Rose, Bud, Thorn

When Joel and I started dating, he taught me to play a game called "Rose, Bud, Thorn." It's a conversation-starter that he used while working as a youth ministry intern. All you do is say what the rose/best part, bud/what you're looking forward to, and thorn/worst part of your day/week/month were. The first time he ever sent me flowers, he gave me three perfect, beautiful, long-stem pink roses with a note that said "You have been the rose of my life the past three months." I know, awwwwww.

So here's my Rose, Bud, Thorn - Rose # 1: This past Saturday my little sister-in-law and I ran a 5k on the most gorgeous autumn day ever in Ocean City.

It was really fun, and I felt so blessed to be able to be there with her! She came home with me after the run, and then we went to Newark to celebrate Joel's maternal grandparents' 50th wedding anniversary. We had a great time with all of Joel's family and were thankful we got to be there.

Rose # 2: Yesterday, we had a meeting with Joel's commander, which I was dreading. I was expecting to hear: "Yay Air Force! Go Air Force! All Air Force all the time." Don't get me wrong, I support Joel in his career 110%, and I appreciate his (and all of our other service members') service. However, I was pleasantly surprised to hear Joel's Lt. Col commander say things like, "Don't be the guy who is still here when I'm leaving at the end of the day. I won't be impressed. I'll think, 'that guy needs to learn time management.' And don't be the guy who never takes leave. Take your leave and take time for your family... I will NOT be the reason or excuse that anyone gets divorced. Don't let things get to that point." And, my favorite, "I hate deploying first assignment guys. I'll do everything I can to avoid it."

Granted, he did say that they refer to the holiday leave lottery system as "Operation Deny Christmas." So, we are just going to soak up every second of the holidays that we get to spend together this year because, well, who knows if we'll ever get to spend Christmas together again.

The Bud: I'm already looking forward to my first-ever Loftus family Thanksgiving! I can't wait to sit at that gigantic table, surrounded by family, eating delicious food. I just have this idea that that is how Thanksgiving is supposed to be celebrated.

The Thorn: Joel will be leaving for survival training and water training soon. He will be in Washington state for just over a month. He will be freezing to death in the woods of WA (he does get issued snow shoes, though), but I will not be enjoying climbing into bed with no-one to put my cold feet on!


Stay tuned: Our kitchen make-over is almost complete! Pictures will be up soon.

Catch-Up!

Somehow, the whole month of September slipped by without a single blog post! These pictures are almost an entire month old now, but still well-worth sharing. Check out our beautiful niece!

We love her so much already, and we are so excited to be able to be around for the first few years of her life. What a blessing!

We had a fabulous visit a few weeks ago when Naomi came over for her first sleepover (with her sweet mom and dad, of course)! It was just one of those really special times that we would have missed out on if we still lived in Mississippi.

In other news, Joel's training is still going really well, and he just started taking another master's class through AMU. His class will end right before he leaves for SERE (survival training in Washington state) next month. He's also on his squadron's flag football team and is hoping to find ways to get more involved with the squadron soon.

We've found a PCA church that we like and that faithfully preaches the Gospel. It's a 30+ minute drive from Dover, but it's worth it. We're praying for opportunities to get more involved and hopefully make some friends there. Seriously, I'm about to run an ad for young, married, Christian couples looking for new friends. Ok, that's a little dramatic, but we honestly have not met even ONE couple under 30 without kids.

I'm still looking for a part-time job but to no avail. The job hunt is getting a little frustrating, but I know that God will bless me with a job in his timing, just like he did in Columbus. Prayers (and job offers!) appreciated, though!