Keeping with tradition..

This post is waaaaay late, but in true Karen fashion, I figured a month late isn’t too bad. On May 6^th, I hit a huge milestone in my life. I finally turned 21! I mean being able to order Woodchuck on draft at Buffalo Wild Wings now is nice, but that’s not the reason I’m excited. It seems that when I say I’m married at 21, I don’t get nearly as many weird looks as I did when I said I was married when I was 18. You’d think I’d be used to it, but I’m not. First question is something along the lines of, how old is your baby. Apparently the only explanation of being married young is because of an unplanned pregnancy. Sorry to let everyone down, we just got married for that whole love thing. So I’m so happy to say that I’m married, and when they ask my age I can proudly say 21!

My day was great in that it was my first birthday evvvvver with Matthew home. It only took 3 years of him either working or being deployed or out of state for him to be home on my birthday! It was also my first birthday in Louisiana! Here is a little Karen fun fact for you guys. Age 18: Lived in Indiana. Age 19: Lived in Georgia. Age 20: Lived in North Carolina. Age 21: Lived in Lousiaian. Yep, how about that for well traveled. It’s nice to know that I’ll live in Louisiana for a while, so this year was the first of many birthdays here.

We live very close to a large casino, literally 1.2 miles. My parent and grandma sent me some cash to have a drink and gamble a little for my birthday. Another Karen fun fact, my maiden name is…. Gamble. I thought the odds were in my favor for that one, they were not…. not even a little bit. So sorry mom, dad and grandma, I lost all of your money.

Matthew took me to my favorite place, Buffalo Wild Wings. I don’t like beer or whiskey. But I do love Woodchuck and Bdubs happens to have it on draft. I was beyond excited. I finally got to taste of Woodchuck on draft, which I have to say, it tastes so much better than out of a bottle. I also took the opportunity to have a black cherry mojitos. It was all right, but I will be sticking to woodchuck.

Now, onto presents! Since I was 16, I’ve rocked out a 4gig IPod Nano literally since I was 15. I never delete music from my iTunes, but as you can imagine I’ve added a lot of music in the last few years. It got the point where I could literally only keep 1/8 of my library on my IPod. Talk about frustrating. Luckily, my amazing husband picked up on my frustrations so that was my birthday gift this year, a lovely 160 gig IPod. I have so much space that I don’t even know what to do with it all now.

As I mentioned before, my parents and grandparents gave me some cash for the casino as my gift. But my in laws got me something I desperately wanted and felt like I needed, a hair appointment.  It’s perfect for summer and I’m excited to see how fast my hair grows now that I have my dead ends cut off.

 Well, there you have it guys, my birthday even though it’s over a month late! Keep a look out for my posts about my parents other gift to me and also my Memorial Day weekend! Until next time!

-K

Finally, an update! Moving Part 3

(Disclaimer, this will be a ridiculously long post. So, I apologize in advance!)
Things these last few weeks have been crazy to say the least. We've moved from North Carolina to Louisiana, stopped in South Carolina on the way, moved into a house that is easily double the size of our old house if not triple, I turned 21 finally, I endured finals week and am still unpacking in the new house to make it feel like home!....like I said, crazy. It's been a crazy ride, but getting somewhere is half the fun! I'm going to give y'all (notice I've picked up a phrase to blend in with my new town) a timeline full of fun stories and explanations.
I believe the last update on the move I gave you was the day before the movers came to pack up the house. Luckily, I had my last day of work so my wonderful husband dealt with having strange people in the house. He just has that ability of making someone listen to what he says, and I do not. So I am so glad he was able to handle it. We had a few minor issues but, from what I understand, it was a pretty smooth move. It was a shock coming home to all of my belongings in boxes even though I was expecting it.

Literally, my entire kitchen in only a few boxes!

We accidentally put the wrong moving day, so our pack up date ended up being on a Friday which means we got to spend the entire weekend with our house full of boxes. But we have an amazing set of "adoptive" parents and a good friend that recently moved away that we decided to go visit for the weekend since it was our last weekend in North Carolina.

 

 

 When we got home that Sunday from our visit in four oaks, we had to still live surrounded by boxes for another day. But we had a little camp out which was nice. 

