friday letters



Dear Paycheck, it's sad because I didn't even know you arrived today. Maybe because you seem so slack now-a-days, all my wants for these coral, yellow & navy blue clothes & accessories are killing me. Dear Hubby, I'm so sorry I motor boated the back of your sweat pants last night... while you were wearing them. I couldn't help it. Thank you for making me laugh hysterical everyday. I knew I married you for a reason. Dear Job, come on already. You know what I'm talking about. Dear body, why could yo not be the slimmer type. All this weight gain is starting to take over and I'm super sad about it. I wish I didn't like to eat. Dear Cactus, you are the only plant I've ever been able to keep alive. It's been two years since you've lived with us, please don't die now. I need my husband to believe I am great with your species, fail. Dear Bloggers, anyone want to volunteer your time and help me get my {followers} to show? I've deleted my gadget and added it and it still isn't there. Is a gadget and a widget the same thing? Help me. Please? On the other hand, thank you all for following me and developing a unique bond - nobody understands the love I have for ya'll being we don't even know you. But I do. I truly love you all and you all make me very happy. Dear Michele, Have a wonderful time at your 30th birthday party this weekend {Casino Style}. I know your sisters have been working so hard on it for a while now, I so wish we could be there to celebrate with you. Dear hometown friend, I wish I could take your pain away. I wish this misery would all be gone and you could be truly happy. Time heals all wounds. Time sucks. I'm so sorry this is all happening in your life but you are stronger than you know and I think you are an amazing person. Be true to yourself always. Put yourself first. When you do that, you will find the happiness that's been waiting a very long time for you to arrive. Dear Shih Tuz fever, please go away. How I would love to parent another Shih Tuz, I also love my time with my hubby. No distractions. I think I may ask for one of you by July 1st. Yeah, that would an awesome  birthday present. Hmmmm... I really need this dog fever to leave. I wanna be selfish for as long as possible. Amanda started this. She is to blame, but Mirana is just stinkN adorable. Is it freaky I show Mirana off to everyone as if I know her/him personally? My husband says so. This fever needs to stop.

Jackson

My once upon a time fur child who now is adopted by my in-laws. However he still comes to visit everyday for a total of ... 15 minutes. {And yes, the largest Shih-Tuz you've ever seen. Also my MIL cuts him herself. :)}

That's it for today. I think...
Xo, Jess

St. Pattys Day {RE-Cap} + some

Can somebody PLEASE tell me

where in the world is Carmen San Diego?

Ha! kidding...

really PLEASE tell me why is it that my {followers} is not showing up.

I've done everything I know to do.

You can find me on my knees begging for your help. 

Until then. It's time to play MAJOR ketchup.

iPhone Style:

be ready for picture overload.

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St. Pattys Day Eve -

We piled up in the family {14 passenger} van as one of Aaron's co-workers

drove us down to Savannah to drop all nine of us off & to pick us up.

Wasn't bad for $30 a couple!

Yay for safe driving!

We had dinner at

Moon River Brewing Company - delicious but craZy busy.

In moments like this {above} is the only time my hubby

gets anxiety. 

 Uhhh, duh - I gotta get the first beer of the weekend!

Just a small, very small glimpse of the partying downtown

City Market! I met so many people from everywhere that night.

{yes, I am the person who talks to random people asking them where they are from in the beer line, that's me!}

After karaoke, dancing, & lots of drinking,

We ended our night at Wild Wings - where they had a heavy rock band...

that was insane loud.

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St. Pattys Day 12'

{took several pictures with my actual camera that I've yet to upload.}

Can you believe out of ALL the drinking I was doing,

I never ever ever ever ONCE drank a green beer.

I don't know how I feel about that.

I'm kinda ticked.

First St. Patricks Day, married!

It was an AWESOME day.

Started out with our first Wet Willie Drink at 9am...

and then face painting....

My bestie Kristie is a teacher, therefore she brought her

face paint from class down to the parade to paint shamrocks - my hubby thought he'd

join in because he was ticked to death over this shamrock (& she talked him into a mustache, hilarious}. After seeing a few {5+} of his art work, I was quite impressed.

The hubster & a very very old/great friend of his, JP.

I love seeing these two together - Aaron gets SO excited. Can't ya tell by the

hand on the hip? {he's pretty lit}

... & again showing this craZy amaZing fun side along with my

second Mom, Mrs. Wanda - my best friends Momma. They were on a roll!

