Weekend stuff: Boston and wedding edition

Hello all! Yes, this post is a little late, but I have been so busy since I came home from my trip. It's amazing how busy you get when you've been gone for four days. 

So, Friday night I left for Maryland without my husband because they didn't approve his leave. With the trip happening right after deployment and with our orders and all the stuff he has to do, they wouldn't approve him for the trip! That's the military for ya! Anyways! I totally forgot that we were going on a trip during Memorial Day weekend, so trying to leave VA, Beach was a pain in the butt! I got stuck in traffic at the bridge toll and then on the bridge I got stuck in traffic at the second tunnel. Fun. By the time I got out of traffic and actually got off the bridge it was almost 8 o'clock and I hadn't had dinner yet. I decided to stop at the McDonald's right after the bridge and of course everyone else did too. I was so hungry that I just dealt with it. All and all it took me four and a half hours to get home when it usually takes three hours. Blah.

Saturday morning the boys and I met my dad and Kelly at his house at seven and then we hit the road. I road in a second car with my brothers and they had me dying laughing the whole way there. We had really great weather until we got to New Jersey and then it poured and poured the rest of the way! The rain wasn't enough though. We just had to hit a ton of traffic in New York. I guess everyone else was taking their vacation too! Even the pouring rain and traffic wasn't enough to make our trip rough! 

My dad was trying to switch lanes and a tractor trailer hit him! Thank goodness my dad and Kelly were okay, but the car was not. The tractor trailer took the whole left side panel off the Sante Fe and the panel was hanging down really low. Thank goodness the truck didn't hit my dad's tire or that the panel wasn't hitting the tire as it hung off the car. We pulled off the side of the road and waited for the police to come. We waited nearly two hours and they never came, so we left. After the accident we followed behind my dad just to watch after him since we were still in a lot of traffic. We finally got to our hotel room in Foxboro, MA around 6:30! What was supposed to be a seven hour drive turned into a twelve hour drive. My goodness! 

The best Starbucks drink EVER

A rainy New York City

Sunday was the wedding day! The morning of the wedding we went to Whole Foods to pick up our food for the wedding. Everyone was to bring a covered dish so we would have a variety of food. I am now officially obsessed with Whole Foods, especially because of their bakery. If you know me, you know I have the biggest sweet tooth around! I was in heaven when I saw their bakery. My older brother told me to focus on the fact that we'd be eating wedding cake at the wedding so, no, I didn't buy anything from the bakery. Boo! I finally pryed myself away from the bakery and we picked out our food to bring. We bought potato salad, grilled vegetables, macaroni salad and a huge vegetable tray. We had enough food to feed an army!

After we got back to our hotel, it was time to get ready because the wedding was a half hour away from us. We got to the house where the wedding was around 12ish. It was such a wonderful feeling to spend time with family that I haven't seen in forever! I got to see my Aunt Joy and her parents, which I love by the way, my cousin Sara and my cousin Josh, whom was the groom! I couldn't wait to see my cousin Sara again because her and I have become really close over the past couple years. I missed her so much. 

Besides having a little family reunion, the wedding was so beautiful and amazingly perfect. It was wonderful to see Josh so grown up and in love. It was also so nice to meet his new wife, Erica, and all of her family. We have a new Morgan(my maiden name)in the family now! So awesome! It was wonderful to have this day with family and friends to witness two people commit their lives together, especially after the drive we had the day before. It was also nice to see my dad relax and enjoy himself and not worry about the car accident. I don't think I worried about anything on this day, which is very rare for me. I would love to have more days like that!

Before the wedding 

My crazy brother, Chris. I love this kid.

Chris and I 

Being silly with both of my brothers

My beautiful cousin, Sara, to the right

The bride and groom

First dance as the Morgan's 

The bride dancing with her grandfather 

Cake time

My handsome dad

The delicious seafood restaurant at the outdoor mall we ate at later Sunday night. I got the fish tacos and my dad got the lobster roll. Yummy! 

