Exciting Weekend

I have been keeping mum about this weekend because I was a bit nervous about it. It is such an amazing opportunity that I couldn't believe it was real, but since I am leaving tomorrow I know it is official!

As you may have noticed I started writing for SpouseBUZZ and if you are a Nicholas Sparks' fan you will appreciate my article this week! Well when they initially asked me if I wanted to write for the site they also asked me if I wanted to speak at SpouseBUZZ Live in 29 Palms at the end of March. Not only would I get to be a new blogger at the event (and speak!) but I would get to see Ryan!!! I initially declined but once they told me the trip was sponsored by the site (aka I get the flight and hotel covered) I couldn't say no!!!

So tomorrow I am getting up at 4am... I am not a morning person but I am pretty excited. I have a cab coming at 4:30 to be at the airport at 5 for my flight at 6am. At 11:30am (CA time) I will be in Palm Springs!! I'll have a nice lunch with the ladies who are running the show and the other bloggers that are also speaking. We will have a working dinner then I get to spend the night with Ryan! The conference is Saturday and then I spend the entire evening with Ryan before flying back Sunday morning.

I am super excited for this weekend and I cannot wait to tell you all about it!!!

Real Real Estate

My mom told me buying a house is one of the most exciting times in your life. You spend hours searching for your dream home (or semi dream home on a budget) by pouring over real estate sections of the paper, looking online and meeting with realtors. Of course, my mother is not a military spouse and did this twice. Once for the house I grew up in and once for the house they now retired to. Something tells me my experience may be a little different...

Most people know military families move around a lot. Every three to five years you can expect to be sent to a different base, possibly even a different state, time zone or country. Depending where you are headed, living off base may be more financially practical (or if you're stubborn like my husband the ONLY way to go) but it is a whole different can of worms.

Since finding out last month we received orders to Camp Lejeune, North Carolina my husband and I have been in a frenzy trying to find a place to live. House hunting under normal circumstances can be stressful. I have friends already stationed down there who are looking for houses during all of their spare time and not having a lot of luck. Meeting with their realtors they are going from house to house and crossing their fingers hoping for THE ONE.

I'm kind of jealous.

At this point, I have never met my realtor. My dad has though! My mother in law found him through the network of lawyers she knows down in the area. Ryan has spoken on the phone with him multiple times and I have emailed back and forth with them as well. I had my first phone call with them this week when we were placing an offer.

My husband is in California. I am in Virginia. We placed an offer on a house we have never laid eyes on based on what we were looking for, pictures online and pictures and word of mouth from my dad.

Is that crazy?

Ryan and I both spent hours and hours looking at houses online. Whether on the laptop or on our iphones using the realtor.com app and zillow we compiled a list of twenty plus houses. My dad eventually went last week and looked at about seven of the ones we narrowed it down to. Two were under contract before he got there. One had foundation problems. Three were in not the nicest of neighborhoods. One was a short sale that would ba amazing but had 8 other offers on it and would probably dry up our savings account trying to heat and cool! So what now? Desperately we searched again and emailed more listings to my dad.

Two passed the test.

Looking at the pictures he sent, one stood out.

We put in an offer.

Ryan called from California to North Carolina with the offer. I signed and used my power of attorney to fill out paperwork and scanned it from Virginia to North Carolina. They counter offered. We offered again. They said no. We tried one more time and they accepted. This involved a series of phone calls from North Carolina to Virginia to California to get everyone on the same page... and it happened somehow.

Now the inspection needs to happen and the appraisal. We have to apply officially for the mortgage we were preapproved for. We know the roof needs to be patched/possibly replaced. Carpets need to be replaced. Painting needs to happen. Ryan has to graduate, come back to the East Coast and we have to pack up our lives (with help from the military) and move to North Carolina and hopefully settle in the house that sold us by pictures alone.

I hope it passes inspection. I hope we can get the repairs done in time. I hope it all can be ready for mid April when we want to move in.

I hope we like it and will be happy there.


For at least three to five years.

Unlike other couples who buy that dream house, we know this one is temporary. In a few years time we will rent it out to other Marines or sell it and go through it all again.

Hopefully next time we will all at least be in the same time zone.

Fingers crossed!

236th Birthday Ball

Ok this is looooong overdue!! Sorry for the delay. I have been slightly jetlagged (shocked me, I didn't think I was there long enough!) and not sleeping and just trying to get through insanely busy work days. My poor blog has fallen by the wayside. So last week I packed like crazy the night before I was due to leave (surprised? not really) and could barely sit still at work until I could leave to go to the airport! I finally get to the airport, check in, battle security and get on my way. To Cleveland.


