That one weekend our lives revolved around her...

So, you guys know by now that I basically have enough room in my heart for just about every dog in the universe.  I love them...I'm the girl that wants to give all the homeless dogs a home.  One time, even though I knew better, I hid a dog in my walk-in closet until my parents found out and made me take it back to where I got it.  Rude. I remember crying as I drove down the long dusty, gravel driveway at the farm where I returned the dog.  I'll never forget the farmer telling me before I left that when I could have a dog of my own to come back and he would give me two.  I couldn't stop crying, and I was so embarrassed.. I thought my parents were so mean...in hindsight I was an idiot.  I bet I wrote Santa every year and asked for a dog, specifically for some reason I wanted a Cocker Spaniel. I never did get one.. but growing up we almost always had dogs.  I  remember a Westie named Shannon, a Poodle named Pierre..and then we had Brutus..who was part Chihuahua, part Miniature Dachshund.  He was special and we had him the longest.  I think I was 9 when we got Brutus, and he lived until I was in my early twenties...He used to have sleep overs with me after I moved out.  When Brutus passed, my parents never had another pet.  He was that special...

As a kid my favorite movie was the Disney movie "The Ugly Dachshund". It's also where Brutus got his name.  The movie is about a Great Dane that believes he is a Dachshund..it's cute.  Really!  As a grown up I upgraded my VHS tape of "The Ugly Dachshund" to a DVD I found on EBay.  So, if you spend any amount of time at my house, eventually I will force convince you to watch the movie with me.  It's still so fun to watch!!  Perhaps torturous to some, but still.  Who doesn't want to spend 93 minutes watching a movie that was made in 1966, about the cutest dogs ever!!?  Ok, well maybe just me, but all of my people that have been forced to watch it over the last thirty something years have been good sports about the whole thing, and I think you're awesome..or paw-some..err..k..

Moving along now...

My sister called one day..which she rarely does, so I answered wondering if something was wrong..  She was heading to the lake with some friends for the weekend, and asked if I wanted to watch her new puppy.  Ummm...helleur.  Do you know me?  Of course I do.  Can I have her now?

I had to wait until the next day.  I was so excited and counting down the hours.  So she brings this tiny little thing to my office..Trey and I had never met Allie before, and it was pretty much love at first sight.  It was like a brand new baby that you bring home for the first day when all you want to do is baby talk to it, hold it, kiss it, smell it, and stare at it like a complete weirdo.  Having a newborn baby around makes people behave very strangely, and having a puppy around is no different.

She loved Trey the most.

Which I was totally jealous of for the first day, but afterwards I was like.."ok, you two love each other so much, then you can wake up to take her potty in the middle of the night when she's crying because she's about to pee her pants."  I forgot that puppies are very much like babies in that they eat, sleep, pee, poop and don't want you to sleep.  Ever.

and apparently teenagers conveniently sleep right through everything!!

That weekend I may have thought to myself at least a dozen (or more) times that I am sooo glad my baby days are over. 

Lucky for Allie, about 20 minutes after waking me up to have a dance party.. on my chest..at 4 a.m. she finally played out and I forgave her.  Because, really..how can you stay mad at this?

I mean, come on....enough with all the cuteness.  We know you're cute.  Ok!

and we know you want us to hold you all the time...

She even had the grumpy Alpha Male vying for her attention.. If she wasn't paying attention to him, Winston would scoot his body closer to her, and when he was just close enough where he could touch her..he would nudge her with his nose.  Then Allie would get so excited she would jump all around him, bite his feet, crawl all over his back, and my grumpy old dog let her..

and although he will never admit it.. he loved it...

So, that was the weekend our lives revolved around a very tiny little girl that stole our hearts.

xo

Carrie

High Five for Friday

Hey, hey!  While trying to decide what to write about this week, I realized that I have done four things here lately that I've never done before.  Nothing major, but nonetheless, new to me..  So, I'll start there and go in order.

 I knew while I was on my summer vacation I wanted to find a race to get into while I was traveling.  I was bummed when I couldn't find one in South Carolina the week I would be there, so I started looking for one on the way...

There just happened to be a trail race on the outskirts of Asheville the weekend I would be traveling through.  So, I checked into it..a 5k trail race in Swannanoa, North Carolina between Black Mountain and the Blue Ridge Mountains.  After doing a little more research on the area I was completely sold and registered for the race almost immediately.

