Happy (one day late) Memorial Day!

Hello lovelies,

What did you do for Memorial Day? did you celebrate and honor those who have served our country so graciously asking nothing in honor? Did you enjoy a bbq, some time at the pool or down by the beach? And for those with the fashion sense did you break out your white pants to go along with the wear white pants only between Memorial and Labor day holidays? I certainly busted the white pants out today! And truth be told, I wore them before yesterday, hey in California I think I can get away with it :-)

I had a terrific Memorial Day, spent some time recuperating from my time, spent quality lounging around time with my Sean and Kip, we had to have some much needed family time. I took a friend of mine grocery shopping who has a 3 month old and I noticed yesterday when he smiled at me, he has dimples, on both cheeks, both dimples! Then my Sean and I rushed over to a Memorial Day bbq with our small group bible study. The menu was chips and salsa, fruit salad, broccoli salad, hamburgers and rib, yummy! Afterwards my Sean went and purchased a GRILL and I mean it is a GRILL. This thing would make you want to grill even if you never had the desire, it screams grill on me please, I will make you a tasty meal. So that means grilling is the method of cooking tonight. Here is the menu: grilled chicken, scalloped potatoes and corn, which I am cooking on the grill using the side burner, yes this awesome grill has a side burner.

* I must add a side story here of how my Sean is turning into a husband extraordinaire. He purchased the grill last night, brought it home and had to assemble it. I went to bed around 10pm, the three hour difference from my trip has hit me harder than expected (does this mean I am getting older...) and then I woke up 4 hours later when my Sean came in to bed. That is right he stayed up until 2 freaking A.M. to assemble the grill together and all because he said it would be finished so we could grill tonight. What a freaking awesome husband I married! Man, oh man, did I marry an awesome one.* 

So what tell me awesome things your husband/fiance/boyfriend has done for you? Lets share and applaud those men who make our life extremely special and make us feel like a queen.

Finally, I will leave you with this my newest favorite color of Essie, watermelon. Go find it, love it and wear it now! And because I have to post a picture here you go

Because I have some time to kill in the Phoenix airport

My vacation has come to an end, yes, sorry for my lack of posts I was traveling the mid-West primarily Indiana, Ohio and Michigan to visit some of my family. It was a nice vacation which included driving in the mid-West summer weather, for those of you who know it is tornado warnings, hail, extreme amounts of rain thrown in with lightening and thunder. It was an experience to say the least for this California-trained driver, basically the rule of thumb if you feel it is unsafe to drive, pull over, end of story.

I stayed in Ann Arbor, MI and Toledo, OH and finished my travels in Marion, IN. And this trip made me realize how blessed my life is back in California. Rather, I am just more appreciative of the little family that consists of my husband, Kip and myself. Also, I recognized that as much as I dream of having a career that would get me to travel a little bit, maybe I don't desire that as much as I thought. My desire is truly to be a good and supportive wife to my Sean. Having been married for a little over 10 months have changed me more than I would have ever realized, and by change I mean for the better. While it is humbling and can be tough to realize the qualities about oneself that isn't very compatible with marriage, such as selfishness, or being unforgiving, I know I am changing for the better. However, what makes it easier to swallow the toughness of that as humans we are imperfect, and no one should ever go in a marriage as an imperfect person marrying another imperfect person and expect a perfect marriage. God didn't design it that way, He designed it to work, but He never said it would be perfect, only He is perfect. Constantly telling myself that has helped me to except the fights we experience and the miscommunications. Anyways I am getting off topic... we will save this insight for another post.

Driving around and seeing family has solidified the importance of family members and proved how grateful I am for a small but close-knot family despite the mileage between us. I am thankful to God for the family He knew in advance I would grow up in and the family traits whether good or bad I would inherit. It has come time to board my flight and I will sign off with this... thanks for listening to my thoughts and as my signature line in my emails say just keep smiling!

Because I'm a proud mommy (of a dog)...

I'm gonna gloat a bit about the most adorable thing that greets me every day from when I get home from work and no it isn't the hubby, because it is were a contest, the hubby would win by a long shot just 'cuz.

Anyways introducing Kip Keino Henning, breed: jack russell terrier age: just turned 2 in April favorites: walks, treats, having people pet him and giving kisses and high-fives to his two owners.

