Hairapy and "The Dress"

I got my hair done today, and I must say I love it!!!♥ I'm so sad to be leaving my fabulous hair dresser behind here in Cali! :( We have so many hair memories together!! Rosa did my hair for my wedding and has been doing it ever since. Now I'm gonna have to start all over and find someone new. Does anybody in the Hampton Roads area know of a good and affordable hair dresser? If so please leave your suggestions. :) I'm also worrying about what all that Virginia humidity is gonna do to my hair, its natuarlly curly/wavy (ewwww!) and in Cali its not such a big deal cause its so dry, but I know my hair is gonna be frizz central once I hit VA!!! :( Hopefully I can find some good styling products to keep the frizz at bay and hold my curl, cause I don't wanna look horrible when my husband comes sailing in to port. Do you ladies who deal with the humidity have any suggestions for me?

On another note, remember this dress? The dress I'm wearing to my hubby's homecoming ceremony...

Well I got it in the mail a few weeks ago and it was a little too big on the sides (but the length was perfect, which was weird, cause I'm short) so I had to go take it to be tailored today. Damn this deployment, can you believe I lost about 4 pounds over the past 5 months? That seriously can not be healthy cause I'm already a twig!! Anyway, its only gonna cost me $15 so I guess thats not too bad. 

I also ended up getting these shoes to go with the dress, but I'm worried that my feet are gonna be killing me if we end up having to wait a few hours. At least I am to the point where I can see a light at the end of the tunnel and my husband will be home and in my arms soon enough!! :) I'm sure he wouldn't care if I showed up in a potato sack dress, but I guess as a woman I still wanna look gorgeous for my man!! ;)

A Birthday, The Beach, and Bird Poo!

Saturday my family and I packed up our cars and headed to the beach for Bailey's birthday. I wasn't in the best of moods because I was exhausted from all the craziness during the past two weeks, but after awhile I managed to feel better and have a pretty awesome day! :) Since my mom lives about 40 minutes from Oceanside, we decided to go there, and although the weather was a bit gloomy we still had a blast. Bailey and Keira played in the sand and the water, and managed to get pretty dirty (like all kids do). Here are some photos for you to enjoy! :) 

This photo is me and Lindsey, my friend and a fellow Milspouse (her hubby is in the Marine Corps and stationed at Camp Pendelton). I was so glad she came and met up with us! We had a blast hanging out and talking and there was a pretty hilarious incident involving the bird poo, but I'll get to that later! ;)

This one is a photo of my younger sis Mary Ashton and my adorable niece Keira. She was so excited to play in the water!!♥

I love this photo, Bailey is just too darn cute! I'm gonna miss all my love bugs so much!! :(

As we were walking along the beach we noticed a ridiculously tall man with about 9 parrots! He was feeding them, and letting people take pictures with them for some tips. They were gorgeous!! We went over to see if he would let Bailey get a picture with the parrots. As we were standing there waiting for him to finish feeding them he pointed directly at me and said, "You, come over here!" He motioned me over, which I was terrified by (this dude was really tall and grouchy, lol!) and he began putting the birds on my shoulders and my head! 

 Eeeeeeeek!! I was so freaking scared that those things were gonna poo on my head or bite me, lol! And they were heavy!! But it was a cool experience, so although I was terrified I'm glad I did it! I got some really great photos!! :)

Not to worry, the birdies never went poo on me and it was actually really neat to see them up close. :) I love this picture cause the parrots look so cute behind me.

Once the grouchy tall man was done embarassing me, he moved on and let Bailey get some photos with the birdies! She's only 6 and she was way braver than me!! Just check out these pics if you don't believe me...

Look at how tall she's standing! She wasn't scared at all. (I guess her Auntie is just a giant wuss! lol)

 I also love this one, she looks so adorable! ♥ I swear she's gonna be a model someday!! :)

 After all the birdie excitement we headed back to the blankets and hung out for awhile. I enjoyed a delicious egg salad sandwhich (thanks mel!), some yummy cool ranch doritos and a delightful cream soda!! It was a perfect feast for the beach. 

