Weekend Re-Cap (Lots of Photos of Duke)

Lot's of fun stuff this weekend!! Maybe just ONE exciting thing happened. Okay....let's make that two exciting things. :)

Saturday morning Brian, Elyssa and I drove up to Sacramento to meet my older two kiddo's for breakfast at IHOP. We left at about 7 a.m. for our hour and a half long drive. It was nice to have all three kiddos together as we hardly ever get that opportunity! It's either Ashlee and Elyssa; Elyssa and Joseph; Joseph and Ashlee; or something like that.... rarely do I have all three together at one time! (Mostly just Christmas or other major Holidays)

(It was a bittersweet morning however, because Elyssa's dad met us at IHOP to pick her up since she was going to her dad's house, so we all had to say goodbye! )

After we left the restaurant, we headed to Ashlee's house to pick up Duke!! Yay!! Boy was I super excited! We've been waiting for weeks to bring him home!! Woot woot!!

Once we got him home, we played with him for a little bit. He explored the living room, dining room and kitchen. Then I immediately started introducing him to his crate and new bed!

We bought a little Pet Taxi for him, but we were also given a bigger one from my brother-in-law and his wife. (John & Kathy) Some other friends of ours (Bill & Karin) gave us a cushion/bed thingee that goes into the Pet Taxi we got from John and Kathy.

Duke took to his "bed" almost instantly! He loves it!! Can you tell?!?

Throughout the remainder of the day, Duke pretty much slept off and on. Each time he woke up, I immediately took him outside to go potty. He didn't go the first 3 or 4 times I took him out, but later in the evening he went! I was so excited and happy! I praised him and made a big deal out of it so he knows that it was a good thing!!

He didn't eat / drink anything ALL day. It was late evening when I finally was able to get him to eat some of his Puppy Chow. What I did was soak the dry Puppy Chow in some water, and then I rolled one of them on his "placemat" (homemade rug I'm going to use for his feeding area only) and he slowly ate it. I rolled a few more this way, and he ate!! He acted kinda strange at first... pawing at it then backing up. Then when he did pick it up in his mouth, he would walk away and almost hide to eat it, then come back for more. I'm thinking it's because where he was before, he probably had to share his food with his liter mates and almost had to eat it somewhere none of the others would take it away from him. That's just my guess though. Who knows.

I took the opportunity to take tons of pictures of our new "baby" when he was just chilling out. I thought I'd share a few with you guys!

I love this photo below! Amongst all of our numerous Target Bulls-Eye Dogs (Nick and Nora), I squeezed Duke into the line-up. I just HAD to take this photo!!

I couldn't resist!! Isn't it cute?!?


Here's one of Duke with our "Harley" Bulls-Eye Dog. I think that's just about the only thing Duke is bigger than around this place. Seriously....my flip flops are bigger than him!

Our first night home with Duke wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. Duke had been going into his crate (bed) on his own and laying down in their whenever he would tire. I don't shut the gate/door on the crate during the day, so he gets used to the fact that he can come and go from the crate. The problem was, if Brian or I would get up from the couch or walk in the living room, he'd come out and follow us.

So, when it was bed time, I told him "Bed" and put him in his crate. He snuggled up in his blankets and got comfortable. I locked the gate/door. I went to bed. AS SOON AS he figured out that nobody was in eyesight, he started his puppy cries. I ignored it. After all, isn't that what you're supposed to do? I was told and I also read online (yes, I did a TON of research) that you're not supposed to go to them when they cry because then they'll think in the future, all they have to do is cry and you'll go to them. Well....Duke would cry and then stop....then cry and then stop. The period in between crying would be at the most... five minutes.... So, what do I do? I don't go and open the gate. Nope. That would be giving in. What I did was this...... I got a pillow and laid down on the floor just to where he could see my head. And viola..he would quiet down and fall asleep. Thank Goodness!!! So I would get up and crawl back into bed.


