Blogging so Randa doesn't disown me

Not much has been happening here. The weather hasn't been the greatest and I'm coming down with something. So lots of Netflix and reading time since the apartment is still clean..amazing how that happens when it's just me here ;). Yesterday was a day from Hades if there ever was one though. The past few days I noticed a rattle when I drove my car, not a good sign (and further proof Murphy's Law is real) so I took it to Firestone since I knew I needed two new tires anyways. Turns out, my shocks and struts were bad. Now, normally this is just wear and tear maintenance but before we went to Florida in December, we had those replaced. And thanks to my handy dandy app, I had proof. So it all got fixed (labor included, yay!) and when I first bought new tires for the feisty Fusion, I had bought the lifetime alignment. So I didn't have to drop $150 on that like I was worried I was going to.
My Gamma just bought me some books for my Nook and I read two out of the three she got me. Anyone remember the Sweet Valley twins? I bought a few of the adult ones and they are just as addicting. 6 hours later and there's no more rattle so I can drive safely again, which is really good because I currently have Snapshot from Progressive plugged in ( anything to save money). I had leftover homemade stir-fry for dinner and I rewatched last week's episode of Hollywood Game Night.


Moral of this post is, try to buy warranties if you can. Had I not, yesterday's ordeal would have cost us over a grand =(.

Friday Night Fun/Slow Saturday

I can joke about my ultra lame Friday night alone. But I'm actually quite pleased with my productivity. I mentioned earlier this week I wanted to put all th recipes we've tried into a cookbook format (with plastic covers to protect it from cooking incidents). Last night I finally started this project. So far I've only been able to write out 20 recipes before my carpal tunnel made me stop. But here's what it looks like so far :

Btw- NSYNC Pandora station is my jam. There was quite a few times I wrote out song lyrics instead of the directions lol. I really want to go to Hobby Lobby and get some cuisine inspired stickers to jazz up the notebook, but for now it'll do =D.


To reward myself, and because my wrist has declared war on me, it's a day of Investigation Discovery on Netflix cuddled up with my puppy.

Enjoy your weekend everyone! ❤

Dear Friday

Two of my favorite blogs, Miranda Mae and penguinspastapolkadots.blogspot.com do this thing on Friday (normally) where they address things. So here goes my first attempt =).

Dear Chipotle, you are so easy to crave. Multiple people mentioned you so I had to get some of your deliciousness in my tummy. Thank you for your steak burritos.

Dear Netflix, thank you for being a source of entertainment during this rainy week which has completely stopped all plans for productivity.

Dear comfy fuzzy pajama pants from Walmart, you have been keeping me warm and not judging me for not wearing real clothes. You're the best.

Dear technology, thank you from the bottom of my heart for keeping me connected with my husband despite him being in the middle of who knows where. SnapChats like this make my day:

Dear Patriot Apartments, you're an amazing place to live. Appreciate you for lowering(!!!!!!!) our rent and not raising it when I renewed our lease yesterday. Add in the fact you let residents borrow movies & give us a bag of popcorn when we do, you're awesome. We lucked out with this place being the first home.

Dear El Paso, normally I hate you. You're overcrowded and the majority of your population is RUDE. However, the weather we had this week has me slightly in love with you. Keep up the good work 915.

Dear Hollywood Game Night, kudos on being an amazing new show. And having Matthew Morrison on last night made it even better. Jane Lynch, you're a fabulous host!

Dear Disney, release Little Mermaid from the vault sooner, pleaseeeee?!! I'm seriously obsessed with Ariel and time is dragging until October 3rd.

Dear Twitter, I love you. You keep me in touch with friends, other military significant others and blogger friends. All while making me think I'm kinda cool.

Dear weekend, seeing you makes me realize its almost one week down and another week closer to seeing Will. ❤

Currently Obsessing

Over four things in particular.


First, mason jars are my thing. They make everything taste better. And lately, it's been super hot in Texas and I tend to get dehydrated easily. So I've been slicing lemons up to add to pitchers of water, and lately, it's all I drink.

It's so cute!! And yummy =)


This morning, I contacted our leasing office about renewing our lease and got amazing news. Instead of going up $50 a month like it has in previous years....it went DOWN $50. Combined with our insurance dropping $20 a month, we decided to 'splurge' on new sheets. And I'm pretty pleased with what I bought. (And they got Will's approval also)

Lastly, I normally stick to one accent nail when I do give myself a manicure, but I was bored and had too many colors to choose from, so I ended up with this 

Forgive the polish on my fingers. Wine + polish doesn't always mix lmao.

