Oh The Places You Will Go (Or The Places We Went!)

Oh the weird and bizarre places you will go on vacation! We decided that this year for our family vacation instead of going to an amusement park we would do something different (and cheaper!). We decided to go on a road trip across California. I grew up in the beautiful bay area and was excited to see the natural wonders of my childhood state with my family. Se we loaded up the rental and off we went!

 The first stop on our trip was Huntington Beach. We quickly learned that if you are walking a cute puppy people will stop you -- men with no shirts on and women in bikinis. It did not matter that we are middle aged out of shape parents of three....we had a cute puppy and that made it all right!

 We then hung out on the beach....

 and walked along the pier in which we got to see a man catch a shark while fishing! It was bloody and gross.

 Back to the beach we went to play in the sand.

 Some of us got sand on our nose too.

 Of course we had to play in the ocean.....

 and get buried alive.....

 Then we were off to South Bend Lake Tahoe where we fished.....

 and hung out at the lake.

 Some of us (Parker and I because we don't get sick high up) went to the very top of this mountain (9000 feet elevation) to see the 12 mile lake.

 Of course we took lots of naps.

 Then we went back to the lake and played in the sand and found bugs.

 We played in the cold lake.

 They had some man to man bonding time.

 And played in the lake some more.

 Ah! Beautiful isn't it?

 Of course we had to build mountains out of sand.

 And enjoy the wildlife.

 And take in the smallest details of nature.

 Then we loaded up the car and drove to Georgetown to visit with my aunt and brother.

 That means we went horseback riding. Aunt Lynnette got Teddy ready to ride.

 Then we saddled up.

 Of course we wanted to go fast on Teddy.

 However, we had to learn how to use the reigns before we could take off.

 Some of us got a handle of it a little faster than others.

 Still, some of us needed little of any assistance at all and were able to ride Teddy even when he ran uphill.

 Of course there were the road apples to watch out for....

 and then we got crapped on.

 I developed this all over my body.

 After going to Urgent Care I learned that I was allergic to this:

 Then Charlie got bit by a Brown Recluse Spider and had to spend two nights in the hospital in Placerville California.

 Needless to say we were really happy to see this again:

Over all it was a good trip...minus the all over itchy rash and hospital stay. On the bright side I am fairly certain that we have maxed out our deductible for the year with medical. That means that we don't have to pay anything to see a doctor until next year. I guess now would be a good time to take advantage of all those specialist I wanted to take the kids too since it won't cost us!

Hmmmmm.....I wonder what 2012 vacation has in store for us?

Menu Monday

Have you ever wondered what was in some one's cart at the store? I know I sure have! So, I thought I would share mine :-)

 As I was picking out my red and orange bell peppers today I could not believe they were $2 a piece. What was even more shocking was that I was actually gonna spend $10 on bell peppers. Then I remembered that living in Arizona I don't have much of an option because nothing really grows here at this time of year with our 112 degree days. I then thought I should plant a garden and grow my own vegetables...then I remembered that not much grows here at this time of year, hence why I was spending $10 on bell peppers. I am kind of slow sometimes...sigh....

It is not like I am a big spender at the store. I try to go generic whenever I can so I can afford the important stuff -- like fruit and vegetables. I mean, let's face it I have "Sauve" body soap and lotion in my cart. Can't get much cheaper than that!

Do you cook differently depending on the time of year it is? I know we do! I do not like to turn my oven on at all between the months of June - September. If I can't make it on the stove top then we don't eat it. If I have to turn on the oven it heats the entire house up. Bad enough it feels like an oven outside. I certainly don't want to feel like a roasted pig on the inside.

I thought I would share with you a our menu for this week. All of which can be prepared on the stove or no heat at all.

Monday: BBQ Cheddar Chicken Roll up with salad
Tuesday: Fruit and almond salad with French bread
Wednesday: BLT salad with Steam Whistle Hot dogs
Thursday: Sausage Pepper Pasta
Friday: Brother's Pizza

Of course I had to buy stuff for sweet treats for the little people! They made these this afternoon:

 They are Oreo Pudding Pops and super easy to make! Just take 3.9 package of chocolate instant pudding mix and whip that with 2 c milk for 2 minutes. Then add 1/2 C cool whip thawed and 6 crushed oreos. Stir until blended and pour into small disposable cups and stick a Popsicle stick in each of them. Place in the freezer for about five hours. To loosen the cups just run warm water on the outside and it should come right out! Enjoy

Of course no shopping trip would be complete without picking up something for our new baby....Sierra....no not a child.....a puppy! I could not resist. It was pink and silly :-)

Look at the teeth on that thing! :-)

Thirst Quencher!

