Happy Valentime's Day!

If you think the Post Title is spelled wrong, just watch this!

February is a busy month for us; our Anniversary being on the 2nd and my birthday, plus Valentine's Day, on the 14th!! <3

The weekend of our Anniversary, Daniel had to work a family retreat for a different unit. It was in Grapevine, TX at The Great Wolf Lodge. It was a fun place and great hotel with lots to do for kids! The families loved it and we had a great time despite not having kids ;)

The retreat ended on Saturday but we decided to stay an extra night because our Anniversary was Sunday. We had a wonderful room and we enjoyed the mini vacation to celebrate our first year of marriage!

 

We took advantage of a few things the hotel had to offer.

Like the arcade...

 

And the waterpark!

Click on the picture to enlarge.

 

These kids, and adults, waited for the bucket of water to drop on them! I think it was every 8 minutes or so that it dumped...

We also had dinner at the cute restaurant at the Great Wolf - it was yummy, but I ate things I shouldn't have (allergies), and so the evening was then spent in the room...sipping on water and "hibernating" ;)

There was also a silly little game for the kids about wands and quests that Daniel wanted to play but he decided he wasn't twelve anymore ;)

We had a great time making memories and enjoying our time together! But, technically, we were there for work so there was that too.

Saturday night, we decided to drive across the street to visit the Gaylord Resort. It was beautiful!!!!

 

And we had already eaten dinner so we decided to have dessert at one of the restaurants. Very expensive restaurants!!

$1,000 bottle of wine!! :O

I got an adult coffee drink ;) and Daniel got the frozen custard with port. It was all heavenly!! <3

Oh, and on our drive home, this happened!! HAHAHA.



We got home Sunday around two in the afternoon. Daniel had bought a cheap-o antenna off Amazon so we could get basic channels to watch the Super Bowl!

On our honeymoon, we watched the Super Bowl while eating a la carte from different restaurants we could find in the area of North Georgia! And Daniel fell asleep during the game ;)

We loved that so much so we have decided to carry on the tradition this year! So on our way home, we had stopped at three different restaurants to get appetizers to munch on while we watched the Super Bowl. We tuned in right before the half time show. It was a rather boring game... But it was our Anniversary which was all the excitement we needed ;)

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Now, let's fast forward to ValentiMe's Day ;P and my birthday! Daniel got a four-day weekend, so that was very nice to be able to have that time all to ourselves and not have to worry about work! So I took Friday off but Daniel got the celebrations started early on Thursday evening. Valentine's Day is a very popular day for couples to go out to eat and so, I never really prefer to go out. So Daniel took me to an adorable little Italian restaurant for dinner. It is family owned and very reasonably priced! We got huge portions and it was all so delicious!! We want to go back sometime soon.

After dinner, Daniel had a surprise for me to continue with the night of going out for my birthday. And he surprised me by taking me to see a play at the local theatre! :)

As planned, we stayed in for my birthday and Daniel spoiled me all day long!! It was a wonderful day!

 

For dinner, Daniel made an entire spread of delicious food for the fondue pot! It was so good and I want to do it again. And we watched one of my favorite movies, Enchanted! :)

 

When we got engaged, we went to The Melting Pot in Duluth, GA and we loved it! We got the ying-yang drink and loved it, so Daniel looked up the recipe and replicated it :) It was really good!

 Then, the next day, we made fried ice cream!! But the first one burnt.

But then, the other three were successful and delicious!

 

Daniel likes painting, in fact, he is painting right now in the craft room! I kept this Anniversary secret from him ever since last Summer! So Saturday night, I had planned, and already made reservations about 4 months prior, to take Daniel to Painting With A Twist for the date night. It was two weeks after our Anniversary but it was a lot of fun! We also had friends that attended the same night so it was fun to enjoy with them as well.

We cannot believe we have been married for a year now!! Time has flown by and we have been so spoiled our first year of marriage. While we miss family and friends dearly, we are having a great time making our own memories here and serving in ministry work for the Army! :)

I consider it pure joy to serve my husband!

In one year, this man has made me a better woman, he has taught me more than I thought I could learn, he draws me closer to Christ before himself, and he has blessed me beyond measure! I have never had anyone in my life make me laugh as hard as he does or make me as mad as he has made me! But my madness has never lasted more than five minutes! This has been an incredible year!!

Popular inquiries pt. 5

"When will you be having kids??"

Well, you see, we believe in God and we believe that God's timing is perfect ;) He is in control of it all!

As much as we are enjoying each other, we have our own selfish desires of waiting about two more years before we start having kids, but again, it is in God's hands!

