At the request of the Colonel

In preparation for Stephen's change of duty stations, his command set a date to present him with an award, the Navy Commendation Medal. It was presented to him by Colonel Cromwell, the commanding officer at Headquarter's Battalion aboard Camp LeJeune Marine Corps Base. (Did I just sound smart? I was trying...lol) And as a matter of fact, the colonel requested that I attend as well.

So after stressing on what I would wear, and putting on my war paint makeup, I was on the road to the base. I had planned to leave a little early to grab a snack on the way, but of course that didn't happen. Although I  DID leave right on time. But that didn't seem to matter since I seemed to get behind every single slow driver possible. While on base, I was cut off by a small yellow cart that has no business being on the road, it's so slow. We're talking no faster than 5 mph.....all the while, I'm convinced I'm going to be late.

I hurry inside to find that they're still waiting on a few details before they can start. Whew! I made it in time, with time to spare. So all is well in the world...until......

Everyone ventured outside, as the BAS corpsmen got into formation. I asked one of Stephen's corpsmen/ friend if he would do the honors of taking pictures for me. I always feel like I don't know what I'm doing at these functions. Where do I stand? Can I take pictures of that? Can I move around? What do I do with my hands? Do I smile? Do I laugh? Do I look fat in this outfit? Ok so forget I just mentioned that last one. I don't want to know the answer.  Anywho...he obliged with excitement. That is until he asked if there was a limit to how many pictures he could take. I was going to check to see what pictures were on the memory card so that I could format it, and found that I had forgotten my card at home! How could I have not checked the camera before I left? So I thought all was lost and that we'd just have to store this memory in the old memory bank. Sure to be lost forever considering my memory..lol

But HN Bleigh had other plans. He ran off back inside the building to see if he could find a CF card. I had my doubts. Major doubts. Who in the WORLD would have a CF memory card inside of a military medical facility? But I learned never to doubt him again. Evidently on one of the floors above their medical clinic was combat camera's office. For those of you not familiar with the military, they are photographers for the Marines. They take pictures for events, promotional pictures etc. (Or at least that's what I'm under the impression they do). They had one that they let him borrow. So we were back up an running, ready to shoot!

So a big thank you to Tim Bleigh for rescuing this scatter brained corpsman wife. So on with the pictures already!

Stephen on his way to receive his award from the Colonel.

Colonel Cromwell speaking to everyone about HM1 Armstrong's service while at the BAS. (Basic Aid Station)

Proud of my sailor!

House for Rent!

It makes me sad to even type/speak those words. But it is what it is, right? There's nothing that I am able to do to change the fact that the Navy is forcing  requesting that we relocate to San Antonio. But what I can change is my attitude towards the upcoming horror adventure :) No really, I am really trying to be positive about it all. It's just taking a lot more effort than expected.

So we've filled out the paperwork for the property manager. The only thing left was to take pictures of the inside of the house to post along with the online listing. The property managers usually are the ones to come out to take said pictures, but could I REALLY let that slide? When I know that I can take MUCH better pictures than her ancient point-and-shoot. (Ok, so I don't really know what kind of camera she has, but it always looks that way in all the listings I've ever seen.) Recently a friend shared a link to a house for sell close to her that opened my eyes to a better way of presenting pictures of the interior of a house. It was clearly apparent that they had used a wide angle lens to take their pictures. It really opened up the room to give you a better look, rather than just a corner of a room!

Now my problem was that I don't own a wide angle lens. Boo! At one point in time, I had an attachment for my old camera that mimicked one, but I hadn't seen it in at least a few months. Alas...my wonderful husband  ventured out into the abyss that is known to other people as a garage, and was looking for all the military gear that he is required to return. While on the hunt, he found the attachments!! And boy did I luck out even further. It actually fit into my DSLR's lens.

With that....welcome to my humble abode.

The foyer

Living room looking into the dining room

LOVE my green kitchen! I just hope potential renters do too *crossing fingers

breakfast nook w/ pantry :)

Another love of mine....the master bathroom. Very spacious!! (above/below)

Jacuzzi tub & his and hers walk in closets. Did I say that I love this bathroom yet?

So that's a little taste of what my house looks like. I won't bore you with every single picture I took. It's probably well known that there really aren't many corners of it that I didn't take pics of. But once the listing is posted, I'll share the link here as well.

Til then, wish us luck that we find competent / responsible renters!! I'll be trusting them with my baby.

edited to add: Here's the link to the listing. I'm pretty disappointed with the lack of details about the house, but hopefully I can get them to add more. They are working for us now, afterall :)
-Amber

My weekend

For the past couple months, our weekends have started off with early morning soccer games each Saturday. Whether they be a mile down the road, 30 min across town, or at the farthest destination, an hour away. This weekend, it was a little different. Brianna and I got to go watch the games of a couple of our friends. A brother and sister. It was so cute to see all the younger players. The beginning of the love for soccer.

