absent much..

holy cow it has been a whirlwind couple of weeks

my biggest and best excuse is 

MY BOY IS HOME!!!!

so if there is any homework putting off to do...it's been spent with him :)

otherwise the usual school, work, student teaching stuff.

however we did somehow manage to sneak home for a bit for the holidays

and when i say bit...it's more of a bit of a bit

we drove a total of eleven hours to be in our home town for less than twenty-four 

it was a crazy, fast paced but much needed adventure.

the in-laws...aren't we a cute bunch?

here's our other 'christmas card worthy' picture

my parents were being beach bums in mexico

so we spent our quick thanksgiving with the boy's side of the family.

of course a trip home wouldn't be 'a trip home' without seeing all my favorite kids

henry and his so serious face :)

couldn't catch a picture of ty without it being blurry..haha what's new!

my sweet sweet god daughter.

thanksgiving morning the boy, his best friend and i ventured out to the brand new swanky safeway in town

picked up some doughnuts and starbucks for our good friends and surprised them with a 

'thanksgiving miracle' if you will.

first doughnut experience for peyton...she was a happy girl.

...alright...

well i did take the morning off so i could bust out some assignments

...weird that i somehow found myself doing the blog thing... :)

i can't wait to catch another break and catch up on my blog reading

and add some christmass'ness to the home

{currently there is candy corn, snowmen and framed leaves on my shelves}

poor apartment is confused. 

happy belated thanksgiving.

reuniting

things i love thursday

being reunited with your love

today was the homecoming for the husband of my favorite friend

the next best thing to being reunited with your own boy

 is seeing someone else being reunited with theirs

ESPECIALLY these two. 

{RECAP}

two years ago i walked into sign language and nicole was wearing a jeremy camp shirt

i always thought she was the 'cool' girl in class and that day i made my move

i asked, 'do you love jesus?'

she replied, 'yes'

that class we were let out early, so we went for a bite to eat and kill time till our next class

we ended up talking through nicole's lecture...oops!

just so happened we both loved jesus as well as 

her boyfriend {at the time} was looking into national guard reserves 

and my husband was investigating coast guard

....hmmm kawinkydink...i think not...JESUS.

since the moment our friendship blossomed 

she married that boy and together we got through

two sets of boot camp, almost two sets of a-school {one more day for me}

and for my dear friend survived one very very long deployment

which i believe gets a round of applause..so go ahead and clap away :)

happy reuniting mr. and mrs.

i am so proud and thankful for all you have done. 

things i love thursday

for the second ever things i love thursday

skype

the boy and i probably get to skype between one to three times a week

{depending on our schedules}

some times he watches me do the dishes

other times we attempt to watch an episode of the office on hulu

and tonight he helped me with my crafting

{i'm attempting to do the picture on the wood thing}

i learned everything about a two by eight piece of wood a girl would ever need to know :)

i now know how to buy, cut, sand and talk to the home depot guy.

what would i do without that boy?

what would i do without my skype?? 

visiting virginia

{so the trip was about four weeks ago...better late than never}

leaving

begins thursday when i completed my exam on direct instruction. seconds after handing in my essay and shutting the classroom door, i did the biggest happy dance known to man in the hallway and preceded to skip to my parking spot with the most goofiest smile on my face :) i flew from sunset to sunrise and made it to virginia mid morning.

 day one with my boy

the boy was still in class when i checked into the hotel so i attempted to get a nap in...but as you can guess my excitement got the best of me and the nap barely happened. then finally three o'clock came. that same goofy smile took me all the way to base where i picked up my boy. it was a little too perfect, i waited for him to by the rental car while blake shelton's honey bee played on the radio...cheesy i know, but i was eaten it up! then i saw him...best feeling ever. we spent the rest of the day just hanging out...so amazing to just hang out with no time line just us. my treat {besides me being there} was no pictures the first day...he was pretty happy :) on our way to the hotel we stopped by hardee's...just to make sure it tasted like our carl's jr. later on we drove to williamsburg on search for the perfect dinner. after about an hour we settled upon new york deli and pizza {recommended by his advisor} and it was DELICIOUS. it was a perfect pizza date. we demolished our food, sipped on beer and eavesdropped on people's conversations, he teased me and i missed it. during this time the biggest spider i've every seen in real life came creeping into the deli...GROSS to say the least, i mean it was thumb to index finger circle big. by the time i was able to get the words..ummmm spider spider huge out of my mouth the boy had already accidentally smashed it with his sandal. phew crisis averted.

day two with my best friend

time for busch gardens with the beautiful military discount...aka FREE. we spent our day riding roller coasters, eating overpriced food and lots and lots of laughing. we purchased a locker for my purse and camera so i could ride the coasters carefree. however we didn't get back to the locker until dusk. we quickly grabbed the camera, found someone to take our picture and posed a few times....but then when i went to check the pictures i realized that none of them saved because i forgot the memory card :( i tried so hard to not be super bummed, but i was so BUMMED. then after one of our rides i saw a photo booth...gave the boy  my best please eyes and he agreed to fork out the five dollars and sit in a little booth...something that is not typically his cup of tea...he's so good to me! we waited for a bunch of pre-teens to take their top model pursed lips pictures. then they were done, took a good look at us and told the boy 'you guys look sooooo cute together' ... are you imagining the valley girl accent?? any who we took  the compliment :) and we stepped into that germ infested photo booth and took our...just 'us' pictures. ha then i was being miss know it all and thought i could handle the selection of boarders and accidentally selected our bff background...sorry love you were right 'enter' is different than 'back' oops. after we rode the coasters til fifteen after close we made our way back to the car and the drive back. but before we crashed at the hotel we picked up some taco bell...because what would a late night be without taco bell??

