Happy Birthday Rosie!

My sweet little baby is 5! Rosie's birthday was this weekend and I can't believe how old she is. I think I'm actually in more shock that she's five than I was on our fifth wedding anniversary. I guess that's a little weird but it seems like not to long ago she was so tiny and the cutest puppy ever.


Rosie wouldn't get near her dog treat until I blew out the candle. John tried to make her sit near it for a picture but she was just so pitiful looking. For her birthday we took a long walk and went to Madison Square Park and let her chase pigeons and squirrels. After the park we went to a fancy dog store and got her birthday treats. The box even came with a candle to go in the bone, how cute!

Rosie also got a new bed for her birthday. I found it for pretty cheap considering how expensive dog beds are and she seems to like it. I think for a dog she had a pretty great birthday but now she's laying by the door wanting a walk so off we go.

Shoe Rampage

For my birthday I decided to do a little shoe shopping; it turned out to be more than a little. In one day I bought three pairs of shoes each for $20, how awesome was that! I definitely would not have bought three pairs if they hadn't been so cheap, I'm a big fan of bargain hunting and sales most of the time.

I was on a mission to find a pair of sandals to wear for our fancy dinner at Le Cirque that evening. I was looking for something that I could walk around in and that would go with a gray dress. I found these two at Steve Madden and since they were on sale I got both.

I wore the white ones that night with my dress in case you were wondering :)

I wandered into another store on my way back to the apartment. This store had a basement where everything was $20, you just had to do a little digging. I found a pair of boots that I couldn't pass up. I wasn't familiar with the brand so I looked it up when I got home. Apparently these are some decent boots because elsewhere they are around $100! Originally I had wanted a pair of Birkenstocks for my birthday but I never could find a pair that I was really happy with. I looked at a pair very similar to the ones below several times but never ended up getting them because the t-strap was backed in felt instead of being leather. I knew that there was a leather version but I never could find it in stores and it was much pricier online. I just happened to check one more store this week and they actually had the leather version for the same price as the felt ones so of course I had to get them.
I think I'm pretty well outfitted with shoes for a while or at least I better be because John will kill me if I bring anymore shoes home!

Oh, I almost forgot....my mom gave me a pair of shoes for my birthday too! I picked these out when I was in Arkansas. Ok, definitely done now :)

This one's for you Irene

My friend Irene has asked several times to see pictures of the apartment and I've never gotten any for her. Since we're having our first non-family guest this week and I've been cleaning the apartment like never before I figured now would probably be the cleanest the apartment ever is and so it would be a great time to finally take pictures. Here you go :)

Living room/John's office
















Kitchen

The kitchen actually has a dishwasher and a decent amount of counter space and cabinetry which is pretty hard to find in NY. This wouldn't be so bad if I hadn't come from my newly remodeled gigantic kitchen in Arkansas.

Bedroom

The bedroom is about 7 feet wide so with the bed you have about a foot and a half pathway to walk over to the other side of the room. I recently had to move my jewelry to the dresser with the lamp because in the rush to get ready I kept bumping into the corner of the bed trying to get to the other dresser. My blue and green shins weren't looking so hot.

Bathroom

Realistically, this apartment was a huge blessing. We came for a weekend to find an apartment and we really didn't know anything about apartments in NY. We were able to find this one and even though it has its down side (like the four flights of stairs) its really quiet, gets great sunlight, and isn't insanely tiny. We definitely could have done worse.

Oh Deer

Yes, that is a deer lying on the couch with the dogs like its no big deal.

I decided that the deer at my Mom's house deserved its very own post. Sammy is his name and they've had him since the last part of May. When the neighbor found him abandoned of course she thought of my Mom; this is not the first deer that my family has raised. This deer however was much younger than the deer we previously had. Sammy was apparently only a couple of days old and didn't know how to eat yet. He had to be force fed with a syringe every few hours. Now he's a couple of months old and drinking from a bottle just fine. The only problem he has now is that the dogs want to share too.

Sammy lives inside and thinks he's just one of the dogs, he sleeps on the couch with them and sometimes eats their dog food. He's really adorable although a little annoying because he likes to chew on stuff, especially clothes. I don't know if its like a baby teething or if he just thinks its food, but if you leave clothes lying around, he'll chew on them until they have tiny little holes all over them. You're clothes are even in danger if you're still for too long.

For those of you wondering, Sammy will be going to live with other deer raised by people since its a little hard for them to reintegrate into the wild. Once he's off the bottle he's headed to a woman who has some land and two other deer that she's raised. Hopefully she has dogs too, otherwise Sammy might be a little confused as to who these other deer are.

