Thank You Jen!

I have written often of Jen V. - we met in 1999 at Randolph Air Force base in San Anontio, Texas, both volunteers with a bunch of other cool gals for a committee putting together a city-wide dinner for generals and junior officers.  Jen is full of life, full of laughter, and fearless about saying what is on her mind.  Flash forward a couple years and now we share a passion for jewelry making too.

Jen told me often, YOU NEED A BLOG, but I stalled for a number of reasons - lack of time, not sure what I was getting myself into, etc, etc.  But I so wanted to participate in Lori A.'s Bead Soup Party, and needed a blog to participate, so the Beads for Busy Gals blog was established.  It started with a post here, and a post there, and now you CAN'T SHUT ME UP.  Seriously.  I am like that shy friend that has a couple glasses of wine and now you can't get me to go home at the end of the party.  Where is this coming from? 

Pondering this made me remember the weekly e-mails I sent home while I was deployed to Iraq for a year.  I am not sure how I arrived at the weekly e-mail plan, but after my first week I sat down and wrote about my crazy trip to get there, the initial impressions of the base (brown and dusty) and the people (awesome) and included pictures. Week after week I would look forward to putting together the e-mails because it meant I was one week closer to going home.  It started with friends and family, and over time my address list grew.  When I got home all sorts of people suggested putting all of the e-mails together into a book, but making up for lost time with family, and the start of a new job, pushed the project further down the to do list. 

Unbeknownst to me, my husband Greg worked hours and hours last December to put all of the e-mails and pictures, plus a few extras, into a beautiful, coffee table quality book he gave me for Christmas.  It's amazing and I immediately burst into tears when I opened it.  If I hadn't, the fact that he also presented a book to my Mom would have definitely done it.  He used Blurb, a self publishing web site, and here is a look at the front cover: