Life in the Lowcountry: Midweek Randoms

Happy humpday y'all! As usual, I'm ready for the weekend to arrive, but until then let's talk about my random thoughts for the day. First up, ~~Caitlin~~ Bruce Jenner...this topic has been one that I haven't given that much thought about, other then showing my husband his Vanity Fair cover photo and briefly discussing the issue with my mother-in-law over dinner last night. It's hard for me to discuss this, and please know that these opinions are solely my own and just like everyone in the world, I'm entitled to my own opinions and beliefs. With that being said, I don't agree with this, at all. As I've said before and will say 100x over, I fail our Good Lord daily and am by no means a perfect Christian, but I am a Christian. Let me tell you something, God doesn't make mistakes. Jesus doesn't make mistakes. He is perfect! He didn't make a mistake when he chose Bruce Jenner to be a man. Don't get me wrong. There is nothing wrong with changing your appearance if it makes you feel better. Coloring your hair, having a manicure, etc, but to completely change every piece and part of your body and mind (essentially) into turning into another gender, well I just can't get past that. When I refer to Bruce Jenner, I will refer to Bruce as a male, because regardless of the many surgeries that he has done, including gender reassignment, that's how God wanted him to be, a man, and at the end of the day, you cannot change your DNA. On the opposite side of things, I was also raised to have respect and a kind attitude towards others, even if I disagree with the way they live, so I will do that. I've met many people in this world, homosexual, bisexual, heterosexual, transgender, and a few drag queens and I've treated each one with the same respect and kindness that I would show any other person, but that also doesn't mean that I have to agree with their choices. We as Christians can have our own opinions and beliefs, but let's also remember that we shouldn't judge others because that responsibility lies solely on the Big Man Upstairs.

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I want to get this dress for Cadence to match with mine. I also want to get her this dress because it's so perfect and even more vibrant in person! I was so close to purchasing this earlier in the week when I was at Belk, but I refrained. These three 1/2/3 Lilly's are on my wish list too!

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Vacation...a subject that has taken precedence in my house this week. Nightly Tarl and I have discussed where, when, how long, etc. I'm going to be 100% honest with y'all, because I'm not trying to sugarcoat this little ole blog of mine - I SO regret cancelling our Disney trip in September! Back when we were in New York and having a great time without a care in the world we had discussed pushing it back a bit to pay off some bills in an effort to be more debt free, and since I was in such a great mood because we were currently on vacation, I said sure without thinking twice about it. While flying over the Atlantic on the way home and looking down at that gorgeous blue water we ultimately decided to cancel the trip and instead go to Myrtle Beach sometime this summer because it has been a couple years since the three of us has done a beach vacation and it's a lot less expensive than Disney. Once we got home, school, dance, work and an assortment of other events took place and we just kind of dropped the Myrtle Beach idea by simply just not giving it another thought. Last week while putting my song list on shuffle and applying my makeup "A Whole New World" came on which is the theme song from Aladdin and I looked at Tarl with tears stinging my eyes because I realized that we were most likely not taking a family vacation this year. It seems so trivial looking back on how I reacted, but it is what it is. At that moment I regretted our decision to cancel our trip so much. Sure, Disney is for children, and my child adores it, but I cannot stress enough how magical of a trip it is for the entire family. Tarl and I felt like children again, and to see how much fun Cadence had was just icing on top of the cake. He shared my feelings (without the tears, obviously) and we agree'd that Disney was a must-do next year! In a way, I'm glad things turned out the way they did, because by cancelling our trip we paid off three different credit cards. That feeling was incredible and a smart choice on our part. We now know how long we are going to Disney for. Eight nights, seven days...ahh! I cannot wait! Once Disney releases their 2016 prices (which should be anytime within the next month) we're going to look at how much May would be and look at how much September would be and compare the two and decide from there. I know this post is long winded, but I don't want my blog to seem like everything is roses all the time, because it's certainly not. Often times we plan things, I discuss them here and then you never hear anything else about it and honestly it's because plans fell through or got cancelled. Either way, I'm glad we got bills paid off. One step closer to being completely debt free, or should I say three steps closer since we got 3 paid off? On the other side though, it does hurt knowing that we could be going to Disney in 4 months, rather than a year from now, but now that we have established a time frame, I'm anticipating the planning :)

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Being a stay at home mom is so close I can taste it! Tarl and I discussed this along with the Disney trip last night and decided that if we do Disney in May, I'm going to work until then. This will give us a lot of extra spending money while there. If we do Disney in September, I'm going to stick to the original plan of leaving work around the Spring. I never wanted to be a SAHM. I honestly thought to myself, "how do women stay at home all day with nothing to do", and then I got pregnant and became a mom myself and realized you will always have something to do. Even with Cadence in school, there is always a field trip or a school function to assist with and I missed so much of that this year while working. Take in account that, along with the usual housework (and occasional Netflix show) it's easy to keep busy. When I was young my mom attended every field trip with me and I loved it. I only got to go to one of Cadence's this year and I can't wait until I can go to every single one of them!

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I just ordered this yellow and pink seersucker bikini off of Smocked Threads by Cecil and Lou's FaceBook page for Cadence and it couldn't be more perfect!