That Time of Year

Dun dun dun, it's that time of year again. I sent M off to France and now the countdown till my departure is on. 

Believe it or not I have already started packing and am working on a "master packing list" to share with you. With packing means I have already gotten a few lectures from M saying, "they have that in France you don't need to pack it" but there are just some things that remind me of home and "regular life" that I want to bring with. I'm also on the fence with how many photos to bring among other items that will give our apartment a "homey" feeling which I think is important when you live this lifestyle. 

Getting ready to move to France is making me think of the amazing places and great times M and I had last year when I visited, here are a few photos to refresh your memory...

Have a great weekend!

Love&Luck

I Suck at Girls: A Novel Review and so much more!

I already have a feeling this is going to be a "longer than expected" post so take a seat and grab a snack folks.

Okay, for the last few weeks I have been in a reading slump. I raced through 50 Shades of Grey (which I reviewed here) and since then I haven't found anything I wanted to pick up or even felt like taking a look at. Let's go ahead and call this phase "readers block" since I'm pretty sure it happens to me every so often. Anyway, I'm at Target last week looking through their new fiction selection to see if anything catches my eye and I come across Justin Halpern's newest little diddy. If you forgot, I LOVED his Shit My Dad Says (read more about it here) so I literally thought, "He's hilarious, this just might get me out of my readers block" so I purchased it.

Obviously, I LOVED it. Again, Halpern somehow got me literally laughing out loud (to myself mind you) by page 40 and continued to make me laugh all the way up until the last line. What a clown this guy is; no wonder he's hilarious, with a dad like that you really can't run out of material.

What I didn't expect was Halpern to evoke some sentimental and love-y dove-y emotions out of me. Turns out this little beauty isn't about just sucking at attracting the opposite sex but how to get past sucking at relationships and the opposite sex.

By the time shit started getting sentimental, it had me thinking about a topic that I haven't written about that I should have done awhile ago. The topic: moving in with your significant other.

Do you know how most people are full of shit and never tell the truth about situations because they want you to think their lives are perfect? Yeah this is exactly how I feel about moving in with the one you love. IT'S HARD. Why didn't anybody tell me that before M and I moved in together 2 years ago?! I'll tell you why, because nobody wanted to admit that adjusting to someone else's schedule and way of life is hard. Well here it is, that shit is hard. It's even more difficult when one person is completely Type A and neurotic about cleaning and organization and the other just isn't. Figuring out a happy medium to live in a balance with each other is hard, and it's an art if you can figure out how to do it correctly. Although moving in together was challenging, it thankfully didn't take more than a month or so for M and I to figure out how to "marry" our lives under one roof with little to no hiccups.

With that being said, living together should be considered an art because in my opinion it can make or break your bond, relationship, and love if you can't figure out how to mesh well. Apparently, Halpern thinks the same thing; here's the proof from his newest book I Suck at Girls


"When you move in with someone, you can't hide all the weird and annoying things you do, and while sometimes that unveiling ruins the relationship, often it seals the deal. It's like being a meat eater and having your vegetarian friend e-mail you one of those videos that shows you what goes on behind the scenes at a slaughterhouse; if you can make it past that, you'll probably be a meat eater for life."


I think what he said is so true; although difficult and challenging, moving in with your S.O. usually roots your bond much deeper than it was before.

What was really frustrating when M and I were moving in together is that everybody said how great living together is yada yada yada. They never said, "Well you have to adjust to each other's quirks first and then it's amazing". So now I'm saying it for those who haven't lived with or are about to embark on this journey, it's hard. Is it worth it? Of course. I'll tell you this, I wouldn't enter into a marriage without living with someone first because if you can work through those kinks, the beginning of your marriage will be a lot less stressful.

Anyone else have similar experiences? Please share, I love hearing that I'm not the only one ! It also makes me feel a little less crazy.

Recommendation: Must read! Be prepared to laugh your way through each and every page.

Love&Luck

2012-2013 Hockey Season

Folks, it's official. The contract is signed, sealed, and faxed and you bet your sweet ass my name is all over M's contract for next year.

He has decided to go back to Gap, France and I am more than a bit excited. Don't get me wrong, I will always support his decisions on when, where, and why to play hockey but I REALLY wanted to come to France and experience this life on my own! I can't wait to improve my French, take trips to the market every day and just absorb it all. Ahhh Gap.

