Day 21...Wait, what did you say?

 

I know it's already supposed to be Day 22, but I'm still up and according to my cousin Will, the day doesn't end until you go to sleep, so I'm gonna blog about Day 21.

Today (or tonight), I am thankful for modern technology, even though it may not work all the time.

In a age where internet did not exist, military girlfriends, fiances, and wives had to actually write hand-written letters to their men overseas.

We'd be so happy we could cry together
and then we'd love the way we used to do.
I wish that I could hide inside this letter
and seal me up and send me off to you.
Special delivery,
I'd V-Mail this female to you.
—Nat Simon and Charlie Tobias, “I Wish That I Could Hide Inside This Letter,” 1943

I found this really awesome paper written by a girl at the University of Wisconsin, about letter writing during World War II and in it she wrote, "A 1945 document entitled “Annual Report to the Postmaster General”compared the volume of mail between the fiscal years 1943-1945. In 1943 when the war was well

underway, 570 million pieces of mail were sent. This increased to 1.4 billion in 1944 and rose again in 1945 when 2.5 billion pieces of mail were dispatched. These figures reflect only the letters sent to the Army, a similar increase can be seen for letters mailed to sailors in the Navy."

That's a ton of letters!

I'm thankful that today it's easier to send hand written letters overseas than it used to be and that it's even easier when I can just send an e-mail from my computer or my phone and I know it will instantly be in an inbox, waiting to be read.

I'm thankful for my smart phone that lets me be connected anywhere, at anytime, for those random days when communication is possible and if I hadn't been near an electronic device that opportunity would have been missed.

I'm also thankful that even if the internet acts up and I have to talk, wait a minute for my voice to be heard and then another minute to get a response back, I can still hear his voice and we can still have a conversation.

Woke up...

via

to the best "Breaking News" update from CNN on my phone ever.

Read about it here...here...and here.

I hope that your weekend is off to a great start like mine!!

Hard to write

I'll just be honest with you, I've been avoiding writing my "yellow ribbon" posts lately.

They're hard to write and I feel like they might cause me more harm then good.

But for some reason I really wanted to write one today.

We're almost to the halfway mark of half a year.

Does that make sense?

I don't think I've ever been through something more frustrating than deployment.

It is teaching me patience and to trust in God more, not just with my life, but with my love's as well.

Modern technology/my phone/my computer are three things that are making this bearable. 

I don't know what I would do without them...well except write even more letters than I already am.

Even though it doesn't feel like it, time is passing and it will come to an end eventually

and I'll be waiting anxiously!

Dear boyfriend...

via

I miss you like crazy!

Let Freedom Ring

Happy 4th of July everyone!

I hope ya'll have a really good day filled with family, fun and fireworks

The girls and I are going to try and brave Huntington Beach and all those crowds of people for a day in the sun.

We'll see how it goes!

"Sometimes freedom makes it hard to live.
When it takes things from you that you don't want to give."

"Brothers" - Dean Brody

I really miss him tonight.

The end.

"Oh, that

I could

shrink the

surface of

the world,

so that 

suddenly

I might 

find you

standing

at my side!"

(wang chien)

I'm missing my sweetheart a lot today...but the few minutes of conversation 

we got to have made me incredibly happy.

Almost to the month-and-a-half mark, but I'm ready for it to be over!

A month??

Has it really almost been a month already?

Good grief!

I'm so torn between feeling like...

A. That went by fast, we can do this!

or

B. Oh my gosh, we still have such a long way to go!

Now that I stop to think about it, I probably feel an equal mixture of both.

The last few weeks have flown right on by and I've been handling this incredibly well.

I will say that if it was not for my smart phone that lets me have access to everything my computer does,

there's no way I could be this calm! You can't really do real life with your computer glued to your lap!

However, no matter how I'm feeling about this last month, I'm still always counting down to this...

Borrowed

How?

I've been staring at this screen for a few minutes now trying to figure out what to write.

How can I write a blog that follows OPSEC?

Or honestly, how can I write a blog that I know he'll approve of (ha!).

Can't post, put up, or profile picture the pictures of him in uniform because he's asked his loved ones not to multiple times.

Can't say where or when.

Can't do anything that would bring anyone any sort of harm.

How can I convey how much I miss him already?

Especially this weekend.

Especially because not only is tomorrow Memorial Day, but our anniversary.

Especially because even though I've prayed for strength and toughness, it feels wrong to be doing this OK.

Guess it just comes down to those three words.
I love you.
I miss you.
Come home safe.

come home soon

I'm surviving and not crying a lot! Hurray! This is a big step because I'm one of the most emotional girls I know.  Over the last several days, I found a few things that keep me sane and comforted when it gets tough...

Staying busy...busy, busy, busy...

My phone is never out of sight/hearing range.

Dual time clock and countdown on my screen.

I pray a lot.

Did I mention I'm staying busy?

I really miss him way too much already.

"If you still want me"

"Honey tie a yellow ribbon 'round the ole oak tree
It's been three long years
And I want to know if you still want me?
If I don't see a ribbon 'round the ole oak tree
I'll gonna stay on the bus
And forget about us, put the blame on me
If I don't see a yellow ribbon round the ole oak tree.

Now the whole bus is cheering and I can't believe I see
A hundred yellow ribbons round the ole oak tree..."

Luckily, I don't have to wait three long years for him to come home,

but even if I did...

there would be a hundred yellow ribbons around whatever trees I could find.

Oak or otherwise.

I hope you have an amazing weekend lovelies. 

Make sure to spend as much time with the people that you love if you can.