 

Luckily, the movers came the next day around 2 in the afternoon. The nice thing to do, especially since the military paid for the move, is buy lunch for the movers or just provide snacks and beverages. Let me tell you, I got the funniest looks ordering 13 cheeseburgers and 3 large fries from McDonalds. It was pretty hysterical. But, watching them take away our things was very bitter sweet. It took them only 3 hours to take away what took me months to make a home. I lived in the Carolina house almost a year longer than Matthew between the work ups and the deployment. So, it honestly felt a little more like my home than "our home". It really hit me when they moved everything out and the house was completely empty.

I literally teared up watching this part.

 The next day, Tuesday, was a much needed rest/homework/get everything else we need to get done day since the cleaning company and the carpet cleaners were coming Wednesday. Not only did the cleaning company leave the house spotless, but the woman in charge gave me tips on cleaning my own house. The hardest part of that day was waiting for them to get done!

                                           
That night, we spent our last night in town with a good friend who was generous enough to offer her couch to us. We had our walk through first thing Thursday morning, which we passed and was able to get most of our deposit back! Then we hit the road....

We were very fortunate to be able to stop by Parris Island, South Carolina for a few days to see my sister, brother-in-law and nephew at their new duty station! They moved back in March so it was a real treat to see them again. I can't believe how big Parker has gotten, plus it's always nice to have girl time with my sister and for Matthew to have someone to talk golf with.

Another great thing about our visit is the fact that Matthew actually went to boot camp at Parris Island. It was just fun to look at it as the first stop in his military career and then, five years later, it was the last stop on the way home.

I don't know if anyone is familiar with a TMO move, but we were in Louisiana a good few days before our things arrived. It was nice though because I got to give the house a good cleaning before I had to unpack. It hadn't been lived in for two years, so it took some elbow grease but we got there! We arrived Saturday, April 28th, and our things arrived May 2nd. We got the house livable by that Monday.

Anything that wasn't "needed" was still in boxes until this past week, because on top of moving....i had finals week. Yep, I still had school going on this entire time. Luckily, I ended up with an A in one course but the other course is still pending. Keep your fingers crossed!

I'm still unpacking and getting organized so I promise to post photos soon. Plus, I still have to tell the history of the house! Until then, here is some to keep you interested!

Our Home! It just needs a little love.

The porch swing my in-laws got us as a welcome home gift! 

Step into my office....

 So, today I wanted to share a little bit more of my story when it comes to anxiety ad help to try to remove the stigma that going to therapy has. Not only am I’m going to share more of my story but I’m going to share some of the tips and tricks my therapist gave to me. You can send a thank you letter to Tricare, since this info comes at the low price one hundred dollars an hour! Now, let’s begin.

A while back I shared my story of having GAD (generalized anxiety disorder). You can read all about that here. I have officially been in therapy for over a year, and let me tell you it has been the best decision for me. Therapy isn’t for everyone, but it worked wonders for my anxiety. At some points in my life, I honestly thought I was crazy. Even with medication I felt self-conscious because I thought that medicine made me seem weak. I mean, if I can’t even figure out how to get out of bed in the morning, how will I be able to make anything out of my life. It wasn’t until I went to my first visit with a psychologist that I thought any different.

I’m not sure if anyone out there is familiar with therapy but before you even get assigned a therapist, in most cases, you get sent to your friendly neighborhood psychologist! In my case, I went to see the amazing Dr. E.  We did the typical “why are we here” type chat but my favorite part of the session was when we were walking out of his office. He gave me a hug and told me not to worry and that I wasn’t crazy. It was seriously the greatest thing I’ve heard in my life.  After a series of tests, he set me up with my AMAZING therapist and a psychiatrist to figure out some sort of medication until I could get on my feet.

For over a year I was on a few different types of anti-depressant and anti-anxiety medication. This time frame was from February 2011 in Georgia to August of 2012 in North Carolina. I’m a firm believer that there is NO shame with needing help via medication, but in my case I decided to use it only as a tool and not a crutch. My medication along with therapy really helped me get to a “happy place”. Through therapy I was given tools that really made me need less and less of my medication. I am SO proud to say that as of August 2012, I haven’t been on any sort of medication. It was a personal goal for me to get off of my medication while Matthew was on deployment and really work through my issues.

