Anniversary Poem for my Wife (non-haiku)

Another year has gone by,
By far the best of my life.
I married the woman of my dreams,
I treasure her more than anything.
We have a baby on the way,
I cannot wait for that amazing day.
Each year is better than the last,
Each year goes faster than fast.
Each year my love for you grows,
Without you, where would I be? Nobody knows.
I thank God for giving me you,
I thank God for Myles too!
Thank you for loving me,
When I think of you, I cannot breathe.
Sweetie, it is one year that we have been wed,
I cannot wait for what lies ahead.

All my love,
Aaron Getchius
<3

Haiku Poetry

I love my wife a lot. Our anniversary is coming up on Sunday, July 28th, and I have no idea what to get her, so I wrote some haiku's for her.

I love you so much,
We have been wedded one year,
Anniversary.

How much love is there?
It is endless for you dear,
Anniversary

Married for a year,
Many more to come for years
Anniversaries

We got a dog a while ago, and her name is Lucy. Emily has given her the middle name of "Orange Juice", so I also wrote a haiku for her.

Lucy

How cute is our pup?
She is the best dog ever,
Orange Juice Getchius.

The Struggle of Being "Healthy"

So we all want to be healthy, right? What is healthy, and what does it mean? To different people it means different things. To me, it means being able to function on a daily basis without getting the feeling like I am going to die.

I feel like everywhere you turn,  you end up finding out that what you are doing is wrong. Things that you think are good for you, and are made to sound like they are good for you, end up either being bad for you, or they are produced in a way where you don't want to consume them after learning about the process to make whatever it is. Check out this article.

I'm very excited for the farmers market to open up this summer in Appleton. I want to eat food that was grown in the area, and hasn't been transported from California for me to eat. I want to support my local farmers more than I have been through the winter. I told my wife that I want to start shopping at the Free Market (a little store here that sells organic, and local food) on a regular basis to support local businesses more.

Cold Turkey

When I decided to quit smoking I thought about all the different ways I could go about it. I have tried to quit smoking tons of times. I have tried the patch, chantix, cold turkey, and the LiveStrong app. I am sure people have had success with all of these methods, but I haven't. The patch and Chantix give me vivid dreams. Not necessarily scary, but vivid. Also, when using the patch the nicotine addiction is still there, and I don't feel that is helpful for me. The LiveStrong app is nice, you can track your cigarettes you smoke, and set a date to quit. Each time your smoke or have a craving you can track it and it gives you encouraging words, or facts about smoking. This might be a good method for some people, but I just didn't remember to track, or kept pushing my date out further.

Aaron and I both quit smoking a few weeks before our wedding in July. We both made it 5 days, and then for sake of our sanity I gave in. Two people going through nicotine withdrawals while planning a wedding is scary. And I didn't want Aaron to give up. So I refused to let him smoke, dealt with his bad attitude, and tried to stay away from him when I did smoke. Aaron still hasn't had a cigarette since that day we quit in July.

I have been smoking, and I really didn't want to quit. Yes, I know it's bad for me. Yes, I know they cause cancer. Yes, I know I smell bad. And yes, my teeth and breath are probably gross. I still didn't care. That was until little M had something to say about it....

He hated when I went outside to smoke. And the fact that my beautiful, innocent son knew what cigarettes were broke my heart. So I made him a pinky promise that I would quit smoking. That is a big deal for a 4 year old, and this mom.

I have been putting it off. And then 2 weeks ago I said I was going outside, and the sadness I saw in Aaron's eyes and the thoughts of that pinky promise as I sat on my front porch in the cold just broke me.

Cold turkey it was. I smoked my last cigarette while driving to the dentist on Wednesday November 7, 2012 at 6:45 am.

It has been 10 days and I have been mean, crabby, short tempered, I have slept at least 10 hours a night every single night, I have cried, I have eaten some of my feelings, drank chocolate shakes that normally would make me gag, and I would hate to be around me. Despite my mean words, and horrible attitude my husband has remained sweet and caring. He has driven to get me ice cream at random times, wiped my tears, sent me encouraging text messages, and has walked on egg shells to try and make it as easy as possible for me. (Yes, I am the luckiest woman alive.)

Today was a big day for me. I told little M that I quit smoking. 
I have stuck to the pinky promise for 10 days and I trusted myself enough to tell him I quit. Am I crabby today?...yes. Do I want a cigarette right now?....Heck yes. Did I cry out of frustration today?....yes, twice.
Did I love the look on my sons face when I told him I quit smoking?.....More than words can say.

My first blog entry! The bench is done!

Aaron has been doing all the blogging, but I have finished my bench now and I am ready for everyone to see it.

My Mom recently got married, and moved in with her now husband. She was getting rid of things, and finally let me have a bench I asked for about a year ago. This bench is probably 20 years old, and saw quite a bit of abuse from my sisters and I. I knew I wanted to use it at the end of our bed, but I didn't really have a plan. So I took it apart (with the help of Aaron) and sanded the legs.

Here is the bench...

Taken apart and sanded....

I painted it with a white spray primer. It actually took more paint than I thought it would.

Then I sprayed it with a white gloss paint to give it the shiny look.

This is after the gloss....

I searched the fabric at Hobby Lobby to find something that I thought would look good. I found about 4 different patterns and let Aaron choose. (We had a 40% off coupon!)

The fabric.....

Now when it came to the padding under the fabric I was having trouble finding what I wanted. Finally we ended up at Walmart and bought a foam pad that you use on a mattress. It was actually cheaper than the padding squares.

We cut the padding, and the fabric to fit, and stapled the fabric to the bottom of the bench. It was finally time to put the bench back together, which ended up being more difficult than we both planned.

Helpful husband :)

And here it is!!! For less than $30.00!