Rewind

Before we get too caught up in the hustle bustle of the movers next week (that’s right, we’re practically spending our Christmas shipping out all our stuff!)…Here’s a recap to show you some pics from our time in Cali. We were definitely eager to leave the cold weather behind in VA – as you can see, we’ve been dealing with light dusts of snow from time to time.
We were fortunate to spend Thanksgiving with our family at Danno’s parents house…and indulge in the delicious lumpia, pancit, turkey, roast, apple pie and other holiday goodies enough to put you in a wonderful food coma for the day. It was also the chance for us to announce that we’re expecting a baby, so it was a great time to be together and see the surprise and joy on their faces!

With the future grandparents and great grandma.

It was nice to see Emo again!
After spending time with our Emo in the I.E., we headed off to stay in Irvine for the remaining days to visit our friends. Finally we got the all-u-can eat Korean BBQ we’ve been craving for so long!...not to mention a stop at Yogurtland, first time trying 85°C Bakery Café, and we got our dose of playing Rock Band! Best of all we got to spend precious time with some of our closest buddies.
Thanks Howie for letting us stay in your new home!

While in the O.C. we also had the opportunity to attend Danno’s godson’s 1st Birthday in Long Beach. Again perfect timing, so we could spend time with the growing boy and his wonderful parents. Ana Lisa was preggers with him during our wedding, and just gave birth to her second son this week! She’s amazing! It will be great to go back to meet their newest addition to the family.
We loved the time we had in Cali, even though it was very brief. We’re happy to know we’ll be returning once again before we leave to Oki. I’ll be staying in CA while Danno finishes up in Rhode Island. We expect him to come out to CA one last time once he graduates, then off to Oki we go!

Great News!

We’ve had the greatest time this past week…having spent a wonderful time with family and friends in CA during Thanksgiving, and Danno graduated TBS yesterday! Yay! We also got confirmation that we will not have to leave to Okinawa until April..phew!...which means a little more time to pack up our VA home before Danno leaves to NJS, and that we’ll get the chance to see everyone again before we go. We’ll be catching up with a couple of posts to recap and share photos of our good times this past week, but for now we’d just like to announce that we’ll be bringing along some extra “baggage” to Okinawa since I’m confirmed to be 2 months pregnant. We are so excited and looking forward to both adventures of relocating overseas and becoming parents for the first time!

Here’s some pics of the first sonogram. Since we don’t know if our baby is a he or she, we call it our “ko kuma” (pronounced koGUMA) which means “bear cub” in Japanese. Seemed fitting considering we call each other Mama Bear and Papa Bear. Haha. Anyways, it was so nice to hear the strong heartbeat and see that something is actually growing inside of me! It’s truly a blessing. We’ll keep you updated as time progresses. For now my greatest challenge is trying to gain weight! The doc told me I have to at least gain 30 lbs! I’m sure returning to CA will help me accomplish that.

Semper Gumby

The Marine Corps wife embraces “Semper Gumby” just as the men live by their motto “Semper Fidelis.” Our Marines “Always Faithful” to their duty, means the wives’ duty is to be “Always Flexible.” In the past few weeks since we received confirmation of our move to Okinawa, we’ve been scrambling to secure the moving dates…undergo medical and dental screenings…waiting for area clearance…applying for official passports…appointments after appointments. Having gone back n forth on different moving scenarios, we’ve already adjusted moving dates several times. We finally thought we had it all figured out, with shipments scheduled next week, housing applications ready to go, and ready to request our flights. Ah yes, now we that we’ve hurried, we wait…again.

After contacting his command in Oki, turns out they would rather have Danno arrive after NJS. This is actually what we were pushing to do from the start, but was unsuccessful. Some reason everything was set out for us to report prior to NJS, which meant we leave right away in mid Dec. We now have both Oki and Quantico working on it, and it seems promising that we will know the final verdict before we leave to Thanksgiving. So we are already thankful for the possibility of pushing back the move dates. And it will feel good to know if we will have the chance to see you California faces again after this weekend, or if we should actually be saying our last goodbyes! Semper Gumby everyone.

