A year ago...

A lot has changed in the last year.  I've grown, Casey's grown, and now he's almost home!  

As you might have guessed, today marks the 1 year anniversary of Casey's enlistment into the Air Force.  I'm SO incredibly proud of him and all that he has accomplished in the last year.  And although it's been a very difficult year, I'm amazed at how wonderful and fulfilling God has made it.

Being apart hasn't been easy, but God has provided us both with refuge and comfort.  I know now why he put this path before us.  To teach us. To guide us. And to show us how to trust Him.  It's been hard, but SO SO worth it!

And now that it's coming to a close, I can't help but be excited for where God is leading us next.  Casey will be home in 8 days, and a new chapter in our lives will begin...and I'll be able to put my "living alone" days behind me (at least for a little while!).

HAPPY 1 YEAR ANNIVERSARY, BABE!  

2 weeks...

That's how long I have until the hubby is home!!  Just 14 more days until I can see him again.  14 days till I can hold him.  That's also only 2 more weeks of keeping my emotions in check.  'Cause if you're wondering how I'm feeling...it's pretty much calm, reserved, and numb. 

I pretty much shut myself off to deep emotions when Casey is gone, it's a defense mechanism, and it's necessary.  Since day 1, God has guarded my heart against all extreme emotions, and I don't think I could have made it otherwise.  Even when we first said goodbye at the terminal, it felt like I was watching myself walk away from him...and that God had stepped in to take my place, emotionally.  I don't recall making any decisions, one moment we were saying goodbye, and the next moment I was watching myself walk away.  

It's the same for Casey, whenever he has to leave me, he shuts off his emotions too...we call it military mode, but it's pretty much the same thing.  He morphs into Airmen Perkins, who is all about the mission...not emotions.

All this low-emotion stuff might sound cold and heartless, but it's become crucial to my post-Casey survival.  Otherwise, I would be crying myself to sleep every night, wondering how I could possibly go on...and I don't need that!  

Don't get me wrong though, I am extremely excited to have my husband home.  I miss him, and love him, and can't wait to hold him (nothing could remove those feelings).   It's been hard and lonely without him here to comfort me and cheer me up.  I'm more than ready to have him home (heck, I'm down-right ecstatic), I'm just not allowing myself to get my hopes to high...just to find out he has to stay another week (which is totally possible with the military).

And I've found that instead of dealing with the onslaught of new emotions, I've been throwing myself into home repairs...desperate to finish things in time for Casey to be home.  It helps me process things a little more clearly, for example:

-Once I get this work done=Casey will be home!!  
-I'll have two rooms completely finished in the house= and Casey will be home!!
-The yard is coming together=Casey will be home to enjoy it!!

It's like I'm working towards a goal.  Like all the repairs I do, bring him home faster.  That's nonsense I know, but that's how my brain is choosing to process it!  So I'll humor myself a little longer, and finish up those projects, in hopes that it will fill my time till he gets here.

If you know me, you know I HATE working a garage sale.  It probably has something to do with sitting out in the hot sun for hours on end, and never making any money.  So I usually just donate stuff to goodwill.  But God has been laying a burden on my heart to serve the less fortunate, and it seems like a garage sale might be the best way!!

So a few weeks back, I brought up the idea of a yard-sale-as-a-service-project to my Girls Bible Study...and miracle beyond miracle, they all LOVED the idea!!  Woo Hoo for not doing this on my own!!  We've dubbed it "Garage Sale for God"!!  The dates have already been set (June 16-18 to coincide with our local Delano District Garage Sale), and the location (My friend's house).  So all that's left is to start purging all of our junk!! 

If you're interested in helping, please message me, or check out our event on facebook.  My hope is to raise at least $300-$600 (how awesome would it be, if we could raise even more!?!).  ALL proceeds will be used to further God's kingdom (either through a charity donation or a pay-it-forward type event).  That's right, we aren't making a penny off it...we want to give that money to someone who could really use it!

