Daily Life

Between staying up late to get homework done and getting up early to get homework done I am averaging about 4.5 to 5 hours of sleep per night so I've been grumpy and over emotional so I've been hiding out so no one has to deal with me. My lack of social life is to protect everyone around me.

My mother started radiation and chemo yesterday. They will be staying up in Iowa City all week at the Hope Lodge, a building for cancer patients that live more than 50 miles away from Iowa City. It is completely run off of donations. So for the next 7 weeks she will continue her therapy down here (speech, occupation and physical) on Monday mornings then head up to Iowa City for the week. She will have radiation Monday through Friday then come back down home to have her therapy again Friday afternoon. Lots of running around. Her speech is getting better by the day. She is getting better at forming complete sentences now. The doctor's are hopeful that she will have little side effects from the chemo and radiation. She will obviously be more tired and will loose her hair. She is taking the chemo through pill form so that will help a lot.

No new news about Aaron. He is still on medical hold. He has a doctor's appt on the 4th and he MAY be able to come home for 30 days to do his physical therapy here then he will be sent back to continue his training. I'm trying to not be too hopeful but it would be fantastic to spend Valentine's day with my hubby.

Did anyone else read this article in the Hawkeye?!?! Colleges have Quidditch teams? Where has this been my whole life. If there was any sport I would play this would be it. This guy is trying to get Southeastern to form a Quidditch team and I would so join if my plate wasn't already full enough.

(I am still seriously considering it)

I also just signed up for Birchbox and just received my first box yesterday. I am so excited for this! For those of you who don't know what Birchbox is click here --> https://www.birchbox.com/

I will do a review later after I have tried out my new goodies!

Currently reading: The Mortal Instruments: City of Ashes.

It's the 2nd book in the series and of course the books are so much better than the movie. In fact if you plan on reading this series, don't watch the movie. The actors/actresses they picked for the movie completely destroyed my image of what they actually look like. Not worth it.

I received several books from my mother for Christmas and it's taking me a little bit to get through them. I have a hard time finding time to read when I have so much to read for school. I just ordered another book yesterday though that I cannot wait to get my hands on, "Me Before You" by Jojo Moyes. I saw that our wedding photographer read it and figured I would give it a go. I just read the sample on Amazon and was hooked. What really sold me to buy it though was this customer's review on it...

"throw away your shades of gray books and read about a real romance- one where individuals ultimately valued each others' wishes and allowed the other party to grow. I began reading with much trepidation, but quickly learned to love the quirky characters of Lou and Will. This is a life affirming book. You will feel better after reading it."

I'm a hopeless romantic and could use an actual romantic book instead of all the trashyallaboutsexIwoulddropkickaguythattalkedtomelikeGreytalkstoAnastasia book. :)

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

"You are my hiding place: You will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance" Psalm 32:7





Daily Life

  I found this little nugget of amazing-ness on pinterest the other day and it's helping me come to terms with everything going on right now. My mother will start radiation and chemo here in the next couple of weeks. We are praying for the best and taking it day by day. It's all I can handle right now. Thinking too far into the future makes my heart ache too much.
  With Aaron states away and everything going on with my mom I feel like my world has been flipped upside down and now I get to waltz my way through this world hanging on tight and relearning to navigate.
  That being said and in light of everything that has happened the past few weeks and spending way too much time in doctors offices I have decided that I am in need of a lifestyle change to be more healthy. I am currently challenging myself to run every single day for 21 days straight. I also wrote down my weight and measurements to keep track and will write them down again after 21 days. I am currently on day number 7 and I am feeling pretty amazing. I already feel SO much better, I have more energy and I have a much better mood than usual. I have also been tinkering with the idea of starting the new trend diet of 2014, the paleo diet. This will definitely be more of a challenge then running because you have to cut out dairy, grain and sugar which is my top 3 food groups. I have always ate pretty healthy anyways, salads and what not but I feel the need to take it a step further. My friend Meg has recently discussed the paleo diet for her and her family and I decided to read up on it. I found this book  on amazon and decided to give it a go.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009GULWLG/ref=col_PCxPlH_4k24urYzJGGwBoqjIw
 I highly suggest this book for anyone considering this diet. It's a great beginner book that will explain the diet and help you in the right direction. I just downloaded it on my Kindle app and had it read in a couple of days. I have gone through our apartment to get rid of a lot of junk food and went grocery shopping to fill it up with fresh veggies and fruit, unfortunately some how ice cream ended up in my cart and I really can't let it go to waste. So far I have not followed the diet to well. I am eating more salads and cut out a lot of things but I am at my parents every night after work and end up eating dinner with them and they would not be okay following the paleo diet. Also if you drink the water amount you are actually supposed to drink you just end up running to the bathroom every 5 minutes because you have to pee. Seriously.

