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Caitlyn wrote it

“Protect Your Noggin Kid.”

March 28, 2021 by Caitlyn

Hello all!

A blog post is long overdue. If you are still watching the page/Facebook thank you for sticking with us! Hopefully this summer we will be able to be more active on here. We do have our wedding in July and a week together in one of our Jeeps with no real destination. Speaking of wedding, if you have an RSVP please get that sent to us soon. We have to give the venue a final guest count soon. We haven’t even received half of them back yet. Yes, this is me giving all of you stern talking too. Moving on folks!

Last night while giving Grant a bath, he was rolling around and hit his head on the side of the bathtub. This was the third time of the day that he had managed to hit his head. I told him that he needed to be more careful and that he needed to protect his noggin. He then gave me a very confused look and asked me, genuinely, “Why?” I couldn’t help myself, I laughed. Hard. He genuinely was asking me why he needed to protect his head. I told him that your head is very important and that you need to be careful with it so you don’t hurt it. He seemed good with that for an answer.

As I thought about it last night, that was good for the moment since he is only 4. I also realized that I am going to have to teach him about protecting his noggin mentally too. That his mental health is very important and something that he should learn. Right now he is 4 so let’s try to just survive his daredevil phase. But one of the best ways that he can learn about mental health is by me and Tyler modeling taking care of our own mental health. So I am going to tell you about what I have been doing to help mine. Will, he ever read this? Maybe, maybe not but the act of me writing it and putting it out there is important not only to become the model I want to be for him but also for myself.

A few weeks ago, I took a HUGE step towards taking care of my own mental health. I signed up for therapy through the app Better Help. Currently am in week 10 and Tyler was the only one who knew about it (Thank you love for always supporting me through this). I am so incredibly happy that I took this step and made the decision to do something solely for myself. Leaving my toxic marriage, moving to Bloomington, going to school, all of those things were for Grant’s benefit. Truthfully. I did those for Grant, not myself. But talking to a therapist once a week, I did that for me. I have gained so much insight into my mental health and also why somethings are the way they are in my mind. We also created some techniques for me to use and she has given me some great books to read in my spare time (which is almost never now haha).

I don’t think I am ready to fully talk about what I have learned but I will one day. I know that I don’t have to but I think it would be beneficial to my healing. That is going to be my next step I believe with my therapist. Last session she told me to take some time to figure out where we needed to go next or if this was the end of journey. I have seriously made some amazing progress. Tyler can be the biggest advocate to that. But I believe that I need to now figure out where I go from here. Now that I have discovered what the message is that causes me so many issues, I have come to a cross road it feels like. Do I continue living my life like I am now or do I make some changes and possibly confront some people? I truly do not know, but I have never felt more like I was heading in the right direction. All because I took a leap on myself and taking care of myself mentally.

To wrap things up, if you have seen ads about the app Better Help and are questioning if it would be right for you, take the leap. For a while now, I knew that I needed too but one I was scared that my ex-husband could use it against me somehow with custody of Grant, and two because it is expensive. With Tyler’s help, I realized that no one is going to see me talking to someone once a week as a bad thing or a reason why Grant is not in the best hands. Better Help is super affordable and if you fill out a quick form you can get it at an even more discounted rate. So check it out. Even if you don’t have a mess of things to sort through as I do, it could still be a beneficial thing for you.

Take care of your mental health folks. Protect your noggin kid.

With lots of love,

-Caitlyn aka Pretty Lady

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Caitlyn wrote it, Grant, Mental Health

Are we adventuring yet?

July 4, 2020 by Caitlyn

Flowers outside our cabin

I have the dreaded writer’s block sitting here in our cabin. Not so much due to a lack of things to write about, but due to a lack of words. This is my first time in the Rocky Mountains. The beauty, magnitude, and impressiveness of these mountains is so hard to capture in just a few words. I am also trying daily to capture it with my camera and am also finding that to be challenging. I think I’m managing it fairly well though!

We have been having adventures together almost every day, even if it is just us hopping in Jackson and going for a drive. Speaking of Jackson, my poor Jeep. He is doing great and taking whatever we throw at him like a champ but he is getting tested on this trip. We have taken him on multiple trails that had me holding on for dear life with my eyes close and have only gotten “stuck” once. I say “stuck” because he wasn’t really stuck but I made Tyler get out and look at the rock we were trying to go over before continuing.

Every adventure we go on, I try to take a picture of Jackson at the adventure. So when you see a picture of Jackson, it is the start of a new adventure pictures. Enjoy the pictures of our adventures, I’ll only chime in sometimes otherwise this posts will mostly be pictures!

Monday June 29th

These pictures are from Monday, our first adventure together out here. We went across the road to a trail and then parked Jackson to take some pictures. Grant loved the chance to run around free after being stuck in the car for two days.

Normally we do images in black and white but most of these flowers pictures just lose their beauty in black and white. I was surprised by how many wildflowers there are up here.

Tuesday June 30th

My favorite picture of Jackson so far!

On Tuesday, we had two adventures! In the morning, Tyler and I took Jackson on some 4×4 trails and ended up at Ghost Lake. It was so worth it, even if we did get “stuck” leaving. Then we took Jackson on the Bachelor Tour Loop. Which is a 17 mile loop through the old mining areas. Tuesday afternoon we headed out with Tiny Terrorist.

Ghost Lake
Of course he had to climb on it.
The trail that we took to get to Ghost Lake

Seeing all of the burnt trees and the destruction from the fire was eerie. It was very quiet, nothing in sight, and all around uncomfortable.

Till I saw these daisies. Daisies are my favorite flower. It was a good reminder for me that sometimes destruction and “fires” are a part of life and needed to start over. Beautiful things can come from things that we thought destroyed us, when really they were making way for something new and better.

Taking pictures of him taking pictures might be a new hobby of mine.

On our way down the mountain we stopped at Love Lake. Grant really loves when we are able to put his bell on him and then let him run free.

Friday July 3rd

Friday it started to rain. We decided to take Grant to the Underground Mining Museum. I didn’t get any pictures inside the museum because it was too dark but I did get some pictures of this chipmunks that hang outside of the museum because they feed them. You can tell which ones have been there longer than others.

After the museum we went to North Clear Creek Falls. This was another beautiful site to see and I tired to capture it but did not do as well as I wanted too.

Sorry for the image overload. Like I said though, it is a lot easier to try to show you guys the beauty that is the Rocky Mountains rather than describe it. We are here for another week so expect much more to come. We are going to try and not wait so many days before posting a post, that way they are not as long.

Be safe this holiday weekend!

-Caitlyn aka Pretty Lady

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Caitlyn wrote it, Images overload, Jackson Killing it, Lots of pictures, Sorry not Sorry

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