Life Of The Jacksons: May 2010

Ambitious Mountain Adventure.

In my journey of getting healthy being home has been very helpful. What better place to be outdoors and active than the country? Every single day since I have been home I have been trying to do some form of exercise. Not being so stressed like I was in California has really helped. I am really embarrased to tell you all this but I will...You all saw how much of a gym rat I became..I went to the gym at least 6 days a week for a couple hours at a time. But I had absolutely no progess besides gaining weight. At my heaviest point I was 200 pounds. When I found out that news, I left the hospital, sat in my car and just cried!!! I never want to be that fat and even though I was trying to change it..All that was showing was getting bigger and bigger because of stress. Now that I am home and have had time to myself and relax I have lost 14 pounds. I am having a hard time when I work out because of the altitude. Whenever I get my heart rate up, my head starts to pound and I litterally can not take in air it feels like. But I continue to push and try. I am constanty reminding myself of Bob Harper, and what he tells his contestants on the Biggest Loser. There is a sign that hangs in the gym that says "Stand up and finish what you started!" It sounds silly but it really has helped me keep going. I don't want to quit and I never want to be 200 pounds again! I have been taking walks, runs, rollerblading, exercise dvd's, biking, and I even bought me one of these awesome machines....

An Ab Circle!!!! It really does work!! All you need is 3 minutes a day on it and let me tell you, if you are doing it right you feel it a minute in. I usually do 3 minutes of the ab part, 3 minutes of the buns and thighs, and then I do as many push ups as I can on it. It's wonderful. The other day I told my sister that I wanted to hike up to Intermittent Spring. She came up to Afton and we called my Brother to see if he wanted to go with and he suggested that we biked up there. I had no idea how far it was so I said sure lets do it. We left the house and started our journey up the mountain. Come to find out later it's a 5 mile trip up hill before you get to the parking lot to hike. I had to stop a few times and guzzle water so I didn't pass out but I kept going and I am so proud that I did it. When we got to the top we hiked the 20 minutes to the spring and spent some time taking in the beauty. The avalanche isn't melted off because it's too early in the year. The 10 mile ride was nothing it seemed like for Greg. He was all gung ho lets go attitude, while Brittney and I struggled a bit. haha Ok I struggled a lot. We have never biked in the mountains so it was a big accomplishment for us. I took some essential oils that my sister sells and it really helped so I wasn't sore the next day. My next goal...Hike up to the star before I move to Montana..Anyone else with me?

Brittney & Greg taking a breather.

Stopped to watch the fish jump in the pond

Beautiful Shawnee Falls

Looking at Intermittent Spring

Siblings.

YAY. we made it to the top

This dog followed us forever and left it's owner in the dust.

Feeling very happy that I made it to the top

The Avalanche

It set it..Holy Crap I just biked and hiked up a mountain! Are you kidding?!

Brittney filling up her bottle with spring water

The other side of the avalanche had a peek of green

Pictures don't do it justice of just how high it is

Greg

Biking back down.

Retired? Yes..I am Retired at 24 years old

How on earth did I forget to post about this amazing event?! On April 15th, 8 days after I had been home and away from Jared something spectacular happened. That week was kind of a rough one for us because Jared and I had been a part and he was very frustrated and depressed. The hardest thing about it was that I was not in California to comfort him, so it was dealing with it alone. Being 100% alone is not one of Jared's strong points. If he is alone he is on the phone so he doesnt feel that he is by himself. It's weird to me haha. He was preparing to fly to Washington D.C. to fight for his medical retirement from the Marines, but nothing was going the way we had hoped. His doctor whom was supposed to write Jared a letter to help his case was nowhere to be found...turns out the Bastard retired and didn't say anything so it left us high and dry. The attorney was having a hard time helping us out and Jared was getting yelled at a lot by his chain of command for the lamest things. Poor Jared!

An example of these butt chewings went like this: Jared needed a written letter from his Gunnery Sergeant that talked about how Jared performed in his job. Jared tried to explain to him that he needed this letter and that his attorney would contact him with further information. He basically told him to Chill the Eff out and that it would get done, so get out of his face. Apparently the Attorney doesn't know how to talk to a Grunt so when he called he just said "Hey I need a letter for Cpl Jackson." The Gunny yelled at him that Jared already was bugging him about it, and that it would get done.Then he hung up on him. That in turn came the butt chewing session on Jared because he was being "inpatient". After he yelled until he was blue in the face, Jared calmly explained why the attorney called, and what he was trying to ask of him before he hung up on him. The gunny then was like "oh..my bad..what's his number I'll call him back". So dumb!! After he talked like a civil person he felt that he couldn't help Jared after he said he would. He told Jared that he wasn't comfortable writting a letter about him doing his job discription since he had never seen him actually perform as an assaultman. I personally agreed that it was good of him not to lie in a letter, but it still sucked that it left us to fight for ourselves again. What else is new..Us fighting for what we deserve because the Marine corps doesn't give a shit. Yup, done that routine for the last 4 and a half years why would that change now.

So needless to say, Jared was really worried about going to D.C to fight this when he had no one's help to prove how badly being blow up twice had ruined his health. His attorney made one last attempt for us and he put in Jared's reconsideration letter to the formal board. We prayed that it would go through and they would just change their mind on his percent rating. (The military gives you a rating when you get out if you are hurt. That determines your disablity pay for the rest of your life. The military gives you a percent and then the Veteran Affairs gives you a percent.) Keep in mind here people that the board could horribly go NOT in our favor and just take everything away from us. They only gave us a 10% anyways which was terrible for everything that Jared has wrong.

