January

Since I didn't get to spend New Years 2014 with Shae, I spent it with my new in-laws and my best friend! It was such a fun night.

Move to Fayetteville, North Carolina to be with my newly husband Shae! We had lots of snow days together.

February

Got to spend our first Valentine's Day together as newlyweds. Shae made me breakfast in bed and then we went to Olive Garden!

Shae had to go out in the field for the first time since I had moved here and it was a lonely few days apart.

March

We got a new addition to the family! Our hedgehog Wilbur!

 April

Shae and I flew home for Easter! It was so great to be able to be home and see family again. It had been a long few months without them. Not only that but we got to bring our babygirl MyLee back to North Carolina with us. I missed her so much and was so happy to have her back with me.

May

Went to Carolina Rebellion with Shae, Emmitt and Shane. This was the time of our lives! So much drinking, rock music, moshing, good memories and a horrible sun burn I will always remember. I can't wait to again this coming May!

June

I got a new car! I was so so happy and excited about this! I've never had such a nice car and this was just an amazing day for me and Shae too. I love my 2011 Chevy Cruze!
Took my new car for her first road trip to Virginia! It was our first time visiting Virginia too.
Went on another road trip to North Carolina beach. It was our first time swimming in the Atlantic ocean and it was a perfect trip.

 July

I started working back at Target! I believe my first day was July 1st! It felt so great to finally have a job again.

We spent our 4th of July at King's Dominion! This was so much fun. We had a blast on all the rides and I even met up with one of my high school best friends there. Small world!

Shae's 21st birthday was a huge thing this month. I went all out for him. Here is a picture of him with his first legal drink at Texas Roadhouse! ;)

August

School started this month. Boy was I glad to start school again!

Our four year dating anniversary was this month. Hard to believe this was our fourth year together (and are now going on five!). It really is a good chunk of your life when you started dating each other at 16 and 17 years old! We celebrated by going to the Mash House and eating a really nice dinner as well as some really good beer. Cheers to us!

September

Grandma Atkins passed away on September 4th. This was a really hard time for Shae and I. We were all the way across the country. He did get emergency leave so we flew home immediately and we got to be there for the service. It was absolutely beautiful and I am so happy we were able to be there and be surrounded by family.

October

Chadam, Nikki and Phillip all flew to North Carolina for my 22nd birthday!! I hadn't seen my brother in over a year so it was so amazing that he flew all the way to see me (he was on leave for my grandpa's death and flew home from Okinawa and took a week to come see me). We spent my birthday/Halloween weekend with all my favorite people in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. It was such a fun time!

November

Spent Thanksgiving in our little apartment! I cooked all day and made a delicious prime rib. Shae had a four hour duty shift from 1pm-5pm, so I spent a little chunk of it alone. We also had Emmitt over for dinner because he wasn't able to spend it with his family. It was a nice low key Thanksgiving.

December

Celebrated one year of marriage on December 12th. It's so crazy that it has already been a year! This year flew by. I hope the years continue to get better and better.

We were able to spend Christmas together this year in our own home just the two of us. It sucked not being with family but we made the best of it and it was kind of special having just the two of us for one year because the following years we will have family and kids and this will always be a great Christmas to remember. We spoiled each other rotten, too! ;)

It's been a year to remember. Many great memories, many firsts, lots of rough patches and kinks that still need to be worked on, but I got to spend almost all of 2014 with the love of my life. I started a new life across the country from home and I am pretty damn proud of myself and how far I have come. Cheers to the New Year!

Chadam, brother, my very best friend. I honestly could never put into words how close we really are. We are 13 months apart to the very day (I'm 10/29/92 he is 11/29/93), and we grew up being the only constant we ever had. I would never wake up my parents when I had nightmares, I would wake him up. We would wrestle each other and fight like crazy as kids, but get over it immediately. I remember I wasn't much of a fan of these wrestling matches when he got much bigger and stronger than little old me. Chadam is easily the funniest person I know, and he would do absolutely anything for me. He's also really athletic and super guy-ish, but he will watch chick flicks all day with you. In fact, The Vampire Diaries is one of his favorite shows, (You can probably thank him growing up with a sister for that ;)).  So many people meet us and wish they were as close as we were with their siblings. Currently he is stationed in Okinawa, Japan and it's been really crappy not having him right down the hallway or anywhere close these past couple years, but we spend many hours Facetiming or talking on the phone. I just miss him so much.

Kris is my other brother. He is my step brother but I consider him much more than that. He's such a punk little kid at times but I have the greatest memories with him. Whether it's busting raps on long car rides, staying up late and drinking beer, him always popping his head through my door for as long as it took for me to notice. We became extra close these last couple of years and then I got married and moved away and I miss you like crazy too!

I also have two other step brothers, Corey and Mack. As well as a half brother named Sam, whom I've never met. My dad's fiance also has two kids of her own, Jessica and Tyler.

I love you all.

