Bates Nut Farm

Since living here in California it has become our tradition to go to Bates Nut Farm every October to pick out our pumpkins. I thought that last year would be our last time ever going there, since we would have been out of the military. So it was kind of a little treat to go again this year for our last instead. I will miss going there. Here are some pictures of our trip.

My Beautiful Dress

The Marine Corps' 234th Birthday is coming up quickly and that means that it's Marine Corp Ball time. They do the Ball every year to celebrate the birthday of the "beloved" Corps. I went to my first ball as a newlywed in 2006. The second year of the ball Jared had just gotten home from Iraq and missed it. The 3rd the guys were training to deploy to Japan, so they put on a "dining out" dinner in it's place (didn't even compare), Then now, my 4th and final year to go to a ball and be apart of the active silent ranks. We technically wouldn't have been able to go because Jared would have been out of the Marines before the birthday came around, but with us being held here until sometime next year, we are able to make it. But then comes the stress, you have to get the uniforms ready, find a dress that compliments his uniform (this ball isn't like prom..it's not about the girl...it's all about the Marine), and if you plan to drink then you better find a hotel room. :) When I went looking for a dress, it is clearly the wrong time to do so. All of the dresses right now are short cut, almost cocktail/homcoming looking, and not at all the long formal that I am in need of. After a grueling and slightly depressing shopping day with my friend Kate, I found one! Here are some pictures of my elegant dress (plus I'm a little stoked that it's a designer dress and I bought it for a fraction of what it should have been)

October 24th 2009

This date was the day that we would have been out of the Marine Corps. We made through 4 years baby! Jared and I are a little bummed that we still have to stay in for the next few months, but we know that it's for the best and it will help us out in the long run of our lives. I think more than anything we are just sad because we are so homesick. I personally haven't been home since 2007 and I really want to go back for Christmas if time permits us. Jared has taken all his trips as you guys know, so he has been back to that familiar mountain area that we call home. But he can't wait to be back as well. California has become my home too and I will always have a special place in my heart for it. I told Jared that someday we will have to get a condo here and it can be our summer home. :) He didn't have much to say to me hahaha. Well for now, Jared is still going to doctor appointments and trying to get things resolved with his medical retirement, and I am just working hard and preparing for Eufora's annual hair show that is happening next weekend. I will blog about that later ;) Take care readers and know that I love you all!

A Chest of Drawers

For the last, Oh I don't know, 6 years of my life. I have not had a dresser to put my clothes in. When I was  in high school I had a king size water bed that had the drawers for my clothes around the base. When I was like a junior I moved out, came back, changed rooms, and since then I have been putting my clothes in plastic organizer bins at the bottom of my closet. Jared HATED that I did this, and always wanted a dresser. But being poor newlyweds with no space in our tiny apartments for one, we just made do with what we had. Well this last weekend I was folding laundry in my bedroom and was imagining moving stuff around and throwing things out. I called Jared into the room and told him my thoughts and he jumped on the idea that he could finally get a dresser Imediately. We went to furniture stores to check on prices and of course they were way out of our budget. I thought to myself "Hey we could check Ikea!" I had never been to Ikea but everyone always told me how nice and cheap everything was. So we looked online and when we shampooed our carpets on Sunday, we took a trip to San Diego while the floors dried, to look at what they had. We fell in love with one of them and walked out the store with it. Of course it was a flat pack so that made it cheaper! It's always fun when some assembly is required though and Jared and I can put it together...well together.  Here is our brand new Chest of Drawers and we are so excited about it! It's making my bedroom smell like fresh cut wood too so that is a plus.

Luke came by to help move our house back into place and pitched in for a minute.

He was angry because the instructions weren't very helpful

Finally finished with clothes inside. I love it!

4 is 4 to many.

