Thursday 5.. 2 in a row!

 Yes I know, you're all shocked to see a Thursday 5 two weeks in a row! Not to mention a couple other posts in between. I'm working on gettin' my groove back people! Back to the point. Again, my favorite link up to one of my fav blogs! Go check out Nicole at Flip Flops and Combat Boots! While you're there go ahead and grab yo self this weeks words and link up! OutstandingRefreshingCheerful Memorable Cool 1) I had the most Outstanding weekend with all the guys this past weekend. I was pretty much the Mardi Gras princess in the group.  2) This weekend, we literally have NO plans other than my 6 hour shift on Saturday. I must say that after last weekend's ridiculousness, it's pretty Refreshing. I plan on getting a little extra sleep, cleaning, and finally getting to church on Sunday! 3) We've actually had kind of a tough week. Both of us were "sick" of some sort and we got more bad news today from the Active Duty recruiter. We're both trying our best to count our many blessings and stay Cheerful in spite of the bad news. Prayers are appreciated as we continue to hit our knees and pray for God to give us His direction. 4) Ok, this is a little silly, but does anyone else watch The Big Bang Theory on CBS? We're a little obsessed with it, and tonight's episode was definitely a Memorable one! I mean seriously, Sheldon playing the bongos?!? And his haircut.. I was dying!! 5) Tomorrow I'm subbing up at high school. Luckily it's all seniors and they're surprisingly small classes, but it never fails to make me laugh at how Cool high school kids think they are! Especially the older they get.. by Senior year, they think they rule the school. I can only hope I don't seem like such a snob when I was in high school! Happy Thursday y'all! We're less than 2 hours from Friday now.. YAY weekend!

Insanity

Source: lottaagaton.blogspot.com via dana on Pinterest

Source: ourfunnyplanet.com via Lynn on Pinterest

These two little quotes have been weighing on my heart a lot lately which has ultimately led to the writing of this post.

I'm going to do some confessing in this post. Things that I'm not necessarily proud of.

To start with, I CONFESS that I am a meddler. I can't help it! I'm nosy and I care far too much about too many people. Often this leads to unsolicited advice and "help" that said loved one does not want.

I CONFESS that watching the people I love get hurt and make stupid decisions over and over hurts my heart. It probably bothers me a little more than it should.When I read what feels like the same Facebook status over and over just on a different day, I find myself getting angry with this person for making the same choices over and over.

I try to bite my tongue and keep my unsolicited advice to myself. I try my very hardest not to leave comments on Facebook statuses, send texts, or otherwise electronically contact people to tell them what I think they need to do. I CONFESS that all of this restraint sometimes makes me crazy!

I CONFESS that my own relationship with my now husband definitely was not perfect when we were dating. I chalk it up to stupid, young, immaturity that I'm so glad we out grew. But not everyone does by any means. You hope that everyone will, and most do. But just because they eventually will, does NOT mean they will grow up for you. 

I just got lucky that mine did. We did. We learned, we grew, we focused on us, we took everyone else out of the equation. It took a lot of work. Work that for us, was well worth the time and made us so much closer and stronger. 

But we were one of the lucky ones. Not everyone has that. In fact our story is rare. Most bad on again/off again relationships end that way, badly. Both people move on to realize in OTHER people what they were missing before.

Sometimes it's not even a relationship. It's anything toxic. Drinking, partying, going out, damaging relationships, sleeping around, drugs, irresponsibility... the list goes on.

I am by no means saying my life is perfect and I have it all together. In fact, I CONFESS that I most certainly do not. I'm still learning, still growing, and still cementing my relationship, friendships, family life, professional life, etc.

I guess what I wish is that sometimes instead of watching people learn the hard way, you could make them learn from your mistakes.

Or at least just shake them until they realize what they're doing!

Easier said than done, I suppose.

Anyone else have this feeling? Am I the only one that's wanted to abandon all social media to keep from seeing the same crap over and over? Are you a meddler? Do you bite your tongue or tell it like is?

Well.. thanks for staying with me through my little rant. Happy Wednesday y'all!

Crazzzzayyy weekend!

Long weekends around here always make me a little nervous! Stephen has some close friends that he made in Tech school that luckily got stationed about 30 minutes from us. They're single and live on base so any time there's a long weekend, I can expect a party at my house. Literally. For the whole weekend.

