I apologize......

Yes. It has been over 2 months since I have posted. What's even worse is that I have found the time to post on Thanksgiving Day.

I thought about trying to be that clever person who post daily what I am thankful for, but I just can't. In the past year, I have worked really hard to show God that I am thankful daily, so I didn't see the need to tell everyone every single day what I am thankful for. God knows I am thankful and that's what matters.

Annnnnnyyyyywaaaayyyyyy..........

The past couple of months have been a blur. I left you on our anniversary and never came back, so we have LOTS to catch up on. I refuse to tell you everything, because mostly, I won't remember. (Just trying to be honest!).

Spetember:
We were married 5 years and celebrated.......well, actually, we didn't. Jordan came home with a beautiful diamond ring and I came home with a pencil for him. Yep, that's right. A pencil. The 5 year wedding anniversary gift is wood. So I bought a big yellow pencil and drew hearts on it. It's his love pencil.......and I'm pretty sure if he knew I was announcing this, he would deny it. Totally.
Job wise, things were the same. CVS sucks, but I continue to be there. It's a paycheck. End of story.
My birthday rolled around.....and I'll be honest, I don't think we celebrated that either. Man, we are sad. Jordan brought home flowers, so I guess that was our celebration.
Is it bad that I can't remember anything else?


October:
Ummmmm.......I can't remember anything here either........moving along.........

November:
Now, here's where it get good and busy.......
My cousin's daughter turned 4. My aunt turned 50. There were parties for both, but I only got to the one for the young one (I guess, depending on how you look at this, you still have no idea what party I went to. 50 is the new 30 and I truly believe that.)
We were invited to a house warming in Ohio the first weekend in Nov. We had a wedding in NC for the second weekend. We had a Thanksgiving get together that we have every year at a friends house the third weekend, and here we are at the 4th weekend. It was that crazy and I have the filty house to prove it.

Also.....big news......In November, I GOT A JOB! I'm still not sure how I totally feel about it, but it's a full time job that could actually lead to something more in the future. The first couple of weeks have been painful. As in, my poor brain is killing me from all the new stuff I am tying to absorb. I think it's going to be good.................but we will see.

We had a great time with old friends and new ones at the wedding in NC. This was one of Jordan's fraternity/football friends from college, so I got to catch up with all their wives who I haven't seen in forever. It was a wonderful weekend and it made me realize how much I wish we lived just a little closer to them. Our Thanksgiving bash this past weekend was also wonderful. We got together with friends that we have had for years and never see, which is sad since we all live in the same town or in surronding towns.

I have zero pictures to show you about any of this. Again, sad. I am terrible at taking pictures, but I am going to try to do better.

Sooooo, Happy Thanksgiving!!! I think my blog shows just bits and pieces of some of the things I am thankful for.........Only some :)


(I'll be back to show you some new things going on in our house. I promise.......)

5 Really Great Years

I thought I better throw this is here now, cause I know myself and I know I won't get this done any other time this week.

Friday marks the 5th anniversary of The Strunks. I have to say that even with it's up and it's downs, it's been a really great 5 years. I'd like to say it's been the best 5 years of my life, but that isn't totally true. Jordan and I have been Jordan and I for 13 years. So the last 5 have just been a drop in the bucket :)

When we got married, I thought things would feel new and exciting. I mean, come on, we would be newlyweds.

We NEVER had that. I'm not sad about it, but it's true. It never felt like a new marriage to me. It was so easy. Our lives were so intertwined when we married that it was like we had been that way for years and we were just finally making it official. I wouldn't trade those 8 years beforehand for anything, but I always find myself advising other girls to NEVER wait 8 years to get married. It's just so silly.......

Or is it? I am thankful that we knew each other so well before we got married. I am thankful that I never had to wake up one morning to discover something new about my husband and wish that I wasn't married to him. I am thankful and I am blessed. I am blessed to have a man who loves me for me, sends me back to school and becomes the sole provider for us, laughs at my really awful jokes, thinks my cooking rocks, teaches me something new everyday, wants to have children with me, and who comes home at the end of the day excited to see me. My world is complete because of him.

I'll never be sorry to be Mrs. Jordan Strunk. It's the best thing I ever did :)

Summer lovin'

Don't you just love this face? This is my cousin's little boy, who I think may have a very large chunk of my heart. I also believe that if he told me he wanted me to rob banks and do lots of other illegal things, I might. He's that adorable. Instead, he is the strong, silent type. (Which is one more reason I love him so.)


Gah, I love this. I could just eat him up!

Kelly, Kelly, quite contrary, how does your garden grow.....

......and grow and grow and grow?


