wk 52.

last photo, how sad! 

jon and i, judy and steve vigil went to the marine corps appreciation padres game! 

wk 51.

this week we've been babysitting four young kids. it's been...difficult. 

some of it has been pretty fun though...as pictured above. 

wk 50.

jon and i drove out to monticello. it was the most beautiful scenic drive. we stopped at the cutest little sandwich shop for lunch and root burr. it was so green, the drive was probably my favorite part of our whole DC trip. 

wk 49.

hello!!! we are in DC, my favorite city!!!!

wk 48.

for memorial day, we went to fort rosecrans national cemetery to watch a little program about americas military history. it was a beautiful day. 

wk 47.

i love her so much. 

wk 46.

rumbi and i shnoogling after church. 

wk 45.

our home. <3

wk 44.

birthday girl at the one and only ikea. 

wk 43.

exploring the US Grant during our stay. 

pure luxury. 

wk 42.

holding the rose kim brought for me, 

and waiting for jon to come off the bus.

wk 41.

last weekend, i drove to utah with the young women from my ward. 

we left on friday. 

i accidently woke up later than i would have liked.... and made us all get a late start on our trip.

it was awful. 

but i got home JUST in time to see this little one on his FIFTH birthday!!!! i can't believe he has been alive that long and it was 5 years ago that we waited all night in the hospital for his arrival. he was such a tiny little baby. 

this is the oldest picture i have of him on this computer. 

look at that face and those ears. 

he is three months old here. i don't think i've seen a cuter baby.

the other one is my cousin, he was pretty darn cute, too.

i used to babysit him while katie worked a couple days a week. it was so fun to be able to spend so much quality time together. 

i'm not sure how he got that yellow thing in his mouth or what it is...

this is him as a five year old. dressing himself and putting shirts on backwards. he wouldn't let me fix it. still as cute as can be.

i got to play with this sweetie, too, who is also really really cute. 

my dad was loving this picture because our hair is the same color. 

i think i'm loving it for that reason too.

 i was also really happy to see my cat! he/she doesn't look happy here, but trust me, he/she was VERY happy to see me. :)

 and check this out. this happened while i was home. 

you should see it now.

jill came and slept over!!!!! she usually comes to at least stay a night when i'm in town, and i love her for it. we always have such a blast when we are together. she is the funniest woman and just all around really great. i'm glad i got to learn with her this weekend...

 we left early monday morning. unfortunately, it took us 10x (exaggeration) longer to get home then it should have. it was fun though and this sea horse cheeto cheered me up a lot.

we got home safe and sound on monday night and i was at school bright and early tuesday! it's definitely been a long and grueling week trying to focus on school but daydreaming instead.

i'll be really tickled when this deployment is over. 

wk 40.

i took 1,000 photos friday night, but i felt like this one was the most important one.

who knew that my pony tail doubled as a broom??

on friday, i drove up to huntington to hang out with amanda and nephi.

we went running along the beach. how nice would that be, to do that every day like they do?

then, we went rock climbing for a friends surprise birthday celebration.

the next morning, we woke up bright and early because we had a triathlon to attend!!!!

okay, I didn't participate, but amanda and nephi did. 

it was sponsored by their ward, and such a ball.  

they both did so good. i was such a proud sister/friend of nephi's!

this is the only photo i snagged on my phone. 

after the big race, we drove down to san diego. 

we had things to do to prepare for jon's arrival. 

maybe i will post details once he is already home, 

but since he is my most diligent reader, i cannot expound. 

we did have a slumbyparty though and maybe ate a lot of dessert shots from pf changs.

also, a night of 11 hours of sleep was a bonus to the weekend.

it was a fun time with fun friends and activities!

wk 39.

happy belated st patty's day.

thank you shutterfly, for the 10 free prints.

and if you guys didn't get one from me, it's a good thing you're reading my blog.

wk 38.

the week this was taken (3/4), jon was getting wifi!

he had internet for a few days. we got to SKYPE!

i had not seen him, even a PICTURE of him, since november. 

so for three months, i had no idea if he was getting uglier or cuter.

turns out he was getting a lot cuter.

as you can see here.

anyway, he sent me that cute picture of him, so i sent him the one of me. 

long distant marriages are so much fun. :)

wk 37.

i just have no motivation to blog. 

this is my hand me down sweater. 

it may be my fathers, it may be one of my sisters, who knows. 

i wear it on campus sometimes. it pisses people off.

my life has been crazy. weird how taking only one semester off school makes it so so difficult to get back into the swing of things once you start up again. a couple months into school, i'm FINALLY feeling like i can stay afloat. it's been really hard, but i'm determined to pass all my classes this semester (yes. that's how bad it has been.)

jon is getting home very soon. 

i don't want to exaggerate and say veryvery soon, but compared to the 7 months that he's been gone, these last couple weeks seem like a breeze. 

still no official date of when he is coming home, could be tomorrow, could be three weeks. who knows. but that's why i'm spending SPRING BREAK '11 cleaning my house. just. in. case. 

so if you need me, i'll probably NOT be blogging and WILL be cleaning my bath tub.

wish me luck. 

au revoir.