Lastly, I don't have a photo yet. But I pin so many recipes on Pinterest, I lose some of them in the masses. So if I try a recipe and we like it, I'm going to add it to the book I'm making. Binder: $0.92 cents. Paper :$0.17 cents.  Plastic covers:$1.75. Super cheap and easy. 

Hope y'all are having a wonderful Wednesday!!

Top Ten Tuesday

My topic of choice for this Tuesday is TV shows. I'm going to do two lists. One for shows still on air and another list for the shows discontinued too soon.



Now

• Big Bang Theory
• Dance Moms
• Catfish
• Bachelorette
• Modern Family
• Revenge
• Once Upon a Time
• Grey's Anatomy
• Pretty Little Liars
• Glee (RIP Cory Monteith)

Honorable mention: Hell's Kitchen

Back Then

• FRIENDS
• Boy Meets World
• Full House
• Fresh Prince of Bel Air
• 7th Heaven
• Saved by the Bell
• Lizzie McQuire
• One Tree Hill
• Gilmore Girls
• Friday Night Lights

Honorable mention: Gossip Girl. (Guilty pleasure) Army Wives (original cast)

What's some of your favorite shows, past or present?

Weekend Shenanigans

Kept seeing a few blogs I follow link up to http://www.samisshenanigans.com/ so today is my first time =).


Still can't believe it's Monday. I wanted this weekend to drag but instead, it flew by. So this morning I said good-bye to Will...for I'm not sure how long. So hopefully more summer cleaning and this blog will keep me occupied. And when it doesn't, wine and Netflix always work.




Friday night I made a dinner of spaghetti, garlic butter crescent rolls and fudge walnut brownies.

 We watched some Netflix and played NCAA 14 on the PS3. As usual, he was the FSU Seminoles and I was the Florida Gators (I won but I'm still not entirely sure he doesn't do that on purpose).


Saturday we got up early (huge shocker) and got dressed to go out on a day date. We're pretty fortunate  financially  to be able to do this on a normal routine. Helps keep the romance alive, doing new things, surprises, dressing up, etc. Will is generally a huge romantic so that works in his favor ;). I've been wanting BJ's Brewhouse, specifically their orange cream soda and their bruschetta. Sad day. They were out of the cream soda so we both got root beer. I ordered the grilled chicken club with a side salad and Will got the fish & chips, which was incredible!! I've slowly been trying to try new foods. I'm typically the person who orders the same thing every time we go somewhere but I'm trying =). After our yummy lunch, we finally went and watched Despicable Me 2. Oh my goodness, it was so adorable. I want a minion. Badly. After the movie ended, we both had a sweet tooth so we grabbed some doughnuts from Krispy Kreme and went grocery shopping at Target. Target is my weakness. I always end up leaving with more than I went for, and me having the debit card doesn't help matters. I console myself with: " I save 5% and every purchase helps a local school." Except my impulse grabs end up costing me more than my savings lol.  On the way home, we decided to swing by our RedBox location. Ended up getting Spring Breakers. We both 'wtf'ed the entire movie. Thankfully it was a free rental.

Sunday, I helped Will pack. And I made him some snacks to take with him. Afterwards, we just kinda lounged around. Will watched sports and I read last month's Cosmo. Went to RedBox to return Spring Breakers and ended up getting The Call. Good movie, made me cry and the ending was weird prettty much sums it up, lol. The day went by much faster than I had anticipated. We went to sleep early since he had to be up at his company at the break of dawn for formation.

Not too pleased about being up at 2:45 lol. 

I'm linking up to 

Have a great Monday!!

❤-L

Lots of jumbled thoughts

It's finally Friday. The hubs worked late so I planned a date night in. Sketti, slightly homemade garlic butter crescent rolls and fudge walnut brownies. Needless to say, our apartment smelled amazing and Will was ecstatic about the special meal.


My best friend arrived home safely after her trip visiting family and I'm so thankful for that =).

I made a decision tonight I'm slightly uneasy about. I let two people sorta back in my life and I'm hoping it works out. I don't need any added unnecessary stress right now. But the circumstances are difficult to say the least.


