dinner for two.

the hubby is out. the little lady fell asleep on the sofa with the dog. and it's a friday night. what's a girl to do?

i made up a big batch of arroz con pollo. i am still feeling cruddy. breathing isn't happenin' much either. but tomorrow is saturday. and that means i get to spend actual time with my little family.

so i cooked tonight and it'll feed us lunch and dinner tomorrow. no cooking for this mama tomorrow. that makes me happy.

                                                                      Source: skinnytaste.com via kristy on Pinterest

here's the recipe. and that's her picture, because it looks way better than mine.

i'll just go party it up with the dishes, the piles of laundry and the toys scattered all over the floor.
happy weekending.

hello june.

savannah, ga.

 i'm starting june off sick and it's not exactly how i want to kick off the month of summer but hopefully it'll clear up in a day or two. so for now, i'll bunker down and ride out the nasties with lia-bug (yep, we're all sick!) and dream up my summer to-do list.

i'm excited for...  

weekends spent at the beach or savannah. 

some fun thirty-one parties and company events. 

the prospect of building a house. 

fun play dates. 

$1 kids movies at the movie theater and summer reading programs at the library.

what are you excited about in june?

a shiny new name and other stuff.

it's a bright and shiny morning in our house today! well, it's bright & shiny outside :) 

we've got some tantrums going on and dog puke all over the bedroom carpet. that's kind of becoming a norm around here lately and it seriously bums me out. i don't know whats with the tantrums over every little thing every day. but days are really hard lately with my little one. and the dog? let's hope we can afford hardwood throughout the new house not long after we move in. it's getting built with hardwood just on the first floor and the stairs. wood floors are expensive, yo. expensive.

via weheartit

i wanted to pop in and tell you guys that i changed my blog name. i talked about it on twitter last night but i'm making it official here. first off, i LOVED my old name. i've been blogging since 2008 but i started this blog in april of 2009. it's been three years. i didn't change my name because i didn't like it or because i was bored. i wrote in this post yesterday that my twitter handle wasn't being used and people were trying to tag me by my blog name. but my blog name isn't an option for me to use on twitter. too many characters & the names i tried were taken. so i changed my twitter name. my blog tagline was "all the things that make my heart happy" so _happyheartblog isn't something off the wall from that. and then last night i had a lot of time to kill. M was working and i decided to try and get L back on a regular schedule. which means she was crying it out. for 30 minutes. this heart-broken mama took to being creative on the computer. i ended up changing my blog title to match my twitter handle. but my blog? it's still about the little somethings. those every day things that make my heart swell with joy and inspiration. those things that leave me happy. the URL is still the same. maybe one day i'll change it or get my own domain, but for now i think i've changed enough.

i just want to make it easier to be found and make connections!

i do like my new blog name. i guess it's just hard changing from something that was the name of my small corner of the web for the past three years. here's hoping we all fall in love with the new name. i changed all of my buttons so if you'd snag up a new one and maybe spread the word, that would be awesome!

here's the new details

twitter - {at}_happyheartblog

facebook

email - ahappyheartblog{at}gmail{dot}com

you can find my new buttons on the sidebar or in the button tab under my header. i'm also using passionfruit ads now! i LOVE it so far. so, to all of my awesome may sponsors, i hope you snag up a new spot. and to my new sponsors? i can't wait to meet you!

sponsor-tastic!

okay, that was cheesy.

but seriously, i've been seeing a lot of blogs & tweets about passionfruit and how it makes ad swaps SO much easier. and this month? life has gotten busy. things are changing and i haven't talked about all the changes fully here. but ads and sponsorship started messing with my head.

i LOVE my sponsors. i love making new friends and the connections i get from blogging and sponsor swaps. i know for sure i want to keep sponsors up on my blog. but i wasn't sure, creatively, how i wanted to go about it. i tryed something new for may and i liked it but it wasn't quite what i wanted. i was misplacing emails and confusing things up.

i checked out passionfruit today and i think i am gonna really like it. no more emailing back and forth or messing with codes. it's all pretty simple. choose the ad size you want. all of my ads are free! just use the promo code found in the spot info - this months code is swapfreejune. it'll lead you to a new page where you leave your button and info and you are done! 

easy and awesome!

currently i've got 2 featured spots, 4 medium spots and 4 small swap spots open. so for the month of june, if you want to continue sponsoring a little something (and i hope you do!), snag up a spot! the spots run for 30 days, starting from the day you choose one. whether it's the 3rd or the 23rd, you'll get a full 30 days. 

and two little tid-bits i've learned today about passionfruit. awesome customer service. the head guy, jason, was online so i shot him a quick question and he replied immediately! SO nice. also? it does cost a small fee per ad, if you charge for ads. since i do free ad spots, it charges nothing! 

i am going to like this new found organization.

you can "buy" your spots right here now or from the sponsor tab under my header.

  ps. i changed my name on twitter! i've noticed when people tag me, a lot of times they tag {at}alittlesomething which sadly isn't my twitter name or an option. therefore i created a new twitter handle and a pretty new blog banner to match. a little something is basically where i chronicle my life and everything that makes me happy. hence the new header ;)

i am now known on twitter as {at}_happyheartblog. i hope that any confusion in the beginning helps for better communication later! i hate to think i am missing tweets and such because of my handle. so please make sure you follow me on twitter at my new handle and if you have any questions about any of this, email me at blogalittlesomething{at}gmail{dot}com.

