A Love Story

Anybody who knows me well enough knows how absolutely and madly in love I am with my husband. I think I just recently started to get over the "honeymoon stage" after almost two years of being married.. Haha! He really is such an amazing, funny, sweet, compassionate, man- I can never get enough of him! Not only is he the love of my life but he's my best friends as well, I love him so much. 
(Ok Amy, we get it.. move along) 

Many 'til this day don't know our "lurrvv story", or how it all started. So, I'm here to share it with you all..

In The Beginning  
In the summer of 2011 I met Thomas' sister working at a summer camp. I remember telling her how I was a sucker for "white guys" so she showed me a picture of her "hot Marine brother" whom I might be interested in. I saw his picture and really thought nothing of him. If any of you have ever seen a Marine's official military picture you would know how serious and may I say, unattractive they can sometimes look. Lips pierced, chin up, looking like a real Devil Dog.. Thank you, but no thank you.

(See what I mean? Not the best picture, right!)

A few months later I randomly came across Thomas' Facebook page and noticed we had a mutual friend. I became curious to know how they knew each other and found out that they knew one another from high school. To my surprise, we went to the same high school but never met each other. As I scrolled through his "normal" everyday pictures I thought to myself- "Oh, I was wrong. He's a hunk!"

(Much, much better picture.. Maybe it's the puckered lips!)

Love At First Type?

We began messaging each other, two 20-year-olds, living on different ends of the country, just friends, not looking for love. I was living in California going to school and working. He was stationed in Virginia serving in the Marine Corps. In a short amount of time, our conversations became more intimate and our phone calls became more special. Somehow, we just clicked. As I mentioned, neither of us were looking for love at the time.. But, without realizing it, our relationship grew deeper and I quickly became smitten- the feeling was mutual.

The Best 3 Days of 2011
Thomas came home to California for Christmas, and after months of countless phone calls, texts, and Facebook messages, it was finally time to meet face to face. I probably spent half the day getting ready.. My palms were sweaty, my knees were week, and I had these little things called butterflies causing a ruckus in my stomach.. the day was finally here and I could hardly contain my excitement. To make the long story short, we spent a total of only 3 days together before he had to be back in Virginia, and those 3 days were nothing short of magical. I know, it sounds extremely corny. But for the first time in my life, I felt things I had never felt before, I was witnessing my very own fairy tale with my very own Prince Charming.. and I was in love.

(By the way, our first meeting almost didn't happen. I got upset because he wouldn't give me an exact date to meet so I told him to forget it and get lost. He felt bad so he finally set a time and place to meet. I was extremely late and he almost left.. Thank God he set a time and day and thank God he didn't leave!)

(The first picture we took together when he came home for Christmas. We look so different!)


Reunited & It Felt So Good
Three months later Thomas was sent to be in 29 Palms (next to Palm Springs) for a few weeks. It was a 6 hour commute there and back but I knew I had to take the drive to see him again. Just as before, the time we spent together that week was amazing and I was more sure than ever that he was the man of my dreams and that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with him. By me making the trip (two trips to be exact) to go see him it gave him the reassurance he needed that I ,too, was the one for him. 

(Once again, this trip almost didn't happen. I was going through so many inward doubts and issues about us and our relationship that at the last minute I had decided I wouldn't go see him and call it quits. But Thomas used his sweet persuasive words and assured me that everything would be ok, and it was. Thank God he didn't give up as easily as I did!)

I Said Yes
Thomas returned to California in June for another visit. While he was there he took the opportunity to take me to one of his favorite places, Laguna Beach. He took me to a cliff over looking the ocean, got down on one knee and proposed. And I said "YES!" 

Cut To The Chase 

Originally, we wanted to wait before saying our "I Do's". We knew we were young and should probably wait, and on top of that we wanted to plan the fairy tale wedding I always dreamed of .. But when love hits you, it hits you and you don't expect it. Eventually we grew tired of the late night phone calls and miles spread between us and we decided that we didn't want to be apart from each other anymore.. so we said, "Let's just get married. Let's get it over with". 

I flew to Virginia on 4th of July and got married to the man of my dreams on July 5th, 2011. Our wedding was short, sweet and private- it was just me, him, and the officiant. We spent our honeymoon in the airport and less than 6 hours later were saying our goodbyes (so romantic). A month later I made the move to Virginia to be with Thomas for good and finally start our lives together. 

