A picture is worth a thousand words

We're house/kid sitting all week so there won't be much blogging or sewing but we are having fun pretending we are parents of 3 kids, a dog, and learning what life could be like for us in 15-20 years.

I baked some cookies yesterday and Kai was really sad he couldn't partake:

To not always getting what we want, (I can't help but to sing in my head "but we get what we need"),
Tera

Let's Rewind

This week was full of a lot of emotions. The week started out with a bang with opening my own etsy shop. I'm still finishing up my first batch of orders and trying to figure out how to do this whole business thing.

Then by the end of the day I had to bring Kai to the vet:

He gets tired of waiting for the vet staff that he usually falls asleep. He loves to go to the vet though. He sniffs around, and loves the attention from the vet students and veterinarians. Turns out he had conjunctivitis in his eye, which is basically just some infection caused by either debris or allergy to something in the air. He woke up Sunday morning with a bloodshot eye and gunk all in it. I was obviously paranoid and thought he was going blind so I took him right in the vet as soon as I could. Turns out it's not that big of a deal, phew! He's actually not dying.

Then I got this lovely in the mail:

Okay, go ahead and call me a crazy dog-lover, because this post does nothing but convince you of that. The book is a cute story about a family through the lens of a witty dog. There's so much love, hope and beauty in it and I've enjoyed the pleasure-reading that it is.

Tuesday night we had sushi with two lovely couples and had a wonderful dessert of baked peaches with brown sugar and cinnamon. I'm craving it just thinking about it. Mm. Love those friends and thankful to walk alongside other couples in the same stage of life that we are in.

Today I went and got one of these:

Starbucks was giving away free 12 oz Refreshers from 12-3 today. I just love free things! I chose lime and it was great! It was a great break during a slow Friday.

This week I am thankful for:

• having a job that I love
• new friendships
• snow cones
• creativity
• animals
• the ability to exercise
• my sewing machine (thank you Kathy!)
• air conditioner
• today being Friday

My heart is full. I have so much to be thankful for and I sometimes wonder how I got here in life. Amazing supportive husband, cutest dog ever, job that I love, most supportive family, and friends that I have prayed for for years. God is good!

To full hearts,
Tera

Weekend Review- Am I crazy?

Where did the weekend go? I have no idea how it is already Monday. Like, really. We had a great weekend though, and probably one of the most productive ones yet. It started on Friday with a friendly game of Monopoly- Planet Earth Edition- that ended up with me being frustrated because I was bankrupt. I need to grow up.

Pre-sadness/bankruptness.

When I finally got over being frustrated about not winning, we had a good rest of our evening. Saturday I woke up to this:

My sweet husband made me breakfast in bed! He made me toasted bread with fried egg and Turkey bacon with orange juice. Such a keeper.

Then I got a sweet tooth and went and picked up these little joys:

My kryptonite

On my sugar-high, I decided it was a good idea to go craft-crazy. That was fun. Then we went along with our planned hang out which was tennis. We laughed a lot. Let's just say tennis is not our strong point. We won't be competing in the Wimbledon anytime in the near future. But we did enjoy time together and a break from crafting and whatnot.

My hot husband

sugar-induced crafting

Kai looked cute all weekend, as usual.

Finally, I created an etsy shop. Yep, you heard me. OPENED.  I'm completely nervous and scared about this. Is this product really worthy of selling? Am I really good enough to have people pay me to make things? Is this real life?

To not knowing if I'm crazy or not,
Tera

Mini-Vacay

We went to Kansas City this weekend. It was awesome. So refreshing, encouraging, and just plain fun. We got there Friday night just in time for dinner. We brought our sweet Kai with us and he got to meet his cousin Tucker for the first time.

Our sweet pooches, Kai and Tucker

They had a fabulous time playing, chasing each other, stealing each others toys, etc. We stayed up late talking and Saturday morning we had a lovely breakfast outside on the backporch. We let the dogs play then we took them on a walk around the neighborhood.

