the luckiest

BIG AWESOME FANTASTIC AMAZING SUPEREXCITING NEWS!
As of yesterday, Zach and I are officially puppy parents!
We have been saving up for a puppy, and planning and reading and researching, for almost a year now. Zach has wanted an English Bulldog since he was a little boy, and after reading and looking at tons of pictures, it didn't take much convincing for me. We found an apartment where we could have a dog and saved, and now that our move is coming up we started to look more closely at breeders. We found a breeder we really liked about 2 1/2 hours from here. He had two litters, one that was about a month old and one that was about two weeks old and at least 8 adult bulldogs, so we were surrounded by dogs!!

We made an appointment for Saturday to meet the breeder. We set it up on Monday and had to wait until Saturday which meant we had nearly a week of agony trying to keep ourselves sane and calm. In all this time of preparing, we had kind of put together an idea of our ideal puppy - male, mostly white, one dark ear, and maybe a spot over one eye. So we went there, we met the breeder, he was awesome and enthusiastic and super informative. When we first walked in to the room with the two litters, Mike (the breeder) was saying, "I've got this male left..." and as he turned around, we saw the perfect puppy. He is mostly white, with one black ear, a black spot over his eye, and a black little puppy butt. Zach and I looked at each other immediately, and there was an unspoken statement that this was our puppy. He is adorable and perfect and wrinkly and we are already in love with him.

So without further ado... 

Sir Aberford Undertaker, of House Porkchop, 

the First of His name. 

(Abe for short)

Snuggling with his new mama

So tiny!

He has very soft jowls.

He likes to lay like this.

He looks extra cute in his daddy's arms!

Giving his daddy beard kisses.

We are so excited! The next few weeks are going to be pretty busy though. We will be moving soon, with a move in date of July 13th. We were thinking we would be getting a puppy from the second litter, because they would be ready to go home around August 1st which would give us a couple of weeks to get settled into the new place. Abe is from the first little, and even though it will be a tight timeline, we'll be bringing him home on July 14th!!! Only 20 days! So now I'm going to try and work out something to get into the new apartment a little earlier so we can get things at least a little bit set up before puppy comes home. My apologies if blogs slow down between now and then. Speaking of which, I should be packing and making lists and planning and freaking out.....

Look forward to TONS of pictures of our new baby boy! =]

if there's any other way, i'll do anything for you

Whew. The older I get, the busier and more exhausting weekends get. What happened to weekends being a time to recoup after a busy weekend?

This weekend was definitely fun though. Friday night Zach got off work a little early and we went out to dinner with my Mom and Dad for an early Father's Day dinner. We went to a barbecue place, which was mostly good. The fries were pretty awesome (probably because they were mostly grease) and we had some yummy hush puppies for an appetizer. My meat was not great though..good flavor, but the cut of meat was grisly and tendony. Plus the acoustics in the restaurant were terrible. It wasn't that busy when we were there, the music wasn't terribly loud, but it was really hard to hear, and I felt like we were all yelling at each other. Aftewards we went and got some Cold Stone ice cream which was good. However, we sat out on State St. to eat it and were accosted by a trashy guy on the street. Luckily my big strong dad and big strong boyfriend were there to protect us. ;)

Saturday we got up early and went out to spend the day with Zach's dad and siblings. We started the day with a grill out which was nice. The weather kept changing between super sunny and windy/rainy, but once it settled down we had a really great afternoon for it. After spending the afternoon out in the sun, we headed back to Madison to one of Zach's family's favorite restaurants and met his sister for beer, burgers, and fries. By the time we got home, I was ready to go to sleep. (I did take a nap at like 10pm).

All in all a great weekend with family. And lastly, HAPPY FATHER'S DAY to the best dad in the world (mine of course!).

its bound to melt your heart - for good or for bad

My intentions were to blog more than I was before, but that has proved difficult. Time is kind of flying by, but its one of those weird contradictions where you feel like you've been ridiculously busy,  constantly running around, but can't even start to list what you've done.

The biggest thing in the past few weeks is that I got my hair cut!! I got approximately 6 inches cut off, so it was a pretty big change. I will have pictures sometime soon (which has been part of the delay with getting a post up, but I'll have to do without for now).

Zach and I went to his uncle's wedding/reception a few weeks ago out at Blue Mounds State Park. It was absolutely gorgeous out there. It was basically a party at the campground (with some awesome cake) followed up by a bonfire. We also got to see the sunset out of the ridge of "mounds" which was beautiful. Afterwards Sam came over and spent the night so we got some extra hang out time with him.

Last week we went to a Brewers game with a bunch of our friends (I think it was 19 people total). I took half a day of work (it was Zach's day off) and we headed down to Milwaukee and met everyone there for tailgaiting. It was a pretty good game to be at - Brewers v. Cubs, good game, and we won! Plus it was our first game of the year, so it was exciting just to be there.

