Camera Heaven

Its official. All problems have been washed away. I am the happiest girl ever. Enough said.

Okay, okay, I'll tell you why I'm so happy. Weston surprised me with my dream camera that I've been wanting forever!  Weston would say things like "Babe, check this out!" and I would jokingly say little obnoxious comments like "oh, gee, I bet I could take an awesome picture of that if I had my camera. . ." I've literally woken him up in the middle of the night to tell him how much I want this camera.

The best part was that he didn't even tell me that he was going to buy it! Saturday night I was pestering him (yet again) about how badly I wanted this camera and he completely played along. He made me show him how the price would break down with all the accessories and told me that we could go look at it on Monday. I thought I was making progress--going in to look (again) was better than nothing. So later that night I went upstairs to see if my phone was charging and I walked into our room and BAM! My camera, books, lens, case, warranty, and accessories were all perfectly laid out on our bed! I audibly gasped. I can honestly say that I have NEVER in my ENTIRE life been this surprised. I mean NEVER! The 15 minutes following the surprise was filled with screaming, squealing, jumping up and down, running in circles, hugging, attacking Weston with kisses and more squealing. My abs and throat hurt. Not exaggerating. (Maybe that's only because I'm so out of shape, but its a fact none the less).

I have really been getting into photography and with the holidays and our upcoming move to Germany, I figured there wasn't a better time to invest in a really nice camera. I've been researching and researching and I finally found my baby. I am so incredibly excited to start working with it! I would also like to begin expanding my portfolio, so if anybody is interested in getting some free pictures done, just let me know! I mean it! I'm dying to play with this thing.

I think that photography is an excellent hobby for someone who moves around a lot.  My plan even before I got this camera was to make a photo book of every duty station we live in.  So by the time we get out of the Army we will have a library of photo albums of our houses, milestone events, landmarks, and all the fun times we had at each duty station.  I want our kids to be able to pull out each book and say "oh, this was the place we lived when I was born!" or "I lost my first tooth in that house!"  While moving to so many different places in such a short period of time can add unwanted stress and sadness, it can also be an amazing blessing and opportunity.  We will meet so many new people, live in all different areas of the world and country, and I want to document every step of the way.

I would love to get to the point where I could turn my hobby into a small business.  We'll see what happens, but people will want and need pictures taken no matter where we live.  Not to mention, its a great business that will easily travel with you.  I have so many big dreams for the future!  Can't wait!

I also can't wait to get home to Arlington, Virginia (a rock toss from Washington D.C.) for Thanksgiving.  I am hoping that we have time to take some pictures of the monuments, Arlington Cemetery (which is honestly one of my favorite places in the world), my beautiful home state, and my family.  We always head out to our cabin in the Shenandoah Valley to celebrate Thanksgiving the Southern way--by deep frying our turkey.  Nothing better.

As silly as it may sound, this camera has given me a new zest for life.  I just want to be able to freeze all the happy moments and take pictures of everything!  So let me know if you're interested in a free photo session, because I'm rearing to go! 

Salad Frenzy

DISCLAIMER: I am not a vegetable/health food weirdo.  I try to have my diet mainly consist of red meat and dairy.  Don't judge me based on this post.  :)

In the last three days or so, I have gone through an entire head of iceberg lettuce (by myself), and 2 containers of mixed baby greens (by myself).  I don't know what's wrong with me, but I can't stop eating salads.  Granted, these aren't boring salads.  I've been eating non-stop goat cheese salads (see, I got my dairy in there somewhere), and Japanese ginger salads.  I call them Japanese salads because I don't know the real name.  You know when you go eat sushi and you get miso soup and a salad before you get your sushi?  Well, there is a sushi place here in Columbus that has the best dressing I've ever had in my entire life.  I finally went in and asked if I could buy it in bulk since I was sick of embarrassing myself by literally bringing the bowl to my lips to drink and lick the remaining dressing out of the bowl every time we go eat sushi.  The owner looked at me like I was on drugs and proceeded to bargain with me on price since they had never sold it before.  I honestly didn't care if she charged me 50 bucks for that dang container of dressing. . .I would pay whatever it took.

