Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you all had a very wonderful day yesterday! We had a very busy two days, starting Christmas Eve morning with breakfast at my Father in Law's house, and then the enormous family get-together at one of Aaron's cousins houses. In between I managed to take the ultimate Christmas nap. Christmas morning there was the gift opening carnage at our house, then breakfast at my Mom's and then we ended the day at Aaron's grandmother's with his Mom and all that side of the family. It was a great day. I'll add some photos for you all to see soon.

I am probably going to be doing a "What I Got For Christmas" post, but who knows when. This time of the year is SO BUSY for us, it seems like there is something going on every day. Like our nephews 2nd birthday TOMORROW! I can't fathom that! It's way too much for my brain to take.

With today being December the 26th, it is usually time for me to take down anything that screams "CHRISTMAS!" like any Santa's or light up gifts or anything along those lines. I've been instructed to leave the tree up until New Year's day so I'll have to make that exception. But I am ready to see a lot of that stuff go. It's just A LOT and I don't like A LOT in my house, ya know.

During our holiday shopping craze I manage to earn almost $200 in Kohls cash and so I'm about to place a very big order to Kohls and I will be sure to share it all with you when it comes in!

The first part of January is promising to be very busy as well. My best friend and her husband are FINALLY moving back from Alabama the first weekend in January, and then Aaron's birthday is the 11th! Whew, I'm tired just thinking about it. I am hoping to get back into the swing of regular blogging come the first of the new year, being in that play has thrown my schedule off so bad and it's still not back on track!


Well that's it for today friends, I've got lots to do and less time to do it in! (what movie was that from? 10 points to whoever gets it right in the comments below!) So I just wanted to be sure I wished everyone a Merry Christmas and let you know I love each of you for taking time to read this little ol' blog. I would love for it to really "take off" in 2015, but we shall see. If it doesn't, it's not the worst thing in the world. Thank you all for reading "The Simple Life." It means more than you know!


Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!

With Love,
Missy, Aaron and Tabby

Catching Up...

Things are FINALLY returning to normal after the play around my house, with a few exceptions here and there. The show was SO fun and we had a decent turnout (not as great as we'd hoped) but all in all it was very successful. But by the end of it, we were all pretty sick of each other.

I came home from "strike," which is where the set is torn down and taken back to "scene shop" and all that, and after about 5 seconds in the recliner, I was sick. I had a horrible cold that lasted for 3 days and then Aaron caught it just when I thought I was better. Then I caught it again. It was misery. 

I did manage to watch a really amazing series on Netflix that I'll be doing a "What I'm Watching" on shortly. It was amazing. I watched  42 episodes in 3 days. I didn't move from my recliner for anything.

I also turned 25 on the 14th. Let's not dwell.... but here are a few pics from the festivities....

 This is what two sick people look like when they're trying to pretend they're not sick so they can go out on a birthday date.

 My teeny cake that my Mom got for me!

My sister in law got me this amazing blanket for my birthday and I'm obsessed with it. 

So... this happened a week before I planned for it to.

I usually wait until the day after Thanksgiving or the first day of December to put my Christmas things out. But the Friday before Thanksgiving Aaron and I went out to Bowling Green to eat and I ended up wrangling him into Michael's so I could pick up some deco mesh and ribbon. And while we were there they just happened to be having a huge Christmas Decor sale and we ended up with a HUGE HAUL for $60. Two rolls of red mesh, two rolls of blue sparkly ribbon, a roll of music theme ribbon, a new tree skirt, 5 sparkly picks (the kind that you just stick in the tree at random), and some floral wire. We hit the motherload. While we were there we determined we just couldn't wait and so when we got home (at 9pm) we started decorating. I sent him to bed at midnight and finished up around 5am. Not a biggie for me. Ya'll know I'm a night owl.

Now if you've been reading this blog for long you notice that my Christmas tree is in a spot where a LARGE piece of furniture used to live.... Missy, where's your piano????!!!!

That leads me into my next topic.

Yep. I moved the piano. I'd been wanting to forever and one afternoon I just... did. By myself. What a task. I love the open space it gives me, and especially love that this year I did not have to move any furniture to put my Christmas tree up.

After a couple of weeks I decided I was going to follow through with my long shelved plans to create a faux mantle, and I knew precisely where I wanted it.