I also went to the zoo last week with Steph and Jake. At the time, I was sad to not have seen the lions (they were inside when I was there) because they are one of my favorite animals to see.  But now I'm even more sad, because the mama lion just died a few days ago! =[ Make fun of me all you want, but I was particularly upset about it - that poor baby lion, Leopold, is without his mommy!

Anyways, not too much else new is going on. Apologies again, but hopefully you'll see another blog soon!

even better yet

Alright, I'm thinking I might try and get away from the weekly blog. More impromptu, less boring "this is what I did this day and that is what I did that day" sort of thing. Any thoughts? I don't really get any feedback from you guys, so if you're reading, and you care for a certain format or want to see something new, LET ME KNOW!!!

Last Friday I went out for breakfast with Steph, Lisa, Jake, and little [little, but chubby] Nora! It was sooooo nice to sit down and talk with them. Both Jake and Nora were sleeping for a large part of the time we were there, so we got lots of talking in and then had even more fun when the babies woke up. Nora is absolutely adorable. I can't even stand how cute she is. She is the happiest baby I've ever seen, and has some of the cutest chunky baby rolls I've ever seen.

[sorry, this quality isn't great....from a phone to a phone to the internet doesn't look great. Damn you, technology!]

Even though I'd only gotten 3 hours of sleep the night before, I resisted the urge for a nap and spent a large part of the afternoon reading out on the porch, because it was so nice out. [I'm trying to readjust my sleep schedule, even by the slightest bit, but it's much harder than it sounds. ] I did end up taking a nap after I dropped Zach off at work, and then I got to see my parents for a bit (they stopped by on their way through town). 

Finally, Zach and I went to a friend's birthday party, but the most important part of the night was - a long overdue reunion with one of my bestest friends, Brianna!! She was in town for the same birthday party, so we got to spend the evening with her. 

When I got home from the birthday party, I made some cupcakes that I've been waiting to make for months. Going back to my earlier note about sleep schedules...why would I go to bed at 4am when I could be making cupcakes?!?! 

Anyways, Britny and Nick gave me a housewarming present ages ago that was a Chocolate Stout cupcake mix with a recipe for chocolate mocha frosting. They also provided me with a bottle of cherry stout to use in the recipe. The result was...delicious!

Saturday we did our usual routine - got up super early (for us...3 hours of sleep again!) to head to the Farmer's Market and get our spicy cheesy bread, doughnuts, and kettle corn. I didn't last long after eating my donut though, passed out for a few hours afterwards.

Alright, leave me some feedback if you have any feelings on the blog (or maybe just for fun...)

you and me together, nothing is better

Well, this week was definitely a bit busier than last - especially the weekend.

Work was pretty...entertaining...this week, to say the least. Had one of my first really interesting meetings, which I can't say anything about of course, but I can say it was a great learning experience. I was really late for work one day this week though. I now work early one day a week, because I needed a day that I overlap more with the rest of the department (who all work days). When I first planned it out, I thought it was going to be a good idea because I'd be done earlier, but going to bed early the night before isn't great. Either way, I woke up at the time I was supposed to be punching in, and ended up being 1/2 hour late.

I did get to have a 3 day weekend this week though. Friday Zach and I spent the day running errands, cleaning, etc. Then Saturday we had to be up early for an apartment showing, so we went to the Farmer's Market in Hilldale to pick up some Stella's Spicy Cheesy bread and then ran a few more errands (which has kind of become a Saturday tradition for us). Afterwards, Zach's Dad, Sam, and Meghan came over and we spent the afternoon watching Game of Thrones and eating [horrible] pizza. Later that night, Sam came back over and Ben came over after work and we played our newest obsession, HeroClix, until very late maybe 5ish in the morning...oops!. [I won't go into the details, but it's a strategy based board game that involves little superhero (or villain) figures, and it's awesome.] That was a bad decision, because we had to be up very early on Sunday - 2 nights in a row with 4 hours of sleep doesn't end well.

Sunday morning we went out for breakfast with Zach's mom and Sam at little restaurant on Willy St. To start with, we were sleepy and crabby. It was super crowded, and way too "self-service" for my tastes at that time of the morning. You ordered your food as soon as you came in the door, and then found a table (or whatever furniture you could find) where you then got your own silverware and water and everything.  Because it was so busy, all we could find to seat 4 people was an old couch, two recliners, and a pretty small coffee table with reading material all over it. Then you wait until the kitchen staff screams - literally screams - your name out and you go and get your own food. In retrospect, it doesn't sound that bad. And I've been to similar places that I didn't mind at all (Sunroom on State, which is always good), but this was just incredibly annoying to me at the time. I got a blackberry scone which was pretty awesome, but the rest of my breakfast was subpar.

