Boys Behind the Blog

Does it feel like Friday to anybody else? Anybody? Well I am having early weekend syndrome over here and it is not helping that I have this god awful expo to attend after work tonight. It would be one thing if I actually enjoyed my job or even liked the people I worked with, because then it would like happy hour without the drinks. Instead, I just get to be the awkward 23 year old trying to hang with the 40+ year olds for 3 hours.  For instance right now, my co-worker is trying to prove me wrong about the amount of people I graduated from high school with in order to prove her point that public education is not where a child should be taught. Sighhhh lord give me patience today.

But I am getting off topic here, I have been an advent reader of Mallory’s blog over at Mal Smiles for a while now and I am super excited that I decided to launch this blog at the right time in order to catch this month’s link up for Boys Behind the Blog. I think this link up is so great because not only do yall get the chance to see how Jbear will respond to these random questions and learn new things about him, but so do I!

1. What would you do with $1,000,000.00? If I won a million dollars and could do anything with it without any limitations,  I would first be practical with it and pay off all my student loans. Then spend the rest on a beach house, new cars for both Jen and I, and look into getting some custom knives/guns.
   
   
2. What is your dream job? Working with the United States Marshals where I could serve warrants, but without having to work weekends and only having to work till 5 everyday. 
   
   
3. Who is your celebrity crush? Jennifer Aniston, hands down 
   
   
4. What is your favorite sports team? I am really not too much of a sports fan, but if I had to choose I would have to support my Atlanta Braves. 
   
   
5. What was your AOL/AIM screen name back in the day?  Hard to imagine someone that never had an AOL/AIM screen name, but I never did until facebook messaging came around when I was in high school. But I did have an email address of sk8terhomie2008 so I think that counts.

No screen name or instant messaging!?? Your joking right!?? Those were the first words that came out of my mouth when he told me that. It is amazing how you can be with someone for almost 6 years and still be finding out new stuff about them—even if it is the small stuff. I had so much fun with this that I’m sure I will be back next month for the next round of questions. In the meantime, if you need me I will be stuck in a building with no cell phone or internet service so snaps and claps for that yall.

Home To Me

Hello blogland, it’s officially hump day!! The weekend is within reach and I am starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Thank god, because tomorrow is about to be one bitch of a day at work—insert attending an unpaid expose here—but this post is not about bitching or whining. No, today I want to discuss something very close to my heart and something that made my college experience what it was.

I am talking about Greek Life yall! I am a proud member alumni of the Delta Zeta Lambda Pi Chapter at Georgia College.  Why am I choosing today of all days to talk about something that I love so much, well because today is bid day in good ole Milledgeville and today marks another year that I am not there. Booooo. So instead, I am going to give you guys the skinny about Recruitment and why it pretty much kicks off one of the craziest weekends of the semester.

Let’s break it down:

Spirit Week: Hell Week

This is the week before rush week where everyone gets everything ready for the crazy that is about to happen. You sing songs all day, make the room you are given look like pink and green threw up everywhere, and practice bump groups (how you casually transition from talking to one girl to the next).  Might not sound so bad from the outside looking in, but trust me everyone is bitchy, people don’t pull their weight, and nobody can go out to the bars. Bet you can see the hatred now.

Rush Week:  Bring on the Fresh Meat

Recruitment is spread out into five different days with each day having a different theme/outfit. We had an Ice Tea (meet and greet), Philanthropy, Skit, and Preference Days.  I couldn’t give a rat’s ass about the first two days because lezbehonest there is only so much that you can ask a girl that she hasn’t been asked a million times that day or how your philanthropy works.

Personally, Skit and Preference days were the only days I could make it through 10 parties of girls and not feel like a total zombie afterwards. Not to toot our own horns or anything, but DZ always had and still does have one of the best skits out of all the sororities and is where we really bring our A game to get girls to want to come back. Then, we pretty much kill it with Preference day, the day you visit sororities that you have a potential bid for, with our angel book letters and ceremony that really gives the freshmen a look into how much love we have for each other, the friendships that become unbreakable, and what DZ has done for us. Que the sniffles and tears because there is never a dry eye in the room. EVER.

