Day 8 - A Picture That Makes Me Smile....

Meet Kelsi.

This is John's baby.  Before we ever got our first house, John was determined to have a dog of his own.  I agreed to go look with him, thinking we'd start our dog search.  We're not much into purebreds, we'd much rather adopt, so we began our search at the humane society.  There she stood, "dog of the week", in the kennel right strategically placed between the truck and the main office.  John was hooked, no other dog could turn his head.

When they told John of Kelsi's story, he was sold, hook, line and sinker.  Kel had been adopted form the same humane society previously.  She had been adopted by a military family, who after receiving orders, chose to abandon her.  She had been abandon in the Beaufort/Hilton Head area, but was found wandering around infested with heart worms, with some battle scars, in Kentucky.  Her microchip was what linked her to the humane society and got her back to SC.  After months of love and patience, Kelsi has proven to be an amazing and loving friend. 

This picture makes me giggle.  :o)  We were at an air show where Huey rides were being sold to benefit a veteran's organization.  I was so excited, John on the other hand wasn't sure.  Because we had no children with us, we were seated in the gunner's seats on the side.  As we went up, I started snapping pictures, hanging my feet over the edge, and pointing out all the different buildings and trees.  When I finally turned to John, the terror and motion sickness were clearly on his face.  Poor guy was a trooper, he at least gave the Huey a try.  I'm sure next time, I'll be going it alone. 

Day 7 - My Most Treasured Item....

On the day before my wedding, I recieved one of my most treasured possesions.  As a child I used to sneak into the bedroom just to play with them.  I loved to put them on and watch them sparkle in the sunlight.  I never understood the love or meaning behind them, until I grew older. 

These are my Nana's wedding rings.  I cried when she handed them to me.  Sadly, I'm allergic to yellow gold, so I can only wear them for short periods of time, because they cause my hands to swell.  Just having is enough for me, I plan to one day tell the story of an amazing and loving woman, as I hand them down to my daughter.

  When John & I were preparing to get married, we chose to wait to purchase actual wedding rings and chose to use another pair instead.  On the way home from Iraq, John's unit made a pitstop in Ireland.  While there, John picked up a beautiful pair of claddaghs, one for each of us. 

Each piece of the claddagh has a meaning.  The hands of the ring are shown holding the heart and the hands denote friendship and togetherness, the heart itself signifies love and the crown in the claddagh ring stands for loyalty.  Each of these is a cornerstone of a relationship.  Although, we've since then purchased wedding rings, my claddagh has never left my hand. 

Last but not least, this is my wedding set.  John and I picked it out together around the time of our second anniversary.  We had chose to wait to get them, because we couldn't see picking out a wedding set, charging it to a credit card, and then having to work to pay it off throughout our first years of marriage.  We chose instead to get our home settled, get finacially established, and then go together to get our rings.  I suppose, in the opinion of most, we did it a bit backwards......oh well.

Day 6 - A Person I'd Like To Trade Place With For A Day....

It took me awhile to decide, hence the missed days, but I finally came up with someone.  Not a specific someone necessarily, but someone I'd love to trade places with for even a hour, a day, preferably a week even.

Yes, I realize there are two people here, you just have to look closely.  The one thing that recruiting duty has taken from me, that I miss terribly, is alone time with my husband.  Time to shut the phone off and just be.  Time to not have to worry about someone calling for information or to back out at the last minute.  Time to be us. 

I'm so ready for a vacation or even just a weekend alone, just the two of us.  I can't tell you what I'd give to just be alone, with my husband, with no interruptions.  Where better than on the side of a beautiful lake with a gorgeous view, taking it in with the person I love the most.  When recruiting duty is over, I fully intend to have a month long vacation planned and waiting.    I just haven't narrowed it down yet; a cruise, a long drive to an unknown location, or even just a taking a month to just visit with friends and family??

Day 5 - My Favorite Memory...

