The Art of Resisting Temptation...

Just got back from San Diego for a week of sailor and good-byes. It was awesome and I suppose I will get around to writing about it all on its own. However, at this point I want to brag about my ability to resist all in the name of a dress. I have been itching for a new tattoo like a crazy woman! Like seriously, for a while now its all I could think about. Got a couple different things I want to do, and my tattoo guy is located in San Diego so I figured this would be a perfect time to get some new ink and also touch up my existing beauty. HOWEVER, every time I thought about doing it I would freak out about how I would cover said new tattoo for the upcoming wedding dress I will be wearing in November. It was seriously a battle every day trying to decide if I wanted to get one. Inevitably the dress one and I opted to wait until I am living down there and after the wedding to add some new ink. I figure it will keep both my mother and soon to be mother in law happy. Yeah yeah yeah , I know... I'm a real giver! Just because I love it, here are some of the original pictures of my precious tattoo, the first of probably many.

Shaun is the GREATEST!

The redness has obviously gone down. Can I just say.... I LOVE MY TATTOO!

Lets play catch up...

So... obviously my whole, "lets be a good blogger thing" didn't happen. Not at all. But I don't want to be that person that only posts about how she never posts. Soo here I am, with an update. I am going to cover this in points.

• First things first, ALL THE WAY BACK TO HALLOWEEN... I was a sailor in honor. Haley was Ursula. It was a nice water theme that we didn't even do on purpose. We had a party at Braydon's, and I indeed partied well.
• Colten was underway for most of October and half of November so it was pretty nice to have him get back. What was even better was taking off to San Diego for Thanksgiving with his 2 best friends. It was our second Thanksgiving as a couple, but first actually together so it was a lot of fun. I love that city. Seriously. I had the hardest time leaving, not just cause he wasn't coming with me, but because it is an incredible place. Can't wait to move there later this year! The drive home however; was not so great. We got stuck in one of the HUGE snow storms in southern Utah and it took us 7 hours to get from St. George to Santiquin. It was horrible. I am never driving back from Cali again. All and all it was an amazing getaway, and SOO nice to see the sailor. Best part was spending Thanksgiving night at the 'Hopping Pig' a new gastro pub downtown that had half price drinks in honor of its opening. Because it was such a bargain, and we are bargain shoppers, we spent our whole night there. Dustin (Coltens friend, and my lifesaver when it came to driving in that mess of a snow storm!) started a drunken, yet sincere, talk about what we are grateful for on the holiday meant for thankfulness. It was awesome to sit there in such an incredible place and listen to these three hard-ass guys discuss things like this. I am very lucky to have my sailor and especially lucky that he has such good friends that look out for me the way they do. I made the sailor go Black Friday shopping with me, and after much force, got him to buy some jeans that actually fit, and shirts withs collars. Small steps, yes... but it was a big victory none the less. I was very lucky to get to go down there and had an amazing time, I did miss out on Mama Kaye's cookin' but she made that up to us a couple weeks later. A very happy Thanksgiving indeed.
• I won a $300 gift card to Home Depot for a work drawing thing. Can we say YEAH to a mirror and a rug and some tools for the sailor... "YEAH!"
• The sailor was here for the first 2 weeks of December. An early Christmas present if you will. It was actually kind of nice when we were leaving Cali knowing that he would be flying in like 2 days later. This time was soo much busier than the last time he was here. It was full of family and work Christmas parties, family dinners, catching up with soooo many family and friends, engagement pictures and some wedding planning, and then trying to find time to just hang out and be a normal 'close distance' couple for a second. But really it was pretty amazing. We spent a night in Park City and had so much fun. The sailor was a real trooper sitting through 3 attempts at engagement pictures. This was probably the last time he would be here before he comes home for the wedding so it was our only shot at getting some good pictures. We did get some keepers thankfully, its nice to have that out of the way. We really did have an awesome time, but his trips home are NEVER long enough! Can't wait for the day when I don't have to drive him to the airport and say good bye for a long amount of time. I am, officially, the biggest ball baby on earth. I now wear that title with pride.
