Crazy Life

Wow. It has been a while and there has been a lot going on since then. Nathan and I both have gotten promotions at work. Nathan is now a Manager and I am a Supervisor. We are both busy getting into these new roles and learning everything that we need to know to be the best we can be.

We are in full swing with wedding EVERYTHING! The Knot sent me an e-mail about a week ago, telling me 9 months until my wedding and I sort of had a freak out! I feel as thought I have a lot of stuff done, but are you ever really done with things?

We had a couple of fiasco's with flowers and stuff, but we are hopefully getting everything worked out. Things have been coming in under budget, which is great because I didn't really give much room in our budget for things to be over budget.

It was great having my Mom home to be able to show her my vision of the wedding, so all the things that she is working on out in Montana, I know that she gets it. Not that I didnt trust her before, but now I feel like we are 100% on the same page.  She is working on our card box right now, which I am super excited for! She is shipping it here in pieces and then will assemble it when she gets here! I cant WAIT to see it all together!  She is so dang creative. I wish I would have gotten her creativity from her.  She is also making Nathan and I stockings. I grew up with hand-made stockings that to me just always felt like "mine". My cousins all feel the same way too. You had your stockings at home, but your stocking at Nannie and Grandpa's was yours. Well, my Mom made them all, so she is now making Nathan, me, Ashley, Nick and Katie all our own stockings to have at our own homes. Then as we have children, she will make them ones as well.

A lot of my friends have experienced tough times lately and it makes my heart hurt just thinking about it.  I just wish that I could take their pain away from them and help them more then I can right now. It makes me extremely grateful for Nathan, our health and happiness and it makes me realize that in a moment all of that can be taken away from us.

Well, there is a look into our lives right now. Promise to be back sooner rather then later.

My Wish

I am not good at New Year's Resolutions because I feel as though they are always something that you give up on and then you just feel like a big failure. So, instead of listing out things that I am going to do. I am going to list out things that I wish to do. I will try my hardest to do them, but understand that I am human, and I will fail.

1. Focus more on my circle of influence rather then my circle of concern. For those who have not gone through Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, this means I am going to really focus on the things in my life that I have direct influence on and not get stressed out or upset about things that I can't control.

2. Not eat out as much. This will benefit me in many areas of my life. This will help with sticking to my budget better, as well as living a healthier life.

3. Understand that people don't always see life the way I see life.  I feel as though there is a lot of stress, or tension in our lives because I want everyone to live life the way I do. I need to come to the conclusion that some people just live life differently and that is completely ok.

4. Figure out what I am doing.

5. Throw out my planner for a week or two. Live life in the present, not planning my next move. I am starting with a week or two, because I dont see anything wrong with living life with a plan. But I do understand that not everyone has an itinerary for their days. Sometimes, especially on vacations, I need to just live in the present.

Those are things I am going to start with. My wish for 2012 is to become a better person. Living a healthier life. This includes physically, mentally, emotionally, finicially. Every aspect of my life can become healthier. Here goes!

Loss

This time last year I was preparing myself to lose the most important person in my life. My Grandpa was in hospice and he was pretty unresponsive at this time. They told us that they would be able to tell when the end was near with the breathing. I decided to take my Grandma home so she could try and get some sleep as I knew the next day was probably going to be a long one. Around 1 am my uncles came home from the hospital to get my Grandma and shortly after my Grandpa passed away with his entire family surround him.

There was something so peaceful about him passing. Almost a sense of relief. He had been in so much pain for so long and I was so happy that he was finally at rest. He fought cancer so hard to the bitter end. He probably didn't know that he was doing it, but at the same time he was teaching each and everyone of us the best lesson he ever could. You live your life to the fullest until the bitter end.

So, technically Dec 20th is the day that my Grandpa passed, but today is really the day that hurts.

