Wordless Wednesday

MC Escher- Stairs-The Labrinth with no solution- A piece I loved looking at daily living at my moms.

Irene & Her Evil Winds

3 days after the hurricane and everyone 80 miles west of the coast felt it, maybe even further. Preparations were made with intense house cleaning, full bathtub of water, gallons a water set aside, fridge turned all the way down to freezing, candles set out, maglight flashlights with new batteries, and a truck that can have small appliances plugged into it for cooking. Friday evening we were craving ice cream... Lo and Behold Walmart was still open and A braved the stormy weather to obtain chocolate chip ice cream which our son and I thoroughly enjoyed as desert that evening and breakfast the next morning. :)

Yea, I'm an awesome mommy who cannot stand the fact of good ice cream ever going to waste. :) Saturday around 2am I woke up to what felt like a steam room. Power outage, Irene had arrived. In and out of sleep until the morning, opened up some windows and let the storm's wind cool the house. Played battleship, napped while the boys watched a movie on the portable DVD player, read, and then A needed to play in the storm, hmmmm... Really 80 mph winds and you want to go work out? Ooook.... So I did what any good wife would do, I sat and watched while calling out the workouts based off of a full (including jokers) deck of playing cards. So, 54 different workouts, each consisting of its own workout based off the suit of the card (burpees, pushups, mountain climbers, air squats), number is for reps and face cards are 11,12,13, Ace 400meter run, Jokers- any random workout one that consisted of puddle push-ups ALL with his flak jacket on with sappy plates.... Recordings of this was definitely done, however he mooned the camera and can't post it. lol. This took a little under an hour of the day and come to find out was done during/after the eye of the storm. Sealfit.com, his drug. :)

 Done with the Hurricane Workout

 A then played star wars battles against J (our son's favorite indoor playtime activity). We needed to get out of the house and everything had calmed down for the most part, just some wind. So we went out for a drive. Mommy needed out of the house. Assessed damages off base (base at that time was shut down unless you lived on base). Electricity was still off, everywhere. Flooding is always a problem around here, and trees were broken over power lines in roads, debris everywhere...

Not much else to see so home we went. J's dinner was chicken noodle soup cooked in a rice cooker, one of his favorites that he happily scarffed down. The heat made me not so hungry... Cannot really remember what we ate, or if I even ate. 730-8pm, J's bed time dark enough outside to get him to sleep earlier. Sit in living room, read by candlelight. 9 decide to take it to the bedroom, read a little longer, and then pass out.


Wake up first thing the next morning eat cereal for breakfast, (quickly grabbing the milk and slamming the fridge door shut), make coffee in the back of the truck then get ready and out the door- 8am. To the base to assess damage for A's work. Shocked by the amount of trees that are gone... Nature can be a scary motha.... Cell phone service during all this and until yesterday Monday was little to none except in certain places throughout the city. After base we went toward the beach. Negative: Atlantic's bridge was closed except to those with a pass. So was Emerald Isles. Me: I so badly wanted to get out there to explore. No luck. Go to Lowe's pick up items needed to fix the gate, fence, and 2-4 missing shingles. Come home, nap. A fixed the gate and the fallen fence panel. POWER!!!!! Yes, sweet merciful power has been restored! 2pm Sunday. Grab the vacuum and get to cleaning. 4pm- needed to get out of the house and EI's bridge is open. To the BEACH!!! Again, tons of debris, but really no major (noticeable) damage to the beach front homes. Amazing. Clear. Hot. Many broken shells, yet managed to find a cargo pocket full of great whole ones. A continues to make fun of me collecting shells and states how glad he is we do not live at the beach, as our house would be made of shells... :) I add a few more to his cargo pocket. ;)

J runs in and out of the water, finds clams, finds a star fish and throws it back in the ocean, and both my guys find a huge, dead, horse shoe crab. Tires were seen often, to include many that had obviously been out there for awhile.

Came home and BBQ'd dinner. 

