sunny side of life

I know that girlymama already posted about this, but I couldn’t resist. My husband, after all, is the person who took this picture, and while it would be funny if he were here, safe and sound at home with me, he’s not, and so I’m only able to chuckle while on breaks from biting my nails and praying for his (and the other’s) safety. Take a look at this:

Meet the newest member of our family:

Deacon Prancer (yes, like the reindeer. yes, we give our dogs middle names. this was the name my mom wanted for our other dog, but she lost that battle, so I made it this little guy’s middle name) Ewald (the breeder’s (who also happens to be a friend of ours. Can you do a parentheses within a parentheses?) last name) Smith.

He’s an eight week old Doberman Pinscher and I just love him to pieces. I got the privilege of picking him up and driving him home yesterday. By myself. Which is an interesting trip when all he wants to do is sit in your lap while your driving your manual vehicle. He loves to cuddle, which is so unlike our other dog, and whenever he gets the opportunity to, he ends up like this:

All snuggled up in your lap.

We spent the better part of the evening getting he and our other dog acquainted, and after they spent a century checking each other out (read: sniffing each other’s hind ends) my other dog gave me this look which said; “So when are we getting rid of him?”. Needless to say, little Deacon is fascinated with Blitzen (our other dog, also like the reindeer. What? He was a Christmas present!) and Blitzen is still trying to figure out why we let this little creature who likes to chew on everything (including hands and toes! And Blitzen’s face!) into our lives so suddenly, just when he was getting old and crotchety enough to enjoy his personal space. Oh well.

I’m sure that Blitzen will be forced to accept Deacon’s presence when Deacon outweighs him by 75 pounds. He’s going to be huge. Deacon is already 15 pounds (compared to Blitzen’s 23) and the breeder told us that he’s bigger than the mother was at that age. The mother grew to be 80-something pounds, so we’re giving Deacon a solid 100. I mean, look at these paws!

Ok, probably not the best example. But you really should see them in comparison to the rest of him. His paws are too big for his whole body. It’s hilarious!

So, that’s our new little baby. Hey we needed something to keep ourselves occupied when my mom stopped having kids! Some people take vacations, we buy new dogs.

Welcome to our home, little buddy.

This is a picture of me with my date at my Senior Prom, 6 years ago this month:

Obviously, this man is not my wonderful husband. I decided to participate in Throwback Thursday (for the first time ever!) because it amazes me how much my life has changed since High School. Just sixyears ago. Y’see, I thought for sure that I was going to marry the man in this picture, but I didn’t. (Much to the apparent chagrin of one Mr. Bitler) And I thought, for kicks and shiggles, that I would do a “Top Ten” list of my own. So, I give you;

The (top, because there are many more than are listed here) Ten Things I learned from my Highschool Prom date (my then boyfriend):

10. Pretty does not mean perfect. (except of course in my case)

9. Women should not pursue men. It’s their job, and they’ve also been cursed with the desire to let the woman have her “reign” over them, and so if you do the pursuing, you’re also giving them a good reason to let you do all of the courting and wooing too. Which leads me to….

8. If you pay for his meals, not only does he not owe you that money, but why should he pay for yours if you’re so willing to fork over the cash?

7. Your significant other should want to be around you all of the time.

6. 2nd chances should be just that. Second chances, not 3rd or 4th or 5th……

5. No man’s feet deserve to be graveled at. NONE. (I’m speaking figuratively here, please do not think that I actually graveled at his feet)

4. If he says he’s not sure about you/his feelings for you/your relationship…..GET OUT. He knows you’re week and will settle for 2nd best, so he has no reason to give 100% of himself to you. He will be looking out for someone better than you.

3. There is no one better than you. It’s a shame that he doesn’t see it, but that’s his loss; don’t spend your whole life trying to make him realize that you are the best. He should be opening your door and buying you flowers and such. Unfortunately, he’ll only get it after it’s too late.

2. If NONE of your friends/family think he’s right for you, THEY’RE RIGHT!

And the number ONE thing that I learned from my Highschool Prom date is….

1. I cannot change people, only God can. No matter how much sweeter I wanted him to be, or more committed, or more romantic, or more whatever…….he wasn’t. And I spent far too much of my time agonizing over it. Wasted time. Time I could have spent perfecting my relationship with God, preparing myself for the man who he really wanted me to spend my life with.

I’m sure to some of you I sound bitter, or angry, but I can assure you that those feelings are only toward myself, for allowing it to happen. We were young (remember? highschool) but I had an adult mentality with relationships and wanted far more from him (emotionally) than he was ready to give.

I’m not making excuses for him, it’s true. I think of adult men who act that way much differently; they need to grow up. We were just kids and I thank God every day that he was in my life for 2 reasons.

-As a friend, he was awesome and we really did have some good times together.

-I have an appreciation for my Husbandthat I don’t think I would have otherwise. My husbandeven gets the little things right; He opens doors, surprises me with cards and flowers, and treats me like the lady (or princess, as these terms are interchangable) that I am. I love him so much, and in looking back, don’t think that I would have changed the course of things even if I could.

So, what do you think?

Is this the right color outfit? It doesn’t make my butt look fat, does it? Do you think it brings out my eyes? Does it compliment my figure?

I LOVE IT!

A VERY special thanks to DCRMom over at Musings of a Housewife for doing such a great job of beautifying my blog. Isn’t she awesome? I think so.

Now go on over there and buy some new bloggy clothes for yourself!

“You look like Kristin Cavalleri!” she yelled over the crowd

“Really?!”

“Yeah, you really do, she’s your celebrity twin!”

