Update!

 Well it's been over a month since my last post and that's because I've been SOOO busy!  SO busy.  I'm still working full time (boo) and taking summer school (double boo,) so my life has been pretty consumed with that.  If you've never worked full time and taken a summer school class, don't.  It's awful and stressful and makes me want to cry like a baby everyday.  So I'm looking forward to August when I'm done for three weeks and then fall starts at a much slower pace.  So since I last blogged, we bought a new motorcycle and I cut all my hair off.  If anyone didn't know us, they'd think we were having some sort of quarter life crisis....  I will be 30 in two years, so maybe that is it?!  Here's a picture of me and my babe, and my babe's new babe.

Happy cinco shake your bon bon fiesta de mayo birthday to me!

As most people know (since I'm so annoying about announcing it a full two weeks ahead of time) my birthday was on May 5th.  The day before I left, my coworkers bought me some super yummy cupcakes.  They were super delish!

On Thursday morning, CINCO DE MAYO!!, I left Matt at home since he had to work, and traveled to Columbus GA to spend 3 days with my family.  I was greeted by my sister in law and beautiful niece, Hanna.  We spent the day together just hanging out, and Thursday night, Luke, Amanda and I went downtown to eat some yummy mexican food, drink margartias, and celebrate!  We had a blast!  It had been a long time since any of us had been out in this type of setting, and it was definitely welcomed!  I don't get to see them very much, so it really was nice getting to spend my birthday with them.  Friday was low key.  Hanna especially enjoyed her breakfast.

My parents arrived Friday night, and Saturday morning we woke up early for a photo shoot.  My mom was enrolled in a photography class, and for the week, her assignment was people.  I was her "people."  We went to this rock park to take the photographs, and it was pretty amazing!  The sun was still relatively low in the sky, and it wasn't too hot, so it was a pleasant experience..... Until she made me lay on the ground, where I got stabbed by a cactus!  It was a teenie, tiny cactus.....  Probably the smallest I've ever seen, but it caused me to break out in an itchy rash all over my legs.  EEK!  Like a true model, I pushed through the pain, smiled with my eyes, and made our time worth her effort.  She did such a good job and the photos turned out awesome!  Without further ado......

My very best gazelle leap.  I know.  It's awesome.



"smeyesing"=smiling with my eyes.  Tyra would be proud. 

After the photo shoot, we drove about an hour to Gay Georgia, to go to the Cotton Pickin Fair! 

It was a craft fair this town holds every year.  It was fun to see all the neat things people make, and it was great to eat good food!  I had the best strawberry shortcake.  Yum yum.  It's always so nice when I get to see my family, and can't wait to be home in less than a year.  Cheers! 



Easter.

When we got to Home Depot on Saturday and I picked out the assortment of plants I wanted to plant in our first flower bed, Matt said nothing...  Just looked at me like this...  HA!  He was such a good sport and let me pick out and design it all on my own.  I normally hate trying to decide stuff like this all on my own, but it was surprisingly easy to pick out what I want.  My parents have the most beautiful backyard with a butterfly garden that I love.  Everything is tall, and wild, but looks so uniform together.  Mine looks

nothing like theres, but I was still inspired none the less.  Anyway, we finally got both of our flower beds filled with soil, and Saturday we completed one side.  We would have completed both sides this weekend, but due to it storming ALLLL day Sunday, we weren't able to.  I was super bummed, but my body was thankful I had to wait to finish it.  My back sang out in praise.  As did my hamstrings... 

Anyway, this is what the space looked like before......

This is what it looked like AFTER!  Matt is off today, so he went and bought the mulch and will be putting the mulch down sometime today.  I can't wait to finish the other side.  Our yard is going to bring sexy back to the neighborhood.  OW!

Sunday was the WORST!  We woke up to crappy weather, and around 9:30, our power went off, and stayed off.  A huge strike of lightning came burrowing through our living room, shutting off all the power... Ok, I'm being extremely dramatic, but the lightning was super close and scary.  The power was off for at least 4 hours.  So we decided to be proactive.  This meant going to Gamestop to trade in 7 or 8 of Matt's video games for store credit....  $167 worth of trade ins!  Holy cow, right?!!  He bought 4 games, including Monopoly so we could play a game together..  The computer totally kicked our butt, but it was still really fun!  Then it was time to get our Easter Egg Dying groove on.  Unless you have kids, this is really more of a one man job since there is only one dipper stick...  So Matt and I alternated placing the eggs into their colors, and then I proceeded to watch the cups and the eggs, while Matt went back to play video games.  That was the extent of this fun time.  We were super happy with the bright colors, and had fun the 2 minutes we spent working as a team giving the eggs their new makeovers.  I think Pink was the happiest with her new look....  Later, Matt enjoyed the orange egg for a snack.  He said it was yum.  It reminded me of the year when I was young, and our family dyed Easter Eggs and forgot to put them in the fridge that night.  My mom got upset, and we had to throw them all away.  Bummer right??  I'm sure we spent at least 10 minutes as a family dying the eggs....  Oh Well!  Happy Easter to all!! 

Heart.



Success....

