Bopril

Giving Thanks (and Weekendings)

I am melancholy. The minutes are ticking by and fatigue is setting in as evening gives way to night, but I am reluctant to call it a day. I want to hold on to this particular weekend - this specific holiday - just a little longer.

How fitting that this was the official holiday of gratitude...I was thankful every waking moment. And I truly don't recall enjoying a stretch of time so immensely in a long while. 

Our turkey day at home was its own special blessing as were the days that followed. Quiet moments to highlight family and love and all that spells joy to me. 

Hubs and I saw a movie on Wednesday night to kick off the festivities - Blind Side - see this film immediately. It was a beautiful story - a touching message - and at its center, featured such a special family. It warmed my heart and was the perfect way to kick off a few days of being thankful. 

We awoke on Thursday and played with the fur babes a bit before heading to the gym to earn those extra calories we knew were coming. Then the cooking began in earnest! With many kudos and much thanks to P-Dub, we worked away in the kitchen, listening to our impressive itunes library all the while.

Hubby was quite studious in his pursuit of the perfect feast:

 

Meanwhile, I happily busted out the china and crystal:

 

And our home smelled lovely for days thanks to the yumminess we prepared! A small turkey for Hubby:

And a plethora of sides to enjoy:

 

Hubs decided last minute to whip up some gravy (which meant I got to bust out the gravy boat from our china collection - squee!):

 

And of course, I slaved ALL DAY over the perfect pumpkin pie. And by SLAVE, I mean I studied the selection at Whole Foods VERY intently:

Bon Appetite! 

 

And of course, the fur babes enjoyed quite the Thanksgiving feast along with us:

 

After dinner, we did a quick kitchen clean up and then enjoyed yummy wine and treated ourselves to a very relaxing "concert" of some of our favorite tunes (and enjoyed fur babe snuggle action):

 

A lovely day, a hearty meal, the perfect evening, very full hearts and plentiful blessings. Life is good. I know this, and I give thanks.

The rest of the weekend was a blur of dinner dates and movie nights, a trip to the burbs to hang with our niece and nephew, more yummy food, holiday shopping and OF COURSE...the long awaited, much beloved transformation of Casa Carretta into holiday central:

And you? I hope your holiday was lovely and a that it was (just a little bit) hard to let it go.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Warm wishes from my family to yours on this lovely day of thanks.

The Day Before

Hubs and I are doing Turkey Day at home this year - just us (and the fur babes. obviously.). You wouldn't know that from the size of our planned menu though.

We happily rummaged through the crowded aisles of Whole Foods in search of every last item to complete our feast. There will likely be enough food to cover leftovers for a week.

I am so excited to enjoy the process and so thankful - on this day and every day - for my little family and the many moments that bring us joy.

Here's hoping you're knee-deep in plans for your own celebration and enjoying every precious moment in the company of your loved ones.

Ingredients for FOOD COMA:

 

Wherein We Encourage His Bad Behavior

As part of a recent work project, I needed to create a quick video showing some "quirks" of my fur babes. Cooper was clearly the perfect subject for such an assignment.

So, I found myself in my bathroom last night encouraging one of his more deplorable habits: the unraveling and shredding of toilet paper directly from the roll. He is a little less exuberant about it than normal; no doubt due to confusion as to why we were actually encouraging this behavior and cheering him on for something he is typically scolded for.

You can almost see his little brain working overtime...is this is trick? What is going on here? What do you people WANT from me?!

In any case, I thought you might enjoy the video too. Also: apologies for the setting which was clearly long overdue for a cleaning.

Cooper's Favorite Past Time from aprilcarretta on Vimeo.

A Doggone Life

Our fur babes are clearly a leading topic on this website, but there are other canines in our lives. We thought you might be interested to see some of the other sweet faces that make up our extended doggie family.

This is Lucy:

 

She is MIL's fur kid and she's hilarious. Equal parts clumsy, sweet and crazy, she makes every trip to the lake an adventure. We are working hard to establish a friendship between Lucy and Jack - suffice it to say they aren't currently the best of friends. Lucy and Cooper however? They get along just fine (and present quite the hilarious juxtaposition). They chase each other up and down the dock as long as we'll let them:

 

And this sweet guy is Simon:

 

He is the gentlest, best behaved, all around awesome dog. He even puts up with Jack's snarkiness and never thinks of retaliating when our little guy nips at him. He's equally sweet with kids too. I think he would swim in the lake until the end of time if his Mommy would let him. 

This little cutie is Sadie-Lady! She is Cooper's girlfriend and Jack thinks pretty highly of her too:

 

She's sweet and hilarious; we don't get together with her very often, but when we do, doggie daycare commences and the three little ones chase each other maniacally until they all pass out from exhaustion. 

And this old girl is Sydney a/k/a "Puppers the Beast":

 

We got her when I was in high school and she was just a wiggly little pup. All these years later, she's still the sweetest girl and her entire body wiggles with glee when you walk into a room. She doesn't get along incredibly well with our fur babes, but they've improved over the years and can now be in the same room together without total chaos ensuing.

We also have Lou and Harry the pugs and George the Golden-doodle, but sadly, I don't currently have photos to share. Suffice it to say they are plenty cute and sweet just like the rest of this pack I've outlined.

I have said it before and will say it again: life is infinitely better in the company of furry friends.

Weekendings: A Kentucky Wedding

We're back from our Southern fried weekend and we had such fun. The scenery was extraordinary as anticipated, the company exceptional, the bride & groom gorgeous and special, the days not nearly long enough.

