Well, for those of you who don't know yet, K left early early (read: 4am) on Saturday morning for training. He's safe and sound at his training location--just bored considering the lack of internet and cable TV. I think he'll be okay, though!
It's been a productive two and a half days since he left: Meshka is much calmer now that he's not here....I wonder why? haha
K will be deploying to his designated country sometime in the next month. We appreciate your prayers for his safety and my sanity during these next seven odd months.
I hate to leave this so short, but I need to run to work and get Meshka to the groomers---all the random snow we've been having has resulted in a muddy dog that I really don't feel like bathing myself!
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Monday, March 21, 2011
Romantic Weekend, Lovely Reminders
K and I are becoming quite the Bed & Breakfast snobs. We visited our second B&B this past Friday night as a last getaway before K leaves this Friday. This time we ventured to the Atwood House Bed and Breakfast in Lincoln, NE and we loved it! It was definately different than the first one we visited on our wedding night, but still just as wonderful.
We felt like royalty from the king sized bed and leather couches to the gourmet breakfast and ornate decor. It was quite an experience. K and I have always been a fan of hot tubs, so we were very excited to have one that was in our suite--I think I may know where our next tax return will be going.
What was interesting to me was how surreal it was being there with him. We've known about this deployment since the end of October (read: a week after our wedding), but now that it's almost here, it's like it's not happening, as though I will wake up on Saturday morning and he'll be there beside me just like he is every morning.
Being with him this weekend, away from home (special thanks to my parents for watching our fur child for us) reminded me how blessed I am with each moment we have together. It was wonderful to just be together--we really didnt' do anything too exciting by adventurous standards, other than go to a spa and get a couples' massage (do it! so fun!), but our time together was a time to be cherished.
I was reading the paper the other day, and a man had submitted an editorial that talked about cherishing your spouse. What an appropriate time for that to be published. Sometimes, in the rush of our days and weeks, we forget how important our spouses are to us, what they do for us, sometimes even the romance that drew us to them in the first place.
With K leaving, that meant all the more to me, which helped me to hold to our wonderful weekend to get me through these next 7 months.
So, true to what I've been trying to do, here is my challenge to you today: Cherish your spouse. Take notice of the little things that they do for you, whether that is making a little extra coffee so you can have a cup, folding the laundry without being asked, giving you a hug after a long day. Remember those moments because life is too short to take loved ones for granted.
I am so blessed to have an amazing husband, and while I am not particularly looking forward to the end of this week, I know that we will learn and grow so much from this experience. and for that, I embrace it.
We felt like royalty from the king sized bed and leather couches to the gourmet breakfast and ornate decor. It was quite an experience. K and I have always been a fan of hot tubs, so we were very excited to have one that was in our suite--I think I may know where our next tax return will be going.
What was interesting to me was how surreal it was being there with him. We've known about this deployment since the end of October (read: a week after our wedding), but now that it's almost here, it's like it's not happening, as though I will wake up on Saturday morning and he'll be there beside me just like he is every morning.
Being with him this weekend, away from home (special thanks to my parents for watching our fur child for us) reminded me how blessed I am with each moment we have together. It was wonderful to just be together--we really didnt' do anything too exciting by adventurous standards, other than go to a spa and get a couples' massage (do it! so fun!), but our time together was a time to be cherished.
I was reading the paper the other day, and a man had submitted an editorial that talked about cherishing your spouse. What an appropriate time for that to be published. Sometimes, in the rush of our days and weeks, we forget how important our spouses are to us, what they do for us, sometimes even the romance that drew us to them in the first place.
With K leaving, that meant all the more to me, which helped me to hold to our wonderful weekend to get me through these next 7 months.
So, true to what I've been trying to do, here is my challenge to you today: Cherish your spouse. Take notice of the little things that they do for you, whether that is making a little extra coffee so you can have a cup, folding the laundry without being asked, giving you a hug after a long day. Remember those moments because life is too short to take loved ones for granted.
