My mom came out to San Diego on Friday and will be here through the week. We sure had ourselves a great time, but I sure do miss Jeffrey! Enjoy some of the photos taken throughout the weekend! xoxo.
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
12 Days.
Jeffrey and I will be getting married in 12 days. I cannot believe it! I'll finally be able to call him my hubs, and he'll finally stop calling me his fiance in a terrible French accent. It is so funny, but he cannot say the word "fiance" in a normal tone of voice. Well, I guess he can sometimes. :)
Too cute.
Anyways, I'm getting the first real taste of military-dom right now, meaning that I'm experiencing a tiny taste of what it's like to have your man away and to not be able to communicate with him or access him. Jeffrey left on Friday morning for SERE school and gets back Thursday evening. SERE stands for Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape and is part of his training in the Navy. Here is an "official" description I found "The SERE/Terrorism Counteraction Department teaches courses in two areas - courses designed to help military personnel avoid capture or exploitation by the enemy, and
courses designed to make military and civilian students more aware of terrorism and protective measures against it". In layman's terms (or how I explain it to myself and others) he's getting experience in a POW (prisoner of war) type environment, so that if he were ever to be captured and made a POW, he would know what to do, how to respond, etc. Basically, it's not a pretty experience. They have to survive in the wilderness (in the desert...in the winter...in 30 degree weather...with nothing) until they get captured...and, well...you can only imagine what happens next.
When some of my military wife friends found out he was going to get finished with SERE school 8 days before the wedding, they awkwardly laughed and....let's just say it was a funny experience. Basically, they felt sorry for me and warned me that there is no telling what shape he will be in.
8 days before the wedding and my man's going to be beat up, tortured and who knows what else!
Want to know what has been such a blessing though? I have been so at peace about everything. It's been a constant outpouring of peace and comfort in which I recognize I have no control in this situation. Such a God thing, thank You! Don't get me wrong, I think and pray about him often and don't know HOW he does it, and my heart saddens for him and the possibilities of what's happening to him, even as I type. But this is what he's training for, and although he knows it's not ideal, and it's going to "suck", he knows it's something he has to get through. And get through it he will.
God Bless America, and Bless our Troops. I am so thankful to be entering into a life with someone who so passionately stands for something, and who is willing to sacrifice his life for our country. Bless Jeff for believing in what he's doing...because many of us 9-5ers may not feel the same way. Eek.
This is going to sound funny, seeing as we're engaged to be married, but throughout these past few days, I have realized how crucial of an element he is to my life and how I depend on him. It was weird the first few days because something would happen and I'd reach for my phone to text or call him and put it back down, realizing I couldn't. I have to say that I think there are few people in relationships and marriages who can say they've been in situations where their significant other was unreachable for long periods of time, and this will become of a norm for me at times. It's certainly an eye opening experience, especially when you're planning a wedding and it's down to the last 2 weeks and they've just up and disappeared on you!!! Come on Jeffrey, I need you to tell me what kind of napkins you want, the white, eggshell white, or ivory white...no, TOTALLY kidding. I'm beyond over wedding planning, and was basically over it about the first day I stepped into it. Just let me be married! :)
I certainly do miss him! He comes home on Thursday afternoon and already warned me he's going to need sleep, and lots of it! So I won't see him until Friday, but I'll be such a happy girl when I do!
Pray for Jeffrey and SERE school...poor guy.
12 days...12 days..
Monday, December 5, 2011
Remember When..
Remember when I did this post about the honeymoon plans and promised the "funny story" - well I'm here to share it! Unfortunately for you, I'm not a good story teller, and I missed the punch line by not putting it into the honeymoon post...However, it's just such a typical Annie story that I just had to share it!
As mentioned in the post, Jeff and I had to determine during our engagement if we wanted a "hot weathered" honeymoon or a "cold weathered" one. Once we decided on cold weather, we were trying to determine where to! We were all over the place in destinations, including: New York (not NYC), Colorado, Wyoming and Canada. We did our research and came up with our own places, activities, lodging etc. I was mainly leaning towards Canada and going to Banff, Whistler, Vancouver, Quebec City..one or two of those destinations. He was leaning towards Jackson Hole, WY (I wasn't as inspired with Jackson Hole at the time because I was underwhelmed in the lack of research and findings we were able to come up with for it, which led me to not be as excited about it).
