Expect A Miracle... There is Beauty in Every Day.

My Mom likes to email me immediately after I miss a Monday blog. I wonder how many times on Monday nights she checks this thing out! I have been so busy this week with birthday excitement and the end of the teaching school year. I have lots of pictures this week, so for all of you that have been disappointed with my lack of pictures, I will make a comeback today. My first adventure for this blog is going back to Wednesday, July 10th, 2009. A friend of mine is in a great coverband called The Rhythm Method (and they are totally Catholic. How hysterical is that name!?!). They were playing at The Quaker Steak and Lube and Kasey and I had been wanting to try that place out anyway. When we got there, much to our surprise, it was totally biker night!! It was sweet! There were so many cool bikes. We thought the restaurant was going to be super busy because there were so many people outside, but inside was not bad. We sat right down and the service was fast. The bathroom line, now that was bad! After dinner were walked around, looked at bikes, and listened to the band.



Thursday was a normal day at school with the exception of a crazy emotional break-down. It was the first time that I was able to talk with James at a decent time of day for me and for a bit of a longer time. I sat in a little room Jowonio calls the Honey Pot and we talked about all the things going on, school, Calfornia, and such. I miss him so terribly much. All my thanks are to Tina because I was working with her when the phone rang and I looked at it and looked at her and pretty much ran out the door. Once I got off the phone, I ran back down stairs to class and, for whatever reason, it hit me right as I walked into the classroom... full of children! I just broke down. I went into the bathroom for a minute to get it together. I walked over by Jane (who was with the kid that I was supposed to be with) and she said that I had missed lunch and as she was about to say go... sit down at the table and eat (she was pointing at the table) we made eye contact and she turned her hand from the table to the door and was like ...to the kitchen and take a break. I was just like Thank YOU! I did eventually get it back together, but it is really important to know that I have a team that really supports me.

Friday was a normal day at work and then Kasey and I went and visited Kim at the hair salon. We were there for FIVE hours. It was insane. As Kasey was getting started, I just sat on the chair looking at how hysterical my highlights looked. Why is it that no one told me that the length of my hair was over half NOT highlighted (the top half, that is)!?! I think it was the lighting that was supposed to make you want them to do more to your hair. Anyhow, all is well now. My hair looks super much better and I just feel better because it is shorter. Kasey did this really fun red thing to her hair, but ended up going all black. She is looking very nice, too!

Saturday was when the photography started kicking in. We all went out to a baby shower for my second cousin and his girlfriend who are expecting a baby in July. It was at my cousin's house and was a lot of fun. Lets go from here with a little picture story.


Babies are such a beautiful gift!


So, Kasey and I were in charge of the poopy diaper game. We took lots of kind of candy bars and melted them in these diapers. Everyone had to look into the diapers and try and guess what kind of Candy bar was inside. It was really funny and gross!


Cutest bib! Some other cute ones included "wiggle worm" and "little peanut".


Sweet pregnant Melissa opening her gift from my Mom.


She loves it!!


The Happy couple. Melissa and my cousin Sean.


Very cool cake made by my other cousin Rachel. Nice work Rach!!


New hair! Having fun.


My new baby third cousin, Cayden Edward.


We were the first to arrive and the last to leave, always the life of the party :-)

We had a really nice time. After the party Kasey and I went to the movies and saw Up. It was so wonderful. I completely recommend it to everyone! It was cute and sweet and had an perfect message that everyone needs. Don't be scared that you are too cool for cartoon movies, go see it. I cried! It was so sweet.

Sunday, June 14, 2009, I got up and headed over to church. I am not even going to get into the problems that I encountered there. Sunday afternoon, I pretty much packed the whole time. I moved a lot of my stuff over to Aunt Christa's house, where we will be living for the last three weeks in Syracuse. Monday, June 15, 2009, was my birthday! Hooray! I had a very nice day. I was able to talk to James, that was so special because I had been dreading the fact that I wouldn't be able to see or talk to him, but I got too!! Yay! Kasey had a fun celebration set up for me... lots of sparkle and excitement, and she did not leave one stone unturned.



