Allie's Adventures

For those of you who have not met Allie, this is my puggle puppy:

I have wanted a dog for pretty much my entire life, but my mom never wanted one. So when I moved into my own apartment I knew I wanted a dog of my own soon. I have had Allie for almost 6 months now (since the end of January). I bought her from a breeder in Cooper, Texas and brought her home with me. She is very sweet and loves to curl up with people. She is also extremely skittish and has a hard time warming up to people she does not know. It takes her a while to warm up, but once she does you are part of the family!

Allie has recently gotten into a phase where she likes to explore everything which includes wanting to run away. The first time she ever got away was during our weekend in Abilene when we came outside to find her sitting on the wrong side of the gate just watching Sasha in the backyard! Ever since I got back from Florida, Allie has learned that she can get out of my mom's backyard and anytime she is left alone for more than 10 seconds she will run out (yes, seriously, she was out there for less than 30 seconds one day and got out!). And Allie will not come when you call her, not even if you offer her an entire bag of treats. Needless to say this has been a very stressful month and has led to some stressful nights at my mom's when Allie has gotten away and scared me that she might not come back!

I went to a conference this week in Austin, so Allie got to spend the week with Uncle Jeremy, Aunt Aja and cousin Maggie. I warned them before I left about Allie's new fascination with escaping and how hard it is to catch her once she gets out because she really does run so fast! Well I got a call on Wednesday night to tell me that Allie had dug her way out of their fence (even though she has never tried to dig outside any other time) and spent 45 minutes out in their neighborhood before they could get her. I felt so terrible that she had caused so much trouble, but she had her adventure for the night.

Well now she is home safe and we are working on more training so she will listen better--we have been to training classes and work on things all the time, but she needs a lot more practice! I did decide to make Allie a new bed today though! I have been wanting to get her a bed for a while but have not found one I liked/I could afford. So I found a simple pattern and bought some cheap material and set to work. It was not hard to make at all and she LOVES it!

Her favorite thing to do right now is pick it up and carry it everywhere. She might be small but she is strong and carries lots of things around! Earlier I was heading to the bedroom and called her to come and she turned around to get the bed and brought it with her!

Now we just got back in from our walk a little while ago and she is passed out from being so tired--It's a hard life being a puppy!

I'm Dreaming of a Kitchenaid Mixer...

So I decided tonight that I wanted to do some baking! Lately I have been browsing through many baking and cooking blogs to see what I can find. I have come across many different recipes that look amazing. But tonight I decided to go with some Chocolate Chip Cookies (you can't go wrong with those!) recipe courtesy of Bake or Break--Adventures of an amateur baker.

I gathered up all the ingredients (which I happened to have all in my kitchen--I was so excited not to have to buy anything!) and got started (and of course documented with pictures!)

After making a mess in my kitchen--which I always do whenever I am baking, it's just a way of life for me--I got the cookies in the oven and they baked up. I just had one and they are SO good. They have the right amount of chocolate and wow, I just love them!

The only thing that would have made my night of baking better is if I had a lovely Kitchenaid Mixer to help with the process. Seriously, I am obsessed with these mixers and dream of owning one some day! (sadly enough, I really have had a dream about buying one--I had a dream that they were on sale and I got so excited and got one... yes, I do realize that's pathetic!). One day I will have a Kitchenaid in my kitchen, but until then, I will have to make do with what I've got.

I love Wednesday Walks

So I just got back from taking Allie-girl for a nice long walk! She has been missing her walks a lot lately. The week she stayed with Uncle Nick, they did not take walks because he just let her run in the backyard. And I was so busy at work last week we didn't go on many. And this week it has rained in the evenings when I wanted to take her. So I got home from work and we headed out. We went to the park and walked around the pond and it felt so good to get out (even though it is VERY hot!). Now she is passed out on my bed, but we are about to get up and find some dinner!

This week has been going pretty well. Work has been crazy for pretty much the last 2 months, and I think I am finally learning to adjust to all the changes! I had 2 visits cancel yesterday, which was bad, but also a blessing because I had office time to actually get stuff done! So when I left yesterday I felt very good about where I'm at with work. Things are crazy and there is still a lot to get done, but I have hope that things might actually get done :)

And now I am off to enjoy a relaxing evening of T.V. and cuddling with my puppy! Hope yours is great too...

