My Little Girl Turns One **Sigh**

Tomorrow is December 1st which means that little Miss Sadie turns ONE! Okay, so she's just a dog, but it's still exciting (I don't have kids yet, give me a break!). My little baby is growing up! I can't believe we've had her for so long already. There's positives and negatives of her turning one...on the negative side, she loses some of that cute puppy-ness, but let's admit it, she's been well past the puppy stage for awhile now! On the positive side, turning one means that she is that much closer (hopefully) to getting out of the chewing stage of her life. It took Eli a little over two years to quit chewing on everything he could get his mouth on but we've got him down to just chewing on toys, sticks and the occasional beer box. :)

We don't really have any plans for her birthday, but maybe she'll get a little extra treat!

~*Happy Birthday*~ to my little snuggle bug*

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone (ha, ha...to my one follower, Kristin)!!

Today I want to share a few things that I am thankful for...

1) My amazing husband, without him I don't know what I would do. He truly loves me for who I am and he doesn't judge me. He loves my compulsive, OCD ways and he encourages me to be creative and do things that I enjoy. He knows how to make me laugh and he loves ANYTHING I cook, so what's not to love?

2) My crazy, at times obnoxious, unorganized, on a whim family. They can drive me nuts but I love them anyway. They are always here when I need them and though I don't get to see them every day, every week or sometimes every month, I hope they know that I wouldn't be where I am today without them. They have instilled great values in me and I hope that carries on to my own family one day. I love them even though they woke me up at 4:30 this morning. It's Thanksgiving for pete's sake, not Christmas morning when we were five. :)

3) My husband's family! This is my second Thanksgiving as a member of my new family, I've shared 4 Thanksgivings with Danny since we have been together. Though this year we are spending the holiday with my parents, we got to visit with his parents for a little bit before we came to visit mine and since they live so close we get to see them much more often.

4) My friends, who doesn't need friends? Sometimes you need a little more than just the hubby and family. Friends get you in a different way than family. They often get to see a side of you that your family does not. They've seen you party like an animal, cry on their shoulder when you have a broken heart, laugh until your stomach hurts and share some of your darkest secrets.

5) Finally, I just want to say that I am thankful for having a great job, a healthy, happy family, a wonderful place to call home, two unconditionally loving dogs and most of all love.

~*Happy Thanksgiving*~

~*DIY Decorations*~

It's almost that time of year and I am so excited! We are finally settled into our house and I actually have time to make Christmas wreaths and decorate the house for Christmas this year. Last year things snuck up on me a little too fast. We had the wedding, went on our honeymoon, got home and three days later we bought our first house together. We painted, moved in, got new carpet, bought furniture, and slowly started putting things away. {Did I mention last year was a blur?} Now we call this house a home! I love decorating (though it can be expensive to decorate and furnish so we are taking our time) and I'm so proud of our first home. It may not be the largest house on the block, we don't have all the bells and whistles but it's our home and it's filled with love and that is all that matters! It's always a work in progress and there's always going to be something else we want to do to it but it's nice brainstorming new ideas with my hubby. He has pretty much given me free reigns to do whatever I want with the house and so far I think he is pretty happy with my choices. It can be hard taking both of our interests and incorporating them into one smooth flowing home.

I wanted to share my Christmas wreath that I made this week! For a little under $10 I made a wreath for our front door. I use to own a flower shop and I would get to make arrangements, Christmas wreaths and play with flowers all day. This time of the year really makes me miss that. Hopefully I will have a few more Christmas projects and decorations soon! I plan on making at least one fresh flower arrangement so stay tuned. :)

Sunday Already?

Seriously, where does the time go? I had a great weekend so I guess I can't complain, and it's going to be a two day work week. My weekend started off by going to go see New Moon, ahhh, it was SOO good (minus the screaming 13 year olds and people talking during the whole movie!). The acting was much better this time around and after reading all the books it's interesting to see what the directors come up with to portray the story, though nothing can be as good as the books.

On top of seeing New Moon (the highlight of my weekend) my hubby came home from New York after a week of being on travel. I love it when he's home! Unfortunately, Saturday morning we woke up and we think Eli, our beloved chocolate lab had some sort of freak seizure. Someone had come to the door and left a flyer so he woke us up by barking (he has a man bark for when he wants to alarm us and a bitch bark for when he's just wanting some attention) so I was immediately alarmed and ran to the door to see what he was barking for. He was acting really strange and was having a hard time walking. He went to the door and sat down and then he flopped over on his side like someone had just pushed him over. At this point I was screaming for Danny to come out from the bedroom and figure out what was going on. Danny came out and Eli tried to get up but he couldn't. He looked like Bambi trying to walk for the first time, so I got on the floor to hold him and try to calm him down. He started shaking like he was cold or scared so I just rubbed his belly and talked to him for a few minutes. Meanwhile, Danny's on the phone with the vet and Eli has stopped shaking and seems to be calming down so I decide to get up off the floor and see if he can walk now. I jump up and tell Eli to get up and he hops up like nothing ever happened. He's wagging his tail, go eats breakfast, goes outside and is running around playing with Sadie. He's been fine ever since so I don't know what happened. The vet said to keep an eye on him and bring him in immediately if it happens again. I'm not sure what happened, but I hope that it was some freak episode that we won't see again. I don't know what I'd do if something happened to him. Sadie depends on him and Danny and I love him so much. He's been a part of our lives for almost three of the four years we have been together. He's a big part of our family...

