i'm terrible with surprises

So the other night, I had some down time and I decided to start a mood board for a very special project I have coming up.  I know, I know, it's terrible because I can't give you hardly any details about it, because it's sort of a gift, so I don't want the person it's for to somehow find out about it...

And I'm dying!  I wish I could tell you all about it, but this has to remain a secret... or I'll be in a lot of trouble.

Some things I can tell you... we're going for pink ombre.  Lots of pink ombre.  And what's some ombre action without gold glitter accents??

I had more fun than one person should starting this mood board.  It was almost like putting together a scrapbook page, but it was way more fun because I have all these life-size ideas in my head that I was trying to slyly put onto paper so that a certain someone wouldn't have any ideas...

I'm planning on having an ombre cake and/or cupcakes, giant gold balloons, and an awesome s'more bar, for which I found inspiration here.

Promise I'll keep you updated with any new developments.  I'm actually planning on working on this mood board a little more today, so keep an eye on my Instagram, @taurie16, for any new updates.  I'm really excited about getting this show on the road-- and trust me, July can't come soon enough! :)

and then there was olive...

You may remember me mentioning that I had a story for you...

So... this happened.  On Monday, March 4, my mom and I took an hour and a half trip to go pick up this little girl.  Her name is Olive and she's the sweetest almost-11-week-old baby you've ever met.

Roger's in love with her.

But, here's the details.  She's a long-haired Chihuahua.  Why a Chihuahua?  We really really wanted a Golden Retriever puppy.  But, unfortunately, since we don't know what our living situation will be in a few months, we decided that a puppy that needs a yard and plenty of exercise probably wasn't the wisest decision at this point in our lives.

Roger told me to research some breeds and pick out three that I liked and then we would decide together.  Honestly, a Chihuahua is about the last kind of dog I ever thought I'd have.  No joke.  But once I started researching them more and more, they started to grow on me.

So, kind of by a miracle, Roger agreed with my pick and we started to look for available puppies.   We had a pretty long list of wants when it came to a puppy... things like:

• healthy living conditions
• parents on site
• raised with children/other animals
• up to date with vet checks, all shots, etc.

We found a lot of puppies but either they didn't have everything on our list or they were $1,500 (not a joke).  Finally, we found a litter of three puppies on Sunday the 2nd and contacted the owner.  She said there was one female and two males and they were all still available.

We immediately fell in love with pictures of the little girl.  The owner said the little girl was shy, which was something that I liked, because I didn't want a high-strung yappy dog.

So Monday after work, my mom and I took a drive to pick her up.  We got to meet her parents and her litter mates and spent about an hour there just asking questions and making sure everything was good to go.  We brought her home to meet my sisters and Roger and she's been an awesome addition to our lives ever since.

She only weighed 1lb 5oz at her last vet check on February 27th.  She has another appointment on March 25th for more shots so we'll see how much she's really grown since we got her!

I love her like crazy.  She's so cuddly, and she definitely knows who I am and gets sad when I leave the room.  It's crazy to me to think that this is the puppy that will be playing with my kids someday.  She's going to see so much with us.  Moving, school, new jobs... Craaazy.  Alright.  Slow down.  No need to talk about that right now.

We're definitely so in love with our new baby girl, Olive.

March Date :)

I'm back with the next installment of "8 Months of Dates."  Last month, Roger and I went midnight bowling as our February Frolic.  It was nice to set aside some time to spend together, because he's been reallllly busy with indoor soccer leagues and tournaments.

This month, our date also needed to be financed, so I put in the money that would cover admission charges and raided my old clue card game (not to be confused with the Clue Board Game), and got some little pieces to give him so ideas about where we were heading.

First, before I share, I'd like to point out that this is probably the date that I looked forward to most out of all of the envelopes, mostly because it was something that I'd never done before in my life.  Ever.  Not that it's super adventurous or anything, but events like this that kind of ooze creativity really make me all warm inside.

Anyway, here's what he was greeted with when he opened the envelope:

We went to the Buffalo Museum of Science's second-ever Get a Clue event!  Basically, the museum was set up like a giant clue board and you had to walk around and talk to witnesses and guess who did it, where it happened, and with what weapon.

Along with the Clue Card Game pieces, I also printed off the event's page on the website to let it do the explaining.  I also, like last month, put in a little note giving my explanation and my reasons for choosing the event, etc.


Last Friday, we finally got to go.  I'd been so excited about it for over a month and I was ready to go see what it was all about!

Unfortunately, I was really sick that night (coughing, sneezing, so stuffed up that I couldn't breathe), so in my excitement/sickly stupor, I totally blanked and didn't get any pictures of us at the event... so any of these pictures were taken off of the Buffalo Museum of Science's Facebook page.

That's one of the witnesses.  You could ask him questions and he had clues that he could show you to "disprove" your guess... you know, just like the real game!  He's standing inside one of the rooms that you could go in and look around.

And this is Seymour, the Mastadon, guarding the cards that hold the correct suspect, location, and weapon.

We all got to choose team names, so we chose:

Olive.  But that story is for a different day.

This date was so much fun and it really was much-needed, as it was in the middle of some crazy weeks of indoor soccer and school.  I can't wait to experience and share the rest of our dates! :)