TWO YEARS!!!!

Where were you two years ago today?!?
For D, myself and nearly 130 of our closest family and friends, we were all in St. Louis celebrating our wedding.  Crazy to think it has been two years since we said I DO and became husband and wife.
It's been a wild journey so far and we've had our ups and downs but I would not change one thing that has happened over the course of these 2 years.
I love looking back at our wedding pictures because I can honestly say this was one of the best days of my life.  I had my family and friends all together to witness such a beautiful, momentous occasion.

In case you want to relive the day as much as I do, here are more pics from the big day.

Happy 2nd Anniversary to my wonderful, patient (most of the time), caring and compassionate husband Dusty Bear!!  I love you more than you could ever imagine and I'm so happy I get to spend the rest of my life with you!

A delayed vacation post - a visit to Michigan's Upper Peninsula

So we went on vacation a little more than a month ago and somehow time got away from me with blogging about the trip.  Could be the fact that I've been a crazy workhorse since we've been back, but nonetheless, it was a great time and I'm so glad we were able to get away and relax in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.
This year we went back to the Roberts' family cabin and spent 7 days enjoying the views and peace and quiet of Lake Superior and Waiska Bay.
We did take a few days trips, including to Whitefish Point and the Shipwreck Museum, Sault Ste. Marie to see the freighters cross the locks and to my favorite, Tahquamenon Falls.

Kinny helping Daddy drive

The Mighty Mackinac Bridge

Soo Locks Visitor Center

That's some propeller!

Here comes a freighter!

Kinny catching some morning rays.

Happy 4th of July!!

Video Blackjack with the family before fireworks

A beautiful sunset on the 4th of July

The Lighthouse at Whitefish Point

Tahquamenon Falls

So majestic!

Dustin's favorite spot - watching freighters

Kinny's favorite spot - relaxing on something soft

Overall, we had a great time and both Dustin and I talked the whole ride home about how we would love to be able to move there.  Of course, with the careers we have now that's not possible, but it sure would be nice to get out of the daily grind and take things a bit slower.  Not sure how well I would do up there with all of the snow in the winter but the summer is amazing and definitely the change of pace we needed for a week off of work!

It's May!

We're about halfway through May and things really haven't slowed down for us much.  We've attended a few weddings, worked on a few projects around our house and celebrated a few holidays. Speaking of which, last weekend was Mother's Day and we were able to spend the day with my mom and step-dad.  Kinny even surprised me with a few gifts over the weekend, including these yummy donuts.

Love me some cake donuts!

Apparently Kinny sent her dad out at 5:45 am to find her Mom sprinkled cake donuts.  I also got a Groupon to get a massage or facial at a local spa. It was definitely appreciated and I'm so grateful for my family.
After our donut breakfast and a workout, we had to get ready for a wedding.  One of my cousins on my dad's side married her longtime boyfriend and our family was invited.  We all attended the ceremony and then had a few hours to spare before the reception so we visited a local micro-brewery for drinks and some snacks.

The Rick clan at Stubborn German Brewing Company

We had a great time at the wedding and it brought back a lot of memories of our own wedding nearly 2 years ago especially since the colors were exactly the same as ours!  Who knew green would be such a popular wedding color!

This weekend it was time to get back to errands and projects around the house. Kinny needed an updated Rabies tag and since she no longer can be vaccinated due to the cancer caused by her last round of vaccines, we had to get an exemption from the county. D and I made a trip to the Dept of Humane Services and were able to pick up her exemption tag and since we were out we also hit Total Hockey, Menards for a new outdoor blower/vacuum and handheld Shark, Kohls and Target. D put his new outdoor blower/vacuum to use as we worked in the yard today cutting the grass, trimming the trees and bushes and cleaning up all of the old leaves.

Overall we had a productive weekend and we're getting ready for a short work week with Memorial Day coming up soon. While I'm looking forward to some time off, work demands so much attention that I'm sure I'll have quite the backlog going into month-end. Like I tell myself nearly every day, stay calm, you'll find a way to get through it all.  

And thankfully when I leave work, I have this sweet girl to cuddle up to....

Life right now

Things have been beyond busy around here with work and household responsibilities. Somedays I wonder why we became homeowners....give me back my renting days where my only responsibility was to keep the place decent looking so I could get back my security deposit.
Lately we've had the furnace go out, the dryer go out and multiple projects go haphazardly or half-finished for the time being. We'll get there eventually I guess but not anytime soon.

