by Joey | Mar 15, 2013 | beauty, Loves, Real Life
1. I painted my nails a couple times this week. I’m obsessed.
1. Sinful Colors Cotton Candy with OPI pirouette my whistle
2. Rimmel 841 Carnival (which seems to be the theme of my nails this week) with an Accent: Sally Hansen: Glass Slipper
2. I entered the youtube world. Two videos down. Let’s hope the awkwardness wears off soon because they are way fun to make. Make my life and go subscribe. I’d love you forever.
[I really need to learn how to generate thumbnails. Nothing like a dog scratching in the background!]
3. A girl approached me at Walmart yesterday while I was perusing the beauty aisle and said she just had to laugh at what was in my cart. I looked down and all that was in my cart? Tampons and chocolate. Obvious much?
4. I’m still going strong on the no sleep aid thing. I can hardly believe it when I wake up in the morning that I wasn’t up all night long. The bags and dark circles under my eyes are magically disappearing before my very eyes!!!
5. We’ve got one week of living in Buies Creek under our belts and so far so good. And as I type this, the husband is pulling into the driveway for his lunch break–which I love. So I’m going to run off to fix him some lunch and enjoy some time with him!
Happy Friday, Loves!!!
by Joey | Mar 14, 2013 | Throwback
Five months ago I was in the fetal position on my dining room floor on the phone with a good friend in the midst of the messiest of cries. That kind of cry when you don’t even really have enough air to get words out.
In my heart, all I felt was that I just did not want to. I’m not a girl who is often put in situations where I have to do something I don’t want to. I just don’t allow that to happen. I felt that way one other time (strongly), and I quit the job the next day. I don’t do things I’m not ultimately comfortable with. I did not want to leave Charlotte. I did not want to leave our house. I was not going. This wasn’t happening.
My throat remained tight for weeks. I couldn’t talk about it. I couldn’t think about it, but I also couldn’t stop thinking about it. There was nothing about the situation that gave me any peace. I was happy for my husband, and I was grateful for his opportunity–but I just didn’t understand why it couldn’t be a school closer to home. Our home. The home we’d spent the last two years finally creating. I was being selfish, I know. But I just couldn’t help how I felt. Or I didn’t want to. You decide.
When the house we are currently living in came up, I immediately shot it down. I’d already come to terms with the idea of leaving Charlotte, because at that point my husband had already been living away from me for several months and I just wanted to be where he was. But I wanted to be with him in the kind of house we were leaving in Charlotte.
FYI: those do not exist in Buies Creek in our price range. Apparently we were really lucky to snag the house we were in for what we were paying. Stupid.
Again, I was being selfish. I wanted an updated kitchen. I wanted floors that didn’t look like they’d been soiled. I wanted I wanted I wanted.
I could not open my mind. I stressed and worried and complained. I ultimately just allowed myself to trust my husband. I told him if he felt it was the best thing for us, that I’d trust him. And I did. Not that trusting my husband is hard–what’s hard for me is allowing myself to relinquish control. It’s incredibly hard for me to just trust that things are going to work out instead of forcing them to. I took a lot of deep breaths.
I was excited to end our separation, which ultimately was a good thing because it eclipsed everything else I was worried about. I allowed myself to get into a place where I just looked at all of this as one big adventure. I was certain I’d never be as happy here as I was in Charlotte. I’d never like the house as much as the house we were leaving. The house we were leaving was perfect in all of the important ways.
This entire experience has rattled me. It seems like such a simple thing: a relocation. But it was so much more than that for me. There was so much else going on beneath the surface that it really caused me to have to look inside my heart and work on the person I was. It made me uncomfortable in so many ways. It upset me. It changed my world. And I’m so glad it did.
We’re here. And no one died. The house is wonderful. It’s cute and quaint and beautiful. And it’s cheap. It’s different, but it works. And I actually really like it. And I might gag on my words here, but I might like it (in a different way) more than the house we left.
Leaving Charlotte was sad for me. Especially because I know we most likely won’t end up back there. I’ve learned to never say never though, so who knows. While J and I sat down for dinner the other night, I joked about how there’s no way we’d’ve been able to see where our life was heading ten years ago when we were just starting out.
I certainly didn’t think we’d be living in a podunk middle of nowhere town: happy.
by Joey | Mar 14, 2013 | Throwback
Hi guys.
I’ve been working on getting the nerve to do something getting something set up for a while now.
I’ve actually been thinking about doing this for a really really long time.
And it’s youtube. Beauty videos specifically.
I am always always watching them.
And over time, I just kept thinking to myself:
I could do that.
I mean. It makes sense. I love make up and I love to talk.
So TheGirlJoey was born.
If you love me at all, please run over and subscribe
(if you have a gmail account–you can subscribe, it’s that simple :)).
I’d really really appreciate it.
I also realized it’s going to take A WHOLE LOTTA NERVE to do this (shocker: I’m shy).