We danced and hugged and talked and drank wine. We walked and ran with the dogs, petted goats and oxen and horses and I took my usual motherload of photos.

Sadly, we did not do our holiday card picture taking as I'd planned. What can I say - good times got in the way and before we knew it, we were packing up the car to return home.

Here's a photographic recap for your viewing pleasure. If this merely tickles your curiosity, you can find much more here.

The entire weekend made me want to sing 'My Old Kentucky Home' at the top of my lungs. And also? It was a nice reminder that my family and friends and seriously ROCK THE HOUSE. I'd gladly take a do over - it was that much fun.

Becky and Adam - I wish you every joy on this magnificent journey we call marriage. You're perfectly suited for one another, and I'm thrilled you finally made it official. It was an honor to celebrate with you - XOXOXOXOXO

This was our "home" for the weekend:

 

The grounds were stunning. We walked them time and time again and captured images like these:

 

 

 

We hung out near old barns and played on retired carriages:

 

 

 

We attended a gorgeous rehearsal dinner on Friday night where we caught up with friends and had a grand 'ole time. The room was beautifully decorated by the groom's Mom and her aptly named "groom slaves:"

 

The menus featured an Autumn theme:

 

And everyone had a terrific time celebrating a terrific couple. I had many options to display the fun for you, but I thought this one was most fitting. I'm sure you'll agree:

 

You're welcome. We attended the beautiful wedding on Saturday night. It was so beautiful in fact that I forgot to take a single photo. I was too caught up in the moment, so you'll have to take my word for it: it was terrific. The bride wore a dress that's been in her family for generations and I loved everything about the colors and overall presentation: most especially the bridesmaids dresses. They were gorgeous: a grayish blue in varying styles that the ladies picked out themselves. Stunning.

The reception was held at a beautiful horse farm in an elaborate barn. God, I love Kentucky. I was much more focused on fun than photography, but I managed to snag a few shots. 

A shot of one of my favorite wedding moments, the father/daughter dance:

 

And of course, the Mother/Son dance too (with Dad looking on):

 

And because I really love dancing at weddings, here's one of the happy couple during their first dance as Mr and Mrs Bowling:

 

At the end of the night, they gathered with their pals from college for a fun-loving group shot:

 

 

The dance floor was seriously rockin' all night long:

 

It was marvelous and we loved every minute.

And you?

Majestic Skies

It's no secret that I have a thing for clouds and the sky in general. A few weeks back, I was working from home on a Friday and I looked up to notice a pretty wicked sky. It lasted for about 45 minutes and I went a little crazy with my camera.

I'm going to print these out and hang them in my office so inspiration is always a mere glance away.

 

 

Love Paints the Best Pictures

Last night as I was perusing my 4738476251 feeds, I noticed an interesting trend.

It's no secret that I'm obsessed with photography and therefore, shouldn't be surprising that I follow a large number (and variety) of photography related blogs. But all of my favorites have a common theme: they beautifully and artfully capture love. They are the kinds of images that will leave you breathless, punch you in the gut and elicit an immediate and powerful emotion (for me usually tears - SAP alert!).

I stumbled upon this image during our morning commute today courtesy of this awesome Tumblr feed:

Tell me you don't feel sucker punched right now. I do NOT believe you. Emotions still running a little high from all of yesterday's celebrations, this hit me particularly hard. Sobbing ensued, but in the best way possible. What an awesome moment - captured forever.

In an entirely different way, the following two images have the same effect:

Please visit this blog immediately - I love everything about his work. Beautiful.

Another must visit site - I die regularly over the amazing, stunning work they do with weddings and other key life moments.

And then one of my own faves - shot in the park on one of my favorite trips:

I watched these two for quite awhile; their glee was catching.

Happy Love Thursday; I hope you're remembering to paint your own pictures regularly.

Remembrance

I cannot fathom that kind of goodbye - the one where you hug your husband, son, father, grandfather, mother, sister, friend tight and wish them well - all the while having absolutely no assurance that you'll ever see them again, ever hug them again. This is the nature of sending a loved one off to serve their country: blind faith and hope and love sent into the universe and your entire existence wrapped up in your belief (and wish) that they'll return to you.

My personal story does not include this scenario in that I've never directly kissed a loved one goodbye and watched them walk away from me into the heart of danger. I have however, born witness. I have sat around the christmas tree and talked to them, played with their children, hugged their wives and mothers and stood in awe of them. Missing limbs, battered and bruised, happy to be home but dying to go back...needing with every fiber of their being to return to their comrades, their buddies, their family. Because that is their duty. Their honor. Their code.

No matter your personal politics, I think we can all rally around that. And honor the collective bravery and courage that has netted us so many liberties throughout time.

So today, on Veteran's Day, I will pause for a moment to remember. And I will whisper thank you - for rushing into danger when others would have run away, for facing head on horrors which most of us can't even conceive of, for protecting our land, our people, our freedom, our world - rejecting terror and tyranny and injustice - for holding steadfast and saying simply, no - not on my watch.

I honor all veterans today along with their families. Thank you, truly, thank you.

Groovy

I still owe you part 2 of our NYC/CT trip, and I'm sure I'll get around to it - promise - but couldn't resist a slight sneak peek for today.

Behold, Hubby the (exceptionally grungy me thinks) Hippie:

This was taken with someone's blackberry camera, so the quality isn't top-notch, but you can still get the idea, no? Doesn't it make you want to do Halloween all over again? Either that or time travel to Woodstock?

You're welcome.