Scary Night

So, I haven't been blogging much lately because I've been very busy and because I had a gingival graft (gum surgery) done on Tuesday. The gingival graft was not pleasant to say the least, but it had to be done, so I did it. They moved some of my gums from my upper mouth to some other areas in my mouth that needed some extra "help". I've been putting this off for some time, but I finally decided to take care of it. They didn't put me under for the whole process, so I was crying the whole time and the nurse was wiping my tears for me...it was terrible!! The day of the surgery I was very uncomfortable, but I gradually progressed over the next couple days. Aaron has been fabulous the whole time...getting me anything I needed and being very sweet. By Friday, I was still uncomfortable, but started seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. I had a great day yesterday (Saturday) and even said to Aaron "I think that I'm healing up fairly quickly now", but I should have knocked on wood or something....

Last night at a little before 3am, I woke up coughing and could taste a little bit of blood in my mouth, so I decided to get up and go to the bathroom. (Brace yourself...this may get a little disgusting...seriously). I turned on the light and realized that I was bleeding profusely from my mouth, but I didn't know where. I was coughing because the blood was gagging me. I started to panic, but then calmed myself down and went in to the bedroom to wake up Aaron. As I was gagging, I mumbled to Aaron, "I'm really sorry hun, but I need you to get up and help me...I'm bleeding very badly and I can't stop it or figure out where it's coming from." Aaron popped right up. I had already left the bedroom and was in the bathroom leaning over the bathroom sink when he walked in. The poor guy looked at the sink, and there was blood everywhere (literally...I had been coughing up a lot of it). He rubbed my back for 2 seconds and asked me what can he do to help. By that time, I was crying and saying I can't figure out how to stop it. He took another look at me and BOOM!...Aaron had hit the floor...passed out cold. It was only for 5 or 10 seconds, but it scared me to death. I probably scared him to death and that's why he passed out. As soon as he woke up, I forced him out of the bathroom and closed the door. I couldn't have him passing out on me again. He called the emergency line for my periodontist, and to make a long story short, we stopped the bleeding with a tea bag in my mouth and some pressure (doctor's orders). It turns out that I had a blood clot come through some of the stitches in the top of my mouth, and it caused excessive bleeding. Apparently, this type of thing is somewhat common, but I didn't remember a thing they told me on the day of the surgery, so I didn't know...how can they expect you to remember things like that when you're in pain? About an hour later, Aaron and I were both back in bed...exhausted from all the commotion.

My sweet husband really was a good sport last night. I'm so glad that he was there...even if it was on the other side of the bathroom door. He called the emergency line, talked me through what to do, and grabbed the teabags for me. It was a whirlwind of an evening and a heck of a way to get woken up, but praise the Lord we're both okay. It really wasn't as bad as it seemed at the time, but it sure gave us both a fright. Now that it's later in the day, we're laughing about it, but at the time, it was one scary night.

I'm praising God today for a wonderful husband!!

Surf-N-Santa

Yesterday morning, Aaron and I ran in the Surf-N-Santa race. It was a 10 mile race down at the oceanfront. It was Aaron's longest run ever, and he did a fabulous job! It was great having him by my side for the whole race. Running with someone else is always more fun than running by yourself. The race was a lot of fun, and we're so glad we did it. Maybe in a couple months, I can convince Aaron to do a half-marathon with me...we'll see. 

 (right after the race)

(later that evening with our race pullovers and our medals)

Thanksgiving

This year for Thanksgiving my mom, her fiance, and my sister came to visit with us. Of course, I went way overboard cooking a feast for Thanksgiving, and we'll be eating turkey and all the fixings for the next month, but it was all worth it. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving day with a huge feast, and the Whitfields joined us later that evening. Of course, the rest of the weekend was great as well...we went to some great restaurants, did some shopping, and just soaked up some quality time together. It was fabulous!

Aaron and I have so much to be thankful for this year. The list could go on and on with the number of things we're thankful for, but most of all, we're thankful for a loving God who loves us beyond measure. Our God is so good, and we're so thankful for what He has given us.

