Five on Friday - {08.22.2014}

ONE.

At the vet yesterday morning - she was a little stressed.

We've had a sick puppy (she's not really a puppy at all, but she is to me) this week. We went to the vet on both Wednesday and Thursday morning and have been up in the night with her as well. I really think that she's getting back to herself now, but I think both Trent and I were scared of what bad news the vet might come up with as they did some x-rays and things. Luckily everything looked fine, it was just an upset stomach and everything that goes along with that! She sure does HATE going to the vet, though! So hopefully we can avoid that place for a long time!

TWO.

Last weekend when we were in Des Moines for the Iowa State Fair, my new friend, Megan, who lives in Wisconsin just happened to be in the area visiting some friends! We met each other for the first time in November of 2012 and then just saw each other for the first time since then in June and Lee and Sara's wedding and realized that we really should be friends! She was only in Iowa for a short time, but we were able to meet up at church on Sunday morning! It was so unexpected that we would be that close geographically that weekend, so it was just awesome that we were able to see each other.

THREE.

Next Monday starts my first ever DietBet, put together by a blogger that I follow, Skinny Meg. Basically, you pay $25 and that money is put into a pool. Then, in four weeks, if you lose 4% of your body weight, you split that pool with all the other winners. I have been slowly gaining weight over the past year, so I think if I have a monetary motivation to get my butt in gear, it might just be the jump start I need! Some things I'm going to implement during these four weeks to get me on track are:

1. No pop

2. Only one drink per day that isn't pure water

3. No fast food

4. Work out at least 30 minutes a day at least 4 days a week

5. Do meal planning
6. No unnecessary unnatural sugar
I don't necessarily have an problem with all the things listed above (like eating fast food) but I figured I'd just write them down as a goal anyway. I have a few more things in mind that I want to implement to stay on track, but I haven't made them into concrete goals yet, so I'll work on that this weekend! I do plan on having a "cheat day" when I can have pop, but I'll get them all figured out and written down for myself by Monday.  :)

FOUR.

I plan on doing this for my feet sometime soon, too! My feet don't look as bad as that person's left foot, but they are a little rougher than I'd like. Since I did the kitchen sink thing, I'm willing to try some of these other little tips that are floating around Facebook and Pinterest!

FIVE.

Tonight I'm going to a Zumba/Stella and Dot party put on by my BFF, Lauren. The party is going to start with a Zumba session and then end with some pretty jewelry. Lauren just recently became a Zumba instructor, so I'm super excited to take a class from her!! Yay!

Have a great weekend!

Five on Friday! {8.15.2014}

Happy Friday! I hope everyone reading this had a great week!

ONE.
Last week I cleaned our kitchen sink with the baking soda and salt combination I've seen on Pinterest and Facebook. Worked like a charm! It's super embarrassing how gross our sink was! These pictures don't even show how disgusting it was, but I guess I always just thought cleaning with a disinfectant was the best I could do... WRONG. It's sooo much better and the layer of gunk is all gone and it's all shiny and pretty now! After I cleaned it, I just wanted to stand there and stare at it for a while.

Top is before and bottom is after (if you couldn't tell)

TWO.

I'm getting ready to hang a gallery wall in 'my room'. Jocelyn helped me pick out a bunch of frames at Michael's a few weeks ago, and we tried a few layouts on the living room floor to get a feel for what it was going to look like. My next step is picking out some pictures to go in the frames, so I can be sure that I have the frames going the right directions and then I'll be ready to start getting it up on the wall. I'm using my printables that I got from the SheReadsTruth Bible studies in white 8x10 frames and then filling in with different patterned/textured frames with pictures and things. It's been a very slow project (I've only been working on gathering all the pieces for it since the end of May!) but I'm looking forward to seeing it up on the wall!

THREE.

This weekend ends wraps up my summer of concerts! We're going to the Iowa State Fair and I have the pleasure of going to the Lady Antebellum concert on Saturday night with my mom, Jocelyn, my brother, and his girlfriend, Kenzie, and the Styx/Foreigner concert on Sunday night with my mom. We're all spending the day at the fair on Saturday, as well, along with other members of my family, so it's going to be a fun weekend! I love the fair! I'm looking forward to doing all the things we do when we go to the fair (and eating some cheese curds, among other things). I really just hope the weather is nice!

