Home sweet home.

Nesting in my new apartment has been an integral part of this whole getting-out-on-my-own thing, so it's probably about time I introduce you to it!  There's an awesome tool called The Make Room, which let's you design your entire home, from walls to couches to staplers (not even kidding).  Thanks to Jenn I had a floor plan and room dimensions, so I was actually able to build my apartment:

Cool, huh?!  If it helps, the bay windows are the front of the house, and the door to nowhere is the back door.  (It doesn't just drop off the side of the house; there is actually a back hallways with closets and stairs and all that good stuff.  I just didn't know that when I made this.)  But I couldn't stop with a floor plan, of course.  So during the waiting period between booking my flight to MA and actually moving here, I spent an embarrassing amount of some time planning every little detail of where things would go.  This is what the plan was:

 

Keep in mind that this house is 100 years old.  I LOVE that.  It has character and beautiful trim and wood floors and bay windows....it's wonderful.  The only part that has a question mark attached to it is the kitchen.  I don't quite understand the reasoning behind having a kitchen that's broken up into two areas, but I'm OK with it.  The big empty room in the middle is one part of the kitchen.  It came with the stove, fridge, and washing machine, and I had big dreams of super cheap IKEA countertops and maybe some sort of portable island.  The options are endless.  The sink and cabinets are in that narrow galley kitchen next to the bathroom.  This is fine with me because, let's face it, I rarely cook.  (It's on my list...)

Now, the down-side to The Make Room is that it is very user friendly and, therefore, very easy to change the size and shape of items to make them fit the model.  This isn't a problem if you have the dimensions of all of your furniture, but mine had been sitting in storage for a year and the only measurements I had were rough estimates of how much room I had when my 6' self laid down on the sectional sofa.  As I quickly found out on move-in day, that was a grossly inaccurate estimation.  Long story short, half of my sectional is in the living room, and half is on my [enclosed] front porch.  Other than that, everything else fit as I had hoped!  I did do some shifting and rearranging, but this is how it all looks now:

It all looks very...beige...from this angle, but that's not the case when you can see the wall colors and pictures and paintings and curtains.  Anyway, the point of this was so that all you folks at home can follow along when I start posting about all of the DIY and decorating action that's been happening here.  Which I WILL post about.  Because I'm NOT falling off of the blogging wagon already.

 

Play day.

Saturdays have become our park days.  During the week the poor pup sits at home all day while I'm off winning the bread (or something), so I like to reward her with quality play time on Saturdays.  Today seemed like a good day for that.  The house was quite literally quivering because of the 40-60 mph winds that were plaguing Worcester, so I figured I'd rather be outside than in if it came crashing down.  So we packed up and drove to the park. En route, however, I experienced my very first flash snow storm.  It was insane!  It came out of absolutely nowhere.  It was all blue skies and sunshine, and then it was white out conditions. It looked like this:

                 

Seriously.

And then it was over.  And it looked like this:

 

 Actually, it looked better than that, but my iPhone camera and my editing skills leave a little to be desired. 

Anyway, we made it to the park.  Rylie had a great time and that's all that matters. Here's how a park trip usually goes down, in Rylie's own words:

OMG I'M SO EXCITED!!!

ThrowtheballthrowtheballCOMEONNNNNNthrowtheball! 

I got it! I got it! See! I got it!

Do it again.

And again.

And again, 'til I'm tired.

 I'm tired. 

Oh, you're taking pictures?  

Here, I'll cock my head and look adorable.

 Tee hee hee I'm so adorable. 

I'm parched...give me water.

 I...

 ...almost...

 ...got it...

 Ahhhhhhhh.  Refreshing.

 GAH! UGH! *cough* I'M CHOKING!

 I'm ok.  Throw the ball!  And I'll wait for it......

Got it!

Ooh there's the ball!

 Look! I got it! Do it again.

 Oooooh, a stick!

 Nom nom nom.

I'm so over this. Let's go now.

 I love you, park!!

 

Love day.

Happy Hallmark Holiday Valentine's Day!

 

I really don't care about Valentine's Day all that much, and Rylie certainly didn't need ANOTHER squeaky toy, but I just couldn't help myself.  Happy Valentine's Day, folks.

Precisely.

 

credit 

Three.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RYLIE!!!!

