A little of this.. a little of that

It's been a while since my last post, things have been pretty busy for the most part. Between riding, the dog, and keeping up with the house work on top of actually working I barely have time for myself, let alone Erik or wedding things.
We went and visited my family this past weekend since Erik had a four day weekend with work. It was a decent 9 and a half hour drive, easy for the most part, but long. It was so nice seeing my family, and my dog, and hearing jet noise. I did a lot of thinking while back home, whether or not I'd want to move back there or not. I missed the food - goodness the good Mexican food, fish taco's, frozen yogurt. I missed it all. I missed my family, my friends. I was able to see two friends while I was there, both who are my bridesmaids. I got my hair done and went bridesmaid dress shopping and had no luck whatsoever. But that's okay, there is the Internet and time to make other visits. It was really nice knowing where I was and how to get around town without a GPS.
I've kind of been slacking in the wedding aspect - I did book our baker for the cake, and I did find the invitations I want, we're just hacking out the price and exactly what we need them to say, I will hopefully be ordering them by the end of the week, permitting we have our ceremony time by then. Hopefully we do. I have a DJ meeting coming up on Thursday and hopefully we can get that taken care of - I'm kind of running out of time on that, and it really needs to be booked. Other than that things are pretty much falling into place to be quite honest. I ordered Erik's wedding band There are a few little things that I need to do such as finding a make-up artist. Finding a rehearsal dinner site and taking care of that. I do need to talk to another baker about a grooms cake. I really need to get my bridesmaid dresses ordered by next month for sure. We will hopefully be taking our engagement pictures next month as well. There are little things that I need to start accumulating such as mason jars and candles and other decor things. I also need to start thing about Out of Town bags for our guests. I'm trying my hardest not to let it stress me out, and so far I'm not doing a bad job of it. I've kind of just adopted the whole idea of things will work themselves out.
My pinterest addiction has fueled some projects that I've started on, and I'm excitingly completely doing the office. We are adding a chair rail into it and painting the walls below it a blue color- the first things we've painted in our home. I took our old kitchen table and turned it into my desk and painted it a bright turquoise. We are getting a filing cabinet since we are selling my old desk that one in it. And I believe I am going to wallpaper it so it looks pretty. I've got a bookshelf I need to paint so I can bring it in here and then I'll pretty much be done except for some wall art. I'm really loving being able to do things like this and making our house more than just a house. It's pretty exciting but boy does the cost add up.
We also started RCIA classes about a month ago now, if you don't know what RCIA classes are - they are classes that teach you and explain the Catholic faith to you. It's something I've been wanting to do for a few years now, and just didn't really seem fit to do without Erik around since he was deployed. But I really feel comfortable in our church and I am enjoying the classes a lot more than I thought I would to be honest. The classes go all the way up to April and on the day before Easter I will be baptized and confirmed and have my first communion. Most people were baptized as babies, and in almost all faith's, except for Unitarian, babies are baptized in the name of the Father, Son and Spirit - so the Catholic church accepts that - but I was never baptized so, I will be then. It's taught me a lot and I feel really at ease, and just 'right' with it.
I really have been working hard on getting over everything that happened with Erik's sisters. It's not that I'm holding a grudge or I am still mad, I'm actually not mad at all, anymore, it's more or less I'm just really hurt by it. I understand why his middle sister was upset, and why his other two sisters got upset and defended her. I truly do, they're sisters - I'm not, and I'm the one who upset her. I'm more or less hurt by the words that were said, and the actions that are occurring. I guess I had this thought that once Erik and I were engaged, or once we were married that they would all like me and I'd have sisters that I never had before. I know I tend to dwell on this, and I really am working to get past it. Like I said I'm not mad, it's more or less that I'm still hurt by it, but like Erik said I need to get past it.

Other than that, nothing really new has gone on lately. I've just been pretty busy and trying more or less to finish up some wedding lose ends and ride as much as I can without leaving puppy dog alone for too long. She gets spayed next week, so that'll be pretty interesting. Maybe it might calm her down some, but overall she really isn't too 'crazy' she's just a puppy and we love her little puppy dog attitude. She's gotten so big since we last got her - she weighs a whopping 62 pounds now, versus the 25 she barely weighed when she came home with us. She's definitely stolen our hearts that's for sure.

But back to work for me.. I've got a ton of things to get done - story of my life at the moment.

Oh... Navy. Sometimes I could punch you.

