No Longer Feeling 22...

Today's my birthday. The not-so-big 23.
For some reason I'm feeling very thoughtful and reflective today... I suppose that's usual. To review the year that has passed and contemplate the one to come.
A lot of change occurred this last year. But so much is still the same. Location has changed. My family has changed. But I still feel like I'm in the same place. I don't think that I've moved from where I was this time last year. For better or for worse.
I'm not where I thought I'd be at 23. Before Ty, I figured at this time I'd have my degree and a job. Hopefully married, but maybe not yet. I'd just be starting life on my own as an adult. Well, the marriage thing came sooner than I thought. I started life as an "adult" earlier than planned. I've traveled and have seen more of this country than I ever imagined that I would. I assumed I'd still be in my hometown or somewhere near. But the whole college part of the vision hasn't panned out. I'm still not sure what I want to do. And I can't seem to find any direction.
I know how important higher education is. But I feel like I have to choose between studying what I want to study and studying what will make me money in the future. I don't like that. I love learning and I'm willing to work hard, but I want to be passionate about what I'm doing. I don't just want to be in it for the almighty dollar. I want to provide for my family of course, but I'd rather live simply and enjoy what I do.
Sigh.. I feel like this is the conversation I have with myself all of the time. The same words going around and around...
I need this to be the year that I figure that aspect of my life out. By the time fafsa filing time rolls around again after the first of the year, I want to have a plan. I just need to make a move.
I plan on becoming a mother soon. Even if I decide to be a stay at home mom full or part time for the first few years, I want to have a degree as "backup" if I need to provide suddenly or if we decide to send our kids to school instead of homeschool, I'll want a degree to help me get back into the workplace.
I won't lie and say that I sort of hoped my birthday present this year would be that I was pregnant. That is not the case however. I know that just means it's not the time. I'm trying not to obsess over it. I want it to happen "naturally" but I want to be proactive as well. I may not know what I want to do as a career, but I sure as hell know that I'm ready to be a mom. And maybe to society that isn't as important because it doesn't  earn anything, but to me that's the most important thing. As antiquated a thought as it may be, having a career is beneath being a good wife and mother to me.
For the longest time I haven't felt my age. I mean, I've always been mature and felt myself to be an old soul. But I've been sort of in denial about my age. I feel like I'm still 17. Not this year though. I feel 23. I don't know why. Maybe I'm settling into my twenties now. Getting used to no longer being a teenager.
Life keeps moving forward faster and faster. Sometimes I feel like I'm wasting it doing nothing or doing the same thing every day. I know we're only given such a short time and I don't want to waste a moment of it. I want life to always be an adventure. Not an endless sequence of days. I want to live the width of my life, not just the length. I need to stop being so cautious and worried and start being brave. You can't live your life afraid to move forward. It may be the wrong direction, but at least it's somewhere you've never been.

Read More

Living for the Weekends...

One of the things I regret most about our time in California is how little exploring we did. There's so much to see and do, but we always ended up doing the same things. For example, how is it we lived there for 2 years and never went to a vineyard or a winery or anything like that? And we never went to L.A. Or the mountains. Or whatever. We had our usual weekend routine that we stuck to. Which is fine, and I usually had really good times, but there's so much that I feel like we should have done. I promised myself that when we moved out East finally that we'd do it right and explore like fiends. But here we are. 3+ months of living out here and haven't gone anywhere. Hm.
Without disclosing too exactly of where we are I will just say we are a short drive away from D.C. With just that information you can imagine how much there is to see and do here. Hiking, mountains, historical places, the ocean, D.C. in general, anything really up or down the coast...
But yet another Saturday has gone by where we're still going to the same mall and still ending up at home drinking coffee.
Don't get me wrong, I love that we're homebodies and I could stay at home with just the two of us forever. But it just seems a waste of the opportunity we have of living out here. We may never be back here again and I don't want to regret not going on adventures.
I suppose I just need to plan day adventures and just do them. That way we don't have an excuse. We're always at a loss for what to do on weekends, but if we already had a plan in action, we'd be great.
Where to start, I wonder...
On a side note: Summer needs to stop arriving so early. I wanted Spring. Not summer. This heat can go away until June. Thanks from a girl who lived in a bay for 2 years and hasn't seen 80 degrees since.

Now for some random pictures that have nothing to do with this post:

Farm fresh eggs courtesy of my manager from work.. I was way too excited about these.

Rainy nights apparently inspire me to break out my camera.

Forever the most beaten looking dog.

My husband's bass.

Read More

Life is Too Short to do the Same Thing Twice...

