Wonky and Woot-tastic Wednesday

It's back!!!!! Sorry I've been gone so long!

Wonky:
   - My sinuses are seriously trying to kill me. Are they really that important to the human anatomy because so far all I know that they do is make me miserable. Sinuses are totally overrated. I vote we start boycotting them.
   - Did you know that Walgreen's doesn't carry popcorn? I was in DESPERATE NEED of popcorn and Walgreen's was the only place open (it was like 11pm or something) and they didn't have any! So I got chocolate turtles, M&M's, chocolate chips and Dr Pepper instead. HA that'll show them!
   - Isn't is supposed to be fall or something? It was 103* today. I don't think Texas got the message.

   - I was sitting at Saxby's with Ryan, minding my own business, when this UGLY crow thing decided it wanted to be my bestie. I'm not really a bird fan. Particularly when they're ugly, black and disease ridden. And it wasn't afraid of me either. At all. Thankfully the nice cooks for the restaurant next door saved me by offering Mr. Ugly Bird some salmon.
   - I like Justin Bieber's perfume, The Key. *hangs head in shame* I want to die.
   - If Rebel eats another pair of my underwear (sorry for the TMI) I might kill him. Seriously.

Woot-tastic:

   - Sunday was my first photo shoot! My awesome cousin, Delaney, agreed to do a photo shoot with me so I could get some practice with my new camera (by the way, Ryan bought me a Canon T3i. I think I'll keep him around a little while longer). It was lots of fun and my model was wonderful!
   - I no longer have a phone with a cracked screen! I am the proud owner of the Galaxy S4! And it's AWESOME!
   - Ryan and I are in this really cool place in our relationship, and have been for a while. I will be sitting on the couch watching Grey's Anatomy on Netflix for like the third time and Ryan will be sitting in his recliner working on his laptop or something and we're perfectly content sitting there doing our own things....together....but separate. It's nice to be that content with each other.

   - Just a little hedgie adorableness to brighten your day (Prim, left; Ivy, right)!
   - Speaking of Prim, tomorrow I will have had Prim for one year!

Happy Hump Day and I hope you enjoyed this Wonky and Woot-tastic Southern Soapbox!

Fashion Friday: Mellow Yellow

It's nearly fall in most of the US, but not in Texas. It's still HOT! 103 degrees hot. Miserably hot. So, while the rest of you northern folk begin to bundle up, I will still be posting short sleeved outfits, with the occasional light sweater, probably until sometime around Christmas, maybe even after that. Welcome to Texas, where summer never actually ends.

                             

I love POPS of color! Especially yellow. It's so happy. I used to own yellow shoes, but then my cat peed on them. These yellow shoes are SO CUTE and the yellow hand bag from Macy's is the perfect size (big). I actually own this Old Navy top, but in a different color/pattern. It's really cute with shorts and sandals too AND I believe Old Navy is having a sale right now! The jewelry is very special to me, as I sell it on behalf of Haiti's Jewels on my store. It's GREAT jewelry made by a company in Haiti, supplying local villagers with jobs. If it's warm where you are (or in my case miserably hot) you could easily do black shorts, or even brown shorts instead of skinny jeans. If it's cooler where you are (you luck lucky duck) add a little cardigan to stay warm!

Well, that's my very yellow Southern Soapbox, hope you enjoyed!!!

Wonky and Woot-tastic Wednesday

I didn't post this yesterday because yesterday was mine and Ryan's six year anniversary, so I posted a Happy Anniversary post instead. So, here goes the belated WWW post!

Wonky:
   - My sweet Ivy hasn't been eating much the last 5 nights. She also hasn't been running on her wheel. I'm hoping, and praying that the cause is her quilling (much like teething for babies, except she is loosing quills instead of teeth). If she doesn't eat tonight I will be calling the vet back to make an appointment.
   - I am SERIOUSLY unhappy that they cancelled Smash! Like, seriously! They bring back Glee for 2 seasons but cancel Smash? UGH
   - Do you know when the last time I bought a new pair of shoes was? ME EITHER! I'm too busy buying paper towels for my hedgehogs.
   - Speaking of paper towels... I went through TWO rolls of paper towels, for my hedgehogs alone. Not including what we use in the kitchen. Granted I do have two hedgehogs, and when Ivy isn't feeling ill she's very active and poops a lot... TWO ROLLS! That's for wheel cleaning, cage cleaning, bowl cleaning, pickin' up poop, and anything else that happens in between.
   - I have a really unhealthy obsession with office supplies. Pens, pencils, notepads, notebooks, POST IT NOTES!, staplers.. the list goes on and on. There's nothing like writing on a cute post it note with an awesome pen! Uni-ball makes my favorite pen. The only problem is I can't find the ink refills for it ANYWHERE so any time it runs out I have to go buy a whole new pen. The Sharpie pen has also grown on me. I didn't like it at first but now I kind of do.