• Christmas came and went. Thankfully. Its not that I don't like Christmas... I love it. Its just funny. This was our second Christmas together and yet again, we weren't spending it together. The weird part about it all was that I felt as if something that made my Christmas 'normal' was missing. It was really weird to say the least. So I am happy its over. I had a very good Christmas though, Mama Kaye spoiled me with a Kindle, an amazing Karma necklace that I REALLY wanted, and a home made cookbook that is KILLER! I will post some pictures of it later. It is sooo cool that it deserves its own post.
• Been reading a bunch. Trying to finish up all the hard copy books I have so I can finally get to my awesome Kindle. Currently finishing Kiss It Good Bye, a book about the 1960 World Series between the New York Yankees and my Pittsburgh Pirates. Not going to lie, not typically what I would read, but I have found some enjoyment none the less. On deck for my reading pleasure are the following: Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen, Where Men Win Glory by one of my very favorites Jon Krakauer, One Day by David Nicholls, Alice's Adventure in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (its high time I read this classic) and finally The Huger Games by Suzanne Collins (I figure I should see what all the hype is about). I am so excited about my Kindle, the real bookworm nerd has came out of me with this one.
• I'm going to be an aunt to yet another baby boy. Can't complain because my brother and sister do make the cutest damn boys you've ever seen... but I can't lie I would kill for a baby girl. I am kind of lucky, through marriage I am getting 8 new nieces and nephews that I already love and adore. They are seriously such cute kids. With all these nieces and nephews it really only furthers me and the sailors stance on no kids. Why? Were surrounded by plenty of little shits ha ha.
• The sailor and I SET A DATE! YEAH! Our engagement will be a whopping 15 months long, (one month shy of the national average) and we will be getting married on 11/11/11. Catchy I know, ha ha. If the sailor didn't love the date as much as he did I probably wouldn't have given in to it, but he really was excited. I can't wait! At this point I have less than 10 months left and I am starting to feel a little pressure. I could possibly be packing up and moving to the sunny So Cal as soon as September so I would ideally have all the wedding plans done by then. That's really less than like 8 months! I know plenty of people have planned their weddings in like 6 weeks, but I am just not that organized. So to all of you I warn, be advised, crazy Maddie is almost here! Ha ha.
• Started school again, last semester for a while. I will finish my associates at the end of April and be done with school for probably 2 years while I'm following the sailor around the west coast. I am excited to get this behind me. I have technically been going to college for almost 6 years (if you include high school concurrent enrollment courses) so it will be really nice to end it and do something different for a while.
• I DID IT!!! A whole year without candy!! I have to admit, I am really proud of myself because I never thought I could possibly do it! This year I have opted to give up soda and so far I am 13 days strong with not much struggle. I am kind of hoping that this is one that I don't pick back up January 1, 2012 like I did with candy. However, I do have to admit, candy just isn't the same as it use to be. Its kind of nice because I learned a valuable lesson in 2010, I can live without it.
• And finally, I leave for Cali in 9 days to go see the sailor one last time before he goes on deployment for 8 months. (Hence why I haven't done much wedding planning, waiting for him to leave so it can be a nice distraction from my loneliness). I am so excited to go see him, especially to get 5 straight days with just him, that is next to impossible to come by. I think it will be a really great couple of days for us, but also pretty bitter sweet. Knowing the looming good-bye is just a few days away might be more than I can handle. I know we can survive this deployment, and what is waiting on the other end is so exciting, but we both know its going to be a rough set of months. I seriously cannot wait for September. The idea of being a "normal couple" that gets to see each other everyday, doesn't have to spend hours on the phone each night because we can actually speak in person, and gets to share all those hugs and kisses and physical stuff that we miss out on by being 691 miles apart. Needless to say, I can't wait!

