What's up Wednesday

It's the last Wednesday of the month which means it's time to link up with Mel, Shay, and Sheaffer for What's up Wednesday. As you know, my blogging was super light over the last few weeks while I took time for myself mentally and physically preparing for the end of my Pilates certification program. Hopefully this post will help bring everyone up to speed on things I may not have shared in the few blog posts I did publish this month! Let's get started.

My immediate fam + sister in law + nephews

Me and my siblings

Nephews

What I'm reminiscing about:

Naturally, Thanksgiving is fresh on my mind! Even though we are spread across three different states, I'm so thankful every time we are all actually able to coordinate schedules and be in the same place at the same time! Especially now that I have two nephews on that side of the family. I wasn't expecting to be able to snuggle both of them for Thanksgiving, but the timing worked and we made it happen! It was a pretty low key Thanksgiving. A quick lunch followed by a nap or two and lots of laying on the couch watching TV.

Video using 1 Second Everyday app

What I'm loving:

At the end of each month, one of my Facebook friends has been posting videos using the 1 Second Everyday app. Basically you upload a 1 second video of your day, every day, and then the app mashes it all together into one video that is nice to look back on at the end of the month. I will say on uneventful days, it's hard to pick what that one second highlight is going to be, but for the most part, I've been enjoying this little video diary! I'm only on my second month, but it's been fun to see it all come together.

Meet Lolly, our new Basset

What I'm been up to:

Well, the last few weeks have been focused on my Pilates certification. I'm sure you're tired of hearing about it and relieved as much as I am that it's over! Not that I won't talk about Pilates ever again on the blog, because that is unavoidable. Outside of work and Pilates, I've been working pretty diligently over the last few weeks to surprise the husband with a new dog. We lost our sweet Basset, Daisy, in 2013. In 2015, we adopted Petie, who we lost earlier this year. To be honest, Petie's battle with cancer was so hard on me, it's hard not to think about him without tearing up. I'm not sure I was quite ready for a second dog, but the husband has been patient and has been begging specifically for a Basset since we lost Daisy. His birthday was last weekend, and I've been working to find a basset to rescue for the last several weeks!

I never knew how hard it was to find a young (1-4ish years old) female basset. I started my search in the St. Louis area and slowly started expanding my search. My search radius spread to a Texas-based Basset rescue where I found Lolly. She is 6-years old, so a couple years older than we had expected, but not old enough to rule her out. We had to fill out a lengthy application, take a phone interview, have the rescue check our medical records with our current vet, and schedule a home visit. I managed to do all of this without the husband even knowing!

Once I passed all those steps, the rescue recommended Lolly for us. Well, Lolly is his Grandmother's name, so that is happy coincidence #1. But the best part is that I knew I was working with a rescue in Texas, but the mailing address was in Houston, so that's where I was expecting the majority of the rescues to be. Well, Lolly just happened to not only be in San Antonio, but 6 short miles from my parents' house! Long story short (ish), the timing worked out and we were able to meet her and the foster family the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. The husband loved her, so we canceled our homebound flight, rented a car, and drove home with Lolly Saturday. After weeks of planning, it all came together at just the right time. Though, I did miss his actual birthday by 3 days, I think he is ok with that! And she has been adjusting just fine!

See my 2017 Holiday Gift Guide post here

What I'm working on:

I'm working on switching gears to the holidays! Last week, I posted my 2017 Holiday Gift Guide post here. I'm trying to build my holiday party attire (think faux leather, sequins, and pearl embellishments), which you can tell by looking at my recent purchases here.

With my Goddaughter, Ava

What I'm excited about:

Despite how busy Thanksgiving week can be, I was excited that we were able to spend time with our Goddaughter while we were in San Antonio. One of my super good friends and ex-roomies is her mom, and we got to see them twice while we were down there. She is so sweet and LOVES the husband. As soon as they opened the door, she darted out to give him the biggest hug. It was the cutest thing. We spent a few hours just talking and catching up and when I was telling the husband I was ready to go so we could eat, Ava, in the tiniest of voices says, "We have food here..." followed later by, "We have a guest room...." Talk about tugging at my heart strings!!!

What I'm watching:

We binge-watched the second season of Stranger Things a couple of weekends ago and I love it! If you haven't watched Beyond Stranger Things, be sure to do that as well. The cast is very engaging, and I always love seeing their personalities outside of the characters they portray. But, definitely watch that AFTER you finish the season as there are spoilers galore.

The Secrets She Keeps

(photo credit)

What I listened to:

The drive back from San Antonio was a whopping 14 hours. We decided to drive straight through because we weren't sure how Lolly would do in a hotel. The fosters said that she was howling the entire first night they had her, and we didn't want to chance her having anxiety in a new setting. So, we bit the bullet and went non-stop. We left about 1pm and arrived at our house at 5am the next morning. Luckily, I suggested we listen to an audio book. The Secrets She Keeps was over 12 hours long, and by the time we started listening to it, we ended up with a half hour left by the time we got home. We attempted to finish it while laying in bed. Needless to say, we were asleep by the time it ended! It reminded me of a mix between The Couple Next Door and The Girl on the Train, which is ironic because those are the only two other audio books I've listened to. I enjoyed it and it kept the husband and I awake for the entire night, so I would recommend it for sure!

Original post here

Outfit details--- Earrings: Nickel and Suede Rose Gold in large (c/o) | Bag: Rebecca Minkoff (option here, exact but in other colors here and here) | Top: Free People "Dream Team" (other colors here) | Ring: Kendra Scott "Naomi" | Bottoms: American Eagle (similar) | Shoes: Sole Society "Katarina" (other colors here) ---

What I'm wearing:

I did a horrible job taking outfit selfies while I was in San Antonio for Thanksgiving last week. In fact, outside of this outfit, I took zero selfies or outfit photos. The lighting was horrible, so I didn't even bother. Sorry. But I will have a random roundup post for you on Friday, and if you missed last week's, you can get yourself caught up here.

What I'm looking forward to next month:

Randomly, we booked a last minute trip to spend New Year's in our timeshare in Orlando. We were booked to go at the end of November/ first of December, but work has gotten a bit busy, and his cousin (who we planned to go with) had to cancel anyway, so we decided to postpone as well. However, we had some points that were expiring if we didn't use them by the end of the year, so we started looking for availability in between Christmas and New Year's. The best we could find was New Year's Eve and staying a few nights after that. We've never actually traveled for the new year, so this will be a fun adventure for us. The resort is beautiful anyway, and it's nice to know we already like it. It will force us to unwind.

Welp, November is a wrap! Holy crap time needs to slow its roll!