Woot-tastic:
   - I recently got two of the soundtracks from Smash. They are AWESOME. I am a little sad that they don't have "Broadway Here I Come" on it though. I love it!
   - Instead of saying "Uh oh spaghetti o's" AJ says "Uh oh, Bacon". It's pretty awesome. So of course now all the adults do the same thing around here.
   - My wonderful boyfriend and I have been together for SIX years! Crazy!
   - So many people are buying the jewelry from Haiti's Jewels I can't keep it in stock! It's an awesome problem to have (there's a link at the lop right of the page if you want to check it out)!
   - I saved the best for last. This is a conversation Maegan had with AJ. I just copy and pasted it from her Facebook so I wouldn't miss anything. It's the most adorable conversation EVER!

Just had my favorite conversation, to date, with AJ! We had just finished reading his storybook bible and it was about Jesus' revelation to John about the pearly gates and streets of gold and it finished with John asking Jesus to come back soon. We then said prayers and sang Jesus Loves the Little Children and Do Lord which ends, " I took Jesus as my savior. You take him too. While he's calling you."

AJ: "Jesus call AJ?"

Me: (trying not to cry) " I certainly pray he calls you."

AJ: "Jesus come?"

Me: "Yes, one day Jesus will come to take his children home."

AJ: "Where Jesus car is?"

Me: "Well, Jesus doesn't have a car?"

AJ: "Oh, Jesus drive truck! "

Because obviously if Jesus doesn't drive a car, he must drive a truck!

Well, that's my Southern Soapbox! Thanks for reading!

Six Years Ago...

... Ryan asked me if we should "make this official", sitting in his beat up old Dodge Stratus at Bill Allen Park. I had known since I was 10 years old that I wanted to marry him. Six years later and I still feel the same.

Our 1 year Anniversary kiss. You can't see it but he was
tickling me in the picture and trying to eat my face.

I am so very blessed that God gave me such an amazing man. It's true, we are two extremely different people that have very little in common but he makes me laugh, even when he's irritating the snot out of me. Despite what he wants people to think he can be really sweet and thoughtful. He's honest (even when especially when you don't want him to be). He is surprisingly good with children. He's pretty handy (although most of his handy work is either accomplished by him guessing and hoping it works or by googling it, but hey, it gets the job done), but most of all when he loves, he loves wholeheartedly.

Taken in November of 2009

We much rather sit at home and watch The Big Bang Theory than go out on a fancy date. One of the most exciting things he's gotten me was when he went to pick up pizza and came back with pizza, Dr Pepper, AND TOILET PAPER. It was pretty awesome. Our "deep conversations" usually consist of us discussing the meaning of a word and how to use it properly (which he is pretty much always wrong because he makes things up just to annoy me).

Taken on our 5 year anniversary

 We have spent many years together. We've been dating for six years and have known each other for eleven. and I look forward to many many more years to come!

Taken on Mother's Day 2013

If you want to read our love story click here.

Well, that's my Southern Soapbox. Thank you to my wonderful boyfriend for sticking around for 6 years and I can't wait to see what happens in the next 6! I love you.

(Wonky and Woot-tastic Wednesday will be posted tomorrow.)

Wonky and Woot-tastic Wednesday

I know, I know. I've been gone for a month AND this post is a day late. I did actually have all this typed up but I wasn't home to add the pictures so I thought it would be better to just wait, get the pictures in and post it a day late so y'all aren't cheated out of the full WWW experience.

