Resolutions

I find that the best way to hold yourself accountable for New Year's Resolutions are to write them down where others can see them and hold you accountable. So, be kind, but here they are:

1. Make a bigger deal about holidays, birthdays, and anniversaries. Now, that doesn't mean that I don't celebrate stuff, but I could definitely do a whole lot better about sending cards, decorating, texting those people, and generally making a bigger deal out of the "big deal" days. 
2. Do The 52 Week Money Saving Challenge, as seen on The House of Rose blog. I won't be doing the portion that asks you to open a new saving account since I already have a shared one with my husband, but I love this idea. My husband also loved this idea. So, instead of having $1,378 extra in our savings account by the end of the year, if all goes well, we should have $2,756 extra in savings because we're each going to do it with our individual incomes. This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the overall plan to be more financially stable...
3. Get rid of as much debt as possible. We know we need a reliable savings should anything go wrong ~I'm looking at you, vet visits and random ER visits~, but we also need to snowball this debt. I've taken a little chunk out of it from my same resolution in 2013, but I'm planning on going even bigger this coming year. I'm done with owing companies money. The more debt I take down, the more I can save and relax. 
4. Become more active. Notice how I did not say lose weight. I'm done with that resolution. You can lose weight and be completely unhealthy. I'm more in it for the health factor. I already eat pretty well, if I do say so myself, but I am awful at just getting up and doing something, especially after a ~12 hour day at work. I need to be better at just getting up and doing something: walking the dogs, doing yard work, doing a work out DVD...something. Again, not for weight loss. I'm actually pretty okay with the weight I'm at. I just would like a little more definition and strength. How else am I going to be able to put up with all of my nephews, nieces, and, one day, my own kids? 
5. Don't let myself get bogged down with work. As you saw in the last resolution, I'm exhausted by the end of every day. Then, I make an excuse to just sit on my butt and be lazy because I'm exhausted. Well, that makes for a very boring life. Because of this, I don't exercise as often as I should. The house that we moved into this summer is still not as decorated ~ or even painted ~ as much as I would like it to be. I'm constantly "catching up" on chores that I haven't gotten around to during the work week, which makes for a very lame weekend most of the time. Time to change that. And hopefully be a little more efficient at work, so I can leave at a little bit more of a decent hour. 
6. Keep this poor blog up to date. I've finally gotten all of the events from this past winter up, and I can finally not just blog about what I've been up to, but what has been on my mind. Maybe even a few more everyday moments, not just the giant trips we've seemed to take a lot of this year. I just need to keep up with what I plan on blogging about and not putting it off. Then I won't feel overwhelmed about what I have not done and instead be excited about what i have done. And, lastly...
7. Enjoy every moment of this year. I don't want to get bogged down with work and chores, walking around like a sleep-deprived zombie. I want to soak in everything this year has prepared for my husband, myself, and my family. I don't want to miss it because I'm checking my work email on a Saturday and get upset. I don't want to miss it because I'm so exhausted from the work week that I sleep in until almost noon and miss half the day. I want to bask in all of the glory with whatever 2014 brings. 

Icepocolypse

Unlike the wrongly predicted winter weather in November, December's winter storm lived up to the hype. The ice started to come down Thursday, and I didn't return to work until Tuesday (my poor husband had to go back Monday, driving on the ice). The ice didn't melt until later the next week. It was pretty crazy. I had an interesting drive home Thursday night. 

I awoke Wednesday morning to a winter wonderland outside my window. 

View out our front door.

Looking down our street.

Our poor, confused tree. Fall or winter?

See all that white stuff? Looks like snow, right? Nope! All ice. At the peak of accumulation ~ it was still icing when I took the above pictures ~ we had roughly 3 - 4 inches of solid ice on the ground. Needless to say, we stayed home for a few days. Our animals were completely okay with that. 

Mulligan may not realize he is a 60 pound dog. Big baby. 

So, what do you do when you're iced in for 4 days? We caught up with housework, spent some quality time with our animals, caught up on all of our recorded shows, watched Christmas movies, and I cooked. A lot. 

Welsh cakes, banana bread, and beef stew. My husband was living large. 

By Sunday, we decided to be brave and venture out. We went sightseeing around town to check out our cute square and gorgeous Victorian houses in the ice. We then went home and took a walk/slide around the neighborhood with our stir-crazy dogs. We then cleared our driveway and walkway. I assumed I was going back to work the next day, but only my husband and his school district had to do that. I got to stay home one more time to finish catching up on sleep and finish deep cleaning the house. 

Even though the next couple of weeks of school were a little crazy while we tried to play catch-up, it was totally worth it. It was like we got a mini fall break 2 weeks before our winter break. Even though we have to make up those days in the spring, I'm still so glad it happened. We needed those days off to recoup. Thank you Texas and your crazy weather. 

A Family Weekend

The weekend before Thanksgiving, my Mum, Nana, and Grampy came to visit our little family (my husband, myself, and our fur babies). This was a huge deal to me because my Nana and Grampy had never before seen any of my houses/townhouses/apartments, and this was my Mum's first time seeing our new house. I looked forward to it for months before it actually happened.