I found some great visuals that I’m going to share with you guys that are very close to what I learn in therapy week after week. So here we go:

                                                         http://www.innerflowcounselling.com/

I was actually introduced to this as “Square Breathing”. I would complete the steps four times and by my last round I would be completely calm. When I get really overwhelmed or in the middle of a panic attack I would seriously just lay in the middle of the floor and do my breathing. I was once doing my “Kim Kardashian Cry” for a solid ten minutes because I just couldn’t stop. I sat on the floor, starting my breathing and by the time I got to my last round I had completely stopped crying. Not to mention, this technique is just super relaxing.

                              http://www.healthyplace.com/anxiety-panic/articles/coping-statements-for-anxiety/

A BIG issue for me was worrying. I’d have very irrational thoughts  and “what ifs” that stem from my worrying about simple things. An example, I narrowly missed face planting down the stairs. In reality, I only fell down a single step but it doesn’t just end there for me. For me, that one event made me have twenty minutes of irrational thoughts. This is the best recreation of what went on in my head….what if I fell all the way down the stairs…I could’ve broken my leg….we’re moving soon! I can’t have a broken leg…I’m losing my insurance when we move…we’d have to pay so much money…. my leg wouldn’t just be a broken leg…. it’d have to be surgical because that’s just my leg. This would seriously go on until I either have chest pains or end up in tears. It’s awful. This picture is very similar to what I talk about in therapy. I try to address the irrational thoughts head on. First I know that the situation is highly unlikely, and second it was only one step and I’m fine. I try not to “push” the thought aside because they tend to come back worse than ever before, so I talk myself through it. It’s a little silly because if I’m alone I literally have to give myself a little pep talk and point out that it’s an irrational thought. It goes something like “Okay Karen, that is irrational....it is just a negative thought and in a few minutes it’ll be completely gone”. Then I try to do something like read a chapter or two of a book, text a friend, or just something to move on from the thought.

Once I’m more confident that other tips I have work, I’ll be posting them as well. But, for right now those are my anxiety tips for the week. One thing I’ve learned is that having anxiety isn’t the issue most people face, including myself. It is how to DEAL with the anxiety that determines your fate. It’s a scary thing, not to give into my urges or challenging my anxiety.  But, I choose to fight it and face it head on. I hope you all will too.

Moving: Part 2

This isn't my first rodeo when it comes to moving. When I was eighteen, I moved from Indiana to Florida. Later that same year, I moved to Georgia. Then, when I was nineteen we moved to North Carolina. Now, at twenty we are moving to Louisiana! All of my previous moves were done without movers. Needless to say, I am ecstatic about having a moving company this time around.

One downside to having a moving company move your things over different states is that you get to the destination way before your things do in most cases. We are swinging by South Carolina on the way home and still have a handful of days before the trucks with our belongings. I'm sort of excited because it reminds me of when we when we hard hardly anything in our first apartment and we slept on an air mattress. We are taking a few things with us in the car and truck with us that we will need and things that are irreplaceable. These are things like our wedding box, individual memory boxes,  photos and the contents of our safe. Hopefully all of those items, along with my wedding dress will go in the truck.

We also need some essentials since we want to stay in the new house immediately. I will be taking a "kitchen" box full of just basic things we can use like; a single skillet, plates, bowls, cups and utensils. I actually bought a set of bowls, plates and cups at Walmart that were four a dollar to bring since they won't break and are easy to clean. Then we can save them for summer BBQs!

Then, I'm just taking whatever pantry items the movers won't move. Any open bag or container they will not move, I know, bummer. We are also throwing in some pantry items that we can cook without needing an entire kitchen set up. It seems like a lot of hassle, but unlike when we moved the first time, we will be on a strict budget that means we won't be able to go out to eat or order take out until our things arrive.

We will also be bringing our trusty air mattress and a few linens  in a space safer. Luckily, we also have  a small TV that we're bringing to watch movies since we wont have cable either. Aside from our toiletries and clothes, the only other things coming with us personally are the animals, their supplies and the "no pile" from the movers. The no pile with have things that the movers can't  move like a propane tank and air sol cans. So far the moving process has been pretty smooth, the hardest part being trying to deal with transferring our security system. Curse you ADT! Tomorrow the moving company is coming to start packing up, so I'll keep everyone posted about how that goes. Please pray for us, as it is a very stressful time! Keep a look out for part 3!

