I'm back!

.....and boy has it been a whirlwind of a couple of weeks! Life was really hectic leading up to our vacation work-wise, and then a week in Florida was just what I needed!

It was wonderful for SB and me to spend time with my parents, and my sister and her kids (my BIL couldn't join as he started a new job recently and couldn't leave). No BIL meant SB and I had to help out with the kids a ton! Is it just me, or are they exhausting? The weather was wonderful.....unfortunately I burnt myself to a crisp the first day there (I was staying out of the sun with one of the kids, but then when he wanted to play in the pool, I totally forgot sunscreen. BIG mistake). My niece and nephews had me laughing all week long....here are a few fave memories:

• Starting the day off with a 4-5 mile run from one end of Captiva to the other, and back. I saw lots of ospreys on the run....everything was calm and the sun was just starting to rise over the bay. I loved it. SB had an intense running week...he ran 10 miles on Sunday, and 11 on Friday! He is really training hard for our half marathon. I wish I could bottle a little of his motivation!
  
• Watching the Chipmunks movie The Squeakquel with the kids pretty much every morning. Yes, it is really awful......but somehow the songs in the movie managed to stay in my head the entire week.
  
• "No I don't have to go potty, I've been peeing in the pool all day long!" (WHAT!!??? Of course I was the one holding him in the pool all day long....double ew!)
• (to my sister) "Mom, guess what - I haven't brushed my teeth in three days!" (strangely enough, this seemed to be a source of pride?)
• One of my favorite memories involved a particular waitress with whom my three year-old nephew (and hell-raiser extraordinaire) was smitten. He literally looked at her all googly-eyed, and anytime she came out onto the porch we were sitting, he'd say, "Giiiiinnnnnaaaaa!!!" and wave. When my niece told the waitress that my nephew's real name is Charles, but he goes by Chase, she asked him - "well, which do you prefer, Charles or Chase?" He stared at her and then said "You!" At the end of the dinner the little guy asked her to come over to his house later. Yes - he's a handful!
• Of course a highlight was watching the Duke championship game with my whole fam!! My parents, my sister and I all went to Duke, so it was particularly fun to share the game with them.

We returned to MO on Saturday.....picked up Daisy from "doggie camp," ran some errands...and then picked up the newest member of our little family!

Meet Lilly! She is adorable, cuddly, and exhausting! I forgot about how often a puppy wakes up in the middle of the night.
And then yesterday I flew out to DC for work. I'll be returning home tonight! Can't wait to see SB and our 2 little pups! :)

The search for the perfect dog collar and leash

It should come as no surprise that with a new puppy on the way....I'm starting to think about her collar and leash! I mean really, collars and leashes are to dogs what accessories are to humans. There are so many cute, preppy patterns and colors that I'm having trouble making up my mind! Here are the front-runners....let me know which 2 you like best:

The first grouping is from ElizaB....maker of some pretty adorable flip-flops too! ElizaB also has this great thing called a "Dog Coupler" for walking two dogs at once. While we probably won't be able to use this for several months...this could be great (and of course it would match the color/leash combos)!The next one I like is from Walk-e-Woo....their tagline is pretty funny! I saw the pink/red polka-dot collar in person, and it is just so adorable.

This last one is from an etsy store. Maybe Lilly the puppy is destined for a Lilly Pulitzer collar?Decisions, decisions!!

PS - thanks so much to all of you for your sweet birthday comments! I had just the best day ever! SB surprised me with a delicious cookie cake....we went out to a charming restaurant, and I am looking forward to finding some cute things at BR and Anthro with new gift certs :) A great day all around.

A great day....and a great week ahead!

Today's my birthday! It's a beautiful sunny day here, and I'm looking forward to a fun dinner out with SB. The weather is supposed to be great here all week, which always makes me smile. Seriously - the winter blahs are a thing of the past (or so I hope!!). AND of course the most exciting thing is that we'll be in FL in just 6 days!!

I had a fun weekend. Here's a little recap:

• Went out with friends Friday and Saturday nights (this is pretty monumental.....I think it's one of the first weekends we actually had things planned with other couples both Fri and Sat since we moved here!)
  
• Ran 4 miles Friday, 5 miles Saturday
• Played tennis Sunday (and lost really badly - that wasn't a fun doubles match. I think our opponent growled at us....literally. She was extraordinarily manly.)
• Woke up to Daisy hacking at like 4am on Saturday morning. We kept debating whether we should take her to the emergency vet (which would mean lots of $$$), but we stayed right by her and she was breathing fine, even though she couldn't cough up whatever was bothering her. She actually never did - but things seem to be working normally now. I always get so nervous when something's off with her.
• Watched some fun basketball games!! Go Duke!!
  
• Went to see "Hot Tub Time Machine" with SB. Yes, I'm embarassed to admit it....but it was just as good (bad) as you'd expect. Don't waste your time with that one! (Though SB liked it....of course)
  

Woot woot!!!!!

Duke's in the Final 4!!!
I know, I know.....you either love Duke or you hate 'em with an unbridled passion (trust me, I've felt the hate from co-workers, friends of friends, and randoms alike...even my BIL)......but I'm just thrilled to pieces that Duke (my alma mater) beat Baylor!!!!

In other bracket news.....my horrible bracket may be on life support, but there's a little light at the end of the tunnel. If Duke wins it all, I'll beat SB! Fingers and toes are crossed ;)

Signs That I Need A Vacation!

