I vote that we abolish Monday's

Monday’s are horrendous – especially when it’s dark past 8am, it’s pouring rain like you’ve never seen it before, you didn’t sleep well and you go to pick up dog poop but it turns out there was no bottom of the bag and you end up grabbing the poop with your fingers. Lovely, I know – what made matters worse is that I was one poop bag short, and with two dogs you need multiple bags. So when my parents dog went to the washroom, I had nothing to pick it up with and a lady started yelling at me.

So to recap; I hate Monday’s, poor Derek is sick on his deathbed downstairs, and my parents are enjoying fruity tropical drinks in Mexico.

Our photographer has posted the rest of the Engagement photos on her blog – we love them and can’t wait to get some hanging around the house. I want to blow one up for above the bed, but Derek won’t let me. How does that saying go? It’s easier to beg for forgiveness than ask for permission?

PS - the above photo has nothing to do with Monday's or this weekend - I just thought you hadn't seen enough photos of Lexi lately. Here's some pictures from the summer, including her first swimming lesson with Daddy

October, Weddings & Engagment Photos

Should I stop being surprised when another month is over? At this rate my wedding will be over and done with before I know it.

Good thing we’re progressing nicely. Today we had an amazing photoshoot with Vanessa Voth Photography – Vanessa and I met in New Zealand and I’m so lucky that she lives close by to take our wedding pics.

Mexico was great, it flew by, but I was able to sleep, eat as much as I could, and swim in that warm Caribbean ocean. Overall, October has been good to us - the house smells of amazing scented candles – I can’t get enough! We’ve been burning ‘Fruit Salad’ by Yankee Candle a lot, but have started going for the Fall spicy scents and I’m loving ‘Leaves’ by Bath and Body Works.

We literally JUST got home from our photoshoot and Vanessa has already posted a sneak peak on her blog – and I’m in LOVE! Cannot wait to see the rest of the photos.

Weddings and Whatnot

I’m not sure where August & September went – they’ve completely flown by at a dizzying rate. Work takes up the majority of my time, and then the rest is divided between the fam & planning a wedding – I don’t know why people stress about planning weddings, this has been amazingly fun and relatively stress free so far! (Ask me my opinion in a few months time)

Perhaps it’s because I’ve had everything planned out for years and a lot completed already - the venue is booked, photographer is 95% booked, engagement shoot is next month, Décor rental is chosen and secured, florist chosen, menus and bar planned, dress purchased (yay) and I still have just under a year to go! I would book and plan more but I’m trying to save some stuff for next year….. I heart all my spreadsheets and lists and love tackling the challenges. In fact, I’ve already made my seating chart and I haven’t even invited people yet.

I cannot wait to become Derek’s wifey on Nine-Ten-Eleven – despite the 30-40 wedding magazines scattered around the house (all donated by past brides) I haven’t lost sight of the most important aspect of our day. I’m curious as to how different being a wife will feel – will there be this sense of completion, a stronger bond between us? An official stamp to make us feel like we’re finally a family? Or will it be business as usual? We’ve lived in this house together a year, pay our bills together, cook our meals together, share chores, laundry and everything else… so what will change?

My last name will change - I get to spend the rest of eternity spelling out a last name to people that I still struggle to pronounce and spell..... Ahhhh the price of love.

Anyways, we’re off to Mexico for a week for a much needed holiday. It’ll be our first time away from our little Lexi and my heart already breaks thinking of her all alone… until I remember that she’s staying with my parents, who think it’s perfectly acceptable to feed her whip cream from a spoon.

Have I mentioned how much I enjoy wine touring?

Derek and I had been planning a weekend of wine touring away in the Okanagan, we took off Thursday and drove up to Osoyoos to stay at a fabulous resort. We drove up with our little Lexi (who just ate through her third power cord in two weeks - 2 laptops and a phone) and spent the weekend relaxing, wine touring and making it the most memorable weekend that I will hold very dear to my heart, for the rest of my life.

Where to start... the weather was amazing, hot and sunny each day - so we put Lexi into Doggy Daycare for the two days we were out at the wineries to allow her have fun and not worry about the heat.

We did some amazing wineries in Oliver and Osoyoos the first day and then on the second day drove 1 hour north to Naramata to do some of my favourite wineries. Saturday was a magical day - not only did we purcase cases of my favourite wines, I also came home with a Fiance!

Derek proposed at Poplar Grove, overlooking the lake up on a cliff surrounded by vines. It was amazing and surprising and I can't wait to spend my life with him!

