the unexpected domestic

he's home!!

Being an offshore wife has its ups and downs.  There are long days and nights of being at home with just my two dogs.  I get to go see my friends and spend time with out families, which is a time I really cherish.  But there's nothing like having my other half home with me, and yesterday he came home!  There is not much better than spending the whole day together on that first day.

I still remember when we first began dating again when I was in college and had a part-time summer job.  He would get on land then drive all morning and get to town in time to pick me up for my lunch break.  Then we would spend my whole lunch hour riding on the back roads and riding in the swamp.  Those are some of my favorite memories and I can remember them happening as if it were yesterday.

Over the years, we have had done many different things when he makes it home, but it's always that same feeling of happiness.  When I have someone here who I can talk to and who is on my side.  It just makes the days a little less lonely.

that's so pinteresting {painted terra cotta pots}

the idea:
a ladies night is needed by a group of reunited grade school friends

the start:
first, a shared pinterest board was created for us to post projects that we would like to do.  then a facebook page was formed for communication and party invitations

the guidelines:
someone chooses to host a party and sets a date.  the pinterest board is looked at and a project is chosen.  the host provides a main meal and side dish.  the others provide a side dish and dessert.

the result:
a great evening spent with friends doing something that we all might otherwise not do on our own.  we all caught up on each other's lives and realized that although so much has changed, we are still all the same awkward teenagers who became friends in school.

home improvements {kitchen}

Ok, so this past hitch that Kevin has been gone, I have been a busy girl! Really I've been busy these past two months! I have been working on my house for the past few weeks and it has left me drained. Oh and I was quite sick for a few days in there somewhere. BUt now, i am recovered and this past week I painted my kitchen cabinets! We have lived in our house for two and half years now and after the initial remodeling of the house, we have not really done much work on it. We've just been kinda living here. It was like we just gave up. Recently, something has kicked us into gear and we have done some good work so far! I started out with painting the guest bathroom. It was pretty bad, I thought I wanted to paint it like, this neutral color, buuuuuut yeah, that's not for me. So I painted it a dark blue and there is like a chair rail and that is painted this gray color that I can't remember the name. The kitchen is the most recent change, and let me tell you, it has made such a difference that I don't even notice it! What I mean is that the color of my kitchen as now such a good match and it looks so good that it doesn't even stand out. To me, that is the best kind of change. Do you know what I mean?
I'm always looking for ways to improve my life, to make it better. I've even begun to really think about how I do things and try to see what I can do better. I begin by looking at my life and try to pinpoint what I don't like or makes me unhappy. Once I can figure this out, I usually think, ok, something needs to change. I don't really know what has changed in myself in the last few months, but I have really begun to study myself. Like, when I'm trying something, I write down what I'm doing and then after a few weeks, I reevaluate myself and brainstorm new ways to do what I'm doing if my way is not working. Even as I write this, I'm thinking to myself, where was this diligent person in school? I sure could have used this commitment. But I really feel like it's working! And a lot of the changes are really such a good fit, I can't remember how I did anything before! To me, that's how I know I have made a successful improvement. Like my kitchen, for example. I rearranged several cabinets a few months ago and I have not regretted the change in the least. And, except for the knowledge that I made this change, I don't even think of how it was ever different because of how much more smoothly everything goes. So yeah, painting my cabinets was definitely a great, great improvement. I really hated the color they were previously and I hated them every time I looked at them! Now, they are just there. part of the room, they don't stand out anymore and that makes me glad. I believe that our house will always be a work-in-progress, but for now, my kitchen is one more step closer to being completed.

I regret that we did not get many pictures of our house before we began the remodel, but I do have some and for the most part, the whole house pretty much looked the same.

Before:

 

this is right when first began working on the houseeeee and it was somewhat painted.

 

Midway:

 

Here is our kitchen in 2012, we finally got the backsplash (tin) added and everything was somewhat complete.

 

Currently:

This is what my kitchen looks like right now!  I think it just looks nice and everything flows well.  I plan to take good pictures with a camera other than my iPhone. eventually.  Until then, this will suffice!

a full life in pictures

as my birthday approaches, I have been asked what I want.  However, when I was talking to Kevin, I listed out the things that I really, really wanted and you know what?  Pretty much all of the things I listed cannot be bought. Hmm.  So to me that means that basically I'm gonna have to make those things happen on my own.  One thing that I keep coming back to is pictures.  I love going to other people's houses and seeing all their pictures hanging up and in frames.  I remember back when I was in school, I would spend hours working on my photo albums and uploading pictures to Facebook.  I always arranged them in just the right order and loved to have them there!  Now, all my pictures are trapped on a digital camera and mostly my phone.  They have been haphazardly uploaded to Facebook and Instagram for the brief time that all my friends will look at them on their timelines.  This is not how I want to have to look back at my pictures and my memories!  How casual I have approached this and not though about how much I may need a different solution in the future!  I need pictures in my life:  hanging in frames, printed and on a bulletin board, prepared and place in photo albums.  I have a few ideas and a plan even right now for when I get home!  Photo albums are definitely a part of my never-ending project list but I know that I need to begin to tackle this project now because the pictures won't stop.  In fact, I hope there will be more and more instead of less and less.  When I have children of my own, I want them to have these books to look back at the fun we had and what we did with them before they can remember.  I want to look over these books now with my mother and mother-in-law and delight in the memories we have all made.  

There are some memories that I have where I don't have pictures of it.  In many instances I have chosen to not take a picture and instead, live in the moment.  I see many people afraid of missing moments that they just take picture after picture never actually living, but just having pictures of them doing stuff.  In my endeavour to keep up with pictures and document my life, I don't believe this will be me.  I just want to look back and remember who I was in that moment.  To remember what it felt like to wear that dress that I loved.  

