"Mom Of The Group"

In case you don't personally know me or perhaps haven't been around long...
this video is pretty much my life:

I swear, it's like they modeled it off my life all the way down to the fact that I refuse to do my taxes. Although, I pay someone to do them, because I ain't playin' when it comes to the IRS. {Hey Gretchen, Thanks for that big tax return this year!}

Here's another video for ya...this was the time I got thrown on the news to promote the Hollyday Bazaar, and the time I was attacked by a leaf that someone should have warned me about. It wasn't live, so uh...we would have done a retake.

It's funny, I was actually pregnant for that event, so it's no wonder I was sooooo tired after all that. At least they keep recognizing us for all the hard work, and here is my belly front and center at the last volunteer luncheon. Don't think you can miss it. But seriously, it was an honor to be up there with so many amazing people. Our president had over 1,000 volunteer hours, which blows my mind, and they said we worked the equivalent of seventeen full time employees. That is pretty badass when you think about it.

In completely unrelated news, it's Farmer's Market season! Our market is in a gorgeous new facility downtown, and although it may be small, it has everything you could hope for. Salsa, zucchini relish {no clue what that is, but I love zucchini}, baked breads, veggies galore, and fresh eggs! I really miss the amazing market that was within walking distance of my house in Colorado, but at least we have some options for local produce and goods.

And as if this post weren't all over the place already, remember that any day can be special. Tuesday I picked up some books about fatherhood for Will, picked up a new beer sampler he might like {super awkward buying booze while visibly pregnant}, and cooked him a steak dinner just 'cause. Sure, it all started because a loaded baked potato sounded reeeeaaaaally good, but either way I'm making good on my promise to focus on Will as much as I can pre-baby. He's kickin' butt in flight school, but the hard parts aren't over yet. There's still a ton of studying, route planning, and hectic schedules going on, so I do what I can.

The Best Concert We Never Went To

You know, this weekend turned out nothing like I expected, and yet it's leaving me quite satisfied. The problems started when we almost had to cancel our dinner plans due to Will's flight schedule, but miraculously, he got off early. That meant that not only did we go to dinner, we also got to visit the kickoff Fourth Friday event downtown that we enjoyed on our anniversary last year. The weather was perfect, the food at our favorite restaurant was divine, and the company was the best in the world. Both my dates ;)

Saturday, was the big day for the Toadlick Music Festival, so we packed everyone up and took the gang to one of the biggest parties in Southern Alabama. We knew the weather might be a problem, but we were mentally prepared for gettin' muddy. We didn't expect the music to stop as soon as we got there, but that just meant we had an excuse to tailgate. Tailgating was NOT allowed, but there wasn't much they could do about it while the concert was on hold. 

When the actual storm got close things did get a little hectic. We were ushered into a pavilion, and minutes after all hell broke loose with one of the worst storms we have seen since living here. We were cozy inside and had coolers full of goodies, but it definitely got intense for a bit. So intense that there was ZERO power in the surrounding counties when we came out. You'd think we'd all be pissed because we had yet to see a single artist and hadn't even made it into the festival through the mud, but we were enjoying each other's company. Eventually, a few of the artists played acoustically and we got an AMAZING sunset, so all in all...I call it a win.

The gang was a little boisterous this weekend, which I had no patience for, but I just focused on spending time with Will and it made for the perfect anniversary weekend. I love it...almost everything went wrong, but we were together and had the BEST time. 

That's what it's all about, folks.

Five Years Of Marriage

I was never the little girl that dreamt of a wedding growing up. Sure, I played house when my friends wanted to, but that was the extent of my outlook for the future. For some reason, I never saw myself growing up or becoming an adult, so marriage was the last thing on my mind. Maybe if Pinterest had been around back then I would have a wedding board with a million pins, but as it were, up until I met Will...I could NEVER wrap my head around marrying someone for a lifetime that I couldn't even see myself in.

Seven years later and five dedicated to a marriage with the man better than my dreams, it's impossible to imagine life without him. Even though we were both young and all over the place when we met, some outside force took two kids on completely separate paths and turned our lives upside down. Using the word 'love' doesn't seem good enough, and 'true love' is uber cheesy, but unless you know the effect that love has on two people firsthand,  it's impossible to comprehend the connection it creates between two strangers. From strangers, to our own family unit and now our love and our family are still growing...

Dear Will, 

I could never tell you enough how proud I am of you, and I hope you know that no one in the entire world compares to you in my eyes. With each passing year you continue to amaze me, but most importantly, you still manage to love me and we continue to grow together. We make the world's greatest team {IMO}, and surpassing each milestone, each set of goals, and tackling every new adventure with you makes marriage, and life in general, more fun than I ever thought it could be. We are embarking on what I think might be our greatest {and scariest} adventure with CQB, but I know that we have an immeasurable amount of love and dedication to each other and her that will get us through. There will be times when she takes over our hearts, but I hope, no I PROMISE, to remember that I'm a wife first. Always and forever. Happy five years, lover, and cheers to 50+ more!

Top Secret Dates

I can't tell you where we were, I can't tell you what we were doing, but I can tell you that Friday was one of the coolest date nights of all time. I guess you could say it was a bring your wife to work type thing that we were allowed to do, but we aren't always allowed to post pictures when it involves sensitive training equipment and we'd rather be safe than sorry. I promised Will I wouldn't share the other pictures, but I had to share this one because he looks so dreamy.

Not that the rest of the weekend could top it, but it did shape up to be fun-filled. I went to my first Maternity and Baby Expo where we got tons of free stuff, asked a lot of questions, and even booked our Maternity/Newborn photographer. I had no idea that events like this go on, but boy am I glad they do. Although, let's not get into Group B Strep.

After that, I tried to rest for a bit because we were hitting the town for Loni's Birthday, and by town I mean that we drove all the way to Dothan. Loni and I have been friends since we moved to Fort Rucker and we started out as the only two girls in the group. We will forever be Mama Loni and Mama Janna, so I was super stoked to plan birthday festivities for her. Who doesn't want to get all dressed up, eat fine dining Italian {let me tell ya...Bella's was worth every penny}, and play with baby Quincy the newest member of our clan.

I don't know if I've mentioned this, but I basically go through my closet and wear whatever I can manage to fit in to get one more wear out of it before it gets packed away. I was a little apprehensive to wear the little blue number, but I must say...it was pretty fun to wear. Will seemed to approve and when we got to the brewery it was funny to notice the comments as I walked by. Normally I would feel super uncomfortable about people being so vocal, but hey...when you've got a baby bump you flaunt it, and at least they were all along the lines of "I wish I looked like that pregnant." Music to a pregnant girl's ears.

Of course, everyone was hungover on Sunday {not I}, so we whipped up family breakfast and watched Disney movies all day. I may or may not have eaten four pieces of Red Velvet cake between Saturday and Sunday, but in my defense I cut small pieces and those just didn't cut it, which meant two more small pieces. Yep. I'm gonna round down to two pieces.

Now I need to save all my energy for this coming weekend. We've got an anniversary to celebrate and Will surprised me with tickets to Toadlick! I already know I'm going to need a break after two weeks of nonstop activities, but I guess I wanted to do as much as we could pre-baby and I got what I asked for. I think "Be careful what you wish for" applies here.