Home Again, Home Again

I recently went back to Arkansas to visit my family and friends. I went for a week right around my birthday and somehow managed to tour the entire state. You kind of forget how beautiful Arkansas is until you are back seeing it in person.

I spent some time in every city I've ever lived in in Arkansas and I saw as many people as I could possibly fit in. It was so much fun to see all the people I love back home and I really enjoyed getting to eat all the foods that I can't get in NY.

Cheese dip was one of those foods that I was really dying to have. For some reason NYC does not have cheese dip....anywhere! Its bad enough there's not really good Mexican food, but even chain restaurants that would normally have cheese dip don't. I have to say I was almost as excited about the food back home as I was about seeing all my friends. I know that's terrible, but cheese dip is my favorite food in the whole world! I will say now that I totally enjoyed seeing everyone much more than I enjoyed the food :)

This picture sums up my whole trip: cheese dip, family and friends, and birthday cake!

While you're waiting...

I'm trying to get some pictures from my friends back in Arkansas before I post all about my trip back home. In the mean time I'll fill you in on some of the fun things John and I have been doing this past week.

Monday John and I went to Le Cirque with my friend Susy and her husband, both from Arkansas. Le Cirque is a crazy popular and expensive restaurant but because it was restaurant week they had a special lower price menu. The food was great and it was so fun to hang out with another couple, especially one from Arkansas!

Thursday we somehow managed to luck into tickets for Shakespeare in the Park. They do two different plays during the summer and the tickets are free but a little hard to get. I had tried to get tickets with Susy for the first play earlier in the summer with no luck. After only three days of trying in the lottery this time I got tickets. We went to see The Bacchae, it was a little weird and definitely gory but the play is in the middle of Central Park and the setting is pretty amazing.

Friday John and I went to Willamsburg in Brooklyn for dinner and then went to see District 9. John recently met some friends in Williamsburg and has decided he really likes the neighborhood. It was dark when we went so I don't know how much I really got to see, but I will say an $8 mojito is much more enticing than the usual $15 mojitos in Manhattan. After dinner we came back to the city to see District 9 which was definitely interesting. The best part was that the theater we saw it in was huge and actually had a balcony!

Saturday John took me to see West Side Story for my birthday. Neither of us had seen the musical or the movie so it was exciting to see it for the first time. I don't think John realized there would be so much dancing though, he's not usually a big fan of the big dance numbers. I however LOVE dancing and so I thought it was great!

We had a lot of fun last week and it was a great way to come back to NY after having a really hard time leaving my friends and family in Arkansas.

Break the Huddle

I feel like the past couple of days have been a whirlwind (I have several posts coming, I just have to collect my thoughts). I have been out of town since last week and was supposed to get back from my trip to Arkansas on Wednesday evening, instead I got stuck in Memphis and didn't get back to NY until Thursday. That wouldn't have been such a big deal if I hadn't committed to volunteer Thursday morning.

There was a leadership summit all day Thursday and Friday at the church where I go to Bible study. It had been hyped to me as having amazing speakers but was expensive to attend so I volunteered instead. I missed about half of the Thursday speakers because of my airline troubles but was able to catch several speakers in the afternoon that lived up to the hype. Two in particular were truly amazing.

One speaker, for which I titled the blog, was Harvey Carey. Harvey is the founder and pastor of a church in Detroit, Michigan. The church is located in one of the poorest zip codes in the country. The term "break the huddle" came from his analogy where we as church goers are like a football team that makes it to the biggest game of the season and never breaks from the huddle. We go to church and pray but we never actually go out and do. Harvey's own solution to this is to surprise his congregation on Sunday morning with service projects. People arrive for church and instead end up going out and serving their community. What I loved so much about Harvey was his unbelievable energy and enthusiasm for getting people excited about God and about service.

Jessica Jackley, co-founder of Kiva was the other really inspiring speaker. Kiva is a website that connects people willing to lend very small amounts of money to entrepreneurs in places all over the world. These micro loans allow individuals in impoverished communities who normally wouldn't be able to get a bank loan to become self sufficient. The loans are usually paid back within months and can start with as little as $25. What was the most inspiring was the passion that oozed from Jessica as she spoke about the organization. Also, she's probably not much older than I am.

After listening to both of these incredible individuals I definitely felt like I could go out and conquer the world. Now to figure out how to sustain that enthusiasm as I get back into my normal routine :)