Origami Owl Blog Party!!! Starts 07/10

 

 Origami Owl has thousands of Independent Designers who host jewelry parties or jewelry bars. 

Every jewelry creation serves as a reminder of who you are, where you have been, where you are going and the dreams you carry in your heart. So, look inside yourself to create fun, fashionable, meaningful jewelry that is as unique as you are.

If you would like to order a living locket follow the instructions below: =) 

Click on the "living locket" in top right corner. 

Then follow the steps to creating your beautiful living locket necklace on the website. 

When you check out, it will ask if you want to tie your order to a party. Yes! Tie your order to my blog!! 

Hope you enjoy the party!! Become a follower for even more special promotions and parties. 

With love!! 

Shelbie 

8 Steps to a Successful Marriage

Anyone who is married will tell you how hard marriage is. Yes, you may love your spouse with every ounce you have, but it takes more than love. It takes hard work and dedication.

Like many young women when they get married, I had this fantasy of how married life was going to be. I was even considering having Steven Speilberg document it because it was bound to be amazing. Boy, did I have my head in the clouds!

My first year of marriage was nothing glorious. It was horrible. Casey and I wanted to kill each other and Lord knows how many times we brought up divorce. It doesn't help that I only worked part time at American Eagle, not enough to cover groceries. Casey's job was so wishy washy. We were living in a construction zone.

We did not have counters for cooking, a kitchen sink for washing dishes, or a bathroom sink for washing. We had a chair and a tv with a bathtub and a crockpot. Excuse me for being pissy!
We had to wash dishes in the bathtub. Gross! and it killed our backs!

Steps to a Successful Marriage:

1. Christ! There is no way our marriage would make it without him. He brought us together and He will keep us together. End of story!

2.  Prayer and lots of it! There were days that I had to pray for the Lord to help me not be in a bad mood. There were days that I had to pray to be patient with my husband. I am not a patient soul.

3. Understanding. Try to put yourself in his work boots or her stilettos. It will always give you a better perspective.

4. Communication.  Watch what you say and how you say it. The tone of your voice and your attitude say way more than the words you speak. Always make sure you both understand what the final verdict on a topic is and that you both are good with it.

5. Honesty. This is a big one. DO NOT LIE! EVER! Now obviously your not going to tell them your planning a surprise party if they ask you. But if you know you did or said something that would upset them, don't lie and say you didn't. Be honest and apologize. Or explain the incident without getting upset.

6. Trust.  If you don't have trust, you are going to drive yourself crazy with worry and what ifs. You either have trust, I don't give a F anymore, or a combination of both. Its like "I don't give a F because I trust you." You definitely don't want the second!

7. Friendship. You ought to be each others best friend. You should be able to tell them all your dark secrets. If you have another best friend like your girlfriend who you spill your guts too, it should be spilled to your spouse first.

8. Love. I know I put this one last and this is where all the rest stem from. But you truly have to love your spouse for what they are and what they aren't. Its hard to love someone these days because we have been brainwashed by Hollywood about what the perfect man is. Not everyone can be married to Channing Tatum. But I wouldn't trade my man for the world! He balances me out perfectly and he puts up with a lot of shit for me. He loves me more than anyone, he loves me insight of myself.

Love isn't easy, ever! Well maybe the first 2 weeks, but after that its hard! There are some days where I have to consciously choose to love my husband. There are days when he has to do the same thing. You may think that you should always love them no matter what and all that, and yes that is true, BUT even though I love him even when I cant stand him; the last thing I want to say to him when he has me furious is "I love you."

Of course there are so many other things that make marriage great, but this is a pretty good start at the basics.

Hope this helps you and your spouse. =)

My husband loves this quote!! And its so true!



With Love
XOXo

Breaking News!!

I am not a vegetarian by any means. I love meat, but I am a firm believer in the humane treatment of animals. Even if there beef cows that are meant to be slaughtered.

We have a cow farmer in the town next to us that treats his cattle horribly. There are around 100 cows in a small pen of dirt. Well, we have been getting rain and thunderstorms everyday for the last 2 and a half weeks. Now there corral is a few feet deep with mud. Its up to there bellies.

We have called Fox News, channel 7 and channel 4. We want the treatment of these animals stopped. The owner does this every year, we want him to suffer repercussions.

Fox 2 News literally just called us back and they are passing the story on to there producers!! How awesome!

 

This is where some of our meat is coming from. This cannot be healthy by any means.

 So a little update on the MOo MoO situation, PETA is now involved. They are doing the best they can to help, but the cops are really standing in there way! Also, the Monroe Evening News is writing a story on the issue. However, it wont be out until next week. Were still thankful that they are taking this matter seriously, but were supposed to get a lot of rain here from now till then. It storming hard right now.

 

Were going back to the farm tonight to take more pictures because we have had non-stop rain all day and not drizzle. Hard core down pour!

Fourth of July festivities!!

