Bet You Didn't Know...

A while ago I did a little post called Five Random Facts.  I intended to do multiple segments of this post but I have been drawing a serious blank on what my next Five Random Facts post should be.  And tonight it just hit me.  Like, right in the face.  BAM. 

My five random facts don't have to be some life altering, prophecy fulfilling event.  It can be something as simple as what I do in my daily routine.  So that's what I present to you today:

Five Random Facts About My Day

Jeremie will ALWAYS make fun of me for my daily routine.  Admittedly, I live for my routines.  If I'm even the tiniest bit thrown off, it tends to put me into a bad mood.  I hate, hate, HATE not having part of my routine.  What can I say?  I'm a creature of habit. 

Being that we're both teachers and we both work with Autistic kids (who we LOVE because they're the best), Jeremie jokes about me having some tendencies that are "on the spectrum".  Ha. Ha. Jeremie.  You're just so funny. I'm pretty sure he actually thinks my routines are cute even if he'd never say that.

Anyway, here are my Five Random Facts:

I make everything for the next morning at night.  

I put everything in the coffee pot and turn on the timer.  

I make my lunch and put it in the fridge.

I lay out my outfit for the next day.

And I make sure everything I need in my school bag is ready to go.

This is all pretty much in an effort to get up and out of the house in 30 minutes so I can sleep as late as humanly possible.  But I also just like to have everything done ahead of time.

My bed NEEDS to be made.  Everyday.

I will not even sit in my bed until I've made it.  

Jeremie sleeps later than me so even on days where I can't make it before I leave, I make it when I come home at night.  I actually read a study that said making your bed everyday can make you happier.  

Yup, that's right.  Make your bed boys and girls.

Before I leave the house in the morning I do a mental checklist.

Water. Check.

Coffee. Check.

Breakfast. Check.

Lunch. Check.

Phone. Check

Keys. Check

iPad. Check.

Every. Day.

I watch GMA every morning.

I love Good Morning America.  It's my go-to morning news show and I watch it every morning. 

I don't even care that most of the time I'm running around getting everything ready to go and I actually only catch 2 or 3 news stories.  And even those I don't hear completely.  I figure, as long as I get the main idea that's all that counts.

I have a bedtime routine.

Usually I play a game for a little while.  Right now it's Plants vs. Zombies.

Read for a while.

Turn on the fan  - I have to sleep with a fan on.  When I go to a place that doesn't have a fan I usually have a small panic attack.  One time our power went out and Jeremie found me an app for white noise.

Take off glasses.  

Drink some water.

Turn off the light.

Every. Night.

So those are my five random facts.  Bet you didn't know I was that into my routines, huh?  

Do you guys have routines?

I'd love to hear about them!

Weekend Getaway :: Sensational.

Before I tell you about my awesome weekend, I need to start with a little back story.  Back in December Jeremie and I went to a tribute night for Sandy Hook which was put on by a friend from high school.  It was an awesome night.  They had a great turn out, I'm sure they raised a ton of money for Sandy Hook and we all got to catch up with old high school friends.  It was just nice.  Have you every had a night like that?  Just nice.  I love nights like that.

Anyway, we went to this Sandy Hook night and they had a pretty decent sized silent auction and a raffle.  Jeremie and I weren't planning on bidding on any of the auction items since money is a little tight.  Especially since Jeremie started his masters program which is a full time, unpaid internship.  But hey, it was to benefit my hometown so we bid on a few items.  One of them was a two night stay in Stowe, Vermont.  We bid on it a couple of times and WE WON!!

Best. Decision. Ever.

So we went away from that night a little tipsy, having had a great time and with a two night stay in Stowe on the horizon. Not too bad.  

This weekend we went on our trip and it was FANtastic.  So amazing.  The hotel we stayed at was right on the mountain.  We could literally walk out onto the mountain, put on our skis and go! It had an outdoor heated pool and hot tubs that overlooked the mountain.  We went swimming on Friday night after our long drive but it was so windy out that we were freezing for the most part.  So we called it quits and tried again the next day.  We had better success with that after a long day of skiing and not so much wind.

