Love is all you need

So it's Valentine's Day, and normally I can take it or leave it.  I am not one of those girls that expects anything extravagant, I don't even really need flowers or presents.  But it is nice to have a little reminder to shower your partner with love, and really I at least expect a card.  

This year, a day about love couldn't have come at a better time for us.  I have not been the easiest person to love lately, and in all honesty I haven't put in the effort that my amazing husband deserves.  As you know we're moving, i'm quitting my job, leaving my friends and moving to the dessert.  There is a lot going on in my  personal life and all of it is stressful.  Unfortunately, this makes me cranky and lazy and emotional and no fun.   (Sorry, honey!) 

Last night, Mark came home with a card board box and inside turned out to be one of the sweetest surprises he has ever given me.  The gift is thoughtful and beautiful and completely from his heart, which makes it perfect.  I am so incredibly lucky that this man loves me, even when it may not be easy. He constantly shows me that I am special and that he is there for me.  I truly have a partner in life, in good times and in bad.  And a best friend to face whatever adventure we are on.  

This year I am all about being sappy and celebrating being in love, because its fantastic, and i'm lucky that I have someone so wonderful to share my life with.  And I hope all of you are just as happy today. 

Happy Valentine's Day Lovers!

Home is where the Marine Corps sends us

It's time to move, again.  This will be duty station number 3 for us since we got married. 

I had never moved until I went to college, and really thats not a legit move.  So when I got married and moved to Denver it was my first real move.  And since then I have realized, I hate moving.  Once we get to the new city and get unpacked and make our new rental cozy and homey i'm fine.  But the actual packing and moving and then unpacking itself is horrible.  It's even worse when you have to do it pretty much every year.  So while we are USMC nomads I am trying my hardest to make each apartment/condo/house into a home while conquering my hatred for moving boxes.

When you move around a lot, and especially when you leave your childhood home for good, your definition of home changes drastically.  Obviously the house I grew up in where my parents still live, will always be home to me on some level.  But it's important that we feel at home wherever we are.

Its the period of unrest that is the hardest.
 Those few weeks when we are completely unsettled and can't find anything.  It's because home to me has become something different.  In our life where the only constant is change, the things that make me feel home don't have anything to do with our location.  Home has become all about us, about my husband and our dog, our silly little traditions, pictures of our families and valued treasures that we have collected from our travels.  So when we are in that stressful, messy in between stage, when I can't find the coffee pot or the picture that sits on my nightstand, I have to remind myself that soon, the new house will become my favorite place.
Home, sweet home.

New Adventures

It has been a very busy few weeks, we went home for Christmas with the McFarland/Blinn families and had a great time.  Then it was home for a week before we were off to our next adventure in San Francisco!

I love to travel and have a growing list of cities and places here in the US that I am dying to visit.  San Francisco has been on this list for a long time and it finally worked out that we could go! The weather was a little grey and chilly and my poor hubby got hit with a terrible cold (which i am now enjoying) but he was a trooper and let me drag him all over the city.
I am a firm believer that when traveling you should "do as the romans do" or San Franciscans in this instance.  I like to eat the food that is local, shop local, and enjoy local sights. Clearly we did touristy things too...how can you go to San Fran and not take a million pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge?! So here is my list of ways to experience San Francisco!

1. Pacific seafood. When you are visiting a city that is on the ocean, it only makes sense to eat lots of local seafood!  So if you want oysters, you eat the ones from Washington Sate, not the ones from New England.  It was all Fresh and delicious.

2. Shop local. Our hotel was across the street from the Ferry Building, which is kind of like a permanent farmers market. There are all these little shops and restaurants and they all specialize in some local food or craft.  So we got amazing cheese and a raspberry peach champagne jam from Cowgirl Creamery,  french bread from Acme, (which a lot of the restaurants in the building get their bread from!), California wine from The Wine Merchant, and almond brittle from G.L. Alfieri. We got Ahi burgers for lunch from The Fish Market.  Moral of the story, I could have spent the entire 3 days at the Ferry Building, and if you go to San Francisco, its definitely a must see!

