March Goals

I seriously can't believe March is already here.  It seems like it was just Christmas!  But in the light of new beginnings and the start of new things, I decided to make some goals for myself for the month of March.

1.  Menu planning - this will go hand in hand with #2, but I want to do a blog at least once a week giving step by step instructions on a new recipe that I try.  It will also help me manage my food better

2.  Get down to 180 - here we go again with me putting my weight issues for the whole world to see.  I still have mixed feelings about it, but it helps me to be more accountable.  I started back at the gym yesterday and am looking forward to getting this weight off.

3.  Start studying for my LEED exam - I have until April 30th to take the exam, and well I haven't even started studying for this.  I told myself once Ricky left I would start, well now he's gone so I need to keep my word.

4.  Continue Project 365 - I have already started and am already on day 3! woo-hoo!  You can check out those pics ON FACEBOOK HERE.

That's all I can think of right now.  Weight loss is my main concern at the present time.  Getting into a good routine without Ricky here.  Although it will be disturbed for a few days when he comes home March 24th :)  Can't wait to see that man :) I miss him already!

In a new update!  I purchased my very first bedroom suite Saturday and am in the process of getting it all put together.  I'll update pics soon.

Going Away Ceremony

Last Wednesday Ricky had a farewell ceremony with the other 3,300 National Guard members that are all getting deployed.  First off, he did NOT actually leave last week, it's just a ceremony that they have for the members and their families.  Here is an article about it: Farewell Ceremony.

Ricky with little sister Ellie Kate

Ricky and his mom

There isn't much to say about the ceremony, a lot of important military people talked, as well as Governor Fallon.  The worst part was when they decided to play American Soldier by Toby Keith.....that's when the tears started pouring down.  But I managed to compose myself.  We got some really good pics of Ricky in his uniform with his family members.

Also to clear up any confusion, Ellie Kate is NOT Ricky's daughter, it's his little sister (yes there is 23 years difference in them).  I take a lot of pictures of her because well she's so stinking cute.  Also, I went to Hawaii with his parents and siblings.  We didn't just go by ourselves.  We'll save that for the Honeymoon :)

Ricky and I with Ellie Kate

So one week left until round 1 of deployment.  He'll be gone for 3 1/2 weeks and then come home for 5 days.  And those 5 days might be the last time I physically get to see him for an entire year. Pray for internet!!! That way we can Skype and email.  If not we'll be resorting to maybe once a week phone calls and old fashioned snail mail.  Thanks again all of you for your prayers and kind words of support and encouragement!

Strength

Strength....

Everyone has it, but you really only find out how much you have in the hardest and most difficult times in your life.  Most of the time, when you feel like you just don't have anymore, you manage to find more with the help of courage, love, and patience.

I'm about to find out just how much strength I have. Ricky leaves in 11 days for his first training session for deployment. This will be the toughest year of my life to this point.  He will be training in the U.S. for about 3 months and then will spend the next 10 months in Afghanistan with the rest of the Oklahoma National Guard.  Ricky first told me about his deployment last May and while at first my heart fell into my stomach, I thought, I have tons of time until he actually leaves.  So for the last 9 months it's been in the back of my head and I told myself I wouldn't even worry about it until we got back from Hawaii.  Well, now we're back from vacation and it's right around the corner.

I'm still in a bit of denial about it, the closer it gets, the more people ask about it and how I am and how I'm feeling about it all.  I don't mind talking about it at all and for the most part, I'm not too bad.  I have certain times when my heart breaks at the thought that soon I won't be able to talk to him everyday or see him for at least 6 months.  But there isn't anything we can do about it, we just have to make the best with what we have. So if you ask me about it, don't worry if I burst out in tears....it's only natural haha.

The upside is that he spends his first month training here in Oklahoma and then gets to come back home for 5 days!  Then he goes back to training in places like Mississippi and Louisiana.  A lot of things are up in the air, timeline wise.  I've learned that with the military nothing is a guarantee, things change all the time.

So for you readers out there, bear with me.  I'm not sure what direction I want to take this blog.  I don't want to be a downer all the time, therefore I have some ideas of things to keep my busy and can update the readers on those things.  But I'm sure there will be some times when I'll just share my feelings and how things are going.

Things to keep my busy:

1.  My amazing friends and family: I have the most amazing friends and family in the world.  Everyone wants to know how to help, has amazing ideas for Ricky's care packages, and is just there to listen to me vent.  I have no doubt that they will be the biggest help in making it through the next year.  Ricky's family is also so amazing!  So caring and inviting me in.  I couldn't ask for anything more.  

2.  Project 365:  This is where you take a picture a day.  It can be a picture of anything, maybe something fun you did that day, if you bought something, or something sentimental.  A lot of people do this starting New Years, well I wanted to start it the day Ricky left.  I am almost positive he will be gone more than 365 days, but I'll just continue to add to the end.

3.  New Recipes:  I have a goal to try at least one new recipe a week.  I'll put pictures and the recipe on here as well as my review.  These will mostly all be healthy versions of food, so I hope to educate myself as well as all of you.

4.  Weight Loss:  Usually I'm one to talk about my weight in public like this.  But to be completely I want to get healthier.  I'm attending Weight Watchers meeting as well as taking some advice from THIS WONDERFUL BLOG.  My workout routine is also changing up.  I'm taking a break from long distance running for right now.  Not sure when I'm going to pick it back up.  But right now I want to focus on getting into a healthy weight range for my height.

5.  Puzzles:  I went through a tough time in life a couple of years ago and puzzles really seemed to help keep my mind off of the issues.  They are really good to help you not snack a lot too(a problem of mine).  Plus most of my puzzles are of large cities in the US that I have visited so I hope to frame them and hang them up somewhere.

