last night at the bakers...

Last night I did go over to Waylon and Jessica's for awhile to hang out with them...actually ended up staying later than originally intended but thats okay because it was nice and relaxing.  Also had some delicious barbeque chicken and it was so, so tempting to overindulge.  I actually probably did a bit but still not as much as I would have liked too!  Mark and Brandy were there too so it was nice to see them.  The following are just a few pics from last night (so far this month I have done pretty well about taking lots of pics again...I have tons of picture folders from April). 

Jess and I

Zoie grabbed my camera and is already decent at taking pics of herself...and I think she is only 7 or 8

and baby Aubrey, who had cereal for the first time yesterday

she is such a cutie and I think her little lopsided smile is adorable!

Jess and I went to church again today and it was so nice.  I didn't realize how much I was missing it until going back.  I love getting to see everyone and they are all incredibly curious about how Michael is doing...which is fine!  We even stayed for lunch today and spent some time visiting with everyone.  Then I took Jess home for a bit and now she is getting ready to come to my house and hang out with me for a bit...also to possibly do a little shopping preview of our garage sale!

Time to go....much love...Lis

because driving is boring...

On my way out to Laura and Shawn's last Saturday for Sasha's birthday....

Obviously I had fun playing with my camera!  Ahh, who needs to watch the road anyway. <3

I am already tired and it is not even 7pm!  I worked 4 hours today and then came home and worked on getting the garage organized and stuff set out with Mama and Becky.  Now they left about an hour or so ago and I am ready to take a nap.

I am excited because I think I might be going to buy my new camera within the next week or so.  I want it before our trip to Philadelphia in June and I want to have had some practice using it before then.  If I wasn't so tired now I would head into Springfield and go get it....maybe after church tomorrow.  Or maybe not actually, I need to keep working on getting garage sale stuff pulled out of storage.  I think I said yesterday that I had all my stuff priced, but I could still go pull more stuff out of storage for it.  This garage sale prep is hard work!

Waylon text earlier today about plans for tonight so I think I might go see what they are up too seeing as how I really should not take a nap or go to bed right now.  Plus, he said they were having bbq chicken and other yummy food...must control myself!  I don't want to stay too late though because I want to try to get to bed at a decent time and get up and exercise in the morning before church. 

That's all I got.

Lis

one down...49 to go ;^)

Today I completed the first goal on my list of 50 things to accomplish before I turn 30...now I only have 49 left!  It still sounds like so much...I guess probably because it is!  I accomplished goal #26 off of my list...Get my wedding rings soldered (realized I spelled that wrong in the original list..oops).  Well I dropped my rings off last Sunday after the baby shower and then I popped into the Icing to buy a cheap replacement ring.  The following was my temporary engagement ring while I waiting for my real one back. 

Today I got a call that my rings were ready so I went and picked it up after work.  I am so happy to have my real ring back, the cheap one I bought was pretty but it was already starting to turn my finger green. 

Again, so happy to have my beautiful Emma back and it is so pretty!  I had Helzberg redo the white gold too while they had it in the shop.  Yay!

I told Michael I bought a replacement ring and I guess he thought I meant a nicer ring because when I told him it was only $8 he asked why I didn't just buy a real ring in Helzberg.  So now I'm thinking hhhmmmmm.....I want another ring.  I actually saw one in their catalog that I want and I told Michael so and sent him the link for it.  Maybe he will buy it for me...hint, hint.  It's a birthstone ring and rubies (July birthstone) are more often paired with yellow gold than white gold so I think this one is really pretty because I would rather have white gold...not a huge fan of yellow gold. 