After I finished stuffing my face, we were all sitting around talking and laughing when somebody screamed! My friend Lindsey was holding Bella, when an evil seagull flew over us and unleashed a giant bird poo all over baby Bellas face!! Agghhhh!! The horror!! It was sooo sad!! poor Bella was crying as the nasty poo dripped down her face and we all scrambled to get some wet wipes and clean her up! :( As sad and disturbing as this was, we all couldn't help but laugh at the situation. We all joked that we will remember this story forever and poor baby Bella is gonna be terrified of the beach from now on, lol! What are the odds of that happening on her  first trip to the beach?!? I told myself if I ever run into that seagull again, its gonna be on!!! Lol! Pobrecita Bella!! :(

After all the birdie poo was cleaned up we just enjoyed the rest of our day at the beach. It turned out to be a pretty lovely day after all, and I was happy to spend one more day in the Pacific Ocean with my family and friends. I think Bailey had a pretty awesome day too! ♥ 

I'm definitely going to miss times like these with the people I love, but I know that my life over the next three years is definitely going to be an adventure! I can't wait to see what the Lord has in store for my husband and I, and as I spend my last 9 days here in Cali, I know that this place and these people will forever hold a special and irreplaceable spot in my heart. ♥

Anchors Away: What It Means To be a Navy Wife

Nicole over at "Flip Flops and Combat Boots" is hosting an awesome giveaway especially for navy wives! The lucky winner of this giveaway will win a cosmetic bag from "Anchors Away" etsy shop. 

This bag is so adorable and I really, really want to win! I never win anything, (except my awesome custom header, thanks Mrs. G!!) so I'm crossing my fingers for this one, especially because its a nautical theme cosmetic bag and its adorable!!! 

So the rules state that you must explain what being a navy wife means to you and you have to include the best picture of you and your Sailor. I'm giving this my best shot, so here goes!

Being a Navy Wife means many things to me and I strongly believe this is not a job every woman can handle. It takes a special kind of woman to love a Sailor and be an amazing Navy Wife! One must possess many qualities to ensure you are up to the task at hand, and believe me...its no easy task!! Being a navy wife means learning to let go, having: endurance, strength, resilience, an unfaltering love for your sailor, a sense of adventure, as well as being your husbands rock and biggest supporter!

When I first became a Navy Wife I had literally NO CLUE what I was in for. Don't get me wrong, I knew it wasn't gonna be all sunshine and roses, but I didn't think it would be anywhere near as hard as it has been. My husband and I were both in for a rude awakening because the Navy was in control of our lives now, and we both had to get used to being told what to do. For someone who is a control freak like myself, I had to learn to let go. Being a navy wife means letting go of many of the normal things in life, such as choosing where you want to live,choosing when you can see your husband, and leaving all your family and friends behind. Most people would never choose to willingly go through all these things, but Navy Wives do and we adjust to our surroundings and cope with the demands of our husbands careers. 

As a cross country runner in high school, I thought I knew the meaning of endurance. However, once I became a Navy Wife, I learned the true meaning of endurance. As a Navy Wife we endure deployments, training separations, underways, loneliness, sadness, and a lack of understanding from our families and non-milspouse friends. During the last year of my life I have endured more mental and emotional hardships than I have in my entire life. Spending the last 9 months of my life (and our first year of marriage) away from my husband has been the most painful & difficult thing I have ever endured, but I couldn't be more thankful that I have gone through these struggles. The experiences I've had as a Navy wife have increased my confidence in myself and my ability to survive and get things done efficiently!! I have learned to handle all the bills by myself, applied for and found us a house to live in at our new duty station, applied for our first hhg move, lived through the packers and driver coming and taking away all our stuff, and endured 9 months of being away from my husband!!! To me that shows a tremendous amount of strength on my part, and in order to be a Navy Wife you HAVE TO BE STRONG!! If you aren't the Navy will eat you up and spit you out! If you let it, it will ruin you're happiness and your marriage, believe me! But if you are strong and keep your head up, you will be a survivor!
 

As a Navy Wife you must also be resilient. Most of the time things in the Navy don't go your way (or at least in our experiences so far) and you just have to learn to accept it and pick yourself up again.

 

Being a Navy Wive also means you share a deep and unfaltering love for your Sailor. A love that can withstand deployments and the ups and downs of Navy life, and a love that can not be separated by the oceans between you. To me being a Navy Wife means many things, but it also means you are ready for adventure! The Navy can take you places you'll never believe and give you opportunities you never thought you'd have!! 

