Fall is here!

Oh I am so happy fall is finally here! I love the cooler weather, all the leaves changing colors (and I have a beautiful pair of brown boots I am eyeing!!) and all the holidays that come with it. Obviously, Halloween has come and gone, but fall is definitely still in the air here in eastern NC. While some people are eagerly Christmas shopping, I still like to remember Thanksgiving!

I am so excited for Thanksgiving this year as we will be going to Kentucky to meet up with my parents, sister, and my brother and his family. Ugh, I am so unbelievably ready for not only Thanksgiving itself, but to see my family!!! The last time I have seen my family was in May, and yes, time has gone by quite fast, I still miss them terribly. Luckily, I will get to spend almost 4 days with them!!

So... obviously, I have changed my blog to better represent the season. And in a way, it is also very representative of how I have been feeling lately. I need a change. A change of pace, a change of activities, a change of hairstyle or something!! In all seriousness, I have been really trying to figure out what God's plan is for me and how he want me to use my 'talents' if you will. I have my own ideas, but I am trying to keep in mind those are only the things that I want, and not necessarily what God wants for me. One thing that I struggle with is that I thought I was supposed to figure this out in college - that's why you go to college right? To search and find ways to use the talents God gave you and use them to the best of your ability. To choose the career path that best serves Him. Well... I don't know what that is, and I've been done with school for almost a year now. What am I supposed to be doing? What is His plan?

And in the meantime, while I try to make my eyes and ears ready for his response... I try to keep busy. Today, Ray and I raked leaves! And I will gladly insert a picture to show you how many there were! And what better reference to use than the Mini!

The 236th Marine Corps Birthday Ball was this past Monday for Ray's squadron. We had an okay time... not as good as last year, but I'm chalking that up to a bad DJ and not knowing as many people as I did the year before.

Let's see... Oh! We also made a trip to Chicago, IL (ok, well outside Chicago) a couple weeks ago for one of Ray's friend's wedding. It was absolutely beautiful and we had an amazing time!! Congrats Nate and Kelly!! (I am aware the pic is fuzzy... but I like it! hehe!)

As of right now, that's all we've been up to as of lately (and I'm not going to summarize the past nearly 3 months that I have failed to blog - mostly just work and auto-x). But auto-x is coming to a close for the season next weekend and then the next weekend is Thanksgiving!!! AHHHH!! I'm so happy!!

 So that's it for now! All my love :)

Thought I'd include a picture of our Jack-O-Laterns this year. Guess you can't guess who carved which one ;)

Went for a drive today. We were just waiting for the ferry :)

My first hurricane - Ms. Irene

Well, we survived. Obviously... I'm writing this! But seriously... here is how the past several days went:

Wednesday
Talk of the coming hurricane was growing, and we decided tonight was the night to buy our supplies. I don't remember exactly what Ray and I did that day, only that we were both very busy, and I didn't go to Wal-Mart until about 9:00 that night. (And for those of you who do not know, since I've started working, I'm basically worthless by 10 pm.) I was starting to get a little worried that night so I was rushing around, making sure we had everything, and didn't end up going to bed until around 12 am.

Thursday
I was wanting to leave town. Seriously, by the time I got off work on my way home, I was ready to pack up everything and hit the road. I listened to the radio on the way home and freaked out enough for the both of us. All I saw on my way home was trucks hauling trailers and boats the opposite direction I was driving. I didn't want to have to worry about the water, the wind, the electricity, flooding, etc. Basically, I was scared. Ray was being logical and saying we were going to be fine, he's been through this before, it wasn't looking like it was going to be that bad, etc. (and it ended up, he was completely right).  However, Ray reassured me we would put plywood over the windows and everything would be ok.

Friday
It was a strange feeling going to work that day. I didn't know if I would work a full day or not, but I went in expecting to work all day. At about 11:30, my boss asked if anyone had gotten the mail yet (I usually get it on my lunch break around 2:00), and asked me to go ahead and get it. By the time I got back to the office, the rugs had been taken up off the floor, along with the electronics and everything was unplugged. Apparently we were leaving early! I ran the last few errands of the day and then the office closed up around 1:00. Now that was a strange drive home! Seeing "Hurricane Evacuation in Progress" on the electronic boards on the highway was a little eerie, especially considering I was heading east...

But, there was good news. Irene was now a category 2, as opposed to a category 3 like they had been predicting. We were just praying it stayed more east.

Now, here is where I get a little frustrated... Ray was supposed to be getting plywood from someone at work. Ray goes over to this guy's house around 4:30, and helps him some, then goes to pick up a buddy from the airport and take him to his house in New Bern, then has to come back to Havelock. By the time Ray gets home, it's beginning to get dark, has already been raining and the wind is starting to pick up. But the worst thing is that I can see Ray's frustration when the guys bring the plywood into the garage. Basically, it's crap and we'd only be able to cover one window with it. Here's what just plain ticks me off - Ray is one of the most giving people I know. He gives of his time, his effort, his hard work, to help someone - anyone. And what does he get in return. "Well... this is all there was." In a time where people should be coming together to help each other, people are just being rude and self-centered. I know for a fact, that if Ray and I had gotten plywood and someone would have asked if we could pick up some for them (because they don't have a truck or a way of hauling it) he would have said "no problem" and then he would help put it on. And if there wasn't hardly any left, he would have split it 50/50, even giving them the better pieces. Ok, vent over.

So ANYway... by the time we get things figured out how we could possibly use the plywood, we basically just say "meh" to the whole thing and decide against covering our windows in the rain and wind. Instead, I go inside, make beef stroganoff for dinner, muffins for breakfast for Saturday, and have a movie night.

Saturday
We wake up around 7:00 to more rain and wind. Still, nothing too terrible, but we have no power. We turn on the radio to find out what's happening with Irene. It ends up making landfall about 7:30 on Ocracoke Island as a category 1, so we didn't end up getting it too bad. In fact, throughout the day, the news kept reporting it was horrible, and destructive.... but quite frankly, it wasn't that bad. Now, let me say this: I have heard New Bern has had a lot of water, but New Bern doesn't drain very well to begin with because it's built up so much, annnnnnd it's on the river. Anyway... Saturday consisted of several naps and severe boredom. You don't know how addicted you are to something until it's taken away - internet. But, it was actually nice to spend quality time with the hubby. And bonus... Magma was extra lovey! We did get a little cabin fever and we headed out in town while there was a lull later that evening. We saw some downed trees and some flooded ditches, but nothing too terrible. Nonetheless... the media still played it up to be way worse than it was - I promise, Dad!!

Oh, haha... I almost forgot the best thing.... When the wind started blowing in from the west, it started blowing in water through the vents on the outside of the house. This meant we had water dripping from our bathroom in our bedroom, our front bathroom, above our pantry in the kitchen, and best of all... the bubble of water that was in between the paint and the wall (and yes, I will include that picture). We lost a couple singles, but other than that, everything was fine :)

Sunday
We woke up to a beautiful morning! Not a cloud in the sky, but still no power. Ray and I picked up some limbs and then started raking the yard. With the two of us, it took hardly any time at all. We talked to a couple of our neighbors (who have generators by the way... which we are thinking about making an investment in) after we were done. The power ended up coming back on a little before noon today. Which is awesome because we had heard it could be off for 3-7 days. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU ELECTRICIAN PEOPLE!! YOU ARE AWESOME!!!!

Thank you for all your prayers and thoughts. We know we are very lucky and I thank God he protected us from what could have been a very dangerous situation. And now... what you've been waiting for... the water bubble:

I haven't shared any pictures in a while, so I thought I would include some :) I'll actually write later, but it's already past my bedtime and I still need to do a few things around the house. so... pictures will have to suffice. Loves to all!!

