Writer's Block

Writer's Block. Ugh. Or maybe that isn't the best term... blogger's block? You do all know I am a sucker for alliteration.

I think it is just because not a lot is happening, but at the same time the wings are so crowded it will all eventually pile on at once. Most of my days are just spent working, talking long walks with the pup pup, talking to my husband on the phone and hanging out with my friends when I can.


Rylie and I walk two miles or more a night and she is making lots of friends, like Moose, the Great Dane. She loves him!


Carrie and I spent Saint Patrick's Day at Murphy's in Old Town and may have gotten drunker than we planned trying to fend off preppy law students.


We celebrated Pi day at work on 3.14 and I wore these earrings as we ate pie. My clients enjoyed that.


I am also floored by how big Rylie has gotten!! My pup pup is huge, tipping the scales at nearly forty pounds!

As for our house it is just playing the waiting game at this point. Our offer was accepted, we had the inspection, submitted our mortgage paperwork and got the seller to agree on some repairs. Apparently the bank was sending someone for the mandatory appraisal (which was supposed to be five to ten business days after I got the paperwork in) and it has taken literally forever. I am getting frustrated as we are moving in less than a month, but that won't happen if there is nowhere to move to!

Then Ryan calls the bank today and they send us this email, "Oh, by the way, we need these seven things from you to proceed."

What??

So if we didn't call to bug you, would we have just been waiting around?

First of all, the first item in the list was in our mortgage paperwork. There is nowhere to sign it, it was a view only document, but they have it. Ryan now has his orders so he can send those. But they want bank statements and pay stubs... things we could have sent them over a month ago without a problem! It still isn't a problem, but I am pretty annoyed at this "Oh yea!" sort of moment. More than annoyed actually.

Ugh.

Anyway.

I've officially become a writer on spouseBUZZ.com, that's some of the good. My third article went up today! Plus there is more good news to follow on that very soon!


Ok, I guess I wasn't as blocked as I thought. Maybe just disorganized. And stressed.

And addicted to the Draw Something app - Play me! Imyewneek

Saint Patricks Day Parade

I cant believe it has been almost a week since I blogged. Wow. With all the paperwork back and forth between three states for the house, my uncle being in town, long walks to tire Rylie out and helping Carrie move I just failed to get to my laptop like I wanted to. I also had to upload tons of pictures to blog about what I wanted to blog about!

So let's go back a week to the Alexandria Saint Patrick's Day Parade! Carrie and I walked down and got a good spot on King Street and enjoyed the festivities.


Here we go!


OOH RAH!


Bundled up but the sun would appear later. And we were right in it!


Is it weird that I love bagpipers??


Hard Times Cafe horse unicorn


Irish Dancers


Bally shanners!


Rylie needs a sibling.... an Irish Wolfhound would be perfect!


Alexandria's finest


Post parade awesomeness


Music at Pat Troy's


Rewarded with Hard Cider!


Classic cars


DeLorean Love!


Flux Capacitor included!

Since there was drinking and not much eating we grabbed some lunch (and maybe another cider) before taking the pups for a walk. I am really going to miss Alexandria. I love living here. And I will miss my amazing neighbor and friend.

Our Love Story

I have seen this all over the place and I want to play too!

Besides, I don't have much to share lately. Only my work has gone more business professional and I am now in suits/blazers/dresses every day and had a lot of shopping to do... for being here another two months. Ryan said they are an investment for job hunting and future jobs so we went for it.

And I leave for Vegas Thursday! And see Ryan Friday!!!!

Anyway... link up!



1. How long have you and your significant other been together?

We met March 16, 2008 and went on our first date on May 8, 2008. So almost four years now.

2. How did you meet? {What's your "love" story?} I am going to try something different here...

I took a small drag from the borrowed cigarette in my hand. The condensation from one of the last Smithwicks dripped down my hand and onto my jeans. It was only my second one, but it would be my last. I wasn't a huge drinker and all that was left was whiskey (no way) and Guiness (not a fan). Either way I am a lightweight so two beers would be enough to make sure I was nicely buzzed for the party. I tried to pay attention to the girl telling a story to my left, something about Dr. Tom and a race up the stairs to class, but the painted shamrock on my cheek was starting to itch and I was losing focus.

