We {heart} It Wednesday

I would rather be in any of the following places...

Follow the Light

It's there, at the end of the tunnel. It's so close.

I have an exam tomorrow, another Friday and my final exam on Monday.

I'm trucking along, slowly but surely.

Thanks for your patience, my blog-loves. I promise I will be back to blogging as soon as I can.

In the meantime, I give you a video of the Meterodome (our pro-football stadium) collapsing from the weight of all the snow from the storm! You may have seen this already, since I know it made National news, but I still think it's pretty incredible. ENJOY!

Snowed In

Minnesota got 20" of snow last night. Some parts of the city had a little more; some a little less.

We're lucky enough to rent a house and have a garage off the alley out back.

Most of the time this is a blessing, because when the city calls for a "snow emergency" so they can plow the streets, we can just stay parked in the garage. This is fine for normal snow.

Not so much when you get 20". Why?

Because they don't plow the alleys.

Imagine walking out your back walk to snow drifts up to your waist, sometimes higher.

{Sorry I don't have photos, I'm trying to work the kinks out of my camera USB cord}

It's pretty spectacular.

A fresh blanket of snow is gorgeous, especially this time of year.

And on Saturday, when the snow was falling, I was perfectly content hanging out indoors.

I was able to get a lot of homework done. I planned on getting it all done and giving myself Sunday off to go spend some time with my family.

My plans were foiled by a typical (maybe not TOO typical, but nothing us Minnesotans can't handle) snowstorm. I expected to shovel the walkway and shovel out the drive. I even expected to dig out of the alley a bit.

I DID NOT expect it to take 4 hours and 4 trips inside for cocoa to warm-up (which I had thanks to the fall swap and LaDonna at iFROG.)

It would have helped if I had a snowblower rather than a shovel. A shovel just doesn't cut it when it's 20" of snow! But it was also really disrespectful of my neighbor for not clearing their part of the alley. They cleared enough to get their car out, covering up a large portion of my section in the process. It's incredibly surprising since we're a state that EVERYONE helps, especially when it comes to the weather. We're "Minnesota Nice" after all.

My faith in humanity was restored when I headed out for my (hopefully) last trip. My roommate and I devised a plan to get rid of the rest of the snow, so we could pull our cars out of the garage and make it through the alley. As we walked out, we saw a different neighbor snow-blowing the last little bit of remaining snow.

So, after all was said and done it took teamwork, 4 hours, 3 mugs of cocoa, lots of muscle, snot and frozen eyelashes and one incredibly good-samaritan neighbor to clear up the biggest snow-storm Minnesota has had in over 20 years!

Mil-Spouse Friday Fill-In

1. What do you see your life like in 10 years?

I will be a wife and (hopefully) mother, practicing law and living with Al in a nice house outside the city (but not too far away.) Al will be done with school and start a new non-military career. We'll have a wonderfully happy life.

2. What do you like most about your job?

Right now, I enjoy simply having a job in the legal field. It's not where I'm going to be forever, but it's experience and making my resume better. All good things.

3. What are three things you do every day, no matter what day it is?

Drink coffee, eat and check e-mail. That's the only consistency I have in my days.

4. What would you do with an extra five hours in your day today?

Study and sleep. Lots of both, but in that order.

5. What is your favorite Christmas (or whichever holiday you celebrate) cookie recipe (please share!)?

Oooh. I really love these Andes mint chip cookies, but I don't currently have the recipe handy.
I promise to share it before Christmas, though.

Toodles, blog-land.

I'm a Leaky Faucet

I'm not an overly-emotional person. I consider myself to be a realistically emotional person.

Meaning, I cry when it's necessary and I don't when it's not.

{The only exception to that is sappy movies/TV shows/etc...I can cry at the drop of a hat when it comes to that stuff. Otherwise, though, I'm pretty emotionally stable person.}

Until lately.

Finals are kicking my butt. Completely.

I've been at my peak stress level.

I've been just entirely exhausted.

Don't get me wrong, it's absolutely worth it. Well, I think it is. Right now, it's hard to see past the work to the future payoff. But I know I have to keep plugging away.

But that doesn't help with the stress.

As a result, I've been overly emotional. And driving Al crazy.

Actually, he's amazingly patient.

{Although he's a typical guy and rarely knows what to say. Sometimes he's trying to be funny and screws up royally. But most of the time, he's supportive.}

The worst part, of course, is that he can't be here to wipe my tears and hold me.

He watches helpless through webcam.

I cry. He tries to console. I cry more.

We're 10 days away. I'll be finished with finals and that same night he gets in from Texas.

We get to spend our first Christmas together in 3 years!

I took a week off of work so we can just enjoy each other and not worry about books, clients, class or homework in any way.

And hopefully, there will be a LOT less tears.

