Kenzie Blogs Life: dogs

ThrowBack: Europe

10:00:00 AM

There are just some trips that you remember for ages. Whether it be the first time going out of state, the first time going somewhere with just your friends, or the first time you've seen the ocean. 3 years ago I had the lucky chance to go on my first trip overseas. Italy, Greece and Turkey.

It was the 10th of July 2012.

My mothers side of the family had been planning this trip for over a year, there were originally 10 people in our group, unfortunately my Grandpa hurt his foot and was unable to join us, making our party a group of 9.

Our first stop was in Rome Italy.

I can still remember the dark green stair case we had to take to our apartment-style hotel room. I could tell you the exact place we had our first meal, after a 9 hour flight, we were quite delirious with lack of sleep and that could be why the pizza tasted like bites of heaven. The gelato was incredibly smooth, and tasty and I'm pretty sure I could probably survive on gallons of the stuff.

After staying in Rome, virtually walking everywhere, seeing the Coliseum, Spanish Steps, The Vatican and Trevi Fountain, watching a tan Italian man smoke a cigarette on his balcony only to have him wave at me and be joined by his equally as tan girlfriend, it was off to the cruise ship.

This ship would serve incredible food, hold some interesting people and we'd make a few friends as well.

We stopped in Sicily first, wandering the beautiful streets of Messina, standing on Mt Etna. (the latest eruption has been 16 May 2015!). The difference in pizzas from Rome to Sicily was interesting. Though both were equally as tasty!

We spent our time on the cruise ship exploring, meeting new friends from different states and countries. Months after the cruise we'd still be talking, and keeping up via facebook.

We would stop during the day in Mykonos, and Santorini, and also Turkey.

My favorite was definitely Oia, where there was a kissing fish store and endless shops and beautiful scenery at every turn.

We spent a day at the beach in Mykonos, and spent another day discovering my new love of couscous in Turkey.

There was a little marketplace set among some hills in a Turkish village where there were plenty of puppies and cats!

We also stopped along the Amalfi Coast at the end of our trip.

We also saw Pompeii, and stopped (again) and a little bakery.

I fell in love with this part of Europe and I think this was the trip that made me realize how big the world really is. I also have been obsessed with going back ever since. Hopefully next summer (cross your fingers) I'll be in England, and back to Italy and Greece and hopefully more countries.

The best part of the trip was probably that none of us could use our phones, because of overseas charges. That might have been the reason the trip was so enjoyable. Because I was unreachable. (though nobody really wanted to reach me anyway).

There's so much more to explore and I can't wait to get back.

What was your favorite vacation/holiday? Where would you like to visit?

I hope you liked the little Throwback post!

I liked reliving it!

Kenzie

bestfriend

Little Update

10:00:00 AM

I've only written about her here and there in a few posts since she passed...but it's been a little over 9 months now, and in September it will be one year exactly.

If you're new to this blog, I'm talking about my dog. Sadie.

Everything is still really different. But let's be real, at the same time, it's been really difficult for me. I still wake up and expect her to be there, waiting to go outside. When I come in from outside I still flinch because the door might hit the dog bowl..but there isn't one there.I think about her everyday, and what we'd be doing together if she were still here.

When she was gone the first couple of weeks I had to stop putting the cereal bowl on the floor for her to lick. Being at work helped a lot, and my co-workers will probably never know just how much they've helped me (like when I feel all of the sadness at once and I go into work and someone will say how my smile makes their day.) Maybe I'll tell them someday. Maybe they'll read this post. Maybe not. Sadie always knew when I was upset, and would come into my room, I never had to tell her that I felt sad or that I wanted a doggy hug.