 

Monday we did a lot before leaving to go home. We got up early and got breakfast at Panera. Delicious as usual. We then drove around and went back to the outdoor mall to do some shopping since they were already closed when we came the previous night. I got a couple of Boston t-shirts which I really wanted so I could show my support for Boston! I also got some hand sanitizers, lotion and body spray from Bath and Body Works. I got four antibacterial soaps, a lotion and body spray for $17 with coupons and sales! I always get a lot for my money there! Yay! Then after we left the mall, we went to Patriot Place to see the Patriot's stadium and so Chris could go shopping at the Pro store. I am noooo Patriots fan, but I have to admit that their stadium is pretty sweet looking! Anyways, go Ravens!!! haha!

After we saw the stadium, it was time for the drive back home to Maryland of which we got back really late. This time we did hit a little traffic, but we didn't have any pouring rain or car accidents! Thank goodness everything turned out better this time. I had such a blast with my brothers! I love them both so much! It is moments like those in the car that I will miss the very most about them! I feel so lucky to have such awesome siblings! I had a great time with my family all around! I am lucky to have such an awesome father and awesome brothers. I am also lucky to have another mother figure in my life to keep me sane while being on a trip with my crazy dad and brothers. Thanks a bunch, Kelly! :)

Tuesday I ran errands and got sushi with mom before leaving to drive back to Virginia around two o'clock. It was nice to just hang out with my mom for a little while before driving back to Virginia! I got back home around five and my husband was already cooking dinner! Man oh man did I miss my boys!

Katie<3

Memorial Day

Happy Memorial Day to all of our fallen heroes and to all of our past and present heroes! I wish I was home to spend the day with Jarrett, but I am currently coming home from my trip from Massachusetts. We hit so much traffic on our way there, but we've only hit a little bit coming home thank goodness. Tonight, when we get home, I'll be staying in Maryland for the night, spending some time with my mom tomorrow then heading back to Virginia where I have a handsome Airman and cute wiener dog waiting for me! I hope you all had a good Memorial Day and were able to spend some time with your family and reflect on what this day is all about! 

Friday Five: Obsession Edition and Friday Letters

Happy Memorial Day weekend y'all! My weekend is consisting of a drive to Maryland then a trip to Massachusetts with my family to see my cousin get married and to spend some time in Boston. This is the last family trip before we move so we have to make it memorable! Anywho! This Friday Five post is about my obsessions of the week! There might be a little Friday Letters thrown in here too! Enjoy! :)

 

1. Herbal Essences Body Envy shampoo and conditioner and Paris Amour body spray. 

I started using Herbal Essences shampoo and conditioner again a couple weeks ago. I use to use Herbal Essences a long time ago and then used Pantene for a while. Lately I had been using a sulfate free shampoo and conditioner because I had my hair colored a little while back. The sulfate free stuff was making my hair look and feel awful, so my store manager who is also a hair dresser told me to start using Herbal Essences again since that's what she uses. I ended up buying Body Envy to give my hair some volume. LOVE IT! My hair is now softer, has volume and just all and all looks and feels much better!

 

Paris Amour is my absolute favorite Bath and Body Works scent there is. I have the body spray, shimmer body spray, lotions and shimmer half and half lotion. I am like over the moon for this scent. It's perfect. I just love it! What is your favorite Bath and Body Works scent? I bet it's Paris Amour too!

 

2. Under Armour v-neck shirts

I am all over these shirts right now. I love them mainly for the gym, but I also like wearing them as an every day t-shirt with jeans. They are only $22 which is not bad at all for Under Armour. I have the shirt in neon pink, blue and orange, and I hope to get it in every color very soon. Yay!

 

3. Frozen yogurt and Rita's custard

So since my husband came home we have been trying to eat a lot better. My husband is a HUGE ice cream lover so we wanted to find an alternative to ice cream so that he could still have his frozen fix. I had been telling him for a while that he needed to be eating frozen yogurt instead and he finally listened to me. I took him to Yogurt VI the other night and he loved it. You can make your cup as healthy as you want or as non healthy as you want. He also loves Rita's Italian ice with the custard inside it. I love the ice too, but I'm very partial to the custard. I looooove custard! It is like frozen pudding and it's better for you than ice cream. 

