Tequila: Is what's for dinner

Seriously. Last night we were headed to the grocery store and decided we were starving and couldn't wait to shop, cook, and then eat. So RJ(knowing exactly how to manipulate me) says, "Hey, How about Mexican?" Chips, salsa, margaritas?" Everyone knows that there is no way that I will decline Mexican food.

We have both been stressed to the max.  Him finishing up grad school and me working like a mad women doing the jobs of 3 people, needless to say there has not been much quality fun time at our house...

We get to the restaurant, decide to sit in the bar and then notice it is 2 for 1 margaritas until 7:00 and it just so happens to only be 6:07; lucky us!  We order one round a piece and put in an appetizer order with the intentions to order food in a bit... fast forward an hour and we have each consumed 5 margaritas and no dinner. Ooops!

It was such an amazing reminder of when we first were dating, before we became old grown-ups with jobs and responsibilities.  We laughed and talked and just enjoyed each other's company. Even if it is over 4 years later he is still a pretty great date.

I'm not saying tequila is going to be a staple on our weekly menu, but maybe it will serve as a reminder to have fun and be young every once in a while.

My Favorite Mexicans(I searched for Deeds in the poncho)

Catching the habit

So, if you remember, a couple months ago I started boot camp with the hopes of jump-starting a new and healthier lifestyle...

Here's the update:

I completed my initial 8-weeks of boot camp and bought another 8.  I am currently on week 4 and have not missed a single class in 12 weeks.

I LOVE EXERCISE. It's a problem really. I never in my whole life thought that I would become someone who enjoyed working out, and yet, here I am.

About a month or so ago St. Jude opened its brand new fitness center on campus to my shock, I am there a minimum of 4 times a week, in addition to my boot camp classes. I have come to accept the slight soreness in my muscles as normal. Who am I? Seriously?

Here's the real kicker. Last week my work, workout buddy Amber was on a business trip Wednesday-Friday and I slacked.  I did not work out at all on Thursday or Friday (unless shopping is considered exercise) and man did I feel it.  My energy level pretty much bottomed out, I didn't sleep as well as I have been, and I was a bit more snappy and irritable.  It also could have been PMS, but whatever, that's beside the point. My body and I missed my workouts.

Once Monday rolled around and I was back in my routine, it hurt a little more during and after, but I also felt a million, bazillion times better. I like to push myself. I like to get out the day's frustration. I cannot wait to go to class, and no matter how tired and winded I get, I am sad when it's over.

Moral of the story, it's not impossible to find a workout you love.  It took 25 years, a good chunk of which were spent overweight, to find something to motivate me, but I did it. The boot camp that I started in January changed my entire perspective in regards to exercise and I can honestly say that I think that the physical changes that exercise has made has rubbed off into other areas of my life.

More on that tomorrow.

First time for everything

In my life, things do not go according to plans. Ever. Seriously, things happen to me that seem like they are straight out of a movie.

Boyfriend surprises girlfriend and meets her in Nashville. We run over a 6 foot ladder on the interstate, have to be towed and then have no car until the next day when we go our separate ways. Boyfriend and girlfriend are headed to the beach for a lovely vacation.  Boyfriend forgets swimsuit, gets speeding ticket, and then has the most horrible case of the flu known to man.  Awesome. Girlfriend sweetly buys boyfriend tickets to the Braves vs. Yankees game in Atlanta. Traffic is a nightmare, we detour, get lost, and finally make it by the middle of the 7th inning. Throw in a side of our best friend getting diagnosed with not one, but two rare genetic conditions while on a weekend visit and you have a quick snapshot of my life. Can't make this stuff up.

But then a weekend comes along that is nothing short of magic.  It wasn't anything fancy or elaborately planned out, just a weekend.  One blessed weekend that has kept a smile on may face even through a somewhat trying work week.

Saturday morning we actually got to sleep in together, followed by a delicious homemade waffle and bacon breakfast. After that we took our time getting ready and then headed to Mississippi for me to learn to shoot some guns. NOT before RJ bought me some pink ear muffs to keep my delicate ears from hurting and we loaded up on ammo.  Yay!

