The Final Post

Family, Friends and Fellow Bloggers,

After four years, 1206 posts, and meeting 18 bloggy loves I am saying goodbye to Flip Flops and Combat Boots. This blog has been a part of me since I met Danny. I documented our engagement, wedding, a new puppy, Kaleb's visits, roadtrips, our first home and so much more. It's only appropriate with Danny's EAS date exactly three weeks away that I say goodbye to Flip Flops and Combat Boots.

I want to thank each and everyone of my readers for sticking around for so long! For all the comments, love and support. And especially to the 18 girls I met through blogging. I have made some amazing life long friends.

I hope that you continue to follow me on Instagram and Twitter (FlpFlpsNCmbtbts for both!) and that we all stay in touch. I'm also a brand new Scentsy consultant and I would love to have you as a customer! Please "like" me on Facebook to stay in touch! www.facebook.com/NicoleSadieScentsy

And soon (hopefully!) I'll be announcing a new blog to document our new adventures. Thank you again!

Love,

Nicole

Spa Day!

Over the weekend I got the girls together for another great day together! This month we headed to the spa for a day of pampering. We had the whole package - hour long Swedish massage, lavender pedicure and manicure. And it was awesome! We had yummy snacks, lots of laughs, and a ton of girl time.

The spa day also marked my 18th bloggy love meet up! I was finally able to meet Jennifer from Marine Wife, Mommy & Life.

After the spa we headed out for some lunch and drinks...and more girl time. This has probably been my favorite girls day so far! My massage was amazing...I wish I could do it every week!

A Year of Gratitude: Katie

Last month I introduced the idea of gratitude cards. And just a little update on last months card to my Dad: he now refers to himself as Superman. Glad I could give him a little ego boost!

This month I sent out my second card, to Katie. Now some of you seasoned Bloggers know Katie from her blog Like Sunshine After Rain....but I know Katie in person. We met through our blogs in 2009 (wow!) We met shortly after I met Danny. And I'm convinced that if there was no Katie...there would be no Nicole and Danny! We spent numerous weekends at her house, we borrowed her car more times than I can count, and I even moved into her home shortly after me and Danny were married. And she never asked anything in return. Katie is an amazing, selfless person...and for that reason..she's my second recipient.

I hope this card brought some sunshine to Katie's day. And even though we don't see each other as much as we would like...I will always treasure our friendship.

Duplin Girls Day!

Yesterday me and eight of my girlfriends headed to Rose Hill, NC to my favorite winery for a great girls day out! We had a fabulous (and free!) tour of the winery and enjoyed a free tasting! We tried about 14 different wines and fancy frozen drinks. We all had our favorites, some didn't like anything, and the pregnant girls sipped on non-alcoholic wine....which they said was amazing!

Our next stop was the Bistro for a delicious lunch. All of the recipes somehow incorporate the wine, which makes the food that much better. We had great conversation, laughed a lot, drank a little, and had a ton of fun! And, of course, snapped the obligatory group photos!

When lunch was over we headed back into the store and bar area. Earlier in the day we read if you mentioned Facebook you would get a glass of free wine. So, we did that. And I'm a member....so we enjoyed two free glasses wine. And then we snapped more group pictures!

It was a great day with awesome friends! I'm already planning the next girls night out. I want to have a girls night out once a month for the entire year, I have some great ideas and can't wait to start planning!

Shrimp Festival!

Since we've moved to Sneads Ferry we've been looking forward to the Shrimp Festival! So, of course we were disappointed when we woke up Saturday morning to a downpour. Around noon it started to clear up, so me and Danny decided to check out the festival...fully expecting it to be a little boring.

It was anything but boring! There was a different live band every hour, a beer and wine tent, and of course...shrimp!

We eventually met up with Allie and Ryan and claimed a picnic table...that was our for the next seven hours. At some point Ryan was talking to a random guy, turns out it was the guy who recruited him! Small world! A few hours later I found out they actually know Katie and Frank...and were even at the wedding. Even smaller world!

