A Lovely Life

Puppy bow ties Memories in music Coldplay  Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends 2008 Adele Live from Soho 2009 Madonna Confessions on a Dance Floor 2005 This...aka as Pure Joy!

If you've been missing for a bit, I've decided to do the Ten Day YOU Challenge.  I love sharing things and thought it would be a good exercise in regularly blogging.  :-) SEVEN Wants 1.  A content home life...no one is ever happy all the time.  I'd like to continue to say that our life in our little home is perfectly content and on the upside of happy! 2.  A family.  I've always known I've wanted a husband and little ones, so we're laying the foundation for that one day. 3.  Another dog...WHY AM I SAYING THIS?!  Because I do.  Frank needs a friend, y'all.  4.  The ability to retire.  Planning, saving and more planning! 5.  To be able to travel more.  Not necessarily more frequently, but I'd love to be able to continue crossing places off of our bucket list.  We're doing pretty well so far! 6.  A new bike.  Shh....I haven't really talked to J about this.  ;-) 7.  To continuously ...

Yesterday, I started a fun, 10 Day Challenge . Here's Day 2! NINE Loves Justin ...almost 5 years together and I'm more in love with this guy than ever. Family (this does NOT represent all of them!) I forever wish we lived closer to some of the best people I know!! My Bestie There are a MILLION words to describe this lovely lady, but my favorite is BEAUTY! Frank How can you NOT love those ears?! Workin' at Peachtree Bikes 3 Years at this place and the last 6 months have been the craziest!  Thankful to have a job that I love and challenges me. Travel We've been to some beautiful places and have so many more trips planned!  Life is wonderful traveling with people you love. Our Home Our first place together!  We're blessed beyond measure to have a place to call "home". Wine Because, duh. Macaroni and Cheese I think if I had to choose one food to eat for the rest of my life, this would be it....

Spring is officially here, y'all.  It brings much warmer temperatures, unpredictable weather and LOTS of pollen.  I'm lucky that I'm not one of the people who suffer from terrible pollen allergies, but it seems to get to everyone this time of year.  So much so that I find myself thankful for rainy days that help keep my car clean and my nose a little clearer! We recently started a new landscape project on our ENTIRE yard.  I'll post all about that when it's done!  It's our first big project for the house and something we've talked about since we bought the place.  We're learning lots of lessons in the process including the one where you start a massive project on your house only to have your air conditioner die.  :-/  It is what it is and we're thankful that the weather is nice enough for us to have our windows open while we wait the 5 to 10 days until we can get it fixed.   While we've been focusing on the bigger picture, our back deck w...

It's pretty apparent that I love a good list.   So, I thought I'd take a moment to make a list of things I'm loving right now just because.  :-) theSkimm. theSkimm is a daily email that I get with a quick version of the goings on in the world.  It gives me just enough info to be the "know" without having to read through a million news reports.  Check it out:   www.theskimm.com Julep.  LOVING this right now!  This is an service that sends you $40 worth of beauty products for $19 each month automatically.  What you receive is based on a quick and fun quiz to get your style profile.  You're given one of 5 different style profiles and that's how they determine what to send you each month.  I've already gotten 2 shipments and have loved the products I've gotten!  What I love even more is that your first box of goodies is FREE and once you're "in" you get a ton of great coupons, free shipping and sneak peaks of future products! ...

Atlanta got hit with another massive winter storm on late Tuesday night.  Luckily, we didn't have a situation like last time .  The city was prepared for what they were saying was going to be a "catastrophic" Winter event.  WHAT?!  More catastrophic than the million cars jamming the roadways just 2 weeks prior?  What "they" were worried about were downed trees and power outages due to heavy ice.  While many people lost power over those couple of days, I think it could have been WAY worse!   Knowing all of this we, like most people, were prepared to be indoors for a couple of days.  We did our grocery shopping on Sunday as we usually do and I grabbed some wine extras for "just in case" on Monday.   We woke up on Wednesday morning to a mix of freezing rain and snow that lasted all day.  Frank really loved the weird stuff on the ground and got extra excited when we started getting ready to go outside. What was so weird about...

While giving my buddy a bath Sunday afternoon, I snapped a couple of pictures and got one of my absolute favorites: This made me laugh out loud.  His sweet face is just priceless sometimes! He's slowly learning to  love  tolerate bath time because I give him his "million dollar" treats throughout the process.  They obviously aren't a million dollars, but they aren't cheap.  They are, however, completely worth every penny because he loves them and will do just about anything for them...like stand still while getting a bath. He makes me laugh and I love capturing little moments like this.  He's our buddy, for sure! “Dogs are our link to paradise. They don't know evil or jealousy or discontent. To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden, where doing nothing was not boring--it was peace.”  -- Milan Kundera

My first reaction is to say (and I may or may not have actually said it), "Suck it 2013!".  However, that's super negative of me and while this year was full of challenges, it was also full of some great adventures, laughs and lots of lessons learned! January brought me to California for work where I earned my Body Geometry bicycle fitting certification.  I stepped WAY outside of my comfort zone by taking a class about body bio mechanics, handling bikes in a way I never have before and hanging out in a class that was 99.9% guys except for me.  I learned a lot and felt empowered! While I still have a long way to go, I really enjoy it.   **side note:  if you're interested in a fit for your bike...let me know!** We bought our first home in February.  It was a stressful/exciting/scary adventure for us knowing that we were here to stay and it is ours!  I loved being able to share in the experience with J because owning a home had been a huge goal o...