M on the other hand is still in his "just got home to America where everybody speaks English phase" so he isn't in the ready-to-get-back mode yet. However, I have a feeling things will change come mid-July and he'll get the itch to get back on the ice.

M also got me a pair of skates for my birthday! Our goal is to officially end this madness and get me to skate fairly well next year while in Gap. Really if I'm going to date a hockey player and have his children who will probably play hockey, I should know how to skate.

We'll also be taking a trip to Chicago in July for new visas for the both of us, yes, I am actually going MOVING to France. Waahoooo! So excited. Actually I'm so excited that I could leave next week.

It's already been decided though that I will cross the big pond in late September, early October after he his home from training camp so I am slightly hesitant about flying with Rue alone. But it'll be good right? More to follow on traveling with pets.

I'm also very excited to blog about traveling with Rue and provide tips, tricks, and do-not's based on our experiences. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that everything will go smoothly but deep down I'm expecting the worst (isn't that what every hockey S.O does in any situation?)

Okay, just wanted to fill you in on our 2012-2013 season plans. Good luck to you and yours if you're still in the negotiating phase!

Love&Luck

HAPPY HUMP DAY!

It is the greatest hump day ever for me. M is flying home and I am picking him up from the airport tonight! WOOOOOHOOOOOOO! So excited.

This Friday it is also my birthday so if I am M.I.A. for the next few days, now you know why.

However, I will leave you with this which I absolutely love because it applies to my relationship with M as well as many other aspects of life.

BOOM. I'm spent. Later loves.

Love&Luck

Novel Review: The 5 Love Languages

I wanted to write about a tool that has helped mine and M's relationship over the years. M and I come from different backgrounds, had different childhoods, different life experiences and are just overall different people so it's sometimes hard to understand each other's point of view. The book The Five Love Languages really helped show us both how we each perceive and appreciate acts of love. For example, when M does the laundry, dishes, or cleaning, I interpret that as a sign of love. Weird? Maybe. But I think it has a lot to do with watching my parents as I grew up. However, M definitely does not perceive love when I do the cooking, cleaning, etc. so I had to find out how he interpretted love.

I've spoken to many couples who also found this book helpful. I also saw that Gary has written a 5 Love Languages of Children book which I think would be amazing for those who have kids.

Suggestion: A must read for any relationship. Whether you just started dating someone or have been dating someone for years, this book is incredibly helpful and may even help you understand your partner better.

I also want to let you know that the book is a little slow to start with, but the real life examples Chapman gives really help you understand the love languages better. I promise once you get going, you won't be able to put it down. Plus the book is relatively short and can be finished within a day or two.

Happy reading!

Love&Luck

Weekly Round Up: Happy Friday!

Hiiiiii lovers!! So sorry AGAIN, the crazy life I call mine never ceases to desist. I hope everyone else is getting just as excited as I am about this St. Patty's right around the corner; #1 because I'm alotta Irish and #2 because I will be working at an Irish bar in a mainly Irish populated city this year so I'm excited to watch everyone else act a fool while I make all the money, muahaha!

In other news, B. Rouche is doing great and really getting the hang of potty training. She is getting so big already it is so depressing! I'm not sure how I'll do with children growing so quickly if I can hardly handle my dog doing it. We are also varying our sleep routine; sometimes she sleeps with me, sometimes she sleeps in her kennel. Slowly but surely she is befriending her kennel, we are spending a lot of time in it when it gets close to bed time by her hanging out in it while I have my arm in there petting her and saying things like "good girl" and "good kennel". Seems to be working so it is nice to finally see some progress. She is also running at lightening speed up the stairs and is already due for her 12 week shots next week, how crazy! Gah, time is flying by.

Also, two good friends and I will begin a 90 day workout challenge starting Monday. I'm super excited about it and trying to figure out why we didn't do this before? I think it will be great that 2 others will be holding me accountable and vice versa, it will be great to push each other. I won't be posting too many details about the challenge until we're done, then I will be posting before and after photos, measurements, results, etc.

My goals for the 90 day challenge look something like this...

Honestly, I would kill to be able to confidently wear a thong bikini. Hopefully I can get close, fingers crossed. 

In celebrity news, I CAN'T BELIEVE SNOOKI CAN REPRODUCE! Honestly, that girl should be one of the last people on Earth to have a child. YIKES

Look at this train wreck!

Yikes. Let's just hope Snooks cleans up that act of hers and pulls it together.

