The Shafferland Shuffle

I hope you remembered to change your clocks! If not, you're officially late! Come back to read later and GET UP!!!!

* Last Sunday was my last day of being apart from Ryan, and it proved to be the longest day EVER. I worked the cafe at church and he spoke at the retreat. I was so excited to go get him that I ended up getting ready an hour EARLY that afternoon! It was probably close to 8 that night before I got my  hug and kiss and I cried all the way through them both. SO happy to have him HOME!!!!!!!!

* Monday, Ryan took a vacation day, and we spent the WHOLE day together. I felt like I might be coming down with the flu: running a fever and feeling blah, but I tried not to let that kill our fun! We met my parents for lunch, relaxed with Braeya JoJo, watched TV, went for a walk on IWU's campus {they were on spring break so it was quiet and empty} and I did my weigh in for the next round of working out and learned I hit the 20 pound mark on weight loss! YAY!!

* Tuesday morning, I still wasn't feeling very well, so Braeya and I rested while Ryan went back to work. I felt much better as the day went on, and it was just BEAUTIFUL outside, so we went for a long walk after work! The yucky part of the day? Calling the sewer guys to clean out our lines. It was just time for our routine maintenance that we do every year or so. But I always feel weird when I have to call!

* We had noticed that this week the flu seems to have hit our county HARD. Some friends of ours got hit with it Wednesday, so I did a hydration run for them {and shared some oils as well}. So far we haven't gotten it, but I think we both fought it a bit this week! Ryan and Braeya kicked back to watch some videos that night, and I NEARLY died from my workout. This new one is brutal!!!

* Thursday would have been my cat Kaegan's 15th birthday. He died 5 years ago, and I still miss him! I spent the day cleaning up the house for a showing we had on Friday, and when I waterred the plant, I accidentally spilled some water. Before I could get back with a towel, Braeya had kicked into high cleaning gear. Kinda cracked me up! Know what else cracked me up? Face Timing with Ryan at lunch - the whole family!

* Friday turned out to be a chilly, but beautiful day, and when Ryan came home from work, we went for a walk through campus. I took some pictures to make some memories before we move! And while my picture turned out fuzzy, I was SO EXCITED to see the first real green buds on our lilac trees!! WELCOME, SPRING!!!! Please stay!

* Ryan and I went on a date last night - all dressed up! We went out for dinner, and after I saw this picture, I cracked up, because I thought he looked like Wilson from Home Improvement! LOL!! Dinner, coffee, time by the lake, YES PLEASE!

This Man

Podcast Tuesday!! He was back just in time for this week's Spill the Beans!

 Click here to listen.

Well, yesterday you read about my goodbye blues and how sad I was for Ryan to be gone for the weekend. But I must say that on the flip side of that, I am proud beyond words of what he did this weekend, how he obeyed the Lord, and how he allowed God to use him for HIS glory. For as much as I missed him {and that was a WHOLE LOT}, I did not want to stand in the way of ministry, and this weekend, Ryan poured out his heart and found his heart filled up, and I'm grateful.

Wanted to give you a few more glimpses of our weekend!

Sleeping apart is for the birds, but made the best of it. "Bed" selfies.

I sent Ryan pictures throughout the weekend to try to prove I was being a big girl and surviving well on the home front. I spent the day Friday keeping busy with a little road trip to visit friends.

And he returned the favor by sending me little glimpses of his handsome face - whenever he could.

SOMEONE cried for her dad THE ENTIRE WEEKEND.

Saturday I did all our chores and baked cookies to deliver to his retreat for the guys who attended. By the way, do you know how hard it is to bake 7 dozen cookies and only eat one??? {One cookie. Not one dozen cookies. Just to clarify.}

When I got home from cookie delivery, I read the fourth card he left for me, which made me cry all over again. Just call me Rudolph.

Sunday was the big day. On Sunday, he gave a presentation, and this is what we'd been praying over for weeks. He had prepared so very well, and I was a thousand percent confident that God would stand by his side and give him the strength he needed and that his words would bless those there.

I was praying from the moment I got up that morning, which was pretty early, since I had coffee duty at church. We normally serve together, but since he was gone, I took over his brewing job.

Note to self for future coffee duty days: don't wear a long sleeved shirt and a scarf if you're on brewing duty. I smelled pretty bad by the time I got home.

At the end of my shift, Ryan texted to say he was almost ready to speak, and I'm pretty sure Satan was hounding him, as tends to be the case whenever someone is about to do something pivotal for the Lord. So I put down my coffee cup and went into the prayer room at church, got on my knees at the altar and did some SERIOUS praying.

I prayed until I felt the Lord told me it was all under control, and then I went back to my job.

And a bit later, Ryan said it was done and God had given him a miracle by just immediately calming him, body and soul, and allowing him to speak well and completely.

And I just have to say: isn't he HANDSOME???

