My 27th Birthday!

My birthday was f-a-b-u-l-o-u-s! The celebrations started on Friday - a bottle of wine with my Hubby and presents from my parents. It was such a great start to the weekend...an Alex and Ani bracelet and orange Hostess cupcakes! Best birthday present ever!

 All week I was craving sushi, so I knew that's what I wanted to do. We went out with our friends Sam and Laura who suggested Indochine. It was packed when we got there, so we got delicious drinks and hung out in the tiki huts in the back. How cool is that?! Tiki huts?! When we got to the table we were given a huge menu. Laura insisted on ordering us the sampler to start with. There were seven different finger foods with seven different dipping sauces. I've never had anything so amazing! Me, Danny and Sam all got sushi for dinner, Laura got crispy noodles. There was so much food that we didn't know what to do! Sam and Laura got the ultimate compliment from me...I actually shared all the food!

We were so happy and stuffed...but that didn't stop us from eating and drinking more. Our next stop was a little French restaurant for wine and dessert. We all ordered our wine and started to order dessert...when Sam decided he wanted oysters. Then we got some shrimp. There was so much food! If we ate anymore we probably could have rolled out of the restaurant!

It was such fantastic night! I laughed so much, ate so much great food, and got to spend it with amazing people. I haven't had that much fun in awhile!

Twenty-seven has already been fantastic and it's only just beginning!

Happy 3rd Birthday Puppy!

This month we are celebrating my four-legged best friends birthday! Miley's birthday celebration lasts the entire month because we actually have no idea when her birthday is. She might be older than three, she might be younger, so for the entire month of November we are guesstimating, celebrating and loving our puppy girl!

Miley's story begins with a Cherry Point Yard Sales ad. For weeks I was searching for a beagle, so when I saw an ad for a 100% pure bread beagle I jumped at it! We drove an hour to find the tallest "beagle" ever, living in awful conditions, passed out on a picnic table. We were told she was "thrown out of a car and left on the side of the road" and that she "really liked beer." At that point I could have cared less if she was a beagle or not, I had to have this dog and I had to take her out of those awful conditions.

Her original name was Bailey. We already have a Bailey puppy in the family so we knew we had to change it. The whole ride home we were thinking of the perfect name, I remember just joking at all the possibilities and then Danny getting a serious look on his face and saying "Miley." A little ode to his love of Miley Cyrus and an ongoing joke with our friend Lindsey.

I knew I didn't want her on the furniture. She was going to be crate trained. I wanted a perfect dog. But the second she walked in the house she planted herself on the couch and I didn't have the heart to kick her off. She cried in her crate that night, so I invited her in our bed. That's how it all began...and now she is so spoiled!

Miley is far from perfect but she's the perfect dog for me. She can't be off-leash, she has an obsession with trash, and she really likes stealing shoes. But she's also the perfect cuddle buddy, watch dog, and she listens to all my stories without interrupting....except for the occasional howl to let me know she's still listening.

Miley loves going for walks and roadtrips.

She has vacationed in South Carolina, Ohio, Massachusetts and Maine.

She loves her cousin, Roxy. 

Miley loves to sunbathe and always knows when it's time to tan the belly.

  She loves her family. We all claim to be her favorite! 

Happy 3rd birthday puppy. Thank you for being the best listener, snuggler, and puppy a girl could ask for!

A Party & A Recipe!

Even at 26 celebrating a 21st birthday is still fun! Friday night me and Danny grabbed some beers and headed to Jordyn and Brennan's for a little 21st birthday cookout. After eating and chatting with the group for a bit, it turned into an impromptu girls night/guys night. Girls in the kitchen chit chatting...and the guys outside playing cards. It was such a good night!

 The big hit of the party was my Texas Caviar. I was nervous bringing it to a party with a bunch of big-bad-Marines....it's all veggies! But everyone devoured it. And the recipe has already been requested a few times. So, here it is!

