::Barkley::

We're in the 4th week post TPLO surgery and Barkley has been an awesome patient. While I can't remember how she progressed with her 1st surgery on her other back leg a few years ago, she really seems to be excelling this time around. 

And you know what, I totally jinxed myself because I started this post earlier this week AND now we just came back from the vet because her leg is making noises. Yep, you read that right, she clicks as she walks. But thankfully, the vet assures me that while she may be a little bit more noisy, she's healing and doing well.  PHEW!  

{if you hang out with me on Instagram, you've seen this one, but I just love it so much, I had to share it again}

{pretty sure I can read her mind, and she's totally thinking ... "life is great when they let me out of the crate!"  or maybe it's "Ohmigosh, Friends is so funny!" (we may watch a LOT of Friends reruns)}

{this face, oh how I love this face}

my favorite things...on sale!

Have you ever tried to get a picture of the top of your foot AND the bottom? At the SAME time? Well, it's pretty tough, which is why I had my trusty spotter Barkley nearby in case something horrible happened like I turned into a pretzel, in which case she'd lick the pretzel salt off and leave the rest (she's a fan of the salt.) 

Anyway, this isn't a post on snack time, it's a post about my favorite socks -- and the fact that you should go get some as they are on sale for just a few short days!!!! yahoo! 

I made a rule at the start of the first round of IVF that I would do whatever it takes to celebrate the small victories, enjoy simple moments and inject happiness in every aspect of my life that I could control. IVF is hard, really really hard and it's overwhelming and it can be sad, frustrating and you can throw any ounce of control that you think you might have out the window. But, you know what's awesome and they even made a movie with penguins about it? Happy Feet. That's right, happiness every time I look down? Sold. I'd pay thousands (kidding, it's still just a sock and the IVF doctors have taken large chucks of our money.) 

So back to the happiness. I stumbled upon Woven Pear via Merrick's Art on Instagram. The idea of cute socks seemed to fall right into my happiness stipulation so I decided to buy 2 pairs and I love them. The other day, I saw on Instagram that they were having a sale on Groopdealz, I decided it was time to put more happiness in my sock drawer in the form of more Woven Pear socks. The sale is still going on and so I think you should check them out too. It's a great deal.  The socks are so soft and comfortable, I love them! 

There's a ton of different options and there's free shipping -- check it all out here. 

Mike's birthday weekend in Napa

It's July, which means I would like to celebrate my birth every day of the entire month, so I better get Mike's birthday recap out of the way so that I can focus on myself. (#kiddingnotkidding) (#ilovemybirthdaysomuch).

Mike and I spent the weekend in Napa in March for his birthday. It was the first time we had ever stayed overnight in the valley.  We tasted at Caymus (awesome, I'd go back there in a nanosecond), lunch at Rutherford Hill (always a good time), Rutherford Ranch (quick stop for zin upon recommendation from our driver), Duckhorn (we love the Duckhorn family of wineries but our favorite is their sister winery, Paraduxx) and Rombauer (wine is good but there's no personal experience there, it's just a "pour and leave me alone" type of place, we like to learn while tasting. There was no learning.) 

So..... there you go. 

We also did Inglenook which is one of Francis Ford Coppola's wineries.  It was fun to see some movie paraphernalia. 

Duckhorn

Picnicking at Rutherford Hill Winery. We're not merlot people, typically, but their merlot is delicious.   Their picnic grounds are also unbelievable and a "must stop" for us every time we are in Napa. 

Roadside pitstop to take pictures.  These are merlot grapes (#icanread)

Inglenook - beautiful grounds, great tour, really really great wines.  The only trouble was that the other people on our tour could NOT have been more annoying. 

In my inability to put these pictures in order, here's another photo of Rutherford Hill winery with the Napa Valley behind us.  I mean seriously, we count out blessings every time we are in the valley that we only need to drive 40 minutes to get to one of the greatest places on earth.  It's awesome.

oh hey! let's recap the last year and a half! (or however long it's been...)

it's been a while.
Sorry about that.
but to be honest, I'm pretty boring and I've probably only done a few things like sew, watch the Bachelorette and have my blood drawn daily that it's amazing my entire arms haven't just stayed a lovely color called "bruised".

But, there's also been some fun stuff like we purchased a house we don't know if we'll ever move into* (more on that in another post), a few road trips, some great books (and not so great books) read and I've started to work on some new items for the shop that should be finished soon and you know, that whole IVF thing.... but first, I know the real reason you stopped by the blog, it's to see this little human wrapped up in a white fur coat.

Hot day, happy girl

Sometimes I pretend to use Barkley as a pillow. She allows it for about 0.3 seconds, unless you put the camera into selfie mode and then she's happy to look at herself for hours.  Pretty sure that either means she needs a friend or a full length mirror. 

The kennel we take Barkley to takes pictures of her daily and posts them on Facebook. This one was so great I had to save it.  She loves it there so much. 

Kisses!

Don't you touch my Barron's Daddy. I'm not done reading *ahem, upside down, ahem* she's a really talented reader.  And she loves her stocks -- DOG, SQRL, CAT, WLK -- just to name a few. 

