Lola.Dog

My Dearest Blog Readers,

I had such a good trip to the place that is far, far away.  I visited with my grandma and great-grandma - both of whom I rarely see.  There was plenty of food and I have to say I really love my box.  You know... my box.  The one I threw a fit about here.  Now that I'm used to it, it's really a great little box.  My blanket fits perfectly and I can curl up in a little ball and sleep the trip away.  I will say the trip to far, far away was a lot faster than the trip home from far, far away.  It was 4 mid size naps there and 5 mid size naps back.  I'm not sure what the deal was.  We stopped the same number of times (once).  It's really neither here nor there, though.  I'm just glad to be home.  I mean, I love my relatives, but nothing beats my cozy bed and my cozier comforter.  The comforter that is too bulky to pack for out of town trips. 

So, regarding the dog I didn't see eye to eye with... have you ever been around someone that just wouldn't go away?  Yeah, that's that dog in a nutshell.  I tried to be civil.  I tried to be mature.  I tried to be the bigger dog.  Eventually I just snapped at it, I mean.. I had all this annoyance just rolled up inside of me.  It was growing bigger and bigger with every passing moment.  I was hoping it would get the hint when I gave short responses to its questions.  Or when I would go the other way when it was approaching.  I even tried to have a meaningful chat about personal space and about the woman and man belonging to me.  This dog was just... dense.  Finally I just whipped my head around and snapped at it.  Can you believe it still did not get the hint?  So, I just avoided it.  Kept to myself.  It was awful.  Then the little dog left.  And I felt so ashamed for being so mean.  It was Thanksgiving after all.  I thought out several apologies in my mind - to tell the little dog when it came back.  Also, I should interject here and say that by little, I mean younger.  This dog was technically bigger than me.  They called it a chihuahua (if you can believe that), but I don't think it was.  Anyway, I had all these things I was going to say.  But it never came back.  I penned out several letters, but then realized I didn't have an address for the dog.  I would say that I feel miserable guilt now, but I don't.  I keep rationalizing in my head that this little dog needed to know it's bounds.  I guess I really could have relayed the message in a better manner.  Well, I'm sure the little dog will be there next year.  That's it.  Next year.  I will prepare myself next year to tolerate this dog.  I should write another letter about appropriate boundaries and how I may have been annoyed, but that I should have taught the dog manners and not been so coarse. 

Let this just be a lesson to us all to mind our p's and q's.  (Which actually means pints and quarts... did you know that?)

Until next time,
Lola

Rambling on...

I was out of town for the holidays, so I didn't really get a chance to plan any blog posts for this week.  I really enjoyed my time with family.  I also enjoyed the car ride to and from my grandmother's house.  I know that sounds crazy.  It's about a five and a half hour drive each way.  I enjoyed that time, because it gave me a chance to have some really good discussions with my husband.  We would talk for a while and then listen to a few podcasts (NPR) and then talk for a while again.  My husband I can talk freely about all kinds of things.  We both have careers in the same industry, so we can talk for hours about that.  This usually leads to conversations about business and politics.  We talk about our career tracks and our dreams and passions.  We talk about our family and our excitement about the future.  We are usually both so busy in our every day lives that we only get about an hour a day to chat.  Seriously chat, that is.  Share our thoughts and ideas about, well really everything.  We both work and we are both involved in other organizations outside of work.  I feel like we are always on the go.  And on Monday, when life picked up that fast paced speed again, our lives fell right back to where we were before the break.  Work is busy.  Life is busy.  I've learned to be as thankful for the quiet times as I am for the fun, busy times. 

Lola.Dog

My Dearest Blog Readers,

I'm afraid I don't have much time to write this week. I'm still in a town far, far away. A town with the worst wifi connection ever. I'm currently in a tree with one leg aimed to the south, just hoping I can hold this position to blog a few words. Our trip was long, but thankfully uneventful. There's another dog here, visiting. I won't go into much detail, so lets just say we don't see eye to eye. Anyway, I hope you all are having a fabulous holiday. That's all for now.

Until next time,
Lola

Happy Thanksgiving

Looks for Less: Miranda Kerr

Have you ever perused a magazine or a website and come across the perfect outfit?  You know the perfect outfit on a celebrity?  Then you do a little research and realize said celebrity is wearing thousands of dollars worth of clothing and accessories?  It's frustrating.  I know.  I've been there.  So, what I decided to do is find a few of these perfect outfits and then see if I can find something similar, for way less.   

