Bring On The Red Bull

That's sarcasm people. Ya get me?

 Over the past....3 weeks, I have been obnoxiously busy with all sorts of stuff!

I was inducted into the United States Army Chemical Corps

We had this cool ceremony where we got our regimental crests. It was something that I was really quite proud to be a part of. 

I got to see my parents for the first time in two months!

I graduated from AIT on 24 June 2013! 

I sang the National Anthem at said graduation (yuh...seriously. I did.)

I said goodbye to all my friends that are being spread out across the world to go to work.

I moved into a new building, with a new roommate. I am now in a different company with new rules, a different Standard Operating Procedure (SOP), and a whole lot more freedom. And a mini fridge! We pulled a switcheroo with the room across the hall. So ours even works.

I chopped all of my hair off yesterday....

Along with my new hair style, I also got this awesomely painful sunburn to go with it. It is just....so cute. 

And now, here I am. Blogging in my "spare" time. I really should be napping, but instead, I'm just going to compensate later with a lil' 16 Oz Red Bull. 

I have been having the time of my life for the past few weeks. I am not quite ready to return to the civilian world and be a weekend warrior once again. I know that it's inevitable, but I don't like to think about it too much...

I know that I have to move on and do work, but I kind of just want to stay put. I was just starting to get used to being here and living this life. I don't want to leave it yet. 

For the first time in quite a long while, I feel like I can say with confidence, I am happy.

My Not-So-Pearly Whites

Due to the fact that I hardly ever post pictures of me with a big, toothy, smile on my face, ya'll probably have no idea that I have ugly teeth. I try my best to keep 'em hidden.

See? No teeth...ever. I'm also considering rocking that lipstick on a daily basis...looove.

All my life, I've been self-concious about my smile. It has been explained to me by dentists that the reason my teeth are the way they are is because of when I was baby. Your teeth begin forming from the time that you are a baby (even your adult teeth) and when you have high fevers or problems in your baby-hood (is babyhood a thing? It should be) your teeth can form softer than they are supposed to. This causes them to be suseptible to everything that could make them less than perfect.

I have these ridiculously sensative teeth that are yellow and stained. They have basically zero enamle and they hurt all day every day. I can't bite a popsicle, suck on a piece of ice, eat anything sweet with my back teeth or really, go an entire day without a tooth ache.

You're probably wondering why on earth I decided to make a blog post about how I have ugly teeth. Well, it's because I'm getting new ones!

Yes, it's true, I'm getting ten beautiful, white new teeth and it makes me so happy that I could cry.

I can't start the work for them until after I get home from Basic and AIT, but I am still so excited.  I have been told by plenty of people, "I don't even notice it" or they ask "Why do you care so much about it?" Well, I just care...It really sucks to be afraid to laugh because a smile will spread across my face, or not smiling in a picture because I don't want anyone to see that I have an overbite or that I never had braces (would have destroyed my teeth even more)

Now, I'm finally going to get the change to smile and be okay with it. It's going to cost me, but it's also going to be worth it. I'm sure of it.

I plan on doing it a little bit at a time. That way, it won't dent my wallet all at once and it might not be as painful.  Maybe if I get lucky, I'll be able to start before I leave....I guess we'll see.

So this picture will be among the last with those teeth. Unfortunately, I can't say the same about the chins...

Celebration!

  

Today was an excellent day! I'm really glad it was too. I was needing a lazy day of awesome and that is what I got. I don't work on Tuesdays, so I usually make plans to do a bunch of crap I've been meaning to take care of. Usually I do it. Not today. Typically, that wouldn't be a happy thing for me. I like to be productive and I like to make accomplishments. There are only a few feelings I like more than crossing something off of my to-do list. 

This morning I took care of some Army business then I came home to my ridiculously messy room and turned on some Gossip girl. It's not my favorite show ever, but I'm totally in love with the Chuck Bass/Blair Waldorf dynamic so I keep watching it...That means that my room didn't get cleaned (I did do laundry though! I can stop looking like hobo at work and I can quit wearing my sister's clothes!) 