We had two awesome dinners.  One of which was at the top of the mountain and we got to take the gondola up!  They give you a blanket to snuggle with and a lantern to give you a little light but we didn't use it.  We just admired the lights of the town all the way up.

And the skiing was amazing.  It was about 50 degrees so after about an hour of sweating our butts off we went inside to strip everything off.  We went back out in just out hoodies and skied the rest of the day like that.  If you're a skier you know that this is the best feeling ever.  

So, all in all we had a super, super, SUPER weekend.  It was great.  .  

Our back yard on Friday.  Thanks to this lovely weather we were able to leave at 1 pm instead of 5 pm.  

This is the ONLY reason I am happy we had snow day number 12(?) on Friday.  I lost count.

You know we just had to take these classics.  

The pool at the hotel, overlooking the slopes.

Pretty awesome!

Enjoying the view at the very top of the mountain!

The view from the gondola on our way up to dinner.

It looked better in person!

Quite possibly Jeremie's favorite store in Vermont.

Goin' on a tour!

I like this picture primarily because we both look slightly insane.

We got to try a "top secret" Ben & Jerry's flavor at the end of the tour which was a pretty great way to end our vacation.

Hope you guys all had an awesome weekend too!    

Double Whammy.

I WAS SO FREAKING PRODUCTIVE TONIGHT!!!

And I feel like I need to shout it out so everyone knows about it.

In the course of about four hours I caught up on shows (I don't know if this actually counts towards productivity, but hey, I'm going with it), showered, found the remaining info for my tax return, finished my FAFSA, finally got my team all registered for the Sandy Hook Run For The Families, sent multiple e-mails to people regarding said run, prepped for the morning, cooked dinner, caught up on blog reading, fed the dogs, got ready for some cool stuff coming up this month including some blogger exchanges that I will be telling you about right here and now I'm writing this post.

BAM!

When was the last time you were that productive?  

You know when you are super productive and you feel really energized because of it?  That's how I'm feeling right now.  I feel like I could work straight through the night and feel great.  I know this isn't actually true. In about an hour I'll be in bed and trying to get through my chapter of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince (yes, I'm reading it again.  Don't judge), and I won't be able to keep my eyes open to save my life. 

On top of the fact that I am ridiculously overly exorbitantly excited about all that I accomplished tonight we're also supposed to get snow tomorrow night.  I know most people are done with snow at this point, especially after Nemo slammed us with enough snow for the entire season.  But I LOVE snow.  I would take it in July if it were so inclined to show up at that time.  And hey, if it's still gonna be cold - which, it will be because it's March - it might as well snow on top of it. 

But, Saturn - that's it's name - you better not cause any more snow days!  11 is enough this year!

Now onto the point in this post. Aside from the fact that March is my most hated of months, I am doing some pretty cool stuff including TWO blogger gift exchanges!! 

How exciting is that?!?

Not one, but two.  And they are my first ever gift exchanges.

Get excited here, people.

The first will be....

The Cara Box with Kaitlyn at Wifesessionals.

Kaitlyn is one of my favorite bloggers.  I look forward to reading her blog everyday so if you have a sec, check it out.  She had the awesome idea to do Cara Box exchanges every month.  

The word (or name?) Cara means beloved friend.  

The goal of the Cara Box exchange is for bloggers to get to know one another by creating fun gifts for other bloggers.  And most importantly it's to show each other that we are all friends and we all care!

It's so positive. How can you go wrong?

I will be doing a reveal post later this month to show you all what I got in my Cara Box!

The second exchange I'm doing is called...

The Covert Robin: A Mystery Gift Exchange with

  Rachel (and a few others) at Imagine Gnats

The Covert Robin is a little different than the Cara Box Exchange.  For the Covert Robin each blogger has no idea who they are receiving their box from.  And it's all homemade gifts!  Which, if you've read my blog you know is right up my alley.  I haven't decided what I'll be making my partner yet but I've got some pretty good ideas going.  And with Pinterest the possibilities are pretty much endless.

I've never participated in a gift exchange with other bloggers before but I'm so excited about these.  You get to make fun gifts, receive fun gifts and make blogging friends!
It's pretty awesome.