Pi Chi:

When you become an upper classmen, you have the option to not have to go through rush at all. Sayyy whaattt?  Instead, you can be a leader with girls from every sorority to help take the freshmen to their designated parties, give advice, and be all phanellanic like. Sign me the eff up is what I said when I was a senior and it was the best decision. No sing songs, not clapping, no acting like you are interested in the weird girl who clearly doesn’t want to be there, plus a beach weekend with your fellow Phi Chis to bond over drinks and sand. You had me at not having to be at spirit week.

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Bid Day:

The most epic of days when you welcome around 60-70 girls into your new sorority and it is one big fat party. Literally. Frat boys start drinking at 10am to watch the new girls run out of the building 2-3 at a time to whichever sorority that were given a bid in their envelopes. For DZ, we always celebrate bid day with a party at the house with a DIY slip in side that will have you waking up with 10 bruises all over your body the next day, a house tour, and of course games to get to know your new sisters. It’s awkward, it’s fun, it’s so worth it. Then of course, that night one of the older girls throws a huge party at her house and invites the whole sorority over so that everybody can get absolutely wasted together since everybody has been on a 2 week sobriety plan and the freshmen don’t have a clue how to drink like your in college. It’s one hot mess to say the least

I love and hate recruitment. I hate that so much work goes into it, that you really do not have a say about which girls will make this year’s cut, and that you have zero free time. But I love how everyone comes together, your friendships deepen, and your love for DZ becomes re- confirmed. And I miss it so much. So in honor of Rush Week and all that is good, I will be heading down to Milledgeville on Friday after work to re-live the good days and party with the best of them. Is it Friday yet!?

Weekend Recap

Mondayyy Monday Monday. Not sure how I feel about you today. So I am going to make it short and sweet today and link up with Sami over at Sami's Shenanigans for another weekly dosage of Weekend Shenanigans. This weekend was such a different pace than the weekend before,and I actually managed to capture some of the moments, so I'll just let the pictures do the talking.

one:// took a chance and played a scratch off and ended up winning $10 bucks. I'll take that anyday
two:// went to Wild Wings saturday night and discovered the best coasters ever! they just so happened to have made it into my purse and are now sitting on my coffee table ....
three:// (sorry for the picture quality) but finally completed our harry potter collection and ended up getting the first 4 for $4 each
four:// what my sunday pretty much looked like. a whole lotta sun, pool, and reading

Before I get back ready to go to work, I want to share something that has been weighing on my heart for the past week. Last week I heard about a freak accident that happened to girl I went to college with. Her name was Julia Tarter and no I wasn't best friends with her nor a true friend. She was simply someone that I tutored a couple of times a week during my last semester of college and had met during recruitment her freshmen year when I was a Pi Chi. She was very involved with her sorority as well as young life on campus. Just talking to her, you knew that she had a great spirit and whose relationship with the Lord was something to be envied.

About a week ago she was involved in a car accident. She was leaving her house to return to school when she realized she had left something in the house. She jumped out of the car before putting it in park and when she noticed that the car was starting to roll down the drive way, she tried to jump back in it in order to stop it. While trying to correct her mistake, she got pinned in-between the car door and the fire hydrant. She alerted the neighbors that she was in danger by reaching in the car and honking the horn. By the time the medics arrived, Julia had gone into cardiac arrest and was immediately taken into the hospital where she slipped into a coma. After a couple of days, she still had no brain activity and yesterday late afternoon she passed away.

I am not going to lie by saying that I cried a little when I heard the news of her passing. I just do not understand why these things happen. The good always die young. always. It just is not fair. During the week that followed her accident, I learned something though. I learned what the power of community can do. The amount of support that sprang up from every aspect of Julia's life was overwhelming. It shows that she had the most beautiful soul and that she is an angel that was truly welcomed into His Kingdom last night. My heart and prayers go out to the family and friends affected and may God ease their pain. And in the words of a wise friend, "We have to be thankful for the time we have and the beautiful people that fill our lives."

The Puppy Delimma

It’s not a huge secret that I love dogs—I mean just take a look at my picture and read the info below it and it is not hard to figure out that I scream “hello, my name is jen and I am a crazy dog lady.” Not to be confused with a crazy cat lady, because ehhh cats give me the hebbiee jebbiess.

