I miss Noah.
You'd think I'd be a little used to him not being around...but no. I can't describe the feeling of having the person you love being more than a thousand miles away. Living that far away. And you can't be there, even though both of you want to be in the same place.

I'm pretty sure only people who've experienced it before know how it feels.
And it sucks.
It's not like we can drive to each other, ever. There's skype and the phone but it doesn't work out that we get to talk every day and...it helps but it's not the same of course.
I dread the day he gets deployed again. It was bad enough when we were just talking and then dating but I don't even want to think about having to deal with that as husband and wife. I think I'm hoping it will magically be over by the time his next deployment rolls around. I mean, don't we all, but...you know.

It's a little comforting that I get to go in September to see him. But it's still not enough. I want to be there--for good. And I mean, I know--we had to do things this way or wait a long time to get married/for me to actually get to come over there. But may I reiterate how much it sucks that I can't be with my husband?

Yes I know, sob story. It could be worse.
But that doesn't change the fact that there's no way I could miss him more and yet every day--I do.
Hurry up September. And December. And February. All the months in between don't mean a thing to me.

Artist Envy

Etsy makes me wish that I had more artistic talent than I have. Or..different artistic talent than I have, I guess I should say.
I keep seeing all these awesome prints from drawings people have done...some are just awesome doodles. Or I just stumbled on these amazing embroidered pieces and I think--dang, why didn't I come up with these ideas!?
First off--I'm not a drawer. I never have been...I doubt I ever will be. That's not to say I can't draw...if I try very, very hard. But it's not something that just comes naturally to me. I have to look at something, I can never just draw straight from my head. And oddly, people are more my forte than cutesy little doodles, etc. And while I know a lot of people are like that, ideas just don't usually come to me out of space to draw down. I see something and I'm like "oh that's cute, I should try drawing something like that myself." "All art is copied" was a phrase I became to know well in school...as well as "There are no new ideas". So I guess I shouldn't feel terrible for seeing other art that inspires me to draw something similar or in my own style. But still.
It feels a little like cheating.

I guess as I'm not a drawer and I don't consider myself to be one...it doesn't really matter. My photography and books are a different story. Then again they're a different ballgame. I know I get inspiration for photography from things I see...and sometimes steal ideas from other pictures...but I can come up with plenty of ideas on my own for my photos. That stuff just comes to me out of the blue and I genuinely get it.

Eh, I guess it's a "grass is greener on the other side" scenario. I'm good at the things I do. And you can't have it all. ...unless you're Matt Lawson. lol. And if you ever read this, Matt--yeah I'm super jealous of your crazy photo, graphic design, print and drawing/all across the board talent. You make the rest of us look bad. ;)

Good to be home.

It really is nice to be back home. Adjustment living with the parents again but...I'm enjoying it.
I've been getting up at 5:15 every other morning to go run (otherwise it's wayyyy to hot outside to even attempt it). I kinda like that too--getting up before most everyone is awake and watching the sun come up. I'm getting better at running! Well..able to run longer, anyway. Not faster yet. But I'll take what I can get.
Speaking of which I joined the YMCA today so I'm kind of excited to get into a gym. I'd thought I might replace the running with that so I wouldn't have to wake up so terribly early...but I like the running so I might keep doing it and do strength stuff on my off-running days.

Finally back to working on some books too. It's kind of heaven to just sit down and work on them. I've also decided (just a few minutes ago) to start a painting sometime soon. Have no idea what it's going to be or look like, just gonna dive in and see where it goes. Also been cooking a bit. And it's nice to be able to cook something other than rice and beans, beans and rice, rice and rice...you know. Mom and I basically have it worked out that she will buy the foodstuffs if I cook them so she doesn't have to. And I'm down with that.

OH and I found my wedding dress the other day :D!!! It's perfect. I never thought I'd love a dress...but...I love this one. Hah, I told Noah the other day I'm a little sad that I only get to wear it once. And if he ever comes home and I'm wearing it--he shouldn't be alarmed. ;)

Wedding Stuff, Wedding Stuff, Wedding Stuff!

My mind has been pretty much on one track since we got engaged! Five months is a short, short time to plan a wedding. But I guess if anyone was going to plan one in a short amount of time--it should be me. Hah, pretty proud of how much I've accomplished in a couple of weeks. I think we're pretty much all caught up as far as stuff we can do right now. Got most of my bridesmaids taken care of yesterday and today the last one will be fitted and I'm trying on dresses! :D

Think I'm hitting up the beach for a few days this upcoming weekend with some old friends and that should be fantastic! I could use a minute to breath, for sure. Been wanting to go to the beach for a while now anyway, so I hope that pans out.

I'm also looking forward to the things I want to make for the wedding! There are a couple decorations for the reception that can be made rather than bought and...you know me...of course I'm excited about that! Gonna get together with the bridesmaids one night and just kind of chill and make some of them and then I'm also thinking of making my own guestbook (mainly because I can't find one I like). I kind of want one that has the guest book in the front for everyone to sign and then album pages for the wedding pictures in the back so it's all together as one. Might work on one or two and see what I can come up with!

SO MUCH NEWS!

Ohhhhh where to start?

