Some fun Pet lover's facts

95% of pet owners say "I Love You" to pets

80% of pet owners kiss their pets

70% of pet owners sign pet names to cards

77% of pet owners buy birthday and holiday gifts  for their furry friends

80% of pets sleep with their owners  (or rather - pets share their beds with owners)

43% of pets ride in the front seat

Allan and I do ALL of the above, lol, so you know we must really love our dogs, Oreo and Otis.

YAY for Bachelor Mondays!

Dear Brad, please, please send CRAAAZZZY Michelle home!!

Clean House= Happy me!

Isn't it crazy how much better you feel when your home is clean?!! I swear one of the best feelings is coming home the day our cleaning people come to our beautiful, clean home. I clean and straigten up throughout the week, but man, the day they come is fabulous. Right now, we only have them coming once a month and I clean on the weekends. Even when I clean up myself, there is nothing better than looking at clean hardwoods and clean counter tops and coming up to your bedroom with the bed made. I don't know how people live in cluttered messes, my mom is a pack rat and it would drive me bonkers!! Does anyone else just LOVE the way a clean home makes you feel?

How many states have your and your honey visited??

So, my friend at work loves to go camping with her husband, they are always taking mini vacays and doing fun stuff together and I just noticed how she keeps a United States map and highlights the states that her and her husband have traveled together. Drive through doesn't count, you must spend the day doing or seeing something cool at least for it to count. Oh, and if you have been alone that doesn't count either. So I thought, OMG I have to do this!

The Trekdesk

Omg... check this out.

he TrekDesk ($471.68-479) is just about the coolest thing I’ve ever seen. Instead of sitting at your desk for eight hours a day, thinking about how you can’t stand sitting at your desk eight hours a day, TrekDesk lets you take phone calls, type up reports, even send emails while walking on a treadmill.

Love & Marriage- Careers & Success

Success is something that I have talked about a few times in my blog. What it means to me and my husband and the everyday struggles we face of balancing demanding careers with our home life. My husband and I are both very career driven and we have high expectations for our careers, because of this we work very hard and often. Out of our core group of friends we probably work more often than almost all of them, not to say harder, just more often. We not only value our own careers, but eachothers as well, because that is what marriage is all about, right. My husband would never ask him to be a stay at home wife or mom, because he knows how hard I have worked to get where I am and that I have big plans to get even further. I would never set an expectation for Allan to be in bed with me everynight when I fall asleep, because in his industry his career can be even more demanding and I very much appreciate how he balances his time by spending the evenings as a family, then finishing up items later in the night, even though this sometimes allows him very little sleep.

Happy Saturday

Hope everyone has a nice, relaxing weekend!

In a rut

Ugh, I have been in a rut for the longest time now and I shouldn't be. I am newly married and wish I could just snap out of this. As some of you may know from reading, I have had stomach problems for a very long time. 2 years ago I had my colon removed, since then my stomach problems have gotten a little better, but I am still in this rut. I have always hated how when girls get married they let themselves go and now sometimes I feel like one of those girls. Now, I am a pretty casual girl- Love jeans and a t-shirt, but I need to at least start making my hair look descent and get out of the gym pants all the time. I am not high maintenance and don't plan to be, but some things I just feel totally blah! I wear big ol pajama pants and a tshirt to bed most nights when I should be in a silky or cute cotton little gown. When I go to work I feel slumpy when I used to feel cute and confident. Yes, I have gained like 10 pounds, but I am still a size 6, just need some toning and drop the poundage I have gained.

Love & Marriage- warm brownie sundaes!

So for Allan and I, food has always played a significant part in our relationship. We've learned that there is nothing better than sharing a warm brownie sundae after a meal or a tiramsu after an italian dish and nothing better than crispy bacon, grits and pancakes on a saturday morning after bike class. We love greasy food at ball games and chicken bowls from Moe's. We love cooking and eating a huge thanksgiving feast and taco soup and chilli during cold winter nights. Good food makes our tummy's and us happy and creates warm memories. We sometimes order 2 different things and share half and almost always taste off eachother's plates, it is such an intimate moment. Now some of you may be thinking...holy pigs! yes, we probably eat too much and could definitely lose a few, but we do incorporate exercise too.

Place your bets!

So the playoffs have started and my #1 pick, the Atlanta Falcons got smoked on Saturday. I was extremely let down as the husband and I sat at a pub with friends watching our team get slottered. It was not good. Now, I am going with the Packers and the Ravens. The husband says Packers and Bears. What do you think??

