My ABC's

I stole this from a fellow mommy, military wife blogger!

Check her out----->(Life of a Military Family)<----Check her out

Thought it would be a fun thing to do!

{A} Age: 28...for one more month

{B} Bed size: Queen...with the best investment ever...a temperpedic mattress

{C} Chore you hate: putting laundry away. I don't mind folding laundry though.

{D} Dogs: 1 giant pain in the butt, Dozer....our American bulldog

{E} Essential start to your day: catching up on my recorded shows on DVR from the night prior

{F} Favorite color: my whole world is pink

{G} Gold or Silver: depends on the outfit :-)

{H} Height: 5'4

{I} Instruments you play: piano and violin

{J} Job Title: Wife, Mommy, former U.S. Marine :-D

{K} Kids: 1 little diva

{L} Live: Massachusetts...near Boston (not by choice)...thank you Marine Corps.

{M} Married: to my wonderful husband for 5 years

{N} Nicknames: None really.

{O} Overnight hospital stays: birth of my daughter

{P} Pet peeve: the breastfeeding vs. formula feeding debate....I hate it....I wish women would just support each other on these issues no matter WHAT they choose. (this is just a whole another blog post...I get heated).

{Q} Quote: Ephesians 2:8

{R} Righty or Lefty: righty

{S} Siblings: 1 "little" sister

{T} Time you wake up: I'm up at 0430 when my husband wakes up for work...then I normally just lay in bed (angry that I can't fall back asleep) till around 6.

{U} University attended: School of Hard Knocks, baby...USMC! :-) I'm using my wonderful GI Bill to finish school this year

{V} Vegetables you dislike: I don't think there's a vegetable I dislike...I guess my least favorite is onions

{W} What makes you run late: I can't remember the last time I was late...15 minutes prior to 15 minutes prior to everything (that would be the Marine in me).

{X} X-Rays you've had: knees, teeth, chest....I'm pretty sure every part of my body has be x-rayed at some point in my career as a Marine.

{Y} Yummy food: sushi and Korean food.

{Z} Zoo animal favorite: Baby elephants...not adult ones...just the baby ones...they're so cute.

Trying to Like It

I'm trying really hard to like it here.

I'm doing the best I can to make the best of it.

I mean, we are "stuck" here for AT LEAST the next 3 years.

I keep telling myself that it's just temporary, and this is not our "forever" home.

But nothing about this state, this city, this place makes me truly happy.

The weather is awful.

I am what I would consider "tropical".

I grew up in the hot humid summers of Texas, and spent the majority of my adult life so far in sunny Southern California.

Too me, any temperature below 40 degrees was a cold dose of reality that I never wanted to ever be a part of.

But here I am...

In one of the most northern states in the United States...

The snow is depressing (it's only fun for like a day...and it's cold.).

The roads are nasty.

The cost of living is ridiculous (and this is coming from someone who just moved here from Orange County, California).

We haven't found a church to call home (the past few Sundays, we've kind of just given up on finding a church...).

I have tried to look on the bright side...

I am no longer in a job that I hated going to.

I get to spend all day with my princess and make up for all kinds of lost time with her.

My husband is non deployable, and I have him home almost every night.

We live in a gorgeous neighborhood in a highly desirable Boston suburb.

I totally understand why a lot of Marines from the northern parts of the US (where it snows and gets ridiculously cold in the winter) choose not to move back home when they get out of the Corps...

I really hope the Spring and Summer brighten my mood up a little bit.

I would much rather dislike Massachusetts for 4-5 months of the year (the winter months) than the entire 3 or so years we are here.

I am really enjoying the family time...even if we spend most weekends indoors.

We did manage to get out of the house last weekend to take Dannika to Disney On Ice's Rockin' Ever After (Nick's Valentine's Day gift for D).

 I remember going to Disney on Ice as a kid, and I was so excited to take Dannika.

The experience hasn't changed one bit since I went (probably in 1991).

I HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend this show for anyone with toddlers over the age of 3 1/2.

The show is 2 hours long with an intermission in between, so if you have a child who can't sit still through anything, I don't recommend it.

I saw some pretty miserable mommies and daddies here who had screaming kids throwing tantrums.