Walking down to see my family on the other side....

Remember the other day when I mentioned having like the smallest ounce of

baby fever... yeah, well it's moments & pictures like this that get me.

♥

... better said as the smokn' hott Georgia heat.

Rachel and in the blaring sun visiting my Momma, sister & her family down

the road from where we were. They agreed to share our spot next year - way too hott.

I have a lot of favorite people in my life, but these two by far hit the top!

I couldn't do it without either of them! ♥ My heart.

Grandma and Chloe, my niece...

sweating to death. No joke. Almost heat stroke... in March.

Minutes after this picture, we headed back to the Oak Trees....

... and instead of normal people we thought it would be great to walk with one

of the Irish families {IN THE PARADE} - it was hilarious. We got weird looks, however

by that time the enormous family was pretty tired and we were just getting started...

we had the crowd going! :)

It was a must-stop-right-now, please take a picture with me

moment!

These ladies reminded me of my bachelorette party, Madd Hatter Style!

Yep, that's me drinking beer out of a straw &

then a small shot-like drink in my other hand that a friend Nic, made for me.

It tasted just.like apple pie, De-LISH! 

Kristie & Candice chill-axing!

About 5 minutes before this moment, I had little Lacey on my

shoulders. Rachel {her Momma} clearly stated, "Jess, you do not have to do that. Holding a child on your shoulders is not for woman, it's a mans job."

Yeah, well I was {Mrs. Jess aka Mrs. Awesome} and Lacey couldn't see...

so I did it. It wasn't minutes before I was dying but wouldn't say a thing.

Jon saved me. It took me 1.5 days to realize why the heck my body was hurting SO very

bad. I thought I was just getting old and couldn't drink that like anymore.

#truestory. - definitely a mans job.

And that's all I got for St. Pattys Day photos.

We ended the day at Jalapenos filling our tummies!

Great day!

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A little bit of where I come from:

small town. one stop light in the whole town. everyone knows everyone.

My new mantel look, SOOO please with it!

-Thanks to Caitlin from my hometown!

You can find her here -----> blog  website  etsy

Her store is called, Embellish Boutique

It's springtime. I'm in love.

Even though I've recently moved my bird feeder to the dogwood tree behind it,

I still love this picture. It was taken on my front porch.

Is this not beautiful? I can look at it all day long.

A few pictures I captured of Aaron's family Plantation:

a woppn' 130 acres :: what used to be a campground many years ago.

It's where we call home.

the pecan trees.

pond #1:

this is what he did as a kid. seriously.

fishing is his passion.

Pond #1

Love this picture♥

Pond #2

+

pond #2 - once of my favorite places to be.

One of the many family members homes that live on the property. 

that would be me. collecting the fish as we walk around the pond.  :)

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Random nights of Yahtzee.

Aaron bragging on {ALL} his Yahtzee skills.

Candice finally getting her first Yahtzee!

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Mommas birthday gathering

{post coming soon}

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First timers!

{posts coming soon w/ recipes}

Stuffed Artichokes -amazing!

Banana Pudding {yum!}

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A night at the ballpark.

Me & my mini-me, Addyson.

AKA my niece - Maybe not today but she is a spittn' image of me when I was

a little girl. && yes, I too have natural red hair.

They didn't win, however Ashlyn had the best play of the night! :)

I was a proud Aunt♥

The End.

Sometimes Always with wishes.



 

sometimes: i tell myself to start eating healthy.
always: hang onto it for a few days and ... crash.

sometimes: i say I'm going to save save save
always: end up shopping.

sometimes: i try to dedicate two  mornings a week to catch  my emails and comments.
always: I get side tracked in the mornings with house chores.

sometimes: I say I'm going to start running.
always: it never happens.

sometimes: i get baby fever.
always: Reality hits me and remember I'm truly not ready.

sometimes: i like when people catch me singing in the car. it makes me & them smile.
always: speed up when I'm not singing and a car rides side by side. very weird.

sometimes: fast food gets the best of me.
always: feel guilty immediately after and get pissed at myself.

The End!

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Happy Birthday, Kristie♥

You are an amazing friend & I am so grateful to have you met you

11 years ago, wearing the same shirt on the very first day of our freshman year!

Who would have known, It was instint love! :)

You make my world a happier place!

Love you & look forward to celebrating with you this Saturday.

Xo, Jess

Give Kristie a birthday shout out, that's right - she BLOGS!

