Day 26: A Childhood Memory

My mom and I used to live in Desert Hot Springs when I was little but she worked in San Bernardino, so we would have to get up super early and commute. Well, we had a little tradition of stopping off at Hadley's for a Banana Date Shake. I'm pretty sure we got them on the way home but the details are a little fuzzy from 20 years ago. Anywho, these shakes are AMAZING!!!!
It always takes me back to when I was a tiny and sitting in the front seat with my shake, having trouble seeing out the window. My mom would also let me sit in her lap and stear the car on the way home (calm down, it was on a deserted road). My mom said I was always really serious when I got behind the wheel, even when we would go on the ride Autopia at Disneyland. It's all about staying in the lines perfectly. It was such a fun time with my mom and she made me feel so special and important. It's a great memory. :)

Day 25: A Recipe

Dominic loves French Toast. I mean the man can't get enough so I try and make it often. Here is what I do, I don't really measure but I can give you an approximation.

French Toast

4 slices of bread (french bread is best)
2 eggs
1 Tbs Vanilla Extract
3 Tbs Milk
2 tsp Cinnamon

Mix ingredients, submerge bread in batter and fry on buttered pan.

I did not test the measurements, I usually just eyeball it and I think what I listed is pretty close. So if you try it, just go with what you feel is right, it's mainly about the ingredients. My family has always used vanilla in our French Toast batter and I love it and so does Dom, he also LOVES cinnamon so I put in a lot. Enjoy!

Day 24: A Movie No One Would Expect You To Love

OOoo, I have a good one for this. Even though I love movies, there are obviously some I don't care for, can't love 'em all. Tim Burton movies are usually prominent members of my dislike club but for some reason I LOVE Alice In Wonderland! I don't know what got me to watch it but I pretty much had that movie on repeat for the next week afterward. I nearly jumped for joy when Netflix brought it back to instant watch. I say back because they gave it to me, got me hooked, and then took it away. Publicizing my thoughts about this matter would be wrong so let's move on.


What is it I like about this movie? Well, in a nutshell, Johnny Depp. Not in a ooohhh he's so dreamy sort of way but in a he's so brilliant sort of way. He does a fantastic job as the Mad Hatter. This is not the only reason I like the movie though, it's fanciful, colorful, adventurous, and fun. I think Tim Burton was the perfect director for this story, I mean Alice In Wonderland is a bit odd to begin with so why not use an odd director? It worked out wonderfully.

Now I am starting the book to get a better idea of how the story was first told but so far I have only learned more about the author and......well.......let me put it this way, I think he and Tim Burton might have been good friends. So, if you haven't seen the movie yet you should. This is an official recommendation. :)

Day 23: A Way In Which You Want To Be Remembered

I want to remembered as useful. I'm not a natural leader, I don't like to run the show but I do like to play an important part. I like to take care of the small things that people may overlook but if it wasn't there, or not taken care of, then the whole thing wouldn't go as smooth. For example, I don't feel comfortable being a hostess or in charge of a big event but I love bringing desserts and making sure there is enough of this or that for everyone. That may not seem like much but if you went to a party and there were no snacks or not enough chairs you probably didn't enjoy it as much as you could have.

That's a small example but hopefully you get the gist. I'm more of a quiet person, shy for a bit and eventually I come out of my shell but I don't mind being known for this, I just want it to be coupled with being useful. Taking care of those small things that don't steal the spot light but are still vital for success. Does this make any sense, ugh, this question was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be. Well, good luck trying to figure out what I meant. :)

Day 22: A Website

A website..........Google, ever heard of it? JK. How about Ravelry.com? Most likely if you know me, you've heard of Ravelry. It's an online community for knitters and crocheters. There is a huge database full of free patterns, as well as, ones you can purchase. Also, you can upload pictures of your projects and give details about how you made it or what yarn you used, that way others can see how the pattern turns out. You can look up yarns and see how they knit up or find out where to buy them. It's wonderful and responsible for about 25 50% of my time. ;)

It's free to join, in case you haven't already signed up, and my Ravelry name is castandcount. Look me up or send a message, whatever you feel like. If I learn you are new to the site, I will probably keel over in excitement that you, not only learned about the site here, but also joined it! Happy pattern searching. :)

This is the login you are greeted with. Love all the fiber.