Well, I can't say my life is all the exciting, but I am happy to have had as many bullet points as I did. Makes me feel somewhat accomplished. I can only hope that the next few months fly by and that I take a lot of the free time that I will have and direct it to this here blog. Wish me luck with my soon to be heartache and my battle against soda pop and wedding stress. 2011 was every possibility to be the very best ever!

Here is a promise...

I have this wonderful story that I so love to tell, its called 'how I got engaged'. It really is a terrific tale including a castle, a prince, and... video baseball!? Here I make a promise to blog more often. The next year and what... 3 weeks, are probably going to crawl as we count down to 'Wedding 11/11/11' and I really want to be better about writing down what is going on in my life. So here in this public forum I promise you, my 1 (Baker) maybe 2 blog readers, that I will be back shortly to tell the tale of my amazing engagement, bore you with all the gushy details of how I am marrying one helluva sailor and document all of the adventures (some might call misadventures) through this last year as a single lady. Here is just a sneak peek of that amazing story I have to tell you all about...

SaSQuatch 2010

The Gorge at George, Washington (Columbia River Gorge in the back)

This Memorial Day I really celebrated and went to the Sasquatch Music Festival in George, Washington. Its a 3 day music celebration with a wide variety of artists and is camping style just like your typical Woodstock type adventure. I went with one of my best friends Shand and his really good friend (my new friend) Lance. This is where I have to plug how I have an awesome boyfriend who doesn't even question that I'm taking off for 5 days with 2 guys camping in 1 tent. Now yes, you should all know me well enough to know that even if he did say something about it, I would still go... No one tells me no, ha ha but his support and lack of questioning me was just another reason for me to think he's the best! But anyways, this was a pretty exciting adventure for me because I was only familiar with 5-10 of the 35+ bands performing at the festival. Now granted some bands I REALLY LOVE (i.e. Minus the Bear and Drive-By Truckers) were going to be there, but I was almost more excited about all the potential music I was going to find. And that I did. I came home with a long lists of artists and bands that I was dying to download or steal from Shands iTunes ha ha. Its been almost a month since we've been back and I'm still spending way too much on iTunes buying random songs and creating Sasquatch playlists.
The camping was a real treat I must say. I'm a camper, I've never had a problem with sleeping in a tent or squatting in the woods... but this was different. They had a diesel trailer full of showers (I'm sad I didn't take pictures of this from the outside to did it better justice.) Now I am fine with squatting in the woods and all that, but showering with other women has NEVER been something I'm okay with. I am the most private of individuals and I would NEVER get naked in front of strangers and just walk into a stall. So needless to say I was the freak show in the trailer undressing/dressing in the very small stall while all her clothes are getting wet and walking in and out of the trailer with her eyes closed in order to avoid seeing more of anyone else than I would prefer (which would be NOTHING!)

That there on the hill is the tent city aka our camp ground.

Other than the very uncomfortable showering situation and a ridiculously pompous and annoying tent neighbor, the camping was pretty great. We had a pretty good thing going on in our tent with Lance and I on air mattresses and Shand on an old futon mattress he had. It was an experience to say the least. The one nice thing though was camping with a gay guy, I was definitely not the diva there... I was thankful for that! ha ha

Each day we had a photo competition, whoever took the best picture in the group won for the day....

Day 1.... Goes to Lance (the one in the hat)

And how couldn't it, doesn't he look adorable!

Day 2 we branched out and took TWO pictures... Pic 1 went to Shand.

Day 2 Pic 2 Went to Lance again. Whatever inspired that grin deserves to be recognized.

Day 3 is where I was FINALLY victorious, well sort of at least, we all voted that this one goes to my boobs! As if there is even any where else to look! ha ha (Note spiderman in the corner, that sly spidey slipped right into our picture!)

Sunset at the Gorge. Each night was beautiful like this, I even got a little jealous of all the people that were out boating in the amazing water!

A picture of the top half of the amphitheater and the crowd we shared the hill with. There was an insane amount of people out here in BFE aka George.

So like I said there were a couple of bands that I was really excited to see, the most of which being The Drive-By Truckers, a southern rock group that Colten introduced me to when we started dating and I've been addicted to ever since. Being that Colten and I are both big music fans, we (as corny as it is) have a bunch of "our songs", and most of them come from this band. I had already seen them once earlier that month and Colten had seen them twice already in California so it was nice to have the chance to catch up and see them in such an amazing venue. They were amazing as always and I even met some new folks that loved them probably as much as I did.

Drive-By Truckers (John, Patterson, Cooley, Shonna)

Me watching the Truckers

But what made this even COOLER and propelled me into being the COOLEST girlfriend ever is what I did following the show. I found out that an hour after they were done performing they were going to be signing autographs over at this CD tent! I knew a signed album would seriously make Coltens whole world and totally make me the best possible girlfriend. So I started a mad text session with his best friend (also a huge DBT fan) to find out what album he thought Colten would like to have signed most. After getting his approval of which one to buy I bought an actual album, old school vinyl, of his favorite record of theirs "Decoration Day." I sat there in line freaking out and getting all excited, I was even shaking. I think it was more due to the fact of how pumped he was going to be, however meeting the band was going to be awesome. SOO the entire time we've dated Colten has always told me how much he loved Shonna Tucker the bass player of the band. When he went to the shows in California he kept telling me that he could possibly end up proposing to her tonight and apologized if that ended up happening (I of course being the smart ass that I am, wished him the best of luck, "hope she accepts" ha ha). So I knew a personalized message from Shonna would just throw this whole thing over the edge ha ha and so I did. When I got up to meet the band I explained to Shonna that my boyfriend was completely obsessed with her and the only reason he wont marry me someday is if you end up saying yes to one of his desperate proposals. She and some of the other guys from the band busted up laughing and she told me I was adorable! (YEAH, I am!) She asked his name and personalized the album "To Colten, See you soon! Love, Shonna." I was so excited because she was so cool about it. After she signed it she told me to tell him to marry me, that I was cute! Yep she approves of our relationship ha ha! So I continued on and got the rest of the bands signatures and went on my way. Now the real question was should I tell him or keep it a secret and give it to him the next time I see him, which probably wont be until September:( I was already acting suspicious in text messaging and he was onto me that something was going on. So I gave in, made him tell me how much he loved me in order to hear my secret and then I totally spilled the beans. HE FREAKED! Seriously, went nuts and had to call and tell everyone how awesome his girl was! He even made some corny facebook comment where he changed lyrics of a song to tell everyone he had a signed album in Washington and a great girl who made it happen! ha ha It was perfect!

