2 Years in Numbers

The other day Robert and I were talking about all the numbers that have been involved in the past 2 years of our marriage and between the two of us, this is what we came up with....

2 years of marriage (obviously)
1 name change
4 telephone numbers
3 moves (all technically overseas)
12 flights (4 were together)
4 addresses
5.5 months apart (not too shabby for a military couple)
4 major road trips
8,000+ miles covered on those road trips
2 trains rides
1 massive snow storm survived
16 inches of snow during that storm
7 hours spent driving 45 miles during that horrible snow storm
1 typhoon
2 earthquakes
1 boat ride
7 countries visited
16 states visited
1 re-enlistment
1 promotion
6 different jobs (oh the life of a Marine spouse)
2 churches
6 visits from friends and family
5 weddings attended
6 different living arrangements
10 gallons of paint used on our walls
2 front row seats to David Letterman on Robert's birthday
1 trip to Disney World
2 cars sold
2 foreign cars purchased
3 new passports
20,675 miles covered by military moves
Countless new friends

Love you baby! No place I'd rather be than with you!

All Month Long

It's October! This is a great month because it contains our anniversary, fall is here (well sort of...we do live in a tropical climate, let's just say there's been a cooler breeze lately), pumpkins are in season, and.....it's Breast Cancer Awareness Month! My sister-in-law Jamie is a breast cancer survivor, if you've never visited her blog you should check it out. I bought these pink shoes from Target to do my part in wearing pink all month long...I know, I know huge sacrifice on my part, but I do what I can!  Have a great month! I have tons of things to post.

Back In the Saddle

I thought I'd stick with the music theme since that's what my last two posts have been about. We're finally getting back into the swing of things. It's been a whirlwind since Robert arrived home. I've started teaching for UMUC (University of Maryland University College...if I could use one word to describe this name it would have to be redundant :D) on Kadena Air Station here in Okinawa. I absolutely love it but I designed the entire class from scratch so it's been quite a bit of work. Enough about all that...one of the first things we did when Robert got home was through a big ol party.

This was our appetizer...Marinated Cheese! Sounds kind of crazy, but it tastes delicious..it was a big hit. Here's the recipe. I'll be honest and admit that when I'm running a little behind I marinate it in Italian dressing marinade and add pimientos on top. I served it with sliced and toasted french baguettes, lightly seasoned with balsamic vinegar, garlic, and rosemary.

We also had shrimp etouffee and gumbo, two of Robert's favorites...can you tell he was born in Louisiana? As you can see, Tony Chachere's is a staple in our house and I can honestly say that everything I've put it on has been great: chicken, eggs, fish, beef, bratwurst, mac & cheese, fries, crackers...you get the general idea. 

Above is the shrimp etouffee which I cooked the night before in our giant cast iron dutch oven (pictured below). Our cast iron pot was a present from Robert's parents. As each one of our friends came in for dinner that night almost everyone of the said...wow, that is one huge pot! Huge thanks to in-laws for such impressive cookware. :D

We had about 15 people over for dinner which was a fabulous way to break in our brand....new.....TABLE!!! (as I was typing I definitely said that last line like I was Bob Barker). 

We got it at a store out in town that was going out of business. It was marked down by 50% and we LOVED it!

It's from Thailand and it makes are apartment feel so homey. What better way to break in our new table than gumbo and shrimp etouffee with good friends?!

The detail of the chairs are my favorite part. Plus the fact that we can have more than two people over at a time to eat dinner...haha! Enjoy!

Back Home

Robert made it home safely yesterday afternoon. I want to thank all my wonderful friends and family for the many prayers, notes, emails, text messages, packages, phone calls and dinner dates. Through the past three months I've realized even more so how blessed I am to have so many wonderful people apart of my life! Robert's about to get home from his first day back at work, so I'll wrap this up. I heard this song today (yes, on Pandora) and it's so true. Robert, in the words of Ray LaMontagne...you are the BEST thing! So glad you're home baby!

