Justin's Grandmother died Saturday. We've been expecting this because she hasn't been doing well these past two months, but it was still a little sudden. Out of all the people in Justin's family, she was the one I knew the best. She was a very sweet, honest and Godly woman. Justin was pretty close with her so this hit him pretty hard. That's actually one of the things that was the hardest for me. Just seeing Justin sad and crying... it just makes me want to hold him tight and tell him everything is going to be okay. I've never had any of my grandparents die so I can only imagine how hard it must be. But if that isn't hard enough, trying to figure out if we can go home for the funeral is almost just as hard.
The first thing Justin did when he found out his Granny died was tell his Sgt. We were hoping to get emergency leave as soon as we could. His mom sent out the Red Cross and he got a call from them on Sunday. His Sgt told another Sgt and the word went up the chain of command. Later that day, Justin's SSgt called him and told him that he more than likely wouldn't get Emergency Leave because it wasn't an immediate family member that died. I thought that was the end of it... but then his SSgt told him that what they would do was try to get him regular leave and get it approved by noon on Monday. That right there amazed me. I'm so used to getting screwed by the Marine Corps, when they do something like that.... it's just a miracle. It just reminds me that, yes, you do get screwed a lot by the military, but overall, they do take care of us.
Then came the challenge of how to pay for the tickets. Now, Justin and I had checked on tickets before but when we did they were weeks in advance. They were averaging around $600 each. When Justin and I checked flights Sunday night, they were at least $1200. Each. $2400 to go home. That was heartbreaking. There was no way we could afford that. But Justin had a plan...
Monday morning, after doing a few things at work, Justin went to Navy and Marine Corps Relief Society to see if they could help us out. They ended up finding us flights for $600 each. It was absolutely amazing!!! Thank you Jesus!!!
So we're going to be back home in Chattanooga, TN until the 8th! This is the first time Justin and I have been home together since we got married. Over 1 year!
Monday, June 28, 2010
Friday, June 25, 2010
3 Year Mark
Justin and I are coming up on our 3 year mark. Boy, does it seem a whole lot longer than just 3 years!!! We started going out on July 4, 2007. It took him 3 years and 3 times asking me, but he finally got me! And I'm sure glad he never gave up. Ever since I started dating him my life just turned upside down. It's like God finally opened up my eyes. My whole life was focused on music and then Justin came along. I saw another life with him. Another path to where I wanted to go and who I wanted to be. I knew then that God had other plans for me then what I was anticipating. Everything just started to fall in place.
Even though I could see the path plainly laid out, there were some obstacles in the way. Telling my family that I wanted to drop out of college and marry a man I had only been dating for a year wasn't exactly easy. Family means a lot to me and telling them news that I knew would disappoint was heartbreaking and honestly pretty scary. Would they throw me out of the house? Would they ever talk to me again? Millions of things were running through my mind. Those were some of the hardest months in my life. But I got through them. And now here I am, living in Hawaii with my best friend I am so lucky to call my husband.
The path I took may have been hard and a different one than what most people my age take, but I have never nor will I ever regret making that decision. It reminds me of one of my favorite poems written by Robert Frost:
Even though I could see the path plainly laid out, there were some obstacles in the way. Telling my family that I wanted to drop out of college and marry a man I had only been dating for a year wasn't exactly easy. Family means a lot to me and telling them news that I knew would disappoint was heartbreaking and honestly pretty scary. Would they throw me out of the house? Would they ever talk to me again? Millions of things were running through my mind. Those were some of the hardest months in my life. But I got through them. And now here I am, living in Hawaii with my best friend I am so lucky to call my husband.
The path I took may have been hard and a different one than what most people my age take, but I have never nor will I ever regret making that decision. It reminds me of one of my favorite poems written by Robert Frost:
| The Road Not Taken |
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Ending On A Good Note
I am an overall nice and positive person. It takes a lot to get me angry and I'm usually over a fight or over a person very quickly. I do not hold grudges but that doesn't mean I completely forget. God wants us to forgive and forget and I try my best! But I also try my best to learn from these unfortunate situations. With that said, I will move on...
