Farewell 2010

It's that time of year again... where we start reflecting back over the past 12 months and looking at what we've accomplished and where we fell short. This year is a little different for me. Usually I'm always ready for the year to end and another to begin. Christmas is a great way to wrap up the year, but the New Year always offers a new beginning and a chance to start over. I'm a big fan of starting over. I like that feeling of moving into the next phase fresh and with a clean slate, and that's what the New Year has always brought. But this year, I'm going to be sad to see 2010 go. This has by far been the most monumental year of my life. So many of those major life events happened in the past 52 weeks. So here's my TOP 10 OF 2010:

 

1. I got engaged on February 13, 2010 to the most amazing guy.

2. We bought a house together

3. I spent a weekend in the hospital

4. I moved... twice!

5. Jarrod graduated from NCSU

6. I planned a wedding in 5 months.

7. I married the love of my life on July 24, 2010

8. I moved in with a boy!

9. We started a family with our puppy, Rylie

10. I learned what it's really like to be an adult.

 

I don't think you can get much more packed into 1 year than that!

 

I've been on my own for over 2 years now, but this year taught me a lot about responsibility. I've had to deal with a real budget and learn how to live within those means. I've had to take into consideration that pretty much all of my decisions now not only affect me, but affect my husband as well. I've had to balance family and friends and puppies!

 

But now, I'm sad to see such an amazing year of excitement and celebration and growth move into the past. At the same time, it makes me excited to see what 2011 will bring. I've already got a lot to be excited about: my sister's wedding, 25th birthday (ok, maybe "excited" isn't the right word), 1st anniversary, my puppy no longer being such a puppy. I like to go into each year planning for it to be better than the last, although 2010 is going to be pretty tough to beat, but I'm gonna give it my best shot!

 

So from our house to yours, Happy Holidays! Merry Christmas! and a Happy New Year!

A Christmas Picture is Worth... Everything!

So this will be the first year of possibly my whole life where my family won't have a Christmas card picture. OK, so since I decided to write this blog I've realized that's not true and apparently a few years back we didn't do one for a couple of years, but you get the idea.

It's funny, because for the past couple of years of kept thinking, "Really? We're doing this again?? I thought once I graduated college that we'd move on." But now that we're not going to have one, I'm not really sure how I feel about it. I think taking the pictures have always meant a lot because it's been a constant marker at the end of the year and a great way to keep a chronology of my and my sisters' lives.

We had a wonderful time last year when we took part in one of Nancy Ray's portrait parties.

2009

It was really nice having the opportunity to get the whole family together in the picture and have it professionally done. I think the last time we had one professionally taken with all of us was 1990... seriously. We took this one out at Meredith College.

1991

You gotta love the early '90's hair!

And here's my very first Christmas card picture ever!

1986

We have so many fun and crazy memories from taking these pictures, such as last year when Beka and I showed up in the same shirt! And in each of these below, my mom actually made the outfits (at least the sweaters).

1995

1993

 

1992

I remember taking this picture, because I was in the worst mood and didn't want to do the pictures, yet somehow, it turned out alright

1998

I love this picture because I feel like it's when we all really started growing up.

1996

And this one, while definitely not a "favorite" picture, is very special since we weren't sure I'd even be able to be a part of a Christmas card picture that year. I had just been released from the hospital after spending about 4 weeks there in October. You can tell I was still taking a lot of medication at the time.

1999

I had actually considered doing one of Jarrod and me and Rylie (and surprisingly, Jarrod was OK with this), but I'm not sure if I didn't just feel a little too cheesy doing that. I guess I'll end up saving that for my kids. I would, however, like to document this year some how. (As if I don't have enough pictures from this year, with the engagement shots and everything from the wedding!) But Christmas has always been a very special time for me, and I love tradition! I guess tradition in this case more often involves a family member taking the pictures and the whole process taking entirely too long.

Here are a couple more pictures for you to enjoy! Merry Christmas!

1990

1987

1989

1994

1997

2006

2007

Predators: BEWARE!

So I'm basically Annie Oakley... or Sarah Palin, whatever. A bunch of us went out to the gun range this weekend to fire off a few rounds. I've been asking Jarrod and his brother Josh to take me out there for a while now, just to find out what it's like since I had never fired a gun in my life. So Josh let me shoot his Springfield XD45, which basically means (at least to me) that it's got really big bullets and packs quite a quick! 

So you can enjoy my first gun shooting experience...

Not bad for a girl in heels, huh??

There's Magic in the Air

It's finally here! The most wonderful time of the year!

I have this thing about celebrating more than one holiday at once (You will NEVER see me with Christmas decorations up before Thanksgiving!) But once Thanksgiving is past, I'm totally good with putting up the tree and turning on the holiday music. But once it finally hits December, I'm ready to kick it into full swing! I'm actually a little disappointed that my house isn't fully ready for the holidays at this point, but considering it's my first year of having my own home to decorate and prepare, I guess I'm doing alright.

