Last week was a big one for us!
First of all, I had the opportunity of painting something for a good friend of mine on for his proposal! I met Zach during my freshman year of college and he asked me a few weeks ago if I’d be interested in helping him out. He and Maggie are two of the sweetest souls I’ve ever met and I was thrilled to take a very small part in such a big moment for the two of them! I haven’t made much time to paint recently, so I really enjoyed the whole process. Good news everyone: she said yes! Aren’t they the cutest?
Most importantly, it was Logan’s birthday on Friday the 29th so I tried to make the whole week about him. Because you know, everyone deserves a birth-week not just one silly day! We are trying to budget well in order to dump a lot of our money into savings for the AT, so this birthday looked a lot different than I wanted it to… We typically go above and beyond for each other on birthdays, but this one we decided to make very personal and low-key.
One of Logan’s very favorite things is books. Now, he already has a plentiful collection, so I have told him in the past that I don’t want to give him books as gifts. I’d rather get him things he wouldn’t normally ask for or the little things he mentions throughout the year because, well, I love “stuff”. Ha! This year, however, I caved and bought him a collection of five books by Thich Nhat Hanh that I knew he would enjoy.
How to Love (Mindful Essentials)
I first heard about these books from a coworker of mine who is always inspiring me with new thoughts and telling me about interesting things. She has them all in her office and told me about them one day. She showed me How to Walk and told me it reminded her of Logan and I as we are gearing up to ‘walk’ the AT. As I flipped through it I knew I had to get them for Logan – they are right up his alley!
The whole collection is about returning to the basics in life – how to truly enjoy walking, eating, relaxing, sitting, and loving – how we can do each how they are supposed to be done. I’d highly suggest them for anybody, even any age! They are a little different than normal books because Thich Nhat Hanh is a Zen Master. The books have guided meditations throughout. I do think the words he writes hold a lot of truth and can help us get back to enjoying the simplicities of life in such a hectic, fast-paced world!
On Thursday night, I took Logan out for his birthday dinner. I chose to take us to a new place in Birmingham that has been getting a lot of buzz recently and I am SO glad we went!
Real & Rosemary is seriously the cutest little place I’ve ever been. I wish I would have taken pictures of the food we ordered because GUYS…woah. To start off, we had the Honey Ricotta Dip. It was exactly what it sounds like, served with apple slices and bread, all drizzled with fresh, local honey. For his entrée, Logan ordered the Braised Beef and had the Zucchini Salad with Avocado Pesto and the Charred Carrots with Thyme as his two sides. I tried them all and they were each delicious!! I had the Beet, Fig, and Goat Cheese sandwich with the Zucchini Salad as my side. It came on a cranberry walnut bread, which sounds like a taste bud overload, but all of the flavors were blended so beautifully. I would eat that sandwich every day!!
I think our favorite part about it was that the serving sizes were perfect! We didn’t feel bloated or stuffed afterwards, but we also didn’t feel like we needed anything else to eat. However, I did have a homemade peach cobbler at home waiting for Log, so we did indulge ourselves on that when we got home… But seriously guys, if you are around the Birmingham area or if you ever come this way (hint hint), you have to give this place a shot!
Logan had to work all day on his actual birthday which was a huge bummer, but I had a pretty fun surprise planned for him and her name is Pneuma. Here she is:
Is she not the cutest thing you have ever seen?!
Let me clarify something – Logan knew we were getting a puppy (he was actually the decision-maker on the whole thing), he just didn’t know we were getting her on his birthday!
I drove up to Florence right after he left for work and as I pulled up to the guy’s house, she was sitting on the porch. I fell in love immediately as she ran right to me and sat at my feet begging to be picked up! I talked with Chris for a while about her temperament and what to expect as she grows, but then I headed to Alabama Outdoors in Trussville so she could meet her daddy!
He was smitten immediately. We ate lunch together, just the three of us, before Logan had to go back to work. She sat in his lap the entire time and pretty much everyone that walked past us stopped and fell in love with her – I guess we’ll have to get used to that!
After we left AO, I took her to the Aveda Institute so she could meet two of my best friends (they were working). When the students there saw her or heard I had her there, they ran out to meet her so she was pretty overwhelmed. Pneuma kept her eye on me the whole time she was being passed around and if she was on the ground, she would run to me or crawl in my lap. Let me just tell you, it is incredibly affirming when your animal chooses you as their safe place!!!
Logan has gotten a little bit jealous because she seems to of chosen me as her ‘master’ already, but she sure does love him too!! She is the cuddliest puppy I’ve ever experienced and we are enjoying her so very much!
Yesterday she got to go the park for the first time and she met her best friend, Blue! At first she was terrified of him, but after a little while she decided to start playing with him and it was just the cutest!!
We also got our first, pretty dysfunctional, family photo as we passed an Airstream on our walk to get popsicles!
This was such a fun week for us and we are excited about the future! We are very glad to have Pneuma as a part of our journey now and I’m fairly confident she will be consuming our blog and Instagram accounts!!
If you haven’t already, follow us on instagram: @trailmixfornewlyweds.
And now, you can follow Pneuma too: @pneumapaisley.
We love you guys! Thanks for reading <3
