NJ Visit - 3

Last part, I promise!!

Sunday we got up early and went to mass. Some family flew out and couldn't be there, but most of us made it. The church we went to we have been going to for decades. It was the church I was baptized in 24 years ago and probably even my mom was baptized in! It goes way back. So during mass the priest did a special blessing on Babci and Poppy and all their friends and family got to celebrate and acknowledge their 65 years together. My uncle colorized their wedding portrait and had it displayed in the house, and of course we got plenty of pictures of the happy couple together.

After Mass

After church we went to the Holiday Inn and had a huge family brunch together. We pretty much took over the entire restaurant!

Speech!

The cake made by my mom's cousin, a baker!

Cutting the cake

 Sunday we spent saying goodbye to more family and spending time with Babci and Poppy. We also got to see my other two brothers who live in town. We left Monday much later than we planned, but we knew we had to leave early or late to miss traffic.... and late won out! We said our goodbyes and left NJ around 3pm. We hit DC in time for rush hour to Ryan ok'd a stop in Alexandria!!! I was so excited! We went to our old apartment and had dinner with our neighbor Adam (he said it made his Monday) and even saw Carrie. Rylie loved running around and everyone was shocked by how big she got! I believe Adam compared her to a baby polar bear.... :P

On our old stoop. Some things never change.

 We got on the road VERY late after that... around 10:30pm with six hours to go! Oops. I told Ryan I was fine to keep driving so he could sleep and drive later. Well the last hour of my drive was torture. I felt myself getting tired and chugged my diet coke and opened the windows. Ryan told me to wake him when I got tired but I didn't want him to be too sleepy to drive either. I made it another three hours into North Carolina before I gave up around 1:30am. I drove from NJ to VA and then to NC... I was done! I passed out in the car and woke up three hours later in our driveway at 4:30am.

Tuesday we just were lazy bums and tried to sleep and watch Doctor Who on the couch.

Amazing vacation if I do say so myself!

You know you're a blonde when...

You know you are a blonde when...

- You somehow made yourself exempt from federal taxes and now owe the government a lot of money.

- This happens the month before you buy a house.

- The one time you almost curse out loud at work since you are crying about said taxes and there is a small child in the lobby.

- When the leasing lady asks you what unit you live in so maintenance can fix your leaky radiator you forget for a moment. It's only your address. No big deal.

- You get two blocks into your walk with your puppy before realizing your sneakers are on the wrong feet.

- You take a different route on your walk through Old Town, get turned around, and head in the opposite direction of home for a few blocks before you realize your mistake.

and last but not least...

- You know you're a blonde when all of the above happens in the last five hours prior to writing this blog post.



But the good of today... and yes it involves blondeness... is that my no heat curls worked!!!


This morning


Two hours ago


Tutorial here but learned from my neighbor Carrie long before I found it online.


Sigh. Off to work on my mortgage application. Then this girl is getting a drink!

Snake on a ... Wall??

Last night Ryan went shooting with one of our neighbors. When he and Mike got back Mike's wife Courtney came out with their son Liam and we all sat outside enjoying the beautiful evening and a beer. I was sitting on a blanket with Courtney when we notice the guys are staring up at a second story window on the side of the building.

We asked them what they were looking at and they quickly said, "Nothing nothing." So Courtney and I get curious and may have even yelled at them slightly, asking if they were being perverted. They said they weren't. I got up and walked around the tree and looked up and saw this....



And looking closer... a snake!



I ran in and got my camera to get this better look. From afar snakes don't bother me. I am waaaay more afraid of bees/wasps/hornets/stinging things/jellyfish than I am of snakes.




He was really long!!!! The guys thought it was a King Snake but now they are not so sure....



Ryan took this one, he was proud of the curl it had going!



Now this is why they are unsure... the colors on the bottom. We thought King Snakes were all black but maybe not?



He was crawling around in the grout of the brick!