I am so proud of him for being brave to share his heart so vulnerably. I am proud of him for the incredible sacrifice of time, mental and spiritual investment, and full heart he gave that presentation and this weekend. I know God worked in and through him, I know it was one of those weekends he will always look back on as a stone in his {and our} spiritual altar, when God moved and broke down barriers and began new things.

That was worth every moment of missing him.

I scurried about the house Sunday afternoon, preparing it for his arrival home, and as wackadoodle as it sounds, I believe Braeya KNEW he was about to come home, because she sat down and rested all afternoon - for the first time since he left. Isn't it weird how animals just KNOW?

She also picked up her weird quirk again: she prefers for someone to watch her eat, and that's normally Ryan's job since her food dish is in his bathroom. I really don't think she'd eaten much all weekend because no one was there to watch her. But she cried until I watched her on Sunday, and she ate and ate and ate.

{That's her looking away from her bowl to make sure I'm still there.}

And then it was time to go get him!!!

That cup should say "Smile, your husband is coming home!"

I know it will surprise you to know I cried when I got to hug him.

Reunited: really does feel SO GOOD.

And someone else was pretty happy to see him too.

Ryan, I'm so proud of you for the man you are. Thank you for being such an obedient servant this weekend. I missed you, but I'm grateful for what you did.

And oh!!

WELCOME HOME!!!!!!

The Goodbye Blues

So I mentioned this a little bit on the Shuffle yesterday, but we just survived our third-ever-in-marriage separation. You guys, I make the worst weekend widow ever. I am such a sap. I have to make myself busy so I don't think about him being gone...you know, like how parents distract toddlers so they don't realize what they're missing? Yeah. I'm the parent AND the toddler. Ridiculous.

Earlier this year, Ryan was invited to work at a men's retreat, and while he's been asked to do this multiple times since we've been married, this was the first time he felt really compelled by the Lord that this is where he needed to be. Right now. So he said yes, and for the last two months, we've been praying over this weekend and anticipating it with joy {for what God was going to do} and great sadness {because being apart is not something EITHER of us like to do}. I spent a lot of Saturdays home alone while he went to meetings and made his preparations, and this past Thursday, the day came. The day of goodbye.

I hate goodbye day. It's the worst. I always survive the rest of the separation so much better than I survive goodbye day.

Ryan had the day off work, and we got to spend the morning together, drinking coffee {because of course} and eating breakfast...and packing. And right about then, Braeya JoJo figured out something was up, and OHHHHHHHHHHHH what I endured the rest of the weekend. {A sampling of her thoughts on the matter as reflected in this photo.}

She is a Daddy's girl through and through, and after I got home from dropping him off, I discovered she had thrown up twice, and she cried and cried and cried the rest of the weekend. Mournful little soul.

But anyway. Back to the humans.

We set out a little before lunch to get Ryan all settled in at his bunk.

Come on, Shaffers. You can be braver than that.

The retreat was just up in northern Indiana, but it was quite snowy up there. Beautiful!!!!

It was really important that I kept my composure as best I could {HA!!!} throughout this day because I really did know and understand that he was doing a good, God-appointed task and I wanted to be supportive. But let's just call a spade a spade here, shall we? I don't do composure well. And we've established I am NOT a pretty crier.  So I tried. I really did.

As we walked through one of the buildings, I saw this softball and I made Ryan take this picture. It became my phone wallpaper all weekend and I kept chanting the line from A League of Their Own...."There's no crying in baseball!"  I would say to myself over and over, "Baseball, baseball, baseball, baseball."

Our dear lake. Not really the day for a spin in the boat, but still such a comforting place to the soul:

We had a couple of hours to spare, so we went to a little coffee shop {we actually visited it last summer when we were at the lake} and hung out by the fire for a couple of hours:

And then it really WAS time to say goodbye.

This was the tame cry before the ugly cry commenced:

And he was gone. I drove home in the dark, the snow, and the blinding tears, and arrived all in one piece, which was kind of a post-Christmas miracle.




And don't you just know that my wonderful husband had hidden cards for me ALL around the house. I gathered them all up and cried just looking at them.

And with that, I took my near-migaine-level {from crying} headached self to chair. {Not to bed. I can't bring myself to go to bed when he's gone.}

And Braeya and I cried ourselves into exhaustion.

Goodbyes are hard. No fun. But my one comfort was knowing he was right where God wanted him to be. And that in only three more sleeps, he would be home.

The Shafferland Shuffle

* I already mentioned it somewhat, but last Sunday we took a true day of rest at home - especially to try to allow Ryan to get better from this sinus infection that we discovered he's been fighting for a full three months. He's just worn out and needed a day on Mo. I scrapbooked, he rested, we watched our church service online, and that night, we recorded our podcast, with the help of a furry friend we know.

* Monday, Ryan must still not have been done resting because he ended up taking a nap before he ever went to work! {Been there, done that!!!} That night we went out on an impromptu coffee/house dreaming date, where Ryan decided to try out tubs in Lowe's. Crack. Me. Up.

