Finally! + A Blog Giveaway

Since Thursday, our internet has been out. It kind of amazed me how lost I felt without it and how much I actually use it once I'm home from work. Guess that says something about this generation, eh? Anyways, we had a technician come out today to see what the problem was. Want to guess? The entire problem was caused by a bent wire. The wire that hooked up our modem to the internet was so badly bent that it entirely cut it off. I actually felt sorry for the guy who had to come all the way out to the middle of nowhere just to fix a bent cable.

But, I'm happy that we got our internet back on this day specifically because Becky from Mrs. To Mama is hosting an amazing giveaway with four other ladies. The prize is worth $643 and it would be an awesome way to kick off December for whoever wins. You could hop over to her blog and enter, but if you don't, that just means that there's a better chance for me to win!

I hope that everyone has a great weekend!

Women Connect '12

Today I'm linking up with Becky for her Women Connect 2012 blog link-up. The linkup allows women to really open up, tell their whole story, and maybe find a friend or two that are going through similar issues or times in their lives. 

So, about me. Let's see, I was born in Canada, moved to Missouri when I was just under a year old and then moved to Mississippi in May of 2011 because my husband (then boyfriend,) Keegan got a job. Currently we're living in Mississippi which has definitely been a learning experience! I work in a small art gallery (was a fine-arts major in college) and my husband is an engineer at a steel mill. 

Keegan and I met in college and lived 1.5 hours away for the the approximately 2 years we were dating. Two days after my college graduation, he and I packed up all of our stuff in a U-Haul and moved to Mississippi. When we moved to Mississippi, it was the first time we had ever lived in the same city!  

I started blogging in July of 2011 as a way to document and express my feelings about moving 9 hours away from all of my friends, family and everything I had known. Quickly my blog turned into all things wedding when Keegan proposed in October 2011. I soon started a blog specifically for our wedding planning which includes many DIY projects and money saving tips. I DIY'd everything I could for the wedding (including our invitations.) Anything I couldn't DIY, I purchased at discount ($2 groomsmen ties, holla!) It was our goal to have the wedding we wanted, as cheaply as we could.  

We decided to make the move to Mississippi a bit more permanent when we bought our own house in February. 

 We got married on August 4 in Missouri surrounded by our friends and families. The ceremony was held in a local park and my dad was our officiant. Our reception was basically a big party filled with pasta, glowsticks, and a keg. 

We honeymooned in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. We stayed in our own cabin (with a heart shaped tub!) and pretty much relaxed the entire week we were there. We did a bit of exploring in Cade's Cove and white water rafted on our last day, but we spent the most time in the hot tub and watching the Olympics. 

On September 4, exactly one month after our wedding, I was diagnosed with PCOS and insulin resistance. Our dream of having children quickly came to a screeching halt when we learned that my PCOS would make it difficult for us to conceive "naturally" (without the help of medications or fertility treatments.) Since September, I have been on medications to help straighten out my insulin levels as well as birth control to force my body to cycle. I have been documenting our struggles with trying to conceive at my other blog, Baby Makin'. Many people have asked why I've decided to put such personal details on the internet. I do it because I hope that one day, another young woman who has just found out that she will struggle with infertility will stumble across my blog and I can somehow help her just as many other blogs have helped me.

I'm a huge nerd and many of my nights are spent with my husband on our computers. He's a big gammer and sometimes I join him. We both love to read and I'm a huge Harry Potter fan. Did you know that Daniel Radcliffe and I have the same birthday, down to the same year? I thought I was the coolest kid in school when I found out I have the same birthday as Harry Potter (see, I told you I was a huge nerd!)

My husband is a huge car geek and purchased a 1971 Corvette Stingray a few weeks after we got engaged. It's his baby and he loves to drive it.

He has gotten me more interested in the world of cars, so for his wedding present, I booked us a hotel room for Crusin' the Coast 2012 on the Mississippi gulf coast. I'm pretty sure Keegan was in heaven.

(I really wanted to purchase this one, but the $89,000 price tag was a bit steep.) 

I guess you should say that I blog (and have blogged) for a variety of reasons. I blog about regular life, my relationship with my husband, learning how to live in the South and more recently, our journey with trying to conceive. I would love to meet other women who have had, or are currently having trouble trying to conceive. It can be a lonely world and having a network of other women with similar stories would be an amazing help.


