I Take It Personally When You Don't Give Me The Jeep Wave

A lot of things have happened lately, the most monumental of which being that my poor little Liberty had it's last run. That means that with all of my planning, I ended up buying a new car a year before I meant to. You know what they say about life and making plans. It's all been very stressful and I still have panic moments about it. But Kasey! You bought a house! That's a bigger investment! That is true, but when I bought my house I was making a rent payment anyways. A mortgage was going to be cheaper than rent! I was closer to work! My dad said when they put the paperwork in front of me, he thought I was going to puke on the poor kid selling me the car. 

ALL THE STRESS AND DRAMA ASIDE, I am finally a Jeep Wrangler owner. I forsee all of my disposable income going into this car. GUYS. I haven't even named her yet (I'm thinking this one is a lady.) All of my cars have been named after Beatles songs, my first car was Lucy, second Sadie, and most recently, Jude the Jeep Liberty. I think I really might have wasted Jude on the Liberty, but I looooved that car and drove it until the AC went out. So, baby Jeep to be named later. 

Now, I've wanted a Wrangler since my first Barbie Jeep. So I've done every bit of research you could possibly do. One of the things I was really excited about was the "Jeep Wave" Now, I am the new kid. I'm 6 days in and I haven't even been able to get it muddy yet, but I take it very personally when I don't get a wave back. 

Now, I know maybe people aren't paying attention or don't see me or are really into the Serial podcast they're listening to on their way to work, but come on guys. I can always tell the real Jeep people from the ones who bought it because it's a cool car. The ones who would NEVER get it muddy and will probably never take the top off. 

I love my new baby, so I'm sure we will have many crazy Jeep lady posts to come. What do you think I should name her? 

The Boy Who Lived

I remember the first time I met Harry Potter like it was yesterday. It was a book fair day, I loved book fair day. We all sat down on the floor in the library and had the first three chapters read to us. I have been in love with these books since that exact moment. Yer a wizard Harry. I was 9 years old. I almost skipped my annual summer re-read of the series, because I have a stack of books almost as tall of me on my “to be read” list. Then Pottermore put together the Wizarding World Book club, and I simply couldn’t miss that.

This series has been such a gigantic part of my life. I was at every midnight release, every early movie premiere. I grew up with Harry, Hermonie, and Ron. I think book Ginny is so much better than movie Ginny. I will always want to be the mom that Molly Weasley is. I will always appreciate the ridiculous sense of humor Albus Dumbledore had (why else would anyone hire Gilderoy Lockhart? It had to be a joke.) I will forever aspire to have the level of straight-faced-snark that Professor McGonogal possesses. I will keep the lessons taught to me by J.K. Rowling forever.

I read on the internet (because you can’t put anything that isn’t true on the internet) that people who read the Harry Potter series turn out to be better humans – and I believe that wholeheartedly. You learn lessons through this story about acceptance and loving every being regardless of their history or where they come from or how they talk. I will be forever indebted to this series. I will always watch the movies when they come on tv.

So, stick around. I will be rereading these books this summer and putting together a summary of the things I noticed this go round that I haven't before. Things that should have been in the movies but didn't make it, and things I'm maybe glad didn't make it in the movies. Are you reading along?

Happy birthday Harry Potter Universe, cheers to many, many more.

Kestum Bilt are Experts in Crafting Great Stories

*This post has been sponsered by Ketsum Bilt, please see my disclosure page for further details on partnership and sponsorship.*
How you tell a story matters. The way in which you describe visuals, the setting you manifest, the personalities bestowed upon each of the developing characters; you do not have the luxury of overlooking any nuance when you structure a climactic storyline. How do the essential characters interact and how is that interaction relatable to the listener? What transgressions lead to the major takeaway or lesson? From whose point of view is the story told? Every piece of the puzzle needs to come together seamlessly to hold the listener’s attention and adequately convey the story you are trying to communicate. It takes an artist and a visionary to unite every component of a story so that others are invested in the tale and buy into each pivotal plot point.

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March Bookshelf

Ever since I've moved out of the city city of Atlanta, I've become a little bit of a hermit. The upside of my newfound solitude? so much more time to read. I knocked a chunk out of my goodreads challenge for 2017. I don't remember why I picked 20 books to read, but that's the goal. ANYWAYS. Here's what I read this month.

