Monday, March 31, 2014

It's Monday! It's Monday!

It's Monday and I'm writing a blog post right now. Woot woot! Basically, each week my schedule will change, but this week I lucked out with it! I'm working Monday - Thursday 2p - 11p and then Sunday 12p - 9p. This means I'm still off Friday and Saturday this week and will still have a semi-traditionally weekend! I am pumped!

I mentioned on Friday that we had a relaxing weekend planned and it was wonderful!

After I finally got off work Friday and drove through the wonderful Charlotte rush hour, I met up with Christian and we headed to dinner. His parents had given us a gift card to Carrabas so we headed there and it was. so. good. And I stuffed myself to the gills. We also reserved a redbox (seriously, I love the redbox app) and grabbed some ice cream on the way home. We spent the rest of the night pigging out on ice cream and watching movies before heading to bed relatively early!

I ate mine too fast so I stole this from Google... but this is what I ate and it was delightful!
After sleeping in, we finally got up and drove to Concord Mills. It's allllllll the way on the other side of Charlotte and you basically take a highway all the way around Charlotte. Traffic was a breeze until you hit the exit for the mall and then it was just frightening. Drivers are terrible in this town. So so bad. And trying to find a parking spot was torture. We'll have to plan it better next time we want to go up there... maybe on a Friday or during the week, instead.

They have a couple of really great outlet stores like Banana Republic, LOFT, New York & Company, GAP, Old Navy, etc. I got some really wonderful pieces at Banana - like a phenomenal hot pink tweed skirt. I cannot even wait to wear it!! Christian needed some work clothes too, so we spent a lot of time looking at boring buttons downs...

We also had some yummy Salsaritas for lunch (seriously, why don't I eat this more?!) and then grabbed some gelato on the way out of the mall. It's so hard to find gelato and that place was awesome! After coming home and watching some HGTV - per usual - Christian decided he wanted to go for a run so I ordered a pizza while he was gone.. I'm literally the worst person when it comes to food. If you want to be healthy, avoid me at all costs!

Well, now I'm off to find a nice laptop/work bag before heading into work. Hope you're all having a wonderful day!

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Friday, March 28, 2014

I'm alive, I swear!

Oh don't mind me. Just rolling in here on a Friday after being MIA for an entire week. I cannot even explain how busy life is right now. I haven't had a single day off to do absolutely nothing for the entire month of March. I also haven't even had my normals days off.

So let me whine for just a moment, and then I have some happies! We've had mandatory overtime all month so I've been sacrificing my Tuesday day off to go in and work 5-6 hours because I'm already at work 9:30a - 8:30p, and I just couldn't bring myself to add an hour or two to those shifts, obviously. Then on my Friday/Saturday days off I ended up going in for some more OT a few weeks ago because I was trying to win a sales contest and then we had visitors every weekend.

Then this week, after getting the new position, I've had to add in even more OT because they want us shadowing managers to start transitioning into the role in the next week or two. But, we've been so busy that we've had to do it on our days off. So I'm headed in today for a few hours. I am SO pumped about this new position, I just really need a quick breather before it all starts because right now I'm on the struggle bus.


Which brings me to tonight and tomorrow.

After work tonight, we're headed out to dinner and maybe a movie (or maybe just a redbox)! Just us, no one else. And then we'll probably go to bed early and sleep in a bit. But tomorrow, I'm finally getting to go up to Concord Mills! Concord Mills is a huge mall in North Charlotte that has a mix of higher end stores, normal mall stores and outlet stores. There's also a ton of arcade type activities for families and lots of different restaurants. And it also looks like there's an aquarium.


We're both in need of some new work clothes, some yummy food and some quality alone time so that's what we're doing. I'll also be getting a new schedule today (hopefully) so I'll know when I work for the entire month since it will change weekly. But, hopefully once I have that and some consistent days off I'll be able to devote some time to this blog. I have some drafts started and topics I know I want to write, but no time to sit down and write them! So give me a little time and I promise I'll be back in full swing because I really miss this space and I really have no idea what's going on with you guys and I hate it!!



