Not sure I like it. Not sure if its me.

So what do you think about trends out there in blog land? Are we judging to harshly? I read a ton of home decor and design blogs. I read a lot of home decor magazines. I imagine I see and like things that perhaps others that aren't as absorbed in this "culture" wouldn't come into contact with.

Thoughts?

Do I jump on a trend bandwagon because of the blogs and magazines I read? Or am I ahead of the curve and before its jumped the shark?

I honestly find myself doing this more with home decor and some beauty items over clothes. While I like some trendy clothes, I generally don't invest in the trendier items.

What do you think?

What trends out there do think are played out and what things do you think are classic and will never die no matter how many knock offs are sold at Target? Has Pinterest changed everything?

Well hello there... We're knee deep in preparations for Mr. Jetplane's upcoming desert vacay so last night, while he was packing his 72 hr bag that can weight 70lbs and be on the jet with him, we watched Catfish.

Yeah I know, I'm so far behind. Well, sorry folks homegirl here lives in BFE and they didn't release it in theaters around me, that I was aware of :( Plus I've been trying to RedBox that stuff since it was released to DVD. 3 RedBoxes in our lil town and believe I've been checking all of them on the regular.

But I digress...we finally watched it. Mr had no idea what this film was even about but even he liked it. The commented...you and your twatter friends should be careful. Yeah he calls Twitter, Twatter.



I do think in this day in age of social media, its important for everyone to know this cautionary tale. I feel its even more vital for people in the blogging community to be mindful of these issues. Not to give anything away, but people out there on the world wide web, aren't always as they seem... I know a big DUH right...well its true.

We've all heard of the blogs and bloggers that aren't exactly what they seem or have fabricated an entire life for themselves. I think we all need to be cautious. We open ourselves up in this space. Whether to find comfort, compassion, friendship, shopping tips, recipes, advice, or a free 20% off coupon, we are opening our worlds and often our hearts to masses of people that we've never met.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy this community. I feel thankful for this community. And on somedays, I will admit I need this community. But unfortunately the world isn't a perfect place, and some people are straight up crazzzzy....

Anyone else have any thoughts on the movie? This crazy world of blogging/twitter/facebook?

We all are guilty at one time or another of letting ourselves go and gaining weight. It could because we get 'fat and happy' or 'sad and fat'. We could have just had a baby, switched medications, or developed an unhealthy obsession with Rocky Road ice cream....it happens to us all.



And when we gain this weight we start to feel it, not just feel it in our body but feel it in our soul. We start to feel bad about ourselves. We feel less like the woman we thought we were and less attractive. Well, at least I do.



I have gained some weight since we got married June 2008. Some will say that I haven't gained 'a lot of weight', but enough for me to notice and enough for it to hurt my self esteem. I'm only 5'2" so every lb is painful.



I want to lose some lbs and more importantly I want to look better in my clothes. I want to be toned. I want definition in my legs. I want to feel good in a sleeveless shirt. I want to feel like this picture again...

I felt good in this picture. It was a month after the wedding and I took them for Mr's birthday present. I had lost weight before the wedding and felt good about my body. I want to feel good about my body again.

So what am I gonna do about this?



I've started Couch to 5k and I am doing this plan. There are a couple C to 5k plans out there, or at least it appears to be the case. I chose this one, because let's face it....I loathe running and starting at running 2 minutes 1st workout, just ain't-a-happenin. This plan starts with the 1st 3 workouts - jogging 60 seconds and walking 90 seconds. I do my 3rd work out tomorrow morning.



Mr. Jetplane is doing this with me, not because he needs it but for moral support. After the 1st 'run', we got home I was exhausted and he went on a 7 mile run. Yeah this is the type of guy I'm dealing with.



Surprisingly I'm excited about this...and that is saying a lot for someone that regularly says the only time you'd see me running is if I was being chased... Yeah, a runner I am not. But I do seriously hope that this program can change my opinion on running and in turn help me get back into shape.

I will keep you all up to date with my progress. I will also be integrating some new and healthy recipes into our diet.

Project Get Sexy is in full effect...

Photo Credit - Oeil Photography

No I'm not talking Michael Jackson here...I'm talking the color of our kitchen cabinets. Do I go black or white?