Made my day...

This song came on my Pandora this morning and I decided to look up the music video and I couldn't help but smile...love it! Maybe because he calls her "baby girl" and that's what Robert calls me or maybe because it say's "i love you" a million times, maybe because the lyrics, "my momma told me don't lose you 'cause the best luck I had was you" make me think of Robert's mom setting us up, maybe because all the people in the video dance a hundred times better than I do...or maybe it's all those things! Enjoy...

No Sew Curtains Under $15!

I recently got a box of goodies from my parents and memom and in that box was yards upon yards of the most beautiful lace. Memom had cleaned out some of her old scraps and kindly decided to ship it to me!!! I was like a fat kid in a candy shop opening that box, ogling over all the beautiful material and thinking about what I could do with it. As you can see it was put to good use on a cost effective/much needed window treatment. I spend a good amount of time in the kitchen and I was getting tired of looking out this drab window that made me feel like I was in an institution. Don't get me wrong I'm thankful for this heavy duty beast of a window considering we've had two earth quakes since I've been here and we're currently in typhoon season, but it definitely needed a feminine touch.

I didn't want to spend much on this window treatment. We move at least every 3 years and who knows what size windows my next dwelling place will have? So I found some long curtain sheer panels on sale for $7 at our local Base Exchange and also picked up a tension rod for a whopping $5. I measured out the panels and divided them into 3 sections. The measurements were 18'', 14'' and 10''. 

I then used Stitch Witchery (love this stuff) to secure each layer. The 10'' is obviously in front, then the I attached the 14'' to the back of it and the 18'' was last. It was a bit tedious but easier than sewing  it (I'm not an expert sewer) considering the material likes to slide all over the place. 

Then I measured out my lace and used Stitch Witchery to attach it to each of the three layers. I also left a little excess at the each end and folded it behind each section and secured it to the back of the curtain sheer for a clean line.

Then all that was left was to put up my new, cost effective window treatment and watch as it brought some life and warmth to a drab place. Enjoy!

Pretty Toes!

One of the many great things about Okinawa is the elaborate pedicures! They're amazing and last about 90 minutes. You drink some of the best iced tea I've ever had (if you're from Kaufman, it ranks up there with the Tea Room's lemonade tea). It's so relaxing and as you can see the nail art is out of this world! I always try my best not to move or laugh when they start with the detailed painting...you should see the amount of paint they have! I'm so looking forward to friends and family coming to visit and getting pedicures! Enjoy :D

What's for dinner?

With Robert's arrival less than a month away, I've been thinking about several things that are going to change when he gets home. I'll have to stop watching movies on my laptop in bed every night,  I'll also have to start sleeping on my side of the bed, and a big one is the cooking. I definitely cook less and smaller portions when he's not around. I've never been great at planning out meals for the week, but this is my crafty attempt at making it more fun!

I'm recently obsessed with making picture frames into dry erase boards...so this fit perfectly into my current need. I designed this simple background and printed it out on my little Canon computer printer. Then framed it up! Now I'm all ready to start planning out my daily meals.

If you would like to create one of these it's really simple. The picture frame is an 8x10. I will actually email you the design I created and you can print out your own! It prints out as 8.5x11 and you just have to trim it down. All I ask is that you follow my blog and shoot me a quick email or facebook message and I'll get a high resolution file of the What's For Dinner Planner to you! Enjoy...

Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy!

No this post has nothing to do with peas or lemons or squeezing really, but I saw that phrase on another blog this week and it's been stuck in my head! This post does involve the word easy. Above is my desk area in our office/extra guest room/craft room. I love this area of our house, which I guess is a good thing since I spend a great deal of time here. I think it's important to have a cozy area like this especially when you work from home! The newest addition to this wall is my to do list.

I found this super cheap picture frame that was once a hideous color and spray painted it this amazing orange!!! 

Yes, I put notebook paper as my background...I like straight lines when writing and if I don't have them my words always drift upward.