  I figured on top of everything else I would also head back to school this semester after taking last semester off. It's day 1 and I already feel overwhelmed so we will see if I can survive another semester.

"Be strong and of good courage; Do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord you God is with you whenever you go." – Joshua 1:9

My December Crafts

My Christmas Wreath:

  Ever since Aaron and I moved in together I have been ecstatic to have a front door to decorate. Even tho no one ever sees it unless they come visit us it's still fun to make the wreaths and display them on our front door.
  This wreath cost me a whole maybe $15 to make. It helped that I already had some of the materials needed to make it. I bought the wreath itself at Hobby Lobby for half price and the little jingle bells in the center as well. The pine cones I actually found at Dollar General! They were only $4! They however must have been soaked in a cinnamon oil because boy did they stink! Halfway through making it I had to seal it in a trash bag and open our whole 1 window in our apartment cause I had such a bad headache from the smell. The ornaments I also purchased at Dollar General. It's my new favorite place to shop currently. They have a lot of decent stuff for super cheap. All the pine cones and ornaments are attached on the wreath with fishing line along with the wooden letter B that I also found at Hobby Lobby. I just painted over the fishing line so you don't really notice it unless you get close and I sprinkled the gold glitter on right after I painted. It took me a whole 2 days to make this wreath and I'm pretty impressed with how it looks considering how much it cost me.

  My next project were the Christmas ornaments I made for the girls in my wedding. They ALL left their flowers at the reception so I decided to dry out all the flowers to give to them later. Well I figured I would get a little crafty with the flowers cause I figured none of the girls would really want a bunch of dead dried flowers around their place and bought clear ornaments at Hobby Lobby and used some left over stickers from the Bridesmaids gift and put their initials on the ornaments and grabbed some of the leftover ribbon from the wedding as well and ta da! A special ornament for them to hang on their tree to remind them of that special day.

  My next project in December I actually found on Pinterest. I absolutely adore this site and all her DIY projects. Even though she is an event planner (I wish she was located closer, I would have used her for my wedding!) I loved looking through her whole site cause it is so girly and pretty and pink! Haha!  Here's the link for the project: http://www.heygorg.com/2011/10/diy-tissue-covered-luminaries.html

Her's look a lot better than mine. The only color I could find was white. I really wanted the grey tissue paper though and might make this again down the road with grey for spring. I made this to have some decorations to help with the transition from Christmas to spring. I decided to add gold glitter to mine to add a little something to it. The containers I found at Hobby Lobby. They did have silver lids that screwed on but I figured I would hang out to the lids and come up with a different project for them later. The containers were only $6 and were half off as well. The paper cutter that I bought was the most expensive part. I believe it was over $10 but I of course used the 40% off coupon on their site for it. My goal is to NEVER pay full price for anything at Hobby Lobby and it usually isn't too hard to do. These were pretty simple to make and the only difficult part was cutting the tissue paper. I had one heck of a time. I don't know if I didn't fold it correctly for the right layering or my cutter was dull but hopefully the next time I try this it goes a little smoother. Also be careful on how thick you put on the glue/water mix on the container. I was using a little too much and it doesn't take much for the tissue to tear. I also mixed the gold glitter right in with the water/glue mixture. I figured this would be a less messy way to add the glitter.

