I'm Thankful.

This year I have a lot to be thankful for.
My Husband

My husband is probably one of the greatest people I've ever met in my life. He is incredibly giving and kind, not only to me, but to everyone. I'm thankful for all the hard work he does to provide for us, which allows me to go to school. I'm thankful for his eight years of sacrifice in the military, to include three deployments, to ensure the safety of Americans. Most of all, I'm thankful for his love and companionship. He is truly my best friend, lover, and life partner.

My Family

My dad, my two sisters, my step mothers, and my three nephews are an amazing part of my life. My sisters are truly my best friends and my father is one of my heroes. My step-mother and I had a difficult relationship when her and my father married when I was 12, but we have come a long way and I love her. My family is very close, my husband often tells me he wishes his family were as close as mine is. I wish we all lived closer, but it is not a possibility and we make the best of it.



My Best Friends



I really don't know how I would survive without these three ladies in my life. Rachelle (bottom picture) and I met when I was 18 and she was 19. I had just arrived to my unit at Fort Bragg, NC and didn't know anyone. Rachelle showed up at my door one day and invited me to hang out. We were inseparable after that. We went to Iraq together and she is one of the reasons I made it through. Ashley and I (left picture) met when I was 21 and she was 19 - through MySpace of all places. I had been living in TN for almost a year and my husband had been in Iraq for the majority of it. I felt very alone and had few friends, but Ashley and I had a great connection and a lot in common and we became besties very quickly. We endured two deployments (as wives) together and spent many a nights together, laughing, crying, and supporting one another. The friendship between Kelsey and I (right picture) was completely unexpected. We met in January 2006 in a biology class. We sat at the same lab table and when I made a stupid error with a gradulated cylinder, she made fun of me - not even knowing me. After a few more labs together, we were school friends, until she invited me to a hockey game. I had never been a hockey fan, but that first game, I fell in love with it, and so our bond grew the more classes we took together and the more hockey games we attended. All three of thesee ladies hold a special place in my heart and I love them dearly.

There are many more things I am thankful for - comfy P.J.'s, reality t.v., video games, my cats, and the list could go on. But I believe there is nothing more important in this life than family, friends, and love.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Update on Life

It has been so long since I blogged, but I have been so incredibly busy! The biggest piece of news is that my husband and are officially homeowners! We closed on the scheduled date of Wednesday October 14. I had actually called our realtor earlier in the day to see if he had heard anything about us closing, and he hadn't, so I thought it would happen on the following day, but he called me a few hours later and told us to come get our keys because we had the house! I hadn't posted the pictures of the house because I didn't want to jinx it in some way, but for those who are interested, you can view the pictures here. So after we got the keys, we started transferring our stuff from our roommates aparment into the house. And then I had to drive a little over an hour to the airport in Tucson to pick up my friend Kelsey - so needless to say, I was very busy that day!

So the next day, Kelsey and I drove up to Glendale, which is a suburb of Phoenix, the go to a hockey game. Granted it wasn't my Predators playing, but I didn't care because I just wanted to see hockey, any hockey would do! So we watch the Phoenix Coyotes take on the St. Louis Blues (Kelsey's 2nd fave team). The Coyotes won in overtime, but it was still a good game, and great to see our former goalie Mason again - I heart him! It was also weird to see our former player Fiddler do well, haha. We drove back to Sierra Vista that night and were so tired we just went straight to bed. The rest of her time here, we hung out, ran errands, and finally felt connected to the world again when I got my internet hooked up, haha. Kelsey left on Monday and I was sad to see her go - it was nice to have one of my best friends out here, even if all we did was hang out not doing a whole lot.

So we thought the Army was going to ship our stuff out here free of charge, well we were wrong. They wanted to charge nearly $3000 to do it, and I really didn't want to drain my savings to do so. So the hubby and I are flying out to TN on November 11, loading our stuff into a truck on the 12th, and driving right back out here. Yeah it's going to be a lot of work, but the Army will pay us $7500 to do it, and I think we'll only be spending about $2000 to do it ourselves. As of right now, we have two new couches we bought and a new bedroom set, but other than that's it's pretty empty. Oh well, soon enough we'll have our stuff, not looking forward to driving that truck though, haha.

So that's my update. I feel like I wrote a lot, so I try to update more often so I don't have to write as much, haha.

Where Have I Been?

