Happy 2nd Anniversary, Vinny!

To: Vince

From: Vince

Isn't that sweet? He made me a card put together from bits of other cards he had over there. He also made me the coolest self-self locking trinket box. He's so crafty! I love him!!! xoxo

I love this man...

Guest Blogger: Vince

Happy Birthday my sweetest and dearest. Not a day goes by when I do not think of you and how empty my life would be if you were not there. Meeting and falling in love with you inspired my heart in such a way that can not be measured. It takes only a few seconds for me to say "I love you", but it will take me an entire lifetime to show you how much. All my love to you on your birthday and always. Vince This is the card I made you and a homemade cupcake we baked together to celebrate your special day.... well if we can call Afghanistan "homemade".

She's at it again...

Well, my sister once again decided to throw some punches my way via her blog. I wrote a REALLY, REALLY, REALLY long blog post a couple of days ago replying to it with an inclusion of the conversation that ensued prior to her eruption, but I left it in the drafts folder. I'm still undecided about publishing it though I did post a comment on her blog. She's said and done VERY painful things to me over the years, so in my fury I'd definitely say I aired out some stinky laundry. I've always appreciated the pure honesty of living a life through a blog. There's no editing who reads it. It's scary and freeing at the same time. I've never censored or deleted my comments (other than advertisements & spam). I even left up the comments on THIS post telling me to "Go to hell baby killer" shortly after I deployed. Click HERE to go on over to my sister's post. I'd like to know what you think.

Day 139: I love this guy!

(My head looks really weird, but he's as studly as ever!)

Day 134: Handsome

Day 117: Pucker Face

Oh, man! That was a sour pickle!!!

Day 116: Cool Guy

Yep, he's cooler than I am, but that's okay. I can live with it!

UpDATE: Chris

I'll get back to Photo-of-the-Day in a bit, but I wanted to catch you up on Chris. Remember him? Recap HERE then HERE. Anyway, he is history. I started noticing that he was sending secret text messages quite early on. At first I didn't think it was my business though the secrets, unanswered phone calls, and disappearing acts ate at me. One day he laughed out loud while reading a message. I asked what the joke was, and he quickly became offensive and totally freaked out on me. That's when I let my denial go. So many times I just believed him thinking I needed more faith. I believed it when he said he loved me, and that I was manifesting problems that didn't really exist. I just couldn't deny that gut feeling though. I didn't have proof, but this time I wasn't above finding out. I mean I didn't want to accuse someone of something so horrible, but at the same time I wasn't about to sit there and be naive to the whole thing. I had to nip it in the bud ASAP! I came home from leave early and went straight into my stake out. They did way more things that "just friends" aren't supposed to do. I told him soon after that I knew what was going on though he still denied it. (He also denied nude pictures of his ex, but that was a lie too! I'm sure she would be so proud of his nostalgic qualities.) He's a horrible liar. He does the usual eye avoidance, starts laughing, turns his body away, changes the topic, pretends he doesn't hear me, turns it around to accuse me... Did I mention he's stupid? So, get this... he just sent me an email a couple hours ago. (I'm laughing as I type this.) It goes something like this: "Laura, I love you with all my heart... My conscious cant take the guilt that I incur by not being able to be the boyfriend you're so deserving of." I'm sure he feels "guilty" now that he's deployed. I hope he has a long happy deployment with 'Palmala Handerson'. Despite all of that they're in my prayers, because God knows they surely need it.

Coffee with Jesus

I saw this video played in church last Sunday, and I immediately saw my self as the guy in the clip. Too often I just shoot God a little ditty of a prayer. A lot of times I end up just asking for things to go my way instead of really taking the time to talk to God and really open myself up to listen in return too.

P.S. His name is Chris, and after five dates I finally got a kiss! Whew! :-)

