one more can't hurt

I figured I could post at least once more before heading out on vacation. I'm currently sitting on the couch being lazy and the hubs is rubbing my feet (oh he is the best!!!)

For the last few weeks I have been searching high and low for a dress for my brother-in-law's wedding in October. It is a fall theme and I finally found the perfect dress!!

It didn't break the bank and I actually found it online at Target. 

Next was the search for shoes, to me that is always the hardest part. On a day trip to Tucson I found these beauties at DSW for ridiculously cheap:

Once I get the dress, I will see which shoes look the best. 

What do you all think???

See ya later!

This will be my last post of the week. I have a ton of stuff to do around the house before we head off to here for the weekend:

I am beyond excited!!! Can't wait to post pictures and recap our adventures. 

I hope you all enjoy the rest of your week and have a great holiday weekend.

1st Day of School

5 years ago a sweet little girl was born that would become probably the most special person to me. Today, our niece Kylie started kindergarten. Oh gosh where has the time gone, I shed some tears this morning thinking about what a big girl she is now. My sister, Lisa, said she was so excited to get to school that she almost forgot to kiss them goodbye. Here are a few pictures from her first day:

Ready and Waiting!! Isn't she adorable?!

Anxious to get in. 

She may be in kindergarten but I will always see her as "my" baby!

Me and Kylie on her 1st birthday in 2007

Gettin' Creative

I am normally not the most creative person on this planet. It's probably because I am pretty lazy and have a hard time sitting still for long periods of time (at least I'm honest, right?! lol). Today I was thinking that I have nowhere to keep my recipes (yes, I do have a food blog but I want something I can grab if I don't want to get my computer; again there is the lazy part haha). 

I didn't want to pay a ton of money to make a recipe book online, and even then I couldn't add or delete recipes as I need. 

I headed off to the PX this morning in search of the perfect materials. I came across this photo album for $4.99:

Cute, right?!

 I found some 4x6 multi-design scrapbooking paper and it finally clicked what I wanted to do. I typed up my recipes (90% of which are floating around in my brain or written on random pieces of paper) and glued them to the scrapbooking paper. 

Here is the final product:

I am very happy with it!!! I love that I can add/delete recipes anytime I want. I already have 38 of my recipes done and in the book, quite a few more to go. 

What do you think?!

I hope you all have had a great day, time for me to get back to re-watching seasons 1-4 of Sons of Anarchy to prepare for the 5th season! 

Liebster Award

Morgan at Stars, Stripes, and a Military Life nominated me for the Liebster Award! I always think blog award are fun and helps us get to know each other a little bit better. Thank you, Morgan!!! Please go check out her blog, she is a wonderful lady and has a great blog!

Here are the rules of this award:

1. Each person must list 11 things about themselves.

2. Answer the 11 questions that the tagger has set for you plus you MUST create a set of 11 new questions for the 11 people you tag.

3. Choose 11 bloggers

5. Absolutely no tag backs.

6. The bloggers have to have less than 200 followers.

7. Go inform them that you nominated them for the award.

Here are 11 things that you may not have known about me:

1. I am the youngest of 5 children (but only speak to 1 brother and 1 sister).

2. I have 6 tattoos, all of them have special meaning to me. 

3. My husband and I met in the 6th grade, so we have known each other 16 years.

4. I am an Aunt of 9....5 boys and 4 girls.

5. Until I was 22 I had never lived anywhere other than Las Vegas

6. I went to the Dominican Republic when I was 19 on a mission trip with my church

7. I am a HUGE fan of Disneyland. I actually cried a little when I went with my husband haha.

8. I would rather spend a weekend out at the race track with my Dad and get dirty than spend a full day getting pampered and shopping.

9. I LOVE to cook and bake but I don't eat anything I bake.

10. My favorite show is Sons of Anarchy

11. I do not care for pinterest. I thought it was cool at first but then it got boring.

Here are the questions from Morgan:

My questions:

1. What is your favorite food?

I love beef stew! I could live off it.

2. If you could spend the rest of your life in one city, where would it be?

Oh gosh that is a tough one....I love Wilmington, NC.

3. What's your favorite Starbucks bev?

Shaken Black Iced Tea Unsweetened

4. Do you use Instagram, if so what's your username?

I use it sometimes: ArmyWife1985

5. If you had to choose one type of cuisine to eat for the rest of your life, what type of cuisine would it be?

Mexican food!

6. What's your favorite quote?

This one is from my Mom "Why don't you just worry about yourself" haha it was something she always said to us.

7. What's your favorite past time?

Being at the Drag Races

8. What's your favorite movie?

Gone With the Wind and Tombstone

9. What's your favorite flavor jelly bean?

Watermelon

10. What's your favorite candy?

Lemonheads....obsessed with them!

