Reading, Laundry and Waiting

Not doing much lately. Reading and cleaning. I've done lots of laundry today. Including bed linens and random stuff I found shoved under the bed and dresser. :P Can't wait for Christmas. So excited, for numerous reasons. My friend, Meagan had her baby! Lorelei Adele Doran! She is so beautiful! I can't wait to meet her. She is only 2 days old. Since I am still getting over this cold that I've had since the week before Thanksgiving, I haven't had the opportunity to see her yet. :( But I will next week! She is Meg's first baby, so I know she will want some alone time with her when they first get her home!

Jeremy is doing well! He is also excited about Christmas. No telling what he will be sending me. He's already went way overboard for my b'day. Of course, it was our first major "holiday" apart since we've been together. I'm just glad he is in such a great mood. He loves to give presents as much as I do. Of course, he says I can only spend so much this Christmas, since we are trying to save. :) But, when it comes to presents for him, he won't care how much I spend. Haha.

So, I've read quite a few books since Jeremy deployed; 19 to be exact. Among them, of course, are the Twilight Saga. I thoroughly enjoyed every moment of each book. I was deeply saddened when I turned the last page of Breaking Dawn. I wanted to hear about the life of Renesmee. LOL. Perhaps Ms. Meyer will change her mind about not publishing the rumored 5th Twilight book. *Here's to hoping and praying*

Other favorites that I've read recently are:
Rain- V.C. Andrews
Relentless- Dean Koontz
The Mermaid Chair- Sue Monk Kidd
The Giver- Lois Lowry
Messenger- Lois Lowry
Morning, Noon, and Night- Sidney Sheldon
The Face of Deception- Iris Johansen
Pandora's Daughter- Iris Johansen
Where Are You Now?- Mary Higgins Clark

You'll notice that I'll start reading one author for awhile. My favorite has to be Koontz, although I love many authors! I will read most anything. Currently I am reading Mr. Murder, a Koontz of course, and Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales. It's a slow go on the poetry. I'm not really an avid poetry reader, although I do admire it. Poe is my favorite. :)
If anyone has any books they would like to recommend, feel free to leave it in a comment. :)
Have a great day!

Packrats Anonymous

Mom was looking for her crochet stuff.
I told her it was in the living room closet.
She opens the door and its full of Christmas stuff.
"What's this?" I asked, "The Christmas basketball?".
We keep such strange things.
Pull out 15 pillows; who knows why we have so many.
And there's the bag of crochet stuff.
"Do we really need all these half-used rolls of wrapping paper?"
Commence putting the stuff back into the closet.
Mission is complete.

A Soldier's Bible

It was quiet that day, the guns and the mortars, and land mines for some reason hadn't been heard. The young soldier knew it was Sunday, the holiest day of the week.

As he was sitting there, he got out an old deck of cardsand laid them out across his bunk.

Just then an army sergeant came in and said, "Why aren't you with the rest of the platoon?

The soldier replied, "I thought I would stay behind and spend some time with the Lord."

The sergeant said, "Looks to me like you're going to play cards."

The soldier said, "No, sir. You see, since we are not allowed to have Bibles or other spiritual books in this country, I've decided to talk to the Lord by studying this deck of cards."

The sergeant asked in disbelief, "How will you do that?"

"You see the Ace, Sergeant?It reminds me that there is only one God.

The Two represents the two parts of the Bible, Old and New Testaments.

The Three represents the Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost.

The Four stands for the Four Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

The Five is for the five virgins that were ten but only five of them were glorified.

The Six is for the six days it took God to create the Heavens and Earth.

The Seven is for the day God rested after making His Creation.

The Eight is for the family of Noah and his wife, their three sons and their wives - the eight people God spared from the flood that destroyed the earth.

The Nine is for the lepers that Jesus cleansed of leprosy. He cleansed ten, but nine never thanked Him.

The Ten represents the Ten Commandments that God handed down to Moses on tablets made of stone.

The Jack is a reminder of Satan, one of God's first angels, but he got kicked out of heaven for his sly and wicked ways and is now the joker of eternal hell.

The Queen stands for the Virgin Mary.

The King stands for Jesus, for he is the King of all kings.

When I count the dots on all the cards, I come up with 365 total, one for every day of the year.

There are a total of 52 cards in a deck; each is a week - 52 weeks in a year.

The four suits represent the four seasons: Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter.

Each suit has thirteen cards - there are exactly thirteen weeks in a quarter

So when I want to talk to God and thank Him, I just pull out this old deck of cards and they remind me of all that I have to be thankful for"

The sergeant just stood there. After a minute, with tears in his eyes and pain in his heart, he said, "Soldier, may I borrow that deck of cards?"

Please let this be a reminder and take time to pray for all of our soldiers who are being sent away, putting their lives on the line fighting for us!

Lord, hold our troops in your loving hands. Protect them as they protect us. Bless them and their families for the selfless acts they perform for us in our time of need. I ask this in the name of Jesus, our Lord and Savior.

Amen.

Deployment

Well, for starters, my husband is a Specialist in the Alabama National Guard aka the United States Army. And he has been in the Army since 2004. His first deployment was to Iraq in 2005-2006 with a unit out of Colorado. After he left Colorado and came to Alabama, he joined the National Guard. On Sunday, 11 October 2009, he deployed to Afghanistan. He will be gone up to 13 months with one 2 week leave around 7 months after being "in Country". *In country being in Afghanistan*
I can honestly say this really sucks. I had to move back in with my Mom so that we could save some money while he is gone. I miss having my own home. I can't leave things where I want to because nothing belongs to me. *sigh* But the worst thing of all is not having my husband here. Especially at night, because that's when we talk about everything right before we go to sleep. Or just hanging out watching tv. I'm not sure what I miss the most. I even miss washing his clothes. I guess this will get easier the more I get used to it, if that is even possible. I don't think it's possible to get used to not being with the one you love! I found a really great quote that explains a lot I guess:
"Missing someone gets easier every day, because, even though you are one day further from the last time you saw them, you are one day closer to the next time you will."
Hopefully it will seem that way soon.
Please keep Jeremy in your prayers. And if you feel like praying for me to, that would be nice. lol.

Josh's Dream

My brother, Josh posted this as a bulletin on Myspace....it made my chest tight.

the weirdest dream.it was set back when i was younger but i was the age that i am now.i took the hand of my youngest sister Whitney(who was around 5 or 6 years old) and we were walking through a museum.she went to get a sip of water from the fountain and i told her that i had to go do something and that i'd be back.that's when i got in my car and left,having no intentions of going back and just leaving her there to wait.out of nowhere,the waterworks began to flow.i was cursing myself and that's when i decided to turn around and go back.then i woke up.my pillow was soaked from the tears that i shed.i don't understand why i was crying in my sleep.that was the first time i've actually cried in over 3 years.i know i sound like a homo but i don't care.maybe it's a sign.or that i need to talk to my sister more often.i'm at a loss for words.suggestions?