J.Crew Giveaway!

Adorably petite blogger Petite Gorgeous is hosting a giveaway!

Head on over to her page to check out all these details and find out how you can enter to win this super cute J.Crew bracelet!

Love, hugs, and good luck!

Happy Birthday Bestie!

I love June for many reasons - wedding season, summer, beaches, and birthdays! Today is my very best friend's 21st birthday and I'm so excited to celebrate with her! I would love to post pics of what I got her, but that will have to wait until later since she reads this. However here are some pictures of us over the years. :)



It all started with two green dresses and some packs of Doublemint gum



High school prom



High school football game



FSU Football



:)



Goofing off over Christmas Break one year



From high school look alikes to college graduates!



And my most favorite picture of all. I love you Ky! I hope your 21st is everything you hope for and more!

Help!

Good morning blogging world! I'm doing some research for my book and while I personally have a multitude of insane dating stories, I'm in need of some fresh ones.

So ladies, tell me about some of your deliciously hilarious dating misadventures! The crazier and funnier the better!

Love, hugs, and laughter...

Graduation!

So I just realized that I was so caught up in everything with the surgery that I never posted any pictures from graduation! Shame on me. Here's some of my favorites.


In front of the fountain


In the studio


With NTP :)



I miss it already...

Even ears :)

Hello lovelies! I know it's been a few days, but I've kind of been vegging and working on feeling better. Here's an update on how everything went...

They went in and got out as much of the disease as they could, but unfortunately they didn't get it all. I'll have to have to another surgery in 6 months. :\ However the second surgery should be much easier than this one with a faster recovery time (or so I hope!) It had spread to a muscle in my jaw so they cut into that which is making it a little difficult to eat, but today I started on solid foods again so that's good news. Thanks to my bestie I've had plenty of sugar :) and I really appreciate all the calls and well wishes.

It kind of feels like life is being put on hold because if I get a job my parents' insurance will no longer cover me. And if I get a new insurance plan with a new job, chances are they'll deny me coverage because it's a pre-existing condition. So we're kind of in a limbo with figuring out how all that is going to work. It could have been much worse though, and I'm so thankful that we're able to get it taken care of.

Thanks again for all your thoughts and prayers!

P.S. My ears are even. :)

The big day

I'm currently packing a little overnight bag full of super comfy clothes and blankets and whatnot. We head to Gainesville later this afternoon and find out when my surgery will be tomorrow. If all goes well, I should be home and eating ice cream with my baby-sitting bestie by tomorrow afternoon.

I'm definitely nervous about it. I've had surgery on it before, but it was a very different procedure. This time we have no idea how bad it will be or how much the disease has spread until they go in, so I'm pretty nervous. And call me crazy, but I think what scared me most is when the doc was talking about how they would make an incision behind my ear in order to get in and then put it back in "pretty much the same place" when they're done. Pretty much??? No, no. That ear must be in the EXACT same place as it was before.

Here's to hoping my ears are even. :)

See ya'll post-op!

Book Preview Part II

Here's part two of the preview to my new book! Hope ya'll enjoy it (and buy it if I ever finish and manage to get it published)! :)

“It’s never okay to kiss a boy. They always slobber all over you. That’s why I stopped doing it.” – Jean, age 10

“Maddie you can’t just boss people around” said my mom when she picked me up from preschool on my second day. I had been sent home with a note pinned to my shirt that said, “Maddie is rather bossy.” Rather? Who pins that to a preschooler’s shirt?
As for my bossiness, what can I say? I’m an only child. And I’ve outgrown it. I think.

“Ah, don’t worry about it kiddo,” said my dad. He picked me up and sat me in his lap. “Our little heartbreaker here is probably just telling the boys to leave her alone and they run off and tattle that she’s being mean. Ain’t that right, freckles?”

Mmm… not exactly. While all my parents’ friends fondly referred to me as Heartbreaker or Freckles, both super-cute and adorable, everyone at preschool called me… ummm… Kissy Girl.

Embarrassing. I’m aware. I don’t remember any of this (I’ve come to realize forgetting is the mind’s best defense mechanism), but apparently I had a habit of chasing the cute little boys around trying to kiss them. I couldn’t tell you why I did any of this because the thought of doing that now makes me sick to my stomach. I guess I didn’t fall for the whole “cooties” thing.

My first encounter with the disagreeable nature of males occurred during this interesting chapter in my life. It happened on the playground, like many character-forming and life-altering experiences do.

There were two tires stacked on top of each other that we could climb on near the middle of the big fenced-in yard behind the main building. One day I was lying across the top of the tires, minding my own business finding animal shapes in the clouds, when out of nowhere I felt a hand on my stomach. By the time I pulled my eyes away from the dolphin I had found swimming in the sky to see what was going on, Daniel Southstone had pushed me into the tires, folding me up like a pretzel in the process. My little butt was wedged in the hole and my feet were in front of my face. I was stuck and everyone else was going inside. Luckily, one of the teachers heard my cries for help and got me out while Daniel watched from the doorway laughing.

We’ve been really close friends for 20 years now.

But the fact that he pushed me into the tires is not the worst part; it’s what happened after I stopped crying that did the real damage. You know the movie, “He’s Just Not That Into You”? In the beginning the little girl is pushed down by a boy on the playground and her mom tells her that he did it because he likes her. Well I was fed the same load of bull by my teacher. Why do older women tell us this!? They’re old enough to know better! They’ve had plenty of life experiences by that time to know that sometimes boys are mean because they don’t like us. But instead, we poor innocent girls are brought up to believe that when a boy is mean to us, it means he likes us, when in reality, he probably doesn’t.

And thus, where the problem began.