Friday Five

Happy Friday y'all! Please excuse the fact that I did not post over the last couple of weeks. I have been SO busy since Jarrett left for Florida, but now that he is back I have a little more time to get things done and focus on the blog. I promise to start posting regularly again as I find my balance between working full time and my blog. It is exhausting working full time and having to take care of this massive house and two crazy needy dogs while Jarrett is gone. I am also so busy with getting the house ready for my MIL's visit tomorrow. I am so excited to finally have some family here in Alaska, but I am a perfectionist when it comes to having visitors and I want everything to be perfect. Okay, enough rambling. On to Friday Five.

1. So, a couple weekends ago I had to go to the ER because I had a massive bladder infection. I have yet to post about this issue because it is not something I really like to talk about, but I finally feel like I have the courage to talk about it on here. For those of you that really know me, you know that I have battled infections for years and years. I have been through so many tests and all my doctors have determined that there is nothing wrong with me accept that I am just prone to infections. With knowing how prone I am to them, it took me making some positive changes. I changed my diet and the way that I did certain things I have been able to manage the infections and I had not had one in over two years until last weekend. I have been eating and drinking very poorly while developing other bad habits since we moved to Alaska. I knew that it would catch up to me at some point and it did. Now I am on a mission to get back to eating and drinking healthier while getting back to those good habits again. I started drinking my Plexus Slim pink drink on Monday and I already feel myself not having those usual cravings for soda, coffee and tea. These are drinks that can trigger infections and I hope to cut them out completely very soon!

I will be doing a post soon on bladder infections because it is a problem that has developed more and more over the years in many woman and I want to educate women on what they can do to keep themselves healthier and keep these infections away. I use to think that I was the only one that suffered through these, but clearly it is a problem that a woman will deal with sooner or later in her life.

2. With starting my Plexus Slim pink drink,  of course getting healthier and cutting out those certain drinks and foods is my main concern, but I also want to lose a little weight and ton up. I have gained almost ten pounds since moving to Alaska and apparently it is not shocking. A lot of people gain weight when they move here and I guess it could be due to the fact that Starbucks is everywhere you turn, it's dark all the time in the winter so people get depressed, plus it's a little depressing when the temperature is negative fifteen. With my Plexus drink, I am hoping it will help me to curb those cravings of soda, sweet tea and coffee drinks. Maybe it will even help me to curb those sweet treat cravings. We shall see! 

3. My dad works for Perdue Farms and recently they have come out with an animal line called Full Moon. Before they came out with the line my dad would send me samples for the dogs to try. Oh man did they love the samples! Leo is VERY picky about the treats that he eats and I was so glad that he loved these treats especially since they were from his Gampaw! I was very excited when I learned that the treats were now in stores! Recently, my dad mailed some more treats to the dogs. They are way too spoiled. They ate both bags of treats within a day and a half. I've never seen them go through a bag of treats like that before. My dogs love them plus they are really healthy for them. Full Moon dog treats are USDA approved human grade meat and are cooked in the Perdue Farms kitchens using only 100% all natural ingredients. You can find these treats in your local Walmart store. I also encourage all pet owners to check out their website at fullmoonpet.com. 

4. My little Austyn will be turning one this month and of course I had to spoil her. You've seen me talk about this sweet girl many times on here and I just love her to pieces. It is still exciting that one of my best friends since middle school is a mom. It is hard to believe that we are all at that point in our lives where we are getting married and having babies. Crazy. And now most of these babies are turning one and two and so on. These babies are growing up way too fast. I tell ya though, there is nothing like shopping for a little girl turning one. I had a blasts shopping for her and putting her box together to ship. I hate having to miss out on her growing up and I guess I am trying to make up for it by spoiling her. 

5. It feels so wonderful to have Jarrett home again. I know he was only gone for three weeks, but it seemed like a lifetime. In the military, even a week seems like a lifetime. He ended up coming home on Monday instead of Saturday. I worked all day Monday then headed straight to the airport to pick him up. I also had Tuesday off from work so it worked out perfectly with him coming home on Monday. It feels so good to have my family together again. More than anything I missed all of our couch cuddling sessions. Those are the best. At one point all four of us were cuddling on the couch together and it was pure perfection. I live for moments like that. 

