...breathe in breathe out...

on a stressful day (or in my case week) these two make me feel all better and I'm so thankful for snuggle time :)

snow snow go away

Jack and Winston are waiting patiently to go outside and play in the snow. YES! I said snow!

So way down south here, practically at the beach, in eastern North Carolina, it appears that even I can't escape the brutality that is this winter. I was so happy to not be home in MD with the 40 or so inches that they are currently stuck under. But, Mother Nature decided to dump a few down here. Ergo, New Bern's blizzard of 2010. I've come to learn that it NEVER snows down here (this is the 2nd time in a decade... the 1st was last year and they got about an inch). It is also the coldest winter in 20 years! Needless to say I was miserable, but the dogs loved it! Check it out...

snow up to Jacko's belly! Winnie burrowing into the snow
Jack making a run for it!

Winston covered in snow

Win is SO excited

Winston mid-stride

Winston hopping like a rabbit

Win in the backyard

Jacko eating the snow

and my favorite... the close up of Jack with Win chasing him in the background :)

the goods outweigh the bads

another good... After meeting with a JCrew wedding coordinator in December with Carly and Emily (two of my wonderful bridesmaids who went with me so they could try on dresses I liked for them). We were assured that the dresses I had selected weren't going anywhere because they were sooooooo popular. Especially in Navy, they would never discontinue a dress in that color. I spoke with her again last week, told her the exact styles I had definitely decided on, the fabrics, and the color. Again, everything was fine, we didn't even need to order them until April or March. Then yesterday, disaster struck. Yeterday, Carly emails me... "Get online, I went to buy my dress and it's not online anymore".

I get online and sure enough it's not in the wedding section, they have replaced it with a similar, yet not as cute/fancy version of itself. It IS however in the sale section of the website. Oh wait, but not in Navy. After calling every single JCrew in the country that carries the wedding collection, and customer service, you would think this dress never existed. It was just a figment of our imaginations, absolutely no where to be found. Every JCrew wedding coordinator and customer service agent had the same thing to tell me - "That dress is completely sold out, we don't even have a sample of it. There aren't any anywhere". I had to laugh because it was all so absurd. We discussed our options, order the other, ugly one; buy the white one and try to dye it; pick a different dress in a totally different fabric; pick a different dress not from JCrew.

Then Carly's genuis instincts kicked in and she checked EBay, and low and behold there it was. Advertised as: "sold out online!" She informed me today that she has since bought the dress, her style, her fabric, her color, HER SIZE! All is well with the world again.

the good the bad and the ugly

The Good: after being very worried about my dress at the seamstress's (for 2 months) due to a phone call where I was put on hold, but not really, and could hear everything they were saying... "Where is this dress?" "Oh here it is, what were we suppoed to do?" "We still need to put these on..." then been told directly after overhearing this conversation "Oh yeah we've been done for a while, we were waiting for you to call to make an appointment. I wanted to scream YOU are supposed to call ME and tell me when it's ready to try on! But I didn't (very proud of myself) most likely because I was too excited that I could try it on for the first time in months and it would finally look like the dress of my dreams. I just said ok well I'm calling now and I would like to make an appointment for next Saturday. Their reply was "Oh, that won't be possible, we only do alterations appointments during the week." *pause for the sound of dreams being crushed... whatever that may be* I did however call back today and speak with the actual seamstress who agreed to come in to meet me on Saturday, after explaining that I'm not able to come in during the week as I have a full time job in NC, and the dress is in MD. So thank you Dora, Doris, whatever your name is. Now I can put on my dress after it underwent serious cosmetic surgery... and maybe get a few tears out this time :)

The Bad: you would think this would be posted under good things, but... while my save the dates are completely finished... addressed, sealed, stamped... The post office here in New Bern closes at 1 pm (precisely when I placed the last stamp) for an hour for lunch I suppose. So I laid down to rest, thinking I earned it, and found myself asleep without an alarm set. I woke up promptly at 4:10 pm. You can guess what time the post office closes. Yup, 4 o'clock. Missed it again. (We missed it last week because we weren't done addressing the darn things... and we missed it yesterday because we went at 5 pm to buy stamps) So they are STILL here, sitting on my coffee table. If the post office opened at 5 am I could go before work, but I've gotta wait til I get off at 11 tomorrow... BOO

The Ugly: me... just up from a nap (messy messy hair) and angry that I slept my way through getting this stupid things in the mail finally. Oh well, tomorrow is another day...

dogs are miracles with paws

Last week was a rough week for the Perkins family. We lost one of our beloved pets. Sherlock, our sheltie corgi mix, came to us 7 years ago via Northern Virginia Sheltie Rescue. It was estimated that he was about 6 years old due to the plaque they found on what little teeth he had left.

