Let's Play Catch-Up!

Y’all? Hi! It's been forever, huh? Forgive me. Life got a little...busy. Let's see if we can catch you up!

When we last left off, we'd bought a house. A house! Ahhh! That still seems so unreal. We own a house. An entire building! What the...

And, you know what? Houses take up a lot of time. And money. Oh so much money. Man.

But they're nice. And cozy. And you can pretty them up however you want to – no one cares if you accidentally poke extra holes in the wall trying to hang a shelf (and a cabinet...and a painting...) or paint one of the walls bright red.

So, that's exactly what we've been doing – prettying (or, if you're my momma, "Alanafying"). It's not quite finished yet, so I'm going to make you wait a bit more for photos. But they will come, friends. They will come.

In addition to that house, we'd also recently acquired an adorable puppy the last time we talked – Gallifrey. Remember her?

It's amazing what a few months can do.

Crazy, huh? She's a nut. Outside is her favorite thing. She's so desperate for the cat to be her best friend that she's constantly enduring bites to the face. And she can practically bend herself in half – which makes for rather funny moments when combined with baby giraffe legs and a new hardwood floor.

The other fur kids are pretty much the same. Gigi still prefers cuddling and smooshing between things to being anywhere else, and Grover is still a dog trapped in a 20 lb cat's body.

As for our lives, we're doin' pretty well. The Boy started his new semester a couple weeks ago and got some fantastic news – he's apparently so much of an overachiever that he's on track to finish his PhD work TWO YEARS EARLY! (*cue happy dance*) That boy, guys. He's pretty impressive.

I’m still doing the whole every-other-week commute thing (and kinda likin' it, honestly). My team has fallin' into a groove with it and we're making it work. Hard to believe I've been doing it for 8 months now! Thank goodness for a supportive, flexible team.

Oh, and guess what! I've taken up a new hobby/obsession: cookie decorating! Who knew it was so much fun? It's like painting, but ON A COOKIE! I'm still figuring out the basics, but loving the practice.

I think that pretty much catches y'all up! We've got several fun things coming up over the next few months – weddings, birthdays, trips to those various events. Oh, and we're starting something else new: we’re going to be working through Jen Hatmaker's book, Seven. It should be…interesting. Stay tuned on that.

Talk to y'all soon!