I have a new friend- Brittany from http://brittscozycorner.blogspot.ca/. Thanks again for the follow- looking forward to many more blog readings =).

One of my biggest pet peeves is people who constantly cancel plans without a reason. In the past two weeks we've wasted time, money and effort that could've been used elsewhere. So no more of that.

It's almost midnight and cuddles with Will and LuLu are calling my name. I hope everyone has an amazing weekend.


❤-L

I really hate the 'D' word

Last night....didn't exactly go the way I planned. See, Will comes home with the news instead of moving to Georgia soon, we may be going through deployment number 2 soon. Lets just say my world stopped. At first, I just asked the usual questions,'When and where.' I was in extreme shock. You can try to prepare yourself all you want, but once you get the news, it sucks. And I know with Will being an active duty soldier, this was gonna happen. But still, ugh.  As soon as Will went to bed, the news broadcasted and confirmed my fears. It's really happening. And that's when I lost it. =(

All I can do is pray. I know Will has the want to serve his country. I'm so proud of him for that. But I need my husband to grow old with me. But I know God has His hand in all of this. I take great comfort in that. And until he gets official orders, whether they're PCS or deployment, I'm going to make every second I have with him count. ❤

Pasta Salad and Philip Wesley

My musical taste is quite like my blogging style, it goes from one extreme to the other. My favorite Pandora channels are : Christian contemporary, traditional country, 90's Pop, Glee cast, Puddle of Mudd and Faded(rap). Typically just listen to it for the music, especially during one of my cleaning fits lol. And I love cooking to the classical new age station. Which is what I'm doing now. Blogging in between dinner prep and listening to Philip Wesley. 

His music is so hauntingly beautiful. I cannot get enough. 

I'm making a prepare ahead dinner tonight, since my scheduled maintenance hasn't arrived and I don't want to wait all day and dinner not be ready. So, shrimp pasta salad it is. I love this meal. I add black olives and tomatoes to ours. =).

I also randomly decided I want Jell-O so we're trying the fruit punch tonight. Hopefully it's good =).

My Life in Pictures

This is my husband, William Michael. I adore him. We've been together for 5 years now ❤. He's a soldier in the US Army and one of the best things to ever happen to me. 

These three girls pictured are among my best friends. We're not as close as we once was, but I still love them with all of my heart. ❤

This is my Momma and Gamma. I adore them. They gave me anything I could've wanted or needed while teaching me valuable life lessons. ❤

Our fur baby LuLu. . She's a pampered pooch. 

Our nephew Hunter. He never fails to put a smile on my face.

My gorgeous rings.

Top 10 Tuesday

I haven't done a weekday themed post in a long time, so I sincerely apologize if someone else does this. If you do, let me know in a comment and I'll link up to you =)).


Products is my topic of choice for this Tuesday =). If you have any suggestions on things to try, let me know. I love trying new things =).

• Essie nail polish. My favorites right now are Watermelon, In the Cab-Ana and Mint Candy Apple. They're just perfect colors for summer =).
• Suave Kids Sun & Surf shampoo. If I could live in our pool, I would. When Will was on vacation, we spent four days straight in the water. We did a day at the pool, a day in the river/lake thing and two days at the water park nearby. And I'm still a kid at heart.
• Hawaiian Tropic's after sun moisturizer in the lime coolada fragrance. No matter how often I apply sunscreen I still manage to burn. This feels and smells amazing for those times.
• Olay's Fresh Effects powered contour cleansing system. It makes my face feel super soft and I don't have as many PMS inspired break outs as I use to.
• Maybelline's new cat eye mascara. And the tube is so cute too!
• Calvin Klein's One Summer perfume for her. It reminds me of home (the great Sunshine state)
• Smashbox's primer. I use the color correction since I was blessed with always flushed cheeks, but it helps tone down the redness.
• Pantene Pro-V hair masques. Summer always tends to be brutal to my hair.
• On a different note- Lysol's new hydrogen peroxide cleaner. It gets the job done without the harsh smell. And it works on everything.
• Downy Unstopables. I use the fresh for the mister's laundry and a mix of the spring and shimmer for mine. And the scent lasts. =)

❤-L

Typical Tuesday

Pretty proud of myself. It's just 1:30 and I've completed every task on my to do list. =D

