09.16

It's hard to believe we are 3/4 of the way through 2016 now!

September was a busy month filled with a lot of wonderful things.

I celebrated the birthdays of two friends (M.E. and R.B.) with teppanyaki and karaoke! We had a fun night full of lots of laughs!

 I'm so thankful for my beautiful friend M.E. and for our 9 years of friendship!

The whole group at karaoke

We went on a cruise! If you missed that post, you can click here to read all about it.

We celebrated our niece's 5th birthday! It's so hard to believe that she's already 5! It really does seem like yesterday that she was born so little.

Some other highlights from the month:

I went to a couple of wine nights with friends. I always enjoy the conversations that happen on these nights. There's something about unwinding with a glass of wine and a plate full of yummy food that just makes for the perfect evening.

I got my onboarding call for LuLaRoe! I am officially a LuLaRoe Fashion Consultant and I couldn't be happier!

As mentioned a few posts back, Josh passed the first of two tests for the certifications he needs for work! He was so nervous about taking it, but he did great! My parents took us out to dinner a few days ago to celebrate.

My body had some crazy reactions after the cruise. As I mentioned in that post, I had some vertigo/sea leg issues for a week after we got back. It was hard to stand for long periods of time because I felt like I was going to fall over! I also had some shifts in my body that have been painful, but it's a result of other shifts happening that have been good. It's hard to describe the whole process of myofascial release, but often when one area loosens up in my body, another area tightens up in response to it. So it's a lot of back and forth for me. Thankfully, many of the areas that have loosened up have stayed that way, so I'm still experiencing a lot of progress in the midst of all of this.

And that was September! On to October and cooler weather!

Fall

It's finally starting to feel like fall where I live.

And every time the weather changes and a new season arrives, I start to feel nostalgic.

I'm not really sure what it is about the weather change that makes me feel this way, but suddenly I'm flooded with memories of things that the weather reminds me of.

Today, it's crisp air, fall leaves, going to CO for the first time 6 years ago to see our friends, going to the corn maze with friends, decorating our first apartment for Halloween, craft nights with friends, and many other memories.

But it's not just the fall that makes me feel this way. Spring brings it's own flood of memories, as do winter and summer.

There is something about fall, though, that makes me long for change and new adventures. I want to pull on a pair of boots and wrap a scarf around my neck and head out to do something fun. I want to cuddle up on the couch in a blanket with a cup of hot tea or hot chocolate in hand. I want to watch Gilmore Girls and Harry Potter over and over again. I want to read new books and meet new people.

There's just something about seasons changing that stirs my heart in ways it hasn't been stirred in a few months.

Cruisin'

A few weeks ago, my husband and I went on a cruise with a couple of our friends!

It was a lot of fun! I had never been on a cruise before so I was a little nervous about it, but I ended up having a great time (though I did deal with some vertigo/"sea leg" issues for about a week after we got off the ship)!

First night on the boat!

 On our way to our first port: Catalina Island!

 Elegant evening on the ship

 Viva la Mexico

 We found the nicest winery in Mexico. The whole experience was awesome!

One of our towel animals

Some of the things not pictured:

We participated in two different trivia contests on the ship: Harry Potter and 90s music! Both were a lot of fun.
We also played Bingo and came very close to winning on more than one game!

It was a much needed time away for us and it was very relaxing (and was perfectly timed, as Josh passed one of the certifications he needed for work two days before we left!). I'm so glad we went!

08.16

August came and went so fast!

I had to look back at my calendar to even remember what we did. It was a whirlwind of a month!

Here are some highlights of the month:

We went to a going away/birthday party for a sweet young lady who headed off to college in another state. I am going to miss her sweet spirit around our church.

We had a women's worship night at church and it was incredible! There is nothing like worshipping God in a room full of other women who are also there to worship Him. I also went out to eat with a couple of good friends after and we had some great conversations.

We also went to a gender reveal party for our friends R.J. and J.J. They found out they are having a boy!

We also went to an indoor go kart track with some friends. I didn't race but I had a lot of fun taking videos of everyone else racing. We also went out for dinner and ice cream. It was a really fun night.

Some other things that happened this month:

I decided to become a LuLaRoe consultant and have been working on getting everything together to make that happen! It's been a really fun journey so far and I'm really excited for the actual selling part to start.

I read The Cursed Child (the Harry Potter screenplay) and I LOVED it! I know many people have very strong emotions of either hate or love, but I am definitely one of the ones that loved it! I don't wanna ruin it for anyone that is planning to read it, but it made my heart really happy.

I've also started exercising on a regular basis. That may not seem like a big deal to most, but I haven't been able to do this in years because of my body issues. My myofascial therapist is getting her student teaching hours right now to become a Pilates instructor, so I've been doing Pilates with her once a week. I've also been doing Just Dance through the Xbox at home. I've been able to exercise between 4-5 days a week and I feel so much better. I'm so grateful to God and to my therapist that my body is able to handle this now.

And that was August! My fall decorations are up and I'm excited for fall weather to (hopefully) arrive soon!

07.16

July is over and we are getting closer to fall! This summer hasn't been too bad weather-wise, minus some recent 100+ degree days, but I'm such a fan of wearing jeans and boots, so fall sounds amazing right about now.

Here are a few highlights of our month:

We went to a really fun 4th of July party with some of our good friends. We ate so much yummy food, had fun drinks, played Quiplash and lit some fireworks in the street (the legal kind). It was a great evening!

Our nephew celebrated his second birthday and the family had a birthday party for him. Josh's parents hired our friend to take family pictures of us as well, which was really nice because we haven't had a professional family picture since Josh's youngest brother got married seven years ago! It was a fun day.

Josh planned a surprise date day for us! We went to the Walt Disney Family Museum and he took me out to dinner at a lovely Italian restaurant. We spent quite a few hours at the museum and soaked everything in. It was awesome and I highly recommend it for any diehard Disney fans!

This was my favorite part of the museum! They have this scale model of Walt's Disneyland (so every attraction that existed or he was directly working on when he died). It's incredible. I could have starred at it for hours. The details are fabulous.

Some other things that happened this month:

My appointments are still going really great! I've had some major breakthroughs in my body and I'm so excited to see and feel the changes! It's been such a long, at times really hard process, but it's been so worth it. I've also been doing some Just Dance for exercise, which has been great for me! I feel so much more energetic throughout the day, even just from a 30 min session. I also started another great exercise regimen this month (August) that is also going to be really helpful for my body, so I'm really excited about that! More on that later.

I have been really bad at reading lately. I started a book about a month and a half ago and have only made it through a few chapters. BUT...I did purchase The Cursed Child script (the 8th Harry Potter story, for those that haven't heard) on Harry Potter's birthday (July 31st), so more on that in August's post!

We've also spent a lot of time with family and friends in July. Our nieces were all together for almost two weeks and it was so fun to see them interacting with each other. We had a great time with them! We saw quite a bit of both of our families, which was really great. Josh has also been studying as much as he can for the certifications he needs for work, as well as continuing to help out in jr. high at church. Our time together has been pretty limited these days, but someday things will settle down again.

Onto August!