Lately

 Kevin has been working so hard lately (well, always).
Recently he spent hours upon hours working on his Statistics homework.
He's a champ through it all! I'm blown away by his tenacity to not give up.
Knowing myself (especially with school), I would have thrown in the towel a long time ago.
He's pushing through his PhD like nobodies business while maintaining a 4.0!
I can't even express how proud I am of him. 
I have seriously cried a few time now when thinking about the day he defends his dissertation.
What a moment. What an achievement.
It will be such a monumental occasion. I plan on throwing Dunks the biggest party he's ever had.
  This process of working through his Doctorate has caused me the utmost respect for those who have already been there and done that, but even more so, utmost respect to him.
Countless papers, countless reading, countless dedication, countless planning, countless sacrifice...
This is what it takes. 
On top of all this, he still works, he still loves, and  he still gives during his free time. 
I don't know how he manages. 
God has given him the grace and the strength every single step of the way.
 


CARPE DIEM
Something I'm trying to get better at, instead of allowing fear to control me.
Bought these TOMS at the Catalyst Conference &
got to meet the founder of TOMS there [picture below].
We met in the elevator, and he was a SUPER nice guy. :)

Our air-conditioning upstairs went out, so we slumbered downstairs for a few days.
It was kind of fun, because it broke up the monotony of life.   
I was having some fun with Bailey. I gave her a piggy-back ride.
She just sat calmly as I walked her around downstairs and upstairs.
She cracks me up. I then tried it with Mr. Leonidas, but he was NOT having it.


Someone looks grumpy. ;P
 
Beautiful sunrise as we ran. 

Dunks, super happy to now have his coffee.
And obviously wanting to go back to sleep. ;)
 
On our way home the sunrise over the mountains looked so pure and pretty.
The picture doesn't do it justice at all.

Here I am up and ready for my 2nd longest run ever.
:: 8 miles ::
I could tell both Kevin and I weren't feeling it that day, but we pushed through
and made it happen.
**Kevin is training for a marathon, so I've been trying to train alongside him
to see if it's something I could even begin to think about doing**
 
Here we are on the home stretch of our 8 miles that day.
Funny thing, we ended up crossing paths with the Lynchburg half marathon & 5k.
As we passed the photographer I told him we weren't in the race, but they still posted pics and we got tagged.
So now I have proof of our run! ;) It's fun to have it documented. 
 
On our way home we stopped off and enjoyed the sunset together.

Fact: when I'm rushing out the door to meet the girls for our morning run,
I always grab a jug of water from the fridge.
A lot of times I'll end up with a ton of these hanging out in my car.
I've gotten better lately about bringing them back into the house though ;)

It's always a beautiful view when driving through Candlers Mountain.
I love that I get to drive through it daily.
The lush green and view of the city always take my breath away.
Driving through the mountain after work, helps to put the long day at ease.

This is life lately.
I'm trying to be better at documenting it along the way. 

Pillows, Dogs, & Friday Nights...They go together right?

So I have this thing for pillows. I've made quite a few of em', probably because they're quite easy to make. 

Fact about me: I prefer making pillows with zippers. I truly believe it's easier to make them with zippers. If you want to learn I can show you how. 

Anyways, I recently bought some plain gray pillows from Ikea, and decided that they needed some glaming up [well one so far]. I was bored last night [Friday] while Kevin did homework [per-usual]. 

It's very relaxing to just create. I tuned into Pandora [Lady Gaga selection; which led to other awesome songs] and went at it.
As I was crafting and singing [well if that's what you call it coming from me <--NOT the next American Idol] some of the songs made me really wish I was out dancing. Do you ever just want to dance, dance, and dance some more? I did, but instead I had to let the energy flow through my fingers; which was fine.


**Can we please have a dance party, someone? Any takers? I'd be down.

Here's the {before} of the boring ol' gray pillow:

Heres the {afters} of the gray pillow 

[WARNING: I got picture happy with the after shots of this pillow]:

All handmade pillow accents.

This pretty little bow wasn't too tough to make, I wasn't sure where I was going with it when I first started crafting it, but then this came into being. I'll take it!

*Kev dislikes the bow on the pillow...gerr. I highly value his opinion, and were usually on the same page, so I'm finding it difficult to stick with what I like when he doesn't. Anyone else married and have this dilemma? 

I really need a girls opinion around here sometimes. Or I need to just learn to be confident in MY OWN opinion. 

All the fabric used for the pillow accents. 

My workspace after crafting. 
It looks like something exploded.

An explosion of craftiness. 

I made this pillow [below] months ago. I don't believe I ever posted pictures of it though. Well here she is. I stitched the flowers and sun design on it with my sewing machine. I had plans to make two of them but have yet to finish the second one [though I did start it!..months ago]. ;)

Glance at the back. *Zipper on bottom.

Leonidas & Bailey recently had their hair chopped off, so they've been extra cold [they're used to having long hair]. Being the nice mom that I am I bought them some sweaters to keep warm. They have doggy sweaters on sale at Wal-Mart for $2.50. Deal.
[& YES, I am that crazy person who calls herself "mom" when referring to my relationship with my dogs. I can't help it, I just love them]

It's a hard life being a dog. 

I especially like how Leo skeezes up the windows all the time. ;) 

I'm thankful the Lord created animals. They're a blessing.

 
Oh & I really hope I'm as spunky and free-living as these ladies 40 or so years from now. 

Cuteness...

...Abounds!

The puppies are getting big.  They now run around, pee, poop, and chew on anything they can fit into their little mouths. Thought I would share a few of these cute pics I took last night. I have yet to post some from when they were tiny tiny tiny.

It will be so sad to see them go, but it will also be nice to not have to chase 4 puppies that are pooping and peeing on your floor (least we have wood floors) --- each one of them are worth it though. I love them.