Military Spouse Appreciation Day

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Household 6 Diva and Riding the Roller Coaster teamed up to host a military spouse blog hop in honor of Military Spouse Appreciation Day last Friday.

My personal military experience has so far been limited to ROTC.  The Pilot, my wonderful husband, has a few weeks left of Air Force ROTC and in June he commissions as a 2nd Lieutenant.  He is a pilot select and in February ’13 we “take off” to Texas for pilot training!  I can’t wait!  This has been The Pilot’s dream for years and we are so excited to finally be so close.  I look forward to seeing new places and experiencing new things.  I look forward to meeting new people and making friends on our base.  We definitely will have an exciting life ahead as we follow God through our Air Force life!

Last year’s Dining Out…

Over the years I’ve collected  various blog posts and articles that I thought were particularly insightful or encouraging…or good ideas for when we go through future deployments.  Here are a few of them for you to peruse and enjoy…

How to Pray for Your Military Man
Ammunition for the Battle: Scripture for the Military Wife’s Arsenal
My About Face
Fake It Until You Make It
The Deployment Dare
Thirty Day Challenges

To all you military spouses who stop by…thank you for your service!  I know you all have different stories and are going through lots of various circumstances in your lives…but you are in my prayers!

God bless.

-Bonnie

Book Review: Leaving Yesterday

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When Borders was closing, I picked up a few Christian fiction books for only a few dollars each.  It’s so hard to find good Christian fiction…and I figured a reduced price would be a good way to check out some new titles and authors.

Which is how I came across Leaving Yesterday by Kathryn Cushman.  In this novel, the main character is faced with some serious choices.

“Her prodigal son has returned!  But has he truly left the past behind? …..as his old life refuses to stay buried, Alisa finds herself facing an impossible choice: keep silent and keep her son…or risk everything in a quest for the truth.” (From the back of the book)

As a piece of fiction, I must honestly say that I didn’t love it.  It moved at a fairly slow pace and one of the characters was (in my opinion) very poorly written.  However, there was one aspect of the book that I absolutely loved.

Alisa, the main character, is married with three children.  She and her husband are going through some serious marriage issues and decided they would separate.  While Alisa is a believer, her husband is not, and at one point in the book he brings up that he might file for divorce.

Every time the marriage came up in the book, I somewhat cringed.  Oh boy….another source that promotes divorce among believers. To make things worse, another man was introduced.  He seemed to be everything Alisa’s husband was not…a good listener, someone who truly “got” her and someone who was interested in her life.  I hoped it wasn’t true…but I figured with the way the story was going, the characters would definitely end up divorced and Alisa might end up with the other man.

Imagine my surprise when in two separate scenes, the author described Alisa’s thoughts about this second man…and it was described as a battle.  Alisa was attracted to the man but she knew her feelings were wrong.  She couldn’t entertain such thoughts.  She must tell him to leave.  And yet it was a struggle.

How often do you see such thoughts portrayed as a battle against sin?  It seems like everywhere I look, whether it’s books or movies or songs, the message is that “true love” should conquer regardless of right or wrong.  It’s okay to divorce or break up, etc, as long as it is right for you, or it makes you happier, or you are really in love with the new person.  Even in Christian media!

I was so pleasantly surprised to see a book take a firm stand on marriage and the lifetime commitment it is…for better or for worse…as long as the husband and wife both shall live.  So refreshing!

Even though I didn’t love the entire story line (and, I might add…the marriage aspect was only a side plot), it is a decent piece of Christian fiction.  And it is phenomenal in upholding what real marriage is!

-Bonnie

 

Best Date Ever

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Last Saturday The Pilot and I went on the best date ever.

For years The Pilot has been a fan of the group Celtic Woman.  I thought it would be great to go to a concert “someday” with him.  This year for his birthday, I surprised him with tickets to go to one of their concerts.

Totally worth it!  Best concert EVER.  We loved the music, the energy, and just the whole experience.

We weren’t allowed to take pictures during the actual concert,
but here is the set afterward.  We got seats about halfway down
from where we were standing here taking the picture.  Great seats!

From beautiful singing, to an incredible violinist (she shredded her bows because she was playing so intensely!), to an amazing Irish dancer, to some awesome drum solos……it was all around AMAZING.

I’m so glad I was able to finally go to a Celtic Woman concert with my love.  We’re already talking about “next time.”  🙂

-Bonnie

God’s Little Miracles

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This weekend I experienced an amazing miracle.  Usually I hear other people tell stories like this….but now I’ve experienced it and I am blown away.

