For Anyone Suffering

I was going to post my dress options for the formal law school dinner tomorrow night and get your opinions on what I should wear.

But, that seems so superficial in lieu of the Earthquake/Tsunami in Japan.

Instead, I am praying for anyone suffering through such an awful experience, anyone who has lost someone in the disaster and for a strong community to help with rebuilding the communities that were hit.

And really, there is no more fitting song than this.

Note to God - Rhema Marvanne

Lonely

I miss my husband.

The 1500 miles that separate us is starting to feel like the distance from here to the moon.

I love him. And I am so blessed to have such a wonderful husband.

No other man on the planet would say the right thing when it's starting to feel impossible.

No other man will make me laugh when all I want to do is cry.

And no other man would work so hard to make sure we stay connected despite the distance.

I miss him so much.

So very, very much.

Miscellany Monday

I've had such an interesting day that no blog post really fits better than doing a Miscellany Monday link-up.

1. Spillage

I spilled on myself a total of three times today.

The first was a chunk of chocolate from my Luna bar I ate on my way to class this morning.

It fell onto my lap in the car and since I didn't notice, it squished onto my sweater (my white sweater-vest, to be precise.) The second time was at lunch when I spilled spaghetti sauce onto my pants. It was one, small, round little drop.

And finally, I dribbled a little Diet Dr. Pepper onto my top during night class.

Apparently I can't manage to complete a meal without wearing some of it.

2. Outside the Lines

In addition to spilling on myself, I also managed to draw a blue pen line on my pant leg while working on some homework. I'm not really sure I have any explanation for how it happened other then I apparently need an aide to assist me in basic daily functions.

3. Class Act

I teach an hour per day in a local high school and today we were observed and critiqued by our student program advisor. Tomorrow we will be observed by our professor.

I am actually excited out this. Since the school is high-diversity, low-income, we have been challenged with language barriers, behavioral issues, learning disabilities and a whole-multitude of different obstacles. Today, was one of the brightest days and our students were very active, involved and seem to be really "getting it." We are having them do mock oral-arguments tomorrow during class, so I am hoping that gets major points with our professor and teaches the students a lot of new, fun skills!

4. Engagements, Weddings and Babies. Oh my!

Three engagements were announced at school today. (I'm not totally surprised since last week was Spring Break and I'm sure a lot of people went somewhere nice.)

Two classmates announced they were pregnant.

One of them, in particular, is a friend and I am SO happy for her!

Mostly, I am completely underwhelmed by the whole thing.

I know I should be all...

"O.M.G. I'msohappyforyou!" and

"WOW! Whatasuperawesomeblessinginyourlife," but I'm not.

Maybe I don't have the uber-girl gene that makes one go mushy over engagements and babies. When it is someone close to me, that I am genuinely happy for, I do.

Otherwise, I could really care less.

Feel free to judge me now.

5. Those Damn Walls

In addition to being a total klutz with my food and writing utensils today, I also managed to bang my hand on the tile wall in the bathroom today. I was putting on my coat and as I swung my arm around the put it into the arm hole, whacked my knuckles on the wall. Hard.

I am postitive it will be bruised tomorrow but honestly, I was more worried about my diamond then I was for my hand.

So, maybe I have the girl-gene after all!

Thoughts Before Bed

As Sunday is coming to an end and I am hitting my last wave of energy, I wanted to comment on a couple of things from the weekend.

First, after a productive Friday, I went to bed early (like 7-ish early) because I felt like I was coming down with something. I felt a little "blah" overall and was hoping to catch it before it got worse.

And I did.

I slept for 12 hours. And I stayed in bed most of Saturday, you know, for good measure.

This afforded me the opportunity to get quite a bit of homework done.

Today, I spent the day with my mom stuffing 150 marriage announcements into envelopes, which I personally, hand-addressed. Mom helped me with stamps, return address labels and putting them all together. I'm still waiting on about 50 addresses from various friends and family, but I am so glad the majority of them are done.

I think I permanently have "the claw" from hand-writing all of them, but I hope the personal touch is well-received by the beloved recipients.

And what about the season premier of Army Wives?

I was pretty disappointed. I don't like the kid-actor they've cast for TJ. I am bored of the Pamela story-line. And, well, I feel like they're just "creating" drama as if, you know, being an Army wife isn't stressful enough.

I am hopeful that this season will be just as spectacular as the last, but I was a little let down by tonight episode. I am, however, DYING to find out who dies.

My prediction: Jeremy.

It would be tragic, heart-wrenching, but the show could totally go on.

The only other person the show could "lose" is Chase.

Anyone else would be so achingly sad and while the show might survive, I don't know that I would.

Finally, it is snowing. Again.

I have lived in Minnesota my entire life but I am so tired of snow.

And this winter seems especially bad.

I don't need beach and BBQ weather. I'd settle for 45 and a pop of spring sun.