Magma and I on my birthday. My wonderful hubby got me clipless bike pedals and shoes (not in the giant box) and "Confessions of a Military Wife" - a book that was lovingly taped to the bottom of the giant box, hehe!

We have a mini! And not just a toy one - a real one!!

Missing home a little this week...

Friday at work, a sister of one of the ladies I work with came into the office. It was kind of comical to see how much they looked and sounded so alike. It definitely reminded me of Rachael and I. It seems like everyone tells us how much we sound alike and how you can definitely tell we're sisters. But to be honest, the whole experience just reminded me of how far away from my family I am. I know, I was having another pitty-party. But my thought process went something like this: 1) Haha! You and you're sister remind me of me and mine! 2) Aww, that's sweet that family members come in to say hi at work. 3) Aw... that makes me kind of bummmed... my family is too far away. 4) Stupid North Carolina! You're too far away from Missouri! 5) *pushing thoughts out of my head and trying to concentrate at work*

I don't know why it's bothering me so much lately. Maybe because Greg and Hilary (my brother and sister-in-law) got to go home last week and I won't be able to see family until Thanksgiving. I guess it just all hit home too hard. I normally don't dwell too long on it, just because it makes me sad so quickly. So I guess you could say my coping mechanism for that would be denial - I try not to think about it. And when I do think about it, I don't dwell on it and force myself to focus on something else.

Like even now, I had so many thoughts racing through my head, but when I try to "write" them all down, I don't want to make myself think about it. So instead, I'm going to go get ready for church.

Love you all. So much.

Happy birthday - To everyone in born in July!

Since it has been so long since I've been on here, I figured I needed to start with something simple such as telling all my family happy birthday! Ok, ok... not everyone has their birthday in July in my family, but a large portion does. So... here goes: Happy birthday to...
My uncle David - July 4th
My wonderful Dad - July 9th
My beautiful sister - July 11th
My uncle Aaron - July 13th
My aunt Sara - July 14th
My beloved Mommy - July 15th
My aunt Jan - July 17th
My aunt Julie - July 20th (and meee!)
My father-in-law Kent - July 24th

There are also several friends who have b-days in July... but I'm a slacker (clearly... you follow my blog, or at least when I post). Nonetheless, Happy birthday to Sam, Emily, and Jaime!
Oh my goodness! And congratulations to Erica and Malissa for each getting married! I wish more than anything I could have been there for you both, but time and distance don't always get along.  Erica - who would have known that a friendship that started out in one of the most difficult classes (International Relations) would have remained so strong. We went through so much together those last semesters - actually making it through IR, getting trampled at the football game, engagements, concerts.... we did it all :) I wish you and Ryan nothing but the best! Love you girl! Malissa - it would have been so great to get to celebrate with you in South Carolina. Your dress was gorgeous, as were you! You and Jason looked so happy!! All the best to you both :)
I promise that I thought about my blog almost once every night. Considering how long it's been since I've last blogged... that's several times people! But, if you haven't noticed by now, I failed Jillian Michaels. Ugh, I absolutely hate to write that since it was something that I enjoyed (when I wasn't in pain). I don't know if I'm going to start it back up again or not though. It was a great workout, but just thinking about how long level  1 was makes me unmotivated.

How do people do it? Work at their job, work out, take care of a family, get in their hobbies, get things done around the house. Right now, I'm still trying to establish a good schedule of work and making dinner for the hubby and I. Hmmm... I did a load of laundry tonight, I guess that's progress??

On a random note: I'm thinking of chopping off my hair again. I really do love it long, but it's so annoying in the heat and humidity. I generally pull it back in a pony tail for work, and It's starting to hurt my head. Buuuuut... I really like it long, and think I would miss it when the cooler weather comes around. Decisions, decisions. I know, life altering ones. Don't worry, I'll keep you "in the know" about the choices I'm facing - because I know everyone on blogger is eagerly awaiting my decision.

Well, it is now 10:30, 30 minutes past when my brain has shut off for the night, and I now wish I had started this earlier. Ok, well no promises on when I'm going to post again, but let's hope it's soon. Good night all. I love you :)

Happy Independence Day!!

Happy 4th of July everyone! I know this is where I need to gush my love for my country and for everyone who has sacrificed... but right now I'm just trying to keep my eyes open long enough to get this written. But just for the record, I'm pretty sure I live in the greatest country and am so incredibly lucky and proud to be an American.

Ok, that being said, I fail at life. I basically cannot get motivated enough to finish the 30 day shred, much less blog about it. Yeah, I could just lie to everyone and say how great I've been doing and I'm basically finished with it and blah blah blah... but of course, that would be completely untrue. Plus, I have a job now (Yay! Wahoo! Woot! Woot!) and that just gives me even more of an excuse not to find 20 minutes of my time to do the workout. Like I said - fail. Ugh. I don't really want to think about that right now. So, I'm moving on as of right now. I'll write more at a later time. (Hugh, funny how I do believe I said that in one of my previous posts... I need to look back at that.)

Ray and I have had a pretty good weekend. Friday we went and watched Transformers 3 and it was pretty good. Overall, it was a good movie experience - humor, suspense, action, etc. The downfall? Two and a half hours of it got a tad long... Nonetheless, I still give it a great review :) Saturday, we headed down (up? over? I don't know.) to Topsail Beach where our friends' family rents a beach house and hung out with them for the day. It was a very relaxing, just plain awesome day. I even found a sand dollar! It was alive when I found it, and then it ended up dying in the bucket by the end of the night. But that's ok, haha. I'll put a pic up of how it turned out once I bleached it and everything. Sunday we were lazy and just hung around the house. Today we went to Mindi and Dustin's house in Jacksonville for an afternoon bbq, then went and met up with Ray's cousin, Daniel and his family. We stayed there for a bit and then headed onto base (at Camp Lejeune) for the fireworks display. I would have attempted to take a picture but I didn't grab the memory card for the camera before we left - yet another fail. Ooooohhhh welllllll. Traffic was crazy on the way back tonight, specifically going into Jacksonville, which made me very happy we were going the opposite direction.

Well, I'm pooped and just want to go to bed. I'll include more interesting things and pictures on the next post. Love you all and sorry this was a little lackluster...

This week in recap, and Happy Father's Day!!

Ok Suzanne. Get with the blogging program! Man, I have really been slacking!

I had a great time this week! It started off by me hitting up Michael's (Craft Store) and finding some great deals. I went there originally wanting to pick up some letters to put above our bed. (It's sooooo plain in there!) There were some large wooden letters that would have been great for hanging and adding fabric or patterned paper to make them look really pretty. But then I realized, I'm not a very crafty person and who knows how they would have turned out. So, instead I picked out some paper and decided I'm going to spell LOVE above our bed, with each letter in its own picture frame. Now this is something I can do :) It took me a while to choose the patterns, but I finally found the ones I wanted. Yay! And then, because it started downpouring outside, I decided to check out the clearance aisle. I thought maybe they would have some cheap frames to put the letters in, but they were all too big to put above our bed. But I did find two vertical frames that would go on either side of our "*Last Name*" frame. And, I can now happily report that we have 2 of our 3 pictures hanging on our walls, YAY!! Haha! It's crazy how long it takes when you don't have everything you need right off the bat. Nonetheless, we just have one more picture to hang and I'm waiting on something to go underneath it so it's not just hanging in mid air (at least that's what I feel it needs).