USMC Birthday Ball

Last Saturday we had a great time attending our first USMC Birthday Ball, celebrating their 233rd year as of November 10, 1775. Events are held everywhere. Our ball was quite large (compared to others which our friends had attended) with over 800 Marine officers and their dates filling up 2 entire ballrooms of the Richmond Marriott. Luckily since Dan’s company is the next graduating class, we were in the main ballroom where the stage was set, rather than the lower level where people had to watch a projection screen of what was happening!

After cocktail hour of mingling and taking “prom-like” photos, the ceremony begins with a procession of various traditions and songs played live by the Marine Corps band…from the presentation of Colors (the flags), National anthem and Marine Corp hymns, special readings, messages from the Commandant and Guest of Honor, and even a cake ceremony where the first three pieces of the cake are given to the Guest of Honor, and the oldest and youngest Marine present. The air was saturated with the love and pride of the Marine Corps family and its history. After the ceremony and lots of standing, the rest plays out as usual...eating, dancing, enjoying time with friends. Btw, the food was excellent...huge filet mignons! (good thing, since the ball tickets were not cheap. hehe) It was a fun time for us wives to dress up formal and accompany our great men in uniform. Here’s a few pics from the night. None are of the ceremony since I doubt that would be appropriate, but at least you can see us with our friends!

Good to go..

Our Quantico neighbors and soon to be Okinawa neighbors.
Precious and I spend lots of time hanging out when the guys are gone...catching up on all the girly TV shows and movies, and eating the Filipino food Danno and Mike wouldn't care to eat!Our carpool. His date flew in from Texas. There were lots of wives and girlfriends who flew in just to attend the event. Dannos fireteam. - 2nd Squad 1st FireteamGroup shot of the all Filipinos in the company, well minus one. haha. but yes this is just about ALL of them.
My other good friend Lindsey whom I spend lots of time hanging out with her and her two little kids (ages 1 and 3). I've never been around kids so much until now! They're such good kids. Dan does great with them too. Our church buddy and his girl.
Jay is the regular weekend guest in our house who we consider part of the fam.
Jay and Katy are self taught dancers and competitors. They grabbed everyone's attention during the Tango! We helped him put together a free a ballroom dance class a couple weeks before the ball. So thanks to him we know a bit more than just our first wedding dance. hehe. Good Times!

Hurry up and Wait

In the military, “hurry up and wait” becomes a way of life. Whether it’s “hurry up and get married right before your husband is deployed, then find yourself waiting for his return”…or “wake up at zero-dark-thirty for on deck time, then find yourself sitting in the barracks for hours waiting for word on what to do next.” We all encounter this pattern one way or another.

Earlier this week, we already had to give TMO (Travel Management Office) all the dates for our various shipments and storage prior to leaving the states for Okinawa. In our case, there are at least 6 different shipments and storage types that we have to make arrangements for. This is not including getting ourselves to our destinations, nor the planning involved to prepare Emo to come along with us (that is a whole separate mission in itself!) Meanwhile, Danno’s official orders containing all the dates of when he is authorized to detach, move, travel, report…have not even been finalized yet. We have to wait for these critical dates before we can start planning even more.

So planning thus far sounds more like “if this, then that” and researching everything for each scenario eventually becomes tiresome. It’s a tough thing to simply wait, knowing how many arrangements we have ahead of us. The most we can do, is do as much as possible until we are given further direction. So here we are, waiting (anxiously)…being stretched to really trust God and His timing at every step.

One thing is for sure…we need to get rid of lots of stuff! This Saturday our church is having a yard sale that we are eager to participate in. I get to be salesperson since Danno has duty and won’t be finished in time to join me. Oh well, it’s gotta be done so let’s hope I sell off a lot of things!

First Duty Station!!!

