Half a Decade!

Happy Anniversary Justin!!! I realize that with our time difference, it's already 30 May for you. For those of you wondering why I picked a picture where my eyes aren't completely open, this is one of the few shots where Justin actually smiled! Love you Hon! Wow, life has definitely been an adventure the past five years! Our dating days were definitely adventurous, as we weren't very outward about the fact we were dating. With Justin being a youth minister, there were always tons of teenagers to speculate and try to play matchmaker. We were trying to keep the fact that we were dating somewhat of a secret, as we didn't want things to be awkward at church if for some reason we didn't work out. I love that I made Justin break his rule of "No dating church members!" A quick note in his defense: I was NEVER in his youth group :) .
Shortly after our first anniversary, I graduated college. We decided this was the time for Justin to go back to seminary. I had never really moved before, so the whole moving thing was adventurous. We had actually planned on Justin going to seminary in New Orleans, but Katrina changed those plans. Right around our second anniversary, Justin got his first pastorate at Lucas Grove Baptist Church (Love y'all!). What a change from being a youth pastor! Sometime in 2007, we began to feel that God was calling Justin to be a chaplain in the military. At this point, we weren't exactly sure in which branch he would serve. After much prayer, God told us Justin was to be an Army chaplain. We filled out all the paperwork, he was approved, and June of 2008, Justin left for training at Ft. Jackson, SC. At this point, I was roughly 5.5-6 months pregnant with our first child. With much help from family, I found a house near Ft. Hood, TX. Justin finished CHBOLC (chaplaincy training) early September and arrived here a little under two weeks before our son, Isaac, was born. Justin left for Iraq in December. Life has DEFINITELY been an adventure due to deployment. Life hasn't always been easy, and there will be many more tough times along the way.
Life has definitely been exciting the past five years. I am blessed to have a husband whose faith in God is rock-solid and who is an encouragement to me, spiritually and emotionally. Thank you Justin for the past five years. I look forward to many more together...even if it means you living past 80!

My Future's So Bright...

Let's start off with an EXTREMELY belated (well, only 15 days!) birthday greeting to my brother, a.k.a. Uncle Z. I dressed Isaac in his "I Love My Uncle Z" onezie on my brother's birthday. Isaac does look a little unhappy, but he is preparing to eat. If you've ever seen Isaac around mealtime, you know how anxious and excited he gets once he figures out it's time to eat. It looks like Isaac is reaching out to the camera to give Uncle Z a hug...how sweet! These are some really cute pictures Lynn took while keeping the babies one day. She bought all three boys a pair of sunglasses designed for infants. They look so cute! As you can tell, Isaac seemed to enjoy wearing them, even if his friends didn't. Kudos to Lynn for managing to have three babies at least partially wearing sunglasses simultaneously!

What a sweet smile!


Poor child! He didn't even mind when his Mommy didn't get his glasses on all the way.

It is almost time for school to be out. Justin's parents came to visit this past weekend and have taken Isaac back to Mississippi with them. They've done this to help free my schedule these last few busy weeks of school...and I'm sure it's also so they can enjoy time with their grandbaby! Both sets of parents (mine and Justin's) have been extremely helpful in so many ways during the deployment.

Speaking of deployment, I realized something really neat just the other day. I was feeling kind of bummed about Justin not being here to celebrate our fifth anniversary. I got my planner out of my purse so I could update it. While doing so, I realized that I get to erase the "2" in the hundreds place of Isaac's countdown chalkboard and change it to a "1" on our anniversary! Coming to this milestone will definitely help when it comes to spending the rather significant milestone without Justin. Having friends over for supper will also help this Friday. I'm so glad Friday has seemed to work better for everyone than our initially scheduled day!

I'm uploading Justin's April pictures to Picasa Web Albums. Apparently, most of them in the "March_April Iraq" album were from March. Some of the ones in the new album I'll create are going to be duplicates, but there are also some new ones.

Sweet!

OK, I know some of you are wondering exactly how sleep-deprived I am for posting this picture. As part of my Christmas gift, Justin gave me a box of Godiva truffles. I love, love, LOVE chocolate! Anyway, we exchanged gifts early while his parents were still in town for Thanksgiving. A few days later, we had an evening at home where we cooked, talked, watched a movie, etc. That evening, I had one of the truffles and told him I was going to save the rest for a special occasion. Well, the special occasions were the 14th of each month, the date on which another month of the deployment had passed. The last truffle (chocolate souffle -- yum!) was delicious, but seeing this empty box was even sweeter. We are five whole months into the deployment! That's almost half-way!!!

Veni, Vidi, Vici!

Woo hoo! I've finally conquered the Picasa (Blogger web albums) conundrum. Apparently, I downloaded a version of Picasa newer than their instructions for how to handle things offline. Changes were made to the security settings on the album of pictures Justin sent, and now they should be ready for you to view! Just remember, you get to the albums by clicking on the "My Picture Albums" link on the right side of the page. You may not need that reminder; I just know I forgot how to access the albums without being signed in. As I learn more about the pictures, I'll add any appropriate explanations as Comments on the pictures. Enjoy!

Picasa

Oh my goodness! I have FINALLY downloaded the program Picasa, which is used to post pictures to the blog. I've even imported a ton of pictures from March and April in Iraq. I've even synched them with the web...but I can't figure out how to make them public! Hang in there, all...as soon as I figure it out, there are several really interesting pictures from Iraq you will be able to see.