Let Me Introduce Josh

We're trying something new today. We're going to let my hubby Josh kind of take over the blog and share his thoughts on some things. To do so, we're linking up with Becca from Becoming Adorrable and Amanda from Knock on Wood

Blogger Men Tell All

combined with

My Conversations
 

I sat down with Josh and asked him these questions provided by Becca. I typed his answers, so it counts as a conversation since we were talking face to face. Just go with it.

If you had a blog, what would you call it, and what would you write about?
[he's thinking very hard on this question].
I dunno. I'm not very good at coming up with names on stuff. You're the creative one.
Me: well, if you had to pick... right now... say anything
Geez, peer pressure much? *sighs* ok, I guess Reaper's Corner
Me: geez, dark much??
You know everything I name has Reaper in it. (it does... his xbox gamer tag is ReaperPeanut)
Me: OK... fair point, so what would you write about?
I dunno... probably about how much my wife annoys me with silly blog stuff. And how much work sucks.

If you could live inside any video game, which would it be?
Probably Major League Baseball just because that's the only game I own that doesn't have killing in it. I wouldn't want to live in a game where my life is at risk.
Me: I thought you had driving games too?
Oh yeah, but I still say baseball
Me: OK.

Who is your best player on your fantasy football team this season?
You're kidding right?
Me: That's the question
You know I don't do Fantasy Football.
Me: I had to ask the question! Plus, my readers don't know that kind of stuff.
Fine, Robert Quinn. (his cousin)

If you could play for any professional sports team, which one would it be?
Is professional eating an option, because I'm pretty awesome at eating.
Me: I don't think so...
Well, that's my choice and I'm sticking to it!

What do you typically do with an hour of free time?
Sleep
Me: no, seriously.
I am being serious. If I have down time at work, I sleep in my truck if I can't talk to you.
Me: What about at home?
Watch T.V.
Me: you're so exciting. *as I stick my tongue out at him*
You married me. (his answer to everything!)

So.. that's Josh. Trust me, he's just as much of a smart ass as his answers sound, but he's my smartass and I love him.

Grateful For Siblings

That's right, I said it. I'm grateful for my siblings. It's Monday and that means we're linking up with Emily over at Ember Grey. Who, by the way got to go to the blogging confrence in Indy (super jealous... can't wait to hear all about it!) I've had an amazing weekend with my two youngest brothers, so I had to dedicate my Grateful Heart Monday to my siblings (even my sister even though I didn't get to play with her this past weekend) *sad face*

So... We're about to get real on the blog for a little bit y'all. I have to explain my family situation. So there's my mom. She's great. She was married to my dad for awhile. They had me on Christmas, 1987 (there's the real part because now you know my age!) 14 months later my sister was born. And because pictures help everything, here you go!

Sadly, mom and dad were too different and got divorced. A few years later Mom met someone new. We lovingly refer to him as Jethro, or Asshole (if we're feeling exceptionally loving). *hint: we don't like Asshole*. Well, Mom and Jethro ended up having two boys together. On purpose, I don't have any pictures of Jethro; so sorry, he's not part of the family tree. The oldest of the two is 15 years younger than me. The youngest is 17 years younger than me. Can we say age gap?? Yikes! So if you're doing the math and keeping up with the class, you know that J1 (because they both have names that start with J) is 11 and J2 is 9.

Moving on. The good news is my mom left Jethro about three years ago! PRAISE! She is now doing well, married to a wonderful new man that everyone loves, and just bought a new house!

Now that you know all that, I can move on (yeah, sorry... that wasn't the point of the blog post but I felt like it was relevant).

My mom and her newest hubby took a trip this past weekend to see my newest step sister get married (aw!). But, they couldn't bring brothers so I got to play with them ALL weekend! They had the option of either staying with their dad all weekend or our house, they picked my house! And yes, I'm genuinely excited about that! Zander loves playing with his uncles, and they're really great with him. With Ainsley too but for the most part she does whatever she wants to anyway. She sometimes doesn't care about Uncles.

