Happy Valentine's Day!

And this is my beloved

Words cannot express how much I love you Haven. You are my warrior and my hero.

Rest well - I really miss you

Jack Frost, you got my number

A cold front is moving in - fast-paced, loud and dramatic - winter's grand entrance.

Hector and I bundled up and went out to meet it. We skipped through the late fall leaves and tried not to get swept away. The rain is soon to follow, but we are now snuggly in our warm little house.

I am doing laundry and watching a delightful movie called 'Band Wagon' - a Fred Astaire movie I have not yet seen :)

The house is almost clean, and I am excited that tomorrow is Thanksgiving. Mom always creates such a feast and I am eager to get over in the morning to help her.

Haven comes home tomorrow afternoon - he has a four day weekend - the poor guy will probably spend most of that just trying to get over the flu he caught :(

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! May God richly bless you with His love through feasting and fellowship!

For the one I love

Counting the days

The last stretch is always the longest, the most trying, and the hardest to get through. . .

Just about one more week to go until H can finally come home. He hasn't been home in about a month, poor guy.

I miss him lots :(

We'll be together again soon - hurray for sweet reunions!

A little Night Music

Screechy cicadas and throaty frogs, swooping owl wings, and my dog's heavy, excited breathing.

Nothing like an evening walk on a hot indian summer night.

With a pearl white moon illumating the way, I prod a 'gotta-take-a-pit-stop-every-ten-steps' pup along a broken weedy sidewalk. I try to help him ignore the scuffle of dogs behind backyard fences and the blindingly bright headlights of cars passing by. Kinda to no avail - I guess its kind of exciting being a dog in this neighborhood.

As we were walking, I was trying to work through a period of silence, kind of similar to a hard swallow. . . trying to think of ways to be a more encouraging wife, trying to overcome over 1,000 miles of distance.

I wish that I could get to my husband like I can get across 15 blocks south and 2 blocks east 30 minutes later. I wish I had a way to forward time like I can skip commercials with DVR. I wish I had a more patient spirit that would even pour out onto my hurried dog-walking.

Even my little dog is teaching me a lesson. The art of slowing down and actually enjoying the moment. In his case, that means never losing wonder in chasing hopping frogs. . .

Maybe I am not connecting the dots when it comes to getting to my husband. But it does come back to being patient, for that is surely required these days.

God is ever benevolent in making the days go by faster, all that He is requiring is to face each with hope and joy. There are only 24 hours each day, and only 7 days in each week. A week more will bring us to 3 more days and then a three or four hour plane trip to visit him. Oh yeah, and a heck of a celebration of 2 years of marriage.

But as for tonight, I am going to enjoy every hour of this 6 hour rest.

Goodnight.

Roses dried

I always find dried roses to be a prettier decoration than the fresh ones - more effort goes into the drying, and it's only the really special ones that are dried.

My sister Michelle was right - dried roses are beautiful, in such a quiet and serene way. When roses are alive and in water, their petals slowly open, the color grows very vibrant and then, one day, the color starts to fade, the corners tinge dark brown and curl, and each petal falls off, one by one. . .

Such is the story of a lovely bouquet. It always begins so beautiful, but beauty fades.

But I threw out the roses tonight. I have roses from bouquets past. Bouquets of all sorts - from courtship, from engagement, from my wedding, and from the past two years (shy a few weeks) of marriage.


I washed a cookie rack, shaking off the crumbs from cookies made by my hubby, cleaned some other dishes and felt satisfied about this day.

Emotions, mute homeless man, a kind vendor I shunned with horrible rudeness, shame and frustration, conviction and repentance, rain, the love of my husband 1500 miles away, the thought of being alone for the next couple of weeks, my sisters . . .

All these things random speak of the ways that the Lord continually reminds me that He is faithful . . .

You are probably wondering, what the heck is she talking about???

Just life after a really good day.

All these things random come together to make a day sweeter, deeper, richer.

I cannot ever make sense of this life. It is altogether too wonderful and too exciting.

Psalm 139:17

How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them!

Yesterday was filled with sorrow and tears. Today God filled an empty cup overflowing.

Long time, no blog . . .

Its 'Amy outages' this week ;)

My internet router went kaputt - I got a new one, only to discover that it was not compatible with our DSL service. . . crudd.

Life is a little on hold until we get the new router. So, I am hit and miss here.


Oh yeah, my car brakes went kaputt on Saturday as well - thankfully, we got that problem fixed. Now, if everything can just wait until my hubby comes home . . .


5 more days . . .

My sky is grey, I miss you, Blue Eyes

Okay. . .

Only 8 more days to go . . .

I miss my hubby :(

Pink Clouds & Socks

The sky was cotton candy pink tonight. Bubblegum, ballet shoes, a string of pearls, bridal pink - soft and inviting, like a down comforter.

Sorry, floating in la la land here.

While folding my laundry this evening, a stowaway brown sock, fitting a foot belonging to my husband fell out. Sigh. A lone ranger it was, no other sock to make it a pair. Kinda like him and I when we're apart.

