I Swear I'm Alive

Sooo I know I haven't posted in like FOREVER. And I'm terribly sorry about that. I kinda lost my mojo. But I'm back and hopefully better than ever!


I'll update you about my life since I dropped off the face of the earth.
In March we closed on our house... that's right.. WE'RE HOME OWNERS!!!! And now we have started remodeling the house.. Oh My Goodness. CRAZINESS. Like seriously. Our main bathroom (that EVERYONE uses) is completely gutted, and has been since... oh I don't know... like FIRST OF THIS SUMMER. But on the bright side, our kitchen is done!! And I'm absolutely in love with it!! ..... well this is awkward.. I was going to post pictures of it to show how pretty it is now (and how ugly it was before) but blogger isn't letting me.... SO ANYWAY.. Back to the updating.. Hubs got a new vehicle back in February, not a truck like he originally wanted, but he loves this just as much, and a little more. a 2012 Mustang 5.0 (if you follow me on IG you've seen many pics of it) that is his absolute baby now. Wife and dog? What wife and dog? Hahaha, totally just kidding. Sort of. And then I got a new car like LAST WEEK! A 2012 Maxima. AHHHH (insert heart as eyes emoji here) she's beautiful. Like drop dead gorgeous. lol ;) sooo.. yeahhhh.. we've bought a lot this year. And that about sums up the year.. OH WAIT!!! We got to go out to Colorado and see one of my brothers' get hitched. That was a BEAUTIFUL wedding (but still not as beautiful as mine.. and I'm just a little biased ;) ) but seriously.. I was so glad we got to go out there and see everybody. It SUCKS living 1200 miles from your brothers and only getting to see them once every year or two. Yeah. SUCKS BIG TIME.


** sorry this post has no pics, like I said. Blogger was being a jerk and wouldn't let me post any. I'll update with pics soon. ... hopefully.

21 & Lovin' Life

Soo, yesterday was my 21st birthday! WHOOP WHOOP!!

I went out to eat for lunch at one of my favorite restaurants, Buffalo Wild Wings, with one of my best friends and bought my first legal acoholic drink, a strawberry daquiri :). Then last night, went out to eat at one of the Mexican restaurants around here with my husband, parents, and might as well be second parents. Had my second strawberry daquiri of the day haha. Then we left there and went to the local bar, where everybody, but me, proceeded to get wasted. (Ironic right?) I just couldn't find a drink that I liked, I tried 3 different things. But I did manage to have 2 shots of something called a buttery nipple, those were good. Tomorrow night will be my friends night of partying. Yes, I celebrate my birthday for almost a week. But hey, IT'S MY BIRTHDAY! My 21st birthday at that, isn't that what you're supposed to do for your birthday? Haha!
 
Now that the biggest day of my birthday celebration is over and I'm back at work being the big responsible girl I am, I'm reflecting on how the age of 20 was for me, and hoping and dreaming about what the age of 21 has in store for me.
 
So let's get started, 2013 was a busy year for me! I'll make it easy on myself and do a list in chronological order.

• Jan 2013- Well.. the obvious, I turned 20!
• Feb 2013- I started my big girl job at the bank! Well,, it's not technically something I hope to make a career out of, I'm just a teller right now (I'm hoping to move up in the bank). BUT! It is better than my former job at GNC, I am full time and have GREAT insurance and vaca days! Woo hoo!!
• March and April 2013 were pretty average. Nothing memorable happened in those months.
• May 2013- I graduated college!! One of the greatest feelings ever, knowing I accomplished my goals and walked across that stage to be handed my Associates Degree in paralegal!
• June 2013 was pretty average too. I was starting the final details of my wedding! Although, this is the month I officially went full time at the bank!
• July 2013- Ahhh!!! My wedding month!! My wedding was picture perfect and exactly how I wanted it! July 13, 2013 was DEFINITELY the best day of my life so far!!
• Aug 2013- It felt VERY WEIRD not starting school back after doing it for like 15 or so years!
• Sept 2013- My hubby's birthday, he turned 24! And we got our Jack Russell dog child, Chevy!!
• Oct 2013- Went to see The Band Perry and Rascal Flatts in concert with my best friend! That was like a dream come true!! I've always wanted to see Rascal Flatts live.
• Nov 2013- Had surgey to have my gallbladder taken out the Monday of Thanksgiving. That wasn't fun AT ALL!
• Dec 2013 was pretty average. Not much happened this month.

So all and all I think the age of 20 and the year 2013 was great to me! I strengthened my relationship with my mom, she truly is my best friend now.

 My little sister, my mom, and me at my wedding :)

 

Our little family :)

 



Right before my college graduation







 

Now I'm ready to see what 21/2014 has in store for me!! A few of my dreams for 2014 are:

 

Finally buy our first home!!

Take a vacation with my hubby! We never got to take a honeymoon. :(

Just some wishful thinking for the future! ;)

 

Hubby wants a new truck. And I'd be lying if I said I don't want him to get it!

