A little Q & A

1. My favorite place I've ever traveled to is... 


The only place that really comes to mind is North Padre Island. Husband and I took a few mini-vacations there over the summer, and I took a solo weekend trip as well. It's so beautiful there! It's just a small island, off the coast of Corpus Christi, and not much to do aside from the usual "beach town" stuff. I love going down there and playing with my Nikon-I've been lucky enough to capture some gorgeous photos while down there!


2. Bahamas, Ireland & Italy...


Are all pretty far away, but I'd love the chance to visit all three of them!




3. I pass the time on a plane (or bus, or car ride or train) by...


Reading, listening to music, napping, snacking, etc. I've pretty much become a travel pro in these last few years, what with all the running back and forth across the country and all ;-)


4. My three must-haves when I travel are...


My cell phone(usually for safety, but also double as good reading material/games when I'm not driving), some good road music and of course, my darling husband!


5. My favorite travel companion is... 


My husband and my fur children....I'd be lost without them! Aside from them, though-probably Twin. There's (almost) nothing better than a little adventure with your best friend!


6. The craziest thing that ever happened to me while traveling is... 


While Jeff was deployed, I went home to Portland for about a month in 2010. To avoid driving all that way alone, and due to my insane phobia of flying, I opted to take a Greyhound to make the trip from Missouri. On the way back, our bus was WAY late and we all missed our connections. From there, we were rerouted to Omaha, NE, where we wound up getting stuck for over 24 hours while we waited for a bus that went to where we needed to go, and stuck dealing with some VERY nasty employees in the meantime. I haven't taken a Greyhound since that God-awful trip, and I never will again if I can help it!

7. The most exotic food I've ever tried while traveling is... 


I'm not too into the exotic food thing haha....I think sushi is about the most adventurous I've had the nerve to get! Even then, I will only eat the sushi that is cooked or all rice and vegetable-NO way is anything like raw fish coming anywhere NEAR this girl's tummy! :)

8. If I could live anywhere else, I'd live... 


Missouri. Texas is nice I supposed, but Missouri just feels like home. Rogersville is a really small town, lots of country surrounding it, but close enough to Springfield to not be a huge inconvenience, and we have family all around us up there. We've decided that, once all this army stuff is over and done with, Rogersville is where we will settle for good. It feels safe to me and a perfect place to raise our family when we reach that point.

Healthy in all aspects

                So, I posted a month or so ago about having been put on some medication for the anxiety I was experiencing. I had an appointment this last week to further help "treat" the same issue, and had sort of a "duh" moment. 

                

               I've kind of always been a little high strung, but kind of always independent as well. Well, taking the advice of my primary doctor, I started some counseling appointments to help deal with what is causing the anxiety. So far, I love the doctor I've been set up with. After going over some of the event of the last year and a half, and a few from further back, she basically validated that everything that I have been experiencing emotionally has just cause for being an issue. Things like having your spouse deploy and all of the worry that comes with it, having a close family member suddenly pass away shortly after, having your spouse wounded and being uprooted to an entirely new/unfamiliar/unstable place, and then having your home burn down very shortly after that......those events aren't just ones that you can deal with and then brush off. I never realized just how much they had actually affected me. I was catching myself snapping at my husband and realizing how short my temper was without any really good reason. At the same time, I was still kind of in "deployment mode".....you know, the one where you're the one left at home, waiting on your other half to come back, and taking care of everything alone and on your own in the meantime. I never really realized up until these last couple of appointments how much all of that stress and all of those feelings had just stuck with me all this time. The thing is....once you reach that level of stress and anxiety....it's hard to find when the "off" switch is, or to deal with what you're going through and letting someone else handle things for a little while. Or at the very least, handing over *part* of the "load" to someone other than yourself.   

        After I had explained and gone through everything that had happened with this doctor, she looked at me and literally went "well, no WONDER you're so high strung." I have to admit, I laughed. The way that she explained it to me is that after all of these terrible things happened, my stress level raised to a certain level and just stuck there, and has been sitting up there ever since they happened. It's like I've been "waiting on the other shoe to drop," or in other words, waiting on the next awful thing to happen. I didn't realize it until she said it, much less did I know how to deal with what I was experiencing, but as soon as she said that.....I don't know, it was like this giant weight was just lifted off of me. Like someone FINALLY understood what it was that I have been dealing with all this time, and I could just breath again. I really have never been much into the idea of counseling and whatnot, but after this last week.....I can definitely see the benefits of continuing to see this doctor. Sometimes all you really need to do is just talk to someone neutral to your situation so that you can have some sense made of whatever it may be that you are experiencing. 

