Finally my pictures from California...

The Rehearsal

Renee getting gorgeous


Here comes the bride...
Look at that location!! It was SO spectacular!

Congragulations Renee and Jon!

It's official, they're hitched!

My sisters and I with Grampa Ortiz
Our family
Me and the hubby



Renee and Jon smashing cake in each other's faces :-)
This is my favorite picture of the weekend
Giving our toast

Doing our dance
Jon taking the garter off with his teeth!
Christ's Church Girls!!
!!!!Disneyland!!!!


The Newlyweds





We ran into Mickey and Minnie on the way out!!

Go Adopt a Dog!

Yesterday on Oprah, she did a show on puppy mills (it may have been a re-run, but I rarely get to watch Oprah) and it literally brought me to tears. I have always heard about puppy mills and the dangers of buying pets at pet stores, but I never realized how awful they really are. While millions of animals are waiting in shelters to be adopted and are being euthanized b/c nobody wants them, puppy mills all over the country are over-populating society with soon-to-be-unwanted animals. Ordinary people are willing to pay hundreds of dollars to buy a designer dog from pet stores rather than rescue a dog from a shelter.

Oprah sent her staff undercover to visit the puppy mills (where 99% of pet store dogs come from) and what they found was apalling. The owners were using the same female dogs to breed litter after litter of puppies to sell off to pet stores. The pet stores then turn around and sell them to you for even more. Before the puppies are shipped off to pet stores, they are kept in filthy conditions and some even die. The females who are kept behind to breed other litters are the worst off. They are kept in small cages ioften too small for them to even turn around and are forced to deliver dozens of litters throughout their lives. Their bodies suffer from this abuse and once they can no longer breed, they're killed.

So if anybody is thinking of getting a dog anytime soon, please don't go to a pet store to buy one. Go to your local animal shelter adopt a dog. 1/3 of the dogs there are purebred and many of them are puppies so even if you have your heart set on a certain breed of dog, you can still find it at a shelter. You also will pay a fraction of the cost and will have the satisfaction of knowing that you saved a life and didn't support animal abuse. This dog is in a DC shelter, look at that face!

How could you resist??

Yesterday afternoon, my Grandma Ortiz went home to be with Jesus. She had been sick for months and was ready to be at rest in heaven, but I wish she could have lived for just another day so I could be there to say goodbye. I will miss her dearly, but I have so many wonderful memories with her that I will never forget.

She was one of the most generous, hospitable people I have ever met. She would give away everything she had if it would help somebody else. Her home was always open to anybody, she would always have a homemade Mexican feast waiting for you when you arrived and she loved to have her family around more than anything. I remember when I was visiting once her during spring break and I told her that I had been studying Spanish, she got so excited and took me out to lunch and we spoke in Spanish the entire time. At the end, she told me how proud she was that I had taken the time to learn Spanish and what joy it was to speak to her grandchildren in her native language.

I remember how much she loved her doves that lived in her backyard and how it was always cool back there even in the middle of Southern California summers. I remember as a little girl how much I loved to look at her colorful glass bells and jars that sat on the windowsill behind her lace curtains. I also loved her teacups on the shelf and the picture of Jesus that hung above the dining room table. She also couldn’t afford to buy Christmas presents for all 32 of her grandchildren (plus the 17 great-grandchildren) but she always wanted to have a gift for us so I remember, as a 12 year old girl, receiving Star Wars markers from her J She would often give old things from around the house that she no longer needed. We laughed about her gifts for years, but she loved giving and she just couldn’t bear not to. One of my all-time favorite flowers is still buganvilia. For as long as I can remember, it’s been growing up the wall in my grandmother’s backyard. I love the bright fuschia color of it and the way it always reminds me of growing up in southern California with my Grandma Ortiz.

She would have breakfast with all 3 of her sisters on a weekly basis until just a couple of years ago when she had to move in with her daughter. Whenever we were in town, she invited my Mom and all of us girls along. They were the funniest old ladies and such a joy to be around. I hope my sisters and I are like that 50 or 60 years from now. She continued to scold her children even though they’re all in their 40’s and 50’s now and she was one of the most stubborn women I have ever met. I definitely inherited that trait from her! However, the thing I admire most about her is that whatever circumstances came her way, she thanked God and never complained about anything.

