New Job, One Month In

On a walk with Zoe at Golden Hour this past weekend!

A few months ago, I stated that I wanted to make an effort to write a non-video blog post once a week on Wednesdays. Then my whole life got insane with my job search and that plan when to the gutter. :P Now that I've got a bit more of a handle on my life, I thought I could bring that idea back and give little life updates each week to let you know ~what's going on~ and get back to my blogging roots. I feel like life has been whizzing by lately and I want to take some moments each week to share what's been up!

Panorama of the West Coast sunset at Baker Beach when I secretly went to San Francisco in July for a job interview! So happy I was able to sneak in a visit to the Golden Gate Bridge during my 36 hour stay!

Saturday was the one month mark of being at my new job and I'm confused at how quickly this milestone came, but at the same time confused at how I've only been working at my new campus for such a short amount of time. It feels like I've been here forever and no time at all. How is that possible?

I feel like I've been adjusting to my new position really well. I feel like I've been connecting really well with my colleagues, bringing a lot of my strengths* to the table, and learning every day. Of course, if we're being completely honest, all of the change has been overwhelming from time to time, but I'm lucky enough to have so many kind and understanding people on my staff that make the transition so much easier and coming into work every day so much fun!

I'm in charge of the Activities Fair. I think this semester's event was a big success!

The new academic year hasn't come without it's various challenges. My morning commute is nearly 2 hours with the Boston traffic, and my afternoon commute is not that much easier. I'm adjusting to a new sleep schedule (up by 5AM and so tired I can't keep my eyes open by 9PM) and coming to terms with what my new amount of free time looks like. Brett's been crazy busy with football, as usual, which has been tough as we rarely get to spend quality time together. However, through all of the challenges, we are both making the best of what we have, understanding that this will be temporary, and having as much fun as possible when we are together.

Chillin' with the pups (our favorite thing to do) and a dinner out at Ichigo!

This weekend we're heading to a wedding which should be a lot of fun. I don't have a tone of formal wedding wear (most of my closet is work clothes or athletic wear), so I went out and bought this really cute pastel pink Calvin Klein dress earlier this week at Marshall's (originally $139.99, bought it for $39.99 #score) that I'm pumped to wear! It'll be great to get the chance to have a few drinks with B and dance the night away. Definitely need to blow off some steam!

Not a typical color I go for, but I'm excited about this find!

Hopefully I will do better about keeping this blog up to date through these busy weeks! There's so much I'd love to record and remember and sometimes things just move so quickly that I forget to take a moment to reflect. Here's to hoping I can stay on to of the ball over here on this corner of the internet and work to make this more of a place for memory keeping! See you next week... hopefully. ;)

A Few of my Favorite Links {#22}

Hello friends! I can't believe today is the last day of May. We are already nearing the halfway mark of 2016. HOW?! Brett and I have been enjoying the slow down in our schedules lately - spending more time with family and we were even able to venture up to New Hampshire over Memorial Day weekend and spend time with my parents and pups! We were lucky enough for it to be nice and hot enough for a MAY SWIM (always a big deal when that's able to happen!) and, of course, we made our usual pilgrimage to La Festa!

I have a handful of amazing links to share with you all today, and each one reflects a different interest of mine or part of my life! I hope you all find something in this post that you're able to enjoy, and don't forget to share your favorite links of the moment in the comments so I can check out some more internet awesomeness! <3

The #SAgrad Development Theory

This is a cute little Zine created by a fellow member of the Student Affairs community! It's a student development theory for Student Affairs grad students that include vectors like "You've eaten cold, old, leftovers over your kitchen sink at midnight AND you didn't cry this time." Super adorable and painfully true!

Kittens vs. Thugs

This is a hilarious video where a adorable puffball of a kitten has a staring contest with some tough looking dudes. I was giggling the whole way through this video and needed to share!
6 Reasons You Need to Run the Utah Valley Marathon

I always have an eye out for new races to add to my race wishlist. I have a life goal of running a marathon in all 50 states, and so when different marathons get featured on race websites it always grabs my eye. This race - the Utah Valley Marathon - seems like the perfect 26.2 for my Utah stop. Beautiful scenery, fast, and downhill - it seems like the perfect formula for a PR and, more importantly, a wonderful experience!