Well we’ve officially got word where we go next after Dan finishes school in Rhode Island… (drumroll) …Okinawa, Japan! Japan was our first choice so we’re super excited to have this chance to go overseas. We’ll be stationed there for a whole 3 YEARS so it will certainly be a new adventure. We’re sure to come back with lots of cool Japanese merchandise, and God willing, maybe even a kid or two! Hehe.

Another great thing is that our good friends, who live down the street from us, are also getting stationed there as well! It’s a huge blessing to have people we know travel to the same, unfamiliar place. My friend and I will be planning and researching A LOT in the next few weeks…and I’ll attempt to reduce our belongings to very little since we’re restricted to only 25% of the weight allowance you typically get when moving within the US. Anyone need to buy a refrigerator?! Haha.

We’re definitely glad we will be able to spend some time with our close friends and family when we visit CA this Thanksgiving, since its unpredictable when we will visit again before we report to Oki. We’ll try to say our farewells at least one more time before we leave, but it’s really hard to say at this point. In the meantime, we’ll keep you informed as we figure everything out. For now all we know is that we’re gonna end up in Oki!

After FEX

Anything beats FEXs, diggin trenches, sleeping out in the mud and freezing cold, getting gassed in the early dawn, and a 15 mile hump at 0300...Dan was happy to be home and enjoy a nice long 72...

It felt like a real weekend for once…plenty of time to rest, shop for the ball, celebrate our friends birthday, attend our church’s family potluck, make 100 lumpias for the potluck, catch up on tv shows and movies, and finally stopped by the Marine Corps Museum for the first time! It’s a beautiful place.
We’ll definitely be making another trip to the museum since we only checked out the first floor. History was my least favorite subject in school, but I know, it’s far too important to avoid learning it. Of course I had the most fun at the interactive displays. In the “Making of a Marine” portion, you get a taste of getting yelled at by a drill sergeant, lifting their heavy packs (which essentially I could try to do at home with Danno’s stuff anyway), decision making for various obstacle courses and missions… I was very impressed to see a bunch of artwork and paintings made by Colonels and Lts. They were really good artists! It was also cool to see the “Big Dog” robot that’s in development. I never heard of it before. Click the photo and you can watch the video of it working. It's responsiveness to various terrains, like walking on ice , rubble, and even getting pushed around, is pretty crazy. The technology is amazing, though its buzzing noise is annoying so you may want to lower or mute the volume while you watch.

Silly Pets

After chowin down a house centipede, feeding session comes to a sudden halt when Turbo can’t seem to locate his next victim....Emo had a talent of balancing things on his head and nose...from tennis balls, to dog biscuits, plastic cups...remote controls...

Last September Emo reached 33 (dog) years old (his 5th birthday)! I got him free as a puppy from my bro's friend around the same time our small group started, so Emo's been around since Dan and I first met. We both really miss the guy. He’s so smart and talented. Aside from balancing things on his head, he can give "hi-fives" (shake), make a sad face on cue, stand, spin, will wait at an open door and won't step inside the house unless invited... At the same time he’s such a goofball and always makes us laugh with his funny faces and underbite, loud snoring, and occasional mischief.

If we can’t take him with us to your first duty station, we hope he gets in a good home. It’s difficult to find someone willing to take him considering he has Addison’s Disease…which very much treatable with a monthly shot, yet can be pricey. It’s the reason why the Irvine Animal Shelter wouldn’t take him. Boo. He toughed through a lot before we left Cali...numerous trips to the vet when we were discovering his condition, trip to the emergency room, hospitalized on I.V. for a few days, in kennel obedience boot camp for a month. It's hard to give him up after all we've invested in him, but we're glad he's now healthier and well trained, and we’ll keep trying to find someone who would want to take care of him. Meanwhile he’s at home in Highland with Puma (my brother's first Pit Bull). Here are just some (of many) favorite pics of Emo!