Dogs have always been a part of my life. I had two shih-tzu growing up when I was itty bitty and when those two passed away—God bless their puppy souls—my parents waited the appropriate amount of time before they decided to bring another bundle of fur love into our lives. I am blessed to say that bundle of love is still with us today along with another one that my parents got about six years ago.  It just so happens that the oldest one-Bandit-will be celebrating his 16th birthday next week—BIRTHDAY SHOUT OUT TO MY BANDIT!

 Bandit: a 16 year old white pup terrified of cameras which explains my lack of pictures of him

           My other pal: Hershey or Thirsty as I call him. The attention whore of the two and always down for a snuggle

 Jbear has also grown up with multiple dogs throughout his life, which know that you mention it, he is currently having an affair with his brother’s beautiful german shepard who I swear is going to end up coming over one day and never leaving. So you could say that for the last 8 months, Jbear and I have been living in somewhat of a culture shocking seeing that it is the first time in both of our lives where we don’t have a furry creature roaming the house. It’s weird.

        Ava: Jbear's Mistress

We started talking about adopting a puppy at the beginning of the summer and said that if we were really gonna do this, the best time to get a dog would be at the end of summer/beginning of fall when Jbear got off of FTO (field training to us common folk)

I have had it on my mind for a long time that if I was to ever get a dog of my own, I wanted a golden retriever. To me, they are the “all-american” type of dog and I don’t know why that appeals to me, but it does. I am ashamed to admit it, but when it comes to picking out a dog, I am extremely P to the I-C-K-Y and super superficial. I judge dogs by their looks—you can judge me for that. I’m sorry but a cute face is easier to love. Fact. 

 

Around the beginning of July, I found the perfect breeder for a decent price, which one wouldn't think would be too hard, but come to find out most breeder that I contacted were asking for $1000+ for a dog. Come again!? yeah I wasn't down to pay that price no matter how cute the dog. Anywhoo, the lady I found stated that her litter wouldn't be born until September and wouldn't be ready to go home till Halloween. Everything pretty much sounded perfect to us seeing that it would give us enough time to save money to buy all the ishhh that puppies need, including an expensive ass fence for our backyard. 

Well we are now one month away from the start of the whole shambang and we are caught in a pickle—do we still want the dang thing? The thing is, Jbear and I have been thinking about taking a huge leap of faith, packing everything up, quitting our jobs, and moving to Charleston.  Don’t worry, our friends think we are crazy too. But that is another post for another day. 

Now you see the dilemma we are in—do we go ahead and get the dog knowing that in a couple of months when we try and sell the house we could be taking the fur child from living in a more than spacious home to a card board box of an apartment in the city or is this something that we put off!? But this whole moving thing is just an idea, for now, that we are desperately trying to pursue and if it doesn’t work out we could be missing out on the chance to start building our family one fur baby at a time. So if you need me, I’ll be coming up with a pros and cons list over several classes of wine. Advice is clearly welcomed. Peace out cub scouts

 

True Life: I Have a Potty Mouth

DUN DUN DUN. It's true ladies. I like to use offensive language more times than not and I can't really say that I hate it #sorryimnotsorry. However, I decided to come clean to yall about this little tidbit of my life because let's be honest--if you plan on sticking around these parts for very long, which I trust you will, we might as well get comfortable with each other. Now I'm not saying that every other word in my posts will be a cuss word or that the majority of my posts will contain such words. Just don't be surprised if one happens to squeak in every now and again, because it will happen. I promise.

I blame Jbear for having this bad habit. But really.

ONE:
In high school nothing screams trying to act older than you are by throwing some inapproiate words into a conversation. So being 17 of course and wanting to be "cool" and impress my new boy toy with my new found sense of maturity, the addiction began.  

TWO:
Let's not forget the fact that everybody in Jbear's family is comfortable enough to use said words around each other. Talk about mind blowing for someone who grew up in a house where you couldn't use the word stupid let alone butt.

THREE:
It got worse when Jbear started working for the police department. If you have ever seen the show COPS you can tell that officers have very colorful ways of speaking to people.

Four:
Please work in customer service and tell me that you could go through an entire day without wanting to say some choice words to particular people. You can bet your sweet a$$ that I can't,  but alas that would result in me not having a job. That is why I simply let the tension build all day and come home to a never ending chorus of how I feel.

