Snakes on the property

My weeknights usually consist of coming home from work, cooking or ordering dinner, and hanging out with Jerry while watching some prime time shows. I used to have weekly margarita nights with the girls at "our" Mexican restaurant but we all have significant others now and getting together isn't always the first things on our minds. We still go out on the weekends every now and then so it's okay that dinners get skipped sometimes.

The other night I decided to crash my friend's weekly ritual with her mom to do some bargain shopping. 

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Because Goodwill is the place to find bargains.

Being the shop-aholic that I am, I knew I didn't need to buy any clothes so I figured I could just browse the houseware section and find something cute for the house. I ended up finding some really cute picture frames after walking down the next aisle. I got four for $4.

My bestie, Lauren, her mom, and two sisters showed up by then so I browsed the clothes with them. Wednesdays are 99 cent days so there were bound to be some good bargains somewhere. I found a cute Miley Cyrus tank but the rest of my clothes that I tried on did NOT look good on me. I always try to find the retro-kind of out of style-but I know I could make it work with a tank, jewelry,and heels-outfit but nothing looked good. I decided to go back to the houseware section. And guess what?! I lucked upon a spoon rest or whatever the heck those things are called that you sit on the stove while stirring things in pots. It was super cute and only 45 cents so I had to buy it.

I continued to walk down a couple of more aisles in the back of the store and I lucked upon some more things. I found two large brown-colored planters, a green one that was a little smaller, and three small ceramic pots. The three big ones I'll use for the back patio and the three small ceramic pots I will put on the steps walking up to the front porch. They were all super cheap too.

It was getting around 7:30 pm and Goodwill closes at 8 so I decided to go ahead and check out. As I was standing in line, this little girl was rocking in this wicker chair. And let me tell you, it was pretty gosh darn adorable. It had rounded legs and looked like it would rock pretty far back. It was only $25 so I decided to buy it. I decided before purchasing these things that I'm going to spray paint it white to brighten it up. I'm going to have one busy weekend! Since Lauren and her mom and sisters were in the fitting rooms, I had to ask if one of the workers could help me out to the car because I couldn't really carry the rocking chair and my other bags by myself. They got some boy to help me to my car and getting it inside to make sure it would fit and as we were heading back, he tries to ask me out.

Boy: "So what do I get for helping you to your car?"
Me: ".........."
Boy: "I mean, do I get a cup of coffee or something?"
Me: "..........No.........."
Boy: "Well we could meet up with other people too if you want."
Me: Obviously flashing my ring at him, "I don't think so."
Boy: "Maaaan. Well I guess that's okay. I've been shot down more times than I can count on my hands."
Me: ".........."

Then I just walk back in and wait for the others to finish shopping. Luckily I didn't see him any other time otherwise it might have been awkward.

So I drive back home all pumped about the rocking chair. Our driveway is pretty steep so I had planned to pull in the garage about halfway so I had room to open the door behind the passenger side all the way to get it out without being slammed by the door. As I opened the door, I heard this rustling noise. I closed it back because I thought I maybe had hit the overgrowing bushes next to the sidewalk but then I see a SNAKE. He hesitates a little then moves like an inch, hesitates again, moves, and then squirms inside our garage. Thankfully he didn't go directly straight inside. He wiggles his way in the corner next to the sensor for the garage behind some board we had propped up that the previous owners had left behind. So I leave my door open to the car and dash inside. I had flip flops on so I wasn't about to let my curiosity out.

I begged Jerry to just shoot the thing but considering our garage has a concrete floor, it probably would have ricocheted and hit us on accident. Jerry looked up pictures of snakes from my description of "it looks almost like a cheetah print" and found that it might be a copperhead. 

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And they are poisonous. Fun!! One article told us that if the head of the snake was round, that it was not a killer but if it was diamond shaped at all that we needed to call for help because their venom can be deadly.

