My True Love(s)...

Oh, the things I can't live without...
-Chocolate Chip cookies.
-Homemade Oatmeal cookie dough...yes, I said the dough :).
-Husband hugs.
-Soft blankeys.
-Sunshine & the occasional refreshing rainstorm.
-Chicken...the kind you eat.
-Music...it's on ALL of the time and makes life worth dancing to.
-Julio's chips & salsa...I'm going through TX chip and salsa withdrawal if you can't tell.
-Cinnamon rolls on a Sunday morning. (heck, really ANY morning ;))
-French toast with extreme powdered sugar....MMMMM!
-Goofy & gaudy travel picture frames.
-My digital camera to capture the greatest moments in our lives.
-Our wonderful set of professional Wusthof kitchen knives.
-Buttercream flavored Yankee candles.
-Guitar Hero...just call me master of the medium setting...I don't wanna brag, but I'm moving onto bigger things, like 'Hard'. haha.
-Birthdays & the splendid parties we throw.
-Shopping...when I have money to spend of course!
-Candy. Nuf' said.
-Pillows, pillows, pillows when I sleep. Chad can't usually find me for my pillow fortress, haha.
-Hot bubble baths accompanied with my Mood Aromatherapy candles from Victoria's Secret. I love them!
-Cute purses.
-The occasional spontaneous trip out of town.
-Dr. Pepper and/or Coca-Cola in a frosted mug....Yum.
-Kissing & cuddling with my hubby. Yum again.

*Notice, most of them are food/drink related, haha. Good luck to me on that workout plan! :-P

Bad Habits...

Here are just a couple of things I realized Chad & I do on a daily basis (some irrelevant, but funny) that should probably be limited and maybe removed, if necessary, from our daily lifestyle:

*Drink a Coca-Cola each every day. No, NOT diet, just regular, very caffein-y, bad for your teeth, sugary Coke. Anti-diet move right there. It takes about a mile and a half of running on a treadmill to burn off the 140 calories plus sugars conveniently provided to us in one 12 oz. can. It needs to be replaced by something healthy, I know...but what?! We like the bubbles :).
*Excessive TV time. We sit and watch all of our shows every night. That's like 17 hours in front of the TV Monday through Sunday. I'm not implying I want to stop watching any of our shows, but maybe use our time more wisely. I'll take this second to go ahead and say thank you God for the blessing of the DVR. Life made easier. (oh wait, maybe that's our problem....hmmm...nah! :))
*Ever seen Along Came Polly when Jennifer Aniston breaks Ben Stiller of his 'decorative pillow on the bed' habit that his first woman made him do? Well, Chad & I also have about six pillows on top of the three we use on a nightly basis on top of our bed when it's made. It's pretty, yes, but it seems especially silly to make it up everyday. We take the time to assemble the pillow tower only to have to take it back down 15 hours later when we crawl in bed. Mind you, Chad & I are 99% of the time by ourselves, meaning we are the only ones that enjoy seeing the pillows perfectly placed everyday. Maybe one day we'll get the knife to the pillows like they do and just let the feathers fly!
*We drink hot tea likes we were England-bred. We love it and consume at least one mug a day, sometimes two. Also bad for your teeth, but good for the soul ;). Barry's Tea Gold Blend from Ireland is the best hot tea on the planet. Not found in stores, but Yummmm.
*Every dinner is eaten on our lovely TV trays that we just couldn't do without. I'm telling ya, that TV is always on! And we're gonna get fat for it! :)
*Workouts are becoming more regular and intense, but I'm not seeing all that many results yet...at least we're making the effort though, right?! (had to praise us for something!)

On another note, the first day of class was great today. Talk about an information overload, but it was really good. My instructor is captivating, and 8 hours went by surprisingly fast. It's going to be a lot of work, but a fun challenge. Yay for that! Onto tomorrow!

Work it Out!

I just got back from the gym...and I went by MYSELF!! You might not think so, but that's a feat for me! Chad & I usually go together and push each other to do stuff better and for more weight, etc. But I actually got my chubby butt up and got through a really good workout that has left my body feeling much like spaghetti. It's kind of a good feeling to have though, oddly enough. Makes me feel like I will see results...at least that's what I hope anyway.

Tonight I have a little tv to watch then comes a really hot and long bath to relax the muscles and body. I have to get in bed at a decent time tonight because I start school in the morning. I'm kind of anxious. It's like the first day of college when you want to get to class extra early so you get to pick your seat and then you get to watch everyone else walk in. Scopin' out the other subjects interested in real estate. It's nice being early so you don't end up being the one that everyone stares at that walks in right before class starts. Well, I must make me some dinner and off I go! I'll catch you up on my first day tomorrow!!

On a Sunday...

Yesterday turned out to be not as boring as it could have. I got a call from our friend Felicia wanting me to come over and hang out last night. We took some time to stuff her wedding invitations and that was fun. That's definitely not a job you want to take on by yourself. Talk about tedious. Proper etiquette is so overrated, haha. They were pretty though.

We then ate some pizza, bread & cheese, and drank a little wine while we watched a couple of movies. One being Becoming Jane with Anne Hathaway and James McAvoy. It was a good, old-timey love story about how Jane Austen came into being such a great novelist. Then we ruined the lovey-dovey mood by watching The Brave One with Jodie Foster. She was a bad-booty in that movie. I've never seen so much killing by a little blond woman. Kinda crazy, but a pretty good movie if you're into the intense ones!

