Micki and John

One of my best teacher friends, Micki, got married the last weekend of June.  Micki used to be my "partner-in crime" back in the day!  Good,old Struble Blue Jay teachers!  The photo below was taken right before I started dating Josh, when Micki and I took a vacation on Spring Break to Destin, FL.  The trip with her was a blast, and I will never forget it!

Micki and John got married at a beautiful estate in Aurora, IN.  The wedding was so charming, and the reception was one of the best I have been to.  Here is a picture of the adorable bed and breakfast where the wedding was held.

Micki looked breathtaking, and John so handsome!  They make such an awesome couple!  And I LOVED her dress...she looked so gorgeous!

This is the Micki I know...crazy girl climbed out on the roof looking for her groom! 

                          Look at how happy they are!

These are my girls!  Kristin (she teaches at Struble too...my other great friend!), Micki, and myself...I miss seeing their smiling faces everyday at school!

Micki and John, I wish you all the happiness in the world!  You make a gorgeous couple, and will make the most beautiful babies...better be popping some out soon!  Kristin, I hope you gave her the "fertility idol," or whatever it's called, lol! Love you, girl! Congratulations, and thank you for including me in your special day! 

J.O.S.H.

So I promised I would catch up on some things that happened this past month, and I will...but I actually didn't get our computer back until a couple days ago.  It took FOREVER to get it fixed.  Well, not actually forever, but when your hubby is deployed, and it is one of your primary means of communicating with him, it feels like FOREVER!  Anyhow, I do have it back now, and I just have to make the time to sit down and download some pictures back onto it, and then I will catch up on posting.  But for now, I just wanted to tell you all about J.O.S.H., a non-profit organization started by Josh's Aunt Kathy.  Kathy is on a mission to mail care packages to our troops serving in Afghanistan and Iraq.  She started focusing mostly on Josh's Troop, but now ships to as many of our Armed Forces as she can.  She has shipped over 300 packages so far, since Josh deployed in December.  Please take a moment to visit her blog, as she just wants to spread the word about J.O.S.H., and find as many supporters as she can so she can continue her mission of serving the men and women who are sacrificing so much for our great country.  Thank you, Kathy, for all you are doing in support of our brave military men and women!

The Inevitable...

I hate complaining because in all honesty, we have been and continue to be so incredibly blessed, and while this deployment has been tremendously difficult on Josh, myself, and the boys, the Lord has continued to show His faithfulness, and provide for us all.  For that I am forever grateful.  So, all I will say is that we have been having some computer (and car) problems.  Just the inevitable things that I am no good at fixing, that are very costly, and that ALWAYS seem to happen when your husband is gone for a long period of time (you fellow Military wives know EXACTLY what I'm talking about).  We now have our fixed (and hopefully no more problems with them until Josh gets home...knock on wood) computers (and car) back, and I am gonna try to catch up on some exciting things that happened this month!  I will try to catch up on my infrequent blogging soon! :-)

Thank You!

Happy Independence Day!  Just wanted to take this opportunity to thank all the brave men and women who serve in the Armed Forces to protect our wonderful country, and our freedom!  We are so appreciative of your great sacrifice!  Josh, we are so proud of you, and miss you so much!  We love you!  Thinking about you and praying for you constantly!

Also, Happy Birthday to my new sister, Kelly (wedding date 7-2-11)!!!  Hope you have a fabulous day!

(wedding post coming soon)

SYTYCD

So anyone who knows me well knows I LOVE to dance!  And they know that my favorite show ever is So You Think You Can Dance!  Last night one of the routines had me crying like a baby...and I am not normally an emotional type of girl.  But this just reminded me of my wonderful, brave husband, and perfectly told the story of all the emotions you go through when your husband comes home from war.  I cannot wait to be reunited and have the chance to reconnect with him again.  I love you, Josh, and am so proud of you!  Counting down the days until you are home safe!

Awesome choreography by Nappytabs...LOVE them!

Hot, Hot, Hot!

Now that the weather here is finally sunny and hot the way we like it, the boys and I are having some fun in the sun! We have been spending lots of time playing outside in the water, and I took the boys to the Fort Knox "Water Park" a couple days ago.  Ty is now obsessed, and asks to go back to the Water Park every day (it doesn't help that we live near it and drive past it every time we go anywhere)!  We have been staying very busy, and time seems to be going by pretty quickly. 

Josh is doing good too.  We have been blessed to be able to skype quite often, and though he is overworked and tired, he is always in good spirits.  It is weird to think we are about halfway through this deployment.  It has gone by so quickly, yet so slow at the same time.  I don't think anyone but fellow Army wives who have been there, done that will really understand what that means.  We are so incredibly anxious to have Josh home safely, and are counting down the days until he will be!  Some options are opening up for us as far as his Army career goes...I can't really divulge any details about that right now, just asking for your prayers that God will guide us in making these decisions so we may follow His will.  Thanks to all of you that have been sending Josh letters, emails, care packages, and most importantly, prayers.  He passes on his great appreciation for all your love and support!  

The boys and I have plenty of things to look forward to (mainly weddings!) this summer, and the boys are just two bundles of energy, so there is never a dull moment here!  We are gonna keep on enjoying our summer, and playing outside, and before we know it Josh will be home and we will feel like a family again!  Here are some pics of the boys' new favorite place, doing their new favorite thing:   

Ty laying in the water (I promise, I do feed the kid!  His little ribs are all poking out!)

Caellum loving the water

This is a video of Ty "swimming," and Caellum, well, I have no idea what he is doing! :-)  I guess he's squatting down in the water to get his Buddha-belly wet???

Hope everyone is having a great summer, and staying cool!

Kelly's Weekend!

What a fun weekend I had! It was my sister-to-be's big weekend, and I was honored to be a part of it! It started on Saturday with Kelly (my brother's fiance) and I having fun playing with make-up! I am doing Kelly's make-up for her wedding day, and we had fun just playing with make-up and chatting. I was having so much fun, I lost track of time and almost made us late to the Reds game, which is where we started the night for her bachelorette party. When we got to the stadium, it was raining, but by the time we made it to our seats, the rain had stopped and it was actually sunny out! I hadn't been to a Reds game in years, and I loved every minute of it (it helped that they won, beat the St. Louis Cardinals, yay!). After the game, we walked over to Newport on the Levee, ate dinner at Dewey's Pizza, then danced the night away at Arnie's. On Sunday, was Kelly's bridal shower, and it was a blast too! Mamaw and Papaw Kinsel were nice enough to watch the boys for me overnight Saturday and all day Sunday, so I basically had a weekend away. It was a much-needed break for me, and the first time I have ever slept in since having Tyson almost three years ago! Leaving the boys just one night made me miss them so bad, and I was anxious to get back to them after the shower on Sunday! But the weekend was so fun, it just made me look forward to the wedding day that much more!! Kelly, I hope you had as much as I did! Love you!

Kelly (the bride) and Karianne (the matron of honor)

The whole group of gals after the Reds kicked some Cardinal booty!

The bride and her bridesmaids at Dewey's Pizza

Getting ready to shake our groove thangs at Arnie's

My sister, Mom, and Me

Kelly's mom made this picture (of her new last name). It's really cool!

Her shower was a "cooking/kitchen theme," and Karianne (her matron of honor) made this cute cake

Of course it wouldn't be a proper post without pics of the boys!

Caellum

Ty

On the way to Cincinnati, I stopped at Starbucks and got them each a cookie...had no idea they were going to be the size of their heads! Ty ate the entire cookie! And Caellum, well he wore the entire cookie! Geez! :-)