Welcome to the bloggosphere

I have finally taken the plunge. I officially have a blog. I am new to this blogging thing. I have always thought, "I should start a blog." Then I would brainstorm what I could blog about...I got nothing. Most people I know that have a blog showcase their adorable children. We don't have any of those. Others share an expertise of some sort (ie cooking), for those of you who know me well, I don't do much of that. (I have blown up an egg in the microwave and set raw spaghetti noodles on fire...) Lucky for me, I married a man who is a fantastic cook and enjoys showing off his talents. So, a cooking blog was out of the question.

I am a journalism major who ended up working in the mortgage business. I avoided even being a business minor is school, because I am HORRIBLE at math. I get nervous if someone asks me a simple math question on the spot (what's 5x8...ummmmmm). But, I am mighty good on a calculator, and I enjoy meeting new people and helping them acheive a pretty large milestone in one's life, homeownership. The one thing I miss about journalism is writing. English was always one of my favorite subjects, and I almost always made an "A" in my English classes (quite the contrary from math).

So, I decided that I could blog about whatever I wanted. I decided to name the blog after one of my favorite topics, Riley, my dog. He is such an important part of our life. We love him like he is our child. I often feel silly, because when friends and family talk about the cute things their children did, I usually share an equally cute (ok maybe just to me) story about Riley. We found Riley almost 3 years ago in Fountain Inn, SC. It was right after Paul bought his house, and he talked about how he wanted a dog. He imagined he would get a manly, hunting dog of some sort. But, I had other ideas. I decided I was going to get a dog FIRST :). I found a picture of Riley's sister on the internet, and I was in love. I convinced Paul to make the trip with me to Fountain Inn, just to look! My dad would know better than this. I convinced him to go look at a guinea pig one time. We ended up with a pregnant guinea pig and three babies that I would not let him give away. So, we get to Fountain Inn, and we look at all the ADORABLE puppies. Riley's sister was white, and not paying much attention to me. But, there was this little boy who was a beautiful color and couldn't get enough of me. Paul said, "I think you should get him." This of course was NOT going to be Paul's dog. I was going to be completely responsible for him. Three weeks later we went back and picked him up. We were BOTH instantly in love. He, of course, is just as much Paul's dog as mine. We got married 2 years after getting Riley, and finally became a legit family. We have been married 9 months now, and have enjoyed every moment of it.

Here are some pictures from this weekend at my Dad's lakehouse. Riley LOVES the water, just not so much when he is in the middle of the lake with no land in sight...