I heart fall...

Not that I've ever seen a real one of course. Growing up in Florida and moving to the deserts of California, I've never actually seen the changing colors or anything, but the lack of trees out here doesn't stop it from getting cold! And cold weather means baking anything with pumpkin, apples, or pecans in it! (it also means Christmas is getting here, which my whole year revolves around!) Now, being retarded, I didn't take any pictures of my accomplishments, but I can assure you, they were divine! Fall also is bringing home my husband! Yes, after seven LONG months, the love of my life will be home in a matter of days!!!!!!!! Now, back to my point... I made pumpkin cake (which was gone in three hours once I took it to work), chocolate cinnamon cake (in Mason jars!), Halloween themed cookies, and my next endeavor is..........Red Velvet Cheesecake!!! Kinda nervous I'm not gonna lie, but I'm super excited to make it! And it's for Darren's homecoming, so that makes it an even more special "first." I hope fall is as good to you as it has been so far for me!

Hey ya'll, it's (again) been a while. I have been working like CRAZY. Between that, and family coming in and out of this house, I haven't had any spare time. I got a job at Starbucks! Not a glamourous job by any means, but hey, it's a job and it provides extra income for Darren and I to spend, save, do with it what we will. And I actually quite like it. Granted I have to be up at the ass crack of dawn, but I get off at 2, and I have a steady 40 hours. It doesn't really get much better. One of these days, ten million years down the road, I will have a job courtesy of my bachelors, that pays enough for us to pop out kids, own a home, and NOT LIVE IN CALIFORNIA. Ahhhh, the little things in life.

On an unrelated note, we're down to around a month left of deployment!!!!!!!!!!!! No dates yet (poo) but still, its almost here!!!

I haven't written in forever and ever, and a lot has happened 'round these parts. I changed my major for the 809750346th time, and this time, for the first time, it feels right. I am now a Finance major with a minor in Economics. I love math, and numbers, and I am genuinely good with working with money, so the logical thing to do would be to roll them all into a major that I can actually accomplish. I have also changed my transfer university, because California is the most retarded state in the entire U.S. when it comes to getting into college. I am going to University of North Carolina Wilmington next fall!!! That means I will be out of this pit in August of 12!! Oh dear God, I can't even believe I will be moving in a year. And Darren will be following me 2 months after that!
When Darren gets back, he is applying to police academies in Wilmington and Raleigh, and whoever accepts him is where we are moving. I am sooooooo proud of him! He is going to be an amazing police officer. I can't wait!
On a not-so-happy note, Darren was busted down to a PFC about 2 weeks ago, on a charge that he was already brought up on. Which is double jeapardy, even to the military. So needless to say, we are going to be engaged in a probably endless legal battle when he comes home, because he needs to appeal the decision, and hopefully get the assholes who did it to him kicked out of the Corps. More than likely won't happen, but hey, a girl can dream can't she?
But he is doing really well in Afghanistan, and time is going by very fast, thank the Lord. We are down to around three months!! I can't believe it's already been 4 months!!
I finally got the house furnished, and it is starting to look pretty amazing! All I need is to get the kitchen and bathrooms decorated, and get some pictures on the walls, and it will look fabulous!!
My mother-in-law is coming in on Sunday. And I am super excited about it! The last three months of the deployment, I have family coming in every month, so it will go by really fast.

There's probably a ton more that I am forgetting, but for now, that is all. I'm going to try to keep up this blog a little better. We'll see how successful I will be at it. Tootles!

Twentynine Palms

So, out of sheer boredom, and to warn future wives (as if the entire Marine Corps hasn't already warned you about the armpit of Cali), I am making a list blog about Twentynine Palms. List blogs are totally cliche, and only for people who have absolutely NOTHING to talk about, but that's me, so deal.

• I am warning you now, get over your fear of bugs. You will be surrounded by roaches of all kinds, scorpions, spiders galore, and every single other insect reject of God's. I didn't get over mine, and had my husband kill all of them. Then he deployed. Now I am stuck vacuuming up all of their little carcasses. P.S. I am throwing away my vacuum and buying a new one. Better than having to see all of them again.
• Invest in a fuel efficient car. Every single road in the desert is a bajillion miles long, and believe me, it takes 40 minutes to get to Wal Mart from base. Never thought I would see the day.
• Unless you love sand underneath your toenails and in between your toes, wear close toed shoes. Enough said.
• If you're not tan when you move out here, you will be very soon.
• Try not to wear tshirts outside for very long. Unless you think farmer's tans are sexy.
• Your left arm WILL BE darker than your right arm from driving. Get used to it.
• If you live off base and have to be at work at 8 A.M., leave your house early. Trust me on this one.
• If you absolutely have to have a decent house for cheap, live on base. Desert houses are ICKY. And way overpriced.
• If you rent, rent from a company. Renting from an individual person pretty much guarantees that you will be screwed in your deposit, repairs, pest control, etc. I learned this the hard way.
• Just FYI, base housing is BALLING. I'm in love with my house.
• Get used to having to go "down the hill" to get anything specialty. Or new for that matter. Palm Springs is where it's at. Unless you trust these funny looking desert people.
• 29palmsyardsales.com is the greatest website in this area. It will become your best friend of you're a newlywed with no money :)
• There are only like five or six radio stations. Yes, you read that right.
• Take LOTS of pictures of the sunsets. You will miss them when you leave.
• If you can while you're here, go up to the mountains. Big Bear, Lake Arrowhead, Crestline, whatever. It is worth every second.
• Go to Joshua Tree National Park, and get a yearly pass. They're only 30 bucks, and you can see all of the exhibitions they have there. The living desert is amazing.
• If you are going to Vegas for any reason at all, take Amboy Road. It is by far the most serene, relaxing, and beautiful drives I have made here. Oh, and make sure to stop by and have lunch at the Kelso-Cima Railroad Station Museum.
• Try not to take the above road at night. There are no streetlights whatsoever the entire drive to the Nevada line, and creepy just doesn't do it justice. Also, there are no police stations or fire stations all the way to Vegas, so if you get into an accident and are hurt, no one is going to know. If you have to go to Vegas at night, take the 15.
• Grow some really big gonads before you drive in downtown L.A. Jus' sayin'.
• If you have to work, I would advise you go to base if you don't have a bachelors. There are NO jobs out in town. The only jobs seem to be within MCCS.
• The roads out here are in really bad shape. They are extremely bumpy, riddled with potholes, and California doesn't seem to believe in medians. If you are like me, you will drive in the right lane because you swear every car is going to some careening across that tiny yellow line. The lesson: just expect to need new tires and/or an alignment.