Wednesday Oct. 14th: In the morning I had recieved an email from Karen (my co-worker) If I would like to accompany her to a tasting at a catering company that we used to use. Of course I can't pass up free food so I told her that I would love to go. They were doing a "Christmas in October" theme so you could get an idea of ordering around your holiday events. It was kinda of wierd walking into the building and it was filled with christmas lights, music, decorated trees, and the smells of the holiday. It was a great atmosphere but since we haven't had Halloween yet, it was a little strange. We went in back to the kitchen and sampled the great tastes of turkey, cranberry chicken, glazed ham, potatoes, salads, rolls, stuffing, cranberry sauce, cake, cookies, and much more. It was a FABULOUS lunch! Not to mention I had good company and it was fun to get away from the office.

On our way back to the office, after we just left the catering event, we were waiting to turn right. (The light was red of course and traffic was coming, so we were just waiting for a chance to go.) Karen was driving, and if you have ever driven stick shift you know that if you take your foot of the brake you will move just a tiny bit. She did just that, and the lady behind us Rearended us! It was such a shock and the first thing out of Karen's mouth was "ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!"  I immediately started laughing because just earlier in the week she was rearended and her other car was in the shop. Two rearendings in a week is pretty brutal, but the way she said it was just so funny! I got out of the car to inspect the damage (there was none) and the cooky lady tried to make it out to be our fault in a way. She said " I saw you move up a few inches so I went" (like I said the car barely moved when she released the brake) Since no damage was done and everything seemed so innocent  we left and went back to work.

Well my back started to hurt and by the time I got home I was laying on the couch with a heating pad to make it feel better. The next day it felt a little worse so I brought my heating pad to work and called the doctor to make an appointment. They told me that because it was within the 48 hour time period that I had to go to the ER to get checked out. So that night Jared and I grabbed some dinner and prepared for a long wait. We got there at almost 7 pm and they didn't even take me into be seen until a little after 9. I told him that I was having neck pain as well, but because of my previous injuries from accidents, I always have a contstant pain that runs down my spinal area on my neck. Especially when it gets tense. (I shouldn't have told him that) Because of the spinal pain that earned me a C collar until the doctor told me that I could take it off. Those neck braces are BRUTAL! It was making me hurt worse than when I came in, and since I didn't have any pain meds or my heating pad, I was one unhappy camper. When I was seen I ended up taking off the brace without him saying so because I was in so much pain. He poked around at my back and said "oh your fine it's just really inflammed and irritated because of the impact of the crash and your pre-existing injuries. Just take the motrin and vicodine that I am going to prescrib, and you will be back to normal in a couple of weeks" All that waiting for that! But I would much rather hear that nothing was wrong from them than have something happen later because I think everything is fine. I really wanted them to take x-rays just in case but they didn't. It just made for a long night, we didn't leave the hospital until after 11. So I am just sore and thankful that it wasn't anything worse than it was.

Jared was Basking in my pain!

Yeah this pretty much sucked!

My car accident count is now to 4 and I hope that it doesn't climb any higher. With a roll over, T-Bone, and two rearends under my belt I think I have had more than my fair share. The crazy thing to me though is that I have lived in CA for almost 4 years and I have been lucky to not have any accidents and then just this year alone I have been in the two rearends. It's wild.

Bittersweet.

Tuesday the 6th of October Jared and I sold my Acura.

When we got home from our trip to San Luis Obispo to pick up Jared's truck, we cleaned up the car. We took it to the car wash station at our apartment and cleaned off the outside and took some pictures. By 8:00 pm we had a pretty nice listing on Craigslist in hopes we would get some takers. Well 20 minutes after we hit post we got our first call! A few hours later we had another and set up some times for them to come look at it the next day. We had 11 people call and ask about it, 3 people come and look at it, and by the 3rd person looking at it we had it sold. AMAZING...we SOLD it within 48 HOURS!!! I am very happy that it's sold and gone but it also made me sad because that was the 2nd car I ever had in my life. (The first was totalled in my 2nd car accident)  Here are some pictures of my old baby.

The day I bought my Acura, my mom bought me this cake. Jared came down from Jackson to Celebrate with me. We have been together so long it's great!