Our trip to the UK was absolutely amazing!!! We saw so much and got so many pictures--definitely the best trip I've ever been on.

We saw London the first few days we were there. Stayed in an AMAZING hotel--the Mariott at Grosvenor's Square. Saw Kings of Leon at Hyde park with our friends Ollie and Sarah (who live in Scotland) that first day. We had a day of 7 straight hours of sight seeing, haha. It was great though. The two of us walked all over London and saw all the things we set out to see: Tower of London, The Eye, Buckingham Palace, Big Ben and the houses of parliament, The Globe Theatre, Tate Britain and so much more.

We took a train down south to Cornwall for a couple of days to see The Eden Project and go to the beach. Unfortunately the beach didn't work out becuase it was freezing down there, but having a day to just chill out was probably a good thing. The Eden Project was cool, I'm a nerd and really like seeing all different kinds of plants. The flowers they had were beautiful and then the rainforest and mediterranean biomes had plants native to those regions--lots of food that I didn't know grew in those places/had never seen how it grows.
We headed back up to London after that and caught a show at the Globe Theatre and saw Mumford and Sons at Hyde Park!!! I think the play at the Globe was actually my favorite thing we did. It was awesome to just sit on the same spot where they held plays in the 1600's. The play we saw was Dr. Faustus and it was awesome. Great music, great actors, and a great story.
Mumford and Sons the next day were so good live! I'm definitely anticipating their next album. They played a bunch of songs from it and they were all killer. Headed up to Shrewsbury next to stay with another friend, James. It was such a nice town. Beautiful buildings and plenty of stuff to do--plus I found a paper store ;) So I was in heaven. We stayed with his family and they were such wonderful hosts. We also had a lot of fun at a community beer festival. Lots of good ales and a cookout and music. Definitely a good time.

Then it was on to Scotland! :) We got into Edinburgh and found a hotel and then headed up to Edinburgh Castle with Ollie and Sarah. Ollie actually lives in the castle, hah--no joke (military). So he showed us his room and the view from there is amazing, looks out over the whole city pretty much. We went with Ollie and Sarah to "Taste of Edinburgh" --this food festival, basically where all the top restraunts in Edinburgh have booths set up to try their food. Delicious! And we found some awesome cider there...which is my favorite. Food and cider...what more could I ask for, right? ;) Later that night we met up with them again and went to a cool little bar called Ghillie Dhu. It's a Scottish themed bar but not cheesy and it was a lot of fun. Definitely good for Noah and Ollie to get to catch up and it was fun to hear all their stories from their time in Afghanistan together.

So then the next day in Edinburgh was the best day of the entire trip! :D We got up early and went to the Castle again to look around some more. We saw St. Giles Cathedral which was beautiful. Went up to Calton Hill where there's an old observatory and memorial shaped like the parthenon. And from there we decided to hike up Arthur's Seat.

So we got some food and put it in the pack and headed towards the mountain for a hike and a picnic. On the way up I was kind of grumpy because I was getting all hot and sweaty and it was a pretty steep hike, lol. So I was grumbling and Noah said "What if I had a surprise for you at the top?" To which I replied "Whatever" thinking he was just trying to get me to keep going but...little did I know there was indeed a surprise! :D
We got up to the top and my grumpiness went away when I saw the SPECTACULAR view! The entire city of Edinburgh spread out and then beautiful hills behind us. We sat down and ate lunch at that beautiful spot and when we were done, I was turned around looking at the view and a little blue box appeared over my shoulder and Noah said "You know how I said I had a surprise for you?" I figured it was just some kind of jewelry (something like the necklace he'd given me at Christmas, maybe) but no! I opened the blue box to find a ring box and Noah said "Open it!" and I did and there was the most beautiful diamond ring I've ever seen!!! Absolutely perfect. And he asked me if I'd marry him! And I couldn't do anythng but nod my head becuase I was smiling so big and finally was able to get out a "YES!" :)

The whole thing was so, so perfect.

We went back to the hotel to rest and talk about all kinds of stuff that he's been thinking about since he started planning the engagement! and then got some dinner and ended the night with a really fun ghost tour on and under the Royal Mile Rd.

We flew back to London the next day and then back to the U.S. early the next morning.
So yes, a perfect trip!
But that's not all of the news!!!

We decided to have a wedding ceremony in December when he's home on leave next and to go head and get married at the courthouse so I can get into the army system and be able to go with him when he reenlists and moves to a different duty station. So both sets of our parents went with us on the 8th and we got married!!! I am officially Mrs. Leah Lindquist now!!! We weren't going to announce it until the wedding ceremony but...we're just too excited not to! :)

It's hard to believe! Life is changing so quickly and so amazingly. I never thought I'd find my match, but he was right under my nose all along--for eleven years. We're so happy to be married and can't wait to really start our lives together. He'll have to leave on Wednesday and go back to Germany but I'll be going over there a couple of times before the wedding to visit and then we'll only have about a month after the wedding that we'll be apart. And then to Germany!!! I'm moving to GERMANY!!!

If I ever thought my life was boring--my how I was mistaken.

It's been kind of a whirl wind but it's good :) Really really good.