Namaste

I think i'm becoming one of those "crunchy" people.  I do yoga outside, I go hiking in the desert, I even make my own granola for God's sake!  

But for real, i'm feeling really good.  I'm cooking constantly which is good in lots of ways, cooking itself is one of my favorite things to do, and we are saving money and eating healthy stuff! I'm also walking a ton, with the dog around the neighborhood and in Joshua Tree National Park (take that love-handles!).  And i'm getting back into yoga, which is probably my favorite way to exercise.  It's also amazing what not working for a month can do for your sanity.  I am so much more calm, although my husband may argue that.  I've worn nothing but flip flops and sneakers, so my feet have been way happy, and I haven't used an alarm clock in months!  

So all of this has made me realize how important it is to take care of yourself and find time to do what relaxes you, centers you, and makes you more like the person you actually enjoy being.  It can be terrible and boring and lonely to live in a place where you don't know anyone and are very limited in your opportunities.  But i'm trying to be positive and find my inner calm, or whatever...Namaste friends.

Military Wife Myth Buster

I am a military wife. 

I am also a normal person.  I am not a stereotype. 

For those of you that share the military wife title, I have the utmost respect for you and I hope you find this at least entertaining.  For those that are not, well here's how I honestly feel about it. Take it as you will.

Joining the military community is, without putting to fine a point on it, weird.  After being a normal human for 23 years, I got married and became a military wife.  Then I started going through my initiation process.  I had to learn a new language, filled with lots of acronyms that not even my husband remembers what they all stand for.  I had to learn how to navigate a military base at no more than 25 mph.  And I had to learn to help repair and maintain all sorts of uniforms.

And then I had to make friends.  Now don't get me wrong, I have met some really wonderful people over the past few years.  But really, making friends with military wives is like taking women from Minnesota, California, Tennessee and New York and telling them they need to be best friends because their husbands are blonde and named John.  We are all so different, just like civilian wives (imagine that!) our husbands just happen to work for the same company.   We come from all over the country, a huge range of ages, different levels of education, and just different places in our lives in general.  

It blows my mind that people who meet me are surprised when I tell them that I am married to a marine.  They then say things like "But you have a degree", and "You're so mature and have so much going for you".  Um seriously?  The stereotype that all members of the military and their wives, are young, poor, have 5 kids and are uneducated is outrageous! Do some people choose the military instead of college because they can't afford it or don't have the grades? Sure. Do some people get married at 19 or 20 to a person they've never lived in the same town with? Sure. Do some young families have kids? Absolutely.  But i'll let you in on a little secret.  I have met some of these women and their families, and they are kind and generous and loyal.  Part two of the secret...civilians do that stuff too, and they aren't always so nice. 

So yes, we are "older" for Mark's rank and his time in service, I have a college degree, and we don't have any kids (yet) but does that make me less of a military wife because I don't fit into some sad stereotype? There are all sorts of people everywhere you go, and sometimes the people you thought you had absolutely nothing in common with, become your closest friends.  The last few years have definitely been an eye opening experience for me, and has made me a more accepting, less judgmental person.  And if there is anything I can impart to anyone, it's that military wives are in fact, people.  We are resourceful,  supportive, and fiercely loyal.  We are women who want to be appreciated for who we are, not stereotyped because of what our husbands do.

Home Sweet Rental

We've been in our new place for 2 1/2 weeks, Mark has gone back to work, and things have started to settle a little.  We had the whole place unpacked and decorated in about four days, then my mom came for a week and helped out with some finishing touches.  After a few craft projects and a little rearranging, it definitely feels like home.  So for those of you that have not gotten a virtual tour via Skype, here are the pictures! PS. I'm unemployed so I am available for Skype dates.

Living room, complete with lazy dog.

Kitchen, complete with my next sewing project on our new chairs!

Master bedroom 

Guest room/Mark's office

 And the patio! (Thanks for the adirondack chairs mom!)

So we live in the desert, and I will probably be melting in a month, but at least I have a cute little house so sweat to death in :)

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 ;)