I wasn't sure it was still there when we went back out. I banged our broom on the board. No movement. I banged it in several spots and still nothing. I put some boots on while I was inside so I got brave and decided to try and move the board. As soon as it began to angle away from the corner, I heard rustling. So our snake friend was definitely still there. There weren't any exterminators open at 11 pm so we pretty much had to wing it. Rather than trying to get it out ourselves, we decided to just move both cars in the driveway and leave the garage door open just a few inches and pray it likes the wild better than our garage. After we moved our cars though, Jerry could see its' head with a flashlight and it was rounded so that was somewhat of a relief. But I was still a load of nerves. I didn't want to leave it for fear it would get in our house somehow. But what else were we to do? We later found out that it was just a harmless rat snake. See how similar they look?

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In the morning, Jerry checked all over the garage and their were no signs. We figured he was lurking around our mole holes in the yard. We bought some mole repellant to get them to leave our yard without killing them so maybe the snakes will follow. I heard moth balls and egg shells help keep them away so maybe we'll give that a shot.

Fall fashion

I'm not, by any means, a fashion expert, but I tend to think of myself in that light. I like to think that I know what is in style and what is not and I can put together one fierce outfit. It only gives me validation when random people stop me on the street and ask where I get certain items that I'm wearing. In that being said, I wanted to give a little run-down of what is HOT this upcoming fall season.

The color I am seeing everywhere, in magazines and on Pinterest, is "Oxblood" or as you  might know it, maroon. It has always been such a rich fall color but it has come back in full swing. You see it on celebrity's lips, gowns, shoes, and nails. I, for one, wouldn't choose any better color. Fall's colors need to be rich and full. Other colors that might be out and about are jewel tones, like royal blues, deep purples, greens, etc. I couldn't wait to try out the oxblood color. I had thought about being really bold and buying some ankle booties in that color but now-a-days, I want my shoes to be versatile throughout the whole year so I decided to try the color on my lips and nails (and later on with jeans if I decide to buy this pair I've been eyeing at Forever 21). You can find those jeans here. Lustrous Colored Skinny Jean By the way, I'm your average girl, wearing a size 12, and their Plus size jeans fit me perfect, not cutting off the circulation at my knees and not rising so low that I get arrested for too much crack on me. They have that color in their regular sizes as well but the link is to the Plus sized. The color lipstick I decided on trying by chance because it was sealed at the store was called "Mulberry" by L'oreal, number 710. It's a super rich color and is more on the grape side as opposed to the cranberry side. I also got L'oreal's anti-feathering lip liner called "Lasting Plum".

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Another trend that I am loving is polka dots. And not the annoying colorful dots or really big dots, but small dots in neutrals. It would be super easy to mix prints with a neutral dot. And this is perfect example of another Fall trend, animal print, which I'll talk about in a bit.

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In the shoe realm, ankle booties are so much fun this season. In addition to me being pretty average in size, I'm tall too; 5'10" to be exact. Does that scare me away from wearing heeled boots for Fall? NOPE. In fact, I have to act like I have the confidence wearing whatever I'm wearing because with my new found height, people are likely to be staring at the Amazon woman that just passed them.

I have these and LOVE them! They go with everything!!

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I also have these.

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Probably my favorite trend this season is animal print. Leopard print, in particular, is so classic looking to me. And you can wear it at almost any age. My mom, who just turned 60 this past March, and a very fabulous 60 with a rockin' ass, has been following the trend by buying a couple of the blousey tops. I try to keep my animalistic items low key. I have a leopard skinny belt, a pair of peep-toe kitten wedges from Target that I purchased several years ago--and I wanted to provide a link to buy them but couldn't find one--, and a gorgeous scarf. I even just recently bought some khaki-ish skinny jeans from Forever 21 with almost an iridescent animal print to it. You can only see it when the light hits it a certain way. Otherwise, since I'm not the skinniest girl alive, I probably would have opted out of buying them. The picture I posted above with the polka dot shirt is a beautiful way to wear both together.

My suggestions are:

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Or

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Or a scarf or this:

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No matter what trend you're wanting to try this season, wear it with confidence and don't buy in bulk. Some trends don't stick around while others replay season after season. Keep that in mind and ENJOY!

