Saturday, July 31, 2010
Finished tattoo :)
I'm happy to say that my tattoo is finally finished! I now have my family collage in the form of flowers and I couldnt be happier with the way it turned out! Here are the pictures that my tattoo artist Jake took of the finished project :)
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Amazing...
thats how life has been with Chris being home! Its almost been a 2 weeks since I left the house to pick up my husband from the Del Valle softball fields. Homecoming itself was priceless but earlier that day was a nothing short of chaotic!!
I woke up around 6am to feed the girls and decided to stay awake and clean a little more before getting the oil changed. I finished the kitchen and living room and decided that I would take a break and clean out the cars. When I went to unlock the mustang it wouldnt work so I thought that the stupid remote keys were acting up. They have given us problems in the past so it didnt surprise me that I had to manually unlock the door. I went to start the car to turn the AC on so I wouldnt die out in the heat but it didnt start! Great... my battery is dead! I thought that maybe my neighbors could help. It was still 830am so I decided to wait about an hour before knocking on their door. 10am rolls around (yes i passed out lol) and I knock on their door again! No answer and I am beginning to become desperate! I decide to pop the hood of the car and take a look for myself! As soon as I did I thought to myself "I have no idea why I just did that, its not like I know what the hell I'm looking at!" I called a friend who had recently come home a couple days before to help out but he had formation so that fell through! I called a couple more friends and no one could help :( I decided to go back and try my neighbor again but this time I rang the doorbell. The neighbors daughter answered the door and it looked as though she just rolled out of bed! I felt horrible for waking them up but since they were now up I thought I would ask for help. We borrowed jumper cables from another neighbor and tried jumping the car... no such luck! Then we decided that it was inevitable that I had to buy a new battery. It took us over an hour to get the damn battery out of the mustang!!! I thought that walmart would have a battery for the mustang but they were all sold out. Then my next step was Kragen auto parts... no such luck there either! Ugh, today is just not my day!!! "Wish me luck" is what I'm thinking to myself as my next stop is Auto Zone. I went up to the sales guy and said please tell me that you guys have batteries in stock for '08 Mustang. Ding Ding Ding I have finally found a battery! $100 later I have a new battery! My amazing neighbor helped me put the new one in the car and BAM I have a working car again :) I couldnt be happier!!! By now time has flown by and its already 1pm and I have to jump in the shower and start getting ready. I hurry and get dressed so I have plenty of time to do my hair and while I am blow drying my hair I miss Chris' phone call letting me know that he has landed at March Air Force Base and he is on his way home and also Chris' parents as they knock on my front door. By chance I happen to stop what I'm doing just to check the time and realize that my inlaws are standing out front waiting for me! As I open the door I see that it has started sprinkling... ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!! Only on a day like this would everything be going horribly wrong lol! Now I have to call my photographer to see if it is raining in 29 and the coast is clear! THANK YOU BABY JESUS!!! His dad, step mom and I decided to leave a little early because from the time he called it actally sounded that he would be home on time which for the Marine Corps would be a FIRST!!! We arrived at the softball fields and decided to sit in the car for a little while because it was pretty hot outside. After about 10 minutes we decided to walk onto the field. I decided to call Chris' mom to see where she was at and she was right outside of Adobe Rd. I was really excited for Chris' family to be here and be able to experience the "homecoming feeling." Chris knew nothing about them being here because if he did he would have told them to all stay home but in my opinion with this MEU possibly being his last deployment if he does not reenlist then they deserve a chance to experience this special day too! About 5 minutes after his mom, brother, sister and cousin arrive a sand storm begins...
