Thusday Five

Thursday Five with Mannland5!

To play, you just write about 5 things that make you feel: 

Happy

Delighted

Grateful

Totally Stoked

Thankful

Shrimp Ettouffe makes me happy, and that is exactly what I had for dinner last night. It definitely hit the spot!

I am delighted to announce that I am going to be an "Auntie" for the first time! It is not completely out of the bag yet, but once it is the blog will get the details.

I am grateful to have the things in life that I have. Money, school, travel opportunities, a house, no debt, and our baby boy!

I am totally stoked about my best friend getting married FINALLY!

I am thankful that I have a solid life, a stable life for myself, my family, and my future family.

Please forgive me for many posts for the day. I am way behind on this blogging stuff and just trying to catch up!

 

Kindred Connection: A Day Late

So I missed out on Kristen's Kindred Connection party yesterday, so I am going to do it today. This weeks topic was based around movie topics. 

The questions are:

1. What was your favorite movie as a child?

Growing up, my sister and I watch The Little Mermaid over and over and over again. We each actually had bikes that were The Little Mermaid theme. I remember being little bitty, and me and my sister snuggling on the couch in just our underwear watching this movie.  

2. If you could live in any movie as your fictional world, which one would it be?

This is a tough one, and I honestly do not know if I can answer it. Give me a few minutes to think, then I'll be back....

 

I think I got it. I would want to be in Charlie's Angels or one of the Fast and Furious as a flag girl... :) 

3. Have you ever seen a midnight showing, or hosted a movie release party? Tell us about it!

 I have not been to a midnight showing, and truthfully I am not that big into movies. Yes, I have movies that I love and adore, but I can not stand immature, drunk, and rowdy teenagers.. and same goes for the adults that act 2 years old. I have also never hosted a movie release party. Once again, not that big into movies.

4. What movie release are you most looking forward to this year?

I am ready to see Eclipse. My experience with New Moon was ruined. See the answer above on how it got ruined. And sadly, that was not even a midnight showing. Nor one of the first daytime showings. Hopefully Eclipse will make up for what happened with New Moon, and if not, oh well.

5. Are you a theatre goer, renter, or wait-and-buyer?

Mostly a wait-and buyer. Why? Because I like to buy them on Blu-Ray. Mr. Man loves Blu-Ray and truthfully that is about all we buy now. Sometimes, if we have nothing to do one evening or one weekend, we will rent a couple of movies. And if we want a reason to get out of the house on a rainy day or cold day, I will convince him to go to the movies. We have probably been to the movies less than 10 times throughout our relationship, no kidding. Which we have been together almost 6 years. 

God Has Been Good To Me:

Here's how I am feeling today!

God's Been Good to Me by Keith Urban

Well I can't believe I'm sittin' here today

Picking on my banjo with a big smile on my face

Writin' new words to an old school melody

Hey there ain't no doubt that God's been good to me

Oh the sun is shinin' on down in Tennessee

And right now where I'm right where I wanna be

I've never felt so loved, so peaceful and so free

Hey there ain't no doubt that God's been good to me

(Chorus:)

'Cause he put me smack dab in the middle of Paradise

In the heart of the city where my dreams have come alive

And everything I have, and everything I see

Is just another reminder that God's been good to me

This golden road's been long

And sometimes I've lost my way

I've been down some darkened detours

Leanin' heavy on my faith

But where the devil had me chained

Lord your love done set me free

Hallelujah! God's been good to me

Bang, Bang, Ka-Boom

Have you ever sat back and thought about exactly what you want out of life? Many people do not discover themselves and the things they want until later in life. However, I have had the opportunity, the privilege to know exactly what I want at a very young age. I am not just talking about getting married or finding love. I am talking about the whole 9 yards. The whole shebang.

Once you finally discover yourself and realize exactly what you want and expect out of life, you want it right then and there. You are willing to do whatever it takes to make your dreams come true. You will work nonstop, become more determined than ever, and find ways to motivate yourself to keep yourself going. Because after all, it is what YOU want.

Have you ever figured all this out, began working nonstop to make your dreams come only to loose it all... over and over again? That is where I feel I am at. Maybe not over and over again, but it definitely hit me hard in the gut this last go around. You know the feeling you get when you are so close to succeeding, what you want is right at your fingertips, but all of a sudden the road begins to crack right in front of you (of course, you don't notice it yet) but then the cracks just keep growing and growing and growing until a cliff is formed and as you are reaching for the finish line.... Bam! You fall off the cliff. And have to get back up and try again. Only this time, hoping your dreams, your wishes, your faith, your dedication, your patience, your body is just as strong, strong enough to continue to make it happen.