Mint Julep Popsicles

I know we're a bit past the perfect time of year for a Mint Julep, but this article was posted right around the time of the Kentucky Derby and I think this would be the *perfect* summertime treat. Take a refreshing drink, freeze it, and put it on a stick - who wouldn't love to enjoy something like that on the beach?!

Doug the Pug TV Show Compilation

It wouldn't be a Favorite Links post if I didn't include SOMETHING that has a dog in it, right? This video made me laugh so much I needed to share it with my friend Erin who loves pugs. Have a favorite show? It's likely that Doug the Pug parodies the intro to it in this video. If you need a smile or some sort of pick me up then press play on this amazing video and get ready to be cheered up! :)
What links have you been loving lately?

A Few of my Favorite Links {#21}

April....PHEW. 

It's been a whirlwind y'all, as it usually is. If you've been following this blog for a while now you can totally tell when things are crazy for me at work because that's when posts get a bit more infrequent (usually September and April every single year). I guess that's just the trend in my life! Anywho, we had our final *major* event of the year - Pangy Day - on Friday and it was super successful! We were gambling hard with the weather. All week called for rain and even thunderstorms but kept going back and forth on when the rain would actually begin. We had outdoor activities planned from 10:30AM to 3PM, and according to all of the weather sites rain wouldn't start coming down until right around the time we would be packing it in for the day, so on Friday morning we made the official call to stay outside and we. hit. the jackpot.

While it was quite humid (we were expecting thunderstorms, after all), the sun was shining for most of the day, everyone was in their summer clothes and summer spirits, and everyone was having a blast. It was truly such a perfect day (I keep joking that Mary Lyon was looking out for us) and the weather held right until we got the last person and last piece of equipment inside after breaking down at 4PM when it immediately started pouring, thundering, and lightning-ing. Perfect timing, to say the least! With a smattering of other weekend events, we closed out our year of student programming Sunday afternoon and I can officially say I made it through my first academic year as a professional! We only have Senior Week and Commencement to worry about before we can officially call it summer time! :)

I have a few really awesome links for you today which (per usual) involve 3 of my 

most favorite things in the world - food, dogs, and Game of Thrones. I hope you enjoy!

Super Filling Sweet Potato Tacos

If you've been following my weekly vlogs or if you were around for this blog post, you'll know that I've been making a bit of an effort to be a bit more conscious when it comes to eating meet and dairy products. I by no means have cut them completely out of my life, but lately I have been pausing to consider possible alternatives, often making the decision to take a vegan or vegetarian option when it's available, and have recently made the choice to completely stop eating pig meat all together (yes, including bacon) which was a pretty easy choice as I never was too crazy about it in the first place. It's a journey and while I don't think I'll ever go completely vegan or vegetarian (then again, who knows?), making these decisions little by little will help in the transition.

Source

Enter, this recipe. I just stumbled upon it yesterday and it is completely vegan! It looks freakin' delicious and honestly not that much different than a regular taco recipe. Just really replacing the meat with sweet potatoes which sounds pretty amazing in my opinion. I definitely want to try these out the next time I'm in the mood for homemade tacos!

Pet Portraits by Incandescent Design

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As I've come to find out, I'm all about customized pet products that create a fun memory of your beloved furry friend. Incandescent Designs offers up these fun pet portraits for a modest (sarcasm) $200. With a finely detailed drawing, a pop of color, and a little twist to show off your pet's personality, I think this would be a fun addition to any room in your home!

Chart of 40 Different Kinds of Pizza

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I'm not sure when I came across this chart but I do know that I came across it when I was borderline hangry and of course fell heart-eyes-emoji in love! There are some items on this list that I wouldn't really want to try, but the vast majority of these pizzas - sign a lady UP. I think the top three pizzas I would need to try at some point in my lifetime are the Scottish Pizza Crunch, the Pizza Cone, and I really want to try Cauliflower Crust Pizza as well! What one would you want to try?

9 Times Actual History Was More F*cked Up Than Game of Thrones

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In honor of Game of Thrones finally returning, I obviously had to include a GoT related link of some sort! This one showed up on my Facebook feed, as most BuzzFeed articles do, and I had to click on it because I love when fictional stories are put into historical context. It's crazy just how messed up the world was back in the day and it was just considered to be normal. I mean, could you imagine hearing about a party reminiscent of the Red Wedding happening in real life?! Yikes.

What links have you been loving lately?

