Saying Goodbye

When we first took in Grace a few months ago (Remember?), we went back and forth between thinking that we would keep her or find her a new home once she was healthy. We had an ad on Craigslist for a long time just in case the perfect family came along. The deal was, if we found a family where we thought she would be happier, we would let her go. Until recently, there were no good prospects.

We love her so much, but knew she would ultimately be better off with a family with a large yard where she could run around. With our tiny, unfenced yard, we always had to take her out on a leash (multiple times a day!) and had to take her for walks everyday. She loved walks, but how much more fun is it to run around off of the leash? 

She had gotten better about the cats, but still chased them. Craze always wanted to go spend all day outside and Steve was always hiding in the basement, so we felt like we didn't even have cats anymore! 

Harvey grew to love Grace when she was calm. He still got irritated when she was in a hyper mood, always afraid he would get trampled. 

Our realtor, Debbi, is a dog lover and we had talked to her a little bit about Grace.

A few days ago, I got a phone call from a realtor friend of Debbi's. Their family dog had recently passed away and they wanted to adopt another. They live in the country on 4 acres.. 

She, her husband and her son came over to meet Grace over the weekend. They loved her and she loved them. 

Everything was looking good except the fact that we would have to say goodbye. 

I wasn't sure I could do it!

Luckily, they were having their carpets cleaned early in the week so didn't want to pick her up until Tuesday. 

We know that having a <real> dog that is young and wild is a pain.. so logically speaking, we were thrilled! No more walks in the rain, chasing cats and barking at the mailman! 

Emotionally though, it was (and continues to be) very difficult. We love that darned dog!

Yesterday the new family came to get her while I was at work (don't think I didn't plan it that way!). Saying goodbye before I left was heart breaking but I was also so happy about where she was going. 

Her new mom (*tear*) emailed me last night to say things were going great so far and that Grace loved the yard and spent all afternoon frolicking and rolling in the grass. That made me so happy and I know she will love long walks in the woods and being a spoiled only-dog. 

The new family does have a cat so I hope she behaves herself around it.. 

If not, she may be returning to us. We told them that if there were any issues, they could always send her back instead of taking her to the pound. 

It may not sound like it because I'm having a hard time with it, but I really really want it to work out with the new family. They gave us their address and said we can visit any time which I plan to take them up on! 

It was really hard to come home from work to a quiet house last night.. but also really nice to not have to take her out on a leash right away. (See how I'm trying to remind myself of the little annoyances?). 

The cats were thrilled and loved sitting on our laps again at night without fear of the "big, scary dog".

I am 100% sure this is for the best and so happy for our girl to be in a loving (hopefully forever) home. I can't wait to visit her at her new digs!

She may not be the most beautiful dog and she snores and farts..

but we'll always love her. 

Goodwill Fashion Show

Back in the fall, I was asked to participate in a really neat Goodwill event - the Goodwill Good Style Fashion Show. They gave me $125 in Goodwill gift certificates to shop for an 8-10 look "collection" with a distinct theme. The theme I chose was Stripes & Florals - my favorite mixed print. Since the event was May 9th, I wanted it to be springy and fun.

After months of shopping and a few model fittings, the event was last Thursday and it was soo much fun! There were 450 attendees in the audience so introducing myself and my collection was really nerve wracking, but it went really well!

Here are all ten looks - including what I'm wearing which was also part of the collection! All that for $125! Some of the belts and all of the shoes were not part of that $125. Also, my friend Sarah made the fun flower crowns some of the girls wore. 

Before the show, our models got their hair and makeup done by Brown & Aveda cosmetology students. Below is Chelsey getting hers done:

 This is my cousin Chrissy (RJ's cousin who've I've adopted as my cousin too) :)

Chelsey, Chrissy and Sarah:

 Mackenzie, Michaela, Sarah, Chelsey and Chrissy:

Trevor's sister, Mickie, was also one of my lovely models:

The two girls on the left (Julie & Amanda) were two of my volunteer models, they did a great job! The girl on the right was part of the Bridget Boudreaux collection I believe:

And now for some runway shots!

