Love Me Like My Dog Does Baby

I'm sure if you listen to country music on a semi-regular basis, you will have heard this song.

I myself am a dog lover. When I was about 9, my neighbors had an outdoor dog named Zoe. Unbeknownst to them, she was my dog. I took her on walks, gave her treats, played fetch with her, and begged my parents to let me have her. The begging and groveling process for a horse, dog, hamster or anything that had furr was probably a monthly occurrence for my parents, poor souls.

After finally being married for a few months, I shipped Evan off to Afghanistan with only one rule from him: I better not have a dog when he got home. Me? Want a dog? Nooooo.

But for real.
What's up with everyone trying to ruin my life dream of owning a furry companion here?

A few weeks before Christmas my soon-to-be brother-in-law found a little puppy, half frozen, tossed in a snow bank. I immediately schemed a plan. I was all alone, poor little Army wife needing something to fill my time. Ok, really there was no plan except the old stand-by of my 9 year old self: beg and grovel. PLEASE EVAN, PLLLEEAAASSSEEE!!!! Its my life dream!!! I won't ask for anything else! I won't even buy another pair of shoes for a year! (Ha. I know, we both knew that was a lie) PLLLEEEEAAASSSSEEEE!

Like the good man my husband is, he gave in to his crazy wife's pleas.
And then laughed in my face ear, when I had to stand outside in the sub-zero winter tundra that is Pennsylvania, to potty train the piss head.

Although there have been many, many moments of (impatient) me wanting to throw Scout out the door, hoping he would run away to another family, I really don't know what I would do without the massive beast. Even when I've yelled at him when I shouldn't have, he still loves me like it never happened. He might be huge, but he has the biggest heart to match. He gets stressed out easily, but will rip any box apart at the possibility of finding a "biscuit" inside. When you talk to him, he'll cock his head and listens with careful content. Most of the time he will answer back with his two, dog-talking cents. During the week I have to practically drag him out of bed, but I can promise you, Saturday morning (on my only day to sleep in) he will be nose to nose with me, giving me his best pitiful, chocolate brown-eyed stare to please get up so he...can go back to sleep in the living room.

What if we all tried to love other people the way dogs love us? I think we can all agree Hitler wasn't the nicest kid on the playground, and was...How do you say it?...one of the worst tyrants of the 20th Century.You have to be pretty consistently awful, even before you decided to wipe out an entire race, to win that title. 
Adolf had been given a German Shepherd named "Prinz." Right after World War I, during his years of poverty, he had been forced to give the dog up. However, she managed to escape and return to him. 
If that isn't an example of a dogs wavering devotion without judgement, I don't know what is.

 Dogs don't judge us if we're overweight, gay, straight, obsessive, depressed, religious, ignorant, old, dirty, anorexic, annoying, black, white, crippled, have a third nipple, or act downright rude. So the next time you scrunch up your nose at someone, or are quick to snap back to a nasty comment, don't. Take a minute to see them through a dogs eyes. "Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle." - John Watson

Obligatory montage of Scout

^
I bubble wrapped him and told him I was mailing him to Grandma's. He didn't think it was an awful idea.

New Halloween Costume

Napping: Exhibit A

Napping: Exhibit B

He really let me do this to him...and liked it. 

God Bless America

This land is your land, this land is my land
From California, to the New York Island
From the redwood forest, to the gulf stream waters
This land was made for you and me

As I was walking a ribbon of highway
I saw above me an endless skyway
I saw below me a golden valley
This land was made for you and me

Chorus

I've roamed and rambled and I've followed my footsteps
To the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts
And all around me a voice was sounding
This land was made for you and me

Chorus

The sun comes shining as I was strolling
The wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rolling
The fog was lifting a voice come chanting
This land was made for you and me

Chorus

As I was walkin'  -  I saw a sign there
And that sign said - no tress passin'
But on the other side  .... it didn't say nothin!
Now that side was made for you and me!

Chorus

In the squares of the city - In the shadow of the steeple
Near the relief office - I see my people
And some are grumblin' and some are wonderin'
If this land's still made for you and me.

The Story of Us

OK, so if you don't hear from me over the next few days, its because I will be extremely busy getting packed up to leave for home this summer. You saw my to do list yesterday, its crazy. Today I added about 4 things I forgot to that list. Unfortunately I have about 1,000 things I want to blog about! It always happens this way! With Krysti visiting I actually had a fantastic week & weekend, with re-life, fun, girlie-time, which made for interesting things to blog about! And lets not forget about new news on Evan...I miss that guy! (High school girl voice) I did this because we're totally in love. 