Xzibit and Baby Landon

I have crazy dreams. I mean, hide yo babies and hide yo wives-crazy dreams. I noticed I have these dreams when I eat dinner later than normal or have some type of sugar close to the time we go to bed. But every now and then, I have really wacko dreams for no apparent reason. And they're pretty entertaining. So sit back and enjoy reading my story about my baby, Landon, and Xzibit-being a ninja instead of a rapper-who so happens to save my life.

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Get excited :P

I had just given birth to a beautiful baby boy. I was talking with my mom about what I should name him. I had a list of my top three names. I don't remember what the top two were but my third choice was Landon. And for whatever reason, I was not around when the nurse came in my room with the birth certificate. So my mom filled out and signed everything for me. The shitty thing about this, and I feel a little pissed in real life, is that she named my son Landon. Not that it's not a pretty name, but it was my third choice! I went to confront her and she told me she thought that it was what I wanted. But after explaining it was my last choice of a name, she argues that THIRD sounds like FIRST so she thought she was helping me out when I wasn't there. And because of this mix-up and the name not being my first choice, the hospital wouldn't let me take Landon home. I was about to steal my own baby!!

Off we go. Nonchalant. Through the hallways. Not a person in the front lobby tried to stop me. As soon as I stepped my foot over the hospital's property line, these ninjas started appearing over the rooftops. I froze and just looked at them all. There must have been two hundred, at least. The ninja in the far right corner makes the first move and I just dash for my car putting baby Landon in my over sized pocket for protection. Because that was the only way to protect him, apparently. Before I could reach my car, Xzibit pulls up in his pimped out Impala and orders me to get in. I did. And as he's driving away I'm stunned in silence. Xzhibit just saved me! How in the world did Xzibit know where I was or what was about to happen? Then I noticed he wasn't wearing his typical clothes but ninja-wear. Thoughts are just leaping in my head. Xzibit is a ninja now? What happened to his rapping and his Pimp My Ride show? Is he going to save me? Do I have to rap for his approval? What's going on?!?! I found out that he was a ninja and when I asked him about his rapping career, he acted like he knew nothing about it. Weird. I turned around in my seat and could see the other ninjas just jumping and swinging from building to building, getting closer and closer as we sit in traffic. Xzibit turns down some random alley and as soon as we reached the end, we weren't in the city anymore. We were in this mountainous area with snow in some places and floods in other places. But I looked back and the ninjas weren't there anymore. Xzibit said it wouldn't be long before they were on our tails again so we had to think quick of an idea to hide.

He drops me off at this ski equipment/rental store and tells me to hide inside so he could fight off the others once they got there. I could hear the tires squealing when he drove off as I was looking around for a place to hide where I wouldn't easily be seen. I began looking around and thought maybe behind clothes would be a good place or in the back room where employees sit but I knew that would be the first place they'd look. I decided to jump in the front window, donned with all the ski apparel I could find and act like a mannequin. But by then, baby Landon was softly crying and beginning to wake up. I wanted to sing to him but as soon as I started to sing, the ninjas barreled in the store. I instantly took my pose and smiled with my mouth closed and hummed. Baby Landon could hear the humming and he began to quiet down but the ninjas became suspicious and the clerks told them it was the store music. They believed it and they left. Thankfully. I started to move down from the podium to soothe Landon and one of the ninjas busted through the back door and saw me.

I ran out the front doors and grabbed a boogie board on the way because while I was in the window I noticed the snow was starting to melt. And since the store was on a hill, it was gushing down the mountains like a flood. That's how I knew to grab the boogie board. As I sat on my knees and let the water wash me down the hill, I look back and see Xzibit fighting back all the ninjas. He yelled to me that he had my back and to get to safety.

Then I woke up.

How I feel about society's norms

There have been several things on my mind lately and I wanted to write separate blog posts about them but I decided not to. I'm just going to combine them in this one post and keep them short and simple.