Apparently I like gifs on Fridays.... Happy Friday, friends!

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Friday, March 21, 2014

The Best Friday

Y'all. It. Is. Friday. Hallelujah. I've had a long and stressful week so I'm pumped for today! I've got a lot to do this weekend so I'm jumping right into this 5 on Friday!

one // Mom is here! My mom got here right after I got home from work last night and we sat around talking and then of course we had to watch Scandal before we hit the sack. And OH. MY. GOD. it was insane. I won't mention anything here because I'm sure many of you haven't seen it yet. And I don't know why I have to say this again - but you're not watching it, last night was why you should be so get to it!

two // So much wedding stuff! We'll be touring the venue today with our moms (and it's the first time they've met). I am so excited to see it again. Even though it's winter-y outside and it won't look like it will on our day, I'm pumped to show it off. And I can't believe we get married in 212 days!

Tomorrow we'll be doing some shopping for my wedding shoes so I can get my dress hemmed, order Save the Dates and making other important decisions before meeting up with two of my bridesmaids to hopefully pick out their dresses!

three // Date night. Christian and I haven't had a night alone with nothing interrupting us in over a month. So after my mom leaves Saturday night we're doing dinner and maybe a movie - just us. I am so excited about this because life is about to get reallyyyy crazy and our alone time is going to become even less frequent, I have a feeling.

four // This. 



five // Oh. And I got a promotion yesterday. 




If anyone saw this caption on my Instagram earlier in the day, you may have been wondering what I was talking about.

I didn't breathe a word anywhere on social media because I was so nervous I wouldn't get the position. I found out about it about two weeks ago, applied for it last Friday, interviewed for it Wednesday afternoon and found out about 8:30p last night that I got it!!

The position is basically a step into management. I'll still be on the phones about 12-15 hours a week, but the rest of the time I'll be managing other agents. I'll most likely be going back to night time hours for awhile since I'm a new one and veterans get to move up to earlier hours (just like when I'm on the phones). And I'll only have 2 days off a week whereas I work 4 days now and I'm off 3 because I work 11 hours a day. They also won't be together and I'll still be working weekends. BUT I have more responsibility, I feel useful and I'm getting to help others get to where I've gotten.

As much as I've complained in the past about my job, a lot of it had to do with the fact that I wasn't that great at it. I finally just put everything I had into it and decided to make the best of it. In the last 3 months, I've gone from one of the worst performers to one of the very best agents on the floor. I want other people to do that and I don't want anyone else to hate going to work like I did. I'm so happy that all my hard work is finally paying off and I am SO excited for this new chance to grow and prove myself!

And I know that sounded a little braggy, but I'm just so freakin' excited!!!!!




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Tuesday, March 18, 2014

We're the three best friends.

Oh look. A weekend recap on Tuesday, again. It's becoming a pattern. But this weekend was definitely one for the books so I have to share! And trust me, there are some great pictures included.

Friday night my best friend from high school and college (who also introduced me to Christian) came to Charlotte for St. Patty's Day and the insane bar  crawl that takes place in Charlotte. Christian and his best friend went last year while I was in Wilmington, so I have been excited to go ever since I heard about it.

I spent the day Friday finally getting a little time to sleep in and watching Scandal, of course. Then I headed into work for a few hours and run a few errands around town. Poor Kristin and her boyfriend, Joe got hung up in GA so we had dinner with Sam and Jeremy. And by that I mean they came over to our apartment and cooked us dinner. It was delightful! :)

And Sam hadn't watched Scandal, so I made her watch it again. I'm not obsessed, you're obsessed.

Saturday morning started the best day ever. We headed to brunch to make sure our bellies were prepared for the drinking that was about to take place. I had some intense biscuits and gravy with eggs and home fries. Perfect for soaking up the alcohol.


