Tag! You're it!

Thank you Nicole! :-D

1. I always sleep on the side of the bed that is farthest from the door. 
2. I always put on my right shoe first.
3. I cannot resist chocolate. The darker the better!
4. I always wanted to learn to play the violin, but learned how to play the flute, saxophone, and clarinet instead.
5. If I forget my phone, I will go back and get it, no matter how far away from home we are.
6. I sometimes get jealous that my daughter has more guppies than I do.
7. I'm a dreamer. I sometimes see something in a store and say "I can make that!" but in reality, I really have no idea how to do it.
8. My eyes are blue, but I have a light golden brown ring in both of my eyes as well. 
9. I hate coffee.
10. I'm addicted to The Sims.
11. I really like to garden, and can't wait to have our own farm so I can grow more! 

The Rules

1. You must post the rules (and link up who tagged you.)

2. Post eleven fun facts about yourself on the blog post.

3. Answer the questions the tagger set for you in their post, and then create eleven new questions to ask the people you've tagged.

4. Tag however many people you want.

5. Let them know you've tagged them!

Nicoles Questions For me:

1. What's your best accomplishment in life up until this point?

* I would like to say just being the person that I am. I could be super bitter about the things that have happened in my past, but I try to not be.

2. If you could live anywhere, where would it be?

* I really like it around here! If Sam could find a job around here that paid enough for us to have our dream farm, I would totally stay here! It's nice for the most part year round, I like the fact that if I wanted to go to the beach, I'm only 30-45 minutes away, and I like the kids schools. Tho... I have seen some schools around Raleigh that would be AMAZING!!!!

3. Describe your perfect date night.

* Perfect date night.. hmm... I would have to say, a nice dinner on the water, watch the sunset over the ocean, and hang out and just listen to the water lap the beach while looking at the stars. Amazing!

4. What do you think is your best feature?

* Hmmmm.... *I* think my best feature is butt... LOL 

5. What's your favorite picture of you an your hubby?

* Ha!! It's from right after we got married... Sam, myself and Jocelyn and her husband had all gone to our company Christmas party (That was actually in January.... LOL) and she took a picture of me where it looked like I was picking Sams nose... LOL 

6. If you won a million dollars, what's the first thing you would do?

* Pay off all of our debt, put money away for the kids to go to college, and start our dream of having our farm.

7. What's your favorite snack food?

* CHOCOLATE... or popcorn

8. What's your favorite meal of the day?

* Usually dinner! I lurv to cook!

9. Favorite guilty pleasure TV show?

* The Bachelor/Bachelorette I don't know why!!! I just love to watch them. *sigh*

10. Best book you have ever read?

* Oh gosh... ummm... that's a tough one! How about.... either The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd or One True Theory of Love by Laura Fitzgerald

11. Describe your perfect Sunday.

* Church,  lunch, dinner in the crock pot, and relaxation!

I'm going to Tag:

Molls @ O hushed October Morning Mild

The Bug @ Bugs Eye View

My questions:

1. If you could go back and do something in your life over, would you?

2. What is your hidden talent?

3. If you could change your name, would you? If so, what would you change it to?

4. What is your favorite childhood memory?

5. What is your favorite adult memory?

6. Do you have any pets?

7. What size shoe do you wear?

8. If you could meet one person, past, present, or future, who would it be?

9. What is your biggest fear?

10. What is your favorite meal?

11. Which is better? Chocolate, Vanilla or Neapolitan ice cream?

Wounded Warrior 5K!!

So, I'm signed up! On Saturday I'll be running in the Wounded Warrior 5K! It will be my first 5K as an adult, and my first one that I'll actually be running!! (I did one in HS for MS that I walked with my 4H club) I'm so stinkin excited!!!!!

What I'm NOT excited about is that my bone spur has been acting up and causing me to have pain in my Achilles tendon! GRR!! I took some advice from my friend RJ and decided that I was going to try KT Tape. I bought it today. Bright pink! ^.^ Only thing is... they have one application for "heel pain" and another for the "Achilles tendon" and I don't know which one to do! I wouldn't really call it HEEL pain, it IS in my tendon.... I did send them an email asking which application that I should use, but I haven't heard back yet. I'm going to train again on Wednesday and then maybe a light workout on Friday and then off to the race on Saturday! SOOOO EXCITED!!!!