This is the time of year where I revert back to being a little kid. But it's not about Santa and surprises and presents, especially since I never grew up believing in Santa (don't feel sorry for me, I turned out just fine). It's about a kind of magic that seems to enter the world as Christmas nears, where everything just seems brighter and happier. I don't think it could ever matter what's going on in my life, once December comes, I just feel happier and more joyful. The world seems to step away from whatever problems it has and makes the time to be friendly and smile more. For me, it's about pulling out old decorations that I remember as a kid and feeling the same excitement of figuring out where to put them and making up stories involving them. It's about wanting to spend the afternoon baking cookies with my mom or curling up on the couch with my dad. It's about wanting to spend my morning sipping coffee in front of the fire and just enjoy the lights on the tree and decorations around the room (OK, so I didn't drink coffee as a kid, but you get the idea).

And I don't understand those people out there who don't really care for Christmas. Yes, I know that society has twisted it into a consumerist holiday, all about "an exchange of money," but I choose to look past that. So there's no longer that feeling of waking up Christmas morning and running downstairs to see what you got (because Jarrod and I already know what we're getting each other and we're actually getting them a week and a half early), but I always love an excuse to give a present (not to mention getting one in return!)

But getting now to the monthly goals, I'm gonna be honest, between getting my wisdom teeth out, getting sick and Thanksgiving, I didn't get a whole lot done. I did some Christmas shopping and some organizing, and I did have a fabulous Thanksgiving with my family, but everything else sorta fell to the side, and I'm OK with that for now. But this is why I don't want to set a bunch of unrealistic goals for myself for this month, because I know there's just not going to be the time (or the energy) to get them done. I want to enjoy the holiday season and spend some time relaxing and letting the magic of the season sweep me away.

Happy Thanksgiving!

You know, it's easy to be upset that you have to work at 4am on a holiday. I sometimes wish I didn't have the type of job where I have to worry about working on holidays. But of all days, Thanksgiving makes me take a step back and realize how thankful I am that I have a job today. I know where my next paycheck is coming from and I don't have to worry about losing my home or not being able to afford to buy Christmas presents for the people I care about. And sitting here at 6am makes me think of all of the other blessings that I have in my life:

• I have an amazing husband who loves me and who I'm crazy about. I know he'll always be there for me and I'm so excited about our future together.
• I have the greatest family in the world (actually familIES now), and they both live right around the corner, so Jarrod and I don't have to worry about traveling or splitting up the holidays. We just get a chance to spend these special days with the people that we love.
• I have a great house that's not falling apart or so tiny that we don't have enough room to live in.
• I have the cutest puppy who drives me nuts, but in the nearly 3 months we've had her hasn't eaten any of my shoes or Coach purses (just one Mac cable that my husband spliced back together. He's so handy!)
• I had a beautiful wedding this year that was everything I'd dreamed of.
• Although I may not have the perfect bill of health that others have, I'm alive, I'm able to have a normal life, I don't spend my days in the hospital or hooked up to machines or eating a really disgusting diet.
• I have great friends that I know I can count on.
• I live in a country that has it's share of problems, but I don't have to worry about hiding my faith in God or fear that my government may hurt me or my family and I get to keep the money I earn and work for (well, most of it, at least).
• I get to enjoy the most fabulous Thanksgiving meal this evening, and I can't wait!

I really don't think I could ask for more, and if this is at good as it gets... then I'm good with that. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! God bless!

Under the Knife: My Wisdom Teeth Experience

What an awful week! I've been a little MIA ever since I got my wisdom teeth out the other week. It's been 10 days, and I feel like I'm just now getting back on track. 


The whole experience wasn't at all what I thought it would be. I remember sitting in the dental chair last Friday with this weird elephant looking thing over my nose which was giving me laughing gas. Now, I'd never had laughing gas before and it was a very strange experience. My head started swimming a little and my tongue felt very large in my mouth and I did have a strange urge to laugh for no apparent reason, but I tried my best to keep my giggles to myself. I also had a number of strange thoughts pass through my head as they were putting me under the anesthesia. I wish I could remember what they all were, but I do remember that I was amused by my thoughts and said to myself that it would make a great book if we could record all the strange thoughts that pass through people's minds right before they go under anesthesia. Yah, I was definitely kinda loopy. 


Then of course you wake up a little bit later with a banging headache and a couple of large holes in the back of your mouth. Those first couple of days were miserable. I could only eat apple sauce and pudding, and I hardly kept any of that down. I pretty much didn't eat anything for about 5 days and even had to go home sick after a couple of hours at work last Monday. After that, I decided I needed to go for something a bit more solid and had just about the best meal of my life of grilled salmon, mashed potatoes and broccoli casserole from O'Charley's. I felt 100 times better after actually eating some food.