day three with hubby

lazy perfect morning...then went to virginia beach for the day. first virginia aquaruim...my new favorite place! ohmygoodness those turtles, hearing kids yell 'look look it's dora', the scary sharks about to pound through the glass and eat me, those stinkin' otters and seriously cuttlefish rock my world! i stared at them for ever waiting for my fav little guy to change colors...and he did :) AND the boy's new mission was to look up cool cuttlefish youtube videos for me all day...have i mentioned he's the best? yup, the cuttlefish is my new favorite animal/mammal/fish.

after we got our marine animal fix...we headed over to the beach and found a yummy out door, by the beach, happy hour, did i mention super yummy food restaurant?? we hung out, goofed off, filled up on seafood appetizers and beer. then grabbed our sweatshirts from the car and took walk on the beautiful east coast beach. 

  

i love the beach...both of us grew up living only miles away from it and its so nice to see no matter the coast :) we then drove back to newport news, picking up some cold stone on the way. we had a coupon for buy one get one, so the boy thought it would be a great idea for both of us to get the 'i gotta have it' size...getting the most out of our money {duh}, insisting that he would finish mine...which i did all by myself mind you! we took our dripping ice cream back to the hotel, got tummy aches and watched all the episodes we were behind on for the office. pretty perfect day huh?

day four with him

well it was monday...so we woke up early, ate our complementary breakfast and i dropped him off at school. i went back to bed for a few hours and caught up on my missed sleep from the flight over. then i got up and ventured over to yorktown for the day. so so beautiful! i love the historical'ness...i love the water...i love the bricks and ships and i love the old people holding hands...oh man just soaked it all up with my coffee in hand. it was just peaceful...i sat on a bench on the waterside for about an hour just being still. watching all the old couples holding hands, thinking how amazing it's going to be when we are old, still goofy in love and holding hands...that's going to be pretty stinkin' cool :) i finished my coffee and found myself at 'stars and stripes' the souvenir and very VERY conservative shop. ha...for example one of the buttons said 'republican hottie'. i decided to buy an ornament to represent the trip, we did the same thing for when he graduated boot camp. then when purchasing it i chatted up the owner and compared cat stories with him for about twenty minutes. well three o'clock came around again and it was time to go pick up the boy from school :) :) we drove over to fort eustis because i had never been on an army base before and had my absolute love...salted caramel hot chocolate with extra 

goodness at the base's starbucks. YUM. we drank the yummy'ness and drove around base. then we got some shopping done for him and went out dinner. the boy and i headed back to the hotel and packed up his stuff...spent a few more hours together..but then it was elevenish...time to take him back. he had class in the morning and i had a six am flight to catch. it was hard saying goodbye...as usual. but different hard this time around, usually he's the one leaving me,and for the first time i left him. but it was all worth it. we had so much fun and it was just the break i needed from school and life. because as we all know, life is harder and just not as fun when your boys gone. we are actually now at a ten day count down til he graduates and comes home...almost there :) then we will be done with him leaving...for a while at least. he will have a few weeks year of training, then deployment is looking about two years out. but right now i'm focused ten days...ten days and he's home:)

my morning off

first morning off in forever and i made a 

no homework rule

for the morning at least.

 so i made a birthday package for my sister

which meant i finally got to make my forever 'pinned'

cake pops

i reused my plastic mayo jar

{soaked it super well}

filled it will curling ribbon, pixie sticks,cake pops 

and a birthday note of course

then mailed it off.

hurray for harvest

so i debating on bringing out the christmas decor

just because it took me this long to finally make my home autumnish

but i thought, better late than never

with these few hours i'll at least bring out a few fall things

before i go gun-hoe on christmas.

yes i know halloween is over

but i've been wanting to do this forever

and actually bought the supplies about two months ago

dollar tree tea light holders turned upside down,

filled with candy corn and tea lights placed on top.    

soo not much, but accompanied with my candied caramel pecan candle

makes me happy girl :)

bytheway...thank goodness for pinterest!

all the ideas i couldn't get to this year...are stored for the next

i love that!

things i love: thursday

phew i made it.

this past week has flown by yet felt like eternity at the same time

how does that even happen??

well here we go, my first...

things i love: thursday

i love candles

i love the smell, the flicker, the glow

oh i love them.

so i found this candle at walmart last month for $4.96

i smelled it and thought 'eh i'll give it a try'

usually i stay away from cheaper candles

but i figured it was martha so i would give her a shot :)

and ooohhh man do i LOVE it!

the second i get home, i light it.

i walk to get the mail and can smell it from my window.

candied caramel pecan...yum.

so a couple days ago i ran by good ole' walmart and picked up more

two candles for under ten dollars...i think YES.