Celebrity Status

Every now and then, I meet people that my husband works with, or is friends with from gaming or some other activity. Now that we live together, it’s more meeting his friends from work. He has always had female friends, and I have had male friends, and we have been able to maintain a strong relationship long distance to now without issues. We have always trusted that there was nothing to worry about simply because we knew that neither of us would stray. This trust has come from many different aspects, but two have stood out to me the last few times I have met people.

1. He tells me about them prior, usually more than once, and says “I think you would two would get along!” and hopes to have us meet.
2. When I meet them, other than introduction, the first thing they say to me is “I’m so happy to meet you, I’ve heard so much about you!”

I always feel like a celebrity, hearing that they have wanted to meet me for so long, or have heard things about me that made them want to meet me. Knowing that my husband talks me up to his friends, while I don’t hear of it regularly, always makes me smile to know that he wants to talk about me to his friends. I hope everyone is able to be this kind of partner and find this kind of partner in their lives, because it is amazing.

-Kayla! ❤

DIY Christmas

So, I may have mentioned in other posts, but money has been a bit tight for me and my hubby while I am in school. It’s been getting tough, but I keep reminding myself that the end is near. With Christmas coming up, I felt like I didn’t know what to do to get a gift we each care about without spending money, especially since our wedding anniversary is 12/31…Well we came up with a pretty cute idea that I thought I would share in case others are racking their brains.

We will be putting together a “trip” that we would take each other on within the next 3 years. We are going to pick a spot and share all the details, picture, and all the fun stuff, without purchasing anything. I am pretty excited about it. I love to travel, and we both want to travel a bit before we start trying to have kids. I’m excited to see what he will put together, and I will have to narrow down my choices…

-Kayla 🙂

Future Plans

I am only 5 weeks away from completing my MSW!! I have a lot to write between now and then, but it feels unreal! After this, I will (hopefully) find a job that will offer supervision for licensing. I am considering joining the military as an officer, but that will depend on if I can pursue what I want to. But I do want to work with military families so it may be a good option.

I have been so excited to make my marriage more equal again, once I have a job again. But I am also wanting to start planning stuff to celebrate our marriage. We are getting close to our 2 year wedding anniversary! I have the gift in my head for that, but we have been wanting to take a trip to the Grand Canyon for an anniversary. I am thinking it will have to be for our 3rd anniversary, but I am excited just thinking about it. I am going to start planning it for fun. It may be a camping trip. And our puppy might come with us, since the camp ground is pet-friendly. So much for us to see before we start to add to our family. I can’t wait to see where life takes us.

-Kayla 🙂

Grief and Loss

It is amazing to me the drastic change the loss of a loved one can have on a person. I feel like I am somehow the same person and different ever since losing my best friend…it’s been almost three years now somehow. This past weekend, I spent three days with children who are all facing grief and loss of someone important in their lives. These losses ranged from baby siblings, older siblings, parents (sometimes both) all the way to grandparents or even best friends.  Hearing their stories, and watching them process their grief through activities was awesome. One moment, they were playing and laughing, running around, to the next moment where there would be comfort, serious conversations and tears.

They built forts…

…had the opportunity to go canoeing, kayaking, or fishing on a beautiful lake…

….and be around nature and others in grief for healing.

The 10-12 boys who I was a counselor for chose the name of Chubby Pirates for a cabin name, and had such a blast meeting friends.

It is strange to see young children make so many changes and share intimate details about their feelings, and then never see/talk to them again. I feel like I am still processing my own feelings from this weekend, but loved the experience and am honored to have been a part of the process for these kids.

 

 

 

Hectic!

So when I first moved out to CO, I loved my job. My supervisor was amazing and supportive, and so were all the peers in the office. Slowly, and then all at once, everything changed. My supervisor left, and found a different job that was better for her expertise, and then a lot of others quit and moved on. We had such a high turn-over in such a short time. The usual caseload for people working 40hrs/wk is 120 clients. I had 140, and then coverage was split across the office for all the cases on people’s caseloads, so I became responsible for about 200 cases. These are long term care medicaid adults, where I manage services and make sure they are able to live safely in their homes. Needless to say, there weren’t enough hours in the day to complete assessments and return all phone calls that were piling up in my emails, and make the regularly scheduled contacts we need to make. Needless to say, I have been hugely overwhelmed, especially going to school full-time. I have been so burnt out.

