here I am
nearly 8 months since my last blog post
I HAVE BEEN BUSY OKAY
but I'm glad I'm here now, documenting and such. This is basically my journal, so as long as I manage to be consistently inconsistent and write posts, then I'm happy for posterity's sake. ;)
SO we left off at the beginning of June...a LOT has happened since then. It's going to be interesting documenting our life, since I've organized it around semesters and classes and I haven't paid any attention to anything like that in almost a year (now THAT is a weird statement). So we'll go by chunks of time I guess? heh
JUNE
So I've been working at my same job still--and the summer time is very slow, so it consisted of a lot of "manning the desk". I don't mind, though. It could be so much worse, and I am so thankful for the job and the boss I have! June's main dealio was Girls Camp, and it was the stake's turn this year to plan and execute, so my duties as president was basically to show up and have fun! It had been so dry this past summer that Camp LoMia was closed, so we ended up just having the activities at the stake center. All things considered, the stake leadership did an AMAZING job. They decorated the entire church building to make it look "outdoors", like set up tents, signs, and naked Christmas trees. It was just so stinking hot. But we still had fun! Well, I did for the most part. I tend to put the people I'm responsible for before myself, which isn't a strength when you've been in the sun in the middle of an Arizona summer for nearly 6 hours of the hottest part of the day, so you get heat exhaustion! yay! It was so much fun!
not really. nope.
We went from hiking a "mountain" (glorified hill next to the Phoenix temple) early in the morning but it was still stupid hot by the time we got done around 9am, and then we were at Big Surf from about 11:30am-3:00pm. During that time, I was starting to feel lightheaded so I tried sipping water and cooling off in the shade, but it wasn't helping a ton. Then on the car ride home, my car overheated on the freeway and I followed suit. It was not an exaggeration to say that I myself was a hot mess. Poor Claire was in the car with me while my sanity melted away with my body's ability to cool down. It was awful, because when your body gets to that point of overheating (and looking back I probably should have gone to the ER for fluids), your body kind of "resets" so I couldn't hold anything down for 2 days during camp and I missed all the fun parts like lipsyncs. My fantastic leaders were there to make sure the girls had a great time though, and that's all I wanted anyway!
JULY!
July was a pretty fun month! I got to visit my mom and sister in Hunstville, AL for a whole week! Allegiant flies pretty cheap out there during the summer so it only made sense! I had a blast. I definitely understand the draw to move there...it's green EVERYWHERE and the weather is fairly mild (even with the humidity). We went shopping, at great food, and I even got to go spelunking for the first time---which was my favorite part of the whole trip! I slid down a mudslide, waded in 4.5 ft of ice cold water, did the "polar bear" challenge in a deeper part of said ice cold water, and army crawled through the cave with my mom and my sister, and her in-laws! I wish AZ had caves like that, because I'd be going all the time!
I don't like that half my family moved across the country...but where they moved to isn't so bad. ;)
before!
after ;)
Twas a very good trip. :)
I also threw a really cool Harry Potter birthday party, which included an Azkaban mugshot photobooth, Ollivander's wand making station, goodies (including a Hagrid's birthday cake), and movie marathon. It was quite epic if I do say so myself. :)
AUGUST
This was a weird month. Ian was gone for half of it (Annual Training with the Marines), so I spent most of this time not doing much since my adventure buddy was gone. I did, however, sing in a vocal jazz group for the first time in yeeaarrsss! It was weird and fun all at the same time. My voice doesn't bend that way as easy as it used to, but the music was mostly Beatles and other fun standards so I didn't mind the change of pace. :) I have an even larger appreciation for "jazzers" than I already did--hats off to you! I will gladly sit in the audience and just bask in the skill that it takes to be good at that sort of thing. ;)
Now this next part, I am a little uncomfortable sharing, but it needs to be shared because I know that now that I'm out of school I know there are a fair amount of people wondering--when are y'all having the behbehs (babies)? Truth be told, I found out I was pregnant the beginning of the month. I had a happy 7 days of knowing and keeping a fun little secret with my husband and close family, until I miscarried on the 13th. It was a "chemical" pregnancy so to speak, and fortunately my body recognized it quick enough to terminate it on it's own, and I do find that to be a blessing. Sometimes you aren't "lucky" like that, and you go on for another couple weeks making plans and looking forward to the next 9 months until you find out otherwise.
