It is Ruger's Birthday!!!

Today our little furball is FOUR!!!!

When we got him in August 2008, he was 8 weeks old and weighed 4 lbs

    

Yes - I too wonder how his giant tongue fits in his head!!! =) 

 

Now our little man is pushing 65 lbs! 

He is healthy and strong and happy and most of all

he is absolutely adored by us and our families

I'm definitely spoiling him - already bought him a new bone, some tennis balls, and I broke down and got him a squeaky toy! The Husband is going to LOVE that haha! OH WELL!! It will make our pup happy =) I also have aspirations of making some homemade puppy treats...the weekend is SUPER full though so we will see how it all plays out!

Party it up Buddy!!

Happy Friday y'all!!!

If We Lived in the 1800's, We Would Have Amazing Furniture

I am fortunate enough to be married to a very VERY handy guy. 

Some guys are handy; some are not.

It didn't really matter to me one way or the other but I will tell you that I definitely reap so many benefits of him being SUPER handy.  Like the flooring we installed in the new house - check out the 'Our Home' posts from December =) 

OOORRRR the Shoe Shelf he made me here. 

Seriously it is amazing. But the thing we had NOT attempted was going all out and 100% building a piece of furniture.  To be honest - I have these grand ideas for different pieces that I want in the house. Some are definitely attainable; others.....well they will probably be trial and error pieces! 

Before we moved into our new house, I found this AMAZING DIY blog...

this isn't any NORMAL DIY stuff - this is like build your own furniture and never pay for brand new/full price at a retail store kind of thing. It is intense.

Some of you may have heard of the Ana White Blog. 

So amazing - first of all.

It is a blog FULL of furniture plans. seriously awesome.

While perusing it last week, I decided I wanted a nightstand. 

There HAD to be instructions on it that we could handle. 

THERE WAS!!! I was so excited! 

SO naturally - I email the link to The Husband

"Can we do this pretty please?!" 

no response...

immediately text: "CHECK YOUR EMAIL PLEASE"

nothing...

Call: "Babe what are you doing?!"

TH: "Working. what's up"

ME: "did you get my text or email?"

TH: "you mean the ones that I got at the same time? yeah, got it"

OK so I'm REALLY REALLY impatient...like annoyingly impatient. 

So what - he knows that =) 

Anyhow he agreed! I was so so excited! 

We went out on Saturday morning and bought everything we would need...

or so I thought...

We got home and immediately started building.

That is when we discovered that I forgot to add the legs to my list of materials...yes...the legs. 

So we made all our cuts and put it together as best as we could before dinner on Saturday.  Sunday morning we made our trip to the hardware store and picked up the rest of the materials.

Here it is; pre-stain and pre fancy legs!!!

 

I was SO stinkin' excited about it!!!! 

Next to stain.we picked up a really dark brown that we figured would look black.

well...after two coats, it definitely looked black! 

We are so so thrilled with the outcome! 

We have already started planning the next piece of furniture we will build.

I want a buffet or sideboard style piece in the living room on our bare wall...

CAN'T WAIT!!!

Here's one more pic =) 

EEEP!!! SO awesome! I LOVE having a nightstand AND this one cost like $70 versus the $250 it would have cost to purchase the matching brand new night stand...this one is way more perfect for me =) love it!

Is your significant other handy?
have you tried your hand at furniture?

Cheese Steaks and Great Balls of Fire

This past Saturday, The Husband took me to some yummy places to eat. 

Places I have never been before. Adventures in food?! YES PLEASE!

They were delicious!

The Husband has been talking about this cheese-steak place that is about 5 miles from the house for really long time. He went with one of his friends when they were working together and he has raved about it since. Well I wanted Bojangles for breakfast/lunch but i know he always does what I want so I suggested going to the cheese-steak place. I'm not even lying when I tell you The Husband LIT. UP! 

So we finished running our errands for a project I will be sharing later - SUPER EXCITED ABOUT IT! - and on the way home stopped in this little joint. There is a sign as you walk up that reads: "no health food served here". I about died! That was hilarious! I took a picture of it but on The Husband's phone and he deleted it before I could get to it =( 

The sub sizes are 9" and 12" - well I know I "eat like a bird" so I ordered the 9"...yeah. that was the SMALLEST I could get!  The Husband got an original Philly and I got the jalapeno cheddar. YUM! We also ordered a basket of homemade potato chips to share. 

I was not super impressed with the chips but the sandwich was oh so tasty! I'm talking SUPER delicious! This little place didn't take atm/debit/credit/checks/plastic of ANY kind - they were strictly cash only. I thought that was super interesting but luckily The Husband had some cash =) 

I was SO full and felt a little guilty knowing that we were going out to dinner for a friend's birthday that night...but then I remembered how delicious my sandwich was and stopped feeling guilty =) 

For dinner, we went to Joe's Crab Shack. 

