It's been a while AGAIN!

I am excellent at forgetting about this blog.

Okay, well Matt re-enlisted, which seems to be all I've been talking about in my past few posts. Hopefully we will get a tiny little bonus in one of the next few paychecks, which will turn right around and go straight to the car loans. Hello, goodbye!

7 days after Matt's re-enlistment was the send off for his second deployment, which I do not even want to talk about, because I am so irritated that it has been extended to 9 months. But now that I've opened up that can of worms by saying I'm not going to open up that can of worms...

- Why is the MEU extending the deployment 2 months before they even get to Pakistan, because if Pakistan doesn't want or need them for that long, then they've extended and have nothing planned to do with that extension. I'm not even asking that question for people to answer, I just feel like it would be smarter to wait until you get there at least.
- I can no longer watch NBC Nightly News. With the IED's and suicide bombings, and the Taliban gaining control with all of the flood chaos, I don't really see any difference between this and Afghanistan as far as safety goes. Super.
- WE DID NOT GET LEAVE.
- WE DID NOT GET LEAVE.
- Matt worked until the very day he left. And we did not get leave.


I am very upset!!!! >:(


Moving on.

Fall is coming, woohoo. Izzy is still completely overweight, darn. I need to go to Wal-mart, crap.


I should not have opened up that can of worms.

Re-enlistment drumroll...

We chose Parris Island!

Matt's already working on his re-enlistment package getting everything to get it in fairly soon. If there is a bonus for re-enlisting, we should find that out in a week or so (crossing every finger for a bonus, but it's not looking good for bonuses this year for anyone).

We're not guaranteed that Matt's DI package will be approved, they could always deny it for one reason or another. Our backup is basically anything non-deployable, this next enlistment is going to be the baby making enlistment (we will be 29 at the end of it), so we both want him to be HOME! The only thing that may hurt Matt for the DI package (besides the number of Marines also applying for the same thing) is that he's not a Sergeant yet, and would need to be by the time he graduates the school. That really should've came a while ago, so we're just hoping it'll happen any month now. Matt needs about 80 more points to pick up that rank, and when he re-enlists he will get 60 points, so if it doesn't happen before re-enlistment with a board (where a few higher ups choose you to be promoted) it should happen soon after with the point system they have. He just needs to be a Sergeant upon completion of the school (it's a requirement), which would be a year from now. I don't see it not happening within the next 12 months, but you never know with the Marine Corps!

We are expecting this re-enlistment to be a huge mess because it has been for everyone else we know. The competition is very high, I think this year will be even worse than everyone who re-enlisted last year. More and more people want to stay in, and there's just not enough room for everyone so it's going to be probably 6 months of complete madness, not to mention he deploys one week before the official start date of re-enlistment (October 1st), so that'll just be a disaster probably!

I'm just going into it believing that whatever is meant to happen will happen. If the DI package gets denied, then that wasn't where God wanted us to be. Maybe we won't even have a spot and go back home! Who knows where this will take us, but I really hope we can go to Parris Island. We shall see!

It's been a while..... PICTURES!

Izzy, Izzy, and more Izzy. Oh yeah, and a picture of us... holding Izzy!

Pendleton or Parris Island?

That is the question. [Check out my snazzy little Picnik collage that took me three times longer to make than it should have because I'm on the Mac tonight]. Family, you can click the picture to enlarge and see exactly where the two are. Anyway, for anyone that doesn't know, and for my own sanity of saying everything from the beginning to help me decide, Matt reenlists this year. That will either happen July 1st or October 1st, we don't know yet. But what we DO know, is that we are running out of time deciding on what to do for this next enlistment. And when I say we, I mean that Matt has his mind made up and I just don't know.

Matt's decision: Parris Island (Beaufort, SC). He wants to be stationed at Parris Island and be a Drill Instructor. The hours are going to be really demanding and he's probably going to end up crazy (hopefully I'm kidding?). BUT, we'll be close to home, so that when I'm alone 90% of the next 3 years, or if he does become crazy, I'm only about 4 hours away (and only about two from my mom!)