1. What are your middle names?  Evan's middle name is Ross and mine is Leigh. (Meredith Leigh Slee...should we blame my mom or Evan for this?)
2. How long have you been together?  8 years...dang.
3. How long did you know each other before you started dating?  Probably about a year or so. We met when I was 14 and he was 16 at our church youth group. 
4. Who asked who out? We had been hanging out just as friends for awhile. But, Evan finally asked me to be his “offcial girlfriend” in his car.
5. How old are each of you? I'm 22 (23 in about a month) and he's 25.
6. Did you go to the same school? We went to different high schools, but both ended up at Asbury University for college
7. Are you from the same hometown? Yep. Kittanning PA, our parents live about 500 yards from each other.
8. Who is the smartest?  For sure Evan. I took an IQ test and sent him the link to take it. I scored a 108 (trying extremely hard) and Evan scored a 128 even though he said he “got bored” towards the end and just started picking bubbles...that's not annoying or anything.
9. Who majored in what?  I changed my major about 100 times Art, English, Education, History. While Evan majored in Bible Theology with a Communications minor.
10. Who is the most sensitive?  I don't think either one of us is sensitive at all really. Maybe I have my monthly moments every now and then, but for the most part we are bluntly straight forward to a fault. Feelings aren't our forte. 
11. Where is the furthest you have traveled as a couple?  Um...from our home in TN to PA...I will get my honeymoon one of these years!
12. Who has the worse temper?  I do for sure. I'm constantly letting my temper get the best of me by snapping at people when I'm angry. Evan is always cool, calm, and collected, if he ever did lose his temper I think he might slaughter people.
13. How many children do you want?  That's a great question.
14. Who does the cooking?  We both take turns cooking. Evan is naturally better at it than I am though.
15. Who is more social?  Haha that one is me for sure! I never shut-up while you usually have to pry words out of Evan at any occasion.
16. Who is the most stubborn?  We are both crazy stubborn, but pretty bending when it comes to each other. I believe my old nickname Evan used to call me was "Muley." He's just "A Slee"...they are all stubborn in that family!
17. Who wakes up earlier?  Evan. He's up at 4 every morning to go to work. I'm naturally a morning person though too...4 o'clock isn't morning though...that's nighttime in my book.  
18. Who is the neat freak?  Evan. Sometimes I joke with him that he's borderline OCD about things. I'm really working on that this year to save him from strife...and so he doesn't divorce me.
19. Where was your first date?  Um, we really didn't have a first date. We were always hanging out together before we were ever officially dating, so there was never a first “big date."
20. Who has the bigger family?  We're even. We both have 1 younger sibling and about the same amount to aunts/uncles/cousins.
21. Do you get flowers often?  Never. I only kill flowers. Evan knows the real way to my heart is through something that goes to my stomach.
22. How do you spend the holidays?  Pretty laid back with our families. Since our families are literately yards apart, it makes it easy to do holidays with both sides of the family on the same day. The downside is having to eat 3 Thanksgiving/Christmas/Easter dinners in one day...
23. Who is more jealous?  Neither one of us are the jealous type. 
24. How long did it take to get serious?  We were very serious from the start. Neither one of us were interested in dating someone for the fun of it. We both had the same mindset of only dating someone who you would consider marrying. 
25. Who eats more?  Sadly I use to out-eat Evan daily, but since I've mustered up some self-control he's the “big eater” on campus now. Neither one of us put crazy amounts of food away. 
26. What do you do for a living?  I wish I knew! Lately I've been thinking about the possibility of becoming a high school principal. Maybe a photographer? Who knows though.
27. Who does the laundry?  Both of us. We are pretty equal on all the house chores.
28. Who is better with the computer?  I'm a serial computer killer. I'll go with Evan on this one.
29. Who drives when you're together?  Always Evan. I'm a bad driver.
30. What is your song?  Oh gosh...don't judge...but “I Swear” by John Michael Montgumery. 

Picking the Right Cookie

This past Saturday I saw The Five-Year Engagement. I had been wanting to see it for awhile now, since it recieved a higher-than-normal rating on Rotten Tomatoes of a 63%. Let me be clear by saying, I don't normally want to see chick-flicks in the first place, so this was out of character for me. They rank somewhere on my list right around Anime. Maybe I should have listened to my gut instinct to stay away from the sappy, funny romance, because as I sit here, I'm still trying to figure out how it had so many positive reviews. I guess I need to get a different sense of humor, because the comedy just didn't rub me the right way. And let's be honest, I'm kinda of bitter about romance movies in the first place...if you can't tell. To give you a background of the story, Violet and Tom are in love. (Duh) Tom proposes to Violet, and they move to Wisconsin because Violet was offered her dream job there. They try to plan their wedding in vain, as one thing after another comes up. Unfortunetly, Tom has to give up his dreams of running his own restaurant to support Violet. Throughout the story Tom becomes hopelessly miserable, and they begin to drift apart. For much of the movie their relationship hangs in the balance. As much as I hated how long it was, combined with the on-again, off-again relationship of the characters, there was one scene of the movie that really stuck out to me.

