16 years!!!

Celebrating 16 years with this amazing man! 17 years in June I met him.  We met at a bar in Alaska.  He kept starring and I kept starring back - but he never would make the move so I basically told him to come here.  I had NEVER made the first move with a guy - I am so thankfully that I decided to with him.

 Our first picture together back in 2002.

When we first started dating he only had his motorcycle so during the summer and early fall this is how we got around, he even bought me my own helmet.  Once it was too cold for the bike we relied on my truck to get us around.

Our first Halloween together.

 We were married May 24th 2003, in the church I grew up in, surrounded by my family and friends I had known my entire life, his Army brothers and what family that could fly in from his side.

 Who knew that life would bring us 4 moves with the military, 2 great quirky kids, 1 army family that included 3 couples 5 kids in 3 separate states and has memories of all the guys stationed together in Alaska and all of us wives dated our husbands at the same time, 1 army family that we live near includes 4 couples 12 kids and the guys currently work together and we have all decided to buy houses and plant roots in this area. BOTH of these families or Ohana, as we call them, we hold DEAR to our hearts.

 This was the day we found out I was pregnant with Kennedie.  We went on a hike to McHugh Creek in Alaska.  On our hike Tim carved our names in a fallen tree.  I wonder if it's still there!

 This was about a month before we left Alaska and the military moved us to Washington State.

I love that he has an explorers heart like mine and loves to travel.  He is usually down to go just about anywhere I suggest.  Now that we have a camper it's SO easy to just pick up and go explore this great country we live!

 We have been through so much in our 16 years of marriage to include 2 tours of duty to Iraq, many months missed because of training.  But in the end we created a great life, with great kids, with a great school, and a great army made family.

I can't wait to see what the next 16 years holds for us.

Our Town - Columbus, Georgia

We have a GREAT town!  Columbus Georgia is a cute southern town with lots of charm.  On friday nights in the summer they have a "concert series".  We went down to show our friends the downtown area this weekend and we were able to hang out and listen to some awesome music!

 We started out at a place called "Maltitude" - you can purchase a bunch of local and craft beers.  They also have a machine that if you like a beer they can make you a single can of it to go.  This is the tasting.  They even have a homemade root beer that they said was actually pretty tasty.

 We ate dinner at the Mexican restaurant downtown called "The Cantina" after we left the music really started to play.  They close off a block of down town so that people can mill around and sit in their chair in the street.  All of the restaurants have outdoor seating as well.  You can walk around with your drinks on this night only.

 They don't allow big coolers to come in (but you can leave them in your car and walk back and forth should you not want to purchase from the vendors - or as you can see next to the one lady she has a small cooler bag.

 We found an unoccupied bench which is where we sat and talked and listened to the music.  It was a great mix of new and old country music.

 I tried to get a picture of the whole stage (which stays up year round) but that tree kept getting in my way!  It was SUCH a beautiful night that night too.  Not too hot and it had a light breeze.  It was so enjoyable to be outside!

 This guy was painting faces and then he had a HUGE bubble wand he was using and the kids would run up and pop.

It's also VERY dog friendly.  These little puppies were the cutest things.  Even with all the commotion and people stopping to pet them they stayed near their owner and didn't make a peep.

If you are ever in the Columbus area I would totally suggest you take a trip to our downtown, it's right on the Chattahoochee River and you can go white water rafting down it, catch a show at the "River Center", dine to your hearts content and just enjoy the view.

My Valetines Day date

We decided to celebrate on Saturday the 16th with dinner and a show!

 30 minutes before we were supposed to leave the house.  I'm glad he doesn't take more than 10-15 minutes to get ready!

 I texted a few shirt options to my friends and we all chose this blue shirt.  I wear this color lipsense all the time and it's my favorite, if you can get your hands on SassyZ BUY IT!!

 I think we looked AMAZING for our night out!

 I love any excuse to wear my Lilly sunglasses!!!

 I bought this purse that morning at Ross for $9.99.  It was great!  I could pack my sunglasses when the sun went down, two Slams for when we needed an energy kick (Advocare's version of a 5 hour energy), tickets, my debit/ID card and my lipsense gloss.

 We ate dinner at 11th and Bay downtown.

 I ate the Osso Bucco - and it came with "roasted root vegetables" and potatoes.  I asked for them to give me more vegetables instead of mashed potatoes.  I at a parsnip for the first time.  I was proud of myself.

 Tim had a Soul Burger.  He said it was DELICIOUS!

 Left the restaurant and went up the road to the RiverCenter and parked the truck.  Our tickets were at Will Call so we went in right when it opened (an hour before the show) got the tickets and then decided to walk down across the street and browse around downtown for 45 minutes before we needed to be back in to get into our seats. 

 There was a band playing out front of the pizza place so we sat and listened for about 20-30 minutes and walked back to the venue.

 This was a great show, like a wild west Cirque show.  They had live music and some of it was recognizable older country songs.  Only thing that would have made it better is if they would have sang "The Devil went down to Georgia", because that's our anthem down here!

We had great seats.  I felt like we could see the entire stage and not looking up like the people in the orchestra pit had to do!

Have you heard of Clothes Mentor?

I stumbled upon the local Clothes Mentor store a few years ago, I saw the sign and thought "hmmm I wonder what that store is" but kept on driving.  I googled it later that afternoon, forwarded the link to my friend and said "lets check it out this week!!!"  Ever since it's our go to place for shopping.  Anytime anyone of my friends comes and visits me I make them go, yeah I'm that excited about it!

