I've decided to move my blog to a new host. I apologize to my readers (if there are any!). I didn't realize you had to create a Vox account to leave comments. With the new host, you do not have to do so to leave comments. Please head over to http://andrearhouse.blogspot.com/ and check it out!
Our fourth wedding anniversary was July 26, 2007, and we celebrated by taking a Seattle dinner cruise. We've done several Seattle cruises before: two of the harbor and one of Lake Washington. The Lake Washington cruise was fabulous and I had high hopes for the dinner cruise. Included in the price of our tickets was admission to the cruise, dinner, and dancing.
The food was just ok - there was a set menu and if you wanted something different (steak instead of chicken, appetizers, a different dessert) there was an additional charge. The band was old and a little cheesy. The dance floor was tiny - it fit about 10 couples at a time. We didn't end up dancing because of that very reason. There were several weddings going on and they did lots of dances for the brides and grooms.
Here's a shot of us on the cruise. There's a pretty good view of the Seattle harbor, although our big heads are blocking the Space Needle.
Here's a few more shots.
Jason, posing with the boys on a recent walk:
This is how Jason looks and acts after a few drinks. Ha!
Celebrating New Year's Eve, 2006:
Very typical shot of the two of us - laughing and acting silly. Oh, and you can see up my piggy nose, as Jason calls it.
Another shot on the cruise. My hair is crazy in this pic, but I love the way the background looks.
That's it for tonight! I'll post more soon.
Well, Labor Day weekend was probably the most productive weekend Jason and I have had in months! Usually we tend to hole up in the house, only to find ourselves wondering "Where did the weekend go?" when Monday rolls around. However, not so this weekend! We actually got out, ran some errands, and socialized.
Friday was a duty day for Jason so I had a quiet night to myself. I did some shopping, hitting up Tar-jay for some much needed (not) clothes and other miscellaneous house supplies. Two hours later, I was standing at the register wondering what the heck equalled the excessive total on the checkout screen. Note to self: do not shop without a list. You'll end up with a cart full of things you don't really need. I topped off the night with some takeout from Applebees and a nice, hot bath. Saturday we had a list full of errands, of which only one thing was crossed off. We ended up sleeping in, and by the time we got up, showered, and got ourselves out of the house, Costco was closed (another money pit for me, seeing as how in housing I have nowhere to store the 1000 rolls of toliet paper you can get for a very low fee of $12.99!). We did make it to Home Depot (for ant spray, those suckers have taken over my house and are the size of my pinky toe) and the mall before coming home and crashing on the couch to watch Disturbia. Love me some Shia LaBouf!
Sunday we made plans to meet up in Seattle with some of Jason's co-workers to celebrate a birthday. We were supposed to be in Seattle by 5:30, so we needed to take the 4:15 Bremerton ferry. I guess I took a little too long getting ready, and it was 3:45 before we actually left the house. I still contend that we would have made the ferry had there not been a festival (Blackberry,who knew?) in town, and as such, numerous road detours and traffic. As it was, we made it to the ferry dock as the ferry was taking off and had to wait an hour until the next ferry. Jason and Brian, a friend who rode with us, were not happy, and I got many jokes made at my expense throughout the evening. Oh well - my hair did look good that night! Still, the night was not a bust. We all met up a Gameworks in Seattle. Despite the food being ok at best and the service being horrendous, I had a good time. I'm not a gamer, but they did have a child's arcade area, and skeeball is my BFF. I played the children's version of slots, and won lots of tickets that I regifted to two thrilled little boys. Today has been a lazy day. I spent the day trolling the web, getting inspiration from looking at other people's blogs.
The next two weeks are extremely busy. I have a dentist appointment tomorrow for another deep cleaning. Apparently I have the beginnings of gum disease, and to fend off further damage I must submit myself to tourture in the dentist's chair. Then on Thursday I have a doctor's appointment, and next week I have two different conferences and one luncheon to attend for work.
Have a happy Tuesday!
Oh, Miss South Carolina. I don't even know what to say.
Yikes. "The Iraq"? Last time I checked, it was just "Iraq". I'm still not quite sure what South Africa and "the Iraq" have to do with "US Americans" not knowing "such as" where the US is located on a map, but whatever. You're a very pretty girl. Thank goodness.
In all seriousness, who are these Americans that don't know where North America or the US is on a map? Geez. Get a globe, people. It's labeled and brightly colored, and you can even get a blowup, ball version. Educational and a toy!
Edited to add: Ok, I feel a little bad about picking on her. I'm sure she's a very smart girl who just froze up under pressure. Check on her appearance on GMA where she talks about what happens and answers the question again:
We got orders to Charleston! We'll be back home in March! Praise God and the detailer!
As of July 26th, 2007, I've been married for four years. Good grief! Where does the time go?
