Romantic Getaway

My amazingly sweet boyfriend surprised me with a little romantic getaway for my birthday. I couldn't think of a better way to celebrate. The getaway was just perfect. He kept it all a surprise, which is a little hard to do with me. I don't like surprises all that much! Maybe I'm changing my mind on that. He also has been amazing at trying to knock goals off my 101 in 1001 list. He thought of a few things we could do on this trip but I don't know if he realized that "Go on a romantic getaway with My Love" was a goal on my list! Goal completed!

It is really hard to get him to take a serious picture.

He is cute so he can get away with that, I suppose.

We went to a tiny little town in Kentucky not far from where we live. It had a cute little Inn. It was full of antiques and had plenty of history behind it. I'd love to just duplicate it and have it as my own house!

Even the key is cute!

One of the goals on my list is to do the Kentucky Bourbon Trail. We have already done the Evan Williams one and on our little getaway we did the Four Roses Distillery! I'm actually not a huge Bourbon fan. My face will give that away. It is really neat to see how it is made and my favorite part, the gift shop!

It was the PERFECT birthday and romantic getaway. I can't thank my sweet boyfriend enough for doing something so special for me. I'm definitely already loving being twenty-eig AHH I'M OLD already.

Hearts&A Check Mark

It was Valentine's Day. One of my favorite days of the year. The weather wasn't sure if it wanted to cooperate. Marshall, my boyfriend, decided to take me and Gage out to lunch. By going to lunch we definitely avoided the crowds. Seemed like this lunch was going to be a good lunch.

Unfortunately, things started to go bad. We were sat at a high top table in the bar area. My 6 year old child isn't tall enough to reach the seats on his own not to mention it is in the bar area! We get settled. We order. Our food takes forever to get there. We ordered sandwiches and chicken tenders. Our drinks were sitting there empty. When our food got there, mine was not great and I didn't eat it. All in all for me, it wasn't a pleasant dining experience.

Then I remembered what I just posted about the perfect meal. I looked at my 2 boys and decided I was going to enjoy this lunch no matter what. It was Valentine's Day. I had the 2 greatest Valentine's with me. It didn't matter that the service and food were not outstanding. The meal was perfect.

Since, it was Valentine's Day and at this point I'm sure the waitress thought she wasn't going to get a good tip I decided to go ahead and 100% tip her. It is on my 101 goal list to do. Marshall was paying for the actual lunch but I decided since it was my goal I should leave the 100% tip. Luckily, I had exactly that much in cash. Funny how that worked out!

Goal Completed! Woohoo!

Valentine's Day was an adventure for us. It didn't stop there. The whole day brought on more crazy, crazy ,crazy times but it was a wonderful day. I got to spend it with my 2 loves. That is what counts!

Don't Be A Joy Sucker

I love Valentine's Day. Love it so much I would marry it. I love Valentine's Day even if I'm not in a relationship. It doesn't change anything for it. This day is about love. I'm going to love my son, my parents, my coworkers, my friends, the mailman, the gas station worker and this year I really do get to love my boyfriend on this day!

This day is just about love. 

There will never be any boycotting this lovely holiday ever. I will never understand that. Never. Peoples biggest comment is "you shouldn't just show love on one day.". Who ever said you are just showing it on one day? I'm full of love every day for the people in my life. This day just makes it sweet and fun. Why do you celebrate Halloween? Present giving at Christmas? Egg hunting on Easter? It gives us JOY!

Don't be a joy sucker!

Celebrate Valentine's Day!

With all that being said let me tell you about Valentine's Day! I have been a crafting fool today. Kid crafts, card making, boyfriend crafts, parents craft. Every one is getting something crafted and they are going to like it!

7 More days until Valentine's Day!

<3

#backthatazzup 

This is my Valentine's Day jaaaam.

That and Marvin Gaye.

Silly Faces

Silly faces in crowded places

Make pretty smiles as big as a child's

Silly faces in crowded places

Makes loud laughter as we keep making faces after

Silly faces in crowded places

Makes this place brighter and our hearts lighter

10 Ways To Survive A LDR Or At Least How I Did It

10 Ways To Survive A LDR(Long Distance Relationship) 

Or At Least How I Did It

1.  Love Letters. I didn't actually snail mail him because most of the time he was on the go but love lettered in the email way to him. He love lettered me right back. It was fun and cute to wake up to them because of the time difference and when we were on the same time it was still just amazing to get them. He sent postcards of the places he went to so that was a plus, too. It was romantic.

2. Trust. My advice is no matter what trust in the other person. Don't doubt them. They love you and they want to be in this with you otherwise they just wouldn't be. Who has a LDR for fun? No one.

3. Skype. Oh, his face. His sweet handsome face. Skype made it possible to see it quite often! Our favorite was falling asleep to each other on skype. It was wonderful. Make skype your best friend.

