Mission....ACCOMPLISHED!

Right after i picked her up from the shelter, she was so happy!
All of her goodies! She's gonna be so spoiled!

Dad loves her already and she loved him immediately

After we left my brother took this picture, she is gonna have a great life now!!!

About a month ago, my Dad and Brother found a dog running the streets. They took her home and fell completely in love with her. She stayed with them for about a week and it was obvious with all she knew that she was someones long lost GREAT pet. So, Dad and Tony took her to the Downey Shelter and sure enough she had a chip in her and she had owners who were looking for her. My Dad and Tony wanted to keep her so bad and my brother told me Dad was nearly in tears the day they left her at the shelter. But she was someone else's dog and so they did the right thing.

I am a total Daddy's girl. From the day i was born my Dad has done nothing but spoil me and make sure i was always happy! So happy that him and my mom would fight all the time because he would give me everything i wanted because he loved me that much....Now that im older, i always try and find way's to show him how much i love him and how much i appreciate the love he has always shown me...Aside from Josh, my Dad has and will always be one of my best friends..i would be lost without him....So this year for Christmas i was on a mission....

My passion for animals is definitely from the way i was raised. We have always had at least 4 animals in our home and both my Mom and Dad have the biggest heart for animals no matter what kind or where they came from. I am the same way and so is my brother. When i moved out of my Dad's house with Josh, we took all the animals with us leaving my Dad with none. This was a first for him, he has ALWAYS had multiple animals.

I asked my brother what he wanted for Christmas and he said "all i want is a dog" and so my mission begun.....

Not sure what my Dad would think if i just showed up to his house with a dog for him and Tony..would he be mad, happy, upset, angry, not ready for a new animal...hmmm....no time to think about all that, Christmas is right around the corner and with how much my Dad cares for animals he would learn to love something new regardless....

I spent many nights researching dogs from different Shelters on my computer...Shelters have odd hours (10-6) basically my working hours, so all i could do was research on the computer until i found some time to take off work to go look physically...I knew what i was looking for so that made it it easy enough...i knew she had to be a girl, not a puppy but not old either, i wanted her to be a lab mix of some sort and black was the ideal color (because that was the color of the dog my dad and tony were attached to) Basically, i wanted her to remind them of the dog they had to give up...

So Thursday Josh took a day off work and i took a half day. He picked me up around 3pm and we immediately made our way to a local shelter. Walked in a saw so many dogs crying and barking : ( as sad as it was to see SOOOOO many dogs, the dogs at the Harbor shelter were well taken care of. This is where i first found the dog i had my eyes set on for about a week from the computer...she looked much smaller in person....i wanted to play with her to see if her personality fit what i was looking for but not one person was there to help us and we were short on time as it was....Looked around and could not find a single soul to help us and so we left to make our way to the next shelter (at this point it was already 4pm) we got in the car and quickly drove to the Downey Shelter. Got there around 5pm. Tons of people there, tons of people to help and tons of people looking for a pet themselves. We walked around and didn't see much that fit the description of what we were looking for....This shelter made me sad...Dogs stepping in their own pee and poo, their cages had not been cleaned in a while and i know this because they wreaked of ammonia....All the dogs looked so scared, so sad....it just made me feel sick to my stomach. We came across this little chocolate lab mix, she was the cutest most scared little girl...I asked if i could see her and immediately fell in love when she jumped on me and grabbed me with her big ol paws!!! She was licking Josh's whole face, she was just perfect!!! So, we grabbed a yellow card, took it up front and waited about an hour for them to tell us "oh, sorry she's already been adopted" WTH really?? Great, here we go once again, on a mission....That place was such a mess, so unorganized! Poor animals that are left there : (

Josh and I then leave that shelter at 5:20pm to try and make it to the LB shelter by 6pm (thinking that's when it closes) we hit every red light and make it there by 5:50pm only to find out they closed at 5:30pm : ( Ugh..man...this is really started to suck....This is the only day we can find the time to make it to all these pounds and now we have hit a dead end.....By this time i was starving and so we made our way to the store to get stuff to make dinner and spent the rest of the night at home, Champagne and Taco's : ) After dinner, on the computer i was once again, researching dogs....Again i kept coming across that same black dog at the harbor shelter, the one i wanted to see but no one was there to help......

The next morning i woke up, got ready and decided i was gonna make my way to that shelter and see that dog! I found out they opened at 8am PERFECT!! 7:30am i was out the door and the first person at the shelter : ) This time there were plenty of people to help me! I told them which dog i wanted to see, this nice man brought her out and I played with her for about 10min and said "ill take her, she is perfect" She fit every part of what i was looking for! Her owner just didn't want her anymore and dropped her off there, she had been there for a while.

