Nine years and 6 months

My darling girl turned 9 on Monday the 27th.  I'm so happy to have her in my life.  As we've already taken a trip down memory lane about Fynn's life, I'll focus on this past year.  First off, to celebrate her birthday, Fynn got a HUGE bone...

Here she is waiting ever so patiently for her birthday bone.

And it wouldn't be a picture without a photo-bomb from Ella the foster cat.

Finally!

As of right now, we still haven't quite conquered the massive gift but it's ours and we're very happy to protect it!  

As fun as it is to celebrate her birthday, it's important to take a moment and remember that we almost didn't have this time with her.  Six months ago today, Fynn was rushed to the vet with a deadly case of bloat.  

Fynn post-bloat surgery

I cherish every day with her, not only because she's getting old and we're not sure how much longer she'll be with us but because this reality almost didn't happen.  So thankful.

So, in honor of the past six months that I consider a bonus, here's the past year in review.  

Aside from the obvious, we had a pretty good year.

This summer when the weather was good we took lots of leisurely strolls through the nearby cemetary with our brotha-from-anotha-mutha Milo.

We also went camping where we had the pleasure of sleeping right next to mom, what a treasure!

Fynn saying goodnight laying her head on my sleeping bag.

And we took lots of cruises with mom - one of our favorite things to do!

For Christmas, we got to go to lovely Lake Tahoe...

Fynn enjoying our stop at Lake Shasta.

And on Christmas day, we not only got to partake of lovely bows (our tradition)...

but also the love of our favorite Auntie Jennie.

This past weekend for her birthday we went to Neah Bay... one of Fynn's favorite places... where we got to go to the beach.  Like her parents, she's such a beach girl.

Fynn at Tsooes beach

Priceless

So grateful every day for my Fynn.

Why I am a music nerd...

As we all know, music plays a big part in my life.  While other people are keen to understand everything going on in a football game, I'm the one listening to the musical interludes.  I'm the girl in the restaurant who hears a good tune playing softly in the background and starts to dance... much to the embarrassment of my girlfriend:)  This all became even more clear last night as I heard a song on the radio and was like, "this song just makes me think of the Seahawks" and she was like, "what?"  I guess while I'm trying to pay attention to the plays at games, my head is automatically groovin when a song comes on... or alternately wincing in agonizing pain when the Sea Gals (Seahawks cheerleaders) dance to yet another awful white-rock song.

And now let's take a moment to address this issue...

Dear Sea Gals,

As much as I appreciate you trying to cater to those people in the audience who don't appreciate the various hip-hop tunes played during the game, dancing to awful white rock is not the solution. In the future, PLEASE select rock classics from the likes of Led Zeppelin or go for any 80's rock classics from the likes of Def Leppard.  (I think we would all love to see you dance to "Pour Some Sugar On Me")  Then at least we can actually enjoy your performance without plugging our ears.  Thanks.



So December ushered in the return of my favorite singing competition... the Sing-Off.  Now people may love American Idol or the Voice or all the other shows out there looking for singing talent but this show is the one with the musical chops.  As anyone who's ever sung with other people knows, it's hard to not only match pitch and tone but to also sing in harmony.  In a capella groups, that is all you do and since there are no instruments to keep you in tune, it is even more difficult as every flaw stands out.  After NBC cancelled the show after 2011, they decided to bring it back this past December.  While the harmonies and competition weren't as good as the third season (in my opinion) there were still amazing moments.  Here's my favorite song of the season (Colder Weather by the Zac Brown Band) being sung by the winner Home Free...

Awesome.

Season three had an amazing group called Afro-Blue from Howard University that had UH-MAZING jazzy tunes.  This was my favorite song of theirs from the season.  (Hint: if you want to skip over the intro discussing the group's journey to that week's tune, the song starts at 1:45)  

Impeccable... they were my second choice...


Season three's winner was Pentatonix.  (You can check out their YouTube channel here.)  After three seasons, they were the first to have such a complete sound, to do amazing pop effects, and they did it all with just five people!  Here is just one of my favs...

And here is another one I love...

And last but not least, this rendition that I find super sweet...

So... glad I had this opportunity to geek out... Thanks to NBC for bringing back a show with true musical grit ;)