I wanted a little extra punch of color so I added this cut out from some amazing scrapbook paper I got from my sister-in-law...thanks Jamie...I love it!

Also some other fun facts about my desk: Starting on the left, that's a picture my three best friends from my wedding day, given to me by one of them. The framed flower is a watercolor painting that Robert picked up for me while we were engaged in all his worldly travels. The orange wire folder holder is from my great grandparent's old grocery store...thanks memom! Last but not least is my Starbuck's city mug from Pattaya...thanks amazing hubby! By the way I collect these mugs :D (cough, cough)

So there you go...easy peasy lemon squeezy. Enjoy...

Sweet Gifts

A few days before Robert arrived home for his little visit, I received the most beautiful gift in the mail from his Grandmommy! She's a potter and had made us these fabulous mugs. The back of them say Okinawa 2010. I'll have to post some close ups later. Robert used to have a mug similar to the one in the picture but it broke in the move to Okinawa. Thank you Grandmommy for your sweet gift, it made my day! 

As you can see, I convinced my husband to snap a few photos before he left. He had a little time after he went in to work that morning and before he had to head back to the ship. Thanks baby for always being so great to me! We had a wonderful time while he was home. Every time we're separated for a significant amount of time, no matter how long or how far, it just confirms that I definitely married my best friend!!

To My Dad

As Father's Day is coming to an end in Okinawa and just beginning back in the States, I've had a lot of time to think about my dad today. I'm so very thankful for his influence in my life for so many reasons.

Thank you Dad for:

• Loving me
• Tucking me in at night
• Checking for monsters under the bed
• Waking up in the middle of the night when I thought the monsters came back
• Piggy back rides to the breakfast table
• Never being too busy
• Making Jay put back the covers that he had stolen off of me during nap time :D
• Taking us to pep rallies on Friday
• Apologizing when you made a mistake (ie: the pencil incident) 
• Curling my hair even though I'm pretty sure you ended up w/2nd degree burns
• Putting my hair in a perfectly slicked back ponytail
• Being my third base coach in softball
• Buying me and all my friends ice cream when you came to have lunch w/me in elementary school
• Always encouraging me in my endeavors
• Leaving meetings at work early to make my volleyball games
• Constantly telling me you were proud of me
• Meeting me for coffee at the local Starbucks in college
• Lunch dates at Angelo's
• Always listening
• Taking my phone calls during staff meeting
• Having a great sense of humor 

The list could go on and on, but thank you most of all for the Godly example you set for Jay and I. You have taught me so me things, but of all of them I think that's the most important. You were always the same person at home as your were in pulpit on Sunday mornings and I think that's a rare thing. Thank you for making life choices that I don't think many people would have made and trusting God to become the incredible father that you are. I love you very much and am so proud to call you Dad! I'm proud of you...you're doing good stuff. :D

Happy Father's Day from Oki!

Finishing Touches Are For the Birds!

I'm approaching the 4 month mark of living in Okinawa! I was teasing Robert the other day that by the time he got back I would have been here longer without him than with him...haha! I think that's the story of many wives here on the island (or any base), except their time encompasses much more than mine. In those four months, I have been quite busy making our house apartment a home. If you know me pretty well, you know that I constantly add or rearrange things until I'm satisfied. There's no such thing as finishing touches in my book, but I think I'm getting close!

I finally have our bedroom exactly almost how I want it. It took awhile and I still have a few things left...like that open wall to the right of bed, I'm thinking a collage of random frames filled with photos and random art...I let you know how it turns out. I still have a full length mirror that looks very blah and needs to be hung somewhere, I keep putting it off....oops. After all the work on the bedroom one of my favorite things about it are the birds.

In reality I hate birds. I have extremely bad luck when it comes to them. Seriously, three stories come to mind...

Exhibit A: I have been pooped on three times...all of those instances it got in my hair. One of the times I was actually running...that's efficient aim if you ask me!

