Future '50s Housewife

No, no I'm not planning on becoming a housewife in 3 weeks. Although, sometimes I think it would be cheaper to do that than attempt to pay for my tuition. And there are definitely days that I find cooking, cleaning, baking, and all of that quite satisfying.

A few nights ago I was cooking up some Cowboy Lasagna [betcha' want to know what's in that one]. I'm wearing a white shirt, mistake number one. Clearly, I've stated before that "I will never be the girl with the perfect hair who can wear white and not spill on it". So of course as I pour a jar of spaghetti out of the jar onto my deer entrails [kidding] it splatters all over my shirt. I got to thinking, maybe I should wear an apron when I cook. Not quite sure if I'm ready for that level of domestication yet, but it might just be necessary.

I found a few cute aprons at Anthropologie. We'll see if I feel ready to take the plunge in the near future.

Table numbers

... done!!!

We're slowly getting there. One thing at a time.

K9 IQ

It's no secret that I love my dogs. They're both so different; Dunkin is the serious, rule-following, lover and Henry is the goofy, crazy, fly-by-night. I was talking to my dad the other night and he made a comment about how stupid Henry was. Bad move, Dad. Bad move. Don't you know better than to insult someone's kids? Besides, I started thinking in many ways Henry is probably smarter than Dunkin, he just chooses not to listen.

This past Christmas when Marley and Me came out I decided to teach them both to bow. By far the easiest trick to teach but Henry picked it up in about 5 minutes. Dunkin wasn't far behind, but Henry is far from stupid.

I think one of the things that surprises me the most is how they pick up on things even when we're not trying to teach them anything. These are things they learned all on their own:

... walk.

... hungry.

... go to bed.

... treat.

... up.

... who is it?

... outside.

... ball.

And then the ones we taught them:

... sit.

... stay.

... lay down.

... backup.

... get out.

... paw.

... other.

... speak.

... roll over. [Dunkin only.]

... bow.

... hug. [Henry only.]

... leave it.

... touch. [Dunkin only. He went to flyball classes for about 3 weeks.]

... bathroom.

... come.

... here.

... go get a toy.

It's crazy to think about all the things they know, that they learned without much effort. I can't even imagine how many commands service dogs and working dogs know. The list must be endless!

he greets me with one of these every time I come home.

It's the little things ...

pretty soon we will be here. getting married. [not on this rock, though]

... supportive family and friends

... drinking a cup of tea [make that multiple cups] while reading a good book.

... good non-fiction. not too boring.

... rereading Love the one you're with. Not sure why I like that book so much.

... the way my cats immediately jump into any opened window and sit there for hours.

... getting a tan. it's been a long and pale winter.

... long walks everyday with my dogs. i LOVE this weather.

... the first dinner outside of the season.

... the first beer served before the first dinner. there's something about beer that makes it so much better outside.

... splitting meals with the dude.

... cat-sitting swaps.

... planning our honeymoon. super excited about this one!

... only one more final before I am done with my first semester of grad school.

... flowers in clay pots.

... getting mail with C's first name and my last name on it. [I've been trying to convince him to change his name.] ;)

... getting married in 23 days!!!

... sending flowers to my mom for Mother's Day.

... getting my mom an awesome present for her birthday and finding out she bought the same thing for me for mine.

... lilacs. mmmmm.

Honeymoon...

... no idea when or where we are going. But I could sure use some of this soon.

... lying on a beach with a stack of books to read, C next to me, and nothing to do but eat, read, sleep, and play.

photo credit

Pillow talk

So I had some gift certificates to Crate and Barrel and I've been wanting to get some throw pillows that didn't scream "Man's Apartment" or "Everything in this apartment is red". Yes, my pillows talk to me. They make statements. Anyway, I ran across the street to C&B and got some boring stuff and another pillow. I threw it on the couch and then waited to see what C would say about it. I waited. Nothing. I waited more. Still nothing. Finally I gave up. And this is what went down:

Me: "Do you notice anything different?"

C: "Huh."

Me: "Is there anything in here that looks different to you? Anything that wasn't here 30 minutes ago?"

C: "Oh, are you talking about that hideous pillow on the couch? Yeah, I noticed that. Seriously, that is the ugliest pillow I have ever seen in my life. It goes with nothing. It's so ugly I can't even describe how ugly it is."

Me: **laughing too hard to say anything**

So here's the offending pillow. I have my reasons for why I think it goes. Plus, I'm not really a matchy-matchy person, obviously. I painted side tables bright blue, our bookshelf is two-toned, and I could care less about coordinating furniture. Go ahead, you can tell me what you think. I promise I won't be offended. C would love to have some people back him up.

1 Month

... that's right, folks. One month until the dude and I tie the knot. I'm getting quite excited actually. [Despite my anxiety over everything I have to do.]

Now let's talk about the name game. I've mentioned before that I'm keeping my name and that C would like me to change it. Really, I would change it in a heartbeat if I wasn't so attached to it. I just cannot imagine not having my name and I know I could change it to my middle name, but really, how often do you use your middle name? I've looked into every alternative that would allow me to keep a part of it and take a part of his. I tried hyphenating: that gives me a last name of 18 characters. Waaay too long. I thought about just adding his, so that I'd have two different last names and just use one. But that sounds pretty complicated. I thought about taking his name as my middle name. Again with the middle name. What's the point? In the end I decided just to keep mine. If I ever decide that I want to change it, I can. [It also helps that I didn't know I was supposed to make this decision before getting our marriage license, which I got a few weeks ago. Oops.]

Anyway, same last name or not, I can't wait to marry this guy. Here's to forever, baby.