Personal March 2024 Journal – I’m starting March feeling fairly exhilarated and exhausted at the same time. My to-do list is extensive, but the things I’m doing for fun list is just as long.

March 6th 2024

Work:

I’m really on a roll at work lately and I’m enjoying it. I’ve been making progress on all my projects and working on completing training with our new employee. I’ve made minimal mistakes and I’ve actually been focused.

I truly think it’s because of the weather. I’m more awake, more motivated, and generally happier.

Since I’ve been grinding all day at work, I have been coming home feeling pretty exhausted lately though, which isn’t great. Thankfully pre-workout exists.

Personal:

Jay and I haven’t seen much of each other lately, or so it feels.

We’ve both been really busy. Mom was here visiting and then I went to a work conference the week after that. Since I’ve had events with YPA (a local young professionals chapter I work with), meet and greets with the dog sitters for our upcoming trips, and trying to maintain my instagram and blog presence.

Jay has had softball almost every night so he’s rarely home in the evenings. When he is home, we’re still working our way through the Netflix show – Queen of the South.

I’ve been working on watering the yard every day (multiple times a day on my WFH days) to try to get that grass to grow. Idk how I feel about it. I’m not really seeing anything sprout yet and it’s been a week so I’m afraid it may fail, but the bag of seed does say 3 weeks so maybe I’m just being impatient.

I’ve also been working on moving the big pile of dirt we’ve put in the backyard from when we built the patio. I want to get that all leveled out so we can purchase a shed in the next couple of months. Right now we have our lawn mower just sitting outside in the elements all year because we don’t have anywhere to put it and I have a whole cabinet in my kitchen full of paint cans, tools, and other supplies that can go in a shed.

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

🐕🐕 The Dogs 🐕🐕:

I had my consultation with Sit Means Sit, here in town about getting Boone professionally trained and it was WAY too expensive so now we’re looking at alternatives. I found a few YouTube channels that do at-home dog training lessons and I think I’ll start working with him on some of those to see if it’s just a lack of work on my end (which it easily could be). I can’t wait until we’re in a position to be able to go on walks.

Bentley is doing well, although he’s surprisingly SUPER fluffy right now despite just getting his hair cut less than a month ago. Unfortunately, he’s going to have to wait for another 4 weeks until his next appointment and just be a damn furball.

Since the weather has been really nice lately, both of the boys have got a lot of outdoor playtime and they’re so happy about that. Bentley and I have been able to go on walks again too, which we both love.

📖 Book Club/Reading 📖:

I finished reading “The No Asshole Rule” and got the review all typed up. I’m just finishing up my review of Lessons in Chemistry and then I’ll share my February Book Review post here soon.

I haven’t started a new book yet, but I will be taking one on the cruise with me so we’ll see what happens.

✈️ Travel ✈️:

This weekend we’re heading to Galveston to celebrate a friend’s birthday and to hopefully get some sun and relax. Both Jay and I have been on the go for weeks and we’re ready to unwind (and hopefully nap… daily).
Our friend got us all a beach house for the weekend and I cannot wait to get there. Unfortunately, the drive to Galveston is like 3 hours so we won’t get to do much at all on Friday.

March 13th 2024

Work:

Work has been going well. I did recently find out something I’m not too happy about, and I’m having a hard time handling it mentally and emotionally, but it’s not something I’m at liberty to share on the internet. Let’s hope that goes away soon.

Personal:

Last weekend we went to Galveston to celebrate a friend’s birthday and unfortunately, the beautiful, sunny and 80 degree weather we’ve been having decided to go away. It was cold and windy and NOT ideal for the beach. Nonetheless, we made the best of our trip and had a good time.

We still went to the beach (in sweatpants and hoodies) and decided to play some sports to keep warm.

During our lovely game of soccer, I somehow injured myself and now have a broken big toe and a boot…just in time for our cruise. 😭 I’ve only ever broken my pinky finger, back in middle school so this is quite surprising.

Initially, I was in quite a bit of pain, but I’m already doing much better. It’s still bruised pretty good, but we’re going to be fine.

On top of breaking my toe and being in a boot, we had a plumbing issue this week that has been STRESSING me out. We found it on Tuesday and I called around to see if we could get a plumber out before Thursday (since we leave Friday morning for our trip) and I had no luck.

I spent a lot of time googling and decided cleaning out the P-trap would be a good place to start. I’ve never done this before, but it was fairly easy with a Youtube video instructor. What wasn’t easy was preparing for the most disgusting stench I’ve ever smelled in my entire life. It was absolutely revolting. I physically vomited. That’s how serious it was. But hey, that wasn’t the issue and now I have clean(er) pipes. That can’t hurt.

I googled what to do about the outside of the house and/or what could be happening, also had no luck. We’re talking hours of research here folks.

So today, I called all the same places back to see if anyone had a cancellation and thankfully one place did so they’re coming out tomorrow. I’m terrified of what they’ll find out there, the damage that’s already been done, and the bill, but I also know it’s not something I can fix on my own and if I let it continue to do what it’s doing we’ll probably have to burn the whole house down and start over… so there’s that. (obviously a joke, but it feels big and overwhelming right now).

I also found out my mortgage is going up $165 per month this year because of taxes or something and that’s great.

When it rains, it pours right?

🐕🐕 The Dogs 🐕🐕

I haven’t been doing nearly as much training with Boone as I’d like to be, but we’ve just had a LOT going on. I have gotten him to sit and lay down and we’re doing better at “stay” every day, but I’d still like to be further along with his training. I want to be able to take him on walks and not have him in his kennel all day. Those are the ultimate goals right now.
We hired our first house/dog sitter off Rover for last weekend and she did a great job. We have another sitter coming next week to cover the whole week we’re gone and I hope that goes just as smoothly. I’m a little worried because she won’t be able to reach us if something doesn’t go smoothly, but hopefully, it all goes as it did before.

They’re happy and healthy pups ❤️

📖 Book Club/Reading 📖

No book club book right now.

I started a new book called “That Sounds Fun” which I’m hoping is just a quick, happy, read. No update on it yet as I’m only about 10 pages in.

✈️ Travel ✈️

We leave for our cruise this weekend! I’m super stoked about it because it’ll be our first cruise together and I loved cruising before so I’m hoping to have another great experience. We’re stopping in ports I’ve never been to in Belize, Honduras, and Mexico too. I’ll have to tell you about the excursions we booked when we get back!

March 20th 2024

No post today because I’ll be on a cruise!

Adios, March!