Also, my birthday present from my sister finally came. My birthday was May 14th...so it's pretty late. But it was totally worth the wait! Check out my brand-spanking-new Gem Wallet.

I have been waiting for this thing forever and I'm so excited. I carried it around everywhere I went today even though I barely left my house...

After I discovered my wallet and did some more procrastination and Gossip Girl watching (totally absurd what's going on by the way...) my mom reminded me that we had plans to go out for dinner to celebrate my joining the Army. She also informed me that she and my aunt had already picked where we were going. Luckily, it was BBQ place that was delicious so I wasn't annoyed :D 

We went to Famous Dave's. That must be Dave on the menu, but I'm not exactly sure.

I had this thing with two meats (I picked chicken and pork mmm...) and these mashed potatoes that were to die for delicious and potato salad. And that corn bread? Might have been the best I've ever had. 

My sister and my cousin thought they might try the extra hot BBQ sauce...Bad idea. You can see my cousin in the background (not posing!) with that holy-crap-this-stuff-is-hotter-than-I-would-have-guessed look on her face. 

Basically, it was just a really awesome family filled day of laziness that was a long time coming...And we all celebrated me being able to join the Army. That is a far cry from the crying and head-shaking that came with me joining the Marine over a year ago... 

Love it when I can come home and write a post like this.

The Bloggy Life

Yesterday, I got some good news.

On Tuesday, I get to go in for a consult appointment for the Army. Should they decide at this appointment that I am no longer broken and I can go the distance, I will begin processing for a waiver and I will become a Reservist for the United States Army. Boy, how things change.

When I started this blog, my intentions were to document my engagement, then my life with my Marine. I wanted it to be a place where I could talk about how I was preparing to build a happy home with my future husband and talk about how we survive this long distance relationship.

Things have definitely changed.  Like I said in my very first post, this blog is unlike others I have ever created. I wanted to actually talk about my life.

I have really gone through a lot of changes since I started blogging here. When I started in March, I was excited to be engaged, I missed J, I was jealous/sad/really lost. Things just weren't going well for me besides the fact that I was happy to have a ring on my finger.

Now here I am a few months later, feeling like a completely different person. I guess that happens a lot when you're this age though. Things have a way of switching up on you without notice. Really, it happens at all stages of your life, I guess.  Since I have started this blog I have...

complained a lot.
bought a bunch of thrifty things for my wedding.
been ridiculously unhappy with my life
been really happy with my life.
been unbelievably ungrateful for the things that I have.
gone to 29 Palms three times.
gotten broken up with.
made/planted a garden.
gotten back together with J (technically we're not engaged. But honestly, we might as well be...don't tell him that though ;))
decided to join a different branch and go to school.
taken the high road.
put a sewing machine in my room.
gutted my room of junk to prepare for a yard sale (It's tomorrow! I'm excited and sad...)
And I have been happier than I have ever been before...

Wow...what a flipfloppy blogger I am...

Happy 50th post to me!

Put A Smile On

Recently, I have leanred a little lesson.  I read some article that I saw in this post from a Military Spouse a while back and I have decided that now is the time to take it to heart.

To summarize just a little, the article is by a woman named Jessie Knadler.  She is the wife of a Captian in the Army Reserve holding down the fort while her husband is on deployment and she is talking about all of the challenges that come with being the wife of someone in the Millitary.  She spoke of how it is sometimes necessary to just say "Everything is fine" even when it isn't. And how sometimes, it's just not so easy to keep that up. That is a very brief summary. You can read the whole thing in the link I posted before.

