Today I'm linking up for Oh, How Pinteresting. It's my first time so I'm a little excited ;)
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Oh, How Pinteresting
Today I'm linking up for Oh, How Pinteresting. It's my first time so I'm a little excited ;)
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
Seven Years
(back row from L-R: Eric's grandmother Faye, his mother Debi, his sister Amanda, me, Eric, his father Larry, and his sister-in-law Christi)
(front row from L-R: his nephew Chad, niece Hayley, and nephew Gabriel)
June 18, 2005
Yesterday was mine and Eric's 7 year anniversary. I'm not exaggerating when I say that it is a miracle that we've lasted this long. We have struggled with one issue or another pretty much since day one.
Anyway, "in honor"of our anniversary I thought I would take this opportunity to tell you all who don't know me (or do know me IRL and just don't know the story) about our wedding day (and the days leading up to it).
Eric's family made it clear from the start that they weren't going to help pay for anything for the wedding. My parents were struggling financially and were not able to help, so Eric and I ended up having to pay for it ourselves. I went to a used dress store and bought my wedding dress and veil. I went to Wal-Mart and bought light blue and white (the colors I wanted) wedding decorations and a fake flower bouquet for myself and my maid-of-honor. I went out and bought a new pair of shoes that would go with my dress. That was the extent of my wedding shopping. Why? Because I was between jobs and Eric was low-level management at McDonald's, so that's all we could afford.
Almost every decision about the wedding was made by Eric's family, or more specifically, his mother. She ruled over *everything*. The few decisions Eric and I made were still influenced by her. Looking back, I really wish things had been different. Mine and Eric's relationship was still fairly new when we decided to get married. I was very young and honestly a little intimidated by his family. I had witnessed some of the "temper tantrums" that they threw when they didn't get their way with things so I let them boss me around just to avoid confrontation. That should have been my first warning sign to just run away and never look back. I held on though because I loved Eric so much.
It was decided that Eric's brother would be his best man. No big deal. That was fine with me. But then it was decided that his sister would be my maid-of-honor. Not my best friend. Not any of my friends. But my soon-to-be sister in law who had never really been all that nice to me. Great.
We had to get married at the church Eric's family was members of at the time. We went through the required marriage counseling. Then we chose a date and time for the wedding.
Fast forward.
At the rehersal dinner the night before our wedding, Eric's mother was acting particularly "crazy". She was seriously freaking out because the tables in the fellowship hall were not lined up the way that she thought they should be along with a bunch of other things. She completely ruined the entire evening. I never did get an apology.
We invited a lot of people but not very many actually showed up. It was Eric's family, his grandmother and cousin from Alabama, a couple people from the church, my parents, my uncle, my aunt, and two of my friends.
After the wedding was over, we had to stay behind and clean up the fellowship hall because the church was having a Father's Day breakfast the next morning. I don't mean "we" as in everybody, I mean "we" as in me and Eric. Yeah. No help from his family at all. Thankfully my parents and friends stayed to help.
You would think after that we'd get to leave for our honeymoon, right? Wrong. We had to stay because our honeymoon was going to be driving his grandmother and cousin back down to Alabama the next day. Yep, you read it right. It didn't matter that we barely had the money to pay for the few small things we had at our wedding. We had to pay for gas to drive down to Alabama and back AGAIN. Again, you ask? Yes. His grandmother and cousin didn't drive up here (we live in NC for those that don't know) for our wedding. We drove down there to get them and bring them up here. So once AGAIN we were paying for gas to go to Alabama and back. Because a low-level manager at McDonald's with a wife that has no job has a ton of money, right? Yeah.
I'd like to say that things have gotten better over the years, but they haven't. At least not by much. We did finally end up cutting all ties with Eric's family. The relationship with them was toxic at best and it was just time for it to end. I had hoped things would get better after that. I don't know if it's because so much damage had already been done by his family or what, but we're still fighting to put the pieces together. We've been hit with stress from job situations, a separation (we separated for 2 months in 2009), trust issues and many, many other things.
