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Thursday, October 7, 2010

A Tribute to a Perfect Peppy!

As the saying goes, a dog is man's best friend... and to a large extent this is true. Dogs are by far extremely loyal and have a sixth sense when something is wrong. They love without judgment, get excited when you are excited and know how to put on a mean front in the face of danger. My Peppy was no exception. While she was a little goofy, loved to chase us down the road and didn't listen to the word No when she thought she should be joining us for the car ride, she was a pretty amazing dog! She absolutely loved being around us, especially my brother Mike. Those two just had a connection. She slept in his room, tug along with him to mow our neighbor's grass and really just loved Mike. She loved us all and got really excited when we pulled in the drive way, but to this day, if she had to choose between a chunk of ham (which she would not chew before swallowing like a polite doggie) or one of us...I don't know which one she'd pick, but my bet is the ham! Peppy went gaga over ham and so, when we found out that she was dying of a terminal illness (cancer or kidney failure from lymes), we bought her her very own ham...and when we still couldn't let her go...we bought her another ham... We just bought her ham and loved on her until she let go. She was our sweet, huge, totally lovable German Sheppard! We will forever love her and remember her with a smile!

Peppy is in doggie heaven eating ham and lovin the outdoors and her spot in the living room!

In no special order...


(and sadly I only have more recent photos)



May 2010: Tom and Peppy waiting for Bonzers to come home from school!



May 2010: Enjoying the outdoors



May 2010: Man's best friend! Again, waiting for the bus!



May 2010: On the hunt!



May 2010: I see something Master.



April 2010: Yea, I don't mind getting my hair pulled or being used for table walking! She was good with the kiddos!



April 2010: Easter Egg Hunt! She was pretty good at sniffing them out!



April 2010: This way little one!



April 2010: And we are off again!



June 2010: Father's Day!


Much love.

Sunday, October 3, 2010

I'm in love...

…with SKYPE!!!   and Ryan of course!


Seeing the love of your life after 133 days (yes, I’m counting) is indescribable! Oh my heavens, I cried, I laughed and I just loved seeing his face! He is soooo skinny! I mean, we both had a few pounds to lose, but he has lost a ton and he looks perfect! We kissed through the monitor, we smiled and giggled and danced around and just kept saying how amazing it is to see one another!!!

To see Ryan while talking to him (for the first time in over a month I may add) was a dream come true! Basically, this weekend rocked and I didn’t do anything other than talk to him for 3 to 4 hours a day! Ahhh! I cannot wait for him to come home! I love him so much and I am ever so thankful to the inventors of Skype! It’s pure genius! Now, if only they could create a version of skype that takes up much much much less bandwidth so that we can do this with limited internet connection… million dollar idea? Maybe! If only I was a techy, just this once!  Ok, I know, I can't be selfish, well, I shouldn't be, but I totally am.  I want more lovin time!

Sorry, no pictures because I failed miserably at taking them. I was too  excited to see him that I completely forgot. Oops! I love you Ryan!

Much love.

Thursday, September 30, 2010

No. 113


On Friday, I received letter No. 113 from my amazing and ever so sweet husband!  He made it a goal of his to write a letter a day for every day we are apart and he has held true to his promise!  I wrote about the art of letter writing in this post.  (Yay!  I linked a prior post!  There is a first for everything!  Am I an official blogger now?) Anyways, I believe that it is time to dedicate another post to my amazing husband and his attention to my love language through these attempts at being artistic with my oh so old $99 camera from walmart.  I do believe an upgrade is in the works, but as my mama always says, it's to close to the holidays to be buying gifts for yourself; you'll just have to wait and see! In this case it isn't mama saying it, it's me  and I am a stepmama, so I guess it makes perfect sense! 

To be completely frank, I am the luckiest lady in the world to be married to my soulmate, my handsome, red cheeked, blue eyed, goofy, smart and oh so loving husband!  Thank you for your dedication to us!  You are perfect!  Muah!  I love you!

They traveled the world and landed in my hands...
Read over and over again...
Cried on...
Squeezed...

Spread around & photographed...



Neatly stacked and tied in a simple ribbon...


Placed next to bed were my love will one day be with me again...
And cherished forever!

Much love. 

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Peace Signs & Tie Dye...

My weekend started with a 4:10am drive north for a weekend of photo shoots (for my sweetie), girl time with my besties and a birthday bash with my favorite little sister! Thankfully the drive was super smooth and ended with a special stop...to pick up my wedding album! It's perfect! I can't wait to share it with Ryan!

