It's starting to look a bit creepy around here...

I told myself months ago that I WOULD NOT make Halloween crafts BEFORE October 1st. Well... so much for that! In all honesty I could not help myself. I was in the dollar tree yesterday, looking for potential craft items for the new Girl Scout troop I got suckered into Co-Lead.  And well I sorta stumbled upon some awesome mason jars, and what can I say... Mason jars always have a soft spot in my crafty little heart. They are just so cute and you can turn them into just about anything! Annnnnd it just so happened that the glass candle holders were riiiiiiight next to them on the shelf....honestly, I think someone at dollar tree is setting me up LOL! So who could resit right? So I bought those, some candy corn and some cheap creepy crawlies for the inside and WAH-LA! Instant cute decorative candy jars for Halloween! :)

And if that all wasn't enough... I decided to make a new fall wreath for my front door. Don't worry... I still have my fabulous eyeball Halloween wreath from last year that I will hang up when it gets closer to Halloween. I just wanted to make one that I could keep up for after Halloween and all through the month of November. :)

What do you guys think?

Climbing the Biloxi Lighthouse

Saturday we ventured out in our city and joined the American Heart Association and the fight against heart disease and did a heart walk. We walked 114 steps up into the Biloxi Lighthouse for a breathtaking view! It was a nice climb and when we got to the top there was a very informative guide that gave us great information on the history of the light house. It was first built back in 1848 and after the lighthouse keeper died it was up to his widow and daughters to keep the light lit. The ladies would go and haul 2 buckets of whale oil to keep the lights lit and the harbor and ships safe 4 times a night! All I can think of are how huge these women's thighs must have been LOL! Talk about getting your cardio work out too! LOL! The lamp in the lighthouse shines bright for 10 miles and in 1929 was converted for electricity. It is made out of cast iron from Maryland and bricks from the Guflport area. It was brought to Biloxi in sections and put up in less than a years time. It has been destroyed and restored twice; once by Hurricane Camile in 1969 and once by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Hurricane Katrina destroyed the left side of the light house and washed away most of the bricks and steps. It sustained 21.9 m.l.s during Hurricane Katrina and took 2.5 million dollars and 4 years to fully restore!

We also toured the Biloxi museum in the visitors center and learned alot about our area and what make it so great. How Biloxi became a melting pot of people, French, Bulgarian, Vietnamese, Irish and German. Biloxi has deep rooted history in our country and is a great example of how the early settlers flourished here amongst the Native Americans. I can't wait till the family comes to visit again so we can take them around and show them. I know my mom (the history buff she is) would love it!

Here's a few shots of our day...

Waiting in line to climb the lighthouse

The lamp and light to the lighthouse.

The spectacular view from the top of the lighthouse.

Inside the museum.

A exhibit on the old Biloxi schooners; made my local fishermen and designed to fish these shallow waters.

A replica of lighthouse and what it looks like inside.

To give you an idea... Katrina's waters came up to the first window you see on the side of the lighthouse. 

The Biloxi visitor center made to look like a Southern Antebellum home. So beautiful.

We indulged in a little Biloxi tradition; a strawberry lemonade snowball. They were first invented here in the South so that people would have a sweet treat to enjoy in during the hot summer months before air conditioning was invented. :)

The kiddo enjoying the afternoon on the Southern Porch... and I sat in a rocker taking this picture with a glass of Southern sweet tea in my hand.

Guns and Tattoos

Hubby got Friday off so a normal boring day transformed into a great date day! I was so excited! We spent the morning at the rang doing what we both love best... shooting our hearts out! I realized that day it had been too long! I hadn't gone since before the hubby deployed and he hadn't gone since after he had come back, so it was a long time overdue for both of us. We then went to the gun store to check out what handgun we will be buying my father in law for Christmas this year, he's been getting more into guns and into shooting so we thought it might be something nice to get him this year. After checking out the gun store for a while, I asked if we could venture over to the tattoo shop next door, I wanted to just go in a check out the place, maybe talk to someone about my design and asking if they could redraw it and then maybe getting it done later. It turns out that they were just so nice in there and could easily re-draw up my design in no time that the next thing I knew I was getting prepped and making myself comfy in their chair. It was nice to be back in the chair and have the familiar buzz stretch out on my skin after my two year "dry period". I also can now say that I've been tattooed in every state I've live in! In my honest opinion; its one of the best tattoos I have and was done by a great person. All credit goes to Sean (son of the shop owners; Jack & Diane) at Jack & Diane Tattoo Shop in Gulfport Mississippi.

