Memorial Day...this finally decided to post?

 Hey ya'll!!! The past two weeks have been CRAZY!!! Beautiful weather = me outside and blogging being the last thing from my mind.  In the past 2 weeks hubby and I bought a new Jeep, decided we were going to move, went boating, took our dog to the ever so expensive neurologist and I spent some much needed time with my little sister who I haven't really gotten to spend time with, ever and and I cut all my hair off.  It's been amazing!! In the past week, I've found out I have two buldged discs in my back and been taken off work and fought to get  back on...this broke girl needs monnney! It's been a whirl wind but an awesome one. I am starting to feel better and will let some pictures speak for themselves at this point!

 PJ couldn't stand not having anywhere to put the doors from the Jeep so being the super handy guy that he is, he built these the morning after we got it! The first 4 days the doors never went on...PERFECT weather!!!

 So pretty, and 4 doors in case we decided to start working on a little one! 

Obsessed with going doorless :)

Proud owners, and so excited that it came with the hard and soft top for the lovely weather that is, Ohio.

 Ashley was so excited to ride doorless and I was so excited to have her with me, I didn't even care why! We spent the day at Kings Island with Kasi and Linsay and had so much fun...even if we only got to ride a few rides because the lines were crazy! We will absolutely be hanging out more this summer. For a girl who has had such a little time with me, she is so much like me and I'm so excited to become a larger part of her life. She's beautiful and strong and I'm so proud of who she is becoming. :)

 

I took my baby to the neurologist for his seizures...I wish I had more answers but we are getting closer.  We changed his meds a little bit and although I'm seeing some progress he is still seizing multiple times a day...which is way too much.  I'm supposed to call next Monday with an update, we might start looking in another direction and look at behavior modifications to help revent them.  He's my baby doll and I just want him fixed. 3.5 years of this is just too long.

I fried my hair in November by, (yea I'm going to be bold here) getting a PERM.  Who in their right mind does that? I thought it would give me those nice big curls that have a beautiful flow to them, didn't happen.  Instead, I ended up looking like I was wearing my favorite pasta dish on my head.  It's been a battle since.  I have about 6-8 inches of permed hair left, so I went ahead and cut 4 of them off.  Hopefully by winter, I'll be back to my normal hair which I miss so dearly. NEVER try to alter your hair, God will punish you for not counting your blessings, I've come to believe so anyway.

I got my cricut out to make this pretty little picture.  I'm going to make another to go on the other side that says "you'll never know dear how much I love you" with the one in previous blog that has a D on it in the middle. I'm pretty pumped for the new room to sport my obessesion with gray and yellow :)

This summer is about to get choatic.  We are working on painting and fixing a few things in our new house, which we got keys to today! And the moving at the end of the month.  We got a free hot tub, (SCORE) so hopefully that will be set up along with our pool by July 4th.  PJ's brother will be here for the first time in 6 years July 9th and everyone is really excited for him to be here, and then Tanner (who we went to see in Texas) will be here at the end of July.  Other family will be in and out to visit those two so we have to get our new house up and ready for guests! I'm so excited to be living somewhere that I can make my own!

On to fabulous finds that make my day? Why, sure, glad you asked!

Lets go...

So I'm not a cat person, but I am a turtle person and this makes me giggle. I have a turtle who's name is Tank and he lives in a huge 80 gallon fish tank all to himself (yes we spoil our pets) and there are SO many times he's moving slowly and it creeps me out! Gotta love this!

SUCH a fav. My friend and nurse I work with, Gloria, put this on Facebook and it was so screen worthy! I love love love it!

My husband makes fun of me but this is my go to picture for ANY bad day. I have no idea why but I laugh out loud everyday I see it. I had it as my background on my phone. so cute!!

That's it for the ever so seldom update on my life. Thanks for reading!!

<3 JD

My mini rant

In other news, I have been on facebook ranting about this gay marriage issue. I have taken a strong SUPPORTIVE stance on gay marriage and am extremely disappointed in the amount of HATE I keep hearing from people I have known my entire life. I am shocked, truly shocked, at the fact that it is 2012 and people still have to have a community to hate AND find a way to back up their belief with sections of the bible they choose to follow at that given point. It's very difficult and I'm aware its a sensitive subject so let me get to the very quick gist of my ENTIRE argument. I am not debating that being gay is a sin, sadly I do agree with that. THAT BEING SAID, we are ALL committing sins everyday of our lives. I could get on this blog everyday and list every sin I have committed that day, and there would be thousands I forgot, I'm sure. We all sin. We all will have a day where we face our sins and it is not going to happen on love. God never ordered us to judge others sins or to determine what should be legal based on someones sins. The same country that is doing this is also the country that made slavery legal, made women less than man and wouldn't allow basic rights to women. Made abuse of women and blacks LEGAL. This country has AWAYS had a group of people to hate and this habit must be broken. Right now, they will hate on gays. A sin is a sin and we shouldn't be judging others by theirs when we are committing so many our self. Also, to put it mildly there is a separation of church and state, we shouldn't be making a LEGAL decision based solely on a Christian belief of what is a sin. Our country enables the drug addict (if you don't believe that you have obviously never worked in health care) and idolized the 14 year old with a baby and yet are choosing to hate a community of people who just want to be open about who they love.  That same community that is fighting in our armed forced EVERYDAY and have been forced to hide who they are and even today are taking a lot of heat for it.  They are taking their lives for ignorant people who hate them.  This seems insane to me. 