Here's what I've learned in those 4 years:
1. Marriage is not a fairy tale. Once you get engaged, you do not float off into your future on a white cloud, only to encounter rainbows and fluffy bunnies in your future. Rarely do you live "happily ever after." There will always be bumps in the road... but how you handle them dictates whether your marriage will grow stronger or crumble.
2. Your boy will never be as nice or romantic as he was when you were dating. He has you now. He no longer needs to put forth such effort.
3. Your wedding isn't the most important day of your life. It's just one day. The rest of your days together is what matters. Remember that when you freak out about bridesmaid dresses or the catering. Bridezilla is never an attractive look on any female.
4. Most men will only give flowers one special occassions or to say "I'm sorry." If you have a man who does it just because, count your blessings.
5. For that matter, count your blessings if you have a man who says "I'm sorry."
6. Having someone to come home to each night (well, most nights for us Navy gals) is really the most comforting thing about being married.
7. Just when you think your head will explode from anger, your husband will say something stupid or funny, and suddenly you aren't mad anymore.
8. My husband is never as romantic or as free about his feelings as he is when he is 10,000 leagues under the sea. I have the letters as proof! You did say that!
9. To some extent, personal hygiene goes out the window once you are married. I'm no longer concerned about wearing cute, sexy outfits to bed. Don't like my ratty t-shirts? Well, I don't like those pajama pants you've been wearing for the past month. Deal with it.
10. My husband really does know me better than I think he does. I always nag him about how he doesn't know what I like (case in point -- the salt and pepper shakers he got me for my 25th birthday), but then he comes home with the Friends box set, and I realize he was listening to me after all. Of course, a detailed list always helps.
11. Funnily enough, Jason was very independant before we got married. He managed to pay bills, buy groceries, and make appointments on his own. However, he seems to have regressed since our wedding. Oddly enough, he no longer knows where the grocery store is or how to load the dishwasher. Hmmmmm........
A few years back, Oprah had a couple on her show that had been married for 70 years. When she asked them what was the secret to a happy marriage, the husband answered "We were never out of love at the same time." I think that's very true, and it's amazing advice. Love is a verb; it is an action; it is something you do. It's a choice you make every day. You can choose to love and be committed to your spouse. You can choose to stick through the hard times, and the times where you just don't feel "in love" anymore. The feeling of falling "in love" may fade but the action of love, if you chose, does not.
In closing, I'm very happy and very lucky to have found such a wonderful husband. Here's to many more years of marriage!
Well, it turns out I'm a total slacker in updating this blog, just as I am a slacker in all the other areas of my life. What happened to me?! I used to be so motivated and on top of things. Being here in the Pac Northwest has just sucked all the life right out of me! OK, it's not really that bad, but there is a definite link between lack of sunlight (i.e. RAIN) and depression.
Why is there no air conditioning here in WA? Coming from SC, I just can't deal. It was 98 degrees today and there is NO AC, anywhere! It's 82 degrees right now in my house. My office building is a very old converted house, and my office is upstairs. My window has no shade, and to make it worse, the furnace - only in my office - is faulty and runs constantly. My office was at least 90 degrees today. I had three fans going, and it didn't even make an impact. The good news is that it didn't get hot this summer until July (it usually starts to heat up in May) and it is supposed to start cooling down again in a few days. Where is that rain I always complain about?!
Jason and I have orders - not the orders we wanted - but we do have orders. We're supposed to report to IMF in Hawaii in March of 2008. This is good and bad news. The good news is that we will definately be leaving the Nebraska in 7 months (Go Big Red - literally!), and of course, it is HAWAII! The bad news is that there are lots of costs associated with living in Hawaii that we wouldn't experience living stateside. We have to ship one of our cars (the Navy only ships one), pay for hotel costs until we get housing (up to 2 months), pay for food because we don't have a kitchen, pay for a kennel for the dogs because the hotels don't allow pets, etc. We also have to start the quarentine process for George and JC ASAP. We have to update their shots, get a rabies certificate, send off blood work, and then wait 120 days to enter Hawaii. Then they have to stay in quarentine for 5 days, which is $225 per dog, before we can be allowed to take them home (or to a kennel, most likely). It's all a very big stress, and I wish I was going to Charleston so we didn't have to deal with it.
There is still the possibility that we could get orders to Charleston. Jason has sent off his packet to be approved for prototype, and he was given the Hawaii orders before his packet was processed. If he's approved and there is a place for him, we should be able to get new orders. I've got my fingers crossed... I really want to be back in SC with my family, and I know Jason would like to be closer to his as well.
Other than that, we're just here, trying to beat the heat. Please check in and let us know how you are doing!
I got this message today in my MySpace inbox:
If the story an ex posted, Andrea, on theexbook dot com is real, then in my opinion, its not right. I actually took my own time through a link to find you and tell you that I think its not right to treat someone that way when love was involved. Was it love? What was it?