I pride myself in being able to find a person’s celebrity twin. I can’t do it with every person, and sometimes it takes me a while to figure it out, but when I do, I’m always spot on. Seriously. Whenever I finally make a connection and share it with other people, most of them agree with me.

I haven’t been able to figure mine out though. I think it has something to do with the fact that I see myself too frequently or something. But whatever, someone else figured it out for me. I suppose there could be worse people to resemble.

Here’s to you twinny.

From about the second I figured out that I was Italian, and had the ability to think, I have wanted to visit Italy.

Now, I’ll admit, that I’m not as Italian as my pride suggests.

My great grandfather came over from Italy when he was 13. Now, while I know that it’s not terribly far-removed from my generation, it’s the marrying-out of the Italian-ness that has me all blonde, blue-eyed,  and whatnot. (Just so you know, I’m fully aware that Northern Italians are in fact blonde and blue-eyed, however, my great-grandfather is from Southern Italy, where the dark-haired, dark-skinned folks are from. Hence, my dilemma.)

Anyway, I’m Italian. And proud. I believe this is what we’ve established so far.

So, I tell you all of that, to tell you this.

My husband is deployed this year. (Newsflash!) He gets leave time, and I’m kind of a demanding wife in that I want to see him when he’s on leave.

So this is what we’ve been able to figure out: It’s freakin’ expensive to fly all the way to where he is, and vice versa. (Not to mention that his current location doesn’t so much inspire happy vacation thoughts in me, this seems to be only me, as most people who know his location think I’m nuts and would LOVE to vacation where he is, but I’m not them, and so I have no interest in it.) So we looked into meeting halfway. And you know what? It’s cheaper for us to meet in Rome, Italy than it is for us to buy a ticket for the other to go all the way to where the other is. Make sense? If not, here’s what I mean in a nutshell……

I’M GOING TO ITALY!!!!!!!

I know, right? I’m totally excited for me, too! It won’t be until LATE in the summer, like say August or so, but who cares? I’ll be able to see my husband! (in Italy!) And spend time with him! (in Italy!) And hang out, and chat, and do….married stuff! (in Italy!) And tour Rome! (in Italy, but that was kind of implied, huh?)

I almost can’t believe it, and probably won’t actually believe it until I land. IN ITALY!

My brother and some of his friends will be accompanying me on this trip for 2 reasons:

1. I hate flying. Instead of totally freaking out a stranger on the plane by digging my nails into his skin and grabbing onto his pants’ legs, I will make sure that it is my brother to whom this torture will belong.

2. He really wants to go to, and so who am I to stop him?

I know what you’re thinking. “You’re brother is going with you to Italy? Where you’ll meet up with your husband after having not seen him for 8 months. Won’t you want some, um, privacy?”

Yes we will. And we will have it.

Y’see, my brother’s, friend’s, parents (did you get that chain of people?) have a time-share, and they’re letting us use it to get TWO rooms (which are separate and apart from one another) and all we have to do is pay the fee (which is like $100-ish) for the week! It’s a steal I tell you, a steal!

So it’s all set. I’m going to Italy.

Oh, and seeing my husband too. Can’t forget that!

You’re skeptical, right?

I’ll admit, I was too. Very much so actually. I mean, when you talk to any valid nutritionist, they’ll tell you that you can’t really lose more than TWO pounds in one WEEK, much less 4 in one day.

But I’m here to tell you that it can actually happen.

IT HAPPENED FOR ME!

How you ask? Well, I’ll tell you. This is kind of a long, drawn out process, but it’s worth it for the results I tell you. Heck, I’ll probably keep doing it until I get down to my goal weight!

Ok, so here’s what I did.

For lunch on Wednesday, I had half of a Buffalo Chicken Wrap. It had blue cheese dressing on it, the chicken wasn’t grilled, it was breaded and fried.

Now you’re really skeptical, aren’t you?

So there must have been something bad in that wrap, because from about 9:00 that evening through to 3:30 the next morning, I spent some serious quality time with just about every toilet in my house. (and someone else’s toilet, because it started at a friend’s house, nice right?)

Short of totally grossing you out, I will say that I didn’t know that I had that much…um…..fluids/solids in me at any point throughout the day.

Anyway, I got on the scale the next morning and sure enough, I lost 4 pounds. In. One. Day.

Maybe bulemics have the right idea, no?

Back in highschool, during one of our Youth Group Retreats, one of my peers stood up to do a comedy routine during our free time. Like every other student present, I was prepared to give a pity laugh here and there, because there was no way that he was actually going to be funny.

Well, he wasn’t.

It turns out that he was “performing” the comedy routine of an actual comedian; one he had memorized, after listening to his CD so many times. It was hilarious. I don’t think there was a dry eye in the place, we were all laughing so hard. And crying from laughing. Immediately after he finished, I remember peppering him with questions.

How can I find this CD? Do they still make it? WHO IS THAT GUY?

“Have you ever heard of Brian Regan?” he asked.

“No! Is that who it is?” I replied

“Yup, you should check him out.”

So I did, and then bought the CD right away. I listened to it and laughed some more. I made my family listen to it and they too laughed. We all thought he was so funny. Plus he wasn’t, like, dirty. He rarely uses any profanity and the content is really clean as well. As a family, we were sold. Especially my little brother Ben. He loved him so much, that a couple of years ago, I bought him Brian Regan’s CD for Christmas.

This year, Brian Regan’s tour is bringing him ’round these parts, and for Ben’s birthday (which isn’t actually until June) we’re going to see him live. Tonight.

I am SO excited. So is Ben. I’ll let you know how it goes.

*you won’t actually get this unless you’ve heard his CD, guess you’ll have to buy it and find out!