Finally in the Groove

Sooo... I know I've been absolutely terrible about blogging, but we're finally through with moving for at least two years (if things go as planned) and I don't feel like sitting down to write is a daunting task!

We made it to Twentynine Palms unscathed, and with two dogs still alive and well, so I'd say that's good. When we got here we moved into an apartment off base that had a fenced yard, so Gunner and Carolina were super happy about that. I never really got up the energy to totally unpack, knowing we'd be moving again in a few months, which drove Jordan totally crazy, but it was still a pretty nice place to live. It was all tile flooring, which we thought would be great for the dogs, but it ended up being such a hassle! Anyway, when we got out here and on the waiting list for on-base housing, they told us it would be 6-9 months before we could get a house. Imagine our surprise when we got one in only 3!

29... Sometimes it can be really beautiful!

So now we're on base, trying to get finished with the unpacking and settled into our home. Since being in 29 we've acquired a house full of furniture (gone are the days of my hodge podge furniture from college times), our very own washer and dryer, and a renewed love for air conditioning! :) One weird thing about living in the desert is a device called a swamp cooler. It's not too bad as a replacement for AC, unless you have humidity, in which case it no longer works. The week of July 4th, we had thunderstorms all week! It was really strange for the desert, and also really hot since we had no way to cool our home. Yet another reason we are so glad to be on base now!

Jordan is working, working, working. He's currently the S-4 Alpha, which doesn't really mean a lot to me when I hear it. The S-4 part means logistics (his job is actually normally held by a logistics officer), and the Alpha part is a long way to shorten assistant. Leave it to the Marine Corps to make things confusing. Hopefully when they get back from deployment, which is approaching rapidly, he'll get out of the S-4 shop and into a company where he can lead a platoon. Fingers crossed and prayers prayed for him, please!

Several people have asked for an update on Jordan's friend who was injured. As far as I know he's doing well, and is expected to have a full recovery soon. Thank you so much to all the prayer warriors out there! That is definitely the scariest aspect of military life, and prayers are sometimes all you have to combat combat.

I have gotten a job in optics. It's really nice to be back in my field, doing what I know. My job is really great and I'm really enjoying it so far. The people I work with are awesome, and it's only part time so I still have time to volunteer and enjoy my life outside work. Another cool thing about it is that I was initially hired just to cover for a girl who was going on maternity leave. She's coming back to work (so I won't have a job anymore) in the middle of August, which is perfect timing for us to fulfill our pre-deployment plans. The good news is that her husband got orders to Pendleton in December (so I'll have my job again!), which is perfect timing for my month-long trip back to the east coast for the holidays! The only worrisome thing about it is now that we live on base, my commute will be about 10 miles, whereas I was only travelling less than a mile before. So we'll see, but I'm pretty sure it will be worth it.

The dogs are doing really well, too! We are working on hoarding some money away right now so that we can fence in our yard. It's a really large yard, but on base housing doesn't come with a fence, so it's either leash your dogs any time you take them outside, or put up a fence. Our dogs have always been off-leash dogs, so trying to walk them on a leash is interesting to say the least!

We've been making a lot of friends here, which is so awesome! Jordan is very fortunate that two of his close friends (one from The Citadel and one from TBS) have also gotten stationed here. We see them as often as we can, and I really like both of them too, so it's nice. I've gotten to know some of the other lieutenants' wives, and they're all so great! I really love all the ladies I've met from the unit, and am making some really good friendships with them. I have also stumbled upon a women's Bible Study, which I've been going to for several weeks. The other ladies in the group are all so nice, and have been an excellent resource for Marine life (many of them are spouses of retirees), and source of companionship outside that.

We've gotten to do some fun things since we've been here, too! Memorial Day weekend we took a trip to LA to just get away for an evening. It was a lot of fun, but so expensive! I had always heard it was, but I certainly didn't expect it to be as expensive as it was. Oh well, it was money well spent, because we had a great time! We also went a few weeks ago to Rochester, NY area for one of Jordan's friends' wedding. It was so beautiful, and we had a really wonderful time. It was awesome to see his friends from Maine, and to take our minds off the desert. :) Don't get me wrong, the desert is great, but it was nice to see a body of water. And plants. And grass. And a thermostat that read a number below 100! Here are some pictures from our travels...