Even in a stair case pattern!!!!!



Courtney wasn't too happy it was coming back down.



Ryan went closer and got these. Snakes don't really bother me, but I am not about to walk right up to it and flash a bright light in its eyes!! My husband can do that.



Worked well though, the snake was quite photogenic! Especially considering some guy walked by and asked us if it was our pet. Why in the world would we have a pet snake that we let loose on the building?!



Still, how often do you get a shot like that?

I guess that is what we get for living so close to the river! I can tell you this though.... our windows will be closed for awhile. I am ok with it outside, but if it got in the apartment I wouldn't be so calm!!!

Ryan is working late (hooray parades) and I am going to hang out with my friend (and bridesmaid) Cat. It has been way too long since we have hung out! Then Ryan heads to SC tomorrow. I'll miss the bugger! Its been ages since I've had to deal with him not being around. Not complaining at all, I know a long weekend is nothing, but it will be weird not having him around! The past year we really haven't encountered that and I got pretty spoiled. I got to get used to it. School is approaching and he will be off to school 3,000 miles away for six months. Then I know deployments will follow. Back to the grind indeed....

Surprises!

So I had a pretty long day today. Ryan left for the Iwo parade at 5:30, I woke up less than an hour later and got ready. Drove to work. Work all day with typical camp drama and lots of six year olds. I even worked OT (Over Time) today, so I was at camp three hours longer. Worth $30? Maybe. I am trying to save up to go home August 20th to surprise my Poppy for his 88th birthday so every bit helps! It wasn't too bad, just a long day.

Then I am driving home. I even took the beltway as it was post rush hour! Ryan texts me and asks me to go to Bolling to get him a 6-pack, he needed it after a parade day so I had no problem. I tried to use my GPS to get there faster instead of driving home and then going and I ended up all sorts of turned around. Not good. But I get what I need at the Class 6, crack and grab Burger King (ew I know) on base, and go home. I have my backpack, dinner, two bags, my drink, and my phone in my hand when I walk in the door. Or stagger depending on how you look at it. I throw my stuff down and flip on the light and see this...



A DESK! (Don't mind the dark awful quality of my cell phone picture)

My husband somehow between 5:30 and 8:00 and a PARADE went out, got a desk, got it in the apartment, and all set up! He was telling me he worked all day, only got half an hour comp time to come home and eat before the parade, and he somehow did this! I literally gasped and cried out, "We have a desk!!" before I tripped over my backpack and literally ate some of our Turkish Rug.

Still happy. Despite the rug burn. I cannot wait to tackle him in appreciation when he walks through the door!

Nineteen...

At the barracks again, doing some laundry and abusing internet access... but we should be getting it this week hopefully!!!!

So you're probably wondering, why nineteen? Well, I'll tell you!

Josh, Ryan's best friend, and his girlfriend Richie are staying with us for a few days since she is in from Louisiana. It has been great, we share the cooking responsibilities, play Battle of the Sexes and Scrabble, and last night went for a long walk along the river. Aside from the mosquitoes it was great. So this morning Josh and Ryan go off to work and Richie and I go back to sleep. We send the men off at 0630 or so and pass out til 9 or so like normal people! :P

The guys text us asking if we want to meet them at the barracks for lunch at 11. So we get dressed and I grab the laundry and we head out to the parking lot of my building. Josh and Ryan took Ryan's car to work so we had either my car or Josh's truck. Richie wanted to take the truck since Josh has the DOD sticker so we walked down to his car and see a police car hanging around nearby. We walk around and as I stand at the passenger side to be let in I notice Josh doesn't have a window...

Yep, the truck was broken into. So the cop comes over and talks to us, turns out between 1am and 5am nineteen cars along the back row of the parking lot were broken into. NINETEEN!! Luckily nothing was really stolen from Josh's car, except for the Marine Corps Marriage PREP class certificate of completion from the class the four of us took last week. Why they stole that, we have no idea...

