My Life as a Veteran College Girl

You know what the toughest part about being in college at 31 is?

It's being 31 with a marriage, children, real adult responsibilities...oh...and class with 21 year olds who think they know everything.....(was I THAT stupid when I was 21?!?! yes...yes I was).

Actually...

I may have been stupid, but I had discipline dammit!

At 21, I was getting ready to go on my first deployment...I made my own money...I had my own insurance...I had real life responsibilities....I was a Marine....

So....I may have been stupid...but not as irresponsible and naive like my "fellow classmates" today....

I don't pull all nighters, because frankly, at 31, I need way more sleep than I did when I was 21. 

If I don't get a good night's sleep, I end up being the grouchiest and unpleasant mother and wife imaginable (to put it nicely). 

So my studying and reading HAVE to be done before 10pm.

Sorry....not staying up past 10 because I need to study.

Did I mention, I am taking 18 hours this semester?

On any given day, you can catch me reading while cooking....reading while I sit at Dannika's gymnastics class...researching and googling things at the grocery store while I'm shopping.

Nick came home late from class one day to me sitting in the dining room, reading my textbook, while my son was happily jumping up and down beside me on the table...

I have become an expert multitasker.

Today...I wrote a paper while entertaining a 1 year old....

For real...

#collegemomprobs

yes, that's Sriracha on my desk. I eat my hard boiled eggs after the gym at my desk when I'm studying or doing stuff on the computer, and I like my eggs with Sriracha.

 Mattis did not care that mommy needed to write a paper on the allegory between The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and the Populist movement of the late 1800's and early 1900's....

 I got a lot of research and writing done for an hour with this little monster sitting in my office with me....bothering me....pestering me for attention...

Then Nick finally got home to let me finish up.

Would it be nice to be going to college like a "normal" college student?

Yes.

But man...

I am SO GLAD that I spent my early 20's in the Marine Corps and not in college.

I had no patience, drive, or discipline in my early adult years.

I have a perspective at 31 years old that my fellow classmates don't have, and I see it as a great advantage. 

But honestly...

Some days....it sounds really nice to sleep in, roll out of bed, go to class in pajama pants, come home, and study whenever I feel like...without worrying about picking up the kids from school, taking the kids to gymnastics and dance...

Marriage is work too...

I'm truly blessed though...

Happy marriage, awesome husband, awesome kids, beautiful home, Texas, FREE college (that I have no shame in saying that I earned and worked my butt off to get).

Life's pretty awesome.

 Oh...and we have awesome neighbors...

One of our neighbors is a Kindergarten teacher, and she got baby chicks for her Kindergarten class!

We had a lot of fun playing with them tonight!

Oh Texas...I Heart You

Being back in Texas has made me a much happier person.

People who knew me in Massachusetts always comment on how much happier my Facebook posts are.

I also blog a lot less because I spend so much time being happy...lol.

I'm just a girl that was meant to live somewhere warm(er) than Massachusetts!

The only downside is that I never want to do anything productive, because I want to spend every waking moment outside until it gets dark.

And as of now, it doesn't get dark until like 8 in the evening which is a problem when your kids bedtimes are at 8. 

It's Sunday night, and I am just reflecting on the most amazing weekend.

Actually...

EVERY weekend has been nothing short of awesome since moving back to my beloved home state.

But a weekend like THIS weekend just made me appreciate this amazing state even more.

First off...

When we bought our little house in Texas, I knew I wanted to revamp my decor.

In Massachusetts, my house was a reflection of my mood.

I painted the walls a dark color, and the overall mood of the house was somber.

I also wanted warm colors on the walls because it was so dang cold there.
I felt like dark colors would make me "feel" warm.

When we moved to Texas, my attitude was so cheerful, happy, and bright.

I knew I wanted our new home to reflect that.

I brightened up our house by painting everything in bright colors, and adding decor that brought "light" into the room.

Our living room had this giant blank wall, and I couldn't decide what I wanted to hang on it.

After spending WAY TOO MUCH time on Pinterest, I decided I wanted these white resin animal heads from Z. Gallerie.

I just couldn't jump the gun because of the price.

For my birthday, Nick let me go on a little spending spree, and I bought my animal heads.

I purchased this rustic mirror from Hobby Lobby with some help with a generous gift card my amazing neighbors got me for my birthday.

My living room wall is complete, and I finally feel happy when I look at it.