The only other thing that I have to say about the race right now is, if you would like to donate to the Wounded Warriors, you can do so under my name! You go here and type in my name in the participants box Jacque Charwood. You don't have to.. I'm not begging, BUT! If you would like to, here's your opportunity! :-)

My training today? I ran 2.5 miles in just over 30 minutes. Not terrible... but not exactly great either! ;-) I guess I need to build up more endurance and get a lil faster. It will come with time! :-D

Slacker!!

So, as you guys know, I've been doing Project365. I have to say... it is quite interesting finding pictures to show my life considering I'm like an Internet Addicted Hermit... I find that it's pretty hard to take pictures of things when you don't leave the house. And it's hard to remember that you're supposed to take your camera and take pictures when you do leave the house when you only leave the house like once a week! *giggle*

I do have some things planned! Like... uh... well.. ummmm... OH YES!! Girls night! Fondue at Nicoles!! I'm in charge of bringing strawberries... (homemade please) sourdough bread... and the stripper... haha! Not really... just the strawberries and bread. So, I will try and take a couple pictures of thaaaaat. I'm going to try and recreate Monday and Tuesday. It's not like anything really happened.. I live a boring life! *sigh* Yes.. a boring life filled to the gills with "Holy moley! We're opening a business and I've still got SO much to do!!!" *scream*

Okay. I think I'm over it now. I'll be okay! Now, it's time to get ready, go to the post office (again) and then head to Keonas house. I guess I need to not be a hermit today and help her wash her comforter at the laundry mat.

Late nights with dogs...

So, tonight I'm sitting here, unable to sleep, listening to my husband snore in our bedroom because he's not wearing his CPAP mask, watching our dogs sleep, and reading up on some blogs.

There are three blogs in particular that I really like to see them posting.

One of which I've met before. She's on my facebook. We (all of us Jacksonville girls) went and had dinner together, and on the 21st, I hope to see her again at our next "girls night" with her adorable little girl. Her name is Mrs P... or Rachel. She's SO sweet! Some days, when I read her blog I'm so angry! But not at her... never at her! But because of the situation that she's writing about... because of lost friends, and lost things, and the biggest reason lost husband. Rachel... I hope this doesn't come out the wrong way, but, I hope to never be in your shoes, because I don't know that I could be as strong as you are.  I <3 you!!

Another woman who is amazingly strong, even tho she has her days is Karie. Her husband was stationed at Camp LeJeune, and misfortune struck while he was deployed. From there they spent time at Walter Reed, and eventually moved up north (if I remember right... stupid sleep deprivation! LOL). She also lost her love... You can see her struggle sometimes... but... you can SEE her grow! You can see how strong she is... how she is willing herself to survive the unsurvivable!

The last blog I smile when I see a post from is Katie! They were handed the short end of the stick... and that's no joke! I can't wait for a day when Ben posts! THAT will be a glorious day!! I'm praying for that to happen someday in the VERY near future!!

These 3 women, they are so different, but yet very much the same. They are strong, beautiful women. They are doing something I couldn't ever IMAGINE doing. They are taking what has been given to them, and making the best of it. You guys are so much an inspiration to me... to just live life with what you got! You never know how many tomorrows you have. Thanks guys! <3

New design is coming!

I've been hard at work with Courtney over at Not So Homemade to roll out a new blog design.

It's not quite done, but, it's coming along fantastically! I'm IN LOVE with it! There are a few little tweeks here and there, but, it's looking great! This will be the first design change for Life Along The Way since shortly after it's birth almost 2 years ago! ACK!

Anyways! Go show Courtney some love over at her blog. She's got a fantastic Calzone recipe that I'm dying to try! Maybe this weekend... hmmmm....

Yeah yea yeah.... I know! Sheesh!!

So, as some of you have noticed, I haven't posted in a while. I can explain! It's a legit reason I swear!!

Last week it rained every day (no joke) for almost an entire week! It started on Monday and didn't end until about Saturday. It was terrible!! No joke!

