Happy Anniversary to the greatest man I know!!!

Two years ago we vowed to love, honor and obey..... The day’s come and gone, but the memories have stayed.....

Who would have thought an ole Citadel cadet......

Would be the one my heart could never forget.........

From those late night phone calls and your impending leave......

I fell in love with that heart you wear on your sleeve....

I never knew at 18, that you’d be “the one”......

But quickly I decided, no more looking, I’m done….

You swept me right up and promised me forever....

And to top it all, a surprise engagement? Oh aren’t you so clever.....

I'm so thankful I was able to marry the man of my dreams....

My love for you today is still bursting at the seams.....

You were the one I had waited and prayed for my whole life.....

I still melt every time I hear you call me your wife....

You put yourself aside, and never ask for anything in return.....

With this you’ll guide our children, and this from you they will learn....

Thank you for loving me, all the good with the bad..... Here's a toast to you, the most wonderful husband and dad.....

You're the center of our world......

Raymond, thank you so much for making these past years better than I could have ever asked for.....I know the best is yet to come.......

....first we had each other......
.....then we had her.......
.......now we have everything.......
Happy Anniversary to the one whom I'm lucky enough to call my better half...I love you

Thank goodness college football is here......

FIRST....I have huge apologies to the number 2 man in my life....I completely forgot to wish my baby bro a VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!! Monday this precious piece of pie turned 22!!!!! Oh my how you have grown up. Davis, you mean the world to me and I am so incredibly thankful that God gave you to me. I am so very proud to call you my brother and my protector. I cannot wait to see what your future holds. The world is your oyster big guy....I love you........

Now, onto why I am excited about football season: for those of you that know me in "real life" are probably baffled by this statement....when I say, thank goodness college football is here, I subliminally mean thank goodness college tailgating is here.....I am notorious for not going into the games.....it's hot, there are too many stairs, as soon as I get situated I have to go to the bathroom, I can go on with my reasoning, but I will save you my bitching. I just like to camp out at the spot and hold court there. Every year the hubs and I have this

• H: "I can't believe you don't want to go in"


• M: "Why? You won't even miss me! Just text me updates"


• H: "Just come in for a quarter"


• M: "How about I just sit here and wait for you?"


• H: "Arrgghhh!!!"

And there you have it....a recreated scenario from every opening Citadel game....

But on a lighter note, football season means that football is on 24/7 in our house and when football is not on the big screen, then it means my husband is in the woods somewhere trying to shoot something....yes my friends, hunting season is upon us so I have kissed my husband goodbye until New Years Day.....before you start shedding any tears for TCO, let me let you in on how I plan on spending all this newly acquired singledom...reading and catching up on honey do tasks!!!! When the tube is on the pigskin, I get to catch up on all the reading that I didn't get done this Summer, and when the hubs is away, I get to catch up on projects around the house.....this excites me greatly as my list is growing by the minute!!!!!!

First book on the list........

I should be able to knock this one out pretty fast so I need some other ideas....send them my way dear blovies....

First up on the honey do list? The Bug's room....I've got some much much overdo projects for her nursery as we make the (VERY SLOW) transition to a big girl room (tear, tear, tear). I am a few steps ahead of myself here, but I am tackling some artwork that I want to hang, including some by the Bug herself, and I am painting a mini tea table for her since her newest fave activities are drawing and painting......next on the list is building some shelving for her (ever expanding) closet, and getting all of her clothes (NB-present) in Rubbermaids and organized by season and size.

I'm already exhausted reading my list.....but I am super excited about knocking out some projects around the house!

AND our anniversary is coming up in 12 days!!!!! I've already got Daddyo's gift ordered! I am on the ball this year!!!

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!

Congrats to Brittany at Sweet, Sassy and oh so Classy for winning the giveaway!!!!!!!! Brittany, email me with your information!!

Are you ready for some football?!?!?!?!

We kicked off the season with a great game for the Gamecocks last Thursday!!! The Bug was sportin' MY old cheerleader uniform....can you believe it?!?! I have to get some tips from my mama on how she salvaged all of our clothes for 25 years...it's pretty incredible! I am just praying that all of the Bug's stuff make it to our next girl (ahem Raymond, that's right, I said girl) Here she was last week eating our one of faves Zesto's (think rundown fried chicken burger shack- heaven, right???) We were indulging in some french fries and she was even dipping them (and her hands and feet) into the ketchup herself!!!!! I tell you, she is just developing day by day. It's absolutely amazing to watch your children watch you do something, and then turn around and mimic it. Right now she's walking around with my old cellphone saying "hi" into it. OH and we've discovered we can open doors. Bless.

