I'm Going To Roll A Weeks Worth Of Posts Into One, Because You're Only Getting One This Week.

Happy Memorial Day, e'ryone!

I would be partaking in the BBQ festivities, but surprise surprise, I have to work. Oh well, at least we are giving free wings to Military and Dependents in honor of the day. Makes me feel like I'm doing something for the fallen.

This Memorial Day is the first time that I directly know a fallen soldier.

Source: northjersey.com via Janna on Pinterest

Joseph D'Augustine was my friend Brandy's Fiance, and was killed 15 days before he was supposed to come home. I had only met him once, and can't pretend to know him well, but I know the love that he left behind and that...is what breaks my heart for every soldier that we lose. I am just thankful that we have a day to remember. It's honorable for them, and necessary for us.

Gone but not forgotten...

As for the rest of the weekend, it was a lot of relaxation, the usual gym time, great food, and dinner out on Friday. I thought we were just going on a little double date, but come to find out, it was the first time Buck met this girl via Match.com. Someone should warned me so that we didn't act our normal crazy selves. Too late now! Hehe

I really wanted a nice photo of the two of us that wasn't from arm's length {emphasis on the word nice}. Thank goodness one turned out.

You know that I was just excited that I got to rock my boots. I am in LOVE with them, so the rest of the outfit was planned with them in mind.

Top: Target || Leggings: TJ MaXX || Boots: Zulily || Arm Candy via the hubby

I was also happy that my curls were holding up from the night before. I hate wasting voluminous hair, so I rocked it all the way. I can't even believe the curls stayed in the first place. It is sooo long and heavy that it's impossible to get them to stay. As Chelsey was curling it, she commented no less than ten times about how much hair I have. She used a straightener to curl it, so I'm going to have to try that. Everyone says that I'm not aloud to cut it, which means I'm going to have to learn to handle it.

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Now that it's warm enough, the hubs has been embracing the grill. He made me TWO amazing dinners this weekend, 'cuz he knows that my stomach is the way to my heart. Oh how I love a man that can cook! MmmmMmm.

Similar recipes: 

Avocado Salsa || Spinach Stuffed Chicken

Last, but not least, I need to explain why you will only be getting one post this week. The CEO {that would be me} of this here blog corporation, has decided that it's time for me to have a blog vacay.

 I'm so behind that I haven't even blogged about Will's promotion for gosh sakes. I'm going to take this time to visit your blogs (duh), edit/sift through all the photos from the past few months, and document all the fun things that have been going on in our lives. First and foremost, this blog is for my family and is a digital scrapbook, so I would really like to document all the amazing memories we have made post-deployment. I have been trying to post them sporadically, but y'all know life has just been too hectic. Now that it's slowing down, it's just time for me to take a breather.

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday, and that you take time for yourselves, as well. We all deserve time to stop and smell the roses. Catch ya on the flip side! 

P.S. Happy Birthday, Kelly! Love ya guhh, and glad you loved your package!
PPS. I got top 10 in the contest! I promise that will be one of the recaps when I come back ;)

I Really, Like Seriously, Want To Go To France

With a sad, but full heart, I tell you that LoLo is no longer feeling pain.

At least she went out with a bang, and accomplished everything she wanted to in life. My thoughts are with her family, and particularly her son Bryan. I hope that one day I can tell him all the crazy shenanigans that his mom and I got into. He needs to know how cool she was. Love you, LoLo!

Now onto a brighter note...meet Patricia!                                                                                         

I don't know about you,  but I am ALWAYS sucked into blogs that are written by bloggers in another country. Whether they are natives of said country or Americans abroad, I am always intrigued. Today, I'd like to introduce you to a Newlywed Beauty, who is sharing an intensely romantic story.

My name's Patricia and I'm a happy little American blogger living in France.

At 19, I was young, curious, and just itching for adventure. A year long

study abroad program in France seemed glamorous and thrilling. So I stuffed

everything I could into one little suitcase and bought a plane ticket. A

few months later, completely excited, jet lagged, and a little naive, I

showed up in a city that I'd never visited before, not knowing any one or

even if I'd be able to find my apartment in the morning. I barely spoke the

language.

It wasn't long before a sweet lady from church decided to "adopt" me for

the school year. I fell in love with her son the first day we met. I know

how cheesy that sounds, but that's really what happened. He was tall, dark,

handsome, and barely spoke English. At the time we could only see each

other on weekends, when his mom invited me to Sunday dinners. He lived

three hours away from us in the south of France. At the time I thought that

was tough, but he quickly became my world, my first real love.

That school year passed quickly and the end of summer came. I had to go

back to my home university to finish my senior year, because throwing away

my education for a boy that I'd known for less than a year was out of the

question. He promised wait for me, but when he dropped me off at the

airport I couldn't stop from self from crying. I remember being slightly

embarrassed to be sobbing in front of so many strangers while he held me in

front of Geneva airport's Burger King. So not glamorous.

I'm not going to tell you that living oceans apart was easy, because we

were so in love. People who tell you that are lying. Long distance

relationships suck. I'm also not going to tell you it was the hardest thing

I'd ever done. He was still my best friend, my closest confidant, and

always just a phone call away.  I had a lot to be grateful for.

We learned so much about are selves and our relationship that year. It

allowed us to grow in ways that we wouldn't have been able to otherwise.

