Currently, I am listening to Mac’s doggie paws pitter pattering across the kitchen floor and into the living room, carry bites of food with him. Run to bowl, look around, grab 3-4 morsels of food, trot into living, deposit food onto carpet, crunch crunch crunch, run back to bowl and repeat. Hilarious, really. Much unlike Gracie who stands at her food bowl like a trough and eats until she can eat no more. What isnt so hilarious? Stepping on a morsel of food that was left behind. Ouch. It’s like a damn lego piece or something! Crunch crunch crunch.

This weekend was rather low key and relaxing. Just the way I like for most of my weekends to be! Friday evening after work we hung around the house watching TV and I made a pizza.

Saturday I woke up with my body covered in some type of rash/break out. Apparently I am allergic to the medicine that I am on for pneumonia. Awesome. That shit is still clearing up. Regardless of my skin itching and burning and me wanting to die, we managed to de-Christmas the house. Thank goodness!!! I was so glad to get all of that down and put away and get our house back in order. It felt amazing once we were finished.

Saturday afternoon we headed out to get some Zantec because apparently it is an H2 blocker which is something I needed in addition to the Benedryl. Fun times. While we were out, we decided to stop at Red Robin for a snack. We ordered some onion rings and watched some of the Saints game.

Afterwards we decided to just get our grocery shopping out of the way. Exciting Saturday night, right? When we got home, we watched a few episodes of Grimm and then Chris went to bed. Even after being exhausted all day, I wasnt bed tired so I ended up reorganizing our kitchen. I switched around some decor, changed what was on top the counters, even organized and changed up some cabinets. It has inspired me to start my goal of getting our house organized and decorated this year! I have some ideas for the living room now too!

Sunday morning we made a big breakfast and watched more Grimm. I love that show. Anyone else watch it? We are almost caught up to where the show is currently. We then headed out with my sister in law and brother in law to a few Game Stops in the area. The guys bought PS Vita’s while we were in Gatlinburg and they are on the hunt for games. It was fun to get out of the house for a few hours.

Sunday afternoon I made some snacks for Chris and I for a late lunch, and then food prepped. I cut up some fruit and veggies, made a vegetable soup for me to take to lunch for the week, and made a pan of fudge brownies which ended up being dinner last night. I figure one last hurrah while I am out of commission from my work outs. You know I put ice cream on that shit. Mmmmmm.

I am feeling rather relaxed and refreshed this Monday morning. I feel like I got a lot accomplished this past weekend with taking down the Christmas decor and starting on my goal of organizing our house.

We survived our first week back to work for the year! Yay!!!!!!! Well, let’s not celebrate too early, we have to make it through today I suppose. I am sharing a few of my favorite things as of lately with you today.

1. First up is my favorite.

Can I get an Amen? With my little break down Wednesday, I cant help but laugh at this every time I see it. Maybe I had some cookies, candy and all around bad food the week of Christmas and after….but I am back on track. As soon as I can breath, I will be back at my work outs too!

2. My husband is the sweetest!

I went to my regular doctor on Wednesday and found out I do in fact have pneumonia. I am just so relieved to be on a proper treatment plan! Chris was so sweet and offered to pick up my prescriptions for me. When I got home, he had lots of little surprises waiting for me. A little Reese and a few Jelly Belly’s wont kill me.

3. While we are talking about my sweet husband, he let me stop at the outlets in Gatlinburg. I just wanted to hit up the Loft outlet because I knew they would have some good deals! Boy did they ever, I scored these three shirts. Now I feel like I actually have enough close to wear this season without being seen in the same thing every weekend. I am so excited. I love these tops so much and they are light so I can layer them now but use them to transition into spring later in the season!

4. I am in love with the boots my mom got me for Christmas. They are way more comfortable that I could have hoped for, and they just look so cute. They have a little bit of a slouchy look to them and I couldn’t be more pleased! They came from the Nine West Outlet. I have a hard time finding boots the come up over my calves because they are muscular. These come up with no problem, so if you have the same issue….check out Nine West! I have a few pairs of their boots.

5. Tarte Amazonian Clay Foundation – I have been using this for about a month and a half now. I am loving it! I am having a “good make up day” every day with this gem. It goes on so smooth and a little goes a long way. I found a color that is a perfect match for my skin, which is hard for me to do most of the time. My blush and bronzer glides on effortlessly with this foundation and the coverage lasts all day for me. I think I have a new winner! I love the Tarte line in general, they really have some great products. The packaging is so cute too. I love the wooden cap.

Linking up with Joy for the Friday Five!

Hey there Blog Land. It’s me Gracie. My human asked me to take over her blog today to talk to something that is very near and dear to my puppy heart. I have heard of some very concerning news that humans think it’s ok to leave their dogs outside in the cold?! This is crazy talk. It is freezing outside! We can get frost bite too!

