Favorite Things Friday

I'm also guest posting over at I Believe in Story and I lurve Maria's blog!  I talk about the great holiday known as Valentine's Day and how to celebrate it, regardless of your relationship status.  Go check it out right this minute and then check out my Favorite Things for this Friday.

So I totes have a crush on Maria's blog.  It's fabulous =]

Holy guacamole, it's Friday! I have had the busiest week ever and I had a hard time grasping that today marked the start of a weekend.  Yeah, it was that bad/busy/exhausting/invigorating of a week.
Monday was the mark of Block 10's written test in which I scored a 100.  Thank Jesus, Mary and Joseph.  I worked insanely hard for that and I would like to thank all of the people who continually motivated me and offered support and encouragement.  This has been one of the most challenging academic programs that I have ever been a part of and I am so glad that this has all worked out.  However, everything that goes up must come down.  Our evaluation ride didn't go quite as well as we planned.  Isn't it amazing how one little thing can completely turn a series of events?  That is just a tidbit of the mark that brought us down.  However, ya live and ya learn and then move on.  We are now in the middle of certification briefs.  I will soon be graduating and then moving to Montana!

It's been an exciting time because we finally have our house and a new address, our property managers are setting up our deposits to be given back to us, TMO (military movers) has been all set, and I just need to get my car squared away for shipping and then it's time to graduate.  WAHOOOO =]

So here are some of my favorite things from this past week:

 

Ryan and I bought as many episodes off of Amazon Instant Video as we could.  We are addicted! It is so incredibly good and the character development is off the charts.  All I have to say after season 2 is that shit cray.  I also am madly in love with Richard and I can't help but love Jimmy, too.

Ohmylanta, Richard adding pictures to his scrapbook kept breaking my heart.  His character is my all time favorite and although I haven't seen the third season, I hope he wipes out Gillian aka Jimmy's sick and twisted mom.

In my real life, the wonderful Lauran from The Real Young Housewife of Southern Virginia, sent me this totally adorable gift set for being a guest blogger.  Did I squeal with delight?  You betcha!  How did she know that I loved Essie nail polish and that I didn't have this color yet?  Blogger telepathy, that's how.  She also included an EOS hand lotion which I have been dying to try because so many beauty vloggers have raved about it.  Guess what?  It is just as fabulous as it sounds!  The smell, oh my the smell is orgasmic.  Did I awkwardly keep smelling my hands after I put on said hand lotion, of course.  That is the whole point of smelly hand lotions.

Essie nail polish for the win!

I've also been lovin' every single post on my Google Reader from Thought Catalog.  Look it up, subscribe to it and love it with me.  The posts range from factual and informative to downright hilarious.  They are a collection of various writers and bloggers and the topics are from the serious to the absurd.  It reminds me of my college days at Madison and if you're looking for a bit of a different blogging experience, I highly recommend it.  This stuff is great writing.

 

A Royal Daughter is creating a year long prayer community called #PrayerDare and this month is focusing on praying for your husband or significant other.  The program offers these inspirational prayer cards as a free download and for 28 days, I plan on participating on wonderful thoughts of my spouse.  I know being a young married couple can be challenging for many couples out there and we are no different.  It's nice to take time out of your day to pray that your spouse is uplifted and just wish the best for them in your life together.  It's a community that equips people with the resources to pray together, encourage one another and hold each other accountable, kind of like making goals.

In January, I had the opportunity to take two classes with The Influence Network, an online Christian women's community that happens to feature a ton of bloggers.  I really enjoyed my experience learning about how to creatively fund an adoption and met a lot of great women.  So I am taking another class, taught by Hayley Morgan on how to publish an eBook.

So who knows, maybe I'll get my publishing on.  I've always wanted to write a book, but have struggled putting it all together.  Have any of you tried writing a book, or better yet, published one?  I would love to read it!  Luckily for me, I came across this deal:

I got a great offer on Living Social for a Novel Writing Workshop off of Udemy.  The courses are worth anywhere from $150-$300 and college writing workshops are sometimes $800+.  I got mine for a cool $39.  I love discounts =]

I have always wanted to write a book and I think this will be a great opportunity to sit down and start compiling a great idea together.  It may not end up as a best seller but it will be me accomplishing one of my goals.

