home sweet home {St.ff.rd, VA - Quan_co}

being in the m means recreating many different houses into your home.

I definitely want to document all the places we've

lived and remember all the great memories we've had there.

{home #3}

Staff_d, Virginia

(Quantico)

October 2011 - December 2012

.TBS.IOC.

we were so busy with the hustle and bustle of packing and moving that I completely forgot to take pictures of the rest of our place. I'll have to go through the some old pictures and to see if there are any good views of our home in Virginia.  

crazy, exciting, overwhelming news!

 

Looks like we will be moving to Okinawa, Japan. How do I feel about this? Well, considering we've been given quite a few different duty stations...

 

in September we were told 29 Palms, CA

October we were told Camp Lejuene, NC

and now, in November, Okinawa, Japan

 

and Chris still has at least,  5 more months of training left.

 

...I'm not completely convinced.

 

It's not very likely that it will change, it is a possibility, but not likely... only if Chris is reassigned into a sniper or recon platoon (which is currently the position he wants), is when this would change. And that also requires more specialty training so... yeah.

 

It's really hard for me to figure out the emotions I'm feeling when nothing feels 'for sure.' Chris just told me to try to focus on our current situation... packing up and moving to California with family (during his training).

 

but I can't help but wonder... "is there an IKEA out in Okinawa?!"

 

Happy 237th Birthday, Marines

                                    

       

me and the handsom Leiutenant Seymore

 

the officers' ball at the Richmond Convention Center

"posting the colors" - flag ceremony

 

the beautiful wives at our table

 

our yummy dinner

 

Becky and little baby King

 

I got the chance to wear my family heirloom that my dear grandmother gave me

birthday cake

 

one last picture together before we end the night

 

Part of the Plan

Last night I had the privilege of seeing the First Lady of the Marine Corps., Mrs. Bonnie Amos, for the second time at a dinner social put together by QOSO (Quantico Officer Spouses Organization). She is such a spunky lady, so funny and so much wisdom to share. I love how open and real she was with all of us marine wives.

 

She met her  husband in September, got engaged in October, married in December, and they've been happy married for almost 50 years! When someone asked her how her marriage has lasted so long, she replied, "Well, I'm sexy!" I told you she was spunky! ha ha ha. She then went on say that the foundation of their marriage is God. I really enjoyed everything she shared with us. She helped me realize that it's perfectly normal for me to throw my "pity & pissy party" (first you feel sad, then you're mad) every time I move. Her and her family have moved to over 20 locations and she said she kicked and screamed every time! Mrs. Amos is such an inspiration to me. I want to enjoy every location we're stationed at and really embrace the changes and all of the different opportunities that come with that.

 

 "We're in this position because God put us here."

-Mrs. Amos.

I couldn't agree with her more. One night, 3 years ago, as I was trying to understand why my  husband should commission into the Marine Corps, I got the impression that I was also called to this life. There is a reason why I would be moving around with my family to new and different places and meeting new and different people. I'm still not exactly sure what I have to offer, but I'll continue being myself and work on being and instrument in His hands. I know that this is Heavenly Father's plan for me.

 

 

I wanted to share this reading list with you military (or non-military) friends that Mrs. Amos put together. I just ordered 1001 Things to Love About the Military Life! Can't wait to start reading it!

1. Separated by Duty, United by Love  -Shellie Vandevoorde
2. 1001 Things to Love about the Military Life  -Crooks, Henderson, Hightower, Scherer
3. Help! I'm a Military Spouse--I Get a Life Too  -Hightower, Scherer
4. Confessions of a Military Wife  -Mollie Gross
5. The Military Spouse's Employment Guide: Smart Job Choices for Mobile Lifestyles -Janet Farley
6. The Road Home: Again. Smoothing the Transition Back from Deployment -Elaine Gray Dumler
7. Transformation: The Mindset You Need. The Body You Want. The Life You Deserve -Bill Phillips
8. Faith Deployed / Faith Deployed Again  -Jocelyn Green
9. Courage After Fire: Coping Strategies for Troops Returning from Iraq & Afghanistan & Their Families  -Keith Armstrong
10. Wounded Warrior, Wounded Home  - Waddell, Orr
11. The 17 Day Diet  -Dr. Michael Moreno
12. Service Etiquette, 5th Edition  -Cherlynn Conetsco, Anna Hart
13. A Family's Guide to the Military for Dummies  -Melissa Seligman
14. The Day After He Left for Iraq  -Melissa Seligman
15. Eating For Life  -Bill Phillips
 

the Dreaded Text...

...I received from Chris late Tuesday night

 

translation (for my non military friends who've been asking what this means): 

we are being moved to Camp Lejuene in North Carolina where we'll live for about  3 years. Chris' job is ground intelligence and apparently the only the infantry guys received their their duty station (where they will be living/working from). So we're hoping there is a possibility this will change.

