Things I Want [1st Ed.]

Of course, there are many, many things I want.  But there are a few things that at this moment, I want REALLY badly.

So welcome, to the 1st Edition of 'Things I Want':

Victoria's Secret Yoga Crops

I was walking through the mall the other day and saw these on sale.  They were 2 for $26.  It's hard for me to find pants, especially these types of pants.  And ya know, the fact that I do nothing but sit around the house, I need more lounge-y pants.  And it's easier to lift weights in tight pants.  [Nothing is more annoying than lifting weight have having them get hooked on your pants/crops/shorts.]  I'm really not a VS snob, actually I'm not a brand name snob at all.  BUT $26 for two pairs of crops is just a good deal! And I love that the top of them are all different and have vibrant colors.  A great way to dress up boring black crops!

Vanity

I am lazy.  When I had cancer, I never had the stamina to stand and do my hair and/or makeup.  So I would wheel my desk chair into my bathroom and sit in front of my sink.  Well, cancer's ass was kicked but I still remained weak for a long time.  And then when I wasn't weak, I just became lazy.  I get bothered when I have to stand for an hour to do my hair and makeup because I was so accustomed to sitting for almost two years.  And so I don't stand.  Once I moved home and didn't have my own bathroom in my bedroom, I did my hair and makeup at my desk....with a tiny mirror.  But now, I'm still lazy. And I'd like to upgrade from my computer desk to a vanity.  [Okay, I don't use the desk anymore...I just tough it out and stand up in the bathroom and do my hair and makeup....but I'm annoyed every time.]  Plus I like the idea of having my stuff all RIGHT there next to me.  You all know most apartments' bathrooms are not large enough to accommodate all your girly things.  I'm sure Nick hates my clutter all over the sink and under the sink and whatnot.   I LOVE this vanity because of it's color and clean lines.  It's not huge and bulky but it's not too small.  And with it's design, it'd be so simple to find a small cabinet/table/shelf to go alongside of this to house my blow dryer, flat iron, hair products, etc.  I want this thing sooooooo badly!!!!!  (Nick, it's made by Powell Furniture 502-290.... ya know, in case you were wondering ;)

Lasik

Sorry for the gruesome photo.  But I want Lasik so freaking badly!  I spend so much money every year on eye exams, contacts, and contact solution.  On top of that, contacts are just a pain in the butt!  I'll admit, I don't take them out every night.  It's hard.  I am so totally blind without them.  I have glasses but the lenses are so old and don't work well.  [I just can't afford to get contacts AND new glasses.]  It's a pain to lay around with glasses on...it just doesn't work.  They smash into my nose or will bend/break.  So I wait until right before bed to take them out.  But by that point, I'm so tired so I skip it.  And then I wake up with my eyes hurting.  If I do take them out, I fumble around in the morning trying to find my glasses.  I also have to clean them ALL the time because my dang dog is always licking them or rubbing her wet nose on them. It's annoying to always be squinting.  I wake up in the middle of the night and can't see my way to the bathroom (yes, I am THAT blind).  I have to bring my phone just 6 inches from my face to see the time.  And I know this sounds super cheesy and lame, but I hate waking up and not being able to see Nick's face....I just see this flesh colored blog next to me =/  (TMI Alert:  It's also annoying when we're "doing it" after my contacts are out and I can't even see my husband.  I mean, it's supposed to be an intimate thing and I can't even see his face clearly!)  I've heard it's really not that expensive and most places allow payment plans so this is something I REALLY want to look into once we get to Florida.

