An Introduction…

In December we adopted a baby {Rottie} girl.

Part of the “agreement” with the move to Wilmington more than two years ago was that I wanted another puppy. Finley needed company, I needed a puppy, and well… I needed a puppy. With the transition taking MUCH longer than anticipated we put off looking until the time was right. Finally in the fall, after all the traveling that comes with football season, we got serious. I got a couple wait-lists with some rescue groups and then one night Rottweiler Hearts Rescue called and said they had a little girl that we could meet.

The next day we met her and she was ours! It happened so fast after all that waiting that we weren’t even ready! If you follow me on Instagram you know  that as soon as we sign the papers, got a couple of “family” pictures we headed out to the store to get her a proper name tag and her own kong right away!

We named her Peggy after one of our favorite characters on Mad Men and it is so funny how people think Peggy is an odd name for a Rottweiler. I think it suits her in a way.

The past 6 months have been so fun with her. She is CRAZY and a total opposite of Finley but she’s the sweetest and she loves to be loved on so it’s easy to have her be your 85 lb shadow.

 

She’s a digger, a crier, a chewer, a belly up sleeper and a fetcher. She loves ice cubes, biting Finley’s ears, and drooling.

 

She enjoys walks but refuses to actually potty while on them. She is a pro at the dog park and loves when her Uncle Greg (my brother) can come take her to play instead of being in the crate.

So far she doesn’t seem to like swimming, but we we’re working on it. She does not like when you blow into her face and she has huge paws. He little nub of a tail is always moving, unless your petty her then she likes to be very still as if she’s soaking up each touch.

 

 

Peggy is an avid TV watcher, hates when I am on my phone in bed in the morning – she reminds me by “gently” pawing my phone away.

 

 

 

Peggy came to us through the rescue group but they got her after she, her mom and her sister were abandoned in a trailer in Durham. Poor girls were found very dirty and a little shy, but for the most part healthy and happy.

These were some of the pictures that the rescue group shared of her before we got her:

She has been a joy to have in our lives and I am so happy we got to adopt her. She looks cute in the pictures for sure, but maybe once I’m back on the blogging train more consistently I share the NUMEROUS pictures of the destruction she has also caused :)

So… Blogging…

Here I am. 167 days after my last post, here I am.

Not sure where I’ve been… I mean, obviously I do know where I have been, I have been everywhere but on the blog. I’d say I’m sorry but I honestly didn’t miss it. Of course, I miss y’all, but I haven’t missed blogging.

I don’t know what made me stop blogging but I think I may be back at a sort of random- unplanned – rate. Don’t place bets on how often I’ll be blogging in other words…

I think part of what made me stop really caring about updating so often was how “planned”  blogging had be come. Like, I needed to check my self and my content and plan out in advance so subjects weren’t too close together… ridiculous I worried about that, I know, but it’s true.

I think my other hesitancy to blog came from the fact I didn’t KNOW who was reading. I knew some people because of sweet comments or tweets or my mom would tell me. But then I’d see big view numbers and would really wonder who the hell was reading my lame football game updates. Were they people I even liked? Were they people who were just being creepy? Were they people I don’t talk to anymore and just read to talk about me? (Totally something I would do, so of course this was my worst case scenario.)

I guess now I’ve decided I don’t care anymore who’s reading. I just miss blogging about what’s new.

So after 167 days, what’s new with me? Well… we got a new puppy, I love her. Her name is Peggy and she’s crazy. Finley loves her too. Albie and I still work together and we’re the cool nerds who carpool together and lunch together. The house is good- not much done to it other then some landscaping cut backs and I think we feel settled. I got a fancier phone, I’m on instagram, we went to Vegas, and I’m coordinating weddings for fun. I’m still drinking my wine like the boxes are going out of style.

Thanks for your patience, I’m glad to be back and hope y’all are still out there :)

State Football Games 1-4…

The months are flying by for everyone right? I mean, it can’t only be me.

We have been immersed deep into College Football and all the emotions that go with it. Our team has won against a team ranked in the top 5 and lost to another unranked team with a last play hail-mary. Since I am the world’s worst blogger I’ll just entertain you by smooshing the 4 home games we’ve had so far into one post.

