Bachelorette Party

So my best friend Jess's bachelorette party weekend starts tomorrow night. We are having a tasteful treasures party at her house tomorrow and then we are all staying the night there. It has been a long time since I slept over at her house. It is going to be so great. And then we will wake up Saturday morning to go to North Carolina. We are going to Arizona Pete's Saturday night and then staying in North Carolina that night and coming home Sunday. This is the first time I have left Gabriel for more than one night. It is going to be so great to get away but I am going to miss my little man. And I hope he does all right. He is staying the weekend with my parents because Josh works the whole weekend.

Next weekend is Jess's wedding and I just can't believe it is here already. I am a bridesmaid, obviously, and I am a little nervous about it. I know everything will be fine, but I can't help but being nervous. I'm not the maid of honor, thank goodness. Haha. I would definitely be nervous if I was the maid of honor and in charge of everything.

I am not taking the computer with me this weekend so I won't be back on until either Sunday night or Monday. I will load some pictures from this weekend when I get back. This is a short blog, but I don't have anything else to write right now and I wanted to write something. Haha.

See ya after the weekend, my blogger buddies!

Me

I'm a bookworm. I would rather read than just about anything else. I love to write poems and stories. I can be funny and witty. I'm fairly intelligent but I can be ditzy. I have book smarts but no street smarts. I'm lazy. I can't cook. I'm cleaning intolerant. I'm self conscious and I'm definitely my own worst critic.
I love Disney movies and I have a slight crush on Simba from The Lion King (yes, I know he is a lion), Aladdin from..well...Aladdin, Prince Eric from The Little Mermaid, and Aladar from Dinosaurs (once again, yes, I know he is a dinosaur). The Backstreet Boys are my favorite band and regardless of what everyone else thinks, they have some brilliant lyrics to their songs.
I have six tattoos and I am getting more. If I end up regretting them like everyone tells me I will, then that is something I will have to deal with later. I love to sing and do so often. I can't dance at all but, when surrounded by the right people, I can be persuaded to dance in public without even a need for alcohol.
I have never tried any kind of drug and never smoked a cigarette. Yes, I have, on occasion, had alcohol, but I am just not that kind of person. And ever since my hubby quit drinking (he was an alcoholic), I will never drink another drop of alcohol as long as I live.
I'm pretty laid back. I feel like I am a good friend because I am loyal and trustworthy. I am a tell you like it is kinda girl. If you don't want to know the truth, don't ask me.
I can be jealous, I overreact, I have to get my point across to someone, and I try to have the last word, but I am woman enough to admit when I am wrong. I care and trust, sometimes too much, but I would rather care too much than not enough.
I am a bit of an adrenaline junkie and I would love to do a lot of things that people think are crazy...like skydiving, bungee jumping, and swimming with sharks. (I have yet to do these things because I lack the funds, not because I lack the nerve.) I will do all three of those things before I die and many more wild and crazy things.
Sharks are my favorite animals but I also love giraffes, elephants, and lions. Lions are such gorgeous creatures, I think. I am a Leo and I feel like my hair looks like a lion's mane sometimes, so maybe I am just drawn to them. (haha)
I love music, all music! I listen to christian and country music mostly but I will listen to anything. I love watching movies, TV shows on DVD, and Friends reruns.
I cry ALL THE TIME! I am a very emotional person. I cry when I'm happy, sad, upset, mad, frustrated, tired, overwhelmed, in pain, feeling sorry for myself, and just to relieve stress. Nothing helps me feel better than a good cry. And I am a great crier too. I don't get red and blotchy, sometimes you can hardly tell I have been crying at all. My hubby once told me I was the most beautiful crier he had ever seen. (And yes, it was meant as a compliment and I took it as such) I'm pretty sure God knew I would be crying all the time, so he decided to make it a little less embarrassing for me by taking away the problems that go along with it.
I know I'm not perfect, some people might not even like me because of one of these quirks, but I am who I am. I couldn't change who I am even if I wanted to, and I don't feel the need to change. If you don't like me for who I am, then I am pretty sure you aren't worth the effort. This blog is just for fun to get everything out in the open. It is nice to embrace who you are and come to terms with the things you don't like about yourself. Love yourself and be the best you that you can be.
For all of you that are real and genuine and don't try to be something you aren't, I love you and acknowledge you for your strength and courage.

My List of Five

All right, here it is. I have been trying to put together and finalize my List of Five as much as possible so that I could blog about it and get everyone's list too. This list is the top 5 guys that you find the most attractive.





My number 5 is Matthew Goode. He played in Chasing Liberty. Watchmen, and Leap Year. He is English.














My number 4 is Charlie Cox. He played Tristan in Stardust and he also played in Casanova with Heath Ledger. He is also English.

