 The main character Violet and her sister, are having a heart to heart while they play with her sister's 2 small children. They begin to talk in "Cookie Monster" and "Elmo" voices to not only entertain the kids, but to talk in adult code in front of them. Violet is so confused and undecided as to whether she wants to marry Tom, or if there are better fish in the sea. Violet is so wrapped up in finding the perfect one that she's having a hard time committing and accepting anyone who isn't absolutely flawless. Violet's sister become increasingly frustrated and blurts out:

"Elmo thinks there is no right cookie. You just have to pick one and take a bite!"

Her sister becomes baffled for a good reason, she is in a completely different situation than her sister. She ended up marrying Tom's brother, who in kind terms, is a loser. They had a one night stand that resulted in her sister getting pregnant. Violet's sister married Tom's brother mainly because she was pregnant. If that wouldn't had happened, they would have quickly gone their separate ways and never saw each other again. Her sister is obviously living a life that she never saw herself having. She's not bitter or unhappy with how her life turned, honestly she couldn't imagine anything better, she is madly in love with her husband and kids. Seeing her sister agonize over a perfectly great guy makes her snap and talk some sense into Violet. She quickly lets Violet know that there isn't such a thing as the perfect cookie, because she had experienced first hand how life works. You work with what you have, even if it isn't perfect.

Not to make cookies a deep analogy, but I look at it this way. We all start life out with a full box of cookies. There are all types of cookies out there with all sorts of flavors. Certain flavors attract us more than others. I personally like all chocolate flavors. I've always been pretty selective when it comes to cookies; I only sampled one or two kids of cookies before deciding what kind I wanted. I figured why waste your time sampling peanut butter cookies, when I knew I wanted chocolate! At some point I met a chocolate cookie that I thought I could stick with everyday, so I took a bite and bought the box. If you're smart, you'll know not to keep a checklist of every single ingredient you want in a cookie, because you probably won't ever find it. You'll just end up picking apart every cookie you try. Pick a main flavor and take it with or without nuts as a compromise. I'm not saying buy the first bag of cookies you think would be OK. Lets be honest, who wants to eat a so-so cookie everyday? Not this girl. Its knowing that there are good parts about cookies, like sugar, and bad parts, like calories. Remember to be selective about who gets try your cookies. The more people we let sample our cookies, the less we will have to fill our cookie jar in the end. Give them a smell, not a bite. I can't promise eating same the same cookie everyday won't get stale or repetitive. You have to be creative. Sometimes you have to make an ice cream sandwich out of your cookies, or dunk it in chocolate milk instead of plain old white, even then, sometimes slathering cookies in hot fudge is totally called for. Its more about the fact that you have a special one-of-a-kind cookie all to yourself that you don't have to share with anyone.

 In the end its all about the choices you choose to make, as with everything in life. I made a choice picking Evan, and I choose to love him unconditionally everyday, despite his lack of perfect ingredients sometimes. For all I know, there could be another guy out there who I would get along with better or love more easily, but the facts are: there will never be a perfect cookie, on this physical earth, that fully satisfies me in every possible aspect of my life. Returning my cookies for new ones will only result in the same vicious cycle of used, half-eaten, broken cookies. In my book I have a strict no return policy when it comes to cookies! So stop obsessing over finding the perfect cookie! Just pick one and take a bite!

It's so easy to fall in love

I've mentioned Lisa a few times, so I figured it was time we put a face to the name.

Lisa is a fellow Army wife, and her husband Korey works with Evan. They are deploying together in a few weeks, which leaves Lisa and I together to make dinner, have puppy play dates, and shop until we drop. (We both have a weakness for clothes...we apologize to our husband's bank accounts ahead of time) She is super sweet, funny, and the girl knows what she wants. I feel like I've known Lisa and Korey since college, when in reality its been maybe 4 months. They are so down to earth, they make everyone around them feel like old friends. Even more importantly, they really love each other. In a strange way their relationship functions creepily similar to Evan and I's. This summer they will be married a year! We decided we should take some pictures before the guys leave, if I do say so myself, Korey and Lisa rocked it!

(Please click on the pictures to view them, they look 10x better that way)

Korey and Lisa made Evan and I dinner last night after we took pictures. All I can say is Korey is a grill master, because he made me the best burger I've had in a very long time. I'm all ready dreading saying goodbye from these guys!

New York City Saved My Ass

The first time I visited New York City I absolutely hated it. 

I was on my senior trip in high school. I was adamant that I wasn't going. After many weeks of begging and groveling, my friends talked me into taking one for the team, going to New York, making some good memories, and experiencing the Big Apple. I couldn't think of a worse place to live. It was so overwhelming. Every minute I was surrounded by people, lights, cars, and billboards, the more my grievance I felt. To be honest the trip was complete waste of time and money. Looking back a lot of the things we did, were stupid. We could have done most of stuff we saw in the middle of Ohio for goodness sake. By the time I got home I vowed to never visit New York City again.

