Girls Night!

On a whim I gathered 4 of my little nieces in the surrounding area for a sleepover/pizza/just dance 2 party.  It was a blast.

It started out with a cartwheel contest which eventually turned into a Just Dance 2 battle.  I ordered way too much pizza!  Who knew 4 large pizza's was too much for 4 girls and 1 woman??  Actually my niece Lilly tried to warn me, but I was like oh good we'll have some left over for breakfast.  Ummm try like 2.5 pizza's left over for breakfast tomorrow!  And that was after we shared with Irma and my dad.  Oops!  Lesson learned!

Good thing we had that dance party which was "dance-tastic" according to Erin.  After burning off all those calories they were hungry for ice cream...they sure did a good job of twisting my rubber arm!

I learned a very valuable lesson tonight about decision making with such a large group of girls.  It's difficult to please everyone!  Picking out ice cream was interesting.  We agreed that we would get vanilla and one other flavor.  Oh boy! Picking out that one other flavor just wasn't going to happen!  There's really no compromising when it's between peanut butter cup and mint'n chip...ya know what I mean? 

....that hardshell chocolate was divine.

Anyways we decided to also pick out a movie from Redbox....also an interesting experience!  I think I was able to narrow it down to about 6 options...and somehow we ended up with something half of them wanted to watch.  I'm still not really sure how that happened.  I felt sorry for the poor guy behind us waiting for 1 woman and 4 little girls to make a decision on one movie!  I wanted to turn around and be like 'hey if you think we're indecisive about this you should've seen us in front of the ice cream'.  Oh man.  It was fun though!  It's interesting to see what their taste is in different things and what they are willing or unwilling to compromise on.  I find myself trying to remain unbiased on some decisions like the movie...but then I realize that I am so unbiased that I end up picking out the movie I least wanted to watch...go figure!

Well I'm beat from spending all of Ben's hard earned cash.  It's a tough job, but somebody's gotta do it.  Good night!

Anniversary Package

So here's what my cutie pie soldier got for our 5 year anniversary:

Yes I know I have posted the t-shirt everywhere!  I can't help it...it was one of my most brilliant ideas yet!

So let's see the hobby farm magazine is so that he can come up with more crazy dreams like Emu farming, gum just because I know he loves it, granola bars because he thinks they aren't treats (but really they are definitely treats), funfetti frosting because it's fun...duh!

The easter eggs because they are bumble bee's and I'm his queen bee,  the movie RED because it's fun and Helen Mirren's nickname is hunny bunny--sound familiar? ;)

I think the front cover of the movie probably reminds Ben of me.  The deputy sheriff belt buckle for two reasons: one I call him officer Ben cuz of his cop personality, and two because I am starting a belt buckle collection for him.

Yellow peeps because he's jealous that his brother Adam has baby chicks.  Sorry hon I tried to send you real baby chicks but they didn't make it through customs...I don't know why not I filled the form out correctly.

Can you tell I love my soldier??

L.O.V.E.

Thank you Nat King Cole for a great song!

In case I sound like a romantic let me just say...I am not! In fact Melissa would probably agree with me. However when I was young (5 years ago young) and in Love I did sing this song for a beautiful girl named Melissa. I don't remember exactly when I started to sing this song to her....I do know that we were not married yet.

L is for the way you look at me...
O is for the only one I see...
V is very, very extraordinary...
E is even more than anyone that you adore and

Love is all that I can give to you
Love is more than just a game for two
Two in love can make it
Take my heart and please don't break it
Love was made for me and you!

L is for the way you look at me
O is for the only one I see
V is very, very extraordinary
E is even more than anyone that you adore

Love is all that I can give to you
Love is more than just a game for two
Two in love can make it
Take my heart and please don't break it
Love was made for me and you
Love was made for me and you
Love was made for me and you

This is embarrassing but I remember dancing with Melissa while singing this song in her parents kitchen...although it is embarrassing to tell the whole world (or at least the 18 of you who are following this blog) I am still head over heals for Melissa! Today is our 5 year anniversary! I love Melissa more and more everyday and this deployment is only making my love stronger.

Click here to listen to this song on youtube!

