Poor Spence Dog

My poor Spencer hurt his dewclaw over the weekend. (Yes, I had to wikipedia 'dewclaw', I keep calling it his 'thumb claw' ha!)

He kept licking it and licking it Saturday afternoon so I finally decided to put Neosporin on it and wrap it up, otherwise he would have licked his skin raw. It looks like he caught it on something and maybe snagged his claw. Poor pup!
I've been changing the bandage daily, and last night when I went to do it he wouldn't drop his stuffed flea... it was too cute. Like a little kid holding his stuffed animal while he gets his shots!

Don't worry, it's healing up quite well! Bring your thoughlessness along and play with Miss Katie!

PS - Kelly, Spencer has his JewDog in that top picture!

Gives Me Hope

I stumbled across these two sister sites today; GivesMeHope and LoveGivesMeHope. These were founded in response to the FML site where people talk about their day/life being ruined because of something or other.

As they say on their "About Us" page; there is enough negativity in the world arleady... and it's true! While I was scrolling through both sites today, I choked back tears a few times. GivesMeHope and LoveGivesMeHope are where people share with the world their most hopeful, uplifting moments and allow others to draw strength from their experiences. These short snippets are truly beautiful and, like the site name states, can give us all hope!

Here's are a couple of my favorites:

While teaching my tenth grade math class one day, a young man walked in without any warning.

A girl took one quick look at him, grinned, jumped up, and ran to the front of the room to hug him tightly.

The man was her older brother, back from serving in Iraq for over a year.

Their sibling LGMH.


I was on the bus on my way to the mall, when a homeless man sat next to me.

He saw that I was looking at the bouquet of flowers he held, and told me that they were for his wife because today is her birthday.

As he got off the bus, he walked into the cemetery and place the flowers on his wife's grave.

A love that never dies GMH.


Today, at my school there was a talent show.

At the end of it, they announced that there was one final act. It was a junior disabled boy.

As he sung a song & the whole school cheered him on, every second of the song, even though he didn't know one lyric. He had the biggest smile I've ever seen.

I almost cried.

Students that understand GMH.


I am a third grade teacher.

Most kids come in with notes or messages written by their mothers in their lunch sacks.

One little girl's dad left, and her mother abuses drugs. But her 12 year old brother never fails to write "I love you" on her brown paper bag.

He GMH.

Tear jerkers... I warned you!

I definitely suggest you visit GMH or LGMH when you get a free moment! (I'm not receiving compensation or anything, I just thought I'd share these awesome sites with you!)

Shop for a cause!

I just saw this on the lovely miss Jax's blog, Roaring Twenties, and wanted to pass it on!

Print off this coupon and use it for 30% off at Gap, Banana Republic or Old Navy from Thursday to Sunday this weekend. PLUS 5% of your proceeds go to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

My grandma passed away from Leukemia when I was in middle school and it was a horrible thing to watch her battle. So I definitely hope to get in a little shopping and a little donating before we fly out this weekend!

Top 2 Tuesday : Biggest Indulgences

The wonderful miss Neely suggested today's topic for T2T and I love it!

Top 2 Biggest Indulgences

1. Vacations & 2. Denim
I would have to say my Top 2 Indulgences are the same as my Top 2 Splurges - sorry if that makes me boring! I'm in total vacation mode this week, just counting down the days!
I've got my new swimmy suit*
*Don't be fooled - that's not me, that's a Vicky's model!in my suitcase out & ready to go with my favorite Pamela Barsky luggage tags

You can read about some of my favorite trips here:
The naughty monkey in Cancun

The tequila factory in Mazatlan

The glowing water in Montego Bay

The cruise where I was SURE the boat would tip over

Sundance, Snowboarding & Celebu-stalking in SLC

Goldfish S'mores

I bought these the other day at Target, and finally busted open the package this afternoon...
it's taking everything in me not to dig through and eat all the marshmallows, just like in my younger Lucky Charms days.

The Note (and other mischellany's)

I've decided to play along with Carissa (and the other 3/4 of my Reader posts!) and participate in Miscellany Monday this week. I've got a whole slew of things to blab about....

