A Lovely Life

Since moving into our first house in February, we've really gotten behind on the millions of projects that we wanted to do.  I guess that's what happens when you move in, do weeks of non-stop projects then "take a break" from it all.  Well, our break has lasted most of the Summer and while I've gotten things done here and there, nothing major has been updated. Like our living room.  It's a big, rectangular space and is in serious need of a couple coats of paint, curtains and wall decor.  I've been really trying to make to do lists for each day and my weekends since they help me stay focused and on track.  There is such a sense of accomplishment from crossing everything off my list! So, one of the items on this weekend's list was to paint the back wall of our living room.  It's located behind our little bar and since I know that painting the whole room in one weekend would be too much for my busy schedule, I decided to do it one wall at

We celebrated Frank's First Birthday-ish on August 19th.  I say "ish" because we aren't really sure when his actual birthday is.  Our buddy was found on the streets when he was estimated to be 3 or 4 months old, so no one really knows.  We decided August would be his birthday and the 19th sounded like a good number, so... We decided to CELEBRATE!  Our morning consisted of pictures in a party hat which involved LOTS of treats as bribery: Our evening celebration consisted of a French Dip Sandwich.  "Why a sandwich?", you ask?  We originally wanted to do a sandwich challenge inspired by another blogger . The goal was for J to pick a sandwich and for me to pick a sandwich and the first one that Frank picks 1st is the winner....the winner goes on to be the #1 contender the next birthday while whomever "lost" the year previous picks a new treat.  The cycle continues every year.  I was really afraid we were going to hurt our little buddy

Source I LOVE Elizabeth Gilbert and this has really spoken to me the last few days.  The only true power I have is what I tell myself every second of every day. Cheers to a Monday filled with fabulous thoughts!

Y'all, I've had a couple of dogs before, but never thought it was necessary to go through training.  I blame that on a just being young and thinking every stupid thing my dog did was cute AND on not knowing the benefits that dog training brings to my world.  We have friends who took their labs to school to learn basic obedience and after a little bit of talk, J & I decided it was necessary for our little guy to get his puppy education. Frank isn't a bad dog, but he is stubborn.  And we've learned that a lack of structure in Frank's life means all hell breaks loose in our household.  Seriously.  He peed on the bed when we moved into our new home, y'all.  Not good. So, we signed our house up for puppy school.  I say puppy, but I don't really mean "puppy".  The dogs in the class range from about 5 months old to 3 1/2 and it's considered "entry level obedience".  Frank can sit and shake, but that's sorta it.  This class

So, J scored some pretty great tickets accompanied with a great parking place AND discounts on food and beer for the Braves game on Saturday night.  Can you say "date night"?! Honestly, we aren't huge sports fans.  I probably would be a bigger one if my husband was, but he just isn't.  That means that even though we live in a city with a couple of pro sports teams, we've never in over 4 years been to a sporting event.  I was pretty excited!  I even got out my old Braves baseball t-shirt from 6 or so years ago.  I was happy to discover that Brian Mccann still plays for the Braves so I was still relevant!  :-) The Braves also happened to be on a FOURTEEN game winning streak and were going for number 15, so we were pretty pumped to go.  The drive to the stadium was interesting in that the city of Atlanta likes to shut down many roads leading to Turner Field.  If you aren't an avid attender of games, you may not realize this and circle under I-85 a few ti