Blooms, Bags & Books

I have 5 beautiful hydrangea bushes growing on the side of my house. I planted them last year and I'm amazed at how much they've grown in just a year. I decided I should enjoy them inside my house as well as outside so I've been cutting some of the blooms every week and using them as my dining room centerpiece and it makes me very happy.

I got a belated birthday gift from my sweet Momma in the mail yesterday.

How fab is my new bag! I'm so excited. I never buy a new handbag because I am extremely picky about them. I splurge on a nice one and carry it every day until a year and a half or two goes by and I decide I'm tired of looking at it and want a new one. I mentioned to my Mom that I wanted a new bag and low and behold this beauty arrived at my door step yesterday. I'm in love with my new tote. Thanks Mom!!!!!
Also, I don't know why I look like a lobster in this photo. It's true, I have been out in the sun a lot but I'm brown (not red) and already starting to get sad that in just a few short months I'll have to go back to slapping on those Tan Towels again.

I decided when I woke up this morning that I needed a good book to read for the summer. I stumbled upon this one and it was so good I finished the whole thing today. It's so funny and there were many times that I laughed until I cried! Even the acknowledgments in the back made me laugh out loud. I highly recommend it!!

These three got groomed today. Don't they look cute?!

My Weekend Went Like This

I've had a GREAT weekend!! It should come as no surprise that I parked myself at the pool the whole time. I love it y'all. On Friday night Scott indulged me in On The Border. After that we went to TCBY to get dessert!

I love TCBY but nothing beats just a plain ol' chocolate and vanilla swirl with maybe a few rainbow sprinkles on top to make it look pretty. This was delish but 4 bites in and I'd had enough. We came home and watched our favorite Friday night shows (I seriously love Friday night television) then hit the hay.
On Saturday morning Scott and I went to the gym then got ready to meet some of our favorite and closest neighbor friends at the pool.

We ate lunch at the pool and hung out until about 5:00 and it was so. much. fun. Nothing beats summertime at the Hyde Park pool!!

This is Nikki, my pool bud and one of my closest friends!! We got to know each other really well at the pool last summer because she's there just as much as I am. She's one of my favorite people and makes me laugh like nobody can! Now that I've introduced you to her you'll probably hear about her a lot. :) Thanks Landon for photo bombing our pic.

These three enjoy getting a tan as well. As soon as the sun starts to set in the late afternoon these nuggets camp out in my entry hall by the front door to get a little sunshine. It's cute. Everything they do is cute.

The Boss

Hi blog friends! It's been a few days. Let's play catchup.
Not a whole lot going on here since Monday. I did call the vet and Ivy without a doubt has separation anxiety. After talking to the doctor, she's a lot more complicated and neurotic than I realized. I've always said Ivy is for sure the alpha of the girls and they said alpha's tend to have separation anxiety. Then they asked me certain behaviors about her and told me Ivy thinks she's alpha over me!!!!!!! At first I thought, "there's no way" but when I hung up the phone and started thinking about it I realized they're right! I haven't been able to look at her the same ever since. Ha!! How dare this 6 pound nugget think she's the boss of me. So rude. Since she's still so young they don't want to jump right to medicating her and I don't either. So we're going to have a trainer who specializes in this come out and work with us. They said she's a miracle worker and can really help. I sure hope so! It's so crazy the things that Ivy does that I thought were just normal dog behaviors but are actually signs of being anxious. Like, she's always chewing a bone which I learned is a stress reliever. Not letting me out of her sight is another sign of being anxious. I thought she just loved me a lot! Hopefully we can get my little Ivy some help and also make her realize I'm the boss. I still can't get over that....

You can't really tell because her bone and her paws are the same color but I took this picture this morning and Ivy (on the left in case you still can't tell them apart) is holding a bone. She ALWAYS has a bone.
Other than being bossed around by a 1 year old, not much else has been going on around here. I did this new yoga class yesterday that I didn't love. I like doing yoga to feel relaxed and to help with my flexibility. This yoga was like, fast paced and hard. I left thinking I probably wouldn't try it again but I woke up so sore this morning so maybe I should keep doing it. We'll see.

Since there aren't any good shows on right now Scott and I have been spending a lot of extra time on our patio at night. I didn't let the girls play outside last night because I had just given them a bath so they stared at us like this the entire time. It's pretty hard to resist the cuteness but we manage!