 

And last but not least Navy Wives are selfless. You become your husbands rock and number 1 supporter, and always try to encourage them when times are hard. Although I have been through some pretty horrible situations with the navy so far, I am proud to be a Navy Wife. I am proud to say that my husband is serving our country and that I am also serving by standing by his side and supporting him! I am so thankful and humbled by the amazing Navy Wives I have met in the bloggy world and real life, and I continue to be amazed at the strength and grace these women possess while enduring so much. For all these reasons, and I'm sure for many more, it is an honor to be called a Navy Wife.♥

Summer Essentials Swap!!! :)

The always fabulous Nicole, over at "Flip Flops & Combat Boots" decided to host a summer essentials swap this month, and since I have bad luck with winning giveaways ;)  I thought this would be a fun way to get some awesome summer goodies, and to be able to pick out some fun stuff for my partner. I was lucky enough to be paired up with Nicole myself, so I knew I was gonna get some cool stuff! :) I am so glad I decided to particiapte cause it was really fun to go shopping for some summer essentials that I think Nicole is gonna love! It was pretty easy and I hope she likes all her goodies, because I actually mailed her package today and it should be arriving on Wednesday, so be on the look out Nicole!! :) Today as I was heading out the door to mail my package, my summer essentials package arrived from Nicole!!! I was so excited, I just had to open it right then and there!! She gave me some awesome summer treats! Heres a photo so I can show off all my cool goodies, lol! Cause I'm a show off like that ;)

As you can probably tell from the above photo, I used to work in a clothing store and I loved making displays, so I had to arrange everything to make it look cutesie! :) I love everything she sent me, and yes those are margarita glasses you see!! This made me laugh so hard when I opened it because Nicole and I were emailing the other day when I was on my moving rampage, (and I was about to chop someone's head off at the time) and she told me she hoped I felt better and that I should have a margarita, lol! I told her I thought she was right, and after the day I had, I NEEDED a drink, lol!! So thank you Nicole, now I have my very own set of margarita glasses!! :) I also got some lemonade mix, which is always a perfect summer treat! It even came with a tiny little whisk to mix the lemonade with, too cute!!

She also sent me a pair of bright purple flip flops, which I will be wearing all the time (especially to the beach once I move!) and I absolutely love the color!! They look so cute on my tiny little feet! :) 

I also got some matching purple glasses that are so cute and I am stoked because I love bright colors! 

Last but not least, Nicole sent me a little pink floral coin purse. This item is probably my favorite because its pink (which I♥) and it has flowers on it! I really needed a coin purse because my wallet is tiny and only really holds my cards, so I never have any room for my change or cash. I like this gift because its adorable as well as useful!!! :)

Thank you to Nicole for all my lovely goodies, I am truly going to enjoy all the things you sent me!! :) I hope you love everything I sent you as well, I tried really hard to get things I thought you would love. I wanted to take a picture of your package but I didn't wanna give away the surprise, so you'll just have to live in suspense until it arrives on Wednesday!! :)

Thank God thats over with and an Award!

So after my whole moving "fiasco," I can finally say that its almost over with!! Today the driver showed up to my house and it only took them about three hours to load all my stuff onto the huge truck parked outside my house. He was very nice and professional, and I am keeping my fingers crossed that all my stuff makes it there in one piece. Mostly I am worried about all our brand new furniture (we just bought a bedroom set and mattress) as well as our book shelf and tv. I'm praying it isn't damaged or broken along the way. We also have a new table that we just bought, but I left that in the box so it wouldn't get damaged, and were just gonna put it together once we get out to Virginia Beach. I feel so relieved that this part of the move is over with, and I can finally relax for the next 12 days before we start our drive to the East Coast! :) 

 

So now on to happier and lighter matters: a few days ago the always lovely Mrs. Gambizzle over at "Life As A Sailor's Girl" was sweet enough to give me the "Cherry On Top Award." Thank you so much for thinking of me and brightening my day! As you all know these last few weeks have been extra stressful for me and having you all to support me and encourage me has helped me tremendously!!! I am so lucky to have such wonderful bloggy friends who know exactly what I'm going through (because most of you have had to deal with the same crap!) and its just nice to have friends that understand and offer a few kind words. :) So many thanks to Mrs.Gambizzle and all my bloggy friends! Now the rules of this award state that you must name 3 things about yourself that you love and pass it on to 5 lovely bloggers that you love! So here goes:

1) I love that I am a hard worker. I always try to do my best and succeed at reaching my goals. 

