Is Texas the South? Or is it too great a state to be associated with other regions?

I must ask. Is Texas the South?

I ask because Mr. Marine and I got into quite the discussion last night. It happened when we went out for drinks with another couple. She (the other wife) is from the Midwest. He (the other husband) is from Mississippi. Mr. Marine is from Coastal Georgia and I am from Texas. 

I was simply noting that I am not a fanatic about Lilly. I do own one dress and I wore it to my rehearsal dinner. I do not like pastels. If you are going to give me pink, it better be Hot. I write on stationary, but it is monogrammed - not Lilly inspired.

As we are discussing this, the conversation rolls into the fact that I do not wear polo shirts. I own one and every.single.time I wear it, I ask my husband if I look "butch" in it. I never feel like myself in a polo shirt. My husband wears them and looks super hot...so I will stick to the flowing tops, dresses, stilettos, etc...and he can sport the pink Lacoste polo.

I was explaining how everyone in the south loves that stuff and this is what went down:

Mr. Marine: You aren't from the South. You're from Texas.

Me: What? Texas is the South

Mr. Marine: Noooo it isn't. Y'all wear cowboy boots and wranglers. 

Me: Technically, Lilly isn't Southern either. She is a Yankee!

Mr. Marine: Look babe. Texas isn't southern because....It is its own entity!

Me: You're right. We are better than the South! No one else is like us!

So I ask my blog readers...Is Texas part of the South, or is it too great a state to simply be grouped-in with other region comprising states?

P.S. He claims my fashion sense comes from my years in California (LA to be exact). He politely stated that people in Cali don't wear Lilly. Honestly, he is correct. My friends wouldn't be caught dead in a female version of a polo shirt. They sport dramatic colors, low cut tops and designer jeans...none of which are pastel!

Low-Country Boils, Lemon and the "L"etter game!

So I am playing the super fun Letter Game from Little Pink Magnolia. If you decide you'd like to join in on the fun, leave a comment and I'll give you a letter!

The rules are: Find 10 things you love that begin with your letter. Now...when you comment on my list of faves, I'll give you a chance to share yours.

My letter is "L"

Ten things I just can't live without (in random order):

1. Love Letters - I know, it seems antiquated. Mr. Marine and I have an awesome love story (think Notebook without the sad ending, hopefully). So from the time we met at 16, to the time we began dating 9 years later, love letters (or emails) were what kept us in touch and in one another's heart. Then when he deployed, I would run (literally) to the mailbox when I saw the mailman coming to see if I got a love letter. Ironically, they always arrived on the days I needed them most!

2. Lemon Cleaning Spray  - I am not a cleaning spray snob so I will gladly use the cheap stuff but I LOVE the smell of Meyer Lemon Countertop Spray from Williams-Sonoma. It just makes everything smell so clean!

3. Low-Country Boils - This is just a huge excuse to gather as many friends as possible, drink plenty of beer, and eat awesome food! This is a very southern meal but easy peazy to cook!

Just fresh shrimp, corn on the cob, red potatoes, and some Roger Wood sausage (you can buy any brand, but that's the one we get in Georgia)...You're just getting the main ingredients now, but I'll post the recipe later. Heck, we even got our neighbors here in the Midwest eating it! Ummm...I'm hungry now!

4. Leggings - I know they come in and out of style, but I always keep mine on hand. I'm not going to go all Lindsay Lohan or anything and wear them everywhere, but I do think they are cute under dresses and long sweaters. They look good with boots or flats. I'm just a fan!

5. Louboutin - Christian, that is! His trademark red sole is splendid. I look for that like a single man should look for a wedding ring on a girl in a bar. It's the first thing I check out...Do I see red on the bottom of that beautiful stiletto? Oh be still my beating heart!

6. Lime - I love it! Put extra in my margarita, por favor! Throw some more slices in my vodka/tonic, please! Tequila shot with an extra slice of lime, of course! I even love when Mr. Marine makes Lime-Chipotle marinated grilled shrimp. Just give me more lime...you hear me?

7. Lei - You know the pretty ones you get when you arrive in Hawaii, or attend a luau? They always put my in the Island spirit and make me want to start shakin' my hips like the local women do! They also make me want a refreshing Mai Tai too! 

