The countdown has begun....YEAH!!!

Okay ALL year I have been avoiding trying to think about how much longer until my John boy comes home to me, lets be honest I thought about it enough as it is without torturing myself with a sad countdown like: Man only 263 days till he comes home wahoo! No. That would have been too depressing for me, so I always just referred to it as a long ways away. Sure I kept myself occupied, to keep from going crazy, took some leisurely and lovely trips to various places, I'm still pluggin away at my masters degree online, I have re-discovered my need for crafting, and I'm trying to get our food storage started. Meanwhile john finds bad guys, plans missions, fixes everything that needs fixing, either scorches or freezes every day, sleeps on a sad cot, eats top ramen and who knows what else, gets to play the occasional rock band where he seems to be the drummer extroodinaire. And of course he calls me whenever his schedule allows which is every few days, I am telling you it is like Christmas when I get a call two nights in a row, such a treat! And it's been happening more and more lately. I won't go into super mushy details about the heart-ache of being apart, just know it is by far THE hardest thing I have ever endured.

ANYWAY, all this abnoxious lonely independence, hopping from house to house to who-ever will let me crash their place, having my personal belongings in many different places, missing my cute husband, living for the phone calls and letters, dreaming of how things will be when he gets back, worrying if he's safe, telling him time and time again that I'm okay, IS SOON TO BE A CLOSED CHAPTER in the Great book of Courtenay and John. And can I just say I could just die I am so excited.

I was telling my mom the other day that I was feeling really weird, had trouble sleeping, loss of appetite, constant needing to move around and relax all at the same time, and I concluded that I felt just like on the night before school starts, or on Christmas Eve, where your tummy feels all empty and in knots but elated at the same time, and though your eyes are shut, they won't relax, and your eyelids feel like sandpaper on your eyes. And your heart rate is slightly faster, and your hands shake a little bit and you talk fast and it feels like somebody swapped the blood in your heart and veins with 7-up 'cause you're all tingly all the time. You know the feeling? Well in talking to her I discovered this feeling had been my companion since I started planning things and counting down to when John comes home! I am so darned excited and anxious, I can't even believe it and my brain is telling my body to just relax, but it wont.

So here it is, My John boy angel loaf beef cake suga buns is gonna be home in 29 days! holy smokes, that's ONE fast sunday, that's FOUR weeks from saturday, thats a light at the end of the tunnel! Shoot! I just can't even believe it. I am so excited to have him home with me by my side. All I can think about is what kinds of meals I'm gonna fix him, and how many walks we'll go on, and how nice it will be to go to the temple together, and tell jokes, and snuggle and watch movies, and hold hands, and drive places together, and just be. I'm pretty giddy just now talking about it, can't even believe it's actually going to happen, and so soon! I just pray time moves along like it should!

John is my hero, I've said that before, but i just marvel at the good man he is and how he likes me too, and we're best friends, and we're in love and everything!

I also want to say that since this year has been my hardest, I have really relied on my family and friends to keep me involved in the world, keep me busy, let me know they care what's happening in my life, and that they would be my shoulder to cry on if I needed it. I am so blessed to have people who love me and take such good care of me...

So...here's to Feb 28, 2009 the day dreams are comin true! CHEERS!

PS..I made a countdown at the top right of my page, but for some silly reason you have to scroll through it to see how many days, hours, minutes and seconds....so check it out! :o)

HUNGARY anyone???

ANNOUNCING the newest and CUTEST missionary soon to enter the Mission Field! 

Andrew (Scooter) Logan Mitchell will be reporting April 8th to serve a 2 year mission in the Budapest Hungary mission!!!! He was shaking as he opened his call, with Dad and Bec (his super cute gf) on speaker phone...I got all choked up! I even guessed he would go to Europe, I just had no idea it would Hungary! So he'll be speaking Hungarian, and preaching the good word and teaching about the Plan...awesome! I am so PROUD! He's pretty stoked about it, we all are. AMAZING!!!

Life keeps going...

