These are my confessions...

I confess:

• That I haven't blogged much lately, partly because I haven't done much worth blogging about and partly because reading about all you mama's out there is giving me killer baby fever!
• That I will be reading blogs to catch up for the next few hours while my Hubs studies for his CDC test.
• That I have been job hunting like a fiend for the last few weeks without much success.
• The lack of success in job hunting could be due to me being so picky.
• I still don't know "what I want to be when I grow up". One day I think I love PR and want to do that, the next I think I wanna go to ultrasound school.
• Sometimes I want Stephen to go AD in the Air Force so we can move around
• Sometimes I want us both to find good, permanent jobs here so we can buy a house, settle down, and have babies.
• Some days I think I want to have a baby very soon, some days I think I'd like to wait a few years to do some other stuff just as a couple first..
• I LOVE CHRISTMAS!! But this year it's really stressing me out..
• I'm working out/eating good lately, but intensely craving Fro Yo while watching football with the hubs tonight!
• I HATE working out/eating good.. but it feels so good when I stick to it!
• That I have no idea what I'm doing these days but I am enjoying each day and all the people I share them with!

Yes, I know. Randomness. But that pretty much sums up my life these days. I feel like we're kind of in limbo these days as  we both try and figure out "what's next" in our professional lives. Much less fun than it sounds! I have some really awesome cooking posts to share tomorrow or Monday, but tonight I thought I'd finally post our Christmas card photo shoot. I'm having a hard time deciding which one to use, so any input is appreciated!



OH! Side note: My very handsome Senior Airman was nominated for Airman of the quarter in his squadron. I'm one very proud wife! :)

Happy Saturday y'all!

25

The BIG 2-5!

That's how old my sweet husband is turning today! WOW! Happy birthday Lovebug! Lucky for him he has such a young wife to keep him from aging ;)

Hehe.

This his 4th birthday that we're spending together, and in case you haven't noticed already I like to give my hubs a hard time about getting old. (He's almost 3 years older than me) Though, I'm fully aware that he's not. (Before I start getting hate mail and nasty comments!) I appreciate that 25 years is not a long time in the grand scheme of things. He's just getting started. We're both barely scratching the surface of adulthood, but then you think about him being a quarter of a century old, and realize my handsome man has come a long long way!

Just in the last year he has grown and changed so much in the last year alone! I'm so proud that I get to call him my husband for this birthday and all of the birthdays to come!

I have a few birthday surprises up my sleeve. (I usually do.) I'm the queen of birthday surprises! I learned that from my mom.

The big plans for tomorrow is to have a party at our house and have some friends and family over to help celebrate tomorrow evening. You'll have to check to see the surprises as well as pictures from his big night! :)

In the mean time I thought I would make a list of my 25 favorite things about my husband:

1.) His adorable smile

2.) His sense of humor

3.) The crazy nicknames he come up with for me

4.) The way he hogs the bed/covers at night

5.) His picky eating, but willingness to try new things at least once

6.) His zest for life and refusal to get old

7.) His HUGE heart that he wears on his sleeve

8.) His singing voice, especially when he's singing to me in the car

9.) The crazy things he'll do just to make me smile

10.) He's extreme love for Disney

11.) The way he acts like he's still a kid when we're at any amusement park

12.) How well he fits right into my crazy family

13.) How much he genuinely cares how other people feel

14.) That he will sit with me through any of my stupid shows or movies

15.) That he doesn't think I'm crazy when I talk about having kids in the not so distant future(not not too soon either!)

16.) That he will ONE day make the most amazing father

17.) The way he plays with Natty and gets him so wound up

18.) How I can still manage to talk him into walking with me in the evening after a long day of work

19.) The way he treats me like a princess all the time

20.) How he is such a baby when he's sick

21.) How safe he makes me feel even when I get scared after watching a creepy movie

22.) That he never gets bored of my cooking(even when we eat a lot of chicken)

23.) His love for traveling and new adventures

24.) The way that he can make any monotonous day seem like an exciting one with his crazy ideas

25.) How much I love him and continue to love him more and more everyday!

Happy birthday my love! And many, many more!

For the rest of you lovely readers, Happy Friday and have a wonderful weekend!

Monday again?

Is it really already Monday? Where have the last couple weeks gone?! I swear I feel like it was just  September 1st and now here we are half way through September! Basically I'm trying to make excuses for my inexcusably bad blogging habits, but there really aren't any. I'm back to just having one job(until I start subbing in the next few weeks) and I have a LOT  more free time. Last week my husband was gone on his first TDY so I had a lot of time on my hands. Did I do anything productive? Not so much.

