Wednesday, February 15, 2012

important decisions.

So. Since I mentioned changing my blog name recently, my mind has not
let me rest on a new title. I've been contemplating over and over and until today...
well I can't really say I've got nothing but hopefully.
I need your help. Will you? Please?
Okay good.

Here is a conversation between my hubby and myself yesterday.
Take a look.



TIMEOUT:
Clearly I knew Busy Love wasn't "getting somewhere"
but I had to keep his attention and make him feel like he was doing great.

Moving right along.


and he didn't.
I knew he was done.

Lame right?
I thought so too.

Only for a little while. He gave me something to work with.
Clearly "Busy Love" or "Bipolar Busy Love" was not okay with me.
Nor did it sound half decent.

But...  it was the start of something.
Therefore I turned over to my facebook account and asked my lovely friends to
come up with a more creative word for "Busy".




Wow! They got really creative.
I loved them all however it didn't bring me to another thought.
So...
 when talking with a friend in a random conversation I said something that
I say all the time in a happy moment or exciting moment.
I said "that's CraZy AmaZing.
Instantly it brought me to an idea I really liked for my blog title.
Also, I thought you can substitute {Busy} for CraZy & {Love} for AmaZing.

Right?
I thought so too.

Then when I was brought back to the computer I did something
that totally messed me up.
I went to the thesaurus on computer and entered busy.
It gave me all kinds of  ideas that I really liked.
Which means they lead me to a million things that brought me in all different directions.. So here is where YOU come in.
I need YOU to help me decide & make a decision.

Clear your mind and help pick. I already have my favorites but with your help
I can make my mind up. Maybe. Hopefully.
They are in no kind of order.

So I need two things from you -

♥Your choice of blog title
♥Why you chose that one

Here we go:








{OR do I keep it the same }


and just to clear things up...
i am not bipolar and have no personality traits around being bipolar.
my husband always says that in a conversation something like this:

#truestory

Wife: What we doing this weekend? Do we have set plans?
Husband: I was thinking we could go ________. {left blank so I don't get busted.}
 Wife: {in my winey voice} ahhhh, we do we have to do there? I don't wanna go.
Husband: .... no response.

Ten minutes later
Wife thinks about it not being THAT bad of an idea.
Guilty conscience works me every time.

Wife: Alright, it's okay if we go _______. 

And that my bloggers is why he calls me bipolar.
Because one minute I am not okay with something and the next {AFTER my conscience works me over} I'm okay. {But really, my true feelings always come out first.}

--------




Tuesday, February 14, 2012

you've got my heart on a string.


 

Sunday, February 12th
is when I treated my Valentine to a little love.
I can't remember the last time Georgia weather was this cold.
We've barely had winter this year and the day I planned a small fishing trip with a picnic
outside is the day we almost got frost bite. Not really but maybe.

I saw this website that has this print out that said
 You've got my heart on a string
and it immediately brought me to the thought of taking Aaron fishing  just behind our house on the family property. Once my head starting gambling up ideas I began to dig a little deeper into this whole Valentine idea.

Being we had kickball practice at 1:00pm that day I didn't really know how to
come about this. Before? After? Holy crap it's cold.


I had to run to the store to pick up one more thing so this was my shot.
I had everything packed already and hid in the guest bathroom shower where he would
not find it. I hurried to the store, set up everything and went back for Aaron.
I was already freezing. I told him to bundle up. It was KILLING him to not know what was about to happen. Being we live seconds from the ponds I figured I should blindfold him...

so I did.


and brought him here...


... what a surprise.


Did I mention it was really cold?
Which is why we decided not to act on the fishing idea.
I didn't think to understand that fish do not like to come up to the water
at a low temperature. Therefore we just had a picnic.



Aaron loves peanut butter and jelly sandwichs & when I ran into these mugs
I knew I had to incorporate them into the day. Which is where the picnic came from.
He also L.O.V.E.S chocolate chip cookies and milk. Matter of fact, he has three cookies with milk almost every night before we go to bed.
Sooo....



 I made him chocolate chip cookies and sealed two mason jars tight
filled with cookies.

