Thirteen Years

 Happy Anniversary, my very favorite!

Being your girl makes the hard times feel easier.

Twelve Years

 Happy Anniversary, my sweetheart!

A dozen cupcakes couldn't be sweeter than a dozen years of being your Mrs.

Eleven Years

 Happy Anniversary, husband of mine!

Holding your hand is my favorite.

Casual Fridays

Wow. It has been a hot minute since we've caught up around here. I think this is the longest I've gone without blogging since I started this whole thing, and let me tell you: the temptation to just throw in the towel is real because there is a stack of books waiting to be recapped sitting in my little home library and some of them still date back to last summer. We're doing great. I'm sneaking this post in today so that when I look back at the blog archives, it will seem like I only missed one month instead of three which is the actual truth because the two posts I published in May were technically scheduled and ready to go in April. Oy to the vey. Let's ease back in with a chatty Casual Friday, shall we?

First of all: hi. This is what we look like in case you forgot. And if you missed it, we've been North Carolina residents for over a year now. So this photo is basically in our back yard. We are nestled right in the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains and sandwiched between a national forest and a state forest. There's a waterfall around every corner.

And speaking of living in NC now: it snows here, y'all. We got nearly two feet of snow in January and we didn't know what to do with ourselves. I'm sure our neighbors thought we were crazy because we were outside playing in it like a couple of kids. We were sledding down all the roads in our neighborhood, laughing and squealing like we were ten years old. All Cody's winter wonderland dreams came true, and you know what? Sitting inside by a cozy fire drinking something hot and reading a good book while there is a blizzard outside is not a bad life. Driving in it was terrifying, but we survived. 

In April, we went down to Myrtle Beach, SC for my littlest sister-from-another-mister's wedding. Funnily enough, this was the first time we've ever taken our dogs to the beach, and I think Cody had the most fun he's ever had on a beach in his life. Meggy was a beautiful bride, and her reception turned into a mini-Class of '06 reunion for me which was fun. I also convinced two of my BFFs to share an Airbnb with me so the whole weekend was basically one big party.

Also in April, my baby had a baby. I can't. I'm very "in my feels" about it, and you better believe I immediately drove down to Georgia to snuggle that little man. 

And speaking of being "in my feels" (as the kids say), my best friend and her babies came to visit a few weeks ago and I took her oldest out for a little date to one of my favorite spots and don't mind me crying into my Dr. Pepper over here while I stroll down memory lane remembering the day she was born. She's totally a teenager now and an amazing artist and writing her own books and somebody please stop time, for the love. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's go back to May... 

...in May, I got to exercise my constitutional right to vote in the 2022 primaries. This was my first opportunity to vote as a resident of North Carolina. I'm so very grateful to live in a country where I'm afforded this opportunity. Even though politics and politicians can make me want to bang my head against a wall sometimes, I wouldn't want to live anywhere else. God bless America. 

Also in May, Cody and I celebrated ten years of marriage. I actually got back into my wedding dress and my husband patiently indulged my request for a mini-backyard photo shoot. We watched our wedding video together, looked at photos, and went on our traditional date to Barnes & Noble and the Melting Pot. We also officially checked North Carolina off on our goal to #SeeAll50, but that's a post for another day. May is a crazy month always, and I blame my blogging failure entirely to that fact. Just in our immediate family, we celebrate three anniversaries and four birthdays. My brother and sister came in to celebrate our Mom's 60th birthday, but I have been strictly forbidden from posting the photos I took with them online. Oh wait! We did take a nice family photo at the Olive Garden. So here's that:

May also turned out to be my last month delivering packages for Amazon. I made it almost a full year. It was a good job, but I don't miss it. After a few too many less-than-safe driving experiences and being so entirely exhausted on all my days off, my husband and I decided the cons were starting to outweigh the pros of me having this job, and I gave my bosses my notice. I had great bosses, and delivering packages in the mountains of Western North Carolina certainly whipped my body into shape. I don't know if I would necessarily recommend being a delivery driver, but God provided for us through this job and I'm glad I was able to do it while it lasted. 

