Date set…day 124

After talking about this over and over again, we have finally decided on a date…and I will have my fall/winter wedding!!!

We have chosen November 10, 2012..which here would be 10-11-12

The wedding will take place at my grandmother’s house where I grew up, and I think she’s as excited as us. I also decided on a ring, and Goose is already on the hunt for it. We both wanted it to be something special and different, so he asked me to be part of the ring shopping process..and I fell in love with a beautiful pink H Stern. I can’t wait to have it on my finger.

So now that we have a real timeline, I’ve decided not cut my hair for the next 18 months, and dye it red so there’s no more bleaching and need to cut it so much. We are so excited and looking forward to all the planning madness.

*Last summer at my grandmother’s…can’t believe it’s almost been a year

Monthyversay pancakes…day 121

Goose usually makes pancakes for us on Sundays, but whenever we’re celebrating another month together they tend to taste even better. I’ve been very, very lucky to have him in my life, and for him to be putting up with my antics 11 years later. And now planning our wedding together is the icing on the cake. 

Which talking about cakes, I plan on attempting to make some cake poppers pretty soon and see if they pass the check for our dessert bar, and just for kicks I want to try to make Hello Kitty heads :)

He made Monday better…day 24

No matter how hard I try, and positive I am…Mondays are just flat out evil! Today was a long day at the office, so I took advantage of the time I had to look up different ideas for Jessica’s annual birthday celebration invites. This year’s theme is CandyLand—Katy Perry style. I also began brainstorming on some designs Sergio needs for an upcoming baseball clinic.

If there’s one thing that I’ve learned to love is the time I spend working on designs. I’ve been told it’s all due to my earth element (air) and zodiac sign (gemini)…both have very strong creative characteristics…along with some looney ones ;)

Sergio stayed home most of the morning finishing some work and getting ready for class, so it was really great to see him during lunch. I don’t think it will ever stop to amaze me how happy I feel when I see him, and coming home for lunch and finding him there makes me extremely happy.

Difficult goodbye

This past weekend was suppose to be about celebrating the one year mark of my little Valentino joining the family, instead it turned into the longest and saddest ever. On saturday the vet gave us the news that my 4 year old husky, Lobo was losing a battle to an infection we didn’t even know he had. Due to how advanced the bacteria had gotten and the high risk of infecting my other two pups or my parents, the vet recommended we let him go. 

Lobo was a gift from my dad to my mom and me on a Super Bowl Sunday four years ago. The minute my mom saw him, she fell in love with him. A week later, he fell ill to a stomach virus that almost killed him. He was so sick he couldn’t move, and just touching him would make him cry. I spent several days sleeping with him in the garage and nursing him back to health. Close to two months later he developed an allergic reaction to the grass and when taken to the vet to get a shot, the vet accidentally paralyzed one of his hind legs. From late April to early August he dragged his little leg applying pressure in wrong places and cause permanent damage. After many local vets gave up him, a vet in Reynosa asked me to give him 10 days to try to fix the damage. During that time I learned how to give shots to him, give him pills, cleaned his open flesh wounds and would have him fall to sleep in my arms every night. On day 10 the vet took him and amputated the leg. 

I will never forget when we called the animal hospital the following day to check up on him. There was chaos in the clinic compliments of a husky who had just lost a leg. The doctor told us it would be very difficult for us to see him with just three legs and explained how we would have to teach him to walk again. But oh surprise, when they let him out of the kennel, he ran like never before and jumped on us— turns out after so long the damaged leg was only getting in his way. 

Lobo fully recovered from his amputation, and if you were to see him run, you would never notice he was missing a leg. He grew up to be a big, affectionate, nobel and loyal dog. 

Unfortunately he kept suffering from skin problems which the vet thought were being triggered due to the South Texas heat and his anemia. During the last year he began shedding more than usual and fighting constant ear infections. He underwent several treatments, but  nothing seemed to work. Eventually things got worse than we could imagine and we had to do what was best.

Yesterday I spent the afternoon playing fetch with him and running like crazy all over the back yard. Jay, mom and I spent hours just telling him how much we loved him and what an amazing companion he was, how he was our miracle puppy since he fought for so long and went through so much. Yesterday at 4:32 pm Lobo went to a better place, and even though we know it was the right decision, watching him walk into the back room was the hardest things I’ve gone through. Lobo was my sunshine, my big baby and I wish something could have been done to keep him with us, but unfortunately it was too late for all of us. 

The following are photos I took of him yesterday at home and on our way to the vet. No matter how sick he felt at times, his expression was always filled with love and joy—he was my sunshine.