      One of the other major changes that I (or we, really, seeing as how Jeff and I have both been trying it out)have made is our diet habits. I had been doing some research on this so-called "clean diet," and decided that it seemed like it could be a good fit for us. We were both having some digestive issues, and had developed some really poor habits as far as junk food and soda were concerned, so there was absolutely no harm in trying this "clean" thing out. For the last few years, I've also had some metabolic issues, where it hasn't functioned the way that it should have been. So when I went in to get that issue taken care of, I asked my doctor about it and she said she strongly recommended it. So, we jumped in. We started buying a lot more fresh fruits and vegetables, replaced our junk snacks with things like nuts, berries, fruits and veggies, started buying more water and quit buying the junk food and soda. At the same time, I've spent more time than ever working out and forcing myself to find a routine that allows me to get in a couple hours of a workout in daily, yet still allots time for my school work and housekeeping, as well as anything else(errands, phone calls that need to be made, etc) done that needs to be. So far, I've actually been amazed by it. Jeff has kind of been easing into it, while I've pretty much just dove in head first and am loving it. The digestive issues we were having with all of the junk/processed products seem to have worked themselves out, I managed to kick to soda and more importantly, my COFFEE (if you know anything about me, you know that I have been a serious coffee junkie for years)habits, and I have an insane amount of energy without all of the junk just sitting in my body. It feels SO nice to be able to get through a day without that dragging feeling I always used to get, AND I've already managed to drop 18lbs(insert happy dance here). So this "clean" thing definitely has some pretty major benefits. One of the biggest reasons I'm loving it is because you don't FEEL like it's a "diet." You don't feel like you're depriving yourself of anything, and your meals are broken down into several smaller ones, so your body is constantly fueled, leaving no chance to have that dragging feeling kick in like I got before. I gained a ton of weight a couple years ago, mostly because of a medication I had been put on but also because of poor nutritional habits, and I've tried a bunch of stuff to get it off, but this has by far been my favorite habit to replace the old, poor ones. I could never have run a mile a month ago, and I did that for the first time in years today. Definitely a change that I can see sticking with as long as it is this good to me :-) I'm not at all into the "new year's resolutions," and it's kind of just coincidence that these changes are being made now, but I feel like this change, along with the counseling I'm currently getting, are all things that will allow me to be 100% healthy in every aspect of my life. The idea of everything "running smoothly" is one that I am pretty fond of, I have to say.

      Something off topic and random....I'm involved with this group of really awesome women who are also all on this mission to get healthy. Not specifically to lose weight or to look a certain way, but to be HEALTHY. Meaning that together, we are all "retraining" ourselves into healthier habits as far as working out and food are concerned. One of the things I've noticed that kind of concerns me is exactly how unsupportive some of their spouses can be. The thing that has helped me more than anything else is the support during this change that I receive from my dear husband. I'll admit, it was a bit awkward at first to ask him about certain workouts or just whatever I had questions about, but he has never once made me feel stupid or uncomfortable or most importantly, made me feel like it's not "safe" (emotionally) to talk to him and ask him things. But since I have gotten used to the fact that it is "okay" to talk to him about this stuff.....I haven't had any problems just talking to him, and if anything, he's been pushing me along just as much as I have been pushing myself. I can't imagine not having that, and I've seen posts from women saying how their husband gave them crap about what they were doing, or teasing them because they had chosen not to eat certain things, etc. I get that there is light-hearted teasing that goes on, but what I was reading was pretty vicious. I cannot for the life of me how someone that you gave the rest of your life to, for better or for worse and in sickness and in health, could ever possibly be anything BUT supportive of whatever it is that you have chosen to do, ESPECIALLY when it comes to something like pushing yourself to get healthy. I'm not naive, I know that there are far too many marriages/relationship that are ridiculously unhealthy and lack communication and encouragement. I also know that I am insanely lucky to be married to such an amazing person who not only supports me in whatever I am doing, but who I am comfortable talking to about anything and completely being myself with. Not to mention that he has done whatever I have asked him so that he can help me push myself with certain things. We basically have that relationship that everyone idealizes when they think of marriage-there is nothing off limits, he is absolutely my best friend and soul mate, and I love that the marriage that I dreamt of long before I ever met my husband, is now the exact one that we have created together. I guess it just blows my mind that you would marry someone and then completely disengage yourself from what they are interested in or doing, particularly when it comes to something that requires a ton of moral support in order for you to be successful at it. I've seen it happen time and time again, but I just find it upsetting when people take each other for granted when so many people would kill to have someone there at all. 

