Say hello to my "little" friend

I now own a horse dog. I'm the girl that always watches the American Kennel Club dog show, loves to dog-sit, wastes spends hours on petfinder.com, and constantly tells myself my job doesn't allow me to have a dog of my own. But then I got this email from a friend asking us to consider helping out a puppy who needed a new home. The puppy was 5 months old, and her owners just couldn't devote the time to her. She was free to a good home, and she was a registered Great Dane. Sold!! So I called my friend, got in touch with the current owners, and 3 days later I drove to meet my new friend. For 3 days, I was all over the place in my head trying to figure out how this would work, especially during my busy time of year in the Fall, but every con I had managed to have a solution. My biggest con...what do I do with her when I need to be in Phoenix for a week?? Take her to some friends who have lots of land and want to starting breeding Danes. See? It was meant to be, and a month later, I couldn't imagine not having a 65 lb (and growing) pup lounging on my couch, flying through my house at lightning speed, giving me whiplash with her tail, and adding so much energy to my house. Jessie will disagree with me across the board, but I think in another year she'll finally stop hating her new roommate. Without further ado...Meet Juno (Roman goddess of protection)

Vintage-y

Sometimes I take pictures of objects so I can edit them and possibly print them and possibly hang them up in my house. Then months go by and sometimes I remember about those pictures I was going to possibly edit and possibly print. Case in point, I forgot about these, and I actually took a few minutes to turn them into something I like. I don't know what I'll do with them yet, but at least I have the option now.

HD

About 5 1/2 months ago my sister birthed another beautiful boy, and I absolutely adore him!! He's all smiles and loves to cuddle, so clearly he took after his aunt - ha!

My mission is to make sure he gets just as many photos of himself as his big brother (the first child and grandchild) did. I'm the baby of my family, so I know how painful it is to see so many photos of your older sibling compared to the 20 that were taken of you. I'm surprised I've never gone to therapy for this. Actually, I'm not. Therapy is much too expensive! So far it's been a challenge since he didn't even get a Halloween costume, and to help my cause, I had my cousin make a little bear hat and matching diaper cover for him. Granted, the photo below is only him wearing the hat because it was much too cold the day I saw him to put him on a tile floor in nothing but a diaper and hat, but he is still so flipping cute! I may not have kids of my own, but I have common sense...most of the time. We have a make-up shoot scheduled soon, and I can't wait to see if he can look even cuter than he did that day.



Something about his smile makes me heart hurt, but in a good way of course!

Occupation:

Full-time Recruiter, Part-time Photographer, Seasonal Pie Maker



And I thoroughly enjoy it!

You gotta grow up sometime.

I turned 30 in February. I was and am completely fine with that, but I knew the days of not caring about certain parts of growing older were behind me (i.e., wrinkles). I read a Q&A section Family Circle magazine recently - yes, I do have a subscription to Family Circle courtesy of my Mamaw, and yes, I am the only grandchild she has that is both single and without children. My Mamaw told me it has good articles, and it really does. I can't do much right now with topics on raising pre-teens or keeping my kids safe online, but the recipes and the home decor ideas are pretty nice.

This particular Q&A I read was about skin care. A reader asked, "when should I begin an anti-aging skin regime?" The answer, "if you are asking the question, it probably means you should start now." Well, I've asked myself that question a few times here and there, but never done anything about it. Today, though, I've reached a new chapter in my life, and I will now be using these products on a daily (hopefully) basis. It really helps that they all smell so amazing! If I'm going to use a night creme, I'm all for it being good smelling and moisturizing as I drift off to sleep.



If this new habit I'm trying to form goes well, I fully expect that the way I look today is the way I'll look 30 years from now.

Today I realized...

-I'm hooked on coffee, not caffeine, just the taste of hot coffee with sweetener and half&half.
-Bangs require lots of upkeep, but thankfully my hairdresser offers complimentary trims.
-When I don't practice my golf swing in over a week it's going to be pretty shaky.
-That feeling when you hit the golf ball in just the right spot is so rewarding.
-I am really, really behind on watching shows on the DVR.
-Those "Buy 1, Get 1 50% Off" deals on lipstick are very hard to resist.
-I have a 50/50 shot at getting a color of lipstick I actually like when I can't try it on first.
-Sometimes I just want to spend money on pointless things, especially on the day I get paid.
-Talking myself out of buying things I don't need is such an important ability.
-As helpful as it is to get advice from girls, sometimes the best advice comes from a guy.
-For the first time since I bought my house, I have a neighbor that I can walk across the street and talk to, but possibly more important, to ask "neighborly" favors of.
-Running is becoming much more therapeutic than it used to be for me.
-Having less fat on my body makes it much harder to stay warm in cold weather.

Ticket Master

I've become a big concert-goer in the last couple of years, and I wish I had been that way long before then. I love seeing music performed live. Wait, let me be more specific...I love seeing music performed live when it sounds as good, if not better than the recording. I am blown away by artists that stand at the mic, barely open there mouths, and pure beauty flows out. It immediately reminds me how talented our God made us, and maybe it makes me a little jealous that He didn't give me that talent. Oh well! I also love the smaller venues where everyone stands in one room to make the show feel really intimate.

Lately I've been going to the larger venues to see bands I really like that are growing a huge audience. I'm used to buying tickets for a show, walking through the door, and standing in a good spot about halfway between the stage and the back of the room, but these larger venues actually have you choose a seating area. Crazy, I know! I tend to just hit "Best Available" and see what happens. Each time I've been pretty surprised at what "Best Available" means. This past April, we went to see a band at one of the larger venues with our best available tickets and naturally headed towards the lower level thinking we would be somewhere in those seats. I was pretty impressed when the usher looked at our tickets and walked us all the way down to the front row, but didn't stop us there. He told us to walk down the steps because we were actually in the pit. Pretty awesome! The place held a few thousand guests, but we were standing close to the stage with about 200 people so once again I got that intimate concert experience I love.

Now last night, I went to see the amazingly talented Feist. I knew I had awesome tickets because it said Row A when I got them in the mail. I couldn't wait to be front row to see her, but when we got there and headed towards the usher who I assumed would point us down to the front row, they told us to go back out and upstairs. Huh? We got upstairs, and I was so confused as to how this could be the front row. Another usher looked at our tickets and walked us down the side of the 1st balcony through a little door, and said "Your seats are the first two." Apparently Row A I purchased tickets for wasn't the first row in the theater, it was the first row in the little box to the side of the stage. We sat down in our seats and were practically on top of the stage. It was glorious! And just in case you need a visual aid for what I'm talking about this was my view all night...



I think I'm going to keep rolling the dice when I order tickets cause I'm really liking the results so far!