Making Memories- Goals for 2022

My husband and I do not have a lot of pictures together, we like to complete actives, pre-pandemic, but often forget to take pictures to remember these fun times. So I would like to dedicate our 2022 to making memories.

1. Mini photo shoot- I would love to complete one of the mini photo shoots that a lot of local photographers are offering lately. I am unsure of the theme, but something fall is on my radar!
2. Renaissance Faire Pictures- We have gone two of the years we have been together, but I have three photos and none of us as a couple
3. Fairy Festival- I intend on working on my own costume again and would love to capture some images of my work and hubby dressed up as a dark elf.
4. Wedding reception- Due to Covid and family drama we were only able to host 11 our closest friends that are family at our wedding. We hope to host all our friends and family for our one year anniversary. The plans are in works, now let’s hope we can make all the details work.
5. Valentine’s day- We usually do low key movie night, chocolate, and take away but I think reservations may be in our future this year
6. Birthdays- This year is a big one for me, 30, and 34 for my partner so hopefully we get some good memories
7. Pinball convention- A local pinball fest was one of our first overnight outings together and I hope that this is something we can manage this year.
8. Cat Expo/Show- There is a local cat show where we get so see various cat breeds and the tickets go to the local shelter. It is fun to see all the different cat personalities.
9. Mini Golf- I am terrible at mini golf, but hubby and I go three or so times a year.
10. Anime Convention- I have not gone the past few years due to COVID, issues getting time off, and the change in location, but I hope to make it to at least 1.

Chronic Illness Comfort Items

I have chronic illness, IBS-D, Hypothyroidism, PCOS, and something the doctors have yet to diagnose. I would not be a functional, wife, social worker, or person without some of my best self care items.

1. Twinings Lemon ginger tea- I have enough of dependance on this to soothe my stomach that my husband dashed over to a shelf and said hey this is on sale, while we were on honeymoon. I also have a jar filled with just these tea bags. I recommend this tea for sore throats as well.
2. Heat pad or heated blanket- Weather it is intestinal spasms from an ibs flare, a cold apartment, or cramps, I love having a heat pad around.
3. Electrolyte fluids- Depending on what I am in the mood for I switch between gatorade, poweraid, liquid IV, or tactical hydration. I need to be careful in which I pick up, artificial sweeteners can make IBS worse and I am allergic to Stevia. These fluids often keep me hydrated and out of the hospital during bad flair ups.
4. Protein Powder- Protein powder is a good on the go breakfast, or meal replacement when my stomach is acting funny. There is no way to help others without fuel in the tank.
5. Protein bars- Another quick item for between meetings, clients, or when I cannot make a lunch break. I am worse off if I skip meals then if I put something in my stomach.

December Reading Goals!

My goals for this month are pretty simple.

1. Finish reading 100 books for the year
2. Finish reading all of the books I started but did not finish

As of this post I have read 92/100 books. When I came home from vacation I had 82 books read for this year. I have made good progress reading short books and manga.

I currently need to finish:

1. To Kill a Kingdom
2. Vengeful
3. Fairest of All

Wish me luck on my journey and I will keep you posted!

Honeymoon!

My husband and I chose to do a low key honey moon, it is winter, and neither of us wanted to leave the country until COVID is more well controlled and researched, so we scheduled 6 days and 5 nights in Gettysburg. I have been there many times with my family, but not in the past five years.

My plan was to do as much as we wanted without over expanding our social batteries. Our first day was pretty simple, stopping at a local candy and soda shop, checking out the new visitors center, and checking into our lodge.

The top of Little Round Top

These are some stock photos from pixaby as I did not want to post pictures where I captured random unsuspecting tourists.

Our Second day we took a bus tour of the battlefield with an experience tour guide. Our third day was spent in the visitors center with the cyclorama, movie, and museum. I realized how social work adjacent the history of the civil war is, and how important it is to learn from our past so we can learn to move forward as a country and dismantle systematic racism. It was at this point I realized how I had only seen people who looked like me, and I began to wonder why everyone is not able to benefit from our history. I suspect part of this is due to the visitors center being co run by a preservation organization in concert with the national parks service.

We spent the next several days eating local food, shopping local for christmas presents, playing board games, watching tv, and trying to soak up every minute of our first true vacation. It was cold, got dark very early, and we were in the middle of a small town but I would not trade it for a fancy honey moon.

Wedding in hindsight

Now that the wedding and all the stress is mostly in the rearview, I would like to chat about my experience. I love that I am married to my person now, I love him to bits. However, I feel like I lost some hair due to stress.

I tried to plan for every possible outcome and failure, and yet I was still late to my own wedding, about an hour I was supposed to be there at 430 or so but did not arrive until almost 530pm. The ceremony was supposed to start at 5pm, It could have been much worse, but my friend is a wonderful driver and got us there healthy and without panic attacks.

Once I arrived I had a moment of panic, am I really getting married right now? Is this the best decision given my student loans? However, I took a deep breath, thought about all the things I love in my partner, and marched down the aisle(not sure it looked like a march given the fact that I do not regularly wear heels and twisted my ankle the day before, but details).

I lost my vows, the rings were left in my bag, and part of the wedding party was super late, but at the end of the day I did my best with my vows, cried, and married my person. After the wedding was over I felt so many things, relief, joy, frustration, over tiredness, and social anxiety. I needed to take a minute to just be with my husband and breath. I highly recommend taking fifteen minutes for just you and your partner to process and be in love before taking photos.

The reception was beyond words! The food was perfect, the chef worked with all our dietary restrictions and allergies. The decor was romantic and tasteful. It was heavenly, until my hubby tried to fall asleep in his dessert plate.

At the end pf the day I now have my husband and we may just be more obnoxiously in love. Coming next is our honeymoon!

Guinea Pig Update

Our lovely senior citizen guinea pig continues to have chronic health issues from his past teeth issues and age. He has very little appetite. The only thing he will voluntarily eat are alf alfa sticks by vitakraft.

He continues to be underweight but has stopped daily loses, but no gains. He has a follow up next week to make sure his teeth are not growing too much.

Surprisingly he ate well while my husband and I were on our honey moon! More on that in my next post!