Almost time....

In 24 hours I will be on my way to Springfield for my friend Laura's wedding!!! We have a long weekend planned with lots of fun girly activities, bright pink drinks and of course the big shindig sunday afternoon! :) I wish I were leaving today and didn't have another day at work! I feel like this right now.....



...achingly waiting for the clock to strike 5 so I can go home and pack! :)

PS-That photo was taken the day we bought the baby gates so we could keep lil Mia in the same room as us to assist with the potty training. Yeah, 2 days later she learned to jump over them! Good thing I have a nephew so these will still be handy from time to time!

Mia vs. the birds

These past two days have been puppyi-centric! On monday I had to go out to Loose Park for a family photo shoot. I brought Spencer along as my "assistant" and we decided Mia should come too and get some energy burned out. (That puppy is like a freight train... Nothing can stop her sometimes!)
Well, let me tell you...that girl LOVES the park! She met lots of other puppies, sniffed a few butts and found a fascination with frisbees. We went again last night for over an hour, and I think its going to be our new thing as many nights as we can! :)


She was a little nervous when we first arrived....then again Spencer did put her on top of the car for a minute while he closed the door!


...the nervousness didn't last long. This girl is FEARLESS!


She did a lot of this. She just wanted to run after all of the birds and squirrels sooo badly! Spencer accidentally let the leash slip out of his hand once and she sprinted off after a frisbee...hmmm I wonder if she thought it was a bird?


A long trip at the park just tuckered her out! She slept like this the whole 10 minute drive home, and then crashed in her kennel the second we got home!

Chickpea Soup and Mushroom burgers

I had an absolutely fantastic birthday weekend!



Friday when I got home from class Spencer had made me a wonderful dinner. He slaved over the stove for almost 6 hours and the result was an absolutely amazing chickpea soup! It had the creamy consistency of twice-baked potato soup and was seasoned so well that it just melted in my mouth. He then made grilled chicken with a grape/apple chutney on top that was TOO DIE FOR! He started saying he saw flaws in the chicken, but to me I had never eaten anything better. :) He makes me smile all the time without even realizing it. After our beautiful dinner we broke out our desert of Ben & Jerry's ice cream and popped in Marley & Me.

I was absolutely terrified I would hate this movie because I had read the book a few years ago, and I just didn't think it was possible to do justice to the amazing story that John Grogan had written! ...and I was partly correct. The movie was not anywhere near as good as the book was, but it was a truly a fantastic story, and well acted. I laughed, I cried and I realized that the years we have with our Mia are ones that we need to treasure everyday, and never take for granted. :)

Saturday I had class again, for the last time! Yay for desert summer class being over! After class Spencer's parents took us to Lidia's italian restaurant for my birthday. Lidia is a world renown chef with her own cooking show. We had the Pasta Trio which includes Lidias signature Caesar salad and choice of (Tiramisu for me please!) The pasta was amazing! The first was a spaghetti marinara with basil and fresh mozzarella. The second a corkscrew pasta with a light creamy white sauce, sausage, broccolini and cheese. The third a 5 cheese stuffed ravioli in a light white wine sauce. Everything was superb, and they got me Annie Leibovitz's book, "Women."

Sunday Spencer and I slept in until 11am! Something I have not done in a LONG time! Then we went shopping and bought some beef and burger accessories. Steph, Joe, Zach, Sarah, Alexa and Jimmy all came over for bbq, beers and some gametime. It was a fantastic day with great friends, great conversation and a gigantic battle between Mia and the giant plastic cup she stole from Sarah and ran around the yard with.

I can't think of a better way to have spent my 25th birthday....ok, well maybe it would have been better without the school part!

I'm 25!

Happy Birthday to me!

I have a big weekend planned for myself. Last night started the festivities when Spencer gave me a BEAUTIFUL entertainment center! Tonight when I get home Spencer and I are going to hang out at home and watch Marley & Me. Tomorrow night we are going out to a wonderful dinner with his parents, and on sunday having some good friends over for bbq and beers! :)

25 feels so old...I just keep thinking back to an episode of Sex in the City where Carrie's friends are late to her birthday dinner. She's sitting upset thinking they forgot about her, and then she hears singing! A cake starts coming toward her and then she finds out, its not for her...its for the girl sitting at the table next to her. The girl next to her gets the cake and yells out, "25! Fuc* i'm old!" haha. Long story short...25 feels WAY older than 24!