1. Why is marijuana illegal? It has more harmful affects than alcohol supposedly. Did you know the study that was performed on monkeys so many years ago was done with a mask over their faces? Not only were they only inhaling marijuana but there wasn't any oxygen flow. Low oxygen flow by itself has major affects on the brain! So it was a skewed study. I think they wanted to make it illegal. But if you really think about it, do you know how much money the country would be making especially if they taxed the stuff?! I honestly think that if alcohol is legal, so should marijuana. Part of the reason people get so addicted to it is because they are having to sneak around with buying it and smoking it. (pic source)

2. Why does the country have to follow the rules of the Bible? I understand that we are a mainly Christian country but with how diverse we grow each and every day, I think that needs to be thrown out the window. It hurts me to think that just because we were all raised in Sunday School and led to believe everything our pastors say that it is the truth. I was like that. But lately I have been wanting to find those answers on my own. So I have started a reading plan of the Bible, chronologically, so I can see what Jesus and the prophets were trying to tell us. I don't want to hear it from anyone else. That way I will know if any pastors were twisting the truth just to get us to believe what they want us to believe and to keep us in church. It also hurts my heart when I hear the Muslims in Murfreesboro can't build/open their mosque for their own form of worshiping. I believe that as long as people are not worshiping satanic gods that it is alright. But then again, I am being prejudice if I want our country to be an open religious nation. I honestly believe that God is real, not many gods, but that is what I am trying to find out for sure. Christians believe in one true God. Muslims believe that Muhammad was the last messenger of God so they worship him. Prejudice is just not pretty. (pic source)

You can read about it here:
Judge allows Muslims to use TN mosque

3. This is probably the most important one in my eyes. WHY IS GAY MARRIAGE ILLEGAL?!?! Again, I understand that our nation is Christian but it is not up to us to say who can marry and who can't. That is only up to God. He is the only one to make those judgements. Not us. It's shit like this that makes me want to move as far away as possible from the Bible Belt and never look back. It is so sweet to see pictures like this. I can't find the article that goes with it but they were the first same sex couple to marry in NY after the law was passed to make the union legal.

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4. There are people in this country that get so riled up when it comes to politics. Whether you are a Republican or Democrat shouldn't define who your friends are. With the recent Chick-fil-A freedom of speech issue, there has been a clear line drawn between smart and stupid people. I, for one, am pro-gay marriage. The manager of that specific branch of restaurants just stated his opinion that he did not think it was right for gays to marry. He was entitled to his opinion and could freely voice that. One of the politicians declared a "Chick-fil-A" day on August 1st to support his opinion. Although this was just to support that opinion, tons and tons of conservative people swarmed the local restaurants because they oppose gay marriage. But that was not what they were trying to state to the public. It got so twisted!! It wasn't about if they supported or opposed gay unions but that they were able to publicly say it one way or the other. I had so many people say on Facebook "I am so glad I live in the Bible Belt" or "Thank God for conservatives". It went the other way too. There were some liberals who went out to Chick-fil-A's the following Friday to protest this acclaimed day and one of my husband's relatives said "Let's get some conservatives down to Chick-fil-A Friday morning and show them what a conservative presence is really like." I just want to scream at all these people and tell them that their heads are in the wrong place and to think about the real issue.

You can read about it here:
Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day

These are just some of the pictures from various locations and how crazy the lines were.

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But then the internet has pictures like these which didn't capture the movement either.

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I also find it kind of odd that people are so angry about this appreciation day when Nashville has declared themselves as an LGBT community. I know, in part, that it was declared so we could have more diversified tourists in Nashville but where are all the news stories and protests about this? I love living in the South but this is starting to get a little ridiculous. I want everyone to get along and respect others' opinions and lifestyles without getting offended.

All I want is peace, love, and harmony!!

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Updates on the house

I wanted have this amazing mash-up blog of different topics like fashion, relationships, DIY, and my attempt at being fit but blogs are hard to keep up with! I don't know how some people do it. I'm going to make it my goal to have at least one really really good post about something that pertains to people my age. I thought about doing that in this post but I wanted to give an update on some of my home revisions.

We moved in our house in November last year and I picked out navy to be our master bath color. The tiles were a speckled navy and light blue color so I thought navy would look really good! A few weekends ago, the sun was shining in the window above the shower and I noticed that these tiles were actually gray. I must need my eyes checked because the gray was very apparent. My mind began to spin in ways to fix this. I made a post with pictures of ideas that I liked and I finally gotten it all fixed. Our walls in the entire house are gray. In some lights they look purple and in other lights they look taupe. Compared to the gray speckled tiles in the bathroom, they looked more taupe. I bought a white shower curtain with these cute ruffles at the top and bottom, a black and white flower bath rug, white frames, and I painted thick white stripes on one wall.