And even as I'm writing this my productivity high from the night is wearing off.
I'm fading.
Fast.

The glass of wine probably doesn't help :)
Until tomorrow!

Instagramazing AND This Weekend I....Two in One!

So this weekend wasn't very Instagramazing (again) but I was able to snap some fun photos.  I also had a pretty awesome weekend so I definitely want to do a little recap on the goings on.  So I'm combining two posts - crazy, right? - to bring you This Weekend I.... and Instagramazing all in one fabulous post! Without further ado....

This Weekend I.....

This weekend I took my dogs for a hike that was over two hours long!  We were finally able to get out of the house when there weren't subfreezing temperatures outside.  I actually didn't mean to take them for such a long hike but my hiking buddy and I got a little lost. Oops. Oh well, at least the dogs slept well!

Passed out after a long day! Yea, he's totally snuggling with a teddy bear.

This weekend I  went to Costco with the hubs and spent WAY too much money.  But it was a really productive trip and I got some organization things for blog stuff and school stuff.  

This weekend I probably didn't devote enough time to my school work (masters stuff, not elementary school stuff) but I just didn't feel like it!  I still have five classes after this one and I'm sooooo over it.  

This weekend I spent my first two nights sleeping with a memory foam mattress topper on my bed and thought it was just ok.  Which was a disappointment.  Jeremie loved it though, so that counts for something.

This weekend I had some serious fun with autocorrect.  It was unintentional but I guess that's usually the best kind of fun!

This weekend I cooked dinner two nights in a row.  This is totally unheard of in our house!  I don't cook!  I'm not very good at it and I really, really, really don't like it.  But both meals came out totally edible! Win.

This weekend I saved $100 dollars a month on my car insurance.  And yes, it was by switching to Geico.  Well, I was already using Geico but we switched Jeremie over to my policy and we saved about $100 by combining our policies!  

And Finally....

This weekend I had some awesome bonding time with the hubby.  We just had one of those days (or maybe even a few days now that I'm looking back on it) where we weren't in sync and we talked and had a really great night just hanging out.  It was one of those times that made me remember how important my relationship is.  

Hope everyone had an awesome weekend!  What were you guys up to?

Newlywed Game, Week Six.

Ok, here we go again.  It's time to link up with Karla and Veronica for the Newlywed Game, round six!  Unfortunately I missed last week's link up and I'm pretty sad about it.  So I'm super excited that the week flew by and it's time to start answering those crazy newlywed questions again!  Maybe next week we'll get brave and try a VLOG!  Eeekk!

one. What advice would you give a friend who found out that he/she is getting married?

Her: Oh geez,  I feel like you can never give someone enough advice or prepare someone enough for planning a wedding.  And then again, everyone is different and then wants different things.  So who's to say my advice will benefit them at all?  I guess the one thing I might tell them is be prepared for something to go wrong.  Because it will.  If you're prepared for it and you're willing to just go with the flow on your wedding day, you'll enjoy it so much more.

Him: Well I find it interesting they are 'finding out' they are getting married. The first thing is to make sure they were conscious and not under the influence of something when their significant other made this decision. Second, if everything checked out, would be to set the stage for open communication. They need to be able to talk about things in a fair way where each person is heard and it is not one attacking the other. And talking about things on a regular basis, not just when something pops up.

two. Do you have a pet name for your spouse?  If so, what is it? Her: Babe.  That's it.  I'm boring!!  He actually gets mad that I never use his real name.
Him: Well, she loves Snuggly Wuggly Bear. She insists I call her that everywhere but I told her some people would look at us weird. I like to shorten her name to Stace. Hon is always nice and makes us feel older.
three. What are 3 things that your spouse cannot live without? Her: Hmmmm, Orion "his" dog would definitely be number 1 (although I'd love to think it is me, I don't think it's true), cartoons, and the outdoors.  I think if he was stuck inside all the time he'd go craaaazzzyy. Him:  iPhone/iPad mini (have to be able to play Temple Run and Plants v. Zombies), chocolate ice cream, and snickers (don't even talk about mixing the last two. She would kill a person). (what?! everytime we go to Dairy Queen I get a chocolate snickers blizzard!)