Into The Wilderness// I think technically I finished this one at the end of February, but I haven't blogged about it yet. So it counts. Obviously, I read this one because Diana Gabaldon was on the cover saying it was great. I liked this one, although it was a little slow. It fit into my long historical fiction narrative, so I would absolutely recommend it, but only if you're ready for about 850 pages of tight print. It is the first of a series, so it ends in a bit of a cliff hanger. I did't love it so much as to start the next one in the series though... 

Big Little Lies// Before you ask, I've only seen the first episode of the HBO show. I loved this book. It was different than what I have been reading and I absolutely devoured it. It's told in a choppy manner from three different narrators. I definitely didn't see the ending coming and I didn't feel like the twist was teased constantly (an issue I've had with books that I should read because I loved Gone Girl) Eventually I will watch the rest of the HBO show, but I have so many things on my DVR I feel like I'll never get to them. 

Dead Letters// This one was my very first Book of The Month book. It started a little slow but, once I got into it, I couldn't put it down. Honestly one day I was going to read a couple of chapters with my morning coffee and the next thing I know, I'd finished the entire book. I'm really excited about the whole Book of The Month thing too, because it's a built in suggestion every month! If you're interested in trying the BoTM, you can use my referral link here and get your first book for $1! 

All The Missing Girls// This is cheating, I have't finished this one yet, but I read 75% of it in the month of March and I'll probably finish it tonight (yeah, wild Friday night indeed!) This one made me a little dizzy at first, because it's not told in linear time, which took me a couple of chapters to get used to, but once I was used to it, I loved it. It's another one where I try to just read a couple of chapters and next thing I know it's been three hours. 

So, that's what I've been reading lately! Hopefully I will get better at my book reviews as we go forward with this... What have you been reading lately? Any suggestions? Do you use goodreads? Send me some suggestions! 

Spring Fever

HAPPY FIRST DAY OF SPRING! It's going to be a lovely day here, so I'll be in the office all day dreaming about what fun could be had in the sun. I'm so excited though, because spring means that summer is just around the corner! Longer days, more sunshine, and patio weather! I'm a firm believer that food and drinks are just better outside. It's got to be science. 

The pollen is something I'm not ready for. If you've never been to the Atlanta area around April, I don't recommend it. The oh-so-lovely pine trees drop gazillions of little pollen bombs. Literally everything turns yellow. We didn't ever really get cold enough for everything to die off, so allergy season never really ended. Poor little Albus had to get a shot and these ear drops he absolutely hates to get through it. 

Obviously, since the sun was out on Saturday, I was working in the yard again. I'm sure I'll stop complaining about the ivy one day, I imagine that day will be about a year after it's all gone forever. I pulled more ivy, planted more roses, and overall made a bigger mess than I started with. I think that's the most frustrating part. I'm not the most patient person, I feel like four Saturdays in the yard should look like the cover of a Southern Living magazine! Clearly, I have a solid grasp on reality. 

So this week will be another week of little yard projects and I'll probably be done by Labor Day. How are you celebrating the first day of spring?

Albus 9 Month Pupdate

So, yesterday, Albus got his BarkBox for March (I typed January and February before settling on March, in case you were wondering). He was SO EXCITED. I used to think he could tell that it was for him, but recently I've discovered he thinks any and all mail is for him. ANYWAYS. So he tears through it, chews on a bone for a while, takes the toy that was in it and buried it in the backyard, and ends up playing with the box. Yep. The box. Sometimes I think he's part cat.
NINE MONTHS. This little monster is going to be NINE MONTHS OLD ON THURSDAY. I will be busy being a terrible mom and seeing Beauty and the Beast at the release. NINE MONTHS OLD THOUGH. So nine months, we've accomplished some milestones! 

He's convinced me that he doesn't need to be in the crate while I'm at work. Yes, you read that right. The tiny tornado is loose in the house. Sometimes, when I get home, he's still in his crate waiting for me. It's adorable really. He's only chewed up one pair of my shoes in the whole process. A floor covered in his toys (we're still working on putting them away)

We switched to a no-pull harness, which is helping a little bit. Somehow, at SEVENTY POUNDS, he's an in-between size. He's too big for a small, too small for a medium. Juuuusut barely. So he gets to pull a little bit in his harness. Our teacher thinks that I should make sure to have treats all the time on or walks, so that will be something I add to our walks, once the frigid weather goes away. 
He's been acting very much like a teenager. I'll say "Albus, sit!" and he will BARK BACK AT ME. He's talking back! Little punk. He's being very defiant lately, looking me in the eye when he refuses to do what he's told. His 5K time is getting better, by that I mean my 5K time is getting better, he'd love to go faster. 