FOUR.

We got our family room and kitchen repainted this past weekend with the awesome help of Trent's parents. It really didn't take us that long with four of us going at once and it was a good time to be productive and have some good conversation at the same time. We also found some time to go out to eat at Roja on Saturday night, watch a movie, go to church on Sunday morning, and make a trip to Nebraska Furniture Mart. I am loving the new color and trying to figure out where I want to rehang things. When I get it all finished, I will share the 'after' pictures. But with the way I have been about sharing house project pictures, who knows when that will be! :)

Here's a sneak peek - the whole room is a tan/gray color (Aspen Gray) and just the fireplace corner is Navy. We tired Mattie out with all the painting, too!

FIVE

I think that I am done with the first of our 'Fredericksen Yearbooks' that I mentioned last week!! The first one I did was for the years 2009-2010 together. I started with the summer of 2009 because that was when Trent and I had our first date and when we officially became an item. I do still want to swap out a few pictures that I got off of Facebook with the actual original pictures from Trent's computer, but beyond that, I am just waiting for a super sweet deal before I order it! Now I am starting on 2011! Only like 4 years to go until I'm caught up!

You can check the book out here.

Hollywood's 100 Favorite Movies = Our New 'Must Watch' List

Whenever Trent and I are looking to watch a movie, it seems as though it takes us at least a half hour to even decide on what to watch. So Trent found a list of the best movies of all time as voted on by some big wigs in Hollywood and it was decided that is the list we would pick off of when we are looking for something to watch. 

Some of the movies we have already seen together (The Princess Bride and Avatar, for example) so we may or may not watch them again and some we have watched but we know we will watch them again for many years to come anyway (It's a Wonderful Life). There are also a few on the list that I'm so happy Trent will be forced to watch with me now (Titanic) since he probably would have avoided it at all costs before this list! There are some on the list that I'm less than excited about having to watch again too(like E.T.) but I guess I'll suffer through... 

We started last weekend with Toy Story on Friday (my pick) and Trent's mom picked Close Encounters on Saturday night. 

I'm kind of excited to be forced to watch a few of these movies that Trent always says he can't believe I haven't seen yet and I'm super excited for another reason to watch Beauty and the Beast and Jaws again, too!

The list is below. I'm going to keep it updated as we go in the new page up above, too.

Blue means I'm certain we've watched it together, so we may or may not watch it again 

(If we have both seen it but haven't watched it together, it doesn't count. I am also not marking any that I'm not 100% sure we've seen together)

Red means we have watched it together after the start date of August 8, 2014

1. The Godfather (1972)

2. The Wizard of Oz (1939)

3. Citizen Kane (1941)

4. The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

5. Pulp Fiction (1994)

6. Casablanca (1942)

7. The Godfather: Part II (1974)

8. E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)

9. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

10. Schindler's List (1993)

11. Star Wars (1977)

12. Back to the Future (1985)

13. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

14. Forrest Gump (1994)

15. Gone With the Wind (1939)

16. To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)

17. Apocalypse Now (1979)

18. Annie Hall (1977)

19. Goodfellas (1990)

20. It's a Wonderful Life (1946)

21. Chinatown (1974)

22. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

23. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)

24. Jaws (1975)

25. The Sound of Music (1965)

26. Singin' in the Rain (1952)

27. The Breakfast Club (1985)

28. The Graduate (1967)

29. Blade Runner (1982)

30. One Few Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)

31. The Princess Bride (1987)

32. The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

33. Fargo (1996)

34. American Beauty (1999)

35. A Clockwork Orange (1971)

36. Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)

37. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)

38. When Harry Met Sally (1989)

39. The Shining (1980)

40. Fight Club (1999)

41. Psycho (1960)

42. Alien (1979)

43. Toy Story (1995) Watched August 8, 2014 - KF

44. The Matrix (1999)

45. Titanic (1997)

46. Saving Private Ryan (1998)

47. Some Like it Hot (1959)

48. The Usual Suspects (1995)

49. Rear Window (1954)

50. Jurassic Park (1993)

51. The Big Lebowski (1998)

52. All About Eve (1950)

53. Good Will Hunting (1997)

54. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)