Next thing you know im filling out paper work and the guy said "im gonna give you a discount today" got her for $60 including them fixing her and putting a chip in her!!! She immediately went in for surgery and I was to pick her up by 2pm. So from there i went to work, took a lunch at 12:45, went to PETCO and bought everything she would need..New dog bowl, food, treats, toys, shampoo, brush, collar etc....i get the counter and the lady says "did you just adopt a dog" I said "yes, for my dad" she says " you get 50% off food today and 20% off everything else" REALLY!!! Wow, suddenly everything was just falling into place for me...

I picked little girl up from the shelter after petco, she was so happy but so nervous. Poor thing just got fixed and had no idea where she was going.....So I load her in the hummer and off we go....I drop her off at home and lock my babies out side while she is in the house trying to relax and recover from getting fixed and then back to work i go!!! Ugh what a busy day!!!

We decided to give my dad the dog that night. I wanted her to bond with him and not Josh and I and I did not want to confuse her on where her new home was gonna be....

We walk into my Dad's house with a huge bag of dog food and a basket full of dog goodies...my Dad looks at us like you gotta be kidding....Then we go out to the car and bring her in....

My brother was so excited! My Dad didn't know what to think so he said "i need to make a drink" The end result is... she's gonna have a great home...She slept with my Dad last night and after we left My bother text me with "thank you so much, this is the best gift i have EVER gotten"when we left Dad gave her a name "LUNA" she was curled up on the couch next to him with no worries in the world other then, finally i am home :) She is gonna have a GREAT life now.

Don't Mess Up Your Life With Do-It-Yourself Projects When God has A Plan For You

Believing that God will do what he says is quite different from waiting for him to do it. Waiting is hard, but believing while waiting is harder still....That's why people take things into their own hands.





Having patience it so unbelievably important. Important as a parent, wife, co-worker etc....Having Patience that God has big plans for us is something we all need to learn to do. I am so unbelievably into my bible right now. I love reading, learning and researching when i have trouble understanding what I've read. Sometimes I'll just sit there and keep reading my bible until i feel like I've almost confused myself...but at the end of the day ill tell Josh what i read and realize i do understand what i read i just need to verbally let it out or maybe write it out to put it all in perspective. I listen to K-Wave on my way home from work and what's so awesome about that is a lot of the time, what i just read in the bible is what they are going over and then i understand it even more!


As we watch this world slowly fall apart, slowly turn into exactly what God did not intend for it to turn out to be we know that a new beginning is soon to come. God wants us to be one again, to learn how to have compassion for one another and help one another in need. If this world keeps getting worse then as a nation we will completely fall apart and there will be nothing left. I pray for a new beginning. I pray we learn how to love others (love is not a feeling, it is an action) that we learn to have compassion, become more giving, more heartfelt, more GOD like! This world has so much hate now, so many people living for the wrong reasons, so many people trying to screw everyone else over to get to the top, this world is full of evil and there are very few good people left......


I look at my life, my husband, my job, my animals, family and everything else my life contains and i am ever so thankful for every single thing i have been blessed with. My life is not about the money Josh and I make and the things we can buy, or how many people we can get to like us or want to be "friends" with us, nor is about how we can make ourselves look so much better then everyone else...Our life is full of Love-we give and do everything we can for one another, we are selfless for each other and for the people in our lives and for our animals! Our jobs consist of helping other people and making other people's lives easier (at least that's how i look at my job) not how can i make that money and who cares if i screw people over (like some people we know) Im thankful how healthy we both are and how healthy our families are but i pray and worry for those i know are struggling right now with their health and sometimes it brings me down. I am thankful God has provided us with jobs that allow us to live the way we do and sometimes i feel bad at how fortunate we are when half the population is struggling right now. When friends e-mail me or come to me saying "i really need a job, please let me know if anyone you know is hiring" i do all i can to help, i research and job hunt as much as i can for them. I have helped quiet a few people find a job and i've also been screwed over doing so a few times, but that's ok and i forgive. I strive to be a better person everyday and i know as long as im following the Lord he will do his best to mold me into the person he wants me to be. I only pray that more of this worlds population learn to do the same thing, before it's too late....

It's My Body not Yours!

