Dear Dad,

Happy Fathers day to my Favorite dad in the world!

Thanks for putting up with my terrible math skills, and finally letting me drop math my senior year because I just didn’t get it.

Thanks for coming to all my dance recitals and competitions, even if they did last allllllllllllll day.

Thanks for eating Burger King for the entire week of Nutcracker rehearsal/performance every year.

Thanks for “always being on my side”.

Thanks for reading all the Harry Potter books to me, even when I was a senior in high school.

Thanks for providing two wedding receptions for me.

Thanks for supporting me all through collage.

Thanks for making me the princess, and the favorite child.

Thanks for sending me flowers on Valentines day in high school, just to make sure I felt loved.

Thanks for carrying me through the mud…. literally.

Thanks for always being so great that my friends say “I love your dad”, because I do too.

Thanks for all the pep talks when there are tearful calls home…. still.

Thanks for loving me through that “awkward looking” phase of life.

Thanks for paying for all of my parking tickets in high school so I could graduate. Did I tell you that you did?

(awkward family photo anyone?)

Thanks for building all of those amazing science projects for the “easy” physics class I took. You pretty much bought my grade :)

Thanks for the kitty funeral we had, and for being the only other person who attended.

Thanks for all the weird nick names, and my personal fav, squido.

Love This Daddy

The One That Got Away

I only have a few hours before the sun goes down and I again become mortified to be home alone. We will see how I feel after this post if I’ll actually be able to stay and clean, or if I’m going to have to run away, haha. The sad thing is, it’s true. So here’s what happened….

Last Wednesday, February 15, I had the day off because my parents were coming in town that night. I spent all day cleaning. Literally all day, from 10 am to 4:30 pm. The house looked amazing! Jim came home from work at around 5:30 and started to tell me about what was going on at the end of the street. There were a few cop cars, and a few all black under cover cars at the house two houses down across the street. Jim said there were cops everywhere and a couple guys hand cuffed on the ground. Fast forward to about 6:45 when I went outside to tell Jim I was ready to leave because I really just HAD to go to Bath and Body works to get some “spring soap” before my parents get in town. I know, I know, I’m a soap snob and we only had Christmas soap left!! Anyway, we left about 5 minutes later down the opposite end of the street.

After Bath and Body we had to pick up my parents from the air port. Jim had asked me while we were at the air port if I wanted to take my parents stuff back to the house and then dinner, or just go straight to dinner. I was starving (go figure) so I said dinner and then home. Now it’s about 9:15 and when we pulled in I could hear Chief going CRAZY in the house. Usually when we get home he knows its us and he will bark maybe once or twice, just to say hi and then he comes out through his doggy door or he waits on his bed in the kitchen for us. My mom wasn’t Chief’s biggest fan so I wanted to go in and calm him down so that my mom wouldn’t freak out when she came inside. Everything was fine when I got inside and Chief was just excited to see us. While Jim, my mom, and my dad were getting suitcases inside and getting everything situated I saw a couple things in the family room that I had forgotten to take to my bedroom earlier so I wanted to hurry and  put those away before my mom thought that I was messy.

Chief has a track record of chewing things like TV remotes, base boards, our ataman, shoes… you get the picture. We have a baby gate that keeps him locked in the kitchen, and down the hall to our bedroom. we keep all the doors in the hallway closed because he has eaten a Costco size thing of paper towels out of the pantry before too. So this is what things look like for Chief on a regular day.

And that’s what it looked like when we got home too. How was I suppose to know anything had gone on? When I opened the door to the bedroom I saw a bunch of white stuff on the ground before I even got the chance to turn the light on. My first thought was “Holy crap, Chief!! He ate a bunch of stuff out of the garbage can again!” Then it hit me. I was the one that had opened the door, Chief hadn’t been in there. Then I realized all the drawers were opened and it was my clothes everywhere. I imidiately started to scream for Jim (on the complete opposite end of the house) we met in the kitchen and down the hall Jim and my dad went. The sliding glass door was open just enough to get a body through. It’s really heavy, and it doesn’t slide really easy so you have to put your whole body into opening and closing it.