So, other than that my weekend was great, Danny and I raked 18 bags of leaves on Saturday together and we haven't even touched the back yard yet! Let me tell ya, raking leaves is a good workout! We went to a friends house Saturday night to watch the UFC fight and had a few drinks. Woke up Sunday and made my hubby breakfast and now I'm watching the Skins vs Cowboys game, drinking a beer and cheering on the SKINS!!! I can't believe it is Sunday already, at least Thanksgiving is on Thursday and we'll be traveling to see my family in New Market, VA. I love short work weeks! 2009 is almost gone already but I am so excited to start decorating for Christmas! Plus, Danny has a break from travel for two weeks so I am sooooo super excited to have him home.

My Heart is in NY

I want to start by saying that I am very grateful that my husband has a wonderful job that provides for us. Unfortuntely, he has recently started working on a project that requires him to travel to Syracuse, NY every other week. I feel like I'm missing so much when he is gone. I have the two dogs to keep me company, and usually the week goes by fairly fast but I just miss having him here. I miss getting him to tuck me into bed at night and having him to hold me and kiss me. We get to talk on the phone during breaks and in the evening but it's just not the same. Danny hates talking on the phone anyway so I feel guilty keeping him on for too long. It is so nice when he returns on Friday evening, but he is usually stressed out from driving in DC and wants to do nothing more than sit on the couch. I know that the travel won't last forever (it looks like he may be doing this until June of next year ;-( ) but I just dread each week that he has to leave. I hope that we have many happy years together, but I don't like the thought of having just one day without him. I know that at this point in our lives the travel is manageable, but I question what the future will bring for our home life and his work life.

On top of missing him, my diet on the weeks he is gone is nothing to write home about. Last night I had a turkey sandwich, a bag of popcorn and a bottle (yes, a WHOLE bottle) of red wine for dinner. That's pretty good compared to other weeks when I stick to a bag of chips and a couple Miller Lights. Anyone who knows me knows that I love to cook and be your Betty Crocker house wife. But when he's gone I don't have that piece of me anymore. I don't really know where that piece of me goes because it certainly doesn't go to NY...Danny usually picks up fast food or pizza for dinner so he has to be missing my good cookin'!

Ok, enough about my soap box, I just wish that his work would be more considerate of his home life. Some people are work-aholics and that might explain why their home life doesn't look too appealing. Danny and I have a nice home life, we enjoy each others company and putting hundreds of miles between us for days on end just breaks my heart. So Dear NY, please keep my husband safe and bring him home as soon as you can. <3

My Two Fur Babies

That's right! I have two little (well, maybe more on the medium size) fur babies. We have two labs, a 2.5 year old chocolate male named Eli and a 1 year old yellow female named Sadie.

A little about Eli ~ Well, he's chocolate of course and he is a bit of a meat head. He weighs in at about 85 pounds. He is a sweetie though and tends to be very needy. He must get that from his momma. He also likes to play games, like when he wants to come in from outside he will sit at the door and bark, but when you walk up to the door he runs away. He could do this for an hour if you let him. He also loves to play fetch and swim. He gets super duper excited when anyone comes to the door and he goes nuts when you tell him "daddy's home!" Eli knows several tricks which include sit, shake, high five, lie down, roll over, stay, speak, easy, and dead (we can even point a finger gun at him and say "bang" and he will flop over on his side, how cool is that!?). He also knows all of his tricks by hand motions, we don't even have to tell him what to do!

Sadie is a very petite lab and she is spoiled like every female. She loves attention and isn't afraid to push Eli out of the way to be right up in mom and dad's lap. For some reason, both of our labs think they are lap dogs that weigh 5 pounds! She only weighs about 55 pounds and is much smaller than Eli. She loves, loves, LOVES to snuggle. She must get that from her momma too. She snores a lot when she sleeps (that would be from daddy) and she just has a face that will melt your heart. She may be smaller than Eli but she certainly holds her own. Try taking her bone from her and she will take you d-o-w-n! She's not as smart as Eli but she knows sit, shake, speak and lie down. We are working on her but it will just take time.

Both of our labs have unique personalities and we love them so much. We've had Eli since he was 8 weeks old and Sadie since she was 9 weeks old. They have changed our lives dramatically but we love them unconditionally (even when they do chew the couch). They both love playing with other dogs and they are so loyal to us. One day, they may have to share some of that love with a new addition! :)

Two Hearts, One Love

So, I'm pretty new to this, I love reading friends' blogs so I thought I would try it out myself. I always had a diary growing up and I wrote a lot of poetry when I was in High School but I haven't documented much of my life in words in many years. Most of my memories come from scrap booking and capturing moments in still life. Today, I want to capture what no one else really knows about me, only what goes on in my mind, where I generally only let a select few in. To start, my name is Alicia and I just celebrated my one year wedding anniversary on November 08, 2009. I married my husband and best friend in a beautiful church in Winchester, VA. We honeymooned in the Caribbean for a week on a cruise and just went on our second cruise to the Caribbean for our anniversary.

The reason I chose the title of 'Two Hearts, One Love' is because love completely consumes me. It always has and I hope that it always will. Danny, my husband, is truly my better half and I cannot imagine life without him. He keeps me level and loves me like no one else ever has. We may be two hearts just beating, but together we are one never ending love song.