So now, it's 10 days after the fact, but my teeth still kinda hurt and I have to still be careful when I'm chewing and try to stick to the right side of my mouth (where I only had 1 tooth out). I go back tomorrow for a check up, so here's hoping that all's well.


I can't help but at least be grateful that I got this over with when I did. Can you imagine spending Thanksgiving Day worrying about what you're eating?? And let me go ahead and throw out there that Thanksgiving is arguably my favorite day of the year. I mean, it's a holiday that's completely structured around a meal. What's better than that?? 


So now it's time to focus on better things, like the fact that Thanksgiving is only 3 days away and then I get to decorate for Christmas! Can't wait!

Pardon the onion

I tend to get down on myself a lot for mistakes I make around the house. Like yesterday, I tried to make enchiladas with a sour cream sauce and mid-way through the recipe I realize I'm missing a key ingredient (of course, this is about 2 hours after I just ran to the store to pick up some other things) and it's much too late at this point to run out and pick it up. So I saved what I had and put it together tonight. It came out OK, but I used way too much onion. And I like onions,  we all know what too much onion is like. I can't imagine this taste in my mouth going away any time soon. But I find myself apologizing constantly for my little errors. "I'm sorry there's no dinner ready tonight," "I'm sorry I didn't make it to the store today," or "I'm sorry that I didn't get a chance to clean up the kitchen."

I think one problem I have is I'm constantly comparing myself to my mother who never seemed to make these mistakes. But then I realize two things:

1. She'd had 10 years (or so) of practice before I even start remembering things! I'm sure she went through the same stupid mistakes that I make and, if they had cell phones back then, probably would've called her mom a million times in the grocery store when she couldn't find what she was looking for. (And Mom, if you didn't, then don't tell me and let me live in my little delusional world). I guess this is my time to have a go at it and make those mistakes now so I know better for the future.

And 2. She wasn't perfect at everything while I was growing up (Sorry, Mom). I remember this one Thanksgiving where we almost didn't have any turkey gravy because she'd gotten a new roasting pan and the teflon started flaking off in the gravy. What she did best was stay calm in the scenario. I would've been freaking out about how Thanksgiving was ruined and everyone was going to be so disappointed. But we kept it quiet and strained it out the best we could and served the teflon-laced gravy (If anybody asks, it's just some extra pepper and spices). Nobody knew the difference and nobody died of teflon poisoning.

I think I need to start handling things more gracefully and have a bit more of a "c'est la vie" mentality. I think it's the whole newly-wed ideology that I'm supposed to be Donna Reed and have the house spotless, hot dinner on the table (while already having cleaned the kitchen, I might add) and not a hair out of place. I hope to change this idea and just realize that next time I'll know to use less onion and more cheese. I'll see that I'm not a failure at life just because I forgot to pick up some more chicken broth at the grocery store. And I'll realize that I'll get the hang of things one of these days.

Sweet November

I actually went to see that movie starring Charlize Theron and Keanu Reeves when I was like 15... it was pretty awful, but makes a nice sounding title! Anyways, I cannot believe it's November already and the holiday season is officially in full swing (at least in my opinion, Halloween is the kick off). November is always lots of fun. It's when the Christmas shopping really starts and of course Thanksgiving: a holiday centered around a meal, it doesn't get much better than that! Plus, Thanksgiving has been designated as MY holiday. You see, my sisters and I decided years ago that when we're the ones who take over the holiday dinners and family gatherings, we're going to split up the holidays. So Beka took Christmas, Hannah got Easter, and I chose Thanksgiving! So for the past couple of years I always try to make it over to my parent's the day before to help with all the preps and learn the family secrets! (And by the way, I don't care what any of you say, the Lindsey Thanksgiving turkey stuffing is the best in the world!)

 

I also cannot believe that this is the third month I've been writing up my goals and plans. Although I'm still getting used to the idea of setting monthly goals and working to accomplish them, I really like the challenge and the accountability. I know as time goes on that I'll get better at setting realistic goals and making the time to work to meet them. I actually did a pretty decent job this past month:

 

1. I'm going to get working on the concept! **I did start working on this! Got a long way to go, though.

2. Come up with and implement a plan for keeping the house clean. **At least halfway started this. I have a plan in place, and have implemented it on some days. now going to kick it into full gear!

3. Work with Rylie on some new tricks. **I give Jarrod most of the credit here, but she knows "sit" and "shake" and "get over here!"

4. Wedding picture organizing. **Definitely found no time to do this. Hoping to get to it this month! Maybe!

5. Bridesmaid in wedding **So fun!

6. Decorate for fall and Halloween. **A picture is always better

 

7. Start some Christmas shopping. **Another part-way completed goal. So I didn't actually "start" shopping, but I have pretty much determined what I'm getting for everyone, so now it's time to actually start getting the stuff.

New Goals for November:

1. Get further in the story planning. **I don't wanna just meet a "minimum requirement" every month, I wanna make time for it and make some progress. 