Besides the normal work craziness, I've been searching to find a new Staff Accountant to fill the position that has been vacant since early November.  Who knew finding qualified help would be so difficult, but hopefully on Monday my new hire will start and live up to the expectations I have for the position. *fingers crossed*
I've been given a promotion to Senior Accountant and with that, my job has become even more non-stop over the past few months.  I'm still working far too many hours each week.  This weekend, knowing full well I'll have my hands full training the Staff Accountant next week, I spent a good part of my afternoon getting caught up with a few work projects so I can finish the easy input part when I get into the office on Monday.  Tomorrow I need to start and hopefully finish a synopsis of the visit from our Software Company a month ago.  It is a project dropped on me by my boss at 4:45 pm yesterday afternoon and is due by Thursday.  I know I'm thinking a few days ahead but knowing my days never go as planned, if I don't start on my own time, I probably will be stuck doing it on my own time Wednesday night or early Thursday morning.
D is in the same boat as I am with work right now and we're both working a ton of hours both in and out of the office.  We went to dinner with my parents tonight and then came home to hook back up to the laptops to get back to work.  He's in the office and I'm out in the living room with Kinny helping me. So much for Saturday night curled up on the couch just enjoying some free time together.

I'm still trying to complete a few sets of taxes for people as well.  I have two sets left to finish and while I enjoy taxes, I can hardly wait for the end of tax season.  Doing taxes used to fill my free time and give me a bit of extra money on the side...now, I'm trying to juggle them with everything else going on.  Somehow I always get through it, it just seems extra stressful this year.

If we're ever able to have kids, I'm not sure how I'm going to manage everything and it's weighed heavily on my mind lately.  Both D and I have so much on our plates at any given time and some days it just seems impossible to take on more.  I'm sure we'd figure it out but one or both of us will have to make some sacrifices.  Right now I already feel like Kinny gets the short end of the stick with us gone for 10 hours a day and that's why I've made such a point to try to be home with her most weekends. She notices when we're home and when we're gone for too long and she needs our time as well.  It hit me hard earlier this week as I was sitting at my desk eating lunch on Monday and all I wanted was to be home to cuddle with my sweet girl. I know it sounds crazy, but somedays I just want to be that stay-at-home kitty mom.

Anyway, just wanted to check in but I better get back to my work so I can at least take some of the pressure off of my week ahead.

You Know You're Getting Older

We're dealing with some sickness around here right now.  Apparently everyone in my office is sick and I don't have near the immune system that I used to so of course, I picked it right up. I'm finally feeling a bit better today after feeling horrible for 4 days straight but now D has caught the bug and is achy and just wants to sleep.  So we're taking it easy around here this weekend.

In any case, this post isn't about our ailments, I thought I'd jot down a few tidbits since turning 34 last Sunday.  I know I'm not old by any means but I do realize I'm getting older and I'm noticing little changes throughout my life.

You know you're getting older when:
- You ask your husband for mechanical pencils for your birthday.
- You'd rather list to the local "Greatest Hits" radio station rather than the "Top Hits" station.  I'll take Journey and Genesis over Taylor Swift and Shawn Mendes anyday!
- Your Saturday nights consists of dates involving grocery shopping and trips to Sam's Club at 8 pm.
- You'd rather spend your evenings watching reruns of Full House, Friends and Home Improvement rather than anything new in primetime.
- Your weekends are spent binge-watching Fixer Upper or Property Brothers for home improvement ideas for your own home.
- A weeknight date night is a rare occurrence these days and even when you do plan something is usually because it takes care of multiple goals you wanted to accomplish.
-You realize that you can't remember near the random details you did when you were 22. Where has my memory gone these last 12 years?!?
- The best part of your workday is coming home and spending the evening with your husband and kitty on the couch.

I wonder what sort of changes I'll notice in the next 10+ years!

Ahhh January

So the end of the year got away from me and I haven't had a whole lot of extra time to put together a proper update on our holiday happenings.
It ended up being a jam packed December -- Dustin's birthday, Christmas parties, Christmas celebrations, visiting family both here and in Michigan, dealing with a crazy ice storm, getting though year-end and just everyday life.  But, we survived it all!

