baby girl be 3

Do you ever have one of those days (or weeks...or months) that just seem to go on and on and on? 

I feel like I have been constantly on the go for forever, yet I really haven't gotten anything accomplished that I wanted to! This is like the most frustrating feeling in the world! Ughh!

BUT on the up side, yesterday was my sweet baby cousins birthday! My little Roxy turned 3! I absolutely cannot believe she is already 3!!! As crazy as that seems, it is even crazier when I think about what life was like before she joined our family! The first baby on my moms side of the family in 20 years and she came at such a perfect time.

Like I cannot even explain how much I love this baby girl, she literally is my favorite thing in life. 

The first time I saw her! Her Pappy was real proud!

So, she basically cried for the first 6 months of her life...true story. But now she loves me! 

We took her bowling for the first time on her birthday. She LOVED it...and she beat me...bad.

Life.

Well it has been a very eventful last week! I was out of town for work for three days and the past three days have been spent at the hospital with my Nana who just had open heart surgery this morning (she is in recovery and all went well, praise God!).

So, because of these things I have blogged approximately....none. BUT I do have a couple of very exciting things that I will be posting hopefully by tomorrow! :)

Oh, and a huge *T*H*A*N*K*Y*O*U* to Lauren at Teach, Pray, Love Designs on my new look! I love it!!

Hope you all are having a fabulous Tuesday!!

Random but my dad so just told my uncle this at lunch today...pretty much true.

Beauty.

This morning as I was deleting pictures off of all of my SD cards I ran across some pictures from the fall that I had forgotten about. 

Fall is my absolute favorite time of the year (with Spring a close second). Football and hockey, super fun layered outfits, perfect camping weather and my birthday!! But even better than all of those things, I love the changing leaves! I am always trying to convince a random friend or family member to ride through the mountains with me. The pictures I found were from a day that I convinced my cousin, Alisha, to ride with me to Boxley, Arkansas. 

If you have ever been to Boxley, and why would you..it's kinda in the middle of nowhere, you know it is basically just a road that runs through the mountains...like that is all. But the amazing thing about Boxley is early in the morning and in the late afternoons dozens of elk will come out of the woods to stroll along the creek banks. They are absolutely beautiful animals and they seem so fearless! I love it! 

So, even though it's a bit late I am posting a few of my favorites, in memory of Fall 2013! Enjoy! 

Roxy was fascinated by the elk!

weekend's over...

This weekend has been full of fun with friends and family, like I can't even describe how amazing it has been.

Friday night was the finale of Sweet Home Alabama so some friends had made plans to come over...after a few crazy work schedule changes it came down to just me and Tabatha. We had great food (my first ever experience with an all day crock pot recipe!) and we were both disappointed together because we were totally Team Nate (Darn you, Collin!).

If I was rooting for the city boy you can imagine how annoying the country boy was! But Nate was def gorgeous!

Saturday I had my sweet friend KC and her little family over for lunch. You know that friend (I hope we all have) that is always willing to help you do anything and everything? That is so KC. I cannot get over how genuinely kind-hearted and loving she is towards everyone. Anyways, she is ALWAYS inviting me over for dinner or just to hang out (Sometimes being the single friend isn't always a bad thing!) so I wanted to return the favor for once and we had an absolute blast!

I ended Saturday with a couple games of Settlers of Catan with Ashley and her hubby and a friend of his. If you haven't played Catan, do it! NOW! It is absolutely addicting! And I will win eventually!

So, the weekend is officially over and work will be here in a couple of hours (depressing much?!) but I had a fabulous weekend.

Here's to Monday! May we all have an absolutely glorious week!

P.S. My Preds have lost the last two nights! Saturday night in a shoot out and Sunday in a shut out..ughh!

Lots to write about nothing...

So I have absolutely nothing to write about today (besides the fact that the Preds were kicking butt but are currently down by 1 to the Ducks. Poop!) but I feel the need to write something, SO I think this is the perfect time to post a couple random facts about yours truly (I promise I'm not conceited, just want to write!)!

Here we go...
1. I was born on 09-09-90...on 09-09-99 I turned 9 and on 09-09-09 I turned 19...I may be the only one who finds this interesting but it does get funny looks when people ask my birth date.