Well that's it for now.  I'll be back soon with an update on life.  Thanks for reading!

Snow Week!!

Snowstorm 2011

Happy Snow Week to most of the U.S.!!!  This week a huge snow storm hit a lot of areas including Tulsa.  We got a record amount of snowfall....14 inches!!!  Thats huge for Oklahoma!

The storm came in Monday night, with some freezing rain first then the snow started sometime in the middle of the night.  These weren't just little flakes, these were huge flakes! And they came down fast, it only took about 12 hours to get the 14 inches.  So with being off work for two days, I wasn't quite sure what to do with myself.  So we played in the snow a bit, ate lots of food, played some Wii Monopoly, and chilled by the fireplace.

Here are some pics of the last couple of days: 

Ricky prepared to shovel some snow

Playing out in it

My apartment complex

Of course the snow just started falling again today, they are estimating a couple more inches...lovely.  I could probably get my car out of the spot at my complex, but who really wants to drive in this stuff if you don't have 4-wheel drive?? Not me, that's for sure.  The good news is I just remembered today that my apartment complex has a gym!  So maybe I can work off all this junk food I've been eating the last couple of days.

Busy January

The last couple of weeks have been a bit crazy.  So I thought I would give a quick recap.

Thunder game

The week after vacation Ricky has a week long training in OKC, so I was getting adjusted to post holidays and vacation life.  Mainly catching up on my DVR from the week long of spring premiers I had missed while in Hawaii.  The next weekend my friend had just bought her very first house and we had a girls weekend to help her paint.  Sorry, what happens on girls weekend stays with girls weekend, but lets just say it felt like we were right back in college.  Good times.

Getting the crowd involved :)

This last weekend Ricky and I met my parents in OKC Friday night for the Thunder game!  What I thought was going to be a blowout game turned into a double overtime WIN for the Thunder!  It was quite an exciting game and we had excellent seats!   Following the game, Ricky and I headed up to meet up with some friends at a karaoke bar which was SO MUCH FUN!  Ricky sang Family Tradition while I sang Total Eclipse of the Heart with the girls.

tried my best to get the pop bottle in the pic

Saturday morning we got up and drove to Arcadia to Pops.  If you don't know what Pops is go HERE.  Ricky had never been, and since we weren't too far away we decided to go.  He picked out 2 6-packs of different types of pop.  Did I mention that it was like 76 degrees that day?!?! Crazy for the end of January.  After Pops, we headed to Kingfisher so I could show Ricky where I grew up, I mean the tour took maybe 15 minutes ha but at least now he knows.  We had about an hour and a half to waste before meeting up with friends for dinner in Okarche so what else do you do in Kingfisher to waste time?  Go to Wal-Mart!  We met up at Eichens for dinner as mentioned in THIS PREVIOUS POST.  Ricky had to experience Eichens before he left.  :)

Life is great, trying to fit in all the activities as we possibly can before he leaves for training and deployment. Please keep us both in your prayers, his safely and my sanity while he's away.

A week in Paradise

Just landed on Maui

Sorry I'm a little behind on posting about my vacation in paradise.  Ricky's parents wanted to take a family vacation before he leaves for deployment and they asked me to come along.  This was like back in October that they asked me, but wouldn't tell us where we were going, only that it was somewhere tropical.  His mom wanted to wait until Christmas (we were leaving NYE) to tell us our fabulous destination.  But about two weeks before Christmas she let it slip lol.  We were headed to HAWAII!

Cabana for the day :)

Ricky with the Arizona memorial in the background

We left out NYE at 8 in the morning from Tulsa and were supposed to land on Maui at 4:00 but due to flight problems we didn't land until 8:00...meaning we didn't get to the hotel till about 11 (this was 3:00 oklahoma time) so Ricky and I grudging stayed up until midnight at least to celebrate then crashed for the night.  I won't give you a play by play for the rest of the week, but it involved a lot of sun, fun, and relaxation.

Celebrating our 10 month anniversary

A couple touristy things we did were visit Pearl Harbor and a luau.  Pearl Harbor is just as amazing in person as you can imagine and I really enjoyed spending the day on Oahu.  After a week of vacation we headed back to the real world...sadly.

View from our room

Top Events of 2010!!!

I know I'm 8 days behind on reflecting on 2010, but I have been in the paradise of Hawaii :)  I'll put a post on that later, but first to recap 2010.

Girls in Vegas

1) January started off the year right, with a trip to Vegas!!  This was my first trip to Sin City and my girlfriends and I went there to celebrate Kristyn's 21st birthday!  We had such an amazing time!


2) On March 2nd, Ricky and I had our first date :)  I have no picture for the night (he might have thought I was crazy and never seen me again).  But we had an amazing time.

3) At the end of April I completed my 2nd Half Marathon (as stated in a previous post).  It's was such a great accomplishment for myself.

One of the first pics of him :)

4) In May, Megan and I experienced our first real life "tornado". It was frightening to look outside and see these huge trees blown over and lying in the street.

5) In June, Ricky and I decided to go away for our first weekend together.  We went to Branson and had such a great time.

Girls in St. Louis

6)  In July, Amy, Megan and I roadtripped it to St. Louis to visit Kara.  We did all the touristy things including: St. Louis Cardinals stadium tour, Budweiser brewery, and City Garden.

7) September brought around OSU Football and I loved it for the next 3 months :)

8)  In October Ricky and I headed down to Dallas to a Dallas Cowboys game.  It was his birthday present from me :)











9) December brought around the amazing holidays.  Between Ricky and I we had 5 Christmas's.  But it was so great to spend all that time with family.

10) I spend the New Year on the beach in Hawaii with my favorite :) Perfect way to start 2011