weird, abstract nightmares. The earliest one I can remember was actually somewhat normal, I was five and dreamed that wolves were surrounding my bed trying to get me, but as long as I was under my covers I was safe. From this I developed a tick where I automatically raise my feet off the floor when I'm scared. My knees get cramped during scary movies because I have my legs tucked in so close to me, just in case something, or someone, claws at me from the end of the bed or from under the couch.

But then something changed and my nightmares went all Salvador Dali on me. I kept having these reoccurring nightmares with abstract objects floating in the air like I was in the middle of the universe and, for some reason, it freaked me out. I don't know when those stopped but the last nightmare I can remember from my childhood happened when I was about 10 and I dreamed that I was skiing and fell and then somehow turned into my skis, which were sort of buried under the snow, enough to where people kept skiing over them/me and I thought I was going to die. This one required a trip to moms room and her lying in bed with me until I calmed down and fell back asleep.

Since then my nightmares have become a little more realistic. I have had the traditional falling off a building and waking up before you hit the ground but that usually happens in the car. Going to the bathroom in public, these ones aren't so much terrifying as they are embarrassing, but that amount of embarrassment terrifies some people........me. Lately it's been more heights related, being on the top of a hundred story building while it sways heavily in the wind and I'm about to go over the edge. I've had quite a few of those recently, to my dislike. Or, being kidnapped. I had that one in high school and was pleased when dream Candice grabbed the wheel of the kidnapper's car in an attempt to save herself but in the end the effort was useless.

I would gladly take any one of those dreams over the heart-wrenching nightmares. The ones where you wake up drenched in sweat, crying about what just happened and you automatically need to check in with reality to make sure none of it was true. I'm talking about the ones where you lose a loved one, by any means. I have had a few where my mom has died. My face has never experience such pain as I sobbed in slumber and in reality over the loss of my mom. I immediately went to her room again in tears as she assured me she was alive or I have called her to make sure she was still around for the advice, hugs, laughs and love that I sill need from her. Each time she has made me feel better but the dream still leaves a little scar.

And, after last night, I have a new sort of dream to add to the heart-wrenching category. The betrayal of a husband, which I count as a loss. I dreamed that Dom cheated on me with someone I hadn't seen since Jr. High and the most awful thing about it was that dream Dom didn't seem to care, and he seemed to be in love with her in the most endearing way. They had pet names for each other! Gross! I can't remember his for her, something cutesy, but hers for him was "Big," like the character from Sex and the City. I could give you all the details of the dream but it's not important, besides they aren't fun to think about. Anyway, I woke up in shock and started crying like I was in the dream and even woke up Dom to calm me down. He felt awful about it and assured me that he never has and never will do anything like that, not that I needed any assuring because I already know this about him, but the sweet way that he said it did help. He held me until I felt better and we moved on but the loss that I felt was just as painful as losing my mom. The funny thing is that right before I went to bed I told Dom that I was tired of dramatic dreams and wanted a peaceful nights sleep, filled with dreams of friends, pretty colors or anything soothing..........oh well.

I am crossing my fingers for a better nights sleep tonight and that hopefully I can take away something from each of these nightmares, either the reminder that I truly love those closest to me or the simple lesson of facing my fears, I don't plan on going potty publicly anytime soon but maybe I could get over the heights thing. Well, cheers to a peaceful nights sleep.

Dog Park

Our little Scram has quite a bit of energy and, even though they said that this breed can get used to living in an apartment, he still needs to get out and flex his muscles. The way that we try to expend his energy is to take him somewhere with property for him to run around on. This includes:

Dom's parents house

This is their front yard

and the dog park

Lately, I have been trying to take him to the dog park more often so he can be a happy puppy and he loves it. For his birthday he got a tennis ball launcher:


and he goes crazy for that thing. If you have a dog who likes to play fetch at all, get yourself one of these. You fling it so far with less effort and your dog gets worn out twice as fast. If you really want to wear out your dog though, take him to the park when it's super hot out and use the launcher. They're done after about half an hour for the rest of the night. I was playing with Scram the other day in the heat and he all of a sudden jetted out of sight to go lay under a tree for shade. :) I think that my little guy gets to the happy exhausted point though, because he may be panting but his tail is still wagging. :)

Coffee

I am not a huge coffee person. I don't like the bitter taste and so when I do get coffee I like it exceptionally sweet. I'm a fan of caramel macchiatos, caramel frappachinos and such, pretty much anything dowsed in sweet, delicious caramel. When I make it at home though, it is just plain coffee and so I have to improvise. The way I go about this is to add enough milk to make it look like caramel and then add about a pound of sugar........not really but two to three table spoons of sugar. I tend to never finish my coffee and so Dom always tries to help me out by killing it for me. He drinks his coffee a little more plain because he's a man like that and so when he takes a sip of mine it takes him a minute or two to come back down from the sugar high. He says finishing off my coffee is his guilty pleasure. Well, this morning I went a little over board and am having trouble not puckering my lips after each sip. I can't wait to see Dom's face after he tries to finish this cup.