55. Taxi Driver (1976)

56. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

57. The Dark Knight (2008)

58. Sunset Blvd. (1950)

59. Thelma & Louise (1991)

60. Amelie (2001)

61. West Side Story (1961)

62. North by Northwest (1959)

63. Groundhog Day (1993)

64. Mary Poppins (1964)

65. Raging Bull (1980)

66. The Lion King (1994)

67. Avatar (2009)

68. Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)

69. Gladiator (2000)

70. Vertigo (1958)

71. Almost Famous (2000)

72. Young Frankenstein (1974)

73. All the President's Men (1976)

74. Blazing Saddles (1974)

75. The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)

76. Brokeback Mountain (2005)

77. Ghostbusters (1984)

78. 12 Angry Men (1957)

79. Wall-E (2008)

80. On the Waterfront (1954)

81. Amadeus (1984)

82. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)

83. Die Hard (1988)

84. Inception (2010)

85. Seven (1995)

86. Beauty and the Beast (1991)

87. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)

88. Slumdog Millionaire (2008)

89. Braveheart (1995)

90. Memento (2000)

91. Rocky (1976)

92. Up (2009)

93. Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) Watched August 9, 2014 - JF

94. The Deer Hunter (1978)

95. Doctor Zhivago (1965)

96. Pan's Labyrinth (2006)

97. Airplane! (1980)

98. Reservoir Dogs (1992)

99. Bonnie and Clyde (1967)

100. The Seven Samurai (1954)

Bell Reunion 2014

The first weekend of August = one of my favorite weekends of the summer!

The Bell Reunion!

Jocelyn and I took off for home on Saturday morning, but only after making a pit stop in Council Bluffs to do a little tax free shopping. It wasn't the most fruitful shopping trip ever, but I did purchase a few things, so I guess it wasn't a total loss!

We got home in the mid afternoon and met up with family at Grandma's house and then headed just down the road to see what was going on at the Bell Shoot. 

We watched all the shenanigans at the shoot and then gathered back at Grandma's for a wonderful supper. Later in the evening, it was time to head home so we could all rest up and then get together the next day to do all over again!

Sunday was filled with LOTS of great food, games, fun, conversation, bags and horseshoes and everything good that comes with the Bell Reunion.

The Aylward section of the Bell family that was in attendance:

Of course, there was the yearly bags tournament, as well, which is always a ton of fun. And this year it was even more fun because Tom and I were partners and we won!! Woot!!!

First and second place teams

The winners!

The Bell Reunion was wonderful again this year! I love it so much, as it brings up such awesome memories from when we were younger. Even though everyone is growing up and getting busy, I love that people still make the effort to make it there to be together for the day/weekend. Until next year!

The Band Perry Concert and Our Roommate!

A little less than a month ago, Jocelyn and I got to go to The Band Perry concert at Stir Cove. Trent's boss hooked us up with some tickets and a hotel room for the night and we definitely had a blast!

The weather and music were great and, as always, we just had a great time together! 

The opener for The Band Perry was Ben Rue. We had never heard of him before that night, but we had fun trying to figure out things about him. We found out that he was born the same year as I was and, much to Jocelyn's disappointment, he has a girlfriend... We also discovered that he doesn't have a Wikipedia page, but there IS one for Reuben Sandwich... close, but not quite... We also got to meet him and take our picture with him, so if he becomes famous we can start flashing this picture around!

As expected, The Band Perry was super entertaining (we also saw them in October when they opened for Rascal Flatts). I love them and their songs and I'm so glad we got to go to the concert!

This concert, though, was just one of many fun times we've had over the past few months. Jocelyn moved in with us mid-March for her last internship for PT school and then ended up staying with us after graduation for the month of June, too. (And now she lives in Omaha! Woot!) We loved having Joce live with us (who wouldn't want to have one of their best friends living in their house with them for a while?!?) and we definitely had many fun times and adventures while she was here! I had someone to get up early in the morning with me to work out (even if that only lasted like a week and a half), Trent had someone to watch Orange is the New Black With, and we all got to go out during March Madness to watch games and eat some good food! 