Speaking of jewelry, over last weekend I bought five new pairs of earrings which is not normal for me.  I bought some at Kohl's (I love their little clearance jewelry section!) and some at the Icing while I was there buying my replacement ring!  The three from Kohls were all on clearance and the two from Icing were BOGO half off, so I didn't spend anywhere near the amount that I could have! :)

After work today when I picked up my ring I grabbed some oh so delicious nuggets from Chik-Fil-A...and they were everything I expected them to be.  YUM!  I also went and mailed a package to Michael and picked up some new flat-rate boxes so I can make more packages for him!  Speaking of Michael, we know his R&R dates...yay!  Now we just have to get out tickets to Philadelphia and I am so excited to go on another trip!  Unfortunately the plane tickets are quite a bit more now than they were about a month ago when I originally priced them....guess that's just the luck of the draw! 

I spent several hours this evening pricing all of the stuff that I have pulled out for a garage sale on May 1st.  I got all of this stuff priced, but there is still so much stuff in storage I could still pull out.  I'm staring to think a garage sale might just be too much of a pain in the butt to do again...although hopefully if there is a next time we won't have a storage building full of crap to get rid of!  I'm going to be incredibly disillusioned if I don't make some money from this thing.......

Mama and Becky are doing it with me and they are coming out tomorrow afternoon to bring there stuff and set it up...luckily they are also bringing more tables because the ones I have are full!

I'm outta here, I gotta go to bed. 
Lis

Where in the world are we...

We are somewhere that we did a lot of walking around...although no where near as much as I have during other times I have been there.  When we first met up I realized that Beth and I were wearing the same shoes...just different colors.  Knowing she would be game, before we left for the day we did a cute foot shot...at least I think its really cute. ;)

One of the shops we visited while we were there has this incredible collection of cookie cutters...just about anything you could possibly want!  I love cookie cutters but I am not entirely sure why seeing as how I think making roll out cookies is too much of a pain to do very often.  I guess when I do make them though I want to be able to make them all cute and stuff!

This picture was taken while we were waiting to get on something...any idea what? 

If you guessed the train at Silver Dollar City then you are correct...yea!  Woot! Woot!  It had been a long time since I took the train at SDC and the ride has changed a little from what I remember...but not much.  Still the same old storyline about the train getting held up but there was a lot more comedy in it than I remember...even if most of it was more roll your eyes than actually laugh.  It still made you smile at least. 

While at SDC we had to go for a couple of the tried and true favorites...although one of them desperately failed to live up to its expectations.  What is a visit to SDC without some kettle corn, some salt water taffy, and a yummy, gooey, oh so incredibly delicious funnel cake!

Beth bought the kettlecorn to snack on while we were watching a harpist from Ireland.  It was really pretty and unfortunatly it was WorldFest and that is really the only show we caught.  We went down with Mama and Daddy on April 11th because we convinced them to use their bring a friend free passes for WorldFest on us.  Anyway, the kettle corn was apparently a bitter disappoinment...at least for Beth...I thought it was okay even if not fantastic.  Beth and I went in together and bought some of the salt-water taffy...just a few pieces for each of us of each kind that we wanted.  It was fun going through the bins and picking out the ones that we wanted and we had a very colorful bag by the time we were done.  I have decided I really liked the blue raspberry and the peach.  They were yummy!

I am thankful that Mama and Daddy did take us in with them because I had originally been wanting to buy season passes this year for Michael and myself, but then we found out he was deploying so I decided to forgo those for now.  If you remember though my list of 50 things to accomplish before I turn 30 then you will know that I now plan to buy 2011 season passes for Michael and I.  One thing I definitely want to do next year is go down into the cave.  It has been years since I went down!

Growing up my mom always had cookie cutters...not a ton but some.  She had four of them that went together and they were the shapes of the four different suits in a deck of cards.  I'm not sure about all of them, but I definitely remember these cookie cutters of hers being orange.  Well, when we were in the kitchen shop with all of the cookie cutters I saw these four on the wall and I grabbed them...and Beth followed suit.  Now I just need to have a party or something where I have an excuse to make cookies shaped in the four different card suits!