I think that's about all I have to say for right now, and it is far past *this* girl's bedtime haha :-) Happy Monday, goodnight! 

      

Bring it on.

                    
             A few things have been on my mind this week, and I haven't been 100% sure how to approach venting....whether or not I should, or if I should instead just keep it to myself. I've come to this simple conclusion: People can go ahead and draw whatever conclusion they may. My thoughts and opinions are my own, and if you disagree with me....don't read or listen to what I have to say-it's really just that simple.


          Some of this started over leave when we went back to Oregon on leave at Thanksgiving. It seems impossible for me to visit there without "someone"(you know who you are, and so do those that matter) causing drama and trying to convince me and anyone who will listen what a terrible person I am, for the zillionth time. This person has caused so much chaos in my life, it's not even funny. I'm not sure if she feels the need to try to force me to be unhappy because SHE is, or if she genuinely just likes to be the source of drama. Either way, I refuse to allow it to happen to myself, and more importantly, my family. This has, in the past, had the ability to make me more angry than I can even find words to describe. This is someone who lives in absolute filth, was abusive both physically *and* emotionally, tried telling people that I was bipolar because she would push me to the point that I was at the absolute end of my rope and then call me crazy, and who puts on the biggest, fakest show for anyone who will so much as look in her direction. Not to say I'm 100% innocent of any wrong-doing during these times, but I also wasn't the adult in the situation and she should have acted like the adult. She is someone who, instead of owning up to her faults and mistakes, prefers to push them under the rug and pretend as if all is well and none of it ever happened, and who more times than not(until now), has been capable of reducing me to a giant ball of an anxiety-ridden, angry mess of a person. I refuse to allow her that power anymore.


        I've had several people, BECAUSE of things that this person has said and spread around, either tell me what a horrible person I am, how worthless I am because of what they have heard about me and even how "disrespectful" I have been toward her. You know what? There have ABSOLUTELY been times that I have been more disrespectful than I care to admit toward her, but guess what? In my eyes, respect is something that is EARNED, not given, and she has done NOTHING to earn mine-I don't care if I am the younger one and therefore supposed to respect her-she doesn't deserve it. If anything, I have lost an insane amount of respect for her because of her own actions these last years. Is there bitterness there on my part? Definitely-I'd be lying if I said that there wasn't. But people have to realize that all of these feelings of bitterness, of anger, of resentment that I have for this person.....those don't just happen for no reason. There is ALWAYS a reason for those feelings to be present. So to those people that have apparently taken "her" side and done the name calling and informed me of their opinions on this particular issue.....just stop. PLEASE trust me when I say that all of the feelings I have toward her or lack for her....all of that is earned. I am anything but "crazy" and don't have bi-polar as SHE has claimed-those things are ALL things she made up. Prior to the last year, I have been to a psychiatrist TWICE in my life-once at about age 13 and again at about 21-22ish. At no point was bi-polar EVER mentioned. I sought a psychiatric opinion around 21-22 because she is SO good at twisting things, that she even had me doubting my own sanity at one point. I was absolved of any psychiatric issues, with the exception of some anxiety-anxiety that began because of issues she had caused. So as I said, PLEASE TRUST ME when I say that NONE of these things she made up are true. As for those people who feel the need to tell me what they think of this situation, how horrible of a person I am, and how to handle this...your opinions have no bearing on any decision I make whatsoever. Please don't waste your time informing me of them. 


      As much as many people have disagreed with my decision in regards to this person.....you can't understand my stand on it until you have been in my place and dealt with all that I have. I have spent a lot of time being hurt both by this person, and because of things this person has said and done.  I am making my best effort at this time to cut this person out of both my and my husband's life 100%. You can disagree with it all you want, but I've exhausted any other options. I've tried my best to make things better and nothing works, so this is the last resort and unfortunately, this is what it has come down to. It's a decision that I've wrestled some with and slept on, and this is the decision that I have made for us. 