For months my Mom and sisters have been talking about a women’s retreat they were going to at a Christian camp.  I listened to them talk about it and wished I could go.  I mostly tried not to think about it, because I didn’t want to encourage my heart to be discontent.  The retreat was a lot of money, so I never mentioned to anyone that I wanted to go.  I thought it would be wiser to save our money.  A few weeks ago, my Mom told me about a phone call she received.  An anonymous friend was calling on behalf of another anonymous friend who heard that I wasn’t going…and offered to pay my way!  I couldn’t believe my ears and it brought tears to my eyes.  God knew the desire of my heart and He knew that I needed to be at that retreat!

This past weekend I went to that retreat and came away blessed and encouraged.

Several of the sessions gave me great food for thought….both encouragement and conviction.  Perhaps what most impacted me though was not from a session at all.  It was the staff.

All of the people on staff there are so incredibly joyful.  Laughing and talking with everyone, they always have smiles on their faces.  I have never seen one of them with a frown or looking like they were having a rough day.  On the last morning of the retreat, the main speaker was talking about the great staff team.  She put it so well…..they truly seem like it is a privilege to serve the ladies and all the campers who come through every year.

That really struck me.  It’s true.  Each staff person serves with a joy in their hearts as if it is the greatest privilege in the world to be able to serve.  Instantly I thought about my life when I came home from the retreat.  Is that the way that I serve?  Do I see it a privilege to serve my sweet husband and the other people in my life?  Unfortunately I must answer that far too often with a “no.”

I am so thankful for God’s reminder this past weekend to serve and to serve joyfully!

And to whoever it was that blessed me with this retreat….thank you so much!!  I was absolutely blessed and encouraged.  God bless you, whoever you are!

-Bonnie

From the Mouth of My Love

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My sweetheart is absolutely hilarious.  He can get me absolutely rolling!!  Every now and then I also get him to laughing.  The other night when we were going to bed, the Pilot got into my side of the bed.  After mentioning that fact to him, he proceeded to pretend to wrestle his hair out from underneath him.  (I quite often have to readjust after lying down because I am pulling my hair.)  He then continued his impersonation of what I do when I go to bed.

Of course…it was on.

I clambered into bed and landed right on him, taking more than my full share of the bed.  (Ongoing joke that we each take up part of the other’s half of bed.)  We must have gone on for at least five minutes, going back and forth imitating the other.  We laughed so hard.  I don’t think I have ever heard him laugh that much.

His laugh is one of my favorite things.  Ever.

But this post isn’t about our antics.  Although…there are plenty!  This post is about….his humor. 😀  Here is a sampling of why my love is the funniest person out there!

The Pilot: Should we watch another episode?
Me: I think we’d regret it.
The Pilot: Yeah.  (clicks play)
Me: What are you doing??
The Pilot: I thought we were going to regret it!!

Me: (about braces) Did you have head gear or neck gear?
The Pilot: I had everything they had to offer.

Me: (when talking about Justin Bieber’s Mom) What if our son wants to be a pop star??
The Pilot: He better be a good one!

Me: Can we get a pet llama?
The Pilot: No.
Me: Why?
The Pilot: He might turn into an emperor.

The Pilot: I came in here to set my glass down and drank it all by accident.

The Pilot: There are a couple of rules during Person of Interest and SHHHH.

The Pilot: (talking about survival training) Would you be able to kill a bunny and eat it?
Me: No.  I would find a way to rescue the bunny and together we would find a way to survive.  We’d become friends and they’d make a movie of it.  It would be called My Bunny and Me.
The Pilot: Then they’d make the sequel and it would be called My Bunny In Me.

Me: (watching credits) Colin Firth??  Are you serious??
The Pilot: Yeah, they put that in there as a joke.

The Pilot: I thought Dickens was the Stephanie Meyer of his day.

I love him!!  ❤

-Bonnie

Ultimate Blog Party

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Ultimate Blog Party 2012

Welcome to everyone stopping by from the Ultimate Blog Party!  I am excited to be participating for the first time on this blog…and I look forward to visiting your blogs as well!

My husband and I started this blog about nine months ago.  We batted around ideas for a name but our favorite option was “Life With You” which is the title of Our Song.  We were able to hear it performed live by Celtic Thunder….it was amazing!  The 1222 in our url is our wedding date.  The Pilot and I got married last December!