This past week I have been going to the gym every morning. This is actually the first week where I've been going almost religiously. I'm not doing a lot. Just mainly working on building up my endurance. I want to make sure I'm in shape before I go into the Air Force. To graduate from BMT (Basic Military Training) you have to meet certain physical requirements.
1. Run 1.5miles in 14:21
2. 27 push-ups in 1 minute
3. 50 sit-ups in 1 minute
These are, of course, the female requirements and just the minimum. My goal is to be an Honor Graduate so I need to be able to do better. This is what I need to be able to do to be an Honor Graduate:
1. Run 1.5miles in 12:00
2.32 push-ups in 1 minute
3. 55 sit-ups in 1 minute
4. 2 pull-ups
Just thinking about that right now makes me tired. But I'm going to try my best!
Like I said, I have been going to the gym to work on building up my endurance. This week I have been running 1.5miles on the elliptical machine. The first day I ran it in 13:55. The second in 12:05. Third in 12:02 and today I ran it in 11:55. Each day gets easier. It's not easy, but it's not as hard as when I first started. I have one more day and then next week, I move on to the treadmill. Once I'm able to run 1.5miles in 12mins on the treadmill I'll start running the track with Justin. Also starting next week, I'm going to start working on my push-ups and sit-ups. Sit-ups are going to be fairly easy but I can barely do one guy push-up. I'm going to start with girl push-ups and once my arms get strong enough, I'll move onto boy push-ups.
So this is my plan. I will keep you updated on how I'm doing periodically. Please pray for me!!!
This past week I have been going to the gym every morning. This is actually the first week where I've been going almost religiously. I'm not doing a lot. Just mainly working on building up my endurance. I want to make sure I'm in shape before I go into the Air Force. To graduate from BMT (Basic Military Training) you have to meet certain physical requirements.
1. Run 1.5miles in 14:21
2. 27 push-ups in 1 minute
3. 50 sit-ups in 1 minute
These are, of course, the female requirements and just the minimum. My goal is to be an Honor Graduate so I need to be able to do better. This is what I need to be able to do to be an Honor Graduate:
1. Run 1.5miles in 12:00
2.32 push-ups in 1 minute
3. 55 sit-ups in 1 minute
4. 2 pull-ups
Just thinking about that right now makes me tired. But I'm going to try my best!
Like I said, I have been going to the gym to work on building up my endurance. This week I have been running 1.5miles on the elliptical machine. The first day I ran it in 13:55. The second in 12:05. Third in 12:02 and today I ran it in 11:55. Each day gets easier. It's not easy, but it's not as hard as when I first started. I have one more day and then next week, I move on to the treadmill. Once I'm able to run 1.5miles in 12mins on the treadmill I'll start running the track with Justin. Also starting next week, I'm going to start working on my push-ups and sit-ups. Sit-ups are going to be fairly easy but I can barely do one guy push-up. I'm going to start with girl push-ups and once my arms get strong enough, I'll move onto boy push-ups.
So this is my plan. I will keep you updated on how I'm doing periodically. Please pray for me!!!
"True Friends"
I kinda hate that this is going to be my second post, but something happened to me yesterday that was a big wake-up call.
Yesterday, I had a conflict with one of my "friends." In no way was she or has she been a "true" friend but she was 1 out of the 2 girl friends I have here in Hawaii. Her fiance is a really good friend of Justin and I. He is a Marine and was deployed to Afghanistan. I was going through a deployment at the time as well so her and I became good friends. We would go to the gym together, shop together, and other "girl stuff" like that. She would always let me know when she heard from her fiance and would tell me how their relationship was going. Finally, a little over a week ago, her fiance came home. It was a very happy time and I was very thankful God brought him home safely.