I did squeeze in some fun though. I had lunch with friends, hung out with my mom, picked up a couple extra shifts at work, watched the first Saints game of the season!(More on that in a minute), went to the beach, got back in the gym, went to the Gulfarium with my family, and just enjoyed some "me" time.

As I mentioned, this was our first TDY since being married, well actually, ever. It did not go well. There was a lot of fighting between the two of us over those 5 days, and I think we just both had very different expectations of what it would be like. I will spare you all the gory details, but for my other MIL spouses out there, did you ever have this problem? What do you do to help make seperations easier on you. I was just surprised because last year he was gone practically the whole year between basic and tech school and our relationship actually got stronger through all that. That's why I wasn't really worried about a measley 5 day seperation, but it was much different this time. He has a deployment next spring so we have to figure out how to handle these things before then so any advice you may offer is welcome!

Back to the fun stuff, I mentioned that I watched the first NFL game of the season. We're mostly college football crazed down here, but my family and I are big Saints fans, always have been. This year they played the first regular season game on Thursday night against the Packers. Well some of our close friends are crazy Packers fans. They had a football party to watch the game and were nice enough to invite my mom and I and even let us wear our Saints gear. It was a lot of fun even though we lost! Lots of food, lots of chatting, a little beer, and plenty of football! I even got to try out one of my new pinterest recipes, which I will share with you because it was super easy and very delicious!

It was kinda pot luck snackage for the night so I brought one of my stand by favorites, pizza dip(which I will share the super easy recipe with you), and tried out my new dessert favorite, the peanut butter ball.

The Pizza Dip(always a big hit!)

Start with an oven safe dish and cream cheese(amount varies depending on how much you want to make)For this occasion I used 16oz

 Combine Italian Seasoning and cream cheese in oven safe dish and spread evenly along the bottom of the pan.

 Add a jar of pizza sauce or spaghetti sauce on top of the cream cheese and add more Italian Seasoning to your taste.

Add a bag of shredded mozzerella cheese and more Italian Seasoning to taste.

Place dish in oven at 325 until melted and warm. Serve with chips, crackers, anything you can think of and enjoy!

**(Again portions can very depending on how much you need to make)

Here are the pictures from my Peanut Butter ball experiment. You can find the full recipe at this awesome cooking blog. It was a big hit too and super easy to make!

It's football season, so hope you guys enjoy these easy football party recipes too! Happy cooking and happy Monday y'all!

Not sure if I've mentioned it lately...

But I have the best husband ever!

Just sayin...

I had to work the later shift today.(Which I despise!) This meant that I came into work at noon(which I admit is kinda nice), but also means that I'm stuck here until 8p.m. VERY BORING! Now that summer is winding down we have been unbelievably slow! A little before 6 everyone else in the office had headed for home, and I was settling in to catch up on blogs answer the onslaught of phone calls that were to come.(The phone has not rung a single time!) I keep the door locked after everyone leaves since I'm here by little ol' lonesome. I heard a knocking on the big front door, and I looked up to see my very sweet and thoughtful husband standing there! He had brought me dinner. There is a delicious hot dog place down from my office that I try not to eat at so I won't weigh a million pounds, but it's SOOO good! He had picked us both up a chili cheese dog and a big coke to share. It was such a nice treat, and makes me very thankful, yet again, that I married such a sweetheart and my best friend!

Not much else exciting to report around here. We kept it pretty low key around here this weekend.My sister was in town so we spent quite a bit of family time. But since I have nothing new and exciting to update you on, I thought I'd share some of our most talked about conversation here lately.

Babies.

Yes, you read that right. There's something about being newly married that just makes babies the topic of conversation. Everyone starts asking "when you're going to start having them". If you even yawn too long the girls in the office are accusing you of being pregnant. (WHICH I MOST DEFINITELY AM NOT!) But, it has generated some interesting conversations for the husband and I lately. It's not really a new conversation, we've talked about wanting kids since before we were married. We both agree we want to wait at LEAST two more years, we agree we want 3 kids(ok, usually we agree on this, sometimes I think 2 would be plenty), and we agree we want all boys(again, sometimes Stephen says he'd like at least one girl. Not happening.) We agree on parenting styles, the things we say "we'll never let our kid do", or "ya I don't think that's a big deal, I'll tell them so and so", or "they'll be allowed or encouraged to X". But what we don't agree on are baby names. 

But that doesn't seem to be too uncommon because my family turns their noses up at my names too. But my rule is, until they are the ones pushing a 7+ pound baby out they don't get much of a say. (Side note: I'm a big talker. I will never name our child something that Stephen just absolutely does not like, but I will relentlessly argue my side of each case!)

