It's been a year and I'm finally posting about our honeymoon

I started slacking on Wedding Wednesday posts a long time ago and now it's been over a year since our wedding, so I never really got around to blogging about our honeymoon. Our trip to Cancun this weekend has me reminiscing and I thought now would be the perfect time for a honeymoon post.

We headed to Punta Cana early the morning after our wedding and enjoyed 5 days of beautiful weather, sun bathing, massages and total relaxation. It was everything we needed our honeymoon to be after months of wedding planning and such a perfect celebration with our family. With that being said, our trip had some ups and downs.

For starters, I haven't always had the best luck with flying. I've been stranded in cities on my own more times than I liked to remember through no fault of my own. I get to the airport super early so I don't risk missing my flight and still, I've missed connecting flights due to weather issues, flight delays, left phalanges missing (Friends reference - sorry I had to) and God knows what else. Needless to say, it didn't shock me when we buckled into our seats to head to Charlotte (where we were catching our connecting flight to Punta Cana), passed out immediately due to sheer exhaustion and woke up two hours later having not moved from the runway. I knew immediately we missed our connecting flight and proceeded to fill Jonathan in on my bad flight karma. When we finally landed in Charlotte, we learned our connecting flight was long gone and we had 10 minutes to get across the airport to get a flight going back to Florida, then to Punta Cana. I'm just glad we made that flight or we would have spent the first night of our honeymoon in Charlotte. We left Orlando at 8 a.m. and made it to Punta Cana by oh, about midnight. 

Jonathan spent the second day of our honeymoon in bed with the stomach bug and as luck would have it, as we waited for the shuttle to take us to the airport for our trip home, the stomach bug made it's way to me just in time for a long day of travel home. It's safe to say hundreds of people in the Punta Cana airport and every single person on our flight witnessed watched me get sick that day and poor Jonathan - I was a wreck on our 3 hour flight and he was so great taking care of me.

Our honeymoon was great even with the ups and downs and I think our life together is the same. Even though in our marriage, we will go through ups and downs depending on what's happening in our life, it's still pretty amazing and we are incredibly blessed. It didn't take long at all for us to be able to laugh at the things that went wrong on our honeymoon and despite those things, we can still say it was an amazing trip. We just focus more on the couples massage, the walks on the beach and the pina coladas than we do the missed flights and illness. If we continue approaching life together this way, focusing on the good and being there for each other in the not-so-good, I truly believe we will be incredibly happy no matter the circumstance.

With all that being said, I'm obviously hoping for smooth travel and no illness for our trip to Cancun this weekend! 

I survived my first spin class

I may have previously mentioned I've been trying to get back into a regular workout routine again and it's been going well so far. On Saturday, I switched to a new gym that offers classes and miraculously, I survived my first spin class. This may not sound like cause for too much celebration, but you don't know my history with group fitness classes.

To give you some background, I don't handle the heat very well. My body gets overheated very easily and it doesn't take long before my face is bright red and my head is pounding. A few hours outside on a hot day has the potential to land me in bed with an awful headache. My family actually calls me "Heatstroke" because on numerous occasions, they've had to witness this nonsense.

It was the year 2007 and I was a junior at the University of South Florida. I decided to switch up my workout routine and attend a class at the gym. I forget the actual name of the class I chose, but it was basically 30 minutes long and it totally sounded like something I could handle. Aside from some arms workouts with dumbbells, it basically turned out to be a step aerobics class. Somewhere in the midst of stepping on then off, then right and left, over and over and over again, I realized I was getting a little overheated and stepped off to take a break, only it was too late and then, I fainted. In the middle of the class. I had no idea what happened until the instructor was standing over me asking if I was okay to which I answered yes and walked right on out of there. I can laugh at this now, but at the time I was completely mortified and told myself I would never take another group fitness class.

It's safe to say for someone like me, out of all the group fitness classes my new gym offers, spinning would be the class I'd be most likely to pass out in, yet there I was on Saturday morning, not passing out. I even made it through the whole hour! I'm still pretty shocked my mother-in-law convinced me to try it out, but I'm glad she did. I'm not gonna lie, 20 minutes in I was wondering what the hell I'd gotten myself into but that didn't stop me from sticking it out. I had to make a serious effort to avoid getting "overheated" and I didn't try to keep up with what everyone else was doing. It's 2 days later and  my thighs are so sore I could hardly get out of bed this morning. It's awful but I kinda also love it and I never thought I'd say this but I'll be back on Saturday morning for round two.

Do you spin? What classes do you enjoy?

Weekend Highlights

Well, hello. It's safe to say blogging has fallen by the wayside lately and I'm trying to get back on board here. My last job afforded me the ability to do most of my blogging at work and that is so not the case with this new gig. The last thing I've been wanting to do after working at my desk all day is get on the computer at home in the evening. But anyway, here I am, so let's do this. I'm still upset that 4th of July weekend is over. We celebrated America with my family and had an absolute blast. Here are are just a few of the highlights from our weekend -

Last Thursday marked 6 months since our wedding day and while we obviously didn't make a big fuss over 6 months, I spent the day in disbelief. I can't believe it's already been six months and I still can't believe this is my life. Also, this photo.

Photo by Lora Rodgers Photography

I know I haven't even gotten to our 4th of July celebrations yet, but something else very exciting happened before we even hit the road on Thursday. For the first time in my life, I successfully curled my hair. Yes, I'm 28-years-old and not only did I just purchase my first curling iron, but I used it successfully. Only my sisters and close girlfriends know what a huge accomplishment this is for me. I was preeeety excited as we hit the road, as you can probably tell.

Our 4th of July consisted of Fireball. Lots of Fireball shots. Mom and I spent the morning grocery shopping and barbecue prepping while Jonathan golfed with my dad and brother. We spent the afternoon eating and drinking by the pool and finding reasons to take shots of Fireball.

The afternoon ended with a family wiffle ball game in the middle of the golf course in the rain and it's safe to say this was my favorite part of the day. We even woke up the next morning without even a hint of a hangover. Who am I and what happened to the girl who can't day drink?

On that note, I hope you all have a great week...or what's left of it seeing as I'm just showing up here and it's already Wednesday.

