Christmas 2016

MERRY CHRISTMAS! This year was simple. We only had gifts that fit into our stockings because we got our big gifts from each other back in August (I know pathetic, but we couldn't wait. Haha.).

Christmas Eve shenanigans...

After we had opened our stockings and after a few hours of watching Trollhunters (a new Netflix original TV show), we headed down to Arlington to spend Christmas evening with Brandon's side of the family. 

After a few hours with family, we head out because I had to work early the next day (today). We had a blast celebrating Christmas in our new place and spending it with family. Can't wait to see where we will be at next year for the holidays. 

A life update.

Just a little life update now that Brandon and I have been in Frederick, Maryland for a month this upcoming weekend. 

Oh you know, just a cat and a girl watching Hannah Montana: The Movie together. 

Izzy's new favorite spot...

She still loves bags. 

And she has a newfound love for the bathtub. 

Thanksgiving this year was just the two of us. 

Brandon got an Xbox. 

Paid off my student loan! 

Just a cat and a boy in a big box. 

No Christmas tree this year because of Izzy, so we put the lights that would go on our tree out on the balcony.

Gambrill State Park.

New area. New places to explore. Starting this Monday, Brandon will both be going back to work, so we decided to take the five days that we had of no work to get the apartment in order and to explore Frederick before our crazy work schedules take over. 

Gambrill State Park is about ten minutes away from our apartment and offers so much more than Lake Norman Sate Park did back in North Carolina. We've already decided that once it starts getting warm again that we will be spending a lot of time up there. 

Frederick Outlook

Middletown Outlook

My battle with depression.

In October 2015, Brandon and I got married. It was the best day of my life. It was everything I could have dreamed about. The month leading up to the wedding I remember feeling down. I was never really stressed, just down. During the day I was fine, but the nights were hard. I would end up in tears 95% of the time. The last few days leading up to our wedding and for about three weeks afterwards, I was fine. I felt like myself.

Starting around November, I felt myself slipping. I would stay in bed all day. I would never go out. It was hard for me to even take a shower every day. And just like in September,  I wold start out fine, but as the day would progress, I would get worse and worse to the point where I was crying EVERY. SINGLE. NIGHT in the bathroom. It was like clockwork.

The feeling of sadness was always there, it was persistent so I had learn to put on my happy face when I was out in public.(Only Brandon, knew about my battle for the first three months.) Yet, the further the month of November went along, the harder it was to pretend; the worse my sadness got (Brandon once told me that, there were a few times that he thought he was gonna have to hospitalize me from how scary I had gotten).

It was until the beginning of December did I finally come out to my family. After three months of hiding it, I came out. With the help from my family, I finally found the courage to go get help because I wasn't going to get better on my own. (I ended up being diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder, and that the case was from the birth control I was on.)

Every month after my diagnosis, there was always hope that I would be able to stop my antidepressant and my battle with depression would go away. I hated taking the pill; it was always a chore to remember to take it. I was thought that once I started taking my medicine I would be better within a few months; yet I wasn't. It was until until, July, seven months after I started taken the pill, I was able to come off it. Once the side effects from coming off the antidepressant wore off, I have been fine ever since. I still have a bad day every now and then, but compared to what it was like before, it's nothing.

I can definitely say that the first year of marriage was hard. I never knew I would be the kind of person who would get depression from just taking birth control. Who would have thought that I would have been diagnosed with depression within three months of being married? Or that for the next six months it would be a constant battle with my disorder. And yet, though it all, Brandon was amazing. He never once gave up on me, even when I had given up on myself.

I am obviously not a professional on the subject... but this is simply my story and I tried to explain it the best I could in hopes that if anyone else is struggling with this or anything of the sort, that you can find the help you need in the midst of your battle.

New Beginnings.

The closer it gets to moving day, the more real it feels. Tomorrow is my last day at Food Lion. We send our first load of stuff up north tomorrow. And our two rooms are getting filled with more and more boxes. 

I have been so excited to move; to have our own place. Yet, I never knew that saying goodbye to my job at Food Lion would be so hard. After tomorrow I would have only worked there for two months. Yet, having to say goodbye to everyone has been hard. I have grown to love the people that I worked with (except for a few people that I never really liked, haha), in a way they become my second family. Goodbyes started yesterday; and it was hard. Today was harder. And tomorrow will be the hardest. 

However, even though I am leaving this Food Lion, I am thankful that I am able to transfer to another Food Lion about eight miles from our new place, so I will be able to stay with this company. I keep telling everyone, that they need to just transfer up north with me, so we can stay together, but all I can do is hope that the new store I am going to has the same atmosphere that I feel in love with at the Troutman store.

Here's to new beginnings... 

First Meet Anniversary: Two years ago

Having an anniversary of when you met is a thing, right? Two years ago today, I met Brandon for the first time on a blind date. A mutual friend had set us up. I had only agreed to the date because I hadn't been on a date in over year at the time. I remember I was nervous beforehand. I was worried that it would be awkward; yet I was confident that it would be the only date we would go on, that if it went well, the most we would ever be was friends.