So, that was pretty much my Monday. Oh, I did forget to say that that was the first day of level 2 of the 30 Day Shred. My oh my... that was hard! It's a fun workout, but man is it difficult! I thought I would be really sore when I woke up Tuesday, but it was mostly just my gluts! Anyway, Felicia and I went to Zumba Tuesday morning. Wow! Talk about being completely drenched in sweat (ewww, gross I know, but it's true). It was a lot of fun though, and the instructor is really nice. We went to the class that's offered on base (mostly because it's free) and it was very comfortable. I didn't feel judged or looked at weird like I thought I might. Don't ask me why, just being self-conscious I guess. We ate at a sub place on base and then went to the pool. We ended up seeing the Zumba instructor there so we talked to her for a little bit. The water felt great and we stayed for quite a while.

Wednesday I did my Jillian workout, ran some errands, and then went to my friend Mindi's house. Thursday was Zumba again and then Felicia and I just hung out. Friday, I was a complete bum. There's really no other way to put it. I told myself that I had earned a day off, and that was that. However, not doing anything put me in a weird funk, so I don't think I'll be doing that again for awhile. I made shrimp fettuccine alfredo last night and Ray and I took some to the guy who watched Magma for us while we were gone. I'm actually very glad I made a double batch, because that stuff is SO good! Then Ray and I went to the beach. It was a good night for it, not busy, and not too cool (since it was dark by this point). All-in-all it was a good week. Even better because Ray made pancakes this morning :)

I hope it won't be so long until the next time I blog - I need  to get better about it. Oh, and since my father is not on facebook and he cannot see my profile picture, I'll include in in here since Father's Day is tomorrow. Dad - your card is on it's way, but probably won't be there until Monday or Tuesday. Sorry! hehe.

Love to all, especially you Dad!!

Short Post :-)

Ok everyone, here's a little post so I can say that I'm slightly keeping up with this blog...

- Yesterday, Felicia and I went to the beach. It was a beautiful day! We got in the water a couple times even though it was pretty rough. However... I got EXTREMELY burnt! I know, I know... go figure Suzanne. Wow, you got burnt. What else is new? But I haven't ever gotten burnt on my backside like I did yesterday. It hurts to sit down. It was my own fault for using only tanning spray... you know that stuff with like 4 spf? But on a good note! I used regular sun screen on my arms, shoulders and face! So those didn't get burnt at all :)

- Today, I was lazy because of my horrific burn, so I physically could not do the workout. But hopefully my skin will actually not hate me tomorrow and will allow me to move my legs without causing extreme pain. Oh, I also made no bake cookies this evening :)

So.... um, I guess that's it! Nothing too exciting has gone on. We're lame. Right now, Ray is torturing Magma, trying to make her fit into a tiny box. I'll leave you on that note :)

We're alive I promise!

Oh my goodness has it been a long time (for me at least) since my last blog post! Don't worry... we're alive and well :)

I went back to Missouri for my sister's wedding! Aaahhh! I'm still reliving the beautiful day it was!! (*insert huge happy face here*) Thinking back, it was quite a world-wind week that I was home. I flew into MO on the 20th and was at my parents house for almost a week before going to stay with my sister the last few days before the wedding. That weekend we had crazy weather, and it continued pretty much the rest of the week. I believe it was the 22 when the devastation in Joplin happened, and my heart still goes out to all the families affected. And even the days following we had crazy weather with tornado warnings and watches. Our family just kept praying it would workout for Rachael's outdoor wedding on the 29th and we kept a close eye on the weather forecast. On Friday of that week, we had her Bridal Luncheon at a local winery's visitor's center where we went on a small walking tour and then had lunch. Then it was off to Rach's bachelorette party!! We headed down the road to the actual winery and met a couple more people. We sipped on some wine, gave her some of her gifts (and I'll let that remain just between us girls!), and then went back to her house to meet another friend before we headed off to dinner. Little did she know we had a limo picking us up! The look on her face was priceless! I wish I could describe it on here, but it would end up just being a "Suzanne story" and for those of you who don't know what that is... you're blessed.

Anyway... we had a great time! And the weather was nice to us from that day on (it was a little cold that Friday, but nothing unbearable). Then Saturday, Rachael, Hilary and I went and got out nails done and did some other last minute errands before the rehearsal dinner that night. (Side note: It was so cute at the rehearsal though, because that's when I first saw how nervous she was! When Dad walked her down the isle, she didn't even look at Tom! Haha, she just kept her head down and was very serious about everything! lol - ok, there was a bit of a "Suzanne story" for you) Ray had gotten in early Saturday morning after spending the night in the airport in Atlanta and then met us as the rehearsal. But after dinner, Ray, Mom, Dad, Rachael and I all headed back to Rach's house to work on programs. It was a fun night getting her all ready to get married the next day :) Another thing I'll always remember.

Since the wedding wasn't until 4:00 Sunday afternoon, we didn't have to be up super early. We got to the reception site around 10 where the hair lady (I know, that's her official title, haha) was waiting for us and we took turns setting up tables, chairs, center pieces and everything else. It looked beautiful and better than that, the sun was bright and shining! It was even kind of hot! All the guys showed up around 12 to set up the chairs for the ceremony outside and next thing you know, it's closing in on 4:00. Rachael was nothing but calm and collected the whole day (or at least that's what showed hehe). She said she had the nervous/excitement, but I would say all-in-all, that's a good thing to have. I have seen some beautiful brides, but I think my sister trumped them all. She was gorgeous and when she walked down the isle, Tom could barely contain his emotions and the former Marine shed some tears. (Ray even admitted he teared up, but shhhhhh! He doesn't read this!! haha!) The ceremony was beautiful and everything turned out great! The reception was so much fun and I hope the Bride and Groom were able to enjoy themselves, but most of all just be able to take everything in and remember the day as a day of love, celebration and pure joy.

Monday morning we went back to their house for a brunch and present opening (my duties didn't stop at the wedding! Since I missed her shower, I was the one who had to write down the gifts). It was great to be able to spend some extra time with everyone before we had to take off the next day. But before we left on Tuesday, we were able to stop by and see my friend Emily who lives in St. Louis and have some lunch. I hadn't seen her since our wedding, so it was great to be able to catch up. Why I didn't take a picture I have no clue...

So, I guess this brings us back to the almost-present. Last week I started catching up on things around the house (ok, ok, mostly things on the internet) and next thing you know the weekend is here. We went to the beach on Friday after Ray got off work. Saturday, Ray fiddled with his car and I helped a little, then that evening we went to our friend's house and had bbq before heading to the movies to see "The Hangover 2." We heard mixed reviews on it, but I think all four of us agreed that it was just as good as the first one. Good times :) Then on Sunday Ray and I went to the beach! Although... it has gotten quite lame that you have to pay to park in the public parking spaces... what's the point of that?! Ok, I get the point of it, but it's just not cool. $10 parking?! No thank you... we'll just go somewhere else... and so we did. (I should say that that's just from the hours of 9am -5pm, but still.... bleh! They should just make it on the weekend so they can get money from the tourists...) So we made out way down to a different area (I'm not saying where though! Ok.... It's public... not a big deal... everyone probably already knows where it is anyway...). ANYway! We finally got to the beach and the sun is trying to come out behind the clouds, and then we end up seeing dolphins! Adorable, cute, dolphins! And not just one or two like the other time we saw them. There was a whole pod! Twice! It was super cool and totally made not paying for parking that much better :) And that my friends and family, has now brought us up to the present.

