Craft time with Kate

For my friend Sofie and Alex's birthdays last week and I was bitten by the craft bug and painted them some mugs. Then for Alicia's bachelorette party this last weekend I painted her some wine glasses with their initials and monogram. Here's my efforts : )

A mug i made for myself

Alex's mug on the back it says you had me at mustache

Sofie's mug an olive branch with two sparrows on it 

Pace, Amore, Caffe.... peace love coffee

A is for Alicia.... and their wedding date is in the back lip

L is for Leibold

J is for Jameson

Their monogram... J L A

Says Our wedding and their date

Not sure what crafty idea will be my next project but i have a few ideas ready for when I get bored. I want to make a set of the bags tailgating game for isu tailgating, a bandana for Morelli to wear when tailgating, a wooden table for morelli's food dishes to sit on, and my friend Kelli wants me to paint her a fun painting for her living room. So more craft projects to come :)

Farmers Market

Went to the farmers markey last weekend and had a blast with Morelli, Amanda and Brandon. Here's some of the pics :)

Enjoying his first farmers market... Kate and Morelli!

Amanda and Brandon buying some beautiful flowers

Just keep digging just keep digging

I feel like this is Morelli's mantra that he sings to himself much like Dory the fish in Finding Nemo sings just keeping swimming just keeping swimming.

what do we do?? we swwwwwwiiimmmmm!

My roommate and I were bitten by the work out bug this week, so the last few evenings when we would get home from work we'd throw Morelli out in the front yard and tie him to the tree. Inevitably, whether it's right away or ten minutes later Morelli starts to dig. And he can dig!!! He knows that his mom does not like when he digs and has gotten really clever about it. If I or anyone for that matter is sitting out on the porch watching him he wont dig/or will at least postpone it long enough that you've lost attention in watching him and then he gets down to business. If you throw him outside and head back in, within the next five minutes you will have a well placed bet that he has dug a hole. Mind you it'll be a good six by six inch to a foot hole if not deeper. Luckily he's really taken to just digging in the wood chips/landscaping so filling in the hole again is super easy and doesn't require planting grass. But none the less still no fun for me!! He knows he's done a bad thing and immediately hunkers down when he spots you again, then he sheepishly runs inside and up to his kennel as he knows that's where he's going for at least ten minutes.

Last night he dug one of his biggest holes yet and I forgot to snag a pic of it to add here but no worries I will get a pic of one of his masterpieces soon, as he has made it his life long goal to dig as many as possible :)

our lovely front yard with the pond and park across the street and of course Morelli!

Posts to come... Farmers Market (we went to this last Saturday and I've yet to post about it, whoops!) The pics are on my camera and that is where the dilemma is. 1. I started this post so I would have something to do while I was at work as literally we have NOTHING to do at work right now. 2. we aren't aloud to connect camera's, ipod's, etc to our computer so I can't straight upload them to my work computer. 3. I keep forgetting to upload them at home and email them to myself but I will do it soon so I can have something else to post about while at work :).

Happy Thursday all!!! In my mind the weekend already started as my friend Anne is coming down from the cities tonight, and were going out for the best sushi in town. Miabi 9!!! mmm  Miami roll!!!! (the best!) Then just one more day of work and on to an amazing girls weekend with ALL (minus one or two) of my favorite girlfriends in the world!! Should be a great weekend!

Sunset walks in the park

I have come to enjoy our sunset walks in the park across the street. The ponds and wildlife are so beautiful and Morelli really loves to stop and stare at all the geese, ducks, and sparrows. It was a bit sad but for the first few weeks of my nightly strolls through the park with Morelli I aimlessly guided him along the path not really taking anything in, and just lost in my own thoughts. I would think whelp walked the dog today... check.

Until one night I saw an old man who was walking in front of me stop next to a garbage can. He leaned back, crossed his arms,  and stared off into the distance. I was really confused when I saw this and my first initial thought was 'I hope he's okay... maybe he's tired and needed to rest.' As I got closer and was just about to pass by him he smiled looked down at Morelli and then said, "I just had to stop and look at this sunset." I turned and was amazed. He had found the perfect spot to watch the magnificent sunset that was happening. The pinks, blues, oranges; and the reflection off the sparkling pond were all breath taking. And here i was totally missing it.

From that night on I decided to plan my nightly strolls with Morelli close to sunset so while he was fascinated with the birds and different water foul, I could take a moment and soak in the amazing colors of the setting sun. It's weird how you can just pass through life doing the day to day mundane things and then out of no where someone gives you a nudge and says hey look around you god works wonders in your life daily. Now, I've come to love my sunset walks instead of dreading the chore of walking the dog.... check.

the sun setting over one of the bridges.

wait stop mom.... DUCKS!!!!!

Here are some pics I snagged tonight with my phone not the best quality and doesn't really do it justice by my camera was dead sadly.