3. Be your own tour guide.  Seeing the Redwood trees in Muir Woods was definitely on our list of must see things.  The tour we originally wanted to take was sold out.  So we rented a car from out hotel and braved the streets on our own.  Driving through the city actually wasn't that bad and it allowed us the freedom to do exactly what we wanted and take our time.  We stopped on both sides of the Golden Gate Bridge to take pictures, we spent almost 2 hours in the park looking at trees and shopping for our traditional vacation christmas ornament, then we took a detour to Muir Beach, and had lunch in Sausalito.  Our entrance to the Muir Woods National Park was free because of our Military Passes* and our rental car was the same price as one tour ticket would have been!

4.  Be a tourist.  I know this negates my previous rant about being like a local, but sometimes there's just no avoiding it.  Mark has been dying to go to Alcatraz.  And when its a national park on an island that doesn't allow private boats to dock at it, its kind of hard to see it without going on a tour.  But it was so worth it, definitely a cool experience and really interesting.
We did also check out fisherman's warf at Pier 39 to see the little shops and check out all the seals!

5. Relax.  A few days before we left, Mark went on Groupon and found us an awesome deal for a couples massage right by our hotel! It was so relaxing, affordable, and we got to see yet another little neighborhood in San Francisco.

So there are my travel tips and my top 5 things i loved about San Francisco.  I can't wait to cross more cities off my list as we travel across America on our USMC adventure!

*Active duty military and their dependents are eligible for a free annual pass that is good for everyone in your car at every national park in the country! So cool, thanks National Park Service!

Happy Holidays

We have entered my most favorite time of year, the winter holidays, most specifically Christmas! 

Really the Holidays for me kick off with Thanksgiving.  This year it was just the two of us and we actually went out to dinner instead of cooking.  It was an experience, one that i don't think i will be able to repeat again.  It was kind of strange to be surrounded by strangers eating food i had no part of cooking.  Thanksgiving is about family, no matter how small our family may be right now.  I think event if it's just the two of us next year i'll be perfectly happy to stay home in our pjs all day and make the big traditional meal...leftovers are the best part anyway!

The weekend after Thanksgiving is when the real fun begins and it becomes all about Christmas! I LOVE decorating, the smell of Christmas Trees and little white lights seriously make my life complete. The house is cozy and warm and it just makes me so happy.  I finally got to make my tomato cage tree and it actually came out really well! 

Clearly i got the idea from Pinterest, and it took way more lights than i originally thought it would but it is a great addition to my holiday decor.

I also got crafty with our kitchen table.  I made a new runner with my sewing machine and some awesome gold flecked burlap and then added a few hurricane jars, candles, pine cones, etc. 

Last is our cute little tree.  We broke down and bought a fake pre-lit tree since we really don't have room for a real tree.  And since we won't be here for Christmas we figured it was okay to cheat this year.  And its a great excuse for me to have a second tree next year!

We cannot wait to be home with our families for the holidays, and i am seriously hoping that we will get some snow to make it a perfect New England Christmas! But for now i will enjoy my cozy little apartment, even if it is 65 degrees and there's palm trees outside. 

Have i mentioned lately how lucky i am to be on this crazy adventure with my Marine?!

I hope everyone has a magical Christmas with lots of love and little white lights ;)

Two Years Later

It feels like two years since i've written a blog entry...but that's not what this one is about.

This month, we celebrated our two year wedding anniversary!  And in true military wife fashion, I was minus one husband.  We went on a weekend trip to celebrate a few weeks before, since he has been gone all month.  And thankfully on the day of, my best friend and maid on honor was here visiting. And if you can't be with your hubby on your anniversary, i have to say a MOH is a great stand in!  Not only did she happily drink champagne with me for the better part of the day we also gushed about how beautiful and wonderful my wedding was.  Being away from Mark on our anniversary this year made me realize how strong our marriage really is, and how much we have grown in the last year.

We moved to California without killing each other!
We packed up everything we owned, a dog and a cat, and drove 4 states to the West Coast and we actually liked each other at the end of it.  Have any of you moved like that? It's stressful, its not fun, its exhausting and scary.  We were patient with each other, we were understanding and supportive.  I can't say we were the same towards the dog, but he forgave us.

This year, Mark and I each lost a family member very suddenly within a few months of each other.  It was the first time we went through something like that as a couple.  Being far away from our families, we only had each other to lean on, and we held up just fine.