Oh blehhhhhh! Jillian Michaels! Oh good grief I'm never going this long without blogging again... Ok, so I failed when I was home and I only did the workout once. So... I started it back up on Friday, and am planning on doing level 1 until Wednesday to get myself back into it, and then going onto level 2. Ok yay! That's it! I'm going to Zumba tomorrow with Felicia - wish us both luck! And I'm including the vid I took of the dolphins. It's the black dots that appear a little farther out than the people were swimming. I so wish the camera would have picked them up better! They were fairly close, but it's hard to tell. Oh well, enjoy anyway! Lots of love!!

PS: Ok, maybe not... The video was taking hours to load, so I cancelled it and will try again tomorrow. Sorry!

Day 8!

I feel like I actually accomplished things today! It all started because I couldn't get back to sleep when Ray left around 6 this morning. So instead of waiting until I did fall asleep, I decided to get up, eat some breakfast, and start my day! But first, I had to watch Army Wives (duh! it was a new episode last night!)... After that I popped in the dvd and off I went into the workout! It felt a little different doing it so early in the morning, but it was a great way to start off my day. I was showered and doing laundry by 10, which is very unusual considering I had been sleeping until 9 these past couple weeks.

As far as the workout is concerned, I do feel as though I am gaining endurance and things are coming a little easier for me to do. However, I have been doing the girly pushups (on your knees) and tried to do normal ones today... yeah... that's not happening.... I'll try it again tomorrow though. Other than that, things went pretty well!

Basically the rest of my day consisted of laundry, vacuuming, dusting, dishes, etc. It's nice to be able to relax the rest of the day instead of putting off the workout until the very end. However, as productive as my day was, I still didn't get everything done I wanted to. I didn't go to the post office, or Wal-Mart which I HAVE to do before I leave town. I guess I'll just have to get that done tomorrow! Oh, my friend and I are going to a Zumba class tomorrow... which us luck!

Dear 30 Day Shred:

Ugh! I feel like I'm totally failing at this whole thing! I didn't do the workout again today (I say again because I didn't do it on Friday). However, Ray and I did do a pretty mean bike ride today... so I guess I can count that.

Now, when I say we went for a bike ride today, I should also mention how windy it was! I wish I knew what the speed was, but I don't. All I know is that it was not an easy task on our way back. All-in-all, we guesstimate we bike about 8 miles. And one of these days I'm going to pay attention to the time we start and the time we end.

Speaking of biking, I really want clipless pedals! Ray has them on his bike (he got them mostly for the trail biking he does), but I want some so I can actually keep up! I mean, I keep up just fine, but I've done my research and clipless pedals can really help your endurance. Basically it makes better use of your energy and effort. So I went ahead and told Ray that I'd like to have them as a birthday present. So here it is people! Written down for all to see! He should have no excuse for not knowing what to get me for my birthday, hehe!

Well, I'm going back to MO in less than a week! So that means hard-core cleaning, laundry, and grocery shopping for Ray, haha! I definitely have a working to-do list in my brain of things I need to get done before I leave. So much to think about!! Ok, off to bed! G'night all!

Day 7 with Jillian

Ok, getting a little back to posting normally again. Today is day 7! Woot woot!  I'm a little disappointed in myself that I didn't workout yesterday, so I really tried to make today's count. I don't know if it was the humidity or what, but I think I sweat more today than the first couple of days. I actually feel like I'm getting stronger, at least in my arms. My legs feel like they can take more, and I think there might be abs underneath my stomach! I'm planning on doing 3 more days of the first workout, and then move on to the second level. Oh, I almost forgot to mention that Ray did the workout again with me today. It's fun to have him there next to me!

Today Ray made pancakes for breakfast (this is the benefits of having a hubby who gets up at the crack of dawn) and then we headed out to run some errands. Then we went to the beach for a couple hours. It was overcast, but still a great day because it was only a little windy and a great temperature. There was even some kind of junior surfing competition going on, so that was cool to watch! We stopped by a consignment store on the way home, but didn't see anything we couldn't live without (I'm currently on the hunt for an entryway table and don't want to spend the $150 for one at Target). When we got home, Ray mowed the lawn and I gabbed with Rachael for a bit. Then we did the workout, ate some dinner and then went to meet up with Ray's car club people. I know I shouldn't be surprised, but they really do just stand around and gab and gab and gab and gab and gab and GAB! about car stuff! The guys were pretty nice, I had met some of them already through Ray's auto-x races. After that, we came home, cozied up on the couch and finished "Shooter" That's it for our Saturday! Next time I'll take pics of the beach and make everyone jealous though! ;)

Loves! XOXO

I know, I suck...

I was supposed to post last night after my workout but, again, I didn't do it until late at night (11 pm) so I just went straight to bed. The workout was good. I felt good after I was done and everything, but my knee was kind of bothering me, so I didn't add extra weight on it when I was doing certain exercises. I actually woke up today with my arms sore as well as my hamstrings. Oh well, at least I'm still feeling it!

Today I had an appointment to see a specialist about my IBS. Unfortunately, I have to have a procedure done that I'm reeeeeally not looking forward to. Honestly, I just really hate feeling like I'm 60 years old when I'm only 22. Seriously, when I was in the office, it was mostly people over the age of 60. Ugh... so irritating. Luckily, I have a husband who is very supportive and tells me things are going to be ok, even when I feel so low. He's truly amazing and I am completely blessed to have him in my life.

Tonight we went to a going away party for a friend of ours who I am very sad to see go. She's going to school in Kentucky, but has a very good friend still here, so I think she'll still visit often. She was basically the second girl I met when I got here last summer and was so friendly and welcoming. Basically, she's awesome, haha!

Tonight, I'm taking it easy. Yeah, I know I should do the workout. But I'm going to snuggle on the couch with my man tonight. Yay for the weekend! G'night all!

XOXO

PS: Magma is recovering well and is actually laying on her box (like in this picture) as I type this. Here's a pic of her from about a week ago. I know some haven't seen a her since she was a kitten!

Day 5, yesterday

Ok, so I know... I didn't write yesterday. But it's not because I didn't do the workout. It's that I didn't do it until 10:00 pm and then I went straight to bed.

I had to get Magma to the vet yesterday morning by 9 to get her spayed. Boy was she not wanting to get in her carrier... I think she knew where she was going. I had to leave her there for the day (my poor kitty! abandoned!) so I came back home and did a few things around the house. Ok, let's be real Suzanne, I didn't do much yesterday. I filmed a video, edited a little bit of it, and then headed out the door to take one of my friends to the airport. If there's one thing I learned from her, it's that traveling with a 4 month old and a 2 year old is NO small task! God bless her, and all other parents who have traveled by themselves with their kids!

By the time I got back to the house, Ray had already picked up Magma. All I can say is that it must be so scary for an animal to go through surgery. They don't know where they're going, what's happening to them, will the weird feeling of medicine ever go away. We kept her in her travel carrier until about 8:30, then let her out (the doc said to keep her in a quite spot and not let her out until then). The poor thing could hardly walk! And she was so drugged up she couldn't really focus on things. She seems so scared. On a side note, it was kind of funny to see her eat and drink, because she laid out flat on the floor and used her paws to keep the bowl near her, hehe!

After we put her in the garage for the night, I did my workout and Ray observed. It was actually a good thing though because he could help me with my form and cheered me on! I'm a lucky gal! Then, like I said, I basically went straight to bed.

Then this morning I woke up around 6 to help Ray give Magma her medicine. I was so surprised at how not-injured? she acted. She still walks gingerly, but she's back to her little "mews" and loveable self. Which actually surprised me, because normally after she gets shots, she's pretty moody for the next 24 hours. Well anyway, Ray went off to work and I tried to go back to sleep, but couldn't.