11. What's your most prized possession? 

I have a willow tree statue of a mother and daughter that my Mom gave me a few days before she died. 

Here are my 11 questions:

1. Where did you and your significant other meet?

2. If you could visit any place where would it be?

3. What is your favorite dessert?

4. Do you have a favorite sports team?

5. What do you like more, beaches or lakes?

6. How many siblings do you have?

7. How do you spend your days?

8. Do you have any pets?

9. What do you do for fun?

10. If you could meet anyone who would it be?

11. What do you enjoy most about blogging?

Here are the 11 wonderful bloggers that I have chosen:

1. Whit @Black Little Button

2. Katie @ Married to Red, White & Blue

3. Bethany @ Canines & Cadences

4. Sarah @ Dandelions and Daffodils

5. Brianna Renee @ Adventures Of A New MilWife

6. Lisa @ must be doin' somethin' right

7. Stephanie @ Army Wife on a Mission!!
8. Marie @The Las Vegas' Schank's

9. Heather @Fox Family
10. Michelle @ A'etonu Family Adventures
11. Mack @ Mick and Mack Army Adventures


Thank you again to Morgan for this awesome award!

National Dog Day

For those of you who don't know today is:

We are so thankful to have our sweet baby girl, Emma. When my Mom found our her dog CC was going to have puppies (thanks to their male dog, Scoop), I told my Mom that I wanted the first born girl. I got the call at 4:30am on January 4, 2004 that my puppy was here! 

She has been my constant companion for the past 8 1/2 years. I could not imagine my life without her.

I hope we have many many more happy years with her (her Dad lived to be 18 so I'm hopeful). 

Since we have decided to buy a house wherever we go next, we have also decided to add another sweet puppy to our family. We know we want another female dachshund and are hopeful that we can find one at a shelter. 

I mean how can you not love these sweet faces! I am excited to get another dog, it will be great!!!

If you have a dog I hope you give them some extra treats today for being so special. 

Hope you all have had a great weekend.

We wait

Now that Kyle and I have decided to buy a house we are even more anxious to find out where we are going next. I want to look at houses and find the perfect one for us. I have my list of must haves already haha.


He found out this week that we should have that answer sometime next month!! Branch will be coming down at the beginning of the month to do interviews and then they will start placing everyone. I am the most impatient person on this planet so the wait is driving me nuts!

I love it here in Arizona but it will be nice to have stability for the next 3 years. I don't like being in limbo, I don't feel completely settled here. Thankfully, we have kept busy the last few weekends with exploring the area but this weekend will be a nice relaxing time at home. 

I want to be as lazy this weekend as our sweet pup Emma haha! 

A few weeks ago I told everyone about my food blog that I would be starting, well it's in full swing and getting great feedback. If you are interested check it out. You will get step of step directions of delicious recipes along with pictures.

Army Wife in the Kitchen

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

To buy or not to buy!?!

Ever since Kyle and I got married we have toyed with the idea of buying a house. We knew our timeline at Bragg was uncertain so we decided against it and moved on post. We had an amazing house and we were happy. Once we knew we were going to Arizona for 6 months we of course decided to live on post again.

Yesterday we started talking about our next duty station and if we wanted to live on post again. Well, I think we finally came to a conclusion:

We are going to buy our first home!!!!! 

I can honestly tell you that I have never been so excited!! 

Adventures in Bisbee

Kyle and I drove up to Bisbee yesterday to explore and see what this crazy little town was all about. We had the most amazing time!! The town basically sits on a mountainside and has a tiny population of about 1,500 people. 

We started off the day by having lunch here:

If you are a fan of Ghost Adventures you will recognize this hotel: The Copper Queen Hotel. It is the longest running hotel in Arizona and is also one of the most haunted. 

Lunch was amazing and it was such a cool feeling being in that hotel.

Next we headed off to the Copper Queen Mine Tour. We thought it was just a walk through type thing like in Tombstone. Not even close, we were outfitted with jackets, hard hats and lights:

We were taken 1500 feet underground on this trolley car type thing. It was a nice 47 degrees inside the mine. 

It was an awesome experience!!!!

We had some time to kill before our Ghost Tour, so we spent time walking around and taking in the sights:

Main Street

This house below is the Oliver House. 27 people have died here and is considered to be the most haunted place in Arizona. It is now a Bed and Breakfast.

This statues was erected after 9/11. The Angel on the left is looking down as if she is protecting those who survived. The Angel on the right is looking up as if she is honoring those who passed on that day.

Statue honoring all of the miners of Bisbee

We had a yummy dinner at a mexican place called Santiago's! It was amazing! Some of the best mexican food I have ever had. At about 6:30 we headed over to the mining museum and waited for our Ghost Tour to start. We were even more excited when we realized that our tour guide, Renee, was actually on the Ghost Adventures episode from Bisbee:

This picture was taken at a playground, it was once the town cemetery. Creepy!!! 

