So here I am, back from vacation/sleeping after vacation/cleaning due to unpacking from vacation and I'm ready to tell y'all, ALL about it!! First let me start by saying, the next time I say it's totally fine for my mom to steal my kids for two weeks and then for Lily to go to her dad's moms house for summer camp for two weeks.... somebody hit me really hard in the head and say, "No, bitch." 'cause that was an awful idea on my part. Yeah, me and the man meat had A LOT of alone time and more date nights/hang out sessions than we ever thought possible (and I loved every second of it!), but man did I miss those tiny little feet pitter pattering around my house and their grimy little finger prints on everything. All is well now though. Emory is back with me and Lily is enjoying her swim/gymnastics/dance/play camp at her daddy's house. You ready for the adventures in Mande Land? Of course you are, you were BORN ready!
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this is the best shot that I have for now; I'll have to take a new
one soon! |
Basically the last time I wrote was to brag about my main man being made a main man haha since then we just got A LOT done around the house. We did a total revamp of my dining room and now it's a southern themed paradise. We also discovered Ikea while the girls were away and if you know me at all you know that I'm all about saving money as opposed to spending it, we dont even have credit cards for Christ's sake because I think they're pure evil. Well, Ikea proved to be my one weakness (other than Bowtique goodies, but who can say no to those!?) in the money spending department. Essentially, we used Ikea to update the girls room and make it a little more storage friendly and we also went a head and bought some new stuff for their play room. Lily now has a really cool stuffed animal organizer to help maintain the obnoxious amount of stuffed toys that she has managed to acquire. She also has a magnetic board to hang all of the pretty art work that she makes on. The girls used to have this REALLY old Dora table and stool set that I had moved out of the house and into the garage to be disposed of and then it hit me, why throw it away when I can revamp it and make it functional AND pretty for them. So I, being the crafty cheap queen that I am, bought some simple spray paint and chalk board pain and voilà! they now are the proud owners of a really adorable and totally fun chalk board table. I'm pretty proud of how far our house has come since we moved in. I love nothing more than making each room feel a little more like home every day. Especially since where we are is the black hole of all military bases. Thank God I love it here... my friends help a lot with that though.
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| bad ass, right!? |
After finishing cleaning the house up and making it prettier than it already was, I packed my things and got ready to say, "See ya later, Ohio!" and "Hello, Florida!". The flight to Pensacola was actually not bad at all. It went really quick and there were no delays. I think more than anything, I was just so excited to see my babies that it seemed to move a lot faster than it did. When I got in the car leaving the airport, I'll never forget the look of pure excitement on Emory and Lily's faces! That made me feel really awesome knowing that they missed their mommy. Once we got back to my moms, pretty much the first thing I did was get into my parents GLORIOUS pool. They have an 8ft. pool in the middle of freaking paradise I tell you. I didn't realize it until I was there that my parents actually get to live, where most people go to vacation. How lucky are they!? Really lucky. Basically I spent the next 10 days eating my mom's home cooked deliciousness, listening to my dad's band play and just spending a lot of time with my sisters and my girls.
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| beach beauties!
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My dad taught Lily how to swim in less than an afternoon and after that, it was pretty much downhill from there. She refused floaties if we were in the pool and wanted to swim all by herself. Uhh... can I have my baby back now? Who is this big girl that has replaced her!? I did manage to night swim quite a bit and if you know me at all, you know that I am absolutely BEYOND horrified of snakes. They scare the living shit (literally) out of me. So I decided that night swimming would be the perfect way to relax, naturally. My dad lit all of the tiki torches for me and turned on the pool lights (ummm their pool light changes colors, it's like swimming in a freaking rainbow) and I headed out. Then as I'm peacefully swimming I remember my mom telling me about how coral snakes, three to be exact, have fell from the trees and into the pool. In that moment, I don't think that I've ever paid more attention to every single splash ever made in a pool. Every time a random splash would happen I just knew that was it. That was the night I was sure my worst fears would come true and my obituary would be written as so, "Long live Amanda, she fell to the might power of the snake. She shit her bathing suit and then she died" I'd say that I'd never live that down, but if I were already dead, it wouldn't really matter. Needless to say I only went night swimming one other time and that was after Bryce got there.
