$41 of stripe-d gloriousness: WHY I SHOP AT THRIFT STORES

A few weeks ago I gave mention to a new chair that I bought. And yes, buy a new chair I did.

I now have a green lether love seat/couch, a orange fuzzycozy chair and a sage vinyl/leathery green chair, along with this new striped chair and ottoman in my room. I think I have the genetic "we cool collect things, especially furniture that we don't really need, but want gene" that my Kiss family possesses. Oh darn...
But all is well. Because the total cost of all this furniture? $46 dollars. The couch was (and technically still is) my moms. The green chair was $5 at Savers, and orange chair was free and the striped chair? Well that is what this post is about, my dear friends....

About 3 weeks ago my mom and I were out doing some thrifting. We stopped in at a new Salvation Army. Generally, I don't like the Salvation Army. The one closest to me is sort of in a sketch location and it is like...dark and dirty. Not my favorite. I am more of a Savers, and sometimes Goodwill type of girl. But this new one was pristine and smelled like cleaning products. Good sign.

I told my mom I wasn't buying anything. She was. I was just wandering. Until I wandered into the furniture section, found a fantastic chair and ottoman, sat down in it, fell in love, and then went and got my mother.


"Mom, talk me out of it. Tell me I do not need a striped circusy chair. Tell me I have enough chairs. Tell me I don't have room for it. Tell me that, even though it is one of a kind and $50, that I don't need it."
"No! I love it! If you don't buy it, then I will!!!"
"...Thanks for the help, mom...."

I'm telling you, I bear the Kiss-curse. And I am beginning to be okay with it.

Long story short, I talked to the manager guy about my $50 chair.
He said "Are you a college student?"
"Yup!"
"Do you have an ID?"
I didn't have it on me. I am on break and my ID was in my abandoned backpack at home.
"That's fine. I can tell you are a college student. You get 25% off!"

So my beautiful, one of a kind, circus chair and ottoman came to a total of $41 and went out into my durango to come home with me. After careful analysis we concluded that the chair itself is older and someone had paid to recover it in the striped fabric. It is lovely, clean, flawless, and doesn't smell a bit (for those of you who might be worried by used furniture). As far as I can tell it was never even sat on once recovered. My guess is someone dropped it off, but never came to pick it up from the re-upholstery place. Pity for them. Win for me.

Before I drove home I texted a picture to JoJo (who, by the way, is fully supportive of my thrift shopping. Praise God, I can live a happy life!) : "Um...I hope you like striped chairs. Because I just added one to my furniture collection. But only like 40 bucks...."
His response: "Bella, you are silly, I love you, the end."

Boom, here we go uhgaiinnn...

Me, JoJo's mama and two little sisters are taking a plane trip.

McChord Air Force Base/Airman Tonski, here we come.

In just a little over a month I will be seeing my JoJo again! This will be my first time going to where HE is. This will be my first time on an Air Force base. This will be my first time in the big, beautiful state of Washington. And I am so, so, so excited.

Let the count-downing begin!


**positive thing... 238...(yes, I did just make up that number) about long distance relationships: being able to make little countdown widgets and get yourself all excited days/months in advance!


SIDE NOTE:  Due to unfortunate flight booking circumstances, will be my first time flying alone. The four of us leave the same place at the same time, and get there within an hour of each other, but I wound up on a plane by myself. I have flow many, many, many times, to many, many world locations, but never all by me onesie. Little apprehensive about the quick flight change I have to make in Chicago. So...pray for me.

"When you're in over your head, I'll be there with you. "

Isaiah 43 is one of my all time favorite bible passages.
This is the passage I read over and over again when JoJo went off to boot camp.
This is the passage I cling to when I am overwhelmed and uncertain.
Verse five is on an orange index card hanging next to my bed. It was the first thing I saw this morning. "FEAR NOT, FOR I AM WITH YOU."

I need to know it especially now, just like I need to know it always.
I am between rocks and hard places, as well as several other uncomfortable, scary locations.
But I have been bought with the highest price. I have been called and redeemed. 
I am made to know that He is I AM and who He is.
I am chosen. I will not fear.

Bit of a long passage, but...ladies and gentlemen...

