Happy July #2!

Here is my cute 4th of July wreath. It makes me happy when come home! Can't believe it is almost July!

Happy July

Happy July!  Katie and I had fun making these wreaths today.  We found it on Pinterest.  It costs around $12.00 and it took Benjamin's naptime to almost complete!  Fun! 

Celebrating Uncle John

Thanks to Claire's suggestion, I made Uncle John a t-shirt tonight.  We are celebrating his wonderful outcome.  Now to get him to wear it tomorrow at Piedmont Hospital.

Deployment Projects

So with David gone, I've been trying to do some projects around the house to keep busy. It's been pretty fun. When I was recovering from pneumonia, I started making this blanket. It took a LONG time, but I actually finished it! Turns out it looks almost identical to one Mom made back when she was near my age. Crazy?

I also found some cute paintings at Home Goods, but they were expensive, so I snapped a picture and recreated them. I'm not a great painter, but I really enjoy having things around that I made, even if the idea was borrowed from someone else.

A little more recently I finally decided to make some new pillows. I've never liked the pillows that came with my couches. In addition to being giant, identical, and slightly too well-matched to the sofas, the fabric reminded me of The Jetsons. So I made some new ones, and I love the way they turned out.

I spent a long time wandering around the fabric store, before I could find something that seemed right. Then I stumbled on the discontinued designer fabric samples. I found these two perfect patterns that went together nicely, were super cheap, and I didn't even have to cut! Cutting has always been my least favorite part of sewing.

I'm slowly making little improvements to our apartment that make it feel more like ours. I've found it's really hard to make purchases for the house--like curtains that we still dont have--without David's input.  and vote of confidence. Luckily these craftier projects are actually easier with the whole place to myself. It's nice to let fabrics and the sewing machine and paints take over for a few days without getting in anyone's way. Hope y'all like my little projects.

Happy Birthday Katie!

I thought this would be a good venue to wish Katie a very happy birthday and share some of the pictures that show why we love her so much!

Katie, I will always be envious of your mad spoon-balancing skills, but it's other gifts that I most hope to be able to learn from you. I am so glad to have you as a sister. I can't believe my very own big seester is now a rockstar mom of TWO precious boys, just don't pull any of the tricks on them that you used to use on me. I don't know about William's temperament yet, but I think my pal Benjamin would probably be as traumatized as I was if you told him he was going blind because he couldn't see the colors in the bathtub bubbles. Thank you for gracing your whole family with another year of your thoughtful heart and happy spirit. I hope this next year is one full of joy and adventure. Let the birthday extravaganza continue!

No More Hong Kong

A small comment in a meeting on Wednesday led to a curious phone call that ended up giving much more information than we were seeking. The key director of recruitment and enrollment at SCAD Hong Kong put in her immediate resignation on Wednesday due to some family matters. She had only been working with SCAD for a few months, but she had to give 4 months notice at her previous job, so the plans for what she was going to do had been in motion for a long time. I met her when she visited Savannah during training, and she is incredibly sharp. However, she was also the key to the momentum that inspired my trip. Without the leadership in place, sending me over doesn't make much sense anymore, so at four o'clock today I got the call that the trip is off. I--or someone else--may go later in the year, but not soon. Crazy, no?

So now what? I had every hour between now and Monday carefully planned to allow time to get through my mountain of tasks and preparations. Now I don't really know what to do with myself!

As my good friend Christy Miller taught me (Katie and Melissa will understand): God is weird and we are tweaked. I feel like this whole experience has been a really sweet gesture from God. I really needed something to propel me and keep my mind off of these long months away from David, which has been accomplished. I needed to know that I was capable of doing all the things that come along with international travel alone--packing, planning, booking a trip, calling credit card companies, etc. I've now seen that I can manage it. On the other hand, over the last week or two it's become increasingly apparent how unorganized this trip was going to be. The travel arrangements were in place, but my day-to-day experience of being in Hong Kong was still, and would remain, a mystery until I was living it. Needless to say, I was struggling with not being able to control the entire situation. Now it seems so clear that this was God's plan all along. The trip has served its purpose for me, and it didn't matter that so many details were scattered. I'm certainly disappointed that I don't get to go. I love to travel, and it's been a long time since I've made a big trip, so I was thrilled to have this opportunity. But to be honest, my relief outweighs my disappointment.

