Halfway to Middle-Age

Well, work has kept me from my blog, yet again!  And now sickness has been set upon me!  I'm heading to the minute clinic at 2:30 to get checked out.  So while I'm curled up on the couch, I thought I'd update.

My birthday is tomorrow.  I'll be 25- or as I've been fond of saying lately, halfway to middle-age!  I can feel the wrinkles forming as we speak. :)  Okay, not really, but I like to be dramatic.  This past weekend, David and I went to Charlotte for my family birthday celebration!  I was so excited because my entire family was going to be there.  I don't think we have all been together since my wedding in September!

Everyone minus Grandmom who was taking the picture!

Friday, we pulled in to town around 5 and hung out at home for about an hour.  My mom is a teacher and she had some school volleyball game she had to support so we tagged along for a little bit of that.  Then we went to dinner at my favorite mexican restaurant- Zapatas!  There are mexican restaurants in Greenville, but none that have been as good as Zapatas.  Kinda stinks for a girl who likes mexican so much!  While we were there, I turned around and guess who I saw?  My aunt and uncle!  They were out to dinner with some of their friends.  It was a nice surprise to get to see them before the birthday celebration. :)

On Saturday, we went to the matinee showing of Jersey Boys at the Blumenthal in downtown Charlotte.  I saw Jersey Boys for the first time 2 years ago and absolutely loved it.  I was so excited because the guy who played Frankie Valli the first time was playing him again this year!  Joseph Leo Bwarie played Frankie and he did not disappoint! And he's not so bad to look at either! ;)  He apparently just came out with a cd- Nothin' But Love- and I downloaded it when I got home. :)  It's really jazzy and I like it!  You should check it out if you get the chance.

We went straight from the play to my grandparents house for birthday festivities.  (Well, my mom went to pick Marley up, couldn't have my sweet boy missing out on al the fun!)

My sweet boy!

 We had steak, mashed potatoes, asparagus, salad, and home made ice cream- all my requests, haha!  It was absolutely delicious!  Marley thought so, too.  I think he got a bite of steak from everyone at the table!  UNC was playing Duke so we had the game on for Amy and during half time I openend my presents!


Amy and Tyler

My new nursing shoes! LOOOVVVEE.

Scott wrapped my present in purple and orange! ;)  He got me 2 Caribou coffees to try!  So far, I love them!

Do you remember this post?  I said I would love to have this print framed so I can hang it in a reading nook one day.  Well, my grandmother tracked this print all the way to Latvia and had it matted and framed for me!  Isn't it gorgeous?!  I'm so excited to get my office all set up now!  I also got an outfit from J. Crew (so cute!), a new purse, and a gift card to lululemon!  I racked up! :)

Mom and me

Me and the hubby.

Me and my favorite aunt! :)

Scott and Marley :)

We had cake and homemade ice cream and just spent time together.  Scott is very talented at the piano so he played some songs for us, David showed off some of his recent drawings (yep, my husband is talented, too!), and then we watched home movies from when we were little!  I don't think we have laughed so hard in such a long time!  It was so much fun to look back on what life was like when we were little.  It was such a wonderful evening and I was so sad to leave and come back home the next day!  I couldn't imagine celebrating my birthday with my family any other way. :)

The wonderful host and hostess- my grandparents! :)

Happy Birthday, Aunt Diane!

My Aunt Diane is a wonderful sister,

(My mom and Aunt Diane)

(Aunt Diane, me, and mom at the Southern Christmas show)

(Me, Aunt Diane, and mom at dinner before Jersey Boys)

She is an amazing daughter, 

(Aunt Diane, Granddad, and Amy)

(Granddad, Aunt Diane, mom, and Grandmom)

An absolutely incredible mother, 

(Amy and Aunt Diane)

(Aunt Diane and Scott)

(Amy and Aunt Diane at Amy's high school graduation.)

(Aunt Diane, Scott, Amy, and Uncle Mike at Scot's graduation from GA Tech.)

(Aunt Diane, Scott, Amy, and Uncle Mike at Scott's graduation from Duke.)

But to me, she's the best Aunt a girl could ever ask for, want, or need.

 (Putting my veil in my hair for my wedding.)

 (At Christmas)

She has been there for me from the beginning. Thick and thin. And loves me just the same.

(Uncle Mike, me, and Aunt Diane) 

  

 (At one of my bridal showers)

 

(Sledding down the golf course hills)

(Celebrating getting my braces off)

(Celebrating birthdays.)

(Me, Aunt Diane, Scott, and Uncle Mike at the fair.)

(My graduation from Clemson)

And, she brought two of my best friends into the world.

 (Amy and Scott)

Happy Birthday, Aunt Diane!  Thank you for always being there for me and supporting me in everything I do.  You are the best aunt and God knew I would need you to be mine.  I love you so much!

Circumstances

This post is more of a vent post for me.  I don't want to use names, but this is still my outlet and a way to express myself so I'm going to do that here.  It probably won't make much sense, but that's okay.

I am an only child and a child of divorce.  I am stubborn and I like things my way.  I am defensive and I'm smart at knowing what buttons to push to tick people off.  I'm completely honest, sometimes brutally so.  And I'm also the most loyal friend you will ever have, unless you screw me over and then I don't spend another minute wasting my time on you.

These are harsh realities that I've been working out over the last few years and trying to change about myself.  I am the way that I am because of the circumstances life has put me in.  (What can I say?  I was a psych major ;) ), but I also don't think these circumstances define who I am.  Which is why I'm working to change them.  It's humbling really.  And has brought my relationship with God to a whole new level.