For your weekend and week ahead, I will leave you with a picture of my husband wearing a snake. I may or may not have ran away from him like a scared little girl. I am not ashamed! Ha!

Friday Five: Leo and Lucy Edition

Happy Friday everyone! Hope you all had a wonderful week. My week was good except for Jarrett leaving for a few weeks, but all of us military wives know that it could be so much worse. I will take my two and a half weeks gladly and be thankful even though I already miss him so much. Since he left two days ago, the puppies have been just a tad bit rebellious and have been driving me a little crazy. 

1. Since Jarrett left I have been coming home for lunch everyday to check on the pups. Yesterday, I came home for lunch and this is what I saw from Lucy's crate. Now, usually she's perfectly fine in her crate and she never chews on her bed. I guess that is over and I guess she is mad about her daddy leaving. She tore her bed all up in pieces. This picture does not even do it justice. I basically had to vacuum the entire family room. Needless to say, I was livid when I came home and the rest of her bed went to the dumpster. Nice Lucy. Real nice. 

2. This happens too whenever Jarrett leaves. Leo likes to go crazy with the food and water bowls. He started this years ago and now he has Lucy's bowls to fling all over the place too. Sometimes I find the bowls in the most odd places. I once found them under the couch, under the kitchen table and I once found one of the bowls upstairs. I am very tempted to try and film him throughout the day to see what he really does. I bet it would be a hilarious video to watch. Lucy doesn't seem to mind it though. As you can see, she'll eat the food regardless of whether it is in her bowl or on the floor. 

3. I know, I know. Look at that face. How could I be mad at him. I was pretty mad when he did it yesterday, but today I just laughed and took pictures. I have no clue how to get him to stop doing this. It's like his signature thing to do when he realizes his daddy is gone. I love Leo to death, but I am getting just a wee bit tired of cleaning up his messes. He might be cute, but he is one messy boy. 

4. And then there are sweet moments like getting kisses from my baby girl that make all the puppy chaos all worth it in the end. I came home from work today and of course both puppies were all wound up and ready to play. Once they have played and chased each other around the house seven billion times, they calm down and want to cuddle with mommy. I think they are finally realizing just how stressed I have been since Jarrett left. I know it's only two and a half weeks, but I have so much going on and I am so crazy busy. I get into a routine and that routine changes a lot when Jarrett is gone. I guess I just want the puppies to act like perfect angels for me when I get home from work so that they do not add to my stress. For those of you that are dog owners, you know that won't always be the case, but when they are all calm down and all they want is to be by your side, that is what makes all the hectic moments worth it. That is when my stress level goes down.

5. And then there is this gem. After I got home from work, it decided to get even colder and a lovely blizzard came with the temperature drop. I decided to lay down and watch a movie since I definitely wasn't going to go out in all that crap. At one point I realized that the dogs were very quite and then I noticed that they were both on the top of the couch watching the snow fall together. My heart melted when I took this picture. How perfect are these two together? These little moments remind me that I am a great fur mommy and that I am going to be a great mommy when it is these two and a new born baby to take care of during a TDY or deployment.

Friday Five

Man this week has been a long one! I cannot wait to have Sunday off so that I can spend some time with Jarrett before he leaves for Florida this week! He'll only be there for a few weeks, but I still get sad when he leaves. At least when he comes back, it will almost be time for my mother in law to fly out here! So exciting! Okay, now on to Friday five! Hope you all had an amazing week! 

