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.

Waiting (not so) Patiently...Again

This deployment is finally almost over! This has definitely been a long and difficult year. I have had my share of stress and tears. I did not enjoy it, but I know it has made me a stronger person. It has strengthened my faith, given me time to spend with my family and see the birth of my best friend's first child, and has solidified even more my feelings for my husband. Our relationship began based on communication, and that has really helped us get through this year apart. Even being thousands of miles apart, I still love him more each day and am so thankful for having him in my life. I cannot tell you how happy I am that he is coming home safe (just one minor injury from last fall), and that we can finally start our life together as a married couple.

However, I think I have become a little spoiled having this whole house to myself and no responsibility. I'll have to get used to only sleeping on half of the bed, doing dishes more often than every 3-4 days, doing stinky boy laundry, and watching things other than HGTV and Bravo all day long. Since we have never lived together, it will be an adjustment for sure. But I'm still looking forward to all the normal, everyday things that come along - good or bad.

Most of all, I can't wait to kiss this face!!


Just a few more days... :)

Book Blog: The Color of Light - Karen White

This book was listed on some recommended booklist that I saw a while back. It is about a mother, Jillian, who returns to an island she spent summers at as a child and teenager. While she has great memories of the island summers, there is also the mystery of the disappearance of her best friend Lauren. She hopes to make peace with her past and find a place for her and her children to live simply. But when Jillian's daughter starts talking to an imaginary friend named Lauren, and Jillian reunites with friend Linc who was blamed for Lauren's death, all kinds of secrets come out. I can't really say much more because it will give things away.

At first I was weary of the whole ghost-related part of the story, but I actually really liked this book. It's like Nicholas Sparks meets murder mystery, but none of the main characters die in the end (I hate that about Nicholas Sparks books). This book had great characters that I could really picture as real people and I wish I could meet some of them if they were real. I got so invested in the story that I couldn't put it down. This is a great beach or pool read.

Smart Cleaning

Since I now have to clean a whole 3 bedroom house, here are some of my smart cleaning observations/reviews:

I have quickly come to realize how much I miss carpet. Sweeping and mopping an entry way, kitchen, dining room, giant living room, hallway, bedroom, and two bathrooms is really not an enjoyable activity. And non-messy me is the only person living here at the moment. I have decided to try to make this chore a little easier by finding something to replace the broom and dustpan. Since my vacuum is kind of clunky, and I was already planning on getting a dust-buster type of handheld vacuum, I found this: the Electrolux Ergorapido.

It is lightweight, cordless, and the little handheld part pops out. It is also kind of pretty as far as vacuums go. I tried it out today and it was MUCH better than sweeping. Living in El Paso means you consistently have a layer of dust on every surface inside and out of your house. I guess I'll find out when I actually get to mopping how much dirt it leaves on the tile, but I think this is a big improvement to the broom. Plus, the filter is easy to empty, and it is washable.

(Besides that electronic wonder) I have been trying to switch over to "greener" cleaning. I purchased some washable cleaning cloths instead of using paper towels. I used one to clean a couple windows today and was disgusted at how much dirt was on them. It was only the glass patio doors, and two windows, and this is what I was left with:

Gross. I don't even want to know how many paper towels I would go through cleaning ALL the windows in my house.

Another product I like is the Rubbermaid Reveal Spray Mop. It's much like the Swiffer WetJet, but it's not as wasteful. You can use any cleaner diluted with water in the reusable bottle, and the cleaning pads are washable. The Swiffer mop always seems to leave a filmy residue on the floor, but this does a better job at leaving a clean surface. It's great for spot cleaning or quick cleaning when you don't feel like using a mop and bucket.

Happy cleaning :)

Coming soon

I love when movies are made of books that I loved. Here are a couple that come out soon!

The Help (based on the book by Kathryn Stockett)


This one comes out August 10.

Sarah's Key (based on the book by Tatiana de Rosnay)


Online it says this is out on limited release in the US today, but it doesn't appear to be showing anywhere in my area. Hopefully it gets here at some point, otherwise I'll have to wait for Netflix.

I highly recommend these two books if you want to read them before the movies come out!

Book Blog: Summer at Tiffany - Marjorie Hart

This was another war-time story (a memoir actually) but it was quite different than the last one I read. After reading such a tragic story, this one seemed almost silly. This was the memoir of a woman who spent a summer in New York City with her best friend during college. Their plan was to get a job at one of the fancy department stores and get a discount, but they ended up somehow getting a job at Tiffany and barely getting paid enough to get by. I have never been to NYC, but if I get there I will for sure want to stop at Tiffany. It's still in the same building as it was back in 1945 and it sounds like a magical place.

It's funny to read how innocent college girls from Iowa were back in the 40's! Despite wars being fought in Europe and the Pacific, these girls had quite the summer full of sightseeing, dating, and seeing celebrities. Since this is a memoir and based only on one summer, there is not much of a plot. However, it is a nice quick read as long as you appreciate the girly things in life. If you are familiar with the movie stars, musicians, and fashion of the 40's it would be much more entertaining.

Random note: I had no idea a plane had crashed into the Empire State Building in 1945 due to foggy weather.

Book Blog: Those Who Save Us - Jenna Blum

I am glad I picked this book up at the used book store. I actually heard the author speaking on the radio the other day and was excited because I was in the middle of her book. She had enormous success with this book, especially in book clubs, and I see why. This is the story of a mother and daughter that lived in Germany during WWII. It switches back and forth between the mother Anna's life at the start of the war, during, and shortly after the war, and the present (1997) life of the daughter Trudy. Trudy as an adult is a history professor and begins a research project to learn about the lives of Germans during the war. She knows that she and her mother were there at the time, but has very little memory of their experiences. Unfortunately her mother cannot let go of the memories, nor will she speak of them. While much of this book is heartbreaking, I enjoyed following Trudy's discovery of German life at wartime and the discovery of her mother's secrets.

Another reason I liked this book is because the latter sections are set in Minnesota and places described in the book are familiar to me. Not many books or movies are set in Minneapolis, so it was fun to read it and be able to picture the locations and the weather conditions.

I have not really studied much about WWII since high school, with the exception of my history class in France, but that was brief and mostly French focused. With the Holocaust being the most talked about topic from the war, I had not spent much time thinking about what life was like for non-Nazi Germans at the time. Many people blame them for standing by and not doing anything to stop the atrocities, but this book gives insight into the lives of women particularly who simply were just trying to survive and protect their children. There were those who helped hide Jews, provide food to the camps, etc. but those people and others were put in impossible situations where they sometimes had to choose staying alive vs starving to death or being shot point blank in the face. It's easy to say that you would choose the "right" thing, but would you really be able to when put in that situation?

After reading this book I did gain a new perspective on the time and the effects it had on the German population, as well as the Jewish population. Reading the account of Anna's view of the concentration/work camps from the outside is terrifying without even thinking about what was happening on the inside. Today, I visited the El Paso Holocaust Museum to continue my exploration of the subject. The museum is very well constructed and informative, I recommend it if you're in the area. I am thankful that I did not live in that time period, and I pray that nothing as horrible as the death of 11,000,000 innocent people ever happens again.