018: Flea Market Finds.

My mom has a sixth sense for when the Flea Market will be especially good. Even though we're not there every month, we always end up going and finding some AWESOME stuff. My own finds are as follows...

These two pictures came as a set for $20. I quickly compared the print and frame prices of picking something like this up at Michael's or Hobby Lobby and jumped on that deal. The jewel tone colors appeal to some of my favorite color sensibilities. NOTE: after stumbling on Google celebrating the 150th Birthday of Alphonse Mucha with their neat art nouveau logo, I noticed how similar it looked to these ladies. Turns out these are two prints by Mucha!Not originals, I'm sure, but they are (left) Amethyst. From The Precious Stones Series. 1900. Color lithograph. 67.2 x 30 cm. and (right) Emerald. From The Precious Stones Series. 1900. Color lithograph. 67.2 x 30 cm. .... How cool is that? I bought them on his 150th birthday! There are two more in that series, Topaz and Ruby. I'll be looking out for those ladies!

This bowl was SO fun and will make either a pretty catch-all in my entryway or bathroom... or a great fruit bowl for my kitchen. I like the possibilities. Sorry the picture doesn't showcase the pattern on the side. I'm not sure WHAT I was thinking with this picture. Anywho...
This small painting was in a lot of other kind of kitschy paintings of fruit and Paris. The texture, the small cherries, the purple undertones, and the bright happiness of the orange flowers made this particular piece scream for my attention!
For my wedding I bought around 6 green vases from Goodwill. You can read more about that in a previous blog post! Anywho, for $1 I could get this short little green vase to add to my collection. Uhm, YES.
This was my find of the day. We have my Papa Cy's old Nikon and it was one of the first cameras through which I really learned to love photography. This camera is exactly like his camera, but in even BETTER condition. The lens is beautiful, the viewfinder has all the working parts, the camera winds as it should... and the guy told me $125. I only ended up paying $90. It came with the external flash and another gadget that I've yet to figure out.

I got ONE more item... but it is a present for someone and I'm not sharing! Ha! I went with Mom, Dad, Sonni and then my friend Jael joined us. Sonni scored about 5 different cameras for $7 or less each. Jael found some beautiful tiles and other house decorating wares. Mom had some new kitchen pieces that were definitely needed to replace the current damaged ones. Overall, it was an amazing adventure. I'm a little sunburnt and my feet are still throbbing, but my heart is very full.

Cage and I are still waiting for information about moving me down south. I know it will happen eventually, but every day that passes with me here and him down there... my life gets a lot more frustrating. I miss Cage. Severely. I know God has everything happen in His time and I'm sure we'll have all this figured out.

blessings to you and yours, sgym

017: Graduation

I cannot express how ecstatic I was this past weekend. Only if you've gone through something of this level of separation from your spouse, can you understand how incredible it is to see them again. From what I can tell, Cage had an adventure. He said multiple times that it was incredibly difficult, but he never really complained about the experience. Yeah, he said it sucked... but he wasn't whining. I am so impressed by his positive attitude throughout this entire process that it really has lifted my own spirits. The weekend was busy, but very fun. I picked up Cage's sisters from the airport around midnight and we were finally in bed and sleeping by 1:30am. We were up at 6am, the Airman's Run at 8am, and the Coin Ceremony at 11am. Because of bad weather, each training squadron did their own coin ceremonies at their headquarters. Cage had the rest of the day free to be with us, of course, his priority was eating! We hit up Burger King and then went to the bowling alley on base. After that we just wasted time at the mini malls and had some dinner before returning Cage to his training squadron. The girls and I then hit up Target and Ross for Cage's snack and swim suits for the pool the next day. We were up (again!) at 6am the next morning for the Graduation Parade. It would have been rained out and held in the training squadron headquarters again, except there was 4 Star General in attendance! His niece was graduating! How cool is that!? So, they did the parade in their ABUs (the camo outfits) which apparently has NEVER happened before. It was really cool, and since Cage was in the band flight, he got to play his trumpet and march around all important like with the brass and bugle corps. We then had to wait, while everyone else got to go to their Airman, while the band put up their instruments. After they were dismissed, we walked over to his dorm to see it. It was very interesting to say the least, and I will probably NEVER complain about my lodgings in college after seeing where Cage had to live for almost 2 months! We left Cage there to change into his blues, and went to get the car. I think I walked almost 4 miles throughout this past weekend. We drove back, picked up Cage, and went to Taco Bell for lunch. We went back to the hotel, had some alone time, went swimming with his sisters, watched hours of TV, took naps, talked to family on the phone... Basically, an awesome day. We went to dinner at a Chile's down the street and I was a little wary of the part of town we were in, but I did feel safer since Cage was with us! We had Cage back on time to walk over to his dorm, and the girls and I went back to the hotel and passed out! The next day we got to sleep in until 8am! I woke up at 6:45am and couldn't fall back asleep! But we were there on time to pick up Cage for our San Antonio adventure! We hit up Lulu's Bakery and Cafe, which was featured on the Travel Channel's Man VS. Food, and enjoyed their 3lb. cinnamon roll! After we had gorged, I drove around to find a parking garage, which was incredibly stressful, and finally parked the car. We walked through downtown until we found the Alamo, which was beautiful, and we then walked down the RiverWalk for a while. I have to admit, it was way too hot to be outside for much longer, so we retreated into the Mall! We decided to watch a movie with the small amount of time we had remaining. Cage hasn't seen ANY of the summer movies yet, so we thought it was a great idea! We watched The Karate Kid because of Cage's great love for Jackie Chan. After the movie, we were cutting it close to get the sisters to the airport on time, but we made it and their flight left without a hitch (as far as I know!). Cage and I had some alone time and got to talk through a lot of the changes coming up for our family in the next month. I had Cage back on time at the dorm and packed up my hotel room while watching Disney Channel for hours and hours. I did fall asleep, eventually. It was difficult being alone in that room and knowing that the next day was going to be the last time I see Cage for a while. Sunday was wonderful. Cage was restricted to base, so we ran the last few errands he needed to do before packing for Biloxi. We had some of his wingmen join us for an excursion to the BX and later for church. Church was such an incredible experience. The chapel was filled with 0-weekers to just graduated Airmen and their families. That many people in camo, with their arms wrapped around each other, some of them crying... It was powerful. After that, Cage and I ate a late lunch and I took him back to the dorm. Watching him walk away was, to date, one of the hardest things I've done in my life. I've already been able to text him a LOT, since the plane landed in Nashville... but I'm unsure of when I will get to see him again. I should be able to live in Biloxi and be near him, but both of us are unsure of when we will actually get to live together. If Cage and I were able to stay strong through just under two months of no more communication than 5 phone calls and 10 letters (I sent him 40+ letters)... we can make it through anything.