I am so blessed to have an amazing husband, and while I am not particularly looking forward to the end of this week, I know that we will learn and grow so much from this experience. and for that, I embrace it.
Thursday, March 17, 2011
I'm Back!
Apologies for the lack of posting recently. Between being sick, working a bunch and a naughty puppy (and a broken computer that may or may not have been caused by my fur baby) I have been quite behind on posting.
This will be a short post, but I promise that shortly I will be back into posting mode and back to the normal blogging me :)
This will be a short post, but I promise that shortly I will be back into posting mode and back to the normal blogging me :)
Friday, February 4, 2011
Little Reminders in a Puppy's Bark
In case you haven't noticed by now, I am a sucker for my fur baby. Yes, she probably is the most spoiled dog on earth and if we had the funds to do so, she'd probably be even more spoiled than she is now. However, the longer we've had her, the more lessons I've learned about myself--and have begun to discover things that will serve me well not only today, but many years into our future.
Yes, I do think too much into things, but bear with me a moment.
One of the first things I have learned because of our fur ball Meshka is selflessness. When you have a puppy, the world has to revolve around that puppy, even if you don't want it to. You have to wake up at 2am, when it's snowing and -400 degrees outside so they can do their doggie business. You have to go right home from work so they can go out instead of going straight to the gym. You have to play with them, you have to feed them, you have to make sure they're well cared for. You have to spend a lot of money on them. I didn't realize all of these things before we got a puppy, part of me is glad I didn't, because if I had known, I might have opted to wait a bit before adding to our family. However, I am glad that we did get Meshka, because it has taught me a new level of selflessness that I probably wouldn't have learned without a little nudge from a 25 pound ball of fur.
The second thing I've learned is patience. If you know me at all, this is probably my worst quality. I have no, and I mean no patience. Potty training is a good example of this. It doesn't happen overnight, and you have to be consistent. Definately not an easy thing for me....at all.
Which segues into my next point: grace. Meshka still has her occasional accidents. Sometimes it takes everything in me not to slap her silly and send her to bed with no supper (don't worry, that has never happened). But over time, and through the grace of God, I have learned to extend grace to Meshka as she learns how to be a member of our family.
I think perhaps why it is so hard for me to deal with our puppy sometimes is because she is so huge. She doesn't look like she's only 3 months old--someone today asked if she was 6 months old! I think I forget how little she truly is--and I need to take a step back and breathe for a moment before I react to some of her antics.
Meshka has really taught me a lot in the last 2 and a half months. Life is so simple for her. Perhaps I need to simplify a bit too--and learn contentment. It amazes me how she can sit in front of a window for hours, just looking at the outdoors. Or how she can flip a piece of her bone in the air and think it's the best game ever created. It makes me wonder where my contentment and sense of wonder have gone.
All of these things can be applied my own life. Things I need to work on or reflect on. Things I need to hone in on before K and I decide to grow our family with human babies. I think Meshka is God's way of preparing me for motherhood years in advance. K and I want to wait at least 3 to 4 years before starting our family, and apparently, God knew that I needed these lessons now, rather than later. And for that, I am very thankful.
Call me crazy, but I am thankful for my naughty, adorable fur baby. While I've been teaching her, she's been teaching me....now we just need to get "sit" down before she's bigger than me!
Yes, I do think too much into things, but bear with me a moment.
One of the first things I have learned because of our fur ball Meshka is selflessness. When you have a puppy, the world has to revolve around that puppy, even if you don't want it to. You have to wake up at 2am, when it's snowing and -400 degrees outside so they can do their doggie business. You have to go right home from work so they can go out instead of going straight to the gym. You have to play with them, you have to feed them, you have to make sure they're well cared for. You have to spend a lot of money on them. I didn't realize all of these things before we got a puppy, part of me is glad I didn't, because if I had known, I might have opted to wait a bit before adding to our family. However, I am glad that we did get Meshka, because it has taught me a new level of selflessness that I probably wouldn't have learned without a little nudge from a 25 pound ball of fur.