  The little house in this picture was a Christmas gift from my Mother-In-Law that I absolutely adore! It has a switch on the bottom that lights it up and the roof of the house has stars cut into it so it makes a fantastic night light and adds stars to your ceiling!

  This craft was not done in December but I wanted to share it. I have seen this type of jewelry holder all over Pinterst and I had to give it a go! It was ridiculously easy to make. I needed to make something bigger to hang all my necklaces on cause I was outgrowing my old one. I found the old frame out at Aaron's parents shed. It was just laying around collecting dirt and dust. I scrubbed it clean and got lucky cause it was already this gorgeous green color so I didn't have to paint it which saved a lot of time. The hooks I bought in various sizes at Wal Mart for a couple dollars and the wood was soft enough that all I had to do was screw in the hooks and add some hanging hooks on the back and it was ready to go. I did end up with some sore knuckles with this project. My knuckles would scrap against the screen while I was screwing in the hooks and made them raw for a few days. Nothing I couldn't live with though. The screen is very handy to hang earrings on to display my more prettier ones. (P.S. I have too many necklaces)

  My last project of December were this lovely glittery clothes pins. I told you I have been obsessed with pink and gold glitter lately so this was a perfect way to end my December crafts. I saw a picture on Pinterest and knew i just had to make them. I had purchased clothes pins when Aaron and I moved in to our apartment and they are always handy to have around the house and I use them for everything but what they are intentionally for. I use them instead of potato chip clips and to seal various other foods in our kitchen and of course plenty of craft projects. I mixed red and white to get the perfect pink I wanted and just shook on all the gold glitter I could! I then sprayed on a sealant so the glitter wouldn't fall off too horribly. I was using it to display how many days I had left before Aaron came home but that kind of went out the window. (Sorry for the blurry photo, I am still currently using my iPhone because my lens crapped out on my camera and I need to buy a new one)

Isaiah 41:10: So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

Ringing In The New Year

  All my posts have been about my personal life lately and I promise I will give you an update on my crafts very soon. My whole entire apartment is covered in a fine layer of gold glitter currently. I told Aaron he better feel lucky that he isn't here cause otherwise he might be covered in glitter as well. I have a slight obsession with gold glitter and pink as of late and I'm not for sure where it came from but this post isn't supposed to be about glitter it's supposed to be an update about Aaron and my mom.

An update from warmer weather Texas:

  Even though Aaron swears it's pretty cool down there I remind him that 30 is better than 1 whole degree here in Iowa. I don't know about anyone else but I'm sick of all this snow. The week of Christmas Aaron had to run a mile or two and noticed his leg was sore and he was limping slightly well then a few days later he was made to run a 3k which ended up with him on crutches. The doctor has looked at his leg and they found several stress fractures around the metal so they decided to put him on medical hold which means he is no longer with his fleet and will not graduate on time anymore. He is stuck in a building with other soldiers that are on medical hold and is being forced to stay off his leg.
  The only plus side to this situation is that I have been able to have numerous 40min phone conversations with him that we have both been enjoying immensely and it helps to keep us updated on the situation.
  So everything is basically up in the air right now for him. They basically have to decide if he will be able to continue or if he will be honorably discharged because of his leg. Aaron's "case manager", not for sure on the correct term but that is what we have been calling him is leaning toward Aaron being honorably discharged because they have found older stress fractures that have healed which shows that this is a problem that will more than likely keep reoccurring. He is seeing the doctor in another 3 weeks that will be making the decision. As sucky as the situation is Aaron and I have been staying in high spirits about it and already have a game plan for if he does come home. Aaron has already talked to the Air Force about coming home to find a doctor to remove the metal and then he will try joining the Air Force again but it will have to be all done before July when he turns 27 because 26 is the cut off date. I also suggested to Aaron that if he does come home we can just go ahead and start making babies (joking, we still want to wait a couple years).
  We are not giving up just yet thought because this whole entire Air Force experience has just been a miracle. It just seems if Aaron has a slim to none chance it works out in our favor so who knows, maybe the doctor will just let him continue.

