Keith Urban Concert!!

Last night Cassie and I went to see Keith Urban in concert in Sacramento and it was AWESOME! I didn't feel well at all yesterday (surprise, surprise) but I figured I was going to feel bad whether I was sitting at home or at the concert so I decided to still go. And actually it turned out to be a great distraction from the pain. We sang and danced and screamed like teenage girls - oh yes we did - it was such a fun time!

During of my favorite songs "Days Go By" I decided to snap a quick video. Hmm... right around 14 seconds it may or may not show Cass and I dancing around and having a ridiculously fun time ;)

And then came the best part! Right before the very last song, Keith started walking off the stage and out into the audience. We didn't have floor seats (we weren't in the nosebleeds either... kind of in the middle area straight back from the stage) so we thought there's no WAY he would be coming anywhere close to us. Wrong! He came all the way back to OUR section, one aisle over from us and stood on a platform and sang!! It was so cool being literally right in front of him at the concert! This picture is very blurry but you can at least see how close he was standing to us and I wasn't even zoomed in :)

So that was my awesome, not-so-normal Sunday night! So much fun. And best of all... it was absolutely FREE!

Weekend Update

This was a hard week. Short story is that I have just felt awful - all week :( Please pray for me because the pain is really wearing on me physically and emotionally. I'm trying to just push through the pain and live life as normal but its so hard, and I feel myself becoming bitter about the situation. Anyways, I don't really want to talk about that though... I want to focus on the positive...

...so on to more exciting topics! And this is one is very exciting :) Tonight I am going to see Keith Urban in concert! for FREE! (well, assuming my pain level stays mild enough). A friend of mine on base had won the concert tickets in a raffle and was not able to go at the last minute so she gave them away. I was so happy to get them because Keith Urban is one of my favorite country music artists and he puts on an awesome show! Cassie is driving up from Turlock to go with me and I'm so excited and ready to dance and sing the night away. I'm definitely going to be tired at work tomorrow but hey you're only young once, right?!

Another highlight of this weekend was my friend Becky's baby shower yesterday. I met Becky and a whole group of awesome ladies through a Bible study that I've recently joined. It's been so nice getting to know them and it's really refreshing to be around women who are so genuinely nice, fun & uplifting. Here are a few photos...

On a different note, the weather yesterday was so nice and cloudy and cool! It finally is starting to feel like fall and I am loving it. Fall is my favorite season! I've got my pumpkin spice candle burning as I write :) We are even supposed to have a few rainy days this week and I'm really looking forward to it! I know all my family reading this in the Northwest are probably thinking I'm crazy for wanting rain (ha!) but we really haven't had any since May. We desperately need a good rain to green up our grass and clean out the air. And I love the smell and feel of a rainy day - we definitely don't get that enough here.

So in preparation for the upcoming rainy days and winter season in general, I've been on the hunt for a dog house for the pups. The dogs really love being outside all day while I'm at work (as opposed to having to stay in their crates) and even in the fall and winter it never gets very cold here so it's very possible that they can stay outside during the day all year long. But when it does start to rain, especially with the high winds here on base, the patio doesn't provide them much shelter. I stopped by Lowe's to see what types of dog houses they had and found a perfect little shelter called a Dogloo!

It doesn't look very large in this photo because Bailey is laying in the narrow opening but in the back there is plenty of room for both dogs to snuggle up and keep warm and dry in case of a rainy day. It's funny though, when I first brought this home the dogs were terrified of it! They would not go in it or even close to it. I literally had to crawl in it myself and entice them treats to get them to come in and show them that it's not scary :) Now Bailey loves it and prefers to sleep in there even when the sun is shining. Dogs are so funny...

Well, I think that's all the time I have for blog updates today. There is a whole house waiting to be cleaned before the hubby gets back home on Tuesday morning - Oh and sheets to be washed too considering Bailey sleeps right on Jake's pillow when he's gone :) Hope you all are enjoying your weekend!