I just CAN NOT handle any more snow, sleet or cold.

The up side is that I only have to be here for 18 more days before I head to Texas for a long weekend, where today it was apparently 80 and sunny.

Here's to another week. Good night, world.

And the winner is...

Kris at Our Crazy Bunch!

Email me soon to collect your prize.

Short-timers vs. Lifers

Go over to Annoyed Army Wife's blog and check out my guest post!

I talk about the military and the differences between short-timers and lifers and the military community that surrounds them.

But you should check out Annoyed and her amazing blog anyway.

Her husband is a doctor in the Army and on his return from deployment.

She has a candid, witty and classy outlook on life in the military and has become a wonderful (blog and hopefully, someday, real-life) friend of mine.

So go check it out.

Contest Closed

The contest is now closed.

I will announce the winner in the morning.

Happy Friday!

Don't Forget!

To enter my giveaway. It ends tonight at 23:59.

I will announce a winner at that time.

Do you remember what it's for?

Don't worry, I will tell you.

It's for the Jenny the MilSpouse comic book.

{Which you can find here, if you are interested and

end up not winning the free copy from me.}

Go HERE to enter.

All Dressed Up

So, since I talked a big game to the Lady about dressing up today, I was VERY upset when I left my camera in my friends car last night.

{At least I hope it's in her car. After searching a few places it has not shown up. I certainly hope I didn't lose my camera for good. Although I've already hinted that I want a nicer one anyway.}

Instead, you get dirty-mirror, cell phone photos displaying my dressed-for-a-four-star-dinner-with-friends in a very dingy-late-night-diner kind of way.

Oh well, hopefully you still get the point.

Dress - H&M

Beaded Stretchy Belt - Express

Earrings - Forever 21

I actually got dressed around this clutch. It's heaven.

Clutch - Forever 21

Flower perfume ring - Victoria Secret (contains Heavenly perfume)

Black D'Orsay heels - Aldo

By the way, I had the BEST meal ever! It is restaurant week here in the Twin Cities and many nice restaurant's offer great meals for cheaper so you can sample their food. A few girlfriends and I got a 3-course meal at Oceanaire. Three courses, including dessert and splitting two bottles of wine = $50. Plus, it's nice to have the ability to dress up and pretend we're fancy rather then poor law students.

Head over to Lady's house to link up!

Milestone

I suppose it's pretty fitting to welcome in a new month with such a significant milestone.

Yesterday, when I drove into the school parking lot, my car did this...

I bought this car brand new when I was 20 years old. It was the only big-girl purchase I'd made at the time (and up until recently, when purchasing wedding rings, still ranked #1.)

I was so proud.

Sure, my parents had to sign for it, but it was still mine.

And I've been through so much with this car.

When I bought it, I didn't even know how to drive a stick shift. I'd learned on an automatic and I wasn't a very good driver to begin with.

But it was $1000 cheaper to get a manual, so we bought it and my mom drove it off the lot.

My step-dad gave me a 30 minute lesson in a grocery store parking lot and I drove myself to work the next day.

Those first two weeks were pure hell.

I stalled out in every intersection in my sad, little college town. When I wasn't stalling, I was peeling out or grinding the clutch through all 5 gears. It was a disaster.

But then I got the hang of it.

And it wasn't so bad.

In fact, after a few more weeks, I wanted to drive all the time. Everywhere.

Then there was the time I ran into a pole in the Wal-mart parking lot.

(I was running a high fever, stopping there only to get meds on my way home from work. In my haze, I moved too far over in the lane and scraped the side of my car around a pole.)

Later that summer, my aunt "fixed" it was silver duct tape (matching the color of my car exactly!) 4 years later, it has started peeling and shredding off.

One time I blew out a tire. Two tires and a donut later, I had fixed it. By myself.

I learned how to change my own oil on that car.

So when the odometer clicked to 100,000 miles yesterday, it was definitely a milestone.

This winter was especially hard on my car.

I haven't experienced very many major problems with my car in the 6+ years I've owned it, but it did have an electrical glitch that started a few years ago. This winter it spiraled out of control and on most nights that were below 0, my car wouldn't start.

I replaced the battery and that didn't fix the problem.

After a few years of putting up with it, I am pretty frustrated and ready to throw in the towel.

It's been a good ride, my dear Saturn, but I am tired.

The original plan was to drive my car until it won't run anymore. And I didn't have a problem with that until this winter rolled around. The new deal is that I drive the car until it won't run OR I get a new car when I get pregnant for the first time.

Which makes sense. I don't want an unreliable car (especially during the cold winters in Minnesota) once I am pregnant and have a baby. At that time, I'd probably upgrade to a nice SUV to "grow into" with a family.

Until then, my silver-plastic 4-door and I will drive off into the sunset together, windows down, music up and seat back to enjoy the ride.