Love & Marriage- Finances

So as most of you know, Allan and I have been thinking about having a baby sometime soon and to us one of the most important things to do before starting a family is making sure we are financially stable. We want to be able to provide for our family and not have the financial stress in our relationship. The statistics are there- divorce rates are high, over 50% now and while many factors play into that high rate, finances is still a leading cause for divorce. Money represents different things to different people. To me it represents stability, security and trust. To some it may represent fear or conflict. It is important in relationships to handle finances appropriately and to have a common goal.

Watch out Georgia!

Well, looks like we are supposed to get some snow tomorrow. Crazy weather in GA this year!

www.weather.com

Cool New Gadget

So Allan and I have both always been gadget people, but lately we have let our "reasonableness" get in the way of our fun, LOL. Anyways, we have some gadget plans for 2011. One of course is the iPad. We have know we wanted to get this, we are just waiting for the 2nd release hoping it has a camera so we can ichat with our gamily and friends.

Recently I got my Droid, which I enjoy, but Allan REALLY enjoys. I admit I only use it for calling, texting and internet and there are so many cool aps I could use it for. Sad really, but he loves playing with it.



My favorite of all new gadgets I have found recently is the Sono.

Thank God for life's challenges

Relish your challenges. Thank God for them. Learn from them. Grow because of them and move on to the next ones with positive anticipation and gratitude.

My poor baby boy and his luxating patellas!

I haven't shared this yet, but Otis, our pup recently had his 2 surgeries on his 2 back legs. It has been a LooooNG couple months with taking him back and fourth to the specialty vet and the $6k that the surgery cost was not easy to swallow either, but he is worth it. Over Christmas his leg didn't seem to be getting better and I had a bad feeling something was wrong, so I took him back and sure enough, his second leg he had surgery on was once again out of place and he needed a 3rd surgery! OMG!! I was in tears & angry & just felt terrible for him (and us). Doc said this is the first time, yes, the first, that he has seen this happen in a small dog like him. He had his surgery yesterday and I get to pick him up today. I can't wait to see my little guy. I hope this is it for him and after his 6weeks of bed rest he lives a long, healthy life. We just love our pups so much!

Favorite Moments in 2010!

While I am extremely excited to be entering a new year and a fresh start, I am also sad to see 2010 go. 2010 May have had its difficult moments, but overall it was an amazing year. Some of my favorite moments of 2010 were:

1. Planning my wedding and having it all come together perfectly

2. Getting married in Key Largo to the love of my life, one of the most beautiful places we have ever been

Poor Brad Womack!

So any of you out there watching the Bachelor? You know I am. I tuned in with the husband last night and we began to pick our favorites. This year has an interesting twist- none of the girls knew who the bachelor was. The first girl who comes out of the limo literally slaps him in his face, he just smiled. I admire what he did in a way. I mean why propose to a girl if you don't think your in love just because that is what you are supposed to do? Well, he sure took a beating and is now back for a second chance. He seems sincere, but will he meet his future wife?? Not sure yet.

Ok, so I am bad at names, on TV and in real life, so I can't remember their names yet, but we like the girl who has the very emotional story of not getting on a plane with her husband, which later crashes and he dies, then that same week she learns she is pregnant and we also like the girl who does man waxing...haha. We will continue to pick our favorites as it goes along. And did you see the girls who got voted off? Already crying and they barely met him. It is craaazzzy! Well, I don't know about you guys, but I am excited about some good TV coming back on.

2011 is here & some of my bucket list

So it is 2011, crazy how time flies. It was definitely hard to come back to work today and be the start of a very busy January here in the Finance world, but good to get back into the groove of things and back to a schedule at the same time. It is very exciting that we are now entering a fresh start. I am not looking forward to the packed gym tonight, but I will get over it, I have to keep to my workout schedule. No resolutions really for me, just some personal goals that I already mentioned. I do want to create a bucket list- 1 as a couple and 1 individually, but most everything on my list will be things I want to share with my husband. 

1. Travel back to Italy (with him)

2. Run a half marathon (with him)

3. Travel to Greece

4. Travel to Uruguay

5. Travel to sooo many other places (need to make a master list so we can start checking them off)

4. Take a cooking class

5. Learn how to enjoy reading

6. Re-learn how to ride a bike (funny story I will share later)

7. Retire by no later than 55

8. Reach executive level in career

9. Move with family to another country for  a year - 2 max (preferably work will send us there)

10. Build our dream home (plan is in 5-6 years) One we have now, we love and is perfect for us now, but once we have 2 kids, we would like to start planning our home to live in for a while....

11. Buy a place in another country to retire or just for vacations- once we travel enough places we can decide where

12. Smoosh grapes with our feet to make wine

13. Go up in a hot air balloon- somewhere special on one of our vacays

14. Go diving with the husband (one of his passions)

15. Celebrate 25 and 50 years of marriage (God willing)

...this is just a start