This post is not meant to be a depressing post at all. Just because I am going through this, I went through this, it has not impacted me in a negative way, surprisingly. Why? Because God is on my side. God has given me the opportunity to learn some life lessons that I would not have learned otherwise. The last couple of days I was thrown a curve ball. It is nothing bad, nothing hysterical, nothing to break me apart by any means. But it was enough to hurt me, disappointment me, upset me, and even excite me. 

With this, I have learned that I am so thankful. Thankful to have the strength, the courage, the determination, the happiness, the bond, the love, the patience, the support to be who I am, to recognize who I am and what I have. I have always been thankful for my life, for my blessings. I have. I have always thanked God for taking care of me and showing me the right path in life, the right path for me. And I always (and I mean always) count my blessings. When I'm driving, when I'm working out in the gym, when I'm alone, anytime anywhere. And I have so much to be thankful for. 

This week I have learned a life lesson. One that I took for granted in a sense. One I obsessed over. Something that I wanted to be in control of to a degree. Something that I am learning just how lucky I am, just how blessed I am, just how nice it will be when all my wishes, hopes, and dreams do come true. Because I have had this time to grow, to learn, to see, and to appreciate. And with this, I will live, laugh, love, be happy, and grow fonder.

Awards:

I just recently got a few blog awards, and I am way behind from some I got a couple of months ago that I never posted about. I can not remember exactly who sent them, so if you sent them and you are reading this please leave a comment so I can show you some love and give recognition for it!

The first award is from Sarah at Confession's of a Sailor's Wife. It is the "Sunshine Award." Thanks so much for the award, Sarah! It has made my day!

The rules of this award is to pass it to 12 other bloggers. Since I have already passed this award once, I would like to open it up to all Military Spouses that follow me! Because other Military Spouses are just a few bloggers that really brighten my day!

The second award came from Mrs. S. at The Adventures of Mr. Superman and Mrs. S. It is called "The Fabulous Sugar Doll Blogger Award." So thanks, Mrs. S., for passing this award to me!!

The rules for this one is to list 10 things about yourself, then pass it to 10 others.

So the 10 (very random) things I am going to tell you about myself are:

1.) I love to dip Goldfish, the cracker fish, into pickle juice and eat them. It is so dang delicious! Actually, I will just tell you that I am a pickle junky. Another weird thing I like to do with pickles is put them in my scrambled eggs. I got Mr. Man to try this on the morning of his birthday. He just said, "It is ok." But I seriously love it!

2.) My two fears include losing Mr. Man, never seeing him again, and not being able to have my own children. 

3.) I am a full time student with the University of Phoenix majoring in Elementary Education. I love being a student, and I have always said, and still do, that if I could be a student forever, I would. I love learning new things. 

4.) I also love children. If you ever need a babysitter, call me. Or just come knock on my door. Seriously.

5.) I have two of the bestest friends in the whole wide world, so I am going to give a shout-out to them. Dever and Coco!! Of course, my two other besties include Mr. Man and my sister.

6.) I am deathly afraid of IV's, stitches, needles, broken bones, etc. The only needles I have ever came in contact with is when I got my belly, ears, and tongue pierced (which I no longer have my tongue pierced) and when I have to have blood drawn for certain tests. I definitely tear up and have a minor anxiety every single time! I have never had stitches although I have seen them being put into one of my cousins. I have only had strained bones, never broken.

7.) I have only been drunk 3 times in my life. One time was when Mr. Man left for the Air Force back in 2005 because me and my family through him a huge party. Another time was for my high school graduation in 2006. And the third time was for July 4th of 2009.

8.) I love being outdoors. Fishing, hunting, laying out, boating, swimming, etc... Love it!

9.) I am a spoiled rotten wife. I will admit. Although I must admit that I do love it. Who wouldn't?! I have a gazillion pairs of shoes, a gazillion pair of blue jeans, a gazillion skirts... ok, ok I have a lot of clothes in general. I get massages, facials, manicures, and pedicures regularly.