1. Wednesday we got more snow. Total, we probably have three feet of snow still on the ground from the past three to four months. I have gotten so use to all the snow that once it melts away, it will be hard to get use to seeing grass again. I have to admit though. I have become a pro at driving in all this mess. If you really know me, you know that I use to have the biggest fear of driving in the snow due to my car accident in the snow when I was sixteen and had just gotten my license. I was scared to drive in snow for many years after the accident. I promised myself that when we got to Alaska, I would put my fears behind me and learn to drive in it again. I mean, I didn't have a choice. It snows all the time here and I had to learn to drive in it. I couldn't have my husband driving me around everywhere. I had to be brave. Now, driving in the snow is like second nature. Thank goodness for that!

2. These are my dogs after work almost every day. I come home and I know they need to go potty, but all they want is a good belly rub before going out. Leo actually likes to have his belly rubbed, be held for a little and then taken out to go potty. Now, Lucy does the same thing. I'll open the door for them to go out and she'll roll over just like her brother. This was them Thursday night. Leo rolled over and then Lucy did. If it was up to them, I would pick them both up and take them outside. Nope. They are not spoiled at all. 

3. This week I did my first order of the Plexus Slim pink drink. I will be doing a more in depth post later on about this company, but for now I will just share a little. Plexus is a weight loss company that originally started out to help diabetics and pre diabetics lose weight and manage their diabetes. Now they have products that not only help diabetics manage their sugar levels, but their products are now tailored to help everyone lose weight. Now, I have always been a relatively petite girl and whenever I talk about wanting to lose weight or wanting to eat healthier and get back to the gym, everyone thinks I'm crazy! I might have always been small, but that does not mean that I cannot stand to lose a few pounds here and there. 

 

Since moving to Alaska, I have gained about 10lbs. That's a big deal to me. Everyone is all like "10lbs is nothing" and "you are still so small." This is all I ever hear. I have been hearing a lot about Plexus Slim and what it has done for some of my friends. Everyone that I know that has used the products has had amazing results. The pink drink is what I ordered and I cannot wait to get it in the mail and start the process to lose those 10lbs and get healthier. 

4. So, I have my certain shows that I have always watched from day one. Grey's Anatomy is one of those shows that I have always been obsessed with ever since it started. If you watch it as much as I do you were either excited about the season premiere or sad about it. Spoiler Alert! April left Matt at the alter for Jackson. At the end of the premiere they showed that April and Jackson actually got married. I was sooooo excited to see that they got married! I have loved them as a couple from the very beginning and always wanted them to be together. I love when couples go through so much and end up together in the end. 

5. I have also become a little obsessed with Scandal! Yeah I know, I love way too many TV shows. Jarrett makes fun of me for all the shows I watch too. I can't help myself though. I am a drama lovin', soap opera watchin' type of girl and I always have been. So, Scandal is addicting. Olivia and Fitz are amazing together. Mellie is gorgeous even though I hate her sometimes. The show is just pure crazy half the time and I love it. It is typical political drama at its finest and I cannot help but watch it and love it. 

Friday Five

Now that I'm back in the blogging world, it is time for Friday Five again! Yay I'm so excited! My weeks are so jam packed these days so Friday Fives will be jam packed as well. You might even see Friday letters again too, but you'll have to wait and see!

1. Over Christmas, we received many gifts from family and friends. Every Christmas, my dad always gets me a gift relating to cooking or baking. This year along with a pale pink Kitchen Aid mixer and a Pioneer Woman cookbook he also sent this neat little kit. It is a Smore's Cookie Kit. I'm not sure where he found it at, but it is the coolest baking kit. It even comes with its own cookie pan that you can keep and reuse. I almost forgot that I had the kit until Jarrett reminded me to make it. Jarrett had a sweet tooth Saturday night, so I decided to finally make the cookie kit. Man oh man it was delicious! We had the whole cookie demolished by the end of the weekend!

2. I have been dying to make a yarn wreath for some time now and I finally made the time to sit down and make one. Even on my days off I am extremely busy with housework, errands and doing stuff for work. I rarely have time for myself  to do things such as crafting, reading, working out, etc. These are hobbies that I love and I am now working on fitting these things into my new busy life. Friday night after work I decided to finally go to Michael's to look around and purchase the materials needed to make my wreath. Wreaths can be very expensive, so I've decided to start making my own. A post on how to make them will come a little later. For now, I will leave you with my first wreath! I love it and I'm so proud of it!