Happy Thanksgiving! (a little late...but better late than never)

A North Carolina Wedding

Aaron and I drove down to Raleigh, North Carolina on Saturday for a wedding. One of Aaron's good friends from law school, Jeremy Milton, was getting married, and we were able to slip away for the day to make the trip down. It was a charming little wedding in a small church in North Carolina, and we were able to meet up with another couple from law school, Aaron and Jen Mullen. Jen was in the Law Wives with me, and Aaron is another one of Aaron's good friends from law school. It was great to catch up with them. We hope to be able to catch up with friends from Aaron's class and The Law Wives more frequently than just major life events like Jeremy and Ashley's wedding. Here's an attempt at a picture of the six of us. Jen asked an old lady that we didn't know at all to take our picture, and unfortunately, she cut out Aaron from the picture. Jen said the moral of the picture is "if the old lady is uncomfortable taking your picture, then find someone else to take it. Sorry Aaron..."

Aaron's Swearing In Ceremony

Aaron got sworn in as an attorney in the state of Illinois yesterday. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to be there, but he was so blessed to have several family members come to support him as he got sworn in. Ma & Pa Kaney were there along with Ryan, Cory, and Rachel. Aaron's Uncle Dave was even able to make it. Uncle Dave is a judge in Stephenson County, and because he is already a member of the bar, he was able to walk across the stage with Aaron as he received his certificate which was great. Uncle Dave even passed on a special gift to Aaron from his Grandpa Jeffrey. It was a book that Aaron's grandfather had when he first started practicing law, and he had passed it down to Uncle Dave. Now, Uncle Dave has passed it on to Aaron. It was a wonderful gift. Thank you, Uncle Dave!

I'm so proud of my husband, and I look forward to seeing what the Lord will do through him with the gifts he's acquired through law school. Congratulations to my wonderful husband!

Aaron & Uncle Dave

Halloween

Aaron and I were apart this year for Halloween. He's in Illinois recruiting, and I'm home in Virginia.

It turned out really great that he was in Illinois because our niece (Rachel) turned 2 this past week, and neither of us have been able to celebrate a birthday with her yet. He was able to spend some time at Ryan and Cory's house for Rachel's birthday party, and he was able to see Rachel all dressed up for Halloween. From the pictures I saw, Rachel was an adorable little lady bug! Aaron didn't have much to say about her costume, but he's a typical guy, and he doesn't pay attention to those kinds of things.

We also got the great news that we're going to be an aunt and uncle again...yay!! Ryan, Cory, and Rachel are expecting their next addition to the family on June 10th next year.

Congratulations Ryan, Cory, and Rachel!!

While Aaron was enjoying his time in Illinois with his family, I spent Halloween with our Goddaughter (Alana). This was my third year spending Halloween with Alana, and I can't believe how big she is getting. She just gets cuter and cuter every day! She was a pirate for Halloween, and she was adorable! We spent Halloween night at our church for the Block Party, and she kept wanting to go get more candy, so of course...I let her. She kept saying "more candy" and when she says "trick or treat" it just melts my heart, so I couldn't help but let her have whatever she wanted.

 

Later that night as I was spending some time with the Lord and reading my Bible, I was praying for Alana and Rachel. I was praying that the Lord would allow Aaron and I to be a good influence on these two beautiful little girls that we are so blessed to have in our lives. I was reflecting back on the evening (which is normally thought of as the "devil's holiday"), and I was thanking the Lord for how he uses so many of His children to mold young people's lives so that they can grow up and glorify God.

The Lord also reminded me of something else...
(In order to paint the scenario a little better... the set up for the Block Party was to walk around the building and the kids could trick or treat at each of the doors to the church, and they could go around the building as many times as they wanted.) With that said, while I was carrying Alana around to some of the different doors of the church, we would occasionally walk by someone that had a scary costume, and I'm not gonna lie...even I was scared by some of the costumes. But the thing I remember most is that as we walked by, Alana would squeeze my neck extremely tight and just trust that I would protect her. She didn't cry or scream or get upset, but she would just cling tightly to my neck and allow me to lead her to the next door.