We did a little bit of running around which included a stop at Petsmart. That was also terrible idea. We know we're getting soooo close to getting a puppy, but this didn't help our patience at all. AND when we were leaving, we saw an adorable tiny little Rottweiler puppy.

Then we went to Alyssa's graduation!!! I can't believe my baby sister graduated from college. It was kind of weird sitting up in the balcony thinking that 3 years ago I was sitting in that same spot, wearing my own unflattering black gown. [And of course I teared up a little bit when they started playing Varsity, as a true Badger always will.] CONGRATULATIONS, ALYSSA!!!!

Afterwards there was a celebration, with lots of good food and family time. It is always nice to see family, especially because I don't get the time or opportunity to travel very much. Unfortunately, Zach and I were pretty much zombies by that time. A beer and two plates of food did not help, because then my tummy was all full and I was sleepy, and my body just wanted to shut down. We came home and laid down (crashed) for a nap at 830 pm. And then I went to bed early and slept 10 needed hours.

Alright, off to maybe play some games or read. Have a good week everyone!

i gotta keep on running 'til the well runs dry

Nothing too exciting going on this week. It was nice to get settled into the new position with my actual schedule, and things are starting to fall into place there which is good.

On Friday night I babysat for Jake which was super fun, as usual. I love spending time with him, even if its only for a couple of hours at a time every now and then. Saturday morning Zach and I got up early and went to the Farmer's market where I stuffed myself with baked goods - a delicious raspberry cream cheese croissant and a loaf of super hot spicy cheesy bread (which was the best loaf I've ever had, AMAZING). We spent the rest of the day hanging out with our friend Ben, running errands, and playing games and stuff. Sunday Alyssa and I took my Mom out for brunch at Bonfyre. The food was pretty yummy, but I didn't get to eat a lot because I had their Bloody Mary (which they are renowned for). What I didn't realize was that their Sunday special on Bloody Marys is a 32 oz. version complete with celery stalk, string cheese, beef stick, pickle, onion, mushroom, green olive, lemon and lime. Needless to say, my belly was full of Bloody Mary, coffee, and water before I had time to eat much food.

Like I said, nothing too exciting. I'm looking forward to a 3 day weekend this upcoming weekend. Have a great week!

everything i can remember

It's been awhile, and I apologize. I wasn't terribly busy over the last two weeks, but I was training for my new position, and I was on a different schedule that really threw me off. As of yesterday, though, I've completed my formal training and am back to my permanent schedule!

So the new position...it was a little stressful at first, because things were pretty unorganized. The training process not only wasn't very defined, but also didn't have any documentation on the processes, so as I was learning and watching how to do things, I was also in charge of documenting all the processes at the same time. During the training I was working during the day so that I could shadow the other HR Assistant. An important part of what we do in the department is disciplinary action for employees, so the part I needed the most practice in was sitting in on those meetings, seeing what the process is like, and actually making the decisions on whether to keep or terminate employees. [That is a lot of pressure!] I'm also going to be in charge of a lot of paperwork and some payroll things, which I enjoy because I love organizing (and things are in a state of disarray right now). So I guess so far everything is going well. I'm especially enjoying being back on my regular schedule, because the day schedule was really messing everything up (especially carpooling with Zach whose schedule was still the same). 

The weekend after the last post was Zach's birthday, and we had a full weekend. Friday night we went out his family's birthday dinner (which he very nicely shared with his twin sister, Meghan). Saturday we had a party at our place with games, taco salad, drinking, and lots of fun. Sunday we had a nice lazy day. We ordered in Chinese food, and also had a Dairy Queen cake! 

This past weekend we went to the Farmers Market for the first time this year. Our main goal was to get some spicy cheesy bread. Unfortunately we got there a little later than usual (around 1130 am) and the bread was no longer hot (still tasty though). Afterwards we headed out to Sun Prairie and spent the afternoon with Zach's dad and brother.

Other than that, not too much is going on. I finished the last book of the series that I'm reading, and I am waiting [not patiently at all] for the next book to come out, unfortunately not until next year sometime. The series, however, continues to be phenomenal, and the HBO show is also living up to my very high expectations from the books. I started a new book - Anna Karenina - which has been on my list for years and years. It's a little slow going, especially compared to Game of Thrones, but I'm trying to make sure that I stay up on reading all the time. [Side Note: in 2009 I read 100 books, in 2010 I read probably around 80, and in 2011 I dropped wayyyy down, so I'm just trying to make sure I'm reading something at all times. 

Alright, off to play some Scrabble with Zach and Alyssa!