Fast forward 3 years later. 

I wanted to graduate a semester early. Evan was on his first deployment, and when he arrived home in April I wanted to be completely done with school, not to mention I could save lots of money. So, that summer I signed up for a Communications class over the summer. The class was a trip to New York City. I was less than thrilled, but it got me 3 credit hours in a weeks time. I dreaded another entire week in city hell. I convinced myself to prepare for the worst. This time around New York was a completely different place. It was thrilling, exciting, unique, and historical. We ate at a little hole in the wall restaurant in Little Italy, haggled in China town, were dazzled by Broadway, stalked met Will Ferrell, shopped till we dropped, appeared on TV, stood on top of the Empire State Building, and did a thousand other things that completely changed my opinion on New York. I loved all of it, and I didn't want to leave! 

At the time I was 40 pounds heavier than I am now. I knew I was overweight, but I wasn't exactly motivated to change for a long period of time. Diets would last for a few weeks, until I'd cave and eat half of a chocolate cake. It was a vicious, degrading cycle. This is when New York saved my life. The very place I had once despised, became my liberator. Looking back losing weight all started in New York for a number of reasons. In New York there is a law that requires all restaurants to show the amount of calories in all food (on the menu) and on all packages. I immediately become very aware of what I was eating. I quickly noticed myself picking up a regular black coffee instead of a sugar infused latte. Up until then, I was unaware of just how many calories were packed into the food I normally ate. Secondly, in New York you walk everywhere. Even if you're taking the subway, you walk to get the subway. I had blisters all over my feet since I wasn't use to walking so much. Despite the pain of walking, I loved it. You had time to observe and appreciate your surroundings, instead of whizzing past them in a car. I ate lots of yummy food like Magnolia Bakery's cupcakes, pasta, etc. but I balanced it out by spreading it out, instead of eating everything I wanted at every meal. When I had pasta for dinner, I chose fruit for dessert. When I had soup for lunch, I had a cupcake for a snack. I stopped overeating. (Which I usually did --no joke-- daily)  In New York who wants to stuff themselves, and then be forced to walk 10 + blocks home? I learned that lesson fast! At the end of the week I noticed I felt lighter. I stepped on to the dreaded scale and noticed I had lost almost 5 pounds! From then on, I started walking, picking better food choices, and letting myself have a treat every other day, before I turned into a chocolate crack addict. It started by accident, but snowballed into one of the greatest things to change me, not only physically, but mentally too. 

Dear New York,

We started off our relationship kind of rocky. At first I thought you were obnoxious, loud, and your hygiene was less than satisfactory. I judge you too quickly, and for that I'm truly sorry. Yeah, you can be a little over the top and exorbitant, but I think we can find a middle ground. Your positives more than outweigh your negatives; I should have seen it sooner. For example, your the best cook I've ever met, and the clothes you find are out of this world! You are the most unique person I've ever met, and I totally mean that in a good way. I promise I'll visit again, sorry I stayed away for so long.

Love, Meredith     

We shan't ever fight again!

It's amazing what 3 weeks apart will do to a couple. 

All of a sudden you're in googly-eyed love again. That sweet little face has never done a thing to annoy you! (That you're dopamine, oxytocin, and serotonin chemically surged brain seems to remember.) Evan and I love each other very much, but sometimes love doesn't stop you from wanting to slap your spouse silly when they get on your last nerve. We are pretty extreme opposites, which can make it easy to find things to fight about. Understanding how the other person solves problems and communicates is another trip wire that's against us too. I usually irately yell and scream my opinion and then shut down when the other person (namely Evan) doesn't immediately agree with me -- I don't want to talk, be touched, or be in a room with another breathing human being. Evan on the other hand, wants to talk in a calm voice, in close proximity, and then hug it out. Yeah, try working that one out. The longer we're together the better we're getting at "fighting."

 Time apart does things certain things to you though. It blotches out the dark spots and makes the sweet, silver lining shine brighter. It makes you remember why you love that person for exactly who they are. In some berserk way it makes you miss the very things that drive you up a wall when they are normally around. But I guess that's what loving someone is all about; loving the good and bad. By the end of Evan's training trip he was a little exasperated. "I'm more than ready to see you. I realized these last three weeks that you are the only thing that keeps me sane and not an extremely angry person." he said in a text. When he came home he immediately gave me a big hug and exclaimed with charm "I love you so much I never want to fight with you again!" I was thinking more like "Awww that's sweet but let's not hold our breath because we both know that's completely crazy and will never happen." with a big hug and smile in return.