four.  What is your favorite date idea? (something you have or haven't done) Her: I always like the idea of dinner and a movie.  I really love going out to dinner together and having a glass of wine and just catching up.  It's so nice when it's just the two of us.   Him: I would love to go sky-diving with my wife. A full day of hiking through some beautiful place like where they filmed Lost, jump out of a plane, and then go to a nice place for dinner.

five. Is there a book or movie that reminds you of your marriage with your spouse?  If so, which one and why? Her: Wow this is a really hard question and the only thing I can seem to think of is the Notebook.  Which is funny because The Notebook doesn't resemble our relationship or our story in the least.  Give me a sec.......Yea, nope.  I got nothin'.  Him: I'm going to break the rules: Boy Meets World. We can both be goofy and we learned that the tough times bring us closer. I just can't wait to be living on easy street.

six. Rate the very last kiss you had with your spouse.  How was it on a scale of 1-10? Her: It was a 10.  I won't go into details but let's just say it was one of those kisses ;) Him: It was wonderful. They are all great. I would say it is a 7. But even her 1's make me smile. (I'm guessing we're thinking of different kisses here)

seven. What was the very first thing you noticed about your spouse when you first met? Her: It was a long time ago but I would say it was probably his personality.  He just seemed so comfortable around me right from the beginning (even though I'm pretty sure he told me he was super nervous) and he just seemed to get me right away. Him: Her hair. It was spiky and pink. I thought it was cool. I never wanted to mess it up.
eight. What was the very first gift your spouse ever gave you? Her: Time to whip out the "dating box".  Jeremie gave me so much stuff at the beginning of our relationship.  It wasn't big presents, just small little tokens and I, of course kept all of it.  I would say the first real gift he gave me was when he had the a' cappella group at our college come sing to me for Valentines day.  That was a good one. Him: For my birthday, she gave me a CD (John Legend), a book (The Fountainhead), and a movie I think.

nine.  Is there anything you sacrificed when you married your spouse?  If so, what? Her: I don't think so.  And if there was anything then being married to Jeremie was more important because I didn't even think twice when he asked me.  I think Jeremie sacrificed a bit though because he had to move away from his family and to a whole new state.   Him: I sacrificed a crappy unhappy life.
ten.  What would your spouse say is the funniest photo of you?   Try & describe the picture, or post it below! Her: During our first year of dating my hosuemates and I threw a house party that we called "Beauty and the Geek".  You were either supposed to come dressed as a beauty or a geek.  Jeremie and I chose geek because it's wayyy more fun and we have some seriously priceless pictures from that night.  They are still some of my all time favorites of us.  Here they are:

Him:  It is a wonderful picture we took at her mother's house. (this was during my bridal shower and we have NO idea what was going on right here.  Everyone's face is so perfect though.  It just keeps getting better and better.)

Sorry this was so late!  But hey, better late than never right?

Status: MIA

Whoa man, have I been MIA this past week or what?  And you know what's really sad about it?  I don't have a good excuse at all. I got all my school work done on Monday night.  I didn't have a lot of outside work to do for work this week.  I've really just been super lazy and totally uninspired.

Have you ever had one of the days (or weeks or months) where you literally just can't think of anything to write about?  I'm assuming most bloggers have been in this boat before.  I can't be the only one this has happened to right?  I think maybe it's the March blues.

We've officially entered the month of March and it is by far my least favorite month of the year.  It's long, we usually have no days off of school (this year we get one because Good Friday is in March - it's a miracle!!!),  and our state testing is this month which means my entire month at work is consumed by proctoring.  Ugh.

But enough venting about March.  Positive thoughts...it won't be that bad and when we come out on the other side we get to look forward to April break.  And hey, we're doing some pretty cool stuff this month including a weekend ski trip and I'm participating in, wait for it, not ONE but TWO blogger gift exchanges!  I'll be doing a little post about each of them within the next couple of days.

And I swear, this week will be different.  Starting tonight.  I'm going to get back on track with this little blog of mine.  I really love it and it's definitely not something I'm going to let go of because of one bad week.  