January hasn't been very slow either and I'm shocked that we're just a week away from the end of the month and only 5 days from my 34th birthday.
Some exciting news for the month:
- We finally got to hang out with some of our old friends from our former employer. It was fun to catch up with dinner and the Blues game and even more exciting to hear that they will be welcoming an addition to their family in July.
- I finally got an unexpected day off from work when the 2nd ice storm was slated to come through the area on Friday the 13th.  I called in because I was not about to commute 4.5 hours again like the month before.  I got a lot of honey-do's complete that day which was nice.
- Speaking of home projects we've finally got a few rooms updated and our house is starting to look like a home.  We have our guest bedroom decorated and just put the finishing touches on our master bedroom.  With these projects done, we're getting ready to tackle a few upgrades to our basement.
- We're a aunt and uncle again!  Our sweet nephew Eli was born on January 17th.  We haven't actually gotten to meet him in person yet but we're excited to see him on our next trip to Michigan.
- We got to go to the Blues game last Thursday with my brother and his girlfriend and sit 3 rows off of the ice.  While it was not even close to a respectable performance by the Blues (they lost 7-3 to the Capitals), we had a blast hanging out with them.
- Today I got some good news on the work front.  I'm not at liberty to say much yet but hopefully it will help me in the coming months.  It's been a rough few months and I welcome any positive changes.

With my 34th birthday on the horizon, I've got a lot of stuff on my mind, maybe one day I'll actually put it all on paper but for now, I'll let it just mill around in my head.

Thanksgiving Weekend Recap

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!  We spent the afternoon with my mom, step-dad and uncle and his family.  We enjoyed great food and great company!

On Friday, I spent the morning decorating our house for Christmas with the help of Kinny.  We put our tree up last weekend but we had a bunch more decorations in totes that needed to be swapped out with our Thanksgiving decorations.

Mom, I'm supervising.

 We also put together the headboard we bought for our guest room.

Where's the mattress? I'm ready for a nap.

The finished product!

 Friday afternoon, D and I braved the crazy Black Friday shoppers and went out to do a bit of shopping for our families.  While it was crowded, it wasn't completely out of control and we were able to get a few good deals.  Once we were finished shopping on Friday evening, we came home and started wrapping Christmas presents.

Kinny was in charge of boxing up the gifts.

Kinny was also in charge of bows and hiding in gift bags.

We also did a bit of Small Business Saturday shopping at Main Street St. Charles.  Thankfully the weather held out and it wasn't frigid walking around.  We picked up a few special gifts for family and I was also able to get those wrapped before we left for the Blues-Wild hockey game. D and I split a partial plan hockey tickets with my Aunt and Uncle and Saturday's game was one of our nights.  We invited my mom and step-dad to attend with our two extra tickets and it was definitely an exciting game.  The Blues ended up winning in a shootout!

Today we've tried to get back into our routine and get ready for the work week ahead.  Besides a bit of much needed sleeping in, I meal-prepped our lunches and dinners for the week, did a few loads of laundry, paid some bills and got the address labels made for our Christmas cards.

Tomorrow starts another extremely busy week at work. We're short an Accountant and we're headed into month-end on Wednesday. The extra days off for Thanksgiving were much needed but I also know it puts us behind a bit. I'm hoping that it doesn't put me so far behind that I'm working a ton of extra hours. Going into the holidays, the last thing I want to be doing is working 50+ hours a week.

I am excited for the holidays though, even though they are stressful with all of the travel we do, I am really feeling the Christmas spirit this year.

Halloween 2016

Monday was Halloween and while we didn't have near the number of trick-or-treaters as last year, we did have a bunch.  Kinny loved Halloween, well, except the costume part.  Yes, we dressed up our sweet girl again this year but it was only to snap a pic for Instagram and Facebook and then we let her take it off.

She loved seeing all of the kids come to the door and waited patiently for more to ring our doorbell when there was a lull.  In fact, the past couple nights she's still been waiting by the door for more trick-or-treaters and we've had to tell her she has to wait 365 days for Halloween.

Here's a few pics of our Halloween...

Mom, not the costume again!

Where are the kids?!?

These aren't for me, but I'll check them out anyway.

I'm ready to pass out candy!

Dad, the trick-or-treaters need to hurry here!

I'm done with Halloween, I'm going to chew my treat/

This afternoon we're headed back to the surgeon for a post-surgery follow up appointment.  Kinny has been a champ after her surgery and is getting around great and really is back to her old self. I'm hoping to learn more from the doctor based upon the results of the biopsy too.

Post Surgery Update

Our sweet girl is on the mend!

We picked her up from the hospital yesterday evening after work and it was definitely a rough night on all of us.
Obviously Kinny was frightened a bit coming home and wanted to hide right away but had some trouble since she can only hobble around on 3 legs.  Not to mention she's on pain meds and had surgery only the day before.  But, we all were so glad she was home! She's slowly coming around to her home surroundings again and we had a good day together today.