We also just got new counter tops in the kitchen and both bathrooms and new sinks. Our bathroom counters were called "White Star" and has more of a mosaic look with glass specks in it. The sink is a basic, clear vessel bowl and I am in love with it all! Isn't it adorable?

I wanted to keep things mainly black/gray and white with just a little bit of coral. You can see the coral flowers in the picture but I still have on my project list to paint the inside of the drawers of the cabinet. I bought those acrylic bottles like from Hobby Lobby in three different coral/orange colors. As soon as I get around to it, I'll have a blast doing it.

I wasn't going to mention this but those mason jars on the counter? I made those!! I bought the jars at Hobby Lobby and small plastic pump bottles because I couldn't find the pumps separate. I wasn't quite sure how to make a hole in the top of the jar's lid but I soon realized it was super easy to hammer a screwdriver to start the hole. I had some all-purpose glue in one of my junk drawers so I was able to glue the soap pump to the hole in the jar lid. And after an hour or so of drying (just to make sure it wouldn't drip in the soap), they were good to fill up with soap and use! I thought about just using too but I tend to keep my face wash out on the counter so I have one for hand soap, one for Germ-X, and the other for face wash.

And if you want to make a cute make up brush holder like the one I have on the right of the counter, I just filled up an open vase with clear stones and placed them accordingly. Some people have used coffee beans or colored sand. That is up to you. Luckily I had that vase left over from the candy bar at our wedding so I was happy to be able to reuse it.

The kitchen was re-done too with new counters, backsplash, and sink.

We have gotten a new 2 cu ft Samsung Microwave put up since this picture too but I haven't taken a new picture yet. Gorgeous, right?!

I think you can tell from this picture but the kitchen used to be painted green. There is still green in this picture around the inside frame of that window cut-out over the sink. Now that the back splash covers up most of it, there is still green to the right of the sink on the wall of the pantry and to the left of the fridge around the actual window and below that where we keep the trash can. I love the brightness of the green but I feel as though it's really random now.

I also decided to change up the pictures along the wall of the stairs. I had put up several wedding pictures but I wanted to change that. I have no clue when you're supposed to take down wedding pictures, but I figured a year and a half was long enough. One of my bestie's Lauren, had this massive L that someone gave her and she said I could have it so I was glad to take it off her hands. I ordered several other L's and put them up beside it. There were a few wedding frames that I didn't reuse the frames so I put them in one of the bedrooms upstairs.

This was what it originally looked like.

And this is what it looks like now.

I am absolutely in love!! I had to rearrange it a couple of times, but needless to say, I am happy with this arrangement so it'll stay :)

Home improvement projects are one of my favorite things to do so if any of my friends want/need me to come over and help with any of that, or decorating for that matter too, I'm your girl!!

Nada, Zilch, Goose Egg

As you probably remember, the hubbard and I are trying to conceive. It wasn't entirely planned out but I was getting towards the end of one of my birth control packs and we just decided not to take the pills anymore. We went on a trip to the lake over Memorial Day and we were pretty messed up the entire weekend. I was definitely regretting all that partying when I got to work that next week. I sort of "forgot" to take my pills any of those nights and after some convincing, Jerry said it was okay with him if I didn't take them anymore. I wasn't going to argue!

I'm pretty sure we looked like this the whole time.

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Sorry if this is TMI but I had my period the week after we got back from the lake. Several months go by and still nothing. After each passing week that I am supposed to start my next cycle I take pregnancy tests at home. But they kept coming up negative. I thought I might be pregnant but I had to keep telling myself that I wasn't and to be patient. My body would tell me if I really was. Some of the signs were there but still no positive test. So I decided to make an appointment with my OB-GYN.

