Dogs, Beach, Friends, and Doggy Friends

Today we went the dog beach with a bunch of friends for "Teach Scout to Swim." Scout is our newest doggy friend. Adam and Stephanie Thompson got Scout not too long ago and he is a SWEETIE!

We also went with Luke and Allison and of course Sawyer and Kona who are beach pros. We loved watching Kona and Sawyer just dive into the water after toys! They are such good little swimmers! Ok not little....

Our pups.....

Well they have recently been introduced to pools and swimming so the gulf was another crazy adventure for this week. They did pretty well. Joey did walk all they way in by himself and swim out to me by the end but poor little Lola looked like she was having a panic attack every time she was in the water. We loved the beach with the dogs and can't wait to go again! I think we've found our new favorite thing to do on the weekends! The dogs are tired, we gave them baths there so they are clean, and we are worn out too. It's been a GREAT Saturday!

PSA: For those of you who know Winston just wanted to let y'all know we found out he had cancer this week and Mom decided to put him down. Yesterday was a tough day for our family but we're doing better today. We loved Winnie and he was the one who started all this puppy love in our family.

-lp

Favorite Things

I may have many favorite things. Probably too many to list in a song as Julie Andrews so poetically does. I don't often list products or items that I adore on my blog but if I find something I love I figure why not share it.

So here is a favorite thing of mine.


It is from Bath & Body Works. MK bought me some for Christmas in their clean linen scent which if you know anything about me is right up my alley. This week I decided to branch out and tried Orange Sapphire. So nice and springy and refreshing. Makes your skin so smooth and will help with those unsightly calloused heels that us Florida girls get from too much time in flip flops. They did have a deal on them this week too. Can't remember exactly what it was but you had a buy a couple of them to the deal.
So if you're inclined enjoy one! It made me feel better on a manic Monday.

-lp

Distraction, Veggies, and the Effects of Marriage on Diets....

I am in need a of a distraction from staring a food, recipes and training materials this morning or afternoon whichever it is and....
This one has lost his crazy mind today


And has therefore influenced this one to be just as crazy....

So here are my thoughts lately on food.
Monday I went grocery shopping. While shopping for the necessities I had a hard time figuring out which protein (specifically chicken, pork and turkey) sounded good to me and which ones I would want to cook with this week.

Alternately while in the perusing the produce, veggies, and nuts I had to make myself stop from putting items into my cart. The fresh fruits, decadent berries, tasty leafy greens and delicious roasted almonds were just so appealing to me.

Monday and Tuesday MK wasn't really around so I cooked and ate whatever looked good to me at the time. By Wednesday night when I contemplating dinner I realized it had been since Sunday since I had had protein from a meat source and the lack of meat didn't bother me.

All this made me wonder......
Would I be an vegetarian inadvertently due to my own food preferences and not convictions (cause let's be honest I do not have personal issues with eating animals) if I were still single at this point in life and not married to MK who is very much a carnivore?

It is quite interesting to consider how the person you are married to influences every single part of your life including which foods you choose to eat even if those items may or may not be a personal preference. Now understand that I don't have an issue with this influence, I just think it's interesting to think about.

- carnivorous lp

p.s. Alternatively Doritos were Buy One Get One (BOGO for Payless fans) and I'm weak. I do love Doritos! Don't judge.

Anxiety, drugs, bangs, and groceries

Ever feel like you need to go to the grocery store and then when you sit down to make your list and go through your coupons and look for deals you just feel like I don't know if I really want to eat any of that stuff? Or what on earth can I make for dinner off of this list....nothing?!??

Anxiety is no good. Life seems unsettled and as it gets unsettled I get to doing things. Laundry at amazing speeds, cleaning like I've got the queen of England coming to stay with me, drastic decisions like to have Jenny give me bangs and dye my hair super dark.

MK suggested I take a Xanax...I don't think I'm to that point..............


yet.

So here I sit with a grocery list of necessities that can't make weeks worth of dinners. The grocery store does not sound inviting on this monday COFFEE-LESS morning. YUP! We were out of coffee too!

