Sadie and her dogs

Tonight Sadie started asking me to take her to this store. She has never, I mean never, asked me to take her to a store. She didn't know the name of it, but said there were lots of pretend cats and dogs there and she went with Grammy last week. She said it was the best store ever. I asked her where it was and she said it was near the juice store and near the mall, but not in the mall. I said, "Let me text Grammy and ask." In the meantime I asked her if we were to drive around and she saw the store would she recognize it and she said, "yes." So in the car we went. The only guess I had was that it could be this store called, A Boy and his Dog, that is a children's clothing shop/toy store. I had liked their facebook page but had not yet had a chance to make it in. When we pulled in the parking lot I asked her each store, "Is this is? Is this it?" To each one she responded, "no." We pulled up to A Boy and his Dog and I asked the same question. She got soooo excited and screamed, "YES, This is the store!!!!" It was about 5 minutes after 6 pm. Being that it is a local store, I had a feeling it might have just closed. Sure enough, we walked up and they had closed at 6. Sadie was heartbroken. She cried and cried and showed me things in the windows. The shop owner, Stacy, happened to be inside and saw us. She was kind enough to come to the door and let us in. She remembered Sadie from being in there on Friday. She shared with me how she let her play with all the animals and what a great time she had. I can't remember the last time I received such amazing customer service! Sadie is now the proud owner of 3 puppies that came with a bed, grooming kit, a bowl, a toy, and a book about caring for your dogs. She had some seriously cute things in there! It would be a great place for me to shop for photo props and baby gifts. I always like to support local business first, and I will definitely be back!
In other news, Sadie has agreed to clean out some of her toys since she got several new ones. :)

Here is a cell photo of Sadie with her new puppies (plus a Pink Pluto)

Honoring the Sabbath

Last night on my way home from the airport I was scanning the stations and stopped on a Christian station. Now while it is not uncommon for me to listen to Christian music, it is very rare for me to listen to a radio sermon. I'll be honest, I usually find them incredibly boring. I truly believe that God places things in your life and that there are no accidents, so when I actually stopped to listen and enjoyed the message, I knew it was no accident. I have no idea of the pastor's name, but he spoke about the craziness of life, and how the Sabbath is actually a gift from God to us. He spoke about the need to really take one day and truly relax. In my last blog I talked about how crazy things have been, and if you read between the lines, we aren't exactly honoring the sabbath. I'm not sure how to fix that at the moment. There isn't one single day that we simply relax. As I write this, Adam has been gone since 7 this morning studying, and I imagine he will be gone until dinner at the earliest. I just got back from Jamaica late last night, and while that sounds relaxing, I'm exhausted. It was a very fast trip for work, and of course I come home and know I have a million and one things to do. I've already got laundry going, found that Sadie decided her bathroom counter was a good place for her shoes, so I cleaned her entire bathroom, cleaned the kitchen which was a mess, reorganized the pantry, went shopping for Father's Day, all while playing with Sadie in between. So the question is, how do I honor the Sabbath? Do I just put everything on the back burner for the day? The pastor said that he actually "unplugs" on his sabbath day, which happens to be Fridays. I typically work 7 days a week between my business and day job, so do I just start saying "no" to things and even taking a day off editing and cleaning? I'm trying to relax today, but obviously having a hard time. These are rhetorical questions, but ones that I do need to figure out a way to find a little more balance and peace in our lives. 

"I don't know how she does it"

Lately I feel like Sarah Jessica Parker in the movie, "I don't know how she does it." I really do. I think Adam feels like that too. Adam works full time 45 minutes away and is also going to school to be a mechanical engineer. I am beyond proud of him. He just finished Cal 3 with an A, and has just started physics. It is a one month course, so is a lot of work. He is getting up at 5 and heading to work and then going to class from 1-5:40 every day. The class is grueling so he needs to spend a lot of time studying as well, which means a lot of time away from Sadie and me. Right now it is 10:45 and he is still gone studying. It's a very hard time of life. I would give anything for him to be able to go to school full time and be done in 2 years. As it stands right now, we don't know how long he has left. I HATE it when people ask me how long he has left. When you can only take one class at a time, maybe two, we are looking at 12 years if he can't get on with the co-op program through BP or another oil company. I am sure he will, but I really hope it happens sooner rather than later.
The sacrifices that he makes extend to Sadie and me as well, in that we don't see him much. Not many people know, but I have a full time day job in addition to running my photography business. Yep, I finally said it-I work. I have this fear that if my photo clients knew that I work that I won't have time for them, so I have kept it very quiet. I am a banker by day. I really like what I do, and feel like I make a huge contribution to our family by doing so. It's definitely wearing on me though doing both. I work 40 hours during the week and shoot basically every weekend, and in summer on weeknights after work many nights. I try to squeeze in a workout each day and spend time with Adam and Sadie. I also like to have a clean house. I truly don't know how I do it all.
To give you an example of a day in the life....today up at 5:30 when Adam was leaving, back to sleep until 7, lay with Sadie to wake her up, feed her breakfast, pack lunches, get her to school, get to work, get on conference call, fill in at my old office until 4, drive to my main office and work until 6:30...get home around 7 and run on the treadmill while Adam cooks dinner, eat dinner, Adam leaves to go back to school while I take Sadie swimming, showers for both of us, Sadie bedtime routine of brush teeth, Nasonex, story, cuddle, say "goodnight and I will be back to check on you..." head out to kitchen, do dishes, wipe counters, go back to check on Sadie, then finally sit down for Marissa time, and Adam is still gone....
While I will always always always remember the important words my dad said to me, "don't wish your years away," at the same time, I can't wait for this season of life to pass. I am ready to spend time with my husband again without us being passing ships and rarely seeing one another.