A Selfie, A Baby, and A BLT

I had a really busy weekend doing all sorts of fun things! We had the little party with our neighbors at our house on Friday night and Saturday I managed to pull myself out of bed after watching too many Sex And The City reruns that I've already seen a billion times but still love. The sun was shining and the pool was calling my name (of course) so I marched over to the pool, parked myself in my favorite lounge chair, and read some magazines. A few hours later it was time to get dressed and head to our besties house.

While we were headed their way, I took a selfie since I'm not used to looking at myself with my hair done and makeup on these days. I think this was maybe the 3rd time in the last 3 weeks I've actually gotten dressed. I've kind of enjoyed throwing my hair in a fishtail and going makeup-less this summer. I'm like a summer hippie! Happy and carefree....
We arrived at Jaclyn and Brad's house to hang out and play with Emerson!! And by play I mean hold her all night and stare at her sweet little face!!!

It was fun catching up with our friends! It felt just like the old times except that there's something new and fun added into the mix!

Today I did something I haven't done in over a decade. I made a BLT!! We (randomly) had tons of bacon in our freezer and it's been there a long time. Last night Scott and I tried to figure out what we could do with it so we made a bacon, tomato and cheese pizza. It was really good but we still had so much bacon left over so Scott cooked it all and we decided to make BLT'S with it. Oh my goodness y'all. It was Yummy!!

The bacon is all gone now and I'm really torn on what I should do. Go out and buy some more of the most fattening and nastiest "meat" ever or let that be that and revisit this sandwich again in a decade? It's a tough one.
That's all for today folks.

Love, Lou

Wishing my wonderful Dad a Happy Father's Day! Thank you for always being so good to me. I'm such a lucky and blessed girl to have a father like you. I love you so, so much!!!!

Chillaxin

Last night we invited some neighbors over to grill and hang out. As always, we had a great time and Scott grilled delicious food!

Scott is spending the day golfing with his Dad so I'm going to park myself at the pool and chillax for the rest of the day. Sounds like a pretty good Saturday if you ask me!

These two little nuggets have chosen to spend their Saturday snuggled together in bed. Aren't they the sweetest!!
Enjoy your weekend everyone!

(Semi) Wordless Wednesday

My Mom introduced me to this beverage last week and I am in love with it!! It's so refreshing and perfect for summer. The only bummer is that it's 150 calories otherwise I'd probably drink 3 of them a day. Orange is my favorite. You can find it at Fresh Market and some Walmarts carry it. Try it. You'll love it.

Sweet little flowers picked fresh from my garden make me happy.

The water at the Hyde Park pool is finally warm enough to take a dip into and it's heavenly. Summertime just got that much better.

If you follow me on Instagram (kara2lou) you've already seen this but I organized Ivy and Madison's sweater drawer today. I counted 37. THIRTY SEVEN SWEATERS. I should be embarrassed but I'm not. How cute does their drawer look with their little sweaters? When I opened the drawer Madison got excited and asked me if she could wear one. She loves them and clearly misses her winter wardrobe.

Scott was gone for 3 nights last weekend. Instead of sending him my typical heart emoji with a "I miss you!!" text attached to it I thought I'd send him this pic instead. Just in case he was missing me so much that a photo would be just the trick to make my love sick husband feel better. He didn't miss me....like....at all. I got maybe 2 texts from him the entire time he was gone! Mom said he must have needed a break from me. Haha! His excuse was that he was golfing all day, every day and you can't use your phone on a golf course. Uh uh. No love....

Hour By Hour

I'm off to a good week! I went to my pool again today and hung with my neighbor friends. It makes me happy. After lounging around I came home and let the girls romp around outside. I guess their love for the great outdoors wins over the extreme anxiety I feel any time I let them out there. I've been watching North America on TV (if you aren't watching this you're missing out. It's so interesting!!) and Sunday nights episode featured hawks. The second it came on I was like, "oh great. Just what I need to see." UGH I hate it!!! I think once my neighborhood gets more developed we'll see less of them but for now, they're everywhere. I swear I become more neurotic and anxious by the hour.

Side note and super random but I watched the movie Side Effects this weekend and it's really good. I don't really remember seeing it get much press but I really liked it so if you're wanting something good to rent I'd give it a try.

I finally gave these little nuggets a bath today. They were very smelly. They're all really good girls when they get their bath but they somehow know when the water faucet in the kitchen is on for giving baths and not doing dishes. They try so hard to hide and be invisible. It's so funny!

I'm usually a night owl but my bed is calling my name. In a few minutes I'll be curled up with my three pups and my cute husband with either Harry Potter or Friends on my TV to fall asleep to. Sounds cozy right?

