One Third!

News:
So this week marks the one-third mark of Paul's deployment!

Yippee!!

Reflection:
It has progressed quite quickly for 4 months.  I know that God has given me strength and has kept my mind off of the time apart by staying busy with school and work.  He has brought individuals into my life that are such an encouragement and are uplifting.  I am so thankful for them, even though most of them live many states away.

There is of course the ones that don't understand whatsoever and you just feel like slapping them for whining about their spouse being at work for too long or gone for one day, but then I slowly put my hand back down but then you just laugh it off.  ;)  The other one is the pity pat - I hate that!  For your information, pity patting someone does not make the person feel better.  I know you are trying, but it isn't working.  I am not a basket case, nor have I been that way this entire deployment, so I don't know why people automatically assume deployed spouses are unstable and need to be dealt with gently.

Even though Paul and I don't communicate as much as we thought we would, we still have maintained open communication.  I am just so thankful for email and satellite phones!  I can't even imagine the couples in WWII and before trying to stay close during censored mail that was a month or more delayed.  I look up to these people so much! 

As of now, Paul and I are looking forward to RR (rest and relaxation) for two weeks sometime in the future.  We don't have dates yet but we are looking into destinations.  Paul gets flown anywhere in the world so I think we will take advantage of a free airline ticket to somewhere exotic.  He deserves it. :)

Week in Pictures

Easter Outfits

I came home to this!

Inside...

Hugs and Kisses from my hubby!

Lucy loves popcorn and sometimes it gets caught in her fur. :)

Before: I attempted to sew a "play outfit" for Lucy so she wouldn't bring so much dead grass inside with her.

 

After

She loves it (and looks so dumb)!

"Stop taking pictures and throw the ball already!"

Honesty

A few weeks ago I was back in Idaho for my sisters wedding.  While there, I was able to spend a little time with my very cute nephews.  

The oldest one says the funniest things and has quite the imagination.  I am excited to see what he grows up to be as he is quite the talented young boy. 

Anyways, we were making funny faces for the camera.  

After taking the picture he asked to see it (don't you love digital cameras?).  

His remark: "Aunt Sara looks like an Angry Bird!". 

It must be the eyebrows.

Honesty. Got to love it. 

GoodReads

I have been reading a lot lately and absolutely LOVE it! Oh how I have missed reading for fun due to the hectic school schedule. Although I am finishing up my Masters, I have found the time to read and have no regrets about late night "quiet time".

I wanted to share a website my friend shared with me.  It is called GoodReads and is amazing!  You can rate books you have read and it will generate recommendations based on your critique. There is also a section where you can give your honest opinion of the book and justify your rating.  For example, I really enjoyed Tim Tebow's "Through My Eyes", however, I am not a huge football fan so I noted there were some sections that were "dry" to me.  That is nothing against Mr. Tebows book, because obviously it was written by a football player.  What did I expect?  I therefore kept my rating 5/5 because it was inspirational.

If I still haven't convinced you of the benefits of GoodReads,  I hope the single fact that it serves as a way to catalog what you have read this year will justify it's worthiness.

Happy Reading!

Flower Power

At Utah State University (USU) while studying my undergraduate degree in Agricultural Education, I had the opportunity to take classes in floral design. Actually Paul was also able to do it too and you can see a picture of him still on my department's website.  You can see his face is just loving every minute of it. :)

I absolutely LOVE creating floral arrangements, boutonnieres, corsages, etc.  When I taught in VA I was able to teach a Floral Design course and had a blast using hands on approaches to help develop the students' potential.  I love it so much that if a teaching or extension position doesn't open in NC when Paul gets back, I may just work as a florist!

So when my sister got married last week, I was honored to create her centerpiece for the reception as well as the girls' and her bouquets.  Since she had over 50 corsages and boutonnieres I was very thankful she had a flower shop complete those because I would have been stuck in a back room all day Thursday and Friday getting those things done!

Here are the pictures! Beware I took them in the utility room of the church (AKA my workshop) and so the lighting is horrible.  I am sure the photographer got better shots so I will steal them one day...

Don't the red chords look lovely with the purple flowers? ;)

Laura's colors were eggplant, silver, and off white.  This shot makes the arrangement look bottom heavy so I am hoping the photographer got a better angle.

Top shot of Laura's bouquet.

Side shot of Laura's bouquet.

Bridesmaids bouquets.

I urge anyone wanting to learn things from floral design to photography to take a class! I never thought I would be able to accomplish or even enjoy it, but I was pleasantly surprised!  I also think the Interior Design course I took in college helped a little with colors, textures, etc so expand your horizons and have fun!

What Are You Living For?

I follow Women Living Well Ministries' blog in which the author brings little tidbits to help christian women live to their fullest. Courtney has little ideas for your own personal christian walk to quick hair ideas for busy women.

Today she posted a video that was too good not to share. I urge you to check it out.

What Are You Living For?

Christmas All Year Long!

So it hit me today.  When I came to North Dakota, I left my house all decorated for Christmas.  I did all the "long term" preparations to make sure it was okay to be left for awhile, but because life was so hectic I never took the decorations down. 

I am thinking that a quarter inch of dust is a good guess of how much will be there when I go back. 

The even better part to this story... I have a friend checking on my house multiple times a month so for her it will be Christmas all year long!