 

On Miranda:
Dress // Victoria Beckham
Belt // Prada
Bag // Prada
Shoes // Lanvin
Sunglasses // Miu Miu

Get the look for less
Two dress options // 1 2
Belt
Bag
Shoes
Sunglasses

Errands... and things

This past weekend was one of the first weekends in a while where I didn't really have anything planned.  No plans, no obligations.  However, I did have quite the to-do list.  Here is a list of randoms.

1. People are hard to shop for.  My husband's family lives in far south Texas and my family lives in north (west) Texas.  We live pretty much in the middle of both destinations.  So, for the holidays we switch off families for each holiday.  This year we will be visiting my family for Thanksgiving and SG's for Christmas.  When we visit my family for Thanksgiving, we also do Christmas with them at that time.  Confused yet?  So, I procrastinated Christmas shopping for my family until this past weekend.  Of course, I did.  Usually I have a general idea of what to get my family, but this year I was at a total loss.  I'm sure I called my Grandma 4-5 times for ideas.  This reminds me, I owe her a phone call.  Target has awful reception and I finally just had to hang up.  Speaking of Target, they have some really cute sweaters on sale right now.  They would look great on your Mom (hopefully my Mom agrees).

2. We put up our Christmas tree.  I know, I know.  Respect the bird.  I just couldn't help it.  I'm going to Pinterest party early in December and we are making an ornament wreath.  So I shopped ornaments early (for said wreath), to take advantage of the sales at Hobby Lobby.  Now I'm in the holiday spirit and I just can't help it.  I listened to Christmas music (gasp!) all day yesterday while we pulled out the Christmas decorations.  My excuse (although I don't really feel I need one) is that we will be out of town this weekend and I would like to come home to the tree already up.  So there's that.

Source

3. I bought new nail polish.  This also reminds me that I never shared my October Birchbox.  That's how exciting it was.  Okay, to be fair I did like a few things.  I ate the Luna bar that was included (but I already knew I loved Luna bars - yum!), they included a Sprouts chapstick that is super awesome (I may or may not have a chapstick addiction), and there was a full size Essie nail polish (color: fair game).  So, on to my original random thought: I bought new nail polish.  I've tried Essie in the past and I've always really liked it.  I just haven't always liked that it's about $8 a bottle.  Well, I bought Essie leading lady.  And I love it.  It's red and glittery.  I'm not so sure red and glittery are office appropriate, but I'm wearing it anyway (it's a short work week, after all).  I do have to say that it reminds me of Christmas.  I think the red on its own would be fine, but the glitter really livens it up and makes it festive.  Anyway, I go on and on about it to say that it would be a fabulous stocking stuffer.  Or you could buy it for yourself and wear it to all the Christmas events you will be attending next month.

4. I hate season finales.  I don't watch a ton of TV, but I do really like the shows that I do watch.  These shows are slowly starting to end for the season and I hate season finales, I hate cliff hangers, and I hate waiting.  I also hate boring off season TV.  That being said, I love Netflix.  I realize I'm seasons late on this, but SG and I have started watching The Walking Dead.  I love zombies, so I have no idea why I'm so late to the party on this.  We are also adding American Horror Story to our queue.  I have a love for scary movies, so again I'm not sure why I'm just starting to watch this show, either.  That's all I have for now.

Happy Monday.

*The opinions in this post are all my own.  No one is paying me to say anything about any of the products mentioned above.  However, if someone did want to pay me... I kid, I kid.

Lola.Dog

My Dearest Blog Readers,

I hope you are all well. I'm really frustrated. I typed out my entire post and Blogger ate it. What's ironic is that that my post was about being thankful and finding the silver lining (blessings) in frustrating situations. One example I gave was being thankful that you own a car when you get stuck in traffic. I guess the universe was telling me to take my own advice. Although I am still frustrated. All this silver lining business is really hard. I guess I'll just take it one day at a time. Oh and in my eaten post I tied this to the whole November thankful theme. Ahh! What a mess this post has turned into. So all I will say is to be thankful for all that you have, even when the good that you have is hidden under not so good things that you cannot control. Like when you are stuck in the middle of rush hour traffic. On a Friday. In the rain. Ha. Have a great weekend.