There is a trip to the gym that has to fit in somewhere too along with our weekly group meeting tonight. I suppose I should get off the computer and do what I need to do then.

Before I do that though...

When was the last time you had bangs? Mine would be probably around 9th grade in the middle of my ever so long awkward stage. Welp I may have stepped back into it because as mentioned before in ever drastic move to be in control I had Jenny change my hair.So there you have it
bangs.
And here I go...groceries. Blah.

-lp

Positive Attitude, Trust and Enchiladas

So I've been faced with difficult situations lately and am working through them but man is it hard to have a good attitude.

Sometimes it's even harder to trust that situations will work out for the best in the end (especially when you're a control freak posing as a go with flow kinda girl)! ;-)

Moving forward with your life into all kinds of uncertainty effects that attitude and trust. It's hard to concentrate on the important things and just give it up to God sometimes.

So in the midst of all this uncertainty and uneasy feelings and trust and out of control feelings I decided that MK and I would really enjoy some homemade Enchiladas and Taco Soup, it was Cinco de Mayo after all!

The recipe for enchiladas was given to me years ago and I have made that recipe on occasion but it got eaten somewhere between me "organizing" and the junk drawer. So I made the recipe up as I perused the aisles of Publix. I think they turned out quite well! I would give the recipe however since they were made up I only know the ingredients and not how much of each item was used. That's generally how I cook anyways...poor MK is always having to try my inventions. Lucky for me isn't all that picky and eats most everything.

The Taco Soup however was a recipe I followed and was quite possibly the easiest/quickest soup I've ever made! It was a recipe I've had since the we got married given to by a lady from church.

All in all it was a grand fiesta! Afterwards we went to church and went to bed earlier. We are wild and crazy I know!

-Senora LP

I'm on a boat!

Well....we were on a boat!

Last week MK and I took a 7 day cruise down to St. Thomas and St. Maarten! We had so much fun! It was a 7 day cruise and we really relaxed! We spent a lot of time sleeping, soaking in the sun, and chowing down!

We were so ready for the vacay! Our work schedules keep us running around like chickens with our heads cut off so to actually step on to the boat and be able to say there is no way I can answer my phone or email was exactly what we needed! We really did sleep a lot! I didn't know how tired I was!

St. Thomas and St. Maarten were both breathtakingly beautiful! The water, sky, trees, flowers, people were just beautiful!

St. Thomas we window shopped some, had a snack and at small local restaurant and then headed over to Magen's Bay! It is the most beautiful beach I've ever been to! It was so relaxing and the water we so calm I could have stayed there all day!

St. Maarten we shopped a little for souvenirs and then were told that Orient Bay was the best place beach to go. Granted the water was beautiful and when you could find an open bit of sand it was beautiful as well HOWEVER Orient Bay is on the French Side of the island....use your imagination....we saw some sights we were NOT expecting. YIKES! All I can say is if you're ever there head left do NOT go to the right near the "resort!"

We had a lot of fun on our ship too! There was so much to do and so much good food to eat and great shows to see. I think Matt developed a man crush on our cruise director Allen he was amazing and incredibly hilarious! Every time we saw him he had us cracking up!

I love vacations and I am so thankful that we are blessed enough at this point in our lives to take these wonderful vacations. I am also thankful that MK and I can spend a week together on boat in a tiny cabin and come back more in love than we were when we left. I'm such a lucky girl, he's the best!

- tan (for now) lp

Easter

Here are some cute pictures from our Easter with our little niece Claire.

She was so adorable and loved hunting for eggs. I don't know what she will do if there is ever another child in our family and she is forced to share the attention with another baby!

We dyed eggs and colored eggs with markers compliments of Mom aka Grandmere aka meremere.

She was just too adorable that for me to handle with her hair pulled up in a pony tail and her watermelon shirt and easter basket! I could just eat her up...ok not really but she is just so cute. I'm not a biased aunt or anything...

I have to say though I'm not the only one in the family who is obsessed with her. Being the only grandchild she is pretty much the center of EVERYONE'S attention as I'm sure you can tell.

- overly loving aunt lp