Our Story.. finally..

In my very first post on this blog a year ago, I said that I knew a lot of individuals were confused when they saw AJ & I were not only married, but married to someone they had barely even heard of. Most of our friends and family didn't even know the other one existed, let alone how we ended up married. In that blog and others, I have said that ours is "quite the story" and promised to explain it one day to everyone.
Well.. today I am living up to that promise. There is now a link above on this blog labeled, "Story of Us" that tells about our insane courtship. So if you have a little time and are one of the ones who have been waiting or are just curious to read about it, you may now read all about AJ & I. Enjoy!

Kudos to the Australian Navy..

Drinking is a major part of "Military Culture". It's something that has and always will, irk the heck out of me. When you are in the military, drinking isn't just tolerated, its even expected and saluted. Military Balls are actually drunken brawls and weekend get-togethers are booze fests. Soldiers are allowed to drink on deployments, on cruise vessels, and at post. It seems that the only true rule is that you cannot drink "while on duty." Which is a very loosely translated standard if you ask me.
Now, the reason this bothers me is two-fold. First off, there are A LOT of alcoholics in the military and alcohol abuse is rampant, but the military does absolutely nothing about it, and actually almost condones it with their stances and attitude. Which is sickening. Those who have determined that they don't want to drink, for whatever reasons, have an extreme up-hill battle and are always in some small way, outcasts. Second, how scary is it to know that the soldiers we have out protecting us overseas, stateside, or wherever can easily be intoxicated if something really intense happens and they are needed? The concept of allowing soldiers to drink on deployment is truly baffling to me.
This brings me to my Blog Title: The Australian Navy is taking a stance on the drunken culture that surrounds it and it is so refreshing to finally hear that someone in some military somewhere is taking notice of how bad it is. I want to throw out a kudos. I want to say that I hope the United States takes a little bit of advice and maybe it will get their heads turned in the right direction.
I don't believe in a ban of drinking and I don't have a problem with those that like to drink, what I have a problem with is our military encouraging and uplifting alcoholic behavior, binge drinking, and unhealthy and unsafe attitudes towards drinking that usually end up negatively extending and affecting the soldiers lives long after they have left active duty.
So cheers to Australia! And here is an article in regards to the new Australian policies and stance:
Australian admiral calls time on drunken sailors

Taking a page from those that inspire me..

So, I have been looking for a way to motivate myself and keep me going. Something to push me and take me somewhere I haven't been before in my fitness regime. You would think that this "step" that I am taking would be an easy one for me. But it's not. For some reason, although I have always classified myself as a "runner", I have never put myself in that category of "race runner". Why? I am sure we could all analyze this psychologically and my own mental state and blah blah, but for whatever reason, I have helped others train for races and encouraged and rooted others on, but have never signed up for an actual race myself. Sooo... Saturday, July 2nd I will be running in the Independence 10k in Dallas, TX.  July seems a long ways away but April, May, and June are all full of homecoming and military stuff. My best option is July. It's only a 10k, but its my first race and I'm pretty excited about it. AJ is pumped about going and rooting me on. We are going to make a full Fourth of July weekend trip to Dallas out of it and I am really excited.
There are a couple of individuals who have motivated me to finally sign up for my first race: Shea & Courtney. Thank you two so much. You both motivate and inspire me to push myself harder and farther and I'm FINALLY signing up for my first race thanks to you two. I'm pretty excited about it. It's kind of a big deal to me. :) And of course, my remarkable husband is crazy supportive and excited about my finally entering into a race. Yay! Go me!

Old Pictures..

I went to Mimi's recently, which just so happens to be where I left our old camera. These pictures were left on it from Christmas, I thought I would post them.. ((I thought you may like to see them babe! love you!)
So, here are the few old pictures I found on our camera.

Jonathan working on his crocheting. He's making a blanket and its turning out very nice in all actuality!

If I remember right, we were watching some very obscure non-Christmas-y movie. Lol

More movie watching.. and camera avoiding..  :)

Making sure everyone got a little camera action this Christmas.

Justin!! Arriving late to the party.

Andy, Mary and Jonathan getting their snack on.

Uncle Grady and Anthony grabbing some grub.

Jennifer, Ethan and I at the gift exchange.

Grandpa and Mimi sitting on the swing bench they were given as a Christmas surprise. :)

Grandpa, Mimi and I. I love these two!!

Wedding Weekend!

This last weekend I went to Dallas to see my father-in-law get married. Blitz and I packed up in the car and drove down to Texas on Friday night, spent the weekend visiting family and attending the wedding, and then we drove back up to Oklahoma this morning. (Yes, this morning and I still made it in to work..) It was mainly a relaxing weekend and there isn't a whole lot to report. But I did take a few fun pictures and thought I would put them up. At the wedding I snuck in the back to get pictures before everything started. I only had a couple quick minutes and my camera was being goofy (I'm still getting used to it). I didn't have time to check it and make any adjustments, so the pictures came out a little odd, but I like them nonetheless... So without further ado, my weekend...

Aj's littlest brother Ethan and I being goofy while watching cartoons Friday night. 

Blitz chilling on the deck and taking in the sun.

Meet Dora, Anthony & the boys newest member!

A little size comparison... She actually tried beating up on Blitz! Lol

Mimi & I all dressed up and ready to go. (I always have bug eyes in pictures!)

Ethan and I in the car.. He hated the tie thing he had going on. Lol (Me having bug eyes again..)

