Goodbye Ohio, Hello Maryland

Our last day in Ohio was very low key, we basically just chilled all day. We had one important trip to make... that was visiting Nanny. I was so happy she remembered Quinn! She didn't remember meeting me before, but was very happy for our marriage to each other. It's hard watching Alzheimer's take away someone's mind and we were only there for a couple hours, I know it's much much harder on the immediate family! She's such a beautiful lady.

That evening we met mom for dinner and enjoyed our last few hours with her since she had to work in the morning and dad was going to take us to the airport.

Thursday morning was met with dad knocking on the door with a box of delicious donuts (Bill's!), while we were eating Carter (Bryan's dog) decided he really didn't want us to leave or he wanted a donut, maybe both? Scary sounding, right?

Our flight into Baltimore was pretty quick and I slept almost the whole way. Once we arrived we grabbed our luggage and hopped on the rental car shuttle. Checked in and received a brand spankin' new 2012 Toyota Corolla! (Not sure how that was an economy, but we went with it). Our first stop- Chick-fil-a... oh yes chicken, waffle fries, and sweet tea... later we arrived at our good friend's Jason & Gini's house, met their new little boy, settled in, and then they treated us to dinner.

Family Photos +Birthday Cake!

Tuesday night we had plans for Quinn's be-lated birthday dinner at the Oakwood Club, prior to that we headed down to the local neighborhood park for some family photos. I am very grateful to Cheryl's friend that allowed me to borrow his tripod, I managed to take the full family photo by sprinting into the photo! Luckily the auto-focus decided to cooperate this afternoon (it started to no longer work in Maryland and steadily declined from there...).

I love the photo of them laughing!

Visiting the tree planted in his memory.

Casey joined us for a "kids" photo.

Isn't it funny how I look tan until I stand next to Quinn?!

This turned out so well... I love how the colors pop and everyone is smiling!

After dinner we headed back to mom & dad's house for a mini-ice cream cake & key-lime pie! I think it's safe to say that Quinn had a pretty awesome birthday week.

Scene 75 +Guy's Night

 Monday afternoon we headed down to Quinn and Bryan's old job to see Mike their former boss/mentor... good conversation and some funny stories were told!

 That evening we headed to a new venue in Ohio... Scene 75. The best way I can think to describe it- "Dave & Buster's on steroids." Why? Well it had all the interactive games, the ticket redemption store, the bar, the food (no sit-down stuff though), but then it had... go karts, laser tag, a mini bowling alley, and a laser maze (like you see in the movies when the robber has to make his way thru lazer beams to get to the item). Since I participated in all of the fun, we just have a group photo from the end of the evening:

We all enjoyed Steak 'N Shake afterwards while the guys planned their "night out." I drove the girls back to the house for popcorn & a chick flick in Bryan's big'ole work truck...

If you're thinking I got pulled over as I pulled into the driveway... you'd be incorrect. The guys actually got pulled over right as they arrived home... something about a failed turn signal and/or coming around the corner too quickly. Either way, nothing but a warning came of it... although the police officers must have been bored on a Monday night seeing as they got a "three-peat" (another squad car drove past three times during the discussion!).

Louisville, KY

Sunday morning came very early, after staying up until nearly 3am with everyone from the BBQ, Quinn was super tired! So... that meant: I GOT TO DRIVE. Not only would I be driving from Ohio to Kentucky, it would be in the tiniest car I've ever driven (I believe it's smaller than the old golf cart from the fire station? Dad, you'll have to enlighten me on that one.) ...Cheryl's fiat! I only had one scary moment going downhill when the semi-truck kept getting bigger and bigger in the rear view mirror! Other than that, we made it safely there thanks to the handy GPS Bryan let us borrow. Quinn slept almost the entire 2hr 45min drive and I was very proud that I only had to stop once for the bathroom. Haha!

Once we arrived in Louisville we planned on hitting up the waterfront until Nina & Noah arrived... no such luck... police were everywhere, detour signs re-routing through one-way streets. Why? Well, you see this thing called the Iron Man was in town! Quinn ended up spying a White Castle (ew!) and grabbed a snack.

When they arrived we headed to the Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory! We took the tour of the factory and got to watch actual MLB bats being made, it was very cool and really informational. Noah wasn't absolutely thrilled during the talking portions but he loved holding the bats and was delighted at the end when he got his own mini bat!

I was such a "paparrazi auntie" but we hardly ever get to see Nina & Noah so I had to take advantage of the moment!

Some of the architecture in Louisville was pretty neat, and one of the museums had their roof lined in bright red penguins!

We grabbed pizza for a late lunch/dinner... *ahem* LINNER... then headed across the street to one of the cutest ice cream shops I've been at to celebrate the boys' birthdays (Quinn's and then Noah's in a couple of weeks). Nina and I split a "Scooter Pie" aka mint chocolatey goodness! Noah picked a scoop of chocolate ice cream and Quinn had a cherry smoothie.

Hopefully he likes Hawaiian sea turtles as much as we do! 

Sadly it was time to say goodbye as we both had nearly 3hr drives back home and the sun was already beginning to dip into the late afternoon warmth. We grabbed a few more photos for good measure.

Noah took these three!

Then we actually had to say our goodbyes.
I sincerely hope 2yrs don't go by before we see them again...

Ohio Welcome Back BBQ

We arrived in Ohio safe and sound (well Quinn was sound, I was very very sick after two bumpy flights) on Friday. I slept the afternoon away while the guys hung out/went to the gym, that evening everyone headed out to dinner where the guys were announced in front of the entire restaurant and their dinners were on the house...

