Ch ch ch changes.......

Well aren't I Miss Perky Pants. I left things on a high note back in January and just really left them. Not purposefully but it just kinda happened. Life happened. More time consumingly grad school happened. The spring semester started and I lost track of it and all the sudden it's the stinking end of April. (Happy Birthday Eric!).

Cue this song........yeah the Shrek version.......

Pretty much everything is about to change!

1. I graduate with my masters in Speech-Language Pathology in less than 2.5 weeks. Yeah I know, exciting stuff. Who's more excited than me!? Well, I'll tell you, my husband is. Bless his heart, he's worked as hard as I have the past almost 2 years for this. He deserves to wear a big, ugly gown and walk across a stage as much as I do you.

2. We are moving! To Culpeper Virginia. I don't really have much to say about Culpeper yet. We shall see how that goes. We are renting a townhouse there and move in the middle of May. Ch ch ch changes......

3. AJ starts a new job in Culpeper. Yeah, he doesn't want to commute 3 hours from Culpeper to Roanoke everyday so he had to get a new job.

4. Girlfriend needs to get a job. I am very much looking forward to transitioning from student to working professional.

What else is new?

Really not much. AJ's still awesome, I still have an obsession with colors and patterns, as well as pallet wood, type 1 diabetes still sucks and I still have the tendency to talk about it in inappropriately high amounts of detail.

Same ol' same ol'.

High five. Let's keep this up.

We chopped us down some holiday tradition.

We rode off to a localish Christmas tree farm this past Sunday to chop down some holiday tradition.

Pro: It was a sunny, beautiful 45 degree day.
Con: It was a sunny day, so sunny and bright that picture taking was hard because we glowed, our skin that is.

Let's start off with 2 obligatory christmas tree farm pictures.........

 

 

 

and then continue with an artsy one....

and bring it full circle with a little family picture.....

 

See, pretty sunny but pretty fun.

I had decided this year randomly that I wanted to use a big ol' galvanized bucket for a tree stand. AJ so sweetly rigged up a way to make that a reality. Rig on rig on my sweet husband.

 

See. A bucket.

 

 

These are kinda the only pictures we took this year of us decorating the tree.....

 

 

Yeah, mind blowing.

 

But we did take these......

 

 

Yayy for the holiday season!

 



and folks that pretty much makes me a good wife.

I've never been a sports fan. Nope. A sports fan of any kind I am not. But since I married AJ, I am now a Nascar fan by marriage. So I've decided to embrace it.

 

this is a picture of me embracing it

 

Cause it makes this guy really, really happy.

 

 

and folks that pretty much makes me a good wife.

 

Proof.

 

2 Years

AJ and I celebrated our 2 year wedding anniversary this past week. Yayy gooo 2 years!!

We both agreed that our first year of marriage seemed to go by so so fast and we were kinda shocked when it was time to celebrate it. But this second year seemed to go by just right. It didn't seem to go by fast or slow, it just seemed like yes, it has been another year, let's celebrate.

On the actually day of our anniversary we were up in PA. The day consisted of lots of fun events like taking a bus tour around Pittsburgh and a nighttime river boat cruise which were all fun and great but they also involved bunches of other men doing those activities with us. So on Friday night once we were back home, we decided to celebrate 2 years of wedded amazingness doing something intimate and alone that is very special to our hearts, well really my heart. AJ drove me an hour and a half to the nearest Steak n' Shake. Let's just say my husband knows what his wife likes and knows how to make her happy. I love him.

We also took our now annual wedding anniversary photos.  I hope we really make this a habit and continue taking random and informal pictures of ourselves on our anniversary every year. It would be so fun to look back at pictures of us just being us at the same time every year.

Here's some pictures of our 1 year wedding anniversary photo shot. Doesn't get more informal than pjs.......

and year 2's

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and there's a little too much AJ and Courtney for you.

Dooo En My Hobbies

I'm on summer break. A 2 month break. With really nothing to do but whatever I want. For 2 months. Yeah if I were you I would hate me too. I'm pretty blessed to have 2 months of complete freedom and relaxation. I'm fully aware that I will probably never have a break like this every again.

Everyone keeps asking me what I'm going to be doing during this break. My answer is dooo en my hobbies! It's going to get crazy around here with crafts and decorating and watching Bravo.