Almost everyone we talk to says, "Oh gosh! Wait as long as you can to have kids! Enjoy your time together! Enjoy each other! Kids change everything!" Honestly, we feel like they make having kids sound horrible haha! But we know it's not horrible ;) We appreciate that everyone saying that is simply encouraging us to work and focus on our marriage before bringing in another person into the mix. And we agree! :)

The newest news!

No, we are not pregnant!!

The news to be shared is not that joyous - while it is not the opposite, it is not joyous either...

I have been officially diagnosed with food allergies. After years of daily headaches and unexplained stomach pains, our questions have been answered!! I am so thankful to have answers! I am so thankful my symptoms were nothing worse than pains in my head and in my abdomen. And I am so thankful that Daniel is the sweet man that he is and takes care of me when I'm in pain! There are individuals that suffer from far worse symptoms from their allergies than I, so I am thankful it is only mild food allergies and nothing more severe.

I am not one to write medical posts, especially on a public blog. But this one is not too personal and will hopefully give you an understanding of what we have been dealing with recently. Literally, dealing with, as this has been a life changing event for me! As dramatic as that may sound, it really has been a daily struggle and change! For the both of us!

Really, it all started when I had visited a neurologist to see why I was having daily headaches and all they could tell me was, "Here, take this medicine! Come back in three months and I will up your dosage." No thanks! I wanted more answers than that. I, then, went back to my PCM and shared my concerns of the pains and headaches, and I told him I have the markers of arthritis, to which he referred me to a Rheumatologist. Seventeen viles of blood later, they sent them off to the lab and that is when they discovered the allergies in the blood work.

As soon as I got the call from the doctor of the official test results, we decided, together, that I would not eat anything on the list!

Shrimp

Peanuts

Wheat

Cow's milk

Egg whites

Walnuts

Soybean

Codfish

So with our new plan in action, we set out to brave our local grocery store. Our normal 30-minute grocery shopping trip turned into a two-hour shopping experience! If you've ever shopped while looking at every items nutrition label, you know it adds some time to picking out food. Never have we ever noticed how much food has almost everything I'm allergic to! If it doesn't have one thing, it has another! If it's gluten free, it has milk. If it doesn't have milk, it has soy! Oh soy; there are a lot of food items that contain soy! I had no idea!!...

With my new "diet", I did not want Daniel to feel burdened just because my body was rejecting certain foods, so I told him to eat as normal. At first, he felt bad for eating yummy, creamy food infront of me, but, again, I did not want it to effect him! It was weird at first, not to be able to eat "normal" things...like cheese...or sandwiches, but it got easier the more I didn't eat it. I craved a few things and wanted a lot of food! I was hungry a lot and felt lost in my own kitchen. But after the shock my body went through, it got a lot easier to find other foods that I really did enjoy and it opened my eyes to understand what was "wrong" with me. Hah!

[[*UPDATE*:]] After 3 weeks eating allergen-free foods, I lost weight (unintentionally) and the pains subsided. It was three days until Thanksgiving and I was dreading facing the holidays with the food restrictions. We knew, at some point, we were going to "test" my sensitivity levels to the foods I'm allergic to... and so, the journey of reintroducing began... I drank a half a cup of cows milk. It was so good!! I had missed it dearly. No headache occurred!

Turns out, I CAN eat these items, I just have to be prepared for the potential pain to come. Thankfully, pain does not always occur. I can have flare ups some days but it's not everyday... Therefore, I am eating allergy free food but I also eat what I want occasionally :) and it's pretty nice! My levels are so low and we are very grateful for that. We have not reintroduced shrimp or peanuts yet but I have eaten foods that have been "cross contaminated" and it does not effect me! (Low allergen levels! Yay!)

That being said, I cannot drink a big glass of cows milk, nor eat an entire pizza! I have to limit what I eat, if it contains anything I'm allergic to.

Disclaimer: I am very empathetic to those who suffer worse side effects than I. And those who have higher allergy levels to foods. I am truly sorry and I do not mean to offend anyone with my comments on how "tough" it is for me. You probably have it worse and think I'm just a whiny Army wife. Again, I'm sorry! This is my story and my feelings.


This was something Daniel made me about a week after finding out the diagnosis. It is a rice cake, with turkey, mustard, and lettuce :) It was actually good! He was so creative with trying to find things that I could eat for lunch! :)

We found a great substitute for butter! Ghee!! Tastes a little funny at first, but it is better than dairy butter - especially for me.

I had run out to do errands and I came home to made-from-scratch hot chocolate that was allergy free! :) Daniel is so sweet to me!! I do not know what I have done to deserve this man <3