No matter where you are

No matter where you are in the world, or what challenges you are facing, Christmas is a time to be celebrated. You may not have "christmas spirit" or feel like decorating or buying gifts, but thats not the point! The point is that Christ was born and this is the time of year we celebrate His birth. Its not about Christmas trees, gifts, etc. It is about realizing what a great gift was given to us many years ago when Christ came to earth. It is a gift that transcends all the silliness we have added to Christmas. I personally am not happy to be spending a Christmas without my husband and without my own home to decorate, but I am thankful that he is safe, that I have a place to live and that I have a supportive family. I may not be super into the Christmas spirit but I do realize that my life would not be the same if it were not for that little baby born in Bethlehem so many years ago. So, whether you are a humbug or a true Jingle Bell lover, remember Christmas for what it is, a time to celebrate the birth of Christ!

why?

there are some things in this world i just don't understand...and this barbie is one of them

spiced apple cider

this is one of my favorite recipes! Passed down by my wonderful mom of course :)

Hot Apple Cider

3 parts 100% Apple Juice-depending on how much you want to make, I use at least one bottle
1 Part 100% Cranberry Juice
3 Cinnamon Sticks
1 teaspoon of cloves held in either a coffee filter or a tea ball
Sugar to taste

Combine ingredients in large pot on stove or crock pot. Heat on high heat until simmering then reduce heat to low and cover. Let steep on low for at least one hour. When cider is spiced to your taste remove the cloves (you can remove the cinnamon as well, but I usually leave the sticks in).
If the cider is too tart you can add a bit of sugar (I usually end up adding a little less than 1/4 cup of sugar). Serve while still hot! Can be stored in the fridge, and drank cold or hot!

holidays are coming

so the holidays are just around the corner! Don't forget that there is a wonderful web site called Etsy out there to meet your holiday shopping needs. It is a wonderful idea to buy hand crafted items for Christmas instead of something from a department store! Here are several of my favorite shops on etsy...of course mine is #1 :). Also, keep in mind that you can usually request custom items from sellers on etsy, all you have to do is send them a message and see what they can do!

http://southerncharmcrafts.etsy.com

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=7541630

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=7400794

finding God in fiction

So I was reading our book club book which is "The White Company" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. (you know the guy who wrote Sherlock Holmes). Well, this has been an all time favorite novel of mine since I was in middle school. It is all about the hundred years war and knights and ladies in distress. Well reading it as an adult I have been finding many things in it that I missed as a child. My favorite quote that I have ran across is this:

"A man is but a beast as he lives from day to day, eating and drinking, breathing and sleeping. It is only when he raises himself, and concerns himself with the immortal spirit within him, that he becomes in very truth a man. Bethink ye how sad ...a thing it would be that the blood of the Redeemer should be spilled to no purpose"

how true this is! Without the spirit of God in us we are falling into nothingness. God made us to seek Him and to follow Him in our lives. Of course we all make mistakes and none of us have a perfect Christian life, but if we are aware of the spirit living inside of us, if we are aware of God in our lives ,then we are realizing our full potential as Christians and can work towards becoming better followers of Him. How sad it would be if the blood of the Redeemer was spilled to no purpose! How sad it would be if we turned our backs on God and stopped trying to better our walks with Him. How Sad it would be if we forgot what He did for us and the life He offers!!

What an awesome reminder that you can find God anywhere. He will find ways to speak to you even when you are reading a book you haven't picked up since middle school. AMAZING!
( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_White_Company )

fall moons

There is just something about walking outside on the first cold night of the year and looking up into a clear, crisp sky. The stars look brighter, the moon looks brighter, and the air smells cleaner. How awesome that fall has arrived and it looks like we are actually going to have a cool fall this year in NC. Well, needless to say being in the house all day, and walking around outside at night time with Lela brought out the inner hippy and I wrote a poem...yes...I wrote a poem. Go ahead and laugh, but here it is. Of course, the grammar may need a little help (it has, after all, been four years since poetry class).