Here's my goal list so far of projects to get done this summer break:

-Make curtains for our bedroom

-Make curtains for the kitchen

-Stencil burlap pillow in the living room

-Finish up the living room gallery wall with a couple more frames and fill up the empty frames currently hanging out on it

-Make pillows for our bed

-Make new wreath for front door

-Make the bathroom look cuter in general (new curtains, towels, rug, storage)

-Organize the guest bedroom somehow.......no guest can comfortably stay in there right now

Making curtains for our bedroom is the first thing I'm tackling. I went to Joanne's yesterday to get INSPIRED INSPIRED by fabric! I found some fabric I loved and decided to take a day to think about it. Here's hubbalicious with the said fabric.

He's a good man coming along to the fabric store with me. As long as we are spending time together he doesn't care what we are doing. Did you just gain five pounds from all that cheese?

Then today, I had a moment where I thought that I should just make curtains out of painter's drop cloths. Like below. It's a hottie tottie thing in the DIY world right now. Reasons for doing it would be that its cheaper (only $20 for two windows) and easier than making curtains from nothingness (3 sides are already hemmed for you) and I liked the neutralness and roughness of it.

from pinterest

but then after texting my stylish, crafty and smart sister about the idea this morning I decided that no, I'm going to go with the orange pattern fabric. Because my little heart loves it some color and pattern.

So off! Off I am to make bedroom curtains. Well tomorrow I am because a My Big Fat American Gypsy Wedding marathon is on that junk is crazy.

and now I breath.

Today marked the completion of my first year of grad school!!

It also marked the completion of a really tough spring semester. and when I say tough, I mean tough. Not only were the classes crazy intense but the diagnosis of a chronic autoimmune disease two weeks into the beginning of the semester amped the stress level up by about 1,573 notches. But I did it. I completed the semester. and I did it well.

Highlights of the semester:
-Feeling healthy again
-Constantly seeing and feeling how amazing and supportive of a husband I have who dropped everything to move to southwest Virginia in order for me to go to graduate school. Whatta man whatta man whatta mighty good man.
-Grabbing that figurative diabetes bull by the horns and throwing him around a bit to show him who's in charge
-The figurative diabetes bull grabbing me by the ears and throwing me around a bit to show me who's in charge but this sometimes, sometimes results in me learning something new about myself
-Continuing to love the profession I'm studying and preparing really hard for
-Learning new ways to trust in God and His plan for this crazy, fun life

I have 10 days off till I start 2 months of summer classes.

and for those 10 days I will be home just breathing and being happily content.........

and doing some diy projects.

and planting flower beds.

I may post about them but I might be too busy breathing.

Baby Brother's Birthday!!

Today my little brother turns 21!!!!!

Happy Birthday Eric!!

It's crazy how that boy has gotten so old.

To me he still is 10.

No matter how much taller than me he gets and no matter how far he can throw me, he will always be a little boy.

and not just a little boy, but the sweetest little boy with the biggest and best heart you can imagine.

The size of his heart definitely matches the size of his body.

He'll make a good man and good husband one day with that heart...........

75 years from now.

Katie's Bridal Shower

This past weekend was spent up in Northern Virginia celebrating a very special bride-to-be!!

Katie gets married in a little over a month!

To this guy, Austin.

So these two girls threw her a bridal shower.

Here are some pictures of the shower.

and she was happy!

This was a very fun shower to decorate!

The decor goal of the shower was just to make it as pretty as the bride.

Pretty, soft, rustic, vintagey and full of love.

Yayyy Katie!!!

Weekend Notables

-Finally decided to actually buy a new camera this weekend. We've needed a new one since summer when our old one started to crap out. Our old camera was a scary little thing. I'm talking lots of ghost orbs and demon red eyes. But that camera did last 4 years. That's pretty good, right? Aj and I were talking as we left Best Buy about how if this camera lasts 4 years too then it could be what we use to take pictures of my grad school graduation, of our first home purchase, of our first child......that's really crazy to think about. A lot could happen in 4 years.

-Aj and I went out to dinner on Saturday night. This resulted in our first sighting of a stranger with diabetes and with a insulin pump! Well Aj's first sighting. I missed it. You see, we were walking through the restaurant leaving, and I of course was too busy strutting my stuff like I was walking a runway (don't act like you don't do this when you are walking through a restaurant) and as soon as we walked out the door Aj says:

Aj-That guy in there has diabetes and a pump just like yours.
Courtney- What, wait, who, where, how do you know, are you sure?
Aj- Yeah positive, he was testing his blood sugar as we walked by.
Courtney- Why wouldn't you tell me?!?!?!?!
Aj-Why, what would you have done?