However, not even a week since he had been back him and his fiancee started having fights. He had smoked all throughout the deployment and was in the process of trying to stop. Now, I've never smoked but I know it's really hard to quit and takes time. After 4 days of not having one cigarette he asked his fiancee if he could have a cigarette. She blew up on him. To make an already too long story short, they fought all throughout the weekend.
Since both of them were my friends, I was worried about them. I wanted to make sure that they were able to work things out. So I sent her a text message on Monday asking just that. "Hey. I was just wondering if you guys were able to work everything out." That's all I said. I didn't hear anything from her so on Tuesday I sent the same text message to her fiance. A few hours later he sent me one back saying "Yes. I'll explain later." Ok. So I was happy. They were doing good again and that's all I wanted to know.
Then Wednesday rolled around...
I could tell my friend was pissed off at someone by her statuses on Facebook. I saw her fiance was online so I asked him if she was mad at me since she never sent me a text message back the other day. Evidently, she was very pissed off at me. You want to know why? Two reasons.
1. I asked both her and her fiance if they were able to work things out.
2. It's a long story, but she didn't believe me when I said I didn't know it was only 20 minute parking at the pass house.
Her fiance was trying his best to calm her down. He was obviously on my side and was very confused as to why she was pissed off. Mind you, she never mentioned this to me at all. So I decided to be the mature one and confront her about it. I sent her an email explaining my side. Next thing I know she calls me up and starts yelling at me. Telling me that I shouldn't of asked about the fight. That they didn't want to talk about it. I told her that I never asked about the fight, that I had only asked if they were able to work things out. That's all I asked. I even told her to look up the text message I sent her. But no. She says, "I know. But we didn't want to talk about the fight. It's a respect thing. Don't ask about the fight." After listening to her saying the same thing over and over again for about 15 minutes I was tired of it and realized I had to be the mature one again here and just tell her, "Ok. I get it! When/if you guys every have a fight again. I won't ask about it!"
Mind you, the whole time her fiance is apologizing to me for the way she's acting. I'd also like to add the fact that she's 26 and has a kid. And here I am having to be the mature one. I won't get into the second reason because this is already getting too long, but it's even more ridiculous than the first reason.
I am still in shock that this happened. I really do not know what I did wrong. I guess the only lesson I could learn from this is to not be friends with spoiled rotten brats who always expect to get their way. After the way she has acted, I doubt our relationship will ever be the same. If she wants to be friends with me she's going to be starting from square one. That is, IF I give her a second chance.
Sometimes we just need to go through our friends and get rid of the ones that bring too much drama.
Drama is always a bad thing.
Period. End of story.
Yesterday, I had a conflict with one of my "friends." In no way was she or has she been a "true" friend but she was 1 out of the 2 girl friends I have here in Hawaii. Her fiance is a really good friend of Justin and I. He is a Marine and was deployed to Afghanistan. I was going through a deployment at the time as well so her and I became good friends. We would go to the gym together, shop together, and other "girl stuff" like that. She would always let me know when she heard from her fiance and would tell me how their relationship was going. Finally, a little over a week ago, her fiance came home. It was a very happy time and I was very thankful God brought him home safely.
However, not even a week since he had been back him and his fiancee started having fights. He had smoked all throughout the deployment and was in the process of trying to stop. Now, I've never smoked but I know it's really hard to quit and takes time. After 4 days of not having one cigarette he asked his fiancee if he could have a cigarette. She blew up on him. To make an already too long story short, they fought all throughout the weekend.
Since both of them were my friends, I was worried about them. I wanted to make sure that they were able to work things out. So I sent her a text message on Monday asking just that. "Hey. I was just wondering if you guys were able to work everything out." That's all I said. I didn't hear anything from her so on Tuesday I sent the same text message to her fiance. A few hours later he sent me one back saying "Yes. I'll explain later." Ok. So I was happy. They were doing good again and that's all I wanted to know.
Then Wednesday rolled around...