As Grandpa Ed said that someone has probably already made the t-shirts, We Survived Irene....  As A said, we made it through our first hurricane together without killing each other, we can survive anything. :)) 3 more days until the wedding. Must get J's shirt, get the dogs in the kennel for the weekend while we head to the mountains, and call and add a few more people to our dinner party!

Sidenote: Yes this was all done without a smoke... 16 days no cigs and growing stronger!

Quitters Never Prosper... Unless....

Day 7 now of the anti-smoking ban I've started on myself. The first few days were absolutely terrible, and A received the brunt of it, later to follow with tears of apologies flowing from me. Funny how something so dangerous and most times a relief can hook you and make you it's captor. I've been smoking for 9 years now, with breaks in between, (finding out I was pregnant with Jake + 3months after having him and a short time frame when I almost died from a clot in my lung, yea that was stressful and started up again shortly after). Now, I will master this, and put the extra $150-$180 a month away or get something nice for myself as a reward. :)) Yes, I was a pack a day, sometimes more, smoker. After adding the cost, that's the range it landed in for any given month. My sword against it all... Red Vines and Trident gum. No patch, no gum, no pill. So I guess it would be considered, Cold Turkey. When I do things I go big, even if it is the most stressful way, I tend to work a hell of a lot better under stress, time crunches & pressure. All with leading results of A for Awesome :p

Our man child will be home today {YAY}, let an additional stress (one that I definitely do not mind) be added to the mix!  

 

Just the beginning...

Years ago, through freeopendiary, I developed a "blog", which is now, I'm sure, gone and deleted as it had become a desolated item to me. Here I am, now, starting this, not exactly sure where to or how to start, but figured this would be a nice way to keep more in depth updates for the family across the country (aside from facebook status'), seek advice and find helpful tidbits with cooking, children, home improvements, and the blog world in general.

While my title has Marine Wife in it, we are not married... Yet. :) As of today it is 2 weeks until we will join our hands in marriage, even though our hearts are already there. The decision to do so this year instead of next year came about last month when we found he'll be deploying mid next month and may be called upon for other operations next summer. So there we were, stuck trying to plan our wedding day not knowing when or if he would even be able to make it. :)) The decision came down to doing so while it was still warm (beach weddings in the winter can be a bit too chilly) and during a time we knew FOR SURE he would be home, Sept 2nd 2011, is the big day. His family will be attending from Chicago and my father will be coming in from California. My bff Carrissa from here will be there as my MoH. And our little boy will be carrying the rings. Excited is an understatement with how everything has come together so perfectly!

 In D.C. with his family      

                                                          My <3's at the Aquarium

The only issue I'm currently having with it.... Is deciding on having my hair half up/down or all up... :p He's requested half up/down.

Not a whole lot of difference except for the bangs on the second one. It does tend to be a bit windy down there so I guess it will depend on how the weather is and what "hair mood" I'm in that day. :) While basically everything is done and ready for our big day (still have to get the males attire of white button shirts and khaki cargo shorts) the house is still driving me bonkers I have been trying to get it ready for his family and my daddy's first visit to our home, well, what will be our home for at least another 2 years. :) We have renovated so much of it and I think it has come a looooong way, but now it is just the proper placement of the small things and all I want to do is throw it all into a box and cram it into the attic so we do not have to bother with it.... {It may just come down to this in the end, lol}.

I own a '67 Chevelle that I was hoping to have completed before hand so my dad would get to cruise in it, but the issue for the past month has been getting a new radiator :( A bit too pricey with everything going on and the amount that was spent on the engine overhaul last month alone {gasp!}.

Currently, our little boy is in California visiting the family and has been there since last month. I miss him so much, but he will be home in 2 days!! Yay!! And still there are a number of things to accomplish in his room since we turned it into a Star Wars room while he was away. (Not that it will really last all neatly set up with his Star Wars figures and so on, but it will make for a cool picture when finished. And I am a random/not so random photographer. Love tracking our life's stories through pictures.)  :) So, when he gets home he will be quiet happy with his new room he's been asking for for over a year. :)  Lots to do in little time! But we'll get through it all with the espresso machine hooked up to us like an IV!

Hello Blog World, Welcome to our big piece of the pie!! :)