(This almost didn't happen as well. There's a little funny store about me missing my flight, or getting off at the wrong stop or something like that, and I think there was some frantic crying and several extra hundreds spent for another plane ticket.. But we'll just leave that out)

The End

And that's the short version of our story. Being young, in a long distant relationship was hard, and it became even harder when we had to deal with unique challenges that the military threw at us. But we stuck to it and we didn't give up despite all the odds against us. We're still sticking to it, everyday is a challenge to keep our love and marriage as alive and exciting as it was in the very beginning  But we're doing it, and I can truly say that I am happier now than I have ever been and there is not one day that goes by that I'm not thankful to God for putting Thomas in my life. I love him more than any words could ever express and I am so excited to spend the rest of my life with him.

"When you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with someone, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible"

Hello California!

Yes, yes, yes! Finally, after almost two long years of missing home, missing family, missing friends, missing beautiful weather- we are finally getting stationed in California! :D I don't think anybody realizes how many emotions I have running through me. Thomas and I have talked about the day we leave Virginia to be stationed in San Diego since before we even made Virginia home! We thought it would have come much sooner but it didn't. We just kept waiting, and waiting, and waiting. But the wait is over, and it's here, it's.finally.here.

Though we had been anticipating the move to California for a while now, it still came as a surprise. Being that Thomas LAT moved (changed jobs) we were told we would have to wait until he graduated his MOS school (new job school) in late June for us to get orders. And even then we had no idea whether they would put us at a base in California or not. There was even some small talk of us possibly being sent to Okinawa... in Japan..... "Excuse me?" 

Needless to say that didn't happen (thank you Jesus!), and we got orders to Camp Miramar in San Diego (we though we would get sent to Camp Pendleton in San Diego, but that's ok!) earlier than expected.. and quick orders for that matter. Typically, you're given orders about 6 months in advance, more or less. That wasn't our case. Our orders were given to us with just a little over 2 months in advance leaving us with little time to plan. As if that weren't stressful enough, we have to leave immediately after Thomas returns from school... Leave it to the Marine Corps to find a way to mess with you...

Regardless of all this, Thomas and I are beyond ecstatic to finally be where we belong and start a new chapter in our lives- though, it's also a bit scary and nerve wrecking. The move in itself is fearful.. Figuring out what method you're going to use to move, packing everything and moving across country, figuring out who, what where, when, why, how. And on top of that, we have gotten so comfortable here in Virginia. Not enjoyed it per-say, but you know, we just got comfortable, use to it.

Now, it's time to go elsewhere, live in a new place, start new jobs, learn new lessons, experience new things. It's intimidating, but all at the same time exciting. We've both grown, matured and learned so much during our time here in Virginia and can definitely say it's an experience to take with us, but our time here is done.

 I'm glad to get away from these terrible allergies I suddenly developed while being here and the "much worse than L.A traffic" I got stuck in everyday after work. But I know I'll miss the snow in the winter time that makes the season feel that much sweeter. And those beautiful Cherry Blossoms that bloom all over the city during spring time. I'll miss having American history just a few miles away in DC. And I'll miss seeing Lamba play with her best friend- the only dog in existence she has ever truly loved to be around. Now looking back at it all, I guess it wasn't all half bad. Thanks for the memories Virginia, it was sweet- but this lady and gent are ready to go home! :D