Exhibit B: I've also been attacked...seriously. When I was in college working on campus over the summer, a bird swooped down at my head and it must have had some depth perception problem or it was extremely vindictive because its little claw got caught all in my hair. I was in an outdoor stairwell screaming my head off and throwing all the files I had in my hand everywhere. I don't know who was more freaked out me or the bird or the person walking up the stairs...probably the latter of the three.

Exhibit C: I also ran into a peacock in Hawaii, literally turned around ran right into it. I said I was sorry and made my way to the bathroom. When I opened my stall to go wash my hands it was standing right in front on my stall. Even though I insisted it, "shoo! shooo!" it didn't budge. So I settled for instant hand sanitizer and ran out of that bathroom. Poor Robert had no clue why I was so freaked out. When I explained the peacock followed me into the bathroom and was taunting me, he probably thought I'd been out in the sun too long that day.

As you can see, birds and I have never quite figured out how to coexist in peace on this very large earth. Even though in reality we have a mutual hate for each other, I just love the way their silhouettes look on my walls. I am quite proud of how they turned out!

They were very easy to make. I sketched the outline of the bird on scrapbook paper and then cut it out with an exacto knife (once again...my solution for everything these days). Then I framed them in some super cheap frames I picked up at the store and painted white. The background is actually some old wrapping paper that I had on hand with a subtle texture. Just goes to show you can make fun creations for under $10! Enjoy and watch out for birds (Hitchcock was one to something, I think we're kindred spirits).

Deployments and High School Dating

Last night in a moment of weakness I sprayed my husband's cologne on my pillow. I opened the medicine cabinet/bathroom mirror to do my nightly routine (wash, moisturize, brush, floss, rinse, etc) and there it stood, his signature scent. I thought back to when we were dating and I would send him a shirt with my perfume on it sealed in a plastic baggy (gag...i know). My only excuse is that we were thousands of miles apart and were lucky to see each other once every six months (I didn't say it was a good excuse). So I did the unthinkable...yes...I took that cologne and sprayed it on my pillow. As I was lying there surrounded by his smell and wishing I hadn't been so generous with the amount I had sprayed (cough, cough), it hit me...our deployment relationship has so many similarities to dating...even high school dating. Maybe I'm the only one, I'm not sure but the parallels kept coming to me one after another as I flipped the pillow over to try and weaken the smell. Here's a few things that I couldn't help but laugh about:

1. Any little reminder of them can brighten your day or bring you to tears
2. You name drop...you can't help it, it's like word vomit. Everything makes you think of him. Case and point, my last few weeks have sounded like this, "Oh ROBERT loves this dessert!" "ROBERT is so good at this game, he's just a natural." "This is ROBERT'S favorite book." You get the idea.
3. If/when you get a phone call from him, excitement flows.
4. If/when you miss a phone call him, you are so mad at yourself for not having you phone on you 24/7, even if you were in the shower it's not excuse and you add a waterproof phone case to the shopping list.
5. Your phone conversations may only last 5 minutes but your emails/letters are epic novels.
6. You go to bed thinking of them every night.
7. You do the craziest things to remind yourself of them, sleep in their tshirts, spray their cologne on your pillow, or make their favorite foods.

Like I said before, maybe this is just me, but I couldn't help but notice what was right in front of me last night. Your deployment relationship is so different that your actual relationship. The before-mentioned list was meant to be somewhat entertaining, but in all seriousness I'm realizing the challenges that this can bring. You go from being independent and having your own schedule to having this person who was absent for the last (insert number) months thrown back into your daily life. We don't even have children, so I can't imagine how much it impacts your life when you have that in the mix. I guess what I am learning is that it's all a balance and you must above all things be flexible.

Also, you must cling to the positive. I know that when my husband comes home I will be so much more thankful for him than when he left. I know that even though it will cause an adjustment to my routine, I'll be grateful to have my best friend back. And I know even though our time apart isn't easy, it's a time that I've been given to grow. I can choose to rely on myself or others for comfort or I can choose to rely on my Heavenly Father. I think sometimes I forget how much I can choose in this life. I will choose to be positive and thankful. I will control what I can, and that's my attitude and my daily habits. After all, I did choose to be a Marine's wife and I'm so thankful that I did!