Last, but not least, he's becoming an instagram superstar. He was even featured by one of those little pup instagram accounts with his 8 month chalkboard! You'll have to follow along with his adventures, he even has his own hashtag! Do you have any puppy stories for me? I love puppy stories!

Friday Five!

Good gravy this was another long week. I am so pumped to spring forward this weekend. I don't think I've ever been so excited to lose an hour in my entire life. It's just that when it's dark, or just about dark, when I get home from work ALL I WANT TO DO is go to bed. Like, we're talking pep talks to stay up past 8:30 every night. It's bad man. 
NEW LOOK! Guys, I wanted to mix it up a little, so I installed a new theme here. What do you think? At first, I was a little worried, because I loved it so but the example was very grayscale. We all know grayscale really isn't my jam (well I did paint all of the walls in my house gray. but that's different.) What do you think? I'm in love.

Books books books I did it. I joined the Book of the Month club. If you want to use my referral link, you get three books for $9.99. Let's be real, three hardcover books for $30 is a STEAL. I received my first book in the mail on Wednesday & I can't wait to dive in. I plan on finishing Big Little Lies this weekend (because it's supposed to rain!) and starting Dead Letters after that! Are you part of the Book of the Month Club? It makes me feel fancy, if we're being for real for real. 

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST I am so excited for next Thursday I could just about die. When I bought my ticket, I got a free download of the song. I love it. I feel like I'm betraying Angela Landsbury a little by loving it, but que sera sera. Also, check out this Belle inspired cocktail! Also, are we all in agreement that LaFou has always been gay? I always thought he was in love with Gaston, so I don't understand why anyone is up in arms about it. 

Albus & storms We had a pretty loud storm last night, around 3:45AM. Albus isn't usually afraid of the thunder, so I am assuming when he jumped up in the bed and laid on top of me, he was worried about me right? Just making sure you're okay and not scared momma!

Instagram themes If you've noticed, I didn't gram all week, until yesterday. I've been overthinking what my "theme" should be after Helene's post on Monday about how it's key to a successful campaign. So I've been really worried about what mine should be and how I should start planning. I have decided on one, so we'll see if you can figure it out once I get into it!

That's all I have right now, how was your week? Anything to share that I missed?

Best Laid Plans

I was planing to review Big Little Lies because surely I would have finished it this weekend... but then it was Harry Potter Weekend on FreeForm so there you go. I didn't finish the book, I didn't get the house cleaned, I did go to bed at 10 pm on Saturday night though. 

On Saturday, Albus & I ran a 5K that ended with beer (praise hands!) at Red Hare Brewing. They have this really cool wall, pictured above. ALL I WANTED was a good picture of Albus, my cousin, and me in front of this damn wall. We asked three different people and this is the best that we got. I felt so irritated that we couldn't get someone to tell us to move one way or the other, and then I felt even worse for insisting that we take it a third time because I just wanted something nice to Instagram. I don't usually have the perfectionist thing going on, but honestly how hard was it to get this picture right?
A post shared by Kasey Decker (@kdsmoove) on

Albus loves running 5Ks, it was his 4th one and we finished in 46 minutes! I don't run very fast, if we're being honest. He could probably do a 7 minute mile. I love pup friendly 5Ks because that means there are other dogs for him to interact with. Sometimes I worry that he's going to be that obnoxious only child, so I have to make sure to socialize him. Read, I make sure to socialize myself because some weekends I don't even leave the house or interact with any humans. Plus he made a new lady friend!
If you follow me on snapchat or instagram, you also got a sneak peek of us trying to get the little monster to swim. For some reason he is afraid of the water! He can definitely swim, but straight refuses to get in the water. We even tried throwing balls in the water for him to chase! I'm guessing we'll have to wait until it's warm outside so that I can get in the water with him. Sometimes he can be super clingy. Either way, it was a big weekend for both of us.
So somehow this turned into a weekend update! What did y'all get into this weekend? How ready for spring weather to stick around are we? It was 30-something degrees when we started that 5K on Saturday. BRR.

Currently: March

Literally two days ago I was writing about how I wanted to be more proactive and schedule posts ahead of time because I’m done procrastinating, and here I am writing a post in my down time, four hours after I meant to have it live. Whatever. In my defense, I went to file for my homestead exemptions, which took the least amount of time. Now I have to figure out how to file my taxes, it was so much easier when I just filled in my W-2s and pretended I would get any money back for paying student loans back. (LOL, cute little innocent Kasey) Anyways, let’s talk currently!