Anyway, at the time that I read this, I didn't think much about it. I liked it, but I didn't feel like it related to me. J isn't deployed, I'm not raising a child on my own, and I don't really know of all the challenges that await me. But recently, I have been having quite a lot of trouble with myself. I haven't been happy with the way things are going for me. It's not because I'm unhappy with my relationship. This separation that we are going through is temorary and things will get better, I'm sure of it. The problem I'm experiencing now is more of one that he can't solve.

I'm upset that I got discharged from the Marines. I'm mad at myself for not having a plan B.  I sit here at my desk all day and blog about my problems and I haven't got a clue what to do to fix them. And unfortunately, this frustration with myself has seeped into everything else and caused me to be...perpetually grumpy.  And I suck at hiding it.
So when I'm on the phone with J, he gets grumpy becasue I'm grumpy and he dones't want to talk to me. And everyone in my family thinks that I'm being ridiculous when really, I'm just not happy and I'm tired of pretending...

That being said, I still need to supportive of J. It's important for me to not add to the stresses in his life. He's concerned about keeping up and making mistakes. He's worried about the upcoming deployment and being able to do his job. I don't need to be bothering him with my bad mood. I need to remember that...It's not worth making it even harder for him to be away from me...  So, I guess I will just put a smile on and do my best to be happy...

What I Learend At Work Today [Week 3]

I learned a lot of things today.

I did some cross stitching and I read some blogs of other people who are in my similar situation. They are married to, or are in realtionships with men in the military. Each one of them seem to have different struggles. Sometimes it's that they are raising a child alone. Sometimes they are surviving a deployment. Other times, they are just dealing with the every day struggles of loving a man in the military.

Well, I think that I learned something from these ladies, is that this is not as good as it gets. I read all their stories of how much fun they have in exciting new places and I see how wonderful  (and have felt how wonderful) it is when you see your man for the first time in so long. I learned that I need to try and see the bright side of my situation. I'm not alone in this and I have a whole lot to look forward to. I need to be more excited about it and less anxious.

I also read something that was...kind of strange. I saw something on Pinterest that was about "Fitspiration" I had never heard that word before Beauty Redefined told me about it. Basically, it's all those picutres you see on FB, Twitter (I don't tweet, but that's what the article was saying...so I guess I believe it.) and Pinterest that have a photograph of a very fit person with something "motivational" next to it such as "No matter how slow you are going, you are still lapping everyone on the couch".  They likend it to "thinspo" (the stuff that promotes eating disorders) and made is sound bad...This article was basically saying that we shouldn't be encouraging these types of Pins, tweets, etc. because they promote negative body image towards oneself. It makes you think that one body type is better than the other or even one type is "correct" when put next to another.

Personally, I like those motivational pictures. I don't really pin a whole lot of them. I have a few but they aren't exactly like the ones that are being described, but I feel like this article only saw one thing in these pictures:  The "perfect" bodies of the women. It's like they ignored the fact that the things that the little quotes say are not negative things most of the time. They are just trying to say, Hey, get up off the couch and do something active. It's good for you. The people that take that as "my body is not acceptable" should take a second look. Becase it's not about having a body that is right or the best, it's about feeling good about the way you look. And If you aren't happy about it, do something about it.

But of course, that is only my opinion...What do you think about "fitspiration"? Is it motivational, or does it make you feel bad about yourself?

I learned something else today, but it's really boring. I heard something on the radio this morning about it being the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812 this year and I realized I couldn't remember what it was about. Well, in case you were wondering, I found out that the war of 1812 began becasue Great Britain didn't want Napolean's France to trade with anyone so they started trying to regulate the trade from other countries including the US. The US having only just gained independence and not wanting to be threatened by the "Mother Country" began to defend themselves. They fought many battles that eventually ended with the Treaty of Ghent (Modern Belgium) that settled their issues and ended the war. Unfortunately, news of the Treaty didn't travel fast and another battle began against Andrew Jacksons' soldiers. They won their battle and it boosted U.S. Morale and was really a good thing for the US. So Cool. 200th anniversary of a pivitol war that no one knows anything about!  To learn more, I got my info from History.com. It's

And that! Is what I learned at work today.

