Grateful



Not only is today my birthday, but it marks the anniversary of an adventure I started on a year ago to share my thoughts, my moods, my stories and my life with the world.  One year ago today, I started this little blog...and what a year it has been!

The past year has marked a lot of struggles and many triumphs, and sharing that, even tiny little bits of it, has been therapeutic in ways I never imagined.  When I started this blog, I thought it would be a great way to put my weirdness out there and to keep a rolling update of my life for my friends and family that I don't see nearly enough.  But there was one thing I never counted on...and that was you.  Yes, you.

I truly did not know that there were other girls (some of them right here in my town) that were out there, just like me...sharing their stories.  The blogs I have discovered in the last year have made me laugh, made me cry, made me think, and most importantly - they have made me grateful.  I grateful for every bit of blog delight I have stumbled upon...every tale you've told, and tip you've shared, every lesson you've learned and shared with your readers.  Many of your posts inspired me to think differently or gave me inspiration for my own musings.  Many of them just made me smile or let me know where to shop for my next cute outfit or eye shadow palette. 

I realize that I don't post as often as many of the blogs I read, and I don't have any special crafting or design skills.  I can't offer you fashion advice or show you the latest amazing product I've bought for myself.  I only know what make-up looks good on my face, and I couldn't begin to tell you how to apply it.  I don't live in an exciting city (except for maybe this very moment since our Cats are playing in the Final Four) and I don't do many note-worthy things on the weekends that would be worth sharing.  I travel pretty much nowhere, and despite being in the middle of wedding planning, I am too exhausted by it to spend much time blogging about it.  But for some reason, you have read my silly little blog anyways.  You even bared through entire posts about reading The Hunger Games, my obsession with Skittles, the dangers of swimsuit shopping, and on instance where I tried to ride by lab like a miniature horse.  For reasons unbeknownst to me, you have read on, and sent me messages and left me comments that mean more to me than you know.  I literally cannot tell you how many times in the past year I was knee deep in the middle of the worst day ever when I would hear a little *ding* on my phone and find a sweet message waiting for me or an encouraging email that put a smile on my face.  Sometimes those little things were the only thing that got me through the day.  Thank you for that. 

Thank you for sticking with my sporadic posting habits.  Thank you for keeping your thoughts to yourselves when you didn't like what I had to say, and thank you for your comments that let me know I was doing something right.  Thank you for clicking that little "follow" button and joining me on my strange journey for the pursuit of chocolate.  Thank you for the last year. 

Happy birthday to me.  Happy birthday to my blog.  Happy Friday to you :-).



Good Dog. Bad Dog.

Guys, sometimes our dogs wear me out.  Between Sawyer's constant drooling and Jax antagonizing Sawyer, and both of them shedding like nobody's business, sometimes I literally feel like a parent who's unruly children have been let loose in the WalMart. 

Lately  I've begun to realize that even though they will literally spend 8 consecutive hours fighting over a tattered rope in our living room, they are not quite as dumb as they look and act 97% of the time.  Last night my mom stayed at my house and as we were getting ready to go for a late walk around the neighborhood the dogs ran to the door as if they were coming...wrong.  My mom politely sat them down and explained to the monsters, "Now we're going on a walk.  You guys stay here and we'll be back soon."  Then she proceeded to open the door as wide as it would go and walk out to our front porch.  The dogs of course went right out, and proceeded to run circles in the driveway.  I waved a biscuit around and threw it in the house and Sawyer ran right back in.  Jax on the other hand, took some convincing.  After pleading with him to come in the house, sweet talking with him, ignoring him, and offering several generous sized biscuits, he would have none of it.  He finally agreed when I opened the car door and offered him a ride in mom's Camry.  That he went for.  I finally got him in the house and off we went on our walk, while I went on to explain to mom that I too, was shocked that despite the nice chat she had with the dogs about staying in the house, they still ran out when she opened the door and all but rolled out a red carpet. 

When I got home from work today my neighbor across the street gave me the usual greeting and then added, "Hey Taryn, you know after you all left last night...your dogs took off out the front door and just went running down the street."  Oh really?  Did not know that.  They're like velociraptors....they've learned how to open doors.  Now what?  Can't use our storm door all summer?  Not sure, but this is definitely a problem.