The Hollywood sign!



Us at Mike's wedding

I'm really excited that my mom is coming next week!!! She'll be here Monday to Monday, and I am so looking forward to her visit. The most difficult adjustment to the west side of the US is being far from family, so having a little home here in 29 is going to be such a boost to my morale! It's going to be a really fun week, and we have a lot of fun planned. One cool thing is that we're hosting a Pampered Chef party! I've invited about thirty ladies, and I'm expecting about twenty to actually show up. I think it will be a really fun way to get to know them better, and also a great excuse to eat delicious food!

Anyway, I can't really think of any other updates. Family, prepare yourselves... we're hoping to make our way east in August/September, and we're both so, so excited! We send all our love your way!

Hello, 2011...

Sooo much has been going on since our last post. Jordan has been doing a lot of really cool stuff at work. Me, not so much. :) Doing nothing (my job let me go pre-surgery because I didn't have enough sick hours or qualify for FMLA) isn't nearly as interesting as Combat Engineering.



This is a door Jordan blew in with C4

 There are two types of demolition he's been doing. The first is Military Demolitions, which is the big booms. They do cratering, which is making big holes in the ground, destroying equipment, and breaching obstacles, which is blowing up barbed wire and things like that. The second type is Urban Mobility Breaching, which is "various methods of forcibly entering a building using explosives." They blew holes in walls, broke down doors, blew up windows, and just generally destroyed a town that was built just for that purpose.

This is a hole he blew in the wall!
All they used was detonation cord!

After they did all their demolition stuff they moved on to obstacles. I'm pretty sure there was more than just obstacles, but obstacles is what I heard. :) He's also got four briefs to give during this last month, and I HATE briefs. For the last one, which was on obstacles, he wasn't home until after 1am one of the nights. His mind has been so wrapped up in obstacles, in fact, that the other night he asked me in his sleep if I could "go plant some obstacles" for him since I was "just sitting there." :) I died a little, I laughed so hard!

Jordan & our babies in (what I must now
recognize as) our pitiful bit of snow.

During January we had a TON of snow! We had a lot of fun with it... Well, I had fun because I didn't have to work, so I just ate snow ice cream and played with the dogs. And actually, after seeing all the snow they had in Maine, I guess we didn't have that much. I couldn't find the mailbox in the picture of Nancy's front yard... SIX FEET OF SNOW. I'm really terribly glad I wasn't in Maine for that... Even the idea of having to function in snow gives me hives after all the snow we've had around here.

Jordan in the hot seat. :)

In other interesting J & J news, Jordan finally got the next tattoo he wanted. After quite a bit of debate, some of it heated, we were able to come up with one that both of us liked. It's his body, so I can't say that I had all that much influence, but I had to put my foot down over one that was practically a foot tall. Anyway, the one he went with is one I found, which makes me feel like I done good. :) It's an all black EGA, which is situated right under the USMC he already had on his shoulder. You can't really tell what it looks like all that well from the picture, but it looks really good!



Waiting for anesthesia


Pretty much the biggest item effecting our lives lately is my surgery, which I was finally able to have! The procedure is called a robotic pyeloplasty, and if you click here it explains exactly what they did. The difference is that the information is not from UNC, which is where my procedure was done. Also, the stricture was originally thought to have been caused by a blood vessel crossing my ureter in the wrong place and basically pinching it off. When they got in there, however, they discovered that the blood vessel was fine, my ureter was just extremely narrow. The doctor said he was surprised I still have full function of my left kidney, but praise God, I do. My body built up a lot of protective tissue around my kidney which they ended up having to remove as well, so instead of the two hours it normally takes, my sugery took four and a half. The main thing they left out of the article is that I was upside down for the duration of my procedure! They strap you to the table and then tilt it until you're almost exactly upside down vertically. My mom said that when I came out I looked like "a gigantic white whale." Sounds beautiful, right??