Patio Furniture

Okay, so this would be nice...it would be more than nice.  BUT I'm not wanting this.  (Okay, I AM wanting this....) But realistically, simple chairs such as this:

would do.  You see, I LOVE being outside.  Absolutely love it.  When we go to the lake, my favorite thing to do in the evenings is just sit on the deck, drink in hand, enjoying the weather and scenery, while talking/laughing/spending time with loved ones.  I loved to sit on the porch with my mother and talk and let the dog roam the yard.  I loved to walk around the neighborhood with Julie.  I love to sit on the patio at restaurants or bars.  So naturally, just because I'm in Annapolis, that hasn't changed.  We have a patio off our living room.  But no chairs.  We have Cardinals camping chairs, which we love, but they sit low and don't have a whole lot of support.  But we don't leave them out.  We don't want sun or rain (or animals) to wear and tear on them.  So it's a pain to go out, open the closet, get the chair out, sit there, then put it back in the bag, put it back in the closet.  A simple chair like this (BBB has then for $30 and I'm sure Target or other places have them just as cheap, if not cheaper) would do just fine.  Since we've moved here, I've spent one...ONE night on the patio.  It kills me to sit inside my apartment.  But it's uncomfortable any other way right now.  I don't even need a table out there (although one would be nice...even a small one.)  It's just so annoying right now that something I love so freaking much, something that would make my time here a little better, can't happen =/  I want more than anything to sit out there with Nicholas and enjoy our time together....time away from iphone, television, video games, and computers.  If only people understand what this simple thing means to me =/

Flowers

Okay, not just any flowers.  I LOVE the color combination of red and yellow in a bouquet.  These two vibrant colors look amazing together!  How could these NOT brighten your day?  I don't even care what kind of flowers they are....tulips, gerber daisies, lilies, roses...combination of them.  Wouldn't matter.  They are just gorgeous colors!  I want a giant bouquet like this on my kitchen table.  Every time we visit a grocery store, I glance at the pre-made bouquets.  But there are never any red and yellow bouquets.  I can't possibly be the only who loves this color combination, right?

(This last one was random but I miss my family and friends and being here is really hard and just looking at this picture brightens my day).

And that concludes the things I want at this exact moment in time.  Feel free to drop them off at my house or have them shipped to me =)

Meet Yadi, Our Fur-Baby

After less than a week in our new home, we've adopted a child . . . . a fur-baby.

Nick and I knew we'd get a puppy shortly after we got married. (Remember this post?)  We're both dog people and I need one now that I don't have my Sierra (I didn't take her with me.  She doesn't do well away from home [pees and poops everywhere, eats everything].  It wouldn't be fair to move her nor would it be fair to us to have to deal with that.)  Plus I need something to take my lonely mind off missing my family and friends and give me something to do.

The 20 months prior to the wedding, I was counting down the days until I could walk down the aisle and marry my best friend.  Nick, on the otherhand, added about 3 weeks to that number and was counting down to the day we got a dog.  Yes, he was more excited for a puppy than our wedding (he'll deny this but we all know the truth. And it's okay, Babe, she's cuter than me so it's understandable).

Nick has been wanting a Weimaraner for forever!  And although I wanted a Vizsla, since Nick has been dying for a pup, we began searching for a Weim.  (Before we get MORE comments: Yes!  We know about the breed.  We've done extensive reading on their personalities, their needs, their health, etc.  We know they require a lot exercise and attention.  But we also know they are incredibly loyal and intelligent.  We are more than prepared and willing to care for both of these energetic and demanding dogs.)
Anyway,  I logged onto PetFinder.com and sure enough we found some Weim puppies.  They were just shy of 11 weeks old, a little older than we wanted, but it didn't matter because they were too stinkin' cute and needed a good home.

So we headed to Lancaster, PA to pick her up last Thursday evening.  We arrived at this nice Amish family's home to see her.  Only her and one brother were left.  We knew we wanted a female so there was no deciding which one to get.  But boy was she massive!  She was almost twice the size of her brother!  She has an adorable little swirl on the back of her neck and I love her unique marking!  She also had quite the little Buddha belly on her as well.  We were instantly in love.  We swooped her up, got her vet papers, and started the drive home.  We quickly learned our little fur-ball gets motion sickness =/  The first time was all over Mommy.  Just lovely.  The second time was on the blanket on the floor board.  And the third time was again on the floor board blanket.  This little pup was determined to make this the longest drive home.