And there you have it. Don't judge me too harshly now. In the mean time, breaking news to those that watched Megalodon on Discovery Channel the other night which kicked off Shark Week--the whole thing was made up! You read that right. I invested 2 hours of my life into a documentary that was a complete lie. Well played discovery channel for devising a program that gave you the highest ratings in the 26 years that you have been on the air. Well played in deed. 
 

Weddings, Furniture, and Booze Oh My

Ohh monday, we meet again. I can't say that I'm too terribly excited to see you. For starters, I had one of the busiest, but fun, weekends in a really long time that is keeping me from being able with the big girls today. I contemplated on taking a nap on the hard granite counter top that is the teller line, but alas I have already gotten dirty looks from the boss lady who doesn't seem too pleased that I have zero motivation or energy to do anything but the minimum today. 

This post just gets more pathetic, because I have to sadly report that with the many happenings that was my weekend, I think I have a grand total of 3 photos to share with yall. Boooo. Beginners mistake. I don't know how some of you ladies manage to take pictures of everything that happens, but snaps and claps for you. I think if I had a iphone I would be better about it, but that's another sad tale for another day. 

But lets get to the good stuff shall we. Friday was my sister from another mister's birthday! She turned the big 22 and we all celebrated by going to one of the coolest restaurants in Atlanta-Eclipse di Luna. The atmosphere is this place was unbelievable. It is a Latin based restaurant with live music, corn hole outside to keep you entertained while you wait for a table, and some of the best tapas in town (which are small appetizers for those that don't know). We thought that it would be best for everybody to order 1-2 things and then have everybody split them, which was awesome because you get to try a lot more food that way. The only bad thing that I have to say about the place is that they don't split checks. Wait what!? yes the 10 of use all sadly lost the little buzzes that we had going on from the sangria in order to try and do math for 20 minutes. Thank god for calculators on phones right?

After that quick lesson, we all went to one of the ladies that lived in the area house to pick up from where we left off pre-dinner bill before we all went out in buckhead for the night. Let's just say the night ended with a box of teddy grams in one hand with the other wrapped around the belly of my friend's dog that I stayed with. Doesn't get more classic Jen than that. 

Saturday was another busy day as I tried to fight my raging wine induced headache all while getting everything ready before Jbear and I headed back to Atlanta in order to celebrate the marriage of one of his fraternity brothers. The wedding was located in downtown Roswell and after checking into the hotel, discovering that there was no shuttle that was promised to us,  we finally made it there. The wedding venue was beautiful and it was great to reconnect with some old friends that we hadn't seen in forever. We danced, we drank, and we ate. 

Sunday we decided to spend the day at the mother of all furniture stores ,Ikea, with lunch at Lenox Mall shortly after. We finally found end tables for our bedroom that we have been trying to find for months along with two of the cutest wine racks you ever did see for the kitchen. As excited as we were for the end tables, we had no idea that we would spend the next 2.5 hours putting those suckers together. Even though they were a pain in the butt, I was proud to say that I put together my first piece of furniture ever. 

Well that was my weekend in a nutshell and now I am going to kick back with some vino and shark week--currently the recap of Megalodon that I missed last night since I passed the efff out around 8pm. smoochies lovers

Sic-em! Woof! Woof! Woof! Woof!

Made it to my second blog post and to the end of another work week. wahhhhooooo!
Fridays are always such a joy at the bank for many reasons. I get to work extra hours, serve more rude pleasant customers, and work my tail off to make sure I earn my weekend--especially one where I don't have to work Saturday!!

While I am busy giving out social security checks to those that don't earn those "monthly funds" today, I am linking up with the lovely Erin who gets my obsession with football and decided to dedicate an entire link up to the great sport that it is.

I have probably been a fan of football since I was in my pure diaper stage. My parents went to the University of Georgia, met their, fell in love over miller lite and ugga, and even spent an extra semester in college to get the benefits of getting free football tickets. Just living the dream I tell yah. So you can imagine that I grew up wearing black and red with sports center and ESPN being my main stream of education saturday morning through thursday night wayy past my bed time. Today, my parents are proud to claim me as a die hard Georgia Bulldawgggg Fan. I bleed red and black. However, over the last couple of years I have really developed an interest in professional football and of course I support my dirtayyy birds.

