HELLO EVERYONE! I am alive.  It’s true.  I apologize for my absence over the past few weeks.  Life has been a little hectic and a lot bit fun! Our life is happily developing as a family of four.  I have to tell you… nothing has made me realize how much Lollie is actually a cat than introducing a Golden Retriever in our home.  Aside from the size difference (Lollie is just about 1/10 of Zita’s size), they are completely opposite in just about every way.  Let’s do a little comparison, shall we?

Lollie

 

Is probably a cat

Sleeps all day

Wants nothing to do with toys

Eats like a bird

Sleeps in the bed like the tiny princess she is

Looks at chew bones as if I have placed a rotting carcass under her nose (in the bad way)

Sheds the kind of hair that you will find embedded in your belongings for the rest of your life

Is the sweetest little girl you’ve ever met

Zita

 

Is basically a gigantic toddler

Sleeps all day with a stuffed animal in her mouth

Her entire life is the balance between playing with her toys and murdering them

Surprisingly eats much less than I anticipated

Sleeps on the floor and wants nothing to do with her dog bed

Cannot keep any chew bone around for more than 15 minutes

Sheds like the dickens

Is the sweetest big little girl you’ve ever met

My goodness, adding a second dog has been a learning experience that I would not change for the world.  Having her in our lives has brought an immeasurable amount of joy and happiness.  She is just about the happiest dog I have ever met.  The smile on her face is permanent.  She loves everyone she meets and can hardly stay seated to be pet (even though she knows she is supposed to).  She loves my 96 year old grandmother.  She loves my friends and family.  She loves kids.

SHE. LOVES. BABIES.  Babies are her favorite.  They were the two best friends anyone has ever met.

She is just such a special girl and we are so happy to have her in our lives.

We recently watched my boyfriend’s parents’ dog while they were on vacation.  She initially did not like Zita, so she did not stay at our house for the first few days.  We decided to bring her back and give it a shot, and the dynamic turned out just fine.  They even stood next to each other long enough for this photo!  Amazing.

I can tell you that we will NOT be adding a third dog to the mix anytime soon.  I did not have enough hands to pet everyone fairly at all times.  During this time, we generally referred to our house as the zoo.  When we all went down the stairs we referred to it as the Zoo Parade.  When it rained and stormed, the place pretty much just became the circus.  Even so, it was actually a ton of fun to see all their different personalities working together and bonding.  And having three dogs after only having two for a short amount of time definitely has made our transition to just two much easier!

Lollie loved her special house guest.  She even crawled in bed with her on the night before she went back home.

I had a birthday a couple of weeks ago.  I turned 29 aka “Almost 30” or “30 Eve”, if you will.  I had just a truly fantastic birthday and I am beyond grateful to be surrounded by such wonderful, thoughtful, and loving people in my life. You might be asking yourself… are those puppets?  Why yes, they are puppets.  But not just any puppets.  They are puppets modeled after my boyfriend and myself… HANDMADE by my coworker, Steve.  I am not sure I know anyone with the artistic talent to sew a puppet.  He actually learned to sew for this.  He and my other coworker, Lissette, gave us a very special puppet show.  Our puppets sang a hilarious rendition of “Summer Lovin'” to commemorate how we met.  In actuality, this is not at all how we met.  There was even a puppet theater set up in our conference room.  Everyone laughed and enjoyed the show and ate Bundtinis while I sat there with my red face buried in my hands.  It was hysterical.

The weekend after my birthday, my dear friend Jenella came into town and we threw a little shindig in our backyard.  This was the first time we had a large group of people over and it was so much fun.  This is also the day when Violet and Zita officially became BFFs.  We had a little doggy baby picnic and it was just about the most adorable thing you have ever seen.  Even Lollie participated in the snuggle fest! Did I mention how much Zita loved this baby?  Just making sure in case you didn’t know. This past weekend, my family went to Las Vegas to celebrate my grandma’s 85th birthday.  People always assume that my grandma must spend all her time on the strip gambling since she lives in Vegas.  It is actually a really beautiful place to live.  She lives just at the base of the mountains and we were able to stay at the Hotel/Casino nearby.  I took this photo from my hotel room.  The room had such a gorgeous view of the golf course and the mountains! We had a lovely dinner in a restaurant in a nearby hotel.  It was so wonderful to be with extended family and old family friends who I only get to see every few years.  This hotel turned out to be a complete wedding factory.  I was probably the only person my age walking around who was not in a wedding dress!

I am not much of a gambler.  My parents always assumed I would grow up to have this horrible gambling problem since I was so addicted to claw machines as a kid.  Boy were they wrong.  Once I turned my $40 into $47.10, I called it a night.  Big spender over here, I tell you. I decided to take a later flight with my dad on Sunday night so I could spend more time with my grandma.  Our flight, which was already a red eye, was delayed and I didn’t get home until after 3am.  But at least there was a Benefit Cosmetics vending machine at the airport!  A VENDING MACHINE FULL OF MAKEUP, Y’ALL.  You have know idea how exciting this was for me.  My dad thought I was nuts. I had to wake the dogs up when I got home in order for them to notice my return.  They are the laziest dogs in the world, I swear.  In any event, they were super excited to see their mama and gave me tons of little slobbery hugs and kisses! I promise I will not be completely MIA going forward.  I love writing in this blog so much and I am so honored that there are people out there who take time out of their lives to read and keep up with my silly ramblings.  I have a number of blog posts and a couple of video tutorials and reviews in the pipeline, so stay tuned!  In the meantime, I’ll keep chuggin’ along with my trusty cup o’ caffeine. Thanks for stopping by!  See y’all next time… Marissa