that one SPECIAL DAY in JUNE

My husband and I tend to take a "less is more" approach when it comes to holidays.

Father's Day was pretty easy, breezy this year.  We made plans to spend the day with Dustin's side of the family who live two hours away from us.  On Sunday morning we woke up early, got ready and then hit the road.  Before we left, though, I gave Dustin his present.  It actually ended up being a two-for-one because I ended up getting somewhat of a gift too.

I bought Dustin 'Fierce' from Abercrombie & Fitch;.  It is an awesome cologne that, I swear, The Gateway (an outdoor mall near our house) pumps through the vents so it can be smelled all throughout the greater Salt Lake area because it haunts me every time I am shopping.  I tried my best to resist the temptation to buy it.  I really did.  But, eventually, it's awesomeness won, even at the risk of losing my hearing (it's so loud in A&F, seriously!) which means it's that good of a cologne.

Dustin loved it, and now he and our house smell so wonderful.  It's like heaven in here!

But, wait, it gets better.  When I left the store carrying my first ever A&F purchase, I walked out of the store with this bag.  It was WAY too big for my little cologne box, but it had cloth handles which made it both cool and ridiculous.  Cool in that how often do you get bags with cloth handles, and ridiculous because, hello, cloth handles?  What a waste of money!

No, the best part is not the handles.  It's the bag itself.  I mean, seriously, how often does a bag with this type of picture on it come along?  Forget that this is a bag from a clothing store and the picture is of a half-naked man modeling a swimsuit that isn't really even on his body, begging the question, "Does A&F really even like their clothes?  They don't advertise people wearing their them."

Just forget all that nonsense.  Sometimes we all just think and analyze too much.  Just look at the bag.  The bag, in all it's glory.

Ya, the bag was my present.

P.S. Dustin, I love you so much.  And one of the reasons why I love you so much is because you can appreciate the humor in this post.  :)

CHOCOLATE, anyone?

The day before Mother's Day, my in-laws came into town to take me out to dinner.  I live in a suburb just north of Salt Lake City, and Salt Lake is the home of the Hatch Family Chocolates store. Some of you may know this store from the show "Little Chocolatiers" on TLC.

My in-laws wanted to buy some chocolate at this store before heading to dinner.  I wasn't aware of the detour until we were basically at the store, so I didn't really have time to think about what I would do or say if I saw the famous chocolate makers.  I think part of me thought they wouldn't even be there.  Another part of me realized I wouldn't even know who they were unless someone told me as I had never watched their show or had been to their store at all.  The last part of me was tired because I had just gotten off work.

We walked into the store and much to my mother-in-laws delight, the store owners, Steve and Katie Hatch, were there.  He was doing computer/paperwork and she was walking all around the store doing "her thing."

As my in-laws browsed the store, my husband and I stayed in the back trying to keep up with our toddler who had discovered the water fountain.  We took turns trying to get her attention elsewhere, but it didn't work too well.  My lack of energy and her extreme excitement for new things clashed brilliantly.  Needless to say, I cleaned up a few puddles of water while I was waiting.

In between water spills, I couldn't help but notice how awesome the store computer was.  It was Mac.  I LOVE Macs, and this one was awesome.  

As I watched Steve, from a short distance, work away I wanted to ask him about his computer.  I guess I'm a nerd that way.  But I caught myself before saying anything too dumb.  I mean, here I was in a fun, popular store known for it's chocolate and I wanted to talk to the owner about his computer.  Lame!

I was proud of myself for not putting my foot into my mouth, but unfortunately my victory was short lived.  Yes, alas, Steve started talking to me.  He said I looked "thrilled" to be in the store.  I chuckled and told him I had just gotten off work and was pretty tired.  He asked me how long I had been at work. I told him and then felt even more stupid.  It had only been 6 hours (mind you, all on my feet and in a fast paced environment), which is probably seconds compared to how many hours as day he works.  Ya, I felt like a douche.  Big time.

We eventually left the store.  My in-laws with their celebrity sighting and chocolate, me with another embarrassing story to share.  

Ya, my name is Emily and I tried to get a "little person" to feel sorry for me...in a chocolate store no less!

Thoughts?

the OTHER DOG

Today's thought is about my dog Tod.

Back in 2006,  Dustin and I figuratively found Tod at our front door.  We had just come home from work and Tod was running aimlessly around our neighborhood, staying unusually close to our house.  He seemed to be okay, so we didn't think much of it.  Later that night, however, he  was still close by, and he didn't seem to want to go home.  Because of his dark fur, Dustin worried if he stayed out all night he would eventually get hit by a car.  So, we brought him into our house for the night and planned to find his owners the next day.

Amazingly, Tod (we called him just "the dog" at the time) hit it off with our own dog Sammie.  The two acted like they were separated at birth and got along very, very well.

That night, we put Tod and Sammie in our kitchen and closed the doorway off with a baby gate.  No sooner had Dustin and I gotten into bed, we heard a noise coming from the kitchen.  It was Tod.  He had jumped the gate and came into our bedroom.  And jumped on our bed.  Apparently, he wanted to sleep with us.  It was so hilarious and we were pretty stunned he had the ability to jump the gate like that.

So, Sammie and Tod slept in our bed that night.  Just the ONE time.


(And every other night since then).

The next day, after work, Dustin drove Tod to the humane society to see if they could tell him if he had a microchip or give us any sort of help with how to find the owners.  Apparently, you're not suppose to do that, at least that was the impression the lady with the humane society gave Dustin when she slammed the door in his face when he tried to enter the building.

Okay, on to plan B.

Next, we put together fliers and hung them all around our neighborhood and at the local businesses.  We also took Tod to the vet to see if they could find a chip in him.  But, unfortunately, he didn't have a chip and no one ever called us to claim their dog.  It was really frustrating, especially since we were planning to move out of state in just weeks.

Eventually, we decided to keep him.  We worried about his other owners and wondered if Tod really even wanted to be with us.  But, we wanted to do what was best for him, and in our mind this was it.

We figured we needed to give him a name.  After all, calling him "the other dog" wasn't the best name.  We thought and thought about names, but nothing felt right.  Then, one day, Dustin said, "How about we name him Tod? You know, as in The Other Dog.  T.O.D."

It was the perfect name!

One day, not long after the decision was made to keep him, he got out of our house.  I was home alone and as soon as he got loose I started to chase after him.  He was so fast that I lost sight of him almost immediately.  I was panicking and did everything I could to find him, but he just seemed to vanish.

Shortly thereafter, Dustin came home and I told him what had happened.  He started to roam the neighborhood too, but I was losing hope that we would find him.

Then, to my surprise, Dustin found him.  He was on the soccer field at a school near our house.  Dustin saw him from a distance and simply called his name and Tod literally ran right to him and jumped up into his arms.

After that, I didn't worry about Tod being with us against his will.  He was meant to be our dog.

Thoughts?