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!

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

6 months down...

That's right people, the Hubs and I officially SURVIVED our first 6 months of marriage! Today marks exactly six months since we said our "I do's". That means we're half way to our 1st anniversary(which means champagne and cake!)

(Ok, ok I confess I remembered that today marked 6 months because I had an email from the knot.com asking me if we "were pregnant, new parents or trying to conceive" sicne we had been married 6 months this morning. Why no, knot.com, we are not. Thanks for increasing my already ridiculous baby fever as I try to just enjoy our first few years of newlyweded bliss!!)

But I digress...

I text Stephen this morning to tell him we had survived and I loved him. :) (sweetest wife ever, I know!) And do you know what that sweet, wonderful man did? He stopped by the store on his way home to get me a treat!

That's right, when I got home from work he had a bubble bath complete with lighted candles, a new magazine, my favorite candy, and a sweet card waiting for me to relax! (Yup, I hit the jackpot! ;)

We've had quite an eventful first 6 months as a married couple, and I expect that we'll have plenty more stories in the next 6 before we reach that one year mark. Who even knows where we'll be! We're both still trying to decide "what to be  when we grow up".

I decided today to spare you the nitty gritty details of our first 6 months which most definitley included, love, hugs, fights, arguments, stress, bills, moving, changing, growing, cuddling, sharing, and so much more trials and successes(which many of you have already about here anyway). Instead, I'm going to just share our 1st 6 months in pictures with you.

Happy 1/2versary to my wonderful, thoughtful, handsome, sweet husband! I love you, Stephen, and I appreciate all you do for us! My life would be so boring without you





To many, many more!

Happy Monday and Happy Thanksgiving week y'all!

Wedding weekend: Friday

And so it begins! Thursday was a nice relaxing day of hanging out. Friday was the kick off to all things wedding. I started my day by meeting my wonderful bridesmaids, and all of my family at the Village Inn for a yummy breakfast! It was a great way to get everyone together and start off the weekend in slow motion. After breakfast we all went down the road to my favorite nail salon to get our nails and toes done for the wedding. It was so relaxing(well as relaxing as you can be with this group!) and fun! I loved going with the whole group because we really took the time to enjoy it and hang out instead of rush through another appointment to get it over with before the wedding.

                                                   Baby Annisten got to come too! :)

With a group our size, this pretty much took all day. We got done at almost 1 in the afternoon. I had just about enough time to rush home, shower, and finish getting my stuff together(not to mention wrangle up the guys!) and then head out to the beach for the rehersal.

We had our rehersal at Hemingway's at 4:30. It took a few minutes to get it all together, but everything went really smoothly! I felt much better about everything once I saw it come together.

After our rehersal, we headed over to McGuire's Irish Pub for our rehersal dinner. Stephen's parents threw the rehersal dinner and it was wonderful! Everyone had a great time and the food there is always delicious! It was the perfect way to end our day.

                                                                My family at dinner

                                                                  Stephen's family

                                                             Handing out bridal party gifts

                                                      Whitney and her bridesmaid bag :)

                                                         Adam with his groomsman mug :)

                                  Shawn ordered the garbage burger... and actually ate it! YUCK!

                               The cute cake Stephen's mom ordered for us for the rehersal dinner! Disney and beach themed! Perfect!

Let wedding weekend commence!

I know, I know. I let another week pass, AGAIN! But here it is without further ado, the recap of our wonderful wedding festivities!

Thursday:
I took off work Thursday and spent the last day relaxing at the beach with friends. That night all of the rest of our family and friends got into town. I went to dinner with my family to our favorite local Mexican restaurant, and Stephen went out with his buddies that were in town for steaks and burgers(I will never understand men's obsession with beef!) After dinner, everyone met up at our apartment and we decided to go out for one last group outing so we headed to Seville Quarter to hang out at the Dueling Pianos show. Best way to spend our last night out together unmarried! We all just hung out and enjoyed each other's company and the awesome piano show. Our night wouldn't have been complete without a trip to the stage to celebrate the upcoming wedding with the entire bar! Leave it to our friends to make sure that happened! We were called on stage to play "Head, shoulders, knees, and toes" It was a blast. Round 1: we had to follow with the song and touch our own body parts. Round 2: we touched each other's body part as the song named it off. Round 3: We put our hands behind our backs and had to touch each other's body part with our head. (Ending the song in a lip lock as they got to "eyes, and ears, and MOUTH and NOSE) It was a cute idea and we had so much fun!