Life Is Beautiful || My Weekend In A Nutshell

Sleep in. Sleep in a little more. Wake up and snuggle.. *swoon*- Talk. Laugh. Talk. Invite Lamba to bed. Hear Lamba whine in bed- "Can't she hold it in?".. Soak in the beautiful sumshine, thank God spring is here! Woop woop! Pandora. Ginuwine and Pac. What chu know 'bout that? Clean, clean, clean! Did I mention that we cleaned? Double woop woop! Call for a hair cut appointment. FINALLY! (Please don't chop my hair off!).. Go get hair cut. Yes, pamper me please! Discuss a possible ombre dye. Fall in love with my haircut.. Feelin' like a new woman! *Thank you*- Kisses for our baby girl. Try to wake Thomas from his nap.... FAIL to wake Thomas from his nap! There goes our lunch date.. womp womp womp.. Hungry. Ignore. Hungry. Ipad time. REALLY hungry! Grab a snack. The beast has woken! Talk. Laugh. Laugh. Talk. Time to wrestle. Tummie's a rumblin. Time for FOOD!- "What happened to our diet?" Buffalo Wild Wings- yum! Movie time. More cuddling. More loving- can't.get.enough! Too early.. Breakfast at IHOP?- I'm there! Joke. Breakfast at Denny's. Quality time. More laughing! Tummy hurts from laughing. Coffee coffee coffee! Take cars to get serviced. So chilly- baby hold me! Free car wash. SCORE! Grocery trip- healthy food restock! Back on the grind.. Fruit overload! Mmmmm! Play at the grocery store.. What else is new? Laugh some more. Fruit smoothie run! Addicted? Maybe. Take Lamba out, again.. Thomas' weekly haircut. I don't wanna do it.. Let's go get it done. New trainee. Witness Marine getting a bad hair cut by new trainee. Witness Marine furiously mad with new trainee. Laugh, laugh.. Give Thomas the eye.. Crack up! Mexican take out! Tacos and burritos! "Seriously, what happened to our diet?" Fried ice cream- delish! More cuddlin' more lovin'.. New couch snuggle approved! Fun weekend is over. 

I had such an amazing weekend with Thomas! I hope you all had a lovely one, too! 

Happy Monday! :D

A Little Pick-Me-Up

When you're 22 years young and married, the degree of your thoughts, dreams, ambitions and plans are no where near comparable to the average 22 year old. All of a sudden my mind started tossing and turning thinking about my future with Thomas.. "Where will we live? What type of house will we have? Will we have successful careers and love what we do? And hat about our kids? Will we have enough to provide for them? Vacations, toys, time? Will our marriage still be great 20 years from now?" I'm the guilty "over thinker", so suddenly I'm ten times more worried about meeting all my goals and dreams in life than your average Joe. I've always been a planner, I like knowing what I'm going to do and have it all planned ahead of time and be assured that its going to carry through.. 

But I realized something, sometimes life doesn't work that way. It throws you curve balls, it ruins your perfectly thought out plans, that's life! We've all been there, right? Things don't go as planned so we get stuck in a rut or become dismayed.. I don't want that, I don't want to ever put myself in that state of mind. No matter what my plans and dreams are, I need to be confident and strong enough to give them my all whether things get in the way or not. I'm learning to put my faith in God and know that whatever may happen, wherever I end up, everything will be OK.

My message to you is- No matter what you are trying to achieve in your life, no matter what has brought you down, don't.give.up! Pray unceasingly, and work endlessly to get to where you want to be! You only have one life, you might as well live it right. Do what you can, with what you have, where you are..

Kid President has a little pep talk he wanted me to pass on to you all.. He's got some good points, hear him out :)

Hope this pep talk helped, and I hope you all feel a tad bit more motivated to do what you need to do.

Winter Wonderland, The Cold, & An Update

That's the beauty I woke up to this morning! Being a Californian I appreciate the snow a little more than others might. It snowed on Christmas Eve but it was pretty weak, nothing special, but today's snow was amazing! Definitely enjoyable! Though, Lamba didn't enjoy it much.. I took her out to do her business as usual, she saw the snow, she smelled the snow, and she was not having it! She was probably all, "What the heck is this, and why are you making me pee in it?" So of coarse she didn't pee and headed straight upstairs, that silly girl..

Thomas took these next two shots.. Aren't they the cutest? Nice job honey!

As some of you may know my blog was not accessible for sometime. I was trying to fix some glitches that were going on before writing any more post but I wasn't able to fix any of them! Regardless, I will keep blogging while trying to figure out the problem  Within the next month or so you might be seeing a lot of changes going on with my blog. I'm trying to make it reflect me as much as possible so I'll be changing things up quite a bit to try to get it just right!

Aside from that I'm also working on some new posts. We'll see how long it takes before I get those up being that I'm sick and have little interest in blogging at the moment. At this very moment I am laying in our bed, bundled up with our baby girl, and I have blown my nose far too many times to the point where it feel like my nose just might fall off, yeah.. it hurts. Good thing about being sick though is that Thomas gets extra sweet and extra lovey dovey. Seriously, he's pretty amazing.. it's all rubs, hugs and kisses followed by, "Baby take this medicine. Baby layer on some clothes. Baby have you been blowing your nose?" Haha! I think he nurtures me more than my mother ever did!.. Can't complain about that!