My number 3 is Craig Horner. He played Richard Cypher in the TV show Legend of the Seeker. Yummy! He is Australian.














My number 2 is Bradley Cooper. He played in All About Steve and The Hangover. He is American.












And my number 1 is............drum roll please........











ALEX O'LOUGHLIN!!!!!! *sigh* Be still my beating heart! He played Mick St. John in the TV show Moonlight and he played in Whiteout, Back-Up Plan, the TV show Three Rivers, and he is in the upcoming remake of Hawaii Five-O. He is also Australian.








Does anyone else see a few patterns here? The first one is...only one of five is American. The rest are either English or Australian. Yes, I have a thing for accents!!! And another pattern is they all have dark hair. Which is pretty crazy because I always thought I went more for blonds...apparently not. Most of them have long or shaggy hair too which I did know I went for haha.

So what does everyone think? Who are your top five??

I wrote a poem...

I used to write poems all the time. I even got one published in a poetry anthology when I was younger. I have a few that I absolutely love and I would be happy to post them if anyone would like to read them, but I haven't written one in a long time.

I woke up in the middle of the night a few nights ago with two lines in my head. I wrote them down so I wouldn't forget them because I just loved them. There was something about them. I decided I wanted to see if I could get an entire poem out of them instead of just having two lines. The lines were:

You must know that I have seen the hurt
And it breaks my heart in two

When I wrote them down, I kept looking at them and reading them over and over in my head. I thought....I can just see God looking down at what the world has become and all of the pains that people are going through and I know his heart must be aching. With all of that in mind, I have been thinking about these two lines for a few days now and I finally decided to see what would come from it.

I sat down just a few minutes ago and this is what I came up with. Let me know what you think...

I am listening
I see your tear stained cheek
I know your heart is aching
And the comfort that you seek

I am listening
I hear your whispered pleas
Be still and know that I am here
When you fall upon your knees

I am listening
You are stronger than you know
I will stay right here beside you
Through your highs and through your lows

I am listening
And I have a plan for you
You must know that I have seen your hurt
And it breaks my heart in two

I am listening
My love for you is pure
I wrap you in its warm embrace
It forever will endure

I am listening
Place your faith in me
I shall never let you down
Have courage and believe

I am listening
Know I am always here
For you are a Child of God
You have no reason to fear

I am listening

I thought about writing a few more poems using the same two lines as inspiration because I was just so moved by these lines and the image they gave me. I will share them if I write more. Let me know what you think of this one! Thanks!!

See a need, fill a need...

All right, so I have apparently been watching too much Robots...and any other kids movie for that matter...but it is a great saying. You see something that needs help, and you help. Well, I have seen a need and I am filling it as best as I can.

My good friend Josh Murray is getting home in less than a month after fighting overseas for over a year. My friend Scott Dotson just left a few months ago to fight overseas for his year or so. My brother will be going overseas within the next year unless something drastic was to happen with the troops before then. What better thing to do than to send are packages to them and all of the brave soldiers fighting overseas.

April, you definitely gave me the head start I needed to get things in gear and send something but I have wanted to send things to our soldiers for some time now.

I sent an email to my friend, Scott, and he told me some things that he and his buddies were in need of, so I am sending a general care package to those in need from April's information and I am sending another more detailed one to Scott and his buddies.

I feel like I am finally doing what I should have done a long time ago. And it feels great!

What if...

I'm pretty sure that everyone thinks about how their life would be if different decisions had been made along the way, but I have been thinking about it a lot lately. Of course, I can't regret anything that I have done because even the smallest thing could have changed my life and I might not have Gabriel, but it is still something to think about...

What if I had gone into the Coast Guard right out of high school? What if I had gone into the Army right out of school? What if I had gone to a four year school and gotten a degree or even stayed at Virginia Western and finished my two years? What if I had just gotten Scuba Certified right away and was a dive instructor right now? What if I had ended up with someone else?

Every decision we make has brought us to where we are right now, but it would certainly be interesting to know what would be if I had made a different decision along the way. This is a short entry because I won't go into detail, but it is just something that I have been thinking about.

Kentucky

Well, we made it to Kentucky...obviously. The trip down was fairly uneventful as usual and we didn't do a whole lot on Thursday evening once we got here. On Friday, however, we went to King's Island, which is an amusement park in Ohio, and it was a lot of fun. The group that went was me...duh...Gabriel, my hubby Josh, my brother Tyler, my mom, my dad, and my two cousins Abby and Savannah. It was a lot of fun.

Tyler, Josh, Savannah, and I did the sky diving ride where you are strapped into harnesses and then hooked to this contraption and hoisted some 150ish feet in the air and at the count of three you have to pull your own rip cord to begin your insanely fast decent while laying flat like Superman. It was AMAZING!!! I have wanted to do that forever and it was just the most fun thing I think I have ever done. I definitely want to do it again.

