Finding the happy.

This week seemed to start off like any other week. 

Work. Class. Homework.

Then Tuesday night happened.

I found my passenger car window shattered.

No clue how it happened.

My first thought was, "This is JUST what we needed this month. Vet bill, eye doctor bill, and paying for a new car window."

I woke up this morning in a pretty bad mood. 

I was being very short tempered and was thinking a bunch of extremely negative thoughts.

"Well now we won't be able to go do fun things for a few weeks."

"Why is it when it rains, it pours??"

(These are just a small sample of what has been running through my mind this morning.)

Then, my dad offered to help us out if we needed it.

And then, on instagram, someone posted a picture of a saying. 

"There is always something to be happy about."

I really needed that this morning.  I began thinking,well, at least I still have a running car. I have a supportive family that are extremely gracious and would never let me get into bad financial troubles. I have a wonderful husband who came to my rescue last night after I found my window.(It happened in a shopping center at like 10 at night.) I thought about how thankful I was that my window had tint on it so that the window didn't completely shatter into my car. I thought about how both Paul and I have jobs that allow us to pick up extra hours of work if we so choose, so that we can make extra money to cover unexpected bills, such as this.

In the end, I realized that this is not the worst thing to happen.  Sometimes some not so awesome things happen to us to help keep us mindful of the all the good things in our lives.  

When did we grow up?!

So, I began reflecting on life and where it has taken me the past few years.

Between graduating high school, going to college, getting a degree, having a few different jobs, my parents moving to a different state, and of course, my friends and I getting married, there have been SO many changes since 2010.

My best friend (more like sister), Farren, posted her wedding pictures on Facebook. This got me thinking about her wedding day, my wedding day, and then our good friend, Rachel's, wedding day.  I began looking through all of their pictures and remembering what beautiful celebrations they both had.

Marriage is such a special, amazing, fun, scary, frustrating, wonderful thing.  There is no one who I would rather do life with than Paul.  I know that Rachel and Farren feel the same about their husbands.  Looking at their wedding pictures, I can see the love and excitement in their eyes.  We are all young; 22 years old.  To me, this means we share something special. Our American culture seems to frown upon young marriages, like it means we are ending our lives or we won't be 'free' to have fun anymore.  I have heard many comments about how people cannot imagine getting married at my age because they have so much more living to do or they want to get their careers in order before they decide to settle down.  Getting married at a younger age is not for everyone and no one should get married if they are not truly ready for what marriage entails, but here is what I want to say. Paul is my best friend.  There is no one I would rather share life with than him.  Just because we are married, does not mean we don't have fun and don't live life to the fullest.  We go on our own adventures, support each other, and most of all love each other.  We are fully committed to each other and were fully prepared for marriage when we entered into it.

I love that two of my closest friends can relate to me in this aspect.  I see the love they have for their spouses and I am inspired by each of their relationships. They both live lives and marriages that are Christ centered. This is so inspiring and I hope to learn more from them and their spouses in the future.

I hope they don't get upset with me for sharing some of their wedding photos on my blog, but I just want to share how beautiful my friends are and share some special moments from their wedding day (and mine.)

Rachel and Josh

Farren and Dayton

The rest are of me and Mr. C. 

Thank you to two of my closest friends for doing life with me, sharing stories, being supportive, loving me for me, and just being doggone cool people. I love you!

Triple Date Night

So, it has been a while since I have posted.

I really only want to post when there are fun or exciting things to talk about, or if I am inspired. I think my greatest inspiration are friends and family.

So, on that note. I will write about a triple date night I had with some of my best friends.

Paul wanted to spend some 'us' time first.  There was an event downtown called Taste of Springfield and Oktoberfest.  It was an event where local restaurants served samples of some of their dishes.  You purchased tickets then used those tickets to get food.  It was so much fun! We got to try out food from restaurants we have never eaten at before, found a new place we want to go try out with my parents, ran into some co-workers, and had a much needed date.  I love weekends that I get to spend with my husband.

Later that evening we met up with our friends for a triple date.

Farren, Rachel, and I have all been good, well let's say best, friends since fourth grade. (This is when Rachel came to Sacred Heart School.) We have had our ups and downs throughout the years, but recently we have all became really close again.  We started doing girl's nights a few months back and then decided that we all needed to have a triple date night. We are all married, now, so we thought it was appropriate for our husbands to get to know each other.

We found a Saturday where we were all free and planned to go bowling then back to the Kizzire household for nachos and fun.

Bowling was great! I am not a huge bowler, but it was really enjoyable.  Everyone did really well, and we had a little healthy couple competition going on.  The Kizzires won, with the Morrises in second, and the Chernioglos in third.  I'm ok with that.  Farren is way more competitive and we wouldn't have heard the end of it if they would have lost.