Today, I've been watching the end of the America's Next Top Model marathon and it's finally over. I don't know why I like that show so much, but I do. I just envy them for the cool places they get to stay and visit. London, China, Japan, etc. One day I'll get my chance. For right now, I'm gonna get out of the house for a while and maybe work out later. Adios!

Time Alone...What to do?

Chad left a little earlier to drive to Missouri for another training class, so I'm left here alone to do...whatever I want. Problem is, I don't know what that is. I think I'll go get a movie, maybe go shopping for some work clothes, possibly dive into the America's Next Top Model marathon on MTV...something like that.

My first time alone for multiple days in our house in NC. Pretty crazy! The whole bed to myself (not as good as it sounds) & no one to cuddle with during the movies (dang). He'll be back soon though.

I have a whole day ahead of me, so I guess I'll go try and do something interesting...see ya on the flip side! :)

Career Path...

Well, I am pleased and excited to announce that I just finished enrolling into Real Estate school, here in Fayetteville. I have chosen to get my broker's license (which is the same thing as a sales license, just a different term) here in North Carolina.

I never thought I would actually say something like what I'm about to say, but here it goes. I am actually very excited to get back into a schooling routine again. I have really missed the challenges that the classroom can present and also having something to judge my accomplishments (like tests). Although being a housewife is great for my lazy side, I really do like to feel like I accomplish things throughout the day, and until I have children, I think that cleaning the house and keeping it maintained gives me little of such feelings.

It's a five week course, going Tuesday & Wednesday from 9:00-5:00. Those sound like they're going to be some long days, but hopefully it is at least interesting! The adventure starts Tuesday, April 8th so wish me luck! :)

Let's Play Catch-up...

Well, the reason I've been slacking on the postings is for a couple of reasons. #1 is because Chad & I spent last Friday through this past Friday en route and actually in Arkansas and #2 because for the little time we have been home recently, I haven't had the time to actually sit down and get one done. Sorry it's been a while but allow me to take you on our journey halfway across the U.S. We found ourselves in Arkansas because Chad had simulator training there for three days so we were lucky enough to get to spend some good, quality time with our friends Dom & Shannon. We had an awesome time cooking dinner together, baking apple pies for Easter, and playing spades while drinking wine, almost every night. Dom's family was sweet enough to allow us to eat with them on Easter Sunday after the church service. It was great. We even got to hide eggs for his little nephews. Fun stuff!

We made several great dishes while we were there. It started with Teriyaki Burgers the first night (mucho flavor!), Stuffed Shells (an Italian delicacy), & then finally, we grilled out & cooked steak & potatoes (classicly yummy dish). It was some scrumptious stuff! Here's a pic of us taking a break from our hard labor in Dom's kitchen.

I found a new favorite sparkling white wine called Marco Negri thanks to Dom & Shannon. It's an Italian wine which is where most of the wines I end up enjoying are from. Two bottles I think were drank strictly by me while we were there. Good stuff, you should check it out if you're interested in finding a new, very smooth, sweet & sparkly wine. It's a little pricey, sitting at about $18.99 a bottle, but it's worth every drop :)! I also developed a new liking for Camembert soft cheese. We ate some with bread at every meal. Yea, we don't mess around! MMMM to carbs!

We were sad to have to leave. But on our way home, we made a stop in Asheville, NC, known mostly for it's small town charm, beautiful landscapes, and the largest American Estate known to man, The Biltmore Estate. It's only about 4 1/2 hours of a drive from Fayetteville to Asheville, making it a slightly long, but doable trip for the weekends, if so desired. We decided to buy a year long pass so we have unlimited access and even some discount privileges when it comes to staying at their Inn, visiting the winery, doing outdoor activities, and bringing guests. We figured it was a good investment because there is always something to do there and it's supposedly one of the prettiest places to be during the Christmas season, so I'm excited to check that out!

Chad & I decided to enjoy some hot tea, cappuccino, & a chocolate-almond torte to satisfy our sweet craving in the little bistro cafe they have there. It was delicious & just hit the spot!

We then were about to walk through the gardens when we saw a pretty tree to take a picture by, so we asked a gentleman nearby to help us out and take our picture. Thank you for your services nice man. :)

We then finally made it back down to the gardens and took a couple of pictures of flowers we thought had a capturing quality. They were beautiful.

This was our favorite tree in the whole place. It was a Sleeping Higan Cherry tree and it was so pretty blowing its pink little flowers in the wind. We hope to have one at one of our houses in the future. We just have to stay in one place long enough to watch it grow big and enjoy it.

This was also one of my favorite flower trees. The picture turned out even better than I thought it would.

Anyways, enough about plant-life. We spent the day real laid back and in enjoyment mode. We saw some parts of the estate we'd never seen before & it was great. We look forward to planning a weekend to go and stay actually on the estate grounds. It'll be great.

We caught lunch at one of Chad's favorite pizza joints, the Mellow Mushroom. It's a really hippy-fied atmosphere with great pizza. Chad got his personal pan pizza and I got a calzone large enough to feed three people. It was really good and we got to sit outside and enjoy the outdoors for a little while. We took a picture and tried to get the sign in the background, but I don't think that worked out too well. Here it is anyway...

So, to sum things up, we had a great time in Arkansas & on our trek to and from. We were very sad that the time we actually get to make a good trip practically for free through the government's orders, we didn't even get to spend a second of it with the Webbs. I guess that's what you would call just really bad timing! Maybe we'll get lucky again sometime soon. Thanks for coming on our journey with me...