To see the picture of Kevin looking at me with his mouth halfway open because he's talking to a friend that cannot be seen in the picture.  

To see all the cars that we have ridden in and purchased and remembering all the times we had in them.  

I want to look at the pictures of when me and my cousins would all get the same pajamas, blankets, etc. and we would pose with them at mygrandmother's.  

This is why we will kep all the pictures. and why it's important to start taking better care of them!  We take pictures to look back over, not to store away in boxes.

watering plants {thoughts: change}

This week I have had the idea of change on my mind. Humans are creatures of habits, we like our routines.  I am no exception.  I love having a daily routine that I know I can depend on.  But at the same time, I sometimes look forward to change.  To the idea of something new, that can be better, improvement.  Our lives are always changing.  We weren't created to stay the same person we were yesterday.

However, with change comes that feeling in my stomach.  The one where I wish everything would get settled out to a normal routine.  I don't like the feeling of being unsettled and not knowing.  I have comfort in believing thateverything is going to happen ccording to God's will, but I still can't help but feel a little anxious about what is happening right now.  I am caught up in the turmoil and tossing around of life in my daily activities, still trying to desperately distract myself from my thoughts.

This morning as I was driving, i kept asking God to be with me as I go about the day and through the week when it hit me: I had been praying for God's will to be done, but I had not prayed for comfort as I get there. I was so stuck on the thought of getting to the end, I forgot all about the journey.  Things will constantly be changing in my life and it is the process of change that changes me for better, not just the outcome of the change.

I Love Running! (When I'm Done)

I do love running.  I haven't always loved it, though.  Mostly I have discovered how much I took it for granted.  After years of being an athlete and training for softball, I did not do many things that involved exercise of any kind once I was no longer involved in sports.  During my time of being a high school and college athlete, I never even gave much thought to running.  In fact, it was something I usually dreaded and often hated doing.  Oh, how naive was I!  A few years later, I began to miss it.  I couldn't understand my feelings, but could I have actually liked running??

Fast forward to 2014.  I found this success story of a woman losing all her baby weight and even more by doing this thing called crossfit.  While I don't have any baby weight, I do have some weight that I don't want to have anymore!  For some reason, her story has stuck with me and inspired me to begin exercising on my own.  I do some of the crossfit workouts but I do not claim to be a "crosfitter" lol.  I have begun running several times a week and try to do some kind of strengthening workout in the evenings.

I really love running, especially early in the morning before work.  It makes my day go so much better and I feel a whole lot better throughout the day.  Plus, if I go ahead and do it first thing, it helps me from pushing it off until later and later until I just say I'm gonna do it tomorrow.  In the morning is also a good time because the Mississippi heat is killer after the coolness of the morning disappears into the humidity.  Unfortunately, with Kevin being home, we stay up later than normal which makes it more difficult to wake up early in the morning.  

I think most of all, I just want to be someone who can just go running and run for like, an hour or something.  I took it for granted before when I used to be able to do that, but I won't take it for granted again.  

BFFs (Best Fitness Friend)

Lately, I have really been on this exercising and fit life kick. It really consumes my thoughts and I love the happiness I get from exercising. Because it consumes my thoughts, it's pretty much all I wanna talk about. Lucky for me, I have a BFF whom I can share all my fit thoughts with. Not only is this girl my bestie, but she is also my best fit friend! One of the sites I follow, Fit Bottomed Girls, celebrated a best fit friend week last month! Well I know without any kind of consideration or extra thought that mine is Jessica! Here is the main thing about her and even our friendship with each other, actually, we are always building each other up! Another thing is we don't even like any of the same exercises but we each encourage one another and I think that goes a long way! Yay for BFFs!

Sunday Funday

So, this has been a great weekend! We spent Friday, the 4th of July, with our families for lunch and then dinner followed by fireworks! The whole day was pretty enjoyable. I really cherish the times I get to spend with both sides of our families and I hope that we will continue to be able to spend these times with them!

Saturday afternoon we went on a short motorcycle ride with my brother-in-law, his girlfriend, and their cousin out to Red Bluff. We ended up sort of hiking down and up to another side of it! It was certainly an adventure and we plan to do it again!

In fact, that's something Kevin and I have been talking about doing more often. He actually called it a "runcation" which I think sounds like so much fun! So yeah, we are preparing for doing that kind of thing. Just not today. Today we are watching Friends. Haha! But we are doing workouts together and it's definitely working! Yesterday was pretty intense but I hope to get much better at being active.

where did my creativity go?

This is the question I am asking myself today. I used to always do fun and creative things.  But now I hardly do any of it.  So where did it all go? I guess living made it disappear and that makes me sad.  I saw somebody doing some water color painting and I just, I want to do that!  I want to make pretty things. And now, I'm stuck at work and al I can think of is " I want to make something" but I know when I go home, I will probably just sit down on the couch and do...nothing.  So what's a girl to do?  I'm craving more than what I have right now and I want something to change.  So pray for me to see what I'm here to do, bc I know that when I get it, like really get to that point to do what God is intending for me, nothing will stop Him. But oh, I just have to get to that point.

I can post from my phone!

Well, I want to post more often than I do and since I currently use my phone all. the. time. What better way than to see if I can post from my phone! And apparently I can lol. Today has been a looong day for me. Kevin's truck is still needing a transmission so I had to go pick him up again! Oh the joys of being an offshore wife :) I am so glad he is home! Other than the obvious: he's my husband, duh. It is really nice to have someone at the house to talk to when I have things to say! To me that's quite possibly the worst parts of break ups or deaths or any other kind of separations, you don't have your friend there anymore. Not only is Kevin my hubby but he's also one of my best friends and I can't imagine life without him. Needless to say, I am overjoyed to have him home again for another hitch.