There's nothing better than a tie-dye, peace sign birthday cake in the eyes of a 10 year old peace loving little girl! And with whom better to make this glorious birthday cake than with your big sister! Bonnzers and I spent the good part of our Saturday mixing and squeezing and spreading to create the most perfect cake for the most precious little sister!


The beaming birthday gal!


Now that is a cake!

As always, put a bunch of amazing people in a room and there is a bunch of fun to happen! There were aunts, cousins, friends, gramma, parents, doggies, and cooler than cool siblings to join in the celebrations!


More Peace Signs!
This is one of many gifts and a few peace signs!  The made out like a bandit! Lucky duck!


My new favorite shirt! (I was planning on it being a bit cooler when I decided to bring this shirt home)


Mama and Papa!
Now that is a smile Pops!  These two have taught me what being a family is all about!  I love them eternally!


My EXTREMELY handsome brother!
Update on him:  He is officially a licensed driver!!


Remmy
This Pup is hard to catch looking at the camera...out of about 30 shots, this is the best one!


The Matriarch of the family!
Gramma is a champ!  She lets us carry her in the wheelchair up and down the stairs without a flinch! And she's always up for a party! 


Blondies!


Oh the joys of being a tween

We ended the night with a little star gazing...or better yet, Jupiter gazing!  Yes, I saw the ring around the great planet and the four moons that appear to be in a line from my parent's front porch!  We dusted off the old telescope, played with the zoom and focus and saw the man on the moon up close and personal!

The night ended with w little Sequence (the new coolest game of strategy in my life) and a two hour viewing of the halfway DVD!  Yes, ladies and gentlemen, this dreaded deployment is over halfway done!  Yippidy Doo Daa, Yippidy Day! I'm a happy wife!

Well, that's all for now, but keep an eye out for some more posts because I got my hair cut, have received letter #114, photographed my dad's gardens and snapped some quick ones of my beautiful 6 month wedding anniversary white orchid that I love dearly!!

Much love.

Saturday, September 18, 2010

Face lift...

As most of you have probably noticed, I gave my blog a little face lift!  Thanks to my sister in law, I learned how to add tabs as well!  While I only have two tabs,  "Home" and "About Me,"  I would like to draw attention to the "About Me" tab!  I wrote a nice little blurb (can that count as a post for the week? I sure hope so.) that I hope you enjoy!  I would also like suggestions for other tabs.

I love giving my blog a face lift!  It is like spring cleaning, a fresh start, a renewed energy for me!  I hope you enjoy it! 

Also, in addition to changing my blog, I am thinking about getting my hairs cut...  I need help though.  What do you think of the following styles?

1. I am mainly looking at the long bangs here...


2. Here is another one with bangs, but also with layers...


3. No bangs, but layers


4. Here is a bit more daring for me...


I have thin hair and I want to be able to put it up...a few bobby pins for the bangs are acceptable.  I haven't had layers in years and I haven't had bangs since grade school... My hair is currently the length of photo No. 2 & 3...  Help!  All comments and suggestions welcomed! 

Much love.

Monday, September 13, 2010

Good Night Summer...

Good Night Summer...

After my first week of graduate school, there couldn't have been a more perfect weekend than the Labor Day weekend that greeted me.  Ok, so I'm lying a bit, if Ryan and Jared were with me, it would have been a PERFECT weekend!  PERFECT I tell you!  Soooo, my almost perfect weekend started with Hurricane Earl creating a scare and canceling all Thursday night classes!  This girl was a happy girl!  I hit the road around 2:30pm and started driving north!  Windows down, music blasting, sun shining and a smile on my face.  The drive was smooth...not too much traffic, no turtles i.e. sloooww drivers in the fast lane and killer music on the radio!

I got home around 8pm to an empty house...where was everyone you ask?  Dad was on his way home from work, mom and sister were at my grandmother's and my brother was still at football practice.  A late dinner and a glass of wine was a great ending to a surprisingly early evening...considering I wasn't planning on leaving until 10pm.

Friday was a sisterly love filled kind of day!  We went to the driving range, in skirts, and hit balls like completely crap, but made sure to laugh at ourselves!  Our critiquing was quite amusing since neither one of us actually knows what she is doing...we just think we do!  After some kid friendly, giggle friendly golfing, I took my little sister through he very first car wash!  This wasn't just any old ordinary car wash, this was a car wash in Ryan's F-150 and she sat in the front seat!  N.B. Riding in Ryan's truck is a novelty all in itself for us ladies and sitting in the front seat is earth shattering in a little nine year old's eyes because airbags and her in the front seat are a no no.  Since the truck was on auto pilot and in neutral, I figured a little rule breaking was completely acceptable!  Plus car washes are so much better when you are front and center to the spraying and slapping and sudzing!  It's kind of like a roller coaster ride, the front seat is hands down the best seat in the house! After that is was home to hang out and watch some totally awesome Miley Cyrus!  She is actually quite funny!  Way better than Power Rangers, even though I was a die hard fan and love the yellow ranger! 