2. Organize, organize, organize! **I want to be an organization nerd (well, at least I need to be!) This may sound strange, but I need to get organized to get organized (i.e. I need lists and plans to keep things in order). Planning on hitting up the Container Store. Maybe I'll be inspired.

3. Christmas shopping! **This month it's not getting-a-jump-on-things; this is the do-or-die month. I refuse to be doing all of my shopping in December!

4. Paint the Living Room. **This is slightly (mostly) dependent on Jarrod and whether he's also got the time for it, but it's something we've been wanting to do and I'd like to put it out there and make it a priority.

5. Help prepare a fabulous Thanksgiving day meal and enjoy dinner with my wonderful family: both of them!

That's all for now. I know with the holidays, things are going to get really busy soon. Happy November!

Mama Lindsey's Biscuits

This past weekend I made a trek out to historic New Bern to see my lovely grandmother Mama C. She's one of the sweetest ladies you'll ever meet. She's 4 foot 10 and makes me feel like a giant! (I"m so used to being the shortest one in a room unless the other person is under the age of 10 that it's an odd feeling being so tall). I had never made the trip out to New Bern by myself, but looking back , after my grandfather, Big Daddy (yes, I realize that's a sorta funny name for a grandfather, especially since he was only 6 foot 2 and that's not like THAT tall, but when you're 3 years old, he's HUGE!) passed away nearly 5 years ago, I started wishing I'd spent more time with him. So I've really enjoyed the past years of getting to know both of my remaining grandmothers better. 


Mama C and I had a lovely time. She was this beautiful home where the upstairs is a condo and the downstairs is a street-front shop called "Art of the Wild." She and my grandfather opened it to sell his wood carvings of birds, which, by the way, are incredible! This man probably had more patience that just about anybody to be so attentive to all of those minute details. Here's a bird that he carved for my parents. A good story here: it's so life-like, our cat took a bite out of the tail!

I learned a fun story while I was there, too. Mama C told me that Big Daddy started carving on his way home from the war (that's WW2 for the historically uninclined). He took an old apple crate or something and carved a duck out of it with a knife. He had a good relationship with his sergeant who loved the carving and asked to keep it. Mama C told me that years later, the 2 of them met up with that sergeant and she got to see the original carving, which she says was not very good, hah! Especially compared to how great he got over the years. 


So Mama C and I minded the store for a bit, then took an extended lunch break to eat chili and make Mama Lindsey's Biscuits! I must confess, I told Mama C before I came that I HAD to learn how to make them while I was there. I've been wanting to learn for years. This is a recipe passed down from Big Daddy's mother. I'm not sure if it goes back beyond that, but it's one of our few family recipes that are still family favorites. I've never been a huge fluffy biscuit fan, but these are different. They're smaller and flatter than something like a Bojangles biscuit. (I should've taken a picture when I made them!) These are one of the very few items that I will continue to eat until they're gone... despite how full I may be. 


It was so fun getting the chance to bake with Mama C. She'd already set everything out in little cups and bowls before we started, it was cute. We put together one batch while I was there and they came out so great! Well, they tasted great, the form could've used a little work, but she gave me some tips for better looking biscuits. She boxed the rest of the batter up for me to take home and try again. I made some for Jarrod and me the next day and this time they came out perfectly! They were exactly as I remember Mama C making them all those years growing up and my whole family sitting at the table devouring them! Those are some of my most wonderful memories growing up and I'm so excited that someday I'll be able to make Mama Lindsey's biscuits for my children and pass along the family recipe. 

Like a Ton of Bricks

It just hit me today that my life will never be the same ever again. Between a full-time job, having our own home, living with a puppy and everything else, I will always be "busy." It hit me today when I was thinking it'd been a while since I wrote a blog post and I said to myself, "Well, I've just been so busy." But when I look back over the past week or so, I've been noticeably less busy that I've been for the past several months. So this feeling of being busy just isn't going to go away and it's only going to be compounded from here on out.


So this means my life needs to be much more organized. I said in my monthly goals for this month that I want to come up with a plan to keep the house clean and I've been working on that. It involves breaking chores and/or rooms down to a daily cleaning schedule. This way I'm not forced to have one of those days where I have to clean the house from top to bottom and it'll be fully cleaned every week. It sounds so simple and would actually make my life easier, however, it's been quite difficult to get this thing going. I just feel so unmotivated to jump into cleaning mode, even if it's just a room, right after I get off from work and I've been up since early, early morning. Perhaps it also has to do with the fact that the kitchen is constantly a mess. This comes just from continuous use: cleaning it, cooking in it, cleaning again, cooking again. Since the kitchen needs to be cleaned before using it again, that's always a chore and doing more beyond that seems like a bigger deal. But I suppose it's just going to have to take a little time to get into the groove and make it into a habit.


So as I sit here realizing all of this, I also realize how much I have to do around here, tonight. The kitchen is calling! Busy, busy, busy...

