New Blog

I wanted to share with you all that I have a new blog...it is:

Marissa's Mix Adventures

and it's about FOOD.

So visit it...Yaaaay.

Here is my photo of the day:

My crazy husband!

Happy Thursday!

♥

Ten

I have been tagged by Dana at Happy Life as an Army Wife to list ten things that make me happy.  Sorry it took me so long to do a new post....I've been working on this one!!

1. Jesse.  Now, how could I start off this without him?  I don't feel like getting all mushy on you, so I won't.  He is the love of my life, he makes me laugh, and he's a total goofball.  He is what I am not.  We are pretty much exact opposites.  I am indecisive, he is decisive.  He can sit there and tell someone what he thinks without them getting offended, and is fearless in doing so.  He's proud of what he does and loves his job.  He's great at hanging pictures (I know this is weird, but it amazes me!).  He's confident and outgoing.  He's a good handyman, and wants to learn and do all that he can.  He is, for the most part, motivated.  A lot of the time you can't get the boy to sit down!  He can be a little nutty, but always means well.
2. Stryker & Spuz.  I love animals.  They are awesome.  I am a huge animal person.  I have a hard time if either one of them aren't around me.  My crazy, goofy, 90 lb labrador/german shepherd has a great temperament, never jumps on people, and is easy to train.  He is great with kids, other animals, and is a gentle soul.  He scares strangers who don't know him, often because of his size (yes, I think that's awesome).  When he looks at me he melts my heart.  Spuz is a fuzzy little man that we adopted at 3 weeks (yes, bottle fed even!).  He has an attitude of a cat, but rarely does anything destructive.  He loves his mouse toy, his scratching post, and canned food.  He doesn't eat too much, but gets daring to go outside.  Usually noises scare the bejesus out of him so that doesn't last long!  He is a cat who has a mean streak (I'm not gonna lie he will occasionally attacks me in my sleep), but always keeps an eye on me wherever I go.  And he's fascinated with water.  Either way, the two of them never judge, and are great companions.
3. The US of A.  How can I not love this place?  The more I think about places that are third world countries (like Afghanistan) I am more and more grateful that I was born here.  Many of you have heard stories of your own of experiences your family members have had with Iraq and Afghanistan with how people live.  I think it's hard to wrap your mind around living in places like this.  How many people's houses are literally mud huts, they have arranged marriages, and don't know their birthdays (just to name a few things that Americans don't often think about).  They fear for their lives because people like the Taliban are so forceful, vicious, and heartless.  You know those movies where they kill everyone in your family besides one person?  That happens there.  In real life.  They don't have clean water much of the time, many people don't wear clothing that looks clean, and if they do it doesn't stay that way.  They are far from the luxuries that we have here, and they take whatever they can get and as much of it as possible in fear that they won't have it tomorrow.  We take so much for granted.  We are so lucky here.
4. Mil Spouses.  I have to admit, I never thought that I would be so grateful for such a group of people.  Fort Benning was the beginning of my journey as a true Army Wife, and I have met so many amazing, beautiful, strong, resilient men and women along the way.  In no particular order:  Katie, Ashley, Cherie, Cassidy, Crissy, Kristen, Dana, Chantal, Clarice, Cathy, Kelly C., Kelly R., Sarah M., Heather, Clarice, and Merideth, you all have been amazing awesome women who I have been inspired by or gathered great strength from.  Thank you for being in my life (and sorry if I missed you in my name drop!!).  For all of you in the blog-o-sphere of life, you too make me laugh and sometimes make me cry.  I enjoy knowing you and reading your stories, they are both motivational and inspiring.
5. The Great State of Washington.  I love this state.  You have everything here.  You have oceans to your west, mountains to your east, and desert on the other side of the mountains.  You have rivers, lakes, and the Puget.  You have great wildlife like seals, whales, elk, deer, and bears.  You have evergreen trees standing tall on every hillside, and Mount Rainier is an amazing sight in the background.  You have the amazingly destructive yet beautiful volcano that is Mount Saint Helens.  There is great food, organic is huge here.  Wild salmon, clams, oysters, and more fresh seafood are abundant here.  Lots of wineries.  And if you get bored, you have Idaho to your east and Oregon to your south.  They too are full of amazing and beautiful adventures.  Wherever the Army takes us, I see us coming back here to stay and spend the rest of our lives when the craziness is over.
6. The Ocean.  Yes, I touched on this on my previous point, but I want to say it again.  I love the beach!  Chances are if its somewhat nice out and I have time off, that is where I'll be.  Granted the Pacific Northwest doesn't give you warm sand, warm water, and you definitely don't want to swim in most of the waters here (even though they do surf a lot in certain places here).  I love the fresh fish, shopping, and most of all the water.  Long Beach, Illwaco, and Ocean Shores Washington are a couple of my faves up here (Oysterville is near Long Beach, visit there to get yourself some very fresh oysters if you're an oyster lover).  You can't deny Oregon though (believe it or not their beaches are different), with Astoria, Seaside, Cannon Beach, and Lincoln City.  While your out there visit the Tillamook Cheese factory (get yourself some fresh and local ice cream and cheese!)  Not to mention most all of these places have their own farmer's markets in the summer with amazingly great treats.
7. Laughing.  I think this pretty much explains itself??  It's always nice to get a good laugh...
8. Baking.  I absolutely love doing it.  I love mixing things by hand and seeing the end result.  I also have a sweet tooth which doesn't help any!  I do make some killer care packages though filled with all sorts of sweet treats.  I want to expand my horizon with this, and will likely do so.  I think I'm going to make cupcakes from scratch for when Jesse gets home on leave.  My mom bought me a cupcake tower for my birthday and a cupcake icing decorator tool for Valentine's Day.  So I likely will give that a try!  I even saw them make icing from scratch on the Food Network with vanilla from a vanilla bean (by the way, check out the Food Network Magazine...They have stuff other than baking in there.  Some GREAT looking food!).  Love it!
9. Chocolate.  Dark chocolate is the best, but I'll take anything I can get!  I have to say, dark chocolate fondue (like from the Melting Pot) is to die for!
10. Starbucks.  What can I say?  I am from Washington, the great state of where the first Starbucks was founded.  Need I say more?  Oh yes.  I normally order a tall white chocolate mocha with caramel sauce.  Jesse and I both get the same thing. :)

