Some Life Updates

Even though I write in this space pretty consistently, it still feels like some stuff gets skipped over.  Like how we booked a spontaneous trip to New Orleans for Mardi Gras or how the other day, I put on my pajama pants and one of Joey’s socks fell out.  How long had it been there??  Okay, just kidding about that second one, but I wanted to take a moment to mention some larger life happenings that aren’t Oscar-related 🙂

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I honestly don’t know if I ever even mentioned it (HOW?), but after our first renovation venture went bust, we took some time to think, then decided to scale the project WAAAAY back and try again.  Sadly, the EXACT same thing happened.  After many reassurances that the budget we were very upfront and clear about was doable, we were given a number almost twice that.  We were so mad and disappointed and mostly, really ready to wash our hands of that design/build company, who obviously don’t know how to price projects.

I think we’ve mostly recovered again.  But since a renovation of any size apparently wasn’t in the cards, we decided to at least get ourselves a new garage (which was going to be part of the renovation).  One that actually fits Joey’s truck!  This also meant having to take down a few trees in our backyard, including this pretty big one that we’ve always loved.  It’s feeling very open and exposed back there now and it was honestly sadder than I expected to lose the trees, but hopefully when all is said and done, we’ll have a nice garage and we can forget the disappointing stuff that came before it.

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This little pup! ♥  For as cute as he is and as much as I love him, I have to say, his behavior is sometimes not the best.  Mainly, he’s suddenly nipping at me!  Like all the time.  I thought maybe it was a jealousy/protective thing — he is VERY attached to Joey — but he does it even when I’m home alone with him.  It seems to have something to do with my hands??  It is honestly so strange and confusing.  He will come sit in my lap, nudge my hand until I pet him and then when I do he tries to snap at me.  When I pull my hand away, he frantically nudges at my hand to pet him.  “What do you want from me??”  I’ve become very good at discerning when he’s “in a mood” so I’m not really taking it that seriously but it is sad when he’s looking so cuddly and cute and I just want to pet him!

In “good dog” news, we recently got Andi to stop sleeping in our bed and it has been life changing!  Every morning, Joey asks me how I slept and I say “REALLY GOOD!”  It was also surprisingly easy, considering we’d tried to lock him out of our room several times to disastrous effect.  Turns out he just needed a big blanket on the ground to burrow in, ha!

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And the last bit of news is that it’s official, we’re putting our homebrewing career to rest.  We’d been doing it so infrequently anyway and though Joey still drank our brew, I much MUCH preferred to drink something we bought.  Very proud of what we made but look, a professionally made beer just tastes way better.  Also that kegerator was taking up room in our small house.  Joey cleaned it up and took it all to the basement — he carried it by himself backwards down the stairs and it gave me next level anxiety — and that’s that.  It’s sad but it’s also not sad.  It didn’t really feel like part of who we were any more, plus we have plenty of other things we enjoy doing together.

Okay, that’s really it, you know everything about me now 😛

January Memory-a-Day

Tuesday, January 1st: Cleaning up our dinner party with Leon Bridges playing in the background.

Wednesday, January 2nd: Thinking “I love this little diffuser!” when I walked back into my lavender-scented office ♥

Thursday, January 3rd: Opening the door to my parents’ condo to see my little sister sitting on the couch.

Friday, January 4th: Peeking out the back window to see a blurry pup scurrying around in the snow.

Saturday, January 5th: Thinking “I shouldn’t have drank that extra half cup of coffee…”

Sunday, January 6th: Listening to “Shallow” REAL loud in the car, in preparation for the Golden Globes.

Monday, January 7th: The feeling of fluoride on my teeth after my dentist appointment.  Yuck!

Tuesday, January 8th: Deleting the monthly reminder to wash my brush.  (Side Note: Do you do this??  Am I really supposed to do this?)

Wednesday, January 9th: Joey using “smooth operator” in a sentence, then both of us singing “Smooth Operator” at the same time (ha!).

Thursday, January 10th: Getting a delivery of five pounds of crawfish from my uncle!

Friday, January 11th: Opening the blinds in my office ALL THE WAY so I could watch the snow come down.

Saturday, January 12th: Circling the grocery store parking lot for a THIRD time before giving up and just leaving.

Sunday, January 13th: Texting “Happy Birthday!” to my dad.

Monday, January 14th: Looking up the premier date for the second season of Killing Eve.

Tuesday, January 15th: Reading through the AFI’s list of Top 100 movies.

Wednesday, January 16th: Seeing a bucket with a face painted on it, hanging from a power line, as we walked back to our car after breakfast at Stowaway.

Thursday, January 17th: Watching my library book travel up the conveyor belt of the book return.

Friday, January 18th: Walking through the icy Alamo parking lot, while Joey purposely slid over it.

Saturday, January 19th: Finding a back door out of the movie theater that took us right to our car.

Sunday, January 20th: Hugging Jenn inside Our Mutual Friend!

Monday, January 21st: Breaking our Chemex when it slipped out of my hand after washing it 😦

Tuesday, January 22nd: Maybe getting teary-eyed when Professor McGonagall duels Snape in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2.

Wednesday, January 23rd: Checking my phone for the time (4 AM) and hoping it was almost time for me to get up anyway (NOPE) because I could NOT sleep.

Thursday, January 24th: Sitting down on the couch to read for a bit as soon as I got home from work.

Friday, January 25th: Watching Mason throw his little football, then throw his hands in the air for “TOUCHDOWN!” ♥

Saturday, January 26th: Walking through a grocery store that was positively crowded with stacked boxes that needed unpacking and feeling so stressed for all the employees.

Sunday, January 27th: Eating a second white chocolate chip oatmeal cookie that was soft and chewy and perfect, just like the mom who made them.  (My mom is surely going to text me about how she’s soft and chewy after she reads this :P)

Monday, January 28th: Walking to the back door to let the dog out and discovering LOTS of snow!

Tuesday, January 29th: Eating a post-lunch cookie.

Wednesday, January 30th: Talking to Jory about how he and Betsy might be having a baby this week!!!!!!

Thursday, January 31st: Turning off my alarm and thinking “no, I definitely am not going into work today.”  Colds suck.