There are people dancing on the moon
Hand in hand through the misty white light,
The night surrounds their mirth and merriment
As they go round singing to their gods and angels.

boredom can lead to productivity

moms surgery

well, on her long road battling breast cancer my mom came to the obstacle of having a double mastectomy and she conquered it! Today is her first day of recovery and she is doing great. She is tired and sore but she has been up walking around and wants to do everything for herself, but of course we cannot let her do that!
God always seems to bring good things out of the bad ones and this time he brought my aunt and my grandma. I was able to see my grandma a few weeks ago at her fiftieth wedding anniversary but have not spent any quality time with her in years. It has been great to be in the same house with her and to spend time with a woman who I admire and who is so sweet and strong at the same time. God really shows us in the older generation that we can either let our struggles turn us bitter or we can let them mold us into stronger Christians and we can show sympathy to others facing struggles. I know that my grandmother and my mother have both let their struggles turn them into better Christians. They have let their struggles teach them how to rely on God and his love and also how to sympathize with others going through hard times. I hope that God will teach me how to take these hard times and turn to Him for my guidance and strength. I hope that I can be an inspiration and a help to others who face hard times and that I can have more sympathy for others around me who are struggling.

Etsy

so recently i have gotten into making crafts and thought i would try my hand at Etsy! So, here is what I have so far:

http://southerncharmcrafts.etsy.com

ohio

so, I just got back from my trip to Ohio last night. I went to Ohio to see a good friend and fellow army wife. We had a good time and did all the girly stuff you can imagine :). We went out and ate sushi, we went shopping, went to the zoo, watched UP, and (of course) watched True Blood. Overall it was a great trip and it was really good to get out of town for awhile. However, I dont think I will ever be moving to the cleveland area because traffic there is about ten times worse than Raleigh!! But the cooler weather sure was a welcome change!

The projects for this week are to get enrolled in classes at Durham Tech, go see Harry Potter, and go to my Grandparents 50th wedding anniversary on Saturday. I think i might crash at my brothers if he will let me and go to church with him and sara! That would be a really good treat.

all moved in

so, after months of talking and deciding when to move, we finally did it! I am now all moved in and having a good time in Durham. I was worried about all the furniture but my dad and our friend brian had no problems getting everything set up! I was also worried about Callie but she has adjusted VERY well and only hid out under the sofa for a few hours before coming out to explore. Lela, of course, is doing very well and is currently asleep on my bed.
I will miss Raleigh and being so close to many great areas, but I am also used to Durham and now know how to get around Raleigh whenever I want to come visit and go to church.
The moving project for yesterday was to hang up clothes and organize the closet. So, today the project is to hang pictures. Tomorrow I will go back to Raleigh to clean my apartment..fun fun. But, I am glad to be here living with Jakes mom and I already feel the stress melting away and it is so nice to have company!!

been awhile

so,yes, it has been awhile since i last updated my blog. Things have been really busy lately!! My mom is doing well, she just finished her second chemo treatment and while it made her a little sick, she recovered and is feeling pretty good now. My last day at work was last Tuesday so i had the opportunity to go down and spend time with mom right after her treatment. It was so nice to be able to be there for her and just keep her company since she was confined to the house. I was able to stay through Sunday afternoon and was so glad i got to hear my dad preach on sunday morning. I always enjoy hearing his sermons and it had been too long since i last heard one.
I came home to just callie since lela is at the kennel until tuesday, and she is so happy to have me all to herself. I swear pets can be just like kids at times. She is currently playing in my moving boxes and it is the first time since i got home that she has not been sitting on my lap.
Jake is doing well in iraq. We had a tough week because there was a bombing which killed three of our soldiers. Anytime a soldier is killed, they cut off the communication lines until they can alert the next of kin and have everything figured out. So, most of us had no idea what was going on and we were not able to talk to our husbands for several days. Of course, we knew that our guys were okay but it was nevre racking not to hear jakes voice and i just wanted to hear from him that everything was okay. I was able to finally talk to him yesterday and then saw him today on the web cam which was GREAT! I am taking a lazy day today since it is memorial day, but i will be very busy the rest of this week with plans to attend school this fall and i have to get the tire and brakes on the car fixed.
Well, that is all for now! Have a great memorial day!

