Vedauwoo I Love You

Last week Cody and I celebrated our seven year wedding anniversary. I had to work part of the day, but after that we decided to head up to our favorite park Vedauwoo National Forest. I've posted about this place before and it won't be the last that's for sure. Sadly our favorite areas were blocked off and not really open to the public yet. Not sure why, considering it was eighty degrees outside and the middle of May. It was gorgeous! The perfect day to for a hike in the woods.


There really is something special about a place like this. Being able to get lost within the trees and let your stress melt away. When we moved to Wyoming and I first visited Vedauwoo I realized what a gift nature really is. Being outside listening to happy birds chirping all around you along with water running through a creek, it's pure relaxation. Guess what the best part is? It's free.



If you look closely at the above photo you can see the Rocky Mountains covered in a layer of snow.
The photo can not capture the beauty that I actually see with my eyes.

It was great taking the dogs with us. Little Muffins hadn't been on an adventure in a long time. She is doing really well since I switched her to a new dog food. I plan to do a post about it sometime. All I know is that since switching her to a vegan dog food she doesn't lay around all day as if she is on her death bed. We saw results almost immediately and now she is able to walk again. It's amazing really.



Yes, she looks like a little Chewbacca. She will get a nice haircut soon. She hates being groomed.


Now that the snow has finally left us we have been enjoying things like going to Vedauwoo, walking the dogs and riding our bikes. It means that my blog and computer time in general has taken the back burner. I have realized that living life and doing stuff is more important to me then designing some cute collage for the blog. The past few weeks I haven't followed a blogging plan or agenda. (Usually I do.) It's felt great to just share the things I have been actually going out and doing. Taking a step back from the online world has been very good for me. Designing posts can just be too much of a burden on me at times.


If I want to be a good cyclist that means I have to keep my butt moving. ;) The bike rides are getting longer and harder. Which means less time indoors and online. Our summer and warm weather seems short here in Wyoming. I need to be outdoors as much as I can stand it!!! I hope you are all doing some great things as well. The above quote is one of my favorites, "Look deep inside nature and then you will understand everything better." I urge you to find the closest National Park or State Park near you and visit it often. Get lost in nature and enjoy doing nothing. It's great for the soul.

See other pictures and posts of Vedauwoo HERE.

32 Things Before 32 List // #29 Surprise Someone

I have been thinking about my 32 Things Before 32 List lately since January is already GONE. I thought to myself,"I better start seriously doing some of that stuff." It's amazing how just typing out a list on your blog motivates you to do things. During my day job I do price markdowns. I put things on clearance. I was marking down some things in our electronics department, when I realized one of them was a Nintendo DSi. Cody's wanted one for awhile now, but we could never justify the cost. I marked it down to $44. Amazing.


Cody and I never surprise each other with gifts. I debated on waiting till Valentines Day to give it to him. We usually don't give gifts for VDay either. I decided it would be more of a surprise if I just gave it to him the day I bought it. I decided to send him a text message letting him know that when he got home from work I had a surprise for him. He was so confused, but excited. I bought him the game Kingdom of Hearts. I wrapped the DSi up so he would have to unwrap it...


His face was priceless. He truly was surprised. That's what I wanted. :)
A gift just because. Isn't that how gift giving should be?

I plan to surprise people throughout the year. I wanted to share this with you because I may not be able to have photos of all the other surprises I attempt to pull off. Plus, I think it's a great reminder that we should do this for our spouses, friends and family from time to time. I'm not good about doing it myself, so that's why it's on my list for this year. Everyone loves surprises! So why not put a smile on someone's face?

Do you have a surprise story you'd like to share? I'd love to hear it.
See my full 32 Things Before 32 List HERE.

Cody & Me: Together for 9 YEARS!!!

It's hard for me to believe that Cody and I started dating today 9 years ago. People ask us often how we met. Well we were both working at Lowe's. Cody had been working there for awhile before I applied. One of my first days of work / job orientation the H.R. Manager was giving me and some others a grand tour of the store. We walked down towards the end of the store where lumber is located to see that area. That is where I first saw Cody for the very first time.



He was sitting on a forklift talking to one of the other guys that worked there.
As cheesy as this sounds, we both saw each other at the same time.
We were "checking" each other out I guess you could say. LOL
I think we were about 50 feet apart. Then we stopped looking at each other and my day went on.


