Please Pray!

i have an interview tomorrow for a job i REALLY REALLY want!

please pray for me!

that's all i can put, i need a good nights rest so i am ready to be AWESOME for tomorrow!

please keep praying, kel and i need this for a lot of different reasons!


btw... who is the saint of interviews/jobs/achieving dreams/ or anything related???? does anyone know????

Overcoming my grumpiness.

So i really really really really really want to type an entire blog just complaining. I have had a very rough time the past week for a lot of reasons. it has been emotional on SO many levels i think my husband is ready to hide for a few days. however, because tomorrow is Thanksgiving i REFUSE to be that whiny girl who can't think of anything to be grateful for and constantly complains when she more blessed than the rest of the world. So instead of complaining i am taking the HIGH road, here are my Thanks!

1. My faith. it keeps me going even when I'm weak! By faith i really mean God! i figured he was a given, so i put my ability to believe and accept and live with God as my number one.

2. My Husband! every morning i look at him and know that it will all be worth it! He is my rock whom without there is no telling where i would be. I love him more now (it's been over one month!) than the day i married him. I love our life together adn would do anything for it. Thanks Hubby!

3. My family! i am realizing more and more every day how truly blessed i am to have the family i have. My parents have raised 4 beautiful, very intelligent, hardworking catholic girls who have lived extra ordinary lives helping others in different ways (bragging: my sister and i have 5 1/2 college degrees-Julie's not done- for 4 daughters, that's not very common to be able to say). My sisters and i have been through so much and knowing that i have three best friends to turn to at any point is just amazing! I am so blessed with the love and support and kindness my family gives to me there are no words to describe it! My parents have taught me so much and still teach me a bunch!

4. My home... it is such a cute amazing little townhouse that is worth every penny (minus one neighbor) and we were lucky to get it in the first place and now we are blessed to have such an extravagant home.

5. my friends! All of them (in no order) my college, my prayer partner, my high school friend, kel's small group! I know how hard ti is without a close network of friends and i am blessed to be able to call anyone if i need anything and someone will always be there to help me.

6. My niece Anna! (sorry family and friends, but she gets her own one!) She truly is the biggest living example of a miracle in my life. every time i look at her or think of her story of how she came into my life i tear up. without her my family would not be complete and that little sassy-pants-over-achieving-bundle-of-love is the greatest reminder of how much other people sacrifice in order to love someone. I love my other new niece and i will love all my future niece and nephews... however Anna holds a very dear place to me. My family went through a lot before she joined us and it all just made us love her more. It is so obvious to see how the love and happiness of the family she joined has affected her, because i have never seen a happier baby (and i work at a day care). She is a constant reminder of love and her smile just shows the world that she knows she is safe and loved and happy. I am so thankful that my family gets to experience this... and if I'm this sappy about my niece i wonder what having my own kids will do to me.

7. my intelligence. I defiantly take this for granted, but i am so thankful to be a hardworking intelligent woman. There are a lot of people out there without the education and common sense that i have and i can't imagine life without either of those. So i am blessed by my intelligence (when i choose to use it!).

8. i am thankful for sunshine! it makes me happy!

9. I am thankful for my jobs. I have many and they all provide food and shelter and comfort. Not everyone can say that and i am SO BLESSED to be working and living off my own hard work. It might not be my dream job, but it gives me everything i could ever ask for.

So yeah, i am obviously thankful for SO MUCH MORE, but i have dishes to do before my husband gets home! This list has helped me to not be so grumpy adn complaining about whats going wrong with my life and has helped me to remember what's going right! Next time you are grumpy... make a list of thanks and see what happens!

Thanks to my Guardian Angel

Spoiler Alert: Kel and i have no money!

It's true! We both work very hard yet bills always seem to outweigh the paychecks. Since i am pretty sure that is how our life will be going no matter how much our paychecks are, we are getting used to it. we have a budget in place and we are spending WAY less, putting money into savings, and cutting costs whenever possible.We both appreciate hwo hard theother works, and that is enough incentive to not blow our money on pointless stuff.

Recently Kel had a horrible fall down the stairs that after hours of unconsciousness landed him with an ambulance ride to the ER. He had EVERY SINGLE test they coupld possibly think of run on him and was then sent home. All worry and medical purposes aside this for any normal person would be jsut another expense but would have insurance to help with the blow of it all. Kel has/had no insurance. So this bill was 100% totally on us. The total bill was a little over $10,000 for the whole thing.

Kel applied for a charity program through the hospital. For month we have been waiting to hear back from them. We are now at the point of bill being so late on their payment that payment plans are not an option and we have to magically discover $10,000 to  cover everything. Then we heard from our angel. Kel was not only accepted into the charity payment program, but they are covering EVERYTHING except the ambulance ride (a little over $500).Since the moment i heard this have been saying Thank You prayers. We would not have managed if the bill had fallen completely on us, but since God is AWESOME and provided for those who do His will, we are covered. My husband is happy and healthy and now to can focus on other debts (student loans, car payment, rent, etc) without worrying about over drafting my account by $10,000. This makes Christmas Shopping more of a reality and less of a severe fear.

I am just so blessed and so happy right now!

Oh i also have a new niece. Kel's sister had a baby yesterday and she's a cutie! her name is Alexa Joy!

A Wife's Tale

I have to admit, i have never really thought about veterans day in the past. Every now and then i would see or hear something... think of the troops and vets, say a prayer and that was all. All of this changed 2 years ago when is started dating my now husband. Most people actually don't know that he is a veteran, but he is and it has not been an easy road for him to live.