After checking-in at our hotel room we ventured out to pick up our race packets, then we went to find the location of the race.  It was breathtakingly beautiful, which made me want to explore.  I turned down unmarked gravel roads, followed all the curves in the road anticipating what would be around the next corner.

This is a picture of the sun setting that night.

The mountains are so lovely..many times I found myself day dreaming of what it would be like to live there.

So, rise and grind it was finally race day...I was pumped up and ready to take on whatever these hills had in store for me.

All downhill and flat for the first mile..I was even two minutes under my usual time.  I was killing it..and then I had that light bulb moment...Am I going to have to run back up everything I just ran down?

Well, no..much worse.  Oh my gosh.  This was by far the hardest thing I have ever done running wise..At this point I couldn't see anyone in front of me.  I knew there were still people behind me, but they were still so far back I couldn't see them.  I was talking to myself..more like reassuring myself that I wasn't going to die..here..in the middle of this mountain...I convinced myself that my legs wouldn't give up on me no matter how much my head was trying to tell me that they were dunzo..I was like "you are doing this..you are rocking this and you will finish this"!! 

and I'm not going to lie..there were two parts I remember having to walk up the hills..and I sooo hated doing it..but I remembered a conversation with a friend that told me to keep a comfortable pace uphills..I just kept repeating that to myself over and over..and next to crawling up the hill, my comfortable pace was walking... 

Everything was so beautiful...I just couldn't get over it.  I think the beauty of it took away my desire to fall over and roll back down the hill.

Finally I saw another human..a tall, grey headed man standing at the top of the hill.  I was so happy to see him. I just wanted to run up and give him a hug...then he began cheering me on, telling me I was at the top...that I can do this .. and that it was all good from here to the finish line.  As soon I heard those words coming out of his mouth I gave a thumbs up, thought to myself that yes, I can do this...then gave it all I had left.. I ran my little heart out until my feet finally crossed the finish line.

So, despite that grueling second mile I never did give up, and I never wanted to..I don't guess..There were a few minutes where it was questionable as to whether or not my judgement was clear, but the point is..I didn't give up...It always feels awesome when you cross the finish line, but this particular race had me feeling all sorts of emotions..I was super proud of myself, and felt like I could do anything..  It was a pretty amazing experience that I would do again in a heartbeat!

Isn't it funny how after you finish a race, no matter how hard it was..as soon as you cross the finish line...well...errr..rewind..in this instance..about 10 minutes after you cross the finish line you're ready to run again!!

So, after a quick change/cleanup I was back on the road and five hours later I was in beach bum mode for the next seven days.

 I found a yoga studio that offered yoga classes on the beach in the mornings.

As soon as I arrived one of the first things I did was sign up for a class.

It was super relaxing, and I so needed it. 

Laying in savasana while listening to the waves crash...amazing!

The instructor, as well as the other people in the class were so fun..I'm so glad that I ventured out on my own to do something I love in a new place.

I got up a few times to watch the sun rise.  Sunrises and sunsets are easily two of my favorite things to watch these days.

I convinced Trey to go on a beach run with me one morning.  I only wanted to run at dawn, and once he realized how early it actually was he was so not wanting to go, but he was a good sport and went anyway. I love early mornings with him.  

This was seen on one of my morning runs.

Another morning run picture.  I don't know them, but watching the guy play with his dog made me smile thinking of how much my dogs would love to play on the beach.  The dog was so happy having the best time playing in the water.  It turned out to be one of my favorites pictures.

Trey snapped this of me and I l.o.v.e it!!  I'm convinced that if I had access to a beach on the daily, I would for sure have some killer legs.  Beach miles go by way faster than road miles and they do some serious work on your legs!  <3

This was the prefect spot to have breakfast in the mornings.  Mango, strawberries and bananas never tasted so good!

My little buddy got his first truck. sniff sniff..He had no idea, and I couldn't wait for him to see it.  His reaction to it brought me to tears, and he had tears rolling too..  Of course me more than him.. his tears were more happy tears..mine were too of course, but mixed with Mom tears, and "how can he only be months away from driving" tears.

I helped Lynn and Catie pick blackberries for the market.

If you know me, then you know I am terrified of snakes.  I tried really hard to not even pay attention to the ground.  I figured it I didn't see it I would live.  I warned everyone that if I did see one I would probably scare them, and the snake because I would scream, run, then a bowl full of blackberries would probably go flying in the air.  I think I need a whistle...you know, to let the snakes know I'm coming...

