Gone Country

I have a love hate relationship with country music. Some days I'm into it, but most days I'm not. Growing up it was different. I wouldn't be caught dead listening to anything else (except anything boy band related) and I literally thought my mom was in a relationship with Tim McGraw. I kind of looked like him/she saw him in concert at least a dozen times. But that's not the point here, my point is that my love for country music has dramatically dropped over the past several years. Maybe because it's changed? I wouldn't put all the blame on Taylor Swift (I honestly do love her) we'll just say that she's definitely added some sparkle to the country scene, and it's not the same as it used to be.

Although my love for it has almost disappeared, it never fails that when one of the songs listed below comes on the radio my heart skips a beat, the windows go down despite the winter blizzard, and I am singing Whitney Houston style in my car. That's an understatement. I might as well be putting on a country show in my little mazda 3. This is my life folks, and these are the top 10 songs that I know every single word to (in no particular order)...

10.

Kerosene by Miranda Lambert

9.

Friends in Low Places by Garth Brooks

8.

Before He Cheats by Carrie Underwood

7.

I Like it I Love it by Tim McGraw

 6.

Strawberry Wine by Deana Carter

5.

Neon Moon by Brooks and Dunn

4.

Blue by Leann Rimes

3.

Bye Bye by Jo Dee Messina

2.

Check Yes or No by George Straight

1.

Fancy by Reba

This post was supposed to take 5 minutes to write, but I've been listening to every song at least 100 times. Take me back to the 90's y'all, this is my jam. Reba, Tim, the innocent LeAnn.... that's my crew. I may be bitter towards this new stage of country, but nothing NOTHING will change my country. What are your all-time favorite country songs?

Linking up with Yoga Pants for her Friday jam sesh. 

The H Word

There are many words in the english language that I can't stand, 'moist' being one of them. Amazeballs, totes (used seriously), and pimple also join the hated words list. It's just something about them that makes my skin crawl. Recently, with half of my Facebook getting married, the words: Hubby, Hubs, Hubster, and yes, Husband make me want to vomit on my keyboard. They too have made their way to that long list of words that should never be used. EVER.

I never thought it was possible to ruin a word with such meaning but it's happened and I swear it's getting worse by the second. Let's go back in time/look up in the dictionary and talk about what a Husband really is. Some definitions use "master of the house" and "a man joined to another person in marriage"

You may notice that either of those definitions relate your husband to a pet animal or little kid. Shocker. You can also scroll down and see the related words category...

Out of all those words, we decided to steer in another direction (we're bad drivers, it's true) and park in front of Hubby's house. HUBBY. H-U-B-B-Y. Just look at the word for a second. How did that happen?! Where did we go wrong?! Something isn't right. Now I do have a theory, and some of you may not agree with me, but I'm going to share it anyway.

Back when social media became... well, social media... we felt like we needed to update anyone and everyone about our lives. "Look at me! I graduated" "My first job!" "Just bought my first car!" --- you name it, we all shared it. As time went on, my feed almost felt like a competition. Sarah got into a relationship, so Anna needed to be in one too. Sarah got married and had babies, so Anna needed to get married and have babies. Now that Sarah and Anna have the best lives in the world and they love their husbands so much... they need to share that too...

"Hubby cooked me dinner tonight! He's so sweet to me!"
"My hubs just did all of the yard work, I am just beyond blessed to have him in my life"
"My husband and I love spending time together. He's my everything. I am so glad we got married 3 years, 4 days, and 10 hours ago."

You're husband this... you're husband that... W E G E T I T. You love your husband, YOU MARRIED HIM. Stop bragging about it and enjoy your marriage. It's YOUR marriage after all, it's not meant to be shared to the universe.

Between a husband and wife. Not husband and wife and Facebook. And finally, Be PROUD to call him your husband. Not hubs, hubby, or hubster. If you like those names, great, but does HE like those names? I really am interested in knowing what he thinks about them.

One more thing: please stop showing your hand with your wedding ring every time you paint your nails a different color. Your ring is beautiful, we know, keep it to yourself.

Rant over.

Emily/Nail Update

As most of you know my princess Emily has been battling some sort of sickness the past two weeks. I went into detail here about how it started and how she was acting. It was miserable. But, thankfully, I can now say that things have completely turned around and I have my ol' pal back! She's eating everything in sight and isn't napping half of the day anymore. We've determined (by "we" I mean the doctor and myself, because I'm an expert too) that it is in fact food allergies and she just needs a certain type of food the rest of her life. 

