"relaxing"

Gone our the days when Christmas holidays = relaxing. But, luckily the relaxing has been replaced by fulfilling...which is also nice...

But, yes, things have been incredibly busy, as Brett and I have negotiated our first Christmas as a "family unit" that must divide its time between two houses ( both alike in dignity) ....I have to admit before we left on this holiday of holidays I was apprehensive that by dividing up our time we would end up not making ANYONE happy...but, we've got gracious families who obviously learned how to share at an early age and for that I am eternally grateful. I know they have all be exceedingly nice to forgive us for all of our "first christmas foibles" .

Of course, all of this has left me with noooo time for blogging:
But, I'd say some of my personal highlights have been:
Getting to have a looooong girlie chat with my Bible Study girls-we had to recap six months of time apart and it was encouraging to see what God has been doing in each of their lives since I left nacogdoches ( it also gave me all the prayer-points I'll need for at least a little while. hehehe)

Singing Christmas Carols with Brett's mom and cousin.
Wrapping presents while Anna and I "gossiped"
Sitting around with my lovely friends from church-discussing our long history together.
Eating. ( period. I've gained like five pounds in a week).
Unwrapping presents with family-the giving of gifts and watching others receive gifts such fun!
Going to church. Bethlehem Mission will always be my home church...for the people there will always be my family. The encouragement of the saints knows no bounds.

The whirl of gaiety

As I knew it would-life has been pretty craaaazy since Brett got home last week. In fact, we havent a had a moment to breathe ( or blog).
Thursday we had the last Navigator's Bible study until the new year-I'm looking forward to seeing what 2008 will bring! Its kinda exciting that while I am new to the navigators ministry, it hadnt really been established in a huge way until the past few months-so I've gotten to see the "beginnings" of what God will hopefully be doing at Fort Lewis.

Friday Brett and I had the other PL's ( platoon leaders) over as well as the family ( wife and daughter) of one of them. We had a grand ol' time playing Scattagories-and the boys were amazing-they didnt talk about work at ALL!

Saturday was spent working, catching up with Chuck and then getting ready for....the Messiah!!! Yay! Brett gave me tickets to the Seattle Symphony's Handel's Messiah and BOY was I excited to go!!! As a little girl my parents would often take me to the Universitys "community wide" Messiah because it usually came around near my birthday and it was kind of a "special" holiday treat. Since then I've always had a special place in my heart for this beautiful music-I use to listen to it full volume on Sunday mornings in Dunedin ( when my residents had been particularly rowdy the night before...I felt that Handel was the best "cure" for a hangover. hahaha) and often when I'm feeling spiritually "low" its a sure thing for lifting my spirits. After all, the Messiah is straight scripture-ALL of the words come directly from the prophets and the new testiment. This year I was really sad that I missed going to the Messiah in Nacogdoches-it just didnt seem like Christmas without it... But, on Saturday I heard it live from the mouths of professionals and it just about made me cry. I had also never heard the entire Messiah in the correct order ( The Nacogdoches Community messiah is greatly condensed and "re-arranged")...and it brought back all kinds of admiration for musical theory.....

Ok, so enough of that, moving on...Sunday, was our church's Christmas program and then we had our Sunday night Bible study's Christmas party ( White Elephant Gifts...it was pretty terrible! hahaha!! I loooove gag gift parties) and I continue to be truly greatful for such a wonderful group of Believers that we get to hang out with and be encouraged by week after week!

And then there was Monday which included me running around like a chicken with my head cut off, trying to bake cookies and pigs-n-blanket for Brett's Company Christmas Party and for my co-workers...as well as finishing up Christmas shopping and packing...oh, and I also tried to do some "cleaning"...but that kinda failed in a big way.

Yup, I was actually kind of relieved to go to work today because all I had to do was stand there and make coffee for people. In comparison to the craziness of late it was actually NOT work! Besides, one of my customers gave me a little box of chocolates for a Christmas present! How cute is that?!
So, anyway...the next time you'll hear from me I'll be in Nacogdoches continuing with the Christmas party season. Whew!!!
My prayer for you, my dear readers, as well as for myself is that throughout this BUSY time of year that you'll have time to spend with our Wonderful Lord and Saviour who deserves Praise and Thanks for coming to this earth as a baby and then growing up to Die for our sins! Pretty incredible!!!

and THEN what happens?!