I've never lost anyone this close to me before. So I'm not even sure if it's normal to still have sad days. I have dreams yet, not very often but sometimes and she's there. Recently, I had one that she came back and we only had a full 24 hours to be together, and we went to all of our favorite spots. I got her vanilla ice cream in a pup sized cup, we sat outside together and drove to a new park. My new friends got to meet her, though she already knew who they were. I stopped at my coffee shop and got her whipped cream in a little cup and we spent the night with lots of cuddles. She could also talk, I mean it was a dream after all. Then she was gone again, back into the silver heart necklace with pink paw prints on it, that I wear every day still. I woke up in tears because I had to wake up and she had to go back.

I don't like to relive how she passed, and I don't like when it's brought up. Saying she's gone is one thing but reliving the details of it, is awful.I could tell you about the first Spring Storm that rolled in while I was at University and I wondered if she could hear it up in heaven and if she was scared.

I miss her. I really do. But seeing that she's better and healthier in my dreams does give some kind of comfort I guess. I just wish I could walk with her again and drive with her again. She was my best friend, and sometimes I feel really a lone without her. I write emails to her that she'll never read but that helps too. ,Even though dogs can't understand you, they'll never tell your secrets to anyone.

I posted a sappy post on her birthday over on my instagram, here it is if you're looking.

(Sorry this is kind of deep, writing about her makes me feel a bit better.)

Basically just wanted an excuse to write about her again. Bring her back to the blogs every now and then.

Back to other posts soon! I hope you're all having a great summer! I'm feeling a giant baking binge coming on soon! :)

Have you ever lost someone or a pet before? Any Advice?

Have you done anything fun this summer so far? Any big plans?

Have you tried any new desserts? I recently found some vanilla salted caramel ice cream and chocolate raspberry ice cream...I'm cutting back on sugar. It's torture not to eat the whole bin.

xxxx

70s

Traveling Back in Time

9:30:00 AM

If you've been reading my blog for awhile, or at least a few posts back, you know that I wanted to get out more and try new things. Thursday started off by running a few errands with my mom and my sister and I tagged along because some shops in my downtown area were putting on a new event called 'First Thursdays'. It happens from now until October on the first Thursday of every month. After wandering about the mall for a bit we decided to head outside to see if any of the shops were ready yet and to see what it was all about. (We were about 30 minutes early...)

The first shop we went into was the bakery. This bakery sells delicious cupcakes (my favorite has to be the Peanut Butter Cup one). Ugh. As soon as we walked in I spotted them. Five summery yellow colored Macarons. I've been searching for these for over a month! I've never tried them before but I was too excited to really care, dropping a five dollar bill off and taking a few photos of them. Saving them for dessert.

I didn't buy any cupcakes, I'm trying to cut back on sugar. Slowly.

Tucking my Lemon-Strawberry Macarons into my camera case, we went off to the other shops.

There was a deli serving Sicilian Pizza and other goodies, sporting an 80s themed card board bus in front of its windows.

(Sorry the photo is a little blurry)

Though it would have been fun to try some Sicilian pizza, the three of us already had our minds set on Sushi. Off we went down the red cobblestones and into a sweets shop. (I really am trying to tone down the sugar, I promise I didn't buy a thing!!) We also stopped into the downtown grocery. Somewhere we probably would never stop had it been a regular day downtown, and honestly we may not have even traveled down that far. It smelled delicious, everything looked delicious and it was fun to see the little place.

There were some living statues outside of one of the shops, I met the girls dog, he is ADORABLE. I didn't snap any photos of him because I was too busy petting him, not really sorry about it. I did take a photo with her though!

As we went along, popping into shops on our way to get food, we learned what each place had to offer, a lot of them were places I probably wouldn't go into, but I would now after attending the event.

After circling the streets, we decided it was time for our sushi stop.

I tried something new, again, this time a Salmon Avocado Roll, while my mom got the usual Spicy California Roll, and honestly I really couldn't tell a difference between the Salmon Roll or the (non spicy) California roll..I couldn't really taste the Salmon though it was still good though!

After eating sushi and a fortune cookie, along with a taste of my sisters giant box of chicken fried rice, it was time. I had walked with them for about an hour and all along they rustled in my camera bag, calling my name.