Thanks for stopping by!

Fab Fridays 11.2.12

Today I'm linking up with Laura at Between the Lines for Fab Fridays

+ Halloween. I thought we weren't going to do anything (our neighborhood consists of our house and one other for the time being so we weren't expecting any kids,) but one of Keegan's co-workers invited us over to their house. It was a lot of fun hanging out with them, getting to know them better and passing out candy to all of the monsters and princesses that came to visit. I honestly can't wait to trick-or-treat with our future kiddos.

+ Friends. Lately we've been Skyping with some old friends from college. It's been really nice to catch up with everyone now that we're all over the country. It's also nice to have a conversation with people our age.

+ Babies/health. You can read the trouble I've had since my last appointment here. I'm feeling loads better, but cheese still makes me dry heave. One step at a time, right? Also, I've been able to hold/play/babysit a few adorable kids under the age of a year a few times this week which has made my heart happy.

+ Feelings. I had a mini freak-out last night about everything that's been going on. After some quiet reflection at a local lake, I went home and told Keegan all of the worries and emotions I've been feeling. He reassured me that he will be with me no matter what, even if I'm never able to give him a child of his own. I didn't realize how much I needed to hear that from him until he said it. I'm so lucky to have someone so strong and loving by my side.

 + Holidays. This time last year, I wasn't looking forward to the holidays at all. It was our first holiday season away from our families and I was feeling unbelievably home sick. This time around I'm excited! There's a possibility of friends coming down for Thanksgiving and the current plan is to have our families down here for Christmas (since neither one of us have many vacation days left because of the wedding.) I'm excited to decorate our house, show my family around our new town and not driving 9+ hours. Neither one of our families have seen our new house so I can't wait to show them!

I hope everyone has a fabulous weekend! Ours will be spent doing some shopping and enjoying the 80 degree weather. I'm still not used to the warm temperatures this late in the year!

Crusin' The Coast 2012

So I'm about a week late on posting about this. Last weekend (October 12 & 13) we went to the Mississippi Coast for Crusin' The Coast 2012.

I first heard about Crusin' The Coast from a girl I work with who's from the Mississippi coast. I wanted to give Keegan a wedding present that was car related, but wasn't sure what. I was looking around for a track that would allow Keegan to take a drive on the track, but the prices of trips like that were ridiculous. My co-worker said that every year thousands of classic cars cover the Mississippi coast which sounded like something Keegan would be interested in, so I looked into it a bit more. It sounded exactly like something Keegan would love to do so I made hotel reservations back in May and set on hiding this secret for the next few months.

During the wedding I gave Keegan a card that explained that we'd be going to Crusin' the Coast and that I already had a hotel room reserved. The two month wait was hard, but finally the weekend came. We left our TinyTown around 3:30 and made it down to Ocean Springs, where our hotel was, around 8. It was dark out, but we could see classic cars already driving around.

We grabbed dinner at the Magic Mushroom (an awesome pizza joint) and went to check into our room.

This is where things got....interesting. You see, back in May when I reserved our room, the hotels had already jacked up their prices for this specific weekend. Our hotel room which normally cost about $60/night (which I found out afterwards) was now $120/night. Since I was trying to keep this a surprise from Keegan and I had limited funds, I couldn't splurge on our normal hotels, so I was stuck with a room at Howard Johnson, a hotel chain that I had never heard of before. I had high hopes that for $120/night it was going to be a good hotel, but.......

Not so much. Everything was PINK! The walls, the bedding, the curtains, all pink. The bed was lopsided and the pillows were hard as rocks. The "bedding" consisted of a sheet, what I thought was a piece of foam and the top cover which was so slippery you couldn't keep it on if you wanted to. Instead of towels, we got two bath mats. To say the least, it was the worst hotel I've ever been to. Both Keegan and I slept about 3 hours and at 5 am, we decided enough was enough. We got up, dressed, and went downstairs to check out. The clerk refunded our money, but after looking at the bill, he refunded it to a Mastercard, not the card I made the reservation with. I've never owned a Mastercard in my life, so I don't know who got my money. We were too tired and frustrated to argue with him, so we just left. 

