Friday, December 21, 2012

Friday's Letters!

Dear husband, I cannot wait to actually spend some quality time with you for a change. I'm still a little sad that I saw you for only five minutes on our wedding anniversary, but it's ok, you're still my husband at the end of the day. Christmas at home will be amazing this year. I love you and happy three year wedding anniversary. I will see you in the morning because I am tired and will go to bed soon. :) Dear Leo, Can you PLEASE stop licking your neuter incision? I am really getting nervous that it could already be getting infected because you won't leave it alone. This stupid e-collar crap is for the birds. It is not working for you and I really do not want to get you a cone, so STOP it! Love you little man! Dear Christmas in Maryland, Hurry it up will ya? I've been waiting all week for you to show up. Just one more eight hour day at Hallmark and I will be off and we will be home for three days. I am literally counting the hours until we can leave Virginia. Dear Winter, Yay I'm so excited that you are finally here. I know everyone else shuns you and loves Summer the most, but I love you and Fall the most. You and fall are my favorite seasons. Now bring on the snow please. Thanks! Dear Fireproof movie, You seriously get me every time. Watching you on my anniversary brings me so much happiness and joy even though Jarrett and I could not be together today. Thanks for coming on TV and brightening my day.
 
Katie<3


Three years married!

Today, Jarrett and I have been married for three years. My, how time flies! I hated that we couldn't spend it together though, but it's alright. I do not want to complain when there are women out there that have husbands deployed on their anniversary. I've been pretty lucky to always have Jarrett home during these exciting times. We've decided to leave for Christmas in Maryland on Sunday morning instead of tomorrow night so we can spend the evening together. I don't care what we do whether we go out or just stay in, I just want to spend time with him and celebrate everything that we have been through together in these short three years. We have grown up so much since we met seven years ago. It's amazing to think about all the things we've been through and all the ways that we've grown as individuals and as a couple. I feel so blessed and lucky to have married the man that I did. I cannot wait to see what life has in store for us next. For now, I am watching Fireproof on CMT while I wait for Jarrett to get home from a long night of work! Perfect movie to watch on the anniversary of the best day of my life! :)
 
Cheers to marriage,
Katie <3

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

A moment of silence for our fallen educators and children!

 
In memory of our 26 angels:
Charlotte Bacon, 6
Olivia Engel, 6
Emilie Parker, 6
Ana Marquez-Greene, 6
Dylan Hockley, 6
Madeleine Hsu, 6
Catherine Hubbard, 6
Jesse Lewis, 6
James Mattioli, 6
Jack Pinto, 6
Noah Pozner, 6
Caroline Previdi, 6
Jessica Rekos, 6
Avielle Richman, 6
Benjamin Wheeler, 6
Allison Wyatt, 6
Daniel Barden, 7
Josephine Gay, 7
Chase Kowalski, 7
Grace McDonnell, 7
Anne Marie Murphy, 25
Victoria Soto, 27
Rachel Davino, 29
Lauren Rousseau, 30
Dawn Lafferty Hochsprung, 47
Anne Marie Murphy, 52
Mary Sherlach, 56

Life lately and weekend stuff!

Sorry I haven't updated in about two weeks, but life has just been so hectic with all the Christmas shenanigans going on. We are opening earlier at the store every day until Christmas so I have been working more than usual, plus it has been crazy busy like usual around this time of year. I work a normal eight hours and come home to no energy to do anything, especially sitting down to write in this blog. I have been trying to push myself to write, but there has been so much going on. It's a hectic time of year for everyone, but it is also a happy time of year nonetheless. In the midst of all the Holiday frenzies, we did find time to have fun at the store by doing a tacky sweater contest. I have never done a tacky sweater contest before, so you can bet that I was excited and ready to create some awesome sweaters. Any excuse to do any kind of craft, I'm all over it. I did two sweatshirts and a sweater vest. Below are my three creations:
Since we did the contest all week, I just rotated between all three sweaters instead of doing seven different sweaters. We set up a ballot box for our customers to vote as well. Although I did not win, I did at least come in third place. Yay me! My co-worker Brittany won with her awesome "Letters to Santa" sweater. She put a felt Santa mail box on the back of her sweater, wrote letters to Santa with her left hand to make it look like kids had wrote the letters and hot glued the mail box and letters all over the back of her sweater. In the felt mail box, she set up blank notes and a pencil so customers could write down their wish list and she would glue them to the sweater. Talk about amazing, right? Why didn't I think of that? :)
Brittany and I in our sweaters.
 Showing me the back of her sweater.
I was a tad bit jealous, plus my sweater makes me look huge!
 Letters to Santa.
 Our manager, Diane, all decked out for Christmas.
Yes, this is exactly how we feel after a long, crazy, busy day!
Nap time please?
 
As far as my weekend plans went, I had a nice relaxing weekend while also getting a lot done. Last week, Jarrett had exercises on base, so he was on a 5am-5pm work shift all week. Although he had to work a crazy long shift all week, I can't say is wasn't nice to have him home during the evening time even though Leo had to be home all day by himself. This was the first time that Leo was at home ALL day without anyone being able to come home and check on him. To my surprise, we had no issues at all. Our little boy is growing up so fast.
 