I headed to work and had fun with the kids. They love any reason for celebration. My Mom sent me a beautiful arrangement of flowers that were completely in my wedding colors! I love that!



I thought that I was done with surprises after school when I got home to find a beautiful arrangement of flowers from James!! He is completely the sweetest! I am so proud of his planning skills and how he managed to arrange all these little surprises for me! I love him so much.




Does it get any better than this?


I am blessed beyond anything!

Because Kasey and I were the only ones that had been to The Quaker Steak and Lube, we ended up going there for dinner. Aunt Christa was the picker because she is a year or two older than me (we have the same birthday). We had a great time at dinner. The service was SO slow. We decided they must have been rushing on biker night becasue they were scared of the bikers, lol. It was okay though because the company was very good!


If you notice Kasey's head, you will see that the car is hanging from the ceiling! This picture is not upside-down! Crazy!


Birthday twins! :-)


Roomies!!


So, pickles are not my friends, yuck, BUT I had to try one of these deep fried pickles (everyone had told me they were the best) and I couldn't stop, they were delicious. Who knew?!


YUM!


This thing was totally cool! When I took the picture, the flash caught the reflectors in the license plates and it just popped like that! Don't you love it?! Very cool wall hanging.


That would be a car on a lift over some tables. How would you like to look up right into a live engine while you are eating your burger and fries!


Aunt Therese and Victor got to the restaurant early and must have cued in the birthday message, this is my joy about them all singing happy birthday from "the Lube", as they say.




This is the beautiful (and delicious) cake that Kasey got for Aunt Christa and Me. The problem with pictures is that they give you the opportunity to notice mistakes, such as the fact that Aunt Christa's name is spelled wrong... but the "h" might have just fallen off when Uncle Jim tripped and ran the cake into the door frame on his way into the house! :-)


Hehe.

My birthday was a fun day. I am looking forward to going home and being able to celebrate with my parents, too! I always miss my parents a little bit more on holidays! It will always be hard to be away from home!

Tuesday was a lot of fun. It was graduation day for the kids in the Dragonfly Room. We had a really nice ceremony. Each teacher took a turn reading names of the kids and talking about how great they did this year. I have some really great kids this year and I love them like crazy. I got some of my favorites to present the certificates to, so I was happy about that. I got some big hugs and had a great time. It has been a wonderful year!







This week has already been full and it isn't over yet. The biggest part of the rest of my week will be packing and moving! I can't believe that is where I am right now. One of the things that James and I talked a lot about is California and moving. It is unreal to me that we are so close. I have spent well over three years loving this sweet boy to pieces and travelling ALL OVER to see him. I am so excited about living with him! When I am with him, I feel like everything is right in the world. I feel safe and secure and always happy. He is the best part of my day, near or far, when near is the norm, I will be in bliss.

I want nothing more than to hold James Robert with all of my might right now, so I know this last leg of the deployment is going to hit hard. The support that I always have is going to be really handy while all these transitions bring me back to the love of my life. I wish you a blessed and beautiful week and weekend!

James Robert, I am so glad that you were able to call this week! Thanks for reminding me over and over again why I love you so much (as if I needed a reminder). You are the best. I love you more and more every day. Be safe, okay, and please hurry home.

always,
Jamie

A Middle of the Night Phone Call

I thought that I would save the Monday blog for Tuesday because I knew that today would be a big day. Last week was pretty normal at work. There wasn't a whole lot that I need to report. I can't believe that we are almost at the end of the school year at Jowonio. I have less than two weeks until kid graduation! On Friday, I came home from work to find that all of the furniture was gone from the apartment! Over to storage it went. It seems so crazy that I am really getting to this point. I have some crazy feelings about the whole thing. I am scared and excited about driving across the country to my new home. I am very glad that Kasey will be my very own caravan companion for the trip! I am more ready than you could imagine to live in the same city as James Robert. I am completely over the long-distance at this point!