You see, Sherlock (our Sherbie) was beyond terrified of thunderstorms. He had previously jumped through glass windows, and at our house he chewed through steel-plated doors (ergo missing teeth) and jumped 5 ft fences just to try and escape the noise that the thunderstorms brought. It was really amazing, he could hear them when they were miles away. He got this look on his face and we knew it would be raining in just a few hours. He was always right. We had to give him "doggie valium" whenever he started to get antsy and we knew storms were in the forecast. We never left the house when we knew there was one coming, and we always went home when one popped up out of no where. It was a big change in our lives to accommodate Sherbie's needs, but it was something we wouldn't have ever given up the chance to do.

Aside from his terrible fear, he was the most loving dog you would ever meet. He loved my mom more then anyone, and when she wasn't home he would lay by the door and await her return. He wouldn't go outside without her, he slept next to her every night. Not only did he have love for us, but he adored all the other dogs in a way that no other animal did. The dogs and puppies were constantly lined up waiting for a "bath" from "momma Sherb". He was always licking, cleaning, their ears and eyes and bellies. Bear was his biggest fan. Sherlock could be asleep and Bear could just lay next to him (usually he'd wiggle his way under Sherb's chin) and Sherlock would clean away.

Even if you never met Sherlock you knew he was a lover, the heart-shaped face and big round eyes told you that. And his fur, it was so soft. And he loved to be brushed, probably more then he loved belly rubs. Better yet, brush his belly, he'd be your best friend forever.

He had a lot of best friends, and big fans, those of which stretch even to the west coast. He will truly be missed. Our family has found comfort in the fact that he is with our Nanny and Pop right now, and we know Pop is sneaking him scraps under the table, just like he always did. We will always love you Sherb, and we will always miss you sweet boy.

6 months and counting!

As per a request from Ms. Emily, I am posting an update! As of now most of the save the dates are addressed and should be in the mail today or tomorrow! HOORAY! Now that we're at the 6 month mark, we are kinda behind schedule, but oh well... We officially have a photographer now that we've gotten a deposit to Melissa, she's all ours July 31! Florist is next on the list...

Here in New Bern, I have gotten a job! I'm working at a gym right down the street from us. It's called Sound Fitness & Golf. It's a really nice little gym, and they've given Patrick and I free memberships! We started going this week and hope to make it a regular date-night thing :)

Oh, and my mom is thinking about heading down here today, hopefully the weather holds out so she can! There's a bridal expo here that Pat and I (and mom if she's here) are going to go to on Saturday. I'm very excited. I'm even more excited that it was Pat's idea!

Last weekend we also had all 8 of my former roommates (and their significant others) down for a little housewarming party. We did our Secret Santa gift exchange, and got to take in the wonderful sites of downtown New Bern. Some of our friends and neighbors from NC came too. All in all we had 15 people sleeping in our house! And that was on top of the chinchilla we were babysitting for our neighbors! It was very fun and exciting weekend.

here are all the girls after secret santa

and here's daisy!

less then 200 days!

I know I know, I've been a TERRIBLE blogger this year! (ps happy new year everyone!) I haven't posted in weeks and weeks... There's just nothing to report! Wedding planning is moving along... Just waiting on the guest list to be finalized so I can finally send out my adorable save the date cards! We've officially decided on a DJ (and by officially I mean we sent him money and we're locked in). We've officially decided on a lot of other things that we haven't paid for yet though. As you know, we have a wonderful photographer (I promise your check is next Melissa!) and we have our florist, and we're pretty set on caterer. And my amazingly talented Aunt Robin has agreed to make our cake! Really excited about that one! Oh, also... my dress has been undergoing major alterations and hopefully I'll be getting a call sometime soon so I can see what it will look like! Can't wait for that!

Another exciting note... my best friend, and bridesmaid Carly got engaged on Christmas! We are SO excited! Her fiance Justin is in our wedding too! Lots of big things going on... kinda contrary to what I said before... but anyways I promise more updates soon! In the meantime here's a picture of me and Carly showing off our 'bling' on New Years Eve:

congrats again! love you car!