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 🙂

CVG <3

3 years later, I still find that grief comes in waves. I am working on a paper for school, and taking breaks to mourn you. Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, and the past 3 years I have probably celebrated it the least in my entire life. While I want to celebrate now and have an amazing time (in your memory and for me), I continue to find it a challenge. My life is different because of you, and it is different without you. I wish I could hear you on the phone or have you for another visit, and tell stories to each other late into the night as we catch up on what has been happening. Reminisce about our travels abroad, and chatter about the travel we hope to do yet. I have loved our little visits, although they pale in comparison to hanging out in person. I love you, dude.

-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.

 

 

 

Baby Fever

The baby fever has been hitting me hard lately! Andy and I are surrounded by many friends (I think about 15 at this point) who are all pregnant and due this summer. A lot of conversations in my life are related to pregnancy decisions, and soon it will be parenting, just from what is going on for all of them! SO MANY BABIES coming this summer.

Andy and I continue to remind ourselves to take our time, and we like being able to enjoy married life, just over a year into our marriage. Going to school full time and work is taking up so much time, and Andy isn’t set in his job right at this moment, so adding kids to the mix right now is not what we want. Being so in love with him and knowing we are such a great team definitely makes me think about having kids, but I am glad we are taking our time.

I got an  IUD in, so most likely no kids in the next few years. The weirdest feeling in the world getting it in, and I won’t lie it was a little painful, but manageable. We are relieved to know I will have birth control for the next 5 years regardless of what the administration may decide on funding birth control in the upcoming years.

We are hoping to take a trip to Europe when I finish up with school at some point and I am so excited to travel and go back to Europe. I have missed travelling. As much as I have baby fever, I’m pretty sure my travel bug is a million times worse. It has been three years since my adventures in Europe during my study abroad, and travel is calling my name. I miss being around new places, new people, and learning about the world from new perspectives. It’s always a reminder, even with terrible things happening, how we are all together in this world, and all part of the human race.

So anyways, I need to close the baby name meaning searches, finish this post, and then get back to finishing up a paper for school so I can work on the other 2 papers to finish by Saturday. Then I can get ready for Spring Break to hang out with my twin who is coming to visit!! Haven’t see her since last summer so I’m excited!! (I also hope I don’t have twins even though they’re the best)

-Kayla 🙂

 

 

 

 

Kayla’s back.

Looks like this blog has been in a bit of a hiatus! Sorry for our absences, we have all be going through a lot of changes.

Lately, I’ve been starting to feel like a real CO resident, being here for more than a year now. I am doing my Masters of SW online with USC, and have been working as well. My life has been jam-packed lately!! I have been extremely stressed and feel overworked because of the workload at my job, and the amount of time I need to spend working, doing school work, and at my internship. Luckily, I have some amazing friends at my job who help me get through every day, and my amazing husband supports me every day in any way he can. He constantly shows me that we were made for each other.

 

Married at last

If anyone told me when I first got engaged that I would be married by the end of the year, I would have thought that person was crazy. But here I am, a married woman. I am so ridiculously happy. With some upcoming changes in his military career, we made the decision on December 1, 2015 to get married on December 31, 2015. It took many days of deliberating, but it was the best choice for us to make. Let me just say, to the people who think it cannot be done in a short amount of time, our wedding is proof that it can be.

I was surprised by how many people kept expecting me to be nervous about getting married, asking if I was pregnant, or telling my then-fiance that he should back out while he had the chance. I was also pleasantly surprised that so many people were so supportive of the decision. Everyone was taken by surprise, but immediately asked how to help and stepped up to the challenge when asked. Both my family and my in-laws were gung-ho for the entire process and it was so wonderful. Both my husband and myself were running around doing errands every day while he was on leave to get all the information together and put together a wedding, all while I still had to go to work.

And what a wedding it was. The entire event was perfect, and with barely any practice. It was beautiful. We felt so much love that whole day, and the sneak peek pictures I have seen captured it all. It was such a blast all day, and the mini honeymoon we went on was so wonderful as well.

Now, a week and 1 day later, my husband is flying back to Colorado. Every time we start off a long period of separation, my body revolts. It is little things like this that convince me that we are soul mates, crafted together and shared in two separate bodies joined in love. Luckily, I will be flying out to join him soon, and by early February we will be in our first apartment together and creating our life as our family of two. I am full of so many emotions all at once, but it will be so worth it. I cannot wait to be back in his arms in just about a month.