• Meal plan -. Things like spaghetti, copycat Chipotle burrito bowls, shrimp pasta salad, Mexican lasagna and French bread pizza are my favorite meals to cook and eat lol.
• Grocery list- I can make a very detailed list including sales prices, if I have a coupon for that item, what aisle it's on (yes, I organize my list according to aisles lmao) and STILL forget something. Without fail. Not sure how but I do lol. Anyone else?
• Budget. This is always a fun one. Normally our bills are around the same every month, thankfully. I keep a pretty strict finance tracker, where every purchase ends in a 5 or 0. So at the end of the month, when we would otherwise have no money left in our bank account, we generally have about $30. Our insurance is like $115.68 but in my records I have it as $120. It helps since Will use to have a tendency to stop at the gas station after PT and buy a Gatorade or energy drink and forget to tell me. 
• Laundry. I use to do laundry once a week. However, I had this horrible habit of doing it and never putting it away. Epic fail Liz lol. So now I tend to do one or two loads a day and I fully accomplish it. Gold star for me =D. 
• I ran over to Game Stop on post and picked up Will's video we preordered back in February, his precious NCAA 14. I'm actually really excited since Will is a diehard FSU fan and I go for the Gators. So we always play the PS3 together, since he finally taught me how to play lol. And I have a pretty awesome pink controller 😁. I also put a deposit on the new Call of Duty. I'd rather put $5 a paycheck towards a game he wants a few months in advance so we don't have to drop $65 all at once. And I really love surprising him. =)
• I finally made the appointment for the bug guy to come. Where we live, it's included in our rent. But I always forget to schedule it, so instead of once a week, he generally comes every other week. I'm working on it though, mainly thanks to the Post It note I leave on my phone every Monday night lmao.

Then I have the usual stuff, making sure Lu goes outside enough, breakfast dishes (I really hate a sink full of dirty dishes), vacuuming and dusting. Not sure how but there's always dust and dirt. If I don't do it everyday, it looks horrible.  And I generally try to have Will his ACU's and PT uniform ready to go. This really comes in handy on nights he has meetings/late night formations so I'm not fumbling around at 10 p.m. trying to match socks together.

What's your typical agenda for a day? =)

❤-L

Makes Me Think

My best friend is gone on vacation this week to visit family, so while she's gone, she's having guest bloggers. Today's guest was Halie from http://penguinspastapolkadots.blogspot.com/. She wrote about 5 things that make her happy and it made me realize, despite the fact I'm extremely blessed, I don't always appreciate it.  And I challenged myself to expand my horizons on this and not mention the typical : God, Will, Gamma, Momma, LuLu, friends and benefits (food, shelter, clothes, insurance). I'm grateful for all those but I want to learn to appreciate the things I easily forget about.



 * Books. I LOVE reading. So much. Learning new things always interests me. Nicholas Sparks and Sarah Dessen are tied for my favorite authors. I love the Harry Potter, Twilight and Hunger Games series. Danielle Steel is another good writer. My Gamma bought me a Nook 2 years ago for Christmas and I love it. My dream home has a library with all of the classics.


* Culinary skills. Not to come off as arrogant. I love trying new recipes from Pinterest. The Mexican lasagna I mentioned the other day is one of those. Cooking just relaxes me....until the fire alarm goes off. (Just kidding!!!) I generally make the recipe as suggested the first time, if we like it, I'll make it again with tweaks if necessary. I know Paula Deen is equivalent to a expletive right now due to a mistake, but I will be the first to admit I love her cookbook and her pots & pans set. My Momma got them for us for Christmas and I just...love lol. The magazine Cosmo always usually has recipes I like trying =).


* The ability to be a stay-at-home wife right now, especially in this economy. I have no issues working, I loved my job at Winn Dixie. But I love knowing when Will gets home, his uniform is clean and ready for him to go, there's a Gatorade for him for PT and dinner is hot and almost ready. He works extremely hard and I love knowing I can make his day somewhat easier. That being said, I'm still excited to start school for dental assistant soon. =D


* TV/movies. It seems trivial but I really am. I love cuddling up on the couch with Will and Lu and watching whatever comes on. We don't have cable or anything like that, just an antenna but it serves our needs. If there's a game Will wants to see and it's not on ABC, CBS, NBC or FOX, we go out to eat somewhere he can watch it. Plus we RedBox, Hulu Plus, Netflix and go to the theater. $5 tickets aren't too shabby. Plus we have a huge collection of movies and TV on DVD. Friends, Big Bang Theory, Boy Meets World, Full House, The Office, One Tree Hill, Gossip Girl, Pretty Little Liars and Grey's so far. Oh, and Army Wives, how typical of me =D.

