Hey there friends, I did it, two weeks in a row, August 2023 coming together! I’m pretty much back to my routine 😉

That being said, here’s some updates from my life as of late:

August 2nd 2023

Work:

Work has been overwhelming, busy, and a bit needy lately if I’m being honest… but I’m making my way through. Nothing too bad, just a lot at one time with competing deadlines. We all know how that goes.

We posted our Project Specialist position and my supervisor said we’ve received a little over 20 qualified candidates to review so that’s incredibly exciting. Whoever we hire will be working directly with me every day so I want to make sure they are competent, and kind. Currently we have a small team of 4 and one of our team members announced her retirement, another moved up and took her position and now we’re filling my work twin position.

I AM thankful to announce that my supervisor granted approval to apply for an online, professional development opportunity for an entry level Business Analyst certification and they’re going to be funding the whole thing. I will 100% take advantage of any personal/professional development they want to throw my way. We just paid for the program today so I’m looking forward to jumping in and getting started. I have 12 months to study and take/pass the exam.

Personal:

Life with Jay:

Things with Jay have been great, we’re getting into a routine at home and living together is still easy and I’m loving it.

We’re currently working our way through the Netflix series – Suits and we’re both IN IT. If you’ve watched it, tell me whether or not you liked it in the comments!

We have been keeping a pretty busy schedule lately and it doesn’t look like things are slowing down anytime soon. We’ve got baby showers, weddings, family events, date nights, and more coming up – all of which I’m looking forward to.

For our 1 year anniversary Jay took me to an incredible dinner (discussed in my last post) and I signed us up for couples massages. Unfortunately, the massages couldn’t get scheduled the same week so I’m counting down the days (8 to be exact) until we’re going to get those. Jay’s had one massage in his life and he said it hurt and he didn’t really enjoy it so I’m hoping this experience will be much better. I’ve had quite a few massages in my life and I LOVE them.

Last Friday we went to our 1st Houston Astros game! For someone who isn’t a huge baseball fan, I really enjoy attending games. We arrived early to game to enjoy as many beers as we could put down in an hour for just $5 each. Unfortunately, the Astros lost, but being Friday night, we got to enjoy the fireworks show anyway!

Bentley:

This week I set a goal for myself to start getting into a better fitness routine. It’s been so hot here in Texas lately that I’ve slacked on my own workouts AND on getting my pup the fitness he needs to be healthy. SOOOOOOO

I’ve been getting up early this week, out the door at 6:00am, before the sun, to go on a little walk/run with Bentley before it gets too hot. It’s still around 80-82 degrees at that time, but it’s MUCH more manageable and I don’t have to worry about his little paws getting all burned up on the sidewalk.

I don’t know if Bentley is a fan of the new schedule, but I’m feeling energized about it.

Speaking of animals, Jay agreed to let me apply to be a foster parent at the local humane society so of course, I did it immediately and I am waiting to see what’s next! Bentley would love to have a friend, and I’d love to have a friend that is temporarily in the home.

I’ve also applied to be a Rover dog sitter/dog walker so that maybe Bentley and I can have a friend join us on our walks so he can get some socialization but also, I’m walking him anyway so I figure why not bring someone else’s dog along too and get paid for what I’m going to do anyway… duh!

Goals/Routine:

I’ve been doing a really great job at keeping up with my fitness routine the last two weeks and I’m feeling good about it.

I was reading a lot for a couple weeks and that has progressively stopped. I’m still reading Jenny Lawson’s “Let’s Pretend This Never Happened” but I’m making very slow progress. This may seem silly, especially coming from an adult, but I read slower when books have big pages or are odd shapes… and this one is.

Check out my favorites list on Amazon!

Travel:

As mentioned in my last post, my mom and I just spent a week in Baltimore, MA which allowed me to cross off another state on my states list (super exciting!).

Looking at our schedule the next couple months, it looks like my next trip/travel won’t be until October when I’ll fly home for my best friend’s wedding ceremony. I haven’t been to Michigan in a long time so that’s exciting. Jay and I are going to try to catch a Detroit Lions game while we’re there too, so fingers crossed on that. It’s not booked yet, but that’s the plan.

Both work/travel related, I put in a request to attend a conference in October in El Paso, Tx. If that’s approved, I think I may stay some extra time, rent a car, and attempt to hike Guadalupe peak! I don’t know what the weather will be like or if I’ll be ready to hike it, but my adventurous soul is looking forward to the opportunity. The hike takes about 6-8 hours to complete and has about 3,000ft of elevation gain, so it’s no easy-peasy hike. If approved for the conference, I’ll start planning right away.