I bought a box of five Macarons (that's how they came) without knowing whether or not I would like them. And I LOVED THEM. Even though they're not authentic French Macarons, they are still tasty and I cannot wait to try out real ones very soon (when my parents get back from their trip to Europe...no they're not taking me :( )

With our bellies full, we returned to the car to go home. My mom and I finished off the day with a 10 mile bike ride when we got home. It consisted of me not being able to stop because the bike is high, and a bug being stuck in my eye. It was all okay though!

I think this event was interesting and I actually had fun going into each store, not all of the stores participated so hopefully more will. Each store that did participate had an old fashioned post card that you were meant to pick up (and turn in for a prize if you collected all 35). But I didn't want to return mine, I got 19.

I also took this really cool photo.

Have you ever done anything like this before? Or even tried Macarons before? What are your favorite kind? I hope your summers are off to a great start!

As always, thanks for reading!

(make sure to check out the links page to see where you can get more posts and things)

See you next time!

Kenzie

(check out how to connect with me here!)

baby

My Best Friend

1:30:00 PM

I wasn't sure how "ready" I would be to write this post. It may or may not sit in my drafts for awhile after typing this all out.
With a heavy heart, I have to tell you that Sadie (that little dog that always pops up in these posts) passed away on Thursday September 25th at 4:05 am.
It was really difficult to make the decision, but she was in so much pain and I just wanted her to be okay again, but I knew she couldn't live that way anymore. She knew too.
So instead of being sad and crying like I have been for the past few days, I thought I would reflect on her life.

Sadie was born on May 29th, 2001.

I wished upon a star in the fall of 2000, and she came into my life in the Summer of 2001.

So I decided to sift through loads of pictures throughout the years and place them here.

I thought maybe waiting awhile to write this post would be fine. Though, looking at all of these pictures and finding quotes made me tear up a bit. There will always be little reminders, I have her collar hanging from my rear view mirror.

Like this one.

Yes it was really hard to say goodbye, Sadie was my best friend, she was always there no matter what, waiting for me to come home from school or work. She never held grudges and I guess that's the best thing about dogs right?

They're the only thing that will love you more than themselves.

And maybe looking at things that way, we should learn to live a little more like dogs.

I'm glad she's not in anymore pain but I do miss her and yes it is weird, not finishing homework and coming out to the living room to see her on the couch. Or asking if she wants to go for walks, or car rides.

I hope if any of you have pets that you hurry over to them right now and give them a squeeze. Because you're all they have. They don't get out of the house like we do, they sit and wait and are still a million times happier to see you than they were five seconds ago.

I was really worried about posting this as I don't even know if it portrays how much I love her, or does her life justice. But I think maybe it does.

Sorry this was really cheesy and sappy. I do hope you all are having a great October so far!

Kenzie

adventure

A curly visitor

1:30:00 PM

No I'm not talking about Harry Styles from One Direction coming to Wisconsin on the 28th of August to watch a Packers (his favorite football team) game. I still need to meet him. Yes I'm still slightly salted at the fact that those boys aren't doing a show at Lambeau for their Where We are Stadium Tour.

Moving on...

The other weekend, shortly after Harry had popped up another curly headed guest arrived at my dads house. His name is Jack. He has gray hair, beady eyes and walks on four legs.

Jack, belongs to my grandmother and he was visiting while she had gone on a trip up north.

Sadie was not too pleased by his presence in "her" household.

Once Sadie sat herself in my lap, she would growl everytime poor Jack would walk by.

My dad and I did take them both on a walk, as I would have felt bad only taking one dog and not the other.
Jack is much more energetic than Sadie is, and she wasn't too sure what to think of him following her around as she tried to go about her business.

They were both moving too quick for me to take a proper photo.

Eventually they did get used to eachother and seperated themselves with no problems the rest of the night.

