Mystery Solved

What causes neat shadows is almost always never as cool.

Shadows

I noticed this shadow in the garage sometime last week, and I giggle every time I see it. What does it remind you of?



For some reason, it reminds me of...

Did you know there is a Where the Wild Things Are movie coming out!? Thrilling.

My Roxy

You've seen countless photos of my 2 little ones, Roxy the wonderdog and Crackers-the-Cat. Many of you have even met and love them. This post is about Roxy. She's my 3 year old black lab who hates having her photo taken.

She is the first dog I've ever had, and was randomly added to the Holt household. I was going through a difficult time back then, and my father would drag me to the park under pretenses of needing some vitamin D. We would take really long walks and talk about all the people with dogs and all the dogs with people. We discussed how we are not 'dog people.' Then we discussed what kind of dog we would have if we were in fact 'dog people.'

Then my Dad offered (kind of) to buy me a dog. I think it was his last ditch effort to get me out of the funk I was in, but it worked. He looked through the paper for puppies. He bought a puppy book (which I'm not sure we ever opened, nor do I know where it is now although I do believe it was 'Puppies for Dummies.')

And one day, my mom, sister-in-law Breena, and I were at El Camino and he called. An ad for a puppy in Swanton looked promising and a phone call later, we had set up a meet n greet time for that night. Dad decided to stay home so it was "just" Mom, Breena, Andy and I who went to meet our future dog.

We walked in the door, I squatted down to pet her, she dived right into me and knocked me over. We gave the family twice what they asked for her, and left that night with my dear Roxy.

Having had no supplies whatsoever, and no idea what to do with a dog other than try to figure out a new name, we had to stop at Pet Supplies Plus. Pretty sure it was 8:50, and the store probably closed at 9. Roxy didn't start out as Roxy. She started out as Angel. I remember specifically my mom telling us to never call her that again because it was a horrible name. No offense to dogs named Angel.

Breena and I struggled with our new family addition throughout the pet store who was on a sensory overload, and bumped into a small family. The dad bent down and said to his kids, "Look! She looks just like 'so and so's' dog Roxy!" Breena and I looked at each other, and knew right then that Roxy was the perfect name.

We got home that night with a rambunctious puppy newly named Roxy much to Crackers-the-Cat's dismay. Andy and Dad worked to get the new cage together (it was wrong too) and we all just kind of stared at her.

It was a rough summer for my family. This new adorable little creature wreaked havoc at our house while I was away at school. A couple times, I thought we'd have to find a new home for her but slowly but surely she won over my mom and dad.

She ate my cell phone. A sneaker. A high heel strap. My season 2 House DVD case. A plunger. All within 2 days of moving into my new house in BG that fall. But she was so stinkin cute!

She has eaten everything I've ever offered her, except for pickles. She loves beer and if you are not watching, she will drink it right out of your cup (in your hands!) She prances around when I put a new bandanna on her, because she knows she's pretty.

She's my first dog and I can't imagine ever loving another dog like I love her.

Roxy has to have surgery one week from tomorrow. I gotta say, I'm not all that relaxed about it.

Save the date's & 4th of July

Here's a little sneak peak at our Save the Date project we worked on this weekend. It's very fun and creative and we can't wait to unveil the final product! Unfortunately, it will probably have to wait until September. Boo.

I hope you all had an excellent 4th of July! Fireworks just put a huge smile on my face last night. Especially since I hadn't anticipated getting to see them. What exciting things did you do this weekend?

Concerts, more concerts

The boy had a show tonight with Family Force 5. They did awesome.


The boy during their set.. Check them out on myspace (myspace.com/southboundfearing)

However, opening bands don't generally get the best lighting conditions for photography. So I got a few shots, then decided to put away my camera and just enjoy the show.


FF5

I'd never really heard of Family Force 5 and had no idea what to expect, but I will say that...



THIS is the kind of synthesizer I'd want to play!! :)

Books.

I debated for a long time about putting this photo up today. For quite a few reasons. First, I have stuffed animals. I'm 24, I understand this, but they are still cute and sentimental and what am I to do with them? Throw them away? Never. Secondly, I didn't anticipate my movies being in the shot either. Remember the last post where I was laying on the floor with Crackers-the-cat? I took this then - blind - so each shot was a surprise to me. And third, most important, books are special to me and I am quite sensitive of this.

I like buying books. People can scold me, chastise me, or scoff at me for this, but the fact of the matter is I like buying books. I love walking into a bookstore and just wandering. Each book I happen to land my eyes on has about a ten second time span to convince me to pick it up, then 7 seconds to sell me. Rarely do I choose books with poor design, dull colors, or horrible typography. It has to look as delicious as it will read.

Inevitably, I end up with a collection of books in bright colors and fun typography. I wish I could say I read to further my education or spark intelligent pondering (and that's not to say I never do) but I prefer to escape into a world of fictional characters doing silly things and falling in love or picking up the pieces of their lives to find better pathways or laughing their way through ridiculous situations. Books that keep me up all night just because I can't bear to be away from the story are my favorites. Even better than that are the books whose characters become so real that when their story is finished, I feel as though I've lost touch with a friend.

Sigh. Don't judge me.