I got blood work done last week because if, by chance, all the home tests I were taking were faulty, the blood test would definitely tell me if I was pregnant or not. I met with the doctor two days later and the test was negative. I wasn't so much concerned that I wasn't pregnant but that I hadn't started my period yet. The doctor said it was normal not to get pregnant this quickly especially right after coming off birth control. She gave me some medicine to make me start my next cycle and then we would go from there.

After several days of thinking, we decided to wait. For one, I don't have medical insurance. I had it through my employer but our medical practice got kicked off because we didn't have enough employees on the plan. I just didn't sign on with a new plan. And if I could go back in time and sign up then, I wouldn't be in the stressful situation I'm in now. I was kind of looking for a plan but at that time, all payers told me that in order for maternity to be covered you had to be in a plan with your employer or in a family plan. My husband has a heart condition so it is a little hard for any insurance to cover us because of that. I had gotten denied twice because of that so I gave up looking and was just going to get pregnant and hope that TennCare picked me up. After finding out that I wasn't pregnant after all, we decided to try and get insurance one last time. Jerry has BCBS and his heart condition is covered with that so whenever we do switch to a family plan, getting BCBS myself would be an easier transition. I got accepted Monday this week but the downside is that there is a ten-month waiting period. I still thought I could get pregnant now and I wouldn't have the baby until after that waiting period had expired but then they would probably deny the delivery as being pre-existing. I took some time to think about it again and we officially decided we are going to wait another year to try to have a baby. My whole issue was that I wanted to be under thirty to have at least two kids but the more I think about it, the more I think it's no big deal. If we start trying next year, I'll be 28 by the time the kid pops out and I am okay with that. I don't want to go back on birth control though for fear my body does this again when we're ready next year. Jerry will just have to suck it up and wear condoms for ten months.

Room make-overs

Jerry and I bought a house this past November and it is the perfect starter home. We don't have a dining room, which I don't mind, but there are three bedrooms AND a separate loft area for Jerry's office. It also has a garage and a fenced in backyard. My favorite is probably having a garage. No more running through the rain to the front door! It has an "open" concept, in that the living room's ceiling goes all the way to the top where the ceiling would be for the second floor. The kitchen is open as well but there are beams to make up the four corners.

This is one of the beams in the kitchen.

The mirror above the mantle kind of shoes the openness of the room.

I tend to think that I have pretty good decorating skills but Pinterest is the devil. If you don't have a Pinterest, get one. It's a place to keep boards of inspirational, motivational, decorating ideas. I stay on there ALL day long. No joke. Recently I found this picture. And I loved the grays with the pop of coral. I also love the idea of putting soap in a mason jar.

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And then I saw this picture.

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I loved that this person mixed prints. Actually, I love everything. The striped wall, floral shower curtain, damask-like bath rug in front of the sink. Everything. Our bathroom right now are all blues. It came with blue speckled tiles so we have a solid navy shower curtain and rug. I bought some $1 signs from Target recently that had teal mixed in with the navy so I bought teal towels to have an equal amount of teal and navy. Last weekend, the shower curtain was pulled open and the sun was shining through the window and I noticed that the floors were gray and black speckled. We've been in this house for over six months and I just now noticed that. I felt like a dummy. After seeing the pictures above, and especially after the realization of color, I told myself that I needed to re-do my bathroom. I also decided on a few other things thanks to Pinterest. 

I'll be framing my mirror.

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I'll also be painting the inside of my drawers coral, probably.

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How much more exciting could it get for me knowing that I get to re-do some rooms in our home? I'm pumped!! I almost forgot to mention that we hired Granite Transformations to re-do our kitchen and bathrooms. They specialize in granite overlays, not full granite. So there is no demolition. We're replacing our kitchen counters, sink, faucet, and getting a fabulous subway style backsplash. The bathrooms are getting new counters and just the master bath is getting a new vessel sink and faucet. They will be doing their install this coming Monday and Tuesday. But I wanted to get things done before then. So here's the run-down of my current home To Do List.

1. Buy wood pieces to frame the mirror.
2. Paint bathroom cabinets black with coral on the inside like the last picture, above.
3. Paint white stripes on one wall (our walls are already gray).  DONE
4. Pour soap in mason jars and poke holes in lids and insert pumps.  DONE

I also have a project going for the wall along the stairs. I got my inspiration from...Pinterest, of course!

