Concert Time

For our 6 year anniversary Ryan bought me Alice In Chains concert tickets, I was so excited. I have loved this band since I was just about 12 years old and now this was my chance to see them live in concert.. Only took me about 16 years to finally see them! It was a bittersweet moment for me, their music was one of the biggest influences on all my dreams growing up. They were my MUSE in life. They inspired me, and helped me grow up. A lot of my teenage memories were listening to their music. When I was 15 years old I took guitar lessons and the 1st song my teacher taught me how to play was an Alice in Chains song. I had posters plastered all over my wall and T-shirts galore. They were featured in one of my favorite movies,and every time I stayed home sick from school, I would watch that movie and pretend I was in the band. They meant a lot to me. The original singer passed away a few years ago, and the band decided to get back together with a new singer. I have always been told that I am in my element when I am at a concert or a show and it is true, most people have never seen me light up and become more alive, then when I am in front of a band. My best friend always says.. Concerts are what I live for! We all had a great night, and I was in my element with my 2 favorite boys. My hubby and my nephew!

Road Trip to Louisville

Had to get a hoodie
My Element

M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E!!!!!!!

That's right! In 6 weeks I will be starting my 16 day vacation!! I usually try to plan my vacation around Easter to go see my parents in Clearwater Fl.. This year while visiting, my mom and I are going to Disney World, Epcot, and what was formally know as MGM..I cannot wait! I haven't seen Mickey Mouse in years.. I will probably get so carried away and buy an autograph book just to see if I can meet all the characters.. I also can't wait to have a little fun in the sun, having nightly chats by the pool, listening to the palm trees sway in the night.. Rawr! Sad thing again this year is hubby can't take the time off work to be with me, but it will be nice to have some family time.

Jewelry Obsession

Thought I would take a minute to blog about my jewelry obsession in hopes that someone knows how to organize jewelry. I have never been the type of person who is into "real" jewelry, but however I sure do love costume jewelry. It's so cheap and fun, and I always get tons of compliments when I am out. When I was in the hospital I received 5 bags worth of new jewelry from friends and family. I loved every minute of it! For Christmas and Anniversaries, my hubby will buy me a bag full of Claire's jewelry, and my friends and family will always buy me nice sets for gifts.. The only problem I have with my jewelry is I am always losing a piece here or there simply because I have no way of storing it properly. I have a huge stand up jewelry box that I can't even close and it is bursting out at every corner. I think I have tried everything but still can't get the organization down. I hope someone out there will have some good suggestions :) Sad thing is, I have more jewelry than this scattered and put in trinket boxes and bags. I need help!!

Spoiled and Relaxed

This post is for my mom. For Christmas one of my gifts was a portable DVD player. I asked for one because when Ryan goes to bed early I get kicked out of watching TV upstairs, and I refuse to go downstairs because it's always too cold. Ryan got me a foot massager with heat and a back massager with heat for Christmas.. All fun things. After Christmas everything was kind of scattered. My DVD player was anywhere I wanted it to be, My foot massager was downstairs and my back massager was upstairs. UNTIL...One day I came home and Ryan figured it out for me. He put everything in our home office. My massager on my computer chair, my foot massager under my desk, and my DVD player next to my computer! It was brilliant! Now, every single day I come home, I head straight upstairs and turn on the heat and the massagers get my feet and back done, check my email, and watch The Golden Girls all at the same time! When I am done, I come down and start dinner and I am relaxed for the night.. Even after dinner sometimes, I treat myself a little more. I think this is how everyone should unwind from the day!! I promised my mom pictures of how I spend my nights now.. Enjoy momma

My Portable DVD player
My nightly routine...
I suggest everyone get a heated foot massager!
My heated back massager

Happy New Year

I could not wait for this new year to come around! I had so many things to celebrate for this new year. Good health, going back to work, having energy to go out with my friends, just getting back to being me.. It has been a long time. New Years Eve started off great. We went to my family's house for dinner, then Ryan and I headed to a Little Irish pub that my friend Kent invited us to, to hear an 80's cover band. I couldn't pass that up, it was great. We danced, we sang, we celebrated our friendships, the best part of it all, Ryan and I were treated to free diet cokes all night long, we were in 7th heaven. This past year I reconnected with my friends Mandy and Kent from high school. I first met up with Mandy last May in her hometown Chicago, then later she came down and we went to dinner with our friend Kent. We have all made it a point to make sure we never lose touch again. We met Kent's new girlfriend, and also invited my friend from middle school, Emily and her boyfriend Joe. It was good times for sure. I only hope that this new year will be full of joy, good times with family, and friends. Cheers to a new year!

