My Life [in Pictures & Song]

If you follow along on Twitter & Instagram (@emenchho1), then you probably know that lately...my life...well, it's been hectic. There's so much to tell you, but I'm a little overwhelmed with where to start. So, I'll give a brief update (as brief as I can be...ya'll know I'm long winded!) and then throw some pictures and a song at ya! Deal? Okay, good.

For starters, AxMan and I are great. Beyond great. This weekend is the 2 month mark...and while this next statement is gonna blow some people's minds (like those who have known me a long time and know how slow & cautious I tend to be), I don't really care because sometimes you JUST KNOW. Ya know? haha Anyway....AxMan is moving in. Yep, you read that right. On Sunday, he will officially be a resident of my home. Er, mom's home...but whatever. Financially and emotionally, it is a good move for both of us. Not really going to explain anything else about that, but suffice it to say that we're excited and if I had to guess, I think even mom is kinda looking forward to it. She's been helping me make space for the boy and his girls (who we'll have 1 more full week this summer and then every other weekend). We have a "guest bedroom" upstairs that was really being used for storage and now it is the home of Katniss & Lorraine. They checked it out last night and were pretty excited about it. It's going to be a huge adjustment for me as I've never lived with a man (I've had male roomies, but no one that I was in a relationship with) and it's not truly our own private space, but we'll make it work.

So the moral of the story is that the rest of my time has been spent helping AxMan pack up the apartment (that he just moved into last month), while at the same time cleaning out our house to make room for his stuff. I'm E-X-H-A-U-S-T-E-D. Seriously. Monday my knee hurt so bad, I'm surprised it wasn't bruised or swollen. I could barely walk. Monday night I took it easier than the previous few days, but Tuesday it felt tons better. Today I only notice a small twinge in my hip (for overcompensating on the knee for 2-3 days). All year mom has had it on her To Do list to clean the storage (aka think attic) room upstairs and get rid of a bunch of old stuff and reorganize. Did we do that? Nope. Instead, with the clock ticking...we did it all...in ONE day. Craziness. I don't have any clue how many trips up and down the stairs I made, how many times I climbed up in the back of the truck, how many times I handled each bag or item as I lugged it down said stairs, packed it on the truck or threw it in the dumpster. Oh and not just 1 dumpster. We filled 3 dumpsters (of varying sizes, but still).

I just want a break. From everything. ha It seems my own To Do list is a mile long (and growing daily), plus assisting with everyone else's stuff. I can't wait until everything is settled and we can just sit on the couch, watch a movie with the girls, and relax. :) I know that time is coming, but it seems kinda far away. haha Maybe I'll get some rest when I go to Vegas in 2 weeks...or NOT. :p

storage room BEFORE (good thing you can't see everything to the left of the door!)

storage room AFTER (although now has more piled up due to the boy's stuff)

we wore Toby out from cleaning and moving! haha

piles are everywhere at the apartment

AxMan made me dinner one night & we watched a movie (the last night we had any of the furniture in this pic...he sold everything the next day!)

and when you're left with no real furniture, you eat off your kids' princess table, while sitting on the floor #truestory

We were driving home last night & the boy randomly asks if I want to listen to a song that always makes him think of me...so of course, I want to. This is the song - Nothing Like This by Rascal Flatts ;)

Confession

I have a confession to make....I am not very exciting. Like, barely at all.

Everyone is posting all these fun 4th of July posts and I have nothing to share. Nada. Wanna know why? Well, let me tell you.

I had to work. Yep, you read that right. We were originally scheduled to work 4 - 10 hour days (M, Tu, Th, F). On Tuesday, a few pains in my side at work decided to complain about a day off in the middle of the week. Yeah, no shit Dick Tracy. Just about every local place did the same schedule. Brilliant time to change your minds that you don't like it. They convinced the boss man to change the schedule (I was the only person opposed to it...not really, it's just that they harped on the 1 other person until he relented). So instead of enjoying a day at home relaxing with my mom and boyfriend, I had to sit at work...bored to tears. I actually almost fell asleep at my desk in the afternoon. I wish I were kidding, but falling forward towards my desk woke me up. *shaking my head* I was not exactly the nicest person yesterday. Can you blame me?? So now I have Friday off, but guess what...my loved ones will be at work! What a bunch of crapola. And yes, I did tell off the 2 people who started the griping and got the boss to change the schedule. It did make me feel slightly better. ha

Last night I left job #1 and stopped to pick up AxMan at his place. He went with me so I could do payroll at job #2. (I had a dentist appointment Monday night when I would have normally done it and Tuesday we had other plans as well...oh and I kinda forgot! ha) After finishing up there, I rode with him to go collect money from a side job he'd done. He loves landscaping and he trimmed hedges for a lady who always has him do it every year. On the way back home, he decided that he didn't feel like eating in, so he took me out to dinner. And yes, sadly that is only like our 3rd official date out somewhere. haha I introduced him to a local restaurant that my family loves (some family friends own it), Crossroads, and he liked it as well! Not many places left in the world where you can go eat big, hearty, homemade meals for $17 for 2 people.