So then later, we invited some friends over to play some cards. Not just any card game....Phase 10. Of course we never start the game as soon as everyone arrives. The women sit and talk about babies and women stuff. And the guys go outside and talk about work, grilling...... guy stuff. And then a couple hours later, we finally sit down at the table to start playing. With any other game, that wouldn't be such a big deal. But with Phase 10....it just means a long night...lol. So long that we didn't even finish. But we DID have a fun time.

Here's Brianna with one of our friend's kid. They were attached at the hip pretty much the whole night. She is going to grow up to be a great babysitter..lol!

After finally giving up on the Phase 10 game at around 11:00 pm, we slept in this morning. We've been trying to get back into the weekly habit of going to church. We get a lot out of going, but we needed the sleep a little more this morning unfortunately. Although, once getting out of bed this morning, I don't think I could have physically made it through the hour service. My back and neck were so sore that I sat on a heating pad most of the morning. The kind of pain that radiates.

Thankfully the day wasn't a complete waste. I decided to try my hand at grooming for the second time. We have a 8 month old miniature schnauzer puppy, Tucker.

The very first picture we had seen of him!

(Pause for a small back story....My dad and step-mother breed miniature schnauzers at their house in Salem, Indiana.  They had contacted us last year to ask if they could give Brianna her first puppy. Of course we said yes. Who could refuse THAT face?...lol)

So...back to today. I enlisted the help of Stephen today. The last time I groomed him, it took just about 2 hours by myself. I can't say that Tucker enjoys the sound of the clippers. So much so that he snaps at them. And today, he snapped and got my finger instead. Ouch! It felt like I had slammed it in a car door!! He caught me right on the cuticle too. But even so...I got it accomplished. Throbbing finger and all. Although I'm pretty sure it would have taken me a lot longer if Stephen hadn't helped.

-Amber

Arrr! Me Hearties!

So I had planned to start this post off with some clever pirate greeting, but nothing is coming to me. Why you ask? Avast! Come gather 'round me plank me mateys as we embark on 'arr adventure. (Ok so, I wouldn't have a very promising career as a pirate..I tried.)

On to the explaination....

This week in Brianna's school has been a dress up week raising money for Relay for Life. Monday was crazy hair and sunglasses day.  I didn't think to start taking pics of any of the days...but I do have one from her last crazy hair day at last year's summer soccer camp.

So for Tuesday, it was hat day. We don't really have any crazy hats for that one. But she wore a cute pink and white striped engineer type one instead. And again..no picture of that day...butttttt.......

an old picture from way back in 2008! How the time passes so fast!

Wednesday....purple day. (Not real sure as to the reason.)

Thursday....Wear your favorite team gear. She chose to wear her soccer jersey. I love that that was her first thought. She could have easily worn her Yankees jersey. She wore her black jersey, with blue jean shorts, and mismatched soccer socks...one yellow and one black. She laughed at herself when she checked out the outfit in the mirror. Love hearing those laughs! Love that she can laugh at being silly and just going with "it".

Now...the pièce de résistance. Friday- Dress like a pirate day. Why a pirate? It is their school mascot. Now at first, I thought back to some pirate costumes we all had quite some years back.

She's really gonna love me sharing this one! Halloween 2005

Considering that I had no clue if she still had any pieces of that costume ..I really didn't know what she would be able to wear. At first she said that she really didn't feel like dressing up like a pirate. Then remembering a black and white striped headscarf of mine.....I offered that up along with some of mom's hoop earrings. And it snowballed into me drawing a skull and crossbones onto a plain white t-shirt. All between the time of 6:30 am to 7. At least I can say that it's recognizable..lol. (These pics are actually from today. Please hold your applause until the end please. :)

Avast! Th' first mate 'n her furry shipmate

To get some of the terminology for this post, I changed the language on my Facebook account to English(pirate). It really is So entertaining!! Even so, it takes me a minute or so to really understand what it's saying. Too much thinking for me thank you. But to turn it back to English, it was just as complicated...lol. If you'd like to try it out for yourself, go to Account > Account settings > Language tab > and then select English (Pirate). And prepare for the laughter that follows....ye merry mates!

-Amber

I'm a little behind...sorry

Remember the trampoline post? Well that same day, before we went outside, I took pictures of Shannon's two cutie-pie kids in their Easter outfits. Between then and now, I had several issues with color on my laptop and had to reset the stupid thing back to factory defaults. NOT fun!

