Things I'm Thankful For

Per all my social media outlets, it seems November is the season to tell people what you're thankful for. Everyday. 

And by the looks of the rest of blogland, FB, and Insta, I'm suuuper behind in giving thanks. 

BUT since I never want to miss out on the latest social media trend, I figured it's time I give thanks for stuff. 

I'm thankful for being a member of the blogging community, because without it, I might actually have to do work and be productive for the first two hours of my workdays instead of reading blogs. 

 I'm thankful my husband is a hunter, because when else would I be able to catch up on the Real Housewives of anywhere if it weren't for him being gone like, every weekend? 

I like to watch my trashy reality TV in peace and without judgement...and we both know that's not happening when he's home.

I'm thankful that I'm an Arizona State Sundevil, because if I weren't I'm pretty sure people might mistake me for a gang member whenever I throw up my pitch fork. 

I wouldn't blame you if you profiled me. I pretty much scream gang banger.

 I'm thankful for fruit. 

Grapes, especially. 

Fermented grapes, really. 

Actually I'm thankful for wine. Just the wine. 

 I'm thankful for the 24-hour news cycle our country is blessed with, because if it weren't for them I would never know that Kourtney Kardashian went to the grocery store sans makeup, or that there were naked girls at Justin Bieber's house party, or that Jessica Simpson was in (shocker) a bathing suit (shocker #2) at the beach!!! 

My life isn't validated until I know celebrities wear bathing suits to the beach too. 

 I'm thankful for Little Ceasar's Hot n' Ready pizza's and their conveient location right down the road from my house, making it oh-so-easy to forgo any sort of cooking plans, because let's face it, cooking is work. 

 I'm thankful for Sprint, because without their terrible reception and horrible coverage, I wouldn't learn the value of patience every time FB has a "Network Error" or when Insta "can't refresh feed" or when Twitter tells me my request has "timed out." 

As my dad would say, it builds character.

I'm thankful for Michelle Obama and her Drink Up campaign, because without it I would've never known that drinking more water was good for me.

Thanks Michelle. I always knew you had my back.

And last but not least, I'm thankful for social media, because without it, I would never know what you all are thankful for.

The Fit Heard 'Round the Canyon, and Other Lessons in Hunting

If you follow me on Insta you know I went hunting this weekend for my first rifle deer tag. My husband took me down to southern AZ to see if I couldn't kill a buck.

Breaking news: I didn't kill a buck.

In fact, I never even saw one (insert sad emoji here). 

We saw 30+ does.

Nate killed a coyote at 400+ yards (cause he's kind of a bad @$$).

But me?

Nothin.

Nate found a buck Sunday morning and got me set up on it, but I couldn't find it in my scope before he moved over the top of the next canyon.

And that's about as close as I came to any action.

It's OK though, cause we still had a good time and got to spend the weekend together.

We also learned some more important lessons when it comes to hunting with 

your spouse.

If you remember, back in August when I tried to fill my archery tag, I reported the 

tell-tale signs of how you know you're on a hunt with your wife. 

Folks, the lessons kept on comin' last weekend.

For example, I learned that you shouldn't set your brand new rifle down on the ground cause the barrel will get all scratched and you'll get reprimanded by your husband.

You set your pack down first, then set your rifle on top of that.

Everyone knows that (including me........now).

Nate learned that his wife needs to take pictures of the pretty trees before she can help unload the truck upon arrival.

In my defense, it's the only glimpse of "fall" I've seen in AZ since "fall" began.

Nate also learned that he may need to tell his wife twice when there's a potential shot opportunity.

 "Deer!! Hurry up, get your rifle!!"

"Who ME??"

"You're the only one with a rifle aren't you??"

Right.

I learned that since I'm the only one with a rifle, and a tag too for that matter, that when my husband says "get your rifle," he's talking to me. 

Noted.

Nate however, learned the most important lesson of the weekend:

I hate hiking.

Guys, I'm not talking about just plan ol' hiking. 

I hike. I typically enjoy it.

Nate's version of hiking, if you can even call it that, is other-wordly.

It's scaling the side of a steep mountain, with no established trail, trekking through dead grass and Yucca plants as tall as I am, all while trying to avoid the cacti beneath your feet and trying not to twist your ankle on the lose rocks that you can't even see because of the thick brush.

And then there's really no other way to get back down the mountain except to sit down on your butt and slide down. 

All the way down.

When I tell the story out loud he always interrupts me and tells me I'm being dramatic.

But since this is my blog and he can't chime in, I would just like to say, for the record...I'm not even being dramatic.

I'm so serious that I actually stopped and I threw a fit right there on the side of the mountain.

He thought I was joking at first and started laughing.

Then he looked around and gave me the "shush" signal cause I was gonna scare away all the deer.