What felt like maybe oh.... 3 minutes later, (but in reality it was more like an hour) Duke would start to cry again.... so I get up... take him outside to potty; come back in, put him back in his crate, and get down on the floor again. Yeah.. this went about three more times until he finally slept for more than just an hour. (Me crawling into bed only having to get back down on the floor.) Needless to say, it SOUNDS bad, but it wasn't THAT bad. :) I did manage to get a solid 4 hours of sleep from 2 a.m. to 6 a.m.


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And today! Guess what we did this fine Sunday afternoon?!? Well, let me show you what our friends Bill & Karin also gave us....

This CUTE doggie purse! It is so cute and I absolutely LOVE it!! Duke is the perfect size for this purse and he still has room to grow!

So, we decided to take Duke out for his first Sally ride! Yep! That's right!!! We took him out on the Motorcycle! Can I just tell you he enjoyed it completely! I thought he'd cry when he was in the purse with the noise and all, but nope. He was having a blast! In fact, he would peek his little face out of the area I had unzipped while we were riding and he loved the sun shining on him and the wind in his face!!! Here's a photo of him while Daddy was putting gas in Sally.

We rode for maybe 15 minutes or so, then we stopped at this awesome park. Played for about another 15 minutes then rode back home! And let me tell you, both Duke and daddy were POOPED out when we got home!!


That's my Weekend Re-Cap!!! Hope you all had an awesome weekend as well!!

Wordless Saturday?!? Eh...works for me!!!

Garden Wedding Photo Video at OneTrueMedia.com

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

~DUKE~

In three days we get to pick up our baby!!

I'm excited yet nervous because Brian hasn't been 100% supportive of getting Duke in the first place.
(Despite the fact that all four names we're contemplating on naming the puppy was all his suggestions: Duke, Harley, Max or Hoss. Along with the fact that he went out and bought this cute Crate)

I've been doing a ton of on-line research just to be sure we're (I'm) prepared. My priority is to make sure that he's potty trained. And, I'm hoping that he's not going to be as much of a yelper as everyone tells me he's going to be. Hopefully, if I work with him as soon as we bring him home, he'll get used to us.
On-line, I got a schedule of all puppy vaccinations. And as anal as I am, I wrote down the date next to each of the required shots, so I know when those shots need to be done.
I called our local Pet Smart late last night and spoke with one of their Dog Trainers there. She was a wealth of information and answered a ton of questions I had. How nice of her! (At least I thought so considering it was like just after 9 p.m.)
They (at Pet Smart) don't allow puppies to enroll in the puppy classes until they're 10 weeks old and have had their second series of shots. So, I won't be able to get Duke into classes until a few weeks after we bring him home. I think that's just perfectly fine though because it'll give us time to bond with Duke and make him comfortable with us.
Today, I went into Pet Smart and spoke to one of the Groomers and received a ton of information from them as well. I had been told in the past that it's quite expensive to have a puppy groomed. Somewhere between $40 and $45. I was totally excited to learn today that at Pet Smart, they have a special for puppies! It's $10.99 for their Bath and Shampoo package which includes a basic shampoo, blow dry; 15 minute brush, nail trim, ear cleaning, sanitary trim, scissoring feet, shaving pads and anal gland cleaning upon request.(Honestly, I have no clue what some of these entail)
I was also reminded by a friend of mine, author of Hailey's House, that I need to have the following: Collar, Leash, and Puppy Toys. Oh, and puppy food.
So, as I was walking down the aisles at Pet Smart today, I fell in love with the Harley Davidson Collars. (Pictured above) And I'm almost 100% sure that I'll be making that purchase in the near future.

And of course, thanks to Hailey's mom again, she reminded me of the fact that I get to buy STEELER'S gear for Duke!!

This is just one of the many items I found that I NEED to have. Er..I mean that Duke needs to have. :)

Yes, three (technically 2 1/2) days until we bring him home! I am so freaking excited!!

