Everybody's working for the weekend...

First of all, can I just say that I've NEVER BEEN SO HAPPY FOR THE WEEKEND?!

I'm ready for this week to be well gone! We found out about our car, and we have to replace the engine. So not happy. It's going to be 6700-7800 depending on what engine we get, and we don't qualify for any type of aid since Mark only has a little over a year before his enlistment is up. He's planning on re-enlisting, but he can't re-enlist until he has 12 or fewer months in, and that's not until November. So I'm not sure what we're going to do yet. All I know is if I can't drive myself anywhere soon, I'm going to go crazy.

Anyway, on to more positive things.

This was Mark's last full week of ALS, thank goodness, so he's almost done! Yay! He's doing extremely well, and I couldn't be prouder of him. It's been stressful taking care of all the car details alone, however, so I'll be glad when he's back to work and can help. Plus, he's getting really tired of not having any free time whatsoever, especially with the weather getting nicer.

I'm not sure where a lot of you ladies are, but in Oklahoma, fall is my second favorite season. It's all about football season and pumpkins (I lovelovelove pumpkins) and getting ready for the holidays.  It's still pretty warm here, but the mornings are definitely getting cooler, and I'm seeing more fog in the mornings when I wake up, which I love. 

I'm most looking forward to the holidays, though. From October-December 31st. As you guys know, Mark deployed last year in early November, so we didn't get to celebrate any of our first holidays together, which crushed me. However, not only is he going to be here this year, but we have a beautiful house to decorate! I'M SO EXCITED. I'm crazy crazy crazy about decorating for the holidays, so it's going to be amazing. I know it's just barely September now, but I'm already planning out where I want the tree, what color lights I want outside.. Yeah. I'm THAT person. (but don't worry, I don't listen to Christmas music until I'm on the way to family at Thanksgiving. ;) )

While Mark was deployed, I was so busy taking care of his christmas care packages and decorating and baking with my parents tha tI didn't post up as many tutorials as I wanted, but this year, I will have buckets and buckets of time, so get ready! I'll be making several wreaths as well, both as gifts and to decorate around here with, my mom and I are going to make garlands together like the ones we had when I was little, and lots of baking recipes! I hope you're all getting as excited as I am! 

In the mean time, though, I suppose I have to settle for celebrating Mark's ALS graduation, his birthday, then the ball. sigh. ;) It's going to be a very exciting several months, so keep watching for more!

-KJ

Feels like I've been running a marathon

This week has been chaos.

Not all bad, but definitely chaotic.

I don't feel like going into complete detail on what all's happened, but long story short, my phone vanished, we still haven't gotten to the car to the garage (Mark keeps getting released too late to make it there), and I had to change dresses for the ball. The last one isn't a big deal, but at the same time, it is. I'm just so thankful it's the WEEKEND.

I'm ready for Mark to be out of ALS too. I realize that, as a military spouse, there are always certain things that I'm always going to have to do alone, but trying to juggle car repairs without a phone by myself is just too much, haha. I'll be glad when he's graduated. I had to find a dress for his graduation as well, but thankfully my mom brought down all my formal dresses from home last week when they visited, so I have the perfect dress. It's a little longer than knee length, black (classic LBD anyone?), with a cream band just below the bust. Super classic and it's one of my favorite dresses. The dress I'm now wearing to the ball is the same one I wore last year, which is just fine with me, since it's probably one of the most beautiful dresses I have. I'll add a picture of both dresses, I'd love to get y'alls input. :) let me know what you think, and if you have any questions about ALS or graduation attire. :)

This is the dress for ALS graduation. It's a semi-formal event, but I'm going more towards the formal side. You should always reflect positively on your husband, especially at events like this. :)

This is the dress I wore to the ball last year, and I'll be wearing it again this year! It's very, very flowy, almost  ethereal in style. Mark loves this dress, and I aim to please. :)

Let me know what y'all think about the dresses, and if you have any questions!

-KJ

So much to be thankful for

As a lot of you know, this last month has been absolute chaos. Our car threw a rod, my husband started ALS, so I've had to be taking care of everything myself, and with a few other things, it's been just crazy. We're hopefully getting the car fixed in the next week or so, and then hopefully things will start to slow down.

On to some better news. I'm very happy to say my husband made Staff Sgt! I'm so proud of him! A couple of our friends, Daniel and Jeff, made it as well, so a shout out to both of them and a congrats! We have a group of friends over at the moment to celebrate with Mark, and my parents took us out to eat earlier today, it's just been a really relaxing day, which was much needed.

Also, i got my dress for the ball today! My sweet momma brought it to me along with some other dresses for Mark's ALS graduation, Christmas party, etc, and it's gorgeous! I'm going to try and lose a little more weight before then, but I love it! I'm just so at ease for the first time in almost a month. I'm so thankful for such an amazing support system that I have, with the friends we have here at Tinker, from my hometown, and our amazing families.
I keep forgetting to, but I'm going to try and post up before pictures when I go to the gym Monday. I'm going to try and do pictures an dmeasurments weekly and what I'm doing. I tarted the thirty day shred with a friend last week, along with the blogilates workouts I'm already doing for the 90 day challenge, so we'll see if I get the results I want. I'm pretty excited to get this dress to fit perfectly, so I can't wait to share the journey with you guys!

-KJ