Husband's Birthday, Part 1

My beloved husband turned 23 on April 21st. And I made sure he had a blast on his special day. I'd been teasing him about it for weeks, the poor man.

I decorated the fence two days before his birthday to rub it in a little. He moaned but took this picture for me.

I'd had the majority of his presents all wrapped up and hidden in a cabinet for awhile; so the night before his day, it was an easy matter to clear the table, put down the plastic table cloth, arrange his gifts, and fill out his card.

The next day we had to go to church so I wore a new dress and he wore a suit.

Once we were home and he'd lost his tie, he opened his presents. This was a dollar's worth of sea shells that he can make into stuff.

A little thing of Snapple juice flavored jelly beans that I couldn't resist getting for him.

A cupcake candle.

Cookies 'n Cream chocolate bar. He was super excited about that.

New socks {his toes poke outta his old ones}.

New underwear. Enough said.

I'm not entirely sure what he's opening in this picture, but I'm gonna take a guess and say it's his new 12 sided rubix cube I got him. I later regretted that decision; he got so frustrated trying to put it back to together.

And this is his brand new maple wood set of two wooden pens and matching gift box. It looks a lot more expensive than it actually was. That gift has been in the makings for a year now.

After lunch he decided to play with his new cube and see how far he could go with it.

Ruby stopped by and decided she wanted some of the fried chicken we'd had for lunch.

So she sat next to my husband and begged him; but he was preoccupied. I thought it was cute though.

And we caught a baby frog that was visiting.

Since it was such a lovely day out, we went up to Lovers' Leap. We drove part of the way so we wouldn't kill our legs. This was an interesting flower we found that I get to look up later.

Other people frequent this hidden local place - as is evidenced by their cravings on logs and rocks. Stick around for Part 2 for more birthday celebration fun!

Sandwiches!!

I love sandwiches. I eat them all the time and think they're one of the best inventions ever! Plus, when you go to a new restaurant and they have sandwiches, you know just what to order that is safe and not weird. You can never go wrong with a good old sandwich, and you can do so much with them! My husband and I had chili sandwiches for dinner the other day. 

Anyway, the French Dip Sandwich is one of my absolute favorite sandwiches and it's usually a toss up between this one and the one below at new restaurants.

The Reuben Sandwich. So simple and so delicious! Just order without cheese. *winks*

I have Salami sandwiches all the time for lunch; just ask my husband.

Honey Ham; I can't believe I didn't know about this till my husband brought it to my attention!

I grew up with Roast Beef sandwiches; some are better than others but they're still really good. {I have got to take my husband to Abby's!}

Egg Salad sandwiches made with my grandpa's recipe. You can't go wrong with those {unless the eggs didn't cook long enough}

I had Chicken Salad sandwiches only once, but they were super yummy!

Sloppy Joe is a wonderful dinner idea. Hmm, dinner.....

Chicken sandwiches come in all kinds of shapes and varieties. I usually *cough cough* get mine from McDonalds.

Tuna Salad. While not my all-time favorite, sometimes tuna can really hit the spot.

And someday, I will so try Shrimp Salad sandwiches. I already love shrimp {thank my husband for that} so, naturally, it makes sense to want to put it in a sandwich.

Now that my session of self-torture is through, I have to go get lunch.

Mocha and Brutus

With May and June around the corner, I thought it'd be nice to share some pictures of my parents' puppies who will both be a year old this spring and summer, respectively.

Brutus was a gift to my Dad from a family friend. He was so tiny and cute.

We later met him when he was still in his let's-bite-everyone-stage, but I loved having the tiny puppy interaction.

Even if he did want to chew on my neck.

He looked so tiny and innocent when he slept.

Now he's all grown up and huge!

Whenever we visit, he always jumps on us. I have a couple skirts I have to mend because he put holes in them with his claws while greeting us joyfully. He loves that teddy bear btw.

He doesn't really fit on my lap as easily as he used to. He still doesn't like being held too much either.

Mocha was around eight weeks old when my mom bought her. My husband and I had accompanied her when she went to pick up the little brown puppy.

She lay sprawled out on the car seat between us.

We were already in love with the little dog by the time we got home. She used to greet us so joyfully {without the high impact of having a huge dog launched at you like with Brutus} whenever she saw us. She loved hanging out with us in my trailer.

She slept a lot and grew into a very good dog, so sweet and thoughtful in her own way.

We just can't pick her up and cuddle her anymore.

She's a big full grown skinny lab.

And she still loves us! She always runs to greet us and does a little hop-dance around us, instead of jumping all over us like her Brute.

A Baby Salamander

Once upon a time, we found a baby salamander. It was the smallest salamander I'd ever seen. So cute and tiny.

It curled up in my hand when I picked the little guy up.

And then, not knowing how to effectively play dead and loving the warmth of my hand, he woke up and started energetically crawling around.

He crawled across my hands, moving a lot more than any other salamander I've encountered before.

And then he transferred to my husband's wonderful warm hands. We switched the camera to me and gleefully watched the little guy explore.

So cute.

Cicada Adventure

On Thursday {April 18th} we'd had a long busy day of work, the DMV and a bit of shopping. Once we'd gotten back home I watered the garden {which is growing marvelously!} and was sitting on the bed talking to my husband {who was making dinner or something} when I noticed I had a visitor. Crawling up the sleeve of my green sweater, looking rather alien in appearance  and scaring me till I realized it wasn't a spider coming to kill me, was a little green cicada. My husband, who had initially wondered why I almost screamed,  turned into a super excited little boy at the sight of the bug.

Apparently he's gown up seeing the empty shells every year, but never the bug itself. So when he finally got to see one, he was so excited and took all these pictures.

I still wish I had a better camera though.