If There's Dogs In Your Commercial, I'm Buying Your Product: Favorite Commercials of Super Bowl 50

I was an Advertising major in college and a recurring assignment I had in my courses was to watch the Super Bowl and evaluate the commercials. (Yeah, my homework was usually pretty awesome.) Ever since, I've liked to share my favorite commercials with my friends and family and find out what they thought about the ads from the game. (I talked about a few of the stand out ads from last year's game in a blog post here.) This year's post is going to be much more cheerful than last years and I noticed a definite theme when picking out my favorites - basically if a company uses a dog in any of their ads, I'm going to pay attention to their ads. What can I say. I love dogs.
"Weiner Stampede" - HEINZ Ketchup

I'm pretty sure the only thing cuter than dogs dressed in costumes is when dauchaunds (aka weiner dogs) dress up in hot dog costumes and run in unison toward ketchup and mustard bottles. Like... why didn't HEINZ think of this sooner? IT'S GENIUS. Also, the dauchaund puppy in the little hot dog costume and the little kid in the ketchup packet costume? I'm pretty sure I'm dead from the cuteness. Well done, HEINZ. Well. Done. 
"Subaru Dog Tested: Puppy" - Subaru 


This commercial is also adorable. I don't think it does a good job in selling the car itself, but I'm pretty sure that Subaru was just banking on the cute factor to make this commercial work which I'm definitely not opposed to. I mean, who can say no to a golden retriever? And even more - who can say no to a golden retriever puppy? Correct answer: no one.
"#Pokemon20" - Pokémon


Kind of veering off the dog theme comes another favorite of mine that I did not expect to see during the SuperBowl - a Pokémon 20th Anniversary commercial! Pokémon is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year and is doing some pretty awesome things to commemorate the milestone including giving out free mythical Pokémon every month and releasing Pokémon GO! this year (rumored to be released at the end of this month!). It's so cool how one of my favorite childhood pastimes is still going strong after such a long time and even making an appearance in the Super Bowl!
"Doritos Dogs" - Doritos


And finally, my absolute favorite commercial of the evening was this Doritos commercial! Not only was this adorable, but it was basically a live-action cartoon and I was laughing through the entire thing. Doritos always kills it in the hilarious commercials department and they did not disappoint this year, and of course whatever company uses humor AND dogs in their ads has my vote. I'm pretty sure this one can speak for itself!
What were your favorite ads from the Super Bowl?

A Few of my Favorite Links {#17}

Hello everyone! I hope everyone's December is off to a great start. Can you believe that we're already nearly half way through the month? Before we know it we'll be in 2016! I have a pretty random mish-mash of favorite links for you today. I hope they brighten your day! :)

20 Pictures of Shelter Dogs' Freedom Ride Pictures That Will Give Your Goosebumps

I'm such a sucker for posts like this. Shelter dogs finally finding their forever homes gives me such warm-fuzzies! Because I can't take a pup home myself, I live vicariously through posts like this. If you love dogs and you need a good pick me up, take a look at this photo gallery!

Game of Thrones White Walkers - Everything We Know

As you probably know, Brett and I are complete nerds for Game of Thrones and when it isn't in season, we spend a LOT of time theorizing and researching backstories of different characters. One night when lazily scrolling through my Feedly feed, I came across this article that gives you a bit of back story on White Walkers, the crazy zombie like creatures that we've been following since season one. These guys are still a bit of a mystery to the audience, but this article and coinciding video give you a bit more context.

Spellbook Clutch

I stumbled across this gem on ThinkGeek (which honestly is my new favorite online store - I bought two of my dad's Christmas gifts from there - found here and here!) and I am in love! I've always wanted a book-looking iPad or phone case, but this wallet is so cool and something I would totally use. I already dropped this hint to Brett as a potential Christmas gift, so maybe Santa will hide this under the tree for me? ;)

Quadcopter with Flamethrower Roasting a Turkey


This is equal parts amazing and horrifying. This could go so wrong so easily, but for whatever reason it doesn't. My main question is how does that charred, gasoline-soaked turkey actually taste? Either way this is incredible on so many levels.
Polly Pocket Toys Every 90s Girl Will Remember

I used to LOVE Polly Pocket as a little girl! I remember specifically that I had the Polly Pocket in the photo above, as well as a teal heart hone that was a little diner on the inside. I'm not sure if I had more, but I LOVED playing with them! I also remember when the toy company realize how dangerous it was to give something that tiny to small children and made Polly Pocket much, much bigger! Check out this BuzzFeed article to get hit right in the nostalgia.

