Brutally Happy: May 2010

Monday, May 24, 2010

Two weeks and six days from today, I will be 25. That's an entire quarter century! Holy crap! It's sneaking up on me and I'm on the fence a bit. On one hand, there's the rather delightful fact that I've never been happier in my entire life than I am now... and my life has been pretty great so that's a tough feat. Then, on the other hand, I'm getting older and I have the wrinkles to prove it. Really though, if you think about it, what other birthday is really monumental? I thought this same thing after turning 21 but then realized my insurance would go down when I turned 25 and that gave me something to look forward to. So now what? I guess it's no longer the exact day of my birth that I'll celebrate for the next 75 years (I'm striving to be 100 y.o.) but rather the birth of events, births of new periods in life, births of each new year of marriage, births of new places, adventures and most importantly, the births of our children when they happen.

At this point in my life, I'm content. Everything feels "right". I'm proud of the person I've become in these short 25 years and I owe a whole hell of a lot of that to my amazing parents and their life experiences. The thing that I love so much about those two amazing individuals is that they raised me to be me. And that's what I am... the me I need to be at 25, anyway. And, my amazing husband loves me for just that. So, what better timing to celebrate this and the decrease in automobile insurance rates??

SOOO anyway.... Christian finally comes home Wednesday night! Yahooo! Can't wait to see him! It's been almost a month. I've gotten used to keeping myself busy and being my own friend and entertainment. I have fun. The only times I'm bored are at night when I don't really leave the house. I'm in and out all day long but at night for some reason, I'm just not as comfortable yet. That will come though. We're heading to Maryland this weekend to see Christian's family. We'll be there Friday through Monday. While we're there, I'm going to see Sex & the City 2 with one of Christian's friend's (Ron) girlfriends (Ashley). They were at the wedding and stayed out at the beach house. I can't wait to see it! Then, the next weekend, we're going up to Hawley, PA (in the Poconos) to stay at a beautiful bed and breakfast for a night and then Sunday, there's a NASCAR race that Christian got free tickets to at the Pocono Raceway. So, that should be full of adventure. Hopefully we'll leave here early Saturday so we can at least go hiking or canoeing before we check into the B&B. That's my birthday gift. Christian and I never give each other actual gifts. Neither of us need anything and it's so hard/awkward to buy for each other so we give each other trips. It's worked out pretty well for the last year and a half that we've been doing it!

In other Chrissi news.... I got a call today from Oprah Radio's Dr. Laura Berman show producers! They want me to be on the show Wednesday to join a discussion about how to make military relationships work! For those of you who know me really well, you know that I am SUCH a HUGE fan of Dr. Berman and the work that she does. I listen to her show all the time and read her books. I was on Oprah.com the other day just browsing and I saw "Are you making a military relationship work?" in a little box that said "Be on the show". So, I clicked on it and answered some questions and wrote a little bit about how Christian and I have made everything work even while he's gone (since he was basically gone every weekend the entire first year and a half of our relationship and the fact that he'll be gone a lot for this job too). I'm so excited! I'll let you guys know how it goes.

Well, that's all I have for now.... Hope everyone is having a wonderful week so far and that it only gets better for all of you!

Chrissi

Thursday, May 20, 2010

I made it back safely for those who I have yet to talk to! Flights were a bit bumpy and a bit delayed but all in all, I made it fine. However, when I got to the airport and in my car, I went the wrong direction on I95. Should have gone south but, instead, I went north. So, I ended up in downtown Philly and FINALLY got home two hours after my plane touched down. I REALLY need a GPS! haha Oh well.

I am glad to be home though! I'm happy to be around all of my stuff! As they say, there's no place like home. Christian's still gone. He was supposed to come home tomorrow but their training got extended because of a problem with the simulator building so he won't be home until late next Wednesday. I miss him! But, we're making the best of it and we're doing fine. We talk about three times a day and I'm keeping a busy as possible. Just can't wait to see him!

The weather was pretty crappy when I got in but it's gorgeous today! Sunny and about 80 degrees out. I went to Home Depot and picked up some potted flowers for the back deck, weeded our front flower beds and picked some of the beautiful roses that are growing outside our front door! They're beautiful and my neighbor, Pete, showed me how to trim them so they'll keep on bloomin'. So, I have a pretty little bouquet of six large pink roses in our foyer right now!

I've been skipping out on the gym because my days were all screwed up when I got here. I thought yesterday was Monday for some reason so when I was looking at the class schedule for the gym, I was all screwed up. Finally figured it out and I have a spin class in the morning to get me back in the groove.

Otherwise, everything is going well. This weekend, I've volunteering for a down syndrome walk doing registration and stuff so that will take most of Saturday which will be fun. Other than that, no big plans.

Hope everyone is having a great week so far and have a great weekend coming up!

Love y'all!!!

xoxo-

Chrissi

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

So, I made it home and it's been veeerrryyy nice! I've missed the beach so much so I've gone just about every other day. I'll go back north looking like I'm actually from Florida now! I'm starting to get ready to go back home. I miss having all of my stuff around me and I can't WAIT to see my husband! I miss him so much!