 

4. Bud Lime Strawberry margarita and an Arnold Palmer

I have seen the commercial for the Bud Lime margaritas like ten thousand times and then they just had to come out with the strawberry ones. They are noms. They have the lime and the strawberry mixed together and even though that didn't sound very good to me at first, it was actually quite delicious! I urge you to try it this summer! 

 

My husband has turned me on to the Arnold Palmer drink too. If you don't know, an Arnold Palmer is half sweet tea and half lemonade. It is amazing! I love sweet tea, but I've been trying to cut back on it because I was drinking it WAY too much. I also really love lemonade so what better way to drink two of my favorites than to just mix them together. This way I'm not drinking straight sweet tea. Lately I've been ordering this drink at fast food places too. They always seem to know what I'm talking about too, so why not order it. So go on! Order yourself an Arnold Palmer next time you're at a restaurant! 

 

5. Scentsy 

Yesterday I received my first Scentsy order and even though I have not burned any of my bars yet, I am already in love. Scentsy does the wax and wax burners and they have the cutest wax burners I have ever seen! Move over Yankee Candle! My co-worker Heather has recently become an independent consultant for Scensty so I bought my stuff from her. Like Heather, I had been looking to become an independent consultant for a company too and I already really like Scentsy. I am considering selling the product too so I'll have a little income for when we get to Alaska. I also like Thirty-One bags and thought about selling their products. Hey! Maybe I could sell both? Who knows!

In other news, here's some Friday Letters! 

 

Dear Husband, I still wish you were going on our trip this weekend, but I guess it's okay. I know you can't help it, but it still makes me mad when you can't do something because of the military. I guess it's maybe a good thing you had to stay behind so you can focus more on getting stuff done for our orders. I love you and hope you and Leo have a good boys weekend together. 

Dear Leo, You be a good boy for your daddy this weekend! While I'm gone, please try to refrain from chewing on the pillows, couch and papasan chair cushion! We are going to work on breaking you of this habit before we buy all new furniture! Hopefully it will work, but we love you anyways. 

Dear Boston vacation, It feels so good to take a vacation somewhere I've never been before. I've always wanted to go to Boston and now I am. Yay I'm excited! 

Dear Memorial Day, You are more than vacations and cook outs with family and friends. You are a day for us to remember the men and women who have served our country in the past, those who have lost their lives defending our country and those still serving today. Thank you all for your service. Our fallen heroes will never be forgotten. 

Dear Husband, Happy Memorial Day babe! I feel so honored to be your wife and I am so proud of you for serving our country. I never want to take our life for granted because one moment you are here with me and the next moment you are deployed! I am blessed by this life with you and wouldn't trade it for anything! Thank you for serving our country over the past eight years and for serving our country in the future! I love you always!

 

Katie<3

Blog every day in May: Days twenty one and twenty two

Day 21, Tuesday: A list of links to your favorite posts in your archives

Okay all! Here is a list of all of my favorite posts!

 

Finally

Leo Hayman

A toast to my amazing family and friends

Fireproof Marriage

True Life: We just received orders to Alaska

A home sweet home weekend, baby Austyn and reenlistment

Finding blessings during deployment

A deployment letter to my husband

Day 22, Wednesday: Rant about something. Get up on your soapbox and tell us how you really feel. (a pet peeve, a current event, a controversial topic, something your husband or roommate or neighbor or boss does that really ticks you off)

Ha oh goodness, you asked for it! Now, most of these rants are about certain kinds of people because I simply cannot take it anymore. If I sound mean, oh well. I don't really care. Sometimes a girl must rant! 