UpDATE

This past weekend was pretty busy. I had to stay late after work on Friday for an hour just to shred mounds of paper. I was pretty antsy the whole time considering I had a date that night to get to all the way in Nashville. It's about 50 minutes from here, but I had to get de-funked from being in my Army garb all week long. Anyway, right after I took a shower, changed into something cute, did my make up, blow-dryed my hair and even curled my lashes, (which I NEVER do), he called to cancel. Boooo! He said he had some stuff to do for school, so we decided to meet on Saturday for lunch instead. Again, he called and canceled at the last minute! I couldn't let another perfectly good face of make up and a fabulous head of hair go to waste, so I packed up all my scrapbooking projects and drove into Nashville anyway. I needed to go to JoAnn's to pick up my fabulous new sewing machine. Debbie is going to give me some lessons, so I'm pretty excited. I've been stitching by hand on my cards for a while, so this will make things a ton easier and faster. On my to JoAnn's I stopped at a cute little scrapbook store that Debbie and I like to swing into every so often. I took all my projects in and showed the owners. Long story short: I'm a designer for the store now! YEAH!!!! That crappy Saturday sure did turn out a lot better than it started. That night a new guy started messaging me from one of my many dating sites. We talked for two and a half hours before it started to get too late. Before I said "good night", he invited me to church the next day for our first date. I didn't know what to think. Sure, it's a "safe" place, but really church is so personal and intimate for me. I was a little nervous and freaked out, so I said I'd think about it. The next morning I woke up to a text message from him asking me to consider it again. His sweetness defeated me, and two hours later we were at church together. I loved it! I think I'll keep going to this church even if he turns out to be a schmuck! Anyway, after church we went to lunch and talked and talked and talked until near dinner time. We went our separate ways. About three hours later I couldn't stand it anymore, so I invited him over to help me frost cupcakes. He mentioned liking them earlier, so of course I had to bake some. Gotta work it, right? This time we talked until around 0230 in the morning! Madness! Yes, I know. So then we really said, "good bye". I had to be at work in a few hours anyhow. After work today we went out to dinner and stopped at Walmart for some ice cream on the way back. We ended up hanging out until just a few minutes ago, but I'm already wishing I could see him again right now.

Well, since he mentioned it...

I figured it was okay to share the email I just received from the guy in the photo booth on the last post: "Hi, it's me. This is really really hard for me, and I know it makes me a big jerk. I think you're really cool, and I had a great time with you on Sunday, but there's someone else who I'm pursuing a relationship with :( I don't want to lead you on and be a bigger jerk-face than I already am. Anyway, I wish you the best, and I know you'll find someone great to settle down with...just stay away from those guys who pee on your car. I hope you have a good weekend :( and if you feel like you need to bash me on your blog, I'll understand :(" I guess I should stop telling people I'm into blogging when they ask what my hobbies are. I just can't find it in me to mad at him anyway, but now I'm wondering if he ended up with the waitress that served us earlier on our date. He seemed to hit it off more with her than me. They're both displaced from Michigan. He came down here for a job, and she came down here for a couple different guys... Well, I hope he didn't end up with her! I'm not sure how that would affect my ego. I'd better not ask. All is not lost though. When one door closes another opens, right? The second email in my inbox was from another dating site dude asking if I'd like to meet him on Friday at a little hot spot in Nashville. Sure, why not!? I had a golf date for Saturday too, but that guy seems to have disappeared randomly, so I don't know about that one anymore. I told some coworkers about my four dates last weekend, and they all laughed. Am I really ridiculous for doing this online dating stuff, or am I dating too much? Please, someone feel free to dish out a reality check at any time. If it were up to my mother I'd have a new date every night, but then again she'd be picking out the guys too!

Four Dates in Four Days

Whew! Labor Day weekend gave me a four-day vacation from work, but there was little rest to be had. I freakishly ended up somehow with four dates in one extended weekend. Crazy! I haven't been on a date in a while. Where did all these guys come from? This is the only date I was able to get evidence from. I LOVE photo booths! I think they should put these things up at our offices. What would you do if you had a photo booth at work!? I can only imagine the pictures our guys would come up with....

Samantha

Remember Samantha? I introduced her in this post. Well, she's here! She came up to Tennessee for a four-day weekend. Today we went to the Adventure Science Center in Nashville, but first stopped for some BBQ and finished off the day with a stop at an old fashioned ice cream parlor and a souvenir shop. We also did some crafting. Her big sis, Chelsea, is off to college this fall, so we decided to make a picture frame for her dorm room. Samantha picked out all the colors, and I assembled the project out of a broken Goodwill frame. I designed it to be used vertically or horizontally. It didn't have any glass, so instead I attached a clip with a brad so she can change the picture easily as often as she changes boyfriends! Hmmm... maybe I'm thinking of my own dating life. Oh, and that's still as lame as ever if you're wondering. I'm still signed up for four different dating sites with meager results so far. I've had dates here and there, but they seem more self-obligatory. I have to convince myself more and more that I need to keep myself in the game rather than being unrealistic in thinking Mr. Right will just happen to knock on my door because he needed to use a tire iron after his car got a flat in my culdosac while en route to the emergency room where he's a medical intern. He also has a Yorkie and arranges flowers for the elderly on the weekends. Oh, and he loves his scrapbooking mother. Anyway... here's the frame:

Don't Ask Me Why...