Me personally, I like to lay with multiple blankets. There isn’t a blanket in the house that I don’t claim as my own in fact. Even crazy Mac loves his blankets. It breaks my huge puppy heart that there are others out there whose humans don’t love them enough to supply them with the proper comforts and a warm spot to stay. I might give my mom a hard time and give her the look like I have a rough life, but I know I am spoiled and loved!

Let me show you some appropriate places for your favorite fur kids to stay!

Bed’s are great. I love me a bed. Heck, I will even share with Mac. (I pretend like its because we love each other, but let’s be honest…that little ball of fur brings the heat too!)

Crates with a blanket work too! I spend some time in my crate to sleep and while the humans are away at work. I don’t mind so much, I actually feel safe and like my alone time for a little bit.

I don’t even mind popping a squat in the laundry basket for awhile. Bitches love laundry baskets. As long as there is some laundry in them, of course!

I like couches. Don’t even worry about picking up your stuff, I will use whatever I can as props.

A sunny spot from a sky light can be my favorite warm place for an afternoon nap!

If you simply cant let your dogs hang around the house, at least have the decency to bring them in the garage and give them some hay. I heard hay can keep you warm too. Think of all the love your dog gives you, please love back! If not, my mom gets angry. She threatens to call the cops on idiot neighbors who leave their dogs out to freeze. She read a horrible story about a dog that was found frozen to the ground a few days ago. So sad.

I guess you should probably bring the cats in too. If you must….

Now if you don’t mind, I have some important business to attend to!

Naps are my favorite.

There you have it folks. If Gracie asks you to bring in your pets….well you bring in your pets!

Linking up with some of my favorite crazy dog people Jackie and Karly!

With the deep freezing of the south over the last few days, and a gem of a Facebook status from my old boss the other night. I thought it was time to whip out another one of my Tales of Property Management. (After I say those words, I like to think that very eery music is being played like in a horror movie. I am weird, get over it.)

Anyways. When the weather is cold, like below freezing for any given amount of time, it is hard on our homes and buildings. Pipes freeze. It happens. While you hope to do everything you can to prevent it, like letting your faucet drip or wrapping and covering outside faucets, shit happens. Pipes burst. It is expected.

We had a lovely little blast of arctic weather when I worked at a “Live, Work, Play” community. Basically this means that we had apartments, but the first floor was retail. We had restaurants, boutiques, salons, coffee shops, etc on the bottom floor that we managed and then the apartments, the amenities, a gym, etc. Well, one night I had just gotten home and grabbed Gracie and we went for our walk before it got any colder. I made the mistake of walking up the side walk through the shops. One of the salon owners recognized me and grabbed me. The pipes had burst and her salon was flooding and she needed help immediately. Well, fuck! So I call maintenance, run Gracie home, put on some warm clothes I dont give a shit about and ran up to start helping her move her stuff and get as much water out as I can. Then the restaurant 2 doors down has the same problem. AHHHHHH.

I think I got home around midnight that night. The fire station was called out, plumbers were called out, stuff was messed up. The list of nightmares goes on. The next morning I go into work. Apparently one of the pipes from the pool burst. It started to soak one of our residents floors in an apartment. It wasn’t horrible, but it wasn’t great either. Now, the management company I worked for was legit. We made residents have renters insurance if they wanted to live in our apartments. It not only protected us, but it protects the resident as well. I always made it a point to tell residents that renters insurance is rather inexpensive, but you need to make sure you get proper coverage for EVERYTHING that could happen. As the management company and owners are not responsible for residents personal items. Duh,

Well this particular resident was on my list of “oh bloody hell, what does this asshole want now” residents. He was always ALWAYS a pain in the ass for no reason. He comes into my office fussing about how is couch got wet and blah blah blah. We go over the whole renters insurance covers you not us crap and he just causes such a stink. I dont remember the exact logistics of it all, as this was quite a few years ago, but my owners decided they were going to give him a check for a little bit just to shut him up. Something they DID NOT have to do what so ever. Something he should be VERY grateful for, as no one gets this!

I am cutting the check in my office and cussing under my breath, but just happy to get rid of him. I call him to let him know his check is being delivered to his apartment and it will be there when he gets home. He didn’t say thank you or anything, but whatever.

The next morning I am in my office and I hear him getting pissy with one of my leasing consultants. I had just had a meeting with one of my sweet residents that lost her job and was having a hard time coming up with her rent money but was doing everything that she could to make the payment. I come out to see what the problem is, along with my boss. He is upset that we gave him a check because he has a credit union and not a real bank, and they will charge him $5 to cash the check. He wants me to give him $5 for this because it is somehow my problem. This guy will be the first person to tell you how much he spent on his new car or what brand shoes he is wearing or what extravagant party that he was at that weekend. Um….you are fussing over a $5 charge that the company YOU CHOOSE to work with is charging you?