Overall SDC was fun and it was nice to go just the four of us.  Other than the train the only other ride we did was Lost River of the Ozarks and we all got quite soaked!  Daddy was not too thrilled about riding it in the first place, but he went along with us and we were all hoping that Mama would get drenched because she was the one that really wanted to ride it.  She did get drenched...but unfortunately so did the rest of us.  It was nice though to just wander in and out of all the shops and we didn't even come close to checking out all of the shops.  This year is the 50th Anniversary for SDC and I wanted to get a postcard that said that since this is prob my only time going this year, but surprisingly I couldn't find one anywhere...so I just bought one with the train on since this was my first time riding the train in many years.

Yesterday I went and picked up my computer after work so now while I am trying on my laptop I am working on getting norton and other things loaded back onto my other computer.  It ended up having to have the hard drive replaced so hopefully everything runs better now.  I was originally thinking about upgrading to Windows 7 instead of Vista, but I might just wait a bit longer on that.  I do need to get my recovery disks made JIC but hopefully I will not ever need them.  They recommend buying the DVRs though and it will only take about 3 as to needing tons of CDs to put them on...so I can't make my recovery disks until I go buy some DVRs. 

I also went and got groceries after work last night and by the time I got home and got everything put all away I think it was 11pm and I was not tired at all so I ended up staying awake for too long.  I guess that's really all for now.  It's about time for me to hit the hay.  I have to be at work earlier tomorrow but I only work 4 hours thankfully.  I am so definitely ready for this work week to be over with!  But I do work 4 hours on Sat too and that is sad :(

Come what may <3

Lis

baby shower...

Sunday after church I ran to Springfield for a baby shower that I was co-hosting for Nicole, a friend from work.  We had it at HuHot in the mall and it was quite good..and not too crazy expensive.  These are the cupcake baby shower invitations that I created for her shower...aren't they cute? :)

Nicole is definitely a girly girl which made the shower fun because it got to be all pink and girly. 

The invitation has a big cupcake because Nicole loves cupcakes so we went with a cupcake theme and served pretty cupcakes that Wendy had made.  This outfit that I bought her went right along with the theme with a cute little cupcake and colorful polka dots!  If I was pregnant right now I probably would have bought one for myself also because it was stinkin cute!

 

The other outfit was a whole ensemble with cute little panda bears all over it that her mom bought.  Watching her open all of the cute little baby clothes made me ready to have a baby girl...but I would be happy with a boy too whenever that time comes.

This last picture is Wendy, an eight months pregnant Nicole, and me.  Wendy and I are the ones that hosted the shower for Nicole and I thought it went over well.  Nicole received a lot of really nice gifts and loads of cute baby clothes!

That'll be all from me for now.  I need to hit the hay.  Lots of stuff I would like to get up and do in the morning so it would be great if I could not use snooze!

Lis

meanderings of my mind...

Sometimes I write...although not as much as I used too...and this is just some thoughts from last Friday.
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Who I am.......

Sometimes I wonder if I rally know who I am...what makes me, me?  Sometimes I am afraid that I am only what I think people expect me to be.  Right now I am afraid I am just a part of the person I hope to become.  Right now I am very unhappy...disillusioned you might say with myself and I am not really sure why.  I'm not sure that I am living up to my potential, whatever that might be.

I am a wife, even though it doesn't really feel like it right now.  It's kind of hard to see myself in the role as a wife when I don't have a husband here.  Don't misunderstand, I love my husband with all of my heart its just hard not to think about me, me, me while I am the only one here.  Not only am I a wife, but I am a military wife with all of the extra complications that brings with it.  I don't even know if I am a good wife, I suppose there is so much more I could do to show my husband overseas that he has my love and support.

I think one of the reasons I am feeling lost right now is because I feel like there was so much more expected out of me than what I have become.  Am I better than my current situation?  I don't absolutely love my job...does that mean its time to move on?  Why is it that I say I want to be a stay at home mom but feel like people look down on me when I tell them...why do I even care?  Why does the thought of finding a new job terrify me to the point of no action?  Now we are talking about trying for a baby coming up soon and now I feel like I am not ready.  There is so much I thought I would have done, seen, accomplished by the time I had kids and I don't feel like I have done everything that I want to do, seen everything that I want to see.  That's crazy though right...I know your life changes when you have a child, but its not like it ends.  There is so much stuff I could still do/see with a child, even if it is not within the next 3-5 years.