Guess what? I didn't even care. I was seeing red.

Questions came out of my mouth like,

"Where the hell are you taking me??"

"How the hell am I supposed to get down from here??"

And I made threats like,

"Don't ever do this to me again!"

"Don't ever take me this way again!"

And guess what? I have no shame.

The fit heard 'round the canyon is totally and completely justified, because that kind of "hiking" is ridiculous.

And my husband is crazy for thinking I'd be down for that.

I've done it twice before, on two javelina hunts, but I just wasn't havin' it this 

time around.

...And then we hiked back to the truck in silence.

And the next day we sat at a water hole for 3 hours.

Sooooo, I mean, I don't endorse throwing fits to get what you want; in fact, fits aren't even really my style (unless of course, it's a first world fit), but it was my hunt, and Nate told me I call the shots...so I'd say the fit heard 'round the canyon was pretty effective.

Score one for me.

7 Things I Won't Blog About

One of my fav bloggers, Helene wrote a post a while ago about things she'll never blog about.

I wrote down the idea in my little Notes app in my phone, to save for a rainy day when I don't know what to blog about...or don't have enough energy to try and think of how to creatively write about my hunt last weekend.

One of the two.

I could probably agree with all 8 things Helene will never blog about, but I won't include all of those here in my post.

I've read too many college syllabi and academic integrity statements to know plagiarism is a no-no.

So, here's seven things I won't blog about:

1.) My house.

As in, the obligatory blogger "house tour," to show off how cute your digs are.

My husband says if I show you what the inside of my house looks like, you'll know the layout, so then when you decide to break in and rob me, you'll have a 'tactical advantage' cause now you know my floor plan.

So you know, no house tours here.

2.) Politics...except for this post

Cause people are mean.

And I'm a Republican, and I feel like everyone hates Republicans.

It's self-defense, really.

3.) Menstrual cycles.

Cause there's no place in blogland for period talk.

4.) My nails.

I can't lie, I'm a nail biter, and the only time my nails ever looked pretty was for my wedding day.

So sorry, no weekly "nail files" linky party, or party-nail pics, or whatever else kids do to their finger nails these days.

5.) The gym.

I'm terribly ugly when I work out. No one needs to see that.

6.) Recipes of all my clean eating.

My Hamburger Helper is packaged, and it's processed and I don't even care, cause it was on sale 

for 10 for $10.00.

Hey Betty Crocker, thanks for the help.

7.) Outfits of the day (i.e. #OOTD)...except for this one

Cause usually my outfits only consist of a bottom and a top, I wear the same jewelry everyday, and I never change my purse to match my outfits.

And that would make for one snooze-fest of a fashion blog.

And since my favorite number is seven, I'm gonna stop there.

Speaking of seven, shout out to Monica Gellar and her seven erogenous zones...

What things won't you blog about?!

My Veteran

I really wanted to write something for Veteran's day this year, but quite frankly, I feel like nothing I write will top my Veteran's Day post from last year.
It's my favorite post I've ever written.
So I'm posting it again.

There's probably some unwritten blog rule that says you can't recycle posts, but I don't even care.
Cause I love this post so much.
And I love my husband so much.

And I love our military, and our country, and our service men and women that stand on the front lines everyday to protect our homeland and our freedom.
My heart overflows with joy when I think about these people, our country, my husband.
And it's from the bottom of my heart when I say thank you. When we, as a country, say thank you.

.....................................

Today we celebrate Veteran's Day.

My husband is a veteran: 

Operation Iraqi Freedom/Operation Enduring Freedom from 2007-08.

A couple weekends ago I went to the Eric Church concert.

I know you're probably thinking "and these two go together, how??" but stay with me...

At the Eric Church concert he sang his song "These Boots," and if you haven't heard it...google it.

But he sings about his pair of boots and all the places they've been, and what they've seen over the years, and it got me to thinking about my husband's boots.

His Army boots.

And all the places they've been and things they've seen.

Those boots were laced up every morning for over a year, to run missions all day that lasted well into the night, often times through the night. 

They carried an extra 100+ pounds of gear, and withstood the heat of the Iraqi summers.

Those boots have been dusted with the sands of Tikrit and the dirt of Mosul.

They've walked along the gravel near the Tigress River.

And they sat crammed next to bunch of other boots on a C-130 for hours to get there.

Those boots stood next to both Iraqi forces, and young locals; 

all in the name of a better Iraq.

Those boots spent Thanksgiving and Christmas, and rang in the new year overseas.

Those boots were there, on the floor of Saddam Hussein's mother's palace, when Nate was planning our engagement.

  

Those boots have seen a lot, heard a lot; most of which, I'll never know.

But those boots came home on the feet of my husband...alive and in one piece.