Recovery is going well, although a little slower than I expected. I'm pretty close to back to feeling like myself again. I just can't lift anything over ten pounds, which is a fairly difficult restriction to live with. But hey, that's what they make big muscle-y husbands for, right? The stent comes out March 22nd, and then look out, Cali, here we come! I'm having a hitch installed on my Jeep as soon as the part comes in so we can carry all our stuff, we booked the shipping company to get Jordan's Jeep out there, the hotel reservations are made across the country, and real estate agents have been contacted! Wish us luck; we're going to need it, and as always, we love and miss everyone very much! XOXO

Kidneys and Ureters and Stints, Oh My!

Well, if nothing else the last couple of weeks have been eventful, to say the least. Our holiday season was AMAZING, and also full of surprises. The biggest surprise of all was finding out that Jordan's dad got married back in August. It was a nice surprise but a surprise none the less. We had a wonderful time both in Charleston for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, and in Maine for the New Year.

Our biggest topic of conversation, though, has definitely been my recent health problems. On Monday after Christmas, I had some terrible pain in my left side and ended up going into the ER. They did a CT scan and determined that I had a stricture in my ureter. The ureter is basically the tube connecting the kidney and the bladder, and mine has a narrowing not far from where the ureter leaves the kidney. It caused the top of my ureter to back up and swell, and when I saw the scan, it was terrifying! The swollen section was huge, and so was my kidney. So they admitted me to the hospital and inserted a stint between my kidney and bladder, through my ureter, to open the kink and hopefully alleviate my pain. Unfortunately, although the stint did its job, I've had an unpleasant  reaction to the stint.

This coming Tuesday, two weeks after the initial operation, I will go for a scan at Carteret General, where I was admitted last week. The scan will determine the function of my left kidney. My doctor, who I really like, thinks that it's fine, but we're doing the scan just in case. After that I go to Chapel Hill, which is about 2.5 hours away, to meet with another surgeon, who will perform my surgery after a consult. He'll go in laproscopically and cut out the portion of my ureter that is kinked, then reattach the normal portions together. It's pretty terrifying since I've never been admitted to a hospital before this issue, but I just want to get better. Anyway, I can use all the prayers and positive thoughts I can get. We miss our family terribly, and hope to see everyone sooner than later. I'll keep everyone posted on my condition. All our love!

Christmas Time is Here

Oh the joys of Christmas! It's getting closer, and we are really starting to get excited! We've been busy working and trying to get ready for the holiday season. My latest project has been tackling our thank you notes (finally), and trying to figure out ways to save some money here and there.

On that note, I tried something new this pay period that I'm super excited about! I went through my favorite cook book and chose meals that I thought sounded delicious, and then made a list of the right number of dishes for each day we're here between now and our next payday (more than ten in all!). Then I made my grocery list, organized it by section of the grocery store, and went shopping. :) I managed to get out of the store with only four things that weren't on the list, and only spent $150 for two and a half weeks' worth of food! I'm super duper proud of myself.

Also for those who don't know, Jordan and I went crazy last month, and somehow decided it was a good idea to buy two cars on the same day... that's right, we both traded in our old cars and now have matching Jeeps. Mine is a 2010 Grand Cherokee Laredo, and Jordan's is a 2008 Wrangler Sahara with a hard top. Both are black. So now we have two black dogs and two black Jeeps. At least we're consistent, right??

Our holiday schedule is also something to be excited about. Last weekend we went down to Charleston to celebrate with my family, and we made it there and back with only one major issue: Carolina was kind enough to get the runs all over my brand new back seat. I offered her to the gas station attendants at the place where we stopped to clean up the mess, but for some crazy reason they wouldn't take her. She managed to make it home with us without serious injury, but that's a miracle in itself. I hope she realizes how fortunate she is.

