he's twenty-three today!

Happy birthday, B!

My husband of two years has turned the big 2-3 today. He thinks he's old. And that REALLY annoys me! I hate to think what he's going to say when he's 33, or 43...or, oh my gosh; 53!

I always have this secret love for his birthday because I enjoy him being 'so much' older than me. He's three years older than me now even though it's technically two and a half.

Oh well.

His birthday present is me driving down for Thanksgiving and the rest of the weekend. We have pretty much no plans...the only thing we have set in stone is to go to Red Lobster; that's our place. We really love it there.

So, here you go, B. Enjoy the remainder of this post!

 

Facts about the number 23:

1. The tilt of the earth's axis is roughly 23 days.

2. Blood circulates the body on average every 23 seconds.

3. There are exactly 23 characters, letters, and numbers on the face of every US coin.

4. William Shakespeare was born (and died) on April 23rd.

You share a birthday with:

Scarlett Johansson and Jamie Lee Curtis!

(i love you!)

just love.

I've been watching the new show on TLC called "All-American Muslim" lately. And I keep thinking the same thing over and over: What is wrong with people not showing them love and grace like Jesus? They're people too. Just because they don't have the same beliefs that we do doesn't mean they need to be treated differently . Last night's episode was particularly disturbing when a couple stood in line at a restaurant and waited over fifteen minutes to be seated, then the hostess slammed the menus on the table and left without saying a word.

I can't do anything but shake my head. I know my Jesus and I know he would certainly treat them much, much differently and he expects the same thing out of us.

MOS school...

...it's finally starting.

B was supposed to start last week, but you know how that goes. Dates seem to change at random just for the heck of it. But this morning I got a text, "we're changing rooms again," so that seems to mean it's REALLY starting today. Finally! We're almost done with this part.

I call it The Hard Part. It's hard not living with your husband for six months and watching the days drag by (I'm sure it's the same with deployment...but I'll cross that bridge when I get to it). It's nice to know that possibly by the end of next month we'll be living together again, under one roof. It's going to be AWESOME. I'm so excited. And I know he is too, he just doesn't express it as outwardly as I do. :)

So, his MOS school is 5 weeks long. I guess that means 25 school days...so I counted ahead on the calender and he's supposed to finish right before Christmas! Aaah. I. Can't. Wait!

(B the day he left for bootcamp. May 31st, 2011. His recruiter is in the red)

(after boot camp...like, 10 days after. Huge difference!)

happy birthday, USMC.

Happy 236th birthday, Marine Corps!

This is the first birthday B and I will 'celebrate' since being active with the USMC. Dunno how much celebrating we'll do but it's still awesome to be a part of this.

Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they made a difference in the world. But, the Marines don't have that problem.
Ronald Reagan, President of the United States; 1985

thirty things.

I've been seeing this pop up on random blogs I read, so I decided it's my turn to do it! All I'm going to do is write down 30 random things about myself. Some deep, but most probably won't be.

Here goes!