Day 21: Something You Know You Do Differently Than Most People

Hmmm, I've been thinking about this one since I first read it and I just can't come up with anything better than what I first thought of. So here it goes, I eat Doritos differently than most people. I like to lick off all the cheese powder and then eat the chip. Gross huh? It so good this way though. I sometimes like to eat dessert before dinner but I am pretty sure everyone under 10 likes this too so I'm sticking with the Dorito thing. Try it sometime, you might be surprised. :)

Day 20: A Hobby Of Yours

I'll give you one guess as to what I'm going to say.................Yep, KNITTING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. Hurray. :) I knit all the time, or as much as my wrists and hands allow. I had to take an extended break recently and it nearly killed me, especially since it didn't do much good. Oh well. Now I'm back and trying to work on my tension so that I don't kill my joints.

This hobby just plain makes me happy. I LOVE it! I love all the different colors and feeling of the yarn and the way it can play a pattern up to make it even better. I love knowing that I can make something for myself or others that I put a lot of care into. Each stitch you're thinking about that person and if the object is for me then I'm thinking about how much fun it will be to use it.

It's just two stitches, knit and purl and when you mess around with them you can make beautiful things like this:


Or this:


Who wouldn't want to do that? I hate realizing that there probably isn't enough time in one lifespan to knit everything I want to make but oh well, maybe there will be knitting in heaven. I would love to wrap Jesus in my knitting and say, hey thanks for that whole grace thing, it's pretty cool. :)

Day 19: A Talent Of Yours

Talent? Ugh, really? This is something else I just don't do. I can't sing......at all, I can't do a back flip and I'm not a great public speaker, so what do I say? I guess I have a talent for face mobility or rather facial dexterity. You're probably wondering what this means, let me explain. I have pretty good control over my facial muscles. I can do the whole eyebrow wave thing, I can scrunch each side of my nose individually, I can make my lips criss cross, wink quickly, wiggle my ears individually as well, and my tongue can flip and make a clover.

This little talent of mine is not exactly going to take me far, in fact sometimes it gets me into trouble. My mom would always have to remind me that when I would go to friends house's for dinner to try and control my reactions to the food. If I didn't pay attention, they would give away how I really felt about it. I've gotten better over time but if I'm relaxed around you then my face will always give me away. ;)

Day 18: A Time When You Felt Passionate And Alive

Now obviously I could say knitting, I feel passionate and alive every time I knit. I could, and do, spend hours looking at patterns and thinking about yarn but since I could literally answer knitting for the next five posts, I'll choose something else for this one.

Hmmmmmm, passionate and alive huh? Just to let you know, I'm not a very passionate person. I just don't get that way about stuff. There have probably only been three passions in my life and since I said I wouldn't use one for this and the other is quite obvious, since he's shown up in almost every post, I will use the remaining one here. Drum roll please............VOLLEYBALL!!!!!!


It's not so much a passion now since I no longer play but when I did, I LOVED it! I think it should still count since it says a time when, not what makes you feel passionate and alive now. Anyway, I had an amazing high school team. We went to finals and then lost in a very close five game match. It was devastating, seriously worst day ever. I know, it's just a game but since I was passionate about it I was heartbroken because we SO deserved it. I'm not bitter anymore..............really, I'm not.........moving on. ;)


We worked hard but we had fun and our, what should have been two hour but always ended up being three hour, practices were pretty much the most fun you can have working out. We would be winded, sweating like pigs and all bruised but we always left with a smile. Our team became quite close too. The picture above is from a team retreat we took before our senior year. We did all kinds of team building exercises and learned a lot about each other. These girls were like my family and I am so happy to still be in touch with a lot of them. Seriously, you should have been there, we did some pretty silly things in order to build trust. Let me show you:

Now I don't know how this built up trust but let me tell you, dressing up like g-units and then taking pictures of it definitely made these girls my homies. I miss this time in my life, pretty much organized sports in general but I have a ton of fond memories to look back on and lots of close friends to relive it with. :)

Day 17: An Art Piece

My friend Kelsey made this for me. I LOVE it. She does great abstract art and I asked her to do a small piece for me once and she came up with this. It was pretty much my life at the time and then what she saw in the future. The yellow stripe represents me and the white is God. The small, vertical red line represents when I got saved. It's the only straight line for that reason. Then there is a sputter of yellow under the orange line, representing a sputtering out of an influence from my past (big answer to prayer). The orange stripe represents Dominic and how she predicted it would be me, Dom and God from then on I don't know, but she definitely got it right. She made this in 2007. Thank you so much Kelsey for my favorite piece of artwork. :)

I started this post at 5:25pm and so it shall remain. I did not mess up two days in a row. Denial runs very strong after midnight I've found.