Wonky:

   - I was standing in the shower. I had just shampooed my hair and rinsed it out REALLY well and was moving on to the next step in my shower routine when I froze. My razor was gone. I had thrown it away the night before because it was getting dull and for some STUPID reason I didn't replace it in that moment. I had no razor. I couldn't shave the little stubble that had reemerged under my arms. What was I to do? I seriously stood there, looked at my stubble, looked at where my razor should have been, and looked back at the stubble. I'm fairly certain it was mocking me. My brain was working furiously to navigate around this problem and failing miserably. I looked around trying to find something that would substitute as a razor and came up with zilch. Seriously y'all, I stood there for several minutes before I was able to move on to the next step in my shower routine: washing my face. Is that normal? Probably not.

   - It's sad that I am better at driving than the majority of the people on the road when I'm driving a standard, in traffic, with a hedgehog that has temporarily forgotten it is nocturnal. Prim was climbing ALL over me and I was still able to do the speed limit and stay in my lane AND keep my hedgehog from falling in to some crack only a hedgehog could find.
   - I really really need a laptop. It would make posting on here much easier.
   - Tornadoes
Woot-tastic:

   - Saturday I went to the Dallas Farmer's Market with Mom, Dad, Maegan and AJ. Sadly there weren't a ton of local farmers out but we enjoyed tasting different fruits and veggies and looking at some pretty flowers!

   - Holidays are so much fun! And I don't just mean Christmas and Thanksgiving. Any reason that gets us off work, out of school, eating good food and chillin' with the family is AWESOME! Especially when the weather is nice enough to spend the whole day outside watching a certain 2 year old little boy splash and play. This Memorial Day Maegan, Andrew, AJ, and Ryan came over and we played in the water (well, AJ played, we watched from a safe distance), played bean bag toss (which Maegan and Dad are not very good at) and grilled YUMMY burgers!

   - I LOVE working in my herb garden. When I'm finished I always smell like Basil, Mint, and Rosemary! Who needs perfume when you have an herb garden? I also have some peppers, tomatoes and squash growing in my vegetable garden! YAY I haven't killed any of my plants... yet. Now if only my dog would stop peeing on my Basil...

Well that's it for this Wonky and Woot-tastic Wednesday! I hope you had a great hump day and I'm sorry this post was late!

Julie Anne With Haiti's Jewels

A while back I mentioned on here that I was supporting Haiti's Jewels. I still am and have sort of become a lunatic with the task. I have sense become a retailer for Haiti's Jewels, gotten A LOT more stuff to sell AND, because I needed a place to send people, so I don't have to carry it around in my purse all the time (it was going to be difficult what with the two hedgehogs I have in there already), so I created an online store!

 Half of my profit is going into a savings account to go towards mine and Ryan's wedding, not to mention simply by purchasing this beautiful, one of a kind jewelry you help the local economy in Haiti flourish. Haiti is the poorest country in the Americas and is one of the poorest countries in the world.

For those of you that aren't reading my constant string of spam on Facebook and aren't entirely sure what Haiti's Jewels is, allow me to enlighten you! Haiti's Jewels is a small jewelry business located in Haiti. A girl named Sophie went down after the massive earthquake and began teaching local villagers how to make one of a king jewelry out of glass, stones, shells and other materials found around their villages. Often times one employees paycheck goes to provide for 5-10 people. With this job they are able to afford simple things like uniforms for school, or a wheel chair for their dad. Haiti's Jewels is a wonderful business working hard to make a difference in the lives of many Haitian villagers!

The more you buy, the more things I can get! I have my eye on some ADORABLE wrap bracelets but I have to sell enough product to be able to get them. Unfortunately I have to buy my first order in bulk, which is going to be about $250 (up until now I have been buying things off my cousin but she doesn't have the bracelets that I want for y'all!). SOOOO get out there and share this with your friends. Facebook it, tweet it, pin it, tumble it, tattoo it on your forehead (ok, don't do that) but you get the idea! Click HERE to visit my store!

That concludes this Southern Soapbox! Thanks for reading and thank you for your support!

And Then There Were Two...

