KeEpInG mE sANe!!!!

My summer days do not consist of much excitement.Greg & I are living in Wilmington, North Carolina for the summer. He works for APX security. So I had to make some sacrifices to come here for the summer. Such as school & working. Alot of people would love to trade me right now & have the summer off to just relax & trust me it was nice at first but it gets old very fast.It gives me alot of time to organize stuff & relax but I would much rather be going to school & working. We dont live in the safest part of town & its hard to get out and walk Jax. So I staying in all day drives me insane. Thankfully my parents came & paid us a visit this last week & it was so good to get out & spend time with them,I have truly missed them. Right before my parents came out my dad had something terrible happen to him I can't remember what its called but one day he woke up with his whole left side of his face paralized. He went to the hospital & thank goodness it will go away but in time. So he still came out & I know that was hard for him but I loved having him & my mom here. We did so many fun things one day my dad wanted to rest & greg had to work so me & my mom had a girls day & drove a hour out to this flea market. We wanted to go because the last time we went to one was in Florida a couple yrs ago & we loved it. Well unfortunetly by the time we got there & were so excited it was really ghetto & reminded us of the D.I but worse. We were extremely disapointed. However we did find fun outlet stores & were able to get suvineers there. The rest of the trip we did tons of fun things. Greg had to work some of the days so one day my parents,me & Jax went down to Mertal Beach it was so fun. Lots of fun shops & the beach was awesome. Jax did so good coming with us he just stayed in my perce & was so calm the whole time. We ate at this amazing buffet by Cape Fear river,it was expensive but worth it. The rest of the vacation Greg was able to be with us. We went to this fun amusement park called Carowinds in Charlotte. But I think everybodys favorite part was Washington D.C,we drove up there and got a room & went & saw the temple,it was beautiful. My dad really enjoyed this because he went to Washington D.C on his mission. When we went to the temple it was night time and nobody was there so it was peaceful & quiet as we walked around it. I got goosbumps when I saw it from the freeway it was so bright. Everybody was telling me the city had to turn down the lights on it cuz it was blinding people on the freeway. It was just an amazing experience that I will never forget & sharing that with my husband made it that much better. We also visited the white house & lincoln memorial. It was so exciting. The trip was fun & I am so glad my parents came to visit. Bless their hearts for traveling so far. I am excited to see them again along with the rest of my family in July when Jax and I come to visit. and thanks To my sister in law Katee I now have a new favorite hobby scrapbooking. She is just so awesome she knows how I feel out here away from the family because she to has been out of state with Kyle during summers so she bought me a scrapbooking kit. I just wanna thank her so much & let her know how much I love her & appreciate her.

BiG gIrLs DoN'T cRy

One year ago my heavenly father sent an angel into my life. This angel is 6'1,has light brown hair, & has the most amazing smile I have seen in my 22 yrs of life. Little did I know this angel would be with me for the rest of my life. I was soon married to this amazing man who I love with all my heart.Greg always told me that the moment he saw my picture he told his friend that he was going to marry me .I was so excited to start this journey with him. He understood me in a way nobody ever did,he brought out the best in me & made me finally believe there's more to life than what I thought. We have now been married for six months.These last six months we have had our ups and downs & have loved every second of it. I am one of those people who hates to fight & I am very dramatic about it. Fighting with Greg is one of the most frustrating things in the world. He is very hard to argue with because he is amazing at it & is usually right. He is definitely the more responsible one of the two of us.Not only that but he wants to be a lawyer & he usually knows what he's talking about. When I argue, the words come out of my mouth before I can concentrate on what to think to say, as a result this adds to the frustration on my part because Greg laughs at me which than causes me to leave the room.No man would ever have the patience to deal with Katie like Greg does. In the end he is always the first to admit he's sorry & that he loves me. I however am really stubborn. In past relationships I would always feel to afraid to speak my mind & be open with that other person because they didn't care if i was upset and in the end I would be the one apoligizing for speaking my mind. I never stood up for myself & was made to feel that whenever I felt something that was upseting me that it was wrong & I made myself forget about it & never confront the person again. This didn't sit well with Greg He told me when I feel he's treating me bad or disrespecting me that I need to stand up for myself & let him know how I'm feeling. It made him very upset when I wouldn't. So slowly I am learning that its ok to stand up for myself & to confront those feelings. Never has Greg told me I get upset to much or am crazy for feeling the way I feel about things, in return he talks it out with me & together we take care of the problem. Nobody has ever done that with me before.I get my feelings hurt easily,& I cry alot because of it. However when your married sometimes the situations require us to be tough and strong for that other person. This summer I have had to learn alot about being tough & supporting Greg in our hard times with money. I have never understood what it was like having no money & living within our means. Greg has been use to struggling with money for a while so this tends to be a problem for us. I have broke down & cried many times because I'm so scared we would not be able to pay the bills. I finally knelt down to pray in a way different than how I was praying before, instead of asking my heavenly father to help us financially I asked him to help me know what I can do to support Greg at this time & to help me be strong for him. It took a while for me to hear the answer but finally I knew that I needed to make a list of my needs & my wants and focus on getting by on as little as possible. Its been very hard making this adjustment. I am very high maintenance I have always loved shopping & material things. I have had to learn that there are so many things in life that are more important than looking stylish or having the best pair of jeans. Money doesnt buy happiness. I now know that being happy means laughing about everything & anything with my best friend,my companion, the love of my life Gregory. Happiness is seeing my puppy finally after tons of tries & practice being able to jump on up tp the couch all by himself. Happiness is being in gregs arms while he sings me to sleep. Happiness is seeing other people smile when you have done something nice for them. Happiness is reading a great scripture & thinking "wow that makes perfect sense"!! Happiness is feeling the spirit out of nowhere when you least expect it. Happiness is accomplishing something you work so hard for. Happiness is after me and greg have a big fight he kisses me and tells me he loves me forever and ever. Its the little things in life that matter the most & sometimes some people need a big slap in the face to realize that. Now Greg & I are closer than we have ever been & fully understand each other. I know now that its time I be an adult & not cry about stressful situations with money. I have realized material things will not bring me the same kindof happiness that greg & my puppy jax bring me. Nothing could ever make me smile the way they do. I have everything I will ever need & to me that makes me the happiest & luckiest girl in the world.