Texas Caviar

1 can black eyed peas 

1 can black beans

1 can shoepeg corn

Red bell pepper, chopped

2 stalks celery, chopped

Small red onion, chopped  

Put first three ingredients in a colander and rinse. Combine in a bowl with the remaining ingredients. 

Dressing:

1/3 cup olive oil

1/3 cup cider vinegar

1/3 cup sugar

Heat on medium/low until sugar dissolves. Pour over bean mixture and marinate overnight in the fridge. Serve with Tostitos!  

Birthday Weekend!

I turned 26 on Thursday. And the day was even better because Hubby was promoted and my friend Lindsey came down for a long weekend! And we made sure we celebrated ALL weekend! (My waistline is showing the side effects!)

Lindsey arrived Thursday. We celebrated with lots of girl talk, lunch...and later drinks with Danny.

The fun REALLY started on Friday. The morning started with delicious cappuccinos....and ended with North Carolina Girls Pint Out's BEERmas. This event was held in Durham...scary, scary Durham! Luckily the bar was fun and full of amazing girls. We drank sweet potato beer and won a few raffles! It was so much fun to have a night out!

On our way home Saturday we witnessed a pretty awful motorcycle accident. Luckily the guy lived and hopefully learned his lesson to not drove like a jackass. We relaxed all day Saturday and then went to a local bar with Jen and Dustin. It was a fun, and interesting, night out. I sipped on water while everyone else drank very watered down drinks.

Lindsey and I spent our Sunday watching OWN's marathon about fat people. When it was over we enjoyed Cookout milkshakes. By the end of this weekend we could probably start our own fat show!

This morning I saw Lindsey off and enjoyed some Starbucks with Jacque. I had such a great birthday weekend and am so happy I got to share it with my amazing husband and a great friend!

On a side note - I'm hoping to get to get to the USO to use the computers and do a REAL blog update! Until then, here are some pictures to hold you over!

A Birthday Trip to Asheville!

This weekend was fabulous! We dropped off the puppy, gassed up the truck and headed out west to Asheville. I've never been to the western part of the state, so I was pretty excited! And yes, it's still a one tank trip!

I love big birthday celebrations...so I planned this weekend as Danny's birthday present. I had so much planned for our two days....the fun started the second we got to the city!

Asheville has a ton of breweries. Seriously, it's been voted Beer City USA for THREE years in a row. So, you know we had to hit up one of the places it's famous for - Asheville Brewing Company! We tried a little bit of everything...the favorite was Ninja Porter and the most interesting was Fire Escape...jalapeno flavored beer. Weird! But the one thing that really stuck out about Asheville...hippies. Lots and lots of hippies!

After a quick costume change, our next stop was the Asheville Zipline Canopy Adventures - yep, ziplining! Never in a million years did I think I would do something like this. Come on, I'm afraid of heights and speed! I had a few butterflies while I was pulling on the harness and helmet but as soon as we were 54 feet up a tree and traveling down a zipline...I couldn't help but enjoy myself! Our tour guides were awesome. We did 13 ziplines, a few bridges...and learned all about Asheville. I 100% recommend you do this at some point in your life!

We spent 3 hours in the trees. I didn't expect it to be that long!! I wanted a shower before our next adventure, but instead we checked into the hotel and I headed out with helmet head....to the LaZoom Haunted Comedy Tour! They guarantee you will see a ghost...and we did! We sat on the bus for an hour with our decently-funny tour guide...and there was lots of yelling. Unnecessary, made my head pound yelling. When I called my Mom to tell her about it I said it was the "obnoxious version of the KuKu Kunuku." If you have ever been to Aruba, you know what I'm talking about....and you know that's saying something about the quality of this tour! I'm not saying it was bad, the historical stuff was great...I just wish I knew I was going to be yelled at for an hour!

After the tour I wanted to walk around downtown. But man-oh-man Asheville's downtown is tiny and crowded. Instead we headed back to the hotel and passed out like the old people that we are. And might I add, in a King sized bed. I wanted to steal it. So comfy!