So, when I got Prim less than a year ago I had NO intentions of getting another hedgehog. None. I swear. Hedgehogs are solitary animals and don't need or want the company of another hedgehog. They really don't even need you other than to feed/water/clean their cage but they "tolerate" (some better than others) you holding and petting them. Not to mention I didn't want to have to worry about giving two hedgehogs attention every day to prevent them from going back to wild. With that said, I did not look on Facebook or craigslist for hedgies. If I looked I would find one that NEEDED me and I would be over run with hedgies. BUT a friend of mine messaged me on Facebook and said she knew of a person selling her hedgie online. Usually when someone is selling their quillbaby online it means they are clueless. So I asked if it was a boy or girl and she found out that it was a girl. After asking the owner several questions I quickly realized that these people were clueless. They had Ivy in a cage that had wire on it, which they said she would climb and fall off of. Did they consider this a problem? No, they considered her stupid, and actually said to me "Ya, she's dumb. She climbs up there then jumps off." She wasn't jumping. She was falling. Who's stupid now? Anywho, they had her on shavings, which can be very bad for their quills and respiratory system and when I asked what they were feeding her the lady said "Um some kind of cat food. I'm not sure what the name is." How do you not know what you're feeding your animal?!?! THEY DIDN'T EVEN KNOW SHE WAS NOCTURNAL! I totally understand this not being common knowledge. I didn't know this stuff before I had a hedgehog but I researched it before I got one! It's not hard to do.

Well, needless to say, I rescued Ivy the day before we left for an eight hour drive to Mississippi. I had already planned to take Prim, and was already getting Prim's things ready but now I had to run, pick Ivy up, get extra bowls/cage/travel carrier etc for Ivy AND come back to do more laundry and pack. It was a long night.

Ivy is VERY friendly and pretty active! She rarely balls up or puffs and it took me forever to get a decent picture of her because she kept moving around!

I'm pretty sure that between the two of them they had more luggage than I did. I brought two large pop up kennels that are made for 70+ pound dogs, 5 fleece liners, a sprite bottle full of water from home, two kinds of cat food (one of them is Prim's and the other's is Ivy's) 4 water/food dishes, 2 wheels, 2 travel carriers, an endless supply of blue surgical towels, paper towels, a ton of hedgie bags, clorox wipes, 2 thermometers, and two car carriers. That's a lot of stuff for such little critters. Prim and Ivy both did very well. Ivy rode in Mom's lap on the way there and on the way back and Prim rode in my lap and my Mammaw's lap on the way to Mississippi and in my lap on the way home. Ivy did get car sick at first, when she was in her carrier but did much better after we took her out and Prim, of course, slept the entire time.

Ivy saying "Cheese" in Mississippi.

Prim in my lap in the Wendy's drive thru. The ladies FREAKED out when they
saw her and practically threw our food at us lol.

Well that's my prickly Southern Soapbox! I have another exiting post to explain why it is that we went to Mississippi for 4 days! It was very exciting!

This week is FINALLY over!

I try to avoid cussing on here, as I know my family reads this (and are probably the only ones that do but anywho) and I want to be sensitive to those that don't appreciate that language BUT, with that said, It's been one hell of a week y'all!

Monday, of course, was the Boston Marathon bombing. That was completely tragic! Three people died and over a hundred people were injured. I was out planting my garden when I happened to look at something on Instagram. Someone had posted a picture that said "Pray For Boston". I got on Twitter, because that's a reliable source for news ya know, to figure out why we were supposed to be praying for Boston. Nothing was entirely clear but it was obvious something major happened. I came inside to tell Mom to turn on the news and when she did.... it was shocking to say the least.

Tuesday Obama's gun thingy fell through. Bummer (note sarcasm).

Wednesday was the devastating explosion in West, Texas. Pete Delkus was getting asked by people in Arlington if there was an earthquake. After looking into he later reported that the "earth shake" was from an explosion in west Texas, which I later learned was West, Texas.

Thursday night there was a shooting at MIT, which then turned out to be the two suspects involved in the bombing. The police ended up killing one of the suspects and apprehended the second on Friday!

CRAZY week!

I'll leave you with a verse from a rather fitting song. I have always loved this song. I loved it when I was younger because I got to say "ass" and it was ok but it's SO true! It's from Toby Keith's Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue.

Ohhh Justice will be served 
And the battle will rage 
This big dog will fight 
When you rattle his cage 
And you'll be sorry that you messed with 
The U.S. of A. 
'Cause we'll put a boot in your ass 
It's the American way

Well, that's my Southern Soapbox recap of the week! Here's to hoping we have a GREAT weekend! We need it!
 