Back to April 15th. I have been trying to be really active while I have been home so I decided to go outside and rake the lawn. I figured help the grass grow after winter and get an arm workout the same time right? :) Well I got a phone call from Jared in the middle of it and he sounded a little sad. He said
"Do you want the bad news?" Me: "Oh great what did they do to us now?!" J: "Well my attorney just called and he said that he heard something back from the board over my reconsideration letter....They decided to take away my 10 percent...." C: "What the hell for?! To give us the 30% like we wanted?!" (Yes I was pissed hahah) J: "YES!! They looked over my letter and they felt that what I was asking wasn't unreasonable. They decided that they would give me Medical Retirement! So now I don't have to go to D.C. I am now in the system as retired. Now I just need to go sign paperwork to get it all processed. WE WON!" C: "ARE YOU SERIOUS..NO..YOU'RE KIDDING..OMG!!" Then I burst into tears hahahaha. Happy tears of course. I haven't had a good phone call like that in a long time. Emotions just came over me because I knew the fight was over. Everything we have dealt with the Marines, as horrible as they were, was over. What a feeling to know that we will be taken care of for the rest of our lives. Especially because Jared has so many medical problems now. He has been complaining a lot lately that his back has been having problems, so once he is out...he just might need another surgery on it.

As weird as it sounds when I say it out loud...My husband was a Military Veteran at the age of 20 years old and he is now Medically Retired from the Military at the age of 24. Finally a happy ending to a 4 1/2 military hell! YAY US!

Happy Birthday!

May 3rd is my day, a day where people celebrate my birth. How cool is that? :) This year was my 22nd year of being alive and again (unfortunately) I had to spend it without Jared. This is the 4th one in the 6 years of our relationship. 2005: He had to work and couldn't make it down to SV. 2006: He was in California for the Marines. 2007: He was in Iraq. Last but not least 2010: He was stuck in CA trying to get the Marine Corps to release him 8 months after his out date! Crazy right?!

Never fear though I was very well loved and my family made the day extra special.

Jared's mom took the day off of work and took me to Idaho Falls for some lunch at the Firehouse grill, and a day of shopping. She was so nice to treat me to so many things. She bought me some clothes and some frangrance wall flowers for my room from Bath and Body works. I really enjoyed my day shopping with her and an awesome lunch. I think we ate at least 7 pounds of food. we were definately waddling out of the restaurant haha. After our day in the falls we headed home so I could have dinner with my family. I had driven my car to my parents house so I didn't need a ride back to Afton and the next party began. My lovely sister made me the cake that I had special requested, and she Marinated chicken for dinner. What party is complete with out some party hats?! My nephew obliged and rounded up a few. The love didn't stop there...I had several cards come in the mail that I appreciated so much. I'm happy that I was thought of. Jared's grandparents even sent me a cherry pie with my birthday card!

Here are a few photo's from my day!

Shopping with Mama Maud

Yummy Dinner! As you can see not everyone was happy to party. She left early haha

Little Roo is my party animal!

Jourdon looking a little Beaky :)

ICE CREAM & CAKE!

My Funfetti cake with chocolate cream cheese frosting

My Ice Cream & Cake Dance!

This party wasn't complete without Birthday cake ice cream, It was amazing

Greg & I

Brittney, Jourdon, and I

The Party Clan

Time to cut the cake. Happy Birthday to me!

Montana

The day after fishing Brittney and I decided to get in the rental car and drive to Montana. I needed to go tour the school, so I could make a final decision on which one I wanted to attend. It seemed like a good time to do it since I had a rental and it got better gas mileage than my car did. The weather wasn't too bad until the last day which I was happy about. They had predicted that it was going to be horrible weather so when it was pretty decent we took every chance we could to go out and look at the town. Last time I was in Bozeman was December and it was so cold that Jared and I didn't even look around downtown or anything. It only took about 10 minutes as soon as we got there to look at the school and the next day and a half was ours to do whatever we wanted. It was so great to just pick up and go without a time schedule and just relax. I think I am going to really like it there :)

There are a few places that I have decided that I love to eat & shop at there.
1. The Garage, they have an amazing soup bar that just hit the spot every time during the cold weather.
2. Wild Joe's coffe and Tea. BEST VANILLA CHAI EVER! And so cheap. http://www.wildjoescoffee.com/
3. Hey Day! This was such a cute place to shop at. It was so cozy. http://blog.heydaybozeman.com/
4. If you have a child, Lucky Lu was such a cute baby shop.

We spent and entire day just shopping, It was great sister bonding time. I took my camera with me but for some reason I didn't take any photo's. I know readers..I know..That is just SOOOO not like me!

I really liked the feeling of the school so I am going to start applying for finacial aid and hopefully get into the next class opening. It isn't until August so I have a few months to get prepared. If you want to take a look here is their website. http://www.academycosmetology.com/
Now we just need to find a home and have Jared out of the Marines and home with me and we will be good :)

Fishing

On April 26th I had to go drop my car off at the auto body shop so they could replace the bumper. It took a minute to get the rental car established but they finally got it all together and I had a Hundai Elantra for 4 days.

On our way back from Jackson we met my dad in Alpine and went out on the boat fishing for a few hours. Fishing is like therapy for my dad and it's really fun being out there with him. It's like he is in his element and is just having a great time. I look forward to more fishing trips this summer but hopefully Jared will be able to attend. Here are some pictures from the day :)