Clothes Mentor is basically a high end thrift store.  Only difference is that most of the clothes are purchased from people cleaning out there closets and then re-sold.  They will ONLY purchase clothes that were sold in retail stores within the last 2 years.  All these clothes are in fashion, you won't happen upon someone's old clothes that are stained, ripped, or from earlier decades.  It's all stuff that is still in fashion NOW!  I like to sell my clothes there before I donate them.  They will give you cash for your clothes or they will give you more money if you use store credit.  I always find something in there so I always opt for the store credit.

I have an obsession with Lilly Pulitzer.  (I told you I'm a basic southern white girl!)  I don't have the bank account to cash roll full price Lilly.  Clothes Mentor has Lilly Shorts for $22-$25, normally brand new Lilly P shorts go for $69!!!!! 

Are you a purse snob?  Only like the Dooney and Burke, Coach, Louis Vuitton and Kate Spade?  Check out Clothes Mentor!!!  Seriously purses are 70% lower than what they are sold for in the stores brand new!  Half the time you can't even tell that the purse has been used!!!

They have all sorts of normally expensive designer brands for normal people's budget.  Or if you just like being frugal this is your spot!!!  Every $200 you spend you get a 20% off your purchase coupon!!! Like WHAT!!!!  YAAAASSSSS

We even scope out other Clothes Mentor's when we travel.  This is my daughter and me at the Clothes Mentor in Savannah, GA. 

My friend Lisa came to visit and she is like me, likes the look but doesn't want to pay the price.  Normally if I can get a friend in there and they purchase I have them apply their purchase to my "account", but in Lisa's case there was a local to her Clothes Mentor under construction in her area!!  So she made her own "account" and by the time her Clothes Mentor opened she already had a 20% off coupon waiting to be used!  She even found a great pair of Lilly shorts for me and mailed them to me!

Shoes!!  All but the white pair of Converse were purchased at Clothes Mentor for $18 a pair!  My white pair cost me $63 (I wear them all the time and it was my mothers day present or I wouldn't have replaced my old dingy white pair until I found a white pair at CM)  They were practically brand new (obviously in this picture the silver ones are WELL worn!!)!!!

Ya'll seriously if you have a Clothes Mentor near you, you owe it to yourself to atleast check it out!  You may not find anything your first time, give it a couple chances, you'll thank me later!

Miss Georgia - 2018

My daughter and myself had the opportunity to go to our first Miss Georgia finals this week.  We were given tickets for Wednesday night.  We arrived at 6:30 found our seats and the show started at 7:00 pm.

I always thought (like dance competitions runs) they have do one category at a time, so I didn't know what I was going to be watching Wednesday night.  I was pleasantly surprised to find out that each night you get to see everything.  The Miss's and the Teens are broken up into groups (there were 99 contestants total I think I heard), and each group did something different each night.  I don't now how many groups they were broken up into but I kept hearing "this is the sigma group" or "the omega group" or even "the alpha group".  We saw talent from both the Teens and the Miss's, question and answer session (20 seconds each, and this is the portion that lost Kennedie's attention), fitness wear for the Teens and swimsuits for the Miss's, evening wear...I loved seeing all the dresses.

They had a great opening number.  One of the Emcee's actually sang and played guitar for the Miss's evening wear portion. 

I would totally go again next year, I had a great time!!!  Even if you don't live in Georgia and can't make our show, look into your state's finals and see if you can attend!!

Uptown Float - Columbus, Georgia

Our anniversary is next week but because we have busy lives I decided to surprise my husband with a trip to Uptown Float in downtown Columbus.  Uptown Float is a new place here in town.  It's basically sensory deprivation, while you are floating in high salt content water.

We were told to arrive 10 minutes early.  We got there at 3:45 and he wasn't ready for us yet.  So we walked across the street to Iron Bank Coffee, and Tim got two shots of espresso and we shared a giant chocolate chip cookie. 

I told him to "look cute", such a goofball. 

This is the hall you come out of when you are finished.  The door with the light on is the place you can dry your hair, reapply your makeup, and style your hair.

This is the waiting area.  This is where I sat and waited for him to get done.  I originally was going to walk around and look at the shops downtown but it started to rain so I just sat and waited.

The front desk waiting area, where you check in.

I took this picture from their website as I didn't go back with him.  This is what the float room looks like.

In the second waiting area they had aroma therapy, soft spa like music, coffee, water and these adult coloring books.

Really comfy couches!!

So I colored while I waited!  Only so much Facebook you can browse.

 

Once he came out he came into the "get ready room".  They specifically say on their website to not bring your own hairdryer as they have super quiet ones to keep the noise down.

And they provided, lotion, hair spray, makeup remover pads, and qtips.  Also had body wash in the bathroom as well.

Overall my husband said it was super relaxing.  When you were in the room you would choose to have ambient glowing blue lights from underneath the pool, stars on the ceiling or BOTH with the push of a button.  He mentioned if he didn't have either of those on it was so dark that if he closed his eyes and opened them he couldn't tell a difference!!  The water was warm and comfortable, only about 10 inches deep.  He said he wouldn't do it monthly but that every couple of months that it would be nice, and he would totally recommend his friends to at least try it! 

So THUMBS UP to Columbus' Uptown Float.