Good doggie or bad doggie?

Today we come home to find out that our little beagle, Lucy, is missing. She was put in our dog run which is fenced in with 7ft tall wooden fencing. But one section is wrought iron and has a gate. She is an escape artist and she goes through phases of being content in the dog run, or freaking out and doing anything she can to get out. Today I guess she decided to freak out.
She fits through the bars on the iron, so we have tiny square chicken wire (white trash I know!) attached to the fence to try to keep her in. However, when she gets in these frenzies she bites at it and tears it apart and then wiggles through the hole! She did it today.

I have no idea how long ago she got out. We left the house at 8am this morning and I stopped by the house about 2:45. I did notice then that she wasn't barking to get in (normally when she hears the garage open she starts barking to let us know to let her in the house). But I left 15minutes later to pick up the girls from school so I didn' really worry about it, I figured I'd let her in when I got back anyway. Well, when we came back from the schools, she wasn't in the dog run and there was a hole in the fence. grrrr! 
Often if she gets out she will just run around to the front of the house and sit on the porch waiting for us. However, the last several times she has gotten out, she has run down the street, about a quarter mile, to Grandpa's house (Dan's mom and dad). She LOVES Grandpa (almost as much, maybe more than us lol). She has run down there and sat on their porch.
We headed down there to see if possibly she was there. Although, with her being out for several hours, maybe even 6! we weren't really sure it would be possible that she would still be sitting there that long).

Well she wasn't...exactly.

No, in fact, she was sitting INSIDE their house on their couch!

Evidently, their fence was open, as well as their dog door, so she just ran right in and made herself comfy waiting for Grandpa to come home!

:)

I don't know whether that makes her a good dog, or a bad dog. I guess both!

what do u talk about at dinner?

What do you talk about with your spouse when you get a chance for just the two of you to be alone and talk? When our kids were first born, any chance we got for a date night alone, we laughed because all we talked about was them :) Its that new parent syndrome, nothing else in the world exists except your baby :)

However, this weekend when we went on our first date night in many many months, I realized that my husband and I always talk about the same thing when we get a chance to be alone, whether it be at a restaurant or driving together on a long trip in the car.
What do we talk about, you ask.
Is it life? no
The weather? no
Health? no
Something romantic (we ARE on a date, ya know!) nooo...
we talk about...(wait for it....)

Business.
And Business opportunities.

Isn't that crazy? How romantic is that? Not much I guess, at least not in the standard sense of the word. But in our world, its part of what makes us tick. Whenever we are alone we talk about how the businesses are doing. What needs to be worked on, improved upon, or changed. What the horizon is looking like. And what plans my brilliant, entreprenurial husband has in mind for the future. I always wind up shaking my head in amazement and sometimes overwhelm-ment (not a real word), because his plans are always so big that they often scare the risk-averse nature of my being. But I have complete faith in him knowing that God is leading him, and he and I are both listening for direction. Then, the conversation almost always go back to our beginnings :) and we talk about how we started and how we never could have imagined all the things God has placed in our path. I love these times because they are the basis of us. We loved each other before either of us had a 'pot to p--- in', and we still love each other. I like the fact that we grew in this together. Its part of our story. Part of us. Its part of what makes us who we are as a couple. We have history together. And...
it always makes me smile remembering those early days.

So in most people's mind, talking about business on a date night probably isn't considered romantic, but to us... it is :)

I promise I'm not shallow

Gosh, I just read my last couple posts and both of them are about shopping....that makes me seem pretty shallow doesn't it? eek. Well, I didn't intend it that way, but I was just sharing some fun thoughts and adventures I had had, and quite honestly, as a mom, shopping isn't something that happens as often as it does bc (before children), so it was fun to do some shopping for me! and out of the ordinary, so that's way it made it so fun and blog-worthy  :)

Shorts?! its 27 degrees!

