High Five for Friday

Happy Friday friends! It's time to dish about my week with a little High Five for Friday goodness. Have a great weekend, start getting your liver nice and conditioned for 4th of July next weekend :)

1. I bought myself a new phone case since my ghetto one that I bought off Amazon was falling apart. I always get a cheap phone case and then I end up having to replace it every couple months. Alas, this time I decided to treat myself to a Lilly Pulitzer phone case. It's just more ME anyways :)

2. Last weekend, my mom and I were in Chattanooga, Tennessee for a family friends' baby shower. I wrote a whole post about it here. Congratulations Jen and Chad!

3. My sister-in-law, Melissa, took me horseback riding. Read my post about it here.

4. I have developed quite the obsession with the movie Pitch Perfect. It's getting a little out of control. In fact, it's playing in the background as I write this blog post. Feel free to judge me.

5. My mother-in-law has been staying at my house and I have been taking care of her for the past two weeks since her knee replacement surgery. This week she had the staples taken out of her knee and now she can go home and get back to her puppies! I'm very happy that she is feeling so much better now. Yay for recovery and progress :)

For some extra joy here on this beautiful Friday, a little Luke Bryan goodness. You're welcome. Swoon. 

Happy Trails

Yesterday, I went for a little afternoon trail ride with my sister-in-law, Melissa (my brother's wife). This was my first time back on a horse since my honeymoon, 4 years ago, which of course made for some entertainment for Melissa and everyone else at the barn. We had a great time and I managed to make it back to the barn all in one piece, but not without a hard core leg workout to show for it.

I've been wanting to go riding for a while now, especially because Melissa does it pretty much everyday. I just keep getting busy and forgetting about it. Now that it is summer, I finally had the perfect opportunity. We went out to the barn Melissa rides at so I could meet her horse, Layla, and go for a trail ride. Did I mention that my sister-in-law is a bad ass horse-showing diva?

She says that the next time I go ride with her that she is going to made me do what she does, ride English style and jump over stuff...yeah right. We'll see. I might have to chug a beer before I let a horse jump in the air with me on it. Luckily, she was easy on me yesterday and we rode Western just for me.

After visiting with Layla, we made our way down to the Western barn to get the horses for our trail ride. Melissa rode Lucky and I rode Rebel. Let me tell you, the name was definitely well earned, he was quite ornery and did not want to cooperate with me.

Once Rebel and I finally got used to each other, we went for a nice little ride around the property. I think he just really wanted me to have to work for it and boy did I have to. It was quite the workout, but I'm also ridiculously out of shape. I guess this was barn initiation.

I really enjoyed riding around this beautiful property and taking in the scenery. It was so relaxing and fun. I can't wait to go back and ride again soon. Thanks Mel :)

Germany Revisited

I have been thinking about doing a series of travel posts for a while now to share some trips I went on long before I started blogging. This idea came to me mainly because I have nothing else to blog about, but also so I can reminisce about traveling to all these cool places in the midst of my lack of traveling this summer. Therefore, this will probably be the first of many throwback travel posts. If you don't recognize the girl (aka: me) in any of these pictures that is because all of these photos were pre-brunette and pre-rhinoplasty Jacki. Fun fact that most of you already know about me...I had blonde hair from birth to age 21, although the shade of blonde varied greatly especially from age 19-21. Fun fact most of you probably did not know about me...I had a rhinoplasty during college, but that is a whole other post for another day. Back to my travels...

I decided to start with Germany today, in honor of last night's episode of The Bachelorette. Des and her men journeyed to Munich for some good 'ole German fun. I spent the entire two hours of the episode pointing at the TV saying, "been there...been there...been there", to my mother-in-law who was watching with me. I love seeing places I've traveled to on TV. It always gets me excited. I know, I'm so lame. Alright, on to the slideshow!

May 2007 - Munich, Germany

The summer after my sophomore year of college, my mom and I went on a little European vacation. One of our stops was in Munich, Germany. I loved Germany and I have wanted to go back ever since we left. The two best things in Germany...castles and beer. What's not to love?

Everywhere you go there are beer gardens ("Biergarten" to the Germans), outdoor seating areas with girls in lederhosen bringing you as many beers, brats and pretzels as your little heart could desire.