We Spent 3 Hours at the Movies & Forgot to See a Movie

This past Friday as I drove home from work, I couldn't help but think we were due for a spontaneous date night. I called Jonathan and told him we should go out to a movie or something and that is just what we did....

Well, kinda.

With nothing in theaters we were dying to see, we settled on the 9:45 showing of 22 Jump Street. We figured even if it wasn't great, we might get a few laughs out of it and hey, we never go to the movies so why not? We headed out super early so we could stop and have a drinks and some appetizers near the theater first. Even still, we got to the movie theater a good hour and a half before the movie which is totally fine because they have a bar and video games. We ordered ourselves a round of drinks and after playing a few games, started to wonder what the heck we were going to do with ourselves for the next hour or so.We grabbed a table at the bar and were were having a blast just talking. It’s so funny how you can live with someone and see them every day but it’s still so important to go on actual dates with each other to really engage in conversation and focus on each other. I was loving every minute. 

So much so, that Jonathan looked at the clock and realized it was 9:45 and the movie was already starting. We’d been doing plenty of drinking, but not much eating and we’d also planned on grabbing food before the movie. Where did the time go? Jonathan jumped up in a panic and I spent about 30 seconds trying to convince him we should just skip the movie all together because I was having too much fun. Always the more reasonable one, he convinced me to go in the theater but not before we picked up pizza and snacks on our way in.

Finally, we walked into the theater to find there were no seats available. Zero. I couldn't help but laugh as we stood there with snacks and drinks and nowhere to sit. Luckily, they were kind enough to let us swap out our tickets for something else. We ended up with tickets for the 10:30 showing of Neighbors and decided to head straight in the theater so we didn't miss another one. By this point, we’d been in the movie theater since 8:00 and I was 3 vodka tonics down. We found seats and ate our snacks while we waited for the movie to start. Finally, 10:30 came around and as the movie started, I started to feel sleepy and antsy. I’ve made the mistake of going to a movie drunk before and I’m just not cut out for it. I need conversation. I need activity. Give me a few drinks then sit me down to be quiet for a few hours and I’m ready for bed in no time. I powered through the first 15 minutes of the movie when like music to my ears, Jonathan whispered in my ear, “Let’s go home.”

We spent 3 hours in the movie theater and after attempting to see 2 movies, we went home after seeing zero movies. As Jonathan said, "Only we would get to the theater an hour and a half before a movie and somehow miss the movie."

The best part about this whole thing? I'm not the slightest bit upset that we missed the movie both movies. I loved every minute of these shenanigans. I had the most fun sitting at the bar with my husband, then sitting in an empty theater eating pizza and laughing at everything. The nights that don't go as planned always turn out to be my very favorite ones. 

Weekend recaps make Mondays a little more tolerable.

Happy Monday friends! I love weekend recaps because it makes me feel like the joy and fun from the weekend carry over through the day. Instead of being disappointed about it being Monday, I can relive the little moments that made up my weekend.

I always feel such a sense of relief every Friday evening when I get to Jonathan's. I spend every weekend there now and it just feels like home to me. Our rainy Friday night consisted of a dinner date at a cute restaurant down the street and a movie at home. We also filled out and hung this adorable D.I.Y menu board in the kitchen.

This is going to be a little tricky to stick with since I'm only at Jonathan's on the weekends and maybe one night during the week, but I'm pretty excited about it.

Unfortunately, Jonathan spent most of the day Saturday working, so I kept myself busy taking Blake for a long walk, going to the gym and running a few errands. We spent the evening drinking margaritas and relaxing on the front porch with Jonathan's family.

Sunday we headed to Daytona for the day to celebrate a few family birthdays. I actually didn't make it down to the beach, but it was such a great day.

I had a new lasagna recipe I wanted to try, so I spent the afternoon cooking, which I've really started to enjoy. After putting the lasagna in the oven, I took Jonathan up the street to pick up his truck from getting detailed. I beat him home by a few minutes and was trying to cut frozen garlic bread in half to put in the oven when my hand slipped and I sliced my thumb open with a butter knife. Seriously? I was alone for maybe 5 minutes and managed to hurt myself.

Two things: 1. Thank God a thousand times I was only using a butter knife, otherwise I might be without a finger right now and that just wouldn't be cute. 2. Jonathan is so calm and sweet in situations like this where I'm usually being a little  very over dramatic. He calmed me down and took me to the bathroom so he could bandage me up. Have I mentioned lately that I adore him?

Anyway, the good news is that I didn't contaminate any part of our dinner and it was absolutely delicious. We ate, took Blake for a short walk and spent the rest of the evening cuddling and watching T.V.

Days like yesterday leave me feeling extra grateful. I told Jonathan before we went to bed that this is exactly how I pictured my life to be like when I found the right person. He agreed. We lived happily ever after.

How was your weekend?

Linking up with Sami for Weekend Shenanigans  :)

A dream about forgetting to plan my own wedding.

I have to throw in a quick disclaimer: Now that I opened this blog up to everyone I know on Facebook and their mother, you all need to know that I am still going to blog about things as if you weren't reading. So to my sweet, dear boyfriend, please don't lose your shit when you learn I am having dreams about weddings and whatnot.

Okay, now moving on...

Just the other day Jonathan and I were talking about dreams and how it seems like we only have dreams about totally off-the-wall things that would never happen in a million years. I was saying that just once, I would love to have a dream about something normal like going on vacation or something in the future like having kids. Instead, I typically dream about random, unexplainable things like alligators crawling up my house and in the windows while I'm sleeping. I don't even know where this stuff comes from...it's so random.

Ironically enough, that very night we dozed off to sleep and I had a dream about my wedding. That's pretty normal to dream about, right? It was great...for a minute. I remember getting ready, talking and giggling with my mother and my bridesmaids when suddenly, I realized that I forgot to write my vows. Next thing you know, I'm in a complete panic and at a loss for words as I try to write them in the car on the way to my own wedding.

To make matters worse, when I get to the ceremony site, I arrive to find out that I never even booked the venue. So far, we've got a bride and a groom, a whole wedding party with guests, but no vows and nowhere for them to get married. I wish I could say everything worked out, but I must've woken up before anything else could happen.