We're still trying though. We haven't given up yet.
Sunday, June 17, 2012
Sunday Social, Week 2
1. What is your favorite movie of all time?
.jpg?film_rn=177379)
It is a close tie between How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days and While You Were Sleeping. Actually, I'd also throw in My Best Friend's Wedding. I love them all! It's so hard to choose. I think I'll move on to the next question now because as I'm typing I'm thinking of more movies that could be my "favorite". :D
2. Favorite Movie Quote
I love just about all of the lines from Mean Girls. I especially like Damian's "I WANT MY PINK SHIRT BACK!" and Gretchen's "I'm sorry that people are so jealous of me....but I can't help it that I'm popular." :)
3. Best movie to watch for a girl's night in?
I'd say any of the Twilight movies, especially with my group of friends ;) Anything with a cute lead guy in it wouldn't hurt either, right?
4. Best break-up movie?
The Break Up!
5. Favorite celeb eye candy?
Oh goodness. I have several I could list for this one. My absolute top guy is Patrick Dempsey (McDreamy!!!!!). Others include Matthew McConaughey, Dennis Quaid, Gerard Butler, Vince Vaughn.
6. Which movie star's closet would you want to raid?
Assuming I could ever fit into their clothes, Reese Witherspoon or Jennifer Garner
PS. Happy Father's Day to all of the dads out there!
Friday, June 15, 2012
Friday's Letters
(link up with Ashley here)
Dear Weekend: Woohoo! I'm glad you're here.
Dear Abby, Erika, and Joanne: My besties! So glad we are going to get together with the kids today. Will it be chaotic? Probably. Will we want to pull our hair out by the time it's over? Maybe. Will we have lots of laughs? You know it!
Dear Hickory City: Whyyyyyyy must you be so difficult with your trash pick-up? I mean, really? Whenever Eric puts the trash down at the road on Thursday night when he gets home from work, you don't show up until late afternoon on Friday. But every.single.time that he forgets and doesn't take it down until Friday morning, you decide to show up at 6am and we miss out on our trash being picked up. Quit!
Dear Eric: I know you're probably going to have to work, but Happy Father's Day! Oh, and our anniversary is on Monday. Don't forget ;)
Dear camera battery: I hope you are fully charged by now because I plan on getting a lot of use out of you today :D
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
What I'm Loving Wednesday
* I'm loving that our summer is off to a great start. We have stayed pretty busy so far and the fighting between Chris and Logan hasn't been *too* bad. Maybe I'll actually keep my sanity this year? ;) We'll see.
* I'm loving that Chris is officially a Cub Scout. He had his first meeting last night at the Tiger Cub Camp Night. We got him into a pack that meets really close to our house. Chris got to shoot a BB gun (I got to do it too, which was pretty awesome), a bow & arrow, do an obstacle course and make a leather necklace. He had a blast and can't wait until his pack starts up their regular weekly meetings this fall.
* I'm loving that my birthday is coming up soon. One week from tomorrow I'll say hello to the big 2-7.
* I'm loving that I signed the boys up for the Summer Reading Program. The library is going to be hosting a lot of fun events this summer and Chris will also get in a lot of reading practice so he doesn't lose any momentum.
* I'm loving spending more time with my friends.
* I'm loving trying to be more active with updating my blog and meeting new bloggers.
* I'm loving that last night I spent 7 hours sorting, organizing, and finally putting into albums 2 and a half years of pictures. Woot! Now I just need to print pics from last year and this year and I'll be caught up.
Monday, June 11, 2012
Weekend Review
We have started off our summer break with a busy, fun-filled weekend. Love it! I hope our whole summer is like this.