       I cannot continue to allow this person the ability to cause disruption and chaos in my or my family's life, it's unhealthy at best. What I want for us is to be allowed to opportunity to be happy and content in our life together, to be able to move forward in a healthy marriage and to provide the strongest, most communicative relationship that we possibly can to each other and our family later on down the road. I want us to be able to live this life the way that we want to, without someone causing commotion at every turn and creating unnecessary issues. My decision to cut this person out has not been a fast one, or a less-than-well-thought out one-it's taken me a lot of time to reach this conclusion. I realize that not everyone is going to be happy about it, Lord knows I've already received opinions of it from "her" side, but I don't care. I'm doing what I need to in order to maintain a healthy family and that is the only thing that matters to me. God help the person that decides to try to come between us and being the best that we can be for each other, as she has quickly found out. 


          I am sorry for being so vague, but the people involved in this will know what I am speaking of here, and I don't wish to post names but wanted to share my "side" of things that are happening and have been going on. Bless my poor husband, he has had to help me deal with this one and as I said, it has not been easy but he has been so wonderful through it and I could not be more blessed to have my best friend holding my hand through this crazy life that we lead. I will say though, that after having been through everything that I have, and then a deployment with my husband and especially this last year through all of the things that have happened, I have never felt stronger in my life. It has all been really overwhelming at times and there have been a ton of downs and just as many ups, but at the end of the day, we have gotten through it all and have yet to break. So, anything or anyone else that feels the need to throw anything tough in our direction......YOU DON'T SCARE ME! Bring it on. I have the best people supporting me and am truly blessed for this life I have been given and would not trade any of it, even the bad parts, for anything. Every ounce of it has brought me to who I am, which at this current moment the strongest & smartest that I have ever been, the most focused I have been in ages, and the most confident I have ever been despite anyone who has said or called me anything negative and tried to prevent me from being this way. All I can say to all those people who have tried to break me with all of that negativity is this:




                                                                I WIN!!!

Thanksgiving and some other junk.

   
     It's been a little while since I've bothered writing anything here lately.  Blame Thanksgiving, my birthday, and one hell of a "vacation," ha ha :-)




    The husband and I decided that we would spend both my birthday and Thanksgiving(since my birthday was a day before Thanksgiving) this year up in Portland, where I'm from. Two words: Never. Again.


    Okay well, maybe not *never* again, but we'll definitely have to do some better planning the next time we decide to head back up there, and we more than likely will never drive during this time of year again. The trip up was absolutely hellacious, to say the least. It was gorgeous all the way up until we hit Oregon, and after we stopped to visit my great aunt & uncle in southern Oregon...that's when the "fun" started. I may or may not(I probably did though)have messed with our GPS and changed our route a bit-it was shorter the way that I changed it to. Problem was, the "shorter" route included the most ridiculous mountain pass in the whole damn state, and(just our luck!) we got caught in some freak snow storm that was completely unforeseen by any weather forecast. So, we get a little bit up the mountain, ran into some crazy snow and wind, decided it was too much for our car(which we didn't have chains on), and back doooowwwn the mountain we went. Talk about epic.freaking.FAIL. 


   Long story short, we finally made it up to portland the next day, spent about 10 days, had the usual mother-induced drama that apparently is a must-have with any visit we make to Portland(the kind where your mom gets SUPER mad that you don't revolve your schedule around her 100% of the time you're in town, not to mention a bunch of other petty dramatic antics), packed up and headed back to Texas. We took the I-5 route home, which was MUCH easier(with the exception of a few areas where there were some really strong winds-mostly in California and Arizona), and made it back here just fine. I can't say I'm overly thrilled to be back "home" here, but it is what it is and I'll make the best of the time we need to spend here.  


