Donovan Pride

 I contemplated even writing this blog or even opening up about this part of my life because our world is a judgement world even when people are dealing with the same exact thing. I wanted to wait and express this in May or October but lately this has been weighing heavily on my heart and I know only three people will read this entire thing and those three are probably family members but in the off chance a stranger reads this I want it to help them!! I want to start out by saying what you see on the outside IS NOT what is going on on the inside. For years i have struggled with  Trichotillomania. ( also referred to as “hair-pulling disorder,” is a mental disorder classified under Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders and involves recurrent, irresistible urges to pull hair from the scalp, eyebrows, eyelids, and other areas of the body.) Trichotillomania can come as a symptom or sign of depression and anxiety along with a lot of other underlying issues and it affe...

 The last month of 2020 is starting to wind down and I can honestly say I'm glad. Covid has definitely made the year memorable. but not to dwell on Covid, we made our December worth while for the kids. We jammed packed the whole month with Christmas festivities and made the month fly by with looking forward to the next activity.  We started our month off on November 28! Yup after Thanksgiving we wanted to spread some cheer to the kids and so we headed to the Fairgrounds in Palmer and did the drive thru lights. The lights were great! The kids enjoyed how they danced with the music on the radio, but i got to say for the long drive to the fairgrounds and the short "mile" of lights it definitely was not worth the $25 we paid but it was still a great time! We even treated the kids Starbucks on the way there and they got a Peppermint Frappuccino. December 1, our elf Sugar Socks showed up for his month of shenanigans. The thing this year for the Elf on the Shelf community was th...

Living Room! When you see these Before and After pictures you will think "That is a completely different house." And let me tell you that is exactly how I feel. Our Living Room was one of the first projects we worked on because it was pretty much just cosmetic things. When we purchased the house I KNEW that the UGLY turquoise walls had to go RIGHT AWAY!!!! The color wasn't terrible but it was so dark and for the layout of the house the walls needed to be a light color to seem bigger. There was so much wood trim that I didn't know what to do with myself! We painted the living room walls with Behr paint in the color WindDrift. It took THREE yes THREE layers of paint to cover that hideous color and I still feel like its not completely covered. I felt kind of bad about painting the walls because the previous owners literally just painted the house to sell it! But not sure why they chose that color. (insert face palm emoji)We then painted the ceiling white. Yes i said whit...

WOW! I'm so sorry in the delay of posts! We have had a VERY overwhelming year since we've moved to Alaska and i just wasn't able to sit down in front of my computer and collect all of my thoughts. But i cant wait to share with you what has happened!!!       My life has been a constant roller coaster since 2019. Since having Kynslee (yes 5 years ago), I have always felt off. I would emotionally have highs and lows and never really understood why. I would just go about my life. I would brush off the emotions and bury them. I thought i had a handle on them. Then i had Dustin. Scott was deployed, i gave birth by myself, had to take care of three children, got my tubes removed and never really fully recovered from birth or surgery. To this day I still cant catch up with life or anything in my life. And being exhausted is an understatement. Constantly being by myself and not having a quiet minute has really taken a toll on me and without seeing a doctor,i can clearly see ...

The last two weeks have flown by, but they were definitely rest and relaxation for us. Although we were still very busy and, on the go, it seemed time slowed down, and we got to take in every minute to its fullest. The kids have really enjoyed spending time with daddy and vice versa. Noah started basketball and daddy was able to catch his second practice and watch his games! Its Noah’s first year playing basketball and it definitely shows but nothing a little practicing and one on one coaching can’t fix. But honestly, I don’t think it’s for him. He is super excited at the beginning and then midway through practice or a game he gets in a funk or just seems to lose interest in it. Scott also got to attend Noah’s Parent teacher conference. For being in Kindergarten, Noah is doing great but as any other five-year-old there are things that need to be worked on. His teacher even said his social aspect needs to “improve”. Noah is very social but he’s my child when it comes to this. H...

January 16,2019                 The day our family of five became whole again. A day that Noah and Kynslee anticipated since the day Scott left. A day where happiness was an understatement. Being a military family is a life rollercoaster. And having kids adds to the emotional rollercoaster aspect of military life. This deployment was a very rough one for the kids. Sure we/they handled Korea back in 2015 but Noah and Kynslee were young. Young enough to not really remember Scott being gone. But with them being 5 and 3, they really struggled with daddy being gone. 200 days of the kids asking where daddy was. 200 days of the kids saying they miss daddy.200 nights of holding my babies and wiping away tears because daddy was gone. 200 days of feeling defeated because I couldn’t comfort my children the way they needed. Playing the part of mom and dad is so hard and I got to give props to all the single...