I could tell my friend was pissed off at someone by her statuses on Facebook. I saw her fiance was online so I asked him if she was mad at me since she never sent me a text message back the other day. Evidently, she was very pissed off at me. You want to know why? Two reasons.
1. I asked both her and her fiance if they were able to work things out.
2. It's a long story, but she didn't believe me when I said I didn't know it was only 20 minute parking at the pass house.
Her fiance was trying his best to calm her down. He was obviously on my side and was very confused as to why she was pissed off. Mind you, she never mentioned this to me at all. So I decided to be the mature one and confront her about it. I sent her an email explaining my side. Next thing I know she calls me up and starts yelling at me. Telling me that I shouldn't of asked about the fight. That they didn't want to talk about it. I told her that I never asked about the fight, that I had only asked if they were able to work things out. That's all I asked. I even told her to look up the text message I sent her. But no. She says, "I know. But we didn't want to talk about the fight. It's a respect thing. Don't ask about the fight." After listening to her saying the same thing over and over again for about 15 minutes I was tired of it and realized I had to be the mature one again here and just tell her, "Ok. I get it! When/if you guys every have a fight again. I won't ask about it!"
Mind you, the whole time her fiance is apologizing to me for the way she's acting. I'd also like to add the fact that she's 26 and has a kid. And here I am having to be the mature one. I won't get into the second reason because this is already getting too long, but it's even more ridiculous than the first reason.
I am still in shock that this happened. I really do not know what I did wrong. I guess the only lesson I could learn from this is to not be friends with spoiled rotten brats who always expect to get their way. After the way she has acted, I doubt our relationship will ever be the same. If she wants to be friends with me she's going to be starting from square one. That is, IF I give her a second chance.
Sometimes we just need to go through our friends and get rid of the ones that bring too much drama.
Drama is always a bad thing.
Period. End of story.
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Blog Noob
Hello there! As you can see this is my first post so I figured I'd just tell you a little more about myself....
Things you need to know about me:
1. I am a southern girl
A. I like sweet tea
B. I am very laid back
C. I don't really yell at strangers or honk my horn
2. I married my best friend when I was 19
A. He is a Marine
B. Because of the military, our whole relationship has been different compared to other relationships of people our age.
C. I am very glad I got married young. That means more years to spend together with the love of my life : )
3. I am a musician
A. I started playing the violin when I was 10 and after playing it for awhile, I got pretty good
B. I played in orchestras all throughout my middle school and high school
C. I am very proud of myself for all the accomplishments I made throughout those years, but I'm glad I don't have to perform anymore.
4. I am still in the process of figuring out what I want to do with my life
A. Right now, the plan is to go into the Air Force in the beginning of next year
B. I have changed my mind many times about what I want to do but I'm still young so it's not like I need to make a decision right away.
C. I am really excited about what God has in store for me
These are just a few facts about me and my life so far. Hopefully I'll think of some more interesting things to discuss on this blog.
Things you need to know about me:
1. I am a southern girl
A. I like sweet tea
B. I am very laid back
C. I don't really yell at strangers or honk my horn
2. I married my best friend when I was 19
A. He is a Marine
B. Because of the military, our whole relationship has been different compared to other relationships of people our age.
C. I am very glad I got married young. That means more years to spend together with the love of my life : )
3. I am a musician
A. I started playing the violin when I was 10 and after playing it for awhile, I got pretty good
B. I played in orchestras all throughout my middle school and high school
C. I am very proud of myself for all the accomplishments I made throughout those years, but I'm glad I don't have to perform anymore.
4. I am still in the process of figuring out what I want to do with my life
A. Right now, the plan is to go into the Air Force in the beginning of next year
B. I have changed my mind many times about what I want to do but I'm still young so it's not like I need to make a decision right away.
C. I am really excited about what God has in store for me
These are just a few facts about me and my life so far. Hopefully I'll think of some more interesting things to discuss on this blog.
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