Sunday morning we had a huge and free breakfast at the hotel. And then we were off for our second day in the city! We went back downtown to see everything we missed the night before. I love Asheville because the buildings are old and unchanged. You can see still see original store fronts and details. I loved it! We saw gorgeous churches and basilicas, historical monuments, and people enjoying their morning coffee. Asheville is gorgeous. I've decided everyone should move to western North Carolina!

No trip to Asheville is complete without a visit to the Biltmore. The Biltmore left me (more so than ever) wishing I was a Vanderbilt. This gorgeous building was someones personal home. It's so big you could fit the White House in it four times. There's a bowling alley, 70,000 gallon swimming pool, a huge library, 250 rooms. Seriously, why can I not live here!? The only sad part of our visit...no pictures allowed inside. So sad! We spent 2 hours exploring the home, then moved further onto the estate to the winery. We did a wine tasting and left with two bottles of yummy wine! We were going to stay for lunch but all of the restaurants had incredibly long waits. We decided to get back on the road and make the journey home.

About twenty minutes into the trip, we decided we need food! We got off the highway and instead of a restaurant we saw a winery. The South Creek Winery is in middle of nowhere North Carolina, so tiny and so cute. They are dry Bordeaux style wines...not my favorite, but I liked this place! I love that the grapes were right on the property. Of course, we left with a bottle of their Chardonnay!

We got back on the road to find something to eat...and we ran into another winery! The Lake James Cellar Winery was a cute little place. We tried some sweet and dry wines, and ended up buying their watermelon wine. It was so yummy, the perfect picnic wine!

Finally, we got some food into us! We went to Judge's Riverside Restaurant. I love trying local places, it's rare that you are disappointed! We had the awesome fried pickles and I got probably the biggest thing they offer: half rack of ribs, beans, potato salad and hush puppies. I'll be stepping up the Zumba routines this week to work it all off!

We had such a fun time in Asheville! I wish we could have spent more time out there exploring and trying all the yummy food they offer! We will definitely be making the trip back out there someday!

And as a sidenote to the anonymous commenters who like when  I post about alcohol - a tasting is not an entire glass, it's a sip. So, with all the tastings we did...I maybe had a glass of wine. And it's totally ridiculous that I have to explain myself but you people really need to get lives.

235th USMC Birthday Ball

Last night I celebrated a great birthday. Two hundred and thirty five years of a great tradition and an even better Corps. The ceremony was perfect, everyone looked great, and for 700 Marines, spouses and guests it was a chance to let down our hair and celebrate.

I never celebrate my birthday for just a day, so it was only fair that we made this birthday extra special by making a weekend out of it. Me, Danny, Natosha and Dan spent the weekend in Myrtle Beach. To celebrate the USMC birthday, we put on some pretty fancy dresses and went to our first ball!

I'm not that tan, darker skin setting on my camera was apparently on!

The ball started with cocktail hour, we got our professional pictures taken, mingled and took advantage of the free kegs. We spent $5 total at the ball on alcohol, which I was very excited about! Soon we were called in the ball room and took our seats for the ceremony. I was expecting it to be much more epic, but it was still great. We watched a video message from the commandant and listened to our (kinda boring) guest speaker. Cake was presented to the oldest and youngest Marines...and then it was time for the fun to start!

Dinner came out, seriously one at a time. Natosha had the chicken, the guys had amazing looking prime rib, and I had the vegetarian dish...mushroom raviolis. Apparently people think vegetarians are not very hungry people...I had a grand total of four raviolis on my plate! I literally looked at Natosha and said "um...where's my dinner?"

After dinner the dance floor opened up! We only danced to one song....The Cupids Shuffle. And the most amazing part of the night was seeing SgtMaj dancing with everyone. Seriously, the man never smiles...and I've been told to never look him in the eye...but seeing him dance made me want to give him a big 'ol bear hug!

As the night started to wrap up, of course we took the obligatory group photos!