This is Barkley's favorite pet store -- Molly's Pup-per-ee in Danville. It's such a cute store, we love to go there, the only trouble is that she refuses to leave (they give really good treats inside, I don't blamer her!) 

wine: Freemark Abbey

I stopped drinking wine when I started the IVF drugs. Oddly enough, I was totally ok with that. I know. shocking. 

Anywho, we have frozen our embryos, so we've got a bit of time while I'm not on anything that we can open a bottle of wine, watch the Bachelor and enjoy. Man oh man this crop of girls is a trip.  Don't tell me what's going on, we're a week behind...

Anyway, we figured if there's only going to be one bottle of wine opened between the meds, it better be a good one.  Scratch that. A wow-wee I love what Napa produces type of wine.  There are a lot of options when this is what you are looking for in a bottle of wine, but hello. We're doing IVF, it's not cheap and we've yet to find that tree that produces dollar bills. (still searching).

We stumbled upon Freemark Abbey a few years ago when Mike did a project about them for his MBA program.  We drive past their winery all the time when we are in Napa, and all we've done is jump out of the car and take a picture of Mike in front of their sign. Seriously, next time we need to actually do a wine tasting. So many choices, not enough time.  

But until we actually grace them with our presence. We did the next best thing by going to the grocery store and buying this bottle.  I imagine it was around the $30-35 range, but I'm not sure. Mike was in charge of picking out the wines that night.  Anyway, you'd think that since I'm so diligent with the blogging again (yes, by diligent, I mean 2 consecutive entries in one week. baby steps people.) I would have written notes about the bottle.  Well I didn't. But I can tell you examples of what we probably said when we tasted it.

MMMMmmm

Delightful

splendid 

Now, they know how to make a bottle of wine. 

While you may not think that list tells you enough about the actual taste of the wine, I'll go into a bit more detail:

pairs well with: The Bachelor

color: Cabernet-colored

taste: mmmm, good.  

Pretty much that can be translated into a great bottle of wine with plum, dark cherry, chocolate, peppery, oak, cedar, figs, dried herbs and great full body from start to finish.  I lied, I didn't gather that from my description. I googled Freemark Abbey 2011 Cab and the fine folks and Freemark Abbey gave me those suggestions.  And sure enough, I remember every single note. 

 Oh yes, and they also told me I was wrong on the price -- it's $44 per bottle. 

hey hey!

Hello! I know I know. It's been months, years, decades since I've blogged.  Let me explain...

I forgot my password. Yep. That's all. 

well...

Well that was part of it. The other part was that I felt like I would have to address the fact that for the past 2 years I haven't felt like myself. My brain and body have been on baby-making mode and I was so very sad with the hand that we've been dealt. So very sad.  Like piano on my back, weight of the world, too many tears shed on Mike's shoulder type of sad. And I cry GIANT ugly tears.  My husband really really loves me. :) 

Well, 1 surgery, 3 failed IUI attempts and a bathroom vanity FULL of medications, we are now half way through IVF, I can say I am feeling so so so much more like myself than I have been for the past 2 years of monthly sadness.  I like plans, I like lists, IVF has given me this.  I get to check things off a list and watch the really expensive medications dwindle. These are the joys of my life right now and I couldn't be happier that we are making our way towards a baby. I know we aren't there yet, but I feel more positive about our journey than ever before.  This is our journey, we trust that a little bundle of joy will end up in our arms exactly that the time that God decides.

This. will. happen.  

So, that's why I've been avoiding you. It's not you. It's me. For 2 years, that conversation in the above would have lead to buckets of tears. Now, I don't have a single Kleenex within arms reach. Actually that's not true, I am my mother's daughter, there always seems to be a used Kleenex in my pocket.  

And so now that we've got that out in the open (and I've figured out how to access ye ol' blog again) I hope to stop by more often, and I hope you do too. 

Until then, Mike and I were due for new phones and finally upgraded to the iPhone 6. Hello, the cameras on these babies are amaze-balls! like, whoa-i-can't-stop-taking-selfies-I-must-be-a-teenager-again-this-camera-is-fantastic type of camera.  So, because I'm totally cray cray over the selfie camera, we've been taking nightly family selfies.  It might just need it's own hashtag. 

yep, you could say she likes it...

While walking through Costco a month or so ago, I saw this dog bed with a westie on the tag and thought, "OMG, Barkley would love this!" But I didn't buy it because I hate to go to Costco and come home with 12,000 extra things, typically I still do come home with 12000 extra things but the three flights of stairs and the full cart are enough to make me think twice if I really really need something.  

This time however, I kept thinking of this bed.  I knew that Barkley would love it and so I finally gave in and ordered it.  The bed was delivered last week and while it took Barkley a few minutes to figure out that she should jump in, she did and you know because there are 1137 pictures of Barkley on my phone at all times, I had to take a picture of her in her new bed... you know for the grandparents. :)   I'm also thinking that if the Costco dog moves onto bigger things (like the Cesar dogwood commercials) I think Barkley could stand in at a moment's notice.

{photo credit for the Costco dog bed -- or in case you need to buy one too!}