The last time I saw her was at my wedding in August. She practically had to be carried down the aisle by two groomsmen. We offered to bring her in wheelchair or not have her go down the aisle at all and instead just be seated beforehand, but she insisted that she was going to be a proud grandmother and walk down the aisle herself (see the stubbornness coming out). At the reception I was able to speak with her for about 10 minutes and she gave me a huge hug and patted my hand while offering me plenty of wisdom on marriage, motherhood and life. I remember her telling me to enjoy and thank God for every second on earth because each was a blessing. I remember her telling me that she had no regrets for her life and wished the same for me. I remember her telling me that the biggest blessing God had given her in life was such a big family for her to love and how she treasured each one of her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. She helped teach me that the simple things in life are the sweetest and to be content with whatever God has blessed me with. She was truly a great lady, a beautiful, godly and wise woman and one who I will remember and love forever.

Weekend Re-cap

*I've been really sick with the flu and bronchitis. Not the stomach flu, the other kind that lasts a lot longer and makes you really tired and achy and congested. The coughing and stuffy nose were so bad that I actually couldn't sleep for two nights in a row. Every time I would nearly fall asleep, another coughing fit would wake me up. I took Wednesday off from work and took a half day on Friday so I could rest and not distract everybody with my sneezing and coughing. Plus my co-workers didn't want me to infect them. I feel much better now that I'm not wheezing so badly and can sleep through the night. My nose is raw from the tissues and my throat still hurts, but I'm getting better. On a side note, I found these ahhh-mazing tissues that have Vicks lotion in them. Not only are they soft so they feel better on your nose, but when you inhale, you inhale the Vicks medicine and it helps to clear your nostrils. They are a lifesaver, I will never go back to plain old lotion tissues.

*We sold Brandon's car!! We re-posted it on Craigslist on a whim and some poor sucker actually bought it!! She wasn't the smartest girl around though. She asked us to remove the license plates and said she would be fine because she only had to drive a few miles and would go straight to the DMV the next day. Brandon and I both tried to talk her out of this since it is highly illegal to drive a car without any plates or tabs, but she insisted. Whatever, we thought, it's her problem now. We started walking to our married small group but we didn't get very far when Brandon's phone rang. It was the girl who had bought our car and she had been pulled over and wanted us to come back and put the plates back on. We thought about just leaving her since we had the money and a signed contract and didn't have to take responsibility for her or the car anymore. But we're too nice, so we walked back and put the plates back on the car. She's supposed to return them to us today. We felt kind of guilty selling our car to this girl who obviously didn't have much common sense, but not guilty enough to not jump at the chance to get that hunk of junk off of our hands. She was from Texas... enough said.

*We have done a little car shopping but it's difficult b/c we have to borrow friends' cars to do it. We found one we think we like, we'll probably go back Monday night and buy it if we don't find anything better.

*Brandon went to a bachelor party last night and received quite a shock. He was really glad to celebrate with his friends but he ended up paying a lot more money that he expected. One of the guys had apparently reserved a private room that had a minimum charge of $1000. Brandon, being the good husband that he is and knowing that we're on a tight budget, ordered the cheapest thing on the menu (it was still $30). He didn't have a drink or dessert because he was trying to spend as little as possible. However , the guy who had reserved the room didn't tell anybody about the minimum charge until the bill arrived and the 8 of them had to split a $1000 bill. If he had said something , Brandon could have at least ordered $100 worth of food and enjoyed himself rather than paying $100 for a $30 steak. When he told me about it, I was really upset that somebody had reserved such an expensive room and forced everybody else to pay for it, especially since we were certainly not expecting to spend nearly that much money and really can't afford to spend that much either. I just have to take deep breaths every time I think about it because I hate hate hate wasting money.


*On the other hand, I had a fabulous time last night and didn't spend a penny. Three of my co-workers hosted a progressive dinner party. At the first house, we had Mexican-themed appetizers and margaritas. At the second house, we were served a fantastic Brazilian dinner. My co-worker had cooked chicken, roasted elk, sausages, potato salad and rolls. He had homemade the entire meal (for 25 people) from Brazilian recipes and served two different kinds of jungle juice. It was sooo good, I wish I could entertain that well. At the last house, we had dessert and wine. I had such a good time, but I laughed way too much and irritated my throat. Everybody kept asking where Brandon was and I kept hoping he'd show up for the next course, but little did I know, he was spending a fortune just across town. The moral of the story is, Brandon shouldn't ditch his wife for the evening because only bad can come of it.

*And lastly, our cats have recovered from the trauma of seeing a dog for the first time in their lives and are now back to their old, lazy selves.

Rut-sitting

So Rutledge came and went this weekend and we had a lot of fun with him. He is a Welsh Corgi and is sort of funny looking but in a really cute way. He has a normal sized body but tiny stumpy legs. I had never seen a Corgi before I met Rutledge a few months ago. Brandon made me pick up the poop all weekend long but I didn’t mind- I’m not a wimp.