The greatest thing i have realized this year is that Mark and i went from living as two people who loved each other, to really being two parts of one unit.  Its an amazing feeling to be part of someone so completely.  I feel loved, and safe and taken care of because i know that my husband is thinking of me as part of every decision he makes.

So there's my sappy entry, about how my husband is amazing and how much i love him.  I still remember our wedding day like it was yesterday, and it couldn't have been more perfect.  But everyday since then has been perfect in its own way.
Love you bams ;)

Father's Day

Being that the only children we have are furry and don't talk, Father's Day is still all about our dads this year.  Its days like today that really make me sad that we live so far because for me all i'd like to do is spend the day with my dad.  Instead we skyped and now i will reminisce a little before i put in the next load of laundry.  

My dad was always hard working, taught me valuable lessons, provided me with incredible opportunities, and protected me like a great dad should.  But strangely i didn't become a "daddy's girl" until i graduated from high school and went off to college.  Maybe it was because he stopped working so hard and started having more fun, or maybe i was finally old enough to see how great he really was. probably it was a combination of both, and either way i am grateful.  

We watched football and drank beer, i taught him what a keg stand was and he took pride in being a "Phi Sigma Sigma Dad".  He talked me out of several compulsive changes of my major and he took a genuine interest in my life at college.  My newfound closeness to my dad gave me that extra push to go home on long weekends and en excuse to get excited about the homecoming football game.

When it came time to plan my wedding, it was my dad that was the most excited about hearing all the little details.  He came to almost every appointment, not just to write a check, but because he was actually interested in what the flowers would look like or what the food would taste like.  He made sure he got to invite all his friends and that there would be an open bar so that it would be a great party.  he said all the right things when i showed him my dress or talked about the favors.  

Marrying Mark was clearly the best thing that happened that day, but walking down the aisle and dancing with my dad were some of the best moments i've had with my dad.  So cheers to you dad, you party animal and you big softie, I love you tons and wouldn't trade you for any other dad in the world.  It may have taken us a while to figure out our relationship, but its a damn good one.

For the love of Sunday

Sunday is becoming my new favorite day.  It's usually calm and it's rare that one of us have to work so we have the whole day just to ourselves.  When we only have one full day to spend together as a family we do whatever we can to make it a good one.  

Yesterday was a great example of a perfect family day. After sleeping in and cuddling with the fur babies, we made a big breakfast and lounged on the couch with coffee.  Then it was time for a walk with the pup, who gets so excited about going for a walk that once I put my socks on he runs around in circles barking at the door.  We did over 3 miles in the canyons that loop around our house, they are so pretty and the dog obviously loves the terrain.

After the walk it was lunch and haircuts...yes haircuts, in my living room, every week, thank you Marine Corps. I'm getting really good at a "medium fade", just saying.  

Somehow i got my husband to agree to go to church with me, and afterwards he said he actually didn't mind it!  So we are now a church going family.  A little quiet perspective on a Sunday evening isn't a bad thing.  Not to be too bragadocious, but I made an awesome dinner last night.  Chicken, fried rice and broccoli (recipe below), with a glass of wine and left over cheesecake for dessert.  All finished off with a few competitive games of Clue :) 

So that was our perfectly simple, family Sunday.  Filled with quality time, free activities and great conversation with lots of laughs.  I hope you all had an equally lovely Sunday! 

Chicken Marinade:

Soy sauce

Sherry wine

Ginger 

Garlic

Brown Sugar

(i don't measure things and i cheated with powdered garlic and ginger)

I cooked the chicken on the stove in some of the marinade so that the chicken stays moist and then the marinade caramelizes and gets all gooey and sticks to the chicken. yum.

Fried Rice:

Rice

Green Onion

Corn

Egg

Garlic

Soy Sauce

I used the same pan from my chicken (with the leftover marinade goo) and sauteed the green onions a little then add some corn, i had one ear of steamed corn left over so i cut it off and threw it in the pan.  Then add an egg or two depending on your taste, throw in the precooked rice, a little more soy sauce and some garlic powder, cook until mixed.  

Broccoli:

Steamfresh Broccoli

Put the bag in the microwave and press 5 minutes

:)