My First Blog Award!

Yay!!!  I received my very first blog award!

Thank you Miranda from Aimless Translation!!  You definitely made my day.  

The rules of this award are to say 3 random facts about yourself and then pass the award along to 5 other bloggers.

My 3 random facts:

1.  I have a step-brother who currently lives in San Francisco and we're going to visit him in October!  I am so excited AND I can fly for free. Seeeee...there are definitely perks to being a pilot wife ;-)

2.  I am obsessed with the TV show Full House.  I have every. single. episode memorized.  This ties back into my random fact #1.  If you don't already know, that show was set in San Francisco.  In other words, I will actually get to see/take a picture/hyperventilate/whatever else IN FRONT of the ACTUAL FULL HOUSE - HOUSE.  Shea=Pumped.

3.  I played piano when I was younger for 7 years.  Yep...7 freaking years.  And do I have anything to show for it?  Nope.  Playing piano was one of those things my mother made me do because she insisted that I would appreciate it later in life.  But my heart just wasn't into it.  I had no desire to play and therefore, no motivation to ever practice.  I'll be turning 25 in a few months and I still don't care if I can play or not.  It just shows that if you don't have a true determination to do something from within yourself, you're probably not going to accomplish very much.  

Here are the 5 fabulous bloggers that I pass this award along to:

Momma St.J Says...

Hey, Belly!

The Smelly Life
Daddy...Daddy, Come Back!
Blue-Eyed Blog

I absolutely LOVE these blogs. I can't say enough nice things about them...so you should definitely check them out.  I get beyond excited when I see they've written a post.   Thank you all for keeping me entertained!

XOXO,

Fall Bucket List

I saw this great Fall Bucket List floating around the blogger world and I just had to snatch it up!

I seriously love every single activity on this list.  I want to do everything!!

Especially the corn maze!  I've always wanted to do one and every single year it somehow slips by unaccomplished.  This year will be different.

If you can think of another fall activity that this bucket-list is missing...leave it in the comments section!  (Except Haunted Houses...I'm a chicken and refuse to subject myself to that kind of terror.)

Finding the Joy

Hi Ladies!

I am thrilled to be linking-up with my dear friend over at Momma St. J Says... for Finding the Joy Friday.

Today I'm finding the joy in:   

Fall, Fireplaces, & Pumpkin Pie

As I type this, I am curled up on my couch in front of my fireplace.  I'm so cozy!  There's a chill in the air and I love it.  We bought our first pumpkin pie of the season and I fully intend on enjoying it as soon as I'm done typing this post.  YUM :-)

My Hubby's Hard Work

Today was Josh's first day off from his trip, but instead of relaxing, he worked all day on our house project.  When we first bought our house, every room was covered in medium brown/oak trim.  It did look nice - but we both really love white trim/doors.  So, we reluctantly took on the project of repainting everything.  Oh. My. Gosh.  This project sucks.  We finished with the first floor, took a few months off, and now we're back to it again.  I came home from work today and was pleasantly surprised by how much he'd done.  Thank you again sweets!  I really appreciate it.

One of these days I'll do a house tour post!

Monkey Balls

Do any of you know what these amazing things are?!?!  Ok, so their real name is "Osage Oranges," but for some reason everyone refers to them as Monkey Balls.  I'm not sure I want to know why...

Anyways, they keep spiders out of the house!  They're pretty hard to find each year because it frosts too early/too late (can't remember which one, but the timing as to be just right).  But I was driving home tonight and I saw a woman selling them along side of the road!!!  I immediately stopped the car, turned around, and filled a plastic bag up with monkey balls.  Good times.

Now I'll just hide them around my house & be free of spiders this fall/winter.  Yessssssss :-) 

I'm grateful for so much more, but I really just want my pie...so I think I'll stop here.

Have a lovely weekend everyone!

XOXO,

Miscellany Monday!

Here are my randoms for this rainy Monday...

one.

We attended a wedding over the weekend and it was *beautiful!*  My co-worker had been planning that day for over 2 years and I was there for her the whole time.  I wasn't a bridesmaid, but I sure felt like one!  The decorations/details were perfect, the DJ was amazing, and we had a fabulous time!  Congrats to the newlyweds!  Here are a few pictures of our night :-)

two.

Sunday was the start of Pittsburgh Steeler football!  Although the game turned out pretty badly, it's only week 1 and I still think we're a pretty good team this year.  I have faith!  We actually watched the game at a friends house which was really fun!  We recently started hanging out with this couple and it's been great having double dates.  All of our friends live soooo far away, so we're really excited that we now have some friends that live close (literally 3 minutes away) and we both get along with them really well.  

three.

I finally got a new lap-top! Yayyyyy!  No more broken letter "D!"  It's an HP ProBook with some really cool features.  I'm still getting used to it...but so far, it's been great.

four.

Yesterday we watched a lot of the 9/11 specials and it was so surreal and incredibly sad.  I just can't even imagine what those people had to go through on that horrific day.  Being married to a pilot makes it even more strange.  As a pilot's wife, I actually don't worry about Josh having to deal with terrorist attacks...but maybe I should?!  Ugh...I don't know.  I just pray that God will continue to protect him.

five.