Friday, Jarrett and I went grocery shopping after work then we came home and cooked burgers on our awesome George Foreman grill. They were delicious! Saturday night we had our date night. We went to Cinebistro for dinner and to see The Hobbit. Jarrett has been dying for this movie to come out and even though they aren't my favorite movies, I went and saw it with him anyway. Sunday we went to church with the in laws then I finished our Christmas shopping and started on all the wrapping. It feels so great to be done with all the shopping and wrapping. Saturday night we are going home for Christmas and we have to go back Christmas night because I have to work early the next morning. I am so ready to load up the truck with all the presents and Leo, and just hit the road for a few days.
Monday, we had Leo neutered! :( Poor little guy was so tired and exhausted. We did end up getting him an e-cone because he kept licking his incision, but he's doing much better now. He is already getting back to his normal self, but we still have to watch him and not let him play and run too hard. I will take any advice or pointers that any of you have also. I have been worried about him ever since we got home from the SPCA clinic. I am just so worried that he'll keep trying to lick his incision and it end up getting infected. I am also worried about bringing him around Sophie this weekend. I'm pretty sure by Saturday he'll be able to be around other dogs, but it still worries me that he'll play too rough and open the incision site or make it infected. Hoping for good healing thoughts for him. I feel like such a mom right now!
Leo as soon as I put him in his carrier to go home. Sweet boy!
Silly boy stretching after sleeping literally for five hours after the surgery!
Leo in his e-cone. He actually doesn't mind wearing it!
 
Hoping you all have a wonderful Christmas coming up!
Seven more days!!! :)
 
<3 Katie

Friday, December 7, 2012

Seven years together!

Today marks seven years since Jarrett and I went on our first date and fell in love. I cannot believe how much time has passed since then. Just to fill you in a little (or a lot), Jarrett and I met while we were eighteen working at the restaurant Fuddruckers. He had already worked at the restaurant about a year or so before I came along. For about seven months all there was between us were looks at each other back and forth. You know, that whole I'm staring at you, but I don't want you to know I'm looking at you, so as soon as you look at me, I'm going to look away kind of thing. I caught him staring at me ALL the time even though he will still never admit it. For seven months it was only looks back and forth. No real conversations or anything. Just looks.
 
Finally, I got up the courage to even admit that I might really like him. I told my friends Lauren and Wendy that worked with us too. They became so excited when I told them and they even noticed that he would stare at me a lot haha. All of a sudden the whole restaurant knew that I had a serious crush on him and then his buddies said that he felt the same way about me. Of course I get all giddy like a little high school girl. At one point or another, Wendy ended up giving him my phone number because we were both too nervous to do anything about how we felt.
 
About two days later after Wendy gave him my phone number, he texted me. My heart literally jumped out of my chest when I realized that it was a text from him. We then started texting every day, then making small talk at work then finally, he asked me out on a date to the movies. On this day seven years ago, we went to the movies to see Saw II! Yes, Saw II! Jarrett let me pick the movie, and I of course, just had to pick a scary movie. It was the perfect first date in my opinion. Jarrett was a perfect gentleman the whole night and even put his arm around me during a really scary part of the movie. Gosh, what more could a girl ask for?
 
From that night on, we were inseparable! We were together every day all the time. I then found out from his best friend, Mark, that he had enlisted in the US Air force just months before meeting me. I was pretty devastated with the news because I knew our relationship wouldn't last because of the military. Jarrett didn't even tell me about his plans until literally a month before he left for basic training. He didn't want to tell me because he thought I would break up with him. Little did he know that I felt the same way, that he would break up with me before leaving.
 
We then decided to sit down and have a serious talk about what to do. Come to find out, neither of us wanted to break up. Neither of us gave it one thought in our minds that we should break up. I couldn't believe it. My boyfriend was joining the military and actually wanted to stay with me and still be my boyfriend even though we didn't know what the future held for us. Two days before Jarrett left, he asked me to marry him even though we had only been together for a few months. I said yes, of course, and Jarrett went out and bought me a ring right then and there because he wanted me to have something on my finger while he was gone.
 
You would have thought that I would have freaked out at the thought of just becoming a military fiance, but I felt just the opposite. I was calm, cool and collective at the thought. From then on, I saw myself as a military wife. I was born for the role. I wasn't scared of it at all. I surprised myself big time.
 
Well, we made it through basic training, clinging on to letters left and right. We made it though Technical School. Jarrett then got his orders for Langley AFB, Virginia, and we were so excited that we would only be three hours apart. We then made it through him being here in Virginia and me being back in Maryland working practically full time and going to school full time. We have made it through so much to be where we are now. I would not change a thing about our life and everything that we had to go through. In the end, it was all worth it.
 
Heres to seven more years and getting through everything that life has to throw at us!
 
Katie<3

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Selfless instead of selfish!