Sharing life's adventures

Most of the people in my life know that I like to share information. I have no qualms about sharing details of my life. I will update my Facebook status about almost anything. I will write blogs about my post personal feelings. That is just me. I am an open book. Nathan on the other hand, well, lets just say he is quite a bit different. He is much more private, hardly ever updates his status, likes the blog idea, but would probably prefer if his feelings were left out! :)  

To get to the point, I tell the people I work with everything that happens. You see, I live quite the adventurous life. Really, not joking at all. They laugh at me, (with me), give me advice and anything else that a girl would need. These people have become like family to me and I couldnt imagine them not knowing about my life. (Insert Nathan getting a promotion here.) He is now the Manager over the department that I work in. Meaning all of these people, my family, he is there boss. Usually my stories have something to do about him. Or, make people question why he ever decided to marry someone as ditzy as me! 

So, Friday morning when I was late to work because I backed into the garage door and it wouldnt open, was just another one of those moments when Nathan wishes I would just tell people I "had car problems!"

Red Light, Finally!

Wowza! Life has been BUSY! The company that we work for did a reorganization and Nathan came out ahead! He got promoted to a Manager position of the department that I work in. Yes, for a while, he is my boss!! I am getting moved to a different department, we are just trying to find the right fit for me! It is great that we work for a company that cares so much about both of us. With this, Nathan has been working longer hours trying to get used to the new department and everything that is going on. It has been quite the adjustment.

We got our engagement pictures taken and that was a great experience! We had so much fun and even when times are tough or stressed it reminds me of how much we truly love each other. My Grandpa got me a sign a few years ago at a flea market that says "Happiness is a journey, not a destination". I really beleive that is true and I am reminded of that daily with the every day ups and downs of life.

We have also been working on our 5 yr and 10 yr plans, which is fun, scary, weird, exciting, all rolled into one. Its so crazy to me that a year ago if you would have asked me if I would be in this place today, I would laugh at you. Yet here I am. I could not imagine being anywhere else.

I was also very proud of us because with all that is going on, I got our Christmas card/Save The Dates sent out.

So Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!

The soon-to-be Joneses! :)

Life

I was doing very well with blogging, but lately I have been very busy! Well, we have been very busy. I got the fli, and then Nathan got a cold (still has it actually). The he gave me the cold back, and here we are today. Still sick.

A quick update. Wedding planning is going great. I think the lack of wedding planning is really what is going great. I really decided to take a step back for a while and it has been wonderful. We are just relaxed and enjoying the upcoming holiday season. We got our Christmas tree up and we are in full swing of the holidays.  If I am feeling better, I plan on getting all of our shopping done tomorrow, wrapped and under the Christmas tree. Lets just hope Jack doesn't life his leg to the presents!

I have really been spending more time in the kitchen, trying new recipes and doing fun recipes. The good thing is that Nathan will pretty much eat anything. There have been a few things that I just don't like, but Nathan eats them up! It has been great trying out this whole wife thing.

With the holidays coming up, we really started to think "what are we going to do". We kind of thought this year since we were only engaged we would just do our own thing like we always have. I am going to my families house and he is going to his for Thanksgiving. We have yet to figure out Christmas. Splitting time is not fun, but we will find a way to make it work! Good thing we both have great families!

Well, thought I would just catch everyone up on our lives. I will post pictures when the presents are under the tree!

Routines

Most people who know me, know that I like routines. I like things to be done in a certain way, at a certain time and I really believe that there is an order for things to be done for a certain reason.  Call me OCD, call me crazy, call me whatever you want, but I live a pretty strressless life and I believe that it is because of the order in my life. 

With that being said, Nathan started on nights tonight where he works from about 11am-10pm. He really only needs to be there from 1pm-10pm, but as most of you also know, I am marrying a work-a-holic. :)  

This just throws an entire wrench into my routines. For the next 3 weeks, I will be home by myself at night, spending breaks by myself at work, and going to bed at night without Nathan. Yuck! 

It really isn't that bad. I also have adaptability as a strength so by Tuesday I will have a new routine in place and my life with be back in order! But for tonight, I'm going to have a bit of a self-pity party! :)