We spent the afternoon with RJ's best friend Brian, his girlfriend Megan and a few of their other friends.  And believe it or not, folks, I am a pretty good shot.  The real purpose of this outing was for me to learn to shoot RJ's gun, should the need arise, but it turned out to be pretty fun. With the most exciting part of the day being when they pulled out the exploding targets. Remember, I was in Mississippi and the land we were on pretty much looked like an armory after all the boys pulled out their toys. After that we had some, ever delicious Taco Bell, and headed home for an afternoon nap that turned into us not getting up until 8:00, but it was heaven. 

Later that night we went to a friend's birthday party, had a few drinks, and then realized that we were starving.  Since there is no City Cafe in Memphis, we went to a place called CK's for some late night yumminess.  It was here that RJ realized his dream of becoming a diner employee... because ONLY MY BOYFRIEND offers to help the lone 2 employees by busing tables and refilling drinks.  We were tipsy and it was funny and extremely sweet.  After our "free" meal, due to RJ's hard work we went home and poured ourselves into bed.

Sunday was lazy and wonderful.  We went grocery shopping and to dinner at his parent's house.  Uneventful bliss.

Needless to say I am one happy girl right now.  If only the gods can continue to shine on us this weekend as we make our way to St. Louis for a long weekend away together.  My sweet boyfriend will celebrate his birthday Saturday, so send some love and luck his way. 

I wouldn't mind another perfect weekend, but I'm not taking holding my breath...

Lean with me, Rock with me

Last May I packed my bags and moved to Memphis.  I didn't know the area very well and when RJ's cousin happened to have a house for rent, in a safe area, with no deposit, and rent in our price range we kind of just said "OK" and moved in.

Our house is cute from the outside, we have a deeper front porch with a porch swing and enough room for my iron table and chairs.  We have "2" bedrooms and 1 bathroom.  I say "2" because what we really have is more like 1 bedroom and 1 room of unknown description.  We use it as an office/guestroom. Our eat-in kitchen is really roomy, but lacks counter space and our den is actually pretty great, it's big and has a fireplace.  All in all this house is not a horrible place to live.  I'm not scared to stay at home alone and I can walk the dogs without feeling like I need both a billy club and mace. That is until recently when I noticed that the slight unevenness of the floors had turned into an all out lean.

We knew that the house had problems, a water heater had burst before we moved in and the repair work was shoddy at best, but we could deal with a little tilt.  However, our bathroom is now a  ski slope and all the tile is cracking from the pressure. In short we are now looking for a new home.

We spend our weekends driving around Memphis looking for houses. I spend hours online searching for something that we can love.  The problem is that I have already fallen in love with one neighborhood in Memphis.  I mean like head over heels, we drive the same streets every weekend just hoping and praying a new house as gone up for rent, in love.  The HighPointe neighborhood is everything I miss about Chattanooga.  It is a neighborhood made up of sweet older homes that people have lovingly restored.  The residents are younger families who walk their dogs and push their babies in strollers to the nearby restaurants and markets.   They all have swings hung from tree branches in the front yards and tasteful, yet unique, paint colors on the shutters. I want SO badly to live there. Reality: Nothing is for rent that is not crazy expensive.  There are quite a few houses for sale, but with our future somewhat uncertain we are leery to buy until we are more settled.

So kids, say some prayers and throw some good luck our way as we keep searching.  Until then we'll be laughing our way through life in our little house that leans. I mean really, first houses are supposed to give you stories, not everything you want.  More memories to be made, at least that's what I'm telling myself.

Lots of love to you on this beautiful Thursday!

Fat Tuesday

Happy Mardi Gras! 

Today is Fat Tuesday, which means a few things.

1. I have an excuse, if I so wish, to eat lots of ridiculous junk food and have a couple drinks (even if it is a school night).

2. I am pretty much guaranteed to have at least 1 party going on down the street from me, which inevitably means that my poor pups will spend the better part of the night barking their little lungs out.

3. Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday.