Arizona Float Trip

On Friday September 25th after work I rushed home to pack up a duffel bag to go out of town once again. Jared got home from work and Tyler met us at our house, then we loaded up the car to leave for the weekend to Arizona. Unfortunately, we got a pretty late start on the trip since we left at almost 7:00 pm after stopping to get something to eat and what not. The drive went well with only a couple of stops, so it put us in AZ at like 12:30 am. We finally crawled into bed around 2 after saying our hello's and then woke up bright and early the next morning (it was like 7) to head to the river. We planned this trip before we went to Vegas for my cousin's wedding, because it would be the last weekend of the year to go float down the Salt River.

We loaded up a couple of coolers, drove out to our destination, Rented 7 tubes, and climbed aboard a bus full of tubes and excited people. The bus driver was litterally like Otto off of the Simpson's cartoon. He drove like a maniac, and as soon as everyone was unloaded he yelled "Have a GREAT time!" then litterally "drifted" or squealed a half circle out of the parking lot. IN A BUS! It was insane lol. There was a lot of people there but apparently not as much as usual. It was like a huge party on the river, people rigged up coolers with speakers on the outsides and cd players on the inside. It worked good for us because we had good music the entire 5 1/2 hour float.

Excited and Ready to Go!

Holly and I while we stopped in the shade.

After tying most of our tubes together we headed down the relaxing adventure. There were a few places where there were rapids but nothing massive and it just gave me the case of the giggle really. Holly and I tried to sit on the same tube a couple of times to take a picture and almost fell it. It was awesome. Towards the very end of the trip there is a small cave type thing in the cliff side where people can climb up and jump off. The river becomes extremely deep near this so it's ok. Jared, Tyler, and Trevor wanted to jump, so they pulled Holly and myself with the coolers to the other side of the river so we could watch. Overall it was a great day in the sun and the only one who came out with a nasty burn was Jared. *he forgot to reapply on part of his back*

Holly and Tyler

Jared and Trevor

Holly and I on the same innertube before we almost fell off!

This picture is cool because the camera was under water.

Another weekend on the road...

This last weekend *Oct. 3rd* was supposed to be our weekend home to relax and clean up after being gone. Yeah that went right out the window about the middle of the week. Jared has been looking into buying a truck for about 4 months now. He has been very picky with what he wants i.e. Dodge Dakota, v8 magnum engine, 4wd, 5 speed manual. Those kinds of things :) Everyone kept tell him that he wouldn't ever find what he wanted because there was only like three within 500 miles of our house and he already looked at two of them and they were garbage. A few months ago he saw one listed on Auto Trader for $7,500. He asked the owner to send him some pictures but we didn't really want to spend that much money because we have huge car payments on my RX8.

Well, on Wednesday Jared was doing his nightly car prowl and found the same truck on Auto Trader again but this time it was listed as $4,500. He got so excited and was pretty much begging me to make an offer. So I said that's fine and he called the guy and made arrangements to come look at on Saturday. The only catch....It was a 5 and half hour drive to where the kid lived. So he got all of the things needed to purchase the truck prepared and we reserved a hotel room. (I told him I was not driving 10 hours in one day. Especially if we only got like two hours at the destination before getting back in the car) Saturday morning at 5:00 am Jared woke me up and we gathered Tico *He was my traveling buddy* and drove to San Luis Obispo in central California.

As soon as Jared saw the truck he fell in love! We had a mechanic check it out and everything was great. So we started a deal with the owner. We ended up purchasing the truck and took the price down from $4,500 to a grand total of $4,150. We were happy. Now the fun journey of selling my old Acura begins. After listing it on craigslist we had a biter 20 minutes later. So far we have three people wanting to look at it today and two others that called to ask. So far so good!

Mike (The old Owner) Handing over the keys to Jared

He is so happy!

Starting it for the first time as the new owner..he likes the way it purrs lol

Can you tell he loves it?

He is a good travel buddy. He would peek around and then when I would look at him again I saw this.

He was so comfortable he was sleeping.