Reading: Big Little Lies. I’m tearing through it. I forgot how light reading could be when it wasn’t tiny, tight print for 850 pages. I’m absolutely going to finish it before the weekend is over. Maybe I’ll try my hand at writing book reviews, I don’t know if I could do them without spoiling things… Also I joined the Book of the Month club, we'll see how that goes....

Writing: This post, duh. But also, I’m working on improvingmy handwriting in the bullet journal and coming up with some projects around the house to write about. I did this really cool construction project in the back yard, but I keep waiting for the flowers in the planter to perk up before I take the pictures of it. What would y’all like to see here?

Singing: Colour Me In: Damien Rice. I’ve been pretty hooked on Emily’s February 2017 playlist, and I have always loved Damien Rice. The weather has been nice, so it’s been a windows down, radio blasting, singing-at-the-top-of-your-lungs kind of week.

Grudging: Okay so speaking of the windows down, a piece of plastic broke on my car’s sunroof thing, so it wouldn’t close. I took it to the dealership to have them fix it and great news! It was only going to be the cost of labor to fix it! But also you have $300 of other things that need to be fixed too so go ahead and get that taken care of. So whatever, it’s cheaper to keep her, but I pick my car up & immediately open the sunroof, I need the vitamin D. I get home and climb up to see how it was fixed? THEY TOOK THE ENTIRE BROKEN PART OUT AND DIDN’T REPLACE IT. It wasn’t even a necessary part. Damn y’all, I have a drill, I could have done that. They also called and told me if I give them all 10s on the review the Jeep people send out, I will get a free car wash. I’m pretty sure that’s not how those things work….

HAPPY FRIDAY Y’ALL. I will be running a 5k for beer tomorrow at 8:30 tomorrow morning. That means beer around 9. You can’t drink all day if you don’t start in the morning J Do you have anything fun planned this weekend?

February Through The Lens & March Goals

I would say I'm surprised that we've made it to March, but that would just be a lie. February felt like such  a long month considering it was only 28 days. Let's see what February looked like through the lens of my camera! It's been a minute since I've done one of these! 
Obviously, Albus, the most photogenic pup in the world takes the cake on most of them. He tuned EIGHT MONTHS old, he let me dress him up for the Super Bowl, he ran his 4th 5K (we have number 5 coming up this weekend!) and he had a friend stay over for a whole week! He also managed to officially transition out of the crate life, although he still sleeps in there on his own accord. Then, it was National Margarita Day, and a month of yard work man

I would do a recap of my February goals, but aside from keeping the house clean, I failed miserably. I'm going to keep blog three times a week on my to-do list. Here are a few more I want to accomplish:

1. The Yard. I gotta keep up the exhausting work so that this summer my house looks like the cover of a Southern Living magazine.  Every little bit counts or something, I have to find a mantra that keeps me from getting frustrated. 

2. Work on the blog. I want to get back to scheduling posts because I'm still working on becoming a morning person, so it's a lot easier to get stuff scheduled the night before than to try to hammer something out while watching the Today Show in the morning.. I also want to get back into the whole swing of the community aspect of it. I missed y'all!

3. Read at least three books. I only read one book in February, I mean it was 900 pages, but it was still just one book. I want to read at least three. Last night I started Big Little Lies and I also have All The Missing Girls so I need one more to knock off the list in March. Any suggestions?

What did February look like through your camera? What are you reading this month?

I Cried Over That English Ivy

The rain held off this weekend and I thought "awesome, another day to work in the yard!" So Saturday morning I was up and at Lowe's before 10am (who. am. i.) buying the remainder of the rose bushes I want to put in front of the house. I have this very specific picture in my imagination of what I want the yard to look like. I came home ready to knock it all out and that's where the day took a turn.
I decided to use the lawnmower to clean up the leaves in the yard, because raking took way too much time and effort. Of course, I forgot how much of a pain in the butt my lawnmower is. It was free, so I can't complain, but I'm going to anyways. It's not actually propelled. That part of the lawnmower doesn't work, I have to physically push it. Guys. I fell down trying to push the lawnmower. 

Once I finished with the leaves, I moved on to clearing the spot for one more of my rose bushes. I know I talked about the ivy last week, I could write a book on trying to get rid of that stuff. I *thought* that it was being held at bay, that it wasn't growing back where the pine straw was. Then I pulled a vine and it pulled up all of the pine straw up to the driveway. I was so frustrated, I really did start crying. 