If you know me at all, you know that I am pretty organized and a little obsessive compulsive. I could totally see myself getting to my wedding day and realizing at worst, that I forgot to take my vitamin that morning, not completely forgetting to write my vows or book the venue! Apparently in my dream life, I expect to just arrive and have a wedding magically appear in front of me without actually planning any of it.

I'm not really into researching the meaning of dreams and whatnot, so who knows where this dream came from. It could mean I am not going to enjoy planning my wedding, whenever that day comes. I doubt it. Maybe it's an overall message to stop worrying about little details in life and focus on the big stuff. Who knows. What I do know, however, is that when the day comes, I'll be sure to book the venue and write my vows before I do anything else!

Shootin' guns n' drinkin' beers

As per usual, here goes my weekend recap on Tuesday...hope you all had a happy weekend!

We hit the road early Saturday morning headed to the Ocala National Forest to camp for the night. It was an adventure, that's for sure! I should probably tell you ahead of time that instead of reserving a designated campsite, we the boys decided to go off on our own and find our own spot to camp in the forest. After driving in the middle of nowhere for a while, we turned down a random dirt road to find a spot to camp.

About a mile and a half up the dirt road, we got stuck, really stuck. At this point, Jonathan's friend's truck had already gotten stuck and we were actually turning around to find a spot where the road wasn't so hard to drive through. The boys spent about 2 hours trying to dig Jonathan's back tire out of the sand.



Off to a great start!



After calling a few different towing companies, we finally found someone who was willing and able to drive the 45 minutes to tow us out. The tow truck driver asked us to meet him back at the main road since we couldn't give him a very good idea of where we were. Doing what any good girlfriend would do, I joined Jonathan for the 1+ mile walk to the main road so he wouldn't have to go alone.

I will tell you one thing...I definitely underestimated how far we had driven. It was hot. I had to pee. It was all a little unfortunate, but Jonathan and I held hands and chatted the whole way, stopping to take pictures and whatnot. It was nice to see that even when the situation isn't ideal, he can still enjoy himself and not let it ruin his day.

We sat by the side of the road long enough to snap a few pictures before I had to give in and pee in the woods. I knew I would have to do it sooner or later, so I ran into the woods while Jonathan waited for the tow truck. Of course, it's just my luck that mid-pee, he would start yelling at me telling me the tow truck was there!

$250 dollars and a few hours later, we were finally settled at our campsite and ready to relax! The best part of this is that everyone was still in such good spirits by the time we got settled. I know a lot of people in my life who would let an inconvenience like getting stuck ruin their fun. Not this group. Don't get me wrong, we were all so very glad to be done with that part of our adventure, but everyone was still psyched to be there and we were all able to laugh about it. I'm really glad Jonathan's friends are like this.

We spent the afternoon drinking, chatting, shooting guns and we even flew a kite. The kite...let me tell you about that. It must've been our 2nd or 3rd date that I mentioned to Jonathan that I've been wanting to fly a kite...I don't think I've brought it up since. It was the sweetest thing when we were setting up our campsite and he handed me a Barbie kite he bought for me. I don't know how I didn't notice it when we were packing up the truck, but he is always surprising me in a smallest and most thoughtful ways.

I think my man was pretty impressed with my shooting skills. The boys had set up a few targets (beer bottles and a few cans) in a tree and I shot both bottles!

Needless to say, we had a blast! I handled the outdoors pretty well, if I do say so myself. Jonathan even commented on this the next night saying "You didn't complain once!" Don't get me wrong, you can bet that as soon as we got back to his place, I hit the shower and we spent the afternoon/evening cuddled in his bed, only leaving long enough to go to his parents' for dinner. I had a blast roughing it for a night, but it was good to be home!

Tell me...

Do you enjoy camping? What's your ideal camping trip like?

Lessons Learned from too Much Wine out of a Mason Jar

Happy Monday! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend.

We spent the weekend at my parents' house and went to a wedding on Saturday. I absolutely loved spending so much time with my parents and the wedding was on a farm and an absolute blast.

 As with any social occasion that involves alcohol, I've come away with a few important lessons and feel that it is my duty to share them with you all:

-Even if you are in a happy relationship with a man who loves you a lot, when you arrive at a wedding and shout "I want to get married here!" your boyfriend is probably still going to say, "Woah! Slow down there." Calm down everyone, I didn't say "I want to get married here tomorrow!"

-When you are drinking wine out of a mason jar and the bartender fills the jar to the top everytime you get a refill, drink slowly or before you know it, you've had 1 and 1/2 bottles of wine, a shot of crown and you become a drunken mess who is being mean to your sweet boyfriend for no reason.

-If that boyfriend still loves you the next day after you've thrown his phone, likely embarrassed yourself in front of his family and needed him to take care of you when you got sick from drinking too much, don't ever let him go.

-If you also find out that he took your makeup off for you (while you cried and asked him not to break up with you) and helped you change into pajamas in your drunken, sick state, yet he tells you that he loves you more than ever the next day, close your eyes and thank God you found him.

-Drinking heavily does, in fact, help you survive wearing really uncomfortable heels all night. After a while, you don't even notice you are wearing shoes at all.

-Even though you may have had too much to drink, embarrassed yourself a bit and turned into a hot mess, at one point in the night, you were having an absolute blast and this is what is most important about situations like that.

I hope your weekend was just as much fun (and a little less embarrassing) as mine!

Speaking up, Sea World, Being Crafty and a Runaway Blake

Hello friends. I have a lot I want to say this week and I don't know where to start. I guess I'll start by telling you about my weekend and figure out the rest later this week.

Sometimes when I reflect on the weekend, it's hard to believe I crammed so many adventures, mishaps, awkward moments and good times into such a short time. This weekend was definitely one of those weekends.

