It's our second Christmas together! Christmas is more fun this year because I've had a whole year to decorate and make our apartment feel like home. Which makes all the new ornaments and decorations we have acquired feel more festive. Last night we went to pick out our our second Christmas tree and this is what we came home with:

This is pre-decorated obviously. And yes, it is REAL! It is just not Christmas without a real tree, sorry.

I was waiting for Steven to finish his homework so we could decorate so I put hooks in all our ornaments and set them out on the table. I understand that might qualify me for dork status.

This is our newly acquired angel. I had very strict criteria for a Christmas tree angel. For example: red dress - no white, or tulle, or flimsy fabrics; absolutely positively no angels holding little light bulbs or with fiber optic wings - sorry, it drives me crazy. So you can imagine why I have found finding an angel so difficult. But while we were on vacation we went to this HUGE Christmas store (I was in Heaven). When we wandered by the angel display I stopped to look and there she was, just sitting there, the only one like her and the only one left. I literally bought her off the shelf, no box or anything. I pointed at her and said "Steven, that's her. I don't care what she costs, that's the one I want." So he let me get her and now my tree is complete! She looks a little big in the next picture but it's only because our tree is like four and a half feet tall!

This is our fully decorated beautiful Christmas tree!

We had a wonderful vacation but I think I will post about it later once I get the pictures off my camera and onto the computer. Hopefully tonight!

I did want to share an Anniversary story though. I know that you're probably thinking I am about share some sappy story or whatever. Oh, but no, trust me this is good!

Lets start at the beginning. Yesterday was Steven and I's first Anniversary and instead of going out to dinner and spending a fortune we decided to cook a nice dinner at home. Steven wanted to make it himself and he wanted to make something we don't have often, steak. So we went to the Earth Fare store to get some really nice steaks amongst other ingredients and upon returning home he started dinner. That was all simply background, now we get to the good part. Okay, so we keep our trash can in the laundry room and while we're cooking we just leave the door open for easy access. Well I was in the kitchen for some reason that I can't recal and Steven went to go throw something away. I looked over at him and saw something (well not "something," I knew exactly what it was but just hold on) scurry from behind the trash can back towards the dryer. So in the calmest voice I could muster (cause he hates it when I scream and freak out) I said "Steven, there's a mouse in there, I swear to you I just saw mouse, he headed back for the dryer." Of COURSE, he didn't believe me and thought I was making it up or seeing things. But like a good little husband he started looking for it mainly to appease me. Well, he moved things around and hit the dryer to make noise but... no mouse. However, we keep our plastic bags between the wall and the dryer and when Steven pulled them out to get a better look... SURPRISE!! The mouse came from, not sure where, and landed on his leg which startled him (he won't admit that he jumped back, but he did, probably at the sheer shock that I was actually correct in saying I had seen a mouse). But his being startled, startled me, which startled him more which allowed the mouse time to run away into the living room and disappear. I decided he had gone under the couch but neither he nor I was willing to start pulling things out from under it in order to look for fear that he would run out directly at us.

Since I could not spend my entire Anniversary evening perched on the top of a chair, I grabbed my purse and headed down the street to Lowe's to find a mouse trap... or two. When I got home the mouse still had not made a reappearance so we baited the traps with peanut butter, breaking one in the process. Steven set the only working one and I put it next to the couch (because I was still convinced he was under there). Satisfied that eventually the mouse would be caught I sat down to enjoy my evening. Not even 15 mintues later we heard the trap snap!! Are you kidding me? That was some hungry mouse!

Again, like a good little husband Steven disgarded of the mouse for me. Problem was though, the trap didn't catch it's neck like it's supposed to. Instead it caught it about halfway down it's body, so the poor thing was still moving around. In fear that it would suddenly come back to life (I might have been slightly irrational) I made Steven make sure he was dead. So he took a knife to it and then took it outside. We re-set the trap in case there were more we couldn't see but so far there have been none. I also called the office this morning begging for them to call out the maintence guys to look in the laundry room for any sort of hole that he could have crawled through that they could plug. I didn't have to beg much though cause I think the office was just as worried about having a mouse in one their buildings as I was. So they're supposed to come out soon and search.

