Girl's Weekend in Arkansas!

Every so often my friends & I plan a girl's weekend or girl's trip, to either meet in person or to see friends again. We have a blast every time. Most of our trips are centered around Twilight, but it is what brought us together and what about Twilight is not to love?

Last weekend we decided to go an meet Krystal in her town of Cabot, AR. Now I've never been to AR before this and let me just say, some things were very interesting.

I took Friday off and flew in to Little Rock where I was greeted by Krystal and my K at the airport! I was soooo excited because I got a K-sammich :). We stuck around the airport for a bit, and I grabbed lunch with the K's while we waited to pick up Gigi. Once we squished Gigi, it was off to Cabot. (I didn't know how spread out things were in AR.)

After invading Mr. Vozzella's space (Krystal's man), we headed off to meet Bobby (Mr. Vozzella) for dinner at Crazy Hibachi, where we had lots of fun picking on Bobby and just chilling. Then we were off to Smokey's...their normal bar. At Smokey's we saw a lady who was sitting awake & drinking when we came in. About 10 minutes after the karaoke started, the lady was totally asleep!

Now it was a bar, so it's loud and she was just asleep. I could never do that...but it was cool. After a drink, we were back off to the apartment to get ready and go out to the club to meet up with some more of our friends.



Club Trinity was awesome. We danced, drank, and just had a good time. (Who knew bars stayed open till 5 am in Little Rock...well I sure didn't) Once we got back for the night (around 4 am) we crashed!





Once we woke up and got ready, we took Gigi to Five Guy's #NOM! I love me some Five Guy's, and Gigi loves her meat, potatoes, & BACON, so we were set. After lunch we were off to Lucky Seven. No, not another bar, that happens later. #hehe Lucky Seven is a tattoo parlor that our friends have gone too. We all got tattoos! Gigi got an awesome peacock feather on her arm, Krystal got "me and you" written in German on her arm, K got 3 nautical stars on her shoulder, Erinn got "Peas" written on her foot, and I got "Love" written on my wrist. We all left the tattoo parlor all bandaged up and headed back to the apartment to get ready and have dinner with some more of our friends at the Irish Pub. Luckily, we hit the pub during ladies hour, so our drinks were only 2 bucks! I tried a "Black Velvet" which is hard cider with Guinness floating on top. It was VERY tasty! So was my Shepard's pie and the airlift appetizer (a mini Ruben...#NOMNOMNOM). We convinced Gigi to taste the Shepard's pie, even though she has an aversion to food being mixed and any type of gravy. She didn't like it :P. After dinner we all went to Smokey's for the rest of the night. We had drinks, played pool, saw a woman in camo tights and a corduroy shirt (with fake bun), and got shots complements of Mr. Awesome (my Jason). After fun at Smokey's we went to the grocery store to buy the stuff for fried Oreo's (Gigi style). Unfortunately, I fell asleep before they were finished. Cause somebody *cough* Mr. Vozzella *cough* was amused by me and kept buying shots. Sadly in the morning we had to get up and my K drove me to the airport, were I headed back to Raleigh & my Jason. Luckily I did get to meet Jess for drinks when I got back for dinner :). I miss her face! It was a great weekend filled of fun & friends! #ihaveawesomefriends

Visiting Carole, Alan, & Allan!

Since our first football game this year was on a Thursday night, and it was Labor Day Weekend, Jason and I decided to head down to Morehead City to see Carole, Allan, & Alan. I hate that we can't get to see him more, so I jumped at the chance to go see the world's cutest little boy, my nephew!

We found what we thought was a great deal on the hotel room, but little did we know that I would not even put my bag down in the room!! Now granted we had stayed in this hotel once before, but not in this particular building. We normally get there kind of late, because we of course can't leave until after work, then we have to drive the 3 hours to get there. So about 10 pm we finally get to the hotel and get our room key. Jason thought he saw something move and when we cut on the light there were 3 cockroaches on the wall! I am not joking!!! If you know me, you know that I am petrified of bugs! (I had a full out anxiety attack in the lab in college because they wanted me to work with and TOUCH a freakishly large cockroach!) So I told Jason we weren't staying there and we walked out. Sadly we were not the only people that night with critter issues in our room. But we got lucky, seeing as how it was Labor Day weekend, we were able to find another room for a relatively good price that was bug free! :)

Saturday went MUCH better! It was very nice out so we went to the beach for part of the day and just relaxed and spent time with Carole and Allan. Alan had to fish, so we unfortunately didn't get to see much of him, but it was still nice to get to spend a little bit of time with them. We went out for dinner and found out that little Allan hadn't gone out much at night and didn't really like riding in the dark. So Uncle Jason came to the rescue with his iPhone! There is a 'Christmas Light' setting in the flash light app that he has on his phone, so he cut it on and held it for him to look at. Then little Allan was happy and rode to the restaurant very quietly while he watched all the pretty lights.