I've been having a really hard time accepting this right now. I was really looking forward to going back home to California and that is all I had my mind set on. Our plan  was to drive across the country for the holidays with all of our belongings after he finished IOC. The kids and I would stay with family for a few months while Chris finished GIOC in Virginia Beach. I would find us a house and we'd be settling in by the time he got back. We had no other plans. There was no question in our minds that we would be going anywhere else, especially Lejuene. I say especially because at the beginning of this course we were asked to list the top 4 bases we'd prefer and it when like this: 1-Pendleton, CA; 2-Kaneohe Bay, HI; 3-Okinawa, Japan; 4-29 Palms, CA. Lejuen wasn't even on our list. The first thing that came to mind were my kids. I was so sad that they would be so far from family. I don't want them to be that distant relative that gets mentioned ever once in a while. I want their grandparents and aunts and uncle to really get to know Lincoln and Ella's cute and silly personalities and REALLY love them, not just love them because they're family. I was jealous that their cousins would have such a great relationship with their grandparents and my kids would be missing out on that special bond. I just wanted to go back home.

It's been hard for me to even talk about it. My mom and I haven't even spoken about it because I know neither one of us would be able to speak through the tears. My friends were sending me messages and texts trying to cheer me up, but I couldn't even take hearing it.

This was the main reason I didn't want to marry into the military. I moved around A LOT when I was younger (I'm talking 11 elementary schools! ((give or take a couple)). I have no idea what it's like to grow up in a certain neighborhood with the same friends, in the same school or church. At some schools I was the cool kid at others I was the outcast. That was the last thing I ever wanted to put my children through. When Chris and I were dating, almost engaged, he was looking into joining the military. I told him that I couldn't do it. As honorable as it is, I just couldn't be a part of it. I wasn't strong enough to handle that life style and I really didn't want anything to do with it. I told him I couldn't marry him if he joined the military. I know this sounds harsh, but I felt I was doing the right thing. I didn't want to string him along and get married hoping he'd change his mind, and give him hell when he did join. So we both thought a lot about it and Chris ended up looking into other options and finishing up school. I didn't hear again about the military until about 2 years into our marriage. It took a lot of praying and crying for me to realize that this is the job for him. I fell in love with a courageous, noble, fearless, strong, brave, loyal, inspiring man, and no desk job would be suitable for a guy like that. It's times like these (days/weeks/months without my husband, making and losing friends, moving far from home) that make it challenging for me to accept this life, but it makes it easier knowing that it is the right path for us. I'm working hard to embrace this life style, and there has definitely been some improvement.

The day after finding out where we'd be moving to, my friends invited me over for dinner. All I wanted to do was lay around in my pajamas all day and cry. I have the greatest friends! They threw me a "pity party" with a cake and all. They shared my pain and let me vent which is exactly what I needed. I felt so much better after that. Have I mentioned how amazing they are! Thank you so much, Kim, Crystal, and El for making me feel like what I was going through was normal and putting a smile back on my face.

So what are our plans now? Well, Chris and I don't have a plan... He has been so busy with work that we haven't even had a chance to talk about it... Or maybe neither of us is even ready to talk about it yet... I'll keep all of you posted as soon as we figure things out ourselves. I did however, make a few calls to a few important people, but that's a whole other post.

I have the best group of friends - have I said that yet?! They were all so quick to cheer me up and make me feel better about it all. I really couldn't ask for better people in my life. Thank you all for your kind words and being so great to me!

 

So lets start with some pros to living in North Carolina:

 

-I know some great wives already living there.

-the housing market is cheaper so we can buy more property there

 

...that's all I've got for now... 

 

New Outlook

i survived this week!...barely. one night, after going through the house and checking all the door and window locks for the third time, i forced myself to go to bed. i just kept praying for peace and comfort so that i could get some rest. i was finally in a deep sleep when ella woke up screaming and crying. i jumped up and screamed so loud which made her scream even more. i was still so out of it, i screamed "ella!" then i went and picked her up and realized no one had broken in and tried kidnapping my baby. ugh! my heart was racing like never before. i checked on lincoln and put her back to sleep. i was dreading going back to bed. i checked the time hoping it would soon be time for us to get up... it was only 11:48 pm. i was so bummed. i said another prayer, and tried not to be so paranoid. that was probably the hardest night for me, and thank goodness for under eye concealer.

the kids and i kept pretty busy this week. it was mainly the evenings that i wasn't looking forward to going back home alone. i did buy two cartons of ice cream and ate straight from the box - my loneliness got the best of me. but besides that, i'm surrounded by the greatest "wives" and i love spending time with them.

there was a spouses brief late thursday night and i can't even tell you how much i enjoyed it. i went to the last classes spouses meeting and i was tearing up the whole time because of how scary they made IOC sound even for us spouses. this time around it was completely different. the captain in charge, capt. cummings, was so friendly and he answered any questions we had (and we had a ton of questions). you could just tell he really cared about us and our husbands and that just brought me so much comfort. i left the meeting happy and in a way pumped with the feeling that everything is going to be ok. i had a new outlook on things and i just want to enjoy this time in my life as much as possible. maybe i was really excited too because captain cummings said he might have our orders to us by monday. so... i made it a point to go up to him after class and personally request that he send us the pendleton, ca! woo! i hope my dreams come true and i get to go back to the best state in the u.s. oh, and i get to be near family again. ha ha. 2 more days.... hopefully! (do you know how long i've been waiting to find out where the next few years of my life would be)?!

it is so nice to have chris home. it's amazing how much safer i feel at night with him by me. i just love feeling him near me, even if it's just my cold feet are touching his, or i have my hand reached over touching his side or only our figure tips are touching. what a difference it makes in making me feel so loved and protected. one good thing i'm getting out of being separated is learning to appreciate the little things and the things that truly make me happy. i'm really going to look at things in a more positive way. life really is great!

there are only  10 weeks left of IOC! i made this count down for chris with quotes, words of encouragement, and coupons from me. every week he'll tear one link off and we'll get to see how much closer to the end we are. (this might be more for me than him)!