We went back to his apartment and he decided to put away a few more boxes of stuff that he had started on earlier in the day while I was at work. I promptly fell asleep on the loveseat. For 2 hours. hahahaha Seriously. I'm a terrible date. He took me out to dinner and to thank him, I fell asleep on his couch while he cleaned. Ummmm...jeez. We won't be winning any awards for most exciting couple anytime soon! ;)

So although my holiday didn't start out too great (getting up at 4:30am to be at work by 6 is less than thrilling and obviously quite exhausting), it ended pretty great...including a late night bowl of ice cream. :p

And now I'm enjoying another lovely and boring day at work. Thankfully it's the last one of the week! 5.5 hours left to go...... #countdown

A Scorching Weekend

Whew! Is anyone else HOT? I don't just mean hot...I mean, it's burning like the fires of hell outside. Seriously. 100+ degree days are not much fun. I am a high 60's/low 70's kind of girl, so anything 90's and 100's isn't much going to make me happy. haha

Despite the wicked weather, I had a fabulous weekend! On Friday afternoon, I judged a local county fair Queen Pageant with one of my best friends, Olesha. It was her first time and my millionth. ha We had a great afternoon interviewing the girls, enjoying dinner out on the committee (despite the electricity going out due to the storms), and got to watch a very deserving young lady get crowned!

me dressed up to judge the pageant

After the pageant, I changed my clothes and met up with AxMan and the girls. We drove to my work's parking lot to meet up with a bunch of my family and friends to watch the town's fireworks. And no, I didn't even think to take a picture of the fireworks. Um....DUH! The girls had fun playing with my cousin, Ethan, while I introduced AxMan to some of the crew and watched the pretty fireworks. (The girls know Ethan because my cousin Monica is going to watch them a few times this summer so AxMan can have them during his weeks. I'm glad they all get along so well!)

Saturday morning was thankfully a lazy day. I did some laundry and made a trip to the grocery store for mom. Then I hung out at the apartment with AxMan and the girls. He was unfortunately not feeling well most of the week. We've come to believe it was probably the one-week "flu" bug that seemed to be going around our hometown. Thankfully yesterday he started feeling much better, and although he works out in this horrible heat, hopefully he won't be feeling lousy again tonight. I took the girls with me to spend time with my family. Everyone was hanging out at my cousin Sara's house and having a pitch-in dinner. The girls played with Ethan, Callie, and Henry...then Zach & mom took me, Katniss, and Lorraine for a ranger ride. They had so much fun riding in the creek! I "forced" them to go home much sooner than they would have liked, but I hated to have their dad at home alone not feeling well. We still ended up being gone for about 4 hours. That night, Lorraine helped me bake individual chocolate cakes with the Redi Set Express. It was just a regular cake mix poured into the wells and baked for 7 minutes, then cooled and iced with chocolate icing. Both girls thought that was the most amazing thing ever and they were cracking me up! They called them Erin's Famous Chocolate Tacos and Erin's Famous Chocolate Clouds. hahaha Goobers! ;)

 Callie, Katniss, & Lorraine

Ethan & Henry wrestling

beautiful girls!

ranger ride in the creek

me & Lorraine

chocolate cake

Katniss's fave color = orange & so is my sis's fave color...she asked me to take a pic to send to Jen to show her! ha

Sunday morning we all surprisingly woke up fairly early and since the girls had requested my Famous Fluffy Waffles (they swear every meal I make is fluffy goodness - I have also made them bubble up pizza, a recipe from pinterest), I made everyone waffles. Yum! We watched a movie while AxMan did laundry. The girls really needed to go through their dressers and a large garbage bag full of clothes to decide what they could/couldn't wear anymore. They weren't too thrilled by that, but I got them convinced it would help dad tremendously and so we sorted everything out! We ended up with 2 bags of clothes for Goodwill, 2 still overly stuffed dressers, and 1 bag of trash. I have a feeling some things in the dressers still need to go, but it's a start. :p

Day 2 ranger ride in the creek with AxMan in the very back of the pic!