So what are these great names you ask?

For a boy:

Nolan Dominick

Landon Jeff

For a girl:

 Rilynn Grace 

 Layla Faith

Eh, eh?? 

 Now that you've taken the time to read my completely random and pointless post, I figured I would at least share an awesome giveaway I stumbled across today!

I love the adorable blog over at Beautiful Mess! Well, since she reached 400 followers she's giving away a complete, new blog design to one lucky winner. How cool is that?! I've been working on revamping my blog for a while now, but I am not a pro by any means. If you are in the same boat, enter this fun give away and win yourself a new look!

 That's all for now folks.. it's quittin' time! Which means I can blow this popsicle stand and head home to my amazing husband! Happy Tuesday y'all!

Wednesday!

It's one of my favorite blog days of the week: Wednesday! So today I am linking up with Jamie @ This kind of Love for my favorite link up, What I'm Loving Wednesday!

Today is my sweet Mom's birthday! I'm loving that we're going to dinner with the family tonight and then having birthday cake to celebrate! She is truly one of my best friends. I haven't always felt that way. I definitely gave her and my dad a run for their money when I was a little younger, but I'm so glad I finally grew up and realize how much I truly do still need my parents. I talk to my mom pretty much everyday and I would be completely lost without her! From helping me decorate the house to financial advice to good recipes, it's true what they say about always needing your Mama! So happy birthday mom hope your day is SO special I love you!


I'm loving that I have Sunday and Monday off this coming weekend. It's like actually having a normal weekend!

I'm loving that I was able to take off Sept. 3&4 so we can go to the first FSU home game in Tallahassee!! I sure have missed football and my Noles!


I found some awesome tailgating dresses that I just LOVE! Mom and I are going to attempt to make them. (By Mom and I, I really mean that we'll pick out the fabric and then she'll sew them while I keep her company. I'm sewing machine retarded.. and let's face it I don't have the patience to learn!)

I'm loving that my sweet friend Whitney is back from Colorado with adorable baby Annisten so we can start walking at nights after work.. hopefully we can start tonight!

I'm loving that since I was a major slacker yesterday it's actually Thursday now so that much closer to the weekend!

and of course, I'm loving my husband and baby boy Natty!

We're gonna go through the big "D" and I don't mean Dallas!

I don't mean divorce either people! We're still crazy-in-love newlyweds! =) No, no, no. Not Dallas, not divorce, not Disney... the dreaded "D" word that all milfamilies fear.

Deployment.

Yes, I knew when Stephen joined the Air Force that it was a very real possibility, but nobody likes to think about that. We're not the conventional milfamily either. My husband enlisted into the Reserves. I didn't expect a deployment for a while. But since he's been back from tech school, it's something he's been talking about. Right now, reservists only get deployed on a voluntary basis. So I didn't think it was something that would happen for quite a while.

Well, on my way home from work tonight I called my husband and the conversation went something like this:

Me:" Hey honey, I'm on my way home from work, but I'm stopping at the store to get stuff for dinner. Will you check and make sure we have enough pancake mix?"

Husband: "Ya baby, we have half  a box we're good."

Me: "Ok, then I'll just stop real quick and be home. Do you need anything else?"

Husband: "No, I'm good. But I have some um.. interesting.. news.."

Me: "Okkk....."

Husband: "I signed up today to deploy with our rotation next spring."

Me: ---silence---

Husband: "You're not saying much.."

It went back and forth for a little bit and we hung up the phone and agreed to discuss it a little more when I got home.

It just caught me off guard, not what I expected at all when I was driving home from work today! Granted, it's a long ways off. We have 8-10 months or so before he'll leave. A lot will happen between now and then. I'm sure I'll be briefed and prepared and things will be in order. But for now, I just feel caught off guard. He'll be on a short tour. So, for now I'm trying to see which of my friends I can talk into moving in with me and Natty while he's gone! LOL

On a real note, I'm proud of him. I can't even explain how proud of him I am. I was proud of him for making the decision to join, and now I'm proud of him for feeling the call to really serve his country. I hate that he will have to leave me. He hates that part too, but it's something he wants/needs to do for himself and I am going to support him 110%!

And here I thought it had been a boring week and I would have nothing to blog about... so there's all the big news on my end this week! Hope everyone is having a good week, Happy Tuesday y'all!

What I'm loving Wednesday!