Mia vs. the Potty

We are in the middle of potty-training Mia and she is doing really well! However, he last 2 days she has had some interesting encounters with pee....
Yesterday afternoon I took her outside. It was a beautiful afternoon and while we walked around outside, the neighbor came out with his dog. He just got a puppy from Wayside Waifs that is 9 months old. He is a LOT bigger than Mia, but so sweet and attention loving. Mia trotted over to the fence for a little meet and greet. They sniffed each other through the fence saying hello in a nose-to-nose kind of way. Little Mia's tail wouldn't stop wagging and she just wanted to go to the other side of the fence so she could run and play! ....and then it happened....the neighbors dog took a step back and then turned and peed on Mia through the fence! Poor little thing jumped out of the way but still got it in her face and down her entire chest! Our neighbor was mortified but I just couldn't stop laughing! I told him that he was just marking his territory and would hopefully grow out of it! Then Mia came inside and got a bath.

Then there was today... I'm not sure how to take it...
Today was the first day at work that Spencer had to open, so he left the house the same time I did (8am) that means that this is the first day Mia will be home by herself all afternoon! We put her in the bathroom with her kennel (door open) and some toys to play with. Today I went home for lunch. I let her out and then decided I needed to go to the bathroom myself. While I was sitting there I looked down, and there was water all over the top of her kennel....and then I realized it's not water at all! The little squirt climbed on top of her kennel and peed on it! My only thought it that maybe she was thinking she would pee up there and then it would be out of her way so she wouldn't have to walk on it.... I don't know.... she just makes me laugh sooo hard sometimes!

A beautiful day!

This is going to be such a busy weekend!!! Tonight I am meeting with my group for class at 5:30 and then heading home to clean up the house and unpack a few boxes. (At least when i'm not busy trying to entertain our little Mia that is!)
I may take a quick detour to Target however and pick up this little beauty...Spencer and I are in desperate need of a few good bookcases, and this one matches the desk in the back room beautifully! I think it might just require a purchase tonight. :)



Tomorrow morning I am going to take some time to lay outside a bit and work on the tan, and then come in and make sure everything is clean. It's Laura's Bachelorette party! Starting with an afternoon of pedicures and good conversation, the night will end with a fabulous dinner and Dueling Piano's w/cocktails! No Penis cups and boozing debauchery for this classy little lady! :)

Sunday I plan to relax, do some homework and unpack more. :) Lots to do! We're supposed to have temperatures in the low 80's all weekend here in Missouri, and I plan to revel in it as much as possible!

Hopefully i'll get to spend lots of time with my little girl too!!! She's getting so big!


"Woof Woof" (Happy Weekend everyone!)

Wedding Invitations

In the process of moving and taking my summer class, I also had to prepare for my friend Laura's big day! This weekend is her bachelorette party, and a few weeks ago was her bridal shower. For both of these I have made invitations! I had never made party invitations before, but I had a lot of fun doing it!

This is the bridal shower invite. The black bar was actual black ribbon and there was a blue bow in the middle of the black. This is of course the illustrator file so it is without the ribbon.

...and this is the invite for the bachelorette party! I love that the background looked like raindrops for the shower, and looks like fizzy bubbles for the party. :) I'm pretty happy about how they turned out!


Next up is designing her programs for the actual wedding. They will be tiffany blue, black and white (her colors!)

Grad School

For my class on sustainability I had to post a blog on what sustainability really means to me. I'm really happy with my response. Usually on blog posts you are lucky to get 1 comment, but after only about 12 hours I have gotten 3!
this is my post...

SHOULD SHE TAKE THE GARBAGE OUT?

When I was a little girl my mother used to read Shel Silverstein poems to me. My favorite poem was about a girl named Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout. This little girl adamantly refused to take the garbage out. This poem gave me dreams as a child that one day our garbage was going to take over our lives until we were swimming in it.