All around the deck people were decked out in green, everything from t-shirts to hats to face paint to hair dye. Catholic University takes Saint Patrick's Day seriously. Plus considering 95% of the party goers were drama majors or musical theatre majors (and their dates/friends) it was needless to say we made an ecclectic bunch.

The screen door to the back deck opened and three unfamiliar figures stepped out of Big Blue, the drama house. The first one was crazy tall, over 6'5''. The second one was shorter than me and almost a foot shorter than his friend. The third guy was just in the middle at a cool 6 feet. All three had the haircuts I knew went with the Marines stationed down at 8th and I. The middle one was cute... very cute. I sighed and turned my attention back to the story at hand just in time for the punch line.

Slowly the stories fade and the ones who had more to drink began to get a bit ADD, wandering off in various directions. I light another cigarette, feeling the smoke burn the back of my throat. I was definitely a social smoker, the buzz felt good with the beer. I was about to turn and wander towards the railing when someone tapped my shoulder.

It was him.

"Excuse me, where did you get that shamrock painted on your cheek? I like it."

I was flustered but I replied honestly, "Oh, Katie is doing them in the living room." I pointed throught the back door towards the front of the house. "I'm sure she'll do one for you if you want."

No, I had no idea that was a smooth, opening line. If the Marine in front of me had not been the persistant type, my entire life would have changed. He pushed on and held out his hand to shake mine.

"My name is Ryan."
"I'm Allie."

We shook hands. The small talk commenced. Where we were from, South Carolina and New Jersey, what we did, Marine and theatre student. Who did he come with? Brandon (and the tall guy and the short guy) who was dating Taylor who was room mates with my friend Megan. Gotcha. "My Poppy was a Marine." I venture. "Oh yea, what rank? World War II?" he asks. "Yea, he joined up when he was sixteen and by nineteen was Sgt. Major." Ryan looked in disbelief... but it was true. If you think about it, a lot of people were killed in action and the ones who survived moved quickly through the ranks, especially if they were good at what they did.

The evening continued. My Smithwicks was gone. My hatred of Guiness turned out to be a mutual thing, so we slowly became the most sober people on the porch. He made me laugh and our conversation flowed seamlessly. Eventually his friends were ready to go.

We walked through the house and were tossed onto a "living art piece" on the stair well. I did tell you it was a theatre house. He posed gamely even though I could tell he wasn't into it... but when you're out numbered by drunk theatre people you tend to just go with it.



His friends were growing impatient.

"I'll add you on facebook." he promised.

Sure you will.

Guys like that didn't have interest in girls like me. I expected nothing more to come of the evening.

Ryan reached down and grabbed my hand, planting a kiss on the back of it. Was this guy for real??? In spite myself I felt my face turn six shades of red.

Goodbye.

That evening I plugged in my laptop and curled under the covers. I opened facebook to see a friend request.

You have a new request from Daniel Ryan L....

Daniel? I don't know anyone named Daniel. My mouse hovered over the REJECT button but I caught a glimpse of his picture. The haircut, the dark brown eyes, the perfect smile.

RYAN!

My heart skipped a beat as I clicked ACCEPT.

3. If married, how long have you been married? If not, is this the guy you hope to marry? {do tell}

According to my blog counter we've been married for 1 year, 9 months, 1 week and 5 days.

4. If you are married, where did you get married at? Big or small wedding?

We were married May 1, 2010 in my hometown in New Jersey. Our ceremony was held in the church I grew up in and that my mother worked at... it was amazing. Our reception was half an hour away at the Grand Colonial. I come from a big family so our wedding was semi-big, around 125 people.

5. Do you have any nick-names that you call one another? Do share!

Sweetheart is the big one between us. He also likes to use "my love" for me and I refer to him as Tigger a lot! He has tons of energy, can be bouncy, and he is my only one.

6. Name 3 things you love most about your honey.

I love so many things about Ryan I even gave him a book for our first anniversary called 100 Reasons Why I Love You. I can narrow it down...