Meanwhile back at home:

This past Saturday my parents invited me out for lunch and a walk around East Lake since the weather was so nice. We were all very happy and having a lot of fun, throwing snow balls and enjoying the sunshine. After my parents dropped me off and headed home they stopped to get the mail out of the mail box and things went down hill from there. When my mother reached in to grab the mail she couldn't get her hand to grasp the mail and she noticed her fingers were tingly, not saying anything to my dad they headed into the house and dad noticed my mom was be very, very quite. At that point her right hand was tingly, her whole right arm felt heavy and the right side of her lip was tingly. She stated that she thought she was having a light stroke and asked my dad to take her to the ER. In Mount Pleasant they did a cat scan and saw something on the left side of her brain and decided to send her up to Iowa City. Once we got to Iowa City we did a whole lot of hurry up and wait. She had a MRI done around 8:30 Saturday night then was admitted to the hospital at around 2 am then at around 5 am we found out the results. She has a mass about the size of a golf ball on the top of her brain on the left frontal lobe which is causing her brain to be inflamed which caused the effects of what she thought was a light stroke. After a string of different nurses and doctors and more scans, including a body to make sure there were no other masses inside her body she was sent home Monday afternoon and will be returning tomorrow bright and early to have surgery. The game plan is for them to go in and try to remove all of the mass and then they will test it to see if it is cancerous which will take us about 2 weeks to find out the results.
  I never in my wildest dreams would have thought this was how I would be ringing in the new year. It's surreal and very, very scary. We are all staying positive and hoping for the best. A lot of friends and family have been asking how they can help and the only thing we are asking for right now is prayers and positive thinking. I'm feeling very selfish right now and wish I could beg Aaron to come home. I would feel a whole lot better with him by my side.
   No matter what I know God wouldn't give me more than I can handle and with Aaron I know I can take on anything.

  With everything going on I haven't given much thought to my new years resolution until PostSecret posted one the other day on Facebook that really stuck with me so I'm stealing it and sharing it with you- Consume Less; Savor more.




"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus" Philippians 4:6-7

Up and Down like a Yo-Yo

  I know it sounds so cliche but that is literally my day today; up and down like a yo-yo. I had a fantastic run after work today and if you would have told me that I would be running right now 5 years ago I would be doubled over, hysterically laughing at you. It just makes me feel so much better. Nothing is more satisfying then a nice long run to calm the nerves and clear the mind. I feel so accomplished and sweaty at the end it just makes me feel so happy.
  I had received my new phone in the mail today as well, a couple days early which I was ecstatic about. After about 15 minutes of being on hold to activate my phone they finally picked up and completely ruined my good mood. Apparently since I'm not the account holder I unfortunately couldn't activate the phone. Which is such complete bologna. Aaron and I went to the cell phone store and set it up where I would be able to make decisions on our cell phones before he left. Yea, apparently not so much. I feel so sorry for the guy that was helping me, I know it wasn't his fault and he was just doing his job but I was just so frustrated. I explained to him that Aaron was currently at bootcamp and there was no way he could call to activate my phone. He preceded to ask me multiple times that I was sure I couldn't reach Aaron before I just finally lost and it and might have accidentally got a little rude and explained to him that apparently he didn't realize what bootcamp meant and I unfortunately couldn't have my husband call since I couldn't even call him if I wanted to unless I felt was an emergency and called the red cross and I really don't think upgrading my phone was considered an emergency and then I hung up. I know, I'm awesome.
  It wouldn't be such a big deal besides the fact that my current phone likes to restart in a middle of a conversation which is the last thing I want when Aaron calls.
  So I hung my head in defeat and bought wine and Water For Elephants and accepted my defeat. You win some, you lose some and I'm chalking today up as a lost and calling it done.
35 days. 35 long stinking days probably filled with a ton of more yo-yo days.


