one year! yay!

so today marks one year of marriage. what an awesome year! even with zach being gone, marriage has been incredible. love you zach!

EDIT: i feel guilty for posting a story that included what other people were saying. i don't know them and didn't name names, but i should not have done it. blogger faux pas! my apologies!

"just don't start crying"

i have made it back to tn.

it was a pretty emotional day. before i left for clarksville, i found out that my brother's best friend growing up was shot in both legs. (he is in the army, but i can't remember if he was in iraq or afghanistan.) he is ok, and is flying back to fort drum. please keep him (andrew) and his family in your prayers.

so that hit too close to home for me, and then i had to drive back to an empty condo. so, i unpacked everything from the car and kept repeating "just don't start crying." haha, it worked until i saw some of zach's stuff around our room. AND THEN i called my mom to let her know i made it back safely. mom has a way of bringin on the tears. zach happened to beep in and had to listen to me. (he's the best, though, and i'm so glad he called just then.)

but let's talk about the newest stress in my life: cars. now that we have another car, other than the civic, i have been having issues about not driving my honda. i feel guilty that it isn't getting driven. it's as if the car has feelings and i have hurt them. i used to feel that way about stuffed animals i didn't play with as much as my fav stuffed animals. it sounds silly, but really, i feel so guilty!

side note: okay, i hate that i'm such a downer lately. so sorry. i'll bounce back, just give me another few days :)

beaufort: day three, four, & five

beaufort has actually been lots of fun, and not too much down time. all in all, a wonderful vaca.

i don't know if anyone of my 3 readers watched the last video i posted, but if you liked it, watch this one! different dancers, same choreographers. so awesome. enjoy :)



ps - i am vegetarian again. mostly because i ate so many cheeseburgers and steaks when zach was home. taking a break :) maybe i'll last more than 2 weeks this time haha.

watch it!

this is was on "so you think you can dance" last week. anyone guess the story? ha.


but really, it was so awesome.

anyone know how i can get the video to show up on the blog? i'm so lost.

looks like if figured it out :)

beaufort: day two

feeling much better. and after i wrote that negative post yesterday, i picked up a book my mom in law gave me. the first thing i read: "for as he thinks in his hear, so is he..." proverbs 23:7. joyce meyer then goes on to write... You cannot have a positive life and a negative mind. preach it. i sooo needed that last night!

but i don't want to recap the nothingness that happened here in beaufort. instead, i want to talk about my mom. here is one of the countless reasons why i love her:

we all went out to longhorns a few days before zach left. i sat next to will and zach. will said some funny comment about how i haven't finished school, and i got very, very mad and defensive. i was actually yelling in the restaurant. (and i really am sorry i yelled at you will, if you read this.) so does my mom step in and break it up? oh no, she says, "steph! i am so happy that you can express yourself and be so angry!" haha, but she is right, two years ago i would have heard what will said, internalized it, and beat myself up for days. now i yell. i'm sure there has got to be some middle ground. i should figure that out soon :)


OH MY GOSH: i just witnessed a cockroach crawl into my bag with my Bible and books. f.r.e.a.k.i.n.g.o.u.t. no worries: dad to the rescue. gosh that was so gross.

beaufort: day one

its 1am.



i officially have no life. i mean, i am watching frasier in beaufort, sc. pa-the-tic. ohh and i am so mopey right now and when i am in the middle of sulking it is just not pretty. (update: golden girls is now on.) i am also tired, and if you know me, emotional plus physical tiredness is not a good combo. so i think i'll end this post, because it will only turn into a dramatic sob story of some sort. (me playing front and center. probably crying some river that i could quite possibly drown in, and that is just unnecessary :)



i'm going to bed.

here i go again on my own...

ohh so i forgot to mention in my last post another thing that represented zach's 18 days home. a fight. yup, our first real - longer than 20 minutes - made me cry -made zach fru

strated - marital fight. i won't go into detail, but it was almost refreshing to get so upset, come to a compromise, and then bounce back so quickly. ohhh marriage. ohhh army. ohhh 18 days

of leave.

zach hates it when i compare our marriage to "normal marriages," but i love

comparing, and i consider our marriage "normal" but i don't consider our situation n

ormal compared to our friends. so, i feel that our fight never would have happened

had it been a "normal" vacation and not a "hey, you haven't seen each other in 9 months, now you have 18 days to catch up. ready, set, go!" kind of vacation. but it was so awesome because right when i saw zach,it w

as like we had never been apart. love that.

will someone please tell me how to add more than one picture? i am losing my mind. thankyou :)

and we're back..

well, zach left on wednesday. so now i am bored/lonely and back to blogging.

BUT zach's leave was absolutely amazing. please, let me sum it up:

wedding weekend, georgia, friends, love, gatlinburg, fishing, family, stoney larue, food (lots and lots), habersham, cigars, tallulah gorge, kennesaw mt (driven not hiked, naturally), warnings and not tickets, a car, an old truck, shopping, brick store, a camera, playing match maker, cuddling, bears, airports, hellos/goodbyes, and love. did i mention that already? let that be stated again: love.

so, it was so wonderful to have zach home. now i just need to fast forward to Christmas. but i guess that isn't the point of living, so i'll try to stay in the moment. kind of tough, huh?