Valentine’s day = $$$ = :^(

So Valentine’s day is now over, stores have put their inventory on clearance, and we’ve all seen enough pink and red to last us another year. As some of you may already now, I’m not the biggest fan of valentine’s day, and some even find it odd that I would name my dog Valentino (reason for that being he was actually born 2/14/09, and also because of the actual saint)… so after having a few eye brows raised at me over the past two weeks and being called bitter by a few, I decided to put “my thoughts paper” regarding this date.

Gifts like jewelry, chocolate, stuffed animals, and flowers top the list of great gift ideas for a loved one. And to be quite honest, I think most us know that corporate America sees this day as a great opportunity to profit from. Starting in January, you will walk through department stores to find aisles flooded with Valentine’s Day decor, party supplies, cards, stuffed animals, and candy. One may wonder why these shelves are stocked so early for one day of love? For the love of money for goodness sakes! Valentine’s Day has always been vital to the success of the greeting card, jewelry, and candy industries! Last year, Valentine’s Day raked in $905 Million in online sales — online sales only!

Which brings me to why I have my issues celebrating Valentine’s day …when did showing your love for someone become so materialistic? So stressful? and what’s worse, when did it begin defining relationships? Why is it that women’s expectations on romance go sky high on this date? Men, if you only knew what women talk about on the 15th! It is a competition to see who’s man outdid the others, who got the priciest jewelry, the european chocolates, who over-payed at some restaurant and who couldn’t even get in cause they forgot to make reservations 2 weeks in advance.

You may call me bitter, debbie downer and blame me for raining on your parade… but have you really sat down to think why people have created SINGLES AWARENESS DAY? Have you given any thought as to the amount of pressure this has now put on people? Some women spend the day blaming themselves for possibly “not being good enough,” wondering if maybe it’s their weight, lack of sex appeal, or something wrong with their teeth. For men, it’s a tad different — they see it as a day to celebrate single-hood, not having to worry about spending money on gifts, put up with neurotic girlfriends… and unfortunately for a few pricks, it is the perfect day to go look for a few wounded women.

Don’t get me wrong, the concept behind it is beautiful, and should be celebrated 365 days a year. What drives me insane is what we have made of such a simple ‘holiday,’ how we have turned it into a marketing monster. It is crazy to see the amount of anti-valentine’s day forums that are now online, SAD parties and “I hate V-day” events.

Maybe I just see things very differently… I would appreciate more someone who bought me flowers on april 23rd because he simply wanted to, rather than get them on february 14 because it’s become “the standard” and he feels that if he doesn’t it will only upset me or make me doubt his feelings. Valentine’s day thanks to inventory sales seems to slowly be taking out the romanticism that it initially symbolized and is now putting an actual price tag on love. Besides, have you not noticed the price increase on EVERYTHING around this date? A dozen of roses goes from costing $20 (at the flower shop, you can get a dozen at Sam’s for $12), to it costing at some places close to $40. Same goes for some restaurants… I understand that in times of high demand you increase your prices, but c’mon! is it really necessary to almost DOUBLE them? How about babysitters? From what I understand, those are hard to get around V-day, and therefore they ask for better pay. In conclusion, this is a day for lovers for the majority of Americans, but for the very business savvy, this is a day where profit margin is of top priority!

In the past people have actually said that I lacked the “romantic bone” which in actuality is the complete opposite. I love and live for romanticism — I’m a musician, we live for that stuff. But for me there is nothing romantic about Valentine’s day. I find a thursday night dinner and a movie at home more romantic. I will pick lying on the grass, sitting on the sand or on the hood of a car at night and conversating over v-day at the town’s hottest restaurant packed with tons of people and a stressed out staff. I live for the small moments that some people take for granted, sadly because sometimes they don’t cost a thing.

We should aim to do acts of romanticism all the time… When was the last time you danced with your significant other under the stars—without any actual music. When was the last time someone sang to you, the last time someone woke you up in the middle of the night just to say they loved you… or the last time you spent a night watching your loved one sleep and thank god (or whoever you believe in) for allowing you to have that person in your life… How about making a mess in the kitchen and enjoying it? Those little things mean a million times more to me than a big stuffed animal carrying a heart or a bouquet of flowers. Let’s not lose focus on what this holiday symbolizes, and let’s not give in to materialistic “desires.” If the person you are with knows you love them, truly love them, then there is no need for all this “circus” that we tend to put on for valentine’s. Love has no price tag, and THAT is what makes it so wonderful and PRICELESS.

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