Isaiah 43

The Message (MSG)

When You're Between a Rock and a Hard Place

 ^1-4 But now, God's Message, the God who made you in the first place, Jacob,
   the One who got you started, Israel:
"Don't be afraid, I've redeemed you.
   I've called your name. You're mine.
When you're in over your head, I'll be there with you.
   When you're in rough waters, you will not go down.
When you're between a rock and a hard place,
   it won't be a dead end—
Because I am God, your personal God,
   The Holy of Israel, your Savior.
I paid a huge price for you:
   all of Egypt, with rich Cush and Seba thrown in!
That's how much you mean to me!
   That's how much I love you!
I'd sell off the whole world to get you back,
   trade the creation just for you. 

  ^5-7"So don't be afraid: I'm with you.
   I'll round up all your scattered children,
   pull them in from east and west.
I'll send orders north and south:
   'Send them back.
Return my sons from distant lands,
   my daughters from faraway places.
I want them back, every last one who bears my name,
   every man, woman, and child
Whom I created for my glory,
   yes, personally formed and made each one.'"
 ^8-13Get the blind and deaf out here and ready—
   the blind (though there's nothing wrong with their eyes)
   and the deaf (though there's nothing wrong with their ears).
Then get the other nations out here and ready.
   Let's see what they have to say about this,
   how they account for what's happened.
Let them present their expert witnesses
   and make their case;
   let them try to convince us what they say is true.
"But you are my witnesses." God's Decree.
   "You're my handpicked servant
So that you'll come to know and trust me,
   understand both that I AM and who I am.
Previous to me there was no such thing as a god,
   nor will there be after me.
I, yes I, am God.
   I'm the only Savior there is.
I spoke, I saved, I told you what existed
   long before these upstart gods appeared on the scene.
And you know it, you're my witnesses,
   you're the evidence." God's Decree.
"Yes, I am God.
   I've always been God
   and I always will be God.
No one can take anything from me.
   I make; who can unmake it?"

You Didn't Even Do the Minimum

 ^14-15God, your Redeemer,
   The Holy of Israel, says:
"Just for you, I will march on Babylon.
   I'll turn the tables on the Babylonians.
Instead of whooping it up,
   they'll be wailing.
I am God, your Holy One,
   Creator of Israel, your King."  ^16-21This is what God says,
   the God who builds a road right through the ocean,
   who carves a path through pounding waves,
The God who summons horses and chariots and armies—
   they lie down and then can't get up;
   they're snuffed out like so many candles:
"Forget about what's happened;
   don't keep going over old history.
Be alert, be present. I'm about to do something brand-new.
   It's bursting out! Don't you see it?
There it is! I'm making a road through the desert,
   rivers in the badlands.
Wild animals will say 'Thank you!'
   —the coyotes and the buzzards—
Because I provided water in the desert,
   rivers through the sun-baked earth,
Drinking water for the people I chose,
   the people I made especially for myself,
   a people custom-made to praise me.
 ^22-24"But you didn't pay a bit of attention to me, Jacob.
   You so quickly tired of me, Israel.
You wouldn't even bring sheep for offerings in worship.
   You couldn't be bothered with sacrifices.
It wasn't that I asked that much from you.
   I didn't expect expensive presents.
But you didn't even do the minimum—
   so stingy with me, so closefisted.
Yet you haven't been stingy with your sins.
   You've been plenty generous with them—and I'm fed up.
 ²⁵"But I, yes I, am the one
   who takes care of your sins—that's what I do.
   I don't keep a list of your sins.
 ^26-28"So, make your case against me. Let's have this out.
   Make your arguments. Prove you're in the right.
Your original ancestor started the sinning,
   and everyone since has joined in.
That's why I had to disqualify the Temple leaders,
   repudiate Jacob and discredit Israel."

Little Sweden

On Friday I went to Little Sweden with two lovely ladies.

When I say "Little Sweden," I mean IKEA. And when I say lovey ladies I mean M and B. (They have full names, but those are not important...). M is JoJo's...cousin...in ...law...or something? And B is M's best friend. She is bound by no laws.

We drank soda made out of mythical berries, squished lots of pillows and made up several dance moves throughout the day.

 2 words: LINGON. BERRY. 

3rd word: SODA.

Response: OH HECK YES.

 I loved these pillows, but they felt like they were stuff with....swedish elephant dung. 

All lumpy and gross!

 If the chair matches your tights, you probably should buy it

(but I didn't. But good thing too. Posts to come on the chair I bought the next day!)

 I tell them to look natural and this is what they do?

