Holiday Mail for Heroes

I know everyone will have at least one card left over. Instead of stashing it away for next year, go ahead and spend one more stamp to make sure that someone who is fighting for our freedom knows that someone back home is thinking of them. Click here -->Holiday Mail for Heroes

What I'm reading now...

Cool Thing I Found Out Today

So, I have problem that doesn't seem to be very curable.  You see, if I get an email that sends me to awesome stuff (Amazon, for instance), I will spend the next 15-30 min perusing the site while my work just sits there.  Today, though I actually found some useful information!

If you are a student, and have a .edu email address, you can now receive the benefits of an Amazon Prime account! 

Amazon Prime shipping benefits free for one year

Unlimited FREE Two-Day Shipping on textbooks and millions of other items

No minimum order size

Upgrades to One-Day shipping for $3.99/item

E-mail alerts for exclusive deals and promotions

It's free for students - sign up by providing your school and major Just click below.  It can really save some money this holiday season!!! Amazon Prime Student Sign Up! Okay, I have to get some work done now.  Enjoy!

This Is Dedicated to My Friend

Today is Iva's Birthday.  Iva has been my friend ever since a church trip to Fort Worth the Winter of my Sophomore Year in High School.  I had never met her before the trip, but, by the time we returned to the church after a weekend of church-y stuff and a TCU-A&M football game, we had mutually decided that we were destined to be friends forever.

I have so many wonderful memories of those days.  Days before jobs (real ones, anyway), bills, families of our own, and adult life in general.  When what we worried about most was if we were really going to get away with going to the bowling alley instead of going to a church Super Bowl party (we really should have been bigger football fans.  Or at least had it playing on the radio).  If my memory serves me correctly, I was the "bad" friend between the two of us.  The rebel, the troublemaker, you get the idea.  Thankfully, my rebel-ness was not so bad compared to what kids these days are doing.

So Iva and I lived in the same area for a couple of years until one day, like a ton of bricks, the Ware family decided to move to Arizona.  The friend who I thought would be around forever was swept away from my life.  I thought for sure that I would not survive the rest of my life without her.

Little did I know that the little girl would stay in my heart forever.  That no matter how many years it's been since I've seen her face or hugged her neck (15 years), that she will always be my best friend.  I have had very few friends since those days that have come close to touching my life as much as Iva did.  I'm thankful for those friends, and hope that when they read this they don't think I love them any less.  There's enough room in my heart for all of you, and it would be so very awesome if I could just have all of you here with me at the same time for the rest of my life.  Oh, the stories you girls could tell!!!!

Here is my philosophy on why people come in and out of our lives.  I really feel that God places people that affect us in our lives at certain times for a reason.  I think it's because He knows that we need them right then, though we may never know why.  Some stay there forever, always available.  Some only stay a little while and move on, never to be heard from again.  Then there are those that will always be in our hearts, no matter how long they were around, or how long it's been.  Iva is one of those to me.  Thank God for social media, as it makes the miles between us only a measurement, and not a reality.

So today, on your Birthday, as you celebrate another year of catching up to me (I'm still 6 months older.  Geeesh...doesn't sound as cool as it used to), I want you to know that, as always, you are in my heart.  Even though we are almost a continent apart, the string that you tied around my soul must be made out of some really stretchy material, for it is always there, ready to lead me back to you the moment you need me, or I need you.

Good Times

This Explains Much, But Not Everything...

Or Actually: Where the Hell Did My Creativity Go?

I just completed an online quiz to figure out if I'm still more right-brained (creative) than left-brained (analytical).  The results:

Thank you for taking the Creativity Test. The results show your brain dominance as being:

Left Brain	Right Brain
40%	60%

You are more right-brained than left-brained. The right side of your brain controls the left side of your body. In addition to being known as right-brained, you are also known as a creative thinker who uses feeling and intuition to gather information. You retain this information through the use of images and patterns. You are able to visualize the "whole" picture first, and then work backwards to put the pieces together to create the "whole" picture. Your thought process can appear quite illogical and meandering. The problem-solving techniques that you use involve free association, which is often very innovative and creative. The routes taken to arrive at your conclusions are completely opposite to what a left-brained person would be accustomed. You probably find it easy to express yourself using art, dance, or music. Some occupations usually held by a right-brained person are forest ranger, athlete, beautician, actor/actress, craftsman, and artist.

