We have a
very special guy turning six years old today! He’s big, he’s furry and he
has a heart of gold. Yes, he may look intimidating, but let me tell you, this
guy is one BIG 120 lb. teddy bear. And his name is Ari.
Enjoying his birthday boat trip
He has
the sweetest temperament, too. Just last night, we watched him sniff of a toad
on the back porch. Most dogs would chase it off, or bark, or growl, but not our
tender hearted Ari. He just sniffed Mr.Toad and gently nudged him back into the
yard.
Hanging out with his dad
He is our
ever-present guard dog who, coincidentally, saved Stephen from being mauled by
two Airedales one time. He took quite a beating from that mess and the police
said Stephen would have been very badly hurt if our sweet boy hadn’t
intervened.
He is
also my constant jogging partner and, let me tell you, no one has ever stopped
to mess with me when he’s around ; ) Of all the dogs I've known in my lifetime, this guy might be the sweetest and most well-behaved.
We are grateful for another year
spent with our gentle giant - Ari. We love you very much big guy.
P.S.- If anyone out there is looking for a great family dog, we would highly recommend the German Shepherd breed. They are AMAZING with our little niece and nephews and such gentle, loving dogs. Email me if you have any questions! We are major advocates for GS!
Happy Friday, ladies and ladies.
(Because let’s face it – dudes aren’t tuning in to this blog.)
First off, holy goodness you girls
are awesome. Again, many thanks for blowing my mind with the blog sale success.
My closet, my husband and myself thank you for taking time out of your evening
to shop.
I confess that I was brought to
tears {of joy} yesterday when I found out that my maternal Grandma was still in
remission from bone cancer. She was diagnosed at stage 3 several years ago, but
by the grace of God and the talented doctors at UAMS, she has survived and is
still cancer free. She goes yearly for an annual check-up and testing and
yesterday was that day. I feel like we’ll always be looking over our shoulder
to some extent, but we make a point to celebrate and relish every moment of the
here-and-now. What a blessing that is.
I confess that my dog is an
exhibitionist. She refuses to wear clothing and I was just SURE she would take
after her momma and love clothing and accessories. At least she is confident
with her body. I was able to capture this right before she had a fit trying to get it off.
I confess that it was really hard to not buy EVERYTHING in the store at Maude Boutique's 5th Birthday last night! The lovely Becca was such a gracious hostess and everyone looked so beautiful in their fall styles. We really are so blessed to have such amazing local stores in Northwest Arkansas!
I confess that Stephen and I are going to see Shrek: The Musical tomorrow night at Walton Arts Center : ) I am over-the-moon excited for this night of trolls, princesses and Prince Charmings. P.S. Please remember that all invoices for items purchased are due by 10:00 a.m. CST : ) I am shipping these out this weekend, so I will need all payments today. Thanks so much! P.P.S. If any items become re-listed, I'll contact those of you that emailed about them in the order they were received (if that makes sense!)
Hey, girls! I know it's later in the day than I usually post, but I wanted to share a few photos with all of you of our weekend. We visited my parents in Heber Springs, where I grew up.
The king of Greers Ferry Lake
Hanging with the broski on the back of the boat.
Matthew took a little snooze.
Stopped for a photo-op on a bridge. Despite my wet hair and awful attire, I'm so glad we took a pic of the two of us. Thanks for taking this photo, Mom!
We spent all day Saturday on my parents' boat on the lake. It drizzled A LOT and came a downpour for a few minutes. My mother saves everything and packed this super stylish Sea World poncho for someone to wear in case of rain.
Please ignore the lack of make-up and lovely wet hair. It is what it is. Or was.
I was the lucky (and completely willing) recipient.
The things you'll do when you're soaking wet.
.............................
I also got to introduce this little nugget to the fam. Obvi, they loved her presh little self.
Who could ever imagine being SO in love with such a tiny little creature? We are smitten with our precious Ruby Dale!
We chose Ruby as her first name because she's red and because she's a tiny little gem : ) Dale because, well, it sounded Southern and fabulous. And she's both of those things.
