morning // I wake up naturally around 9:00, which feels so good after many early morning wake-ups in a row. I take Dutch on his walk, and then my mom and I go to our favorite park to run. It’s a dreary day, but in the mid-60s and it feels really nice outside! Then, we come home, I drink a breakfast shake while snuggling with Dutch on the couch, and then it’s time to get ready – I have a fun birthday lunch planned! I shower, clean up my room, and then get ready for the day while listening to an episode of The Lively Show.

afternoon // I meet up with a few girlfriends for a pre-birthday celebration at BJ’s Brewhouse. Our lunch is yummy, but we are all most looking forward to dessert – PIZOOKIES! Best. Dessert. Ever. And mine comes with a candle! My friends sing happy birthday to me and it is just so special. 🙂 I love these girls! After a fun lunch, I get gas, stop at the library to drop off books and pick up requests that came in, and then pick my mom up for an afternoon of shopping! We are on the hunt for dresses for our work Christmas parties! We start at JC Penney, and both of us wind up finding dresses within 20 minutes. Yay! Then, we head to Old Navy because we both need some winter clothes (especially with our upcoming trip to Savannah, where it’s going to be a bit chilly!) We have success, and I buy my first puffy vest. (I’m still not sure how these help keep you warm (what about your arms?!), but I’m taking a gamble because I look so cute in it. Heh.)

night // After a fun outing at the mall, my mom and I spend some quality time at our favorite place – Target! I buy a scarf, a knit headband, and a clutch for my Christmas party. Then, finally, we come home, take Dutch on a walk, and I take a super relaxing bubble bath. Ahh! So necessary. My mom and I have a low-key Saturday night in: leftover pizza for dinner, blogging (for me), and watching some TV (MasterChef Junior, Scorpion, and Jimmy Fallon). I’m in bed reading by 10pm, which is just how I like it!

What’s the last piece of cold weather clothing or accessory you bought? And tell me – do puffy vests keep you warm?! This Florida girl’s gotta know!

morning // I wake up at 5:30, take Dutch on a walk, and then head to the gym for a quick 30-minute workout on the elliptical. Best way to start my day! I go home, take a shower, and then get ready for the day while listening to Slate’s Serial Spoiler Specials podcast. I don’t always agree with their commentary, but it’s a fairly good podcast this week. At work, I have a busy day ahead and only 3.5 hours in which to do it. I write a page of content, and then read over the pages I wrote yesterday and send those pages to a coworker for her to proof. Next, I read over edits I received on some other pages I wrote for a client, make changes, and send the content to the client for approval. Then, I have a short meeting with my manager to discuss my client load for the upcoming month (it’s going to be a doozy!). After that, I edit pages for a coworker and send them back to him. Done with work for the day! Wahoo!

afternoon // I stay late at work to help decorate a coworker’s cubicle for his birthday and then convince my work BFF to stop working for the day and go out to lunch with me. She accepts and we have a yummy lunch at Bahama Breeze! It’s a beautiful day, so we sit outside on the deck. With the sunny weather, ocean view, and island music, it’s hard to believe it’s only a few days before Thanksgiving. After lunch, I bid my friend goodbye and head on home, where I indulge in a wonderful 2.5-hour nap. I love Fridays!

night // After waking up from our nap, Dutch and I go for a walk and then I read for a little bit on the couch. Eventually, I tear myself away from the book to clean my bathroom. My mom comes home from work, and we talked for a while about our days before ordering pizza for dinner and settling in for a night of TV watching! Our DVR is a bit out of control (which is why I’m happy for winter finales for all my shows – I can catch up!). We watched Gotham, Scandal, How to Get Away with Murder, The Biggest Loser, and The McCarthy’s. We weren’t messing around! Regarding Scandal and HTGAWM – oh. em. GEE. Those winter finales were CRAZY! I can’t remember how many times I said, “OH MY GOD!” while watching HTGAWM. Ahhhh. Ok. Anyway. After our little TV-watching binge, we clean up, say goodnight, and then I take Dutch on a quick walk outside (to ensure he doesn’t wake me up at 6am whining to go out!), do my nightly routine, read for a bit, and it’s lights out at 11:00. Wild and crazy Friday night, I know!

Thoughts on the Scandal and HTGAWM finales? Do you love taking naps, or do they just make you feel loopy?

morning // I wake up at 6am (40 degrees this morning – brr!), take Dutch on his morning walk, and then go for a “wog.” It’s hard and I kinda hate most of it, so that’s fun. I come home, write my “week in the life” post for yesterday, take a shower, and then plop myself down right at my computer to begin work for the day. Yep – it’s a work-from-home day! Hooray! (I love working at my office, but WFH days are divine.) Today, I planned to do a ton of writing – 12 pages in total. It’s doable, but it requires me to stay on task. I make a breakfast shake and get started. I manage to write six pages in the morning, taking a break to put a load of laundry in the washer and tidy up my room and bathroom.