The second thing I've learned is patience. If you know me at all, this is probably my worst quality. I have no, and I mean no patience. Potty training is a good example of this. It doesn't happen overnight, and you have to be consistent. Definately not an easy thing for me....at all.
Which segues into my next point: grace. Meshka still has her occasional accidents. Sometimes it takes everything in me not to slap her silly and send her to bed with no supper (don't worry, that has never happened). But over time, and through the grace of God, I have learned to extend grace to Meshka as she learns how to be a member of our family.
I think perhaps why it is so hard for me to deal with our puppy sometimes is because she is so huge. She doesn't look like she's only 3 months old--someone today asked if she was 6 months old! I think I forget how little she truly is--and I need to take a step back and breathe for a moment before I react to some of her antics.
Meshka has really taught me a lot in the last 2 and a half months. Life is so simple for her. Perhaps I need to simplify a bit too--and learn contentment. It amazes me how she can sit in front of a window for hours, just looking at the outdoors. Or how she can flip a piece of her bone in the air and think it's the best game ever created. It makes me wonder where my contentment and sense of wonder have gone.
All of these things can be applied my own life. Things I need to work on or reflect on. Things I need to hone in on before K and I decide to grow our family with human babies. I think Meshka is God's way of preparing me for motherhood years in advance. K and I want to wait at least 3 to 4 years before starting our family, and apparently, God knew that I needed these lessons now, rather than later. And for that, I am very thankful.
Call me crazy, but I am thankful for my naughty, adorable fur baby. While I've been teaching her, she's been teaching me....now we just need to get "sit" down before she's bigger than me!
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Never too late for a Resolution
I have a confession. I am completely unorganized right now. If you know me at all, then you know that this little fact is driving me absolutely up the wall. To my left I have 3 boxes that need to be put into storage, to my front, I have wedding stuff just waiting to be filed away, to my right I have a dishwasher that needs to be unloaded and reloaded....and behind the door, I have a closet that isn't color coded. Yes, I am having a panic moment.
However, I have decided to make a resolution (and it can't be called a New Year's resolution because it's pretty much already February). I am going to focus more on being organized, but also on not sweating the small stuff--also something that is VERY hard for me.
In other news, Konstantin and I have begun to read "The Total Money Makeover" by Dave Ramsey.
My Aunt and Uncle recommended it to us as newlyweds, and we are looking forward to learning how to best use our money in a way that is beneficial to our marriage but also glorifying to the Lord. I have heard wonderful things about Dave Ramsey and I will continue to keep you updated as to what we learn from the book and ultimately what we think once we're through it.
Another resolution I have made to myself is to try to do at least one thing a day to bless my husband. You wives might be thinking "why in the world would you want to do more than you already do? Don't we already bless our husbands?"
The answer is, Yes. We already do bless our husbands, but this challenge is about taking that extra step to go above and beyond the normal. My parents always told me that marriage isn't about 50/50, it's about 100/100. My challenge to you for the next month would be to take that 100% and do 110% this month. Be proactive about blessing your spouse--even if it's something small like writing a note to leave in their lunch. I really believe that it is those small things, that little "extra" step that can make all the difference.
However, I have decided to make a resolution (and it can't be called a New Year's resolution because it's pretty much already February). I am going to focus more on being organized, but also on not sweating the small stuff--also something that is VERY hard for me.
In other news, Konstantin and I have begun to read "The Total Money Makeover" by Dave Ramsey.
Another resolution I have made to myself is to try to do at least one thing a day to bless my husband. You wives might be thinking "why in the world would you want to do more than you already do? Don't we already bless our husbands?"
The answer is, Yes. We already do bless our husbands, but this challenge is about taking that extra step to go above and beyond the normal. My parents always told me that marriage isn't about 50/50, it's about 100/100. My challenge to you for the next month would be to take that 100% and do 110% this month. Be proactive about blessing your spouse--even if it's something small like writing a note to leave in their lunch. I really believe that it is those small things, that little "extra" step that can make all the difference.
