The Old Lady Roll Over

The first part of Jane Wayne day was heading over to the O Course. It was just recently put in so it is brand new. I swear this thing gets bigger every year! Either I am shrinking or they are making these logs higher up in the air!!! Ha! I did the old lady roll over. I remember when I used to be able to literally fly over these logs, not any more!!!! Vicki did great though!

I'm wondering when the day will come when I can't

even get over the log?!! Hopefully The Dude In

Cammies retires before that day so I never know

that it happened!!!!

Yep.......I will just stick with the old lady roll over.....

He Needed Black Socks....

Red & Black This Weekend

Looks like they have decided on black and red for the rodeo since these are the colors I see hanging in the kitchen! I like all their shirts......but the pink shirts are my favorite!

Love Him!

 

I zipped by the stables on my way home from work and look who I ran into! always LOVE running into him! Not sure if he feels the same! Hard to tell by his face! Ha! Always sooo serious! Getting all the last minute everythings done before the rodeo!

3 More Years + One...

Finished My Board!

I started this several months ago! Today I decided to get busy and paint my board and get this done!! I loved both these quotes so my board is reversible! This is soooo our family!

While I was painting Bella had her snout buried in the grass hunting crickets. She found and ate several. Jasper tried to get in on the action but had no success. It was so funny to watch them, kinda gross too! Bella LOVES her cricket snacks!!!

Goodnight #164 or #529

Still sending The Dude In Cammies goodnight pictures. This is either Goodnight #164 since he left in January for our next Duty Station of goodnight #529 if i add the 365 from the deployment he had just gotten home from before leaving us again....but whose counting....i guess me! Hahahahaha! Someday we may live under the same roof again. We joke that we hope like saying goodnight face to face and not rather by text messages and face time!!! :) 

Sgt. York

I fell in love with this horse when we were at Ft Myers. We were in and out of the stables often feeding, checking on the horses, and taking them out of their stalls to walk around.  The Army has several horses, alot more than the Marines have, but they need a larger number due to the services they do just at Arlington alone. There are 4 Platoons of horses. The Platoons are either all white or all black. One Platoon is always gone. Each platoon gets a one week liberty pass to go to pasture each month and run around and be a horse! Lucky for me Sgt York wasn't on liberty. Since Sgt York wasn't on liberty i was able to spend quite a bit of time with him. He always poked his head out when i came by so i would stop and we would have some good chit chats. He thought he should chew on my hair while we were having these awesome discussions though.....Sgt York has some pretty incredible history. I loved his original name to start with. He came to the Army as a race horse who had slowed down and was not considered a winner anymore. His name was All Aboard Jules. Yep, that name just did NOT blend in with the other names in the stables so he had a name change to Sgt York. Being a race horse the guys at the stable weren't exactly sure what Sgt York's job was going to be. They decided to see how he would do with some mock combat training. The soldiers fired machine guns from his back and threw grenades along side him and he basically didn't even blink. Sgt York had secured himself a job! He is most famously known for being the riderless horse for President Reagan. He had Reagan's boots in the stirrups, turned backwards and made the famous walk seen around the world.  We talked about that day. I told him i watched him from Okinawa and that i thought he had done a beautiful job and he was a darn special horse to have had that honor for President Reagan.  I might have some better pictures of him on my real camera. The lighting in the stables isn't the greatest and the sun coming in reflecting off of everything made it hard to get some crisp pictures. But these are on my phone and i am blogging from my phone right now....But he is a beautiful horse. 

Sgt York is also a fun horse with a sense of humor. Sticking out his tongue at me when i told him my hair was off limits! My hair must really resemble hay....all the horses kept trying to lick and nibble on my head!

Dean LOVES Me!!!

Blowing Kisses From A Dock

The Dude in Cammies and i have a favorite dock that we like to go to and walk or just sit. I sneak off there a LOT usually to just sit and read my book. I blew him a kiss from here today. Sometimes i send him a fishy face or drink a milk shake or eat a Kit Kat that i pretend to share with him....it's our place so i like to send him pictures from there....today i sent him a kiss....