The second photo is what Aaron is pulling out of another mason jar here...


and here is where
{You have my heart on a string} came in.
I tied all the reasons why I loved him or what I loved about him
to fishing line along with these red hearts.


I won't lie.
Eating our sandwiches in the cold was pretty quiet.
Until we both just started dying laughing because we both really wanted to
go inside and be warm ...
but he wouldn't say it and neither would I.
So we basically tried to have a good time while we were there.









The End!
We packed up fast and defrosted our bodies.

P.S - did anyone notice my husbands lips outside of the candy lips?
hilarious, right?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

♥

So... Who is your sweetie this year?


Tonight, we plan on dining out in the city of Savannah,
with a glass on wine.. {or 2. or 3} & enjoying another Valentines Day together.
Xo

Monday, February 13, 2012

What's YOUR love story {link-up}





1. How long have you and your significant other been together?
Aaron and I have been together since we first met... in high school.
 We just celebrated our 11th year together last month.
 




2. How did you meet? {What's your "love" story?}
I moved to the small town my Freshman year of high school.
Scared to death but made it. I briefly had interest in this guy... {always right?} who
brought major tears to my heart right from the start. However he was best friends with Aaron's cousin - who a lot of time would be hanging out together.
It's strange to say when I first heard his name, I instantly wanted to know who he was.
Our town is very small so it didn't take me long to meet everyone ...
but it did for this guy {Aaron}.
After four months of being the new kid on the block & hearing the name, Aaron Drew being tossed around, my life changed when I  attended a high school dance. When leaving with my friend, I stopped to talk to the brother of the guy I had interest in who was sitting in the passenger seat of a white Ford F-150, the driver of the truck was the guy I was waiting to run into for the last months. Leaving that night, I told my friend that he {Aaron} was gonna be my next boyfriend. And he was. Who is now my husband.
The LONG road started then.
To read the continued story... go here.
 



3. If married, how long have you been married? If not, is this the guy you hope to marry? {do tell}
We've been married for five months and 10 days.
 



4. If you are married, where did you get married at? Big or small wedding? If not, where would you like to get married? And will it be big or small?
We got married in Statesboro, Georgia - right outside from the small town we live in.
The Venue was perfect - rustic elegance & our wedding day was so happy.
We had a rather big wedding - 300 guests.
Even though I am still recapping all kinds of posts, you can check it out here.
It was an amazing year for the both of us.



5. Do you have any nick-names that you call one another? Do share!
HA! Geez, if you follow me you know m husband is what I call a "man child".
He has the best sense of humor and keeps me laughing. He has many many many nicknames for me.
Let's see: For starters lets say it is VERY odd for Aaron to call me by name.
If I hear "Jessica" come out of his mouth it's very strange and I don't like it. He is the only person that doesn't call me Jess & for the past year + he's started calling me, j.
A couple other names I hear from him are
♥Snookums
♥ Grump.a.lotta.mus {when i'm a grump}
 
For him? I'm pretty lame. It's usually just {Aaron, Babe, or Honey}
 
 
6. Name 3 things you love most about your honey.
♥ his sense of humor {see why here}
♥ his manly-ness. So sexy.
♥ his leadership & friendship.



7. Tell us how he proposed? Or your ideal proposal?
Well. For years and years I waited so patiently for that moment.
I started to believe it would never happen. All our friends were married & the most popular question at every occasion was "When are you two getting married?". No one caught the garter/bouquet at weddings because they were pretty much just thrown to us.
I started to refuse to go out there. Ha!
After 9 years and 11 months of dating Aaron finally dropped on one knee and asked me to marry him. Read our story here because it's a lot. I will say that every moment waiting was worth every second of feeling it would never happen. There is nothing more amazing than knowing when your husband {to-be} pops the questions, he's ready for his whole life to start right then with you. It may not make sense because it didn't when a friend of mine explained it to me. Nothing more makes sense. If you did read our story back on questions #2 you may understand a little better. You always hear, Love is worth waiting for - yeah well so is the commitment of Marriage.
8. Is he a flowers and teddy bear kind of guy for v-day, or strawberries, champagne, and rose petals?
Never flowers. Sadly he won't send me flowers. He says he can't understand to spend that amount of $ on something that will die. Aaron is a fine line between a romantic type and a teddy bear type. However, he's grown out of the stuffed animals but hasn't quite grown into the strawberries and rose petals {with an amazing exception of our our wedding night}.  He's more of a romantic dinner type and a gift of something very meaningful.
He has never let me live down the year we were somewhere around the age 19? And we agreed we were gonna take it light... and he cooked me a wonderful dinner and just gave me a stuffed animal. I was a brat and got all upset because he left the price tag on it and it was like $4. Yep. He won't ever forget it. I feel horrible.
I love nothing more than a {don't rush us} dinner with wonderful conversation.
Check out his surprise for me last year.

