we are in salt lake. but a lot happened in san diego before we left!
jon getting out of the military meant us getting cut off of free health care which led to me getting lots of shots i didn't want to get. i got the meningococcal (for meningitis) in one arm and the TDAP (tetanus-diphtheria-pertussis) in the other and it was the worst pain of my life. there were a lot of shots i should have gotten in junior high that i never did get. am i proud of that? yeah, a little. am i happy i didn't go through the pain back then with my friends? no, i'm not.
this painful bandaid rash lasted for a full week. seriously, the worst!
how cute is this guy with his side swept bangs??
jon had his last day in the marine corps on May 3rd. it was pretty sad. but also not. there were weird mixed emotions and i'm not sure when or if i'll be able to write a post about it. it feels like we are on leave right now and eventually we will make it back to san diego and life will continue like normal.
jon with his gunny, XO, and CO. they all had some really nice things to say about him. it was touching.
jon signed his separation papers at about 12:30pm. the most notable part of the whole process was this simple sentence in the papers that may as well have been in bold. "You may proceed to your home of record or any other place you may elect." for four years someone knew where jon was at all times and they were now giving him the opportunity to go anywhere he wished. it was surreal. soooo we immediately went to the spa to get some well deserved pampering! jon got an hour massage, and hour facial, and a half an hour foot massage. (he is not ashamed of this either. you'll hear how nice it was straight from the horses mouth) i got an hour and a half massage. we were in the couples room so when my massage ended, i took a nap on my massage table while his finished up. it wasn't weird at all when i started snoring. after that we ate at smash burger and got frozen yogurt and enjoyed the beautiful night. one of my favorite things about san diego was seeing all of the hot air balloons!
we went to a padre's game with our dear friends steve and judy. they are the padres biggest fans and although i don't like baseball, i did fully appreciate the awesome seats and the amazing view of downtown. petco park is absolutely beautiful. saying goodbye to steve and judy was not fun. they have been so good to us ever since jon joined the military! we love them and the light at the end of the tunnel is them coming to san antonio next year for a wedding in steve's family!
we love love loved living with the isaac's, they are the best. sully was our best friend and would go on walks with us, laugh so hard on the trampoline, and share his secret hide outs in our new (old) church building. it doesn't hurt that during all of this he's bringing up all the best parts of the office and quoting lines we'd never remember on our own.
this girl deserves a shout out. she was such a good companion to me while jon was deployed. we had a falling out right before the boys came home but i blame it on weird emotions that had built up the entire seven months. we've since made up and i couldn't be happier. she is my most faithful reader and even cried when she read my post about my horse show because she knew how much it meant to me. that is a good friend!
the isaac's neighbors had baby chicks! i couldn't tell if i loved them or not. they were not chicks but not chickens either. the feathers weren't soft, but they weren't that hard.....weird. but jon loved them and the girls loved putting them all over him!
the goodbyes continued with mendez and gherine. mendez and i worked together at panera bread and had a really fun relationship. he is from guatemala and i loved hearing stories about how he grew up and liked having him help me with spanish although sometimes he was too honest. (i.e. making fun of my improper spanish and even one time commenting on my recent weight gain.)
gherine is definitely one of my best friends in san diego. we didn't get to see each other as often as i would have liked, but i always loved it when we got together. we initially bonded over justin bieber (we are both too old for him) and our struggles with gardening (we're both doing better). she gave me cooking pointers and always always always noticed if we weren't at church. there was a rough patch when jon first got back from deployment where we started going to church really infrequently and gherine was the only one who ever made sure we knew we were missed. i'm really grateful for that and good news, we are back on track!
the barn i ride at moved up the street. it was a pretty stressful day, but the farmer at the new barn we moved to tried to lighten the mood by carrying corina and i in the tractor! pretty funny!