3. One of my best friends, Brooke, and her husband Matt welcomed their adorable mini dachshund to their family on Monday. This little guy is Tucker and he is just the cutest thing ever. Brooke got Tucker through the same breeder that we got Leo from. I was so happy for her when she told me that they were getting a dachshund through the same breeder! We had the best experience with our breeder and were so happy to get our Leo from her. I strongly encourage anyone in the Salisbury, MD area that is looking for a dachshund to visit our breeder's website www.suzdoxiedawgs.vpweb.com. 

4. I have come to the conclusion that I absolutely love having two dogs. Although they wear me out and drive me insane some nights, I love them both so much. I am amazed at how well they have adjusted to one another. It is like we should have had them both together all along. Not to say that we have not had some issues with them, but for the most part we have been very fortunate to have a little dog and a big dog get along so well. I just love them and I cannot wait to see how they do when we bring a baby home for the first time. 

5. I am so excited that we are finally buying a new computer this weekend! We are finally buying a desk top computer too instead of another lap top. We have always just had a lap top that we both share and we have been talking about buying a desk top for the longest time. Now that it is tax return time, it is desk top computer time. Now I will have a computer during deployments instead of having to go to the library since Jarrett takes the lap top with him on deployments. I think more than anything I am excited to have a brand new computer to blog on. It will feel awesome to blog and not have to worry about it taking forever due to the slowness of the lap top! Below is the computer that Jarrett found at Best Buy. I cannot wait to get it home and do my first blog post on it! 

Friday Five: Leo Edition

Yesterday was my day off and I got some really good pictures of Leo. I decided to do a Friday Five all about him just because he is so darn cute and I love him! So without further ado, I give you five sides of Leo!

1. Hard to get up in the morning Leo. Lately, Leo has been the hardest thing to get out of bed in the morning. I mean, it's hard enough for Jarrett and I to get up and then we have to deal with Leo being all cuddly and cute in the bed. How am I supposed to get out of bed with him crawling over to me and laying on my chest? It's basically impossible. I literally lay there for fifteen more minutes every morning until I finally decided to force myself away from all the cuteness! Madness I tell you!

2. Sleeping on mommy Leo. Nothing makes me happier then taking an afternoon nap and waking up to this sweet little smiling boy also napping in my lap. Look at that face! I absolutely love when he smiles in his sleep. Melts my heart. There is nothing like a sleeping smiling puppy. Well, I will say that for now until it is a sleeping smiling baby I am looking at instead of a puppy!

3. Laying by the window Leo. I am so glad we have a window in our living room because my mom has one and Leo use to lay on the top of her couch in front of it all the time. I swore then that we would have a window of our own one day so that he could lay in front of it in his own home. Dogs and cats love to lay where it is light so a window with the sun coming in is perfect for them to really feel at home. Sometimes he will even rest his neck on the window seal and just look out the window then he'll fall asleep! Precious!

4. Stretched all the way out Leo. Leo loves to do his morning stretches. He is so freaking long. He looks like a real hot dog when he stretches all the way out. Sometimes he'll just stretch and then be done with it, and then sometimes he'll stretch and lay his head on the ground like in the picture below. Why is he so cute? I mean, seriously, I can hardly deal with how cute he is sometimes!

5. I made a mess then got tired Leo. Yes, this happened during my day off. He tore up his bed then decided to stop and take a little breather in the bed he was tearing up. That is just how he does things. He'll do something bad and then lay down and take a nap to avoid getting in trouble. He'll lay down and be all cuddly and cute and then I'm done for. I can't be mad at him for destroying his bed when he looks this sweet!

Friday Five

Okay, I have definitely been slacking on the Friday Five front, but I am back today with a little highlight of my busy week! Hope you all are having a great week! I feel like it flew on by!