At the end of the day I spent only $20 (couple little glass jars, some orange storage boxes, and a small rug), but had lots of fun. I shall visit Sweden again soon.

Most Christmas songs don't make me cry but...

...This one, as of lately, does. I have to quickly skip the track on the CD before the recordings of the military members serving in Iraq and their family at home start playing. This song has nothing to do with Jesus birth and it is usually not one of my favorites, but the way that this version in cooperates the military is beautiful.



JoJo is only in Washington state and hasn't yet deployed, but... still.
I'll be home for Christmas, but he won't and it is...hard. I would like to hope for next year but...who knows where either of us will be. That is sort of a difficult way to have to live life, but, as always, it is so worth it. For right now I am just making the best with what we've got and counting the days until we (his mom, 2 sisters and I) fly out in February!

Though they never thought it was possible...

Sometimes it is scary how alike JoJo and I are, especially in the way we think and in our absolutely bizarre sense of humor...

During our mini-photoshoot my mother says something along the lines of "You need to stand up straight!"

Seeing as she directed her comment at neither of us in particular, we both stood up straighter. And I mean straight to the extreme, complete with shoulders yanked up awkwardly, necks extra extended, eye brows up, and weird faces to match. At the exact same time.We didn't coordinate or pose this. We both happen to be odd enough that this is what we thought "stand up straight" should be acted out as. This is simply how our minds work.

A moment later, after capturing this shot,  my mother goes  
"...I cannot believe there are somehow 
two of you in the world..."

And she is right. My whole life I never imagined anyone could be as strange as me. Ask anyone who knows me at all, and they will tell you, I am pretty...unique. But JoJo somehow is as strange (and/or sometimes strange-er), and it is utterly perfect.

Bolton Notch "Flag Rock" Hike

Around where I live there is a highway. And over, off to the side of that highway is a park/hiking area. A large rock formation there is kind of a local symbol. Shortly after 9/11 someone went up there, to the well grafittied cliff area, and spray painted a massive American flag where it can clearly be seen from the highway route. It's pretty cool.

When JoJo was home, he and I hiked up there (with the intention of adding to the graffiti, but the local hardware store was closed). Normally it is a quick, easy, like 15 minute hike up the trail that leads to the rocks, but due to the snow storm and a lot of downed trees it became more of a wild, slippery, bush wacking type hike. Interesting indeed.

  *photo source*

I hauled my camera, remote, and tripod up through the snow so we could take some pictures amongst the rocks, foliage, and graffiti. That too turned into an interesting experience, but I did get a couple of good shots. Playing photographer and photo subject on rocky terrain isn't as easy as it sounds, folks.

*JoJo gets photo credit here, as I was still setting up.

JoJo makes a lot of fantastic faces (as do I, as you may know).
I term this one the "I'm Horribly Polish and Sarcastic but still Awfully Cute" face. Facial expressions such as these run in his Polish family.

Apparently we can't look at each other and be serious...which isn't really a problem, as we like laughing.

Besides being cute, I really enjoy these pictures. I was going to edit out the black graffitti behind our legs (just distracting, not bad), but as I was looking at it closer I realized it says "Adrean- San Antonio, TX". Now I don't know any Andreans, but I know I sure addressed a lot letters headed to Lackland AFB in San Antonio, TX during JoJo's months of BMT ("boot camp"). That strange coincidence made me smile, so I left the graffiti there.

View of the highway, lake and trees below.

Since we wound up lacking in spray paint (and by the way, were this a building or location of grand importance, I would NEVER spray paint it. But this rock's main purpose is to be graffited. And its only a rock. I don't think its really vandalism in this case...) we improvised. 

Obviously, the next best thing to spray painting your names some place is doing it old school and carving them somewhere. And seeing as this was a life long dream of mine, I wouldn't allow us to miss his opportunity.

At times like these, I am very glad he always has a knife in his pocket.
Names carved in a tree.
(another check on my "things to do before the end of forever" list. and yes, I do have one written out. And yes, it is called that.)

We would have hiked around more, but the fallen snow and trees made it a little bit treaturous. But I am glad we got to at least do a little bit of woodland exploration. I cannot wait to get out to Tacoma to see him and get some REAL hiking and outdoorsy stuff done there!

STILL more pictures of my time with JoJo to come! Hopefully you all aren't sick of us yet! If somehow you are, just humor me, its a once every few months experience and I cherish the time I get to spend with him.