Life Lately

• First and foremost, a Trooper update.

He is doing very well, and considers himself the house and grounds manager. Duties include ridding the yard of squirrels, ensuring no one goes down the street unnoticed, and giving tours of his toy stash. Meanwhile, his butt is as fluffy as ever.

Life is good for this dog.

• In other news, I had to say goodbye this week to my dear friend Sandy. She taught me to ride, french braid hair, and take life by storm. For her, there was no other way to live. (One of my favorite Sandy stories here.)

• Also, not to get too down in the dumps but I must give a shout out to Alan Rickman. Two of my favorite fictional characters always will be Colonel Brandon of Sense and Sensibility and Severus Snape of Harry Potter, and he did such an awesome job portraying them.

“There will be no foolish wand-waving or silly incantations in this class.” (I can hear it now.)

• Yep, Real Housewives is still my guilty pleasure. What are your thoughts on Erika Geradi of RHOBH? In all her glory and Chanel. I want to hear your thoughts. Do you love her? Hate her? Think she’s smart like Yolanda claims? She’s going to be divisive, this one.

• I’m halfway through Whole30 and wanting to die/also feeling great.

I can’t eat chocolate or bread. I have to say no to the big box of Frangos I got for Christmas and it’s killing me. But I must say, every time I look in the mirror I feel some satisfaction because not eating Frangos or other sweets is actually making a difference. Why does it have to be that way?

This may be a lifelong struggle but I know one thing: come February 3rd, I’m giving in.

• Speaking of sweets, how pretty are these “tub truffles”! A friend gave them to me for Christmas and they are almost too pretty to put in the bathtub. But the aromas are dreamy and they leave your skin feeling smooth as silk. (Find them here.)

• In other news, I got my nieces matching leopard print pajamas for Christmas.

Aren’t they dolls? They can always count on leopard print outfits from their Aunt Whitney.

• I am still recovering from what will go down in history as The Christmas Puzzle From Hell, aka Thomas Kincaid’s Attack on My Sanity.

This beast was 1,000 pieces, of which 99% were grey and splotchy. Even patient, brainiac Brandon thought it was difficult. I never want to see it again!

Despite the puzzle, Christmas was a delight, and we had our usual wonderful time playing with Trooper, competing in tennis, ending up in hysterical laughter, eating a lot of food, and surprisingly not having to fix mom’s TV. (That itself was a Christmas miracle.)

Here’s the fam out for my birthday.

Brunettes do have more fun!

Thanks for reading and following along on my adventures. If there’s any content you want to see, shout it out in the comments. I’d love to hear from you!