I keep telling myself that this yard thing is a work in progress, that it will be better the more I work at it, that all of the hard work is building to something. It's just very frustrating to spend six hours working in the yard and for it to honestly be at that stage where it's a bigger mess before it gets clean. I'm going to keep on truckin' mostly because I don't want it to stay in the state of disaster it is in right now. Do you have any yard suggestions? 

Five For Friday!

WE MADE IT GUYS. This week was a long one, I really wasn't sure we would make it to Friday. It was one of those weeks when Tuesday felt like Thursday and you just couldn't catch up. I wish that today was Saturday though, because it's supposed to be sunny and 80 degrees today, but rain tomorrow. Can I just get a sunny Saturday please? 
1// Hot. Yoga. Y'all. yesterday I took a FIVE THIRTY AM hot yoga class at be yoga. It kicked my butt, but it was awesome at the same time. My core is still sore today. Remember that time I did 30 days at the barre?! I don't think I could do 30 straight days of this, but I think I might stick to once a week or something...

2// We're getting SO CLOSE to Beauty and the Beast. I'm seriously considering buying this shirt to wear to the premiere. I need everyone's input please. It looks so soft and comfy! But also I'm allegedly an adult, so does that make it a frivolous purchase?

3//Wanderlust. I subscribe to all of those travel deal e-mails and it's killing me. I want to buy one of the trips that are on flash sale and just jump on a plane. I confess, I enter all of the sweepstakes that they tease me with too. I know the odds of winning are about the same as winning the actual lottery, but you can't win if you don't play, right? Turns out heavy planning for Ireland & Scotland next summer isn't tiding me over. Have you been anywhere exciting lately? Can I go with you next time?

4// House of pups. I've been dog sitting this week, so there are more dogs in the house than humans. I mean, there's just Albus & Little Bear, but still. Albus was so stressed out about a dog being in his house while he was in his crate, that I've been letting him stay outside of the crate. We're 2 for 2 on days out of the crate without destroying anything, so hopefully we make it a perfect three for three today.
A post shared by Albus Decker (@albusdpup) on

5// Kroger. Flowers. I bought the manager's special daisies on Super Bowl Sunday, they're STILL pretty in their little vases all around the house. I don't know if we've ever talked about my obsession with daisies, but they're my absolute favorite flower ever. They just make a room so happy and bright and I just love them. Not that I'm too picky about any flowers that are beautiful, but feel free to make it a drinking game every time my instagram features them. I think this one yesterday makes at least three since I brought them home...
What were the highlights of your week? Do you have your Beauty & the Beast tickets yet? 

HAPPY National Margarita Day!

Let's start this out by saying I certainly don't need a day to drink margaritas, but I'm definitely using it as an excuse to talk about them today! I consider myself a bit of a connoisseur of margaritas, so I thought we'd talk about some of my favorite places to get a margarita. 

Obviously, my favorite place for margaritas is going to be my back porch. Maybe tied with poolside somewhere. Here's my go to margarita recipe. Simple, straightforward, nothing fancy. NOW let's talk fancy though. 
This. This margarita is from Chantico Burrito on the Marietta Square. This place is awesome. This was their summer margarita that hung over into fall a little bit. It was a peach puree and some spicy salt and oh my goodness was it delicious. They make all of their margarita stuff fresh, nothing leftover or mass produced. Even their house margaritas are all made fresh, no big batch sitting up on the back of the bar. 
Los Magueys is up in Paulding county by my dad's house. It's your typical little neighborhood Mexican restaurant, which is why it's delicious. They also have a pretty heavy pour when it comes to the tequila, which really is the way to my heart, if we're being honest. Plus. They have this dish called the Maguey Special which is rice drowning in cheese dip with shrimp and chicken or pork. YUM.
Last, but not least, we have El Taco in the Virginia Highlands. El Taco is a fun little place, they have a salsa bar, tasty food, and a fun little giveaway where everyone gets tokens and they spin a wheel at the top of the hour for prizes like free queso. They do make their house margaritas in a large batch, but the pitchers are super affordable and delicious

What are your favorite margaritas? Any favorites in the Atlanta area that I missed? Anyone craving a margarita at 8:30 am now? 