Because I was still so incredibly full from lunch, I convinced ol' Hubster to split a couple small appetizers with me. We split 18 steamed shrimp and an order of Great Balls of Fire. They were a combination of jalapeno, crab, and shrimp in a cheese, rolled in a ball and breaded in panko bread crumbs and deep fried! Holy awesome! Seriously so delicious.  I don't know that I will ever order anything else if we go back! 

pic of The Husband and I from dinner at Joe's

oh and of course a sweet pic of me and my seester - for real, how CA-UTE is she?!

 

Do you often try new dishes or restaurants?

An Anniversary and a Craft

.......

or should BLOG-iversary!!

That's right! Today this lil' blog of mine (I'm gonna let it shine!) is TWO!!!!

I can't believe it has been two years - that means I have been married that long...

which we all knew from a couple months ago - but still!!

So Happy Blog-iversary to me!!

As I started this baby out with a craft/re-do, so shall I celebrate today with one!

I have been bit by the 'decorating bug'

No I don't know if it is a real thing to anyone else - it is to me.

The problem - absolute NUMBER ONE thing - is that redecorating or decorating at all for that matter GENERALLY costs some dolla' bills.  I am so thankful that I was blessed with a craft/creative gene. I look all over the internet and in magazines for ideas and then I think of a way I can make something similar. Now, I would LOVE to show you my craft room like I did two years ago, but it isn't quite ready for the big reveal. Heck, even when I finally show ya the room - I'm sure it will still not be completed. Anyone who has a house, KNOWS that there is ALWAYS a work in progress =) 

My recent overhaul is our spare bathroom.

This is what it looked like the day we bought the house - Halloween 2011

This is what it looked like 2 weeks later =)

 

Seriously - we did pretty awesome! I absolutely love the spare bath.

But now it is looking a little plain-jane. It just needs a little SOMETHING.

Enter Dollar Tree! No seriously - the ONLY way I'm decorating is if it is NOT costing me an arm and a leg -and  ESPECIALLY because of my aforementioned gene!

First - I hung the shower curtain...well not first - I did that MONTHS ago.

I used the shower curtain from the old house...yes we only had ONE shower.

I seriously wish I would have posted pictures of that house, if for no other reason to share the layout!

Anyhow - I did these little projects for some added decor for about $4

Seriously - $4! you really can't beat that!

Here they are - all done my moi last night:

 

Wine bottle 

White flowers - left over from this project

small glass vase - used in our sand ceremony at our wedding

Valspar gold spray paint - already had for a different project that is still in the works...

greenery - Dollar Tree

Framed 8X10 mirror - Dollar Tree

glass 'beads' - left over from wedding centerpieces

jute/twine - hardware store: $2

I have some wall decor I made with the help of my Cricut E BUT I didn't get to hang them. 

I'll show you the full tour of the bathroom tomorrow...hopefully =) 

Thank you for all your support - whether you have recently discovered Life After the Aisle or you have been here since day 1! your love and support has been amazing and I look forward to continuing to share our life and projects =)  Love love LOVE U!!!

Beautiful Length Revisted

Holy Moly!! It is JUNE!!!!

How on Earth did that happen?!

I meant to post this about a week ago but honestly, time has just gotten away from me!

On May 23rd LAST YEAR, my friend Jess (HOLLA!) went with me to get my hair chopped off. You can read all about it here 

For those who weren't hanging around here then, this is what my hair length was BEFORE:

LITERALLY this picture was taken like 2 weeks before I went and chopped it.

This is the AFTER

I always think about keeping it shorter but then I look at pictures and realize I did so much more when my hair was longer. so pretty much since the day I cut it off, i started growing it back out again.  Although I really didn't like the short short hair, I really liked the cause for which I did it.  About 6 weeks after donating, I received a card in the mail from Beautiful Lengths thanking me for my donation. I felt good about it all over again. 

I probably won't ever do it again simply because I LOATHED how short my hair was; I would, however, recommend that every woman donate at least once in their lifetime. It was so rewarding and I knew that I could grow my hair back out - whereas some of the recipients could not. 

Now - a year later - my hair is past my shoulders and I have even had three hair cuts since my donation! I am lucky that my hair grows pretty quickly. Looking back, I am so happy that I donated my hair, even when I struggled with the short length, I always found that I felt better about it all when I thought about what I helped do for someone else. I ended up donating a total of about 13 inches and then the rest of the length I lost in styling my hair.  Beautiful Lengths doesn't require the full 12 inches for donation; I believe their minimum is 9. If you have ever considered donating but weren't sure, I definitely encourage you to do it. I felt really great about what I did. 

Oh and for reference - here is a picture of me and my sis from about two weeks ago:

Believe it or not, my hair is a little longer than this already!

Have you ever donated your hair?

Would you ever want to?

14 Days

That's how long it has been since I posted last and I bet you're wondering where I've been - yeah? I know! Me too! Well, here I am posting on my phone from my couch, trying to determine if Rango is cute/interesting or not. This debate has me with like 20 minutes left. I'm curious but it really is sort of a train wreck.... The past almost two weeks I have been so busy at work - I can't even think about anything BESIDES work. I'm exhausted when I get home at the end of the day and just can't bring myself to look at another computer screen.

