Surprised

It was my birthday a few weeks ago and my husband asked me what I wanted and I told him I wanted Brooke. He laughed but I was dead serious. She is one of my closest friends and I don't get to see much of her since she doesn't live close by. I got to hang out with her for about a week in August but she was getting married so it was a bit of a different visit. She was the most gorgeous bride I've ever seen but that's beside the point, I wanted to hang out with her and this was my birthday request.

Well, I happen to be a super difficult person to surprise, at least for my husband to surprise. He is terrible at lying and I pay too close attention to details around days that I receive presents so being surprised by him is almost non existent. So the weekend before my birthday I thought well maybe she'll come but he told me seriously that he had tried to get her to come and she just couldn't make it work. I sort of believed him but thought that's what he would say so when she didn't come I just thought she'd come closer to my birthday.

My birthday rolls around and I talk to her and she said yeah, sorry Mopo (my nickname) I just couldn't make it work with time off and she apologized a few times so I started to get sad and thought ok, it's not going to happen. My final hopes were dashed when the weekend after my birthday comes around and still no Brooke, granted it was Valentine's Day weekend and she just got married so they weren't too high to start with but still, Dom doesn't take my requests lightly and always pulls through so I was pretty sure I was going to see her.

So at this point I had given up, I was a bit sad but totally understood. It's expensive to just hop on a flight last minute and then you have your new husband that you don't want to leave and yada, yada, yada. I figured I would come and visit over the summer and we could hang out then. I had moved on and thought nothing more about it.

Well, this past weekend rolls around and it's late Friday night and Dom's brother calls and I can hear him over the phone sounding really bummed and asking Dom to please come pick him up in Sacramento, he has a flat tire. I tell Dom I'll change into some jeans, so as not to scare his family in my pjs and he said, oh no, that's ok, his brother and his wife and their dogs are all stranded, there'd be no room for me. I honestly thought nothing of it and said ok well be careful and he left.

Fast forward about an hour and I'm on the couch knitting and I hear the door unlocking and see Scram look at the door confused and then he started to bark. I just though Dom had surprised him so I started to laugh and looked around the corner, about to tell Dom how silly Scram is when I see Brooke.......I was floored! She just started laughing and then I cried......I'm telling you I cry at everything now, it's bad. I was SO happy to see her and COMPLETELY surprised. Dom really pulled it off, those two had been planning it for weeks.

We spent the next day walking around Auburn, buying books (pictured above) and then took a walk around the neighborhood. After that we went and surprised another high school friend that lives locally and had dinner at her place and played games. Brooke and I stayed up until 2:45am just talking and then gorged ourselves on doughnuts and cookies the next day before she had to leave.

It was such a fun weekend and I am utterly grateful for my husband and Brooke for being sneaky little devils and making it all happen so seamlessly. :)

A Love Affair

So in Europe I had to get new shoes. I guess I should go a little further back.  I bought new black boots for Europe. They were padded, had great reviews, looked great with everything I was planning on taking and were good for all the conditions we would be in.

Now everyone warns you never to take new shoes on a big trip unless you have them properly broken in. So I did just that, I bought them months ahead of time and properly broke them in. Dom and I both got new shoes actually and took long walks a couple nights a week in them and wore them whenever we went out to get them all nice and comfy. We got through the tough stage and by the time we left we thought they were just fine. Wrong, pain, pain, pain. There was blood and tears. I missed quite a few masterpieces because I could literally walk no further. So I got new shoes......twice.

The first pair I bought were two sizes too big for me and had absolutely no structure to them at all. There were basically a peasant shoe, soft leather shaped like a foot. I had to do it this way so nothing would rub and my feet could start to heel. They did the trick and I could walk again but they just weren't very good when it came to rain or snow or looks for that matter.

A little more than halfway through our trip I found some new shoes. Actually I fell in love with some new shoes. I got them in Siena, Italy.  You would think they were fine Italian leather right? No, those were super expensive and I had my heart set on a beautiful bag, which I got, so I had to economize and go with leather from the Czech Republic. I act as if they were junk or something but that is not the case at all. They are fantastic. I loved them so much they could have been from America and still would have had trouble buying anything else.

They're chunky and comfy and do great in the ran, I can walk miles and miles in them and they go great with everything. My peasant shoes thankfully didn't have to endure much water, since they couldn't handle it, but no longer than thirty minutes after I got these new shoes we experienced our first downpour in Europe. My feet were dry and toasty and I was saying a thankful prayer the whole time.

I loved them so much that I would always snap photos of them when we were resting. Here are a few to give you an idea of their awesomeness. You can really tell how infatuated I was with them since I didn't realize I was taking a picture of them next to trash but again you get a feel for my affection and for Rome's atmosphere.

 

It's been about three months since we've been home and I still have a hard time wearing anything else. They're on my feet right now and I don't want to take them off. 

Lights Out

All of the bulbs in our house keep going out.....I'm starting to think there's something more going on here, like some little gnome comes in when we're gone and burns one out to watch us exhale deeply in frustration when we flip the switch.

Maybe we have bad electricity or lazy bulbs, maybe Scram just thinks we like it a little too bright in here and he wants to tone it down a bit. Seriously though, 3 separate bulbs in the living room, one in the kitchen, one in our room and before this a few months ago we had several in the guest rooms and a couple in the bathrooms. There may have been one in the laundry room but I'm pretty sure that was my fault.

Perhaps this is God's way of saying, "You're 26 Candice, the dark is not that scary." You know, sometimes you need to exit a room quickly when you can't see what's in every crevice. Either way, I'm super tired of changing bulbs.

Caught Up

You ever have a song that just takes you back? Of course you do, it's like a thing. Well one of mine is Snow (Hey Oh) by Red Hot Chili Peppers and maybe it's the fact that they played at the Super Bowl or the fact that I am avoiding the gym like the plague and listening to random music instead of going,  either way I was listening to it and was instantly transported back to the summer of 2007, the best summer of my entire life.

Warning, this may get mushy.......well with a lead up like 'the best summer of my life' and the fact that it's about my husband guarantees mushiness, so prepare yourself. Anyway, this was the summer that started everything. I started dating/falling in love with Dom. We lived 8 hours away from each other and would visit about once a month. This song was popular at the time and was linked to all my happiness with Dom. 

I'm not sure we even played the song together and the song is labeled the exact opposite of the time period I associate it with but it happened, I associated it with Dom and that summer and so it will forever live on as the best song that gives me butterflies every time I listen to it, even now, 6 1/2 years later and I'm still falling for that guy.