 

Skype Night

Just another typical Face Time with The Dude in Cammies, although he is obviously NOT in cammies, but sometimes he is, but tonight he isn’t…..but I did see his cammies as he joked about how when we hung up he was going to go get his uniforms ready.  He has to get his ‘in town’ uniform ready and then roll sleeves on his cammies for when he is on base. He is visiting some schools tomorrow on behalf of the base so he has to wear his blues.  I told him I could watch him roll his sleeves so it would be like he was at home……he said, “no!” lol He chit chatted with each of the kids, I walked around the house so he could see and say hello to each of the furry kids as well. Jasper barked his head off as usual when he hears his voice….Leah did a courtesy howl, Tank acts like he doesn’t care and Bella gets all yippy with her barking. These furry kids are just too funny! Soo glad we have facetime with our phones and can pretty much see each other and chit chat whenever we want to. Hopefully this summer we can be living under the same roof again….but until than we have facetime/skype time or whatever time…… 

Yep, we have this even stateside.....

The cammies waiting to get the sleeves rolled....

He's Ready For Boot Camp

I sent this picture to The Dude in Cammies....he replies back, "He is ready for Boot Camp" lol

Driving Away....With VICKI!!!

I'm the Mom, the Marine Wife....it's my double job to watch the Marine and my daughter drive away and wave until i see them no more....and than of course wipe away the tear drops and walk back into work with a smile like i will see them tonight at the dinner table.  The life of a Marine Wife....i dare someone to try it for a day....well a day when they are away....well a day when they are away with a gun, while being shot at, in a foreign country, with no laws, and not allowed to shoot back at the people shooting at them, and not sure if the people they are with will be shooting them.....try it on one of those days....those are the harder days.....this is actually an easy day.....i could call him right now if i wanted to, but i won't because he is still on base and he can't talk on his phone on base and i need to get back to my classroom......  

Last Morning Together

It's our last morning together for awhile.....we had family prayer together, than a quick family picture before we all scattered.  It was funny listening to the kids.  They were like, OK, this is no big deal, just 5 months....we are all in America.....only a 3 hour time difference.....Dad isn't getting shot at......or driving over IED's......
Than it was time for me to drive 'solo' (Ryan's most un favorite word) to work.  Ed had started my car up for me, so she was all nice and toasty warm for me.....but sooo sad to be riding by myself and knowing coming home The Dude in Cammies will no longer be here... 

Not Needed Anymore

The Dude in Cammies started unpacking his gear.....he handed me this and said, "I won't be needing to carry this on me at all times anymore." I joked and said, "You might want to hang on to that with the way our country is headed....."

Silly Waiting Photos

While waiting for The Dude in Cammies the kids were being silly.  Here are just a few of the kids while waiting....

Deployed Souses Ball 2013

Tonight was the Deployed Spouses Ball.  AND!!!  It is The Dude in Cammies BIRTHDAY!!!  This was my first one to ever go to.  I have seen lots of posts from friends who have gone to these and seen many fun pictures but had never had the opportunity to attend one as The Dude in Cammies has either left right after one or arrived home before one or when he was an augment the Battalion always made sure to invite the Wives of their deployed Marines and since they bought the tickets and offered transportation and child care I didn’t say no, so I have never had the opportunity to go until this year! My friend Kim who lives down the road from me asked if I was going.  I was originally not planning on it as The Dude in Cammies arrival was going to be somewhere in that window and so I wasn’t sure if I should risk buying a ticket and that ends up being the night he comes home or he comes home the day before and I leave him his first night home or something like that! Amy definitely wanted to go. Her Marine is in Afghanistan and is retiring this summer.  She has yet to go to one of these either and she wanted to go as this was her last chance.  I told her I would buy a ticket and go as long as I wasn’t picking up my guy during the Ball! Ha! I figured this way I could check this off my Marine Wife Bucket List and go with a fun friend!!! We had a total blast! The decorations were sooo fun! I was going to sit on one of the sand bags and right when I was sitting I realized they weren’t filled with sand but with air!  That was close!!! I almost fell but thank goodness my brain began thinking ‘sand’ bags would be really heavy to bring in in this quantity!!! Caught myself just in time!  Now, that would have been a classic Julia Moment if I hadn’t had that sudden brain power happen!!! The food was delicious, the desserts were every girls dream, and the speakers were hilarious and know the Marine Wife Life!!! It was a fantabulous evening with some super fun wives!     

The entrance going in

Had to lay down on the cot

With my friends

The tent to go thru to sign in and find out your table number

Loved this sign!

Had to make this for The Dude in Cammies....we all know I am always waiting on him!!!

Our super cute table centerpiece

Yes, those are the coolest M&M's EVER!!!!

Yes, i tried almost everything!!!

A try once dessert, good, but don't want again!