I'm really having a hard time choosing just one, so once again, I'm going to narrow it down to just a couple.  It's cheating, I know, but it's my blog and I do what I want.  :o) 

This was a picture we had made on our first date.  John later added the words around the edge while he was on deployment and e-mailed me a copy to make me smile.  Further into that same deployment I got a package delivered to me, that contained this:

This is, I'm positive, is what made Nana fall head over heels in love with John.  She had me taking this blanket everywhere to show off to everyone (not that I didn't want to, but she insisted upon it.)  Another of my favorite memories would be coming home from a long day at work to find things like these waiting on me:

This lovely little Marine Corps bear has a voice box complete with John's voice.  :o)

I truly got lucky when I found John........correction, when John found me.  The boy had been after me forever and I just kept turning him down, but eventually, I gave in.  I don't know who fell harder for him though; me or Nana.  She was terrified that I was going to let him go.  She absolutely adored him and he adored her as well.  She actually went out and had a shirt made for him that read "Nana loves me most".  They two of them together were absolutely hilarious.  I suppose that's another story for another night though.  Good night, world.  Tomorrow is fast approaching and I'd like to squeeze in a few hours of sleep.



Day 4 - A Picture of My Night......

Seeing as I'm a day behind, I have some catching up to do.  My night like most every Friday night revolved me being at work, slaving away in the big blue box. 

My lovely husband had a hand in locking me in this cage.  Great guy, huh?

Don't get me wrong, I love my job.....most days; but you know those days, were no matter how hard you try, productivity just seems to be beyond possible??  It was one of those days.  Every customer had an issue, every employeee wanted to call in sick, and to be honest, I wanted to crawl behind a tv, hide from it all, and just sleep.

My co-workers, do have to be some of the greatest people; that's one thing, I've never found to be lacking in the box of blue.  From swapping stories to going out of their way to brighten a day, they are generally amazing people.

Honestly, my job isn't bad.  I could be flipping burgers, scrubbing toilets, or worse.  Instead, I work in a generally positive, air conditioned atmosphere, with some very geniune people, and with a pretty nice employee discount to boot.   

A Special Happy Birthday To...

Me Me's little man, Triston Jared.

I can still remember you being so tiny, all the things I learned about babies, I learned from you.   You taught me the pleasure of cleaning baby poo out of a jacuzzi, that a little boy so small can manage a very powerful stream when left without a diaper, and that some one so small can truly change your outlook on the world. 

I'll never forget waking up in the middle of the night with you.  You were sick and you woke me up calling for me, as I picked you up, you threw up on us both.  I'd never had that happen before, so I did what any teenager would do, I called for my mommy, lol.  As I stood in the bathroom, holding you, while Grandma Cathy showered us off, I realized I'd love to be someone's mommy someday.  I loved the feeling of being there to comfort someone and being able to watch them grow and learn so much.

You gave John all kinds of static when he started spending time around your Me Me.  You let him know he couldn't take her away from you.  As time passed you warmed up to him, you even gave me away to him at our wedding. 

You've grown so much over the years, into such a little man.  I miss seeing you and you spending the night, you used to keep us laughing with your imaginative stories and faces.  Watching you grow up has been a pleasure.  I can't wait to see what the future holds for you, big guy! 

"My wish, for you, is that this life becomes all that you want it to,

Your dreams stay big, and your worries stay small,

You never need to carry more than you can hold,

And while you're out there getting where you're getting to,

I hope you know somebody loves you, and wants the same things too,

Yeah, this, is my wish."

Day 3 - The Cast of My Favorite Show...

This one wa actually harder to narrow down than I thought it would be, so I'm going to leave it narrowed down to 3.  :o)

"Hello, sick people and their loved ones! In the interest of saving time and avoiding a lot of boring chitchat later, I'm Doctor Gregory House; you can call me Greg. I'm one of three doctors staffing this clinic this morning. This ray of sunshine is Doctor Lisa Cuddy. Doctor Cuddy runs this whole hospital, so unfortunately she's much too busy to deal with you. I am a board certified diagnostician with a double specialty of infectious disease and nephrology. I am also the only doctor employed at this hospital who is forced to be here against his will. That is true, isn't it? But not to worry, because for most of you, this job could be done by a monkey with a bottle of Motrin. Speaking of which, if you are particularly annoying, you may see me reach for this: this is Vicodin. It's mine! You can't have any. And no, I do not have a pain management problem, I have a pain problem... but who knows? Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm too stoned to tell. So, who wants me?"

--Gregory House, M.D.

"A slap to the face is an insult — to the back of the head is a wake-up call."  -- Gibbs

 

 

 

"I suppose I should be upset, even feel violated, but I'm not. No, in fact, I think this is a friendly message, like "Hey, wanna play?" and yes, I want to play. I really, really do." --Dexter Morgan