You know that little saying that everything happens for a reason? Well my mom is always telling me that God works in mysterious ways. My mom is so right. God does everything for a SPECIFIC reason. Yesterday, I was just casually looking at my bank accounts and credit card account on my phone. My credit card is a USAA rewards credit card so I obtain points for all of my purchases. When I hit a certain amount of points with my card, the points can be redeemed for money that can either be put into my checking or savings account. The amount to be redeemed was a little over fifty dollars. I could really use that extra money, so with the click of a button, the money would go straight in to my checking account. I felt so blessed to have that unexpected money.
 
Immediately I thought about a couple things that I could buy for myself instead of just keeping the money in my account. I'll admit that I can be very selfish at times when it comes to buying things for myself. I buy way too many things for myself that I don't necessarily need. There is nothing wrong with spoiling oneself every now and then, but sometimes I go overboard. I ended up on Target.com finding myself so close to buying a couple pairs of moccasin flats that I had been eying for a month or so now. Something in my head told me not to. I closed the Target website and went on Facebook instead of buying the flats.
 
When I got on Facebook, I saw something that my friend Whitney had posted. She had shared a link about a friend of hers, Emily, that had lost her husband, 1LT Stephen Chase Prasnicki, in Afghanistan just eight months after their wedding. This immediately grabbed my attention, so I clicked on the link. I was then able to read a little more about what the website was all about. Chase's wife Emily had started a care package drive in honor of her husband so that care packages would go out to all of the men in Chase's platoon. What an amazing thing for her to do to carry on her husband's memory. Her Facebook event for the cause also had a website on it where you could go to donate money towards the care packages. I had to do something. I went to the page and donated half of the money that I had just unexpectedly received. I could not just sit there and do nothing. This military wife had lost her husband. Her story broke my heart. After hearing her story, all I wanted to do was give Jarrett the biggest hug and kiss and just hold him forever. I am trying to help with this cause in any way that I can and I also ask of your help. Please go to Emily's Facebook event link here to find out about her care package drive. If you can help at all please go here to donate how ever much you can.
 
After I donated to her cause, I decided to put aside the rest of the money I had received to put in the offering plate at church on Sunday. I find myself struggling with offering sometimes, and my mom is always telling me to give until it hurts. I'm working on giving until it hurts and I hope to get better at it over time.

So instead of going out and buying new shoes, I was able to use that money to donate to a cause very close to my heart and put offering in the plate for Sunday. It is an amazing feeling when God calls us to step up to the plate and do his work. I received so much joy from using that money for others instead of myself.
 
Heres to being selfless instead of selfish,
Katie<3

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Okay! I am finally done with all my decorating and the decorating of the tree. I am really happy and excited with how everything turned out. I still have a lot of Christmas decor that I couldn't put out because I have no room to. I guess that makes it all the better to have this excess stuff for when we have a big home some day.
 
Our dining room.
 I am obsessed with the adorable reindeer that I got at Michael's!
Our garland. Goes well with our red wreath.
Computer desk. Snowmen!!!
TV Stand with The Family Man playing in the background.
End table with a baby tree.
Another end table with a baby tree.
Can you tell I love Christmas trees?
I will have three regular size trees some day.
You can count on that!
New stockings hung on the stairs.
 I couldn't wait to do Leo's!
 The kitchen with our stockings hung from last year.
 Kitchen oven decorations.
 Christmas cookie jar.
 Bathroom hand towels. Love!
 Of course I cannot live without my
Bath and Body works antibacterial soap and candles.
These are A MUST in my household!
 Jingle door knob for both bathroom doors.
New Barbie ornaments!!!
I love them so much.
Ahhh I'm such a dork, I know!
More new ornaments! Yay!
New picture frame ornaments. This is happening!
TREEEEE!
Front door wreath.
Patio table.
 
Reindeer flag. I love this so much.
Welcome to Christmas at the Hayman's! And my foot.
 
Hope you enjoyed and happy decorating to you all,
 
Katie<3

Weekend stuff!

Hello all! Hope you had a fabulous weekend. My weekend was real low key for once. Friday I worked till five then ran a few errands. So exciting. Saturday I worked till five again and then Jarrett and I had dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant here called Cancun. Delicious. Sunday, Jarrett and I went to church of which it was an amazing service. I feel so blessed to have found a church that my husband and I both love and enjoy. I use to be the one dragging him to church, but now, sometimes, he is the one dragging me. And by dragging, I literally mean "dragging" me out of bed to go to church because sometimes on Sunday's all I want to do is sleep in. Listening to God's message is much more important than that extra time to sleep and I know that. It's just that some Sunday mornings, it is extremely hard to get out of bed when you are so so tired. I may not have a "real" full time job, but I work nearly 40 hours a week and I work my butt off in those nearly 40 hours, so I am just as tired and exhausted as everyone else.
 
After church we decided to do a little photography session in front of our Christmas tree. This was actually Jarrett's idea considering he's not a fan of having his picture taken and I'm the one always running around taking pictures of everything. Later on the in laws came over for Sunday dinner and football. Boo our Ravens lost to the Squealers, but we will NOT lose to the Deadskins this coming Sunday. I promise you that my friends.
 

 
Happy Christmas shopping and happy week ahead,
 
Katie<3
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