Off to Iraq

Jake is heading off to Iraq pretty soon. They have been stationed in Kuwait the past two weeks and the phone bills are crazzzy so i have not been talking to him very often. But I am lucky that we get to talk about twice a week and he will send little messages on facebook or a quick text now and then. One of the other wives was awesome and shared the Baghdad address with us as soon as she heard it. The address is : Jacob Smith
HHC 1/252 CAB
Scout Platoon
FOB Falcon
APO-AE 09361

I am already planning Jakes first box to go out, i am so excited to send him things I cannot wait!! I have a lot of things to do on Thursday, but the top priority is going to be shopping for goodies to send Jake!

busy busy

can you say busy? yeh that is an understatement!! Everything has just been crazy since Jake has left! It has been nice to see friends and keep busy, but work and travel on top of that and all the worry and stress as well just makes things crazy. I have only gotten a few things done this week outside of work.
Also, just a heads up for everyone, I am working three weekends in a row at work and on my days off I am going to see my mom and I have things planned most week nights (like sleep) so I will not be around too much.

I know this is a quick and disconnected blog, but my thoughts are rather disconnected lately.
My mom starts chemo on Wednesday and it will be a long haul. My brother is staying with her this weekend and I am going to stay with her the second week in may for two days. She still needs lots of prayer as she goes through this time.
I will try to write a better blog later, just tired and stressed and really busy right now. more to come later

Last Days

Well, you all know that Jake has left for Iraq and he actually had time to call me for two seconds today to let me know he landed safely in Kuwait! We were able to spend a lot of time together before he left and he was able to spend time with his friends and family before he headed out.

The first thing we did was to take a night all to ourselves. We decided we had to get out of town to avoid any disturbances so we boarded lela in her great kennel here (http://www.armadalekennel.com/) and we headed out to Greensboro. Jake and I found this really awesome bed and breakfast online and their rooms and prices are GREAT. We looked and looked for a hotel that was as nice and as affordable and could not find one at all. So, we booked our bed and breakfast room at the Troy Bumpass Inn. (http://www.troy-bumpasinn.com/) . We stayed in the Allah room and it was so nice. The bed was super comfortable and the bathroom had a european shower with 5 shower heads and a jacuzzi tub!! The owners of the bed and breakfast were so nice and they were very accomodating.
After we checked in to the bed and breakfast Jake and I did some research and found a cute little Italian restaurant in Downtown Greensboro. It was such a nice day outside that we decided to walk through down town to the little restaurant. I have to tell you, it was such a great surprise to find a nice italian restaurant with home made food instead of mass produced pasta like the Olive Garden. You could really tell that the pasta sauces were home made and all of the food was Great! (http://www.rivastrattoria.com/). If you are ever in the Greensboro area, or just want to get out of town for a bit I would highly recommend both the troy bumpass inn and riva's restaurant. It made for a really romantic but casual weekend.
After we went to the inn, we came back for a whirl wind going away party for Jake. We invited all of his friends and had about twelve people in our little apartment! It was a great time and pretty much everyone came up which was awesome. We even had out of town guests come so four people ended up staying at our place which was a blast!!!
and..without a minute to spare Jakes dad came up for Saturday and Sunday, Jake had a good time with his dad and I am SO SO glad he got to see him before he left.
To continue our whirl wind week...
We went to Journey on Easter Sunday, left to pick up Joe from jakes platoon at the airport, left for durham to have easter lunch, came back, packed, left for Ft. Bragg on Monday morning, came back to Raleigh that night, went BACK to fayetteville for the going away ceremony...found out Jake was leaving the next night....ate dinner, dropped Jake off at 8pm at Ft. Bragg..said goodbye and Left.
It was CRAZY.
I have never felt so happy and then so sad in such a short period of time. My emotions are shot and I do believe I will walk around in shock for a few days. But, Jake is safe and sound in Kuwait and I will be sure to post lots of news about him in days to come.

quick blog

this is just a quick blog before I run out the door. Jake is leaving tonight for Iraq. He won't actually be flying to their base right away. They will probably stop in Europe somewhere then head over to Kuwait where he will be for about a month. I will keep you all posted, we dropped him off at Fort Bragg last night and it was the hardest thing I have ever done. I keep randomly breaking into tears. I think it will take me awhile to get over this. I actually skipped work today because I am so emotional! I hate being a girl sometimes :) .
My mom is also doing well today. She just had her surgery yesterday morning and it went well, she will start chemo shortly. I will keep you all updated. I will write a longer blog when I have some time to do so.

