Barefoot Renegades

First, let me start by saying that on Friday, I said bye to my brother again. I don't think saying bye to a Solider will ever get easier especially knowing that he is getting on a plane to return to war. Blah!!! 7 months left. Lord, please keep him safe. I love you Matt and you are truly my hero.

Now, Barefoot Renegades time. As most people know, I am a self-proclaimed lake whore. If I could, I would spend the entire summer at the lake. The marina where our boats are docked has a local band on Friday and Saturday nights. Barefoot Renegades is an awesome country band. Josh, who is not a country music fan in the least, actually really enjoys the band. So, since this was the last weekend they were at the marina this year, we met another couple at the marina for dinner and drinks while we enjoyed the band until midnight or so.

Of course I have some pictures. The other couple is my BFF Teresa and her boyfriend Bryan.

I hope everyone had a fabulous weekend.

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday Cody!

Not that he will be reading this post or anything but he is still very important to me so I wanted to make an entry about him.

Cody is my (now) 17 year old brother-in-law. I have known him since he was in the 1st grade I believe. I tutored him in reading and math and watched him grow from a child to a young man. I cannot believe that he will be graduating high school next year and going on to play baseball in college.

I wish I could find some pictures of him and I when he was in elementary school. Since I can't find one, this will have to do. This was taken at Christmas last year.

I think I got pretty darn lucky when it came to in-laws!

I love my Cody! :)

Wishful Wednesday

Today's Wishful Wednesday post is more of a "I wish I still looked like this" type post. The Miss Universe Pageant was last night and it made me think about my old pageant days. I competed in pageants most of my life and I learned so much from them. Not only did I learn self confidence, poise and public speaking, but I also made some lifelong friends along the way.

I got to thinking about how I've gained some weight in the last year or so. I'm positive the weight gain is from stopping birth control and quitting smoking but still, I've gained weight for the first time since I can even remember and I feel like crap about it.

So today, I wish I still looked like I did when I competed at Miss Tennessee in 2007.
I knew I would gain weight eventually but it still sucks! I think I was hoping gaining weight=baby but that is definitely not the case.

I'm done whining. :) Hope everyone has a fabulous day.

Finding land will be the death of me....

Why is it so stinkin' hard to find a piece of land where we want? Is is so hard to ask for 3-6 acres that has already been perked for a 4 or more bedroom house? Apparently, it is like pulling teeth. All the pieces of land that we have found with the exception of 2 or 3 can only be perked for a 3 bedroom house and well, to be honest, that just isn't good enough for me. If I am going to spend the money to buy the land and then build a house on it then it is going to be exactly what I want and how I want it done. Call me selfish and a spoiled brat but it is what it is. We plan to spend "forever" in this house and it has to be perfect.

I think we are going to have to go a bit further out then what we originally thought we wanted to do but honestly, I am okay with that. I love the country roads and I like the idea of not settling on a piece of property in a subdivision. I want privacy and I want enough land to do whatever my little heart desires to do on it.

This is a picture of the property we are going to look at this week. It is exactly 5 acres.
This is a bit further out then we were originally wanting but I really like the pictures of the land and the seller is super motivated to get rid of it. Just with this picture, I can imagine our house, Josh's garage with an apartment above it for friends and family that come to stay, kids, 4wheelers and a pool! Gotta have a pool :)

I really hope that when we actually drive to see this this week that it's not too far out. I said I would go a bit further out but not too far out. I gotta be somewhat close to civilization for when I need some retail therapy.

Thankful Thursday

Today I am thankful that my brother is home safe for a couple of weeks. Well, technically we only have a week left but he's safe and sound right now.

I am also thankful that I have an eye doctor appointment today. My eyes and contacts have been driving me up the freakin' wall. I have to squint to see anything lately. Forget driving at night because all the lights look like fireworks going off! Hopefully we can get this figured out today!

Lastly, I am thankful that I finally found some time to get my eyebrows waxed. I know, it's stupid and I really shouldn't even consider it something to be thankful for but I feel so much better about myself after a wax and when my eyebrows are nice and pretty. So, ehh... I'm thankful they will look good for a couple weeks.

What are you thankful for today?

Catch-Up

So I've been MIA for a little of a week now. I have been super busy.

My brother is home for 2 weeks. He's been home for a week now so we have another week with him so more pictures to come for sure.
This picture was taken at the airport when my family picked him up.