Expensive food might I add. So if any of you need your house cleaned or lawns mowed let me know, I'll send Emily right over so she can earn some allowance towards her food bill.

She can also make sure squirrels no longer visit your backyard, protect you from the dangerous UPS man, and wake you up at 6:30 am just to sit outside. True life y'all.

Now to the update you've all been waiting for. Last week, I also wrote about this gel manicure set I bought and how awesome it is. It says on the box that it'll last two weeks and a little over one week later, I can proudly show you....

....  it looks like i just painted them yesterday. I've washed dishes, given Emily baths, and showered here and there. This stuff is legit and so far I give the kit a 10. It was worth every penny and I'm excited to try new colors. What colors should I buy next? I'm thinking a dark maroon or black.

That's all I have for you today folks. I've got some shopping to do -- have I told you we're having Thanksgiving at our house next week? Have I also told you we don't have a dining room table yet? No biggie.... (pray for me).

I Married Into It

I'm in no way shape or form a fan of football. Or at least I wasn't two years ago. I went to a small school where we had football, but I didn't go there because of that. I went because of the broadcasting program. Yeah, call me a nerd whatever. Nate on the other hand went to Auburn, ya know the school that won the national championship in 2010. I heard all about it on our first date, I also learned part of the fight song then too, if that gives you any idea of what a crazy football fan he is. But I get it, it's a big deal if you went to a big school.

March 2012

Anyway, if you're familiar with the SEC (which I can't believe I'm writing this right now) then you'll know that Auburn was absolutely terrible last year. I know this because I almost witnessed Nate crying in the living room every Saturday. It would, without a doubt, ruin our weekend. I would give him pep talks like I was talking to the team. "It'll get better, wait until next year, we'll get a new coach, just be patient" -- I said everything. So you can imagine my excitement towards the season this year. I won't give you the record because I don't know it, but I do know we're doing really well.

This post is getting way too long about something I clearly know nothing about, so let's get with the point here -- I visited Nate in Alabama this weekend and we made our way to the Auburn vs Georgia game. Apparently it's a big rivalry.

Tiger Walk. It's where the team and coaches walk to the stadium while the band plays. It's pretty cool if you know all the teammates names like Nate does.

Stadium food is pretty cool too. BBQ nachos? Give me more.

We were on row one which meant I had every distraction in the world. Cheerleaders, the mascots, band, the media -- it was really great. One thing I don't like about watching a game in person is that I don't have announcers telling me what's going on and I can't see if they got a first down or not, I need that yellow line to help me. Hashtag girl problems.

I do however understand the scoreboard. WE WON! It was insane because of this catch....

We really shouldn't have won, but whatever, I'll take it!! Nate hugged me so hard I couldn't breath. He was also hugging people he didn't know so hard that I'm sure they couldn't breath. It was great to see him so happy.

It's tradition when we win everyone throws toilet paper on Toomer's Corner aka "Rolling Toomber's Corner" aka get toiler paper stuck to your boot for half the night.

It was, hands down, one of the best experiences of my newly wed life. I'm jumping on this college football train because I can and well, because I married into it. War Eagle y'all!!

Also, I met Santa on my flight back to Little Rock...

BFF4L.

NAILED IT

When I was single, I made it a regular thing to get my nails done. That was back when I spent my money on whatever I wanted and no one could see my spending report. That all changed when I joined someone else's account (or we can call it "got married") and I didn't want him seeing how much I was spending on my looks, because let's be real, getting our nails did at the salon is freakin' expensive. amiright or amiright?

So I just stopped going all together. and focused on our needs rather than my wants. Whatever.

What my husband doesn't know is that he married a woman who NEEDS her nails done. When they're naked, I feel naked, and he should be very concerned if his wife feels naked all the time. I convinced him that the only cure is to get an at-home gel manicure kit. He brought up writing a letter to Santa, but 1) no one has time for that and 2) he must not care about me if he wants me to walk around without any nail polish on for the holidays. Men, they don't understand anything. Anyway, I eventually brought up the fact that this will SAVE us money in the long run.

It says right there on the box, "10 complete manicures". How much does one gel manicure cost at the salon? $40 to $45. This Sensationail kit was $60 at Walgreens, which means we're saving hundreds of dollars in the long run. I mean, it's basically screaming "BUY ME!!!!" so I did and poured a glass of wine to celebrate (as seen above).

Ok, let's get down to business here. In this kit, you get everything they use at the salon.

It also comes with instructions that you'll need to follow very carefully. I won't go through the steps because it's easy and there's only like 7 of them and you just repeat it for all of your nails. The final product looked something like this...