Image by Chelsea Carolyn
It’s scary images like this that inspire people to begin the process of reduce -reuse -recycle. Blue bins now line the streets on trash pick-up day, and recycle signs designate the appropriate can for your bottle around the office. Unfortunately, recycling paper and plastic isn’t all it’s going to take. In “The story of stuff”, Annie Leonard stated that, for every can of waste put on the curb, 70 cans of waste were made to produce the contents of that can. “So even if we could recycle 100 percent of the waste coming out of our households,” she said, ” it doesn’t get to the core of the problem.”

So what can we do? The answer is sustainability. Sustainability is to maintain and provide for. To keep the planet healthy, rather than make it worse for the wear. To conserve our resources, eliminate waste, develop clean air technologies, invest in waste-water solutions. The planet Earth is complex, and to sustain our planet it is going to take multiple efforts.

So what can Sylvia Stout do? What can one person do to help maintain the planet?

She can constantly educate herself to make the right choices based on what is best for the environment. She can recycle, choose to buy products without bulky packaging, use natural pesticides that are toxin free. She can refrain from buying the newest phone every six months and throwing away the old. She can change light bulbs to fluorescent to cut down on energy consumption, or ride a bike instead of driving. The possibilities are limitless, but the first step is making the commitment to consider the planet a top priority and provide for its health and safety.

-Jenni Brown


To view the blog go here and read what my classmates thought about the issue. :)

Thank you!

Today I won my very first blog award from the lovely K. Law!


Upon being bestowed with such an honor, I get the opportunity to tell everyone 10 things you might not know about me.

1. I am terrified of styrofroam. It makes me cringe from my head to my toes and squeal with every little squeak! When I was a waitress at On the Border the other servers used to chase me with take-out boxes.

2. I love skirts and dresses. I never feel prettier than when I have on a pair of heels with a cute skirt!

3. I love Disney Movies. Even the cheesy ones they have been coming out with lately. I just love relaxing on the couch with a feel-good Disney movie. It just feels good...yeah, and as I type this i'm watching High School Musical 3... it's not terrible. Kind of cute. :)

4. I desperately try to see the bright side of things whenever possible. Sometimes it gets hard, but I don't like sweating the small stuff and unless I prioritize then things really eat away at me.

5. I have a fascination with rain. I love sleeping in on rainy days, I love days when the rain falls outside and you can just sit in the living room staring out at it like you are in a big bubble. I also love the idea of getting caught in a rainstorm with that special someone....although that has yet to happen... :)

6. I want a scooter really bad. I want to paint it bright pink and drive it around town. It's not to be eco-friendly or save money on gas... I just think they are ridiculously cute and it looks like a lot of fun!

7. I love Mexican food. I seriously crave it so much that you would think I'm a pregnant woman

8. I daydream about being a novelist and living in Paris wearing yellow raincoats and cute hats.

9. I don't ever really see anything as being impossible, just something that will take a lot of work to get to. My real conundrum is trying to make a decision of whether the hard work is worth it or not.

10. I enjoy working out more when I have a cute new outfit to wear. I just got new shorts for $8 and I actually worked out for almost a full hour today!

Thanks Kristin!I would like to bestow this honor on Notes from the ToothFairy! her blog is ridiculously cute! and... Daily Violets for her sweet posts!

Crazy times

Its been a busy week around our house lately! I finished all of the trim last night...FINALLY...and spencer worked on the bathroom. We had this awful lighting fixture. You know the type... bar of mirrored glass with bare bulbs sticking out the front. It just made the room unflattering. Last night spencer replaced that light with a pretty new one, wired the wall for a new light socket inside of the cabinet so we could plug in the toothbrush, his razor, etc. and installed a toilet paper holder in the wall. It looks soooo mugh better now, but we're not done yet! Once we finish i'll post photos of it.

We also had a nice suprise today. We ripped up the carpet in the "man den" and its beautiful inch thick hardwood underneath! Eventually we're going to rip the carpet out of most of the rooms and then stain it a deep expresso color. I think it will be simply lovely!