I'm coming back.

I missed a week of blogging. And then two more. And then a month went by. And another...
Now it's almost October - how did that happen? Remember when I used to blog every day? Twice a day even?

Honestly, I have been missing my blog so much lately and missing being able to write out my thoughts and experiences. Sometimes over the past few months I've found myself writing blogs in my head as if I was actually typing them out (wierd I know) but I could never get myself to the computer.

I think that after that first week, month, another month, of not blogging I started to feel really overwhelmed about all of the HUGE life events that I failed to write about. I felt that if I started writing I would be obligated to catch everyone up on everything that's been going on and frankly, that was just too big of a task. So there. That's why I've been avoiding my blog.

But I've made the decision - I'm coming back! So here's the "short version" recap of what's happened over the past few months:

1) My braces came off (woo to the hoo!) I can't believe that was the subject of my last post because it was so long ago, but seriously - Best feeling ever! And yes, totally worth it. Here's the picture I took as I was leaving the ortho office...

2) Jaclyn and Stephen got married and it was the most gorgeous wedding! I've never seen so much love in one place. They are just the most amazing couple! So happy for my little sis :)

3) I got a new job! I now work as a brand analyst for Papyrus (American Greetings) full time. It was quite the switch from designing blogs part time but it has been a pretty smooth transition so far. More blog posts to come about the job and its pros and cons (but mostly pros!)

4) I finished my schooling! It's so wonderful to have nights and weekends to do whatever I want now instead of doing school projects :)

5) Jake has been traveling the world a lot. A lot, a lot. He's been gone 2-3 weeks a month since May and that has been quite the adjustment. He's also getting ready to deploy in a few weeks and will be missing ALL of the holidays (so sad about that one). But he really is loving his job and finally getting to do what he's spent so many years training for.

6) Our new house has gotten so much more cozy! I've had a chance to decorate all the rooms except for our bedroom (I'm waiting because we'll hopefully be getting a king bed in the near future). I'd really like to post a video tour of the house sometime soon so that way all my family and friends who live far away can feel like they've seen it in person. Good plan? Here's a peak at our entry way and dining room...

7) Jake and I went on a long-awaited tropical vacation to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic! We've been trying to take this trip for a few years now and finally got to - and wow, it was so awesome! Totally worth the wait :)

8) I also really want to talk more about the squadron and base here at Travis and how it compares to life in pilot training/Mississippi. Overall its been really good so far and the spouse group especially is really great but believe it or not I do miss some aspects of UPT (never thought I'd say that! haha)

9) And then there is one more thing. The thing I hate talking about - me being sick. I'm sick of talking about being sick. I'm sick of being sick. Remember almost a YEAR ago when I first got sick? Yep, it never went away. I just learned how to deal with it. As of now, stomach pain is the big issue.

Every week or so I will get an excruciating stabbing pain in my upper abdomen that is so painful that I literally fall to the ground, moaning in pain and vomiting. Lovely, right? These "episodes" last for about 20-30 minutes and then I'm back to feeling completely fine. It blows my mind that I can go from feeling like I'm dying and then right back to normal again like nothing ever happened. I've seen doctors, specialists... I swear that the people in the ER know my name... I've had tests done, bloodwork, MRI, scans, you name it. GAH! This is easily the most frustrating thing I've ever had to deal with.

Up until today, I actually started to think I was healed. I hadn't had any "episodes" in almost a month and last week the gastroenternologist put me on a new medicine and I have been feeling great ever since! No pain at all. Kind of ironic that yesterday at lunch I told my friend Megan that I thought I finally found the answer to all of this and was so happy to finally be better. Spoke to soon...

