2011 Recap

I decided it would be fun to recap 2011 with some photos and just some memories from the past year. The year had its ups and downs but it was a great year overall!! Lets set the stage for where we were at this time last year. January 2011 Blaine and I still lived in our Apartment, he still worked on the air force base and I was still with the child care center in edmond. We had our Cat Bella and we're just beginning the search for a house. We were both happy with life and our jobs and just enjoying our lives together.

Because of my job at the time we got to attend our first Thunder Game. Where we both realized that while we support the Thunder we both would much rather be at a college football game!

Then a few months later we celebrated Easter! And as usual we did our celebrating with the Killebrews. Each year they put on a Massive Easter Egg Hunt and let all of us "Kids" partake, well this year it rained but did that stop us (them I should say I didn't run around in the rain) nope it sure didn't. So easter was spent hunting eggs in the rain and then with lots of hot chocolate to warm up afterwards!

Then in April we bought our First House!! We are so happy with the house we chose! It really is Home for us and we couldn't be happier! We've already made some wonderful memories in this home and we are sure there are many more to come in the passing years!

Then in May we Celebrated our 1 year wedding anniversary! It was hard to believe that we had already been married a year but it was a wonderful year and I wouldn't change it for the world! We spent our day enjoy our wedding cake topper which actually still tasted good and then we enjoy a nice dinner at Mickey Mantles Steak house downtown! It was a wonderful end to an amazing first year!

Then the summer rolled around and we spent an awesome Memorial day weekend in nebraska with family and those two adorable boys! At that point in the year they were the only nephews on blaine's side of the family but by the end of 2011 that is not the case :)

Then later in the summer I got to go to the AMERICAN IDOL concert with my bestest friend Michelle! OMG we had so much fun!! It had been a while since we had gone to a concert but it was a blast and we even got lots of autographs which was awesome!!

In august we celebrated Blaine and Joseph's 25th Birthdays with a big party and an awesome cake that I came up with and our favorite cake lady created! It was an amazing way to celebrate two very special men on their birthday!

And then later in August we got our adorable little guy Gibbs!! He is so much fun and we have loved having a dog in the house and just all the love and affection and protection he provides! Don't let this picture fool you because now Gibbs is bigger than some adult labs and weighs 75 pounds and he is only 7 months old! He is going to be our very BIG boy! But we love him!

I dont have a lot of pictures for fall but we spent fall traveling to Nebraska alot and enjoying time with family, throwing baby showers, and just enjoying life. October did not end well for us when we returned home from one of those trips to find our house had been broken into but we were blessed in the fact that he took nothing of value and was soon caught, like I said ups and downs this year! But anyways, In November we celebrated this little guys (Eli) 1st birthday! And we just spent a ton of time with him over the year! He is such a joy and I can't believe how big is he already!

Also in November we welcomed Ethan and Aiden (our new nephews) into the world! So now their are four nephews on Blaine's side of the family and we're still not done for the year! These little guys are just precious and we got to enjoy lots of time with them over thanksgiving and over christmas this year!

And then the Christmas season begins! We had a wonderful christmas season! Spent lots of time with family, did lots of shopping, and cooking and baking! we really are very blessed with the people we have in our lives and that is always very apparent to me around the holidays!! And of course what Christmas Season is complete with out a trip to a pretty light show with friends!

And then comes the week before christmas! We traveled to Nebraska to be with Blaine's family this christmas and we all received the most wonderful gift when Blaine's sister had her little baby girl Tempey! She is just precious and we were so glad to spend lots of snuggle time with her over the holiday!! So to just recap all the children that were added to the family this year, we had three, two nephews and one Niece now for total of four nephews and one niece on that side of the family! christmas was def. fun this year!

Since we started off with a small intro to where we were this time last year I thought we should end with a small bit of where we are now. Now we live in our wonderful home that we love, Blaine still works at the air force base and has no intention of changing that anytime soon. I now work for a nanny service in edmond and I love my job! It was a huge change for me but it has been so worth it and I am so much happier than before! So that is just a small recap of our 2011! It was a wonderful year with lots of blessings and friends! We are so thankful for all the things we got to experience this year and we are so excited for the things that 2012 has in store for us.