We went back to Farren and Dayton's house to have dinner.  We made nachos and let me tell you, they were delicious! It was cool the way the turned out because everyone brought something different to include in the making of the nachos.  I made the chicken and bought sour cream, Rachel brought chips, beans, and jalapenos, Dayton and Farren supplied tomatoes, onions, cheese, and lettuce (and their house.)  What was unique was that Dayton had this seasoning that he added to the sour cream which made it extra delicious and made homemade guacamole. The collaboration made the nachos WAY better than if I would have made them just on my own. One of my favorite things about the night was being able to have dinner family style.  It is rare that I get to eat dinner around a kitchen table with friends or family (because of Paul's work schedule).  It is crazy how much you can miss little things like that. We had lots of good conversation and fellowship that evening.

After dinner the men-folk went off to do man things while us girls finished up the dishes and cleaning and then went to the living room to chat the rest of the night.

The night ended with Farren and I sleeping on the couch.

The next day Farren, Rachel, and I were texting saying how much our husbands enjoyed themselves and how they all asked why we haven't been doing this sooner.  Paul asked when the next one would be.

I would say the night was a HUGE success. Me and Mr. C cannot wait to do it again!

My attempt at being 'artsy'.

Us pretending to be laughing at something super funny. It looks so natural, right?

Our handsome husbands. I gotta say, we did good ladies! *wink*

Love my friends!

Taste of Springfield!

I'm feelin' 22!

So I celebrated my twenty-second birthday this past weekend.

The celebrating started on Thursday at work with my preschool class! We got to have cookies for snack and they sang me the Happy Birthday song.

Then, on Friday, I got to spend a fun night with my best friend, Farren.  We started the night at Bair's and then moved on to go downtown with a co-worker of hers and his friends.  It was a fun night, but I wish that Mr. C could have joined.  He works the evening shift at work, had a really busy day at work, and had a headache, so he decided to stay home and rest. And that was fine because we got to spend all of Saturday together!

Saturday morning we stopped by the Farmer's Market on our way to my parent's house for my birthday celebration. I love that place and I wish I could afford to buy everything everyone has to offer. We picked up some apples and bagels for breakfast. Yum! If you haven't had apples from a farmer's market, go and get some! They are worth the little bit of extra money you may spend on them and so delicious! They have varieties you won't find at Wal-Mart.

After that we made our way to Holiday Island, Arkansas. We got to have lunch with my parents and then, when my brother and his family arrived, went out for a boat ride.  The weather was perfect for a quiet ride on the lake. My parents just bought a pontoon and I LOVE it! We even took the dogs with us.  Good news- CC loves the boat (even though she doesn't like the car or water.)

We had a yummy dinner and then parted ways back home.

It was a short trip but I love any time I get to spend with my family.

Now, for some pictures from this weekend!

Farren and I at Bair's

Mom and brother, Adam.

Sister-in-law, Lee-Ellen, Adam, niece

Me and Mr. C

C.C. exploring

An old bridge and mansion

My dad helping her drive the boat.

A fun weekend

So I am really playing catch up tonight. Three posts in one night! I'm on fire!

This post is about this weekend.

It was a fantastic weekend!

First, on Friday, I got my hair cut.

Now, normally this wouldn't be anything to blog about, but I did something drastic. I got a pixie cut! I have had my hair in a short to medium bob for about 6 years now.  I recently grew it out for the wedding. I was tired of having the same hair and same look.  I had been wanting to chop it all off for about a year now and finally had the guts to do it and I am so glad I did!

I was worried Mr. C wouldn't be a fan but he told me I look beautiful.  So, score!

Later on Friday evening I got to spend time with one of my best friends. Mrs. Rachel M. We have been friends since fourth grade and have become closer this past year. I brought over the fixings for Zuppa Tuscana.  We cooked and ate, then realized we had a hankering for something sweet. We made a run up to the grocery store for cookie dough. We picked out plain chocolate chip and peanut butter chocolate chip. Yum! When we got back home we baked the cookies while watching Frozen. I love our girl's nights!

Saturday was Cox Health employee day.  This is where Paul works as a surgical technologist. (That's the person who sets up the OR with all the instruments and hands tools to the doctor and helps the doctor with... whatever he tells them to, I guess.)  Anyway, employees and their family get free tickets to Silver Dollar City, a theme park in Branson, MO. We went with a couple from Paul's work.  We had a blast. Paul went on the rides with his co-worker and I stayed behind with Monty. (We aren't ride people.) The only ride I went on was a ride where you had to be like 2 feet tall or taller to ride. It's a ride where to float through a tunnel and shoot at targets placed throughout the ride. I think my ending score was like 3,800.  Paul's and our friend's scores were over 100,000.  I claim my gun was broken. After that ride we had dinner then parted ways.