Day 16: A Song That Makes You Cry

Noooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's 12:34pm and I was in bed all ready to go to sleep and realized........I DIDN'T BLOG!!!! So since I didn't fall asleep yet, it's still today. At least I made it half way through without any hiccups.

Now, onto the challenge. Songs don't really move me like this, at least not by themselves. Watching a performance or a music video to a good song can bring me to tears, especially when I'm a bit more sensitive, then stupid commercials like, "Be all you can be" can start the water works.

I have been thinking about this one for a while though and I do recall one song that did me in, it was a song Dom wrote for me. He made up the piano music and the words and it's beyond amazing. He is quite talented but I was totally blown away with this one. The words are so loving and special and the music was, of course, great but I don't feel like sharing it with you. Sorry, but part of the effect this song had on me was that Dom wrote it special for me and when he preformed it I literally cried because it was just that good and sharing every part of that with everyone might be more than I am willing to do. Just take my word for it, IT'S AMAZING!!!

Day 15: A Person You Admire

This one is simple, I greatly admire my mother. She is very strong, talented, beautiful, funny, outgoing, warm, intelligent and kind. This woman can accomplish anything she puts her mind to and will come out on top.


She was a single mom for a while and did it so well. I never went hungry, homeless, or unloved and she had the good sense to marry someone who would make a great dad (I love you too Big Mac). These are my parents below. Aren't they an attractive couple? ;)

My mom continues to amazing me with her wisdom and love. When I was at home I didn't have to deal with the real world much and when I went out on my own I quickly learned that my mom made it look easy. I still constantly call with questions from small things like, what temperature do I bake chicken? To big things like, what are some loan options to buy a home? She's the kind of mom who walks me through each step and then sends me emails at 2am with research she did on my question, just in case I needed more help. Wonderful. :)


I love my mom very much and there are so many things she does that I admire and look up to. The woman is a powerhouse and walks around like it's no big deal. I love that, she can run her own company and still clean up after a house full of boys. ;) Thanks for being a role model for me mom. You're a dang good one!

Day 14: A Vacation You Would Like To Take

I would LOVE to go to Bora Bora! I mean yeah, a month long trip to Europe with Dom would be amazing but I have been there before and I have always wanted to go to Bora Bora. I think it all started when I was around 11. I saw The Parent Trap in theaters with my mom and there's that scene when she says her friend was on a trip with her family to Bora Bora, well I didn't know where that was so I looked it up and have been longing to go ever since. Just take a look at the place:

Not only is the island amazing but it's where you stay that really won me over. They have houses on the water. You just walk out your door and jump in if you want, into the crystal clear water.

I would love to snorkel right by my room in the morning. Swim on up to the beach and sunbathe and then swim right back to my room to eat my room service lunch. Then get onto a little dingy tied up to my dock and putt around the island with Dom.


If you want to join, I'm sure group rates are more affordable. ;)

Day 13: A Guilty Pleasure

I am SO embarrassed to be admitting this publicly but my guilty pleasure is watching Sister Wives.

Oh boy, it's out there now. I don't know how to come back from that one. Maybe I should explain myself. I started watching it because I was curious about how in the world polygamist families function. I am quite the handful for Dom, I couldn't imagine anyone handling an additional 3 wives. Where do they live, how do the kids take it, how to the wives treat each other?

If I were a cat, I'd be dead since I have now added this to our DVR. I will probably never hear the end of this with Dom but I'm invested now, how do I walk away from cliffhangers like, "The fourth wife will be announcing big news on the next episode?" Oh well, blushing is not something I do but if I could watch your reactions to this confession, then I might not be able to avoid it. The only solace I have is that your guilty pleasure might be as bad. :)

Day 12: A Song That You Played At Your Wedding

The song Dom and I danced to at our wedding was Sea of Love by Cat Power. We chose this song because well, we loved it. It took us away, away from the business of the wedding planning, the craziness of people who R.S.V.Pd but didn't show and the eyes of everyone watching us. We were in our own little world, a world we had just vowed to never leave and one where I could spend forever telling Dominic how much I love him.