This past weekend was such a relief. Saturday we hopped on our boat and took it to a private island. The girls sat under umbrellas while the boys hung out on the boat - fishing. We took the pup with us and he had such a blast! We wore him out letting him splash through the water and chase the birds.

Sunday morning we made our way out to the sandbar on the lake with The Husband's parents and met up with some friends. We had a nice solid couple hours before the storm set in. It was alright though - we got back to the house, watched a movie and prepped for going back out. Our original plans had been to stop by and see our friends, have a drink and then make our way to a comedy show - supposed to start at 9. Well around 830 we found out that the show wasn't ACTUALLY until 10... So we started playing drinking games... Drinking UNO to be exact! =) we were having so much fun that we forgot to leave to meet up with the brother and his gf and crew for the comedy show - oops! Larry/Anng if you're reading this we love you! =)

Needless to say, our weekend was full of libations lol which made Monday a VERY lazy Monday...no seriously we watched three movies after running a couple errands which included greasy breakfast food - my favorite hangover 'cure'!

It was so amazing to spend so much time with family and friends. I love the people in my life. I would have loved to spend more time with everyone but there is only one me and the weekends fly by - as I'm sure you know.

So here it is - Thursday already! The Husband took tomorrow off and I have a half day. We are planning a date - dinner and movie, SO EXCITED!!

I miss y'all and my happy little bloggy; here's hoping I find the energy to make more time to post! Happy almost Friday already!!

We Went to the Keys Last Friday Night

Happy Friday Eve!!! Ugh I am so happy it is almost the weekend!

My weeks are flying by at work but that doesn't mean the stress isn't there.

Last Friday, The Husband, my dad, Marc, Drew, and I all took the day off of work to go off-shore fishing. We generally charter a boat for 6 and use the same captain over and over.  He has always helped us catch quality fish and we ALWAYS have an awesome time.

So we made the 2 hour trek to his boat - this means we got up at 4:30 so we had time to load up, drive there, and load the boat by 7. yes we were up REALLY early but hey - that's all part of the game! We get there and it is looking like it is going to be ROUGH off-shore. I mean we are bouncing pretty good inside the inlet! sheesh! good thing I bought Wal-Dram II the night before...

SIDE NOTE: The Husband kept encouraging me to buy those Sea-bands. After checking them out and their $13 price tag, I decided to talk to the pharmacist. The thing was, these things seem like a mind over matter deal. I'm not buying this whole idea that the pressure of the bands will work - I might as well wear hair ties on my wrists! So I talk to the pharmacist and she recommends this Wal-Dram II (less drowsy). "It is what we recommend to the older people when they cruise because they are a fall hazard" yea - she said that...as in fall of the boat hazard! CRAZY! I confess I laughed a little bit when she told me this...it sounded absurd...

Back to the story - I took the wal-dram on the way so it had time to get in my system.  The men on the boat encouraged me to drink a beer on the way out of the inlet to help with the sloshing of the boat. OK I'm in - we all enjoyed an ice cold beer at 8 am. NICE!

About a mile off shore, we hit a pretty good sized wave. suddenly we are heading back IN shore. What's going on you ask?! The boat CRACKED. Seriously - CRACKED! Unbelievable! AND Frustrating because we were all SO excited! So we all have another beer.

Now this girl is a LIGHT WEIGHT when it comes to drinking so I was feeling PRET-TY good by the time we got back to the dock. We unloaded- all five of us pouting like a bunch of school children and begrudgingly headed back to the interstate. By the time we hit the highway, we had made the decision that we were going to still try to go fishing. we pulled over on the side of the road and started making calls. No one was going and all those who were HAD. BUMMER!!

Then The Husband has a bright idea 'let's go to The Keys! it's only a 4.5 hour drive from here and they are ALWAYS fishing there'.  Now I'm three beers in and from the backseat shout 'hooray! let's go! great idea!' Off we went...

4.5 hours, a stop for lunch, and two wrong turns later we arrived in The Keys! This girl was EXHAUSTED so while the boys got out and looked for a place to charter, I stayed in the truck and slept for 40 minutes. Best decision I made that day haha!

We got on the boat at 4 that afternoon and headed out on the water with a captain and first mate we hadn't gone with but kept getting positive recommendations for.  We told them we all wanted to catch Amber Jacks and some sort of snapper. Amber Jacks are incredibly strong and pretty big fish! and I caught the biggest =) 

     

OH and the cherry on top  (except not so much) we forgot the memory card for our camera SO all of our pictures are courtesy of camera phones. AWESOME! Regardless it was SO MUCH fun! The drive home at 10 at night wasn't so awesome but we made record time =) and arrived at our house at 2pm...you do the math ;)  I'm so glad I was able to make this super fun memory with my dad, The Husband, and two awesome friends =) 

Have you ever done anything crazy spontaneous?