Our family does homemade grilled pizza night every Friday night (a tradition we carried over from Massachusetts to Texas).

We take our leftovers from the week, and put it on a pizza!

It's an awesome way to not waste your leftovers!

Mattis loves it....

Nicks buddy from his younger days in the Marine Corps lives in Houston.

He brought his son to good ole Aggieland to go fishing with us.

Nick had to work Saturday morning, but as soon as he got home, we packed up the truck and headed out to the lake.

The gals...

One of the other Marines that is doing the MECEP program like Nick is an avid outdoorsman and a native Texan.

Him and his family has become one of our favorite fishing companions!

His wife, Carley, and I hit it off right away.

We automatically had a lot in common as soon as we met.

We always have a blast!

This is all the girls on Saturday...

Me, Carley, her daughter Bre, and Dannika.

Fishing, BBQing, beer...

Texas livin' at its' best.

Nick ended up with 3 catfish for the day!

All the boys...minus Mattis.

We ended our weekend with church, shopping for Easter clothes, and for me...a nice run.

I was dehydrated from last night (way too much beer), but I was determined to torture force myself to go for a run.

When I looked at my runkeeper, I couldn't believe how fast my pace was! 

I felt like I was chugging along at barely a 10 minute pace!

Maybe I was running faster so I could get home and drink a big glass of water to quench my undying thirst!

Check out my AWESOME running tank...UnderArmour!

 During my run, all I could think about was having a cool, crisp salad for dinner.

I wasn't feelin' any meat, so a hearty salad it was!

It was pretty freaking amazing....

My weekend was amazing, and every amazing weekend I have here reminds me of how blessed I truly am.

I experienced so much misery in Massachusetts that I feel like living here is my "reward" for surviving New England!

I seriously need a shirt that says, "I survived New England". 

Hope y'all had a great weekend, and if not, there's always next weekend!!!

Finally, Spring Break recap

I saw that there is more snow in the forecast for New England this weekend?

I used to laugh and be SO GLAD that we don't live there anymore, but now I just feel bad for our friends who are up there. 

It's almost April! 

Spring is in the air here in Texas though, and I will never take warm weather for granted ever again.

So I figured I'd give y'all one HUGE update of our Spring break!

This is mostly for my friends and family who actually care about what we did over the break.

For everyone else, feel free to just skip this whole post altogether, unless you just want to browse through my millions of photos!

Spring Break officially started after Dannika's school "Spring Sing A Long"!

 It was OBVIOUSLY a western theme.

We went bowling...

We spent a day out on the lake to do some fishing with some friends...

Nick and I had a date night at the Houston Rodeo again!

He got us tickets to see Florida Georgia Line, and took me to dinner at Morton's Steakhouse for an early birthday dinner!

Lots of couple selfies...

excuse me...

#sorrynotsorry #ihashtaggedmyblog #itsmyblog #idowhatiwant

Probably one of the most upbeat, energetic, and fun concerts I've ever been to!

Florida Georgia Line KILLED it!

#asiangirlinacowboyhat #texasasian #texasgirl #ilovemystate

We BBQ'ed A LOT on our deck in our backyard...

Oh, and my sweet husband surprised me with a birthday BBQ!

ANNND...

My Marine Corps BFF came all the way down from Dallas to celebrate with me!!!!!!

LOVE HER!

My husband got me this awesome cake...

#IYAOYAS

And no birthday is complete without a "Cowgirl Elsa"!

Kim's dog, Lola Belle Potty Pants.....aka...just "Lola"

We played outside a lot.

Spring Break honestly flew by so fast!

I guess the saying is true that "time flies when you're having fun!"

We are now back to the grind...college...gym...kids...life...repeat.

It's nice to be back in a routine since we had absolutely NO routine for an entire week.

I'm ready for summer vacation already...

#isitsummeryet

I'm Back!

I took spring break off from blogging to enjoy time with my family.

We were so on the "go go go" anyway that I didn't have much time to jump on the computer to blog!

If you follow me on Instagram (@domesticatedcombatboots), I did post a TON of photos of our wonderful little spring break.

I'll do a post on it soon!

Today is my LAST day as a 30 year old!

~WOW~

It doesn't feel any different, and I sure as heck don't feel much different...

Well 10 years in the Marine Corps did leave me with a bum knee, an achy hip, and creaky bones, but other than that, I feel like a million bucks.

I've written many times before about how I'm not one of "those women" who dread aging.