So there you have it. My 3 not so New Years resolutions. I challenge you to do the same--pick 3 things you want to really work on for the month of February. Feel free to post them in the comments section, and we can work through our resolutions together!
Friday, January 28, 2011
Our Ridiculously HUGE Puppy
This post will be short and sweet, since I'm not feeling too well and I need to head to bed....
But I just needed to share the ridiculousness that is our puppy (mind you, she's 13 weeks old)
This picture was taken 2 days after we got her:
This picture was taken last Saturday....
We live in a one bedroom apartment.....our 13 week old puppy is now 23 pounds. We are doomed. But she's cute, so it's okay
But I just needed to share the ridiculousness that is our puppy (mind you, she's 13 weeks old)
This picture was taken 2 days after we got her:
This picture was taken last Saturday....
We live in a one bedroom apartment.....our 13 week old puppy is now 23 pounds. We are doomed. But she's cute, so it's okay
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Challenging is not Equal to Impossible
Most days, I feel as though my marriage to K is the same as any typical marriage. We are normal and pretty basic from day to day....however, being a military family does have its challenges that I don't always recognize until the heat of the moment. I knew that we'd have some unique challenges with our unique situation, but I have only recently began to grasp the significance of our military life.
I am one of the first of my friends to get married, so I don't have other marriages that I can really compare my own to except for those of people in my own family. I grew up in a fairly large family of 6, where my mom worked part time as a nurse and my dad worked full time at the post office. I saw how dad would come home every night around 5pm, we'd always have dinner together, mom and dad would tuck us in at night and go to bed together around 10pm. That was my normal and that is what I thought I would have one day for my own marriage.
When I met K, I never expected the results of our relationship. I had never been exposed to the military before him and only knew it from what we read in the papers and saw on the news (meaning: deployments, war and deaths). It wasn't until I became one that I really understood what being a military wife meant. People so readily recognize our husbands as serving our country, and so often we get lost in the shuffle. A good friend of mine put it best when she called military wives the "forgotten ranks"
I have always been a planner. I like to know where my days will go, what I will be doing, how it will be done. I never saw myself marrying a military man, but then again, God's plan for our lives may not be what we expected. My favorite Bible verse is from Proverbs and says "In his heart, a man plots his course, but the Lord determines his steps" (16:9). I had my life planned, and then K happened. I laugh because our God has a sense of humor.
All of that to say that on certain days, I realize the truly unique situation our family is in. My husband does not work a 9-5 Monday through Friday job. I never know what time we can eat dinner, because some days he gets home at 6, others he doesn't get home until 9. We don't get to go to bed at the same time every night (in fact, he's been in bed for an hour and a half already). It has been an adjustment for me to switch from my old "normal" to our "normal". What I have come to realize the more and more military and non-military wives I meet is that there is no normal. Every family has its challenges and things they need to adapt to on a day to day basis. Ultimately, it is our reaction to those challenges and the ways we choose to deal with them that truly matters.
Being a military spouse, you learn to deal with a variety of things in new and unique ways. Very rarely do you actually complain about things. Don't get me wrong, we cry and get frustrated. But once we vent and have a good cry, we move on. K will be deploying late this Spring. We will be apart for his birthday (for a 2nd year), my birthday (for the 3rd year) and for our first wedding anniversary. Does that really stink? Oh yes, but you learn new and creative ways to make those moments special. Perhaps the best thing I have learned is that a day is "just a day". We celebrated K's birthday last year 3 months after the fact. My military wife friends are rubbing off on me--you just learn to be creative and flexible I guess.
I have had people tell me that they could never do what me and the thousands of other military wives do on a day to day basis. When you think about it though, most of us said the same thing before we met our husbands. We are no different from wives whose husbands come home every night. We are not superheroes. We are simply women standing behind our men, through the good times and bad. Taking our vows to a whole new level. I am, by no means, the posterchild of what a military wife should be. I still complain, I still have my fits when I find out we have to change plans again, I still have so much to learn....but the Lord has provided me with friends who are in that same place.