The first weekend of June saw us on a roadtrip to my beautiful Florida. Two of our nieces were having their first dance recital and there was no way we were going to miss cheering on those tiny dancers. We, of course, had to spend an afternoon with our boy, my sisters and I went to the beach for a day, and I got together with my book club. It was a jam-packed weekend trying to see as many people as we could and do as many of our favorite things as possible. (You know I came home with a stack of books from The Book Shelter.)

As I already alluded to, my best friend and her kids came for a visit the first week of July. Auntie Hannah had all the fun catching up with these babies. Our 4th of July fireworks got rained out, but that couldn't keep us down. We ate a lot of food, played a lot of games, and had a lot of fun. 

Y'all. I have a bush of the most gorgeous purple hydrangeas in my yard. Let me start this section off by saying I have the blackest of black thumbs. My house is where plants come to die. But these hydrangeas have been blooming on their own like crazy this summer and it has brought me no end of joy. 

And while we're on the subject of nature, deer and bunnies and all kind of fun animals hang out in our yard. We see them on a daily basis. There is also a mama black bear with two small cubs that have been making the rounds in our neighborhood, but I haven't caught them on camera yet. I tell ya: it's a whole new world for me up here in NC. We've gone from lizards and sand hill cranes and gators to woodland creatures, and it's a fun change. 

And one more backyard photo. Because apparently I'm turning into my mother and taking pictures of things like spiderwebs. Here's a handy link to when I recapped Charlotte's Web on the blog. You're welcome. 

Last week we celebrated my Gramma's 89th birthday. And because we are so redneck and Polk County people till the day we die, we stuck a giant match in her cake when we couldn't find any birthday candles. Gramma and I have been alone on the mountain a lot this summer because my parents and Cody have had to travel a lot for work and having her all to myself has been really special. We have a standing Wheel and Jeopardy date each night which basically keeps me going while Cody's away. 

Are you still with me? I know: this has been a lot. But that's what's been going on around here lately. I also have to tell you that Cody read Little Women (one of my all-time favorite books) and watched all three of our movie adaptations with me this summer. He loved the book, and was properly indignant over the liberties taken in the films. His favorite was actually the newest adaptation starring Saoirse Ronan as Jo. 

Anyway, I leave you with this photo of my puppies, because aren't they just the sweetest? Be on the lookout for some actual book recaps coming your way next week, and drop me a line telling me how your year has been going!

Ten Years

 Happy Anniversary, my Cody Aaron!

For me, it's you.

Eight Years

Happy Anniversary, my sweet man!

Kissing you never gets old.

Casual Fridays

First things first: I got a little "Currently Reading" widget on the blog! (It's the little things, y'all. And go me for even knowing what a widget is, right?!) Look over to the right of the screen and check it out. (If you read my blog on your phone, it's very likely that you'll need to scroll to the bottom of the page and click on "Web View" in order to see all the extras I have on the side of the blog. I wouldn't personally know because I'm back to that flip phone life, but that's usually how it works.) I created a GoodReads account solely for the purpose of getting that little widget for my blog. So if you ever just want to stop by and check on what I'm actually reading, you can! I'll do my best to keep it up to date. 

And now I will proceed to talk about my anniversary which may get me all sappy and romantic and braggy about my amazing husband so if that totally makes you gag, feel free to skip this part because I so get that. (But don't miss out on the crazy book haul which I will definitely be talking about later in this post.)

Our anniversary fell on a Saturday this year, and my sweetheart's schedule had him working the three days leading up to it (he's an emergency room nurse so his schedule is whack). So Friday night after another long 12-hour shift, he stopped by the store to pick up some goodies for our 4-day weekend. Usually, this means that he will walk in the door with flowers for me and I would be lying right now if I say that a teeny tiny corner of my heart wasn't a bit disappointed that that wasn't the case Friday night. 

