Gunlover Is Home!!!

Yes that's right ladies & gentlemen, Gunlover is finally home...sadly he's only here until the 17th of April. :( But now that he's home, this blessed bundle I've been carting around internally, can feel free to make an appearance. *directed at belly*I said, you can feel free to make an appearance?!?! Yeah, she's not listening...getting an early start I see. :D

So imagine my surprise when I logged waaaay last night to check and see the events of Home Sanctuary and more specifically Coffee Girl Friday and found out that I'm famous! Hehe. Okay not really, but Rachel mentioned me on her Coffee post...made me smile that people I've never met care what's going on in my life.

That's half the fun in this blogging experience. You may never meet them, you may not know their face...you may not even know what their real names are, but there is a kindred spirit...a sisterhood of bloggers if you will. If you're a member of this sisterhood, or you just love to read our stories, please feel free to say hello. Tell me how your weekend is going...what beverage did you enjoy for Coffee Friday? This morning I enjoyed a French Vanilla coffee with French Vanilla creamer...courtesy of my darling husband. BTW, let me brag on him for a moment. My husband, cleaned the kitchen this morning. All of it. Did dishes, took out the trash, put away groceries, and fixed a broken cabinet. It is good to have a man in the house! And even better that it's my man...haha.

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Catching the Infection From My Mother

Alright, my Mom caught a reading challenge bug, and I chose to join her, for both the same reasons (a sincere love of reading), and the desire to be there for her as encouragement. Any task is easier when someone is sharing it with you. Even fun ones!

Here's the challenges I've accepted, as well what level I've chosen.
Clover, Bee and Reverie Poetry Reading Challenge - Like Mom, I'm going with Couplet.
Time Travel Reading Challenge - I'll go with 4 on here, because I already know which 4.
Revisit Your Childhood Favorites Challenge - The challenge is 5..easy enough.
The Aussie Author Challenge - Straining to come up with any Aussie authors, I'm choosing Tourist level.
MysteryReaderCafe Reading Challenge You join a yahoo group, and read 4 books with set requirements.
Marple Poirot Holmes Challenge - 2 Miss Marple, 2 Hercule Poirot, & 2 Sherlock Holmes
Christian Non-Fiction Challenge 2010 - I'll try for 12.
E-Book Reading Challenge 2010 - I'll take Obsessed for 200 Alex.
ThemeQuest Reading Challenge - Theme Thing, 5 books, on my choice of theme...Relaxation. I'm always stressed, so this might be what I need.
What's In A Name 3 - Read one book each: 1. A book with food in the title 2. A book with a body of water in the title 3. A book with a title (queen, president) in the title 4. A book with a plant in the title 5. A book with a place name (city, country) in the title 6. A book with a music term in the title.
Colorful Reading Challenge - 9 books with a different color in each book's title.
TwentyTen Challenge - 20 books in 10 categories in 2010.

Now here's the ones I'm choosing from the Novel Challenge Blog the source of all insanity.
The 4 Month Challenge Part 3 - You have 4 months to try & knock out as many challenges as possible, and there's points assigned for varying levels of challenge. (i.e. Read a Book By 2 Authors - 20 points)
Ireland Challenge 2010 - I think I'll go for Luck O' The Irish which is 4 books.
Birth Year Reading Challenge - Read as many books from your birthyear (mine is 1985) before the end of the year.
Jewish Literature Challenge - Can be by Jewish authors, about Jews, Jewish culture..anything. I'll read 3. This challenge ends 10Sep (Rosh Hashanah).
Read Your Name Challenge - Read a list of books, the titles spelling our your name, blogger ID..whatever floats your boat. So the first book for me would start with "S" for SpitFire.

And here is where I'm tearing myself away from the Novel Challenge website, before I bury myself...I may have already bitten off more than I can chew...we'll see!

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Loss & Restoration

This theme is reverberating in my soul today. It'll be in my family's thoughts around this time of year for a while. But for me, it takes on additional weight. My grandmother passed away on the 31st of this month, last year. It's also my due date this year. Birth for death.
Today is Jewels birthday. I gave birth to her on a Tuesday afternoon 5 years ago. But this is also painful timing, because 4 years ago, she was taken from us. A series of deceptive & manipulative events by someone who had a problem with us, combined with the antagonists knowledge of the judicial system, and our naivete, culminated in our daughter being removed. Later on, her dad revealed more of his true colors and I divorced him to protect Jewel. But his mom let him move back in with her.
I'm with Gunlover now..he's an incredible man. He loves God, loves me, and absolutely adores Jewel. Jewel took to him almost immediately. We have felt like this year God is going to return her to us. And God has moved in incredible ways to provide & pave the way for that return. We lost her over 4 years ago, but she will be restored to us soon.

