Project 12: June

Project 12 is a monthly recap of our lives where I talk about dates, notable events, and other fun things. June was another busy month full of lots of big events and fun! 

DATES

1. Pikes Peak- My parents were in town for Alex's graduation and the day after the graduation, we decided to drive up Pikes Peak. This is one of the few 14ers (mountains over 14,000 feet) that you can drive to the top of. We enjoyed the family time, loved the view, and saw a pregnant lady at the top not doing so well (all you preggos take note). My brother later educated us on how serious altitude sickness can really be (really serious), so it's a good thing to keep in mind if you're going to be headed to altitude this summer! 

{check out that dark cloud behind us! I'm glad we weren't hiking this time}

2. Camping! It's been rainy and chilly this summer but the later part of June things started to warm up so we decided to go camping. We were able to go with some of our best friends and we just had an absolute blast. We played spades and progressive rummy, fished, read books, relaxed, ate THE BEST PEACH COBBLER (see below), and shared our hearts around the campfire. Perhaps the highlight of the weekend was reading Scripture and discussing it around the campfire Sunday morning. I am so incredibly grateful for friends that encourage our walk with the Lord and are just plain fun to be around. 

{the lake where we went fishing}

{this girl is my sister from another mister}

{these guys are just the best}

NOTABLE EVENTS

1. ALEX GRADUATED!! My husband Alex has been in a radiology technologist program since he graduated with his bachelor's degree in 2013. It was a pretty rigorous two year long program that he enjoyed and learned a lot in. The only person more excited about his graduation than himself was ME. Now we're going to be two people working, have two incomes, and hardly know what to do with ourselves!

{so proud of him!}

2. I bought my first maxi dress! It's actually my first maxi anything (dress, skirt etc.). I've been so afraid of the stripes and the trend in general because I'm worried that it would make me look fat, but on a whim I bought a discounted maxi dress at Old Navy and I LOVE IT. I'm glad I listened to all you bloggers that encouraged me to take the leap because it is my favorite thing to wear now.

{please ignore the facial expression and fluorescent lighting. I had just woken

 up from after a night shift and was trying to keep my eyes open...literally}

DISCOVERIES

1. Yoga is the bomb.com. I think I've mentioned in an earlier post that I was really getting into yoga, but this month I took it to another level. I did the 30 Days of Yoga Challenge With Adrienne and LOVED it. It was a daily yoga sequence (that's right, every single day) that was so fun to do and complemented my running really well. If you're at all interested in yoga, either as a beginner or with some experience, I highly recommend you check out her Youtube channel. She has tons of videos and teaches in such a way that you don't feel bad about yourself. It's great! 

2. The BEST peach cobbler IN THE WORLD. My friend had a recipe to make one in a cast iron skillet over the fire while we were camping and let me tell you- best thing I've ever tasted in my whole life. We all just took forks to it and finished it off in 15 minutes. It was the easiest thing ever to make and I really want to try and recreate it at home! 

{we were drooling at this point... quite literally}

{we devoured it}

BOOKS & MOVIES

-Books-

10 Curses That Block the Blessing by Larry Huch. Okay, so despite the very televangelist-y title this book was awesome. It was recommended to me by some people at a healing service and I couldn't recommend it more. It examines 10 generational curses that may exist/have existed in your family including anger, jealousy, and gossip. The author then goes on to explain how this curse over our can affect our day to day lives and he ends each chapter with a prayer you can pray to break the generational curse. I don't feel like generational curses are addressed much in today's culture, but this book shows that there is a lot of Biblical references to them, and Satan is using them today to devastate lives. The author of the book is a former drug dealer who got saved but then was still struggling with the same issues over and over until the Lord gave him the revelation about a generational curse. He prayed about it, broke the curse, and it has made all the difference in the world for him. That to say, if you are repeatedly struggling with something despite all your best efforts to improve, this book may really help you! I highly recommend it! 

Bread & Wine by Shauna Niequist. This book spoke straight to my heart and word of the year (update on how I'm doing with my word of the year is coming later this week!). It speaks of having a generous heart and open table and how so much of life is lived around food and a table. It did make me wish that I was a better cook/more into cooking because her dinner menus were amazing while mine is always one of three dishes depending on the weather. If you have a passion for creating community and/or opening up your home, I suggest you check this book out! 

Becoming Nursey by Kati Kleber. This is a book that was written directly to new nurses and goes through different aspects of the transition from student nurse to nurse. It's a really hard and stressful transition but one I've mostly gone through by the time I read this book. There is a lot of nuggets of wisdom in it though if you are in your first year nursing and it was a quick, fun read. 

-Movies- 

This month, I saw my first ever animated film in theaters. I'm not really into animated movies (*gasp*), and generally avoid them but "Inside Out" looked way too cute. I had just come off of my first string of night shifts and was absolutely exhausted and fell asleep during part of the middle of the movie. But other than that little mishap it was one of the cutest animated movies I've seen and I really enjoyed it. 

BY THE NUMBERS

Miles run: 16. This beats May's count of 9. My goal at this point is 6 miles a week which is virtually nothing, but for me is plenty. Since I'm on night shift right now I hardly ever wake up before it gets hot which means I'm running in the afternoon in the heat or rain. I'm not a hot weather runner and basically want to die after 2-3 miles in the heat... those of you that live and run in the heat- HOW DO YOU DO IT?? 

New recipes tried: 2. Some friends made this white chicken enchilada casserole when we went to their house and it was delicious. I gave it a shot this month and it turned out SO good! A repeat for sure! 

This ground turkey sweet potato skillet was alright. Basically tasted like ground turkey and sweet potatoes; in a nutshell- wasn't anything special. 

SOME FAVORITES

This post on how to break your conflict cycles in your marriage written by Lauren, my newly discovered favorite blogger! 

This book that has put a fire in my heart for the orphan and a closer relationship with Jesus. I'll write more in next month's project 12 post but this book talks about the rescue of a baby out of Uganda. By medical standards, the girl should not have lived but she did and this story is a testament to God's amazing power. If you're needing something inspirational and motivating, this is the book for you. 

I wrote about one of my core beliefs and how I'm able to do my type of job. Every day I remind myself that this is not the end of the story 

And a little bit more of a life update over coffee where I share my heart and what's really been going on behind the scenes of life. 

How was your June? Have you gone camping yet? How about jumped on the maxi dress/skirt train?