I can't wait to get back to see him!

Happy Anniversary!

Well, as of October 1st Jason and I have been married for 4 years! (Where did the time go?)

One thing that brought Jason and I together was music, and we like a lot of different types of music. One thing that we did all through college and even now was go to concerts. Live shows were the best for us. Jason in fact took me to my first concert, Far Too Jones & Athenaeum at Lincoln Theater a few weeks after I moved into my dorm. We would go to concerts whenever we could, and we even stood in line for HOURS for a concert. We still love to go to concerts! So, when Jason emailed me in June and said that Blink 182 was getting back together and they were having a concert ON our anniversary, I said AWESOME! We were so excited, it was the perfect anniversary present for us! Well, because of a bunch of stuff, the concert got moved to the 6th. Which, turned out to be a good thing, since I was at home with a fever on our anniversary. But this also gave us the opportunity to take a couple of days off together...yes, we actually got to take time off together and spend time together! It was a nice break in the middle of the week.


We hadn't seen Blink 182 in several years, since the broke up, this year was a 'reunion tour' so we got to hear a lot of our favorite songs, and of course, our song. (Yes, our song is a Blink 182 song, First Date, don't judge...it fits us!)

While we were in Charlotte, my cousin Ricky was off from work for the day, so it worked out that we got to meet him at Ikea and have lunch. But the best part was I got to meet his little girl, Lauren, for the first time. She's too cute & Logan is a great big brother. (My family has some really cute kids.)

Jason, Lauren, & Logan at Ikea

Unfortunately, when we got to the concert, we found out (during the concert) that the other two bands that we wanted to see weren't going to show. Instead we got Valencia (they weren't too bad) and Asher Roth. This dude is HORRIBLE!! He's a 'white boy rapper', yeah, you think that said it all, look at this! His 'dancing' and 'rapping' was worse! However, I don't think he realized that no one at the concert over the age of 18 (there were some youngin' there!) liked him.

Jason & his "Fat Tire" while we wait for Blink to come on


FINALLY BLINK!! WooT!!



Very happy Jason as he watches/listens to Blink!

This video is of Travis Barker, the drummer for Blink 182, doing an awesome drum solo, and yes, he is suspended in the air and rotating!

Thank you Jason for 4 great years! I love you!

Meeting Sassy!

This weekend I had the chance to meet one of my wonderful Twi-Twitter friends...@Sassette! She is awesomeness! We live in the same state, but had yet to meet up, so when she got tickets to a football game, she was EXTREMELY kind enough to invite me!

Now, surprisingly, I love football! (Jason is happy about this.)We had awesome tickets, thanks to her working for a great company. I felt bad because Jason loves football as well and had never been to an NFL game. So I of course was an awesome wife and got him a lower level ticket. Ashley & I could see him from our suite.


We watched the Carolina Panthers and Baltimore Ravens. Sadly the Panthers lost, but it was awesome getting to meet Ashley in person and getting to talk. Of course we talked about Twilight, Twitter, & football. Now I've got to get her to Raleigh to meet @nicolewilson and for a NC State Football game!

Me & Ashley!

Thanks again Ashley! ::HUGS::

Changes

Last night Jason looked at my blog and asked “What’s with all the chess stuff on your blog? Is it some stupid Twilight thing?” So it made me start to think…(Yes…it is a Twilight thing…do not judge first, please read!)

This past New Year I decided that it was time that I become comfortable with who I am and start doing things on my own. I’ve always depended on someone to make tuff decisions, well any decision really, and to just tell me what to do when I don’t want to deal with something. Independent thinking wasn’t something I was very keen on. I went straight from listening to and doing everything my parents told me to do (yes, all through college) to getting married right after college and never wanting to upset my loving husband. After getting married, well, y’all know my world for the most part crashed around me when my father passed away just 9 days after getting married and I felt like I had to take care of my mother then. The first 6 months of being married sucked, really, as we spent every weekend driving 3 hours each way to our home town to make sure my mother was taken care of. I was afraid even then to upset her or Jason. I know that Jason put up with a LOT from me and my family during this time. It was extremely trying on us and, I feel, it only made us stronger. I started thinking about everything I’ve gone through and decided that it was time that I step up and deal with everything and make myself a better, stronger person because of it. (I know…it took me long enough.) I’ve pretty much always depended on someone else to always be there to take care of me.