Saturday I spent the day at Sea World with The Dog Whisperer, his roommate and a lady friend of his. I hadn't seen and hardly spoken to The Dog Whisperer in a few weeks so I was feeling a little anxious. We had a really fun day and got to hit up just about every attraction they have. The dolphin show is by far my favorite show there and everytime I see it I am completely overwhelmed by how amazing it is. I also cry tears of joy everytime I watch it and this time was no different. Did our whole group think it's weird and hilarious that I cry? I think so, but oh well. Sea World at Christmas makes me ridiculously happy. They have fake snow and do Christmas versions of some of the shows. We fed sting rays, which if you've never done is really awkward because they basically suck the food out of your hand. We also spent way too long in the game area of Sea World and The Dog Whisperer walked away with a creepy amount of small stuffed animal prizes. It was a really fun day.

While I had a really fun day, I have to say that The Dog Whisperer treated me like nothing more than a friend all day. Because he's been sending such mixed signals, I've already backed off quite a bit so if he just wants to be friends, that's cool. It would be nice though if he would just say so instead of leaving me to figure it out on my own. It's exhausting.

My goals for Sunday were simple: at least start to decorate the house for Christmas. I'm saving the Christmas tree for this weekend when my roomie and I can go pick one out and decorate together, but I wanted to get some lights up, get the Christmas candles out and finally pack up the fall decorations. As I tend to do, I got a little overzealous and decided I was also going to attempt to make one of those adorable yarn wreaths I see all over Pinterest.

I wouldn't describe myself as crafty, but I used to scrapbook a lot and I can pull off pretty basic DIY projects. The problem is, that no matter what I do, I always end up spending 3x as much on the supplies and the project takes about 2 hours longer than the tutorial says it should. This is why my crafting days are few and far between. The good news is that I'm pretty happy with the result.

I didn't really follow any specific tutorial because there are so many online and honestly, this is pretty easy to make. Wrapping the yarn around the wreath is really more of a two person job (it took me about 2 1/2 hours and it is not perfect by any means), but other than that, it's pretty self explanatory.

I'm not gonna lie, I was pretty exhausted and mentally checked out after the wreath was complete and I hadn't even gotten around to hanging any lights yet. This explains how I didn't notice Blake walking right out the front door somewhere between me trying to hang the wreath on the door and standing in my kitchen sink trying to hang Christmas lights in my front window (side note: you can't help but stop and laugh at yourself when you're using an ice cream scoop as a hammer for an hour before realizing you have a tool kit in the garage).

When I was finally finished, I realized I hadn't seen Blake in a while. He hadn't been feeling very well and I kinda figured he gave up on following this mad woman around the house and went to sleep on the couch. I walked through the house calling his name and he was no where to be found. I started to panic realizing he could have been gone for an hour or two at this point. I had been so wrapped up in what I was doing, I had no idea when he got out. I started freaking out, crying, calling his name and as I ran outside to look for him, my neighbor from a few houses down was walking up to the door with him.

I was so relieved and panic-stricken that I brought Blake inside and cried like a baby for a good 10 minutes. Before you judge my parenting, I am usually much more attentive. Blake is still a puppy, so I don't let him out of my sight most of the time. I honestly don't know how he got outside without me even realizing it and it really makes me worry about my mental health. He would've had to walk right past me to get outside when I had the door open for goodness sake! The good news is that thanks to my neighbor walking his dogs, Blake didn't go far and I didn't end up having to roam the streets hysterically looking for him.

So yeah, to summarize: Hot mess, party of one right here. I'll get it together soon, I'm sure. I do know that though I feel like I am kinda falling apart, it's making me say and do things that need to be done. I don't ever fall apart without coming out of it feeling better and more secure with myself. So, there's the bright side. Oh, and I'm sure you would all agree that succeeding in any DIY project can make you feel like you could take over the world, assuming you don't let your dog run away without you noticing in the process.

Holy cow that was long. Thanks for sticking around to read it if you did and I hope you all had a wonderful weekend.

It's Okay Thursday

Linking up for It's Okay Thursday!

It's okay that I ate a York peppermint pattie at 7 a.m. today. My sweet roommate left a box of them on my bed  this morning with a lovely little note. How could I resist?

It's okay that The Dog Whisperer has turned out to be a complete disappointment. I liked him, I tried to get to know him, but he seems to have completely checked out I don't have the energy to beg for someone's attention. I'm disappointed, but it'll be okay.

It's okay to be in a bit of a funk sometimes. I'll snap out of it soon, I'm sure.

It's okay to say what's on your mind and not worry about how the other person will react. I need to work on being more okay with this.

It's okay to be happy and independent on your own, but also able to admit that you can't wait to find someone to share your life with.

It's okay to walk back upstairs 3 times before leaving the house in the morning to make sure you unplugged the straightener, even though it turns off by itself anyway.

On that note, it's okay to have a slight serious case of OCD.

It's okay to be overly excited about signing up for the Tap n' Run 4K. An easy 2.5 mile race with beer waiting for me at the finish line? This is perfection beyond belief.

What's okay with you today? Link up!

Thanksgiving Weekend

Hello friends. I hope your Thanksgiving weekend was delightful. Mine was so delightful that I'm having a really tough time getting my shit together this week.

Thanksgiving weekend is always wonderful. Celebrating Thanksgiving with my family is always special, emotional and full of joy. The long weekend is like a little mini-vacation from work and it's so relaxing to spend a few days at my parents' house. I even volunteered to give the Thanksgiving toast before dinner and I am a little embarrassed to say I wasn't even halfway through it before I started sobbing. Maybe next year.

It was my intention to take lots of cute photos of my family on Thanksgiving, but that didn't work out as planned. My brother acted like the paparazzi was trying to snap photos of him without his consent, my sisters weren't much more cooperative, then I started baking away and didn't really think of it again. I can, however, always count on my child to suck it up for a photo session with his momma, so there's that.

So thankful for this little boy.

I baked my ass off for Thanksgiving this year. I don't bring many cooking skills to the table (yet!), so this is how I contribute to Thanksgiving. These are all super easy to make and I loved how they came out. I linked to the recipes so you can try them for yourself.

Pumpkin Streusel Pudding Cookies

Apple Snickerdoodle Cobbler

Peanut Butter Cookie Cups

Even Blake was exhausted from all the excitement. He absolutely loves weekends at my parents' house....so much room to run and so many other friends to play with!