We headed over to a friend's apartment to do some pre-gaming and hang out around the pool for a bit. Everyone was grilling out so once everyone was done eating and drinking what they brought we walked up the road to take take the lightrail uptown (there was no driving, of course!).

Once we arrived uptown is we literally just walked up to the first bar with people wearing the green shirts for the bar crawl and grabbed the first beer we found. And off we went.

I'm just going to photo dump on you for a minute because there are some gems in here.





And I have to share these gems... the top one happened multiple times before we could get the bottom one... 



For dinner, we decided to run into Hooters for a bite to eat. We chose Hooters because it was right next door to the next bar we wanted to go to - and because we're super classy.

It was the worst experience I think I've ever had a restaurant. I understand that we were at a Hooters so I wasn't expecting a high class menu but I was expecting some decent service since we had a lot of people with us, quite a few drinking and quite a few ordering multiple things off the menu - hello, big money, big tips.

Before we were even allowed in, we were yelled at to stand in a single file line outside the restaurant before anyone was allowed in... I'm sorry, but what?! They had multiple SECURITY GUARDS yelling at about a single file line for 10 minutes... Our friend went around to any restaurants close by but the wait was too long for 12 people that this was our best bet. We could see plenty of booths open inside and the entire patio was empty.

We were SO nice to the waitress and promised we were very easy going and wouldn't be obnoxious drunks like I'm sure most of her customers were. I even told her if any of the guys got too drunk obnoxious to tell me, and I'd keep them in line.

Although there were a few spit balls 
Quite awhile after ordering, we haven't received any food and we're all trying really hard to be patient because we know we have a large group. Finally, everyone starts getting their food except Christian, me and our friend sitting right beside us. We're not worried until it's been a solid 10 minutes, and our waitress hasn't come back and we've gotten nothing.

She finally comes out and tells us the kitchen forgot our food, she's sorry and it'll be right out. TWENTY minutes later, still nothing. Everyone else is almost done eating and I'm starving. Christian and I literally ordered two appetizers - tater tots and mini sliders. She brings out a burger with fries saying it was a mistake burger and we can have it for free. Great, except there are three of us and one burger.

Another 10 minutes and our friend gets his food. Not us, though. And right about the time he's done eating his wings AND sandwich, we get our food. The waitress is extremely apologetic but at that point I'm so angry and all our friends are antsy and ready to leave so I feel bad wanting to take my time eating.

Everyone was sure we wouldn't actually have to pay for our food and the bill arrives with both of our meals and beer..... It had been 2 and a half hours and we were so done that I just paid for it and we headed home.

Other than the dinner snafu, I had such a wonderful day with my 2 best friends and I'm so ready to be reunited again as soon as we possibly can!

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Thursday, March 13, 2014

I'm Upset.

I'm upset, guys.

Upset about some really ridiculous things.

Let me explain: I get irrationally upset about really stupid things. The things you should probably get upset about, I don't. But things that are completely unnecessary to be upset about - I'm your girl.

Hopefully I'm not alone with some of these.

TV shows. The one on my mind right now (because I watched the finale Monday) is Gilmore Girls. LIKE WHY DIDN'T RORY GO WITH LOGAN?!? I understand that she was showing her independence blah blah blah but she could have been engaged to Logan AND gone on the campaign trail. Easy. Ugh. I'm even more upset just thinking about it again.


I'm also mad that FOX cancelled Terranova. Christian and I got into it in college and it was cancelled after one short season. It was a science fiction-y show that I actually liked and BOOM gone.

And don't get me started on Scandal. I know it hasn't ended (and better never end) but I'm so attached to it and the last 30 seconds of the show last week literally hurt my soul. I couldn't stop worrying about it for 2 days.

Yes, I'm crazy.

When Christian critiques my "homemaking" skills. I'm the cook and he's the cleaner when it comes to the kitchen. He does clean the bathroom more than I do, but I do occasionally. But, I despise cleaning bathrooms and kitchens so I'm lucky he doesn't mind it. That's not what bothers me. What bugs me is laundry.

