Minnesota bound!

I get to go home next week - yeah! Home for me is Sunburg, MN a tiny little dirt spot on the map in the middle of MN. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunburg I'm pretty excited since I haven't been home since January, 2007. Um, yes, that's nearly two years. I won't be home for too long - Nov 6-Nov 11 - but it will be nice to be in a place that actually has seasons. I'm hoping for weather that will require me to wear real shoes (preferrably with socks!), pants and long-sleeved shirts. I might even get to wear a coat!

While I'm home, Gypsy will also be on vacation. She's staying at the Animal Keeper, a kennel not too far from our house. I wasn't too kean on the idea of kenneling her, but Chris and I took a tour last weekend, and it is pretty great. It's really clean, there is a big play yard for the doggies, and they can play in a large group, or in small groups, several times a day. She will also get to go to the doggy "spa" to get a bath and have her nails trimmed. She will get frozen doggy treats every day, too! It sounds totally nuts, but it makes me feel better about leaving her if she'll get let out to play several times each day, and will have 24 hour on-site care. Check out the link: http://www.theanimalkeeper.com/oceanside.html It almost makes me want to stay there!

The reason Chris isn't watching Gypsy, or going with, is because he left this morning for another at-sea training period. He'll be gone for a few weeks, returning the weekend before Thanksgiving. We aren't sure what we'll be doing for Thanksgiving, but Chris does have a long weekend, so he might head back to St. Louis to visit his family. Tickets should be good and spendy by the time he gets home and is able to decide, but that's the fun of living by the USMC calendar!

Officially another year older...

As of yesterday, I am now officially "old". Well, older, anyway. I turned the big ol' age of 31 - whew! For those of you who knew me way back when, I bet I surprised you all by making it this far, huh?!?! We didn't do a whole lot of celebrating (pretty sure I got that all taken care of last year when I hit the big 3-0 - no dancing at Neighbor's until 4 a.m. this year!), but Chris and I did enjoy dinner aboard one of the San Diego Harbor dinner cruise's on Saturday. It was pretty cool! I discovered that SD has a pretty great skyline...Not as great as Seattle, though. ;) It was a nice surprise, and we had a good time.

We also hit another mile stone Saturday - we officially began the countdown to Chris's separation date from the USMC! As of this posting, we have 361 days, 13 hours & 15 minutes...uh, but who's counting?!?! And no, we haven't decided where to or what's next. It's sort of the great debate in our house, and we aren't telling just yet! Stay tuned...

Another day, another fire

I'm note sure if this info is making the national news or not, but we've had another fire here on Camp Pendleton today. This is the second fire on Base in less than a week. This one, the Juliet Fire, was a bit more destructive, and caused several Base housing evacuations, as well as evacuations in many of the surrounding civilian housing developments (non-Base housing developments). Fortunately, our housing area isn't in danger at this point. The fire is still burning as of 10:33 p.m., and has burned over 2000 acres at this point. http://www.10news.com/news/17706683/detail.html If you get a chance to go to the news link, be sure to click on "Viewer Images" on the left menu. There are some amazing shots of the fire. Here are a few pics that I took:

The first two are shots of the fires burning behind our house (about 3-5 miles away at 6:00 p.m.), and the other two are of the sunset looking out at the Pacific from the hill behind our house. That's smoke in the air, not regular clouds. Despite the destruction, it's a pretty awesome sight.

Catching everyone up...

Since I'm not totally sure who I've filled in and who I haven't, I thought I'd catch you all up on what's been going on with Chris and me this past year...

In November of last year, I packed up the last of my things, hopped in the Jetta, and moved to SoCal. It was really hard to leave the city where I "grew up", but the sunny weather in SoCal made the transition a little easier. :)

In December, Chris and I renewed our vows in Las Vegas, NV. We were fortunate enough to have several of our family and friends join us for the weekend, and celebrate with us. The ceremony was fantastic, but I will forever be known as the girl who was late for her own wedding - twice!

On December 26th, Chris and I added a new member to our family. We adopted a German Shepherd/mix puppy, and named her Gypsy. She is so great, and keeps us totally entertained. I'm sure she will make a few appearances in this blog, so stay tuned!

2008 started out with me going back to work. In mid-January, I took a position with Marine & Family Services as the Volunteer Program Coordinator for Camp Pendleton. It's a fun and challenging position, and has helped me gain a better understanding of the Marine Corps. I've had the opportunity to work with some really interesting people, and am finally using all of that private school education! It's also really great to work on Base and not have to fight SoCal traffic. The worst traffic I experience is getting stuck in the middle of a five humvee convoy!

Unfortunately, the next couple of months of 2008 weren't so great. Late in January, Chris's dad became ill and was hospitalized. Sadly, he passed away in late March. Fortunately, Chris was able to take a temporary transfer to Washington, DC while his dad was sick, and spent three months working at Henderson Hall across from the Pentagon so that he could spend time with his dad. Chris returned to Camp Pendleton in mid-May. After spending a month with his "parent" Command, he was assigned to the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit (13th MEU) in June. http://www.marines.mil/units/marforpac/imef/13thmeu/Pages/default.aspx A few weeks after joining the MEU, Chris spent several weeks in Yuma, AZ for training, and managed to squeeze in a last-minute trip home to spend the 4th of July with his family in St. Louis, MO. I spent the holiday out here in CA with my friend, Dana. We did a lot of sight-seeing, and did our best to support the SoCal economy! On July 20th, Chris and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary. We celebrated by going to Phantom of the Opera in San Diego, and then to dinner at the top of the Grand Hyatt. Yah, yah...keep the gagging to a minimum. :)

Chris's sister, Jenny, came out for a long weekend visit in August. Gypsy had a great time buttering her up, and consequently, has discovered that sleeping on human beds is way better than sleeping on doggy beds (thanks Aunt Jenny!).

Chris and I made a spur-of-the-moment return trip to Vegas over Labor Day weekend. We stayed at the Trump Tower, and saw Love, the Cirque du Soleil show set to the music of the Beatles. It was AWESOME! The Trump is a really nice hotel - all suites and really quiet. It doesn't have a casino, but it is really nice and a great place to stay if you aren't big on the usual Vegas scene.

The rest of the "fall" here in SoCal has been pretty quiet. That may change now that we're in the Santa Ana wind season again. We had a little taste (and reminder) of what those winds can mean this past Wednesday afternoon/evening. We had a fire here on Camp Pendleton that burned over 1000 acres. The smoke was really quite the sight, and smell. It was even pretty cool after dark as the sky was totally lit up. The firefighters did a really good job of getting a handle on it early, and had it out by the next morning.

The first pic I took from my car window as I was driving home from work, the second is from our back yard, and the last is one I stole from my friend Aimee's page (thanks, Aim!).

So, that's what's been going on with us this past year. I promise to update this blog a little more often than once a year. But I wouldn't hold my breath if I were you!

No longer a blogging virgin!

Alright...I jumped, and landed on the blogging band wagon. I finally decided that since I am so terrible at keeping in touch with everyone this can be a one-stop shop to see what's going on with us. Now it's up to YOU ALL to check in every now and then! But, I make no promises that this here blog will be bursting with news every day - I mean, come on! I'm really not all that exciting! With that said, here we go...