I have always loved anything formal. It comes down to the whole Cinderella – Gone With The Wind – Princess thing. What girl doesn’t want to dress up and feel like a princess?! Since I never had a prom I just assumed my wedding would be the only time I could dress up that formal. Well, I’m getting another chance!

We found out yesterday that sometime this spring/early summer there is going to be an Army Ball that my husband’s unit is going to! I’m so excited! Even my husband hasn’t been to an Army Ball. So now I’m looking up dresses and etiquette on military formals. Granted the formal etiquette isn’t nearly as strict as it used to be, I’m a southern girl. I want to be my best!

My husband just asked me if I was done looking at dresses, since we’re getting ready for our date night. I laughed and said “I’ll be looking at dresses for months!” I apologize in advance for the multitude of mentions about dresses, military formals, etiquette, etc that are sure to be on my blog for the next few months! To say I’m excited is a bit of an understatement.

If you or anyone you know has had any experience with military formals, I’d love to know more!

For those of you who don’t know, SITS is an amazing blogging community full of wonderful women who support each other by comments, reading each other’s blogs, and building their tribes.

For all of my SITSahs, WELCOME!! My name is Sarah Ruth. I’m a proud Army Wife, a stepmom, a daughter, a sister, a friend and a Nashville born and bred Southern Belle. I love my God, my country, and my family. You can get to know me better by checking out my About page and my Best of page.

I’m so thankful for this opportunity to meet many new friends. I hope you enjoy your visit here and come back often! For all my fellow Military Spouses, Thank you for your sacrifice!

That’s right ladies and gentlemen! After many months of being alone, my beloved husband is going to be home for good. PRAISE THE LORD MOST HIGH!!!

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I have waited for a very long time for this day! I can remember as far back as elementary school, dreaming about going to college. Long story short, I just recently applied for admissions to a community college. I got my acceptance letter on Tuesday! (You’re probably wondering why it took me so long to tell you.) I was so excited! Yeah, it’s just community college, but it’s such a huge thing for me. Last night as I was sitting on my bed reading the letter again, I was overcome with emotion. This has taken so long but it is FINALLY here!

For years people have asked me where I went to college (since I am that age) and I have always had to reply “I don’t go to college”. I know it’s not something that everyone has to do, but it’s been one of my biggest desires. I always felt so disappointed when I had to give that answer. Now I can say “I go to THIS college!”

I’m nervous. I have to take a placement test because it’s been SO long since I graduated high school. Will I do ok? Will I be able to figure all this stuff out? Thankfully my sister is going to the same school and has been for about a year now. She’s been really supportive of my going, as my husband has too. Now I just have to get all my paperwork filled out, pick my classes, and start my college career! YAY!!

For those of you who have been to college, are in college now, or maybe just dream about going to college, please give me any advice, tips, etc. I’m sure I’ll need all I can get!

Today marks the end of the first week in my weight loss challenge. I think I’ve done pretty good. I exercised so much more this week than I have in a long time. I spent some time at the Ymca and am working on a goal of walking on the treadmill longer and faster. I also branched out and tried some new things on my Wii Fit that I thought I wasn’t able to do. I actually did pretty well! I’ve been eating healthier, counting calories, and drinking lots of water. I have more energy and I’m determined to do more.

Tonight I went to the Wives of Faith Nashville Chapter meeting. We are just starting up and only had 3 of us tonight, but that’s one more than last time! We have one more lady who is going to join us, but she wasn’t able to make it tonight. I’m SO glad I found this group. It means so much to me to have local military wives to get to know. Especially during deployment. They understand exactly what I’m going through. Even though I’ll be moving later this year, I know I’ll still have friends here in Wives of Faith when I move back.

In other news…

I’m so excited. I got the nanny job. I start on Tuesday! I’ll be working 5 days a week, just a few hours a day, which is perfect for me. Especially since I’ve been unemployed for almost 2 years. My new boss has even said it’s ok for me to bring my laptop so I can still talk to my husband when he’s online. That means SO much. She said “Of course! He’s overseas fighting for our freedom. It’s the least I can do.” I am so glad that I found a job with a good christian boss who somewhat understands what I’m going through in my life right now. I think we’ll become friends as well.

Well ladies, (and gents?) I must be off to bed now. I have to get in a more normal routine now that I’m employed. (YAY!) I pray you all have a GREAT Monday!

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One year ago, (and a week & a half now!) I married the love of my life. What an amazing year it has been! I am blessed beyond measure. My husband loves me so much. He takes care of me, respects me, and makes me feel like the most beautiful woman in the world. I couldn’t have asked for more. He is my love, my partner, my best friend.

As you know from yesterday’s post, we spent several days in Gatlinburg to celebrate our anniversary. However, we also went on a date on our actual anniversary. We went to Olive Garden, where we had our first date. We both love that place! It’s so yummy. Then we went to see Tron: Legacy. We both really wanted to see it. He has seen the original movie, from the 80′s. Well, he loves all things from the 80′s. Haha. It was a great movie!