Well... there are always the day's where you just want to punch the Navy right in the kisser. If it's one thing I can count on, it's the good ol' Navy teaching me just how to do everything on my own. Erik has duty on Friday, now normally I don't care... duty days for aviation are a lot different than ship's company duty days. There isn't a boat to sleep on, so they come home because base has it's own firefighters and rescue people - which is really why there are duty days, in case you were wondering. So for us that just means he has another ten hour workday and probably a watch billet to stand that weekend. So normally I could care less... but it isn't just any Friday he has duty on. Nope... it's closing day on our house! So we had to call our awesome realtor and see if she can move it to Thursday instead or Friday afternoon. I'm really hoping it's Thursday because I've already called the cable company to come out on Friday. So if things go like how I would like them to go, I will be moving us Friday. It never seems to fail that something happens for moving day.. outside of the PCS move, Erik's never been around for a move. It's either been a duty weekend at his old command, where they actually had to work all weekend long, or he's been deployed. So it seems like the Navy is either trying to keep me in shape, or just teaching me a lesson. Not to mention, they are moving Erik back to nights. Which doesn't really bother me too much. Just as long as we are out of this darn apartment before they do it. I hate it here, HATE actually probably doesn't justify. Our neighbors are so inconsiderate and loud, and there have been robberies and just ughhhh. So.. as long as we are out of here by that time I'm good as gravy. And then here is the real kicker (thank god we were able to use the fact that we are closing on a house to get out of it!) they tried to send Erik back to Virginia Beach for 8 weeks! Can you believe that?! We just moved from there four weeks ago! That would of sucked - big time!


On another note. My mind has been running ragged with decorating ideas! I can't stop thinking about things I want to do to our new home. Not to mention I am positive Ross and the Home Good's store and Amazon are loving me right now. I want everything to look perfect. Erik's parents are coming to visit at the end of May for memorial day weekend. I know Erik is so excited to see them, and I am really excited about having them visit. I just want to make sure everything looks perfect when they do come. Maybe it's just a southern thing, you are judged on how your home is kept. We as women, all know this or should. And I just want his mom to like everything. I really don't ever want to have the relationship where I don't get along with my inlaws. They are wonderful people, and have done an amazing job in raising Erik, I know he wouldn't be the man he is today without them so I just want to make the best impression on them. I know I've meet them before, and I know I've visited them before. But they've never visited us, so I just want them to know I am a good 'homemaker'. I think one of a women's biggest qualities is how she keeps her home. You can really tell a person's personality by how the house is kept and decorated.

I also wanted to bring up the topic of couponing! It's been a pretty hot and heavy topic since TLC's new show Extreme Couponing came out. I've been clipping coupons since about August. But have gotten a lot better at it. And after doing some adjusting and more exploring recently, I am pretty excited about my next grocery trip. I wanted to share some of my tips to help you (if anyone is there) save some money too!

• Make a menu for the month (or whatever time duration you go shopping for). If you make a menu and list out all the ingredients for the meal, you won't have to make as many last minute stops at the corner store to pick up the missing pieces. Plus if you have a menu, you won't have to wonder up and down the aisle thinking about what you can make for dinner - you've already done it!
• Don't go hungry! Bad, very, very bad idea. Your hungry, you either pick up a ton of food and spend more than you want, or you get in a bad mood because the lady in front of you won't move it fast enough so you can get in and out and your bound to forget something.
• Check out couponsurfer.com they have free printable coupons. You have to download the printer app, but hey it works and the quality is great!
• Pick up the Sunday paper and sign up for RedPlum coupons to be delivered to your mailbox for free. Most Sunday coupons are pretty good, and there are always a lot. - Plus I've noticed these don't limit you to one coupon per purchase, so you can stock up! Some places I've heard give away the extra Sunday papers on Monday - so extra coupons!
• Take your menu and go through your coupons, pull out the ones you will definitely use and the ones you need to use before they expire. Bring your whole coupon book with you - you never know what will be a 'surprise' sale item and you don't want to be upset when you left your book at home and realize you could of saved even more
• Check out this site that I literally just found! She has a list of items on sale and coupons that go with them! http://thehappyhousewife.com/real-life/category/journal/military/military-commissary-deals/
• Also, Check out the commissary's website to see whats on sale - I've noticed if you go in between pay periods they have more on sale, but I could be wrong. http://www.commissaries.com/log_in/html/savings_aisle.cfm

I hope I was able to help some of you wonderful ladies to save some extra money. While I am very grateful for the paychecks that the Navy provides us with, we all know it never is enough. And its nothing compared to some of the salaries some civilians make. But by couponing, we can help save some money! :)

Have a Great Navy Day and Happy Hump Day!

News and thoughts!

We have a home!!!

And the kitchen is beautiful!!