1. The weirdest thing happened this past week... we had a note in our mailbox from someone saying they "were very interested in buying our house." Are my parents ready to sell our house? If the price is right, heck yes! Once I move out they'll be two peas in a very big pod, and if someone is going out of their way to show interest we'll give it a shot! Needless to say we've been cleaning & organizing our butts off. Chris was amazing, he showed up bright & early Saturday morning to make a Goodwill run and powerwash the deck and front porch!

2. You all have convinced me to cut my hair! I'm waiting until after we get back from vacation though - adjusting to non-ponytail-accesible-short-hair whilst in the caribbean is not my idea of a good time!(Perhaps something to this effect... minus the blue streaks I had - those were Superbowl decorations!)

3. Speaking of caribbean... 4 more days of work! Woohoo!

4. We watched Alice & Wonderland last night - the new one. One word. WEIRD. Honestly, I was bored... I could have turned it off after the first 30 minutes and I wouldn't have been mad.

5. The reusable cups I ordered Thursday got here Friday - super impressed with the quick shipping! They are awesome, I called dibs on hot pink!
6. Whilst on the cleaning frenzy this weekend I had a near meltdown caused by the disappearance of my passport. Yep, 1 week from leaving the country and it was not located where it should have been located. Thank god I found it mixed in with some papers on my desk, had I lost it, I would have been applying for my 4th passport... but that's a story for another day.

7. The Indiana State Fair is coming to a close... I can't recall a year that I haven't gone to the fair at least one time. This year was no different... we had a great time with good people and delicious food!
8. Have you ever seen the site MthruF.com? Hilariousness. It's my go-to site when I get bored at work lately. It's full of silly work pranks and things I'm sure you can relate to if you work a 9-5 everyday!


Well, I think that's enough miscellany for now! Have a lovely Monday!

Drink it up

These are the cups I just bought for all 9 people trekkin to Jamaica with us! All-inclusive resorts are amazing, but if there's one thing I've learned it's to bring your own reusable cups! The cups they serve drinks in are teeny tiny and, well, how can you properly celebrate a 50th birthday with 8oz cocktailsPretty darn cute huh? I can't decide which color I want for myself...probably hot pink! I got them off Amazon for about $10/cup, not too bad for a hard-plastic, reusable to-go cup!

Chopped

Lately I've been contemplating taking my hair from this

back to this(circa 2007)

I miss having short hair for a variety of reasons, including but not limited to - shorter drying time, much easier styling, funkier hair color (I don't think fun crazy streaks/multiple colors look right in long hair) and MUCH more volume...

I would miss my long hair though... I wouldn't be able to have long curly hair, I would miss my ponytails, I would look like a boy if I wore a hat...

Cost of upkeep isn't an issue, like I've mentioned before - momma's a hairstylist which makes me one lucky lady!

Thoughts? Discuss amongst yourselves...

PS Check out the adorable little girls quilt I made on my crafty blog

Oh... uh hi

My mom sent me this picture of lil miss Livy Loo.
Love it! Olivia is like "oh...uh hi gram... don't mind me!"

Hard to believe she will be 6 months old next week!

She's such a goober, she is learning how to crawl - but one problem... she can only go in reverse! Her main method of getting somewhere is a mix of crawling backwards and/or rolling over until she gets there.

Top 2 Tuesday : Characters

This week Taylor asked us what our Top 2 Characters You Would Want To Play on a TV Show or Movie

1. Willy Wonka

C'mon... don't even ACT like you wouldn't LOVE to have lickable wallpaper and a chocolate river.

2. Grace (from Will & Grace)

I have almost all the seasons of this on DVD, I can't stop laughing once I put them in. The writers of this show are pure geniuses... I would love to have come up with half of the one-liners they do!

Who would you pick?? Come play along!

PS Thanks for all your sweet comments about my dress I wore to the bachelorette party... I was hiding because I didn't want to stand out more than the bride-to-be! I had to laugh, because I looked back through all the pictures trying to find one that actually shows the dress and there isn't one!

You can find it here, from Ann Taylor Loft - except I belted mine with a thick black belt and wore nude colored open-toed heels (not boots, sorry ha!) I plan on taking it to Jamaica with us in a few weeks, so I'll definitely have pictures then!

