Love/Hate it!

I had no idea what to even talk about today since my days have been pretty mundane.
So, lets talk about a few things that I have a love/hate relationship with...

Love when my favorite song comes on the radio in the car.
Hate that it always seems to happen when I pull into the driveway.
So what if I own the song, any opportunity to hear it is amazing. You're not going to not listen! And I will ALWAYS sit in the car and listen to it. You know what makes it even worse? When that song is finally over and another amazing one comes on, making it impossible for you to leave your vehicle.

Love cooking. Mmm, food.
Hate cooking. Ha, I'm kidding. Hate the aftermath.
I always make a mess of sorts. Not kidding, if I ever cook for you or with you, I will make a mess. It could range from one small spill to slinging noodles across the room & then dropping meat on the floor, then spilling some sauce on the counter. But in the end I have a good ass pot of spaghetti cooked! Don't worry any sling-age, drop-age, or spillage is discarded. haha 

I'll be like, "You want some chocolate miiiilllk?"

 

But then I remember...

Love cleaning. Who doesn't love a clean house?
Hate well, cleaning; having to actually muster up the energy to clean it.
I'm a tad lazy sometimes. And a lot of it is so. damn. tedious. So there are times when you just decide, nope not today. But then you realize two months later that, yeah, you should probably do the laundry and wash the dishes...and maybe clean the toilet. And should you wait that long in between cleaning, you should probably not tell anyone. haha. I love when I get in a cleaning mood, it helps immensely!

Love makeup. I likes to look prettyful.
Hate Putting it on.
I love that it makes me look presentable, I really do. Even though most days I don't even bother. (And I'm pretty sure I look like a zombie, or like I'm on drugs.) But, again, it's so. damn. tedious. One the days I do wear it, I usually try to do the minimum I can to make myself look presentable. Don't get me wrong, I still like to play dress up once in a while, that doesn't count here. I'm talking about day-to-day. And then you have to find the right kind of product for you & your skin. Right tone, right consistency, right color eyeshadow, right kind of eye liner. Do I want lipstick? Maybe just a gloss? How long will it all last, all day or am I going to have to reapply or touch-up at some point? How do I even put this on? Why do I need to contour? And then taking it off. Gotta find the right stuff that works for you & your skin for that too. The entire process of applying and removing has basically turned into a science! That I have yet to master. But I'm not giving up. Also, thank God for Emily, I love her Beauty Broadcast videos AND she does hauls & comparisons to help you see various products for various prices. Check her out, she's awesome.

Love blogging. Having a place that is mine, to say what I want.
Hate several different aspects.
Mainly not having anything to talk about. I know it's my blog, my journal, my diary for my daily life. But there are times when I'm just like, ehh...nothing exciting happened today, or yesterday...or will tomorrow. So whats the point. But then sometimes I feel the opposite. So it balances out, most of the time. And then there are those "why didn't I think of that" topics. Then the unspoken competitiveness. No, it's not a competition or popularity contest, but ladies, lets be honest with ourselves. There is a hint of it. Say Blogger A says, "hey this is an awesome thing, if it suits your style, you might like it too." and you say, "Hmm, maybe I'll think about thinking about it." Two days later Blogger B says, "hey this is an awesome thing, if it suits your style, you might like it too." and you are immediately go into a latte-fueled panic trying to find where, how and how much. Just, no. That's just one example of one area, among many others. And it's okay, I can admit that I'm guilty of it, but it still irks me. What you don't ever annoy yourself? I'm not crazy!

Love food. Um, duh! Healthy, unhealthy, doesn't matter.

Hate a couple of things. 

One being the obvious, weight gain. WHY can't I eat half a pizza, a bag of doritos, some ice cream, candy and a piece of cake and then have about 3 mountain dews at 1 am and not gain weight? And the other being, why do I get full so quickly sometimes?! It tastes so good & I want just one more little bit, but I might puke if I try it, but I really want it. First world problems.

Am I right or am I right?

What are some things that you have a love/hate relationship with?

Happy Friday Eve!

♥♥♥

Brandy

10 Years.

10 and 2!
Today is our anniversary!
♥

We got married 2 years ago, on this date.

6.9.11 BrittanyBradyPhotography

(I still haven't got to the wedding posts, so this is the only picture I'm gonna share, for now. :-) )


But we started going out 10 years ago, on this date.