Don't get me wrong, I love these guys! I love the fun, the camaraderie, the silliness that ensues when this bunch gets together. It's like having brothers I never had(or really wanted, but that's ok! HA) What I don't necessarily love is the havoc that is wreaked on my liver by the alcohol consumption or the mess that ends up strewn across the house. But livers recover and messes can be cleaned, right?

Friday the guys all got off early so they were at my house before I was off work. Once I finally made it home and got ready we all headed over to Stephen's parents' house to celebrate his sister Brittany's, 22nd birthday! We love that girl and it was a fun night with family and friends to celebrate another year! We all got an extra surprise when Stephen's little brother Shawn was home from school for the weekend for Brittany's birthday!

Brittany, Stephen, Shawn at our wedding

Somehow we ended up taking the party back to our house when the whole gang decided to come play beer pong, flip cup, and just hang out. It was a lot of fun, but we were up later than anticipated and consumed a few more cocktails than planned as well!

We were all a little tired, groggy, and hungover on Saturday morning. I had switched my work schedule to have the whole day off and we were supposed to spend the day in Mobile celebrating Mardi Gras(one of my favorite times of year!). But unfortunately, the weather had other plans. It was a monsoon from here to New Orleans! I had 4 bored guys on my hands, and they had one thing on their mind. Road trip. I gave in and off we went to Malbis to Bass Pro Shop.

Seriously, that store is amazing. We spent probably an hour and a half walking around looking at everything. Including this little beauty that I legitamitely want!

After they finally bored with Bass Pro, they managed to convince me to continue our trip to Biloxi to do a little gambling at the casinos. We headed to the Beau Rivage. I'm pretty sure we spend less time in the casino than we did in Bass Pro! No one was particularly lucky. I, in particular, managed to lose money extra quickly and was ready to leave before they took any more of my money!

We started the road trip home. We stopped on the way for way too much food at Mellow Mushroom. Then somehow on the way home got the idea to build a pillow fort, bake cookies, and watch movies for the rest of the night. So that's what we did. The movie watching didn't last too long considering how tired everyone was, but it was fun nonetheless!

Sunday was supposed to be a recovery day. I had to work 10-4 again and I figured the guys would head back to base. Nope, not the case. I got a text from my husband shortly after I got to work suggesting we head to Mobile when I got off work to catch the last parade and go out for a little bit.

So that's what we did. They met me at my parents' house when I got off. I stole some clothes from my sister's abandoned closet upstairs(since my husband forgot the clothes he was supposed to bring me!) and we headed over to Mobile.

We lucked into a good parking spot and caught the last parade. We drank wayyyy too much while waiting for the parade to start, and then kept it going after the parade when we hit up some of the bars in downtown Mobile. We had a blast and we can all say we had our fill of Mardi Gras for this season!

However I can't wait til next year! I'm determined we're going to make it to New Orleans to celebrate. Something about Mardi Gras just makes me happy! I'll leave you all with some pictures of our crazy Mardi Gras night.



Happy Fat Tuesday y'all!

Finally.. Thursday!

I have been a capital "T" terrible blogger as of late so I am EXCITED to be joining in on of my all time favorite weekly blog posts by Nicole at Flip Flops and Combat Boots. Check out her awesome blog and link up with how this week's five words are affecting you.

 BlessedDelightedJoyousCheerfulJolly

1) I am beyond Blessed by all of God's gifts. A wonderful, loving husband, sweet puppy, supportive family, great friends, house, job, food, I could go on all day! I find myself constantly taking moments to pray and say thanks often these days.  2) I am Delighted that the recruiter called two nights ago and it finally feels like we're actually making head way on this transition! Hoping to have orders, or at least a good idea of where/when we're moving, by the end of next month! 3) We had an absolutely Joyous Valentine's Day and I am thankful we were able to spend it together this year! :) 4) This weekend (barring any rain) we're headed to Mobile on Saturday with some good friends to enjoy the Mardi Gras festivities! I am beyond Cheerful to celebrate this weekend!!!! 5) With so much to look forward to going on this week, I've been in an exceptionally Jolly mood this week and I have to say I am thoroughly enjoying it! Bring on this weekend and whatever 2012 has for us! The Volheims are ready! Hope you all have a wonderful day! It's Thursday which means one day closer to the weekend!!!! Happy Thursday y'all!

Valentine's Special.... a little late

I had the best of intentions to write this post yesterday, but I opted to enjoy the little time we were home with my sweet Valentine instead.

We had a great Valentine's Day this year as we celebrated our 5th Valentine's Day as a couple and our 1st as a married couple. We usually don't do a whole lot to celebrate.. it's kind of a silly holiday. We're one of those disgusting couples that surprise each other with little things all year "just because". So Valentine's Day is just another day. This year we just did some little things.