As I was reflecting on that, the Lord reminded me of how Aaron and I have walked through so many different triumphs and trials over the years, and as long as we have clung tight to the Lord and trusted Him to walk us through it and lead us to the next door, we've been fine.

Aaron will be done with his recruiting position in two weeks, and he is currently looking for a job. He has a few leads, but no job yet. We have no idea what the Lord has in store for us, and it's exciting and scary, but I know that as long as we cling tight to the Lord and trust Him for direction, He will lead us to the right door.

We are so blessed! Thank you Lord for placing these two little girls in our lives!

1920's Photo shoot

Aaron and I did a 1920's photo shoot with Devon Shanor and Julianne Carson yesterday. Julianne did the costumes, hair, makeup, etc., and Devon did the photography. They were both very easy to work with, and they were very professional. We really didn't have to do anything but show up. They worked us through all the facial expressions, poses, etc. These are two very talented ladies, and we were very impressed. Aaron and I had a lot of fun doing the shoot.

Here's just a few of the pictures. I can't wait to see the rest...

Definitely check out Devon's Website  and contact her for information on doing your own photo shoot. 

You won't regret it!

Florida

Aaron has been traveling a lot for work, and we were very fortunate that I could go with him this past week. We went to Florida, and we had a great time. Here's an outline of our week...

Day 1
We headed to the airport at 4:20 A.M. Of course, I had been up since 2 A.M. -- getting showered, eating breakfast, packing a few last minute things, and even finding time to break out my sewing needle and thread to mend a shirt before leaving. Before 6 A.M., Aaron had already laughed and shook his head at me 10 times while saying "Who are you? Why are you so chipper and so awake before the sun is even up?" I didn't care. I was on vacation. I could smile and say good morning to everyone I interacted with even if my husband -- and a few others on the receiving end of those "good mornings" that hadn't had their coffee yet -- looked at me like I was crazy. Needless to say, I'm surprised both of us were still pleasantly awake enough  to enjoy the Maclay Gardens in Tallahassee on our first day. These are a few of the pictures we took at this beautiful garden before we drove to the hotel and crashed for a good 2 hour nap before dinner.

Day 2
I soaked up some sun at the pool at our hotel while Aaron went out headed out to a college fair for work. I was waiting for him at the hotel when he got off, and then we drove down to Orlando for our day 3 adventure. We had satellite radio in the rental car, so we listened to a comedy channel, and spent most of the ride down laughing. It was a great relaxing day!

Day 3
Aaron didn't have anything scheduled for work this day, so we headed to DISNEY WORLD! We both hadn't been to The Magic Kingdom for years, and it was a blast! Although, as we got out of the car in the parking lot, Aaron said, "I think we're missing something..." I said, "What could we be missing?" And he pointed at everyone around us, and said, "little people." I laughed, and reassured him that we weren't the only ones at Disney without kids.

(we ended up fitting in just fine)

We rode almost every ride, and even waited in line 30 minutes to meet Mickey and Minnie.

After that wait, it was all I could do to get Aaron to wait in line to meet the Disney Princesses (Cinderella, Belle, and Princess Aurora). He eventually gave in, so that he wouldn't have to listen to me pout the rest of the day.

Princess Aurora & I (Aaron didn't want to take his picture with the princesses)

Aaron was our navigator for the day, and every time he would tell me where we were going next, I would ask, "will we be walking by the castle?" I loved the castle! It was my favorite part. These are just a few of the many pictures I took of the castle. (I wish I could have gotten some better ones, but we only had one lens with us for the camera, so I had to make do.)

 The finale of fireworks at the end of the day was fabulous! It was our favorite part of the day!

At the end of the day, we were exhausted, and Aaron decided he was glad we didn't have any "little people" with us. A 12 hour day at an amusement park can create some very cranky "little people".

Day 4

Aaron had to work, while I soaked up some more Vitamin D by the pool. Again, I was waiting for him when he finished his day, and we were off to our next destination...St.Augustine. We went downtown to the historic district of St. Augustine and had a fabulous dinner at Harry's. It was a great atmosphere...great food, live music, outside on a lighted patio, and right by the ocean.

