Looking good for 234 years old

Whether you go by devil dog, leatherneck, jarhead, gyrene, or Marine, happy birthday!

2007- Parris Island

the ball

Tonight is the ball. In fact when this is set to post flyboy and I will be on our way to cocktail hour. Of course that's if his plane gets back in time.

As you read this I can assure you that several things are going thru my mind, in fact I might even be praying {although I realize that God is a very busy man and my breast pads falling out of my dress are very very low on his list} that all goes well.

I have two big worries, A. a breast pad falls out during dinner or the ceremony or something. Nothing like a nice military ceremony topped off with a little boob action. and B. I start leaking all over the place while talking with my husbands co workers.

How delightful would that be? Talking with someone and hearing drip drip only to realize its me. I'm dripping. And obviously if I'm dripping it's because a breast pad is floating my soup.

I wish I could post a picture of us. A lovely picture of me moderately cleaned up and my flyboy looking very dapper in his blues with his nice shiny wings and six rows of ribbons (and a bunch of stars on said ribbons not to brag or anything) but alas when I even jokingly ask I am met with "the look". So instead just picture a stunningly gorgeous couple you'll be close enough.

And folks, lets all hope I don't lose a breast pad.

It's that time of year

The Marine Corps birthday is coming up next month. *insert half hearted yah! here* I shouldn't be like that I should, Marines take the birthday serious. Meaning they wish every Marine happy birthday and drink like fishes.

But with the birthday comes.... the birthday ball.

We haven't been in a few years, this year flyboy will be around for it and so we're going. It will be nice to see the guys he works with, after all so much of the time they see more of him then I do. My parents will be coming up to babysit and it will be an evening free of mommy duties.

Until flyboy hits the bar, if Marines can do one thing, besides storm the beaches and secure freedom for the masses, its put away some boozes.

The thought of getting all dolled up and having a night out with my handsome husband in his blues with his rack of bling does give me the warm and fuzzies.

- and a side note here ladies- not to brag but he has a serious rack of ribbons, I looked into getting his medals mounted and it was just shy of a car payment. I married an overachiever, ironic since I'm cool with mediocrity.

Anyways back to my issues....my qualms with going?

Getting a dress. And a fear of leaking boob milk at during the ceremony or the dinner but I don't really think that I have to expound on that one too much. That one is pretty clear cut.

Sigh. I mean I just had a baby a little over a month ago. I want to go dress shopping like I want to go bathing suit shopping.

I'm fitting into most of my regular clothes but not my skinny regular clothes. I have a great dress I love from a couple years ago but when I had that dress I didn't have Dolly Parton's boobs.

That zipper is going to zip up about the same time that Obama invites Karl Rove for dinner. As in... no time soon.

That's the only old ball dress I have around so I need to go out shopping. I look forward to this about as much as I look forward to bathing suit shopping. I don't have a clue what dress size I'm going to be right now since the top half is a bit exaggerated right now. Well I do have some clue, I know what size I'm not.

The problem with having a baby is that everything kinda shifts around. And for a bit afterwards everything is all jello-ey. This does not make me look forward to what the weekend has in store for me.

I'm thinking I should go invest in some spanx......and some serious breast pads.

A long one about the crazy lady at the lab

I was going to post a mommy post but I keep starting it and stopping it in my head and now I can't seem to remember what the gist of it was. Sigh. Hopefully it will come back to me.

Although something else will take its place no doubt, just give it a day or two.

So in the mean time, I have a different sort of post. I had my 28 wk apt today complete with a super duper fun trip to the lab for my 1 hour glucose test. What makes the one hour lab test so much fun you ask?

Doing it with a 2 year old and a 4 year old in tow. Fun with a capital F!

The appointment went well I suppose, I'm always nervous about getting weighted in, but then again my doctor is probably weighing in at 350 so she can bite me if she has something to say about my weight gain.

Yeah I'm getting bitchy over here. Their scale weighs heavier then my scale and its pissing me off.