Well, nowhere really, but I did take a slight blogging hiatus. Things have calmed down since my last post, thank God. And we did end up finding a house we both really like! It has 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 2.5 car garage, carpet & tile, and a huge backyard. I think my favorite features are the granite counter tops in the kitchen and that the master bath has a jetted tub and a separate standing shower. Anyways, on day two of our home search, we put in an offer on this home, which of course was counter offered, to which we accepted. We did a 60 day contract which puts us in the house by Oct 14th. We've done pretty much everything required - inspection (which the owners agreed to fix everything), termite inspection (came back good), and appraisal (still waiting for the report from the appraiser). We got pre-approved for our loan with an awesome interest rate (5.375%) and now we're just waiting for my husband to get a months worth of pay to finish the loan process, and then we'll be in the home! We thought we might be able to be in there by the end of the month, but when my husband started his job, it was in the middle of a pay period, not the beginning of one like we thought. So he'll get paid on the 18th and again on October 2nd, and then it's just a week or so after that (I hope).

It's really exciting and even though time is going faster since my husband started his job, it still feels like forever until we'll be in there. I never in a million years thought I'd be getting a home like this for my first one, but here we are. I think I am really excited that it's also move-in ready. I might paint one room, but other than that, nothing needs to be done. It's going to be weird being a homeowner, but also really amazing, I think.

Only sucky part - my bff Kelsey is coming out on the 14th and we might not have our personal belongings from the Army yet. So if it's really boring, I apologize in advance. Bring your new MacBook since we'll at least have internet, haha.

Anyway, sorry for not blogging for so long. I will try to be better. I'm actually going to head to bed here now, so I will catch up on everyones blogs in the morning.

Back to Reality.

Today was the first day of classes after Spring Break last week, and needless to say, it was an unwelcome return to the daily grind. I actually had a fabulous Spring Break, even though I didn't do much of anything. I saw Bestie a few times, which was really nice actually, I miss being able to hang out all the time. I also celebrated my 25th birthday on Friday the 13th. Hubby had the day off, so we did some shopping and had a nice lunch at our favorite Mexican restaurant. We actually ventured out to purchase my birthday present, a new Coach bag I had been eying, but it wasn't at the PX when we got there. I may still purchase one from the mall or when I go home for Easter, but I'm in no rush. With it being a costly purchase, I like to make sure I buy one I really like, and not one just to have one. So even though I didn't get that gift, I got some other great ones. Kelsey got me a Legwand t-shirt which I couldn't find all season, Jenn gave me a puck signed by Legwand that she won at a game, Ashley got me the sweetest Willow Tree figurines, and I got money/gift cards from my parents, sister, and Grandma.

It's hard to believe that I am actually 25! I remember thinking when I was younger, all the things I'd do by the time I was 25, and I haven't done any of them. I have no children, which is something I thought I'd have by now, and honestly, I'm not even disappointed that I don't! I am a firm believer that things will happen when they are supposed to, I am not interested in doing crazy things to conceive. If it happens, I will welcome it, if it doesn't, it's not meant to be.

Well, this blog took a totally different route than I planned. I'm 25 and even though life isn't how I expected, it's a million times better than I could ever have hoped for.

Not So Grand.

A few weeks ago, Kelsey and I were selected to play in a commercial break game at the Predators game. I won the game and two tickets to see Josh Turner and Carrie Underwood at the Grand Ole Opry. I of course asked Kelsey to go with me since we were both in the game, she however had plans to go to Philly to see the Predators play that day. So then I asked Bestie to go, but she had to cancel last minute. At this point, I was running out of friends to ask. I decided to ask Alexis, she is my husband best friends wife and her sister just moved away, so I knew she was probably lonely, and I really like her.
So we drove to Nashville, and spent 15 minutes trying to find a parking spot. It was a nightmare with so many people at Opry Mills and at the opry house. Anyways, we finally got into the Opry and bought some drinks and sat down in our seats, which were really good seats. The seats however, we not single seats, it was bench seating. Which was fine, but a little strange. Now the show itself is broken down into 4 half hour segments, with most performers singing one song, and most of the people on stage were old and wearing sparkly outfits. Josh Turner sang in the second segment, but only sang 2 songs! It was kind of a let down. Carrie Underwood was the last performer and she sang a whopping 3 songs. And that was it! I appreciate the opry for its history, but it really just wasn't my scene. I sat in that seat for 2 hours to hear 5 songs. I can now say I've been to the Grand Ole Opry, but I can honestly say I have no desire to go back. Thank God the tickets were free!