Back to Reality

It feels weird that the wedding is over now. After waiting so long for it to happen it's a little surreal. I'm glad that the planning is over and so blessed that we had such a great wedding day. We had beautiful fall MN weather, and we took outdoor photos with some of the pretty leaves in the background. Our photographer is amazing and I can't wait to see her work! Here is her website page if you want to check it out. Hopefully she will have ours up soon. The whole day went so well and I loved my flowers from Petalum! Thanks to everyone who helped make our day special. I finally got to marry my prince charming.

I think these were Dan's photos

After our wonderful wedding and great honeymoon trip to Lake Tahoe, it definitely feels good to be home. I wish we could have brought the trees and lakes from Tahoe home with us though. We both loved it there. Will looked at me in the car one day while we were there and said, "I just feel like I belong here." Agreed. I would go back in a heartbeat. I recommend the Ridge Tahoe resort to anyone looking for a getaway. It sits high up on the ridge on the southeast side of the lake. We enjoyed hiking at nearby state parks, went on a lunch cruise on the lake, tried our luck at the casinos, wandered in the shops, and took a drive all the way around the lake on our last day. Oh, and got some relaxing massages and facials at the resort spa and enjoyed the hot tub in our building that overlooked the Carson Valley.

 The hot tub view

And now we're back in the desert. Sweating and trying not to get hit while driving, haha. I got stuck in a dust devil at the airshow yesterday, that was not fun. Dirt in my eyes, mouth, and frozen lemonade. Will is back to work, I am back to housewife duties and getting my Pampered Chef business going. Back to the grind, but now it feels like we really are married. Married for real, as my brothers would say. Ben said he didn't believe I was married because he wasn't there when it happened. It feels great to (still) be married.

Weddings

My beautiful best friend (aka my wife) got married last weekend. It worked out that both my husband and I could be there together, and I am so glad we got to be a part of my friends' big day. Everything was perfect, including the weather, for their intimate outdoor ceremony and reception. My favorite part of the day was hearing them read each other their vows. I cried the whole time. Plus, one of my other best friends was officiating the ceremony. It was super emotional and beautiful. I am so happy for Mr. and Mrs. Jones!

While we were home my husband and I also did some planning for our renewal of vows ceremony and reception coming up in October. It still seemed like some far-off wedding fantasy until we actually sat down with the pastor and wedding planner at church and planned out the order or ceremony, music, and things like that. It finally feels real and I am getting really excited to finally wear my dress and pledge our love to each other in front of our family and friends. The first time around we were in a court house across the hall from a bunch of prisoners in orange jumpsuits with random legal assistant people as our witnesses. If we had known that would be our only "wedding" for the first year and a half of our marriage, we would have thought it out a little more and at least brought our own witnesses and have someone take photos.

So our turn is coming up in just a few short weeks now. Just keep your fingers crossed that we can get enough leave approved so that we can go on a honeymoon too!

Home :)

My love is home! It was a great day getting to see my husband walk off the plane and get to hug him and know that he is ok. I am so thankful that the whole unit came home safely. 

It was a strange feeling when we were united because although this year has been the longest year of my life, once we were together again it felt like we were never apart. I didn't cry like I thought I would, but I was so so happy to get my husband back. It feels so normal and right to be together now, so it's hard to believe that we spent so much time apart. It's when I see his pictures and the company slideshow and things like that that make me realize how much happened this year and remember how much I worried, and that makes me emotional. I'm trying to focus on the present now and just enjoy every moment. No more worries for now.

It's great to have Will in our new house. After all the short visits we've had with each other over the past two years, it's amazing to have a home that is OURS and know that we are not on a time limit. We can enjoy each day and actually share normal life with one another. He is such a blessing in my life and I could not be any happier or feel more loved. I am one lucky girl.

Sometimes life is hard

Today is the last day of October! Two more months and then January is here. I finally got to see my husband's face today on a webcam after 12 weeks. It was so good to see him, even if I couldn't hear his voice. We have had a stressful week trying to figure out our future. He has been considering re-enlisting so that he could get more experience for the career path he wants to take. I want absolutely nothing to do with re-enlistment and I don't want another deployment, so really there's nothing in it for me (besides free rent and medical care) and I would be giving up everything I have here - my job, my family, my friends. So we have been trying to come up with some way we can compromise, but it's not working out so far.

It seems like it is just black and white, one way or the other. One of us would have to give up a lot for the other person. I just am really reluctant to give up several more years of our life to the army when I know that another deployment and me being away from home is inevitable. I appreciate what they do, and I'm proud of my husband for his commitment and sacrifice, it's just not what I pictured for my life. I never would have seen myself as an army wife, but somehow I happened to fall in love with and marry a soldier. And I was under the impression that he would do his time and get out because that's what he told me from the start. If I would have known that he would want to stay in, I would have had to change my expectations and be ok with it before we got married. This was not part of the plan I thought we had. I would be more willing to move if he found his dream job somewhere other than MN. Still though, I really just want to be here. This is home. Our families are here, I love this place and feel like the only thing missing is him.

It's not easy to discuss this serious of decisions while he is on the other side of the world and we have not even had a chance to start our lives together. When all of our plans have already changed and I'm missing him so much because of the Army - not so excited about the thought of 4 more years. It's such a huge decision to make even if we were together. So this has been stressing both of us out a lot lately. Today we are leaning towards no because it would mean a commitment of 4 more years, but I'm sure this isn't the end. Please pray that we can come to an agreement that we can both be happy with, and that things will work out for his career and my sanity either way.