Somewhere in Europe, Somewhere in Iraq

That's me with the blonde hair and my head down surrounded by backpacks.  I offered to watch my friend's stuff while they went into the British Museum in London.  It was a self serving purpose though :)  It gave me a chance to fill out a postcard for a soldier I had never met serving somewhere in Iraq.

...and here's the soldier serving somewhere in Iraq, receiving the post card from a girl traveling somewhere in Europe.

*Ben is the one with the mustache.

Haha!  JK!
Ben is the one on the left of the Iraqi soldier giving the thumbs up sign.  He emailed me this picture while we were just pen pals. I was hoping he was the one doing the thumbs up, because I thought he was the cutest one in the picture.

Scroll back up to the picture of me. Notice how I'm just sitting there while the world is still going on around me?




None of those people have any idea that my whole world had recently stopped, or that my heart was broken and I was grieving the loss of all my future dreams.



What I didn't know was that my postcard was making its way into the heart of one soldier serving somewhere in Iraq. I also didn't fully realize that my dreams were taking a different course altogether. I didn't know in this picture that the Lord was guiding me into a bright sun-shiny future full of new dreams. I only hoped that He was.



Now it is almost 6 years later since those photos were taken and 5 years since I married that soldier giving the thumbs up sign. I didn't know I could love someone so much, or that it was possible for the Lord to compensate for all those tears of a broken heart...but He has.

Army Wife Boot Camp Day #3

Doggies are therapeutic!  I'm so glad Cassie enjoyed playing with the puppies.

We only had two goals today: go to the temple and mail packages.

Welp, we made it to the temple and mailed off one package!  More to follow tomorrow!

I was a little afraid to send Cass off to Boston tomorrow, but seeing her in this t-shirt re-affirmed my suspicions that she can do it! 

This is the face of a girl that eats deployments for breakfast!  Plus this t-shirt I made for her is totally awesome.  She's got this.

She even let me try on her ball gown...what a great friend! 

This has been such a fun girl's weekend, it's going to be hard to say goodbye tomorrow!  I will miss my Cassie.  We never run out of things to talk about and there just aren't enough hours in the day to catch up on everything.  Of course most of our conversations revolve around two men half way around the world, and how wonderful we think they are!  Btw that is another top security clearance military wife secret, so keep it under your hat.

Yes we are wearing pink camouflage on our toes...and we like it!  The name of this polish is booty camp, perfect way to finish off army wife bootcamp day #3.

P.S.  The polish goes great with the dress!

Army Wife Boot Camp Day #2

After staying up until 2am sharing all kinds of top security clearance military wife secrets we finally went to bed.  We started our day early with a rigorous shopping trip armed with our cell phones we were ready to tackle some muy importante package preparations!  Cassie had a lot more motivation than me, so Ben will have to wait an extra day...oops!


Cassie is laminating wallet size pictures for her husband who is serving overseas...great idea Cass!

Notice her motivation in the background?  Gotta keep our eye on the prize!

We continued with our Army Wives season 2 marathon, went to Zumba, rewarded ourselves with icecream cones (yes again!), played my new Wii game Just Dance 2...Cassie is a game hog.  Jk!

Military wife top security clearance secret #1:  Cassie gets a little sassy when dancing to Keshia!

Wow Army wife boot camp is intense!  We are exhausted!

There just aren't enough hours in 3 days to catch up with my best friend and fellow blue star wifey!

Blue Star Wives Club

It's official Cassie is now part of my blue star wives club. Of course I wouldn't wish this on any woman, but it sure is nice to have another woman around who can relate.

My favorite part of visit so far was when her husband called her while we were trying to pick out a dessert in the icecream aisle at walmart.  The look on her face was priceless.  It was kind of like an a-ha moment for me--so that's what I look like when my husband calls me!  Seriously, you would have thought she had just won lottery, she was so excited.

I immediately exited the icecream aisle of walmart so as not to intrude on their private moment alone!  I couldn't believe the other people who stuck around to purchase whatever they were there shopping for.  The nerve! :)

Btw we had just come from Zumba, so we had earned our icecream treat!

This is a picture from when Cassie came to see me just a couple days after my husband deployed 7 months ago.  Now she is visiting me again right after her husband deployed just a few days ago.