Taste of Spring in January

Wow what an incredible day it has been today! I have had to constantly check the calendar to remind myself that it is actually January because it hit 70 degrees here in Murfreesboro today! It was such a beautiful day and I am sad to think that by next week it could be snowing, boo. I was able to spend a wonderful day running errands with my two pups and a trip to the bark park! The girls and I went to the post office, bark park, Lowe's, the gas station, and the car wash.

Let me preface this story/blog/future stories by saying that I am newly single and trying to rely less on my parents to do things and learn to become more independent. This is one of the greatest adventures I am embarking upon in 2011 and where much of my writing will stem from. I will admit that while I greatly enjoy my independence I have been pretty co-dependent my whole life, thus making this new chapter of my life to be quite difficult, frustrating, and pretty hilarious at the same time.


Here is my funny story for the day. One of my dogs, Georgia, has been escaping from the fenced in back yard for a couple of months now, well actually started this summer but she figured out how to get past the traps recently, so I had a new wooden fence installed to keep her from climbing over. Well instead of going over, she now figured out how to go under! I was finally able to block the hole she had made to get out but now she has been trying to go under my neighbor's fence and let's just say this isn't the first time and my neighbor is not shy about letting me know when she starts digging holes. The only thing I could come up with that I was capable of doing right now and could afford to do is buy concrete blocks to cover up the gaps where she had been digging and the fence wasn't flush to the ground.

Anyways, I went to Lowe's today to make this purchase and it was rather interesting! First I had to figure out where these blocks were in the store. Ok finally found them, then there was the task of getting them in my cart without breaking my french manicure and being the stubborn person I am, I insisted on not asking for help. I finally after a few scrapes later, got six concrete blocks loaded in my cart. Well being the genius I am, I forgot I also needed to by some picture hanging supplies while I was there. So my next task was to get my now ridiculously heavy cart down the isle to find the other supplies I needed. I finally get my cart moving, I almost had to do a running start just to get it to move (sad I know, I should probably start working out ha ha). I finally found my other supplies and then took off to the check-out counter. After I had paid I had the fun task of getting to my car that I had parked far away because the dogs were still in the car since we had just left the bark park. After what felt like a trek to BFE, I made it to my car. I will pause and say at this point I had indeed broken a sweat. With the cart to my car, now came time to unload all six of those darn concrete blocks. With the dogs curiously staring at me out of the back window, I slowly but surely loaded all those blocks into my trunk. After leaving Lowes we stopped and got gas and went through the car wash and headed back home and yes you guessed it, to unload those stupid concrete blocks that I was beginning to loathe at this point. I backed my little four door Volvo into my driveway, which I might add is slanted, and not surprisingly it hesitated to accelerate for a second. Finally I was home and now it came time to unload the concrete blocks yet AGAIN. After six quite strenuous trips from the car to the backyard, all six blocks were successfully unloaded! WOO-HOO finally!!!!!

I wasn't in the clear yet however; next I had to shovel dirt into the holes that GA had dug and even out the ground. Thankfully, this process was not as difficult as I expected it to be. After I finally had the ground evened out, I had to place all the concrete blocks up against the fence. I also dug a hole in the middle of the back yard to try and encourage GA to dig there instead of by the fence. I was trying to get her to watch me and encourage her to dig with me so she would get the idea but in order to get her attention I had to take away the toy she was preoccupied with at that moment (which by the way, was a toy she had stolen on one of her escapades from when she escaped out of the backyard). Not thinking about how much GA likes to jump, I placed the toy in the tree where I thought she couldn't get it. Ha boy did I think wrong! Next thing I knew, I was watching my dogs scaling the tree to get the toy out!!! It only took her a few attempts before she finally got her toy. At that point, I knew she wasn't going to pay attention to my digging attempts. At that point I was so exhausted I decided it was time to call it a day on my manual labor ha ha ha. I was able to capture a picture of GA in her rescue attempts! Here it is:

Just call her spider-woman!

To wind down this crazy day, I treated myself to a pedicure, some Zaxby's, and the movie Dream Girls with my roommate. Posted below are a few more pictures from this weekend thus far. Here is a picture of my baby girls right now after their big adventures today!



Sound Asleep

 I absolutely cannot wait for spring and summer to finally get here! I have never enjoyed the cold weather so today was such an incredible blessing! I will close this text of this post with a verse that has been on my heart today. I am so grateful to God for blessing me with such a wonderful day, it was truly one of the best ones I had in a very long time.

 "I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength." -Philippians 4:12-13



My Valentine's Day Wreath I made for our front door





I reorganized my spare closet and now you can actually see the floor!