2003. This is actually a couple of months before we started going out. 10 years ago.

2013. Last Night. 6.8.13

Ten Years.
I have been with the same fella since I was 14. Fourteen.
It's a big deal to me.
To be with the same man for 10 years.
There are so many couples that don't make or don't put forth the effort to make it for even a couple of months, or one year, and we've somehow managed to stick together for 10.
We've worked hard to keep it going at times, but most other times it's so effortless.
Relationships really are lots of work & you just have to be willing to do the work.
I hope that we can continue lifting each other up, helping each other through any hard times, and making each other laugh and smile & just happy. But also keeping each other grounded and humble.

I would have never guessed that I would meet & start going out with the man I was going to spend the rest of my life with, when I was just 14.

It's surreal sometimes.
But I can honestly say, I don't think I would have it any other way.
Now we're gonna go see what we can do to entertain ourselves today.

Happy Sunday Funday, Lovelies.

♥♥♥
Brandy

We're engaged...finally!

So, as of Dec.25,2009 I was a soon-to-be-Mrs.

Dec. '09

As I said in the last post, by this point we had been together for 6 and 1/2 years.
It was really one of those "it's about time!" things.
I was so excited! We had tossed around the idea of getting engaged, on a serious note, for a while.
And it was so weird that this guy that I had called my boyfriend for 6.5 years was now my fiance.

And then came all the questions about when was the wedding?
We need to hurry and get to planning.
Some people actually thought that we would go ahead and get married that summer after becoming engaged. (summer '10) since we had already been together for so long.
But no, I didn't want to rush planning. I did want a proper wedding. I didn't to be forced to pick a date, or anything like that.
So, my answer to everything was basically, "we haven't decided yet."

As I also said in the last post, we had been going through a bit of a rough patch not long before becoming engaged. Things were obviously better, but there was still a lot of work to be done on us.
It takes time.
We were engaged in total for a year and a half.
We spent that year continuing to work on ourselves while beginning the fun and super stressful task of wedding planning while also being about to have fun.

There had also been an unexpected tragedy in his family so we had to really step up and be there for his mom and little brother.
We ended up basically moving in with the two of them for the about 2 or 3 months.
There was a lot going on.

 But we still managed to focus on getting back to where we really wanted, and needed to be.
And we did.

One of our Engagement pictures. AG Photography

 

2010 rounded out with an engagement shoot, a nice family vacation, and more fun.

 

Then it rolled over to 2011 and continued & the countdown to the wedding was on!

This is one of those short and sweet type posts I mentioned. I'll get into the planning in the next post....

♥♥♥
B

My Boyfriend.

Read Chapter 1 here.

So, in the beginning of June, we had established that we were bf/gf.
Summertime was typical summertime, lots of hanging out.

July '03

He would hang out in my room more.
He stayed the night more...in my room.
We grew closer.
I still remember when he said I Love You, when we first kissed...aaannnd when we first...well....
It was all in about the first month of us being bf/gf.
He very quickly became a little more...permanent at my house. He was there all the time. During the day. Overnight. Within a month or so he had essentially moved it. I turned 15 in July.
I know you're thinking, "what, you were 15, he was 18 & he lived with you?"
Well,...simply put, yes.
Everything was going good.
In July, I went to Florida for a week as I had done before, to spend the week with my best friend & it was so cute when I got back I came home. This boy had gotten me a dozen roses and a note. (The only time he's even gotten flowers for me-lol).
He was getting ready to go away to college. To Wyoming. He was initially going to leave in September, but changed it to end of Dec./beginning of Jan.

Nov.'03

I still didn't fully meet his mom, step dad and baby bro until a few months into the relationship. His mom was very unsure about our relationship in the first couple of months since he had turned 18 & I was 15. There was the whole "underage" issue and all, but she still accepted it. And then by the time December came around we had been together for a little over 6 months & I remember having to say goodbye to him not long after Christmas, (it might have even been in like the first week of January.)
I was devastated. My boyfriend just moved to freakin' Wyoming, to go to college. We had decided that we were going to try this long distance thing & see if we could pull through. If I'm being honest, I really didn't see it fully working out. Let's face it. I was a 10th grader & he was about to start college and we were basically on opposite sides of the country now. But we didn't want to break up.
Well,...about a week into him being there, it was time for him to actually start school.
He didn't even finish his first day. His mom called to my school, had someone from the front office call me out of class to talk to her on the phone. She told me a few details & told me to call Doug. So I hung up with her & called to talk to him.
His anxiety got the best of him, he was homesick, didn't want to be there, etc, etc. Everything just kind of hit him at once. And when it came down to it, it just wasn't for him. So it was either by that night or the next day his mom and I were on a plane to Denver.

