Homecoming Curse

There is a little thing that happens around homecoming that I now refer to as The Homecoming Curse. As soon as you get a date, what can go wrong..will go wrongThis took the form of my precious macbook pro dying on me. One minute it's doing fine, next it won't go past the loading screen....

.....this is like the red ring of death for mac users. What could this mean? Of course, a failing hard drive.  What could be worse than replacing the hard drive? The fact that my computer will be out of commission....the final week of my classes. Thankfully between my sister's desk top and my friend letting me use her laptop, so I was able to complete all of my coursework on time. The downside to of all of this is that 1) it ended up costing a small fortune to replace and 2)I lost all of my files. Needless to say, we decided to invest in a portable hard drive. Even thought it was a stressful situation we concluded that 1)we have the money to fix it and 2) if that was the worst thing we have to deal with, we are extremely blessed this holiday season!

Finally!

For my last official military monday post, I'm going out with a bang! 

  I am so happy to say that after nearly nine months, Matthew finally came home to me yesterday afternoon. 

A detailed blog post and more pictures to come, but for right now I'm going to be enjoying my homecoming bliss. Thank you all for the prayers and support, we did it! 

Military Monday:A Homecoming

It was a crazy awesome Thanksgiving for my family this year. Although I'm not writing about Matthew's homecoming, I am writing about a homecoming that is special to my family. My brother-in-law deployed to Afghanistan about a month after Matthew's unit deployed. It's been a rough road for my sister because she had to take a rambunctious 2 year old and home by herself. But, she did it! It's going to post the photos rather than explain the whole story of their homecoming. I think the pictures will speak for themselves.

Disclaimer: I am starting to dabble with Matthew's camera. I am not a professional. So, please take the quality of the photos with a grain of salt as they aren't the best quality. But, I still like to think I did a great job capturing the moment!

MIA:Explained

So, I have been an awful  blogger lately. I don't eve think awful can cover it. Basically, I suck. But, I wanted to give you all an update to why I have been considering missing in action. Here is a little idea of whats been going on lately.....

At first I wasn't blogging because I was crazy busy with school and preparing for Matthew's homecoming. I have been preparing for homecoming since the day he left, but I still felt like I had a million things to do before he got home. I actually was writing a few blog posts to be posted once he got home regarding what I did to prepare and fun things like that. Sweet right?

I don't know you any of you guys watch the news, personally I have learned not to, but there is a lot of stuff going on along the Gaza strip. I understand as a Christian, I should support God's people in Israel and all that jazz. But, I really wish people would just get their crap together. Now that it is not violating OPSEC,  I can say that Matthew was supposed to be home yesterday...November 25th after a long 8 months. Some marines were supposed to be home as early as the 23rd or 24th. However, as you can see by the lack of a homecoming post, homecoming did not happen yesterday.

The 24th MEU was in route home. And by in route I mean that they were in the atlantic ocean and were just a week away from being home when we received word from the command that because of the conflict occurring overseas, homecoming was postponed until further notice. Yep...they definitely turned the ships around and headed to stand by incase they were needed. That was a week ago and we still have no word on when they are coming home. The only "official" word we have received is that there is no "official" word on when they will be returning. It can be a week, a month, or even as far off as February. Needless to say we are not happy about it.

Now, please do not lecture me about the fact that "well that's the Marines for you". This is not my first rodeo regarding the fact that Matthew has missed important days of the year, or things like our PCS date being delayed by 6 months. When you spend 8 months looking forward to being lucky enough to have your husband home for Christmas, and then that dream being compromised...you are entitled to be upset...possibly even bitter. I have went through all of the stages of emotions.
Denial: Oh, they'll be home. Things will calm down and they will be home just a little late.
Anger: Hell hath no fury like a marine wife dealing with an extension. Freaking Marine Corps...I don't curse often. But you'd be surprised by the words that came out of my mouth.
Bitterness: I'm just never getting my husband back. I possibly just made him up in my head. I know he exists but I'm beginning to forget what his kisses are like, what he smells like after he showers, his facial expressions when I try to get him to eat asparagus for the millionth time, or even what it's like to have someone else sleeping with me in my bed
Emotional Eating: The weekend I found out that he wasn't coming home...I may or may not have eaten an entire medium pizza..and may or may not have washed it down with an entire 2 liter of soda.
Acceptance: He probably won't be home for Christmas. But, I still put up my tree and stockings. And, I'm probably going to Indiana by myself to be with my family for the holidays.


I realize that an extension isn't the worst thing that can happen to me on a deployment, but I'm still upset about it. More so upset because we are completely in the dark about when they will be home. So, I am asking you all to please pray for me, the other wives, the marines and their families. If praying is your thing please send good vibes, juju, or cross your fingers. I just want my husband home more than you can possibly imagine. But, that is why I have been missing for so long. I was preparing for homecoming, and then grieving for the lack of homecoming. Hopefully in the next few weeks I will be posting my homecoming pictures, but until then please just keep us all in your thoughts!

Halloween: A little late on the bandwagon

I know that halloween has been long past, but I thought I'd post some pictures to share how awesome of a time I had even though Matthew wasn't home! The night before halloween, two of my best girl friends came over and we carved pumpkins. First off, every I love carving pumpkins. Like, jumping into the pool in 90 degree heat type of love. I'm going to sound full of it, but I actually rock at it. I can't paint, draw, or even trace a stencil most of the time....but I can sure carve a pumpkin. These are the finished products. My pumpkin is the Owl.

Here we are with our awesome pumpkins! We were so excited! 