I'm grateful that I have a close bond with all of my family, and that my brothers enjoy spending time with me. I think it helps that we have an XBox 360, but they do like playing with Zander and Ainsley. Josh isn't a fan of board games, so when my brothers are here I actually get a chance to play Clue! I'm grateful that I have such a large family, my new step siblings included.

Even with them getting Zander glued to the TV / Video games I'm grateful that they wanted to spend the night here. 

What are you grateful for today? 

I Love to Spread the Love

Is it just me or is everyone else in denial that this is the last Friday of September? This month has flown by and it's hard to believe that next week is October. The best thing is that now that it's officially fall, this week has actually felt like fall in Georgia.

Can we talk about my picture for a minute though? These leaves were in my front yard and I was able to get (what I think is) a pretty nice shot! But anyway... moving on...
I'm glad we have finally made it to Friday! As y'all know by now, on Friday's we share the blog love and link up with Meagan! I love reading all of these posts and finding blogs I haven't read. My bloglovin feed has grown thanks to think fabulous link up! (So, thanks Meagan!). Of course, AS ALWAYS (because y'all are so great) there were so many posts to choose from!

(a few) of my faves this week:
 

+ Anne at Love The Here and Now, Amy at Set Free and Sarah at Seriously, Sarah? win a tie for first place this week because they all posted some really yummy looking drink ideas for fall! How awesome are they? Anne made Caramel Apple Cider for adults. Amy made Frozen Butter Beer!! WHAT?! Yes, please I'll have three! And Sarah made homemade PSL. My inner penny pincher is dancing for joy at the thought of saving so much money making these at home.

+ Faith at Life w/ Mrs G & The Artist made chicken pot pie. I'm a sucker for chicken pot pie. I've never been brave enough to try making it myself, but her recipe looks so easy. (Hello, cheats included!) This has definitely been added to the meal list for our house.

+ Tabitha at A Hundred Tiny Wishes wrote a beautiful letter to her son for his birthday. I'm also very jealous that I didn't think of this idea for my son. I think it's such a sweet thought to write a letter on each birthday and give them to her son when he turns 18! Adorable!

+ Kerri over at Hey Kerri Blog got a new tattoo recently and blogged about it! If we remember from earlier this week, I LOVE tattoos and I especially love stories behind them. Plus She's the sweestest ever linking back to my story!

So what have we learned this week? Clearly I'm straving, need a good drink, and have a soft spot for sweet posts. I hope everyone has a great weekend!

eShakti Love and Feeling Pretty

If you're a loyal reader to my corner of the internet, you definitely know that I'm not a fashion blogger. However, when eShakti contacted me asking if I'd like to do a review, I didn't even hesitate to say yes. This dress was provided as a completely free sample as long as I agreed to write a completely honest review. All opinions are my own, and I haven't been compensated with any money, just a really amazing dress.

So I went over to the link provided with the dresses (and shirts, and skirts, and pants) I could choose from. Y'all, that was a hard choice. There are so many pretty dresses in practically every style you could imagine. I kept going to a really pretty maxi dress, but in the end I'm thrilled with my choice.

If you're like me and not that familiar with eShakti, let me warn you: Yes, the price tags are high, and I was a little intimidated while browsing. Thinking to myself, "seriously? there's no way they'd really send me this dress." Well, they did and it's here. The price reflects the quality though. (AMAZING quality!) As a mom of two, something like this isn't something I would normally buy "just because". This would be a purchase that I'd save up for as a treat for myself. Most of my clothes are target and / or Old Navy.
The best part about their clothes? They are completely 100% able to customize to how you want it! Don't want the pockets in your dress? No problem! Don't like the sleeves? Take em' off! I love that about a company. So many times women are faced with "OK, this is how I made the dress and this is how you're going to get it." That's not always the best thing. Women are so incredibly different, and just because two people could be the same dress size doesn't mean they have the same measurements. eShakti has the option to give them your measurements and get a dress made special for you.

So here's the dress I selected. A simple black dress with gorgeous turquoise embellishment. Like I said, it was difficult to choose. I received the email on a Saturday, picked my dress by Sunday, and by Monday I was wondering if I had chosen a different style. I'm glad I didn't though. This dress feels very "Me". Clearly, I love it! The back has buttons that make it look like it buttons up the back, but I'll let you in on a secret, they're fake! But SO cute. My long hair covers the buttons, but I promise they're there.