On Saturday, I was so excited to go to the Taste of Syracuse Festival and then I woke up with a ridiculous migraine-type headache. I spent pretty much the entire day in bed. I was so sad, too. I felt a little better toward the end of the day and went to Aunt Christa's for dinner. Sunday, I felt better and so I did some more packing. I brought another load over to the storage unit. The last thing that I really need to figure out is all of my clothes.

Monday, was a normal day. I took the day off today (Tuesday) because I knew that I would be defending my thesis this afternoon. I went to bed early on Monday night to get a good night sleep in preparation... who would have thought I would be getting a middle of the night phone call from my sweet and precious sailor! I couldn't believe it. My phone started ringing around 4:15 AM, I was utterly confused, ha! It was so wonderful to hear his voice. So much for a good nights' sleep, if there was any reason not to sleep the night before my Master's Thesis defense, that was it!! I miss that boy so much. It was a great surprise. Sadly, he had duty today, so I didn't get to talk to him at a decent hour yet.

And for the defense, I was so very nervous. I thought I might throw up! When the committee came in, the first thing they did was ask me to leave so they could discuss some things! What?!? I didn't even say anything yet! That helped to build the nerves even more. I ran through my entire presentation and the committee asked me some very tough questions. I answered everything as best as I could and then I had to leave again, so they could make some final decisions. After a little more pressure, my mentor came out and gave me a big smile and a big hug and said Congratulations! So, that is it! I officially have my Master's degree now! I am so excited and proud of myself!

I am sorry that I left you again with a blog with no pictures. I did look pretty spiffy today, but I didn't have anyone to take my picture! Oh well. Hopefully, I will have more pictures in the next couple of weeks. For now, I am going to wait to get my phone call. I am so blessed to have the life that I have and I am thankful for each and every person that is in my life! Thank you to all of you who have supported my over the last two years to make it to this point. I worked hard and I am very proud of the work that I did at SU, but I couldn't have done it without you! I must especially thank Kasey for getting my through hard days and harder nights without even knowing that she was doing it. Just having someone close that cares sometimes makes a hard thing a little easier. There are plenty of times where I probably wouldn't have been able to eat without Kasey, so I owe a lot to her. My parents are high on the list of my biggest fans as well. There are times when my Mom and Dad believe in me far more than I do and those times of encouragement are a huge blessing to me. I love you, I love you all!

I wish you the most beautiful week full of smiles and laughter. I hope for you sunshine, and if it doesn't shine, I wish you other blessings to brighten your day.

Sweet Sailor, please be so safe and hurry back home to me. I hope that you are able to enjoy some free time and relaxation in port. I will be thinking of you every minute and I will be relishing every time I get to talk to you. I love you more than anything! And I miss you!!

always,
Jamie

No Pictures?

This week wasn't eventful, and is certainly wasn't picture-ful. It was pretty typical. I have been packing as much as I can and trying to get some stuff together for the big move. Kasey and I are going to be moving out of the apartment at the end of June. I will be moving before I head home to do two weeks of wedding stuff (I have booked my first two appointments!! Hooray!!) and Kasey will be pretty much right behind me. On Tuesday, I went over to my little man Max's house. It turns out that the family is moving to Maryland. And, get this, Max's Dad is going to be doing research and development for the Navy! What are the chances?!? Isn't that hysterical :-) Anyway, the rest of the week was pretty much business as usual! I have heard from James all week, which is wonderful. He got a promotion! I am so excited and proud of him! I can't wait to squeeze him! Kasey went out of town for a conference on Thursday and I spent the first part of the weekend alone working on paperwork and stuff. I accomplished quite a bit, actually. I have a lot of my packing done and I found a lot of stuff to give away, too. I also started working on finding an apartment for James and I to live in out in California. It is so much fun making plans! I can't wait to live with that sweet boy! I miss him so much! Well, this is completely less than interesting, but I wanted to make sure that you all know that I am thinking about you. Have a beautiful week!