When Life Gets in the Way

Wow, I didn't mean for it to be so long between posts. I guess I've been busier than I thought. A combination of dress fittings, DMV visits, maid of honor duties, football games, engagement parties and doctor's appointments. Yep, I haven't stopped all month, and it's not going to end this week. But that's OK, because I am super excited about everything going on this week.

 

First of all, one of my favorite people to work with is getting married this weekend! Which is super exciting for her, but means lots of work for the rest of us! But also, it means that I get to take over her shift and actually work a normal schedule for a couple of weeks! So for the next 2 weeks I have the opportunity to have dinner with my hubby and go to bed when it's dark outside. It's a welcome change for the time being, although the work day does seem longer when you're not getting off at noon.

 

Beyond that, I picked up my bridesmaid dress this afternoon and it look so great now. I am super stoked about Sarah and Brandon's wedding this weekend! It's going to be exciting. Mani-pedis on Friday before the rehearsal dinner. Then spending the night out with the girls before a yummy bridesmaid brunch the morning of the wedding, plus getting hair and makeup done before the actual event. Sounds like 2 full days of pampering to me! I've said it before, that I've never been a part of wedding that wasn't my own, so I'm really looking forward to all of the wedding party excitement, without all of the attention (aka pressure) being on me. Plus, Jarrod's part of the wedding, too, so that makes it even more fun.

 

And then next weekend will be the first weekend that I can remember in a long while where I have nothing planned! I don't usually get excited about this sorta thing, because I like having plans for the weekend, but this could quite possibly be the first free weekend that I've had since we got engaged back in February. However, Jarrod's now telling me that he thinks he's going to be gone hunting all day Saturday, which puts a little damper on my do-nothing-weekend, but we'll make it work.

 

Then the following weekend is my favorite big sister's engagement party! and Halloween! (arguably one of my favorite holidays!... but that's not really saying much, because I'd probably say that about every holiday. I'm really just a big holiday fan in general) But then I flip my calendar over to November, and it's freakishly empty! I know we're now officially moving into the holiday season, which means things will obviously be busy, but that's a kind of busy I'm good with.

Now, I'm off to make pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. Bring on the Fall fun!

Someone's in the Kitchen with...

I love to cook! I may be obsessed. One of my favorite things to do is find new recipes online and I have a very long list of ones that I want to try. It's especially fun now that I have all of this new stuff for my kitchen, some of which I still haven't gotten a chance to use. However, at this point in my life, I'm not a particularly good cook. Don't get me wrong, I can follow a recipe with the best of 'em and come up with something really yummy, but I'm not good at coming up with stuff myself and putting a bunch of ingredients together and coming up with a great new recipe. But I really want to be one of those people who can do that. I'd really love to someday when I have the time (you know, since life tends to get LESS busy as you go) to take a couple cooking classes and really get into the swing of things.

I like to get involved in moderately complicated recipes that require a lot of ingredients, but I rarely have the opportunity to get into that. For now, I'm somewhat stuck with my real quick, real easy dinners. I know that I could always make a big dinner if I wanted, but since I don't get to have Jarrod, or anyone for that matter, join me, I just can't find the motivation. Spending a lot of time in the kitchen isn't particularly fun by itself, but the reward of having a great meal to share with someone makes it worth it. Making it for myself and leaving left overs for Jarrod just doesn't do it for me. So Friday's tend to be my big cooking days. I get a little rest in the afternoon, since I'll have been up since about 3am, and put something together for when Jarrod comes home that evening. Our weekends have been so busy that Saturday evenings we tend to eat out or with someone else. At least there's usually never time to spend actually cooking. And Sundays are our "do nothing" day of the week, especially since it's a short day for me and I have to be in bed so early. So I'm hoping for the day to come where I can cook meals any day of the week and have someone there to share it with. I'd love so much to be able to have dinner dates during the week! It's amazing the little things in life that you miss once you can't do them.

So last month I set the goal of making something out of Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Well I had no idea what I was getting myself into! Most of the recipes really aren't that bad at first glance, but once you start going through them, you realize that several times throughout the recipe, it refers you to another recipe on another page, so suddenly your one simple recipe has turned into about 4 much more complicated recipes. They're really the type of thing that you need a lot of time (and ingredients... and specific cooking accessories) to accomplish, and as I've explained, cooking time is just not in the cards for me right now. But nevertheless, I accomplished this goal (albeit a day late, but who's paying that close attention?) last week by making the Chocolate Almond cake and it is AH-SO-GOOD! I even put my own little twists in it by substituting a couple of ingredients and putting things together a little differently. I figure that's the point of a recipe anyways. It's "more what you'd call guidelines than actual rules" (a great movie reference included!).