2. When I was little I had a piece of skin around my left ankle that didn't stretch and grow with the rest of my body for a while. The options were 1. cut it or 2. it would eventually cause my foot to basically amputate itself. Thank God it started stretching on its own and all I have left is a small line that goes around just above my ankle.

3. My moms younger sister, Linda, was diagnosed with cancer when I was in preschool and fought the disease until she passed away in April 2009 (I was a freshman in college). Because of this I learned how to drive to just about every hospital, chemo center, physical therapy place in Central Arkansas. I can still get to all of those places easily, but if I'm expected to drive to Little Rock (our Capitol and where most of her treatments were) to go shopping or to dinner I have to use a GPS.

4. I was super quiet, shy and got my feelings hurt super easily until I was about 11-12ish, then I just kind of snapped out of it. Now I have a tendency to be loud, not extremely outgoing but I definitely don't meet strangers, and while my feelings still get hurt from time to time I tend to get mad instead of upset.

5. I have never had a drink of alcohol and I have never had sex. Taboo right!? Well I chose a long time ago to save that for marriage. The sex, not the drinking, I have no plans to start that! lol

6. I went on my first cruise in 2011 and I have been on 3 more since then and try to have one planned at all times! I actually have one planned for the next two years! I have become a cruise-a-holic! Ya see, I can afford these vacations because I'm not blowing my money on booze! :)

7. Most of my friends I have been friends with since pre-k/middle school. I have only a handful of people that I met after this time that I truly consider best friends. And yes, I believe you can have multiple best friends!

Ok, enough for now! I'm boring myself! Hopefully I'll have something interesting to talk about next time or else I'll have to continue this list!

A Day From Hades...

It's one of those days. You know the kind. One of those days that all you want to do is mope around and pout. Yea, it's one of those.

I'd blame it on the weather but there are many other factors that have played in to this mood of mine. I haven't gotten nearly enough work done today. I can't get out and about because of the ridiculous ice on the roads AGAIN! House training a puppy is real hard work, like for real. Today Magnus has been a hellian! First, he peed and pooped in his crate not once but twice this morning. Nothing like 5 am and 8 am cleanings. And as if that isn't bad enough, the second time around he decided to roll around in it. Early morning showers are hard enough for me, but to have to bathe a nasty stinky dog that early just put me in a bad mood! Ugh! Oh, and did I mention the pup has decided that kitty poop tastes good?! Well, yes, apparently he does since I have caught him in the litter box approximately 37 times today! 

Don't let his cuteness fool you!

This is the face of destruction!

So to get out of this funk I decided it was time to finally read my "Best Moments of 2013" notes. They were fabulous, so glad I decided to do this last year (2014 Resolution: Be better about putting notes in the jar!).

I even had a couple of surprise notes from Roxy! :)

Add a cup of hot chocolate (which I don't even typically like, that just tells you how bad this day has been), a warm, fuzzy blanket, and a weeks worth of DVR recordings and you have the perfect end to a day from Hades! 

Thankful God makes all things new! Ready to see what blessings tomorrow will hold! Choosing to have a good attitude before tomorrow even rolls around!  

BRRR!!!

Second day back to work and I am sick. Blah!

Luckily I have the option of working from home today, so it looks to be a long day of emails, emails and more emails for this girl. And maybe a quick blog session...or two. :)

With the weather being so absolutely, ridiculously cold I really won't complain too much about being inside. When I woke up this morning it was 7 degrees! 7 DEGREES! It is Arkansas! We have 110 degree summer days. We should NOT be having 7 degree winter days! 

One good thing about the freezing temps is my sweet old man pup, Browning, has become an inside dog. He is probably the best inside dog I have ever had (ya know, in the two days he has been inside) so I'm kind of sad that I have made him stay outside all of this time! Browning was a rescue and was already an old man when I got him, but he had to have been an inside dog at some point! As you can tell he is right at home curled up on the couch wrapped up in a blanket!

Snoozing the cold away!

Browning helping a friend work on her resume...he likes making eye contact! lol

 And in Magnus news, he went to the vet yesterday for his second round of puppy shots. His heart sounded perfect, his little manly parts are where they are supposed to be (I had no idea they checked for this!), and he now weighs in at 22.9 lbs at approximately 9 weeks old! That is a 2.7 lb weight gain in one week!

