The Few. The Proud. A Marine.

Half of this candle just melted away........

Quite the defect, eh? Look at the wick, it is burnt at the top and near the bottom...ever see that before? The candles went back to Wegmans this morning....

Snow, snow, snow....our first snow.....

Outside

The flood in the family room

You can tell the water is under the carpet from the footprints....

The flood in the laundry room

The flood in the crawl space

Matt's letters home

I love Matt's letters home. He is still so true to himself. That makes me feel better. At the time of his last letter, he had officially completed his 2nd week, only 11 more weeks, and in his words, "I get to come home and finally take a decent shower" I won't share the rest, it is a little icky. He says that he wants "to earn the title of Marine, yet this island is the pitts." Gotta love 'em.

THE Phone Call

Dew and I were going to go grocery shopping at Wegman's last night (Monday). I needed some things for my work lunches, salad and stuff. But knowing that Matt was calling, I didn't want to go, I wanted to wait for THE call. So all night long I walked around with the phone. Luckily there were a lot of new TV shows on last night to distract me. And I was kind of surprised that I didn't get the call before I went to bed at 11 pm. And I was wondering if I was going to have to stay home again. But NO, that won't be happening........
at 3:40 am came THE phone call.......now mind you, I understood that he would be reading me a script of things and I wouldn't get to talk to him. What I didn't know was that he would be yelling it at me. Whoa baby........here goes.......................my groggy hello and then.......

THIS IS MARINE RCT FRECHETTE
I HAVE ARRIVED SAFELY AT PARRIS ISLAND
PLEASE DO NOT SEND ANY FOOD OR BULKY ITEMS
I WILL SEND YOU A POST CARD IN 6 – 9 DAYS
WITH MY NEW MAILING ADDRESS
THANKS YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT
GOODBYE FOR NOW

Good lord.......are they trying to torture the Mom's too!! Who can fall asleep after that?

Matt's Training Schedule

http://www.mcrdpi.usmc.mil/training/matrix/index.asp

Falling Apart

OK. I was doing good. I dropped Matt off at the recruiters office a little after 4 pm. A little misty eyed, but he couldn't see it because I was wearing sunglasses. He looked a little misty eyed himself. But we both held it together. On the way home I had a brief episode, but talked myself out of it. I was doing real well, until I got a collect call from Matt around 7:30 pm, he would be calling me, reading me the script tomorrow night and he wanted me to answer the phone.......after that I crumbled. He has only been gone for 5 hours....why am I losing it????? I have been trying to keep myself busy tonight...cleaning up...doing laundry.....plotting out TiVo for the new season.........generally distracting myself.........why I am such a sap? Why did I have to have a dominant sap gene? I am sooooooooooooooooooooo sad...........................................

Sooo excited about a new TV series...LOL

You all probably thought it was something else, like a new fall series....like the first Grey's Anatomy show of the season.....but NO...it is a new quilting show...but Cindy...it is also Mixed Media......it doesn't start until December......bummer.

The 21 day challenge

The challenge continues.......I did well yesterday...I did a 30 minutes tutorial on creating your first layout. My plan was to try one tonight, but I think I will put if off until tomorrow, though I will work on my journal which does require some work in PSE5.....I am having fun with this.....and it feels good to have finally started and stop procrastinating......I think I am a professional at that!! LOL.......

Venting about passwords

I hate changing passwords.......at work, I must have at least 8 passwords, and each time they expire, I go and and change them all to be the same, what a chore!!! And then I have quite a few at home on my pc and then online....HELP! And how about all those #'s, like the #'s to your account, your phone #'s....and I belong to a digital library and my account number is 14 digits long and I have to type it in every time, it has no memory....LOL....how is that!!?

Sandy & Cengiz arrive tomorrow.......

And we are preparing.......LOL
Tomorrow nights dinner....Prime Rib......
A couple of Sandy's favorite snacks......candy corn...tis the season...and her favorite little debbie's cakes, with that same seasonal theme.....LOL

A New Adventure

Every day Rhonna gives a new quote artistically done and all very color coordinated. Today's quote is how I want to approach this challenge, as a new adventure..........

I am doing a very Cindy kind of thing.....

I joined a blog challenge........by my favorite digital and scrapbook artist Rhonna Farrer. I just love her style. And it is so appropriate that my 21 day challenge is to journal and learn to use photoshop elements.

Home ownership

What it means for poor Dew.......weekend tasks that his wife always seems to find for him. Today it was removing the stickers that the old homeowners left on our porch posts......

Matt & I

We had a BBQ today, Dewey's family came over, we had lots of food and fun.......

My room is improving

It is not quite as messy....PROGRESS!! LOL

My BEAUTIFUL bracelet

Cindy made me the most beautiful bracelet, I absolutely love it.....and in my favorite color........

We had a Football theme.....

Matt's 21st Birthday Party

And last but not least important....the ceiling fan!

Dew's chest of drawers with TV on top...LOL

The new dresser with mirror

Room photos finally

Here they are.....obviously we need a queen size mattress, but for now our full size one is making do....

More Feet

Hey Cimmy, no photos of the new bedroom, my camera's batteries were dying when I was taking a photo of Dew's feet.

Don't know what posessed me....but they are kinda cool. Here goes......what do you think?

New ceiling fan in Dew's fortress of solitude......

Hey Sammy, new light in your room.....

Dew's grillin'...are you hungry.....

Too bad it wasn't london broil...ya'll would be droolin'...it was just hot dogs with carved names of course, and hamburgers...gotta love SUMMER!

Before the big dig....

And here it is before.......

After the big dig......

Here is photo after the big dig.....they put straw on your yard and the grass grows up thru it......don't mind the trash, it was trash day!

Mr Bigglesworth

Meet our neighborhood cat....Mr Bigglesworth...he is a very SMART cat....every time he sees Matt he runs....LOL

His real name is not Mr Bigglesworth, that is what Dew named him after the cat in the Austin Powers movie.

The bedside table.....

Here is the chest.......

Ta da!!! We finally did it, we bought bedroom furniture! YEAH!!

We got a queen bed, 2 night stands, a dresser w/ mirror and a chest.

BIG NEWS

Matt joined the marines! He leaves for boot camp either August 20th or September 24th! We will know in a few days...........

Hey, what is that parked on our front yard!! LOL......joy oh joy, we had to replace the sewer line from the house to the street.

Some things will never change....LOL.....HELP San!! LOL

Here is the dining room. AT least the stripes are gone...LOL

Look San, the WICKER bedroom....LOL.....San picked out the color. Dew and I painted it July 4th weekend......the joy of home ownership....working on your house on your holidays....LOL

Look San...the hallways done!!

And now we are getting a little more settled, and the place is starting to look a little more like Lynn, Dewey, and Matt live here....especially me......LOL

So luckily a few days later with the help of Sandy and Dewey. No more yellow, hello Latte!!!

OK, here goes. I think the only photo I have of the first day we owned our house, is a photo of Matt in the lovely yellow living room with his best friend Anthony and his girlfriend Jackie.

Ok, so here goes. Cindy posted a photo of her feet. And I just happen to have a photo of my own. You must guess which toes are mine, and which toes are there of my French Canadian compatriots! And if you guess I have the man toes....well......

Cindy would be so proud of me today!! I created my own blog! And here is my first post. How cool. I think Cindy had a great idea. As sisters we can publish photos, tell about our day, what we are thinking and get to know each other even better. I LOVE MY SISTERS!!