A Work In Progress

If I have learned one thing owning a house, it's that nothing is ever finished. There's alway something that needs to be done. For example, I don't have anything on the walls in the master bedroom. I have a painting sitting on the ground that has been waiting to be put up since I moved in. We won't talk about the cloffice that is currently the room for things with no home yet. Right now, we're going to talk about the yard. 

First of all, yard work is not for the weak of heart.  The girl who lived in the house before me is a florist, so I thought awesome, I bet there are lots of great plants and after whatever she takes with her, the beds will have great bones for me to build on. I. Was. Wrong. The whole front bed was full of English Ivy. I don't know if you have any experience getting rid of that, but if so I feel all of your pain. 
I MEAN LOOK AT THAT. When I first moved in, I spent an entire day pulling that shit up. We took a CHAINSAW. We hooked it to my step-dad's truck with chain and pulled it away. It was awful. We managed to get most of it, discovering potted plants and decorative step stones and all sorts of treasures. Also, please note the Rose of Sharon back there taking the life out of that hemlock tree. 
After an entire day of pulling and chainsawing we managed to get it to look like this. I'll have you know, that no matter how concentrated the Roundup was, it didn't do anything. I still have nightmares about that stuff growing into my house and trapping me forever. Anyways, over the summer I put out about a million bales of pinestraw, hoping that would at least cover a little bit of it. 
Then, if we're being honest, I completely pretended the problem didn't exist for about six months. This past weekend I decided I wanted to get the yard under control before the spring really got rockin' and rolling. Of course I had to pull all of the leaves and nonsense out of this bed and the one on the other side of the house (ps. if raking leaves doesn't give me Victoria Secret model abs, nothing will) I pulled some more of the ivy up, planted a rose bush, some bulbs, and made plans for a few more rose bushes the next time I go to Lowes or Home Depot. That took a WHOLE DAY. You know why? Because there was more`ivy to be pulled. I cannot. 
I know in a few weeks this will be full of color, so I just have to hold on for a little while longer. Do you have any gardening tips for me? A cure for English Ivy perhaps?

Albus: 8 Month Pupdate

So, yesterday, Albus turned EIGHT MONTHS OLD. It's crazy because he was born the day before I closed on my house, which means today I've officially been a homeowner for 8 months. When we hit July 17th, this will officially be the longest time I've lived in the same place since I moved out for college. Just putting that one out there. 
ANYWAYS. So Albus is eight months old now. He's currently in a phase where he wants to attack any and all fluff. His favorite activity is fetch, but we've discovered the hard way that the ball will go through the fence if you throw it just right. So we're waiting on more balls from Amazon. (ps. if you're a chuckit person, definitely get the balls from Amazon. They're easily half price of anywhere I've seen them in stores.) In the meantime, he's on a mission to cover the house in fluff. Mean mom that I am, I stopped buying toys with fluff in them. Now he's defluffed his bed. 
We're slowly working on him being home alone outside of the crate, but usually when I let him stay out of the crate, I find him in the crate anyways. You know, it's his safe space. He's a digger though, so I don't know if we'll ever get to the point where I leave him the option of the backyard. 
He's also, finally, found a brand of food that he likes that's available more places than Tractor Supply. It's a little more expensive than the tractor supply food, but I can have it delivered fo'free with Amazon or pick it up at PetSmart which is NOT forty five minutes away. Now, if we could just master the loose leash walking we would be golden! 
Do you have any pup training tricks? Anything fun planned for this weekend? I'll be spending the entire weekend in the yard trying to make it look like the cover of a Southern Living magazine....

It's Called Vicious Trollop

Okay so I didn't have anything clever to title this post and I'm watching Gilmore Girls, so there you go. I have a DVR that's about 65% full and instead I just watch reruns of Gilmore Girls on a channel where they edit out "damn" and "hell." SPEAKING OF, is it too late to do a recap of all of my feelings on the revival? It's probably coming soon. Anyways 

Since I'm still working on , I thought I'd go through some of my recent DSLR shots and share those instead! I'm still working on the whole teach yourself to be a great photographer with youtube videos adventure. So here are some fun snaps I've taken lately. 
CAN WE TALK ABOUT HOW TINY THIS LITTLE MONSTER USED TO BE. LOOK. AT. THAT. FACE.
For my birthday I had a bonfire complete with a S'mores bar, that I was very proud of if we're being for real for real. I mulled apple cider and sausage balls and didn't burn the house down. It came close a couple of times though... Obviously we were having too much fun roasting marshmallows (ps, those telescoping things are probably meant for hot dogs, but they were so clutch for marshmallows too!) that I didn't get many pictures after that. 
Now I really want s'mores. I'm toting my camera all of the places these days, so there might be more posts like this in the future.... What have you been capturing lately? 

