My dearest readers

to the lovely ladies, and any gents who read this blog, I just want to say thank you! I realize I havent posted on here much lately and I am sorry. I have been very busy with work and I seem to have less and less time.

Thank you for not simply unfollowing me, thank you for sticking through this with me :)

I am working on some new posts, just need to figure out how to plan posts :)

God works in funny ways part 2

so PB and I emailed back and forth for a week or so. Lots of flirting and connecting and weird questions. It made me smile and happy. I was so excited to sign on and see what he had written.

He seemed so nice and kind and like a real decent guy, but you really never know. It could be all bluffing, but something inside told me to keep messaging him.

After about 2 weeks he FINALLY asked for my cell # so we could txt and boy did we txt. 100 a day, just the 1st day. He was funny and smart and cute, oh boy was he cute! He sent me a few pictures, to my phone and he was just so handsome. I couldnt really believe it. The guys I seem to date are nice, and kind and decent looking, but nothing like this.

Now some of y'all know that I've only dated online. and now all of you know. I have never met a guy in person without connecting with him online first. The simple truth of the matter is guys dont like heavier girls. They may love my personality, but thats rarely enough. I learned that the hard way in highschool, when I was friends with many guys who loved me, like a sister and I was always dateless for dances.

It never bothered me much, in someways I prefered it, meeting online. I could see an overview of them as a person so I wasted less time on dates where it would never work out. Thats not saying I havnt been on a million first dates, and most didnt work out, but you get the idea.

Now of the, lets say 20 guys Ive dated since I was 19 (my first boyfriend), none of them have ever made me feel safe or secure enough in my relationship to delete or disable my dating profiles. Even when I was with chase for 3 years, I still had a profile active on some site.

That all changed one night, in dec, in atlanta, at a restaurant called Ippolitios. There I met a guy who really got me, he understood me like no one I had ever met before. He laughed at my jokes, as unfunny as they were, looked at me like I was more then just a silly girl, talked to me like I was an adult. He took my pokes and poked back but never hurt me.

As dinner turned into 3 hours, we discovered we were the last people in the restaurant. We stood outside in the cold but I couldn't take it anymore so I invited him into my car. Normally I would never do that, not on a  1st date, for 2 reasons, a) my car is a MESS and b) its not very safe. But my gut told me I could trust him. So there were were, in the parking lot of a little family restaurant just spilling our guts to each other. I told him things Id never told a therapist.

 The best part was, he understood. He knew what I had been through in my life, he himself had faught depression. He had been in an abusive relationship. It was just so safe, I wasnt being judged or laughed at or put down by someone who simply couldnt understand.

at that moment I had a feeling in the pit of my stomach. something I had never felt so quick. it rose up inside me and the happiness and comfort I felt, it almost over whelemed me. Maybe, just maybe, this man sitting here, in my messy car, at 2am, in a parking lot in rosewell, maybe he was him, my prince charming

 I dont know for sure, no one does, but I have a good feeling about PB

to be continued...

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

Entry 21, RUTH!

congratulations! Please send me an email atlyankeebelle {at} gmail {dot} com

I shall send your surprise giveaway box out ASAP

God works in funny ways

As most of you know, since you read my blog every day, or at least when I post, things with me and JAB have been rocky here lately, to say the least. He's a wonderful guy, but we are so very very different and we want different things, value different things and are at different places in our lives. Its hard letting go of someone who was such a big part of my life for so long, but I am hoping we can be friends.

So a few days before thanksgiving I was talking to my mom about all my millions of failed relationships and I asked her what I should do, maybe join match.com because of the guarantee or catholicsingles.com to find someone. Instead, in all her mommy wisdom she said "you should be single for a while".

Point blank, I am not good at being single. I am a very co dependent person, and I like being part of an us. Im not a huge fan of dating, I much prefer relationships. But for once in my life I decided I would follow my mother's advice and be single. So I decided to swear off dating for a month and a half, til Jan 1 and see how it was.

Now everyone knows being single during the holidays is very very hard, but I figured if I put it off, I wouldn't do it, so I put myself on a dating hiatus.

Sounds like a great plan right? Ya I thought so too.

I decided this time I would be serious about it, I would really focus on being single. I went and removed my profile from match.com and disabled eharmony's emails, I look myself off catholicsingles.com and went private on OK cupid. The last site I went to was POF, plentyoffish.com. Its by far my favorite dating site, its free, its easy, and there are lots of guys.

Now like every site, the recommend guys for me, but I always ignore them because they never meet my criteria. But that night, a picture caught my eye.

This is PB dressed like Santa

and this is what his profile read:

I am actually a pretty simple guy who wants what everyone else wants: a chance to be with someone they can't (or don't want to) live without. This is not to say I am looking to get married next week or anything, so don't be afraid! :)

So what is it that I want? Hmm... good question. Here is a good start:

You..

- are sweet, kind, understanding, patient, and affectionate.

- like music, like being physically active, like receiving random texts to see how you are doing, like being shown attention without being over the top, and you like sports (at least a little).

- realize that not everything is based on looks, there is more to a person.

- don't use the term "down for whatever".

- can turn heads in a pair of jeans or in a little black dress.

- are confident.

- like spending time with the person you are with.

- are not judgmental about someone who doesn't have an executive level, 9-5 type job (because even though I have a good job, it's not a 9-5 thing).

- are not threatened by the fact that I have an opposite sex best friend and an opposite sex roommate.

- can adjust to ever-changing facial hair. :)

- can laugh at the world, and yourself, and can give it just as good as you take it.

- like the fact that some people have A LOT of layers to their personality.

- like to talk until two in the morning about nothing or because you can't sleep.

- think a hot dog and a beer at a ballgame is just as good as a five-star restaurant.

- like road trips.

- want to get to know me! (Probably the most important)

As for me, I:

- am all of the above, why would I expect anything I am not willing to give. Wait, minus the dress thing and maybe I might not like if you have facial hair like mine. The other stuff, completely there on that. :)

- prefer ACC football to SEC football (go Noles!)

- walk/run/go to the gym 4-5 times a week.

- love talking to interesting people who have an opinion and will fight for that opinion.

- will always be supportive and in your corner, even if I don't agree with what you are doing.

- will be there to pick you up and even carry you if the need arises.

- will cook for you on occasion. :)

- will sing for you (if you are really lucky).

I hope to hear from you soon. Take a chance, take a chance... (yes, Abba... don't judge me!)

 Now ladies, we all know the perfect man died a few 1000 years ago, on a cross, for our sins, so I know perfection is hard to find but a guy that has 90% of what I am looking for is someone to take note of, right?

But what about my dating hiatus? Well I figured I'd send him a quick message, just a quick HI and that would be it. Trust me, I was not expecting to hear anything back.

But the next day he emailed me...

To Be Continued....

Holiday Giveaway!

Blogger oh Blogger how I have missed thee! I'm going to celebrate my return to blogging with...

A GIVEAWAY! YEA!

But this giveaway is special, because its a secrete! Only I know what its going to be :D

I will tell you this much, it will be holiday themed and it will be worth at least $35!

This giveaway will be open for 1 week, I will close it sunday night and I will ship the package monday or tuesday so it can go under your christmas tree. No peeking! Then the winner will reveal the contense of the package on their blog Dec 25!

Sound like fun?

Here's how to enter

**** Each entry must be A SEPARATE COMMENT!****

1 Entry for following my blog
1 Entry for posting about your favorite christmas memory
1 Entry for tweeting about the giveaway (must include @atlyankeebelle and #holiday #giveaway in the tweet

 Thats 3 entries per person!

Ready?

Set?

Go!