Trampling The Pansies

It's offical, J is now a Fleet Marine. He is no longer "Student Status". 

I am so proud of him. Having followed him through this whole process and aspired to do the same things that he is now doing, I feel like I can...appreciate it. I am also insanely jealous. I can't even describe what I would give to be able to be a Marine. I wouldn't give J up for it. And my family. But that's about it.

You know, when I got discharged, it was a pretty big deal to me. I was sitting in the interview room with my recruiter and he looked and me and said, "I'm sorry but you've been permanently disqualified..."  I tried my very best to put on a my "big-girl" face and not get upset about it. In fact, I almost expected to feel a little relieved.

A little background might be helpful...
After J proposed, we kinda decided we might want to rearrange my plans a little bit and I considered asking to get discharged. I eventually decided not to but I got my date moved from March 5, 2012 to May 21, 2012. That's this coming Monday...So I figured, hey, if I get discharged because of getting hurt, it's no big deal because I thought I wanted to get discharged anyway. Right?

No. after 15 seconds after he told me it had sunken in and I started to cry. I felt like the biggest baby ever and my recruiter got this very scared look on his face. Poor guy...He had to deal with a crying 18 year old girl. No fun.

I texted J and and I asked him to call me when he got the chance. I got lucky and he called me about 2 minutes after I sent that text. My recruiter walked out of the room and I just lost it. I was crying so hard I couldn't speak. J was sitting there on the other end waiting for me to tell him that someone died.  Well, I finally caught my breath and I told him what had happened. I'm not really sure how he felt about it when I told him, but I felt like he was happy. I can't blame him. Not having to deal with two military schedules was going to be so much easier for our relationship (Even though right now, I feel like it doesn't get harder than this...unfortunately, I know that it does.) I know that somewhere in there he was happy and felt like it was for the best...And maybe it is, but maybe it isn't...

When I got home and spread the word of what happened, I was a mess. I was crying and worried about my life and I felt (and still feel) so very lost. Everyone basically made me feel like I wasn't allowed to feel that way. They (they being my family and J) kept telling me that I'm still young and have my entire life before my eyes and I shouldn't feel like I this. Well, I've got some news for them and for anyone else who has something to say about it.

I don't care how I should feel. And it doesn't matter one bit to me that I could, supposedly, have my pick of careers. I didn't/don't care that I might find something better. I'm just hurting. I'm hurting that my dream was taken from me. And I'm hurting because I've been too far from the love of my life for too long.

You might know better than I do, but I have to figure this out for myself...I need to grieve this great loss and find something better for myself and I don't need other people telling me what I should feel like and what it's supposed to be and what I could do...Those things don't matter all that matters is how it is.


I guess that until I figure that all out I'll just be...trampling the pansies.

29 Stumps

I don't have pictures becasue I suck.

I now understand why they call it 29 Stumps.
After getting off I-15  just after Primm and driving for 2 hours through the desert, we reached 29 Palms. As we began to get closer my sister starts to freak out. She's driving and saying things like, "Katie, you did see pictures of our hotel online, right? I mean this place isn't a crack hotel is it?"  Or there was this one before we were even close to our destination:  "I bet that we're just going to suddenly just go into a new dimension and we'll finally be in this dumb place."

And once we could actually see the "city" she started saying how she is pretty sure that we were in hell. Literally we just crossed dimensions into hell. She was freaking out and saying, "Is there going to be somewhere to eat? What if there's no food?!"
Of course food was her first concern.

Well, we got checked into our room and then headed to base to pick up my boy.  When I saw him, I think I almost fainted. I was so happy. I gave him a big hug and a kiss and I just looked at him for a second completely in love all over again and it was fantastic.

He went to get his stuff and grabbed his friend (The friend was to keep my sister busy while we had time alone ;)) and we headed off base and back to our room.