But on to the lab. All in all it was without a hitch. Really, I'm not going to lie, I was a tad nervous of having to sit around in the tiny waiting room with the kids in tow. I tend to view my kids as my posse, they go everywhere with me, few places am I nervous about taking them but still a lot can happen when your waiting for over an hour with kids in a small windowless room.

With other people.

But I brought some snacks, some books, some coloring stuff, we were well supplied.

But about the other people.

There was a woman there with her son, who she later told me was 19 months, and this lady was, well, interesting. I'm all for talking to other people, really, I may not seem like it, my husband tells me I can be stand off ish, but I'm really a very nice person.

But.

And there is always a but isnt there?

I don't need to talk to people. I'm content to be in my own world.

This lady kept talking to me and that's fine, so I noticed she had a woodland (think the darker cammies) "rain jacket" (I put it in quotes cause I don't know what the hell it's really called, it's the jacket they were over their cammies when its raining or a little chilly out) slung over her stroller.

I asked her if her husband was stationed at the Marine base (remember we go to an Army hospital), I was just trying to make conversation since it was obvious I wasn't going to get to stay in my quiet little world while my kids played nicely by themselves.

Holy crap I opened the mother load.

She told me that yes her husband was stationed up there but it was her jacket that she was also a Marine (or as I shall refer to her from here on out WM for woman marine, I know you think I'm creative but that's what their called).

Now this puzzles me, granted it was dreary, drizzly, and kinda chilly out this morning but she's wearing a neon green tube dress. I'm not a hundred percent sure of uniform protocol but I'm pretty sure that jacket isn't one that you just wear out with anything. Lest of all neon green tube dresses.

I figured out that neither her nor her husband are in squadron (whew thank goodness, I'm relieved to know I will not be running into her at a squadron bbq should we ever go to one). Of course I assessed this info in a rather uncomfortable way. By her BLASTING her command.

Really, it was awkward. She was just spewing forth from the mouth about how she hated the housing, how she hated the command, how the other Marines up here were sloppy and lazy, how she hated the reservist, how she hated the hospital.

Which side note here, I might not always be thrilled with the hospital but I don't believe you should sit in a waiting room speaking about how everyone who works there is a moron when these people are going to be taking a needle to your vein in a few minutes. But that's just me.

And all the while people are coming and going in the lab, and remember it's a top heavy base, 4 colonels must have come in and overheard her talking and giving a very fine impression of not just our base, but of Marines in general.

What idiot talks like that on a base? Even if it's not YOUR base, any base? You never, ever, know who is going to walk in or over hear you.

I would have loved to have gotten up on my chair and sang the Marine Corps hymn , yelled about how hard my husband works, pointed out that unlike her pencil pushing husband (no offense to pencil pushers around the military but really she was pissing me off) my husband racked up miles in the sky, flying hours that push his body to exhaustion.

And when she asked me snidely if my husband has ever deployed I wanted to fashion a shank out of dash-1 modeling clay and stab her in the eye. Yes he's deployed and even when he isn't deployed he's still never here. Bitch.

But well, not to seem like a wimp, I didn't want to get into it with her cause well, she seemed a might bit unstable. And I like seeming like I'm stable to other people.

Thankfully she left soon after that and I could go back to my peace and quiet. Shockingly enough someone who came in for his blood drawn actually said how well behaved my kids were, how nicely they were sitting while I read to them.

I hope they didn't see us later in the commissary their opinion would have been different!

As I left the hospital, I will admit, I called my husband and just asked him one question, where do you all find these people?

And now I'm blogging about this and putting it out there so even more people think the Marine Corps is filled with crazy people.

Trust me folks, I have it on good authority that it indeed is not.

oh and congrats to all who made it thru the whole long winded post. Now you just have to leave a comment so I know how many of you made it to the end. It's a badge of honor I tell ya.

today I am...

28.

For anyone who doesn't like the hubbub mine appears to be shaping up nicely. Flyboy isn't here to remind Dash-1 or 2 that it is indeed my birthday so when I told Dash-1 this morning he just looked at me, said "No it isn't" and walked away. I am feeling the love in my house.