I did get a bit of a night out with the girls tho. (I had written a nice blog entry about all of this, but, it disappeared!! :-( )My favorite Nicole graciously invited me and a bunch of other girls to join her at Chili's for a girls night. Of course, I ended up going to APPLEBEES and then couldn't understand why I couldn't get checked into Chili's on foursquare. (DUH!!!) I got to meet a bunch of fantastic ladies and I got to have some adult conversation with someone other than my husband. It was fantastic I say!! I ended up having Salmon with broccoli and brown rice. It was super yummy, but I couldn't eat it all, so, I brought it home. Of course Bug decided that what I brought home was for her, and she stole all of the broccoli. It's okay. I don't mind sharing broccoli with my little picky eaters! :-)

Monkey got $40 from the Tooth Fairy for his very last tooth, and it has been BURNING a hole is his pocket for some time now. He did spend a little bit of money at his school book fair. I got very excited when he told me that he wanted to take some money to buy something. I thought just maybe he would buy a book! Alas, it was not meant to be. He bought a calculator that looks and smells like chocolate and a pencil sharpener. *sigh* He decided last week, when we went to pick up a bag of dog food that he just simply couldn't live without an African Dwarfed Frog. Now, don't get me wrong. They are incredibly adorable and docile. He picks out the smallest frog in the tank, and carry's his new prize to the register. He plops down $5, and even got some change back! He was very thankful that I bought his new pet, Hopper, some yummy food as well as some weekend feeders for the snails. (Which are getting REALLY big by the way!!)

Monday (the 4th) Monkey woke up and said "My throat hurts." That was all it took. He never complains about things like that. The last time he said something like that his blood pressure was thru the roof and he didn't have a bowl movement for 3 days! (It was terrible and he missed a WEEK of school!!) So, we went to the Doctors and wouldn't you know it, he had the flu!! So, one pack of Tamilfu later, and a note to go back to school the next day, and we were off and running! Of course, then on Friday, he decided to tell me that he's had diarrhea for 3 days! SHEW! This kid is killin me! LOL

Well, we decided that we were going to trade in our Pleco that we bought back in July for something that wouldn't poop as much. (Seriously... Spike pooped.... A LOT!!!!) So, we put him in a 1 gallon ice cream bucket and took him to our local pet/fish store and traded him in on a Corydora Catfish (Cory Cat) whom Monkey named Cory. I think I might have inadvertently caused Cory some harm today. The filter was running really slow and I decided that I would clean it and put it all back together, so I took about a half a gallon of water out and cleaned everything up, and then I put some rather warm water back in the tank. I didn't think it was THAT warm, but poor Cory came barreling out of his little hidey-hole and didn't look like he was doing so well. He floated for a little bit, and didn't move for about a minute, and then he went down to the bottom of the tank where he stayed for quite some time. I thought he was going to die!! I thought I had done Cory in! Nope! He's back in his hidey-hole after a bit of normal swimming. I just hope that in the morning I don't find half eaten bits of Cory in the tank.... :-/

I also have been a bit under the weather. On Wednesday I went to wake Sam up for work and I walked in the bedroom and felt like someone had skewered my from back to front. It was terrible! I couldn't breath in very much. I thought maybe I had pulled a muscle, took some Ibuprofen and laid down for a while after the kids went to school. Of course my wonderful 68 year old Philippine neighbor told me she could come over and rub some liniment on my back and I would feel better in no time! I love this lady to death, but I don't know that I want her rubbing some chicken poop on my back that she brought from the the Philippines!! (Okay, I don't know that it's chicken poop... but I have no idea WHAT it is, tho it's probably better for me than the meds the Dr prescribed!) So, I go to the Doctors (I joke with them that I deserve my own parking spot there.) and meet this fantastic guy! He, of course, was my very capable Dr. Perry! I think I now want to follow this man to whatever office that he is practicing in. He was that great! FANTASTIC guy! I wanted to pick him up, put him in my pocket, and drive home. I love him! Anyways! He said he thinks I have Pleurisy. What that is, is that at some point in time I had some sort of infection or something in my lung, and that my Pleura are rubbing together and they hurt. (I would make a wonderful Doctor wouldn't I?!) I have a follow up appointment with Dr Hotty (Or at least that's what the receptionist and the office manager and I have named him. His real name is Dr. Jones. Dr. Hotty is a better name tho.).

On a happier note!! I have a WONDERFUL person making over my blog!! It will be the first time that this blog has seen a new layout, background, anything, since it's birth! How terrible is that?? I'm such a bad blog-mom I swear! I can't wait to reveal it to you guys!! As most of you know, I'm not a very girly girl, but, she's doing a fantastic job of everything so far! I sent her about 2397234983 pictures for her to use. I just know that what she comes up with, you all will love, but even if you don't, I will and really that's all that matters!! ;-)

Anyways! It's 9PM and Sam and the kiddos are watching Wackos' Wish on Netflix and I can hear Pinky and The Brain planning to take over the world, so I should probably go spend some time with them before my

Giveaways!! Woo!

