Oops :)

So let's just pretend that it hasn't been 11 months since I last posted. I have some pretty good excuses though: I got two jobs (something that I did not have when I started blogging), I spent a lot of time doing OTHER things to keep my mind off the fact that my hubby was on his deployment, I made a bunch of new friends, I visited my family at least once a month, we went on vacation, etc...but none of those really matter. I've thought of blogging all the time. I just didn't sit down and do it. Oh! I also spent the last 11 months reading LOTS of other blogs...tons of them! Annnnnnd I got addicted to Pinterest. So I've neglected this site. Let's see if I can remedy that :)

Mr. L left for his first deployment a few days after I wrote my last entry. It was no fun, but I started working and made new friends in the area. When he returned home 3 months later, I wasn't the only one who was happy to see him:

Below you can see our Christmas/Welcome Home gifts: my ipad and awesome seats for a Steelers game. We had an amazing time and it was a great way to spend Mr. L's first weekend home in a long time!

We spent the next few months just enjoying time in our new home and visiting friends and family. In April, we decided to go on a vacation. The last time we had been anywhere (that wasn't the beach by our house) was our honeymoon two and a half years before. We did some quick research and went with a Sandals Resort in Antigua. It was AMAZING. The resort, the food, the drinks, the people, everything was perfect. The water was so clear that I actually went in (I don't normally do open water).

This was our view during breakfast. I didn't edit this at all, it really looked like this every day.

Since then we've been working on a few projects in our home, spending time with friends and preparing for another deployment. I'm really going to try to stay on top of blogging. No promises, seeing as my last "drought" was a serious one, but I"m going to try!

Annnnnnnnnd, she's back!!!!

Hello blogger-land!  So yes, it really did take me this long to get better.  In fact, I'm still suffering from a runny nose, but I can pretty much deal with that.  I finally finished all the medicine last night and am hopeful that with all the huge things the hubby and I have coming up soon, I'll be 100% in no time.

Just a fraction of what was prescribed to cure me!

So what's been going on lately?  Well, Mr. L left the first week of November for water survival in Pensacola.  Despite rough seas and some really terrible weather, he had a great time and survived!  He came home and we had 12 days to figure out our lives for the next 6 months...seriously.  Everything in Air Force-land is happening much more quickly than we anticipated and we had to figure everything out before he left for more training!  Mr. L left again for SERE training on November 18 and I won't see him again until December 11. 

My silly hubby trying out his new headlamp and water bag for training.

This week has been the no-contact week and it's been 3 days since I've spoken a word to my husband.  In the 5 years we've been together, we've never gone more than 24 hours without at least saying a quick goodnight on the phone.  Not even the night before/day of our wedding...we chatted on the phone that afternoon!  You really don't realize how much you can miss someone until it's absolutely impossible to talk to them.  I obviously support his training and think it's awesome that the Air Force prepares the aviators (and others) for this possible life-threatening scenario (and it's super great to know that, despite being terribly uncomfortable, they are actually really safe), but it's really tough.  Simply put, it's tough.  I love hearing his voice, I tell him everything and I don't really have many others to share my day with.  My mom called me last night and I kept her on the phone for 3 hours!!!!!!  Now, I'm a talker by nature, but even that is a little crazy for me.  I'll be thankful for Thursday night when he finally gets to call :)

Our first date (halloween on campus), 5ish years ago.

While he's been gone, it's just been me and the Lily-monster.  She's acting out like a teenager who's daddy left and she's pushing all her mom's buttons.  I remember doing that.  Well, now my dog is doing it too.  She's biting (she NEVER bit anyone), growling, chewing on things she's never chewed on before, and overall acting like a brat.  Not cool.  



Do not let this picture fool you, she's a monster...sometimes :)


Since Mr. L was away for Thanksgiving, I spent the holiday with my super great friends, the Duncan's.  Chris and Amy have been amazing to me and Mr. L since we moved to Columbus (Chris was Mr. L's class leader) and Amy has become one of my very good friends (I'm not looking forward to moving away from her and her adorable daughter Elli).  Our friends Christy and Jeff also had Thanksgiving at their house, plus Amy's dad and it was a great way to spend the day.  I'm so thankful that this crazy military life has given us all these extra "family members" with whom I can spend holidays when Mr. L is off serving his country (or getting lost in the woods!) and I'm far away from my parents and other family members.

Jeff, Christy, me, Elli, Amy & Chris on Thanksgiving

When Mr. L was stationed in Florida, we didn't make many friends.  His job didn't allow him much social time and I was away in Pensacola getting my Master degree, so we didn't really live the "military life".  When we left Florida, we had a hard time saying goodbye to a few friends that we had made at my school, but not really anyone in the military.  Over the past year, the opposite has happened in Columbus.  I've made several friends that helped me get through this year and they are some of the most amazing and strong women I've ever known and I can't imagine not knowing them.  The other spouses in our UPT class became my close friends and I've already had to say goodbye to a few (not fun).  Such is the life in the military though...constantly making friends and then leaving, many times going across the country from them.  I've known for a long time this was the way it goes, but I don't love it.  Last week and yesterday I had to say goodbye to two ladies who I've been close to and shared Assignment Nights and graduations with and it was hard, to say the least.  The upside to all this? Having friends all over the country!!  The Air Force is actually a small world and I know I'll see these ladies again.  It's just not really great in the meantime when you have to say "see ya later".