James Robert, be safe and please hurry back! I love you!

always,
Jamie

I Love my Navy Sailor! Happy Memorial Day to the Amazing Men and Women who have served and are serving our great country!

I almost forgot that it was Monday as I made my way back to my computer after some serious packing and some work at the gym. As for the blog this week, it looks like I am going to take it all the way back to May 15th, 2009. It was Kasey's birthday!! I was getting a little sad, the time with my Mom visiting was almost over, but there was quite a bit of fun still to be had. Friday (the 15th) was Kasey's birthday. How exciting?! I can't believe that she is 27! She is about to start a great new adventure, too, just like me. I had normal work on Friday and lunch with my Mom. We tried on wedding dresses again and I definitely found the ONE! I am so excited. A bit later, we headed out to dinner at a yummy Italian place called Digi's. I had some ziti, it was delish.


I think that Kasey might have been embarrassed to be seen with us! ...I have to admit, it does get rowdy sometimes.


Proud parents. Precious.


I love this girl! Happy Birthday Kasey!


Always the ice cream cake :-)

We had to get to bed a little early after the birthday celebration because Saturday was the Komen Race for the Cure New York. Kasey, my Mom, and I were all racing and raised a combined total of $775! That is pretty good, I think! I have to give an extra shout out THANK YOU to all the great friends and family that donated to us! We had a great time at the Race and were extra inspired by all of you that donated! Thank you so much for that. Two of my Mom's sisters (Kasey and my Aunts) had breast cancer and pushed and fought through as long as they could before we lost them both. They were amazing ladies and made a big difference in this entire world. Aunt Annie is still affecting the world of Breast Cancer Awareness, as a research grant was given in her name just last May!




Since I reached my fundraising goal, I got these new cool kicks!!


My Mom got some really cool new shoes, too!


This is Kasey's crafty creation that she made for the Race. It was completely incredible! We were stopped a couple times with people telling her that it was really nice!


The wind was out of control!


Racers ready!! We were totally in the zone.


We were in the walking group. I don't think I have built up my running to three and a half miles yet! Soon...


Tina joined us at the race. Tina started the team for her Mom who passed from Breast Cancer last year.


This one is just for James. He loves a few unnecessary leg exercises (Kat Williams).


Poor little Tink Tink (Kat Williams) Hehe.


This is a great story. As we are walking along, we were looking at the little signs that people were wearing saying who they were racing in celebration of. Now, there were thousands of people at the race and we were walking behind this lady. If you could see her celebration sign, you would see that it says: Ann Heins: on it- my Aunt Annie!! Isn't that ridiculous! Of all the people at the Race we were right next to a group of people that knew both Aunt Annie and Aunt Mary Lou! It was awesome!


I love this shot!


Right as we were crossing the finish line, the sun came out for just about a minute or less. It looks like Aunt Annie and Aunt Mary Lou were with us all along!

After the race we spent the day running around and eating (as usual). We had to pack up all of Mom's stuff and see if we could fit it back in her suitcase. We went to Church on Saturday night, so that we could sleep in on Sunday. When I got up on Sunday morning, the apartment was clean and my laundry was done! Now, that is a good nights sleep!! My Mom is the best. After Sunday family dinner, I had to bring my Mom to the airport, which was so sad! The lady at the desk was really sweet, she said that she would let me go through the gate with Mom if I wanted to. I was surprised, but didn't have my ID card, too bad. I was already bumming though. The rest of my week was really normal with some extra exhaustion after all the fun of the week. I had to gear myself up to go on yet another fun weekend to CT. It really wasn't too difficult to get the spirit up, especially since another one of the couples that James and I are friends with got engaged! How exciting!?! On Friday (May 22, 2009) afternoon, I headed out to Claire and Brad's to meet up for a night out planned by Claire (she is the best event planner ever!! Thanks Claire). I got into town a little later that expected, but I did pretty good on time. We headed out to this great little bar/restaurant. I kept noting that it completely didn't feel like we were in the Groton region. It was perfect weather and just a fun setting! Of course, good friends always top off the goodness!!


