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 :)

Bye Bye Bye!

That's what Jake and I said to our student loans today!!!!! YESSS!! With the money we made off this last move we were able to pay off the rest of our debt - almost $10,000! It's such a blessing and a huge relief. No more $600/month loan payments for us! Wooo hooo!

Quick Trip Recap

Jake made it home safe from his first trip last night! Even though it was a VERY quick trip he really enjoyed it and loved flying into Alaska and Japan. He didn't get a chance to go off base in Japan because they were there for such a short time but he said it was really pretty there, the people were so nice, and the weather felt like Hawaii! He didn't end up taking lots of pictures (boo...) but he did get a couple that are definitely blog-worthy.

Are you ready for a good laugh? Check out the awesome translation on this juice pack that he bought at the commissary on base in Japan. The last line made us laugh so hard!!

Because this was Jake's first trip in the C-17, it was also his "Dollar Ride". During these first flights, its typical for the other pilots to play pranks on the new pilot. What they planned to do to Jake was take a picture in front of the plane when they landed and then right before the photo clicked, push everyone else out of the way and dump water over his head. Unfortunately for them, Jake saw this coming and  simply stepped back and away and smiled for the picture...

Too bad because that definitely would've been a photo-worthy moment! Oh Jake...

Anyways, that's about all I have to share with you from his trip. In my next post (which I plan to write tomorrow - hopefully!) I want to tell you all about the project I worked on while he was away. I did lots of fun shopping and completely finished our guest bedroom! Paint and all! And I have pictures to prove it :)