Day with the Ducks

Amazingly enough, I didn't do one bit of baking and or cooking whatsoever today! Seriously. Not for breakfast. Not for lunch. And not for dinner. Today was one of those days where everyone pretty much had to fend for themselves. Every once in a great while, I don't think there's anything wrong with that!!

It was a very unproductive day ~ "lazy day" I would call it. I suppose it was due to the fact that Brian had to work overnight tonight at work, so he needed to take it easy throughout the day. It's hard to have to adjust your body to the one day of overnights. Only to have to come back in the morning and try to "get back to normal" because your regular shift will come again the next day. (So glad it's him and not me!)

Just to get some family time in this afternoon, we went to A&W so Brian could get a Frosty Mug of Root Beer! After that, we headed to Stanislaus State to go "feed the ducks" despite the fact that we didn't have any bread with us. Lol. Stan State just happens to be where we took our Engagement Photos at. I had Elyssa take a few shots of me up at the top of the 'waterfall' just as I did in our E-Pics. It was fun!

That just about summed up our day! Pretty uneventful to the max!! But here are some awesome photos of our exciting day. :)

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My beautiful Elyssa Lynn

Big Mr. Goose getting a little too close to me

My beautiful Elyssa Lynn again

My beautiful Elyssa Lynn one more time

Won Tons... Yummy!!!

I love, love, love Won Tons!

Today, Elyssa and I made about 65 of them. It is along process but very well worth it in the long run.

I don't follow any recipe ~ I just remember what my mom used in her Won Tons. I will post the recipe with instructions in the Recipe section of my blog in the near future, so be looking for it!

Here's a few photos of our process:

The Won Tons ready to be fried.

Frying

Draining the oil

"The Duke" ~ John Wayne

Everyone that knows Brian, knows that he is a DIE HARD Western buff. I mean seriously into Westerns. Movies, trinkets, actors, horses, etc. Pretty much anything that is western themed. His biggest thing is Bonanza. The Cartwrights. The Pondarosa. Little Joe. Cochiese.

With that being said... can I share with you some photos from our detour in Winterset, Iowa? Yes, while we were on our 2,000 mile journey home from Minnesota earlier this week, we took a 14 mile detour off of the Interstate and went to see the Birthplace of John Wayne.



(So I guess the drive home would have been alot quicker if we didn't make that stop huh?)

(Don't mind that I was dressed for a 30 + hour drive in a rented Hyundai Elantra)

Emotionally Exhausted!

Wow

That's all I can say! 2010 has been an eventful year yet for me. We've been running and running and running since prior to our Wedding, (as most of us do) and it's literally been NON-STOP for us!

We thought after our AHR in Minnesota we would have time to breathe and relax. Unfortunately, that didn't happen.

It all started during our 2 week long stay in Minnesota. During our stay, we endured some severe weather ~ even having a Tornado touch down!! It was the first time I've ever been in some extreme rain, wind and just so much thunder and lightning! I even had a dentist appointment scheduled as well as Brian and his yearly physical with his doctor. Oh... I also had some oral surgery done too. Yeah, NOT FUN.

Thankfully, the weather cleared up for the day of our Reception and it was nice outside! Couldn't have asked for better weather, considering the storm that had just passed ~ and the storm that was forcasted to come still.

Our Journey Home

On our journey back home, we had to drive 3 hours to Madison, Wisconsin for our flight only to have a two hour layover back in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Don't ask why...long story) We made it to Madison with enough time to go thru security and board the plane. The flight to Minneapolis was short. Very uneventful. We were able to grab a bite to eat prior to boarding and I'm so glad we did. Once we boarded the plane, the weather out was starting to look bad. The plane we were on was HUGE. It was a 757, and there were never ending rows!! It took quite a while to get all of the passengers on board and once we did, we had to sit there and wait. And wait. And wait. The weather had gotten worse, and the Captain kindly made an announcement that due to the severe weather including the lightning, the groundscrew was not allowed to be outside during that time. We had to sit tight and wait it out until they got the all clear and was able to get all the luggage onboard.