Since I didn't have a whistle I just stomped the ground and announced myself every time I stepped out of the gator. I must have scared them all away.. ;-)

We picked three big bowls of wild berries...

They are so sweet and delicious!!

I had a pretty decent harvest this week.  Everything in the grass had to be tossed out because it was too ripe...I have a huge job this week in the garden.  I definitely took way too much time off and it shows.

Kayla and I took our first Barre class yesterday..it totally kicked our butts..big time!!  Barre combines yoga, pilates and ballet moves to basically strengthen and lengthen your muscles.  I'm going to say it targets all of your muscles, including the ones you forgot you had.  It was pretty intense..  I love working up a sweat, and pushing myself.. feeling the burn , and having the good kind of sore muscles.  Have you ever ridden a bicycle for like three hours straight?  I haven't either, but I have ridden one for an hour straight, and you know how your legs feel when you walk for the first time after riding?  During Barre your arms and your legs begin to feel like that.  About 10 minutes after class I called Kayla and was like "I'm pretty sure it's not safe for me to be driving at this point" She said "my arm keeps falling of the steering wheel."  I said "omg I have floppy arms too."  We couldn't stop laughing.  I'm not kidding.  It was brutal, but seriously the best kind of brutality.  I can't wait to sign up for the next class!  There is only one place in town that offers Barre classes and the studio is super cute!! Those gliding boards were so fun!!

I snuck out of town again... This morning Trey and I are going on an Independence Day kayak adventure. 

Thanks for stopping by to read about my week..Hope you all have a fun, safe, wonderful weekend!!

Happy Birthday America!

xo

Carrie

High Five for Friday...Garden Week 7

Sooo, I totally deleted last weeks post not too long after I posted it..so if you read it, and you see a repeat of some stuff today, that's why.  If you didn't read it, don't worry..you didn't miss much.  It definitely reflected my mood, which was no fun..trust me. I read it after posting and was like no one wants to read this mess..click..delete..goodbye!  Friday 13th and a full moon..got the best of me.  Most of my blah day was stuff that isn't even interesting so I'll spare you the boring details...then my market bread didn't turn out right, and I ended up throwing 18 loaves away.  I was so frustrated! I didn't do anything differently, have no idea what went wrong?  I spent half the day Saturday worrying that my bread baking days were over.

Winston keeps hoping that I'll let him go to the market with me one day.  He's very persistent..and cute.

It was a beautiful weekend with early morning temps in the 50's.

The weather definitely brought crowds of people downtown..

My corn has finally tasseled...if we continue to have days in the 90's like we did this week, then it won't be long at all before it is ready to be harvested.  I so can't wait for fresh sweet corn!!

I found a teeny tiny little baby watermelon..Did you know that watermelon vines were that hairy? It's so cute!  I should name it.

This is the same mater that I showed you weeks ago.  We need more really hot days to ripen them..I have a bazillion green tomatoes.

Lynn and Catie came over and filled up their basket with my harvest for the week. My sweet banana peppers and cucumbers are yielding the most.  

This was the first week I harvested cayenne peppers, as well as a few grape tomatoes.

On Sunday I enjoyed sitting with my Mother looking through old photos of her when she was in high school and college.  Then we flipped through a book that my Great Uncle wrote of our family history.  He dated when our ancestors came on a boat from Wales, he spoke of the day President Kennedy was assassinated. So much history.. I would love to sit down one afternoon to read it all.. I had no idea that in her early twenties, my Mom taught school in Europe.  How did I not know this?  I need more weekends at her kitchen table!

I have an ant problem.  I hate ants.  Don't you hate ants?  I called Kyle yesterday to ask if he filled the bug spray bottle with sugar water as a mean joke.  I'm taking any and all tips you guys have for getting rid of them.  Let's hear em!  It's not a major problem...I mean they're not taking over, I just want them outta here!

Catharina and I had pedicures this week.  It was so, so wonderful! I wish someone would rub my legs and feet every day. 

Later that night we rocked our 5.50 miles and then did squats, wall sits, lunges, step ups, jumping jacks...planks, planks and more planks..push ups, tricep dips..I don't even remember what else..and of all places this happened in my back yard..at about 11:00 at night.  Can you imagine looking out your window in the middle of the night, and seeing your neighbor doing lunges across their back yard?  It was fun, and by fun I mean I only cursed a few times..When we were finished we barely made it up the four little steps on my deck..We both pretty much half walked/wanted to crawl up them, and then collapsed on the deck. 