But this cake is so rich! I don't think there's anyway that we'll be able to eat the whole thing, because as a normal cake is 8 slices, this one is more like 30 since you have to cut them so small! But I felt very domestic making it. I melted my own chocolate, pulverized my own almonds, and beat together my own icing (over ice!). Plus, I finally got to use the beautiful cake platter I received from the wedding! I look forward to someday having the opportunity to put together great meals for my family. My mom always had great home cooked meals for us everyday after school. I hope I'm in a place someday where I can actually do that. But for now, I'll have to put my desire for dinner parties and cooking clubs aside and look forward to the day where I can slave away in the kitchen with the best of 'em. Ahh the finer things of life...

Yummy!

Happy October!

Funny that I found this picture, because Sarah and I actually put together this exact puzzle once!

I can't believe it's actually October. This past month has gone by so fast. I think I've just been so busy that everything's just flown by. I'm not sure how it happened, but especially the past week or so have been so busy I feel that I haven't had time to breathe. I'm hoping now for some time to relax just a little. I know it's not going to happen today or tomorrow, but maybe after that!

I am very excited to be starting off probably my favorite month of the year with beautiful cooler temperatures and lots of sun: perfect for an early fall day! I just love October! This month makes me think of Pumpkin Spice Lattes, a great color palette of red, orange, yellow and gold, the State Fair (hot dogs and funnel cakes included), light jackets and scarves, and the start of the holiday season. I asked Jarrod yesterday if he'd be OK with getting some bales of hay and pumpkins to put in the yard, and he was totally fine with it! So I'm planning on doing some Autumn decorating this weekend!

I've been disappointed with myself for not completing all that I wanted to do this month. I about had a nervous breakdown the other day because I was so upset at how little I had done. But in the end, I feel that I did a respectable job, especially considering some factors that I had not considered at the beginning of last month. I plan on going through at least a couple of these in a later blog entry, but here we go:

1. Finish writing and send out Thank You notes for the wedding. 

-I did not think I was going to get them done, but I actually did: last night! They're all addressed and just need to be dropped off at the post office, which I plan to do first thing in the morning! 2. Start reading a classic.
3. Attempt to make something from "Mastering the Art of French Cooking"

- So I haven't actually accomplished this yet, but it's OK, because I'm doing it tonight!
4. Start forming a concept for a story. 

-This is my big disappointment for the month, because I didn't start thinking about it at all. After we got Rylie, all of my free time (and all of my "me" time) got thrown out the window.

So after an interesting first month of writing down and keeping track of my goals, we're going to give this a second go!

1. I'm going to get working on the concept! I want to find a way to get myself organized enough to have the time to do that, and not let the rest of life get in the way.

2. Come up with and implement a plan for keeping the house clean. Now that Jarrod and I are finally settling into a normal swing-of-things, I want to be better at keeping the house straightened up. Nothing big here, just getting little things done every day that'll add up to a cleaner environment. 

3. Work with Rylie on some new tricks. You know, beyond just not peeing in the house.

4. Wedding picture organizing. Nancy Ray just told me yesterday that my wedding pictures are ready and should be arriving in the mail soon! I am so excited to not only get to see them, but to start some decorating with them! I've had this plan to put up a picture collage in the living room with some of the wedding and engagement pictures, so I'm ready to get some ordered and put up on the wall!

5. Bridesmaid in wedding So excited to be a bridesmaid in one my best friends' weddings! Bachelorette party this weekend and wedding festivities in 2 weeks!

6. Decorate for fall and Halloween. Can't tell you how excited I am that this is my first time of my life having a home in a neighborhood where we'll actually see some trick-or-treaters! My home growing up was on a mile long dirt road with about 10 houses on it (not ideal for little trick-or-treaters) and other than that I've always lived in apartments. I'm so ready to get the house decorated and get ready for Halloween. Not sure yet if I'll put together a costume, but we'll see. Excited regardless!

7. Start some Christmas shopping. Nothing big here, just want to get a head start so I'm not trying to do it the week leading up to Christmas.


Wow! That's kind of a lot! Especially since I'm new at this whole thing, but we're going to see how it goes. I should stop now before this becomes the longest post ever.

Discouragement and Faith

I feel that I’ve been very unproductive this month. I don’t think that I’ve accomplished anything that I had hoped to accomplish by this point. Getting Rylie is a big part of that. She keeps me busy and doesn’t allow me to take my eye off of her for more than 2 seconds, which greatly cuts down on my getting-anything-accomplished time. It’s hard… I feel like I haven’t had time to be a wife, a sister, a friend. I hope I haven’t given up too much here. I hope I’ll be able to find my footing again soon. I don’t want to lose the rest of the year.

All of this has been weighing on me a lot lately. Also not getting to see Jarrod seems to get harder and harder every day. It’s starting to really get discouraging. I don’t like coming home to an empty house everyday, and Rylie hardly counts as company at this point. I used to try to take a day every week where I’d move around my sleeping schedule in order to have dinner with him, but now with Rylie that’s impossible. At least for the time being.