If I'm not mistaking, I think...this is a small part of the Rockies (obviously, not the big parts, haha)

Now, I'm a puss when it comes to flying. I always said I would never, ever fly. EVER. EVERRRR. And yet here I was agreeing to go with my b/f's mom to Denver, Colorado to get him. We landed in Denver & then drove up to the CO/WY line to meet him & then we all drove home. And just like that...3-4 days later we were back home.
A couple of months later he landed a job at a car dealership.

 
Everything was going good.

June '04

June '04 Vacation

June 2004 marked 1 year & I was even invited to go on vacation with his family.

And then we added another year,
and another, and another, etc, etc.
We had been through ups and down. Been there for each other in bad times, sad times, happy times and all.
We went through many times when I was sure we'd break up. I'm a difficult one to deal with and he can also be hard to handle.
But, I don't know, we just worked so well.
I graduated in '06 & turned 18. Age was no longer and issue, not that we cared anyway. We hit our 3 year mark a few weeks after I graduated.
We started getting a little more serious. We moved from upstairs at my house, to the basement. We had a dog and eventually got a cat. (lol, that sounds dumb saying it or typing it, but that can be a big deal for some.)
Over the next couple of years we tossed around marriage, kids, jobs/school (mainly for me), etc etc. Typical "adult" type stuff, even though I was only 18-19-20, it was still something on my mind. I had always been okay with being a mom that young. I kind of got baby fever early in life... But I needed to try to get back into school or find a job.
We were a typical couple. We had some pretty rough arguments, but we also had some very special times.
We basically "grew up" together, and that came with a bunch of trials. We grew stronger together.
In many ways we grew up faster than most people our ages, which is what presented a lot of our problems. It can be difficult transitioning from teen to young adult anyway, add on a serious relationship & it can sometimes speed it up a bit.

'07

'08

Fast forward ahead to about 2008. We had been going through a rough period due to outside influences. It had been an up and down battle & It came to a point where I had to give him an ultimatum. It came down to "it's me or that". Well, he chose me.
I'm not going to get too much into that right now. But it all came to a peak in October of '08. It was a huge eye opener to him I think & he realized how he looked & learned real quick that I wasn't playing games. Over the next year or so it took a lot of adjusting. I've always been willing to work with him. It didn't come easy, but we had been together for 5 going on 6 years and been through too much for me to just give up without trying at all.

Brings us to the end of 2009 and on Christmas Day. We always spend the night at his moms on Christmas Eve so we can open gifts with them on Christmas morning.
So that morning I got one gift from Doug.
I pulled a little box out of a little bag on Christmas morning & he looked at me and just simply said "Will You?"
So romantic, right? ;-)
After 6 1/2 years together, we were finally engaged!
I know I have a couple of pictures from that morning...just don't know where. lol 

Just Engaged! Christmas Evening '09

♥
B

So, there was this boy...

About 10 and a half years ago that I had seen around a handful of times.
He has been to my house a time or two, he was friends with my brother, which meant he was 17 years old. He was from my town, and he was a senior but he didn't go to my school. (He had been kicked out of school in our county schools in middle school).
I hadn't really met him, technically, but I knew who he was. His name and all, okay I knew of him.
He was cute, y'all.
My 14 year old self noticed him right away.

I remember one night in December, I was going Christmas shopping with my parents. We pulled into K-Mart, parked, and then I saw his truck pull in.
Ohhhh, man!
So I pointed him out to my mom -mistake- saying how I thought he was cute and all.
So in the store....we were looking at the fishing stuff & boom walked right by him & his friend.
Mom proceeds to point him out and ask if that was who I walk talking about, out loud...
I walked away.
Gotta love when our parents seek to embarrass us.
Luckily, I'm pretty sure he didn't notice.

