Until they all come home...

I'll have to be honest with you, I may put on a face with a smile, but being away from my husband right now is very painful inside. Of course I have my good days when life seems to continue with it's routine and is accepted. However, today is one of those bad days. 

Today is our 2nd year anniversary of our first wedding. Yes, for those of you that don't know, we got married legally January 5th, 2006 at the First United Methodist Church in Niceville, Florida. As I wrote in an email to Jonah today... "I know that I'll always remember that day. I was so anxious to get done with teaching. I remember getting home and being a little sad that you weren't home when I arrived, but I used that time to hurry up and get beautiful for you. Then I remember going downstairs after I was ready and realizing that I hadn't even noticed the Kay's bag sitting next to the TV which you left unintentionally b/c you figured you'd beat me home. I will honestly say that I did not peek! Then I remember you coming home and everything then happening so fast; we were rushing to the church to arrive on time. I'm assuming we were supposed to be there around 6PM. When we arrived I thought it was so beautiful to be together in that small prayer room and everything was so simple and perfect. I remember being a little nervous about messing up the words that I would repeat to you as my committed vows, but also thinking how lucky I was to have you be the one to say them to." I guess what has been most difficult about today is that I wanted so badly to talk to Jonah and wish him a Happy Anniversary, however, he will have a nice email from me to look forward to. ;) Plus we have February 10th just around the corner!

I can't put into words the emotions I have while knowing that my husband is off at war. I have talked to him 2 times in the past 2 weeks each time for 10 minutes because their are other marines waiting to use the phone to speak to their loved ones. I feel so selfish when I become upset that I wish we could speak longer, but it's also just a relief to hear his voice and know that everything is okay. It's funny the things that we take for granted; cell phones have become such a useful tool in communicating... the usual phone call before your spouse arrives home for dinner as a way of "checking in" becomes such a routine that when it is put on hold because of circumstances like these is highly missed. Perhaps I could try that 800 number that shows up from his satellite phone? Ha! ;) 

So, dear loving family and friends, please continue to keep not only Jonah but all military (especially ones that are away from their families) in your prayers. Please remember that our loved ones are away because they are fulfilling their duty to our country; we seem to forget so quickly what happened in 2001 that we become unappreciative of the sacrifices that our men and women continue to make for us in support of our liberty. 

A Soldier's Wife's Prayer

Dear Lord,

Give me the greatness of heart to see

The difference between his duty and his love for me.

Give me understanding so that I may know

That when duty calls him, he must go.

Give me a task to do each day

To fill the time when he is away.

And Lord, when he is in a foreign land,

Keep him safe and in your loving Hand.

~Unknown

Beary Merry Christmas To You!!

Well, I skipped a Thanksgiving blog, so I'm going to give you a brief ongoing of that event at the Bruner's house in Tennessee.  The celebration occurred with my brother, grandmother, mom, dad, Ella, and I.  Mom cooked a huge feast with everything made from scratch; even fresh vegetables from my parents massive garden this recent summer. We basically did what everyone does on Thanksgiving, stuff yourselves so full that you have to lay down and take a nap for the stomach pain to go away.  A year ago, my brother & I started a little "Walmart Tradition" where we get up at the butt crack of dawn on Black Friday and shop with a million other people to get some of those (as my father-in-law calls them) "steals" of a deal.  Yes, we did get up this year again around 4:45AM and went to the one store (and only store) Walmart.  The sad thing is that we're supposed to be going to buy presents for other people, but we pretty much go to get the $2 DVDs. Haha. I know my husband will be proud. :) However, I did realize this year what great deals they have for toys, so I'm thinking this might have to be a yearly event with all the young generations that are coming into the world. :) So, that was our Thanksgiving and my Walmart promotion for you all.  I look forward to next years celebration with my husband, however, I'm pretty sure him & Ella will be sleeping in the day after. 