What would I have done?!?!? Good question. I don't know. Maybe I would have accidently thrown dropped my insulin pump under his table. Maybe I would have walked by and yelled "Type 1's say what!?!?!" and hope that he would have responded "Whohooo." Maybe I would have ran by with my hand sticking straight out high fiving everyone at his table. Most likely I would have just awkwardly tried to make eye contact and then continued on. I don't know. But just seeing another actually person, a stanger, who's living like I'm living is sooooo exciting. That stanger gets this weird diabetes part of my life better than any family member or friend. It's just fun to see.

-I had my first attack against my insulin pump by a door knob. I was expecting this to happen at some point but man did it scare the dickens out of me. When the tubing caught the door when I was walking full speed it felt like someone grabbed my ponytail and pulled me back real hard. Except just imagine your pony tail was attached to your belly.

This week is going to be crazy busy and I'm fully expecting to feel a lot like this by the end of the week

google images

It's my favorite day of the year!

It's my husband's birthday!

Mr. Man was born on this day 25 years ago.

That was a good day!

Raise your hand if you're excited.....

google images

google images

google images

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I love my man not only because he's sweet, funny, humble, hard working and just overall amazingly awesome but mostly because he's cute.

Happy Birthday Ja-Wiena-Biena!!!

You da you da best.

Sonya Ruth Photography did this. Highly highly recommend.

http://www.sonyaruthphotography.com/#



When organs don't do their job. Yeah I'm talking to you pancreas. You lazy jerk.

What do I have in common with....

Nick Jonas

Mary Tyler Moore

and this girl from that movie Panic Room?

Kristen Stewart pre vamps. Always makes me feel weird.

 Type 1 Diabetes



Two weeks ago I went to the doctors and my life kinda changed. I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes.

Right after Christmas my body began to slowly freak out. It felt like everyday I had another weird symptom to complain to Aj about. Constant thirst, lightheadedness, peeing x10, blurry vision, constant need to eat, joint pain, hives and I was oh so tired. I avoided and avoided all those fun things for a couple of weeks until my gut wouldn't let me ignore it anymore.

Sooo blah blah blah blah blah boring doctor office stuff blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah type 1 diabetes. Really?!?!

Now, being diagnosed with a lifelong chronic disease at 24 years old that must be treated everyday through shots of insulin and constant monitoring or else I could have major complications is a huge horse pill to swallow. Trust me I have mourned my old normal. and I will probably mourn more and then mourn some more after that just because I may be feeling sorry for myself that day. I'm not taking this lightly. The lightheartedness that may be seen is just a coping method.

But I am a blessed little lady. Oh so blessed. Me and my pancreas had a good 24 year run. Some people don't even get that. and I know that the Lord made my body exactly the way he wanted it, free loading organs and all. All for His glory, right? The beautiful, the painful, happy, sucky, loving, and fun.Yes it all is.

So here I am now, a new diabetic and kinda a mess. There is alot of new information I'm trying to learn and I'm trying to become comfortable with my new normal. I have to be a full-time wife, full-time graduate student and full-time pancreas all at the same time. Yes, my new hobbie is pretending to be a pancreas. Some how I am going to find a way to use these new skills/hobbie as a resume builder=brightside.

Courtney's thoughts on life with diabetes so far:

-My pain threshold has increased

-I feel more in control of the way and things I eat than ever. I've barely eaten processed food in two weeks. This is always a good thing.

-I'm going to make diabetes as cute as possible. I'm talking cute medical ID bracelets, adorable carrying cases for medical supplies, maybe a blinged out glucose monitor. Of the options!

-Sugar free Jello is the bomb

-If someone ever says anything to me about what I can do to "fix" my pancreas and get rid of diabetes I might actually just rip out my pancreas and make them eat it. There's no cure for type 1. Google it.

-I've given myself 56 shots in the past 2 weeks. How long till I get my nursing license through some type of grandfather clause? ...I honestly don't even know what a grandfather clause is.

-I don't want my disease to be a secret or something I feel like I have to hide. That's why I'm blogging about it. This is now apart of me and my story.

-It's not as bad as I thought it would be. At least today.....

and why the Panic Room picture and reference above? Well that is one of the first things I thought of when I found out I had diabetes. Really. Kristen Stewarts boy looking character in the Panic Room. Like really Hollywood? You provide me with inaccurate, long lasting images for everything.