Sayonara Land Nav

Hallelujah Dan passed Land Nav!!! He’d surely tell you it has been a very humbling experience for him out there in the field…just him, God, his mapping tools and a list of coordinates for scattered boxes hidden across miles and miles of Quantico’s wilderness. As a graduation requirement, it was essential that he passed one more test. Sure enough, after many prayers, many early mornings to early evenings, many Saturdays..his perseverance and hard work resulted in victory (with a lot God’s help of course)! We're so happy to have our Saturdays back..there's so much we're looking forward to.

To celebrate, tonight we finally went to try the oh so popular “Five Guys” out here…which closely resembles In-N-Out and a bit of Fatburger. You don't see the word "double" on the menu since their regular sized burgers come standard with double patties and their "little" burgers come with just one. Their fat fries come in medium or large drink cups...we noticed they were ridiculously suuper duper salty, but little did we know that the technique is to empty them out into the greesy brown paper bag (which distributes the salt), tear it open, then enjoy. Ah, good to know. Still does not compare to the wonderful In-N-Out we love back home, but it was quite delicious being that we haven’t had fast food in a very long time. Dan's got a 15 mile hump on Friday so he'll burn this meal off in no time!

October Hump

We've begun to “X” out the days of the calendar as the end of TBS is approaching fast. September breezed by, and Danno had a great time as they got to work with all kinds of crazy weaponry like grenade launchers, machine guns, and C4! Imagine the amount of booms I’ve been hearing from home. Haha.

October is the start of a very busy month. Looking at the event calendar, the month is packed with the most late nights, early mornings, and overnight FEX (Field exercises). We’ve been so fortunate that so far the longest duration he has been gone will be just this week…5 days straight. We actually expected to see each other a lot less than we have, so we’re thankful I came out here with him! Any amount of time together is better than no time.

Soon we should find out our duty station assignments so we will know where we head after NJS in Rhode Island! Our first choice is Overseas. It’s possible the JAGS will “swap” duty assignments with each other since everyone practically wants to go different places. We hope somewhere in the mix is Japan so we can go there! We’ll see where God wants to take us next year…

Once he gets through the October, it’s pretty much all downhill from there. November he’ll have two “96’s” and we have the USMC Birthday Ball (a huge formal event), and graduation will be the right around the corner at the beginning of December! Wow there’s a lot to look forward to. Please continue to pray for Dan’s safety and that he successfully passes all graduation requirements as he approaches this challenging month. We’re almost done here…woohoo!

Wild Life continued…

Since the old post about the Virginia “wild life” we had several other encounters that I haven’t got around to blogging about. One being that we have a new pet. He’s a baby box turtle we found back when my mom was in town. While we were having our backyard lawn cut by the maintenance men, out comes this little guy onto our patio. We’ve kept him ever since and housed him in a little critter container. He loves eating caterpillars, slugs, worms, grasshoppers, roly pollies…and of course turtle food when there’s no live insects to feed him. So everyone, meet “Turbo”...

Anyways our most recent encounter tops them all. About a month ago I noticed an interesting white strip of something on the carpet, right by the base of our sliding door…
…there’s only one thing I know that sheds its skin inside out like that – snake! It was really tiny and not that long, but still, the thought of a baby snake inside the house…eh, no thanks. After emailing the photo to a local exterminator, they confirmed it appeared to be a snake’s skin. Splendid! Ok, so out here home insurance does not cover dealing with pests (unlike Irvine where it even covers ant infestations!) So there’s been a chance we probably have a baby snake lingering around the house…let's hope not, it'd be tiny and we just don’t think about it much!

Well last Sunday after finishing up lunch, I decide to take a look at the patio to find insects to feed Turbo. Just as I open the sliding door, I notice something wiggling right inside the tracks by my feet. I immediately realized it’s a snake! I quickly shut the sliding door – not slammed, because I’d rather not have guts everywhere. After “eewies” and “oh my goshes” Danno came over and slowly opened the door to see it crammed in the tracks still. So we relocate Turbo to another container…get some tongs, and Danno catches the snake... Phew!! We researched and found it was a Southern Ringneck Snake. This one is about 10” long so it an adult. Which makes me wonder, where's that baby one that shed its skin?..hmm. Anyways, there’s no way we’d keep the snake over Turbo, so eventually we let it go. Here's the guy that spooked me...
I think I handled myself well and kept the eeks to very low decibels, though I hope nothing else tops that. Especially while Danno is in the field this whole week...

