One Month....

It has been one month since my world changed.

I don't know if this is the right place to share but it it my space so its okay to share right?!

Greif is a funny thing. Actually it is not funny it is a sad process to have to go through.

My pop was the best. He was the kindest man you could ever know. He was such a faithful Christian. He was an amazing husband and a great father.

He was everything you could ever want in a pop. I miss him like crazy. Everyday. 

He used to call me and just say "I just needed to hear your voice". There have been so many times this past month that I just want to call him and I would give anything to hear his voice.

Living life without him is hard but I know I will see him again one day and for that I am grateful. Until then I will keep my pop alive in my heart. I will tell my kids how great of a man he was. I will continue to live my life by the examples in which he lived his life.

Today I am sad but thankful for the 23 years I got with my pop.

XOXO ~ JulieAnn 

Weekend Wrap Up -

Happy Monday friends!

I AM OFFICIALLY DONE WITH MY INTERNSHIP AND GRADUATE SCHOOL. 

You guys have no idea how HARD this summer has been. I give thanks daily because I could not have made it through everything by myself. 

Not only has this summer been hard between school, interning, and working full time but my pop passed away in July. It was sudden and unexpected. 

I am sure one day I will write about everything and who knows this blog maybe a way to help me process my feelings. 

Until then I want to keep this place light but real. 

 Real talk though -  It has been hard. Really Hard. 

I think if it was easy something would be wrong. 

Last week I spent the week in Midland at a work training and I was missing my main man badly! 

I got home Friday night just in time to head to the first football scrimmage of the year! 

not the best picture but it was starting to rain and we were in a hurry! 

Saturday I got to see some of my families at a parent training that I helped host. 

It was a blast! 

Sunday we went back to Rising Star, went to Church with my gran and mom, and then had lunch with them. 

We then got some groceries and drove home. 

I had a nice long nap and then got up and went and helped Ad in his classroom. 

I had been asking him if he had any clothes left at the school or in his coaches office. 

He kept telling me no.... well I opened this closet up and found.... clothes :) 

It was so good to be home even if it was a busy weekend. 

Happy Monday friends! 

XOXO ~ JulieAnn 

24

Source

Sorry I have been MIA for a while. Life got crazy! I am even days late on this post. 

My birthday was Thursday... opps! 

So last year I documented the 23 goals I had for my 23rd year of life. 

I did not meet all of those goals and I am sure I won't meet all of these either. #sigh

I like to have some fun and some serious but it is all things that I would like to accomplish during this 24th year of life. 

1. Walk across the stage to receive my Master's Degree. YAY! 

2. Watch Adrian walk across the stage to receive his Master's Degree.  Double YAY! 

3. Start my clinical social work hours (this will take 2 years to complete ..... YIKES!) 

4. Have a daily quite time.  My days go so much better if I start it in the Word. 

5. Go to the beach! I missed out this year because of work and my internship and I do not want to miss out any more! 

6. Take a treat to the school once a month. 

7. Go visit a new place. I don't know where yet but I want to go somewhere we haven't been to before. 

8. Meal plan and stick to it! 

9. Save More. It is hard for me but I guess know it is important. 

10. Exercise at least 4 times a week. I just have to. 

11. Spend Sunday's at my grans. 

12. Read more. Now that school is OVER... I hope I have time to read and enjoy a good book.

13. Keep blogging. It doesn't need to be everyday, I don't have that much to say, but I also don't want to go months between posts. 

14. Self-Care! Boundaries!  I am the worst about this. 

15. Host a group of people at our house. I don't know what I want to do yet but I do want to do something :) 

16. Run/help with organizing a fundraiser or special project. Maybe a food drive or a blanket drive? 

17. Write notes to people.  I love snail mail. 

18. Unplug from Social Media. It is addicting. 

19. Go to more Spurs games. #sportsnerd 

20. No mid basketball season meltdown. By the time December gets here I am over all of the sports and my husband being gone. This year I am going to try to make it through without losing it. :) 

21. Clean out our storage. We have way to much stuff.

22. Be kind to everyone. 

23. Enjoy life. 

24. Be Faithful.  I need to have and keep the faith that everything will work out just as it should. 

I hope I am able to meet all of these goals but only time will tell. 