our adventure.

it's only the start of our adventure.

when we moved from new york to north carolina, we were excited. we thought it would be fun to take a little break from life and spend time with my family. we thought it would be great to have every day to spend together, without the worry of household bills and work and normal blah-blah everyday life stuff. 

but let me tell you, i missed all the blah-blah. the beginning was fun. and then jobs weren't being handed to M. the house was crowded. i missed our stuff - our comfy sofas and my white dishes. i missed my best friends down the street and being 30 minutes away from the city. i even started missing those loud families parties we'd go to with his family in the city. i missed tucking L in bed and just relaxing with M at night. i missed everything about our old life and i was quickly starting to hate our new one. it took a toll on all of us. there were days that i really didn't like M and he really didn't like me. i know that's kind of mean, but it's true. it was a huge test.

until one day we got the best call. i won't forget that day. i had taken l-bug out for a girls day. we had gone to target and had just stopped at coopers. they sell new orleans style sno-cones. we got banana that day - they were amazing. but i had just got lia settled in the car and she was yelling about her ball when the phone rang. at that time, M was working a temp job with the state to help with hurricane cleanup. he worked long days & weekends and we rarely ever saw him. hands down, that's one of the best phone calls i've ever received. he told me the news. he was offered a GS position in Parris Island, SC and of course, had accepted. we were moving!! i was shaking and crying. i was just SO excited. i didn't have words at first. i just saw there, relishing in the moment. knowing god had finally anwsered our prayers. life was going to change again and i will always be grateful for that day.



we moved to south carolina roughly a week later. after a quick two day trip, we found a house to rent then drove back to NC to pick up L and our stuff and drove back to SC the next day. i remember during that two-day trip, we went to dinner at the house of his former boss from new york who also works with him now in south carolina. they were talking to us about buying houses with a VA loan and such. i sat back thinking, what a dream that would be, but not really thinking we'd buy a house anytime in the near future.

but here we are. almost 8 months in to living here and we are buying a house. actually, we're building a house. it's crazy! it's nerve-wracking and scary and HUGE. but it's fun and exciting and happy! we signed the paper work yesterday and we'll have a few more appointments in the near future but then our house will get started. we are hoping to be in by november.

this is the sample of our home. we'll get to customize colors and whatever goes inside. and we'll be putting a stone ledge on the front of the house. we are EXCITED! it's actually something thats on my bucket list that i didn't think i'd get to cross off - but hello, we are blessed. it wasn't the easiest. we went through several neighborhoods and fell in love with all of them. i had to say goodbye to my dream of having a southern charleston style home because what went with that dream just wasn't realistic. we lost out on our top two lot choices in the neighborhood we chose, but everything happens for a reason and we are happy with where we stand. 

i am sure there will be trials and hard times in the future. but for now, we are just so darn excited that we are becoming homeowners. and grateful. we are extremely grateful that we made it through last year and we are where we are now. just pray that everything works out as it looks it should!

ps. thanks to my amazing husband for dreaming this dream with me. and working so hard to make it come true.

house image belongs to landmark 24 homes.

today.

i could barely drag myself out of bed this morning. i tried every trick in the book to keep L in bed a little longer. in our bed, of course. it was another rough night for her.

i turned on the cat and the hat. she's still obsessing over it. i gave her juice and applesauce in bed. i gave her motrin & orajel. i think those two year molars are coming in. little buggers. i changed her diaper and wiped her nose. i let her jump all over me. let's just say she won the battle.

so i got up. i made breakfast, cleaned up all the dishes, wiped the counters and got dinner in the crockpot. today is going to be a big day. hopefully.

we've got story time this morning. it's the last one until Fall. and tonight, we're meeting up with our realtor and planning on signing the contract to start building our new home!!! we're pretty much nervous as can be. it's a huge step and i just keep praying that it's the right one for us now.

i will post more about the house-hunting game, but for now we've picked out our lot and it's being held with a deposit. we've gotten the numbers of what things will cost and what our monthly payments will look like. we've picked out our floorplan. we go in tonight to go over the contract and if everything still looks good, we'll sign it! i have a feeling that the knot in the pit of my stomach is going to be here until the house is finished.

and on top of all of this, my car registration is expiring. which means i need to get a south carolina license and register my car here. am i the only one who gets nervous about taking these driving tests? i know how to drive, obviously haha, but i am afraid i'll forget something on the written test or a road sign name. there's another knot in my stomach.

as much excitement as this week may hold, i'm ready to just get past it. i'm ready to know all the hard work is done and we can look forward to the future and our dreams.

 i'm off to get us ready for the library and hope that the teeth pain and snot fountain of a nose L has decides to leave us alone soon. hope you have a great tuesday!

happy memorial day | 2012

we've had a great weekend. full of some shopping and grilling out and house hunting. 

but i can't help but feel the whole day should be all about our heroes. the enlisted, the veterans, the amazing guys & gals fighting overseas for us. FOR US!

i am the proud wife of one amazing veteran. i'm so blessed to have him.

 

  

 

marine corp ball 2009 and 8 months pregnant with L || our last marine corp ball in 2010 with our best friends || M's last day in the corp

remember to say thank you. it's the smallest act of kindness but trust me, it lights up their worlds. it takes a special person to be a hero. we're lucky to have our own.