aww, man!

I was really slightly bummed today. See, there was this concert I really wanted to go to, but it sold out early.. I should have known.

So instead I took this little guy for a walk, let him play in the sprinkler, and went on a "date" with Kristofferson to Wendy's and Best Buy... romantic, yes?

still slightly wet from the sprinkler

drool worthy

My favorite etsy shops lately:

amerrymishap

I so want a pair of earrings from this cute shop - I'm tempted to buy some right now...

Lepidoptery

Colorful jewelry made from cardstock? Yes, please. 

Verabel 

I bought the same locket as the one below as a reward for myself for losing a bit of weight a while back (yes, I needed the motivation). I wear it all the time - probably too often, but I love it too much. 

boring, really

Am I the only one who sometimes has a hard time enjoying vacations because you're constantly counting down the time you have left until you leave? I hate that I do it. Summer vacation is no exception. It's been so lovely, but that clock is always ticking in the back of my mind.  

 Pretty much all I do all day is play with the boy and eat lots of popsicles. I've been obsessed with the good old fashioned twin pops: cherry, banana and root beer flavored, of course. I buy them as often as I buy bread and milk.. it's pretty sad.

Someone wasn't in the mood for posing nicely - he obviously doesn't understand the importance of a mother and son portrait. 

Right now Kristofor and my brother Michael are downstairs "jamming out" - playing the drums and guitar together.. cute. And I'm sitting in my bedroom eating a root beer popsicle, looking at cute nursery's on ohdeedoh. 

I love lazy summers.

^_^

(almost) brand new addition

Remember that one post? The one where I said I was going to wait until I got a house until I would try to con Kristofor into letting us getting a dog?

I totally lied.

Meet Kelso! We call him "our son," because he really is our first baby. We've had him for 4 weeks now (sheesh, I haven't posted in forever! It's because I feel like I have to post the rest of our cruise, including editing and choosing and linking the pictures and whatnot, and that's just not any fun!) Anyway, he's taken over our lives - and our hearts (ahaha, had to insert that cheesiness).

He's a Pembroke Welsh Corgi, the breed Kristofor and I researched and decided on. I flip flopped around for a while, wanting about every breed in the spectrum - Cocker & Brittany Spaniels, Boxer, Bernese Mountain Dog (too spendy!), Boston Terrier, Pug, Sheltie, Poodle . . . pretty much everything except toy and large breeds. I'm so happy we chose the breed we did!

He runs my life right now, and I love it. Selfishly, I love being needed. I don't mind the demands as much as I thought I would - the waking up in the middle of the night type of stuff. Maybe I won't make a terrible mother when I have children after all.

My favorite is when Kristofor says to him "Hi, cutie!" and "Can I get a kiss? Give me a kiss!" And makes smoochy noises until Kelso licks his face (or bites his beard). Seriously? It's the cutest thing ever. Unless you think puppies licking your face is gross, but I guess we don't? He doesn't eat his own poop, and can't reach his bum to lick it, so... Wait is that TMI? Probably.

Anyway, we are smitten. Even though he's a stinker and ripped my pants today. And tries to sneak into the garden to eat the strawberries (which I accidentally taught him.. woops), and won't stop biting my fingers when we play.

How could you not love that face?

part deux

Here is our day spent on Catalina Island - it was gorgeous and charming and the houses were to die for and so was the ice cream! We rented a golf cart ("island limo") which was so much fun! We actually spent most of the time walking and wandering through the streets and the docks. It was so lovely. And lemme tell you - when I become a millionaire, I'm buying a condo here.

p.s. I'm becoming obsessed with some retro photo effects, in case you can't tell. Too much? Probably. But I love the look too much to care!


































And us at the formal night dinner. My favorite food of the whole cruise was served this night - it was called strawberry bisque, but it was pretty much just strawberries, whipping cream, and sour cream pureed into pure cold deliciousness. I ordered more than one... it was heavenly. I should have taken a picture! (Surprisingly, I didn't take any pictures of food the whole time we were on the cruise - despite the fact that we spent 50% of the time stuffing our faces. What's up with that?)

Part One

Man oh man. So I guess my computer and Photobucket don't get along too well? Oh well, let's get started!

To start off - before viewing these pictures, please keep in mind that:

1) looking my prettiest wasn't a priority, and there are some unflattering pictures that I'm just going to put up anyway, and

2) many of the pictures of me and Kristofor were taken by one of us, so they're the really cool "here's my face 12 inches from the camera" type shots.

Our cruise left from Long Beach, CA and stopped at Catalina Island, then Ensenada, Mexico, then we spent a day at sea and came back to Long Beach.

I've only flown once before in my life, so I was pretty excited to get on the airplane, get my window seat and order my drink! Actually, Kristofor and I spent almost the whole flight watching Spongebob.. which I quite like.. anyway, moving on!

The weather was gorgeous, by the way. In case you couldn't tell from the pictures.

Pictures of us with the palm trees! They actually got me wondering.. what grows on palm trees? Anything?

We took a shuttle bus from LB airport to the cruise terminal (the driver drove like a crazy man and when we arrived he ordered me "get out," but at least we got there safe, right?). We got our bags taken to be loaded on the ship and waited in line for forever. But I was so excited/nervous that it passed by pretty fast.

Actually we waited in one line, then another and then another before we finally got to head toward the ship- so exciting! Once there we went straight to our room:

Our room had two porthole windows - and they totally made the room. It was so nice to sit by them and watch as the ship moved, and when we ported (made port? I don't know ship-y terms) we could see the island/port/land/people/sights right from our room. We loved it.

We had people come clean our room multiple times a day. They even put my toothbrush in it's container, wrapped my cord around my straightener, and organized our flip flops. Seriously. And left an itinerary, towel animals, and chocolates on our bed.

It was awesome.

The ship was so fun to explore - and there were so many areas we didn't even get to see!

They often had the fancy white piano being played by "Thom York Jr.," as Kristofor called him -the music filled the atrium and was so pretty. There were so many places to just stop and sit and watch the water and talk..

Ok, I know this is an abrupt end, but this has taken way longer than anticipated. I'll post way more tomorrow - ni-night!

teaser

Kristofor and I have been back from our cruise for a couple weeks now, and I'm just getting around to uploading the pictures onto the computer and going through them.. it was such a perfect vacation for us.

More to come.