I am currently writing on the patio of our new apartment with the newest addition to our family chewing my big toe. It has been a long year since I’ve moved to Washington state and I have just now started to find the time to write and tap into my creativity again. In the past year, the bar I work at shut down for a few months and then re-opened, we moved into our own apartment, I started taking clients for personal training and also became a certified nutrition specialist. Bu

Two months ago, I packed my entire life up into my Honda Civic and drove across the country to finally close this damn distance between Taylor and I. I insisted to my mom, who came along for the ride so I wouldn’t get mugged or kidnapped, that I wanted to drive the entire way. I savored every mile that got me closer to him. Eating Doughnuts in Denver, CO I want to tell you that my road trip and these past two months have been nothing but amazing and a breeze…but that’s not wh

Twenty-four years old and I had never been to Disney World… I know. My parents aren’t big travelers and they also aren’t big theme park people so I never really thought going to Disney World was a possibility for me as of now. Enter Taylor. Somehow we got on the topic of Disney a few years back and he learned that I had never been. Time passed, deployment came and then it ended and Taylor said he had a surprise trip for me. So began my first trip to Disney… and trust me, it i

It would be an understatement to tell you that Hawaii was beautiful. And the time that I spent with Taylor and his family was just as beautiful if not more. I went to Hawaii to visit T and to say my last goodbyes before he goes under the sea for a long period of time, the longest period of time that we will be apart thus far in our relationship. If you read my last post, “How to Travel to Hawaii for Cheap,” you know that we rented an Airbnb which, let me tell you, was a bless

I never really thought I’d have the chance to go to Hawaii. I know it’s beautiful but my dad hates airplanes, family doesn’t travel much to begin with and it’s expensive so I never really had the urge or the means to go. Enter Taylor, my boyfriend who chose Hawaii as his first pick of places to be stationed. He told me a gallon of milk was about ten bucks a pop and I freaked out because if a stupid gallon of milk is that expensive how in the hell am I ever going to afford foo

Being that I was born and raised in the suburbs of Chicago, you would think that I would have already taken the three hour drive down to visit St. Louis, Missouri at least once in my life… Surprisingly, this is untrue. Me and T wanted to take some type of road trip while he was home on leave and my friend had told me that the St. Louis Zoo has a penguin tour where you can meet and pet the penguins. T’s favorite animal is a penguin so we easily settled for St. Louis as our roa

You’ve just spent this amazing few weeks with your SO filled with lots of love, companionship, laughter, fun-filled plans and parties. Then no sooner do they get back that you find yourself back at the airport waving goodbye with tear-soaked eyes and a snot-filled tissue in your non-waving hand. Then there is the drive home from the airport that you don’t really remember too much because of all the thinking you have done during that time. Then before you know it, you are stan

There is no denying that distance is hard and I would be silly if I told you that I have found a way to deal with it completely. I haven’t. But I have found ways to bring comfort during those times when I feel like my heart is literally tearing in my chest, those nights that I toss and turn and can’t fall asleep. 1.Grow yourself a support system I think of my support system as a circle. The reasoning for that is because none of them come before the other and they are all ther

For two years now, Charleston has become my second home and it wasn’t too traumatic on my wallet most of the time. My airline tickets averaged around $300 and if I couldn’t do that I could drive. The next stop on our military journey, however, is going to be Hawaii, a trip that will most definitely not be too kind on the old wallet. But I have recently put in place some tips and tricks that will get me, stress-free, to Hawaii and back… I might even be able to afford a nice di

A few months ago, I became familiar with the idea of minimalism or the idea that we don’t need things to be happy. We only need what is essential to life to be happy. So, I purged out my room and got rid of 16 bags of things that just didn’t make me the slightest bit happy anymore or things I haven’t used in months. You can read more about my minimalism journey and how I found it beneficial to being a military SO in my article, “Minimalism and the Military Girlfriend.” This l

My best friend at work bought tickets the other day for her and her boyfriend to fly round- trip to Denver, Colorado…for $50 each. That blew my mind. Fifty dollars?! Round trip?! That’s insane considering my flight tickets are always at least $200 a pop. So, I asked her how she did it. She used an app called "Hopper", an absolutely beautiful thing for MILSOS. First you create an account and then type in your starting location and where you’d like to go. After that this screen