Home is where the Heart is...

This past weekend, I traveled home. I hadn't been home since Christmas and it was so nice to go back to good ol' Mayfield. There are certain things that I absolutely love about being at home:

-My Bed!
-My pup and Big Momma
-The "strip" in Mayfield (a 5 minute commute from one end of town to the other is so nice!)
-Running into people you know while doing your errands
-My momma's sweet tea

On Friday I had to run errands and Mom and I got it all done in about 2 hours. After living in Lexington for 7 years, it is a luxury to get everywhere you need to go in that amount of time. One place we went to was the new Amish stores in Sedelia and Hickory. I think I have told everyone about these stores. Not only were they super clean, have a large selection of food products, but their furniture is like art. If money was no object, I would have bought a ton of stuff. Instead of buying furniture, Mom and I settled on homemade cinnamon rolls and a loaf of bread. I never tasted the bread because I was always eating the cinnamon rolls. They were to die for and well worth $6.

A couple of years ago, Mom, Jace, and I started having dinner together during Lent at the local Catholic church. We support St. Joseph's Catholic church and always look forward to their fish dinner. The money goes for a good cause and when else does Jace Stamper get to go out with 2 women on a Friday night? Me, Mom, and our dear family friend, Doris, ate there Friday night. Not only was the fish delicious but the strawberry cake was good too (major sweet tooth problem). We chit-chatted for 2 hours and had a great time. It is events like the fish fry at St. Joe's that make me thankful for growing up in a small town. I will be back in two weeks and this time Jace is coming with me and Mom. Can't wait!

Saturday was gorgeous outside and you would not have thought it was February. That night, Mom and I went out with Karen and Sara Falder. They are practically family and it was so good to catch up with them and have a mother-daughter dinner together. We ate at Max's in Paducah and while eating, I looked over and saw my freshman roommate, Rachel Holshouser. That girl has style and should be in fashion. Always good to see Ray and I only hope I didn't embarrass her after I yelled her name across the restaurant!

The weekend absolutely flew by. It was wonderful to spend uninterrupted time with Mom and to be at home. I don't know if I will ever live in Graves Co. again, but it will always be home and have a special place in my heart.

After a busy weekend, I am leaving bright and early in the morning and flying to see Jace. Mississippi stories to come...

Busy Bee

March is almost here and I can't believe February is almost over. Things have been busy but in a good way.

February means birthdays and Valentine's Day. Jace turned 27 and I turned 25. I joke with Jace that he is getting old since he is quickly approaching 30! I will forever do this to him since he is 2 years older than me. When my birthday rolled around I realized that I am in the prime of my life and these next few years will be a blast. I can't wait for what is to come because there are big changes coming down the pike (an engagement, Master's graduation, Jace's graduation, a wedding to plan, the BAR exam, a move, etc.)

Since Jace and I are apart, Valentine's Day isn't too big of a day for us. We send each other cards and promise to celebrate the next time we see one another. For me, it is not about what Jace does for me but what I do for others. Ross and I sent Mom flowers to her office and I anxiously waited for her call to tell me about the arrangment. It brightens her day and in turn brightens mine. As for my other Valentine, the Teak, I picked out a card and bought her a medium size box of chocolates. I was excited about giving them to her and she liked it. However, she went above and beyond and even brought a tear to my eye! I came home from work and found a homemade card and chocolate pie. I truly have the best grandmother! By the way, the two of us put a major dent in that pie!

Maybe this month has flown by because work has picked up. We are preparing for two in-service trainings with 100 Extension agents attending. Having 100 agents enroll for a training rarely occurs and we are thankful for the support. However, that means there are binders to assemble, agendas to create, caterers to call, and the list goes on. I always love being with the agents and appreciate the support they have shown toward MITT.

In additon to the trainings, I have been planning two big events: Lauren's bachelorette party and our summer vacation. After countless Facebook messages between the bride and bridesmaids, we have set a date to celebrate Lauren's engagement! We are eating at Malone's and getting a hot stone massage! I can't wait to catch up with dear friends, eat, laugh, and relax. I also contacted the condo owner for Jace and my summer vacation. I am pleased with our condo choice and look forward to experiencing Seaside, Fl. Any beach sounds good right now!

Throughout all of this, I have been inching closer to completing my Master's. I have been emailing back and forth with my chair about setting a defense date. The Power Point has been created and the final two chapters need to be sent to the editor. I can't believe it is finally time to defend. I am hoping for an early April defense!

If these events weren't big enough, I am flying down to see Jace in 7 DAYS!!!! I can't tell you how excited I am to see him and be back in Mississippi. I fell in love with Mississippi the first time I visited and consider it my vacation spot. It comfortable and so Southern--I can't get enough of it. I may complain about the demands of law school some days but one thing I will never complain about is Barrister's Ball (Law School Prom). It is an excuse to dress up and dance the night away to old rap songs. Jace's dance moves are simply hilarious and he keeps me in stitches on the dance floor.

I feel like I have been a busy bee and the calendar keeps filling up. This can only mean one thing: I am blessed to go to work each day, visit with friends, spend time with family, and enjoy this life of mine. I hope you feel the same way about your life--busy is not always a bad thing!