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| ....amazing. I miss it already haha |
Once Bryce was there we finally got to visit the beach and the girls LOVED it. Perdio Key has some amazing beaches and I'd know, I grew up at the beach. It was very nostalgic teaching Lily to jump waves and trying to teach emory that the wet sand makes a better sand castle than the dry sand she was insisting on using. It feels like not that long ago that I remember my mom/aunt/brother/cousins/uncle/dad teaching me the way of the ocean and how much fun sand castle building can be once you know how to do it. Truth be told, I miss everything about southern living. I complained the whole time I was there about how hot it was and how much better the weather is in Ohio, but once I was there I made sure to tell the man meat that Eglin needs to be #1 on his dream sheet, because I could get used to being a bronzed goddess all the time.
Saying, "Goodbye!" to my family is never easy, but luckily I see my mom at least 4 times a year and that makes it a little easier. Being there really just solidified that my mom is my best friend and that my sisters are brat faces that I love more than life itself. I swear I need to lock them up already, they're too beautiful for words, but then again, they are related to me. (that was a little ego humor for you... i know i know, i'm hilarious.) I hated leaving them, but we had places to be and people to see, so off we went in the direction of the great state of North Carolina. The car ride there really wasn't bad, we had to stop in a hotel at around 1:30 am to sleep, because we left late after spending the day at the beach, but we didn't mind. Lily loves hotels, so all in all, totally worth it. As we were driving it had been predetermined that the SECOND we came across a Bojangles, we were stopping. To say that I have a mild obsession with Bojangles, is really putting it nicely. I don't want to say that eating Bojangles the entire time I was in the south was the highlight of my trip, because that would be really kind of hurtful to everyone I spent time with, but the truth hurts and that's the truth.
We eventually mad it to Lily's dad's house and as much as I hated that I had to leave her, I love that she's getting to spend 2 weeks of quality time with him. Unfortunately, he was stationed in California for the past 2 years and didn't get to see her much. Now that he's officially out of the Marine Corps, I really hope that he'll get to make up for lost time with her. She was SO excited to see him and her mom-mom (she calls his mom that) it just melted my heart. I love that we can be on such good terms with each other and not just Matthew and me. Bryce and Matt totally bro down when they're around each other and that might confuse some people, but to us, it's not about us. It's about Lily having one unified support group standing behind her and loving her unconditionally as a whole. We see no reason why, just because Matthew and I went separate ways in life and weren't happy together, we should all be miserable. I love that about us. I love that I know Matt backs me in all of my decisions regarding Lily, just like he knows I'd never keep her from him. It's a really good feeling. I hope one day Lily realizes how lucky she is to have so many people that love her so much, to include her two daddies. ANYWAYS, sorry for my sappyness, we left Lily that night and she basically was like, "PEACE OUT HOMIES!" and went on playing with her dad. It was hard and it's never easy being away from her, but she's having one hell of a time.
After that we stopped in to see my very best friend, Ashley and spent the night/morning at her place. Then woke up and went to see her at work, which proved to be another spending disadvantage of mine. Ashely, in all of her make up loving glory, works at the Benefit counter in the mall. I am not one to buy expensive things, I will always tell you I could by myself this and this and that OR I could buy a billion things for my kids. I just don't buy myself stuff.... BUT when it comes to Benefit makeup and a 20% discount, what's a girl to do? Buy more Benefit product, as if I needed any more. Let me just say that if you're not using their "They're real!" mascara, you're really missing out. Yes, it's a bit pricey ($23), but my god it's worth every. single. penny! Since I started using benefit in January, there is NO face make up, in my opinion of course, that compares to it. My face is naturally pretty flawless, but this stuff just perfects it. HOWEVER, that's for another post another time. We left NC and literally drove to Ohio and STRAIGHT to Chipotlé, because yes, i have a problem.
We just spent the next two days chillin' and enjoying each others company. On Father's Day, my best friend here and her family had a cookout for Bryce and that was amazing. I'm starting to realize that I really do have some really great friends here. I mean who goes out of their way to have a cookout for their best friends husband to honor what an awesome dad he is!? My friends. That's who and they rock. I'm a very lucky lady.
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| I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always <3 |
Sadly, I must leave you now. I have an hour to inventory the pantry and fridge so we can go shopping when Bryce gets home and try and squeeze a bow or two in for my ready to ship album, it's a good thing I love what I do so much. I know I wrote a novel, so if you read it all... you rock and if you didn't, well I don't blame you. I'm pretty boring, I know.
Have an awesome day, y'all!!
xoxo,
Amanda.
p.s.
How super gorgeous is my mommy!?! I never realized it before, but I guess we really do look alike and I'm okay with it! :)
