Where I've Been

Hey Y'all!

Lately life has been pretty busy at our house. We have been in and out of town, purchased my husband a new car, celebrated our one year anniversary, adopted a dog, celebrated both our birthdays, in addition to valuing all our time together. It has been such a blessing to have my husband home again, even though he already has an upcoming deployment scheduled again. The biggest lesson the Marine Corps has taught me is to value each moment I have with my husband and to not take any of our time together for granted.

 In August we went on a cruise, the Navigator of the Seas. We went to Cozumel, Grand Cayman, and Jamaica.

 We were able to make it to the same church we got married in. It was the first time we had been back together since the wedding.

 Celebrating my birthday and his homecoming!

 C's new truck! We traded in the Pontiac and he got a Toyota Tacoma!

 Annabelle's first vet visit.

We adopted a Miniature Australian Shepherd. Her name is Annabelle and she is a ball of energy! Definitely keeps us busy, but she is as sweet as can be.

HOMECOMING!!!

Hello!

I kind of dropped off the map because things got really busy with my husband coming home as well as with my job. Early last Thursday morning my husband returned from deployment after being gone for 198 days! I am so excited to have him back and can't believe this deployment is FINALLY over! Now we can go back to being newlyweds :).

At the last minute I decided to book a photographer to capture our homecoming reunion. I am so glad I did because Rachel Smith of www.rachelsmithphotography.net did a fabulous job! I love looking back and seeing the smiles and excitement on our faces.

 

Weekend Recap!

 

 My weekend started with going to see the movie "The Other Woman" Friday evening. It was definitely a fun, cute movie but not necessarily something you would watch over and over. It had its funny moments, but there were a few moments that were a little awkward or forced, and times when it was "over the top". Overall, it was a fun movie night movie.

Saturday I went to Wilmington, NC with a friend and our first stop was On the Border ( the closest thing to Tex-Mex we have around here). Wilmington is such a fun city and every time I go I just want to move there because they have so many more restaurant and shopping options plus Wrightsillve Beach is right there!

Of course, we made a stop at Trader Joe's before heading back. I wish we had one closer, but at least it's within a doable distance to grocery shop there occasionally.

Normally on Sundays I am not very productive, so I recently decided that this needed to change. After Church and lunch with a friend, I headed over to Home Depot to pick up some things for the yard and look at paint colors. I planted some flowers in one of my flower beds and fertilized the yard and may have possibly narrowed down some color choices for painting. Some rooms will have to wait until my husband comes home, just because I can't move the furniture on my own, but I am eager to get started and feel like I am seeing some improvements in our house. And the highlight of my day was definitely getting an Ocean Water from Sonic. :)

Now I am going to finish off the rest of my weekend by watching the new episodes of Once Upon a Time, Game of Thrones, and Revenge. Hope everyone had a nice weekend!

My "Marine Wife" Experience

 

I thought this would be a fun link up that Mal Smiles and The Samantha Show created since I'm a relatively new military wife, and I'm starting to hear some of the stereotypes more and more. Anyways, I'm Morgan, and I have been a "Marine wife" for almost 7 months. However, I started dating my husband as a high school senior. Even back then he told me he would be joining the Marines and I shrugged it off because I didn't think it would ever really impact me. Well,  I was wrong. Here I am nearly 7  years later and we are married.

He did ROTC at Texas A&M University, where I also went to school, and then commissioned as a 2nd Lt. in May 2012. After that, he went to TBS (The Basic School) and IOC ( Infantry Officer's Course) in Quantico, VA. We got married just before we moved to Jacksonville, NC.

Corps of Cadets days:

After his commissioning:

The one thing I wish people knew about military spouses is that we are really just like everyone else. Many of us don't let our husband's job or rank define who we are. Before my husband deployed, the military didn't really impact my day to day life. Now it does in the sense that my husband is overseas, but that's really the extent of it. We also don't all have kids young. My husband and I are waiting for another few years to enjoy married life before we decide to start a family, but it really annoys me when (even other military couples do this) everyone assumes we will want to start a family ASAP. Granted, being in a town with tons of babies does bring on the baby fever, but we both agree it is best to wait. Plus, I haven't figured out how I can keep my job working full time and be a mother. Until then, I want to enjoy my husband and travel/explore the East coast as much as possible after he returns from deployment!


Have a Happy Thursday!

 

Wedding Wednesday: Engagement Photos

This is my first time doing a Wedding Wednesday! Since I already kind of talked about how my husband proposed in the first post, I thought I would skip that for now and talk about engagement photos!