I also can't complain about all the extra quality time we've been spending together. It's been about two weeks now since we got rid of our cable, something I thought I would never allow.. but Thomas somehow convinced me, and I must say I'm quite pleased! You don't realize how much valuable time t.v can take away from you until you don't have it anymore- we're so much more productive now! I admit, at times I do miss being lazy and sitting on the couch together watching Diners Drive-Ins & Dives (who's with me here?), but I rather look back twenty years from now and have memories of us chasing each other around our apartment and wrestling like little kids (that's still acceptable, right?) than sitting on those ugly black couches and staring at food we can't have! You kill me Guy Fieri.. 

If any of you have ever considered doing the same, don't hesitate, I promise you'll be much more efficient! We're considering getting Netflix or Hulu, just to have a little something, but we're still undecided. Do any of you have Netflix or Hulu? If so, would you recommend them? Please do share!

Sayonara Twenty-Twelve!

It's 2013 and we're not dead! Congratulations on your millionth "end of the world" survival! Ha! Ok, ok, all jokes aside I must say I am much more excited for 2013 than any other year that I can recall. I think part of it may be that I'm particularly excited for where the military will be taking us. Thomas has been in the process of reenlisting and it has taken a bit longer than expected since he's trying to LAT move (change jobs), so that in itself has been quite the tedious process. But, we have hopes that everything should be getting done soon.. And when it does that means a new job for Thomas and it means back to California for the both of us!

We have both been away from home for about a year and a half and I cannot begin to explain how much we miss it! Not only are we estranged from all our friends and family but we're away from the most beautiful state in the world! We miss all that Cali has to offer us so we are anxiously patiently awaiting for the news of when exactly we will be PCSing back home! Hopefully these new changes in 2013 are kind to us!

Now, I don't have too many exciting moments to recap for 2012 because, well, I was just trying to get use to the Virginia lifestyle.. That makes me sound pretty lame doesn't it? Ha! I guess I could dig up a few moments worth mentioning. Okay, here it goes..

• January/February- Both Thomas and I turned 21 (Society makes it sound far more exciting than it really is)! So blessed to be living another year.
•  My MIL came to visit us for the first time! She was also our very first visiter which made it pretty exciting! 
• Thomas got promoted to Corporal and this lucky gal got to pin him! I am so proud of the Marine he has become and I am eager to see his further progress!
• April- We adopted another Miniautre Pinscher named Cash but eventually had to return him back to his shelter. Unfortunately, he was far too viscious for us to handle and a law suit would have surely been coming our way if we kept him any longer! Nevertheless, the time we spent with him was a great learning lesson, to say the least!
• May- I got to witness a live birth! Can you say wowzers?! A dear friend of mine who also happens to be a Marine wife asked me to be with her during labor and I was so honered! It was one of the most amazing things I have ever seen and I will never forget the experience!
• June- We purchased our dream cars!.. Well, sort of.. We traded in our Hyundai Sonata for two different cars. Thomas finally got a truck- I swear his grin was far too contagious, it was like a child on Christmas morning! And I got a fully loaded, and I mean, fully loaded Jeep Commander.
• July-Llove was in the air! Thomas and I celebrated our 1 year anniversary! Woot woot! We celebrated the weekend with a little romantic getaway to Virginia Beach including an ocean front hotel and lots of yummy food! Oh, and a surprise dinner date by Thomas once we were back home! He set up the table with some scattered candles a dozen red roses- cutest thing ever!
• October- We got rid of my gas-guzzling Jeep Commander and opted for a more (much more) gas efficient Hyundai Elantra. The Jeep was a beauty, but the mpg was beyond ridiculous!
•  I also started a new job and I couldn't be any happier! I really do love what I do!
• December- Mama Cindy came to visit again! She's always a fun time and I am so greatful to have such an awesome MIL!

So that's my whole year in a nutshell! As I said, not too exciting but I'm hoping this year is a bit more eventful. I was originally going to post my new year's goals but this post is longer than expected so I'll be writing about that in my next post!
 I'll leave you now with a few memories from last year :)