The reason I'm sharing is because, to be honest, I don't know when (if ever) naturally bearing our children will happen. This isn't meant to make you feel sorry for me, but hopefully it does quell any questions/assumptions and it avoids us from having to keep hearing/answering the same question over and over again. ;)
anywayyyy
SEPTEMBER!
My favorite month of the year! Our anniversary AND my birthday month. :) I turned 25?? What even is that? We also celebrated FIVE FREAKIN YEARS. I don't feel old enough to have been married that long. #teenbrideoops
We had plans of taking some pretty pictures for our anniversary, but money has been tight so we'll get to it eventually. Maybe. ;D I guess you can count our new car as our anniversary gift? It was out of necessity, but I'll take it. Ha! It's a beautiful 2015 Dodge Journey that was a Craiglist unicorn find. I'm in love with it. It only had 40k miles on it, and we got it for a screaming good price.
It was also YW in Excellence, which I was super proud of how well it went! It was an awards theme, so we went all out--fancy decorations, red carpet, dinner, little Oscar trophies, the whole nine yards. My presidency and I ended up getting released a week later, so we definitely went out with a bang! :)
love every single one of these ladies
OCTOBER/NOVEMBER/DECEMBER!
I'm jamming these all together because honestly that's how these last three months have felt. Jam packed and kind of a whirwind.
During majority of this whole time, I was actually doing keto--which was amazing and awful all at the same time. My body feels a lot better after doing it strictly for that long (and to be honest, I miss how I felt so I'm trying to incorporate a less strict version of it for maintenance), and it's amazing what you can do when you put your mind to it. I have an assortment of imbalances in my body and doing keto for a few months helped me out (er, at least I'm pretty sure it did. I still need to have bloodwork done again). A bonus side effect was losing somewhere in the 15-20lb range--it wasn't my intention but it was a confidence booster getting back to where I was when I got married! I haven't weighed myself because #triggered but I fit in my wedding dress with some wiggle room so I'll take that as a win. Cutting out foods that are inflammatory to my body really help how I feel overall. I got my first headache today since September, which is a huge deal for me! As long as I feel good and not losing my sanity, I'm good. :) Halloween was a little hard since I love me some twix, but good company made up for it. :)
During this whole period of time since I graduated, I've also been taking lessons twice a week--Lots of work has been done! I've pounded opera repertoire like nobody's business and I can hear a significant change in my voice. I still have a lot of improvement to make, but what's nice is that there's nowhere to go but up from here. :) In October, I had the opportunity to sing a few of his art songs for Morten Lauridsen himself (cute the choir nerd fangirling hardcore here).
I also was able to sing for two separate Messiah (Handel) performances, which has been a bucket list item for me. I love that music and I was finally able to study and then perform it!
Definitely the highlight of my Christmas season. Thanksgiving was fun spending time with family, eating super yummy food; including a keto friendly French Silk pie that was surprisingly delicious! ;)
This year was potentially our last USMC ball as well, and may I say, I looked FINE.
And Christmas was filled with plenty of yummy food, even better company and lots of fun memories. :) we had our last hurrah as our annual NYE party, and though it was smaller than usual, it was still just as fun. I'm just glad I have Ian beside me every time. :)
In addition to the holiday festivities, we've decided to sell our house and move back to Mesa! It has been a bittersweet experience but I'm very excited to be closer to family and to be able to be financially more secure. We're currently in the middle of all of it, so odds are you'll hear all about it in a couple months. ;)
Anyway, this has gotten long so I'll wrap it up. Thanks for reading the novel.
Goodnight my lovelies. xx
