Goodbye 2012 Hello 2013

So 2012 is behind us now and here I am anxious yet nervous for the start of this new year.

2012 had started off badly for me.  The change I sought for in the beginning of last year really wasn't the change I needed in my life but I'm glad I was able to open up my eyes in time to make a turn for the best.  I did end up improving several things though and I'm proud of myself for it.

My marriage has blossomed into something amazing in the last six months and continues to grow healthy and strong.  My military career is evolving everyday.  I received two scholarships last year to help me pay for school.  I am a part of an amazing sisterhood.  My puppies Maya and Hailey celebrated their first birthday and my big puppy celebrated her fifth birthday.  I can't believe how time has flown with them.  

They have been some bad things in 2012 also.  One of my aunts is causing great separation in our family and her two young children suffer from her promiscuous lifestyle.  My family members try to help but she is ungrateful and too prideful to admit she needs help.  It's sad.  My mother's Fibromyalgia condition is getting worse and my little 12 year old cousin has been diagnosed with lupus and is undergoing chemotherapy to treat her symptoms.  

These are some things that have made my heart heavy this past year but I am optimistic for the future.  My older sister will be getting married this year.  My younger sister is going to be 21!  And my parents are still my entire world. Family is the best gift of the year every year and I'm happy to be earning another brother.  =)

  

For 2013, I do have some resolutions I'd like to accomplish but I also have a prayer list too.

Resolutions:

- Keep striving for A's in school

- Score a 300 on the APFT

- Budget my money

- Kick butt at LDAC

- Find a way to surprise my husband somehow

My prayer list:

- Pray that my mom and cousin are healed

- Pray for my aunt to gain focus of her children and not herself

Do you have a prayer list?

Happy New Year everyone.

Simple Birthday for my Simple Man =)

So yesterday was my husband's birthday.  He turned 26!  I had many plans for him and was going to get him a bedside gun vault for his handgun but he insisted that he didn't want us to spend anymore money since he had gotten himself his big present a few weeks ago.  I was ok with that since his big present was a hefty purchase!

So the morning didn't really start off as planned.  My husband came home from PT and came back to bed.  I woke up late rushing to get ready for work.  I completely FORGOT to say Happy Birthday to my beloved husband!  Talk about a horrible wife lol.  I didn't realize it until I left the house on my way to work.  So I called him and apologized a million times over lol.  Then I asked him where he would like to go for dinner.  I was thinking Carrabbas since we both love that place but instead he tells me "Let's eat at Beba's Kitchen...I hear they have great food there."  Haha!  He would say something cute like that.  So instead of going out, we stayed in.  I cooked his favorite salmon recipe (you can find it here) with ranch red potatoes, and a caesar salad.  Not to mention our favorite (ok my favorite) red wine.  ;-)

As for dessert of course, birthday cake!  Two of our neighbors came by and we sang happy birthday to the birthday man and stuffed our faces.  I made a carrot cake with cream cheese frosting.  Now the cake tasted AMAZING.  But my decorating on the other hand was not my best.  I'm not sure what happened today...maybe I woke up with two left hands haha but at least everyone was raving about how moist and yummy that cake was.  =)

And well, that was it!  A nice simple birthday for a very special man.

Today is a special day in our history.  68 years ago our country invaded the Normandy beaches leaving the lives of many American soldiers on those beaches.  Today let's remember the sacrifice our country did on that day.  It was a day that not only changed America the world. 

These are the words of General Dwight D. Eisenhower on that day:

"You are about to embark upon the great crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you..Good luck! And let us beseech the blessings of the almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking." June 6, 1944 D-DAY

Let us remember this day forever.  America: The home of the FREE because of the BRAVE.  Amen.

