my new BOWTIQUE!!

For the past couple months I have taken an interest in making bows for my baby girl because either 1. I can't find one to match her outfit or 2. They are so damn expensive!! Anyway, Here are the ones I've come up with so far and they will be listed with prices. Thanks everyone for checking out my work and supporting my new hobby/ future bow business!!



2" Boutique Bow $2.00



2" Boutique Bow $2.00



1" Bow Topper for clippie $.25 each



2" Boutique Bow $2.00



1.5" Bow topper for Clippie $.50 each 1" Bow topper for Clippie $.25 each



4" Large Stacked Boutique Bow $7.50



2" Boutique Bow $2.00



Daisy Flower Clippies $4.00 each



Tuxedo Bow $1.50 Boutique Bow $2.00



4" Small Stacked Boutique Bow $5.00



4" Layered Boutique Bow $5.00



4" Layered Boutique Bow $5.00



4" Medium Stacked Boutique Bow $6.00



4" Medium Stacked Boutique Bow $6.00

Make sure you stay tuned because I promise I will keep you updated with all my new bows and of course whats new with me :)

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 :)

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.

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!!!

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 :)

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!!!

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