Jessika, Author at JESSIKA REED

One Year Anniversary!

Stephen and I recently celebrated our one year wedding anniversary! This past year has been amazing and wonderful. I have heard people say that the first year is the hardest, if that is the case then life will be easy!! Anyway life has been great and I can’t believe how fast it has gone by. We have done a lot this year, besides being awesome all the time, we have also bought a house and gotten a puppy!

For our anniversary Stephen planned a weekend away. He wouldn’t tell me anything about what we were going to be doing just that I needed to take a half day off work on the Friday before. We got in the car and he drove me to my favorite Mexican restaurant in Orem. Then we got back on the freeway and I found out we were heading south but I had no idea how long I would be in the car because I had no idea where we were going. About 3 hours later, we stopped in Cedar City to get gas so I thought well if it isn’t Cedar City then it is probably St. George or Las Vegas because they are the next biggest cities. We got back on the freeway and he got off on the next exit and pulled into our hotel, still in Cedar City. It was an awesome trip. We had a room with a jacuzzi in it, I got a pedicure, we had massages, we went shopping and did tons of other things (see the pictures below!). It was the perfect way to celebrate! I am excited to celebrate many more years to come!

We watched football (GO BAMA!) and Stephen used his mind grapes to come up with this awesome table so we could eat our pizza and not miss a second of the game!

Yep, he used a shelf from the TV Stand / Dresser! Hey whatever works, I guess if we lived like that all the time it might be considered WT but every once in a while it is called genius!

We dyed Stephen’s hair…. Before….

AFTER!!!!

We went hiking in Kolob Canyon, which is part of Zions National Park. It was gorgeous!!!!

This is us, enjoying our “happily ever after!” Yes I am cheesy but I love it!

Halloween!

This year is my work’s second annual Trick-Or-Treating event. We have all of the employee’s kids come in for a few hours to go trick-or-treating around the office. The admin girls at my work all dressed up last year and now again this year. There are a few more people dressed up around the office, so it is going to be a good day!

Here are some pictures so far:

Stephen was kind enough to compliment my outfit by being a “greaser”! That is a pack of cards in his sleeve… not cigarettes! I love his hair!

The great girls that I work with (or should I say “grills”?)

My new card

I need to get some holiday cards designed and put on my website! I came up with this one tonight. I love the little girl on the right, she is so cute. Whenever Stephen sees her on one of my cards, he immediately starts to laugh, it is great!

liFe is gOoD!!!!

Do you like our new blog look??? I love it!

We have had a couple of interesting weeks recently and I haven’t posted a lot so here it goes…

This past Saturday we went to the BYU football game with our friends Sarah and Clayton. They were recently engaged, so congrats to them. It was a lot of fun, we won’t talk about the actual game but the experience was fun. Sarah had most of the pictures on her camera so there is just this one!

We went to Mississippi to visit Stephen’s family. It was supposed to be for his 10 year high school reunion (I know he is getting old! j/k) but that got moved to next May, so maybe an 11 year high school reunion? Anyway, we already had the trip planned and the tickets so we went. We got to meet our new sister-in-law Judy. Stephen’s brother Glen got married to Judy in February of this year. We just found out they are expecting a baby so that is pretty exciting! Here are some pictures from this trip. I just love Stephen’s family, they are awesome, it really was the perfect trip!

These pictures are a little out of order but oh well…

This is Stephen’s grandparents old house….. well where it once stood before Katrina. Good thing they lived in Texas during the storm. It was crazy to see that things haven’t all been rebuilt, but when we went for Glen’s graduation 2 years ago, there was still debris in the trees so it looked better than that I guess. Still sad.

We went to Stephen’s high school’s football game after having dinner with some friends of his from high school. It was fun!

There are little geckos that are on the bathroom windows at night. They were really cool to see. Patti (my mother-in-law) said they sometimes end up in the house but they aren’t harmful they are just tiny little things!

A lot of the houses near the coast are built up on stilts kind of, like this picture. Especially the new ones, it seems pretty smart in that area.

Here are the kids, L-R, Judy, Glen, Stephen and Me!

Mom and her boys!

Stephen and Al! Great picture!

He is hilarious, right?

I just love this one. He makes me laugh, and oh so happy!

Here is one of Stephen sleeping at the hotel after the big ALABAMA game!

At the University of Alabama! My first college football game

He is a very happy man!

It was raining like crazy. I have never seen anything like that, it just started gushing out of the sky and there was no hope for it. We had ponchos but at that point it was too wet to do anything. I felt really gross the whole game and my clothes were so wet, my pants weren’t dry like a couple of days latter. It was still a blast and we will never forget that experience! Stephen, of course, did not have a voice after the game was over! They one, because they are awesome!

Stephen is growing out his hair and I have to tell you, it is quite entertaining. Here are some pictures of the styles he is trying out. I don’t think they do justice to the real thing but it is pretty hilarious. It is a little longer now too and when he dries it with an actual blow dryer, it is huge he looks like wolverine! I love it!

Hectic Week

So to recap our last week… last Friday we got a puppy. His name is Royce and he is 8 weeks old, and cute as can be. His mom is a Pomeranian / Jack Russell mix and his dad is a Chihuahua. We will see how he turns out! My husband is just great and finally let me get one! He is a lot of work so far but we are excited to have him in our family! I already feel so attached to him! I keep telling him that I am his mommy! He is fun!