We stopped off at PetSmart to buy her crate (nowhere near Annapolis had a 'large' one).  The little girl REFUSED to walk.  She was just so scared and kept crouching down everywhere.  We had to carry her into the store and carry her around (and let me tell you, she is NOT light.)  After about 20 minutes of just sitting, she FINALLY took a few steps.  Then sat for a while.  And then a few more steps.  Yes!  Progress!

We finally arrived home and the poor thing was still terrified and confused.  She had been living in a horse stall full of hay and that's it.  It took her a while to play with her toys.  She was skittish and is terrified of pavement, phones ringing, water running from a faucet, slide glass door, etc.  (poor girl wasn't used to this kind of living!)  But we knew in time she'd get over that...and it only took her about two days!  (Although, she still gets the nervous hiccups!  When she's in her crate or in the car, she gets the hiccups haha, poor girl).

We've had her just shy of a week and she's doing really well.  We start puppy training classes on Thursday.  It's every Thursday for 6 weeks to learn the basics of sit, lay, stay, drop it, etc.  (She's almost got "sit" down, which is impressive.)
She is a little over half-way to fully comprehending her name and coming when she's called.
She is definitely a puppy and into the biting and chewing stage...on everything... table legs, couch cushions, shoes, faces, hair . . . . pretty much anything she can get her little mouth on.  But we took people's recommendations and bought "Grannick's Bitter Apple" spray.  It's worked pretty well and she's laying off most of the stuff now.
We've also decided to crate train her.  She's doing REALLY well in terms of not peeing/pooping in her crate.  She's been in the crate for four nights now and not peed or pooped in it once.  However, she does NOT like being in it at night.  But in all honesty, she's done well.  We have her in the kitchen and at night, she whines at first.  But if we sit by her and let her know we're there, she calms down and will lie down.  The first night, she went to bed around 1am (we were having too much fun playing with her) and she didn't start whining until close to 6am.  The second night was a little worse.  She cried off and on and we had to keep comforting her.  (We know we "should" ignore her and we do until her cries become TOO loud.  We're in an apartment and don't want to be "those" neighbors.)  The third night was much better and then last night was a little rough again.  But again, it hasn't even been one week so I'd say this is good!
We've left her three times during the day and the first time was awful!  We were only gone about 20 minutes and when we returned, she was crying sooo loudly!  So loudly that we could hear here as we got to the stairs...and we live up three flights in the back.  So she was LOUD!  The other two times, we were gone an hour and then two hours.  Both times we returned home to not have her whining or crying at all!  Not even when we walked in the door and began talking to her!  The difference is the last two times we filled her Kong with a treat so I think that's the trick.

While she's out of the crate, 50% of the time you can find her in her bed.  We bought her a bed and it took her 12 hours to realize it's hers.  She absolutely loves it.

We've read that Weims are really loyal, almost clingly dogs.  We've already learned that.  She's our little shadow.  When we sit on the couch, she's right there at our feet, up against the couch.  If we are on the floor (which we are most of the time because we do not allow her on any furniture) she will lie down with her head in our lap.  If we get up to go do something, she gets up and follows.
She's really good when we're eating too.  She will sniff the air a little but then she lays down and doesn't give us or our food a second thought. 
Potty-training is going well.  She's had a few accidents in the house but that's our fault for getting her all hyper and then not thinking to take her out.  We're going to start bell-training her starting tomorrow.  We've heard mixed things about this but we're going to try it.
She's getting better with walking on the leash.  She doesn't pull us but we know once she gets bigger, she might try so we're going to buy a harness for her.
Weims love water, as long as they're introduced to it early.  So this weekend we took her Hospital Point at the Naval Academy to run and play and then we took her in the Severn River to swim!  She didn't hate it but didn't necessarily love it . . . but then again, it was her first time.  And once we got home, she had her first bath!