I did it. It was on a random whim. There was no forethought to it whatsoever. I signed up for the dating site again! I'm already regretting it. I don't know why I'm sitting in remorse over it either. I'm not sure if I should be proactive or sit on my bum about the whole thing. Perhaps I should have taken that hundred bucks for a measly six-month subscription to love and spent the night shakin' my booty at a club. Mr. Right just might be a rump-shaker...Not! I sure hope my MR isn't a bar-scene kinda dude. Beer guzzling and butt gawking aren't exactly on the checklist for my McDreamy. I wonder if they have any of that weird speed dating stuff around here. I'm interested to try it out. I have complete and profound doubts about it, but at this point I may as well start collecting the rest of my dating memoirs, tearful woes, and silly stories for the book that seems to be well on it's way to creation. Even the stuff in Cosmo doesn't give me the same gag or giggle that my own formerly boring life does. (P.S. 9 more days 'til I'm 24!)

One of Those Days

Do you ever have a day when the smallest seeming thing just sends you into tears? Well, I'm having one of those days. I really think it's an accumulation of so many things, but you know what they say about the camel's back... Although there are a couple other females that work here somewhere at the school with me, I mostly interact with men. Let me remind you that I am in the Army, so we can't flirt or dress cute or do anything that the average workforce would consider socially acceptable or just plain normal. You can't tell someone "You look nice today!", or you'd be accused of sexual harassment. The military is very strict on these things. I don't know how any female could begin to look "nice" in a man's uniform anyhow. My clothes are so baggy and bulky. Even my knees rub together when I'm wearing my fitness uniform. Who's crotch hangs that low, really?! I think someone was thinking entirely too generously when they designed those things. Since we aren't allowed to say most compliments and pleasant things to each other, they instead dish out rude elementary verbal slaps. Keep in mind though that around here we can only say something disrespectful to someone whom we don't out-rank. I'm on the bottom of the totem pole here, so that means I'm the target for all of the jerks here. I'm the butt of every joke it seems. Sometimes I can laugh with them, but other times they're just plain mean. Anytime there's a screw-up with paperwork it somehow ends up being my fault too. The top guy blames the guy under him and the guy under him and the guy under him... all the way until it crashes down onto me. I guess today it just got to me a little. The weight was just too much for a second. I cracked. I shed one tear in the privacy of a community latrine. You're not supposed to do that here either though. You can't be weak. At least you wouldn't dare let them find out. Who wants the enemy to have more ammo?! Not me! I think being a single Soldier is another issue that I have a difficult time dealing with. I'm the only single Soldier at this unit. I don't mind being single in the general aspect, but little things like not hearing my own name. I'm "SGT Barefoot" here. I just want to be "Laura" every once in a while. And what about being able to vent? I can't talk to people here about personal matters, and really there is no one to talk to at work that would actually listen without laughing. This blog does help to an extent, but I'm not allowed to say so many things I would rather scream than type. I can't even remember the last time I had a hug. My birthday is just a couple of weeks away too. I bought a box of butter pecan cake mix and cream cheese frosting to make cupcakes as normally do. Baking cupcakes has been my main celebratory event since I've been stationed away from home. My birthday happens to fall on a Wednesday this year. I can't ask off a day in the middle of the week. It doesn't work that way. So instead, I'll be sitting at my desk knowing the whole time that today I am 24. I'm one year away from being able to rent a car on my own without any extra insurance, waivers, or signatures, I'm officially in my mid-twenties, and other than the annual phone call from my mom reminding me that today I made her a mother no one will say anything to me regarding my special day otherwise. I just hope it's one of those rare days that I make it safely under the radar and perhaps manage to get home early enough to see any bit of remaining sunlight.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Another lovey holiday has come upon us. It's kind of been a crappy day actually. I did get flowers yesterday and today too. That was nice. But...I woke up nauseous from the new "crotch cancer fightin' pills" they gave me. It made me late for work which started the whole day off wrong. It was a super busy day which I suppose made the day go by fast, but I was still sitting there lonely for sheer fact of the holiday waving it's big stupid cupid baby in my face. And to make the holiday even more fantastic is the fact that my beau just happened to bring up how he dislikes the holiday due to something concerning his ex who's been on his mind, and now he's not sure if he's even into being in a relationship right now. Would it be okay if I just cry for a second? Oops, too late to ask for permission. Here it comes... Arg! Soldiers are supposed to be able to control this. Okay. Okay. It's over. We're trained to suppress things. LOL! Why am I always rebound girl? Anyway, HAPPY Valentine's Day! Here's what I did: I used the Scenic Route Loveland collection for this card because I super duper LOVE IT! I love all their paper. Anyhow, I cut the pink circle with my Circle Scissor using mark 150 which made the card slightly smaller than 6" across. I wanted it to fit in a 6x6 envelope so this worked out well. I made sure to leave the top edge uncut, so I would still have a card that opens. I then took the Scrap Strip (my favorite) and cut the strips into 3/4" wide pieces and adhered them with a tape runner. I then used Basic Black from SU! to faux stitch the edges. The polka dot heart blended in too much with the top strip also being white-based so I inked the edges of the heart in Lipstick Red ColorBox chalk ink. The 'X' and 'O' are self adhesive pieces of chipboard from Basicgrey. I used the same chalk ink to tint them to match before adhering. The green gingham ribbon is from American Crafts and the tiny little rhinestones are adhered with Stickles for double glitz. And...that's it!