It's been a particularly difficult few days. Whenever someone is killed near David, the Internet goes offline there to keep the information from leaking, so I am painfully aware when the fighting is bad. The last few days have been like that, and I expect that to be much more common now that it's spring--the peak fighting season. David and I have been blessed to have a fairly cushy deployment experience, as far as these things go, but it has been infinitely more difficult than I could have imagined. I think we will look back on it as a deeply rewarding experience, but the continued prayers and support will be greatly appreciated!

I just wanted to share the news that my trip is cancelled, and give a little update. It's been too long since there have been posts to this blog! I got a special request from David for more pictures of the kiddos. He misses everyone, and he has said many times how much he wishes he could have been around last weekend to extend his congratulations to everyone and meet those boys (and play with Vale).

Dali!

It's "M" week at Vale's school. Ms. Stacey gave them mustaches yesterday. Vale is channeling her inner Salvador Dali.

Bunco Cheese Board

Thought you might like to see these pictures from my "Bunco" style cheese board.  They are not great but it gives you an idea.  It was fun that John and I worked together as a team on this project.  The girls really enjoyed it.  Melissa, thanks for the idea.  Pinterest, thanks for the pictures!

I spoke too soon

You know how I said 1000 times one or twice over Christmas that the last thing I needed was a dog?

Look who showed up on our porch this morning - hungry, tired, scared, and as cute as can be.  We've named him Ernest. As in Ernest Hemmingway.

Thankfully, we have sweet neighbors who loaned us a collar, leads, and a crate for the night.  And, one of my friends wants him and is okay with giving him back if his owners show up.

He's the sweetest dog we've ever met - he loves, and I mean, loves, Vale and let her hold him pretty much all day without trying to get away from her.  We wish we could keep him, but we know it's a truly bad idea.  Giving him up tomorrow, however, will not be fun.

And a Video

Climbing Dome!

We* worked hard this morning to put the dome together!  I'm not sure which was more difficult - tightening a ba-jillion bolts or keeping the kids off of it until it was good and secure.  We were so thankful for the gorgeous day. We spent about five hours building the dome and playing on it.  The Brooks even came down to join us for about an hour.  It's certainly going to be a fun neighborhood attraction!

It didn't take her long to get the hang of it. Ha ha.

Even Beck tried his hand at climbing with a little help from Daddy.

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, Happy & Pops!! What a wonderful Christmas present to both them and me.  You've given my furniture and cabinets another 10 years of life.

I'll post a video a bit later today.

*And by "we," I really mean Thomas. I helped a tiny bit.

Some Christmas Eve Pictures

These are pretty much the only pictures I took all weekend. If anyone else got some good ones, do share!

Tuscaloosa Gala

I told a few of you about the Gala we attended in Tuscaloosa the week before Christmas to celebrate the opening of a new Federal Court House. Here's a picture of us all dolled up!  We were definitely in the youngest 1/10 of the 300 people there, and we got lots of sweet comments about and sideways-glances at my huge tummy.  Definitely the only pregnant girl there. 

As I was getting ready, I had a bit of deja vu.  The first Chi O party I took Thomas to was in Tuscaloosa in December - 11 years ago!  We both look back on that night with fondness and a realization that it was the day we fell in love.  The sparks were definitely flying even though it took us about two more months to become an item.

I believe he wore the same tux with a different tie.  I, however, would not be able to fit in the dress I wore...for obviously reasons :) 

Oh, how much has changed in 11 years!  One thing's for sure - I love the man I get to get dressed up with more and more as the days go by.  I'm so thankful for our history, and I am giddy about our future!