Ok this is what he looked like when the my Sean (then boyfriend) and I bought Kip. Since then he has enhanced our lives especially since when husband (then boyfriend) and I were not living together, we only started living together when we got married just a tiny bit over 10 months ago, wow time flies fast! We joke that my Sean was the real parent and I got to be the grandparent, you know spoil the dog, play with him for a little bit but I wasn't always involved in the cleaning up the poo, disciplining him or not being able to sleep because he was barking up a storm.

Now that my Sean and I are living together, I get to be around my little munckin all the time and I love it even more! Kip has such personality, he has little quirks that make Kip so cute and he has become my running companion and believe me Kip definitely keeps up on my 5 mile runs. And because I want to gloat a little bit more, here are some more photos for your viewing pleasure! Go ahead, tell me how cute my dog is thanks! :-) P.S. Kip even has his own facebook page

                                              Kip came to work with me!

                  Just chilling in the grass being a well-behaved dog!

                                               Family!

                  My men watching youtube videos together!

                   Exhausted from a road trip!

                     Just a few weeks old!

Two in One Day

Also just wanted to mention be sure to sign up for Behind The Dressing Room Door's giveaway, click to enter the Personalized Necklace Giveaway . The prize is a $25 anthro giftcard and a necklace from Wish Design Shop. Check out her beautiful shop here. Good luck to all who enter!

What I'm loving today...

I have always been a nail polish girl but it was longer fingernails, fortunately I was blessed with strong enough nails that they didn't break too often. But for a while I was in a french manicure only phase, thought it looked grown up and sophisticated. Then I grew out of that stage because frankly I didn't do anything else besides french so I got bored of doing the same thing all..the...time. Who wouldn't get bored? Then I started discovering color, bright colors but not neon bright. Just enough color to give my overall look an extra *pop of color. My first leap into color was this Ulta nail polish called Mango and it went with everything and I mean everything. It coordinated well with a lot of my outfits. Then I bought the most gorgeous color of maroon and was using that color a lot. Recently I have found Essie as I assume most of you are familiar with and now that Target (love that store) has been stocking their shelves regularly, it has become my go to nail polish, except the price tag can be a bit steep. So if I buy an Essie color then I really really like that color to justify spending that much on one tiny bottle. In no particular order are my latest favorites, the first is Fiji and the second is Cute As a Button, perfect coral color for spring. Let me know what your favorite nail polish or go to color is!

Hope you have a great day and just keep smiling!

Good morning Lovelies!

I know I said a weekly feature would be Tuesday Treats but yesterday was such a long work day for me, I didn't get home until 10pm, granted I knew I would be coming home that late and this week's Tuesday Treats would actually be today, Wednesday. This week's baked yumminess is oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. And they are chewy, I'm not a fan of hard, crunchy cookies. I'm borrowing the recipe from the Repressed Pastry Chef  http://therepressedpastrychef.com/ and doubling the recipe, more love to share! Photos coming later. But for now, imagine the wonderful aromas of oatmeal and chocolate that waft from your oven beckoning all who come near to taste and enjoy!

Photos to come later!
The finished product is here. Yum! Overall verdict this recipe is very easy to make, no complications and the look on the husband's face indicates this is a make again recipe.
Just a sampling of the Tuesday Treat, err this week is Wednesday.

Gonna really start over..

Hi y'all, 

Ok this is me starting over again. I know I posted awhile back staying I was starting again and really going to stick to blogging last time. But this time I truly from the bottom of my heart mean it. there were a few things holding me back from truly committing to blogging last thing. Silly little things like do I really have interesting things to say, what approach will I take this blog, dumb stop me in my tracks thoughts. 

Anyways I am back!

So this is me, newly married 10 months actually and while it hasn't been all roses and castles, it has been a lot of learning, love all with the patience of the great man I married. I live in a cute condo with our adorable dog named Kip. Kip Keino is his full name but he only gets called that when he has really misbehaved and with a jack russell, that can be pretty frequent, but he is all too adorable for us to be mad at for too long. That is me in a nutshell, learning how to be a wife, have a full-time job, a great social life and keep my sanity or not :-)

One feature I know that will a permanent fixture on my blog each week is what I am titling Tuesday Treats. My husband and I host a weekly bible study at our place on Wednesday so Tuesdays is my baking day for all the wonderful couples we meet with weekly. So look out for Tuesday Treats with lots of photos it might make you drool or get the sudden urge to suddenly run to your kitchen and start baking.

Other than that as this blog develops I will add more features so for right now, welcome board as I take this journey!