Motivational Push

So today I've been re-evaluating my life...where I've been, where I'm at, where I want to be....that sort of stuff.  I have a set goal in mind, a strong dedication to that goal, but sometimes my motivation tends to lack.  Even though my routine is still going great....school is better than ever...I'm doing fantastic in ROTC...it's all rolling perfectly fine but sometimes I feel so late in the game.  I feel like I should already have my bachelor's degree and that I should be working a full time job being a "real" adult you could say.  Don't get me wrong, I know plenty of adults in my classes who are getting their degree for the first time but many of them have lived a good...maybe hard...but good life with maybe kids and/or a spouse.

I live a good life with my husband.  We have no kids though...nothing to really tie us down so school is a good option right now...but we can't really do all the things we want to since money is tight because of me only working part time and paying for tuition suckssss.

So with that being said...sometimes I feel like I'll be over exhausted before I get to my goal....

And other times....I feel like my goal is still so far away....

And a lot of times...I feel like I spent a good part of my life like this...

And so I stress myself out because all I wanna be is here...

Can I get an amen people?  Am I the only that feels like this? lol  Ughhhh...that's life right!

So I've been looking for ways to motivate myself....my family, my husband, my close friends.
It get's hard but I know that I can get there.  I have a great support system.  It's me that I have to keep convincing that time is going to fly and before I know it, all my dreams will happen.  In the mean time...I should post a few of these all around me house!

Proud Godmother

I've been sicker than a dog lately.  Even the Dayquil and Nyquil aren't helping.  I'm taking a different route this morning...sipping my Theraflu lemon tea as I blog today.  Hopefully I feel a little better this afternoon.  I've been having a hard time being productive outside the house since the new year has begun.  I can't really workout like I want to.  I tried a few days ago running...I was only able to do a mile in that 20 degree weather and since that run my cough has only gotten worse.  I would go to a gym but it's 30 minutes to the gyms I have access to.  And with being sick I have no motivation to leave my house really.  Today I got up at 8 thinking I was going to head out to Pembroke, work out in the gym, and drop my resume off at the few banks and credit unions they have out there.  I even printed my resume out and everything and had an outfit picked out.  Now all I want to do is stay in my pjs.

On another note, I have been very productive INSIDE my house lol.  I reorganized my garage and unpacked four more boxes.  One step closer to being officially "moved in".  Yes I moved here in April but they say you aren't officially moved in until you unpack that last box lol.  Ok so I might have gotten that off of a Disney movie so what. =)   I also did all the laundry, folded, and put them away.  I organized my dining room, the man cave, and the living room.  Even with all that there is still plenty to do though...clean the kitchen, the bathrooms, there's some more laundry to be done now, and I could tidy up my room a bit.  Maybe I won't be leaving the house today.  Once school starts, it will be more difficult to keep up with the house work so I might as well give myself a head start so that it will be easier on me when school starts up on Monday.  I'm excited to go back to school.  When school let out in December, I was dreading the break, thinking it was going to drag.  But it actually didn't...maybe it was the trip to Philly and NY that helped the time fly.  It's Friday now and in only a few days I'll be back at my routine again.

Oh one more thing happened this week that I'm so happy about and couldn't be more honored.  A dear friend of mine, whom I've shared tears and sorrows, laughs and joy with, has asked me to the the Godmother of her son.  I was overjoyed when she asked me.  I definitely didn't expect it but she made my day with that news.  So I am proud to say I am a Godmother to a beautiful two year old whom I loved since the day he was born.  I still remember the first time I met him face to face in Germany in 2010.  He's such a bright and excited little man and I am honored to be able to watch and help him grow into the handsome gentleman he is going to be one day.

Cheers to 2012 and all the wonderful and exciting things to happen this year.  Happy Three Kings day!

Handsome Jamari <3

A Humble Heart is Worth More than Gold or Diamonds.

