I'm moving in TWO DAYS

Holy crap.

I have so much to do still, I haven’t even started to pack or anything, mostly because it feels overwhelming. Gah, I feel like I’m going to forget like 20 important things thanks to procrastinating -.- When I moved for school, I knew exactly when I’d be back, so it wasn’t ever daunting: it was a temporary move. But now it’s a permanent move so we can  start our lives for real when he gets home. I’m genuinely excited about it, I really am, and I have missed Washington, but the gravity of making a major life decision is still present. I’m looking forward to the little things I suppose, like going to my favorite local market, a coffee shop I adore, being in the city, rainy days, fall colors, a Halloween party, and sleeping in our bed most of all. I’m excited to see friends and of course to start preparing for his homecoming, which is always on my mind. 

And this deployment. Dear god just let this thing end, I am just done. He should be home in just a couple weeks so it won’t be long now, but I just want to get that text that says he’s on the plane home instead of playing guessing games waiting for the Air Force to give him a set date. In many ways this last bit of deployment is getting easier, theres a sense of optimism and excitement about him coming back soon, which has made everything feel lighter and easier to handle. At the same time, I am just tired of this and want him back. I’m tired of sleeping alone, and waiting, and really am just getting emotionally burnt out on this whole deployment thing. I’ve been trying to just think levelly about it, to tell myself its over when its over and theres nothing I can do to hurry it up. I still can’t think about homecoming for very long without wanting to cry from the anticipation, but now that undercurrent of excitement is making it a little easier to let those thoughts in. 

I’ve begun to seriously think about what I want to wear/how to do my hair/all that stuff. I started to think about why people obsess about looking perfect, when it legitimately hit me that this is a pretty big life event, something we’ll actually remember until we die, and every extra bit of magic contributes to that memory. No wonder I and so many other girls want to go the extra mile, planning outfits weeks in advance, booking various beauty appointments, losing those last couple pounds. I know it’s going to be an amazing moment even if my hair looks like crap and my makeup is wonky and my nails are bitten to stubs, but how much more will I love that memory if I feel great about myself? That memory, and that feeling of confidence that will forever be tied to it, is what makes it worth it.

Well, that and watching him melt when he sees me =D

Getting Crafty: Date Night Invitations

So I saw this awesome idea on Pinterest where this lady gifted her husband 12 manila envelopes, one for each month, each with a pre-planned date night inside including gift certificates, information about the date, etc. 

I really liked the idea for homecoming, but wanted to be able to do more dates than just one a month and didn't feel like I needed quite as many materials that detailed what we'd be doing because Eric will just look everything up on his phone :) I loved the idea of having all the planning done for a day out, or a night out, with the research completed, some money already set toward it, so that it will be easy for us to just pick up and go on a whim. I also wanted it to feel like something special, something to anticipate.

That got me started thinking about what kinds of things Eric likes to do, things he's mentioned he wants to do when he gets back, and about stuff I want to do in my new permanent home, and came up with a dozen different date ideas, some requiring a full day and some travel, some just a morning, some just an evening, so we'd have some variety in how much effort we wanted to expend that particular week. 

The next step was how to present my date ideas, and since I wanted it to be something special we could look forward to, I decided to essentially use my leftover craft supplies to create themed "date invitations" like so:

Using up those extra craft supplies from care packages!

There's something so exciting about getting a formal invitation! On the back, I printed an itinerary for the day (Portland is pretty much his favorite place ever, and about a 2 hour drive for us) and am enclosing a gift card to one of the main things I want us to do there, as well as a card I made that says that coffee is on me that day :) 

I'm still not sure how I'm going to package these invitations with their matching gift cards/cash as Manila envelopes are too big, and I do want to keep track of which ones are time sensitive, which ones require more/less effort, etc. I've made 5 unique invitations so far, so I'll post how I wrap them up when I figure out how I'm going to do it! I'll also be posting each invitation and pictures from the date as we use them, of course. 

I'm off to make a few more!

October 2nd

The day we met. The day we became inseparable.


Happy 2 years babe, and on to year 3 :) Can't wait to celebrate when you're home in a few weeks!