All in all I'm sure today will be a lovely day. So far the sky is a clear, brilliant blue, I'm sure we'll head to the park today at some point, maybe run a few errands. Nothing too exciting but at the same time, all good with me. Perhaps Dash-1 will poop so I can finally run his 10 jars of collected poop down to the hospital.

My God 28 is looking like an exciting age.

And I must give a fist pump to the Marine Corps, I don't know how you do it really, the last birthday I spent with flyboy in town I was turning 18. And in all truth after 10 years I'm honest to goodness not the least part bitter. I do wish he was here to absorb the larger amount of calories from birthday cake. I haven't figured out if I should even make one...

And a very big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my dear soul mate penny (aka bitter betty). She is also turning 28 today. Rarely in life do you find a friend who really is the yin to your yang, who understands the things not said, who is there whenever, where ever. I hope you have a wonderful day. Just go to your happy place at work and zone everything else out. And chick-fil-a, have some for lunch and have a sandwich for me.

Oh and about the age thing. That woman was in her late 30's and "just assumed" I was around her age. Jesus. To be aged a decade is tough on a girl. I'm gonna hope that my "maturity" had something to do with it and not my lack of makeup that day!

update

All in all I am fine. Thanks everyone for asking. Life is fairly status quo around here.

Dash-1 is ok with school, he wakes up every morning and tells me that he isn't going, only on Tuesdays and Thursdays he loses that battle and goes, drop off freak out and all. And his gastro dr. has ordered an extensive poop test so I've been following him around making sure he doesn't poop without me getting to dig around in it.

All y'all out there without kids are jealous aren't you?

Dash-2 is his usual adorable self only as of late is running on average 9 hours of sleep a night (fyi he should be getting 12) and doesn't seem to want to nap during the day. You wouldn't think a couple less hours would make a difference but it does. Oh it does.

After a week of getting up at 3 am and working a 16 hour day flyboy has once again joined the family and is staying awake past getting home and getting his boots off. Word around town is that the command might even give them friday off.

On the other hand there is silent stress in the house. An elephant in the room. We've known about it for a while but I haven't wanted to write about it because for op sec I don't know how and sometimes I feel like saying it out loud could ruin it.

There is "stuff" going on at work. There is potentially a huge change coming down the pike in flyboys flying community. It would be an awesome opportunity but like everything it comes with a high cost. TAD in excess and two back to back deployments. Oh yeah and even more people shooting at him then before. But that I can take. Its the back and forth, the waiting game, the not knowing.... that is killing me.

First word of this came last month and originally they wanted a couple of officers to start off the program. It turns out everyone was throwing around flyboys name despite him being mere enlisted swine (just so nobody gets their panties in a bunch we use that term affectionately around here, really we do, we just have sick sense of humor I suppose). So it went back and forth, having to wait and see if he could even do it, at the same time being told, that here's what may happen, plan for what may happen.

He was even sent home from work to discuss this all with me. They were serious about making sure I was on board with it and that the family understood what was involved. I don't think they understand that two family members only have decision making authority about what Popsicle flavor they want.

But oh the program still needs some high approval. But plan for what may happen. And we cant really give you guys a time line but theirs the chance that it may just start one week and take off from there.

Yesterday flyboy was called and asked for his coast preference for the eventual PCS that would come out of this. That's another drawback. He would be TAD in excess for a while so technically we would still be up here and not with the units he would deploy with. It could be up to 2 years before we were given orders out of here. Not to much of a biggie, I'm actually a bit excited at the prospect of leaving here and perhaps moving home for a bit. But its tough. How do you plan for that?

It's tougher now that Dash-1 is in school. Yes its only nursery and then preschool but still, he needs to be in something and folks those programs fill up fast. How do you look for something when you dont even know when your going?