But we do have a trip planned for the beach this weekend and I think it’ll be really good for us. It’ll be just the 3 of us: our little family. I’m so excited about actually have a full 2 days with my husband. At this point I haven’t seen him since Sunday, except for when he comes in a kisses me goodnight or when I kiss him goodbye when I leave for work in the morning. I’m just hoping there will be some solution to this sometime soon. Perhaps something I just can’t see at the moment. I’m just so tired of missing him all the time. I want that cliché life where we have a cup of coffee together in the morning and I can have dinner on the table when he gets home and we take Rylie for a walk together through the neighborhood and then cuddle on the couch watching our favorite TV shows before going to bed.  

I keep hoping and praying that the answer is right around the corner. I try to have faith that all things really do work out together for good and there’s a bigger plan out there that I may not be able to see, but I know will continue to lead me down the right path. It’s difficult on a day-to-day basis to see where things will eventually go, but I know there’s someone out there who’s looking out for me and won’t let me down.

Meet Rylie!

So Jarrod and I decided to expand our family this week with the addition of Miss Rylie Hughes. We picked her up on Sunday from the SPCA and she just turned 3 months old on Wednesday.

So we've only had her for 5 days now, but wow has it been a lot of work! We've both had puppies in the past, so we're well aware of how much work is involved and we went into it knowing it wouldn't be easy, but I swear you forget just how much is involved until you actually have a puppy peeing all over your formerly clean and nice-smelling house. I haven't been this exhausted in a while because every moment once I walk in the door after work I have to have my eye on her. There's no time for napping! or really just relaxing in general. And yes, I've already had a nervous breakdown and shouted at the sky, "what have i done?!" but we're learning and I can proudly say that yesterday we were officially "accident free" for the first time! And like I said, it's both of us. She's learning what she can and cannot do, but I'm also learning better how to keep an eye on her and making sure that she gets outside VERY often.

 

And she's been a lot of fun so far, as well. She definitely keeps me busy once I get home and we've been taking walks through the neighborhood and I've already met a couple of neighbors that I'd never talked to before. Plus, it's encouraging me to get up and get outside and get some exercise.

 

I'm excited about the coming weekend and having all 3 of us together at once, because during the week that's not exactly possible. But that's a big reason why we decided to go ahead and do this now. We have a unique opportunity for someone to be with Rylie almost all the time, so she doesn't get cooped up all day while we're gone. This way, if Jarrod's or my schedule ever change, we've already made it through the toughest training part.

 

I feel like I'm already learning a lot from her, like patience and not sweating the little things, such as not getting any sleep all week or the fact that my house is a wreck and I haven't had a chance to clean it. So I'm also working on better time management and trying to not let messes pile up before I get to them. It's going to be quite an adventure, and I'm so excited to be doing this with my husband. And I'm getting my mommy-skills in check!

Family, Fun and the Fryes

This past week has been filled with family fun. I love that! Sometimes it's so hard to fit in that time spent with those who really mean the most to you.

So first, of all, I want to send out a big congratulations to the newest member of the family, my soon-to-be brother-in-law, Nate! and my big sister Beka! The future Mr. & Mrs. Frye!! It's now been a little over a week since Nate popped the question, and we've already started diving into the whole wedding process all over again (Bless my parents' hearts... it'll end up being about 17 months straight of wedding planning!) Good thing we've already got our feet wet on this whole process.

I'm so excited about being a part of a wedding that's not my own. I'll get my first experience at one of my very best friends' weddings in just about 5 weeks! I love weddings and I'm definitely looking forward to taking on a role that's not a guest, but not the bride either. Once my sister's comes around I should be a seasoned pro at this! I like that I'll have the chance to repay the favors that she did for me throughout my whole wedding planning process (however, I know that I will never do as much for her as she did for me).

Secondly, this week some of my favorite people in the world were in town from the Sunshine State! My cousins and their kids. I try to soak up every minute with them when they're in town, so we celebrated with Beka & Nate with a cook out, had the whole family over to my house for muffins and coffee, met up with some friends and my parents that evening for another cookout, then grabbed lunch together the next day (Like I said, I take advantage of every minute possible). The most exciting part of the whole weekend was hearing them seriously talk about the possibility of moving here to NC. So T & K, you can consider this my official plea to make that happen!

I probably have more respect for these cousins than just about anyone in the world. They married young, at 20 and 18, had their first child just a couple of years later, and within months, not only went through the tragedy of losing a parent, but the 2 of them stepped up and took in my cousin's half-brothers, who were 12 and 11 (I believe) at the time. Can you imagine?? A couple month old baby, and suddenly you're 20 years trying to raise 2 almost-teens! But by the grace of God, they survived, and did so beautifully! And now have another 2 children of their own.

