Happy Mother's Day AND a Sunday Funny!!

I just wanted to drop in really quick to say Happy Mother's Day to all you wonderful Momma's (including all of mine!!!) out there!

I'm posting my first ever video on here as a Sunday Funny, which I thought was perfect for Mother's Day.  Only because it's me videoing my first born a year and a half ago.  Furry sons count as first born's...he's given us lots and lots of practice!!

Before you view it, you should know that Kodi is a lot like his Momma.  He's accident prone (I can't even tell you the number of bones I've broken, scars I have, or times I've had surgery for one random thing or another...at one point I had both my right hand and left leg in a cast...and no, I wasn't in a car accident.  It just happens.).

Kodi's got the most sensitive pads of any dog ever.  He runs on the grass, because if he runs on pavement or concrete, his pads tear open.  My T. Mom got him 'shoes' a few years ago to try to see if those would help.  I completely forgot that I recorded his first ever 'trial run' with these 'shoes' on.

It was my first time using the video camera, so please ignore the bad lighting and hopefully it doesn't make you too dizzy.  It's too funny to not share!  It's my first time uploading any video from this video camera too, and I have no idea how to edit it down to be a smaller clip size, so just close out of it when you've had enough Kodi.  I'm not sure it's possible to get enough Kodi, but I 'spose you might not all feel the same way!

Hopefully I'll be a little bit nicer with Kalia...I'm pretty sure I'm not winning any Mother of the Year Awards with postings like these!!

Hope everyone's enjoying their day!!  Oh, and one last thing...Sassy Sites is featuring me on their Sunday Spotlight today!!  What a fun soon-to-be Mother Mother's Day surprise!  Go over there and check it out!

Happy Sunday!

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The Happiest Dog you ever did see

We interrupt this broadcast to bring you the following important picture:

The Happiest Dog in the Entire World.  Please excuse all of his hair that he's lost around him...happy dogs could care less about hairy floors.

I looked out my office door to see this :

So I had to go in and get a close up...he just makes me smile.

"Here's looking at you, kid."

We hope you've enjoyed this interruption.  Our regularly scheduled program will be back up and running shortly!

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My Favorite Things

Trendy Treehouse's Shutter Love Tuesday's theme this week is Favorite Things, so I thought I'd do a separate post to participate, because I have oogles of pictures for this very topic.

While I do enjoy a good book, a cup of coffee, a good game of volleyball, awesome friends and family, Gator Football, and any hike or nature trail, my favorite things are most definitely Chris and Kodi (sorry awesome friends and family, you came in a close second!).

Oh, how both of my boys love the water!!  We've actually trained Kodi to sit on our laps so that he doesn't just swim and swim and swim out in the river or ocean.  (Great, now I've got "Just Keep Swimming" from Finding Nemo in my head!)

I love that Kodi actually smiles when he's happy.  That's a for real, genuine, thanks guys I love you so much, lets go swimming AGAIN, kind of Kodi smile.

Here's my ham of a dog smiling it up for the camera again.  My MIL likes to get Kodi the most annoying toys that make lots of noise, and he absolutely loves them.  This is a little squirrel thing that gets so slobbery and disgusting, but makes the Kodi-man happy, so we let him play with it.  How can you say no to that face?!

I took this picture on our way to the Farmer's Market.  It's so telling of how they both are.  Chris has got a short leash to keep Kodi close, but it's not tight because Kodi loves being right next to him.  Kodi is a little ADD though, and keeps constant surveillance of his surroundings.

I love this grin, even when it's from him being SO filthy dirty after running or rolling in something.  It had rained a lot this day, and Kodi took full advantage of the mud puddles.  He's exhausted and so happy in this picture...the best!

My husband is hot.  He's my absolute favorite!!

Kodi goes outside quite a bit to sunbathe and just 'be' with nature.  We've got a bench out by this patch of grass that he loves to lay in...it's nice to just go out there and sit and relax.  Believe it or not, I do it...on occasion!!

And finally...my two studs on the water.  When they're happy, I'm happy.  They make my heart smile!!

I know, I know, I'm so very lucky and so very blessed.  That's enough of me being mushy though, I'd love to hear what your favorite things are...please share!