My little bear turned three years old today!  I made her a paper hat and tried to take some cute birthday pictures of her, but this one basically sums up how she felt about being posed:

I adopted Rylie from Golden Beginnings Golden Retriever Rescue in Houston, TX in March of 2009, and I can't begin to count the ways in which she has been a blessing to me, to my family, and to everyone she has met since that day.  Join me for a little stroll down memory lane, won't ya?  [You can read the whole story about Rylie's mama, her babies, and their first few weeks of life here.]

January 23, 2009:  Rylie's very pregnant mama, Lulu, was found walking the streets of Houston.  Sweet sweet volunteers from GBGRR scooped her up and took her to the vet. 

January 25, 2009: Rylie, her 2 sisters, and 4 brothers are born!

 

February-ish, 2009: My bff and soon-to-be roommate, Ali, finds out about these precious puppies through an email sent to the vet school students and tells me about them.  I have been researching and looking for a furry friend of my own for about a year at this point, so I give it some serious consideration and decide to fill out the adoption application.  I have my eye set on Star.

March 11, 2009 (my birthday!): I get a call from GBGRR saying that my application has been reviewed and they've held the last puppy for me if I want her!  "Absolutely! Yes! Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! Yes! Did I say that already? Yes!" 

March 13, 2009:  I drive to Magnolia, TX to pick up my little pup.  I am supposed to be getting Pink, but when I get there, Star is also there.  After a few minutes of playing, it's clear that Star is the one for me!  I sign some papers and we're off on our new adventure!

 

Rylie's first year:

Rylie's second year: 

Rylie's third year:

 I won't tell you that my dog's the perfect dog or that she's better than yours.  But she's definitely perfect for me.  She is always excited to see me: whether I'm getting out of bed in the morning, coming home from work, or just getting out of the shower, she's there, tail wagging.  She doesn't care if the routine is inconsistent, as long as she gets her play time and her food and a little lovin'.  She takes care of us when we're sick, in that special way that dogs do.  There aren't enough words to describe how wonderful this pup is.  Basically, give her a little love and she'll give it back tenfold.  And she'll look darn cute, too.

Happy birthday, little monkey.

Memories

In "A Million Miles in a Thousand Years," Don often mentions his friend Bob, who writes down all of his memories.  I'm not going to do that, but I think it's important to make memories and to revisit them every once in a while.

My first memory is of my Grandma taking away my pacifier.  My parents didn't have the heart to do it, and I was almost 4, so Grandma had to take matters into her own hands.  She pulled it right out of my mouth and put in on a high shelf in a cabinet so I could see it but not reach it.  I was devastated.  I was furious.  My almost-4-years-old world was shattered.

I remember when Grandma died...she was the only grandparent I ever knew.  That was a whole different kind of devastation and world-shattering.  

I remember my first boyfriend and my first kiss: Rick Tafoya. We were kindergarten lovers.  He kissed me on the cheek in my garage. In front of my dad.

I remember summers in New Hampshire--sneaking over to the private beach with my cousins; duck itch; hiding behind a tree with my cousin Kristi while my dad got a talking-to from a cop for shooting off 4th of July fireworks; borrowing Kristi's rollerblades (at least 4 sizes too small) and subsequently eating gravel, coming back to the house and yelling "it smarts!" as my mom applied hydrogen peroxide to my wounds because I had heard that phrase somewhere and thought it's what all the cool kids were saying when they were in pain.

I remember staple wars with my elementary school friends every time our teacher would turn around. 

I remember my parents telling me we were moving to TEXAS instead of New Hampshire...that was a bad day.  Turned out ok though =)

I remember skipping the Rangers game at our July 4th family reunion one year so we could keep playing spoons and eating Lorna's famous chocolate chip cookies.  We made our own fireworks show by jumping up from our seats and yelling "BLUE!" "RED!" "SPARKLES!" etc.

I remember my first all-nighter in high school with my best friend, Kim, making [really dumb] shirts that said "sorry if our hotness burns u." And I think the sleeves had dolphins on them.

I remember JAJ days.

I remember sitting on my floor praying REALLY hard for God to "send me a sign" about whether I should go to CSU or Mizzou.  I remember Mom walking in at exactly that moment holding a stuffed CSU ram.  

I remember having yell practice with 80 Aggies on the roof of the Galeries Lafayette in Paris.

Those are just a few of so many moments that were made memorable for one reason or another.  Mostly because of the people involved.  So a big thanks to all of you crazy/fun/awesome/inspirational/loving people who have made memories with me through the years.