I packed my husband a special lunch. I attempted to make him a Mickey Mouse shaped sandwich and put his favorite candy, peanut M&M's in valentine's colors in his lunch too.

When he came home I had a surprise waiting for him, a bag of peanut M&Ms, one of those big Reese's hearts, and some silly scooby doo valentine boxers.

His surprise for me was an awesome date. We went to a really yummy seafood place for dinner and then my super sweet husband surprised me by taking me to see "The Vow". (I guess all my talking about it paid off!)(However, I ended up hating the movie, it was extremely disappointing!!!) I'm one lucky wife to have such an incredible husband!

But really I wanted to share a different story. This story goes back to our 2nd Valentine's Day together. I had to work all day so we decided not to go out. Instead, Stephen cooked dinner for me at home and rented a movie.(Sadly, now I can't remember what movie... I should have started blogging earlier! ;) My sweet then boyfriend made us homemade pizzas that he cut into heart shapes(such a sweetie!) and had a whole loaf of Italian bread to go with it. He set the table, lit candles, and was putting all the food out before I got him. He would cut a piece of bread to put on each plate then go in the kitchen to get something else.

When he came back, the bread he had cut was gone. Confused, he cut another piece and went on with what he was doing. Next thing he knew, the bread was gone again. So this time he cut a piece and put on each plate and then peered around the corner to see what was going on.

Turns out this little thief was stealing the bread every time he turned around!!

In the end that was one of our best Valentine's ever, and as you can see it's made for a great story for years to come! :)

Hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's this year! I certainly did, and here's to many more with my sweet husband! Happy Wednesday y'all!

Our little love story

Since I've been M.I.A. so much lately, I couldn't resist this fun little post to share. I absolutely LOOOOOVE the blog, From Mrs. to Mama. Becky cracks me up! You should follow the link and check out her blog. While you're there, grab the questions and link up for this fun Valentine's themed link up! The extra fun thing is that there are a different set of questions for taken and single ladies so everyone can play!

Taken Ladies

1. How long have you and your significant other been together?
We hit the 4 year mark back in November... crazy how fast time flies!

2. How did you meet? {What's your "love" story?}

Alright, alright... I'll tell you our very UNromantic true meeting story. I was 18 and Stephen had just turned 21. Back then MySpace was still the thing. One day I got a message from him. He looked familiar and we shared a couple mutual friends, but I couldn't place him. I usually don't respond to messages from people I don't know, but this time I did. After exchanging messages back and forth, he invited me and a friend to his house to watch the FSU/Boston College game. It was fun, my Noles won, but Stephen was painfully shy in person. I remember leaving that night with my friend, Stevie to go to another party and telling her that it had been a bust and maybe we would meet someone interesting at the next party. He ended up texting me the next day and convincing me to give him another shot, I did and our second meeting/"first date" went much better. The rest was history and now we've been married almost 9 months!



3. If married, how long have you been married?

We are happily married newlyweds. We've been married almost 9 months now.. I feel like our first anniversary will be here before we know it!

4. If you are married, where did you get married at? Big or small wedding? 

We got married at this great restaurant on Pensacola Beach where we also held our reception. I would say it was in between big/small and it could not have been more perfect! To read more about our big day, check out these posts: The Big Day: Round 1

                         Wedding Day: Part 2

5. Do you have any nick-names that you call one another? Do share!

Boy do we! We really ever say our real names. Usually it's honey, baby, hubs, wife, boo... but sometimes we make up other silly ones as we go.

6. Name 3 things you love most about your honey.
Well besides everything, his sense of humor is probably what attracted me to him first. He keeps me in stitches from laughing so much. Despite his typical tough guy appearance, he has the biggest heart. He care about everyone. He's a complete romantic. He probably won't appreciate me sharing this little tid bit, but he's so sweet! He does cute things from leaving me notes on the bathroom mirror, bringing me a card for no reason, bringing home flowers for no occasion, but just because.

7. Tell us how he proposed?
He set up a scavenger hunt to get me to the beach where he propsed to me in front of some of our close friends. The best part was it happened on a random Thursday night after I got off work, so I had NO idea it was coming! You can read about the whole story here: Our proposal story

8. Is he a flowers and teddy bear kind of guy for v-day, or strawberries, champagne, and rose petals?
Hmm.. that's tough. He usually does flowers and makes me dinner.. so both? We try not to make a big deal out of Valentine's Day.