It is summer here in hell...I mean.....errrr.....Arizona. It just happens to feel like hell, but really it is only like 107 today. That is a cool down from the weekend in which it reached 117.  Living here for almost two decades I have learned to only get out of the house every other day and only once. The heat is exhausting and your day is over once you come back home because you have to recuperate from it. I am serious -- so not kidding right now. Anyways, one of my bribe tactics I use to get the kids out the door with me is treats. More specifically: drinks. Can you guess my favorite spot?

If you said Starbucks you are correct! However, that beautiful white cup of coffee that I am holding is not even an option for this time of year. Nope :-( Now I am doing my summer drink which is:

Are you ready?

It is an upside down iced venti cafe Americano with sugar free vanilla light cream (like two drops -- I hate cream. Bleak!) and more ice less water.

Go order that the next time you are at Starbucks and watch them go cross eyed. Good times!

As you can imagine Starbucks can get pricey -- especially when buying for yourself and three kiddos (chocolate milk no ice extra whip.....yeah! I am teaching them to be high maintenance drinkers too.)

I then discovered a cheaper option:

You got it! QT! Now the trick was to get the kids to ask for it instead of Starbucks. You see I had to recondition...brain wash...call it what you must! I had to get them to want it more than Starbucks. They needed to dream about it, fantasize about it and when ever they saw a cup think of "QT". Considering that my daughter has a serious crush on flavored crushed ice I knew she was my in!

Top that off with a gift card to QT for her for her birthday it was a painless transition. Now my kids like red straws...not green and 32 ounces....not 12. More importantly I am saving a lot of $$$!

So, from the bottom of my heart:

Thank you QT. Thank you for your frozen drinks. Thank you for your extensive drink bar and most importantly cheap prices. I will for ever be in your debt.

Furry Angels

I have been trying to come up with the perfect blog entry for our recent experience in our household and I can't. I am sorry...I have so much to say and so many emotions over what has happened in the last 8 weeks. So, I have decided to just let it flow and speak what is on my heart. I hope you have a few minutes to read this. Trust me, the pictures on this make it totally worth it! My family (those that are in my four walls of my house) own and run a Golden Retriever Kennel. We are breeders and about two months ago we had our first litter. 12 beautiful puppies!

When we first came up with the idea to breed we wanted to do it for two reason. The first and biggest reason was to make some money. I know...I know...that is horrible of me to say, but true. 70% of why I wanted to breed was for the opportunity to make money. The second reason was we really wanted to give back to society. We wanted to turn out some great service dogs and such. I had no idea how much this experience was going to impact society and.....well....me! Needless to say, once I helped birth the first puppy income reasons for doing this went out the window.

I could get into how I am really not an animal person and other background information that would just take a lot of time, but I won't do that. Let me just put it this way, I told Charlie when we first got married that the only dog I wanted for our family was a Golden Retriever. I did not grow up with dogs so I never really knew how much of an impact a dog can have on a family.

We decided to breed and did all of our advertising through the Internet and we placed a few business cards at our local feed store. All of our buyers with the exception of the first buyer got our name through our website/Internet. Our first buyers got our name off of the the business board at the feed store. We met our first buyers before we even knew if Cider was pregnant and we really liked them. We told them when we knew for sure that Cider was pregnant and they came for a few more visits. On the second visit they said they were praying for Cider and all the puppies. I thought that was such a sweet gesture and left it at that. I mean they were only cute dogs right? Did God have time for dogs? Come to find out this amazing couple prayed for Cider and the puppies each night and even had their small group praying for her too.

I don't know if you know anything about the average size litter of Golden Retrievers, but it is between 3 - 8 and usually 4 -6. Well, Cider pushed out 13 puppies. The last one died in the vet's office :-( and we were left with a dozen healthy Goldens! We kind of started to panic....I mean in our city, by law we are only permitted to have 4 grown dogs (over the age of 2), how were we going to find homes for 12 puppies? The economy is bad and people are traveling and spending money on that. Really? 12? Really? I was nervous. I thought we had bitten off more than we could chew. I also happened to fall in love with each and every one of them. I remember thinking that I sure hoped our first buyers were praying because only God could make this work.

