Happy Monday!

We watched episodes of Modern Family on the laptop and kept up the fort for a few days longer than planned. These were taken a few weeks ago, but I am foreseeing lots of fort-nights in the months to come, with the darkness and all. A perfect way to bundle up for the long Winter ahead of us and make the most of being indoors. By that time I am suspecting our fort making skills will be excellent

Well technically, to some of you, I didn’t. But as long as it’s the 17th here, it’s still my birthday. And I’m still milking it. (and also being the nerd that I am, was rushing to make this post before midnight so that it still counts)

Today was all in all, amazing. I am quite surprised that I didn’t crack and shed some tears over the fact that I’m in my mid twenties. I just simply enjoyed it. Got treated to a manicure by one of my besties here in Alaska, then came home to my sweet and selfless husband who is still recovering from his post wisdom teeth surgery and in a good amount of pain, who was determined to make sure my birthday was a memorable one. We went to a relaxing dinner, I got spoiled with some presents (a new lens that was used to take the pictures above and some home decor goodies) and came home to set up our new things. A great day indeed. I am thankful for my 25 years of life, my wonderful husband, the amazing friends I’ve made in our new state of residency, and most importantly, my God, who gave me life and well, everything.

So yes, today I turned 25.
But I still don’t look a day over Sixteen

This is the fourth birthday we’ve spent together. 2008, we went to the aquarium and he asked me to be his girlfriend. 2009, we had a picnic in the park (and were newlyweds). 2010, we went to Disneyland. 2011, we are in a whole different place and so much has changed. When I look back on all the birthdays, each one brought back wonderful memories and feelings. But on his birthday today, all I can think of is one word: Thankful.

Today I keep thinking about how thankful I am for him. Jimmy has done so much for me and us this past year. Well, ever since I’ve known him, actually. This year however, has been one of the harder ones. I am thankful for a husband that stood by me (and put up with me) during the months we spent apart. I am thankful for a husband who has a passion to serve our country and does so with pride. I am thankful for a husband who takes care of me and provides us with shelter and food. Aside from the obvious reasons, I can think of a ton of little reasons. And after all, it’s the little things that matter, right?

So because I know he’ll get around to reading this sometime…

Thank you for everything. For being you, for loving me, helping me see things clearly in a cloud of anxiety, never forgetting to kiss me before you leave for work, being the God-fearing man that you are, your kindness and not just towards me, your integrity (which makes you an amazing Airman), your selflessness, excitement over the little things, and so much more. Happy birthday to the best man I know. You are so wonderful, and I love you with all my heart.

As soon as Jimmy left for BMT, my sis-in-law had been saying that she wanted to take photos of us with him in uniform. So when we were home on leave before we moved to Alaska, we were pretty busy. So busy that we almost didn’t get to…but the day before we left, after we had gotten packing and errands done, she quickly styled and prettied me up (I can’t take credit for how awesome my hair looks) and we went out right before sunset and there you have it. When I arrived back to California a couple days ago, she gave me the images and I’m in love with how they came out. They are so accurate to mine and Jimmy’s personalities and how we act together, which is my favorite part. So a big thank you to Jhen! Enjoy

I’m having so much fun here, but these photos are definitely making me miss my husband like no other.

Today I’m off to have lunch with my mother-in-law, and then have dinner and karaoke with my best friend and a couple girls for her birthday Have a happy Wednesday!

What started out as an unintentional hiatus from the blogging world slowly became intentional. Both mine and Jimmy’s worlds were turned upside down as soon as I came back home. But before I make it sound like I’m throwing us a pity party, I’ll share a little bit of our trip with you all. I took way too many photos to post in one entry so you’ll be seeing some more in the future…

As soon as I got there, he wanted to run a couple errands around the base so I tagged along while he did that, then we had dinner, and back to the hotel to relax. We took a million and a half pictures

We went on walks almost every day and talked for hours,

I DID get a little bored when he had to work…

(only posting this because seeing our toothbrushes together again makes me VERY happy)

And on one of my last days there we sat outside on a picnic bench and enjoyed Swedish fish and coffee, and mainly talked about the week and how great it was to be together again, even if just for a week.

He always has food in his mouth when I take pictures of him.

I think I beat my record on most pictures posted in an entry. Sorry, but I had to!

The trip out there was simply, amazing. There are no other words. We were like newlyweds all over again. When I first pulled up in the backseat of the cab and saw him standing outside waiting for me, I began to feel nervous, weak in the knees at the sight of him, and those fluttery feelings in my tummy that are all too familiar came back, full force. I’m so glad that I lugged around my camera because looking through the photos of us has helped me deal with the pain of going back home without him.

Getting back into the swing of things when we said goodbye was much harder than we thought it would be. We knew saying goodbye would be difficult, but neither of us were expecting it to be THIS difficult, since we had done it before. I found myself not wanting to get out of bed every single morning and asking God if I could just sleep and hibernate until he comes home. Meanwhile, Jimmy was getting more and more responsibilities thrown on him and his 8 hour work days slowly turned into 12, then 16 and so on. With both of us being overwhelmed at how quickly things changed and the sadness of having to be apart yet again, things got really, well…painful. But after some long talks and tears, we are both slowly starting to feel better and trying to make the best of our situation.

We also got some news a few days ago that was hard for us to swallow. The Air Force base in Alaska that we were assigned to go to pretty much got tired of waiting and without sparing you all the boring technical details, told us that we will not be sent there after all. So Alaska will no longer be our home for the next few years. Since February we had been dreaming of what our lives would be like there, so yes…that was indeed sad news. But, we are picking ourselves back up, detaching ourselves from Alaska, and in the midst of all this confusion and uncertainty, trusting that God will put us where we are needed and that there is a reason for all of this.