*Siiiiiiiiiiiigggggghhhh. What a great moment. :)

Day 11: A Photo Of You Taken Recently

Dom and I went to Apple Hill last weekend and one of our first stops was Bodhaine's. They sell pie and it's his family's favorite. He looked so cute shoving in his favorite slice of French Apple Pie. See:


I ended up having a slice of Blackberry Sour Cream. This was kind of a bad idea on our part. I mean it was yummy but the whole rest of the day we were complaining about how sick we felt. Too much sweet; too much food. This of course didn't stop us from buying 2 1/2 gallons of apple cider, fudge, an apple and kettle corn to take home for later. :) It was a super fun day and I can't wait to go back.

Day 10: A Photo Of You Taken Over Ten Years Ago

Yep, that's me when I was twelve I think. Something you should know, I've looked the same since I was tiny. Seriously, I think the only thing that has changed about me is that I have made an attempt to tame my eyebrows but the rest of my face is pretty much the same.......the body is obviously different. If you don't believe me then just look for yourself:

(One and a halfish)

Anyway, the top picture is me in my room, drawing. Let's point out some choice pieces of decor shall we? Notice the N*Sync poster on the left. Justin Timberlake was working it even then, and the Dawson's Creek poster above my bed. I honestly didn't even remember I had that, let alone put it there until my mom sent this picture to me. One last thing, the clown picture on top of my dresser. Clowns freak some people out but I don't mind them and I think it's cause I had a clown theme when I was a baby. It wasn't creepy and I am rather fond of this particular picture. If I knew where it was I might try and work it into my current art collection. Incase anyone wanted to visit me, ever, I would make sure to put it somewhere discreet. ;)

Thanks mom for riffling through pictures of your little girl for me!

Day 9: A Photo You Took

This picture is from a visit to Dom's house while we were dating. I must have taken it 3 or 4 times because it kept coming out blurry due to the lighting and when it did finally come out I loved it! I loved how we are holding hands and it shows us touching the water to show we were officially there. I know, I know OMG more info. about Dom? Obsessed much? I bet you said this in a 13 year old girl's voice like I was thinking it but yes, more about Dom and how I love the man. I mean you're learning a little more about me and so he is bound to show up time and again. :)

Anyway, there is a little river or maybe more of a stream over by his house and we took a walk to see it. Dom's little theory is that if we are by water then we have to touch it or else we weren't there and by this time in our relationship I thought it was more of a, if we didn't swim in it then we weren't there kind of thing, since we always ended up that way, voluntarily or not.

Side story, Dom used to throw me into water.................a lot, or at least tried to get me as wet as possible when near water. The picture below is when he came to visit me for the first time and threw me into our pool, fully clothed. He did this again at the river near Folsom, fully clothed and then picked me up and ran me through the water fountain stream thingys at Marine World, again fully clothed. Bathing suits didn't matter much to him and thankfully he has grown out of this and now all I have to do is touch the water when we go somewhere.

The first picture shown is hanging up in our home because of how much I love it and probably always will be. :)

Day 8: A Thank You Letter To Someone Who Has Changed Your Life

Dear Dominic,

I love you. I love that I know exactly why I love you and the reasons are foundational, not conditional. You know that, obviously, you're an important person in my life but how important may not be clear. Let me explain. When I fell in love with you it changed me and when I found out you loved me back that change became irreversible. This is a good change, a great change in fact. I got to see what God's love is like so much better, that unconditional, never failing love and I still get see to everyday because you loved me enough to commit your whole life to me. Thank you for that, by the way. ;)

What I really want to be thanking you for is that change I was talking about. Loving you made me want to become a better person. I wanted to treat my family, friends and neighbors better, I wanted to become smarter and well kept (it was hard to ditch the UGGs everyday look) and mostly, I wanted to live up to the love that you showed me. This is all wonderful and definitely deserves a thank you but what I am truly thankful for is the fact that you brought me closer to God. I finally understood what true justification meant. You were patient enough to explain it to me time and time again and work through my warped understanding of God's grace.

It's as simple as believing in Him and that He died on the cross for my sins, past, present and future and that I don't have to and can't do anything to repay Him for that. A works based faith doesn't work and this was my natural reaction to the good news. Now I've got it right and it's all because of you. Thank you! Thank you for your love and showing me what grace is. I love you more than you know and always will.