Saturday morning we took the boys to our local Lowe's Hardware for their Build & Grow clinic. They were making Monkey Powered Airplanes, which Chris and Logan were pretty stoked about. Eric and I always end up piecing the projects together but the boys love doing all of the hammering and putting the stickers on. I had to help them a little more this time than I usually do so I wasn't able to snap any pictures. Maybe next time ;) They had a lot of fun though! I think they enjoy the certificate and badge they receive for completing the project just as much as the project itself.
That afternoon we went to a birthday party for my best friend's daughter. She is turning 3 years old and had a super cute Bumblebee themed party. Abby (her mom) had different stations with fun things for all of the kids to do. I volunteered to help her out since she can't be in more than once place at a time ;) I was in charge of the nail polish and temporary tattoo station. I was a "busy bee" throughout the whole party. At one point I even had a small line formed with kids either wanting their nails painted or a tattoo, and I even had a few that wanted both. I didn't mind at all though. I had a lot of fun. I especially liked painting the girls' nails for them. I don't get to do things like that since I have two boys. My hubby was sweet enough to bring me some ice cream and a cupcake since I stayed so busy and wasn't able to leave my spot, haha.
Today we took the boys bowling. Our local bowling center is offering free bowling for kids this summer. They get 2 free games per day. That's pretty awesome! I just wish the shoe rental wasn't so much. Eric and I decided not to bowl and it was still $6.63 just for Chris and Logan's shoe rental. We were thinking about just going to Dick's and buying them a pair of bowling shoes, especially if we're going to be taking them a lot this summer. I'm sure the shoes would pay for themselves in no time.
Chris and Logan used the "kid ramp" at first but then quickly got into the swing of things and pushed it to the side so they could bowl on their own. I had a lot of fun watching them. During the middle of the first game Chris got to where he would roll the ball, put his hands on his hips, and then turn and tilt his body in the direction he wanted his ball to go. It was SO funny. Everyone around us was laughing, too. Chris got a strike toward the end of the first game and ended up winning. Then Logan got a strike toward the middle of the second game and won that one :)
Saturday morning we took the boys to our local Lowe's Hardware for their Build & Grow clinic. They were making Monkey Powered Airplanes, which Chris and Logan were pretty stoked about. Eric and I always end up piecing the projects together but the boys love doing all of the hammering and putting the stickers on. I had to help them a little more this time than I usually do so I wasn't able to snap any pictures. Maybe next time ;) They had a lot of fun though! I think they enjoy the certificate and badge they receive for completing the project just as much as the project itself.
That afternoon we went to a birthday party for my best friend's daughter. She is turning 3 years old and had a super cute Bumblebee themed party. Abby (her mom) had different stations with fun things for all of the kids to do. I volunteered to help her out since she can't be in more than once place at a time ;) I was in charge of the nail polish and temporary tattoo station. I was a "busy bee" throughout the whole party. At one point I even had a small line formed with kids either wanting their nails painted or a tattoo, and I even had a few that wanted both. I didn't mind at all though. I had a lot of fun. I especially liked painting the girls' nails for them. I don't get to do things like that since I have two boys. My hubby was sweet enough to bring me some ice cream and a cupcake since I stayed so busy and wasn't able to leave my spot, haha.
Today we took the boys bowling. Our local bowling center is offering free bowling for kids this summer. They get 2 free games per day. That's pretty awesome! I just wish the shoe rental wasn't so much. Eric and I decided not to bowl and it was still $6.63 just for Chris and Logan's shoe rental. We were thinking about just going to Dick's and buying them a pair of bowling shoes, especially if we're going to be taking them a lot this summer. I'm sure the shoes would pay for themselves in no time.
Chris and Logan used the "kid ramp" at first but then quickly got into the swing of things and pushed it to the side so they could bowl on their own. I had a lot of fun watching them. During the middle of the first game Chris got to where he would roll the ball, put his hands on his hips, and then turn and tilt his body in the direction he wanted his ball to go. It was SO funny. Everyone around us was laughing, too. Chris got a strike toward the end of the first game and ended up winning. Then Logan got a strike toward the middle of the second game and won that one :)
Friday, June 8, 2012
Last Day of School
Today was Chris' last day of Kindergarten. I was emotional the whole day. It's just so hard to believe that my baby has grown up so much. It seems like he should still be a little toddler.