Linderhof Palace in the Bavarian Alps

Nymphenburg Palace 

Swans are everywhere in Germany, they are like as populous as ducks here in America.

Mommy and me at the Marienplatz

(Des and Chris were frolicking around here last night on The Bachelorette)

The Bavarian Alps

I may or may not have frolicked around on this hill singing The Sound of Music, oh just kidding, wrong country...don't worry I do dance around singing in Austria...but that will be another post.

Right outside of Munich is this little town called Oberammergau. 

All of the buildings in this town are hand painted with these elaborate frescoes. 

Oberammergau is most famous for the stage pictured above that I got to visit. This is the site of the world famous Passion Play. Every 10 years, the residents perform the Passion Play which is a reenactment of the life and death of Jesus Christ for visitors from all over the world. Back in 1633, the inhabitants of Oberammergau promised God that if he spared them from the bubonic plague, they would perform this play in his honor. Their town was indeed spared and it's residents have been performing the play every decade since then, keeping their promise to God. Back when the play first originated, there was only 1 single performance every 10 years. One man in the town volunteered to play the part of Jesus and he was actually crucified on stage. The role was a great honor in the town; however, that element of the play was of course changed as time went on. Now, the performances take place for 6 months during the designated year. What keeps the play unique is that the only people who are allowed to participate in the play are actual residents of the town and every resident is involved in some way. The next Passion Play is scheduled for 2020. 

Head outside of Munich and up into the Bavarian Alps to visit the castle of Neuschwanstein.

Walt Disney used this castle as his inspiration for Sleeping Beauty's castle in Disneyland. 

Our tour guide then invited those brave enough to hike up the mountain with him and walk out onto a wooden swinging bridge to get a spectacular view of the castle. So of course I did. You know if there is going to be a good photo op then I am going to take it, no matter what I have to do to get there. 

We then went on a tour of the castle, but of course I wasn't allowed to take pictures inside. Trust me, if you ever travel to Munich, you need to visit here. It is amazing. This may have been my favorite part of the trip. 

A visit to Munich is not complete without a beer at the famous brewery, Hofbrauhaus. I think mom and I went to Hofbrau everyday that we were in Munich. Don't judge. When in Rome Munich right? Prost!

Jen's Baby Shower

This past weekend, my mom and I drove up to Chattanooga, Tennessee for a baby shower for one of our family friends. My parents had an amazing group of friends in high school who they have managed to stay very close with for the past 40 years. What is even more amazing about this lifelong friendship that they acquired is that they managed to pass it on to their children. While "family friends" is the title bestowed upon this group of people, they really feel more like cousins to me than just friends. We all grew up together and now it is so exciting for us to embark on this next stage of life together. We can't wait to welcome baby Claire into our lives as the first baby being brought into our group!

A baby shower in honor of Jennifer and baby Claire

Baby Claire received some beautiful gifts from her friends in Chattanooga. I, of course, had to bring her some gameday gear. I found this UGA dress and monogrammed bloomers on Etsy and I could not resist. Dang, I wish I had an FSU gameday outfit that was this cute.

Cutest little preggers mama. Ready to pop at the end of August!

 Mommy and me with Jen

 The mommies...friends since high school

The moms and their daughters. 

(Enjoy the picture of all of us at the bottom of this post from 1987)

Of course, one of my blog posts about an important life event would not be complete without some embarrassing throwback photos. Sorry Jen :)

 Jen and I with my dad

The Kreis and the Tuckers with my family at my baptism.

Things That Make Me Go Hmm...

I literally have nothing to blog about. Sorry guys, life is not too exciting right now. For the past two days, I have been working as a model home greeter (yes, this is a glorious summer job). It is a super easy way to earn some cash, but I get really bored while I am here. Alas, I begin to ponder. Which leads me to the topic of today's post. Warning: I apologize in advance for anything I say that may offend someone. It tends to happen pretty regularly. You have been warned.

Things that are currently making me go, hmm...

