Currently: Sum-sum Summertime!

Current Book

Current Song

Sweet Nothing by Taylor Swift

Drew is learning this on the piano, and I love it!

Current TV Show

Brent and I are in the need of something new.

Got any suggestions?

Current Podcast/Audiobook

Current Drink

I haven't been drinking much lately {alcohol+anxiety=bad combo},

but I did try this Transfusion drink Brent made this weekend,

and I loved it! Ironically, he made it while playing golf.

It's vodka, ginger ale, grape juice, and a squeeze of lime - easy and yummy!

Current Food

I've been really digging fresh cherries lately.

And I'm very excited for peach season!

Current Shame-Inducing Pleasure

I might be indulging in ALL the Starbucks summer discounts.

Buy 1, get one free? Sure - then I get 2 days for the price of 1!

50% off Fridays? Yes please! 

This just means I'm fiscally responsible, right? {grin}

Current Outfit

I'm currently in workout clothes,

BUT here's what I'm excited to wear to Brent's summer work dinner, yay!

Current Celebrity Crush

See Current Movie

I find Glen Powell ADORABLE!

Current Mood

After my recent struggle with anxiety,

I am very happy to share that I feel good.

Current Anticipation

Girl Scout Bridging for Drew is this weekend!

And then 2 trips in June, yay!

Current Wishlist

We've stalled on our living room decorating due to puppy potty training.

We ordered a rug in March and it came 2 weeks ago,

but it's sitting rolled up in the entryway.

So I'm excited to finish getting Gus potty-trained and back on redoing that space!

Current Movie

I was hoping to get to this in the theater,

but we might not make it before it moves to Netflix.

Allison and I have an exciting wish list of movies for summer!

Current Picture

We made it through school!!!

Anxiety Spiral

Well. We got Gus and sh*t hit the fan. I started having anxiety pretty quickly after bringing Gus home, and I didn't understand why. Yes, it's stressful to have a puppy, and the mornings were especially stressful trying to watch him {so he wouldn't go to the bathroom in the house or eat something he wasn't supposed to} while getting the kids ready for the day, but overall Gus has been an easy pup. He quickly adjusted to his crate and has been sleeping/staying in his crate for 8 hours/night in the office since week 2. He eats great and is almost accident free. 

I felt like a giant loser having anxiety over a dog. I partially blamed it on the amount of reading/watching videos I did about bringing a dog home and was trying to do ALL THE THINGS. Brent kept saying 'it's just a dog, it'll be fine'. But I kept getting worse. I called Kristen one day hysterically crying and cried a lot. It culminated in me crying for hours on Brent's birthday and reminded me SO MUCH of how I felt having post-partum anxiety. I ended up having to take Xanax and scheduled an appointment with my doctor for last week. I also had an already scheduled appointment with my therapist for last week as well.

My doctor said basically I have PTSD from post-partum and my nervous system can't tell the difference between bringing a baby home and a dog - it's a living thing I have to take care of, and it triggered an anxiety response. I talked to her about taking an SSRI again {I took Zoloft after both Trent and Paige} which I didn't want to do but was willing to if she thought it was warranted. Thankfully she did not think I needed to be on one! She prescribed Xanax to use in emergencies and also a blood pressure medicine that does a similar thing as Xanax without the side effects. Luckily, so far, I haven't needed to take either. She also wanted me to do EMDR therapy to process my post-partum trauma and hopefully break that anxiety cycle. And what do you know - my therapist just got trained in EMDR! So I was able to text her after meeting with my doctor so she was prepared for EMDR for our appointment. I'm also taking a bunch of supplements {a lot of the ones I took after Drew plus another my doctor recommended} that focus on stress/worry/anxiety.

We did our first EMDR session on Friday, and it was super helpful! We worked on creating a safe place in my mind to go when I'm feeling anxious and focusing on my 5 senses for that place. I chose my parents' porch swing. Luckily, every day since Brent's birthday weekend has felt better and better. I was nervous today about teaching my class {I didn't teach last week I was feeling so bad}, and it felt really good and today has been the best day so far since bringing Gus home.