1. I've held onto my first job for six years and counting. I think that's pretty impressive. :)
2. I absolutely hate to see people eating alone. It breaks my heart. I'm sure some of them do it because they want to, but others probably have no choice. I'd love to randomly go sit with someone if I was brave enough.
3. I should have been born in the 50's. I love the fashion and everything about it!
4. I'm a super proud Marine wife...I think that's pretty obvious if you read this blog and poke around on my facebook.
5. I met my husband at Wal-Mart (of all places!). I never, ever thought I'd meet my future husband there, but turns out The Guy Upstairs had other plans for me.
6. I sing a lot. And I'm not even that good at it. Probably not good at all, but I really don't care. I sing in the car, the shower, my room. When I'm home alone it's my opportunity to turn up my iPod stereo and blast the tunes.
7. I can't narrow down my 'favorite' type of music to one genre anymore. My music taste has changed so much over the past several years, and right now it's safe to say I have a very, very diverse taste. My iPod library has stuff ranging from *Nsync to Linkin Park, Trans-Siberian Orchestra to Manafest, Casting Crowns to Demon Hunter...yeah, it's crazy. I love every song/artist in it's own way, I simply cannot choose a favorite.
8. I'm very, very, VERY independent. I think it's fine, but my husband and mom worry about me sometimes. I really have no interaction with 'the outside world' except for work, but I really don't mind it...I'm definitely a crazy breed of wallflower.
9. I have baby fever. We'll leave it at that.
10. I LOVE sour candy. I wish I had some right now, actually.
11. I still want my nose pierced. Really bad. My time will come.
12. One of the things I'm looking forward to the most about moving, is getting to cook B dinner every night. I wish I could do it for him now, I know how much he appreciates it and I bet he's about sick of chow hall food by now.
13. It's really hard for me to get motivated to do something. I have to really, really want to do it before I make an effort. That's why I never diet and don't really exercise (bad me). Also might be why I never clean out my closet and let crap pile up to the ceiling.
14. ...which is weird because in all other aspects I'm such a perfectionist. Except for cleaning my room. Sure, there's some stuff which absolutely has to be in it's exact place, but I think the closet is too far gone to even make an effort now. At least until I get back into my own place!
15. I drink coffee every single day, but I'm honestly not addicted. I could give it up cold turkey right now and be alright...which is good. I don't need to be addicted to anything.
16. I love to read. I definitely don't do it as much as I used to, but I still gain tons of information by browsing Wikipedia and other various websites. I think it's equally beneficial.
17. I hate going to the doctor when I'm sick and I'll always try to avoid it. It bugs me that prescriptions don't actually help fix you, they just mask the symptoms.
18. I've always wanted to try acupuncture. I don't know what exactly I'd get it done for, but since overcoming my fear of needles I'm a lot more adventurous than I used to be!
19. I don't believe in organized religion at all, just a relationship with Jesus Christ. My "religious" ideas are very mixed and really cannot be packed up and boxed into a religious denomination.
20.One of my big goals in life is to home birth (with a birthing pool) my babies. It scares hubby a little bit ("What if something happens?!") but he's a lot more warmed up about it now than he was a year ago.
21. Shrimp is definitely one of my favorite foods. I used to absolutely hate it, but ever since watching it being cooked at a Japanese restaurant I've loved it. I love the pecan-crusted shrimp from Red Lobster, and also shrimp tacos from our local Mexican restaurant. Mmmm.
22. In high school, I took German classes for three years but still couldn't carry on a conversation with someone to this day. It's such a hard language. I know tons of words, just don't know how to put them all together and make a sentence.
23. My shoe collection...hmmm. I have well over 45 pairs and I bet it's up around 50 by now. I seriously love shoes. However, I do need to expand my winter/fall shoe collection. Gives me an excuse to shop more. :)
24. I love the movie Tangled. I watched it probably ten times over this summer and I swear it never gets old!
25. My first car was a 2001 PT Cruiser. I loved it except for the gas mileage. We recently sold it to my MIL just because we don't really 'need' two cars. I miss it a little bit though. :'(
26. I have the worst memory ever. But it's only my short-term memory. I can remember stuff from ten+ years ago, but if my mom tells me to do something I pretty much instantly forget. Same with the customers at work...I have to ask them all at least two times before it finally clicks.
27. I was originally born in California and I love it there! Definitely would not be upset is the USMC moved us out there.
28. I love coffee shops. The smell, the drinks, everything. On one of our first dates, B and I sat in one for four hours and just talked. Loved it :)
29. I plan to own a bulldog one day (that's B's hint). They are so precious and aaaah I get all excited just thinking about it. Too bad they're so expensive...but it would be worth the investment *cough*.
30. My middle name is Nicole. Couldn't think of a good #30, so there you go!

the weird things I do when I miss him...

Well, they're not weird to me, and I bet some of you all do things like this too just because it's comforting when your husband is gone.

I swear, if I don't wear his USMC ring every day I feel weird. He gave it to me after boot camp because it ended up not fitting, and now I only take it off at work. Same with the dog tags. Honestly, I used to think it was weird when guys gave their girls a set, but now I don't like it when I don't have them on. I really do feel naked without them (like right now, I have a work party to go to tonight, and I took those and the ring off...but I feel so weird).

I caught myself listening to Eminem (!!!!) this morning while getting ready. I can't stand that kind of music, but hubs loves it (God knows why), so of course I had to listen to it too. The Recovery CD is what we (he) listened to on our whole TN trip so when I hear one of those songs it reminds me of our trip.

His clothes. Mmm. I found a Chicago Bulls shirt of his yesterday and immediately had to put it on. Imagine my excitement when I realized that, after six months, it STILL smells a tiiiiny bit like him. Not to mention the only jackets I wear anymore are either my USMC Wife hoodie or the black US Marines Under Armour jacket. Another one of those 'feels naked without it' kind of things.

Sigh. Hopefully by the New Year we'll have our own place. Webcam chatting is only exciting for so long.

my husband.

Bless his heart.

I don't think I give the poor man enough credit sometimes. He's one of the hardest working guys I know and I think I take that for granted occasionally. He's the one who up and joined the Marine Corps to better our future family, to give me the life I've wanted (stay at home mom) and to challenge himself. I admire him so much for that. While I currently enjoy sleeping nine hours a night, no firewatch, no hardcore PT sessions, home-cooked meals; he's getting to bed late, waking up at 0430, eating at a chow hall three meals a day, no hugs and kisses from his wife who dearly loves him. Sometimes I wonder if being a Marine is everything he thought it would be. Granted, all this schooling crap is tough on both of us; we're always wondering when we'll see each other again. We're both excited to start life with the fleet and have our own house together again.

He's so selfless and has a huge heart. I swear, my brother and B have the biggest hearts out of anyone else I know. Both of them always think of others before themselves, they'll give the last dollars in their wallets to someone who is hungry. My husband mentioned he wanted to bring some guys home from MOS school for Thanksgiving; I said DO IT because nothing breaks my heart more than people who are alone on holidays. B loves my little sister like his own, and watching the two of them together warms my heart. They are so cute together.

He turns 23 in 20 days. I feel like I've known him forever, but it's still only been two and a half short years. Oh, and what an adventure we've had! We've had ups and downs and highs and lows, but we've conquered and we're still here. Now, with a 75% divorce rate among USMC couples, we have more odds to overcome (not to mention our odds are already pretty low since we got married so young). However, THIS is the man I love and I will do anything for him. I can't even describe what he means to me, I just don't know the words to use. I just...love him.