We had been coming and going all day through all the doors in the back of the house and we had left two doors unlocked. We didn’t put the bar to the sliding glass door down, and the laundry room door was unlocked too. Needless to say, they were in our bedroom and were clearly looking for fast money. They only things stolen were a couple of my watches, and a charm bracelet. On Saturday morning when Jim went to leave for tennis we learned they stole his tennis bag with tennis balls and his tennis racket. We didn’t have any cash hiding anywhere so they really didn’t get much. The things that they took were really weird, I mean I had a bracelet from Tiffany’s sitting with my watches, a diamond necklace in a box that was on the same shelf, but they didn’t take those. I kinda feel weird listing other valuable things we had that they didn’t take because well, this is the web and those creepers could be creeping my blog!!

I think this picture helps with explaining what could have happened. The gate was open just a little bit so we think that they had tried the other two doors first. I honestly can’t remember if the laundry room door to the hall was open or not, but I have been in the habit of leaving it open because I like  Chief to have more room, and I know how much he looooooves looking out windows. Either way, Chief was on the other side of the door and no one would venture in uninvited with Chief. He looks scary, a big black 100lb dog, and even if you don’t see him, his bark is alarming. I think that after they saw/heard chief and then saw that the bedroom door was unlocked and that the door to the hall was closed, it was an easy hit. Chief couldn’t get into the bedroom, unfortunately. As you can see from the picture that there is an irrigation ditch that runs right behind our house and you can get into it from either end of the street. No one knows you are back there, and it’s not very deep. It’s probably 5 feet from the top of our fence to the ground on the other side. Then with the stairs to the slide, easy easy easy.

Once the cops finally arrived they were able to find 2 finger prints, we are just hoping that they aren’t our own. We asked the officer if she thought that the incident at the end of the street had anything to do with our house. She checked the report from earlier and it turns out that the guys in handcuffs use to live in that house and were trying to get in to get the rest of their stuff. Unfortunately, she had run into the prior week and they “weren’t very good guys”. We left around 6:50 and the last officer left them at 7:11. There’s a good chance that it was them because they knew the neighborhood, but she also said it could have been as random as someone walking down the the ditch and seeing that the latch was up. Chief has graduated from being locked in the kitchen to fullllllllll range of the house. He loves it, he even treated himself to 4 boxes of girl scout cookies. I seriously couldn’t be more grateful for my dog. Had he not been here things would have been a lot worse. I’m so happy that no one was harmed and that the things that were taken were only material and can essentially be replaced. I do happen to be the biggest baby now. I’m terrified of everything, jump at the sound of ice falling in the freezer, and I have nightmares nearly every night. But we are doing everything we can to make our house safer, and I feel like we’ve done a pretty good job.

*I did not proof read this because honestly the story freaks me out*

2011 In Review

Hey Blog, I’m still mad at you, so let’s not get use to me posting, mmmmk? Last time I went to write a post I got all the way done, and when I went to add the pictures all hell broke loose. Needless to say, I was so frustrated, I was near tears, and ended up taking a nap instead. Now I’m only here to post about the last year in our lives. Unfortunately it calls for a lot of pictures. I hope this one goes better.

January

Well January was apparently a pretty boring month. They only pictures I have are of Chief (shocker) and our table and our bed. We just moved into our house so furniture was a priority. We bought our dinning room table, and decorated our bedroom a little bit. Boring? We will move on.

February

February was pretty low key as well. We went to Sedona for Valentines day and it was so fun! I’d never been there before and I really cant wait to go back. My parents also came to visit us at the end of the month and we did lots of fun things! We went to a Spring Training game, and the only picture I took the whole time was of the spider that was found on my Nacho. What a memory.

March

We took a fun trip to Mexico with our friends Cj and Savanna and the doggies! They love Mexico to say the least, I mean look at the excitement on Chiefs face waiting for Jim to through his fetcher. Not to mention the awful family photo that we got. Chief gave us a total of 5 seconds of his time.

April

April we celebrated our BIRTHDAYS!!!!!!!!!!!! These are the only pictures that I was able to find from them, but I do remember they were sure fun! Also we had Shelby’s bridal shower that was amazing, again, the only picture I have.