Erin, me, and Brooke...the ladies I said "see ya later" to in the past week.

Due to our impending move (so soon!) and all the travelling and craziness in between now and when we finally get settled in Dover, I decided not to decorate for Christmas at our house.  Putting up the tree would be troublesome by myself and stringing up the lights outside alone would probably be impossible.  Not to mention that as soon as I get them all up, I just have to take them down again because the movers come in two weeks.  So I'm leaving the tree in the box (yes, we do artificial...it's awful, but easy), leaving the lights tangled and leaving all the decorations stored.  It's been very sad when I walk Lily around the neighborhood and see all the lights and see all the twinkling Christmas trees in the windows.  So I decided to give myself a little holiday cheer and decorate my office at work!  Okay, so I didn't really decorate, but I got a tree!

Alright, it's a little tree.  I got it from Hobby Lobby (it's called A Tree For Me!).  There's a huge wall full of itty bitty decorations, tree toppers, tree skirts, etc and it's just too cute.  I bought silver garland, multi-colored balls and a sparkly tree topper.  You probably can't tell from the pic, but I also bought patriotic ornaments.  They are angels, snowmen, and santas that are decked out in red, white, and blue flag patterned ensembles.  Not only are we a military family, but I also work on the base, so I thought that would be a nice touch.

So now, I'm just spending my time cleaning out all the closets, tearing the office apart trying to figure out what papers stay and what papers get shred, running last minute errands and separating our household goods from our DITY stuff (this is my 3rd move and I still don't like doing that).  The movers will be here super soon and we'll be spending Christmas with our parents in Pennsylvania and then more training and finally to Dover! 

And I'll be doing it all while blasting Christmas music through my non-decorated house.  A girl's gotta have a little fun :)

Lily Sunday

When we first got Lily, she was forbidden to enter any part of our house that had carpet.  Though she was 6 months old when we adopted her, we had no idea where she had been for the first part of her life and were unsure about her bathroom habits.  It turned out that she *sort of* understood where puppies were supposed to go, but for the first two months, she pretty much did whatever she wanted.  Therefore, she lived in the kitchen/dining room!  She would sit at this gate (that looks into the living room) and cry and whine until one of us would sit with her.  If this didn't work, she took to chewing on the corners of the walls or trying to eat the gate...she was very persistent.  When she wasn't doing those things, you could find her doing this...Lily loves a good nap.  Though I'm not sure why, with that huge bed, she chose to sleep with her head on the floor :)

Lily Sunday

Since I'm trying to stay on the "blogging train", I'm going to keep up with what I started a while ago.  I just adore our puppy Lily and she's so cute that I feel like she should be shared with all of you!  So here's to another Lily Sunday :)

This is my FAVORITE picture of Lily.  She was home for only a few days when we snapped this shot and it was so good, we put it on our Christmas card last year.  Lily has huge ears...not basset hound huge, but really huge for her size.  Not only are they big, but she can control them.  Normally they are just down, but she can lift them straight up, put one up and one down, or pull them straight back (see the last Lily Sunday for an example).  Everyone who has ever seen her comments on her crazy ears and I'm pretty sure she realizes that her ears can get her whatever she wants.  This picture makes me smile no matter how many mattresses she tears up *true story* or times she throws up *she has a sensitive stomach* all over our rugs.

LILY SUNDAYS

Here is little Lily on her first full day of living with us.  That day also happened to be my 27th birthday.  I'm not a big cake person, so if you look carefully, you can see my orange frosted sprinkled cookies (it was Halloween week) that held my bday candle.  Though she's bigger now, this is the essential "pwease give me your foods" look that Lily uses every day.  We were clapping to see if we could get her excited...she just wanted the cookie.  Her look didn't work that night, though she did get a few stray sprinkles!

Lily Sundays

My constant companion and best friend during the days while the Air Force owns my husband's life is my dog Lily. We've had her for almost 8 months and she's just a little over a year old. She loves getting her picture taken and she's pretty adorable, so for now, while I have a lack of interesting things to blog about, I'm going to start "Lily Sundays". Every Sunday I'll post one of Lily's finer appearances. I'll start back with the night we got her!


Little Lily was very doped up the day we brought her home. She had just been fixed that morning and was so silly that she was drooling everywhere and couldn't hold her own head up! She definitly was not acting like a normal puppy, but she managed a brave face for this one picture on October 26, 2009.

Also, Happy Anniversary to my amazing parents Glenn & Tracee!