Sheesh it's been awhile since I posted! I still have some middle east adventures I've not yet posted, but they'll be forthcoming...someday :) 

I have been SO busy the last few weeks, happily wonderfully busy and tired! Here are some of the Highlights of the past few weeks (Since I got home to the states)

-from airport to airport my flight to the US lasted 26 hours and I had diarrhea (I know gross...but just imagine that pleasant plane ride for me...nice)

-I got to play with William, Lily, Oliver, Dylan and Kaci who I missed SO much! (Nate brought William and Lily to the airport to pick me up. When I came down the escalator I was waving frantically to get their attention...they saw me and William was waving back and so happy but Lily was so excited she didn't know what to do with herself, she was just laughing and laughing, but the second I got off the escalator she bolted from her seat to me with open arms just laughing and so happy screaming "COOOOOOUUURRRTT!!!!" It was so precious, it was just like out of a movie...so so cute, and I got a little weepy about it. Nate told me that a week prior to that she had been acting up, and being really moody and sad and then she finally lost it sobbing "I miss my courtenay, I love courtenay, where is courtenay?!" So tender...)

-I met James and Miekka's newest addition to the family, beautiful baby Lia

-Had fun telling all my funny stories to Nate Amy Ben and Kristen

-Drove to pick up Stephanie in Rexburg, then drove home for Christmas, i love my sistee!

-I put on my own snow chains! (I am so proud of myself! John was impressed too when I told him about it :) )

-I played TONS AND TONS of games with my family (Yahtzee, Pit, Cranium, Peek-no-peek, Rummy, Imaginiff, greed, BS)

-I got some very special gifts from John on Christmas Morning, and a really cute card he made me...the best part!

-I gave John some special gifts and got to talk to him on Christmas Eve and Christmas! 

-I made YUMMY gluten free cookies! (So yummy, even OTHER people ate them!) Ginger snaps, monster cookies, and peanut butter cookies! (I used to be really into baking, during my summer in Alaska, I was the lodge "Cookie baker" even though we had 2 world class chefs, theydidn't like baking, BUT I haven't actually done much baking since I was diagnosed with Celiacsdisease, everything tastes so horrible so I just avoided it, but Debbie led me to discover the glory of oats in baking! They do wonders for the gluten free delicacies!) 

-I sang Christmas songs, a LOT!

-I went to the Coast with my fam, even Joey came! It was awesome! 

-Explored some tide pools, enjoyed surprisingly mild weather, and went to the Oregon Coast Aquarium! (Haven't been there since i was a kid! John would have LOVED it! Side note...he LOVES fish, he wants to have like a huge fish tank and stuff someday with exotic tropical fish :)

-Watched a LOT of movies including High School Musical 3,Ballet shoes, The Women, Twilight, The Nativity Story, Catch me if you can, The Oregon Trail band (dad's fav ode to Christmas) and a bunch of others I can't remember just this minute.

-I did some shopping...not as much as even I thought i would, but still got a few nice things for great deals :) (Including some Fiesta ware dishes to add to our tableware, and a projector for $99!...I had to get out of bed at 6 am for that one, and I got up by myself to go get the door busters:)

-I Laughed a lot, ate a lot, played a lot, even cried a bit. I love my Savior Jesus Christ and this Season of Giving to remember what He has given. 

-I stayed up till midnight on New Years Eve, played games with the Jolleys and Amy, ate some yummy treats...my favorite treat right now is clementines, I have to limit myself every day!LOL...or you can imagine what happens! 

-Jarom brought Holiday "Crackers" back with him from his Mission to Wales...so we popped them open, they are like a glorified party popper, you need two people to open the, and inside you find a riddle, and a joke, and a toy...there were some with kid toys, and others with practical goodies like I got a key chain tape measure! Amy got a compass, others got a cork screw, a pen, I don't know just funny random stuff...=FUN

-Got to see Aaron and his new girlfriend Paige, who we all love!

-Went bowling...Dad is possibly the most comical person I have ever seen bowl! :) 

-Hmmm...I can't think of anything else noteworthy...I'll include a few pics...I'll TRY to cut down on the pics! :)

So I am still in Oregon and the Holidays are over, and life just keeps on going. Every day I wake up too late despite going to bed at a more than reasonable time, I take a shower, look fro something to eat and figure out what I wanna do for the day. It usually includes some amount of eating, homework (BLAH), scrapbooking, and quilting. Oh, and a random show or movie, or Oprah :) 

Sorry, these are in no particular order :)

Joh called while we were just starting our Nativity play, that's why I look like such an Angel! LOL

I don't know if you can tell but I had a lot of fun decorating the table SUPER fancy for Christmas Eve, we all felt like we needed to dress up for it! 

New years Eve, our special corwns were in our crackers! FUN! Thanks Jarom!

I know..."Special" right?