1. Snow on Monday. Yes, we had snow on Monday here. In the middle of September. So weird, I know, but that is Alaska for you and I have to get use to it! Although Jarrett and I both love snow, we were very weirded out by the fact of snow in September. The girls at work tell me that the real snow starts in October, so we need to go ahead and prepare ourselves already! Craziness!

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2. I upgraded my phone finally and got an iPhone 5! So far I love it and I love the Otter box case I got for it! I hate that those cases cost so much, but they are amazing! The defender series also came with a built in screen protector which I really need since I am always scratching my screen! All together I really like the phone even though it's bigger than my old iPhone and even more bigger with the case on it! I kind of like that it's bigger for some reason!

3. With the iPhone 5 comes panoramic view with pictures! I LOVE it so much! I love being able to fit so much into a picture! This picture of my living room looks so cool being able to fit everything in the whole picture! What's really awesome about panoramic view is that you can get really good pictures of groups of people too! Everyone can fit in the picture without someone getting cut out accidentally! I just love it! I now want to take every picture like this!

4. This week was one of my favorites because all of my Fall shows started up again! Well, with the exception of The Walking Dead which comes back in October! Monday it was Two Broke Girls and How I Met Your Mother, Thursday was Glee and Grey's Anatomy and Sunday Once Upon a Time and Revenge come back with a new show Betrayal premiering afterwards! I cannot wait! I love my Fall shows!

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5. Halloween is coming up and Jarrett and I are still thinking about finally getting Leo a costume! Since we actually live in a neighborhood where there are tons of kids that will be trick or treating, we thought about sitting outside to hand out candy and have one of us hold Leo in a costume while the other hands out the candy. I guess you will just have to stay tuned to see if we dress him up or not! Also, see those cute little Halloween pumpkins below? I stepped out to go to the post office real quick and I came home to one of them gone. I then looked all over for it and found it behind the couch! Silly Leo must have taken it! HA!

So, how has your week been? Any favorite Fall shows?

Do you live somewhere like me that may be getting snow soon?

How are you getting ready for Fall and Halloween?

Friday Five

1. Oh my goodness! The mountains here are amazing! Like out of this world amazing! I've seen mountains before in West Virginia and Pennsylvania, but I've never ever seen them like this before! I can literally look outside my front door and see them and it's so wonderful to get to see them every day no matter where I drive around town. They are always there and I love being surrounded by them at every turn. I only wish my family and friends were here to see them with us. They would love them just as much as we do!

2. Not too long after we got to Alaska, we noticed that Leo had some bites on his chest plus a huge sore on his lip that seemed to be spreading throughout his whole upper lip and nose. He had also had a really bad case of diarrhea not too long after we noticed the bites and sore. Naturally we got really worried, especially since we had put him through so much on the drive with sleeping in different places every night and having to have him go potty in so many different areas. So, we took him to the pet ER and he just had an upset tummy and the bites and sore were from something he came in contact with on the trip. The vet gave us plenty of medicine and cream for his skin. Now Leo is all back to normal except for his lip. The sore is slowing going away and hopefully it will be healed soon! Our poor little guy!

3. I still cannot get over our new house! It's insane! I also cannot believe how lucky we were to be able to get into a house one day after getting here. We fully expected to be in TLF for a month at the most, but we didn't end up there at all. We got here on a Saturday and then on Monday Jarrett went to the housing office just to see when a house would become available. I just sat outside in the car with Leo and boom, before I knew it Jarrett was walking back out to the car with house keys in his hand! I couldn't believe what I was seeing! We had a house. A big house. A house we could start a family in. A brand new house in an awesome neighborhood. No more living in a shoebox townhouse for us. Even though I am very thankful for our first little townhouse, I am overjoyed at us having an actual house! I have spent so much time dreaming of us having a house just like this one and this house is for sure a dream come true!