Now onto Christmas... we're getting into the holiday festivities around the house.  Ella has done an excellent job with helping with the ornaments.  I'll have to upload more photos b/c our tree looks much different now; the top of the tree is fill with decorations and below it's looking a little scarce.  You pretty much have to check your shoes around here for ornaments before putting them on. ;) While decorating, I'll have to say that she was getting the ornaments off quicker than we could get them on. We've also been doing a lot of baking and making lots of packages and sending them off to Daddy and his fellow buddies.  I'll have to say that having Christmas so soon is exciting to the 3 of us because we know it means a closer reunion to finally being home together in 3 months. I try not to get too excited because I know those last 3 weeks are going to be very slow. :) Less than 100 days to go though and we'll all be home together!! Well, in a motel working on getting a home together. LOL, but that's fine with me!!

Here's an Ella update... she learns new words constantly. We've been working on sign language a little together because she's been learning them off of her Baby Einstein dvds.  She pretty much will say anything you ask her to, most of the words are sounded out correctly but sometimes aren't finished completely. A lot of her sentences are one to two words which I read is quite normal for her age. She's a little chatter box though and loves to explore everything. I've finally gotten her into music; she loves to dance at the beat and shakes her little booty. Her favorite toy right now is a bear that I had when I was younger. (The first photo is of Ella with him.) In the photo you can see he has a diaper on him because Ella decided the other day that he needed a changing, so with a little help from Mommy, he got one. ;) 

I'll try and get another post out soon of more photos from this month; especially during present openings. :) Lots of Love to you All. ~E,J,&I

Spider Princess

October 2006

October 2007

October 2008

Hello!! Ella was a "Spider Princess" this year; I had gotten a used dress up in TC that seemed to be more of a witches costume with no hat, so the title was changed. Needless to say, she still looked so cute prancing around in her little costume. That's pretty much the extent of our Halloween this year; we had about 15 trick or treaters come to visit which Ella was pretty fascinated with. She didn't know what to think about most because of their scary costumes. I sent photos to Jonah and he said that she's going to laugh at these photos in 14 years. :O) We'll be looking forward to next year with Da Da; perhaps a costume party?? It will just be fun to be together.

Here's a brief update of what else is happening in our family. Jonah is doing well; he has had a change of address recently, so if you are wanting to send him packages please email me and I'll forward it to you. If you are interested in getting your box out in time for Christmas, I'd have to say that now would be the time to start making that happen. I know that it gets even harder for us around the holidays not being together, so packages are a wonderful way of sending some love.

Ella and I are in Tennessee; we got here two weeks from this upcoming Monday. We plan to stay here through the holidays. Mom has entered me in a couple craft shows this month, so we'll be taking on those with the jewelry my grandmother, mom, and I have made. We'll see how it goes. I'm doing whatever I can to stay busy and have the next couple of months go by as quickly as possible. Words could not express how lonesome I am for Jonah and the longing I feel to be home together. I have to remind myself to take one day at a time.

Please keep our family in your thoughts and prayers. Lots of Love. ~E, J, & I

Above are some cute photos of Ella this week. She has a lot of fun playing in the little fisher price house at Nana and Papa's and just this week learned how to climb up her crib from the outside. Hmmm, I'm predicting she'll be in a toddler bed before two; what do you think?? She had fun this week making Daddy a card; she used crayons for the first time and managed to take a bite of the color blue. Mmmm blueberries! 

This weekend I've a chorale concert that I've been working towards for the past couple months up in Traverse City. We'll be performing Vivaldi's Manificat and Gloria by Boccherini. I'm exhausted, but super excited because these pieces are fabulous. Then on Sunday Ella and I will be heading down to Tennessee for a couple months to visit with my family. 

Jonah is doing good; please continue to keep him in your prayers for safety. We're counting down the months until we'll finally be home together again; 5 left which is much better than 7!! :O) We love you Jonah!! 

Thanks again for your prayers. Lots of love~ E, J, & I

I'll try and get some more videos up soon; my computer is a little slow of uploading them.