I wish that I could tell you all about how much fun this trip was, but honestly, there is NOTHING to do in 29 Palms, we swam in the hotel next to ours' pool and hung out in our air conditioned hotel room. We ate some food in the various popular restraunt around the area (Denny's, MickyDs, Mexican restaurant with a name that escapes me, BK), but honestly, I had a great time. When you're apart for so long, you just get used to missing the person you're away from, it's as if you just start to not feel the missing any more because it's a normal feeling. But when I saw him, it all came back at once how much I had missed him.
And lucky me, because my sister actually kinda hit it off withe J's friends (their names are the same actually...it got really confusing!) We're going back!
I get to return to my Marine again next week. And I already got work off and everything! I'm so excited. Even more so this time because I know what to expect and we'll be better prepared for the little amount of time that we get to spend together.

In other news, J told me yesterday that it's looking like their until won't be deploying until after the new year. That makes me very happy. I told him that I like that timeline much better than deploying this year. That means he might be home for Christmas! And we could possibly find time to get married when it's not on pre-depolyment leave : P I do not want to do that. I think it'd be a good idea because it's going to set us up financially for our future becasue until he comes back from deployment I will be living at home and getting his BAH for where I live. But I'll also have my own job and won't have much for living expenses so we can just save all that money and have quite a lot saved when he comes home and it's time for us to think about getting us a place to live and get all settled down, but I don't want to send my brand new husband off to war after being married for a week. Not cool. But, I guess I just need to get used to the reality of our situtation.

On the bright side, if his unit gets disbannded after this deployment, I might NEVER have to live in 29 Stumps!

591 Miles

You see this little map here? Tomorrow morning, I am embarking on this journey!  After all my complaining and being sad about wanting to see J, I get to go and see him!  We are both so excited we can hardly stand it. After four months of waiting and not knowing what even the next week would mean for us, we finally get to stand face to face. I have not been a very good blogger for the past few days due to the fact that I've been so busy trying to get shift trades at work, and that's where I typically do all my blogging. So for that I apologize, but I just thought I would share with you my exciting news. 

When I return, I will provide a long picture-filled post about how much fun we had together. I promise. The only down-side of this whole situation, is the fact that we basically only get to have one full day together. It's definitely not enough time, but certainly one full day together is far better than no days together at all. 

Hopefully we will have a safe trip and a good time!  

A DI Kind of Day

Today, I took a trip to a couple of different Deseret Industries stores. Known to we Utahns as the DI. For those of you who don't know, the DI is basically a secondhand store that is run by the LDS (Mormon) Church. It is a non-profit store that takes any and all donations. They have tons of clothes, appliances, furniture, house wares and basically anything under the sun that you could thingk of. They have it.

I went with intentions to find things to decorate at my wedding with. It might sounds strange to shop at the secondhand store for something like this, but I think it's smart!  I found myself exactly what I was looking for. I didn't really intend to buy 22 Mason jars...but I did. Each jar was only $.50.  I couldn't help myself.  I gave myself some rules before I left to shop. (1) I wasn't allowed to spend more than $30.00 and (2)  If I couldn't fit it all in the box, I couldn't have it. Lucky for me, I'm really good at packing stuff into a box : D. I ended up with jars of different sizes that will look great filled with stuff and painted and all cute...I'm so excited about it!

Also, I found these wicker basket deals that you put your paper plates on so that they don't dump your food off of them. I got 10 of them for $5.00. I'd call that a good find!  I'm planning on putting the jars on the wicker plates with hot-glue after decorating the jars with different things inside and out and putting something cute on the plate. Then I'll have these adorable little hand made center pieces that won't cost me more the $30.00 to make!

I feel very accomplished with my outting and I also feel like this DIY wedding is going to be possible. I'm so excited to start making and buying more things that are going to make our wedding special.  Oh, thrifting, how I love you!

A Proposal

In an effort to catch the blogworld up on why life as an almost-militar-wife, I believe I will be posting two updates today. Yay for double blog nights!