Anxious

The week has started out as a good one! The weather has been beautiful so I've spent the last 2 days at the pool! Before I went to the pool today I took the girls for a walk. It's quite challenging taking 3 dogs for a walk. Grace is staying with us for a couple of weeks. I get stressed out letting them play outside in the back yard because I see like, 4 hawks every day. Since the girls LOVE going outside so much I decided to start taking them for more walks. Plus, if they ever get lost they need to know which house is ours so they can come back home safely. That's legit yall.

I've decided Ivy has separation anxiety. It's not typical but every once in a while if I leave her for too long she (occasionally) destroys something. While Mom was here we were gone a lot of the day and two different pieces of my furniture got chewed up. I was SO angry at first and Ivy got in so much trouble. People ask how I know it's Ivy that's doing it. I just know---for many reasons that would take way too long to explain. After this weekend I started thinking about how she never does anything bad when I'm home. I searched google and she most definitely has separation anxiety and chewing is her way to cope with it. I plan on calling the vet this week to see if she thinks she needs to be put on medicine. I don't think she does because it doesn't happen that often but often enough to make me think something is going on. Plus, I hate to medicate her on a daily basis and would prefer not to. The girls just need to be confined to a small space when I leave the house so Ivy isn't capable of ruining anything.
It all makes so much sense to me now. I can't go ANYWHERE without Ivy following close behind. I mean, I can't even go to the bathroom without her crying and sticking her nose under the door. When she was a puppy and she couldn't find me I would hear her cry. I thought it was so cute at the time and now I know she was legit stressed out. When I had my previous job and would come home for lunch, Ivy would cry and not let me put her down the entire time I was home. (Ugh, that stupid job)
Grace and Madison are just so much more laid back and chill than Ivy. Poor Ivy. She's just like her Momma. Neurotic and anxious. I'm going to figure out a way to make that sweet baby feel better though.

Scott and I decided to have a meatless Monday dinner. Actually, I decided. Scott just went along with it. What is it with men always needing a piece of meat with every meal? I should probably be embarrassed to admit this but we cooked eggplant for the first time ever tonight. I was flipping through some of my cook books and found a recipe for grilled eggplant. We tried it out and it was so good!!

All we used was eggplant, topped it with tomatoes then sprinkled the tomatoes with shredded Italian cheese. I was prepared to think it was just okay but I really liked it! Dinner felt very fresh tonight.

Crepes Paulette

Today I took my Mom to my new favorite local eatery----Crepes Paulette.

It's not new. It's just new to me. How have I gone so long without eating here? I'm in love with this place. I don't feel like I'm in Northwest Arkansas when I eat here. It feels like I'm in a completely different world. I love that!

Crepes Paulette is a food truck located in Downtown Bentonville. They have savory crepes and sweet crepes. You order from the truck window and the friendliest (and cutest) guy with an amazing French/American accent takes your order. I was so impressed because I've only been once before with my neighbor and when he saw me he said (in his amazing accent) "Hey!! Thank you for coming back and bringing your friend!"
I ordered the same thing I got last time, the #5 also known as The Spicy Chicken. The menu actually lists the French way to pronounce it and I asked how you say it (and did good repeating it back) but I've already forgotten how to say it. #PracticeMakesPerfect #IWillLearnHowToOrderCrepesInFrench

I've heard all about their Pomegranate/Ice Tea beverage so I thought I'd try it out. In case I didn't like it I got my regular (half sweet/half unsweet) tea beverage. I LOVED the Pom/Tea though. I think I'll probably always order it instead of my regular from now on.

My Spicy Chicken Crepe was just as delish as it was the first time! Mom ordered the same thing as me and loved it just as much as I did. I added spinach and jalapenos.

In my opinion, Crepes Paulette is the coolest thing that's ever happened to NWA! I'm obsessed with this little gem and the people who run it!! Julianne Hough was in Bentonville a few weeks ago and adored this spot as well, as seen on her Instagram.
I feel so silly that I've just now discovered CP but it will forever be a staple lunch spot with my friends and family. If anyone is visiting NWA soon, Crepes Paulette is a MUST stop!!

Be Our Guest

Our favorite guest arrived at our house yesterday.

Grace is here! My Mom and Grace drove up yesterday to hang out for a few days. We don't have much planned but I know we'll have a good time! Hopefully the sun comes out so we can relax by the pool. If you haven't already noticed, hanging out by the pool is my favorite summer pastime. 

That's about all I've got for ya. I literally can't think of anything to write about. My life is so boring right now and I pretty much do the same thing every day which doesn't provide great blogging material. At least I can show you pictures of cute dogs though right?!