Black? Like Gwenie Paltrow's kitchen...

Or white like this gorgeous kitchen...

That is the question my friends. Our counter top is a Corian and appears to be relatively new. It is tan with flecks of white, gray, and black. The flooring we are putting in is a dark, real wood that will be carried in from the living room to the kitchen and into the family room. The wood color is similar to the flooring in the picture of the white kitchen above.

Here is the kitchen in all its glory with the original owner's belongings.

What was your first thought? Those kitchen cabinets on the right have to go??? Well that's what we thought too... Day 1 we ripped out the cabinets. Excuse the 2 big boxes we used those to help us hold the cabinets in place while removing all the screws, nails, and whatever else had been holding those things up since 1986.

So what's the consensus....black or white?

We have purchased fixtures for over the kitchen table and the sink, those are brushed nickel and were cheap at Lowe's so the new cabinet hardware will be brushed nickel. We are also set on removing the top portion of the Corian that is used as a backsplash. These pieces are glued on and not a portion of the countertop. This will be replaced with white subway tile with white or a gray/black grout.

So do we go black or white?

* Sorry I do not have links for the 2 kitchen pictures, if you do, please advise and I will give appropriate credit.

** FYI - All the appliances will be replaced. All trim work will be white and all doors are getting replaced with new, white doors.

Today I am 30 years old...I am no longer in my 20s, nor my late 20s...I am 30. I'm not going to provide you with this in depth introspective post about what turning 30 means to me or anything but I will say this...I'm freaked out about it.

So in honor of this stupendous occasion I'm going to provide you with 30 random and perhaps totally insignificant facts about myself.

1. I won't drink 'white' milk.

2. I used to be really into NASCAR, but to my defense I worked for a company that sponsored one and I called on Home Improvement stores...hello I needed to know about NASCAR.

3. Milo was 'this close' to be named Bogart.

4. In high school, I was into punk rock and ska music....I may still have ALL that music.

5. I am a AGD.

6. I have a ridiculously small pinky toe, with an even smaller toe nail on it.

7. My childhood nickname is Pooh Bear.

8. I still haven't legally changed by name....yeah I'm really bad.

9. I was on the quiz bowl team in junior high and high school, and I freaking loved it. I also was captain for our sorority team in Greek Week.

10. I took tap, jazz, ballet, and toe shoe ballet. Obviously, being 5'2" a ballerina was not in my future.

11. My mother let me name my lil brother or at least she let me think I did....after my favorite television show in 1984 - Heart to Heart.

12. I have OCD when it comes to closing the garage. I will turn around and come home to make sure I closed it, I do it ALL the time.

13. I used to have a thick southern accent when I was 4-5yrs old. When my parents were still married we lived in Natchez and Baton Rouge for about a year or so.

14. In 1st grade I went to a speech therapist and she got rid of the accent.

15. My favorite book I think will always be Dante's Inferno. I read it for Honors English senior year. For our class gift to our teacher, we made a plaque for above his door that read, "Abandon All Hope Ye Who Enter Here"

16. I have a deep love for techno music....thanks to college.

17. Mr. Jetplane and I often call each other by our last names.

18. Freshman year of college, I dated 2 guys and they knew about each other - One at home and one at school.

19. My favorite color is any shade of blue.

20. I know almost every word to Pretty in Pink, 16 Candles, and the Breakfast Club. John Hughes was God!!!

21. I also may have watched Howard the Duck every single weekend with my lil brother, on a VCR we rented with our videos.

22. My brother and I used to set up Double Dare challenges in our backyard.

23. I am messy. I hate to clean.

24. Dr. Pepper is my favorite soda.

25. Up until the 8th grade, my mother made me get perms. She used to give them to me in the kitchen sink...I used to say to her...give up I have straight hair.

26. I participated in beauty pageants, and I won some. My talent was tap.

27. I haven't spoken to my biological father since I was 20, and that was just by mistake when I answered the phone and he wanted to speak to my brother.

28. I curse alot.

29. I love Party Pizzas....like LOVE them.

30. My favorite smell in the world, honeysuckle.... It takes me right back to being a kid, playing with my cousins in my grandmother's backyard.

