I can’t even remember the last time I shared a life update here on the blog!
It’s been years!
It’s been 17 years since I started Thrifty Decor Chick — since our now
18-year old was just a toddler. I know so many of you have been reading for
quite some time, so every once in a while I think a little update is due!
I’ve kept most of my personal life off of this site over the years, mostly
because I just like to focus on the DIY and decor content. Also, I share so
much about our home (and myself at times), I like to keep my family private.
(And have never regretted it!)
But it has been a YEAR! It’s about time I gave filled you in on what we’ve
been up to, and what’s to come. 💗
journey. I asked his permission before sharing these pics, but wanted to
share how much he’s grown over the years:
This is a heads up for any of you with kids in high school…brace yourself
for senior year!
It was the busiest, most expensive, most wonderful and emotional and did I
mention busy and expensive?? year ever.
His extracurricular activities didn’t help, but wow, I wish someone would
have warned me. After the meetings, college visits, concerts, performances,
school events, celebrations and parties (breath), it was quite the
year.
It was a beautiful time and we could not be more proud of him.
The week of his high school graduation, we also had his two day college
orientation out of town and graduation party at our house. It was a crazy
and I was seriously questioning our timing of things 😂, but we had a
blast.
When it was all done I felt like we could all start to relax for the for the
first time in forever.
Pet loss
Back in March we had to put our beloved dog Peanut to sleep. He suffered
from a collapsed trachea and it was excruciating to decide when we should
say goodbye to him.
Our little dog fought so hard and was so strong. But it was time.
We had someone come to our home to do it, and it was an absolutely beautiful
experience. Saying goodbye to him in that way was the best we could have
hoped for, and we were so thankful.
We had our Peanut for more than 14 years, and it was still not enough time.
Losing him was crushing grief we were not prepared for.
I expected to be sad, but the devastation hit us hard. My husband told me
then that he didn’t want to even think about a new dog for at least a year,
and I was fine with that.
New Found Joy
Remember when I mentioned that the craziness of the past year was all done?
The graduation parties had ended, there were no more college visits or
school appointments…just FREEDOM.
We talked about how wonderful it was going to be to get to relax for a few
weeks. This was the first summer our son didn’t have band for the first time
in six years! I was going to dive head first into this site and catch up on
posts and DIY projects! Maybe we could travel a bit before the college prep
started?
Well the calm lasted for less than 48 hours. 😂
I saw this face on an adoption site I follow, and sent it to my family with
“Should we meet him?”:
My husband had already been talking about looking into a dog (which I knew
would happen sooner than he thought, but I was waiting until he was ready).
And I was realizing that when our son was away at college and my husband was
traveling for work…I wasn’t going to have my Peanut with me.
It was hitting me hard.
I kept saying I didn’t want a puppy…we had been there and done that. 🙂 I
wanted to get a slightly older dog that would be a slightly easier
transition.
But then I saw this two-month old face and fell. in. love.
Thankfully my family was all in. We met him at the foster parent’s house one
evening, and by the next day we had him in our home for a trial visit. By
that night we texted the foster parent to say we wanted him to stay.
🙂
We name him Boomer and he is an absolute PRECIOUS BABY when he’s not being a
psycho landshark:
We are 99 percent sure he is a Carolina Dog breed, which we had never heard
of before now. I’d like to do a doggy DNA test to check, but we think he’s
full bred.
It sounds like a breeder dropped him and his brother at a shelter, and the
organization we adopted through found them there. I can’t imagine how he
wasn’t scooped up immediately, but I’m so glad he wasn’t.
He was a squishy ten pounds when we got him:
And now (about eight weeks later), he’s 26 pounds!:
And still growing!
He has brought so much life and happiness into our home again. We are so in
love with him. The cats could take or leave him most of the time, but
overall they’re all adjusting well.
It was bittersweet bringing a new pup into our lives, but we are so thankful
for him. He was born exactly one week after our Peanut passed away, and we
feel like Peanut lives on in him in a lot of ways. So many little things
have happened that make us think of him.
Big transitions
We’re about to be empty nesters. It feels so weird to say that! It seems
like we just brought him home from the hospital a few years ago.
And now we are less than two weeks away from dropping our son off to
college. I am going to keep this part short and sweet so I don’t start
crying, but we are SO excited for him. He got into a prestigious school at a
local college that he worked SO hard for.
Thankfully he will still be in state and won’t be far away. This puts my
heart at ease for sure!
It is such a bittersweet time, but that’s what all of parenthood is, right?
It’s letting go of them a little bit at a time, but rejoicing in it because
thank God they are growing and happy and you’re so proud. I’ve always said
every stage of his life has been my favorite, but this one
for sure is.
UGH. This is going to be tough.
I am looking forward to diving back into blogging full speed again. I always
take it much slower in the summer (the heat drains all of my mojo), but this
summer especially I’ve let myself focus on family. (And cleaning up dog
pee.)
I appreciate you all so much and am so thankful to you — whether this is
the first time you’re reading or the hundredth.
My favorite season is approaching and I’m looking forward to working with my
tools again and updating you here more frequently.
Thanks for listening, your patience and letting me share some life
updates!