Is it fall or summer? Silly MN

Friday night Megan and I went on a "date" because even though we live together, we really don't spend a lot of time together just the two of us. Plus, her going to bed at 9pm habits lately don't really allow for much going out! I have been trying to keep busy so I'm never home...so we actually went out on Friday for ice cream and a movie. We went to Block E downtown because that was one of two theaters showing the movie we wanted to see. That place was basically deserted on a Friday night because there's nothing in there anymore except the Shout House. However, conveniently there is a Cold Stone right next to the theater ticket office. So we had some ice cream and caught up on our lives, saw a movie, and by 9pm we were both tired and went home to bed. Haha, when did we get to be so old?

This is a crazy fall weekend in MN with 85 degree temps. The leaves are beautiful and the air is full of that crunchy leaf smell. My mom and I went for a walk yesterday and enjoyed this last bit of warm weather. After that I went on a shopping mission to find a dress to wear to a wedding last night. My friend Kellie asked me to go as her date to a wedding reception and I had nothing to wear. Well I found two dresses (one to wear to another wedding in Nov), and some sweaters and shirts that were all on sale! Needless to say I came out with much more than I went in for. The mall is a dangerous place when they are having fabulous fall sales.

So I went with Kellie this this wedding reception that was at the cutest little place. I didn't think I knew who the bride even was, but then we realized we had met once before so it wasn't as weird going to a random wedding. It was a nice reception with an open bar (always nice). It was a little strange to be at a wedding, since the last wedding I went to was...two years ago?? And the next wedding I was supposed to go to was my own. In some ways being there made me get excited about planning mine again, but also made me sad about the plans I already had and how they will probably have to be different the next time around. Hopefully just as good though. We had to leave early to go meet some friends in uptown for a birthday. Being out on the town felt really good. I have been staying busy and spending time with people, but it was nice to be out among the masses having fun. And I stayed out until midnight, oooh. Had super weird dreams and kept waking up in the middle of the night though. I blame Captain Morgan.

Today I'm hanging out with my family at Lake Minnetonka, another beautiful day outside. I wish the weekend lasted longer.

I was supposed to be a bride tomorrow :(

Well, it's been 5 weeks today and it's going fast and I'm feeling ok. However, tomorrow was supposed to be our wedding day. I would have felt more sad if we hadn't purposefully gotten legally married earlier before we knew about the deployment. We were able to enjoy that and happily say our vows to each other without thinking of the year apart looming in front of us. We didn't have to rush to get married before he left, and luckily we got almost all of the money back that we had down on the wedding. I am so happy that we are married and that it was just about us when we got married and we didn't have to stress about anything (other than me putting a wrong number in my ssn on my marriage application, oops!). But I am sad that we don't get to have our wedding tomorrow. Everything was going to be perfect and beautiful. It was going to be outdoors by a lake and tons of trees, and by the looks of the weather forecast, tomorrow's weather was going to be absolutely perfect too. Mid 70's and mostly sunny. Instead, my dress has to sit in the closet for another year, and I'll have to plan yet another wedding when he comes home. It's disappointing, but hopefully we'll be able to do something just as great next fall. We can renew our vows and finally be together. Please keep us in your prayers for his safety and my sanity and patience.

I won't just be moping around this weekend though because I am off to San Francisco tonight to go take care of my 7 year old buddy Esther for a few days. She and her mom are friends of our that are living there for a temporary work assignment. I'm excited to go somewhere new and to see Esther there (she has been back here to visit a few times). The weather is supposed to be great and hopefully I will be able to take in some of the sites.

A tale of true love and true disappointment

Once upon a time, while on opposite ends of the earth, I met Will through an online dating site. Immediately we knew we had a great connection and began "dating" before we had even met. When he came back stateside to our shared hometown in MN, he was more amazing than I even expected and there started our whirlwind of a love story. We were crazy about each other so we decided that we would make a long-distance relationship work as he was to be stationed in Texas. After only 7 months of dating and trips to and from the Lone Star state, he proposed to me on a mountain-top on a beautiful sunny day. We began planning the perfect wedding in September, planning my move to Texas, found a house to rent so I would have a home to come down to, and decided to get married at the courthouse before our big wedding ceremony to make the move easier. Everything was going according to plan.

Less than a month after our courthouse wedding, Uncle Sam knocked on our door and turned our lives upside down. I had never felt so much emotion at once. All of our excitement turned to disappointment and worry. All of our plans were canceled or postponed. All of our thoughts were of trying to live in the moment while preparing for our first year of  marriage separated by continents and war. I am so proud of my husband and all of the other men and women that serve our country everyday, but how I wish we lived in a world where this was not necessary. I pray for his safety daily and anxiously await the day he comes home to me so we can finally start our lives together in the same country, the same state, in a place we can call home together.

So here I am, still in MN, trying to enjoy the time I have here in this state that I love, with people that I love, trying to distract myself from the disappointment and worry. The fact that basically our whole relationship has been long-distance helps, but I still miss him every second. Time to find things to occupy my time, so far so good. The busier I am, the faster time goes.