I don't know why this above section is highlighted with a white background and I can't get it to go away...

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Our last name is Lee so collecting these L's will be so much fun!

Other things on my To Do List:

1. Paint the back of the front door black.

2. Put together media shelf in the office upstairs.

3. Make home-made grout cleaner and use on master bathroom (I'll be sure to take pictures!).

4. Buy magnet strip and glue to the inside of bathroom drawer for bobby pins.

I know there's more whirling around in my head but I'm getting distracted so I better run and buy these things before my head explodes from so much planning. Tutorials are in the works for these future projects. Be looking for them :)

Mrs. Lee

I wanted to finish up my story of how the Jerbear and I met. I knew if I started on another story that I might run off with the bunnies and never come back.

Let me think of where I left off. 

Oh yeah!! I was re-telling the story of how he asked me to be his girlfriend. We were an official couple Sunday, April 1st, 2007. That Tuesday, his family asked us to go see a Predators game in Nashville. His mom's co-worker had gotten us box seats so we were super pumped about it. 

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GO PREDS!!

As the night began to wind down, his dad said he was going to walk around the arena for little while. We didn't think anything of it but then his mom disappeared later to find him. Several minutes passed and she called Jerry to say that his dad had to go to the ER. We both looked at each other a little terrified. I found out that his dad had heart problems. He didn't have a heart attack or anything but because of the irregularities, the EMS had to get him to take a pill that pretty much stopped his heart and they used the defibrillators to start it back on a normal rhythm. We left the hockey game early to meet them at the hospital and it was pouring down rain. If the heart issue wasn't scary enough, the windshield wipers were not working during the storm so we had to drive ten mph in order to see anything in front of us. People were yelling at us left and right! It was funny thinking back on it.

I found out later in our relationship that Jerry had heart problems as well. They were not related to that of his dad; his was a birth defect. In a nutshell, humans are meant to have tricuspid heart valves. He was only born with a bicuspid valve, specifically his aortic valve. He had his first surgery when he was nine, replacing those valves. And he'll eventually have to have another one. Just not at the moment. I'll get more in to this in a later post. But here's what his heart looks like compared to others.

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I don't know if there are words to describe how perfect we are for each other. We are complete opposites and have nothing in common but it works for us. The things that keep us together are similar qualities, not interests. We both have compassion for our community, are strong green-go-ers, have love for our family and friends, and every single thing just pairs well together. 

The weekend after my birthday in 2009, we had a date planned at the movies and were going to buy edible arrangements to bring back to my house for Mother's Day the next day. Our parents were supposed to meet for the first time that night. Dinner was at my house and the whole family was just going to eat and enjoy each other's company. We walk in the door and the first person I see is one of my old best friend's Sarah. Then I begin to look around the room and not only is Sarah there but her boyfriend, my family, Jerry's family, and several of our other really good friends.

No one had ever thrown a surprise birthday party for me so, of course, I cried. But the night gets better. After we eat and are getting ready to cut the cake, his dad gets all up in my face and I naturally back up because I am not one for intrusion on my personal space. He moves out of the way and Jerry is on the floor, on one knee, with a cake in his hand and a ring on top. 

I could not believe my eyes. Jerry was proposing to me in front of everyone! Not knowing how to react, I ran and hid behind my bestie, Lauren, on the screened-in porch.

I hesitated making any moves and everyone is yelling for me to come back in. 

All I could do was walk up to Jerry, hug him, kiss him, cry more, and nod my head yes. It was the best day of my entire life. And he spoiled me A LOT in the beginning. I will never forget this day.

Being three years younger than me, Jerry wanted to wait to get married for a while. But I, on the other hand, wanted to get married the next day if I could. We had tentatively chose to wait until October 2011. I had picked out gray and yellow as my colors. In August 2010, I was talking with my parents about the wedding date and my dad suggested January 1st. 01-01-11. How had I not thought about that date? Cool, huh? I ran back upstairs to tell Jerry and we decided right then and there to move the date up to the 1st. Then, there was the planning period. Four months wasn't all that much time to get things perfectly planning but we did it. And our wedding was, indeed, perfect!!

