Military Spouse Appreciation Day

Every year, the Friday before Mother's Day is designated as Military Spouse Appreciation Day.

Today is that day. This year's celebration on May 9 is a time to recognize and applaud the selfless contributions and daily sacrifices our military spouses make.

The Army life is challenging.  

I have people ask me on an almost daily basis how do it do it. There are of course some days that are harder than others.  There are many times that military spouses routinely put the welfare of their Soldier/Airman/Seaman/Marine, Family, and Nation above their own. 

This is for the husbands and wives who wake up early when their Soldier leaves for PT.

This is for the fathers and mothers who hold their children tight when they cling and cry for a parent overseas at night.

This is for the men and women who avoid the news, watch the news, or are glued to the news every day for months on end, hoping for good and not bad.

This is for the cooks who learn the gobbledygook acronyms and threaten to serve MREs if they are faced with a caselot sale on a payday at the commissary again.

This is for the lovers who touch photographs and hold back tears.

This is for the actors who put on a happy face when their soldier takes one more look over a shoulder while the transport is moving out.

This is for the comedians who crack jokes on the phone or over webcams, just to see their soldier smile thousands of miles away.

This is for the tired whose hearts break at the thought of just one more day alone, much less several more months.

This is for the strong who keep moving when all they want to do is stay under the covers curled into a ball.

This is for the "dependents" who know that a greater oxymoron was never coined, who rise to the call of independence in order to keep the house running smoothly, or to move it across the country alone.

This is for the proud, whose hearts are full to bursting as their loved one steps off that plane, that bus, that boat to stand in formation and affirm that they have served and will continue to serve their country.

This is for those who also serve, by making their own sacrifices and supporting their military loved one on the homefront, giving them assurance that all is well and that they can focus on the job at hand until it's time to come home.

~author unknown

Wedding Recap

Happy St Patty’s Day!!! Hope you all have your Green on.

I was backing up my computer and came across our wedding pictures and realized that I hadn’t written much about our wedding.

Since the crib midget is sleeping, I figured I’d take a few moments and give yea a recap.

Our main goal to our wedding was low key, no stress and we wanted friends and family to join in and have a good time, nothing over the top just relaxing and simple.

We got engaged August 15, 2013 and were married Nov 9, 2013.  Which is NOT a lot of time in the wedding world. We had time working against so we needed to plan and plan fast.  Thanks to Pinterest and all of its amazing ideas, I was able to pull a wedding together pretty fast.

We managed to get everything booked {photographer, location, caterer, DJ} wedding dress bought, and decorations with in no time.

We decided to do all of our pictures prior to the ceremony.  I always hate going to wedding and having to wait forever for the bride and groom. We wanted everything to be done prior to the ceremony.

We had roughly 100 of our closest friends and family able to make it, which was just fine with us.  Our ceremony and reception where all in the same place, so we rolled right from the ceremony to food and drinks

John had the most amazing speech written up and before the dancing he stopped everything and read it out loud. I SOOO wish someone would of caught it on video but no one had a clue he was going to do it.  It was so sweet.

I apologies now for the picture overload

My fave Ginger

 Giving daddy the "last chance to run" sign

 Gotta get a pic with the boots

 The boys

 The Tierney's 

 Us with our Parents

The Girls

Navy dresses are from JCrew, cardigans are from Old Navy  flower girl dress I made.

 Right before the "first look"

 I loved how my broach bouquet turned out.

Reception Pics

Our guest book

 Our Ceremony Backdrop

 Shotgun shell boutonniere that I made.

So that was the quick and dirty.  I did as much DIY-ing as I had time for.  If you have any questions on where I ordered items or how I made them...Just ask!!!

How I Met Your Mother

We're almost 1/2 way to the weekend!!!

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend planned.  I will be heading to Little Rock for my next marathon!!!!  Bring on the bling

It has been almost 2 months since John has left and I’m missing him just a tad today. J

So I decide to do a how we met post today

Our story is unique…

John and I met back in 2009 when I moved back from Germany.  I had just moved to Springfield, started working a new job and was going through a divorce. I was in no position to even start looking for someone to date and to be honest had no desire to.  However, I did humor the idea and dated a few people here and there but I just needed some time for me.  I needed time to clear my head and to figure out what I wanted/needed to do with my life.

Shortly after I started working at my new job, John came to work at the same place. He was quiet and kept to himself. For the most part, most of the people in our office were all about the same age so we all got along well and became pretty good friends.  In the beginning, he wasn’t even on my radar. Mostly because he was married and I had no interest. He was funny and cute in his own way.  A ginger had never been one my “type” of people lol.

John started to come out of his shell more and started hanging out with us more and talking to us on a more personal level.  We learned that he too was going through a divorce so the 3-4 of us all had this common ground that we could talk about and share with each other. 

John and I started out as work friends; we both started doing races and started hanging out more with the same people.  We both tried online dating, so we would talk about all the “fun” people we had met, lol.  Hey don’t judge…  into the later part of summer we had started texting and showing interest into one another.

It wasn’t until August ’10 that john had actually asked me to go do something.  We have a state fair that happens every year and he had asked if I wanted to go with him to go see a concert.  I had a bachelorette party in Chicago that weekend and wasn’t coming back until Sunday which was the day of the concert.  I hadn’t heard too much from him that weekend because I was in Chicago and he was having a “guys” get together at his place. So on Sunday I took my time getting home and decided not to go. I honestly didn’t think he was serious because he hadn’t gotten tickets yet. I had never been to concert without tickets in hand, so I figured he wasn’t too serious about it.  Oh and don’t worry I still hear about it to this day.

We were still strictly friends and were still talking to other people, about a month later, I had tickets to a STL Cardinals game and the guy that was supposed to go with me flaked out.  I text john and asked him if he wanted to go.  I let him know that I had an extra ticket and a hotel room paid for and booked.  A weekend on baseball and drinking in STL…I mean how could you pass that up.  I was in Southern IL a few days prior to the game so I met John and 2 other friends who were going to the game in STL.

The weekend was a blast and that was the beginning of our relationship. We were inseparable from that weekend on.  It was strange really. I had never wanted to spend that much time with another person without them getting on my nerves.  We were either at my apt or his house.  It was Oct before we decided to make it official and “start dating” it seems so high schoolish now but still cute to me.

We dove head first and never looked back. A few weeks after dating we went out to DC for the Army 10 miler and then in Nov we took a trip over thanksgiving to Germany and Paris. It was a blast. I’ll post about our trip later.  The next summer we took a trip to Mexico and have traveled numerious places since then. 

our 1st Vacation!!! skiing in the Alps

our last night in Mexico

Our relationship probably doesn’t sound unique to anyone at this point…but the kicker is…we had to keep this all on the DL due to our positions in the military.  The military has this fraternization rule that prohibits us being together because I out rank John…Sounds kinda like Romeo and Juliet…lol  So at work we couldn’t talk about it, if we posted stuff on FB or anywhere it was as always left out.  It took some planning and 3 years before everything starting working in our favor and started panning out.