S is for...Simple

Day 19. What makes you happy

This guy..this guy makes me happy.

My babies make me happy.

 

Our love cottage makes me happy.

My family makes me happy.

 



D is for....Dog.

4. Favorite Photo You've Posted on Instagram 

Photo....as in singular? This is like asking me which is my favorite star. Impossible to choose. I take tons of pictures of my fur-kids. Yes, I am THAT pet person. I love all of them and have a habit of saving them on my phone even after posting them to Instragram. I just can't delete them.

If I hhhaavvveee to pick only one (because you like torturing people, apparently) then it would be this one:

You can find me on instragram @justjinny

Life on the home front.

Every morning, when I walk out of the kitchen to the living room to open the curtains, Lola pops her leg up in the air and insists that I give her a belly rub. A morning belly rub to get her through the day. A day full of lolling and sleeping. Her life is so rough.

Summer is coming at us like a fright train, with temps reaching the 100's already. On days like that the ground gets too hot to take the dogs for walks. So we take them on rides instead, which suits Duke just fine...especially when we roll the window down for him.

Jeremy surprised me with roses, chocolates, and Mother's Day cards from him and the fur kids on Saturday. But that wasn't ALL..he also brought me new plants for our front yard. West Texas is in a serious drought. Just about everyone's lawn is brown and dead due to severe water restrictions. Between no water and the extreme heat in the summer and rare freezing temps we have had the last few winters, many of our trees and shrubs have died. So Jeremy spent his day out in the heat, chopping down trees and digging up plants. And planting new, pretty things.

 

On Sunday, we had my mom and Jeremy's parents over the lunch (next time I promise to have dessert, Mom). Dolly was there too, of course. I didn't get a picture, but I painted her nails a silvery-white (she brought me the polish she wanted to use). We also watched one of her favorite movies, currently, 'Dear Dumb Diary'. I swear the songs will be stuck in my head for days. But it was still a cute movie.

I hope you had a fabulous Mother's Day weekend!

My Saturday {In Photos}

1. Walmart. No picture. We HATE going to Walmart, but the weed eater we have only takes line that can bought there (so stupid). So we made a super fast dash in and out for some weed eater line.

 

2. Lunch. I love chick-fil-a!

I also love men with tattoos...yummy.

 

3. Oil Change. So boring, yet so necessary.

 

4. Grocery Shopping. We went all over the store looking for that HEB sauce. I wasn't leaving without my free sauce!

 

5. Brushed the dog. We had enough hair rolling around to make a third dog.

 

6. Bath time. Can you tell that this is one of Lola's favorite things?

 

7. I finally got to meet this little firecracker, Maggie. She was born on the 4th of July.

 

 

Oh HAI!

I can't believe its been a week since I posted. That wasn't planned. Life has just been whisking on by, throwing curve balls at me along the way.

This is what's been going on in my life lately...random style:

My Lola girl has been having a hard time with her allergies this season. It's been bad, real bad. Bad for everyone..Lola, Duke, me, and Jeremy. Over the weekend Lola started shaking her head again. We took her to the vet yesterday and turns out her eardrum ruptured. I know that sounds really bad..it did to me..but as my husband puts it, the rupture released the pressure on her ear which probably felt a little better. Anyway, she is on another round of antibiotics, three weeks this time. Ear drops and pain meds. No walks. No baths. That's going to be rough for three whole weeks. But on the positive side, she has been acting her same ol' perky self. She has been eating well and wanting to go outside. She has been chewing on her rawhide. She hasn't been shaking her head or walking funny or tilting her head..she really hasn't been acting like her ear is bothering her at all. So I'm trying not to stress out about it too much. We take her back for a check up in two weeks.

And poor ol' Duke has been having an issue with his anxiety. He's always been a nervous nelly when it rains, especially if it thunders. Lately, even the announcer over the loud speaker at the stadium down the street has been making him shake. It's getting to the point where he is timid about going for walks...and he LOVES to go on walks. I'm looking into getting him a Thunder Jacket.

Last Tuesday, I went to the volunteer orientation for the local humane society. It was pretty straight forward. The other two volunteers were very..interesting characters. One of them was afraid of dogs. Very odd. I mean, I guess there are cats that need adopting too but still. I'm still trying to figure out where I can help. It's hard getting there to help when we are a one vehicle household. I'm sure I'll find a way I can help, I just don't know what it is yet.

After the orientation I met my workout buddy, Tiffany, at Chili's for dinner and drinks. She was good {she ordered from the lite menu}. I was not good. I felt a second of guilt and then enjoyed my meal immensely. We shared a dessert..which we didn't finish. Oh, and the skinny margarita isn't too bad. We ended up sitting outside for an hour just talking, mostly about food and eating habits and living a healthy lifestyle. We confessed some of our darker old eating habits. It was good to dish, get it all other there with someone who can relate on many levels.

I went to Austin over the weekend to visit my friend, Jennifer. We spent Saturday strolling through the Country Living Expo. There was SO much to look at. Sadly, most of it was way out of my price range. I did run into my friend, Autumn, who lives in San Antonio. We haven't seen each other in several years {we keep in touch on Facebook..natch} so I was just shocked and delighted to be able to hug her AND her husband AND her kiddo. I walked away with this adorable painted piggy, thanks to Jennifer who found it at one of the last booths we went into.

On Sunday, we went to Ikea and the outlet mall. Jennifer always takes me to the nicest places. I scored a cute little leather cross body Coach purse at a killer price.

I also picked up two side tables and the bed frame for the guestroom. Did y'all know that the midbeam for the bed is sold separately? Because I didn't and they just let me walk right out of there with a bed frame and no midbeam. How rude. lol. Ah well, we don't have a mattress to put on the bed right now anyway so there is time to get the midbeam. The progress has been slow, I know, but it's coming along.

SSSeeee...I told you. Lots and lots going on. I think things are going to slow down just a bit...at least, I hope they are. I need a second to catch my breath.

Daily Happenings At Home

Walking the dogs.

This is Lola getting her harness put on (be sure to have your sound on):

This is Duke getting his harness put on:

Happy "Gotcha" Day, Duke!

Ok..so...I'm a bad doggie mom. I don't remember the exact date we adopted Duke from the humane society. I remember it was October. I remember it was rainy. I remember all the volunteers were SO excited that Duke was being adopted. I remember bringing him home and thinking 'What the HELL do we do now?'



It's been several years since we brought Duke home to live with us. And even still we can tell that he is just so grateful to have a home and a bed and food in his bowl. He is so easy going, all he needs is a walk around the block and a trip in the car every now and again. Everyone loves him, even strangers. People sometimes stop in their cars to talk to us about Duke when we are out for a walk. Besides his missing leg, which gets a lot of attention, his pretty markings seem to just draw everyone in. Our little home wouldn't be complete without him clomping around it like a mini-horse. We are so very thankful to have him as part of our family and love him so much.