Living the Dream

You always hear about people and their dreams. 

The barista with a dream to open his own shop. 

The book worm with a dream of a full ride to Yale. 

The teen mom with a dream of an un-broken family, 

or the business man with the dream of the Red Sox winning the World series (which is a stupid dream in my opinion). 

And sometimes those people's dreams come true leaving them saying "i'm living a dream". But that doesn't really happen, does it?

Indeed it does! 

Growing up, I always had one (and only one) dream in mind. It was all I could think about at all times, and everyone knew it.

 It wasn't to graduate college (which I busted out anyway)

It wasn't to get married (which was the best thing that ever happened to me)

It wasn't to have kids, or an adorable little puppy (okay maybe the puppy thing a little bit :) )

But my ultimate dream WAS to be a resident of California, and specifically, Southern California. 

So now, thanks to my awesome husband, we live in San Diego, California and (I can proudly say) my Governor is Arnold Schwarzenegger. 

If that's not the coolest thing since digital camera's, I don't know what is.

Although my dreams have changed vastly over the years, I still have always had that passion for the 'sunshine state', 'America's finest city', or 'the land of milk and honey'.

So I guess you could say that....

I'm living the dream 

now to unpack, find a job, get settled, learn the area, learn the new laws, change all the state legal stuff......on and on.....

Fear

Fear.
It is something people revolve their life around. When breaking down the principles of a human and their feelings, it consists of what they do, what they love, and what they fear.
Some people construct their entire lives around what they fear, while others fear very little.

When first thinking in depth about fear, I though it was stupid, worthless, and a way for people to make excuses out of anything. I see now that I was very wrong. When I looked into it more, I found that fear is powerful, wild, and very important to each individual's life.
Fear, if used correctly, can bring out a side of someone that is passionate, strong, and alive.
When you look into the eyes of someone who just overcame a fear, there is more life in them than usual. They just did something they thought they could never do. They are a stronger person.
Fear isn't the enemy, being too afraid is.
Fear challenges you to live on the edge. Being too afraid leads you to turn your back on fear, and give up.
I have always been one who doesn't have many fears, but the fears I do have run strong through me.
I thought I could never face them, and in turn tried to ignore their ever existence, but it is time for that to come to an end.  I am at a point in my life where my fear's could be a major road block if I don't face them, so it's time to man up. It is going to be hard, but more than worth it in the end.
I have also always been one to thrive on fear. A scary movie or fearful situation, although hard at first, it makes my blood pump and I always feel good afterwards.
There is not a fear in the world I can't work my way through.
I have the most supportive husband in the world, so that on days when I feel it's impossible, he can help push me through it.
My fears: IV's, needles, fire, certain insects
It is time to approach you face to face.
Right now a clean cold needle going into soft warm skin makes me want to curl up like a scared spider, but not for long. After all it's just a needle right? I have experienced things that hurt much worse. It's all mental.
I will win.
What are your fears? and have you chosen to leave them in the shadows, or face them up front?

and the waves slowly crashed into the sand.

Well....The wedding is over. And it was fabulous by the way...but a wedding blog is soon to come. 

Anyhoo, the wedding is over so I can no longer put things off. No longer will I put off cleaning/organizing the house, thank you cards, articles, organizing the computer, finishing Red Dead Redemption, playing the guitar....

but most of all, as promised, no more putting off the Craft Blog. dun dun dun. 

So I will start it off with a super simple craft. A decoration for a beach themed home, or a summer holiday. An item that portrays a calm, collect, and relaxed mood.....

The Mason Jar Lights

Items:

Hot glue gun

Glue sticks

Sand

Shells

Mason Jars

Small candles

Long lighter

Wire

1. Locate your mason jars of choice and thoroughly clean them out. Allow the jars to completely dry. I chose to use blue jars. 

2. Unscrew the lid and set it aside. Cover the bottom of a candle with hot glue and immediately press it on the inside bottom of the jar. Hold the candle in place until it is dry. This size of candle works great, tea lights tend to not burn very well inside the mason jar. 

3. Place large and colorful shells inside the mason jar around the candles.

4. Fill in the remaining space with sand and small shells. Whether it is sand that you collected, or bought from the store, they both have the same affect. 

5.Wrap a thin wire around the neck of the jar, and add a large loop to hang it from something (a tree, the porch, etc.)

6. Light the candle with a long lighter (campfire lighter works best) and allow the wax to melt like the waves into the sand. 

And the final product (minus the large shells)

This was one of the jars at our wedding.

photo by Logan Brumm

Check in again soon for the wedding/honeymoon blog. Lots of pictures to come!

K.A.S.

In exactly one week from today my name will be Mrs. Kassie Stewart. Which means my initials will of course be K.A.S. How awesome is that? Wow, I can't believe it is one week until the wedding. I am so excited to officially be married and start to plan things again. Right now, and for forever its been "I'll worry about it after the wedding", "I will make the decision after the wedding" over and over again. Which is great for now! but once the wedding has happened and we have gone on our amazing Disney vacation, we will be able to make decisions and think about other important things again like....deciding where to move, and what to do with life. Yes I said it, where to move. The options are endless. 


