Random Thoughts

Quote: " To be happy, make other people happy." -W. Clement Stone

So I've been a little absent from blogging lately.

• Work has been crazy (good crazy but crazy none-the-less).

•  I've been going to alot of doctors appointments lately. I've had shin splints in both legs since my senior year of highschool. I've always just sucked it up and dealt with them. But lately my left shin/ankle has been KILLING me. I love playing soccer but I've been in such pain I cry the whole way home afterwards. SO I went and got it checked out. I had to do a bone scan. After many days of paitently waiting it turns out I have a stress fracture in my Left shin and I have moderate-sever shin splints in my right.

Meet my sexy new accessory.

 Jealous? I know, you should be.

• I will NEVER buy dog food anywhere but Costco again. I've been paying $12 for a baby bag every few weeks. I can buy a whopping 50lb bag at Costco for $12. Reecie shall feast for months!!! -It's the little things that make use dog-mamas excited.

• On another note- I will never buy frozen berries for smoothies anywhere else for the same price saving reason. I'm in berry bliss.

• I've been doing the Paleo diet (only eating meats, veggies, and fruit) for almost a month now. And I've been working out everyday. Even with the stress fracture- I've been riding the stationary bike and pumpin' iron (ha).  I'm down about 1 & 1/2 pant sizes!! I never really weigh myself because I don't care what the number is. But I am loving how I feel and look. I'm a whole new woman (recently single... here I come fellas?)

• Don't you just love taking naps with your best pal?

Or napping -ON THEM- rather? How cute are my dogs?

That's all my random thoughts for now I guess.

I'll leave you with this little gem...

Love you all long time.

Smell ya later.



Life as I know it (for this week at least)

Quote: " The doors we open and close each day decide the lives we live."
             - Flora Whittemore

This week was a good week for me. It felt productive and positive. I love having weeks like this. I've been eating healthy and working out every day and I feel great.

-Sunday-

We lounged around and watched football. At night my mom, sisters and I went and met my Aunt Kate for dinner at her hotel. She landed with her team earlier that day to start practicing for their game Monday against Georgia Tech. We ate at Jw's. Yum.

-Monday- 

I went with family, friends,and neighbors to my Aunt's basketball game against GT. (see previous post)

-Tuesday- 

I hung out with Reecie girl after work. I had a Co-Ed soccer game at 9:20pm. Of course it was raining again. We have literally played 3/4 of our games in the pouring rain this season. At least it wasn't cold Tuesday though so it wasn't too bad. We play out of the Atlanta Silverbacks League. Our team name is Save the TaTas and we wear pink jerseys. Nice. ha

Below is our jersey. But imagine it with Save the TaTas accross the chest and the pink cancer ribbon.

-Wednesday- 

Reecie girl and I worked out after work and then I went over to my neighbor/sister's apartment for dinner. We have 2 families in our neighborhood that are basically family to us. We do all holidays and everything with them. Erin grew up next door to me back in Marietta. We now live like 2 miles apart in Atlanta. It's nice! She and her boyfriend cooked us Weight Watchers Stir Fry and we watched Modern Family.

-Thursday- 

Reecie girl and I worked out after work and waited for my baby sister Ann to get to my apartment. Ann nanny's in Buckhead and has a side job with CSS as their camera girl some evenings. So sometimes when she gets off her internship at 7:30pm and has to be back in the city to nanny the nexy day at 9am she'll just stay at my place. So last night we went to sushi and Erin met us there. It was delish. I am trying to eat really healthy so I got a sushi roll wrapped in cucumber instead of rice. It was so refreshing and delicious.

-Weekend- 

This is the first weekend I have free since Sept 3rd and I am THRILLED. Tonight when I get off work I'm going to work out then Erin (another friend named Erin) and I are going to hang out and do something fun. Tomorrow I have tennis at 3pm then I'll probably head to Marietta for the night. Sunday we are planning on going Hiking.

Can't wait for a stress free weekend.

This week may not seem as good to you as it was for me but I sure enjoyed it.

Tell me- what are some healthy (really healthy) recipes for dinner/lunch?

I'm open for lots of suggestions.



Smell ya later home fries. 

For the Love of the Game

Quote: "It may be that all games are silly. But then, so are humans."
            -Robert Lynd

My family is a family of sports FREAKS.

 We are all very athletic and very competititve.

 I always get made fun of by my siblings and dad because out of all of us I am the least athletic.

 Make fun of me all you want but we all know I can beat anyone in the family's butt. I've been known to carry around my own can of whoopass just waiting to be opened. 

Just kidding.

I may be the least athletic but I am still pretty good at sports and more athletic than most females. People can tell this because of my intense masculinity and my hairy upper lip (just kidding I'm womanish and my lip is so fresh and so smoooooth).

All 3 of my siblings have/had college scholarships to play football or soccer. I decided against playing in college because I wanted to enjoy the social aspect of college. This is a decision I am still 100% happy I made. I played Co-Ed intramurals in college and I was perfectly happy with the level of play. I'm glad I didn't have 6am work outs, curfews, daily practices, etc. I enjoyed my freedom as a normal college kid.