I think Nick at Nite lied to me, there was no Betty White and it was not hot.

Sorry, dorkiness over.

I did find a nice little bar where I got an overstuffed sandwich to tide me over. It was bacon, egg, lettuce, tomato, coleslaw and french fries on thick bread. $7. I think my beer was double that!

Anytime I fly I tend to get the wing. No matter what I do, I look and try and choose my flight and I am always in range. So on my grasshopper flight to Cleveland I was in seat 5. I was convinced I was golden. This was my view. I think I lost fillings from the darn vibrations for that two hour flight!



Ryan picked me up in LA, only after he got a little lost, and we made our way on the three hour drive to 29 Palms. In the middle of a dark desert road he stopped the car and made me get out. I was quite confused until I looked up. I had never seen a sky like that before. Stars like you would not believe... I could even see the band of the milky way, clear as day! It was gorgeous. But we finally got to the motel six near base and settled in. Ryan got up early for work the next day and I waited for him to come back. It ended up being 70 and gorgeous. I could not get over how big the sky is. In any direction it is just a giant, unobstructed dome. As warm as we were there was snow on the mountains!


We got some Sonic and made our way on the hour drive or so to the resort where the ball was held. It was at this place called La Qinta and it was stunning! Orange and grapefruit trees everywhere, fresh citrus beverage upon check in, pools and cacti and palm trees nestled in the mountain ring.... wow. We were in a little 'hacienda' with twenty foot ceilings and a fireplace! No time to marvel, we had to get ready. I think for doing my own hair and make up I did ok! But of course I stabbed myself with my eyeliner pencil and my eye turned BRIGHT red. I looked half stoned. Luckily by the time we took pictures it cleared up!

One of my favorites! We didn't know anyone at our table but it was neat to meet Ryan's classmates and chain of command. It was a student ball for MCCES and man did I feel old. Most of these guys were just out of bootcamp, which means six months ago a lot just out of highschool. The youngest Marine was born in 1993! I remember 1993 vividly!

Our favor was a coin that doubled as a bottle opener. Appropriate! The guest of honor was a retired Navy Chaplain and his speech was good, but the entire ceremony felt a little shorter than normal. The video of course had me in tears. Seeing 9/11 footage always gets me really riled and shaken, I remember it so well. And the thing that got me, most of the people in the room were only seven or eight years old when it happened. I am sure they remember it, but remembering something as a kid is very different from experiencing it as a teenager or an adult. I am not saying I was old and knowing at the time, but I know I was one of the minority in the room who not only lived nearby where the attacks were but was old enough to really understand (mostly) what was going on. Does that make sense? I hope it does. I was grateful to my husband allowing me to grip his hand in an iron grasp, he knows me so well. He was smart and watched it ahead of time and was much more prepared than I was.

And the POW MIA table always makes me sniffle a bit. Our cake was gorgeous, here is a side view...


And the front view. Actually this years cake was more impressive than 8th and I's last year. Shhh...

I did not realize until photos were taken that my dress was a teensy bit big in the arm holes. Lukily my bra was black but I am quite mad at myself for not noticing that the many times I tried it on!

Also, my posture still needs a LOT of work! Post surgery my back is 150% better but old habits die hard.
Ryan and some of his buddies from BEC.

And his entire new class. My hubby is the front row far right. Damn I am so proud of him!

This may be my favorite full length of us. It got a little chillier as the sun set so my shawl came in handy, but it also made me feel better about my fashion faux pas! After dancing and enjoying ourselves we hung out in the next hacienda with some of Ryan's friends and one other guy's date. After awhile we journeyed back to our room and lit the fire. In our sweats we curled up on the bed and... passed out. You know you are getting old when!! The next day we slept in and it was once again BEAUTIFUL outside! This was basically the view anywhere you looked.

We ate lunch at the bistro where all the food was farm to table. It was grown either at the resort or local and it was so delicious. I had fresh apple cider and we split a huge cobb salad and then a turkey club and roast beef au jus. Bliss.

Then we sat in the sun and basically digested. Man were we full.

The afternoon was spent idly wandering and taking pictures of the resort....

Gorgeous views

Our room/hacienda. Ryan ate a little too much so we went and laid down for a bit and watched NCIS before venturing back out to the outdoor restaurant. We had a margharita, a quesadilla and live music to keep us entertained. Then we splurged on a bottle of champagne and made our way to the hot tubs and spent the next few hours drinking and smoking and talking to some of his classmates. Awesome time.

