It's been a while..

That's us during our first dance as a married couple.
We were dancing to "My Bestfriend" by Tim McGraw.

Wow, it's been forever since I've posted on here... probably because this has been the busiest six months of my life. So much has happened since December... and I mean a lot. But I'm going to do my best to sum it up into one post for you guys.

Well, I left for boot camp in February. And it was a long three months, but I ended up making it and now proudly call myself a United States Marine. I also went to MCT and now I'm currently at my MOS school and I'm two weeks away from hitting the fleet and going to my first duty station. But before I get too far ahead of myself, I guess the biggest change in my life since December would have to be right when I came home from boot camp in May.

Devil was still in NC when I was going to be home, and he managed to get leave and come home during the same time I'd be there. No one ended up going to my graduation at Parris Island, which was a little disappointing, but I knew I'd see them in a few more days anyway. But during boot camp, I had gotten an invitation to my own wedding from my fiance. I showed all of my friends at boot camp and they thought it was adorable... and I knew I'd be getting married once I got home. So when May 19th rolled around, I guess you could say I had the best day of my life. I married my best friend. We had an awesome wedding. I remember being in this room with my sister, so that my husband wouldn't see me. But I could hear his voice just outside the door and I couldn't believe I was about to marry him. And then when I was walking down the isle with my dad, I couldn't stop smiling at Devil, and he couldn't either. It was crazy! And then we were holding hands and staring at each other the entire time we were saying our vows. Before I knew it, we were kissing and then walking out the door and having tons of rice thrown at us. The reception was great, too. We had a Marine Corps themed wedding, and even got to be in the newspaper. We had a Marine Corps cake and cut it with a K-Bar, which was awesome. I also had a few alcoholic beverages, and so did my husband, and I do have a few crazy stories from that night... but I'll save those for another day. All in all, it was the best day of my life and whenever I'm feeling depressed, that's one of the things I think about to put me back in my "happy place".

Well now I'm at my MOS school and I'm about to graduate in two weeks and head over to North Carolina -- where my husband is also stationed. I've been waiting an entire year to finally be able to live with him, so I'm excited that I'm only two weeks away from it now. We've seen each other for a total of two months out of the past thirteen, so you can imagine what this feels like. I'll post more pictures from my wedding later. (:

Gift Ideas?

Well, Christmas is only 12 days away! It's crazy how fast time flies, it feels like it was just the beginning of August to me. Not that I'm complaining, I love Christmas and being able to spend time with my family -- especially since this will be my last Christmas at home for a while.

Fortunately, Devil is waiting to see if his request for RA is granted or not, and so he has a good chance of coming home for the holidays! I'm thrilled about this, because it would be the last time I get to see him before leaving for boot camp in February, of course. But who doesn't want to spend the holidays with your loved one? Being cuddled up, drinking hot chocolate, and watching Christmas movies are definitely some of my favorite things to do.

But with Devil coming home, I wanted to get him a Christmas present. We already agreed that having him home is the only thing that we both really want, and that nothing else is needed, but I don't want him to be the only one without any sort of gift on Christmas Day. So I was thinking. I don't really want to buy him anything huge because he more than likely won't be able to take it with him (at least for a long while) and I don't want to get him something generic. You know, the typical male gifts such as cologne, clothing, pocket knives, technology, video games, that sort of thing.

I was thinking more along the lines of something crafty that means a lot more. I was thinking about putting together a children's book that contained the story of how we met and cute events that have taken place during our relationship. This would be done with construction paper, string, and drawing super cute stick figures. I was also thinking that I could put together a mixed CD of songs that remind me of him, or maybe getting one of those photo frames with tons of spots to put different pictures and everything. But I was wondering if maybe you guys had any other ideas of some kind of gift that would mean a lot more than one you just went out to the store and picked up. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated!

I don't know what's wrong with me lately, but I can't seem to stay happy. It seems like I want to talk to Devil more than he wants to talk to me. I'm the one that has to keep the conversations going, or else he'll just stop talking. He'll text me and say 'Hey babe' and then it'll be an hour before he texts back. He'll tell me we're going to skype later on, and I get all ready and then something always comes up. And when he does actually talk to me for more than a few minutes at a time, it always gets interrupted by something.