I think one of the things I love most about eShakti is the customer service. The media rep stayed in contact with me via email, and let me know when my sample shipped along with the tracking information. I was pleasantly surprised to find they shipped the dress via Express, so when it shipped on the 20th it arrived to me by the 23rd! Talk about quick delivery! I'm very pleased with the cut and fit of this dress. It's not too snug, and it "hits" in all of the right places I think. Perfect for a wedding, or work, or whatever. I chose to dress up for the photo shoot and wear heels, but it looks totally cute with flats too! What do you think?

I'm pretty in love with this dress, and I'm definitely going to recommend them to as many people as I can! Because they're so awesome, they've provided my readers with a discount code! If you'd like to get your own eShakti dress, the media department has been so kind as to provide a discount code to get 10% off! Just use code "theramblingllama" exclusively created for y'all to get 10% OFF – valid from 09/24/2014 – 10/24/2014.

How awesome is that?

You can follow eShakti on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram

Picky, Picky

I think it's an unspoken rule of thumb for all moms out there that at some point we fight with picky eaters. It just comes with the territory. Well, no I shouldn't say that because there are children like my cousin's oldest daughter. She's three years old and she will literally eat anything you put in front of her. So obviously there are exceptions to every rule.

But what if you have a picky eater? How do you manage a balanced diet? 

Linking up with Christine, Brittany, and Ashley for Mama Tells All



Well, for starters I have to bring back one of my Blog Love Friday Favorites (from Meagan's link up) One blog I found from a mutual friend is Christina at The Mediocre Housewife. She's a professional blogger (you can see more stuff from her here), and a mom, and just such a wonderful writer. I love all of her stuff! A few weeks ago she wrote about Getting Toddlers to Eat. It hit me close to home because, well, my toddler (and preschooler) doesn't always like to eat. Christina compares getting toddlers to eat to Olympic events, and she's not wrong.

OK... so by now y'all are all rolling your eyes at me. I swear I have a point. Yes, getting picky eaters to eat nutritious food (or any food) can be like an Olympic event. So how do you handle it? Sorry, y'all but knee-jerk reactions of throwing a child-like temper tantrum doesn't count as a solution.
Patience. This is what works in our house. Patience and hidden fruits and vegetables. That's right, y'all I said it: I hide fruits and veggies in my kids diets. No, I don't buy the little fruit pouches to do so either. I buy frozen fruits and veggies and make smoothies. The kids (and I) have at least one smoothie a day to make sure we're all getting nutrients we need. I add spinach, and / or kale with fruit and you can't even taste it. Sure, it's green and gross looking but they love it! I also hide things like spinach in meatloaf. They never know the difference.

What about the patience thing though, Melissa? Good question. Obviously I can't feed my kids liquid 24/7. I do offer real meals in the house, and yes several of the real meals are met with looks of such disgust that you wonder if what you made is even edible. This is where your strength as a mom comes in real handy. The strength that allows you to sit on the opposite end of the table from your kids and give them the stare down with one look in your eye: "I will sit here all night if I have to". This would count as one of the Olympic events that gets an NBC highlight reel!
Eventually one of two things will happen:

1. The kids give up and finally start eating because they're so overly hungry. They finally realize that they won't get the gummy snacks that they really want. They know if they really want the bite of ice cream that Daddy has (because he ate all of his dinner) then they will have to eat, too. 
2. You lose your will power. You give up in the stare down and you compromise. ("OK, Zander, you can get up and go play but only if you eat all of your meatloaf and three big bites of green beans.") This way, the kid you still win because they eat enough to warrant some sort of nutrient but the kid thinks they win. Just be sure you don't let this option happen too often because then the kid thinks this is will happen all they time, and they will start bartering with you before dinner even starts. 