August 9th, 2023

Work:

Our Project Specialist position is still open as of today, but my supervisor has informed me we’ll be closing it down soon, which is exciting because I’m ready to get someone in here to help with the workload. Also, because I’m kind of hoping we hire someone cool that I may actually be excited to see when I come into the office.

In addition to approving me to enroll in the IIBA certification program, I was also approved to attend the Texas Association of College & University Student Personnel Administrators (TACUSPA) conference in El Paso, TX in October! Not only am I excited to go to the conference (because I genuinely love networking and having fun at conferences) but because El Paso is only about an hour and a half from the Guadalupe Mountains and therefor, Guadalupe peak!

Guadalupe peak is the highest point in Texas and I’ve wanted to hike up to the peak for years, but there was no way I was driving 9.5 hours to get there. Now that I’ll be so much closer, and it’ll be October, it’ll be an IDEAL time to do the hike. It’s only about 8.4 miles roundtrip, but with an elevation gain of over 3,000 ft. It takes about 6-8 hours to hike.

Other than the fun employee benefits I’ve discussed lately, work has been a bit exhausting. It’s just been busy, busy, busy mentally lately.

Personal:

Life with Jay:

Jay went out of town last weekend to go to the casino in Louisiana with his family. I stayed home and hung out with Bentley while I attempted to finish the book I was reading that was due back at the library Monday.

Did you know that casino’s give away prizes like free trips to different cities to visit other casinos (including airfare and hotel!) AND cruises too?! I didn’t, but you bet your ass we’re taking advantage of them when they come our way. More to come on that in October.

While Jay was gone, I went to the local Humane Society to do meet and greets with Bentley and some of their dogs in the shelter. Jay and I discussed having another dog in the home so Bentley isn’t so lonely when we’re both at work, but we didn’t want to fully commit to getting another dog, so we compromised on fostering so we could have a dog for a little while, get them a forever home, and then take a break from having a second dog in the home for a while if we wanted to.

Bentley and I went to do the meet and greets and it was a bit scary. The first two dogs almost instantly attacked Bentley, so that was obviously a no. The third dog was super high energy and jumping all over me and Bentley and that is super annoying so I said no. One of the dogs we wanted to see was not up for meeting, they said he’d already not done well with other dogs during meet and greets so we passed. AND LASTLY we met Boone. He’s an 11 month old pit mix and him and Bentley instantly hit it off. They were calm around each other, walked together, and were just cool and calm, so I decided he was the one and I brought him home.

When Jay got home he INSTANTLY fell in love with Boone and I won’t be surprised at all if we adopt him this coming weekend. Funny how those things work out. Boone has been amazing. He’s still got puppy tendencies and is always trying to play, but he hasn’t been chewing things up, barking, being aggressive, or anything bad at all. For a puppy, he’s the best we could ask for.

Goals/Routine:

I’ve been sticking with my goals/routine this week and I feel really good about it. I’ve been getting up early in the morning to walk the dogs, I’ve been going to the gym everyday, and I’ve been spending time reading and watching some shows I’m interested in. What I haven’t been doing as much as I’d like to is WRITING! I have so much I want to put on this blog, so many outlines created, and I just haven’t gotten them done. But, it is what it is. I’m happy, healthy and doing well so it’s all okay.

Travel:

Nothing new in travel, our next trip is still my besties wedding in October, but I HAVE been researching some new gear to purchase for my hike in Guadalupe as well as starting to plan out my hike of the Lone Star Trail, which I want to complete in the Spring of next year.

August 16th, 2023

Work:

Work has finally slowed down a bit and I have some time to breathe. I have almost completed the housing application for next academic year and spring, which have been taking up a lot of my time. I have others testing the apps now and I’ll work on making appropriate updates next week.

I wrote about starting my Business Analysis certification and once we paid for the exam I spent a long time on the website trying to figure out what’s next and it was super confusing. Come to realize, I additionally have to purchase an individual membership to gain access tot he training materials to prepare for the exam… so I’ve petitioned my supervisor and department to request the funds needed to cover that portion of the certification. Fingers crossed on that one.

