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...