Look out for the Newlywed Game link up later tonight (waiting on the hubby's answers - he's such a procrastinator!) and some awesome projects later this week!  I'm gonna start off March right and maybe just those extra positive thoughts will make this dreary month go by a little faster.  

For now, I'll see ya later, blogosphere.  The hubs and I have some serious stocking up to do at Costco.  If all goes according to plan I may even have a few fun Instagrams to share from the experience.  You just never know what will happen during a trip to Costco.  

Am I right?  

Or am I right?

These Are a Few of My Favorite Things.

It's Wednesday and that means it must be time for some wedding talk!  Linking up with Cheltee and Kelly today for the Newlywed Blog Hop and this week's question is.....

drum roll please.......

What was your favorite part of your wedding?

And I can't believe they are asking that!!  Are we really asking a bunch of girls to pick the best part of their wedding?!  And more importantly, is that really possible?! I'm not sure it is.

Nonetheless, I'm going to be a good blogger and try and answer this question to the best of my ability.

I LOVED my wedding.  There really isn't anything I would change about it but here were some of my absolute favorite things about my wedding (I'll try and keep it to the top three five):

The coziness:

I know, I know.  We're in a giant wedding venue with 100 of our closest friends.  How cozy could it really be?  But our venue was so rustic and warm feeling and it wasn't spread out.  Everything was compact without it being uncomfortable. So once everything came together and the room was filled with excited wedding-goers, it really felt cozy.  It felt like home with all of our friends and family by our sides.

Our wedding party:

Our wedding party was freaking amazing.
And that's all I have to say about that.

Saying my vows to my husband:

When we were planning our wedding I wanted traditional vows while Jeremie wanted to write our own.  I explained to him that if I wrote my own vows and actually tried to say them out loud I would be such an emotional wreck that you wouldn't even understand what I was saying.  So, I of course politely asked demanded we have traditional vows.

In the end we ended up doing both and I'm so happy we did because it is a standout moment for me.  Was I an emotional wreck?  Hell yes.  But there is nothing like letting go and telling the person you love most how you feel about them and letting everyone else hear it.

My dad doing Gagnam Style:

Actually, everyone doing Gagnam Style.  I still think of my wedding every time I hear that song and I think it will always remind me of that night.  And you know what?  I'm ok with it.  It was a hilarious moment that I can't explain in words but I'll never forget it!

The weather:

This is a weird thing to appreciate since it poured on my wedding day.  And I'm not just talking showers and a passing thunderstorm.  It was typhoon season in Connecticut that day.  But I think it was a blessing in disguise because Jeremie and I both agreed that we liked the ceremony better inside than we would have outside.  Our venue just did a great job of setting everything up and it was so cozy and warm and comforting.  And we still got outside to take some pictures.  What else can you ask for?

So I'm gonna take a second and pat myself on the back for limiting the list to only five things.
Way to go, me!

Hope you guys enjoyed!

Bub.

I missed all my usual posts this weekend, The Newlywed Game link up, Wedding Weekend, Instagramazing Weekend, and I'm a little sad about it.  

But I had good reasons so today's post will be short.  Just want to bring you guys up to date on what kept me away from blogging this weekend.  

This is Jake. 

We like to call him Bub.  

We got him when I was a sophomore in high school.  I went to this thing called work camp every summer - I know, it sounds bad but I promise it's not. I went for a week with my youth group to rebuild houses for people less fortunate - anyway, when I came home from camp that summer there was a furry little fluff ball waiting for me.  

On Sunday, at almost 12 years old, Jake lost his battle with cancer.  

It was very, very fast.  Just a few days ago my mom said he was riding in the back of the car with his head out the window.  

He was a great dog.  Challenging, but great.

He used to run after deer in my parents back yard and he would be yipping along behind them as he ran.  You know how dogs sound when they are starting to fall asleep and they begin dreaming?  That was Jake chasing after the deer.  Only louder!

He used to sing while I played the piano and every time a siren went by within ear shot.

He chased the waves when we walked along the Housatonic or when we took him to the beach.

He wasn't a huge fan of other dogs but he loved his family pack - Sirius, Orion and Savannah, my sister's dog.  