So, as some of you might know, I'm a sucker for a giveaway! I LOVE giveaways! I actually won one not too long ago! I won this fantastic little red, and blue purse that has white stars all over it. It's from A Happy Distraction. Fantastic shop!

. 

Anyways! That's not todays giveaway tho! I found this FANTASTIC site called Dandy Giveaway. It's all they do! Give away stuff! Well, they have DIY and recipes and such as well, but, they give stuff away! All the time! How fantastic is that?! That has to be the absolute best job in the world. I swear. Not only do I like to get free stuff, but I like to GIVE free stuff away as well! Which is why I'm telling you about their latest giveaways. One is a $50 gift certificate to Bella Michele Jewelry!! You can enter by clicking here! And for all you parents of little girls. They are giving away a Lalaloopsy doll as well! Serious cuteness there! I want to win this for Bug! She would LOVE it!! You can enter that giveaway here! 

Good luck! :-)

Thursday 5

Okay, I'm a thief. Yup, call the Blog Police now. I have committed the worst possible offense in bloggerdom!

 I STOLE this post from Nicole. I think it's a fantastic idea! (Yes, I've seen it many many times Nicole... just never stole it from you before.... LOL) 

Basically what it is, you say what in the past week has made you thankful, giddy, happy, excited, and adored. So! Here we go!!

I was Thankful this week that Sam and I finally worked out our issues with personal transparency. 

I was Giddy when I ordered my new workout video! (If Kristy can lose 90 pounds using it, I can lose too!)

I was Happy Sam told me that he changed one of our magazines (that we never read) to a subscription to Boys Life for Monkey.

I'm really Excited that Sam told me that we're going to go to the Gator Ball in the Spring! (If he's still in) Which means I don't get to go to the MC Ball in November (which kinda stinks), but I'll be in much better shape this spring! :-D (Silver lining people!!)

And I felt really Adored when Sam, Monkey, and Bug all told me that I looked really pretty. :-D

Happy Labor Day!

So, this morning has been quite the morning! Sam and I stayed up late last night and watched Stargate SG1 and went to bed around midnight. I specifically told the dogs "We are sleeping in tomorrow! No barking and waking us up until at least 8!" But they didn't listen, barking started at 7. They never listen! They're worse than babies, I swear!

I decided that I would be a nice wife, and let Sam sleep in. It's 9:17, and I've not decided yet that I'm going to go wake him up. The last couple days I let him sleep till around lunch time and then went and bombarded him with kisses and told him to get up for lunch. We have been having meals a little backwards for the last couple of days. Breakfast is still our normal cereal or toast (Shakeology for me!), but lunch seems to be the big meal of the day. It's strange, but, oddly it's been working for us! I know it won't stay like that. Today it's going to be a light lunch, and a bigger dinner.

The kids are enjoying the day off today. As much as they love (or dislike) school, they're both glad to have the day off to lounge around and watch TV or play video games. Currently, at (almost) 10AM, (Yes, I realize almost an hour has passed since the last paragraph) they're playing Super Mario Galaxy. It's a cute game, plus, they have to work together! It's a glorious thing to see my two kiddos getting along!

As I said yesterday, I have started a new blog about diet & exercising. Here's the link. I would love to get more followers on there. Later today I'm going to post my "mini-meatloaf burgers" on there!

Just a lil sumfin special!

I know I don't have that many people that read my blog, or at least, not many people read my blog and comment! So, I thought I would give a lil love out to the ones that do. :-D

Restaurant.com is a website where you can pick up gift certificates to local restaurants for a fraction of the cost! For a local Mexican restaurant here in Jacksonville, NC a $25 certificate is $10. Now, ordinarily, this would be a pretty good deal. Oh no! There's more!! If you enter FUN in the promo code box, you will get an ADDITIONAL 80% OFF!!!

You need to hurry tho, this offer does expire on July 12th!!

