I'm still here!

Hello, Internet!

I know my blog has been quiet for some time now... but no more! I'm back!

(You've all been very worried, I'm sure.)

My life has been full of ups and downs during the past few months... I started a new job that I absolutely LOVE, but we also weren't able to keep Dexter, our second dog. After a week, we realized that we couldn't give him the intensive training that he really needed to make him comfortable around ALL people, and not just our immediate family. We returned him to the shelter with heavy hearts and tears in our eyes, but we know there's someone out there who can give him the home he needs. So, for now, we're content to be a family of three.

Our house continues to be a work in progress. It was move-in ready when we purchased it, but now that I'm living in it and settling in, I've started a list of all the things that I would love to update - hardwood floors, expanding/re-doing the backyard, re-painting the walls and ceiling a new color, and so on. It would have been so much easier to do all of this in the beginning, but it's taken me a while to learn the feel and flow of the house and how our family fits into it. I don't know if anyone else has this experience with their home, but it's definitely been my journey. However, I'm sure just about everyone can relate to the budget issue playing a role in home updates... scraping together enough money to tackle one big project at a time. Plus, living in the Northwest certainly limits our ability to complete outdoor projects for most of the year (although we are having a very lovely streak of warm weather, even in October!).

My goal here is not to make excuses, but to remind myself that it's perfectly alright that I haven't yet completed every project on our to-do list.

One step at a time, right?

It's also my goal to hold myself more accountable to this blog, trying to make Tuesdays and Fridays my "blogging days." I feel bad that I missed out on sharing some more freebies with all of you - free coffee at McDonald's, free admissions to local museums, free admission to national parks... oops! Don't worry - I've got a new list to share with you this Friday. :)

See you then!

A.

The First Post

Okay. Just take a deep breath, and let it out slowly... Place my fingers over the keyboard. Look at the screen. And...? Oh, geez. Alright. Just type something. Anything. What's on my mind? Isn't that the whole reason I started this blog - to get my thoughts typed out and share them with The Internet, in case someone, anyone, might be interested in what I'm thinking about?

So, I guess the first step is to introduce myself, explain what the heck I'm doing here?

I can do that.

Hi! My name is Ashleigh, and I decided, on a whim, to start a blog. I've only blogged one other time in my life - does anyone remember Xanga? - and I think it's safe to say that my posts as a teenage girl were pretty predictable. "Oh, so-and-so is super cute, and we made EYE CONTACT today!" "Oh, I love my BFFs and we're so cool and we're going to go to college together and live next door to each other and..." Or, "Oh! My life is so difficult - I go to a great school, have a wonderful family, am surrounded by awesome friends, but my hormones are out of control! WHY DOESN'T ANYONE UNDERSTAND ME??"

You know, the usual teenage angst that plagues us all at some point in our lives.

Thankfully (for my sake, and I like to think yours, too), this is not that blog.

Disclaimer: this blog is still about me. But it's about twenty-seven year old me, instead of fourteen year old me. I like to think that alone will make for a much better reading experience.

A brief introduction: I am married to a wonderful man, and almost two years ago we adopted a black lab-mixed breed rescue from a nearby animal shelter; I often refer to him as my dog-son, and I am his dog-mom. He's covered with a beautiful brindle coat - hence the "Brindle" part of this blog's title. The "Brick" half of the blog's name refers to the purchase of my first house with my husband a few months ago.

My little house ("Brick") and my little family ("Brindle") make up the center of my universe. I am completely in love with my husband and dog-son, and I am really enjoying making this little house of ours a home.

The idea for this blog came to me at 6:45 am this morning, when my dog was lying next to me in bed and hitting me with his paw to wake me up so that I would get out of bed and feed him breakfast. I wasn't quite ready to leave the comfort of our new king-sized bed, so instead I lay there petting him, and thinking about how handsome my dog-son is with his brindle coloring. And then I somehow got to thinking about how much I miss writing, and journaling. (Don't ask me how I got there - I often have a hard time tracing my line of thought, as my mind always feels like it's spinning with new ideas and questions and comments and I can hardly keep up.) And then, suddenly, it just seemed very clear to me - start a blog. Write about the things that I love, the things that are important to me. Write about things that bring joy to my life. I figured it would be a nice way to start focusing on the positive instead of the negative, as I tend to worry and stress a lot. (I'm very thankful for my husband, who helps keep me grounded and can put things into perspective for me when I get a little lost.)

So, here it is. My blog. There's no plan. There's no timeline, or deadline, or any real purpose to this other than to allow myself the opportunity for self-reflection and ramblings without interruption.

Alright, how do I end this post... The End? Bye for now? Cut to commercial?

Ugh, how embarrassing. I'll get this whole blogging-thing figured out eventually... right?