This picture above doesnt even do that damn sand storm justice!! The sand hurt when it hit the back of my legs!! This stupid storm went on for about 15 minutes and it felt as though it was going on for a half hour!! It stopped roughly 5 minutes before the buses pulled up and as I looked down I noticed that I now had a spray tan and my shorts went from black to brown lol! His family and I decided to take a picture before all of the madness of Marines everywhere started :)
As they started to let our Marines off the bus adrenaline kicked in and now it was time for me to find my husband... The man I had been impatiently waiting on for 27 weeks! All the lonely nights alone, all the problems I had with the dogs and the vet, the stupid mustang, and every other worry I had while Chris was gone didnt matter any more because he was minutes if not seconds away from making me feel better! All it took was that first hug to make everything to go away...
Not even a minute after getting my first hug he had to leave again. REALLY?!? I just got you back and you have to leave? "Babe I have some work I have to take care of, it shouldnt take longer than 15 minutes." I was a little upset but that only lasted about 30 seconds before it went away. He was finally home and my life was finally complete! AMAZING!!!
Below are some pictures of Chris with his family, most of who he hadnt seen since Christmas.
I woke up around 6am to feed the girls and decided to stay awake and clean a little more before getting the oil changed. I finished the kitchen and living room and decided that I would take a break and clean out the cars. When I went to unlock the mustang it wouldnt work so I thought that the stupid remote keys were acting up. They have given us problems in the past so it didnt surprise me that I had to manually unlock the door. I went to start the car to turn the AC on so I wouldnt die out in the heat but it didnt start! Great... my battery is dead! I thought that maybe my neighbors could help. It was still 830am so I decided to wait about an hour before knocking on their door. 10am rolls around (yes i passed out lol) and I knock on their door again! No answer and I am beginning to become desperate! I decide to pop the hood of the car and take a look for myself! As soon as I did I thought to myself "I have no idea why I just did that, its not like I know what the hell I'm looking at!" I called a friend who had recently come home a couple days before to help out but he had formation so that fell through! I called a couple more friends and no one could help :( I decided to go back and try my neighbor again but this time I rang the doorbell. The neighbors daughter answered the door and it looked as though she just rolled out of bed! I felt horrible for waking them up but since they were now up I thought I would ask for help. We borrowed jumper cables from another neighbor and tried jumping the car... no such luck! Then we decided that it was inevitable that I had to buy a new battery. It took us over an hour to get the damn battery out of the mustang!!! I thought that walmart would have a battery for the mustang but they were all sold out. Then my next step was Kragen auto parts... no such luck there either! Ugh, today is just not my day!!! "Wish me luck" is what I'm thinking to myself as my next stop is Auto Zone. I went up to the sales guy and said please tell me that you guys have batteries in stock for '08 Mustang. Ding Ding Ding I have finally found a battery! $100 later I have a new battery! My amazing neighbor helped me put the new one in the car and BAM I have a working car again :) I couldnt be happier!!! By now time has flown by and its already 1pm and I have to jump in the shower and start getting ready. I hurry and get dressed so I have plenty of time to do my hair and while I am blow drying my hair I miss Chris' phone call letting me know that he has landed at March Air Force Base and he is on his way home and also Chris' parents as they knock on my front door. By chance I happen to stop what I'm doing just to check the time and realize that my inlaws are standing out front waiting for me! As I open the door I see that it has started sprinkling... ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!! Only on a day like this would everything be going horribly wrong lol! Now I have to call my photographer to see if it is raining in 29 and the coast is clear! THANK YOU BABY JESUS!!! His dad, step mom and I decided to leave a little early because from the time he called it actally sounded that he would be home on time which for the Marine Corps would be a FIRST!!! We arrived at the softball fields and decided to sit in the car for a little while because it was pretty hot outside. After about 10 minutes we decided to walk onto the field. I decided to call Chris' mom to see where she was at and she was right outside of Adobe Rd. I was really excited for Chris' family to be here and be able to experience the "homecoming feeling." Chris knew nothing about them being here because if he did he would have told them to all stay home but in my opinion with this MEU possibly being his last deployment if he does not reenlist then they deserve a chance to experience this special day too! About 5 minutes after his mom, brother, sister and cousin arrive a sand storm begins...