 

Sweet Irony

WARNING: This blog post will contain at least three stories to tell one story. The good news is there's an interesting tid bit at the end!

Story #1: Robertisms:
My lovely husband has some Robertisms that he's aquired over the years. A few examples would be:
A. "Control your offspring" whenever we see an insane child reeking havoc, it never fails that he will say this under his breath...if I'm lucky...sometimes it a little louder. Movie theaters have been a great source for this Robertism.
B. "Liars go to hell" I'll never forget sitting in our current church here in Oki, it was probably our 2nd or 3rd week there and our pastor used this phrase. Robert grabbed my leg and looked at me wide-eyed and grinning ear to ear and said, "I like him!" It took everything with in me not to bust out laughing in the middle of the sermon.
C. "You know, this would be good over rice." God bless my husband, he was born and raised in Louisiana and it shows through and through. Any time I make a new dish, doesn't matter what it is, I hear this phrase. Seriously, stew, pork chops, chicken, beef, turkey...it's always the same. It's become a running joke around the White house.

Story #2: Susan's Creation
I grew up in Denison, TX and one of my mom's best friends was and is Susan. Susan, who had just moved to TX from LA, was an amazing cook and quite crafty lady. One of her lovely creations that's still around my parents' house today is the "sock 'o rice." Seriously, it's a sock filled with rice. To anyone else this is a waist of food and clothing...to us it's a heating pad! Once again...I'm serious. Put rice in a sock, sew up both ends, pop it in the microwave and you have homemade heating pad! Warning, your heating pad will smell like rice...crazy, I know. My parent's still use this. Anyone who works with my mom can attest, they can walk into the office and tell you if she's having back trouble by the smell of the room.

Story #3: New Isn't Always Good
I've been getting up at 4:30 am for the past several months and hitting the gym! There's a group of girls that I usually go with and most days I go to this amazing spin class. I come out about an hour later dripping in sweat and feeling extremely productive and energized for the day...don't ask me how! This week, we got a new instructor. I'm sure he was sent to be the death of me. Day one, RESISTANCE, MORE RESISTANCE, EVEN MORE RESISTANCE, LET'S ADD MORE RESISTANCE AND SPRINT!!!! Needless to say my knee was killing me after this insane workout. Day two was better and had less resistance but it went something like this: RESISTANCE, SPRINT, MORE SPRINT, EVEN MORE SPRINT, NOW HOVER, HOVER SOME MORE, GET YOUR BUTT BACK and HOVERRRRRRR! GET YOUR BUTT BACK FURTHER and HOVERRRRRR SOME MORE! Let me tell you, I don't know where the heck he wanted me to put my butt...it couldn't go any further back without detaching from my body! He kept shouting FORM, IT'S ALL ABOUT FORMMMM! He's a yeller if you couldn't tell. It was a great work out, but my knee and back had just about had it. I made it home, iced my worn-out little self, and hopped in the shower. As luck would have it as I was drying my hair, I flipped my head upside down like I've done my entire life and every muscle in back decided to seize. It sent me to floor immediately and there I said for a bit contemplating my situation. The thoughts running through my head were things like, "I'm stuck, my apartment door's locked, i'm in a towel, i'm stuck, no one has a key to my apt door except robert, robert's in indonesia, i'm stuck, maybe i can crawl to the couch." I made it to the couch and was smart enough to grab my phone on the way. I laid there for about an hour and my back finally started to untwist itself. I knew that once I was able to get up, I should grab a heating pad and just relax for a bit.