Ok, so I went shopping for real today. Meaning, in person, not online. Really I just ran to the mall to return a Lands End mail order item at Sears, but I had some free time so I decided to browse Aeropostale, Vanity, Justice, and The Buckle. Wound up getting something at every store-eek!  But fun! ;D

Got some highly discounted sweatshirt hoodies and sweatpants for T at Aero, and some jeans for her at Vanity. Since W had nothing, I ran into Justice and got her a little something off the clearance rack so she wouldn't feel left out (and it was a good deal too so it was ok). I also finally found a pair of sweatpants for me that fit (!) I have been trying some on periodically over the last couple years and never found a pair that fit the way sweatpants should fit (baggy!)... however, maybe that's because I usually try them on at Aero and let's face it , their clothes are cut for skinny teens, not women with hips. But I finally did find a pair there and  they are comfy. Now I finally have a comfy pair of sweats to wear on Saturdays and I will still look like a normal person if I wear them to town. Right now I wear old baggy draggy pants that are super comfy but look raggy, saggy, and baggy and certainly aren't 'town worthy' ha ha.  Anyway, I like them and I'm happy I found them.

Then I went over to the Buckle to see if they had anything worthwhile. The last several times I've been there nothing has sparked my attention, but today they had lots of new capris and shorts. Isn't it crazy that the stores stock all the summer stuff in January??!! That always bugs me, because truthfully I don't want to shop or buy summer clothes in the middle of winter, I want to buy them in summer! 

However...learning from experience, at the Buckle their stuff is GONE if you wait till its actually the right weather to wear it. I've done that in prior years, going in there in the summer to look for particular shorts, and they will have 2 styles left and none of them are the types, cuts, lengths, or sizes I want. Well, today when I was there they had LOTS of bermuda length shorts (yippee!) I can't stand short shorts. And honestly, 90% of the females out there wearing 1-2 inch inseam shorts SHOULDN'T be!  I am smart enough to know that short of a short does not look good on me so I refuse to buy those. I was very happy they had the longer style, and lots of them. They ALSO had  several in the EASY cut, which I LOVE. They are so much more comfortable and fit my body type so much better. Its a pleasure to try that cut on, they feel so good. Whereas, when I am trying on the regular cut and I am wiggling and tugging trying to get them up over my thighs and tush, only to finally get them up and then they are way too big in the waist (but there is no chance I can get a smaller size or they won't make it up past my knees lol) Anyway, these easy fit styles are much more comfy, go on easily , fit me well, and I love em. Last season I found the easy fit in Miss Me's. Well, this season Rock Revival also is offering an easy fit (yippee!), now if I could just get my most favorite brand (Big Star Vintage) to offer an easy fit, I'd be smiling from ear to ear :)

So all this to say... it was 27 degrees this morning, and I bought 3 pairs of shorts and ordered a pair of capris today. Now I've become just as crazy as the stores selling them! lol.  Oh well , I don't regret it, they all fit great and I know if I hadn't gotten them today and tried to go back in the spring or summer I would NOT have found the right cuts, lengths, and sizes that I found today. Below are some pictures to show how cute they are.

My new bermuda shorts  cute cute cute

The ones on the left actually fit me in a smaller size, but I like my clothes baggier if possible so I bought the normal size I buy in 'easy', so this pair is a little bit more laid back in styling. A bit of baggyness, which I like. The other two are just regular fitting(easy), but they all look nice, I like them. I am actually trying to buy jeans/capris/shorts in more of a non-blingy style (like Vintage Big Star), but I am not finding any like that recently, so I guess I will cherish the two pairs I have that I got years ago, they are very low-key, no bling, a bit boyfriend-fitting (ie baggy) and I love em. Always have my eyes open for more like that, but even this season so far all the Big Star Vintage I've seen isn't similar to the stuff I have that I like and want more of. So I wound up with some more 'blingy' styled ones, but I DO like them :)
This next picture is the capris I ordered. I will see how they fit when they arrive to determine if I keep them or not. I would hope they fit well, but they are regular cut, not easy, so I know before they arrive they won't be as comfy as I like the easy ones. But.... the pockets are so darn cute!!!!!! They have all these 60-70's inspired stitching (peace signs, paisleys, etc) I love em, they are so cute, but I don't know if they will wind up fitting. I love stitching on jeans that reminds me of retro stuff. I have a pair of True Religion shorts that have orange/red/yellow rainbow like stitching on their pockets and I LOVE them simply because those pockets remind me of the 70's lol

Don't know why I can't rotate this photo, it was upright where I uploaded it from?? anyway, these are the retro capris I was talking about, aren't they cute!!!???? I love 70's retro stuff!

So, yes, I had fun on my impromptu shopping trip today, but it wasn't nearly as fun paying with 'real' money today, as it was paying with 'free' money yesterday (with all my reward dollars and gift cards).  Got some cute stuff though and having fun ;P