Little did I know Evan was 100% serious when he expressed his undying, no fighting love for me. I mean does anyone really enjoy fighting with anyone that they care about? We decided together, that when we became angry we have to immediately make-out, then if we're still mad we could fight. Well it turns out this method has worked pretty great for us. It probably sounds completely ridiculous or ew, mom-and-dad-making-out to some of you, but tough cookies people! Do you want us to stay in love or not?? If one of us starts to get the angry, you'll hear from the other one in a really curious tone, paired with a clever, witty smile: "So, are you saying you're mad?" hinting at the obvious. The next thing you know, we both end up trying to suppress a smiles from creeping over our faces, and then eventually bust out laughing, along with a little pecking. 

Taking a time-out to make-out forces you to laugh, which makes being angry seem not as important. Even if you still are mad you are able to sanely and politely talk about what's bothering you like grown ups. It makes fixing problems fun instead of daunting. I'm realizing when I'm being completely irrational and unreasonable about something meaningless...most of the time I'm not even mad at Evan but it somehow always gets directed towards something boringly stupid he did (or didn't do). I put myself in time out and don't let myself take my frustrations out on my innocent husband. I can honestly say we haven't fought once since he's been home from training! So, maybe some of you might need to take a time-out to make-out. I'm never mad when I have too!

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jig!

Tomorrow night Evan gets home!

I'm pumped, but exhausted. I spent most of the day today ripping devil plants out of the front of our yard. I'm trying my best to make sure everything is perfect. The house is clean, the fridge is stocked, and the front yard will hopefully be competed by the time he gets in! On the way home from getting my hair cut, I bought a dozen plants to plant to make our walkway to the front door more welcoming.Was anyone else aware of how expensive plants are?? I was not until today...things that have the potential of dying...especially in my care...cost and arm and a leg! (Specifically $65 arm and/or leg...I might have gotten ripped off. But how was I  to know? I'm not usually in the plant market...um ever.) Either way, they are quite lovely, and think the walkway already looks 100x better and they aren't even planted yet!

 The house is all clean and cozy; ready for Evan! Scout is ready to have his buddy back too!

 It's finally all cleared!
Side note: I filled the bin way too full, and now it's entirely too heavy for me to move anywhere by myself.
High five to me.

My new flowers waiting to be planted. I love the colors of the purplish-green ones! The leafy smaller plants will eventually have all different colored flowers on them! (We can only hope they make it that long)

 I finally caved after hearing, no less than 5 book reports, on the Hunger Games from the 9th graders at school. I read the first book Sunday morning, and I'm currently on the 2nd book. They are good...there will be a book review soon! I've been sworn to wait to see the movie with Evan...

 I was in desperate need of a haircut, and today it finally happened. I was seriously considering getting is all chopped off -- like pixie cut chopped off. But, I really miss my long hair so I'm growing it back out, expect I'm keeping my bangs. Have I ever told you how much I love bangs? Now you know.

 New headband from Mildred & Mable's in downtown Clarksville. It's my new favorite store!

I cannot figure out for the life of me why this picture is so blurry, but whatever. If you can't tell it's sushi. The wimpy Americanized kind, but it's sushi none the less! I've never tried sushi for several reasons:

1. Kittanning Pennsylvania isn't the hot spot sushi type of town...think more all you can eat buffet style.
2. It's intimidating! Sushi has always seemed like a trendy food, that only trendy people eat.
3. Does white rice, seaweed, cucumbers, avocado, and raw fish sound appealing to eat to you??

Although none of those things sound appealing, together...oh my...together its a completely different story! I don't know why I've never tried sushi before! It was so good! I doubt I'll be able to drag Evan along, but my friend Lisa, who took me, will have a lot of fun girl nights together eating sushi while the guys are gone!

I can tell I've already gone into partial independent woman mode (which I tend to do) when Evan is gone. I hate that it happens, but in a way, it's a coping strategy for me. You have to have this mindset that you can do anything and everything that you do together, by yourself. You trick yourself into thinking it's easy, enjoyable, and empowering. It can be, but when it comes down to it, I'm part of a team. Whether I like it or not, the team part of my brain shuts off for 9-12 months. It makes things easier to adjust to when hes gone. As silly as it sounds, it's hard to shut it off and let yourself need someone else again when he gets home. When you're married each person needs that feeling of being needed. Evan needs to know that I need him to mow the lawn, change the oil, and open jars. Being the man. Even though I'm capable to doing these things, it's part of how our mouse trap maze marriage works. In the end, no matter how much you think you don't need someone, we all really do. 