Well, that was the most important thing going on right now. I guess I will update you guys on some more things going on in my tiny little world.

Josh and I met with our realtor a little over a week ago and unfortunately, we will not be selling the house right now. Our house is worth more then what we can sell it for right now so we are going to rent it out while we stay with Josh's family and pile up a bunch of cash. Since we are debt free, we can easily do this. Thanks Dave Ramsey!!! We have also decided that we want to build a home. We are looking for some land and will purchase that in the next couple of months. We will buy no less than 3 acres. We found 4 acres that we really like but the land hasn't had a perk test yet so we have to make sure that it will perk before we will buy it. I am looking forward to building a home the way we want it and having some land for 4wheelers and playgrounds and pools. I can see it now! It makes me smile :)

Now for things on the baby front. Not much to talk about really. We are in month 10 of trying with no luck. I'm oddly okay with this right now. I'm sure if I hit the 1 year mark, I won't be as okay with it but for now, I'm okay. I've talked with the fertility clinic in the area and my doctor has sent a prescription for Josh to have an SA(semen analysis) done whenever we are ready. The SA has to be done before we move on with any testing or drugs for me.

Anyway, it's good to be back in the blog world after a short break. I will be back tomorrow for Thankful Thursday!

Tonight is the night...

Tonight is the night that the most awesomest (yes, I enjoy making up my own words) realtor in Nashville comes to our house. Lord, please let her like the house enough to want to sell it. This lady is the awesomest awesome. No lie. She normally only works with high-profile peeps and sells million/multi-million dollar homes buuuutttttt.... I just so happen to work closely with her at times so I am pretty excited that she even agreed to come look at it. Not to mention, she uttered the words "I'll give a nice break on my commission". Please and thank ya ma'am! :)

I'm in a good mood today! Hopefully the house goes on the market and Josh and I are spending the weekend on the lake annnnndddd my brother comes home in a few days! I think this will be a fantabulous weekend!

Thankful Thursday

Today I am thankful that I get to see my brother at some point in the next few days. I am unsure when exactly and won't know until I get a call from him saying he is at the Atlanta airport and to be at the Nashville airport and so and so time. He left for Afghanistan on May 1st and gets to come home for his R&R for a couple of weeks. I am so thankful that we have made it a little over 3 months but we still have a year to go. Why he got his R&R only 3 months in is beyond me but I'll take what time I can get with him when I can get it. I cannot wait to post some pictures!


I am also thankful for the 5 minutes of rain that we just had. We have had a massive heat wave come through the area. Heat index yesterday was 115 and today it is about 108. Bring on the rain, but please no more floods!

What are you thankful for today?

Relaxing Weekend...

Josh and I had such a relaxing weekend. We were up bright and early Saturday morning for no apparent reason. 8:00 is so early to me and I don't understand how I can wake up that early on the weekend but not during the week. If you're wondering, I normally don't crawl my lazy ass out of the bed until about 9:45 or so during the week. Gotta love my part-time job. :)

I started the weekend off right with getting my nails done and a pedicure. Now, I do this every 2-3 weeks but I have NEVER gotten a pedicure at 9:00 in the morning. It was the best thing ever and I would love to continue to get my pedicures that early. It seemed to set the mood for the weekend. After my nail trip, Josh and I spent the rest of the day laying around on the couch because we had about 4 different thunderstorms during the day. We napped and watched movies all day. It was fabulous! Saturday night, we went to Zanies which is the comedy club in town with my BFF and her boyfriend. We saw Michael Ian Black. He was so funny. I recommend seeing him if you ever have the chance. We definitely didn't stop laughing.

Here's a couple of pictures from standing in line before the show:Yesterday, we spent the day on the lake with the in-laws cruising around on the big boat. I love being on the water, however, reality set in for the first time when we saw a dive crew but not just any dive crew, it was the dive crew that only looks for the people that have drowned and no one can find their body. In all my years on the water, I have never actually seen one of these boats in person. It brought chills and still does.

I mentioned above that I love working part-time but this week, I actually have to work full-time. Boo! Oh well, can't complain about the extra money. I truly am blessed to only need to work a part-time job though. I know I take it for granted. I need to work on that!

Overall, Josh and I had a wonderful, relaxing weekend. Hope everyone has a great week!