First up: NC State vs Tennessee in Atlanta for the Chick-fil-a Kickoff Game! This was a funnnn tailgate. We got the tickets with a group of friends from college and had so much fun. Albie told stories he shouldn’t have and we all drank more then we should have. It was so good to catch up with them and to get out of town for a weekend. My team did loose (womp womp) but overall it was a GREAT time!

After an away game at UConn that we won, we finally got to have our first home game of the season against South Alabama. My mom is hosting two high school exchange students this year and this was their first real experience with tailgating and college football so it was fun to show them what it’s like. This was also the first tailgate where we brought a TV. I don’t know how we tailgated without for so long, it’s so fun to have all the other games on!

Our military appreciation game this year was against the Citadel and it was an absolutely gorgeous night for it! Luckily we won this one too, we were actually super nervous after hearing how badly they beat App the weekend before.

I completely forgot to take pictures at the tailgate and for most of the game but I did get a picture of our big pretty flag at half time!

Our September 29th game was at Miami but I’m not 100% sure our team knew to show up. It was awful. Watching it on TV was even worse because you feel like you have to tune in. I luckily had somewhere to be during the second half of the game and missed our attempt to come all the  back to tie it only to loose by a hail-mary at the end.  booo

After a pitiful away game I can’t say we held out much hope for our home game against Florida State this past Saturday. We packed the car and headed up with lots of beverages and a new satellite for our TV. I knew we were in for a good time when a police office tried to give us a ticket for doing wrong before we even got to the tailgate… (long story, bottom line, no ticket. Also, note to self: do not talk back to a police officer, they don’t like that.)

We ended up keeping the game within reach the whole time but it wasn’t anything to write home about until the final couple of minutes. We ended up beating #3 ranked FSU and it was a BLAST. We were so pumped after the win that we didn’t end up staying with some friends and ended up driving all the way home. Getting into bed at 3:30 in the morning was well worth it though! Good win!

Thank goodness this weekend is a bye and next weekend is away. I think I actually need a bit of a break!

Playing Catch Up…

I feel like it’s gotten cliche to just pop in every so often and say “sorry I haven’t been blogging!”  or “Gosh Life is crazy right now!” because realistically? It’s not much crazier then normal…

Albie and I have settled into a routine again now that he’s been here more then a month and it works for us. We are carpooling to work like a couple of nerds who like to save money and we are back to grocery shopping and meal planning together. Finley loves his back yard but still hasn’t fully grasped that when we let him out the back door he doesn’t have to wait on the porch for us to tell him to go ahead and play – so we’re the mean fur-parents who laugh at him standing on the steps through the kitchen window before chasing him off the porch.

We’ve started the tailgating season off nicely with a weekend in Atlanta where we watched our beloved Wolfpack loose to the Tennessee Vols (Its heart breaking y’all… no one wants to loose their season opener!) and We’ve been gathering all the materials needed to watch some HD TV at the tailgates, which is totally necessary obvs.

We have done absolutely squat on updating the house or painting any more rooms since the shower and unfortunately the weeds in the yard have started to come back from where I painfully picked, what I thought was, every last root. I’m most proud of my ability to park in the garage with the other car and stuff all around. “Learn to park in the garage” was on my list to do before closing day and even if Albie argues my skills lack from time to time, it’s been good so far. (We love not having to put the top up when we get home!)

October has a couple of weddings lined up and one of them is in VEGAS! Flights have been purchased and the hotel is booked! Now if only I had more sparkly clothes to wear…

I’ve been reading again which has been fun – I flew through the Fifty Shades series but started to find Anastasia and Christian annoying at the end. I LOVED Gone Girl and The Paris Wife. Am still working through South of Broad since I just keep that in my beach bag,but it’s good so far!

Anyway- I do plan to get some pictures posted and off my camera before they’re lost for forever so I promise, I’ll be back! I’m not gone :)

Yay for August…

I know I posted a while back how excited I was for August but now we’re int he swing of things and it is as awesome as I had hoped! Yay!

First weekend in August we went to the Beer, Bourbon and BBQ festival again. This is our third year but first not living in town, so figuring out the driving logistics around a day drinking event was fun. Spoiler alert: I was the DD.