But, certain circumstances that have occurred recently have tried my patience to the core.   I give everyone a chance, but I don't have time to waste on people who play games and are deceitful.  I'm not sure anyone really has time for people like that.  Unless you have no option.

There are a few people who have come into my life over the last few years who have lied to me multiple times, treated me with zero respect, and feel that they can take certain selfish liberties with my family that they most certainly cannot.  I have such a hard time dealing with these people!  Every bone in my body wants to give them a piece of my mind, turn away and stop wasting my time on them!  I know I'm not the best person in the world.  I'm not perfect.  But I don't deserve to be treated the way I'm being treated by them.  I'm pissed.  I'm angry.  And I'm ready to forget them and move on.  I've tried every way I know how to treat them with respect, to try to get to know them, and to let them know "you can trust me."  But ugh.  They are not receptive to it or don't want to see it or are just so self-absorbed that it doesn't matter.

I say everyday, "I'm washing my hands of this."  But I can't.  For more reasons than I can talk about here.  But one of them is my own stubbornness.  I will not give them the liberty to say, "well she didn't try hard enough."  I keep trying, thinking that one day my persistence will pay off.  Maybe it will, maybe it won't.  But it won't be because I didn't try.  So for now, I suppose I will continue to push through the best that I can.

One other thing, I'm not complaining.  I think this is more of a written promise for me- "yes these people make it difficult, but keep pushing yourself because you're changing and you're doing well."  Even through all of this, I've met some amazing people who I am blessed to know!  I'm encouraged to be a better person when I'm around them, I can trust them, and it almost makes  all of this other stuff bearable!  Thanks for listening if you made it this far :)    

Christmas and New Years

I know I'm back-tracking a little but these are memories I don't want to forget!  I posted about The Bell Family christmas and my grandparents christmas visit but I haven't posted about our first christmas or christmas in Charlotte!

I didn't have to work Christmas Eve until 11:00pm so I cooked a small Christmas meal of baked chicken, sweet potatoes, and green bean casserole.  We ate at the dining room table and had a nice family dinner--Jovie was on the table and Marley was in my lap. :)  After dinner, I called my family at my grandparents to say hello.  I barely got the word out before I started crying! ;)  I think some of my family members shed some tears, too, but it was definitely nice to get to talk to everyone!

  When I got home Christmas morning, David made breakfast (cinnamon rolls and bacon!) and we opened presents!

This little boy met me at the door :)

Of course we had this on our tv ;)  I leave it on all day on Christmas!

David had a helper in the kitchen... ;)

I know I'm going to love having children one day because I love seeing how excited Marley gets to "open" his stocking!! Ha, call me crazy :)

Jovie wouldn't stick her nose in her stocking, and at first she wasn't too sure about all her new stuff....

But she soon figured out all her new toys were very fun!

I missed being in Charlotte with my family for Christmas, but it was so much fun having our very first married christmas together!  I enjoyed watching him open his gifts and I hope he enjoyed watching me open mine.  It was a special morning for both of us.

  

I worked the next few nights and after I got off work Wednesday morning, I grabbed a Starbucks at work, came home to pack, and then we headed straight to Charlotte!  We still had a few more gifts from my mom, aunt and uncle, and cousins to open.  I was so tired when we got there that I had to take a short nap, so I'm looking pretty rough in these pictures!  Having a fire place is a staple to me during the winter (even though it hasn't been very cold this winter...) and we don't have a working one in Greenville yet, so I plopped myself down in front of the one in Charlotte and that's pretty much where I stayed the whole time!

We've already watched this once!  (On a side note: Scott got Forgetting Sarah Marshall which we had never seen...we watched it over New Year's and we loved it!! Have y'all ever seen it??)

New scrub tops!! :)

SO. EXCITED. for my new pottery barn blanket!! I don't even share with David, ha!

My handy man :)

My favorite book of all time is Pride and Prejudice...I love the Keira Knightly version of the movie but have never seen the BBC version and I got it for christmas!!  I can't wait to watch it!!

We had a short visit in Charlotte, but it was fun.  David, my mom, and I headed to the mall and David and I finished getting everything off our wedding registry!  We had a few gift cards and we really lucked out- we ended up with $1.73 left. :)

We headed back home for New Years.  We love having people over so we hosted some friends for a New Year's Eve bash.  My cousin Scott has become a regular at New Year's so he came, too.  It is so much fun having him visit :)  Jess, Jake, Scott, David and I went out to dinner for sushi in downtown Greenville and then came back to our house for a get-together.  Just for my own record, this is who was at the party: Jayma and Casey, Brian and Marybeth, Scott, Cyndi and Erik, Phil and Emily, Jess and Jake, Andrew and Katye, and of course us!  I can't believe I hosted the New Year's party and didn't take any pictures!  The only pictures I have from the night are these:

 

Sparkly nails and a sparkly purse to ring in the New Year!

 

Out to dinner with my best friend! 

  

The holidays were so wonderful to us this year- this whole year was wonderful to us!  I'm sad that the holidays are over and family have all gone home, but I'm excited for things to calm down a bit.  David and I have one more present coming our way this Saturday- our new bedroom suite is being delivered!  I am extremely excited about it and can't wait to decorate our bedroom accordingly, ha!  I hope everyone has had a wonderful week- mine is just getting started ;)

PS- Emily K.: I'd love some info on some churches!!  My e-mail is eer.bell@gmail.com 

Thank you! :)