An hour later, we were then told we could de-board the plane to stretch out, use the bathrooms, and what not. Needless to say, I took advantage of that! Being stuck on that plane for that long with the hail beating down on the plane and the rain pouring SIDEWAYS was pretty scarey.

After about a half hour or so, we were given the green light to board the plane again and this time, after just a bit of a delay, we were airborne. Yay! Needless to say, our flight was delayed by a total of a little over 3 hours. We should have touched down in San Francisco at 7:30 p.m., but didn't make it there until about 10:30 p.m.

And... we still had another hour and 45 minutes or so of a drive home from there!

Back Home Finally........or so we thought

Was I ever so glad to be back home! Finally! All wedding related activities were done! Finished! We can get our Den (which had been consumed with wedding related stuff for such a long time) cleaned out! We can get on with our lives! We can start focusing on HOME.

Unfortunately, a week after we returned home, Brian's one and only Uncle had passed away. We were completely torn. We had just left Minnesota but we knew that we had to be there for the funeral. We looked at air fare, and it was astronomical....especially since we were looking to travel less than 7 days in advance. After much debate, we decided that we would rent a car and drive the 2,000 mile trek. It was just too expensive to fly Brian, Elyssa and I. Much cheaper to rent a car. This way, the three of us would all be able to go versus us paying more than renting the car and gas for just Brian to fly.

We left on Tuesday late afternoon and made it to our destination Thursday about a little after Midnight. (LATE, LATE, LATE Wednesday night). It was quite the trek, but we did it. With Brian and I taking turns driving / resting, we made it. The funeral was scheduled for Thursday, so we HAD to be there in time! We did have to pull over in Wyoming and we both slept for about 2 hours. Neither of us could continue without a power nap!

Driving back home we didn't have to rush it so much. We had a nice leisure drive, however we took a different route which was quicker time wise. We left Sunday morning at about 9:30 and made it home Monday early evening at 5:45 p.m. We also stopped and slept, but we slept for about 3 hours this time.

Back to normal

We've been home for a full day already and Brian went back to work this morning. I need to get back to the swing of things and get our lives back to some sort of normalcy. We need to get back into our every day routine like we had 7 months ago!

I need to get our Den cleaned out and presentable. Because right now, you can't even step foot in there. There is too much junk! Seriously. Way too much stuff that needs to be tossed out or given away to GoodWill.

So, despite the fact that I have TONS of pictures from our trip, I need to priortize my life and my days. I will share photos with you all in the near future once I get back on track!

I do want to share a few photos with you guys ~ family photos that were taken at the luncheon after the funeral. Brian's cousins and their families. It's their dad who passsed away. Brian hadn't seen his cousins in 15 years. Since HIS dad's funeral. It's unfortunate that it's during times like these that bring families together.

Elyssa, Brian and I

Brian's cousin Dave, his wife and two children

Brian's cousin Lynn, her husband, four daughters, two son in laws and her grandbaby.





Brian's cousin Tom, and his three children

Brian and his cousin Steve

Minnesota June 2010 Pictures

Mall of America!!!!

The Mall of America is Awesome! It is 78 Acres big! It used to be the home of the Metropolitan Stadium and as you can see from the photo above, that is the where the original Home Plate of the stadium used to be.

The middle of the massive mall consists of a Theme Park ~ Nickelodeon Universe. There are rollar coasters, a Dora Ferris Wheel, a Log Ride, and various other theme park rides throughout! It is unreal!

Of course, the Mall itself is amazing! It has over 520 stores on three levels of pedestrian walkways, with a fourth level on the East side. While we were there, there was construction going on and read there is addition planned north of the mall that will allow for up to 900 stores. The Mall is organized into four different zones, each with its own decorative style.

It is AMAZING and a MUST SEE if you're ever in the Minneapolis / St. Paul area!

