Refrigerator

Exactly two and a half years ago I started life with my very best friend. It was a beautiful and fun day, but not without it's mishaps. No wedding can be perfect, right? If you weren't there or were sitting too far in the back to really hear what was happening, let me enlighten you.

We got through the first half of our ceremony without a hitch. Then came the vows. Nate's grandfather, sweet and loving as he is, is getting old and not as mentally on top of things as he used to be. So for our vows he says to Nate, "Repeat after me" and then proceeds to start reading the entire paragraph that is our vows. "I, Nathaniel, take you, Jaime, to be my wedded wife. To have and to hold..." It should have been, "I, Nathaniel, take you, Jaime" (pause while Nate repeats), "to be my wedded wife." (pause while Nate repeats), and so on. My dad is sitting in the front row really impressed that Nate's memorized the whole thing. Um, no. So while Nate looks like a deer in the headlights, I lean over to Poppy and say, "Poppy, he's not going to remember all that." To which Poppy replies, drum roll please, "That's alright, we'll just put in on the refrigerator." *Badum-CHI*

Um, did that really just happen...?

In the middle of my wedding ceremony?

My dad is about to pee his pants he thinks it's so funny.

I'm not sure weather to laugh or cry.

It makes me sad not because my wedding wasn't perfect, but because that's supposed to be a special moment where you look into your husband's eyes and promise to love him forever. You hear the words given you and you repeat them with all the love in your heart while lost in the depths of his eyes. At least, that's how I imagined it.

I couldn't exactly stop the entire ceremony to explain to Poppy where he had gone amiss and how to do it correctly. So in an effort to salvage what was supposed to be a special moment, I just turned the paper in Poppy's hands toward Nate so he could read it. Then, turned them toward me so I could read them. Once in a lifetime, fairy tale moment lost.

At any rate, in retrospect, Poppy's response was hilarious. And several times over the past two and half years Dad has commented that something is missing from our refrigerator. Most recently it was directed at the picture I posted on here of the kitchen in our apartment. Apparently, it was missing something. To rectify the problem I got this for Nate and Dad for Christmas.

It's a magnet.

When they opened them we all laughed. Hard. I laughed so hard I cried. And my dad ran to the refrigerator so he could have his up before Nate.

It was a special moment in it's own right ♥

Christmas tree, Christmas tree

Sing to the tune of "Jingle bells, jingle bells". It's short, sweet, and expresses my complete happiness at having an 8 foot real tree in my living room. Oh how I adore Christmas!

And my husband who helped decorate it ;)

Winston-Salem Snow Day

This past weekend Nate and I made the 4 hour trek to Winston-Salem to visit one of my best friends, Cat, and her fiance, Clay. Nate had duty Thursday night so Friday he had an "easy day". So we were able to leave Jacksonville early afternoon to be in Winston early enough for me to make it to Cat's first wedding dress shopping trip! She has honored me by asking me to be a bridesmaid so I was able to try on dresses too. The trip was surprisingly successful. Cat picked out the bridesmaids dresses AND HER WEDDING DRESS! I was so glad I was able to be there :) We spent the night with her and had plans to go tour Wake Forest (where her and Clay both went to school) the next day but our plans changed due to SNOW!!! Since we're not likely to get snow here in Jacksonville, it was a nice surprise. Daisy LOVED it! She was absolutely hilarious to watch. And our plans changed to include playing the Wii, a game of Life, and watching Duke basketball. It was a wonderful time with friends made all the better by the wintery wonderland. And, of course, here's some pictures :)

Cat and Clay

Daisy figuring out this wet cold stuff (real quick - see snowball about to hit her)
Me and Daisy running around

Crazy Daisy

Daisy attacking the snowball in Nate's hand :)

River Court

We made our first trek down to Wilmington this past weekend. Jacksonville isn't exactly a booming metropolis and, while it has most everything you need, some things you just have to drive to Wilmington for. This time it was NY & Co. Everything was 50% off this weekend and I needed some new winter clothes, so to Wilmington we went. We had great success shopping and the shopping center we were at was decorated with "reindeer". We decided to make it a photo op :) We definitely turned a few heads, but the pictures are amusing.



After shopping, we decided to go see the USS North Carolina Battleship. It was dark, but Nate had heard on the radio that they put Christmas lights on it so we decided to go check it out. Definitely not nearly as cool as it sounded and taking a good picture was pretty well impossible. We'll probably go back to monkey around on it sometime, but the location is great because right across the river is downtown Wilmington complete with a Christmas tree and lights!