This past weekend we headed to Chucktown to cheer on the Dawgs!!!! Noooo.....not the GAdawgs, but the one and only Citadel Bulldogs!!!!!!! This year is a BIG year for the Hamilton's and Citadel. My bro is a senior so it's T - 30 something days until he gets THE ring, it's the Hubs 5 year reunion, and my FIL's 35th year reunion....exciting year for us all! We kicked off he season with quite the impressive spread at our tailgate if I must say so myself. It was hot as hells bells, but the Bug was as cute as ever and was in good spirits despite it all.....I'll post more pictures soon these are just the ones that were on my phone....it takes me a little while longer to get the real ones to my computer...that involves manual labor.......

Here is the Bug greeting Boo and General.....poor pups! It was TOO hot out there for them!!!!!

And introducing the one and only.............DAWG COUPE!!!!!!!!!!!! My mama is just too dang creative for her own good....so now the Bug has her very own dawg wheels that she can play with at the tailgate!!! She was the hit of the day!!!!!! Each side of the coupe has someone who is near and dear to us and the company they were in and their graduating year. On the passenger side is WDG (baby bro) and Romeo Company 2011. On top is RCH (Daddyo) and Tango Company 2005, and on the driver side we're sporting BIG (my FIL and no, those are not his initials, that's his grandaddy name) Lima Company 1975 and RJD (my grandaddy) who was also Lima Company but 1943.....it's only natural that the Bug herself will end up with a cadet of her own one day ; )

Next post......the giveaway winner!!!!!!!! Stay tuned!!!!!!!

Prayers needed......

Jessica over at Learning as We Go had her precious baby boy this weekend and so we in blogland wish them both a very very speedy recovery!!!!!! Go over and leave her some love and please send all of your thoughts and prayers to Jessica and Baby Drew!!!!! Hope you all had a great weekend! Thank you so much for all the sweet comments on my very pitiful and lame Friday post!!!! You all definitely brought me some sunshine!!

Things getting me through the week.....

Ugh....this week has just been s*&%%y to SUM it up.....and on top of everything, I just wrapped everything up with a nice wreck to my brand new car.....the f*ing cherry on top.....please can this week be OVER?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!
Here are a few things that have gotten me through this terrible, no good, very bad week........

The Fall line from La Jenn's how precious.........
ahhh!!!!

the Bug's new Puddle Jumpers......

Tyler Candles in Mediterranean Fig and Tyler scents.....

Lindsay Phillips switchable flats....my MIL turned me onto these and these are just to die for....

And how can anyone stay mad when they come home to this every day??????

showing off her bracelet she wanted.....

showing off her new La Jenn's duds......

So I am off to drink this week away..........

Hook, Line and Sinker.....

So a while back (as in back when I got 8 hours of sleep) I got the harebrained idea to try and start couponing....I had several friends who did and just swore up and down that this was "easy as pie" (which, pies are not always that easy to make-hello key lime-but that's another post for another day) and "honey if I can do it, YOU can do it!" So I took the leap and I tried it. I must say that I was completely overwhelmed and just did not feel that all of the work was really saving me any money....so it ended about as quickly as it started....fast forward say, 16 months......I thought I would give it another shot. SO I went onto Southern Savers and saw that they were offering a class in my area so on a whim I signed up and attended this past Monday night. Leaving there 3 hours later with my head (just slightly)

swimming, I did feel like this was something that I could tackle. Jenny, the creator, is absolutely hysterical and her dry sense of humor really lightens up this historically stereotyped lifestyle. Even if I am able to just cut our grocery tab down by 25% I feel like that's a win win situation. So this weekend will be my first attempt at gathering all of the information, and really trying to make this happen. She swears that it takes 30 minutes of prep (gathering the coupons) and 30 minutes in the store- that is all it should take you. I am allowing myself a little more leeway my first few trips but if that's all it needs to take, then that's really not asking too much out of me. She also picks one store that she attends each week. I always had it in my head that I would be running around to all of these different stores but she enforces the rule of sticking to one store per week. Her store of choice? Publix. Next up? Bi-Lo. Of course, those of you not Southernally (yes I made that up) located, might have to choose an alternative store but for us 'necks, these will suffice.

Luckily, when my ever engineered minded husband gets something in his head he goes full throttle, so the next class that rolls around he will be attending. Between the both of us, we have to be able to somewhat grasp the concept right??

So my question I pose to you all: What do you all think about couponing? I know there are varied degrees of this concept and some of you out there may be the type that won't leave the store owing more than 15% of your total bill...and then there are some of you that may be like me, and just do it to reduce a portion of your expenses.....regardless, what are some tips that have helped you stay on the bandwagon?? I do recommend for anyone that is interested in this, to try and attend a class on it. The websites are saturated with crazy coupon lingo (yes, there is such a thing) that seeing someone break it down in person helped me conceptualize how I was actually going to be able to take this and incorporate it into my life....

So there you have it....just another step in my journey to domestication.....