Here we go...

It's already MAY!!... *MAY*.... Our wedding month! Holy wow.. 19 more days. I'm getting less and less sleep(obviously!). I wake up in the middle of the night thinking about things I need to get done. I have nightmares that something is going to go wrong. We spend our evenings discussing last minute details and day dreaming about how great it will be to be married. *SIGH*.. Only 19 short days left!

Luckily I have my new job to keep me busy! I'm still getting used to full time hours without school. Speaking of no school. Graduation was this weekend and it was amazing! Got up early Saturday for the 9:30 graduation, went to lunch with my amazingly wonderful family, came home took a nap, went to the mall, then.. SURPRISE! Stephen had planned a surprise graduation party for me! :) This was a first for him. He has tried to surprise me in the past and I always figure it out(except for when he proposed! I have managed to pull off a surprise for his last 3 birthdays, so the fact that he got me was awesome! I appreciate everyone who helped him pull it off! This weekend was perfect!

Sunday we slept in then enjoyed the day at the beach. We were wiped out so instead of cooking we went for Chinese then watched a movie at the house. Perfect ending... so we thought. We were just getting into bed last night when thanks to facebook we knew to turn on the news to see that Osama Bin Laden has finally been served justice. Truly a perfect ending to a perfect weekend. I will never forget that. I'm always proud to be American and especially to be engaged to an airman, but today I was even more so. I know this isn't the end. The war on terror is just beginning, but this was a huge victory for America and I am so grateful to all of our troops both home and away!
"Make it home, Make it safe!" I love that this happened on May 1st.. the start of Military Appreciation month! I appreciate my military, and if you don't... well you know what I say. "If you don't stand behind our troops, feel free to stand in front of them!" ;) God bless you all, you're always in my prayer(this counts for all you milspouses too! One of the hardest jobs in the military!)

Ok, definitley bed time. I've been going to the gym at 6 before I get ready for work, so I'm gonna need some sleep! I promise not to disappear anymore! I'm back in the blogging world, and plan to reveal my work blog soon which should be a whole new adventure! Happy Monday y'all!

Monday, Monday, Monday

Oh Monday you came again too soon! We had a fabulous weekend! Unfortunatley I am slacking with picture taking, but that's because I discovered my digital camera is broken. My sweet sweet fiance bought us a new one so we would have one for the honeymoon, and I can't wait for it to get here!!! :) He got a great deal on it from eBay too.. he also became addicted to eBay in the process which isn't so good! Haha

Today I was off of school and work(I know, crazy!!) It was so nice. Crossed several things off my list for the wedding. Finished a take home final, cleaned the apartment, got in a nice long work out, AND got to lay out with my sweet cousin, Mandy for a couple hours! Wonderful day!

Now my work week gets in full swing tomorrow and my last finals are Wednesday! I don't even care because I graduate on Saturday! Woo hoo! :)

My current major items to cross off the wedding list: Marriage license(pretty crucial, right?) and finding some really cute jewelry for my bridesmaids to go with their dresses.

Oh, oh, oh! I forgot we got our first 2 wedding gifts today! :) So exciting!!! I can't believe how close it is!!!!!!

Well anyway, it's sadly my bedtime already! I promise to catch up again soon, I know I have been a slacker!

Happy Monday y'all! :)

And now a bit early..

Not enough time in the day these days, so when I get a second, I'll just go ahead and write both! :) How is it already Thursday?!? Head over and link up with Nicole@ Flip Flops and Combat Boots for Thursday 5!!This week's words: Dazzling

Spectacular

Terrific

Perfect

Ecstatic

 

1) We went to see Disney on Ice tonight with my wonderful cousins and the show was Dazzling!! We had such a good time, and the best part was playing with sweet baby boy Trae! He is such a little doll! He definitley keeps us all entertained!