Enjoy your Thursday everyone!!

Life Is Just A Bowl Of Cherries

I woke up feeling much better today than I did yesterday. I didn't go to the gym because I was concerned it would make my abdominal pains act up again. Instead, I curled up in bed and watched my morning shows while I chowed down on a bowl of cherries.

I can't ever look at a bowl of cherries without singing that song "life is just a bowl of cherries" in my head.....In case you were wondering. I love cherries. They remind me of my childhood and summer time. When I was little we would pretty much live at the pool and my Mom always had cherries for us to eat as a snack.
I went to the doctor today and, as predicted, he sent me away with no diagnosis. He did prescribe me some medicine so hopefully that helps. He also set up an ultrasound to see if we can find anything going on in there. I'm sure there will be nothing abnormal. I have been so much better today and I don't look pregnant anymore so yay. Progress.

It has been very gloomy lately so Scott and I haven't spent much time outside. It ended up being a really nice day though so we let the girls play outside and enjoyed this wonderful weather. Our grass is so pretty and green! I know that sounds silly but I appreciate simple things like that. It's been nice this summer because it's rained a lot so we haven't had to water our grass yet. I'm hoping the sun starts shining brightly a lot more than it has because I haven't been to the pool since Memorial Day and it's making me sad.

I keep the girls crate in the coat closet and they scratched and barked at the door tonight asking me to get it out. It was very random. I did what Ivy and Madison asked and they did this in return. I'm still not sure what it was all about but whatever the girls want, they typically get. They're the rulers of this house.

Snoopy

I was shopping at Tuesday Morning yesterday (one of my favorite stores) and spotted the cutest little Snoopy dog. Since Ivy and Madison already own about 42 toys I hesitated to get it but ultimately ended up coming home with him. It was just too cute to resist! They normally LOVE any new toy that they get but Snoopy isn't very appealing for some reason. He's too cute to just hang out in the bottom of their toy basket so I found a place for him. 

Of course he can't rest peacefully. Any time I stick him there the girls HAVE to get him down. 

I'm still not feeling good and I've been asleep almost all day. I woke up feeling great and even went to pilates but when we were cooling down I started feeling terrible. It's so frustrating!! Like, what's wrong with me? I'm going to another doctor tomorrow but he probably won't be able to figure it out either. My belly is so big and bloated. I could pass for someone who's in their second trimester of pregnancy. What's so bazaar is that I cannot for the life of me suck it in no matter how hard I try. It's permanently stuck out. Well, hopefully not permanently. Thankfully all of my blood work came back good otherwise I'd be freaking out that I have stomach cancer. Hopefully I'll get it figured out this week and whatever it is isn't a big deal and can be easily fixed. I'm so annoyed with myself for having to deal with this right now.

It's time for me to tune in to The Bachelorette. Until tomorrow....

Blooming

Today has been a really wonderful Sunday. The sermon at church spoke to me in such a great way, I re-organized my pantry (you know how much joy this brings me) and noticed my hydrangeas are blooming! 

I hope you all are enjoying your Sunday as well. 

Adorbs Alert

Hey everyone! How's your weekend? Mine has consisted of me looking like this.

I went to the doctor yesterday because I've been having extreme abdominal pains all over every inch of my stomach. It started about 2 weeks ago but has been off and on. Then it became consistent for a couple of days without going away so I decided to go see what was wrong. I was there for a really long time and they did all sorts of tests and of course they sent me home saying nothing was wrong with me. Not that I want there to be something wrong but when the doctor left the room I cried to Scott. Seriously? I'm not making it up so something is wrong. Figure it out.
Other than being all pitiful and sporting a heating pad like it's the hottest (no pun intended) new accessory, I've been enjoying my puppies and their adorable new haircuts!

I LOVE when the girls hair is this length. It is extra, extra cute to me. I wish I could get them trimmed up every 2 weeks so they would always look like this but that would cost a small fortune. It's impressive how fast their hair grows!

I know they're small but they look super tiny when they're freshly groomed and I could just eat them up! Ivy and Madison are too cute! I love these little munchkins!

I took Rose back home this morning so she would be there when her parents got back with her little sister! When Scott and I were driving her home Scott said "Rose you have no idea how much your world is about to change!" It made me laugh. I'm very curious to know what Rose thinks about Emerson. Brad and Jaclyn love Rose like I love my (4 legged) babies. She has always been number one! I don't think anything will change. In case it does though Ivy and Madison have already gotten her off to a great start. Jaclyn packed just one toy for Rose to have at our house and this is what my girls did to it.