The Friday Five

Happy New Year! 

I've missed you!

How have you been? I hope you are all happy and well! :)

I think this is my first post of 2016 which is kind of crazy since February is just a few days away.

Let me catch you up...

#1. Life is chaotic….more so than the usual chaos. Or maybe not, maybe it’s just January. I feel like I have been behind the 8 ball all month. School is crazy this semester- my schedule is so arduous that on a weekend trip home I had to write a paper from the backseat of my parents car as we drove north to my grandparents and then go to McDonald’s to ‘borrow’ some wifi to submit it. It’s been like that all month. Work, school, life…all of it. Busy, busy, busy. I am soooooo thankful I am finally taking a semester off this summer. It will be the first since I started working on my doctorate in 2013 and it will probably be my last break before I finish it in [hopefully] 2018 or 2019. Damn, that sounds sooooo far away.

#2. We are adopting!!!! Ok, that probably sounds misleading….we are adopting a dog! We have been going through the process of adopting a dog from a rescue organization and we were approved earlier this week. Next weekend we get to bring her home. She is a puppy mill rescue so the only name she has ever known is the one that was given by the rescue- Honey. We are going to change it to Bailey hopefully. Bailey- not after the Irish cream but instead after George Bailey from It’s a Wonderful Life. I also thought maybe to name her Zuzu (after Zuzu Bailey) but we liked Bailey better. I am super excited to add to our family, stay tuned for pictures J

#3. One of the goals E and I had for 2016 was to start to get the house in order. We had a ton of things we had bought or had been gifted to us that needed a home or to be hung or even just put away. Last week we started in our main living area and hung up a bunch of things on the walls, like our wedding guest book. I would say it’s bad we waited three months to put that up but I had a gift I got from E Christmas of 2014 (yes, 2014!) that was hidden away because we just kept forgetting to buy some wire to hang it. We are the worst at that stuff. But we are trying harder to get the house together and make it more us and less single E- he bought it 13 years ago so it definitely felt like his place. This weekend we are painting our bedroom and assembling all of the new furniture we bought to go in it. Our bedroom is getting a complete overhaul and I am thrilled about this. It will definitely feel more like home after we have all of these updates finished….and we bring Bailey home to join us.

Don't worry, Bailey will get her own shrine too ;)

#4. I realized the other night what the best job in the world would be- being the person who gets to name paint colors! Have you looked at paint samples lately? Those paints have the coolest names. We wanted to paint our room a pale green, paler than mint, and we narrowed it down to two colors to test out- tranquility and lazy days. I don’t know about you but both of those colors really describe a bedroom to me. We ended up picking ‘Lazy Days’. Painting begins tonight. Wish us luck. Here’s hoping for many lazy mornings in bed together J

#5. LuLaRoe – does this mean anything to you? If you know of it, you probably are addicted like me. Maybe not as bad but still, it’s super awesome and I don’t know a woman yet that hasn’t fallen in love. If you don’t know, well maybe that’s a good thing ;) LLR makes clothes for women (and kids too) and the materials they use are super soft, comfy and somehow look good on every shape and size. They range from XXS to 3XL which is awesome. And of course- LEGGINGS! Need I say more? Anywho, they are an online operation, direct sales only. That kind of drives me crazy- that aspect of their business model. Finding consultants, clicking through photos, racing to be the first to claim an item. Some groups have thousands of people in them and although those consultants tend to have the largest selection of inventory, it is pretty much madness trying to buy things. BUT, I do love their clothes and if you follow me on social media then by now you probably already know that. I ‘roe’ almost every day. I even bought a pair of leggings for my niece for Valentine’s Day. Not sure why I decided to share that…maybe just so I can post some fun pics of me and my crazy pants J Side note: I randomly found a LLR consultant named Dacia- I feel like she and I should be best friends.

Just thought I would throw in a picture (of a picture) from our amazing honeymoon!

Do you roe? What would be your dream job?

Love and hugs,

Dacia
xoxoxoxo

Pizza...and Other Thoughts

Here is a random compilations of thoughts...in case you have nothing better to do with your time ;)

I want to eat pizza. Like all the time. I feel like I have an around the clock pizza craving and when I see pictures of pizza (vegan or not) on IG or FB the craving gets like a million times worse. That being said- I went to Mellow Mushroom on Sunday and didn’t order pizza (I order the tempeh hoagie) so that tells you about the weirdness happening in my body-mind food disconnect. I think it is because I had the world’s best pizza when I was out in Austin and now anything else I try will pale in comparison and make me sad.

BEST PIZZA EVER!!!

This recipe looks pretty legit though. I need to test it out some time:

Vegan Margherita Pizza

I want another dog. This is the ongoing battle of me wanting ALL the animals and Erick being a normal human that thinks we don’t need a full-on farm on our 0.10 acre of land. But in all seriousness, yes I do one day hope to have enough land so I can take in some farm animals and/or shelter animals that need love. But that day is not today. Not until we move out of the HOA and possibly not until we retire. But I do want a second dog, this was never a secret. I think dogs need friends. Plus I think each human should have their own dog. Gordie is Erick’s dog. They are best friends. And I am all alone. No, I’m not bitter that Gordie was supposed to be me dog but chose Erick instead. 

Ok, maybe I am a little bit.

Gordie needs a brother or sister, don't you think? 

I can’t believe our honeymoon is so soon! We decided to take our honeymoon during the time the university is closed so we can completely disconnect for a few weeks. I mean, yeah it is only early November and we aren’t leaving for another 38 days (who’s counting) but still. With everything going on between work, school, holidays and life events that time will fly by and in the blink of an eye we will be in Cabo J I CANNOT WAIT!!!!!

I dressed up as Princess Leia for Halloween and it scared the crap out of me. This year Erick and I finally decided to dress up for Halloween and we settled on Han Solo and Princess Leia. I went with the not very authentic (I would call her the quasi-slutty looking) Leia costume because someone preferred that over the more traditional, robe like Leia costume. Not pointing any fingers but I will tell you his name rhythms with Shmerick. ;)

Anywho, it took every ounce of courage and confidence to wear that costume. It was skin tight and sheer (double whammy) and I swear you could see every freckle and mark on my body but aside from that I knew that no matter where we went people would look/stare at me. And I am just not used to that. It made me feel really nervous and at times I just wanted to hide behind something or someone. Thankfully, we ended up just at a bar watching football so I was able to relax and not let my anxiety get the worst of me. Next year I want to wear a funny costume like the Spartan cheerleaders or Wayne & Garth – which were my first choices.

We are spending Thanksgiving camping. Well, not the day itself but the weekend after. We are spending Thanksgiving with Erick’s mom but then the next day we will be leaving to go camping for the weekend. I am so super looking forward to this. I grew up going camping and just think it is just the perfect way to relax and recharge. Erick has never camped. Like ever. Which is crazy to me. So I am excited that we will be able to experience this together. We used some Amazon gift cards we got as wedding gifts plus some of the cash and bought a tent. We splurged on one that is compatible with our Honda Element in the hopes that we will make camping a regular event in our lives. (S/N- up until this point I had no idea that there was such a thing as a tent for an SUV, did you? Sure seems like it will be useful though). We are bringing Gordie too and plan on doing lots of hiking and lots of marshmallow roasting.

Other than that (and yes, I still want pizza) there isn’t much else going on. Just the normal life stuff.

How are you? What's new in your world?

Love and hugs,

Dacia

xoxoxoxo