Secondly, anyone else see JSimp's naked prego Elle cover? I'm really 50/50 on this one because I do think pregnancy is beautiful and all that and I think I would like to do something similar but keep it to myself and throw it in a personal scrapbook. But on the other hand Mama Jess is just so big! I mean somebody needs to break her water because she looks like she is going to burst!

Does anyone else think that photoshopping of some sort was done here? Because why does she look so much bigger when she wears clothes?? I heard Jess has signed up to be a Jenny Craig spokeswoman to get rid of the baby weight which I'm excited about because you know she's gonna need help pullin that weight off and it will be cool to see how successful she is at it.

Last week I finally got my hair cut (it was going on 6 months, way too long I know!) and I asked my amazing stylist to recommend a restoring masque for my dry and damaged hair. This is what she suggested, I'm excited to do a review for it after I try it!

Also I've said it before but I am SO READY for M to be home. It is officially less than one month till he is back and I couldn't be more ready. Ready to have my partner, friend, confidant, voice of reason, love, shoulder, rock to be home and be by my side. So close! I'm so fed up with long distance that I don't even like to Skype that much anymore, I'm just annoyed with our current situation so I try not to acknowledge it and just keep counting down the days till he is home and we never have to do this again, woohoo! 

Okay I think that's all I have for now. I'm going to post a couple videos of Rouche playing with Maggie at some point this weekend but otherwise don't expect much from me as I'll either be crazy busy working or dead tired from working. 

Hope you all have a great weekend and a safe St. Patrick's!

Love&Luck

Pre Love Day

Valentine's Day has never been a huge deal for me although it's always nice to decorate for it and do a teeny tiny bit of celebrating. Emily at CupcakesandCashmere's latest post here has got me thinking about Valentine's Day.

Aren't these cookies she made just too cute to pass up? What a great idea!

Photo cred via cupcakesandcashmere

photo cred via cupcakesandcashmere

These little cookies just totally got me in the lovey-dovey mood and also got me thinking about how I spent Vday over the last few years.

Last year M and I spent the day lounging and enjoying life on Laguna and Newport beaches. Here are a few pictures which are making me long for days like this with him.

I made and packed a picnic lunch that we had at Laguna

Valentine's Day isn't complete without a little Vino

Wonderful scenery at Laguna

We watched the sunset snuggled up on Santa Monica Pier

And the year before that we apart so I made a mixed CD full of love songs, sent him a copy of The Five Love Languages (which I highly recommend if you haven't read it) and baked Valentine cupcakes and sent everything in a package to California. I happened to have a few pictures of the flowers M sent me that year. Tulips are my absolute favorite, aren't they beautiful?

So this year I'm feeling a little sentimental since I'm missing M an extra amount this week and I'm also a little blah, like boo Valentine's Day. I would love to go see The Vow on the actual day but can't bring myself to sit alone in the theater especially when there will be dozens of couples there. No way Jose, no pity card for me.

Are you doing anything special for your love this year? Special can mean anything from cooking dinner together to going on a date so please share with me, I love reading your comments!

The World is Changing but Our Love Stays the Same

Although I'm still in my ripe early 20's, M is slowly but surely creeping closer and closer to 30 (good thing he doesn't read my blog regularly because his feelings would be hurt).

While I was visiting over the holidays a handful of his buddies got engaged which is very exciting but it got to the point where M said, "I'm going to have to post a facebook status telling everyone to stop getting engaged because my girlfriend is getting pissed" hahaha. Which is funny because as every girl knows, when you've been dating for 4 years, you kind of start to get "the itch" especially when a ton of other couples begin getting engaged.

This part I can deal with because I know that good things come to those who wait and our time will come when it's supposed to and we're both ready.

However, what I am really unprepared for is M's friends who are already married and beginning to have babies. I am beyond excited for them, don't get me wrong, but it feels a little like I'm behind on the "typical human schedule".

Why do we always compare ourselves and our lives to everyone else's? Why can't we be satisfied and happy and live without feeling the pressure of what everyone else is doing? So as a branch off of my new lifestyle, I am proud to say that I feel happy and secure right where I am with M. Happy with my girlfriend title and even more grateful for all the experiences I get to share with M in this beautiful time of our lives where we're young and have the ability to be stupid and make rash decisions and pack up our lives within a few hours and move to a different state or country.

Anyone else ever feel the pressure? It's annoying isn't? It makes you think you're unsatisfied with your life when you're really not. Frustrating. But it is also just as easy to push those thoughts aside and be thankful for all that you have, because one day it will be your turn exactly when you want it.