I can't stop stairing at my ring, which makes driving very unsafe - and both families are estatic that we're getting married. The plan is for next September here in Vancouver!

2 baths 2 days… and an eye infection

It turns out that we didn’t just come home with a wet, smelly dog covered in burrs when we left the park last Thursday – we also contracted a vicious eye infection that appeared on Monday.

Poor Lexi has been battling a severe case of conjunctivitis. I noticed it Monday morning when she woke up with her eyes crusted with pus and she was scratching them. I made a vet appointment for later that day – and thankfully I did, as the issue got worse over the course of the morning.

The first question they asked me was if she had been swimming in dirty stagnant water? If by swimming they meant tumbling off a bridge, then yes…. The vet shaved around her eyes (which gives her the appearance of two large black eyes) put all sorts of medications and freezing in her eye and then sent us home with a topical cream (have you ever tried to put cream on a squirmy puppy’s eyeball??) along with a big ole’ cone.



Poor Lexi is feeling much better – and the eyes are almost back to white with almost no crusties. But she’ll go into random whining/crying/moaning fits everyone once and awhile. She has to keep the cone on or she’ll scratch her eyes and either scratch her cornea or give herself an ulcer.

She can’t sleep with the cone on though, she’s so gosh darn uncomfortable and doesn’t fit in her crate, so she lays next to our bed at night, but there’s no sleeping going on. She’s up, crying whining, escaping, banging her cone into things and it goes on and on and on…… last night was the second night of sleep deprivation. I’m grumpy, she’s grumpy, Derek’s grumpy…..

I can’t wait for our follow up vet appointment tomorrow when they tell me she’s back to normal and we can ditch the cone.

Lesson learned: If your puppy falls into a dirty pond, don’t just bathe the fur, flush out the eyes and pick up some polysporin eye drops from the pharmacy.

Blogging pool and vinyard side

I've been at a stagette all weekend in Osooyos, in fact I'm still laying poolside soaking up the 30 degree weather for a few more hours before we trek home to cold and rainy Vancouver. Despite it being mid-June, its been rediculously cold leading up to summer - hopefully it warms up.

I do miss Derek and Lexi this weekend - I keep wondering what they're doing and if they're having fun without me. This resort is amazing and oh so gorgeous - I wish they were here with me to enjoy it. I feel like wine touring is in our future. We visited Twisted Tree and Nk'Mip wineries yesterday and I'm glad to be bringing home 5 bottles to share with Derek.

Anyways, I need to close my eyes and relax some more.

Xoxo

2 Baths 2 Days

(it's tough to get a picture of her playing... she's fast)

Poor Lexi has spent some significant time in the bath the past few days by no fault of her own… well a little of her own.

On Tuesday night we took her to a friend’s house to watch the Season Finale of Glee (Lexi’s a big fan) and my friend asked if she could have a bone as she was feeding her dog one. Thinking that it was a cookie type bone, I said yes, only to realize that my dog was gnawing on a raw lamb’s neck. I was disgusted butLexi loved it.

What I didn’t think about (until the next morning) is that you’re not supposed to change a puppy’s meat protein. If they eat chicken puppy chow, stick to chicken. If they eat lamb, stick to lamb and so forth until their stomachs are a bit stronger. Since Lexi’s on a Chicken and Rice diet – the lamb went through her, causing diarrhea every time she put anything in her mouth for the next 24 hours…. Fluffy white fur and runny poop will give you an idea of the mess I was dealing with. Poor thing.

Last night we took her for a walk around a lake with a friend and her new puppy. The two dogs are pretty close in age and got along famously – they played and ran and chased for 1 ½ hours straight. However, poor Lexi was running across a foot bridge crossing a muddy creek and slipped and fell off the bridge, down approx 4 feet and into the water. Lexi has never submerged herself in water, and we definitely didn’t plan for her first time to be a surprise.

Derek was a hero however, and ran into the water and pulled our poor flailing, panicking puppy out of the water. I'm pretty sure she was the one screaming, but according to Derek that was me.

She recovered with a bruised ego and continued on playing with the other dog, and ran straight through the bushes and came out covered in burrs and sticky tiny green seeds, which are IMPOSSIBLE to get out. So we spent another evening in the bathtub washing mud and smelly water off of her, and cutting and pulling burrs out of her fur.

I’m off to Osooyos for the weekend for a stagette – so Lexi and Derek are having some Daddy-Daughter bonding time. I hope for Derek’s sake she stays clean until Sunday.