2) I love that my family is important to me, and that I have a close relationship with my mom and sisters. I'm really glad that I have been able to spend so much time with them for the past 9 months, and over the past few days I have realized how much I am going to miss them once I move. 

3) I love that I am a fighter! Over the past year I have learned that I possess the strength and endurance to make it through the hard things in life and still come out strong. Without the love and help from my Lord and Savior I know I would not possess these qualities!

So now I am going to pass the "Cherry On Top Award" to 5 blogs that I believe have that "little something extra" :)

• Jordan over at "Southern Hospitality"
• Mrs. G.I. Joe over at "Acus, Stiletto Shoes & Pretty Pink Tutus"
• Kelsey over at "Far From the Safe Harbor"
• Mel at "Head in the Game, Heart in the Sand"
• Samantha over at "Navy Doll"

All of the blogs that I chose always have something interesting to say, and I genuinely enjoy reading them and getting to know the amazing ladies who write these blogs! If you haven't popped over to their blogs yet, be sure to do so, cause their awesome!! :)I hope all you lovely ladies enjoy your Award and pass it along to some of your favorite blogs! Happy Sunday!♥

Moving Update and the Wrath of Brittney!!!

So in my last post about my horrible day, I was more than a little angry, (just by, well a lot!) and I refused to sit there and get screwed over by the moving company. So in order to find out what the hell was going on with my move, I did what any self respecting lady would do. I called and gave Beacon a an old fashioned bitch fest! Now normally I am a very nice and reasonable person, but when people try to screw me over I don't take it lightly. One thing my mama taught me was to stand up for myself, so that's exactly what I did. And if there's one thing I'm really good at, its arguing, so at this point I was ready for a fight! After speaking with the woman from Beacon earlier, she had promised to call me back and let me know what was going on. Almost an hour went by and she still hadn't called back or even offered me an explanation, so I tried calling her back myself several times. Of course she didn't answer and I left a message and still didn't hear anything back.

So I called again and pressed zero to speak to the operator, who then transferred me to a "customer service representative." I explained the situation to her, in a not so nice way (although I didn't cuss) and told her I was scheduled to have my house hold goods picked up and shipped out today. I also let her know that they needed to rectify the situation and get a driver there asap, and I believe I even informed her that I was BEYOND PISSED that no one showed up, and even worse no one bothered to call and inform me why! She put me on hold for 5 minutes and then came back and said, "Mrs. Taylor, I have an 800 number you can call..." Ummm excuse me!?! I told her "NO, I AM NOT CALLING ANOTHER NUMBER, I KNOW YOUR ABOUT TO CLOSE FOR THE WEEKEND AND I NEED TO SPEAK WITH SOMEONE WHO KNOWS WHATS GOING ON! THIS IS SO UNPROFESSIONAL! WHEN A CUSTOMER HAS A MOVE SCHEDULED AND NO ONE SHOWS UP OR EVEN CALLS, THAT IS HORRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE AND SIMPLY UNACCEPTABLE! IS THIS HOW YOU TREAT ALL YOUR CUSTOMERS? DO YOU ALWAYS TELL THEM THERE WILL BE A DRIVER COMING TO PICK UP THEIR BELONGINGS ON A SPECIFIC DAY, AND THEN NOT CALL OR SHOW UP? BECAUSE IF SO THEN I DON'T KNOW HOW YOU HAVE ANY CUSTOMERS AT ALL!!!!! AND BELIEVE ME, WHEN I DO MY CUSTOMER SATISFACTION SURVEY WHEN THIS IS ALL OVER I WILL BE GIVING YOUR COMPANY A HORRIBLE REVIEW!!!!!" Basically I told her to take that 800 number and shove it up her ass!!! Then she knew from the tone of my voice and how PISSED I was, and said, "Ok I'll go walk over there myself and talk to someone for you." Are you effin kidding me!?? This stupid lady was trying to make me call another number when she could have just handed someone else the phone or transferred me through?! No wonder this company sucks, their employees are obviously morons!!