Wordless Wednesday

Finals can suck it.

Monthly Thought-Provoking Question: December

I've mentioned before how much I love Christmas. And since the season is in full-swing, I wanted to make the December TPQ centered around just that.

Obviously, we can say that having those we love around us is the ideal Christmas.

But, I want to know that separate from family and loved ones (and our wonderful men overseas) what is one thing you just HAVE to have at Christmas?

And what is something you aspire to have someday, that you don't right now?

The one thing I need at Christmas is egg nog. I love egg nog. Sometimes I'll mix in a little Baileys, but mostly just a tall class of thick, creamy goodness is enough to make my Christmas Eve delightful.

My aspirational Christmas?

I want to host Christmas in my own home. I want to have a home that allows me to have a decorative tree for display, like these:

(all photos courtesy of Google images)

And another tree downstairs for the colored lights, the Minnesota Twins ornaments and all the tacky (and AMAZING) handmade reindeer and plastic cartoon ornaments that the kids love.

(image courtesy of Google images)

That's the kind of Christmas I want when I grow up!

Happy December, ya'll!

Wedding Ring: A Symbol

I've been thinking a lot about wedding rings. This was prompted from recent conversations Al and I have about him wearing a wedding band. I want him to wear one, he doesn't want to.

I'm not asking for matching rings, or a gaudy gold ring with diamonds all around it. Just a simple, lightweight titanium band he'll barely know is there.

To be fair, his reasons are pure.

(1) The daily tasks of his job put the ring and him at risk for various reasons. I know a lot of soldiers will wear their ring on their dog-tags or on a key fob while working in order to keep the ring safe. And I'm fine with that. My step-father works with machinery quite a bit and removes his ring when he does as a safety precaution. But he wears it the rest of the time.

(2) Al doesn't like jewelry. He's a guys-guy and barely wears a watch (when he doesn't have to) let alone jewelry. I personally don't see a wedding band as being the same thing as a gold chain necklace or other article of jewelry. Mostly though, I feel like he should want to "tough it out" and wear his band.

But why does this matter to me so much?

It's not a trust issue. I'm not that traditional.

I needed to dig deeper to find out why this was a battle I wanted to pick.

Most of us know the modern reasons for wearing them: as a sign of eternal commitment. But historically rings mean so much more than that.

Read this article (really, read the whole thing, it's really nice!)

I'm seriously almost teary-eyed just reading the article.

My favorite paragraph is here:

The ring is of course a circle and this was the symbol of eternity for the
Egyptians as well as many other ancient cultures. It had no beginning and no
end, like time. It returned to itself, like life; and the shape was worshipped
in the form of the Sun and the Moon. The hole in the center of the ring is not
just space either; it is important in its own right as the symbol of the
gateway, or door; leading to things and events both known and unknown

The article says that it's worn on the left hand ring finger because that contains the artery that flows directly to the heart.

My heart is his. His is mine.

I want to wear my ring so every morning when I wake up I am reminded of the everlasting commitment I am making and the window of possibilities that our love can bring.

And with these rings, we can constantly be reminded how unshakable and unyielding that love is. We can be reminded that our future brings endless opportunity for success and happiness. That is what my ring means to me.

And maybe, just maybe, he'll see it that way too.

Friday Fill-In

I am up to my ears, eyeballs and neck in finals and just am not able to give a full post today. I do have an interesting post rolling around in my head for the weekend, but I've got to get through the muckety-muck of Constitutional Law and Agency first.

So, without further adieu, my Friday Fill-in Answers:

1. If you were given $1000 right now, how would you spend it?

Savings. Lame, I know, but this girl has a lot of school debt and is saving for a wedding.

2. If you had to choose a movie title (a real one that already exists) for your life story, what would it be?

Oh geez, I don't know that I can answer this. I just can't think of one!

3. If you were a teacher, what subject would you like to teach?

Civics or Social Studies. Although, I've actually considered teaching at the college or law school level at some point.

4. Has being a Milspouse changed your views of the holidays? If so, how?

I don't know if it's changed per se, but I definitely appreciate certain things more. Like the fact that I will spend Christmas with my man for the first time in 3 years. And how that is so much more important then food and gifts.

5. What is your favorite Christmas memory?

It would have to be when I was a kid and my Grandparents still lived in Germany. Oma would send us wooden shadow boxes that she turned into December advent calendars and each day would have a gift, treat or toy in it. It was really awesome!

Wordless Wednesday

Al and I will be taking our engagement photos the week before Christmas. I want some cool shots along the city streets by my school, possible even at night. Likely in the snow.

Here are some shots I'm inspired by from random photography blogs (props given accordingly.)

Found at Hoffer Photography.

Found at Blink Photography.

Found at Blink Photography.

Found at Snippet & Ink.

Found at David & Charlotte.