Sunday

yes, I got a little messy on my cuticles but I know it will take some practice to make it perfect. I also got some polish on the skin around the nail, but that came off when I washed my hands afterwards. 

Tuesday

My advice, in the instructions it says to put your nails under the LED lamp for one minute after applying the color. I wasn't comfortable with that so I left my nails in there for two minutes, and one minute for the base and top coat. That seemed to work perfectly and my nails were fully dry just like they are at the salon. Two days after painting my nails and I'm happy to report that they look amazing. No chips! and I haven't had to mess with them at all. I even got a compliment today on them from a woman asking, "where did you get your nails done?"

NAILED IT.

Sweet (sick) Emily

After we were sedated at the Vet today.

As sick as it may sound, we treat Emily as if she were our first born. We don't treat her like a baby, but we definitely care for her like she's our baby. When she's happy, I'm happy. When she's hungry, I'm usually hungry. And when she's sick, I'm sick.

When we first brought Emily home back in April, she ate like any other nervous puppy would. Once a day and it wasn't much. The more comfortable she got with us, the more she ate and she was doing well. Around June, we decided to change her food to something that we thought was healthier. We gradually made the change (like you're supposed to) and her stomach just didn't agree with it so we went back to her old food. She ate great and never had an upset stomach. Fast forward to a couple months later, and she suddenly became a very picky eater. We were in the middle of a move so we just assumed it was stress. It was a good day if she ate just one cup of food or half of her food bowl.

Finally settling into our new house, it got worse. Again, we thought it was stress and fed her as much as she would eat... which was barely anything. A month goes by and I start adding chicken or turkey at the bottom of her food bowl just so she would eat something. I thought what most of you are probably thinking, if she's starving, she'll eat it. But when several days go by and you can hear her tummy rumble at night you know something isn't right.

A week ago, she stopped eating all together. She was in bed by 5:00 p.m. and her nose wasn't cold or wet. That's when the vomiting started. Since her stomach was empty it was just stomach bile (all over our kitchen floor). She was acting completely normal in all other aspects of her life. Wakes me up, wants to go outside, cries for a walk, chases every squirrel and bird, naps, runs around the yard, and whatever else she does to keep herself entertained. EVERYTHING was normal, except for her diet. She also refused any bone to chew on, which is very unlike her. So, I call the vet and make an appointment.

$500 later, and she's diagnosed with food allergies. We're put on the "Prescription Diet" soft/dry food and deworming medicine (just in case) and nausea pills. The vet did blood work to make sure it wasn't parvo and x-rayed her tummy to see if something was stuck in there. Everything came back negative, thank goodness, and I was able to take my healthy pup home.

That night she ate everything she was supposed to. "Food allergies it is!!!" we thought since she was doing so well. That next morning, she wasn't having it. She wouldn't even get near the food. I left it out just in case she changed her mind. That night, the food still hadn't been touched so I gave her some chicken instead. Of course she ate it. That next morning, same thing. So I just gave her soft food and she ate it like she hasn't eaten in 3 months. I gave her more soft food and she ate it all AGAIN. I haven't seen her eat like that since she was a baby. It was wonderful.

24 hours later, I wanted to add some dry food again since, ya know, we just paid $70 for it. She ate it all, but an hour later threw up all of the dry food on our carpet. She didn't chew any of it and it came up that way. I called the vet today A) wondering why she all of a sudden doesn't like dry food and B) if I can return this $70 DOG FOOD. She asked if she could look at Emily's stomach again and do another examination. 7 hours and $300 later, nothing. We know nothing besides the fact that she only likes soft food.

"Well, just feed her soft food Maxine" is easy to say, but we still have a lot of questions that are unanswered. Why isn't she chewing her food? or chewing on her favorite bones? (her teeth are perfect according to the Vet) Why did she stop eating her food? Why did we just pay $700 for NO ANSWERS. Because she's our child, and we want to know what's wrong with her. 

She's asleep right now, sedated actually, and it breaks my heart knowing something is wrong we just don't know what. Maybe if I put it out on blog land someone else can relate? Has anyone gone through something like this with their pet? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.... 

FALLing for Arkansas

As some of you know I'm a Texas girl, born and raised. I've never lived in another state until recently when we moved to Arkansas, and thank goodness the Lone Star State is right next door. I don't like being away from family. I miss it some days but most days I don't, for the simple reasons that there are trees, green grass, and hills (not to mention a Super Target right down the road). If some of you are wondering if I moved from a place like Dallas you are very wrong... I moved from a small town smack dab in the middle of Texas. It's brown. Windy. And flat. So this Arkansas scene is very different from where I came from, and I'm loving it.