8. Lip Gloss - I used to wear lipstick all the time, but then I got hooked on lip gloss. I like the shiny aspect, instead of the matte look. I have so many little bottles, tubes, etc.. I have one (a generic shade) in each purse to avoid getting stuck in public without any lip color!

9. Latte - I don't care if it is pumpkin in the fall, peppermint in the winter, eggnog at Christmas, vanilla throughout the year, caramel if I need a change...just make it a "Skinny" one and I am in heaven! 

10. Lazy Sundays - I can't begin to explain how much these days mean to me! Mr. Marine works 6 days a week, usually, so it is so nice to not do anything except be together on Sundays. We will go to brunch. Go shopping for our renovation projects. Watch football. Grab a pizza and a beer. We have even been known to go on a bar crawl (in the snow) to our fave pubs around the area. We just always use that day to unwind and enjoy each other's company.

Welcome to our home...the first floor at least!

Alright y'all - It is so dang hard to get the house done just the way I want it, but I figure I'd show you the progress along the way. 

~

Pic. #1 - Don't mind the unpainted section of wall beneath the window. They have to replace the window (still waiting) so we don't want to paint until that is done. Otherwise we will just have to paint again!

Pic #2 - Dining Room. Don't mind the boxes in the corner. It is just our kitchen backsplash waiting to be installed!

Pic #3 - Our very strange and obtrusive fireplace. I enjoy modern touches, but not ones that jet out and take too much space in my already cozy parlor room. The fireplace will soon be stone, and it won't have the same structure it does now. Much cleaner lines. Oh, and we are waiting for a glass table, so our makeshift coffee table is just that...makeshift! Oh, and the sad plant will soon be a tall bamboo plant.

Pic#4 - Our bar. It holds some of our most prized possessions...our beer glasses (and wine, of course). Every place we travel (Europe, the States, etc...) we get beer glasses. As you may (or may not) know, they serve each beer in its own specific glass in Europe. Well, we either buy the glass, get it free, or "acquire" it as the Marines say.  We also do this at small brewery's here in the States. 

Well, now that you have toured the entry level of our 3 story home, I will await your comments, praise, or constructive advice! Once we get our magnificent kitchen done, I'll post those pics. 

~ 

P.S. Any advice on art? Our walls are kinda bare. I love modern pieces (vases, etc...) but can't decide on paintings so we have nothing! Help please!

Dogs Stick Together!

Last night went down something like this...

Mr. Marine has to work today because the Marines don't care that there's snow on the ground. So as the fluffy stuff continued to pile-up last night, he decided to take our dog outside and play in it...at 11pm. 

I, who has the day off, stayed snuggled in bed. Well when my husband is done playing, him and Riley trot on upstairs and both hop in the bed. (Lab in bed started during deployment...habit still going strong)

I am trying to sleep but am distracted by the sound of my dog licking! I hate that sound and it usually happens after he eats a bug. If I were still living in TX, I would assume he ate/licked a frog...but Mr.Toad's wild ride doesn't come this far north! 

So I am trying to get him to stop that awful slurping sound, and finally I say to Mr. Marine, "Either the dog stops or I'm sleeping in the guest room."

Mr. Marine, who was in his own doghouse for various reasons last night, makes no attempt to figure out how to stop the dog. He just rolls over and ignores me. I realize my husband's learning to sleep when bombs are going off around him is a talent, but I am such a sound person. I can hear him crack his knuckles from 3 floors up...and don't get me started on nail clipping sounds!

Anyways, Just stop the damn dog from slurping! 

So guess where I woke-up this morning? Yep...the guest room!

Where were the dogs in the morning? Sleeping soundly in the master bed! 

Unbelievable! Un-freaking-believable!

Lonely Marine Wife...No, this isn't a personal ad!

I am just going to say it, "Being a military spouse can be a rotten job at times!"

There, it is in the open for all my bloggers to read. It may make me sound whiny, or bratty, but it is just the honest to goodness truth!

I never thought I'd be living this life to begin with. In fact, Mr. Marine's and my "courtship" took a little hiatus when he informed me he would be joining the Marine Corps while at the University of Georgia. I said, "it is honorable that you want to serve your country, but I will NEVER be a military wife...especially not a MARINE wife."

