Personal February 2024 Journal – I’m excited for all the plans that are already in the works for February and I can’t wait to share it all with you.

February 7th 2024

Work:

On a positive note, I am making progress on all my projects.

On a not-so-positive note, I have A LOT of projects on my plate right now so I feel like the progress I’m making is minimal.

We did end up offering the job to a new employee who accepted the position and will be starting work next Monday, which is super exciting. I will be out of the office next week for the majority of the week because my mom is visiting, and the following week I’ll be at a conference so I won’t really see him too much, but I’m excited to have him on board and start working together.

I wrote last week about one of our applications going live and it went live without a hitch! I’m so excited about that news. I still really need to get moving on the next sections of the process because those will be rolling out quickly, but I’m feeling okay about that.

Personal:

The weather has been a bit less rainy and a bit warmer too so I’m feeling good about that. I’ve been working out every day and enjoying life.

Yesterday was Jay’s birthday and we had a great time at happy hour with some of his friends and colleagues and we wrapped the night up with Girl Scout cookies so you can’t really go wrong. We also celebrated over the weekend at a friend’s house and had a great time there too.

We’re kind of at a standstill on the yard project because 1) sticker shock and 2) the rain really did a number on the yard and it’s still gross and muddy everywhere so we’re ignoring it for now. We are getting another quote (hopefully next week) to see if we can get the $5,000 price down, but I’ve all decided we’re going to do the damn thing on our own near the end of March/early April.

I guess we’ll see what happens.

I did, however, START painting the front porch and it looks pretty darn good. I still need to finish it, which I’m hoping to do this weekend, but I haven’t checked the weather yet so we’ll see how that plan goes. I still need to paint the inside side of the stakes and the walkway. I am going to have a lot of paint left over so I may paint the mailbox post while I’m at it because it looks awful as well.

🐕🐕 The Dogs 🐕🐕:

Oh lord, these dogs!

and by that I mostly mean Boone. The younger one.

This past weekend I decided to test having him out of his kennel for 30 minutes while I took Bentley on a walk. I left him alone and apparently, he wasn’t ready for that. He peed on EVERYTHING. Not just in one spot. He peed on the kitchen floor, by the door, on MULTIPLE couch cushions…. it’s like he got a nervous home-alone bladder or something and lost his damn mind.

I spend HOURS cleaning and shampooing. Lesson learned: He’s not ready to be alone and cannot be trusted.

Bentley on the other hand, has been getting back into the swing of doing our daily walks and he’s still the goodest good boy. He does look like he’s about 45 years old right now, so I’m super excited for him to be going to the groomer tomorrow to get a cut. He always looks so old when his hair is long!

📖 Book Club/Reading 📖:

Last week I wrote about Lessons in Chemistry. I wasn’t obsessed, but I wasn’t disappointed either. Well, I finished the book and it got better.

I don’t have another book picked out to read next, and I wasn’t interested in the book club’s next book so maybe that’ll help me spend more time reading for school vs. for fun. As I’ve mentioned 100 times, I need to do that.

✈️ Travel ✈️:

I am making all kinds of plans! Real ones, and some that’ll never happen 😂

I said last week that I was going to spend time this weekend writing, and I did not. Whoops. 🤷

This weekend my mom will be flying in on Saturday night and I’m so excited for her to come visit. Unfortunately, she’s not staying too long so we’ve got a packed schedule, but it’ll be great.

As I said last week, I planned a lil 1-night trip to San Antonio and I think she’ll really enjoy it. I found us a cute little Airbnb for a night and so far I know we’ll be visiting Natural Bridge Caverns, The Japanese Tea Garden, The Botanical Gardens, The Riverwalk, The Alamo, The Pearl, a few breweries, and a few museums.

The weekend after that I’ll be leaving to go to a work conference!

February 14th 2024 – Whoops, missed this.

February 21st 2024

Work:

Work has been going pretty well lately, I’m getting things done, making progress on new assignments, and relationships are maintaining.

We hired our new team member last week and I was able to meet him on Friday. Since I’ve been out this week, I haven’t been around him too much but I look forward to working together.

This week I was actually at a conference for work with over 20 other staff members in my department. It was really nice because there are a lot of staff members I never see in my role so we were able to get to know each other a little more.

I was also able to connect with some professionals in the field I haven’t seen in a long time which was really nice.

I just got home today and I’m feeling pretty socially warn out and tired, but we are going live with the last piece of our Contract Renewal application Friday morning so I need to stay on my game for the rest of the week.

Personal:

Mom was visiting last week, which is why I didn’t post a weekly update. We were down in San Antonio being tourists! It was nice to see her again and she was super helpful in getting some things done around the house I’ve been neglecting.

While she was here we visited with my best friends so mom could meet their newest baby and get some snuggles in. Then we hosted a superbowl watch party at our house and spent all Sunday cooking and watching the game. Then we drove out to San Antonio and played tourist for 2 days. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a long visit but we packed a lot into our schedule.

I always love her visits.

Jay and I have been good, just staying busy. Softball season is starting back up for him and we’ve got birthdays and a cruise coming up so we’re keeping busy. We’ve found a Netflix show we’ve really been enjoying called Queen of the South and thankfully it has over 4 seasons so it’ll take us a little while to get through it. I love having a show we both enjoy.

I’m staying strong with my Duolingo lessons and workouts which feels really good too.

I’m writing this post from my back patio, which is something I’ve longed to do for a long time! The sun is shining, I’m in shorts and a t-shirt and I’m so happy to be soaking up some vitamin C.

🐕🐕 The Dogs 🐕🐕:

I have a consultation tomorrow with a dog training company in town to see about getting Boone officially trained. I’m still unable to take him on walks because he pulls too hard and he is still jumping on every visitor we have to the house. I know it’s going to be expensive, but tomorrow I’ll find out whether or not it’s something we can afford to do.

If not, I DID find some really good YouTube videos, and Jay and I will just have to start getting serious about spending time training him. The nicer weather we’re getting now will help a lot with the training because we can take him outside and leave Bentley inside or vice versa if that’s what we need to do. Training him while Bentley is around is impossible.

They’re both healthy and happy boys though and I’m happy about that.

📖 Book Club/Reading 📖:

This month’s book club book choice wasn’t something I’m interested in so I chose to pass for February. The thought was I could do more reading for my class… but that hasn’t happened yet. I’m literally crippling myself in this class by being scared to get started and I need to get passed it, but I just haven’t.

However, at the conference, I won a new professional development book and started it on the drive home. It’s called “The No Assholes Rule” and it’s about workplace bullying and disrespect. Unfortunately, I endured a LOT of disrespect and bullying in my career and I’m hearing from others that they have too. It’s so unfortunate as we’re all adults, but it’s happening and I’m hoping this book will provide me with actionable advice to give to the people enduring it in the moment.

✈️ Travel ✈️:

Travel travel travel!

Last week Mom and I were in San Antonio getting our money’s worth out of the San Antonio CityPASS. We had a very full itinerary but we were still able to spend time relaxing at our Airbnb too.

This week I was in Denton, Tx for the SWACUHO conference.

The next two weekends I’ll be home and then we’ll be going to Galveston two weekends in a row for a birthday weekend and then to leave for our cruise!! I’m so excited.

February 28th 2024

Work:

Personal:

📖 Book Club/Reading 📖:

🐕🐕 The Dogs 🐕🐕:

✈️ Travel ✈️:

That’s all for February!