During our engagement, it was difficult to do a lot of wedding planning with my husband. He was living in Quantico, VA while I was back in Houston, TX. Unfortunately (or fortunately?) for my husband, he missed out on a lot of the wedding planning, so I was determined for us to be able to do engagement photos. I think there is a lot of value in them - forming a relationship with the photographer, getting comfortable in front of the camera, and it's always fun to look back at engagement photos. I told my husband to find one weekend where he would be able to come home so that we could do engagement photos, and then I prayed that whatever weekend he could get home would be open for our wedding photographer. Somehow, it worked out and we were all available on a Saturday morning in April.

I decided that since my husband and I are both Aggies, it would be really neat to take our engagement photos in College Station, where we had spent four years of our relationship. I also figured out that through the athletic facility department I could "book" Kyle Field (the A&M football stadium) for a few hours so that we could take some photos there. We spent quite a bit of time there taking pictures and enjoying how neat it was to be posing for engagement photos on Kyle Field before setting out to hit the other spots on our list. This is where I really realized what an amazing photographer I had, and one of the reasons I am SO glad we decided to figure a way to make engagement photos happen. Since we had spent a while at Kyle Field, I figured we blew most of our time there and might miss out on some other spots, but Leslie (our photographer) kept insisting that we get all the shots we could. In fact, even when it started sprinkling we all took off our shoes and ran across the street to North Gate (the bar district) for the final photos. Then we all went to eat, she loaded our photos, and we got to start the process of narrowing it down.  When it was all said and done, she had driven up from Spring to College Station in a crazy storm, spent more time with us than she initially had planned, and had ran around College Station with us in the rain. This experience told me exactly who Leslie is as a photographer - she's passionate about her job. She loves getting "the shot" and is just an all around fun person to be around.

If anyone in the Houston, Texas area is looking for a photographer, I highly recommend Leslie Cervantez.

Here are some of my favorites (okay, it may be more than some.. it's hard to narrow them down. Leslie just has such a great eye for photos!)

These are on Kyle Field:

The Century  Tree:

The Academic Building:

Administrative Building:

North Gate:

Have a Happy Wednesday!

Linking up for Wedding Wednesday with http://www.lovealwaysnancyj.com/ and http://ncbelleinboots.blogspot.com/

The Frugal Girls' Funfetti M&M Cake Mix Cookies!

I thought I would share this recipe that I saw on Pinterest a while back. I decided to try it out back in November and it is now one of my favorite cookie recipes. It is super easy to make and requires very little prep time. The original recipe can be found here.

Ingredients:

• A box of Pillsbury Funfetti Cake Mix
• 1.5 cups Mini M&M's
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup vegetable or canola oil

Recipe:

Combine cake mix, eggs, and oil in large mixing bowl, and beat well. I actually used my kitchen aid to mix the dough. Then add in the mini M&Ms. Using a cookie dough scoop, I place the rounded balls on a cookie sheet. Bake at approximately 8 minutes at 350 degrees. The original recipe recommends 8-9 minutes, but I usually do 7 and then keep an eye on them. I baked them about 9 minutes once, and the cookies were a little bit burned. I also like a more soft & chewy / less crispy cookie.

This recipe has definitely become my go to recipe for whenever I need a quick dessert. I usually  keep the ingredients on hand in case the craving ever arises. :)

Back in North Carolina! Texas/Easter Recap

I had a great time while visiting in Texas. It's always nice to spend time with family and friends. One of the highlights of the trip was when my parents decided to adopt a kitty! Her name is Jasmine!

I am so excited that I have rubbed off on my parents and they have decided to adopt their own cat. I personally never pictured myself as a kitty mom, but now that I have my Elsa I can't imagine not having a cat!

Most of my trip was spent working, spending quality time laughing with the family, or playing with the new kitty! And... a little bit of shopping! :) But since I had to fly back to North Carolina on Easter day, we celebrated Easter Saturday evening. I was also really excited to get to wear my new Lilly Pulitzer dress that I had gotten on sale. With my husband gone, I don't have too many occasions to dress up, so this was a real treat (this is what your life turns to when your husband is deployed).

We had such a great family dinner at Bob's Steak and Chop House, I only wish Connor could have been there with us! I had the Prime Filet Mignon with the smashed potatoes. It was excellent. The filet was one of the most tender steaks I've had, I almost felt like it melted in my mouth. The smashed potatoes were great too! I was hesitant to try them since I was told it had potato skin in it (and sometimes potato skins doesn't set well with my stomach) but they weren't too noticeable and it was quite yummy. Then we all shared the Brownie Sundae which was a LOT, even for four people.

 

The last time I came back after visiting in Texas it was really hard coming home to an empty house. It was such a blessing to have my cat waiting for me at home, and she was actually excited to see me! I know cats have a reputation of being indifferent, but I could tell she actually missed me. Now she won't let me out of her sight! 

Happy Monday!

Morgan