So maybe you didn’t see this post going in that direction. I hope it wasn’t too Debbie Downer-ish. But really, we’re doing okay now! We were left with amazing memories to hold us over a little bit longer until he returns home for good. And who knows where we will end up? But that is something else for us to look forward to…a whole new life, in a whole new place and a whole new adventure to look forward to! Here’s to knowing what we signed up for, tackling the many more curveballs that will get thrown at us and handling them with grace, and to growing as a Military family. And don’t worry, I’ll be keeping you posted whenever we find anything out

We are reunited! For now. To clarify, no, he is not home. But when we found out last Wednesday that he won’t be home for another few weeks we decided, why should we wait longer? Whats stopping me from visiting him? And the rest is history. I hopped on a plane to Virginia on Friday and have been here since, and we are having such an amazing time together! Please excuse the cheesiness of my next statement, but being together again makes me wonder how in the world I was able to get through these months without him. I feel different now. More cheerful, happier, basically any positive word that you can think of. Thats how I feel. And not only that, but…I just feel whole again. My heart is so full and although we’ve been waiting on pins and needles every day and each day getting no news on when he can come home and when we are moving, the fact that we are together again is something to be excited about, even if it’s just for a short while. Anyway, I’m still here. In light of the news that hit the world this weekend, we decided to extend my stay to avoid the craziness of the airports. Which I don’t mind doing at all! So while this is just a post to explain, I will be absent for a little bit longer. But I’ll be back soon with so many pictures and things to share!

But as much as I want to post the rest of the photos I took over the weekend, it’ll have to wait for now. I’ve had only two full days back at home but we will be leaving tomorrow on a road trip again but this time, to the bay area to visit family! I should have more photos up sometime early next week. I want to thank you all for your encouragement and support during this time we were apart. You are all so wonderful and your sweet comments mean the world to me!

Be back soon…again!

For this week I decided to go ahead and post a pic of me and my husband. Yes, I’m THAT girl. But hey, we don’t have any babies yet and seeing as how I haven’t seen Jimmy in over a month, I’m a tad bit more emotional and feeling more nostalgic than usual.

I’m in love with this photo because it describes us so well. When Jimmy and I first started dating and even when we were first married, I thought his excessive video game playing was cute. Months later, when I would wake up at 5am and see him sitting at the edge of our bed with his eyes glued to COD or Halo? Well let’s just say that combined with my grumpiness when people wake me up…it ain’t so cute. But after so long of it, I decided to stop whining, accept it, and even find my own things to do right next to him on the floor (and make a little photo session out of it, hehe) I am missing this man so much that I would give anything to have him here sitting on the floor right now playing his video games! It’s funny how you can miss and love the things that used to drive you crazy about someone once you’re away from them for too long. I guess absence really does make the heart grow fonder

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edit: I also want to thank you all for the lovely comments on my last post. They were all so encouraging to read and definitely made me feel like I could relate to you all

Officially TWO MORE WEEKS til I get to see my husband again! Yup, thats right. Jimmy graduates basic training in two weeks! Granted, I just get the weekend with him and on Monday he’s off to Tech School for I don’t know how long yet, but I’ll cross that bridge when I get there. For now, I will simply anticipate and look forward to watching him graduate!!! I already know I’m going to cry, that’s a given. But gosh, two more weeks. I. Cannot. Wait. This time has been so challenging, but so great at the same time. I feel like I’m learning a lot about myself and learning what it is to be a Godly wife to my husband. There has been some seriously hard times lately when all I’ve wanted was Jimmy here to comfort me, but I’m learning to cry out to God and wow…It’s a convicting and also amazing thing to realize how little I’ve been doing that. I got too comfortable, one could say. Comfortable with lacking on prayer and spending time with Him. It’s also been so encouraging to read his letters and see that he’s been feeling the same conviction and desire to be a Godly husband. God is so good.

Anyway, nothing really special…in an attempt to get out of this funk, I took my camera out yesterday and snapped some self portraits. I know, you see photos of my face on this blog enough as it is. But most of my portraits are “outfit shots” so I figured I’d play around and shoot some headshots. I also wanted to document my decent hair day, to be honest.

When people find out that I’m 24 years old, a lot of the time their reaction is shock. I often hear, “I thought you were 15!” (It varies between 15-18. Once I got 10 though, that was cool.) Like every single female in this world, I struggle with my looks. I wish my teeth were straighter. I wish I had freckles. I wish my skin didn’t have so much pink in it. You know, little things like that. But what I’ve always wished more than anything is to look my age. Yes, I’ve heard a million times that I should treasure my youthful looks, because when I’m 40, I’ll look 20 and blah blah blah. That may or may not be true, but it doesn’t change the fact that I still wish I looked more womanly. Older. Just more grown up. But this year I am challenged to embrace and love my 15-year old looking face (and body, as I happen to be quite petite). My husband does a great job at making me feel beautiful and yes, dare I say it, sexy. With him gone, my confidence took a bit of a downward spiral in the looks department. But, another thing I’m learning is to find my beauty as a woman of God and to not only depend on Jimmy to make me feel confident and beautiful. Of course, I’m not completely there but I can say that the last few times I’ve looked in the mirror, I’ve felt good. Pretty. and happy. And it just so happened that I got a letter from Jimmy this week explaining how much he loves looking at my picture, how beautiful he thinks I am, and how he recieves several “Good job”’s from his friends in basic on having in his words, “A smokin’ wife”. I won’t lie, that’s flattering. But more importantly, just knowing and being affirmed by my husband that he is very much attracted to me means so much to me, especially during a time when I was down and didn’t even mention it to him. It’s looking like this 8 week separation for us has done quite some good. And that, in my opinion, is totally a God thing.