Our garden has totally taken over our summer lives. We literally have to pick every.single.day. Jordan went out of town for work at the end of June and it was all I could do not to spray round up on our cucumbers. I will say that MANY have benefited from this garden. More than one family has made their own pickles. CVS customers were even given free veggies one day when no one at work could bear to take home any more.


It has been fun.....and exhausting. I have thought A LOT about how in the world people did this when they had a blue million children at home. There is no way. I would have sold my kids in a yard sale by now if I had them (a yard sale! Who has time for a yard sale when there are pickles to be canned?!?)

I have also learned that if you HAVE to have a clean house all the time, a garden where canning is involved is not for you. My kitchen has been a total disaster zone since the beginning of the cucumbers. I have handled it well, but I have been very thankful that school was over before this began or Jordan might have been on the market for a new wife. :)

I kid, I kid. There is no way he is getting rid of me. That has been the best part of all of this. We have done it all together. Every jar (almost 65) of pickles, every jar of salsa, every frozen pack of squash or zucchini we have done together.


And that, I would never spray round up on :)

My 13 Happy Things

I stole this idea from my friend, Amanda. She has really great blogs that make me feel good. I feel like I get in this rut sometimes where I am a very big Negative Nancy. Amanda's blogs pull me right out of that. Check her out. Not only is she a good blogger, she is also a very talented photographer!


1. My husband's blue eyes
2. My big, fat, very fluffy kitty cat
3. Cookbooks by the dozen
4. Really great fitting jeans
5. My college diploma
6. Socks at bedtime
7. The garden that has produced MANY great veggies already this summer. (more on this later)
8. Netflix
9. Black Grapes (no, not rotting ones, actual black grapes)
10. Sunshine
11. Sonic Sweet Tea
12. My WKU Tervis Cups
13. A really great book


I also did this because I need to see 13 happy things. I have been a little down lately because the job hunt has NOT been successful and the things I want in life seem like the things everyone else is getting. Instead of writing a nasty, unhappy blog (which would make for angry readers who would stop reading my blog) I'm going to try and be positive. I'm going to see that God has a plan for me and it will happen when He wants it too (Thanks GG :) )

Graduation gifts

After thinking long and hard, I have decided what to spend my graduation money on. When you are closing in on 30 years old (uhh, yuck), graduation money has different meanings than it did when you were 18 (or at least it does to me). I couldn't tell you what I did with the riches that I gained in 2000. Sadly, I can guarantee that it ALLLLLLLL was wasted away.

So, here in 2011, I have a different plan. First off, it is a BIG deal that I have hung on to it for this long. I'm not saying I have hung on to all of it, but I have most of it. I wanted to buy something that meant something. Something that I can look back on and remember the day. There have been many times during the past month that I have asked if I needed to spend the money on bills. My husband (who I know this has been very hard for) has always replied no. He has given me suggestions on how to spend it (XXL T.V. for the bonus room that we hardly ever use....which I was also informed we don't use it because there is no XXL T.V.) He has been very nice about this money, except when he tells me that I am going to loose the check because I loose everything (yeah, so I'm a little unorganized...who isn't.....).

So, I decided with some of it I am going to buy myself a piece of jewelry. From Tiffany and Co. This way, I have a sweet reminder of my big day and something I've always wanted to say I have. A piece of Jewelry from Tiffany.

With the rest........
Well......
I'm looking into a Roomba.
Wow, graduation money really is different when you're almost 30.

Jordan and his tractor

While riding on the fender of Jordan's tractor a few days ago, as he dug post holes for his barn, I realized how long it had been since we had been in this "situation". Back when we were in high school, Jordan had such a love for tractors and farm equipment that it wasn't at all odd for us to end a date in Bowling Green by going to the John Deere place (Hartland equipment? Maybe?) and "admiring" the new ones they had. They also had the habit of leaving them unlocked (can you lock a tractor??). We would climb up into these unbelievably expensive pieces of equipment and talk about having a new one ourselves one day. Some talk about children, we talked about tractors.

Life was so simple and Jordan was so easy to love.

Then life changed for Jordan and for us. Our tractor dreams were no longer something that we talked about or dreamed about. Jordan put all his attention into engineering school and I put all my attention into....well.....we won't go there right now.......

A few weeks ago, we drove by there and told friends we were with about going there when we were "kids". They found it so funny (is it weird that I never found it weird?). As I watched him on his dad's old tractor today and as I rode along with him for a few minutes, I thought to myself, what will we ever do with this tractor if we ever move? I know that selling it will NEVER be an option. I wouldn't even want to sell it. It's a piece of Jordan's childhood that I know (because I've asked) that he would ride on everyday for the rest of his life if he could farm again. Even if the seat is terribly uncomfortable and there isn't an air conditioned cabin. (yep, air conditioning on a tractor is possible).