They drove up on the Thursday, and I took the next day off from work, so I could hang out with them. Unfortunately, my husband still had to work, but we had a great time on Friday. It happened to be the 50th anniversary of JFK's assassination, so, since everyone but myself remembered the event, we braved the cold and the crowds and checked out the memorial.

The street in downtown Dallas where he was assassinated. 

Memorial on the Grassy Knoll. 

They unveiled a plaque on the Grassy Knoll with a portion of JFK's speech he wrote but never got say on that fateful day.

Since we were on a presidential kick, and we were in Dallas, we also hit up the Bush Library. It was very well done, and the portion of the museum dedicated to September 11th was very moving. 

They have beams from one of the World Trade Center buildings in the museum.

The next day, Saturday, we once again braved the cold weather (am I not supposed to be in Texas? Our weather has been crazy so far this winter) and headed over to Denton for the UNT vs UTSA game. We may have lost, but it was fun showing my family around my college town. 

After getting coffee on the Denton square to warm off after a FREEZING football game. Sorry for the grainy picture. 

They originally planned to stay with us until Monday morning, but, according to the weatherman, we were going to get some crazy, icy weather. Instead, they decided to have lunch with us Sunday morning and then go ahead and head back down south, so their drive would be safe. Even though the winter weather didn't come that time (I'll post about when it did in a future post), I'm glad they decided to stay safe. Plus, I got to see them later that week in San Antonio. 

Mulligan

I can't believe I haven't posted about our newest member to our family: Mulligan!

Poor dog didn't know what he was getting himself into. 

We adopted him on October 13th, and he is a really sweet. They told us he is roughly 3 years old, but we're not so sure about that. Now, I know we're used to a pug ~ the most crazy breed ever ~ but he's so mellow! I've seen some bursts of energy here and there, but he mostly likes to chill out with us. Him being naughty is trying to kick a person off the couch, so he can sit there instead. Seriously. 

I think it's safe to say he has made himself at home. 

Now, there has been an adjustment period with him and Sadie. Sadie is an alpha, and I don't think he was socialized with any of his past owners (we're guessing he had at least two before us). They started out a little bit frosty. Most of the time, he ignored her which was sad because she wanted to play. Every now and then, they would get into a fight over something stupid like the water bowl. Dude has a thing about his water. Maybe he used to be an outside dog, and they didn't keep his bowl full?  The funny thing about the fights were that I could get him away from Sadie, no problem. However, when Sadie gets mad, she's fearless. She would keep lunging at him!

Don't let the cuteness fool you. She's a killer. 

Luckily, they haven't fought for over a month ~ knock on wood. Another crazy thing we're getting used to is that he doesn't like toys or bones, and Sadie loves all of the above. There was also the issue of crate training him. We may be on our second crate ~ he has some strong jaws ~ but he has adjusted and is now fully crate trained. Any new family member, furry or otherwise, is an adjustment, and I think he's been doing great. 

Next up on the agenda is getting him more socialized. He does not do well with other dogs. Especially big dogs...even when he's bigger than half the dogs he's growling at. I mean, I'm pretty sure he has a lot of German Shepherd in him, and I think he may also have some husky. Dude's big and muscular. 

Check him out taking up most of our entryway, asking for a belly rub. 

Luckily I have some awesome friends coming over tomorrow, and they're bringing at least one of their big dogs ~ one is a puppy ~ to help with his socialization. We'll also be spending Christmas with my husband's family, and his aunt has a small and a midsized dog. We'll get there sooner or later. 

I'm so glad we made the plunge and adopted this sweet boy. All he wants is affection and walks. If anyone's ever worried about adopting an older dog, as opposed to a puppy, do it! They need love, just like any other animal, and, yes, there may be a little bit of baggage. However, if you rescue them, they will be such loyal companions, they will never leave your side, and they will always enrich your lives with their love. You just need to give them a chance. They'll fit into your family perfectly. 

The day we took him home. 

Are We Still Friends?

It's time to put myself back into the blog-o-sphere. It's been entirely too long. So, let's play a little catch-up:
     ~ School started in late August, and it has been going full tilt ever since. I've been working 12 - 18 hours most school days so far this year. Hopefully I can change the tide with that in the near future. My husband's job has been similar, but with even more hours ~ believe it or not. We've been feeling extremely run down recently.
     ~ Our house has slowly but surely been coming together. However, once we're able to figure out how to make our hours chill out, we'll be able to move it along much faster. I have family coming to visit in late November, so I need to start cranking up the pace pretty soon here. I'll post pictures of the finished product around that time too, hopefully.
     ~ My family just recently experienced a really sad loss. However, instead of focusing on that with the blog right now,  I'm instead going to focus my next few posts on my recent trip to visit family in the UK. I'm not ready to address the loss in a public manner yet. Just please keep my family in your prayers.

That is more or less it. You're up to date. Do you forgive me? Are we friends again? Get ready for some long overdue posts. They're a-coming.