We got home around 1 am. When we opened the front door, this is what we found:

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My sister had decorated our room for our anniversary!!! She is the best ever. While M put our leftovers in the fridge, I got my camera to take these pics. Then we heard the music playing in our room!!

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Rose petals, cake, chocolates with a “love monkey”, candles, music, etc. She did good! We were definitely overwhelmed.

The night was perfect. We enjoyed our dinner and the movie. We were surprised by my sister. And we had an amazing time just being together. I am so blessed.

Now, since I missed last weeks’ MilSpouse Friday Fill-In and I really liked the questions, I decided to post them today. So here goes.

1. What do you usually want to know about someone when meeting them for the first time?

It depends. If it’s a military spouse, I ask how long they’ve been married (to the military), where they’ve been stationed, if they have any advice for a new milspouse. If it’s anyone else, I usually just start a conversation and see where it leads.

2. Would you rather know everything about your spouse, or be regularly surprised?

Big things are a must know. And we know the big things about each other. But he surprises me regularly. Just part of getting to know each other even better.

3. If you could live in one city for the rest of your life, where would you live?

Nashville, TN. It’s home. I was born and raised here. It’s Music City, USA. It’s beautiful. I love my Nashville.

4. When you go out of town, what one material thing do you ALWAYS take?

My phone and my laptop. Especially while M is deployed.

5. Using no more than 10 nouns, and ONLY nouns, describe yourself.

Milspouse, wife, daughter, sister, friend, creative, faithful, listener, patriotic, christian.

It was so amazing to have my beloved husband home for our first wedding anniversary! I wasn’t sure if it would happen, but it did and I am so incredibly thankful! We planned our honeymoon/anniversary trip months ago and I had been counting down the days! We booked a cabin in Gatlinburg for 4 nights/5 days. The original cabin we booked was 2 bedrooms/1.5 baths. At the time I booked it, that cabin was one of the only ones from that rental place with internet, which we needed for the hubby to do his school work. We chose that rental place because they had a special that if you stayed Sunday through Thursday, you got the 4th night free. Heck yeah!!

The day we were driving up there, it was snowing. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Gatlinburg, it is in the heart of the Smoky Mountains. However, the locals were telling us that they are not used to getting snow! It had been snowing some that week, before we went. We called some friends of ours who live there to ask about the roads. They live on a mountain and were not able to drive from their house to the main roads! My mom was worried we wouldn’t be able to make it to our cabin. I confidently told her “I have been praying about this for months. That we will have clear roads and safe travel. And my God is good! I’m not worried about it!” She looked doubtful and I said “I’m just believing like you taught me!” We got on the road and I prayed consistently. “Lord, let us have safe travel. Keep us safe from the ice and snow. Let us not have any car problems! Protect us with your angels.” We had clear roads the entire way! My God is so good.

The office of the rental place is closed on Sundays, so they leave packets for guests checking in. We found our packet and saw that they had given us 2 maps. There was one for the original cabin we booked, with a post-it note saying “You will NOT be able to drive to this cabin due to the ice.” I quickly looked at the other map and it said “We have this cabin as another option for you. Let us know which one you choose.” It was on the same road as the first cabin, but closer to the main road. I looked up the website on my phone and saw that the new option was a much better cabin. A Luxury cabin!!! So obviously we chose that one!

We walked in and it was so beautiful!! We were so excited!! The main floor had a living room with a fireplace, kitchen, dining room with a little reading nook, bedroom with queen size bed, full bath, deck with hot tub, and a wrap around porch. The upstairs had a small seating area in the loft, the master bedroom with a king size bed, seating area, jacuzzi tub, full bath, and a wall of windows! Which was gorgeous to look out of! The basement had a pool table, foosball table, sofa & loveseat, large flat screen tv with cable & dvd player, table for playing games (which were provided), a wet bar with mini fridge & microwave, full bath, and washer/dryer. It was so nice! I was in love with this cabin.

The first night was amazing and when we woke up, there was snow everywhere! It was so beautiful. We got at least 5 inches, but I think it was closer to 7 inches by the time we left! We knew we were not going anywhere that day, and thankfully we had food! We watched movies and he did schoolwork. Just relaxing and fun.

We had planned on letterboxing every day, but since we couldn’t get out of the driveway (the road was clear by the 2nd day!), we decided to make stamps for planting letterboxes. I also made a stamp for our new trail name. We decided to use one instead of our separate names since we are married. Much better now.