Sleepy boy.

Because my BFF Taryn was in Orlando visiting her family for Thanksgiving, I drive back to Orlando for Friday and Saturday to spend time with her, then went back to my parents' for Saturday night and Sunday. This resulted in my spending what felt like 80% of my weekend in the car, but it was totally worth it.

In less than 2 days, Taryn and I managed to squeeze in rasberry mojitos and banana pizza at Cafe Tu Tu Tango, meeting friends for a night on the town and a few hours of fun plus a photoshoot at Epcot. Best friend time is always good for the soul, even if we did get into a drunken argument about nothing on Friday night. When I get my hands on the rest of our photos from Epcot, I'll share them, but in the meantime, this is our time together in a nutshell.

As we typically do, we were running late to meet our friends downtown. I pulled up to the toll booth to find this guy parked there. I was obviously excited about the prospect of a random act of kindness falling into my lap and we couldn't really get around him, so I jumped out to help. He didn't understand English, was lost and didn't have any change, so we helped! I was so caught up in the moment, I didn't think for a second he could've thrown me into his car and driven away. Let's just say my dad wasn't thrilled...

"Every brunette needs a blonde best friend." This photo was taken at Epcot and we got the idea from this pin on Pinterest.

Yes we are almost wearing the same outfit. It wasn't planned, but we went with it anyway.

After dropping Taryn off at the airport and begging her not to leave....

Just causing a scene at the airport.

...I hit the road back to my parents' house to relax for the rest of the weekend. I spent Saturday night watching Elf with my momma and spent Sunday doing a little shopping with mom and dad. My weekend was the perfect combination of fun and relaxation/friend and family time. Thanksgiving was absolutely wonderful and now I'm psyched to get ready for Christmas.

I'm probably due to update you all on other life happenings, but I'll save that for later. Hope all is well in your world today!

It's Okay Thursday: Wedding Edition

I participated in one link-up a few weeks ago and now I'm link-up crazy. Not really, but I figured this might be a good way to share some highlights from last weekend's wedding festivities without boring you all with unecessary details. Onward...

It's okay to use more than one penis straw during bachelorette party festivities. It's better to be the girl with the 4 penis straws in her drink than the girl who won't even use one. It's all okay.

 

It's okay to discover a stripper pole at the bar during said bachelorette party and twirl around on it. You're obviously not a stripper, so this is totally okay and all in good fun, proven even more true when you fall off that stripper pole. 

 

It's okay to get ready in the bridal suite with the bridal party if the bride says it's okay and your best friend is with you. It's okay if people are going to see the professional photos and be like "Who is 'that girl' getting ready with the bridesmaids?"

 

 

It's okay that the best man (your best girl friend and wedding date's brother) calls you both out for being in a lesbian relationship and asks you both to stand up during his best man speech. It's totally okay. Just go with it.

 

 

It's okay to shower your best friend with confetti when the clock strikes midnight on her birthday. Maybe you will track it all over the hotel you are staying in and find confetti in your hair 3 days later, but just look at the pure joy on her face. Totally okay...totally worth it. 

Well there you have it. It's Okay Thursday and a recap of the wedding without getting into boring details. I just love weddings...the dressing up, the family and friends that are like family, the dancing and the booze.

Quotes from Downtown Orlando

I had another wild, crazy and super fun weekend with friends. I'm still processing all the fun and not-so-smart decisions I made, so I will fill you in soon! In the meantime, you all know by now that I am a freak magnet whenever I go downtown and this weekend there were plenty of examples of that! I leave you with the creepiest/most hilarious/weirdest things that were said to me in bars over the weekend. Enjoy and thank goodness you weren't victimized.

Exhibit A: "I'm sorry to bother you, but I wanted to tell you I think you have the most beautiful smile." Well, that was friendly and completely non-creepy, so I say "thank you!" and turn back to my friends. A few minutes go by and he creeps up from behind and whispers in my ear, "It's just your smile is so inncocent...it really just makes me want to take advantage of you." Well, that got weird.

Exhibit B: From a random guy as he walked out of the bar: "You...you're bad." I obviously laugh and say, "Huh?" He responds by telling me, "You're aura is bad" and keeps on walking out never to be seen again.

Exhibit C: After helping a guy drunk out of his mind find his watch in the bar, he gave me a creepy long hug, then proceeded to pull three bottles of hot sauce out of his pants pocket. I asked him why he had so much hot sauce in his pocket and he said, "I just...I really like hot sauce."

Exhibit D: I didn't know if this guy was trying to hit on me or not at the time, but 5 minutes after meeting him, he said, "You still haven't told me why you're still single." I told him to ask my ex boyfriends, that I didn't have an answer for him.

The same guy proceeded to spray beer all over me later in the night because I was hanging out with his friend and he was apparently jealous. When my roommate yelled at him and asked him why he did that, he simply said "Because she shouldn't be with him. They look awful together!" Rude.

I'm sure alcohol plays a big role in all of this, but where do they come up with this stuff? I'm sure you've been there too...what's the weirdest thing you've experienced while out with your girlfriends?

Strippers & Shenanigans

Talk about switching gears! Today's post isn't about random acts of kindness, unless you count "making it rain" on a stripper a random act of kindness. Before a new weekend with new adventures to be had begins, I want to tell you about the hilarious and wild night I had last weekend.

 

This quote really sums it up, but I'll fill you in on the details because they are that random.

source

I made plans to go out with my roommate, Natasha on Saturday night and after going downtown the night before with my sisters, I wasn't sure what I was in the mood for. We've only been out a few times together since she moved in a few months ago, but we've had a blast everytime. We decided to start the night off with a few drinks at Bar Louie then decide if we wanted to head downtown or what. This is how the rest of the night went:

We walk into the bar and I spot two guys I know from high school and two of their friends.

 

The guys immediately ordered us drinks and we all moved to a bigger table.

 

Natasha and I discuss 1. how much fun this is and 2. that we both agree one of the guys is really cute.

 

Natasha hits on a completely random guy sitting at the bar by filling out a Paper PickUp,

folding it into a paper airplane then throwing it at him. That's when I think it really hit me: I love this girl.