I know he's happier and much more comfortable now and that makes it a little easier.  But Jake was a really special dog.  He was just so full of quirks and personality and we're going to miss him so much. 

Love you, Bub <3

Gotta Get Down On Friday.

Everybody's lookin forward to the weekend.

Partyin', partyin', yea!

Partyin', partyin', yea!

Fun, fun, fun looking forward to the weekend.

Yup, I did it.  I'm sorry about that.  I know the last thing you all wanted on your Friday was Rebecca Black stuck in your head but seriously, every time I come to my blog to link up with Ashley at the Sweet Season Blog to write Friday Letters I start singing that stupid song.  And it's only because the title of my post has the word Friday in it!  Please tell me I won't think of this song every time I hear the word Friday for the rest of my life. 

Ugh. Le Sigh.  Here are my Friday Letters this week.

Dear Rebecca Black, get out of my head!! Now!  Dear Paper Crane Project, you were my absolute favorite post to write so far and I think everyone enjoyed reading about it.  Now you look so pretty in the corner of my classroom and my students love you!  Dear Students, please, please, please behave well during my observation this afternoon.  You're usually the most fantastic group ever so please don't change that today. Dear Sirius, I can't believe you turned four this week and you're still pulling some of the same crap you pulled when you were six months old.  I love you and I don't want you to get older but if you could stop the annoying stuff, that would be great. Dear Husband, I just love you.  That's all.

Happy Friday!

Newlywed Blog Hop - Advice For The Wedding!

 

Linking up with Kelly and Cheltee today for the Newlywed Blog hop!

This weeks questions is:

What type of advice did you get on your wedding day?

On my wedding day?  

Go make babies!  Hah!

No, but seriously, I didn't really get much advice on my wedding day. But I did get a bit of advice before my wedding day. One of the biggest pieces of advice I got (and it was from A LOT of people) was sit down and enjoy your dinner.  However, we all know how that turned out.  And if you don't know how that worked out, check it out here or here.

Because I followed the advice I was given, I ended up getting sick at my wedding and missed 45 minutes of my reception.  It is quite literally the only thing that was wrong with my wedding.  So if I were going to give advice to future brides I would definitely say listen to your body.  If it's telling you DON'T EAT IF YOU WANT TO ENJOY YOUR DAY. Then don't eat.  I mean, don't make yourself pass out or anything but your body knows what's right for you and it will try and tell you.  Listen to it.

I was also advised to take a few steps back a couple times throughout the night and just watch everyone else enjoying themselves.  It's a really hard thing to do.  It doesn't sound like it, but it is.  Jeremie and I were able to take a step back twice and just watch and it was definitely a memorable moment from our wedding.  

Even when we didn't step off to the side I would make these little notes in my head, like "you need to remember this moment".  Like watching my dad do Gagnam Style with us.  Or watching my 9 year old cousin break dance and everyone cheer for him.  I didn't sit back and watch those moments.  I was apart of them but I made sure to keep a mental video of it in my head.  

So that's my advice.  

Listen to your body.

Sit back and observe just a couple times.

Take mental notes.  

It goes by fast and you want to remember everything!

Instagramazing!!

I'm not gonna lie, my weekend was not Instagramazing.  In fact, I was a downright slacker in my instagraming this weekend.  So this weeks link up with Karla and Nicole isn't quite an Instagramazing weekend, per se.  I like to think of it more as an Instagramazing week.  Trust me, if I just gave you my weekend pictures you'd be bored to death.  And in my defense (although I guess there's always something to Instagram) I really didn't do anything this weekend worthy of an Instagram picture.  

However, I'll leave you with this - 

On my honor, I will try to have a better Instagramazing weekend next week. 

But for this week, here's what I got:

Earlier in the week I made some kick ass signs for my mom and aunt to carry during a march at our state capital.  They turned out awesome and my mom and aunt loved them!  See what I can do with all this time off?!

I celebrated my hard work that night with two of my favorite things - 

wine and piano.  Not sure you can go wrong with that combo.

For or first Valentine's Day as a married couple we really didn't do anything special.  The hubs was super sick so we just went simple and stayed in to have a nice, quiet dinner.  