Some time passed before we actually spoke. Sometimes I would be the cashier in lumber and be nervous knowing he would be working down there. Being new I needed help often and one day I had to ask Cody for help.
The first thing I ever said to Cody was,"If I was sheet metal, where would I be?"
He chuckled and said, " Aisle 12. " That was me trying to be funny. :)

The entire story is very long, I will spare you! All summer I dreamed of being with this guy named Cody. He was all I talked about to my friends. Oh, did I mention I had a boyfriend? Oops. I was in a bad unhealthy relationship, so Cody happening couldn't of been better timing. One day I finally got the courage to go up to him and just confess my feelings. Cody later told me as I was confessing that "I had a crush on him", he could see me shaking. I was so nervous. Cody was the first guy I ever had courage to ask out myself.


Cody turned me down at first, because he also was dating someone at the time. I was so crushed and heartbroken. I cried my eyes out. It took so much courage to even tell him how I felt. The connection between Cody and I was so strong even before we knew each other. I felt like I knew him already, without really knowing anything about him. It was strange really. About a month passed and Cody approached me to tell me that he dumped his girlfriend. A few days later we were dating and started calling ourselves a couple. It's been 9 years today!


A lot has changed and happened in 9 years! WOW, alot!!! We both have iphones now which is really funny to me. We have always hated cell phones and wanted to get rid of them! Now we have freakin smart phones. LOL Cody just got his first pair of "Chucks" as you can see in the pictures above.

It hasn't always been sunshine and rainbows. We have had some rough times when we both thought that we wouldn't be able to go on. We got through it though and it made us stronger in the long run. We have grown together. My views on the world have changed, yet Cody's have also. So many people say as you get older you can grow apart. I am glad we have just grown closer. We have moved 7 times, we remodeled a house together, we both went Vegan, he joined the Air Force and I followed him. He is amazing and I am so thankful for the life I have everyday!!

Playing Vintage Nintendo

I wanted to welcome the month of July, by posting something Cody and I did to end the month of June: Play vintage Nintendo games! I have some memories of getting my first Nintendo game system back in 1985. What I don't remember though is how freakin hard the games are to play! Cody and I bust out the vintage Nintendo in attempt to beat the first Mario Brothers Game! We have yet to make it to the last level and beat Bowser!


I guess this means I have never beaten it? If I can't beat it now, how did I as a child?

June was a great month for me. I feel like I am on a good path and things are going well.
I look forward to seeing what other adventures I can have in July!
I decided to share these photos of Cody and I because I am loving our new life.
I don't always love living in Wyoming, but I do love how happy we are together as a couple.

I know what we have is very special and I am very thankful for it.
Our 9 year "dating" anniversary is coming up in August, hopefully we can do something special. :)
By the way, the Nintendo we are using is my original childhood one.

Trip 2 The Park

For our Memorial Day we decided to take the dogs to the park.  I feel like a horrible pet parent because we have lived in Wyoming for 9 months and never taken the dogs to a park!  We did move here right when winter started, moved twice already and stayed pretty busy!  The weather here is crazy.  Basically you DON'T trust what the weathermen say, because a cold day can end up being beautiful and on a warm day it can end up snowing!  It was very windy today, but we decided to just go to the park anyways. Besides the strong wind it was perfect...
Muffins is so old now and is starting to have trouble walking. I did have to carry her often.
Chloe on the other hand was loving every moment and glad to be using her pinned up Chihuahua energy! We were so glad to get out of the house today! See the trees and the flowers. I really want to start taking the dogs places more often, even if I have to carry little Muffins sometimes. She loves the wind in her hair....
It was a great way to spend our day! I can't wait to take the dogs to another park soon!
Tomorrow we plan to go biking for the first time!

Our 6 year Wedding Anniversary

Today marks 6 years of marriage for Cody & I.  The first thing I said to him this morning was, "Isn't it weird to think about what we did on this day 6 years ago?"  Of course, I don't mean "weird" in a bad way, it's just hard to believe how fast time goes by!  Here we on our wedding day...
Probably one of my favorite things about my relationship with Cody is how supportive he is.  No matter what I want to do or what my beliefs are, he is right by my side to back me up.  I asked him one day, "Would you let me go to Antarctica to be Sea Shepherd?"  He said yes without hesitation.  He knows it is something so important to me and even though it's dangerous, he would let me follow my desire to go.  That was one of those simple moments when I knew what I had was so special.
Like any relationship, we have been tested.  I am so proud of us for pulling through all of our hard times and always sticking together.  The whole Air Force experience has brought us even closer.  It's amazing how right on we are with all our beliefs and values.  We have both changed, but together in the same direction.  This August we will have been together a total of 9 years.
It's so exciting to me to think we have been together almost 10 years!  Hopefully we can do something special next year for our anniversary.  Today we will just enjoy being together.

You can view pictures of our Wedding {HERE}

My Wedding Anniversary post from last year {HERE}

Happy Hallmark Holiday!