 2) (Other than this morning) The weather has been Spectacular!! Warm and sunny, but thankfully not too hot and humid yet! 3) I finished ALL of my undergrad assignments as of yesterday and it feels Terrific!! Just my finals now and I'm FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! 4) Tonight, I get off work at 5 and I don't have to work anywhere else! :) Perfect night at home with my almost hubby is what we have planned! I'm cooking a yummy dinner and then we'll watch a movie.. can't wait for quittin' time tonight! :) 5) Today OFFICIALLY marks exactly ONE month til our wedding!!! Words can't describe how ECSTATIC I am!!!!!  I know my Thursday 5 seems pretty redundant the last few weeks, but I promise my life will change soon! After next week, no more school!! So I'll be working full time and hopefully have more interesting things to talk about. And in just a month we'll be married so no more wedding talk, just newlywed stories! Bear with them.. I'm in the middle of some HUGE changes, but I'll be more interesting soon I promise!!  Happy Thursday y'all! :)

Quick Monday hello!

Hello all! I know I have been M.I.A. since Thursday(very BAD on my part!) But I was in Panama City Beach all weekend working for my dad at the SeaBreeze Jazz Festival with my cousin, Mandy. It was a loooong weekend of working, but we did manage to sneak in some fun! :)

Got home late last night and had to be up early this morning... started my first day at my NEW job!! (YES, I did get the job I interviewed for last week!! :)) I'm so excited! The people are so nice, and I love the work so far. Also, I got good news when I went in this morning that they decided to pay me more than they initially had said! The downfall is now I have to quit my current job. I'm going in the morning to put in my 2 weeks and it's going to be sad. I really loved the people I worked with!

I finally talked Stephen into moving the month after the wedding so I'm already in the process of looking at houses.. I love starting fresh in a new house! :) On the same note, we're now just over ONE month away from our wedding! WOW! So much still to do.

This is my last week of classes, just one presentation and 2 finals seperate me from graduation next Saturday! Since I was gone all weekend I'm in the process of catching up on some cleaning, laundry, organizing, and homework/wedding stuff. Needless to say I'm one more thought away from a mild panic attack! So I apoloize in advance I will probably be M.I.A. again this week since I work everyday until Sunday and need to wrap up homework and last minute wedding details.. hopefully I'll have a more interesting post soon.. i'm almost DONE!! :) Happy Monday y'all!

 

And since it's now Thursday..

Here is my other favorite weekly link up.... Thursday 5!!

 A huge thank you to Nicole from Flip Flops and Combat Boots to hosting this one every week! :) LOVE it! This weeks words:DeliciousExcitingAwesomeRewarding

Priceless

1) Tonight I copied my mom and made one of Stephen's favorite dinners. Pork tenderloin, fried(mexican lol) rice, and green beans. It was Delicious! So glad my mama's such a good cook!

2) I had a very Exciting job interview the other day and I feel like it went very well! Still praying it works out and hoping to hear back very soon! :)

3) The weather here has been Awesome!! So warm during the day for getting tan, but cool at night. Stephen and I actually ate our dinner outside on our balcony tonight.. soooo relaxing!

4) Graduation is just over two weeks away now! It's so Rewarding now to look at a class syllabus and see that everything is done but taking finals! Oh how I will NOT miss undergrad!

5) Got a phone call tonight from Trae baby.. he's little voice is too cute! He's growing up so fast and these little moments are Priceless!! It's so funny to see how much he's grown up already! :)
   isn't he a doll?! I just love him to pieces!

It's been a wonderful week and I can't believe it's already Thursday!! Long weekend ahead working for my dad at the jazz festival in panama city, I will be sure to take pictures and will try to post again when I get a chance.

Happy Thursday y'all! :)

Barely made it in time for WILW...

So, I was laying in bed, the future hubs fast asleep already, when I realized.. I hadn't posted my What I'm loving Wednesday post! Ahhh! It's one of my two favorite posts for the week! So just in the knick of time, without further ado, here you go: :)

I love that Jamie @ LittleDaisyMay hosts this every week!

I love that I finally went grocery shopping today! (Boy, did we need food!) I love that I found this awesome tabouli mix so I could make homemade tabouli salad! One of my favorites! Unfortunatley for the guy that ones Four Winds market, I won't need to go in there to buy it anymore because it's way cheaper and just as delicious to make it myself!

YUMMY!!

I'm loving that we finally decided on, ordered, and are now currently waiting on Stephen's wedding band!(Good thing too since there's only 37 days til our wedding now!! Eeeep!)