After checking out, we went down to the beach to watch the sun rise, something I've always wanted to do.

Overlooking the Gulf of Mexico

After watching the sun rise, we went to IHOP for breakfast. Nothing too special, just quick and easy. Next, we drove down to Bay St. Louis to look at the cars. There were a few blocks that were lined up and down with some beautiful classics. It was awesome to get out of our car and walk around them, looking inside and at all of the small details. 

This truck had (almost) all of the license plates from 1935 when the truck was made.  

This car was equipped with cow hide accents on the seats and wood floors. 

I tried to convince Keegan to buy this Buick, but the $89,000 price tag was a bit much. How awesome would I look picking up (future) kids in this?!

This Mustang had a pretty interesting carbon fiber detail on the hood. Personally, not my taste, but cool to see none the less. 

After wandering around Bay St. Louis for a few hours, we drove back to the Coliseum in Gulfport to see the auto auction and swap meet. Unfortunately both of them cost money to get into (which we didn't know,) so we only went to the swap meet. We didn't find anything we wanted to purchase (or swap for) but Keegan did get to talk to the head production engineer for the transmission he's planning on putting in his Corvette which was cool and pretty informative. 

In the Coliseum's parking lot, there were some pretty cars as well. 

This rat rod had a PBR can for a coolant reservoir as well as a brass knuckles shifter and burlap sacks as chair covers. 

Keegan was very excited about seeing a Ford GT 40. Apparently this is a very expensive car. 

After walking around the swap meet for a bit, we decided we were exhausted. We drove home (after a stop at MugShots in Hattiesburg) and passed out. Next year we're hoping to get a bunch of friends to come down with us and perhaps rent a beach house for the weekend instead of worrying about hotel rooms. Overall it was an awesome experience. I think Keegan has plans to get the Corvette in tip-top shape so we can enter next year. 

Fab Fridays

Today I'm linking up with Laura for Fab Fridays. This is my first time linking up but I'm hoping to make it a weekly thing! 

After the frustrations of last weekend (that kind of bled into this week,) I need something to remind me why my life is pretty kick-butt. My life is fabulous because: 

• As soon as Keegan gets out of work, we're heading to the Mississippi Coast for Crusin' The Coast. 2 full days of sand, sun and cars (it's supposed to be 80 degrees!). This trip was Keegan's wedding present and he's been looking forward to it since August. I've been looking forward to it since May when I reserved our hotel room. Keeping it a secret until August was difficult to say the least! Unfortunately Keegan seems to have come down with a cold, but hopefully the sun and beautiful cars will kick it to the curb.
• As of right now, there's a teeny tiny chance that we'll be hosting Christmas at our house. Due to the wedding and honeymoon, Keegan only has 2 vacation days left. That's not enough time to make the 9 hour drive home, see our families in Columbia and KC, and then drive back. Since I was a little girl, I've always wanted to host Christmas at my house. I have visions of our families crowded around the Christmas tree in our living room with the fire going. Neither set of our parents have even seen our house yet and we've lived in it almost a year! The only problem is convincing Keegan's family to come down. They always visit Keegan's grandparents in KC for the holidays so convincing them to give that up this year will be difficult.  
• After an impromptu visit to the grocery store on Wednesday, Keegan surprised me with three organic fruit leathers. He hid them in my purse so I'd have a surprise snack during work on Thursday. It really meant a lot to me that 1.) he would think of me and my new dietary needs while he was rushing around the grocery store and 2.) he knows me well enough to know that I love sweet surprises like that. If you're in the market for some awesome tasting fruit snacks, the raspberry and strawberry ones are delicious. I also have the apple one to try. (I was in no way compensated for this shout-out I just think they're yummy.) 
• I jumped on the scale this morning (even though my doctor only wants me weighing in at appointments,) and so far, I've lost 7 pounds! Granted, I think our at home scale is a bit off so I'll wait until I'm at my next appointment to really celebrate, but it seems like this diet is working. It's difficult and a pain in the butt, but if it gets me pregnant, then I'm all for it. 
• It's Friday! No matter what's going on in my life, that alone makes my week fabulous. 

Go link up with Laura and tell us what makes your Friday Fabulous!