What a February.

I wrapped up January hoping for a calm February - HA. While January was mostly (not entirely) internal stress - exhaustion, feeling kinda sick and tired and grumpy for no good reason - February was a month of huge external stressors and life events. In some ways that's easier for me to deal with, but boy was it rough at times.

On the bright side, there were good things to make up for the bad - and we took our trip to Portland! (Although - for a bit there we thought Tumbles was about to go into heat earlier than expected and thought we might have to cancel! Thank goodness it was a false alarm.) And although life is still definitely in a transitional period, it does feel like things are settling, and I'm at least feeling way more centered than I was a month ago.

Here is February:

A Boo playdate.

Above photo by Amy aka sailorhg.

More daycare fun.

Beautiful gloom, festive nails, and puppy graduation.

A sunny corgi meetup with Tum's buddy Gus.

(and her ... half nephew, I believe? Parker!)

Checking out some wine, mid-fermentation, made by our pal Phil.

Sunset dog park, as the days get just a bit longer. 

A pretty but kinda weird-tasting (read: bad) cake, because I could.

Portland!

Lots of coffee, beer, junk food, and a few animals (backyard chickens Minnie & Dottie!). As well as some internet-turned-IRL friends, not pictured.

The two of us ate almost this entire plate in one sitting.

Some flowers for myself, because I needed a pick-me-up.

From Church Street Flowers - so friendly and talented! They made Tumbles their (un)official mascot :)

And of course, more dog park, sometimes with other corgis.

I'm afraid to say I want a calm, uplifting March (look how that went last month), but I really, really do!

Adios, January

I swear, January is always such a rough month. I suppose it's partially post-holiday stuff (getting back into work, routine, eating slightly healthier, etc)... and maybe a bit that I expect it to be bad so I notice every little thing. But regardless, this January lived up to my expectations, with lots of anxiety, a few blah sick days, not nearly enough sleep (not for any good reason, unfortunately), and a sick pup scare near the end (she's fine!).

But it wasn't all bad. Here are some of the highlights of the month.

I commissioned a portrait of Tumbles! I can't wait to get a hard copy to frame and hang up somewhere :D You can see some the artist's other work here.

Donut date with Tim! I'm actually not a huge donut person - at all - but they're so darn pretty and we very rarely get out, just the two of us, so it was fun all the same.

Weekly drinks with my buddy Alex (Tumbles tags along too).

We started puppy jr. high! Learning some tricks to get through these challenging teen months.

New makeup (plus, it works well with my refusal to spend more than 5-10 minutes on makeup in the morning).

Dog park sunset.

Tumbles started daycare - a teen pup is tough to have at work every day. Now I can get stuff done and she has tons of pals to play with on weekdays!

Another me-Alex-Tumbles date night. Dive bars are our fav.

Ended the month with a trip to the doggie ER for some vomiting that just wouldn't stop. Everything is ok, but it was a rough night! This is my 3:30am face.

Here's to a less stressful but still exciting February! Tim and I have a vacation planned for the end of the month (our first trip together since April 2013!!) so it should be a good one.