Christmas Time

I love Christmas Time!!! I'm not a huge fan of the cold but its a small price to pay for all the wonderful holiday cheer that comes with it! I love all the lights and trees and decorations!! It makes the world seem like a happy beautiful place with no worries. And the gift giving... I love giving gifts... I work so hard to pick the perfect gift for each person on my list and it kind of drives me a little crazy but in the past couple of years I have gotten much better at not driving myself insane and knowing that no matter what I choose the people I love will love their gifts and that the time I get to spend with them in the process is much more important then any gift I can give them. Its a little strange this year because we're not putting up a tree since we're not going to be here on Christmas day and because we don't have a tree to put up. so while the stockings are hung the few decorations I have our displayed it still feels like something is missing. But this year we are spending Christmas in Nebraska with Blaine's side of the family and while I am so excited to spend more time with that side of the family and all the little nephews (and secretly hoping the niece will arrive while were there) I am going to miss Christmas with my family very much... I've never missed it and it's going to be hard for me. But I know I'll enjoy christmas no matter where we are and as long as I'm with Blaine. I'm so excited to see what the Holiday brings this year! Now I just got to get the last of christmas shopping finished! I'm very close and I can't wait to be finished!! We'll that's all my ranting for now! Merry Christmas everyone!!!

ChChchChanges!

Man how life changes and so quickly. If you had asked me just three weeks ago that this is what life would be like I would have never believed you. But you know what... I'm so happy... life is different and sometimes its a little scary especially when we're talking money but I couldn't be happier. I have more time for the things I need to do... I have more time for my family... I have more time to just enjoy life and not stress over things I can't control. Life is good! Is life perfect... no will it ever be... probably not... but life is good! And I am so Happy! Starting work this week and couldn't be more excited! I'm so ready for this next chapter in my life and can't wait to see what Blessings it will hold for me!! God provides in the strangest ways but he always provides! I know this is a short post and really its just my ramblings but It's my way of remembering that things always get better no matter how bad they get to start with. And while things are great now I know that there may come a time where I need this reminder so this is my way of documenting it all so that if and when I need that reminder I'll have it.

A light in the storm

I have been searching everyday for a light in the storm that is my life at the current moment. Everyday I have one small positive thing has kept me going and has given me some sense of positiveness. I know that God will always be there to help me through my toughest days and he will never give me more then I can handle but right now he is getting awful close. My job is kind of a mess and I am searching for a way out... hopefully it will be soon... however I'm taking a pretty good pay cut in doing this and while I know we can do it and God will provide it is terrifying!!! But I can't be unhappy like this any longer! Then tacked on top of all the stress and turmoil I feel from that whole situation comes the news about my grandma's cancer! I prayed and prayed and prayed for a positive outcome of that biopsy and of course as usual God had a different plan and it came back cancerous but not just cancerous a fast growing cancer that may cause her to have her bladder remove and could have possibly already spread past that. To say my heart is broken at this point is an understatement. My grandma is the most amazing woman I know. She has taught me how to be a strong christian independant woman. She taught me how to cook, how to bake, how to clean (well she tried LOL), she taught me how to work hard and how to turn away from bad situations. She has always been someone have admired so so much and just the thought that her years are numbered is killing me. I know I know she is grandmother their years are always numbered its a fact of life but it just seems so much closer now with the whole cancer thing. I know people beat cancer all the time and I know that she could go on a life 10 plus more great years but the fear has still gripped my heart and won't let go. I want her to be well and to be happy... I want her to be able to see my children when we have them. I just want more time... a lot more time! And with the job situation changing that is exactly what I plan to make... a lot more time! more time to visit before it's too late and I regret being too busy! But through it all I still try to find the light in the storm... I have an amazing supportive husband and an amazing family that I can always count on. And not to mention countless friends who have stood by me through so many things. These are all my lights in the storm that is my current life and I don't know where I would be if they were not in my life.