    This last week I was able to get mostly caught up on school work and get into the doctor's appointment I've been slacking on making. It was interesting, to say the least.  I've had all of this anxiety the last year or so, that I wasn't 100% sure where it was coming from. Obviously the cause for some of it was the mister's deployment and all of the stress that went along with that(you know, hoping he didn't die that day and trying to keep that whole "no news is good news" idea in my head when I would go days and sometimes weeks without a phone call-that sort of stress),  along with the stress that came along with him getting hurt earlier this year and then the fire that destroyed our home a month after that.  Not to mention the things that happened while he was still deployed-my back injury from work, my Papa passing away a couple of months after he deployed, etc.  I was in the doctor's office no more than 40 minutes before she said that she thinks all the anxiety I've been experiencing is more than likely due to some form of PTSD. I have to tell you, I about cracked up when she said those for letters. My husband, for the last 10 months, has been experiencing some PTSD himself, which is totally understandable, if not expected, after everything that he has been through and seen in his almost 8 years in the military, and 3 combat deployments. They've told him each time that he doesn't have it. I found it rather ironic that I myself, as a wife, never having been to any of the places he has or seen a fraction of what he has seen, can be more easily diagnosed as having something that shouldn't even be in question for him to have, than my husband can. It almost makes me thing that they are just refusing to say that he has is because they simply just don't want to pay him what would be owed to him. Since he is going through the MEB board process right now due to his injuries, a PTSD diagnoses automatically earns him a 50% rating-meaning that he automatically gets 50% of his retirement pay should he be MEB boarded out or when he retires. It seems a tad ridiculous that they would have an issue diagnosing someone who's done 3 combat deployments with something as basic as PTSD, but that's an issue for a different blog :) My doctor wound up putting me on an extremely low dosage of a medication called Effexor that is supposed to keep your anxiety in check, without making you feel all zombie-like. So far, so good. I've managed to not be so high strung and moody since starting it, which is definitely a good thing :-)


    Another thing I had in mind to blog about.....being put on medication for things like anxiety. There are some people who would rather not talk about things like that, simply because of the stigma that tends to accompany it. That whole "taking medication means you're crazy." No, no it does not-not at all. I've been guilty of those same thoughts myself, but it's so far from being true.  A lot of time, it just means that you need a little help getting your emotions in check. For me, it means I get to sleep much better than I was before, because I don't have as much difficulty  "shutting my brain off" when it's time for bed. People seriously underestimate anxiety-it can actually cause some serious problems. Personally, it's been an exhausting thing-to be "wound up" all the time. After everything that has happened in the last 15 months or so.....it's been really hard to calm down and just relax. It's almost been like I've been waiting for the next bad thing to happen. I've been moodier than I care to admit, and bless my poor husband-he's been having to put up with it. The medication I was put on earlier this week has been a blessing. It means I get to relax and quit lashing out at people and just enjoy things a lot more than I was able to before. It doesn't make me "crazy,"  it just lets me be better-functioning because I'm not exhausted constantly. If you need a little help to deal with things, so be it. There's nothing wrong with it, and there certainly shouldn't be any shame in it. We're all human, needing help is a totally normal thing and nobody should be embarrassed or afraid to admit that :-)


   Okay, now that I've written ya'll a nice long novel....I think I'll head to bed :-) Hope everybody has a great week! :-)

Disposable friends.

This topic was brought up this week....again. For like...the zillionth time. I feel like I'm a little weird at times for my opinion on it, because it doesn't *quite* seem to match up to some other's opinions of the same issue. The fact that people are so "all or nothing" about friendships, meaning you're there either 100% of the time or not at all....that idea is stupid to me. I had a couple of  "friends" back in high school that had that idea of what a friendship is in their heads....it doesn't work. If I required someone(aside from my husband) to be there 100% of the time in order to be my friend...I'd be friendless, it's as simple as that, haha. You can't expect people not to grow and change and take different paths and move away and go on with their lives. That's what visits are for. Sorry to say, if you require someone to be there 100% of the time to even be considered a friend....you have some serious co-dependency issues. Maybe that's why I don't feel the need to be attached at the hip to people. I like "me" time, even a little time here and there without Jeff, where I can just relax and do whatever I want to without being bothered(not that he bothers me, but everyone has those "I need me time" days-it's a natural & normal thing). I've always needed at least a little time to myself, and that works for me, and for us. I really feel sorry for people who need attention and someone by their side 24/7....What could you possibly learn about yourself that way? You can't learn how to be independent without being on your own sometimes. You can't learn how to *not* rely on other people unless you are without those people for awhile. That was something I learned when I first moved across the country, away from home. Amazing how responsible you become when mommy or daddy aren't there to bail you out or pay your bills. If you're constantly looking for someone to bail you out, to take of things for you.....you're not going anywhere, I hate to break it to you. How are you supposed to know how strong a person you are if you're constantly pushing things off to other people and making excuses for yourself? You learn nothing from that. Friends are NOT meant to be around 24/7/365, but just because they're not around that much-whether it's due to distance or work schedules or really, just life-that doesn't mean that they don't care or don't value you as a friend, that they're "disposable." There are a lot of people who I absolutely adore that I don't get to see but once a year, but you know what? I don't love them any less because of that. It just means that I live far away and have my life to deal with, and let's face it-travel is expensive. Who can afford to just hop a plane as often as they want these days? Not a whole lot people, really. That doesn't mean throw relationships down the crapper because they can't be there as often as you'd like. It means that you need to adjust and learn to be self-sufficient, and realize that it might be nice to get your way 100% of the time, but unfortunately for you-this is real life, and it just doesn't work that way.

