Help I'm an Addict.......!

I have a confession to make. I am an addict. I need help. I'm completely obsessed with finding and reading blogs! My poor Google Reader is in overload trying to keep up with new posts from all my favorites, and I'm in overload trying to read all of them! Its such a delima! Now I've known about this "problem" for a while now but I've been keeping it a secret. I love reading my fellow Dominican friends blogs, and craft blogs and food blogs and just random funny blogs. OBSESSED I'M TELLING YOU! Then one of my favorite bloggers posts something from another blog, which I HAVE to look at and end up loving! Its a terribly wonderful cycle! 

Currently one of my absolute favorites is called "The Art of Doing Stuff" The bloggers name is Karen and she is hysterical! Every time I read her blog I honestly laugh out loud. Aaron can tell ya, all of a sudden I just start laughing and he yells "What are you doing?!" To which I reply "OMG, You have got to see this!" Often times he ends up laughing too. She also has amazing ideas and projects that I cannot wait to try when I'm back in the States. I LOVE LOVE LOVE her blog. I challenge you to check it out and not laugh or find something useful.

Kevin and Amanda is another one of my favorites. Her blog is a mix of crafts, scrapbooking Ideas, fonts that are FREE, great recipes, her beautiful pups- Howie and Miley, and parts of her everyday life. She is a great writer and its fun to read. And her pictures....are......amazing! She takes absolutely beautiful photos. They are, in fact, one of my favorite reasons for reading her blog. Go take a look! By the way my number one ultimate reason for reading her blog, is someday I want a scrapbooking room just as amazing as hers! A girl can dream, right! :)

The last one I'll share with you today is called "Picky Palate". Jenny is the blogger's name and she is an amazing chef. She comes up with recipes that make you drool a little while you are reading them. I have only tried a small few, because of my limited resources here in Dominica. However, its on as soon as we are back in the states! Every recipe I've made of hers had turned out absolutely delicious!  Soups, Sandwiches, Breakfasts, Pastas, Pies, Cookies, Bars......you name it, its probably on her site.

Seriously go check these out, they are fantastic! Happy Hump Day!

P.S. I know, there is a logo from the cutest blog on the block at the beginning of the entry- If anyone can tell me how to get rid of the darn thing I'd reallllly appreciate it! Thanks a bunch and have a great day!

Lily's new pad!

About two months ago we ordered a kennel for Miss Lily-Lou.  After much drama and many frustrations, IT FINALLY ARRIVED! I'm so happy! 

Now its a little bit bigger than we had thought it would be....

 Both girls can COMFORTABLY fit in the kennel...lol

 I can also fit there with both of them.... not as comfy, but still doable. So if we can't get me a plane ticket home, I'll just ride with Lily :)

 It was getting pretty warm in there with all three of us...

So now we can get Lily home! YAYAYAYAYAY!!! We didn't order Miss Meeka one yet, because she still has soooooo much more growing to do, and we didn't want to get one that was too small, altho I think we would have been fine just ordering one like Lily's! I really can't wait to bring them home and have you meet them! 

Here are some other pictures I found and had to share. I love these two little puppies quite a bit, incase you couldn't tell :)

 This picture shows the heart on Meeka's side perfectly! Isn't that so sweet!

 We had so much trouble with getting Meeka to go in her kennel. She hated it and would cry and cry. This is how we trained her to sleep in her kennel. We made the space smaller and smaller and then she finally would just go in.

 If this doesn't just melt your heart you might need to see the Doc and make sure its still beating. Snuggly Sisters <3

 Face in the shoe. Silly girl

 Snuggles from Daddy.

 Spoiled puppy :)

 Jealous puppy! Who also happens to be equally as spoiled!

 My little four legged bundles of joy :)

How can you be mad at these faces?!

I know I'm a little obsessed, and maybe a little biased, but I'm pretty sure I have the sweetest and most adorable little devils in the world.

Happy Friday!! 

The Start of the 365 Day Count Down!

As promised here are the pictures from our wonderful anniversary dinner! 

 I made Spicy Italian Chicken breasts with a cold pasta salad that had spinach, tomatos, onion, and cucumber in it. We also had warm cheesy garlic bread, but its not in the picture.

 

 I put 4 candles on the table, one for each year we've been together. Like my classy vintage candle holders? :)

 Dessert was the best part! I made yellow cake with vanilla pudding so that it was super moist. But the best part was the homemade buttercream frosting!! It was to die for!

 Little heart sprinkles on the top

Doesn't that look delightful??? :D

It was a very delicious dinner! Aaron was so surprised and he loved it :)

So exactly one year from today Aaron and I GET MARRIED!!!!!!!!! I can't wait! I'm so excited to start that very exciting and life-long adventure and I couldn't have imagined a better guy to get to do it with. A year seems so far but at the same time I know how quickly that year is going to fly by. I already can't believe that I have been living here in Dominica for EIGHT months! It doesn't seem like its been that long! So I can only imagine how fast this next year will go with all the planning and moving we have ahead of us. 

