Lucky for my bank account, many of my best friends from college don't live in Georgia. But this past weekend, one of my dear friends Whittney decided to venture down to the Peach State to celebrate her 25th birthday in Athens. We have a sorority sister who's still in school there, so we had a free place to stay - and it's just over an hour drive for me. Perfect!

We all arrived on Saturday to perfect weather. We spent the afternoon looking through cute boutiques and enjoying a cocktail at the Georgia Theatre rooftop bar. Whittney loves a good skyline.

After dinner at Fuzzy's Taco Shop, we headed back to get ready for our big night out acting like college kids again. Danger! We were supposed to start the night at a Dem Franchize Boyz concert at a frat house, but we were a little late. I blame my little brother's friends for not telling us they were coming on so early!

First stop was Boar's Head. Love my birthday girl!

I didn't take pictures at all of our stops, but here we are with the DJ at 9D's, a bar that strictly plays 90's music. We always end up in the DJ booth, whether we're allowed to or not.

I found one of Adam's old baseball buddies from college, Jordan! (Kissy face was out in full force.)

And of course we ended the night harassing my poor little brother's friends. Sorry for partying, Bennett and Nick.

I came home on Sunday morning just in time for Jillian's engagement brunch at South City Kitchen. I've known Jillian since I was 14, and she has remained one of my dearest friends. So happy for her and Austin! How adorable are these Sprinkles engagement cupcakes?

Because Hank is just so cuddly and funny, I'll end this post with a picture of what he looks like right now. His life is so hard. (I'm also glad someone is using the dog bed we spent a pretty penny on for Ruthie.)

Suck It, Sochi: Winter Olympics Party

Adam and I love the Olympics. LOVE the Olympics. This year we decided to throw a Winter Olympics party, and it did not disappoint. Our theme was 'Suck It, Sochi' for a couple reasons, but mainly because the Olympics are in Sochi and I like alliteration. 

I decided to try to be Pinterest-y for some reason, even though I fail at 99% of projects I try from that site of false expectations. Regardless, I headed off to the Dollar Tree with some screenshots of cute, look-to-be-foolproof craft ideas and wasted a good bit of money.

Case in point. Can you guess which one is my attempt?

Adam loves the movie Cool Runnings and quotes it at every opportunity, so he decided our costume (oh, yeah - costumes mandatory for this party!) was going to be the Jamaican Bobsled Team. I put a lot of dedication into making sure our shirts looked (kind of) legit, and of course didn't get one picture of us in them on Saturday.

Here's the whole set - our shirts and the dogs' collars. The back of our shirts said 'Feel the Rhythm'. I was pretty proud of them! 

Lucky for us, we just bought some furniture at Ikea, so Adam actually "built" us a bobsled. It turned out AMAZING, as his projects always do. (Damn him.)

Is Ruthie not the cutest test driver?

Here's a set up of the only portion of our house with any Olympic decor. (Disclaimer: Adam noticed the green and red balloons needed to be switched to coincide with the Olympic Rings before anyone arrived. Nice save, honey!) I called this area my 'Kindergarten Project' - how pitiful is that sign? I love it!

One Pinterest idea that did work out... The popcorn torches seen below. I literally just put popcorn in ice cream cones. Word to the wise, those cones only hold approximately 6-8 popcorn kernels. (Oh, and Adam thought I was crazy for thinking they actually looked like torches.) The other part of this picture didn't come from Pinterest (gasp!), I thought of it all on my own! Staying in theme with the Olympics being in Russia, we had a vodka bar! (This wasn't really thinking outside the box - vodka is my favorite beverage.)

In addition to the vodka, our mixers included - limes, ginger beer (Moscow Mules! I'm so into this theme, y'all), tonic water, club soda, and cranberry juice. And let's not forget the "lemonade" - Allison created this sign to go with it. If you've been keeping up with the news, a lot of the accommodations in Sochi aren't exactly ready.

Anyway, the party was great and we were so excited to see so many people show up in costumes!

