Week 1 Complete

Per Jillian's request, I only did the workout for Week 1 for five days. I started Monday after work and finished it up Friday. I've done one of her DVDs before so I knew the first day would kick my butt and of course this DVD was no different. I think the biggest part of why Day 1 was so hard was my breathing because on Day 2 I focused more on my breathing and it's amazing the difference it made. It was also awesome to already see a difference in exercising daily, my stamina. That also could have been due to breathing correctly. I was also sore after Day 1, mainly in my upper arms and shoulder blades, but I powered through the soreness and kept up my daily workouts. By the end of Day 3 the soreness was gone. :) By the end of the week I could already see an increase in the strength in my arms & legs. My biggest problem area is the hip/butt/thigh area so it was great to see some improvement in that department. I can't wait to see the difference 4 weeks make! I will post again after I finish Week 2.

Exercise

I have been slacking on the exercise front once again. I was really good about going to the gym on post back in August and September but it helped having the hubby as a gym buddy. I kept telling myself I'd start next week, then the start of the next month, and then the start of the new year. It was even one of my resolutions and here it is already March and I have yet to exercise at all. lol. We did buy an elliptical I found on sale for a great price but never started. My current excuse has been that my house is too cold and I don't want to change into shorts & a sports bra. lol. The other week I ordered a new Jillian Michaels DVD, Ripped in 30 days, that has a 4 week program. I also bought her kickboxing one so I now have about 4 of her DVDs. Starting tomorrow I am beginning to exercise again. I am going to start with her Ripped in 30 Days one for the whole month of March. Depending on the kind of results I get and how I'm feeling, I may do another DVD. Since I now have an elliptical in the house I figure I should at least use it, right?! If for some reason I can't do a DVD I plan to at least use the elliptical and I can use my iPad to watch Netflix shows. Hopefully watching the shows will make the time go by faster. I am determined to tone up before bikini season starts. Summertime is just around the corner.

Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day! Luckily the hubby just got in for his 4-day weekend and brought Chick-fil-A for dinner. We have several plans for this weekend so I plan to think of it as "Valentine's Week" since we weren't able to do anything tonight.

Today also marks the 4 year anniversary to the night I said yes. We had dinner at Macaroni Grill, where he planned to propose but got nervous. After dinner we headed to the nearby movie theater to see the 3rd Underworld (romantic, right?! lol). After finally finding a spot to park, he pulled out a drawing (which he had told me the night before that he had forgotten & left it on post) and his proposal was on the back. He had me read it and I then asked "So are you gonna ask?". He showed me the ring and asked me to marry him. :) We called a few people as we walked into the theater. I couldn't stop staring at it, it was so sparkly!

It's crazy to think what all we've been through as a couple over the past several years. It has definitely been a roller coaster: deployment, long-distance relationship, employment struggles, bought a new house, marriage troubles. We've been through a lot of hardships and even though during each situation I never knew how we'd overcome it, we did. I wouldn't change a single thing because it has made our marriage so much stronger.

NC Fun

Last week I decided to take a trip to NC and surprise the hubby so that's what I did. I packed the majority of everything the night before so that after work Friday I could load up my bags & the furbabies & head up there. I had butterflies in my stomach as 4:30pm approached on Friday. I was so excited to drive up and surprise him. He had no idea I was coming! The look on his face when he opened the door was priceless! It felt so good to be back in his arms. :) I had a 50% off Papa John's code so we ordered pizza online and he picked it up then we cuddled up and watched Netflix until we started dozing. Nothing beats falling asleep next to the one you love.

Surprisingly enough we woke up by 9:00am both mornings. Saturday morning while trying to get off the air mattress, I start feeling it deflate. Scott had punctured a hole in it. lol. Luckily, while taking the sheets off to investigate the hole, we found $60 that Scott had hidden and forgot about. Thank you Lord! We did not have the money to replace his air mattress, but thanks to an all-knowing God that watches out for us we had cash to replace the mattress and even buy a few groceries Scott needed for his apartment. :) God is so awesome! He knew I was going to surprise Scott this weekend and we'd pop the air mattress WAY before the thought ever crossed my mind. :) Just thinking about it has me in awe again.

While I showered & got ready, Scott made omelettes. They were yummy! We headed to Walmart (which is super cute by the way) and then he had to go by his work. So I got to see where my hubby works. As soon as we pulled through the gate I could see a difference in his demeanor. He turned into this responsible, confident soldier. I loved it! I have never seen him like that and if I have it's been a very long time. His self-confidence jumped like 10 notches, I swear. lol. And of course I was overwhelmed with pride for the person he's turning into. It feels so good to finally see him truly happy and succeeding at something he enjoys. :)

Cute right?!

