The Desert was Brutal On My Flags

Yay!!! I found my garden flags!!! Time to remove my ( hopefully last ) ripped garden flag!!! Those desert winds were brutal on our flags! Our big flag post was completely ripped out of the wood on one out of the blue windy day when we weren't home to take it down!!! So nice to be out of those crazy desert winds!!!






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Desert Skies Are Beautiful!

The skies out here in the desert are just breathtakingly beautiful!!! I never grow tired of them. Sadly my phone does not capture their true beauty....



















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Time To Update Uniforms

We left this morning for 29 Palms.

We are coming into crunch time before Ed will be wearing Sgt Major chevrons so we zipped to his favorite tailor and dropped off his uniforms.


After we dropped off the uniforms we went to the PX, the boys had their favorite pizza, and than we went for a drive. We headed over to the training areas where Ed has been too many times to remember how many!









It was fun to see the actual places he's stayed since we have only seen pictures or heard him explain it or the conversations I've heard him have with his buddies when they were here.  It was great for the boys to get a visual too! He was out here when we were on Okinawa and he left to go to Iraq with a battalion from Camp Lejeune. He's been here for training with tracks at Camp Lejeune and with a CLB from Camp Lejeune for an Afghanistan deployment and again for Advisory training before going to Afghanistan. He will be back here in October for training for a deployment in 2017 with his new unit. He jokingly calls it his home away from home!    

The boys were like, 'Wait! There's Marines in there!' Ed laughed and said yes, that is where we live when we are out here. I said and there is no AC in those! Ed chimes in, and no heat! I forgot he's been here during every season! 

It was hilarious! We would be driving along and than a random arm pops out of the sand out of nowhere. Ed laughed and said that is a Marine trying to get a signal or take a selfie.

Desert Baseball

We headed out to catch a baseball game tonight, the Desert Mavericks. It was a bit windy and chilly but we had a great time! Ryan was picked to do a golf game in between innings and won free tickets for another game. Taylor was selected to race the bases. It was a really fun night. The mascot totally photo bombed us! Best picture of the night! The Mavericks won. Perfect night in the desert! AND i had a super yummy hot dog!!!

Beautiful Patch of Green

There is this nice beautiful patch of green grass where i work.....grass is not very abundant here in the desert......i walk thru it almost every day, just a few steps to remember what it feels like! 

Ed Is NOT A Rangers Fan!

We came home to Ed's jeep looking like this.....silly friends having fun!

Gonna Miss My Private Gym

I've been sooo beyond spoiled this duty station gym wise!!! I have this room to myself every day. I set up my circuit and do a chunk of my weights in here with biking, squats, abs, and ball work out in here all by myself every morning. Gonna miss having my own private gym when we move!!!!


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73* Today! In January!

Finally!!! We had a beautiful warm sunny day! AND no wind!!! Loved going to work with no jacket! Sadly it was a random warm day for January. It is going right back to cold for the next 10 days, but I TOTALLY loved today!

It's A Double Boot Duty Station

I think this might be the only duty station in The Dude In Cammies entire career where he keeps cowboy boots in his office! Yes, it will be a sad day when I no longer see these boots in future offices and an even sadder day when he no longer rides horses during the work day.....but for now I will just enjoy seeing those boots sitting in the corner when I drop by.

What Is That Sound?

I heard this funny noise on the roof of my car....what could that be? It sounds like...like rain? It is! It is rain and LOTS of it!!! Always nice getting rain in the desert and especially during this drought! The outside lanes were already flooded and one stop light out as I made my way home.

My scarf became my umbrella while I ran errands. It was quite the life saver!

Sawtooth Canyon Hiking

We had a great day hiking Sawtooth Canyon today! 

Ryan snapped this picture of Ed and I

Quick family picture while we all happened to be sitting on the same rock!

Ty taking in the view! I decided to go around the other side. My arms were tired from the other climbs I had done.

These two boys can climb soo fast!

Aside from the wind it was a gorgeous day for hiking!!!

Made it down those steep set of rocks behind me. Always easier going up than coming down!!!

There were a LOT of great grip rocks climbing up this! Quite the workout though!!! 

Desert Driving....With The Boys!

Ty and Ryan had some practice behind the wheel today on our way to Sawtooth Canyon. They both did really well! Crazy that these two are driving!!! My two youngest are now driving these desert roads. Where has the time gone.......?

Scarf Snatcher

I don't know why but the horses always love this scarf. They always go for it and I'm constantly dodging their choppers when I wear it. I decided to photoblog one of the scarf snatchers today. They all do it the same, come in for the nuzzle, trick me, and bite the scarf and pull! Than we begin the tug of war, gently, because I really like this scarf and don't want it ruined!

Wilmington NC 2,554 Mi

Whenever we went to Wilmington we would always see the Barstow Ca 2,554 MI sign and always joke about how horrible it would be to end up there. Well we ended up at the other end of that sign here in Barstow. We finally went and got a picture of it! I wanted it last year with all of us in Santa hats for our Christmas picture, but didn't happen.

Fall In The Desert....And I Like It!

In the 90's at 9 am... I guess this is Fall in the desert. And I am fine with that! 🌵😎

First Hoodie of the Season

Burrrrrrr! It was 56* this morning when we left the house for seminary! I started the jeep and ran back in to grab a hoodie so I wouldn't freeze while waiting for the boys! I guess summer is really officially over....I'm not a fan of cold....the boys love it though! Almost time to start bringing hot cocoa or hot tea with me for my morning wait....how many more days until spring?

Rainbow In The Desert

We don't get many rainbows out here in the desert so when they do appear it is a beautiful site!!!

Ready For Fall TV!!!

We are excited!!! This week starts all the new seasons for some of our favorite shows and there are actually a few new shows that look pretty good! I set the DVR last night to all our favorites and some of the new shows since we rarely have time to actually watch the shows when they come on and hey, who likes commercials anyways?!!! But tonight we are watching Gotham! I can't even remember how it left off, so I'm pretty sure i will be quite confused for a bit, but who cares 'cause it's Gotham Night, and in our house we call it Got Ham Night because that is just how we roll!

Our favorite tv shows these days in no particular order are:
Gotham
NCIS Los Angeles
NCIS
Fresh Off The Boat
NCIS New Orleans
The Middle
The Goldbergs
Modern Family
Last Man Standing
Hawaii Five-0
Once Upon A Time
Scorpion
Criminal Minds


New shows we are going to check out:
Life In Pieces
Minority Report
Blindspot
Scream Queens
Limitless
Rosewood
Heroes Reborn
Brooklyn Nine-Nine
Blood & Oil
Code Black
Quantico


Series we are still catching up on are:
Burn Notice
Criminal Minds
Graceland
Pretty Little Liars

Obviously some of these shows are mine and many we will probably just watch the first episode and un DVR it! Saturday nights we usually binge watch a ton of shows.

First Full Week!

Wow! First full week of school done for Ty the sophmore,  Taylor the junior, and Ryan the Freshman! Next week seminar starts so they won't be catching the bus every morning. Taylor might be sad....but they are all liking school! Yay!!!

One Years Difference

Well, here are the boys one year transformations....they haven't changed too much...

First day of school 2014...

Ty from last year to this year....

First day of school 2015.....

Ryan last year to this year....