Good luck in the dating world - hopefully this experience will result in better decision making. If what an ex wrote is not true or this is not you, then I apologize for this message. But my ethics may be different than your own. I just wanted to share my point of view, people deserve to be treated with respect, honesty, and loyalty. The site does have a rebuttal section but no rebuttals were made, so either it was not cared about or unknown.
What the heck? First of all, besides my husband, I've had two other serious boyfriends. I "dated" a handful of other guys in high school, but nothing serious enough to call boyfriend-girlfriend. One of my two serious boyfriends is a youth pastor, so I sincerely hope he's not out bashing me on the internet. The other I could possibly see having some unresolved anger at me, but if you posted a bash about me online, Robby Cole, LET IT GO! We broke up about 12 years ago. I realize high school drama is scarring but geez.
** For the record, that was a joke. I do not seriously think Robby would take part in such shenanigans. Although I haven't seen him since 1997, so who knows? ;) ***
If you visit the site, you'll notice it only has access to those who pay for membership. I'm not about to pay to read what some bitter ex wrote about me (IF that actually happened). Bottom line, if this is true: Who cares? I'm really inclined to believe this message went out to 40,000 other MySpacers and it is just an ambiguous attempt to get hits and interests. Congrats, random computer programmer! You apparently reached your goal through me.
This reminds me of the time a "psychic" contacted me and told me she had seen me yahoo screenname in a chat room and got strong psychic vibes about me. Apparently I was going to meet my soulmate the next month and for $100 she would give me more details. Guess what, psychic lady? He didn't come along until almost 5 years later. I didn't fall for your BS then (I swear I wasn't scanning every male face at my college campus for two years for love at first sight) and I won't now.
So, ex-boyfriends, talk away. You don't want to know what I would share about you.
I thought I'd do a picture post of the sights here for everyone who hasn't experienced it.
Sadly, Jason and I aren't big on sight-seeing. The first year we moved up here, we spent a weekend in Seattle as a homecoming trip, and we stayed in Seattle again for 4 days last summer when my parents were visiting. Other than that, we don't go to Seattle. The ferry is expensive, and if you drive you are looking at half a tank of gas, and gas is $3.11 here now. Oh, well. I'm sure I'll regret not seeing more when we leave, but for now we're content to be homebodies.
The first picture is the view of Seattle from the ferry.
Here's a picture of on of the houses built on Lake Washington in Seattle. These go for more than a million dollars!
This was just a neat looking bridge that we saw when we went on the Lake Washington boat tour.
More houses along Lake Washington.
See the home at the top of the hill? That's where the family lives, and at the bottom is the Mother-In-Law house. A lot of houses along the way are built like this. You have to be lowered down the hill by a pulley system.
Look closely - what you can barely see is Bill Gate's house. He has sand shipping in just to make a beach for his kids.
Recognize this? It's the houseboat from Sleepless in Seattle.
Jason and I stopped at a little stream up on Mount Ranier.
This is the view from Hurricane Ridge. This is as far as we got before we ran over a rock and punctured our gas tank. We had to stop and head home then.
Mount Ranier.
Here we are, again on Mount Ranier. This picture was taken in June, and there was still so much snow that people were building snowmen and skiing.
Another shot on Mount Ranier.
We took this picture at the Kelly Clarkson concert we went to last summer.
Here I am at the Dungeness Spit. It's a 5 mile wide, 5 mile long sandbar near Port Angeles. At the end of the Spit is a lighthouse.
This is the Real World: Seattle house.
A view of the Space Needle at night.
A neat view of a salmon tank.
Another view of Seattle from a boat tour.
I actually don't remember what this is, but hey, it's a pretty picture!
More views of Mount Ranier.
This is the Hood Canal Bridge. Jason's boat has to pass through it to leave and come home. The bridge actually slides open (not up) for the boat to go through.
Here's is Jason's sub, coming home from a long deployment.
Well, I hope you enjoyed the pictures! If we make it anywhere else, I'll be sure to take more pictures. :)
I'm extremely worried about all the pet foods being recalled. We had been feeding our boys Royal Canin chihuahua food, and Royal Canin has now started to recall some of their different brands. George and JC literally ate the last of their food tonight so I have to go and get them something new tomorrow.
The list of brands that are being recalled is HUGE! Check it here: Foods NOT Safe
Check your dog food ingredient list for wheat gluten, corn gluten, or rice protein. Also look for chromium tripicoloinate and melamine. These are some of the things being recalled. Check your pet's treats, too.
I've done some research and I think I'm making the switch to Canidae. They make all their food in the US (the problems seem to be coming from ingredients manufactured at a plant in China) and they do not have any of the above ingredients in their food.
JC and George are like our children. It makes me sick that I can't protect them from this. Who is to say that the food I choose won't be recalled tomorrow? I'm trying to make an educated guess but I can't stop worrying that that guess may not be right.
If you have pets, please check their food, especially when buying new bags or treats!