I found this quote online today, on a blog I frequent...  The blogger is a stay at home mom, who is also an amazing photographer and an arts and crafts queen!  I often get involved in crafty projects and get this very excited, jump out of bed feeling so that I can get started on it again..  Once the project is completed, I feel accomplished, and I guess in a way, like I've succeeded...  It's a pretty great feeling.  I appreciate this outlook on success, because at times, I think about my life and wonder what it is that makes me successful and if I've succeeded yet.....  I'll be 28 next month and am only a sophomore in college.  We're living in limbo in Tennessee waiting to get out of the army next year, both in jobs we don't exactly love.  I'm surrounded by friends that have graduated, have jobs they're proud of and/or are in the process of starting the next big step in life, by having babies.  Matt and I have decided that for both of us, our education has to come first.  We must succeed in our education before any kids can be in our agenda.  This is sad to me at times, because I would love to have a little Davis babe in my house screaming, pooping, and oogling over mom and dad.  Should I measure my success, but the successes of others??  No, definitely not.  I'm learning that it's ok for us to live our lives differently than everyone else.  We're a few steps behind, and are just in the process of catching up.  One day, we'll be in the right place and time, and we'll be ready to begin the process of completing our family.  Until then, I will remember this quote, and consistenly remind myself that sometimes it's ok to march to the beat of your own drum, when it's the beat suited best for you...... 

Spring showers bring, rainbows!

Aren't rainbows amazing?  I'm almost 28, and everytime I see a rainbow, I get excited like a little kid.  We had storms roll in Friday night, and in the midst of their rolling and rumbling, I looked out my window to see this:


Double Rainbow Beauty

Growing up in a religious household, I was taught that the rainbow was a sign from God, to Noah, of his promise that life on Earth would never again be destroyed by a flood. 

In mythology, Iris, was the greek goddess of the rainbow, and the messenger of the Olympian Gods.  She was often represented as the handmaiden and personal messenger of Hera. Iris was a goddess of sea and sky--her father Thaumas "the wondrous" was a marine-god, and her mother Elektra "the amber" a cloud-nymph. For the coastal-dwelling Greeks, the rainbow's arc was most often seen spanning the distance beteween cloud and sea, and so the goddess was believed to replenish the rain-clouds with water from the sea. Iris had no distinctive mythology of her own. In myth she appears only as an errand-running messenger and was usually described as a virgin goddess. Her name contains a double meaning, being connected both with iris, "the rainbow," and eiris, "messenger."

The Chinese believed that the rainbow was a slit in the sky sealed by Goddess Nuwa using stones of five different colours.

The Irish leprechaun's secret hiding place for his pot of gold is usually believed to be at the end of the rainbow.

In Silesia, an obscure area of eastern Europe, it was said that the angels kept tons of gold there and that only a nude man could obtain the prize.....

So no matter where you come from, or what you believe in, the rainbow is significant to everyone for one reason or another.....  Even the nude men scowering Europe trying to find angels secret stashes of gold.

Eat Smart!

I mentioned yesterday in my blog that Matt and I were starting a diet....  Well, it started out as a diet and has since turned into a little "get healthy" project.  I've always wanted to be one of those people that does all their shopping at Whole Foods, and while there, orders a healthy chicken salad sandwich on some sort of very healthy bread, with a fruit or salad on the side for lunch.  Instead, like a true American, I crave McDonald's or Burger King, or something of the fast food variety and stuff my face with burgers, grease and all.  We, unlike your average dedicated dieters, cannot starve ourselves in order to get "healthy" and lose weight.  So we're taking on a new approach and a new outlook on our way of eating.  We have no intentions of becoming vegan's or anything to that extreme, (since I only know a very small handful of people that are vegan's and they seem to be sick more than they are heatlhy) we're just going to adopt new ideas on what we need to eat, versus what we crave.  We made a list of YES and NO foods.  The big "no" we're going to really stick to is High Fructose Corn Syrup.  This stuff is bad bad bad, and there is no reason for it to be in our diet.  The reason this is our big "no," is because it's in a bunch of crap we shouldn't be eating anyway!  And when I say everything, it really is in everything!  So, since Monday we have consumed little, to no high fructose corn syrup (I didn't realize until this morning that in our name brand, supposed to be healthier for you, fat free salad dressing, also contained high fructose corn syrup) and we are admittedly experiencing some food/sugar withdrawal.  Our diet has consisted mostly of lean proteins, eggs, fruits and veggies....  We are SOOOO not used to this.  Don't get me wrong, Matt and I are not completely unhealthy.  We rarely eat at fast food restaurants, and will try to go out to eat at a nicer restaurant on Friday nights for dinner.  I always cook at home, and we take our breakfast and lunch everyday.  However, the food we're eating might be considered healthy by most, but is full of so many bad things, that it's not healthy at all.  To avoid getting preachy, I'll stop there.  This is going to be one of the hardest things we've ever done, because we've had bad eating habits for all 27 years of our lives, but will also be so rewarding...  Today for lunch I made a healthy chicken salad.  We ate it on Whole Wheat bread, with flaxseed and olive oil.  The Chicken Salad consisted of Chicken, Olive Oil Mayo, Greek Yogurt, Walnuts, Grapes, Green Onions and Salt and Pepper...  I toasted my bread and it is soooo yummy!  I decided to take a picture before I finished scarfing it down:



Looks tasty, huh?



So I'll periodically update how our food lifestyle change is going, but won't bore you every post on us being healthy snobs....  C-ya!