The ball was a lot of fun, it just wasn't as...ball-ish...as I thought it would be. Apparently I've just watched Cinderella one too many times! And speaking of Cinderella, I can totally understand how she lost a shoe...my feet were killing me by the end of the night! I was told to expect some pretty skanky dresses, but I seriously thought everyone looked so classy last night. I saw all kind of dresses, short and long, and all different colors. So, now I know for next year...don't spend as much money and wear super comfy shoes!

I have never been more proud to be part of this great family. I will say this, Marines certainly do know how to throw a great party! In the words of Eleanor Roosevelt  “The Marines I have seen around the world have the cleanest bodies, the filthiest minds, the highest morale, and the lowest morals of any group of animals I have ever seen. Thank God for the United States Marine Corps!”

Happy Birthday Marines!

"But You Only Turn 28 Once!"

Today is Danny's 28th birthday! I've been trying to plan something special. But whenever I ask him what he wants to do his response is "it's just a birthday." My response? "You only turn 28 once!"

To me, a birthday isn't just another day. Hell, I celebrate my birthday for a full week! At home I always had a birthday with family, school friends, Boston friends, work friends...I would have an entire itinerary for the week! I try to do it for other people, especially my husband..but most people apparently don't like celebrating!

So what did I end up planning? It was still up in the air until this morning! A) Drive to Myrtle Beach and go to the Dixie Stampede. Hey he's wanted to go all summer! B) Make prime rib and lobster at home.

We went with B!

Danny spent the morning playing Call of Duty (shocking, I know) while wearing his brand new shirt, a present from Miley! I'm pretty sure he has this shirt in every color.

Then we headed out for the day. We got some movies, went to the mall for a bit, got the Sunday haircut (oh wait, long weekends through me off...it's Tuesday!) and went to lunch. There are so many Mexican restaurants in Jacksonville, this time we ended up at Mi Cabana. It was better than most of the other places in Jville! We drank before noon, but hey...a day off is like vacation, right?

We headed to the store to get some lobster. Lobster is a strange thing down south. Where do you even get it down here..from a stranger on the side of the road? Yea, I don't trust people that much! So we went to Food Lion and found out that they only have lobster tails. $4.99 for one. Better than nothing...I guess.

We hungout with Miley for the rest of the day. We haven't had a weekend to do nothing in a long time. And for once, I'm actually okay with doing nothing!

Dinner wasn't as great as I wanted it to be. I wanted a whole lobster! But instead we ended up with a dinky tail, that doesn't have $5 worth of meat in it! Danny liked it, so really...that's all that matters. And we had Omaha Steak prime rib and a bottle of wine. I think that's a pretty great birthday!

We're going to make some chocolate chip cookies and watch a movie in a bit. But for now, I'm finishing up my wine and watching Danny check for IP's on his uniforms. Until yesterday I didn't know what that meant!

Happy birthday handsome, I love you more than you know.

Thank You, Thank You, Thank You!

My good friend Katie sent me the best birthday present. First, she is feeding my coffee addiction with six different kinds of coffee. And most importantly she gave me the book Married to the Military. I am only on page ten and it is already the most informative book I have ever read. I feel like I should get out the highlighter and make myself little reminders! This book might prove to be the most helpful wedding planner for me!

Some Pictures

Me, Danny and Lois at one of our many wine nights

 Me, Danny and Kaleb on Thanksgiving

Celebrating my 24th birthday with Staci and Kristen!

The Ohio Update

First, lets just say...never start a roadtrip on a holiday during rush hour..especially when there are a billion college campus in your area. Our eight hour trip turned into a almost a twelve hour trip.

Danny's family was so excited to see him, he hasn't been home in a year! We had Thanksgiving dinner at his grandmothers house with his Mom's family. Danny made the big "we're getting married" annoucement, which I thought went well. But apparently his grandmother wasn't too please...but Danny's Mom and step-Dad stuck up for us. I love those two. Atleast we have people on our side! Later that day we went to Danny's Dad's side of the family.