Thank you all for listening to me babble!  Now I have a task for a few select members of my blog-o-sphere.  I get to select three people to pass this task on to and keep the tradition going.  Soooo, my three choices are:  Chantal, Cheryl at My Air Force Journey, and Hell Cat Betty.

Last Thursday of February

Is that positive?  I think so.

Today I pretty much devoted to errands.  Yeah, I probably was a bit lazier than I should've been.  I got up and talked to Jesse.  I know I haven't updated on him much recently, but there really is nothing new to tell.  No, he's not fighting in Marjah.  Again, there's nothing really new.  If you have any questions, please feel free to let me know via e-mail.

I mailed Jesse his care packages (two of them), got updated tabs for the Civ, and am at my parent's house waiting for some oatmeal raisin cookies to come out of the oven.  I have a whole bag of stuff to send Jesse at home, which I will still do over a period of time.  I have magazines, three weeks worth of the Army Times, and enough stuff for a St. Patrick's Day and an Easter care package.  I even have the dates picked out on when I need to send them to for him to get them on time.  I have some really cute ideas for these care packages, which I will touch base on at a later time.

I am trying my best to switch gears, forget about time, and just live life so it passes quicker.  I already want to change my calendar so that I can start making March plans.  I am going to have a lot to do and to write it all down is the best way for me to organize and remember things.  After these next couple of working days, I'm sure I'll start focusing on that.

I'm going to be meeting with my FRG leader to see what I can do to help out within our company.  I am looking forward to seeing how I can get more involved.  I do that on Sunday, and I'm excited!

I hope you all have a great friday!

The Crystal Giraffe

Look what I got from my husband today!
It has rhinestones on it so it's pretty!

For you who have e-mailed me regarding Jesse's leave date I will get back to you tomorrow!
Have a great weekend!

Day Off... Well, sorta.

So today I woke up knowing that I didn't want to go to the new house.  I didn't want to think about getting the pets registered, going to a fire safety brief.  I didn't want to work, I didn't want to paint, I didn't want to drive, I didn't want to get out of bed.  I just wanted a day OFF.  Well, that's not going to happen.  At least completely.

I heard my dad get out of bed probably about eight o'clock, treading down the hallway.  I called him into my room (I didn't want to get out of bed) and told him we weren't going onto post today.  Not gonna happen.  Here I was, thinking that I could use a break, de-stress a little.  I don't know why, but left alone with my own thoughts I seem to get more stressed.  I tried to get back to sleep, but my mind was buzzing.  Maybe next time I guess.