Well, he did...ten fold and He left his fingerprints all over it! We were hoping that one of our dogs would go into service situations and 3 actually are going into service work! Two of the three were the two that Parker and I especially fell in love with. They happened to be the ones that got the most attention because of extra feedings and such. However, had it not been for the extra time with them and putting our hearts into it they might not have been selected.

Isn't it an honor and blessing to love something so much that it is hard to say good bye to it? That is how much we loved these dogs! Last week all of our puppies found their FURever homes. I don't think I have cried so much in a week like I did last week kissing my babies goodbye. So, let me introduce the litter, their owners and where they will be living:

First up is Orange Girl now named Chloe. This is the first buyers and their son. Chloe will be in our neighborhood!

 This is purple boy now named Jasper. This is our Sire's owner. She got first pick of the males. Jasper will live out his days in Tuscon AZ.

 This is yellow girl now named Lexi. She will live out her days in Mesa AZ.

 This is green boy now named Bentley. He will be living in Scottsdale AZ.

This is green girl. Her name is Sierra and she will be staying right here with me :-)

Isn't she cute? Yes, there are two pictures of us because this is my blog, so there :-P

This is the Blur and he will be a service dog for the Southeast Blind Association. The Blur was Parker's favorite dog. I am convinced that all the abuse my son put this poor animal through is the reason he will make a great service dog. Not really abuse....I am being sarcastic of course. He just treated him like the typical little boy treats a puppy. Call it what you must, but I would not want to be dragged around with my legs hanging down all the time. Yes.....yes...yes I stopped him from doing that to him. The Blur will be spending his days in Florida. I wonder if he gets to kick it on the beach?

A close up of the Blur in his vest. He was the talk of the airport and airplane indeed.

This is Red Girl and her name is either Izzy or Cassie. Her family still needs to vote on it! She will be living in New Mexico.

This is Yellow Boy. His name is Murphy and he will be living in southern AZ with his family.

This is Purple Girl. Her name is Dotty and she will be living in Prescott as a Mobility dog for her owner. Purple Girls is special to me because she was the smallest female and I bottle fed her. For some time we thought  that we would keep her so saying good bye was very hard. However, I am convinced that the extra attention she got from me will allow her to perform her duty well.

This is Blue Boy. His name.....oh my...this is hard because this just proves that God has a sense of humor....his name....oh my......his name is Dallas after the Dallas Cowboys. I just barfed in my mouth a little as I typed that. See, I don't like the Cowboys...enough said. However, this is a great dog and the owner is fantastic!

This is Red Boy. His name is Murphy and will be living in Goodyear AZ. He will be working with his owner as a therapy dog with disabled people in a clinic.

Last but not least, Orange Boy. Orange Boy was the runt of the litter and got lots of attention from me too. He actually will be living with his brother, Dallas in Tuscon AZ. I am not a big fan or advocate for litter mates living together, but their is an exception to the rule and this amazing family is the exception. Originally I was against the sale of these puppies together, but after extensive talks between owner and my business partner (AKA Charie) we knew it was the right thing to do for this family. Do you see the kid holding the dog? Well, when he found out Orange Boy was the runt of the litter it touched his heart and he set out to love him forever...this also happens to be his first puppy. Oh, and Orange Boy's name is Harlam.

Now, I could not end this without posting this last picture. Remember, how I told you that the Blur was my son's favorite dog? I ended up picking Parker up early from his summer program so he could say good bye to him (I thought it would be cruel to not let him say good bye even though Parker knew we were selling him) and this is that last picture. It is the Blur with Parker's Crypto. Why did we name him the Blur? We ran out of yarn when the puppies were born. That is how we told them apart...the color yarn they had on. I put red and blue on him because he I did not want to make a boy purple....well...Cider popped out the last boy and I had to resort to that anyways, but regardless he had red and blue. We are Smallville fans. It was a WB series about Superman before he was Superman. In the series he is called the BLUR. So Red/Blue boy eventually became the Blur.

I was discussing with Charlie how surreal this whole experience has been for our family and he said that it was because it was in God's hands all along. He then said that our first buyers prayers were probably very powerful and their faith made it so successful. I laid down after our talk....the last puppy had gone down and the whole family was emotionally and physically tired from the whole thing. My eyes were swollen from crying as they left for their new homes and I was proud of my family and my dogs as I drifted off to sleep. The last thought I had was that it could be God that did it or coincidences. I was abruptly woken up with the following scripture racing through my head: "The first shall be last and the last shall be first." See, the first born was the last to find a home and the last born was the first.