Pros:

- Matt gets to do the job he wants to do
- Close to home: 4 hours from Atlanta, about 3 from Columbia, and about 2 from Brunswick
- Big pro: Matt will be stateside and deployment free for a guaranteed three+ years. That's nice knowing he won't have to go to Afghanistan.

Cons:

- A Drill Instructor has a cycle of recruits that lasts for 13 weeks. For the 13 weeks, he's not going to be coming home often, and when he does he'll be passed out from sleep deprivation. And the amounts of time in between cycles isn't long, maybe a week or two.
- I seriously am terrified that Matt is going to have a hard time leaving "Drill Instructor" at the door and being "Matt" at home. I'm worried that he's going to be mean, snappy, and just not adjust well to having to juggle two completely different personalities.
- Matt got an injury in bootcamp (he fractured his femur). HOW is he going to be able to do bootcamp like 25 times in a row without anymore injuries?
- About the area, I really wanted to be in a city after doing my 4 years in Jacksonville, North Carolina. My job opportunities are much more plentiful in a big city compared to a little town. And I'm a city person, so I've really missed being in a city the entire time I've been in Jacksonville, but what got me through it was the idea of California next.

So to sum up Beaufort, the big pro is that he's stateside, which means he's safe. No Afghanistan. It may even be over with by the time he would be done with this. The big con is that I'm worried about how this is going to affect him, his personality, his temper, and our marriage. Not to mention I don't love the area.

Now onto Oceanside, California. Camp Pendleton, another really big Marine Corps base like Lejeune, is located there. It's between Los Angeles and San Diego (BINGO for me!) Matt would basically be reenlisting to do the same MOS (job) that he is already doing, no Drill Instructor job.

Pros:
-Ummm.... HELLO CALIFORNIA! I've been dreaming about living there since I was about 13. Seriously, I had maps of it in my room in high school and made a graduation plan that fell through to go live there (I didn't think about money haha). My mom will testify- I am obsessed with southern California. So the pro is that I will LOVE the area (and I'm the one that has to be there twice as much as him with deployments). Which leads me to the con.

Con:
- He will deploy. And we will probably not get as lucky as we did this enlistment, where Matt was attached to a MEU unit that never went anywhere dangerous. Next time, he will probably attach to an infantry unit and go to Afghanistan, we can't be lucky enough to avoid that two enlistments in a row. And although 90% of my friends have had their husbands go to Afghanistan and they all came home safely, I know not everyone does come home, and it's been nice not having to worry about Matt. But if we pick California, I will. Beaufort would avoid the stress of an Afghanistan deployment.

- Matt doesn't get to be a drill instructor. He's going to me bummed probably that he missed out on that. But he doesn't hate the idea of California, either.


To sum up everything, Beaufort brings another boring town. Another four years that I'm basically just hanging my own goals (California) and dreams (awesome legal city job) at the door while Matt gets to live out his goals and dreams. Maybe I'm selfish, but I feel like it's my turn to choose. I really don't know what to do. I just feel like I've always been putting my own wants aside so that Matt can be happy, I sometimes feel like I'm just following him while he lives his life and I don't really get to, and I wish that we both agreed on something but in this case we don't. Normally when we can't see eye to eye, I back down because it's just easier that way. But it's California!!!

Help.

Lamps! Lamps! Lamps!

All of these lamps are now MIIIIIINEEEEEEE (except for picture number three, that's mom's). But still!







YEEEEEEESSSSSS. Today I discovered the crack-addiction that is T.J. Maxx. And all I walked out with was these lamps. They weren't that bad; the orange one was $50, the white one (my favorite) was $40, and the tall grey one was $30. They were my welcome-to-your-new-house present from mom. The white and gray are going in our room on our nightstands, they'll replace our boring little Ikea lamps. The white one will be mine (it's a 3-way bulb, score) and the tall gray one is Matt's; it's more manly (I guess).