Black Eye'd Who???

Morelli goes to hang out with his Grandparents every Tuesday night while I go to play sand volleyball. (unless it gets rained out). On the most recent trip to grandpa and grandma's house the black eyed peas song I'm a Bee came on the radio. We were sitting at the light so I glanced over at Morelli, and burst out laughing. You know that cute adorable way that dogs look at you when they are curious; their ears perk up and they cock their head to one side. Well he was doing this while inching closer and closer to the speaker. Needless to say the song must've peaked his curiosity. However, he only reacted this way for certain parts of the song, the rest of the song he seemed to just ignore. So i tried to recapture his curiosity later that night at home. This was the best I could do. Maybe he's thinking"... what? no... wait... I'm a dog not a bee!"

Land of 10,000 Lakes

A few weeks ago Morelli and I decided to venture up to the Twin Cities. My sister was having a get together with all of her high school friends for their 10 year class reunion. Since she lives in Texas she hasn't yet had a chance to meet her new nephew puppy, or see my new car. So, I was thrilled when she invited me up for the weekend to hang out with her and her friends. I have to say as the weekend was coming to an end I couldn't help but laugh at myself on the ride home.

10 years... that is a crazy long time. Ten years ago my sister and all of her friends were starting out for college and all the crazy adventures that life would throw at them in the next few years. At the time my sister and I didn't get a long very well and... well... i was the annoying little tag alone with Jenn and all her friends. So now 10 years later after the end of a great weekend I couldn't help but look back and laugh at how much time can change things. I feel so honored that now my sister is my best friend and she wanted me to tag along. So here are a few pictures of that trip. Enjoy.

My cousins Aaron and Peter enjoying themselves at the splash pad

My sister's bff from high school's little boy Chase... such a cute and brave little man

while we were in the splash pad Morelli was tied up just outside the fence so I took some fun pics through it :)

To many toys to pic from.... favorite is just any ol' stick

My sister Jenn, me, and my cousins Aaron and Peter

Morelli slept all the way home from minnesota, which my the trip home fast!! I love my little man!

And finally a more recent pic of Morelli and me

Traveling with Morelli made the trip so much fun despite the fact that I had so much more to fit into my tiny ford focus (his kennel is so darn big) but so worth it for a chance to see my sis and have a great weekend with her and her friends.

Proof Reading!!!

I swear future posts will be proof read... I didn't even think about it the first time but apparently I suck at spelling and editing:). Hey what can I say, spelling was never one of my favorite things in school but i swear I'll do better next time folks! Maybe I'll hire myself a blog editor. I knew there was a reason I never became a tattoo artist....I can't spell and who needs permanent proof of my horrible spelling errors. Also I just figured out how to edit my posts after publishing so I went back and made a few (ok I'll admitt a lot) of corrections should be all better now!!!

for your viewing pleasure someone else spells as well as i do :)
Poor guy that's a little more permanent then my flubs

Hello There!

Hi all-

I've decided to start a post on the many adventures of my new pup Morelli (pronouced More elli) and me. I grew up with black labs in a small town in northern Iowa. I feel in love with dogs at a young age, and when we moved to Des Moines after middle school I spent a majority of those first few months with just my dog Shadow to talk to. I'm a talker and will talk any one's ear off, just ask my old high school teachers, college choir director, or my current boss. But having Shadow around really helped in those first few months in a new town and school; and after he passed away in college I immediately decided that when I was financially able to I would get a dog. I searched high and low the last year trying to find a pup. And one day me college friend Anne emailed saying her sister's boyfriend's uncle (i know hard to follow), had a golden retriever that had black lab golden pups. I immediately knew there would be a pup for me in that litter. I drove up to Minnesota and got to pick him out at four weeks old.

I'm just a little guy!!!

50 bucks later and 8 weeks old i got to bring him home on memorial day. I uprooted my life for my new little man, and moved out of my amazing one bedroom downtown apartment into my parents house for a week, and then finally to a townhouse in the burbs. All this happened so fast including a car accident on my way to his first vet appointment. That's right not only did I take Morelli away from his mom and the only home he knew, but the day after the 4 hr car ride home I totalled my car while taking him to the vet. So the month of June found me... new pup, new home, new car, and lots of firsts with the new man in my life.

the all American dream, car and pup... gma said now all i need is a man :)

my first boat ride... not a fan of being thrown off the back of boats though

best cuddle buddy ever!

cup holder.... raw hide holder?

four months old and sits so well for the camera

As work is not very busy I thought starting a blog would be a fun way to add some variety into my day. So look for more adventures of my puppy and me.... and yes he will forever be a puppy in my eyes. Even when my old dog Shadow was 13 years old I still considered him a puppy.

Posts to come.... our first trip to the farmers market, puppy play dates, and how my dog is utterly confused by the Black Eye Peas "I'm a Bee".

Happy Friday All!