These two are my dads. The bald one? He's the one who gave me red hair (even though you can't tell in the pictures all that well. But his beard is red!). I spent a huge chunk of my life being a daddy's girl. I have so many great memories with him despite the many bad. He's one of the funniest guys I know! The other guy is my stepdad Jay. He's been in my life for around 16 or 17 years so of course I consider him my other dad. He's treated my nothing less than one of his own. I am his only daughter (he has three boys of his own - not counting my brother), and everyone thinks I'm his favorite! ;) I couldn't have been more blessed with two of the greatest dads and I am so thankful for everything they have done and continue to do for me.

I figured I would share with you a makeup haul because I have gotten quite a few new products lately. All of these products are from Sephora or Ulta. So let's get started.

This is probably my third purchase of the Beauty Blender. They last a long time, but you eventually do need to throw them away and purchase a new one. Beauty Blenders is my holy grail for applying my foundation and under eye concealer. It blends product out beautifully and absorbs excess so you do not have a "cakey" look. So that was a must have purchase! I needed a new one.

I bought both the Glam Glow SuperMud Clearing Treatment Mask and the Glam Glow ThirstyMud Hydrating Treatment Mask a few months ago but they are still rather new in my eyes. I sort of have a love hate relationship with these. If I'm being honest, I am taking a break from using both of these products because my skin went through a huge nightmare and I was breaking out constantly. Now that my skin is clear again I plan on giving these another try. I really do love the instant results from the clearing treatment. You can visibly see a difference. It gets rid of any small bumps or rough textures on the surface of your skin and I really liked that. I think what may have caused a problem with me was using it too often for my sensitive skin. The hydrating treatment smells SO damn good. I really notice a different in hydration with this product as well. But again, I'm not sure if these products were the cause of my horrible breakouts. I will have to get back to you on these two!

I needed a new primer as I ran out of my Benefit Porefessional and am almost out of my L'Oreal Miracle Blur, so I decided to try something new and got Tarte Timeless Smoothing Primer. I had been eyeing this primer for awhile, I loved the feeling of it when I tested it out at Ulta. Today was my first day using it so I don't have much of a review, but so far I love it and have zero complaints.

A new obsession has arose and that is beauty oils!  The first one I have tried was Tarte's maracuja oil and I absolutely love it. It has done wonders for my skin. Instead of using a lotion as a moisturizer at night, I switched to using an oil and it has truly made a difference in my skin and has cleared it up almost completely. I was running low on my maracuja oil so I thought I would try the raved about Jose Maran 100% Pure Argan Oil. I bought the .5oz to see how my skin would react to it and I almost regret not buying the big bottle. I highly recommend everyone using a beauty oil as a moisturizer before bed (even if you have oily skin)!

Once again, I bought another product that everyone love - Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Wiz - Auburn. As soon as I used it, I immediately knew why everyone loved it. It applies so easily, seriously anyone could do it. Not to mention, your eyebrow game will be on point! I've only been using it a couple days and already can't imagine life without it.

Lastly, I have been on a huge hunt for a new foundation. I love Bare Minerals but the shade I have (Fairly Light) is too dark for me to wear right now and I don't feel like buying a brand new one. So I have been back to using Revlon Colorstay Foundation. I've been trying to find a good liquid foundation but I finally decided I would try another mineral foundation because they work well on my dry and sensitive ski so I got Pur Minerals 4-in-1 Pressed Powder Foundation - Porcelain. I will do a review on this product after I use it more.

This is all for my beauty haul. I will see you in my next post and hope you stick around for my next beauty haul!

What are some of your holy grail makeup products?

You know when you get your first boyfriend and you think you're completely in love, and you break up and it's the end of the world? Then you get your next, and it just keeps getting worse and worse with every single one? Yeah, I thought I was in love a couple times, actually. Embarrassing, I know.

My first real love came when I wasn't looking for it. I mean, I started dating a guy that had I had been friends with benefits with for a few months. So what good could come from that? Then out of no where, it hit me like a ton of bricks. Actually it hit us both. Shae and I actually met when we were just kids. I was a major tom-boy and he was a cry baby who tattled on his brothers. We re-met again my junior year of high school when we were in the same Police Science class. He had a girlfriend at first so nothing came of it for awhile. Before we knew it, I was helping him pass all his classes, staying after school to tutor him, spending tons of time together. Then summer came and we parted ways. When I told him I had feelings for him he said he had feelings for me too but he wasn't ready for a relationship and we agreed to be friends with benefits. This made me extremely determined to prove him wrong and prove myself that I was worthy girlfriend material.

I remember the first time we said we loved each other. I actually thought he was going to break up with me! (So funny to look back on). It's even funnier to look back on it now, when we both thought we loved each other then because now we are married and we live across the country from all of our family, and we are so completely in love.

I'm happy I married my first love. I feel very lucky and fortunate to get to spend the rest of my life with the first person I fell in love with.

My last blog had changed a handful of times, and I finally decided to start a new blog. With this one, I pondered a good blog name for a good while. I wanted to keep it personal, but not keep using really popular phrases with my name. So I chose With Love, Calista -withlovecalista.

I think it suits it me well, because we should all be doing a better job at doing things with love. You know?

