Where is the meaning in things?

Recent events in my life have caused me to think about things, a lot of things. So while lost in these thoughts I have started to wonder why people do the things they do. Why is it that we usually throw out "love ya" instead of "I love you"? Are we really so lazy we can't say the full phrase? I may be a little silly in saying this, but doesn't "love ya" sound kind of dull and less meaningful than "I love you"? I think most people I exchange these words with say only "love ya". It was brought to my attention the other day when my mom actually said all three words to me. Not that I have ever doubted her love for me, but she usually just says "love ya" or we don't say it at all at the end of our conversations. It actually made me feel really good when she said it. It meant more to me for some reason. Which brings me to my next thought. Why are people such creatures of habit? You know, everyday my husband kisses me goodbye before he leaves for work and goodnight every night. What's the problem you ask? The problem is that this is a habit, not something he does because he is feeling romantic or loving. Not that I don't enjoy him kissing me, I do, but I miss the times he would kiss me for no reason at all. What happened to those kisses? What happened to the "I missed you so much that I want to kiss you right now" or the "I am so attracted to you I want to show you" kisses? Sure there are times my husband will kiss me other than the usual two times a day, but usually it's because he wants something more (you know what I mean). I look at teenagers and feel envious of them. Silly I know. But don't you remember when kissing was all you did, so you did it often and it had so much meaning? Sometimes I wish my husband and I would make out like teenagers and it could end there. Not that I don't enjoy the other things that usually happen with our make out sessions, but we have a one year old and there isn't always time for that. Where is the spontaneity? Does anyone else wonder these things? I know I am not entirely alone in these thoughts because my BFF (April) said she feels the same way. My main reason for posting this is to get some insight on why people think things get this way. Do you feel that habits can make things lose meaning? Do you thing saying "love ya" after every phone conversation can make it lose meaning? I have so much more I could go on and on with this topic but I don't want to bore you to tears so I will stop for now.....tomorrow I maybe back on my soapbox. LOL Stay tuned!

A girl and her monkey

Kara loves her George so much! He is her best friend, that goes everywhere she goes. I actually managed to give him a much needed bath the other night, while she was sleeping. She didn't even miss him because I returned him as soon as she woke up. You have to be sneaking with things like this. He is in most of the pictures I take of her lately, but the top one of this post is by far the sweetest and most precious one!

Nothing is safe

She's into everything...Drawers, countertops, and cabinets are her playground these days!

Decorating in my mind....

It seems the closer we get to leaving the island the more I think about about decorating my new house. Yeah, the house I don't have yet!!! But in my mind it's beautiful and colorful!! And I am hoping, wishing, and dreaming it is in Florida!! But anyway, while thinking of color schemes and decorating ideas I have come up with a few things I want to do. But before I reveal those things here are a few things I found at a local store to help my inspiration.

This is a picture frame that I chose for my room. I actually bought two of them so that both, Nick and myself, can have one on our nightstand. They are 5x7s, which is my favorite picture size!!! They are a lime green with a small light blue stripe. LOVE these colors together. I also bought a candle plate in the same green for $2 in the clearance section of Target.com. YAHOO! Now if I could only find a comforter to match. Anyone seen anything that might look good with this? If so tell me where!!!Now this is what really got me excited... A picture frame and candle holder for Maddy's room. I knew I wanted to do her room in bright colors, so when I saw this I was in awe! I know what you are thinking, it's just a picture frame....but it's lovely isn't it? I have also found her a comforter set on JCPenny.com that is just gorgeous. I am thinking of painting one accent wall in her room of this same pink and doing the other three walls in this green-blue. What do you think? Oh and another reason I liked the candle holder so much is that it has a little Japanese decor on it, which Maddy will love. I wanted something to remind her of her time here!!

As for the rest of the house.....I know most of the color schemes but am still working on what I need to buy for them. One thing I am certain on is how I want to paint Kara's room, but am having a hard time finding a comforter that I like for it. Her room will be done in the lovely pink/brown that I wish I would have done for her nursery. I want to do the bottom half of her wall in 12 inch stripes of alternating chocolate brown and pretty pink. Then the top half will be solid pink with large brown polka dots. I will need to get some kind of molding to be the separator, which will most likely be white. I am also planning on redoing some old book shelves we have in storage for the girls rooms. I am going to paint them white and may do some stenciling on them for extra flare, but I am not sure yet. That way the girls have somewhere for their books. Both of our girls love books and need somewhere to put them.