I am not the best at hiding how I feel on my face. My boss is even worse then me. We both look at him, and I am about to loose my shit. It has been a VERY VERY trying last few days with all this issues. I just want this asshole out of my office. Why are you bitching at me for $5? Are you freaking kidding me?! I think we basically told him it was his problem not ours and that he was lucky he even got a damn check. In the most professional way possible of course.

When he left, my boss and I went into our office and just vented about everything and couldn’t get over the nerve of that asshole. It was just comical. Every time we had a bad day, we started saying “$5!” It was a way of comical relief of sorts. Then, Subway came out with their $5 Foot Long commercials. We immediately started saying we had a $5 foot long kind of day.

Some days when we were at full capacity, I missed the days when we were in lease up. Haha. ‘Mo residents, ‘mo problems.

This post is basically me whining. It isn’t rainbows and butterflies every day in real life.

So, I had been doing REALLY well on the whole working out thing. Since around July of 2013, I was working out Monday – Friday EVERY SINGLE WEEK. While I haven’t seen a HUGE drop on the scale, that scale is a jealous whore and likes to tell lies I think….but I have seen some changes in my body for the better. My arms and back have become much more toned, my waist has gone down a little, I can see where I used to have definition in my abs and that a miracle may still be in the works in that department and they will come back, my chest is a little smaller, and recently since starting T25 I have noticed a few changes in my legs. I had started to feel a lot better about myself and felt completely dedicated to just kicking ass and taking names as I complete T25.

But. (Isn’t there always a but?) I had to have emergency surgery the week before Christmas to have a tooth extracted. I had to take off a few days from working out to recover. I thought I could handle the work outs and started back the Monday after, but then I started getting worse and had to stop. I figured a few days off wouldn’t kill me. Then we went on vacation after Christmas to Gatlinburg for a week. While we walked around a lot and such, I didn’t make plans to actually work out while we were there. I mean, hello..it’s vacation. I needed a break.

A few days before we left I was actually MISSING my work outs. Who the hell am I? I hate working out. I don’t trust anyone who says “I love to work out it is so fun.” Um no it isn’t. It is torture.  If it were easy and fun everyone would be fit. But, I missed the feeling after my work out. I realized how great the work outs were really doing for me not just physically but mentally and how I actually felt. I couldn’t wait to get home, get back into our routine and get to sweating again at 4:30 am every morning.

But then, I started getting really sick Saturday afternoon when we were driving back. By Saturday evening I could barely breath. I was having coughing attacks and gasping for air. Chris asked me several times if I wanted him to take me to the doctors. I told him if I woke up feeling like shit the next morning I would go. And I did. I went to an urgent care place because my regular doctor isn’t opened on the weekends. What good doctor is, right?! That doctor sent me to the ER thinking I might have a blood clot in my lungs or possibly the early stages of pneumonia. After the cat scan came back negative, I was sent back to the regular doctor for diagnosis. Upon returning there, he told me basically it was just an asthma flare up. He prescribed me some steroids for my lungs and an inhaler. I asked about the coughing and he just talked some shit about how it was my body’s natural reaction from the asthma and that he wasn’t going to prescribe me anything for it.

Well that was Sunday. Today is Wednesday, I have been pumping my body full of steroids that are making me super hungry. I have been using my inhaler. Drinking Emergen-C like it is the only way to get into heaven and I have even taken Muscinex a few times. I still cant breathe. I am still coughing up my lungs. And now. Now my nose is like a faucet. I am pretty sure this is more than asthma. I am pissed because we spent a lot of money at the doctor this weekend and I still don’t  feel better. I am going to have to go to my real doctor today and spend even more money. What makes me super sad about this even more than not feeling well? I cant walk across the room without being winded so I haven’t been able to work out. It has been 2 and a half weeks since my last work out.

It is not a good feeling. I hate that it isn’t because I am being lazy or unmotivated. Nothing would make me happier than to see Shaun T’s face on my TV screen every morning. I feel like this is a huge set back in my progress. I have decided when I do start back, I am going to have to start back at the beginning of T25. I have been careful with what I have been eating this week, but that only does so much.

While everyone is working on their new year’s resolutions and feeling fab….I feel like I took a huge step back and there isn’t much that I can do about it.

Have you ever hit a snag in your work outs and feeling a little down about it? Any suggestions of something SUPER LOW impact that I can be doing until my lungs decide to start working again?

If you made it this far, congrats and thanks for listening! I am linking up with Kathy and Liz today, who coincidentally are two huge fitness inspirations for me! I can be thankful that it is Wednesday and we are half way through our first full work week of the new year!