96 Getaway

August was a busy month and Danno has reached the halfway point through TBS. Thanks to Labor Day and the “96” (as in 96 hours = 4 day holiday weekend for Danno), we finally had the chance to celebrate our 1 Year Anniversary. It was such a great getaway for the both of us!

We escaped the rainy Quantico weather to the sunny Homestead mountain resort 4 hrs away in Hot Springs, VA. Even the drive through the picture perfect countryside and wineries was beautiful in itself. The resort was huge and just an amazing place with everything you can think of…bowling alley, movie theater, gun range, fly fishing, falconry, tons of lounge/reading/gaming areas and afternoon teas! During the winter it’s even a ski/snowboarding resort. The brunch buffet was soo delicious with fresh-made everything omelets to chocolate chip pancakes! Overall it was exactly what we needed for a suuuper relaxing weekend together. So far its our favorite place since we've been out here. It was the first time we could completely rest and enjoy each other’s company without thinking about house chores and land nav! Here's a lil tour…

Man Points

You all might be wondering what was the gift I greatly anticipated to give Danno…two words – “Man Points!” Haha. While my secret operations in the background were taking longer than expected (which is how his original birthday gift carried over to become his promotion gift as well!), our wonderful friends from small group pitched in for Dan’s other birthday gifts, which of course kept him nicely distracted, never expecting more. Finally, just in time for the weekend before his promotion, everything fell beautifully in place. No need to wrap it. Its signature “reload” sound was good enough! He turned around in disbelief that I actually bought him a shotgun!

Danno = very happy.

His “best gift ever”
Intruders beware! Danno certainly doesn't have to worry about me if he’s ever away!

I knew he’s been wanting one…I casually mentioned the idea as his birthday gift, and immediately his face lit up with pure excitement just at the thought. Boy, I knew he really wanted one. Eventually, I logically talked him out of needing one right now, he accepted it, and that’s actually when I began the plans to buy one. Muahaha!

We were suuper fortunate that our close friend is so knowledgeable (being that he’s been shooting guns and hunting in Nebraska since 8yrs old), so of course I had to take advantage of having him here with us to aid me with choosing the right gun and ordering the right parts…and especially with modifying it just right.

J hard at work…modifying it took a couple hours. Thanks J!
Although, guys love guns so much, he thanked me for just being able to work on it!

Home defense. Fun. Hunting. Man points. Yay.

Cheers to 1 Year!

We certainly can't take for granted that everything on our wedding day went so smoothly, not to mention the fact that we were even able to have our wedding on the day we planned! I've come across so many military couples who have to change their wedding date last minute (I can't imagine the stress involved), who can't even secure a date since there's no way to predict where their husband will be that far ahead in the future, or whose only option is to get married in court by the JOP and wait patiently to have the wedding of their dreams sometime in the future. But one thing we all share...the determination to marry the one we love, despite the present (and inevitable future) challenges of "marrying to the military!"

So being that the 1 Year Anniversary is a "Paper" anniversary, I put together this little book of photos to be a part of our coffee table collection, rather than having them sitting on my computer. EVERYTHING was great about our honeymoon, some of the highlights being...

- Great weather and white sand beaches.
- Unique dining experiences such as a private sunset dinner on the beach, and eating at a restaurant where our table was right in the water!(We could hear the barracudas splashing in the distance)
- Jeep adventures exploring the entire island - lighthouses...rock formations...ruins...the natural bridge along the coast - basically it was nice not being stuck to a tour.
- Sunset cruise on a sail boat
- Snorkeling trip...one of our favorite spot was snorkeling at a real shipwreck. That was crazy!
- Awesome honeymoon resort. Private, relaxing, super service...and no kids!