Parker's Birthday Present!

I'm sure you can guess by my past posts, I love being an aunt. The best part of being an aunt is spoiling your nieces and nephews rotten. I've been an aunt since I was in kindergarten, since I am the youngest girl on my fathers kids. I have three nieces and two nephews, so by the time Parker came around I was a seasoned pro. It also helps that up until last month, he was my only nephew or niece that lived in the same city as me. My favorite thing to celebrate with Parker is his birthday. He was born April 22nd and made quite a dramatic entrance into the world a month early. I decided this year I was going to make Parker his own book full of people that love and miss him. It works out because he can "read" it himself too. So armed with a "book" kit from a craft store dollar isle, card stalk, mod podge and my silhouette machine, I made it happen. This is what I came up with.

I wanted to make the cover something that Parker could identify and that was still personal so I decided to do trains since he is really into Thomas right now.

I tried to make it very "Dr. Seuss" and tried my take on rhyming. Here is what it says on the inside. Now that you live so far away, here are some people who miss you every day! Its easier to see in person.

Then I made a "page" for every person in my house back home who loves Parker.

I was honestly stumped on the ending so I just settled for putting: You are so loved"

Then the back is just a personalized "property of" design.

I thought this idea was great because for the fist time since he's been born that he doesn't have any of us living by him. We also wanted to get him something he could play with now so we picked up one of these bad boys

Like I said before, he is really into Thomas so I hope he loves playing with it especially since it's warm out now so he can play with it indoors or outdoors. But there you have it, Parker's birthday present. What is even better is that we will be able to give it to him just a few days after the actual day of his birthday since we will be going through South Carolina on our way home. I'll be posting a video of his reaction, hopefully, so stay tuned!

It's Finally April!

Moving is possible the most stressful thing Matthew and I have ever done. A deployment has nothing on trying to do a military move. First off, the move this month will be our second military move so we decided to change it up a bit and go with a TMO move.  Our version of a TMO move will include movers coming to pack up our entire home, and move it to the new house in Louisiana. Yep, I’m not lifting a finger. Why did we decide on a TMO move this round? We did a “Do It Yourself” military move the first time around, and lets just say we will never do that again. I know, I know….Never say never. But we moved with a weeks notice, with hardly any help besides with the washer and dryer, and it. was. awful.

Google Images

However, things will be a little different this time around. We actually took our TMO class this week and scheduled a day for our movers to come. Eeeeeek! It’s getting so real. The military requires service members to take a class in order to schedule a move. Basically, it is just a do’s and don’ts review for moving. There are different types of moves for different service members. There are different things someone needs to know for changing duty station, retiring, or just moving back to their hometown after the military. The class was actually super helpful and the process of “setting up” the move is really easy. We were even able to pick our own moving company, which I was glad for because my sister had an amazing experience with her moving company so we wanted to use the same people.

I’ll be posting more of our experience with a moving company when the time comes. So, with not having to pack a single box…what will I be doing to prepare? The main thing in any move, military or not, is organization. Some people like a fancy binder with many slots, but this move I was content with a bright folder. I vamped it up a bit with fun letters.

My friend Becky has turned me into a list person. So, that’s another thing that I did. I made a “North Carolina”  todo list. I’ll make another list for Louisiana, which will be so much smaller. I’ve printed off my list and keep it in the folder to highlight when I complete each task. I’m happy to say that I’ve gotten a lot done so far! Here is just part of our  todo list.

The TMO class gave us a lot of information on what they can and cannot pack up in the moving trucks, so I’ll be putting those items aside. So that sheet went in the folder, along with information about how to file claims if something is broken during the move. Also in the folder is our move out cleaning list for our rental. There are some things that need to be purchased like flea spray since we have animals, and we needed proof of purchase so all of our receipts go into the folder too.

