Happy Anniversary My Love

Walking to the armory from Delta Range together

Short Separations

2200 homemade dinners in my car in the parking lot of the squadbays at MCRD

Whirlwind elopement in LAS VEGAS

Finding true friends

Arguments that end in laughter...even when we don't want to

Deployments

Stunning 2 1/2 year old

0300 MEPS runs while 7+ months prego

Purchasing our first "home" in an area we thought we could never afford.

Trips to the ER

Reality TV

Newcastle and vodka

College football season...Gig 'em Aggies and Roll Tide Roll 

BBQ's with friends

Date nights in San Juan...Swallows Inn, Sundried Tomato, & El Adobe

LONG Separations on separate coasts

Trying our best to live our marriage through the Lord

I wish I could list more things that make our marriage so wonderful, but that would end up being a novel.

Thank you for the laughter and even the tears...

Thank you for showing me that I am strong when I feel my weakest...

Thank you for believing in me when I quit believing in myself...

Thank you for making me feel like your Queen...

Thank you for being a MAN that supports his family unselfishly...

Thank you....

A Memorial Day for the Books

*Warning: Picture Overload*

We were so thrilled when Nick told us that he was going to come home for the Memorial Day weekend!

I am so thankful that God had it in his plans to be together as a family this weekend.

Lord knows (hallelujah) that I needed it.

I was going through kind of a funk.

It all just kind of hit me at once that all my friends are moving away, getting stationed in other duty stations, and it FINALLY hit...

Nick was not going to be a part of our daily routine anymore.

I got a little bit of the "blues" I guess you can say.

I must say...

This was one of THE most memorable Memorial Day weekends that I have ever had!

Nick and I will be celebrating 4 years of marriage together this Thursday (May 31), and we decided to do something special for it this weekend.

On Saturday evening, we got a suite with an ocean view at the Laguna Cliffs Spa and Resort in Dana Point...

Just the two of us.

An evening of an amazing dinner, and cocktails in the hotel lounge.

Very low-key.

Very us...

We did meet a creepy old guy who kept hitting on me...but it made for an entertaining night, I suppose...lol

The view from our room

 Room service for breakfast

 

 No evening is complete without a "Myspace" style mirror pic.

Poor Nick...

The next day when we got home, he got deathly ill.

Thank God, it just a 24 hour bug thing.

Did I mention that Nick and I are "airborne-a-holics"?!

I swear by it.

Memorial Day was one to remember.

Well...for us at least.

I guess anyone else would have thought our Memorial Day was pretty boring.

We started our day at Home Depot to buy new flowers for my new garden :-)

We spent the majority of the morning working on it.

We spent the rest of the day grilling, talking about life, hanging out with Dannika, and playing with Dozer.

We got her a little blow up pool for our backyard, and made a makeshift water slide for her.

She pretty much played in it all day.

Nick and I just pulled up two lawn chairs next to her pool and put our feet in the water while we had some beers, and BBQ.

It was a little white trashy, but what can I say?

We avoided the crowds and the traffic.

Jalapenos stuffed with fat free cream cheese and low sodium bacon...yes...even when we grill out, we try and keep it low calorie.

The Love of my Life...cliche, but so true.

This is what happens when you let a 2 year old put sunscreen on your back.

And lastly...

Let us never forget what Memorial day is about.

And to all the fallen...

Thank you for letting me enjoy another long weekend with my family, and thank you for giving us that freedom to do so.

 

Under Appreciation

Sorry I've been MIA for a while!

Since Nick's been gone, life went back to being extremely hectic.

Single motherhood 

(Total shout out and props to all the single parents out there who are REALLY single parents...I don't know how you raise such amazing children on your own, but my little taste of single parenthood really make me appreciate Nick more!)

Full time job

and everything else that comes with being alone makes life a little crazy.

It actually feels MORE hectic than it did when he deployed.

I think when he deploys, my mind is in a different state than it is in right now.

This week is the first week I truly felt a little under appreciated for all that I do.

I never ask for "props", and when people tell me things like, "I don't know how you do it. I could never do it."...I just brush it off and kinda give them the awkward, "It's not a big deal, really."

People at work gave me a little bit of a rough run this week.

 Trying to explain to a male Marine who's wife is a stay at home mom, WHY I can't stay later than I already have because I HAVE to pick up my child from daycare....

I might as well have been talking to a missile launcher in my shop.

I know exactly the thought that was going through his head.

"It's not MY fault or MY problem that you chose to have children while being a dual active duty couple. You need to figure it out and make it work. The Corps comes first"

(and no, the Corps does not come first in my life....God, marriage, children, CORPS...)

Yep...people actually think like that cause I used to think the same way, and yes...

I do realize now that it is an ignorant way of thinking.

I never realized how hurtful that was until it happened to me.

I also felt a little under under appreciated from my husband.

He's always been my rock, and he is an amazing man.

I know it's unfair of me to say this, but let's face reality here...

He's NEVER been home alone as a working, "single", father for even ONE DAY!

I couldn't help but feel a little bit jealous when he called to tell me last night that he was going out with the guys for dinner and to a bar for drinks.

I know I'm not the only woman who feels this way....military family or not.

Our husbands go away on TAD, westpac, or business trip...an obligation for work...

And on their free time, they get to go out and have all kinds of fun while you're sitting at home watching Mulan with a toddler who is destroying your house.

Yeah...sucks.

I guess I'll just have to get over it.

And just to clarify,

the key to getting over the little jealousy you have when they get to do things like that and you don't...

Just call them and talk to them.

Communication is key (as cliche as that sounds).