Emily, me, and Mandy

Me and hubby
Jen and Kent

Cheers

Santa came early this year

It is true, Santa decided to come early this year to The Sward house. Dec 15th to be exact. I reported to my Endocronologist who is also been serving as my cancer doctor. I went for a follow up visit from my last thyroid surgery and she happened to have my new pathology reports in. The way she read it off was like a Juror reading the verdict in a court room. She went through the list of tests they ran and all I heard was benign, benign, benign. What a way to turn my frown upside down. It was better than hearing the last report.. Cancer, Cancer, Cancer. It was officially announced that day that I was a cancer free girl. The only thing I have left to do now is radiation treatment, which to me, will be a piece of cake compared to the last few months of pure stress and worry, and 2 battles with surgery. Our prayers had been answered. It has not been an easy journey at all but with the support of our family and friends we were able to get through it. We had our friends from church offer prayers, blessings and meals. It was a huge blessing to us all. We are so thrilled that this journey is almost towards an end now, so we can move forward with our lives. Thanks to everyone who helped us through these hard times, it made things so much easier for us. I can officially say I am a cancer survivor, and that I have been there, done that, and got the T-shirt. My future plans are to attend Thyroid Cancer Awareness seminars, and confrences to help promote education about Thyroid Cancer. Here are a few recent pictures of my journey and if you notice the bear, his name is Mr. Beans. Mr Beans has been with me through my whole journey. Ryan brought home Mr Beans the day I had an ultrasound on my neck. Since Ryan could not be with me for all my upcoming Doctors appointments and biopsies he wanted to make sure I had someone to comfort me. Mr Beans was with me when I was scared and alone, he was a pillow to many of my tears. He comforted me every time I was sad. We all love Mr Beans!

The day of my 2nd surgery.. The day I won my battle

6:30 am my brother, me and Ryan, and of course Mr Beans

Just getting back in from surgery

My staplesThe healing

The Jacket My mom got me for Christmas.. I earned it!!

And they lived Happily Ever After...6 year Anniversary

It all started in high school.. I had a huge future planned out for myself. I was on the path to Art School in Seattle as a photographer. My dream was to always live in Seattle, go to little clubs on the weekends to see the hippest punk shows Seattle had to offer, and perfecting my pictures of the Space Needle. I never thought I would get married, it was never in the plans. I was one of those girls who just wanted to be independant and spend my time with friends...Until the summer of June 1999, I met the missionaries. A few discussions later we were talking about The Temple, eternal life, eternal marriage, and eternal family. A year after I was baptized I did get to be little miss independant I moved to Salt Lake City to get the whole Mormon experience. I loved it, but I was prompted to move back to KY as soon as possible. I decided to follow the prompting and moved back home within a week of deciding. Coming back home was great, I made new friends in the singles ward, got a group of girls together and became roomates. Then I decided in my heart that I wanted to serve a mission. I started mission prep, got my paper work, had enough money for financing, my mom took me shopping for clothes and shoes. I was READY! I thought, This is it!!

Until... June of 2002, I set up an appointment with my bishop to discuss my mission. As I sat there in excitement, he sits there and said.. I'm sorry, but I think you should stay here and take marriage prep classes and parenting classes. I was thinking WHAT!? Are you serious? I politely said, I have dated quite a few people in the ward and I know none of them are for me. He told me to start the marriage prep classes then we would discuss the mission afterwards. I agreed.

The next few days came and my roomate and I were riding around town, and just talking in conversation, when she asked me how my interview with Bishop went about the mission. We pulled up to a stop light, and I started to explain what he told me about marriage prep. As soon as I said that, I blurted out... I think I am going to meet my future husband in October. She said WHAT? I had no idea where that came from it just came flying out. - October is the month I would have been leaving for my mission. - October was also the month Ryan came home from his mission... If I had left for my mission, I would have missed out on all these blessings that were in store for me.

Ryan and I met at the temple before his mission and before I moved to Salt lake. I drove the sisters to the temple and he drove the elders. We were both standing around in the parking lot waiting. We realized we were in the same ward, we talked about him going to Nebraska, and I talked about Salt Lake.. When Ryan came to the singles ward in December he sat behind me in church, it was the first time I had seen him since he came home in Oct. I was sitting with my friend and turned around and saw him and wrote him a note on the back of a tithing slip asking if he remembered me. I had Jill pass the note back to him. After sacrament He stood up and said of course I remember you Jennifer. A few weeks later we went on our first date, the chemistry was akward because we had nothing in common, we were night and day from one another. We had a hard time communicating, but that night I knew we were going to be married. I had never had that feeling before in my life. I was just sitting there while he was talking, the feeling hit out of no where, the spirit told me. I immediatly got nervous and that made things even harder for me. I went home and told my mom that the guy I just went on a date with was going to be my husband one day 11months later on December 20th, 2003 we were sealed for time and all eternity in the Louisville, KY temple. Today we are celebrating our 6 years of marriage. I tease and say, 6 down eternity to go! Ryan is my best friend and supports me in everything I do. We have truly been blessed with the gift of marriage. I am so grateful that he was a part of Gods plan for me. We are blessed! Here are a few pics we collected over the years...


The Dating Days

The Engagement
Our wedding day

The First Year of Marriage