Thankfully, I was able to take today off of work.  (Actually, I was taking today off no matter what because I was not going to abandon my girl once we got her home.)  We were worried about her hurting her recovery, so she slept in her cat bed in the living room and I slept on the couch right next to her, in case she needed me.  Around 4 this morning, she woke up and had a bit of food and some water which were also right next to her bed and then let out a huge wail.  I woke D up and we all sat in the hallway for about 30 minutes trying to figure out what was wrong and what we should do before deciding to all go back to sleep in our bedroom.
D had to get up for work so Kinny and I decided that we'd just keep sleeping for awhile and that we did...well after 10 am in fact.

Thanks D for taking a pic of us sleeping this morning.

The rest of the day we just decided to rest and take it easy.  I know I have not had a day off in a few years where I did nothing besides rest; probably the last time was when I was hospitalized back in 2013. It was definitely needed on my part and I'm hoping it helped Kinny's recovery.  My mom is coming over to spend tomorrow with Kinny and then D and I will be home the remainder of the weekend.  We are relieved to put the surgery behind us and we know Kinny has quite a recovery ahead of her but we're ready to help her any way we can.  She's our baby and the best kitty girl ever!

Stress makes us stronger...or so they say

I have been meaning to post another update because so much has happened over these last 7 months but somehow I never found the time or just thought whatever was going on wasn't exciting enough to talk about.  Maybe my normal suburban life isn't all that crazy or exciting but I am going to make more of an effort to blog about it.

It's crazy that my last post was about the 2 year anniversary of adopting our sweet girl Kinny back in March.  She's still the best part of my life besides D and honestly she's the one who keeps me going when all I want to do is give up.

We had quite a bit of stress we've been dealing with over the last couple days with Kinny.  What should have been a routine checkup at the Vet has turned into one of my worst nightmares and I'm hoping that my faith and constant prayer will help mend her.
On Saturday, we took Kinny in for a checkup and teeth cleaning.  Thankfully we have Banfield's Wellness Plan that allows for us to take her in twice a year for a comprehensive exam and medical tests.  This was her normal checkup and really we weren't worried about anything taking her in.  She's still her same sweet, cuddly and bubbly self.

Kinny hitting the weights.

The doctor at Banfield ran all of her tests and noticed that her Potassium was in a dangerous level.  She also noticed that the tumor on her right arm, which was previously benign, had grown in size.  We have the tumor checked on every visit and in the past it was even biopsied to make sure that it was not cancerous.  We were told that it was just fatty tissue and over the years we've accepted that because it hasn't caused her any problems.  To be honest, I'm not sure if it is causing her problems right now or if she's just that strong of a girl that she's pushing through any pain and discomfort. Knowing my feisty girl, she probably just figures she's not going to let it slow her down.

In any case, we had additional tests and x-rays completed just to make sure nothing was life threatening.  The results have been terrifying.  After a biopsy and x-ray, our Vet showed us the results. The reason why Kinny's Potassium is high is due to the tumor. They believe she has Tumor Lysis Syndrome.  Kinny's tumor, if left untreated will eat away at the bones in her arm, causing her to become paralyzed.  There is not a prescription that will treat this and the only treatment available is amputation.  It has hit both D and I hard!

Our Vet also encouraged that we visit an emergency vet clinic last night to have her Potassium levels checked again.  Thankfully, her Potassium levels were back to normal but they are still fearful that left untreated her life with be shortened.
So we're proceeding with the recommendation from our Vet and we've got a consultation tomorrow morning with the surgeon at the specialty clinic.

I've been beating myself up over the past day and a half wondering what I could have done differently so that my sweet girl wouldn't have to go through this.  I feel like I've failed as Kinny's protector and mom.  My only hope is that once the surgery is complete, she is back to 100%.  I know there are a lot of animals that survive with only 3 legs and that many cats thrive after facing this sort of health issue.  My girl is definitely a fighter and I will always try to be the best protector and mom I can be to her because she's my companion and #1 fan.

Please keep my Kinny girl in your thoughts and prayers.

Our Kinny

I posted on Instagram and Facebook this morning that 2 years ago today, we adopted our Kinny.  Really its seems like its been so much longer than 2 years, she just that loveable.  She's an absolute doll and she has been the best companion to both me and D.  And really, I don't know where I would be without this little girl!!  We adopted her when I was going through an extremely rough time and my hopes were that she would make me realize that everything else is just peanuts in life.  And from the time she climbed up on D's lap at the shelter, she's definitely made my life better!  She's made me slow down and enjoy the simpler things in life and most of all she's taught me how much love I have to give.