(This is from: http://www.wherecreativitygoestoschool.com/vancouver/left_right/rb_test.htm)

I did this as a result of a conversation with Noah the other day about this feeling I get every now and then that my creativity is slipping away.  I'm not sure how to describe this feeling, except that, for some reason or another, I get an anxious ping in my mind that I need to be doing something creative.  I feel lacking in the fact that I don't have a project going on.  Sure, I could probably finish the multiple cross-stitch/sewing/crochet/etc etc projects that fill the side tables and storage boxes, but I never seem to keep the same motivation I had when I started.  I'm sure by now that Noah is positive that any new project I want to take on will fizzle out just like the rest.  I'm one of those people who get super excited about trying something new, only to find that I don't have the time to finish it, or that life gets in the way, and it's left forgotten with the rest of them.

So, I read a little further into the results of the test, and I found that my most dominant right brain trait is "Fantasy".  Hmm...yeah, that sounds about right.  It coincides beautifully with my least dominant left brain trait, "Reality".  So, if this test is correct, my brain is stuck in a fantasy world.  Nice.  Can the rest of me come along, too?

Peace

Veterans Day

Today, we celebrate Veterans and what they mean to us and our freedom.  I'm a Veteran.  I served my country for almost 9 years.  I saw three conflicts.  My life was turned upside down because of some crazy people who wanted to hurt this wonderful country of ours.  But I survived.  My family survived, and for that I am grateful to all of the men and women who fought alongside to defend our freedom.

So why is it that day to day, people forget that there are still so many that continue to fight for our freedom?  Why is it that only one (maybe two) days out of the year, does the country stand up as one (mostly) and say, "We remember, and we are grateful"?  I still cry when the National Anthem is sung.  I still cry when I hear Toby Keith's "American Soldier".  Maybe if everyone was a Veteran, we would have more people supporting the future Veterans.  The ones that are still out there, still standing watch.

To all of my current fellow Veterans, and to the future Veterans, I say a HUGE THANK YOU.  Without you, I wouldn't even be able to start this blog.  I wouldn't be able to choose my own destiny.  I owe my freedom to you.

On a lighter note, I just posted Noah's and my Boot Camp pictures on Facebook.  How young we were!  We hadn't met yet, but man, if we had, I would have known even then that he was something special.  I'll try to figure out how to post the pics on here.  Of course, I'm not even sure anyone else has even looked at this blog yet, but, when my blog is super famous (hey, I can dream, I have that right!), people will look back at the archives and say, "Man, those two are a couple of hotties!"

Cheers Everyone!

The Required First Post

Hello, Web World.  So I was thinking all week about starting a blog.  Should I commit to putting my random thoughts onto the WWW for people to read?  Well, I must have come to a decision, because here I am.  Who knew it would take half an hour just to figure out what to call this?  It's so final.  Like, make this decision now, even though you have no idea what you're going to talk about, so let's hope that the title matches what you wind up putting on the blog.  So, I chose Softly Meandering Muses.  Now, I can write about anything.

For my first post, I'm going to put a huge shout out on here for the wonderful husband that I have.  The 8th anniversary of our wonderful marriage is winding down as I write this, and I have to say, I'm having just as much fun as I did back then.  Sure, it's not a smooth road, but, if it was, I'd be bored.  So, Noah, when you read this, I hope you know that I love you with every bit of my being.

Okay, that's enough for tonight.  Don't want to go overboard on my first post.  I hope whoever decides to follow this enjoys it.

Goodnight, web.