Today right after lunch - out of NOWHERE, might I add - this pain decides to come back stronger than ever. When I felt it coming on, knowing it would come fast, I grabbed my things from my office and rushed to the car, desperate to get to my house or the ER or anywhere else - not wanting my boss and coworkers to see me in the agonizing, torturing pain that was about to come over me. Turns out the drive home was not quick enough and the pain came on strong while I was driving. I started vomiting (all over myself, my hair, my car...) and crying in pain. I decided to head straight to the ER. Jake is gone this week so I had to just be strong and deal with this on my own. I barely made it into the ER; literally as soon as I made into the lobby I collapsed in pain and they rushed me back to a room. I'm pretty sure they thought I was dying too. I've never seen people move SO fast to help me! And then, about 10 minutes later, the pain was gone. GONE! Completely gone and I was feeling back to normal. It happens like this every single time and makes absolutely no sense. It almost makes me more mad because the pain doesn't stay long enough for them to actually see it and do tests while it's happening.

Blah.

Anyways I just really wanted to vent about today's experience. Definitely not what I had planned for my day! And then it was hard coming home to an empty house - I just really needed somebody to take care of me, to talk through it and let me complain a little and process the days events.

So that's what led me back to my blog. And you know what? It feels SO good to write again. I have a feeling there's a lot more writing to come in the near future!

In the meantime, please PRAY for this medical mystery I am having. I'm starting to lose hope that it will ever go away or get resolved. I hate having to miss out on fun events and time with new friends because I don't feel well :( And if you need prayer for anything please let me know as well!

It was good catching up :)

Tomorrow!

I'm super behind on posting updates, I know I know. With the wedding coming up in less than three weeks and work and school still going full time I am swamped. swamped. swamped.

I just HAD to write a quick post tonight because in the morning I am going to get my braces off!!! Can you believe its been a year alread? Wow. I can't wait to look at all the before pics I took and compare them. I'll post some on the blog when I can. Just wanted to share my excitement with you!!

"My Room" (aka the guestroom)

One of the nice perks about having a 3-bedroom house and not having any kids is that in addition to the master bedroom we each get our own individual room in the house. Jake gets to have his "man cave" and I get a room to work and relax in and do my scrapbooking and other projects, and since mine is the larger of the rooms, it also doubles as our guestroom.

Since "my room" is where I spend a lot of my day at the desk working, I knew I wanted the decor to be light and bright and clean. After searching the web for some inspiration images, I found myself leaning towards a really fun, contemporary look but had no clue how to make those inspiration images come to life. I may be able to pull blog designs out of thin air, but whenever I try to decorate my home I always feel that I fall short of what I was originally trying to achieve.

I started shopping around but didn't have much luck... and then fate stepped in :) I was wandering through HomeGoods (a dangerously amazing place to shop) and bam! there it was! the perfect desk chair! I know most people probably don't get this excited over a chair but you have to understand that I've been looking for the right one for months and this one had both the look and comfort that I wanted. No more working from the kitchen table, yesss!!

Now because the chair is a bright yellow and white print, I wasn't left with too many options for the rest of the room, and actually I was really confused about what to do because I didn't want an all-yellow room or anything too crazy and colorful. But after consulting some friends on facebook (thanks Kristin!!) the answer was clear - make it a gray room with mustard yellow accents!

So right away I went to Home Depot and picked up some light gray paint, went to Ikea and picked up a dark gray duvet color and a simple white and silver desk lamp. Then I found two amazing (and super soft!) euro shams at Crate & Barrel and the perfect accent pillow at Target to tie everything together. It's amazing how everything fell into place; within 24 hours of finding the chair, I had the whole room practically done! And more than anything, changing the wall color from beige to gray made a HUGE difference. Ah, the wonders of paint!

Now the only thing left to do is find some fun art to put in the frames that are hanging on the wall. Any ideas? I'd also love to get some gray and white striped sheets or pillows to throw on the bed just to mix it up a little more. Anyways, here are a few pictures I took of the room but my camera isn't great for indoor photos so it really doesn't do it justice. I guess you'll just have to come see it in person :)