9. Are you a sunset dinner on the beach kind of girl, or pop a movie in and relax on the couch?
Ohhh definitely a sunset on the beach kind of girl. All the way.
Now, I DO very much love our {date nights at home}.I'd never get them up for anything. Buuuuut I'm a romantic girl.
Bring me to the fairytale life. Most of the time, I plan the romantic sunsets and such..
but hey - I'm okay with that. As long as he's there with me. Let's roll with it.
If I wait on him to think of something like that I get let down. Which is what you learn in 11 years. If you want it you go get it. So I do & you will see that at the end of this post.

10. Tell us one thing you'd like to do with your significant one day. If you could do anything? Go anywhere?
Ohhh gosh we were just talking about this the other night. About where would we want to go if we won the lottery. Well when we were deciding on a honeymoon- Geez, never research honeymoons. Instantly fall in love with everywhere you can't afford.
I fell head over heals in love with this one place. We would have definitely gone if it weren't for flight expense - This place has made it on my bucket list and my husband knows this....
It's called Paws Up Resort in Montana.
I want to go "Glamping" & ride horses along the water streams and go hiking through the mountains. BIG BIG BIG dream of mine.
Being he is such an outdoors guy & I am more of a room service girl {who loves adventure}... it was perfect.
However we could not afford $1000 per person for flight + resort expense.
One day... one day.
 
 
 
11. Tell us what you plan on doing on this Valentine's Day?Well the hubs is taking me out to dinner tomorrow night. But I showed him a little love yesterday. Of course there was a little unexpected whether change so it kind of through me off but it still happened. My husband is a fisherman. LOVES it. Last year since all kinds of wedding events were happening I decided to make Valentines about him. We went to his families property up in South Carolina to his favorite place to fish and... well we fished. It really was great. So this year I wanted to so something like that again. We did have plans to go back but with work being crazy busy it was impossible.
I ran into this valentine card that said, You have my heart on a string and thought fun. I can coordinate fishing + my love with this.
So I came up with this...
 
 


But you must come back tomorrow to see how it all went down.
Sorry.


12. Are you asking for anything this Valentine's day?
I never do. I think Valentines Day is about showing your love & sharing it.
It doesn't really have to be anything just a thought.
Aaron would totally say I was a crock of shiiiii if he saw this answer.

13. Give us one piece of advice of keeping a relationship strong and full of love. Wow. Broad statement.
I believe in keeping the friendship alive & always loving your partner more.
If you read our story you will see we hit a lot of struggles but we never ever  gave up even when we tried to & on at our weakest moments. A relationship isn't easy. It's work, everyday. I always remind myself that if I can work for weeks on hosting the perfect baby shower or wedding shower and put SO much time and thought into it - then I must be able to do the same thing for Aaron. It's a never ending job but the most rewarding job you can ever have and want. Being in love with a person who shares all the good and the bad about life... it's amazing. I also believe is always keeping the laughter alive. {trying} to never say "well why should I do that for him if he doesn't..." or "when he does that, I'll..." It doesn't work that way. {Always Love More} - that's what I write to every bride & groom and every signature on a bridal shower card  & ever wedding guest book.
Always Love More
It's the best thing I ever started living by. {& yes, a lot of time I struggle.}
 
 

14. Show us a picture of what love means to you.
 
This is tough because I don't think love can truly be defined in a picture.
But it can symbolize something which is why I chose this below.