I didn't have any money in the budget to go out and buy shelving and crown molding... in fact I think I'm going to ask my Father In Law if he can create mantle shelf that may match out entertainment center  for me. He's amazing. So I dug around in my crap-closet and found an old shelf and some brackets and made this little "place holder."

Here it is all decorated for Fall. I made the "autumn" banner myself one night. Just some card stock, yarn, and a very steady hand.... I did the letters by hand. Took forever, but I love it.

And then I moved my sofa table from behind my loveseat. I was in a mood this one particular day and everything got moved!

I moved the sofa table into the actual living space, underneath our wedding photos and it's working out great. I am loving this little set up as well! It takes up WAY less space, is cute, and very functional. I keep our shoe basket on the bottom and can slide my purse in there (I never know where to put my purse...) and on the top shelf I have a basket with little sis' leash for easy access when she needs to go out. 

I did laundry. A LOT of laundry. :) Thought you might like to know that.

I shampooed my carpet. Cause, that's whatcha do when you've got a dog that occasionally has a whoopsie.

Then you cuddle with your whoopsie pup.

Cause she's cute and it's not her fault you weren't paying attention to her doing the potty tap dance outside of the bedroom door while you folded clothes. Bad Mama... :(

Did I mention we went to the Smokey Mountains with Aaron's family a couple of weeks before the play? Probably not, because I kind of stopped living during the play. I'll probably do a post on just the vacation because we had a ton of fun! But here's my favorite shots of me and Aaron from the trip...

 Looking out over the mountains our first full day there. And YES we rode the chair lifts up....I was a nervous wreck, but my sisters in law were cheering me on and I had a death grip on Aaron's hand... and my purse.

And then this one was us at Dollywood. We actually ended up going two days in a row, and this was our first day. as

Again, I'll do a full post on the entire trip soon! We had such a fun time.

I don't actually have any plans for any upcoming posts other than a Christmas tour, and I think I'll include a video on that one... and I may do a look at my office, I realize that I never did a proper tour once it was "finished," and now that it's been "finished" for a while, I've changed it about 84,000 times. So I need to at least get the photos updated for you guys. HOWEVER, with that being said, I have a busy week coming up, so I don't know when I'll get the posts actually written and put up. But they're coming I promise! I've missed blogging and can't wait to get back into the swing of things! 

Almost Back To Normal...

Hey guys! Can you believe that our opening night is TOMORROW NIGHT!? It's insane. It seems like this play has just flown by. It doesn't feel like we've been at this since September, but we have. I'm excited, and super nervous about it. Our set is amazing, and beautiful and pretty much perfect, our costumes are spot on, we all know our lines... we are ready to get this show on the road!

I've been so pre-occupied with this play that I've had to neglect... everything, pretty much. These past couple of weeks have had me so focused on the play that even my housework has had to stop.... and if you know me, you know how that kills me.

I've done a little home rearranging and found a really yummy recipe for some sugar cookies, so I'll be sharing those with you as soon as life gets back to normal.

I've already got a plan for after we "strike the set" on Sunday night... come home, shower, wash down the big 80's hair, and then clean the house top to bottom and side to side.


I've got to give my Aaron serious credit here, people. He's been awesome. The night before last, he gave Tabby a bath, which is usually my thing, and he went to the grocery store all on his own last night - I usually go alone or we go together. He's been pretty great.

I can't wait to see the crowd tomorrow night, I can't wait to hear them laughing and applauding. I can't wait for the lights to go up, I can't wait for curtain call.

I can't wait to run my vacuum cleaner, I can't wait to dust my furniture. I can't wait to shampoo my rug, or scrub my bathroom tiles. I can't wait to let my hair air dry and not have to put makeup on! I'm excited about laying in my recliner and watching something on the History Channel.


I've got lots of conflicting emotions but overall I'm excited about all of it!


Thank you all for being so patient with me and for dealing with my absence while I'm off play-acting!

Talk to you lovelies soon!

Throwback Thursday: My Hair (Picture Heavy Post!)

Hey guys! I thought I'd do a fun post today about all the many ways I've worn my hair in my lifetime. And when I say many, I mean many. I recently had to have a hair makeover and when I was chatting with a friend about it she reminded me of just how many hairstyles I've had over the past few years.

