Weekend Report

Babies and booze and selfie practice sum this weekend pretty nicely.

Friday night we ordered pizza, opened a good bottle of wine and watched a few recorded episodes of Anthony Bourdain's Layover - which is one of the few shows that Joel and I both really enjoy. 

The other thing I worked on was getting used to my new glasses. I ordered new prescription glasses from Warby Parker and it's taken me almost a full week to be able to wear them for more than 30 minutes.

 

I only wear my glasses at night or on the weekends, but I'm going to try and rock them a little more often. 

Saturday morning I took the hardest yoga class I've ever taken and got totally sold by the girls at CorePower. They talked me into buying an unlimited package for this month, so I'm going to try and get to yoga at least twice every week. 

After errands we had a very special guest join us for our Saturday night activities.

My girlfriend Shelby needed a sitter, so Joel and I spent our evening with Tucker. He was so good, and it was really fun to have a little baby hang out with us for the entire night. It's also an interesting peek to see how Roscoe will do with a baby one day. 

 

 

 Roscoe has met Tucker many times before, but this was the longest one on one time they've had together. Roscoe is very protective and didn't leave Tucker's side for long - even watched him from the window when Joel was grilling.

And, not that I'm surprised, but Joel was so sweet with Tucker - and he was actually excited by my offer to babysit! 

There really isn't anything better than watching your husband with babies. 

Joel and I are still enjoying being selfish with our lives, but it was fun to play pretend parents for the night. And Tucker makes for a very adorable selfie accessory.

 

As soon as Tucker left, Joel and I made Moscow Mules to celebrate being good babysitters - and not having babies of our own. 

To solidify that we are truly in baby season with our friends and family - Sunday we had a couple's baby shower for my cousin Cole and his wife Brianna. 

 

I wore a new silk Madewell dress but I felt bad wearing black to a baby shower. Is that a major faux paus? 

Cole and Brianna are expecting their first baby on October 24th -the same due date as my sister-in-law Corie, so October is going to be one for the books around here!

The shower was book themed, and the hosts did a great job incorporating fun book-y games to keep everyone involved.

 

  

When we got home, we took it very easy (pretty sure I clocked 2,000 steps on my Fitbit...whoops), had a little wine and got ready for the week ahead.  

We don't have a lot planned besides a little tennis (and now yoga), dinner with friends, and time at the office. 

Here's to a happy week!

The last week

We've had 3 non-stop weeks of fun crazy - and when my schedule changes, I find it hard to fit in time for blogging. After my trip to Chicago, we spent the weekend down in San Diego, and then this week we had Joel's parents staying with us.

Their flight was a little delayed on Thursday, but it gave me a chance to grab a mani/pedi with my girlfriend Shelby and have an outside happy hour, while she had a babysitter.



Summer isn't my favorite time of year, but I'm really trying to soak it up as much as I can. Chardonney with frozen grapes and full blooming bougainvilleas are a few of my favorite summer items.

When they got in on Thursday, we had homemade pizzas and stayed up way later than we should of catching up.

Friday morning I went into the office, and then took off the afternoon to spend with them. We had lunch with Joel near his office, and then I took his parents to LACMA (LA county muesum of art). It was the first time I had been to the museum and I really enjoyed it.

Picasso

Every Friday night they have a jazz concert outside of the muesum which is free, so we sat in their bar and had a drink while the musicians warmed up for their show which was an awesome bonus.

Making it back to one of the concerts has been added to my summer bucket list. 

We got home and freshened up - and Roscoe and I decided to match - and then took them to one of our favorite spots for dinner in Santa Monica, The Hungry Cat.

We started oysters and cheese to start - which is always my favorite treat - and then had a really great meal.

 

  

On Saturday we did a day trip up to Santa Barbara. The weather was perfect and we all got a little of what we wanted; walks on the water, wine shops, and yummy food.

That night we ordered Chinese food and made it to bed pretty early after our full day adventure.

On Sunday, after the world cup, Joel's brother Andrew and Corie drove up to LA. We had a big family dinner; homemade salmon burgers, corn salad, quinoa salad, AND S'mores, and just hung out as a big group.

I'm sad to say that I didn't catch any pictures, but the more fun I'm having, the less pictures I'm taking ;)

Sunday morning my sis-in-law Corie, who is has turned into a great great friend, came in to cuddle and Roscoe decided to get to know his soon-to-be cousin.

We had such a great week, but I'm really in need for our pace to slow down a bit. It's been a lot these past few weeks and I can feel it catching up to me, my waistline, and my bank account!

Friday 5

With the weather being so unseasonably hot, it's hard not to feel like summer has arrived here in LA. The birds are chirping, the summer smells have arrived, and it's way too hot to wear jeans. It's throwing my mind for a major loop, but I'm trying to live like I would if I were vacationing here, and what better way than dining al fresco?

If you're local to LA, Napa Valley Grille in Westwood has the best kale salad ever.

I'm also really trying to #lovewhereyoulive. I had started trying to convince Joel that we should move, and when he asked why, I really couldn't think of a reason. We live ten minutes from the cutest town, I just sometimes forget that it's there and that I can walk to it! I've walked down twice this week and once to visit the farmers market (see? It's adorable!) and I'm looking at it with such fresh perspective.

With all of the hot weather in LA we had a pretty scary forest fire. We live far from the mountains, but on my run yesterday the sky was milky brown and I could actually taste the soot and debris.