We hired a graduate student and have got her set up with her first project and hopefully that goes well. The project we have her working on is not hard, but very time consuming and also very valuable so I’m excited for her to put in the work on that.

Our Project Specialist position that’s been open is now on a pause while we work through screening candidates, and setting up first round interviews. It looks like we had a pretty good pool of candidates to choose from so also fingers crossed on that.

Pertaining to work, but not really, I’m teaching a first year seminar course this fall and I’m starting to get really nervous because the lessons are pre-prepped and I haven’t received them yet to try to acquaint myself with the information. I struggle with “just winging it” so I’m hoping to get that information SOON.

This Friday I’m also giving a presentation on Time-management that is making me a normal amount of nervous (for public speaking) even though I do feel prepared for this one.

Personal:

Not much to report on the personal front.

I’ve been sticking to my workout routine, 3 big lift days, cardio 2 days, Yoga/Pilates day, and a rest day. I’ve also been sticking to our morning walks, although I’ve just been taking Bentley because he’s been extra vocal lately and I think it may be him adjusting to Boone being in the house. Boone is getting plenty of exercise, I’ve just spent this week with Bentley in the mornings.

Boone is adjusting as well. He’s learning to sit and responding to “kennel”. He’s had 2 accidents in the house this week, and he completely DESTROYED his doggie bed. Other than that though, he’s been a sweet baby angel and I’m still so happy to have him around. The bed he destroyed (see below) was the one they gave us from the shelter so thankfully we hadn’t wasted a lot of money on one. I do feel terrible now though because when he’s in his kennel, he has nothing to lay on and I don’t trust him to put down a blanket or anything. We’ll have to see how that goes in the future.

This weekend Jay will be out of town at a Bachelor party in Austin and I will be home with the doggos. On Friday I will be cooking dinner for both myself and a stranger, which I feel really good about. There is a Facebook group for women in my community to get together and make friends. I joined it quite a while ago and have minimally interacted with the group, but I find that the community they are building through continued event planning and social interaction in the group is really phenomenal. This past week, someone posted about a women in our community who has recently lost a family member and is having a hard time grieving. She started a mealtrain for this woman to try to take some stress off her plate. I volunteerred to bring her food on Friday night and I am so proud of the other girls in the group for filling up the rest of the meal train for the week to help a total stranger.

On Saturday, I’ve signed up to help paint a house with the local Habitat for Humanity chapter and I’m looking forward to that experience as well. I have always loved to volunteer and I realized I haven’t done so in a long time and really wanted to give back. Since Jay is gone this weekend anyway, it’s a perfect time to do so.

Travel:

I am starting to stress a little bit about getting flights home for my best friend’s wedding in October. The flights are pretty expensive and I’m trying to figure out if I can make it up to see my mom in the same trip and it just hasn’t all come together yet and I’m feeling a stressed over it. Thankfully my best friend’s mom offered to let us stay at her place and even use her car while we’re there so we can save some money. What a blessing! 🙏

After that wedding, we have three more coming up after that… thankfully though, they’re all here in Texas so we don’t have to concern ourselves with flights.

However, the weekend after we get back from Michigan I’ll be heading to El, Paso for the TACUSPA conference and to hike Guadalupe Peak!!! (can you tell I’m excited?)

I spent 2 weeks reading a book that was awful and finally gave up on it so that felt a bit of a waste in my goal toward reading 30 books this year, but hopefully I’ll get back on track. In case you’re wondering, the book was called Beautiful World: Where are you?. I’ve picked out my next book, but haven’t started it yet so hopefully it’ll be better.

I’m starting to create my packing list for the Lone Star Trail, which means I’m also starting to figure out the budget to get the correct gear. I know I’ll need to purchase a backpack (around $300) and a new sleeping bag (around $350) to start with… from there, I think all the other purchases will be much smaller. I have a sleeping bag now, but it is NOT lightweight or small enough to take backpacking, so I need to change out what I have.

That’s all for this week ✌️

August 23rd, 2023

Work:

Not much has changed at work this week. Things are still at a slower pace, which is wonderful. I’m feeling much less stressed and able to do things clearly.

I DID give my time management presentation last Friday and it actually went really well! I am not the best at public speaking so I need the practice and this was a great practice for me. There were only about 10 students in the room and the smaller audience allowed me to relax. I did end up forgetting to breathe once or twice and had to take a pause and remind myself to breathe. I also got a little shaky in the middle, but I made it through and actually had a great response from the students in attendance. I’m happy about it overall.