10.) I am very grateful for the life I have been giving. The opportunity to have met Mr. Man so young and marry him. To begin our life so young and not have any problems has been a blessing in itself. The opportunity to be who I want, go to school, have no debt, own a house, have savings for our future children, and the ability to travel is nice. I am thankful for my supportive family and friends. I am thankful that God has allowed me the time, patience, and strength to make my own life decisions without throwing me too many curve balls.

Ok, I hope that did not bore you too much!

Now to pass it to 10 people. I really do not think I will hit 10 people, but here I go anyway.

1.) Dani at Hard Corps Love

2.) Taylor at The Undomestic Momma

3.) Expat Girl at The Sand is Different Here

4.) The Longs in Italy

5.) Birdie at Soldier's Lady

Thanks again ladies for the awards! They are greatly appreciated!

My Birthday Boy

Yesterday was Mr. Man's birthday. Yes, he shared it the same day as Father's Day. It was a nice and relaxing weekend for us (for the most part).

Mr. Man was on standby for work, which it was suppose to be a 3 day weekend. That 3 day weekend did not happen for us at all. Mr. Man had to go in to work on Friday and do some work. It ended up taking him all day long. He got there a little after 8, and was there for a while. Then, that night we got a phone call at midnight about one of the alarms going off, but thankfully someone else volunteered to go up there and straighten it out. 

On Saturday, it was laid back. I took Mr. Man out to a nice Indian restaurant that is not far from the house. I am not an Indian food eater, but he has been wanting to try it. We went, and it was good. Like I said, not really my kind of food, but I could tell that it was fresh ingredients and homemade. That in itself made it worth it for me. The Nan bread was absolutely amazing. I loved it, but I love all bread. Mr. Man enjoyed it, too. After we ate, we went bowling. It was a Saturday night, and I wanted to go early before the crowds got there. It worked out. We played 4 games, all of which I won. Surprisingly, I won. I say this because the first couple of frames I totally gutter-balled every single one. I was ok with it, but Mr. Man decided to give me some small lessons. Just about throwing it straight and not all crooked. That is me. I am goofy. Well, after I got it down, it was a strike or spare every single time. It was beyond hilarious. Poor Mr. Man had to stick it out for the night. Finally on the last game, he conveniently bowled for me while I drank some water and went to the bathroom. I come back and he is winning. It worked out because it was his birthday, so he deserved to get his way. It was a nice night. We had a blast. We went home and Mr. Man asked me if I had seen the movie "UP". And I hadn't, so he suggested we watch it together. He had already seen it, though, but it was still fun to watch it with him and snuggle up on the couch together. Do I not have the best man ever or what?! He totally is so family-oriented and selfless. It was an adorable movie, too.

On Sunday, we got a phone call bright and early from his work. He had to go in. It was fine that he went in because I thought he would be back by church time. Wrong. So I laid in bed a little longer. Of course, I could have went to church alone, but I didn't have gas in my car and the gas station was close that early in the morning. Needless to say, we missed church. He got back at about 11am, and said he saw a few things going on in a couple of towns nearby that we could go to. One was a fair and the others were car boot sales. Once again, thinking about ME on his birthday! We went did that and got some shopping done, and back home we were. My family called and wished Mr. Man a Happy Birthday. His Mom called, but that was it from his side. He was very bummed about it. Mostly because he called his Dad to tell him Happy Father's Day and his Dad didn't remember. But in his Dad's defense, it has been a busy last couple of weeks for everyone between vacations and work and things, so I just explained that to Mr. Man but it didn't really work. He asked to go walk our son since it was pretty outside, and the whole time he was thinking about it. He would just make some small comments that made me realize it was really bothering him. When we got home, I asked what I could do to make him feel better thinking I was going to get something really sarcastic, like cook dinner, do clothes, wash dishes, give him a foot rub, etc. He is pretty sarcastic like that, but not this time. He just said, "Nothing. It's not your fault. I will just have to get use to the fact that people don't remember my birthday anymore." I wanted to cry. Made my heart break! 

But I did cheer him up by playing Modern Warfare with him. We played on 2 players. If you know me, you know I strongly dislike that game. It's too loud, too bloody, and just not nice, so I would rather have nothing to do with it. Yea... I played with him for 2 hours!! Help him get some medals on the 2 player part, and that was that. I must admit I had fun, but I am not addicted to it in any way.

That pretty much sums up our weekend. It was nice and laid back, except for the calls from work in the early morning and late night. 