To My Fellow Atlanta Fans

It took me an entire day to process Sunday night's game. I honestly think I was heartsick. I preemptively took Monday off, which was a very solid decision because I wouldn't have been any good at work. Side note: why is the Monday after the Super Bowl not a holiday? Or why not have the Super Bowl on a Saturday? 
I started Sunday full of hope and nerves. This team has been different this year, no one thought they could do it, and they were out to make a statement. Then Matt Ryan won the MVP and it all started to feel real. This could really be our year. Our chance to escape, if just for a few moments, the "most miserable sports city in America" title being the only one we manage to win.

This was going to be the year we weren't one and done if we actually made the playoffs. The year we could maybe forget about the infield fly in deep left field. just kidding, we'll never get over that one. It was our year to prove people wrong about our level of fandom and support for our teams. It was about so much more than the Lombardi trophy to us. 

I think that's what really makes it hurt all the way down to my toes. The first half of that game held so much promise, then we were going to get the ball back after halftime. It was really happening. All we had to do was maintain a 19 point lead. That's it. As a lifelong Atlanta and UGA fan, blowing the second half the way we did was nothing new. I wish it was something surprising and out of character. Maybe that would have dulled the pain. 

I'm sure we will be back, maybe sooner rather than later, but it doesn't make this loss sting any less. I definitely don't want to hear it from people who come from winning cities. People expect us to blow it, they talk down at us as a fan base. We're hard to get pumped to play against. No one ever thinks that we're good enough to make it to the big game. We just wanted to prove the world wrong.

So we close out the 2016 NFL season with our mantra of there's always next year. I think that maybe those were my first words. There's always next year. Maybe that's the year we get it together and hold on to that lead. But pitchers & catchers report in 6 days, so maybe this will be the year for the Braves instead. 

Atlanta, we love you. We always will. 

Five Things That Changed With a Puppy

Listen, before I piss of any moms out there, I realize that a puppy is not the same thing as a baby. HOWEVER, I have noticed a lot of similarities between this little monster and the hilarious stories people tell about their toddlers. So I think it makes complete sense that people get puppies before they decide to have babies. Albus has so much freaking personality, sometimes I can't handle it.

1. Everything is a chew toy. I subscribe the little monster to BarkBox but his favorite things to chew on are: my hair, empty water bottles, bras, the ChuckIt, the buttons on our throw pillows, my comforter, really just anything he's not supposed to play with, he wants to play with it.

2. Priorities change. I don't know if this is going to be true for everyone, but man I feel some kind of guilt if I do something after work that the pup can't come to. If I know I'm going to have to work late or have to go somewhere he's not allowed to go, I take him to daycare. You read that right, he goes to doggy daycare.

3. Sleeping in? Dream on. I keep waiting for Albus to adopt mom's sleep schedule, but here we are, 6 months in, and he still wants to get up at 5:30 am every morning. He lets me know it's time to get up by jumping up on the bed & laying directly on my head. It's a great tactic, because it's really hard to go back to sleep when you can't breathe..

4. Hair. Everywhere. First of all, as a human, I shed constantly. Like, every shower I think "yep. this is it, this is the day I go bald." COMBINE that with tiny little dog hair everywhere? I am constantly covered in dog hair. I already have lint rollers everywhere, but it's a constant battle.

5. Coming home is the best. Y'all. It doesn't matter if I have been gone for five minutes or four hours, he is SO EXCITED to see me. Like OMG MOM YOU HAVE BEEN GONE FOREVER I THOUGHT YOU WOULD NEVER BE BACK! It's a really fantastic feeling.

Do you have a little monster? I promise that's a term of endearment, most of the time. 

Currently & Some February Goals

So, in true Tuesday fashion, I just ran the coffee maker without adding water. So I'm doing great today! I have to be honest, I'm a little rusty/nervous getting back into this whole blogging thing, so today we're going to talk some goals and what's currently happening. Seems simple enough, right? 

