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...

...and heeere's Danno!

Ah yes, and here's Danno on the range (photo taken by the husband of a new friend I hung out with at the mall today). He hasn't even seen this picture yet. As you can see he got issued glasses. They call them BCGs..."Birth Control Glasses!" cuz they are sure going to keep the ladies away! haha! Amidst all the strict rules within the Marine Corps, there's so many funny things as well. Hey, if it helps him shoot on target, I'm all for it! They may look goofy, but whoever is behind those BCGs is being trained to kill.