Here's a glimpse. Click on the image below and you can browse through the book.

Happy Days Ahead...

There's lots to look forward to this upcoming week...

............Tomorrow............
Danno returns from the field!
The whole week felt so slow without hubby home.

............Tomorrow............
My mom is flying in from CA!

............Aug 11............
is our 1 year anniversary!

............Aug 11............
is also when Danno is getting promoted to 1st Lt!
I think there will be a ceremony that day...

............Aug 11............
is also when Danno gains the role of Platoon Commander.
(although actually that's not necessarily a fun thing for Dan since it involves tons of work, but cool timing though, promotion & responsibilities to go with it. Will be a good learning experience for him. )

............Tues............
we attend an event where we get to talk to other JAGs and get more information about everything.
Should be very helpful

............Wed............
we should be getting our new sofa and loveseat set.
(It's a complicated story, but basically the first ones we got were two different shades, so they took them back and we're getting new ones. It's been a frustrating month-long experience dealing with customer service and everything in between...)

............One thing I anticipate the most this upcoming week............
finally giving Danno his promotion gift.
(Those of you who know, don't tell him! hehe. He prolly doesnt even expect to get anything, so don't even ask him "what did you get?!" ...I hope he doesnt read this before then!)

Wild Life

Danno is out in the field frolicking with the wild this entire week. The longest duration yet. During FEX (field exercises) this means I get to kill time...watching girl flicks he wouldn't care to watch...hanging out with the other spouses...organizing the house...preparing for my moms arrival this Friday! yay!..and of course blogging...

One aspect of moving out here, away from the sparkling clean Irvine “movie set” and venturing into the rough rugged woods of Virginia, means encountering unexpected visitors everywhere we go. As in, live creatures of all kinds, crossing your path and worst of all invading your living space! We couldn’t help but keep track of all the animals and insects we've come across since living here. There always seems to be something new and peculiar. Its both cool (when you spot these something looking out from your car window)… and NOT! (when its something you come across in the house). Let the list begin…

Deer:
Something you are guaranteed to see tons of when driving on base. Bambi sure does loves it out here…although you can hunt on base so they still need to watch out.

Turtles:
After a rainy night, we were leaving to drive Danno to work at “Dark-thirty”, I nearly stepped on this little guy parked right next to our car. “Snappy” was our first pet…kept him in the recycling bin in the back yard and eventually let him go back into the wild. I wouldn’t know what to feed him anyway. Once we got rid of him, another one came to greet us in the church parking lot…and of course weeks later Danno saw another during land nav. Maybe Snappy sent word to his buddies that we’re cool people.

Beavers:
I didn’t even know what I was looking at when it was crossing the road. Its not every day you see beavers…but seeing two in one day is enough for me to identify them just fine now.

Vulcers:
So I thought these only soar around the vast dry deserts like the movies portray — apparently not. While driving on base, I see something ahead near the sidewalk and think, “Wow those are two really humongous birds on the grass”….”Ew, that’s a bloody mess they’ve got there”…”Wait a second, those are 2 vulcers feasting on a dead carcass” Woah!

Frog:
“Hip Hop” came to visit while we were tidying up the backyard patio. He favored hanging out near the BBQ grill, and eventually decided to skateboard out of there.

Porcupine:
It was a big guy...thats not fur, its spikes! Saw him just before he disappeared into the woods.

Skunks:
Back in the I.E. (Inland Empire) they are scattered everywhere, but dead and stinky on the road. We were driving on a narrow street toward base, all we see is 2 bright white fluffy tails pointing straight at us…caught a quick glimpse as we drive by…and those aren’t black n white cats, we just about missed hitting 2 LIVE skunks. I did notice some sprinkles of moisture on my window and didn’t want to smell it in case we actually did scare them.