Happy Tuesday!!

New.

Well, I officially have a new name and I'm in the process of getting a new look! A huge thanks to Ashley at Afternoons With You and Chuck, her super smart hubby, for helping make this whole process SO much easier!

So out with the old, in with the new! Welcome to Rants, Raves & Ramblins'!

I'm excited, can't ya tell!? 

All the Single Ladies...go teach Sunday School.

Ok, so I have started and deleted this post about 15 times but I feel like now is the time for it. Be prepared...this post doubles as a rant.

Ya ready? Ok. So, pardon my French but it TICKS me off beyond belief that every single church in the South has Young Adult "Couples" classes, Bible studies, game nights, etc. etc. etc. Why do you have to be part of a "couple" to be involved in these things? I mean, I need the Bible just as much as the next girl! 

I know, I know. I am overreacting. There are churches out there...somewhere, WAY out there, that includes the singles as well, but not in my neck of the woods. No, here us single girls teach Sunday School.  As if being a "twenty-something" that is still single and childless isn't taboo enough (remember, this is the South I'm talking about here), let's just make those of us who are still these things feel even more separated!

Maybe I am just overly sensitive because, not even kidding, everyone I know has either a. gotten engaged b. gotten married or c. had a baby in the last year. And while these things are pretty typical of "twenty-somethings" I'm honestly not sure I am ready for any of them, so I shouldn't be so emotional/cranky/annoyed about any of this. I'm clearly just having a moment and will be over tomorrow, so my apologies for anyone dealing with my attitude problem tonight! 

But really, where is the nearest Monastery?

Puppy Love.

It has been a long time since I have had the "privilege" of house training a puppy. Let me just say, this is hard work! Constant barking when crated, chewing on everything in sight, leaving "presents" the size of Texas...like, really, he's a 9 week puppy that already weighs over 20 lbs. I'm kind of scared of whats to come with this one!

BUT with all of that being said, I just cannot get over how absolutely presh he is! There is nothing better than coming home and being attacked by a big ball of fluff, cuddling on the couch while watching a hockey game, dressing him in Roxy's clothes...unfortunately he has outgrown them in the last week.

Apparently all he needs for entertainment is a collar and a chewed up towel!

He has already outgrown a 2T sweater!

When he is the sweetest!

Remembering 2013

2013 was an interesting year for me.
I spent my first full year in my own home, completed my first full year at my first "big girl" job, parted from some long time friends that were becoming toxic, made fabulous new friends, traveled out of the States, loved on my family, became mommy to two adorable (obnoxious) kittens and one huge 9 week old puppy, and above all I learned SO much about myself and who I want to be in this new year.

So, toots to 2013 and a big howdy to 2014!

We may be "adults" but no party is complete without a crazy pic! 

Miami with the sweet baby cousin!

Spent my 23rd b-day in Jamaica with my fabulous guide, Freddie!

Swimming in the rain in Cayman Islands!

Hockey game with the girls! Go Preds!

As if hockey were not fabulous enough, my team has a stacked roster of gorgeous men. Yes, please!

Had to throw in a fight for good measure! Get it!

Studying Lazarus in Sunday School!

I got the opportunity to take my first newborn pics of sweet RJ!

I got to help my fabulous friends reveal that they are expecting to their family!

Really though, they will be the best parents EVER!

Visited the Redneck Holy Grail with one of the besties and the baby brother!

Took the brother to the beach for the first time since he was 5! (He doesn't appreciate it nearly as much as I do!)

Roxy's first trip to the beach...in 2013 we had taken her to MO, TX, LA, TN, FL, GA, Jamaica, and the Cayman Islands! She is a well traveled 2 year old!

I just can't believe how absolutely precious she is!

I got to help a friend celebrate her babies birthdays! This cutie is 1!!!

And this one is 3!

Pumpkin Patch with my girls! They are growing up so fast!

Love these girls!

Christmas with Dads family!

My uncle who is obsessed with the Razorbacks just happen to pick my painting in Dirty Santa. He was thrilled!

Roxy with her favorite Christmas gift! Yes that is a opossum, and yes, I bought it. Cousin of the Year Award!