So that's a little of what happens in our house. I also add garlic to almost everything to try and give it a little flavor. How do you other moms approach picky eaters?
Because I love Anne so much and her Wednesday Wishes, I would like to send a wish  to the moms with picky eaters. I wish that this phase passes quickly for you and that you find some peace knowing that one day your children will love all of the foods that they probably hate right now. (Trust me, I didn't use to like rice and now I love it!)

The Weekend That Didn't Happen

Well, ladies (and gents if you're reading along) I promised a weekend recap, and so a weekend recap you will get. Just please don't have high hopes for the quality of this post. I'm warning you know, quality level is lacking today.

What could've happened

GIFSoup

Some of you may remember from Friday where I said Josh and I were going to escape from the kids and enjoy the weekend just us for our anniversary... yeah, that didn't happen.

// Friday
Josh spilled the beans and told me we were going to go to Helen, GA and stay in a cabin. Insert extreme excitment from me because I love Helen, I love the mountains, and I love cabins! The plan was to get off work, pack, drop the kids off and head up to the mountains. Great plan, right? Right... if only it worked out that way.
What had happened was... got off work, picked up the kids, Ainsley has a fever and is throwing up. Come to find out from the sitter, "oooh, yeah she's been kind of crummy today but I didn't want to bug you at work because I had it under contrrol. She probably got it from (the sitter's daughter) because she's had a fever since Wednesday" UM WHAT?? THANKS for telling me. (I'm a little annoyed with the sitter.)
Plans cancelled. I don't care how much my mother in law loves my kids, I'm not giving her the pain, torture and suffering that comes with a kid that's throwing up.

// Saturday
Since plans were cancelled, I called work to see if they still needed me to help with data entry on cycle counts (aka mini inventory). They had asked early last week, but I declined thinking we were going out of town. I'm not one to turn down overtime and since they still needed me, I went into work for a few hours Saturday. For those that follow me on twitter know what an exciting morning I had.

After 4 hours of work, I headed home to find miss Ainsley in much better spirits. Hubby and I decided to leave her with my mom so we could go to a couple's baby shower. I would've taken the kids, but I didn't want to risk other kids at the shower to get infected with the gunk that Ainsley had. [the good news, knock on wood, is that it's Tuesday and no one else has felt ill]. If you're friends with me on facebook, I posted an epic video of the guys at the shower chugging beer through baby bottles. There were cheaters involved.
In case you're not friends with me on facebook, here you go!

// Sunday
Laundry day! (I warned you, didn't I?) We did playoutside with the kids most of the day. Josh quickly reminded me just how terrible I am at basketball when we played a little with the neighbors. Other than that, mowed the grass and ate takeout pizza.

So there y'all have it. My (not so) overly exciting weekend. We did enjoy it though. We spent time with each other, and as a family and it was just enough. Sorry if it was utterly boring to y'all... I did make a promise.

There's Feet On My Back!

One of my favorite bloggers around lately is Cassie from Sage the Blog. She's so sweet and so creative, and last week she posted a really cool post about one of her tattoos. I'm a big fan of tattoos, and I love hearing stories behind other peoples' artwork. Because it is art and almost every tattoo has a story. I say almost because one of mine is a flash tattoo with no story.

SO... after emailing with Cassie (because I didn't want to totally steal her idea here!) I wanted to share my tattoos with y'all.

My very first tattoo I got in 2006. I had thought about this tattoo for a long time, and I knew I wanted to get something special... not just any old tattoo. I had thought about a sister related tattoo or something like that, but it all seemed so silly. One day it hit me like a ton of bricks. "Just Breathe". My Great Great Uncle Louis used to tell the family this all the time! He lived to be 106 years old, and in his small home town of LeRoy, New York he was interviewed because he lived so long. The local paper asked him how he lived so long and his answer was simple, "Just Breathe". I knew that's what I wanted my first tattoo to be. A simple reminder that when  life gets too hard, just breathe. As long as you're breathing you're living. What I love most about this one is that it was freehanded. The lady that did it took a toothpick, dipped it in the ink and wrote on my back with the toothpick to see if I liked the placement. When I said yes, she wiped it clean and went to town! Talk about a trust exercise, huh??

