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!