#Blogtober14: Smile for the Camera!

"Favorite Instagram Post"
Obviously I couldn't pick just one because a lot of thought and effort goes into Instagram pictures. You have to get just the right angle with just the right lighting, and of course you have to add just the right filter. Even after ALL of those criteria have been met, sometimes it's still a miss. You only get two or three likes. Immediately you realize that the world as a whole hates you and you have nothing else to live for because NO ONE liked your picture about the road construction.  Just kidding.. my life isn't THAT dramatic ever all the time. So I picked a few that I liked. 

This is from New Years eve.... 2 years ago? That's not wine, it's sparkling apple juice. Unfortunately... jk.. kind of.. moving on.

This is from my birthday in July. We'd just taken our engagement pictures and Roland's mom and sisters came over to celebrate with cake. And they brought my cutest little nephew!  

This is my brother, Brandon. This is also why it takes 10+ hours to take any kind of family photo.

This was at Brandon's BMT Graduation 2 years ago. Obviously, we're really photogenic.

This is Toby. How adorable was he as a little puppy with his little lay down ears?! MEEP.

This is my super sassy nephew Braden. Look at that face he is making!?

And obviously, I couldn't do an Instagram post without a #selfie.  Side Note: I haven't been able to get my eyeliner to look like this again once. NOT ONCE.
I narrowed it down a lot. I originally had a lot more than this. I guess you'll just have to follow me on Instagram to see the rest of my artistic selfies and witty captions.  (It's ok I know you're really only hopping over to see pictures of Toby and Braden.......)  My Instagram is private because it's my personal Instagram. But if you just hit that little request button I'll accept! If you want to leave a little comment saying "hey, you have really awesome hair, I'm going to follow you on Instagram in like ten seconds." It wouldn't hurt! (You don't have to compliment my hair...) (but it wouldn't hurt... just kidding.) 

Happy Saturday y'all!

#Blogtober: I know you want it.

It's Friday Y'all. Today's prompt is "One thing you can't live without"
Obviously my first thought was Chick-fil-a. What was life even before those delicious nuggets and delectable sweet tea? Dreadfully tasteless, that's what.  But I guess if we're being honest, there's probably a couple things I couldn't live without.   My phone. It's so much easier now a days, the fact that anyone can get a hold of you whenever they feel like they need to tell you something no matter how trivial. hashtag sarcasm. It's not necessarily easier in that way, but when I need to ask Roland a question it's easy to just shoot him a text. "Hey what time are you getting off?" "What do you want for dinner?" "Will you pick up Chick-fil-a?" (Obviously there's a theme going on here.) "I know we said we weren't eating out this week but I don't care." But sometimes it's tedious. Like when you're trying to do a million things AND haveing a conversation with someone. Multi-tasker I am not.  My car. For awhile Roland and I talked about down sizing to one car. Which I'm not against, for years my parents had one car, and just think of all the money we'd save. The first time we talked about it, it wasn't really possible. He had a weird schedule where sometimes he worked till nine, and sometimes he worked till 6, but he never went to lunch at the same time. I had a set schedule (creature of habit) and still do. I try to leave for work by 7:50 to get there by 7:56ish. I go home for lunch at 12, I come back to work at 12:50 to be back by 12:56, and I go home at 5:00. It's definitely a larger possibility now that Roland has a more set schedule. But he doesn't get off until 6, and like to use that time to go home and sit on the couch and maybe think about cooking something....  Soda/Sweet Tea. I know soda is super unhealthy for you (especially the OG Coca Cola) but I can't live without the stuff. I'm sure if I tried hard enough I maybe might be able to, but I wouldn't be nearly as fun to be around. Sometimes I just crave a nice fizzy soda. And sweet tea is the drink of my ancestors. Right fully so. The best places to get sweet tea are McAlister's and Chick-fil-a.  Macaroni and Cheese. One of my favorite bloggers posted about a bunch of different types of macaroni and cheese a couple weeks ago. I bookmarked that post, a) because I like to torture myself apparently, b) because I love macaroni and cheese. If you have never had McAlister's macaroni and cheese, you have not lived life. It is seriously the cheesiest, noodliest, meltiest goodness ever invented. Go. Eat it. Now. Or call me, I'll have some sent to you if you're not near a McAlister's. 

And of course the basic answers, Roland, Toby, my family.... the ones everyone already knows.  Happy Friday! 16 days until The Rios Wedding.  