My mom's comment to all this was that since we went to Disney World for our honeymoon, Mickey Mouse decided to come visit us for our Anniversary. Thanks, I could have done without that visit though. Anyway, that was my not so fun at the time but kinda funny now story of the day. Enjoy!

Jimmy update: He is coming home this week for Thanksgiving!! The court decided to let the boys come home for the holidays. Not sure exactly what day or for how long but I know that everyone is excited to see him. Please continue to keep him in your prayers!

On another prayer note: Steven and I have a friend from his unit at Fort Bragg who is in need of prayer as well. I am not giving her name simply for privacy reasons. She is married and her husband, who is also in the Army and currently deployed, is abusive. It is a horrible situation so if you think about it, please keep her in your prayers as well! That is really all the detail I feel comfortable giving at this time.

We leave for our vacation tomorrow!! Going to Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge with a side trip to the Biltmore Estate for our one year Anniversary. We are so excited and can't wait. Planning to go to Dollywood (yes you heard me right we are indeed going to Dollywood, I know, I am from the South), doing lots of hiking and of course shopping, and the Ripley's Aquarium/other attractions. Oh yeah, and did I mention there's an outlet mall? Well we are going to that too!

Motorcycle update:
We still have not heard from the total loss claims adjuster so we do not know exactly how much we will get for the bike. But we are claiming it as a total loss, we are not going to try and repair it. Steven (and the mechanics) did not feel it would safe to ride, that something might go wrong at any time. As much as Steven wants another bike he has decided to hold off for a few years. Reason being because while he is in Special Forces training (which he plans on starting next year) there are times when he gets to come every night. He felt like it would be wiser, easier, and safer if we were to buy a car now and wait on the motorcycle till after he is done with training, we move, and I get my house. So our plan is to take the money from the Motorcycle, and a little from our savings to purchase a low-milage used car for him to drive. The goal is to not have to pull out a loan of any sort. We have started car searching but won't get real serious about it until we hear how much the bike is worth from the total loss guy and we have an actual concrete budget in place. So that's the update!

See yall in a week!

Well the bike is totalled.

The silver lining is that in the three years he's had it, the value only went down by a couple thousand. So if he decides to claim it as a total loss instead of fixing it, we'll get a good bit of the money back. Still not ideal but... could be worse.

So now we're faced with a bunch of questions. Should we use the money to fix the bike and hope that it doesn't have problems later? Should we use the money to help buy a whole new motorcycle? Should we use the money to buy a used car and put a new motorcycle on hold? Ultimately it's going to have to be his decision since it's concerning the vehicle that he has to drive everyday.

I feel so bad for him though. It was his baby and he hates that it's totalled. He didn't think the damage was that bad, but apparently the motorcycle mechanics and insurance adjuster thought so. Oh well, nothing we can do about it now except decide how we want to handle the situation we were given!

I also need to update on my brother-in-law, sorry! They had a hearing a few weeks ago to try and get the bond reduced and it was successful. So both sets of parents got together enough money to pay the bail bondsman and he got both the boys out at the same time. Only catch is that they have to remain in New Jersey. This is a problem for many reasons: job, housing, etc. But so far all of that has worked itself out, at least temporarily. My in-laws are now trying to get the attorney to schedule another hearing to change the stipulations of the bond, allowing the boys to come home for the holidays. Please pray that this happens! It would mean the world for both the boys and our families for them to be able to come home, even for just a little while! Thanks for everyone's prayers and concern up to this point, it has not gone unnoticed and is very much appreciated!

Okay I meant to update everyone on this last week when it happened but hopefully you'll understand why I failed to do so.

Monday morning I got a call from Steven letting me know he'd been in an accident on his motorcycle. Now before I move on HE IS OKAY!! Praise the Lord! Thanks to all the safety classes he took prior to purchasing the bike he knew exactly how to handle the situation properly. Trust me, the accident could have been MUCH worse.