We still have some work to do on our new normal - summer routine with the kids home plus having a dog - but I feel much better about being able to do so! I'm no longer thinking 'WHY DID I DO THIS TO MYSELF?' on a regular basis ha! I already love Gus, the kids are over the moon, and I think we're going to have years of fun with him!

Happy Birthday, Brent!

Happy 44th birthday to Brent! I was looking back at pictures and found a picture dating back to our first time celebrating his birthday together - in 1997! So I thought it would be fun to look back at some of his birthdays since we've been together. 

We had been dating for about 6 weeks at this point.

My first time celebrating his birthday with a cookie cake - 

but certainly not the last!

Early college years - either 1999 or 2000

Another college birthday!

2010 - the big 3-0 with 30 presents and tiny Trent!

Another year, another cookie cake!

Notice a theme with a lot of his cakes?

39! Creeping up on the big 4-0!

40 with 40 gifts!

Celebrating with friends in 2021

We switched from golf to beer!

And last year! Look at all that icing, yum!

Here's to lots more celebrating our main man and lots more cookie cake!

Camping Again?!

Who am I? I went camping AGAIN with Girl Scouts last weekend! This time with Drew's troop {but Paige tagged along}. Our troop of 3 leaders took 9 girls for an overnight trip to finish earning their 'Camping' badge and just went to a local place in our little town.

One of our campsites.

One of the great things about Girl Scouts is teaching the girls to be self-sufficient, so they did most of the setup including putting up both tents.

While we leaders finished getting things ready, I suggested the girls find rocks to make their troop number. They loved the idea and had a lot of fun!

Troop 45014 is the best!

There was a high probability of rain, but hey, we're Girl Scouts, so we weren't worried. We decided to take a walk and everybody wore rain jackets or ponchos. Sure enough, it rained on us, but we had a great time!

Our leaders!

'Enjoying' the rain

We got super fancy with dinner and had frito pies in a bag! They were as delicious as they were disgusting. {grin}

These got out of order from our hike, but I love Texas!

We warned the girls when they got in their tent that it was going to rain and they were going to hear lightening and thunder, but they were safe. Sure enough, it started raining, thundering, lightening...and didn't stop for hours.

One little scout slept through it all!

What we didn't plan on was the tents not being able to withstand HOW MUCH rain was coming down and they began to leak...badly. So at 2:30 we decided to pack-up. It took us a while to get all the girls packed and everything from the site picked up {including the tents}. We left at 3:45 and headed to my house.

Soaking wet after packing in the rain!

Just a little tired and wet!

How they busied themselves in my car, ha

Finally, down for the night at 4:30AM

Up bright and early the next morning!

One of our scouts was very worried that we wouldn't earn our Camping badge because we left, and I told her 'oh no, y'all definitely have earned your badge!' I also found a fun patch called Camping in the Rain, so I ordered that for them as well.

So let's hope this isn't how all our Girl Scouts camping events go!

Two-Step Inn Year 2

We had our 2nd trip to the Two-Step Inn festival in our little town a couple of weeks ago. Once again we had a great time! Great music and great time with friends. I did overserve myself, so I was suffering some early in the following week, but it was totally worth it!

Why yes, overserving myself included shots of fireball. Oy!

The weather forecast wasn't great for Saturday {and we were more excited for Sunday's lineup}, so our plan was to go and if/when it started raining, we would head to our town square to continue hanging with our friends. I really wanted to see Pat Green, and the rain held off until his show ended, yay! I saw him several times in college and always thought he had a great show, and he didn't disappoint this time.

Ready for Pat Green!

And then the rain came...boo!

Enjoying food and more drinks at one of our favorite square spots, Tejas.

Susannah and I were both not feeling our best on Sunday. I made it to brunch... barely though!

Getting ready for day 2, ha

Most of our crew on Day 2!

We ran into one of our favorite AmpedUp customers!

And then we ran into another instructor! Love our small-ish town.

The only picture I got with Brent, sigh.

Sunday's performances were great! Ludacris and Turnpike Troubadors being the last 2 shows that we LOVED! Brent skipped Ludacris in favor of Clint Black {whose Killing Time album is Brent's favorite album of all time}, but we met back up for Turnpike.

We had such an amazing weekend, and I hope to keep going in the future.