This post is going to be sort of all over the place. I don't really have a specific topic in mind...not like I ever really do.
Anyways... Let me just start off by saying how horrible I am with keeping in touch with my family back home. You'd think after three years of being the long-distance family member I would have become a pro at keeping up with people, but sadly I just get worse. I rarely talk to my parents unless they contact me first and I talk even less with my in-laws. I'm such a bad daughter. I just get caught up in our little world and forget everything outside of it. I feel bad about it, but I am grateful that they seem to understand. Besides, they have lives of their own. Which seem to be a lot more exciting at the moment. Lots of changes it seems. First off, my mother is getting pretty serious with a guy. I'm happy for her, but I don't think it will ever not be weird that my parents are divorced. Or that she's in the "dating scene" and I've officially become the old married woman of the family. I'm hoping things work out for her. She seems really happy with him and that's all anyone can ask for. My younger sister graduates college (with an associates) at the end of May. It's crazy to think she's where I was right before I got married. It's even more strange since she's in her first real adult relationship and moving in with the guy! And they've already begun the marriage discussion. It's actually quite surreal to think about my baby sister living with a guy let alone getting married. But she's the age I was. Actually older. Crazy. My father and his new (as in recently married) wife are moving about an hour away. That's going to make holidays interesting... all of my families are going to be an hour away from each other. But I can't think about that stress right now. And my older sister is...well, how she always is. And that's all there is about that.
With all of this exciting and life changing news going on back home, I can't help but feel a little jealous. I'm ready for something new and exciting (I guess a cross country move didn't do it for me). I suppose I mean something new and exciting for me personally. Like a new job opportunity, finally going back to school, or what I'd really like....a baby. :) lol I guess I just feel like I'm falling back into the routine I was in in California. I don't want to stay in the same "place" I've been in for the last three years. Not really doing anything with my life. I know I just need to get back to school that way I can at least say I did something. While the decision of what to go back for has been an unimaginably difficult one, I feel like I'm getting closer to deciding. I actually even have a tentative online university that offers degrees in both of the fields I'm considering and it's relatively inexpensive. I am just at the point where I need to make a decision and not be afraid if it's the wrong one. At least it will be a step forward. A degree in something, even if I don't end up in that field, is more recognizable than no degree.
I always thought that college and career were going to be the "easy" decisions for me and finding someone to spend my life with was going to be the impossible task. Funny how life works out, isn't it?

Forever posing with a coffee mug...

Oh spring...

I'll take a little sunlight with my vodka please.

Read More

Life Happens...

Well hello all! Sorry it's been so long...(do I start every post that way??) Getting back into the swing of things (aka life) needed all of my attention, but I am finally able to update on life at the moment. :)

So far Maryland has been pretty good. Ty and I both started working and I've been working way more hours than I ever did in California. While sometimes I would much rather not work at all, it's nice to not feel so lazy sitting at home doing absolutely nothing like in Cali.. As far as work goes, so far so good. The team is friendly for the most part and I think they like having someone who actually knows how to do things and do them right. They've been using me like a work horse. But my wallet definitely doesn't mind. 

While having a lot of hours at work is great, it sort of prohibits any exploration of our area considering I usually work weekends. We haven't really gone anywhere of any interest yet. We have checked out all of the nearby malls however. lol I can't believe we've been here this long and haven't gone to D.C. or even Baltimore or even the coast!! Sigh... We'll get there eventually I guess. We're here for awhile, we can take it all in.

There's so much I want to do around here! I want to see all of the historical buildings and sites (hello, associates in history) and go hiking and go to the ocean and all of the museums and maybe even get to NYC eventually.. There's SO much to do around here that it's hard to know where to start! Now that it's getting warmer, we have nothing holding us back. We just need to plan our weekends out and do it! 

Speaking of the weather... it is gorgeous here at the moment! It's so strange, one week we have 5 inches of snow and two weeks later it's almost 90! I think Maryland believes it's the Midwest. But now we're actually getting spring weather and I'm loving it. Flowers are blooming and all of the blossom trees are so gorgeous. We even got to do a little gardening yesterday (well, Ty did. I watered them...). We officially have lillies as long as they don't die... 

That's really all I have to share at the moment. Work, work, work... 