This week should be easy-peasy.  Josh leaves tomorrow (Tuesday) morning and comes back Thursday afternoon.  So he's only gone 2 days!  I'm excited :-)

That's all for now!  Hope you're all having a great start to your week!

XOXO,

Tooth Update

So here is my lovely tooth update...wait until you hear this story!

And yes, this would only happen to me.  Anything that could possibly go wrong with someones teeth, will most likely happen to me.  

My appointment was scheduled for yesterday at 2:40pm, so I had to leave early from work to make it on time.  However, when I first woke up that morning, the pain was just gone.  I was pretty surprised - wasn't complaining of course - but after 3 straight days of pain, I was slightly confused.

And just a side note...since I have so many issues with my teeth, I'm constantly researching dental problems, scenarios, procedures, etc...I'm basically a wannabe dentist.  I even give advice at work. Ha...

For those of you who don't know, once a tooth starts really hurting, you're probably doomed for a root canal.  Contrary to popular belief, regular sized cavities don't hurt.  But once they get deep enough, move beyond your enamel & dentin and reach the "pulp" (AKA: nerve), that's when you feel the pain.  Once you feel the pain, the nerve is already infected and you need a root canal.

Back to my story:  So when I woke up yesterday morning, I was pleasantly shocked!  Teeth don't just stop hurting?!  So I went off to work pretty much expecting the pain to return sometime before for my appointment.  Well, I got to my appointment and there was still no pain.  My mouth felt completely normal.

My dentist searched all around my tooth, gums, and nearby teeth and couldn't visibly see anything wrong.  He then decided an X-ray would be best since there might have been an infection or something going on inside the tooth.  

So after the X-ray I wait...and wait....................and wait. 

Finally he comes back, holds the picture up to the light, and says, "Welp, I've been staring at this this for awhile now and I can't find anything wrong at all.  But I do see a little inflammation along the side of the tooth...so I think you pulled a ligament. It's pretty rare...but it does happen. Typically the pain only lasts 2-3 days, so that's probably why it's feeling better."

I PULLED A LIGAMENT IN MY TOOTH?!?  WHO DOES THAT????

Shea.

Shea does that.

And NO - I had NOT been pulling ligaments by using my mouth for "inappropriate" acts.  Come on people, let's keep this PG!

So overall, my appointment went much better than I expected and for once, there really wasn't anything wrong.  Yay!  ...no $1,000+ root canal!  Who knew I would be able to add "pulled ligament" to my list of mouth problems.  At least it's a good story :-)

Tomorrow is Friday and I am pumped!  Josh and I have 3 full days off together.  We're pretty busy each day, but it should still be fun!

XOXO,   

Toothache...ugh!

I have another toothache.  Let me just stress how incredibly MAD, upset, and frustrated I am with this.  No matter what I do, I always have teeth problems.  If I go to the dentist and I don't have any cavities, I'm actually surprised.  I brush my teeth twice a day, floss every single day, use mouthwash, and chew gum that's supposed to be good for your teeth.  I also had a root canal last year which was really upsetting to me because 1.) it's so unhealthy for you and 2.) and its SO FREAKING EXPENSIVE. 

I was just at the dentist 2 months ago and he actually said everything looked good.  I was shocked!  But now, my bottom front tooth is hurting and when I look in the mirror, I can see a dark spot.  If I end up needing a root canal (which really wouldn't surprise me), I'm going to be so bummed.  I don't know what else I can do to stop this from happening?!?

So I called the dentist this morning and it figures, today is a holiday and they're not there.  Now I have to worry about how quickly I'll be able to get in there and what they'll tell me.  When things like this happen, I just obsess over them until I find out what's wrong.  I really wish I could just let it go and not care.  I know I'm not dying from a toothache, but I can't help but worry what the outcome will be.  I just don't want another root canal!

Sorry I'm rambling and complaining so much.  I'll probably get an appointment for sometime this week, so I'll be sure to keep you all posted.  

Hope you all are having a better Labor Day than me! :-(

Hair Before & After!

Just got home from getting my hair highlighted and thought you guys might want to see the finished product!

Just a little history first:

Back in high school I was quite blonde.  I would get highlights regularly every 6 weeks and as a result, I became more and more blonde.  At the time, I really liked it - but looking back, it was probably a little too much...see below.  Eeek.

When I went off to college, I started fresh by dying my hair back to dark brown.  This may or may not have been to save a little extra cash :-)  Fixing those roots was quite expensive!!  Anyways, my hair has been dark brown ever since and although I think I look good as a brunette, I've just been longing for some dimension/contrast to my hair.  I'm tired of just one color.  

So after months and months of deciding whether I really wanted to take the plunge back towards blonde, I finally made the appointment for this morning.  

I think it turned out really well.  I emphasized that I didn't want it to be too blonde and no crazy platinum streaks.  I think she pulled it off!  So here are the before & after pics.  (They're really not the greatest pictures...but I couldn't get the lighting right.)

Before:  

After:

So there you have it.  I think I like it! :-)

Hope you're having a great Saturday!

Love,