Below is an excerpt from my proposal. I had to work that night until 7:00 pm. I was...pissed to say the least. It was Christmas and J was only going to be home for 19 days. Besides that, it was our first Christmas together. It was definitely one I wanted to spend with him.

I had spent the few days before Christmas being minorly grumpy.  Why, you ask? Well, J and just gotten done with boot camp and was spending his money like crazy...So I decided, hey, he is definitely not going to propose because there is no way on earth he had the money to buy you a ring. I had come to terms with the fact that he would leave me again and I would be ringless (I wasn't too mad about it seems how we'd  actually one been together for less than half of our nearly 6 month relationship).  But still, a girl hopes.


So finally, it get's to be 6:50 pm...and I just logged out, quit taking calls and clocked outta there a little too early. I couldn't have cared less though. My man was waiting for me.
After all the presents had been opened, one remained. I opened it up and discovered......a box of shot gun shells. Terribly confused, J reached across me and pulled a little ornament out of the tissue paper I had tossed aside and shocked me with this!

I hope that my uncle in the back ground isn't too annoying...You know how family Christmas parties can be. Listen carefully and you hear him say, "Who is this guy?" at the end of the video. HA! leave it to good old Uncle Mark to ruin the proposal video...

Our Love Story

[EDIT: After reading this post myself, I realized that I said way too much stuff to tell a relatively short story. Here is the new and improved version of our love story!]

I think this will work best if I start from the very beginning.

On June 8, 2011 I swore into the Marines after a very long day at MEPS (Military Entrance Processing Station). It's a long process to get through medical and do all the paper work. By the end of the day, I was a proud Poolee of the United States Marine corps.

Shortly after my enlistment, my recruiter asked me to be a squadleader. In the DEP (Delayed Entry Program) it doesn't mean much to be responsible for other Poolees, but you're still expected to do certain things. In this case, I offered to pick someone up to go to PT.

Lucky me, that I had this responsibility, because if I hadn't, I never would have meant J.  On July 1, 2011, I pulled up in front of his house (I was way early...I was worried I wouldn't be able to find it...I had to kill time for over 30 minutes before I could actually call him to say I was there.) He got in my car and I said hello and introduced myself. I took a mental note of how handsome he was and pulled away from the curb.

After that day at PT, we texted a little bit and got to know each other. Not very well though.  A few days passed and it was the 4th of July. I was left high and dry without a date to go watch fireworks with. My friend had invited me to go with she and her boyfriend, but I wasn't about to be a third wheel. So after asking another friend from the DEP and getting turned down, I asked J. I was completely shocked when he accepted.

We drove up to this awesome look out point in downtown Salt Lake and watched fireworks all over the valley and talked about everything in the world.  When I was driving him home around 2am, I found myself thinking that wanted to just find more stuff to do. I didn't want the night to end...

After that night, we went out every night for the rest of the month. And the month after that. I went to Oregon and Seattle with his family. He came with me to bluegrass festivals and we spent the whole summer falling in love and having more fun that I ever knew was possible.

When it came time for him to go to boot camp, on September 19, 2011 my heart was broken but I knew that that day had to come eventually, we spent that whole Sunday enjoying each other's company before he had to leave me for 13 weeks so as to become a United States Marine.  That night I began furiously writing letters and getting in as much stuff as I could before my boot camp date (October 17, 2011) arrived.

Then, something very tragic happened that put a big twist on everything. On October 16th, the day that I was to go to the hotel to ship out the next morning I decided to go for a bike ride with a friend. He failed to mention that we were going mountian biking and I didn't even bring my helmet...Against my own better judgement, I went for it anyway and ended up getting injured very badly. I shattered and dislocated my elbow as well as fracturing a whole section of my radius. I also had a concusion that made me very confused. I didn't know where I was, how I got there, what had happened or what day it was and more. When I got the hospital, I was given morphine and a million other shots and they fixed me up and splinted me up and I had a BAD headache. I was a trauma 2. You can read the whole story here.