1. I am 22 years old and have been with the same guy (my now husband) since I was 17 and he was 16.

2. Nothing irks me more than a liar.

3. Nothing makes my day like an ice cold beer and Hooter's or Mexican food can.

4. I have bright red hair and I really love it.

5. I've had around 20 x-rays in the past eight years, and three CT scans.

6. I am a complete nerd in almost every aspect. 4.0 student, hates life if I get a B on a test, sci-fi lover, book worm, band geek since 5th grade.

7. Being 100% honest, there are more curse words that come out of my mouth than regular words. I truly have a potty mouth. It will never change though.

8. Considered "one of the guys" for as long as I can remember. The one girly thing about me is I love makeup. I'm a wannabe beauty guru.

9. I'm barely 5' 1" and I adore being tiny! Except everyone mistakes me for being 12-16. But hey! I will benefit from it when I'm older! ;)

10. My ideal snack is lemon juice with salt, a lemon/lime/grapefruit with salt, or chips and salsa & guacamole.

11. I live 3,000 miles away from my entire family. We moved to North Carolina a year ago (2014), when my husband Shae got stationed here.

12. Born in Alaska, raised in Oregon & some in Washington, and now living life in North Carolina.

13. I have a 4 pound teacup chihuahua named MyLee and a hedgehog named Wilbur.

14. My sense of humor is extremely offensive, perverted and vulgar.

15. I take far too many naps.

I restarted my blog. Almost new year, clean slate, fresh start... Whatever you want to call it. I figured what better way to start the almost new year with the 30 day blogging challenge! In addition to this challenge, I will also write various blog posts. Read, or don't, it's your call!

So here is the challenge:


Day 30-A picture

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you all are spending it with the people you love and are enjoying the special day. Shae and I woke up this morning and opened all of our cards and our stockings first thing. I will first share what we got in our stockings!


MyLee got two bags of treats! She has never tried these treats but they are healthy for dogs and I figured she would enjoy them since they are like human food. Haha! Turns out, she loves them!

The Holidays this year have become pretty important to me. For one, it is mine and Shae's first holidays as Mr. & Mrs.! Secondly, I am trying super hard to make the most of it since we can't be back home in Oregon with our families. We have both been trying incredibly hard to fit in both sides of our families traditions and make them into our own. I figured I would share a few of the traditions we have!

Christmas Movie Marathon
Shae downloaded almost every Christmas movie we could possibly think of, and since the beginning of December we have watched a Christmas movie nearly every night. I love this tradition because it gets us really excited for Christmas to come!

Christmas Eve Eve Cookies
I think we just started this tradition tonight (since it is Christmas Eve Eve), but we baked sugar cookies and I think it would be a great tradition to keep.

Christmas Eve Movie 
In addition to our Christmas movie marathon, we have chose to follow one of his families traditions by saving National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation for Christmas Eve. 


Christmas Eve Pajamas
This tradition comes from my side of the family! Every year since I can remember, we have opened pajamas on Christmas Eve! It's one of my favorite things to do ever! There is something so exciting about opening a brand new pair of pajamas before you go to sleep, and then waking up and having cute Christmas pajamas to wear in the morning for when you open presents! Shae really likes this tradition too, and we had fun getting each other pajamas this year too!

I think every married couple worries about how they are going to manage both families in one Holiday, or what traditions we will get to do (or not do). Things are a little different for us because our entire family is over 3,000 miles away so we are doing our best to squeeze them all in one! Although this is our first Christmas being together as Mr. & Mrs. (we weren't together last year because he had to leave for his first duty station while I had to be at home), this is our fifth Christmas being celebrated as a couple. So we are both semi familiar with splitting up time with our families. In fact, Christmas Eve Eve is celebrated with his family by eating a delicious bowl of seafood soup and spending the rest of the night playing cards and sharing lots of laughs and conversation. This year, we watched Home Alone 2, went shopping for our surf and turf menu for tomorrow night, baked some sugar cookies, and we are now about to crawl into bed together. I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas!

What are some of your Christmas traditions?

Hey everyone! And welcome back to the crazy ramblings, random bitching or follow alongs in whatever it is I'm doing in life. Actually, I doubt anyone who followed my old blog will be following this one, but if you are - I'm glad you're here! If you're new, hi! I'm Calista and I am 22 years old. I moved to North Carolina about a year ago with my hunk of a husband named Shae! You will hear lots about him in the future - probably the very near future. Anyway, we got married on December 12, 2013 and everyday since then has been one awesome ride. We are originally from the Pacific North West (Oregon) and we moved all the way across the country as he is stationed at Fort Bragg, NC. This means he is in the Army. We have a sweet dog named MyLee who is our entire world, and we have a hedgehog named Wilbur. Anyway, enough with the about me crap. Who cares, right?! If you wanna read more about me, you can check out my about me page here!
I decided to start a new and fresh blog because The Calista Life just wasn't me anymore. It was going in so many crazy directions and I just got uninspired with where it was going. I've changed in so many ways since the beginning of the year an I am ready to show that. Time has become very important to me in these last few months and I just want to document the amazing memories and passions I have and that are to come.
I hope you follow along!
With love,
Calista