9. Are you a sunset dinner on the beach kind of girl, or pop a movie in and relax on the couch?
Both. I love going to the beach if we're going to go out, but I'm a complete homebody and can say I honestly enjoy hanging out at home with my husband.

10. Tell us one thing you'd like to do with your significant one day. If you could do anything? Go anywhere?
Where do I start?! There are tons of things we want to do. Travel is the biggest one. We love to try new things, so there are tons of places I want to go and experience together with my husband.

11. Tell us what you plan on doing on this Valentine's Day.
Probably make dinner at home and watch movies or something. Like I said, we don't really make a huge deal out of it.

12. Are you asking for anything this Valentine's day?
Nope. Maybe a back rub ;)

13. Give us one piece of advice of keeping a relationship strong and full of love.
Be silly. Laughing has gotten us through a lot. Making light of situations, joking, and laughing together reminds us why we fell in love in the first place.

14.  Show us a picture of what love means to you.
Our marriage is love to me

Is this thing on???

Hello, is anyone still out there??

I can't say that I blame you if you've jumped ship by now. I have turned into the world's WORST blogger as of late!

Not for lack of logging in, because I admit I've been a bit of a stalker. I still sign in and keep up with my favorite bloggies. I just haven't felt I had much to write about lately.

Boring, I know!

We've both been working. A lot.

We enjoy every second we can steal with friends and family these days. (Poor hub's days off are few and far between over the last couple months). We've enjoyed our backyard and fire pit to the fullest with dear friends on our few weekend nights off.

Last Saturday we even went to the Professional Bull Riding competition with an exceptionally fun group at the civic center. (Much more exciting than it actually sounds!) We went to our favorite Pensacola restaurant(McGuire's) after for snacks and a few beers. Sunday we both had to work, but after we got to enjoy an incredibly fun Super Bowl party with some awesome people we hadn't seen in a while!

Other than that, we've been trying(rather unsuccessfully as of late) to figure out life.

We finally got all of Stephen's paperwork in order for the recruiter. We're just waiting on the word from the recruiter(*Fingers Crossed* for this week) to send him up to MEPS for a quick "inspection". Basically they just have to look him over and make sure he's still one piece since they sent him to BMT almost 2 years ago.

Hopefully we can get that done end of this week/beginning of next and then we'll officially be in the "waiting" stage.(I know, if you're like me, you're thinking what would you call what we have been doing??) My thoughts exactly! Once the MEPS trip is done we wait anywhere from a week to 4 weeks for word back. So long as everything is approved(which is most likely) and there is still a crew chief position empty(currently there are 2 open in the country), we will get his orders for a report date to his new PCS(permanent change of station).

I'm hoping this means a move for us!! I'm ready for a change of scenery. Also hoping it's nothing too crazy(i/e: Alaska, North Dakota... anywhere this southern girl would turn into an ice cube!)

I've kind of put my plans on hold for the moment as I feel it would be a waste to get too involved in a job here right now since a move is looking pretty imminent. I'm still working my serving job, ticket selling job, and occasionally subbing.

Once we move, if it is near a big city I will attempt to give this PR/marketing thing another go. If not, I'm seriously giving some thought into going to ultrasound or radiography school. I've become fascinated with the medical field and think I would enjoy either of these paths.

In the mean time I've just been praying my little heart out that God puts us exactly where we're needed. Also, that he gives some clear signals since sometimes we can be a little dense on these things! I know he has plans for us, we just have to figure them out.

Since the holidays I've been in work out mode. Being in Florida, bikini season is coming VERY quickly! (As in now. We've had days warm enough to sit on the beach in a bathing suit already!) With my erradic schedule, it's hard to be too intense about it. I've just been trying to make healthier choices when eating, doing my zumba on the Wii almost daily(at least 4-5 times a week), and walking 2 miles almost every night after work with Stephen(this is my favorite since it's turned into something we enjoy doing together). This last week I've started adding in crunches, bridges, push ups, and dips at night to start working on tone too. I admit I haven't been at it very long, but I'm already feeling good! My clothes are starting to fit better, the exercises are becoming easier, and I just feel better. It's definitely not always fun, and some days after work I really have to convince myself to to, but it's good for me and that's what counts.

That about sums it up for us these days. Did everyone have a fun Super Bowl Sunday? Any career advice to either of us at this stage in the game? Prayers are always appreciated for our little family as we navigate all of this craziness! And as always, Happy Monday y'all!