it's been awhile

I've been a bad blogger and went on a short hiatus, but it was nice to enjoy the holidays and rest and relax. It's been too long to catch up, so I'll just share what we've been up to lately. 

JD surprised me with an iPhone for Christmas and I finally feel in the loop. I love Instagram and the fact that I can look up a recipe while in the grocery store...just did that yesterday. I'm still getting to know all the apps. What's your favorite? 

So let's catch up via Instagram. If you already follow me, there's not much new here.

and a bit of commentary to further explain...we went antiquing last weekend at an awesome in  spot in Fredrick that I discovered online. It get's me very excited to someday own a home and to fill it with furniture that's just our style. I got a few things that I will hopefully share in another post.

We are still going strong with our Fright night dates. One picture is from a coffee date at Barnes and Noble and the other one is out at dinner.

I made a delicious peanut butter pie that we devoured in just about 3 days, and I'm still juicing. I took a bit of a break over the holidays, but I'm glad to be back in the routine. Mini Migraine update: still getting them weekly and January has not gone very well (not to mention I had to fight my insurance company to continue paying for my medicine), but overall they have become more mild. I think I'm also just adjusting to life as a chronic migraine patient.

I've also been dabbling with my creative side. I made some mini-cards and pillows. It's hard to tell from the picture but these cards are about 2.5 inches long. My next grad class starts this week so I wanted to have some fun before my weekends become filled with grad work again.

Hoping to be back with another post soon. Maybe even tomorrow.

p.s On another note, please pray for JD. He got the stomach flu last night and is sick. sick sick.

p.s.s Are you on instragram? If so, follow me @ mmdouglas1

November Recap

After a full month of friends and family (we have been gone every weekend), I'm so thankful we live close to the ones we love. Yes, it made for quite the hectic month, but it was well worth it all.

Weekend by weekend, here's what we did.

November 3-4
We went home to Pennsylvania to celebrate Donna's (JD's mom) 60th Birthday. It was really a joint party for Donna, Scott, and JD but turning 60 seems to outweigh turning 28 and 35.

November 10-11
We drove back to Pennsylvania, but this time to West Chester for a college reunion. Love that gang. Walking on campus made us feel old once we realized we graduated almost 6 years ago. As much as I miss my roommates, I miss that city too.  We celebrated Vicki's new baby bump and got an update on the Kang's new food truck business.

November 17-18
We spent the weekend in National Harbor, Maryland celebrating JD's birthday. Everything was a surprise and revealed through a series of 3 poems; the final clue resulting in two surprise visitors, his dad and Audrey. I didn't take a lot of photos but here are a few.

November 24-25
Thanksgiving!! We got to soak in quality time with both families and eat a lot of great food.

Now... there's 4 weeks until Christmas. There's shopping to be done, papers to grade, projects to complete, and Christmas Cheer to be had! Hoping for December to go a bit slower.

cha-cha-changes

A post all about changes.

Let's start with the prettiest. Today I took a stroll outside and snapped some pics of the fall foliage. 

Next, our side table. I originally wrote about it here, back when my photography skills were awful.  I created this side table with my dad. For some reason it didn't quite feel right. I wasn't sure if it was the shininess, shape, or color. So, one day I took it outside and sanded it down. It now has more of an earthy feel and I love it. Nothing a little sand paper couldn't fix.

Before:

After:

2nd, my world map art. I also wrote about this here, filled with more photos in terrible lighting. I bought a custom frame for it, but hated the color. For awhile I had it up without a frame, but then decided it looked bare. So, I painted the frame with some extra paint I had leftover from our douglas duo sign.
Here it is now...(it's been like this for months now)

Then, I sanded it down to expose some of the darker color.

4th, I dyed my hair...dark. I went this dark to help with maintenance because it fades so quickly and I needed dark hair for my Halloween costume, just kidding I just wanted a change for fall.

Just call me Katie Perry...kidding again.

5th, a small paint makeover. I had this piece of wood left over from making our side table. I was going to throw it away, but JD actually inspired this makeover. 
Before:

After: A coffee table tray.