Love is walking together through all the good and the bad & always holding on.
Love doesn't Run.  Wearing his class ring closest to my heart on our wedding day was something very special to me.

The End

Saturday, February 11, 2012

help name it.

Thank you ALL for your amazing words of encouragement on my a wife struggles post yesterday. Believe it or not, you all made me feel sane with your struggles of the same thing. I'm normal! I AM NORMAL! Whoo-hoo!!! Big smile.

Okay so moving forward.

Along with my post shared yesterday - my changes...
I'm also going to make a change in my life on the blog.
I've contemplated whether or not to change my blog title.
I've come to conclusion I am going to.

Stilettos & a fishing pole has been fun.
It will always stand for Me{Stilettos} & Aaron {the fisherman}.
That is who we are. Clearly I am not a shoe - I guess I should say that is our icons.
However we are are a lot more to that.

Stilettos & a fishing pole came from defining who we were at the time I started blogging.
Which was March 2010.
 At that moment in our lives we were understanding our differences and learning to live as opposites. It's always been a huge laugh among our two families on our differences.

Since 2010 we have more to offer now.
So there is where you come in.
It took me a very long time to pick a blog title and be happy with it therefore I need some ideas.

Throw anything out there.
 One, two, or a few. Throw words if you can't think of a title.



& of course something that stands for me & who I am.

Okay, so go now...
give it to me
 {baby. uh-Huh uh-Huh!}

Friday, February 10, 2012

a wife's struggles.

Wow. What a week it has been.
My heart is weighing in heavy today as I sit here to gather up all my thoughts
on this little post  on

finding balance as a wife.
Forgive me if I move around a lot because ...
well just because I am like that when I'm trying to express a point.

You ready? Good.

If you asked me today, "How's married life treating you?"
I'd say wonderful. It's really fun.

Most people say, "It hasn't changed."
Me? I think marriage has changed. In the big picture, no way. However
seeing life together with another person and placing the pieces together on HOW you plan to live life is something you just really don't discuss before saying I do.
I mean yea, I want three kids. You want two. I want to live in a busy town, you want the opposite. Joint accounts? Separate accounts. Beliefs. Promises. In-laws. Children.
All that you talk about but you aren't really given a lesson. Right?
Okay, well I didn't. I base it off how I grew up and how Aaron grew up.
Aaron and I have been married for 159 days. It's been absolutely wonderful.
It's so clique to type that it has been the best five months we've had but really and truly it has. After eleven years together you would think why these five months - what makes them the best?  To play catch up you should definitely read our story.

See what we've been doing every month ------>  1  2  3 4   5

Weeks prior to getting married, I shared what I expected out of myself
and what I really wanted to focus on as becoming a wife on this day.
I was smiling from ear to ear laughing at myself when I read my words & thoughts on how I thought marriage would not change us. Or hoped it wouldn't. Let's just say I still have my grocery list printed out and have yet to fill it out and I've been grocery shopping A LOT. And the "Please excuse the mess the children are making memories" sign still takes place in our house minus the children, replaced with Aaron and myself. We are both messy.  Which brings me to my first topic.

I am not here to share that shit has hit the roof. Because they have not.
Actually they've been pretty darn awesome. But I will admit me, myself, and I have had to do some changes. I've had a huge heart and heart with myself
I struggle with a few things and that's okay.

Bal - ance: noun -
a state of equilibrium or equipoise; equal distribution of weight, amount, etc.

My definition: juggling more than one thing and keeping it all together.

Balance for me? LACKING.

I've always been a busy girl over loading my schedule from second to second but when you find yourself walking into a house that can't seem to be picked up on a day to day basis, it's pretty frustrating but it's how that's how I roll. Waking up to getting ready for work and trying to think of what to cook for dinner... ha! - a joke, right?
It just wasn't {& still isn't} easy for me. I found myself feeling less of a good wife because balance wasn't anywhere.  I really really really really considered hiring a maid which if you remember on this day I said would never ever ever ever happen. What the heck? We don't even have kids yet? It really started to bother me. And cooking? I have a handful of things I seem to throw together but always thought of dinners back at home were never repeated as often as I repeat my dinner meals. Poor Aaron. Thankfully he isn't too picky, we have pizza & subway nights a lot... too much. Still working on this.