And that's just the beginning...

Joce and I got to go to the ZZ Ward concert together!

We got to be there to celebrate Jocelyn's birthday with her!

My best friend just happens to be great friends with one of Jocelyn's friends and classmates who was living in Omaha at the same time, so we all got to meet up a few times, like this occasion when we went on a walk together!

We all went to Nebraska Furniture Mart together and then get hot dogs at UNO during a fundraiser they were having.

We got to celebrate Jocelyn's last day of her internship with her! 

(With what else but shots of Templeton Rye! haha)

We all got to go to the College World Series together!

It was so nice to have someone else with us to take our picture when necessary!

Joce and I got to go to the Cheesecake Factory to celebrate Lauren's birthday with her! 

I had someone to be silly with me (and get on Trent's nerves, I'm sure), which included recording this awesome video to send to Kellsey on her birthday.

I had someone to stay up late with me on a Sunday night and paint "my room"! And THEN she even finished it the next day while I was at work - talk about awesomeness!!

Having Jocelyn around gave Trent someone else to pick on so I didn't have to be the one being made fun of all the time :) 

Nice hair :)

We got to be there for Joce's experience of getting Lasik, which meant that we got to have her potential last meal with her and watch the potential last TV show with her and go to Orange Leaf with her before she possibly became blind! Luckily it all turned out, but I'm glad that we did all that just in case ;)

We got to go experience "Omaha's Best Burger" at Dinker's Bar together.

We got to have family supper's together most nights during the week.

 And, now that she lives in Omaha for real, we get to continue having family suppers!

And Mattie had another buddy to hang out with and during the month of June, they got to be together all day every day!

She really misses Joce and loves it when she comes over to visit!

It was definitely a great few months having Joce as a roommate, dogsitter, house cleaner, dishwasher emptier, and just all around fun-haver! I'm looking forward to all the great times we will get to have together in the months to come!

CJD Family Conference in D.C.

Once again this year, my mom and I made the trip to Washington, D.C. to attend the CJD Foundation Family Conference. We left Omaha bright and early on Friday morning (I'm glad my mom was there to wake me up because I slept through my alarm!) and got to D.C. right at noon just in time to make it to the hotel for our first session, which started at 1.

We spent the afternoon and early evening in sessions and talking with other families at a social event. That first night we met a family who has lost over 10 family members to CJD over the last couple generations. They had 11 family members in attendance at this year's conference. It was great to see how they all handled having this genetic disease in their family and hear about the dynamics of their family with some of them knowing they carry the mutation for fCJD, some of them knowing that they don't have the mutation, and some of them still exploring whether they want to find out if they have it or not. No matter what each family member's situation was, they all supported each other and were set on finding a way to help those members of their family who may one day develop symptoms of the disease and to honor the memories of those that they had already lost to CJD. It is also interesting to see how, with the youngest generation, how the mindset has changed with family planning and the options that are available now that weren't there just 20 years ago. Options that are available and maybe just a change in mindset that will allow couples to grow their families without having to pass on this horrible disease to yet another generation.

We met people who had lost their husband/wife, son/daughter, mom/dad, or some other relative or friend to sporadic CJD and who were there to find out as much as they could and, most importantly, get the support from the hundred other people in attendance who are some of the small population of people in the world that know exactly what they have been through and can truly relate to them. 

After visiting for a while, my mom and I took off to get a bite to eat at a local restaurant and then walked to Capitol Hill to have a look around. We walked up the hill and could see the Capitol from the side and then walked around past the Supreme Court building and the Library of Congress. We then turned down the street in front of the Cannon, Longworth and Rayburn office buildings and down by the U.S. Botanic Garden before going back up to the stairs of the Capitol Building and taking some more pictures of the building. It was a beautiful night and we just sat there for a while with the Capitol in front of us and the Washington Monument to our backs. After we rested for a few minutes, we decided it was time to head back to our hotel for the night, but not before we stopped at the Capitol Reflecting Pool to take a few more pictures (at least as good of pictures as we could get in the dark). 