A friend at work asked me to have lunch with her in the kitchen at work today. For those of you who know me, then you know it's rare i ever go to lunch anywhere other then my desk. Mainly because i like to work while i eat, i enjoy my work and i like to be on top of everything I'm doing. Secondly lunch time at my work is more like a social event of gossip. Everyone talks crap on everyone. I don't care who is doing what or who so and so doesn't like. I rather not be apart of that bad mouthing people and honestly i really don't care to hear it either. Lastly I'm constantly being made fun of at work for the health nut i am. I eat healthy and I'm very dedicated to working out on a daily basis. I eat lite throughout the day and save my biggest meal for dinner with my husband! I love cooking and i love good conversation while having dinner with him so i save my appetite and go all out at the end of each night. Most of the time i can out eat Josh and snack ALL night long after having a huge dinner. If you saw how i ate at night you would probably think I'm crazy! Anyway, my BMI is 18.9 which is perfect for a woman of my age, height and weight. My weight is perfect for my height and my body fat is considered that of an athlete. There is not one part of me that is underweight or under what i should be. So please tell me why EVERYONE at work must constantly harass me on how thin i am, how i hardly eat anything when they have no idea what i eat! Just because I'm not oinking down a bunch of bad food does not mean i don't eat! So i sat in the kitchen today and ate with my friend and sure enough i get 4 different people saying i eat like a rabbit, i need to gain weight, i don't eat real food etc....OMG get over it!!!! Stop telling me that every freakin time you see me and that is exactly one of the reasons i chose not to eat in the kitchen. I rather eat at my desk in peace and be left alone from negative rude comments! It's just so annoying to hear the same comments every single day and eventually it gets to you! I am healthy and i am happy so why do these people care what i look like?? What cracks me up is all these people who say these annoying comments are the same people who complain they want to lose weight and ask me for advice on how to go about it....Thank god i have my husband to listen to me vent and remind me how bitchy girls can be.

Back to work : (

Back to work today! After having 5 full days of nothing but relaxing, it's really hard to get into "work mode"! This morning Josh and I slept in as long as we possibly could keeping one another warm and just enjoying the last few minutes of our time together before we started another week of working our butts off. I was so lazy up until 9am when i forced myself to get ready for the day. I drank my coffee, had breakfast, laid on the couch with the dogs and played on the computer all up until the last minute of getting ready. No running for me today. I figured Mon-Sun i ran a total of 48 miles so today would be my day off ( i tend to forget that when working out, you do need a day or two to let your body recover).

I had such a wonderful 5 days off! Wednesday (the day before Thanksgiving) I had a great day at work. I was so excited with how caught up i was on my work and the vibe at work was great cause everyone was in a good mood and then 3pm came and the rest of my work day turned to crap! We got this e-mail saying everyone could leave at 3:30pm to get an early start on their long weekend and Holiday! Ya, well everyone except me! I cover the phones for the last hour and half of the night because our receptionist leaves at 4pm. Everyone was able to leave at 3:30 but they wanted to keep the phones on till 5:30pm! Are you kidding me? No one is gonna call if everyone is gone and how is that fair to me?!? Oh don't worry Steph you will get paid 2 hours of overtime...OVERTIME?!?! Really?? I don't want overtime! I don't care to make extra money, my time is way more valuable then money! Anyway, point is i was upset. I came to the front desk to cover the phones when our receptionist said "steph, i have nothing to do tonight, go home and ill cover" After arguing back n forth with her for about 10minutes on how i felt bad for her staying till 5:30 she insisted i leave and so i did. She told me that because im always so nice to her and because I'm always willing to help her out she wanted to do the same for me....so nice of her! So on my way home, i call Josh and I vent! Vent so much that i start crying about how I'm too nice and i always get taken advantage of at work because i always do EVERYTHING for everyone with no questions, no complaining etc..I know im too nice and im always looking out for everyone other then myself and normally i don't mind but for some reason i did mind this time. As always Josh has the perfect words and just the sound of his voice puts me at ease. When i got off the phone with him my mood completely turned around and i was ready to go home have some wine and enjoy the night! We had a great long weekend together! We spent time with Friends we have not seen in a while, spent time with our animals (who by the way did not want me leaving them this morning)we decorated the house for Christmas and got our tree!!! Once again i feel like i just fell in love all over again. I always feel that way when i get extra time with Josh...He just makes me smile 24/7 and we have so much fun with everything we do!

I'm driving to work this morning thinking about Josh, about the animals and about us and how blessed i feel to have married such a selfless wonderful man. I brought our receptionist Starbucks for the favor she did me on Wednesday and she was so thankful!! Then she goes on to say " that was so sweet of your husband to call work on Wednesday after you left and thank me for covering you and telling me how much he appreciates me helping you out". Huh? Josh called work on Wednesday?? She's like "ya, that was so sweet of him"! He never told me he called to thank her but every thought i was thinking on the way to work about how lucky i am just made me feel 10times more lucky! 10 times more blessed! I truly have such an amazing husband that has such a huge heart!!! The best part is, he doesn't just show me his huge heart, he shows everyone and all who are in our lives!!! I love you my love and you still amaze me everyday. You make my everyday so perfect and i wouldnt trade it for anything in the WORLD!