On a not so positive note, the VP of my department declined to allow me to continue working from home on Mondays and Fridays so we’re currently in negotiation to figure out what my new schedule will be. I’ve loved my schedule for the last 10 months so I’m sad he’s now revoking his original agreement (although it was an agreement until review time, which is now, so I knew it might change, but I’ve received no complaints and had a stellar performance review so I did not expect to have that taken away from me).

Personal:

This last week was a rest week as I was getting through my menstrual cycle. Typically I just get really fatigued and end up sleeping a lot, which I did and I suffer from intense headaches during this time. I assume its a symptom of dehydration, but no matter how much water I drink, I can’t ever seem to win. So, nothing really new to report.

Boone is learning to sit, he does it most of the time and he’s only had a few accidents in the house this last week. Thankfully he almost always pees right next to the door, which is completely tiled so it’s easy clean up. He’s still jumping on people when they come in, but we’re working on that too.

Him and Bentley are getting along well and I love that Bentley is getting a lot more exercise because Boone is ALWAYS on the go and messing with him.

Here’s our “sit” progress. 😊

OH! And I forgot, I got my first ROVER booking and I got to go check in on this adorable 2 pound yorkie terrier for a family and I couldn’t believe how small that little baby was! I don’t think I’ve ever seen a dog that small in my life. It wasn’t awkward like I thought it might be, I just got to snuggle the little cutie, take him outside for some sunshine, and feed him before I left. Can’t wait to get some more bookings (:

Travel/Goals:

We’ve officially booked our tickets to Michigan for my best friends wedding in October and I was able to reach out to an old friend and see if she would be interested in meeting up while we’re there and her and her boyfriend will be joining us at a Detroit Lions game! I’m very excited for this plan.

I haven’t heard back on funding for my trip to El Paso yet, but I’ve created a list of things to do while I’m there and there’s actually a University of Texas, El Paso (UTEP) football game happening the day after the conference ends so I’ll plan on going to that. I really enjoy sporting events and I’ve never been to El Paso, so I’ve obviously never been to UTEP’s stadium so that’ll be great. The weather should also be perfect for football.

Then I’ll drive out to hike Guadalupe Peak the next day and come home Saturday. It’ll be a great week.

I was also just invited to be a mentor at the SWACUHO-U new professionals conference in Norman, OK in November, so that may be happening too.

I love all the upcoming opportunities!

Jay and I are also picking a date here soon for our cruise in the Spring!!

Travel planning excites me almost as much as traveling itself so all of the above things are keeping me motivated, and excited about life.

We have one more week in August so as always,

August 30th 2023

Work:

This week I received an awesome surprise and got a raise at work! No other work news is really necessary 😄

I’ll share something next week.

Personal:

Life is going. Last weekend we went to Houston to celebrate my bf’s best friend’s little sister’s (YEAH, THAT WAS ALOT) 21st birthday. We had a great time visiting and danced our clothes off. Honestly, it was like 102 degrees and the sweat was unbearable, so items of clothing were lost.

I’m still reading Purpose by Gina Bianchini and I’m really liking this book. It’s written in a way that’s kind of a mix of reading and journaling and I’m enjoying it. There’s a good amount of self-reflection and brainstorming. I received this book as part of a book review group so it was an entirely random pick.

Dog Progress

Bentley is a sweet sweet angel like always.

Boone is puppying HARD and destroying my house every single time I attempt to trust him. So, he’s back in his kennel EVERY second Jay and I are gone. Big bummer.

Above is a picture taken from my puppy cam of Boone apparently not appreciating the blinds being closed. He literally tore out the blinds that were in his way and chewed them to pieces and then continued to look out the window for quite some time.

And then there’s Bentley over there, minding his business.

Despite occasional destruction, he is getting really good at his commands “sit” and “kennel” and working on “lay down” and he’s only had 1 accident in the house this week.

On a different personal note, Football is back baybeeeeee! So that’s our plans for the future.

Travel/Goals:

Next weekend Jay has a softball tournament in Austin so we’ll be heading out that way.

The following weekend some of my friends are coming to town from Louisiana to watch the ULM vs. A&M game and they’re going to stay with us so we’ll tailgate and catch up and that should be fun.

The next weekend Jay has another softball tournament at home

AND THEN

I am hoping to go camping the last weekend of September TBD.

That’s a wrap for August!