It has always been tradition in my family to see a movie on Thanksgiving night...I was so excited when we decided to take Kaleb to see a movie!

I didn't take part in Black Friday events, large crowds in stores is NOT my thing. HOWEVER! Danny's Mom and step-Dad picked up some awesome things for me and Danny! A flatware set, a quesedilia maker, electric skillet, spice rack and some other stuff! SO EXCITING!

Friday night we were supposed to get drinks with Danny's sister and some friends. But I KNEW it wouldn't happen. I knew Kaleb wouldn't want his Daddy to leave. Danny was a little dissapointed that he didn't get to go out, but it ended up being a good night. I loved seeing the two of them together and having fun.  Danny is a great Dad.

I made breakfast Saturday morning,  chocolate chip pancakes...Kaleb said he has never had them before! Which just showed me that Ohio really is under a giant rock! Then we took his to see Santa..such a cute picture!

Saturday night we went out with Danny's Dad for dinner. It literally took Danny the entire trip before he told his Dad we were getting married. I was a little upset that he didn't want to tell him, he alluded that his Dad "wouldn't even care." It hurt a little that someone might not care about something this big. But his Dad took it well, and didn't have anything negative to say. He was all over Danny though about the security clearance/graduation thing. It was very strange.

We left Ohio late Saturday night so we wouldn't hit traffic...a good idea because his Mom was in traffic ALL day yesterday.

Yesterday we were laaaaazy all day. And then went out for sushi to celebrate my birthday. I'm sad I won't get to see him for my birthday..or for the rest of the month for that matter. I won't see him again until December 23. The longest we have been apart. But atleast I'll see him for Christmas AND New Years!

Tomorrow is my 24th birthday and I'm flying home to Boston! SO SO excited!

BOSTON!

First, I hope everyone had an amazing Labor Day weekend! I got to take Danny home to Boston with me for the very first time. We had SUCH a good time! He was very nervous to meet my parents, but I think within minutes of meeting them all fears went out the window.


Friday night we went out to eat and for some scorpion bowls with my Mom, sister and a whole bunch of my friends. We ate a lot and had a lot of laughs. It was a good chance for everyone to get to meet him. It was the first time I have seen my friends since my going away party in May, I was SO SO SO excited to see them. I seriously think I have the most amazing friends EVER.

After, we all headed into Boston to see my favorite 80's band. I was so excited for Danny to experience one of my favorite places. We danced and drank and had a great time. Even after the bar closed we hungout on the streets (which I have no memory of, thank God for pictures!) I don't even know what time we got home, I think it was around 3:30.







Saturday we headed up to my lake house in Maine. We had SUCH a good weekend. He hungout with my Dad, cousin and his friend..did all the "guy" stuff, horseshoes and some weird games my cousin brought with him. I knew he was in when I heard them all trash talking each other. I'll be honest, he's the first guy I've brought home who can handle it...and give it right back! We spent time out on the boat, had a lobster bake on the beach and had a great time! I love that he got along with everyone!










Sunday we celebrated Danny's 27th birthday. We had a turkey dinner on the beach, I think Danny has decided my Mom is the best cook ever. We got a card that everyone signed, the guys even put little inside jokes in it from the weekend (Happy 106th Birthday..apparently that was his horrible score when they went golfing!) We got an awesome cake, but the 'copter is all wrong, but HEY! I tried!! And he loved it!

The weekend went by WAY too fast. We are hoping we can get up there again soon..maybe Columbus day weekend?

All my friends LOVED him, I got so many texts saying I have found a great guy, not that I didn't already know that! My parents thought he was awesome, and my Mom thanked him for putting a smile on my face!

Yesterday we went out to dinner for his birthday. We ate WAY too much (as the official end of our fat-ass summer!) I love spending time with him..we only have a few more months until he finds out where he will be stationed. I'm reallyyyyyy hoping its east coast!!! CROSS YOUR FINGERS!!!