Let's get to another issue...the Houdini factor.  I crate trained Sawyer, so in the early years when I was at work, and asleep at night, Sawyer was in his crate in the guest room.  Well, one afternoon my brother went to my house while I was at work to play with the monster and found him laying on the guest bed reading a Charles Dickens novel.  Okay, maybe he wasn't reading...but he sure wasn't in his crate, and the crate was still shut as tight as when I left him.  Problem.  He Houdini'd his way out of that crate and that was the end of his crate days.  Luckily he's learned and I can (for the most part) trust them to roam the house during the day.  Well, I learned over the weekend that the magic tricks were not over.  We shut the gate on our deck  while the boy was laying down fertilizer for the grass so the dogs wouldn't trample it.  I walked outside to ask him something and the pups were on the deck.  I walk inside and walked back out about a minute later, and the gate is still closed but Sawyer is running around on the lawn.  How?  Why?  What?  This happened about 5 times throughout the day, without us knowing how it was happening.  We'd walk him back up to the deck and close the gate and then 30 minutes later he was on the lawn again.  He was a regular Sawyer Copperfield. 

Later that afternoon I just happened to look over at the deck while inside mopping the floor just in time to witness Sawyer leap onto the rail and over the steps onto the lawn.  So maybe he's not a magician, but I think we have an Olympic doglete on our hands.  He also wins for brute force...the day we installed the dog door, we put the dogs outside and put the cover on it to keep them outside.  Within 5 minutes, Sawyer had barrelled head-first through the thing and knocked it of the wall.  Yay for us. 

Dang these mutts make me crazy.  The video below is a perfect illustration of what happens for a solid 2 hours every night while I try to relax and accomplish things like this blog post. 

Yeah, that's not distracting or anything.  Oh, and my personal favorite is the one below where Sawyer bears the shame of what he and Jax did while we were at work (fyi...we keep the ottomans on the sofas while we are gone so the dogs stay of the furniture)...

Fortunately for our dogs, even their bad behavior is quickly forgotten because they're so dang cute sometimes.   



 Yes, my boys are presh.  They wear on my last damn nerve (all 3 of them), but they certainly keep it interesting around here :-).

Just for fun...

Since the real madness begins today, I thought these ecards were only
appropriate.

Being a Kentucky gal myself, the NCAA tourney is pretty much a national holiday round here. My bracket is locked and loaded, with a few upsets here and there (except for Kentucky of course).

See y'all in the Final Four!

Whining & Dining

Last weekend the boy and I did something a little out of character for us....we went out to dinner...twice...in one weekend.  That pretty much never happens.  Over the last year, we have been very money conscious.  Who hasn't?  While I have never been a "fast food" person, I can't say the same for the boy.  He loves himself a little drive thru breakfast sandwich and a sweet tea, and he works right next to a Qdoba.  But we really sat down last year, looked at our finances, and made a conscious decision not to spend money eating dinner/lunch out unless it was a planned date night.  Lately however, we have been a little more relaxed and have allowed ourselves a few extra "date nights" in the last couple months.  We worked really hard last year to save money and cut back where we could, and taking time to enjoy that is a wonderful treat for us. 

All that said, I have been so disappointed with some of our restaurant experiences lately.  I thought about this all week and it just made me more and more annoyed every time I think about it. 

Exhibit A:  Friday dinner at "AP Crafters" in Louisville

Friday night, K and I spent the evening at my parents' house in Louisville.  I had appointments there all day, and had spent the late afternoon hunkered down in my parents' basement watching storm coverage and worrying about the boy traveling up later that evening.  Once the weather passed through, my parents went to a friends house for dinner and pretty much left K and me to our own devices for dinner.  Not wanting to make anything, we decided to head up to one of the restaurants nearby to grab a quick bite.  We ended up at AP Crafters in Westport Village after turning down an hour long wait at Mojitos. 