Snakes:
Danno has come across a few already during land nav, no surprise being that they are deep in the woods. Here is where you do not want to see a snake...Our neighbor comes to our door, “Just letting you know, last night my husband saw a huge 5ft black snake on our porch, and this morning it was curled up in your front bushes just right there...Oh and you might also want to check your backyard cuz two weeks ago we had a different one in our backyard, and saw it go into yours.” Ah yes, I was wonderfully paranoid exiting our place either direction!

Mice:
Our neighbors had a problem with one recently, and we’re lucky to have one too somewhere in our kitchen! Dan saw it scurry across the kitchen floor once, and the hole in our bag of chips was a sure sign of the little guy rummaging through our pantry. For some reason they like chips?! Now we’ve got everything in storage bins, traps are set, and we’re keeping and eye out, but haven’t caught anything yet.

Insects:
Currently we have the extremely loud sounds of cicadas in the surrounding trees. I never heard of them until Dan identified them. Good thing we dont sleep with the windows open, cuz they are very noisy all night long. Other encounters...a huge 1” pincher bug crawling out of my laptop...a spider with a metallic gold butt (seriously, it was shiny metallic)...tons of moths, some even the size of my palm...a huge centipede looking thing crawling on our ceiling (I’ve never seen anything like it and still don’t know what it was)…and I must say the only insect I’ve been happy to see are fireflies! Those are very cool to see at night. Our most recent visitor was a wasp in the house! Thank goodness for vacuum cleaners. If we don’t have the courage to smash it, we suck it up! So of course when it comes to emptying the vacuum..I leave that up to Dan!

Happy Birthday Quantico Style

Being apart during birthdays means having to get creative with gift giving. I must say, Danno is an expert at this, which I learned during our courtship while he was away in Law School in Hawaii. (His gift giving tactics is another story!) In 2006, his birthday landed when he was out in Quantico enduring crazy OCS (Officer Candidate School)...which of course limited the gift options since sending packages always ran the risk of drawing the wrong kind of attention to them, so I had to be careful. Tons of friends and family helped me send him lots of love. Many of you may remember when I gathered emailed birthday wishes and tons of individual birthday cards to send him all at once. It was so unexpected and it totally brightened up his day (well as much as a day in OCS can possibly be)! In addition he got birthday coupons showing his actual birthday gifts and the birthday dinner he could look forward to when he returned, and then of course a photo of myself with my truck and our dog Emo, (which was actually the only thing he asked for.)

Last year, he was done with taking the Bar exam and our big day was around the corner! I must say, it worked out that I secretly managed to get a great deal on a Hummer rental weeks before the wedding because it became part of his birthday gift. I loved his face when I pulled up in it to pick him up for his birthday dinner (he would’ve been satisfied with just the dinner of course). But come on, I definitely couldn’t resist giving him a Hummer for his birthday!

Apart from only the necessities, Danno never asks for much, and it’s never the dollar value of anything that makes a great gift to him. He keeps life simple and knows he can live off very little. A reminder of what he values and love, a memorable experience, even to just know that he’s loved and cared for, will suffice. I believe he always deserves so much more than what he ever asks…for all his hard work and accomplishments that he is always so humble about…for being the honorable man/husband that I love and respect...for just being him!

So this year, he’s back in Quantico on his birthday...out in the field as we speak. Clock will strike midnight and I’ll text message him a Happy Birthday. No need to send him packages this time since I'm here in Quantico too (yay!), but squeezing in some sort of birthday plans this year have been a challenge (boo). I’m not sure when he’ll be home tomorrow, so celebrating will have to wait til the weekend once he finishes the week out. Even planning the dinner in an unfamiliar place is tough, and for some reason everyone we talk to out here thinks the Melting Pot is an amaaazing place. (eh, for real?!) His gifts are still arriving, so maybe if they get here I can wrap them in time before he comes home?…eh we’ll see. Beginning tomorrow, I'll be playing it by ear. I know I shouldn’t stress too much. These past months of having time with just the two of us have been great. Quality and quantity time together to relax will be so valuable! Anyway, Happy Birthday Hubby and I’m looking forward to celebrating with you soon!