We are beyond in love with her.  She is our little child and I can't imagine not having her.  She keeps us busy and drives us bonkers sometimes but she's totally worth it. 
She is in that adorable puppy stage where she can't figure out her feet.  She's always tripping herself up with her long back legs, falling over all the time.  She romps around in her puppy way (rather loudly.)  She is still trying to figure out how to do the stairs (poor thing hits the front of her paws on every concrete step of the 3 stair cases).  She plays hard and then in a matter of a second, plops down and passes out.
She has such a personality and it's adorable.  She loves Nick and the feeling is mutual.  Nick actually loves her more than me.

So how did we choose her name?  We had wanted to pick something Cardinals related.  Naturally, we wanted to name her after our favorite player but we couldn't name her Albert or Pujols...too boyish.  My mom suggested Yadi (after Yadier Molina,our catcher) one of our other favorites but Nick wasn't sold.  So then we decided we'd wait until we met her and pick a name that fit her personality.
Then we met her and saw her big belly,  and immediately knew we should choose something that related to her belly.  We then noticed she crouched down a lot.  And she walks and runs verrrry slowly.  If you know Yadier Molina, (nicknamed Yadi), then you know these traits perfectly describe him.  Yadi just seemed so fitting.  So it stuck.  And now we're representing our Cardinals as we originally wanted!
Yadi's middle name is Buttermilk.  Why?  Because that was one of the weird streets we traveled on (a horse-crap covered street) as we traveled through Amish country to get her.  It was one of the last streets we had to turn on before reaching our destination.  We found it funny and decided we needed to incorporate it.  (We had NO idea we'd be in Amish country considering the pups were listed on PetFinder.com on the INTERNET!...but apparently they sell lots of things on the internet but have other people take pictures and post it for them.)

Yadi is also our wedding gift to each other.  We had agreed no gifts (even though Nick broke this by surprising me with a princess cut diamond necklace and bouquet of roses) for the wedding.  Our gift was going to be a puppy (since they're pretty expensive with food, toys, crates, vaccines, spaying, microchipping, etc.) 

So there's the story behind our little baby.  I apologize now because we're obsessed.  We'll be posting lots of pictures to Facebook and I'm sure quite a few blog posts about the little booger!

If you want to see more pictures, click HERE.

Our Honeymoon!

I just got back from the best week of my life.  I didn't think my Love high could get any, well, higher after our wedding but I was wrong.  Very, very wrong.

Spending a week in paradise with your best friend is heaven.  Seriously.  I think that's what my heaven looks like.

It was just Nicholas and I for seven full days.

A gorgeous room, with a ridiculously comfy bed.

Too much lingerie (although my husband thinks there's no such thing as "too much lingerie").

Gorgeous beaches with amazingly soft sand.

Postcard worthy sunrises and sunsets.

Delicious food, available whenever you want.

Endless amounts of alcohol.

Fun and exhilarating excursions.

Super fun couples!

I mean, seriously....BEST.WEEK.OF.MY.LIFE!!!

What beats living in a bikini in gorgeous Jamaica with your new husband?  Nothing!  That's what!

We left St. Louis at 6am and arrived in Jamaica early in the afternoon (a HUGE perk of going to Jamaica was we didn't lose a day of vacation due to travel.)  When we arrived, our room wasn't ready but they handed us Jamaican Rum Punch drinks and led us to a waterfront restaurant to have lunch.  Don't mind if I do!

5am at St. Louis airport waiting to board our flight!

filling out my customs form on the plane.  It was exciting to finally be able to check the "married" box!

handsome husband at lunch, waiting for our room to be ready

view from lunch as we await our room

By day, you could find us poolside, beach side, or in the water.

I won one of the poolside games!

If you notice, 99% of the volleyballers are dudes.  Us ladies would lay out, and the guys would play pool (or beach) volleyball.

That island was also part of our resort.  It had more beaches (some nude), pools, and the Thai restaurant.