Here's what happened: Steven and, we'll just call him "man with a stupid sign," both turned onto the same road one right after the other. "Man with a stupid sign" went first and then Steven went after him. Now they were turning onto Lynn road which is two lanes in both directions. Steven got into the left hand lane, "man with a stupid sign" got into the right hand lane. Not too far down the road "man with a stupid sign" decided that he didn't want to be going that direction anymore he wanted to go the opposite direction. So instead of turning onto a side street and then pulling back out going in the proper direction like any sane person would do he decided that pulling a u-turn in the middle of a four lane road with cars all around was a good idea! Needless to say it put Steven in a position where he could either hit the car smack dab in the side or lay the bike down and avoid hitting the guy altogether. So of course he did the later, which is why he walked away unscathed. He was sore for a few days and had a little "road burn" on his hip but surprisingly just fine! To top it all off the guy drove off and the police man gave Steven a hard time but I'm convienced the whole thing could have been worse. I mean, had he been in a car... well, you can figure it out!

The motorcycle however is not so fine, it's been at the Harley Davidson shop since last Monday and probably will have to remain there through at least the end of next week. We haven't heard the detailed diagnosis yet. But better the bike than my man!

All I can say is THANK GOD we are leaving for vacation on Saturday, we need it after the month we've had!!

I had the wonderful opportunity to be a "second shooter" at Brian and Brittany's wedding a few weeks ago. Here are few of my favorites for your enjoyment!

Alright, alright I promised an update!

My artwork did not win anything at the fair but that's okay! I enjoy just simply being shown. I'll try again next year.

Both of the weddings we attend were gorgeous and wonderful! I will post pictures later tonight once I am on the right computer. It was a whirlwind of weddings but we had a blast! Next is my cousin Stephanie on December 20, so excited!

Funny story from the Makely wedding: So a little background first, Officers and Enlisted men are not allowed to socialize with each other. You know what I'm talking about, heard of the Officer's club? Anyway, since it can be viewed as fratenization (I know I spelled it wrong) it's generally frowned upon. Okay, now to my story. We had assigned seats at the reception and so we were sitting with another Army family, good in theory right? Well turned out the guy was an officer. I have never seen Steven so uncomfortable in my ENTIRE life, it was HYSTERICAL!! I thought he was going to pee his pants, no lie. Luckily the Officer was really nice about the whole thing and kept telling Steven to breath, that he wasn't in trouble. He eventually calmed down and they talked for awhile but I got a kick out of it!

I have now seen three, count them, three cockroaches in the past three weeks. Three. THREE!!! After the first one I was on the phone with the front office to get on the exterminator's list. He just came today. THANK GOD!! I will kill most bugs but there are two that I just do not handle. And I mean, I won't even get close enough to put a cup over it. Cave crickets and cockroaches. Under NO circumstances will you EVER see me do anything other than scream and run as far away as I possible can whenever they show up. It drives Steven crazy.

The second cockroach made his appearance on a Sunday morning. I woke up to see him scurrying across the bed. Yes, the bed. He was crawling across the covers of my bed. So in typical Courtney fashion, I screamed... waking Steven up... who freaked out cause I was screaming... then realized why I screamed... and immediately went into "kill mode" throwing the cockroach aganist the wall. He later found it and killed, my hero! The third one showed up last night while I was getting ready for bed. I heard a noise and so after getting my glasses so that I could see realized that a cockroach was crawling out of the vent in the bathroom ceiling. By the time I finished freaking out he had turned around and crawled back in. But did that matter? Oh no, I went to get the kill spray and proceded to spray the vent until it started to form condensation. Not even kidding. Then I heard another noise coming from the ventalation system and realized that I've heard this noise several times before in the past, yup, they've been crawling around in there for a while and I've never known it cause I could never see them. Then he, the cockroach, starting making a serious racket so I think I sprayed enough fumes in there that he started dying. Way to go me!

Okay that's enough for now, I'll post more later!

I will update on all the goings on of the past few weeks later today. For now I just wanted to ask, as an Army wife myself, that everyone take the time today to pray for the families at Fort Hood. I cannot even begin to imagine the horror of what they are going through. You expect your spouse to be shot at overseas and you prepar yourself for that reality but you never expect it to happen down the street from your house. I have no doubt that the military will be investigating this and taking measures to prevent it from happening again and I pray that they are successful! My thoughts and prayers go out to all those affected by this awful tragedy!