So, let's go ahead and get started!

I had little to no hair until I was around 2 years old. When it finally did come in, it was white blonde, and super fine, but I had lots of it. It was wavy (you can kind of see a little curl developing there in the back) but not kinky at all.

On a side note, I just LOVE this picture of me and my Dad. I have no idea what we were doing, or getting ready to do, but here we are, sitting on the kitchen counter! 

Then there was this look....

This was Easter morning. I got ANOTHER Barbie to add to my collection (I think this was like camping Barbie or something) and The Lion King on VHS. For a child like me, this haircut really worked. It was easy, wash and go, and it looked cute with a bow or a headband (my thing back then. I  always wore a headband).

I finally had hair to my shoulders! This is a landmark in my lifetime. This picture was taken on my birthday... I'm thinking it was my 4th but I'm not sure. I'm posing between my two proud grandmothers! This was the year I got a matching brass baby doll bed to match my big girl brass bed. I was thrilled.

2nd grade, I had "the bob."

Complete with the uneven bangs that my Mom used to cut using masking tape as a guide. 

Moving on down the line, I ended up with a perm in 4th grade.

A super kinky perm. This picture is hilarious because it was Christmas Eve with my Mom's family at our house, and, very typical of my Daddy, he's messing with me, getting ready to grab my nose. I chose this picture because you can really see just how kinky that kinky perm was! (No doubting that in my life, I was my Daddy's Girl!)

This was at my 11th birthday party. That hair... oh my... It was so kinky that I mostly wore it in a pony tail because unless I let it air dry it was a frizz ball mess. I kept the perm for a couple of years but as soon as 5th grade was over I had that perm taken out. 

It DRAMATICALLY changed the texture of my hair. My hair went from fine, thick and wavy to COARSE, dry, thick and curly. Well, I say curly, but it's more like a tight wave. It doesn't actually "curl."

I hate this picture, but I'm sharing it with you because of my hair. This is how it looked after the perm was taken out. Before the perm if I'd let it air dry (like I did here, on this Sunday morning before church, for some reason) it would have been stick straight. After the perm it was all over the place. This picture is terrifying. But isn't my brother handsome and my niece adorable?

So I set out to find a style that worked, and eventually I learned how to straighten my hair. And wore it like this for a good little while. 

I loved that blue shirt. Just loved it. And you can see that my hair is also darkening up too. It's not the white baby blonde that it used to be, but now a very dirty blonde, or brown/blonde. 

I even did bangs. Badly. I badly did bangs... with a sunburned nose.

I started growing my hair out. I'd always wanted super long hair, and so I started the process when I was 13.  By 14, this is what I had.

Rockin' them glasses. I've always been blinder than a bat.  By this time my Dad had let me get some very natural highlights put in, and I had a great haircut. I was getting more and more interested in "beautification," like hair and makeup and etc, and was anxiously awaiting my 15th birthday when my parents promised me that I could get contacts!

I remember 15 being a turning point in my looks. Almost from the minute I got my contacts, I remember things changing. I lost some baby weight, I got more highlights, I got my first boyfriend! Puberty... gotta love it.

I felt "pretty" for the first time. I learned how to go with my natural hair texture and that became my signature look as a teenager. 

My 16th birthday! 

My birthday is in November and I LOVE bonfires... so much. So I decided I wanted to have a huge bonfire for my birthday party. So we did. Daddy and I cut wood for 6 straight months. It was a fantastic night that I will never forget. You can see just how long my hair had gotten at this point.

Senior Picture!

My Mom loves this picture of me and has it in 11x14 in black and white hanging in her hallway. When Aaron and I first met (I was just 18) he had this picture framed on his nightstand until we were married, and then even after we got married and moved into our house, he still kept it on his nightstand. 

This is a terrible quality photo, but you can see how long it was when I straightened it.

But I usually always wore it like this.

Daddy was making me laugh. Shocker. 

And sometimes I'd curl it with a curling iron. Mostly for special occasions, like Christmas Sunday. 

What a sharp dressed man my Daddy was. 