These past few days have been very emtional for me for various reasons.   I'm up North visitng my husband's side of the family in Philly and Brooklyn, NY.  His side of the family is very different than mine in many ways but one thing that is the same is the humility and love they have for eachother.  I just hate seeing such humble people have to struggle.  We are staying with one of my husband's aunts in her apartment in Brooklyn right now and her stove oven doesn't work.  We decided that we had enough money to buy her a new gas oven.  I feel so blessed to have the house and cars that we have.  Even our oppotunity to be able to go to school.  I thank God that we are so fortunate to be able to give to them.  I cant wait to see his aunts expression tomorrow when the new stove arrives.

Now to switch gears quickly, my mother in law showed me a song by Celine Dion today called Because You Loved Me.  It left such a longing in my heart.  I can't stop listening to it.  Its so romantic and you know how much I love romance.  It makes me think of such beautiful things and I can't help but smile dreamily when I listen to it. 

Let me stop rambling on about romance...so Saturday, we are meeting a bunch of family on my mother in laws side. This should be fun.  Tomorrow we head to Manhattan to visit ground zero.  Now stands the memorial site and I know its going to bring tears to my eyes.  I'll post pics soon. 

My Christmas Message

To all my family,

I say this with all sincerity that I miss you all very much and I wish we could be there to celebrate this special night together.  I want to continue our traditions with my new family so I've written my own Christmas message this year.  I pray that you will enjoy it as much as you have enjoyed the messages my Dad brings to us every year.  It's probably one of the things I am going to miss the most about Christmas Eve with you all tonight.  I love you all very much.  Merry Christmas! 

Christmas is a special time of year.  It's the only holiday recognized almost all around the world and is not just celebrated on the 25th but the whole month of December.  Think about it, that's one twelfth of the year.  This season is a whirlwind of the holiday routine: lighted houses, ornaments, presents, Santa, TV specials, church services, tinsel, wreaths, stockings, and eggnog.  One thing is for sure...when Christmas comes, you can't miss it.  It's everywhere!  But tonight, I want to bring us back to the reason why we all gather together during this time every year.  

Have you ever realized that when you look up an event on your calendar, you are using Jesus Christ as a reference point?  Jesus' birth divided history into BC (before Christ) and AD (anno Domini, in the year of our Lord).  Every event in history and today is dated by how many years and days it has been since Jesus appeared on Earth.  Even your birthday is dated by his!  Tonight is not just a night to celebrate being together as a family but also to celebrate the birth of God's Son who was brought down from Heaven in the form of a man to give us the ultimate gift...salvation.  It's a night to celebrate that Jesus loves us, that he wants to be with us, and not just with us...but FOR us.  

John 3:16 says "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."  The entire reason for Christmas is the love of God.  The love he has for us and everything in the universe.  He created us for his enjoyment and everything on Earth for our enjoyment.  God could have created a colorless, tasteless world but He didn't.  1 Timothy 6:17 tells us that God "richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment."  Our sensitive ears for music and rhythm, eyes for all the colors of the world, and taste buds to experience all the incredible flavors as well.  The Bible doesn't tell us that God has love, but that God IS love.  Love is the essence of God's character...his very nature.  The reason everything exists is because God wanted to love it.  If God didn't love something, he wouldn't have created it.  He loves it all, even when we mess it up with our sin, he still has a purpose for it.  He is unconditional and loves us regardless of our thoughts or actions.  His love is unchanging.

Some people often feel alone at Christmas.  Maybe right now you feel like God is not with you.  But his presence has nothing to do with your feelings.  Emotions are unreliable and can change easily.  But there is good news for us.  We can't hide from God!  Psalms 139:7-8 says "Where can I go from your Spirit?  Where can I flee from your presence?  If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there."  No matter where you are God is always with you but you must tune-in to His presence.  No matter what situation you are going through right now, God is there.  He promises this to us in Isaiah 43:2-3 "When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.  For I am the Lord, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior."  In Hebrews 13:5 God ensures us "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you."  God will always be with us because He loves us.