9 months and 25 miles.

   Quite a few of  my friends have been doing this thing on Facebook these last few days.....posting one thing that they are grateful for each day of November. I thought about this, and I suppose I could do the daily posts, but I think I would rather just do them all in the same post, in one blog entry. So, here goes:


  I am absolutely beyond grateful that we, and more importantly, Jeff, made it through this deployment. Maybe not the way that we had planned or wanted him to, but he did it nonetheless. There have been a few times, especially when all the homecoming photos and schedules were being posted months ago, that I was *just* a tad bitter that we weren't going to get that....Go figure, the *best* part of deployments-getting to see them get off the plane and being marched into the hangar, waiting through the speeches and finally getting released to the families and getting that first kiss after so many months-is the *one* part we got robbed of. But in the end, I got my husband back and I know of far too many wonderful ladies who are not able, and will never be able, to say that they got the same. 


   We had an amazing support team of people that surrounded us in those weeks and months after he was sent home. From the liasons at BAMC, to the people with the Warrior/Family Support Center, the Warrior Transition Battalion, family that was constantly checking up and visiting and friends who were endlessly checking on his progress and what was going on, we've been very blessed to find such a wonderful community that has done and continues to do so much for us. I had really become quite resentful of people in general prior to this(for reasons I'll leave out of this entry, it's an entirely different story), and after this year I have to say that my faith in humanity has been restored 100 times over. There is no repayment enough for that.


   I've gained an entirely new family this year, even before we got married back in September. Jeff's mom is pretty much the best mother-in-law I could have asked for, his sister Brittany and her husband, Eddie, are a blast to hang out with whenever we go to visit and Brittany and I talk super often, so she's just a text/call away-I love that about them :) That's not even to mention his cousins, his dad, etc....they are all wonderful people and I lucked out to gain them as family.


  Jeff's recovery. I honestly didn't expect, after the injuries he sustained from the IED blast he was in, that he would recover as well as he has. Today, 4 days shy of 9 months later, he went out and rode in a 25 mile bicycle ride for the Wounded Warrior Foundation(If you haven't already, look those guys up. They do a TON to support both the warriors and their families, are in constant need of donations, and most importantly-they're awesome). He went from being in a wheel chair and unable to bath himself in a matter of less than 6 months-that to me is pretty amazing. He was lucky to have walked away from the blast alive, I would have been content with just that. But he wasn't, and he showed that today. I could not be more proud of his progress and determination if I tried :-)




  In just a couple days, we will be packing up and driving to Oregon to spend my birthday and Thanksgiving this year, since they fall within a day of each other. At Christmas, we will pack up again and head to Missouri to spend the holiday with Jeff's side of the family. I spent both holidays last year in Tennessee, while Jeff was still deployed and with my family over 2,000 miles away. It pretty much sucked, as I'm sure Jeff's did as well, considering he was in Trashcanistan(because really, who LIKES having to spend holidays in that dump?)  We are so blessed to be able to spend both holidays with one part of our family or the other, to get to spend that *time* with the people who we love and mean the most to us....that is a truly priceless thing, as cheesy as that very well may sound. 


Overall, we've been blessed with a ton of things that we can say we are grateful for this year, but the biggest one is simply that we get more time together(we even got our 2 year anniversary together this year-first time ever! Mind you, it was also our wedding day :-p). Time is something that is more than priceless and can never be replaced, needless to say the biggest blessing of all.

Day 9

                      {Day #9-A picture of the person who has gotten you through the most.}

Without going into grave detail, my grandma is hands down this person for me. Lord help the person who gets in her way or messes with her grandbabies(glad to say I'm one of those! :-p), I am more than certain that this woman would fight to the death for either of us and she's gone to bat for me on more than a couple occasions. That's in addition to making sure the whole family is taken care of at all times, no matter what. It makes me so angry that some people take advantage of that. She's the best, and I couldn't ask for a better person to be my grandma :-)