I also enjoyed being led around town by him. I finally understand what a Godly marriage was designed to be. I've heard it several times in church and it all made sense to me but we've never been able to apply it to our lives. In our marriage I've always felt like I was the one wearing the pants and making all the decisions. If we went out I was always the one driving, mainly because we would take my car but still. Since this was a new town I had to sit back and rely on Scott to get us around. It felt so nice to finally be the follower instead of the leader. God showed me so much this weekend and I'm so grateful! I feel like He hit me across the forehead, like in the V8 commercials, like "Duh, I speak the truth. If you had listened to me from Day 1 you could've had true happiness this entire time." lol. We spent the remainder of the weekend watching Netflix and having movie marathons, just enjoying every minute together. It was so hard having to leave him. I was really sad and as soon as he hugged me and told me I was taking a piece of him with me, I about lost it. As soon as I started to drive off I started bawling. Saying goodbye never gets easier, even after doing it for 5 years. I'm so thankful of what God is doing in our marriage. It feels like we're dating again and I love it! I cannot wait to see my love again.

Date Jar

I came across another blog of a newlywed couple that wanted to change-up date night to do things other than the typical dinner & a movie. Our date nights are usually just dinner & a movie as well and for a while now I have wanted to do other things but could never really come up with things to do around town. Several months back I had thought of getting 2 jars, one for fast food and the other for restaurants, so whenever we went to dinner & movie or wanted to pick up something quick, we could just draw the name of the place we would eat at. This blog has TONS of ideas to use for date nights. I'm excited to get the tools to make a Date Jar and discuss the different dates with Scott to see which ones he likes and if he has any to add to it. We will probably use this more next year when he's *hopefully* back home for good. I like her idea of putting them on popsicle sticks inside a mason jar. I think I may do a Restaurant Jar as well so when we do go out to dinner, we can try someplace new instead of always going to the same places.

Date Jar

Date Night Ideas

New Year. New Life. ♥

So far this year I have been good about sticking to my resolutions. I started attending NewSpring, which is a local SC church that is growing in leaps every week. Every week the sermon has hit home and I feel motivated and encouraged to change my marriage. The sermons are opening my eyes to the problems in my life and my marriage and giving me tips to start the healing process. Every week I have a newfound hope that I CAN fix this and things CAN and WILL get back to the way they were. Luckily the service streams live online throughout the day so Scott has been able to watch them and we can discuss afterward about things that God has touched our hearts about. I am so excited for what God has in store for us this year! It's going to be life changing.

Last week we started a series called Love Revolution and this past Sunday the subject was "It's Not About Me." Wow. He started off by saying that every person is born with a selfish mentality and society encourages it. His example, if a group photo is taken, who is the first person you look at when reviewing it? Yourself. He encouraged us to use the "It's Not About Me" phrase in all parts of our lives. The 4 main ones he focused on were Marriage, Finances, Career, and your Connection With God. The marriage and finances are what really stuck out to me but I do know my career and my walk with God can be improved. One comment he made that really stuck with me was when he said that marriages don't have married problems, they have selfish single person problems that we each bring into the marriage. Wow. I will be the first to admit that I have noticed how selfish I've become in my marriage and I look foward to applying that phrase and see how God changes my life. This year is going to be great!

For anyone interested in watching live or watching sermons from prior series, this is the site: www.newspring.cc

New Year's Eve 2012

Quick update: Thanksgiving was spent in Indiana with the in-laws. It's always so great to see them. Not much happened between then and Christmas. Christmas kinda came too quickly. I loved all the time with family but something was different & it didn't feel like Christmas.

This New Year's Eve I wanted to do something different & go out & have a great time. Every year I've spent NYE with my parents/family watching Dick Clark's Rocking NYE & the infamous ball drop followed by a toast. I heard about the Famously Hot New Year celebration downtown. It's supposed to be Times Square meets Southern Hospitality. So we bought tickets and went. It was SO much fun. We may do it every NYE now. We started with a 5-course dinner at the Capital City Club then drinks courtesy of Ciroc in the lounge section where the band was playing. I even got a Ciroc tiara to wear! lol. We stayed there for a bit before heading outside where the bands were playing. The stage was setup in front of the Capital building & it was all lit up. So we danced, sang along, & rang in 2013 with confetti, a champagne toast, a kiss, & awesome fireworks behind the Capital. It was an amazing night!

NYE Eve I found out something that completely broke my heart and opened my eyes to a much-needed change in my marriage. That is one of my many resolutions this year.