The problem with #1 is that I also have boot camp tonight and somehow ingesting 5,000 calories after killing myself for an hour is NOT appealing what-so-ever. Instead, I have challenged myself to make a deceivingly delicious Cajun meal that will not demolish my calorie goals. I will also be whipping up a few cocktails and possibly a little homemade dessert.  DISCLAIMER: This will all depend on how mean my coach is tonight, we may end up with cereal...

I live within a single city block of a college campus.  All my neighbors are college students.  They like to party.  A lot. On any holiday and for any reason.  Oh well, I liked to party too.  Maybe I'm just jealous. Either way, I wish they made puppy earplugs so that my sweet babies would not freak out at every hoot and holler.

With Ash Wednesday comes a whole other set of rules. I must go to mass, I must either fast or abstain from meat for the whole day, and I must spend the rest of the day stressing over what sacrifices I am going to make to remind me of The Sacrifice that Jesus made on Good Friday.

In years past I have almost felt bad for the things I chose to give up for Lent.  They always seemed a bit self serving in one way or another.  I'm not saying they weren't sacrifices, because they were, but they always seemed to have an underlying purpose that was not spiritual in any discernible way.  One year I cut out carbs. Difficult for someone who looooooves bread and french fries? Yes.  Also a way to force me to diet so that I could reach a weight loss goal? Yep. Another year I gave up snacking between meals....same reason, different year.

This year I am determined to come up with something that will help me grow as a person.  I want to honor God by pushing myself to go outside my comfort zone and really dig into how I can change, be it spiritually or emotionally.

Anyone feel like sharing their Mardi Gras plans or Lent goals?

Family Friday

Right now, as we speak, my sisters are brother are piled up in a car headed on that horribly boring drive to bring them from Chattanooga all the way to me, in Memphis.

 And. I . Am. So. Excited.

Mushy Monday

Fair warning: this is a lovey dovey post.  If you don't like it, don't read it.

Tomorrow marks mine and RJ's 4th anniversary.  I know, Valentine's Day, kind of ridiculous and cheesy.

For those of you who know the whole story, you know there's much more to it than Valentine's day.  For those of you who don't...please don't judge me.

Four years ago I had a "Valentine" and it was not RJ.  In fact, it was one of his fraternity brother and one of my very favorite people in the world, Tyler. We had a dinner date with another "Valentine's" couple and had a wonderful time.  My secret was that throughout the entire "date" I had been texting RJ and he FINALLY asked me to come over to his room to watch a movie.  After leaving my date, I promptly headed to his house and the rest is history...  Oh yeah, except the part where we hid our relationship from our bestest friends for 3 months.

Right, well, now that everyone knows my dirty little secret, here's where we are now.  Fast-forward 4 of the fastest years of my life.  I guess it says something for our relationship when I cannot believe that it has been even 2 years.  We are still ridiculously crazy about each other and life together doesn't drag by, it's just fun. We play together, plan together, depend on each other, and love each other unconditionally.  All in all, we just live life together.  Don't get me wrong, we also argue and fight, but even when I am so mad I can't speak I would never want to be anywhere other than exactly where I am.

Life gets mundane, dishes need to be done, laundry needs to be put away, and unfortunately I have to go to work everyday.  The secret to our happiness, as cheesy as it sounds, is that we live our lives to try and make the other happy.  Everyday I feel loved and cherished.  Even when I am crying because our plans have fallen apart, RJ can somehow make it better.  Even if it is just a box of cupcakes and a night spent "camping" on an air mattress in the den, he makes it special. I know that he would do absolutely anything to take my tears away and it makes me start to dwell on how lucky I am and less on how things didn't go as I had imagined in my head.

One of the biggest hurdles for me was learning that just because RJ doesn't show love the way I do, doesn't make either of us wrong; it makes us different.  In order to learn about each other we took THIS QUIZ and started really digging into "The Love Languages" that we each prefer. Now we are committing to step outside of our comfort zone and make the sacrifice and effort to love the other in the way that THEY recognize love and want to be loved.

I think all of you should do it too.  There are quizzes for attached and single.  It is enlightening and actually makes a whole lot of sense if you allow yourself to listen without becoming defensive.

I can honestly say, life is hard, but I am happier now than I have ever been.  I have someone I cannot imagine living without and I cannot wait to see what the future holds for us.