Happy 1st Anniversary

Happy 1st Anniversary to my amazing husband!! 

I can't believe 5 years ago we started this amazing relationship, and 1 year ago we said I do - for a lifetime! Wow time sure does fly! I love you more than words can ever express, and I'm so glad we have been able to overcome those huge hurdles this past year.. only to make us stronger. Stronger as individuals and as a couple. Your not just my husband, but my best friend. I used to think it was impossible to love anyone has much as I love you, yet everyday that love grows stronger. 

When it all started.. in the "Big B"

TO..

The day we said I do.

I love you so much and can't wait to celebrate more anniversaries with you. :) 

My Best Friend

Today's post is a special dedication to a person who has made my life a little easier over the past 9 years. 


HOLY COW! Has it really been that long? WOW. 


Without this person, a lot of the oppsticals I faced in life, so far, I would not have been able to come. We've been through numerous nights of tears, laughter, no sleep, random 2am Taco Bell runs, m&m in noses, stealing batteries from my little sister's toys for the digital camera, car rides, Martina McBride outbursts in songs, mini random vacations, a wedding, heartache, and so much more. You name it, and we've probably been through it. :)


I met this person when I was in the seventh grade, through a mutual friend. We hung out, but we surely were not as close as we are today. We didn't become inseparable until about ninth grade.  At this time, there wasn't a thing on hearth I did without this person. 

We learned how to put air in tires!

 

We've got each others back, no matter the situation!

We share horrible bad embarrassing moments together.

My Brest Frand. :)

Some know her by Jessica, but I know her by : mexican.meximelt.smelly.cuhcuh.life long partner.brest frand.stinky.mommy jessica.stink. 
Never afraid to be who you are, and to do what you want. Thank you for always being there for me, even when times were rough. Those moments of crying and laughing over.. now stupid things, but then big things.. those memories are the ones that will never be forgotten. Thank you for always dropping everything just to be there for me. Thank you for helping me and sticking by my side through all of my wild and random wedding bridezilla moments. 


Mostly, just thank you for always being you. I love you best friend and I always will... always and foreverrrr.... each moment with you!
Now what best friend has their own song?! LMAO :) 


Happy Birthday Jessica! I'm sorry I can't be there with you and help celebrate, but it's only a matter of time before we see each others faces :) And no matter the distance, your always in my heart, and on my wrist. Yes, I do still wear my bracelet! I hope today is everything you deserve and more. I love you!!!


PS : I totally listened to our song like 20 times while making this post :)

Natural Bridge Zoo..

I've been meaning to get this post on here since this past weekend! So here it is :)


This past Saturday, March 19 we decided a day out in the beautiful sunshine would be good for both of us. Then the decision what to do.. we looked at some different things around us to do, and this attraction popped up on my screen! I was so excited. I know that's a huge kid thing, but when it comes to zoos I just looooove them.


However, as we walked through the zoo you could definitely tell it wasn't the "typical" zoo I'm used to. I was great - and they allowed you to get reallllly close to a lot of animals. It was their environment. Some were a lot smaller than i'm used to seeing at the Norfolk Zoo. Made me sad for those little guys, but the ability to get so close to them kind of made up for it! Every corner we turned there were chickens. It was like being on a farm! Chickens EVERYWHERE. haha
Among the millions of chickens we were able to see :
    White Bengal Tigers
    Regular Tigers
    Camels - HUGE ones and little ones
    Elephants
    Zebras
    Llamas
    Ostriches
    Multiple species of Monkeys
    3 HUGE Snakes
    BUT load of Guinea pigs
    Mountain Lion
    Big Goats and BABY Goats!
and soooo many more!


One of the best parts was being able to feed the animals. Well most of them. Justen got close to them, more so than I. I was to nervous! I didn't want any of those animals to bite me. So next time we go back.. which will be soon.. I only say soon, because...... they do elephant rides annnd baby tiger pictures! Ahh! So we will be going back to partake in those fun festives, and of course the brest frand will be coming. :)

*DOES A CRAZY, ECSTATIC, HAPPY DANCE!*

Overall, the zoo was pretty decent. I did make a note to myself to NOT wear flip flops on my next visit. :) 

Renting..

I am really starting to dislike it more and more!


Don't get me wrong, I absolutely LOVE my new mountain home; however, I am really starting to hate the "renting" part of it all! Okay, so we moved in a little earlier than expected.. big deal! We paid the money we owed plus some to cover the early move in fees or what not. But that doesn't mean we should get treated any differently! 