For those of you who aren't friends with me on facebook, I got an awesome email from a career placement company saying that I wasn't qualified for the position I applied for. Awesome. I'm not qualified to run a copy machine. I'm. So. Happy. So basically, I couldn't get this off my mind, so I decided to watch some episodes of Army Wives on Netflix. Three episodes later, I realize I'm pretty tired, so I take a nap. Waking up to my own snore at 11, I figure it's finally time to get up. I played with Miss Magma for a while, got dressed, and now am finishing lunch. Because I have been so lazy, I decided "No good leftovers for you." Instead, I'm having tuna on crackers and yogurt topped off with a water. (I know, I sound so healthy! But I might add a cookie to that....)

Now, I'm getting ready to leave to go see Felicia and we're going to hang out and do girly things. I really have no idea what we're going to do besides take back a hand towel I got at Target. Will write more tonight after the workout (if it's not too late again). Loves!

Day 3 and 4 of 30 day shred

Ugh, while my YouTube video is taking 30 minutes to upload, I guess I'll blog a little.
Yes, I know I have been away for a couple days and I'm supposed to be updating daily about my journey with Miss Jillian. Well, Sunday I could hardly walk. I don't know if I should have taken the day off or not, but I went ahead and took it off. Ray and I went and visited our friends in Jacksonville and saw their baby who is so adorable! (We hadn't seen her since she was like 4 hours old, and now she's 6 weeks!) Then Sunday night I made fettuccine with some little shrimpies tossed in (delicious!!!). Little did we know we were celebrating four months of being married - awww! But like I said, "little did we know" because we didn't realize it until last night, haha!

Monday morning I was supposed to get my dress altered, but Ray didn't have to go into work until about 10, so it through everything off! (Yeah, that's it... I'll blame it on that, lol) I did my workout and felt pretty good. I wasn't really looking forward to it I guess you could say, but once I got going I really pushed myself and felt really good after! Side note: Magma likes to crawl under my belly while I'm doing push ups and doesn't mind being squished at all, crazy cat! Anyway, it wasn't until I was calling the vet to schedule Magma's appointment that I remembered about the alteration appointment I missed. Luckily, she had openings that afternoon and got me in right away. Last night I finally uploaded the "Couples Tag" to my YouTube page (which took 2.5 hours to upload!!!) and we watched The Dark Knight. I guess I've never linked my YouTube page on here before... so here you go! http://www.youtube.com/user/MissSuzieQLovesYou

So that brings us up to the present. I had to make myself get out of bed this morning, purely because I have no energy today. I checked my email to see if I had any responses for the job I had applied for, and of course I did not... surprise surprise. I ate some breakfast, let that settle, and then popped in Miss Jillian to the dvd player. (Why am I doing that lately? I'm calling our cat Miss Magma too!) I was actually very excited about working out today, then halfway through it I just want to shoot myself in the foot, punch myself in the face, stub my toe, ANYTHING to not finish the workout! I'm only on day 4!! Ugh! This cannot happen... I'm bound and determined to finish this stupid program. I know I'm going to read through this later and ask myself why I was so hostile in this blog post. It was just a sucky day for working out. I think it's the no energy thing. Hopefully tomorrow is better!

Well, now I'm going to mop the floor and do some other cleaning around the house. See you tomorrow!

Day 2 of Ms. Michaels...

I almost forgot to write! No worries, I remembered!

So today I woke up way later than I had been this week, which is to be expected since it's Saturday. But that never really stops Ray - he's always up and going no later than 7. It actually works out well though, because that's his time to play his video games and I have no problem with it because I'm still asleep :)

I even talked him into doing the workout with me today, it didn't take much convincing though (he's pretty easygoing, I'm lucky). Today went by faster than it did yesterday, I guess because I knew what to expect and what was coming next. I woke up with my arms pretty sore, but that wasn't too surprising since those muscles hadn't been worked in so long. Right after the workout was done though, I was already feeling soreness in new muscles, mostly in my quads. It's a good kind of pain though, if that make sense. It doesn't feel as if I overworked anything and I don't want to do it again tomorrow... it's like my muscles are remembering what they are able to do and I'm excited about doing it again! Well I don't know if "excited" is really the proper word, but you know what I mean.

After our workout we went to Harker's Island. It was a beautiful day for a drive and it was good to get out of the house. If any one has been to Harker's Island, there's not much there... a visitor's center, a museum, and there's a couple ferries you can take to get to Cape Lookout. We've already been to Cape Lookout, so we weren't looking to do that, but we did look around the visitor's center. Did you know that whales go through here?! I guess I shouldn't be that surprised, but I was! There's an anchor right outside the visitor's center from a ship wreck (I don't remember what year), and there looked to be some kind of huge bone laying next to it on the platform. Ray said it looked like a whale bone or something, so we asked, and sure enough it was! The lady said it was a piece of where the head connects to the spine, or something like that. Regardless, they said it came from a whale 40-50 feet long! Crazy! Now I want to see one, hehe!

Well, we came back home, ate some dinner and watched a movie. Now Ray's asleep on the couch and I'm finishing up things here. Well... see you tomorrow! (Not literally "see" but you get the idea!)

Jillian Michaels: 30 Day Shred

Since I haven't posted anything since Monday, and since Ray fell asleep at 9:30 tonight, I really have no reason not to post.

For those of you who came to my blog from YouTube, you came here for a specific purpose so I'll get on with it... Today I started Jillian Michaels: 30 Day Shred. It was definitely difficult to put it mildly. Well, I don't know if it was so hard or it's just me thinking about how hard it's going to get! It's only a 30 minute workout, but there's three different levels you work your way up through throughout the 30 days.

I guess I should talk about why I decided to do this. Quite frankly I bought it on a whim, so to say I had been wanting to do something like this would be a total lie. But now that I have it, I'm doing this for myself. I know that sounds selfish, but it's the truth. I figure if I can complete 2 full weeks, then I can get through the whole thing. I don't think I've ever done something like this before, trying to follow a workout routine. We'll see how it goes I guess!

I'll try to write more later... this has taken me almost an hour to write. But since I said I was going to do a daily blog about this, I'm sticking to my word! G'night all!

Osama bin Laden is dead!

It is still strange to read those words at the top of news articles, hear it on news casts, and see it on facebook posts. I'm still shocked. I honestly don't know if I have the words to explain how I am feeling right now. Confused. Elated. Shocked. Patriotic. In disbelief. Proud. Joyous.

But I still have so many questions, and it doesn't really feel real to me yet. (Maybe this is because I heard about it through facebook posts.) Ray had to be at work at 6 this morning, so we called it an early-ish night last night. We don't have cable, so we wouldn't have seen it on tv. We worked on thank you notes last night until we went to bed, so we didn't get on the internet (and no, I don't need any more lecturing about how it's been almost 4 months and we still don't have them all done - I know! And I feel horrible about it!). When I got up this morning, I checked my facebook and there were all these posts about how bin Laden was dead, God bless the USA, Can we have our troops home now? etc, etc... No... it couldn't be.... I thought as I went to Fox News. There it was: "BIN LADEN DEAD, Navy SEALs kill Al Qaeda leader; body buried at sea." WHAT?!!! was probably my first thought. My second thought was, why did they bury him at sea? My third thought was probably something like, how in the heck did this happen?! I watched Obama's speech first, some other video footage they had, and then went to some other news outlets before coming here, to my blog.