So, FYI a healing burn is a lot worse than a "fresh" burn...because a "healing burn" itches like there's no tomorrow....its a good thing its winter and I wear long sleeve and bulky sweaters-making it harder for me to reach the thing or I SWEAR I'd rip my arm off....dont worry, I have refrained from scratching the thing...I'm a good girl.

Brett's home!! I cant tell you how happy this makes me! Of course, those of you who think I've lost all my cool-as-a-cucumer-feminist ways...well, go right ahead and think that. I am still a perfectly self-sufficient women who only cried a little bit and then went about her day when her husband was away...and yet you will not shame me into saying that I'm totally fine about having my husband gone for weeks on end. I'm sorry, its just NOT RIGHT. And no. Life was not as fun when he wasnt here. It just wasnt. So there.

For those of you who dont know...Brett and I will be heading to Nacogdoches, Texas on Tuesday the 18th and we'll be there until the second of Jan. -we're also planning on going to Chris Lewis's wedding on the 29th-though we still havent figured out how we're getting there. So, baring in mind that we will not have a car for two weeks and therefore will be at the mercy of friends and family-we'd love to see anyone who'd like to see us! I can't tell you how excited I am to see all my loverly Texas folks. The North West is just NOT the SAME. ;-)

Apparently its a good 40 degrees warmer in Texas too...so there's that to keep in mind when gauging how excited I am too. hehehe.

It's all very romantic...

I'm listening to Norah Jones ( who DOESNT love her?! Tell me that?!), drinking Cabernet Sauvignon, and to make matters even better the light bulb above me just went out-meaning the lighting is OH SO romantic in here....

The only problem: Still no husband.
I can pretty much think of nothing else. When is he going to get here?!


( he called to say it would be six....that means more like eight.)

The gimp arm.

I think "gimp" is a New Zealand term. I definitely heard it for the first time when I moved there. But, whatever the case. I like the word. And it totally discribes my right arm at the moment.
You see, I went to the doctor today and had them look at my totally awesome burn ( the doctors and nurses were so impressed with it that they brought in a other doctors and PAs to look at it. "Coffee did that?! "
Yes..I know...I'm special.

So, while I was there at the doctors office I requested that they stick me with the tetanus shot as well as the flu shot...and I also told them to go ahead and give them to me in same arm ( I mean, come on...how bad can it really hurt?!) Apparently, that was a BAD idea. My right arm is like totally immoble at the moment. ugg.

But, at least I'm not going to die of infection or the flu any time soon.

In other news, I had a lovely lunch with Cindy. She's Andrew's ( Navigator staff, leads all the bible studies Brett and I attend etc.) wife and I've been just dying to hang out with her one on one for a while. So that was lots of fun. It was interesting to get a very different perspective of Navigators-a really refreshing one to say the least. And I pray I get to spend more time with her in the future.

And now, I'm going to take an asprin or something before my arm falls off.

who am I kidding?!

So, I appreciated everyone's worried comments on last nights blog. And while my first thought was, "oh, its no big deal-It seems to be healing up ok..." my second thought was, "Abigail if you listed all the bad luck you've had with sicknesses this year all in a row it would take up MORE than one page...do you really want to chance that?!"

So, you'll be happy to know that I have a doctors appointment tomorrow to get my burn all check up. And until then I have it all nicely bandaged up safe and sound. Incidently, I am going to ask the doctor to inject any kind of flu shot he wants into my body as well...because, hey, I'm ALL ABOUT trying to finish up 2007 without any more ailments. ;-)

In other news-Only two more days till Brett gets home!!!

What to DO?!

So, as you know...Brett's away. And that's been pretty much awful for a multitude of reasons-but today I'd like to share with you things that I feel need to be documented since he's not here to share them with me:

When Brett's away I pretty much let the house "go"...in fact, he came back early from the field once and has made fun of me ever since for the state of the house when he walked in.

This time, however, I have a reason for my mess. I am FINALLY getting around to documenting our wedding in the form of scrapbooks...this is what the living room looked like when I finished this evening:



The other thing that I feel I should "document through pictures" is really NOT for the faint of heart. You see, at work on Saturday I burned my arm by spilling scalding coffee on it. It turns out it was a pretty considerable burn ( I didnt even cry!!) and hours later I looked down and I had a bubble about an inch and a half wide and an inch high on my arm. It was FREAKY!!!



Of course, that wasnt as freaky as today when it developed a little tiny hole and started to ooz. EWWWWWW!!! And by the end of the day it was looking red and awful.