I wanted to get a picture of the tree and lights so we walked across a grassy area to the edge of the river. Once we were finished taking pictures and walking back to the car I looked to my left and saw something that looked suspiciously like a basketball court with a set of bleachers (which was the give away). Once we were in the car I had Nate shine the headlights on aforementioned suspect area and sure enough, basketball court. Many of you probably think I'm crazy for ranting about some basketball court on the side of a river next to a battleship. But if you've ever watched One Tree Hill (which is filmed in Wilmington), you'd understand my excitement at stumbling across the River Court. All things important on that show happen at the River Court and it was just funny to find it without even trying (yes, at some point my sister and I will drive around and take pictures of all the locations on the show - don't judge).

However, I must say that a scene at the River Court will never be quite the same. I'll forever be seeing the battleship they're filming next too.

Arkansas Thanksgiving

This year for Thanksgiving we took a trip to Little Rock, Arkansas to visit with Nate's family. It was wonderful to have a break from work, moving, and the general craziness that is our life. We stayed with Nate's grandparents (aka Nana and Poppy) who live less than 5 minutes from Nate's uncle. Nate spent some time hunting with Uncle David and playing ultimate frisbee with his cousin Whitney, while I enjoyed catching up with Aunt Vanessa and reading a couple books. Overall it was a very relaxing time of playing board games, going to the movies (twice), watching football, shopping, and eating delicious food. We were very blessed to be there.

Nate took his uniform so we could get some pictures with the family. Here are a few:

The two of us

Us with Nana and Poppy

The whole gang

As an aside, if you could pray for Uncle David, Aunt Vanessa, Whitney, and Cameron (their son who's studying abroad in Austria and will be home in a few days) it would be greatly appreciated. We had a fire going in the fireplace Friday evening and got a call from Aunt Vanessa after she had dropped us off at Nana and Poppy's for the night that their house was on fire. Apparently the chimney caught on fire and the second story of their house was all burnt up. I'm not sure how much from the first floor was salvageable, but the house was a loss. Praise God that no one was hurt. Thank Him that they are resting in Him and leaning not on their own understanding. They truly have their eyes set on eternal things. Pray for wisdom as they work through moving forward, that they and others would grow closer to the Lord, and for continual peace and trust in their Savior.

Hope y'all had a Happy Thanksgiving!

Our First Jacksonville Home

I promised pictures, so welcome to our home :)

In love with my kitchen

Not in love with Puma's favorite place

Looking from the living room toward the kitchen. The door on the left is the pantry, the middle is the front door, and the one on the right is the laundry room.

A grown-up laundry room with big girl washer and dryer :)

Looking into the living room from the kitchen

Our dining room table from the living room

Left side of the living room

Right side of the living room

Not the best picture, but I love seeing the pool lit up every night out our living room window :)

Daisy's favorite past time

Our bathroom has a garden tub! It's huge and I love it :)

Walk-in closet

Our bedroom

Thanks for visiting, come again soon!

Our last days in Quantico

After 6 long months of training, TBS is finally over!!! They finished out with a few field exercises that you can read about in the final newsletter, Warrior Day, and Graduation!

Warrior Day was basically family day for TBS. Nate's brother, Zach, came down for the festivities and we had a blast shooting the M16, SAW, and grenade launcher! I thought the grenade launcher was the coolest :) We also got to watch Nate demonstrate the obstacle course and monkey around in different vehicles the Marines use (helicopters, amphibious assault vehicles, mine resistant ambush protetcted vehicles, etc.). It was a really fun day and a great way to wind up TBS. I can't get the pictures to upload right now, but they're all up on my facebook page so check them out there!

Novemever 4th was the much awaited graduation day!!! After 6 months of late nights, earlier mornings, hours of weekend work, and weeks out in the field we were both happy to see it come to an end. We're going to miss everyone who isn't headed to NC and it'll take some adjusting to be farther from home, but we're glad to be moving on to our next adventure...the "promised land" of the fleet.

After graduation we were crazy with finishing up packing, spending time with our families, enjoying the En-Tice-Ment annual bonfire, and finally loading up the truck and driving to Jacksonville. We arrived at our new apartment safe and sound Monday and have since been getting settled in. Nate checked into his new unit Tuesday and our apartment is pretty much put together. I'll post pictures of our new home soon! Hopefully we'll go exploring this weekend and figure out this new place.

All our love, from NC ♥