Ok, we get it. We need more seating options. (Also, love Dominica's side eye in this picture.)

Jamaican Bobsled Team! Obviously, we won the gold.

We ended the night at Mulligan's (I mean, obviously), and then finally tapped out around 2am. How we all made it that long is beyond me! Thank you to everyone who came out and celebrated the Winter Olympics with us!

Quick Update on Hank!

Hank and Ruthie are officially BFFs. They love each other and play all day long (which is great, because they're exhausted at night!) He's definitely not as smart as Ruthie, but he'll learn the ways of the house eventually. Oh, and he's still so cute flipping upside down under furniture.

And here he is at the two week mark (not much different in size, yet).

Week 1 vs. Week 2 at home

Meet Hank!

Well, so much for holding off on another puppy. (Hey, at least I made it through 2013!) After numerous conversations, and lots of pros and cons lists... I finally caved. It's kind of funny, on Friday night Adam and I went to this really hip, cool restaurant called Chili's where I told him I was finally caving in, and he told me he was finally giving up. (Because why should we ever be on the same page?)

After working from home over the past month, I look at Ruthie and she really is so bored all the time. Between her staring out the window for a solid 8 hours and Adam begging for another dog, I gave in. We headed to the Atlanta Humane Society on Saturday morning to see if a dog or pup caught our eye (what a joke, of COURSE one did). We absolutely loved our experience with the Atlanta Humane Society when we got Ruthie in February 2011 and promised ourselves to get any future pets from there (as long as we live here).

AHS opens at 11am on the weekends, and I figured we might as well get our day started and head over there around that time. Word to the wise... get there early! We arrived around 11:15am and the place was swarming. Ruthie tagged along so she could give the final approval on the newest family member. I'm all for adopting an older dog, but (in my opinion) you never know what their past was and when they may just snap. Nothing against them and more power to those who do it, but I just don't have the time/patience to commit to an older dog with serious issues. So, we headed into the Puppy Room. After looking over a couple puppies, I came upon this little fatty passed out on his back. The volunteer (God sends) woke him up and handed me Mr. Moo. Oh my goodness, love at first sight. Adam walked over and said something along the lines of "well, that didn't take long", and the rest is history. We introduced him to Ruthie, who was super excited to meet him (hello, it's another dog - her favorite thing, ever), but she was a little confused why he left with us.

Without further ado.... MEET HANK!

Ruthie is named after Babe Ruth, and it was only natural that this little guy would also get a baseball-inspired name. Who better than Hank Aaron - the one who beat Babe Ruth's homerun record?

Hank was instantly in love with Ruthie, but she didn't feel the same way for the first day or so. I'm pretty sure she didn't understand why he was so little, sleepy and couldn't go up and down the stairs. Now that he's more comfortable, he's got a little more fight in him and they spend all day wrestling with each other. Best friends!

Ruthie's such a good sport.

And here are some pictures of the last few days. I love the squishy, sleepy phase of puppies and don't want him to grow up! (I would, however, like him to stop chewing everything.)

One day we'll laugh when we see that Hank was once Rico's size.

His hiding place... for now.

He may look adorable (which he is), but he's actually chewing underneath the bed in this picture. 

Taking his first trip to Mulligan's with Auntie Dominica.

I have also taken some videos so I can remember how bouncy and cute he is right now! Check them out here, here and here.

This is the picture we're going to take every week to see how fast and big he grows.

Just so I can remember in the future, he's doing really well with housebreaking. Well, I'm doing really well with housebreaking. I make sure I have my eye on him at all times and take him out every 20-30 minutes while I'm home... he has no chance! He also does really well in his crate at night. He whines for 5 or 10 minutes, but then he's passed out until we get him up in the morning. This is a nice relief from Ruthie... she was a TERROR. Literally screamed (yes, screamed - not whined or cried) in her crate all night for a solid month. I don't remember her being such a chewer though. Regardless, we love them both!

Welcome to the family, Hank!