sadie hits the beach

Day at Laguna Beach from Danica Pardini on Vimeo.

last sunday we all had a spontaneous trip to laguna beach to hang out after church. we haven't had sadie in the summer yet so we were curious to see how she'd like the sand. stephen tried to get her to go near the water but she practically pulled the leash lightening speed in the other direction. she did love running on the beach with her fur in the wind like any other dog. she met a few friends and enjoyed being with all the family. it's weird how dogs know who they're extended family is. we all did alot of walking, laughing and window shopping. a great day with family.

and p.s we're moving! this apartment has been fun for our first year of marriage ( oh yea, it's my first wedding anniversary today, eep!) but now we are moving up and out by God's grace into a nicer fit for us. we move next saturday, more to post later! anyways, enjoy your weekend.

life lately, according to MY IPHONE

 ^^that's right! that is my very own iphone 5. first iphone ever and i love it. obsessed really. and the way i got it was so cute! stephen surprised me at work so i found this little gem in my mailbox in the teachers lounge with this sweet little note. my husband is amazing and i love my iphone so far!^^

^^my gorgeous mom and sister at an italian restaurunt we found in huntington beach. the food was amazing and a pretty decent price if you get lunch. we got champagne and desert for free. i guess thats what we get when we go with four gorgeous argentine women. hehe.^^

^^new dish towels and babies breath in baby mason jars.^^

^^sister trouble with lip color to match (and the cute italian place)^^

^^gorgeous grandma and the best italian food. especially when you get stuff for free. ^^

^^stephen and i discovered a new mexican hole in the wall called hole mole. pronounced like if you saw a big spider. holee! molee! seriously best tacos ever. i swear they put in crack in their taco sauce. we've been there several times in one week. not to mention its literally downstairs and next door to our apartment. practically room service.^^

^^i've probably gained a few but it's ok. because doughnuts are awesome after church.^^

^^goodnight kisses for our sadie girl. she gets jealous and likes to crawl right in between us in bed. shes a spoiled girl and daddy always lets her stay. ^^

i'm feeling so blessed looking at a few of these photos and so thankful for all these small memories captured by a phone. who ever thought a small device would be such a huge part of your everyday life? well, i'm thankful for it and i love my family and life has been wonderful. thank you God! for always being good.

california ain't what she used to be

if i blog one post a month i'm doing pretty good on my own terms. i haven't posted in awhile because life just catches up to me right when i think i've out run it. it's a good kind of busy but i wanted to share what we've been up to lately. so here's an update: we've started to look at some real estate and started to feel like we want to buy a starter home and maybe start a family. one of our strongest callings in life is to be parents and we're actually married so starting a family sounds great, right? sadly wrong. we happen to live in one of the most expsensive parts of the u.s and frankly, we're getting kind of sick of it. 

california used to be a great state but not so much anymore.(long story short: in 2011, 562,000 people left california, and 468,000 came, according to the Census’s American Community Survey. That means 120 people moved out of California for every 100 people who moved in.) where we live...you have to have a TON of money to live in a safe neighborhood with a good school system. but if you are even somewhat lower middle class....guess what. you can only afford the ghetto and the school systems suck. boy ain't orange county great! (the main reason alot of the california population is having to move to surrounding states) we saw that if we moved farther in orange county we could afford a small house but still not to our liking for raising a family. unfortunately the only cities we can afford in orange county are really far away from our jobs and the weather is a lot hotter. stephen and i both hate hot weather, so higher heat and a commute didn't sound like much fun. 

in my opinoin, its' either all or nothing. either stay here so we don't have to commute or find completely new lives and move out of state. so one night we were laying in bed and started to look at some real estate again just for the heck of it...we looked at austin texas. we could afford a 4 bedroom 3 1/2 bath ( basically mansion ) in texas for what we could afford a tiny ghetto 2 bedroom condo here where we live. really depressing but all in all an eye opening experience. looking at these killer homes got us really excited and then we looked at texas in weather.com. yea. 100 degrees practically every day. yea, no thanks. back to square one. we hate orange county because we can't afford anything here, the state as a whole is going down the toilet yet moving to a cheaper surrounding state....away from family, away from friends and dying in the heat?! life crisis!! 