So, if you're interested in contributing, we would love the help or donation!!  It's always exciting to see God take an idea, and change it into an awesome way to serve others and himself.  And that's what we're praying for this event.  So if you can't contribute, or help, please consider praying!!

It's ALIVE!!!

Or at least, that's what the "Dr. Frankenstein commentary" in my head is saying!  

You see, I have the absolute latest blooming Irises in the world.  They like to take their sweet time and grow and grow and GROW until they're  HUGE!!  I kid you not, the blooms can easily get 3 ft. tall!!  So they usually don't make their appearance until late Spring, but they stick around for quite a while into Summer (which most Irises don't do).  

Seeing those first few blooms pop up gets me really excited, and I tend to spend more time outdoors (or at least looking out back!).  

I have two varieties of Iris in my garden, a deep purple and a bright white.  The purple Irises have been there the longest and have become extremely well established.  They were a gift from my Mother-in-law a few years after we moved into our house (and were the first flowers I ever grew...AWWW!)  The white ones came from my sister's yard when they re-did a flower bed.  So if you're keeping count that's a whole flower bed for free!!!!  

And although the white ones have some growing to do still, they too are taking off nicely!  When I added the white Irises, I knew there was a chance that the two breeds might eventually merge and create a hybrid (way way way on down the line).  I didn't have very high hopes, because I had been told that it was pretty rare.


Well, low and behold, the first flowers to shoot up and bloom this year was a hybrid!!!!

 

Isn't it gorgeous!! I mean WOW!!  

That's right, my two breeds bedded down, got their mac on, and created this beautiful little hybrid baby!!  Take that statistics!!! Point: God!!!!




 

Family Ties

At some point or another, we all hit an epiphany in home decorating.  It might be to try new colors, or take a chance on a bizarre piece of furniture, or to just go green.  As for me, my light-bulb moment has been staring me in the face for years (I'm just slow and didn't catch on quickly).  And once it hit me, there was no way to go back to my old way of decorating.


But enough of the round-the-bush talk, here's what I mean.  


I was walking around my house the other day (taking inventory of what STILL needed to be done), when I started noticing my "favorite" things in my home.  Overwhelmingly, the scale was always tipped towards a hand made item...or a hand-me-down.  I'd never really noticed it before, but the more I thought about it, the more special each of those items became.  Just like taking pride in the hard labor work we put in the house, these items had special meaning to me.  


And yes, I am a huge sentimentalist when it comes to family history.  I love the steamer trunk that belonged to my great-grandmother (Colton calls it his "special grandmother's"!!), the set of books that Casey's great-grandfather once owned, or the side table my Dad built...these items are the ones worth keeping and passing on to the next generation.  


Which all ties into my latest decorating project:

 If you remember (from some previous post), I had found these forgotten prints in my office when I was doing some Spring-purging a few weeks back.  They were part of a coloring book set (pictured below), and had once belonged to Casey's grandmother.

I never got to meet Casey's grandmother, but I've heard enough stories about her to be drawn towards her.  She was an artist (like me), as well as a art teacher at the school I would eventually attend (small-world side note:  some of my parent's friends actually had her for a teacher).  And although Casey doesn't remember a lot about her, he always talks about her with the greatest affection...which makes me love her that much more!!

So it was a huge honor to be gifted, not only with these prints, but one of her paintings as well(which will eventually get framed in the office...more on that at a later date).

Getting back on topic, I knew I wanted to showcase these adorable prints...and so, after some planning and a new set of frames,  I finally found the perfect place for them, in my bathroom:

I love taking a bath now, and glancing over to see this beautiful arrangement.  It totally makes my day!

And if your wondering how this-whole-shebang changed my decorating style; it helped me to realize that hand made items and hand-me-downs are going to be my new go-to's.  I don't think I'll ever want to go back to store bought decorations again!