Yet, Brandon came and picked me up, 20 minutes late none the less, and off we went. And it was the complete opposite of what I expected. I wasn't nervous. It wasn't awkward. I felt so comfortable with him. And I can never forget how cute Brandon was; he was so nervous. However, after our date was over, I felt like he wouldn't have asked me out again; but obviously I was wrong, because he was over at my dorm two days later fixing my laptop, which lead to the start of us being inseparable for three weeks before he left me to move back to the east coast, which is a whole other story for later. ;) 

First picture together from our fourth date at the 2014 Institute dance at Snow College. 

Our next adventure.

WE ARE MOVING! After living in North Carolina for a year we have decided that it just isn't the right fit for us, so we are now onto our next adventure....

Fredrick, Maryland 

(And it all happens in two weeks.) 

Date night.

Lately, I have been wanting to do more date nights with Brandon. Between him working full time and now that I have a part time job with lots of hours different each day, our time spent together has decreased drastically; hence more date nights.

Yesterday, I had the day off and a perk of Brandon working from home,, he was able to take some time off during the day for a date. Since Tuesday is cheap movie day, we went and saw a movie and then went and used one of our gift cards that Grandma Laura (Brandon's grandma) gave us for our anniversary.

After last night, it really made me realize how much we need to make date night a priority. Between both of our jobs and there already being nothing to do where we live, this is just what we need to do.

10.10.15: One Year Later

One year and counting! This time last year, we were sitting in the Celestial Room of the Payson Utah Temple, waiting to be sealed to one another for time and all eternity.

Marriage is no picnic. Marriage is two people who fall in love so easily and then year by year have to learn how to grow together, respect each other, and put up with each other's weaknesses. And our first year of marriage, was far from easy. Everyone who says that the first year of marriage is hard, are completely right.

 We had our good days. We had our bad days; more bad days than I wanted to have. We stressed and worried more than I expected to for our first year. Yet, I wouldn't change a thing. At the end of the day, all that matters is that Brandon and I survived our first year and our ready to tackle our second year of marriage and can't wait to see what happens. 

First weekend of October ---> Conference Weekend

Have you ever noticed how Mormons are so eager to share what they believe? It's not an effort to push religion on people, rather to share the JOY (I loved how a lot of the talks mentioned joy) and HAPPINESS that comes from the gospel. I would love nothing more than to share the joy I feel from living the gospel of Jesus Christ. This past weekend was an amazing opportunity to learn more about what we believe as we hear from the prophet and other leaders of the church. If you're curious about what Mormons believe, click here. Also, never hesitate to ask me about  my beliefs. :)

P.S: Can you tell from all of the pictures below that my husband was in a picture taking mood this past weekend?

Celebrating two weeks early!

So I decided to take control for this anniversary. I decided to do a staycation for our first anniversary in a way to save some money and when I found out the in-laws would be gone for 8 days during the last week of September/beginning of October, I thought it would be perfect to celebrate our anniversary then, even though it was two weeks early.

Mr. Chef made, or at least attempted to make, us a delicious barley soup for lunch since we went to the Annual Chili Cook Off down in Mooresville for dinner. 

Got out our Virginia reception cake from the freezer for desert.

(We even got fancy and got out the same cutting set that we used for the Virginia reception.)

Cake verdict: Other than a slight stale taste, it tasted just fine. 

What better glasses to drink our sparkling juice out of than our Mr. and Mrs. cups? 

And since it was a stay-cation, we just moved on downstairs to the guest bedroom for the night (and for the next 7 days...)

It was so fun to reminisce about our wedding day and to have some alone time with just the two of us. I can't wait for the real deal in just two weeks. :)

Falling into Autumn!

With the last few weeks of summer....

• A bad allergic reaction to medication sent us to the emergency room early one morning. 
• One of us dropped and shattered their phone screen and had to go back to their old phone... (I will let you guess who it was.) 
• Brandon and I started school at BYU-I! Taking a year long break to get married and move across the country was way to long. 
• We learned that Izzy HATES the garage. She loves going outside, but as soon as you put her in the garage, she goes straight to door and waits for you to let her inside. 

• I finally found another job as a cashier. 
• Izzy has started to really look like a cat, and not a kitten, this past week and I am not okay with that. Why can't she stay small for forever? 
• Also, we discovered that Izzy is fascinated with our fall candle that we keep in the bathroom. Every night, without fail, we find her in there staring at it. Brandon and I joke that she is conjuring up a way to kill us. ;) 
• Izzy is in a phase where she likes to take Brandon's spot in the bed at night making him have to sleep on the floor. 
  

• Lastly, Izzy went on her first trip to Walmart. She was not impressed... 
  
  

And now that it is the first day of Fall... Pumpkins. Cooler weather. Corn mazes. Meals in the crockpot. Our first anniversary. The start of the holidays. I seriously can't wait to see what is in store for us this year. 

Dinner with the Graff side.

After not being able to go to Winston Salem back in July, we were finally able to make it out there tonight and have dinner with some family from my side.