4. Read a book together. I promise this isn't as boring as it sounds. We read Gone Girl at the same time. We also tried to read The Beautiful And The Damned but I don't think either of us finished it. It was really fun reading a book at the same time. We talked about it while we were reading it and even after. Gone Girl is going to be a movie so we are excited to see it together!

5. Buy a questions book. I bought 4,000 questions to getting to know anyone and everyone . We just went randomly through the book and ask the questions. We really got to know a lot about each other that we might not have ever known if not for this! It was a lot of fun and made us feel closer.

6. Set a time to talk. When we were on different time zones he had to got up hours before he had to go to work to talk to me. I sacrificed a little sleep as well. It was special and important knowing we were making time for each other. It doesn't have to be skype. We used gmail chat and facebook on the non skype days.

7. I love you's. Never let the other person forget how much you love them. Tell them every day. Tell them a 100 times a day. Scream it. Shout it. However you do it just do it.

8. Pictures. When you FINALLY get a chance to see other. Take a lot of pictures. I felt so much more at peace with the situation when I had pictures of us to look at. They brought back memories and made me think about the memories we were going to make when we saw each other again.

9. Date nights. This might seem weird because you are long distance but having date nights with each other is fun. We were always suppose to watch the same movie at the same time but we never ended up doing that. We got busy talking and the hours went by every time. We had some amazing date nights.

10. The struggle makes you stronger. I had this in the back of my mind the whole time. Being in a LDR makes your relationship grow leaps and bounds. More than you could imagine. You have to fight everyday to be in a relationship that isn't easy. Trust, loyalty, honesty, and respect will be the values your relationship is based on. Those sound like pretty solid things, right?

After almost a year of my long distance relationship has come to a close. He is home. Hopefully for good but I know we could survive distance if it needed to happen again. It has been quite a journey. An adventure all around. Now we are on to the next chapter: How to survive being around each other all the time. It will be quite an adjustment but I'm sure we can handle it!

Love Lettering

Love Lettering

I'm love lettering you because I love you

I love when your hair falls in your face

I love you when you act stubborn and you know you do

And I love you even when you need your space

I'm love lettering you because you make me happy

I love it when you bring me a yellow flower

I love you even if you think this is sappy

And I love the days I see you even if it just a hour

I'm love lettering you because you are wonderful

I love you because you're smart

I love that you make life less dull

And I love you because you have a big heart

I'm love lettering you because who doesn't like love letters?

I love you

I love that things are only going to get better.

And I love that I know you love me, too.

----------

As I was writing this silly little poem at work a song was stuck in my head. A really random song. I don't know how it got there but it hasn't left. 

Skidamarink a-dink, a-dink

Skidamarink a-do

I love you

I love you in the morning

and in the afternoon

I love you in the evening

and underneath the moon

 #backthatazz up to this song.

Skeet. Skeet.

1 week

In a week My Love will be home. I've missed this man so much and I can't wait to see him.

It has been a very long 6/7 weeks. It really does feel like he has been gone so much longer. At times my heart ached because I miss him so much. That could be because when he was home he was only here for a few weeks where we didn't get to spend nearly enough time with each other. It feels like a dream now. The memories are starting to fade. I'm starting to forget that special way he looked at me. The way we held when we were driving around. Our Monday Day Dates. I'm excited to bring all of these back and make plenty of more memories with him.

It has been a challenging 6/7 weeks since he has been gone. There were plenty of highs for us but we have had a lot of problems. Some trust was broken. Doubts were put in our minds. It was decided last week to just be on a break from each other. As if the miles between us weren't enough. This break is suppose to give us time to clear our heads and reexamine if our love is enough to make things work between us. I know it is. My heart doesn't want it to be any other way. I'm not giving up.

I really do love this man. I know he loves me. Everything is going to be okay.

1 week!

I'm so excited.

A little Advice

Advice to my son for when he is older

•  Love. Love life. When it knocks you down, get back up, and continue loving. Don't become bitter and jaded. Life is too short. Don't ever let your heart get hard.
• Work really hard at every thing you do and want to become. I'd really like it to be school and more school but if you want to be a famous musician or a clown then do it and do it good and hard. 
• Take care of your responsibilities. Work, bills, family, life. Doesn't matter. If it is YOURS take care of it. Life will go along more smoothly and you won't feel so disappointed in yourself.
• Be humble. Don’t think you’re better than anybody else and never think you know everything.
• Have a strong moral compass. Know who you are, what you stand for, and what you value. Try your best to remain true to them.

I'm sure there is so much more I can tell my little man about but this is a nice start.

Do you have any advice for your kids?

Happiness

I'm quite fond Jone's Soda. Not only do they taste really good but underneath the cap is a little treasure. I look forward to unscrewing the cap and seeing what the "fortune" says. I know it is silly. It just seems like they come at the right time. Even when they seem silly and are things like "Climb a tree". 