Big damn cactus

Sunday morning we had to be up early to get back to LA in time for my flight but we took some more pictures before we left. Especially by our orange tree. We also got some Carls Jr to sustain us on the never ending car ride!


Our fireplace.

Ok, some iphone photos.... you may have seen these on facebook!!!


Ball

Orange Tree


Windmills/Turbines. These things were amazing. I drove to the resort part way through them and it was so windy my car was moving! I had to fight to keep it straight!


Ryan took this from my iphone as I drove... not bad for a camera phone! The rest were on our drive to the airport... and my regular camera again.








At the airport it was POURING rain. We wanted to go to the beach so Ryan could get his first ever view of the Pacific ocean... seriously. But the weather was so awful we scrapped it for my next visit, probably his graduation in April. I told him he should go anytime, but he wants me there for it (: I won't get our airline lady in trouble, but she was AWESOME and gave Ryan a gate pass to come through security with me!!! I loved having that extra hour or two and lunch with him. The only thing that kept me mostly composed saying goodbye (yea I cried a bit anyway) was knowing he'd be home for Thanksgiving. I am a lucky lucky lady.


I love to look out the window when I fly... I always take a window seat. It calms me and I just love the ever changing view. And I loved our weekend together. (:

Weekend Wanderings

First off I need to brag... I slept a full 10.5 uninterrupted hours on Friday night. It was absolutely glorious! Finally I got to go to sleep and wake up because my body was ready, no alarm, no phone call... just me. Bliss.

Sorry, I warned you about the brag!

Saturday I met up with my friend Jess from college for a needed catch up day. We wandered around King Street, grabbed lunch and got up to speed on each others' lives. After she left I went to the mall to go to Bubbles and fix my hair. I got a bonus at work last month for something I did and most of the $1,000 I was awarded went to plane tickets. But I took a small chunk just for me!

See, after dying my hair red (which I loved and still miss!) I used Color Oops to get it back to blonde. It got most of the red out, but I was stuck in a sort of strawberry blondeish middle color. Not red, not blonde. So I went and got highlights! I hope it pushed me more back to how I used to be.



Before picture. I sent all these to the hubby so he could see and compare as well.



During. Luckily Kyndra was with me for company and to take pictures of me looking like an extra terrestrial baked potato.



And after. Not bad!

I must say the mall having its Christmas Tree up made me cringe! TOO soon!!!

Kyndra and I had some cuisine de food court before heading back to her place where her husband and his friend were engrossed in Modern Warfare. Can I just say I am so glad Ryan is not into those games? Don't get me wrong, I love video games. We have a Wii, and Mario of any degree rocks my socks off, but these run around control your vision and shooting and exploding games make me a little nauseous! I think the viewpoint gives me some motion sickness. I like going in a straight 2D line when I play video games! Old School much?

Sunday I had another mini college reunion with my friend (and bridesmaid) Cat. We went around Eastern Market, did some major major catching up, drank apple cider, at amazing El Salvadorian food at Cafe Tortilla, and hid in the used bookstore. Bliss.



My to die for empanadas from Cafe Tortilla, featured on Diners Drive Ins and Dives!



And my favorite used book store! (:

Of course work today is billing. Sigh. And there is a mix up with our rent at home the leasing office has been emailing me all day about. And I kind of want to just hide under my desk.

But I leave for California in two days! I CANNOT wait! I am excited to see Ryan and to meet all the guys he has been in school with and to go to a ball once more!



Bragging once again, here is Ryan's class graduation picture from his first school... where he graduated with honors and the second highest GPA in the school. And earned another NAM (Navy Achievement Medal) for his leadership. I may be bursting with pride. Just a smidge.



And of course I made a wish. Or four. Did you?

God Gave Me You

My husband drives me nuts. He knows how to push my buttons better than anyone else on this planet and in just the right combination. He can pick a fight with me from 3000 miles away and make me want to throw something at him... and that would be throwing something very far! And yet...

I love him more than anything else in this world.

He makes me laugh, makes my bad days better. There is a bond of safety and trust and friendship and love that is unparalleled to anything else in this world. He makes my heart skip a beat with a mere glance and makes my day with a simple phone call.

And yet the man drives me bat crap insane :P

That's love for you.

