On the 14th of January we passed the one year anniversary of my husband’s return from Afghanistan. I wanted to write a blog post filled with beautiful pictures of our reunited family from his homecoming ceremony, But as I looked through all of the pictures one by one, the words just wouldn’t come. Why couldn’t [...]

I have been trying to write these words for months. We are four months into our new home and finally unpacked. We are six months into adjusting to life ‘back in the States’ after four years in Germany. We are ten months into adjusting to life as a family after Seth’s fourth deployment. That last [...]

What the heck is she talking about? Stay with me for a second. (Apologies to my male readers – this may be a little out there for you.) Just think about this for a minute – Isn’t pre-deployment kinda like being pregnant? The day you find out your pregnant, everything changes right? Just like the [...]

My husband has been home from a 12 month deployment to Afghanistan since January. We’ve had 8 months of reintegration joys, challenges, and adjustment. Living overseas for 4 and a half years, most of the people I interacted with on a daily basis were military families, veterans, or civilians employed by the base (meaning they [...]

Yesterday I was chatting with a friend about an upcoming Marriage Retreat that her family is attending.  Having just passed the 3 month mark of my husbands return from Afghanistan and less than 2 months from our tentative “leaving Germany” flight time, I am both thrilled for my friend, and envious of the opportunity to [...]

After weeks of preparation and planning, the day finally arrived for our Homecoming Ball. My ‘Extreme Ballgown Makeover‘ was finished just. in time. like, the morning of, with 5 hours to spare – HA! Here are the before and after pictures! I wore my favorite Engineer Castle pin and Army Eagle earrings that were a [...]

Husband is back to work today after 30 wonderful frustrating days of post deployment leave. Ahem. Which means that all of these lovely dishes are waiting just for me… Along with a few lovely baskets of laundry… And I’ll need to start up dinner by myself this afternoon… Lovely. But to be completely honest? As [...]

Today my husband has been home with us exactly one month. Each day, our routines and relationships are feeling more and more natural instead of full of hesitation and caution. And then there are moments like today – Valentine’s Day which is also my Birthday – where I feel… guilty… This morning before breakfast, Seth [...]

As long as I can remember, I have bought my french fried onions in this can. So this past Thanksgiving, when I was checking things off my list for the fantastic feast I had planned with three other amazing women, I went up and down the aisles for a good 10 minutes LOOKING for them. [...]

For families reuniting after a long military deployment, a Welcome Home Ceremony is an entire spectrum of emotions. One of my favorite things to do, is take pictures for dear friends of mine to capture some of these moments… Waiting… Anticipation… Excitement to finally see them… Concern about how the children will react… Watching them [...]