Mine and Matt's Anniversary Photo Session

This summer when we all went to Canada Matt's sister, Marcie, asked if me and Matt would like a little styled shoot of our own.  We were like, "Um… YES."  
Marcie dressed and coordinated us, and styled us pretty.  It was really fun, I have to say.  And a great way to commemorate our upcoming 10 year wedding anniversary!
We love Marcie, her big heart, and her sweet skills with FILM (not digital!)!
Also, Husband Matt is still smoking hot.

AND.  If you don't want to scroll through all of these, there is a great condensed version on Style Me Pretty CANADA blog!!  Really fun to have these prints posted on their site :)  click HERE 

Poem of the Month

Good Timber
Douglas Malloch

The tree that never had to fight
For sun and sky and air and light,
But stood out on the open plain
And always got it's share of rain,
Never became a forest king
But lived and died a scrubby thing.

The man that never had to toil,
To gian and farm his patch of soil,
Who never had to win his share,
Of sun and sky and light and air,
Never became a manly man
But lived and died as he began.

Good timber does not grow in ease;
The srtonger the wind, the stronger the trees;
The further the sky, the further the length;
The more the storm, the more the strength.
By sun and cold, by rain and snow,
In trees and men good timbers grow.

Where thickest lies the forest growth
We find the patriarchs of both.
And they hold counsel with the stars
Whos broken branches show their scars
Of many winds and much of strife.
This is the common law of life.

.................

Okay, so reason number 1 why I love this poem: it's the first poem that I memorized. Around age 11 or 12, I think. Heard it in a Sunday school lesson and fell in love! Reason number 2: It's about trees. Reason number 3: It's inspiring! And reason number 4: It's about trees!! I love the forest--it's the Cherokee blood in me.

I didn't do a poem for the month of April. Sorry y'all. I had moved and all of my poetry books were packed away. (One of my favoirte things to look at in thrift stores are old literature books. I'm starting to get a nice collection.) From now till September I'll be relying on my brain for some poems to share.

.............

In April Matt and I celebrated our 6th year of marriage. For a while now I've been feeling like we have gone through too much in such a sort amount of time. Iraq deployment, both full time in college, 3 babies, heart surgeries, more college, more military--all of this under the poverty line. I've wondered how we can handle all of it. Not really questioning our relationship, but just wondering how we can make it through each day in one piece.

After a few embarrasing break downs, and lots of prayer, I've come to realize that our life is our life. The past is the past. The future is the future. And most important, the now is the now. What doesn't kill us only makes us stronger. In fact, without these trial we wouldn't be who we are today. Our trials make our lives better--nay, our relationship better. (An "aha" moment, right there.)

Love you, Matt Studly. Can't wait to see what your abs look like at the end of the summer!
And happy 6th anniversary to us, may we have an infinity more!

It's Been 5 Years...

... since Matt has come home from his tour to Baqubah and Kirkuk, Iraq. 

This has been Matt's only deployment.  He served as a light infantry foot solider and had the total "Iraq Experience." Which includes multiple car bombs, IEDs (improvised explosive device), and ambushes. On the 9 day rotations, 6 of those were in the city. His duties included watching the base from the guard towers, going on raids (some with Special Forces), and street patrol.  During raids, he was the first person to enter the home.  The base that he stayed on was tiny.  130 men in the middle of the city.  Stress was high, but luckily no was killed in action.  Purple hearts, for sure, but no deaths. During this tour he got to know the people, understand the cultural divides, and learned how damaging war can be to a country. 

Matt is now in the Army ROTC program at Boise State University.  He is training to become an Army officer, hopefully in active duty.  This deployment he had will not be his last, but it has significant importance to me and him. 

Let me put a time line together:

• September 2001--Matt joins the Army National Guard.
• December 2002--Matt begins his LDS mission to B'ham, AL.
• May of 2004--Matt is called off his LDS mission to B'ham, AL (of which he served 18 months) to deploy to Iraq. 
• May of 2004--Shannon goes out to Boise for 1 week to see Matt. They want to know if we really do like each other, and if we want to pursue a relationship. 
• June of 2004--Matt goes out to Alabama for 4 days to Shannon.  They want to pursue a relationship. 
• July of 2004--Matt leaves for Ft. Bliss Texas, to start his deployment. 3 months of training in Ft. Bliss, TX and 2 months in Ft. Polk, LA.
• November of 2004--Matt is on Leave in Boise. Shannon flies out to see him.  He proposes! They are engaged to be married!
• November of 2004--Matt leaves after two weeks back to Louisiana, to continue training.
• November of 2004--Matt leaves for Iraq.
• April of 2005--Matt and Shannon meet up in Alabama to be married! They have 2 weeks together. 
• May of 2005--Matt leaves for the rest of his deployment. 
• November of 2005--Matt comes home from his Iraq!! 

This deployment defined us. Our lives were this deployment.  I was going to school, some in Alabama, but mostly in Idaho at BYU-Idaho. Email was imperative! Having 3 or 4 emails a week was really nice. Maybe a phone call once or twice a week. Believe me, my roommates could tell when I hadn't talked to Matt in a while.  We both tried to stay positive, and we both grew in ways not know to us before.  We made lots of lasting relationships with people that were with us (me and my roommates and college buddies, Matt and his fellow soldiers.) 

Wow, what a time.  Our lives didn't settle down after that, though.  I'm hoping the next 5 years will be a little more mello.

Happy Homecoming, Matt! 

Poem of the Month Honors 5 Year Anniversary

That's right, we have been married 5 years. 

Wedding day, and we looked good. Or maybe just young:

I was very pale because of my semester in Rexburg, and Matt was WAY thin because of deployment to Kirkuk, Iraq. (Lunch was not served on his small base, and he was worked to the bone... so if he look 145 lbs, it is probably because he was.) We had a lovely 2 weeks together before he left to finish his deployment. 

And since then we have had 5 lovely, hard, insane, crazy, fun years. 

Here now is the poem. It is a love poem, true, but one that is deep and touches my heart.  

To My Dear and Loving Husband

Anne Bradstreet

If ever two were one, then surely we. 

If ever man were loved by wife, then thee;

If ever wife was happy in a man,

Compare with me, ye women, if you can.

I prize thy love more than whole mines of gold

Or all the riches that the East doth hold. 

My love is such that rivers cannot quench,

Nor ought but love from thee, give recompense.

Thy love is such I can no way repay,

The heavens reward thee manifold, I pray.

Then while we live, in love let's so persevere 

That when we live no more, we may live ever. 

[1678]

Oh, I did a post about Eli and his first surgery on his blog. Check it out here.