I heart live music! {Tyrone Wells}

I've talked about my love of music here before.  It was one of the things I missed the most while we were living in Japan.  I managed to squeeze in a few shows while I was in the US visiting and for my 30th birthday so I didn't have to go a full 3 years without seeing a show but I couldn't wait to get back to America and get back to seeing my favorite guys play.  Luckily I didn't have to wait long.  Last week Tyrone Wells played a show at House of Blues San Diego.

With little effort, I convinced my cousin to join me.

And, as expected, we were treated to an exceptional show.

I love this man as an artist and what he stands for and believes in.

Yep, she's hooked!  She'll be back, I'm certain!

Tyrone is the one who started my love affair with singer/songwriters.  You can read the whole story that I linked above (or if you skipped it, you can read it here) but here's a little photo recap.

It all started in May 2007 when 3 girls who were slightly infatuated with a certain hockey player went to a show knowing said hockey player might be there.  I know we have photos of us with Tyrone that night but at the moment, I do not know where.  I fear they were on the external hard drive that is no longer functioning.

I know we saw him a few more times in between but these are all the photos I can find right now.  This was from a show in September 2009 in St. Louis.  We (my girlfriends and I) have never been shy about driving long distances to get our music fix.  I was living at FLW but they all drove down to see me him.

I even managed to squeeze in a show while I was back in America on vacation while living in Japan.

Indianapolis, May 2012

As if I needed more convincing that SD is the perfect place for us, not only did I get to see Tyrone this week but in the next 3 weeks, I will be seeing 3 more of my favorite singer/songwriters who are all coming to town.  I cannot even begin to put into words how excited this makes me!

New Friends!

When you move every 3 years (or less), making new friends each time can be a daunting task.  It's not as easy as when you were 5 and you can walk up to a girl, say "Your shoes are pretty.  Want to be my friend?", and skip off together to the playground (I saw this happen once at vacation Bible school).  Luckily for me, Katie from Going Coastal took some of the stress out of friend making here in San Diego.  She rounded up a bunch of military spouse bloggers who are all relatively new to the area and organized a super fun brunch at Crepes and Corks.

I had a delicious chicken pesto crepe.  Everyone else ordered something sweet so I'll have to go back and try a sweet one next time.

We sat around chatting for two hours and probably would have sat there longer if our parking meters hadn't expired. (our server was definitely not a photographer!)

Nicole {Adventures of a Semper Fi Family}

Kara {Ramblings of a Marine Wife}

Me

Katie {Going Coastal}

Emily {Just the Stew of Us}

We're making plans to expand our group and meet up again next month and I'm already looking forward to it!

Wedding Day {Brad+Jamie}

Y'all my baby brother is MARRIED!  Part of me cannot believe it and part of me almost feels like they've been married for years already.  Jamie has been a part of our lives for over 7 years, almost as long as Jason and I have been together.  In fact, she's at more of the same family functions I am than my brother is because of his work schedule so it almost feels like she's family and my brother is marrying into the family.  Anyways, Jamie is awesome, my brother is totally lucky to have snagged her and we're lucky to have her in our family, officially now!

They were married on a golf course in Indiana so of course we had fun riding around in golf carts taking photos.  This was my 1st time driving a golf cart and I may or may not be a very good golf cart driver...

Some of the guys wore Bill Murray t-shirts under their tuxedos.

Brad and Jamie are both die hard baseball fans, so their wedding had a fun baseball theme to it.

Complete with a NACHO BAR!  This would have been the best wedding food ever if we hadn't had a Skyline bar at our wedding (wink, wink). 

So happy and in love!

Their first (and only) dance.  I love that her dress swallowed him up!

 Sisters, officially now! (photobombed by my awesome brother)

 That's better.  I could not have hand picked more awesome women to call my sisters!  I love these girls!

 My siblings and I, we're kind of awesome!

 I love this man!

 Then their wedding was crashed...by Mr. Red Legs!  They had no idea he was coming, 2 of Jamie's cousins (the co-maids-of-honor) set it up and to say it was a huge hit would be an understatement.

 He pretty much consumed the rest of the evening.

 There was a bit of a dance off between Mr. Red Legs and one of my brother's best friends.

 He even got the bride on the dance floor.

 Jason even did the wiggle dance with him.

Then I cried because my throat hurt so bad and I was so tired I just couldn't stay awake any longer.  Then we realized our car wasn't there so we couldn't leave so my awesome mother agreed to leave a little early to take us to our car.  AND THEN we got to our car and my husband (that guy up there doing the wiggle dance with the Cincinnati Reds mascot) realized that our keys were in my brother's car back at the reception venue so I choked him thought about choking him but didn't have the energy to do it.