One this day I unscrewed this particular soda and underneath the cap was "Stop searching. Happiness is right next to you.". The words hit me like a book in the face. I would be lying if I didn't admit I wasn't having the best day. 

I looked right next to me and my son was on the couch. Of course, he is my happiness. He always has been. I didn't need a soda cap to tell me that. Just look at that sweet face.

The part that shook was 'Stop searching.'. I don't if I was searching or holding on. I don't know if I can say I stopped or going to stop searching. It just made me realize that, in the midst of a bad day, I already have my happy. If things go bad and don't work out in life or love. I will always have my son. He is my happy.

Enamored No More

I've had my first bout of trouble already with my one word for the year, enamored.

Earlier this week I was flying on cloud nine. I thought this word would be a breeze. I had never felt more enamored with life ever before. The sun shined brighter, the cold didn't seem so cold, the laughs were more frequent, a smile hardly left my face. I loved that feeling. I want to keep that feeling. I wish I could have bottled it up for the bad days that surely were to come. Nothing is perfect, after all. Unfortunately, I didn't know bad days were coming so soon and I'm not quite sure if it is possible to bottle up the feeling of being enamored.

What do you do when the days seem grayer? How do you fix a broken heart? Where did my smile go? When will the cold stop being so cold? Why does my heart hurt so bad? Who knows these answers to my questions?

Probably no one.

Come back to me, enamored life.

My Favorite Accessory

My bathroom as a hanging jewelry organizer. It filled with all my favorite jewelry. Some big and some small. Some expensive and some not so expensive. I am not that prejudice toward jewelry. I even like "ugly" jewelry...and sometimes I will even wear it! Sometimes I don't wear any jewelry at all. It kind of comes in waves. I'll wear jewelry every day and then not wear jewelry for weeks. I do what I want :)

A few pieces of my jewelry

When I think about my most favorite piece. I think of a piece I have been wearing every day. I only take it off when I am showering. I probably should take it off when I am working but I can't even imagine being without it for that long! It is still holding up quite well despite the abuse it takes at work. I feel really naked now when it isn't on me. I love my bracelet...or should I say his bracelet.

The bracelet

My love left this bracelet that he wore on my bathroom sink the night before he left for his trip. I didn't even notice it until well into the next day. It just mixed it in with all my other jewelry that I had not put away yet. When I saw it I cried. I put it on and I knew I was going to wear this every day until he comes home. He actually comes home in about 20 days give or take! I'm excited!

I don't know if I'm going to give the bracelet back when he comes home. I've grown rather fond of it! We will see...

If I had A Say In It

If I had a say in it...

The person I want to spend the rest of my life wouldn't be perfect. He will make mistakes. Small ones and unfortunately big ones. He will make mistakes but he will learn from them. He will try not to repeat the same mistakes twice but because he isn't perfect that might happen, anyway.

The person I want to spend the rest of my life with would be kind. He would be kind not only to me but everyone and everything around him. He would be the type of person who will drop change in a homeless person cup while we are walking through the city. He will be the type of person to pull over on the side of the road to help someone that has a flat. He will be the type of man to be kind to me. He will only shout at me if I'm on the other side of the house and he needs to tell me something. He will never strike me. He will never hurt my heart on purpose.

The person I want to spend the rest of my life with will push me in my life. Sometimes I need a good push.

The person I want to spend the rest of my life with will love my child as if it is his own. He will be kind to him. He will include him. He will take him to play in the park when I can't. He will give him piggy back rides around the house. He will hold him when he is having a bad night. He will fall asleep in the chair beside his hospital bed if/when my son goes.

The person I want to spend the rest of my life with will have an amazing work ethic. He will want to provide for his family. He will make sure we have everything we need and then probably some more that we don't really need. He will never give up. He will find another door when one closes.

The person I want to spend the rest of my life with will be willing to compromise. He will know that it is not his way or the highway. He will find a middle ground and be okay with that.

The person I want to spend the rest of my life with will listen to me. He will listen to me when I can't fall asleep at night. He will listen when I had a bad day. He will listen to my goals and my dreams. He will listen to me when I'm upset. He will also comfort me during that time, too. He will have the most amazing ears any man could ever have.

The person I want to spend the rest of my with...will be all of these things and so much more.

To Be Continued...

Monday Day Date

Every Monday when my love was here, we would have a Monday day date.

Our first one wasn't really suppose to be a date. We were not in a good place in our relationship. In fact, we had recently decided to go our separate ways. He just came back from spending most of the year in a different country. We were going to meet at my favorite store in the mall, which is already romantic on its own, but meeting there was even more so.

We had a awkwardly great time that day and it started a little something.

We got back together.

And we continued having Monday day dates while he was here. I loved them. When every one else was working or doing usual Monday things we were on a date. It brought us closer. It was so special to me.

He left to go on another adventure in a far away land now. Sad face.

Monday's make me miss him a little more but every Monday that passes I know that he is closer to coming home to me.