Our Life

Well, it's been quite a week. Greg and I are doing good. It's really been amazing, the blessings that have been flowing in. It gets more and more obvious, every week, how Heavenly Father is watching over us. He really is. I was talking to my sister Rebecca about it and she referred to it as "tender mercies" and that is right on.

Greg's been gone four weeks already! It doesn't really feel like it. Though we have less than 48 hours a week together (including sleeping time) we always manage to get "filled up" again. Even today. This whole week has been overwhelming for the both of us. We haven't slept well and have just been BUSY. We've talked less this week than ever (7 minutes one day, 3 minutes another, none at all one day) and then Friday night we had company and Saturday was Chris and Laurel's open house. So basically we only had 20 minutes together all weekend! So . . . we skipped church today. It was sort of a last minute decision. It went from, "Crap, we're gonna be really late" ah, a familiar phrase. And then it was, "Let's just go to sacrament and the first class" and then we just decided to just stay home. Normally, I am not supportive in church skipping, but oh, we needed time together. After he left we both realized how miserable we'd be feeling if we hadn't had any time together. Next weekend is ANOTHER wedding OUT OF TOWN, so it will be another "spending time with everyone but each other" kind of weekend.

But even with how little we've been together, we've both been doing really well! I don't understand it! That's where I think these tender mercies are coming in. I don't know how I stay busy, but I just do! I never seem to have enough time! How is that possible? I have more time than anyone on the planet. It's God working miracles, because I just don't understand it. And Greg just always sound happy on the phone. He's got some great guys in his class, he really likes his roommate. They study well together. He's doing well with his classwork, which is good. His department has put the pressure on to earn honors at the academy, so Greg's shooting for the academic one. He figures with how buff so many other guys are, and how others have been shooting guns there whole life (other honor possibilities are shooting and physical fitness), his best shot is the academic one. This week is the DRIVING COURSE!!! He gets to learn how to drive crazy and they have these special wheels that lift up the car to make it slippery like you're driving on ice! He's really excited. And next week is the shooting range.

This whole experience has just brought us closer! Don't trials always seem to do that? It's been a nice realization how we're a strong couple. Time apart used to freak me out. It's hard to explain, but it would mess me with. And it just doesn't this time around and it's been more time apart than ever. But I still always feel like we're one, even though we're apart. I'm glad it's that way. I feel really lucky and really blessed to be so inlove and happy with my husband. I realize more and more how not everyone has that and I wonder why I was so blessed to be one of the few?

As for baby stuff, Greg's cousin called (the one who gave us the awesome stroller and car seat) and is now sending down a really nice high chair! It's beautiful. Another amazing gift! Greg and I just can't believe the blessings that keep rolling in. I just want to repay these people but don't know how, and then I just think, "Oh well, we'll do the same thing, give all our stuff away." But after all our kids have been through it, it will probly all be worn to crap! I feel like I've said that word a lot this post.

I don't know if it's nesting or just this new stage we've entered, but I'm feeling a MAJOR homemaking surge. I was raised with a mother that could sew anything, cooked and baked EVERYTHING from scratch and had a big garden every year. So I was raised thinking I'd be the same. Hmm . . . well I liked the idea until a couple years ago and just realized, "Why am I going to all this effort? It's not even working out!" I like to cook, but why spend so much time baking bread when you can just buy it! Why spend all that time in the garden when you can just buy it? And I can't count how many times I've tried to make something, only to want to throw it away in the end. So after many years of this I decided, "Why do I have to be this way? It's not a commandment to be crafty! I'm thrifty, I'm doing the best I can. That doesn't mean I have to be this superwoman homemaker!" But now I see all my cousins and sisters making all these incredible things . . . and I still thought, "That's ok, they can be marvelous at it, and I can be marvelous in other ways!" But just suddenly I have this major urge to start doing things with my HANDS. And I've totally decided I need to learn how to make bread at home. And pie crusts, I've never done that either. I just buy them. And the GARDEN. So my mother visited and figured out that I get full sun all along the side of my house, that is completely fenced in. It's just a random 5 feet of space that runs all along the side of my house with nothing but dirt and gravel. MARVELOUS!!! This gives me a RIDICULOUS amount of garden space, in a perfectly out of sight, out of the way place. I love it. It absolutely thrilled me. I have always dreamed of gardening (I actually like weeding and getting in the dirt) until I tried to grow tomatoes and it failed. Tried to grow flowers and it SORT OF worked. Tried to grow poppies and nothing came up. After all of that it's like, "What's the point? This just isn't working out." But I decide to try again and bought some basil, cilantro, thyme and mint. Well, I check my basil 2 DAYS LATER and a bug had eaten through almost all of my basil's beautiful leaves! I hadn't even planted it yet! I couldn't believe it! I was so put out. And this whole, "What is the point?" popped in my head again. But after talking about it and thinking about it, I'm just gonna keep at it with my herbs, maybe add one or two before the summer's end and next year I'm gonna do the real thing. I won't fill up all my space, I'll start medium to small, but it's a good skill to have and if it produces nothing but wasted resources and time, well ya know what? I'll be blessed for following the commandments. So I'm just going to do it!!! And that's that. But it's just weird, this sudden fix on my home making skills. I had totally given up on them this year and am just feeling a strong sense of need now. So we'll see how it goes. Wish me luck!

Oh yeah, I am DANG excited to have this baby. I have baby fever! Everytime I'm out I see a little baby girl in someone's stroller or their arms and I just think, "Oh wow, I wish it was tomorrow and I had a little one in MY arms." Absolutely . . . cannot . . . wait. And I'm feeling really good again, I'll have days where I'm tired, but overall I feel fabulous. Though I can't really wear my wedding ring anymore :(

I need to find a pretty necklace to hang it on. I know I'm still gonna grow, but I feel like I look good pregnant! It just makes me happy that I don't feel ugly and fat. I totally feel cute all the time! Hopefully that doesn't sound conceited.

Oh yeah, my Mom and Grandma came and visited me for 2 nights! I had the best time! We went to the temple (which was good, my weekly goal has totally NOT been happening) and the next day we went to Jacksonville. This cute little town that is SO CLOSE to my house. We window shopped, ate gelato, drove around this incredibly old graveyard and then saw Pride and Prejudice at the Shakespeare Festival in Ashland!!!! I had the best time! My only regret is that we don't have any pictures!!! Mom bought me the cutest apron I've ever seen and I wore it today while making pot pies. I'm just too tired to say anymore. I realize I never wrote about Rebecca's visit a few weeks ago. She brought the girls and stayed with me 2 nights too and it was the best. I love those girls!!! I guess that's about it. I'm really tired now. I should go to bed. Goodnight!