This illness was one of the worst of my life and it could not have hit at a worse time.  Luckily it has mostly passed now and my voice is almost back to normal.  Hopefully that was my one and only bout with bronchitis!

Speechless at my brother's wedding

For the first time ever in my life I was left speechless last week.  Literally.  Unable to speak a word.  IT. WAS. TORTURE.

So I woke up last Tuesday (the day our HHG were delivered) to a sore throat that I just knew was going to turn into something more.  I had no idea exactly how much more it was about to become.  I struggled through the delivery of all our stuff

before I passed out for a 4 hour nap while my AMAZING husband began the agonizing process of unpacking.

I woke up long enough to cook dinner and go right back to sleep.  The next morning, I left to fly back to Cincinnati for my brother's wedding.  Traveling while sick might be one of the worst things EVER but there was no way I was going to miss this flight.

OJ, water, and pretzels helped me survive the flights.

I immediately went back to sleep the moment I arrived at my girlfriend's house, not the reunion either of us had hoped for but a necessity for sure.

The next morning was go time!  Wedding prep was underway with or without me, so I joined in as best I could.  A relaxing mani/pedi with my mom, sister, and sister-to-be definitely lifted my spirits, if only temporarily.

 Then my husband's flight arrived and he sure did his part to make sure I had a smile on my face even though I felt like I was dying.  We found this bunny suit and he insisted on wearing the head around.

 Then we rehearsed...

and had fun doing it.  (that water bottle in my hand did not leave my side for an entire week except for the 20 minutes during the actually ceremony)

 After business was taken care of we went back to their house for dinner and they gave gifts to the wedding party.  All the groomsmen got jerseys, I was wicked jealous! (except my husband chose the dirty wings!  BOO that!)

We didn't make it long after dinner, that's when I really, really started to feel bad and I knew I had a long day ahead of me on Friday so we punked out early.  I'm going to skip the wedding, that will get it's own post tomorrow but that's the day I lost my voice.  Not being able to talk the day I saw most of my family for the first time in over a year was torture.  Good thing my sister is awesome at reading my lips/mind and understanding my gestures/sign language.

First thing Saturday morning I was at urgent care being diagnosed with sinus bronchitis, I let my sinus infection (I was almost certain that's what was wrong with me) go untreated so long it turned into bronchitis.  Not cool folks, not cool.  Don't let a sinus infection go untreated!  I definitely learned my lesson.  With an antibiotic Rx in my pocket I decided not to cancel my scheduled dinner plans with my best girl friends and I'm so glad I didn't.  It might have been difficult communicating with no voice but it was just nice to be in the company of women who love and support me.

I tried my damnedest to enjoy my weekend with friends and family despite feeling like crap.  I wish I could have been a bit more myself (ie. talkative) but it was nice to just be in the company of these people.  For a brief minute I felt a little sad that we didn't choose to move back to Cincinnati.  I miss the people so much it hurts!

Come back tomorrow for a recap of the wedding.  There were some amazing surprises you're going to want to see!

Bloody Mary's Count as a Salad Link Up

Welcome to Bloody Marys Count as a Salad # 12

<center> <a href="http://www.aboyagirlandthemarinecorps.com/bloody-marys-count-as-a-salad/" target="_blank"><img alt="Bloody Marys Count as a Salad" src="http://i1300.photobucket.com/albums/ag87/imjust_agirl1/BMCSHOP_zpse77a7000.jpg"/></a></center>

What's with the name?  We named it Bloody Mary’s Count as a Salad, because anything goes in this hop! Need to vent? Go for it! Need to say something snarky? DO IT!  Or do you just want to share your blog and/or a specific post?  We'd love to read it!  Anything you want to share, we want to see it!

And introducing a social aspect of the hop!  Each week we will feature a different social media linkup.  This week is Twitter!  Link up your blog in the first linkup and your Facebook page in the second linkup!  

Of course, there are a few rules, we aren't going for hop chaos here!

1. Follow your hosts and each weeks special guest co-host.
2. Link up your blog or specific blog post.  Whatever you’d like to share is ok with us!
3. Visit 3-4 other blogs and say hello!  Try to be nice and follow those who follow you.  And don’t forget to say hi to your hosts if you are new!
4. Grab the link up button and put it in your side bar, in your post, or put our link on your link up party page.
5. Not mandatory, but we’d love to have you share our hop with others.  Tweet it, post about it, or share it on Facebook.  We’ll love you forever if you do… And it might help you grab a co-host spot next week.

Don't Forget to follow your Hosts and special Co-Host:

               A Girl                                                                           Erin                                                                        Kara

A Boy, A Girl, and the Marine Corps                 Unconventional Mommy Tails                             Ramblings of  Marine Wife

Special Guest Host: Jes- Bleu Dress and Dress Blues

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