This time around we are splurging. Since we are moving into  a house where we won't have to deal with the hassle of a deposit and first months rent type of situation, we are paying for someone to come do a move out clean. I am so thankful for that, especially since we are moving in the middle of a school term. A cleaning service isn't for everyone, but I am certainly not one to say no to someone else cleaning my house! I'll give more information on how that when everything is all said and done.



The beauty about us moving back to Matthew's
hometown is that we already know our address!
So, I ordered these cute little things!
They are change of address postcards with our new address and a fun message from us on the back. It was a fun way of letting loved ones know our new address and for me to get excited rather than anxious about the move!









I can't wait to share more about our moving process with everything! We're just a few short weeks away so I'll be sharing how I'm preparing and the process of all of it. Until next time!

Chili time!

I know, I am officially the worst blogger evvvvver! I had full intentions of really just diving into blogging. I had visions of pinterest projects, sharing wisdom and really getting into this blogging thing. But things have been crazy hectic in the Voorhies household in the last few weeks. First off, School. 

 I go to an online school and the format is a little different than an on campus college. Instead of 4 or 5 courses a “semester” I take 2 classes every 8 weeks which adds up to 4 classes a “semester” plus a summer session. My classes just ended and I start my new set of classes today. But I’ve had so much research to do for my end of course papers, plus everything going on in every day life that I really just haven’t had time to dig into any sort of project or write a blog post.

On top of school, I had housewife duties and just dealing with life. This month “dealing with life” meant saying goodbye to my sister as they moved to a new duty station. I know, I know…this is all apart of military life. But I’ve been extremely spoiled. For the last three years, my sister has been less than an hour drive away. When we lived in Georgia, they were literally around the corner from us. Then, when we got stationed at Camp Lejeune they joined us a few weeks later and lived just across town. They got orders to Paris Island in South Carolina and moved a few weeks ago. I was heartbroken. Not only did my best friend move, but this means I’ll be missing out events in Parkers life too. I’ll be fine; afterall this is why the good Lord sent us Skype. But at the time, it was rough!

On top of all of that, we’re preparing for the big move!....more details on that in the next post. There are a million things that need done between now and the big day, so I’ll be posting organization tips that worked for me, and how a military TMO moved worked out for me. But for now, so I don’t feel like I’ve totally bailed on my blog…a recipe!!

My dad gave me a recipe for chili when Matthew and I first got married and it’s honestly one of the best things I can make now! It’s so easy and so delicious. I’ve tweaked it to fit my needs, but you can make the original recipe and it turns out great!
Here is the list of ingredients of the original recipe.

1lb ground hamburger

1can diced tomatoes

1can tomato sauce

1 medium onion (chopped)

1 clove garlic (chopped)

1can kidney beans

1 tbs. chili powder

¾ tsp ground cumin

Here is my version though..

 

 I use ground turkey instead of ground beef, and it taste just the same! But throw a pound of ground beef/turkey into a hot skillet drizzled with a little oil. When its good and browned, drain it and throw it in a crock put.

 Put your chopped onion in the skillet next, I also add my garlic in at this point as well. I just brown it a bit.

 Throw the onion & garlic in the crock pot as well.

 Now, add just a normal sized can of diced tomatoes. I like to use the basil, garlic & oregano blend.

 Next add a normal can of tomato sauce.

 I add a small can of tomato paste in mine, but it is completely optional.

 My seasoning mix I use is just ground cumin and chili powder according the the recipe above. Then I also throw in a few shakes of Slap Ya Mama seasoning and a few dashes of soy sauce.  I cook this a few different ways. I cook it on low for 6-8 hours or high for 3-5 hours. This is one of those dishes that tastes better the longer you cook it. You can also make this on the stove. Bring the above ingredients to a boil, and then bring it down to a simmer for at least an hour. Again, the longer you cook it, the better it tastes.

 For the last 30 minutes to an hour before serving, add the kidney beans without draining. If you're cooking this on the stove top, add the kidney beans the last ten minutes of cooking. 

When you're ready to dig in, just bust out some cheese, sour cream, onion and crackers! This is one of my absolute favorite things to make because it's so simple. I try to make sure I always have the items I need in my pantry so that if I'm stuck on what to make for dinner, I can just throw this recipe together!

 I hope this recipe is a easy for everyone else to make, and just as delicious! I promise to try harder on this blogging thing :)