That is that for my tangent!

Please note the SARCASM in the below photos!

Time flies when you're...just living life?

Clearly blogging as often as I'd like is an unrealistic expectation.  I'm not sure WHAT consumes my time, but my time stays consumed nonetheless. I feel like I start every blog scorning myself for not blogging sooner, I gotta stop that!

Mothers Day came and went! I got to spend some time with my mom (and Dad), Grandma, sister and her three beautiful children.  My Uncle, aunt, and 3 of their 4 boys stopped by too.  It was like Christmas but it was fun!  My nephew Markus was STEALING the show that day. So there are lots of photos of him! He was saying he's been "working out" and wanted to show off his new muscles by arm wrestling or just flexing...too cute! ((Excuse my spacing, blogspot is lovely but their picture placement is AWFUL! Any tips?))



This past week was kinda crazy. My husband came home from drill (his 1 weekend a month for the Army National Guard) and said that they offered him a deployment if he decided to resign in July.  (He's supposed to be getting out June 29th)  He was really torn, and so was I! It would have been great money and we would have been nearly debt free when he came home (including our awful car payment).  We started flopping around ideas of what we would do with our rental, discussed combining households with his dad and sister (because he is always out of town) so I wouldn't be living alone.  LOTS of ideas were being tossed around to the point where I was having headaches alllll the time. Finally, we sat down and I told him we couldn't keep going in limbo.  He decided to not go on this deployment (in September) because the timing is just awful with some family stuff going on.  He could still resign at any point if he decides to so the idea that it is still an option I think is enough for him right now.  It was tough though, it's hard to be torn between his civil obligation as a Soldier and his obligation to his life here at home. National Guardsman really don't get enough credit.  People think they are just out living their lives and collecting military money and benefits and although there are a few (I know 1 of all the Soldiers I know) that do that and do take advantage of it with NO intention on deploying, most of those men are willing to give up everything at any point and not for a 6 month deployment but for 12+ months.  They live two lives and are constantly torn between the two.  They really do need more recognition than they get.  I'm so proud to have gone through this experience with PJ and I'm so honored to be his wife and know that we did handle a deployment.  If he decides to go back in, I will support him no matter what, but he should be proud of the work he has already done.

My baby, Roscoe, will be taking a trip to the NEUROLOGIST on Monday.  Just the idea of going to a specialist has me totally freaked! He's been on medication for seizures for about 3.5 years now and we aren't seeing any progress.  He is on a HUGE dose for his size and still having 8-10 seizures a day.  They are really bizaar though and the docs I work with at the vet are sort of baffled by them.  We can get his attention and he will stop but when we stop messing with him he goes back to doing it.  I've heard anything from seizures to autisim to OCD.  Truthfully, I have NO idea what is going on.  He never does it when he's actualy at the vet so my docs are flying blind.  It's tough and it's tough of him.  They are getting more frequent (whatever "they" are) so it's time to go to the specialist.  Prayers for my little guy would be super appreciated. 

Fabulous finds? Yes, Please!  ALL of these brought a smile to my face, some even made me litterally LOL. Hope they make you smile too! :)  Happy Wednesday, everyone!!





Long time no blog!

Am I already considered a blogging SLACKER? I hope not!

This past week wasn't full of anything to provide me with an excuse for not blogging so, I suppose I just didn't get to it? I'm not sure! Nonetheless, I slacked, as usual and am back to fill you in on what I've been up to!

PJ and I have gone what seems like FOREVER without a day off together.  He got changed to a mon.-fri. job and mine is so far from it.  He had drill this weekend, on one of my few weekends that I have entirely off so it seems like I've barely seen him at all.  We are off together this coming weekend and I couldn't be more excited (even if the weather is supposed to be crummy!)

Speaking of weather, is everyone hating this back and forth as much as I do? 80s in February, 50s in May, 3ish tornado warnings (with some local touchdowns) for 2012 already, and RAIN RAIN RAIN! Seriously? I can NOT be the only one who is on the verge of a serious allergy meltdown with a side of temperature shock to the system.  My poor a/c and heat have no idea what is going on!

My beautiful hometown of Okeana, Oh was hit pretty hard from the last tornado that came through town.  Thankfully no one was injured because at the end of the day, that is what counts.  My mom's landscaping, however, became a HOT MESS! By the time I got down there she had already spent 3 days cleaning up and there was still so much to do! She lost several fish from her pond but had 3 little survivors hangin out at the bottom.  The debris up on against the fence is run off from a corn field across the street.  This stuff was HEAVY and hard to move but thankfully the fence bounced back into place.  Several people's home got hit with this stuff even worse, I can not imagine.  Her flowerbeds and drive ways were complete mud and the professional landscaping she had done around her house was all ripped up.  It was sad to see.  Lots of houses flooded, my sister (who lives a few doors down) will be replacing her 3rd furnace.  Mother nature sure can kick ya when you're down.  I'm sure prayers for Okeana and all the other small downs that have big hit with big problems recently would be greatly appreciated.