Our lives are challenging but with the support of friends, family and our Lord, they aren't impossible. I humbly admit that I have so much that I don't know, but my heart is open and I have a heart for other young women in similar situations. I believe that military marriages can be just as fulfilling and incredible as a civilian marriage. I want to see the divorce rate for military couples decrease. I want these couples to know that while our situation and challenges are unique, that we serve a God bigger than all of that. That our marriages can thrive rather than survive.
This may be just a simple blog, but this is my heart, and I look forward to learning and growing with you, my readers, as we tackle this journey together.
I am one of the first of my friends to get married, so I don't have other marriages that I can really compare my own to except for those of people in my own family. I grew up in a fairly large family of 6, where my mom worked part time as a nurse and my dad worked full time at the post office. I saw how dad would come home every night around 5pm, we'd always have dinner together, mom and dad would tuck us in at night and go to bed together around 10pm. That was my normal and that is what I thought I would have one day for my own marriage.
When I met K, I never expected the results of our relationship. I had never been exposed to the military before him and only knew it from what we read in the papers and saw on the news (meaning: deployments, war and deaths). It wasn't until I became one that I really understood what being a military wife meant. People so readily recognize our husbands as serving our country, and so often we get lost in the shuffle. A good friend of mine put it best when she called military wives the "forgotten ranks"
I have always been a planner. I like to know where my days will go, what I will be doing, how it will be done. I never saw myself marrying a military man, but then again, God's plan for our lives may not be what we expected. My favorite Bible verse is from Proverbs and says "In his heart, a man plots his course, but the Lord determines his steps" (16:9). I had my life planned, and then K happened. I laugh because our God has a sense of humor.
All of that to say that on certain days, I realize the truly unique situation our family is in. My husband does not work a 9-5 Monday through Friday job. I never know what time we can eat dinner, because some days he gets home at 6, others he doesn't get home until 9. We don't get to go to bed at the same time every night (in fact, he's been in bed for an hour and a half already). It has been an adjustment for me to switch from my old "normal" to our "normal". What I have come to realize the more and more military and non-military wives I meet is that there is no normal. Every family has its challenges and things they need to adapt to on a day to day basis. Ultimately, it is our reaction to those challenges and the ways we choose to deal with them that truly matters.
Being a military spouse, you learn to deal with a variety of things in new and unique ways. Very rarely do you actually complain about things. Don't get me wrong, we cry and get frustrated. But once we vent and have a good cry, we move on. K will be deploying late this Spring. We will be apart for his birthday (for a 2nd year), my birthday (for the 3rd year) and for our first wedding anniversary. Does that really stink? Oh yes, but you learn new and creative ways to make those moments special. Perhaps the best thing I have learned is that a day is "just a day". We celebrated K's birthday last year 3 months after the fact. My military wife friends are rubbing off on me--you just learn to be creative and flexible I guess.
I have had people tell me that they could never do what me and the thousands of other military wives do on a day to day basis. When you think about it though, most of us said the same thing before we met our husbands. We are no different from wives whose husbands come home every night. We are not superheroes. We are simply women standing behind our men, through the good times and bad. Taking our vows to a whole new level. I am, by no means, the posterchild of what a military wife should be. I still complain, I still have my fits when I find out we have to change plans again, I still have so much to learn....but the Lord has provided me with friends who are in that same place.
Our lives are challenging but with the support of friends, family and our Lord, they aren't impossible. I humbly admit that I have so much that I don't know, but my heart is open and I have a heart for other young women in similar situations. I believe that military marriages can be just as fulfilling and incredible as a civilian marriage. I want to see the divorce rate for military couples decrease. I want these couples to know that while our situation and challenges are unique, that we serve a God bigger than all of that. That our marriages can thrive rather than survive.
This may be just a simple blog, but this is my heart, and I look forward to learning and growing with you, my readers, as we tackle this journey together.
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