Our first view of the Capitol

The Supreme Court Building

Back at the Capitol

The Capitol from the other side of the Reflecting Pool

Saturday morning's schedule started with a memorial service in remembrance of all the loved ones of those in attendance who had passed away from CJD. Again this year, each time a loved one's name was read, a purple iris was put into a vase at the front of the room, and that's where it stayed for the remainder of the conference.

The rest of the day was filled with updates on research by people who have dedicated their lives to finding a cure for CJD and other similar diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. There was also time for us to sit and talk to those researchers and doctors in smaller groups and ask them whatever we wanted. 

My dad smiling down at us from up on the memory wall.

Saturday ended with a banquet, which included supper and a presentation by the President of the CJD Foundation, Florence Kranitz, who announced that she would be stepping down as President at the end of the year. As our family has seen first hand, Florence has been an invaluable asset to the foundation. She is always available to help and give advice and advocate for the families who are affected by CJD. She has gone above and beyond for us and many other families in our greatest time of need, during and after losing someone we love! She will definitely be missed.

During the banquet, we sat at a table with some members of the large family that I mentioned above. The woman I sat right next to was in her upper 60s and knows that she carries the genetic mutation for CJD. We had a great discussion about faith and how her having the mutation hasn't and doesn't change her outlook on life. It was just a great discussion. We both had very similar views on things and it was just such a positive and uplifting conversation.

On Sunday, the morning once again had presentations on research that is being done on CJD and other prion diseases. These presentations were done by people who have received research grants funded by families who have donated money in memory of their loved ones and the matching funds from the Foundation. Next year, there will be presentations on two grants with my dad's name on them which were funded using the money raised by our family and friends through our super successful fundraiser last November. And maybe, just maybe, it will the the money we all raised that will fund the research that will be the breakthrough needed to cure this disease!!

One of the last presentations was by Amanda Kalinsky, a member of the CJD Foundation board, and a carrier of the mutation for Gerstmann-Straussler-Scheinker (GSS) disease, another prion disease. (Her and her husband's story was shared earlier this year in the New York Times and on CBS This Morning.) Her dad passed away a few years ago from GSS and when she talked about him during her presentation and how this disease has affected her life, I don't think there was a dry eye in the room. The way she talked about her dad was exactly the way I feel about mine, which made it all the more emotional. She was one of the only speakers that talked about something so personal that hit home like that. She was also one of the few people who has seen their dad go through something very similar to what my dad went through and talk so publicly about it. It was just a very emotional presentation.

For us, the conference was over in the early afternoon. We left the hotel almost immediately and headed to the Metro station and to the National Mall. Our intended destination was the Korean Memorial. That required us to walk a half hour from the Metro station past the Washington Memorial and World War II Memorial, along the reflecting pool and to the Lincoln Memorial before we arrived at the Korean Memorial. Now that doesn't sound too bad except we were walking in the heat with our luggage and I was definitely not dressed for the occasion (talking jeans and a three-quarter length shirt). We were a sweaty mess by the time we got there... but we made it!

After we were finished at the Korean Memorial we had just enough time to get to the airport to get checked in for our flight. We made the decision to take a cab to the Metro Station, which we would ultimately take to the airport, rather than walk after our strenuous time getting walking to the memorial!

We had a great time in D.C. at the conference yet again this year. We met some more great people, got some great information and made some connections that we will utilize throughout the year as we try to do our part in finding a cure and helping others who are and will be affected by CJD in the future. The conference is definitely emotionally exhausting and trying to fit in seeing some sights while we're there is also physically exhausting, but it's worth it. The conference provides things for the families affected by CJD that we cannot get anywhere else. I'm very grateful for the opportunity to go and especially happy that I got to experience it again with my mom :)

Sidenote: Last year, a man by the name of Trevor Baierl was at the conference and he was in the process of making a documentary on CJD, his mother's battle with CJD and his journey to find out if he has the mutation for CJD. He was back at the conference this year and had his latest version of the documentary to hand out. He also has one of the latest versions on YouTube if anyone is interested in watching it. 

Click here to watch it on YouTube.