 Me and the AR 15... Love at first sight! 

 Back together again... like old friends. 

 My second love... the .45 

 Big bullets mean... Big guns lol! ;) 

 My newest # 7 in line of the tattoos I own. :)

Instagram it up!

I love instagram! Have you tried it? If not you should... that is if you love pictures like me :)
Here's some of my instagrams I've posted lately...

From left to right...

1. My new rainbow leopard print nexus 7 case my hubby bought me, YAY! Happy early Christmas to me!
2. His and her coffee's... mine the one that says Starbucks Peru, guess where I got this from?
3. The last sunflowers of summer... so sad to see them go.
4. A boot topper I started to crochet that turned into a neck cowl for the kiddo.
5. A very yummy Southern Caramel Cake I baked for the hubby's pot luck lunch at work.
6. Spicy Garlic Shrimp, a new recipe I made for dinner one night. That one won the hubby's seal of approval for "Yes! Make it again please!"
7. The calm before the storm (Hurricane Issac that is) just a sunrise before we had to evacuate.
8. I whipped up a batch of awesome strawberry cupcakes, I just loved how the frosting looked :)
9. Sharkheads is finally open on Biloxi Beach again. We took the brother in law while he was here and did the tourist thing by taking a pic in front of it.
10. My new winter boots, OMG! I can't wait for winter!
11. The new Gambit comic! Woohoo! I love Gambit! Oh Remy! Swoon!
12. Jess's Hurricane (Isaac) Gumbo! Oh it was a spicy one! We ate it about 2 hours before we evacuated lol!
13. Birthday Key Lime Pie for the hubby who doesn't like birthday cake. This is what he requested instead.
14. A mother's work is never done... sewing on Daisy Girl Scout petals on the kiddos new vest.
15. "I am lovely, I am secure, I determine who I am." Thank you skinny jeans... I need the vote of confidence for the day :)
16. Aji from KFC in Peru... the hubby brought me back a packet to try. It was interesting... the locals call it just "Heat" it tastes like nacho cheese if you ask me LOL!
17. Pardon me for Party Rocking! Just goofing around with these Party Rocker glasses at FYE.
18. This is what happens when you keep a spare pair of socks in the back of your car... you get an impromptu puppet show by your hilarious daughter.
19. A book titled " I like Mess" yeah.. because that's totally appropriate for her! LOL!
20. His ABU's... because one day I will actually miss washing these... just not today. :)
21. My Baja Chicken Fajitas and they rocked if I do say so myself!
22. Yummy Bulgogi we had while the bro in law was visiting.. no I didn't attempt to make this, we got this at a lovely Korean restaurant down the street.
23. It's fixin to rain... I love when the big clouds roll in, in the afternoon.
24. New sunglasses and boredom in the car, waiting for the hubster to get off work.
25. Godiva... he surprised me with it one day after work... yeah he's awesome like that :)

Book Review: Letters from Home By: Rhonda Nelson

Gorgeous Levi's tour of duty has an unexpected benefit: anonymous red hot love letters! Someone he knows is mailing the rugged solider her naughtiest fantasies. And he's loving every word. On leave home, he discovers his sexy secret admirer; Natalie, the long time star of his own X-rated dreams. But he's not letting Natalie know her cover's blown...yet. Not until he's fulfilled each and every one of her suggestions!

I'm really beginning to like Rhonda Nelson's style of romance writing! This is the second book I've read by her and I have enjoyed every minute of it! She really kept me intrigued with the budding yet long time running self preservation between Natalie and Levi. She also threw in bits from one of my favorite movies (Love, Actually). This book had a bit of everything, love, steamy romance and bit of comedy and wonder all mixed together! I can't wait to read more by Rhonda Nelson and I can't wait to read the somewhat sequel to this book "The Soldier" to find out what happens between Levi's younger brother Adam and Natalie's best friend Winnie!

I give it a two on my hotness scale, while the sexy parts were only sizzling the romantic part was actually more interesting to read. This story is one of those that could happen to just about anyone and that's why I found it so appealing.

My hotness scale...
1= Spark, 2= Sizzling, 3= Blazing, 4= inferno

A visit from the brother-in-law.