* Traveling. I haven't done as much as I'd like, but hopefully that's gonna change. So far, I've been to:  Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida (obviously lol), Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas (still here, boo), Virginia and Washington, DC. Most of these were either due to World Changers or states near FL. SC, Texas and New Mexico were thanks to the Army =)). My parents are talking about a trip to New Jersey so my Gamma can see her parents graves and where she grew up again and I'm praying it happens and I can go with them. I think that'd be incredible. My only problem with traveling is I don't pack well, or light lol. I think I need everything with me, whoops.


Take care y'all!!


❤-L

Fantastic Four Day Weekend

Coming from a military family, any patriotic holiday has always had a pretty big meaning to me. But ever since last year, it's meant more. You see, July 6th 2012 is when God graciously returned Will to me, safe and sound. I'm already tearing up as I write this. This year, Will was stateside so we went all out.  ❤

          Wednesday we started leave with a few drinks and games with a new friend who just moved here. Thursday, we slept in. It was amazing lol. We had ribs for lunch and we played the PS3 and watched movies. Basically, the perfect lazy day.  That night we watched a gorgeous firework display courtesy of the El Paso Diablos.  Friday....was summer cleaning. We vacuumed, washed the walls, shampooed the carpets, steam mopped the floors, cleaned the bathroom, laundry, dishes, you name it. Tons of manual labor but our apartment looks amazing. And with my new Scentsy fragrance, Tingelo, it smells amazing too. Saturday, we were suppose to have company but plans change. It turned out amazing because we ended up going out to eat at Applebee's and watching White House Down. We love Applebee's dinner for $20. We actually both ordered the same meal, usually doesn't happen that way lol. Both we both got the steak, medium rare (I like if its still mooing ;) ) with their yummy potatoes and mixed veggies. We got a later movie time so we could walk through the nearby stores, Babies R Us, Bed Bath & Beyond and Kohl's. I spend too much time and money in all three. Even though Will & I are taking a break from expanding our family, I still love looking and planning. (And that's why Pinterest exists) We actually fell in love with some bedding sets, and (gasp) we agreed on them! Normally we reach a compromise on things, but we both fell in love with the same ones. When we went to B,B & B we realized we saved a bunch on our joint anniversary gifts ( the afore mentioned steam mop and carpet shampooer.) This makes me incredibly happy since I love saving money. We realized we were running out of time so we rushed through Kohl's, which our bank account was pleased with =P. And then, after purchasing the mandatory small popcorn and Icee, came Mr.Channing. It was such a good movie, I almost cried like 10 times because I'm a tad bit of a crybaby, but I loved it. And of course Will loved the guns and explosions. You would think he'd get sick of it but nope. Not yet. Sunday was another lazy day. We started the National Geography documentary series Lockdown on Netflix. Again, Will is obsessed with this kind of stuff and it can be interesting. And he grilled out again, made some chicken & ribs and baked beans with sweet tea. Yummy yummy. Our $20 grill from WalMart has gotten so much use in the 3 years we've owned it. When we move and get a house, I hope to upgrade for him. =)


Speaking of upgrades, I think I FINALLY decided on a career choice. I'm still researching but I'm fairly confident dental assistant is gonna be a good fit for me. I'm pretty excited about it. My Momma made me a deal and said if I do well, she'll buy my first uniforms. Idk about y'all, but since she was a nurse, I've always loved scrubs so I'm happy. My Momma, Gamma, Will and close friends are always my biggest cheerleaders and I'm so blessed to have the support system I do.


Hope this post finds everyone well!!!


❤-L

Mixing Things Up a Bit

I'm gonna try to include some new recipes, cleaning tips learned from trial and error and some product reviews (from household items to feminine things =D) every now and again. I don't want it to seem my life is only about my marriage, my family,the military and TTC...though those are the most important things. But I do fun things too! Promise. And I'm all about being girly and trying fun new things.




First up: Mexican lasagna. Made this dish for my husband last night and he inhaled it. This is one of my quick meals, so I used a few shortcuts.