Sincerely,
Your Grateful Wife

Day 7: Five Things You Couldn't Possibly Live Without

Hmmmm, that's a good question. Let me think....Alright, here we go. These are in no particular order:

1. Yarn & Needles
(technically that's two but they really go hand in hand)

I live to knit. If you didn't already know that then this is your first time reading my blog.....nice to meet you. :)

2. Prayer

I'm not a prayer warrior or anything but this is how I stay most connected to God. I love being able to talk with Him all day long and ask for his help and know He is listening and loves me so much it's incomprehensible.

3. Movies

I LOVE T.V. but whenever I haven't had cable I have gotten by just fine popping in my favorite movies and watching them over and over again. I love getting lost in a story and exploring a new place visually along with the characters.

4. Books

Books are a step up from movies for me. I get to picture the perfect setting and actors and I get to know the characters more. These two quotes give you a glimpse of how I feel about books.

"A good book should leave you... slightly exhausted at the end. You live several lives while reading it." ~William Styron, interview, Writers at Work, 1958

"I get absolutely and undeniably attached to book characters to the point where I cry and laugh with them, and physically miss them when I finish reading the book." -author unknown

(Seriously, I don't usually quote)

5. Junk Food

Chips!!!!!!! Dense, moist brownies, soda, cheeseburgers, onion rings.......MMmmmmmmmmmm! It's all SO good.

I hope you guys share in some of these and if you do, I would LOVE to chat about them with you. :)

Day 6: A Moment You Wish You Could Relive

I have been thinking about this one all day. I mean how do I approach this? Is it a moment I regret and want to fix or a moment that was highly embarrassing that I want to turn around? I know that relive and not redo usually indicates that it would mean a moment I loved so much I want to do it twice but is that how I want to answer this? Taking into account all three options, I had a hard time narrowing it down to even a few choices.

Uh, do I want to do the obvious and talk about moments from my wedding or those times when I thought I would suffocate I was laughing so hard with friends or how about playing with puppies? Who wouldn't want to have a chance of playing with their dog in the puppy stage again? Volleyball games/practices, moments I made my mom laugh, getting awards, every brownie sundae I've ever had from CPK.......And then there's the entire dating period Dom and I had. I replayed those moments time and time again after Dom dropped me off for the night that I might be ok to skip this option but it was just SO good that I'm having trouble ruling it out. I guess I should be feeling pretty blessed right about now that I have so many moments in my life that I want to relive because they were just that good. :)

So what's it going to be? What moment did it for me that, if asked by a genie tomorrow, I would be completely prepared to relive? I'm going with: When Dom proposed to me. I don't know if you know our proposal story or not but it was up on our wedding website but that's gone now so I'll put it here. It's kinda long so you can skip down to the bottom if you'd like.


The Proposal:

Well you guessed it, he proposed and the joy that I experienced before was childs play compared to the complete and utter happiness that I am experiencing now. Let's just say that life definitely got better. There is a bit more to it than that though so let's start off at the beginning. Dom and I try and go on a big date at least once a month if we can and then little dates whenever possible. Well, we had not done either in a while and so he told me to prepare for a big date soon. I was super stoked and started counting down the days, seeing as how he told me about two weeks in advance.

Now when we do dates the one who plans it doesn't tell the other what is going to happen. We try and keep everything a surprise as much as possible. This date was of course going to be a surprise but I did get to know one thing, we were starting the date off at the beach.

Well, the day finally arrived, Nov. 15, and I was so excited that I hopped out of bed before my alarm went off. He picked me up around 11am and we headed to Huntington Beach. Now there had been fires in our area and so there were heavy smoke clouds looming over La Mirada which we were able to escape at the beach. It was a perfect day, 90 degrees, not too crowded, we found a great spot and set up camp. Laying on the blanket, we took in the glorious rays of sunshine and reminisced about our relationship. We eventually wandered to the water where we dipped our fingers and toes in just to make sure we had been there and then proceeded to make a sand castle. It was quite the amazing castle if I do say so myself, comparable to the Taj Mahal. After that we played volleyball and threw a Frisbee around.

By the end of our beach adventure the smoke clouds had caught up with us and had started to take over the sky. As we were packing up we were in admiration of the beautiful reflection that the clouds had on the water. We got a couple pictures of it. After this, we moved into phase two of the date but not before an intermission. Normally if we have to split up in order to get all ready and beautified we only take the time necessary to do so, this time around Dom said we had an hour and a half to get ready because he didn't want to rush me. He also said I could get as dressed up as I liked. I love to get dressed up so I took him up on his offer and put on a new dress that he had never seen.