Jeremie got me some beautiful flowers and left me a trail of messages to find as I came into the house. So sweet! 

I made him some delicious brownie cupcakes (brownie on the bottom, cake on the top).
Totally scrumptious.

Today I snapped this picture of Orion in just about the weirdest position I've ever seen him in.

I'm not sure how he didn't break his neck or his spine or at least pull a muscle or something!

I spent my day working on a fun project which involves....wait for it, wait for it -

Paper Cranes!!

These are Sandy Hook paper cranes and I'm working on a little DIY project so I can eventually put them in my classroom.  There will be a post about the final product, so keep an eye out!
How pretty are they?! I love them.

So that was my Instagramazing week.
Hope you enjoyed :)

Happy, Happy Birthday!!!

Three posts in one day?  That's unheard of!! But I have to post because today is a super important day and I feel kind of like an awful person because I totally forgot about it until 20 minutes ago.  Today is my crazy, ridiculous, super clumsy, snugly, super special puppy's fourth birthday!!! I don't know how it happened so fast but it's true. I think I may have subconsciously forgotten about his birthday on purpose thinking if I ignored it, it wouldn't happen and he would stay three forever.  Oh we'll, you gotta give a girl props for trying right? Since most of you have never actually met Sirius, here's some fun stuff about him:

Full name: 

Sirius Lee Black White And Brown Tomasko-Hittenmark

A fun story about the name - I originally named Sirius after Sirius Black from Harry Potter (yes I know I'm a dork and I'm damn proud of it). Shortly after I got him my roommate started calling him Sirius Black Tomasko which I thought was funny because I never intended his name to be Sirius Black.  He was just Sirius,  but it stuck and then eventually we thought it would be funny to call him Sirius Lee because, well, you get it. But we didn't want to lose the Sirius Black so we called him Siriusly Lee Black.  And that didn't sound right either!!!! So we added the other colors and he was Sirius Lee Black White And Brown Tomasko. And then I got married and he became Sirius Lee Black White And Brown Tomasko-Hittenmark.  So that's how it happened. Man, I could have a show dog with a name like that! 

The first day I met Sirius.
Look how teeny and cute he was!

Birthday:

 February 17th, 2009

Breed: 

Australian Shepherd (and man does he herd!)

Nicknames:

Crazy

Baby

Bebe

Big Butt

Quirks:

 He will always walk toward you in the shape of a c with his butt curved toward the front.  Weird. 

He LOVES to snuggle.  

He HATES to get his feet wet.

Loves Obsessed with rocks. 

Runs into everything. The door, the door frame, the coffee table, chair, 

the fireplace, other dogs, your legs.  You name it, he's run into it. 

Always in the way.  ALWAYS.  

Always up for a game of hide and seek. Better known in our house as "Where's Mom?"  

His favorite spot to sleep as a puppy.  He is a weirdo.

Got himself a little brother

Fears: 

Butts - oh yea, you heard right.  Want him to go away? Just point your butt at him and he'll run. 

Farts. 

Anything that beeps or "scary" noises in movies or on TV.

Wind.

When people wear masks or hoods. (it's all good fun when we put masks on and walk around the house....I swear I don't torture my dog)

The faucet. 

Citrus.

True Story:

I asked my husband to recall a funny story to share with you guys about Sirius and he gave me about ten so I chose one I think was the funniest.  This one time we were playing a game of hide and seek and the boys were looking for Jeremie.  Our front door was open with the screen door shut but our back door, which is where they would usually go in and out of was closed.  I think this made Sirius worried that he wouldn't be able to get into the house in the case of an emergency.

Jeremie whistled to give the boys a hint as to where he was and Sirius, being the panic driven dog that he is, freaked out and for some reason thought Jeremie had gone into the house.  He literally tore right through the screen door to get into the house without even noticing he had disturbed anything.  This would have been an epic way to find someone in a game of hide and seek, had he actually found Jeremie in the house.  However, Jeremie was outside and Sirius was not the one who found him.  I'm pretty sure he was scared to go back through the screen to get out of the house once he had ripped through it too.  Epic hide and seek fail.

Oh man, he's our special boy and we couldn't love him more.  

Happy Birthday, Sirius!