Until next time,
Lola

Weekend Wrap-up

 

What did I do this weekend?  Lots.  It was my good friend's birthday, so a few of us gathered together and spent the day in Ft. Worth celebrating.  We went to the Titanic Exhibit at the Ft. Worth Museum of Science and History.  It's a very interesting exhibit.  Upon entering you are given a boarding pass with the name of a person who was actually on the Titanic.  So, when looking at all the different stages (being on the Titanic, hitting the iceberg, sinking), I looked not only at the whole picture, but also at the details of my person, who was in 3rd class.  Then at the end of the exhibit, there is a wall of survivors and those that did not make it.  My person did not make it and I was very sad about it.  This really make the experience so much more personal to me.

 

We then headed over the La Familia in the downtown area of Ft. Worth (I am not at all familiar with Ft. Worth).  We brought cupcakes from JRaes (delicious), but the birthday girl was also serenaded and presented with a sombrero and this jalapeno longhorn.  Too cute, yes?

 

My other weekend plans included attending the White Rock Lake Festival.  However, due to high winds and possible rain, it was canceled.  So, we went to a movie instead.  We saw the new James Bond movie.  It was excellent and I recommend it.  One other thing I tried to do?  I tried to take a picture of Lola for our Christmas card.  She does not appreciate photographs and always tries to charge me.  I refused, so she kept turning her head.  I don't think I have a single one that will work.  I need to go back through them all.  If not, everyone is getting a basic penguin Christmas card from us.

 

 

Enjoy your week!

Lola. Dog

My Dearest Blog Readers,

Welcome to the blog.  I say that, because I know the woman hasn't blogged all week.  I hope you don't think she's been busy... because she hasn't.  Sure, she gets up and goes to work all week.  Blah, blah.  She then comes home and she and the man cook dinner and then watch TV.  Yeah, TV. They've mostly been catching up on Bones on Netflix, which I don't mind.  I already watched all those episodes months ago, but I'm pretty good at not ruining the end of each one.  She also painted her nails yesterday.  I mentioned that she could be blogging, instead, but she then said something about writer's block.  I was kicked out of the room when I suggested you actually have to be a writer to suffer from writer's block.  (Which clearly I am).  Anyway, I would like to apologize on her behalf for being boring.

I guess I may be kind of boring as well, but I'm a dog so really what do you expect?  I think we all go through these slumps.  As I clicked through all my daily fashion blogs this morning I realized that they are all wearing essentially the same thing.  Or giving the same tutorial they gave last week, just with different colors.  Or giving useless tutorials just to fill their blog.  Blah.  I'm not saying I've never done this, so really this is just me being crabby.  I guess I'm just waiting for the next event.  I'm eager to go see my Grandma for Thanksgiving.  I'm eager to eat all the wonderful food and visit with family I have not seen in a while.  In the same sentence, I'm ready for it to be over.  The holidays can be hard on me.  Traveling is the worst and my skin gets so dry with all that car air.  But, I do enjoy the season.  Again, I guess I'm just crabby. 

This crabbiness is from this week.  I'm exhausted.  I wasn't going to bring it up, because I'm really not political - although I did vote - but this week has just been too much.  All people have talked about for the last 6 months is this damn election.  Then the two weeks leading up to election day were absolutely hectic.  It was a super close race.  The day of the election was crazy.  The day AFTER the election?  Oh my.  I had to log off all social media for the day.  I just couldn't take it anymore.  That was definitely one day that I am glad I am not associated with the human race.  And with that I bid you farewell.

Until next time,
Lola

Lola. Dog

My Dearest Blog Readers,

It's November! This is Thanksgiving month and also a time to share our thankfulness for things... Er, people... Er, blessings. Any who, It's a time to reflect on what we are grateful for... Like parents that cuddle you when you hear a scary noise or when a bag tears and marshmallows fall all over the floor. It's a time of giving. The holidays are approaching and soon the temperature will drop, the malls will become over crowded, and Starbucks will break out the red cups. There will be a frost in the air, carols on the radio and cheer will be everywhere. But for now, before the chaos begins just take a moment and remember why we all participate in the craziness and be thankful for your blessings.

Until next time,
Lola