Kelly and Leah have gotten me into this blog, younghouselove.com, and I am on a design high (this is my second drug reference in this post, hmm). I want to redecorate every room in my house, I just want to live in an Ikea catalog! But for some reason when it's time to buy new furniture, I never get anything remotely close to what I picture (LEATHER couches?? CHERRY tv stand?). Those things aren't me! But Matt always wins, grrrrr.

Well, I win with these lamps :)

Cupcakes round 2

My mom and my sister and I decorated a batch of straight-outta-the-oven cupcakes and it was so much fun! But not only that, I've learned a lot more about frosting consistency and technique since my last attempt, so I am very proud of these!











YUM.



And The Pioneer Woman's Perfect Pound Cake was a success for the second time, it is the BEST recipe and I believe it only has 7 ingrediants. You can find it here:
http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2010/01/perfect-pound-cake/

I am in the middle of nowhere

I am literally in the middle of nowhere! My cell phone doesn't have one bar of signal. My GPS doesn't even recognize the last couple of roads I took to get out here. I can't run to the store because there is no store! I am 20 miles from the nearest town. Mom, I don't know how you do this!

On a side note, Izzy is loving the open space! She rarely gets to use her rabbit speed and she's using it out here!

AAAAANGRY!

Well now I have something to write about: this stupid 'free' vacation from Stevenson Mazda.

To summarize, I won a free vacation to Myrtle Beach from a car place a few months ago. We have to pay taxes on the room but that's it, it totals to $24 for a two night stay. Awesome, right? Well I just got my stuff in the mail for it about 10 days ago and I'm just now getting around to reading the terms and conditions. They basically made it very difficult for an average person with an average job, and completely impossible for people like Matt who can't just know their schedule 60 days out and be able to ask off.

Restrictions:

1) Can't choose dates between June 1st- August 31st. When 90% of people would use this. (you're thinking, well that leaves all of May, right?)

2) Can't choose a date sooner than 60 days. 60 days from today is June 22nd, which blocks out May, and June, July, and August are already blocked out.

3) You can only check in on a Monday or a Tuesday, and it can't be within a 14 day range of a holiday. So goodbye to the first two weeks of September because of Labor Day, September 6th.

3) MATT DEPLOYS IN SEPTEMBER. And I have no idea when in September, and won't know leave dates probably until August, which would not be 60 days in advance. I know 100% for a fact I will not get an accurate deployment date and accurate leave dates 60 days in advance, that shit just doesn't happen.

Fuck. You. Travel Saver. And I keep calling their number and they have the weirdest hours. They close at 2 PM Eastern, and they don't open until 10 AM! WHO is open for four hours?? Oh yes and they're only open Mon-Thurs. Well guess what time it is? After 2. And guess what tomorrow is? Friday.

My next option is to book something after Matt leaves for me and someone else. But do I really want to spend $24 (taxes on room) for a vacation with someone else? At the moment, no. I know how I am on deployment, and I'm whiny and don't want to go on vacation with someone other than Matt. I feel like $24 for a Myrtle Beach two night vacation is such a great deal, even if it has to be sometime after mid-September, but another restriction is that you can't change your dates. And the $24 is due at their office by April 30th, so I only have a day or two longer to figure this out. I think I'm probably just going to let it go because I don't want to waste $24. I am so cheap.

I am so annoyed.

Some of my all-time favorite pictures

I wanted to upload just a couple of my most favorite pictures. Mostly because nothing cool happened today worth writing about.



I love this one, it's from the last deployment, and I don't think Matt even took it, but it's just SO pretty. We have the Capital One cards where you can choose your own image, and this is the one on our cards. It's so gorgeous there! This has been my computer background for about a year. I just can't get over how much I love the two straws in the cup and how pretty that beach is. I can't believe he was there!



And I love this picture of Matt. I love any picture of Matt in his blues, but I particularly like this one. It's from a wedding he was in about a year ago. Blues make any ordinary picture awesome because I wouldn't even care about this picture if he was in jeans and a t-shirt.