So I finally asked to lower my hours and my caseload. It took management 6 weeks to figure this out, but I will be finally doing this starting in April. This also means  can’t do case coverage. My caseload will be 120 (still high, but I’ll figure this out). I so badly want to quit, but can’t because I need the income. I feel like I’ve had to put school work on the back burner, and I don’t like that either. I keep telling myself I’ll be done in December with school, and then I can take some tests to qualify for some other positions towards what I want to do. I also rarely get to see my husband, so it has been a challenge to find the time to spend with him-undivided attention that is. I can see light at the end of the tunnel, just wish I could leave this job now instead of waiting! People leave their bosses, not their jobs…

I did it!

 “Oh the places you’ll go”

So this post is around 3 weeks late, but I graduated college! I am constantly reminded why I chose The College at Brockport to become my alma mater, which is always reassuring. I was delaying this post because I was working out my career choices. I flew to Denver right after my graduation to audition for a dance company and it went so incredibly well and i loved the company and the choreographer and could literally see my dance life there for the rest of my life. Unfortunately, they chose someone who already lives out there and could start immediately, so I didn’t get the job. But they hope to see me again. so perhaps next summer. I did, however, get hired at Behavioral Health Network in Western Mass. I will be working a job in my field that could be a permanent position. While I am so excited to start work next week, I also am not going to keep this job forever. I still plan to move west, or anywhere, to follow my first love: dance. For now, I will be using this job for experience and building references and working on getting savings so I can afford to move and follow my dance career. But I am so excited to have a job in one of my fields and to start enjoying life out of college.

-Kayla 🙂

Update :)

I just wanted to let you girls know that I have decided to become a Pure Romance consultant!!! And I am super excited about it, and I hope to share more about it with you.

And really, the reason why I did it was because I am tired of relying SOLEY on Starbucks for my income. Waking up at 3am is really starting to take a toll on me… So my goal with this business is to be able to work from home. My sponsor is a stay-at-home mom with 3 young children and she makes crazy money! I can totally do that! I want to be able to stay home whenever Jon and I decide to start a family. I don’t want to have to work to pay for childcare. 

So if you ladies see any of my Pure Romance posts on here or Facebook, click like? It’ll make me feel better 😀

XOXO Mercedes

Ahhh!!!

I might have to officially admit that I’m lactose intolerant *waaaahhhh*

BUUUUUT…… it may be because of coffee. And that would be an absolute travesty. A TRAVESTY! Because. I. Really. Really. LOVE. My. Friggin. Coffee!

I’ll have to run a couple experiments (at the expense of my insides), and hopefully I’ll only have to limit my dairy intake and not my coffee. Because life with no coffee….. no thanks.

XOXO Mercedes

My weekly finds!

My weekly finds!.

This is a fun little post I did on my personal bloggy blog! I think it would be fun for us to do 🙂

 

XOXO Mercedes

FIRST POST!!!!

My dear ladies, I don’t think you truly understand just how excited I am for this blog to be up and running!!! And also, who doesn’t love to take a peek into another’s mind?

I don’t believe there should be many guidelines or strict adherences…. I’d say bare minimum is one (1) post per month. Otherwise, feel free to post what you will. Feel like asking us questions or whatnot here instead of the BookFace or texts, go for it. Favorite video or the week: share it!! Need to unburden your heart; you can be absolutely positive that we are here for you. Secret poet or songwriter? Share it! There’s an option to make specific posts private to the public, so don’t be too scared.

In other news, I’m going to Starbucks. Then I’m headed over to the National Museum of the Marine Corps. The Quantico Marine Corps Band is having a concert with The Band of HM Royal Marines. It should be good!

Have fun making this blog our own!!

XOXO Mercedes