If you know me you'll know that I never back down from a bargain.  If I'm buying, I insist on getting my money's worth and if I'm selling something, I intend to pry every penny that its worth out of the buyer.  For example, we've been trying to sell some stuff before we move to Germany since storing things is always a pain.  Wes and I always argue over what we should price stuff as.  He's such a softie.  I always go for the highest price.  I mean, you can always lower the price (making the buyer think that they've conned you into giving them a better deal and therefore making themselves feel better about the purchase), but you can never raise a price.  Makes sense, right?  Right.  

Anyways, I can't stop eating salads.  When we got back from seeing New Moon (can't talk about it right now, still trying to bring my heart rate back down) we had left over ribs from our dinner.  I turned down my left over ribs to eat a salad!  A SALAD people!  BBQ is my kryptonite--I don't know what this new development means, but I'm seriously concerned.  What's happening to me. . .

Grateful Journal

Help! I'm a Military Spouse--I Get a Life Too! is the first of my 10 free military books that I'm reading, and it has already given me some very insightful ideas.  One of these ideas is to start a "grateful journal."  In our ever changing military world we can sometimes be bogged down by the negative things that are happening in our lives that we cannot control.  But what we can control is how we deal with them.  If we switch our focus to the positive things in our life, suddenly our world can seem a little brighter.  While this would help anybody out, I can see how it would be especially crucial to happiness in any military situation where we have very little control on what happens to us.  I'm particularly glad to have read this chapter at this juncture in my life.  Our upcoming move to Germany has proved to be more difficult than ever imagined.  I could list a whole slew of things that have gone completely wrong in the last couple weeks, but I don't think that would jive with the message of this post.   :)

The book listed two different methods in which you can go about starting your grateful journal.
Here they are:
"Method One:  Sit down and write down one hundred things that you are grateful for.  Small and large.  Even if you don't reach one hundred, just working toward that will throw you into that 'wallowing in abundance' mode.
Method Two:  Make a list of ten things for which you are grateful.  Each evening for thirty days, read the list and add one more.  By the end of thirty days you'll be living in abundance thinking." 

So today with gloomy gray weather and Weston gone for a few days, this is my first grateful journal entry:
1.  Goat cheese salad
2.  Hulu
3.  The fact that Kingsley is finally tired and sleeping on the couch
4.  To-do lists that give direction in crazy times
5.  Passing a test that I didn't have time to study for
6.  Dixie being nice for once
7.  Books to read in bed
8.  The ability to see (your vision could always be worse)--I had an eye appointment today
9.  Surviving 11 months of marriage under difficult circumstances
10.  Clean hair

Sexy

I know I've blogged about this stallion before, but can you really blame me?  This is T.J. -- the coolest cat of all time.  Feel free to call him Teejalicious or Tudgey Pudgey, but if you want to really get on his good side, call him sexy.  He doesn't like to be called beautiful or handsome, but when you call him sexy he really gets his purr on. Can't you see why?  He is 24 pounds of pure sexy.  He loves to sleep in sinks and bathtubs (when his eating gets a little out of control and can't fit in the sink anymore), be under the covers, stick his tongue out, lick your head, watch tv, take baths, will only drink running water, bites Kingsley's tail, and his most obvious passion is eating and sleeping.  The best part is. . .he's only 1 1/2 years old.  So there you have it folks--Mr. Tommy Jeffy (although TJ is short for Thomas Jefferson, there are endless possibilities of nicknames for this hunk).

Love

We bought our plane tickets to Utah a couple nights ago, and now my mind is solely geared on CHRISTMAS LEAVE!  Unfortunately, our one year wedding anniversary (December 17) falls during the week that we are moving out of Georgia.  So since we will be sleeping on the floor of an empty townhouse and living out of suitcases, we have moved our anniversary celebration until we get to Utah.  That being said, we thought that it would only be appropriate if we celebrated the big day by going back to where it all happened--Sundance Resort.  All of this talk of Utah, snow, Christmas, and anniversaries compelled me go pull out some of the videos from our wedding extravaganza. . .

My best friend Nicole not only took our fabulous engagement pictures for us, but she also put together the best engagement video of all time.  It was shown in the Sundance Screening room after our ceremony.  I watch it a lot when Weston is gone and it always reminds me how happy I am that I married such a sweet guy.  I swear, this video evokes every possible emotion in me.

