4 years later

Today is the 4 year anniversary of my thyroidectomy and the beginning of my thyroid cancer journey, a day that I consider the first day of one life and the last day of another. Rather than focus on the things that happened that day or before, I am going to look at things that happened in the 4 years since:

• We got MARRIED!  Honestly, the BEST thing to happen in these 4 years :)
• Took a fantastic honeymoon to Mexico
• We graduate with masters degrees from the University of Iowa
• We both had our first big kind jobs (hall director and Spanish teacher)
• We both transitioned into our second big kid jobs (academic advisor and Spanish instructor)
• Jordan started his PhD (in case you are wondering he is 1/4 a doctor!)
• Moved 8 times (3 cities, 2 states, 6 apartments)
• I took an amazing trip to Italy with my sister 
• We traveled around the U.S. (Washington, California, Colorado, Nebraska, Missouri, Minnesota, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee)
• We were a part of the weddings of siblings, cousins, and treasured friends 
• We bought OUR first car
• We celebrated the birth of our nephew and the birthdays of our niece (we love them!!)
• We celebrated Hawkeye wins 
• We went to lots of games (baseball & football)
• We learned to love a good road trip (specifically the one between Bloomington and Iowa)
• We took LOTS of coffee dates
• We instituted Friday date night
• We spent time with our amazing family and friends (although not nearly enough!)
• I was told 3 times that the cancer is still gone.. Praise God

The best part is that I am sure I forgot 98598359875 things... but if I remember nothing else, I know we are blessed!

Summer in the Hamptons..

In the 3 years that we have been married, we have had this little tradition where we move out of our "winter" home into a "summer" home... Ok, scratch that, we don't LIKE to move, but we do it anyway. We had hoped this summer would be different, but alas, here we are again "summering in the Hamptons."

This summer we are living in a cute little one-bedroom apartment in Bloomington. While it is a "little" smaller than our normal digs, we are having fun with our summer stay :) The best part is that we have a POOL!! (If you are friends with me on Facebook or follow me on Instagram, you have probably seen our poolside pics). 

Our summer in the Hamptons has also prompted us to look at a few lifestyle changes. For starters, we do not have cable. This might seem kind of minor but when you are used to being able to flip on ESPN or Bravo at any time, it takes a little getting used to. After the initial shock of "what are we doing with our time????," we have started using our new found free time to try new things and rediscover some old things we used to love (and claimed we did not have time for).

What are these things you ask? Well, Jordan started playing ultimate Frisbee with friends on Monday nights. We have both being doing some fun reading. We have been sitting on our patio and at the pool after work. We have hit up the farmer's market and the drive-in movie theater. And, yesterday, we hit the driving range for the first time :) 

So far it has been a great summer!! 

 

Spring updates

So it is official... I suck at updating our blog :) Good thing we don't have too many exciting things happening in our lives right now, otherwise you all would be out of the loop :)

Well what is new? Let's see:

• Jordan finished his first year of his PhD... woo! He is now officially a 1/4 doctor of Spanish :)
• We have stayed pretty low-key this semester but we did take a trip to Nashville in March to see some good music and meet up with some friends from Ames (who we are super excited to have living closer starting next week)
• Kate's family came to Indiana for Easter (Jake lucked out this time living in Indy). We were excited to host our first holiday and LOVED not needing to travel for once.
• Last weekend, we took our first trip home in 6 months. That was the longest we have ever been away from home (and felt a little like a study abroad trip) so we were excited to see everyone!
• We are in the middle of move 1 of 2 for the summer... One would think I would have given away/sold all of our belongings to prepare... clearly I did not... but at least our summer home will have a pool!

We are looking forward to a fun summer. As usual we will be keeping very busy with friends and family events. We will be taking short trips to Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, and California (in between moves). Hopefully we will have more updates about our fun as we go :)

Love you all!

January and February Updates!!

Hey all!
I have been terrible about keeping this updated but I thought I would give some updates from our house :)

Jordan started his second semester of school and seems to be liking it. He is teaching one class and taking four. This semester, he is not teaching at night, so we have our "normal" schedule back. He is reading, writing, and studying a lot, so I am assuming things are moving along :)

We have finally found a church that we like and have started getting involved. I must admit, church shopping is my least favorite part about moving to a new town but we really try to be intentional about finding the right fit. We have a few things on our list that are really important to us and we think we have found it! I have started going to a bible study and am enjoying meeting some new people. More to come I am sure!

January was a bit frustrating on the housing front (many of you know we have had a little bit of trouble with our landlords) but we have signed a new lease for the fall. We are really excited about the new space and are hopeful that it will be our last move while we are in Bloomington. Now I start my (yearly) packing and decluttering process. Being that we do this so often, I have it down to a science but it is still a long and tedious process.

In a happier note, about a week ago, we went to Chicago and met our friends Rich and Meredith's new daughter! She is gorgeous and it was so amazing to see one of my very best friends as a mommy!It seemed so normal for her to be there and Meredith is an amazing mommy (no shock there!!) They are one blessed and happy family! We love them (and wished we lived closer!)

Other than that we are looking forward to spring and summer. We are planning a weekend trip to Nashville during spring break and are planning a couple trips to Iowa in the next couple months. We will be excited to see some friends and family (and spend some time outside).

Hope all is well with you!!

Canvas Art Project

I have been trying to find something to cover the walls of my office at work but did not want to spend the money to buy fancy art. I found this fun project on Pinterest.com (surprise surprise). It really was pretty easy and turned out exactly how I wanted it to.

Supplies needed: Canvas, paint, paint brush, and painters tape

Step 1: Paint the canvas a base color. I used white but you can use whatever color you want for the accent color of the project.
Step 2: Let the paint dry over night
Step 3: Lay painters tape on the canvas in your desired design.

Step 4: Paint canvas the color you choose. I did 2 coats of paint to even out the color. You will want to make sure that you paint the sides as well.

Step 5: Let paint dry over night
Step 6: Remove tape. Be careful as you do this so that you don't pull paint off the canvas. 

 Step 7: Enjoy your final product :) I will be hanging these in my office tomorrow!! WOOT!!

Random thought of the day...

While cooking dinner tonight, I looked at our fridge,  covered with pictures of our dear friends and family, and I could not help but feel blessed!! We are lucky to have such wonderful people in our lives! We hope you all know you are loved!! 

*January/February updates to come :)