trust

how i can own two pugs that are completely opposite in mannerisms and personality is beyond me.  i love it though!!  we've got pug that entertains us constantly with his stubbornness and gift of walking into a room and destroying it in 10 seconds.  and then we have landry who just give him a lap to lay on and he's in hog heaven.  they kind of balance my sanity out.

i feel like we are at an awesome place with landry right now.  he trusts us and is relaxing knowing he's home.  at the beginning it was so hard to watch.  he had no idea how to play with toys, he really just slept on the sofa shaking like a leaf and flinched at any sudden movements.  i try so hard not to think about what he went through before we adopted him.  now he crys a pitiful cry if i walk out of the room and it melts my heart knowing we've earned that trust.  and just look that sweet face.

getting a little bit of stretching in.

pug and his sweetness.

book shopping

this past month i've been trying to finish up some books that i've had sitting around, along with some new ones too.  sadly, nothing has rocked my socks off so i'd love to hear what y'all are reading and get some inspiration.

read:

"mockingjay" by suzanne collins.  i had read the first two from the series earlier last year and just never got around to reading the last one.  i pretty much agree with what most had to say about it, good just not my favorite from the series.  i just wish i had read it right away because for a little bit i was reading it and having a hard time remembering what had happened from the last one.  amazing series though if you haven't read it.

"the best of me" by nicholas sparks.  i really don't like being negative about a book, but this one wore me out.  so not my favorite of his.  sorry wish i could say i loved it.

"extremely loud and incredibly close" by jonathan safran foer.  i received this for Christmas and sadly had no idea it was book first.  i had seen the previews for the movies and am anxious to see it, but was so surprised i hadn't seen it on the bookshelves before.  absolutely beautifully written.  although can we rename the title to "extremely loud and incredibly sad".  bring your tissues for this one folks.

"the marriage plot" by jeffrey eugenides.  i picked it up because it's been on the bestseller list for so long, i thought surely this has to be an awesome read.  wrong.  just wasn't my cup of tea.

reading:

"safe haven" by nicholas sparks.  i know i'm diving back into the sparks.  i have had this for awhile and figured i give it ago.  so far i'm enjoying it much better than the last one i read.  well see though.

after i finish "safe haven" i'm lost, so would love to hear what's on your nightstand or kindle.

the groomers

today i took the pugs to the puppy spa to get their nails trimmed...

and then i had them drop me off at the looney bin on the way home.

pug just will not have anyone or anything touching his paws.  you'd think after 6 years of doing this same song and dance he'd learn that it only takes a few minutes, they had him a yummy treat and we're outta there.

nope.

i'm running out of ways to disguise my voice when i call and make an appointment.  i know they have to be thinking "oh no the blonde with the crazy pug is on her way".  so bless those sweet spa owners who take us in.  they are so patient with him as they wrangle him and he's screaming away being a major drama king.

although i do think he had some people in the waiting room convinced he was actually just acting out a scene from the musical Cats.

and thankfully landry is just to scared of everything to make a fuss.  he politely sits there and patiently lets the lady trim his nails.  could my dogs be anymore opposite?

at that moment with a line of people standing behind me gawking at the scene of a woman wrestling a pug and the pug winning i really want to avoid the whole dog owner judgement look and be like "man, whose's horribly behaved pug is that?" and beeline it out of there.

but i don't, i take both my sweet and crazy boys, toss a hefty tip to the groomers and proceed to the car where we all pant in exhaustion.

until the next time.

a whole lot of worthless nothingness

1. i miss wikipedia today.  i miss googling random stuff that "i just have to know at that exact moment about or i would explode".

2. speaking of the internet, i shouldn't have to google "why does my pug's gas smell like a skunk?"  i was cleaning the bathroom and he walked in, tooted, then left me for dead.  it was the worst moment of my life.

3. my doorbell rang, and normally i don't answer, but i thought it was the ups man since he comes around that time.  i opened the door to find a lady selling something.  i thought bummer.  then she asked if my parents were home.  i said no.  best excuse while technically not lying.  awesome.  i also stopped feeling so old at that moment.