We didn't go on post, nor did we do anything remotely with the house.  I went out to Fred Meyer, they have some deals on bookshelves which I wanted to look at.  I also ordered some of Jesse's promotion photos, I will add the album at the end of the blog.  Let me know if you would like me to e-mail you the photos to print as you would like.  I also met up with our friend Gillian, who gave me the beautiful wine glasses I ordered from her Southern Living party.  I might just take a photo to post for you all to see.  They're quite pretty.

I picked up a couple of things to put in Jesse's next care package.  I'm not sending him anything since he still will probably be moving.  And I'm finally squared away with 2-1's Charlie company, where Jesse is supposed to be going to.  I researched some stuff, and did some much needed errands, then went to work!

Oh if you've been trying to use Hooah Mail (which I'm guessing no one has because I haven't gotten an e-mail!) Jesse's unit isn't on there yet.  So, you'll probably want to hold off on that for a while too.

I hope everyone's having a good week.  I'm going to go have some ice cream!

Jesse Overseas

Jesse Fishing....And Crabbing... And fishing some more!

So I realized just now I have NO album of Jesse fishing.  Whoops.  I don't really have anything to update at this moment.... Except 6 more days 'til I get the keys!  Yay!

Here's the album for Jesse and his fishing adventures:

Jesse's Fishing & Crabbing Adventures

Care Package & New FRG

So today was a pretty busy day for me, I have a temporary address for Jesse at the moment, in which I sent a ton of things he needed to.  We don't feel as though we should share the address with anyone at this time, just because this address is a temporary one.  There's a good chance in the next few weeks he should have his new one, and with the time it takes to get a care package, it has the possibility of missing him.  So, as I said before, I went and sent him some stuff that he needed, along with some stuff that he didn't really need... But they were fun.

Above I have a photo of my stationary that I am going to write him on (along with some care package items).  All this stationary is different colors, and have different colored envelopes.  I'm pretty excited about that... Even though I think I'm the only one between me and him!

Other than that (which I spent most of my morning doing) I got ready for work and headed out to the Tacoma Mall.  I called my friend Katie (my friend from Fort Benning and IBOLC's FRG) on the way out there, it was nice talking to her!  It feels like it's been forever!

In other Army news, I am getting placed in a Headquarters Company FRG (Family Readiness Group) of 2-1.  I'm very excited about that, finally getting more to where I would like to be in the FRG.  Jesse is excited too, happy that I'll be in the loop of the happenings of the battalion.  It's exciting!

There's going to be a lot going on this week and the week of Thanksgiving for me (and my family) so I hope time just flies!  I will post plenty of pictures for all of you to see.  My brother's 22nd birthday is on Thursday and he's coming home for the weekend.  We'll be going out to dinner along with doing cake and gifts.... Which reminds me I have to go shopping!

Goodnight everyone, and don't forget to remember a veteran this Wednesday!

November 2009

A Crabby Day

Yesterday Jesse went crabbing for the first time. He went with our friend Alan, his dad, and a friend of theirs. They left mid-morning, and headed off to Puget Sound. Once they got there they dropped off the pods and then grabbed lunch at a restaurant where you can pull your boat up and moor it there. Jesse had a burger that had meat, pineapple, and teriaki sauce on it. He loved it.

He came home in the evening with 3 crabs, and we had some pasta with that. It was a pretty good dinner!

Today isn't going to be eventful, Jesse went into work for just a couple of hours today, and I am just going to do a few things around the house (possibly take the dog out) before I run off to my first Battalion coffee. I will definitely update on how that goes!

Goodbye September!

Sorry it has been a couple of days since my last update.


Sunday Jesse and I got professional pictures done in Tacoma (by downtown Tacoma & by Point Defiance).  We did half of our pictures with him in his ACUs, and half of them in his civilian clothing.  The photographer is awesome, if you are in the Puyallup/Tacoma/Seattle area I highly recommend her.  You can see some of her work here:


http://www.juliewattsphoto.com/


I will post more about the photos, she's going to be putting them online after she's done editing them (which should be on Sunday).  If you're on my Christmas card list you'll probably get familiar with those pictures!! :)


Monday Jesse worked most all day, and while he was working he ran into like four NCOs (non-commissioned officers) that he had served with previously with third brigade.  He had a great time catching up with them, and was psyched when he called me after work to tell me all about it.


Yesterday Jesse and I went to the Newcomers Orientation on North Fort Lewis (which was mandatory for him), and something I did go to when we got to Ft. Benning.  Nonetheless, Jesse and I learned lots of information (like Ft. Lewis has about 35,000 soldiers and over 23,000 of them are currently deployed).  We also learned a lot of new information of what is available to us through the police and through recycling (I thought it was interesting at least! I don't know about Jesse...).  They also had lots of booths which had information services that are available to military families and the surrounding area (which, for the most part, we know already).  It still was very helpful, and I have to say that I recommend going if you are coming out to Ft. Lewis!  They had a LOT of information on childcare and information on what is offered for them.  None of which I knew, because of course, we don't have any children!