The Worst Date EVER!

I just love the rub on I used for the 'V'. It reminds me of those check yes or no letters we used to pass around to as kids. Anyhow, I forgot to fill you in on another date I had over a week ago now. (It was after the car accident date and before the Cha-ching date... got it?) Okay, so I met this guy at a nice place downtown in Nashville, and once we got in there I was wondering why he said we should wear jeans here. I didn't see anyone else dressed that way. It was one of those places where even the waiters were dressed better than James Bond. There was nothing I could do about my outfit a this point anyhow. The place had a fairly funky menu, so I opted for the safe chicken fingers. Besides, I was already dressed to wipe my hands on my own pants. The chicken fingers turned out to be more of a mountain of fried poultry than a delicate finger food more appropriate for eating during a date conversation. I nearly had to have a booster seat to look over my chicken mound at my date peering out over the top of his Eiffel Tower shaped mashed potato wad. I obviously didn't finish even half of my meal, but rest assured that my date got every crumb off of his plate before he started to indulge on my leftovers. We had already planned on going to a musical venue after dining, so I followed him in my own car to our second location. We didn't get one block out of the parking lot before he had his entire head and half of his torso out of the window while shaking his fist, yelling, and punching his horn at a car trying to merge in front of him. I was embarrassed, and I wasn't even in the same car! There's more. We pulled into the parking lot behind some building that I had yet to identify as something more than an old shack that had gone out of business or was about to be turned into a parking lot any day now. The show wasn't supposed to start for over an hour, so I suggested that we get ice cream down the street. He then walked around to my driver's side door and signaled me to put my window down. He then said, "I've got an emergency!" I heard a zip and a tinkle! Is he? No! YES!!! He's totally peeing right here next to me in the parking lot. I didn't know what to do, so I just turned up the radio for him. I didn't know if I was doing him a favor or myself. I don't know why I'm still on the date at this point, but I was still in shock I suppose. We made our way over to the ice cream place where I made my way to the bathroom to call for back up. I informed my secret bail-out agent to call me in 20 minutes with an emergency call from work before heading back out to enjoy my favorite Coke float. This part of the date wasn't so bad. I did have to clean up his huge sloppy ice cream mess before we left though. I guess it was bad. By the time we got back to the parking lot I had received my emergency call, and I told him I had to leave. He wasn't too upset, but he did want a goodnight kiss. He leaned in while I did the awkward head dance trying to give him anything but my lips. I was locked in one of those hugs that just doesn't know when to end while his "little buddy" started to get excited. That's when he points down at his crotch and says, "Compliments to the lady!" OMG! I'm sure I don't have to tell you that there has been no second date and nor do I plan on there ever being one. Ewwww! Deep breath.... back to the project: Here's what I did: I adhered, trimmed, and sanded the patterned paper to the letter first, and then highlighted various words with Star Dust Stickles. The three pieces of ribbon are just tied on and were found among my collection. The acetate wings are from Heidi Swapp and are adhered with Scrappy Glue. I then took a scrap piece of patterned paper from this collection and made a heart shaped tag using the Making Memories Tag Maker and applied it with a pop up glue dot. (The rub on is from 7Gypsies and was applied to the patterned paper before the metal rim.) I found the little red button stuck to the bottom of my foot, so I attached it to the tag with Scrappy Glue and covered it in Stickles as well. And...that's it!