We took many, many trips to the beer and wine tent. Had tons of delicious shrimp and other fair food. We were having so much fun we didn't realize that time flew by and it was already 7:00. Or that we all had awful sunburns! OOPS!

Military Meet-Ups!

Hi all!

My name is Carmen and I've been kind of MIA from the blogging scene so I apologize for my lack of blog posting and commenting (and my poor writing skills lol) but I am the author of We See the Same Stars and I am a veteran wife of a former Marine and I'm here blogging for Nicole!

I would like to talk about how I met Nicole. I don't mean "met" as in we know each other through facebook and blogger but I have actually met her face to face. In the short time that we got to spend together we were amazing friends. But, I'll get to that part later. :)

Nicole and I met through blogger, as most of us military wives do. He had been one of my very first followers (from my old blog and now to my new one) and we became friends pretty quickly. We added each other on facebook and commented on each other's blogs back and forth. When I finally married into the Marine Corps in 2010 I was packing my things to leave for Cherrypoint and I blogged about how nervous I was to move! Nicole commented saying "We HAVE to get together since we are also stationed in North Carolina!" I was excited that I would have someone that I knew down there since the only people I knew were my husband's Marine friends. They were great too but I need a woman! lol

When I finally moved down there, about a week later we decided to have our first date night together with our husbands. To be honest, I was SUPER nervous. I had never met anyone from a blog site before and to me, I felt Nicole was famous in the military blog world because of all the followers she had and next to her I had like none. LOL Anyway, we decided to meet halfway in Morehead City at BW3 and like I said, I was nervous and I didn't really know what to expect except I didn't want to make a complete ass of myself. I really wanted her to like me because I had like no friends down there other than my husbands Marine friends who technically weren't my friends. Anyway, enough tangents. My stomach was a little nervous when we walked in and I wasn't sure exactly what she looked like so we were looking around and we spotted them sitting in the middle. It was really comforting that when we first saw each other, she got up and gave me a hug like I was an old friend. That definitely made me feel better. Here's proof of our first encounter:

We had such a great time! Our husbands really hit it off which was a good thing! No awkward date nights for us! I must have made a really good impression because since that night, we got together at least every other weekend for date nights and fun! We jam packed everything we could possibly do together before Mike's EAS the following year. From the beach to haunted bars, to beer and wine fest, we had a blast together in the short time we had together in North Carolina. They even joined me for my birthday dinner in New Bern! Here's some flashbacks of all our good times:

Danny, Nicole, Mike, and me at Atlantic Beach!

Mike and Danny at a Halloween Party!

All of my good friends for my 23rd birthday!

Us at Beer Fest in Wilmington!

All of us at Wine Fest!!

 So, overall I had a WONDERFUL time with her and Danny. I wouldn't trade our time for anything and I still wish I had stayed in North Carolina a little longer before I moved but that's the military life! I know that I miss her dearly and that we will be down there again soon to create chaos once again. I have to say that my first experience ever meeting a mil-blogger was totally worth it. I love you Nicole! I'm so glad we are friends!! :)

Blogging with Allie!

Hey all! My name is Allie and I blog over at My Marine and Me and have been doing so for almost three years now. When I started blogging I had just graduated college. My then boyfriend was preparing for his first deployment to Iraq and I was about to start an internship at Walt Disney World. I realized the next half a year or so were going to be kind of life changing, so I decided to go back to something I tried to do in high school (and failed miserably) and start a blog.

Man am I glad I did.

I never imagined my blog would become what it has. The beginning of Disney and Deployed, the first name my blog had, was rough. I had some hard entries to write and no following (besides, you know, my mom) for feedback. But I kept writing. My first entry was about pre-deployment leave. It was officially the longest time Ryan and I had ever spent together, 22 whole days. In the year plus we had been dating we had maybe had a long weekend in each other's company, but never anything longer than that. Part of me was worried we were going to get sick of one another, but it never happened. Ryan said so himself, "I didn't think it was possible to fall even more in love with you, but I did."