Sidenote: I was able to go into the store the next day and they were very happy to activate the phone for me. Thank goodness.

A Heavy Heart

As I was laying in bed this morning and watching the snow fall outside my window I was craving to have Aaron by my side to be enjoying the peacefulness of the first real snowfall of the season. Tomorrow will mark the 2nd week that he has been gone. They first week is actually week 0, it doesn't even count toward the 8 weeks he will be gone. It sure counted to me. I miss him like crazy and every single day feels like a lifetime. Living without my husband has been difficult I feel like I'm 18 again and venturing out into the world without anyone by my side, timid to do things by myself and cautious to venture too far outside of my front door. It's like I lost my right arm, I don't exactly need it but I feel like I am having to relearn how to do everything all over again. You never realize how much you depend on someone till they aren't around anymore. He's just gone and everyday I feel like I'm just waiting around for him to come back.
I hope things will go back to normal and that I lose the feeling of just waiting around. I hope my motivation to get stuff done will return very soon. School will start next month and I will have plenty of no time to sit around and worry about it.

As unhappy as I may be in moments and how heavy my heart may feel I know it will ONLY be for a short amount of time in the long run of things. I have plenty of things to keep me busy and I get to eat whatever I want right now without Aaron yelling at me for having cereal for 2 out of the 3 meals of the day. I know I am beyond blessed to be married to my soulmate and best friend. I have a wonderful support system with my family and his as well. Aaron is an amazing husband, brother, son and friend. I am so proud of him for sacrificing his time away from friends and family to create the future that we want for ourselves and our future family.

Honeymoon Part 2: Holiday Edition

  Aaron and I decided that we needed to have a mini get away before he left so after seeing a commercial for Festival of the Trees we decided on our destination and labeled it,  Honeymoon Part 2: Holiday Edition. We decided to head up to Davenport Friday and eat at Cracker Barrel then head to the IMAX to watch Catching Fire then spend the night in a hotel and visit the Fesival of Trees Saturday.
  Aaron was all ecstatic because this was my first experience at the IMAX. He was going on and on about it at dinner on how fantastic it was. He kept talking about the huge screens and how loud it was when he abruptly pauses and said, "I hope I'm not talking this up too much!". Haha, he cracks me up. The movie and the theater was pretty impressive. I really enjoyed the whole experience. (I have to say as a book nerd that fully stands behind books being wayyy better than the movies they do a pretty fantastic job following the book). But what really made the experience awesome was the scene when the monkey fills up the entire screen and growls, Aaron jumped out of his seat! Usually I'm the jumpy one so it was pretty fantastic to see Aaron react the way he did. Not a lot catches him off guard.
   We of course had to eat at Cracker Barrel while up in Davenport as well. It is my favorite place to eat when we are anywhere close to one, which does not happen often. I love their food, it is so yummy. We also picked up some Christmas decorations while we were there as well to decorate our tree.
   To complete our night we sipped on some eggnog. It wouldn't be a Holiday Edition without it.

They had tons of different themes that I would have never thought of at the Festival of Trees. A couple of my favorites were the Lego/Toy Story one and the Sherlock Holmes one as well. Very creative!

They of course had lots of yummy sweets that we couldn't pass up. Aaron ended up with a bag of cake batter puppy chow and I with a white chocolate covered marshmallow with crushed peppermint stick, ie: heaven on a stick.

It was a perfect get away for Aaron and I to get some quality time in before he headed out for bootcamp.
By the way, my camera is currently broken and I haven't ventured too far to figure out what is wrong with it so I apologize for the ridiculous phone pictures. :/