This Monday I'm hoping to have my friend Justyne down to visit. She'll be our first visitor other than the friends of Jordan's who stayed over after we got hammered for his birthday. Okay, I got hammered. But they stayed nonetheless. Anyway, hopefully Justyne will be able to make it. We were hoping to be able to go down to Charleston for Christmas Eve after I get off work, but with two new gas-guzzling cars, we don't think it's going to happen.

After Christmas, we go back to normal for two days, and then head back up to Quantico for the wedding of one of Jordan's friends. They're getting married on our first anniversary! I'm going to pretend that it's our anniversary party in my head. :) But for serious, I'm very excited that our anniversary will be spent in a beautiful celebration of love. That night after the reception, we're heading up to Maine! I haven't been to Maine since last Christmas, so I'm so so so excited. We'll be there from the 30th until the 2nd, and we're really looking forward to spending the New Year with Jordan's best friends and family.

I guess that just about wraps it up for now... with so much going on in the end of December, we haven't even had a moment to consider what'll happen in January! :) The countdown is on for our big move, and we're looking forward to that too. Also, we'll hopefully be taking a cruise to the Mexican Riviera as soon as we get to California. Just have to save those dollars! Look out, honeymoon; here we come! Anyway, I hope that everyone is doing well. We send all our love, and wish all of you a very merry Christmas!

All our hugs and kisses!

TBS IS OVER!!!

So, we finally made it to NC, and TBS is over! We've had sooo much going on, so I haven't been able to keep up with blogging lately, but I'm back, I promise. :) The last few weeks have been nonstop work. Fun work, but work none the less.



Our house, Hasell Cottage, from the front

One weekend we went down to NC for a house hunting mission, and we found a cute little house in Hubert. We told the people we'd take it, and then just had to wait until Jordan got paid so we could put down the deposit. The property management company called me on Monday, though, and said that they couldn't hold the property for us for the three days until payday. It made me SO mad! So I decided to call another company, and it ended up working out for the best, without a doubt! The house we've ended up with is a vacation rental, so it's fully furnished. They don't charge pet rent, and all the utilities are included in our rent, which is so awesome!!! It's a super cute, though pretty old, house on Emerald Isle, and it's only four houses down from the beach itself. I'm in hog heaven!
  
 



Our kitchen - an oldie but goodie!



 So after we got back from house hunting, I finished up my last week of work in Virginia. The following weekend, we went down to Charleston for our church reception, which was a really good time. The food was amazing all weekend, and I got to see my very first UGA game of the season, since Virginia sucks and doesn't show Georgia football. Yet another dreadful thing about that place to add to the reasons we're glad to say goodbye to it!

  







My favorite part - the screened porch!



The following week was a big one! On Monday the packing company came and took aaaall our stuff away to CA to wait for us in storage. Well, I say all, but we still managed to pack our cars so full we thought they were going to explode. I was really lucky that my friend Justyne was willing to come over and spend the whole day with me, which kept me from having to be alone with the packers. I really didn't want that to happen. My friend Jessica also came over, and she brought her two boys, Ethan and Logan. Logan was just born on the 20th, and I got to go to the hospital and see him on his first night in the world. :) I may have hated Virginia, but I sure am going to miss those two girls!



 

Me, Jessica, and Justyne kissing Logan,
 and Ethan trying to stop us.

Wednesday was Warrior Day, and it was soooo awesome. I guess I got the "true TBS eperience" though, because this is how our day went: We got up at 4:00, dressed, went to McDonald's for breakfast, and then got to TBS by 5:20. They changed the schedule from the one I had last seen, and we missed the memo, so then we had two hours to wait until it was time to start registration. After registration, it was time to head to the range!!  We went out to the line for the buses, and had the privilege of standing around for two fabulous hours while we waited. In order to shoot I had to wear a flak vest and kevlar helmet, which were so heavy that after I shot the M16 (a rifle) in the kneeling position, I fell over backwards trying to stand up. It was super embarassing and Jordan called me a wimp, because it's nothing compared to the weight he has to carry around on a regular basis in the USMC.