 

Both my hubby and I become closer to God and better Christians.

My hubby and I to become closer to each other.

 

 

Apparently, I want this year to be just as busy as last year, just in different ways! But I know as long as I have God and my husband by my side I can handle it!!

 

 

 

2014: The BEST Me

Excuse the language, but it's true. 2014 I plan to make myself better all around, including physically. Right now I'm probably the biggest I've ever been. And I'm sick of it. It's time to do something about it.

 

Unfortunately, I don't have the money to pay for a gym membership. I wish someone would buy me one, that'd be awesome. So whatever kind of exercise I do will have to be from home or running at the park. I need to find a workout that I can stick with, and doesn't require a lot of equipment. Once I make myself make time to workout I'm willing to go until I absolutely can't go anymore.

 

I plan to find the best workout there is for me so I can get those pesky 20-30 pounds off of me and get back down to where I want and should be at.

 

 

So if anybody wants to be my supportive workout buddy that's going to push me or has any great diets/at home workouts share the love! Or if you've lost 20 or so pounds let me in on your secrets!!

Why Do We Have To Say Goodbye So Soon?

All weekend I was thinking about my blog that I was going to post about my goal to lose weight.. but that one will have to wait for now. Something else is heavy on my heart right now.

I had a friend, he wasn't a best friend or anything, but he was a friend nonetheless. He was a couple years ahead of me in school and he was the manager at one of the businesses in town that did their banking at my bank so I got to see him pretty much every day these past few months. We always messed with each other, talked about our cars, or if we just had a not so great day we'd sorta vent to each other when he came to do his deposits.

Well this morning when I checked facebook I kept seeing all these statuses like "Praying for the Littlejohn family." or "Heaven gained a beautiful angel this morning." and I wasn't quite sure who they were about because he has a younger brother and his father is still alive. But then I soon started seeing different people put up pictures they had of him all over facebook. And I didn't want to think what I knew was the horrible truth. After it had been confirmed, that he went home to be with the Lord, one of his employees came in to do some deposits and she told us the details.

Chris was a great guy. He was always so happy and sweet, one of the nicest guys you'd ever meet. It didn't matter what kind of day he was having he was always so chipper and happy.

Now, as I sit at my desk and look at where he worked and think about everything, more and more questions come to my mind.

Now I know we're not supposed to question God and his plan, but some times it's so hard not too. I definitely have some questions for when I meet him though.

Why do the good die young? Why do we have to say goodbye so early some times? It seems like the ones that deserve the most fulfilling life, are the ones that are taken way too early. There have been so many kids my age that have lost their lives lately and I just want to ask Him why? I know we're supposed to trust his plan and let him take the lead, and I try my hardest to.. but when a young person, or even a child that's life is just beginning has their life taken away for any reason I want to know why.

I know this blog was a little bit of rambling and not really put together very well.. but I just needed to say what was on my mind and heart.

If anybody can help me this, it's always been a trouble on my mind and heart, any advice on how to deal with this would be greatly appreciated.

Leading the Youth.. It's a Difficult Calling

As I said in my post The Curtin Family *Under Construction*, Patrick and I are the youth leaders at our church. I occasionally teach the young kids (kindergarten and younger) when their normal teacher is out. If I'm not doing that I'm in the class with Patrick teaching the older kids, ages ranging from 11-18. We have a bit of a small (older) youth, with only 6 regulars and 2 that come a few times a month now. But then again, we are a small community church. On our big days we have around 75 in the congregation.

We normally do plays for Christmas and Easter, and we've done a few things around Thanksgiving. Since the kids are older and they've done the nativity scene pretty much their whole life, the past couple years we've tried to branch out and do different dramas, but still have the true meaning of Christmas in it. This past Christmas the kids came up with the play completely, from what it was about, all the way to the names of the characters. It was about a man with a family who was getting caught up with the everyday life of the 21st century that we're all too familiar with. He was starting to worry too much about the material things and not enough about what really matters in life, God and family. His boss even gave him a promotion, but with more money came longer hours. He was even going to have work through Christmas. One day, he met a homeless man who made him rethink about what's really important in life. When his boss walks in his office, the man is nowhere to be found. So the boss looks at the work he has on his desk and it's a big "To Do" list and where all the old business man worried about money things were listed, they were marked out and replaced with things a man worried about his relationship with God and his family. While the boss is looking at that the homeless man walks in and they start talking about the man and how he made "the right choice." Then the best part of the play, the homeless man and boss reveal their true identity, the boss is God who was tempting the man with money and greed to see if he would make the right choice and the homeless man was a Christmas angel who was just there to help push the man in the right direction.

I was so proud of my kids when we did the play. They really know how to work towards something they really want, and they wanted this play to be awesome.

Over the past year or so they've really become a family. Use to, they would just kind of break off with their own friends and we'd have 2 or 3 different groups talking. But now, they love to come together as one. Sometimes, we can't even get class started because they're all having such a good time hanging out.