But first, I am so excited for the first night with my 'husband' <3 Even though he is already my husband at heart.


As "the 4th" is just around the corner, my favorite holiday, and I am now FINALLY 21!, life is like a raft in the rapids; moving so quickly, yet so fun. The one night everyone waits for their whole drawn out life is over in such a short amount of time. It was a fantastic conclusion to looking forward to birthdays. 

Vegas = unbelievable 

So many exciting things happening at once.

I have also decided that I am going to kinda make my blog a crafting blog. I will do random unique crafts and designs (mostly to home decor) and blog about it.....after the wedding of course. But for real, we will see how that goes. I have taken a strong interest in the matter. 

I also think my travel bone has been re-enhanced. I am willing to go anywhere at (almost) anytime to see the beautiful world. I am pretty sure my heart would stop beating if I ever came across a place like this.....

pure beauty

Tell me about a place that you have been that was so pretty it literally took your breath away. I want to be there. In the light wind with the salt and humidity in my hair, or in a winter jacket and boots with the stillness in my breath. I want to see it all.

I'm better than a real world quest.

First off, I'd like to introduce you to me with no braces.....

Yes, after the double re-constructive jaw surgery that I have been wanting since I was ten and finally got about a year ago, AND lots and lots of work before and after it, it has finally paid off. 

Not only do I not have headaches every.single.day, and no longer does my jaw click or ache in pain constantly, but my confidence level has risen from about a 30% to a 75%.  Wild eh?

On another good note, the Snoop has been MUCH much better with the potty training.

Not to mention he's huge now!

and oh so very cute (yes I am slightly obsessed with my dog)

:D

NOW

....for something I have never ever done before...

I am going to post a little snippet of something I am writing that will be used for something someday....or not.

Probably not, but anyway....

After about 20 minutes of sitting in class and taking the exam, (the kid with the red and black converse with green shoelaces had an extra score sheet, no surprise there) I remember the missed calls and voicemails.  I immediately get so distracted I have no chance of getting anything more than a 61% on the test.  I’m sorry different types of crystallizing minerals in Arizona.  Your sweet knowledge will have to wait. I wiggle my phone out of my pocket and open it half inside my pocket, and half out like a ninja.  I’m so used to this now I hardly remember what my full key pad looks like.

.......(stuff in between here)........

 “Miss Ross I see your phone is out so you must be finished with your test, bring me your scan score sheet please.”

Shit.  Not ninja enough.

so anyway back to whats new in real life.

The 21st bday is in about a month....VEGAS!

 and the wedding is about in a month.....LOTS TO DO!

I can't stop thinking about the last episode of Breaking Bad that I watched

and random...but about ever two to three weeks or so I get re-obsessed with this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urNyg1ftMIU

I kinda wish this video was my life, substituting the people for my own friends/family of course

She's hotter than reality by far....

teh tennis ball

If i learned anything this past weekend folks, its don't trust hotels with your credit card, and the game of tennis is like a whole other world. seriously.  a land where grass is always fresh and trimmed, skirts have built in shorts to put balls in.......tennis balls that is, and old leathery women kick ass.
Now it is knows that Tennis Ball is a 'rich people's' sport.  I understand why now. how on earth anyone can afford shirts and skirts that are 50 dollars a piece at least, rackets in the hunddy's and epic shoes, I have no idea. It blows my mind, but yet the items are so niceeee! Never do I ever want to sweat in any other material. tennis clothes material rapes any other material. by far.
Amy and I had our first tournament this weekend and it was quite wild. Considering we are technically 2.5 players, signed up for 3.0 knowing there would be no 2.5 section, and got put in 4.0!!! we knew we would get our hiney's handed to us, but we learned a lot and got to play a long, sweaty, sun burned match against each other. We are sore and tired and so excited to get even better at tennis to receive revenge.....Not really, but just to get better :D Well that was tennis ball time for today.
Snoop was also in the tennis ball mood.

and so our story begins.........

In order to get myself "re-vamped" about the wedding im gonna put some of my wedding inspiring pictures up.  And now i have time to plan it because school is done (having mini silent celebration)!!! -crowd goes wild-
 so anyhoo I have some pictures here that may help me get excited! let me know what you think!!
beautiful LITTLE ranch, for a nice SMALL wedding ;)

Pretty pretty wedding cakes

   
mason jar lights!!!

My amazingly creative MOH who is going to be my help me make a beautiful wedding

the ultimate outdoor wedding

and of course the person who is going to make me forget about all these small and large details the whole time anyways ;)

i love jason

anyhoo. oh so very excited about being done with school. the tennis tournament next weekend, Jason getting a job at demand studios, us both having interviews for our dream job (:D) more time at home, casa grande time nearing, and of course, the snoop dogg getting a little better with the potty training *sigh*

           cutest puppy in the world