Well, our story picked up a few years later (save for another post) and here I am...traveling the country, uprooting my life every time his life beckons, leaving friends behind and spending many a lonely night all in support of the Good Ol' USA.

I struggle with this emotion "bitterness" because I know many wives make this sacrifice without complaint. I am proud to be a military wife. My husband leads some of the bravest men and women for a greater cause and all I can do is whine that I don't have a shopping buddy? As one of my dearest friends said to me one day, "I (my friend) can't complain because all I do is shop, drink, raise our kids and hang out with the girls while he is gone. He risks his life and I don't."

That is Soooooo not my philosophy! Mr. Marine and I did not pick-up until he had graduated from UGA and was in Office Candidate School (or OCS to my fellow spouses.) So I already had an established job in Houston, I was living by family and prepared to spend my years on a front porch swatting mosquitoes off my citronella drenched skin!

Then I got married and relocated to po-dunk North Carolina. I cried every night. Then I met wives who cried too. We learned that coffee in the morning, margaritas at lunch and wine in the evening made the crappy times better! Now, I am not a drunk...but any wife who has gone through a deployment will agree that there are times when a stiff drink is all you want! 

Now we are living in the Midwest. I was thinking heartland of the US, down-to-earth ladies that I will make friends with immediately. Ummm...no. Now, I know some of my blog readers are from the Midwest so I must ask, "Is everyone this hard to get to know?" 

I feel like I am the new kid in school and the cheerleaders don't like me and I am foreign to the computer nerds (which I guess us Southerners are foreign to most people). Everyone is so clique-ish here. 

I am used to bangin' down the neighbor's door with food, drinks, housewarming gift...something. Here, no one cares who moves in because they already have their friends! 

I am just asking for some advice from any Midwesterners that might read this. Please help!

The Midwest is like another country to me and I just need someone who has traveled these roads before to give me a roadmap. 

I am all to familiar with the Southern way of life...but I am at a loss when it comes to the middle of this great country!

Beware - Hate Clouds Ahead!

Last night's conversation with Mr. Marine at a bar/restaurant in which half-naked women were walking around promoting Three Olives Vodka for an event:

Me: "That girl should not be wearing that short of a skirt with her legs." 

Mr. Marine: "I didn't notice anything about her legs" (where he smirks and avoids eye contact)

Me: "Well, if you look when she passes under the light, you will see all sorts of cellulite. And her skirt is short enough (picture Pretty Woman, scene 1) that I can see the fat pockets of her inner thighs."

Mr. Marine: "Hmmmm"

Later in the evening, she begins passing out little trinkets to people in our area.

Me: "Why isn't she even coming over towards us? I want some pop-rocks!"

Mr. Marine: "Maybe because you've been snarling in her direction all night."

Me: "She doesn't know that. I'd smile if she looked at me."

Mr. Marine: "Well, I am sure she can spot the hate clouds over your head. They have been spewing hate at her all night."

Later...after I have time to observe the corporate man table that won't leave her alone.

Me: "I am not being hateful because I am just one of those girls that hates women more beautiful than me. If she were looking hot in that getup I'd be the first one to say so."

Mr. Marine: "I know."

Me: "I think she gets away with an inappropriate outfit b/c she has big puffy blonde hair (with terrible extensions, I might add). Blondes get away with it more because men can't see past the hypnotic bleach."

Mr. Marine: "Honestly babe, I think we (meaning men) expect brunettes to be skinnier. But blondes can get away with being fatter since they already have the blonde thing going on."

WHAT!!!! 

* Please note that I mean no disrespect (I was once sporting the blonde hair myself) to my fair haired friends. I am just addressing the women who pour bleach on their hair until it kills all living follicles...and subsequently any breathing man's brain cells! 

You Want My Hips To Do What?

Let me preface this by telling ya'll that I was a dancer for over 15 years. I danced tap, ballet and jazz. Of course, I then became a cheerleader, with some body contorting gymnastics thrown in there along the way. Please don't misunderstand when I say dancer...I can groove and shimmy to a choreographed routine, but I am not (never have been) one to go clubbing and tear-up the dance floor; unless it is a Texas bar where I can be pushed around the parquet by handsome cowboys in too-tight jeans (which never happens now that I am happily married...to a preppy not a cowboy). 