4. I got hired at the Hallmark stores here! Yay! I was hoping to go straight into another store here so I didn't need to find another part time job while looking for my full time career and it happened! It just so happened that they needed more people at all three stores and I got here at the right time. They were really impressed with all my experience and responsibility at the store in Virginia that they hired me on the spot! So now, I have a job that I am use to and can now really focus on my full job search! I plan to go to the spouse assistance center on base so that they can really help me with my job search! I am hoping that they can help me find exactly what I am looking for in a job. Apparently companies here really like to hire military spouses because of all of our job and life experience so I really hope to get lucky with a great job! Keep your fingers crossed for me!

5. And for my biggest news of the week... we bought a JEEP today! Yay! We bought a Jeep Patriot and I looooove it! Jarrett says it was made for me and that it fits me perfectly! I agree! I am so proud of us because this is the first time we have bought a car without one of our parents with us to do the talking for us. Buying a car is like playing a game of chess! You need to be ready to make a move when the salesman makes a move. We were ready. We were lucky because we had a wonderful salesman that didn't put us through any hoops. He really helped us instead of swindling us into a crappy deal. Now we have an Alaska vehicle that is four wheel drive and ready for winter. All we need to do next is get the truck ready for winter and then we will have two vehicles ready for the crazy winter weather!

Friday Five

1. Last weekend we started going through the closets and throwing out stuff that we didn't want nor need anymore. While doing this, I finally found Jarrett's letters from boot camp seven years ago! I couldn't believe it! I thought I had lost them because I couldn't even find them at my mom's house. I was sure I had left them in my room at my mom's when I moved to Virginia, but nope, they were in our bedroom closet the whole time! I also found old pictures and a post card that Jarrett had sent me from a deployment in Hawaii! Just reading the letters and looking at the pictures took me back to when we first started dating, and it felt amazing! Let's just say, my husband was quite the romantic in those letters!

2. I finally watched the movie Tangled. I had never seen it before and I LOVED it! I love Disney movies and more so now for some reason. I just love all the Disney princesses! I swear I'm turning into a little girl again! My co-worker Ashley had downloaded Tangled on her iPod and made me start watching it on my lunch break. I loved it from the beginning and rented the movie when I got home from work to finish it! So freaking cute and such a sweet movie! Now the other princess Disney movie that I need to see is Brave! Can't wait to rent it soon!

3. Uncle Si on Duck Dynasty is my favorite! The other night I was doing some more cleaning in our room and of course I had to turn Duck Dynasty on for some cleaning motivation! Uncle Si had me laughing so hard! Uncle Si says the darnedest things! Actually, it doesn't take much for Uncle Si to crack me up! Half of the time he just sits there with a blank look on his face and it's hilarious! If you haven't seen Duck Dynasty yet, you need to! It is my favorite show right now. 

4. This past weekend we had our Christmas in July Ornament Premiere at our store. It was soooo busy and stressful, yet it was a lot of fun. My mom also helped out and had a lot of fun with us! I usually put my ornaments on layaway and I usually buy a lot more , but with the move I just bought the ones that I really really wanted! I love ornaments and I also really love the Barbie and Disney princess ornaments. I usually buy mainly Barbie ornaments, but Hallmark is not selling them anymore because of high price changes made by Mattel! This year I focused on the princess ornaments. 

My favorite ones that I bought were Beautiful Belle and Cinderelly Cinderelly where the mice sing the song "Cinderelly Cinderelly" when you press the button. Soooo adorable! I love it! I also got Beautiful Ballerina where you pull the cord and a ballerina twirls to the song from The Nutcracker and Cookie Cutter Christmas which is the series that I collect! I want to collect a couple of series ornaments so that I can give them to my children in the future! I can't wait to start Christmas traditions with our children! 

5. We got some really neat silicone kitchen stuff in at the store the other day. We got wine stoppers, drink lids, casserole lids, bowl lids and colanders. So neat. My favorite are the wine stoppers. They come in sunflowers, hibiscus flowers and lily pads as the designs. I bought the sunflower and hibiscus flower wine stoppers. I must say, my cute little sunflower stopper looks quite adorable on my wine bottle!