I got the idea from Pinterest for a couple end-of-year Teacher Appreciation gifts. I gave Chris' teacher one of them during Teacher Appreciation week and saved the other one for today. I let Chris carry it in this morning to give to her and she absolutely loved it. So much that she actually started to cry! She has been a wonderful teacher though and I'm so thankful for how much she has done for Chris this year. He has come so far and I have her to thank for a lot of that.
I headed up to the school shortly after lunch-time along with my parents to watch the play that all of the Kindergarten classes were going to put on and then the Graduation Ceremony.
The play was soo cute. It was 'Alphabet Adventure' themed. The "graduation ceremony" wasn't what I thought it was going to be. After the play was over all of the kids went back to their classroom and were going to receive their certificate there.
Along with his certificate stating he was graduating from Kindergarten, he also received an award from Mileage Club. Mileage Club is a program that his school does to keep the students active throughout the year. They use gym time to either walk, run, or jog and their mileage is recorded. This year Chris did 20 miles!
On Awards Day a couple days ago, he got an award for Perfect Attendance for the last 9 weeks and the Best Effort award. I'm so proud of him!
I got the idea from Pinterest for a couple end-of-year Teacher Appreciation gifts. I gave Chris' teacher one of them during Teacher Appreciation week and saved the other one for today. I let Chris carry it in this morning to give to her and she absolutely loved it. So much that she actually started to cry! She has been a wonderful teacher though and I'm so thankful for how much she has done for Chris this year. He has come so far and I have her to thank for a lot of that.
I headed up to the school shortly after lunch-time along with my parents to watch the play that all of the Kindergarten classes were going to put on and then the Graduation Ceremony.
The play was soo cute. It was 'Alphabet Adventure' themed. The "graduation ceremony" wasn't what I thought it was going to be. After the play was over all of the kids went back to their classroom and were going to receive their certificate there.
Along with his certificate stating he was graduating from Kindergarten, he also received an award from Mileage Club. Mileage Club is a program that his school does to keep the students active throughout the year. They use gym time to either walk, run, or jog and their mileage is recorded. This year Chris did 20 miles!
On Awards Day a couple days ago, he got an award for Perfect Attendance for the last 9 weeks and the Best Effort award. I'm so proud of him!
on stage performing
Chris doing his speaking part
receiving his certificate from his teacher
Chris and his teacher :) We're going to miss her
Thursday, June 7, 2012
Field Day 2012
Today was Field Day at Chris' school. It was his first one so he was super excited. I had originally volunteered to help out with the events but my husband offered to volunteer in my place so I could watch Chris participate in all of the events they had planned for the day.
They had a lot of cute events like Dress the Teacher (which prompted a lot of giggles from the students), Crazy Dance (lots of giggles with this one, too), Chicken Relay, Sack Race, Tire Roll, Hula Hoop, etc.
After all of the classes finished their events, they took a lunch break and set aside some extra time for the kids to rest. The last event of the day was the Tug of War. Apparently this is a favorite with the majority of the school. Every student was either on the Red Team or the Blue Team. Chris was on the Blue Team for his class. The kindergarten boys were up first. So it was the Blue kindergarten boys vs the Red kindergarten boys (and it was like that for the girls also, all the way up to fifth grade). Chris' team ended up winning their match of Tug of War ;) He seemed pretty happy with that. For every event he completed he got either a gold or silver ribbon, depending if his team won or not. Chris ended up with 13 gold ribbons, 2 silver ribbons, and a regular ribbon just for participating in the day's events.
Here are a couple pics from the day:
They had a lot of cute events like Dress the Teacher (which prompted a lot of giggles from the students), Crazy Dance (lots of giggles with this one, too), Chicken Relay, Sack Race, Tire Roll, Hula Hoop, etc.
