30 Days of Thanfulness {Days 7&8}

Each day this month I'm joining up with Katie to share with you the many things I am thankful for. I'd love to hear what you're thankful for.

Day 7: I'm thankful that my hard work and perseverance finally paid off.  I was offered a fantastic job this week!  I hope to be able to share the details with you next week.


Day 8: I'm thankful that my computer has been "fixed" (still not sure exactly what that means but I'll find out in a few days) and is on its way to me right now.  I'm glad my husband has allowed me to use his over the past couple weeks but this thing hates me and I cannot wait to have my computer back!

30 Days of Thankfulness {Day6}

Each day this month (except weekends) I'm joining up with Katie to share with you the many things I am thankful for. I'd love to hear what you're thankful for.

Day 6: Today I'm grateful for my loving, caring, supportive, and understanding husband.

Not only did I leave him alone all day Saturday for our milspouse blogger lunch date but I also ditched him on Friday night for some quality girl time with my friend, Kara.

There is a local craft fair held in this area called Queen Bee Market.  Kara said it best when she said it was like Etsy in real life.  Vendors were set up selling all variety of goods that you'd find on Etsy.  In conjunction with this craft fair, the ladies of Elevate Blog Conference hosted a Girls Night Out event.

The $10 ticket price covered our entry into the craft fair, provided us with lots of fantastic discounts & free gifts at many of the vendors and include all the fun girls night out activities.  The GNO area included stations where you could make your own peppermint sugar scrub, paint your nails, get make up tips, and have a skin consultation.  They also provided snacks and lemonade.  The highlight for me was the guest speaker, Ashley from the Shine Project.  She gave a wonderful little speech about inner beauty and how to be a better (and more beautiful) person.  Her heart of service really spoke to me.

 

Ashley speaking to the group.

 After our make up consultations.  I wish you could see the lashes this lady put on me, they were out of this world long and curly!

 

Yummy snacks.

 We both left at the end of the night with some pretty great "swag" (the urban dictionary definition of this word is hilarious!).

 

Postcards from Zoe Clothing Company

Bag of buttons and a giant book mark from Vintage Soul Designs

Earrings from LovePray Jewelry

Bee Keychain from Cinnamon Sticks

Necklace from Junk Art Gypsyz.

 

I also picked up a baby shower gift from So Cuties and a Christmas gift from another vendor.  We enjoyed our girls night out!

30 Days of Thankfulness {Day5}

Each day this month (except weekends) I'm joining up with Katie to share with you the many things I am thankful for.  I'd love to hear what you're thankful for this month.

Day 5:
I'm thankful for my family.  I miss them all so much right now and would give anything to be back in Cincinnati with them, especially during the holidays.

My brother and his new wife recently received all their photos from their wedding.  Even though I was incredibly sick the whole weekend, it felt so good being surrounded by so many people that I love.  All of these photos are courtesy of Patrick Banfield Photography.

My sister and I helping the bride into her gown.

 

My beautiful sister-in-law and me.

 

This photo cracks me up.  If you look closely at all of the faces, 3 of them are almost identical and they are me (about 6 o'clock), my brother, Brad (about 10 o'clock), and my brother, Craig (about 12 o'clock).  I'm sure my sister would have been making the same face if you could see her (she's just peeking over around 2 o'clock).

 

My handsome hubby and baby brother.

 

My brother is a lucky man.

 

These guys.

 

My other sister-in-law did a fantastic job arranging rose petals in the aisle.

 

Me, walking down the aisle.  I'm so happy you can't tell how many drugs are in my system at this moment. (all legal/prescribed)

 

Funny story.  This is the same guy who married Jason and I almost 6 years ago at our official ceremony.  They had no idea they'd chosen the same guy.

 

My heart bursts with love for these people.

 

SISTERS!  All of us, officially now!

 

My siblings and I.  I have no idea how I got so lucky.

 

My brother is a horrible actor, but this is still adorable!

 

Perfect end to a perfect day!

30 Days of Thankfulness {Day 4}

Each day this month (except weekends) I'm joining up with Katie to share with you the many things I am thankful for.  I'd love to hear what you're thankful for.  Won't you join us?

Day 4:
I'm thankful to know, and have the support of, this blogging community. 

This weekend, I met up with some of my favorite local milspouse bloggers for the second time.  We gathered at South Coast Winery in Temecula, participated in a short tasting, then had lunch.  Nicole nailed her description of our relationship.  I feel like I've known these women forever (although we've only hung out twice) and their support and encouragement means the world to me.  I think it helps that we know a bit about each other from reading the other's blogs and then we also have that special connection that I believe is unique to military spouses.

Just like our first meet up, we had a fabulous day, the conversation was easy and the food and wine were delicious.

 

The girls making wine tasting selections.

 

I'm not a wine drinker but there was one wine here that I could have finished a glass of, it was so smooth.  Maybe I should have paid attention to what it was.

 

Emily & Katie

 

The grounds at the winery were gorgeous.  A perfect wedding location.

 

Emily, Kara, me, Nicole, and Katie.



 

I cannot say enough about these ladies.  They're amazing!  We're already planning our next get together in December and we're always looking for more awesome milspouse bloggers to join in our fun.  If you're interested in the details of our next "blate", just shoot one of us an email, we'd love to have you join us!

500

Friends, this is my 500th blog post.  I really wanted to do something fun and memorable for this post but that just hasn't happened.  To say I've been in a funk is so much more than an understatement.  I don't want to go as far as to say I've been depressed, but it's not far off.  I'm struggling to adjust to this move, more so than any of the others in the past.  I know I had similar feelings when I first moved to Japan and look how that turned out, I'm sure I just need more time.  I'm such an outgoing, social person, to have no life outside of my house is brutal!

I knew it was going to be difficult to find a job with the economy the way it is and the gaps in my work history but I had no idea it would be this hard.  Since we left the Army I don't have all the usual activities (PWOC, spouses groups, ACS, unit FRG's, etc.) to fall back on for making friends.  Jason is in school half the day (although, that's dropping to 2 days a week starting this month, so that's good).  I miss my family more than I ever have in my entire life, so much so that it hurts.  It physically makes my heart ache when I think of them.

I won't be defeated though.  I have started volunteering for the USO (I used their services so frequently while traveling as a military spouse, I figured it'd be a great way to give back and stay involved with the military.  Plus, the airport USO is only about 10 minutes from out house here) to get me out of the house a few hours a week.  I've been applying for jobs like crazy and I'm confident someone will soon realize how valuable I am as an employee.  I have a blog redesign in the works which should be coming to you live any day now.  Jason and I joined a softball team with my cousin and some of her friends.  Things are slowly looking up.  I can't wait for this transition phase to just be over though.

In order to help remind myself how blessed I am and attempt to keep some of the self doubt and loneliness at bay, I'll be attempting to joining my new friend, Katie from Going Costal, in her 30 days of thankfulness link up.  Starting today, for the month of November, I'll be sharing something that I'm thankful for with all of you.  The goal is to post something everyday but I may just share them a week at a time.  We'll see.  For now I'm going to attempt to join Katie in posting ever day.


Day 1:
Today I'm thankful for local Asian markets that carry some of my favorite Japanese ingredients so we're able to enjoy our favorite Japanese meals here in America.  Tonight we'll be chowing down on some yummy shabu shabu!