I am no expert, but from the almost year that I have been here, these are my rules so far. I'm sure I will come up with many more by the time we leave. That's the nature of my OCD and boredom. Ha.

Drum roll please...

Ok so this is seriously big news for the tiny Bolling family..........

We have a kitchen table!!!!!!!!

So no one actually knows how I moved to this great state called California (ha). I shoved everything that I could in the backseat and trunk of a (very tiny) Hyundai Tiburon GT. For those who don't know, it is a very small (albeit FAST) sports car. Yea, you read right. this was my car.....

Can you imagine trying to fit 22 years into this thing????? Well I can tell ya, it ain't easy. So when I moved out here, Darren and I literally had NOTHING. Well, in a matter of 10 months, we have managed to accumulate three, count em, THREE couches, a bed, a fridge, a bookcase, tv stand, night stands, and one toolbox (that was in the KITCHEN of our last house. Gotta love the husband). And now......a table!!!!!!!! Gah! This day has been loooooooong awaited. Just figured I'd share. Because I'm the shit. :) Ok done with the nerd post.

Just thinking...

I've been thinking about what it means to be a military wife a lot lately. And it seems to me that we don't get nearly enough credit for the things we do. Our husbands are the ones out there fighting for our freedom, yes, but it isn't exactly cake to be left here at home. We as military wives are peacemakers, troubleshooters, single mothers, temporary fathers, maids, cooks, and a slew of other not-so-fun adjectives. We spend holidays, birthdays, and anniversaries alone. We cry in silence, and put on a brave face for everyone to see. We teach ourselves to shop for one, and cook for one. We face our biggest fears that normally our husbands would protect us from. We have to tell our children that every single man in uniform is not daddy. Help them understand where he is, and why he's gone. Take care of bills, clean the house, go to work, and come home to an empty house. How many of our husbands would have made rank without us? I don't know about you, but I am my husband's voice of reason. When things go wrong within the batallion, and he wants to say things to his superiors that he shouldn't, I am the one to calm him down. I am the one to make him see that it's not worth it, and I am the one who listens patiently while he goes on a tangent about what he hates and what he loves about the Marine Corps. Because that's my job. I don't complain (very much) that my education has taken a back seat to his career, because one day I will get there. I don't complain that the only jobs I am qualified for are the ones that I hate. And I don't complain about how Junior Enlisted wives are treated by the Marine Corps. I know that the Corps doesn't want them to get married, and I know that they see pretty much all Junior Enlisted wives as uniform chasers, who only want the benefits that come with being a military wife. But that's not me. So I hold my head held high as I pull out my POA to take care of things on my husband's behalf. Because I get all the looks that usually accompany this seemingly simple act. I get talked down to, I have Marines trying to talk me out of things that I know need to be taken care of, and I get nasty stares as I ask for my husband's LES. But that's ok. Because I know that I love my husband more than life itself, and couldn't dream of doing anything to hurt him. But no one else needs to know that. They can keep thinking all the hateful things they want, because at the end of the day, I still come home to my husband, who thinks absolutely none of those things. My job is a Marine Corps wife. And as far as I'm concerned, that's the hardest job of them all.

Three weeks down!!!

Yea, so this whole deployment thing? Bites the big one it does. The last couple of days have been really bad at work, and normally my saint of a husband makes it all better by listening to me complain for an hour. But no more. Well not for a really long time anyways. But believe it or not, it's starting to go by kind of fast. Yay! I have a donut of misery app on my phone that for what felt like the longest time was just a tiny sliver of green in my rather large red donut. But not anymore! I have a wedge!!! Hehe that sounds dirty. At least we get to message each other on facebook every couple of days. Oh the joys of technology. I don't know how my mother survived deployment without facebook and skype. And cell phones!!! Anyway, not a really long post, but a post nonetheless. I'm going to go watch Harry Potter 7 again. BTW, best movie int he universe! But I will leave you with this.....

That's my big sexy third from the left! Afghanistan looks like a happy place doesn't it? :) I miss him.