Green Thumb? We'll Find Out!

I'm attempting to start a garden. I've never really grown anything before and the two plants I've had, I've managed to kill. One of them was a cactus. So, ya. This should be interesting. Mom had tried a garden several years ago but, for whatever reason, didn't keep it up so now I'm going to find out how long it takes me to kill these poor little plants.

As you can see, we had a LOVELY weed garden going on! So far I've only cleaned out the bed closest to the camera and will do the other one if I need the space. Since we live in Texas and the "soil" (if you can even call it that) isn't really diggable, unless God himself were to come pick up a shovel and do it, we have to do raised beds. When Mom made her first attempt at a garden dad put these together so I just cleaned them out and put new soil in that I can dig in all by myself. I think next year I'm going to have a bigger garden and will probably end up changing thedesign up, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it!

We are starting out small, with just a few vegetables and a few herbs. I got tomatoes, green and red bell peppers, squash, onions, carrots and spinach to plant for now and will definitely add things in the fall and next spring! I plan on adding green beans, peas, snap peas, broccoli, potatoes, asparagus (maybe), and okra. Oh, I'm also TRYING to grow some strawberries but I just planted those seeds, so we'll see if they make it.

I also decided to do an herb garden! I got these from Calloways, but Home Depot has some really good looking herbs too! So far I have basil, thyme, rosemary, oregano, spearmint, and peppermint!

Like I said, I'm starting small this spring but in the fall I want to add broccoli, peas, and snap peas and next spring I'm thinking about doing green beans, potatoes and okra along with what I'm already doing. Hopefully nothing is dead by then.

Here is my first bed. It has my tomatoes, red, green, and orange bell peppers and my squash. The second bed will have my carrots, onions and spinach in it!

I started out by placing everything where I wanted it and then started planting!

Now we just wait and see. Hopefully nothing dies!

Well, that's my Southern Soapbox! I'll post pictures of the second bed another time! What do y'all plant in your gardens, or what would you want to plant?

Spring, is that you?

Yes, I cheated and neither of these pics were taken recently.
Nor were they even taken in Texas.

Dare I jinx it? Yes, I dare. We had some BEAUTIFUL weather this weekend! We have some rain on the way, we need it but I'm really going to miss the beautiful sunshine! It was in the upper 70's all weekend and today it's going to hit 90! Supposedly on Wednesday it's supposed to rain (or so they say. I won't be holding my breath) and then go down to the low 60's. BOO! BUT then it will come back up to the 70's again! YAY! Now that I've completed my weather forecast for the week, let's discuss how amazing my weekend was!

I thought this was funny, and true.

Like I said, the weather was AMAZING (and yes I will keep putting adjectives in capital letters), so I drove around all weekend with the top down on my car (and you can tell because I've got a bit of a sunburn, and a tan line where the seat belt was)! I had lost the keys, and they're still God only knows where, but Dad and I went to get a new set so I'm back in the saddle again! Of course, since I was going to be driving Maizy around with the top down I had to get her all cleaned up. Am I the only one that feels like my car goes faster when it's clean? Probably. 

 Mom had gotten me this little "stuffed" hedgehog toy and while I was cleaning out my car I figured out how to hang it from my rear view mirror! It's not actually made for that, but I made it work anyways. They're "Snuggamils" and are made for ages 4 and up, so I meet that requirement, at least most of the time I do. Ok, some of the time. I also have a sock monkey hanging from my window. I call him my Vincent Van Gogh sock monkey because Jixer chewed off one of his ears. I'm not allowed to discuss how I got the beads (just kidding Mom. I think Maegan gave them to me, no indecency was required).

Brett's R1, Luna.

Saturday was fun, but Sunday was, by far, the best day of the weekend! I spent the entire day with Ryan. We had lunch and coffee, got toys for Jixer and Rebel, which they both destroyed in less than 20 minutes, AND THEN (drum roll please) our friend Brett took me out on his motorcycle again! This is the third time he has taken me out but both of the other trips were only about fifteen minutes long around his neighborhood. This time we went out for about an hour! My wrists were really sore towards the end but other than that it was AMAZING! I'll admit, I was adamantly against Ryan getting one, and I still am concerned for his safety, but I totally get it now. I have now "mastered" leaning in on curves and am much more comfortable sitting back there. It does make me want to write someone about fixing the terrible roads though! They're SO bumpy!!! I'm really looking forward to the next time Brett takes me out (Brett, if you're reading this...hint hint nudge nudge).

