A lot of tears today...

as we had to say "good bye" to our beloved Juneau at 4am this morning. The eldest fur-baby in our family, he was a great dog. He'd great you with rabbles, stare up at you with his blue eyes and you knew he wanted love. His fear of hard-wood floors would make him rabble louder if you didn't pet him right as you walked through the door. While he was a "big" dog, he was all fluff. He was a softie to the core - loved other dogs, children and people so much.

At 11 years and 2 months old, he didn't live as long as we had hoped. He left this world abruptly, but the last faces and voices he heard were of my and my husbands.

We are so heartbroken. Devastated by this loss. But we know we were lucky to have him as long as we did. To be blessed by his presence. His smiling face. He made life better and for that we are grateful.  And while he did not get to meet his little sibling in person, the rabbles will always be familiar to our little FryBean b/c its a sound s/he heard daily for 32 weeks.

We love you Juneau. May you rest in peace and know that your daddy, mommy, little brother Kota and little sibling will always remember how you brightened our day with a simple wag of your tail!

We miss you already... rest in peace our beloved friend!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Things I am thankful for:

• My Husband. He does so much for me and our family - things many men won't do, but he always does it "to make me happy" he says. That speaks volumes to me.
• Our Baby. S/He will be arriving soon and we are so thankful for this privilege to add another person into our family.
• My family. I have the best family and family in law and am blessed to be so loved and cared for.
• My friends. From all over - i have some pretty awesome friends.
• My pups. The loves of my life
• My Health.
• Our lives. The Husband and I are so blessed in so many ways and while we can moan and groan about things, we know how fortunate we are. Not just on days like Thanksgiving, but on all other days - its always nice to stop and think "i'm pretty damned lucky!"

pics on Sodahead

What are you thankful for this year?

Storkie Invitations: Gift Buggie

I recently had my DC Baby shower which was full of fun, good food and great friends. And I already shared with you the CA baby shower invitations, so i wanted to share the DC one with you because, well because they were just sooooo superbly cute.

My two girlfriends threw the shower, so they also picked the invites - and i totally loved it...

Gift Buggie invitations from Storkie.com

Super cute right? Green since we don't know the gender and the stroller is blinged out with rhinestones.  I love the Asian eyes and the side swept hair too...

I love how you can have anything customized on the Storkie website. From background colors to rhinestone bling, hairstyles and outfits...

And of course cute invites, totally set the tone for the shower... :)

Check out my baby blog: Fry, the Baby to read more about the Baby shower!

Is it Engagement Season Already?

In the last month, I've had some close friends pop the question to their lovely ladies... And i realized, Wedding season is coming to a close and that means Engagement season is upon us...

Wondering if anybody has some great ideas for proposal ideas out there they want to share? Or their own engagement story they want to share?

Engagement stories always makes me happy and will help put a smile on this mid-week chilly Day in DC !!!

Bloggers helping Friends

So I love my fellow bloggers and any chance I can get, I love to help them out... one of my fave bloggers and someone who has become a close Blog-Friend needs our help, so i'm asking all my readers, if you can help her and her husband out, that'd be great.

Jessica at From Marriage to Motherhood needs our help and 2 minutes of your time. All you have to do is this... (As seen on Jessica's own blog linked above)

and today is the last day to vote.

so vote Now.

Go Here: http://challenge.gov/challenges/202/submissions/4577-job-compass and vote for this App.

*When you hit the "vote" button, a pop up will come up {see image below} and you can simply vote by logging in to your Facebook Account - or you can sign up for a challenge.gov account but you will need to confirm your email in order for the vote to count!

So help out a great blogger and friend, by taking a sec to vote!!!  Much love and appreciation!

Storkie Invitations: Dress Up Mama

The first weekend of October, we were fortunately to celebrate our baby at our Baby Shower in California. Since we are a bi-coastal family, it was great that we could celebrate this special occasion with our family and friends in CA.

Of course the first thing done for the shower was the invitations and luckily a VERY good friend of mine picked out some great invitations from Storkie.com.

As you know, I'm a HUGE fan of Storkie.com for all sorts of invitations, but the customization feature just makes it sooooo much fun.

Here is the invite my friend picked out for the shower.

Because we aren't finding out the baby's gender ahead of time, she picked green. Of course because my favorite color is yellow, the yellow balloons! I loved every detail she picked out and absolutely loved my invitations!

Since I've used the storkie.com site many times before, It was also nice to see what my friend had to say about navigating one of my favorite invitation sites.

Aside from telling me how easy the site was to use, the customization was very simple and fun. From customizing background colors, fonts and style- the site also lets you customize clothes, skin colors, hair color and so much more.  And of course for us yellow peeps, we love the Asian Eye customization feature. And of the ones she really loved -  yoga mommy, dress-up mama and rock on baby - she picked Dress us Mama for me after much deliberation.

Aren't my invitations the cutest? Definitely check out Storkie.com for any invitation or paper need, you won't be disappointed.

If you want to read more about the baby shower, posts to come on my baby blog - Fry, The Baby Blog.

2011 Engagement & Jewelry Study

from TheKnot.com & WeddingChannel.com

Some big trends for the year?
-          Majority of Grooms’ Ring Selection Not Affected by the Economy.
Only 14% of grooms claimed to have downsized the engagement ring due to the economic climate. In fact, one in four grooms spent more than he originally budgeted.
-          Customization Is Key.
Whether they completely designed the ring on their own with a jeweler or made custom changes to an existing design, approximately two out of five grooms (41%) are choosing to add personal elements to the engagement ring.
-          Alternative Metals Increasingly Popular for Grooms.
Although white gold is still the most popular wedding band metal, with approximately one in three grooms (34%) choosing it, alternative metals are becoming increasingly popular. In 2011, 27% of grooms chose tungsten (up from 19% for grooms married in 2008) and 16% chose titanium (up from 13% for grooms married in 2008).
-          Tradition Is Making a Comeback.
The majority of grooms are taking tradition to heart when they propose. In fact, 77% of grooms proposed on bended knee (compared with 70% in 2009) and 71% asked the bride’s parents for permission (compared with 62% of grooms engaged in 2008) before popping the question.
-          Proposals are Becoming More Public.
While a proposal’s always a private moment, they’re increasingly becoming more public affairs. In 2009, 68% of grooms proposed privately, while that number dropped to just over half (57%) in 2011. Perhaps that’s why 43% of grooms meticulously planned the proposal down to the last detail and only 10% of grooms “winged” it.
-          Man-gagement Rings Are the New Trend.
Brides aren’t the only ones with engagement rings these days. Grooms are now opting to wear “man-gagement” rings; 5% of grooms wear an engagement ring along with the bride.

Law school for Wedding Professionals

A friend of mine posted this on my FB wall and I thought it was something worth sharing... especially since I have a lot of friends in the blogosphere who are Wedding professionals... check this out.

For more info go to Bridal Bubbly !