When our waiter greeted us, he asked us what we wanted to drink and then immediately asked if we wanted to start out with some Pretzel Bites.  Ugh...I hate that.  I know it's a common practice at restaurants (or anywhere) to "up-sell" your customer, but it just really annoys me when waiters immediately tell me what I should order.  99% of the time I haven't even looked at the menu yet, and truth be told, we know before we even sit down if it is going to be an "appetizer night" or not.  I know I'm being nit-picky, but it bugs me. 

After we ordered our drinks, we perused the menu.  Slightly disappointed to see that nearly everything on the menu was fried, but that's about what I expected at a "pub" type place like this.  I narrowed my choices down the Fish Tacos and the Salmon.  K quickly narrowed his choice down to the Dixie Diner (aka, the "Heart Attack Special") which consists of fried chicken on country biscuits and mashed potatoes, and covered in bacon gravy.  Ironically enough, it also comes with a coupon for one free visit to a cardiac specialist. When the waiter came back, I asked him what he thought of the fish tacos.  He raved about them and how good they were.  Then I asked him about the Salmon and if he thought it was better.  He raved about the Salmon.  The Salmon is "awesome" too.  I then apologized for asking so many questions about the menu, but that I always ask for the server's opinion when I can't decide because they know the menu so well.  He then admitted to me that he had only been working there about 3 months and hadn't tried hardly anything on the menu.  Ummmm, really?  Because you have now told us how awesome the pretzel bites, dixie diner, salmon, and fish tacos are...call me a cynic, but I find it hard to believe that he had tried any of them after admitting that.  Whatever.  I'll overlook it. 

I ordered the Fish tacos without the ancho aoli mayo, but with a side of the jalapeno salsa that comes with the nachos (for a little spice).  No problem.  I ordered a house salad instead of a side of fries.  No problem.  25 minutes later, my fish tacos were in front of me, but not the salad that I had been assured would be out before the meal.  "Did that salad ever make it out here?" the waiter asked.  "Nope." I said.  He ran back to get it and I looked at the boy like, Well, I don't even need it now that my meal is here!  Regardless, I pushed my tacos aside and waited for the salad while the boy dove in head first to his plate of clogged arteries.  He was in heaven.  I was starving.  I waited another 5 minutes for my salad, and after it came, I picked at it for a few minutes before going to try one of my fish tacos.  Of course, he had forgotten the jalapeno salsa, but he did remember to SMOTHER my tacos in mayo.  Let me be clear on this...I am repulsed by mayonnaise.  Literally.  All of which I explained to our waiter when I was asking him about the ancho aoli sauce.  I picked at my salad for another 5 minutes while I waited for the waiter to re-appear so I could have him fix my order.  When he came back, I explained that there was mayo all over my tacos and that I hadn't gotten the jalapeno salsa I asked for.  His response?  "Well, did you try the tacos with the mayo to see if you liked it?"  Umm...no.  He apologized and took my meal back to fix it while K polished off his meal and then began eating the salad I'd given up on. 



The waiter returned with my corrected meal, and I ate one of the 3 tacos before asking for a to-go box because I was so over it and it was almost 9:30.  We asked for the check so we could settle out and head home.  Now, let me say, I did not ask for the salad to be credited, even though it came out after my meal and I barely ate it, and I did not ask for the repulsive mayo tacos to be credited either.  I did not expect that, nor would I have asked for it.  I was too over it to even care.  What I did not expect was for our waiter to charge us for the ramekin of jalapeno salsa I asked for!  Even though it was only a $0.50 charge, it infuriated me that after all the screw ups with our meal, our waiter had to nickel and dime us at the same time.  That's just bad business.  K and I said nothing...we paid the bill, left a 20% tip and headed home.  When we got in the car, I looked at K and said, "I feel like we would have been better off just setting our money on fire."

