Weekend Baby Shower = Handmade Diaper Bag

The diaper bag

Inside the bag...pockets

The cool cell phone pocket

 I used a great pattern from Craft Apple. It went together beautifully and I loved it!! And the Mom-to-Be loved it too!!

I Will Thrive...Deployment Stories

This week brought excitement in the deployment process. I received not just one but two phone calls from J. I know I am blessed that we can talk through email but there is something about hearing his voice that makes things right in the world. I've been working at writing him one old fashioned letter a week to me there is something so personal about a handwritten letter. I'm also going to be sending a care package and then a Christmas package. It seems weird to be sending him Christmas presents in November but in order for him to get them I kind of have to.

My friends and family have been amazing throughout this adventure and I couldn't do it without them. They have been good about checking up on me, sending me cards, and inviting me to go do stuff. It is good to get out of the house. My good friend S has been going to church with me which makes church a little easier since I had never been without J and it is the church we got married in so there are memories there.

The Navy has messed up our pay and we are getting about a 1/4 of what we are supposed to be getting. As soon as that gets straightened out life will be good.

I have continued to follow my menu planning. Yesterday I made a very yummy beef stew and a loaf of cheese bread (with the help of my bread maker). Tonight it is chicken fried rice...yum!!

I Went Naked

I have never tried Naked drinks but I stopped to get a drink and I thought I would try it. I tried the might mango flavor it has 1 1/4 mangoes, 1/2 an orange, 1 3/4 apples, 1/3 banana, and a hint of lemon. It was wonderful. There are two servings in each bottle so it is 300 calories for the whole bottle. They have some other very yummy sounding drinks.

Fall Favs

I love fall. Here are some of favorite things...

Fall leaves...reds...oranges...yellows

Picture from Houston Baptist University

 

 

 

 Beef Stew simmering in a Crock Pot

Picture from LaaLoosh

Hot Apple Cider

Picture from FreshNest

 Warm Sweaters

Picture from Gap

Fires in the Fire Pit

Picture from Be@ Home

What are some of your favorite things?

I Will Thrive...Deployment Stories

So usually J is the go to guy for killing bugs, changing light bulbs, taking out the trash, picking up the yard from the puppies, etc. However, I don't think I can go for three years without doing those things as much as I would like to.

But I was not prepared for what I was greeted with when I went into our basement the other night. Our laundry room is in the basement...sometimes I grumble but really it is easy exercise. So I open the door to head down there, I turn on the lights, and I'm greeted by a creature. It was a very large, very nasty looking, flying thing that was on the wall as I went down the steps. Knowing that I couldn't leave it I sprayed it with spray and then used the bottle to smush it. It was gross but I did it. I'm not really that squeamish but I hate flying bugs because you don't know where they'll go.

The other night I also had to investigate a noise because there is no one else. I have an alarm system and two pit bulls so I felt pretty safe but I knew I wouldn't sleep until I checked. So in my p.j.s I along with the puppies went downstairs to check it out. Eva and Ares walked around saw everything was good and then we went back upstairs. I figure if you're dumb enough to attack me with my two pit bulls well...

I am working on getting things straight around the house. My dining room will remain a disaster for a bit because that is where I have my beading and sewing. I figure that way I can be with the dogs and work on stuff. But my bedroom is driving me crazy. We don't have a linen closet so we stack sheets on top of my dresser. But I'd like to figure out a better solution for that. We have a back room off of our bedroom that has J's dressers and it is where he got dressed in the morning but it is a bit of a disaster so I have it in my head to get that straight too. I think my bedroom would be more relaxing if I did these things. I'll let you see after pictures and maybe even before pictures if I'm feeling brave. 

Wordless Wednesday - Some of my favorite pictures

We're Tired...so very tired

Us at St. Patrick's Day...I'm Irish...we do it up right

J determined He was really in the Dog House this time

We're children of the 80s we love monster trucks

 Some of J's Favorites...keepin' it real

J laughed so hard he nearly went off the road...he had to get a picture

J made a U-Turn to get this picture...

Life is Short

J is adopted and his adoptive parents are his Mom and Dad. They raised him they were there for all his ups and downs. They are his guides in life. He has five adoptive siblings. They are his brothers and sisters. But when J was 21 he was approached by Social Services because his biological parents wanted to meet him. He debated because he really had no desire to have a relationship with his biological parents because they aren't his parents. But he learned he had two biological sisters, A and M. He wanted to know them.

He met his biological parents but the relationship was never really there because he had a Mom and a Dad and they weren't it. They got divorced when he was 23 and he lost connection with his biological father. He tried to maintain a relationship with his biological mother over the years but she wanted more than he could give her. So now he just has a relationship with his biological sisters, A and M. His biological father had a number of issues and had had a rough life which he sometimes took out on others. But A and M, more so A tried to maintain a relationship with him. It was hard but he was their father. Their mother got remarried to a wonderful man who was more of a father than a step-father. But their father was always there in the background. And although they didn't have the best relationship they always felt there was time for it to heal.

Labor Day weekend their father took his own life after a struggle with depression. It shocked everyone because he had always been larger than life and forever happy. For J he wasn't really effected other than the fact that he wanted to be there for A & M. So he and I did what we could to offer support. A has been very hard hit by this because she feels a great loss of what will never be. She can never repair that relationship.

This whole experience got me thinking...I didn't know this man...I'd never met...never even talked to him on the phone. And yet his death caused a void. I am very close with A & M. I love them like sisters. It has been hard to watch their grief, particularly A's. She and I have had many phone conversations about this. (She's in MI.) I feel for her because death is never easy to deal with but when it is so sudden it is harder still. I have long known that life is short...but this whole experience has reminded me of these truths...

• Life is short
• Do not let your last words to someone be in anger...they may really be your last words
• If you have something you want to do or say before you die...why are you waiting?
• Tell those you love that you love them regularly
• Don't sweat the small stuff
• Realize in the grand scheme...it is all small stuff
• Don't leave something unfinished
• Respect people even if you don't agree with them
• Talk to someone...people care more than you realize
• Laugh often...it is good for your abs and it helps your mental state
• Let other live they way they want to live
• Breathe...and count to 10 then speak