I searched for videos to find out why they decided to bury him at sea, and when I found out it was to prevent shrines or other statues being built in his honor, I thought... "now that makes sense." Then, hearing and reading that they upheld the Muslim tradition to bury him 24 hours after death I was like, ok... sure..... And then the news reports said they carried out all the tradition of bathing him and wrapping him in a white cloth and all of that.... I'm sorry, this may come off a bit harsh, but I quite frankly don't give a crap how they "cared" for his body! Float it down a river of poop for all I care! He doesn't deserve that. He doesn't deserve anything.

Who knows, maybe that information was just released as a way of trying to create good PR with the Muslim world, and they really didn't do any of that. I honestly don't see any military member agreeing to wash and wrap his body, but that's just me. Maybe it all really did happen...

One emotion that I can express, is my sincere gratitude for every single member of our military. It is because of their service we have come this far. When I was in school and professors would ask if we should leave the middle east, I was always torn. If we left then, would our efforts have been in vain? Would our troops think their efforts were in vain? I know we have done good over there. I know we have accomplished more than most people realize. And now I know, our servicemembers' efforts were not in vain. Everything lead up to that moment, when bin Laden was killed.

I sometimes wonder if I would be as patriotic as I am if I hadn't married a Marine. Maybe it's because I'm getting older and think about how I want our country to be when I have children. Maybe it's because my parents taught me to be proud of our country, honor and respect the flag, and honor and respect our military members. I remember my mom telling me once she got goosebumps when our National Anthem was playing, and it seems I get them every time now as well. So to answer my own skepticism, I think I would be as patriotic (but marrying him sure didn't hurt my patriotism!).

Ok, so it feels real to me now! God bless our troops. God bless the US Navy SEALS. God bless America. It is a great day to be an American!

So I fell....... twice

So yesterday Ray and I went jogging/walking on a trail on base. We had walked a different trail about a week ago, and we jogged a couple of times. But yesterday, I would say I successfully doubled how much I had ran previously. Before we headed out I told Ray that I wasn't going to be able to run the entire time, so we decided on jogging for a a couple minutes then walking, jogging, then walking, etc.

We started out jogging and I was just starting to "feel it" when Ray quickly halts in front of me. I peak over his shoulder, and low and behold.... there's a snake sunbathing in our path (Black Swamp Snake, Ray is currently looking it up). Eeeewww!!! Ray picks up a stick and starts inching towards it. Luckily, it decided to go on its way before I got too creeped out and wanted to turn around and not partake in the afternoon jog. So we continued on, and I felt pretty good most of the time. We were a little over half-way through the trail when Ray and I are walking and I have the breath to chat a little bit.

ME: I'd much rather jog on a trail than a road or sidewalk.
RAY: Oh yeah, you just have to be careful of tree roots when you're going up hill, or anytime for that matter.
ME: *thinking* I've actually been doing pretty good about seeing them
RAY: Ok, ready to start jogging again?
ME: ... Ok, let's go

I make it approximately 10 paces and the next thing I know, my toe catches a tree root and I'm falling forward onto my face. Luckily, we were on a pretty soft surface and I caught myself before I totally face-planted. I laugh it off, what else was I supposed to do? Ray asks if I'm ok to jog again, and I say sure. This time, I told myself, I'm going to be so careful and pick up my feet.... 15 paces later, umpf! Yep, down I went again. The second fall was a lot less graceful, but I still managed to catch myself. Ray laughed along with me and decided maybe it was best to just walk for a bit.

All-in-all, it was a good jog/walk. It felt great to actually use the muscles that have been dormant since high school.

Today we had another storm come through, nothing too bad. Although there was a lightening strike that was a little too close for comfort. I was looking out the window from the couch and, *flash-boom* lightening and thunder and I nearly jumped out of my skin. I thought it possibly hit our fence and I had felt the lightening from inside the house, but I think I just really scared myself.

Hm... I got my e.l.f order yesterday which was exciting (Dad, that's a brand of makeup). Yay for cheap makeup!! Oh, for those of you who don't know, I make videos on YouTube about me being a Marine Wife. Ugh, it sounds sooo lame when I say it out loud (and a it's little embarrassing), but I'm very excited about things lately! I'm a contributer to a website, www.realmilitarywives.tv, and so I need to get a new video made for that. Also, I asked my viewers to ask my random questions (kind of like a Q & A) that could be about anything, and I've actually received questions! I was/am so surprised! I thought I might get one or two questions, but there are several! Yay! I've actually met (well, never officially "met") several Marine wives/fiances/girlfriends from YouTube who I definitely consider my friends. And now recently, I've met women who's husbands, fiances, or boyfriends are in the other branches of service as well. It's been a very cool experience for me, and I never thought it would end up like this.

Oh, last thing: we got our wedding pictures and CD the other day, so I will be putting some of those images to the side of my blog soon, yay! But... just because I want to, I'll include an image here. Love you all!!!

Happy belated Easter!

First of all, Happy late Easter everyone! Ray and I enjoyed the long weekend he was given, getting half of Friday off and today off as well. Saturday afternoon we took a walk on the beach. We didn't wear our swimsuits or anything, we just took a stroll, but it was a perfect day for it! Not extremely hot and the breeze felt great, not too cool at all! There were a lot more people laying out on the beach, and several kids were enjoying the water even though it's still pretty cold (the feet in the water was enough for me!). We headed back after that. Oh! I almost forgot to mention that on our way to the beach we saw a CR-Z so we stopped and looked at it. It was pretty cool, smaller in size than I thought it was going to be, but still a neat little car! The guy offered to let us test drive it but we declined. Maybe when we're a little more serious about it, hehe! Let's see... we spent Saturday night eating take-out at like 9:00 and then watching the Flintstones Movie (Ray of course fell asleep during it).

After church on Sunday we went to Lowe's to check out some landscaping materials. Although we found what we wanted, we decided to hold off on anything to see if the landlord would take off our expenses from our rent. So we just priced the things we needed, came back home and did yard work. Ray mowed and I pulled weeds in front of the house. I almost find it necessary to tell you all something that Ray and I agreed on before we got married: I will not mow. Now before you start thinking that I'm a prissy little girl that needs to get over it, let me say that Ray was fine with this. I will pick up sticks, I will pull weeds, I will do basically anything other than mow. So far, it's working out just fine :)

That evening we went over to the couple's house I stayed with for a little bit last summer. Don and Louann are two of the most caring and giving people I know and I am so blessed to have met them. The story on how I met them is a whole other chapter I'll save for another day. But anyway, they invited us, two other couples and another guy from our church to have Easter dinner with them. We had such a good time! Dinner was great and the company was better. A couple weeks ago I was pretty sad about spending the holiday away from our family, but spending it with the people we did definitely kept the sadness off my mind.

Today we just took it easy, did some cleaning and took a bike ride. But I figured I would post a before-and-after-picture of how the bathroom turned out (thanks Whitney for the idea!). I don't think the pictures to it justice, but you get the point. That's it! Love you all :)

Before... blehhhhh!

After... ahhhhh!!!

Shower curtains and CR-Z's

Warning: I have no idea where this is going and it may be all over the place...

This week I have been so lazy! It' pretty much ridiculous. I finally went grocery shopping on Tuesday (which needed to be done on Sunday) because the previous nights I spent opening and closing the pantry and refrigerator, finding nothing. Now that I think of it, this is somethingI've done since I was little. Open the door of the fridge, take about 5 seconds to look at it, see nothing appealing, then move on to the pantry. I even go through cabinets to see if anything is in there, which is quite silly now considering the only thing in them are spices, dishes and cookbooks. But anyway, this horrible habit has carried itself into adulthood.  Well, after multiple trips to and from the pantry/fridge, I realized I absolutely had to go to the store (this is why on Monday we had brinner - breakfast for dinner). So... that was pretty much my Monday and Tuesday...