Andy, Jonathan, and Ethan all dressed up and ready to go!

Jennifer (Mary's daughter) being the adorable flower girl and Ethan the handsome ring bearer.

Mary, the bride!

And the groom himself, Mr. Anthony Kelly

The line, all ready and waiting..

Anthony, happily waiting for his bride.

The absolutely horribly blury picture I was able to snap real quick before we sat down and right after Mary entered.. :)

And yes... That concludes this picture journey.. I seem to be really bad at completing the picture taking process over my trips... There was a reception that followed, then Mimi & Grandpa took myself, a couple of the boys and Uncle Grady out for dinner... The next day I went to my mother-in-law Rebecca's home and stayed with them.. But for some reason, after that last horrible picture you see above, I quit taking pictures... Your guess is as good as mine as to why... I will have to work on this... :)

The beautiful baby Ariee and some firsts.

Once again Annie, my new friend via the "Superhero Matchmaking Service", and I hung out. She came over on Tuesday to watch the Biggest Loser with me. Apparently she is equally obsessed with it. While over, Ariee had a few firsts (and one second..) that I had the privilege to witness, and to help document. Now, I understand it may be a little bit obscure that I am taking so many pictures and posting them of a baby that isn't mine, but I'm doing so for a couple of reasons. 1st- This baby is freaking adorable and I really can't help it. 2nd- Annie's husband is deployed and has only met his daughter once, right when she was born. He isn't able to be here to witness a lot of these things himself. If I can somehow help document these things and post them for him to see (plus my superhero, Batman, loves to see their daughter too and watch these things) I will take every opportunity to do so.

She's fascinated by the TV.

She learned this technique from her few short days with daddy.. ;-)

 

Her first taste! of cereal..She doesn't know what to think.. Lol

  

She's starting to get into it...

Now she's digging it!! Lol

As always, where baby is, Blitz is close by.. :)

I have a video of her second time rolling over onto her back. She had rolled over for the first time earlier in the day, and so we sat her on her belly and when she looked like she was going to go for it again, I decided to see if I could get it on video..  I have been trying all morning to get it to load onto my blog, but to no avail. So I'm going to post these pics up, and then try again on a separate blog. :) Hope you enjoy your pictures Annie & Wolverine!

 

Painting Parties..

     Ok, not really a painting party, but a wife of one of the soldier's AJ is deployed with came back last week. Her name is Annie. Her husband's name is also AJ, which led to her and I nicknaming our husbands Batman (being my AJ) and Wolverine (being her AJ). Our superhero's have become good friends while deployed and so they decided to test their efforts at "friend match-makers" and hook Annie and I up last week when she got back into town.
     We met up at Lowe's last Thursday while she was picking out paint for their new place. Annie is a pretty hip chick it turns out, and so I came over on Friday and Saturday to help her move in and paint, and then again on Sunday to have a homecoming cake and movie night. Wolverine and Annie have a beautiful 3 month old little girl named Ariee (Air-ee) that Blitz quickly became obsessed with.

    On Friday afternoon, we had a slight "redneck" adventure when little Ariee had an "excessively" dirty diaper. Exasperated, Annie realized she did not have any soap, a baby tub, or towels with her. This led to our using a piece of card board as our changing station, the sink sans soap, and plenty of paper towels, to give Ariee her make-shift redneck bath.

The Changing Station!

Don't worry, we didn't use Mr. Clean. :)

Baby Mohawk!

Mom's so funny!

Our drying station!

Annie and Ariee drying off.

Annie tuning our radio! That's right, her cell phone...

Blitz had a great time. He LOVES Ariee and anytime she would make any sort of noise would run over to check on her. He also became obsessed with keeping her face clean. :) Also, out of nowhere, this dog came inside from playing with an old football he found. The house that Annie is moving into is far in the country, and hasn't been resided in for a while, so your guess is as good as mine as to where in the world he found a football! Just like his dad, he can make anything into a game of football I guess!! :)

Blitz checking on Ariee again.. 

Him and his random football!

Then on Sunday, I brought over some cake and ice cream and Annie and I celebrated her first night in the new place. Since she had barely moved in and hadn't had a chance to un-pack the kitchen yet, we improvised on utensils and bowels. I played with Ariee a bit and then she crashed out on her toad and Blitz chilled out and played.

The popcorn bowel was the plastic cake cover... Lol

Turtle Cake!! Looks soooo good!

Our consumption method! The cake was sadly a little dry.. But it didn't deter us much..

Me playing with Ariee. She's such a good baby.

She's so gorgeous!

Now this is how to crash!

Blitz checking on Ariee and stealing a little blanket.. :)

Hope you all had a good weekend!!!

LOTS AND LOTS OF AMAZING PICTURES!

I received all of our pictures from the fabulous Jessica Woods yesterday and they are all soo amazing! I was going to pick and choose which ones to post up on our blog, but I just can't! She signed the release for the pictures, so you may take these pictures and post on your facebooks or for your own computer etc., if you would like, but please do not edit them in any way. Also, if you want hard copies, let me know which ones you like the most so AJ and I can send everyone nice hard copies of their favorites. :)
So, the pictures from our photo session. There are a lot of them!! Thank you so much Jessica!!

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She also captured some of AJ and I while we were playing during the shoot that are just really fun! I think anyway. :)

 

We hope you enjoy them as much as we do! This is our first professional shoot, and we loved it. :)