Like I said, I was pretty set on Canada - it just seemed like everything I wanted and dreamed of and had all of the activities I was looking for! He knew this, so I'm sure it would have worked out in my favor.... :) Too bad for me though because one day, a month before the wedding, after we had made more progress in honeymoon plans and Jeff was getting closer to finding out if he was going to be able to get vacation time or not, I came home and told my mom (who was in town at the time) all about our most recent honeymoon updates. She was getting all excited and participating in conversation (all about Canada locations of course) until, at the very end, at least a good 45 minutes later, she stops and says, all while crushing my dreams at the same time, "Wait. Your Passport is expired...."
Yep. Good ole procrastinator Ann let her Passport expire and waited quite a while before dealing with it (clearly, I still didn't deal with it). Therefore, I couldn't go to Canada because I wasn't going to deal with getting a new Passport (which is difficult regardless of my short time frame) in my last month of engagement, only to change my name and have to get an all new one.
No, no. That is just too much!
So, that's the story. Kind of funny, because I don't think I would have thought about not having a Passport until Jeff and I were at the airport and we realized I couldn't go through customs. Uh. Oh.
Thank goodness for moms! And, thank goodness for Jackson Hole, because I'm really excited about it!
Woohoo! Only a few days away now....!!!!!!!! BAH!
As mentioned in the post, Jeff and I had to determine during our engagement if we wanted a "hot weathered" honeymoon or a "cold weathered" one. Once we decided on cold weather, we were trying to determine where to! We were all over the place in destinations, including: New York (not NYC), Colorado, Wyoming and Canada. We did our research and came up with our own places, activities, lodging etc. I was mainly leaning towards Canada and going to Banff, Whistler, Vancouver, Quebec City..one or two of those destinations. He was leaning towards Jackson Hole, WY (I wasn't as inspired with Jackson Hole at the time because I was underwhelmed in the lack of research and findings we were able to come up with for it, which led me to not be as excited about it).
Like I said, I was pretty set on Canada - it just seemed like everything I wanted and dreamed of and had all of the activities I was looking for! He knew this, so I'm sure it would have worked out in my favor.... :) Too bad for me though because one day, a month before the wedding, after we had made more progress in honeymoon plans and Jeff was getting closer to finding out if he was going to be able to get vacation time or not, I came home and told my mom (who was in town at the time) all about our most recent honeymoon updates. She was getting all excited and participating in conversation (all about Canada locations of course) until, at the very end, at least a good 45 minutes later, she stops and says, all while crushing my dreams at the same time, "Wait. Your Passport is expired...."
Yep. Good ole procrastinator Ann let her Passport expire and waited quite a while before dealing with it (clearly, I still didn't deal with it). Therefore, I couldn't go to Canada because I wasn't going to deal with getting a new Passport (which is difficult regardless of my short time frame) in my last month of engagement, only to change my name and have to get an all new one.
No, no. That is just too much!
So, that's the story. Kind of funny, because I don't think I would have thought about not having a Passport until Jeff and I were at the airport and we realized I couldn't go through customs. Uh. Oh.
Thank goodness for moms! And, thank goodness for Jackson Hole, because I'm really excited about it!
Woohoo! Only a few days away now....!!!!!!!! BAH!
Kid Eats!
Hi!
My sister in law, Lauren, and her friend Kim recently started a new blog: www.KidEats.co, and I wanted to share it with you.
This has been something Lauren has wanted to do for awhile now and something she has worked on for months- it's a great way to not only peak into her life, but also if any of you have children or are soon to be mom's, a great way to gain ideas for food, activities, etc. As Lauren said, "the blog is our place to share our favorite ideas – everything from recipes to 'brain food' activities".
Enjoy it, it's adorable! Because anything involving my nephew is adorable, let's just be honest.
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