On a side note though, I've been thinking more and more about what I want to do for work. Apparently there is a program for military spouses to receive money to get certificates. I started looking at what jobs I could do with some sort of certificate that I would like. The only thing that really stood out to me was getting certified as a personal trainer. I've been on my own fitness journey for awhile now and the longer I'm on it, the more passionate I get about it. I've actually been seriously considering getting my degree in nutrition or at least certified as a nutritionist. The importance of food to our health is something that I have become pretty passionate about. With a certificate in personal training, I could have a well rounded career. Ideally, in my dream world, what I would like to do is get a degree in either nutrition or psychology with a minor in whichever I don't major in and also get certified as a personal trainer. I would love to provide a "360" approach to health. While exercise and nutrition are vital to overall health and wellness, I think mental health is overlooked on the journey. It such a key factor of health and wellness that needs to be addressed. If you don't have a healthy mindset or a healthy emotional relationship with your body when you're "unfit", you won't magically obtain it when you're fit. I would love to start that discussion with clients I would have. I would provide the fitness and nutritional aspect, but also scratch the surface of the mental health aspect. Obviously, without a doctorate or further education, I couldn't do a lot in the way of therapy or psychology, but with a minor or bachelor's, I could at least address some of the minor issues and be able to refer to a professional with the greater issues such as eating disorders.

These are just some thoughts I've been having... It's good to dream big right? lol

Well, that's all for now. :)

Except for these...

Gotta love that face...

Brunch...

New favorite..

Officially an east coast man in Tommy stripes...

Rainy day...

Too needy...

Well sure.. it is March...

Morning face...

Atmosphere...

Details...

Easter hair...

Easter Brunch...

How delicious does that look?

Sunlight...

New season, new hair...

Nothing like a beer on the deck on a sweltering day...

Signature color...

FINALLY found THE bag. After years of looking... I LOVE it!

Perfect night for a fire and some wine...

*P.S. Sorry that all I have had lately are Instagram pics... I'm trying to sell my camera and until I get a new one, I'm in protest. lol

Read More

East Coast Living...

Well, after 2 years and a whole hell of a lot of waiting, we finally made it to Maryland!! :)
It feels amazing to finally be here after all of the delays. The next chapter is finally starting..
We've been here about two weeks after driving out from the Midwest. I have to admit that even though I drove alone (we did have walkie talkies to communicate along the way...dweebs I know..) 16 hours is a lot better than the 32 to California.
Once we got here, though, the stress began... We had to go into temp housing since we didn't have housing set up before we arrived. Pheobe, however, was not allowed so we had to get her into a kennel which required her to get all of her shots updated beforehand. I hated her having to go into a kennel knowing how miserable she would be. I felt like such a bad mother...
While the temporary housing wasn't horrible, it was definitely not a home and we were ready to be out by the next day. Thus began the intense whirlwind of house hunting. We scoured the internet for places to rent nearby, within our BAH budget, and that allowed dogs. I swear that I literally called over 20 places (only half of which returned my call...professional much?) and we saw about 6 or so. We liked a few of them, but they all required first month's rent, security deposit which is the same as rent, and an enormous pet fee up front. Considering we were paying for temporary housing and Pheobe being in a kennel everyday, we were currently hemorrhaging money. We were starting to get worried that we were going to be in temporary housing forever and were going to be completely broke and without a home when we stumbled upon and amazing townhouse. It was 2000 square feet, three levels, three bedrooms and an office, tons of storage space, on the end so plenty of yard space, a fireplace, an enormous master bath, and a huge deck. We fell in love with it. It was a lot more space than we would ever need, but it was for the same rent as a few much smaller places. We were worried about the up front costs, but miraculously the property manager said that he would wave the first month's rent until the first of the month when we get paid. So we rented! We were out of temporary housing, with Pheobe, and in our new home the next day.
We've been in our home for over a week. We had all of our housing goods delivered really quickly which is a blessing in the military. Of course with this big, beautiful new space, I want all new things. Unfortunately they'll have to wait until we're in the money again. But my decorating urge is in full swing.
It's so nice to be in our own place again. Just the two of us. As much as I enjoyed spending time with my family and being back "home", I missed having my own space. I missed it just being us on this adventure.
We've gradually been exploring the area. Mostly the nearby malls. We're a stone's throw (ish) away from D.C. but haven't made it there yet. There's so much around us I don't know how we could ever be bored. I'm so anxious to explore and go on adventures along the coast and see the oldest part of the country (history buff much?).
I haven't started work yet since Ty has been off and I'd rather spend time with him. I'm a little nervous about starting over at work, but I've done it before. I'm hoping to find something full time soon and put my associate's degree to work. But what can you really do with an associates??
So far, we're enjoying ourselves. I cannot wait to see what this chapter holds for us and all the experiences ahead of us. If it's anything like the last chapter, it's going to be pretty amazing.

First night in our new home...

Not a bad view...

Look what came with our goods...

We were told to save this for when we had something to celebrate...does not being in temp housing count?

Me attempting to curl my hair for the first time in forever...

Finally figured out how to turn this on..

First homemade pizza in MD...

Read More