Strange thing, my car was in that row and left alone. Sure my car is an old POS thing but it isn't that bad! A 97 taurus! Ryan's apparently was fine as well, since he and Josh went to work this morning without a hitch. Apparently three cars, including Josh's, were just broken into with nothing stolen, another girl was saying her cash was left but a bag of Budweiser tshirts were taken, and her GPS charger but not her GPS itself.

Weird?

Anyway, that is the story of nineteen for now. I am going to wait for the laundry to finish up and maybe Richie and I will do something productive til the guys get home from work. We went to the zoo yesterday but its rainy today so we'll have to think of something.

Ryan and I may go to Virginia Beach this weekend for Memorial Day and I am SO excited! Fingers crossed it actually happens!

Still no internet...

And I am surviving, even if my poor blog is not!

I'M STILL HERE!

Ryan and I are doing pretty well without it in general. We talk, these wonderful deep talks that go from our living room couch to smoking on the curb to lying in bed. I love them. We play Scrabble and Rummy (which I kicked his butt in!!! 485 to 175!). On Sundays we started our first tradition, post church we pack up the three dollar picnic basket I got and go to the park down the street.

This week it was extra awesome because we could see the Blue Angels flying over Andrews Air Force Base across the river! We ate, climbed on rocks, and walked along the river. All within a short distance of our apartment. Then we went and explored King Street, just walked up and down, lounged by the fountain at the Court House, I got lost in the book store, it was wonderful.

We watch movies, DVDS, quite often. I make dinner and we sit at the table and just talk about our days before he helps me clean up. I am proud of myself for the cooking so far, meatloaf, pasta, chicken fried steak, pierogies... not too shabby if I do say so myself!!!

I love being with him. I love that on Sundays, what used to be the worst day of the week since I always had to say goodbye to him, we have our picnic tradition. I love waking up with him (even at 4am to kick his butt out the door) and falling asleep with him (even if only moments before he spilled red wine all over me as we fell asleep on the couch during Ocean's Twelve). I love making dinner and sharing it with him. I love being married to my husband!

I've started training for work at the summer camp. Due to privacy rules I will not write about the camp or campers, but I am excited to start next month. Even with the hour or so commute in the mornings to get me there for 8am!!!

We also did the marriage Marine Corps PREP class today. It was actually pretty helpful, it is about strengthening your relationship and fair fighting and I think it will be good for us and our silly bickerings. The chaplain and FRO ran it, and it lasted about five or six hours with an hour for lunch. I was just happy to spend a week day with my husband!!!!

<3

The Apartment

Alright, I cannot find my camera USB thing so I used the pictures from my cellphone that I took and Ryan sent me. So excuse the quality and hopefully soon I can post real good ones!!!

This is out front door. And the only real picture not from a cellphone. I picked up Danielle, Sam's (my maid of honor) little sister at American University and she took this with her amazing camera for us. I love that the two of us have gotten closer lately, I consider her a friend now too, not just my best friend's little sister. Anyway we took this right before we left on Monday. As you can see it is a lovely old brick building. We live on the first floor. We have a neighbor next to us and two above us. We met some people from the next building and so far everyone seems so friendly. I really love it. The neighborhood is AMAZING, lots within walking distance, and the metro bus stop is literally 20 feet from our front door! I love it love it love it.

Now this is our living room. The furniture was in my den for ages and with my parents moving next year they let us have that. We got two chairs, a couch, a coffee table, an end table and our dining room table from my house. The first picture is right from we moved in. I love the hardwood floors and how the sun just streams in the big windows. There is great old molding over the doorways and it is just stunning.