Both of our mothers have always seemed to have it all together. The houses are always kept up and a four course meal is always served at supper time.  Between the two of them it's a lot of match up too. When having this discussion with my hubby he reminded me that they didn't work and had time to have it all together. I understand that and it did make me see a little light however I am still so hard on myself.
It's been two weeks now that I've made a huge decision. Okay well maybe two decisions.
starting with
1} I am not hiring a maid.
2} It's time for changes; I had to say goodbye to coffee time in themornings with Momma. Except on Fridays.

Number two is a big deal. Most people get all mushy gushy on their wedding day
because little girl has grown up and moving away or moving on. Well
little girl has grown up but never moving away. I did not get all sapping with my dad{s}. I live a total of three minutes of my parents. Five minutes if I get caught at the stop sign at the four way stop or have to swing my the post office. No joke.
I get super sad when I don't see Momma often.

I've tried this before where I said "Momma, I'm gonna start running in the mornings, I'm not gonna come but on Wednesdays." Yeah, well that didn't happen. It literally worked for one day.

Well I was serious about giving up my morning coffee talk with Momma. It made more sense. Why?

my schedule for the past {year}
Alarm goes off at 5:40am. Get husband up. Sleep in til 6:15am ...most of the time 7am and rush up - take my bath - get my clothes on - out the door to Mommas by 7:45am. Either I do my hair at Moms or.. just left it like it was combing my fingers through it.
Leave her house between 8:15am and 8:20am - drive to work 9:00am to 6:00am. Most of the time I would grocery shop on my lunch break to give me time to get home at a reasonable hour at night. I walk in the door at 6:45pm rush to get supper prepared. Sit down & eat dinner together {very important to us}. Do the dishes. Rush to start laundry {this is where Aaron helps out a TON}. Rush to do whatever it is I need to do and still sit down and spend time with my husband which is by far my most important thing to do. How I walk out the door is how Aaron walks in the door to. {yikes}

Life was crazy and it was so hectic. My heart raced 90-to-nothing & felt
like I wasn't getting anything done. I wasn't enjoying anything thinking I was.

my schedule now
Alarm goes off at 5:40am. Get hubby up. I'm up at 6:15am no later. Take my bath, Pick up the living room {because usually we have it a mess from TV dates the night before}. Make my bed {like really make it}. Do my laundry {I've had laundry done everyday for the past two weeks}. Decide whats for dinner - lay it out. Toast a bagel or have cereal {another thing I'm trying to focus on} while drinking my coffee. Run my car before getting in it instead of just jumping in... freezing. I'm on the road by 8:15am & I'm put together and feel great. Go to work - still grocery shop on my lunch break. Come home at 6:45pm and there my husband is... waiting for me. My house is clean, it smells good and dinner is ready for cooking. Eat dinner. Do dishes. Sit down with my husband {without folding clothes} and really really reeeallly have time to breath and appreciate my day.

It is amazing what a one hour change can do for someones lifestyle.
I never told Aaron I was not going to Moms anymore because he would NEVER believe me. He would laugh at me. He knows how important that time with Momma is to me. Three days of him coming home to a spotless- smelling good house he asked me,
"Have you been going to your Moms?" At that moment I was proud to say, No I had to do some changes in order to make life easier. I've got to find a way to make all this happen.
Later realized how dumb I should feel because he noticed.

Let's just say I appreciate my Mom for all that she does and has ever done for
me and my life. And I don't even have children yet. Yikes!
So yes. After "I do", there are changes. You have to start looking at life on how you
see it in your future. Playing House no longer exists but it's better. The fun is still there of course but seeing marriage through a wives eyes rather than a girlfriend is pretty different.  A good different. It can be intimidating. There is a lot more responsibility involved. Balance in the Drew residence is on it's way. 

♥ a somewhat of a vlog will be coming very soon.
stay tuned.