Ingredients:

Chicken (I used Tyson grilled strips just due to the time) - You can also do ground beef
1 package of taco rice
1 cup salsa
1 cup sour cream
2 cups shredded cheese
Tortillas


1) Prepare your meat, cooking it with a package of taco seasoning
2) Cook rice as according to package
3) Mix salsa and sour cream together
4) Preheat oven to 350
5) Combined meat and rice mixture

Layer tortilla, then the meat and rice mixture followed by the salsa/sour cream and topped with some shredded cheese until all of the ingredients are gone.


Bake for 15 minutes.

Enjoy!!!


Quick notes: I used the Old El Paso soft taco bake kit and mixed the package of cheese sauce in with the salsa and sour cream for an extra kick.

-You can also mix black beans in as well, however I'm still getting Will to like them so I kept them out...this time =D.



Hope you guys enjoy it if you try it!!!

Anniversary

June 12th is an important date to me. It's the day I vowed before friends, family and God to always stay true to William Michael Vaughan. Surprisingly, Will and I were in the same zip code for the day. First time out of four years. We had a fun day. We ate some Japanese steakhouse for lunch and had some froyo for dessert. Then we went to the store and got a steam mop as a joint anniversary gift, lol.  Later that night we went to a Diablos game. I think about Will, and immediately smile. I'm definitely twitterpated. We've had our ups and downs but that doesn't change the fact I'm crazy in love with him.  He's such a good man and I know that I'm incredibly blessed.❤

To My Teenage Self

                                          Dear Liz,

You're experiencing a whirlwird of emotions as you begin middle school. Even though you were invisible in elementary school, for some reason guys begin noticing you this year. You'll 'date' a bunch of guys, but each and every single one of them will be a waste of time and tears. None of them are worth it. You'll join Band and realize you're actually naturally good at the clarinet. Even though you get teased for this, DO NOT give it up. Your future husband loves hearing you play. You also join Drama Club. No surprise there since you're known as a drama queen. You'll be in two plays and two talent shows and you'll miss it when it ends. Thankfully your friendship with Miranda survives all the ups and downs. No surprise there, fast forward a few years and you'll be close to two decades of friendships. You meet other people though. And some are just not good for you. But every decision is a stepping stone. Own up to it. Your mother will take a higher paying job during this, and you get kinda bratty thinking you're all that because you get everything you want. Stop that.

Here comes high school. You'll still be the smart girl, actually end of being one of the top 4 GPA's of your freshmen class. You'll do marching band. You'll still be involved in Beta Club. But things are about to change.

Freshman year you make a decision. A decision you're not really proud of. You lose a major part of you to someone who doesn't deserve it. And you make some huge mistakes when it comes to your walk with Jesus. You'll think you're in love. But trust me, you're not. You think you're some kind of awesome because he chose you. News spreads because even though he's older than you, he's not more mature. You'll rise above it, and people will eventually talk about someone else, but it causes conflict with some of your closest friends. No guy is worth it.

Sophomore and junior years are about the same. You start to care more about a social life than your academic one. You'll still graduate at the top of your class but you know you could've done better. This isn't to say that was a mistake. You made a lot of good memories. But education should always be more important.

Senior year. The year you waited for. It starts out really good. You'll like a guy from another town. Don't put too much thought into him. So much wasted energy and time. Your Momma & Gamma will get you a car. A gorgeous 2005 Pontiac Sunfire that you still own to this day. You'll spend every waking moment with your friends. You guys are practically inseperable. But people change. Yourself included. Never forget those girls. They stayed by your side, even if they're not now. In May, right before Graduation, you'll vow to your friends the next guy you date will be the man you marry. Then you meet someone in Burger King, randomly. Your friends are concerned because you fall for him, and you fall hard. They have reasons to worry. Your dating track record is horrible. You try to see the best in everyone, and you like the attention. But with this guy, things are different. He doesn't want you for your body. He likes your mind. Soon, you graduate. High school is over. But your story doesn't end here.

In the fall, you begin at a community college. By this time, for personal reasons, your boyfriend has moved in with you. You are a few months into your first job. You struggle slightly with college. You end up dropping a class, which turns out not to be the end of the world. Your boyfriend leaves for the Army. 5 months into your relationship, and suddenly you're dealing with a LDR with no communication. Keep your head up though, good things are about to come. He comes home for Christmas 5 weeks later. And suddenly you are ENGAGED. You plan to spend a few years engaged. But the best of plans aren't always the well designed ones. You'll marry 6 months later.

