About Me

Hello readers!

My name is Allie and welcome to my blog, My Marine and Me. I started blogging back in the summer of 2009 before my boyfriend (now husband) deployed to Iraq. We had been dating over a year, I just graduated college and was about to go intern at Walt Disney World and I realized I might want a space to write out my thoughts.

So, Disney and Deployed was born. I spent six months working at the Happiest Place on Earth, EPCOT to be a little more specific, while the love of my life was in the desert. I missed him terribly but luckily Disney was a HUGE distraction. It kept me sane! It is hard to be down and panicky and worried in a place like that. I had my moments though, times when I was terrified or just missed him so badly I couldn't breathe. You know how it is. But eventually Ryan came home from deployment. He even came to visit me in Disney, and while he was there he proposed. My program ended a few months later and I left Disney. I had a wedding to plan! So no more deployed, no more Disney.... My Marine and Me was born in those months leading up to our wedding. If you cannot tell I have a thing for alliteration!

We got married May 1, 2010 at my church at home in New Jersey and lived in Alexandria VA for two years following our wedding. Well, I was there two years. Ryan re-enlisted a year or so after we were married and had to change his MOS to stay in the Marines. So he went off to 29 Palms California for nine months for school while I stayed in Virginia. For nine months we flew back and forth across the country every six weeks or so and used our cell phones more than I ever thought would be possible!

Ryan graduated in April 2012 and we packed up our apartment in Virginia and bought our first house in North Carolina. PCSing was an adventure for sure, but I think we got off pretty easy!

I graduated college with a theatre degree, was born and raised in Jersey where giant malls and diners rule, love the Yankees and the Giants, and my tea is usually the Lipton powdered kind. Now I am living in the south in a huge military town where Walmart reigns, pro-sports are second to college teams (at least around here) and there is no tea but sweet tea! It is an adjustment for sure. I currently work for MCCS as a Library Technician, but that job was not easy to come by. I was unemployed for ten months after moving here and it was a hard transition for me. I could wallpaper our guest bedroom with all the applications I sent out in those months, but everything happens for a reason. I LOVE my job at the Library and it was worth waiting for. I started as an Aide at Camp Johnson, then moved to the Main Library to work in Tech Services, then I got promoted to Technician and work in the Reference Department.

In the summer of 2013 Ryan deployed once again to Afghanistan, but we managed to get through that deployment as well. Five years between deployments definitely made me a bit rusty! Now Ryan is about to start his SDA, or Seconday Duty Assignment, as an instructor for SOI East at Camp Geiger. The next three years should be interesting for sure!

Feel free to Like Me on Facebook or follow me on Pintrest! I don't tweet though. No idea how it works and I am social media'd out for now (: Thanks for stopping by!!!

For more random facts about me check out this entry and maybe this one! There is also a side bar on the left side of the page labeled Catch Up.... click any of those links to read more about my journey in detail.