The happy couple... I mean...


So sweet, Meghan and Robert! They are getting married! Hooray!


Claire and Me.


Great friends!


I am pretty sure that is what a salad should look like!




The live band was so much fun!


My delicious cake! And the whole meal was a graduation treat from Claire!! You snuck that one right by me! Thanks friend! You are the best!

On Saturday, May 23, 2009 (James and I have been together 41 months!), Claire and I slept in which was super wonderful! We hung out with Charlee and watched a movie and then went out on the town. We headed to the Base to get a couple things, since that is going to probably be my last visit to the base! Afterwards, we tried to find some Chester's Puffcorn for Claire, but no luck! Bummer. I wanted to share the delights. We went to find some lunch next and ended up in one of the places that James and I used to go to all the time. It is hooked to a hotel, so most locals are not inspired to eat there. James and I used to stay in the hotel, so we knew it was a good place. Claire enjoyed it! Hooray! She loved the clam chowder so much that she ordered some to go. Our waitress actually gave it to us for free because she said that she didn't really give us the customer service that she wanted to because the restaurant was so busy. How sweet is that?!? She didn't have to do that at all, but we thought it was just the nicest!


Connecticut people, try it! You will be surprised!


I love my Claire!

Claire and I were having such a good time hanging out, chatting, and eating, that we almost didn't make it back to her house on time for the game night that we planned! Ha! Thankfully, everyone was running a little late, so we made it just in time to sit for a minute and get ready for friend game night.


Meghan and Bert brought some delicious strawberry shortcake!! It was awesome!


Bert was having the best time of his life! hehe.


Meghan was recovering from smacking Robert in the face by mistake! Ha! I think it was a mistake, but who knows!?! JK.


We had a great time!


This must have been a hard question.


Charlee wanted to play, too!


My oyster was super sweet! I only had a minute to make it!


Friends.


That seems like a yummy idea.

After a fun night of games with friends, Claire and I stayed up WAY too late talking. I guess all the sleeping in prepared us to chit-chat all night. I have no complaints! I always forget just how much I love that girl until we get to hang out some more! I miss my CT friends! I miss my Sailor, too. Why does everyone have to be so far away? On Sunday, May 24, 2009, when Claire and I eventually got up, I got a text from Marissa letting me know that the email on the boat opened and I FINALLY heard from James! I miss that sweet boy and it had been weeks since I heard from him because of whatever mission they were on. Hooray. I love him, it was so nice to hear from him! We ate some lunch at Friendly's and then I, sadly, had to hit the road.


Does Charlee look sad to you?

I had completely the best weekend! It is a bit hard to be without James in CT, but having wonderful friends makes everything seem a little easier. Sometimes just having people around that really understand makes life seem a little brighter. I miss James with every fiber of my being. I love him more every minute and it is hard to understand what it is like to be away from that person that is your world unless you, in fact, have to be away from that person. Thanks for being there! Know that I am always here for you, too!

Today is Monday (May 25, 2009). Do you believe that I am sitting here completely surrounded by boxes! This is really happening. I am really going to be moving, in a few more months, to California!! It suddenly feels real. I am heading to an entire new chapter... possibly an entire new book. I am ready!


My first pile of boxes!!!!

I am ready to get another week closer to homecoming. I am ready to get this show on the road. I wish each of you a wonderful week filled with all things happy!

To my Sweet Sailor, Happy Memorial Day. I know that our current situation is not ideal, but what you are doing is honorable and important. I am so very proud of you and I love you more every time that I think of you (which is a lot). Thank you for being you and doing what you are doing. Be safe, please, and hurry back home to me!

always,
Jamie