-Kayla 🙂

I’m engaged!!!!

I arrived in Colorado Springs on 10/18, totally excited for my boyfriend to arrive back from Kuwait. This deployment felt almost harder than his past combative one simply due to time zones and the overall timing of it. I made a sign and waited for him to get home after one delay. He arrived safe and sound. We were also excited because we would be spending our 4 1/2 years together. We have never been able to be together for big milestones before. Andrew decided to get a room at the Cheyenne Mountain Resort for the weekend to celebrate, have a nice dinner, and some champagne and strawberries. He always does things to make our time together special. Little did I know, it was going to be a bigger night than I expected…

We got up to our room, It was gorgeous, I was having him follow me to the balcony and taking in the sights, the Rocky Mountains. He said it was a bit chilly and wanted to go back into the room. Before I flew out to Colorado Springs, he had asked me to bring the letters he wrote to me; he said he had a plan of putting things together nicely. I didn’t think anything of it, since I had just finished my scrap book/photo album of my travels in Europe from last year. He asked to see the letters, and started to take them out of the envelopes to look at what they were, “I’m just putting them in the order I sent them” he told me. I just sat and watched. Then he told me “There’s one letter I didn’t get to send before I came home…” He drew a question mark on a piece of paper and placed it at the end of his letters. He said “Okay. Figure it out.” I was so confused. I got up off the bed to get a front view of what he had been working on. I just stared at them. There were some shapes at the tops of some of the letters, but it wasn’t making sense to me. “Could you please help me a little? I’m not sure what I’m looking for…” I was literally so confused. “Look at the first letter of each one.” From the time he started writing to me from Kuwait 9 months ago, until now, Andrew had been planning this moment. The letters spelled out “Will you marry me?” I turned to him, and he was on one knee. He said my full name and started to say something nice about us/me. I was so surprised, I cut him off and said “Are you serious?!” I asked him about 3-4 more times and just hugged him so hard. I would be lying if I said that I wasn’t crying because I was so happy. He then asked “So, do you want the ring, or….?” And he put the ring on my finger. We are engaged! The way he did this was so perfect, and so surprising, I could not have imagined a better proposal for us. It was so personal and between just the two of us. I have such an amazing man in my life and I am so excited to spend the rest of our lives together.

-Kayla ❤ 😀

It’s funny how the books you read line up with your life

It’s not like you always seek out certain books to realize something, and even when you do, the realizations and thoughts that come through may not have been expected.

I just finished reading American Wife written by Taya Kyle with Jim DeFelice. I was astounded at how much I saw Andrew in Chris Kyle, and even more by how much I aligned with Taya Kyle. Obviously, we are not a mirror image couple, and our relationship is its own. But many of the personality traits I see in Andrew or in myself while reading this book.

After dealing with a loss myself, although not a spouse, this book was therapeutic in the waves of grief that followed and are still washing up now and then. And it also faced a fear I have had, but also deepened since my friend died: how I am always hoping for Andrew’s well-being because I don’t really know what it would be like to face my life without him.

Near the end of the memoir, Taya talks about her search for happiness, and how she usually finds herself thinking of what she hasn’t done rather than her successes. I really saw myself doing this often, although I consider myself a ‘happy’ person. I have been stressed, restless this summer counting down the days and the savings I need to move and start my life-our life-with Andrew. Yet I haven’t necessarily celebrated what I have accomplished so far because I keep looking at what I need to do for the next thing. It definitely reminded me to LIVE IN THE MOMENT more. Something I try to do, but it is definitely an aspiration of mine for that to come more naturally. I have two undergraduate degrees under my belt, I am working in (one of) my fields of study and have someone I love deeply who loves me in return, and I even have plans that I am working towards. I am not lost, but I am still learning and succeeding each day.

So cheers to me on that, and congrats to you (all) for what you succeeded in this summer.

-Kayla 🙂

The Science of Happiness

Saw this the other day. It’s funny how sharing what others mean to you can brighten your day. And it’s a reminder to let people know what they mean to you while you still can.

-Kayla