After all my looks went down the runway, they had everyone walk down together which was really fun!

All my models did such a great job and I loved how the outfits turned out! 

Big thanks to all of my models, especially Chelsey who rallied some of her Cleveland friends to be models! 

Reed & Laura's 60th Birthday Party

We have two very important birthdays to celebrate in 2013 - Big Reed's was on March 4th and Laura's is on April 11th! We chose a great in-between date for a joint party, St. Patrick's Day. 

We had so much fun celebrating with these two and the rest of the fam! 

Halley, RJ and I actually got together at Chelsey & Trevor's house the week before to hash out all the fun details and plan the party. We decided St. Patrick's Day traditional food was a must:

Corned beef (with swiss cheese, rye bread and dijon mustard) and crab cakes with aioli for the bird-a-tarians of the group. Chelsey made some delicious brussels sprouts and Halley made Irish soda bread and traditional colcannon dish with mashed potatoes and kale. Our contribution was picking up sandwich ingredients (including corned beef and pickles from Ivan's deli in Akron, they're great!) and providing cheese & crackers. You can see who the true cooks are in the family! Although I did make a salad, so that's something! 

We had a great time hanging out outside by the fire and a new gas heater for the patio that was the "big gift" from all the kids (I include spouses in that, we consider ourselves honorary Stith kids!). 

RJ and I got there early so he could assemble the gas lamp. Give that guy some instructions (destructions?) and a set of tools and watch him go. He definitely got it going! 

We got Laura a pretty princess crown that said 40 instead of 60. She had said previously that her 40's were a great decade and she'd like to remain "in her 40's" for a little longer. 

That's ok with us, her secret is safe! 

The dogs were very interested in trying some of Trevor's corned beef...

"Just a little bite?"

Of course we had to celebrate with a delicious cake!

It was a great day and a fantastic way to celebrate two special people! 

California Part 2

Day 5, Wednesday:

On Wednesday we relaxed in the morning and then I met my blogger friend, Sarah, for lunch. Her office was conveniently only 3 minutes down the street from our motel! RJ drove me to meet her on his way to the library to print some documents.

We had a great lunch at this fun place called Lemonade. Again, full of healthy and inexpensive options and (surprise!) really great lemonades. I got a cucumber mint lemonade that was really good.

After lunch, we walked back to Sarah's office and the views of the ocean were incredible.

RJ came back by to pick me up and we went back to the motel to get changed and head to the beach. I took a long walk and RJ played guitar.

Darn Los Angeles and their crowded beaches!

This picture makes it look deserted and that wasn't the case. There were people there, just not the swarms of people you'd expect the way people talk about LA.

We stayed at the beach for awhile and watched the sunset there.

For dinner, we decided it was time we got some California Sushi! We found a place close to our motel and had some really good sushi.

Day 6, Thursday

On Thursday we decided to head to San Diego to check that area out! It's about 2 hours south of Los Angeles. We had done some research earlier in the week and decided we wanted to eat at the most authentic Lebanese restaurant we could find while we were out in the LA area.

We found a place in Anaheim called "The Olive Tree" that, according to reviews online, had the best, most authentic Lebanese. We have a Lebanese restaurant here in Akron that is one of my favorites.

Think hummus, falafel, pita bread, tabouli, baba ganoush.. all that good stuff.

We decided to hit The Olive Tree on our way to San Diego so got all packed up and checked out. We told the motel we were going to leave for the night and be back Friday, and they were really cool about refunding the one night and crediting our account. To give you an idea of how inexpensive it is to stay out there (at non-peak season anyway) - our hotel in Manhattan Beach, LA was $79/night and we stayed at a Motel 6 downtown San Diego for $62 Thursday night. I'm not saying it was fancy or anything but we had everything we needed and a good, clean bed and bathroom. The Crimson in Manhattan beach even had a pool, hottub, continental breakfast, shampoo and a hairdryer for that $79 - and a 5 minute drive to the beach. Right up our alley!