Afternoon // Around 12:30, I get dressed (in jeans and presentable clothing, not just loungewear!) and take Dutch on a long walk outside. It’s warmed up – 64 degrees and sunny! Feels heavenly! Then, I meet my mom for lunch at our favorite place – Chick-Fil-A. On the way, I listen to the Serial podcast and cheese and crackers, it’s a good one. A really good one. After Mom and I have lunch, I come home and immediately jump on gchat to discuss the episode with Nora (I’m so happy she is as obsessed as I am!). We both have a lot to say, and our conversation lingers throughout the afternoon. Eventually, after perusing the Serial subreddit for a while, I get back to my writing. I end up only writing five pages (I was aiming for six), but I do field some emails (the content I wrote that was sent over to a new client earlier in the week came back with one minor edit! This is very rare, and I do a happy dance!) and send off some of my content to a coworker to be proofed. Though I could force myself to write one more page, I decide to close up shop at 5:30 and work on it tomorrow when my mind is fresh.

night // I take Dutch on our nightly walk, and then go to Publix to pick up a few things: dinner tonight, dog treats, and milk for my breakfast shake tomorrow. I come home to hear Dutch whining like I’ve been gone for 10 hours and not 10 minutes (sigh). I give him appropriate snuggles, clean up the apartment, and then take a bubble bath, finishing up the book I’ve been reading while doing so (I loved it!). Then, I eat dinner while watching an episode of Gotham (I mainly watch because Ben McKenzie is so darn cute) and writing this post. Once the episode finishes, I fold my laundry while listening to a Freakonomics podcast and pop a few gluten-free cookies in the oven (not going gluten-free, I just prefer the taste!). I watch a Jimmy Fallon episode from last week while eating my cookies and finishing up this post. Then, I clean up, do my nightly routine, and it’s lights out by 10:30!

morning // Since I went to bed late (for me) the night before, I decided to skip my morning workout in favor of sleep (best decision). I woke up around 6:15 and it. was. freezing. Guys, this is COLD for Florida! I bundled up, Dutch wore his penguin sweatshirt, and we went for a walk. Then, I took a shower, got ready for the day, and commuted to work while listening to a Stuff You Should Know podcast on patents (pretty interesting!). Once at work, I chit-chatted with coworkers, drank my breakfast shake, and spent the morning writing monthly content for one of my clients.

afternoon // Around noon, it was time to stop working and start eating! Every year, we hold a Thanksgiving potluck and people bring in the most delicious food. I tried to be as “good” as I could be. I only had one plate of food, and “only” ended up eating a small slice of cheesecake and two of my cookies for dessert. (The muffin pictured was not consumed, which I consider a huge win for me!) The potluck was tons of fun! Afterward, it was a bit of a struggle to get back into work mode. Eventually, though, I wrote a few more pages of content and edited pages I received from two different coworkers.

night // After work, I hustled home to take Dutch out and then got ready for book club. We went to Ciccio’s, our go-to restaurant of choice, where I ordered a grilled chicken and brown rice dish. Yay for making good choices! We had a good turnout, around eight members including me, so we discussed the book and had lots of girl talk. I got some more recs for my Savannah trip, which was great! After dinner, we went next door to Menchie’s for frozen yogurt but, and a huge win again, I decided not to partake. I knew I wasn’t hungry (realllllly trying to listen to my hunger cues, something I haven’t been doing) and I knew I wouldn’t feel good after eating the froyo. (I never do.) So yay! A few other girls decided not to have any, too, so I didn’t feel like the odd one out, ha! We sat at Menchie’s for probably an hour, chit-chatting about this and that. We left around 9:30. I came home, talked with my mom about both our days, took a bubble bath, and then snuggled in bed with Dutch and read for a little while. I didn’t end up turning the lights off until 11, eek!

What’s your go-to recipe for potlucks? I’m all desserts, all the way, and usually some kind of cookie. 

morning // Another early morning start for me! I wake up around 5:15, get dressed, take Dutch on a walk, and then walk over to the apartment gym. I do a quick, 30-minute interval workout on the stationary bike while watching an episode of Friday Night Lights. Afterward, I shower and get ready for work. My morning at work flies by! I do some editing for pages I need to send out for client approval by the end of today, and then sit in on a meeting to take notes. Afterward, my brain is a bit fried so I eat some raspberries while catching up on blogs. (Random side note: raspberries? First time I tried them was a few months ago! Now they are one of my favorite fruits!) The rest of my morning is spent editing.

afternoon // I stop for lunch around 12:30 (Santa Fe Chicken!) and read through the Serial Reddit forum while eating. (I’m obsessed, but have to temper myself with reading because I could probably spend hours on there!) The afternoon flies by faster than my morning! Lots and lots and lots of editing because I have tons of deadlines today. At two, I take a break from the editing to meet with one of our account managers to discuss a keyword plan that needs to be done soon. Around three, I take a break to eat some chocolates and drink some hot chocolate (that I sweetened with a pump of pumpkin spice creamer – guys, it’s life-changing.) The rest of my day is spent furiously editing to meet my deadlines. But I do and then it’s 5:30 and I’m headed home!

night // I take a quick pit stop at Publix before going home to pick up a few supplies (more raspberries – they’re on sale!, peanut butter cookie dough, and Hershey kisses). Then, I get home (and find a fun present on my doorstep!), take Dutch on a walk, and make dinner (spaghetti night!) I watch last night’s episode of The Voice while eating dinner and start writing this post. Then, I have to make cookies! We’re having our Thanksgiving potluck at work tomorrow and I signed up for peanut butter blossoms. I make cookies, activate and play with my new fitness tracker (and yes, you may notice it’s a Weight Watchers product – I rejoined last week!), and watch The Voice results show. Then, I clean up, do my nightly routine, and it’s lights out by 11:00.