more news on mom

well, we heard back from moms MRI today. Honestly we were expecting better news than we got. The cancer is being really aggressive and has grown significantly since it was first found. The doctor also found some new spots popping up so they are going to do a lumpectomy on the largest spot and then chemotherapy and later on radiation and possibly a mastectomy if the cancer spreads too much after the chemo. So we are facing a long road ahead and I am sure there will be days when we have both good news and bad news. But right now we are pretty much waiting for the 14th which is when mom will have her lumpectomy. This is also the same day as Jake's going away ceremony in Fayetteville so it will be a really hard day.
When the hard things in life all happen at the same time it is really hard to answer the question "why?", but it is really easy to rely on God and the strength he gives to get through even the hardest times in life. So, that is what we are going to do. We will keep praying and if it gets better then we will have a lot to praise God about and when it gets harder we will lean on Him and we WILL get through the hard times.

Home for awhile

well, I was taken by surprise Monday at lunch when I received a call from Jake saying that he would be home on the 31st of March instead of April 8th! I was so excited I literally jumped through the house screaming. (Oh well, just can't contain the excitement sometimes!!) So, FINALLY Jake is home for the first time since Jan. 3rd. He will be here until the 6th then he has to go back to ft. Bragg for a few days and will come back home from the 8-14th. I cannot explain what a great surprise and blessing it is to have him here for awhile longer. I'm not going to want to let him go again!

a good, but tiring weekend.

This past weekend I was able to get out of town and see some of my best friends and family. On Friday after work I headed down to Wingate to visit my friends from college. It was so great to see Jessica and Aarin. I had not seen Jessica in a year and I had not seen Aarin since my wedding!! It ended up being an all girls weekend and we had a blast. We watched movies, took the dogs to the lake, and ate lots of pizza! :) . Lela did so well on the trip, I was really surprised!
After Wingate I headed up to see Travis and Sara at Pfeiffer before coming home. It was so great to see them, I got to hear all of Trav's stories about being a police officer and Sara showed me the engagement pics they had done. They were so good! After visiting for awhile we went out to O'Charlies and then walked around Wal-Mart. Of course, while in Wal-Mart I couldn't resist buying Twilight! I did not leave Salisbury til almost 8 so I got home really late last night.
The bad part about all of this is that I did not get much sleep all weekend. I think the combination of stress, travelling, and lack of sleep really took a toll on me and I woke up sick this morning. I swear the people at work are going to kill me!!! I have negative hours and some one was supposed to sit with me today. I am really worried that they will not understand everything that has been going on right now and that some days I just wake up sick from the stress of it all and cannot face a stressful day at work. I feel like God has really been giving me the strength lately to stay with it, but it just keeps getting harder and harder. The job I have is so stressful, somedays I cannot even handle the thought of it. However, I cannot quit my job without having something else to move on to. I have been trying very hard to find something else, but no one has any openings right now. I am just trying to stick with it and am hoping I can find the strength to deal with the stress instead of letting it make me sick.

Prayer Request

We just found out today that my moms biopsy came back positive for breast cancer. We are not sure yet how bad it is or what the treatment will be in order to get rid of the cancer. I am not sure who all reads my blog, but if you are reading this I just ask that you please pray for my mom. She needs a lot of courage right now and also just pray that the cancer will be easily removed.

a cat filled weekend

This past weekend I agreed to cat sit for one of my friends at work. I was a little apprehensive but everything turned out okay. The two cats (Persia and Nike) came over on Friday night and stayed til Monday night. I was worried that they would not like Lela or Callie, but they all got along okay. Persia mainly stayed hidden away in the office but Nike loved roaming around with my pets. The cool thing about Nike is that I found him on my apartment stairs last summer when he was about seven weeks old. He was tiny and a handful!! Now he is HUGE and loves to cuddle. I am so glad that my friend was able to take him and give him a nice home, he really turned into a beautiful cat.