During this time while I was thinking (thinking phase), I was introduced to the Twilight Saga. As I read the books, it took me back to when I was younger and I would read constantly. I had long since forgotten how I could lose myself completely in a good story (Jason, I’m truly sorry for being completely oblivious those few weeks.). When reading the first book, Twilight, I saw how Bella & Edward could not seem to be apart, and for the most part in the beginning of my relationship with Jason (right out of high school for me) I was the same way. The longest we were ever apart for the first 4 years we were together was about 2 days. When I read New Moon, the 2nd book, I wanted to cry through most of the book…the sense of loss that Bella felt made me remember my own loss and it really made me start to think. Eclipse, the third book, where Bella had to make very hard decisions that would hurt people she loved, made me think of the decisions that I had to make and then stick by, even though I knew it was what was best and what I needed to do. Breaking Dawn, the last book, hit me the hardest. Bella went from being the weakest member in the family to one of the strongest. This made me think for WEEKS about myself and how I wanted to grow and become a stronger person. I pretty much kept to myself this entire time just thinking. I read an interview with the author of the Twilight Saga, Stephenie Meyer, where she explained the cover art for Breaking Dawn. Meyer said: “It represents Bella and Bella. ... Bella starts out as the weakest player on the board, and she ends up as the one who decides the outcome of the story. She becomes the most powerful player, and I really liked that metaphor. I liked seeing her evolution in one picture.” I then had a light-bulb go off in my head …I understood what I needed…

Confidence and independence… So, I started doing it and doing all of the things I’d always really wanted to do but was too scared to do! First off…I got my ears pierced again…something small, but it was big for me. Planning a trip, without my husband. I hated even driving to Hickory or Morehead City alone, two places I knew very well. I felt I had to have him with me or I couldn’t go. So, Lyndsye called and asked me to go to Forks, I decided I was going! Lyndsye and I had to plan this trip out…Jason (my wonderfully prepared hubby wasn’t going to be there)…it took some time, but we did it!

I’ve also met a lot of new people this year, through Twitter and my love of Twilight. I’ve made some great friends, who some I’ve had the opportunity to meet already this year and others I hope to meet in person soon. I’ve even met awesome lady here in Raleigh…who I get go have non-work related lunches with and maybe hit up a concert with…it’s refreshing to go to lunch with someone and not talk or think about work! Also, meeting other people with similar interests and understanding has been great! I hope I get to meet more of these wonderful ladies in person soon!

Changing my appearance…I’ve worked out for a couple of years, but since the beginning of the year, I’ve been working extremely hard with my trainer and own my own. (I love running!) Dying my hair & cutting it…to match my new feeling inside I wanted to show it on the outside. Surprise…I haven’t been a natural blonde since about 8th grade! I found a color a little closer to my ‘natural’ color and went for it! I like the new do and the new color! What’s next…something I’ve wanted since the day I turned 18…a tattoo! Jason isn’t sure about this, he doesn’t like them and would like me to wait and think about it longer, but it’s something I’ve wanted to do for years. I have the opportunity soon to go do this with a very close friend, so I’ll keep you posted about it!


These changes I’m sure have shocked my wonderful husband a little…I know the shocked look on his face when he walked in and saw my dark brown hair, the physical changes are just part of it. However, he has been wonderful to me throughout this entire process so far. I know that I’ve kept the majority of my thoughts and reasons to myself, it’s just something I needed to do for me. There are a lot more reasons but they are for me and my growth as a person and for me to use to grow my relationships.

This is me… the more independent, confident, wife, daughter, and friend!

Beach & Such...

Well, sorry I've been so slack about posting, I've been busy at work and in life in general. Jason and I did get to take a short break this week however thanks to our friends Nick & Heather for inviting us down to the beach for a long weekend. Andrew and Leah also got to come with us and we were all glad we got to stay and miss a few days of work! We had a very relaxing time just sitting on the beach and chilling out. I haven't been able to do that in a long time.

The first day on the beach, we did have an issue with some structurally unsound umbrellas, the nice breeze had other plans for this umbrella! But overall the weather was nice, the guys got to play golf together and of course us wives got to go shopping!