The only thing that was bad about Friday was the fact that I didn't drink enough water. The lack of H2O made me dehydrated and gave me a migraine. I get headaches all the time and I have remedies to get rid of them but when I get a migraine I get sick. My vision blurs or is covered in large black dots and sometimes I feel faint. It was not a fun experience. I felt like crap the rest of the day.

I still didn't feel very well this morning but I felt better and we were supposed to go to my cousin's apartment today and swim in the pool. Gabriel was so excited about getting in the pool. We got changed and got to the pool and were in there about 5 minutes...Gabriel was having a blast too...when the lifeguard came up to us and told us they had to close the pool because the pump was broken and they were having someone come to fix it. Gabriel did not want to get out of the water and I was so disappointed just because he was so excited and he didn't even get to swim around hardly at all. I will just have to take him to my grandmother's pool again when we get home.

We are going to the mall tomorrow and I hope to get to a Barnes & Noble to get my Nook checked out and maybe get some accessories for it like a hard cover and the light that goes with it. And I hope to get some more books too.

Well, I am pretty tired so I am going to go to bed but I will try to write some more later. Nighty night.

Vacation!

So, we leave tomorrow for a long weekend in Kentucky to see my family and to get away and just have fun. Friday we are going to King's Island amusement park and I CANNOT WAIT!!!!!! We are going to do the sky diving ride and the slingshot ride and I can't wait! I haven't been on a new roller coaster in so long!! It is going to be me, Josh, Gabriel, Tyler, Mom, Dad, and my cousins Abby and Savannah! That is basically the only really big thing we are doing. I am hoping this will be a fairly relaxing trip. I also want to do some shopping and we might go swimming at my cousins', Tim and Savannah's, pool at their apartment complex.

I am so looking forward to seeing them after so long and spending time with my family. Usually, when we go on vacation, Josh can't get off work so Gabriel and I just go with my parents. Which, don't get me wrong, is fun, but it is going to be so much better now that Josh is going too and we can spend time as a family.

I haven't started reading my bible yet, I know...shame on me...but I have started with my newest story/book idea. It is a Christian romance book and I am super excited about it and getting started and my characters. I will give more info on the story and maybe even some snips from it and some character bios and such. This is going to be a short little entry but I hope to write more later. And I will definitely write more while in Kentucky or when we get back.

Oh!! And a nice big shout out to my bestie Ally for helping me get my house clean today before we leave. I love you, Ally!!!!

It is time for a change!!

All right. There are so many things going on in my life right now that I am really not sure what to do anymore. Instead of stressing over every little thing like I usually would do, I am going to work on getting closer in my walk with God. I bought this gorgeous journal the other day even though I had no idea what I was going to use it for...now I do. I am going to read the Bible every day and maybe even find a plan to read the whole Bible in a year and I am going to use the journal to write down thoughts and prayers and maybe Christian song lyrics that I love or whatever I feel like writing having to do with getting closer with God.

I feel that the closer I get to God, the more things in my life will start to fall in place. I think that I will be more at peace and more able to get everything done that I need to. It will help me a better wife, a better mother, and a better person in general. I really feel like this is what I need to do.

And if things are going to change the way I think they are, then I know this is the only way to help me prepare for whatever comes my way.

I am also hoping that I can lose the rest of this weight plus some and get back to my skinniest and really just feel better about myself and be the best version of myself...the version God intended me to be.

Sing

For those of you that know me pretty well, you know that I love to sing. I would say that my voice is mediocre at best but I still love to sing. Well, Josh has been playing in a contemporary Christian band the past few weeks and the wives of the two guitar players are the ones that sing. The lead guitarist's wife doesn't want to sing anymore so Josh asked if I would be interested in taking her place. All of the songs they sing are songs that I either have or have heard and I love them all and Josh said they are open to suggestion, so I am going to give them a few other great songs that fit right in with their other songs.

I have always wanted to sing with a group. I used to sing with a group at church a few years ago and that was a lot of fun, but I'm just not sure I can sing 18 songs in their list by myself or with a little help from the one other singer. I think I would feel more comfortable with it if there were more people singing. Josh said he is pretty sure they are looking for someone to be the lead singer. I would definitely rather sing with 3 or 4 other people at least to start out until I feel more comfortable with the songs and everyone.

I know it will be fun and it will be something that Josh and I can do together, but I get so nervous in front of people whether it is talking or singing or just standing there with everyone looking at me. If they were to start doing shows again and there were tons of people there, I'm not even sure I could do it. Plus, I am a lot younger than everyone there by at least ten years. I have always gotten along with people who are older than me, so I am hoping that won't be a problem, but you never know.