We also went on quite a few excursions.  We went on a Catamaran Cruise.  We opted for the daytime one because it was a little bit more "party" (the sunset one was more "romance") because we were in the mood to have a bit more fun.  And I am so glad we chose thing one.  We set out on the catamaran and stopped after a while for some snorkeling.  Then once everyone was back on the boat, we headed to Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville where we had lunch, played on the huge waterslides, and water trampolines.  On the ride back, the real "party" side of the cruise came out.  They blasted some ass shaking music and everyone was dancing.  The staff had a bottle of Jamaican rum and were just pouring it in everyone's mouths.  Shy Nicholas and my{not so shy}self partook in the body shots!  They had us lay down and just poured the rum all up and down our chests and stomachs.  As soon as the guys had it all licked up, they dumped more on us.  Sounds raunchy but we're young and it's or honeymoon!!!

our catamaran 

Margaritaville!

 And if you feel so inclined, you can watch the video here

after our catamaran cruise

On another day, we took a two hour bus ride to the Ochos Rios part of Jamaica and climbed Dunn's River Falls.  It was a lot of fun and we ended up meeting another couple from St. Louis who got married the same day we did!!!  We pretty much stuck together that day and I'm holding Tim's hand in most of the photos you see of me holding a random person's hand.  After climbing the waterfall, we were taken to Sandals Ochos Rios for lunch and some lounging on their resort.  Then we headed back to Montego Bay where Nick and I stayed at Sandals Montego Bay (the resort literally right next to ours) for a while.  (They had shuttles that ran every hour to take you to and from the other Sandals resorts).

{that's Tim!}

the water was sooooo cold!

(Water shoes were mandatory.  Thankfully we knew this ahead of time and bought $10 shoes back in St. Louis at Target.  Those that didn't have them had to buy them there and they were in excess of $20)

{that's Tim and Kasey right there in the top right}

We did it!!!

(You can see people holding hands in a line.  This is how we had to climb the waterfall.  I'm not sure why though because I feel like this lessened my balance.)

At the resort, they had two different Jamaican Cardinals hats!!!!!!!!  Nick got the top one (with the bottle opener) and it has the Jamaican flag on the back.

Our resort, Sandals Royal Caribbean, had quite a few restaurants.  Each had a unique menu (Thai, French, English Pub, etc) and they all had dress codes (some casual, some much nicer).   We enjoyed visiting each restaurant and experiencing some new cuisines.  I actually didn't get too many "food porn" shots but I got lots of photos of us all dressed up.

I took lots of these photos this week.  I was excited to have a wedding band and for Nick to have his new bling too!

We spent our evenings watching sunsets, drinking at bars, watching the nightly entertainment (beach parties, skits, concerst, etc).  We also visited the piano bar with new friends and played various games such as pool.  

They had a chocolate bar!  TONS of chocolate treats and chocolate fountain!

  

Beach Party!

The Cricketer was our favorite night hang out.  The bartender there was awesome and he knew us after the first night.  He called Nick "Soldier Boy" because his shoes were always so shiny (we didn't change after our nice dinners) and because he knew Nick was in the military.  The moment he saw us enter the bar, he was already making our drinks and setting them down for us right as we sat down at the bar.  Before we could ever finish a drink, he had another waiting for us.  He took such great care of us!!!  He was one of the funniest people we've met and was always more than willing to pour everyone at the bar shots.  Every night was a certifiable good time!!!

Tion pouring all of us shots!  (the couple at the end are from St. Louis too!)

With our other favorites Deon and Kevin!

Tion pouring us more shots!

New friends, Ashley and Shannon

It was seriously the best week of our life.  It was so hard to come back to reality.  It was nice to be able to order as much food as we wanted and not worry about the price.  We were also able to try a lot of new foods because if we didn't like it, it wasn't a big deal!  Of course unlimited alcohol was fabulous as well.  All-inclusive is definitely the way to go!!  I don't think I could ever do any other type of vacation.
The hardest transition back to the States was having to wait for our check and pay it.  We were so used to just getting up and leaving when we were finished (we would have tipped but they aren't allowed to accept them.)

Our honeymoon was absolutely the best week of my life.  I hate that it had to end and that I have no idea when we'll ever be able to go on another vacation like this.  Thankfully I have amazing memories, photos, and videos to remember it all.  It was the best way to celebrate a new marriage!

{If you're interested to see ALL of the photos, you can check them out here.}