We have decided also that we are going to be moving on post very soon.  We get our keys on the 19th.  I will e-mail out our address to everyone when we start our moving process.  I do have the address now, but will let you all know closer to the date.  If you happen to send mail to my parents address, that is okay, we can still get the mail of course.


I finished my day yesterday with working, when I got home my very sweet adorable husband decided that he would surprise me with a new jacket (before I left I was saying I didn't have a jacket with a hood to wear to work) and a couple of movies to watch this weekend.  It was very sweet of him!


Also, this weekend Jesse and I will be going out to the wine country (Rattlesnake Hills, Yakima Valley area) on friday.  We will be staying there for the weekend, to spend some much needed time together before deployment.  Sunday we're going to meet up with a couple people we met at Ft. Benning and that  are currently stationed at Ft. Lewis.  Jesse was in IBOLC (Infantry Basic Officer Leaders Course) with him at Ft. Benning, and his wife was in the FRG.  They also have a dog, which is a white german shepherd, so we often ran into them at the Ft. Benning dog park (I visited that park religiously).  They are very nice people who bought a house in the Olympia/Lacey area, and I know Jesse is looking forward to showing him the ropes.


In other news, there was a tsunami warning on the west coast (for those who are non-west coasters that may not have known) which was very interesting to hear about last night!  The earthquake in American Samoa had caused most of the west coast to have this warning.  I feel like since we've been back I've noticed more of these tsunami warning signs than I had before (they're posted EVERYWHERE around here it seems... We do have a lot of water!).  Also, fall has officially come as of yesterday.  It has definitely cooled off!  I officially feel cold all the time.  I guess that's to be expected from a desert baby!


I'll probably post more tomorrow, I did get my hair cut and am going to post pictures soon.  The weekend is probably going to be pretty busy, but I will post pictures of Eastern Washington when I can! I do work more next week, nearly full-time hours, but after that I'm working next to nothing since Jesse's going to be leaving soon.  Please keep Jesse in your thoughts and prayers as he prepares for deployment!

A March Update

Hello All,

We are sorry that we haven't updated the blog in a while, but it has been a while, and we have some new information to update everyone on.

Stryker is doing well, we took him in to the vetinary office after a month of having him on his kidney diet, and he is doing well. It looks like the IV and the diet did well. We (and our vet) are very happy!

Jesse started IBOLC and seems to be doing well. The cadre seems to be very nice, and I have already made it to an event and a social with the other IBOLC wives and battalion commander's wife.

This past week Jesse got his orders for Italy. I know that I haven't really updated the blog lately with the latest information but now he's set to go to Italy with 173rd Airborne. If things go well with Ranger school, we should be set!

And Ranger school.... We think Jesse should be making the July 27th date. All of the Infantry officers have to go through both Airborne and Ranger school. For those who don't know what is involved in Ranger school... It is a 9 week course with 3 phases, 3 weeks for each phase. First phase is Darby, which is here on Ft. Benning. Second is mountain, which is in northern Georgia. Third is swamp phase, which is down in Florida. The school is both physically and mentally draining, but it's nothing that he can't handle!

Other than that, I believe that is what is all that is new with us! We will try and write again soon!

Stryker is Home!

Stryker is home! Yesterday I took him into the vet, and they did some bloodwork and turns out he's having some issues with his kidneys. They were going to keep him until Thursday but when I came in today to drop off his bed and some toys for him I found out he chewed through his IV they were giving him (to flush his system and normalize his kidneys). Not only did he do it once, but he did it twice. So I got to bring him home. They said he seemed to be doing better, and I have to feed keep him on a special kidney diet for a month. After that we have to bring him back in and they will do some more blood work on him, and we can go from there.

Other than that, that's what's new with us! Jesse's still in the field, and right now it's pouring down rain. So he's probably getting pretty wet! There are some tornado warnings in some of the southeastern counties of Alabama. Nothing to bad here though, just some heavier rain. He'll be home tomorrow evening though. Not only that but they're in barracks and they have hot showers. I actually think they have TV, possibly satellite. I haven't been able to talk to him long enough to find out.

Other than that, we're still going to Atlanta friday, getting back early afternoon to pick up Stryker from the boarding facility. I'll be posting pictures of Coca-Cola and of the Aquarium soon!