I love how responsible he is... with everything. His job, his family, his career... he knows what needs to be taken care of and does it. Period.
I love how kind he is... anytime we are anywhere near a dog or a baby they are enamored with him and he is with them! If we see a veteran my husband is the first to walk up and shake their hand to say thank you. If anyone needs help, whether it is moving or opening a door or carrying something heavy, he is there.
I love how he loves me. That's selfish isn't it? But I do. I love that I have him and that he loves me as much as I love him.

7. Tell us how he proposed? Or your ideal proposal?

I already gave you a long winded response, so you can click here to read our proposal story! Long story short he proposed to me during the Illuminations fireworks show in Disney World after getting home from Iraq.

8. Is he a flowers and teddy bear kind of guy for v-day, or strawberries, champagne, and rose petals?

Strawberries, champagne and rose petals. He knows how I am about champagne... and strawberries...

9. Are you a sunset dinner on the beach kind of girl, or pop a movie in and relax on the couch?

I love either, but more typical for us is a movie cuddled on the couch. Maybe because at the moment our nearest beach is 4 hours away.

10. Tell us one thing you'd like to do with your significant one day. If you could do anything? Go anywhere?

Take a huge vacation out of the country. The only time Ryan has left the US is to go to Iraq, so we need to change that! I also looooove to travel and I cannot wait to do it with him. We plan on going in a few months after we PCS. We want to see as much of Europe as we can, and maybe one day do an African Safari.

11. Tell us what you plan on doing on this Valentine's Day.

I am taking Rylie girl to the vet. Ryan is 3,000 miles away, I have no plans :P

12. Are you asking for anything this Valentine's day?

Nope. I'd be pretty happy with a card!

13. Give us one piece of advice of keeping a relationship strong and full of love.

I hate how cliche it is, but never go to bed angry. We do our best to live by that and it helps.

Also, whenever we fight we step back, take a deep breath, and then sit at the dining room table with a glass of water each. We then talk calmly and tell eachother how we feel and try and solve what the root of the problem is. No water has been thrown yet.

14. Show us a picture of what love means to you.

Solo Ventures

I have to admit, weekends were my biggest worry when Ryan left. We always had that time together, and because of that I knew I'd be at a loss without him there. The first weekend he was gone my neighbors and friends kept me very busy, which I appreciated more than I can say. This weekend, no one was home! People were out of state or working or busy and when Saturday rolled around I have to admit... I was pretty damn lonely.

I knew down at the park they were doing the Irish Festival to raise money for the Saint Patrick's Day parade, so off I went.



It was nice. Crafts and food and music and dancers... a little rain. Although I liked the atmosphere, I was really the only one walking around by myself. Everyone else was in groups or couples and I felt quite out of place. All I could think about was how much more fun it would be if Ryan were with me. How we would have gotten a beer from the beer truck everytime Pat Troy said to because it was for a good cause. Getting one alone seemed too depressing, so I stuck with water.



Who is Pat Troy? He is a famous figure around here. He has a restaurant, off King St appropriately named Pat Troy's. He is a true Irish man, accent and all, in his 70s. President Reagan used to visit, there is even a table immortalized in the restaurant that the former President sat at, place setting and all! Of course he was the emcee of the event.


The crafts were pretty good, nothing I really needed, same with jewelry, but fun to look at!


Of course there was music, Pat Car sang lots of traditional Irish songs.


One being The Unicorn Song... which of course made the skies OPEN up!!!


We sought refuge in the two tents, luckily I was in the middle and didn't get wet! But it poured for a good ten minutes and POOF. Clear again!


Had to have some delicious Shepherds Pie.

And all the dancers were so cute!






I wore my reebok shape up sneakers and walked the long way home, so I was sore by the time I got in! I just watched lots of bad movies and lounged around. Sunday was church and driving Ryan's truck around. I saw a few neighbors out and about at least, but overall it was pretty quiet.

This week has been stressful, lots of prepping for one of our VPs to visit for a center inspection then the actual inspection... I am just so drained. And sore from yoga. And bummed that my best friend cannot come this weekend afterall. I was really looking forward to it.




Is it Labor Day yet?