The world needs more teachers like her♥

A Special Day.

If I could dance with you again as we did on my wedding day, everyday... I totally would. 

 

I am more than grateful to have another year of celebrating your

birthday - God knew what he was doing when he made you my Mother.

As I tell you every year, I can only hope I'm half the woman you are to my children

& to my husband - you truly are remarkable. I love you & look forward to

celebrating your 54th birthday tomorrow with the family!

little things come in big packages.

not feeling the best today.

my sinus' are taking over and getting the best of me.

good thing is it's a half day for me at work - can I get a hell yes!

i'm a firm believer in {everything in life doesn't always have to be so big}

as my grandmother always reminded me- she preferred the little things & the smaller
packages - she was an amazing woman. 

i instantly fell in love with this image/photo.

i want it somewhere in my home - i think it's 110% correct-O.

via

think about it. i had to & when i did - it brought a great smile to my face.

wishing everyone a wonderful day filled with much happiness.

make someone smile - make someones day - do something you don't often do.

... & when you do, come back to this & share it - I want to know what you've done. 

happy day folks♥

Are you married to your spouse....

... or the media?

When I created Stilettos & a fishing pole back in March 2010,

I began it with intentions of it being my "scrapbook". I used to be very involved in scrap booking & capturing memories. Technology grew and I was no longer getting pictures developed - I found myself uploading all my photos to my computer.

This made it very hard to scrapbook.

I instantly fell in love with blogging. I loved writing my thoughts and feelings &

looking back on mine & Aaron's life together. I began to "meet" people I never knew & also attach myself to their life & personalities. Soon, I began to {link-up} answering questions about myself & so on. I found this brought me to meet more bloggers - I loved it.  I found more people starting to follow my life & that was a big compliment.

I've always been a big social person - in school, with media, with strangers & with my closest people in my life. I've always been known as "the social butterfly" - in fact

that's one of the things my husband loves about me the most, how I interact with everyone.

Aaron on the other hand is more set back. He has to feel comfortable somewhere to stand out & social media was never his go-to. Actually, the only time he would connect with MySpace or Facebook back in the days when we would be on our "outs". For the most part, he could careless.

Me? I used to be a MySpace junkie & now a Facebook junkie.

This drives my husband insane. He's always nagging me about it - and until lately I've realized it's pretty serious. I'v also seen it in others relationships.
Ever notice it's easy to see what's wrong in other situations but not so much your own?
Well, I've see this be a problem in the past few weeks on different accounts.
My eyes were opened - I'm just as bad, if not worse.

I read books on how to be the wife God intended me to be religiously. I constantly strive to remind myself to do this and not that. Why haven't I woken up and smelled the coffee that {media} has taken me over. I do not like that.

I can not get in the car without posting {Dinner at Jalapenos with my Love} or

taking a picture (that he hates) to upload on FB or now twitter. My husband and I watch The Bachelor/ette when it aires - I started having to see what everyone else is posting or tweeting therefore it was no longer OUR time. I constantly had my phone dividing my time with my husband along with social media. This is not good. Our time is precious and I am wasting it away. How sad.

This year, I participated in LENT - I am southern baptist however I felt it was a great thing

to jump in and give something up for GOD.  And truthfully, not just for GOD but for my husband - I've chosen FB. I had a lot of questions on why I would do that -  and to be honest, it offended me a bit.  However, I continued on.  It's actually horrible to admit how many times I go to get on my FB app. Every stop light, grocery store line, etc. I never knew how much I depend on it to keep me entertained. Since I've given it up, I've become a tweeter & now an instagram-er. My husband has now started hiding my phone from me - this is sad. This is horrible and at first I found it funny but if this isn't a HUGE sign waving {Spend Time With Me}, I don't know what else is. Nothing is worth loosing my time with him. Really & disturbing.

My eyes began to see clearly and make me realize he wants my attention - he wants me.

Why would I give it to someone else? That being said, I'm really going to start focusing on

putting this horrible addiction/habit down. I'm not giving any of it up however, I need to put him first and not second. My marriage involves three people; Me, Aaron, & the media.  I can not let this happen any longer.

With all this being said,  I've been reading a lot of blogs on how Media has damaged their

marriages/relationships - another huge eye opener. I've had several people/bloggers admire my marriage {which is a huge compliment} and my husband {which is another huge compliment} for being what it is- remember it's not perfect. Clearly, because I wouldn't be writing this on my struggles. Remember that his grandmother once told me, Never bad mouth your husband in front of anyone, this way he always knows you are on his side. -I share my problems, not his nor ours.