Also, I take the dust jacket off my hardcovers till I've finished reading them (so they don't crinkle!) I have boxes of books in the basement and in various other locations that didn't make the cut for my super small book shelving space. I hate lending books to people who dog ear pages or bend the corners of the covers. I am attempting to get through that book on actionscript 3.0. I've only read a handful of my books twice and those will probably be read a third time before any of the others a second. I liked the Princess Bride book better than the movie - and that's just crazy.

Sunsoaking

I think Crackers-the-cat enjoys laying in the sun even more than I do!


Hope you all had an excellent weekend, I know I did!

Bubbles & Ligaments

I've had a pretty stressful day. My dearest pup, Roxy, had to be taken in for x-rays. Turns out, she's torn her cruciate ligament which means surgery. Since I'm not working my dream job and am also trying to save up for a wedding, my wish list of items, and paying off debt, this means STRESS!

Where am I going to come up with an extra thousand dollars?

I was in tears. My poor puppy. She's moping around and didn't even eat her dinner. I'm convinced she knows what this means. Sigh.

A few weeks ago, I lost my card reader in the living room of my parents house. I tore the place apart, and in doing so, found this:



Bubbles. The boy told me I wasn't allowed to blow them inside the house. Well. I think today's news called for some rule-breakage. So I cheered myself up with some bubbles. Crackers-the-cat enjoyed them too!

Beaches

I spent all of last week at Sunset Beach, North Carolina. My week consisted of laying on my brightly colored beach towel on the scalding sand, wading into the ocean for a few moments before being freaked out by the unseen (and repeat), playing Mexican Train with my brother and sister-in-law and the boy, spending quality time with the fam, eating delicious home cooked meals, and RELAXING.



I took these photos on our last night at the beach. Every year, I usually make it down to the pier. I pay the obligatory pier fee ($1 a person this year!!) and walk down to the end, scare the crap out of myself, and walk back to the beach.

All of a sudden this year, it was Friday, and I hadn't been to the pier yet. I convinced the boy to walk with me while I tried to capture the sunset. Not much of a sunset, but some pretty cool wave-action and reflections in the wet sand.

I mourn for last week. I miss it. My heart hurts sometimes with the weight of vacation being over.

How dramatic can I be!?

So yesterday I woke with no plans whatsoever. Turns out my Wednesday shifts at the Y were passed on to another lucky front desk-er (my choice) and I hadn't picked up Wednesdays at my other job. Yawning, stretching, and dreading sitting in my room looking at the non-unpacked mess, I tinkered around on the web. I checked out my favorite blogs (see bottom right) and scoped out my friends who still use AIM.

Carley was on. She's invited me to visit her numerous times and I've never gone. I gave it a shot.

9:19:34 AM Rachel: so what r u up to today
9:19:42 AM carley: chilling out.
9:19:50 AM carley: maybe running to st joseph topick up the marriage license.
9:19:58 AM Rachel: r u not working?
9:20:59 AM carley: its summer break,
9:21:09 AM carley: so i dont have any teaching... and my freelance is waiting on clients today
9:21:14 AM Rachel: ohhhh ... would u like a visitor today?
9:21:27 AM Rachel: im off work and i have NOTHING to do and i'm trying to find something funnnnnn
9:22:49 AM carley: REALLY!
9:22:51 AM Rachel: if not no biggie
9:22:52 AM carley: yes!!!
9:22:56 AM Rachel: haha how far away are you?
9:23:04 AM carley: toldo? 2 hours EVEN
9:23:21 AM Rachel: cool! what should we do
9:23:23 AM carley: i could take you to the beach, get the marriage license, and maybe bike? we cna use our bikes... you game?
9:23:30 AM Rachel: i'm DOWN
9:23:34 AM carley: SWEET!!!
9:23:38 AM carley: you leavin now??



She took me to a beach where I couldn't tell the sky from the water. She told me to leave my purse at home which meant not only did she have to buy me water & starbucks, but I also forgot to grab my camera which resulted in this lousy camera-phone photo. She told me to leave my shoes in the car which resulted in serious burns to the bottoms of both of our feet. She took me for an 11 mile bike ride that hurt my butt and shoulders but was AMAZING. She, her soon to be hubby, and I went to eat delicious Mexican and to view the Touchdown Jesus. She convinced me to shoot her wedding in 2 weeks. AAAAAnnnndddd it was all very fun.

Sigh...

The boy is out of town this week. He's a leader at church camp and has absolutely no time to deal with his crazy lady back home. This is just weird considering we spent nearly every moment together all last week during vacation!

I remember when we were driving to Mansfield on Saturday (where he was to be dropped off) I thought "man, this is going to be a nice break. He breathes so loud and drives so erratically" and I'm sure he thought, "boy this is going to be so much fun. I get to spend the whole week whistling without being told to stop."

And then I dropped him off.

And about 20 minutes pass.

And I miss the crap out of him.

He's having a great time though, and I'm doing my best to be patient.



Alsoooooo, I'm going to renew my blogging vigor and attempt to pick back up on the day to day posting. I have tons of stuff I want to start planning - for the wedding, for our new business(es), and for miscellaneous projects. Helpppp me stay focused!