She of course took us around to all the most haunted areas and even told us about an actual Ghost Hunt they do at the Copper Queen Hotel. I think we may be doing that sometime in the near future.

Overall we had a great time! Bisbee is a fun, hippy town where all the locals are super nice and welcoming. 

I hope you all have had a great weekend!!

time for new

For the last couple of days I have been wanted to change up our bathrooms in the house. Since we are in post housing, I can't do any real renovations. I just wanted to add some things to make them not so sad haha. Today I decided it was time to have a little fun. 

I started with the spare bathroom. Here is what it looked like before:

Very plain (this was taken when we first moved in).

Then I added our shower curtain:

Still very plain but looking somewhat better. 

I went to walmart today and found a picture I loved but it had a horrible gold frame. I spray painted it black and love it!! I also had some small black shelves that I wanted to use in there, I found some small glass vases and filled them with glass beads and candles:

I love it now!!! Even with these small touches it makes it so much better.

I then moved on to our bathroom. We had this old horrible bath set that was red and black. I was over it and wanted something new.

This is the worlds tiniest bathroom lol

See this bath set is horrendous! 

I purchased a new shower curtains, some awesome black foam bath mats, and hung a couple pictures that I already had. 

Better? I think so. 

I am so happy with how everything turned out. Even though we are only in this house until January I want to make it our home. 

I can't wait to start some more fun projects.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!!

Oh Arizona!

Growing up in Vegas I thought I had seen every eccentric outfit, person, home and vehicle. I was proved wrong today! As I was driving home from the mall I saw this beauty:

Haha really!?

This vehicle advertises a small hippy town about 25 minutes away called Bisbee. Seeing this got my attention and we are going there this weekend!!

Great job crazy van, you will have one more tourist checking out your town.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

check it out!!!!

Today is the day!!! I am officially launching my food blog. I am so excited to share some of my favorite recipes, some are completely original and some are ones that I have tried over the years that have become favorites in my house. 

I would love it if you all went over and checked it out.

Army Wife in the Kitchen

I hope you all have a wonderful week! 

another weekend gone

I am sitting here on Sunday morning, in my pajamas and eating yummy donuts from a local place in Sierra Vista. It's a great way to end the weekend after all the fun we have had. 

Friday we went to dinner and a movie with a few friends of Kyle's class. Thankfully quite a few people that Kyle worked with at Bragg are here for schooling as well. We went to an amazing Greek restaurant for dinner:

If you have one of these places near you, GO! The Flaming Saganaki (flaming cheese basically) is to die for and I can't wait to go back.

We headed off to the movies to see this:

OMG! This movie was absolutely hysterical, I don't think there was ever a silent moment in the theatre. It is definitely not for everyone as there is some humor that can be taken as somewhat offensive. I would go see it again.

Yesterday Kyle and I decided to have a fun day up in Tucson, we found this miniature golf place that looked fun and it was!!

So pretty!!

After we finished our game we did a little shopping at the Super Target and Bed Bath and Beyond, there were a few baking utensils I wanted and since we don't have a Bed Bath and Beyond in Sierra Vista it worked out. We finished up shopping and headed to dinner here:

Yummy!!!!! 

We had a wonderful dinner and afterwards walked around the mall and did a little window shopping before we headed home. 

It was a great day and now today we plan on relaxing, Kyle has a paper to write and I have a cake to make while watching the closing ceremonies of the Olympics!

I hope everyone has had a great weekend!

Harvey's Seatbelt Bags

Most people that know me really well know that I LOVE purses. For the longest time I was a huge fan of Coach purses, until I realized that I was wasting money on purses that realistically won't last forever. My sister introduced me to Harvey's Seatbelt Bags a few years ago, yes you read that right, seatbelt bags! They are AMAZING! They are durable, super cute and last forever! You can even wash them in the washing machine. They don't just have purses, they have mens wallet, makeup cases, duffle bags, toiletry bags and women's wallets. They will even do special releases of limited editions bags, they have teamed up with Disney for a few releases as well. If you purchase a bag from them it's always free shipping. 

Here are pictures of my collection:

Mickey Loves Minnie 

Nightmare Before Christmas

Mint Chip Limited Edition

Stars and Stripes purse and clutch wallet

Ice Leopard Clutch Wallet

Storm

Silver Mini Messenger

Kyle's Men's Wallet

Kyle's Camo Dopp Kit

Army Green and Champagne

I can't wait to keep adding to my collection, I just love these bags!!

If you are interested here is the website:

Harvey's Seatbelt Bags

or you can check out this website as well:

Material Girl Handbags