Having a three hour time difference is not the most convenient thing. We like to talk right before we fall asleep, but when I call him at 10pm or 11pm I end up being awake talking to him til midnight or later. And let me tell you, I do not do mornings well at all. I am one of those people who needs sleep to function or I am a nightmare! I cherish those late night talks, but I am not good at deep life altering talks as I am laying there half asleep. Finances, moving, where to ask to be stationed, should I move to 29 Palms if his schooling is extended, should we visit on this date, can we afford this and that.... not the best when you are half asleep. Especially when finances make you all flustered in general and then you snap at the man you love more than anything and are tempted to just hang up on him!

Am I complaining enough?

I love Ryan with all my heart. I do. I miss him terribly and because when we tend to be apart we bicker over stupid things. Sigh.

Regardless of the back and forth ADDness of this post, this song is perfect for how I feel about Ryan, which is the most important thing of all.



Link up with Goodnight Moon

Before you go...

Before Ryan left I spent four days with him, I took off Thursday and Friday from work and we enjoyed our time together. Thursday we woke up and drove down to Busch Gardens... we hit only a little bit of traffic, stopped once at Chik-fil-a for lunch, and got there by 2pm.

On the tram going into Busch Gardens. Man was it hot! It wasn't as bad as most of the other days but it was still pretty warm!

Apollo's Chariot, fun on one of the big four rollercoasters in the park!

Then in the bird area Ryan was determined to make a friend. We had the option to spend $3.00 on a disposable ketchup container thing of nectar or do it on our own. We chose to do it on our own!

And it worked! I love this picture!

So cute!

Then we went on Griffin. It stops there at the top and holds you over this 90 degree drop for a few seconds than drops you. It is awesome! We went on this one twice. We made all the big rides and even the small ones we wanted; including the swings and bumper cars! Then we had a great dinner at the Oktoberfesthaus.

Pre-Fireworks

Ignoring the piece of the bridge we had a great view! They shot them off over the water. We got home after midnight and then slept very late the next day. When we got up, around 1:30, Ryan decided we should go to the Marine Corps Museum since I had never been. We get on 95 and do really well for awhile and then....

We stopped. Dead. We were in the HOV lane, it was barely 2pm and the road was stopped. You can even see the museum in the background there and we just were not moving. My car thermometer was saying 117 degrees since we were roasting on the black road. Two hours later we get to the museum... which is only open until five so we only had two hours to go through it sadly.

At the Marine Corps Museum

Such a Marine :P

Wearing a WWI uniform, not my best look!

I love the sayings all around the main hall.

View looking up, so cool.


Since we left so late we had planned to eat at Tunn Tavern, but it closed at 4. We wanted to do a nice dinner so we held of eating. It took us barely twenty minutes to get home and then we walked to Trattoria Franco up the street. I love this Italian place, we went for my birthday and wanted to go back. Now it is after 5:30 and we had not eaten all day so we were starving. We decided to make a production out of dinner. We ordered a bottle of Prosecco and some calamari with garlic bread and we started to eat slowly.

Then we ordered salads, I got my tomato/basil/mozerella favorite and Ryan had a caeser. A bottle of wine was next, then two different but amazing veal dishes. Dessert was a cannoli. They let us go outside to smoke then come back in and even after we paid they let us take our wine outside and sit and smoke in the cool night air.

This is Ryan's You are such a dork look. I get it a lot.

Much better!

Yea it was a hot day! Overall dinner took us over four hours and it was amazing. We talked about lots of happy moment from our marriage so far, going back to dating days even. Even when we talked about some of our biggest fights we remembered the aftermath and fixing things, but we forgot what most of the fights actually were about.

It is a great hole in the wall with authentic and wonderful Italian food and if you come to Alexandria ever you must go there! We walked home and then, in the Italian spirit, Ryan humored me at watched Moonstruck with me. Then we finished season six of Weeds. I may have cried once as we sat and talked, but it was a great night.

Saturday was Ryan's going away party. We borrowed a grill and had a mix of Marines, wives and babies, and neighbors. It was such a perfect send off. I made my corn bread and the awesome grilled cheese jalepeno poppers I mentioned earlier this week, plus we had burgers and chips and beans and tons and tons of food! Desserts ranged from peach cobbler to cheesecake stuffed strawberries (OH.MY.GOD. Carrie wins!) to smores.

Hanging out by the truck.

Ryan holding Baby Bentley, who is a month old. Ryan rarely holds babies so I had to take this. It just melted my heart! He will be such a wonderful dad one day.

Little Liam, our neighbor, is quite the camera ham!

The hosts

Ryan and Russ with Liam doing an adorable photobomb with help from Adam

Ryan and Liam... see what I mean? He will just be terrific. I can tell :P

Us with our neighbors, all of which have been great since Ryan has left. I am so thankful for them, those here and those not pictured.

