023: No, Let Me Sum Up...

To try and call the past few months "busy" would be an understatement. There was a trip to Nashville, Cage taking test after test, the holidays, over 50 hours spent in the car, and nearly running out of money more than once. Needless to say, it was a very exciting time. And, exciting times sometimes pull me away from blogging at all. I'd love to write more often, but I'm afraid my life is just going to get even MORE busy. It looks like we're moving back to Nashville in early March. We still have NO idea where we're going to live, but we're putting it in God's hands while diligently searching for apartment complexes that would be equidistant from Cage's work and the church we'd like to attend. They're about an hour apart, so living half-way between them would be very good for us. Since that's the Brentwood/Franklin area... we're pretty much out of luck. This is why we don't rely on luck but the goodness of our Lord, hallejuah and amen. Haha, I'm having to hold a mini-church service over this issue because it's seriously stressing me out. So, what else is coming up for us? Uhhhhhhh... Birthdays! Cage and I are turning 24 on Feb 22 and Mar 6th, respectively. I've been working out under an incentive program here at the base in Biloxi. Basically I'm working out 4 days or 5 days a week from Jan 13th to Feb 28th. I don't think I'll win any prizes, but I lost 3 lbs in the first week and 2 inches in my waist by the second week. Soooo, maybe it's working? My goal is less to lose weight and more to get in shape. I want to be able to walk up a flight of stairs (or two) and NOT be so winded I'm having to sit down and rest for 10 minutes. Lots of pictures from the holidays and other adventures are sure to come. I've just got to upload them and then I'll get them to ya, no worries.

So yeah. Laundry is calling out my name.

blessings, sgym

022: Round Up.

It's mid-October. Is it just me or is this year flying by? I was dying for 2010 to get here in 2008... and now I can barely believe so much time as passed! I'm living in my own apartment and I have an amazing husband. I find myself in shock a lot of the time! I can barely believe it sometimes.

I've had the opportunity to go to Ft. Walton Beach, FL and New Orleans, LA. We've had friends come visit us down here at the beach and, honestly, I think every weekend for the past month we've had visitors for the weekend!

The holidays are coming up and Cage and I are trying to decide where we're going.

Cage has a graduation date! We'll be done here and headed back to Nashville the week of Valentine's Day 2011.

He is also living with me now!
It only took 5 months after our wedding, but we live together!

We've picked up fishing as a hobby. Why?
Well, we're surrounded by water, so why not?

Yup. That's all I have for now. Haha.
Small update, but I would have to organize my thoughts a little better to get a longer post.

The following pictures are from our 2nd trip to New Orleans, and I've decided to try to do this on every trip I take.

blessings! sgym

021: Mississippi. Home.

It's weird to me that I'm not living in Tennessee. I've lived there my whole life. Now, I'm not a shut-in that's never stepped foot outside a 100 mile radius of my hometown... but LIVING somewhere other than Tennessee is still weird to me. Mississippi is a mixture of new, exciting, and humidity that makes you want to cry because your make-up is sweating off and your hair is sticking to the sides of your face. That might be a dramatic interpretation of the humidity here, but it's true. I will never complain about Nashville's humidity as long as I live. I do find that I'm enjoying being in the heat though. It's a reminder of the fact I live within walking distance of the beach. I get to see my husband everyday. It's for only two hours a day but, I get him the entire weekend. I spend my time in my apartment making it into a home. I spend my time outside of our home with my new friend, Emily. I have to say, having a friend down here has been absolutely wonderful. We've been exploring the surrounding towns and relaxing at different coffee shops. I have ambitions for my time down here, but I haven't figured out which plan to put into motion first. I guess you'll be the first to find out.

That's all I have to say for now. Blessings.
sgym

020: Well. It's here.

Moving time. It's 7:13am. I've been up for over an hour. My car is packed. My parents' van is packed.

I'm out.

Goodbye until next time, Nashville.
Don't do anything crazy while I'm gone.

blessings.
sgym

019: Ideas from "The Nest" ...

We're moving! Or, well, I'm moving! Hooray! I'm finally relocating to the Beach and nearer my handsome, hard-working husband! We are so excited! In fact, I'm moving Thursday... and today is Tuesday. That means I have ONE full day left in Nashville. This will be the farthest away I've ever lived from my hometown. It's an 8 hour drive. In my pretty, but HOT A/C-less car. We're hoping we don't have to rent a moving van, but I guess we will see!

So, I've been in a "OMG I WANNA DECORATEEEEEE" mood. Even though I've yet to see my apartment and I have no idea of the floorplan! This is definitely an interesting time in my life. I know I couldn't even begin to decorate like this, but these pictures from theNest.com (the follow-up website to theknot.com) were just too good to pass up saving into my computer for ideas later on.

I love how bright and open this kitchen feels.

Even though I'm not a black/white fanatic, I keep imagining this is green/white.

The two-tone paint scheme paired with the low profile bed makes this room cozy and simple. I wouldn't do purple by any means, but I would definitely do this in gray.

This headboard is DIY. It's a door with a two-tone paint job. Honestly, I'm kinda thinking of getting a door, giving it legs on either side like a traditional headboard, and painting it a bright teal. I can't tell you why, that's just what is stuck in my head!

This headboard is made out of old cabinet doors, but I'm loving the couple's monogram over the bed. I adore monograms.

This living room's color is AMAZING. Enough said.

I love the little M monogram on the fireplace. Too cute.

This isn't from TheNest.com. This is from haverty's website... and I want this couch! The fabric looks plain in this picture, but the detail in it reminds me of the weaving in menswear fabric. I think it is beautiful. Unfortunately, it will have to wait with the price tag of $899 for a later time.

So, yes. Since most of my packing is finished here in Nashville, I've been dreaming of the Beach. I can't wait to get down there.

blessings,

sgym

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!