I guess it doesn't hurt to at least go there one day and maybe sing along or even just meet everyone and get used to how the group interacts and all that fun stuff.......we shall see.

I love my brother!!

These are just a few pictures from Tyler's welcome home cookout and 4th of July get together. It was so nice to have everyone there and spending time with family. It was definitely a huge success. We had a great lunch and then leftovers for dinner. Basically everyone had left except for Tyler's friends and our cousin and his new wife and we all went outside and set off some fireworks. I have never set off my own fireworks and it was a lot of fun. We laughed and made jokes and just had a great time.

Gabriel was supposed to stay the night with mom and dad but after we had gotten home, we had to turn back around and go get him because he was screaming, "Mama, home. Daday, home. Peese!" So it was about 12:30 in the morning when we got home and after 2 before I got to sleep.

It is so nice to have Tyler home. We are going to Kentucky at the end of next week and we are going to have so much fun. It will be so nice to get away with just the family and have some overdue fun and family time. I can't wait!!!

Tattoos

I might as well have an entry about tattoos. There is a lot to say about them and since I have six and am getting more, I might as well blab.

Ok, well, first of all I just want to say something...It drives me crazy when people get tattoos just to look tough. First of all, if you are a bean pole with no muscles and you get a big huge tattoo on a muscle that is supposed to be there but isn't like your bicep you don't look tough...you look like a moron who is trying too hard. Also, if you get a stupid little tattoo that has no meaning and doesn't even look good but you got it just so you can say, "Me? Yeah, I've got a tattoo." you also look like a moron! Come on, people! Wake up and smell the ink! That is going to be on you FOREVER!!!!!!!!! At least get something that means something to you. And if you aren't going to get something with a meaning, at least get something pretty! There is nothing worse than an ugly tattoo!!!

In my personal opinion, it is dumb to get a tattoo unless it has a meaning. I mean, why would you want a tattoo unless it goes deeper than just walking into the store and picking something out of the books. People are always curious about tattoos so you know that they are going to ask you where your tattoos are, if they can see them, if they hurt, and what they mean. You need to have a better meaning than, "I just went in and picked it off the wall." Be original and be creative and be fun, but be meaningful as well. Like I said, that is just my personal opinion.

I have six tattoos. Most of you know this, but for those of you who don't, I will explain them all.

1. My first tattoo I got on my 18th birthday, of course, and it is my tramp stamp (haha). It is a heart with three stars above it. It came from a design that I created from some song lyrics. The lyrics are, "Even forever don't seem like long enough." (I bet no one can tell me whose lyrics they are without looking them up!!) Anyway, it got me thinking that no one has forever and, like the lyrics say, even if we did have forever, it wouldn't be long enough to spend with the ones you love. The heart represents the love, duh, and i originally had the stars are to represent the heavens.

2. I got my wings next. They are on my shoulder blades and I love them. They are for my grandfather, my mother's father. He died when my mom was six months pregnant with me. I was named after him. My parents had a name all picked out and when he passed away, they changed it to Jamie...his name was James, of course. Anyway, I have always felt that he was like my guardian angel. My wings are small but I am thinking about adding to them and making them a bit bigger.

3. On my left foot, I have a crescent moon with a trail of stars. Have you heard the saying, "Reach for the moon. Even if you miss, you will grab a handful of stars." ? Well, that is basically what it means.

4. My right foot has music symbols on it. I love music. One symbol is to represent me, one to represent Josh, and one for Gabriel. Yeah yeah, I have one for my hubby. If we don't last forever, then there are just a bunch of music symbols on my foot. haha.

5. Behind my right ear is a cloud with a sun coming out from behind it. "The sun always comes out after the storm." I constantly have to remind myself of this over and over. Maybe I should have gotten it somewhere that I could see haha.

6. On the inside of my left wrist I got a fancy 'G' for Gabriel with a blue star next to it.


There you have it.

YAY!!

Tyler gets to come home today after all. He got a waiver on his final PT test so he doesn't have to do it and her gets to come home. His plane, if it is on time, will be here around 11 p.m. tonight. Mom, Dad, and I are going to meet him at the airport and then Gabriel gets to see him on Friday. We have to go buy Tyler all new clothes because he has lost so much weight that he can't fit into any of his old clothes. haha. I wish that was the problem for me. I still haven't lost all my weight. Although, when I lose the rest of mine I still won't have to buy any more clothes because I will be able to fit into all of my old ones.

I can't wait to see him. We were hoping Gabriel could be with us at the airport to meet him but it will be way past his bedtime so I am just not telling him that he will see Tyler tomorrow and it is going to be a big surprise. :)

And we are having a cookout to welcome him home on Sunday and for the 4th of July! I am so excited!