Am I really just lazy and unmotivated?  Is that why my house is not fully organized or decorated, even after 6 months of living here?  Is that something I can change about myself?  I never really thought I was a lazy person but I am feeling so more often recently. 

Can I honestly call myself a member of the Sonrise church family when I haven't been once since Michael left?  It was like this during his last deployment too and I thought for sure this time it would be different, seeing as how I only live 5 minutes away...but so far no.  Do I really go for myself or do I go for Michael?  He grew up going to church on Sundays...I did not.  It is something he feels the need for every Sunday but oftentimes I feel like there is other more important stuff to do.  What could possibly be more important?!  Maybe that's my issue...maybe that would solve everything.  Well, not solve it but help me cope with the way I feel about it all so I can open my heart/mind to the correct path.

So who am I...I am a military wife who just realized I do not do enough to show my husband that he has my love and support.  I am a future mom who doesn't necessarily want to stay in the work force, but is afraid to leave it.  I am a woman who needs to start caring less about what others expect from me and learn to just do what makes me happy.  I am a person who still wants to see lots and travel lots and I don't want having a child to make me feel like I have to keep two feet on the ground.  I am a nonregular church member who needs to start going back to church on a regular basis and needs to relearn (or maybe learn for the first time) how to let faith guide me.  I am so many things and so far from perfect, but I am not fatally flawed.  To quote a great line, "We have all got both light and dark inside us.  What matters is the power we chose to act on.  That's who we really are."  I want to act on the light and try to eliminate some of the dark from my life.  One dark thing that comes to mind is a grudge that I am almost ready to let go of...I need to forgive and forget.  I think all of this, along with me feeling like I am not living up to my potential were both brought about by a box pulled out of storage and a little trip down memory lane.......
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Following the inner ramblings of my mind I decided to cancel other plans for Sunday morning and I went back to church for the first time since Michael left.  I took Jess with me and it honestly felt good after not being there for so long.  They all missed me and welcomed me back with open arms, which is one of the things that is so fantastic about the people at Sonrise!!  Normally anytime I thought about going to church without Michael it made me nervous and I usually just convinced myself not to by Sunday morning.  This week I did not have any reservations at all until getting ready to walk in the building and those all vanished as soon as I walked in the door and was greeted by Ed Brock so warmly.  Ed is the pastor (but is stepping down) and he was the person who married Michael and I.  There were actually a lot of families gone that day so I didn't get to see several people but we had a guest pastor and the sermon was really good.  Overall it was a very positive experience and exactly what I needed it to be!  Jess and I are already planning on going again next week. 

Much love,
Lis

love notes version 4...and 10 reasons why...

Love I cannot wait until you come home for R&R and we get to snuggle and kiss!

Ten Reasons Why I Think My Husband Is Wonderful

1.  He makes me laugh and he laughs at my pathetic attempts to be funny

2.  He is an extrovert to my introvert so he forces me to move outside of my bubble...and nothing bad has happened yet

3.  He is financially responsible and doesn't think I am crazy for my budgeting/planning/tracking most things money related

4.  He is really supportive when I am sick and doesn't get irritated with me...because I get super whiny when I don't feel well

5.  He loves his family dearly and enjoys spending time with them, so he understands that I feel the same way about mine

6.  He agrees with me that sometimes when you are on a date or a trip, it is necessary to go all out and just enjoy it...thinking about how much it costs thoroughly destoys the enjoyment of the experience

7.  He is a very patient and easy-going person and rarely ever fly's off the handle at anyone

8.  He is a people person and he is just as comfortable hanging around his family and friends that he has known forever as he is hanging around my family and friends, or even walking into a room where he doesn't know a soul...which definitely helps to keep my anxiety level low

9.  He is going to be a fantastic father...although maybe too lenient

10.  He doesn't judge me...just pushes me to be better or do better...but still accepts me if I  choose not too

I could probably keep going because there are tons of reasons why I love this man, but we'll cap it today at ten...and people say you will never meet anyone decent in a bar.  Sheesh, what do they know!  I am so glad that we met and exchanged phone numbers almost six years ago.  Who knew that going out for drinks and dancing with the girls on a Thursday night would have such a huge and permanent impact on my life!

