It's a Dog's Life

Man - how nice would it be to live the life of a pup? Huh? Look at this! Not bad at all my friends. Sleep, play, eat and sleep some more.

Our lives are crazy right now. With the house, jobs, school, family, friends, pup and volunteer work it seems like there's not always enough time in the day to get everything done, let alone done well.

How can you be the best wife at the same time as being the best employee, best friend, best daughter, best furry pup mother, best student and best volunteer? It is overwhelming and scary. I had a minor freak out on Monday when I felt all of the above crashing down around me. What a way to spend a day off huh?

After some wine and some deep breaths - I realized that I am lucky to be blessed with all of the above opportunities that are causing this little "problem", and that maybe I need to shift some priorities, get a little less sleep, suck it up and get it done.

There doesn't seem to be a sweet loving way around it - it's all about bucking it up, being a bad ass, and making every minute of the day count. Today is my day 1 of being a bad ass. We'll see how it goes.

Good look everyone in being the best everything that you are, all the time. Let me know how it goes :)

Valentine's Day

Now, I know there are a lot of differing opinions out there on Valentine's Day. A lot of people LOVE the holiday. They love finding the perfect card and gift for the one they love, having a candlelit romantic dinner, and sending flowers.

Then, there are those on the complete opposite end of the spectrum. They hate the holiday and its forced romanticism, the overpriced gifts and the focus on the all too superficial aspects of love.

There's also the Singles Awareness Day folks - who hate the one day every year when they are most aware that they are alone (at least in a romantic sense).

I am shockingly one of the Valentine's day lovers. I know, I know. Very unexpected. However, I never had a chance to really show that (due to all the nonexistent and/or terrible relationships I was in) until 5 years ago, when I met the boy who would eventually become my husband.

On our 5th Valentine's (well technically fourth, it's a long story - you all know it) Day together I just wanted to make sure that he knew how thankful I am to finally have my Valentine in the most wonderful, caring and loving person I have ever met.

It brings tears to my eyes every time I think about how lucky I am to have him in my life. I have never felt so loved and supported and cherished, and I thank God everyday for blessing my life with that kind of love. I cannot believe I am so lucky.

Happy Valentine's Day, Dave. Thank you for loving me.

Friday, Friday, Friday

The older I get, the more my Fridays seem to change. If I look back over the Fridays of my life - they are maybe the single clearest indicator of how I have lived and changed and grown over the past 26 years. But no matter what age or stage in life, Fridays have always been exciting; a beacon leading to the upcoming break from the daily grind.

As a kid - my Fridays were spent begging my parents if I could spend the night at Andrea's, or Jessie's or Katie's or Amanda's. We loved to have late night Michael Meyers movie watching fests with way too much candy and ice cream, and stay up late talking about our futures.

In high school, Fridays meant football or basketball games - a chance to see and be seen at Roncalli events. Fridays meant glittery makeup and ribbons in your hair and late night Steak n' Shake runs. Or on the lucky weekends we got to play - it meant basketball games and team dinners and bus rides.

In college for the first two years, Fridays in the off-season meant taking advantage of every party and late night that you could. During season, Fridays meant getting out of class early for shoot arounds and meals and game night if we were home. If we were on the road it meant tests on the bus, and late nights watching film, followed by a game and then travel to wherever our next match-up was.

The second two years, Fridays meant relief when class was done, afternoon cocktails with my roomates, dinners together and late nights hanging out and visiting the Greencastle bars. And, sometimes even a trip to, or a visitor from Terre Haute.

After college, my Fridays were remarkably similar to the Fridays in college, for a year or so. However, the strain of real life budgeting and paying the bills started to put a damper on that.

The next stage of Fridays involved lots of vacation and wedding planning and house searching and nights with our moms. And nice dinners out and post-dinner drinks with friends.

Now, my Fridays are Fridays my 21 year old self would be ashamed of :)

They are spent with Dave and Dexter - usually at home, and usually with a bedtime of 11 or so. Lots of Netflix and DVR'd show watching and homemade, money-saving dinners. But they are wonderful in their own grown up sort of way.

So wherever you are in life, and however you celebrate your Fridays - I hope today is a great one!