No picture today, but enjoy my newest music favorite. "I Love My Tamagotchi" by Loony! Back in 7th grade my tamagotchi was a puppy and I named him Scamp.

The Sock Monster

Mia was so freaking cute this morning. I was getting ready for work. Right now our house is still a mess and I can't find the screws to attach the mirror to my vanity, so i was sitting on the floor in front of the mirror. Spencer was in the living room typing away on the computer and Mia was running back and forth between the two of us. Her prize of the morning was finding one of Spencer's socks. She picked it up and started wagging her tail, so excited at what she had found! She then spent the next 10 minutes running from room to room, sock dangling from mouth, excited and bouncy as she showed off her new toy.

...Being at work is hard...

So sad!

This Poor traumatized little puppy!

Everything is going to be ok...

Sometimes when life gets you down, you have to remind yourself of the reasons why everything is going to be alright. Even if the very worst thing happens, there are still things to smile about, like...

* Mia's welcome home kisses & tail wagging... it doesn't matter what the day has been like, I know she's always going to make me smile when I walk in the door.
* Spencer's messages saying, "No matter what happens, just remember that I love you."
* Hydrogen Peroxide. It may sting, but those little bubbles are a welcome sign that the worst is over.
* Having good plans with good people for a long night of dog chasing and top chef watching
* Ice cream...and lots of it. I have some Phish Food at home, and I might just eat the entire carton tonight.
* Writing all of these out and smiling as I realize that maybe everything isn't going to be terrible for long.

So that's that....and here's to hoping that pigs don't fly, and rocks don't fall from the sky at 5:00 tonight.

Mia

You've seen her pictures, but I would like to formally introduce you all to Mia!


We named her Mia, after Amelia Bedilia because the lil girl is such a klutz! The first night home she bumped into the wall, the table, the doorframe, the window...you name it and she hit her head on it! After we picked the name, we also found some other reasons why we loved the name.

1. When we get upset with her we can yell, "Mama Mia!"
2. When I was little I wanted to be Minnie Mouse when I grew-up. I had 2 hampsters and both of them I named "Minnie" after my idol. Well, Mia DOES have the ears...and it sounds a little like Mini!
3. She just looks like a Mia!
4. She goes "Missing in Action" quite a bit and we have to go searching for her.

She has already wormed her way into our hearts and we can't imagine not having her here! Although she does have a few faults...like chewing on cords, shoes, fingers, toes...pretty much everything...she really is a great puppy!

*She is already on the path to being potty-trained, and has only had about 1-2 accidents a day.
*Will sleep until 5:30-6:30am most mornings.
*She is FEARLESS! She isn't afraid of the vacuum, thunder, lightening, fireworks, blow-dryers, etc.
*Hygiene won't be an issue. She loves water and jumps in the shower on her own.
*She loves being brushed.

It's been crazy since we brought her home but she is adapting amazingly well and knows who her mom and dad are! Yesterday she ran around the backyard and helped dad trim all the tree branches. I can't wait for more adventures with our Mia!

...a few more photos of our little girl!


Her first car ride. She was just dying to lick Spencer all over his face!


Playing tug with "rope toy". Her favorite game!


Running after dad in the backyard... She was "helping" him trim the trees.

Finally Home.

Take a seat, grab a glass of wine and sit back. It's update time!

Spencer and I are finally all settled in at our new home! It's been quite an adventure and a LOT of late nights! Thursday, 2 weeks ago, we painted the living room and Friday I started painting the trim in the living room. This has been the most difficult room. The color on the walls originally was almost the exact same shade as the color we painted it...when the paint was wet. Sooo we had to wait for paint to dry before going over it with a second coat. It was a very long night of trying to tell the difference between old paint, wet paint, new paint. haha (one paint, two paint, red paint, blue paint!) Friday I started painting the trim, and it has been such a headache! The previous homeowners had painted the trim white in all of the rooms...except the living room. It looked so odd because they painted 1 side of each doorway white and then left the underside, and the side in the living room natural wood. All I can say is....blech. I'm actually STILL not done because I ran out of paint... and painted the windows shut. Doh!