But just because God is always with us, it doesn't mean it is to condemn us.  Many people feel like God is out to "get" them but it's quite the opposite.  When the angel came to the shepherds, the angel said to them "Do not be afraid.  I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people."  As a matter of fact, 365 times in the Bible, God tells us to fear not the things of this universe.  That's one for everyday of the year!  I want you to know that God is not mad at you but mad ABOUT you.  He doesn't want to rub in your mistakes, he wants to rub them OUT.  That's what Jesus did for us when He came to this Earth and died on that cross for us.

None of us knows what we'll face this next year, but we can know that God LOVS us, God is WITH us, and God is FOR us.  One plus God is a majority in any situation.  This is what we are celebrating tonight...the fact that God sent Jesus on this night thousands of years ago FOR us so that we can be WITH him forever because he LOVES us. I pray that God touches your heart with this message I've brought tonight.  It is not a coincidence that you are listening to this message on this very specific night.  May God continue to touch and bless your lives in this year and the next.  God bless.

During my Fall Break...

It's been a while friends and family but a very busy while indeed!  Between the 5th and the 12th, I was taking my midterms and I'm happy that my midterms grades resulted in four As and one B.  Hard work pays off!  After my midterms I took a flight down to Orlando to surprise my mom as a belated birthday present.  My mom has been wanting to see me really bad and since I had a small break after my midterms, I decided to take that opportunity to fulfill her wish.  :)  She was so shocked to see me.  My dad and I had it planned for a few weeks beforehand so he was the one that picked me up from the airport.  When I arrived at the house my mom was a crying mess which resulted in me being a crying mess too lol.  The last time I saw my parents was in July.  I know that doesn't sound like too long but for my close-knit family, that's like an eternity.  I had a great time with my mom and I know it really made her feel better to have her middle daughter home with her for a few days. I also got to see a majority of the family while I was there including these two little gorgeous rugrats below.  Every time I leave, a part of my heart always stays with them.

My mom and I

Daddy's girl =)

The apples of my eye

I flew back on Sunday and was back on the books and studying as soon as I got back.  I can't believe I am already half way through this semester.  It seems like it just started.  Anyways...my husband is back on the books as well.  Since he changed his MOS he's got a whole lot of studying to do.  This new MOS includes a lot of work and it requires him to take some college courses as well as learning a different language.  He's really excited and I'm just as excited for him too.  This weekend has been pretty relaxed so far.  We went into Fayetteville for the day and ended up getting a Plus membership at Sam's Club.  We are starting to fall in love with this store haha.  After that I made a quick stop at Kohl's to get these J-Lo shoes I've been dying to have.  They finally went on sale and I had a $10 gift certificate from Kohl's since my birthday is this month.  I was able to pick them up for less than $23!  Talk about a GREAT deal!  Let me also include that these heels are amazingly comfortable.  No squishing of the toes and no feeling like you body is leaning forward.  J-Lo's whole collection at Kohls is amazing.  I also love the Marc Anthony collection too.  I picked up a shirt for my husband and boy does it look great on him. ;-)
Anywho...tomorrow is church and then back to the school schedule.  I hope you all have a great rest of the weekend!

My Italian skills put to the test = Success!

Last week was a VERY busy week for me.  I had three midterms and I'm proud to say that I ACED all three.  Yep...100% on all three.  I'm so proud of myself. Especially the Calculus exam.  But I will admit I did study very hard.  I never thought I would be doing this great in college.  I guess my first experience in college helped me to learn not to waste my time and money all over again. This week I have two more and then I'm finito on midterms. =)

This weekend was great.  Saturday my husband and I woke up early and had breakfast and then went to see our neighbors' girls play soccer.  It was so cute.  The teams were made up of little boys and girls between the ages of 4 and 6.  The little 4 year old kids were so cute with their tiny soccer cleats and shin guards.  It really puts me in baby fever mode haha.  After the game I had to head out to Pembroke to do a color guard detail for UNCP's homecoming game.  When I got home my husband was gone (out to the mall).  I did some homework until he got home and I got a nice little surprise from him.  He bought me a cute dress and I must say he has great taste in clothes. LOL