Book Review

Revolution 

via

Revolution is a young adult historical fiction novel. The main character, Andi, is a struggling teenager. When her younger brother Truman is killed, it tears her entire family apart. A cloud of darkness hovers over her life, and Andi blames herself for her brother's death. Her father, a successful Noble Prize wining geneticist, stays away working, while her mother goes insane by spending day after day painting her dead brother. Andi is left with just her shattered emotions, and her music. Music is Andi's escape from the pain she can't bear to deal with. Andi struggled in school, not because she wasn't smart - she was brilliant - but because of the constant pressure to do well, she rebelled and blew everything off. She hung out with the wrong crowd and didn't care about anything except music. She can be very angry, hurtful, and venomous at times. She is on anti-depressants which she misuses to smother the pain by taking too many, or mixing them with alcohol. When her dad returns from a long absence he decides to take matters into his own hands to fix is withering family. He puts his wife in a Brooklyn mental hospital, and tells Andi she is coming with him to Paris (how horrible!) until she finishes her thesis to graduate. While researching and exploring Paris, she meets Virgil, a boy who loves Andi for who she is, even when she tries to push him away. When Andi finds an old diary belonging to Alex, a girl her very age, only living during the French Revolution in 1795, her life takes an unexpected turn. Alex and Andi have a lot in common. They are both very artistic. Andi with music, and Alex with theatrics. They both are motherly figures. Andi to Truman (her brother) and Alex to Louis (the Dauphin of France). Both of these boys die at the same age. Despite the time differences they are both feisty, smart, and strong-willed. Andi ends up warping back in time to June 1795, in the same shoes as Alex. Andi learns the importance of love, liberty, and the revolution within a person.

At the start of the book Andi is a pretty dark character that I had a hard time relating too. Donnelly does a great job contemplating and complying how a rebellious teenager would react and feel to situations, but I don't know if the majority of people can relate of how she deals with pain. (Then again, this is a young adult novel) For example: She would become so engulfed in playing her guitar that she would play through the pain of her fingers bleeding.

Gross. 
Maybe it's because if I get a paper cut I'm whining about it for the next 3 days, let alone willful, self-inflicting pain. A little too emo for my taste.

 The tempo of Andi's thoughts are disorganized, but somehow meshes for her character. Donnelly uses a lot of musical references for Andi's thoughts and emotions, further deepening Andi's connection with music. However, I found a lot of the songs and lyrics in the book were unfamiliar. I feel like I needed Youtube up to research the songs to understand the backdrop of inspiration as I read. Much of the musical references felt forced and awkward. There are "rapping" lyrics also inserted, which I skipped over and didn't bother reading. All of the songs felt like they were more in the way, than adding to the story.

The story-line didn't quite flow. The feel of this book starts out very dark, emotional, rustic, yet mysterious. Which I really enjoyed! Then, out of what seems like nowhere it turns into a time traveling, teenage romance. The two halves of the book don't quite go together. Donnelly didn't transition the "time-traveling" scene well, it happens out of nowhere! It made the whole story turn for the worst in my opinion. I think it would have flowed better if the "ghosts" Andi had been seeing became real in present day France, rather than her traveling back to the past.

Donnelly did do a great job researching the historical background for the novel, which as a history buff myself, I really appreciate that she took so much time doing so. I learned a lot of interesting knowledge that I had no idea occurred before now! (I'm currently reading The Days of the French Revolution because of it!) I think she made the French Revolution have life, rather than reading from a distant account. It is a great way to have young adults learn about history without wanting to stab themselves in the eye over and over again.

I also enjoyed how Donnelly slowly peeled away facts about Andi's past. At the start of the book we know Andi blames herself for her brother's death, but it's not until later that we learned she was supposed to be walking with him to school when he died. It made you intrigued to keep reading, but didn't hold out too long to be exasperating. Overall, this book is well-written, mysterious, and interesting. But, between the flawed storyline and the music references it just made it a little choppy. I would recommend it, but I wouldn't put it on my library shelf to read again. 

A Rockin' Good Way (To Mess Around and Fall in Love)

Pleasure for your ears :)

 //Spring//

 //Protecting the fort//

 //First time making veggie couscous//

 //It was ok, I kinda wanted a burger afterwards...//

 //New dress!//

The little things that I love about Mr. Slee:

He always wears a watch

He drinks too much coffee
He never swears: ever

He is literately prepared at all times for any situation possible

He can make the perfect cup of tea, just like I like it

He acts so serious and guarded

But

He is knee slapping sarcastic/funny and one of the easiest people to talk too

He pays the bills and balances the checkbook

We sing Taylor Swift songs together. In the car. With passion.

He loves manly things: guns, hunting, camo, push-ups, etc.

He has no interest in football or video games

He doesn't care about what others think about him

He graduated Summa-Cum-Laude 

How he has a habit of twisting the rabbit ears of his shoe laces when hes done tying them. It's cute ok?

He hates spending money

He keeps both of our cars spotless

He loves pretzels, peanuts, pop-tarts, and popcorn

He always writes me letters over e-mails when we're apart

He has, and will always have, short hair

He will buy anything from anyone door to door, he just can't say no

He knows a lot about tea...which is funny because he doesn't really drink it

He is one of the hardest working people I know

He has a whole library on leadership and theology books

He hates large crowds of people

He wears his glasses smashed between his eyes

He puts extra pepper on everything

He doesn't have wisdom teeth...seriously, how lucky is he?