Southport was nice, I hadn't ever been there to go shopping before. I don't know why because there is a Christmas store...yes, I went to buy Christmas stuff in June. (You can never have too many Christmas decorations!) I also bought an uber cute flag for our mail box (which I'm planning a makeover for...I'll post pics of that once it is finished.) While we were there of course it was the lovely host and hostess' 1 year anniversary! We celebrated their day with them by going to dinner at Elijah's in Wilminton (it was tasty.)

While we were shopping at the Christmas store, I saw a display in the kids section that made me laugh and think of one of my friends...she doesn't like squirrels, and they had a whole display of squirrels, so I took a picture just for Gigi!


Heather also found some great ideas for their little girl's room (she's on the way). I think it will be cute, with the 'bugs on the wall'... or with a big silver tree in the corner like this one.


Laying on the beach also allowed me to catch up on some reading that I've been wanting to do and get tan. I got to read the first book in the Mortal Instruments series City of Bones, which I thoroughly enjoyed. And of course immediately started on the second book, City of Ashes, when I got back (although now I don't have much time for reading). They are good books, and I'm enjoying reading them.

Now its back to hitting the gym, working, and working some more.

Note to self: Find a way to get a beach house or some type of vacation house...or how to work from a chair in the sand :)...

Beach & Baby Shower

This past weekend, I went to visit my sister for her second baby shower. She lives in a small beach town, so her friends were throwing it for her. She's getting really excited about having the baby soon. Muchkin man (she's not telling anyone the name) is ready to come early we think, but hopefully he'll stay put for a little longer (he needs to bake some more...hehe). My mom & her boyfriend came down as well to join in the festivities.

Saturday morning I got up early so I could go for a run, it was beautiful out on the beach. I ran from Fort Macon (yes, its really a Fort) to the pier, about 3 miles, and back. And just so ya know, its harder to run in sand than it is to run on a treadmill or even on the crazy hills in my neighborhood, but I did it. I had lots of sand in my shoes when I was done. This was the view on the way back from the pier.



And I wrote Jason a message on my way back (cause I try to be a good wife)...



(Since he didn't come with me)


Then I went to a cute little store with my sis and got me a cute ring (and earrings & a super cute koozy!) I love my ring though, cause my roomies in college used to call me E, so it reminded me of them. (I haven't gotten to try out my koozy yet, but football season's coming!)




Then it was time for the shower. My sister has some great friends in here little town, and I'm happy for her. My nephew has so many little out fits with fishes on them (cause his daddy is a Captain of a Charter Boat). He's gonna look so cute!
His room is uber cute too!



The cake was too cute, it had a little monkey...cause if he's anything like his mother was, he's going to be a little monkey :)!



After the shower we went to meet Alan at the waterfront to see how his charter went and I got a couple of pictures with Sandy (my sister's pup) on the boat. She loves the water & the boat. Alan (my bro-in-law) cooked us a great dinner, that was very tasty! Sunday before we left, we took a little walk on the beach while Sandy went for a swim. (She shook off right on my mom...it was funny!)


There are more pics of the shower here.

It's the End of January!

I can't believe that it is already the end of January! This month has flown by I don't even remember what all I did this month. I know that next month I've got a lot to do. I have to finish planning and get ready for my sister's baby shower for one thing! (Yes, I'm going to have a nephew in about 5 months!) It's going to be for the family, so we are off to Hickory for that weekend. I had forgotten how hard it is to plan something when you can't go there to do it. But luckily, Momma Doris is on the hunt (seeing as how I've never done a baby shower before, I needed some help!) My cousin Caron has been helping too.

Tomorrow we are going to have our 5th Annual Super Bowl Party, so I'm in the process of getting everything ready for that. Jason and I just finished cleaning up, so now tomorrow I just have to make a few things and then we should be ready. I guess now I have to figure out which team I want to root for, I personally like the Chargers (cause of the Wolfpack tie to QB Phillip Rivers), so I guess I'll just have to pick one. I'll post some pictures of our party soon. We normally have a pretty good time.

I also bought my plane ticket for my girls trip, so now we are definitely going. I think it will be a great experience for me to have a girls trip. We have our hotels picked out as well so we will be booking those in the next few days also. It seems to be coming together and I'm looking forward to it. If the next few months go by as fast as this month has, then it will just seem like a few weeks! Jason went with me last night to see Twilight again, unfortunately, he didn't care for it, but he was nice enough to go with me!

Now Jason & I will have to figure out where we would like to go on vacation this year!