it's funny because i've lived in california my entire life. i never went to a university or got the "college experience" away from home. i now have this sudden itch to try something new. do something different. what if? what if not? heck, why not? if we move and end up  hating it we can always move back into open arms. but the more i thought about it and planned what we could do...God kept telling me to slow down. put on the breaks. you've only been married for 10 months. you're only 23. this can wait. i lay awake arguing with Him and trying to get Him to catch me a break, but to no avail. God has us here for a reason and if we have to wait, we'll wait. my ideas and thoughts about moving to another state so we can give our future children a better life hasn't depleted in my heart but for now...it's here. sometimes as an adult i want things that are good and have good intentions behind my wants. obviously moving because you want to provide a safe and comfortable living environment for our future children isn't a bad thing....but rushing is. it's not about having a huge house but keeping your heart pure and not being envious of what could be. 

after feeling convicted over wanting to move and have a huge house we've taken a break from looking at real estate and we're just trying to focus on saving money and finishing my degree. i always think about the verse up above ( no pun intended ) and think, wow. how simple. yet how complicated to remember this and not get caught up on things down here on earth. simply looking up and letting God take hold of my dreams of trying something new, exploring new land, having a home for my children and good schools. God can take it! he knows what's going to happen next and i pray that stephen and i are being good stewards of what we already have. thank you God for that reminder. to be still and look up. think about things that are in heaven, not here on earth. You are so good and everyday i am thankful for where you've already brought me. california may be the worst state in the country for all i know (still ranting) but we're here and that's where we'll stay until God gives us the go-head to go somewhere else.

camping film

so...no idea why the screen to this video is all weird but it does play fine. here is a film i made ( very amateur ) of our time at wheeler gorge last weekend. :)

Our First Camping Trip from Danica Pardini on Vimeo.

hi ojai! (our camping trip)

over the long weekend after valentines day stephen took us camping in wheelers gorge in ojai ca. ojai is a really funny word and when we passed ojai high school on the way to the campground we started cracking up. "i go to ojai high!" and saying it over and over again like total nerds. if you didn't catch on ojai is pronounced "oh-hi". hilarious. anyways, we had a great time and i'm in the process of making a video about our adventure so stay tuned for that. so this would be my first time camping and i have to admit i was a little bit scared when i had to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night and unzipped our tent and to see nothing but pitch black and forest. we stayed for 2 days and 1 night. believe me, that was enough. it was hard packing for breakfast lunch and dinner in a cooler...can't imagine how hard it would be if i had to pack food for a few days...hence 1 night was enough. we hiked, made a campfire and made smores. sadie had a blast as well and snuggled up with us in the tent. there was no way in heck i was letting her sleep outside to get eaten by a bear or something.

^^
^^ sadie was all set for camping with her warm jacket and dress that says "my mom's a fox"^^

camping was a great experience for us as a little family. we built the tent together and learned how to start a fire. it's fun when you get opportunities to work together with your spouse and learn more about them. stephen is my best friend and no matter what we do together we have a blast. he was definitely the perfect person for me to go with on my first camping trip. hands down. over all it was so nice to just take a short weekend trip away from technology, work, church ( sorry God ) and all the distractions and just focus on us as a couple. i loved sitting by the fire and looking up at the stars with my husband and our little fur baby. life has been very busy and we really needed a break. something about being outdoors and with no distractions really helps me relax. i'm not super outdoorsy but it does give me a sense of belonging. a sense of stillness in my soul that is such a great gift from God. it was so wonderful just enjoying the views and quality time with my hubby. stephen asked me if i'd ever want to go again...i said yes. to his surprise.