Coincidence or God?

Another Year Has Come and Gone

So.....another year has come and gone. This last Thursday I celebrated my....

ugh.....

my.....

are you ready for this?

I celebrated my birthday.

Now, I am no fan of birthdays. For the last 12 years I have celebrated my 25th birthday on the 23rd of June. I know you are sitting there doing the math in your head, but if you are coming to the conclusion that I am 37 you are wrong. As the former math teacher I had to give you a little math problem to keep you on your toes. So here is the solution. I celebrated my 25th birthday for the 12th time. So that means that I celebrated it for  my 25, 26, 27,28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, and 36! So, I am 36 years old. Did I trick you? No? LOL!

Moving on to the important things of the day....like what I have learned over the year and what do I value......nuggets of wisdom I can pass down to future generations...and all the rest of that sentimental crap. Forget that! Let's get on to the important things -- PRESENTS! I bought myself a present in honor of my birthday and it was every possible anti aging cream Mary Kay has to offer that can fit on my shelf:

 Yeah! You got that right! I will fight aging with all my might! Well......until it involves needles and then I will surrender. Sorry no botox in my future. My daily ritual cleansing, moisturizing, and protecting will live on in my life. Not to mention the microderm and weekly masks that are suppose to keep my complexion even a lovely. See I want to look like this for as long as I can:

 Huh........my nose is crocked. I don't like that. How much is a nose job? Does it hurt? Getting back to my point....what was it? Oh, right! I am admitting that I am completely vain and do not want to wrinkle or look old...so getting back to that....I have used Mary Kay for 24 years now and even sell to myself. Do I think it is the best thing out there? No.....it just happens to not irate the heck out of my skin and I can get it cheap since I sell to myself :-D

 So, why is this important this year? Well, in my warped little OCD mind I knew that come year 36 I must up the ritual. I got to do more and take greater care of my skin than I have in my past because I am so much closer to 40 than I was a week ago....yeah.....right.....whatever. Anyways, just to give you a little glimpse into my morning, night, and weekly routine here goes:

In the morning I rinse my skin apply Time wise Day solution, sunscreen anti aging moisturizer, anti aging eye cream, lip balm, and wrinkle fighting lip junk followed by foundation primer, Time wise anti aging foundation and pressed powder. Then of course my make up. Did that wear you out? Yeah! Me too! Be glad you don't have to do it everyday because you don't have vanity issues like I do. Geez...I need help. Up until my 36 birthday I used powder foundation and no primer, but now that I am getting up there I had to take it to the next level - liquid (ew! I hate the feel of make up on my skin).

 Ready for my nightly routine? No? Great! Me neither! Here it goes: cleanser, Night time Time Wise anti aging serum, Intensive Moisturizer for dry skin, eye cream and lip balm. Are you exhausted yet? Wait! There is more...Twice a week I add the following to my morning beauty routine: mask and special hydrating serum to keep my complexion smooth and even. I do this on Thursday and Sunday mornings...no joke. I am that anal that I have it written down so I remember to do it. Then once a week I add the following to my evening routine microderm and the serum that goes with it. I do this on Tuesday nights.

So, now that you know I seriously should be spending my money on therapy instead of anti aging crap I have more to add. I also get my hair colored blond and highlighted to hide the grays on my brunette mug. See....I am not a blond. I just play one in real life. I also have my entire face dipped in wax because mother nature is trying to turn me into an ugly old man and I will not surrender darn it! I will not turn into an ugly old man! Unless I have to inject things with needles then bring on the beard and uni brow!

I bet you are thinking it takes me forever to get ready in the morning. Ironically, I hate doing my hair and make up every day. There are other things I would rather spend my time on so I only take 20 minutes. I am like Lightening McQueen....Speed...I am  speed! There you have it! That is my 36th birthday insight and dirty little confession. This is me on my 36th Birthday (I really do need to look into a nose job. That thing is far to crocked! LOL!)

 Finally I would like to say cheers to another year with a nice Mojito!

Oh, and I am not really gonna ever get a nose job....like I said I don't like needles and would really rather stay funny looking at the end of the day. Let's not even get me started on my boobs.....sigh.......