FIRST OF ALL. Can we talk about the Beauty & the Beast trailer? PLEASE. I have easily watched it 25 times since last night. #sorrynotsorry I'll just leave it here in case you've been under a rock for the last twelve hours. I am 28 years old and not even a little ashamed to admit that I am so excited and also that I cried when I watched it. Obviously, I definitely just bought my ticket for opening night..
I'm currently planning (possibly entirely too far in advance) a trip to Ireland & Scotland for next summer. Yeah, next summer. I've been daydreaming of Ireland for as long as I can remember, so my thought process was, if I start saving now I can skip the "save money by staying in hostels with 96 of your closest friends" and splurge on a night in a castle or something. Plus, I made a savings tracker in my bullet journal where I get to color every time I save $10. 

SO let's talk goals! It's a short month, so I'm making a short list.
  1. Blog three times a week: I've been overthinking and trying to come up with perfect content and pictures, so I've been hesitant to post anything I don't feel is perfect & forgetting that the real joy is the writing itself. So here we go! 
  2. Workout every day: I want to be able to do a three minute plank, so I figure if I do one every day, by the end of the month SURELY I can do it. Also I'd really like to get over 10,000 steps every day so my fitbit stops judging me.
  3. Keep the house clean: Somehow, I am a person who has someone to clean the house (I feel that it's worth the money to not have to be the one to deep clean the bathroom.) and yesterday was the first day. My whole house smelled like pinesol, it was amazing. I'm constantly pinning all of these "hacks" to keep your house clean, surely I can read one or two of those articles. 
So that's what I want to knock out this month. I'll be using my bullet journal to keep myself accountable, and here, and instagram. What are you trying to accomplish this month? 

Adventures With Albus

I know I talked about this handsome little monster on Wednesday, but I want to formally introduce everyone to Albus. Sometimes I want to tell people his name is Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Decker and see if they get the joke, because I'm pretty sure it would be a good way to tell if we should be friends or not...
Guys. I thought I knew what I was getting into with a puppy, at least a little bit, I was wrong. Albus is about 50% snuggle monster & 50% tornado. I swear he only has two speeds: passed out or Tasmanian devil. He's been a handful since day one. 
I picked the little monster (as I have come to call him, obviously in a very loving manner) from a family friend's farm about an hour and a half north of where I live. She told me to bring a box for him to ride in, which I did, and he wanted to sit in my lap. Mind you, we're going about 80 down the highway. From that moment on, he has honestly been my shadow.
In typical lab fashion, he's grown like a weed. The original estimate was 50 pounds. Overachiever that he is, he breezed right past that. He just turned 7 months old (yeah, I know I missed the instagram with his chalkboard, I'm a bad pupmom) and is already sitting pretty at 60 pounds. His legs have been the same length for the past few months, which has been hilarious, he reminds me of Bambi when he first learns to stand up.
We took the first puppy training class at PetSmart and it was definitely worth the money, so worth it that we even signed up for the Intermediate class. We start on Super Bowl Sunday (but don't worry, plenty of time before kickoff.) We're still working on all of the things, especially stay... and the whole loose leash thing. He's just so excited whenever we go on a walk that he wants to go a lot faster than I do. Or smell everything. We've almost mastered not pulling on the leash.
Now, what I could really use tips on is how to make him less of a morning person. He is up every morning at 6:15am and ready. to. play. Never wants to let mom have a cup of coffee before roughhousing. How does he do that? Maybe the question is how can I become more of a morning person like him? I don't see that one happening any time soon. Tell me about your pups! Are they also crazy morning people? Or do they let you sleep in?

Hey What's Up Hello

Oh, hey there! I bet you weren't expecting to see me today... Since it's been a whopping six months since I've been a good blogger, I thought I should start again by introducing myself and giving a little spark notes version of what's been going on lately.

So, last we spoke, I'm sure I was talking about buying a house and surely about getting a puppy. That's really been the focus of my last few months. There are so many things I kind of knew about being a homeowner and so many other things I didn't realize would happen all at once after I moved in. 
Let me tell you, I knew what I was getting into getting a puppy, but I didn't realize what I was getting into with a puppy and no roommate. I feel like Albus has to be able to do whatever I'm going to do or else I feel guilty. I will be the first to admit that I am a helicopter momma with him. (PS Albus has his own instagram, clearly necessary to not overwhelm my friends with only puppy pictures. I'm pretty sure he will be more popular than me) I mean, just look at that face!
So! I'm back. I'm back to my bullet journal and all of the instagram hashtags. (PS, Elle & I decided the reason we dig bullet journals so much is because it kind of reminds you of passing notes in high school...) I have built out a plan for January (whaaaaaaat) but let me know if there's anything you want to see here this year! I can't wait to get back into everything. How has everyone else been?? What have I missed?