Anyway, so then she finally got me through to the same lady I had been trying to get a hold of for the last hour. All she basically had to say for herself was that for some reason there is no driver in my area that will be able to come pick up my belongings, and that I would have to wait until Monday. That was the last straw, at that point I was boiling mad and ready to chop someones head off! I then went on to unleash a similar rant that I did to the 800 number lady. She tried to placate me and said, "Mrs. Taylor, I understand where you're coming from..." That was it! I stopped her right there and said "NO OBVIOUSLY YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND BECAUSE NO ONE IS HERE PICKING UP MY STUFF LIKE YOUR COMPANY SAID THEY WOULD!!! ALL THE PAPERWORK SAID THAT YOU WOULD PICK UP ON THE 9TH AND THAT'S TODAY!!! NOW I WAS UP EARLY AND HAVE WAITED AROUND ALL DAY AND STILL NO ONE HAS SHOWED UP! THAT'S EXTREMELY UNPROFESSIONAL AND I STILL DON'T UNDERSTAND WHY THERE IS NO DRIVER IN MY AREA. YOU KNEW MY MOVE WAS SCHEDULED TODAY AND STILL YOU DIDN'T EVEN BOTHER TO HAVE THE DECENCY TO CALL ME AND LET ME KNOW HE COULDN'T MAKE IT TODAY!!! SO I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO, BUT YOU NEED TO FIX THIS!!!!" At this point I was raging! My hands were shaking and I was so mad I was on the verge of tears! She kept saying there was nothing she could do but that she would make sure a driver was there on Monday to pick up my things. I asked her, "How do I know that they will even show up? No one showed up today or even called!" She assured me the driver would call me on Sunday to confirm a pick up time, and I said sarcastically, "Well for your sake I hope he does because if not I'm gonna be on the phone again first thing Monday morning calling you all day until there is a driver at my door!!" With that I got off the phone only to have her call me back a few minutes later.

Obviously my bitch fest had made an impression because she was trying really hard to kiss my ass and informed me that the driver could come tomorrow. I told her no, I have a beach birthday party tomorrow for my niece and I CAN NOT miss it. My family would kill me if I didn't go because of this stupid moving crap! So we decided on Monday and that was that, or so I thought. Then a few minutes later my cell rang and it was a weird number, but I answered anyway. And lo and behold it was the elusive driver who never showed up! He called to apologize and inform me that he was in San Francisco and that he would try to make it by tonight, but he probably would get into so-cal too late in the evening to start the move tonight. He was so nice and told me he was sorry that Beacon had been jerking me around and no one had called to let me know he couldn't make it today. He was the nicest and funniest man, and I have to say he made me feel so much better! He told me he could do the move tomorrow for me, but I informed him of the beach birthday situation so we decided on Sunday instead. He even gave me a time frame, can you believe it??? I know I can't!! I also told him that I am a reasonable person and if someone from the company simply had the common courtesy to call me and let me know there would be no driver, I wouldn't have been so extremely pissed. He agreed with me that in order to get things done, sometimes you have to raise a little hell!

So after this very long and stressful day, I have learned a lot! The moral of this story is that sometimes in this world you have to be a bitch and stand your ground in order to be taken seriously!!!! And after all the crap I went through today, I'm very glad I did stand up for myself because in the end it did get me results and someone finally gave me a straight answer! :)

P.S. Sorry this post was soooo long, but this was just a long story, lol!

Mil Spouse Friday Fill in #3

Its Friday and that means its time for the Milspouse Friday Fill in with "Wife Of a Sailor" so go ahead and answer the questions and then link up! :)