Anywho...I finally finished them today and am back to share :) Hope you like them!

I love his expression in this one. I have it in color too, but I really liked it in b&w too.

This last one is my favorite. They both did so well that day, but their smiles in this one really shine!

-Amber

Look out Texas, here we come!

Being a military family, we know the possibilities of having to move on to another duty station. But we thought or hoped that this time it would be different. My husband was confident that they'd let him extend here, especially since he's been a real asset to the Marines here. And with having several bases within an hour radius, it looked like it was in our favor. But I guess the Navy had other plans.

Just a week ago, Stephen got orders to San Antonio, Texas. No if's, and's or butt's, we're going. But the reason we didn't plan on wanting to move is that in July of last year, we purchased our very first house! And not only was it our first, but we had it built. We got to pick the lot it would be built on, the floorplan, the tile colors, lighting fixtures, etc.

Our name will be with the house forever. :)

And then what it looks like today.....a short 9 months after we moved in. ( I thought about moving my daughter's bike and bottle of bubbles, but they just show that it's lived in and loved. Even our dog, Tucker, was included)

While I am really taking this move the hardest of any of our previous moves, I'm starting to come to terms with it. We're going to rent out the house, and hope for the best. We're going to miss all the friends we've made here, the beach, being within driving distance of good friends in Virginia, close to my mom in South Carolina, and even within driving distance to New Jersey where Stephen's family lives. We've been fortunate to make trips to see everyone since we've lived here in North Carolina. We even made a trip down to see Stephen's mom down in Florida , on our way to Disney World. We've made many great memories at this duty station. Here's to making new ones in Texas!

Side note: I have SO many more pictures than these, but figured I'd spare you..lol

Trying to cure my black thumb!

There are some good and some bad things we inherit from family. You know the old adage of the apple doesn't fall far from the tree? Well there are several good things that I got passed down, but also a few that I wish I hadn't. One being my grandmother's black thumb. I tend to kill just about every organic plant that I'm in charge of. I had all but given up for quite a few years. When we moved into our new house I decided to try a simple green plant by the front door. Thankfully it was a pretty resilient one. I did remember for a long time to water it, but that slowly faded. And after a while, it finally passed on to other side. So now there is an empty planter beside my front door.

Now with you knowing that background of my abilities..... While I was at my friend's house the other day (see post before this), we got to talking about flowers and how that I would love to have some in front of our house. The builders placed random bushes every so often, only because our LA loan required it. It doesn't specify that they be done in the best way possible. Just that they exist. They also went the cheaper route with pine straw as the ground covering. Ugghh how I HATE pine straw!!

So a plan was put into place. Shannon so graciously offered to go to Lowe's with me to help pick up all the supplies we needed to transform my dreary sad flower bed.

So yesterday, we took the kids and were off!

After some searching, and talking about how much sun the front of my house receives....we decided on perennials that can have full sun. We found some pink double-knockout roses, and some trailing something-or-others..and some other flowers. (Hey, baby steps!...Too many flower names to remember for someone brand new to all this..lol)

Once getting back to the house, we started right away. We didn't get far before I remembered that I wanted before and after pictures. There were a couple things that had to go back into their original spots, but thankfully it wasn't hard.

There were a couple dead bushes that we removed. And NO they were no fault of my own. No, I didn't water them. But we found clay at the bottom of their roots. So from someone that know what they're talking about, they really didn't have a chance. We also moved one of the larger bushes to be under the window. The only red one of the bunch. It made a huge difference. It balanced everything a little better. We then filled in the spots laying out the flowers to get a feel of their layout.

I was working so hard that I broke Shannon's shovel! Those darn roots were stronger than I expected I guess.

After getting everything in the ground, and using all of the red mulch, we decided that we needed more to really fill in the spots. So this time we left the kids with my husband, stopped off to get a tasty treat, and went back to Lowe's for 4 more bags.

This picture was taken by Shannon on her cell phone. She was riding to top of the bags of mulch as I pushed the cart..lol. We got a couple funny looks and one lady didn't really know what to think. We both wished that we wouldn't had the guts to ask someone to take a picture of us because it was quite the funny scene.

So now what you've been waiting for. The after pictures!!

I know I am going to be sad to leave this house! It's the first house we've owned. And now with our pretty flowers to look at, it's going to be especially hard. But thankfully we aren't goodbye to it forever. We will be back. I just have to keep reminding myself. But for now.....I'll be enjoying the view! Let's just hope as time goes on, my thumb starts to get a little greener...*crossing fingers*