This picture Ryan took and sent me today. The rug is new. When we were driving down the street I saw a sign that said RUGS 25-75% OFF STORE CLOSING! So we slammed on the brakes and went in. I was so glad we did. Ryan told me about how he got a Turkish rug in the market in Al Asad in Iraq (that rug is now in the hall between our bedroom and bathroom). But I loved hearing him talk about how they sat with the owner and drank tea and bartered. Well it turns out the owners were froma Afghanistan and had moved here about 30 years ago when the Russians invaded. We even were offered tea! It was a huge mug of hot sweet green tea and quite good, but I feel like I got to share an experience with Ryan he was familiar with and it was just special. We got a rug for the living room, as you can see, and the dining room, bedroom, and front hall. Nearly $10,000 worth of rugs from India, Pakistan, Afghanistan... and we got them for $2,600! It was like buying one rug and getting three free!

I let Ryan barter and do his thing. I did math on my phone and wrote things down and tried to help, but he was in his element. I helped pick out the colors and patterns though! As the men talked business the owner came up to me with a beautiful necklace in one and and a gorgeous bracelet in the other. He said they were made of lapis from Afghanistan and I was very patient, so I could have one. I took the bracelet... and it is gorgeous!

Now this is our dining room. We actually have a dining room!!! It isn't a typical apartment with a huge living room/dining room/common area room, but all separate rooms. It isn't big, but it fits the table and chairs, and our rug! The rug is a tad smaller than the table but the coloring is gorgeous and it still works wonders. You can see our lovely AC unit too. It works! We got so hot moving we left it on for awhile and when we got back the apartment was freezing! So maybe we will be set for the summer after all!

A quick peek at our bathroom. When we registered for brown and blue for the curtain and towels and such we had no idea our bathroom would be black and white tile. Ah well. It still works somehow! The tub has a curtain rod that goes all the way around the one side and the far end, so our curtain is a tad short but no water escapes!

Here is the kitchen. A tad small but we have enough room! There is a pantry off to the side you can't see, but we have a gas stove! Excited about that. My mom and I will roast marshmallows on ours in the winter and I cannot wait to do that with Ryan. We also have our microwave on top of the fridge, like the lady before us did apparently. When Ryan visited he saw it and got the idea. We have blue accents, dark blue plates and bowls and all that, so the dish towels and oven mitts are that dark blue too.

And since we are a little short on counter space we got some more at Target. My handy fiance built those little beauties and sent me the finished result today. We have so many appliances, the blender, the George Foreman, food processor, toaster oven, microwave, crock pot... it is amazing if we find the room to put it all!!! But we are getting there. Ryan is quite the handyman and he is great at making use of space. The two of us have a lot of similar ideas and when I give him an idea or suggestion he can see how to make it practical. Target and IKEA have been a big help to us in that department too! Ryan also built the tv stand, shelves for the bathroom, and the best thing ever...

My book shelf!!!! (and you can see another of our rugs!) He knew how important it was for me to have one so he got one at Target, built it, and sent me this picture of the result. So excited. He really is the best ever.

So I hope you enjoyed the sneak peek of our new apartment!!! Mom and I are driving down this Saturday with all my clothes then we can start decorating with artwork and such.

I cannot wait to live here. It was a great weekend with Ryan. Everything from the 2 and a half hours of dishes I did to clean them from their boxes from the paninis and chips and salsa we ate around the coffee table sitting on couch cushions sipping red wine.

Happiness is so worth waiting for.

100!!

I cannot believe this is my 100th blog post! I have tried online journaling and blogging on and off since high school, but this is definitely the only one that ever stuck. I am kind of proud for making it this far. I think back to the time I started this thing, right before Ryan left for Iraq, and it is amazing to see how far we have come. In less than a year we went from dating, to surviving a deployment, to me going to Disney, to being engaged... and now just sixteen days away from our wedding! I cannot believe it.