So when the gym that I work for (part-time in marketing) sent me home with an Urban Striptease video I was a bit nervous but somewhat excited. My body has become a bit "fluffier" than it was in my dancing days, and I have been wanting to try pole dancing exercises, so I popped this video in and the fun began.

I thought that I could learn a routine, and maybe even surprise my Marine with it. I ain't gonna lie, I'm married to a Marine so therefore my husband has seen good amounts of other women's perky boobs, flat tummies and flowing long hair.  My boobs no longer stand at attention, my tummy shimmies when I do, and my hair is short (for now anyways) so I thought this would really get his blood flowing. Now, my husband is the world's best, now that we are hitched...but a single Marine is a naughty Marine and I was gonna reach down deep and bring out my naughty Southern side.

There isn't one. I secretly danced in our basement, worked up a sweat and burst out in laughter. My body has become so tight from years of not dancing and no yoga that when the sexy instructor told me to "roll my body" my body only showed me its rolls. When she instructed me to shimmy...I felt more shaking in my flabby triceps then in my bust. And when she told me to crawl on the floor, all I could think was..."oh my gawd, my tummy pudge is hangin' lower than I thought."

So I am going to try it again...after some yoga and Weight Watchers. I am not a really large person in actuality. I am only 5' 2" and 120 pounds. However, I have let myself get flabby so I am what one might call "skinny fat" and I need to firm up before I start shakin' my tush (which is the only firm part of me) around the room for my Marine.

But even then, I am not sure I am cut out for this. I applaud the gals that role play but I just laugh. Go get em' if you are one who cracks the whip...but I just laugh. Well, I guess it isn't all bad because they say laughter is amazing for the abs. So as my husband would say, "I've got that goin' for me...which is nice." 

This Texas Gal Loves The Snow!

It is snowing!!!!

Alright, all y'all from up north or around the midwest zip it! You have had your fair share of the white stuff this season. However, since we live in the midwest (only for 3 years and specifically chosen for its winter climate) I am a bit bummed that the snow keeps missing our city! It drops glorious amounts of snow to our surrounding counterparts, but always seems to leave "icy conditions" in my neck of the woods.

When we knew the Marines were about to uproot us, we thought "Let's live somewhere that we would never live again, and it will help get my desire for cold out of my system." We have absolutely loved living here and I have been anticipating the snow like a little girl. 

However, I have not enjoyed enough snow to go sledding...but here are some things I have learned about the winter:

~ Your car doors actually freeze shut! I hate ice on the road, on my windshield, and definitely when it ices my doors shut.

~  I don't mind cold if it is snowing. The fun and the misery balance out. However, recently, we had a bitter cold snap and I thought I was going to die. Negative temps are not something this Texas girl had in mind.

But today..the cold is welcomed (as long as the snow keeps falling). 

Here goes it!

So I have finally entered the blogging world. It took me darn near a month to think of a name for this thing. I can't imagine how long it will take me to think of my kids names (thank goodness we have years to consider that...knock on wood). 

Anyways, I finally decided on "Running in Stilettos." As you will come to know, I am a fashion lover. However, I have days that my jeans won't button and my shirts show an ever present muffin top. It is on these days, that I rely on my trusty stilettos. I do not care what a woman wears, be it an empire waist or a turtleneck...pair it with killer stiletto heels and the outfit is rockin'. 

There are also days (especially where we live now) that I feel like a balloon trapped inside a huge sweater, under a coat and a scarf and I think, "How can I leave the house looking this large?" It is then, that I put on my skinny jeans and neatly tuck the pant leg into my black leather 4" stiletto heel boots and venture out into the snow (or ice, which has been the case for much of this season). 

My point is, stilettos always make me look better, feel taller and more in charge of my life. Please do not be fooled by the running part of my blog name. I despise running, but enjoy its symbolism in this case because I do believe when life gets tough and we want to crawl into our jammies and eat a gallon of Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia ice cream...if we just put on our sexiest red heels and grab a glass of wine, or a great mojito, the problems will seem a little less cumbersome...or maybe it's just because my toes are shoved into tiny openings and I tend to shift my thoughts to the numbness that begins to set in.