I know this post was much shorter than I meant it to be but I haven't blogged about Sadie for awhile, and so I thought I would squeeze this one in!

I hope you enjoyed it!

Thanks for reading!
Don't forget to follow me on social media (you can find those at this link!)

See you next time!
xx
Kenzie

america

Fourth of July Festivities

10:31:00 AM

There are a lot of holidays that certain countries celebrate just for themselves, though you definitely do not have to be living there or even born there to celebrate with the crowd. For America, it’s the Fourth of July. It’s our Independence Day and we celebrate with friends, family and neighbors from all around.

Of course, different families celebrate in their own unique ways. It’s pretty typical where I live, to celebrate the holiday two different ways, the first one being, pack up the car and head up north to send fireworks into the air on a lake. The second typical way to celebrate America’s Independence Day is to gather at someone’s house and have a party.

So Kenzie, what do you do to celebrate the Fourth of July?

Well, personally, for my family we celebrate on Saturday. Since the actual Fourth of July can be any day of the week, we usually pick that Saturday to celebrate. This year it was the fifth. If you’re not confused already, the fourth of July was celebrated on the fifth of July at my house. I do have to say, we did pop over to the local Fourth of July fair that was happening in town for a little while on the actual fourth, then had desserts at my grandparents after. We also took a ride in my step-dad’s convertible, the weather was so nice!

The best thing about the Fourth of July celebration is that there is a lot of food. Which is great! I love food! Usually, families will cook up hamburgers, hotdogs or brats, or even a combination of the three. We had hamburgers and brats this year. There’s also usually Beer, Water and Soda to drink. The house was decorated with red white and blue all over. In the garden, on the shed, in the planters, where ever you looked you would probably spot a flag or colors of it.

The party was great! People came with smiles on and bellies to fill! Did I mention there was a lot of food? It’s a good way to see people who have busy schedules in the summertime and have a bit of a catch up time. Everyone brings a dish to pass, which is really great! Everyone makes such good food! There were an array of desserts, pasta salads, dips, fruits and a lot of other things! My favorite were deviled eggs. Anytime I can get my hands on some of those is great!

At the party, I wore a navy blue dress from Old Navy, a red necklace I made when I was probably in the 7^th grade and my favorite strappy sandals also from Old Navy! The weather was amazing, it wasn’t too hot but it wasn’t too cold! Just perfect!

After eating the crowd stuck around for a while, thinning out here and there until there was a nice sized group around the fire pit. I love sitting by the fire, it’s one of my favorite things about summer. There weren’t any s’mores though, we were all stuffed full of food anyway! There were a few fireworks shot off of course to end the night!

There’s a group of people who stay over night, my parents friends, from Minnesota (that’s to the right of Wisconsin if you look at the map ) and in the morning we all have a nice breakfast. The adults drink Bloody Mary’s while my step-dad cooks up the bacon and eggs over the fire.

Even Sadie got in on the action!

It’s so good! My grandparents come over as well, since they live nearby.

It was a really great Fourth of July weekend! I hope you had fun wherever you celebrated, and if you didn’t I hope you had a great weekend anyway!

Thanks for reading!

Kenzie

dogs

A day with the Dogs

1:00:00 PM

Having the need to cure the boredom that has started to sink in during this Summer, I decided to go to an event. The second to last day of June, there was a Festival. Not just any festival but a Shih Tzu Festival!

It was the second annual Shih-Tzu Rescue Festival. If you don't know, a Shih Tzu is a type of dog. That's what Sadie is!

There were tons of dogs there, being the massive dog lover that I am, I was in heaven!
The even was heald by the Shih-Tzu Rescue of Central Wisconsin. It's a non-profit organization that saves the lives of abused, abandoned or unwanted Shih-Tzus or Shih-Tzu Mixes. Which is really sad to think of anyone not wanting a dog. They're great, I can't imagine what I would be like without a dog.
Since Sadie is black and white, it's really interesting to see all of the different patterns and colors on the dogs! They were so cute! I wish I could have taken one home with me but I already have one. I just don't see Sadie wanting to share her spot on the couch looking out the window.