A Long Distance Relationship's Up and Downs

I knew I was going to marry Jace Stamper when I was a sophomore in college. Our relationship is different than most in the fact that we have never been together for longer than a summer. Jace went to Murray State for his Bachelor's and Master's degree and I followed my dreams of being a Wildcat. Weekend trips home, summer, and Christmas breaks are our only time to be a couple. I can't tell you how many times I have traveled the Bluegrass, the Western Kentucky, I-24, and the Purchase Parkways. He has done the same.Thank God we are both AT & T customers because if not our mothers would have killed us over phone bills. We Skype regularly and it means the world to me to actually see him. It is surprising how quickly you forget how someone looks. I know the feeling too well.

Jace and I knew our path would be different than most couples early on in our relationship. Jace has a God-given gift of being able to interpret law, understand it, and more importantly communicate it to clients. He is patient, considerate, and has his client's best interest at heart at all times. After being accepted into Mississippi College School of Law, I knew our relationship would be put through the ultimate test. We had survived the four hour distance between us during my undergrad career but could we survive a 10 hour, multiple states kind of distance? A distance conquered by buying plane tickets and rushing to make connection flights.

Well we have! We are stronger now than ever before but I don't write this to boast or to make you believe we have a perfect relationship. Law school has tested me emotionally just as it tests Jace mentally. I wish I could say I have gone through the transition from his Master's career to law school with grace. I can't. I struggle. I cry. I get lonely. I miss my best friend.

Every semester is a new transition for me and for him. He has a new set of classes and I have to get back into the mindset of  him being busy with school. You would think that after 7 years and 14 semesters together, the distance and time apart would get easier at some point. It doesn't. It gets worse.

When Jace is in school the amount of time we can "be" together reduces greatly. This is a typical day in our relationship: There is a morning phone call on the way to work/school. Emails, if work is not too crazy for the both of us, flow constantly throughout the day. There is a 10 minute phone call on the way home from school/work. Every night I interrupt his dinner and we try to Skype. Depending on the night, we may talk on Skype any where from 10 to 30 minutes. Usually at 10 PM, Jace calls to wish me good night and tells me he is still working away on his latest assignment or reading. Sometime in the night after I have been in bed, he calls again. This is the last phone call of the day and sadly, I never remember it. This phone call reassures me that he is safe and is on his way home from the library. There have been many nights, probably at least once a week, where I wake up in a panic. Did he call? I don't remember our conversation.What time is it? My fears are gone after I check my phone and realize he did call but I was so asleep that I don't remember talking to him. The process begins all over again the next day. Needless to say, I live for Saturday mornings because we are both not running out of the door.

For the past two weeks I have struggled being away from him. We both celebrated our birthdays during these past two weeks and it would have been nice to celebrate with one another. But it is not the birthday celebrations that I miss the most. It is the hand holding, the hugs, the kiss goodbye and hello. It is the smile he gives that melts my heart. It is the dinners we don't get to share together. It is the laughs that I don't get to hear. It is the end of the day conversations that make you thankful that you get to spend this life with someone who loves you. The worst for me is seeing another couple get to do these things with one another. I get jealous. I want the time they get to spend with one another.

The one thing that keeps me going is Jace. He is worth the distance. He is worth $400 plane tickets. He is worth it and so is our relationship. When we do get to see one another, the time goes by too quickly but the feeling that comes over me when we are together is like no other feeling I have ever experienced before. It is a feeling of wholeness. Sheer bliss. Peace. Excitement. Contentment. Those feelings are priceless. We trust in God's plans for us and have no idea of where or what the future holds. Each day we choose to be faithful and in love with one another. We choose every day to be strong and committed to this relationship. It is hard being strong all the time. It is hard knowing that there is school left to complete and that distance will remain. I try to stay positive. Some days are better than others. I am strong some days and a complete mess on others. But as the old saying goes, absence makes the heart grow fonder. With Jace and I, we have plenty of absence so I guess that only means one thing...we have a lot of love to give!

                                         New Year's 2011

Smile

Have you ever had one of those days where you experienced a range of emotion? I had one yesterday. They suck the energy out of me and I found myself exhausted from the day. I crawled into bed early and was determined to have my humor back in the morning and guess what, I did!

No matter how bad the day has been, there are always things to smile about. I say this in reference to my church's weekly newsletter, the Crest. The Children's coordinator writes a small column each week that updates the congregation on what is happening in the children's ministry. The article talked about how the children had to write down what makes them smile. She ended her article by posing the question to the reader. I thought little about the question when I finished reading the article but at the end of the day, emotionally drained, I reflected on what makes me smile. Below is a small list of things that make me smile:

-My Pup and Big Momma
-Listening to Teak hum a hymn while in the kitchen
-A quiet morning with a cup of coffee
-The feeling after I work out
-McGee's bakery with Jace on Saturday mornings
-Dinner dates with Jace
-Hearing my Mom laugh (you can't miss it)
-Thinking about our future together and not having a clue where we will end up
-Spending time with Whitney and Lauren and pretending we are sophomores in college again
-A good ol' sermon
-Getting on an airplane and going somewhere new
-Live Oak trees with Spanish Moss hanging down

These are just a few of the things that came to my mind. Now I pose the question to you: what makes you smile? No matter how hard your day was, how difficult your situation, you must remember these things because these things keep you going even when you don't want to.

Until next time.