This trip home has been fun and relaxing and interesting. I say interesting because it's not quite what I expected. I'm amazed at how much has changed in the month and a half I've been gone. I've changed, friends change, communication changes, Pensacola has changed....etc. I'm not sure what I expected to experience when I came back but it didn't meet my expectations. It's a bit enlightening and I feel like I'm now really ready to live my life with my little family and new friends to come.

Monday, May 17, 2010

C'est la vie

It's been 12 days since I've been home and yet, I've been home for 12 days. And, although bitter-sweet, I'm ready to go home. Confused yet? ;)

So, this trip has really been great. I've spent a lot of time with my amazing family and had some great times with my amazing friends. I'm going to miss everyone so much but I've come to realize that it's about that time in life when things start to change and the things that have always been so important aren't really that important anymore (other than friends and family). To be more specific, I can't wait to get back home and see my husband... even though I'll be home 8 days without him. I can't wait to get back to our house, our town, our everything. I miss "us". Pensacola will always be my hometown, but I no longer feel that it's really my "home". As they say, "home is where the heart is" and my heart is with my new little two-person family. I just wish I could take the people I love the most, especially my parents, with me!! But, I know some of y'all will come visit and we'll have a GREAT time in the city and the other cute little towns around us. There's so much to do and at times, that's a bit overwhelming! But, we'll have fun.

I'm definitely going back up north looking like a Florida girl. Five days on the beach definitely gave me a nice tan! I look in the mirror and barely recognize myself! Being tan just makes me feel better; more healthy in a way. I've had such a great time being home. I actually did things on this trip that I really never got to do when I actually lived here. It was a true vacation! Some of those activities included a Mother's Day outing to Seaside with the wonderful ladies in my family. It was so beautiful over there and we were delightfully surprised to find an arts festival going on! Brunch with the family at Hemmingways was another. As I mentioned, several days at the beach... dinners and lunches and coffee breaks with my amazing friends.... shopping with my wonderful dad over in Alabama, lunches with family, watching t.v. and movies and going to the beach and bookstore with mom.... going to Ft. Pickens for the first time since Hurricane Ivan... and sitting under oak trees at Bartram Park reading a book. I had a blast. Now, it's time to go back to life... I actually have to cook and clean again! Agh. And, thanks to the advice from one of my very best friends, Laura, I'm going to determine my dreams by reading a new book she recommended for people in a life rut like me! haha The life rut I'm talking about is when you've acheived the goals you set for yourself years ago. I never really thought past graduating college and landing a great job. I did both of those, thank God, but now I don't know where to go next! So, we shall see! As per this post title, c'est la via (such is life)!

Love all of you and thanks to everyone for making my trip home amazing!

Sunday, May 2, 2010

So I hope by reading the title of this blog, many of you now have the Alicia Keys/Jay-Z song stuck in your head.... I know I do.
As many of you already know, Christian and I went to New York City this weekend and had a blast! We drove to Parsippany, NJ Friday and met one of his friends who is in the states on a vacation from his job (non-military) in Iraq. So, we and Eric and his lady friend took the train into the city Friday at about 6 p.m. Our goal was to see a broadway show and I really wanted to see Wicked (the story about the witches from Wizard of Oz) but it was sold out (except for $300 premium seats) so we got tickets to see Come Fly Away- Frank Sinatra. It was sooooo neat!!! Granted, it's not your typical broadway show with a plot and all but it had all Frank Sinatra music so I was in heaven. The dancers were phenomenal! I'm going to take up dancing to broadway music for my new workout routine! haha So, we saw the play and then walked around the city, hung out and had a few $20 drinks and then hopped the train back into Jersey.

I'm sure all of you have heard about the car bomb in Time Square. We were literally right where that thing was.... only the night before they found it. That is sooo crazy. What is this world coming to? Psychos....

Saturday, we woke up and had breakfast with Eric and then drove a little further North to see one of Christian's Navy buddies, Mike, and his wife and kids. It was my first time meeting them but they are awesome! His parents have a house down at the shore so we're going to take some trips down there this summer. After we visited with them for a while, we drove back down towards our house and stopped at a strawberry festival in Peddler's Village and got some great strawberry ice cream (since we couldn't find strawberry shortcake for Christian) and headed home for the night.

Today was a pretty busy day. Christian left for his three week training trip in Texas. His first flight was canceled but luckily he was able to get on another flight out today. I went to a meet & greet for the Philadelphia Area Junior League today and that was really nice. It was in a BEAUTIFUL area called Chestnut Hill (district of Philadelphia- kind of suburban but still in Philly). We tried to rent a place in Chestnut Hill but it sold before we got out application in... darn! Anyway, today was the first meet & greet for the 2010 recruitment period for JL. There were only about 10 girls there but it was nice to meet some nice people. Seems like I'll have a good time with that. Oh, and you should have seen the dang house it was hosted at. Holy Moly.... it was amazing... old, huge, amazing european style (the lady is from Paris).

Now, I'm back and home and trying to fight turning the AC on but it's hot as hell in here. It was 92 today! .... and Christian said he doesn't like Florida b/c it's too hot.... that's BS I tell ya! :) I have quite a bit to do before I leave to come home Wednesday... including figuring out how I'm going to pack 2 weeks worth of clothes into two carry-on bags since we don't have a suitcase bigger than that. Oh well, I'll figure it out.

I can't wait to see you guys!!!!! SOOOO excited!

xoxo-

Chrissi