My living room will be done in blue/brown. I have several little items that I have been collecting for a while to decorate with. But we will need to buy new living room furniture (in either brown or tan) and end tables. I figure that will be something I do when I get back to the states. CAN'T WAIT!!!

My dining room will be done in purple, because I just can't give up having at least one purple room just yet. I have a really pretty purple tea set that's going to look so pretty in a china cabinet. Also that will leave me with a place to put my purple/silver Christmas tree! hee hee! Have I mentioned I can't wait?

The kitchen and bathrooms are still up in the air for me. The are really last on my priority list of things to decorate, because they will be easier to do. I know one bathroom will be done in blue/brown because I already have the stuff, but otherwise I have no clue. This is the stuff that keeps me up at night. But it is fun to think about. I am so tired of plain white walls. Help me Tom Cruise...help me! Okay couldn't resist a little line from the movie "Talladega nights" sorry!!

So thankful...

The last few weeks I have been having a time with Kara getting into my cabinets in the kitchen. I have the locks to put on them, but it looks too complicated for me to do. At our friends house she loves playing with their kids refrigerator magnet toys. So I had an idea: get her the same magnets to keep her out of my cabinets. At our BX they didn't have what I was looking for so yesterday we went to the PX and found it. Once I handed Kara the box, she started grinning from ear to ear. Then once she realized that I was getting it for her she kept signing "Thank You" to me over and over again. It was the cutest, sweetest thing ever! I love that she thanks me when I give her things. I hope she will continue this in the future and always be thankful for what she is given. The magnets are working out pretty well for now. So far she ha s only gotten in the cabinets twice. And it taught her how to say cow. She was walking around saying, "Cow, cow". She is learning so much these days. I almost can't keep up with her. She mimics most things I do and sometimes things I say. I think this is my favorite age so far. We have so much fun together.

Back in action

After a LONG month, I finally got my camera back. I can't tell you how happy I was to get it. As soon as I got it up and running again, I snapped about 100 pictures. Kara now believes that I am the paparazzi. She actually was running from me with her hands over her face this morning. I thought it was funny, but I guess that should be telling me something. But I truly can't help myself. I feel like I missed out on so many pictures during the month my camera was gone. I can't tell you how many times I would think "Man, I wish I had my camera right now!!"

I am SUPER excited about taking pictures this weekend. I have never been able to take decent pictures of the fireworks. However with my new camera, I just know I am going to get some great ones! It snaps pics in like 2 seconds. I am hoping to get some good family pics also. I LOVE the 4th of July. It's one of my favorite holidays. We haven't finalized any plans yet, but I am hoping to make this one extra special. It will be the last one we spend in Okinawa. I am thinking some good food and time with friends will be great. I am also thinking of making a red, white, and blue cake again this year. I will have to post pics if I decide to do so. I hope that everyone has a very happy and safe 4th.

And now for a few pics from the last few days of my crazy picture taking....

Tinkerbell giving Kara kisses. She loves her dog, dogs!
Sitting on her new couch with her Curious Georges. I know it's ugly but she loves it. I am hoping my mom will make a new cover for it soon.

My sweet butterfly girl!

Doing the sign for "Thank you". She is doing so good with her signing. She signs: milk, more, all done, dog, thank you, duck, and eat. We are working on please, juice, and bath now.

Sweet grin!

Pushing her George around in her new stroller! She loves that thing so much, not to mention George. If you notice he's in almost every picture. She always has him with her. He is her comfort, rather than having a blanket or pacie.

My little princess playing in her room

Isn't she precious? I love her in this tutu.

Daddy and Kara playing in her ball pit!

Kara as wonder woman!

Isn't she adorable? Her daddy thinks so!

My baby is growing so much!

A broken camera

How is that my 5 month old camera is already broken? I mean really, what a pain! It has something to do with the card reader. I am not sure what happened with it but it all of a sudden couldn't format my card. So it is now getting quoted at a Cannon place off base. I dropped it off earlier in the week and have yet to hear anything about it. I am hoping that I get some news quick. For months I have been wanting to take a photography class, but have been unable to do so with Nick's work schedule. The class is every Sunday for 2 hours during each month. Being that Nick has no TDY's for June I am all set. But it's kinda hard to do a photography class with no camera. This class requires you bring your camera with you so that they can teach you specific things about your camera. I just can't believe it. Here I am all set up to do the class and my camera breaks on me. SERIOUSLY!! I am doing my best to keep positive that they will call really soon to tell me that it can be fixed this week. That would be awesome. Fingers crossed!!!!