2013 Resolutions:
- read the Bible in a year
- get back in the habit of going to the gym
- enjoy every moment & don't sweat the small stuff
- be happier
- stay calm during arguments
- be a better wife & treat my husband like a person & with respect like he deserves
- thoroughly clean the house & keep it that way (I plan to deeply clean & declutter one room a week & hope to be done by end of Jan or mid-Feb)
- keep up with the New Year Jar

Newest Addition ♥

Quick update: nothing much has gone on in our household. We are officially back to doing the long-distance thing for a little bit. It hasn't been too bad so far. The SC State Fair came mid-Oct and we just got back last night from our trip to Indiana for Thanksgiving. The reason for this post, for almost 3.5 weeks now we've had a kitten. :) We weren't planning on anymore pets since we have a cat and a dog but while accompanying a friend to a local shelter, I fell in love. lol. This is Callie:

I have several photos of her but they're all on my phone and I haven't uploaded them to Facebook yet. She was 7 weeks when we got her so she's now almost 10 1/2 weeks. It only took a few days for both Mya and Sally to warm up to her and she is a handful! She is all over the place and gets into anything possible. I can already tell how she's grown in the short time we've had her. Before long she'll be full-grown. I'm still not sure whether she'll be smaller, bigger, or the same size as Mya. At first I thought she'd be smaller, but she seems bigger than Mya was at 10 1/2 weeks. Who knows! This is our newest furbaby.

Wedding Fun!

My BFF's wedding was this past Saturday. I can't believe she's married now! It seems like just yesterday was January when she got engaged and asked me to be her Matron of Honor. It's crazy how time flies. She had her rehearsal Friday evening and we got to see all of her decorations. Her aunt was in charge and everything was homemade and looked amazing! All the flowers were made by her using coffee filters. Even our bouquets! They were gorgeous. It was a beautiful ceremony, the decorations were amazing, her cake was beautiful, and the food was yummy. I really hope it was the wedding she's always dreamed of. :) I left my camera so I don't have any pics until people upload them to Facebook. So I'll have to share later. Sorry. lol. I think the photographer got some good shots so I can't wait to see them.

Carowinds, Concerts, & 2nd homes :)

Several weeks back, before Scott's birthday, I bought 2 tickets for Christian Music Day at Carowinds. Living in the Carolinas I've been to Carowinds several times but Scott had never been. So I thought this would make for a fun day: amusement park and concerts. It was this past Saturday and it was definitely awesome. Several church youth groups were there in matching neon shirts so lines were long. We rode a few things before gates opened at 3:30. I noticed a few rides were given new paint colors and new names. They even had a new one, The Intimidator. The longer I waited in line, the more nervous I got. The first hill was super high at 211 feet and you're dropped practically straight down. We finally get in our seats and the lapbar was very different from other rides I've been on so I was unsure how safe I'd be going down the face-first hill. I had planned to have a death grip on the handles the entire ride. After the first drop, my hands stayed in the air! For those that know me, I don't raise my hands. So that tells you how awesome this was. It was so smooth and not jerky like most rollercoasters. It was definitely worth the wait and I wish we had rode again before leaving. (link: http://intimidator.carowinds.com/) Someone tossed up a few coins while going down one hill so I caught a quarter. lol.

When it came time for the concerts, they started out kinda slow. The first 2 bands (Manafest & Icon for Hire) were more of the hardcore, screaming type. I wasn't into it but Scott was. The last 2 bands were the best! Casting Crowns & TobyMac. They are awesome in concert! Scott really enjoyed it and I'm glad I could give him this "first". The concert was done a little after 10pm so we headed to our hotel. We would've headed home, but we decided to stay the night and use Sunday to look for an apartment in NC. We got a great deal on our hotel room and it was super cute! Slept really well, too.

Sunday we slept in and Scott brought up breakfast from the lobby. We checked out and started our journey. I had researched apartments online on Friday. I tried to look at the cheaper ones, but they required longer travel to his unit in NC. Scott has a truck so we narrowed it down to 2 that are 7 miles from his unit and not too pricey. We already had an idea which one we'd pick but we chose to check out both. Over the phone we were quoted same rent prices for both. Once we got there, our favorite was $10 more than quoted while the other one was $50 more in rent plus several fees other than utilities. We chose our favorite one, the one we thought we'd get. The layout is open and just enough space for just him. Fewer fees upfront, fitness center, pool, laundry faciility, free DVD rentals, free wi-fi in the clubhouse and around the pool. It's also a small complex (200 rooms max) and the landlord and mainetance guys live on site. So quick response if anything goes wrong. He's also half a mile from a strip mall that has almost every store type imaginable. I'm very excited! I wish I could move with him but we have a home here in SC. Plus he will, hopefully, only be there a year and can come home. Now we have to get electric, gas, & internet set up. Also buying items he'll need while there (ie: microwave) that we don't already have extra of (ie: towels). I'm excited!