After our walk, we made a plan. Can I just say that I love plans? Kyle insists on always having a plan before we do anything, and it just made me laugh. We tossed around several ideas until we decided we would go to Lifetime, guys would work out, girls would swim, and then meet up and rock climb. That's precisely what we did. The girls swam- which really meant going down the water slides 5 billion times and then jumping in the pool every billionth time we slid. I love my nieces.

Then we went rock climbing.

Lifetime in Kansas City has this amazing rock wall with several areas you can climb, and even provides shoes if you don't own your own!

I must be a big wus because I am still  throbbing with pain. We had a blast though, scaling the walls, attempting to be as good as the little ones. It is quite surprising what good climbers little kids can be!

After rock climbing we went to their "neighborhood pool." It technically is across the street from their neighborhood and a city pool, but this is not the type of city pool I grew up going to! Sure there were diving boards, and swimming laps and slides, but not your average slides. One slide was about 10 feet long and you can go down with tubes that they provide! Then there is another slide that is windy and up on a grassy hill. So cool! Then there's the beachy area for kids to play in the sand and the zero depth entrance. My sister and her husband and I were talking about how much pools have changed since when we were kids.

After spending hours swimming, climbing, working out, eating, etc, we decided it was probably time to check on our furry babies. They played some more and then we went to out to dinner for bbq. Kansas City is known for their incredible bbq so naturally we made a plan that that was where we would go. The ironic thing was they wanted to go to a place called Oklahoma Joes.

My heavenly meal. Carolina- pulled pork with cole slaw sandwich with a side of smoked chicken gumbo. Be still my heart.

Dinner was to die for. We found out that Oklahoma Joes originated in Stillwater, OK which was just an unexpected coincidence. After dinner, we were stuffed but wanted ice cream. That doesn't even make sense but we figured we would drive there and want it so to kill some time we went to Trader Joes and stocked up on wine. I mean STOCKED UP. Ryan let me pick out lots of chocolate too because he knows I'm not much of a beverage drinker, but I can down my chocolate. Love that man.

Okay, may sound weird but don't knock it until you try it!

Gelato was next... so amazing. I just love Kansas City, there's so much to do and it's such a nice city.

How can you not love those precious faces!?

We enjoyed our gelato outside and took turns racing each other to the other side of the turf and back. We're awesome.

Sunday we went to church which was one of the most emotional spiritual experiences I've had in a while, and truly felt close to the Lord (more on that later). Then we went to brunch and sadly had to hit the road back to Stillwater, America. We loved our mini vacation and were sad to leave but had an amazing time with people we love.

Looking forward to celebrating the 4th in just two days! It's going to be a quick week.

Until next time Kansas City,
Tera

One day I'll have a real baby

This is normal, right?

Lately I've become obsessed with the dog park in town. When you don't have babies yet, your dog becomes your baby. You become so obsessed that you start making bow-ties and wishing it was more than a furry pet. Not only is the dog park only a few blocks away, but it it is such a fun thing for Kai and I. I've been getting off work around 4pm (which has been amazing) and then we go straight to the dog park when I come home.

So fast I can hardly capture him playing

Worn out. Playing with his best friend, Finn.

The thing I've found funny is conversation at a dog park. Everyone there has a common ground: a dog. No matter if it is a great dane, a pomeranian, or a poodle, there is something to talk about. I've left several evenings without knowing any people's names, but knowing all the dog's names. That's weird isn't it? But maybe normal for a dog park. Conversation becomes "oh, where did you get that collar?" "you made that?" to "how often do you feed your dog?" Are we really those crazy people that treat their dogs like babies?

I try to convince Ryan myself that Kai feels loved and that he was a shelter dog and deserves this love. I lavish all the love I can on this furry pet and I never thought I had the capacity to love an animal to this extent. I blame not having a real human baby to love. (yet).

One day I'll have a human to love on but for now I have a dog that I will love as much as I can.

Best furry buds.

Until then I'm that crazy dog lover,
-Tera