* March came in on Tuesday with the most GORGEOUS sunrise! I loved it!! But it was short-lived, as the rest of the day was rainy and cold, and even a little big snowy! I had the opportunity, that afternoon, to help a friend's mom paint a wall in her living room. She's trying to list her house and had run out of time to get the painting done, so I donned my paint clothes and dug in; thoroughly enjoyed that!

* We celebrated 39 months of marriage on Wednesday, and Ryan brought me a GORGEOUS bouquet of flowers as part of that celebration. We also went out for a coffee date that night - at a little coffee shop in town that we had a gift card to - and they do fancy pants latte art! Sweet! This was also the day I  noticed the first signs of spring in our yard. YAY!!!!!!!!!

* Thursday....oh Thursday. It was the day I'd been kind of dreading for a while. For months now, Ryan has been preparing to work on staff at a retreat, and this was the weekend. Thursday was when we had to say goodbye, and it was BRUTAL. He had the whole day off work, and after we got all his stuff settled into his room, we got to spend part of the day together, just relaxing at a coffee shop and looking at the lake. And then, well, I guess the best way to say it is that I cried until I almost gave myself a migraine level headache. Such. A. Sap.

* I'd made plans to keep myself VERY busy on Friday, which included a little day trip to see friends, lunch, coffee, dinner, much laughter, much talking, much joy to my heart. Though I still missed Ryan TERRIBLY, I was glad I'd made myself so busy so I didn't sit around and wallow. And I was grateful for a good weather day to do my traveling. Before the day was out, I did get about a two minute phone call from Ryan, and it was so good to hear his voice!!

* Yesterday was my last day without Ryan, and it was a busy - and full - day! Lots of chores, including baking 7 dozen chocolate chip cookies to deliver to his retreat for him to share with the men. He sent me a couple of pictures throughout the day, which along with the notes he hid for me at home, got me through the day. Last night I got all dressed up and went to help with one of the retreat events, which meant I could see him - kind of - from a distance, so I wanted to look cute! Excited for how great his weekend has been and excited to have him BACK HOME.

Shafferland Shuffle

* Last Sunday, as you now know, was the day Ryan headed out for his whitewater rafting trip with the guys. I tried SO HARD to be brave, but that pretty much failed by 8:30 in the morning. We enjoyed a coffee date in the cafe area before church, and then we sat together in church before I drove Ryan to Kokomo to drop him off for his trip. He and his friend Shawn {and six other guys} headed to West Virginia and were kind to send me pictures along the way, which so greatly helped. I headed to the home of one of my blognonymous friends who was sweet enough to occupy me for the day. May I add that sand is GREATLY therapeutic??

* Monday was our first full day of our married life to not see each other. And surprisingly, I handled it better than I thought I might. Ryan was a sweetheart and got up SUPER early to call me before I got ready for work, and he sent me tons of pictures and videos throughout the day. The only anxious time was waiting for him to be done with the actual rafting trip. When I got the thumbs up picture, I had a HUGE smile on my face. He had a blast, and after rafting, they went for a hike through some gorgeous country!! I kept busy at work and had dinner with one of my friends that night!

* Tuesday was t.h.e.  l.o.n.g.e.s.t.   d.a.y.   e.v.e.r. Seriously EVER. Ryan wasn't done adventuring yet. Tuesday was ziplining day! Treetops, cable bridges, cold sweats for this wife. :) He had a blast and then got in the car for the 8 hour drive back to me! I had dinner with my friend Lynn that evening, and as soon as I left her house, I sped {possibly literally} to Kokomo for the sweetest reunion!

* Ryan and I both took Wednesday off work - and it rained LIKE CRAZY the entire day, so it was pretty much the perfect day to be home! We got to sleep in and watch a LOT of TV and movies and just rest. We did venture out a couple of times for quick errands. The rain was CRAZY! {When you're under two awnings and it's still pouring on you, it's really raining.} After being angry with me for Ryan's absence, Braeya finally forgave me and sat on my lap for a while. RARE!

* Thursday morning it was back to work for us...sadly in the dark. Our cheery summer mornings have waned. :( After work, we went to Buffalo Wild Wings for an early date night dinner, and then we came home to watch The Biggest Loser. I realize those last two things don't really match, but we did them anyway.

* This coming week, I'll be doing my very first solo-hosting of Mid-Morning {more about that tomorrow} and it was so strange to see my name entered in online for that first show!! That afternoon, some of us from the station went to set up for the Beth Moore Living Proof Life simulcast! We've been looking forward to this event all year and I was so excited that it was time to set up our booth!!

* Saturday morning I had to get up even earlier than normal to drive to Fort Wayne for the simulcast! It was so amazing to see that arena filled with so many women praising God and soaking up what He had for them to learn! It was a long, long day, but so wonderful in absolutely every way. I am still soaking up what I learned. Ryan spent the day working hard at home while I was gone; man I am thankful for all he does to help when I have a long work-week!