Day 2: Monticello

So catch up with us on our first anniversary trip: the first night was spent in Harpers Ferry, WV. The next morning we left for Monticello, home of Thomas Jefferson. Our favorite part were the tiered gardens. We highly recommend visiting in the spring, summer or fall when the scenery is more alive if you will. Enjoy the pictures!
Next stop: sleepy town of Waynesboro. Not much to do there except visit a lovely bed and breakfast!

Of note and rather unfortunately, the United States and its historical societies never own the entire property, and people are picky what you take pictures of, so no indoor pictures.  Bummer, but a delightful experience and exercise in the genious of Thomas Jefferson.

Made for Each Other

It took a few glances for people to understand that I wasn't putting names on these two camels.  I thought about it, but these two weren't meant as children's toys, however silly they may look.  And now one is in DC with Jonathan, and one is here with me.  I thought long and hard whether I should put on them what our wedding rings say: "My Love" and "My Beloved" (from Song of Songs) and decided that was too much and too private for me to put on a public sheet being passed around for orders.  But that's what I really meant to say with these silly camels.

The book Jonathan and I are reading, "What did you expect?" by Paul Tripp, relates marriage to gardening, in that when you see a beautiful garden, the correct assumption is that there is a lot of hard work that goes in to making it look so vibrant.  The gardening involves both clearing the ground at the start, weeding out the harmful and ugly plants, and planting the desired plants in place of those weeds...and weeding, and watering, and planting, etc.  This is the way we're trying to view our marriage.  As easy as it may be to say "well, we're far apart so it's hard to grow close" or in other cases "well, we'll have more time when we're both done with school" or "once we're through the infant stage, we'll try harder at our romance," we honestly desire to see our marriage and love for one another grow and are trying to leave behind any excuse we'd like to (and would in many ways be justified to) make.  So please pray for us and our marriage, and we will be lifting up those marriages around us at the same time.  God is good, and he is good all the time.

Explanation: the camels are sewn from the material of the uniform that I wear to work here.  Of note, this same material may be seen on various non-US military organizations because it is the old Vietnam era style, as I have been told.  This is what the Navy gives its people when they send us to work with the Army.  Hooah.

Side note: Yes, Adeline has her own similar camel.  See the adorable Niece Adeline with her sweet baby rolls and giggly smiles where Charles and Charissa post most of their pictorial memories for all of us enjoy.

1st Day, 1st Year

So one of our thoughts behind this blog was to share our anniversary photos with everyone. In case you didn't know, we did a whirlwind tour of the Virginia and North Carolina countryside. With a few other states thrown in.

While we don't necessarily need reasoning behind a romantic getaway, our reasons for this type of trip were the following: 1) We like bed and breakfast inns, 2) there are alot of relatively local destinations that we had not visited, 3) after a cruise honeymoon, we needed something a little more low key.

Our first stop was Harpers Ferry, WV. As you can tell by the pictures, the most exciting thing in the town was our inn. Granted it was January, so nothing was open, but it's still a pretty sleepy town.

Our accommodations consisted of a remodeled first level of a barn, believe it or not. There was a little counter, a fridge, a stone-tiled bathroom, and way too many decorations. Besides the stink bugs, the B&B was quite lovely. And as you can see, they liked Coke memorabilia and silly puns.

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Example of USPS success:

A humorous card with a wonderful note from someone my grandparents know.

If you are a creative, card-making crafty sort, I want to share a good organization to get involved in.  Operation Write Home is a group that makes pretty sweet cards for soldiers to write home with, whether it is for holidays, or just to remind their families that they love them.  We (the nurses here in Kuwait) have had a ton of fun looking through these miniature pieces of art, picking out a few and sending them home.  Think about it!  Especially for those in places where they can't stop by the PX to purchase cards.

No, thank you.

Dear friends and family,

This box from the Custers (MPC church family members!) represents numerous care packages and letters that have made the trip safely across the ocean and desert to Kuwait.  My heart is lightened and overjoyed with each card I get, and I am so thankful for the encouragement received and support and prayers offered!  The Lord is so good to me, and he has used all of you in that. 

These letters and goodies are also a testament of the gospel and of God's goodness and God's family to the people I serve with.  Some of the other nurses are surprised at the number of packages and notes that come, especially because they are from people other than my husband and parents.  So thank you for being an incredible witness here in Kuwait.  You are a blessing to me, to those around me, and to Jonathan by showing God's love in these ways.  My sincerest thanks to you, and God bless you.

Lovely.

I have finally restored our printer to working status. Ok nothing was wrong with it, I just didn't have any drivers installed. Enjoy these gems sent from my lovely wife's family. I appreciate the fairness evidenced by the second picture. :)

Please sir, may I have another.

Another sandstorm has hit, not sure the magnitude of it because three of us female nurses locked ourselves inside of our cubicles to wait it out with Cliff bars and yogurt, and lots of movies to watch or sleep to catch.  Sleep is a bit rough to come by because these storms set off our fire alarm systems, so its quite loud and very dusty in here.  We're safe, of course, just annoyed and very spiteful towards sand.

For a better idea of sandstorms, I found this news-link of someone who caught the last sandstorm from the end of March.  This person was in Kuwait City, close by here, and at a height where they could see almost all of the buildings around them as they were enveloped in dust:  Super Sandstorm.  And another example: More sand! (Please give me a heads up if the link doesn't work.)

Now, back to Psych.