He loves his job

He can cook better than I can

He likes the AC vent in the car blowing on #3...never #4

He has to know the kitchen is clean before bed or he can't sleep

He is better at picking out jewelry

He never avoids conflict 

He believes the first day of Buck Season should be a national holiday

He doesn't like to swim or ski

He knows everything about anything

He buys me food instead of flowers

He is always bouncing one of his legs while hes sitting

He is annoyingly smart, and aces any test without having to study

He has been to Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Mexico, Germany, Ireland,       Afghanistan, and would hop on a plane anywhere in a minute without thinking   

So I might be missing him a little bit, I'll admit it. 

Kirby Man Hell

I am currently awake at 11:23 p.m. because of the damn Kirby man.

Who might the Kirby man be you ask?

A Death Eater. 

(All my negative references keep going back to dark Harry Potter characters for some reason)

Seriously I'm so upset right now. I feel frustrated, and walked all over. As soon as I walked in the door I dropped my bags, said "hi" to Scout, and set my Zaxby's dinner on the table. I've been craving Zaxby's like no other, so saying I was pumped was an understatement. Then someone knocked at the door. I opened it and there was a girl standing there. Scout meanwhile bolted out the door, so I politely told her to wait one minute while I made sure he didn't run away. As I turned around to go back in the house, this girl had already made her way into the foyer of my house! A little put off, I asked her what I could do for her. She then offered to clean my carpets for free, no strings attached. I tried not to be rude, but told her I was just about to sit down to eat dinner, maybe next time. She told me it would only take 20 minutes, and seemed pretty persistent and wouldn't leave. "OK, Fine" I said. What could it hurt?

WORST CHOICE OF MY ENTIRE LIFE. 

The next thing I know 2 guys are hauling big boxes into my house. 

The guy first asked me what kind of sweeper I had. I told him I just bought a new sweeper less than 6 months a go, so I wasn't interested in buying a new one. He still persisted in demonstrating the Kirby, which he referred too as the holy of hollies when it came to sweepers. They start vacuuming with these little "test pads" which their bags are made out of. They laid these test pads all over my house. (I know they want to show me how much my sweeper sucks, and how dirty my carpets "really" are) The coffee table, my sofa, the end tables, the fireplace, were all strewn with these stupid pads. When Scout walked on them they proceeded to yelled at him when he messed them up. HES A DOG FOR GOD SAKE. 

He showed me the prices. These sweepers cost $2,400. Or, you can do monthy payments of between $200-$350 a month for 12 months. THAT IS A MOTHER FREAKIN CAR PAYMENT PEOPLE! I told him I didn't feel comfortable with spending that kind of money (EVER) without talking to my husband first. They asked when he would be home. I panicked. I simply told them he was training (I didn't mention he was away and wouldn't be home). They said to call him. I told them he couldn't answer. They told me to take a picture of their stupid pads and send it to him. I told them his phone was shut off. They even said they would wait at my house until he called me! I was beginning to get really annoyed. These people were relentless! 

This guy swept my floor and my couches showing me all the little tools for 2 FREAKING HOURS. "Your husband has allergies, you need this sweeper. They guilt tripped me every which way: "That's not fair to let him suffer because you didn't buy a good enough sweeper in the first place." They made me feel stupid: "I can't believe you paid that much for that hunk of plastic!"  Then, he suggested I let him sweep my mattress. I told him that's where I draw the line; absolutely not. I told him I was not buying this sweeper, so he should call his boss that conveniently left him at my house to come get him and his little side-kick monkey too. He told me a sob story about how his laptop just died, and that he could win a trip to Vegas and a new laptop if I helped him out. He kept trying to get me to pick a payment option. I asked him if I bought the sweeper if I could go to Vegas all expenses paid too. He laughed, but I knew he didn't think it was funny. BECAUSE LETS BE HONEST: THIS SWEEPER COSTS AS MUCH AS A VACATION!

FINALLY his stupid boss arrived.

His boss was upset that I didn't get my carpets shampooed yet. The last thing I wanted was for these fools to stay in MY house one minute longer. He kept repeating over and over that it was part of the demo and it needed to be done. I probably told him - no lie - 6 times NO! (Note: this is where I let Scout back inside so he could jump all over them, sniff their crotches, and lick them. Bravo Scout! AND it's now almost 8:00 at night) Then he started: "If your husband was here right now what would he think?" I told them he would beat me for spending that kind of money on a stupid sweeper. When they finally realized that they weren't getting a sale they packed up their crap while they pouted. The boss was clearly upset that this kid didn't make the sale...I kinda felt bad for him because I knew he was probably going to get yelled at once he left. But you know what? It's ME that's sitting up late in bed upset, NOT THEM.