My family is heading south to Captiva Island for a week of beach fun in exactly 9 days! 9 freakin' days, and I am beyond excited. BEYOND. I can barely contain myself.

Here are a few signs that I truly need a vacation:

• I visit weather.com daily to check out the Captiva forecast. Sometimes more than once a day....
• I called the concierge desk today for an Easter activities schedule so that we could plan our Easter ahead of our arrival, make reservations if necessary, etc. I explained to the concierge that the activities calendar online only only shows the month of March....and us pre-planners really need a little more info. Apparently the resort isn't quite as proactive. Come on people, where's the Easter egg hunt, pictures with the Easter Bunny, and the Easter service beside the ocean?
• I am craving key lime pie. Dessert on vacation is a must.
• I googled our favorite restaurants just to look at their menus, and then mentally rank which ones we need to visit first.
• I have visited mapmyrun.com to check out mileage and running routes around the island.

Actually.....after looking over this....maybe they're just signs that I'm neurotic and need to keep myself busier?? Ah well, regardless, I am still SO EXCITED!!!!! I hope these 9 days go by quickly!!!

What will 29 bring?

I should preface this post by saying that I love birthdays. I do. I love them......I love celebrating turning a year older......I look forward to the cake, the presents, and a day of fun in general. I firmly believe that age is nothing but a number.....but in the last year I've noticed that there have been two significant changes!

1. People have stopped calling me "Miss"!! Apparently my 28th birthday meant that now I'm a "Ma'am" to everyone from high school grocery store baggers to little old ladies. I think I miss being called "miss" (and shouldn't there be a rule that if there's no gray hair, women should be called "miss" in general? what's the age limit there?)

2. All of a sudden everyone around me asks how many children I have. Seriously all these random people I don't even know (from the dentist to fellow tennis players) have started asking me right after they meet me. Fortunately I can usually reply with something like, "Oh, no children yet - I just got married last July!" But it does make me wonder A) how that would feel for people who struggle to have children -- I feel like that can be a sensitive question, and B) I'm only 28 - that doesn't mean I should already have kids!

My 29th birthday is right around the corner.....it'll actually be my GOLDEN birthday this year as it lies on the 29th of March. Who knows what this year will bring!? (hopefully it will mean people will start asking me what year I am, and what my major is, and where I'm going for spring break.......lol!.....ok, so that's not going to happen - but a girl can dream!) Has anyone else experienced anything like this?

Weekend Recap

The weekend flew by! Here are a few highlights:

• Played World Team Tennis Friday night. I managed to help our team win....the next match will be a make-or-break match for our team. If we win, we should win the whole thing! (but they are tough competition!!)
• SB ran a 5k Saturday morning, and finished in 20:15!!! I was going to run it too but I kind of tweaked my back Friday night at tennis, so I just went to the gym and did the ol' elliptical. I'm so proud of his awesome time -- that's a 6:30 pace! I think he's still gunning for the 5's.
  
• Met a friend for a mani/pedi, a fun lunch at Dewey's (my new favorite pizza place), and some shopping! It was just what I needed -- a total delight! (plus I found an amazingly adorable tray for our mail. I'll have to take a pic - it is just that great)
  
• Went out with SB for dinner to Three Monkeys......I give it one star out of five.....not great, not really worth a repeat visit.
• Did 30 min on elliptical, then ran 4 miles on the treadmill early Sunday morning -- it felt good!
• Ran errands, shopped around, and watched basketball (Go Duke! Sweet Sixteen!!) on Sunday.
• In other basketball news, my bracket is officially dead. I can't get over all the upsets -- you gotta love the underdogs (at least when they're not playing Duke)!!
  

Have you gotten your puppy fix yet today?

Full disclosure.....you know how when people have babies, their blogs can get baby-focused (don't get me wrong - I LOVE when that happens.....I love hearing about pregnancies, baby products, cute baby pics, the whole shebang - but apparently some people don't like that??)......well, with a new PUPPY on the way, I just want to let you know that this little ol' blog may get a little puppy-focused. Not too dog crazy, but you can expect more puppy pictures than when we just had the Daiser.

Our lovely breeder sent a few more pics of our little pup! She and her brothers and sisters are growing, growing, growing!(Lilly is the one in the center....the lightest yellow -- almost ivory)

Happy St. Patty's Day!

I don't have any real St. Patrick's Day plans this year. I'll be playing tennis in a drill group with a few girls from my USTA team after work....and SB had his triathlon swim class this morning at 5:30am, so I don't think he'll be up for much either :)

Oh! One funny story for you......so I mentioned the other day that we managed to bring home a new Blend-Tek blender from Costco this weekend. It is pretty amazing -- the smoothies that it creates are beyond delicious (and you don't have to use any sweetener....literally just fruit, plus you can add things like spinach for some extra nutrients). I'll have to do a post on it sometime soon. Anyways....yesterday SB came home from work, and wanted to make a frozen lemonade concoction by mixing Crystal Lite lemonade and Ice. The demonstrator at Costco didn't ever really put the top on the blender until like 30 seconds into blending a smoothie.....well, let's just say the same rules don't apply to mixing liquids! He pressed ON and BAM - I was litterally covered in lemonade. He didn't get a drop on himself, but I was soaking wet in lemonade. I had just showered too! It felt a bit like a sitcom .... and we had to laugh it off. I think he learned his lesson :)

Today's posting....brought to you by the color GREEN!

(and by Nordstrom, Lilly Pulitzer, Boden, Lacoste and Kate Spade)