Weekend full of walks, weddings, and work...

So my 4 day week back at work was very crazy and busy! It was hard to come back from vacation into all the craziness again, but I was very glad when the weekend arrived!

Friday night I stayed at home with my Allie-girl and we watched TV and hung out. I rented the 1st disc of Season One of Ugly Betty. My family loves this show and I decided to check it out. I really liked it, so now I need to go get the next disc!

Saturday I "slept in"--Allie woke up WAY too early, but we managed to go back to sleep and dozed off and on until about 9:30. Then I worked on cleaning my apartment. Things have been so crazy that I haven't had a chance to do a real deep cleaning in a while, so it felt good to clean everything up and get things in order! Then I decided Allie needed her fun morning out, so we went for a walk and then went to the dog park! I forgot to take my camera, so I don't have any pictures, but Allie had a blast playing with the other dogs--she especially loved a little bulldog puppy that was there. She loves to just follow everyone around and run to have other dogs chase her.

After a good hour of play time, we came back home so I could get ready to go to Tonya and Charlie's wedding in Tyler. Allie crashed as soon as we got home, so I was able to get ready pretty easily. Scott came over and we headed out to Tyler. It was a beautiful ceremony and reception--and it represented the two of them and their passions very well! And I of course loved getting some time with one of my best friends, the beautiful Erin who was an amazing bridesmaid!
This morning, I went to church and then lunch with some friends. Now I am home in my pajamas and unfortunately I have to do some work. Luckily, my friend lent me her work computer so I can get things done pretty quickly. Then hopefully I can get some rest before another crazy week begins!

Hope you all have a wonderful and relaxing Sunday!

back to reality...

So I'm am back to real life now! We got back home around 2:00 on Monday morning and luckily I had the day off to rest and get settled. But now I am back to work and back to reality.

To welcome me back to my real life, my puppy decided she wanted to be extra difficult yesterday! She ran away 5 (yes, FIVE) times yesterday...a couple times she ran out the door as we were carrying stuff and trying to hold her back. Then last night we were at my mom's and she decided she wanted to get out of the gate. She was in the yard and I went inside to get my shoes and 30 seconds later she was gone, so my brother and I had to go corner her so we could catch her, because to her us coming towards her is a game so she runs further away and started running toward the street!! But now she is safe at home, and is doing better now that we are at our house and not my mom's!

Then I headed back to work today and was back to the overwhelming feeling of all that needs to get done! Which was not helped by the fact that one of my co-workers decided to keep repeating that next week will be the middle of July!! Today was my first day at work in July and I have a long way to go to get in all my contacts with my families ;) But it was a manageable day and I was able to have some time to get organized and plan out what all needs to be done (lots of lists were made today!!)

There was one thing that made today more bearable... I finally broke down and decided to bid on this purse on ebay. I have been wanting this purse since last summer and look for it all the time, and I found it today and decided to go for it! And I managed to get out without spending too much on it, even with shipping. So in the next week, this purse will be mine!!

Now I'm off to give my sweet girl some attention before we crash. Thank God it's a short week for me!

last day in florida

So we are all packing up to head out today, but I of course needed to write about the rest of our trip! We had a wonderful day on the 4th. We spent the morning down at the beach jumping in the waves and floating on our new rafts! Then we all got cleaned up and headed to Joe's Crab Shack (our 2nd meal there this week!) for lunch because my cousin Noah really wanted a bucket of crabs! We had a great time, and I spent most of lunch playing all the games on the kiddie menu with my cousin Emily. We played tic tac toe, the box game, sudoku, and the word search. She was blue and I was red and we switched off finding words... it was a very fun lunch!

Then we headed back to our hotel to get ready for fireworks. We went down to the pool so the kiddos could swim and we all hung out and talked while we waited. After the fireworks, my cousin Christy left to go back to her house (about an hour away from Destin). It was a sad goodbye for us, because she will be leaving in a month go to to Japan for 4 years. She and her husband are both stationed there for the Air Force, so we will not be seeing her much in the next few years, but I am definitely planning a trip to go over!