And then the life you have always known is no more. You move more than 1600 miles to be with your husband. You plan on doing courses while in Texas, but within a month of you moving there, you get seriously sick. So sick that you'll have to have two surgeries in a span of 7 weeks. In fact, your Momma and Gamma will visit you shortly after moving and the day they are due to leave you land in the hospital with a gallbladder infection with gall stones, kidney infection with kidney stones, gastroenteritis and a UTI. It's safe to say you'll be miserable for a while. You'll turn 20 by yourself. You quickly learn with the military, time together is not promised. But you grow strong, you learn to adapt.


Coming from 23 year old Liz, I'm really proud of you. You didn't always make the best of decisions but you made the most of life. And I'm so thankful you never gave up.

Every Storm Runs Out of Rain

I pray Gary Allan knows what he's singing about because at times it feels as though I'm drowning. Good news first. Last week was my 23rd birthday. I love birthdays and Will never fails to surprise me. I got a Little Mermaid cake, Little Mermaid fairy tale wedding set and a promise to let me pamper myself when taxes came in. We had Genghis Grill for lunch and went to see 21 & Over. It was hilarious. Will left for the field that Monday. Field trainings never really bother me as much as this one did. It was our first separation since deployment ended. That and the fact last time Will was in the field he got rushed to the hospital. So I was slightly creeped out. But prepping for our big move to GA kept me busy. I'm so excited to leave here. Will and I belong on the East Coast. I have a feeling our family will happen as soon as we breathe the fresh air. Speaking of, yesterday was a rough day. March 8th, 2011 is the date my HCG levels hit zero after my ectopic pregnancy and following methotrexate treatments. Some people may find it....not sure how to describe it, but I can tell you I'll never get over the loss of our two angel babies. To quote a Twitter hashtag, sorry not sorry. Will got home yesterday so that made it slightly better. So many people have doubted our marriage but we will prove them wrong. Thankfully I've wised up about the hurry up and wait and I made a crock pot meal since Will didn't get released until about 23:30 last night. It turned out divine. I made a French onion pot roast with red potatoes, shallots and mushrooms. My mouth is salivating at the memory of the smell and taste lmao.

This week was actually decent. Will and I decided we were each getting a certain amount of money for taxes, Lu was getting groomed, purchasing one thing for the house and the rest was going to our PCS fund. I got my hair and nails done, Will got a FSU basketball jersey and jacket and we got a Keurig. I don't always want coffee, but we can't afford $5 cups every time I have a craving. Lol. So hopefully this will help my addiction lmao. We got the red Mini and it's adorable. I made myself a cup of the Folgers' Colombian the other day and it was perfect.

I'm sitting here blogging as Will does some class necessary for WLC. We pray after this, his promotion will come quickly so good luck thoughts for him would be lovely. Thanks <3 at="" attempt="" i="" keeping="" least="" more="" or="" promise="" start="" this="" to.=")</p" to="" up="" with="">
XOXOXOXO y'all!!

I just wanna cry

.......It's hard to collect my thoughts right now. The infertility struggle is hitting me hard tonight. Laying here sobbing. All we want is a family. 💔😔

Valentine's Day 2013

Seeing as my husband was deployed last year, and I didn't even get to hear his voice, this year we're celebrating. And we're going all out.
 Not to make others jealous, or feel bad, but because that's what Will and I do. Always have. Even last year, he got me a bear, chocolates, dinner, roses and jewelry. However, February 14th is not the only day we show affection to each other. I'll admit. Will spoils me crazy. But if there's anything Will wants, I try my hardest to make the finances work so he can get it. (His PS3, his tint,speakers and stereo for his car, FSU jersey, etc.) I'm just seeing so much hostility, and it makes me kinda sad & kinda irritable.  You're suppose to be honest in a blog. Much like Twitter, you really don't have to read this.

Our plans include me cooking one of his favorite meals tonight: steak with pasta and green beans. I already baked Valentine's Day cookies. And I have chocolate covered strawberries ready to go. I'm planning to watch some kind of love movie, before the Glee Valentine episode.

Tomorrow is when we're going out. Japanese steakhouse and hopefully Safe Haven. I'm wearing the cutest dress while Will has a dress shirt and pants pressed and ready to go.

I hope everyone else has an amazing day!! Xoxoxoxo!!

❤💋- Liz