Us on Warrior Day



 We went out to the line for the buses, and had the privilege of standing around for two fabulous hours while we waited. In order to shoot I had to wear a flak vest and kevlar helmet, which were so heavy that after I shot the M16 (a rifle) in the kneeling position, I fell over backwards trying to stand up. It was super embarassing and Jordan called me a wimp, because it's nothing compared to the weight he has to carry around on a regular basis in the USMC. 

 

In front of a CH-53, which is the kind
of helicopter they used to helo Jordan
out to the field (when they weren't marching).

After the M16, I got to shoot the SAW (Squad Automatic Weapon), which is a freaking MACHINE GUN!!! It was sooooo cool! Then it was on to the grenade launcher, which was fun, but not nearly so fun as the SAW. Another really cool part of the day was the different vehicles we got to see. There were two helicopters, which we actually got to watch come in and land. It was awesome! We also got to see a bunch of MRAPs (Mine Resistant Ambush Protected), which are the vehicles they use in the war. Both of us were able to climb up in the turrets and sit in the drivers seats of the vehicles, and it was so cool.



I know it's blurry, but here's a picture

of Jordan finally taking that

well-earned walk across the stage

 of the FBI Academy.

I am SOOO proud of my man!!



The next day was Graduation! David (Jordan's dad) and his girlfriend Jane came into town to be there, and we had such a great time with them! We did a lot of talking and a LOT of eating!





The next day we finished packing the cars and made the long drive down here to NC. I had Carolina in my car, and Jordan had Gunner in his Jeep. It was long and boring, but we finally made it!



Carolina sleeping in the
box in front of her seat

Now that we're here, we've just been getting settled in and playing a LOT of Call of Duty. :) For those of you who don't know, I finally gave in to one of Jordan's greatest wishes and got him a PlayStation 3. I've been saying no for well over a year, but I figured that since he graduated from TBS and his birthday is coming up in a week and a half, he deserved it. We got the system and several games, including Call of Duty: Black Ops, which just came out this morning at midnight. As I'm sitting here, Jordan's sitting next to me playing the heck out of it. :)

When we aren't playing the new PS3, we're enjoying our time off together, and we've taken the dogs out to the beach as often as possible to run around and get some of that energy out. To wrap up, here are two more pictures...



Running out of Tiiiiiiiiiiime

So the past week has been eventful, to say the very least. :)


We found out that Jordan will now be reporting on the 6th to Camp Lejeune, so now we have TWO DAYS to move down there, since he graduates the 4th. I went to TMO (Traffic Management Office) on Friday, and set up our shipment for all our furniture and everything to be moved out to 29 Palms on the 1st, so we've got a lot of planning to do for that! Last night we went to the PCS (Permanent Change of Station) mixer to get some good information about moving to the desert, and tonight I'm going to a dinner at General Flynn's house. I've been stressing about that pretty hardcore, but I got to go shopping for a new outfit, so I can't complain. :) I think that's about it as far as the military goes for right now.


On the family front, we had quite a scare with Miss Carolina. She's been really tough to potty train, so on Friday I took her to the vet. They had me leave her there so they could collect a sample and do a urinalysis. About an hour later Dr. Trout, her veterinarian, called me with the news that she didn't have a urinary tract infection, but there is something wrong with her kidneys. We were really worried, because Dr. Trout told us that there was a chance that if her kidneys weren't filtering out the bad stuff effectively, it might mean our little girl wouldn't make it out of puppyhood. They did bloodwork to test, and about $300 and a river of tears later we were told that she definitely has a kidney problem, but it's probably not deadly. We're supposed to be monitoring the amount of her water intake this week and she's going back for another appointment this Sunday.


