I recently updated my “About” page, and thought it would be good to post in the main body of the blog for my newish readers. This is LfT 101, so if you’ve been reading for awhile, you probably already know this stuff.

I’m Lauren, aka LfT, a 26-year-old blogger, writer, and crazy dog lady. I live in a small town in East Texas, but am about to relocate. My husband, Michael, recently finished his master’s in Speech Language Pathology and has accepted a position at a university in Louisiana, teaching and getting his Ph.D. in Applied Language & Speech Sciences. I’ll be getting my master’s as well, in Mental Health Counseling. I’m not sure how to handle the fact that I will no longer live in Texas, but I’ll learn to manage. And yes, I’ll still be Lauren from Texas. I’m born and raised. These roots are deep.

I met Michael when I was less than a month away from turning 21 (he was nearly 28). When I first saw How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days back in 2003, I thought to myself, I am going to marry Matthew McConaughey. Well, I came pretty dang close. Almost exactly 9 months after meeting, on November 18th, 2007, we were married. It was a whirlwind romance, which I will write about one day if I can ever figure out how to put it into words. Flannery O’Connor wrote that “A good man is hard to find,” but I found mine. Our marriage is not perfect, but we work hard to make it work. I’m the luckiest girl in the world to have a man who tells me every day how beautiful he thinks I am and how much he loves me.

We have two dogs. Pancho is a giant long-haired Chihuahua with anxiety issues. We got him a month after we were married. Leia is a teeny tiny Australian Shepherd who is constantly trying to herd us everywhere. We got her about 6 months after we got Pancho. I wasn’t joking when I said I am a crazy dog lady; I will do pretty much anything for my dogs. And don’t let Michael fool you – he’s smitten too.

I work for a media company as a social media consultant and write a column on social media that is published in two local newspapers. I also do some freelance writing and social media management. It’s an awesome way to earn a living. I love my clients.

|Things you should know|

>>We do not have children. Every time you ask us when we are going to have children, an angel actually loses its wings and we push our baby-making date back by about 6 months. At this rate, we should be trying for BfT (Baby from Texas) sometime in 2040.

>>My birthday is March 5th, 1986. Michael’s birthday is March 8th, 1979, making our birthdays 3 days apart. So that’s kind of fun.

>>I have a degree in English and Creative Writing. In college, I wanted to be the next Carrie Bradshaw, except with slightly more appropriate writing topics.

>>Pancho was supposed to stay under 10 pounds and Leia was supposed to get to about 30; he is now 18 pounds and she is 20. We have 40 pounds of dog, it’s just not distributed quite like we had originally planned.

>>I’m a Christian and have been for most of my life. However I will rarely, if ever, blog about my faith, mostly because I’m still trying to figure out what it means to me as an adult and how to live it out in my day to day life. I do know that I wholeheartedly believe Jesus wasn’t concerned with the majority of things about which Christians spend their time arguing and analyzing, but that it all boils down to this: Love God, and love others. It’s not that complicated.

>>Sometimes the Texan in me takes over and my accent gets really strong. If it gets to that point, I’ll probably start staying things like “bless her heart” and “that’s not enough to cuss a cat!” Consider this fair warning.

|I like|

Coffee, thrifting, cooking, reading, making lists, Instagram photos, watching reruns of my favorite TV shows, champagne, long conversations, and vintage anything (especially jewelry). My love language is quality time. And brunch.

For my To-Do before Thirty, click here.

To share your thoughts and feelings, use my contact form, or email me directly if that is your preference: laurenfromtexas(at)gmail(dot)com