A Cute Puppy Running Through the Snow in Slow-Motion

A cute puppy running through the snow in slow-motion at Orange, NSW, Australia. What more could the Internet want?Our...
Posted by ABC Central West on Sunday, July 12, 2015

And of course, we can't kick off the holiday season without an amazing video of a puppy running through the snow. If you aren't feeling festive, click play on this video and you might feel just a *bit* more full of holiday cheer!

What links are you loving lately?

A Few of my Favorite Links - The "I Miss My Dogs" Edition {#14}

Hello and welcome to yet another edition to my Favorite Links! As I was getting the links together for this post I noticed that it was extremely dog heavy... I must be missing my pups lately! Don't worry, there are a few other pieces of internet goodness sprinkled throughout the post, so be sure to check it all out below, and don't forget to share some of your favorite links in the comments!

Tonkey Bear on Instagram

Who doesn't love a good dog Instagram account? Casey, my PC co-advisor at BSU, and I are huge fans of Wafflenugget, an adorable Bernese Mountain Dog on Instagram, so when I came across Tonkey I knew I had to share my love with not only Casey, but the world. He is legit a dog-bear and it is freaking ADORABLE. If you need a daily dose of cute on your feed, consider following Tonkey! (And Wafflenugget!)

Marvel Superheroes Reimagined As Different Dog Breeds

Though the artist of this series is quite clearly biased toward pugs, these pieces are so great. As you can probably tell my favorite installment is Thor, but there are so many other great reimagined dog heroes. I love it, and more things like this need to be made on a regular basis. Keeping my fingers crossed for a DC version in the future!

Try the World Subscription Box

I've been a huge fan of subscription boxes lately. Though I haven't indulged in any myself, I bought my mom a gift card to Stitch Fix for Mother's Day and my dad a couple of months worth of Mystery Tackle Box for Father's Day this year, and they both have said that they're really enjoying them so far! I came across Try the World on a Facebook ad (Google ad sense has me totally figured out) and I am so intrigued by it. Each subscription box features different foods from a specific city around the world, which is so awesome because my favorite part of traveling is trying the food of each region I visit! I could totally see myself subscribing to this at some point.

Men React to Their Girlfriends Getting Catcalled

Catcalling is one of the most frustrating things that can happen as a woman*, and it happens so, so often. This is an interesting project of men reacting to their girlfriends getting catcalled. It's too bad that it takes their girlfriend getting harassed on the street to see how much it can really impact a woman's daily life, but at least it's continuing the conversation about the matter. *Keep in mind that catcalling and street harassment does not happen to women alone. It is an issue that impacts many demographics. As a woman, I am reacting to this video from a woman's perspective.    The Lovely Drawer

Design blogs are among my favorite type of blogs to follow. I stumbled across this lovely gal, Teri, while perusing through Pinterest in search of a new desktop background for my work computer, and she has so many adorable freebies! The more I sift through her website, the more I fall in love with it, so I highly recommend checking out her blog and her work!   26 Struggles Every Dogless Dog-Lover Will Understand

These words have actually come out of my mouth on more than one occasion.

Ask Brett.

Buzzfeed has a few lists like these, but it they are always SO ACCURATE TO MY LIFE. I wish I had a place big enough and a schedule flexible enough to have a dog in my life at the moment, but it's just not in the cards for me right now. I just have to continue to really take advantage of all of my Kiwi & Mikey visits and become best friends with every dog I meet. #doglessprobz

Celebrating World Elephant Day

If you follow me on any social media platform, you would probably know that this past Wednesday (Aug. 12) was World Elephant Day! I'll spare you my outpouring love for elephants (for now) as I have a few more Elephant Awareness Month posts lined up throughout the rest of August, but I thought I'd share a video the DSWT posted on their Facebook that talks a little bit more about what they do for Elephants. I would also encourage you to check out WorldElephantDay.org and sign the pledge to spread awareness of what is happening to this beautiful species. You can click the link in this post, or click the badge that I under my "Community" section in the sidebar (it looks just like the image above)!

Every day at the DSWT is World Elephant Day! But today is a chance for us to celebrate the species together and let the...
Posted by The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust on Wednesday, August 12, 2015