This picture above doesnt even do that damn sand storm justice!! The sand hurt when it hit the back of my legs!! This stupid storm went on for about 15 minutes and it felt as though it was going on for a half hour!! It stopped roughly 5 minutes before the buses pulled up and as I looked down I noticed that I now had a spray tan and my shorts went from black to brown lol! His family and I decided to take a picture before all of the madness of Marines everywhere started :)
As they started to let our Marines off the bus adrenaline kicked in and now it was time for me to find my husband... The man I had been impatiently waiting on for 27 weeks! All the lonely nights alone, all the problems I had with the dogs and the vet, the stupid mustang, and every other worry I had while Chris was gone didnt matter any more because he was minutes if not seconds away from making me feel better! All it took was that first hug to make everything to go away...
Not even a minute after getting my first hug he had to leave again. REALLY?!? I just got you back and you have to leave? "Babe I have some work I have to take care of, it shouldnt take longer than 15 minutes." I was a little upset but that only lasted about 30 seconds before it went away. He was finally home and my life was finally complete! AMAZING!!!
Below are some pictures of Chris with his family, most of who he hadnt seen since Christmas.
Saturday, July 17, 2010
He's FINALLY Home!!!
After 27 weeks of being gone Chris finally came home :) I had quite the morning and early afternoon that I will write about in a different blog but I just thought I would post some pictures from homecoming!! More to come soon!!!
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
40 hours ...
Is it sad that I have started counting hours?? I'm not sure what is it because I honestly didnt think that I was going to be this emotional but for some reason just the thought of homecoming and being reunited with Chris again continues to make me teary-eyed! Happy tears of course! I mean its not like getting emotional is a bad thing, its just not what I expected! A friend of mine called it a third honeymoon lol! I like to think of it was my 5th "first kiss!" The first of course from when Chris and I started dating, the second after 13 weeks of bootcamp, the third being our wedding day, the fourth was his homecoming from Afghanistan and now this homecoming with be the fifth! Call be crazy but I think its pretty amazing to be able to experience this "first kiss" feeling so many times! I'm sure that tomorrow is going to feel like the longest day ever but I will get through it just like I got through the past 26 weeks! 40 more hours and I will be at home... in his arms :)
Sunday, July 11, 2010
3 more days...
Its hard to believe that the past 6 months have flown by! I remember thinking that this deployment was going to be a walk in the park compared to his tour in Afghanistan back in '08. Boy was I wrong! I guess you can say that their are pros and cons to every deployment, either way your strength as an individual and also as a couple is definitely tested! For example, on this MEU Chris was never put in danger but he also wasnt compensated for being deployed. When Chris was in Afghanistan I talked to him almost every single day because he roomed with a guy who had a satellite phone. On this MEU I was lucky to get a phone call or email a couple times a week. I could list a million reasons why these two deployments were different but in all honesty i dont think it really matters. All that matters is that he is coming home in 3 DAYS and that our relationship has only gotten stronger! Now getting through these 3 days is what is going to be the challenging part. I have to straighten out the house a little bit, thankfully most of the deep cleaning is done! I have to go to the grocery store and get all the little snacks and junk food that Chris likes so that he has something to eat when he gets hungry. I have to give both the girls a bath (that should be interesting lol) so that they smell good when daddy gets home. Oh ya, and I'm scheduled to work the next two days as well. With all of this I'm sure that it will keep me more than busy until he arrives. Still seems unreal that he is coming home... almost too good to be true ya know?!? Well I guess I should get started on my to-do list lol. Wish me luck :) I'm sure the next time I decide to blog that Chris will be home!!!
Friday, July 9, 2010
Tattoos and Homecoming!
On Monday I got another one of my flowers :) I got a 3 violets for my brother Joey. Those flowers represent the month of February. These ones were probably the least painful lol! Only one more to go and then just the background! I'm so excited to be almost done!