I know he's at MOS School. I know I'm not his top priority and I won't ever be as long as he's in the Marine Corps. I just feel like crap because I miss him a lot more than he misses me. He's surrounded by Marines and he actually has something to do, so maybe that's why he doesn't miss me as much. It just hurts my feelings a little bit when I tell him that I miss him and all he has to say back is "I know".

I hate that I'm so attached to him. All I can think about is when the next time I'm going to be able to see him is... I'm not even thinking about myself going through boot camp and it's only about two months away now. I hate it. If he's not missing me, why should I have to spend so much of my time missing him? I even told him 'It's alright though, I don't miss you that much anymore', just to see what he'd say, and he was like "That's good!". How is that good?

As much as I want to stop missing him, I can't. And I hate that he has so much power over me and my feelings. But I think I'm going to try and stop thinking about him so much, or sitting around waiting for him to text me... because now I know he's not thinking about the same thing. This probably sounds crazy, but I don't really know the right words to explain it. I'm just in a really weird mood and I hope it passes soon. I just want to leave for boot camp already. Then I'll have other things to do and think about, besides him.

Do You Ever Miss High School?

Tonight I have to sit through my sister's basketball game and I'm dreading it.

Ever since the fourth grade, I was on the basketball team. I spent all summer in the gym practicing with just a few other girls who were just as committed as I was. We went to team camps, and played on travel teams, we did fundraisers, we were always doing something for basketball. Even when school started and it wasn't basketball season, we'd still have open gym and conditioning to prepare for it before it started... and even after it was over, we were back in the gym and working at it again!

When I got to high school I was put on the varsity team during my freshman year, and I played four years of varsity -- which is kind of cool to say I guess. My senior year I won MVP and got an honorable mention, so I was pretty proud of myself.

But the very last game that I ever played in was this past March, and it was a close one. My two best friends who were also seniors played as well, and we were dreading it because we didn't want it to be over. Well, when the final buzzer of the game went off, I felt like dropping to my knees and balling right there in front of everyone. Basketball was my life, it had been everything I'd worked for up until that point. And now it meant nothing.

We cried in the locker room and even while I was driving home, I had to pull over because I was balling. Ever since then, the thought has been in the back of my mind of how much I miss it... but tonight, I have to watch my sister's first basketball game. I'm going to have to sit there in the stands and see what it feels like to not be able to play. I think it's going to break my heart and I'm going to hate every second of it. Someone please shoot me now.

But, I have to go. I don't think I'll be around much to see my sister play basketball at all during her senior year, so I have to support her while I can. And I know that now that I'm done with high school, it's time to move on to something bigger and better. I mean, I guess I'll be playing on Team America now that I'm joining the Marine Corps. But that still doesn't help the fact that I miss basketball, I miss my old team, and I miss high school.

Let's hope this game goes by fast.

And I know a lot of you guys are out of high school, if not all of you. What is the one thing you really miss the most about it?

Skype Date

The title basically says it all. Devil finally got to his MOS school late last night and after texting and calling me on and off all day. Once he got there, he called me and told me that he had a laptop already and I asked him how much he paid for it. $1000. I'm not surprised. Computers or anything with technology is Devil's thing. He knows all about them, he had a class about them for two years... so he knows a good computer from a crappy one, so I wasn't going to tell him how $1000 for a laptop seemed a little pricey to me.
It was already close to midnight where he was, but we got on Skype for a few minutes just to test it out. He went a little crazy with the webcam.

This was the first time we saw each other in a long time and it seemed like we were both a little camera shy at first. We kept smiling at each other but we didn't really have much to say. Unfortunately, it was cut short and Devil decided he should probably get some sleep since he had to be up in about four hours... and it was going on 4 a.m. for me.