I love it, because I think it's different! :)

I love, love, love that Stephen's been making the drive home every night in stead of staying on base and we've been able to cook/eat dinner together and watch our favorite shows! Pretty much my favorite past time! :)

I'm LOVING the awesome weather we've been having! Gorgeous, sunny, and warm all day and clear and cool enough to have the windows open at night! My skin sure is loving the tan!

I'm loving how LAZY my Natty dog is!

I'm seriously LOVING the fact that we've already gotten so many RSVPs back for the wedding! My mom called me tonight to tell me that she checked the mail today and had 18! 18!!! (They just went out on Friday), love that people respond so quickly! (Mom was excited but I think it secretly stresses her out a bit too, it's amazing how quickly weddings grow! ;)

I love that's already Wednesday and this week is already almost over.. next week is the last week of actual class then a couple finals... LOVE that!! Hello graduation! :)

LOVE life! Happy Wednesday y'all!

MilSpouse round up..

It's Friday! So for the rest of your millie's you know that it's time for the MilSpouse weekly round up. As the "rules" state you don't have to post a new blog, but you can just link up on from previously in the week. Well nothing too exciting happened this week, so I found a military themed survey that I thought would be appropriate for the link up. All you other MilSpouses grab the button and head on over to Our Crazy Life to link up!

 

1. How long have you been a military wife?
I'm technically not a "wife" until next month. But i've been a very proud Air Force Fiancee since May of last year.    

2. What branch of service is your husband?
United States Air Force- Fly. Fight. Win!! :)

3. Active/Reserve?
Currently Reserve, but we're hoping there's opportunity to change that down the road

4. What is his job?
C-130 Crew Chief

5. How many deployments have you gone through?
None yet, he was gone for 9 months with BMT and AIT so we're enjoying this training period and hoping  we get a break first

 

6. Camo or dress uniforms on your man?
ABU's for sure!! Something about those uniforms are very hott ;) 

7. What do you like about being a military wife?
Well, we haven't been in for very long and being reserve it's a little different because we haven't had to move yet, but I have had the opportunity to meet a lot of awesome people through this lifestyle.

8. Do you live on base?
Nope, currently reserve

9. What is your favorite base so far?
I've only visited we've never lived at one. I'm sure Stephen would disagree, but I liked Lackland.

10. What is the hardest part of the military life?
Being apart and the schedule. Luckily Stephen is on days, but some of the guys get on crazy schedules.

 

11. Do you go to the grocery store or Commissary?
Both. The commissary is a bit of a drive for us since we don't live on base. When we're doing a lot of shopping we go to the commissary, but usually we'll just go to the grocery store

12. Do you work or stay at home?
Work

13. Do you have a lot of military wife friends? 
I've met several in the short time Stephen has been in, I've also met the really cool people Stephen has worked/trained with and become good friends with many of them too.

14. Do you prefer Walmart or the BX/PX/NEX/MCX?

Walmart, we don't ever drive over to the BX

15. How did your husband propose? 

It was perfect, he did such a good job! But it's a long story and the condensed version doesn't do it justice so I'll let you read about it here.

 

16. Did you marry him after he joined or before?
We'll be married after, but we were engaged before

17. How long have you been together?
Since November 29, 2007

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

18. Any kids?
Just our Natty dog.. the best American bulldog ever :)

19. Any kids yet to come?
We both definitley want kids.. but in a few years, we just want to get married and enjoy the honeymoon phase first!

20. Is your husband one of those "I am soldier hear me HOOAH" kind of guys?
Not at all.. he's kind of the opposite actually

21. Have you ever done combatives with your husband?

Umm.. no.

 

22. How many bases have you lived at?
None

23. If you could change one thing about the military?

Sometimes, they just aren't very efficient

24. Do you like military balls?
I've never been, but I'm sure I would.. any excuse to get all dressed up!

25. Where does your family live?
Both of our families live here. Mine in Pensacola, his in Pace

26. What do you do for a job?
Currently I work part time as a receptionist in an optometrist's office, but I graduate at the end of the month and will be looking for something full time

27. Have you ever gotten in a fight with an NCO's wife?
No

28. Name one thing you do when your husband is gone.
Spend a LOT of time at my parents, watch ridiculous tv, and go to the gym more

29. Do you think other wives do that too?

Yes, definitley