So there you go....30 totally random things about this 30 year old lady. Oh and one last thing...

Yes this lil blog has gotten quite a face lift, its still a work in progress...so please bear with me if not all the links are working properly. I'll talk more about the 'new look' later this week...

On a much different note....We got back from Vegas last night, many stories to tell about loathing American Airlines, loving Chelsea Handler, and meeting a great fellow blogger.

Let's us say one fellow blogger got to meet the Jetplanes in all our drunk glory. Oh yeah! Hot mess alert...

Oh and on even bigger news...TODAY is the last day of my 20s....we pause for a moment of silence...

Hello All! Someone is crazy busy so I apologize for blogging this week is my low priority...Don't leave me...


For your enjoyment and since I'm a bad blogger...here's something for you to laugh at.

Do I have a great giveaway for you? Well its not my giveaway, but it is a great giveaway nonetheless provided by MilitaryAvenue.com.

Its a Valentine's Contest, where you could win a Sony Touch for your Active-Duty Spouse. How great is that?? Please check out and enter the contest here....

The contest ends January 30th!

If you win, you'll received a Sony Touch pre-loaded with 10 top titles (selected by Borders) for your active-duty spouse. Winners must provide the APO or an on-base / post address to ship to upon winning as Borders will facilitate shipping readers to the winners.

Good Luck and a BIG THANK YOU to MilitaryAvenue.Com and Borders!!

I guess its kinda funny for me to ask for a cookbook from his family since, his mother, stepmother, sister, and sister-in-law, all don't really cook. When Mr. and I started dating I asked him what his favorite meal was, because I would cook it later that weekend. He told me Hamburger Helper....yeah ladies that's what I was dealing with.

But I digress, the cookbook is very interesting. Its not just a cookbook, it let's you into Ree's and Marlboro Man's lives. When Mr gave it to me, I sat in the chair and read the whole thing that night, I've never 'read' a cookbook.

I'm excited to get to cooking...Mr. Jetplane loves all the food I've made from her blog. Mr. Jetplane is a meat and potatoes type of guy, but he will eat (and like) other types of food.

Well 2009 kicked my ass...I learned alot about myself, my marriage, my family, my friends, and the life of a military wife.

Its tough out there for a lil girl (ok I'm 29) like me, who still on occasion feels like she's fresh out of college, and not ready to be an adult.

What do I want to see, do, accomplish in 2010...oh boy, the list is long and whining that is for-sho...

1. I want to be a better wife and to focus on making our marriage as strong as it can be. We love each other, we're best friends, but we can get on each other's nervous in a nanosecond. We're not always team players and we both have to consider each other's feelings when we say or do something.

2. I want to decorate my house and make it a home.

3. We may have another move this summer to either Idaho or England (or we may stay in NC), we don't know until March and we'll move in June/July. I need to handle this uncertainty with grace and know that this is COMPLETELY out of my control.

4. I need to be better at self-motivating..I'm lazy, I'll be the first to admit it. I need to work harder in my life, my job, my marriage, etc.

5. I need to get out and make friends around here. Its tough, real tough, to meet women and like them, and become friends with them...become REAL friends, not the fake friends that so many of us have. I want tried and true, I can be my real honest to goodness self around you friends.

6. I want to prepare our little family to take the next step and have a baby. I don't know if this will happen this year or next, but I think I've come to realization that I really do want kids, and now I have to make my mind feel the same way as my heart.

7. I want to use my Kitchen Aid Mixer that I got as a wedding gift in 2008. I want to bake and cook more. I really enjoy cooking and I'm pretty good at it.

8. I want to grow a green thumb. I want to plant flowers and trees in our yard. I want to make our yard a place to hang out in the summer, and I want to be motivated to keep it that way.

9. I want to learn to appreciate what I have, and not feel like I need more. I want to not shop as much. I want to not feel as if I need things.

10. I want to become a better saver. My husband is great at this and I need to learn from his example.

11. I want to be OK with turning 30 in June. I want to celebrate the 30 years I've had, not feel bad about things I haven't accomplished and realize that 30 isn't as old as it sounded when I was 21.

12. I want to get in better shape. Here is the motivation again, I want to lose 10 lbs and be in the best shape I can before having a baby.