But, not the whole weekend was filled with cats. I was able to go see my mom on Saturday and we had a fun shopping trip at the Sams Club in Rocky Mount. We had a good time and I finally got the chance to buy my mom lunch after twenty three years of her always buying it!! After I got home from Rocky Mount it was still pretty early so I printed off my 30% off Old Navy coupon and went shopping for summer clothes!! I was pretty excited about the coupon I got because the money you saved went to a charity of your choice. Not only did I get a good deal, but the 50.00 I saved went to"help the feed america" program!!! How cool is that!? I was able to get new shorts, new jeans, two new tank tops, two new dresses, a new sweater, and a new summery sweat shirt for $100.00...I was shocked!



Then Sunday rolled around and I actually made it to church this week, which was AWESOME! It was kind of funny that the new series is titled LOST and that has been my favorite TV show for the past three or four years. Of course, the team at Journey always find creative ways to tie themes in with great sermon series. It was great to see most of the members from small group too, since I knew I was going to miss them on wednesday.
On my way home from Church I decided to go to Costco since I really needed to get dog food for lela. Costco really has the best quality dog food for the lowest price. (Pretty much you get the quality of Science Diet for less than half the price). However, once I got to the check out counter I realized I did not know the pin number for my new debit card!! So, I had to leave my cart of stuff and come back home THEN had to drive back to costco and pay for my stuff. Needless to say I was pretty tired after all that....so I went home and took a nap for about four hours :)

But that is enough writing for tonight.. here are some more of the pictures from this weekend.


Lela and Nike actually got along!!!
But, After the weekend was over Callie and Lela were really tired too

The travelling man

So, Jake leaves for California tonight! I am excited for him because I know he has been getting tired of the base in Mississippi so it will be a good change for him. We are just both a little nervous right now until we find out if he will have phone service out there. I really enjoy talking to him every night and it is the one thing that keeps me going in this crazy life without him. But, no fears because, as of Monday, it is only about 30days before Jake returns to NC!! YAY!

The only bad thing about this is that I do not know the exact days he will have off so I do not know what days to ask off at work. My work is so aggravating sometimes. I am afraid I am going to have to ask off for my five days vacation so I can actually SEE Jake while he is home. With our vacation hours AND sick hours combined together into one lump, it is really hard to ever take a break without going MAJORLY into the negative...(and then they dock your pay). Sometimes I feel like I might as well quit and save myself the hassle of ever being positive on PTO time again.
...here i would just like to pause for a minute and say that I really do hate my job.

But, there are some interesting and happier things going on as well. As soon as my lease is up in June/July I am going to move back to Durham with Jakes mom for awhile!! I am excited about this because I will have someone around who is missing the same guy I am missing and who can really relate to how I feel. I cannot say how depressing it is to come home and sit in this lonely apartment all night by myself. It really tends to make me cry a lot. I know this sounds disturbing, but Jake is always so happy and full of life that when he is gone the apartment is wayyy to quiet and subdued. I will miss a lot of things about Raleigh though. First of all I will miss the shopping and how close everything is to my apartment!! I will also miss the dog park that lela loves. But, after talking to Jake and my parents I am determined not to miss out on everything! I love the friends that I have started to make at the church and small group from Journey. So, if any of you guys are reading this I fully intended to make the drive up here (after all its only about 30min...or less if I speed a little)!! I have visited other places in Durham and they don't hold a candle to you guys :).... but I might have to switch over to the afternoon service since I do like to sleep in now and then. :-]
So, now that all the new news is out there I will go to bed. and OH MY. Daylight savings just kicked in so instead of 2am it is now 3am.....haha. okay then.