These are the kind of people that I hope to be like someday... that I hope I'm like today. Although I pray I'm never put in a similar situation, I'd like to believe that if I was, that I'd prevail as admirably as they did (Wow, I'm getting a little choked up writing this). Now they've been married for 15 years and have the most amazing family. It's a family that I'm so proud to be a part of and hope, in the future, to be able to spend more times with them like this past weekend.

I am not a groupie

I love being brought into someone else's world, especially my husband's. I like being a part of something that I would otherwise not understand, and being able to see the world through someone else's eyes. Jarrod, my husband, has been playing guitar most of his life. And I love that it's something his whole family does. His dad also plays guitar, his older brother plays drums and his younger brother rounds it out with the bass. And they'll join together, along with some other friends sometimes, too, and form what we've affectionately dubbed the "Hughes Garage Project." 

Every year that I've known his family, they've done a show or two for a number of different events: his brother's graduation party, a fourth of July party, even a cancer benefit. And every year, I get to be "with the band."

It's funny, when I was in high school I dated a drummer and we would do a little traveling with his band. I remember one time that I made an off-handed joke about being the band's groupie, and this guy, who I didn't know, turned to me, totally serious, and was like, "You should never call yourself a 'groupie!'" And I was like, "Alright I was just kidding, but OK." So from that day forward, I stuck to "band girlfriend." Now, I've been upgraded to "band wife!"


But I like being brought into this whole musical world. I tried my hand at guitar when I was in high school and soon discovered that I have no musical propensities. Plus, I'd have to cut all of my nails off! But when the guys come together to play, I get swept away in their musical world and I feel like I'm a part of it. It's like I'm a rockstar right along side them. But it's more than that, it's being a part of Jarrod's world. I like experiencing that part of him and understanding him more by being a part of it. This is why I don't understand when couples don't enjoy doing things that the other one wants to do. Even if it's something that I really don't enjoy, I love knowing that Jarrod enjoys it. I love being a part of his world and seeing another facet of him. So I try to never complain about doing what he wants to do. And I always love being able to say, "I'm with the band."

**If you wanna come get swept away with me, the guys are playing at the Creedmoor Music Festival on September 18. Come hang out!

My September

I was going to call this post "My September Goals," but I stopped at "My September" because I thought it sounded much more poetic. That being said, I cannot believe it's already September! I can no longer say, "I got married last month." Moreover, I am excited that Fall and cooler temperatures are on their way. I have a hard time wishing away the Summer because, let's be honest, once it's Fall it's basically Halloween, which is basically Thanksgiving, which is basically Christmas, which is basically 2011, which is basically the dead of Winter! I LOVE everything about Fall... the changing leaves, wearing sweaters and boots, the relief from the heat, the start of the Holidays... except that it's much too short and eventually I'll just end up cold ALL THE TIME. However, I do have a new Coach coat that I haven't had a chance to wear, so I guess it's not all bad. But this year's super hot temperatures (which by the way, I just learned this morning that the National Weather Service has determined that this year's June-July-August are the hottest on record) have made me very tired with the Summer and ready for a change. And that's what the Fall is all about: Change. One of my favorite songs of all times, that I haven't listened to in forever is Nichole Nordeman's "Every Season." It paints a perfect picture of what's so special and beautiful about each season as it comes and goes. (I found a homemade youtube video of this song)

But my point today is to determine my goals for this coming month. I was inspired by one of my favorite people, Mrs. Nancy Ray and her blog where she is always updating her goals and what has been accomplished. I've decided to start off slow, because I can totally see myself overloading on goals that there's no way I can accomplish in 30 days.

1. Finish writing and send out Thank You notes for the wedding.

I know! I'm so behind! But Thank You notes are the bane of my existence. I hate them more than doing laundry, which or some reason is a lot. The hard part is that I am so thankful and appreciative to everyone who was a part of the wedding and who was so generous to me and my husband, and I want them to know how thankful I am... I just wish I didn't have to do it in the form of a Thank You note.

2. Start reading a classic.

I haven't read a classic in a while. Let me rephrase that: I haven't FINISHED reading a classic in a while. Just the other day, a friend of mine showed me a list of "Books to Read before You Die" she'd gotten in high school and I think I'm going to pick something off of there. I'm currently reading a much more recent publication, so that means I gotta buckle down and finish it in order to start a new one.

3. Attempt to make something from "Mastering the Art of French Cooking"

I won Julia Child's book in a drawing last month and I've wanted to go for a test run. I made dinner the other night for my parents and parents-in-law and thought about trying something out of there, but then realized I was probably being too ambitious. Even if it's the simplest entry in that whole book, I'm gonna give it a whirl this month.

4. Start forming a concept for a story.


I just want to start forming an idea in my mind. I used to do this, but I've fallen out of the habit, so I'm going to go buy a composition book and start putting down any ideas whenever they come to me. Sometimes I think I feel that I have to have some great inspiration and get swept away by these characters in my head in order to write a good story, but I know that's not how it usually happens. So I'm going to start plotting. And so it begins...