 Don't you love how enthusiastic they are?

Okay, they're being humble. =)

Saturday night the "all call" went out to Quinn & Jon's (In the Navy, home on leave at the same time for the first time in 2yrs) buddies... food, friends, games, reminiscing, and drinking... oh, a little singing as well. Everyone enjoyed getting to see Quinn and Jon after such a long time away from home.

I'm glad Quinn was able to catch up with so many old friends, I know everyone enjoyed themselves because they kept coming up to me and saying "this is the best night we've had in awhile," "thanks for sharing Quinn with us tonight," etc. 

Benihana's Date Night & Hanauama Bay

Stephen's girlfriend came into town and we had the wonderful opportunity to get to meet her and hang out a few times during her short time here. She came to dinner at our house Friday, the next night we dressed up and enjoyed Benihana's, and finally headed down to Haunama Bay on Sunday to enjoy snorkeling with the fishies!

Kaci, it was awesome meeting you... I hope you get to visit again!

Interruptions in the Night

I'm pretty sure that even during the "lull" in action the voice in the back of my head doesn't take breaks. It constantly looks to the future no matter how hard I try to (and think I am) live in the moment, here and now. The voice's wheels never stop turning- "what happens when he deploys again?" "where will we pcs?" "when should we have kids?" "after we move I have to find a new church, new friends, and new job...again..." "will mom be able to make the flight to visit if we're overseas" "what's life outside of the military going to entail?" I'm 97.5% sure that most of the time I get/feel sick it is due to stress, I feel like my poor little body can never truly rest for good.

Take now for example- it's 3:30am and I'm awake having panic attack symptoms. I woke up thinking I didn't get my prescriptions refilled (thank goodness for the 24hr automated refill line-check that off the list!) in time for our vacation coming up around the corner & that we didn't make it to Haunama Bay tomorrow before it got full, yet all our friends did without us. I've found 3 "things" that trigger my anxiety/panic attacks -
1) Changes dealing with Quinn's job
2) Big (but not really, sometimes) events
3) Travel
Right now #2&3 are hitting at the same time, and it sucks.

I praise God I am not where I was 1yr ago. I don't think I would be alive if that were the case (not sleeping or eating, being physically ill everyday, and being misdiagnosed by the medical team). I now recognize panic attacks for what they are and take it step by step for each one that occurs. I'm not enjoying being awake now considering the alarm is set to ring in 2hrs, but I know that I can function & take a nap in the car/on the beach if need be.

It's weird thinking I have a "disorder" (generalized anxiety disorder) and you can't grow out of it, just learn to manage. I think I still have some more learning to complete, the biggest being to honestly and truly press into God at all times trusting His plan and not my own.

Time to read scripture, browse thru Facebook, and play games until my eyes get sleepy once again...

"When I lie down, I go to sleep in peace; you alone, O Lord, keep me perfectly safe." (Psalm 4:8 GNTD)

25 is not 18...

I'm 25yrs old...

• I can no longer pull all-nighters and function properly the next day
• I can't eat whatever I want and remain a size 4/5
• I have to actually worry about taking care of my skin
• etc. etc. etc.

Most recently I am learning that my body doesn't "bounce back" from injury and I can't just "play thru the pain." Friday my both pectoral muscles were sore and a bit swollen... so I  took ibuprofen and said "that's good enough." Saturday we went surfing, Sunday morning around 4am I woke up with pretty bad pain on my left side (pectoral, shoulder, elbow) I took more ibuprofen and went back to sleep before church. My pectoral muscle was now pretty swollen so I figured I was try to get into the doctor's office in the upcoming week, but I wasn't desperate... until 2am Monday morning when I woke up in tears to throbbing pain radiating from my pec, up into my shoulder, and down into my elbow... I moved downstairs to the couch with the ibuprofen and ice and tried to catch some sleep. I called the emergency appointment line right at 6:30am and ended up with an appointment at 8:30am!

The doctor was pretty amazed at how swollen my pectoral muscle around my breast was, she said it resembled the density of an orange.  Man did it hurt when she was feeling around there and up into my shoulder area! The diagnosis is a major pectoral strain/minor pectoral tear. I am to do absolutely nothing for two weeks, I even have a sling to wear in order to keep the muscle isolated.

Once I am healed I have to give myself one "rest day" in-between work-out days... which means I can only work-out M, W, F, S then T, Th, S rotating until my muscles get built back up. What caused it? I'm not entirely sure but I was doing some pretty intense yoga cardio sessions along with weight training, I had also gone stand up paddle boarding previously in the week, I do know the surfing was not my best idea...

**Please pray that it heals correctly, I feel like the swelling hasn't gone down at all... I know I only saw the doctor yesterday but it concerns me that it feels just as swollen after 24hrs of icing/ibuprofen 3x day**

Surfing Saturday

Yesterday we headed out to White Plains Beach (we actually went to Barber's Point Beach first by accident, a little miscommunication) to soak up the sun and catch some waves! There were a TON of people, but no one had bad attitudes, a lot of people were just learning, and if you did accidentally drop-in on someone, a "sorry" was acceptable and then you both paddled off to catch another wave.

Quinn went out twice, once with Nick and once with me... he was pretty tired afterwards but still had the energy to play football! Sadly he didn't catch any waves (next time he's going to try the longboard since I caught 3!) After the sun started setting we gathered up our "camp" and rinsed the surfboards then headed off to Chili's for dinner, it was a LONG day we left the house at noon and didn't get home until 10:30pm!

I'm sad I keep forgetting to have someone take a group picture of us...