Another Update from Afghanistan

Update from David:

It is starting to get colder and feel more like northern Afghanistan should, I guess. I'm still doing very well. We have received many care packages from people we don't know. In them there were many letters that people across the country wrote to deployed soldiers. I found one from a 3rd grade class at Mountain View Elementary School in Marietta and have started correspondence with those kids. I have a pen pal (I guess multiple pen pals)! It's pretty neat to see people close to home reaching out to those of us over here. I also have been receiving care packages and letters of my own, which I am very thankful for. I want to say a special thanks to the Bishops for their kind letter and my parent's Sunday school class for a care package. Thank you all for the continued thoughts and prayers for Claire and myself. It's hard to believe that I've already been gone for almost a month. Time seems to be going by pretty fast here so far. I hope everyone is doing well back at home and has a wonderful Christmas season! Merry Christmas.

And here are some pictures he sent for the blog:

These are the planes they fly (when weather permits). It sounds like they're going to be able to fly today. I imagine that the wings end just outside of the frame of the picture, but it's a lot more fun to imagine that they go on a lot farther.

David's Pictures

Here are a couple of pictures that I took a couple days ago.

We are living in tents like these. There is a mountain range that is quite a view when it's not foggy. There is even some grass (no trees that I've seen) growing from the snow melt. They have us living 10 men to a tent, so it's kind of tight quarters - pardon my mess. Things are continuing to go well out here. It is real foggy in the mornings and it usually has been clearing up in the afternoons. We also got about 15 care packages for our soldiers and contractors from an organization. That was very generous of them. It had one entire box full of letters and cards to the troops. I noticed that some of them came from Atlanta which was pretty cool. I think I'm going to respond back to one letter in particular that came from a 3rd grade class at Mountain View Elementary School. I didn't recognize any of the writers, but it was really nice to see people close to home taking the time to write over here.

I hope everyone is doing well and that you have a wonderful week!

Thanksgiving and More...

We had a great Thanksgiving although we missed being with all of you. Seung Hwan was off all week and Benjamin and I got spoiled. Tomorrow will be a hard day. We had the Boney's for the first part of the week - which was so fun... but we did not get any pictures, and Claire for the 2nd half. We had so much fun with Claire. We ate too much, visited Aunt Marty and Reid and Kim and family, went to the mall, decorated for Christmas, and played and played. Here are a couple of pictures...





Alice went to Claire almost as soon as she walked into the door.



This Santa sings like Alan Jackson... Benjamin was amazed.

And because I am so behind in blogging... here are a couple of pictures of the little monkey...

Arrived in Afghanistan

Hello Everyone! I don't have any cool pictures to post yet (I need to eventually since the mountains here are beautiful and covered in snow - it's just real foggy and they're hard to see at times), but I wanted to let everyone know that I got over here safely. After many long hours of travelling, I eventually made it into Afghanistan and to my unit. It has been snowing and freezing cold out since pretty much my arrival to camp marmal. I think I'm finally getting accustomed to this time zone, which is 9 1/2 hours ahead of Eastern time. They have us living in tents, so I've got a bunk bed and about 10 square feet to myself cordoned off by a couple of hanging blankets. The food has been much better than I expected, and the German food in particular has been pretty good - a nice break from the run of the mill American food. They do serve a variety of different dishes, which is nice, and I was even able to celebrate Thanksgiving with all the trimmings.

I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving back in the states. I wish I could have been there with everyone. Also, thank you for all of the prayers for Claire and myself. They are greatly appreciated.

Vale's Thanksgiving Play

Check out our little Indian.

Halloween Video

Thought you might like to see a snippet of our Halloween in motion.  Check out how small Beck's outfit really is and how fast that Buzz can move to get some candy...

Up next, some videos from Beck's last dance creative movement class.  Nothing super exciting, but cute nonetheless.

Oh, and there's a certain little monkey that we're all dying to see pictures of.

Heritage Tour

Last weekend as part of our trip to Doug Starr's daughter's wedding in Lexington, NC, we made 4 side trips.  They were to Regi;s, Miriam's, dad's and my homeplaces.  It was a very special trip.  These are a few of the pictures that we took.  Hope that it brings back some happy memories.  I regret that Melissa, Seung Hwan, and David did not ever get to Greenville. (And David - not even to Hartwell).  Although these pictures can't capture the whole "feeling" of home, they sure did make John and I to relive some happy times.  Enjoy!