And, naturally, here are some pictures from the adventure!

016: All I Have To Say Is...

I love my hero.

015: Happy 4th of July!

Can you believe it's July already? Is anyone else out there wondering why time seems to go by so much faster as an adult? I thought being in school had the year chopped up into 3 pieces and therefore the year flies by... boy, I was wrong.

I am currently in Plano, Texas - one of my favorite cities in the world. We're at my Uncle's house, which is without a doubt THE coolest house I've ever had the privilege of hanging out in. He designed it himself, being a brilliant architect and all. It's a modern home, but you can tell that the people within it aren't contemporary zombies. They actually live in the house, making it one of the warmest and welcoming homes in the country.

I'm sitting at the dining room table typing this, while my aunts and uncles, parents, and little sister watch a movie in the living room, and my brother and younger cousins play Monopoly Deal. I can't pretend to understand that game... and the movie is one of the ones I've not seen, so I would need to watch it from the beginning. I'm hoping to go to IKEA before I leave this area, and I'm leaving on Wednesday for San Antonio to see Cage's Graduation.

Originally, I was posting to update with some wedding pictures... So I'll give you two of my favorites.





Thanks to Krystal Waters of Krystal Clear Photography for letting me have digital copies of these. :) She worked with Andy Morris of AndyCam Productions on my wedding day and I ended up with some awesome pictures.

And, I found this on facebook... so I had to share. This is my handsome husband.


I love my airman!

blessings on you and yours,
sgym

014: It's the end of June...

... and it's also the end of one of the LONGEST months of my LIFE. I cannot wait for July 8th. That's the first time since May 11th that I'll see Cage. I can't believe I've made it this far. Being without him is horrible, but knowing that he's serving his country, that he is working for our future... it makes me content to be away from him. I've never been happy to be away, but I am able to describe myself as content. I'm sending a card to Cage today with a few random pictures, not sure what OF yet, but it's a fun anniversary card and, yeah, it's not a year or anything... but at this point I am celebrating even the small fact we've been married 67 days. We've been apart for 51 of those days. Oh, the numbers make me sad, so I'm moving on! haha.



The youth camp my Uncle put on this month was AMAZING. Not only was it fun to be with my family for two weeks, but the camp itself was a blast. The daily outline: 7a - 7:50a Breakfast. 8a - 8:45a Quiet Time. 8:50 - 9:15 Worship. 9:20a - 10a Games/Trivia. 10:15a - 11:15a Big Session. 11:15a - 12:15p Lunch. 1p - 4p Activity. 5:30p - 6:30p Dinner. 7p - ? Service. 11p In room Devotions. 12a Lights Out. Usually, we didn't get back to the hotel until after 11:30p and there was more than one night where we didn't get to sleep until after 1:30a. Even though I was incredibly tired, it was very rewarding.

Well, I have pictures to gather and send to Cage. I see him in one week and two days. Oh, I can barely wait!

013: Lucky Number?

Hoping that 13 is my lucky number since I'm driving 10 hours tomorrow to Owasso, Oklahoma to my Uncle's house for two weeks! Well, the second week is their church's youth camp, but still. Oklahoma. Two weeks. This is going to be such an awesome break up in the time that I'm waiting to see Cage again. I am really glad my Mom suggested it. I have received 5 letters and 1 phone call from Cage. I cannot wait for Sunday, because I have the chance again to talk to him. I know this sounds selfish, but I hope he calls ME! He has the option to call anyone, really. I can't lie, I'm living for the chance to hear his voice. So much of our relationship has been developed over the phone (since we spent two years at different universities) that it's the most natural thing in the world for us to talk or text. I don't look down on this form of communication.

Other plans... Hoping that my new sisters will be able to come to Cage's graduation with me in July. I'll be there Wednesday afternoon through Sunday evening, and I'd rather not spend the night times by myself. If we were to split a car and hotel... I think it would be crazy fun. What else can I ramble about... well, actually. I'm going to leave this post as is. Instead, I'm going to work on letter 21 for Cage that I will put in the mail in the AM before we leave for OK.

Goodnight all. Give your loved one a big hug, you never know when the next time may be.

sgym

012: Excitement!

Let me share some exciting things coming up:

Getting my first letter back from Cage!

Cage's graduation on July 9th! Looks like I'll get to see him on the 8th! AHHH!

My wedding pictures are coming in June!

MOVIES: Toy Story 3, Shrek 4ever, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Eclipse

Two weeks in Oklahoma with my uncle's family!

Fourth of July weekend with my Dad's side of the family!

Short post... but I just wanted to post a few updates.

Also, I have a mind to make my sister do a photoshoot. With her as the photographer. She's 14 and she's crazy good. You can see some of her stuff (and some of mine) at our photography website.

That's all.

sgym