I am loving every second of planning the wedding. I think it is going to be really beautiful, altho I wouldn't care if I was getting married in a barn, so long as Aaron was next to me. For those of you that don't know we chose our wedding party and have asked them, they all lovingly agreed to stand up for us and witness our the beginning of our marriage. The Matron of Honor will be Tonya Grim- My cousin. The Bridesmaids are Sarah Gonzalez- my sister, Sara Rozycki- Aaron's sister, Kate O'Brien-May- my friend, and Mariah Luther- my cousin.  The flower girl will be my niece Mia Parr. The Best Man is Aaron's dad, Roy Robertson, the Groomsmen will be Matt Dickinson- Aaron's Friend, Clint Rozycki- Aaron's brother-in-law, Lenny Riley- Aaron's Friend, and Matthew Sliter- my brother. We'll have two ushers, Cody Luther and Mike Grim, both my cousins. We will be having the ceremony in Solon at St. Peter and Paul Chapel, well hopefully, I still have to go and put the deposit down in June, but I'm pretty sure we've got no competition. The reception will be held at the Elks Lodge in Cedar Rapids. And that one is nailed down, because my wonderful grandparents went in and put the deposit down for there. They had already been booked for that day then someone cancelled...lucky us! The colors will be primarily black and white with an accent color of "Sangria". I'm pretty sure we have our photographer and I'll be meeting with her when I'm back home.  I'll also be meeting with the Revrend, Spielmans rental company, a couple cake people and flower people....So all the major stuff is pretty much figured out! I know it's kinda early to meet with some of these people, but I want to be sure and touch base with everyone and let them know of our situation because I won't be able to actually meet with some of them when all the timelines say you should, since we'll be here til December. So I want to be sure to be prepared!! 

Anyway I think thats all I have for now. I hope you all have a great weekend! 

P.S. don't forget to wipe the drool off your face before you leave the computer, that could be embarrassing! :D

The last month in photographs

Wow what a crazy busy month it's been since I last wrote! Here's what happened:

Aaron and I hiked to boiling lake. It is the second largest boiling lake in the world. Its a 6-8 hour hike in and back so it takes up the whole day, our group did it in about 7 hours. It was an amazing hike! I has heard many people say how hard it was and how they thought they were gonna die and their legs were killing them by the end because there are so many stairs (you have to climb up and down mountains). I was terrified to do it, but I knew that if I didn't I would really regret it in the future. I ended up completely loving it! I would even do it again if the opportunity presented it's self. It was so so gorgeous and it's pretty amazing to actually see a lake boiling!

 Its about 9am here and I'm soooo happy to be off the bus after the almost 2 hour drive on curvy Dominican roads...I get pretty car sick here :(

 This is Aaron's second time to do the hike, he must really love me ;)

 Us with the beautiful mountains. Like I said this was a BEAUTIFUL hike.

 Our first look at the boiling lake!!

The Valley of Desolation. There was a lot of sulfer in this area so it smelled a bit like eggs, but it was still unbelievably beautiful!

 Writing on the sulfer covered rocks!

  My turn!

 <3

 SEE! I told you it was a boiling lake! Cool huh!

 :)

 We made it!

We  got our pictures back from our friends Jen and Andrea! They did so amazing! This is just a very tiny selection of my favorites! I hope you love them as much as we do!

Miss Meeka Boo grew... A TON! I swear this just happened last week it seems like!

 Tiny sweet little puppy....

 HUGE sweet puppy! How did this happen?! And the better question is WHEN! 

 Miss Meeka is not a lady when it comes to her dinner. She doen't even chew it, she just swallows it whole. It literally takes her about 3 seconds to eat all of her food, and thats being generous! In effort to help protect her from getting bloat I hand crafted this silk box to raise her food and water to make it easier on her body while she's vacuuming it up.

 We also put a rock in her food dish so she has to work around it to get the food, it slows her down to maybe 5-6 seconds, not great but better.

We have gone to the beach a few times and after we come home and the girls get baths and get their toes clipped and ears cleaned out, and this is always what follows.....

 So sweet! My baby girls!

Lenny and Aaron Dressed up for the last time in 4th semester!!

 What a couple of handsome men! Andrea and I are lucky girls!!

 Off to School to take their ICM final!! I love the dress clothes and backpack combo, makes me smile :)

The girls tried to eat Lenny

It rained...A LOT

The Guys had to walk to school one night in the pouring rain, so cute in their rain jackets!

 We had to say goodbye to Lenny:(

 Both Aaron and I were really sad to say goodbye. I have to admit I cried. We'll see both Lenny and Andrea again though because Lenny is a groomsman!!

 Aaron and a bunch of his schoolmates celebrating the end of 4th.

The girls had their first week long slumber party!

 This is Koa! He is from the same litter as Meeka. He's the girls brother!

 And boy do they love playing with him

 Koa zonked out from all that playing!

 Action shot!

 Just like kids, dogs love boxes!

 Cute little tushys :)

Another thing that happened was Dominica ate some of my shoes!

I was actually at the school when this pair hit the dust so I tried my best to repair them for my long journey home, I ended up having to take a bus, but still had to walk about a block from where it drops you off, the cement is very HOT here!

Lily got a boyfriend....

This is Zeus, Lily really likes playing with him, he's our neighbor's dog.

Our friends here on the island threw us an engagement party!

 Cute cake huh!

So thats what happened! Now off to cook a fabulous dinner for Aaron, we've been dating for 4 years today! I'll take pictures of it and post them later!!