However, I wake up at 4 in the morning alone in bed and go out in search of my husband. He intercepts me in the hallway and says he needed to get a drink of water or some such nonsense like that and sends me back to bed. Well, after several minutes of him still not coming back to the bedroom, I walk out to the front part of the house to find him arranging the most gorgeous dozen red roses you ever saw and setting up the table with this banner from our wedding day that I thought had never survived the drive away from the church. Enter scene of Cody being so exasperated that I ruined his sweet surprise and me having an emotional meltdown because I actually married the best guy on the planet and I can't even handle it. We ended up staying awake and exchanging cards (which were not identical but they both said "Happy You & Me Day" on the front—stop it), reading our love letters out loud to one another (more waterworks: we wrote these as a part of our pre-marital counseling and they are framed and hang in a prominent place in our home—even if you're already married and didn't do this, I highly recommend it; it's the sweetest), and dancing to our song (I warned you how sappy this could get, don't hate me). The whole morning is my new favorite memory and I never want to forget a single detail. 

I love you, Cody Aaron Hancock, and I don't deserve you. 

Anyway (for those of you trying to get past all the mush, here's where you should tune back in), later that morning, we drove out to Lake Wales to check out a new little used bookstore I've been hearing whispers about, and we hit the mother lode, y'all. We walked out of there with no less than 14 books, and that was only after me getting through one shelf. You guys, I cannot recommend this place highly enough. It's called The Book Shelter and they're only open on Fridays and Saturdays from 10AM-6PM, but you need to check it out. They have a fantastic selection (obviously), great incentives (we got a free book just for finding the silverfish—ask me what this means), and the prices are insane (to put this in perspective, the stack of books from The Book Shelter on the left side of the roses cost less than the four new books from Barnes & Noble on the right side of the roses). I can't even, and yes I'm going to list all the books we got because I know you want to know. If you decide to check it out, tell them I sent you. 

And now for the books. The stack on the left side from top to bottom are as follows:

A Walk to Remember : Nicholas Sparks

Hatchet : Gary Paulsen

Dogsong : Gary Paulsen

Mrs. Dalloway : Virginia Woolf

The Joy Luck Club : Amy Tan

The Devil in the White City : Erik Larson

Housekeeping : Marilynne Robinson

Lila : Marilynne Robinson

Gilead : Marilynne Robinson

The Idiot : Fyodor Dostoevsky

The Scarlet Pimpernel : Baroness Orczy

Love in the Time of Cholera : Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Beloved : Toni Morrison

East of Eden : John Steinbeck

And the new ones from Barnes & Noble because we don't just throw tradition to the wind even when we've already bought 14 books somewhere else:

Present Concerns : C.S. Lewis

The Woman in White : Wilkie Collins

I Am The Messenger : Markus Zusak

The Hunt for Red October : Tom Clancy

Cody only chose three out of all of these. I have a problem. We also walked down the street from The Book Shelter and finally spent a gift card I've literally had since our wedding. Six years seemed like long enough to hang onto it. And, of course, we had our date night to The Melting Pot and Barnes & Noble. Six years and it just keeps getting sweeter. 

The Melting Pot : 5/19/2018

Have you read any of the books from my list up there? Can you guess which three Cody picked out? Can you guess which two I've already read since Saturday? 

Six Years

Happy Anniversary, my sweet thing!

I did, I do, I will....always, always, always. 

Augustine Grace Photography

Casual Fridays

Oh y'all. I thought April was the crazy month, but May slapped me across the face and then laughed about it. My grandmother passed away, my sister officially became a 2nd lieutenant in the USAF and then graduated from college, Mother's Day came and went, all the ants in Central Florida decided my house was the place to party (they were met with bleach and extreme hatred), my husband and I celebrated five years of marriage, and now I'm going through the ringer with these wisdom teeth. Honestly, there hasn't been much reading going on (although I did manage to fit in Slaughterhouse-Five), but that didn't stop us from buying an entire shelf-full of new books on our anniversary weekend--more about that Monday. For now, let's just look at pictures. That's always fun, right?

First of all, this little cutie-patootie (and her parents) are finally coming back to the States and you better believe I am going to be at the airport in Atlanta to pick them up and personally escort them to Alabama because it's been almost one whole year since I went to Japan to see them. I'm so excited! And I'm so thankful that their next home is within driving distance. I predict lots of weekend trips to AL in my near future. 