I am so thankful for the life that I have been given and I can't wait to see what the future holds. 

"Let your faith be bigger than your fear" 

XOXO ~ JulieAnn 

Spiel the Beans - Surviving the Summer

I'm excited to be linking up today with Shelly and Katy to share our summer bucket survival list! 

I am officially done with school, until June :) So I am counting May as the staring point for our summer.

Sadly, EVERY SINGLE weekend in May is already taken up with commitments we have to attend, so I don't feel that we have any great plans in May that we will be able to check off our summer bucket list.

I call this post "Surviving the Summer" because let me tell you, summer is hard. Summer is the hardest time at work and this year I have school and I have to finish my internship. Ad is also in graduate school this summer, so really we are going to be the no fun zone for a couple of months.

My only day off this summer will be on Saturday's (when I am not hosting parent trainings) and we are going to make the most of our time together.

My number one item on how we are going survive this summer is to spend time together. 

During the summer Ad normally goes home and cuts, bails, and hauls hay, so he is gone a lot. He also has coaching school he goes to and then he goes on vacation with my family while I get to work, so spending quality alone time together is what I am looking forward to. 

Another way we are going to survive this summer is getting to go on vacation back to trusty Vegas in July! 

Then in August between school being over and Ad starting back school (his job), I hope we can fit in a little weekend trip between two a days and football scrimmages. We need to celebrate grad school being done and my birthday! 

Honestly this summer I am just hoping I make it out in one piece as it is going to be more than crazy. I know this is just the season of our life and I will be so thankful we went through all of this one day. 

If we have time I hope we can do a couple of more things this summer: 

* Go to the drive in movies - We live 30 miles from one and have yet to go. #wefail 

* Go to the Texas Sports Museum #wearesportsnerds

* Host a fish fry at our house - We did this a couple of years ago and had the best time. 

Even with all the craziness this summer will hold, I still can't help but get excited about this time of year. 

I can't wait to see what everyone else is planning to do this summer. 

XOXO ~ JulieAnn

Trust

Wow, I have not blogged in over a month!

I guess that is what happens when graduate school, work, and adult life, gets in the way. I keep telling myself that it will all slow down soon. This semester is almost over and then in three short months I will be officially done with graduate school! I am beyond excited but scared, very scared.

I am a planner by nature and not knowing what my next steps are going to be after graduation is hard. I have always had a plan, go to college, graduate in 3 years, get married, get a job, go to graduate school..... and that is where I start to go crazy.  Is the next step kids? Daycare? Stay at home? Can we afford that? Am I ready for kids? Are you ever really ready for kids? Further my education? Take my LMSW exam? What if I fail? New job? Get my therapist license? Buy a house? Build a house? Invest more?

These are just some of the many questions that go on in my head daily. Life never really goes by the blue prints we have all laid out. I am fully aware of that, so it frustrates me when I spend so much of my time stressing about the next steps in my life. Just yesterday Adrian and I were on our way to take care of adult things (buy groceries, get a car fixed, etc) and I just broke down and cried. I am the emotional one and me crying is normal but what I was most upset about, was that I could not just stop and enjoy the moment.

I am blessed, beyond blessed, actually and I NEED to stop worrying about the future. I do feel like we all need direction and an idea of where we want to go in life, but we can't get so focused on what is next to miss what is now. This is a daily struggle for me. I feel that I tell myself all of the time to slow down and just be present in the now but it is HARD.

My husband is a go with the flow type of guy and he had to remind me yesterday that everything will work out, just how it should. Why is it so hard somedays to trust that? I have come to realize that when I become so stressed and focused on the future that my relationship and trust in God is lacking.