On New Years Eve (02/03) we had a small gathering of people at my house.
And by that I mean, it was my mom, brother, his g/f (at the time), 2 mutual friends, one of my cousins, I think my dad was in bed...and then there was that boy. He came to hang out, and drink.

I remember playing bartender that night. I was always good at making a mean margarita, yes, even at 14.
Anyway. I remember all the fun of that night, we had a lot of laughs. I barely even talked to him aside from asking if he wanted a drink every so often. Then going to bed with my cousin and talking about how cute he was.
He started coming around the house more. To the point where he was there every. weekend.
No complaints from this girl.
I was crushing, hard. I was actually crushing pretty significantly on two guys, both of which I had just met, this boy being one of them. But I digress, that may be a post for another day.
Anyway, a short time after new years I was easing up and starting to talk to him and vice versa, all in mixed company of course. No one-on-one talking, yet. He was quiet like me. Just as damn shy as I was. But my mom knew I had a crush on him, my brothers GF knew I had a crush on him, I'm pretty sure my brother knew. I mean...it was a little apparent. My Spring Break came around and my brother was going on a trip to PCB with some of his friends, he asked to borrow a couple hundred dollars from me. I told him that if he would get his friend to take me shopping one day during my spring break, I'd give him the money. He agreed & one day after he got out of school (I'm pretty sure our SB were different weeks) he took me to that Mall of Georgia to go shopping.

It was my first "alone" time with him. I don't even remember shopping, pretty sure I left the mall empty handed (which I often do). But I just wanted to hang out with him. I do remember, we were either walking into, or out of the mall, and I told him he needed to lighten up and enjoy life. I mean I didn't say those words, but I remember saying something to that affect. He was just so quiet, and seemed so....serious. Anyway, we had become friend, as lots of people tend to do when you're hanging out every weekend, and by now most days after school.

 

We became more and more comfortable with each other. Started flirting. We always sat beside each other when he was at the house. He would sometimes take naps & his body would be on one cushion and his legs on my cushion of the loveseat. There we several time when I'd lean over and fall asleep propped up against his butt. (Don't laugh, that's the best way I can describe it, lol).

I remember going to a very small graduation/birthday party with him, my bro, bro's g/f, and another friend. There were only like 10 people there, 4 of which were seniors (him, my brothers g/f, and 2 of the other people.) I remember everyone was drinking except for my & my brothers GF (who was about 7 months pregnant by now) and I was worried about him. Wanted to make sure they made him lay a certain way when he went to sleep to that if he were to puke he wouldn't choke. lol
I remember one time I was chilling out in my room upstairs & somehow or another he ended up upstairs and we were sitting in the hallway, just talking about random stuff. We were laying in the hallway at one point and I was talking to him about how I was going to live in a cardboard box when I was older & I was talking about how I'd paint/decorate it, and he was just like, "no you won't". We laid there and it was one of those things where your hands just kinda end up next to each others. We held hands a little bit. Talked and talked. Then we ended up at one point he was sitting up, indian style, and I was laying there and we were still talking and I'll never forget he grabbed my legs and pulled me to him, essentially in his lap, and we ended up face to face and we just looked at each other. And instead of making a move, I remember I turned my head. I panicked. haha. Perfect opportunity to kiss & we just...didn't. But it was like something out of a movie. I'll never forget that.
I told my mom and my bro's gf about it and they ragged on me about it.
One day my bro's gf was talking to me over my 'beep beep". (My first cell was a Nextel, & I loved my beep beep -walkie talkie-...you know "hit me on my nextel chirp") and he was at the house, sitting by me so he could hear the beep beep convo, and she came across saying how I "loved" him (just picking on me). Well little did she know that he was sitting beside me. Embarrassing.
The end of the school year came for him a couple of weeks before my county schools got out. My brother, his gf, and I went to his graduation.
About a week or so later it was his 18th birthday.
And two days after his birthday we were sitting outside of my house, in his truck, talking about how he didn't feel like going home, I told him to spend the night again, etc etc & then I remember he looked at me and asked me if I really did liked him. I don't remember much else other than I know I told him I did. I'm pretty sure he told me he liked me and then we talk about going out. Well....that conversation somehow ended with us deciding that we were going to "go out".

That boy was Doug and on June 9, 2013, we became boyfriend and girlfriend....
:-)



♥
B