That evening was a transition from little girl gossip to older, slightly more mature girl time!  Mo and I had the grand idea to get all dolled up in dresses and heals and hit the town!  Well actually, hit up her boyfriend's bar...free drinks and a great surprise!  I wore my college graduation dress - a dark grey short strapless dress with an exposed zipper in the back and a bright yellow ribbon around the waist, oh and the best part...it has pockets!  To top it off, I wore silver, almost white, stilettos!  A very stylish lady told me, "Girl, you look hott!  I love your shoes!"  in the bathroom!  I felt pretty and totally sexy!    Mo wore a killer grey dress with high back that had snaps and an opening!  She too strutted in some sexy high heeled black Mary Jane shoes!  Dan was a happy boy!  We had a great night!

Saturday morning I was up bright and early to head off to my brother's opening football game!  The heat had broken, the air was crisp, football was being played...fall was here!  LC started off a little rocky with the halftime score being 7 to 21, not us. But with a lot of faith and some family blood finally in the game, the defense prevailed and LC kicked some booty!  There were QB sacks, interceptions and favorable penalties which all created some great opportunities for our offense!  The game ended with a score of 28 to 26!  Oh yea baby!  First game of the season was a big fat W!  After the game, parents, siblings, friends, all fans form a line for the team to walk through and if you have a mama there, you give her a proper hug first and then if you a little love there, you give her a peck.  It's a neat little tradition that makes mamas feel really special!

That evening was date night!  Mom and dad went on a date, Mike went to a group date...that's what you do in high school when you can't drive yet, and Bonzers and I had a sister date night!  We went to a yard sale and scored some dynamite eagle claw foot chairs from Eastern Europe...for free, two photo frames, some knit baby caps, crystal candle holders and a great white dotted serving bowl with 4 matching mini bowls...drum roll...all for $10!!  It was a successful night already.  To continue with awesomeness, we headed to the mall for some little girl shopping time!  We tried on headbands, talked about the coolest kids in 5th grade, looked for a homecoming dress and ultimately decided that it was ice cream time!  What better time to have ice cream that an 9pm?!?!  We headed over to Friendly's and ordered our own huge sundaes!  Yum!  It was super chilly in there, so we cuddled together in one booth!  The night was a complete and utter success!  I love my little sister!

Sunday was a stay at home kind of day!  I did some laundry, cleaned a bit, packed for my long journey back to Virginia and celebrated my love for my husband with a red, white and blue heart cake!  Oh and by making our future headboard!  BonBon and I died yellow cake red and blue without thinking that red and yellow is really pink and blue and yellow is definitely green...oops.  We were successful with the white though!  It was my first attempt at homemade icing and it was a total success!

3 c. powdered sugar
1/3 cup butter
dollop of shortening
1 tsp of vanilla
3 tsp. of half and half
sprinkling of salt
whip together the perfection!  (double for an average two layer cake!)

Ok, where was I...oh yes, the cake was actually pink, green and white with a lovely pink sprinkle heart on top!  It tasted oh so yummy and our tummy's didn't know the difference!  The headboard, made mostly by my wonderful and completely handy father, but with some supervision, measuring and a lot of staple gunning by me, is almost done!  The entire frame is made, the foam is attached, the fabric covering has been positioned, but the wood is not stained, so the fabric is not going on...  I will post photos of the final project and the bedroom all done up when everything is perfect!  I am so excited to finally have a bedroom set and one my by love nonetheless! 

Monday was an eventful day as well!  I packed my car and headed to Dizzle's house!  We chatted about love and life, ate glorious Italian hoagies and coffee and soaked in the wonderful weather!  I love friend time!  It was a wonderful preface to a long drive home, a wonderful end to a glorious weekend and a beautiful start to a fabulous season!

Good Morning Fall...

...and tears flowed from thousands of miles away

When I was asked to submit a few photos for ship morale, I got really excited! My mind started going crazy with ideas and then I thought "What would Ryan really like?" With that, my entire goal was to make my husband feel like the luckiest guy in the world to have the love of a sweet little boy and me, his amazing wife! Through the help of some very talented and beautiful people, I was able to give Ryan the gift of the following pictures to which he saw while running on the treadmill, nearly fell off and started tearing up. Mission accomplished, my baby felt our love from thousands of miles away!





All photos of me are courtesy of Chloe Sherman Pepe