 

My second tattoo I got in 2008. Like I said, this tattoo has no story. There's no meaning behind this one. It's a flash tattoo from the walls of Magick Dragon Tattoo. Josh went in there wanting something new. The day I got this one he got his third (and biggest) tattoo. I was jealous that he was getting something new so I wanted to get something, too. I don't regret this one at all, in fact I still love it today. It's my simple little rose/heart. It's on my right wrist and I've never had an issue with it being exposed at work.

 

My third tattoo I got in 2012, just after Zander turned two. I knew after I had him I wanted some sort of tattoo for him. However, I also knew I didn't want a bear or kid toy picture or even a portrait. Those always seemed silly to me. I wanted something special. When he was born, the hospital did stamps of his feet, so lightbulb went off in my head: that would be the perfect tattoo for him! So this tattoo is exactly Zander's feet from when he was born Feb. 26, 2010. This picture was taken moments after the artist finished so that's why it still looks swollen.

I'm dying to get more tattoos, but sadly with two kids it's just not in the budget. There are better things for me to save up for right now. My next one will definitely be something for Ainsley. I was thinking maybe her handprints since I had Zander's feet. Who knows... we'll see when the time is right. I have so many ideas for different tattoos just (like I said) not the funds for all of my fun ideas.

Being that today is Monday, we're starting this week with a grateful heart. Linking up with Emily at Ember Grey. I'm very grateful for my tattoos and I love it when people stop to ask me about them. I know it seems silly but I love them! I'm also grateful that I have the freedom and ability to have tattoos.
So tell me, do you have any tattoos? If not, do you want one?

Celebrations and Blog Love

Y'all, I'm nervous. There, I said it... yes, I'm nervous. Tonight hubby and I are celebrating our 6th anniversary in the city. This of course means the kids will be left with my mother in law tonight and tomorrow. This is the first time we're leaving BOTH kids with someone overnight, and that's what's making me nervous. (I know, I know... I shouldn't be; they'll be fine; blah, blah, blah). I was the same way when we left Zander alone for an overnight stay. I'm just a wimp. BUT, I know Josh and I will have a great time! I still don't know all of the details, because he's keeping most of this a surprise. I'm very impressed with that, by the way because normally Josh isn't the planner in this marriage! SO, this is the last I'm going to think about not having my kids this weekend and I'm just going to enjoy celebrating our anniversary! (Just like a good wife should, right?) Ha.

Anyhoo... IT IS FRIDAY! Of course that means we're sharing the #bloggerlove and linking up with Meagan from All the Joys. Once again, this week was filled with amazing posts! I seriously loved Anne's suggestion to help remember faves throughout the week by using bloglovin! What a help, thanks, Anne! So let's do this, y'all!

+ Kenji from Kenji is Here wrote a beautiful post for Emily's Grateful Heart Linkup. Simplicity is Key. It's so very true. Honestly, how many times have y'all de-cluttered your desk or closet and just felt so much better afterwards? *Raises Hand!*

+ Christine at The So-Called Homemaker gave some great tips on How to Be an Awesome Sponsor. I happen to agree with all of her tips. I've been lucky in that all of the ladies that I've sponsored have been amazing and I have no complaints! But, if you're new to sponsorship's, these are some great tips! Take notes, y'all.

+ Cassie from Sage the Blog shared the story behind one of her tattoos. I'm a big fan of tattoos, and I always love to hear / see the story behind someone's tattoo. Especially if that tattoo is REALLY pretty and very well done!

+ Katie from Life Is... wrote this beatuiful post on Wednesday, Early Morning Thoughts. I really needed this post this week. A gentle, peacful reminder to love yourself and to slow down.

+ Amy at Set Free. Her post: How I Keep My Marriage Alive After Kids really hit the nail on the head. (But ALL of the Mama Tells All link up posts were amazing) But Amy said something I think a lot of us forgot to say: Take time for your friends! Even though you're married you can't stop seeing your friends. It's just so very true!

Who were your favorites this week? I hope everyone has a great weekend, and I'll do my best to do a weekend recap of a kid-free anniversary celebration. Don't worry y'all I'll leave out the dirty parts ;) ha.