(yeah, i googled that.)

wk 36.

my life has been crazy. it seems as though every other weekend i have visitors.

am i complaining? not. at. all.

in mid february, i had a girlfriend from kansas city come visit me. 

our men went to boot camp together. we met on one of those really lame but totally worth it websites where you meet girls from the same unit as your marine. 

so we talked on facebook/via text the whole summer of 2009 while our guys were suffering at boot camp. we met at their graduation in august 2009. that is the first and last time i'd seen her.

we've kept in touch really well and her boyfriend deployed a few months after jon. 

so, what are two lonely girls to do? spend time with EACH OTHER over valentine's day!

she is so cute, i love her dearly. 

she literally intoxicates me. 

i could go on and on about her. she is one of my rare friends that i can be totally open with and that makes me laugh so. hard. i haven't been that happy for days on end since jon left, haha. 

it was such a fun weekend. we went sight seeing,

(went to the midway with one of my favorite families that just moved away. ugh, another goodbye. it was awful.)

saw JB: NSN and passed out over it, 

went to dick's last resort with THIS GUY,

and even did karaoke. well, she is a professional, but that is the FIRST time i've everrr sung in front of people at a bar.

i was so vulnerable but...we sang justin bieber 'baby'
and the whole crowd (really just two black women) went wild. 

i don't have a video of it, but i DO have a video of jessi singing exactly how you'd expect miranda lambert to! i'll let the video speak for itself. 

wk 35.

i didn't get to spend V day with my husband.

so we celebrated it by sending each other gifts, halfway across the world.

my lover got me such a nice surprise.

ever gotten one of these?

yeah...i haven't.

i passed out when i saw it. then i woke up and opened the box.

and saw this cute. little. pouch!!!!

and this is what it was. 

cute charm necklace with an even cuter card from jon.

i wear it nearly every day.

it comes in a close second as my favorite gift.

my chair happens to be number 1.

i decorated a package for him really, really manly with lots of lace and glitter.

it didn't make his friends very happy to have glitter all over, but i am certain that they thought the decorations were cute and creative, even if they didn't say that. 

i filled it with nauseatingly cute photos of us, funny books, tons of candy, homemade cookies and cake in a jar. he liked it, and ate the cookies in one sitting. 

i need a man here to calm me down when i'm emotionally skyrocketing almost as much as he needs a woman there to stop him from eating like this is first and last meal EVER.

but i promised i wouldn't make fun of his eating habits.

its hard not to be alarmed, though, when his meal is gone before i've even picked up my fork.

...

ha!

wk 34.

here i am, swamped with accounting homework on a sunday night.

good news though, i only had to call my father 4 times instead of 15 like last week. although he never apologized for insulting me last sunday by saying "you're just not getting it." i forgive him and think that i AM getting it. even though it took me 5-7 hours to do one assignment.

school is going well. it helps the time go by. we are 67% done with the deployment.

ummm....... when should i start panicking and trying to do everything that i was going to do while he was gone ?

okay, seriously, those chairs WILL be refinished when he gets back.

oh, we got a new camcorder! 

seriously, it is my new best friend!!!

i can NOT wait until jon gets home and we watch hours and hours of footage of rumbi being cute!

rumbi eating, rumbi chasing a laser around the room, rumbi walking around the house....he'll love it.

that is all.

oh, and yes, i thoroughly enjoy wearing shirts that glow. 

you?

fun filled saturday. /wk 33.

i woke up to a call from my loved one in afghanistan. 

he woke me up at 8 and we got to talk for almost thirty minutes!!

when we hung up, i text my friend katie.

she responded saying that we were going on a hike!!

so i gathered all of my belongings and drove to her house. 

we drove about an hour to the start of the hike and walked about 2 miles downhill to a beautiful waterfall. it was so much fun and such a good hike...downhill.

the hike uphill was....quite difficult. it was really pretty, however.

we got home, showered and got ready to head straight to Catholic mass!

katie is Catholic and this was the first time i'd been to church with her. it was a really nice service and the church was beautiful!

then we went out to dinner...it was a perfect day date turned into real date. she is such a good replacement. just kidding, i really do love her.

and yes, i wore a skirt to church. i didn't take a picture, however.