I always thought that the armed services was kinda like a job. you go, you work for x amount of time, then you move back settle down and get a "real" job. Of course some stay and that's cool but i never realized the effects being in the arm services has on people, until Kel.

Kel was in the Navy from age 18 to 21. He went straight out of high school and enlisted. He became more than the average sailor and worked his way into the field of Naval Intelligence. He did a lot of very dangerous things, in a lot of very dangerous places with a lot of very dangerous people. He had a very specific job and it was not an easy one. In fact nobody is allowed to know details, including me. Then after a few traumatic event befell his life he was able to leave the armed services a bit early in order to keep himself out of harm's way. Kel is a very strong (physically and mentally) man. What he lived through in the Navy meant that becoming a citizen again was not an easy task. in fact it took him over 6 months to realize how to live as an adult on his own. After that it took another year to get a job, learn to work not under military style management, live on his own and relieve himself of the stress and pressure that were put on him at such a young age. Years after being out of the navy Kel still has to live with medical and emotional scars from his service to the country, as well as constantly be looking to see if his friends still in the armed services are safe. I have seen the scar from where he got shot. I've heard the pain of a nightmare and memory of what he has seen. I've seen the anger of a helpless man. All so that i can live my normal life everyday. All so that we can raise our future kids safely. All so that i can go to work as a woman and have rights without persecution.

Veterans day is my new favorite holiday. It's a day i can tell my husband "Thank You" personally for risking his life to save mine, when he didn't even know me. It means so much to say that to him personally, because he is my hero!

I can not wait until my nieces and nephews and children are old enough that i can tell them about Uncle Kel and Daddy. About how he went out and fought the bad guys. About how he wore that uniform and kept us safe. Kel has been on a long journey to the man he is today and it has been a lot longer and harder because of what he has seen and done. So if you get the chance please tell him or another veteran thank you. They didn't have to do it, but they did it and they did it with Pride!

the top 10 updates on my life (in random order)

SO... things are crazy and hectic for Kel and I, but in a very good way most of the time. Here are a few updates on how things are going:

1. Kel and I both have over 50 hours of work this week (me at 55ish and him at 65ish)! While some people think this is crazy both Kel and I are very excited about this. we botha re hard workers and although we don't always love our jobs we love working. Hard work is the number one way we can say "I Love You" to each other. I am so proud of him because working this hard is how i was raised so it's natural to me, but to Kel it is very much a learned thing and he is a wonderful man!

2. we got a Wii (for cheap because we have no money) and Super Mario. Which means i am able to reward myself with 30minutes of Mario time each day if i get my to do list done, eat right, and exercise! i think it's a much better reward than food, because that negates eating healthy.

3. Some time this week i will have another niece named Alexa. Kel's younger sister is due today. It's a rough situation but we are praying for her and the baby and it will be fun to have a little baby around to hold when we see the "in-laws."

4. Kel and I are setting up double dates and i am setting up some girls nights with my friends for November and December. This is HUGE for us. Kel and I have been trying for awhile to find a social group we really fit in with and it's a lot harder than we expected. We are a young, religious, married couple and yet we just don't have many friends who identify with us (i have a lot of my girlfriends and he has his bible study, but as a couple we dont have a lot of people to set up monthly game nights with, etc). So we are very excited to have a couple of double dates and friend nights set up... but we always wanna add more if people get bored!

5. We need to start and finish Thank-Yous. UGH!

6. Our townhouse is a mess. Downside to working so much is there's no time to clean.

7. So i work at a retail store (a plus size woman's retail store) and with Holidays coming up there are a lot of sales. Today was the last day of our 40% off everything in the store sale. I worked open to close and was expecting to be busy, but since everything's cheaper than usual (still not very cheap) i was expecting people to be friendly. NOT TODAY! i was yelled at, borderline harassed, mocked, scoffed and treated rudely by over 75% of the people that came into the store. It gets really hard to smile and be nice and give good customer service to people who dumb clothes everywhere, make you run to the back 5 times for a pair of pants you don't buy and complain about everything; and i do mean EVERYTHING! a lady complained that the shoes i was wearing were cuter than the ones for sales and she wanted to buy the shoes OFF MY FEET and have me wear the ones in the store! WHO DOES THAT? I found it very hard to be nice and patient with people, but i still was. My boss complimented me on how composed i stayed even after she had given up and gone to hide in the back for fear of saying a mean thing to a nasty customer. I think we should hand out brochures at the doors that say "we are working minimum wage to provide food for our families with crappy district managers and no dignity, please at least be polite as we clean up after you, fetch clothes for you, and fight with 10 year old computer that don't work in order to sell you clothes that you probably don't need anyway."

(sorry to rant, it had to come out)

8. i got a full time position at my other job! this makes life a little easier!

9. I am applying for a DREAM job this week. I want it a lot, but i am much more relaxed about it because i know i have a full time job no matter what comes out of this, so i can actually WANT this job without absolutely NEEDING it. It's a great feeling knowing i can look for jobs in a career i want and not jsut any job i will hate in order to pay my bills.

10. Last but definitely the most important... Today was Sunday and i LOVE Sundays because Kel and I got to mass together. Not only that but we go with my parents, which i like. It means i get a least one hour of God time that i also spend with just me and Kel and my parents. That is literally the most quality time you can have with your spouse and parents. (plus i still get kicks out of giving Kel a little peck on the lips during sign of peace! it's the small things that give me peace, but i will take them when i get them.)