Ultimately the kids and I could just stay up here, but he wont really be with this squadron anymore, the base offers nothing for us, we wont be PCS'ed back here, and with him gone it would be easier to be closer to family. It just doesn't really make sense to stay up here. But then again paying out of pocket to move and trying to time it all right feels like it doesn't make any sense either. Honestly, this place has never been that high on my list, I've never really felt at home here. I'm giddy at the thought of getting to move.

And it looks like its going to happen. His reputation has gotten him a spot now we just need everything to go thru without a hitch and with our sanity intact. Its just hard to make plans, to get your life in order, to make some decisions and then not know if your going to need them. To work yourself into that frame of mind and then to be told oh forget about it. It just starts to wear on you after a while.

And lets not even talk about if it doesn't happen. The level of disappointment flyboy will have will be crushing. I just hope it all works out.

Like always in the military, and in life, its just wait and see. Its all that we can do.

I havent seen a crappy uniform yet

Flyboy had to wear Charlies to work today (for you non marine types that's a short sleeve khaki shirt with green pants). Something about it being a Friday or something I dont know, he's usually not around for them so its been since August since I last saw him in them. Let me tell you ladies, fantastic! Really I don't think I've seen a bad Marine Uniform yet. Granted he looks a little uptight in his Alpha's (that's their green pants, khaki shirt, green jacket) but still he looks so sharp in what ever you put him in.

There isn't much uniform rotation in this house. Typically he wears a flight suit, on a few occasions he wears his cammies but to see him in his Charlies is rare. And wonderful. I wanted to take a picture but I knew what the response would be. When I saw him all gussied up with his rack of ribbons I am reminded not only of how very proud I am of him for all he's done but just how freakin' expensive its going to be to get his ribbons mounted. Not to brag, all right I'm bragging, but its already hard to find ribbon mounts for as many ribbons as he needs, the cost I was quoted to do his medals was more then my car payment.

He's wanted to get it done for a while but it seems like he's always waiting for S-1 to process something thru. I looked into it for last ball and was shocked at the price, then he wasn't home for the ball anyways so it was a moot point. But he's hinting here and there and I would love to get the done for him. Most people have recommended the Marine Store down in Quantico Town. Does anyone else have any other recommendations? I'm not looking to go cheap and crappy on this but I am curious where other experienced wives may have gotten this done.

Why I love a Marine Base

Gasp two post in one night. I'm feeling giddy that its still quiet around here. I had to go by flyboy's work today to pick up something from his car and since I was already there I figured I'd go ahead and replace the year sticker for my DoD sticker on my car. For some reason the batch of year stickers they have fade and I keep getting hassled going onto the Army post so I needed a new sticker.

I didn't realize I was showing up that the office 2 minutes before they opened up after lunch, when I got there the place was FILLED with Marines. I had the little ones with me, Dash-1 was walking, off in his own world as always, and I was carrying Dash-2. The second one of the Marines saw me coming he came out to open the main door for me, when I got inside the building I noticed another Marine was holding open the office door. Someone got up so that I could balance Dash-2 in the chair instead of standing up with a squirming 15 month old and another Marine was being so polite while Dash-1 was telling him all about how a jet engine works (flyboy taught Dash-1 the dummies guide to a jet engine, "suck, squeeze, bang, blow". It makes sense and Dash-1 can actually explain it pretty well but still, does a three year old really need to have that in his arsenal to repeat at some very awkward times?) this guy was even further explaining it to Dash-1 who was eating this up. When the Sgt. came to the window to start seeing people, despite my being the last to arrive, a Marine told me to go first, when I asked if he was sure and looked around at everyone else to make sure nobody was going to run up and demand to go in order, everyone of the Marines nodded in agreement.

Chivalry isn't dead, not in the least. It just wears a kick ass pair of digital cammies.

we made it

We are back on our home turf. Well, back from our original home turf to the place that the Marine Corps told us would be our home turf. It was nice to have an adventure as a family. Poor flyboy hadnt a clue what he was in for. The last time we took a vacation together, Dash-2 was yet to be and Dash-1 was much quieter and not so active. All in all the driving went well. Dash-1 has a new nickname, "Itty bitty bladder boy". Its amazing he stops almost every 40 mins, to the second. And somewhere along the way flyboy taught him how to pee outside so now when he has to go to the bathroom he will beg to pee in the trees. Even in a store. This is a bit akward. Though I must say, a proud mom moment (all you moms out there will know what I mean) only 3 1/2 weeks since the day we started potty training and he went 14 hrs in the car without so much of a drop in his pull up!

