Spring Fever March 31st

Spring Fever

April is my favorite month of the year; especially when Easter comes late. To me, Easter is like Christmas; you celebrate Jesus Christ with family and friends and enjoy one another’s company but without all the gifts! I also love all the spring color and all of nature’s blooms. Although, I must admit I am not a fan of pollen. April brings spring which brings riding in the car with the window down, fresh picked flowers, fresh cut grass and pulling all of my bright dresses out of storage. It’s time to get a new pedicure with some colorful polish and to bring out the funky jewelry again. I personally love going to Church Easter Sunday and seeing all the beautiful little girls in their Easter dresses.

I am also OCD which means Spring Cleaning! This is the time of the year where I literally tear the house apart and clean from top to bottom and in to out. I move the couch and all the rugs. I also clean out the closets and the cabinets. Spring cleaning also allows time to change out dreary fall colored fabric, towels, décor and replace it with bright, cheerful, crisp colors. A dear family friend of ours just bought us a white, pottery style cake stand and I cannot wait to see what this piece will bring in our kitchen. We keep our “wedding cake” stand on our table year round so I am thinking this stand will hold desserts! I have some Pineapple/Pina Colada cupcakes in the cabinet I have been dying to make!?!

The one thing that April brings that I am not fond of is bathing suits! This year I bought 1new bathing suit instead of 5 and I bought a style that I don’t normally wear. Casey and I saw it in Aeropostale and it’s a beautiful dark blue/purple hue that fell in love with. However, by no means am I in bathing suit wearing shape so this was my one purchase to get me going. We’ll see how this plan works out. Even last year when we were getting married, I didn’t work very hard to drop weight, so I will be excited to see if I can get my body where I want it.

Lastly, April 22^nd brings my birthday. Growing up our birthdays were BIG. We didn’t spend a lot of money but we spent a lot of time planning and thinking up what we wanted to do to celebrate. Up until last year, I kept that tradition. I guess after 21, the number just puts a downer on everything. Yet I must admit, working in the job that I do, birthdays are always good things! It’s when the birthdays stop that you have a problem. So… even though I am not excited about turning 23 I will remember that I could “not” be celebrating. To me, the best thing about birthdays is the cake which will be hard to top from previous years. Two years ago, my best friend made my cake and it was a 2 tier pink birthday cake which was phenomenal! I loved having something so personal and meaningful. We’ll see what this year holds… it is my first birthday as a “wife”!!!

Bailey

Missing a good friend. . .

Almost one month ago we had to say goodbye to our puppy Bailey. It was one of the hardest things we’ve had to do. Her passing was sudden and unexpected. She was a 9 month old blue Great Dane that we had brought home this past August. She was just coming out of her puppy stage and really starting to show her true personality. We had noticed that she suffered from seizures for a few months but they were short and rare. However, the weekend that she passed she had suffered several back to back and began one on Sunday that only a Valium injection at the vet’s office would stop. She stayed at Brown Creek Animal Hospital for two days when we made the unfortunate phone call to confirm that it was necessary we come in and put her down. Fortunately we were able to visit with her for a bit before the procedure.

It took a few days to really get over the loss and not get upset every time we passed her empty pin. Our biggest struggle was the reality that she was a dog and we both felt a little dumb for getting so upset. We questioned the truth to our feelings and whether or not we were making something out of nothing. Everyone was really supportive and had nothing but encouraging things to say, yet we still felt a little weird mourning our dog.

What is it about our pets that create this bond? We were with Bailey a short 6 months and yet we cried over her as if she were our family. After thinking about this over the past two weeks I imagine it deals with the consistency of a pet’s love. Relationships between people are determined by the exchange of love and care for one another and with our pets that exchange is a bit more constant. Once you build a foundation with your pet there is an unspoken understanding. Your pet isn’t going to get mad over the house cleaning or the money that you brought in that week. Your feelings toward one another aren’t going to change depending on the season in life. You can always pull up the drive and expect them to come running to greet you and love on you and they’ll always be there for you to love on too. When you get down to it, I believe that’s why there is a true relationship between owner and pet. That’s why we had such a hard time letting go and moving on because we had built that bond with Bailey just like people spend time building bonds with one another.

We miss her personality and also her size. Being a Great Dane she was so much fun to watch grow and run around our house. We plan on getting another Great Dane within the next year and would love another blue female. Great Dane’s are huge but are the biggest love bugs out there. <3

Bailey Smith

May 16, 2010 – March 1, 2011