We also got an e-mail containing these adorable pictures:

 

I think Ryan is going to name our little guy, "Blue" or "Bloo" or "Bleu"...however you spell it.  The name has been sticking and I just can't wait to have our little guy around the house.  Montana is calling my name.  I wonder how Holly will react to having a smaller puppy around the house.  I'm hoping that she'll think it's her baby, but who knows.  She might end up freakishly jealous.  

I also received an awesome book in the mail in preparation for an upcoming book club assignment, The Paris Wife.  I'm hoping that these book clubs will keep me accountable to these great reads because I keep finding more and more books that I just want to dive right into.  This one is about Hadley Richardson, who meets Ernest Hemingway and they end up falling madly in love.  I feel like this goes totally to theme with watching, "Boardwalk Empire."  Not gonna lie, I am totally obsessed with historical love stories, the gritty realistic kind of love, as of lately.  Yep, I'm in a weird phase :P

 

Speaking of books and receiving things in the mail, it's the week that books are being sent out and readers are linking up for the Blogger Book Swap.   I am so excited for Christine to receive the package I sent out to her and I'm hoping that she loves it.  We've been e-mailing back and forth and to help me out, I asked her to send me a list of ten books that she would love to receive.  I chose one and after reading the reviews on it, I may need to get a copy for myself, so as Christine suggested, we can read and compare together.  She's an awesome blogger and I love her tweets, go check out her blog at A Day in the Life.  She has a 50% off her ads deal going on right now!

I'm also doing a Valentine's Day swap with AJ from The Fashionable, Fit Traveler and she is the sweetest! I have so enjoyed e-mailing with her.  As challenging as it is to find cute, affordable gifts for people that you've just met, I really like the experience of meeting other bloggers through swaps.  I made her a care package that hopefully fits a Valentine's Day theme and traveling/fashion theme.  Hopefully she likes it! 

Now it's time to wrap it up with my Etsy obsessions.  I have been spending a sinful amount of time scoping out the shops on Etsy, but it's just too much fun.

Etsy shop: Alter Designs

 Thinking I should get a Wisconsin, California, Montana necklace.

Etsy shop: The Gnarly Whale

The Gnarly Whale has some delicious scents and I really want to try their detangler, surf waves, and lip balm.

Etsy shop: Eliza Jay Charm

Who doesn't love monograms and let's face it, I need more of them in my life.

Etsy Shop: Poppy Hill

 I need this sign for my Montana abode.

Etsy store: Tiny Baby Shop

 I love babies and miniatures and anything that remotely reminds me of my childhood.  My grandma was a doll maker and even though at the time I was terrified of her doll room, it's still a pretty cool talent.

Thanks for reading!

Realities of a Pinterest Perfect, Military Marriage

Before I divulge into the inner workings of making a military marriage work, I would love for y'all to visit Lauran's blog, The Real Young Housewife of Southern Virginia.  Today I'm featured as a guest blogger on a topic that I'm sure we can all relate with, when Pinterest crafting goes horribly wrong.  It's a light and funny read (hopefully you'll find it funny) and Lauran is an awesome blogger, so go check it out and then come right back ;)

With Valentine's Day coming up, I've been reflecting on my marriage of almost two years.  This is the first Valentine's Day that Ryan and I will have together.  So of course, I am all kinds of excited to make it spectacular.  However, I have learned from past experiences that sometimes I need to bring down my enthusiasm level to a rate that Ryan can understand.  What makes this Valentine's Day a little more interesting is that we will be on the road, mid-move to Montana.  So I've started putting together a few things for my valentine a little early.  I'm sure you've seen this tutorial on Pinterest but it's so easy and I would love to share:

Decorate-a-Mug

Supplies

Ceramic mugs from the dollar store

Sharpies

Working oven, set to 350 degrees

Decorate your mug, put it in the oven for about a half hour and voila, you've got yourself an inexpensive Valentine's Day gift.

"All of these words are worthless than the breath used to say them if we cannot be together."

Cute and romantic, eh?  