I don't lie about my age...I actually happily tell people.

I think I look as young as I feel, and to be honest, my body is in better health now than it was at 21.

I've also been happily applying anti aging cream since I was like 21 or something....maintenance and prevention are key, people!!!

It's also nice that I still get carded (like legit carded...not sympathy carded) when I go buy alcohol without my kids in tow.

For some reason, having two kids automatically makes people assume that you're over 21?

I'm happy in life, marriage, kids, and my faith.

God has abundantly blessed me over the last 30 years.

Not saying life has been peachy all 30 years, and if you know me well enough, you know my deepest, darkest, and most painful secrets.

BUT....

He's pursued me relentlessly in my darkest times of life, and when I look at what He did with those trials and tribulations today, the bigger picture is so much grander.

So here's to OFFICIALLY entering my 30's!!!

I'm glad to be doing it with this special guy...

Pic taken at the Florida Georgia Line concert at the Houston rodeo over Spring Break...blog to come soon!

Kindergarten Petri Dish

I hate Kindergarteners.

Ok, Ok, I don't HATE hate Kindergarteners, but I hate Kindergarteners.

Did that make any sense? No, probably not.

Let me elaborate.

Our family rarely gets sick.

I like to think we have some iron steel immune systems.

However, ever since Dannika started Kindergarten, our whole family has been non stop sick since October.

A cold here, a cold there, a fever here, a fever there, stomach flu (x2 for my husband in the same month)....

Literally....every month since October SOMEONE has been sick.

I finally came to the conclusion that it is Kindergarten.

Dannika is always the first to get sick, and because we're a family and are forced to live together, whatever disease she picked up from Kindergarten makes it around the family.

I feel like we just keep passing back and forth the same disease, and Dannika takes it back to school, gets another kid sick (unintentionally), and then that kid comes back to school and gets Dannika sick, who then brings it home and gets us all sick....

It's a vicious cycle.

I also believe that Kindergarten teachers have some crazy super human immune systems.

They basically go to work in a petri dish every day.

Have you BEEN to a Kindergarten classroom recently?!?

All those cute and adorable kids are germ infested.

Lord knows they don't all wash their hands, and some of them don't know how to wipe their butts properly, so there's fecal matter...everywhere....(this is what I envision at least).

I see kids picking their noses, then hugging each other (makes me cringe every time)...

They share glue sticks, crayons, markers with their germ infested hands...

Kindergarteners are gross, germ infested little human beings!

No wonder we have been non stop sick!

I got it the worst this week than I ever have.

I had to drive my butt to the ER at 3am on Wednesday morning with hopes that the doctor could give me some miracle drug to make me feel better by 6am so that I could be a productive mother....

There was no "miracle drug".

He seriously prescribed me 800mg motrin (which if you're in the military, it is laughable) and Tamiflu.

Thank God my husband didn't have any midterms on Wednesday, and played hooky from class to make sure I didn't die and take care of the kids.

My symptoms got worse, so I went back to a DIFFERENT ER this morning, and the doctor gave me steroids, and I'm feeling 10 folds better than I have all week. 

I just need to kick this sickness so that I can enjoy my Spring Break!

Anyway, shout out to my hubs for holding the fort down while I've been sick.

I've tried my best to enjoy our time off together, but I've been a witch during the days.

On Thursday, I had to actually leave my house to pick up my daughter from school, so I managed to throw some mascara and eyeliner on, so I wouldn't scare the other moms with my "face of death".

My daughter's school had a "Dogs with Dads" night where they served hot dogs for dinner, and had all sorts of activities for the families to enjoy together.

Nick got out of his Naval Science lab just in time to make it to join us!

It's little things like this that make me so grateful to be at an assignment were Nick can be so present in Dannika's day to day life.

Friday was Dannika's annual "Spring Sing Along" at her school.

They had a western theme!

A perfect excuse to throw on her Ariat cowgirl boots! 

(Well, we're in Texas...no one needs an excuse here to wear cowgirl boots).

Walking with a purpose!

Girls got places to be!!!!

I'm kinda obsessed with the ankle boot with cuffed skinny jean trend right now...

My baby's in her schools 100 book club!

Friday was a perfect day to fly kites!

The kids on our street sitting in the back of Nick's truck! 

Spring break has begun!

Hope y'all have a great week!

We're hitting up the Florida Georgia Line concert at the Houston rodeo this week, and doing some fishing!