Ok here it is loves, I promised I would be less.. um.. sarcastic? This week and go back to my optomistic WILW posts. If you're feeling grateful this week, too then head on over and link up with http://littledaisymay.blogspot.com/2011/07/what-im-loving-wednesday_13.html!

This week I am LOVING:

That although we had a change of plans and missed Bands on the Beach, we eneded up having a fun dinner with Dad at one of my favorite restaurants.

I'm loving that my sweet Mama took her whole afternoon Friday to help me shop for the house, and I'm loving how cute it's all coming together!(Now if I can just get her to come help me hang up pictures.. hmm..)



I'm loving my incredible husband (as always) and that he is planning a little mini "vacation" for Labor Day! Lucky for me he loves to be on the go as much as I do!

I'm loving this little face! But I'm missing him and his Mama! Need some Trae and Mandy time!

I'm LOVING that I have this Sunday off and my sweet hubs is already talking about fun things to do! :)

I'm loving these cute outside mats for the house, but I can't decide which ones!!

With a "V" though of course!

and this one from personalizationmall.com

Yes, I have turned into one of "those" decorating people and I'm obsessed!

I'm loving that I've had two days off in a row, and that I'll work Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and get another day off! :)

I'm also LOVING how sweet my Natty dog has been lately! He's such a big love. He just wants to cuddle all the time, which I admit can be annoying at times, but I just love him to pieces!

What are you loving today?? Happy Wednesday y'all!

SO WHAT!

Well I normally link up with What I'm Loving Wednesday(Which I love by the way and still think you should check out from Jamie!) But today I decided to try out a new one. If you ask my mother, this one fits me a little better. She loving refers to me as Ms.(Now, Mrs.) Negativity. No worries, I will return to being an optimist next Wednesday and tell you all about what I'm loving!

Today I'm going to go with Shannon at Life after "I dew" to tell you all the things this week, that I'm just thinking "So WHAT!" about. So here we go...

SO WHAT if...

• I slept an extra 30 minutes this morning instead of getting out bed for my run. I can run tonight.
• My husband decided to have company over tonight and not tell me until this morning even though we have no groceries in the house. That's what grocery stores are for, right?
• My blogging has become sporadic and I'm lucky if I post 2-3 times a week!
• We've lived in the house for almost three weeks now, and still don't have the first picture hung up on the walls and still have boxes in the guest rooms.
•  I volunteered to work on my day off tomorrow
• We have a huge yard and I'm dying to plant a garden, but no that I can't keep anything alive.
• Our cable NEVER works now that we changed companies. It's cheaper. 
• Having a longer holiday weekend and working at the beach all the time with vacationing people has given me the urge to get out of town
• I graduated with my bachelor's degree, but now have no desire to really use it and would rather go for my Master's degree or shift gears entirely and get a nursing degree.
• I painted my nails and they've already chipped and the ends of my hair are splitting. I'll get around to making a hair/nail appointment eventually
• I tried to make a doctor's appointment, but the office never calls me back. Gotta love Navy hospitals!

In spite of the shorter week, it's still been "one of those" weeks and I'm just in "one of those" moods. Thank God for my sweet, sweet husband who has enough patience for the both of us, and my very supportive family and friends! It's the little things in life... Happy Wednesday y'all!

ONE YEAR

ago today, Stephen and Bryan boarded that plane and headed to San Antonio, TX for 8.5 weeks of Air Force boot camp!  WOW! I just can't believe it's been a year. Some days it feels like forever ago, and some days it feels like just yesterday. The craziest thing is even though he's been home for a few months now, I can still feel the way I felt on the day he left. It's the weirdest feeling and you'll never fully understand until you feel it yourself. But it's like being crushed. I was exhausted for that first week just because I was so emotionally drained. I cried at the drop of a hat. And not just boo hoo'ed either, I sobbed uncontrollably. I cried at work(they had never seen me cry before, I think they were all a little concerned!), I cried in the car, I cried at night the most. I had been dreading him leaving since we found out his dates for boot camp, but thought that I would be ok, 8 weeks is no big deal. Nope! Wasn't as prepared as I had hoped. The minute they left to go inside to board the plane, my throat tightened up, my stomach felt sick, and my heart just hurt. I managed to keep it together pretty well on the drive back since Stephen's Mom and brother had ridden with me. But as soon as I dropped them off, I sobbed the whole home, and laid on the couch and just cried until I had to be at work. Unfortunately, it didn't really stop then either! I cried on and off all night at work. We really hadn't been apart longer than a night or two since we started dating almost 3 years earlier. So the thought of 8 long weeks... I can't even describe the feeling. Especially since I constantly had the fear that anything could happen and his graduation could get pushed back. The military loves to change dates! That not knowing when you'll see each other again, is like a black hole. There's no tangible thing to count towards. Anyone that's gone through a deployment knows what I mean. It wasn't all terrible though! I had a wonderful support system. I pretty  much lived at my parents. If it weren't for Natty I would have slept there every night! Natty dog was the perfect protector/cuddler/shoulder to cry on. I had friends that helped keep me distracted. And the mail! Oh goodness, I have never been more excited about letters in my life!! It was hard, but it is cool to look back on those now and read them, and we'll have them forever to be able to read over.

