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!