Quick Trip

Well, I had not seen my parents in a long time so i decided to take a quick trip down to their house. I had Tuesday and Wednesday off this week since I worked last weekend and I have to work this weekend too. So, it was a perfect opportunity to go visit the parents.
Once Lela and I got there on Monday night we pretty much just visited for a little bit then went straight to bed. Tuesday was a really cold day so we just stayed around the area and drove up to Elizabeth City and mom and I ran errands.But, today ended up being really really nice so mom and I packed up and took lela to kitty hawk! I was not totally prepared to take lela to the beach so we had to stop at Wal-Mart and I bought a 20ft lead so that she could run around and have fun without running away. Needless to say, Lela LOVED it. She was afraid of the waves, but she was not scared of the huge sea gulls and kept chasing them all over the beach.
After our beach trip mom and I drove back and I packed up my things to return to Raleigh. We got home at a decent time, but not in time to make it to small group which was sad because I look foward to that time :(
But, LOST is recording right now and lela is zonked out on the futon so it seemed like a great time to write a blog about how great it was to see mom and dad and to take lela on her first beach trip!! Here are some fun pics from the day we had.

pics from the weekend

weekend with the hubby

So this weekend I got to go see my hubby for the first time since Jan 3rd!! It was awesome that the army gave them a three day pass of base. I flew down on Friday and arrived there around 8pm and then left on Sunday at 11:00am so it was pretty busy! Jake and I had a great time though and it was just so awesome to see his face! We ended up staying in a new hotel which was awesome because i hate old gross hotels, and we even had a brand new rental car! On Friday night we just ate pizza in our hotel room and had a good time, then on Saturday we went out and explored Hattiesburg. ....Well, it was pretty tiny so there was not much exploring to do....

We ended up going to wal-mart, best buy, a circuit city close out sale, and the mall. We then went to the Hattiesburg zoo which was so small it only took us about an hour to see the whole thing. But, we ended up enjoying it because the animals that were there were a lot closer and all of the enclosures were right up at ground level.
After the zoo we headed over to the movies and ended up seeing "Friday the 13th"...ughhh. Certainly not my choice for a valentines movie but Jake really wanted to see it and he loves the movies (he owns all of them) so that is what we saw. (I actually kept my eyes closed through half of the movie because it was so gross!) Once I got over the grossness of the movie we went out to Chili's for dinner with another couple. We had a great time and I really enjoyed the other couple that we ate dinner with. (We rounded out the night by going back to the hotel and watching "The Princess Bride" and eating sunbursts...it was great! )

The next morning was not so good because I had to take Jake back to Camp Shelby. Camp Shelby is practically out in the middle of no-where mississippi and I am not surprised that Jake hardly gets phone service out there! But I was successful and did not cry until after I dropped him off at the barracks. The plane ride home would have been a lot worse except that I ran into two other army wives who had the same flights as I did! It was such a blessing from God to have support on the way home. They both felt the same lonliness after leaving their husbands behind and it was great to have company instead of flying all alone.

And well....that pretty much wraps up the weekend that I had with my awesome hubby! I will get to see him again near Easter which is about six weeks away!! :)

sick day

well, i was not feeling too well today so instead of going outside to try out the new camera I decided to stay indoors. I got a few good pictures of lela and callie.
After a good relaxing day at home I went down to Durham for book club. It was such a fun night, we had a classic Scottish meal and a friend of leigh's was good enough to come in full scottish attire to humor us book clubbers. Honestly, I probably should have stayed home since I have what i like to call "the crud" but i could not resist a night with friends and family. Our book for this month is "To Kill a Mocking Bird"...love love this book! I sense that feb. is going to be a good book club month!

As an ending note, here are the pics i took today. The clarity is alot better on this camera than on the old one.

A great day.

today I found out that I will get to go see Jake next weekend!!!! It really was a great surprise. Jakes mom called me to let me know that she had heard that the guys might have a three day pass for valentines weekend. So, I called Jake and it is true! Some of the other wives are driving down, but I get so car sick that I am going to fly. Yes, it does cost a lot to fly but i would rather fly then be sick and tired when i get to Mississippi. Plus, I have to be at work at 8am on Monday and as much as I would like to, I really don't trust the other people driving to be able to drive 14hours on sunday and get me home in time to recouperate and report to work monday morning. So...400.00 dollars later (courtesy of my lovely hubby Jake) I am flying out Friday afternoon and returning Sunday afternoon. I am so so so excited. I am also so blessed that we have been able to save so that I can go down and see him....i am so glad that God gave me this opportunity.

Even through all the hard times who can doubt the love of God when he reaches out his hand and gives you even the smallest of blessings?