By Wednesday, my sweetheart had cabin fever. Literally! He wanted to get out and explore so badly! We didn’t have a shovel at the cabin. We looked around and found a broom and a dust pan. He bundled up and went out to “shovel” the driveway off! With the dust pan!! It was so cute. It worked too! We were able to drive away around 1:30pm. We went looking for a few letterboxes. Some of them we were not able to find because of the snow. But we ended up finding 10 that day! Which is a record for us, I believe. We wanted to get pancakes somewhere, but by the time we left the cabin, all the pancake houses had closed! Apparently they are only open for breakfast. We were kinda bummed, but we ended up going to Cracker Barrel to get pancakes. They were yummy!!

The next day we had to check out. We packed up and did everything on the checkout list. Said goodbye to our cabin and headed out. We had a list of about 15 letterboxes to look for. We found the first one! But to get to it, we had to drive further up the mountain than we had before. I was nervous because of the ice on the road. We made it safely. The next one, which was very close by, was up a gravel road that was COVERED in snow. We decided to skip that one. We went several other places. Even some of the indoor boxes we were looking for were unavailable to us because of the snow. It was disappointing. We still had a great day though. We agreed that we will save those clues and go back when it’s warmer to find them.

We took our time going home that day. We have always had a blast every time we go on road trips. We sing along with the music, talk about our plans for the future, get to know each other even better. I love road trips with my husband! It was the first trip we had taken all by ourselves and it was the most amazing trip ever! I am so happy we were able to do it. I think I fell even more in love with him that week. Just being with him constantly. It was perfect.

Well, I know you guys are itching for pictures! Since I have so many, I’ll do a gallery view. I hope you like them! We didn’t take too many of us, but you can look forward to more of those when he’s home for good! Without further ado…

Check back tomorrow for the story of our first anniversary (the actual day!)

This is my first post of 2011. I honestly didn’t mean to wait this long! But as you should know, my husband was home for R&R this month. It was so amazing!! I figured all of my loyal readers would love to hear the story of when he first arrived. So here we go.

The night before he arrived, my sister and I picked out the perfect outfit. It was my black halter top dress that falls a little below the knee. It has a black & white polka dot belt that is super cute. I also wore my sister’s black and white checked jacket (see picture) and black boots since it was FREEZING outside!

He called me when he landed in Atlanta so I would know about what time to be at the airport to pick him up. I got there about 30 minutes before his plane landed. There were several other military wives and families waiting. We were all standing as close as we could without having to go through security. The plane was delayed about 15 minutes, so we just waited. We saw on the screens that the plane had landed and then I got a text message from him saying he was getting off the plane! I was so excited. Even nervous, but a good kind of nervous. I started getting glimpses of soldiers making their way towards us.

One by one, soldiers were passing us. I kept thinking “Ok, all these women are here for their men and none of them have gotten to us! Where are they?!” Then they started arriving. One of the ladies had her 2 little boys with her. They had each made signs for their daddy. It was so sweet. They got so excited as their daddy came up to them and gave them big hugs.

I kept watching. Looking at each face in uniform, looking for his face. “Nope. Nope. Not him. Where is he?” Then, as far away as I could see, I saw his walk. I couldn’t see his face clearly, but I knew it was him. My heart started beating so fast. “Oh my love!” As he got closer I had to move to the side for him to see me, because of all the other reunions going on. It seemed like he looked over me and didn’t even recognize me because I was in a dress! I’ve only worn a dress a few times since we’ve been together. I waved and caught his eye again and he smiled so big. We hugged and kissed and made our way to the car. We were ready to start our time together!

Here is the pic I took right after he got to me!

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Check back tomorrow for pictures from our anniversary trip!!

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The year is coming to an end again. 2010 was good to me. I married my sweetheart. The year was also hard, because he deployed 6 months later. Nevertheless, it was good. I am excited for what 2011 will bring me. My husband will be home, we’ll be moving to a new duty station. Who knows what else the new year will bring. I’m open for anything!

I hope you all have a blessed and Happy New Year. It’s gonna be GREAT!

I am so incredibly blessed to have my amazing & beautiful best friend here with me for a few days. We don’t get to spend much time together these days because she lives 2 states away. Fortunately for both of us, she had some vacation time to use up, so she came here for some much needed Bestie time. YAY!

We have been best friends since 6th grade, although we have known each other longer. We are like two kindred spirits. We understand each other. We can finish each other’s sentences. We are soul mates. We even joke about living out our last years together in a nursing home, which we’ll have to do because our husbands are years older than us! But that’s A-ok with me.

She really is the best friend a girl could ever ask for. She doesn’t understand what I’m going through with this deployment, but she is constantly supporting me. I can vent to her and she never complains. I ask for and listen to her advice. She gets excited for good things in my life, cries with me for the sad things, and threatens to beat up anyone who hurts me. We love the same movies and can watch them over and over. We both love “Friends” and constantly use references to the best show ever.

In short, I don’t know what I’d do without her. I can’t imagine going through life without her. She is my rock. My best friend. My sister.