Now that hubby is home from deployment the Air Force decided it's time to deploy the other family member. Yup, that's right... my brother in law will soon be off to his deployment. The bright side to this was that they also sent him TDY for a few weeks here to us in Keesler/Biloxi MS. It was really great to see him, since we haven't seen him since he PCS'ed to Germany a few years ago. Hubby coming home and his brother coming here also prompted a visit from my in-laws that was also nice. It was great having everyone under one roof again, and getting out and doing things as a family. I just wish it could have been for more cheerful reasons other than getting ready for a deployment. Hopefully his deployment will go by just as fast. But while he was here we had a good time and tried to make the most of our time together. :)

We all went glow bowling and lazer tagging one night and here are some of the results from it...

Me and the brother I never had. :)

Of course after a few rounds of bowling here was our result LOL! 

Me and the hubby (can you see the family resemblance between him and his brother??)

The kiddo having a good time bowling and dancing to the music videos lol! 

Little Miss Kick Butt!

The kiddo decided she wanted to start doing something different for her "fall sport", and until soccer starts up in January/February. A few weeks ago she had come home from school with a paper that said they were holding registration for cheerleading, she showed me the paper and asked a few questions and then quickly decided that just wasn't for her... no offense to any of the little cheerleaders out there, but she IS a tom boy... and anything that has her jumping and throwing a pom-pom just isn't gonna cut for her lol! So she then asked, if there were any other sports going on that she could play until soccer season starts. I then told her I would look and find out if I could find something she would be interested in and was old enough for, and then I had an epiphany! I suddenly remembered my "gold" card of awesomeness tucked away in the back corners of my wallet, the card that allows us to do a crap ton of activities on base for free! Yes, I got one of those handy dandy "Play Passes" while hubby was deployed and since I spent most of the deployment in Florida (away from any base) I didn't get a chance much to use it... until now! So I went straight over to the youth center last Friday and signed her up straight away, and wahla! She started class on Monday! She LOOOOOOOVED every minute of it! And shes surprisingly awesome at it... what kid wouldn't want to jump, run, kick, punch and then yell on top of that LOL! Of course her dad and are are elated that she's doing another sport that we both played as well. So she is now taking Tae Kwon Do at Tiger Rock Academy by Master Calhoun on base!!! Here's just a few pics I took from her first class on Monday! She is just too awesome!!! Love my little kick-butt-towski!

Learning how to do a knee strike!

Practicing her palm heel strike! Hi-Ja!

They See Us Roll'in!

YAY!!! We bought a new car!!! YAY!!! We are now SUV owners... like minivan moms but cooler! YAY!!! We bought a new car with all the same features as our old car and lower mileage and still end up paying less in monthly payments!!! Oh and did I mention we get a lot more leg room than we had with the Prius! LOL! I also feel like I'm currently driving a Greyhound BUS or Semi Truck but hey... I'll get used to it right?! LOL!!! It's not even actually full SUV size, it's what the dealership likes to call a "crossover" and in normal terms that means its just a longer and taller car LOL! But I do love it! Oh yeah... what did we buy? A 2012 Nissan Rogue! Special edition and fully loaded. It's key less, has bluetooth/handsfree, BOSE stereo system with subwoffer... because you know... we gotta bass it out LOL! Power/heated seats and crap ton of other cool features that I haven't gotten acquainted with just yet. But I am excited!!! Can't you tell LOL!!! We really didn't plan on getting a new car, but since our Prius just rolled over 50,000 miles and was still costing us a fortune in car payment, looking for a cheaper car seemed logical, especially since hubby will be separating in less than a year. It also gives us a chance to have extra money for a secondary car as well. I'm just happy we actually got such a great deal on it and still come out on top with all its cool added features! Wanna see it? Oh yeah... you know you do LOL!

Sexxxxy Right?!?

From Peru with Love!!!

While hubby was deployed to Peru... yeah, don't ask what he did there... and before you can say "oh that sounds like a vacation" or "oh, that's an easy one"... let me tell you right off... it wasn't.
It was very remote and I honestly believe the guys in the sandbox have more support on their missions than my hubby did lol! Aside from playing commando in the amazon, he did bring me back some awesome trinkets that I wanted to share with you guys! I was just happy to have him home again, but I was elated that he thought of me and actually had time to shop. Although, I'm not sure if a bunch of mud huts and woven amazon leaves constitutes as a "mall" (lol) but these are still neat, and from a part of the world my heart has grown fond of.


Silver is pretty popular there, and mined a lot. Hubby had this made for me by one of the silversmiths, Te Amo means Love You in Spanish, just in case you didn't know. I love it and wear it all the time now.

A beautiful painting done by a local artist of the area he got to "visit" while not in his remote location. So beautiful! And one of my favorite art pieces in my collection. It now hangs in our bedroom after I bought a frame for it last week.