After he passed away, I cut it all off. There is some Native American blood on both sides of my family, and I'd always heard that the only time they would cut their hair is when they were in mourning. And boy was I mourning. So I chopped every bit of it off and dyed it brown.

This picture was too funny for me not to use. I was in photography school and I got to play model one afternoon. 

In my time with Aaron my hair has changed SO much...

Almost engaged (I'm wearing my big ol' promise ring.)

Newly Engaged. And pretty darn happy about it. (July 2008)

SUPER DUPER blonde. Aaron loved it but I felt like it was too much. (Jan. 2009)

I got some low-lights put in. (I love this shot that my friend, Ally, took of me one afternoon in Nashville when we were on assignment.)

And then came the great chop of Summer 2009.

 

Now... I truly LOVED this haircut, and when the time comes for me to go short again I will probably want to go back to this very same cut, because I liked it that much. It was super easy to take care of, a quick wash and maybe 5 minutes to blow dry (as opposed to the 45 minutes it had taken me when my hair was long and curly) and then basically just smoothing down the ends with a flat iron. It was so easy.  And so versatile!

Even in a huge gust of wind!

It started growing out, and it still looked super cute!

But as our wedding day was fast approaching I wanted something a bit more "wifey." So I went to a hair stylist friend and asked her for a new "wifey 'do" and she delivered this!

This cut and color combo was a HUGE hit amongst my friends. It was fun to wear and fun to style!

This was at one of our wedding showers. It was just too cute!

This hairstyle carried me through the long nights and long days of school and home renovation.

But because of the white blonde chunky highlights, I wanted to tone it down a bit for my wedding, and make things a bit more natural. 

This was Thanksgiving 2009. We were set to walk down the isle in 15 days! (I'm proud to say that this shirt still fits. The pants? No way, but the shirt, yes! :)

And here I am on my wedding day!

How gorgeous was my updo??

And on our honeymoon I played with hairstyles.

I wore it up.

I wore it down. (I even kissed Charlie Chaplin!)

I wore it curly.

I even wore it half up out to dinner one night!

Then we came home and life took over. 

My 21st birthday!

My first biological nephew. I have 4 nephews on Aaron's side, but this one is my brothers little baby boy... who is gonna be 4 in a few months. WHAAAA?

Back to Blonde. 

Aaron prefers me as a blonde. I was a blonde when we got engaged (not when we met) but it's what he says he thinks of when he "pulls up a picture of me in his brain." 

2011 was an awful year for me. I was sick the entire month of December. And I mean siiiiiiiick. I was running a fever on Christmas morning. It was NOT fun.

In 2012 I started a new job and wanted a new polished look to go along with it.

So again, the great chop.

And then I chopped on it a little more, and got more highlights.

I had this hairstyle on stage for a play, teased up in true 1980's form.

Here I am with my 3 co-stars. (My character was pregnant.)

After that I had some lowlights put in to give me a little dimension.

I loved it.

And then I was tired of blonde. So this happened.

I kept it this color while I was growing it out.  I wanted my long hair back. Long hair has always been the goal. It's always been what I was headed for. I liked all my short haircuts but there wasn't a single one of them that made me feel more "me" than when I had long hair. 

Easter Sunday 2013.

Melting on our cruise in October 2013.

Date Night! August 2014.

Random Kitchen Selfie - September 2014.

But I find myself revisiting an old character on stage that is quite famously a blonde. So I needed to get me some highlights. An all-over bleach would have probably yanked my hair out by the roots because my hair is so dry and damaged. So my stylist and I decided that a super heavy highlight was in order.

This was the finished product.

I was headed home from the salon and snapped this in-the-car selfie to send to my Mom. I never like the way a stylist styles my hair so I went home and re-styled it before rehearsal.

Yesterday, when I was doing my hair, it all blended together much more evenly and looks way more blonde now. I truly love it. I don't even look like the me of today. I look like the me of 2006! And I like that. Aaron loves it. My Mom loves it. My co-stars love it. It IS very, VERY dry, so I'm constantly lathering it up in moroccan oil and coconut oil... anything to give it a little moisture. 

So that's my hair journey from birth till now. Can you believe I changed my hair so many times? How many times have you changed your hair? Are you a short hair person or a long hair person? Tell me all about your hair journey in the comments below!

Thanks for taking this walk down memory lane with me!