This weekend Ryan is coming up with a friend of his to start the big move! We will be moving all our stuff (minus my clothes/junk, that is a task to tackle next week) into the new apartment. The weekend after that Ryan goes home to South Carolina for the pre-parade season 96 to spend time with his family and get some things for the apartment. I think my mom and I will drive down with the rest of my things then and the weekend after that... we're married! Mind boggling really. And I just heard from our reception venue this week saying we need to have our tasting soon! Thanks for the heads up... and we can bring 2 other people with us. Now when the heck are we going to go???! Haha. Turns out we are going on Saturday at noon before we go to move.

I was hoping my 100th post would be something amazing and inspirational or at least a little special, but it is sadly a bit run of the mill. My apologies! But thank you all for reading and being with me this far nonetheless.

Here is to the next 100!!!

Surprisingly the Hunt is over..

So last night I was looking and looking. I looked at so many sites my vision blurred. Finally around midnight (after talking out my frustrations on the phone with Ryan) I decided to give up. (PS - thanks to the anonymous commenter who left padmapper.com... it was a huge help!) I was looking on padmapper and I had found some that looked ok. As I was searching I found my way back to googlemaps. As I was seeing the location of one I curiously typed "condos for rent" in the seach nearby option.

And it popped up.

Paydirt.

It was in our budget. It had good reviews (minus one or two about hot water issues in SOME units). It has a bus stop right in front to the metro ten mintues away. You can walk to Old Town Alexandria. Utilities included. It has a separate dining room, kitchen, bedroom... big closets. Hard wood floors. Space!

I emailed Ryan immediately and he went to visit today.

He loved it.

We have a place to live! We applied and should move in April 14th.


Thankk GOD!!

Ryan is trying to upload the video he took on his schmancy new phone and if I can I will try and put it on here.

The Hunt: Update

So I sent Ryan 10-12 links today of apartments/condos I found. He picks one to go visit today... the others were too small or too far or too "expensive" (as in we can afford it but he prefers to do something cheaper). I am just getting kind of frustrated!

Now this place I could not find any reviews on the first time around. I got curious and tried again when he called me. Well I found it. NOT good. I think the apt website purposely lists their address and name slightly differently so you can't connect the dots. Let's sum it up; roaches, no hot water, electric goes out, old appliances, and an A/C unit in one of the apartments catching fire two months ago because it was old and faulty. Also terrible management who take forever to get anything fixed and say everything is a maintenance problem so it is up to them to fix it, not management.

Ryan says, "So, do you not like this place and want me to keep looking?"



What do you think?

The Hunt

Target: An apartment/condo in the DC/VA metro area that is ~$1200 or less a month... hopefully. Utilities included! Near a metro and the highway.

Wants but not needs: Gas stove, balcony, decent square footage. 2 parking spaces.

Definites: No mice, roaches, cave crickets (*read apartmentratings.com and be surprised*!), spiders, rats or other infestations. Safe area. Decent management. Military clause in lease.

Odds: Medium-Low

Time Frame: Basically we want to be moved in before the wedding. Maximum 3 weeks.

Websites scanned: Hundreds. Frequent visitor of apartmentshowcase.com, apartmentratings.com, rent.com, militarybyowner.com, googlemaps and more.


Feelings: Frustrated and a smidgen of hopeless.



UGH!!!

Karma Rollercoaster

So last week had lots of ups and downs. As you can see my last entry covered the downs. Wednesday got a little better. Firstly I got the summer camp counselor job! I will be working at Georgetown Prep day camp in Bethesda this summer from June 20-August 20, so yay for that. Then Ryan and I won a semi scan from a Bridal Show. Basically what it boiled down to we won these "fabulous prizes" from this company called Chef World. We sat through an hour of their presentation and nodded along like we were interested in their surgical steel pots and pans and we got our prizes. First is was supposed to be 20-40% off any Chef World product there that day. No thank you. Second was a $1000 grocery card/coupon that accesses up to that much money in coupons for a year. Not too bad. And our last prize is a 3 day 2 night stay, basically all inclusive, in the Dominican Republic, Mexico, or the Bahamas!