So any support would be great!
by Joey | Mar 12, 2013 | beauty, Loves, Real Life
Lately:
- I’ve been wearing the promise ring that I so desperately wanted J to replace with an engagement ring instead of my wedding set. I don’t know why. My wedding set is gorgeous to me, but I just like something about the simplicity of the band with the engagement ring. I mean–either way it still looks like I’m married–so no big deal, right? I honestly think it’s because I like the look of my engagement ring on it’s own–and this is closer to that.
whadayathink?
- I have been sleeping so so well. You know, if you’ve hung around here long enough that I completely suck at sleeping. I rely solely on sleep aids and even then I’d wake up multiple times a night. Well, since last Wednesday night, I haven’t taken a single sleep aid! And aside from waking up to pee (which I’ve actually been falling right back to sleep after), I’ve had NO problems! J swears it’s because my anxiety level has decreased immensely now that I’m home all day.
- I’ve been working hard on a project (aside from unpacking the house) that I’m really anxious to get out there for you guys. Everything is pretty much set up–now I just have to make it happen! I should be posting/announcing in the next few days! Yay!
- I’ve been happy. I’m usually (or at least I USED to be) a pretty happy person-but had found myself complaining and sad way too often the last few years. Things have been in a perpetual state of either up in the air or let’s just get through this for the last few years. And I’m happy to say, I’m happy just the way things are right now.
- It’s been relatively warm here, so I busted out the flip flops. Aside from the fact that my toe nails need some desperate attention, my feet have lived in socks since September mostly because they have been so rough
gross, I know. I found this stuff at Walmart for less than $4, so I figured I’d give it a go. It’s doing the trick!
Also, be sure to hop over to
Myra’s blog today! She’s on the trip of the lifetime and asked if I’d babysit her space! Go show her some love!
What have you been up to lately?
by Joey | Mar 9, 2013 | Throwback
Good morning, loves! We are moving right along with this move. Oh. I said move a lot. Anyway. This post is mostly brought to you by massive amounts of caffeine and exhaustion!
The husband spent the night in the new house on Thursday night with the cat (George–who had been sick the week leading up to the move, so we felt it was best to move him directly there as he is anxious in the car and didn’t want to have to move him twice). I spent the evening at my parents’ house in Raleigh, which is only about 45 mins to an hour away.
I arrived, and wow. The house looks so much better than it did when I visited it back in January. There was this God awful blue carpeting through most of the house which just didn’t do it any favors. The school came in and ripped them up and refinished the hardwoods! I cannot even believe how beautiful it looks. We are so lucky to be so well taken care of by the University.
[living room]
The movers arrived around 11. The hub was out picking up supplies to rig up some kind of fencing since our original idea is flushed because the neighbor’s fence that we were going to connect to isn’t on the edge of his property line. I directed the unloading process, which seemed to go fairly easily. It wasn’t until I went to actually start unpacking that I noticed that most of the boxes, though semi-labled, where not in the rooms they came from (kitchen stuff in bedroom, garage stuff in guest room, master bedroom stuff in storage room–it was kind of a mess)! Though this seems like a rather small detail–I’m one tiny person. Half the reason for the movers is because I can’t move the boxes from room to room. Oh, well. I managed.
[our cute little country style house!]
[the movers took the most direct route to the door, ha!]
As you can tell, if you look past the truck in this picture, we are right on campus. That’s the library across from us!
[so thankful for this hardworking man]
This morning we’re waiting on the cable guy. Well, I’m waiting on the cable guy (and my mom. And my dog–my parents kept Bailey for us yesterday while the movers were in and out), while the husband continues his work outside. I made us breakfast (eggs in a basket and turkey bacon) and then started looking for the cable boxes (we’re sticking with DirectTV, so they instructed us to just move the receivers and the technician here will just hook them up). I found 2/4 with no problem. The third one took an additional half hour to hunt down. The 4th one? COULD NOT FREAKING FIND IT ANYWHERE! I emptied the contents of every box in every room (mind you, just strewing them about in no particular order–our pretty new house is ransacked now). Finally, I was getting really annoyed. I had the husband come in to check the boxes in the storage unit (where he literally opened every. single. freaking. box) while I did one more search of all the boxes inside.
There was one box I didn’t touch. It was marked “Master Bedroom: Shoes.” Okay. Let me first say–the receiver that was missing came from the Loft. Not the Master. But of course–why WOULDN’T it be in that box? I was relieved to find it–but sheesh. What a mess I’m left with now! I guess that means I just have to move forward with all the unpacking/decorating sooner than I had planned!
Okay. This is one long boring post. If you made it this far–congratulations. I wish I could give you a cup of coffee. Or a hug!
Hope you all have lovely Saturdays! I am so glad and so thankful that everything has worked out the way it has. And I’m so thankful to you all who have stuck with me and supported us both through all of this. You all make my heart so dag-gone happy.
And though I’ve always lived in the South–now that I live in a podunk-middle-of-nowhere-town, I feel it’s necessary to say….
BYE Y’ALL!