No boohoo-hooing here. The man has safely arrived in Pennsylvania after a 30+ hour drive and the days are flying by like sparrows in the sky.

So Far Away

Well, its 4:40am and I just kissed my hubby goodbye. He jumped into a luggage-laden A-Lert truck and is off to Pennsylvania. Sigh.

I feel like all of the things I want to say are stuck in my head. Maybe its just because its so early in the morning. I was having trouble going back to sleep, but now I am realizing quickly that if I don't, it might be a pretty lousy Monday.

So life goes on.

This time around, I feel like we are somewhatly better prepared. We have cellphones with cameras & text messaging, and he has a laptop with internet (so he can read how sappy his wife gets when he's away ;)

And this time around, grounded in me even more is how I will never take this wonderful man for granted. He is my hero.

I love ya Babe.

*and now, I am crawling back into bed for a tidgen-of-a-smidgen more sleep ;)

This is the day, this is the day, that the Lord has made

Today is the day of rest for the week. Today I am delivered from this chaotic position of 'doggy-sitter'.

For the past two days, I have had my parents two boston terriers. The little one has 'terrorized' my household with misplaced poops, chewings here and there on rugs and flip flops, and has tried to take on Hector several times. I am tired. They should be tired too - where is all this energy come from? Will they finally burn out from ripping around the house, up and down stairs?

How about trying to settle three dogs of different natures for the evening? Ummm. . . lets just say that I have not slept very well these nights. Is this what life is like with kids? (Believe me, I still would rather have kids!)


So anyway, that was my weekend, dogsitting and trying to finish a couple of things before my hubby comes home. WOHOO - TUESDAY!!!!


I have a ton of pictures I need to upload from last weekend's family trip to Six Flags, and some other things. :)

Happy Sunday to everyone!

Of these little breakdowns

Thank you Lord for these tears, for tears help me to appreciate smiles all the more.

Thank you Lord for surprising me, for challenging me, for stretching me in ways I never thought I could be stretched. It may hurt for a while, but it is for a purpose good and wondrous.

Thank you for teaching me to wait on You. Life has such ups and downs, uncertainties and hiccups. Thank you for being Constant.

. . . and yes, even for these little breakdowns

Of days grown short

There doesn't seem a lot to tell of lately. I am working (undercover) on the house, and it is almost done. I am getting excited about how its looking too ;) I will post pictures, AFTER AFTER AFTER my love comes home ;)

And the countdown, yes, the countdown. But I suppose you probably don't really care as much as I do about that. Its 9 days, by the way. ;)

Hector just begged me to let him out so that he could chase a poor bunny dizzy around our yard. That dog is driving me insane. (My brother is convinced that its because we named him Hector.)

Is tonight a full moon night? Just wondering - he is turning into such a wolfy-beast.

Today, after church, I met with the family to go see the Bourne Ultimatum - go see it, its great! It was the best of the bunch so far, I think.

I spent the rest of the afternoon going through a big box full of pictures from all sorts of things; high school graduation, baby pictures, family reunions, college days, our old house in CA, my parents wedding pictures, my grandmother's wedding reception, the horse I had in high school, etc, etc. Such memories - I am hoping to scan a ton of these!

Well, I am waning, the dog is whining, and this post is whittling.
Goodnight :)

Cuz there's a little bit of something me, in everything in you

I didn't expect the rainstorm today, I didn't expect to be sad this evening. You might laugh if you saw us now . . . my pup and I are mopey tonight - Big Daddy ain't here :( Hector won't eat his dinner - I dunno if he is just being picky or if he is depressed. . .

This evening, I got some groceries, Hector got a long walk, and now its time to wind down. Its hard to wind down when you are so wound up . . .

Sigh.

I am looking at a crystal candy jar that holds 100 precious strips of paper that Haven wrote for me, when we were 100 days away from getting married. I keep it in a place where I can easily grab one at random and remember how much he loves me.

And, as if just to remind me again, another card came in the mail today, postmarked from Kansas, from my own Alert roofing man. Oh, how I love that guy.

So, I end in the land of random. Such is life these days.

Missing you in a thousand ways

Finding this card in my mailbox brought a :) to my face.

P.S. I still miss him . . . :(

Trying to get back to the place you helped me to find

Hi.

Its funny how I can't remember what life was like before marriage. And mind you, I was not a miserable single.
I didn't expect to get married right after college, it just sort of . . .happened. No, it was not a mistake either. Haven surprised me out of the blue. Or maybe I was just a daft gal. At any rate, single life shriveled quickly right after we graduated.

Anyway, I don't want to ramble on being alone - I might as well go sulk in some puddles while I am at it ;)

I am watching 'Shall We Dance' right now. Anybody seen it? I dunno if I like the premise so far.

So, I am working on several little projects while my DH is away. No peeking ;) Hint: it involves color (what else is new?)


Okay, there are all thoughts random. I am off to walk-take-off-on-a-dead-run my hyperactive dog.

Goodnight :)