Yesterday we spent about an hour down by the beach before we could tell that everyone was absolutely exhausted. Wendy was asleep in a chair, Noah and Emily were laying on the floats behind the chairs and Mason was half heartedly digging in the sand. So we decided to call it a day and go see WALL-E! I love having excuses to go see kid movies (even though I see them without excuses!!).

We headed back for dinner and dessert, then curled up on the couch to watch some Nick at Nite before bed!



My cousin Rick LOVES Krispy Kremes...
we have had 5 boxes at our condo this week!




On the couch with Miss Emmy, curled up under

her blanket and watching Family Matters!



It has been a wonderful week of relaxing and spending time with my family. I am sad to go home, but know I need to get back to the real world--and to my sweet Allie-girl!!

P.S. Nicki and Erin--My cousin Christy went on a cruise with her best friends this week, made me think we should plan one of those some day...

beach, books, and buckets

Today was our first full day at the beach and it was absolutely wonderful! I started my morning at the beach "jumping waves" with my little cousin Emily. She was scared to go out in the water because the waves were getting her, so we decided to jump over them... she had a blast and it wore us both out! The rest of my morning and afternoon at the beach was spent sitting in a lounge chair, sipping on a drink and reading. I finished my book that I had brought with me, and am very excited to start on a Nicholas Sparks' book that is at our condo! There is nothing better than spending a day reading by the water!

In the middle of the afternoon we came in and watched TV and ate lunch and rested up for an evening at the beach! When we went back out in the evening, we watched my little cousins play, which was very fun. The girls got out their nets and went to catch things in the ocean. They caught a bunch of snails (or crabs as they call them)--and filled a bucket! The boys (Noah and Mason) tried out their new skim boards. They both spent a lot of time trying to get it right and had a lot of fun!

Now we all just finished eating pizza and are curled up under the blankets watching TV. My cousin had to take my aunt to the doctor, so the rest of us are just resting tonight!

Here are a few pictures from today:

The girls checking out their bucket of snails

One of the boys trying out his skim board

We are very excited for the 4th tomorrow. We are planning to go do some shopping and go see Wall-E before enjoying some fireworks on the beach!

And one last thing: Emily and Wendy are sitting here helping me write up our day and they say hi too!

The books I am reading:

Vacation Adventures

So my mom and I are on our way to Florida for a week at the beach with some of my family. Tonight we are stopped in Biloxi, Mississippi on the way and I thought I'd write a little about my vacation so far...

We left this morning after saying goodbye to my sweet puppy and leaving her at home for Uncle Nick to take care of. We made it to Louisiana with no problems. Then we went to get on I-10 and traffic was stopped. We see the wreck and then a guy standing in the middle of the interstate directing traffic. While that doesn't sound like any big news, this was not an officer, it was just a random man who had been sitting in traffic, standing in the middle of the road directing all of the lanes. My mom tried to convince me that he was official, he just didn't look it--but then the police showed up and took over...

Then we continued down to I-12 where we came across the exit sign for "Baptist Pumpkin Center" yes, you read that right--we found the Baptist Pumpkin Center in Louisiana. My mom said it must be that someone's name is "Pumpkin" and they funded the center. But I maintained my thoughts that it is a haven for the Baptist pumpkins. So we finally get internet access and look it up, only to find that we are not the only ones to be amused by this sign. However, we did find out that they are town names--Baptist and Pumpkin Center are 2 towns in Louisiana. Which I must admist is kind of disappointing, but still added some humor to our day!

Then we arrived at our Hotel tonight only to find that there is Biker Fest going on! We pulled into the parking lot and it was full of motorcycles. It would not be as big of a deal, except this is not the first time my mom and I have encountered this. We have stayed in a hotel in Austin when there was a biker convention going on!

So that has been my fun-filled day of driving! Tomorrow we will finish our drive to Florida--I am so ready to lay by the beach and enjoy the week with my family!