Do you ever feel like you have the {Grass is Greener} Syndrome?

 "Every marriage has its good days and bad days, that’s the fact of life. However when your marriage is going through a particularly troubling time and you read blogs about how wonderful someone else’s life is or your old boyfriend connects up with you it can add additional undue stress to your marriage. When I was a newlywed I heard an older gentleman speaking on Dr. Dobson’s radio program about what made his marriage successful. He said “There were times in our marriage where I didn’t like my wife very much; there were times when she didn’t like me very much. The secret to a successful marriage is to not dislike each other at the same time. The other person can hold on for the both of you.” I have clung to that through the turbulent times in our marriage." - OurSimpleLife.com

I've run into this lately, only in a different light.  We as bloggers open up our home & life  to share to the world - such a wonderful thing,  as we do we also begin to see others lives & challenaging ourselves to envy other lifestyles and see what we don't have. I've picked this up recently and I am now putting it back down. This is not who I am. This is not what I am or what I want to become. I am not a jealous person nor do I live for what others have. I will admit I've found small pieces of me begin to think that way.  No more.

I absoultely love everyone we have together & at this time in our life, I want nothing else.

 

Is blogging starting to corrupt me?

No mam'. I know who I am which is a happily married woman living in a small house in the country- who drives a bright blue focus that I really do hate but a large payment is something I do not want - instead I want vacation. I won't buy expensive work out clothes because I think it's a waste - and I can hardly get myself to exercise period. I eat horribly in which I strive for the better. I struggle with household balance. I struggle with keeping my house clean.  I can not keep a plant a live for the life of me - besides my cactus.  I have a lot of faults and I am not afraid to say it. I am not perfect and sometimes I feel  in this blogging world - we are made to look perfect.  I am not a step ford wife & I never want to be a step ford wife. I never want to have it all together. I am not perfect, infact I don't even know what perfect stands for. I love this life of mine & I am going to continue to love it - and everything is has in it.

So -  are you married to your spouse or the media?

I did a link up incase anyone wants to write about their experience
or go into depth with their thoughts - however I'd love your feedback here also.

it's so close.

In exactly 32 days I will be sailing the seas on

a Carnival ship headed to the Bahamian Islands - Okay, that sounded really good.

WE are headed to the Bahamas!

I'm so excited.

We need a vacation, badly.

 Aaron and I cruise a lot. In fact that is what we did for our honeymoon.

You're thinking, What honeymoon right?

Yeah - the honeymoon I never posted.

Who does that? Truth is. I come back in full force with wedding posts trying to

go in logic order and I pooped out. I was so over talking wedding & such that I never finished and also never posted our honeymoon.

Next week = Honeymoon Posts {promise}

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over in a lot of ways.

The weekend is over...

I'm still hungover.

I've never been so exhausted.

Seriously. No joke.

my body hurts and my eyes are struggling to keep open.

I look like my dogs morning crap.

... yes I made it to work - no I am not gonna get a damn thing done today.

"Why does my body hurt so bad?" was the question of the day yesterday & yet still today. It never dawned on me until I was driving back from brunch...

 "Holy Poop, I just figured it out" were my exact words.

  I thought it would be okay to hold a 40 pound precious

little girl on my shoulders so she could see the parade better...

#Dammit.

I should have listened to Rachel {her mom} when she tried very hard to explain that

carrying a child on your shoulders is a mans job.  I'm over being "The Cool Mrs. Jess..." She never warned me that it would add age to me the next day - And Lacey is tiny. Really tiny. So tiny I'm embarrassed to explain how much my body is aching. I can't imagine a heavy child.



Besides the four hours of sleep Friday night, the seven hours Saturday night

& the six hours of sleep last night - I never slowed down not one bit.

I partied like a rock star.

We partied like we were in the movie OLD SCHOOL.

#truestory: "I like your green hat" was my quote of the weekend.

I even pretended to be Frank half the weekend. I may or may not have even done

the Frank the Tank impresonation... not once but twice -  

  

However, I had an amazing weekend.

One hell of a weekend.

So much fun. So many laughs. A lot of good memories with wonderful people.

I'm over being green. I'm over drinking beer. I'm over partying.

I'm over not having my beauty sleep.

A full St. Patty's Day/weekend  post will be up sometime this week.

For now, I'm over & out.