When daily Facebook messages and the occasional call on Skype are your only

methods of communication, you learn to be more direct about what you want

to say and how you're really feeling. You also learn how much the other

person really means to you. There's a French proverb that says "Distance is

to love as wind is to fire. If it is a weak love, it will be quickly blown

out. If it is a strong love, the winds will only make it stronger."

We only saw each other in person once during that nine month separation,

one week right around New Year's. He was supposed to come to Nevada to meet

my family, but he broke his ankle the week before and the doctor told him

that he couldn't travel. I hopped on a plane as soon as I heard and went to

go see him.

Just so you know, happy endings do exist :) . After graduation I dropped

everything, bought a plane ticket back to France, and married that boy. We

still appreciate every day that we get to spend together, because we spent

so many days just wishing that we could. Even though I wouldn't ever want

to do the long distance thing again, I'm so thankful to have had that

experience!




Blog || Twittwer || Bloglovin'

Welp, I'm off to Denver. I might even have a drink in LoLo's honor!
Catch ya on the flip side.

Will Passed His Test!

TGI...W?
This week, I'm just happy that it's halfway over, because my stress is almost over! Next Tuesday should be my LAST managing shift, so it will be back to 25 hours/week and normalcy. No more stress for Will, no more stress for MEEEEEEE.

+ You might have noticed that I've been talking about Will studying lately. It has basically taken up all his spare time, but hallelujah, it paid off! I think I was more of a wreck than he was waiting for the results. I knew that he would pass, but I also knew that he wanted to score high overachiever. He did extremely well, and hopefully it will help his dreams come to fruition. It's amazing to see him working so hard toward something. Hard work WILL pay off, and no matter what, he is going places ;)

+ It would have been nice to celebrate last night, buuuuut...
A normal job let's your husband come home for dinner. The Army had my husband crawling into bed at 2 or 3AM. - all I know is that I was asleep. Poor thing, I hope he has today off, and at least he's getting to sleep in.

+ I got my costume mostly done for the pageant, and I feel pretty dang crafty. I made angel wings from SCRATCH, like bending wire and e'rythang. That was the last piece of the puzzle, so now I'm pretty much ready for tomorrow. Thank goodness.

+  The last and most annoying, is that I tend to bloat.
And not just the "Omg! I'm so blooooaaattted" where people overeat and blame it on the bloat. I seriously get a ball in my midsection and I HATE it. I have been trying to blame it on anything and everything:

Obviously, I'm not pregnant, so it's time to nail down the culprit.

So here is what I'm doing this week:

1. Going GLUTEN FREE. So far it's WORKING!

2. Cutting back the calories.Trying for somewhere between 1,200-1,500.

3. Avoiding processed, spicy, and anything containing sugar alcohols.

4.No alcohol
5. No gum.

It's only been three days and I'm really seeing and feeling a difference. I hadn't put much stock in the whole Gluten Intolerance thing, but I think I'm jumping on the bandwagon. If anyone is interested in more about my Gluten free results, lemme know. I'll be happy to share!

References

Easy Ways To Flatten Your Belly In A Week

20 Fittest Foods

Are any of you Gluten free? I wanna know!
I'm trying to learn as much as I can about it, and I trust y'all more than the interweb ;)

Making Up Is Fun To Do

Hello, hello. Guess what?

I got called into work on Saturday, which somehow I knew was going to happen!
Whatevs. I made some money and only ended up a little late for the BBQ. This particular event was in honor of our friends that are PCS'ing {military move}, so essentially it was a going away party. There was a great turn out, lots of AMAZING food, and many many shenanigans. Let's just say...some of the guys are not going to be in great shape for work on Monday. Good thing we did it on Saturday and not Sunday.



The truck with the grill in the back may or may not be one of our vehicles...

I didn't take a ton of pictures because the temperature was dropping quick, but I took the girls on a walk to the back of the park where we usually go, and love these:

I went to the gym and ran errands on Sunday, so to be honest Will and I didn't get much time together. That is never good for us, and especially not when we are both stressed. He has a big test this week and I have a million things going on, so the last thing we needed was time apart. It put us both on edge, and ended up becoming a little thing on Sunday.

I know there is a problem when "Aww he rolled over onto me" turns into "If he throws his arm over me one more time...", waking up before the coffee pot starts puts me in a mood, and weekends are full of more work. Luckily, we don't know how to be mad at each other anymore, so we had just enough of a thing that we got to have make up sex and then make dinner. Not gonna lie...it was worth it ;) Even now...he just punched me in the boob while rolling over in his sleep and it's back to cute.

What isn't cute is that my legs seem to be getting worse instead of better. I seriously have no idea what is wrong with them, but after a few recovery days, switching to the elliptical, heating packs, and tlc, they STILL ache. Unfortunately, there is no break until after this weekend, so I am running on. So far, it doesn't hurt while I'm working out, so I don't feel the need to stop, but I know that I am going to have to give myself more recovery time after this week. I am straight up addicted to running, but a break is going to be necessary to continue. Wow. Never thought those words would come out of my mouth.

If you need some inspiration, visit Jess for running tips from the anti-expert, and as Erica says, Just do it. Yes, I know Nike says it too, but her thought process backs it up ;)

Linking up with Sami today!