These days, those boots spend their time in the mountains of Arizona, chasing deer and elk, and anything else that has four legs. 

But they come back home at the end of each day.

Just as they should.

Thank you to all those who have served, and are currently serving our Country over seas.

"Honor the fallen, thank the living"

My favorite soldier

Dogs in Halloween Costumes and Other Notables

So this post, I think, is going to end up being a mish-mash of things, because I was in a blogging mood tonight but couldn't really get a themed post, or even a cohesive train of thought together, for that matter. So try and keep up mmk?

Let's start with Halloween.

Originally, I wanted Halloween to have its own post with my dogs all in their costumes, lookin' adorable in all their glory. But I just couldn't muster enough creativity to stretch an entire post out of that.

I asked Nate for help, on how I should blog Halloween and he said, 

"Our dogs are f*****g cool. They wear Halloween costumes. End of blog."

Soooo since that doesn't really help me much, just check out Halloween's of years past here and here. They're much better than this one.

Nonetheless, Maycee and Gunther were as cute as ever, dressed as a bumble bee and t-rex!

And can I please just show you how cute my little niece is??

She was a strawberry.

Yes, it was as cute as it sounds.

She gave the dogs a run for their money, I can't lie.

You know who else is super cute?

My dear friend Mckenzie who had her bridal shower last weekend.

She was cute. The shower was cute. 

There's a lot of cute going on in the world these days.

So I had an epiphany the other night.

Fall weather makes me drink red wine.

I realized this epiphany after I noticed all the red wine bottles on my kitchen counter.

Normally I'm a white wine kinda gal, and I still think I like the taste(s) of white wine better, but when it's chilly outside I don't really want to drink a cold glass of wine (and white wine has to be cold, duh).

So I've been opting for the red these days.

And I'm diggin it.

Especially when they have super cute labels like my Fancy Pants up there.

Am I the only one who makes their wine selections based on how cute the label is?

I took Nate to a newly discovered (and quite possibly newly favorite) breakfast place last weekend. They specialize in different versions of eggs benedict. Ohmuhgosh I love eggs benedict.

And then I took a picture of my meal, thinking I would upload it to Insta and it just never happened. 

And I'm regretting that. 

I finally take a picture of my food and it doesn't even make it onto Insta??

For shame, I know. So I'm gonna show it to you now, just so that my effort wasn't in vain.

You should know that it's the best eggs benedict I've ever had.

And that I cleared my plate.

Cleared it.

If you're ever in AZ, you should hit up Mark's Cafe. You won't regret it.

Moving on from breakfast food to home decor, I was pretty on time this year in switching out my seasonal decorations.

Out with the old...

...in with the new.

I rewarded myself for being on time with the fall decor, with a glass (or a few) of red wine.

And that about brings us all up to date.

Halloween, breakfast, wine, it's all there.

I read online that you're supposed to end your blog posts with a question to engage your readers. I was thinking about starting that, but since I can't really think of a good question for this mess-of-a-post, I'm just gonna end it.

The end.

The Gift That Keeps on Giving

Remember yesterday when I hinted towards something I did this weekend that was sort-of a surprise for someone, so I couldn't really post about it yet?

Well, the cat's out of the bag now, which means I have the green light to put it up on the bloggsy.

My sister and her husband just got back from their honeymoon. 

And we got them a welcome home gift.

Behold:

Now, before you go feeling bad for them, let me back up a little...

This is what out apartment looked like when Nate and I got back from our honeymoon:

Courtesy of these two:

...And yes, I dug around on Facebook to find these photos, and you wanna know what I found next to one of them? This gem:

So don't feel bad for Audrey and Adam that they got the sh** TP'd out of their house.

Moreover, since Audrey was totally expecting to get it she thought she'd be a smart @$$ and supplied us with a pack of toilet paper. She said, 

"Since I know you're gonna TP us, I got you the good kind so at least we can reuse it." 

Ohhhhh, ok. We're gonna play that game huh?

Fine. 

We'll see your pack of "good" toilet paper, and we'll raise you two additional packs of toilet paper.

And we'll shred it all up so you in fact, can't reuse it.

And then, since you're expecting a good toilet papering, we'll up the ante and sprinkle in a few other surprises that you certainly will not be expecting.

For example, fake poop in your toilet using Baby Ruth candy bars (warning! Graphic!)

Or.....one other surprise (or two) that I'm not gonna put on here yet, caused based on our text messages tonight it seems like they haven't found it yet.

Muahahahaha.

After Adam called Nate and they exchanged pleasantries, I had this exchange with my sister via text message:

Audrey and Adam are going to be finding toilet paper for months to come, in places they would've never even thought to look during clean-up.

I call it the welcome home gift that keeps on giving.

And on that note, wedding festivities can now be officially considered, over.

Welcome home guys! ;)