<3<3<3

Also so glad that I ignored my first impression...really, the man is not a fantastic dresser, but I still adore him.  I don't even want to try and imagine what my life would have been like with no Michael. :(  I really do love you baby, forever and ever, and ever.  XOXO

Now I need to get my butt off of here and go clean my filthy dirty house.  I do exaggerate some because its not that disguisting, just too much so for me to be happy.  Also, I still have lots to do to prepare for an upcoming garage sale.  Hopefully I sell lots!

Lis

who wants to dye some eggs...

Ya, I know this post is late, but oh well.  The Saturday before Easter I went over to Laura's and helped her and the kiddos dye Easter eggs.  It was fun, but I think I had more fun just playing with the kids that the actual Easter egg part.  They kind of get the hang of it, but don't really understand the need to be gentle.  We had some eggs that had quite a bit of color underneath once they were peeled because the boys would just chuck the egg into the cup and it would crack. 

This first picture here I took while on the backroads out to Laura and Shawn's house.  I came across this huge pretty green field that was just screaming "Spring is here!" at me, so what could I do but take a picture!

When I first got to Laura's and she was working on getting things set up to dye eggs I decided to try and take some pics of the kids and OMG they cooperated!  They even posed for me!  Maybe the trick is to make them do crazy stuff like lay in a row on the floor and look up at me...who knows...but they actually seemed to be having fun with it too!  Although, I am not sure what happened to Shane's smile about halfway through...it kindof turned into a snarl or something. :) 

After some picture posing Laura was ready for us to dye eggs so we all dropped the tablets in the cups and watched the colors start spreading around.  I gave one to Sasha to put in a cup and she did, then I gave her another tablet to drop in a cup and before I could get a word out she chucked it into the same cup!  Laura fished it out but it was it there long enough that we had some eggs that were kindof pink and orange.  They were actually kind of pretty!

After we had the eggs going in the cups the kids got kindof antsy just sitting there watching the cup...and I completely understand...that part is always quite boring.  Anyway, I decided to draw them back into the living room and let them use my camera.  Shane took this picture of Sasha, Cole, and I and it is really not bad at all.  Cole's picture was okay, but he chopped off part of us.  Sasha's picture had my arm in and that's about it.  She was just fascinated by the red eye light and kept pushing the button and flipping the camera over to look at it.  I was kindof afraid she was going to push too hard and make the flash go off right in her eyes, but she didn't. 

You gotta love this big cheesy grin of Sasha's.  She looked so cute that day in her pigtails!

I drug the kids outside at one point while we were waiting on eggs to try and distract them from the fact that Laura and I would not let them stir the cups while the eggs were in them.  Cole was now obsessed with my camera and I helped him take a picture of the dog, the tree, and me. 

Here is some of our finished product.  Beautiful, colorful Easter eggs...of which most got turned into Deviled Eggs the next day for out Sunday meal!

Overall it was a nice day and it was beautiful outside.  I left their house in the afternoon, and went to Beth's apartment.  We went to the mall for a while, Walmart, and then just hung out at her place for the rest of the night gabbing and watching Tv.  She also made us a yummy basil pesto pasta dish for dinner.  I stayed way too late considering everything I needed to get done the next morning before heading out to Fordland for Easter dinner and an Easter egg hunt...which I will post pics of tomorrow. 