The new toy :)

well, since Jake has been gone and we have a slightly bigger income for awhile I did a silly thing...
I bought a new camera!!! hehe.

Well, I am justifying the purchase by saying that my old camera was only 3 mega pixels and has been around since my senior year of high school. So, I decided to stay with the same brand since I really like my old fujifilm camera and since it has held up so well. So,I bought the new finepix camera that they have out. It is really nice, still getting used to the new buttons but the nice thing about staying with the same brand is that most of the buttons and menus are the same. The only thing I am a little dissapointed about is that it takes HD video and....my computer is too slow to upload and view the videos on.....so maybe i went a little too high tech....

:) I am excited about taking some great pictures to share in the future!

http://www.fujifilmusa.com/products/digital_cameras/s/finepix_s2000hd/features/index.html

the snow pics!

Here are the snow pics I promised! What a great day we had.

A Snowy day.

We first heard rumors of possible snow yesterday at work, and I must say i was more than a little skeptical. We have not had a good snow in years and I really thought this was just going to be another southern weatherman stretching the truth. So I was determined last night to stay up until I saw at least one snow flake. It took a long time but finally around 2am it was really snowing!!! Lela, Callie, and myself bundled up in bed and waited impatiently for morning to come. At 6:00am the alarm went off and I jumped out and looked through the window.....TONS of SNOW!!

Even though I had the day off, I couldn't stand not being the first person out in that beautiful white fluffiness. So a little after six I grabbed lela's leash and out we went into the dark morning. Lela had never seen snow so it was great to get to walk out and show it to her. Needless to say she loved it and thought that chasing the little tips of grass sticking out of the snow was the best thing ever! It was so nice to just enjoy the fresh snow and to see the world before tire tracks and footprints ruined the serenity of it all.

After this little outing we came back indoors and slept til about 10. This felt so good, but i made myself get back up so that lela could really go play!! I bundled up and even put a little blue vest on lela and we went out once more. This time we walked down the road to the end of the complex where the little fenced dog area is. Lela had such a blast running around and chasing snow balls, but after about twenty minutes i could tell she was getting cold and was tired of being outsid. But right when we were getting ready to leave a lady and her husband came up and asked if their black lab could come play with lela! Of course I said yes because lela adores other dogs and she had the best time playing. They ran and wrestled and lela got thrown down into the snow plenty of times by the bigger dog, but she was having a blast. Finally both dogs were worn out so lela and I said good bye and trekked home.

As soon as we got back inside the apartment I noticed I had snow stuck to my pants and that I tracked it all the way through my apartment...haha oh well. Lela was very worn out and tired and laid down for a nap while I made home made chicken and dumplings!! This is one of my all time favorite meals but I had never made it before. I thought it would be the perfect snow day meal and it was!! I am so happy that it turned out so well :). After the dumplings were done I settled down and watched a movie on tv. and now...as the snow slowly melts I am writing this blog wishing I had pictures to post.....well here is the thing: I took some awesome pictures of lela today but lela also chewed my usb cord for my camera. And since my computer is ancient it does not have a slot to place the memory card to upload pics!! But, no fear! I found the right cord at an online store and I should have it sometime next week. So, even though the pictures will be about a week late I will post them eventually!!

Hope you had a great snow day today!!

The news from mississippi

I am lucky enough to get to talk to Jake just about every day while he is in Mississippi for training. He has been so excited lately to do training with the helicopters, so he sent a picture from his i-phone so I could share in his excitement...well not really too excited but it was sweet to have him send the picture. We are all glad he is doing well and having a good time. I will try to keep any updates and pictures I get posted on the blog so you can all know he is doing well!