Yesterday Mindi and I went for a walk and then grabbed lunch at subway. After, I made a trip to New Bern to officially change my last name! Yes, I know what you're thinking - took you long enough! It's not difficult at all to change your last name on your social security card, I know this now. But they did shred my old card, and for a second it made me a little sad. I'd had that thing since birth!!! (Oh by the way, the Social Security Administration in New Bern isn't hiring, I already looked into that.) Then I stopped by Target and got the CUTEST shower curtain! For those of you who don't know, our guest bathroom is painted brown. And not a pretty brown, like poop brown. It was so dark with the dark walls, the dark red shower curtain and the rugs that matched. I know what the former tenants were thinking - I'm sure they were going for a "rich look" but it just looked bleh! I tell you what though, a new shower curtain can do wonders! It's white with blue, green, and LIGHT brown and reminded me of my china set because it has little birds on it. Throw some white rugs down and WOW! I like going into that bathroom now!

Today was beautiful at first, 80's when Ray came home at lunchtime. Then the next thing I know, the temperature says 69 and it looks like it could rain. The temp just continued to fall, and it did end up raining.... ruining Ray and I's plans to go walk/jog the trail after he got off work. We'll see how tomorrow turns out.

Hmm, what else... Gas prices are sucking. Has any one else noticed that? I'm trying to plan a trip back home and all I can think about is how much money its going to take to get there just in gas. It's depressing! Ray and I are looking into vehicles (yeah, go ahead and laugh Mindi, I said 'vehicles') that get better gas mileage. So far, we haven't gotten past our love for this Honda CR-Z  Sport Hybrid. It's soooo pretty! It's a sports car, so it looks great and it's also a hybrid and gets like 35 mpg IN TOWN! But.... Ray and I are trying to be sensible about it... Boo you car for being $20K! Send me a job so I can afford you! I'll include a pic of it so you can drool over it too. Well, that's it. Tootles!

Yeah! This is a HYBRID!

Oh the weather outside was frightful...

God was truly watching over us last night as a line of storms came through. We had known it was supposed to thunderstorm all day, so Ray and I kept an eye on the radar. Basically it just looked like a slightly curved vertical line of storms (I'm sure there's a better way to say it, but I can't think right now), and it was just going to hit once and then be done. Ray and I had been working around the house all day, and about 7:30 we realized we were starved. I started cooking some dinner and kept looking outside to see what the weather was doing. The more it started to pick up, we decided to turn on the radio and see what was going on. Ok... so they were saying that hail was likely... Ok.... maybe we should try to fit Ray's car in the garage (which is full of stuff mind you).

I asked him if he wanted to put his car in the garage, and originally he said, 'naw.' He thought about, and then decided we should see if we could get it in. We through on some shoes and started piling things up towards the front of the garage. It didn't take us too long and we had his car mostly in. We shifted things around a couple more times and then finally got the garage door closed (Ray took a pic of how it actually fit in there. I'll have to include that sometime, hehe). We timed it nearly perfectly because not long after, the power went out. Was it bad the first thing that crossed my mind was our half-cooked pasta on the stove? (I was hungry!) Not to say that I wasn't a little worried about the weather, considering the last thing I heard on the radio was the National Weather Service reporting a tornado 4 miles west of town, basically heading right for us. There was quite a bit of wind and rain, but nothing too serious. After that line came through, the power came back on, and all was well.

This morning was a beautiful day, hardly a cloud in the sky. But there was quite a bit of damage done the night before. A member at church told us to go look at where the tornado touched down on 70, and it was crazy to see what happened. I made a video when we drove by, but it didn't turn out very well, mostly because I was gawking at what I saw instead of looking at where I was aiming the camera. But here is a video that's better I found on YouTube. I couldn't find very many pictures of it, but I'll include some I found on the web by clicking "this!" Oh, here is an article on what happened if you're interested (you can look around and possibly find a better one on that site). Apparently, there was also a tornado that hit on or near Camp Lejeune (I don't live there so I don't exactly know). Ironically, Amanda texted me not long before all this happened. All is well here though! It was weird going through my first storm like this in a new place that I'm not extremely familiar with (I don't even know north from south yet). I heard numerous times that this kind of weather is unusual for this area. We did get some tips for Hurricane season though! But I'm definitely thanking God for watching over us last night. And please keep all those affected in your thoughts and prayers.

Top Shot

You may or may not know that Ray and I aren't huge fans of professional football fans, or even college football fans (unless it's Northwest or MU). The only time we actually sit down to watch a game would be for the Superbowl, and even then it's usually for the commercials. But if there was one thing that we sit down religiously to watch, it's Top Shot. This is our football game. We even have our favorite shooters we root for.  Number one, by far would be Brian Zins. Mostly because Ray's dad told us about him before the season started. I also have really enjoyed Chris Reed and Ray kinda liked Ashley (well, up until this past episode at least). We also have a strong dislike for George. *Side note: since we don't have cable, we have to wait for the show to come out on Hulu or on the History Channel, but anyway...*

For those of you who don't watch the show, basically it's down to the last six competitors and the shooters are going to have to start voting off their friends. One shooter earned immunity from being eliminated because he shot the best at the competition, but he was also the one that a few others didn't like because.... um... basically for stupid reasons that would take too long to explain. I just need to go on a little mini-rant right now... Dear George, don't say it's all about "who shot the best/worst" when basically the last 3 or so episodes you have been voting  for the guys who you just don't like for elimination. Let me say it like this: George, you are a douche. Excuse my language, but he just is. I had so much more to say before I started typing, now I'm drawing a blank. Basically, the point is: Go Brian Zins and Chris Reed!! And the sooner George goes home, the better the show will be :)

On a different topic, it's been beautiful outside this past week so we've been taking advantage of the nice weather. We biked on Wednesday and yesterday walked a trail on base. We even jogged a little (I know, I know - I'm sure it's hard to believe that I actually jogged, but I did it!). I'm hoping to get a bike ride in tomorrow morning before it rains in the afternoon. I don't know what I like more: the exercise or the fact that I'm getting tan... Well, aside from Magma being in heat and us pushing up her getting spayed sooner than we originally thought, nothing too much is going on! Have a good weekend everyone!

I made a new friend today :)

Hello everyone! I didn't have much news from yesterday, so it would have been pointless to write. Yesterday was full of laundry.... the end.
Today I got up with Ray  at 5:45 because I wanted a jump start on the day (so what if I had to take a name later this evening). I finished up the dishes that I had been slacking on after he left for work, did the last load of laundry, and a couple other things before I headed out to meet my friend, Mindi, for a walk.  It was forcasted to thunderstorm around 11, but it was far from that - blue skies and sunny. Mindi got a much better workout than I did, pushing a stroller with a 2 year old and her 3 month old. That's ok though - first time working out on my two feet for awhile so I've got to work up, haha! After our walk, we sat at her house and chit chatted until the afternoon. I do believe I made a new friend :)

Since I spend much more time away from the house than I thought, my afternoon "to do list" didn't really get done... After Ray got home (and I took a nap) I started on dinner so we could eat at a normal hour. We just had tacos, topped off with a little cup of ice cream. We worked on some thank you's tonight and I realized how pathetic I was these past couple months about not doing them. I actually got mad at myself for not making myself do this sooner. But they're getting done now, so I guess that's what matters. 

