It’s November!!! Not only is today the first day of the month, but it is also our first full day with our new puppy, Elly! We picked her up yesterday, and we are already smitten with her sweet nose rubs and her little rapid tail wagging! We had to wait over a week and a half until she was allowed to come home with us, and we are crazy excited to finally have her all to ourselves! It’s going to be a big change to our “family” dynamic and lifestyle, but a change for the good! So, why a puppy? Why a BichonPoo (Bichon Frise/Poodle mix)? Why Elly? Well, let me tell you! Mike and I had gone back and forth on when we would get a dog…Now? Next Summer? When we have kids? When we decided we were going to move forward with getting a dog now, we started looking for the right puppy for us. Mike has always wanted a smaller dog, and it didn’t take much convincing for me. Some of you may have heard me talk about Kaitlyn James, an amazing Virginia photographer whose blog I’ve followed for a while now…She has a bichpoo, and when Mike saw me looking through her pictures one day, he fell in love with that breed, and so our search began! When we looked deeper into bichpoo’s, we knew that was the dog for us! Elly will only get to be about 12 lbs, she doesn’t shed, she’s family-friendly and very intelligent (or so we’ve heard – I’ll let you know about that last one lol)! How’d we come up with the name? It was tough…we had a bazillion boy dog names picked out (from our favorite teams to favorite ball players and stadiums), but we knew we were going to want a girl dog, so we had to make some adjustments. The one that worked out best? Elly! It came from my favorite ball player – Jacoby Ellsbury! (Go Red Sox!)

WELL, enough about Elly, and on to this month’s happenings and goals!

November Happenings

• We’ve got a handful of family sessions this month (as wedding “season” came to an end last weekend and we have 2 months off before we starts things up again!)
• Road trip to State College to visit KRISTIN MOMYER!!!
• Thanksgiving
• Black Friday shopping (one of my absolute favorites!)
• Pitt vs. Rutgers football game (excited to get back to another game before the season ends!)
• Lots of fun time with Elly!

• Crate and potty train Elly
• Take Elly to a park/trail at least once a week (weather permitting)
• Complete at least 50% of my Christmas shopping!
• Finish drywall and carpet in basement
• Start renovation of main floor bathroom

November Business Goals

• Finish editing October weddings
• Submit weddings to be published
• Finish another sample album
• Get up-to-date on categorizing my expenses and mileage for my taxes
• Purchase new equipment

Anyone want to guess how much she weighs? I will send one lucky winner who guesses it right a Starbucks gift card!