Exhibit B: Dinner at Dudley's (on Short) in Lexington


Saturday night, K and I were downtown for a hospitality event with some of my business customers who were going to the Brad Paisley concert.  When the concert began, K and I headed out in search of food downtown, and ended up at Dudley's after a french man sent us away from Table 310 because there was an hour wait for a table.  My brother was meeting up with us, so I ordered a glass of wine and K ordered a Maker's Mark.  Since the boy had helped himself to some of the food at the hospitality event, we were definitely in more of an "appetizer" mood for the evening since neither of us were starving.  When my brother arrived, K and him split a half dozen oysters (gross) and I ordered a starter salad.  After about 45 minutes, my co-worker, Hilary texted and said she was heading over to meet us.  Once she arrived, we chatted it up for a bit, before the waitress came back and asked if we wanted to order anything else.  Let me just say...this girl was really working my nerve.  She kept flitting over and asked if we wanted more drinks when we literally had half-full glasses of wine/bourbon.  While I am sure she was disappointed that we weren't partaking in Filet Mignon, that's not really my problem.  I don't need you to harass me over my drink!  My main problem, however, was the fact that she consistently called me "sweetheart" and "sugar pie" (and not in a sweet, southern way).  This might have been one thing if she had be my mom or grandma's age, but she could not have been a day older than me, and it came off as completely condescending and inappropriate.  It was really annoying me. 

Regardless, we told her we were ready to order.  Hilary got a salad, my brother ordered the crab cake sliders, and I ordered the Pork entree.  When she looked at the boy for his order, he said, "I'm good."  Like I said earlier, he had eaten at the hospitality event and wasn't starving, so he was just going to eat some of my pork.  When she all but rolled her eyes over his decision to not order anything, I chimed in and said, "We ate a little before we got here...he'll probably have some of mine."  She said nothing and left the table. 

When our meal came, I noticed that our waitress had split my pork up and brought out a plate for each of us.  It was very tasty, but I didn't eat a ton of it...after sharing it with everyone at the table, we finished up and called it a night.  We asked for the check and were delighted to see that not only were the boy's Maker's Mark bevvys $10 EACH, our waitress had charged us a $5.00 split entree fee.  Really?????  Since when does, "he's going to eat some of mine" translate to an extra charge.  Maybe we are just not that classy, but I am completely fine with the "grab a fork and dig in method" we usually have when indulging in one another's food. 

Once again, we said nothing and left a 20% tip and headed home. 


Okay, so all that said, let me now say this:  I have worked in many restaurants over the years.  My first job at 16 was washing dishes in the back of a restaurant on Saturday nights.  I have hosted, done carry-out, and been a server.  I get how the restaurant industry works.  I get that our waiter at AP Crafters could have very well put the order in correctly and the kitchen messed it up.  But guess what?  It's your responsibility to make it right.  I don't expect free food or discounted entrees, and I can't remember a time when I have ever requested it, but wouldn't it have been nice if he had offered?  Our experience at AP Crafters would have been completely turned around had our waiter offered dessert on the house (we would have declined) or at least sent the manager over to check on us.  Instead, we left with a horrible taste in our mouth over the whole experience and feeling like we wasted money at that establishment. 

The Dudley's experience was different.  Our waitress was clearly put out that we didn't spend more money at her table and was doing everything to raise our ticket.  The split entree fee was absolutely ridiculous and kind of insulting.  Having worked in many restaurants growing up, it is a rare occasion when I don't tip 20%...it pretty much never happens regardless of the service I get.  However, what I will do is take my business elsewhere the next time I go out.  In today's economy, with people being more and more tight with their money, it is more important than ever to be accommodating to every guest that sits at one of your tables.  For a lot of people, it's a rare occasion to spend their hard earned money on a night out, and things like going out for dinner is a treat.  Even having only ordered a side salad, a glass of wine, 2 makers marks, one entree, and 6 oysters at Dudleys, K and I still spent $150 with tip, and we would expect more than condescension and eye rolling from our server. 

Regardless of the experience we had at these restaurants, let me reiterate that we were nothing but nice throughout our meals.  I don't think you get anywhere (especially at a restaurant) by being a bitch to your server.  It's just so disappointing to spend money somewhere and leave so disappointed, regarless of if it is a 5-star retaurant or the local roadhouse.  We still left a nice tip and said thank you.  But we won't be going back, to either place.