Henry just minutes before falling in the water (as he always does)

playing in the water :)

me & Katniss

we sure do love the water!

Last night we took the girls home (since their mom's car was "overheating"). They both hugged me goodbye. It warms my heart that they WANT to hug me! And even more so that they did it in front of their mom's house....without coercion!

It was late by the time we got back home, so we made a frozen pizza for dinner. I know, I know...we are the epitome of excitement. ;)

5QF - 6/29

Here we are folks, it's the end of June! The year is officially half over now. In 1 month, I will officially be 30! And contrary to most people's thoughts, I am actually looking forward to my 30th birthday and hope that it brings lots of great memories!

I didn't weigh in this morning (I wasn't at home), but after last week and this week, I think I am up about 3 pounds. Will try to weigh myself a little later just to check! Started to get back on the right track with my eating this week. Didn't have much time for exercise, but I've been going going going...that will come again in the next week or so.


And now it's time for some 5QF fun! :) Oh and one of the questions is mine, so play along!



- - -

1. What's your favorite childhood snack that you still eat as an adult?

My favorite snack as a kid (and I only remember this because I had this discussion with Katniss the other day) was Fudge Rounds. You know the chocolatey-goodness of a cookie?!? mmmmm...and I actually had one last night because I bought some for the girls because they love them too. haha


2. What food will you not eat the low fat version of?

Usually the low-fat version is not that much healthier for you...but one thing I don't like low-fat is cottage cheese. I think the taste is a little off. Just my opinion. :p


3. What's your favorite way to cool off during the summer?

Pool!! I love to swim! I would swim every day if we had a pool, but darn my luck, we don't! There isn't anything as refreshing as jumping into a nice cool pool at the end of a long hot day as the sun starts to set. #bliss


4. What's your favorite summer read?

I don't think I have a "favorite" summer read. I read all the time. All. The. Time. I'll read anything once. I do say that the perfect type of book to read while you're sitting by the pool or on the beach is a romance book. I tend to read the comedic-romance books like the Southern Sisters series. They fall in love, but of course it's also a mystery (murder is always involved) and they are hysterically funny!


5. What are you doing to stay cool in this awful heat?

Staying indoors. Remember, I said no pool?!? I am an airconditioning-loving-stay-indoors kind of girl. ;)

My Happy List

I've been noticing several of my bloggy friends posting their happy lists on a weekly basis. I've not done this yet, so I thought I would give a general update of my life the past 2 weeks via a list and since I've been so happy, I think it would qualify as a Happy List! haha ;)

1. AxMan - Seriously, things could not be better with him. I see him every single day. The week we spent apart while I was in Punta Cana nearly killed us (not really, but ya know we felt like it did! ha). We stayed in touch via technology thanks to the resort's wifi! I cannot ever remember being this content before. I am happy no matter what we're doing...sleeping, watching a movie, making dinner together, riding in the car to get his daughters, fixing his vehicle, or talking to our parents. I have met quite a few of his relatives (parents, sis, nephews, cousins, grandmas, uncles, aunts, etc). The girls and I treated him to some special surprises for Father's Day. He got a goody bag with his favorite treats (dunkin sticks, chex mix, dried apricots, movie passes) as well as breakfast in bed! We made him homemade waffles...and he LOVED it. :) We have had lots of serious discussions and there isn't much we haven't openly talked about. Love that he is a communicator!! Anyway, things are good. Keeping my fingers crossed that he's around for quite awhile...and funny thing is, he is the same way hoping I'll stay around!

2. Katniss & Lorraine - If you've been following me for any length of time, you know how much I was hoping and praying to find a single man who had no kids...well, sometimes God has different plans for your life! The truth of the matter is that I love kids (it's no secret I want my own one day), but I really didn't think I wanted to deal with another person's drama. It's been surprisingly easy. No, it's not always a walk in the park. His ex is crazy and is a scream-it-out/slam-the-door-in-your-face type and we've been privy to this already (this week actually). The girls; however, are awesome. I adore them to pieces! I enjoy spending time with them and see them quite often. They ask me to spend the night on their nights and I sometimes do...they think it's a big ol' slumber party! They hug me now. They ask to ride with me and do things with me (without their dad). Apparently, they have even told AxMan that they love me. That's pretty awesome because I love them too...all 3 of them!