May

May could have been my favorite month. We went on a Cruise with our friends Kyle and Brook, and it was AMAZING to say the least. I really want to do it again, ya? It was Also Shelby’s wedding the week later, and I had to go on Facebook to get this picture, and it’s not even a good one! Thanks Becca!

June

June was exciting. After Shelby’s wedding we had to get ready for Melissa’s so we took a trip to Idaho. We even made our way to Ruppert’s Festival Days (I think). There was popcorn, mangos, and fireworks involved.

July

Clearly, July was jam packed with excitement! Melissa and Charlton tied the knot on his birthday, and we made a couple trips to Utah, and celebrated our one year Anniversary! I was so happy to see my Family in July, it’s only once a year that we are all together, and it’s usually just for a few days. July is right up there with May in my book. Congratulations babe, you made it ONE YEAR with me. You deserve a metal!

August

August was pretty low key, trying to recover after July. Spent a day by the pool, and then met this little guy for the first time.

September

Spent the weekend in Mexico with Nick and Shelby, and enjoyed the company of Chief. We are so happy that we have friends who just love our dog almost as much as we do. You can borrow him anytime! We also went to the ASU black out game and got to sit with Kyle and Brook and their family! It was so fun and we actually won! YAY!

October

The parents came to visit again. Lucky us! Too bad these are again, the only pictures taken. Clearly, we were always having a party! Reading by the pool?… come on….

November

We spent Thanksgiving in Flagstaff with the doggy, and it was fun. We went on some very beautiful drives and it was exactly what I needed before the crazy Holiday season! Then the next week we had a redo Thanksgiving at Paige and Glen’s and we went the whole 9 yards… except we may have had to return a defrosted turkey for lack of deep fryer.

December

We celebrated Christmas! YAY! This was my first Christmas away from my parents, and I SURVIVED! I have amazing family in Arizona and they really did save my life. I don’t know what I would do without them! We also got to spend some time with MELISSA who lives in Florida! I really really need her to move back! And we went to Jim’s work party… Turns out there was no Ugly sweater contest… Awkward…. (please pay no attention to my orange face, it wasn’t that bad in real life… promise)

My Battle With Addiction

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I have a serious addiction. I’m slightly worried for myself. If you’ve never heard of the website pinterest feel free to exit my blog and no longer be my friend. Just kidding, I want everyone to be my friend. But It’s my addiction. I look through everything my friends have pinned, I look through the “everything” tab constantly, and I even go as far to pin at red lights (at least they are red?). Most of my conversations don’t only consist of “So I was reading this blog…” it’s “I was reading this blog that I found on pinterest….” I tell you friends, I need to go to AA for pinners.

But a few good things have come from this fabulous website. I feel like I’ve not only gained another 104 friends, I’m developing those amazing crafty talents that I always knew were deep down in there.  I’ve found soooo many good recipes from pinterest and they have all gotten a “repeat” from Hub. You can check out my amazing web cookbook here.  Aside from good food and cute outfits, they have amazing tutorials. This is where I found my tutorial for my amazing coffee filter wreath (not my giant powdered doughnut). I’ve found some really cute printables from pinterest as well and they are all over my house, I’ve even gone so far as to make my own because of this amazing website.

Now that I’ve got all you non-pinners excited about how great it is, I’ve got one more thing to show you. My current pride and joy, this amazing ruffle tree skirt. The second I laid eyes on this tutorial I knew this was a project that I could conquer. That’s just what I did. I had a few minor set backs… like a dead car battery when I went to leave for the fabric store, and then a hungry hub after I finally got there, and once I started I ran out of glue sticks. The tutorial that I followed was really good, so I’ll just direct to it here. Pretty great huh? Instead of canvas, or painter’s drop cloth, I used white denim that I found at a fabric store that was going out of business. I imagine that the painters canvas would be cheaper than denim though.

What is the most crazy about these pictures is that they don’t show just how big it really is. It is HUGE! But it’s ok, because I LOVE it!

But now I’m off to make these lovely sugar balls, and maybe to pin a few more things. I’d be lying to you if I said I didn’t pin like 10 things in between writing this, and editing, and looking at pictures.

If you see anything on pinterest that you think I’ve missed and I would like, please tag me in your repinning! Seriously, I’m obsessed.