This could very well be the wallpaper on your computer right now. No, I'm not the photographer who shot this photo. My iPhone isn't savvy enough to capture the colors of all the trees, so I went with this. #firstworldproblems

You can imagine how I felt when I first saw the leaves change a couple of weeks ago. "IS THAT TREE PINK?!" I would shout as I was walking Emily through the park. Emily said yes and we kept walking, but that tree confused me. Then I saw a yellow one... and a lighter yellow one... and a red one... and I was in tree heaven. Where did these things come from?! When did they change?!

another wallpaper.

Before you all make fun of me, Texans don't experience Fall. One day you're prancing in 70 degree weather, the next day it's below freezing and you freak out and run to the nearest Starbucks. The trees don't change, they immediately turn brown and fall to the ground. That's just how it is, and you don't know what you're missing out on until... well... until you live/visit another state during the season.

Texas will always be near and dear to my heart, but Arkansas is a close second. I may or may not be writing this post completely different come Winter. Just a little fun fact about Max... she hates Winter with every fiber of her being. Except the Ugg boots. Yes. I LOVE UGG BOOTS! Haters.

Amanda to Rachel

That moment when someone tells you that you look like Jennifer Aniston...

Even though she's well over 40, pregnant on most days (according to the tabs), and plays the same character in every movie... I still love her. And to think someone thinks that I look like THE Rachel my heart races and I have butterflies in my stomach. This is the best compliment, ever. I mean, it's like really cool, and I'm over it. But let's compare side-by-side images because I'm a fancy blogger like that.

I really don't totally see the resemblance. If you don't, leave right now and don't come back.

You may be wondering why I'm so obsessed with this compliment. Well, I'll let you in on a little secret. When I went to a new school in 6th grade my new classmates appropriately named me "Amanda" because I looked like the girl from the Amanda Show. They would walk by me and yell...

Ugh. I can hear it now. 

but in their defense...

yaaaa yaaaa whatever...

and just imagine... that lasted well throughout high school AND college. I didn't hate it though, because she was a celebrity and who doesn't want to look like a celebrity? No one. Unless that celebrity turns into this... 

Sidenote: this picture still makes me laugh out loud.

Doppelgänger no more. I will NOT be associated with that or that wig in ANY way. It was fun while it lasted Amanda but I've moved on. My friend Rachel is calling and I have to answer it. My new look doesn't have a twitter/non-twitter relationship with Drake, she doesn't set poop on fire in someones driveway, and oh ya, she's not in rehab. So, there's that.

Cheers to a new me! 

2 years // 2 months

On this day two years ago, my life changed.

I didn't exactly know he was the one right away. I knew about a week later after our first date. I'm aware that that's totally creepy, and I accept it.

But what's more important is that today is our two month anniversary as a married couple. Will I do this for every month until our one year? No. I just thought it was cool that it was 2 years, and 2 months.

Looking forward to many more years with this fella! and that concludes my love-dovie post today.

Happy Monday!

Military Wife/Blogger....

.. is a hard thing to do.
Heck, being a blogger in general is tough... taking pictures of everything, thinking of new post ideas all day, sponsor or not to sponsor... I mean, I can go all day.
But let's add military wife to that mix, and you have a whole different ball game.
Why is that? because your husband is constantly gone and sometimes you really want to write about it, but letting the internet world know that you're home alone without your husband is not the smartest thing to do. In fact, that's a big reason the pilot doesn't like me publishing fun facts about our personal lives. He also doesn't enjoy photos of him being shared to the blog world (but we're working on getting over that.)

I get it. 
I also know a majority of you reading this aren't going to break into my home and steal my dog.

Hey, she's cute. It could very well happen at any time.

But me, being in the news/watching way too many crime shows, I know how crazy some people can be. It's a scary world out there and you never know what someone will do to get what they want. I sound like my mom right now so I'll stop.

Here's my point: I love following other military wives/girlfriends out there in blog land. Granted, I've only been a wife for two months now, but meeting or getting to know another military spouse, we always just click. We get it. We know what the other person is going through. It's a community that's there for you no matter what. BUT when you share too much information about your significant other who's deployed that puts them in danger. If something were to happen (which we pray won't) someone could use that information against them. It could delay their homecoming. It could do a lot of things that I can't write about. I know I sound like a crazy blogger, but it's happened before. That's why it's important to know.

Ok I'm done. God bless the USA and happy Sunday!