We have a year and a half and a lot of restrictions but I hope we get to take it. We'd have to pay the tax on the room and airfare and transportation to and from the airport... but the hotel, meals, drinks, and all non motorized activities are covered! So it might be worth it.

So a couple points up on the karma scale.

Still haven't found another place to live yet. We've been looking but so far no call backs or anything. It seems impossible to find an apartment that is under $1300 with utilities included, near the highway and a metro, not infested with some creepy thing, decent management, and maybe a gas stove or two parking spaces or a balcony.

Apparently it is!

We saw two decent condos but so far neither has called back. If we get a place this week Ryan goes home for Easter to South Carolina (since he has a 96) and to get his bed to bring to our place. If we don't get a place he comes here for Easter. Maybe. Easter is my favorite time in the church and originally he was coming here, but now he probably won't. I am reading Good Friday and at the Vigil Easter Saturday and it would be the first time he sees me read in church. It is pretty selfish of me to hope Ryan can come here. He needs to go home. I know that.

My parents and Stefan are in North Carolina spending a few days at their new house where Ryan and I will spend our honeymoon. So it is me home with the dog and rabbit until Wednesday. I hate having the house to myelf. It is too big and quiet and lonely.

I cried saying goodbye to Ryan tonight. I haven't done that in a long time. It is so silly to cry over two weeks. Maybe big empty house syndrome added to that. We had a great weekend together. I cannot wait until we can see one another every day. I can wake up next to him and go to sleep next to him. I can't wait to be sick of him since I am seeing so much! It still seems so far away...

So sick of this week already...

Oh what a day. A week. And it is only Tuesday.

So at work today I am up front and checking my email when all these little windows start popping up saying that our firewall expired and viruses and spyware were in the computer. I try and get rid of it but no luck. I was just on AOL so it obviously wasn't something I did, but opening the internet I think re-triggered it. So I tell Marlene and Charlie and my boss was pissed. Understandably so, because apparently me (and the highschoolers who do my job too) used the internet and someone got a virus on the system. So the register was down for an hour today while the computer company dialed in to fix it off site.

Then one of my bridesmaids Kim fills me in on the dress drama she is having. David's Bridal I thought would be great, it has locations everywhere and lots to chose from. Now I want to kick the Manhattan location in the face. Kim ordered her dress January 27th and they tell her NOW that it is a "special order" item and needs 12 weeks to come in! They told her it would be in April 1st back in January which was cutting it close to our "April 15th" wedding (we lied to get things in on time!). Apparently Blue Velvet is a special color and needs more time and they don't carry dresses in that color in floor stock. So why did I see at least four Blue Velvet dresses at the New Brunswick location as I was showing Sue (Sam's mom) what they look like? And if it is a special order item why do I have four girls with dresses in the color who had no problems getting theirs???

So I am on the phone with the manager who can't access our information as the computers all crashed. Of course they did. She had to call me back while I was still at work.

I am just so angry they gave Kim the wrong information and would not own up to their mistake. Once the computers were running the manager looked at all stores for that style and color and size for Kim but of course it doesn't exist. Anywhere. So they looked for any dress (and at per Kim's request a different dress than the other girls) that is long and Blue Velvet in Kim's size.

Apparently they found one. Kim is going in on Thursday with her mom as she was still angry. Me too. I was texting Kim and Sam and on the phone with Carrie and at work doing this for three hours!

Plus Ryan left his phone in his pocket while on the range and it poured so now his phone is not working. He will have to get a new one and can't really afford it. Or maybe afford to come this weekend but he is going to try but it is so stressful. And he didn't get our application in for the apartment in on time so the one we looked at is taken. There is ONE one bedroom left on the top floor, so it is more money, and someone already applied. Our only chance is that his credit sucks and he gets denied. Otherwise a one bedroom probably won't be available til JUNE.

So now what???

I think we will know tomorrow.

I just want to cry.