Long time coming...

Most of you probably saw my Instagram post on Tuesday... If you missed it, here it is...

And you're probably wondering why in the world he would shave off his beard. 

Fact: He hasn't been fully shaven since before we got engaged... that's over 3 years ago...

Well... Stuart is officially in the military.

Yep, you read that right. The military. He joined the Army National Guard Tuesday. This has really been a long time coming.

He has been working on this since February but this was not the first time he has tried. 

So you're probably asking what does this mean?

Well, he is in the Army Band unit of the Army National Guard. He will have to go to Basic Training and AIT in the spring. Other than that, he will still be teaching.

How do I feel about it?

We decided not to pursue this until we were both on the same page about it. So I was at peace with this from the beginning but I do have to admit that when the official papers were signed, I had a flood of emotions. I honestly cried more over him shaving his beard than joining the military haha. I know that there are hard times ahead but I know that this is a great opportunity for us.

How can you be praying for us?

Pray for peace. We are both at peace right now but as the spring rolls around, I know that we will struggle with it in some way. 

Pray for safety. Basic Training and AIT are not a risk but any time someone is going to be away from home for an extended period of time, you start to worry.

Pray for Sadie and me. It sounds silly but my biggest concern aside from Stuart being away from home for so long is that Sadie will not get the attention she needs. I know that it is going to be a hard thing to adjust to but pray that it will be easy and that the time will fly by!

For those of you who have gotten funny reactions from us when talking about the future, please know that we are sorry that we couldn't be honest and tell you what was going on. We have had to be careful about committing to things knowing that at some point, he would probably have to leave. We just didn't want to tell a bunch of people before it was a sure thing.

Anxiety

I promised an anxiety post a while back so here it is. Please excuse me if I go off on a tangent because this is something that I am passionate about.

First off, generalized anxiety disorder is an invisible illness. There's been a lot of things circulating lately on Facebook trying to raise awareness for invisible illnesses and that makes me super excited. The word needs to get out that you never know what the person beside you is dealing with and what their inner struggle is like.

generalized anxiety disorder is defined by Webster as "an anxiety disorder marked by chronic excessive anxiety and worry that is difficult to control, causes distress or impairment in daily functioning, and is accompanied by three or more associated symptoms (as restlessness, irritability, poor concentration, and sleep disturbances)"

For the people who have asked me "well what happens if you try to do things that make you freak out?" I feel like that definition alone should explain it all but I know that it doesn't because my anxiety cannot be bundled into a single definition.

Looking back, I know that I have had this disorder for almost my entire life. I was the child who worried about everything. My mom says that teaching me to read and write was torture. I do remember how upset I was every night when we were learning cursive because I was left-handed and we watched videos of right-handed people writing the letters.

I didn't like to talk to people. I still have issues with calling people I don't know or having to have normal conversations.

I wasn't truly diagnosed with anxiety until I was 18 years old. I started having panic attacks in crowds or when I had a huge task to perform. 

Anxiety is a hard thing to live with. It is something I work on every single day from the time I wake up until I go to bed at night and it will be that way for the rest of my life. 

When we got married, my anxiety was the hardest thing for Stuart to adjust to. For someone who has never experienced it or been close to someone who has it, it is a very hard thing to comprehend. I tend to come off as rude or I just don't want to do something. That's the hardest part for me. I would never be rude intentionally; That's just my anxiety.

Anxiety has a way of driving a wedge in relationships. Stuart and I have gone round and round over this. I don't want to come out and say "Hi my name's Meghan and I have anxiety" every time I meet someone but at what point does it get so much in the way that you have to say something?

I hope this gives some insight into anxiety and hopefully people will think twice before judging people and assuming that we're all just rude and standoffish :)

Encourage

I try very hard to be encouraging to my husband. It is hard sometimes though! I struggle with trying to be the "fixer" instead of just giving him words of encouragement and letting him figure it out. Although I'm still working on that, I have decided that I can at least put a smile on his face every day at lunch.
Yesterday was his first day back with students. This is only his third year teaching so it is still filled with nervousness and anxiety on his part. We've made a few changes in the past couple weeks and so I have decided to get up with him every morning so that we can eat breakfast together and actually see each other before 5pm! Since I teach preschool 5 days a week now and we don't start until after Labor Day, I was not so excited about this first week and a half of getting up because I don't always have places to be and things to do in the mornings. But I have successfully done it two days so far and it isn't really that bad!
One of the ways I've started trying to encourage him is by fixing breakfast and packing his lunch for him. He says that it helps him because he will actually eat those two meals if he doesn't have to think about them so I am happy to help. :) I was just trying to be funny when I did this...