When I finally slammed the door shut and locked it, I remembered my Zaxby's. It was completely cold, and my toast and fries were completely soggy. SO MUCH FOR MY $8 MEAL. Now I'm out because of THEM. Ugh SERIOUSLY'?! I'm so mad at myself for not telling them to leave sooner. I should have walked back the hall, got the gun, and told them to leave. NOW. If another Kirby person from hell shows up at my door I'll loose it. I don't understand how these people think they have a right to be so demanding and pushy while they are in other people's homes. It really blows my mind. Watch out Kirby man, WATCH OUT! 

New URL

Just letting you know!

http://itsmadeofthis.blogspot.com/

Unconventional Valentines

I think Valentines Day might be one of my favorite holidays, next to Halloween. Even if you don't have a hott date, it's basically a day to love other people. Getting a Valentine's Day note at school or in your mailbox is like hitting the jackpot. It just makes your day 1,000x better.

You know the usual boxes of heart shaped chocolates, dozen red roses, or an adorable bug-eyed stuffed animal, all complete with a sappy love card. Don't get me wrong, I think all that stuff is great, but for some reason when it comes to Valentine's Day Evan and I never actually do the usual things one is supposed to do to celebrate it. We didn't decide to do unromantic things, it just kind of happened every year, so we just dumbed it tradition! It's not out of spite, I guess it's simply because we don't go with the crowd, or like crowds in general. If we are together on Valentine's Day we usually do the complete opposite of what couples normally do. When Evan wasn't away at Asbury, an Army school, or deployed here are some of the things we did.

Valentines Day 2005: Zombie Movie...Instead of seeing the classic Valentine's Day chick flick. We were the only ones in the theatre on Valentine's Day, now that's romantic!

Valentine's Day 2008: I have no idea what we did on this Valentine's Day. Ergo I assume it wasn't anything Valentine's Day esc.

Valentine's Day 2009: If I can recall correctly I believe we ate at McDonald's, then drove around the back roads of Kentucky. (We were poor college students)

This year we had the ultimate romantic night: we went shooting guns.

 All joking aside, I actually have a really good time when we go together.

 Evan's target on the left, and mine on the right...you can be the judge on who won! I might get super competitive.

So in love.

After shooting we stopped at Dunkin Donuts.

Donuts and coffee...the boy knows the way to my heart!

Evan is always so patient with me, even when I'm being anything but pleasant to be around.

In the morning he has already been dressed, takes care of the dog, eaten breakfast, driven to work, and started PT (working out like a man) before I even hear my alarm.

He works a 12 hour day like it's no big deal, and then comes home to help me with whatever I need.

Cooking

Cleaning

Playing with Scout

Balancing our checkbook

Making sure the bills get paid

Keeping up with the cars

Mowing grass

Helping me organize anything in my disorganized life

Aka all the things that I don't have a clue about...sadly cooking is included.

Nothing is too much for him.

Gosh I love him.

Marriage had made me more aware that I'm an innately selfish being. I have a lot of shortfalls. With friends its easy to only care about yourself and get away with it, but when you get married its a whole new ball game. If you're rude, stingy, or unwilling to compromise you have to sit and stare in awkward silence at the person you were a complete jerk too...because you live with them. They aren't going anywhere. You can't be Regina George and banish them from the club. 

What if marriages were created to reflected how God loves us? God loves us despite our weakness, screw ups, and complete, utter failures. This is how Evan loves me, he is so naturally selfless. I've probably told Evan 200 times (not joking) "I promise I'll try to keep my clothes picked up." Not once has he said "LAIR! That's what you told me the last time and you didn't do it! I'm sick of you!" When I fail he always comes to me with forgiveness, understanding, and blunt honesty all coated mercy. I could tell him to suck it up, that's how I am! But, I'm currently policing my room of mess in return because I know it bothers him. Don't get me wrong he has his moments too, but that's what I signed up for: Loving the good and bad.

Basically my mind has been blown so many times this week trying to wrap my brain around the absurd amount of patience, mercy, and grace that I'm given on a daily basis. 

Last night Evan finally got his iPhone.

-Angels singing-

As we were sitting on the couch, he was trying to figure everything out.

Out of nowhere he blurted out in frustration:

"Like if I'm researching Taylor Swift's music video "Ours," only stupid stuff comes up!"

Seriously, he is so funny.

My only response was: "Do you realize how ridiculous that would sound to anyone else who knew you? The first thing you're looking up on your iPhone is Taylor Swift music videos?"

And he tries to be so matcho.

Believe me, I'm not complaining...we're both huge Taylor Swift fans.

He was genuinely a little upset when I went to her concert in October with Krysti without him.

I think after he realized he would be the only male there without a 7 year old daughter screaming her brains out, he didn't feel so sad about missing it.

Dear Taylor,

We love you. Is that creepy?

If you need adopted or something we would be up for the job.

Maybe something less committed: how about dinner?

We're only 40 minutes from Nashville.

I mean you named your cat Meredith after me right? We're already like family.

The ball is your court Taylor.

Love,

The Slee's