 

He obviously comes over and minutes later she needs my help getting rid of him.

 

After a few drinks, we all head over to a new bar down the street for more fun.

 

We find a really neat outdoor area of the bar to hang out. Because someone says this looked like a VIP area, suddenly we are coming up with celebrity look-a-likes for everyone. One of the guys becomes Rob Kardashian, another becomes

Kenny Chesney even though he really doesn't look a thing like him,

I become Carrie Underwood and Natasha becomes Taylor Swift.

 

A few drinks later, the guys gently break it to us that their plans were actually

to go to a strip club next.

 

I think they were afraid they would lose us for the night, but Natasha and I enthusiastically

announce that we've never been to one and we were totally down.

 

Next thing you know we're all in the car on our way.

 

Some ladies might walk into a strip club with a group of four guys and sit in the corner pouting.

 

Not us.

 

We get in, order drinks, Natasha starts buying the guys lapdances and I am asking Kenny Chesney to teach me how to go about putting money in the girls' panties and telling him "I want to make it rain!"

 

We were truly "just one of the guys" at the strip club and they loved it. It was so hilarious.

So basically, girls' night turned into quite an adventure and Natasha was all about it. I love having friends who are up for anything and just "go with it." Natasha is definitely this way. Our plans of having a girls' night went out the window and she hit it off with all the guys and loved every second. She doesn't get all wrapped up in what our "plan" is or get all weird about hanging out with people she doesn't know. I love it. She is spontaneous and fun and the next day we couldn't stop laughing about our wild night.

Weekend in Maine, Travel Woes & the Kindness of Strangers

Hi everyone! So maybe it has taken me about two weeks to get around to this, but I wanted to give you a quick rundown of my weekend trip to Maine earlier this month because some pretty awesome stuff happened.

Weekend in Maine
The reason for the trip: my cousin got married. The wedding was on Lake Sebago and my extended family all stayed in cabins around the lake for the weekend. It was so awesome walking outside our cabin and running into cousins, aunts, uncles, etc. The wedding was beautiful and the weekend was full of relaxation, campfires and quality time with my family. It was perfect.

While most of my family drove (all the way from Florida,) I couldn't quite take that much time off work, so I flew in Friday and came home (or attempted to, but I'll get to that shortly) Monday. The weather up there is gorgeous this time of year and I enjoyed every minute. A group of us even went for a run Sunday morning and I can't tell you how nice it was to run outside and not feel like you are melting! I couldn't find a kite to fly (one of my goals for the weekend), but my sister and I did the zipline across the lake, which was super fun!


1. Dad and I - 2. Mom and I twirling, of course

1. My siblings and I (missing a sister, though!) - 2. Lake Sebago
3. A really neat picture I took of my niece while blowing bubbles on the porch with the kids

1. My nephew Aidan and I - 2. My niece Alyssa and I
Obsessed with these beautiful children.

Travel Woes & the Kindness of Strangers
If you know me in real life, you know that I don't have the best luck with air travel. Now bad luck would be plane crashes and whatnot, so I wouldn't go that far, but I can't take one trip without missing a flight, getting stranded in a random city alone for the night or missing a connection. It never fails and it is never my fault. You'd think a girl with my air travel luck would always schedule non-stop flights, but when you are going on a super quick trip and trying to save money, sometimes you don't have much of a choice. After bad weather in Orlando almost caused me to miss my connection in Atlanta on the way up to Maine (I was that girl hauling ass through the airport at 3:30 to make it to my 3:30 pm flight), I figured the flights home would be smooth sailing. Boy, was I mistaken.

About 20 minutes from landing in Baltimore to make my connecting flight to Orlando, the pilot came on saying because of thunderstorms in Baltimore, we'd have to make a pit stop in Philadelphia. At this point, it's already about 8 p.m. so things aren't looking great. I was actually getting in touch with my good friend from college, Theresa who lives in Philly and was actually a little excited to reunite for a night. Around 8:30 p.m. (the same time my flight was scheduled to leave Baltimore, the pilot comes on saying we are leaving Philly and heading to Baltimore. Most people on the plane were thrilled; I, was crossing my fingers my flight wouldn't leave without me. When we landed in Baltimore, a city where I know no one, the flight attendant broke the news that the flight to Orlando was long gone. I was stranded in Baltimore.

After an emotional goodbye to my sister, niece and nephew earlier in the day and a long afternoon of traveling, I completely lost it and broke down. While waiting for my baggage, crying to my mother on the phone about how AirTran's idea of helping out stranded customers was to give me a "discounted" hotel rate of $60, and coming to find out the hotel they partner with doesn't even offer a shuttle to the airport for my 6 a.m. flight, the most amazing thing happened.

A couple approached me and told me they'd really like to help me. The man walked with me into the airport office to speak to someone about the situation and try to get some other options and they tried to help me find a better hotel, with no luck. After spending an hour in the airport trying to figure something out, they decide to drive me to the hotel and at least try to get me a ride secured to the airport the next morning. When we get to the hotel, the woman at the front desk says they aren't the same hotel that AirTran partners with, so although they do have a shuttle, the room is $120 a night. I'm so exhausted and frustrated at this point, that I thank the couple profusely for their help, but that I am just going to pay the $120 and stay there. The couple leaves and the woman at the front desk tells me that because she feels awful about my experience, she'd like to offer me a generous discount, making the room $60 instead of $120. I was speechless and completely overwhelmed by all the kindness I had experienced in the last few hours.

I got to my room no longer feeling frustrated and angry, but feeling so grateful for being on the receiving end of these Random Acts of Kindness. I can't put into words how appreciative I was of these people. The funny thing is, I went into my trip with all these ideas of RAKs I can perform in the airport and in my travels, but I ended up being on the receiving end and not performing as many as I planned. I would have been a lot worse off that night without these nice people, so thank goodness for them. It's such proof to me that my mission is a good one. Good things come to those who do good and what you put out into the universe will come back to you at some point. The whole "Pay it Forward" idea has never been so apparent.