13. I want to see my friends more. I miss my girls...we live all over and don't get to see each other. I miss them.

14. I want to do more charity work. I want to donate more to breast cancer research, ASPCA, etc. I want to participate in charity walks, runs, drives, etc. I want to give back to my community more. I'm a big donater to charities, but I want to be a participant.

15. I want to be a better blogger. I enjoy this outlet, I need it, and lean on it from time to time. I need to make it better, I'm working on that.


That's it...for now. I'm sure I forgot a couple of things here and there but that's pretty much the list. Wish me luck... give me a kick in the ass, I'm going to need it.

Before I end this post I need to tell you all that I really, truly appreciate everyone that reads this lil blog. You all have made 2009 more bearable for me. Mr. Jetplane calls you my invisible friends, and you might be invisible but your kind words, emails, thoughts, and prayers are very tangible to me.

You all have made me cry, laugh, think, pray, and maybe a time or 2 go shopping, but your 'friendship' is something so special that I don't think Mr. Jetplane (or any man for that matter) could ever truly grasp.

Here's to us KICKIN ASS in 2010

XOXO

Hey its me...Mrs. Jetplane. The bad lil blogger that's been too busy to blog. Well it appears we will be going to another couple's house for Christmas Eve and I need to bring 2 dishes to their house. We're having 'heavy' appetizers.

I need suggestions...what am I talking about...I need help!

No Brie please!

Please leave me a comment or send me an email at leavingandloving@gmail.com with your suggestions and recipes!!!

Thank you in advance for your help.

But this is what my days are looking like since I got back from the Midwest. I promise to be a better blogger soon...

Good Morning all...

I'm home in North Carolina..FINALLY.

I promise to give you a full recap of the past 2 weeks but right now, I'm digging...digging myself out of the huge ass hole I've dug myself in at work.

Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers over the past 2 weeks, they've been felt and appreciated more than you'll ever know. And to the lovely bloggers that I finally got to meet in person...all 4 of them, yes 4, I got to meet 4...are you jealous??? Thank you. You all are just a fabulous as I had imagined you would be.

Bigger NEWS! Mr. Jetplane's first flight in the jet will be today, actually he might be in it as I type right now! He left at 5am this morning.

Honestly...you all are going to need to pray for my sanity more than his safety! Who wants to gamble about whether or not he's going to throw up...Ha Ha... He hasn't pulled that many g's for almost a year now... I have a feeling he's going to be dry heaving like...well, its too early to be discussing it.

Have a great Monday...

Its been a crazy week...my mother is good, I am still sick.


Sorry for my lack of updates, please don't give up on me....I'm just in a thick drug induced fog and now I'm trying to work from my parents on my lap top and cell phone...this won't be good...plus my "T" key on my laptop doesn't want to work anymore...FML.


Thank you all again for all your love and support...you all are the bestest!! (yes I know that's not a word, but I use it anyway!)

Thank you all soooo much for entering and supporting my giveaway. And without further ado the winner is........






Miss Pretty !!!! Please email be your contact info at leavingandloving@gmail. Congrats!!


Now onto the Jetplanes Halloween... Our original (well my original) plan was Mad Men themed, I'd be Joan and Mr would be Roger, my own personal silverfox. Well Mr. jumped ship on me with some of his friends and decided to be this...

The Giveaway will end a week from TODAY on October 29th! Hurry up...what are you waiting for....

Good Morning to all and a very happy Pug Friday. As promised for the next few weeks we'll be enjoying pictures from my readers of their puggies dressed up in their Halloween finest. I don't know what it is about dogs (especially pugs) being dressed up that just melts my cold dark heart. Who's with me??

Unfortunately, Milo, my own personal lil hunk of pug lovin HATES, DETESTS, DOWN RIGHT LOATHES being dressed up in clothes. I did wrangle a spiderman costume on him last year and I think it maybe a repeat performance...as long as the lil chunker still fits into it.

Now without further ado...for your Pug Friday enjoyment...I bring you these 2 cutie pies.


First we have Ms. Sophia from Bella Serenity. Isn't she adorable? And here we have Mr. Paulie from on the Rhoads of Life. You may recognize Paulie, he was a finalist in our Pugapalooza earlier this year.