Fun Hart Family Photos

We are goof balls.  Huge goof balls.  Sometimes I can't decide if I can't wait to have kids so we can have so much fun with them (and not look like weirdo's playing) or if I'm scared to have them because then we'll have to grow up, and I never want to lose our goofiness.  (The "I don't want to grow up" Toys R Us song is playing in my head right now).  We've actually gone to playgrounds with just Kodi (our yellow lab). He may or may not have sat on my lap and slide down the slide with me.  There's no pictures, so who knows if it really happened!

Point being, we're goof balls.  So when I want to get DIY family photos, I really should expect nothing less.

Just to give you a first glipse of what our photo shoot looked like, here's Chris taking a few "practice shots".

Oops, need to re-adjust the camera angle...I chopped off the top of his head!

There we go, I got all of him!!  Love the concentration in his face too! (Isn't he H.O.T too?!?! ah hem...sorry...where was I?!?!)

I'm not normally a fan of showing anyone pics of me in my bathing suit, but I do play beach volleyball when I'm not running, so I'm not exactly not used to walking around in front of a lot of people in it either.  Everytime I look through these pictures, I can't help but laugh, and laughter needs to be shared, so I'm sharing!

Oh yes...so now that you've got a preview of what kind of photo shoot we were going for, let me tell you the deets.

I set the camera on a chair, set the timer button, pushed the take picture button, hauled bootay over to the other side of the pool, said GO, and took off.  Kodi, of COURSE, thought this was the BEST photo shoot EVER.

Here's my first shot...oops.  I forgot I had a motion / action setting on my camera.  Lets see if that helps anything!

Still somewhat blurry , but better.  Chris couldn't figure out how to hold his knees up for a cannon ball without using two hands, so he likes the smile from the side approach.  I think it's hilarious that we're both hamming it up for the camera.

We probably took 15-20 shots with me running back and forth.  Here's a blooper:

Chris kept Kodi on one side of him and the idea was that the three of us would jump TOGETHER.  Can you see how well that timing idea worked in this pic?!  Chris would say "READY?!" and Kodi would jump.  He didn't need the tennis ball to jump after (it's still in Chris's hand), he was definitely ready!  Kodi kept jumping right where Chris was supposed to jump too...this happened at least five times!!  I'd come up and find Chris dry and laughing hysterically standing on the waterfall ledge.  The above picture kind of symbolizes our family.  Kodi jumps in immediately at anything he thinks can remotely be fun, I hurry to get the finished product, and Chris analyzes stuff till he's blue in the face (Chris's Brain: wait wait wait, this picture isn't going to work...if I jump in at the wrong angle, I'm going to mess it all up...I'll just stand here, think it out, and try again next time.)

And this as the picture we ended on.  It was getting too dark after this shot, so we put the camera away with promises to have some more family fun with another photo op when there's more daylight out.  We're gonna get the shot.  We are.  And we'll both put our legs in cannon ball format, and it'll be fun and a fitting photo op for us!

Our good friends Erin and Chris actually gave me a really sweet birthday present this year of a photo shoot with them, and they're so talented, so THOSE will be our 'good' family photos.  These ones are our 'goofy' family photos!  Just keepin' it real!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!  Happy Friday...finally!  Hope I gave you guys something to laugh about!

4th of July Fun

It was a rainy 4th of July on the West Coast of Florida (thanks Alex!!!), but we still tried to make the most of it. After our plans for beach volleyball and grilling got rained out, we did a few things around the house, and then headed out, in the rain, with our bikes in tow.

Poor Kodi though...he hates fireworks, and he hates thunderstorms, so he spent most of the weekend either under my jeans in my side of the closet (please excuse my mess):

And a close up of his pathetically sad face:

Or he went outside with me, and when it started raining too hard, he'd come pout in the garage by my projects:

He's mad that I haven't figured out a way to turn off the rain yet.

Okay, enough of my pathetically cute 80 lb baby, back to us and our bikes.  We put on our rain coats, rain hats, and parked a few miles away from the festivities, grabbed our backpack with our necessities, and headed out on our bikes.  

When life hands you lemons...

We were so happy we made it out to see the 4th of July fireworks...they were so beautiful, and the night cleared up perfectly!

And, I've got to post one of Chris's favorite part...the finale!

4th of July fireworks = Happy (smelly, sweaty, and wet) Hart's!

What about you guys?  Did your 4th of July plans get rained out or did you get to see a fun fireworks show?  I'd love to know!  I'm liking to Shutter Love Tuesday's over at Trendy Treehouse!  Go check out what other fun firework pictures everyone's posting!