You'll find out that most of the time (if you have a good husband), they feel bad that they get to do fun things like that.

I called Nick this morning (angry at first cause Dannika was up at 3am vomiting and had wet the bed)....but he made me feel a little better.

Nick has an amazing way of making me feel appreciated when he does.

I just have to remind him every once in a while.

*wink*

I made a "blog facebook page" cause I was getting some really weird and random friend requests from like guys in India....FOR REAL! So, if you want to keep up with my family on facebook, either click my facebook link at the top right hand part of my blog or just click HERE!

Here are some pics from my week.

Nick and his mum...adorable, isn't he?

I got to meet Rickey Gadson at a safety fair on the flightline. He is a 9 time World Champion motorcycle drag racer sponsored by Kawasaki. I also got his autograph!

This is Dannika and Elizabeth. Elizabeth is our neighbor's granddaughter.

Pretend sleeping.

Mom

I think it's safe to say that my mom and I don't agree on much.

We agree to disagree, and when we are together, I am guaranteed an argument of some sort over menial things.

I am a first generation American, and I was my parents' "guinea pig" when it came to parenting.

They tried to mix old school asian parenting with western parenting, and we all know those two cultures clash and mix about as well as water and oil.

However,

the things that we do agree on are EXTREMELY important.

Here are 5 things....

1. Never let a white woman do your make up. They don't understand that asians have monolids. If you're asian and have ever gone to a make up counter to have your eye make up done...it's a tramatic experience. You leave looking like Mimi from the Drew Carey Show.

2. Asian women are stereotypically short. You must always wear heels...it makes your legs look longer, and you look taller....even when working out. This is not a joke...I have actually witnessed my mom wears a low heel with jogging pants to take a walk around the block.

3. Iron your husband's pajamas and boxers. yes...my mom does this, and no I do not iron Nick's pajamas or boxers. In the asian culture, men and women don't show much affection through hugs and kisses. They show it through other things....like ironing PJ's and boxers. I love that my mom does little things like that to show my dad that she cares. WHO THINKS OF IRONING BOXERS?!? I like to do little things for Nick to show him I care....like hiding random letters and notes in his gear before he deploys. I love getting an email from him halfway through the deployment that he found one of the letters I wrote him in his grenade pouch. (And I am an EXTREMELY affectionate person unlike my mom and dad)

4. You'll never gain weight if you eat Korean food. Whenever I complain that I've gained a few pounds, my mom always has to chime in and add that if I cooked more Korean food, I wouldn't have that problem. I hate to admit it, but she is right. This is why most asian women tend to be tiny. The only carb they really consume is rice and EVERYTHING else is either steamed or boiled....fish, vegetables, lean meats...you name it. I just don't have the time to drive to the Korean grocery store all the time to do my grocery shopping.

5. Love God, and put everything in his hands. I don't really even have to explain this. My mom is one of the most God loving people I know and lives her life the way He wants her to. I strive to have that sort of relationship with him every day.

 My point is...

Even through all our rough times...
I love you, mom!
I love you for being EVERYTHING.
You have set the standard HIGH for mom's everywhere.


Look at how GORGEOUS she is!
 This photo was from my high school graduation.

 

Woman Like You

Nick's been listening to a lot of country radio on his road trip across the country.

He texted me today asking me to listen to a song called "A Woman Like You" by Lee Brice.

I finally gotta chance to sit down and look it up on youtube.

I think I cried the whole time listening to it because it describes our relationship to the "T".

I'm almost tempted to write Lee Brice and ask him if he interviewed Nick before writing this song.

A Time to Vent

I don't like to complain much....

ok...I lied...I actually love to complain (what woman doesn't, right?!?!).

The one thing though, that I do my best not to complain about are separations from Nick.

I've been in the Marine Corps long enough to know that it's just part of the life and no matter how much complaining and whining I do, it won't bring him home any sooner, and it won't take him off that deployment roster.

When Nick spontaneously came home almost 3 1/2 months early from this last deployment to Afghanistan, you would think that I would be jumping for joy.

It was the total opposite, cause the reason he was coming home was to leave a month later to the other side of the country for an AMAZING opportunity.

Nick was hand selected to teach future Officers of the Marine Corps and Navy for Boston University, Harvard, MIT, and Northeastern.

This billet would guarantee him 1stSgt if he were to be successful at it (if he does not get selected for the Warrant Officer program).

He left today to make the cross country drive to Quantico for training during the summer.

This last week, he worked TIRELESSLY (that's actually an understatement) to make sure that Dannika, Dozer, and I had a functional backyard to hang out in for the summer.

He landscaped our entire backyard, leveled it, broke up 2 tons of concrete with a sledgehammer (with the help of Sunny), built an entire deck, put up a brand new fence (with Sunny's help), built a flowerbed, and laid down turf in our yard in a matter of a week and a half. 

I know some contractors that take a month to do all that. 

In fact, one of the nights, he was working in the backyard till 9 in the evening. 

All this hard work, just for him to enjoy it one time. 

I guess I'm just super emo and sad because this is our first house.
My facebook status summed it up for me:

"I'm not really sad about the separation. We've been separated. I'm really more sad that this may be the last time that Nick gets to "live" in our house. This is the first house we ever bought together, and we've put SO much work and money into it. We brought Dannika home from the hospital to this house. This is our home, and last night after the yard was finished and we were sitting back there enjoying the evening, it was the first time that it truly felt like "home"...until last night, there were always things that needed to be done to the house and a lot of work that we procrastinated. That's what I'm really sad about."

I'm going to stay optimistic, lean on God (more), and pray non-stop.

 And please add me to your facebook!

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The REMODELED backyard..