Nala on the other hand, acts a complete fool outside with no collar or leash on to the point that everytime she needs to go out, she has to be supervised. We’ve learned this from trial and error which involved a dirty Sasha, about ten minutes of chasing, and much frustration. Nala has a one track mind outside and she tunes me out if I call her to come inside. The only silver lining that I’ve found recently is letting her go outside unleashed late at night when she’s tired. That’s the only time she will go out, do what she needs to do, and actually come back to the door without walking off. But, there’s a catch.

While it’s definitely a thing, I try not to dwell on it. Ultimately, that’s one of the quirks that make me, me. I’ve learned to push forward in making sure I don’t just drop what is important for me to say all because I get scared no one is actually paying attention. Krissy has done a great job helping me understand that my voice is important not just in our relationship, but in all aspects of my life.

I don’t have the enthusiasm for work like I did when I was desperate to get hired or when I first started in Marketing. The nonstop, customer facing aspect of being on the Service Team has worn that newness off really quick. That combined with the constant turnover, lack of true leadership and development, location restraints, and angry customers has me dreading 8:00 AM and praying for 5:00 PM every day.

The list feature in Amazon is undefeated. The fact that I can create a list for each section of my house and window shop for things that I might never buy speaks to the Type A in my personality.

Over the past few months, I’ve really noticed that my creativity, motivation, and drive waxes and wanes similar to the moon. There’s times when I’m bursting at the seams with great ideas just waiting to be put into action. That’s when I crank out a new design or put some time aside to make edits to my website verbiage or even try to update some Etsy listings. And then there’s the other side of the coin when I ~want to be creative, excited, and motivated, but I just can’t get into my groove.

Brain fog is real. Being so busy that you can’t see the trees from the forest is real. Having boundaries and understanding that there are just certain situations that you have to push through are vital pills to swallow early. I definitely still struggle with all of the above.

Part of the reason why I like basic iced and hot coffee is because no matter where I go, the coffee will more than likely taste the same. That sometimes isn’t true for those super fancy drink orders with measuring, substitutions, and flavors. You might order the same drink from two different coffee shops and have two totally different tasting beverages.

I like to assume positive intent. I stray away from assuming people are all bad (or all good for that matter) and instead hope that people will do the right thing. I don’t have a jaded view of the world where I inherently think people are out to make your life unnecessarily difficult or only care about their own personal gain. I’ll give people the benefit of the doubt and assume something was an oversight instead of malicious intent.

Fear definitely has a way of holding you back if you let it. It can make you second guess yourself and what you know is right. It can also paralyze you from making any decisions or following your heart/passions.

I, on the other hand, never enjoyed watching the sport. I always thought it was too slow paced and I didn’t understand the rules. I was confused why the pitcher would throw so many pitches during a sequence and only a few in another sequence. Balls and strikes looked too similar to each other for me to tell the difference. At times the game whizzed by and at others it dragged on slower than a snail.

Fridays are really overrated. When you really think about it, we wait four days to get to the magical end of the week just to do nothing. Usually we’re too tired to actually do anything fun and we typically just want to go home and relax. Fridays almost never live up to our expectations.

Discipline is the only thing that’s keeping those flowers and bushes alive. I know it’s one of our nightly chores that must get done. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. I’m grateful that something as simple as watering flowers can help me stay diligent and focused on my everyday life.

I enjoy putting together furniture. In fact, I’ve put together every piece of furniture that’s arrived from Amazon. It might take me a while (and I might have to unscrew, flip a piece around, and re-screw) but I stick with the task until the very end. For some reason, I enjoy the challenge of figuring out the super obtuse and poorly written instruction manual to produce a complete piece of furniture.

The older I get, the more I need planners to remember appointments and the less I need planners to manage my hourly tasks. I do enjoy the art of writing on paper and when I was in middle and high school, I refused to convert to the convenience of electronic journaling because it just didn’t feel as authentic as putting a pen to paper. But now, I enjoy being able to write on the go with my computer and my phone to make sure that I’m able to get my thoughts across without having to actually sit down and be still for hours at a time.

Back in middle and high school, I was big into reading. I would race to finish a book just to get to the next book in my collection. I was indeed the epitome of a book nerd. I kept every single book and I didn’t crack the spines unnecessarily. My favorite series of all time is the Jessica Darling series. I initially loved it because the main character’s name was Jessica, but then I quickly fell in love with the actual story and the plot.

Raising dogs, especially multiple at one time, is not for the weak stomach, weak heart, or weak minded. They will test your boundaries, test your patience, and test your endurance as they figure things out in their world. In many ways, you can compare the growth of puppies to how we grow and develop as adults (minus the weak bladders). We just don’t have handlers keeping us out of serious trouble. 

I’ve always had this passion for writing. Figuring out new ways to combine ordinary words into extraordinary sentences has always been great exercise for my brain. I’m happy that I’m tapping back into that hobby.