The Final Story: Sweet Irony
Turns out our heating pad didn't get packed in the things to bring to Oki box...oops! I was in so much pain by evening I knew I couldn't get out and buy one. I thought about soaking in a hot bath, but decided that the probability of getting myself out of that hot bath was slim to none. Finally, a fantastic idea came to mind...I have socks and I have rice! I ran hobbled to Robert's drawer (his socks are much larger than mine) and pulled out the biggest, oldest looking sock I could find. Then I ran hobbled to the kitchen and dumped all the rice I had left into his sock, sewed it up on both ends, popped it in the microwave and then went to bed and placed it under my back. As I lie there, looking up at the ceiling...all these stories flooded to my head. There is was lying over cooked rice and it was the happiest I had been all day long. So Robert, baby you're right...I wish I would've realized earlier that "this would be really good over rice."

Later on when I have more time, I think these would be great presents if I bought some really cute socks!

The following are some pics of my new best friend:

Lost Cause Lamp Shade

I have to apologize because I didn't take pictures of the process that it took to get to this lamp shade...oops! Honestly, the entire time I was thinking, "I hate this, this is going to be so horribly ugly." You may still be thinking that, but I definitely like how it turned out! I can give you the details of how I made this and that will have to suffice. What started this whole thing what our move to Okinawa. We unpacked our boxes that had traveled so far and found two extremely crushed lamp shades, too far gone to try and salvage. For any of you that have ever shopped at a base exchange of any kind you know that when it comes to things like this it's slim pickins. It also turns out that most of the lamp shades I found out in town weren't conducive to my lovely American lamp (thank you Target). Thus began my journey to create the perfect lampshade.

At first I went ahead and bought a lamp shade at the local base exchange. That was a mistake. I got it home and ran to my little lamp posts and turns out the American lamp shade from the base exchange wasn't conducive with my American lamp (thank you Target). Also, I didn't realize that my lamp was a little smaller than most, so my lamp looked like it was playing "dress up" with it's mom's lamp shade, ridiculous! So I had no choice...I pulled out my exacto knife (that's my newest solution to the world's problems...we'll see if it overtakes spray paint). I cut away at the huge, oversized and quite ugly lamp shade and made some a bit smaller and much more fitting to my little lamp stand. The material is actually an old skirt that I retired a few years back. It's just glued to the old lamp shade. I cut up an old white tshirt into circles to create the floral embellishments. You just fold the circles in half and then in half again and arrange as you want.

Last but not least I found this great button. I think it came from the huge collection that my mother-in-law gave me for Christmas. I offset it and added some more floral embellishments around it too. I'll be honest, I was shocked with the finish product. It wasn't looking good for 3/4 of the project and I almost aborted the mission several times and wrote it off as a lost cause. I'm glad I stuck it out and am pleased with what now sits on my nightside shelf (I found that on etsy)! Enjoy!

Chair Repair

Ok, so it's not really a repair as much as a spray paint job, but "chair repair" had such a nice ring to it! I found this Ethan Allen chair (pictured below) sitting in a throw away pile in the foyer of my apartment building the other day and decided...I've got time on my hands...I might as well. So I grabbed it quickly and hopped on the elevator with my newest project.

The first thing I did was Lysol, the second thing I did was Lysol and then I whipped out the handy dandy spray paint (my solution to the world's problems). The funny thing is there's no great place to spray paint around my apartment, so I ended up doing on the balcony. I got a few funny looks. I was a little worried about my neighbors complaining about the fumes, but then again they blow smoke in my direction 24/7...literally. So I just spray painted my little heart out. 

I was very pleased with the result and it's now sitting by my side of the bed...I'll have to post some pictures of the bedroom next week. I'm almost finished! I couldn't be happier with my free chair that I updated with about $3 worth of spray paint! Enjoy...

Two Great Reads for Military Wives

Since Robert has left for his "summer cruise" I've found myself reading more than ever. I've gone through two books since he left and am half way through another one. I realize everyone has different ways of coping with deployments and times apart in the military. Reading may not be your thing, I never in a million years thought it would be mine! I'm not much of a reader to begin with, outside of things that pertain to photography or design. I always told myself, "when I get out of school I'll read all the time, because it'll be for pleasure and not forced." Well I've been out of school for several years now and yes what....the Twilight series is probably the most I've read, as embarrassing as that is to admit, it's true.