Taking an afternoon snooze on her daddy's lap.
She has had only one accident and has slept really well during the night, much to our relief. She also got her first bath last night with her new Pet Head shampoo from the makers of Tigi Bed Head.
Only the best for my little girl!
Ari (who has the other half of our hearts) loves his new sister and is so curious about her. He follows her around the yard and watches her every move like a hawk. He even loaned her his bed this morning when she went out for a bathroom break : )
Here's a little video of our sweetheart, which was taken just moments after Stephen surprised me with her on Friday afternoon, (we were originally supposed to get her on Saturday.)
We love both of our fur babies SO much! The "S" household is now complete!
(Well, until...ya know...we get ready to really expand, haha)
Hold on to your Jimmy Choos, I'm getting all pensive and whatnot today.Okay, not really. I mean this is A Blonde Ambition and we don't take ourselves too seriously around here. But I had a conversation with a friend yesterday that got me to thinking...
I honestly feel like we don't celebrate the happy things in life enough. We all lead busy and stressful lives and it's so easy to get caught up in ourselves and our little "bubble" (at least for me it's easy to get caught up in all that.) In fact, I caught myself griping about the fact that it was taking a while on the phone to get my new debit card activated yesterday. And suddenly I realized, "Wow. I'm a jerk."
I'm lucky to have a debit card that links to a bank account with money in it. Money that pays for our bills and keeps food in our fridge. Money that keeps my feet in cute shoes and yummy pizza on nights when we don't feel like cooking.
So instead of focusing on stuff that irks us or wasting ten minutes venting about minor inconveniences (which I find WAY too many blogs focusing on - but that's for another post entirely), I just wanted to celebrate happiness today.
1. This oh-so-adorable commercial from White House | Black Market featuring the tap dancing model, a.k.a. Coco Rocha. #HappinessIs
2. The wonderful, quiet date night that my husband treated me to this past weekend. I'm lucky to have a guy that remembers special occasions, like 7 month anniversaries. #HappinessIs
3. A boat ride on Sunday that ended up more like a scene out of The Perfect Storm. We packed a book, some great tunes, a blanket and two perfect little monogrammed glasses of iced tea. About five minutes out of the marina, all heck broke loose. Wind started blowing 50 mph, the boat was rocking violently, iced tea spilled everywhere and my perfectly poofed hair was destroyed.
At first we were ticked, but then we just started laughing hysterically at the lovely boat ride gone awry. We had envisioned a blissful, relaxing lake day. Instead, we got....a mess. And it was one of the most fun days we've had in a long time.
Sometimes the best plans are the ones that don't work out at all. #HappinessIs
4. M&M ice cream sandwiches. MARS makes them. You can buy them at Walmart or Kroger. They have made my life exponentially sweeter this week. #HappinessIs
5. Finding a pair of pants online that I didn't have to get hemmed, taken in or altered to kingdom come. #HappinessIs
6. We get to take a mini-vacay to St. Louis to see one of our little nephews for his 1st birthday next month. We're getting a hotel in the downtown area and turning into a romantic getaway/ mini vacation. We decided that after the surgery and all that nonsense, we deserved a weekend out of town.
This. Makes. Me. So. Excited. #HappinessIs
7. Storage Wars, Pawn Stars and Swamp People. If you don't know what these titles mean, then I suggest you start watching more pointless reality TV. #HappinessIs
8. I watched an old man open the car door for his wife at the grocery store the other day. They must have been in their eighties. Nice to know romance can live forever, if we try hard enough. #HappinessIs
9. An ice-cold Coca-Cola. The real kind. Which I enjoy a couple of times a week. #HappinessIs
...............................................
Life isn't always sunshine and petunias, but maybe if we take a sec a few times a week and count our "happys", life could be a little more petunia-filled.
Or chocolate-filled.
Or puppy-filled.
Or whatever makes you happy-filled.
P.S.- If you want to use the hashtag #HappinessIs this week, I'd love to hear what makes you happy on Twitter! I'll be tweeting a few of my own throughout the week, too : )