Although I do most of the blogging, it is one of the Pilot’s posts that generates the most traffic.  It was this post that was the first to skyrocket our daily hits…and we still get people arriving because of google searches to that post.

Which brings us to the next thing about us….we are an Air Force couple.  🙂  The Pilot is in his final year of ROTC and he will commission in June as a 2nd Lieutenant.  Next February, Lord willing, we will be moving to Texas to begin pilot training.  So excited for that chapter of our lives and we can’t wait to see what God has for us in Texas!  One of the reasons we first started our blog was to better keep in touch with friends and family back home after we move.

As of yet, we do not have any children.  Interestingly enough, it was a post on that topic that has made our Top Posts.  (See that post here.)  But being parents is definitely a chapter of our lives that we await with much excitement!

On our blog, you will find a rather eclectic range of topics.  In addition to the more serious topics, such as the ones above, I enjoy blogging about books.  One of my favorite posts on that topic is about fictional characters.  We also blog about music, health, various life occurrences..and basically anything that interests us.  Enjoy your look around our blog!

-Bonnie

Your Home as a Haven

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My sisters have been doing a series of posts on the fruits of the spirit…and how they can change a home into a haven.  Whenever I encounter a great post in my google reader that was either encouraging or convicting, I generally mark it as unread so it will still be there next time I get on.  So far my sisters have posted about six different fruits of the spirit…and I think I marked almost all of them as unread.

Go check them out!

 

-Bonnie

Booking Through Thursday

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Booking Through Thursday asked this question last week: Are there any fictional characters you have emulated (or tried to)?  Who and why?

When I think of my favorite fictional characters, two immediately come to mind.

One is Elinor Dashwood, from Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen.  Her character really appeals to me because in some ways she is the exact opposite of me.  I so admire aspects of her character.  In some ways she is also quite like me.  Best quote ever:

Elinor, to Marianne:

What do you know of my heart? What do you know of anything but your own suffering. For weeks, Marianne, I’ve had this pressing on me without being at liberty to speak of it to a single creature. It was forced on me by the very person whose prior claims ruined all my hope. I have endured her exultations again and again whilst knowing myself to be divided from Edward forever. Believe me, Marianne, had I not been bound to silence I could have provided proof enough of a broken heart, even for you.

(Taken from the 1995 movie adaptation.  I have read the book, but it’s been almost six years.  If I recall correctly, this quote is straight from the book.  Anyone who has read it recently, feel free to correct me.  🙂 )

Elinor was so mindful of others that she was willing to keep her own pain to herself in order to serve others.

The second character I think of is Amy Dorrit, from Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens.   Little Dorrit is by far my favorite Dickens novel ever and Amy is an incredible person.  She truly embodies a gracious servant.  She has a lovely spirit and is totally selfless.  I must say that the 2008 TV version disappointed me.  They did not do justice to her amazing character!

A quote from the book that helps explain why I like her so much…

She had gained a reputation for beauty, and (which is often another thing) was beautiful.

Amy was beautiful because even though her life revolved around debtor’s prison, she was the one person who worked hard for her family.  Giving up her own desires, she was the family provider and mentor.  Her love for her family motivated her to always be there to pick up everyone else’s pieces.

If only Elinor and Amy were real people. 🙂 🙂

Which fictional character is your favorite?  Let me know in a comment!

-Bonnie

Happy Birthday!!

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Today is my love’s birthday!

Happy Birthday, sweetheart!

In our two months and twenty days of marriage,

I have fallen even more in love with you.

You light up my life.

No one can make me smile or laugh like you.

You show me again and again what

real love looks like.

You have taught me.

Encouraged me.

Prompted me toward Christlikeness.

You have melted my heart.

You have spoiled me.

Sacrificed for me.

Provided for me.

You are truly the most amazing

man in the world.

I am so thankful to be yours forever.

I love you, sweetheart!!

PCOS Update

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Just wanted to make an addendum to my series of posts recently on PCOS.  As of right now, I do not have PCOS and have been cleared by all doctors.  At this point it looks like my doctor visits are over and I have great overall health.  Obviously we do not know what the future may hold as far as health, but whatever it is, I know that we can face it because God is directing it and He has taught us a lot over the past few years.

Thank you all again for your sweet comments on our blog, on Facebook, and in real life.  I can’t even believe how sweet and encouraging you all have been.  That means so much and I am so thankful for each of you!!

-Bonnie