Love is Patient

I overheard Chris on the phone yesterday morning with his Mom and Step-Dad having a good laugh at my expense over my running the lawn mower through the fence ordeal, and I realized that I forgot to blog about it. And since I'm a big fan of people laughing, whether it's at my expense or not, I decided that would be my blog topic today.

First, let me start by showing you my beast of a lawn mower that I (yes, I, not the hubby) mow with:

She's a beast and I love her.  She acts up at times, but the love is still there.  Her name is Bessie.

When Chris and I moved into this house in April of last year, we spent a day unloading and moving our stuff into the house, and then immediately starting working on putting up a 400 linear foot fence.  We've got a 1/2 acre, and a Kodi, so that fence had to go up ASAP.  Initially we had quite a few helpers, and for one reason or another, it wound up being just Chris and I until my T. Mom came over to help save the day.

So the fence has meaning.  We built it.  We love our fence.  We worked hard for that fence.  It was the very first DIY project at our 'forever home'.

There's a tight corner on one side of the yard that Bessie barely fits in, but I still try every single week to mow as close as possible to the landscaping and the fence.  I got in too close to the panel of the fence to make my turn, so I put Bessie in revere to get out of there.  Or so I thought.

I didn't switch the lever all the way to reverse, and when I pulled on the arm handle that says reverse, Bessie flew forward.  Crack.

Lucky for me, the top was still attached.  Chris came running around from the other side frantically asking if I was okay, and this is what he saw:

I was physically fine, but emotionally peeved.  So, I did what comes naturally to me (and probably most wives) and blamed him.  I told Chris it was his fault that I ran the mower through the fence because he didn't edge a wide enough area, so I had to try to get it with the lawn mower.  Whaaa?

Chris just looked at me, shook his head, sort of grinned, and walked away.  After I finished mowing the rest of the yard, I went to put Bessie up and apologized, and we worked together to put the fence back in working order.

The whole lawn mower ordeal made me realize something.  I tell Chris constantly that it's a good thing that we have Kodi to teach him patience before we have kids.  He used to have none.

I think that maybe being married to me, who is the biggest klutz, super accidentally destructive, accident prone, and we can do anything (like literally, lets try to move mountains) type attitude has taught him quite a bit of patience over the years.  Good thing...because if our someday kids are anything like either one of us destructive wise, we'll need lots and lots and LOTS of patience!

So what about you?  Are any of you as destructive or accident prone as I am?  Please do tell if so!

Kodi Here

Hi blog-world,

My Mom's been sick for the past week. She's driving my Dad and I crazy starting to get restless, so in order to keep her in bed, I'm blogging instead.

We've had a relatively uneventful week, minus the few buckets of throw up times my Mom got sick. She's been in bed, Dad's back to school, so I've been left to fend for myself a few times this week. Life is rough when Mom's sick.

She did manage to sneak out and start a few smaller projects, so I think she'll take over posting again next week. I sure hope she feels better soon, I'm getting bored on my own!


Well, I just wanted to check in with you guys to let you know that my Mom will be back soon! Hope everyone's enjoying their weekend. I'm off to float in my pool...


Yeah, a dog's life is rough!

Signing Off...
Kodi-man


Linking up to Trendy Treehouse : Shutter Love Tuesday!

Whose Bed?!

Chris was out of town this week on a work trip, so Kodi and I were left to fend for ourselves. It was party time in the Hart household with Chris gone!!

I got to eat cereal for breakfast and occasionally lunch. Kodi got fed as soon as I got up instead of me getting coffee and a smoothie made for Chris. I could eat salad and fruit for dinner, and for dessert have more cereal. Ahh...the food life before being married!! Chris thinks I'd waste away if it weren't for him...

I don't sleep well without Chris next to me. Much to Chris's dismay some nights (I turn into an oven when I sleep...I think it's a woman thing), I have to have something touching him at all times throughout the night. So, to make up for Chris being gone, again, much to Chris's dismay, Kodi got to be the warm body next to me in bed. I told Chris he should be happy it's the dog!!!

...I think Kodi likes his Daddy being gone...he looks quite cozy!



We really did miss Chris. I'll take Chris and cooking 3 meals a day over him being gone any day!