So I bet you're wondering why I'm sharing this with you?! Well, its pretty much AWFUL not having a boy around to share such gross sadness with. I had NO ONE to complain to about the pain yesterday and no one to show the gross oozing with today. So, I've added another reason for missing Brett to my very long, long list.

I did get to talk to Brett for a few moments this afternoon. He sounded a bit down but he's doing a wonderful job taking care of his men. He told me that he and another platoon leader where going to get together to come up with some points to take to their commander about the low moral among their men. They have all been treated poorly the last few weeks and EVERYONE is down. Hopefully I was able to encourage Brett a little bit in the short time I was able to talk to him, I reminded him that I'm not the only one praying for him. So thanks to everyone that is remembering him and those working with him in their prayers. I know they need it!

Call Me Crazy

So I wanted to make a phone call...but my phone is "roaming" for no reason...so I'll wait.
This morning has to have been the worst since Brett left...I had no idea that the weekend would be SO much worse-but it makes sense. He's usually HERE on the weekend. ( at least most of the time). So, when my alarm went off for work this morning I almost cried. Luckily work distracted me. *sigh*
My co-worker and I had a lot of fun today-we made up nick-names for all the other employees ( mine is Applesauce) and made name-tags and then I went to the dollar store and bought her a fuzzy raindeer hat with bells on them to wear ( she's convinced she'll make more tips with a holiday hat). But, now the fun is over and I'm back home. Today I'm going to try hard to be productive. There really ARE many things that I could do-for one thing I could start to work on out "Wedding Album" ...you know five months into the marriage its really about time that happened...I could clean...the kitchen is seriously in need....I could make cookies or work on a few of the Christmas Presents that I'm being 'creative" with...but, sadly, I just feel like going to bed and eating a tub of cookie dough ( possibly both at the same time).

Last night I watched the first season of "America's Next Top Model"....Pitiful. I know.

Please forgive me..

I have a horrible confession to make:

Today I went and saw Golden Compass.
I know. Where ARE my values?! I am totally disappointed in myself too...but I am making up excuses right and left:
You see, Brett and I read the Golden Compass as well as part of the second book in the series ( name escapes me) while we were on our honeymoon ( it was very romantic-we read outloud to each other on the beach...awwww.). Anyway, it wasnt really until the SECOND book that we realized that the author, infact, hated God and that God was the root of all evil. ( Whaaaaa?) So, we stopped reading the books in complete disgust. But, unfortunately that didnt make the first book any less enjoyable. However, when I saw that the Golden Compass was going to be made into a movie I was still WHOLE HEARTEDLY against it just because I knew that they would most likely make the second and third books into movies too... but this didnt stop the previews from really looking good....
Which brings us to today when I went to pass my time at the movie theatre to watch Enchanted for the second time...I bought my ticket for Enchanted and headed towards the theatre...and thats when I saw that The Golden Compass was starting just two minutes before my movie...and so I walked in...and I watched it.
At least I didnt give them my money though, right? I mean, the good people at Disney got my money instead...and you know....the Disney people are...well....I dont even REMEMBER the last time Christians everywhere banned Disney...was it last year? Or maybe even earlier this year? I cant keep up.

Anyway, back to me being horrible. So, I watched the movie and I gotta say-Nicole Kidman was a really PERFECT evil person. I totally believed it. And I gotta say I was HORRIFIED at the polarbear fight...because, well, it was very very graphic and I cant believe children in the theatre saw that....I think the interesting thing was that, while in the book it was very clear that the main "bad people" where part of the Catholic church, in the movie they were just referred to as "the majestrate" came across as more of a "government" than a "church"...I am interested ( only slightly ) in finding out what they will do to water down the heretical views of the author for the rest of the movies...
And just so you know- I think its absolutely WRONG to take children under the age of....gosh....I dont know....14 to see this movie, if they cannot understand the "underlying" messages at play-that's pretty dangerous.

But, thats the shameful thing I did today.
Hope you'll all forgive me.