Anyway, we checked out and headed toward San Diego and found The Olive Tree. I'm so glad we did - we loved it! They had all these beautiful plants set up around the patio and of course we sat outside. Thursday and Friday were the nicest days of our trip (coaxing us not to leave on Saturday..) and it was 75 and sunny.

The food was absolutely delicious - definitely the best Lebanese I've ever had! It was so authentic that we were the only non-Lebanese patrons! I can't wait to go back someday.

We got to San Diego around 3:30pm and went straight to Torrey Pines State Park. We parked at the top of the hill, changed into tennis shoes and did a nice, long hike down to the beach. The scenery was beautiful and I was jealous of the "locals" on the trail that didn't feel the need to be snapping pictures, because they see it all the time.

After the hike, we headed toward Downtown San Diego, where we were staying the night. We knew at some point during our San Diego stay we wanted to get some authentic Mexican, but that night we were both craving Italian. We found little Italy on the map and headed off in that direction on foot. It was fun to see downtown San Diego at night. There were a lot of Italian options in Little Italy (of course) and we chose a little mom & pop place called 'Felipi's' and had some delicious pasta.

We walked around a little bit and called it a night.

Day 7, Friday

Friday was our last full day in California, which was sad. I have another blogger friend who lives out in San Diego, Audrey, and we were able to meet her for lunch in La Jolla. It was really cool to meet her in person and eat at a little cafe, outside of course. After lunch, RJ hung out on the beach while we walked around the little shops in La Jolla.

When Audrey had to get back to work, I moseyed back down to the beach to find RJ, window shopping the whole way down, of course. We sat for a little while and started hearing seal noises (I'm dead serious). I thought it was fake, it was so loud. We decided to walk around and find where it was coming from. I had no idea this was even there, but apparently in La Jolla there is a Sea Lion overlook in this beautiful place called "The Cove" where the Sea Lions all hang out on the rocks.

After watching the Sea Lions for awhile, we decided to move on to one of the next things we wanted to see in San Diego. We walked along Mission Beach and then drove around the Gaslamp District (the historic, downtown area with the old gaslamps - see more by clicking here if you're curious) and then headed to Balboa Park. We parked and did a mini-hike around Balboa Park and saw some beautiful vegetation and cacti.

 I really loved all the trees and plant life in California. Many of them we dubbed: "Dr. Seuss Plants" because they were unlike anything we'd ever seen before.

Take this one, for example:

After walking around Balboa, we decided it was time to have some authentic, San Diego, Mexican food. We found a little hole in the wall taco shop and stopped there. It was definitely authentic - like what you would get in actual Mexico authentic! It was good - but I still prefer El Campesino's or Monterrey. However, the chips we got were probably the best I'd ever had. Each order of chips was made-to-order, so they were steaming hot and extra delicious.

After dinner we headed back to Los Angeles. We stayed at the same hotel we'd been staying at earlier in the week.

Day 8, Saturday

Unfortunately, our flight on Saturday was at 11am, so we had to get up and go straight to the airport to return our rent-a-car and get through security.

One funny thing that happened when we got to the airport was that somehow, they got the idea that we worked there. I didn't understand that until after it was all said and done or I may have blown our cover. All I knew was that after printing our boarding passes, one of the guys who worked there was ushering us to the front of the security line and we went right through, no questions asked. I played it cool because RJ was, and after we went through I asked him what that was all about. He said that at some point, the guy said to him: "Well you guys work here, so you know how it works" or something like that. He didn't know what he meant but didn't ask any questions and that's why we were able to get ushered to the front of the line. 

It was pretty funny. We were hoping we might get bumped up to first class, being employees and all, but no one else got the memo that we were somehow special. Oh well.

We had direct flights on the way there and going home, which was a blessing.

The pets did great with the pet sitter. We were in touch with her throughout the week so we knew they were ok.

We are happy to be home but I know I left a piece of my heart in California.

I know we belong in Akron for now (and I do love Akron), but I know I'll be back for it someday.

Maybe next winter!

Love,
Rachel