Personal Journal – May 2024
Personal May 2024 Journal – I’m starting off May already behind in my journaling, but it’s fine.
May 1st 2024
Did May 1st happen? Whoops.
My visit with my bestie was great. We didn’t do as much exploring as we typically do when we get together because the weather wasn’t really on our side and we only had a couple of days, but nonetheless, it was so great to see her and have her around. This is the first time she’s seen my house and met my Boone baby.
May 8th 2024
Work:
Work has been absolute chaos lately. My housing application is experiencing all kinds of issues. Our system is struggling with slowness and non-responsiveness.
People are panicking and I’m working tirelessly to try to put out fires everywhere.
Every single day this week I’ve come home completely exhausted.
Personal:
As mentioned above, work has been completely wiping me out this past week so I don’t have much to report. I haven’t been working out every day, but my morning walks with Bentley have been wonderful. The mornings this time of the year, between 6-7am are beautiful.
While Shana was visiting we got to work on upgrading the front patio area. I forgot to take before pictures, which makes me quite sad, but we finished the side of the house and now I’m working on the front of the house. Getting that whole front area mulched up is also on my weekend plans list – which is getting pretty long at this point.
Here’s a before picture from the front, but it doesn’t show the side area we worked on, unfortunately.
We finally got the holes in the backroom repaired from the plumbing incident MONTHS ago. Hopefully, I’ll have the energy this weekend to get in there and paint it all back up so we can put that backroom back together. It’s been a bit of a shit show in there.
I mentioned the last week of April that I was proud to have received 50 clicks from Google in the last 30 days, well, I’m even more proud to announce that at the conclusion of the month, my stats are climbing!
As you know, I’ve been blogging for a long time now, and I’m slowly incorporating new features, learning more about writing professionally like a blogger, and learning SEO. It’s slow going because, as mentioned above, I also have a million other commitments, but this keeps me motivated and I’m so excited to be gaining traction. Now I just have to keep writing about things people are interested in reading!
🐕🐕 The Dogs 🐕🐕
Bentley has been loving his walks and time outside (since the backyard is still growing grass, he hasn’t been out to run in a long time.
Boone is doing alright. However, he had a poop in the house last week which completely took me by surprise. Thankfully, he did it while I was out on a walk with Bentley so Jay got to clean it up. Poops are super easy to clean up though and unless it’s unhealthy, which thankfully it’s not, it doesn’t leave any lingering smell or anything.
I’ve also noticed that he’s had excessively dry and flakey ears (inside his ears) so I’ve been working on cleaning them daily and putting coconut oil in there to moisturize them. He doesn’t seem bothered by it. He’s not itching or scratching but I’ve noticed Bentley is licking his ears a lot. We’ll keep an eye on that.
I am dog-sitting this weekend for 2 new dogs (rover booking) so I’ll have updates on them next week. I’m hoping these rover requests keep rolling in because it’s fun, I enjoy spending time with other people’s dogs and an extra little pocket money is really coming in handy.
📖 Book Club/Reading 📖
I’m still reading “Start with Why” for my work’s book club. I’m about 3/4th of the way through it so this weekend I’ll really have to spend some time reading because we meet next week to discuss the book.
So far I’d say it’s just okay. I get the concept, it’s a great lesson, but it is very drawn out in this book and often repetitive.
I don’t have a next book picked out yet, but I think I’ll catch up on some TV shows when I wrap this one up because I’m watching 5 different shows right now.
✈️ Travel ✈️
Memorial weekend is coming up, which means I have Monday off and of course, need to use that time to get out of town. I spent HOURS planning a trip from here down south visiting a few new Texas State Parks and then I checked the weather and it’s supposed to be over 100 degrees that whole weekend.
That being said, I will NOT be traveling south for memorial weekend. haha.
Now I’m going to be planning a trip north, potentially out to Palo Duro or maybe just up to Wichita Falls and back.
I have to start the planning process over. The good news is, I am going somewhere soon!
May 22nd 2024
Work:
Work has been going. That’s really all the energy I have to spend on that.
Oh, on a positive note, I move into my new office next week! WHOOP.
Personal:
This weekend I made some progress on the front porch area of the house. I posted a before picture last week, here’s a 90% complete picture now. I have to finish the small little triangle part right in front of the stairs still but we’ll get there.
I’m not going to lie, I lost a bit of steam on this one, but even if it just stays like this for awhile, it looks way better than it did before.
I did not make any progress on painting the holes in the backroom this past weekend either. Maybe this coming weekend. Who knows.
A HUGE win for me this past week was a new notice I got from Google that was even better than before. I reached my all-time record so far and had 200 clicks from Google to my site!
Now I just have to keep up with writing my content and continuing to learn more about SEO.
Unfortunately, I’ve realized I no longer like the theme I’m working with but I can’t seem to figure out the complexities of changing it soooo that may be coming in the far away future. I have a vision, but I’m not really sure how to put it into action. I found some themes I like, but I’m not sure how to transition what I already have into that template. It’s a process.
Exciting event of the week: I got my tooth gems put back on! I’m a little nervous about the quality of the gems since Shana got hers while she was visiting and they already fell off, so I’m skeptical. But I’m also super excited because I missed them!
On a final note about my personal life, Jay and I are wrapping up Killing Eve, a show we’ve been watching on Netflix and I’m sad it’s over. This show was quite different than anything I’ve watched before and I really liked. I’d say it’s a psychological thriller, but also, not heavy on the thrill… I’d say just watch it. haha.
🐕🐕 The Dogs 🐕🐕
My buds are doing great. Bentley and I have been sticking with our morning walks and we’re both loving it. Unfortunately, I haven’t spent any more time on Boone’s training lately.
I’ve been putting coconut oil in Boone’s ears to try to heal up his dry, flakey ears and it seems to be working so that’s a plus.
Last week I booked another Rover sitting with two little doggos – Macy and Rainey. Macy is an older dog and she literally just laid in her bed the whole time I was there (only about 4 hours). Rainey had some separation anxiety, but we got some snuggles in and she did great. I will probably see them again in the future as the woman who booked with me said they come to town as often as possible during football season.
📖 Book Club/Reading 📖
My work’s book club meets tomorrow afternoon to discuss the book I’ve been reading for over a month – Start with Why. I’m kind of impressed I read through a bunch of it last weekend (hence me not getting the back room painted) so that I could make the deadline. I have about 30 pages left to finish tonight so that I can be prepared for our discussion tomorrow.
I am not going to allow myself to start another physical book until I get further along in my studies. I’ve been saying it for about 4 months, I NEED TO GET ON IT.
I may still download an audiobook for my drives to work and at the gym though. I’ll see what’s available.
✈️ Travel ✈️
YALL. I. Am. So. Excited.
I received an email this week that there was a campsite open at Palo Duro Canyon over Memorial Weekend! Of course, I snatched it up. It’s a water & electric site, which is usually more than I ask/pay for, but getting a space in the canyon has been impossible so I’m super excited.
That being said, I’m not planning a whole adventure road trip up there for Memorial weekend. Since it’s 9 hours away, I’m going to have to make lots of stops and hopefully, I’ll get some great content for the blog!
More info coming soon 😉
Nothing Right Now. 
Odyssey of High Hopes: A Memoir of Adversity and Triumph - Cyrus Ansery