1. The selection of men chosen for The Bachelorette this season. 

If I was Des, I would have sent all of these guys home the first night, called up my best friend and let ABC pay for us to fly around the world going on vacation together. Referring to this group of people as "men" is really a stretch if you ask me. I haven't seen a single one of them do anything that remotely resembles something "manly" all season. All they do is play dress up, hold hands and cry. Sounds like a little girl's slumber party to me. Plus, I feel like I really need to warn girls my age out there who are still looking for Mr. Right. I have no idea where ABC found these guys, but let me tell you that your average 30 year old man does not have wash-board abs, zero body hair and a wardrobe that consists of only neon-colored, tissue-thin, skin-tight t-shirts. If you want to date someone with those qualities, then you are actually looking for a 20 year old sorority girl. Sure they might look pretty on the TV screen, but what it all boils down to is simply no. Just say no, Des.

2. Lots and lots of emoticons.

I don't understand why people feel the need to use an excessive amount of emoticons when they text. Occasionally, I use one and only one emoticon :) That's it. Perhaps, I am just missing the point. Why can't you just type out what you are trying to say, rather than making me try to decipher your hieroglyph-style text message. It is called a "text" message after all. We aren't playing Pictionary here people. But, hey, if using lots of emoticons makes you really happy then keep on doing it. This is America after all. Just know that you won't be getting any emoticon filled messages from this girl. Actually...maybe I will start sending people messages that only contain emoticons and see if they can figure out what I am trying to say. Bwahaha. Additionally, I am curious as to why my iPhone contains so many options for emoticons. There are like 20 different types of buildings available for me to include in my message. Why buildings? What could I possibly be saying in a text message that would warrant a tiny picture of a power plant? I will also have you know that there are two styles of fried chicken available for your emjoi texting pleasure. Just in case that drumstick was not enough to get your point across, you can include yet another tiny piece of fried chicken into your text message. Gosh, how could we ever possibly communicate without this technology?

3. Adults who do not own agenda planners. 

Whenever I make an appointment at the doctor's office or somewhere, I always get out my planner and write it down. The person behind the desk always looks at me like I've just pulled a live penguin out of my purse. It's called a planner, people, get one. I feel like everyone (at least all adults) should own a planner. Yes, that fancy calendar feature on your iPhone counts too...if you actually use it effectively. Every time I encounter someone who is late or forgets to do something, I say, "did you have it in your planner?" and their response is usually, "my what?". Hey, I bet if you would have written it down in your planner then you wouldn't have forgotten it. Hence, the concept behind this nifty invention. So everyone has some homework this week...if you do not own a planner, go buy one. I'd be happy to give you a recommendation if you need one. I have been obsessed with planners since birth, so I'm pretty much an expert. Yes, I was that kid in elementary school who had my own planner. Listen, even my dad always used a planner and if Rocky can do it then you can too.

Well, I think that is enough pointless rambling for today, y'all. Enjoy your Wednesday!

Father's Day

I am sure that everyone is expecting me to have some deep, meaningful, well-thought out blog post for today. But I don't. I can't really put into words how it feels to not have your dad around on Father's Day, although I am sure that there are many of you out there who know exactly what this feels like. So I'll keep it short, sweet and not too depressing today.

All I can say is that I love my dad, I miss my dad and I am so thankful to have had him around for 25 happy years of my life. I have a number of friends who don't know their dad, are estranged from their dad or don't have a good relationship with their dad. So even though my dad is no longer here with me now, we always had a great relationship and every memory I have of him is filled with happiness, fun and good times.

Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there! Thank you for all that you do in your children's lives, you have no idea how much of an impact you have on them now and for the rest of their lives.

Adventures at Mayo

I have spent the last two days partying with my mother-in-law in her hospital room. She had surgery yesterday morning for a partial knee replacement and I have been serving as her official family-contact/nurse/assistant/entertainment/diet-coke-retriever/television-remote-operator. Luckily, she had her surgery at the Mayo Clinic here in Jacksonville which is like the Louis Vuitton of hospitals. We have been having a grand 'ole time together.