I hope everyone thoroughly enjoyed the Fourth of July!! And the rest of there 4 day weekend. I definitely had a lot of fun!!

Here's the run down of what I did. I wanted to be creative and crafty this year and so I went to Pinterest and got some glorious ideas. 

Idea #1~ I made my own festive Independence Day shirt. 

( I can do a tutorial if I get a lot of interest) 

 

I was going to make the Mr. a shirt, but already had a pretty cool one. Captain America!! What is more patriotic than that!! 

Idea #2~ American flag fruit skewers!! 

These were so delicious. My nieces and nephews loved them, as well as the rest of my family! 

     (I can do a tutorial if a lot of interest)

These were pretty easy to make. The only difficult part about it was the angel food cake falls apart easily. Angel food cake can be substituted with marshmallows also!! Still delicious!! And super festive!! 

That was it for my creative genius. The rest if my time was spent cleaning the kitchen and preparing food. We had a nice spread. Burgers, brats, grilled potatoes, corn-on the cob of course, and fruit salad. 

Unfortunately, it drizzled off and on the whole day. But we did see a little sun for about an hour. 

Our family always does the biggest fireworks show in our little town. We get the loudest and biggest one available. 

And of course the kids love to help. Sparklers, Roman candles, and poppers are there favorite. 

My niece lit a while bunch of sparklers at one time. 

It's hard to see, but this was me lighting of a Roman candle. 

I hope every one enjoyed there holiday and had fun and stayed safe!! Happy Fourth of July weekend!! 

I'm legal!! 21st birthday!!!

I'm sure your all wondering how my birthday went. Y'all are just so nosy. 

I wasn't really looking forward to my birthday since once you pass a certain age there not fun anymore. My last birthday or 2 weren't the greatest. But this year was really good.

The day started out sucky because my car wouldn't start. So I was convinced it was all down hill from there. 

However, it was the complete opposite. I got to work and my boss and her baby (who I nanny for) had made me a wonderful card, had the most delicious cupcake ever waiting for me and had the stereo blasting a happy birthday jingle. 

That made my day, I was ready for the excitement of my birthday after all. 

When I got off work, I went home to shower and get ready for my birthday BBQ that my mom was hosting for me. 

I look pretty plain in this picture, but its because I'm not wearing eye shadow. 

I requested BBQ chicken, potato salad, baked beans, and watermelon for dinner with a red velvet cake. (My favorite meal of all time!) 

After dinner we relaxed outside for a little bit and enjoyed the company. 

I also requested that my favorite at uncle of all time and his family be there. 

He got me my first legal bud-light. It was sooo good and refreshing. I've had bud-light before and it was nasty and foamy. Must be my 21 year old taste buds must have came in. Ha! My uncle also got me this awesome present!! 

We opened some more presents. I got some $$, a 31 bag, two pandora charms and some pink flops from Old Navy. Loved all of it!!! 

I was so ready for cake by this point!! 

My mom made me a homemade red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting. Yum!! 

You can't see her hand but she was trying to smash my face in it!! 

I was ready to dig in! 

So good!! 

After the cake, we were all full and tired. We were ready for naps!! 

I love my family!! :) 

The hubs was excited to be able to share a beer with me too. Although he is bummed he lost his designated driver. Haha! 

After the party was over Casey and I headed over to Applebee's for a couple more drinks. I had been wanting to try sangria for a while now and my 21st birthday seemed like the perfect time!! 

It was hard to get used to but I drank it all. Casey said it tasted like kool-aid but I didn't think so. 

I drank it all,but I wasn't in love with it. Honestly, I don't like alcohol. If I had a choice of having a drink and having water, I'd probably choose water. 

One of the best parts of being legal is ordering your drink for the first time. I got the silliest and biggest smile on my face and probably looked like a complete idiot. 

Overall I had fun. :)

Stranded at the Driven...

So I was stranded today. No, not at the drive in. More like on the highway...because I ran out of gas. Now before you go saying how stupid it was, let me tell you how well my gas gauge works. 

When you put gas in my tank, no matter how small of an amount. It will spring up to full. If you are sitting at a stop sign for a millisecond, it will ding that its empty. 

How's a girl to know when to full up?? 

Oh, by watching you mileage and calculating it out?? That's a good idea, if the odometer worked. Mine doesn't! 

So I have to guess all the time!! Talk about nerve racking! 

Add that to the list of things needing to be fixed. 

Let me show you my view on things today. 

This was in front of me. Getting on a different highway from the current one. 

This was the traffic behind me. Thank God it came in waves. 

Yes, that is a semi...here we go! 

Bam!! Turbulence up the wazoo!! 

They were all very aware if my presence because if they could they would get into a farther lane. 

The only thing that has me guessing was when an "oversized load" truck passed me. Nothing beats driving a house down the highway!! 

Thank The Lord above for my nana and grandpa coming to save me. They brought me some gas and jumped my car since the battery died on it.