While I was helping my mom on Friday I was able to go pick my niece up from school at my elementary school that she now attends.  Same office lady.  Same librarian.  She even has the same 2nd grade teacher I did.  Talk about flashbacks.  I snapped this picture of the "ramp" in the main lobby.  So many memories of running up and down playing games and standing in lines, OH the lines! It took me down memory lane of a time where everything seemed like such a big deal and yet life was all about innocence. Ah, the good ol' days.

And finally, Sunday I have a much needed and so appreciated sister day! My sister in law (Linsay) and I were running errands and just hanging out (a normal day, all day, everyday for us) and my sister Cassie decided to bring her 3 babies and my 14 year old sister up to visit me.  This was seriously a treat!! It's so hard making time to visit as much as I'd like to so for them to come here meant the world.  I rarely get to see my little sister so it was great to visit her and just see who she is becoming.  The hardest thing about divorced parents with "half" sisters is missing out on their lives.  I have certainly missed out on my share with Ashley but it was great to see her. ANY excuse to see Cassie and her babies is also welcomed.  I actually didn't snap any pictures of McKinlee which is a serious SHOCK but I did get these two of Markus and Molli who were really excited to play with Uncle PJ's guitar! It was such a nice and unexpected day.  I really hope we don't go nearly as long to have a "just because" kinda day.  Ashley and I both have Kings Island passes this year, so I really hope to get to spend more time with her.  She's growing up so fast and growing into someone I am really proud to call my sister.  I can thank Cassie for that, I'm sure.  She's always been better at making sure she stays close to everyone, and is always willing to reach out and make time for our sisters. She's better at that than I am, priorities I suppose :( not my proudest trait.  While they were here I tried a new crock pot recipe.  Ranch pork chops! 6 boneless pork chops, 1 ranch packet, and 1 can of cream of chicken soup.  In the crock put for 4-6 hours on low (stirring occasionally) I doubled it because of the amount of people but it turned out pretty good.  Markus asked for seconds and Cassie says that's a compliment, so I think they will be made again!

2008 me? I am down 6 lbs. not as much as I'd like to be by this point but it is certainly a start. I can't hate on my results though because this weekend I seriously slacked.  I went to the gym 3 times last week and only once so far this week.  I lost my motivation at some point last week and ate way too much of things I shouldn't have.  Today was my biggest cheat day yet so I am back at it hardcore tomorrow.

In the mean time, I made one of my favorite quick foods tonight and wanted to share.  Somehow Linsay and I got to playing with a recipe we found a few months ago, and came up with a super tasty combo.

Boneless chicken breasts cut into "chunks", rolled in bbq sauce and then rolled in Grippos (MUST be Grippos) BBQ chips.  Baked at 350 for 30(ish) min. SOOO much flavor they are SO good.  Dip them in some light ranch because they can be spicy!

I'm sure we didn't actually "come up" with this because people probably make it all over but I had never seen it anywhere and it instantly became a favorite.  I'm really bad about taking pictures of my food though, well most of the time.  I need to start, especially when I am going to be sharing!

One of my favorites from last week... this AMAZING homemade calzone! It was to DIE for.  I made one bigger one for dinner (PJ wasn't home that evening) and a smaller one for me to take for lunch. Seriously, loved it!!!

Lastly for food, I did fall in love with this recipe for an "ice cream" fix.  It's a cup of mixed fruit, a scoop of protein powder (I have used vanilla and strawberry) and a cup of water. Blended and frozen and then put out in the fridge for about an hour.  It's SOOO good. My friend Jen over at Brand Fitness mentioned it in a blog and it's well worth trying.  I've actually made some of my own versions since then.  Frozen fruit with greek yogurt and protein powder is my fav. of the combos I have made.  They are great to freeze and then put in your lunch box and an awesome source of protein! I am a total ice cream junkie so this is great for me!

Have I mentioned my obsession with the show "THE VOICE"? I have an issue.  I am a HUGE Blake Shelton and Adam Levine fan and although I think Christina Agulara is outdated and rude, I love the whole idea of the coach/contestant experience.  This year I was really rooting for Jamar (even though he wasn't on Team Blake or Team Adam) but after the past few weeks I REALLY hope Tony Lucca wins.  He did an awesome cover of "99 Problems" yesterday and I have listened to it probably 7 times since the performance from itunes.  I also had to snag the Tony and Adam duet of "Yesterday" by the Beatles! They are adorable and WHO doesn't love the Beatles? NO ONE!! The show goes down in a 1/2 hour (after GLEE!!!!) and I can't wait!

I didn't do a whole lot of internet searching this week to find cute things for my fabulous finds, but these two I did fall in love with.  You'll soon find anything dog will make me say "awwww"...

and I'll leave you with a shot of my Mr. Adorable puppy of my own! He thinks he is the neighborhood watch committee!

Thanks for reading! Have a great week!!

<3 JD