Firstly - I have been here since February 26th and my dryer has yet to be fixed! Well not really my dryer, but the venting portion of it all. My dryer works perfectly, but the venting part that brings heat in to dry the clothes.. yeah.. it SUCKS and totally doesn't work. We have to run about 4 cycles for them to be perfectly dry. So we called maintenance, and he came out, ran some tests.. looked at some stuff, and he still can't figure out why it's not drying our clothes properly. So it's been really frustrating, and it's like pulling teeth to try and get someone to come out and fix! All we want is to be able to wash our clothes and dry them in a timely manner. 


Secondly - We had to wait 2 weeks after moving in to get our freaking carpets cleaned! Talk about walking on filth! EW! The carpets were definitely nasty and in need of a good, good cleaning.
We made numerous efforts to contact our Realtor to figure things out. No response. We emailed him. No response. We called again. No response.. are you getting the pattern? After at least 5 calls and 2 emails.. Justen stepped it up and left a "not happy message yet not super nasty", but very stern and to the point (letting our level of frustration and unhappiness known) we received the phone call back that we were desperately trying to get. Of course the Realtor was nothing but overly apologetic and stating how he doesn't conduct business this way, but it didn't fix our problems. So we got our nasty carpets cleaned!

One of the things I love so much about my husband is how well he makes his 

point known, and somehow the receiving party always seems to understand he means 

business and nothing less.

However, carpets are not the only problem we've been having. We still haven't had our new renter walk through with our Realtor to discuss what issues we have and things that need to be fixed throughout the home, due to the previous renters. Thank you for being a (insert horrible name). :) 

So we are still waiting for that, among other things.

Speaking of waiting - I waited alllllll day for a maintenance man to come to my home to conduct a normal routine check up on some of the filters in the house. We were told they'd be here between 9 and 5. Yep - I waited all day. 4:45 came around - and I no longer waited.. I headed out the door with the husband and dogs and hit the park for some daily exercise! Just to return home and discover they came while we were out! UGH - SERIOUSLY! That irks my nerves so much. 

So needless to say - this new renting experience up here in Lynchburg is not going as smoothly as we'd like. 

Hopefully things change soon, and for the better! :)

St. Patrick's Day Parade!

Almost every year Justen and I attend the yearly St. Patrick's Day Parade held in Ocean View (Norfolk, VA.). However, being new residents of Lynchburg.. that drive is a little longer than we'd like to make for a parade.
Still in the spirit though, we decided to see what our new town has to offer, celebration wise. I began my intense web searching to find any sort of fun filled events for St. Patrick's Day, but NOTHING! Lynchburg, DOES NOT have a St. Patrick's Day Parade. WHAT?!
I was in shocked; however, all of my internet searching did pay off in the end as I found a HUGE parade in Roanoke, VA. Which is only about an hour away from our house! That hour was a little more reasonable for us than the 4 hour drive to Norfolk.


I thought I'd snag a few pictures while we were there to show everyone. It is a lot different from our normal what we are used to. All in all the parade was really fun. We had a blast together, as always.. and just a blast in general. The crowd wasn't too bad, the food smelled amazing, the sushi restaurant was great, and the drive was beautiful!

And the parade started, sponsored by The McDonald House! 

It seemed like everyone was in the GREEN spirit today as well. 

From two legged to four!

They had so many fire trucks. 

I couldn't resist taking pictures of each truck we saw. Susie, these are for you :) And we had to include a little of Lynchburg in the photos.. the green fire hydrant. They are everywhere in Lynchburg.. I have only seen 1 red one, and like 25 green! How crazy is that?

Hope you enjoyed our little parade as much as we did. 

New Journies!

Well, here we are.. not only are we new residents of Lynchburg, but also new residents to the blogging world! How exciting, I know!


Blogging wasn't something I saw myself doing, until we moved and I realized my closest family and friends are no longer five minutes down the street. The question arose.. how to keep everyone up-to-date with Justen and I. *Light Bulb*
Why not start a blog? So here I am, inspired by some very special people in my life.


As many of you know, we recently moved to Lynchburg, VA! That's right folks, we packed our bags and headed north west. It's a huge change for Justen and I, but we are overly excited for this huge new journey ahead of us. A little over four weeks ago, Justen received a call to travel again, but instead of traveling and being apart we chose to take a huge step and move, and a few weeks later here we are. 


The move itself was more than dificult... expenses, stress, and the unknowing are many things we faced. However, together we are unstoppable. 


We moved into our new home February 26. WOW! What a day! Thanks to our great family and friends we were able to make this possible. We loaded our cars and a UHaul and off we went, ready to face our life's next challenge. 

So here is a sneak peek of our new home!

Front of the house.

Kitchen.

From the kitchen looking into the dining room and living room.

Stay tuned for more updates and further inside looks of our new home!