Another think i am almost done with is DEPLOYMENT #2!!! I cant even begin to express how happy, excited, and relieved I am knowing that Chris will be home next Thursday! This deployment hasn't necessarily been easier than when he was deployed to Afghanistan back in 2008. It definitely had its challenges, a couple that weren't easy but we got through it just like we did with the first one! Below is a picture of Chris and I on Jan. 7th 2010 when he left for the MEU. I promise that I will have tons of pictures of the homecoming :)
xoxo-Tina
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Another flower
This water lily represents my brother Johnny and July which is the month that he was born :) I love that my tattoos are coming along so nicely I just cant wait to see what the finished product looks like!
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Tattoos!!
Most people that are close to me know that my family means the world to me! They are the reason that I am the person I am today! Well for a while now I have been wanting to get a tattoo that represents my family without getting their names tattooed on me. I have nothing against name tattoos but its just not for me. So I started researching different ideas and i came up with using the flower that represents the month that they were born. Its something that I think will look nice and at the same time mean the world to me. I decided that my dads flower would be first, the daisy. Now the only decision left was to figure out the placement. I thought about it for a while and decided that I would put his daisy over my heart because it is the same place my dad has his defibrillator/pace maker. Well the tattoo came out WAY better than I could have ever expected! Jake (my tattoo artist) did an amazing job and I couldnt be happier! After the daisy I decided that my husband Chris' flower would be next. His is the carnation which I thought was a perfect fit because the last flowers that he bought me were carnations :)
I have 3 more flowers to complete my family collage and I couldnt be more excited to see how it turns out! I have a water lilly for my brother Johnny, a violet for my brother Joey and a narcissus for my mom. I will post pictures over the next couple weeks so you can see the progress :)
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Are we done yet???
This deployment has been such a pain in the ass! I cannot wait for this shit to be over so I can finally relax! For those of you who dont follow me on facebook here is a recap of what has happened in these past 16 weeks while Chris has been in Japan...
1. I came home from work on my break to discover that Tatums ear was so swollen that it looked like the size of a golf ball! I rush her into the vet only to find out that its an aural hematoma! In english its a bunch of broken blood vessels that have popped and her ear is full of fluid. While all of this is settling in my brain the vets are coming up with an estimate. Turns out that Tatums stupid ear is going to cost $875!!! Are you kidding me??? Once I explained to the vet that I couldnt afford that kind of money he asked me what kind of budget he could work with. I just blurted out maybe $500 and since it was something that the vet thought had to be taken care of he agreed to do it for that. I had to wait until the next day to do her surgery so that I could deposit my paycheck. Then $500 dollars, 10 stitches, 1 bandage, and one lovely cone later Tatum was finally home relaxing!
2. About a month and a half later we have new neighbors move in directly behind us. No big deal right?? Well they are the owners of a male weimaraner. Turns out that Tatum has a HUGE problem with this dog!! Every time she sees him she barks viciously, tries to jump over the fence to get to him, and the hair on her back is standing straight up! My brother tried for a couple days to keep her under control every time she went outside to go potty but trying to tame a dog that weighs as much as you do while she is extremely pissed off is harder than you would think. Anyways my brother and I decided to go out to dinner one night but of course had to let the girls out first. I said that we should take them out separately but of course Johnny said that its wasnt a big deal and just to let both of them out together. Tatum instantly went psycho when she saw that dog and snapped at Tilly just for a split second before returning her attention back to that dog. I snatched Tilly up really quickly