^^enjoying some indie rock while sadie curls up in a ball on daddy's lap. her favorite place ^^

^^can't help but praise our Father seeing this incredible view on our hike near the campground^^

^^camping food rocks! i wish i could have hot dogs and smores everyday!^^

^^yes. we are completely obsessed with our dog. sorry!^^

sick dog and super husband

^^ as cute as this picture is.....the scene in which i'm about describe wasn't so cute. ^^

 people say that having a dog or pet is great practice for being a parent someday. boy were they right! but don't get me wrong, being a dog mommy has been very rewarding but the other night was a disaster to remember. so here goes the story: 

i was sleeping. duh. it's what i do best. and the first thing that wakes me up is the sound of stephen scrubbing the carpet and in a panicky voice, "sadie, what's going on!?", "oh God, Sadie!". i look at my phone on my nightstand and it's 2:15 am. i am a good wife so i get out of bed to see what the heck is going on. my nose has been stuffy but it didn't take long to smell the aroma that was lingering in the apartment. i walk over to the kitchen where stephen was kneeling in front of her tring to get her to drink water. apparently sadie threw up and crapped in the apartment. i saw the panic on his face but then i saw sadie. she looked like one of those dirty sad and disgusting dogs you see on the streets. her beard was all wet and grimy and she looked so depressed and scared. she was certainly acting weird and sluggish. i started to worry and we didn't know what to do so we Google "dog threw up and diarrhea" and apparently learned that this is common for dogs. we sighed with relief but she still looked so sad. her beard had her throw up in it. ( sorry, tmi ) so we decided to give her a quick bath. mind you it's now 3:00am and we are both up giving sadie a bath and still freaking out. as we were giving her a bath i thought to myself...wow. we are giving our dog a bath at 3:00am. we have to wake up in 4 hours for work. we're going to be the best parents ever! well, granted having a baby is much harder then having a dog i can imagine, but still! i felt very proud of us. after we dried sadie off we both got back into bed. i was so proud of stephen. he had cleaned up the poo and throw up and was taking care of sadie on his own all before i even woke up. all i did was google something and then suggest to give her a bath. he was the one that woke up out of bed by the dog, cleaned it up and took care of her all without waking me up or making me worry. stephen is seriously the best husband in the world. i don't try to brag or anything but i honestly don't know how God blessed me with him. exasperated but happy it was over, we laid down next to each other and let out a huge sigh. i think we both had a proud moment that we would remember forever. we worked as a team and we took care of sadie. having sadie has brought us so much closer. we're taking care of this cute little living thing and it's amazing she's still alive! ha. i leaned over and kissed him and told him he'd be such a good dad someday. 

in the morning we checked on sadie and she seemed to be like her normal self. wagging her tail, bright eyed and all ready to play with the trillion toys she has. we still weren't sure so stephen checked on her on his lunch break. stephen dropped her off at my parents house during his lunch hour in case she had any more accidents. my mom is the best dog person ever so he knew sadie would have fun at "grandmas" house while we were at work. i just think thats so cute how stephen was still so worried about her and brought her over to my parents just to make sure she was looked after, after she had been so sick. fur daddy award! i love my husband and i love my dog. the end.

valentines day

valentines day was so much fun especially because it was our first valentines day as a married couple. lots of bonus points there. anyways, we've never been super big on valentines day especially because flowers and dinner costs double and restaurants are super crowded and frankly, i think it's a little overrated but we still celebrated in our own way. stephen and i planned a casual stay at home date. we went to trader joes and bought wine, cheese and crackers and for desert...some super cute heart shaped cookies. we ordered pizza from our favorite pizza place ( how romantic!) and watched t.v. that may sound lame but it was so much fun just stay at home and have a romantic appetizer. stephen got me some chocolates and sadie got some cute valentines day toys. she literally rips her toys to shreds in just a few weeks so she was happy to get some new ones. she loved them immediately and it was so cute to find her surrounded by all of them. shes adorable, and i can't stop taking pictures of her. anyways, hope your valentines day was fun. i have something else to post about sadie but i'll have to leave that for later because pretty soon we have to go to the store to get some things for our camping trip this weekend! i'm very excited but we'll see how it goes...it will be my first camping experience. wish my husband luck!