Besides playing sports we all love to watch sports. It's literally all we ever watch together as a family.

On New Years Eve this year I didn't go out drinking and partying with my friends...

 I went to a football game.

My brother's team (Auburn) made the Chick-Fil-A Bowl this year. We were extremely lucky because this bowl is played in ATLANTA.

We seriously had 25-30 members of our family drive from Chicago to go to the game with us. Talk about chaotic and a packed house for 3 days.

Although it was insane having that many people around it was so much fun and I'm glad everyone got to come and see Philip. It's neat to see people who aren't used to big football games getting to enjoying one. We are so used to seeing Philip on the field that sometimes I forget the awe inspiring feeling there is when we see him run out on the field- only sometimes...it still makes me flabbergasted most of the time. But it was really cool to see my family (aunts, cousins, grandma, uncles, etc) experience that overwhelming excitment of having a family member playing in such a huge dome, such a huge field, and such a huge game.

Auburn won (wooooo) and it was a fun day/night for everyone.

My mom took alot of pictures of the weekend/game but I only took 2. ha

This is a picture of Chizik (head coach) accepting the trophy. Philip is just chillin' on the side next to Aubie.

FYI- My brother is the white guy. In case you couldn't figure out which one was him.

ha.

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On another sports related note...

My aunt is the Head Women's Basketball Coach at the University of Miami. Go Canes.

Every year they play a game in Atlanta against Georgia Tech. And every year my family, friends, and neighbors all gear up in our UM clothes and come out to support.

This Monday we all cheered as the Lady Canes beat Georgia Tech.

C-A-N-E-S...Canes, Canes, Canes... Let's go Canes!!

Aunt Kate looking Supa Supa Flyyy while coaching.

The team all huddled up during a time out...

This weekend is the first weekend I have nothing planned since September 3rd (start of football season). I have no games to go to, no family obligations, no showers, and I.AM.SO.EXCITED.

I plan to:

• Reconnect with friends
• relax and de-stress
• get healthy
• love on my puppy
• start the man hunt (someday my prince will come? ew.)
• start/finish some projects
• learn how to use my new sewing machine from "santa"
• clean/organize my closet and room
• AND MOST IMPORTANTLY...continue to "kick it old school,yo"



Smell ya later 'stashe riders ew.  (shout out to you know who...)



Sprucin' up the place

Quote: "Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself."-George Bernard Shaw

Earlier I posted about my DIY chalkboard that I absolutely LOVE. The week I created the chalkboard was our week of SPRUCIN' UP THE APARTMENT. Allie and I threw a surprise 30th birthday bash for our roommate, and her older sister. I'll post about the party later.

Because of the Surprise Bash Allie and I wanted to put the last finishing knick knacks and touches to the apartment before we had people over.

We teamed up and created the chalkboard and some cute little buckets to hang in our bathroom.

We went to Home Depot and bought 3 little tin paint buckets. They were like $2.50 each.

Then we picked out a spray paint color. It took us a long time to decide because I wanted a bright color and she wanted a muted color. So we compromised and went with beige so it can match any room.

Once we got back to our apartment we spray painted the tin buckets beige. We did 3 coats just to be safe. But be careful because the spray paint runs if you don't let it dry all the way between coats. Whoops.

Then we hung them on our towel rod in the bathroom above the toliet. We filled one bucket with wash cloths, one with potpourri, and the last with sprays and lotions.

All in all I think they turned out pretty cute. We faced the bucket with the side of dripped paint towards the wall and you'd never know.

Pretty cheap and cute way to store things in the bathroom!

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One night I was trying to figure out what to do with a left over mason jar I had. I think mason jars are the best things ever. You can use them as storage, cups, food savers, etc. They can be used for EVERYTHING while still looking cute.

I drilled a hole in the top of the mason jar and took an old pump and stuck it in there. And BAAAAM a cute way to store dish soap. I hate the way the dish soap bottle looks sitting out by the sink but it's such a pain to put away because we use it ALL.THE.TIME.  So I thought this was a cute way to keep the soap. It also makes administering the soap to the brush super easy.

 Just one little push of the pump and you're ready to scrub!

The only pump we had to use was an old face wash pump which is purple. I'd like to find a more muted color pump. I'll have to wait until one of my pump bottles is about gone and use it unstead of throwing the pump away.

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Another little project we did that week was to create a curtain for under a desk. Our kitchen has a little built in desk space and since we don't use it as a desk we like to store things under it where the chair would usually go. But the stuff under there was an eyesore. So I bought a tiny little curtain rod for like a buck and my roommate sewed a little curtain.

Super cheap and easy and now you'll never know what's hidden under there... unless you are a perv and lift up the skirt. Ha jk.

I got a sewing machine from Santa this Christmas so I can't wait to start on my own DIY sewing projects!!! If anyone has any easy sewing tips, projects, etc please please please let me know!