He's so specific about it and I literally can never do it right. YET. He decides to wash our sheets on a Wednesday night and they didn't get put into the dryer until TEN. I'm in bed at 10. But, nope, not last night. Again, totally not something I should be this upset about.. but I am.

Too many Snapchats. I'm positive I've mentioned this on ye ole blog before. But Snapchat is for sending random ugly pictures to your friends. Not sending a million pictures of your lunch, desk at work, car, etc. There's a line. Stay on the right side of it.

When I forget to set my DVR. Like seriously. First world problems. Luckily, I figured out how to use our U-Verse App so I can set it from work as soon as someone reminds me of the special or awards show I'm missing while being at work all day/all night long.

Bad drivers. More specifically, people who leave their turn signals on WAY after they've turned. Don't ask me why, but for some reason this just really, really grinds my gears. I can bare;y drive behind a person who does this.


Spoilers. I have had to train myself to stay off Twitter during my shows because I'm never actually home when they air. And if I see a spoiler, I get super upset. It's kind of ridiculous since I knew it would be there, but I still get mad at whatever user posted it. 

Please tell me I'm not alone in some of these irrational bursts of anger. But, do something to actually hurt me, and I'll probably make excuses for you and act like nothing happened. I'm a crazy. 

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Wednesday, March 12, 2014

{Wedding Wednesday} Things I'm Excited About!

We are 221 days from the Big Day (seriously, WHY is it so far away?!) and I'm starting to get really excited about some wedding related things.

one //  My bridesmaids and I will be getting ready (except for our dresses) at my apartment. You'd think this would panic me, but I'm so excited because it means whenever we look back at those pictures, our very first home together will be captured on film and we'll have that forever. This is where our new life started and I love that I will have that to show our kids and that I will never forget exactly how this place looked.


two // Mom is coming up in two weeks to tour the venue, make some big ole wedding decisions, buy my shoes (and maybe jewelry, we'll see) and go shopping with a few of my bridesmaids for dresses! I'm excited to have two full days with mainly just me and mom in full fledge wedding mode. I haven't really had a lot of time to focus/make decisions and it needs to get done!

three // Honeymoon. I don't know why I always forgot about this part, but good lord I'm pumped. An entire week of just me and Christian, sleeping in pure luxury, drinking cocktails on the beach all day and eating delicious food. We've also never been on a real vacation just the two of us, so we're SO ready for this.

We haven't picked an exact location yet, but we're focusing in on Mexico right now. Possibly Jamaica. Yes, we know we need to get to it, so if anyone has any suggestions, I'd love to hear them! We're open to anything we can get all inclusive, a giant fluffy king bed, breathtaking beach views and preferably couples/adults only.



four // So much time with my best friends. There are showers, wedding planning, Bachelorette party, etc. My bridesmaids are spread out everywhere! Two are in Charlotte (Sam and Christian's sister, Anna) but Katherine lives in Indianapolis, Kristin lives in Athens (my hometown!) and his other sister, Julia, lives in DC. I'm pumped to be able to have everyone together so many times!!

Me, Sam and Kristin just being reallll cool and sober at a football game. 
five // And you know, the big thing: being married to my soulmate and best friend. I always thought "soulmate" sounded so cheesy but Christian really is my other half. We complement each other perfectly - he's level headed and keeps me grounded when I have a tendency to get myself so worked up over little things or run out on a shopping spree and spend a little too much.

And he has a tendency to get too serious or stressed over work and I'm the silly one who tries to distract him. I'm also the dreamer who thinks of big giant houses with huge yards we can't afford and deciding I need a new car (I don't and I've been talked out of it, don't worry) but I keep him on his toes and try to keep him open and dreaming!

I can't wait for everything life has ahead of us and I'm so excited I found him early enough in life that we can go through all the next stages supporting and loving each other.