Getting to Know You with MannLand5

I am (once again) participating in Keely's Getting to Know You. I generally do this every Sunday when I am not too busy and can squeeze it in. I love doing this because the questions are definitely "Get to Know You" type questions, and I know I love to get to know and meet new people. 

So this week the questions are:

1. While at the beach, pool, etc..Do you cover up your assets or show them off?

Depends on how confident I am feeling. Majority of the time I can look around and know that I am ok to show what I have, but sometimes I would rather save some people's eye sight. Just depends on how I am feeling, really. But lately I have been showing them off. The reason is because I do not get that opportunity here in England much, so when I do, I tend to take advantage of it.

2. Road trips or Plane trips?

Generally, I would say road trips... and I still think this is true for the most part. Just recently we took a "plane trip" to Italy from England. The flight was not so bad, but it is not my thing either. So it depends on how far this road trip is. Anything over a 12 hour drive, I may choose a plane instead.

3. I can't stand it when...?

I can not stand when people make excuses for themselves or lie to themselves about things. I wish people could face reality with a strong head and move past it. I know it's easier said than done, and not many people are strong enough, but I just wish everyone was born with that instinct.

4. Have you ever gone topless at the beach?

Oh gosh!! hahaha!! I have never gone topless at the beach. Why? Well because I have NOTHING to go topless for or any reason to go topless. However, if I did have that something, something then I may if it was only Mr. Man and I. Never would I do it in public. No way. My goodies are for my husband only. 

But I do have a funny story for you. Mr. Man and I were at the beach in Venice laying out. We had just got done swimming, and I really wanted to get some sun. We laid on our layout beds and began soaking up the sun. We were both exhausted from the day, so not long after laying there we fell asleep. I woke up to flip over, so I flipped and realized Mr. Man was sleeping and never flipped. While I was rolling over, I get knocked in the face with some old, wrinkly boobies. Ok, not literally, but definitely plain as day. And this old woman was definitely confident about it. Oh, and she really was not that old.. maybe early 50s or so? But too old for me to want to she that, right? Ok, so I start laughing hysterically. "Stupid American" moment, I know. So I lay down on my stomach all calmly and wake Mr. Man up and tell him he needs to flip. So he pops up and begins to flip over. I stop him and tell him as he's flipping to look to the front and right of me. He did NOT even notice. (Made me feel like I have a really awesome man at this point!) So I am giggling, once again. Mr. Man was like, "What is so funny? Do I have something on me?" I told him, "No, and to search again." Still didn't notice. So finally I get up and gaze my eyes towards her, so he will follow them. Yep!!! What a moment?!! Mr. Man goes, "Oh, Wow!! BOOBIES!!" Poor guy never sees boobies. But what makes this even more funny is the fact that everytime we saw a sculptor of a female and her boobs or a painting of a naked woman, Mr. Man had to always say, "Yay! BOOBIES!" Of course, quietly to me... and we would giggle. Hilarious! I know. So to make this even more great. Mr. Man is wide awake. I am giggling so hard. So, Mr. Man says, "Want to see how good your camera is?" Oh gosh, I started laughing ridiculously and am slapping at his hand to NOT grab the camera and make it obvious. Mr. Man says, "No, I'm giving it to you. It won't look as suspicious if you do it." O-M-G! I am rolling at this point. So I grab the camera and begin taking pictures, which I haven't posted yet. It was just pictures of the beach in general. Then I lead it towards her direction and her arm is covering her boob. Needless to say, I got no good pictures. But wait, that isn't it. Mr. Man gets frustrated and says, "Just give it to me, darn it." This was all in fun and games, of course. He managed to get a halfway decent picture of it. I guess it's one of those "you had to be there" type funnies.

5. How many blog carnivals do you do a week?

2-3 depending on how busy I am with school work and volunteering.

6. My favorite thing about the weekend is...?

The fact that Mr. Man is home, we can sleep in, spend family time with our furry son, and do whatever we want. Also, I love church days!

7. Pancakes or waffles?

I love them both, but I only like pancakes from Ihop. Ihop pancakes with blueberries on top, then I use strawberry syrup. Nom, Nom, Nom. But I could eat waffles from anywhere, including my own house! YUM!

8. Water Park or Amusement Park?

I really love water parks. I miss being in the sun and swimming all the time. I miss getting tan and the wave pools. Definitely water park for me.