Why do I let the worries of this world derail my relationship with God? Isn't that the time I should lean on him the most? I have to laugh at myself and remind myself, that I really have no control and I cannot see in the future but TRUST in HIM that He has it perfectly planned. So for the next four months I am going to try to live by these two trusted verses:

"Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own".  - Matthew 6:34

" I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord, Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you hope and a future". - Jeremiah 29:11

I hope that we all can remember these verses in the hard times and remember to slow down and enjoy the now.

XOXO ~ JulieAnn

Today I am linking up with Holly and you should too :)

Show and Tell Tuesday: My Hometown

Hey guys!

I am excited to share my hometown today with everyone.

I am linking up with Andrea for her Show and Tell Tuesday series.

I grew up in Rising Star, Texas population 835. Rising Star is a farming and ranching town above all else.

There is one elementary school, and the jr.  high and high school are all in one building. There is one blinking light, a gas station, a post office, four Churches, a park, and a small grocery store. Since I have moved there is now a Family Dollar. Needless to say its a small town. I honestly would not change a thing about growing up in Rising Star. Rising star will always hold the most special place in my heart. I am almost sure that Adrian and I will end up moving back there one day because it is home. It is where Adrian and I grew up and it is where we hold so many memories. Also me and my best friends all grew up together there and now all but one of my friends still live in R -Star.

We are pretty central Texas. 

Growing up we would have to go 30 miles one way to the closest Wal-Mart or "big city". 

Here is "downtown" 

Rising Star has unique traditions. One of the ones every girl looks forward to is the Miss Rising Star contest. In you junior year you can try out for Miss Rising Star then during your senior year you participate in different activities in different communities while representing Rising Star. It is a big banquet and everyone comes out and eats a meal and listens to us girls make fools of ourselves. :) 

We just give a speech on who we are and why we want to be Miss Rising Star and then we get a "hot topic" question that we have to answer. My question was on gun control.

Here I am giving my speech 

I got runner up and I do believe Ad was rather happy that he didn't have to tag along to everything if I won. :) 

Our town is amazing and they would always make sure to give us words of encouragement. 

This was made during our trip to the playoffs in basketball. 

There is this cute bridge at the park that is a focal point in a lot of my pictures growing up. 

One of the best parts about a small town is a smaller class. 

I graduated with 21 people and here we all are. 

This group all started kindergarten together and we are al still pretty close. 

I can't tell you the memories I have with these great people. 

When you live in a small town your whole school K-12th plus teacher can create this awesome picture. I love that this picture also has cows in the background because that is a perfect description of our little country town. 

This is the Church I grew up in. 

With not a lot to do in Rising Star, Friday nights are reserved for football. 

It is true what they say about those "Friday Night Lights". 

Each year the senior class will hold hands and walk across the football field together after the last home game. 

The best part of growing up in Rising Star is the relationships that were made. My family has lived there forever and my grandparents went to school in Rising Star so everyone knows everyone. 

For example, I received the student of the year at graduation and the presenter talked about my grandparents, my mom, and my aunt all before introducing me, which I thought was amazing. 

I know where my roots are and my childhood in Rising Star helped shape who I am today. 

There is something extra special about small towns to me that nothing can ever replace. 

So there you have it, my home. 

XOXO ~ JulieAnn 

Waking Up In......

This morning I am waking up in the very cold Las Vegas!

We are here enjoying spring break and some much needed time off.

It has been a hard month for me and I am so behind on blogging. I am hoping this time off will give me the time and motivation to start back blogging.

It is in the 40's today, which is unacceptable, so I think I will get some Starbucks, grab a non-school related book and get warm and read.

Tomorrow night Adrian's grandmother and I are headed to see Celine Dion and I am so excited!

Have a great day friends! 

XOXO ~ JulieAnn