 Besides from loving the sport and of course the men that wear those tight spandex pants every week, I am a total sucker for the "air of football" aka tailgating. Nothing gets me up on a Saturday morning at 7am ready to shot gun a beer than a 12pm kick off time. Let me make this clear,  I CAN NOT GET ENOUGH OF TAILGATING. What the hell,  I am an ex sorority gal and tailgating gives me a great excuse to day drink, kick ass at corn hole, and then proceed to take advantage of $2 wells till midnight all while enjoying endless dips and chips and pigs n' a blanket.

All in all I am excited for Georgia football to start in 30 days and can't wait to be in Athens the weekend shortly after that for the first home game. In the mean time, I will be celebrating the birth of my very best friend who I introduced to you in my first post, Lauren! Happyyyy 22nd to the girl who taught me that adding sprite to wine will indeed make it taste better while getting you more drunk at the same time, who appreciates the fine art of animal crackers and peanut butter, and who can watch life as we know it a million and one times with me. Cheers baby and can't wait to see you celebrate tonight!

Firsts

First day of a new month (hellooooo august) and my first ever blog post!! eeekkkkkk
This has honestly been a long time coming. I first discovered the blogging world right after I graduated college last year and boyyy did I get sucked in. Who knew that reading stories, viewing photos, and falling in love with girls all over the country that you have never met before could become so addicting. Over the last couple of months I have been going back and forth about if I should really do this, but here I am!

My goal for this blog is to document the daily adventures of my oh-so-normal life of being a newlywed and recent college graduate, to capture the memorable moments along the way, and to form real friendships in this blogging community. 

Anywhooo the lovely Erin is the one who helped me transform this little space of the internet into something that truly represents me and something that I look forward to calling home. She also helped me come up with today's post-- About Me: ABC Survey so that you can get to know a little bit more about me!




A: Attached or Single? Attached to the hip of my other half, Jeramie or Jbear to the blog world
B: Best Friend? It's a tie between my baby sister, stephanie or all time bestie lauren

 life would be nothing without my girl, Lauren

 18 months a part and she gets mistaken for the older one 

 C: Cake or Pie? Really not a fan of either, ill just take the frosting. nommmm
D: Day of Choice? Sundays--the only day of the week where I never have to be at work and tend to be the laziest
E: Essential Item?  Extra Spearmint Gum. my life would not be in existence without it
F: Favorite Color? yeller. you cant go wrong with sunshine and sunflowers
G: Gummy Bears or Worms? barf--neither. not a candy gal at all
H: Hometown? Even though I was born in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina and wish I could call it my hometown, I really grew up in Suwanne, GA
I: Favorite Indulgence? Queso. lots and lots of queso

J: January or July? July, because when your born in the south January is where one simply freezes their tail off at 53 degrees and dreams of warmer weather
K: Kids? Zip. Zero. Nada. and please don't ask me every week when I am going to start having kiddos kayyy?
L: Life isn't Complete Without? my trash television that i look forward to every night more than i should
M: Marriage Date? 4/12/2013 :)
N: Number or Brothers/ Sisters? One of each--my sister from the same mister, stephanie and my baby brotha, mike

 

yes, he is 6'2 and 17

O: Oranges or Apples? appless hands down
P: Phobias/Fears? drowning for sure because you realize your like gonna die the entire time it is happening to you. no thanks
Q: Quotes? "Enjoy life..it is not a dress rehearsal"
R: Reasons to Smile? golden retriever puppies

S: Season of Choice? fall for four reasons: football, fashion, festivals, and more football
T: Tag 5 people? let's not be facebook now
U: Unknown Fact About Me? there was this one time where i went out to dinner and on the way home I had to use the restroom like REAL bad. it got to the point where my stomach pain was so intense that it caused me to black out (mind you I was the driver) and had to pull of to the side of the road where I then proceeded to pass out and had to get jbear to drive me to the nearest restroom.
V: Vegetables? are those the green things that you see all those healthy people eating all the time? yeah, tell me more...
W: Worst Habit? popping my joints which include; fingers, toes, neck, back, and every other possible thing in my body
X: Xray or Ultrasound? well i really don't want a broken bone or a baby sooooo
Y: Your Favorite Food? seafood. anything. if it comes from the ocean, I'll eat it
Z : Zodiac Sign? TAURUS and I think I do it justice because I am one stubborn laddyyy