Speaking of my nieces, this little hot mess lost Tooth #2 a few weeks ago. I keep telling her she's not allowed to grow up, but look at her just defying my wishes and growing up anyway. It can't be helped. While we're on the subject of teeth, my wisdom teeth are coming out on Thursday so please pray that I don't pee my pants or anything equally embarrassing while I'm under the anesthesia and that I actually do wake up from the anesthesia when it's all over--but, for the love of everything holy, not before! 

Cody was working on our actual anniversary, but the night before, we spontaneously decided to take a date night over to Family Fun Center to celebrate our five blissful years as man and wife. We played all the arcade games (I ruled in skee-ball, he spanked me on the big-game hunting, and we tied on our street race through Rio even though the dumb computer attributed the win to him), ate a total junk dinner (pizza, wings, and cherry coke), challenged each other on the putt-putt course (he beat me by 8 strokes--I was totally off my game), and spent all our tickets on very mature items like plastic samurai swords (I got a black one, he got a red one) and green apple blow-pops (because duh). As you can see, the photobooth had an anniversary option. So apparently, we're not the only ones who like to celebrate our love by acting like a couple of teenagers, thankyouverymuch. We had a complete blast, and the night after our anniversary, we still had our grown-up date to the Melting Pot and Barnes & Noble. 

My anniversary roses. 

Because I couldn't not post a picture of them. 

Insert all the heart-eye emojis here.

These two, amiright?! It's a good thing they're so dang sweet because they (and by "they" I mostly just mean Major although Colonel hasn't been totally innocent) have been getting into the trash lately and eating it. I can't. It's so gross. We went out and got them some new chew toys this week and they have been loving the tough rubber tug-of-war rings we got them. So hopefully they'll stay out of the trash. 

I'm currently in the middle of Job and still slugging along in The Three Musketeers. I'm attributing my lack of headway in this book more to the craziness of the past couple months than the actual content, but I will say that it still hasn't grabbed me yet. I'm contemplating trying to squeeze in Hamlet or Agnes Grey this next week so I can actually check one of my book list books off this month. Thoughts?

And let's wrap this photo-sesh up with my three boys because aren't they the sweetest?! 

I'm the luckiest girl in the world. 

What's going on with you lately? Has May been crazy for anyone else? I still haven't gotten my beach day. What are you reading these days? Any suggestions of what to stock the pantry with during my convalescence? 

Five Years

Happy Anniversary, my lover-man! 

I will follow you wherever you may go.

Augustine Grace Photography

Alabama

The second state we decided to check off our Bucket List was Alabama. After Google-ing unique things to do in Alabama (because really, what is there to do in Alabama?) we decided to go camping at Cathedral Caverns State Park. So after Cody got home from work on Thursday, April 6th, we finished loading up the car and started the ten hour drive to the top northeastern corner of Alabama. We finally crossed the Alabama state line at about 7:00 the next morning.

It took us about another hour and a half to get to the campgrounds where we had our pick of the campsites and went ahead and got set up. 

We then drove up to "get registered" and buy our tickets for the cave tour for the following day. I say "get registered" loosely because we probably could have camped there for days without them ever realizing we were there (in fact, I think one of the families that ended up camping there Friday night probably never paid for their campsite). It was pretty laid back. We spent the rest of Friday relaxing, walking around the park, reading, making a campfire and eating hot dogs and s'mores. We pretty much had the grounds to ourselves till about dinnertime when other campers started showing up. 

On Saturday, we took it easy in the morning and waited to go do the cave tour until 2:00. I think there were 14 people in our group including our guide. The cave tour was amazing! I've never been in a cave that massive before. It took us about an hour and a half to walk as far back as we were allowed and then back out of the cave. When we got as far back in the cave as we were allowed to go, they turned off all the lights inside the cave and when I say it was pitch black, I mean pitch. black. You couldn't see your hand right in front of your face. The most incredible part of the experience in my opinion is that, except for the walkways and handrails that have been put throughout the cave, everything else about it has been untouched. There was one tunnel we went through that had been blasted out, but only because the natural tunnel floods at certain times of the year so it's unsafe to use it. I think for most of the tour through the caverns, my mouth was hanging open because I couldn't believe how expansive they were. 

in front of the cave opening

from the inside looking out of the natural cave opening

If you're looking for something cool to do in Alabama, I would definitely recommend Cathedral Caverns State Park. We spent another freezing night in our tent Saturday, and spent Sunday packing up and driving home. Alabama : done! 2 down, 48 to go.