The guy who took our wedding video also threw in a free date video, and we had a blast shooting it.  I love popping this thing into the dvd player and sitting back for a good laugh and trip down memory lane.  We filmed it at the tubing hills in Park City, Utah.  Can't wait to go back and tube this hill again in a couple weeks with our dear friends Nate (who will be on Christmas Exodus from Basic Training) and Jenny!  

11.10.09

What makes this date so significant?  Oh, no big deal. . .EXCEPT THE GREATEST VIDEO GAME OF ALL TIME WAS RELEASED!  Okay, okay, so maybe that was a bit dramatic.  But not really.  Maybe the Army knew about the tremendous following of this game (after all, it is called Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2) or maybe it was due to Veterans day, but Wes had both Tuesday and Wednesday off work.  Perfect conditions for staying up all night playing video games.

We went to the midnight release on Post, swung by taco bell, and then headed home to crack some sodas and get playing!  The midnight release was mayhem.  The PX parking lot was jammed full, and the line extended the entire length of the PX food court.  Needless to say, the game is awesome.  We played past 4 in the morning and then when I knew that Wes was sound asleep the next morning I woke up early to sneak down stairs and play some more.  The game has some sweet new co-op levels, and Weston and I have almost beat all of them on normal, hardened, and veteran (degree of difficulty for all you non-gaming nerds).

For all of you that think that video games are a waste of time and will ultimately end up frying your brain to a little empty crisp, I agree to some degree.  I grew up with no tv (until high school when we were only allowed to watch on the weekends) and no video games (until I bought my own xbox360 my sophmore year of high school).  I was forced to find other things to fill my time, and I think it was great.  But I also think that video games are great.  I legitimately think that when Wes and I play together that it can be considered "bonding time."  I love yelling "Honey, on the roof!  On the roof!!" or "GRENAAADDDEEE!"  Weston teases me because I brought the xbox360 and the majority of the video games into our relationship.  You'd think it would be the opposite, but I bought every single one of the Call of Dutys that we own (which is all of them).  So I guess I'm to blame for our little addiction.

Now, don't go thinking that we spend all out time gaming our little hearts out.  We have restricted and rationed video game times (although I'll admit that since this game came out that those rules have gone out the window for a little while) and we are probably one of the most active couples that I know.  We spend most of our time outside or doing fun activities.  Just had to clear that up in case I got a nasty email from my mom saying "I told you video games were a waste of time!"  :)

Moral of the story: if you need to get a hold of either Weston or I, just get on xbox live and try and chat with us that way.  Chances are, we'll be online.

Let's hear it for our VETS!

In 1919, President Woodrow Wilson created Armistice Day as a day to remember the end of World War I.  The war ended on the 11th hour, of the 11th day, of the 11th month--hence why Veterans Day always falls on November 11th.  Congress changed the name to Veterans day in 1954 and made it a legal U.S. holiday to honor all those who have served in our great military.

The Noble and the Brave:
A Veteran's Day TributeWhen America had an urgent need,
These brave ones raised a hand;
No hesitation held them back;
They were proud to take a stand. They left their friends and family;
They gave up normal life;
To serve their country and their God,
They plowed into the strife. They fought for freedom and for peace
On strange and foreign shores;
Some lost new friends; some lost their lives
In long and brutal wars. Other veterans answered a call
To support the ones who fought;
Their country had requirements for
The essential skills they brought. We salute every one of them,
The noble and the brave,
The ones still with us here today,
And those who rest in a grave. So here’s to our country’s heroes;
They’re a cut above the rest;
Let’s give the honor that is due
To our country’s very best.By Joanna Fuchs

My only regret when Veterans day rolls around is the fact that for the rest of the year, the majority of people forget the sacrifices of these brave men and women.  Next time you see someone in uniform, say thank you, buy them a snack, or just give them a pat on the back.  Let them know that you support them and that you're behind them 100%.  They need that.  If you have family that served, call them up and let them know that their prior service has not been forgotten.  

I am so proud to be an American.  We are all truly blessed to live in this fantastic country.  This really is the land of the free because of the brave.  Let's not forget that.