Six Years of Marriage, Many Years of Love

Some of y'all may have seen this post on Amanda's page, but I had to bring it back to life today since it's such a special day today. ((AND YES, I realize yesterday's was similar to this, but I don't care #sorrynotsorry!))

Thanks right, y'all, as of about 3:00 (ish) today, Hubby and I are married for 6 years. Amanda was there from the beginning of it all! I know it doesn't seem like a lot, but after being together for eight years and married for (almost) 6, I feel pretty accomplished. I feel better this year about our relationship than I did last year- that's for sure! I know a lot of my favorite bloggers either just got married or are planning a marriage, so today I wanted to share some things from Josh and myself. *and yes, Josh did help me write these! Isn't he the greatest?*

// Communication. We talk about our day. I tell him everyone I talk to, and he tells me about his day. We never run out of things to say. This is so important for any relationship. For a while there, we stopped talking. I mean we would talk, but it would be about normal household stuff. We weren't joking, or laughing, or telling each other how we feel. I cannot stress enough that your partner needs to know how you’re feeling. Don’t assume they know you’re mad. Don’t assume anything. If you don’t like a certain meal, tell them. Whatever it is… just tell your partner. Things that get left unsaid tend to sit and boil until the point of no return, and by then you’re so mad at your partner it’s just madness.

// Religion. Let’s be clear, I’m not telling you that you have to have religion in your house or not. That’s totally up to you. We’re not here to force certain beliefs down anyone’s throats. I will say having an understanding in our house that we do believe in God and that we do pray daily (as a family) has helped us a lot. In the past eight years, Josh and I have been though a lot together. From evictions, to new jobs, kids, one or both of us getting fired. You name it, we’ve probably been there. And sure, if something comes up these days at least one of us will have a brief freak out moment. (Usually me, and usually via twitter). Sorry, sad but true. But, after the freak out has passed we sit and pray together and it always works out for the best. It might not be the result we wanted or expected, but in the end it worked.

// Jokes. We still laugh at each other. I call Josh a Goober all the time (to which he replies with calling me a peanut). He knows it makes me laugh because a goober is a peanut. We have little inside jokes that we know most people don't understand, but that's why they're special. Because they're ours. Mostly Josh laughs at the stupid way I pronounce certain words, and I laugh at his obsession for WWE.

Us, 2014

// Share the chores. Let’s face it, y’all: we’re not all super human. We all need help, and we all need to know when to ask for help. Sharing house-hold chores makes everything so much easier. Sure, I may not like the way he loads the dishwasher, but he does it and I’m not about to complain and risk that going away! We have a balance.

// Raising the kids. If you remember my post “A Letter to New Moms”, raising kids is not an easy task and there’s no rule book to it. So taking two people and trying to figure out this whole kid thing is, well, amusing really. Sure, we both lose our cool and lose our patience with the kids but that’s bound to happen with anyone. The beauty of our marriage is we both agree on what we should (and shouldn't) do with the kids.

Us, Wedding Day 2008

What would you include in this list? What would you remove? I'd love to hear your thoughts! I think marriage is like raising kids. There's no right or wrong way to do it, and it's always a learning process. Things are always going to change. You have to be willing to adapt to those changes and work with your partner. It is a partnership after all.

Love, and Marriage, and Children

Marriage is hard. We all know this. Throw some kids in the mix? Then it gets, like, calculus hard. Yes... that was just said by me... on the blog... for the whole world to see. No judgement here, y'all.

So how do marriages stay alive even after kids? 
Linking up with Christine, Brittany, and Ashley for Mama Tells All



Well, it doesn't come easy that's for sure. For Josh and I it takes a lot of planning. Tomorrow is our 6 year wedding anniversary and no lie: we've been planning what we're going to do for weeks, y'all. Last year wasn't a great year for us, and we honestly didn't do anything to celebrate our 5th anniversary. Sometimes that's OK to not do anything (The Florkens did it this year!) But honestly, after kids I totally think it's important to make time for each other. We still haven't nailed down all of our plans for this year, but we know it'll involve dinner, maybe a movie, definitely an overnight hotel stay.