She's bright eyed and bushy tailed every morning when my alarm goes off and patiently waits for us to feed her.  Each night after work, she's waiting for us as soon as we get home and just loves cuddles and curling up on the couch with us in the evening.  She's our travel buddy and our snuggle bug and sometimes even our dinner partner.

Hi Mom, where's dinner?

I'm still waiting for my plate.

She truly is the best and cutest kitty in the world and I'm so lucky she chose us to be her parents!







Come on Spring

Last weekend we enjoyed an unusually odd 80 degrees on Saturday so D and I decided to take a walk around Main Street St. Charles and Frontier Park.  We reminisced about our engagement pictures that we had taken at the same spot back in May and overall we had an enjoyable, fun day in the nice weather.

Wednesday they predicted snow for the area and not just a dusting, some areas were supposed to get 4-8 inches of snow.  I woke up to a text from a co-worker on Wednesday morning saying he wasn't coming into work because he had already shoveled his driveway and spun out twice in his town and it was still coming down in buckets.  His town ended up getting 6+ inches of snow.  Our city, just 45 minutes west of St. Louis, got nothing that day!  Apparently we were on the line and the snow missed us, but as I drove east to work, the closer I got to the city, the more snow there was.  The last 8 miles of my commute were awful and it took me twice as long to get from there to the office as it did the other 11 miles.

Today we're enjoying another 70 degree February day only to be faced with snow again on Tuesday and Thursday.  My sinuses and allergies are completely out of whack and while spring is usually the worse for me, I'm ready to finally see spring for good!

A Long, Overdue Update

Where have I been and what have I been up to?  Wow...there are so many ways to answer that, but I'll try to provide the condensed, non-boring (ok...not too boring) summary.

After the wedding and the weeks that followed, we tried to start getting our house organized.  We bought our new furniture and started turning our house into our home in the few spare minutes we had on our weekends.  Somehow it seemed like every weekend we were going in multiple directions throughout the month of September. 

Finally in the beginning of October, D and I decided to get back into our fitness routine and joined the gym right down the street from our house.  It's another location to the gym I used to go to before I moved in with D downtown so I was excited to get back into the groove.  With the wedding and craziness leading up to it with the move and new jobs and blah, blah, blah, neither of us realized that we hadn't really devoted much time to actually getting decent workouts in so when we had an orientation session with trainers our first week, we both realized we're not the spring chickens we used to be.  And with that, we opened up the wallet and each purchased 6 months of training with a personal trainer.  So far, its going well and it's pushed us to be more dedicated with working out. I look forward to those Tuesday and Thursday night butt-kicking sessions every week!

The holidays rolled around soon after that.  For Thanksgiving, we stayed home and enjoyed the holiday with both sides of my family.  We drove to Michigan the week before Christmas and spent time with all of D's family throughout the state, making our drive back home on Christmas Eve.  We actually got to enjoy Christmas Day in our own home for the first time ever and we had my mom and step-dad out to spend the afternoon with us.

Headed to my Company Christmas Party

Road Tripping Back to Michigan

Kinny Getting Into the Holiday Spirit

Going back to work after the holidays was less than fun.  It was extra long work days and prepping for year-end close.  You would have thought coming back to a company after leaving years ago, I would have some idea as to what we needed to get done but it just seemed like this year was 10 times harder than years past or I just forgot how crazy it really is!

D's cousin came down to spend New Years Eve with us and my cousins and we had a blast ringing in 2016 at my aunt and uncle's house.

NYE 2015 - Go Green!

Happy 2016!!

I don't know where the month of January went.  Seriously, the month was gone before I had a minute to think and with that, I turned 33 on the 29th of the month.  33...never imagined being that age and never in a million years would I have thought I'd be married, with a mortgage, living out in the 'burbs with our kitty.

My co-workers all came out to help me celebrate my birthday.  It was so much fun reliving some of my younger days out dancing to a great band at a spot not too far from my house.

Work has pretty much been non-stop for both D and myself over the last few months, we've done our best to try to hold everything together though, but it's been rough.  Weekends have been catching up on household chores, meal planning, grocery shopping, running errands and working out.  It hasn't left us much time for fun or planning our overdue honeymoon. 

I'm starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel at work.  I took last Friday off of work and I have a few more days off over the next couple months to tackle some projects around our house...you know, things that we wanted to do when we moved in but didn't find the time to complete.  And, believe it or not, I was really excited to take off and paint trim work!  Right now, getting all of our projects started and finished is my main goal....D probably thinks otherwise though....say like planning a honeymoon!

Enjoying a warm February day!