What little-known treasures in the U.S. would you recommend we try to see?

A Word for Wednesday

"Fie, fie! unknit that threatening unkind brow,
And dart not scornful glances from those eyes,
To wound thy lord, thy king, thy governor:
It blots thy beauty as frosts do bite the meads,
Confounds thy fame as whirlwinds shake fair buds,
And in no sense is meet or amiable.
A woman moved is like a fountain troubled,
Muddy, ill-seeming, thick, bereft of beauty;
And while it is so, none so dry or thirsty
Will deign to sip or touch one drop of it.
Thy husband is thy lord, thy life, thy keeper,
Thy head, thy sovereign; one that cares for thee,
And for thy maintenance commits his body
To painful labour both by sea and land,
To watch the night in storms, the day in cold,
Whilst thou liest warm at home, secure and safe;
And craves no other tribute at thy hands
But love, fair looks and true obedience:
Too little payment for so great a debt.
Such duty as the subject owes the prince
Even such a woman oweth to her husband;
And when she is froward, peevish, sullen, sour,
And not obedient to his honest will,
What is she but a foul contending rebel
And graceless traitor to her loving lord?
I am ashamed that women are so simple
To offer war where they should kneel for peace,
Or seek for rule, supremacy and sway,
When they are bound to serve, love and obey.
Why are our bodies soft and weak and smooth,
Unapt to toil and trouble in the world,
But that our soft conditions and our hearts
Should well agree with our external parts?
Come, come, you froward and unable worms!
My mind hath been as big as one of yours,
My heart as great, my reason haply more,
To bandy word for word and frown for frown;
But now I see our lances are but straws,
Our strength as weak, our weakness past compare,
That seeming to be most which we indeed least are.
Then vail your stomachs, for it is no boot,
And place your hands below your husband's foot:
In token of which duty, if he please,
My hand is ready; may it do him ease.

~Katharina's final speech in The Taming of the Shrew by Shakespeare~

Friday the 13th

It's been exactly 5 years since the best Friday the 13th I've experienced in my life. 

Cody, my darling man, I am more head over heels in love with you today

 than I was this day five years ago. 

After my salvation, you are my most precious gift from God, and I thank Him for giving me you. 

Thank you for asking me to be your wife.

I don't deserve this much happiness. 

I love you forever.

Friday the 13th
January 2012

Florida

Since the very beginning of our marriage, Cody and I have talked about seeing all 50 states together. It's a big Bucket List item for us, and we decided this year that we needed to start working toward it. Even though we've traveled to several different states together for various reasons, we decided to define our parameters for this Bucket List goal of ours and start making it happen. Here's what we decided:

• We will do at least one specific, unique activity in each state.
• We will purpose to visit at least one new state each year. Preferably more, but at least one.
• We will buy a T-shirt from every single state with the goal of one day making a cozy T-shirt blanket to commemorate our success. In the meantime, fun wardrobe options.
• We will create an All-American scrapbook of our adventures with a spread from each state, and I will also create a blog post for each state.

That's pretty much it. Not complicated, but definitely measurable and super-fun. And of course, we decided to start at home. So the weekend of my birthday, we traveled down to the Keys, stayed in a little "cottage" on Marathon, and spent one whole day on Key West checking out the Southernmost Point, eating the freshest fish straight out of the Caribbean, ducking in and out of funky gift shops, laughing at how many crazy roosters are all over that island, and watching the Mallory Square performers at sunset try to swindle us out of our money. Too bad we never carry cash.

Florida : done.

Have you visited all 50 states? Do you care to? What's your favorite one?