It was nice and strange to spend that much time together. We had been debating over the past few months about maybe saying adios to Marine Corps life and as Flyboy puts it "punching out" but it looks like that isnt in the cards. Ah how things change. Rather over the past few days we have been talking about the very strong possibility of an upcoming deployment. Down to the whole will, life insurance, what to do in case of discussion. It was nice to actually get five minutes face to face to get to talk about these things. I wasnt really banking on getting out. He says it but he's a Marine thru and thru. I dont know if he'll ever be able to walk away. This trip has brought some clarity for the two of us. That and we got to see every rest stop between here and exit 36 in Georgia. And you know what.... there were not enough! Thank goodness for the little potty in the back of the car, poor little itty bitty bladder boy wouldnt have made it.


It's been a long, busy week. I'm more tired after the trip then before the trip. I need a vacation from my vacation.

Bargain Basement Cammies

Flyboy left for work early this morning looking smashingly sexy in his new cammies. I felt like a mommy sending her kid off to school looking all fresh at the beginning of the year, I wanted to take a picture but he told me to stick the camera somewhere if you catch my drift. Its not like I haven't seen him in cammies before. I've seen him in the old ones, the new ones, the desert ones, you pick the style we have them. But while he was away over the summer and fall he lost so much weight that his digitals were HUGE on him. I mean they looked ridiculous on him. They just hung all boxy making his high and tight head look itty bitty. So he asked me to get him some new ones. I looked at the price and thought I was going to have a heart attack. Seriously those things are not exactly chump change, but then again I redefine cheap.

Well I couldn't find them up here, our seven day store on "base" is tiny and has nothing. Really I have seen 7 Eleven's bigger then this place. And our commissary and exchange are on an Army base so no luck there with uniforms. Now I realize that you can order then online, I had tried this over and over but he needed a really common size so they were perpetually back ordered. My other solution turned out to be brilliant. My aunt and uncle (a retired Marine) live in SC right outside Parris Island Recruit Depot. While flyboy was away I had already planned to go visit my aunt so I figured I would make a whole laundry list of uniform things I needed, cammies being at the top of the list.

I still couldn't find his size. Too common. But the lady in the store told me about re-sales. This is where they resell cammies from guys who, for whatever reason, left boot camp. Most had never even worn their uniforms, they still had the creases in them. Let me tell you the price. EIGHT DOLLARS! Eight dollar blouse and Eight dollar pants. CAN YOU BEAT THAT?! Now I am kicking myself because I only bought one pair because I wasn't sure what flyboy would say about resale uniforms. To my relief he thinks its a great thing and we are probably going to make a pit stop at PI in Jan to pick up some more.

If there are any Marine wives who read this post and you are down near Parris Island (or I'm sure they have a similar thing at the Recruit Depot in SD) you should definitely ask about this. Its in the regular uniform shop next to the "new" uniforms. Very much worth the extra time to sift thru them. But then again like I said, I redefine cheap.

I'm sure this seems like an odd post. I just had to share my cammie joy with others. These cammies have become my baby. I left them at the cleaners to get name tapes put on and when they messed up I found myself getting very protective of them. Flyboy tells me I need to let go. He also keeps telling me that under no circumstance is he going to pose with a sign saying "All these cost me were 19 bucks" so I could scrap book it.

Sad but yet Feel Good News

I saw this story on Foxnews and I started to tear up. Now I'm a sap but you'd have to be cold hearted not to be touched by this. I can only imagine how much this must mean to the family of the fallen Marine.

Proof positive that the Marine Corps really does have a heart. And althought it may not always seem like, really does take care of their own, be it family or four legged friend.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,317830,00.html

Whats on your walls?