My wonderful husband made it through basic with flying colors! He got expert marksman and graduated right on time(minus one little incident that I found out about later that is now a funny story I will have to tell later!). I am so proud of him! Words can't even express.. I was always in love with him, but I fell in love with him all over again that graduation weekend. He had really grown up into a man of honor over those 8.5 weeks and I loved it! I try to remember to tell him often, but I don't think I say it nearly enough! I am one very proud Air Force wife! :) Congratulations on all your hard work paying off, baby! I am so proud of you and I love you!

That's enough mush for one day! I will leave you with a recap of pictures from the day Stephen left. Can't believe it's been a year, but I'm SO glad it's behind us now! :) Happy Wednesday y'all!

 

 

Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday

Day 2 of a very long week, so far not so bad. (But I'm knocking on some wood!) This is our busiest week of the year at work. 4th of July and the Blue Angels homecoming beach show falls in the same week this year which is just crazy! We have 0 vacancy, and mind you we manage over 140 properties on the beach! It's going to be nuts. I work Monday-Saturday this week, but then I'm off Sunday, Monday, and half a day Tuesday. I'm pretty excited about 4th of July! We don't have plans yet but it's one of my favorite holidays! Last year it was depressing because it was the first weekend Stephen was gone to bootcamp, so I'm excited to be able to hang out this year!

This past weekend, we were both off Sunday so we went to Hurlburt and went to the pool with some friends then went to Destin and did some shopping and had dinner. It was a great little date night and we both had a blast! I'm thinking of trying to talk Stephen into going over there for the 4th, but I don't know with all the tourist traffic!

We've made some progress in the house and it's starting to come together. I'm still shopping around for some various furniture to fill up all this space we have now so it's hard to get it all put away until then. I ordered an entertainment center from Target for the living room that should be here this week that I'm excited about. Tonight I need to order a pull out futon for Stephen's "man cave" from walmart.com. Hopefully they'll both be here at the end of the week. I'm excited for them to get here so we can get stuff situated!

This Saturday we're having people over to the new house for the first time. At first I was dreading it because I have a busy day at work that day, and was afraid the house wouldn't be "ready" for company. But Stephen finished his beer pong table, and we've decided to make a big slip n slide out back and just hang out. I think it will be just what I need after a long day of work!

I'm sure you've noticed, (if you have ever visited my blog before!) that I finally got around to changing the layout. Let me know what you think! I'm not very good at this design thing. I don't have the software. I want to buy some later on and learn to do it myself, but in the meantime, this is what we have! I may attempt a new button here eventually... but we'll see how ambitious I get. I'm finally content with it for now though :)

Well, I hope you all have a wonderful day and don't work too hard! Happy Tuesday y'all!

Saturday AND a day off!!

Saturdays off work have become rare with my new job. I work for a vacation rental company on Pensacola Beach and we typically rent our properties from Saturday to Saturday in the summer. Meaning: Saturdays mean all hands on deck!

This is my weekend off, which is SO nice I have to say. Last night, I made dinner and my sweet friend Whitney and her precious baby girl came to eat with us. It's great getting to catch up when she's in town! Stephen and I were pretty beat and went to sleep pretty much right after Whitney and Annisten went home. Stephen had to work today, but gets off tomorrow all day! Needless to say, I was wide awake this morning by 6a.m. and never went back to sleep. I caught up on some of my favorite tv shows, did some laundry, dishes, and straightened up some more then went on a hunt for some furniture for the new house.

We have two extra bedrooms now and they're practically empty. I'm on the search for a full size bed for one room, a futon for the other, and a new entertainment center for the living room. I drove all over Milton and Pace today without much luck. Back to Craigslist searching I go! I came home and had lunch and played out back with the pup for a bit. Now I'm debating a nap or the overhaul of my blog I've been meaning to do. I'm thinking probably nap now and then blog updating when I wake up :) I get frustrated with the computer software I have pretty easily, so I'm thinking being rested will help... wish me luck!

Hope everyone is having a wonderfully relaxing weekend! Happy Saturday 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!