Cody and I have been together for almost 9 years now and we are pretty proud of that! We don't really celebrate Valentine's Day. I took some photos of us in the car a few days ago when we were out shopping...
Cody always manages to take photos of me when I am talking. I am usually saying,"When are you going to take the picture?" I never know when he's going to take it. I still love him though. lol You would think after 9 years I would just stop talking when the camera is out.

Cody is amazing and I am blessed to have him in my life. All the GOOD things in my life are in some way related to him. They happen because of him and he helps me get through all the tuff times. I drag him to antique stores, take him thrifting, make him listen to my music, he puts up with the PINK in the house and all my other annoying but somehow lovable habits. For that, HE IS AWESOME and I love him.

I hope you all do something sweet for someone you love in your life today!

5 Year Wedding Anniversary

There was a time in my life when I never thought I would have a "normal" relationship. Then I found Cody.

Today 5 years ago Cody and I got married. It is the best feeling in the world to know that I found true love. That I am married to my best friend. That I have someone to experience the bad times and the good times with. Our love grows stronger everyday! I can't wait to see what the next phase of our life together brings us!
In California on our Honeymoon / May 2006
Living in California / May 2011
Love is Great.

Traveling to California - Day 2 and 3

I made it! After a total of 37 hours of driving I made it to Cody! Day 2 I started in Oklahoma City and drove to Flagstaff Arizona. (862 miles) I must say its a beautiful BEAUTIFUL drive. I loved every moment of it. The speed limit is 75mph for most of the drive! It was great. I basically used my cruise control the whole day.

Muffins pretty much slept again for 13 hours straight. lol I guess the car makes her sleepy. New Mexico was very pretty and I really loved Arizona. I could definitely see myself living in Arizona someday.

Day 3 was even more beautiful. (626 miles) The best part was past Flagstaff Arizona and right before the California border. The mountains and the scenery was breathtaking. I really got a good sense of independence and appreciation for life during this trip. There is so much beauty out there just waiting to be discovered! You just gotta go out there and find it!

Everything went well with Day 3 till I got on Highway 15. Then all hell broke loose. It was just normal driving in till I looked up in my rear view mirror and saw all these cars flying towards me! (Remember I am driving my Mustang and I don't drive like a grandma!) Traffic and people changed. Then as I got closer and closer to LA and all the other cities and attractions it was bumper to bumper. I was so stressed out. After spending days on the open road and basically being all by myself on the highway, then going into heavy TRAFFIC was a huge change. I did make it to Cody by 2:30pm on Saturday though! It was great being able to finally be done with my journey and be with him again. He was able to spend the night with me Saturday evening. I finally got some real sleep. Today we just were lazy and enjoyed doing nothing.

Tomorrow I move to my new place. Cody and I can't wait till next weekend when we get to spend more time together. I will see him a few times through out the week, but I want him to focus on his school work not me. The weekends will be for us. :)

PROUD AIR FORCE WIFE

I am back from Texas with tons of pictures. I just picked some of my favorites to share with everyone. Cody ended up graduating with Honors. He was in the top 10% of his class out of 834 trainees. The first day they held the Airmen Run and the Coin Ceremony. Everyone lines up on the street to watch all the trainees run by. It was very exciting...

As you can see Cody was super excited and happy! I thought I was going to cry for sure, but once Cody saw me and we made eye contact all my sadness was replaced with happiness. After the run we had to wait about 2 hours before the Coin Ceremony. This was when I was pleasantly surprised to find out Cody had been awarded Honors. I had great seats and was really close to Cody, that is why he started to grin in the picture! I screamed, " I'm proud of you baby! " Then he really smiled.

Then the moment I had been waiting for finally came. The ceremony was over and I ran to Cody so I could hug and kiss him....





It was a great weekend but was also a very sad weekend. Cody is now in California. We are over 2000 miles apart. He will not be done with school for 7 months. It is heartbreaking to not be able to be with my husband. There is a chance I may end up moving to California in the next few months because I can not see myself only visiting him. It is very complicated and I have no idea what is going to happen, only time will tell.

I Love My Airman

Well Cody is officially sworn into the Air Force. Today was a long day of waiting around with him. It didn't really hit me that he is gone till I got back to the apartment and realized he wasn't going to be here with me anymore.



He begged me not to cry, so I stayed strong for him. I told him that I loved him and that I would see him later,....in 8 weeks. I am very proud of him and like everything in life you don't realize what you have till it is gone. Cody is what keeps me going everyday and I feel a bit lost without him already.

So, even if I have to go live in North Dakota where I will hate the cold weather and snow, at least we will be together. :)