Meet Triple B

JD and I are beyond excited to have another nephew. Meet triple B, Brady Bryn Black .

After an emergency delivery, he spent 2 days in the NICU. But now, mom and baby are doing great and are settling in at home. Becca is a true champ.

We are now an aunt and uncle to 2 nephews and 4 nieces. We love them all. Someday....we'll give them a cousin ;)

the battle continues....a new migraine approach

For those of you who know me or have been reading for awhile know I'm a migraine patient. When I first saw my neurologist in 2008, I didn't quite realize what that meant. He told me to treat any pain above the neck as a migraine. He told me life as a migraine patient was not easy but was hopeful we could treat them.  At that time my migraines were more of monthly occurrence. A minor bump in the road but life went on. I got this, no big deal.

Now, four years later, "migraine patient" has a new ring. In 2011 my migraines became a weekly thing. I believe stress plays a big factor among other things. Cancelled plans were frequent, we'd take advantage of days I "felt good" because tomorrow I might be sick. A few times we'd drive to the grocery store and by the time we got there, I was so sick we'd turn around and head back home. I'm not saying this in search of pity, I'm just simply explaining what life is like. Before I go on, I must say I am beyond thankful to have a such an understanding husband who takes care of me, prays over me, and understands how I feel. Without him, this struggle would be ten times worse. If you know JD, he oozes with compassion, unlike myself.

 My mom always encouraged me to fight back and not to give in to these life-suckers. So, in times when I just want to cry and give up (which happens a lot), I use my time to research, experiment, and see what works. I tried gluten free for 3 months and didn't see much of an improvement.

After talking to a few acquaintances, I decided to see a naturopathic doctor. Nothing against my neurologist (who I still see), just adding something new to the mix. After a long appointment, I left feeling energized and again hopeful for a new direction. In short, I'm trying to get as healthy as possible through a combination of diet and supplements.

Through more research, I stumbled upon Kris Carr. Maybe you'd heard of her? She was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer in 2003 and has completely changed her diet and is alive and doing better than ever. You should listen to her story. It's inspiring if nothing else. So, now I'm juicing. She swears by her green juice.



So, that's where I am on this crazy journey. I'll see how I feel within the next 2 months.

a new school year

Some of you may have saw the picture I posted on facebook, but I wanted to document a new school year here on the blog too. This is the start of my 5th year teaching and every year except one, I have moved classrooms.

This year I moved into a brand new portable. It's much cleaner, brighter, but also smaller. It looks pretty spacious now, but this week with 29 kids, there wasn't much room to spare.

i have since gotten a new longer white board that extends all the way to the all stars bulletin board

back of the classroom

It all came together literally 30 minutes before the students came for open house when the final repairs were being done. My portable got broken into and vandalized over the summer. Paint was splattered all over the front wall and the window was broken, but everything was replaced just. in. time. Looking forward to a new year and wishing the same to all my teacher friends!

cake pops + baby shower

So, after reaching out to some of you on facebook..I took the daring plunge into cake pop world. I've heard they could be time consuming and difficult to make so I was expecting the worse...

After a few stressful encounters, they made it to Becca's Baby shower safe and sound. I used this recipe and highly recommend it for any other pop cake virgins out there. 

All was smooth sailing until we got to the icing. I thought the icing I bought would harden but it did not (note: gel icing does not harden). I needed the icing to harden because I was putting little plastic bags over them as they were part of the favors for the shower. JD and I tried to weasel the bag over the pop without smearing the icing but no luck. I forgot to mention that I had to drive from MD to PA with these pops.

What to do at 11pm? First, freak out and then listen to your husband who recommends wiping off all the icing and then buying new icing when in PA. So, that's what we did and surprisingly enough, the icing came off pretty easily.

So the next day I placed them (ever so carefully) into Ziploc bags and packed them into a cooler (I had class from 9-4 then had to drive to PA and these pops get a bit wonky when out of the refrigerator).

In the end, my mom found icing that hardened and I was able to place the bag over the pop...all in all a success not to mention delicious too.

Here are a few picture's from Becca's shower. We can't wait to meet our new nephew in September.