With J in boot camp, I didn't want to

tell him what had happened to me. His parents visited me in the hospital and I told them not to tell him what had happened. They tell you when someone you love goes to boot camp that you shouldn't bother them with things that they can't do anything about. So I chose to tell him that my boot camp date was moved back 3 months so that I could continue to write and receive letters up until he graduated. I told him my boot camp date was December 12th. He graduated on December 16th.

I'm Mean.

So I wrote him for the rest of boot camp and I showed up at his graduation with his family and I surprised him. He was so happy to see me. It was so worth the wait. 13 weeks apart in a brand new relationship was extremely hard, but when we met again, it was more amazing than ever before. It's true what they say; distance makes the heart grow fonder.

Seeing him march across that parade deck and try really hard to keep his bearing and not cry when he hugged me was possibly the best feeling in the world. I was so proud of my Marine and so beyond excited for my chance. (At that point, I didn't know I was going to get disqualified) He was a little bit upset that I had lied to him, but he got over it in a hurry because he was so happy to see me. All day he kept hunging me saying, "I can't believe you're actually here!"

Our first few days together were tough. I had to share him with his family and we barely got two seconds alone, but nevertheless, I was just so happy to be able to look at his face that I could really care less at the time.

On Christmas day, he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. Of course, I said yes. And herewe are. Waiting on the Marine Corps to tell us what to do and how to do it.

He is currently stationed with his unit and we are just waiting for the stars to align and the time to be right for us to be together forever and live happily ever after...

The Beginning

This blog is one unlike any that I have ever written.  Instead of being about the every day thoughts that tumble around in my brain, it's about my life. More specifically, my life that is yet to come. 
I am currently engaged to a United States Marine. I'm aware that you  think this is a blog you've read many times before about a girl who loves her Marine with all her heart and will support him and follow him anywhere he happens to go. And you would be right.
But we've also got a little twist to our story.

What's this twist you ask? Well I was supposed to be a Marine too.
We met in the Delayed Entry Program, or the DEP as it's most commonly referred to as.  Both of us were enlisted and had boot camp dates several months away. His was in September and mine was in October. We met on July 1, 2011. It was a hot day and we were heading to Physical Training (PT) together.  I had offered to pick him up because he didn't have a ride.  I had remember seeing him around and I didn't mind driving about 15 minutes in the wrong direction to go pick him up.  I even left about an hour early just in case I couldn't find his house or something...Kind of embarrassing.

Anyway, we didn't hit it off right away. We were just two kids right of high school talking about things that kids talk about. Music, the Marine Corps, tattoos, working out. Nothing too intense. But being the very social person that I am after that day, I texted him a little and we started talking and somehow, a few nights later it was the 4th of July and I was about to be a 3rd wheel to a good friend and her boyfriend. In a desperate attempt to avoid 3rd wheel syndrome, I texted him and told him what was up and amazingly enough he agreed to go with him to watch some fireworks with my friends.

After that night, we went out the next night. Then the next night, And the one after that, and the one after that...Basically, we just really seemed to get along and eventually decided that even though we were both heading off to boot camp in the fall, it was worth trying to be in a relationship. We made this decision 12 days after officially meeting eachother on the first of July...

Kinda quick. But here we are almost 9 months later, engaged and happy as can be.

There have been a few bumps in the road already for sure.

I broke my arm the day before my boot camp date and have now been "Permanently Disqualified" from the Marine Corps.
And I surprised J by showing up at his boot camp graduation in December.
He popped the question on Christmas night. And here we are. Planning to get married....10 years from now.
Okay, so not really, but that is certainly how it feels. If you thought that being married to someone in the Marines was difficult. Trying being engaged to one...forever.

This blog will follow us into matrimony and beyond...That is if we ever get to the matrimony part.