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7 Quick Takes Friday #1

Company girls welcome! Hope you are enjoying your Coffee Friday. :) Once again, I will ask the question, what beverage are you enjoying today with your blog explorations? Tea? Coffee? Cocoa? Soda? If you're enjoying a tasty treat with your choice beverage, feel free to share that as well...pregnant women like talking about food..hehe.

---1---

I'm really excited that Gunlover will be home soon! It is a little over 5 days until he gets here. For him, there's only 4 days left. This child is squirming around..I think she's excited too!

---2---

Babies are cute, no matter how many you've seen, or how impending your own is. I held the neighbor baby yesterday, and thoroughly enjoyed it. And I think babies can sense each other...cause my kiddo rolled over and kicked him..poor thing!

---3---

Dumb things sometimes happen for a reason. Apx 1.5 months ago, I had severe prego-brain, and locked myself out of the house. I knocked on my neighbors door, and she kindly housed me until the realtor came (hours later), and unlocked my door. We have since hit it off, been out to eat several times, went to the craft store yesterday, and were up until 4am just having girl time with our other neighbor.

---4---

God's perfect peace is an incredible blessing in difficult times. The antagonist went off the grid for a few days...shortly after we dispatched a demand letter to her, informing her that we require custody be given back to me, or should this go to court we will revoke all of her (non-existent) grandparent rights. However it didn't worry me. I'm a veteran, with an active duty husband, with guaranteed insurance/housing/income, in training for a work-from-home job, vs. an alcoholic, pain-med-addicted, bitter woman in a broken-down trailer.

---5---

God's mercy is extended to all, and I'm grateful that He keeps that in my mind. Again, this helps with the perfect peace. Despite all that the antagonist has put me through, I'm not angry with her. She upsets me, frustrates me, makes me sad, but I don't hate her. I actually feel sorry for her. She dearly needs the love of God in her life, and my family & I pray continually that she would find Him. She's about to be at her lowest point...in that place, you either wallow in your self-destruction, or you climb out through the grace of God. We sincerely pray for the latter.

---6---

Good friends & family are a Godsend in these times. My aforementioned neighbors are Christian women, and mothers at that. So rather than merely being shocked at my situation, they hurt for me in a way that only mothers can. I hear it in my own mothers voice when we discuss how things are going. Knowing that others are pulling for me, praying for me, and sincerely desire for me to come out on top, makes all the difference.

---7---

God is awesome!!! I finally received my VA paperwork, and I will be receiving a paycheck for the rest of my life. Now while being "disabled" may not seem like a good thing, extra money is absolutely extra money, and we believe with all our hearts that beloved Jewel will be returned to us soon, so this feels like God providing us extra income for extra expenses.

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One Step Closer

Alright my blog is all about little steps towards a greater goal. Inches towards the miles, progressing towards the final goal. So ladies & gentlemen, I present to you, proof that I'm inching closer to an eventual goal...I reveal Magnificent Roundness!!! Tada. :)

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Better Use of My Time

I've been thinking a lot about this one here lately. I'm due at the end of the month, and so I haven't been going anywhere, or doing very much, cause we want to make sure this kiddo waits for Gunlover to be home. So I spend a lot of my day, vegging out. Then I realized, rather than watching TV, I could be reading a book. Wow! A novel thought...if I could do something else other than watch TV, what else can I do with my time?
I spend a lot of time on or around my computer, because Gunlover talks to me via Skype (I love technology), and so I started figuring out ways to better spend my time on the computer. I remembered that I had written articles for eHow before, so I started back up on that, and then I found out that about.com had an opening for writers on the topic of Military Families. So I spent the other evening writing an article & submitting my application. So we'll see!

Quick shout-out, welcome Company Girls! What coffee/chocolate/cider/tea are you enjoying today? :)

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Those Little Touches

So this was actually done a few days ago, but I've been exhausted from my weekend still, so I hadn't posted the pictures. Until my Mom mentioned yesterday that I should post them for a pocket. Yes Mom....lol.

So here's the deal, I had a blank wall in living room, that was driving me nuts. I found pictures at a dollar store, for $3 a pop. Already framed. Can't beat that. And glory of glories, they were Asian, which I've wanted to decorate the room in, and the frames were black, which matched the rest of what I've done in there.


Then in Jewel's room, my mother-in-law gave me some flowers to decorate her wall with, so I put them at the head of the bed, trailing down one side. And I realized that a blanket I have for her nap-times (that was folded neatly in the closet) perfectly matched the walls, so I laid it at the end of the bed.