Joint bach-y parties

This past weekend Chris & I went to a joint bachelor/bachelorette party. Well, semi-joint... the girls had dinner at Adobo Grill (AMAZING guacamole and margaritas!) , while the guys ate at Fogo de Chao and then we all met at Subterra Lounge downtown.

It was a great time, but at the end of the night I couldn't help but sit back and think it felt less like "one final night of debauchery" and instead just all us friends getting together for no special occasion.

Here's the soon-to-be/already-newlyweds, Kenny & Amanda (They're getting married in Mexico, so they technically already have their marriage license and all that good stuff!)

All of us ladies at dinner

The whole group in our room at Subterra (my thoughts on clubs - always get the VIP room, it makes for much better time!)
The handsome gentlemen (no, they don't typically sit that close, I think the Irish car bombs might have gotten to them)

I was trying to hide my hot pink dress... everyone else was in black (or black & white!)

Have you ever been to a join bachelor/bachelorette party? Thoughts? I must admit though... I like the idea that the fellas aren't running around gallivanting with strippers and skeezy ladies!

Mixer & Mingle Fridays: RangTang & Cran

I haven't done a Mixer & Mingle Friday in a while, and in honor of the bachelorette party I'm attending tonight I think one is well over due!

This has been my go-to cocktail lately, and bartenders never glare at you since it's so simple!

RangTang & Cranberry
Just like your typical vodka & cran, but with this orange/tangerine-flavored vodka it's delicious! (Tastes like Tang, in fact around here they have been putting a tang-rim on martini's made with it!)
I think when you mix it with cranberry juice it tastes like fruit punch or kool-aid!

Plus, Three Olives RangTang is orange in color, which makes drinks even more fun!

Check out my past Mixer & Mingle Cocktails!

Sixteen days

This is my calendar at work (fancy, I know)

Those orange days are long gone, and that little yellow block of happiness at the end of the month... holy hello that's our vacation!

I mean, I knew it was close... but less than 2 1/2 weeks away... oh boy! Little miss Chelsea is getting a little bit excited!!

Have you seen any great summer sales going on lately? Maybe cute swim suits, dresses, shorts... I'm thinking a pre-vacay-mini-shopping-spree is long overdue. Afterall I am mourning the lose of a house ;)

Onto the next one

Well, some things aren't meant to be and that house just wasn't supposed to become mine!

After 6 frustrating days of back-and-forth's I've thrown in the towel and am walking away from that one.

Does it suck? A little bit- it was the first house I've gone so far as to put an offer on. However, last time I checked there's hundreds of other houses out there!

So, thanks for all your sweet words and finger-crossing but ladies... on to the next one!

(shh... Dont tell, but I kinda like the house-hunting process... It's fun to peak inside all these homes and imagine how you'd decorate them and what your life would be like there!)

Beautiful

One afternoon last summer I was outside in the yard helping my mom plant flowers, I just happened to look up to see this little slice of rainbow cloud floating across the sky...
It was the strangest thing, as it hadn't rained all day. I have no idea what caused it or why it happened. It was literally a brightly-colored cloud floating across the sky, until it broke up and disappeared about 15 minutes later. It was one of the prettiest things I've ever seen!

Just a few weeks after that, Chris & I were driving home one evening when we saw a glowing purple light in the distance
Terrible photo, I know, but I was using my phone camera in a moving car! There were no spotlights or tall building lights anywhere near there that could have caused it. It almost looked like the glow of a giant blacklight in the sky!

These little light shows are rare in Indiana, so I have a lifelong dream to make it up north to see the real Aurora Borealis.

Yesterday I came across these pictures on National Geographic's site that just about made me drool - Can you imagine witnessing that gorgeous lit up sky in person?!
[These pictures are from National Geographic's website and I do not claim property of any - am just sharing their beauty!]

Just a little reminder of the beauty that surrounds us that can't be purchased with any amount of money!

I found a porch!

It's been one heck of a weekend! I just wanted to drop in and say...
I put an offer in on a house!
Eeeek!!

Quick, I know. It's new on the market, my realtor sent me the listing Wednesday, Chris & I went and saw it Thursday, took my parents by on Friday afternoon to check it out, I put an offer in Friday evening, they counter-offered this morning and I've counter-countered back already.

Will share more details later - another busy day at work!

P.S. Do me a favor if you could... perhaps keep those fingers crossed for me?