Managers Special

This weekend while I was with my mom I went to Kroger. As soon as we walked in the door they had a huge cart which said "managers special". In this cart there were tons of brightly colored daisies. While the color of the daisies are not natural I was still blown away by the flowers and had to get some (they were only $1.99!!) But, when I got them home and in the vase I was struck with the beauty of Gods creation. I am surrounded day in and day out by the wonderful things He created, but I seldom take time to enjoy them or be grateful for them. Through nature and animals God has given us more pleasure than any "managers special" could ever do. So, I hope you all are able to look around you today and find something in Gods creation to be grateful for! Here are a few of the things I found today:

The dye experience

So, as most of you know I am pretty much addicted to hair dye. However, I am trying to break my habit and decided to go with a shade that is a little closer to my natural color so that I can hopefully start to grow out the dyed hair pretty soon. I think it turned out well and I had a fun time doing it. Here are some pictures of the hair dye experience:

Lela

Our little lela has really grown up the past few weeks! She is turning into such a good little dog :)












oh how she has grown!!

The Birthday

Just wanted to make a quick post thanking everyone who did make my birthday special and not as sad as I thought it was going to be.
I had myself a nice little cry the night before my birthday, it was really the first time I have cried since Jake left and I think it just all hit me at once. But it was good to get that over and now I feel a lot better!
Jake surprised me at work yesterday by having balloons and two little teddy bears sent. I was sitting innocently at my desk when the secretary approached carrying five balloons with the bears tied at the bottom! It was too cute. Then, since it was also another persons birthday at work we decided to all go out for bbq at lunch time. It was a fun lunch and everyone on our team at work had signed a b-day card and gave it to me at lunch. What a great surprise. I also got serenaded by my mom, leigh, my dad, and jake all by voicemail!! So that gave me a good bit of laughter and smiles as I was driving home from work late that night.
Another thing which made it a lot better was that lela did not tear anything up yesterday!! I started an experiment to see if lela was grown up enough to stay out of her crate during the day and so far she has been great. The first day she tore up some styrofoam plates that I left on the counter and the next day she was pretty bad and chewed through a box that had a portable hard drive in it and ate the power cord to the device!! eek. But yesterday and today she was an angel and did nothing! I am so happy that I can leave her out to roam around the apartment while I am at work. It is much better for her to be able to stretch her legs (and watch animal planet) instead of being cooped up in her cage all day. The only annoying thing is that I have to make sure I leave nothing on the counters or on the bookshelves that she can chew up. I also have to make sure the bedroom and bathroom doors are firmly shut and I put callie up in the sun room just so there will not be a fight while I am not at home (I really don't want to come home to a dead kitty cat...that would just be baaad.)

So, over all a great day!
And I DID get a card which made me not feel like Charlie Brown!! :)

23 might be the lonliest number

As adults we don't usually put too much weight on birthdays after we reach and then surpass 21. And, I really thought I was not going to mind the fact that I am not doing anything special on my actual birthday. Well, I was wrong. The fact that I am not going to see any family or old friends face to face on my birthday is really rather depressing. I have never woken up in a house all by myself on my birthday. I have never not had a special dinner or cake with family before. And no birthday cards either...(I guess I am starting to sound like charlie brown on valentines day).Now I am celebrating my birthday this weekend with my mom who is coming and we are having cake at Leighs. But, it just feels so weird not to celebrate on the actual day! This blog could go on and on as a pity party on my behalf, but I will end it with these two rather obvious points about my life:

1. I hate growing up

&

2. Not having Jake around is really going to take some getting used to!

Patientce, Books, and Family

As this is the time for new resolutions, I am sure there are millions and millions of blogs with bloggers typing away about what their resolutions are and why they have resolved to change. So, I figured I would join the mix and let you all know the resolutions for the new year (many of which will be broken by Jan 7).

1. Watch less tv and read more books.

Yes, this sounds reasonable enough, but with hgtv and food network and LOST it can be rather hard to sit down and read.

2. Talk to friends more and keep in touch with family.

I am really really notoriously bad about calling friends and keeping in touch. To me it does not effect how much I like a friend if I do not talk to them every week or even every month. However, I think it does effect them and a lot of my friends probably think I don't care as much as I do.

3. Find a new apartment after my lease is up.

considering my neighbors are the loudest people on the planet this is a must.....lets just say I apparently have a day care and rap club living down stairs in the same apartment...and they are now yelling at their kids on the sidewalk.....lovely...I might as well move to the wal-mart toy isle.


4. Be more patient

This is a rather obvious need if you read resolution #3.


And since I do think those four resolutions are going to be very hard to keep, I will leave it at that simple even number.

The End.