EgYpT day 3

say CHEESE!

Visit to the GIZA PYRAMIDS!

The pyramids were a magnificent sight to behold! Honestly, I was SO amazed. I just stood in awe. They are massive, and kind of mysterious. They are the only remaining of the seven wonders of the ancient world. (I think)

At the base of the Largest PyramidSome of our group, rockin the Egyptian

On three...Jumping off the Pyramid

Some of our group...Jess, Dina, Emile, Jacob, Jess, Carla, Me

CAMEL RIDE!!! I got on top of my camel, and the guy who owned the camel just hit the camel, and it started taking off! I didn't have the slightest idea how to control the giant stink beast, I assumed it knew where it was supposed to go, but I didn't, and it started going fast! AND there was nobody from my group with me at first, may camel was going so fast!

We rode our camels around the desert and up to this point for a photo op in front of the Pyramids...My Camel has a great smile! (See the first pic on this post...;)My camel kept making this funny noise as he blew air out of his mouth, it sounded like if someone was making a horse noise...only when my camel did it, he inflated something inside his mouth, like his cheek or side of his tongue or something. It was SO gross! It was even bigger than this picture, this is when it was going down. so gross and weird. This is not a normal thing for camels to do, even the Egyptians with their own camels were gawking at the freak camel!

My Friend Emile and I

The Sphinx was AMAZING! It was massive and just SO cool!This is the whole YSA group. A great group of saints and friends.

This pic isn't the greatest, but its funny because we are eating at a Pizza hut with the Pyramids visible through the window...kinda funny...The Nile River

This is the endless market called the Kahn a Khalili (Have NO idea how it's spelled) I had a LOT of fun bargaining with the shopkeepers about their wares. The market is very easy to get lost in. Most of the shops sell similar if not the same stuff, and they just keep going and going! We had 2 girls get lost and didn't meet up with our crew until 40 minutes after our meeting time. Can you see the sign above me, "AMBER HOUSE for GEWEL RIES"... so funny! I also like the creepy man behind me looking at the camera.

Another merchant shop. SO much to look at!
Me and My drum. I got a great deal on this drum (I also bought another one...got a killer deal!)
Anyway the man who sold me this drum was a creep, as are many of the men here...I dare say most of the men here. He kept saying he would give me a lower price if I kissed him on the cheek. Yeah right. I kept saying no, and I was just ready to leave but my friends were still in his shop. But I also really wanted to get the drums. So I made my last offer 100 egyptain pounds for both drums...which is like $20 US, and he came too close for comfort and whispered in my ear a higher price or motioned that I kiss him and I'll get the price I wanted. I was SO grossed out, especially since he whispered in my ear, so he was pointing to his cheek and smiled saying 100 Pounds...so I kissed my hand and slapped his cheek with it, and firmly said 100 pounds. He was totally shocked...served him right, right? Needless to say I got them for 100 pounds. :) Most of the shopkeepers flirted with me...it got really old really fast, they would say things like "Hello American, Beautiful!" or "very nice eyes" or "please come to my shop, if you buy something here, I can tell everyone a Goddess came into my shop, be good for business" Whatever. One guy even stopped me while I was walking and said "Excuse me, you dropped something" I was surprised and looked down to see what I dropped, but he grabbed my hand and said "Oh, You dropped my heart" PAHLEESE!!!

EGYPT DAY 2

The second day of Egypt was Friday (the Sabbath). I was recruited by Nancy to teach Nursery...waaaay more exciting than relief society and sunday school! :) Plus these kids were so so cute!

We had a bunch of seminar classes also, that were awesome. Kurt Bestors Brother lives in the Branch and we heard from he and his wife. We also played some games and the fun event of the day was a FELUCCA ride!
These are the Felucca's. Sadly there was no wind so we didn't really move. It was also overcast and grey. It could have a been a gorgeous sunset on the Nile...it was still fun though :)








These are the girls I made really good frinds with. L-R...Diana, Juliette, Shada, Armen, Me

These girls are AMAZING, and they are so fun.

We had a break the fast meal with everyone, but there wasn't much for me to eat (without gluten) so we went out that night in search of some local food. I had Foul (pronounced fool) and hummus. Foul is like hummus with dark beans, it tastes like refried beans with middle eastern spices. Yummy. In our first Egyptian Taxi ride...TINY and ANCIENT cars!

Another great day with good friends in Egypt.