Restless

It's somewhat late; I should've been in bed two hours ago since I have to get up early for work, and I always regret staying up past my bedtime when I have to get up early the next morning. But tonight is just one of those nights where I can't sleep no matter what I do. I miss my husband and all I can do is lay in bed sobbing wishing he was laying next to me keeping me warm. You'd think I'd be used to it by now seeing how he only has two and half months left, but no matter how long he's been gone or how close it is to his homecoming it's just as hard.

Some nights while I'm watching TV, out of nowhere I find tears running down my face. I've had a lot of people tell me that I've been handling this whole thing really well, but what can I do but live each day like it's a normal day? I have to put on a brave face whenever I go out, but when I'm in the privacy of my home that all disappears. Some days are better than others. I'm just doing what I have to do; I don't think my days would change even when Stephen comes home, but it would be a whole heck of a lot easier and more enjoyable. What's incredible is that some nights when we talk on the phone we talk for hours, and other nights we're only on the phone for five minutes. What's up with that? Being forced to carry a conversation over the phone instead of being in the presence of each others company is a little hard--frustrating even-- having to deal with mumbling from both ends, the cutting in and out because of bad reception, and sometimes there's just nothing to talk about so we call just to say I love you and good night. Sometimes that's all I need.

I sure do admire and adore him, though, for going through six months of training--doing his best to provide a good life for our family. Stephen got a 96% (or maybe it was a 98%?)on his last test! I love hearing what he does every day in his classes and what a funny man he is with his training buddies. Everyone seems to love him (who wouldn't?) He makes friends very easily; that's my Stephen! I miss you, good night.

Orchids That Last a Lifetime

 

Orchid blossoms most often last for six to eight weeks in bloom. I have clients at work who have blooming plants (usually orchids) and it is my job to replace them when ever I see that the blossoms are spent.

A few days ago I was at a client's house who has four orchids around her living room and kitchen area. I noticed that they were going to need to be replaced, so I brought four  new orchids with me to the house. Well she was home when I walked in and asked if some of the new orchids were for the ones in her living room. I replied with a yes, and she told me she didn't want them replaced. She got all excited and told me how amazed she was at how long they had been in bloom for and she wanted to see how much farther they would last. She got them for her birthday last July and they were "still blooming"! She went on for about a minute and half at how cool it was that they have lasted this long. I didn't have the heart to tell her that I already replaced those orchids six weeks earlier.

Skinny Jeans

I cannot believe I am actually saying this but.....I bought my first pair of skinny jeans today! What was I thinking?! I swore to myself when these skin-tight jeans became popular that I would never ever own a pair, but Stephen bought me an awesome pair of boots for Christmas and I can't show them off unless I wear skinny jeans and tuck them into my boots. I have now become one of those girls.

I have noticed that my taste and style in clothes has slightly changed  within the past year, and I am now brave enough to try and buy the new clothes that I have secretly liked but been too afraid to admit to liking. I have lost between 8 and 10 pounds since Stephen's disappearance in September so I decided that I could really rock a pair of skinny jeans and thought I may as well buy me a pair now while I can still fit in them before I gain all that weight back and more. Rock on!!

CHRISTMAS!!

Stephen and I really spoiled each other this Christmas, but with all we have gone through this year I'd say we deserved it. After finishing school and Stephen and I both working we figured we could afford to splurge a little. Within the few days Stephen was here we had a lot of fun together--we had our own Christmas with just the two of us on Christmas Eve and Christmas day.
Stephen was so eager to open presents Christmas morning, but I made him wait until after church. Here are a few things we got for Christmas.

 Stephen got a really nice letter opener from Mom and Dad so he tried to open the rest of his gifts with it, lol

 Opening my canister vacuum from Mom and Dad

  Stephen trying to use his LED lantern to find his way

 Sporting my new boots, pajama bottoms, and sweater Stephen picked out for me

 Logan temple I got for Stephen

 The aftermath. Our living room was trashed, as well as the kitchen by the end of the night, but we had so much fun!

Washburn Family Christmas Party 2011

All my pictures turned out really fuzzy, too bad, but Loren and Debbie did a fantastic job on the meal and entertainment this year as always. Santa came for a visit and handed out presents to, not only the kids, but all the adults as well. It was so nice to be with our family, especially Stephen, to make this Christmas a memorable one.

Little Sneaker

I picked Stephen up at the airport last night at 2:00 am and guess what he did as soon as he walked in the door??? He headed straight for the Christmas tree to look at all his presents, ahahaha!!! That cracked me up, so when he was done snooping we went and got into bed--the little sneaker. It's so good to have him home for a few days; if only it was March already....

December Family Home Evening

This last weekend part of my family drove down from Twin for a visit, and I got to take a turn and host family home evening this month. Everyone but Brad and Scott were planning on coming, but, sadly, sick kids and an ice storm prevented my two older brothers from coming. Tim and his family stayed the night for one night, and Becky, Kimball, Mom and Dad came down a few days later. I had been looking forward to this weekend for a month and cleaned and shopped for the occasion the day before so everything would be perfect for my family to feel comfortable staying in my home. With two brothers missing our plans sorta got canceled and we changed everything we were going to do Saturday.

For FHE we were going to walk around temple square to see the lights, but by the time we got out of the restaurant from dinner it was too late, super crowded, and freezing cold outside so we went to the visitor's center to have a lesson and feed the baby, but the building was packed full of people so we ended up leaving in search of a place to have ice cream, but that didn't happen either, lol. These pictures were taken while eating dinner.

 Becky and I were excited to go to the Christmas devotional in the conference center because we have never been in the conference center for conference, so this was our first time going. We got to the doors and waited in line to get in and were told that we had to go to the theater room with the baby, so we watched the devotional on a screen instead of live like we would've liked, but the messages were so good it didn't matter where we were to listen to them.

All of us girls except Mom bought at least one pair of shoes on our little outing on Saturday while the men stayed at the house to watch the kids. Hopefully the next family visit everyone will be able to come; I had a lot of fun making delicious meals for everyone and getting to show off my home and Christmas tree this year.