Tree Movers

Sorry I've been MIA on blog posts. We've been super busy. I can now add 'Tree Mover' to my list of qualifications that I'm capable of if this engineering thing doesn't work out for me.

The two trees on the right (in the pics below) were not there before Sunday. They were in the middle of our yard. When we moved in, we had some trees and dirt in the backyard...no grass, no fence, no nada. We've spent quite a bit of time trying to get everything up to par, and for obvious reasons, focused on the front yard rather than the back at first.

We've still got more work to do in the front, but I decided that those trees needed to be moved NOW. Chris told me I was crazy, so I told him to go in and work on his school work while I moved the trees solo. Needless to say, he helped.

Here's a few pics of Kodi with the new trees...I think he approves!

Hope everyone has had a great week...it's almost Friday...yessss!!!

Goofy Chris

Chris can, on occasion, be just as goofy as I am.

When we returned home from the ski trip, we had TWO Mr. Bill's waiting in the mail for us. Apparently, 2 of our mom's really don't like us too much. Kodi's love for Mr. Bill has only gotten stronger over the past few weeks, which means that I have learned to tune 'oooh nooo' out. Good thing we don't have kids!

We've moved our mattress to the living room to sleep by the fireplace until Florida starts realizing it's Florida and warming up. Our heater is dumb and doesn't include a heat pump with it (yep, dumb), so it doesn't work too well. The three of us camp out every night in the living room.

Last night, I was watching the end of American Idol when Chris finished his school stuff and got into bed with me. The guy on TV was singing "My Girl", and Chris and Kodi decided they wanted to serenade me with the song as well. While Chris pinned me down and sang the lyrics, Kodi chewed on Mr. Bill. Every time Kodi / Mr. Bill would say "ooohhh nooo", Chris would add into his song "ooohh yeeah". I think Kodi finally got tired of his own game though. By the end of the song, Mr. Bill was back in his toy bin and Kodi was sleeping on his bed next to ours, with his paws over his face...looking embarrassed at his Dad.

And to think...one day we'll have for real kids!!!

Hope everyone's having a great week!

The Adventures of Kara and Chris - Part 1

Theoretically, if you enter a wooded area that has a No Trespassing sign, and get a few miles in to see another No Trespassing sign to go a different direction, does that mean the initial way you entered the area was NOT no trespassing? I mean, if there's a No Trespassing sign in the middle of the woods, does that mean you weren't trespassing before, but you are now if you continue?!

Explanation...

Kodi jumped a fence and chased a deer (wink wink) into a no trespassing area of the woods. Naturally, Chris and I had to hop the fence to go get him. Since we were already there, we just kept going for a few miles. We came upon a 4 way split in the woods that had No Trespassing signs posted on 2 corners of the woods, but the path straight forward was good. Why in the world would you put up No Trespassing signs in a no trespassing area otherwise, right?

In my mind, that made us legit. Sort of.

We kept going and enjoying the outdoors when all of the sudden Chris yells "Truck, RUN, FOLLOW ME". He went running from our path straight into the woods like a bat out of hell. Naturally, Kodi and I followed him. Kodi wasn't on a leash, but he did a great job keeping up. Chris saw the truck on one of the side paths that we had just passed, and took off in the woods FOR that path. Direct bee-line TOWARDS where the truck was coming from.

His logic was that we were never going to out run a truck, but normal people don't run AT what you're trying to get away from, so they'd never suspect to find us there.

We are, obviously, not normal.

We ran for about 10 minutes through the woods as fast as we could and then when we thought we were pretty safe, we stopped to catch our breath. Our conversation went something like this:

Kara: Gasp Gasp "What the hell are we doing back here?!?!"
Chris: Taking deep breaths "I don't know, this is kinda dumb."
Kodi: Pant Pant "This is awesome Mom and Dad, lets play in the woods some more."

Kara: "Why did we run AT the truck?!"
Chris: "He'll never suspect us here!"
Kara: "What are we, 12?!?! Are we playing Fing Manhunt?!"
Chris: Grinning "Yeah, stay low, follow me."

I guess after seeing the truck, my mind decided maybe we weren't so legit after all.

So we got our adventure for the day, ran a little over 3 miles back to the initial fence we weren't supposed to trespass, and went home. Thankfully, we managed to make it home on our own 2 feet without help from any police officers.

One day we'll grow up. Maybe.

<3
Kara