Wanting her youth back

Here's Chloe in Kara's rocking chair. She was much heavier then....


Chloe in Kara's bouncy seat.





Her newest love is the swing, which Kara doesn't use anymore. Oh and can't you tell my cat has been on a diet? She's lost a few pounds and I am proud of her for it!!!

It seems Chloe, our cat, has begun to wish she was the baby in the house. I have found her numerous times using Kara baby items as her own. I find it hilarious and wanted to share the pics that I have managed to get. I have missed out on a few...but snapped most of the funny ones. In addition to finding her in baby items I also caught her sleeping in our dryer once. Thank goodness I saw her in there. Could you imagine how traumatizing that would have been? This cat, while annoying at times, is quite amusing. If only I could keep her from shedding and using a few spots in my house as her own personal litter box, then she would be perfect! But I am going to take her to the vet to see why she's using my carpet rather than her box at times. I have heard it could be an underlying medical condition. Anyone else ever have this happen? I am at my wits end over it, which is my reason for this post to remember why I love her.....

Her in the dryer one night. Silly cat!

My Top 10 Pages

Nick and Kara are so adorable together. She is her daddy's baby. They light up when they see each other!
I love this page for the wording alone, it's so true.....

Some of our family beach pics from November. I love these pics!

These pics were taken in December on my step dad's birthday. You can't tell Kara is adored by them at all can you? Understatement of the year!

When we went to Florida in December my BFF, her mom, and daughter joined my mom, Kara and me for a day of shopping. We had so much fun. I had to title this "Generations" because there was three for each of us. Click to enlarge and read the quote, too perfect!

Maddy is always putting together crazy outfits. Most of the time I would make her change clothes before leaving the house. This particular day I just thought she looked hilarious and she wasn't shy when I grabbed the camera to get some shots of her.

Maddy with her little sister and cousins. The title is supposed to be Super stars, but I didn't see the point in adding the word star with the background paper. This is the simplest page I think I've ever done.

I just love the title, "Fresh from God". Kara had just gotten out of the bath when I took these pics. She is truly a gift from God.

This is from this past Easter. Kara and Maddy had an egg hunt in my in-laws front yard. They had so much fun!

This is actually a two page layout, which I NEVER do, but I just had to do this one. It is one of my favorite ones, I am actually not done with it yet. I still want to add a few embellishments. I am still trying to decide which ones to use, but I had to add it to my post, cause it's just too sweet!

My new year resolution was to do a scrapbook page for everyday of this year. So far I am doing pretty good. For January and April I am short 12 pages total, otherwise I am all caught up on February, March, and May!!! I don't scrapbook everyday (although I want to, life gets in the way a times), but I try to catch myself up when I do sit down to do it. It's my most favorite hobby in the world and my biggest stress reliever. It just calms me like nothing else. I wanted to share some of my recent pages, my ten favorite ones I have done lately. I am open to critics. Hope you enjoy!!!!

To stay in or not, that is the question.....

We've been struggling with the thought of Nick staying in the military or getting out. It's coming down the wire now and we are still undecided. I've tried listing all the pros and cons down, we've had numerous talks about it and still no decision. It's especially hard to decide to get out of a stable life into an unstable one with the economy like it it. But we are both tired of him being gone, tired of him not being here for every holiday. I know that so many other families are without their spouses for longer periods of time, but they aren't me. So that's the leading reason why he wants out. He is thinking of becoming a cop so that he can still help others. I just worry that he won't be able to find a job, since very few places are hiring. Then there's the whole thing with me having to start back to work. The thought of leaving Kara all day breaks my heart. I have never been away from her for more than a few hours. How could I do it all day, all week? I know several mothers do it, but I know it has to be terribly hard. I know if we get out it's going to be a huge lifestyle change. But I would LOVE to have my husband home all the time!! That would just be weird, but so wonderful! So all I can do now is pray that God will lead us to the best possible life we can have right now. I know it will all work out.