There is not much to say about the ceremony. I was the princess of my ball and any girl would be lucky to be in those shoes. I was thankful to have such loving family and friends to experience it with. We loved, we laughed, we ate, and we danced the night away.

I started to leave a few pictures of the wedding but I thought it would be better to put up some of the funny ones....ENJOY!!

Girl meets boy

In my last post I mentioned going back and re-telling some stories from my old blog. So I figured why not start from the very beginning of how I met my husband.

To start that story, I should probably give you a little background information on my family. My dad is a music minister. We've moved several times so we don't get upset anymore. It's one of those things we're just used to. I think I might can dig up a picture or two of him in action.

 This was our old church in East Ridge, TN. The sanctuary had just been remodeled.

This is what pisses me off. We were at this church in East TN for fourteen years and whomever uploaded this picture of my dad spelled our last name wrong. It's supposed to be GRANLUND. That is really besides the point. These were the only pictures I could find...

If you really want the very beginning, I was born in Florida but only lived there for two years. We then moved to Rossville, GA but was at the church from the pictures above. Seven years later, we moved houses, over the line in TN, but still at the same church and was there for another seven years. We then moved to Mt. Olive, AL. I spent the "growing up" years there so if anyone asks me where I'm from, I will most likely tell them Alabama. In 2006 we moved to Lebanon, TN and we have been in this area ever since.

I had worked as a receptionist at an OB-GYN facility in Birmingham so I had tried to find a similar job here but that didn't come so easily. I decided to take a job as a Key Holder at LifeWay Christian stores. A new hire started about six months later in 2007, named Benton. He was pretty cute but I knew from his shy demeanor that it would take a while for him to build up the courage to ask me out. Shortly after, his friend, Jerry, added me on Myspace.

This is Benton.

This is Jerry.

Jerry: So Benton tells me that I should add you because you don't have any friends.

Me: Did he? Why would he say that?

I wish now that we would have saved some of our earlier conversations because they were pretty hilarious. I think he's got a conversation saved from my old best friend grilling him to make sure he'd be a good guy to date me. Haha. I remember talking about him riding around topless during an outing to Murfreesboro and I was thinking he was really riding around topless. But then I found out his mustang was as convertible so I felt pretty stupid.

At the same time another friend of Benton, Justin, found me on Myspace as well. Out of the two, Justin is definitely the more aggressive one. We talked more often than Jerry and I. After about a month, we decided to go out on a date. But not Justin and I. And not Jerry and I. But all three of us. I wish I had a picture from that night.

And this is Justin. I met him with long hair like Jerry's but I couldn't find any older pictures. But he wore this hat a lot in the beginning so this one will do.

We decided to go on a date to Chili's. I had plans that night already with a customer from LifeWay but I met up with them afterwards for dinner. I did this face modeling thing that night. And it wasn't anything where pictures were taken. It was simply to show off the new make-up lines with Mary Kay. The boys still give me hell about it when it was really nothing. I remember Jerry being super quiet and Justin being the talkative one, winking at me every chance he got. We got up to leave and I offered for Jerry to sit by me while we were waiting on the checks and I pretty much had to tell him that I didn't bite in order for him to sit down.

We went to see Ghost Rider that weekend. Jerry picked me up in his mustang with Justin riding shotgun. After dropping me off, Justin hugged me by but Jerry stayed in the car. Again, I had to basically force him out to hug me too.

Next thing I know Jerry is asking me to be his girlfriend. But this is how he did it...

Jerry: Meghan Granlund, do you want to be my girlfriend?

Me: YES!!

After several minutes of nothing...

Jerry: April Fools'!!

(source)
I swear, this is what I must have looked like after reading that text.

I was furious. April Fool's was on a Sunday that year and I was out at lunch with some of my friends after church. I literally threw my phone across the little area where we were waiting for our table. Jerry knew I was mad because he texted me back and apologized. I forgave him and we began our courtship.

I could keep going in this post, but to tell the rest of the story leading up to our married life now would take a while. So I'll spare you the hour and a half to read all of that and write it in another post.