Sunday I had to work. Normally this is an agonizing four hours of work. I am a nursery coordinator for a Lutheran church and normally on Sundays we don't get very many children, if any at all.  Well today I had at least three kids in the room at a time, and for a brief period of time I had more! It was wonderful! One of the little girls was cracking me up. She is about 3 years old. She kept calling everyone honey.  She would tell another child, "Honey, you can't play with that toy that way." or "Honey, finish your gold fish crackers!" Kids are something else!

After work, I picked Paul up and we went to one of our favorite restaurants for sushi.  We shared a roll and each got a teriyaki dish. It was delicious.

Then we picked up our dog and took her for a walk at the park.  We dropped her off at home then went on a drive to look at houses that we wish we could buy. (We won't be able to buy a house for probably at least 3 years.) We like to do this every now and again.  I love this because it get's us talking about our future and dreaming together. Things like, "Oh! That yard would be great for kids!" or "I can see ourselves having a bbq and fire pit in the backyard." come up. It's so nice dreaming about our future.

After that, we came home.  He began watching Grey's Anatomy (which I got him hooked to) and I began homework and writing my blog posts.  It has been a wonderful weekend.

My new hair!

Park selfie. Selfies are hard to take with a dog...

Mr. C is 22!

So, Paul turned 22 last weekend.

His birthday was Sunday, but I love birthdays so I wanted him to have a fun birthday weekend.

Friday night I had a meeting planned with a couple friends and then wanted to hang out after we got finished. Little did I know that Paul put in to get off early at work if it was slow, and it was slow so he got home at about 8 instead of 11:30.  Now, I had no idea and he wanted to surprise me on the one night that I decided to have a life, ha-ha.

Paul wound up meeting up with my friend Farren, her friend, and me later that night and we all hung out.  But, when I got home I came home to a cleaned living room, washed dishes, flowers and the DVD Frozen. He said it was a little early birthday present to me.  He did this all for me on HIS birthday weekend.  What a sweetheart I have.

Saturday turned out to be a lazy day and Sunday was spent at church, having lunch with his sister and her family and going to the cheap-y movie theater.

Monday, Labor Day, we traveled to Sedalia to spend the day with his family.  His brother and his family and sister and her family also made the trip up.  It was my first Chernioglo family gathering as an actual Chernioglo. The day was filled with volleyball, laughs, cooking, eating, a frozen air conditioner and lots of talking. It was a wonderful weekend.

We also got a new camera for as a wedding present, so I had fun testing it out.  Here are some that were from the first time I tried it out then some from the day at Paul's mom's house.

P.S.- Sorry for the overload of pictures... I narrowed it down to this from 80!

My dad and my dog, CC.

My parent's dog, Chester.

My cute dog, CC, being cute.

My wonderful parents.

My husband fishing at his mom's pond. 

Paul's mom's house.

Uncles, nieces, and nephews playing volleyball.

And again.

Paul and his brother

Family playing.

The children absorbed in some form of technology.

Paul and his wonderful mom.

Nephews being funny.

Honeymoon

So, I have been a bit of a slacker.  I had lost all motivation to do much of anything besides watch Grey's Anatomy this past week.  (You should see the pile of laundry I need to do!)

Anyways, I have been wanting to post about our honeymoon.  I wanted to wait a little while to post about it because I thought it would be more fun to reminisce longer after the honeymoon.

So I will begin with the simple fact that our honeymoon was fantastic! People asked us, "What all fun stuff did you do?" Well, we ate a lot, relaxed, and napped.  It was pretty great. No we did not go snorkeling, kayaking or on some excursion. And you know what, I am happy that we didn't.

We went to Rivera Maya, Mexico and it was our first time travelling outside of the country as adults (and without our mom and dad to take the lead.)   We wanted it to be easy and low-key.  Which it was.

We went to the most amazing resort! I highly recommend it!  The service was amazing. The food was amazing. The weather was perfect.  The best part of all, I got to spend this vacation with my best friend!

To sum up our days (we pretty much stuck to the same schedule every day):
     Wake up (me by 8 and Paul by 9:45)
     Breakfast at 10
     Pool or beach until a late lunch at about 3
     Nap until about 6 or 7
     Get ready for dinner at 7 or 8
     Hang out in the bars or courtyard until late

There were many different restaurants there. My favorites were the French and Japanese.  They were SO SO SO good! I wish I could eat my meals from there again!

I cannot wait to go back and visit this wonderful resort again one day.

 

In the lobby of the resort.

Relaxing on the beach.

The wonderful pool with a swim-up bar.

(This is only like a view of 1/3 of the pool.)