 The girls doing a face peel & mask the first night in dad's new apartment!

3. Mom - My mom is awesome. If you haven't met her in real life, you're missing out. Just ask Jen or AxMan, she's the "cool mom." No joke! ha She's been great about this important relationship in my life and is so good to AxMan and the girls. Despite having dealt with her own heartbreak in the past (my parents' divorce), she is still the one who is showing me how to be generous and understanding.

4. Weather - I am not normally a fan of the HOT weather. I do enjoy the sunshine, just viewing it from the indoors on these 90-100 degree days! Whew. That is a little too hot for me to be outside. haha

5. Scentsy/Velata - How could I not include the company that just sent me on a FREE All Expenses Paid trip to the Dominican Republic for one week?!? I'm so excited to find out where next year's trip will be and start earning it on August 1st! Not to mention that July's warmer and scent are so awesome. Did my mailing last night with AxMan and the girls (they were super duper help!)...and they love it as much as I do. Plus, everyone at work has been enjoying the new scent today - Lemons & Berries! Yum!

 July warmer - Ohana

6. Toby - My sweet lil pup has been missing me lately...until I get home that is! I feel so guilty not spending time with him, playing, but then when I get home - the little turkey ignores me. haha The one day I was unpacking my trip suitcase and packing for a slumber party night with the girls and my little fur baby was watching my EVERY move. He is pretty darn cute! Rotten, but cute.

And I think that's it for now....haha Life has been crazy busy, but I do love it. I'm happy and healthy. Isn't that what really counts? :) Hope you are holding onto the things that make you happy!!

Punta Cana: Quick Recap

Hello bloggy buddies!

I have been MIA for sooooooo long. And no, I am still not caught up. Not. Even. Close. Life is so chaotic right now. Yowza. I'll get it together eventually! ha (I hope.) In the meantime, while I TRY to catch up on reading all of your blogs from the past 2 weeks, here is a quick picture recap of my recent Punta Cana, Dominican Republic trip....the only things I have to say about it:

- Scentsy is an AMAZING company, they handled every little detail!
- Hard Rock Resort is huge and you definitely needed the trolley to get around after a day/night of drinking!
- The first day the SPF factor was 11, which is extreme. I did not end up getting burnt, but my heat rash is almost gone (throat/chest). It's a reaction that I seem to get whenever I am allergic to a sunscreen. GRRRR
- We sat our butts on the beach or at the pools (there were 14 to choose from) all day.
- One week was just long enough to miss everyone at home, but not long enough to completely rejuvenate myself from all the craziness of late.
- We did a zipline course which consisted of 12 ziplines...AWESOME!!! Loved every darn second and it flew by (even though it took about 2 hours).


And now for your viewing pleasure....

The beach

Our favorite pool - Bongo

View from the balcony of our room

Gorgeous palm trees swaying in the breeze

 

A view down one of the ziplines

Me getting ready to zip!

Sis & I on the beach for our White Night dinner 

Sad to be on the plane headed home :(

Favorite picture of myself from the trip - we dressed up one night for dinner and I even curled my hair! haha

5QF - 6/15

Happy to say that I stayed the same this week! No loss which is sad, but no gain which makes me happy! :p It was a super hectic week and I definitely feel like I pushed my limit on the food consumption and lack of sleep.

1. Would you grow your hair out to donate it?

I would love to, but honestly, my hair gets pretty "stringy" looking the longer it gets. I don't think I'd be able to put up with that for very long even though my hair grows fast.


2. What song makes you think of summer?

There are several songs! Anything by the Beach Boys...iconic songs of my youth. And as silly as it is, Summer Girls by LFO is one of those songs I always crank up when I hear it and sing along. You really don't hear it much anymore!




3. Are you a flip flops or sandals kind of person?

I'm a sandals girl! Don't get me wrong, I have several pairs of flip flops, but I tend to be a klutz in them. They come flying off my feet or I trip. I just feel like I can't walk that fast in them and for someone who is always going 100mph, that doesn't work well! ha


4. Favorite summer treat (i.e. ice cream, snow cones, etc.)?

Hawaiian Shave Ice. Ohhhhh my. Yum! Dangit. Now I want one! haha Strawberry and watermelon is my combo flavor.


5. Do you do something special for the father of your children on Father's Day?

No children...however, my special guy is a dad of two wonderful girls and I am helping them with some surprises for him! :) I mean, how can you not want to help them show him how wonderful he is?!

Katniss helping AxMan put a new alternator in his Explorer