Sunday we went to church (Rivers of Living Water).  We decided to check out their Sunday school classes.  A couple weeks ago, one of the ladies informed me of a marriage couples Sunday school class that Rivers has called Couples 4 Christ.  We actually enjoyed the class very much!  My husband and I are going to make it a point to get up a little earlier on Sundays so we can make it to this class from now on.  We also got to meet other couples through this class which is nice since we don't know very many people at the church.  For Sunday dinner I decided to try something new.  One of my aunt's has a lasagna recipe that is to die for.  It's very unique in the fact that no ricotta cheese is used in the recipe.  (I can't let out the secrets though!  It must stay in the family hehe)  So for dinner I decided to attempt to make it and I must say I did a great job!  My husband had three plates last night and we ate the leftovers for lunch today.  I guess this dish will be a regular in this house from now on.  A big thanks to my aunt for coming up with this recipe!  =)

The night ended with a movie and reading an entry of The Love Dare.  I had bought this book for us years ago when we first got married but being so far away for such a long time, we never got around to doing it.  We are on day 4 and I'm loving this book.  I truly believe that by the end of this 40-day challenge, my husband and I will have learned more and loved more of each other than we have in the almost 3 years we've been married.  I'm looking forward to finding out what our next dare will be.  =)

My first time making lasagna from scratch!

Something old...Something new!

So yesterday was a very filled schedule for me.  I had my student orientation in the morning for UNCP and it went very well aside from not being able to sign up for a few classes.  The first couple of hours they introduced all us transfer students to the services available to us and then we moved on to speaking with an adviser.  I only had to spend less than 5 minutes with my adviser though.  She was so shocked and awed at how prepared I was, I had already had my desired schedule written down and taken care of the few overrides I knew I needed for the classes I wanted.  After my little chat with the adviser I went and registered for my classes.  I was able to register for 4 of my classes except the two main classes I need this semester.  They are have a co-enrollment requirement which means I can't sign up for one without the other.  One of the classes is already filled so I can't sign up for the other class which still has seats available.  =/  I emailed my Department Chair though so I'm crossing my fingers that he can send an override to get me into the class that's closed.
Oh yes!  And an update from my meeting with the Department Chair last week...I was able to transfer two of the four classes I had asked for which is a miracle!  I'm glad because that's two less major requirement classes that I have to take.  I'm still missing too many classes to graduate in two years but at least I have 60 credits total that transferred over so I don't need to do any electives.  =)
After registration, I headed off to the cafeteria to eat lunch and then got stuck in that building because it was raining MRAPs and Humvees outside lol.  They had a bunch of tables set up from different organizations and Greeks trying to recruit.  One of the tables was the Army ROTC table.  As I walked by the guy at the table asked if I wanted to join the Army.  LOL  I looked at him and said "I'm already signed up and I'll be started this Wednesday."  We got to talking about the class and how I ended up in North Carolina.  I mentioned my husband moving from the 173rd in Bamberg and he immediately yelled out "No way!" and showed me his combat patch.  Well I'll be damned he was a Sky Soldier!  Our conversation lasted another 15 minutes or so lol.  God knows I can brag about my Sky Soldiers until the lights go out haha.  It was nice to meet someone though.  At least I won't be totally nervous my first day of class because I'll know someone.  =)
NEXT my husband and I were off with our lovely neighbors Bexaida and Destiny to welcome home Bexi's husband from Afghanistan.  It was a great homecoming and it gave me a chance to practice my photo shooting.  I can't say I'll ever be a professional photographer but it sure was fun.  Here are a couple pics from this emotional and exciting moment for all of us.  (My editing is pretty cheap but I don't have a professional photo editor....yet!)  =P  Enjoy!

Planless vacation!