We See D.C.

It was a successful week of MCMAP a few weeks ago. I even got to learn some moves…so go ahead, try and choke me and see what happens! Haha. They completed their Tan Belt and will continue to work towards the remaining ones as their career progresses.

All the guys were worn out since they all got a fair share of inflicting and taking the beating…very sore neck muscles…arms…legs…bruised elbows… My weak comparison was to that of snowboarding for the first time when muscles you never knew you had ache like crazy. Yes, it’s much worse to get your body pounded, taken down to the ground repeatedly, your limbs twisted and bent for breakage, and getting pegged with pugle sticks (like the giant cutips on American Gladiator). Dan loved it of course.

Nonetheless, they wanted even more exercise so we went along with our church buddy and his friend to explore D.C. Actually, it wasn’t until later that we all realized just how much the day completely tired us out! There’s so much to see there that it’s difficult to decide where to start. Luckily one of the guys came prepared with some of his points of interests, so we focused on a variety of museums – good timing to enjoy AC while it was blazing hot and humid outside! We first stopped off in Chinatown, tried our luck with a random food place – still nothing has compared to places in Cali. Checked out the International Spy Museum, the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, the Capitol building, and ended with the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. A lot of walking, looking, learning, and all was entertaining and good times. Still tons more to explore...especially in museums. Here's a glimpse of the Natural History Museum

...and passing by the Capitol...

Independence Weekend

Dan was granted a nice long 4-day weekend to celebrate July 4th…and it much needed to allow him to catch up on sleep, soak his feet and rest his body! Here’s a few more photos from the field….

Hey look, it’s Danno! That’s a whole lot of officers…with a whole lot of gear!

A view from the "Pitz" They take turns setting up the targets for the guys on the end of the field.

Danno & his BCGs in action. He passed all quals (qualifications) Woohoo!

In addition to resting, we successfully cleared out tons of boxes, making room for a new couch in our living room, which should be delivered next week. We’re very excited. Dan will no longer have to come home to sit in a wobbly dining table chair, and will no longer have to watch TV from the floor with his head propped up on a Bosu ball (Google it if you don’t know what it is). Most of all we look forward to accommodate having friends come over. In Cali we were so used to having our small group lounging at our house…they were over so often, it wasn’t unusual that they just walked in without knocking. (btw, we miss you guys!!) We definitely won’t be leaving our door unlocked out here, but we certainly look forward to having company in our house again.

Anyways, for some 4th of July fireworks, we ventured to D.C., taking the metro to avoid the inevitable traffic and parking madness – good move. We decided to stop at the Iwo Jima Memorial Park to watch the fireworks from there, rather than heading to the National Mall – another good move. It was calm, not too crowded, and a nice view of the Lincoln Memorial, Washington Memorial and the Capitol Building in the distance. But we forgot to bring an umbrella – bad move. Clearly we’re not from the East Coast, always ready for the sudden rainstorms that pass through! At least we packed a blanket, snacks to eat, and put his textbook in plastic baggy – good move!

Sure enough, we toughed out the rain…pouring off and on for a few hours…we were determined to see those fireworks! In the end, we were glad we went. Their show out here looks like a finale the whole time. Non-stop. It was great! Here’s some pics..

My first time to see the Iwo Jima Memorial in person…the rest of D.C. is still yet to be explored!

Keeping dry hours before the show....We're under a tree…that’s near an electric pole..and at one point Dan was talking on a cell phone…yes, we realize that was a bad combination if lightning were to strike.
What a good student...Danno reading while I admire the view.
Claimed our spot on the lawn. No longer dry.
More waiting in the rain.

We’ll leave the firework images to the pros, since our camera does not do justice whatsoever. Here's diff views, from the memorial and from the park.

Up next...MCMAP - Marine Corps Martial Arts Program. Danno getting paid to learn how to fight people a billion different ways. I know he's really gonna enjoy this...