So, I didn't want to really say anything, until Erik felt comfortable saying anything. House hunting as been up and down for us, just when we thought we'd find the one and put in an offer it wouldn't get accepted. Well our Realtor really did a great job and found us our home! It's a brand new house, meaning it's new construction. It's in a really great neighborhood that's called Oakleaf Plantation. And it's just really exciting! Knowing it's ours, and that not one single person has lived in it besides us is amazing. It's so exciting to know that this is our home, and we get to grow and love in it. It's just a really amazing feeling. We close on it April 29th and will for sure be moving in that weekend. We do still have a month left at the apartment, but what's the point in staying when we don't like it here, and have our own home to live in! We haven't really meet any of our neighbors yet, so hopefully we have nice neighbors! But that's the big news and I just wanted to share my excitement with everyone!

On another note, Erik and I have started (my idea) the 'Love Dare' it's a book from Fireproof, I've never seen the movie so I wouldn't really know much about it, I just heard about it through the grapevine. But I thought why not. We don't have relationship issues, which is why most people use the book, but I wanted to just explore our relationship and strengthen it - because there is always room to strengthen it. And so far we are on Day 7. It's pretty neat, although we are only a week into it. I can definitely tell that it's doing something. What, I'm not quite sure. 

This weekend was nice. Friday night Erik went and played poker with some guy's and I stayed over in the Orange Park area, mainly the main road since I was too worried to explore further, and did a little shopping. I got some great deals from Ross, ended up scoring an 8 piece dinner set for only $30. I love bargain shopping, I am the first one to admit it. I rather find a great buy on sale for cheap than spend the money outright on it and pay full price. Not this girl. We went to some consignment shops in the higher end area on Saturday just to see what we could find. We didn't get anything, but did find a bed for the second guest bedroom. We decided to wait on it, there isn't a point in buying anything now just for it to sit at the house, it can wait until we get moved in there. No need to rush on it. We went out to our home and took a bunch of pictures of it that afternoon. It was so nice and exciting to be able to share it with everyone. Then we went out to a barn to check it out, for boarding and what not. And just came home and relaxed. Sunday was nice, we ended up going to an auction with two of Erik's friends where Erik bought 2 more guns and then went to the beach for a little bit. It was too chilly (and yes, 70 is a little chilly for me to be at the beach it's been in the 80's for the past few weeks) and just came home and relaxed and hung out. Oh! Almost forgot, we watched the Social Network finally, the movie about Facebook! I'm a total facebook whore, it's addicting. Lol! But it definitely was neat to see how it was created, and the story behind it. It was almost sad that they attacked him. I mean really, you come up with a dating idea to get you laid and then someone gets the brilliant idea to turn it into something so much bigger. Don't be jealous. Just because someone is straightforward and blankly honest doesn't make him an asshole. It makes him honest. Some people just don't handle honesty that well.

But it's Monday, again. And this week probably will fly by pretty fast. We have a walk through on our home on Friday, where we go around and mark any little thing that is wrong with the house. Like the door paint is chipped here, or there is a mark there. Anything, and they will fix it before closing on the following Friday! I hope everyone has an awesome week, and try to make the best out of everyday your given!

-On a side note I wanted to add, if you do follow me and know me in real life please keep what you read to yourself. Don't walk up to myself or Erik and just start talking about what you 'read'. I use this as an outlet. To get things off of my chest and off of my mind. And it can be anything I am thinking that I write about. Keep it private please. Yes I get that it's on the Internet for the whole world to see. But that doesn't mean I want to talk about certain things with people. Like I said, this is just my out. So please be respectful of that.

House Hunting Leave...

Well, we got our dates for house hunting leave put in and I'm pretty sure they've accepted it. It looks like we will be heading down to Jacksonville at the beginning of december to start the buying process. Yep, we are buying! It's exciting and nerve wracking all at once, we have a lot of demands for first time home buyers and I just hope we can find a home that will meet all of those demands. A lot of them are just 'wants' but we do have some 'must haves' were we won't buy the house unless it has them. We were looking in the Orange Park area, but there are a ton of foreclosers and I don't want to live in a neighborhood where there arn't any neighbors. Plus they have a stupid CDD fee of like $1,600 a year to live in the newer neighborhoods (which is where we were looking), so I think we are still looking in the Orange Park area but closer towards Flemming Island. We've been online a ton lately just looking at houses, and areas, and schools. But anyways. I'm excited and nervous all in one. We are hopeing, with our fingers and toes crossed that we will find a house in the 10 days we are down there and can have the contract close in March when we move.

So fingers crossed everyone.