We truly love teaching them, but sometimes we're afraid we don't know what they want to learn about. I mean heck, we're still learning about the bible ourselves. Patrick and I really have to look towards God for help and guiding. Without him we wouldn't be able to do it. Sometimes we feel overwhelmed and afraid that we won't get the message across, but those kids always have faith in us that we're going to have the knowledge we need to teach them. And I think that's what keeps us going. I'm truly blessed that the kids continue to want us to teach them.

 

Unfortunately this is like the only picture I have of the whole youth, it's old and a bit blurry. But this was back in 2011 after we did a special Thanksgiving play and dedicated it to the people in our congregation that had or was battling some type of cancer. This is every kid in our youth with two of the younger girls I sometimes teach.

The Curtin Family *Under Construction*

 

 

I married my husband, Patrick on July 13, 2013, at the young age of 20. It was the best day of my life. We had been dating since August 6, 2009, my first day of my junior year in high school, (I was 16 and he was a month from being 20) and although I had been asking for a ring for... oh I don't know.... the past 2 or 3 years, he just didn't think we were ready to take that big of a leap. And he was right, 2012 was a bad year for us. We broke up 2 or 3 times through out the year, soley becuase of immaturity. We both needed to do some growing up alone, but neither of us wanted to admit it. The week or so before Thanksgiving of 2012 we hung out and I ended up staying at his house that night (I know, I know..shame shame) but after that night we had been better than ever it seemed. So I went to his family's thanksgiving with him and when we got back, before I left to go to my family's (my parents weren't too happy with the whole situation) he asked me back out for the like 4th time that year, and I said yes. A week later, on November 30, 2012 he proposed to me! He decided that since he finally got me back, he didn't want to let me go AGAIN. And of course, I said yes! :) and a little over 7 months later I was walking down that aisle!

 

 

It was a hot day, that day, but what do you expect? It was the middle of July in Mississippi right on the lake. But it was perfect. As you can see our colors were gray and Tiffany blue. I wanted pink, but Patrick shot that down real quick, so I settled with my next favorite color. We had 5 bridesmaids and groomsmen, 1 jr. bridesmaid and jr. groomsman, 2 flower girls, and 1 ring bearer. I found that dress I'm wearing a WEEK before my wedding. Yes, I know... WHAT WAS I THINKING?!?! right? Well I had another dress that someone was going to let me borrow, but when I tried it on a little over a week before my wedding... it didn't fit. My worst nightmare for my wedding. I didn't have money for a dress and I didn't know anyone that had a dress that I could wear in that short of a notice. VERY luckily, I have a woman that I'm very close to, and she took me shopping for my dress. And we found that one. I fell in love with it the instant I found it. I knew someone was watching over me smiling.

 

 

Now that the excitement of our wedding is over we spend our time working and taking care of our little puppy, Chevy. He is just a ball of energy and I'm so glad I found him, sometimes I think he found me. We're also in the process of buying our first house. That's been a headache for sure. He started working at the rail car plant, FreightCar America, right after it opened in May. He was the second group to be hired in. He's been a working man since he got outta high school in 2008. I believe since then, he's not had a job MAYYYBE 2 months? Sometimes he regrets not going to college, but I think he's landed a pretty darn good job to not have gone to college. Me? I went to college and majored in paralegal as soon as I graduated high school in 2011. In those 2 years I became very close to some girls, one being Alexia Curtis (notice the name similarities, and that's not the only thing). She's actually the one that got me inspired to start my own blog. This is her blog- alexiacurtis.blogspot.com you should go read it :). Anyway, back to college. I graduated this past May with my paralegal degree and have still yet to use it. I'm a teller at the local bank. I'm hoping that something in our legal or mortgage dept will open up so I can be some what close to my degree. But lately I've been throwing around the option of going back to college and majoring as a social worker. I've always wanted to help children, to save them.. but that's a whole other blog for another day.

 

My husband and I are the youth leaders at our church. We go to his home church. Actually, the second time we ever hung out he took me to his church's homecoming, and that church family brought me in like I had been going there my whole life. No other church ever made me feel so welcomed. Since then we have been at church every time the doors were open just about unless we got held up because of work. We direct the youth's plays, we've even directed a complete sermon where the kids did everything with the exception with a few adults helping in the choir. This relationship with my husband has made my relationship with God stronger. Before I started dating Patrick I just sorta kinda went to church. Didn't really have a strong relationship with God, and I'm so glad I've changed that. On Decemeber 15, 2013 I officially became a member of our church. I finally felt at home after that :).

 

Well that's just about everything there is to know about us. Sorry for my spots of rambling, I tend to do that... A LOT! Haha! I hope you enjoy reading about my crazy little family and our adventure in this thing called life. And hopefully somewhere along the way I hope I help someone out with whatever they may be having trouble with. :)





 The Curtin's