~* Grandpa Motorcycle and the Grandchildren *~

Grandpa and Brayden

Grandpa and Jayden

Grandpa and Kaeden

We spent A LOT of time with Brian's three grandchildren on this trip and we had an awesome time with them. The photo's above is when we met them for lunch at McDonalds! We had a good time visiting!!

~* Amish Country *~

A Buggy with Van Seats

Old Blade Push Mower ~ And the yard was HUGE

There are a lot of Amish living going on in the Country and one day I asked Brian if we can take a drive into some of the Amish area. We came across this little Amish Community and despite the fact that it was in the early afternoon, there wasn't much going on activity wise. We did see maybe two or three Amish Children doing chores. I was also able to see a horse drawn buggy on the road, but didn't feel right pulling out the camera and snapping a photo then. :)


Of course there are a ton more photos to share, but for some reason, Blogger is giving me a hard time right now uploading them all, so I'll leave you all with these!!

I'm back!!

We're back from our loooonnnngggg vacation, and boy do I have some doozy stories to share with you all!!!

From Tornados, to Oral Surgery, to Slip 'n Sliding down an event tent, to more Thunderstorms...needless to say, it was a very eventful trip!

As soon as I wind down from our whirlwind vacation, I'll be sure to share pictures and stories with you!!

Happy Monday!

And can I just say:

I'M SO GLAD TO BE HOME!!!!

Elyssa's 8th Grade Graduation

So, my baby has moved on to High School! Can you belive it?!?

I won't get into the big controversy about whether or not 8th Grade Graduation Ceremonys are overrated or not, but yes....can I just say that a two hour long ceremony and 15 minute speeches from the Valedictorian's regarding their "entire lives of memories" was interesting nonetheless.

Elyssa and I

Elyssa and Brian

My two lovely daughters!

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Weekend Wrap Up

Although it's already Tuesday, I'm doing my Weekend Wrap Up post a day late!

This past weekend was totally jam packed with fun stuff. We had a surprise 70th Birthday Party for a very good friend of ours!

I was honored to do his cake ~ and here it is:

I also made some "Better than Sex" Cupcakes. Now, normally, this would be a cake. Knowing how much the birthday boy LOVES this cake whenever I make it, I decided I'd experiment and make 'em into cupcakes! And let me tell you, it was a complete hit!!

Brian and I had a wonderful time getting to spend time with some of our friends ~ old and new! It's times like these where you just sit around, relax, and enjoy life that makes me so happy!!

I also made a few other snacks / treats.... here's one of them:

Chocolate dipped Pretzel Rods with Rainbow Non-Pareils. Totally Yumny!!!!

So, as you all can see, I've been experimenting and adding Sweet Treats to my Etsy Store as I 'perfect' them.

Stay tuned for more pictures!!!!!

Clever Confections Blog

So, I started a Blog for my Clever Confections 'business'.

It's still "under construction" but I'll link it here:

http://gilescleverconfections.blogspot.com/

I will be blogging about my everyday trials and tribulations with cakes, wedding cakes,cupcakes, candies, sweet treats and anything baking related!

The blog will serve as both a 'website' as such which contains information as to what we have to offer, delivery / shipping options and prices, as well as someplace where I can share with everyone what is up and coming in my Etsy Shop.

(http://www.cleverconfections.etsy.com/)

As I mentioned above, it's still under construction, so if you have any suggestions or criticisms, please feel free to let me know!

Thanks everyone!!!!

Yummy, Yummy, Yummy!!

White Chocolate with Reese's Pieces and Strawberry with Peanut Butter M&M's

Milk Chocolate with Reese's Pieces, Salted Peanuts and Strawberry and Peanut Butter M&M's

I have been working on different Sweet Treats the last couple of days and I have a few more surprises up my sleeve!!!

So, stay tuned for more coming soon!!!

You can visit my Etsy Store if you'd like to send some Sweets as a gift to a friend or loved one!

http://www.cleverconfections.etsy.com