After the hour and a half was up, he came to the door and we exchanged comments about how great the other one looked and then we were on our way. Seriously though, he looked good! Suit, tie, watch...he pulled out all the stops. Due to the fires some freeways were closed and so we had to take an alternate route, which put us a little behind schedule. This was fine with me since I had no idea what we were doing. We finally arrived at our destination, P.F. Changs. This is my favorite restaurant! He said we could order whatever we wanted and so we did, appetizers, entrees, and dessert.

After our meal was complete we went on to our next destination, the movie theater across the street. Once we got there I realized he had just recreated our first date. We had gone to dinner and a movie at the same locations and then went to the beach afterward. It was a cute realization. Unfortunately since we ordered desert we had made ourselves late for the movie which didn't matter since it was sold out anyway. We tried the old buy a ticket for another movie and just sneak in anyway trick but it didn't work, they wouldn't let us in. We ended up going to the movie Changeling. It was quite the opposite of what he had originally intended us to go see (James Bond) but we had a ton of fun joking around and laughing about how it was such a bad date movie. :)

This is where I thought the night was going to end. We had mentioned going to get coffee earlier but we never stopped anywhere and I figured the date was so much fun anyway, it was a good time to go home and smile about it while getting ready for bed. Well, Dom had other plans. As we passed my street and I began to get suspicious he said that he wasn't through with me yet and that we should go and see if they had put our bench back.

I will have to pause to give you some important background information about our bench. There is this little park by school that we always take walks in and there is a bench at the end of the park where we have had many important and long conversations. No matter where we are in our relationship we always seem to be able to talk here for hours. Well, at the beginning of the semester when we took our first walk after Christmas break we noticed that they had taken our bench! We didn't know why or when they would replace it. After many more disappointed trips to the park we began to give up hope but it seemed Dom wanted to try one more time on our date.

So, we parked by the entrance and started walking. As we were strolling through the park he stopped and pointed out something in the concrete, it turns out he was just killing time but it was fun nonetheless. We talked and danced and hugged for a while before we moved on to our spot. As we got closer I saw something glowing in the distance. I thought someone had put up Christmas lights on the fence and how that was odd, thinking where did they plug it in and would the city allow that? I then realized, after several more steps that the glowing came from tea light candles in white paper bags that outlined the walkway up to and around our bench. There were also two huge vases full of beautiful roses on either side of the bench on the ground and flower petals lining the walkway and all over the bench.

As the wheels started turning I began to smile thinking this could be it!! He walked me through the flower petals and sat me down on the bench. Taking both of my hands he stared at me and said how much he loved me and how he couldn't imagine being without me and that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with me. Then he took a box out of his pocket and opened it up to reveal my gorgeous ring and stood up and said, "Candice Ann Clark....(got down on one knee) will you marry me?" At this point my brain stopped working and I went into shock. I remember him saying my name clearly but everything else is a little hazy. I eventually stammered out a yes and he sat down with me and put the ring on my finger!

I am pretty sure that I said, "Are you serious?!!" about a hundred times and his handsome, patient faced smiled back saying yes. I smiled so big it hurt and I began to laugh and cry into my hands. I have never been so happy in my life! We hugged and smiled and then prayed together. It was all so wonderful. We were then greeted by his roommates a little later since they came to clean everything up for us. They set everything up as well, they are so nice. After this we scampered off to celebrate. We couldn't really think of anywhere that would be open at 12:30 at night so we went to a 24 hour doughnut shop we had seen. I was too giddy to eat but it was fun being able to talk about spending the rest of our lives together!