After all of the classes finished their events, they took a lunch break and set aside some extra time for the kids to rest. The last event of the day was the Tug of War. Apparently this is a favorite with the majority of the school. Every student was either on the Red Team or the Blue Team. Chris was on the Blue Team for his class. The kindergarten boys were up first. So it was the Blue kindergarten boys vs the Red kindergarten boys (and it was like that for the girls also, all the way up to fifth grade). Chris' team ended up winning their match of Tug of War ;) He seemed pretty happy with that. For every event he completed he got either a gold or silver ribbon, depending if his team won or not. Chris ended up with 13 gold ribbons, 2 silver ribbons, and a regular ribbon just for participating in the day's events.
Here are a couple pics from the day:
water relay
40 yard dash
Tug-of-War (he's toward the back)
me and my squinter - he can't stand for the sun to be in his eyes
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
Countdown!
borrowed this post from my friend Abby
12 Random Things
1. My full name is actually Jacqulene, but I've gone by Jackie for as long as I can remember because of getting teased about my name.
2. I am absolutely terrified (meaning panic attack, the whole nine yards) of spiders. Size doesn't matter.
3. I'm also pretty much afraid of any kind of creepy crawly, heights, bridges (especially over water)
4. I'm an only child.
5. I've been burned so many times that it's very hard for me to trust people.
6. I absolutely refuse to ever travel on an airplane.
7. I've never been outside of the US (in large part due to the reason above LOL)
8. Just had my first major injury a couple days ago. A concussion. :-/
9. I collect postcards and souvenirs from places all over the world.
10. I rode in a hot air balloon last year.
11. My favorite color is pink.
12. I'm extremely shy.
11 Things I do every. single. day.
1. Check facebook and other things online
2. Talk to my mom
3. Talk to one of my Fab 4
4. Kiss and hug the boys
5. Text
6. Read (either for myself or for the boys)
7. Hygiene stuff
8. Drive somewhere
9. Eat
10. Sleep
11. Drink some iced tea ;)
1. Skate rental at Skateland tonight
2. Dinner on the way home from Skateland
3. Workbooks
4. books for the boys
5. Chris' membership for Cub Scouts
6. Shampoo
7. Pens
8. new bedding for the boys
9. books for myself
10. groceries
1. Disney World
2. California
3. Florida
4. New York
5. Canada
6. Italy (if I can get over my plane thing)
7. France (^^)
8. England (^^)
9. Seattle, WA
1. TV
2. Bookshelf with Eric's books and my photo albums
3. Bookshelf with all of our DVD's
4. Sectional
5. Marley's crate
6. Chris' school desk
7. Coffee table
8. My magnet boards
1. General Hospital
2. American Idol
3. Grey's Anatomy
4. Private Practice
5. King of Queens
6. Friends
7. Amazing Race
6 of my favorite foods
1. Pizza
2. Lasagna
3. Baked Ziti
4. burger from Backstreet's
5. Ribs from Chili's
6. Chicken Marinara
1. Updated my severely neglected blog
2. Did dishes
3. Laundry
4. Cleaned almost the entire house
5. Started making plans for this summer
1. James Durbin
2. Scotty McCreery
3. Lauren Alaina
4. My "project playlist" playlist
1. O'Neal
2. Jamie
3. Mindy
1. cell phone
2. camera
Chris and Logan doing something together without fighting. <3 Rare occurance!
Monday, June 4, 2012
It's over already?
Wow! I can't believe that this is the last week of school. It seems like this school year has just flew by. I'm excited and sad at the same time. Excited that he'll be moving on to the 1st grade in the fall, but then sad for the exact same reason. He's definitely not my little baby anymore :( Chris has been talking a lot lately about wanting to hurry and grow up. I'm like, "Slow down, kiddo! You're doing it fast enough as is." ;)
This last week of school is going to be pretty busy. I'm hoping to have lunch with him one more time either today or tomorrow. On Wednesday they are having Awards Day. I'm not sure if Chris is going to get anything or not, but I'm going to be there just in case. And even if he doesn't get anything, it's cute watching all the other kids get their awards :).