 I'm still crawling. Jk... but still.. It hurts and I love it!

Kayla and I had a fun date night.  We went purse shopping..never found one..I have the worst luck finding a purse I like..Then we spent a few hours chatting and laughing over dinner.

I finally got to try the filet and mac at Cloud 9.  It was so delicious..you have to try it!

Thanks for stopping by to read about my week.. Hope you have a beautiful weekend!

xo

Carrie

H54F - Garden Week 5

So, I think I'm finally getting this market thing down pat.  The day of market is a breeze...it's managing everything before and after that I've had to work on.  Instead of staying up all Friday night baking I start baking on Thursday. and finish up Friday after work.  I switched some of my chore days around so I can sit down and breathe after market without having to worry about all of the things on my to do list.

We served samples of bread at the market last Saturday...and sold out of bread by 10:30.  Almost every person that tried a sample bought at least one loaf..some bought two...one bought five..  It was fun seeing how the people reacted to it..Each person surprised, many said the word "moist", and several walked down a tent or two to bring back the person they were shopping with to try the bread out for themselves.  As the bread baker it was a day filled with wonderful compliments.

Tomorrow we will have more bread...as well as samples..and individually wrapped slices.  We will have 4 or 5 dozen farm fresh eggs, mint, parsley, sugar scrub..green beans, and maybe a few other things.  Watch our facebook page for market updates.  It won't be much longer until we will have baskets overflowing with produce.

After the market I'm pretty much wiped out.  I'm too excited to get a full nights sleep the night before, then Lynn and I meet at the square at 6:15 in the morning to set up our booth.  So, by the time I get home..this is how I feel.

Last weekend the weather was perfect for reading while hanging out in my little pool.  

I'm almost hoping I get rained in tomorrow afternoon since Orange is the New Black season 2 is on Netflix (as of today). If it rains I totally won't mind being stuck in the house binge watching the entire season.

This fella got a bath and a haircut..The dog, not the boy..It's hard enough to get the boy to take a bath and/or get a haircut...at least with the dog I'm in total control as far as hygiene goes..

I'm terrible at giving dog haircuts, and he hates it..He gets so upset when he's getting his hair cut that his brothers try to to gang up on me because they think I'm hurting him. I'm so glad he doesn't care a whole lot about his appearance because he probably wouldn't forgive me for giving the worst haircuts in the history of haircuts.

I kicked some major tail on my runs this week.  There were a few days that I absolutely didn't want to go, but I forced myself into it, and had some motivation from my bestie even though she's 900 miles away....of course after just a few minutes of running I was loving it, and so glad I got up to go. 

 The humidity this week was 97-98%.  Once I'm in the middle of the hill on my road I sometimes question my sanity, but my legs keep going even when my head is trying to convince me to stop..My legs always win!  I may be completely crazy but I enjoy running on these hot/humid days. I love the feeling of accomplishment I get when my feet finally land in the driveway, and I'm dripping with sweat.

We had a few good nights of rain, which is exactly what my little garden needed.

Between the rainy nights and the sunny afternoons we had another major growth spurt..

I have several jalapenos..

and sweet banana peppers..

My cucumber plants are full of beautiful blooms..

I have tons of baby cucumbers..

I almost fell over when I saw these two big ones.  I got a little excited.

I didn't exactly do my homework when I planted the squash.  I was thinking it would be viney like the cucumbers, but it wasn't..So I have a tomato cage around it, and it's way too late to remove it..

I have some very interesting shaped gourds..

This morning the bees were buzzing around the squash..

See it in the squash flower to the right?

The larger flowers are the male blooms, and the ones in the background are the female..

The bee knew I was there because he flew out for just a second to check me out..

I guess he realized I was harmless, and then he went back in to do his very important job of pollinating my vegetables.

I may be the biggest nerd ever, but this was so cool to watch!!

I have a plant full of grape tomatoes..

and lots of little baby beef steaks...

My neighbor gave me several bunches of beautiful parsley for the market.

I decided to throw some mint in a vase on my bathroom vanity just for decoration.  

It smells great and looks pretty too..

I gathered some mint and lemon verbena in a mason jar as a little summer decor piece on my mantle.  It smells wonderful!!

I pretty much have the cutest garden helpers ever!!

<3

Thanks for stopping by to read about my week.

xo

Carrie