Monday I had my surgery to remove my gallbladder. I don’t know what I was expecting but I was out all week and just beat. I think I had it in my mind that I had to be home for 5 days but that I could still do things, but I was in bed most of the time. I just can’t wait to get back to 100%, I am on my way but have some time to go for sure. I have been watching a lot of HGTV this week and have some great ideas for my house and especially my yard, I can’t wait to get them started! The nurse that did my IV didn’t do it right the first time on my left arm so she had to use my right arm. Now there is this huge bruise on the left arm. Then on the right arm where the adhesive part of the band aid was, there is this blister like thing. It didn’t really start bothering me until yesterday when it turned red and stung and itched like crazy. It is really weird and I am sure you wanted to know all of that, but hopefully it will go away soon.

Stephen has been feeling quite sick in the mornings lately. Last Sunday we took him to the urgent care and he had an IV and they did all of these tests but couldn’t find anything, so hopefully it will just pass. Since he wasn’t feeling so well, especially in the mornings, and I had to be to my surgery at 5:30 am, I stayed at my mom’s house and she took me to the hospital and Stephen planned to meet up with her a little later in the morning. Well on his way to the hospital, he got in a car accident. This car rear ended him in the fast lane on the freeway while they were going like 65 mph. The bumper of my car was smashed in and it looked like there was quite a bit of damage to the exhaust pipe. Luckily no one was hurt and it was the other guy’s fault so everything will be covered by his insurance but it was just a bad day all around. We took the car to the repair shop and got me a rental to use when I return to work until my car is fixed. The whole situation could have been a lot worse so we are lucky but I think we can both agree we would have been just fine without all of it. BTW Stephen is starting to feel a little better but he is not 100% either but he will make it!

Today we saw Harry Potter, which was great. It was really nice to get out of the house and to get dressed in real clothes not just sweats! Hopefully we don’t have anything else too exciting happening to us in the near future!

Gall-EE!!!!

This has been a tough and painful couple of days for me. Monday night I woke up in the middle of the night with an awful pain that I thought might be in my chest but I had a stomach ache too and felt nauseous and bloated. It lasted for quite a few hours. It started to calm down a little by the morning so I decided to go to the Dr. instead of the ER. My doctor ordered an ultrasound to look at my gallbladder but told me if they didn’t find anything and I kept having symptoms they would need to stick a scope down my throat and look at the top of my stomach to see what was wrong. Yikes! Luckily (well I guess you could say that), they found that I have gallstones. The hospital sent me home and told me that my Dr. would call me to discuss the results. Shortly after I received a call from my Dr.’s Secretary setting up an appointment with a surgeon and the secretary told me my Dr. would call me after the appointment was set up. No call from the Dr. It was quite frustrating because I don’t know anything about this stuff and I am supposed to live with this until next Tuesday when I see a surgeon? Good thing for me, my dad is a nurse and was able to give me some tips on what to do to avoid another “gallstone attack”. He told me no fatty foods and to drink a lot of water… he didn’t mention dairy and I didn’t think to ask, needless to say I had another attack Tuesday night. We were supposed to go to Kansas on Thursday morning but my loving husband told me my health was more important and that he felt it was better to stay close to home in case something serious happens. I have been watching what I eat very closely. I still feel pretty icky but I haven’t had another attack in the past two nights so I am very grateful! Hopefully things stay that way!

Vitamin Deficiency

I found out this week that I have a vitamin B12 deficiency. Guess what the cure is for that? Shots, my favorite thing! My doctor started me out on 5 daily shots and then we will go weekly and then monthly, she made it sound like it is a very permanent thing, which is no good for me. Luckily the shots don’t hurt but it is going to get old quick. My awesome husband took me there today so I could get injected! It was truly a bonding experience for us. My doctor said that once I feel comfortable and am doing just monthly shots I can give them to myself at home. I think I can handle that but we will see. That is all the exciting news I have this moment!

Everyday is my birthday!

So my birthday was on Monday, I am now the big 2-3! The best part of the celebration this year was that my cute, funny, sweet and super amazing husband made my birthday present this year.

Here I have conveniently posted a picture below so you can know exactly what I am talking about! (see the great description below!)

He took a cool vase some ribbon and some scrapbook paper (that matched the ribbon perfectly!) and he wrote down 365 different things he had to do for me and folded them up and put them in the vase. He topped off this gift with a nice bow! So the way it works is that everyday I get to pick out one piece of paper and whatever that piece of paper says is something I get or something that Stephen has to do for me that day. For example the first day was that I get one chick flick redeemable at anytime. This first one set me up for some confusion because the next day it said the movie of my choice…. I was thinking YES! I can save these up and have a great movie day! Well that is not how it work, the gift is only good for that day unless it says that it is redeemable at anytime. The third day I got a full body massage, then yesterday a back scratch and today is a foot rub! Anyway, isn’t this like the sweetest thing you have ever heard of? I love it! It is the gift that keeps on giving, well at least for 365 days!

Stephen’s birthday is tomorrow and I hope he likes my gift but it is not nearly as creative or sweet as this was but hopefully I can make it a special day for him!

I just had to rub it in everyone’s face that I have an awesome husband that loves me so much and is who I feel the same way about! In your face! j/k