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!

06.16

I saw a post the other day about Christmas being less than six months away.

I can't believe how fast this year has gone so far! Here's a little recap of some of our June:

We went to a graduation party for a young lady at church. It's crazy to watch some of these kids go off to college that we've known since they were much younger. We had a great time at the party hanging out with people and taking silly pictures.

Later that week, our friends from CO were here! You can read all about that on this post.

We went to our niece's ballet recital! She was such a ham and had so much fun up there. I loved seeing how excited she was.

Some other things that happened in June:

I started doing a Bible study with a few friends based on the book of Philippians. It's been really great so far and I am excited to be doing this study this summer.

Josh and I went to see Finding Dory. We loved it! It was super cute and it definitely made me cry a little bit.

It's been a good month with my myofascial appointments. I've been experiencing a lot more release and I'm seeing and feeling more changes in my body. I still have a long way to go, but it feels so good to know that this is working and someday my body could be back to normal again.

Onto July!

Naivete

I feel like I spent a good portion of my life being pretty naive about things in life in general.

If you would have asked me even 10 years ago if my life would look the way it does right now, with the people in it, I would have said you were crazy.

I don't think I was stupid. I don't think I expected life to be perfect (well, maybe I did a little bit). But I don't know that I was aware of how much bigger the world really was compared to what I had known of it.

I know I'm being kind of vague, but I guess the point of this post is to express how much differently I view the world as a 31 year old than I did as a 21 year old. Having gone through some incredibly hard things myself in the past 10 years, as well as walking through some really hard stuff with friends and family, I just feel a lot differently about life.

My faith has had its ups and downs, but I know God has never left me. I may have doubted Him at times, but He's always been there. I may not understand everything or know how some of these hard things fit into His plan, but I know He's still in control. And I know I would say those same things 10 years ago, but I had no idea back then just how hard life could be.

I often think of the people in my life. The people that have stuck by me, the ones that I grow closer to each and every day, and the ones that have drifted away. I've said in the past that there are seasons for every relationship and I still believe that...to an extent. I think that sometimes it's easy to use that phrase when we want to walk away from a friendship or things aren't going the way we want in a relationship, so we chalk it up to being a "season". But I think sometimes the best friendships, the ones that really matter to us, take really hard work. It's not always easy to be there for people who don't seem to want to be there for us. It's not always easy to have long distance friendships with people. It's not always pleasant to have real and honest conversations with people about the way they treat us. It's not always easy to make time for people. But if we really care, if we're really invested and want the relationship to last, we have to put in the hard work.

This transition our church has been in for the past three + years has been one of the hardest things I've ever endured in a church. I can't tell you how many times I've been ready to throw in the towel and move on. But I know that's me talking. Sometimes life is hard and we just have to endure some hard things before they get better, or before it really is time to move on. I know that right now, I'm supposed to be involved with women, and that is what I'm pursuing. I've taken some steps in that direction and I'm excited to see what God does with it. It will not always be easy, but I keep reminding myself that the church is the people. Not just a few people, but all of them. And every single one of them needs encouragement and love and support.

I have a tendency to be really negative and focus on the bad stuff in life. I try hard not to, because I know there are so many good things. And if I look back on the last 10 years, I do see a lot of really good and beautiful things. It's definitely harder for me to see the good stuff day-to-day. But if I look at the whole picture, it's much easier to see. I think sometimes we have to take a step back and really look at our lives. What do they consist of? Is it all bad? Probably not. Is it all good? Definitely not. But that is what life is made up of: really hard stuff mixed in with really beautiful and wonderful stuff. God never promised us life would be easy, but that doesn't mean it's not worth pushing forward.

So all this to say, I wish I could tell 21 year old me to just hold on. Life can be very bumpy and rocky, but it can also be really smooth with some great views along the way. Life is bigger than what we see directly in front of us. And it really does paint a beautiful picture.

My Heart is Full

This past week was a really good one for me.

Our friends from CO were here!

Aren't they seriously the cutest family you've ever seen?

I have shared often about how much we love and appreciate their friendship. It's hard to believe that it's been 6 years since they moved back to CO! I'm just so thankful for technology and the fact that they are only a text or phone call away.

 My first time holding their new baby!

Bestie time!

We were able to spend a lot of time with them while they were here. And we got to meet their precious new baby! I'm so grateful for the conversations we were able to have and the fun memories we will now carry with us.

 My BCBs!

Isn't she precious?

We had a BBQ and invited all of our friends that knew them when they lived here. We set up a photo spot and had a blast taking pictures together.

Josh snuggling with their sweet baby

The week went by way too fast but I'm so grateful for the time we were able to spend with them!