Last weekend was also quite busy but fun.  I don't actually have any pics from last weekend until I get some from Beth.  Friday afterwork I came home and laid on a chair on the deck for about an hour enjoying the feel of the sun on my skin and then Jess came with baby Aubrey and we hung out for the rest of the night...mostly just blabbing.  Saturday I worked in the am but then Beth came over and we started working on getting my ready for a garage sale...we found lots of interesting stuff.  When Michael and I moved in together about 4.5 years ago we threw a whole bunch of stuff in storage and pulling it out now to go through it is quite interesting...especially Michael's stuff! :)  Sunday my parents took Beth and I to Silver Dollar City with them and Beth took all the pics that day too.  I am assuming she will probably be blogging them sometime soon if you want to see.  I will get them from her this weekend but I don't know if I will share them myself of not. 

That's about all for now. One thing I do want to say I have been enjoying lately is driving home from work in the evenings with the windows all down, the wind whipping through my hair, and the radio blasting.  Very uplifting!  And the last two days I have actually went and walked/jogged in the evenings...yea...GO ME!!

 Now... I need to be heading to bed since it is 11pm.  I have worked 10:30-8pm so far this week and tomorrow I work 8:30am to 12:30pm so I should prob get my butt in bed since I have to get up earlier.  I plan to be back tomorrow...but if you read my blog then you know you can't hold me to that...but I'll try. 

Lis

almost 2 weeks...

ok so we are approaching the 2 week mark since I last posted and there has been quite a bit happen since then. Main reason I haven't posted is because my computer crashed the day after my last post...yeah I was happy! I lost some pics and the last purchases from itunes I was talking about in my last post. I know Daddy...backup, backup, backup...but I really wasn't expecting my computer that was exactly 2 months old to crash! I also lost some data files, but I have already recreated those. It took me several hours, but I track all my bills and lots of stuff in spreadsheets so I had to recreate the last 2 months of data.

I took the computer into Best buy, who did a diagnostic test and determined that I had a bad hard drive, so they had to send it off to be replaced and I won't get it back for 2-4 weeks. That's just fantastic so now I am back to my laptop with lots of irritating lines running down the screen and programs that don't always run right. Tell you one thing, from now on anytime I buy music, or upload pics, or do any major data editing I am going to be doing some backup!

a good night...

Tonight after work I hung around and a coworker (Wendy)helped me work on the invitations I designed for another coworker's (Nicole) baby shower. We didn't get them completely done, but mostly and Wendy is going to finish them tomorrow. :)

On the way home from work I talked to Beth for about 40 minutes which was nice...haven't just chatted much lately. I also bribed her into coming next weekend and helping me prepare for a garage sale..well almost bribed I guess since she hasn't fully committed yet. Hint, hint Beth :)

I also went and walked/jogged outside for about 30 minutes. Fall is always my favorite season, but right now I am loving spring! It was so nice outside, although a bit windy. My house has a wide open field next too it and then some trees and I could hear the wind whistling around the trees. Only downside it the smell of the cow pasture the wind was bringing...yucky! Seriously though, I wish I could have spent this whole week outside. Going into work everyday was horrible because the weather was so incredibly nice in the morning and even in the evenings when I left it was still so nice and I could hear the birds singing in the trees! And the trees...have like went from no buds to already beautiful in less than a week! :)

Right now I am listening to some songs on itunes I downloaded last weekend and it is also making me happy. I bought a song off of the Twilight New Moon soundtrack that I really like called Possibility by Lykke Li. For some reason it reminds me of sitting in my room in high school listening to music...not entirely sure why. Also like the Michael Buble song Haven't Met You Yet, which I think Beth talked about on her blog about a month or so ago. :)

NEways, I guess that's all for now. I have to be at work at 8:30 tomorrow because we are relocating for a month while they remodel our work area. Not looking forward to it but we don't have to take appts tomorrow so that's nice! Starting next week I don't have to be at work until 10:30am for a month, which is not all that fantastic because I don't get off til 8pm, but on Fridays I only work 8:30 -12:30 which I am looking forward to! :)

That really is all that I have to say now. Going to get off of here and work on my calendar for a bit. Lots coming up soon!
Love everyone, Lis