Don't worry.... I love you guys too. ;-)

Day 18: Whatever tickles your fancy

Ahhhhhhh!! I'm so glad that I get a free day today! To be honest, the 30 Days of Me is starting to get a bit much!  I start looking forward to these days! I get to talk about all the things that I have been going "Oh! I should blog about that!!" There have been contests that I couldn't exactly enter because I didn't really want to stray TOO far from this! It's okay tho. There will be more contests to enter at other dates. :-)

For my "fancy" today, I want to talk about some GREAT blogs that I follow! I read a lot of blogs. I used to not! I used to read only my Moms blog. She was the only one that I cared enough to read. Then it branched out to some random ones I found by hitting "Next blog" on the top of my blog. I've lost touch with most of those people, but I still read my Moms blog when she actually gets around to writing.

Lately, I've been reading a bevy of military blogs. I'm not going to play favorites, so I'm just going to name a couple that are closest to me by distance. Nicole over at Flip Flops and Combat Boots is such a sweetheart! She just recently got married. She does some giveaways, some recipes, and she did a Summer Essentials Swap! I signed up for it, and my partner is from Lexington! Lexington is one of my 3 favorite places in Kentucky. The Kentucky Horse Park is there! That is like my heaven right there! I have some ideas of what I want to send to my swap partner, but nothing concrete yet. Another local lady that I have grown to love is Katie! Now, she has TWO blogs! She just recently got engaged, so, she started another blog to keep up with all of the wedding prep. She is also another awesome local blogger! I hope to get an invite to Katies' wedding, just so I can blow bubbles as they walk out of the church. Does it matter if I'm the only one blowing bubbles? No! I just want to blow bubbles! *giggle* (Just kidding Katie!! ;-) )

I also have a bit of a crafty streak in me. So, I like to read about different crafts. I especially like the ones that give DIY home crafts. I think my favorite of all of the crafty blogs is Design*Sponge! They have some of the MOST awesome things on their blogs. Be warned though. Do NOT click the link if you don't have an hour to burn just reading through all of the awesome projects and whatnot! Another one that I just recently found that I fell IN LOVE (like head over heels!) with is Positively Splendid. Oh my GOSH! I love this site! If I could marry it, I would give it my wedding ring right now! On my Google Reader, I have a tag for Recipes, Stuff I want, and Stuff to make. Just about every single post at PS has the Stuff to make tag on it! (Yes, I'm serious!) She makes me wish that I could be more creative and that I knew more creative bloggers so I could come up with the awesomeness that's on her site. My favorite sewing blog is by leaps and bounds LittleBlueBoo! I LOVE LOVE LOVE LBB! She makes the absolute cutest clothes!!! They make my heart do little flutters and then it sort of sinks a little bit because I know that I'm not as creative as her. That doesn't mean that I don't love her blog any less!! She does sell her creations and patterns, and one of these days, I will get enough gumption to actually buy one and try to do something awesome like she does!

Another group that I want to talk about are the "combo" blogs and cooking blogs. On the advice of a fellow Military Blogger and Twitter friend Bethany for the tip on this one: ThePioneerWoman is hands down an AWESOME website! Yet another blog that you need to make sure that you have some time to waste spend checking out all of her awesomeness! She's got recipes, photographs, funny stories, giveaways, home decorating, you name it, it's there!! I'm always happy when I see her pop up on the Google Reader. I've entered another one of her contests and I'm anxiously awaiting to see if I've won an 8 piece dinning set of Fiestaware plates! Oh, I would be that happiest girl in the world! *happily looking slightly upwards and to the left with a smile* A girl can dream right?! My favorite cooking blog is A Year of Slow Cooking. Now, anybody that knows me, knows that I can be a bit on the lazy side. I don't always like to cook or clean, but, if I don't have a zillion pots and pans to worry about after dinner is done, I'm more likely to clean up. There are more than 365 recipes to make in your crock pot on this blog. That's my kind of cooking!!

The last set of blogs that I'm going to talk about are my miscellaneous blogs. They don't exactly fit into any of the above categories, but for some odd reason, I love them just as much! The first one I was turned on to when I used to work at the book store. Cake Wrecks is one of the most awesome sites! Some of the cakes they put on there are just... wow! How can they even display or offer them for sale to the general public?! You will just have to check it out to know what I mean! From the same "author" comes EPBOT. It's a sort of hodge-podge of geeky goodness. I can't exactly pin point an exact reason why I love EPBOT so much, other than the geekiness! The last blog I'm going to post about tonight is one that makes me giggle with glee. AwkwardFamilyPhotos is just about the most hilarious, safe for families, websites on the net.