After that I had to blog about one of the hardest days of my life, Ryan leaving for Iraq. I cried like a baby saying goodbye to him and it is something I haven't had to experience for the past three years. With a deployment possibly in our near future my brain cannot even begin to wrap around that emotional roller coaster.

But I left for Disney and spent six months working at EPCOT. I began reading other military blogs, Nicole's being one of them! Her blog was one of the first I ever read, and if you go back to 2009 she is one of the first (and few!) people to comment on my earlier entries! I eventually even did a guest blog for her (years later) about working in the parks when she and Danny took a trip there and she needed some guest bloggers.

Eventually Ryan came home and even came to visit me in Disney, where he proposed. I eventually moved back home to New Jersey where I began our wedding planning. We were married on May 1, 2010 and have been on this crazy journey ever since.

Looking back on my blog I almost get overwhelmed. It has carefully documented my relationship with my husband for the past three years. Since starting this I went from a Marine girlfriend, to fiance, to wife. We survived a nine month bicoastal separation last year when he went back to school after re-enlisting. This blog has seen our engagement, our wedding, our first apartment, our first PCS and our first house.

Plus, because of this blog I have met some amazing people... some even in real life! Nicole and I first met in Busch Gardens over a year ago when we decided to use our free ticket to hang out. Truth be told at this time the only other wives I know here in North Carolina are other bloggers. At the milblog conference in 2011 I was nearly starstruck meeting some other bloggers I had admired for years! It almost feels like a first date, the nerves are strong! You have literally been reading someone's life story for years and suddenly you are meeting them in person! Luckily every blogger I have met has been just as amazing in real life as in their writing.

I also got the opportunity to start writing for SpouseBUZZ.com because of my blog.

If you had told me three years ago my blog would be where it is now, I wouldn't believe you. I never would guess the important friendships that would begin to grow, the fact that people would value my opinion to sponsor give aways or reviews, or the writing opportunities I have been given. My blog may not be the biggest or the most overly interesting (ok I have had a slump this month, I am working on it!) but it is me. I honestly would be a different person today had I not started this little piece of the internet that is mine.

Keep writing, keep open to possibilities, and know even if your mom is your only reader some day you have an amazing archive to show your kids about how your life has changed over the past however many years. Or maybe that's just my thought ;)

Thanks Nicole! And Happy Blogiversary!!!

Let's Celebrate ... Giveaway!!

Hey friends of Nicole! 

My name is Lyzz and I blog at Defying Gravity!

I have been blogging off and on for over 2 years, and this is the 2nd blog I've started.  I am married to "P", who is going through Special Operations Training at Fort Bragg, NC.  We have been married for 3 years and have no children yet.
I am currently a full time student on the hunt for a job, because we like money and I like to have stuff, plus my car payment sucks. I am addicted to Starbucks Frapps and live for my pooches. 

You may remember when Nicole wrote about meeting me at her hotdog party.  I seriously think I need to have one of those, or just a hotdog.  I'm having a late night craving.

With Nicole celebrating her 3rd bloggyversary, and me turning 30 years old on July 15th (where did the time go?), I thought I would share my birthday wishlist and make a go of having a giveaway!!

Ipad2

I have over 11 tattoos and want a new one.

Source: perfectbucketlist.tumblr.com via Elizabeth on Pinterest

Every girl needs a pair of cute cowgirl boots

Source: sheplers.com via Elizabeth on Pinterest

This thing is amazing!!  I need it desperately.

Source: containerstore.com via Elizabeth on Pinterest

I am giving away a gift bag with:

4 nail polishes, Cross, Wooden heart piece, bracelet.

How to enter:
Please use Rafflecopter!

a Rafflecopter giveaway



Good luck everyone.