They were sooooo sweet! I just wanted to scoop one up and run away with it.

I really can't tell you how hard it was to not do that!

They were also selling dog treats, magnets and various other things that I can't remember! They were also grooming dogs, but I couldn't watch for long because the woman doing it was putting sparkles and stickers on the dog and that just didn't feel comfortable to me to even be there. You don't go for a haircut and have your hair person put stickers in your hair do you? Probably not.

It made me really happy to come home to Sadie though. I just wanted to cuddle her.

She wasn't feeling the same way though and opted to cuddle her toy under my bed. Party pooper :( .

It did bring more awareness into my life about organizations like these. Who knows, maybe when I'm older and living in a house of my own I might even rescue one!

Have you ever rescued a dog? My cousins have a rescue dog, kind of, that's a different story. Do you know someone who has rescued a dog?

Thanks for reading!

See you next time!

Kenzie

(don't forget to follow me on bloglovin! Just click that button to the right!)

accesories

Winter Favorites

12:00:00 PM

Since Winter is almost over (hopefully) I thought I'd share some of my favorite things that I've been loving!

First, is this owl mug. I love drinking tea or apple cider especially when it's below zero and I'm obsessed with owls! It's a happy combination for the not-so-happy weather!

Second, is this gold nail polish by Maurices and a sparkly over-coat called "Holiday Rebel" from Target. I used these two colors for the holiday season because they made me feel more christmassy!

This also makes me really want Tanya Burr's new nail polish I really need to try it! If you have it what color is your favorite??

This is Big Ben. It's also a pencil sharpener but I don't want to make it dirty so I like to have it on my desk. Since my goal is to get to London and see this (and many other things) in real life! It's a nice little reminder that I can get there! ..hopefully sooner than later.

Okay now for clothes and accessories! This is my scarf bin. I have a lot, and I've gotten a lot of them for presents so I'm not really sure where all of them have come from!

The scarves below are all my infinity scarves, I love these for the winter especially when it gets really cold! I usually grab the red one because it matches a lot of the shirts I have and the others I usually wear with a plain colored shirt!

Aside from the infinity scarves I also wear these regular scarves! The one in the middle is the biggest as it's bunched up, it's from H&M one of my favorite stores!

Some of my favorite necklaces are my animal necklaces! These first three are owls!

This one was given to me by my Great Aunt and I love it! I wear it a lot!

This is the newest of my collection, I love wearing him because he has a little clock inside! I haven't set it yet though (That's why there's an orange tag at the side)

And this one I wear the most, if I need some good luck I like to have this one on me!

These are my only elephant necklaces but I like how they're both unique!

This last one is my ultimate favorite. I got it in Greece when I went in 2012. They called it the 'Eye of Medusa' and it means good luck! And since I like good luck I like to wear it a lot!

Now for everyone's favorite, my favorite shirts!

Since my college is really cold inside I love wearing sweaters!

This one is from Old Navy. It's really nice and warm and I love foxes it's so cute!

This one is amazing I literally cannot tell you how much I adore it! I wear it with the scarf or I can wear it plain! It's by JawBreaking (shopjawbreaking.com) It's made in America and the material is SO soft. It makes me wish it was socially acceptable to wear something 7 days a week.

This pink one is also really pretty! It's got stripes on the back and a nice design on the sleeve. My favorite color is pink so you might find out my closet is 80% pink.

On the left, is a really warm blue-ish/green color that i've recently been obsessed with. And the one on the right is just a simple stripe top which I really like for lounge wear and I do wear it a lot. I believe both of these are from Target, I'm 95% sure since I shop there quite a bit.

Annnnnnd last but never least, my favorite any season is my dog (see I told you I take a lot of pictures of her but really how could I not?!)