My goal while Robert is gone is to fill my head with as much beneficial reading as possible. The first book I picked up, God + Military Spouse, I had skimmed through before and it was actually given to me by the author. I attended a small group bible study at a friend's house and she was there and gave me a copy of her book. She's a Navy wife that has survived many deployments and hardships that come with this lifestyle. Her book is an easy read that feels more like a conversation than anything else. She's passionate, I hope you didn't take the phrase an "easy read" to mean that it's not challenging material. Cline talks about certain things that we need to hear that we may not want to hear. Like the fact that God provides us with female friends to support us and lean on during deployments and separation. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that for the 6+ months our husbands are gone we're not going to have contact with the opposite sex, but we need to be wise. Be aware of the situations that we put ourselves into, because that's exactly who's in control of our actions...us. I know some people will read that last few sentences and think I'm a prude, but if that's what it takes for my husband never to doubt my love and faithfulness to him and for me to not end up in a horrible situation, then hello...I'm Miss Prude!

The other book that I have absolutely fallen in love with is Hope for the Home Front. Marshele Carter Waddell has been married to a US Navy Seal for over 25 years and has been blessed with 3 children. If I had to sum her book up in a word it would be, honest. It was refreshing to hear an honest, Godly perspective on this crazy lifestyle. While reading her book, I couldn't help but think about Paul's words in 2 Corinthians 11. It's towards the end of the chapter, he's defending his apostleship and begins listing everything he's been through:

Imprisonments
Danger of death
Beatings of numerous kinds
Shipwrecked
Danger of robbers
Danger of his countrymen
Danger of the Gentiles
Danger of the city
Danger of the wilderness
Danger of the seas
Danger among false brethren
Labor
Hardships
Hungry
Thirsty
Exposed

The list goes on, but you get the idea. While reading this book I realized Waddell has quite an impressive list of deployments, injuries, moves, children, missed holidays, lost loved ones, lost friends, foreign countries, feeling lost, feeling depressed, feeling alone, disgusting living arrangements, small paychecks, and broken appliances, cars and whatever else you can image that always seem to happen when your spouse isn't around. She's more than capable to be writing this book and I'm grateful that she did. It takes someone like that who's been through all this and is still standing on the other side of it smiling and clinging to their faith to pass on their wisdom. As a young and fairly new military wife, it's great to dwell on the positive and God-centered truths that someone else can bring out of what could be devastating situations. This was an extremely encouraging read for me.

If you would have told me 4 years ago that I would one day be living in a foreign country and married to a US Marine, I can honestly say I wouldn't have believed you, but I wouldn't trade it for the world. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it's easy but depending on God and not myself or even my husband for that matter, makes it easier. I definitely haven't perfected that last sentence, it's a constant struggle. I realize how blessed I am when I look around at the women who's husbands are gone far more frequent than mine and it's humbling. The pride that I have in my husband and what he stands for is unexplainable...and sight of him in his dress blues doesn't hurt either! ;D I hope that if you're in need of a good read you'll think about these books. Enjoy.

Don't have anything for mom?

I'm not big on advertising for other companies, but MyPublisher is who I ordered my last photo book through and I had the best experience! They are now offering a last minute deal for mother's day. Go to their website and get 50% off photo book gift certificates. I can't imagine what a mom would love more and you get a fabulous deal...hurry it doesn't last long. And yes that picture is of my grandmother, my mom and my uncle...love it!

Happy Birthday Morgan!

Meet Morgan! Isn't she adorable? This is my friend's daughter and she turned on this past weekend (if you didn't get that by the first pic). I had the joy of taking pictures at her birthday party. Afterwards we went out with the whole family and did some more portraits with a little less cake. These are just a few of my favorites, if you would like to see more please head over to my photography blog and take a look. Enjoy!