He dropped me off around 1:30am and I ran to my room to wake up my roommate a.k.a. one of the maids of honor, Mindy. After a quick dispute of unbelief from my half-asleep Mindy, we screamed about the news for about an hour and a half before I drifted off into a dream land that wasn't nearly as good as my reality. :)

Well, you made it to the end. I applaud you! I hope that you enjoyed the journey as much as I have. :)

So, when he asked and I said yes I basically broke down. I put my hands to my face and cried through my giggles and smile. It felt like a huge weight had been lifted from my shoulders and the happiness was almost unbearable. Pretty much every time I was with Dom I would be shouting in my head, "I want to marry you! I want to marry you! I want to marry you!" and because he wanted to keep everything a surprise we never had a serious discussion about our future together. To know that he felt the same way I did and all my dreams were coming true and I no longer had to wonder and hope, it was greater than any happiness I had ever known. So yeah, I would definitely love to relive this moment. :)

Day 5: A Favorite Quote

Ok, I swear this whole challenge isn't about my favorites. There are actually other questions I have to answer that have nothing to do with random things I like. In fact, this is the last favorite one. Anyway, I'm not really a big quote person, I mean quotes like this. I quote movies, T.V. shows, and friends constantly but quotes where you can either gain some knowledge or teach something, hardly ever. I asked Dom and he agreed that I don't do that sort of thing so it was hard to think of one for today. I was even looking up quotes but I thought, no, I don't use this and then a light bulb went off. I have actually quoted this before and even though I got it from someone else, I still love it. Here it is:

"Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another, 'What! You too? I thought I was the only one." - C.S. Lewis

My Friend Mini (Mindy) quoted this on her facebook page about our friendship and I couldn't have agreed more. We met in college, we were assigned to be roommates and one weekend when our other roommate was gone (we did miss you Sam), we decided to rearrange the entire dorm room. It took a while and we even had to take a break and eat dinner, this was pretty much our first quality time together and that quote sums up how the entire weekend went. She is now one of my best friends and was my roommate all through college. So there you have it, a quote I love and have used. :)

Day 4: A Favorite Television Program

Friends......duh. What else is there? JK. I do like myself some Office, as well as, So You Think You Can Dance and a lot of Bravo competition shows but they are all easily surpassed by Friends. I mean who do you know that can't hum along with the theme song? Or know at least half of the character's names and their main personality traits? My favorite character is Chandler. I can't even count how many times I have cried from laughing at the things he has said. His physical comedy is also top notch.

I have watched through every single episode and then after I got all 10 seasons for my birthday, I watched through them again. It's safe to say that my favorite episode is from Season 4 titled, The One With The Embryos (episode 12). That's where the above picture is from. This show is just SO good. I love the characters, the comedy, the plot, and even how it ended. If anyone wants to sit through 10 seasons of Friends with me, I'm totally down. :)

Day 3: A Favorite Book

Easy peasy lemon squeezie, my favorite book is Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers. She is also my favorite author because she writes this series that is just wonderful but anyway, Redeeming Love is AMAZING! It's based off the book Hosea from the Bible and at times can be heartbreaking but the growth, love, and redemption you experience with the main character is awesome.

This book has helped me to see that no matter what shameful things I have done in my past, God still loves me. He doesn't love me like how we love people, He loves me like He created love to be. 1 Corinthians 13: 4-8: "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails......"

I don't know about you, but my love fails often, like when I'm easily angered or when I won't apologize because I know I'm right. God is love and He does all of these things at the same time, perfectly and He forgives and continues to love me when I mess up. Redeeming Love helped me see that my past is forgiven and even though I know God has forgiven my present and future as well, it was hard for me to let go of what I had done in the past. I am redeemed and it feels SO good. :)

Day 2: A Favorite Movie

You know how I talked about those posts where it would take a little more time for me to figure out an answer? Well, this is one of them.......Ugh, I LOVE movies! I have so many favorites that this questions is just about impossible for me to answer. Pride&Prejudice (A&E version of course), Now&Then, First Wives Club, The Holiday, Boondock Saints, In Her Shoes, A Christmas Story, You've Got Mail, Sense&Sensibility, The Lake House, Grind, Baby Mama............I mean the list goes on and on.

Ok Candice, serioulsy, just choose one. This isn't a lifelong commitment, no one is going to hunt you down if you claim that some other movie is your favorite in the future..............A favorite movie of mine issssssssssssssssssss: Now&Then.


I think I'm choosing this one because I've loved it the longest. It's a great movie about camaraderie, figuring out who you are, and adventure. I just love how their different personalities balance each other out, not to mention Devon Sawa is in it (major crush on him in Elementary School). Also, it's set in the 60s and they ride their fabulous beach cruisers everywhere. It makes me want to throw on some keds, a fuchsia shirt and ride around town with my girls. :)

Day 1: A Favorite Song

Some of these challenges are going to require some thought and reflection but to start off, this one's easy. My favorite song is Together We Will Live Forever by Clint Mansell. It's fantastic! In fact, the entire soundtrack to The Fountain is fantastic, that's where the song is from. If you ever have time or want something playing while you are cleaning up or working on the computer, this is the way to go.

