DIY Table

We've got some new fun things going on in our little living room!! I got us new furniture! I sold the brown huge stuff because nobody could sit in them and they were massive and made our cute little living room just look little and not CuTe! So now we have these fun simple ones that I can pretty much do anything with and we needed a little side table. So my mom had a table of my Grandmas up in the attic and I just took that and painted it! It's nice and was about 6 dollars I figure because the paint I bought was 20 dollars and I think I used maybe a fourth of it to paint the whole table! So here she is!!!

Before...

After!!!!!!

I can finally say I'm starting to love my living room I need a statement Rug...

My lovely orchids which I loved on my front door, they don't fit with the new door so I thought they would brighten up the living room which I love!

Love Nicole 

Dam to Dam.

(Me getting my bag and packet)

Wow well I'm sitting here reflecting on my morning of my first race the Dam to Dam. It was one of the best experiences I've ever had and one of the hardest things I think I've ever done in my life.

I've been wanting to do the Dam to Dam for about 2 years now and the first year I trained for about a month then little Brinn came along so I stopped training and didn't do it. Then last year I trained and was working out a ton for the wedding and then was just too busy. So I picked the deployment year gave me something to keep my mind off things. I've really stuck to the great workout plan that a friend gave me and really surprised myself at what I could do.

I started getting so excited about a couple days ago! Nervous mostly just that I wouldn't know what to do or how my body would react. It was SUCH AN AMAZING ATMOSPHERE.  I can't even describe how cool it was. We rode buses to the Dam at 5am and got there and just hung out. Right before we started we did the national anthem and I teared up because I really wanted to do this for Jono and run for him. I don't know why I just love him so why not. Then they said at Mile 7 we will have 150 flags for all the soldiers that have lost their lives in the war we are fighting right now, and so that was my goal run to mile 7.

Overall, it was one of them most emotional things I've done, weird I know. I had tons of friends running and I was proud for them and I never thought I would be able to do this ever in my life. I prayed a lot throughout the race just for strength to get another mile, not to pass out! I was hitting a wall and saw Aaron and Michelle Michael and Roman and I almost lost it, that people cared enough to come and watch me run.   It gave me the last boost I needed every time I saw them. The only thing I wanted for the last three miles though was not water, ice, or food. IT was my Mom, I just really needed my Mom ha ha! I just was almost in tears as I running over the bridge to the finish line, and I saw my parents and Brinn. That's when I lost it just so thankful for the amazing people in my life. Proud that I stuck to it trained and finished it out.

It's done and just wait till next year and run it again because the atmosphere and the end is so WORTH IT.

Before we were pretty nervous!

Me right before the finish line... I FINISHED!

Summer Do's

So I was thinking today while laying out in my back yard, there are so many things I want to do this summer. It's going to fly by so I thought instead of doing a What's Brinn Wearing Wednesday (she was in her swim suit all day), I thought I would make a list of the fun things I want to complete by the end of this summer!

First would be for this man to come home!

Drink some Ice Tea

Go to a Carnival 

Take lots of sets

Grill ALL SUMMER

Fresh Flowers

Lay by the Beach with Family and Friends

Romantic Getaway with my Love

Enjoy em while they are young

Paint our toes

Most of all this summer I just want to be happy. I want to be thankful and happy. I'm happy. The sun makes me happy! The end is near for us with Jono's deployment and I'll have to say I'm ready. So I want to keep busy and have a fun summer and before I know it he will be back safe and in my arms again! 

PS we have a fundraiser this weekend at the Freedom Center at Camp Dodge come around 12 or so you will make it for some yummy lunch. The money we raise will go to our HOMECOMING CEREMONY which won't be much most of it will hopefully go to a beautiful BALL that we will get to get dressed up for and the guys in their Greens! So come support if you would like I'll hopefully be there by noon when I finish DAM TO DAM!!!!!!!!! Or if I finish :) 

Love you All,

The Sage's 

Chi Town :)

I know I already posted about our little weekend getaway, I have some pictures now so I thought I would share! We had a blast :) Missed sweet Brinn but a much needed girls weekend! 

Before the Cubs game!

Our Ride

Our Mascot 

Michigan Ave 

Dress Night Missed you Em

Da Cubs

I did Sara's makeup... I know it was beautiful her not the makeup :)

Rained crashed the end of the game 

That's for Jono

Captain Minard you're a very lucky man.

The many taxi rides that were not cheap

Bill Murray... Where is Bill Murray???

That would be my sweet military ID I use for sweet discounts... Outlets should NOT have military discounts :) Our last and final stop was Aurora outlets! 

It was a great weekend. Always hard to leave peanut, however being a single parent is a tough job. I feel like a much better parent with a couple days apart and I feel more relaxed. I know that I've made some friends for life in this deployment and this may have to be an annual trip! AT ladies? 

Ragged Old Flag

"Ragged Old Flag"

I walked through a county courthouse square

On a park bench, an old man was sittin' there.

I said, "Your old court house is kinda run down, 

He said, "Naw, it'll do for our little town". 

I said, "Your old flag pole is leaned a little bit, 

And that's a ragged old flag you got hangin' on it".

He said, "Have a seat", and I sat down, 

"Is this the first time you've been to our little town"

I said, "I think it is"

He said "I don't like to brag, but we're kinda proud of

That Ragged Old Flag

"You see, we got a little hole in that flag there,

When Washington took it across the Delaware.

and It got powder burned the night Francis Scott Key sat watching it, 

writing "Say Can You See"

It got a rip in New Orleans, with Packingham & Jackson

tugging at its seams.

and It almost fell at the Alamo 

beside the Texas flag,

But she waved on though.