Clearly...a 2 year old is too young for anyone to expect to sit through a show with pyro and theatrical smoke...

The over priced souvenirs, ridiculously expensive food, and the crowd was all worth it.

Seeing the smile on D's face and the excitement of seeing all her favorite Disney stars was worth the $$$.

The things we do for the happiness of our kids...

D and her daddy with her 22 dollar light up wand...yeah...22 bucks.

Nick got VIP seating for us. We were so close to the ice!

At least the 12 dollar cotton candy came with a cheap princess crown (that D wore through the entire show).

Having a discussion about the show so far with daddy during intermission.

 The show was a success...she passed out as soon as we got in the car!

Finding Nemo

Oh, we found him!

He came to our house and is still hanging around this morning!

 According to the news this morning, Natick got 23 inches of snow.

If you can see in the picture below, we used to have steps on our porch...

Judging by our mailbox sticking out of the snow, I would say that it is about waist deep for me.

I think most of the power lines in our neighborhood are underground, so we got lucky and did not lose power like the other 400,000 homes in Massachusetts (Praise Jesus!).

This is the first official blizzard that New England has had since 2005, and the worst isn't over yet.

The coastal towns are still expecting a high tide to come in later this morning, and they have been evacuated to shelters closer inland.

It breaks my heart, because Hurricane Sandy just happened not too long ago, and right when all these people are getting their lives back together, another disaster is about to happen.

I'm sure they are getting lots of prayers, but you can never have enough prayers!

I did tell Nick this morning when we woke up that I was really enjoying being "snowed in" with him.

It's the only time I've seen him relax at home and just "veg out".

If you know my husband, he is a busy bee and can rarely sit still for a minute.

He's always doing something...whether it's fixing something, improving something, building something, or making something....the man can't sit still, and it drives me crazy sometimes!

Our snow day adventures continue, and I'll keep y'all updated as our weekend progresses!

Please pray for the families that are being evacuated from their homes in the coastal areas!

Before the snow came in, Nick went out and got D a Valentine's Day donut from Dunkin' Donuts, and a sweet card :-)

I made homemade hot chocolate. Melted 3 Hershey's bars, 3 cups of vanilla soy milk, and 1 cup of marshmallows....heavenly.

Nick enjoying his double chocolate stout while working on his ghillie suit.

Homemade hot chocolate in her "fancy glass"

Enjoyin' a cup o' joe together.

No snow day is complete without a homemade living room fort, Hotel Transylvania on the big screen, and s'mores!

This wind was blowing pretty ridiculous last night, so we let D "camp out" in our bedroom in her Dora the Explorer tent.

 

My crazy husband (who obviously was not thinking straight) was originally going to head outside in 3 feet of snow wearing JEANS! Lucky for him, he is married to a brilliant wife (me) who suggested he wear his Marine Corps cold weather gear that is warm and WATERPROOF! 

 

My superhero husband walking across the street to shovel snow for our neighbors.

 

D was having a heart attack that Nick was outside "playing" in the snow, so instead of dealing with her meltdown, I suited her up, and sent her outside to help daddy shovel.

 Is it sad that my 3 year old has probably shoveled more snow than me? I am making it my personal goal to never shovel snow as long as we are living here.

And of course, my husband, child, and dog are the only crazy people playing in the worst blizzard Massachusetts has had in 8 years.

 Dozer was totally freaked out by the shear deepness of the snow. He didn't know what to do with himself.

 Knee deep...on a side note...is that yellow house not the cutest house ever! I love it!

Attempting snow angels...

Blizzard of 2013

When my little sister (a Texas girl) and her husband (a New Yorker) moved to Chicago a few years ago, they experienced one of the worst blizzards that Chicago had in 40 years. 

It looks like a repeat is about to happen for our family.

After only 2 1/2 months of living here, we're expecting a monstrosity of a blizzard and expecting up to THREE feet of snow and gusts of winds up to 60mph.....oh and coastal flooding since it's conveniently a full moon (high tides).

The only thing I am/was worried about was the fact that Boston (where Nick works) was supposed to get hit the hardest.