The intense part of the soundtrack might make more sense if you've seen the movie. It's about two people in love, in the past, present and future and the man's quest to keep her alive in all three eras. It's basically a fight against death and the realization of its futility. It may take a couple viewings in order to get the gist of what's going on, or at least it did for me but it's a good, intense movie. Here is the song, the background is a shot from the film.



Now tell me you didn't just fall in love with it? Ugh, it's beautiful and moving. This would have been the song Dom and I danced to at our wedding, since he likes it too, but we didn't want to cut any of it out and it's rather long to dance to while everyone's watching you.

I know it may be shocking to some to read that my favorite song is not hip-hop but I move on from those so quickly. It's true I have favorite hip-hop songs but mainly I kill one, meaning I play it on repeat literally all day for a couple weeks, and then move onto the next one. This song captured me forever and it will always resonate with how I feel about Dominic, therefore it's my favorite.

30 Day Blog Challenge

Yuuuup, I'm going to do one of those. :) I seem to be at a loss some days for blogging ideas and then overflowing others. With this challenge keeping me on track with a different topic to write about each day for 30 days it's a perfect solution. The hope is that this will get me into the habit of blogging regularly and that I'll keep up with it after the challenge is complete.

I debated about giving you the list of everything I have to complete for each day but I thought it would be more fun to keep you in the dark and let you travel back to see what the next day has in store. You're going to learn a bit more about me, whether you wanted to know it or not is unimportant. JK. Hopefully this will be fun for the both of us.

I'm sure that I'll still add little snippets of my everyday life to each blog when things come up, just to keep you informed, but for the most part my writing will be dominated by these predetermined topics. Soooooo, who's ready to have some fun?

Technically this is day zero, so the challenge begins tomorrow!

New Job

(The beautiful yarn Dom got me as a gift at our Grand Opening. Did I mention it's 100% Cashmere?)

Alright, here is where I tell you all about my new job. Soooo we opened a month ago but did you really think I would get to writing about it right away? Hello, procrastination is my middle name. Anyway, lets get started. I got a new job at a yarn store!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I could fill the rest of this page with exclamation points and that still wouldn't get across how excited and happy I am about this new job. Knitting consumes me, I LOVE IT and so what could be better than to be surrounded by beautiful yarn and talk about knitting/crochet projects all day long?

I currently have a part-time job with a Hemophilia Healthcare Company with my family and it's great but I work from home and since I moved up here from SoCal I didn't know anyone, and never leaving the house isn't really conducive to creating a new possy. So, I went through a phase of trying to find another part-time job to try and make some headway in the friends department, although Scramble is adorable, it's just gets a little weird when you start discussing your thoughts on the latest novel you're reading with your dog. Since I refused to give up my nights and weekends with Dom, the choices were quite slim. For some reason employers in this economy aren't cool with their potential employees only willing to work when it's convenient for them, who knew? Needless to say I found nothing and gave up.

So, one day, I get an email from someone in my knitting group (yep, I have a knitting group) that there is a new yarn shop in the area and she is looking for people to hire for part-time work........the exact times I tried to get hired for! I decided to type up a resume and head over to the shop, which wasn't open yet, and talk to the owner. We immediately started talking about yarn and knitting and crochet and how much we love it and why, projects we've worked on and other interests of ours. And then Cindy (my new boss) looks at me and says, "Well, you're hired." I about died from happiness, especially since I went over knowing I wouldn't get the job because there was no way she would hire someone who hasn't been doing this forever or didn't have an extensive knowledge of yarn.............and it was just too perfect but I had a calm spirit. I prayed about it on the way over and gave it up to God one way or the other and BAM, God hits me with a very undeserved blessing.

I still work with my family, which is wonderful but my new job at Got Your Goat Yarn Studio is where I thrive. I love it! I love my boss, my co-workers, the location. Ugh, it's just such a huge blessing........serioulsy. So, to sum up, I got a new job at a yarn shop, very blessed, extremely happy. :)

You should take a look at the website, linked above, and get a sneak peak of what it looks like, or find directions so you can stop in and say hi.