Puppies!!!

Puppy Bowl is maybe the most adorable thing in the world and it airs this Sunday beginning at 3 pm. In case you are not familiar with the concept, 20 little rescue pups are put on a little fake football field with toy footballs and rope toys and they play. They play with each other, the run around, they roll and tumble with each other and it's precious. Like make me giggle with delight precious!

As special bonus for me, a member of the starting lineup looks just like my man Mick did when he was a pup. Oh the memories. Here he is, Carson of the Puppy Bowl, in all his preciousness.
Is that a little lump you could just squeeze or what?

And here's what they grow up to be:
Like how he has himself wrapped around that pole? He's an expert at that, but what can I say, he's mine.

Here are some of my other favs in the starting line-up. All adorable and all up for adoption.




Which leads us to my plug for pet adoption. If you are considering getting a pet, please consider adoption. While I have friends who have gotten lovely pets from breeders, there is something intangibly grateful about an animal rescued from a shelter. They know that you saved them, and they're so, so loving in return.

And don't forget to check out the Puppy Bowl this Super Bowl Sunday at 3 pm on Animal Planet. It'll be all the cuteness you can stand.

My destination wishlist

From my last trip to PEI. The bay at Sunset.

A couple of weeks ago I had a dream that I was travelling with a big group of friends (which I luuuv) to do. Anyway, we were all in an airport waiting for plane and discussing our trip. Our imaginary voyage was going to take us somewhere (can't remember the end destination), but we were to have a 24 hours stopover in Dubai. And in my dream I was ecstatic about the opportunity to visit this place. But why?

Why Dubai? No idea. When I woke up I started thinking about it. Do I want to go to Dubai? I know virtually nothing about it. Michael Jackson posted up there, tallest building in the world, recent real estate boom, beaches, near some body of water (no idea which one).

This all has a point, I promise. So the sudden, subconscious urge to visit Dubai symptomatic of something else? A need to visit something so foreign, so different from my own life? The thrill of the entering a land full of the complete unknown is one of life's greatest pleasures to me, but Dubai? So I chalked the dream up to being, well, a dream, and started making a travel list for this year.

2010's travel list is much different than my lifetime travel list which could go on and on. I basically want to go everywhere. This list is an effort to set attainable travel goals for the year and being realistic about it. I have a life goal that I will try to visit a foreign country every year, preferably a new one. But if it's been over 10 years since I visited, I think it still counts.

So here goes:
1. Visit California. I have never been to the West Coast of the country at all.
2. Go back to France. I intend to start grad school in the near future (I'm shooting for August) and need to get my French-brain working in high gear.
3. Colorado. I can't believe I've never been! Not a single person I have ever spoken to about visiting Colorado has anything negative to say. It's high time me and hubs make it there.
4. Further explore NYC. We are three hours away, and I can't move out of PA without a couple more trips to NYC. That city has so, so much to offer and I want to see as much of as I can. But in a cool, look like a local-way. Not in a "follow your tour guide who happens to be dressed up like Lady Liberty" sort of way.
5. Stay in an inn in Connecticut/Vermont. I think it's from watching "White Christmas" with Bing Crosby and Rosemary Clooney a few too many times, but I want to spend a weekend in a cozy inn by a fireplace with my man. Sounds fantastic. And while I'm in CT, we will hit New Haven. Gotta have a steamed burger.
6. Visit our dear friends in Canada again. They've made their home on Prince Edward Island and it is so lovely! So quaint, with friendly people and amazing lobster, and of course great company. I truly hope that we can visit again and this time I can take my husband along.
7. And of course.. home. Go to Nashville, see my family, hug my nieces and nephews, laugh with my sisters, brothers-in-law and my parents. Lounge in my house and sleep like a baby, where it is so quiet and dark and peaceful. Ahhh... home.

And, I think that about wraps 2010. The list is quite an undertaking! But, I am a travel junkie and just writing it made me want to pull out my camping equipment, throw Mick (dog) in the car, steal Tyler from work and hit the road!

Do you make travel goals? I am a list-maker, so I make them for just about anything. Are you a bit anal retentive like me? Or do travel by the seat of your pants? Do tell :)

Then and Now

It's the end of a year and I was sitting in ze cube thinking about how much things have changed for me since last year at this time.

Last year I was working at a restaurant job that I didn't like (however with several co-workers that I love and still see) while I searched frantically for work back home in Tennessee and locally in PA.

I was pretty unhappy with living here in PA and craved the South so much I couldn't listen to country music without getting teary. How pathetic is that?

My husband and I were both waiting on pins and needles to hear about a possible major job change for him. And we were basically trying to hate everything about where we live because it's not a place we would choose to be. We were desperately clawing to be back where we were comfortable; especially me. I wanted to be back in TN, where I'd had a job that was really challenging, but had a lot of potential. Where I know people and had a lot of friends, where I felt successful. Where my family was closer to me. In short, I was making my and hub's life miserable.

I guess time made things easier for me. We moved to a place that felt more like home than an overpriced, extended stay hotel. The weather warmed, I got a new job with a better schedule, I got out and joined a new yoga studio, we found a church we both like. In short we started actively trying to enjoy ourselves!

Taking a daily walk through the historic downtown area (when weather permitted) was one of my favorite things to do this Summer and it led us to explore our area a bit more. That helped us find some places that would become our favorites. We reached out and made some friends and tried some new things. We did our fair share of travelling (which anyone who knows me knows my destination list is pretty long) and I'm excited for 2010's adventures! I came to see that the job I left behind was not the end-all-be-all of my career and left myself open to big changes in my career. However, I'm being patient about them.

I guess the biggest change of 2009 is that I made the choice not to settle. At the beginning of this year I was applying for every awful job that was open in TN, trying to move back there. And I was mad at my husband for not applying for every job. He said he didn't want to go from a current job he doesn't enjoy to another job he doesn't like. At the time, it felt like he was being selfish, but really he was being mature. And, I'm there now. As much as I want to be back in TN close to my family with all my friends who are still there, I'm not going to settle.

Now is the time to have an adventure. We're young, healthy and have no good reason to turn down a new challenge. I've proven to myself that I can be happy far from home. I can adapt and find the good in any situation and I can do it again if I need to. 2009 has made me stronger, made my marriage stronger and cemented my little family together. We can handle anything; and I am more confident of that now than ever!

So I guess my message to 2010 is "bring it on." I'm ready. I can move anywhere and make it. I've got my goals for myself personally and professionally for this year and I categorically refuse to settle.

Happy New Year people! I'm going home! Nashville here I come! :)