Lovey Dovey

This is part of the four-piece project I've been working on since the blog candy game last week. It sure has been taking me a while to create lately, but I'm getting there. I blame work mostly. It's just too easy to do that. I seem to go in earlier, stay later, and miss more and more lunch breaks as time goes on. I'm so worn out by the end of the day that I just want to lay there on the couch and do nothing. It almost seems not worth it to take my uniform off when I just know I'll be back at it again in a couple of hours. You'd think being so tired that sleeping would come easier, but I've been staying up all hours of the night too. I think I need a tune-up! Perhaps the dating thing is getting to me as well. I'm tired of going on dates already. I took my profile down from the dating service too. Besides, there's someone I'm a bit sweet on. I feel like giggling just talking about it. He's super sweet and funny. And here's the best part... he actually thinks I'm sweet and funny too! Cha-ching! Here's what I did: I started with the Love Letters Kit from Making Memories that came out last year. It includes pre-printed hanging chipboard letters including L-O-V-E. Well, the O is actually a heart that you see above. I love kits, but I also love changing everything about them. I covered this piece in patterned paper from Reminisce with a heavy duty glue stick and then used a craft blade to trim the edges leaving the already attached ribbon hanger. Next, I added the big blue flowers and brad from Making Memories and tied on some fun ribbon and ric-rac from my stash. Then I used a lime green gingham fabric covered brad from The Paper Studio to attach two pink flowers and a polka dot acetate flower also from MM. The last little red flower is from Prima. I used a combination of glue dots for immediate attachment, but also dabbed Scrappy Glue around as well to ensure longevity of the project. "ooh la la!!" and "lovey dovey" went on next. They're both rub-ons from 7gypsies Next, I took a Basic Black marker from SU! and added tons of dots, lines and doodles. I then punched holes 3/4" of the way in on each of the scallops using the Crop-o-Dile. Finally, I used Stickles in Star Dust along the white stripe of the patterned paper to give it some glamour. And...that's it!

Adventures in Dating

I went on yet another date! I guess that's no surprise to those of you who actually read my posts. I know a lot of people just look at the pictures. I've been known to do that too. Some of the things people write about are boring or just way to freaky for me to read. My friend Debbie and I always joke about the "two tampons blog lady". We still say "EWWW!" whenever we recall that story. "EWWW!" Anyhow, I met this guy at a local place downtown that's kinda quaint and cute. Our waitress seemed in a real hurry to get us outta there, so we decided to go for ice cream at another place instead of having our desert where we weren't feeling so welcome. This is where the interesting part happened... We were driving along a two lane road that really should be much bigger considering the traffic. Anyhow, as we were chatting my entire SUV was showered in debris as a huge crash and gust blew us to the side. Firefighter Laura switched on, and I whipped the car around. I told him to jump into the driver's seat, and I took off running down the road. It was a three car pile up. Apparently car number one wanted to make a sudden turn into his drive way while the teenager in her mom's minivan was driving a little too close slammed into him, and thus causing car number three to hit the van. As I'm trained to do, I first made contact with each person to make sure I knew what sort of incident I had on my hands. Car number three was the first one I came to. She was okay, so I told her to sit still, turn off her engine, and call 911. Next was the minivan with the teenager. She was shaken quite a bit. Her airbags had deployed, and she was sitting way too close. I took a quick look at her eyes and wrists and told her to just breathe and turn off the engine. The first car in the line up was an old pick up and just a few feet from smashing into a pole. It was an older man. He looked like he had hit the steering wheel with his face. His son had come running up from their house followed by his hysterical wife, so I asked the son to take her back inside and gather his medications and insurance to take with them to the hospital. (You've got to find something distracting for hysterical people to get them under control.) It wasn't long before EMS arrived, but the cars were starting to leak all sorts of things, and the van was filling with smoke. I had no choice but to get the girl out of there with or without a c-collar and backboard. The guy in the truck was pinned in quite a bit though, so I had to pry his passenger door open to get in and talk to him after finding his glasses that had flown off his face under the passenger seat. Sometimes people just need those little things to be comforted when they've experienced something like that. They certainly don't need more stress. Anyhow, that's how my date went! Do you have any funky dating stories???