8 more days

So, the countdown till Brett comes home continues to be slowish/deadstopish. Buuut, I've been keeping myself busy. Like last night I spent, like, eight hours making chili ( as in the "Abt Family's Secret Chili-Cheese-Dog Recipe" chili)...unfortunately eight hours is not enough and I'm hoping that the fact that I stopped the cooking process and then re-started it again today is not going to hurt the chili too much...anyway...it better be good because I'm feeding a bunch-o-people with it tonight...
I also watched Somethings Gotta Give which ranks high in my romantic movies that I like list because of the scene where Diane Keaton cries while she writes...I cant TELL YOU how realistic that is!!! ;-)

Today, I went to work and rocked my drink-making so much that I had customers tell me that, and I quote: you are at least FIVE TIMES BETTER at making coffee then the girl that made if for me yesterday!!! ( which, I'm going to take as a my coffee is really really good-and not that hers was really really bad) and then I had three other customers tell me that Ihad made them awesome drinks....unfortunately not loud enough for my boss to hear. Which was annoying. So I repeated it to him. "Hey, BOSS...that guy just told me that I make the best drinks."
Boss's Response: "hahahahaha!"

This made me sad but luckily he followed his ( uncalled for) laughter with a sip of my espresso and then he admitted that I did , in fact, "make a good shot."

Coming from him...This was high praise...and even though I DID fish for it...I'll take it. *sigh*

I also got a pedicure today. Don't judge. My husband isnt home and my toes were gross. Plus how else will I get to read USweekly and People Magazine?! Exactly.

I was going to "get all skinny and 'hot like at our wedding'" While Brett was away-but I've decided eating a lot while he's gone is working better for me....what was I thinking?! Stress eating is like Number One on my list of things I do.

Snowy, Sad, Sweet

So on Saturday it snowed.
And I was like a very gitty little girl, running around in my pink boots. Brett laughed at me and took the pictures. ( I'll share them later). And then we bought red flannel sheets and White Christmas on DVD. Ok, so it didnt happen that quickly but you get the picture....
I pretty much lovethe flannel sheets. They were Brett's idea to get me through the ten COLD, LONELY days that I have to sleep in bed without him. ( aww.)...and they seriously rock. I pretty much wasnt tired anymore this morning but I slept thirty more minutes just because of these sheets.

On Sunday we went to church ( which I am continuing to really, really like). We've also recruited enough people to come with us that we fill up a whole row. ;-) Plus, I met a girl at the Thursday night Navigator's bible study that goes to our church-so I legitimately know a person at the church!
after church we ate Thai food ( my request), and watch Flight of the Conchords ( Brett's request)*. And then things got bad. Brett had to prepare to leave and pretty much everything to do with leaving for ten days had been left till the last minute. It was awful. Brett was gone. I felt like something was missing. Then I realized it wasnt just Brett...it was also my cell phone. I had left it at the place where Brett had gotten his hair cut. I drove to the barber shop, crying....wondering why life was dreary and awful.
I got my phone. Pulled myself together. prepared for Sunday Night Bible Studay....went to Bible Study. Didnt give a single signal that I had had a breakdown earlier in the day...

And then...I got a text from Brett saying that because of the bad weather he was going to be home for another night, that I would see him "around 9".
This was glorious news!!! I have to tell you, for someone who is not about 'goodbyes' anyway...the goodbye we'd had Sunday afternoon rated around negative 365 on the sale of goodbyes. So the chance to do it again was actually a GREAT relief.

So that's how Brett and I ate leftover Thai food and laid on our flannel sheets making a itunes play list intitled "Sad but Pretty".
( I think you'd have to be there...but I'll share the play list with you anyway).**
And finally finishing the night with Brett quoting flight of the concords and asking me if maybe we should get out of bed and watch that one scene one more time....( answer: no.) And finally, saying goodbye over a quiet time this morning.

Yes, Brett's going to be gone for ten days. And that's awful. But, I know that already God is taking care of even the littlest things like getting a good goodbye rating....


* Anna and Ryan introduced us to this wonderful show, Flight of the Conchords about two New Zealanders in New York City-who just so happen to be in a band. There is no really good way to discribe how totally wonderfully hilarious this show is....but I recommend it 365 percent.

**
1. The Highway Man, Loreena McKennitt
2. Sabra Girl, Nickelcreek
3. Why Does my Heart Hurt so bad, Moby
4. Theme Song from The Last of the Mochicans
5. Into the West, Annie Lennox
6. Both Sides Now, Joni Mitchell
7.Mi Mancherai (Il Postino)
8. Everybody Hurts, R.E.M.
9. All Mixed Up, Red House Painters
10. Let that Be Enough, Switchfoot
11. Language of the Heart, David Wilcocks