Do accountants hang pictures of numbers and calculators on the walls?

I only ask this because flyboy is very excited that the lithograph prints of his airplane have come in and he's planning on where to hang it once we get it framed. To make it even more exciting for flyboy (as if a lithograph of an airplane ISN'T exciting enough, I mean really!) It's the plane he flew during his first deployment, one of the first airplanes to cross Iraqi airspace. So he would like to get some of his pics from that time framed with the print.

Any who I drift. As I look around the office I see pictures of airplanes, one of his favorite pictures is a framed on of the Enola Gay signed by the pilot, theres a pic of Mt. Suribachi with actual sand from Iwo Jima he was lucky enough to bring home during a trip; patches from various squadrons. The rest of our home is hardly a shrine to the Marine Corps but I do have to wonder how many people have empty .50 cal rounds or a picture of their husband on a really big gun in the desert on a bookshelf in their bedroom? Or one of the Iraqi most wanted posters that flyboy is upset I wont let him hang up in the kids play room because I think its a tad on the oh I dont know... spooky side.

I started thinking and to my relief we aren't the only ones like this. My father in law is a retired Marine and their house really is a shrine to the Marine Corps and his airplane. If it has an eagle globe and anchor on it they have it. My uncle is a retired Marine and his wife has decorated the house very beautifully in a low country style, but still the glass collection that they have is antique Naval Academy glass and the plates hanging artfully on the wall are Marine Corps plates. And his office is just a snapshot of his career, my aunt calls it his ME room. I suppose everyone needs one of those.

I certainly don't think this is just a Marine thing. My Army friends have similar issues. I asked a Coast Guard friend of mine if she had pictures of boats all over her house, she looked at me without any question as to why I would ask and said "Nope, ropes and knots. Oh well I guess we do have a few of his boat". The fact that she didn't look at me like my head was on backwards is what got me wondering about all this.

I know that other people don't really hang up what they do for a living. I think sometimes this is where the military and what you do starts to seep into your being. Its not just a nine to five job, its part of who flyboy is. He puts up a good front about being able to just walk away at some point, but I know its part of him. This is always going to follow us around. The pictures of airplanes will always be on the walls and perhaps when the kids are older the Iraqi most wanted will hang somewhere too.

How many uniforms does one Marine need?!

After I put the kidlets down for a rare (but much needed) simultaneous naps. I went into the playroom/junk room to search for some missing xmas presents. I've done such a good job hiding them that I cant find them. Anywhere.

I went digging and digging and it seemed that the more I dug around, the more uniforms I came upon. Flyboy has a wardrobe that houses a great deal of his uniform stuff that needs to hang nice and neat, his alphas, blues, khaki short sleeve shirts, khaki long sleeve, ties, overcoat... I know there is more in there that I didn't even look at. Then you get to the trunks, desert cammies, woodland cammies, poncho, cammie boats, boonie covers, regular covers, not to mention he still has some old style cammies laying around in a trunk that he hasn't figured out what to do with. So I come upon another trunk, thinking maybe Flyboy put the xmas presents in there (I found some in a trunk so it was a hopeful guess) MORE UNIFORMS. Flight suits. Desert tan and the regular green ones and another set of boots to wear with flight suits. And this is just the overflow room. All his pt gear, green shirts, boot socks, everyday flight suits and some other things are in our bedroom.

Of course we have new cammies to add to the pile. Flyboy has kicked his running and working out into high gear on his past few trips and has gotten into even better shape so now his cammies are all too big. So as we speak the smaller cammies are at the base getting name tapes sewn on. (I would be sewing them on myself but I know my limitations.) I told Flyboy that he cant lose anymore weight, we simply cant store anymore uniforms. He replied that hes looking into getting a set of Mess Dress. Pretty soon his uniforms are going to need their own big room in our house, a corner will no longer cut it. And lets not get started on their uniform "accessories".

The funny thing is that with all these uniforms he wears a simple flightsuit 99% of the time.