It really has been driving me nuts and it looks so odd because they painted 1 side of each doorway white and then left the underside, and the side in the living room natural wood. All I can say is....blech.
So here is a photo of the living room before... This was with the previous homeowners furniture. Yes, the curtains made me a little seasick too.


And this is our wonderful soothing after. I just took this photo yesterday so it was a few days after painting. We have to have custom blinds cut for the large picture window in the middle which is why the little curtains are over it.It's a work-in-progress but some of our furniture is in and my mom got us these pretty roses as a housewarming!


Friday night we took a break on the painting of rooms and Spencer went with Sarah and Zach to get our couches from tha apartment, and then my mom, her fiance, my brother-in-law and my sister surprised us by coming over with trucks and strong hands to help move more stuff! They did a load and filled both trucks helping us out a ton! I stayed at the new house with my sister and lil Nephew, Collin, and painted trim... told you its been a pain!

Saturday was a really crazy day! It was the bridal shower for my good friend Laura.

I made decorations and the invitations centered around this graphic. For the party we had lots of yummy snacks and I brought some delicious white sangria made with Riesling wine, apple juice, pineapple juice, apple slices and grapes. It was FANTASTIC! We had fun playing toilet paper gown fashion sh
This is Laura with her 3 "models". The girl in the yellow won!

Followed by watching laura answer some embarrassing questions. Laura is such a great friend! I can't wait to stand up there as a bridesmaid and watch her get married!

After the Bridal Shower I drove home (after getting lost a little bit). Thank you Garmin! Spencer and his mom met me and we went back to the apartment where we loaded up everything that could fit into the truck. I had to help him carry a very heavy dresser and I swear I almost dropped the big thing down the stairs. It was pretty painful.... but we got quite a bit loaded up and all of the food out of the fridge, which is quite an adventure in itself since it has to stay cold! (good thing we only moved 15 minutes away!)
As we drove home it started to rain! I think we set a record on getting furniture ran into the house and wiping everything down so that the wood didn't get damaged!
We fell asleep the second we got everything in the door and didn't wake-up until 10am the next day!

After we woke-up we ran and got some Lamar's donuts...which are just ridiculously tasty! Spencer had to work, but Spencer's dad came over and helped me paint the bedroom and finish up Spencers "Man Den."
The bedroom before was bright orange and just felt like a cave. The walls just sucked the color into them and no matter how many lights I had on, or windows I had open, it was ridiculously dark!
This is the cave room beforehand...


And this is the light, airy room now that it's been painted. It feels like a breath of fresh air in there and the light just bounces around the room and fills it up with sunshine!


The "Man Den" was next. The original room was a babies room and it was so yellow! When we originally put our new color on the wall we couldn't figure out why our paint looked yellow. Then we looked up... yeah, they painted the ceiling light yellow!


And this is our bright green after! Soon this room will be packed full of guitars, recording equipment and art!


I worked on the bathroom on monday, but it's not completed yet so that photo will have to come at another time. We still have a lot to do, but its quickly becoming a beautiful home for the two of us! We love it here and can't wait to spend more time together building memories and buying things to fill our space. Today Spencer spent his entire day trimming trees and making our backyard clean and fantastic... but that's another post all together!

I would also like to introduce you to the newest member of our family. Mia! Tuesday we drove down to get her and it was an amazing adventure! You can see her peeking her little head into a lot of the photos. We love her so much!!! I'll post a little more about her later on.

M.I.A.

I have been missing in action for a few days. Sorry guys! I really need to write a proper post about our move soon and just haven't had the time! We have officially completed the big move and are living in boxes right now. I really want to post photos but I can't find my camera cord! grrr.
In other news our little girl is absolutely adorable! She has started to find her bark and likes to chew on cords, so she is a bit of a handful, but we love her so much! Her name is Mia and she is fearless! vacuums, blow-dryers, lightening, high spaces... nothing scares Mia!
Well, better get to un-packing! Photos will be coming soon, I promise!!!