Being Friends With Nicole

As someone that never really had a ton of close friends growing up, I sort of keep my distance from most people. I'm not all that sure why I still do this, but, part of it is I think a defense mechanism. I can count on one hand the number of really close friends I have. Some say that is a good thing, others say it's not.

Over the years, I've met a LOT of people in real life that I've met online first. I believe Nicole was the first person that I met thru blogging. And it wasn't just Nicole that I met that first night! I met a whole TON of bloggers!

We all met up for dinner. I was late because instead of going to Chilis like I was supposed to, I went to Applebees! DUH!! I didn't even get to talk to Nicole that much, but, we were all having such a great time!

Nicole then had a girls night at her house.

It was the first time I'd been to her house. I was even more nervous going to her house than to a restaurant! I'm not sure why tho. It was a fondue party, so I made some sourdough bread, and a regular loaf of my Amish bread. It wasn't until later that she told me that Danny didn't like me too much because of one of my off the wall comments that I had made. The bread settled our differences tho! (Love ya Danny!! :-P)

We had many Girls Nights! I love getting together with Nicole, and all the local girls! We like to eat at our get-together! And there is ALWAYS fun!!

After that, Nicole and I were fast friends! We would talk and text often! Then Kaleb came to visit last year. We decided that we should get the kids together. And together we got!!

We went to the Kinston Indians game!

My daughter turned Nicole into a Zombie there

We went to the park

And quite a few Wet & Wild Wednesdays!

We also tried Geocaching... THAT was a disaster! LOL

Nicole and I also like wine a lot. We've been to a couple wineries together

I've had SO much fun with Nicole in the last year that I've known her! She is becoming one of my very best closest friends. I honestly don't know what I would do without my friend, confidant, and soundboard! Love you to itty bitty bits!! <3

Congrats on your 3rd Blogiversary Nicole!! You are an amazing writer, and I always look forward to reading your blog! And most of all, thanks for being such an amazing person!  

Tacos and Tequila

and tequila in my tacos!

Yep, I went there! For Cinco de Mayo/Cinco de Drinko/Cinco de Derby I had the girls over for a little fiesta. And by fiesta I mean...delicious tacos and margaritas!

I made carnitas that were slow cooked in tequila all day and Allie made the most amazing cheesecake. I ate it so fast I didn't even get a picture of it. It was to-die-for.

It was a night full of laughs! It was so much fun just having a laid back girls night in! I already can't wait to do it again!

After two years in the apartment we finally mastered the timed-group photo. Now we need to figure out where to take it at the house! Minus the chairs, this is actually a good picture!

Cupcakes and Wine!

There are about a million reasons why I love North Carolina. The number one reason why I love it here? There is always something going on. There's always some kind of fair, festival, or event. Most weekends we have a hard time deciding which one we want to do!

Thursday night me and Jacque made our way down to Wilmington for what sounded like a perfect night. Cupcakes and wine. Seriously, does it get any better than that?!

Fortunate Glass and Coastal Cupcakes hosted an amazing event. Five cupcakes, five wines, $25. My taste buds are watering just thinking about it! Here's the menu:

 1st Pairing

2008 Shramsberg Brut Rose

Strawberry Champagne Cupcake with Buttercream Frosting

2nd Pairing

2011 Crossings Sauvignon Blanc

Seabreeze Cupcake with Buttercream Frosting

3rd Pairing

2010 Hopler Gruner Veltliner

Lavender Cupcake with Honey Cream Cheese Frosting

4th Pairing

2006 Bodegas Covitoro Gran Cermeno Crianza Tinta de Toro

Pistachio Cupcake with Cream Cheese and Caramel Drizzle

5th Pairing

2008 Scott Harvey Syrah

Chocolate Cherry Jubilee Cupcake with Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

I don't think I need to tell you....but they were all delicious! If you are ever in Downtown Wilmington make sure you visit The Fortunate Glass. It looks like the perfect spot for a date night! And then make sure you check out Coastal Cupcakes. You won't regret it!