She got cut with a sword at Chancellorsville,

And she got cut again at Shiloh Hill.

There was Robert E. Lee and Beauregard and Bragg,

And the south wind blew hard on

That Ragged Old Flag

"On Flanders Field in World War I,

She got a big hole from a Bertha Gun,

She turned blood red in World War II

She hung limp, and low, a time or two,

She was in Korea, Vietnam, She went where she was sent

by her Uncle Sam.

She waved from our ships upon the briny foam

and now they've about quit wavin' back here at home

in her own good land here She's been abused,

She's been burned, dishonored, denied an' refused,

And the government for which she stands

Has been scandalized throughout out the land.

And she's getting thread bare, and she's wearin' thin,

But she's in good shape, for the shape she's in.

Cause she's been through the fire before

and i believe she can take a whole lot more.

"So we raise her up every morning

And we bring her down slow every night,

We don't let her touch the ground,

And we fold her up right.

On second thought

I *do* like to brag

Cause I'm mighty proud of

That Ragged Old Flag" 

My cousin is a vet and he posted this song with a video on his facebook today. I listened and watched the video and it brought tears to my eyes, it is such an amazing song. It's so amazing what our country has been through. The wars we have fought and the soldiers that have of course given all. I'm so thankful for each and every person and it's easier to be thankful when I'm affected directly. I never would have guessed I would have married a soldier but I'm proud I did. I know this deployment is worth it, I know Jono being over there is making a huge impact on our lives here. I know we are there for a reason. 


We can't ever forget the fallen, the reason every year we put away a day for them, the ones who gave all. We are free because they sacrificed. I pray everyday I don't have to experience the grief of loosing my soldier. Prayer is the only answer for me, and also trust. Trust in Jono that he is an amazing soldier and trust in God that it's his plan and not mine. Most of all today I'm thinking of the soldiers that we have lost from the 168 and most of all peace for them today.

Memorial Day ABC Special and people ask why we are here?

Chi Town

Well... I had one of the best weekends of my life. I have been so blessed this year to have met some of the most amazing women I've ever met in my life. We ended up planning this trip months ago to go to a Cubs game in Chicago. We've been counting down the days to this weekend for a long time and it finally came. There were 6 of us and I could not have had more fun. We have some great stories and great pictures and most of all great memories with GREAT girls!!! 

Most of all through this deployment I've been so thankful for the experience and also for the people I've met. I COULD not get through this year without the most amazing friends and family I have. Family as in my military family and my immediate family. No matter how much Jono and I try to play down how rough some of this year has been on us it still comes back to the fact that we have to be apart and we have to find support in other places than each other. It's just great to be with people who know exactly how you feel everyday. The longing that you have secretly in your heart when you see a couple walking hand in hand. We all get that silently and we respect that of each other.

We laughed and giggled and hugged like we had been friends for life. For one weekend. 3 days out of the 365 we got to be girls again and be together and have fun. We got to kick up our heels and wear dresses and go to dinner. We got to shop our little tails off and go to a Cubs game and have a beer and a hot dog. (We also sat about 50 feet from Bill Murray and started the chant "Who ya gonna call" Ghost Busters). We met awesome fun people and never once had to pretend we were these strong perfect women. We each bring a little piece of something different to the group, and I love that about us. I love all of our different styles when shopping and our different dinner choices when eating!

I'll never forget this year. I'll never forget these women and hope to have friends for life. So thankful for the laughs we had and the memories we get to keep forever. 

PS I just shoved my SD card full of amazing pictures in a hole in my parents computer and it's gone... so pictures to come I guess :(  Here is one I had on my phone that I sent to Jono!!! 

Love you all!!!

In a funk.

We're in a funk lately. We've been busy with summer and fun! Our house got hit by lightning AGAIN this year and I know it's God testing me... after four nice calls to quest and one really extremely rude mean Jono call to Qwest I have a new Internet coming so sorry for not posts about our cool life :)HA my whole 11 followers I hope I haven't lost you :) 5 Days in the blogging world is  A LOT!!! I'm so sorry our house is a lightning hot line and the fact that I'm NOT to crazy about storms as it is. It's probably been good that I haven't had Internet it's really made me realize what we do have in this day in age. We haven't skyped Jono for a couple weeks we miss his sweet face. So hopefully soon we can do that and this weekend I'm heading to Chicago with some amazing women that I've been so blessed to meet some crazy Army wives for a much deserved vacation... because our husbands will be returning SOON. The cool part too is most of our husbands are in Afghanistan together so that makes it easier to understand silently what we are going through. 


I would definitely have to say the end of a deployment is harder than the beginning. I found that there are 7 stages of a deployment I remember reading this way back a long time ago probably 2 weeks after Jono left and thinking ha no way this isn't legit. Well... it is. The stage I'm in now is the anticipation for them to return. They say the fears you have in the beginning all return... which they have. They also say you diet HA which I just started the special K diet two weeks ago tomorrow and I've lost almost 5 pounds! So that's exciting (really people diet for their husbands to come home.) Anyways, I'm so filled with Joy for the return of my husband. It's been a long year and I couldn't be more ready. It's crazy how much of a blurr this year is and how we just get up and do our thing everyday purely surviving and getting through the day. Sounds ridiculous but every night when I lay my head down I just think we did another day closer. Now we are within weeks and it feels so close!!! Anyways when I get my Internet up and running again I'll be back I'm sorry for the boring post with so many words (Amanda) I love you all and thank you for caring about our little family and our little dorky blog. Love you ALL!!!


P.S. We are having a fundraiser for the homecoming ceremony please come!!! It's June 4th at Camp Dodge in Des Moines!!!