So my husband started block leave today and we have nooooo plans!  It is actually a weird feeling for us.  In the past block leave was a time to be cherished because that was when we would be reunited after long distances and time.  We would have every day planned months before.  But now since April we have been blessed to be living under the same roof finally! lol

I talked with a girlfriend of mine about it and she said that sometimes they take block leave to finish house projects.  I think that we might take a few days to finish the grill pad we started in our backyard.  We started it about two weeks ago and didn't even get past the leveling sand because it's been either too hot or too rainy outside.  Hopefully we get some decent weather this week.

Phase 1 of the grill pad

We also haven't seen my husband's dad and step-mom in Philly for a while now....and actually in the last 3+ years we've NEVER gone to see them together.  Chris was always either in Afghanistan or Germany or with me and when he was with me, half the time I was still working.  He went to see them before he left on deployment in 2009 and that was by himself because I had to work.  And then I went to his brother's high school graduation last summer.  So really it's been over a year since either of us have seen them.  Our visit is well overdue lol. 

I also hope that we can fit in a few trips to Myrtle Beach.  We've heard a lot of good things about the place from friends and family.  AND I just found out they have a Ben & Jerry's parlor there....TWO!!!  I absolutely loooove Ben & Jerry's ice cream.  So it would be a double treat for me if we went.  QT with the husband and QT with my sweet tooth!

Ready...set...catching up!

Hello hello hello!

It's been a busy few weeks for me.  I my parents came up the 4th of July weekend.  It was sooo nice to have them over and for them to finally see our house!  Unfortunately my kitchenette table wasn't in yet but we improvised and pulled in my patio set so everyone could sit during breakfast lunch and dinner.  I had a full house!  My parents, both my sisters, my brother-in-law, and my dad's parents.  We had so much fun during those three days.  My brother and my dad helped me put up fans in my kitchen and my two guest bedrooms and upgraded my lights in the back and front porch.  On Saturday we used our firepit for the first time with my neighbors and roasted marshmallows to make smores while admiring some fireworks of people down the road celebrating a night early. Christian and my brother went fishing Sunday and came back with two fish!  It was a very productive fun filled weekend to say the least.  Unfortunately they couldn't stay for the 4th of July Celebration on Fort Bragg but it was great to have them over even if it was for a short time.

On July 4th, my neighbors, Christian, and I set up for the Fort Bragg Celebration.  It was sooo much fun!  We watched freefall paratroopers fly down to us, they did a canon salute for all 50 states (boy was that loud!), and then the finale of a great show of fireworks...and of course funnel cakes!  I think I ate enough funnel cake to cover me few a few months lol.  It was a great way to spend my neighbor Gary's last weekend before he deployed.

I'm sooo blessed to have the friends we've made since we've moved here.  We have become like a great big family and a super strong support system.  My poor husband has all his buddies deployed right now.  I know it makes him feel a bit left out the action overseas.  But not to worry though!  One of my neighbor's husband get back sometime next month so I'm sure Chris and him will be fishing in the weekends to come lol.  I hope my husband doesn't deploy in February so that they can all be home at the same time next August.  *Crossing my fingers*

Well today is a special day for many reasons.  It's my baby sister's 19th birthday!  (Ok maybe not so much a baby anymore lol)  And my cousin from Tennessee and his wife showed up EARLY this morning!  They will be staying with us for a few days so I'll be taking them around the base and Fayetteville to show as many tourist things I can find (not many lol).  My cousin was here many many years ago when his dad was stationed here but he was just a kid back then. 

Ok well time for me to make breakfast guys!  Enjoy the pics below and remember...tomorrow is FRIDAY! Please forgive my night pictures...I have yet to figure out how to focus my camera at night lol. :)  Stay blessed ya'll.

Getting ready for the Celebration

82nd Freefall Paratrooper

Cannon Salute to the States

Fireworks!

Just the adults now. :)

Gary's last day.  We miss you Gary!