Day 5

We spent most of our day in St.Augustine again. We went back to the historic district and toured the Castillo de San Marcos (which was basically an old historic fort). We decided that we really act too old for our age...sometimes the types of things we like to do really seem more like something a 62 year old would do rather than a 26 year old, but we're content with that. We look a lot better now than I think we will at 62 though.

 

It was a perfect day and a perfect end to our week.

AARON PASSED THE BAR!!

Aaron found out yesterday that he passed the bar. Yay! We seriously can't contain our excitement. There was so much time, effort, prayer, and $$$ that went into this one exam. I, personally, cannot begin to describe how proud I am of my husband. This is such an awesome testimony of God and His faithfulness. This morning, as I was spending some quiet time with the Lord, I read this verse:
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)
It was such a great reminder of how we followed God's leading 3 years ago to set out on a new journey in our lives, and through it all God was so faithful to us and provided for all our needs. We had no idea why God had called us here, but he did. We still don't know why he's brought us here, but we're waiting on God's leading for a job for Aaron and another new path in the journey with Him. In the meantime, we're going to continue to praise God for what He has done for us and trust His plan. GOD IS GOOD!

AARON PASSED THE BAR! (No bias here, but I knew he would.)

Our Goddaughter Turns 2

Our Goddaughter (Alana) turned two years old on Friday, and it's hard to believe she's two already. We went to her birthday party at Chuck-E-Cheese this afternoon. We haven't been to Chuck-E-Cheese's in years, and to be honest, it hasn't changed much. There's still the big rat (otherwise known as Chuck-E-Cheese), the mysterious moving creatures up on stage with those scary eyes that seem to follow you wherever you go, and the children running everywhere. The kids still compete to see who can turn the twenty dollars that their parents spent on tokens into the best five cent toy, and it's still pretty much a casino for children.

We really did have a blast playing with the kids though. The only exception was when a boy beat me at skeet ball, and I had to go back to the other kids crying. Aaron just laughed...1) because I had eaten way too much sugar and I was a little bit cranky and 2) because he was the boy that beat me at skeet ball.

Alana loves us both, but if you ask her who her favorite is out of the two of us, she'll always say Aaron. I thought it was so cute how she grabbed Aaron's chin as he went to lean in for a quick kiss.



And I promise I'll stop showing off other people's children after this...but look at those big brown eyes! She's such a cutie!

Riley Camille

Riley Camille arrived at 7:04pm on Sunday, September 12th. She's so cute, and look at that head of hair! :) The Whitfields are such a blessing to Aaron & I, and we're so excited for them. The Whitfields are our family here in Virginia Beach, and we love them so much! I just couldn't help, but show off this cute little one. Welcome Riley!



Look at Tra & Joanne glow...


And of course, I had to get one with her.

P.S. ......

Aaron started traveling this past week for his recruiting position at the Law School. He’ll be in Palm Beach, Miami, Fort Myers, Tampa, St.Augustine, and Tallahassee over the next 8 days for work. I was sad to see him go, but when I got home from work I found the sweetest love note on our desk. I was really feeling much better after reading the few sweet sentences he wrote me before he left, and then I got to the P.S. part where my wonderful husband wrote “P.S.-I saw and killed a giant bug this morning. Spray some Raid outside the doors.” At first I laughed, but then ran straight to the cabinet to grab the Raid. I SOAKED the patio in Raid. I had to shut the patio doors because the smell was so bad. (I probably should have thought about my neighbors before I did that…oops.) I felt much better after spraying the patio, but then did a “quick” search through the apartment for any more “giant bugs”. Needless to say…the reason I’m not sleeping at night is mostly because Aaron’s gone, but also because I’m sleeping with one eye open afraid that a “giant bug” will crawl on me while I sleep. I love my husband’s love notes…they make me laugh.

