Vision Board...

Recently, I decided to make a vision board of all the things I want to accomplish over the next year while J is away.

I decided that it was a good idea to come up with a plan of action since everyone keeps telling me that the best way to get through The Great Wait is to stay busy. I'm not one to typically crowd my schedule with a ton of hobbies since I spend a lot of time working, but I don't want to sit around feeling miserable.

The purpose of a vision board is to put your goals out there visually as a reminder for you to keep working towards achieving them every single day.

I broke my goals down into time categories...

Three months:
1) Create a bucket list - I don't have a list of things I want to accomplish before I die. There are things I definitely want to do, but I have never taken the time to gather them onto a list. Plus, there is not enough on my list and I want to experience more out of life, so I'm going to figure out what that "more" is.

2) Become a Social Media Expert - I feel like it is necessary for my job and life.

3) Learn to make YouTube videos - I love YouTube. I should know how to make a video.

Six months:
1) Make healthy living a habit - Just make exercise and a better diet a part of my daily lifestyle.

2) It's a secret...

Twelve months:
1) Learn to cook... well! - I can cook to survive, but it isn't the greatest tasting. Also, I'm not a fan of cooking and avoid it at all costs, but I would like to be able to surprise J every now and then.

2) Learn Spanish - I went from Bean to Gonzalez and I am fully expected to learn to speak Spanish, so I should start on that.

Pocket Bob!

My first do-it-yourself project for The Great Wait was to make Pocket Bob.

I have this teddy bear that I have had since the second grade and he is my favorite possession. (Yes, I still sleep with him and have him around in my day-to-day life.) One of the many awesome things about Jorge is that he totally accepts this childish habit of mine. In fact, he embraces it. When we would go to sleep he would make sure I had Bob and in the morning when I would leave for work I would hand him Bob for him to sleep with.

I guess over time Jorge has become attached to Bob, because he wanted to take the bear with him when he deployed. BUT... I can't let that happen. Part of me wants to let him have Bob so that he has a comfort of home, but there are just too many risks involved and there is no guarantee that Bob would come back in one piece, if at all. I don't think Bob would be taken out by a grenade or anything, but I'm worried that some other army gentleman will think Bob is stupid so something and get rid of him somehow. I just can't risk Bob being a casualty of war.

Instead, I opted to make Pocket Bob. It is a mini version of my bear... about the size of a pack of Stride Shaun White gum (Jorge's favorite). I wanted to make sure that this little replica would conveniently fit in Jorge's pocket.

I made Pocket Bob out of material that had the same look and feel (after years of love) as regular Bob, made him flat with a flap for a tail, gave him a red felt heart, a small pink crooked nose, glass bead eyes and yellow stitches in the neck from where I sewed regular Bob back together in the 5th grade after an unfortunate accident. All just like the regular Bob. I took time to add every detail.

DIY:
1) I took a picture of Bob on my cell phone, then traced the picture from the cell phone onto a receipt
2) I cut out a Bob pattern from the receipt and then placed on the white felt to make one side of Pocket Bob and then flipped the receipt over to trace the pattern of the other side of Pocket Bob (they should symmetrical)
3) Cut out the pattern with scissors
4) Sewed on eyes with black thread and heart with white thread on front side, tail with white thread on back side
5) Glued stuffing to one side of the felt
6) Sewed Pocket Bob together by hand with white thread
7) Drew on nose and added yellow stitches to his neck

FYI: Regular Bob doesn't have a mouth. Never did.

It was easy to replicate regular Bob, because he is flat. I'm not sure how I would have managed otherwise.

Anyway, I showed Jorge Pocket Bob over Skype and he seems into the idea. So, I will send it to him.

Ready, Set, Wait.

Four hundred days. That is what is on his orders. He tells me that it will not actually be that long.
When I ask him to give me details, he can't. I'm not really allowed to know anything until it happens.

Over the last couple of months I have learned something when it comes to the Army: don't get your hopes up. Four hundred days is what it says and that is exactly what I am going to expect.

When my then boyfriend, Jorge, told me that he was being deployed the first thing I did was ask him to move in with me. I met him on December 23, 2011 and in April of 2012 when he told me that he was going to war I realized that he was the greatest Christmas gift that I had ever received. Thanks, God! At this time we were living in different cities and had mentioned making that change coming up over the next year, but we did think it would be that fast. The news of the deployment suddenly had the words "quit your job and move in with me" coming out of my mouth.

Just a few days after that Jorge proposed. I said yes...
We might be crazy but I like to stick with the cliche, "when you know, you know."

We got married July 21, 2012. That was the day I got the best kiss of my life, by the way. Then he left for training soon after. He gets to come back for a couple of days before being shipped off to Afghanistan for what will seem like forever (since he will not be getting leave). I'm titling this period in my life The Great Wait.

And this will soon be my account of how I will survive the next 400ish days.