This one was actually completely candid - and completely us. I'm sure he's making fun of me. 
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NC Belle In Boots
Wedding Wednesday

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Struggle bus

You guys. I'm pooped. I barely made it to the end of my shift yesterday. I was on a downhill spiral from about 4pm and I don't get to escape until 8:30p so it was rough. Plus, we've had mandatory overtime the last 2 weeks and I have to schedule mine on my days off because I REFUSE to work 11 or 12 hour days. Especially when my lunches get cut to 30 minutes so I'm already working 10.5 hours straight on the phones during my normal shift. 

This means I lose one of my days off. Today, I have to work from 4 - 9p and needless to say, I'm really not happy about it at all. Tuesdays I get to spend sleeping in, running errands, cleaning the apartment and getting to spend time with Christian when he gets home around 4/4:30p. Yes, I could still get some of these things done, but I'm so exhausted from the way I've been working that I just don't feel like moving. 

And y'all. My blogging game is seriously slacking. I posted ONCE last week. And I'm verging on only once again this week. I have post ideas I just have no time to sit down and actually write them. So please bear with me through this week and hopefully things will calm down and be back to normal next week! 

But, I thought I'd share a little bit about the fun Saturday Christian and I had. (I worked Friday and Sunday so my weekend was just Saturday....) 

We attempted to sleep in, but I just couldn't so I started running around demanding breakfast. So my sweet man took me to IHOP where I devoured some French toast, sausage, bacon, eggs AND 2 chocolate chip pancakes. Apparently I was really hungry... 

Afterwards, we walked around in some antique shops in Pineville just for a chance to spend some more time outside because was so gorgeous. And I decided it's really awkward just browsing in a shop when the only person in there is the shop owner and you zero intentions of buying anything...

He loves his Daddy
We had a about an hour to sit on the couch and catch up on the DVR with Zuko before we headed out to meet some friends that were running a 5K with Christian at the Charlotte Motor Speedway. Because they're crazies. 


I spent my Saturday night people watching at a 5K because we couldn't actually SEE the runners because the racetrack is ginormous. So I just waited at the finish line for the 4 of them to come through! For someone that didn't train, Christian did pretty well! His best friend did amazing though - with a time of 20.40! 

After the run, it was time for dinner because they were all starving. I also demanded that I be taken home at a decent time for bed since it was time change and I never do well with Spring Forward. I always convince myself it's not that big of a deal and I'm not bothered by it - but how else do I explain this terrible exhaustion?!

I hope you guys are all surviving it a lot better than I am, and I am going to attempt to get a couple posts put together today so you guys don't think I've abandoned you!

Happy Tuesday, friends! 

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

It's in the Water.

Everywhere I look, people are talking about it. Every other day another pops up. And I know I'm about to start getting asked when I'm going to join in, too. And every time some one else joins the club, I get the itch. It subsides quickly but it always lying right under the surface.

I'm sure everyone will agree with me that they're everywhere: babies.

Ev. RY. Where.

Of course, there are a lot of engagements and marriages thrown in there, too. I'm getting to be "that age" where we're all doing it and it's great. But, the babies. So many babies. Yes, many of these particular babies are planned, but I'm still young enough that many are not.

And it scares me. And gives me baby fever all at the same time.

Every time another high school classmate, or blogger for that matter, announces their pregnancy, I have a twinge of baby fever mixed with jealousy. I convince myself for 5 minutes that we are totally ready for a baby. Right after the wedding, we'd be good to go. And OHBOY am I wrong. So wrong.

And 10 minutes later, I remember that and move on. Christian have grand plans to wait for quite a few years, maybe move around a little, buy a house, have a pretty little nest egg of money, before we start planning babies. And that is exactly the plan that I want for our lives.

But all these darn cute baby bumps and little adorable babies make me want to completely throw out that whole plan and start planning gender reveals, nurseries and picking out cute little onesies. I want to run out and stock up on cute maternity clothes and let me have pretty baby showers. I also blame some of this on Pinterest...


So guys, I'm here to ask you to remind me if I ever say I'm ready for a baby in the next 3-4 years that no, I'm not. And please remind me of this:


Because lets be serious, Zuko comes first. 
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