I decided to "dress" up this year. After our pumpkin carving extravaganza, we decided to make a target run to gather some super hero shirts. Tricia rocked out an awesome batman shirt, and I got Matthew's favorite super hero. Captain America. Then I decided to try the new fad, "chalking" your hair. It turned out great! I did red and blue to match my shirt of course...

My best friends, besides the lovely Becky, came over to eat tacos and hand out candy with me. After dinner, my favorite trick or treater came to visit :) My nephew Parker. Isn't he the cutest cowboy you've ever seen? My sister was a sport and dressed up as well!

This is a pretty lame post, but I wanted to share how I spend the holiday. Do you have any traditions for this holiday in particular? Share some! Until next time :)

Car Kit

A while back, I saw a few pins on pinterest far a "car kit". It is just a little something to keep in your car if you need it. I found some examples here, here, or here. I took a few of those ideas and made it my own. I grabbed an old make up kit and gathered my materials.

Here is a list of what I included in my kit.
-hand sanitizer: just because it's a staple in my life.                
-hair ties/bobby pins: I always manage to leave my hair ties at home when I need them the most
-Orajel: Sometimes I just get random tooth aches, always when we are in the middle of a 14 hour car ride.    
-Insect Repellent: The kind I have is actually a lotion, but it works all the same.
-Anti Itch Stick: This is great because it's not a cream, and its a stick you can just easily throw in a purse or bag!
-Chloraseptic Spray: Always be prepared for cold and flu season. Bring on the sore throats.
-Baby Wipes: Things tend to get messy, I actually got a free sample so I just added it to my kit.
-Ibuprofen- These are obviously for those mid-road trip head aches, or for that one person in your car that has a head ache but no one has pain reliever..ever!
-Feminine Hygiene Products: Okay, Okay. I mean tampons and panty liners. I am a girl, and one of the pleasures of being a girl is getting a monthly cycle. Something I affectionately call shark week. Matthew could care less if this was in our car kit, but sometimes things just sneak up on you and you need a "feminine hygiene product".
-Imodium Tablets: Let's face it, sometimes that burrito from a fast food chain was just a bad idea.
-Tissues: ..because sometimes you just have to blow your nose. Or, blot your face because it is a million degrees out. Either way, tissues are handy.
-Midol: See "Feminine Hygiene Products". Shark week tends to include cramps and bloating.
-Tums: See "Imodium Tablets"
-First Aid Kit: I always seem to cut my finger at the most random times. Like, from a paper cut while reading a book in the passenger seat. Yaaaay bandaids!
-Chap Stick: Chapped lips just aren't fun at all.
-Contact Solution:When I need to flush out my eyes because I yet again managed to get something stuck in my eye and it's driving my contacts crazy...contact solution is amazing.
-Cough Drops: See "Chloraseptic Spray"
-Gum: Driving through the mountains= ear popping
-Cliff Bar: This is the "ahh, I'm starving but I'm in the middle of no where" emergency fuel. I may or may not be the person that feels the need to have a few MRE's in my tire hatch.
-Sunblock: I have gone to the beach on more than one occasion and realized I forgot my sunblock. Be Prepared!
-Lotion: Have you ever shaved your legs, wore shorts outside and realized when you're 5 miles down the road that you forgot to lotion your obviously ashy legs? This girl has on more than one occasion.


This is just what I personally need for my car at the moment. I would make a kit for Matthew's truck a little differently, but honestly feel satisfied with just one for right now. Another thing I have is a plastic bag dispenser to store plastic bags, obviously. And by plastic bag dispenser, I mean that I have an empty Lysol wipes container. I got the idea here. You can take so many takes on this idea. I plan on making a "kid" car kit when the time comes. I've seen a few different concept of this idea. You can make them for different age groups like baby, toddler and child. You can include things from toys and entertainment to a spare change of clothes, diapers and bottles. Some ideas are like this, this and this. I absolutely love the idea of having a "go to" bag for the car. When we get a little bit bigger car, I will probably make something like this. I hope I help inspire you to make a "go to" bag!

Bragging About My Matthew

So, as one can see by the title of this post, I'm bragging about my husband. I try not to play the doting wife, at least not publicly anyway. But, the closer it comes for Matthew to get home the more excited I get about him brushing off his camera. He didn't get a chance to really take a lot of photos since the marine corpse didn't give him a lot of time to just chill out. But lets face it when you only get a few times a week to really kick back a relax the, the las thing you want to do is chase your wife around the house with the "good" camera trying to catch images for her blog. I have a feeling that will change when he comes home. 

So, a little back story about Matthew, the boy can take some photos. He worked for the newspaper during his first, and only, year of college. So when he told me that he was really into photography, I honestly took it with a grain of salt. Let's face it. Now days, anyone with a digital camera and photo shop is a "photographer". I didn't realize he was completely serious until he took this picture.. 

This was taken over two years ago. My brother in law was playing the xbox and Parker was really into it. This picture was just taken on a whim to show my sister what he could do before he took Parker's three month photos. No photoshop I might add! Well, other than added the signature. 

 Parker did NOT like taking pictures with me that day. Look how upset he was. Luckily, he love for Aunt KayKay has grown drastically.

His mommy, however, was his one and only love that day. This is honestly one of my favorite pictures of them together. It looks so precious.

A little while later, Matthew took these cute photos of Parker. Very "moto" but I think they are awesome!

 Then, a little later on that summer he took his camera with him during his families visit during Labor day. Here are just a few shots from that day..

Then, later the following summer, I conned him into taking some pictures of me and my sisters during my sister Kia's visit. 

Now I understand you won't see his work in the cover of a magazine any time soon, but I am still pretty proud. And excited. You see, he has a tripod as well. Can you say hello Christmas card photos? Plus I am so glad he can work his way around a camera so we can have a decent photographs of our future children running around.