Of course spending this much time in any hospital will provide endless entertaining stories. So I'll start from the beginning. We arrived at the hospital at 5:30 yesterday morning, got her all checked in and then they took her away to get her prepped for surgery. Leaving me to entertain myself in the waiting room for the next 6.5 hours. I will say that Mayo is awesome at keeping you informed about what is going on with your patient, so I appreciated that. During the surgery, my husband was still in South America and my sister-in-law was at work, meaning that any important, immediate decisions would have to be made by me. Oh great. Why do people always entrust me with this much responsibility? I'm so special. I guess that is why I am always "nurse" Jacki for everyone in the family (including my bestie).

During my time in the waiting room, the other patient-caregiver/family-members provided some good quality people watching for me. Plus, they brought in a therapy dog for us to play with some of the time too. At one point, there was a family sitting across the waiting room from me that suddenly stood up yelling, "nurse! nurse!". One of their family members (not the patient waiting for surgery) had slumped over in his chair and gone unconscious. Chaos ensued in the waiting room and away he went on a stretcher to the ER. Things calmed down after that. About 2 hours later, unconscious dude was now awake and in a wheelchair. His family members wheeled him back into the waiting room and sat him in a chair, of course, right by me. Then his family members (all 3 of them) went off and left him there all alone. I have no idea where they went. So there he sat next to me by himself. Why on Earth would you leave your family member who had just recently gone unconscious for no reason all alone in a hospital waiting room? I was a nervous wreck. The entire time they were gone, I kept thinking about how this guy was probably going to pass out again and I was going to have to play good samaritan. Not that I'm not fully qualified to save his life with my CPR and First Aid certifications and all that, or that fact that we were in a hospital surrounded by nurses...I just feel like these weird situations always happen to me. So at one point this guy falls asleep in the chair next to me. For the next 30 minutes, I couldn't focus on anything except him. I kept watching him, making sure his chest was continuing to rise and fall, that his coloring looked good, that essentially I wasn't sitting next to a dead guy. Eventually, he woke up, the family returned and I could get back to reading my book. 

Finally, the surgery was over, Gina was out of recovery and up in her own room. And for the next two days, her and I entertained all the nurses on the 5th floor with our antics. In fact, when we checked out of the hospital today, the nurse taking us out to the car even said that she was sad that we were leaving. She said that she was going to miss us because we were so much fun. Well duh. Don't you know Gina and I? If it's not fun, we're not doing it. Glad we could leave our mark on the 5th floor of Mayo :)

Of course, being the "documentor" that I am I had to document all the fun we were having in room 549. Don't you wish that every hour you could push a little gray button and have instant cocktails shot into you? Obviously. The nurses were always cracking up because every time the hour was up and Gina could push the button again, her and I would yell out "time for happy hour!" We also enjoyed playing with her respirator machine and ordering lots of room service. Mayo is not your typical hospital. No yucky hospital food or green jello for us, we're having steak and Mahi! Not to mention an excessive amount of diet coke and chocolate ice cream. Plus, going for rides in the harness was always a good time. The nurses were especially entertained by the fact that Gina and I referred to said harness as her "50 Shades of Mayo". Needless to say there was never a dull moment on room 549 for the past two days. I am really glad that I had the opportunity to share in this experience with my mother-in-law. We got to share a lot of intimate moments and our relationship will never be the same...in a good way :) 

Slumber party in the 549 last night. I'll leave the contents of my CamelBak up to your imagination :)

Book Club

Sometimes we all just need a good laugh. We need to read something trashy and hilarious, something that allows us to escape our troubles and simply entertain us. My best friend and I are notorious for reading a vast variety of materials. We are both obsessed with owning paper copies of books (screw you Kindle), and lots of them. The 3rd bedroom in my house has three 6-foot tall books shelves filled with books. And on said bookshelf, I might have a copy of the Bible, next to a copy of Ernest Hemingway (I own every book he has ever written, so he shows up a lot in my personal library), next to a copy of Harry Potter. I don't discriminate, I read everything. There is a time and a place for every type of literature. Right now in my life, I am in the mood to read something mildly inappropriate and laugh out loud funny. Alas, a care package arrived in the mail from my best friend with some books she has recommend for my current state of being. Which brings me to the fine piece of literature I am sharing today...

Today I'm sharing...