I got some great news this week... the bank I work for, which I can't write here because it's a fireable offense to represent the bank online (stupid), has a few branches around Camp Lejeune, and I'm going to be able to transfer! Because I haven't been with the company for six months yet, I'm not technically eligible for a transfer, but my awsome boss Susan gave me a glowing recommendation and my interview went well, so they arranged for a military exception. I'll be working at the Havelock branch for now, and there's a chance that they may be able to arrange for a guy at the Morehead City branch to switch with me, which would apparently shorten my commute by 15-20 minutes. Either of those branches are actually closer to Cherry Point, so we're going to be living somewhere in the middle to split our commutes.


This weekend we're headed to Camp Lejeune to house hunt, the next weekend we'll be in Charleston, and then graduation is the 4th! We're super duper excited to see lots of family soon, and miss everyone terribly. I'm off to primp for the dinner tonight, but will hopefully be sending another update along soon. Hope all is well with everyone!

The Beginning

Well, I've always made fun of people who blog, but I've finally decided to join the ranks of the thoroughly self-absorbed and create one. :) I figured that, since we're in the Marine Corps and will very soon be on the other side of the country from both our families and friends, we needed a simple way to share what was going on with us with the ones we love the most. So far, I have no idea what I'm doing, but hopefully I'll figure blogging out well enough that I can share pictures and everything as well. Soooo... for anyone reading this who hasn't heard, this is what you've missed lately.

Jordan finally found out his MOS (Military Occupational Specialty, for my side of the family) and our eventual duty station, and we're getting pretty excited about it! He will be a member of the 3rd Combat Engineer Battalion, which is based in 29 Palms, CA. Technically, this means we got our first choices for both MOS and duty station, although when we said we wanted West Coast, we were really thinking Camp Pendleton. Camp Pendleton is on the beach in Oceanside, CA, and is supposed to be a super beautiful place. At first I was a little disappointed about being sent to 29 Palms, but it's going to be a totally different experience than either of us has had before, so we're starting to be more optimistic.

The other day I called the Relocation Assistance Office at 29 Palms to get some information about it. The guy told us he's going to be sending us a 4 lb. package of stuff! I can't imagine that there'll be any questions left to ask after that! He also asked if we had kids, and I told him about Gunner and Carolina. He said it's a good thing they're big, because apparently they have a problem out there with little dogs getting eaten by hawks and coyotes! It's definitely going to be a learning experience for our little family. Before we make our way out to the desert for the next 3+ years of our lives though, we'll be going down to Camp Lejeune, NC so that he can complete Engineer School.

On November 4th, Jordan will graduate TBS, and then we only have a few days before he reports to Engineer School. We detach from Lejeune on March 31st, and we have 30 days to get out to CA. Since the Marine Corps will only move us once, we're going to ship all our stuff out to CA when we leave Stafford in a few weeks, and we're planning to rent furniture and everything while we're in NC. We've planned an awesome road trip to get us to 29 Palms, too!

Our plan is to start out from NC and spend our first night in Gatlinburg, TN. From there we'll make our way to Houghton, MI to visit with Jordan's Dad, David. Our next stop is Keystone, SD, where we'll get to see Mount Rushmore. I'm super excited about that because neither of us has ever seen it. Next on the list is Colorado Springs, CO where we'll visit the Air Force Academy. From there it's on to the Grand Canyon before we finally make it to our new home! We're going to take about ten days to make the trip. The biggest concern we have about it is that we'll really have to plan ahead on our hotel stays because we'll have Gunner and Carolina with us, but planning all of this is definitely giving me something to replace wedding planning with. :) We're also hoping to finally be able to take our honeymoon between moving out there and Jordan's report date. Cross your fingers for us!

Anyway, I think I'm about spent as far as coming up with interesting things to talk about since I don't actually know if anyone will ever read this, but hopefully it wasn't too, too boring. With all the changes that are about to start happening in our lives, I hope someone is kind enough to wish us luck... We're gonna need it!

Here's a video of the babies playing today... We took them out in our apartment complex today and they were fetching gigantic sticks! It was a really great time, and I hope y'all think it's as great as we do. And don't worry, the yellow jacket didn't sting me!