I was just trying to be cute but it became a challenge to me when people on Facebook started commenting on other things I should have drawn. So now I have challenged myself to see if I can do 180 days of lunch bag designs. I should probably draw them a few in advance because this morning I was struggling for ideas but that probably had something to do with waking up at 5:30...

Life isn't complete without at least one Star Wars themed lunch bag!

Please excuse my apple that definitely looks like a pumpkin! It was 6:15 and I wasn't awake yet!

So keep an eye out on the blog for updates each week on the designs of the week and keep the ideas coming!

Absent

I know that I have been absent from the blog for a little while but it has been for good reason! I've been super busy and that is a good thing! We have so many July birthdays in our families (6 to be exact!) So we have been busy celebrating!

Last week I went on an awesome trip to Student Life for Kids Camp in Toccoa, GA. This was my second year going and it did not disappoint. Kids Camp is so much fun because they are little sponges! They are so into the games at recreation, the songs at worship, and the bible study activities. Not to mention the canteen with 16 flavors of homemade ice cream! (that was one of my favorite parts, too!) As soon as I got home, I was headed for the rehearsal and dinner of the wedding I was co-directing. Our pastor's youngest daughter got married and it was a gorgeous wedding. Today is my first day in about 2 weeks that I've actually been able to breathe! So this will be a short post but do not fret! Tuesday is our 2nd wedding anniversary and I have a blog in the works for the coolest gift for your guy! I have been wanting to write about it earlier since I've been working on it for about a month but I can't trust that he won't read about it so we will wait until Tuesday!

Thief

I have anxiety. (that post is up next on my list) When I am anxious, I get stressed. When I am stressed, I tend to fall into a depression sometimes. When I am anxious for longer periods of times, it leads to weeks like this week. I don't have a reason or certain thing that has made me anxious but I have been in a funk all week!

I have been a bookworm lately. I am on my third book for the month of July. These books are ones that I haven't been able to put down.
(side note: if you are looking for some good novels that are Christian-based but aren't about a bunch of goody-goodies, you NEED to check out Karen Kingsbury! I recommend starting with the Redemption series) 

In the book I'm reading right now (Book #3 of the Redemption series), there is one verse that keeps appearing in the book and every single time it comes up, it's like a slap in my face! (the good kind!)

 A thief comes only to steal and to kill and to destroy. I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance. John 10:10

My anxiety has been such a "thief" in my life. I can name multiple situations where I haven't experienced something or been able to do something because of it. But I have to remember that because of God's goodness and grace, I have a life aside from my anxiety. A life that anxiety can't steal from me. 

I get butterflies in my stomach when I think that I have a new body waiting for me in heaven! A body free of this thief that so often steals my joy, kills my spirit, and destroys my confidence. 

God is so good. His timing is so perfect! And I now have a new view of this "funk" I'm in

And the winners are...

Are you ready to know who won the vinyl monograms?!

Drum roll please...

The winners are:

Kelly, Alyssa, and Roxanne

Congrats Ladies!

Email me [meghansray(at)gmail(dot)com] and give me your address, your color choices(1 per monogram), and the initials you would like (please put the initials in monogram order. for example, mine would be mRs) All of the monograms will be in the style pictured in the last post.

Here are your color choices:

Garnet

Red

Light Purple

Dark Purple

Green

Lime Green

Yellow

Dark Blue

Light Blue

Gold

Silver

Grey

Brown

Black

Orange

Light Pink

If you didn't win this time, that's ok! I can still get you a monogram for a great price! Email me and we will work something out!

Keep Calm

And monogram EVERYTHING!

Well, that's at least my motto ;)

I got a Cricut a while back and although I've done a few paper projects with it, it is mainly here for cutting vinyl!

I don't have all the time in the world so my personal projects are kinda on the back burner for the moment but I have enjoyed making monograms and personalizing a few gifts for friends!

 Some of the car monograms I've made!

Love the teal and white combo!

These chairs are such a neat gift and they don't break the bank!

If you're looking for some vinyl work, please feel free to contact me and we will see what we can do!

 

In the meantime, I'll be giving away some vinyl goodies to 3 lucky winners! All you have to do is comment on this post and tell me what you would do with a few vinyl monograms! I will use randomresult.com to draw three names at random. The winners will receive 2 monograms each! (each monogram will be 2.5inches tall) You have until Sunday night at midnight and I will announce the winner first thing Monday morning!

 

Good luck!