 

1. People that manipulate other people: Okay, I cannot stand these type of people. I mean, really? How about you try and help yourself instead of manipulating other people to do it for you? Now, I am a very friendly and nice person, and I try to help people as much as I can, but I get manipulated and taken advantage of very easily and I'm sick of it. I almost never want to help anyone again because I get used half of the time. It's like I help someone once and all of a sudden I am supposed to do everything for them. It is almost as if I have the words "please walk all over me" on my forehead or something! No dice anymore people. I will help you, but I will not be used in the process!

 

2. Things not going as planned: This weekend we are going on a family trip to Massachusetts for my cousin's wedding and to do stuff in Boston as a family. Of course my husband's leave would not be granted, so now I have to go without him. At first I was all mad at Jarrett, but then I calmed down and realized that he could do nothing about it. It just pisses me off because Jarrett and I never get to go on trips together. There is always something in the way whenever we try to plan anything. I always have to do stuff without him even when he is home. It just makes me so mad that I had to spend four months without him and now that he's home, because of all of the stuff that he has to do with these orders, he cannot take leave at this moment even though we've had this planned for a while. Argh!

 

3. People that think their opinion is the only opinion: Yes, it's okay to have an opinion, but when you are always forcing your opinion on others as if there is no other way of thinking, it gets a little annoying. I realize there are a ton of different personalities out there, but come on people. Sometimes you just need to keep your opinions to yourselves!  Ughh especially people that have to make their political opinions known constantly! Oh, and the people that post their annoying political opinions and rants on Facebook. On Facebook? Really? Just keep it to yourself please. 

 

4. Rude people that come into my store: I work at a Hallmark store and my goodness the women that come in there are rude. Now, a majority of our customers are amazing, especially the regulars that come in. For the most part though, there is always some woman that comes in there and acts like she owns the store. News flash, you do not own our store. You are no better than anyone else. I don't care how much money you have or what kind of job you have, you are still no better than anyone else, so please do not come in our store and boss me or my girls around like you own us. It's not that hard to come in a store and look for what you want on your own without asking ten thousand questions or barking orders at a sales associate. It's really not that hard. 

 

5. People that rant on Facebook: True, if it bothers you that much then delete the person. I've heard it ten billion bazillion times from people. I personality don't like to delete people unless I have a huge reason to, and this is not a huge enough reason to delete someone. I mean, I'm not gonna throw a hissy fit and delete someone for venting on Facebook. I just think it's annoying when people post these statuses complaining or stating their opinion and then they get all these people commenting on the status that are arguing with them about it. You are asking for it. If you know that by posing it that you will start an argument, then why post it? And then these people wonder why everyone is fighting with each other on their Facebook page. Ha, seriously? 

 

Okay, end rant!

What peeves you?

Have you ever just wanted to vent and rant?

 

Katie<3

May quote of the month

Why be a Queen 

When you can be a 

Goddess? 

There's been a lot of talk about imitating royalty and acting like "She Who Must Be Obeyed." Personally, I'm getting a little weary of it all. Maybe that's because I'm finally past the point of being a demanding, self-absorbed princess. Furthermore, I've given up the persona of the bossy queen. Shunning all that silly, sovereign hoopla, I've simply elevated myself to the loftiest status of all...

I am, truly, a goddess.

Besides, who wants to be a queen

When you can be a goddess?

 

In my opinion...we are all goddesses.

So...go be a goddess, will ya?

 

Katie<3

Blog every day in May: Day twenty

Today's topic in the #BlogeverydayinMay challenge is "share something you're struggling with right now." Ha, where do I begin? Don't get me wrong, I love my life, but every time I turn around, I am struggling with something. It is a constant thing for me to struggle. A lot of things come easy for a lot of people of which I am not one of those people.

 

I struggle with:

1. Living the military life

2. Trying to have a career while living the military life

3. Deployment

4. Trying to fit in

5. Feeling left out

6. Trying to be something I am not

7. Trying. Period.

8. Trying to ALWAYS be perfect

9. Trying to ALWAYS be in control

10. Trying to organize every bit of my life

11. Worry

12. Being brave

13. Stress

14. Being away from my family and friends

15. Being enough

The way I see it, the more struggle, the more stronger and braver I become, so therefore, bring on the struggle!

