The Lily Pad

Several years ago I was priviledged to meet Medal of Honor Recipient, Lt. John Finn, USN .  I was the coordinator on an event we were having where we were honoring Medal of Honor recipients and when I called him to confirm reciept of our invitation, he informed me that he needed a secretary, or at least somebody to open his mail.  I was struck with how down to earth he was and in the same instance with the demand there was on his time.  Everyone loves a hero.  If you asked Lt. Finn about his service and his medal he would tell you that he was just doing his job.  He was a very humble man. It is on this Memorial Day that I sit back and reflect on those men and women who gave their lives "just doing their job".  It is the humilty, courage, strength, and honor of those service men and women that make me proud to be a Marine spouse.  I think of the families who have lost their loved ones, and the sacrifices they have made.  I pray that I never ...

Ever feel like you're the only one on a see-saw at the play ground?  That's how I've been feeling lately.  Not so much emotionally but more life in general.  I miss my husband every single day, but I feel like I just can't get off the ground.  Overall I'm happy and content and counting along my days down until his return. I've been so busy but I don't feel like I've gotten anything done.  Rooms are still unorganized, piles are still unsorted, clothes are still unfolded...but I barely have time to pop in on my favorite blogs and even less brain cells to leave a coherent comment! I am so excited about upcoming and exciting things that are happening in my life and I feel so blessed right now for the people in my life.

Oh my gosh ya'll!  Why didn't you tell me my pics were so blurry?  I have a goopy eye that doesn't look goopy but it makes my vision blurry so when I loaded these pictures last night, I just assumed that it was my goopy eye making them all blurry and fuzzy! So here are some less blurry pics...

First we have a toddler with a butterfly on her face.  I'm pretty sure she would wear make-up like this daily if I let her.  Butterflies in the floral arrangement for Granny.  She loved butterflies, and I know she loved this arrangment.  sillines  Rolled jeans and red chucks.  Doesn't get any cuter!  A new hat?  This is how I found her after running in the house, she'd grabbed her skirt (an extra one) and put it over her head.  Obviously the roses did fabulously during our trip.  I counted 75 blooms.  I'm blaming exhaustion and a long day at LINKS but tonight I bought Madelyn a fish tank...complete with fancy goldfish, 4 neons, and a frog (duh).  This is our very round, very blurry (apparently) fancy goldfish. But I'm thrilled that the pizza box in is focus.  Deployment cooking at it's best.

I've been hiding in frump for way too long now.  As in 2 years too long.  Today I was digging through the drawer for a sports bra and realized all the frumpy stuff in THAT drawer!  Who has frumpy underthings?  What does that say about a person that even their underwear drawer is frumpy?  No, really.  I have a strapless bra that is being held together with a safety pin.  Yeah.  I think it's time for that to go to the dump. I am once again on a journey to lose weight and become healthier.  My thighs are screaming about it already after doing 3 miles of lunges up hill.  OK, maybe it was barely a fraction of a mile, but it was uphill!  So in order to help keep me motivated, I'm gonna take the frump to the dump and forbid myself to wear any "comfy" clothes outside of the house.  Unless I'm just going to Denise's cause her house doesn't count as the public.  I'm not even going to let my workout clothes be too frumpy dumpy beca...

Even though we are in town for a very sad reason, that's no reason not to get out and have a good time. We have made the best of our visit and on Monday we joined my lovely sister in law for lunch and exploration at the health adventure. Lunch was noodles at The Noodle Shop in down town and Madelyn used chop sticks for the very first time! To say that I am constantly amazed at her ability to learn and to try new things is an understatement. She did better with chopsticks at 2 years old than I did at 20! She never gave up or used a fork, although she did allow me to "telp" her when she started getting tired.

Hey ya'll!  I know I've been laying low in the blog world for a while now.  It's not that I'm not interested in your lives or in telling you about mine, it's just that if something requires more than 3 brain cells for me to read...I just can't spare them. I have so much I want to say, so much I want to write, but the words just aren't there.  I miss Chris, I miss Granny, I miss being able to express what I feel.  So much has happened in the past couple of weeks, I just don't know where to begin, or how to start without acknowledging what has happened. We recently lost a Marine in our unit.  It wasn't during a deployment, but a car accident here in the states.  I can't decide if that makes it more tragic or not.  Somehow it seems like they should be safe here, it's in the war zone where they are in danger, not on the drive home from work.  It's just another reminder of how life can change in an instant.  If you like, you can go read...