The weather sucked all weekend, but on Saturday it stopped raining for a few hours in the afternoon which was long enough for us to take Rutledge for a long walk. We took him to Eastern Market and to Massachusetts Ave. to walk past all of the embassies. The funniest part of the whole weekend, though, had to be when Rutledge first walked into the apartment on Friday night and Huck freaked out!! He stopped in his tracks, let out a cat scream and then raced in the opposite direction. He was trying so hard to escape from the dog that he actually tried to climb up the blinds on the window. He didn’t get far though before gravity took over and he came crashing down. Then he hid like a little coward the rest of the weekend under the bed or behind the coffee table.

Emma, on the other hand, was much braver. She was still scared, but not nearly as bad as Huck. She eventually started walking up to Rutledge to sniff him and at one point laid down just a few feet from him on the couch. She trusts us to take care of her and she knows that she’ll be just fine as long as she’s on either Brandon’s or my lap. Huck was pretty much hiding behind his little sister all weekend, it was pretty funny! We have videos of Brandon making an “introduction” between Huck and Rutledge but they make us look like sadistic animal-abusers because we were laughing so hard at Huck’s terror, so I won’t post them. I haven’t laughed that hard in a long, long time though.

A fun fact: Queen Elizabeth breeds Welsh Corgis, she currently owns five of them!

Congratulations Rachel!!

You did it and I'm so so so proud of you!! I love you!!

Puppy Fever!!

Having the opportunity to dog-sit this weekend has just rekindled my desire to have a puppy!!

So I've been looking at puppies all day online, here are my favorites:

However, I doubt you could ever get a puppy this cute at a shelter and I would never adopt a puppy from anywhere besides an animal shelter or rescue group. There are so many dogs in need of a good home at shelters, why adopt one anywhere else?? Besides, why would I ever want a snooty puppy from a pet shop when I could have a grateful one who's been waiting for an owner to love? Now I just need to get Brandon to let me get one!!

Friday

Bad: It looks like a hurricane is going on outside my window. I don’t think I’ve ever seen rain come down this hard.

Good: Two weeks from now, I’ll be in sunny California!!

Bad: Our house is sooo messy, it has to be cleaned tonight… and I hate cleaning after work.

Good: We get to dog-sit this weekend! Yippee!!

District of Communism

I tried to get my new license last Saturday… but no such luck. The lovely DC government won’t give me a picture id unless I bring the following:

- Current out-of-state license (Check)
- New Social Security Card (Check)
- Original Marriage Certificate (Check)
- Passport (Oops, I didn’t realize I needed two forms of picture ID!)
- Lease/utility bill with my name on it (Oops again… everything is in Brandon’s name)

I don’t see why my current license can’t serve as proof of identity as well as proof that I can drive, but apparently that’s not sufficient. Now we also have to forge a new lease to prove that I live in the district. I have a marriage certificate and Brandon was there with his ID to prove it’s his name on the lease but since he doesn’t have a DC license either, they won’t allow it. I guess in their minds, even though I am married to the person whose name is on the lease of a DC property, I still cannot prove that I live in the district since Brandon’s not technically a DC resident. Give me a break!! Could it be anymore confusing??The people here are beyond unreasonable. We’ll be headed back tomorrow with a fake lease and every form of ID that I own… maybe then they’ll give me a license.

Further proof that DC is run by communists:

We desperately need a new car. Brandon’s Jimmy gets about 10 miles to the gallon – we’re looking for a car that gets at least double that. However, DC won’t allow you to park within city limits unless you pay hundreds of dollars to register your car with them. (Our car now is still under reciprocity until July which means we can get away with not registering it in DC until then) We’re also paying out the nose for rent and looking to substantially reduce our rent by moving somewhere more affordable once our lease is up at the end of June. I want to get the heck out of this crazy socialist city but since we don’t know for sure yet whether we’ll be living in Virginia, DC or Maryland, we can’t get a new car yet. If we register our car in DC and then end up moving we’ll end up paying about $500 just to register it for 2 months. Then we’ll have to re-register it in whatever state we end up moving to all over again. I really miss the $30 car tabs in Washington right about now. I can’t believe how expensive it is to own a car in DC. You’d think they make enough money by having a sales tax, an income tax and property taxes (as well as fuel and cigarette taxes)… guess not. DC also has super high vehicle-registration taxes. What do they do with that money? Who knows??? The roads are still covered with potholes, the crime rate is one of the highest in the nation, and 75% of the city is filthy and filled with housing projects.

I’m fed up with ridiculously high taxes and getting nothing in return. I’m going to boycott this city by not living here or shopping here ever again!

P.S. This is exactly why I'm a Republican, I don't believe in a big government paid for with high taxes. Clearly, it's not working all that well in DC- the federal government should take heed.

Happy May Day!!!