It wasn’t too bad. It was really Albie’s event since I am much more a wine and fruity cocktail girl, notsomuch a bourbon at 1 in the afternoon girl. It’s also a group of his friends that go so I’d prefer to drink my gallons of water in the shade and look forward to a glass of wine at home at the end of a couple hour drive.

I also got to host my first shower this weekend for my good friend Amanda who is due at the end of September. I had the BEST time planning this shower and it kind of took over my life. I hunted for anything that would fit the theme and crafted like it was my job. It was so fun to finally see it all come to life on Saturday.

We had a great time and I hope to get more pictures from people soon so I can do a full post on all the details!

Today also marks the 18 day point on the countdown until our Season opener for NC State football! We are so excited to see them play in Atlanta as a part of the opening weekend kick off games but nothing gets us more jazzed about the season then having the fed ex man deliver these goodies over the weekend:

And last but not least, today is Albie’s first day at his job. He seemed excited about it this morning, complete with wearing a tie and leaving 30 minutes early even though we are super laid back here!

I’m so proud of him for sticking out this job search for so long for us. It will be so nice to settle into our routine this week. Here’s to hoping he doesn’t want to leave so early every morning, if he wants me to carpool with him I’d have some serious adjustments to make.

Yay for August!

House Exterior Before and Now…

We have been working like maniacs over here trying to get the curb appeal up to par on the new house. As of yesterday, I think I’m officially proud of it for a little while!

There is some serious planting I want to happen and the backyard is missing tons of grass, but it’s finally to a good clear starting point.

My “before” shots are all from May, the month we found out we got the house. Since we didn’t close until July 2nd, these pictures really just show the 1 month we’ve owned the house:

Front of the house in May 2012

Front of the house July 2012

The big things we got done on the front in the 1 month we’ve been here are:

• New Roof: HUGE difference right?? This was obviously a splurge but it’s going to be worth it in the long run. We did upgrade to architectural grade shingles and went with an “Onyx Black” color opposed to the gray color.

• Painted front door: The door before was faded, dirty, had holes in it from where the old numbers used to be, and was really just a mess. So I spent one weekend sanding, primer-ing, and painting 3 coats of Behr Ultra “Holly Berry”. It was HOT that weekend but the fresh red paint paired with the new hardware made an immediate impact!!

• Painted shutters: This I did not do my self. We are not “ladder people” and there are some high windows on the house. We hired a guy we knew from high school who teaches/ coaches so he does odd jobs in the summer. He did a great job and for a bargain!! He bought us new hardware and I supplied the Sherwin Williams Tricorn Black in a Gloss.

Shutters before and after they were painted!

You can see how the old hardware was rusting straight down the front. Forget the fact that these were so faded I didn’t know what color they were supposed to be, that rust KILLED  me. They look so much better now!

• Power Washed: We found a guy on craigslist who was more than half the price of the other quotes we had gotten. While the house is SO.MUCH.CLEANER. it’s still not perfect. We’re told we’ll have to plan on washing it every year so the cheaper price at least made a big difference for this year.

• Landscaping: We hauled out soooooo many dead bushes and limbs off of trees. We layed some mulch and mowed the lawn. It doesn’t seem like a lot but the neighbors have literally been commenting on it since we moved in. I think it was so over grown it was just hard to see anything. The weeds looked like trees and shrubs looked like tumble weeds. HUGE “shout out” to everyone who helped with the yard – it’s brutal hot and we cleared a lot of debris!

You can even see a big difference on the front corner of our lot:

Corner of front yard in May.

Corner of front yard in July.

I mean, REALLY?! You can see the road now! While I am super pumped about this, I have now been told by 3 different people how upset I have made all the little kids on the cul de sac – apparently this was a key hiding spot and I “ruined” it. So sorry guys!

Speaking of landscaping, here’s the back yard’s progress:

Looking out from the back deck in May.

Looking out from the back deck in July!

From the fence in the back yard, looking toward the house in May.

Looking from the fence, towards the house in July.

Obviously I am going to melt into a puddle just thinking of how hot it was every day outside for all that work. I am so glad it’s done and already brainstorming ideas for what plants I want and where they’ll go. Fun!