To sum it up, I had an absolutely wonderful weekend in Maine, a few low travel points and a ton of moments of complete happiness and appreciation for people in my life, family and random strangers.

Why I Loved This Weekend

Happy Monday everyone!

I kicked off my Monday by landing my client an interview with The Wall Street Journal, so excuse my being overly excited about anything and everything. I was sick last week (boo), but thanks to my awesome doctor, I was back in action just in time to have an absolutely delightful weekend. Why, you ask?

Saturday I spent the morning pampering myself and it was just lovely. I got my highlights touched up and eyebrows done and ran a few errands. I'm headed to Boston/Maine this weekend for a wedding, so it was nice to be out and about getting what I needed for the trip. I followed this up with a really fun dinner with my two girlfriends.

Sunday I had the pleasure of spending the day with my parents, brother and one of my sisters in Orlando. We all had things we needed to pick up for our trip, so we set out on a shopping adventure. My dad and brother aren't the biggest fans of day-long shopping trips, but they hung in there! We took a break for lunch at one of my favorite little restaurants in downtown Winter Garden, but other than that we shopped until we dropped! I am a little obsessed with some of my purchases. So much so, that I need to share them with you.

Nike Lunar Forever running shoes.
I can't wait to run in these tonight!

This shirt from Forever 21.

Eurostep Women's Adrift Boat Shoes.
These are so cute and so comfortable.

Fast Track by China Glaze.

Sundays with my family are absolutely delightful. It doesn't matter what we're doing, the day is always full of love, positivity and lots and lots of laughter. Spending the day with them Sunday left me feeling so giddy and grateful.

And this weekend we're off to spend Friday night in Boston and the rest of the weekend will be spent on a lake in Maine for my cousin's wedding. Should be a blast!

How was your weekend?

Confessions

Why hello there. 

In case you thought I fell off the face of the earth, or if you didn't even notice I was gone, I'm back! Between prepping for my business trip, then being on it for almost a week, then trying to recover from that trip, I realized I haven't blogged in what seems like forever.

Because I don't have any groundbreaking news to share, I won't bore you with a bunch of mundane updates. I do, however, have a few things to confess.

I've seen Magic Mike...twice. 

The first time I saw it, I was all about it. A movie about male strippers, one of them being Channing Tatum? This is going to be so bad and so good at the same time. It was all fun and games the first time, laughing at the horrible dialogue and talking about how hot the guys are. I walked out of the theater saying it was the best worst movie I've seen in a long time. In other words, completely unnecessary to see again. But, I did anyway. I ended up going with my coworkers who hadn't seen it yet and while laughing at the same scenes and drooling over the same men, I literally started to feel like a complete joke for seeing this movie not once, but twice. In case you were wondering, the dialogue and plot are a whole lot more painful to sit through the second time.

Seeing this sexy beast strip was obviously worth the price of admission.
Kidding. He scared me a little. (source)

I had so much fun on my business trip to Indianapolis. 

Don't get me wrong, I worked my ass off. It was exhausting and stressful at times. I was up at 5:30 most days, working the booth for 8-10 hours, then going to dinner or drinks with a client or networking in the bar, all to wake up and do it again the next day. Five days of this and I was one tired girl. I've also never enjoyed my job more. I absolutely thrive in that environment. I love networking and meeting new people. I love meeting clients and potential clients in person and connecting with them. It makes me wish we had more opportunities to do this rather than just the one or two conventions a year we go to. Oh, I also got a chance to meet Brian Tracy. He was a client of ours several years ago and is one of the world's most famous motivational speakers. I was pretty psyched to meet him. 

Brian Tracy!

 I bought a bubble wand and keep it in my car. 

Before you jump to conclusions, let me reassure you: by bubble wand, I don't mean sex toy. 

I'm obviously referring to those sword-like tubes for blowing bubbles. They are really meant for five-year-olds, or me. Either way. I can't explain to you why blowing bubbles makes me so happy, but it does. I bought this when visiting my parents' house one weekend, but left it in my car and I take it into the courtyard at work when I need a break, a stress reliever, a reason to smile, whatever. At least it's the only random thing in my car these days. I drove around with Twister in my car for almost a year, after all. 

That's all I have to say tonight. Talk about random. 

I hope you're all having a great week!

"I keep forgetting I bitch slapped someone last night"

I hope everyone had a safe and happy 4th of July! Me, I didn't do one 4th of July-related activity, but I had a blast. I'll get into that soon, but first I have to tell you about the most amazing and hilarious thing that occurred the night before. Seriously, if you've been following my blog for a while, I think you are going to love this. You might love it so much you'll want to steal my best friend and make her your best friend. It's that good.

My best friend Taryn is in town for the week. It's been a while since we've been able to spend some quality time together, so to celebrate her visit, I convinced her to come downtown with my roomie and I on Tuesday night. At Independant Bar, one of our stops later in the night, we had the unfortunate luck of seeing Gary. I hadn't seen him since we parted ways in January and I erased every sign of him from my life. I don't mean to be dramatic, but he is really someone I just never wanted to see or talk to ever again.

After seeing him once inside the bar, we decided to leave after finishing our drinks and walked outside the bar to find him standing right there. Ugh. I didn't want to say anything to him or really even make eye contact, but Taryn (who was drunker than I realized) asked if she could slap him. I kind of laughed and said "Hey, you can do whatever you want." I never would have thought she would follow through with it.

Then, the most glorious thing happened. She walked right over to him, leaned over the railing and slapped him across the face. Let me tell you that this isn't typical behavior of her. My best friend Taryn is crazy, but she is more of a quirky and random crazy, not a slapping people in public kind of crazy. I truly think we could have run into any one of my other exes and she would've never done this, but she really, really had it out for Gary after he broke my heart. I think many of my friends/family feel the same way.
 
I wish I could tell you he was shocked by the public slapping, that he started crying like a little baby, or that he thought the whole thing was funny, but we honestly didn't stick around long enough to find out. After the slap, Taryn jumped for joy across the street to the next bar and I walked with her kind of in shock and kind of completely overjoyed by what had just occurred. She was on a slap high, jumping for joy and telling everyone we crossed paths with what had just happened. I did manage to hear him blabbing about how what he did to me just happened to him. I don't mean to be immature, but I was glad to hear that. Oh, the person you left me for just left you for someone else? That is karma and maybe it will teach you not to treat people like that because it will just come back to you at some point.