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Today's Havoc

Well this was certainly an eventful week. Sunday I tested out a new church...think I liked it. Monday, nothing much happened. Tuesday, I was on the phone 3 times with the antagonist. She just kept calling...yikes! Wednesday I was on edge waiting to see how my Mom was. Wednesday would have been my grandmother's 67th birthday. Thursday was quiet, but Friday more than made up for it. This morning I had an appointment..the doc isn't sure I'll make it to the 31st. Then I went to Family Dollar to find trashcans, and found an incredible deal. Framed Asian art for $3 a pop. I bought 6 and finally have my empty living room wall decorated. Then I went to Publix and bought more fruit & juice. Then I came home, and set out to do one final slam dunk on the house, before settle down for the duration of my pregnancy. And let me tell you, it was an enormous amount that I got done in one afternoon. And I'm really hurting now...I'm definitely done. I hung up the artwork, cleaned out the dining room, cleaned out the living room & hallway, put flower decorations on Jade's wall, vacuumed the ling room & hallway, and re-shelved my displaced Avon items. Then the Florida batch came in and brought a crib with them. 30 minutes before the arrived, my printer stopped working. Just completely malfunctioned, and nothing I did would work. The lights were lit, even if the printer was turned off. Only unplugging it would stop that, and as soon as it was replugged and turned back on, it would do it again. So they very kindly bought me a new printer. I had been in the process of copying very important paperwork. So it was very much appreciated!

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In Tribute To the Original

Today would have been my grandmother's 67th birthday. She was the original SpitFire. And I don't mean that I'm named after her, but the attitude was definitely passed on. She didn't take anything from anyone. She was a mighty, mighty woman of God. She made things happen, and got things done. Her legacy lives on in 1 daughter, 6 granddaughters, 4 grandsons, 1 great-granddaughter (so far). Her legacy is one of action, faithfulness, and enduring love. She would drop anything to help any of us out. I did another pastel, it's not very good, but it represents 2 of her favorite things. Purple & Snoopy.

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Twist On Home Sanctuary Challenge

Well today's Home Sanctuary Challenge was to clean up your dresser. My dresser was cleaned off very recently, because it's where my hamster habitat sits. So I took it to my closet. I finished organizing my shoes, hung up all the clothes that I had unpacked, but not yet hung up, and finished organizing my accessories. Okay, so I love accessories. Don't be fooled by appearances though. It looks like I spend a ridiculous amount of money on purses, scarves, hats, & shoes...the reality? I love thrift stores. I never understood people who raved about spending $250 on a pair of jeans. I rave about finding a pair of jeans for $2.50. So, here's the proof my completed challenge. (Oh, and for the other half of the challenge, instead of lounging in my robe today, I got up, got dressed, put on a pretty sweater, threw in some earrings, and did my makeup. It gave me an excuse to test out the new Avon makeup I got in anyways. :) )

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Standing On the Promises

Wow...today has been a mess! And it was busy....so much for nesting, lol. I had to go deliver a batch of Avon goods (still hoping for more customers!), so while I was out and about, I figured I'd run by the store & grab some things I've been needing. Mostly office supplies..stapler, paperclips, etc. I wanted to buy a trashcan for the kitchen, and for the bathroom, but of course they were out of the size I needed for the bathroom, and somehow they had no lids for the kitchen trashcan I liked. Go figure!

I got paid by check, but my bank is in San Antonio. The store wouldn't cash personal checks, but I found out my bank has a nifty feature, where you scan the check, and tell them the balance of the check. Later they'll verify it by the picture you scanned, but the money was in the account immediately. Sweet!

I started printing out pictures for my new frames ($2.50 a piece!!), and in the process was inspired to rearrange the fireplace pictures, to the shrunk shelving, and put the new frames on the fireplace.


Then as if this wasn't a long enough day, running around all over the place, and rearranging things, but it was exhausting mentally. There's a situation we've been praying over. Yesterday a lady from my church called and prayed over it with me. She warned me to hang in there, and said that the enemy would be trying really hard for the next few weeks to convince me that things wouldn't work in our favor. Today was a big test. I was called by an antagonist in the situation, not once, not twice, but 3 times. It absolutely wore me out. So for grins, and to relax I decided to finally read my library books. I read the one about pastels, and even tried my hand at it. Behold...the masterpiece!

Okay, maybe not so much...art is not my forte...looks a bit like a child's crayon drawing...lol. Oh well, I felt much better once it was done. :)

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