and put her in the kennel. Once we dragged Tatum into the house we locked her up in her kennel and left for dinner. We came home a little over and hour later only to find Tilly covered from head to toe in blood. Of course I freaked out because its what I do best in situations like that and my brother grabbed her to help her calm down. I called the vet but since it was 9:15 at night they were closed and the only place open was an hour and a half away in Indio!! So my brother and I jimmy rigged a couple bandaids to get her through the night and also decided to sleep in the living room with her to make sure that she didnt shake the bandaid off. I called the vet first thing in the morning and we got an appointment first thing. We headed in there and $300 later my puppy has 5 stitches and a lovely cone! The story gets better people just wait lol... The next night I come home from work only to find out that it looks as though she scratched her ear and some of her stitches came out. I take her in AGAIN early the next morning and they said that the stitches are still in but some of them have been knocked lose. UGH!!! Now not only does she have to wear a cone but now her entire head is bandaged except for the "healthy" ear! They asked me to make an appointment in a couple days so that they could remove the bandage and see how well her ear was healing. Two days later I return to the vet AGAIN and they take her to the back to remove the bandage or so I thought. The vet returned and says to me "I have some good news and some bad news..." Good news is that Tillys ear was healing wonderfully, bad news is that since the vet tech was an idiot (my words not the vets) didnt hold Tilly down they ended up cutting her ear again instead of cutting the damn bandage!!! Seriously my puppy has been through enough!!! In 5 days Tilly had been to the vet 3 times! Of course they wanted me to come in that following Monday just to check how her stitches were healing. Then Wednesday rolls around for them to check it again only to now find out that she has and ear infection in the other ear!!! WTF!!! As you have read things just keep getting better and better. Finally about 15 days after the first set of stitches she has them removed and no more cone!!! YYYYAAAAAYYYYYY!!!
3. Before everything happened with the dogs I was trying to save some money so that when Chris returned this summer we could actually go somewhere together and have a good time. Like a weekend get-a-way or something. I had a pretty good chunk saved and then ear by ear the money was gone lol. Then I finally filed our taxes and learned that we would be receiving about $600 back! Not too much but definitely enough for a weekend get-a-way right?!? Wrong, Chris ended up helping a friend out in Japan and although we are getting the money back who knows if I will see it any time soon. I will admit that since I didnt know the circumstances at first and was extremely pissed off to see all of that money missing, I'm proud to say that I have an amazing husband that not only I can count on but also that his friends can count on him too.
Now I know that most of this is rambling and only a tiny bit of what has happened in the past 16 weeks but looks like you will just have to stay tuned to see what else happens lol. Here is one of my new fav. quotes that helps me get through the day...
"Distance never separates two hearts that really care, for our memories span the miles and in seconds we are there. But whenever I start feeling sad, because I miss you, I remind myself how lucky I am to have someone so special to miss."
1. I came home from work on my break to discover that Tatums ear was so swollen that it looked like the size of a golf ball! I rush her into the vet only to find out that its an aural hematoma! In english its a bunch of broken blood vessels that have popped and her ear is full of fluid. While all of this is settling in my brain the vets are coming up with an estimate. Turns out that Tatums stupid ear is going to cost $875!!! Are you kidding me??? Once I explained to the vet that I couldnt afford that kind of money he asked me what kind of budget he could work with. I just blurted out maybe $500 and since it was something that the vet thought had to be taken care of he agreed to do it for that. I had to wait until the next day to do her surgery so that I could deposit my paycheck. Then $500 dollars, 10 stitches, 1 bandage, and one lovely cone later Tatum was finally home relaxing!