Me informing Shonna of Coltens obsession!

Me and Patterson Hood the lead singer.



Me and Mike "the Stroker Ace" Cooley. He was all about coming across the counter to give me a big hug, I loved it!


Me and my competition, Shonna Tucker. She was so awesome how could I even try to compete with her!?! Okay yeah, I'm competitive, I will fight to the death! ha ha

Needless to say my trip to Eastern Washington was AMAZING. I had so much with Shand and Lance. My friendship with Shand only got stronger, and Lance is now someone I'm really happy to be friends with. They were perfect travel companions, we have every intention to make this a tradition from here on out! Found some amazing new music, fell even more in love with some I came to see and to top it all off, did the ultimate in cool girlfriend trick and hooked the boyfriend up real well. It was a terrific Memorial Day for sure! LET THERE BE ROCK!

New glasses, new hair, new love... does this mean I have a life now?

So there has been a lot of new developments for this girl, however, most of them are superficial ha ha.
I finally after 9 months cut and colored my hair. I have a huge girl crush of the amazing Zooey Daschanel and love love love her hair so I went out on a limb and did some bangs and went back to black ... I'm a week in and loving the change. For the first time in a very long time, I feel like I actually have a "hair style" that I have to maintain versus always just dealing with the inconvenient length that it was.

In addition to the new hair I am rocking some new glasses. I let the rockin' style of WW2 vets influence me, along with some serious push from Todd, and went with some old man lookin' Ray Bans. I am getting the craziest reactions to the new frames but I love them! I think the new hair and glasses combo is PERFECT! I have pretty much channeled Claire's dad from Heroes for these frames...

The third "new thing" is a new romantic interest... I know, can you believe it? It seems like its been forever! ha ha and lets be serious, anything that has happened in the last little while hasn't been so good so this is a big deal! I'm not really sure its time to divulge to much information just yet, don't really want to jinx anything, but this is something pretty amazing. They aren't lying when they say "distance makes the heart grow fonder" so we will see how I handle long distance and long term separation... its one of the most vulnerable situations I've put myself in romantically, but at this point it really seems to be worth. As time goes on, I'm sure I will have more to blog about.

Last "new" thing is my new years resolution. Yeah, I should have mentioned this earlier but this is my first post of 2010. My new years resolution is to give up candy... AH, I know! So far I'm 27 days strong and if I can make it through Valentines and Easter strong then I know nothing will stop me! ha ha wish me luck!

WAHOO for Halloween time!

So for the most part I'm fairly modest... except for the occasional low cut shirt or tank top in summer, ha ha but this year I really decided I was going all out for our Halloween party, no matter what the costume! So The Watchmen coming out this year was a pretty big deal because I think that it is a bad ass comic book/graphic novel. So I searched high and low for a Silk Spectre costume and after many days of shopping I FINALLY found one and was pretty pumped for it, however... it was like a black pleather spandex kinda fabric that I knew was going to be scary for me! Ha ha, when it came down to it however, I wanted to be Silk Spectre bad enough I threw my inhibitions to the wind and went for it! The wig was nuts and totally hard to deal with all night, there was hair EVERYWHERE, my hot black boots were a nightmare trying to get them fixed in time for my party , and the costume really was like NOTHING i've ever worn before! ha ha but I loved it. Tory and Amber threw the party at their house and went crazy on the decorations, it looked awesome! Haley was a trooper and let her husband pick the costumes this year so they came as the COOLEST Ninja Turtles ever! (Minus the pizza boxes!) It was an awesome Halloween for sure though! Chalk that up for another hella good time at Tory & Ambers!Haley and I rocking our super hero attire, we are totally ready to beat bad guys up, can't you tell? ha ha those little swords came in real handy for her all night! ha ha

It's an old fashioned stick up! Like I said, the girl loved her swords!

Haley and Kylers wicked cool costumes! Haleys mom never dissapoints in the costume department!

Tory and Haley. Tory went as the Beastie Boys in the Sabotage music video, he's missing his mustache here. Haley was ready to kill for sure!

Me and Dustin. He was "too cool" to dress up for the party, but lets be serious he's adorable so he didn't have to!

Just a small part of our party mess... it was crazy!

Shand and I. He went as a independent film producer... or a drunk, you decide! ha ha

Oh ya... Now I remember... I use to blog!

So my parents decided to FINALLY after 8 years get a new computer! Most of you know how big of a deal this is, seeing as YES I still live at home and trying to do school, blog and have a healthy facebook life is next to IMPOSSIBLE without a decent computer... I'm really hoping that with access to the new computer I might actually get around to blogging more often:) Its been MONTHS since I have and its actually been a pretty eventful year so plenty to blog about.. please be patient cuz I really do promise there is more to come!