#blogtober: Dream Job

This is a tough one. I don't know that I ever had a "dream job" when I was younger. I mean I had many "dream lives" for the longest time I dreamed (dreamt isn't correct? huh.) that I'd be Lance Bass' wife. I could live that life.  Then for a solid year I dreamed about being Barbie. She has THE life. How many houses does that bitch even own?  THEN there was the time I wanted to just own horses. That's what I aspired to do in my life was owning horses. So I could put on my Felicity dress (yup, my mom made it be jealous) and just ride horses. Because obviously, that's the life. Clearly, even better than Barbie's with so many houses she can't possibly enjoy them all.  Even still to this day I have no idea what I want to do with my life. I'm currently an "insurance specialist" I work in a medical office, I submit claims to insurance companies, call when they don't pay, send statements to the patients. Which doesn't sound like a lot, but some insurance companies are super stubborn for no apparent reason at all. Not to mention 60% of my day is spent on the phone with said insurance companies or their super annoying voice automated systems that really suck. (looking at you Blue Cross and Blue Shield) My best friend is going to school to be a PTA (physical therapy aide) and I'm so happy she's following her dreams, but this just makes me think about what I want to do for the rest of my life? What dreams I want to follow.. But I don't really have any work dreams. A couple things I've thought about doing is: Esthetician: Working with skincare. You can work in a dermatologists office (which is what I would shoot for) and do medical esthetician things like microderms and chemical peels and things like that, which would be super fun. Or you can work in a spa and give facials, which isn't up my alley. I'd much rather wear scrubs and work in a doctor office. I love skincare, it's always been an obsession of mine. Now that I finally got my skin to calm down I'm purchasing more make up-y stuff rather than skin care stuff because I don't want to freak it out again, but I go through phases where I'm buying a new mask or cleanser on the regular.  The other thing I've thought about recently is an editor. A book editor, a magazine editor, a newspaper editor. It doesn't really matter I'd probably do it all. I love editing, and I hate reading a published book that's rather popular and finding a mistake. How much did they pay this editor and they didn't find this? I'm sure they probably had to read the book a gazillion times and after a while I'm sure the lines all run together, but seriously? That word is obviously spelled wrong. Wouldn't that hurt their editor "cred". Anyway, I love reading. And I love telling people when their wrong, so these are really combining two things I love. And maybe I'd let Roland be right more often..  They both sound ideal and wonderful and like I'd enjoy them. But what if we pay all this money for me to do all this schooling and then I end up not liking it? I'm stuck in a job I don't like for the rest of my life because I have a degree or certificate to go with it... I guess it's not much more different than me being a job now I don't like without a degree...  When I was in school I changed my major a lot. I know everyone says that happens the first year or two, but I only attended college for 5 semesters and I think I changed my major 15 times. Nursing, english, english education, elementary education, psychology.... obviously I've never known what I wanted to do. 

17 days. Seventeen days. Oh to the em gee.     

#Blogtober: Dolla dolla bills y'all.

Hello world, it's me. Yes I am alive. Yes I'm in the deep depths of wedding planning hell. Because I put EVERYTHING off until the last minute (like the pro-procrastinator I am) and now we have roughly 3 weeks left, my parents are gone this weekend, the next weekend my mom will be super cleaning the house because everyone starts showing up the following Tuesday.  OMG I'M NO LONGER LOW KEY FREAKING OUT.  I've learned through this wedding process that I am NOT a detail oriented person. Which super sucks because that's basically all wedding planning is. So my wedding suggestions are: Elope, hire a wedding planner, elope, or destination wedding where literally all you do is show up. (Yes mom, I know you TRIED to get us to do the last one. ITS TOO LATE WE GET IT YOU WERE RIGHT.)  Moving on. Wedding planning has literally brought out the worst in me. It's no joke guys. That includes the worst driver, worst phone talker (I'm already loud.. now I'm pretty much yelling every time I'm on the phone), worst meal planner (sorry Roland), worst gym goer (who are we kidding I was never good at that), and worst blogger. But I have a chance for some semi-redemption.  Helene and Taylor are doing a blog every day in October. (Yes I know I tried this last month, and yes I know I only got like 3 days in and disappeared. Get. Over. It) This time is going to be better BECAUSE I'm going to do most of them a week at a time (that's the plan) so that way I can just knock them all out in one big swoop and schedule them. Because I'm going to go from a failed blogger to a professional over night, obvi. I'm also going to attempt to schedule tweets, but that might get a little tedious... AND I'm going to be in CALIFORNIA the third week of October, so well I don't really know, I guess we'll wait and see you guys.  Today's prompt is "What would you do if you won the lottery"  I feel like everyone always says "I would invest it." Well, I don't know about those people but I am not a saver. I'm a spender. So I know, without a shadow of a doubt, if I won the lottery, it'd be gone. Granted it would go towards really cool stuff. Roland would probably get a new car. We'd probably tell our apartment complex to kiss it and dip out and get a house. I'd want to buy another house near a beach somewhere. So we'd have someplace to "summer" also because, who doesn't love the beach? I'll probably quit my job and go back to school.. or maybe just find another job. One that lets me summer. Not teaching. Can I just be a stay at home dog mom? Toby needs love and affection during the day that I can't be there to give him. And that's probably it, It might be gone by then.. Throw a new wardrobe (including shoes duh) in there and paying off some debt (which I probably should have started with.. but that's no fun.) and we're back to being normal non-lottery living people. It was nice while it lasted. 

Happy October people.  18 days until I'm no longer the Real McCoy.