 

Katie<3

A home sweet home weekend

Hello all! How was your weekend? Mine was full of puppies, friends, family, shopping and graduation festivities. Like I stated in my Friday Five post, we came home for the weekend to see my little brother, Chris, graduate from college. It was such a wonderful, perfect weekend.

 

Friday night when we got into town, we met my mom and older brother, Matt, for dinner at Famous Daves. Later on after dinner we went over to Erica's house for a bonfire. Jarrett finally got to meet baby Austyn, and after many tries, we got him to hold her. It was Jarrett's first time holding a baby and it was hilarious. He was so afraid of breaking her. I must say, he looked mighty fine holding a baby in his arms. I could get use to that image.

 

Saturday morning we had to be up early to take Leo to his grooming appointment at Michelle's Pretty Paws. We love taking him to her because they are amazing and cheap. After we dropped him off we ran a ton of errands with my mom. We went to Pet Smart and purchased a car seat belt for Leo. We have been wanting to try out one of these for quite come time now, and it worked out really well. Leo loved the seat belt and he slept for a long time in it on the way home. After Pet Smart, we went to Old Navy where I DID purchase an adorable dress (a dress that I wore to graduation) and two adorable tops. Alaska still has pretty normal summers, just short ones. If I see any more cute affordable dresses, they will be purchased. I will not hold back. Ha! Later on after we picked Leo up, Jarrett and I got some more shopping done at the mall. I purchased a couple more Under Armour tops and Jarrett got some more Ravens stickers for his truck since someone decided to be a five year old and steal them off his truck. Losers.

After we were all shopped out, it was time to get home to get ready for graduation! Graduation was such a flashback for me. Three years ago it was me walking that stage graduation from Salisbury University and now it was my baby brother's turn. I was so freaking proud of him and I always will be. Waiting for the ceremony to start, Jarrett and I had a little too much fun together. My husband never fails to make me laugh. I swear he is the funniest man alive!

Being goofy with the husband.

He's cute. I love him.

1. Commencement program

2. 2013 graduating class of Salisbury University

3. Christopher Ethan Morgan

B.A.- Communication Arts

4.Chris walking the stage

Three Salisbury University graduates

Proud mother and son

 

After the ceremony, tons of snack food afterwards and tons of pictures, we all met for dinner at Carrabbas. So delicious. Somehow we always end up going to Carrabbas for special events. I guess it's just the place to celebrate. We had great food and we got to all give Chris his graduation gifts. In true Jarrett and Katie fashion, we gave him money because we didn't know what else to get, my mom got him a new GPS, he got more money from other family members and then the biggest gift of all was from my dad and brother. They are taking him to San Francisco, CA for four days and taking him to a baseball game there that he has been dying to get tickets to. This gift was a huge enough secret that my dad and brother would not even tell me or my mom because they figured we'd spill the beans. Those punks! I had my suspicions though that it might be California, so HA to them!

Sunday morning mom and I rented Safe Haven which was AMAZING! Afterwards we ate some lunch and then Jarrett and I hit the road a little early since we both had to work today. Leo did so well on the way home in his new seat belt. I really suggest anyone that owns a dog to get one. We have been leaving him out in the car to help with his car sickness. We have been giving him a Dramamine tablet with every trip we take and it has worked so well for him. The Dramamine mixed with the seat belt helped even more because the seat belt holds him in place better. When he's up and moving around a lot is when he starts to feel a little sick because he's moving while the vehicles moves. This trip marks three trips without him getting sick. I am so proud of him. Our little boy is growing up so fast. Pretty soon he will be Alaska ready!

This view below is my favorite view of all time, the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. I will miss this so much!

 

Here's to a new and good week ahead. This weekend is our family trip to Massachusetts for four days, so I am just a little excited about that.

 

Is anyone going on any trips any time soon?

Is anyone going anywhere really interesting?

 

Katie<3