The above picture was taken last year (minutes before Ryan wrecked Brett's R6), before I had ever been on a bike, so don't freak out that I'm not wearing a jacket or anything. It makes me look like an alien with really fat cheeks.

Well, I hope y'all had as wonderful of a weekend as I did! That completes this Southern Soapbox, see y'all Wednesday!

Fashion Friday: The Eyelet Skirt

Spring is in the air (for now)! I have several different skirts that I have been DYING to wear but every time I actually shave my legs it turns cold again. Maybe I should stop shaving (ew) so spring will finally stick around. Anywho, on to the outfit!

                             
Minus the jewelry and the pair of sandals, I own this entire outfit. I just haven't gotten to wear it yet because I keep shaving my legs the weather keeps getting cold.The skirt is SO cute and if you wanted to you could take the belt off and use it with other outfits (you just have to cut a couple of strings, no biggie). I would totally wear this with wedges or flats, depending on what I was doing/where I was going. We all know I love my heels, but I understand that some of y'all prefer cute flats and this could totally work for that too (although heels are almost always better, just sayin'). The shirt, skirt and bracelet are from Kohls, the purse is from Avenue, the wedges are from Steve Madden (and are on MAJOR sale!), flats are from DSW, and the necklace is from Delias so EVERYTHING in this outfit can be easily obtained if you live in the states. If you don't, well that really sucks for you and maybe you should consider moving. The best part about this outfit? The purse is the most expensive thing and is listed for $40, but I actually got mine on sale for $25.

I'm pretty sure I'm going to wear this tomorrow for Ryan's birthday dinner but I have to shave my legs to wear it. So, if there's a sudden change in the forecast you can bet that my legs are as smooth as a babies bottom!

Well, now that we've thoroughly discussed this outfit and my uncanny ability to change the weather, that's my Southern Soapbox! Hope you liked it!

Wonky and Woot-tastic Wednesday

Wonky:
    - Ryan is having to drive back from Pennsylvania by himself. He's a little annoyed. I'm not so happy about it either.
    - Don't get me wrong, I'm really excited that he's coming home.. but I'm really enjoying driving Ryan's car!
    - Jixer chewed the edges of my blanket last night. It's my favorite blanket :(.

    - Everyone that knows me knows that I carry HUGE purses. Most everyone asks me "what on Earth do you keep in there?!" Well... deodorant (yes it's men's Degree), sunglasses, Listerine strips, granola bar(s), 3 sets of keys (usually 2 sets but I have an extra right now because I'm driving Ryan's car), wallet, pens/pencil case, socks, hand sanitizer, make up bag, 2 calculators, chap stick, lip gloss, knife, and in this picture I did have a pair of sandals in my purse (I take a pair of flats to change into when I wear heels, just in case my feet start to hurt). So now you know. Although, I downgraded the size of my purse.

Woot-tastic:
    - Ryan is coming home!!! He should be home Thursday night or Friday morning/afternoon. YAY!

    - New purse from Avenue! It's SOOOO small, but it does still fit most of my stuff! It's also Kenneth Cole! WOOT!

    - Smoothies for breakfast and/or lunch... YUM!

    - Prim had her first trip outside! She was a little unsure at first but quickly discovered her freedom! She really enjoyed chasing Rebel around the yard, and I enjoyed watching him run from her.

That's all I've got for this Southern Soapbox! I'm off to watch Dear John for the first time! See y'all later!

Easter Lunch and a Tricycle!

 Easter is such a wonderful day, for so many reasons! It's an amazing time to remember how deep God's love for us really is, and to remind us that we, too, should love others as our Father has loved us. I also love ANY excuse to get together and eat good food with some of my favorite people! After lunch AJ got his first tricycle and then played with Mollie and some neighbors. It was such a beautiful and fun day!

Well, that's it for this Southern Soapbox! I hope y'all had a blessed Easter! What did the Easter bunny bring y'all?! Mom got a TV... I feel jipped man.