1. What is your favorite household chore?
 My favorite household chore would have to be vacuuming because its so quick and easy! It only takes a few minutes and then you're done! :)
2. What is your favorite childhood memory?
 Hmmmm this is a hard one, but I would have to say I loved the days when I was little and we lived in Tennessee. We spent lots of time with my grandparents and I love them so much. My Grandpa would take me to my tap and ballet lessons and we were always over at their house! We would go camping at Fall Creek Falls State Park and it was so beautiful, I loved going there! You can see what I mean by clicking "Here" its pretty amazing.
3. What is your most embarrassing moment?
 Geez I'm sure I've had plenty but I would have to say it was my sophomore year during a big cross country invitational. I was running a three mile race and was 100 yards from the finish line when I started to feel really sick and I had to stop and barf! It was awful, but I was mostly mad that I had to stop and a few people passed me because of my "vomit" incident. I still got a medal though and had a great time, it was all good in the end, lol!!
4. What uniform of your spouse’s is your favorite?
 Ohh la la this one is hard! My husband looks Smokin' Hot in all his uniforms but I would have to say I love his NWU's (or his digis) and his NSU's (or the peanut butters, as my hubbs and I like to call them). I don't really know why but these two are my favorite, although he looks great in his dress blues as well! :)
5. What canceled TV show do you miss the most?
I loved the show American Dreams on Nbc. It was about a family in the early 60's living in Philadelphia. I loved it because it portrayed all the things that were changing during that time (music, clothing, civil rights, women's rights etc), and it featured a ton of great music (I♥oldies!). Plus there were some pretty cute guys on the show, and I love Brittany Snow! She's too cute! I also loved the whole family dynamic, it showed their fights and happy moments as well, and it just seemed like a real family to me. I wish it wasn't cancelled! :( 

Pissed Doesn't Even Begin to Describe It!!!

I am so MAD right now I am shaking!!! This move has seriously been a nightmare from day one and now there's just one more thing that's going wrong!!! The driver was scheduled to pick up my house hold goods today, but no one ever called me to let me know what time. I tried for the past two days to find out when they would be here, but all that anyone would tell me was that it didn't say on the paperwork and that it only said they would be here to pick it up on the 9th sometime. So I've been up since 6:30 am and got showered and ready in case they decided to show up early. I was told that they would most likely be here from 8-10am but that came and went and no one has called or showed up!!! I am beyond pissed right now!!! I called the packing company and demanded to know what was going on, and the same guy I spoke with yesterday told me he would find out and call me back. (He did the same thing yesterday by the way, but he never even called me back yesterday!!!). Then I get a call from a lady named Monique (from Beacon, the moving company) who was trying to blame Burgess(the packing company) for "dropping the ball" somehow. I have no idea why its would be Burgess's responsibility to get a truck to my house if Beacon was actually picking up the goods! It makes no sense and they are both telling me its the other peoples fault. All I want is for someone to pick up my shit on the day that its scheduled to be picked up! Is it really that difficult? I mean I applied for this move over a month ago and picked this specific date because I wanted my furniture to arrive the day after I get to Virginia. I don't want to be in my new house for a week or two with no furniture or any of my belongings!! Its not that hard to figure out, good grief!!! People seriously need to get their shit together and if somebody doesn't come pick up my stuff today I'm gonna STOMP somebody!!!

P.S. I'm going to give both dumbass companies HORRIBLE customer service reviews!!! Don't mess with me while my husband is DEPLOYED, I've had enough of all this bull shit!!!!!!

My Lovely Thursday Five

Its Thursday again, woo-hoo! That means the week is winding down and we have the weekend to look forward to! I have so many things to be thankful for lately, so I thought I'd share them all with you! :) Wanna play..all YOU have to do is post 5 things that have made you..

Happy

Giddy

Joyful

Excited 

Appreciative

Then head over to Mannland5 and add your link! :)

Here goes! 

I am so Happy that today is almost over! The packer (yes theres just one!)is finishing up the last of my house hold goods as we speak! Yippee!

I am absolutely Giddy that today is Bailey's birthday and I get to spend the evening with my family and go to dinner at Spunky Steer, one of our favorite steak joints! :) 

I am so Joyful that I will be spending this Saturday at the beach with Family and friends for Bailey's Beach Birthday Party! Its gonna be fabulous, and I can't wait for a day of fun in the sun! I've already got my yellow bikini and an adorable floppy hat, so I'm good to go! :) 

I am so Excited that Mrs. Gambizzle gave me the "Cherry On Top" Award!!! Thanks hun, you really brightened my day today!!♥I can't wait to pass this award on to my favorite blogs!

I am so Appreciative of the Packer who has worked so hard all day making sure my stuff is packed up and safe! He has been busting his butt since 9 am and he deserves mad props! Now lets just hope the driver takes good care of all my hhg, so everything gets to VA in one piece!!

Whats your Thursday Five?