I can honestly say that I feel like I handled our break up with class and maturity. After the initial freak out, I picked myself up, cut him out of my life and moved forward. I didn't do any of the crazy ex girlfriend things my friends and I joked about. Will the fact that (1) my best friend just slapped him in public and (2) the fact that I am so happy about it completely diminish the mature way I've handled the break up to this point? It's quite possible. But it's also totally worth it.

Taryn and I spent the entire next day together doing random things (none of which included typical 4th of July activities). We couldn't stop talking about what happened laughing nonstop about how hilarious this was. Throughout the day, whenever we complained about how tired we were, how hungover we were or whenever we just needed to laugh again, we'd say "Life is tough. Just ask Gary." Even last night as we walked out of the movie theatre, Taryn goes, "I keep forgetting I bitch slapped someone last night" and we laughed some more. We're calling it the slap heard round the world.

I spent the whole day laughing with this girl

We definitely wrote this on her hand to document the occasion.

I've never been more proud to call this girl my best friend. She bitch slapped my ex boyfriend in public. If that isn't a best friend then I don't know what is.

Weekend Perfection

I can't put into words how magical this weekend was. Actually, I can because I'm about to, but you get the point. It was perfect...full of fun, relaxation, dancing, new adventures and quality time with people I love.

The highlights:

I met my sweet momma in Mount Dora, a cute little town just outside of Orlando, on Saturday. We spent the afternoon browsing around the cute gift shops, grabbing lunch and getting the most delightful pedicure I've had in my life. My mom took me into the most adorable gift shop called Under the Cherry Blossoms to meet the owner, who she described as my female soul mate...haha. When she was in Mount Dora about a year ago, she met this woman and knew we would hit it off. We have a lot in common regarding our attitude and outlook on life.

As my mother usually is, she was right. We chatted for a bit and my mother and I picked out some really fun inspirational goodies. The store owner, Lynn, even gave me a "28 Days of Thanks" kit, which I'll have to tell you more about later because it is a new exciting project I'm about to start! I can't wait to get started on it and was so touched that gave it to me. If you ever get a chance to visit Mount Dora, you definitely need to check this place out. The ceiling of the store is covered in tissue paper cherry blossoms, each with an inspirational quote attached.  I absolutely love this idea!

The day was truly just perfect. These days with my mom are so important to me. No matter what is going on in life, I can always count on days like this for guidance, support, girl talk, relaxation and lots of giggles. We need to make days like this happen more often. I love that lady!

The most positive ceiling I've ever seen :)

I followed up my awesome day with my mom with a night on the town with one of my favorite girls, Laura. Between the UFC (I don't even know what that stands for) fight being on and the LMFAO concert downtown that night, let's just say the bars were packed and the crowd was....interesting. I can always count on Laura to have fun with me no matter what the conditions are. We ended up having a really fun night chatting and dancing. Girls nights are so good for the soul and I'm so glad we've been having more of these lately!

I'd say Sunday's theme was "Let's do something different." I asked My Sister's Ex (we are still just friends and my mom is probably shaking her head as she reads this) to go on an adventure with me. I didn't have anything specific in mind, just wanted to do something a little different than the normal weekend activities like movies, dinner, brunch, etc. He was all for it and told me he'd even come up with some ideas. His idea was to take me shooting. He's a police officer, so he is obviously pretty comfortable shooting a gun. Me on the other hand....I had never even held a gun other than picking up my dad's gun and putting it down right away because I got freaked out. In an effort to be fearless and open to new things, I told him I'd love to go shooting, but that I was a little scared. In return, it was my duty to plan something that took him a little out of his comfort zone. I decided on pottery painting because honestly, do you know any guys who have willingly gone to paint pottery?!?

Our day began with brunch, which included the most delightful Banana Granola Pancakes at First Watch (they are life changing, actually). Next, we were off to the gun range where I shot a rifle and a 40 caliber handgun. Eeek! I was so nervous to shoot and I've truly never felt so very out of my element.      

Just hearing all the gun shots as we waited to shoot had me freaked out and I hadn't even picked up a gun yet! I knew I'd feel a little better once I took my first shot...I just needed to get that part over with. I shot the rifle first and just like My Sister's Ex thought, I liked that much better than the handgun. Even though it was bigger and kind of heavy, it was much easier to handle and aim. I actually shot it pretty well and they said I did really well for my first time. I was pretty impressed by that and it's just another example of how we surprise ourselves sometimes. I can't exactly say that I am about to start hitting up the gun range on a weekly basis. I can't even say that I'll go back at all, but I'm so glad I went! It was fun to do something so out of the norm and try something new. Not to mention the fact that I'm sure he got quite a bit of entertainment out of my reaction to everything!

I can't even lie. I've never felt like such a badass before!

Our next stop was All Fired Up, a pottery place in Winter Park. We both painted coffee mugs and I'd say he was as out of his element as I was at the shooting range! I'm not much of an artist myself, so this isn't a normal activity for me, but you should've seen his face when the lady was telling us how to pour the paint, what to do with our brushes and all the different ways to design our mugs. It was pretty funny! We had fun but I'll tell you...painting takes a lot of you! By the time we were finished, we both needed a drink! We ended a super fun day with dinner and drinks at a place in Winter Park called The Shipyard Brew Pub.

This was such a fun day. I love surrounding myself with people who are open to being a little adventurous, trying new things and switching things up. It rained nonstop in Orlando yesterday, but that didn't stop us from having an absolute blast. Again, I'll refer to how frustrating it is to think of him as nothing more than a friend. Maybe that will change. Do those things change? I don't know. Either way, I loved this day and hope we can have more adventures like it! 

What a weekend! I sure wasn't home much, which I'm sure Blake wasn't too happy about (I made sure to give him extra snuggles and treats when I got home Sunday night), but I love that it was jam-packed with all kinds of fun adventures!

Have any of you shot a gun before? Were you as nervous as I was?