 

Counting Down

i feel like i've been going through the stages of grief this whole week. can someone please bring me some junk food!?! i just want to lay on the couch with ben & jerry's in one hand and brownies in the other and do absolutely nothing. that is pretty much what i've been doing. the kids and i haven't even left the house this week. chris started IOC (infantry officers course) and he has the big CET (combat endurance test) tomorrow starting at 3am... THREE IN THE MORNING! and i expect him to come home some time after 9 pm. poor guy. i was really getting used to having him home all the time, and i didn't mind it at all. he helped me so much with the kids, in every way. and it was like ever day of the week was a weekend and he was always home for dinner! now he's going to be gone all the time. the beautiful thing about the marine corps, is that i'm in the dark all the time (he usually is too), so i'm not going to know when he'll be back from FEXes (field exercises), days? weeks? or what time he'll get home from work. should i leave dinner in the oven? i'm just scared. scared of taking care or the kids by myself; scared of falling behind on all the house work; scared of sleeping alone... i'm going to pull myself together and keep busy as much as possible...starting next week. and in the mean time, i'll be counting down the days until IOC is over.
 

little update on his feet: as most of you know, chris already completed the CET in the last class and went through 3 weeks of grueling infantry training before he finally got rolled to the next class. i say finally because the CET really tore up his feet, and pretty much every day after that was hike after run after ground fighting after hike! so his feet never got a chance to recover. there are no sick days in this training... if he were to say he needed some time to let his feet heal, then they would have dropped him from the course and reassigned him a completely new MOS, most likely one that no one would want. so he 'toughed it out' until someone noticed and got the okay to start up again in the next class. he's feet were destroyed! (i'll show you a nasty pic!). he literally could not walk on his feet for almost two weeks. poor chris had to crawl up the stairs. hahahahaha! (sorry, i shouldn't be laughing...). but we did a bunch of research, spent a lot more money, and worked really hard on repairing his feet. now they're good as new! i'll still be constantly praying for him.

good luck tomorrow mr. christopher! i love you!

here is an article about IOC in The New York Times ...and chris is in one of the pictures!
 

**WARNING** YOU MAY NEED A BARF BAG TO VIEW THIS PICTURE . . . . . . . . . . . . .

...told you it was bad.     

TBS Grad

 

 

 

 

that morning was...   

  W A R R I O R   D A Y

 

 

Chris is finally done with TBS! I am so proud of him. His MOS is Ground Intelligence and he couldn't be happier. Ground Intel is one of the few MOS' that requires more training than most. First Chris needs to complete IOC (Infantry Officer's Course) which is here in Quantico and it's about 3 months long. Then it's off to Virginia Beach for GIOC and  Sniper Platoon training which is another 4 months or so. Fortunately. it's all pretty local so the kids and I don't need to move just for training and then again for our duty station. Speaking of duty station, we still don't know where we'll end up... can you believe that! That has been one of the hardest things for me is not knowing where we're living next. Supposedly we'll find out a month after he starts IOC. I am still hoping and praying to get stationed in Pendleton, California. Not only because it's gorgeous out there, but because our family is in California and I really want my kids to grow up with their family near by. Just trying to take one day at a time.

 

3 Months Down, 3 More to Go...

We're half way done with TBS!! Next month we will find out what Chris' MOS (Military Occupational Specialty) will be and where we will be sent for that and then where we'll be stationed. Of course with the military you never know where you'll end up, but we still put in a request on where we'd like to live. Our top three choices are: 1- back home in good 'ol California, 2- Okinawa, Japan, 3- Hawaii... we'll hopefully know in one month!

So about Chris' training... it's been an intense 3 months for him and it's progressively getting busier and harder. (He says it feels like he's been at TBS much longer than 3 months!) He usually gets up between 4 and 6 am and goes to the gym before work then gets home anywhere between 6 and 9 pm. Yes, that means I'm pretty much a single mom to a hyper toddler and needy baby. (I'll rant about that in a second...) Anyway, so on top of him working all day, he usually always has some studying and writing orders to do. He rarely has any free time, but when he does, he's great about making sure he spends quality time with me and the kids. It really is a balancing act! And having kids definitely makes things much harder. I'm so proud of Chris and how well he's been doing. He was one of the few who qualified expert in both riffle and pistol! Hoorah!

 

Here are some pictures that Chris and his friends took while there were out blowing things up!

 

 

...and here are some more pictures Chris took throughout TBS