Today is Roscoe's 2nd birthday! Roscoe brings so much joy to our lives, I honestly don't know what we would do without him - or what the hell we talked about before him! He is such a loving member of our family and our lives are much richer with him in it. We got very, very lucky just two years ago.



The weekend is starting a little early today with some girlfriends and margs at my favorite Mexican restaurant in Santa Monica, El Cholo. The rest of the weekend is slated to be pretty low-key. I've got SoulCycle and a hike planned, and that's pretty much it. See ya Monday!

And holy shit, this quote really hits home.

First Class Puppy

When I go home next Tuesday I will be taking my little puppy Roscoe along for the ride. This will be his first time flying, and my first time flying with a pet - so I thought I'd see if any of you have some advice for our little adventure.

We are flying Virgin America on a 3.5 hour flight from LA to Chicago and my girlfriend is letting us borrow her Sherpa dog carrier so that Roscoe will have a nice cozy seat for the flight. I'm planning on giving him 9mg of Benadryll (which was reccomended by the vet) and a few bones for him too but what else do you think I will need to make this a seamless trip?

Have you ever flown with your pet before? How did it go?

Unsolicited Advice

Ever since bringing Roscoe into our lives we've started talking to about 36x more strangers. Everyone loves to stop and pet him, hold him, and gawk at him. And lord knows I can't blame them!

However, with all of these new faces, lots of new opinions have been thrown our way. And, quite honestly, it's getting really annoying.

For example, this morning as I took Roscoe for an hour walk/run, a lady screamed at us from across the road and said, "you're basically dragging him". I said, "Oh I know, he hates walks".....and then proceeded to tell me that I'm using the wrong collar and leash.

Ya, lady? Nobody asked you.

I had a guy a few days ago pull over his car and strike up a conversation about our little furball.. Seemingly sweet, until he started to scold me on the fact that we started puppy school too early for Roscoe. "He is not going to retain anything, you really should have waited until he was 6 months".

Ya, buddy? Nobody asked you.

Unless you see me strapping my dog to the roof of my car and driving 150 mph throughout the neighborhood, you should probably just stick to petting the dog and exchanging formalities.

mid week cuties

 

Swoon.

Life with a Puppy

Almost instantly little Roscoe had both Joel and I wrapped around his puffy paws. And while he warms up to his new house and surrondings, Joel and I are trying to understand how to be parents to a puppy. We're trying to get him on a schedule, and so far it has been too bad.

We're trying to push for him to sleep at least 7 hours straight without having to get up or howl, and last night was almost an A+. Joel took him outside one last time at 10:45, and then  put him in his crate. After 5 minutes of howling, he fell asleep until 5:45am when he woke us up with some of his whining. His second night home he peed in his crate. The vet recommended we put up a puppy wall and pull away his water bowl at 6, so that may have helped him as well.

As soon as we get outside, he will always pee - and if he is going to go #2....it'll be within the first 10 minutes of being outside. He's only had a handful of accidents in the house, but he needs to be let out every 2 hours if possible.

He's very happy with bones and squeaky toys, and really doesn't like to be out of my sight for too long. For this week, I'll be home with him all day everyday, but next week when I start work, things are going to get a bit more interesting. We are interviewing dog walkers today (....which is weird), but we are hoping to only need their services twice a week at most, since their going rate out here is $25....for a half hour!

We're pretty clueless, so if you have any tricks of the trade, or good ideas for a new puppy we would really appreciate it!

Big!

Long weekends always have a way of making me long for a detoxing and relaxing Monday - and this one especially has gotten the best of me!

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Since Joel was off for Good Friday, we drove down to San Diego to visit with his brother Andrew and fiance Corie. They gave us such a great tour of their city - and I really liked the mini downtown's that San Diego has to offer. After Good Friday mass we had happy hour in old town, walked in mission city, and had dinner in little Italy. It was so nice to spend a full day with family.

Then...on our way home from San Diego...things got a little crazy.

To fill you in - when Joel got the job out here in California, I told him that if I moved across the country, I really wanted to get a puppy. You can read a little bit about it here as well. We only looked at apartments that allowed dogs, and the apartment we finally settled in allowed dogs with "management approval". So, about 4 weeks ago, we submitted a request to bring home a cockapoo. We had to agree on a breed, and since they are a good size, non-shedding, friendly dog, we figured we couldn't go wrong. On Friday, we spoke to our management company and they told us that we could go ahead with a cockapoo - music to my ears!

I had been in touch with a family in Long Beach (1/2 way between San Diego and Los Angeles) and I asked them if we could meet their puppy Saturday afternoon. When we got there, we instantly fell in love with their dog "popcorn", and scooped him and took him to our house within ten minutes.

We made a pitstop at Petco and our lives have been forever changed.

 

We feel like 1st time parents, and are still trying to figure out how the heck we're going to do this - but look at his face! It's hard not to be in love with our new puppy Roscoe (which was the street we lived on in Chicago).

Plus, even though we got this new puppy, we still had to host Easter! We had 12 people over, and it took quite a bit of prep work but it was such a success.

I was pretty bad about having my camera out, but here are a few of the shots I was able to take.

The casserole and loaves of bread were absolutely delicious. Both recipes are found here.

 

It was quite the weekend, and needless to say, I'm exhausted.....but Roscoe sure is not!