Two Years + Life Lately

Happy Thursday everybody! I have come to really love Thursdays lately... Thursday is trash/recycling day and every time I wheel the empty bins back into my garage, I am reminded that I am one week closer to Mike's return.

This Thursday is an extra special one to me because today marks two years since Mike and I originally said "I do" :)

Two whole years! It truly has flown by, but I also feel like too much stuff has happened to all be crammed into 730 days. Our first year of marriage was cut in half interrupted a bit by a 6 month deployment to Afghanistan.. But once Mike was home again we jumped right into married life and never looked back! Unfortunately, but not all that surprisingly, some of our second and third years of marriage will also belong to the Marine Corps thanks to this deployment. Am I thrilled? No. But this is our life, the good parts FAR outweigh the bad, and I wouldn't have it any other way :)

So to my wonderful husband... You are my hero, my best friend, my partner in crime, and the love of my life. In the past two years you've deployed twice, we've moved twice, and brought a puppy into our home. You worked your ass off, graduated sniper school, and got promoted. We drank champagne, enjoyed lots of snuggles, and laughed SO much. We've had ups and downs, good times and *ahem* less than good ones too, but I wouldn't change a minute of this crazy, wonderful life with you! So thank you for all that you do, and thank you for just being you :) I miss you like crazy, and I love you even more.

Now that my big emotional monologue is out of the way... ;)

We are just about 2 months into this deployment and time has definitely started moving more quickly for me! Mike has been extremely busy with work and field time, so I've been doing my best to keep myself just as occupied. I recently started a job part-time nannying for a family in our neighborhood and I am so excited about it! Dad is a marine and actually used to be in the same unit as Mike, they even deployed together on the last Afghanistan tour. Mom is a police officer and a blogger (that's how we originally connected!) and their two little ones are just as sweet as can be. Since I moved away from my teaching and nannying gigs in Colorado, I've really been missing all the time I used to spend with children, so I am really excited and thankful that this opportunity came up! Not only will this job keep my busy and put a little spending money in my pocket, it's something that I truly love to do :)

Our quest to find the biggest stick on base is definitely keeping me busy!

In other news, I turned 25 last week (yikes) and I was lucky enough to have my mom and youngest sister Gracie stay with me over my birthday! We assembled a mountain of IKEA furniture, spent an amazing day in Wilmington, and did a lot of laughing over tasty cocktails ;) Of course their visit was WAY too short (it always is!) but I get to see them again soon enough and I am just grateful that I got to turn a quarter of a century with my very best friends (minus one... I didn't forget you Camille!) here with me. The only way it could've been better is if Mike were here to celebrate with us! 

My beautiful sister and very best friend :)

The week before my birthday we I took the plunge and had Lou neutered. He had some um... anatomy related issues and ended up with 3 different incisions in his abdomen and an intimidating amount of stitches :( My poor baby! He was pretty loopy for a few days afterwards, but bounced back to his usual self quickly enough to completely destroy both cones I put on him. Luckily, he left his incisions alone (even without the cone of shame) and 9 days later, his stitches came out and it was like nothing ever happened! Except he still has the big shaved patch on his belly, but I'm glad that will hang around for a bit longer. It's so cute! :) Other than that it's been business as usual! I'm still trying to fall into a regular routine, but with the promise of warmer weather and a brand new work schedule I'm sure that will get easier!

Cone #1

Cone #2

Now that I have purchased and assembled most of the furniture I've had my eye on, I am planning to post a house tour on the blog! I am so in love with our new house, although I guess it's not all that new... We moved in 6 months ago ;) But regardless, I love it and I am very proud of it! Plus if I'm posting pictures of the house on the blog, I will HAVE to clean the heck out of it! Hopefully I'll get my act together and make that happen soon.

The previously mentioned mountain of furniture.. Not to toot my own horn, but I loaded all of that by myself ;)

I'll finish this off with a quick Mike update...

He is still doing great! He is not currently at the same base in Europe that he originally deployed to (he's in another country doing some training for a few weeks) but he says that the gym and chow hall are top notch and when he's not in the field, the internet connection is pretty great! :) If you were planning on sending him letters or packages, you can still use the original address! Mail is taking around two weeks to reach him anyway, so it will only have to sit in the post office for a little while until he gets back. If anyone still wants/needs his mailing address, please contact me privately (text, e-mail, Facebook message, whatever!) and I will get it to you :) Thank you all for your continued love and support during this deployment, it truly means the world to us!

One of my favorite days ever :) Here's to many more my love!