2. About a month and a half later we have new neighbors move in directly behind us. No big deal right?? Well they are the owners of a male weimaraner. Turns out that Tatum has a HUGE problem with this dog!! Every time she sees him she barks viciously, tries to jump over the fence to get to him, and the hair on her back is standing straight up! My brother tried for a couple days to keep her under control every time she went outside to go potty but trying to tame a dog that weighs as much as you do while she is extremely pissed off is harder than you would think. Anyways my brother and I decided to go out to dinner one night but of course had to let the girls out first. I said that we should take them out separately but of course Johnny said that its wasnt a big deal and just to let both of them out together. Tatum instantly went psycho when she saw that dog and snapped at Tilly just for a split second before returning her attention back to that dog. I snatched Tilly up really quickly and put her in the kennel. Once we dragged Tatum into the house we locked her up in her kennel and left for dinner. We came home a little over and hour later only to find Tilly covered from head to toe in blood. Of course I freaked out because its what I do best in situations like that and my brother grabbed her to help her calm down. I called the vet but since it was 9:15 at night they were closed and the only place open was an hour and a half away in Indio!! So my brother and I jimmy rigged a couple bandaids to get her through the night and also decided to sleep in the living room with her to make sure that she didnt shake the bandaid off. I called the vet first thing in the morning and we got an appointment first thing. We headed in there and $300 later my puppy has 5 stitches and a lovely cone! The story gets better people just wait lol... The next night I come home from work only to find out that it looks as though she scratched her ear and some of her stitches came out. I take her in AGAIN early the next morning and they said that the stitches are still in but some of them have been knocked lose. UGH!!! Now not only does she have to wear a cone but now her entire head is bandaged except for the "healthy" ear! They asked me to make an appointment in a couple days so that they could remove the bandage and see how well her ear was healing. Two days later I return to the vet AGAIN and they take her to the back to remove the bandage or so I thought. The vet returned and says to me "I have some good news and some bad news..." Good news is that Tillys ear was healing wonderfully, bad news is that since the vet tech was an idiot (my words not the vets) didnt hold Tilly down they ended up cutting her ear again instead of cutting the damn bandage!!! Seriously my puppy has been through enough!!! In 5 days Tilly had been to the vet 3 times! Of course they wanted me to come in that following Monday just to check how her stitches were healing. Then Wednesday rolls around for them to check it again only to now find out that she has and ear infection in the other ear!!! WTF!!! As you have read things just keep getting better and better. Finally about 15 days after the first set of stitches she has them removed and no more cone!!! YYYYAAAAAYYYYYY!!!
3. Before everything happened with the dogs I was trying to save some money so that when Chris returned this summer we could actually go somewhere together and have a good time. Like a weekend get-a-way or something. I had a pretty good chunk saved and then ear by ear the money was gone lol. Then I finally filed our taxes and learned that we would be receiving about $600 back! Not too much but definitely enough for a weekend get-a-way right?!? Wrong, Chris ended up helping a friend out in Japan and although we are getting the money back who knows if I will see it any time soon. I will admit that since I didnt know the circumstances at first and was extremely pissed off to see all of that money missing, I'm proud to say that I have an amazing husband that not only I can count on but also that his friends can count on him too.
Now I know that most of this is rambling and only a tiny bit of what has happened in the past 16 weeks but looks like you will just have to stay tuned to see what else happens lol. Here is one of my new fav. quotes that helps me get through the day...
"Distance never separates two hearts that really care, for our memories span the miles and in seconds we are there. But whenever I start feeling sad, because I miss you, I remind myself how lucky I am to have someone so special to miss."
Friday, April 23, 2010
1st blog... HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY!!!
For months now I have been following my friends blogs to stay updated on whats going on with their lives. Ive considered making one of my own but just couldnt 100% wrap my finger around the idea. All these questions came to mind, "would i have enough to write about?, would anyone care to read whats going on in my life?, would people judge me for expression how i feel or even how i chose to live my life?" As you can see I decided to start blogging so just bare with me as I start off with my first blog :)
Today is a very special day to me! Today is my dads 55th birthday!!! On top of being an amazing dad, he is also one of my best friends! I cant even express how much he means to me! I only wish that I was home in AZ with him and the rest of my family to help him celebrate is special day!! When I asked him what he wanted for his birthday all he said is to take my younger brother Johnny out to dinner and make a toast for him. Well, I havent been out to dinner yet so I decided to make the toast here and now...
Dad,
I can honestly say that I would be lost without you in my life! You have always been there for me whether its to listen to be bitch about the crazy day I've had or offer me some of that lovely fatherly advice!! Thank you for making me the person I am today! I love you and miss you every day that I am away from you!
Love, your favorite daughter in the whole wide world!!!
xoxo-Tina
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