4. after finding out i was lactose intolerant forever ago, i just avoided some foods (like mashed potatoes) instead of trying to find subsitutes.  but now i'm really branching out and redoing my old favorite recipes and am loving it.  if only i could get back that mac and cheese.

5. i have a confession...i really don't like watching awards shows.  i like a recap of them with the winners and dresses, but they are seriously long y'all.  it's also very frustrating when the movie no one has ever heard of wins over the good stuff.  but, i'm no critic, says the lady that watches lifetime movies.

that is all for today my friends...happy wednesday!

the one where we discuss jeans

i need another pair of jeans, like i need another pug.

seriously, this girl has an unhealthy love for jeans.  during my teen/college years i was fiercely loyal to gap jeans.  particularly at one point the boot cut style.  the gap knew how to rock the boot cut stretch.  years ago though i started, ever so hesitantly, branching out of the gap store and expanding my denim horizons.  since then i've fallen for the seven for all mankind "A" pocket jean, citizens of humanity and the hollister skinny jean.  let me add that i am not plopping down those prices, i'm ebay all the way on the $200 brands. 

i'd love to hear your favorite brands/styles, particularly a cute skinny jean that you love.  that seems to be my go to this winter tucked into a riding boot.

backing up

we're doing our final christmas get together tomorrow...so i'm still kind of in christmas mode even though i spent the first part of the week hauling up all the decorations into the attic.  i'm calling that my workout for the whole week.  i realized i didn't chat much about christmas on the blog.  it just flew by so quickly and we were so blessed to have such a wonderful time with family.  here our a few highlights from the festivities.

1. in case you were wondering what would be the worst day for your oven to go out, do not worry, i found it.  christmas eve.  of course it would go out that day.  it couldn't have gone out the week before or the day after, but that day.  fortunately we made do, but sadly it was a carbless/breadless/cakeless christmas.

2. pug took it upon himself to catch our christmas dinner at the in-laws.  he caught a bird.  i was mortified.  so was landry.  and that's why pug spent a good half of the day in a bath tub.

3. we had a blast playing tons of games.  we thought we'd be really good at the new logo board game, but we're not.  i think our downfall is our love of our tivo.  but it's still a really fun game.

4. the whole present unwrapping wasn't landry's cup of tea (he hid behind big daddy during present time)...so pug being the pro took over.  he is my little camera ham.  i'm also learning i now have to buy 2 of everything to make it equal...it's like children i tell you!

happy new year

happy 2012 everyone!!  over the last couple days it feels like everyone i've run into has asked how our new year's was and then they follow it up with did y'all do anything exciting?  define exciting?  they usually have some awesome new year's adventure to share and i'm hesitant to tell them i rang in the new year just as lame as i have over the past 2.7 decades.  a good chuck of those new years were spent babysitting with the kid's sound asleep upstairs and myself parked in front of the tv watching TVland and now i think the only thing that's changed since then is the shows on TVland and i'm not getting paid 10 bucks an hour to watch it.  bummer.  now, truthfully, ours is spent lounged in front of the tv doing absolutely nothing and y'all it's pure bliss.  i love a quiet and relaxing new years!

for the past few years on the blog instead of posting a resolution of something i'm going to do that year, i post a fashion resoultion of something i'm going to avoid that year.  i'm proud to say i have not yet once broken a resolution.  i've had the bump-it, shiny leggings, and crazy shoes.  this year was a bit tough.  i was thinking i was going for the safe bet of the drop seat footed pajamas.

but then over the last few weeks i've noticed an increased selection of ponchos hitting the store racks and frankly it's making me a little nervous. 

their being sneaky about it too, calling them capes, but i'm not fooled.  it's a poncho.  so dear friends i will not be sporting a poncho or dusting off my poncho from the gap circa 2003 when i was fooled into thinking it was cool then too.  nope not going to do it in 2012. 

image via here