And of course, miss Izzy. This is from my phone but I don't even care, I love it so much. This is right after I picked her up from the groomers the very first time she got shaved. Between her fatness (this was right before the vet declared her obese LOL), not having any hair, and that stupid goofy smile she has, I just love it! It still makes me laugh thinking about how funny she looked the very first time we cut all of her hair off! Now I'm used to it but that day was hilarious.



I want to see other people's favorites!

Izzy at the beach

I can't get over how much I love these pictures. Thanks to Paint for letting me use the air dropper/spray paint to cover up her leash. And thanks to Picnik for making me look like I have a super cool camera. And thanks to Mpix for having coupon codes online that made ordering all four of these in 8x10's like 7 dollars!!!! To family, you can click on these pictures and enlarge them or right click and save them! The back of these prints will say "miss izzy 2010". I'm so excitedddddd!!!!!

Boot camp mail and cupcakes

I finally made a book out of Matt's boot camp mail (not from him, there's only like 11 letters from him and they're in a scrapbook). There were over 200 letters and cards that I had to organize, but I love the end result! I got to read all of my mail, and even in one letter I said "Save all of my letters, I want to make a book out of them one day" haha. Well over three years later I took the few hours to finally do it.



And I trashed my kitchen yesterday dyeing frostings, trying to learn how to pipe leaves and different designs, and all I really got out of it all that I'm proud of is this little guy:



The rest are just down right embarrassing. Now what to do for the rest of this workup.....

A zillion little homecomings

Throughout the workups for this deployment, Matt will leave and come home about 9 times from March to September. He left last Sunday for Norfolk, Virgnia for a conference and comes home today. I went up there for two very miserable days where everything went wrong and I saw him a total of four hours. But he comes home today! He's only been there for a week, but still, every time he's gone and comes home is so exciting. I just cleaned the house, made sweet tea and pink lemonade, chocolate peanutbutter cookes (half went to Charlotte), and got ready. And I babypowdered Izzy (that's when you know there's an occassion- when Izzy gets babypowdered. And she gets very angry). I didn't mop the floors, I've lived here since March 12th and I still haven't done anything to clean the floors besides sweeping one time. That's probably gross... I pick things off the bottom of my feet all the time and they're permanently brown. I bet i just lost a couple friends.

Anywho, I'm killing time until I ge tin the car, head to base, pray not to get ID checked because I can't find my ID, make up a lie about being on my way to get a new ID if I do get my ID checked, and then I'll be picking up Matt! And eating Chili's for dinner with Charlotte and Jeremy because I can't stop thinking about spring rolls.


drool.


slurp.

Yeah, I Google imaged Chili's food. :\

What's in my purse..

Stole this idea from Ms. English :)



This is a really old bag that I fell in love with on Ebay, the leather is super distressed and I'm pretty in love with it.

Now let's see...



I've got: My wallet

My coupon organizer (the white and black thing)

A 15% off coupon to Banana Republic (which should be in my coupon organizer)

My super-cool Hello Kitty debit card (should be in my wallet)

My Venture card (should also be in my wallet)

Secret Clinical deodorant because I always forget to put on deodorant in the morning, and I don't remember until I've already left the house. Hence, it stays in the bag.

My makeup bag which contains about 25 travel size things

My Bare Minerals lip gloss (should be in my makeup bag)

Keys

My Blackberry

Sunglasses

And yes, that is a packet of coffee creamer. Not sure about that one but it's in the trash now.


There's my purse!

I'm blogging?

Seriously.... why am I blogging? A part of me feels like a soccer mom right now. And another part of me feels like a 16 year old who just got off the bus and has to write about school and boys. I will be amazed if someone other than my mom reads this. Okay I will be amazed if someone outside of my or Matt's immediate family reads this.

I guess I'm just supposed to talk about my life. Well, I'm Jessica, or Jess, but never Jesse.....I'm 24 but I still can't remember that, so for the first 6 months of being 24, I will probably continue to say I'm 23. What am I doing... if people are reading this they are my mom, and my mom knows how old I am. Hi mom. I feel like a stupid loser douchebag. Love you, mom.

This was a fail.