Thursday is Field Day! Chris is super excited about that. I had originally planned on volunteering as a floater (just going wherever they need me), but now Eric has agreed to volunteer in my place so I can go with Chris to all of the little events and watch him do them and take pics, etc! Events start at 8:45 for Kindergarten and 1st graders and they go until lunch time. After lunch, they start the tug-of-war games by grade level. I remember that was my favorite part of field day when I was little. Can't wait to see Chris and his class do it!
Friday is the Kindergarten graduation. Ohhhhhhhh man. I'm preparing myself now for lots of tears. I know some people may think it's silly to get emotional over something like that, but I just can't help it. It especially doesn't help when they put on performances and play sappy songs :P Chris said they are working on a play, so I'm excited to see what that's about. This past weekend at a yard sale I found a camcorder and got an awesome deal on it! It's really nice and even came with a new blank DVD so I can start recording right away. I knew when I saw it that it would be perfect to have for the graduation. He'll only graduate kindergarten once, why not get it on video?! :)
I've been a little worried about the boys being bored this summer because of us not having a lot of money to do things, but our calendar has already filled up quite a bit with fun, FREE things to do. We signed them up for the Summer Reading Program and there are all kinds of events at the library this summer for that. In their summer reading packet they received a free Crawdad's game ticket, free soft play at Hickory Dickory Dock, and a free treat or meal at various restaurants in the area. The day after school one of my best friend's daughters is having her birthday party. A couple days later we'll be going to an ice cream party at another one of my best friend's houses. I'm sure the Fab 4 (my small group of besties) will be getting together for lots of playdates, also.
I'm looking forward to the events of this last week of school and all of the fun things we have planned for summer break.
This last week of school is going to be pretty busy. I'm hoping to have lunch with him one more time either today or tomorrow. On Wednesday they are having Awards Day. I'm not sure if Chris is going to get anything or not, but I'm going to be there just in case. And even if he doesn't get anything, it's cute watching all the other kids get their awards :).
Thursday is Field Day! Chris is super excited about that. I had originally planned on volunteering as a floater (just going wherever they need me), but now Eric has agreed to volunteer in my place so I can go with Chris to all of the little events and watch him do them and take pics, etc! Events start at 8:45 for Kindergarten and 1st graders and they go until lunch time. After lunch, they start the tug-of-war games by grade level. I remember that was my favorite part of field day when I was little. Can't wait to see Chris and his class do it!
Friday is the Kindergarten graduation. Ohhhhhhhh man. I'm preparing myself now for lots of tears. I know some people may think it's silly to get emotional over something like that, but I just can't help it. It especially doesn't help when they put on performances and play sappy songs :P Chris said they are working on a play, so I'm excited to see what that's about. This past weekend at a yard sale I found a camcorder and got an awesome deal on it! It's really nice and even came with a new blank DVD so I can start recording right away. I knew when I saw it that it would be perfect to have for the graduation. He'll only graduate kindergarten once, why not get it on video?! :)
I've been a little worried about the boys being bored this summer because of us not having a lot of money to do things, but our calendar has already filled up quite a bit with fun, FREE things to do. We signed them up for the Summer Reading Program and there are all kinds of events at the library this summer for that. In their summer reading packet they received a free Crawdad's game ticket, free soft play at Hickory Dickory Dock, and a free treat or meal at various restaurants in the area. The day after school one of my best friend's daughters is having her birthday party. A couple days later we'll be going to an ice cream party at another one of my best friend's houses. I'm sure the Fab 4 (my small group of besties) will be getting together for lots of playdates, also.
I'm looking forward to the events of this last week of school and all of the fun things we have planned for summer break.
Subscribe to:
Posts
(
Atom
)