I was worried that Nick would have to go to work today, and then be stuck in a blizzard on his afternoon commute and not make it home tonight safely. 

Thank God he was given a "snow day" and did not have to go in today.

Although we only live 15 miles outside of Boston, I feel a little safer that we're not RIGHT on the coast (false sense of security?).

For the people who lived here through Hurricane Sandy, they are in full panic mode.

I was smart and did my grocery shopping bright and early yesterday morning at 730am!

I forgot a few things, so I sent Nick this morning to the store, and the things he told me were hilarious.

 He also described a panic stricken lady running around screaming, "They're out of everything! They have nothing!"

I don't care who you are...that is hilarious.

He described that the shelves were bare, and don't even think about buying fresh produce.

That stuff was all gone as well.

While it's comical, I can also be sympathetic and understand that the remnants of Hurricane Sandy are still fresh wounds to the locals here.

I have a little sense of security when it comes to disaster relief.

Nick and I grew up in Alabama and Texas, and we survived many hurricane seasons and tornado watches.

We spent the last 10 years of our existence in southern California and survived several mild to moderate sized earthquakes.

Since Nick was always deployed, in the field, or wherever the Marines had him (besides home with D and me), he was always worried about our safety for when he wasn't home.

He made us an earthquake survival kit (just in case the "big one" hit SoCal while he was not home).

Thankfully, we never had to break it out and use it, but we did bring it here to New England, and if the worst happens, I'm pretty confident in my Marine that he'll know what to do.

We have water, a footlocker full of MRE's (Meals Ready to Eat for you non military types who are reading this), portable lanterns, batteries in every size...etc. etc. etc. etc.

 Not to mention, Nick is a graduate of the Marine Corps' Coldweather Training program :-)

He can survive in anything....at least I hope ;-)

So we're sitting here waiting on the blizzard.

We have a wood burning fireplace, stuff to make s'mores, and a fully charged ipad to play monopoly on (if we lose power).

So if you're reading this from another part of the country or world...

send us your prayers and good thoughts!

Bring it on, God! 

We got this!

Here's some photos from outside our house at 10am. It's only been snowing for about an hour at this point, and look at the snow cover!

Love, Love, and a little Discontent

It's February!

I don't care what all you "negative Nancies" say about Valentine's day, because I LOVE it.

I don't care that it's a commercial holiday.

I don't care that prices for flowers and chocolates are jacked up.

I love love!

I love that there is a day dedicated to love.

I am lucky enough to have a great man who shows me everyday how much he loves me and appreciates me, and I hope he feels the same about me.

HOWEVER, I still love February 14th being the one EXTRA special day of love.

With that said, I have no idea what I am going to do for my wonderful, hardworking, ridiculously good looking, patient, and loving husband.

I guess I still have 13 days to think about it!

On to my "woes".

I have a love/hate relationship with my dog. 

For those of you who don't know, my family owns a gigantic 100+lbs American bulldog named Dozer.

I fell in love with him the first day I got him.

I fell out of love with him after a month of having him, and my husband fell more in love with him.

(If you keep up with this blog or my facebook, you would understand my "issues" that I have had with him and my reasons for "falling out of love").

We have talked seriously about getting rid of him, but at the end of the day, my heart wouldn't let go of this giant white dog I took responsibility of.

I am emotionally invested in this dog now, and deep down inside, I am hoping for a "Marley and Me" type story in the end.

He does have great moments, and he really is a great companion to D and me...especially when Nick is gone, but sometimes, he's just too much for me.

 He is the first large dog I have ever owned.

I knew that large dogs were a lot more maintenance than small little pooches, but I never imagined how icky they could be.

I grew up with a 5lbs Pomeranian named Lucky (who passed away while I was deployed to Iraq *tear*), and in my opinion, no dog will ever compare to my Lucky.

 R.I.P....the most perfect dog ever

I guess I am venting about Dozer today because it's been a frustrating few days with him and his separation anxiety.

I've been seriously considering giving him away today (even though everyone knows I don't have the "balls" to actually go through with it.)

I really hope he grows more on me as he gets older...cause our relationship is strained right now, and I'm pretty sure my husband loves him more than I do.