A beautiful pendent he brought back from a Moche temple/tomb he went to visit. The blue stones in layed in the crest are made from Chrysocolla and were the sacred stone of the Moche people, its also made of solid gold and was a crest to the tomb of El Señor de Sipán. It is also one of the most important archeological digs in the last 30 years, and well known since it was one of the few that were still intact when discovered! Going here was a something special he got to do while being in the country.

To say the least, I have learned that Peru is very interesting and the people of Peru are good hearted and sincere. Hubby tells me his time in Peru has made him greatful for all we have, humbled him in what we take for granted and made his heart that much bigger.

Pigeon River White Water Rafting!!!

Yup! We went white water rafting in Hamilton Tennessee down the Pigeon River!... and I've got a t-shirt that says so LOL! We had a great time! Then again, we always have such a great time whenever we get to go rafting. It was also the munchkin's first time ever going rafting and she has turned into the river rat that her dad is! She loved every minute of it and really, nearly started to cry toward the end because she didn't want her time on the river to be over. I told her we will definitely take her again in a few years and this time we'll be able to go with daddy too! The mom's had a great time for their first time on the river as well. All in all it was about 2 1/2 to 3 hours of rafting fun! With lots of paddling, splashing, cannon balling, swimming, laughing and floating fun! Here's of course another picture heavy post but there were too many good pics not to post them!

(Left to Right) My Momma-in-law, My Dad-in-law, Me, My mom, and My munchkin.
All ready to head down the river for some rafting fun!

Mom floating along and having a good time. She's even got her own built in "floating bags" (her shorts pockets) LOL!

The munchkin doing cannon jacks (her version of cannon balls) off the back of the raft.

Me and my little river rat! <3

Mom! No pics please! I'm trying to paddle! LOL!

My mom on the left and my momma-in-law on the right.

The kiddo and her poppa floating and swimming along the river.

Our Fabulous Summer Vacation!!!

That I totally forgot to post a few weeks ago LOL! Sorry it's late but hey... better late than never right?! So I'm just gonna give you all the cliff notes version because we did A LOT of fun stuff over the summer and it's wayyyy hard to remember every detail... sorry... again I probably should have blogged this as I went along but I really didn't have much time for it.

So I'll start by saying, after school let out at the end of May and right around Memorial Day weekend we headed to Florida on a 12 1/2 hour car ride down to where my parents live in Ft. Myers. I spent a few weeks catching up with family and friends, and we enjoyed watching a few good summer block busters like "Brave" and "The Amazing Spiderman" We also took a day trip to St. Augustine Florida (which I hadn't seen since I was very young) We toured the Spanish Quarter and went to the St. Augustine Pirates Museum. In July we headed up to North Carolina to see my husbands family both his father's side of the family (Grandma & Grandpa) had family reunions going on in Skyland/Weaverville & Ashville/Arden North Carolina. We had A LOT of fun with that and it felt really good to see his side of the family again and represent for him even though he couldn't be there due to him being on his deployment. We also managed to go white water rafting (which I will save for another post since it was just too fun and needs to have a post all of its own) in Hamilton TN down the Pigeon River and panning for gold in Tukaseegee North Carolina where we stayed at a friend of the family's cabin. We also had fun checking out all the little towns around the area like Cashiers, Dillsboro, Sylvia, and Franklin. In Franklin we went to Ruby City Gem Museum and the Scottish Tartan Museum. Towards the end of our vacation we headed down for the day to Helen Georgia and Cleveland Georgia to see the Cabbage Patch Babyland Hospital, where the munchkin got to adopt her very own Cabbage Patch baby and named her Iris Brianna! We headed back home about a week before school started (so I could get her registered and school supplies bought) and then a few days after that daddy came home! All in all it was a great summer!!! Here of course are some awesome pics I took! :)

My mom & the munchkin at St. Augustine Fort.

In the Old Spanish Fort.

Awesome St. Augustine Pirate Museum!

This is where we stayed... our woodland paradise!



At my hubby's family reunion from his dad's side of the family. It was such a beautiful day!


Oh yeah... my little redneck'in girl on her cousins four wheeler.

The Family Homestead that has been in hubby's dads side of the family for generations
(since 1800)

In Helen Georgia (So pretty looks just like Germany!)

At Cabbage Patch Babyland General
Where the munchkin got to adopt her very own cabbage patch baby.
She named her Iris Brianna

Babyland General in Cleveland Georgia