Oct 2013 Family photo

Why is it so important to take time for each other? Well, you get lost in the daily activities. It's so easy to get lost! Hell, as a mom / wife / sister / aunt / friend / granddaugter, I don't even take time for myself! I have to make sure to keep my marriage going!! For me it's important because I take my vows seriously. Sure, I wish we had been creative enough to write our own vows like Cassie did here, but we said vows and that means something. I want to be able to teach my kids that the divorce rate in the US doesn't have to be the norm. I want marriages to work to be the norm.

In my opinion, it doesn't even have to be the big plans that you schedule for to keep your marriage strong though. Josh will still send me random text messages throughout the day with a simple "I Love You." No matter what I'm doing in the day, it always makes me smile. It's special to me to know that even in his busy day, he's thinking about me. I do the same with him. His job is hard, and annoying, and I know he enjoys hearing from me even via text.

We also kiss each other every night before we go to bed. Even if we've argued about something or I might be pissed because he didn't feed the cat that night and I had to do it, we still take a moment. We always lay down, give each other a kiss; What I call a "real kiss" because I always want it to be a deep, meaningful kiss... not just a quick peck on the lips. After that we tell each other "I Love You", snuggle up, and go to sleep (sometimes not as quickly as Josh would like though). For us to keep our marriage alive is really very simple: Yes, it take a lot of planning for alone time but it's the little things that are most important to us.

Oct 2013 Family Photo

My wednesday wish (linking up with Anne from Love the Here and Now) is simple this week: I want to wish my husband a happy anniversary tomorrow. I love him to the moon and back, and even though we argue and disagree there's a lot of love. He's my special person and I wish for many more years together.

What do y'all do to keep your marriage going after kids?

Talking to Myself...

...except not really...
Today marks the first day for Amanda's fun new linkup "Conversations". She has been so sweet to ask me to co-host this link up, and of course I said yes! I was pretty excited when she shared the details with me, and the best part is they're SO SIMPLE, y'all!! Here's the deal: It's a twice a month link up on the 15th and 30th of every month... and it's simple: Just share any conversation.

To kick off the start to #MyConversations (use this hashtag with any social medial!) We're going back in time for this conversation. Back to 2006.

"That one time when I had to change my tire"

Let's set the scene, shall we? It's either very late at night (or very early in the morning... depending on how you look at it). It's raining. There's three people in my car: Me, Amanda, and our friend (we'll call him C). This is my first car ever, and the three of us had been enjoying new found freedom since I was the only one with a car out of the three of us.

Well, early in the morning ( / late at night) Amanda had to get home. She was in a new apartment and trying to tell me how to get back to it since I couldn't remember. With the rain though, it was difficult to see; we missed a turn and I ended up hitting a curb which of course, as luck would have it, turned into a blown tire. My first blown tire ever!

As it turns out... none of us knew how to change a tire. C still gets crap about never changing a tire, since he was the only guy with us and as a guy he should've known. Right? Right. After the three of us stared at the spare in the trunk forever, I decided to finally call for help. Except, none of us had triple A either.

The phonecall I'll never forget...

Me: Hey, any chance Mommy is still up? We blew a tire. ((No WAY I was calling the house phone at ungodly hours so I called my sister to talk to my mom!)) I'm a thinker.
Sis: hold on, I'll get her
Mom: Baby? you ok? What's going on?
Me: Welllllllll (I then explain what happened to the tire) And none of us know how to change the tire.
Mom: I can't come get you though. There's no room. And the baby is asleep.
Me: Well, can you walk us through it? We don't know where to start.
Mom: *insert uncontrollable laughter here* Sorry, I know it's not funny but this isn't the conversation I expected to have, ever!
[at this point we're soaked]
My mom does go on and walks us through how to change the flat, but to this day, if she sees C or I talk about Amanda she asks "have you changed any flats lately?" Thanks for being so loving, mom.

"Lady" My first car, ever

It's also Monday today, y'all and in the spirit of being grateful (with Emily at Ember Grey), I would like to say I'm very grateful that my mom was still awake that night. Now I know how to change a tire, and I have this hilarious memory.

If you'd like to share one of your conversations, please add the link to your post below! We can't wait to read them!