Here is a synopsis/review of the book from Amazon: 

After winning Southern women's hearts with her SEBA bestseller Bless Your Heart, Tramp in 2000, Rivenbark has penned a new-and equally sidesplitting-collection of essays, offering Northern and Southern sisters alike a woman's "take on those irksome little yuks in daily life." Although she warns certain readers (Yankees, namely) that they may need a Southern lexicon to decipher her folksy, down-home prose style, Rivenbark's focus on familiar topics like family, relationships and child rearing should appeal to most females, regardless of geography or age. Marked by a feisty, sarcastic tone and tempered with plenty of cries of "yoo hoo" and "Well, shit," even chapter titles (e.g., "Stop Watching Your Plasma TV and Start Selling Your Plasma: How to Become Honest-to-Jesus White Trash" and "Here Comes the Bride: Let's Just Get 'Em Hitched Sometime Before We See the Head") don't escape the author's wry humor. The most mundane situations become laugh-out-loud scenarios. When, for example, Rivenbark is confronted by the "Pre-School Nazis" and intimidating "granola moms" at her four-year-old's school, she admits asking her daughter to lie about what she had for breakfast (a foil-wrapped breakfast bar instead of the required "scrambled eggs, a bowl of real oatmeal-the kind you have to cook on top of the, uh, you know, stove-two slices of whole wheat toast and a glass of soy milk"). Rivenbark is a hoot, and her book will be best enjoyed while listening to the Allman Brothers Band and eating "a plate of, what else? collards and cornbread."

My thoughts...

I loved this book. I literally laughed out loud throughout the entire thing. If you are truly a Southern lady, you need to read this book. Her observations and witty sarcasm are so spot on, honest and no-holds-barred that you can't help but laugh because you know that she is so right. Warning to all you Yankee folk out there, you probably will find this book trashy, stupid and offensive so better to not waste your time. This book is written as a collection of essays so it is quick and easy to read at any given time. It is a perfect read from your beach chair or your couch with a glass of wine (perhaps some Boone's Farm?) in hand. Don't worry, when you finish this one there are plenty more where that came from. Rivenbark wrote a whole series of these books, complete with even more hilarious and inappropriate stories and titles as this one. 

On Living Alone

To everyone out there in this world who lives alone, I commend you. Literally, I want to stand up in my living room and applaud you. I have always considered myself a pretty independent person. I have no problem going places by myself, eating in a restaurant alone, etc. However, living alone is not for me. I went straight from living in my parents' house, to the Phi Mu house, to my husband's house. Never alone. Up until recently, I had been at home alone overnight for only 2-3 days at a time.

Jared has been gone for a week now, hunting in South America with my brother. I am so ready for him to come home. I am ready for him to be here to kill the bugs in the house, fix the lawn mower when it breaks mid-way through mowing the lawn, to look out the window when I hear a noise outside at night, and just to sit on the couch and talk to me. Luckily, I have very protective dogs (and an alarm system) which makes this a little easier...but as much as I talk to Sadie and Lola, they don't talk back.

I can't imagine living alone all the time. This week has been tough. And I really can't imagine my husband leaving me for months at a time for something like deployment. I have to give it to all the military wives out there, y'all are amazing. I could never do what you do. I am in awe of your strength and resilience. I will be so happy when my husband is home to take care of me again :)

Since I am currently missing my hubby, I have to post this picture that Heather's photographer sent me of Jared and I from her wedding. I love it.

Weekend Shenanigans

This week is officially the start of my summer vacation. Technically I have to go to work today and tomorrow to pack up my classroom, but the children are already gone so I don't really mind being there. It may be Monday (which we all hate), but today I am going to focus on the only two positive things about Mondays. #1: I get to link up with Sami and share my weekend with y'all. #2: A new episode of The Bachelorette tonight, which means tall glasses of wine and group texting with my girls :)

For the past 3 years, we have started a new girls' tradition in my family. Each year on the weekend that I get out of school, my mom and I drive south and my aunt drives north to meet up at the beach for the weekend. The first two years we stayed in Vero Beach, but now that my mom has a condo in New Smyrna Beach, we went there this year. 

Lunch at a fun restaurant right on the beach - Chases on the Beach

We had a fabulous weekend lounging on the beach and relaxing. Can't wait until next year!

This was the perfect way to begin my summer vacation! Have a great week :)