Today he had to do some admin stuff at MOS School and he told me that his classes aren't going to start up until January! So I'm really hoping he'll be home for Christmas. We've got so much stuff to do. This is going to be the last time I see him until I'm a United States Marine, which is still five months away! It's going to take a lot of hard work, with the two of us being in the military, but we're ready for it. I wonder if I'll have time to find a cheap wedding dress while he's home. I know we're going to end up with a small wedding at the court house, but that doesn't mean we can't get pictures taken somewhere nice. There's a pretty nature reserve place out here in Michigan about five minutes away from my house, and I think it would be cute if we went there and took pictures while I was in a wedding dress and he was in his Dress Blues. Granted, it wasn't snowing or rainy... which it is about 60% of the time here.

Oh, and you know those photobooths in the mall where you get a strip of like four pictures? I really, really want to go to the mall while we're both all dressed up and get one of those. I think people would think it was cute, and I'd feel so special! I told Devil about that a long time ago, and he pinky promised we'd be able to do that. We'll see, I suppose!

I think we're going to have another skype date tonight, hopefully a longer one since he's all settled in now! I'm excited. It's weird. I don't wear regular clothes all day, I stay in pajamas and have my hair up and everything. And when he wanted to skype date, I had to do my hair and put on clothes and fix my make up... at midnight. Who does that? I guess us Military girlfriends/fiances/wives do. (:

I Have Good News and Bad News...

I got a phone call a little bit ago from Devil after he graduated MCT. I swear this boy is going to give me a heart attack one day.

Devil: Well, I have good news and I have bad news.
Me: Oh God.
Devil: Want to hear the bad news first?
Me: Yeah!
Devil: *laughs quietly* ... I bought a bag of beef jerkey for 13 dollars.
Me: OH my god.
Devil: I know, that's way too much, right?
Me: ... I'm going to kill you.
Devil: Want to hear the good news?
Me: ... yeah.
Devil: We had this like, mixer thing, for MOS'es yesterday. And I don't know if this is official, but I was talking to the dude and uh, since it's so close to Christmas and New Years, the school probably isn't going to pick up until January.
Me: Really?
Devil: Yeah.
Me: So like... what does that mean?
Devil: I'm not sure when, but we're probably going to get RA. I'm going to come home.

                                                       That conversation just made my day.

On a side note, let me know if you guys want me to make a military couple pixel for you! It only takes a few minutes and I think they're cute to have and post on your blog! Check my page for them! 

                                                                  

Just Another Day

Today was a pretty slow day for me, but I think I managed to get a lot accomplished. First of all, it's monday and you know what that means. I linked up to the Monday Military Blog Hop for the first time -- so if that's why you're here, you should comment on this post and let me know so that I can follow you! c:
I love meeting new people and I can't wait to meet more military girlfriends/fiances/wives.

Also, I was messing around on MS Paint today and I think I'm going to start making these cute little pixels for people who request them. I made a page about it, so if you want one to post somewhere on your blog, check it out and request one. It doesn't take long to do at all, and I'd be more than happy to make one for you.

Other than that, I got in touch with my old high school basketball team and we're trying to put together a game where all of the great players of the past (myself included) play the varsity team of this year (not to mention, my sister is on the team), so that should be fun. I really miss playing basketball -- especially since it was my life throughout school. It's weird not having to go to practice, or spend all summer in the gym. So I'm excited about being able to play with my old team mates one more time before I take off to boot camp.

Speaking of boot camp... I need to start running more. It's been really cold outside, not to mention it's been snowing. And I don't think running on a treadmill feels the same as running on pavement. I'm not too worried though, I've always been in decent shape. I think that no matter how much you prepare for boot camp, you still won't be prepared enough. I'm not worried about how prepared I'll be, but I think I should at least be less unprepared, if that makes sense. It's a whole new level of physical training that I've never experienced, but once the initial shock of it is over, I think I'll be okay. I'm getting ready to cut out the soda and sweets I've let myself enjoy for the past few months. Time to get back to H20 and healthy foods.

As far as things with Devil go, I should be able to hear from him again tomorrow. He got his orders today and so hopefully he was told he got Recruiter's Assistance and that he'll be coming home for Christmas... but one can only hope! I'll keep you guys updated!