I'm curious...what are your thoughts on going out for dinner?  Was I justified to be annoyed by this?  How do you handle bad service when you go out to eat?

iPhone illiterate


I may be a little "tardy for the party" when it comes to the iPhone....but I have finally given in and gotten one.  Truth be told, I brought it home from work today and thought seriously about not activating it...I have been a tried and true BlackBerry user for over 4 years now, and even though it's a little out of sync with what the rest of the world is doing, I really liked my CrackBerry.  It was familiar and it had a full keyboard.  Plus, after 4 years, it had a LOT of stuff on it...little notes and applications that I use on a daily basis.  Very sad to power that bad boy off and retire it to a junk drawer until I inevitably drop my phone in the toilet and have to re-activate it.

That said, I need some advice on what apps I must have and other little tidbits that will help me and my iPhone become BFF.  We are currently off to a somewhat rocky start ever since I asked Siri if she would plan my wedding for me, and she was all "I don't know what you're talking about."  Clearly she's a bitch.

Anywho...please leave a comment or tweet or whatev and share your favorite apps, tips, tricks, and must-have accessories.  I am currently in the market for a personalized iPhone case (one that does not have rhinestone Hello Kitty on it though)...so give me some recommendations on where I should look.

Much appreciated!!!

An honest look at wedding vows...



A few weeks ago, the boy and I went and saw "The Vow" as an early Valentine's date.  While I wasn't all that impressed with the movie, it did get me thinking about our wedding vows and what kind of route we will end up taking with our vows on our wedding day.  We haven't talked a whole lot about them...whether we will write our own or stick with the traditional vows, but if I could be 100% real with my vows, they may go a little like this:


My dearest K...

I promise to love you all the days of my life, in spite of your morning breath....


I promise to, every so often, use ground beef instead of ground turkey when I make burgers and chili, even though we both know it's healthier my way...

I promise to resist the urge to rip your balls off and put them in that super awesome blender we registered for at Macy's if you continue to take the trash out without replacing the trash bag when you're done...

I promise to only get mad at your for leaving the toilet seat up on the occasions when I actually fall in...


I promise to never wear "mom jeans"...



I promise to always remember your birthday and celebrate the day you were born...

I promise to always make an effort to look nice for you...

I promise to not wear granny panties on date night...

I promise to love you, even if your idea of a "vacation" is a trip to Bass Pro Shop...

I promise that if Brad Pitt shows up at my doorstep, we will just have sex the one time...(the same goes for George Clooney, Jake Gyllenhal, Scott Speedman, Ryan Gosling, Channing Tatum, Robert Pattinson, and any other actor/singer/athlete of the yummy goodness persuasion)...


I promise to always apologize when I'm wrong...if that ever actually happens....


I promise to not kill you in your sleep, even if you continue to ignore my requests to get the half-dead aloe plant out of our living room...

I promise to always make a place for the things that are important to you in our home, even if they're ugly and they don't go with any of our stuff...

I promise to buy mayonnaise at the grocery when we run out, even though you know it repulses me...

I promise to always kiss you when you come home from work, even if I'm tired and annoyed and you had a tuna sandwich for lunch...


I promise to work on being patient...not just with you, but in all aspects of my life...

I promise to always love your "happy-go-lucky" nature, and to try to let it rub off on my every once in a while....

I promise to encourage you, build you up, support you, and reassure you in your moments of doubt...

I promise to always make our marriage my number one priority, even though work, kids, money, etc will make every effort to take it's place at the top of that list...

I promise not to make you watch the Harry Potter marathon every time it comes on ABC Family....


I promise to let you fill our DVR up with Nascar, even though I think it's a completely pointless sport...

I promise to pick my battles and remember that we're still learning about each other every day...

I promise to always be your best friend...

I promise that even if you get mauled by a wild bear and you lose your arms and legs, and your nose is where you mouth should be and your ears are your eyes, I will still think you are my handsome sexy man...

I promise to be understanding when you don't always say the right thing, because I know what's in your heart doesn't always come out in your words...

I promise not to withhold sex to get my way...(maybe)...


I promise to never wear white stretch pants, because they're weird and they don't look good on anyone...

I promise to take care of you when you're sick...

I promise to do the laundry if you do the dishes...

I promise no matter what life throws at us, I will always think of our life together, and remember that I am blessed...