Well, that's it for now :) Oh wait! It did end up raining this afternoon and a beautiful rainbow was in the sky. Ray took a pic! I'll add that :)

Auto-X

This weekend has pretty much flown by, but it seems like every weekend does. There was an auto-x race this weekend, but luckily it was on base so it was a nice change of pace (rather than driving two hours). Ray was out the door before 8 this morning, with the event starting around 11 (although it was supposed to start at 9). I met him there after church, just in time to see him drive his first run. In my rush to make it to the race, I forgot the camera so after his first three runs I ran home, picked up the camera and made it back, yet again, right on time to see his first run of his second round. He was doing well the whole day, consistently shaving off a couple seconds each time he went. I even got to ride in the car on his last run!

Let me describe it as this: I've never been scared of his car, or the way he drove it or whatever. I knew it had the capability of being fast, but he's not a reckless driver so I guess I didn't know what I was in store for! Now, picture this: me sitting in the passenger seat all giddy-school-girl-like thinking I know what I had gotten myself into. We get in line, waiting for the two cars in front of us to go. Now waiting for the car in front of us to go, my heart pumping a little harder in excitement. Then Ray gets directed forward, and we're just waiting for the starter to tell us to go. Ahhh! This is going to be so cool!! "And, go!" *squealing tires* As Ray punches the gas! Let me just say this, for the first 5 seconds of that ride I thought I might loose it (my lunch that is). And just so you know, you can get pretty far in 5 seconds! After I stopped looking right in front of the car and could actually see the course, it was a lot of fun! However, I have no idea how someone could think that fast, much less react to it. But as Ray says, "practice."

All in all it was a beautiful day to be outside and I even got some sun on my pasty-white legs. We spent the rest of the evening eating leftovers and watching "Grownups" (we thought it was funny! fyi). Ray hit the sack early and here I am - killing time. Well, I hope to have good luck this week in the search for a job. Wish me luck!

Oh, and if you were wondering how Ray did on that last run with me in the car? It was his best time of the day! :) (Just ignore the fact that he hit four cones... shhh!!)

The Military Spouse Life, so far at least!

Well, the pot roast turned out pretty good! I probably could have cooked it an hour less and it would have been a little more juicy, but all in all, I think it was a great first shot! But I do think we need a bigger slow cooker - the veggies barely fit!

Al's makeover was a success. Ray doesn't really agree that it was a "makeover," but I think a shiny new muffler qualifies! When I first started it I kept waiting for the loud noise, but it never came! He's such a trooper!

Yesterday I had my first experience with the pharmacy on base... Luckily, a girl noticed how lost I looked and helped guide me to what I needed to do. I'll get the hang of it one of these days. It was actually kind of ironic that I was walking around like... uhhhh... um..... is this where I need to be?? because Ray was in the process of doing the same thing when checked into his new squadron! We are both very excited, but know this is going to bring a lot of changes. He will be flying more often, and will most likely have a very different schedule than he's had for the past two years. But to be honest, I'm just glad he's back doing what he loves to do. I want him to have that spark back in his eye when he talks about his job. Changes, changes, changes!

Last night we went out for our friend Angie's promotion. She was meritoriously promoted to Staff Sergeant, which is no small feat! Only 28 were picked out of all the Marine Corps! Angie and Ashley were the first female Marines I met and have welcomed me with open arms and are a blast to hang out with. When Ray first talked about the two, I have to admit I was a little nervous to meet them (just because I had heard about how some female Marines are). But I'm so glad I did and they have changed the stereotype I had in my head. They are awesome girls :)

Ashley is actually getting out in about a month and moving to Kentucky. It's weird to have these friends and then they get out, or get stationed another place and just like that, a good friend is gone and you don't know when/if you'll see them again. Ray's good buddy, Caleb, left about a week ago. He's going into the Enlisted Officer's Program, and going to school out in Colorado. I don't really know how to describe it, but when he and Ray said goodbye, it was a moment I don't think I'll forget (and no, I'm not going to get all emotional, because it wasn't like that). There's a bond between Marines who are good friends - like a I'll always have your back kind of thing, but even that doesn't describe it. I don't know... I guess they just get each other in a way that no one else could understand but Marines themselves.

I couldn't wait until we got our CD of pictures from our wedding, I had to put this one up!

Al's getting a makeover!

For those of you who do not know, Al is my car. Al is very old and fragile to say the least. He needed a new muffler, so today Ray and I headed off to the shop to get him fixed up!

Since Al had to be at the shop around 8 this morning, this meant that I had to get up early than I have been. This would have been just fine if I have a normal sleeping pattern. I stayed up until 1 am last night figuring this whole blog thing out and then preparing for the pot roast we're having for dinner tonight. This is how my thought process went last night: If the pot roast cooks for 10 hours, and we're going to have dinner at a reasonable time, I need to put it in the cooker before we leave to drop off the car. Oh my... this means I have to get up extra early.... I know! I'll prepare everything tonight that way I can just dump it in the cooker and be out the door! After all, it's nothing too fancy - just carrots, potatoes, seasoning and the roast.

I'm sure many of you seasoned cookers know what I'm about to say and probably would have called me to say "NOOO! DON'T CUT THE POTATOES THE NIGHT BEFORE!" And you probably should have. Before I even sliced into the potatoes, I wondered if I really should. That, my dear friends and family, is what is called my gut feeling and apparently I haven't learned to follow it yet. Low and behold, I go to the fridge this morning and there they sit in their plastic bag - brown, slimy, and just plain unsanitary looking. Luckily, my husband is amazing and we stopped by the grocery store and picked up some more potatoes on our way home from the muffler shop. With all that said, I hope dinner turns out better than my salmon patties (story for another time).

On a different note, Magma had her adult shot and rabies vaccine on Tuesday which meant that she did nothing yesterday except sleep. I don't know if all cats suffer from side effects after shots, but Magma definitely does. When you pick her up, she hisses. When you try to pet her, she winces as if she's in pain. She slept all day and night without eating or drinking. It took her five minutes to move from one spot on the couch to behind the love seat. Ray and I felt so bad for her, but luckily she won't have any more shots until next year, yay! (Just don't tell her we're getting her fixed sometime in June) She did start to feel a little better last night and today she's back to her normal, active self.

Well, I'll let you know how the pot roast turns out and tell you if Al still sounds like he's attempting to be a Harley rather than the '91 Buick he is.

Hello blogging world!

Let me start off by saying, if you're reading this, I probably love you. I don't mean to say that as in, "I love you for reading my blog!" I mean that as in, I'm making this for my loved ones who are far away. I am sending them my love.

For those of you who may not know me, or my story I'll give you me in a nutshell. My name is Suzanne (Hi! Nice to meet you!), I live in North Carolina with my hubby, Ray, and kitty, Magma. I'm originally from Missouri where most of my family lives (hence why I'm making this blog). I graduated from Northwest Missouri State University in December of 2010 and then ran off and married a Marine on January 8, 2011! Just kidding, it was very planned out, hehe! But in all seriousness, we had a beautiful wedding surrounded by people we love and I couldn't have asked for anything more. As I said, Ray is a United States Marine, so we headed off to North Carolina to make our new home. But before I left, I made my mom a Facebook page so we could stay more connected and she could see pictures and all that creepy Facebook stuff. And although many of my family members are on Facebook, it still doesn't seem enough. Of course we call, text, email, and write (hello, just got married - thank you notes?!) I don't want to disappear on the east coast from everyone I love in the Midwest. To all my family and friends - this is for you. In some way, shape, or form I think of each of you everyday. I love you all so much.