I'll leave you with this little gem of a picture.

Yes, you should all be jealous this cute sleepy little baby squirrel is all mine (for some reason I like to call little puppies & kids baby squirrels - it's odd i know)...

Smell ya later DIYers.

Quote: "But out of limitations comes creativity". -Debbie Allen


The above quote sums up my decorating style. I am limited in funds (aka poor recent college grad) and because of that I have to use my creativity in order to decorate/make my life cute.

I love being thrifty and creative so much though. It's so fun to me when I see something cute at Pottery Barn for like $100,000,000 and think "I can make that for CHEAP". My friends always laugh at me because that's basically my motto... "Don't buy that...I can make that".

We just added a few DIY touches to our apartment recently.

Have you every tried Chalkboard spray paint?  If you haven't you SHOULD. It is soooooooo easy and soooooo awesome.

I went to the local Goodwill and bought this framed picture for $7.23. The picture was ugly but the frame was super cute. It's cream and distressed looking. Bingo Bango.. just what I was looking for!

I took the glass out of the frame and spray painted it with a can of Chalkboard spray paint I got at Home Depot for like $4.

I sprayed it 3 different times and let it dry between each coat. I only ended up using 1/2 the can of paint to spray 3 coats so I can probably make another whole chalkboard with the same can!

Once it was totally dry I put the glass back into the frame and BOOOOM...

How cute is that!? I LOVE LOVE LOVE the way it turned out. I think the black looks awesome against the cream frame.

We hung it up in our kitchen and use it to write notes, jokes, and bill amounts (boo for bills).

I also have done a few other DIY projects lately so hopefully more to come...

Smell ya later.

Pound Puppy Love

Quote: "Money will buy a pretty good dog, but it won't buy the wag of his tail." -Josh Billings

The above quote cracks me up because it's so true. I love how people spend hundreds of dollars on a pure bred puppy and half the time they end up being psycho high strung terrible dogs.

***not all purebreds (shout out to Ruthie Hart who has a wonderfully behaved purebred from what I hear!! Read about them at her lovely blog here: http://www.ruthiehart.com/)***

Since we were young we've been raised with mutts. We have had WONDERFUL experiences with all our pound puppies and have been blessed in so many ways with our dogs.

A few Reasons I LOVE mutts:

• I love that we have been able to save a dog from the pound
• I love how inexpensive pound puppies are...Reecie girl was only $150 and that's nothing compared to the 10-15 years she'll give me love
• I love how you never know what you're going to end up with. We got our dog Coe and were told she was a Lab/Rotwieler Mix. This is what she grew up to look like...

 

She grew up to be like a corgi/beagle mix. She looks more like a pig than a dog. In the above picture she's looking very studious wearing my Dad's glasses. Although she wasn't quite what we expected she's been the most incredible and perfect dog for us. She just turned 14 and is starting to show her years and although she's a grouchty old woman now she's still wonderful.

There was no doubt in my mind that I would get a mutt when I got myself a dog. So that's where this little whack job comes in (sorry for the poor quality pictures. I am not a good photographer and my model never sits still)...

 I was told she was a lab mix but the more I look at her the more doubtful I am. The vet says he sees alot of Min Pin in her....OH CRAP. I keep whispering ni her ear everynight "Please grow up to be a good girl and try to grow up to be medium sized. I don't want you to be a little woosie dog."

I hope she's listening ha. Whatever she grows up to look like I'll love her no matter what.

ALSO- Sorry if you aren't into dogs. Or my life. Because if you aren't then this post was probably B.O.R.I.N.G for you. If you read all the way until now you're probably bored/annoyed (ha got you sucka...).

Smell ya later.

24/7 Puppy Patrol

Quote: "Whoever said you can't buy happiness forgot about little puppies."
-Gene Hill

So as of late my life has become 100% committed to being the Puppy Police. I literally have to keep my eyes on the puppy at ALL TIMES.

It.Is.Exhausting.

As tiring as it is it's totally 100% worth it. I love her so much. She makes me so happy. She's a huge pain in my tush but eventually (fingers crossed) she'll grow out of the infant stage and be a little more trustworthy when I turn my back on her.  

I decided to call her Reecie. She looks like a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup and we all kept calling her Reecie and it just stuck.  

She likes to burrow into crevices of any kind. She loves trying to dig into armpits, pillow cases, under couches, etc. When anyone sits indian style she DIVE BOMBS head first into their crotch and tries to burrow. It is hysterical. IF she feels like nipping while dive boming it's hysterically painful. I definatey got a little nip to my butt cheek the other day.

I guess I'll have to teach her that most people won't want her diving head first into their laps and burrowing.

She is also so small that she get super cold when I take her out to go "potty". My mom suggested a sweater. I'm not really into dressing up dogs so I improvised and put her in a sock. She's so small she fits into a sock ha.

Training is going ok. Any suggestions/tips on potty training, crating, etc are more than welcome!

Smell ya later.