It’s V-day morning and I’m preparing to leave today for another work trip – this time to Orange County.  We celebrated Valentine’s Day last night though and had a fabulous time. Tim cooked up a fantastic meal of crab legs, risotto, asparagus and cheese biscuits. We had a great night.  So glad to have Tim as my valentine for the 4th year and many more to come!   I hate that I have to leave today, but at least I’ll be back late tomorrow night. Good luck at  your game tonight babe!

So glad the sun is out today. It has been really hard to wake up the past few days. Only four more working days until I’m off for 5 days for the Thanksgiving holiday. I cannot wait. I am so so ready for a few days off.

Tim and I will be decorating for Christmas and putting up the tree, which I’m really looking forward to. I love all the holiday decor, lights and general festive ambiance that the holidays bring.

This is the time of year I’m most like my mom because all I want to do is decorate and bake cookies! We had a three story house growing up and every single floor was decked out in holiday gear. My mom also spent countless hours baking and making homemade candy. I’m not sure I’ve got her skills in that department, but it sure was fun to watch and provided for some fantastical memories of me sitting alongside mom on my bar stool “helping” her create various treats. The sugar cookies were the most fun for me. I absolutely loved rolling out the dough, finding just the right cookie cutter and then applying icing and sprinkles. We would decorate cookies for hours!  Ahhh the holidays…..  I just might need to get some recipes from mom!

So found out a couple of hours ago about the Ft. Hood shooting. This hits close to home as Mark was stationed there during his Army service. I am incredibly saddened by this event and feel terrible for the families of those involved. I am, however, so thankful that Mark and Angel are no longer living there. In fact, my dad and I went to visit Mark and Angel one Thanksgiving and during that time we walked the whole base. I can’t imagine the terror of someone opening up fire in a place where you should feel supremely safe and secure.

Mark says it’s probably related to post – traumatic stress and that his debriefing when he returned from Iraq was one question – “do you feel ok?”. If you said yes, you got to go home and if you said no you had to stay for a “full day” of counseling. A little lacking to say the least.

My prayers go out to the families of the soliders who were just showing up for work and not fighting off terrorists in Afghanistan.

-Sarah

Tim and I have been so busy lately! We have helped Dawn move into her new home, assisted my mom in her move to Ralph’s and this weekend it’s the wedding of the century!

Mom will officially be Betty Slavens after Saturday. I’m kind of sad about her leaving her old house. Even though I didn’t grow up there, it was still my home away from home all through college, Dallas and St. Louis. I will miss our Christmas mornings huddled around the tree in her living room. I’m sure we’ll do the same at Ralph’s, but it won’t be quite the same.

Cheers to new traditions and new memories.

Tim comes home tomorrow and I’m so excited! This has been the longest he’s ever been gone and I miss him terribly. I hope he won’t be too late getting back to Springfield tomorrow.

See ya soon babe!

-Sarah

Hi there! I am now a part of the Shelburn.com blog. I can’t wait to share some stories and updates with everyone. Stay tuned.

Sarah