I'm not really sure what else to get Ryan and come to think about it, I think Ryan may be my first Valentine.  I definitely remember a dating pattern of breaking up with boyfriends in October and getting boyfriends in March.  Anyone else have dating patterns?  I always thought it was weird but oddly enough, that's how it usually worked out.  

Ryan loves to work out and doesn't really like junk food so I think the traditional heart-shaped box of chocolates may not be his thing. Shopping for broskis is so difficult!  Curse the expectations that come with VDay!

But this brings me to my next point.

If you read Destiny's guest blog post, it ties in so well to this topic of Pinterest perfect marriages.

When Ryan was deployed I created a ton of care packages for him and I did a "picture a day while you're away."  It was my way of showing him that I cared and I missed him greatly (such an understatement, deployments own your brain).  Creating and designing things is such a personal way of exploring my creative energy and I love to share it, whether it's on my blog or my Pinterest boards.  It's also a major way of me showing people that I care.  I would have so many people message me saying how inspired they were by the care packages and the pictures, it was both flattering and humbling.  I'm afraid that I may have added to this Hollywood notion that military marriages are this fairytale.  Homecomings are a dream come true and one of my most cherished moments, however, it's what happens post-homecoming that people don't really cover or understand.

I still consider myself a newlywed, and not in the "honeymoon" period, either.  Ryan and I have our arguments and fights, just like any other married couple.  It usually comes from the fact that we've spent most our marriage apart, either living in California versus Wisconsin or the continental US versus Afghanistan.  Most recently we've lived in the same state (five hours apart), and just moved back in together when Ryan finally finished his Marine Corps contract.  Every time that we've been together, part of our relationship has to start over again and rebuild.  It takes a lot of communication and patience.  Being in our early 20s, that doesn't always come easily or is readily available.  Mix in a military lifestyle, you have constant moves, training, early days, late nights, etc.  I try to make the most of our time together by scheduling breaks in the day, like lunch, where we can see each other and just talk or relax.  In the morning, I'm focused on going to work and at night, I'm analyzing what happened that day and what I can improve on.  I would say that communicating at night isn't my strongest quality.  If I had a bad day, I need that time to decompress and then start communicating, otherwise Ryan can do the littlest thing and it can set me off.  It's the same for him.  I'm very much an advocate for personal time and working on "Me."  Not as a selfish aspect, but more in terms of self care and make sure that I'm doing good and Ryan's doing good, respectively on our own.  Together we're a united front and we can't have one end feeling upset, otherwise, we're not communicating as effectively as we could be.

My advice for being in a military marriage?

Patience, a positive attitude, effective communication, and resilience.  

Things will always change and nothing is ever permanent.  It is only permanent five hours after it happened.  With that in mind, you have to have patience and good communication.  Don't leave your spouse hanging, wondering what's going on or if they need to make dinner later or earlier.  Sometimes it can be really stressful or just bring out the worst in you.  You've got to overcome that because you need to work as a team.  Ryan and I don't have any human children yet, just our Holly Bear.  We've planned it that way so we can work on our marriage base first and build up from that.  I tackle being in a military lifestyle with a positive attitude.  It's a mixture of optimism and realism.  Plans will always change, so have a back-up plan (in fact, have three) and keep a smile on your face.  Make sure you have concrete ways to de-stress.  When Ryan was deployed, sometimes I would feel so overwhelmed, I still sometimes feel that way with training.  Blogging for me became a positive outlet on which I could focus on many other aspects of my life besides being in the military.  Sometimes that little break, even if it's just a blog post, is so very necessary.  

One way that I'm working on documenting our marriage-

I saw this really neat idea for people who are engaged, to keep a journal for your soon-to-be husband.  I loved the idea and decided to keep a journal (I bought two for extra writing) for my husband throughout the year.  I wanted to cover things we fought about, how we communicated, good things and events in our life.  I think it may be a great way to reflect on our marriage at the end of the year.

I'm really excited about this and to include love letters on our second/third year of marriage.  We have so many things to look forward to within the coming weeks and it will all be recorded.  Wahooo for old school journaling.

oh and in case you don't follow me on Instagram, I got a haircut :)

 

 Yay for new things!

Thanks for reading :)