Family of Four

Well its official we are a family of four! We now have an adorable little puppy names Gibbs and he is so much fun! It's def. a challenge and probably helping prepare us for children and the joy of getting up in the middle of the night! But we are loving every minute of it! Bella is not the biggest fan of the new pup but she is adjusting and they co-exsist pretty well. She def. doesn't run and hide thats for sure so they are pretty entertaining. So our family of four is pretty fun and we are very blessed! It has been a challenging couple of weeks with work and sickness and a death in the family. But through it all I have done my best to think of all the blessings in my life and remember that this too shall pass and god has a bigger plan for us all. Well that is my short little update of our new family but I'll leave with you a picture of the newest member of our family and i'm going to get back to my nice relaxing saturday with my hubby and the pets!

Never Adjusting

So the husband has been gone since yesterday evening before I even got off work and won't be back until around bedtime tomorrow and then leaves again on Wednesday and i will see him Friday but really he'll be engrossed in video games at his convention so there wont be a lot of seeing him. I am not a happy camper!! And people keep telling me oh you'll get used to it after a few years of marriage it won't be a big deal yadda yadda. NO! I won't ever get used to my husband being gone. I dont like it not one little bit. I haven't slept alone since we got married and frankly a big house with just me and the cat is a little scary! And my husband is TERRIBLE at answering his phone so not only is he gone but contact is limited and I am just not a very happy camper about any of it. I know I'm a big baby but hey there is a reason I married someone with a super stable very limited traveling job so I didn't have to deal with this stuff... and what does he do goes and gets certified to scuba dive and signs up for video game conventions! BOO! Ugh Just ready for the this to be done and go back to normal... I probably wouldn't be as blah about it all if we had like seen in eachother in the past two week but yeah lets be honest its been crazy. Starting two weeks ago I had group on monday and didn't get home till bed, tuesday was the american idol concert so again not home till bed, saw him wednesday and thursday, friday was my jewelry party so he hid most of the evening, got to see him saturday and sunday but then monday came and he had scuba so didn't get home till bed, tuesday was the same thing, wednesday he was home, thursday scuba didn't get home till bed, friday left before I got off work and now here we are. Probably not as bad as it feels but when your used to spending every evening hanging out it really sucks when all this happens at once! So there is my whining... if you actually endured the whole thing and dont think i'm a complete baby I appreciate you. If you do well blah I dont care cause I miss my hubby!

What I want to be when I grow up?!?!

Yes I am 24 years old and I still don't have the answer to that question. I have thought that I had the answer several different times but alas I am once again at a loss for words when I think about this question in my current life. Lets start from the beginning... Once upon a time I went to this wonderful christian university which I wouldn't take back for anything... well this lovely university of mine decided that my .02 below their standard GPA wasn't good enough to student teach therefore flipping my life plan upside down. And since this lovely university had already emptied my wallet and then some I took the route of Liberal Arts and got out of dodge. All the while thinking maybe I dont want to teach... so in the mean time what have I been doing... Teaching... two years but still.... then about a month or so ago i decided that it was time that i see about pursueing my original goal of teaching again and I applied for my alternative certification... well of course my luck being what it is... I was told yeah your degree isn't good enough you're gonna have to do better... so now I'm back to the age old question of what I want to be when i grow up? I still think i want to teach but its the getting there that has gotten very frustrating. I thought about getting a masters... neither program i want will admit me without a teaching certificate... so I thought i'd go to a different university and see if they would accept most of my credits and let me student teach after a semester... they wont let me talk to anyone who can really answer these questions until I apply for admission (GAY). So now I've emailed my original university to see if they will write a letter stating I have enough coursework completed to classify as a Focus but then they want me to have two years experience in the field which makes no since cause I dont really know how you get experience teaching science without being certified to teach science... which brings me back to being at a loss for the answer to the question. How many roadblocks means that this is not God's plan, how many times to I try before i say hey maybe this isn't for me. If its not for me... well then what is? I think thats the scariest question cause honestly I have a clue what the answer to that would be. For the girl who usually has it all together... I've got nothing! BOO!