Russ, Lauren, Ryan and I.... Russ worked with Ryan and Lauren is a great friend. They were our first official 'couple' friends.

My love... he was a tad tipsy at this point! I may have been too.

<3

Ryan and Jack. Jack is now out of the Marines and the last time I saw him he was bald and clean shaven. I honestly had to double take because I did not recognize him when he arrived!

Smores

Love the fire pictures! We destroyed some wire hangers to make the roasting sticks. Lauren and I then drove the truck to take the grill home since we borrowed it from her and Russ. Of course it is my second time driving the truck and of course we get pulled over for an inspection at the main gate to base. So I am trying to open everything and find where Ryan keeps the paperwork and just cursing my luck. And the guard did not prop the hood open right so it started to fall and I dove and saved his neck. Literally.

The party ended late and Ryan and I stayed up in bed just talking. There may have been sobbing on my part. It was my last night with him and I lost it. He calmed me down and we eventually fell asleep. The next morning we got up and walked to Southside for brunch one more time.

Post - Eggs Benedict euphoria.

Before I knew it we sorted his luggage and Adam was helping Ryan carry the bags to the car. My heart started racing, it was too soon! How did this happen!? We planned on taking the metro to the airport but trying to fix his bags we took too long so we drove.

Adam and Ryan, the three of us were staples on the front stoop.

One more before we go, this is where we took our first picture before moving in.

As we drove I got so teary, I tried to hold it together. I parked in the wrong terminal and we had to shuttle to the right one. We hurried through and Ryan had about an hour and fifteen minutes before his flight. We get his bags in and ask about a buddy pass for me to go through security with him. They send us to the ticket counter and after an agonizing wait the woman tells us, "No it can only be for minors and the handicapped." AND MILITARY ORDERS. I may or may not have sobbed that at her and Ryan had to pull me back away from the counter.

Suddenly I am hugging him and kissing him goodbye in line at security. Tears are streaming down my face as I give him a letter to read on the plane. I watch until I cannot see him anymore. I then walked the whole way down the airport, no shuttle for me, back to the car, silently crying. Once I got in the car I burst out into sobs. The kind that made my ribs hurt and I felt like I was going to throw up. 8 months. It had been ten minutes and I was losing it.

I finally calm down and start to drive home. I called my mom and talked to her. I then meet up with my neighbors at home. I was teary but they plied me with wine and we sat outside and talked for ages. Ryan texted me until his flight took off.

Once I went back in the apartment and forced myself to eat I cried again. It seemed so so empty. I calmed down, went back outside to relax, and then got into bed. I set up my Big Fat Greek Wedding in my DVD player and got into bed and.... sobbed my heart out. It was too big, the air conditioner too cold, my stuffed animals came out of the closet (including Mutsy wearing Ryan's tshirt) and it was still awful. I just cried and cried. Then Ryan called from Phoenix and his connecting flight to tell me goodnight. I finally settled into sleep.

I woke up about five times. I was hot, I was cold, I was thirsty, I needed water, I heard something... each time I restarted the DVD. I was so overtired I overslept this morning and barely made it to work on time. Ryan texted me around 4:30am telling me he was there and safe.

Today we texted back and forth. A guy he deployed with in 09 is now a SSgt and out there and got him from the airport. Ryan stayed with him last night until he checked in today. During my lunch break I got to call him and talk. Ryan was pretty shocked to see a real live roadrunner so he enjoyed telling me that. They made him check one of his carry ons, Phoenix sucked because they booked three flights at one time at one gate, there was lightening.... but he made it.

I haven't cried today. Talking to him makes it easier. Hell my phone is buzzing now as he is telling me it sucks, he does not have a room yet and is in a temporary room. And his classes start tomorrow so he has no time to situate when he does get a room. Seriously?? Like they didn't know he wasn't coming? It makes no sense, which Ryan said makes perfect sense as it is the USMC!

Work was rough, I was sent to our other office to help out and it is such a different environment. It was just for the afternoon but it was like agony for me. Then Carmen, who I worked with at camp last year, invited me to Theology on Tap at an Irish Pub in Old Town. I really enjoyed it and it was something I needed! The speaker was a man who ran across America. Ran. Check out his website here. He used prayer to motivate himself. Jeff ran with no music, no ipod, he just prayed and communicated with God. He was such a funny speaker and very motivating.

Day one down. A lot more to go. No tears yet today... I am hoping I can get into bed and fall asleep without them.

Thanks for reading so much if you did. It is a little lonely here at the moment so I definitely rambled.