Happy Dog News

My last post was bearing bad, awful dog news... this one is just the opposite. Jon and I recently became parents to a beautiful, approximately 8 month old adorable puppy. We adopted her from Paws4You, and she's about the coolest dog anyone could ever ask for. She's really well behaved, super sweet, so cute, and a lot of fun to play with. It's fun, adopting a pup, because you get to take them from a bad situation and give them a happy home.

Meet little Charlotte Wendy- isn't she the cutest?!

Char, enjoying her breakfast on South Beach.

Farewell to Awesome

We had a sad week this past week... On May 1st, we lost an important part of our family. For over seventeen and a half years, Oscar served many functions to our family. He went peacefully in his sleep.

He was many things to us- he was our family doctor and guard dog, and his full time job (which he was excellent at) was to make us all happy. He was happy dressing up in costumes for his birthday, which most frequently involved trips to the Popeyes drive through. He was very cuddly, and did a good job of keeping his people warm and cozy at night. He spent many afternoons walking the neighborhood with his mom, sitting on the back porch with his dad, posing for pictures with his brother, spooning with his sisters, and just generally making the world a happier place. We all spent a lot of time mourning his death, but then Sarah and I realized that he wouldn't be happy with that. He spent his entire life making people happy, and I'm sure if he knew how sad we were, he would think he failed... and nobody wants him to think that! We decided that he was so busy making people happy, and he finally decided that he had achieved his goal and it was ok to leave our world.

We had a solid fifteen years with him in excellent health... about two and a half years ago, he had a back problem that required acupuncture to fix. It gave us a good bit of extra time with him, and he was still so happy. He recently got sick, and it luckily didn't last that long.

We will all miss him greatly- it's not everyday that such a happy, awesome dog comes around. While we're all sad, and know that there's a big hole to fill, we all consider ourselves lucky for getting to have him for so long. Thanks for being such a good boy, Oscar. We love you!

Happy new baby!

I will admit, I'm the worlds worst blogger. I've had a lot of things happen since December when I last posted (HI! I got married!)... It'll be my goal to start posting more often. I'll put together my favorite pictures since then and get cracking.

To start off my Welcome Back To Blogging, I'd like you to meet baby Ayden. My old friend Jill was in town last week visiting her brand new baby niece. I can't say no to visiting a new baby and an old friend, so Jon and I went to see her. She's amazing.

Latkes, Matzo Ball Soup, and Jelly Donuts

Happy Hanukkah! Tonight marks the beginning of the eight days of Hanukkah... which I marked by having Christy and Tracy over for a tasty dinner of latkes and matzo ball soup. I've only made latkes once, and that was with a recipe a friend gave me. Tonight, I used Missy's recipe for latkes (I love hers- they're the best). In addition to the giant mess that I made (I swear, I'm the messiest cook ever), I made some pretty kickin latkes. They were quite delicious. I topped that off with some hot and tasty matzo ball soup.

Dinner was topped off by the delicious jelly donuts that Christy provided. I don't think I've ever eaten a jelly donut before- I was quite impressed. Good old Dunkin Donuts rarely lets you down.

We got some really great menorah's at our engagement party, so we lit those, in addition to one I already had. Christy took some more pictures- I'll post those when I get them from her. Hooray for Hanukkah!

Why I Love Bed, Bath, and Beyond

I've always loved Bed, Bath, and Beyond. It's a huge store filled with so much useful stuff, half of which is crap you would never need.... but you REALLY want it once you see it. Partner that with their amazing return policy and the fact that they always have 20% coupons available, it's really a win/win situation.

Jon and I registered there for about 90% of our wedding gifts. A lot of it is useful stuff we really want/need... some of it to replace things we already have, some of it new. We were really excited about a few of the random items (those ones you really don't need but REALLY want), namely the Garlic Zoomer and the Ice Cream Molds. And to my great surprise and delight, we got a box-of-fun from BB&B from Christy this week... including the Garlic Zoomer and Ice Cream Molds, among other exciting gotta-have-them things!

So after class today, I decided to break into the ice cream molds and make some tasty ice cream sandwiches.

Step one... the ingredients. Vanilla ice cream, cool whip, and cookie dough.

Step two... bake the cookie dough in a thin sheet


Step three... mix the whipped cream and ice cream. I chose to add some chopped cherries for a little extra flavor.


Step four... use the molds to cut out shapes in the cookie once it's cooked.


Step five... put a cookie in the bottom of the mold, then scoop some ice cream in it, add the second cookie on the top, and close the mold.


Step six... put them in the freezer... step seven will be eating the tastiness- stay tuned for the final result!

Big weekend

It was a big weekend for me... well, not really for me personally, but for people I care about...

Alan and Stephanie got engaged! woohoo! I'm excited to bring in a new family member... yay for new sisters! No details yet, but they're hoping for a May 2010 wedding in Wisconsin.

Christy won another Emmy! Recall her nomination in October? The ceremony was this weekend, and she won Emmy number two, and got to accept it in the fabulous purple dress Sarah and I helped pick out. What a rockstar.

The Gators are playing to the National Championship game! And, it's in Miami this year. Not that I can afford the ticket, but I'm sure the post game celebration will be pretty great. Who else would be stoked if the stadium got a "2008" added to it?

$1.86

$1.86- that's how much I paid for gas last week. I wanted to host a party at the gas pump. When I moved to Miami in August, gas was over $4.30 a gallon. I managed to fill my tank with only $26.18. And it was running on empty (like the light was on and I had been driving with it on for awhile). I had to take a picture of the pump because I was so excited.

Yay for being able to afford to drive!