The Calling

I have been struggling with a few internal demons lately. I don't know exactly what my problem is, but I do know that some of the thoughts that I have been having and some of the feelings are not from God. I don't mean to get all "preachy". In fact, preachy people usually really tick me off. I am just being real when I say that. I don't pretend to have God figured out. I know He is up there and I know that He loves each and every one of us, but His ways are not our ways. I am part of His flock of sheep. Sure I am cute and fluffy like a little sheep, but more importantly compared to God's infinite wisdom I am stupid -- just like a sheep. So, with all of that being said, sometimes I feel like the Body of Christ makes these statements and sets these rules up that the are convinced are founded in Him. When, in actuality they may not be. I don't pretend to have it figured out anymore. I used to think that I had it all figured out....all black and white....you are either in or you are out. Period. End of story. Well, once I hit about 30 I realized that life is full of a bunch of gray area and I live in that gray area most of the time. It is more important for me to have a personal relationship with my Maker. I can't pass judgment or tell someone else how to live out their faith. I will pray for people and always be nice to them, but my days of saying "You can't do this..." or "you can't do that" are over. I am not your Maker and I can not pass judgement as such.

Like I stated earlier I have been struggling with some things in life. Maybe I am having an identity crisis. I mean all of my children are going to be in school from 8 - 3 next year and I could like do something other than just them. My identity has always had a label on it. I was as student, teacher, wife, mother and so on. I will always be all of those things to a certain extent, but my life needs a new role or the roles I am in are changing and I just don't know what that means. Sometimes I get resentful because I feel like I have helped everyone achieve and reach their dreams, yet there is always a reason on why I can't reach mine. I feel like I am always shot down and it is hard to live someone else's dream all the time. Then I feel selfish for feeling like that. I mean should I not be thriving to sacrifice myself for the good of others? Well...yes and no. I should sacrifice and put others first, but I can not deny that God made me a certain way with gifts and talents that are all mine. If I am not to use them then why did God give them to me? I have asked God to take the desires away and they are still there. Is it such a bad thing if I want to use them? Or would it be a worse thing if I did not use them and just sat idle and missed an opportunity. I am still sorting through it all.

Then I feel like God is not there anymore for me. I was having a real pity party over that one the last few weeks. Seriously had the "poor poor me" mentality going on. This morning as I was drinking my breakfast (as my daughter likes to say because I have a protein shake every morning) I sat down at my desk and glanced at my prayer journal. I opened it up and realized how much I have been missing God. I miss that intimate relationship I have with him. So, I started to write down prayer concerns and needs that I did not even know I had in my head. Then I started to talk to God. Once I got done drinking my breakfast I had the strongest urge to get back to my daily time with God. Just Him and I. No distractions. Just focus and rest in God's presence and grace.

Suddenly I had a horrible thought! I thought to myself "I wish God wanted to spend time to with me. I feel like he has turned his back on me." As I started to lick my spiritual wounds and start to sing in my heart some sad pathetic country song the light went off in my head. I discovered a spiritual truth....or maybe was reminded of it and that is that when I feel that desire to spend time with God that is actually his hand on me. He calls me first. See, He is calling me back to him. He does want me. I am his baby and He desperately wants to spend time with me and have a personal relationship with me again. I then was filled with self doubt. I thought of how "bad" I have been and how I need to fix myself before I can have anything to do with him, so I started to make up a plan to do just that. It was like God chuckled in Heaven and spoke to my heart and reminded me that He wants me as I am now not as I should be. It was liberating. I finally felt like my Heavenly Father had not turned his back on me. Instead I knew that I had turned my back on Him, but He forgives and is over it so I need to be over it to. I just need to spend time with God and let the rest of it work itself out.

Beauty in the Center of Sin City

I know it has been awhile since I have blogged, but I have a really good reason. Actually there are 12 good reasons.....

As you can see from the above pictures we had puppies! Welcome to the world our 12 new Golden Retriever puppies. They are now 2.5 weeks old and just amazing. We are having so much fun with these little bundles of joy, but wow does it eat up my day! LOL!

Now, on with the second aspect of this entry. A few weeks ago I spent the weekend in Vegas. I had a great time and it is indeed sin city. Fairly certain that if you wanted to get yourself in trouble Vegas is where to do it. With that being said, I saw one of the coolest things in the heart of all of the "sin". A beautiful butterfly garden and a ton of lovely flowers! Amazing that something so pure and beautiful could be in the heart of a place like that. Just goes to show that no matter where you are in life God can always shine through! Here is a small taste of the Garden at the Belagio: