Easter Birthday

Only 15 days later...{my birth day in pictures.}

Good Morning ~ I am 29. I snapped pics throughout the day as a way to photograph the moment. So, here was my first sight of myself as a 29 year old. The first thing I did was get up and put my work out clothes on so I could do some yoga. This is my absolute favorite work out shirt right now ~ got it in a clothes swap and it was the best swap ever! Loose but not baggy, good arm coverage, nice v neck... perfect. And isn't my new iPhone cover darling? Those are black, clear & hot pink rhinestones...Sassy little birthday gift!



Ah... back to the day...can't start the morning without this little one at my feet.

Good morning, baby Stella! Such a happy girl wagging her tail. Look what we found waiting for us in the kitchen ~

First we found this box in the corner...

And this jewel sitting on the counter! Glee ensued! I use a hand held emulsifier to mix things instead of a blender, so I figured instead of getting a blender I'd just go straight to a juicer. Ali inspired me and by now... I am in love!

Moving along ~ it is Easter Sunday, so we best get together our Easter Attire & get out the door to church!

Look ~ I didn't wear my yoga clothes to church! Interestingly enough, I wore this dress in Orange Beach last year on my birthday. Faux Pas? It was liberating picking out my "Easter dress" the morning of church and not fooling with the fuss of specifically buying something new. Aren't we always buying something new?

Justin is happy to coordinate with my clothes. I love that about him.

We were both very excited to be enjoying brunch outside. Enjoyed it so much my shoulders got burned and I had no idea!

Couldn't get enough of the sun, so we opened the sun roof, loaded the babies and headed to the park!

See... there we are coordinating again. I believe this was one of those moments where we walked out of our closest and were like, "We match!" Funny how that can unknowingly happen.

Nosey-Rosies love to people watch at the park!

Then we headed down to see/feed the ducks.

Looks like they are having fun in that water. Maybe I could too? I like baths.

And in she goes...

Loving every last minute! Until it dawns on us. Our dog just jumped in a nasty ass park pond!

Is that the smuggest face you've ever seen? Yeah, she smelled like a crotch after that, but that bath was worth it for getting to swim with the ducks.

We still couldn't resist the beautiful weather so we came home and washed our cars. Manual labor on my birthday? It was really nice to be outside.

I ended the evening snuggled on the couch with my 3 loves watching Sunday night shows. As I get older, my birthday is taking new shapes and form from the wild and crazy birthdays of my early 20s. I will not lie to you and say that I took to this change beautifully. There are definitely times that I miss not being able to sit down at a dinner table with 10 of my closest friends, but this is my life now. I'm learning to love where I am and trying to never forget how undeservedly blessed I am by the simple things. Growing up and old isn't all bad.

We are the 2 best friends that anyone can have!

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that we adopted a new dog. Our dogs are our babies, so I have to be very careful to clarify when I slip and say ~ we adopted a new baby. She's just black and furry and has four legs.

Justin and I had been talking about this for a while and decided to go through with it after Christmas. The main reason we wanted another dog was for Lola to have a companion. Lola has a LARGE personality and never meets a stranger. She about goes into cardiac arrest every time we mention going to her friends house, so we thought perhaps she'd like a friend in her house.

We went to the shelter on a Monday and looked around. Listen here... if you don't want a dog at all, GUARD YOUR HEART ~ don't go to the shelter! Your heart will most certainly break and you'll fall in love. When they took Stella out of her cage, she wrapped arms around me and melted my heart. We gave it a couple of days, and then brought Lola back with us so the two of them could "bond." As best you can bond in a concrete room with the sound of dogs yelping and barking in the back ground. We didn't expect them to be BFF at first sight, but the main point was that they got along and didn't fight.

I'll be honest ~ Lola is a spoiled little first child/only child diva and I was unsure how this new transition would go, but from day 1 she's been very protective of her little sissy. We are 3 weeks in now and it's been so nice to have two.

I was a little worried that having two dogs would be major difficult, but I can't explain how MUCH easier it was to go from 1 to 2 than from 0 to 1. They entertain themselves and mostly Stella does whatever Lola does. It feels very strange to not be followed everywhere we go in the house! However, their personalities are VERY different.

Lola ~ sassy, independent, firecracker, leader

Stella ~ lovey, sweet, gentle, follower

I do feel like we probably adopted some one's almost trained precious house dog. She's very well minded and understands No, Sit, Stay, etc. There have been a few accidents, but she mostly has them in the bathroom or the concrete floor.

The girls are the best of friends and partners in crime. Pictured above is them with their favorite toy ~ the paper towel roll. Lola is guarding it and Stella is on the look out. But look at those faces... how could we not love these babies?

Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

just a few things.



1. I am not dead! I have a lot of things swimming around in my head, but haven't felt like making time to blog them out. It doesn't help that our laptop completely broke. We are in the process of having the hard drive retrieved and a air card shipped so we can use our desktop at home.


2. I had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. When we surveyed the damage of Christmas it was apparent that we got a lot of STUFF! This is the reality of life without kids, I suppose. The start of a new decade has kick started me into being a different, hopefully better, version of myself. It's a journey, not a destination.


3. The other day I made a beautiful vision board out of a cool frame I found. I have said vision board right by my closet. Staring at my goals/resolutions everyday have made me much better at keeping them.


4. To start the year I did a "No Crap" detox week. No Meat, No Dairy, No Sugar, No Caffeine, No Processed. I lost 4lbs that week and have been taking these. I hope to blog about both of these incidents on my other blog ~ http://www.fourfatchicks.blogspot.com/. In the meantime, go check out the newest feature of Ryan cooking her way through the weight watchers cookbook. VERY cool!


5. Last but not least ~ we have a new addition! Es No BABY! I will go more into detail on a separate post, but I thought you'd like to know that we adopted a new fur-baby into our home! Meet Baby Stella! She is a long haired, dachshund/terrier mix. She has been a delightful addition to our family and she and sister, Lola, are becoming the best of friends.

babysitting

I haven't babysat an actual child in a few years, unless you count going to work every day and then it's more like baby sitting really big children. I kid. It's not always like that.

Last week however, we did babysit two little furbabies that belong to our neighbors. It's not always easy for dogs to get along especially when 2 of them are older {Lady(lab) & June(dachshund)} and 1 of them is a spoiled rotten diva {Lola}, but these 3 are the best of friends making each of our homes 2nd homes to these babies. It goes without saying ~ we LOVE our neighbors!


I do realize that more than likely no one will find this as cute as me & their mama, but this was my best attempt at being a mommy-blogger! Trust me, I look at every one of your child's pictures and I think they are all really cute!

believing the best

Lately, I've been working on believing the best instead of assuming the worst in everyone. Specifically my marriage, but it's trickled into my personal life & I've been surprised at how pleasant things have been with this outlook. It's really helped me with keeping that slow to anger thing in check. However, I'm not perfect & I certainly have to make a conscious choice to think this way.

I knew Justin's week had been about 100x's busier than my week last week & mine was pretty busy, so I didn't have expectations of a clean house. We had company over for dessert last Wednesday before we left on Thursday & embarrassingly enough, I rinsed those dishes and left them in the sink, so it wasn't super clean when I left.

When we walked in the door yesterday afternoon there was this rank stench. I thought to myself holy, hell ~ messy is one thing, stinky is a whole 'nother ballgame! That's when we found Lola & our kitchen floor covered in Lola's "Big Girl Style" mess & lots of... well, let's just say she had it coming out both ends! I grabbed her and headed to the bath & Justin tackled the kitchen.

Our dog eats everything, so really there was no telling what she got into. After the bath we headed to the yard & met up with our neighbor who is the "Mama" to Lola's best friends, Lady & June. Our neighbor is text book southern belle ~ sugary sweet, perfect manners & her finger firmly on the pulse of neighborhood gossip. Her boyfriend came & got Lola on Saturday while we were gone so she could play with her friends. We are very lucky to have neighbors that love Lola & are always more than willing to help us out when work keeps us from home.

We're catching up on the past week & she says, "Lola had tacos for dinner last night & she loved - OH MY GOSH, THAT'S WHY SHE GOT SO SICK!" I had to laugh, of course my greedy gut dog dug into the tacos to the point of sickness at the neighbors house! She's the opposite of text book southern belle.

Regardless of the house being clean or dirty or even stinky, I'm so glad to be home & I woke up this morning to Lola lying on my chest staring at me as if to say, "I've got you back & I'm not ever letting you leave again."

Happy Birthday to You, WOOF!

{LOLA on her actual birthday. I apologize for not putting bows in her hair for the occasion}

Saturday was Lola's 1st Birthday. Not the birthday of the 1st day we had her, but her actual BIRTHday. In the words of Allie, I'm an idiot savant, so I remember tons of silly things. Like for example ~ my 10 year high school reunion is being planned as we speak, and we are having it on the birthday of one of the girls planning it. Even after 10 years, I know that her birthday is October 16th. Such a silly waste of space, BUT it's the charm of me!

I'm admittedly crazy about my dog, but all we did to celebrate was sing a few times & enjoy a denti-chew. I know... such a splurger!

2 days after we brought Lola into our home, I called my mom in a panic! She was on her way to Kentucky & Justin was far away in Atlanta. Lola had her first flea and I was a basket case. I thought for sure she was going to die from the fleas and my house would be infested with them. I quickly got her into the Dr. & $100 she was good as new. If you're thinking of buying a puppy, let me be the first to tell you that they cost way more than their initial cost!

Less than 1 year later we're dozing on the couch enjoying a perfect Sunday afternoon and Justin says, "Hey, what's this on her back." Holy Hell... it's a TICK! ICK! I can feel the tears welling up, but I keep it together, because Justin is here and there is a good chance that from the 40 Days & 40 nights of rain we've gotten in Mississippi {Sorry to those of you in Drought mode} we've got a yard infested with nasty ticks & gawd knows what else.

There is an art to removing ticks, and you have to grab them by the head, not the body with tweezers, lest you run the risk of the ticks head breaking off into the body. Once the tick is removed, you can not flush it OR try to kill it in water, you need rubbing alcohol. We don't have any rubbing alcohol, so I drowned the little turd in WINE! It totally did the trick and made me feel very resourceful!

She's totally a toot nanny & after spending a week with Sid I now realize just how neurotic she is. Justin thinks it's because she's a puppy, but I kind of think she'll always be this way. Either way, I'd pick her out of the litter every time.

{Read about the 1st day that we ever brought Lola Home ~ HERE.}

calling any VETS or dog lovers

Do not let this sweet little muffin face fool you, we have a serial eater on our hands. Is this normal? Our little Lola wants to eat EVERYTHING. When she was a little baby I just wrote it off to her teething and needing to naw on things, but now it has totally turned into her DEVOURING things!


I came home the other night and Justin told me that he was certain she had thrown up part of her stomach. Oh, that's another thing, because she eats everything she puts in her mouth, she throws up DAILY. It worried me, until I went to put on my camisole the other day and realized it didn't have straps anymore because they had been CHEWED off! Lola had not thrown up her stomach, she threw up the strap of my camisole.


What the hell? Do any of you have this problem with your little monster dogs? We keep her locked up during the day, with nothing around, so I'm guessing as soon as we let her out she searches for anything she can get her teeth on!


Check what I found today...


She snagged these from the coffee table. Apparently, she's on weight watchers too with her fat free pringles.

And much to Justin's delight, she turned some of my undies into crotchless undies!

HELP! How on earth can I get her to stop before she dies a painful death by ladies undergarments?

The Pampered Pooch

As promised, here are pictures of my little princess after her day 'o beauty! I picked this place, because they referred to dogs as babies on their website. Upon arrival I knew that Lola would receive the best pampered treatment a dog could ever want.

The first time we had her groomed we took her to PetSmart in Austin and when we came to pick her up the man glared at me and said, "Here's your DOG!" "Oh, and here are her bows... we couldn't get them in." Then they charged me $50 to cut my 8lb dog's hair. If they treated her like he acted to me, I'm sure she acted terrible.

I expected to hear the worse from these groomers too, because she's a very excitable dog and I thought maybe she just acts bad at the groomers.

But she was a perfect angel and they loved her. The lady even invited her to come and hang out with them anytime I didn't want to leave her home alone!

Thank you for indulging me!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

AS ALWAYS ~ Today is FRIDAY and you know what the means for the FAT CHICKS! WEIGH IN DAY! Check out www.fourfatchicks.blogspot.com to see how we did this week!

Lo Lo Lo Lo Lola!

I haven't shared any photos of my darling fur-kid lately, and y'all just have to see how stinking adorable she's been. My Mississippi Sister-Friend was over last night and she of course had to love on Lola, because Lola wouldn't have it any other way, so I asked Lola if she wanted to leave with her. To which my friend replied to Lola, "Oh no, I'm sure I wouldn't give you all the attention that your mama gives you!" Sometimes I think I love my baby so much it's a little alarming.

Here's the little princess when we left Kentucky with our car packed to the brim. She likes to perch on the arm rest until she falls fast asleep for the duration of the trip. She took her first trip when we'd had her for about 15 days, and since July she's been many miles down the road, so she's got traveling down pat.

The two of us headed to Texarkana last week to drop by the Brown Eyed Girl Salon and Lola couldn't stand not being apart of the action. When I was getting my brows done she was standing on my chest so she could get a bird's eye view and of course she couldn't let my mom get her hair washed alone! You see, she's a girly girl that loves all things beauty, especially getting her daily blow out. No matter where she is in the house, if she hears the hair dryer she'll be at my feet in no time begging for her turn.

Lola likes it at our new home and has adjusted quite nicely. I can tell she is really loving southern living. When I do the laundry in the second bedroom she likes to stay on the look out with her baby.

Finally, we came home the other day and usually she's a BALL of energy, because the strenuousness of her life forces her into a deep sleep all day, but this day she was EXHAUSTED! Looks like someone figured out how to maneuver their body in between the couch and the window. I'm afraid she stand there and looks and barks all the live long day.

When I walked in tonight there were two little boys playing and they greeted me and I said hello back. As I reached my door they said, "Ma'am, there's a DOG in there!" I giggled to myself thinking of how she'd probably been barking her fool head off so they'd know she was there.

More pictures to come after her visit to The Pampered Pooch later this week. Could there be a more fitting name for LOLA's hairdo place?

My Baby is a Woman

Well, it's a big day in our household. Our little girl has become a woman on her 7 month birthday! I suspected FLO was on her way last night when I saw a curious spot on her bed, but my suspicions were confirmed this morning when I found two more tiny spots.

I'm going to head out right now and pick up some diapers for her so I don't find more tiny spots all over my house and on my couch! Christina, get Sidney ready because in a year and a half he and the little mama will be a match made in puppy heaven!

PS ~ Don't worry, we are not going to turn into a puppy mill, we're just going to make a lot of people very happy. Honestly, if I had a dollar for every time someone asked me if they could have one of her puppies I'd be a very rich woman!

under the wire

I made it... in more ways than one! For the final day of November I posted just under the wire (even on the East Coast) and for the trek from Austin in Post-Thanksgiving traffic I made it to Rockwall! Lola and I were in bumper to bumper traffic for MANY hours longer than we would have liked to have been, because we decided that the best move would be to leave Austin at 2pm. Which was the precise time that everyone else visiting the heart of Texas decided to leave for home. Thankfully I had a friendly pit stop along the way to rest my weary traveling heart.

Justin and I are in separate cars for the first leg of our trip, and will reunite when we leave my family to head to Kentucky. Thank the Laud, because I am not the distance traveler I used to be! Lola and I got very bored of our trip... the music got old, there were no new blogs to read, and Texas got third in the BCS rankings... son of a. Well, at least it's not Tech. (like any of us thought that would happen).

Now we are all weary from our first leg of travel, Ok maybe not weary, because if we're weary now we're in for a long trip...but safe and happy in Rockwall. Check that... Little Miss Lola is not weary ~ she traveled sitting pretty like the princess she is.

Halfway point

I have nothing to say about football this Saturday...don't fall out of your chair! I can't believe I'm already to the halfway point of NaBloPoMo! I imagined that it would be much harder than this, and I hope by saying that I didn't just jinx myself out of a creative thought for 15 days straight.

I have my favorite Saturday routine playing out, but it's coming to an end all too soon. Snuggled up on the couch... browsing the blogs I've missed this week... turkey cooking up on the TV ~ food network is finally working... Lola playing in the floor with her toys {read - her crate}. It's a brisk 48 outside and I'm holding tight to my coffee.

Some thoughts today...
~I can't believe in 2 weeks I'll be celebrating 1 year of marriage
~I'm so happy I'm not planning a wedding
~I might cry when I get back in my own kitchen
~I'm really going to miss all the Tex-Mex
~Will we ever have lazy weekends with no work
~Am I ready for my NEW new years resolution
~I need to get in the shower so I can go to work on a Saturday

Settle in my friends, 15 more days of posting. Thanks for following the journey this far.

Bringing out the brag book

Justin and I have both been pretty adament that we do not want to be the kind of people that dress our dog up in clothes. I'm happy to put bows in her hair and necklaces around her neck, and she's happy to wear them, but some of the clothes they make for pets do take it a little too far.

And then I ate my words.

I am far to cheap to actually buy a costume for Lola ON halloween, but I have no shame in waiting until the after halloween sales. I've had my eye on this bumble bee costume for the past few weeks, and I'll say that it might be the best $3.50 I ever spent.

Enlarge this on if you can, because it's my favorite Lola face ~ her Elvis Snarl.

It's a little sick, huh? I will be a bragging mess when I have REAL babies.

austin weekend 1

we had our first weekend in austin and I can already sense that our time here is going to go much to fast! It's amazing to me how much this city has changed in just 2 short years! Every time Justin and I are out for a drive I point out 15 different things that weren't here when I was last here. Times might be tough for everyone, but Austin didn't get the memo, because it's booming!

I have comprised a list that I am perfecting a will be sharing of Justin's Tex-Mex tour, but first things first. I had to let him try Juan in a Million and the Don Juan that saw me through many a hungover days when I lived in Austin. JiaM is not on the list, so there was no pressure for him to score their food, he just needed to eat it and enjoy it. I've only eaten the don juan when I had a gurgley empty drunk stomach, so I was worried it wouldn't be as good, but for $3.60 it was just as I remembered.

The $3.60 Don Juan Breakfast Taco

Justin made the beginners mistake of equating price to size and considered ordering 2. Then I schooled him on the ways of east side mexican food and he came to his senses. I was pleased that I could not scrape my plate like I used, but we still left feeling like stuffed pigs. So Shawna and I walked to Amy's Ice Cream for some exercise. I can report that I've also never seen Justin scarf any ice cream so fast.

then Lola made her first Austin friend... Lucy. The babies loved each other and are both looking forward to more fun times.

anyone else sick of seeing me in the same clothes, or is it just me and probably Justin? Gosh we've been gone a long time. If there are any volunteers willing to break into my house and send me more clothes options I promise I will not press charges!

"let Texas fill my soul." - pat green

In honor of the VP debates I wanted to show y'all my new Sarah Palin glasses. What do you think?

This was Lola and I right before we headed out to austin. She then spent the next 7 hours (traffic in ft worth and dinner in waco) curled up in my lap sound asleep. I was very much looking forward to showing Justin around Baylor and getting pictures by the bear pit, but the sun set before we got to hillsboro, so all that Sic 'Em Bears practice is going to have to be saved for another time.

We're staying at the edge of Austin, and when I woke up this morning it felt mighty nice waking up in the great state. It's hard to believe that I've been gone for 2 years. From the looks of things a LOT has changed around the city, but in a way it feels like i just left. I can report that I already have plans for 2 nights this week, and I've hardly been here for 12 hours. Gawd, it's so good to be home.

Dog Park Lola

I don't really want to be one of those bloggers that post every last thing their dog does, but Lola is really cute when she does stuff and when she was Dog Park Lola was no exception. This post reminds me of those silly local barbie emails... Highland Park Barbie... South Austin Barbie...Ashdown Barbie. Why do those always make me laugh and nod my head because the descriptions are so right on?

Last Sunday was perfect here, so we took advantage of our day off and slept in late then headed to panera bread so i could try their new tomato, mozzarella, basil and sun dried tomato pesto sandwich. which, by the way, was great, but i would have preferred a LOT more basil.

Next on our adventure in Norman we went to the dog park. Let me interrupt this story to give you expamle #4,623 on why i'm married to a great man. He graciously let the Indianapolis Colts (he was born and raised there) play their Sunday game without him all because his wife and Lola wanted to play outside. The fact that we made it home just in time to see the last 2 minutes of the game where Peyton Manning lead the Colts to victory is reason #3.5 why my husband is married to a great woman.

on being admitted to the dog park she's a little unsure...unsure of being cagged in and unsure why all the big dogs are on the other side and she's stuck on this side all alone.

so, she climbed up daddy's back for a better view. yes, we refer to ourselves as momma and daddy...she's our baby and wouldn't believe you if you told her she was a dog.

so this dog park thing isn't so bad, but it sure is hot and we're not going to partake in the community water bowl! we'll eat bugs, paper and dirty socks, but no sharing germs!

oh look... the first friend has arrived... Jake. What's a girl like Dog Park Lola to do?

roll over so new friend Jake can lick her tinkler, of course!

we finally left after more friends arrived and all had the chance at a lick at Lola's tinkler. Justin gave her a stern talking to on the way home about respecting herself and not allowing her tinkler to be violated by strangers. and one week later he's still lecturing her about the dangers of being Dog Park Lola ~ the whore.