Andrea & Gena Came to Visit

My sister (Andrea) & her friend (Gena) came to visit this past week, and it was great to have them around. I don't get to see my sister very much, so it was great to have some quality time with her. They spent most days at the beach while Aaron & I were at work, and in the evenings we took them out for a seafood dinner on the dock, a ride on the ferry, to Skinny Dip, to a Matt Maher concert, etc. It was a lot of fun. Although, with 3 women and all that estrogen in our place for a whole week, I think Aaron is pretty scared of having an all girl family. I think all the singing, screaming, and talking about clothes may have scared him just a little, but I think what really scared him was how many times Andrea & Gena had to change clothes before each night out and how little time he had to use our bathroom. However, I think he'd say it was all worth it for how many times he scared my sister and Gena about Hurricane Earl, sharks, jelly fish, and rip currents in the ocean. Here are some of the quotes from the week: "if they ordered an evacuation, we would get you out of here...", "if you get caught in a the rip tide, swim sideways", "takin' on the jellies!". Andrea & Gena were good sports about it all. We're looking forward to when they can visit again.

Design on a Dime (Kaney Style)

We had to move out of our previous apartment into a short term lease because we are not sure where we'll be in 6 months. We moved from our fully furnished apartment into an unfurnished apartment, but all of our furniture is in storage in Illinois. So we set a $500 budget to furnish our new apartment until we know where we can finally settle down and move our furniture from Illinois to our new home (wherever that ends up being). It was so amazing how the Lord provided things for us. Generous friends gave us pieces of furniture they didn't need, and we found a couple extremely cheap buys on Craigslist. In the end we ended up even coming out under budget. God is good.

It's A Girl!

A baby girl is on her way into this world very soon, but sorry to break the news...it's not us that's pregnant. I know some of you were so excited there for a split second. Sorry to get your hopes up, but it's really my best friend in Virginia Beach (Joanne) that's expecting. Riley Camille will probably be making her grand appearance sometime in the next week or two, and we're so excited to meet this new member of the Whitfield family. This past weekend I helped throw a baby shower for Joanne. It was so great to pamper Joanne. She really deserves it. It was a lot of fun making her gift too. I made a diaper cake for the first time, and I must admit it turned out pretty good for a first attempt. Hopefully, I'll get a chance to make some more in the near future. It was so much fun.

"We're on an adventure..."

Aaron & I went camping with our friends Dave & Cheryl this past weekend in the Shenandoah Mountains. We hiked a trail called Old Rag in the Shenandoah Mountains, and it was a blast! We enjoyed camping, but our favorite part was the trail. It was so much fun to go through the "rock scramble" at the top of the mountain and literally climb the rocks. We can't wait to go back!

The Bar Exam is over

The bar exam is over. Thank you everyone for your prayers and cards. The last two and 1/2 months have been exhausting and trying, but God has given us the strength to make it through. As for the results, I won't hear back until October 15th or so... it might be a close call as it was a tough exam.

The Bar Exam

The past three years have all been leading up to one big exam...the bar exam. Aaron has dedicated so much time and hard work into his education, and for the past two months, he has dedicated almost every waking hour of his day to studying for the bar exam. Aaron is an amazing man, and I can't even begin to say how proud I am of him. Tomorrow will be the start of the two day exam, and I'll be in constant prayer for him. He truly is the best husband a wife could ever ask for. I am truly blessed.

Rebecca St. James (a.k.a. Aaron's Childhood Crush)

My friend Cheryl and I volunteered last night at the Rebecca St. James concert. It was to raise funds for the Crisis Pregnancy Center of Tidewater, and it was a blast! We had so much fun working at Rebecca St.James' product table. We worked with Rebecca St. James' dad for a lot of the night, and to be honest...Dave (Rebecca's dad) was our favorite part of the night. After the concert, we got our picture taken with Rebecca and got her to autograph something for us. I told her how Aaron had a crush on her when he was younger, and so she signed the item "To Aaron...Glad you found the one for you." I thought it was fun to meet my husband's childhood crush, and Aaron got a kick out of it when I got home and gave him his autographed poster.


Rebecca St. James


Dave


Aaron's Autograph