it's me again, margaret.

looking through my pictures, it is clear that my life consists of only a few things. 

two of them being cats and my man. 

i can't help it though, both of those things are too irresistible to not take photos of. 

 i went into the back yard with the intention of taking a picture of the sun and green grass, then rumbi jumped up and just stood in the way. it made for a pretty cool photo, though, yes?

 my new years resolution (and yours too, probably) was to work out 4 days a week. no more, and no less. last semester wassssss rough. i was so busy with my classes that i literally had no time and no energy to work out. i've been doing so much better than last semester, even if i don't always hit my 4 times a week quota. when i start to work out, i usually work out a ton for a few weeks and then get burned out. that's why i put the 'no more than four times a week' rule into effect. although my clothes aren't fitting much better yet, my legs and arms are definitely improving. i'm hoping that if i slowly get to where i want to be, it'll take longer for those results to wear off.....rigghhtt?

 look. at those. little. arms. and slanty eyes. i love. 

oh yeah. we got another cat. :D

 saturday night, jon and i spent a couple hours doing lots and lots of homework. by the time 9 o'clock rolled around, we were both feeling pretty hungry and stir crazy. so homeboy offered to take me out! although chili's isn't the best restaurant in the world, i was craving a chicken caesar salad, so we went there. we shared it and contemplated getting some chocolate molten cake. HOWEVER, it was $6.29! are you kidders?? i remember when it was $4.99! no way am i spending almost the same amount on dessert that i did for my salad. ridiculous. 

 so we hit up yogurtland instead! we figured we'd feel better after eating fruit and fro-yo than we would after eating molten cake, anyway...

 we got back from texas on january 13th. and we. never. unpacked. i mean, we unloaded our suitcases and put those away, but we never really picked all of our other belongings up off the floor. until we had to leave for church. that's when we decided it was really important for us to clean our room. so we did just that. and still made it to the last couple hours of church....doin' good!

i'll leave you with two photos. 

rumbi's feet all squished up while she was sleeping. so adorable. 

and my other favorite thing-walking in on sleeping cats and waking them up. they look soo groggy. those tiny eyes! ugh, i love them both. 

wk 28.

PERfect!

yeah, you read that right. i said it just like pre-teen grinch says it.

i've been reallllllllllly grateful this trip that i only have one kitty to clean up after.

since being here, i've had both of my cats and had to clean the litter box for two cats. 

SO GROSS!

so i found this H1N1 mask in the garage and it's SUCH the solution!

(p.s. you see rumbi's right eye?....its got me REALLY worried. why is it white.)

19 days.

gone 19 days and it feels like at least a month. i guess it almost is. 

what have i been doing for 19 days?

i've been going to the gym very frequently.

amanda and i decided to go 5 times a week

my new girlfriend, lindsey, and i go 5 times a week together. i feel great.

i've been trying to cook. i cooked chicken for the first time. ever.

i bought herbs and started a garden! 

(no one of my plants hasn't died already.)

i've been spending lots of time with other couples. its more fun than it sounds.

will, tranique, and i went to a crazy diner. 

the tables were glow in the dark. i still can't figure out how this worked.

i made a new friend! she came over and we made packages to send to our loves ones. her marine left a couple days before jon did. she's very fun.

rumbi gets in my way allllll day long.

i didn't put that paint on her face. 

we finally got a rainstorm! it was POURING rain! it was really pretty.

then afterwards....i saw a rainbow.

a double rainbow in fact.

it went all the way across!

i don't know what it means...?

and lastly, i've been watching movie after movie.

Date Night--So so funny. I loved how they portrayed marriage.

very cute movie.

The Back Up Plan--typical J.Lo movie, but pretty good. I love those cheesey movies.

In Her Shoes-Kind of graphic...it was rated PG-13 though. It was cute and VERY long. I don't know how many more times i could ever watch it, but i'd definitely recommend it.

these are all the movies i borrowed from lindsey.
they'll keep me busy for a week or so:)

gonegonegone.

jon left this week.

he's now somewhere in the middle east. 

maybe i should have written this post when i was feeling good, i'm starting to be sad.

we had fun the day before he left. 

we got our reimbursement back for the move...

$$$$$$$

we got twice as much back than we expected.

that amount also happened to be equal to two of jon's paychecks. 

we paid all of our bills so that we were a paycheck ahead on them, and then.....

spent spent spent. 

we got lunch, went to barnes and noble to get books for him to take with him and a book for me to read,

best buy to get a hard drive to back up both of our computers in case they crash in the next 7 months, 

headphones for jon to take with him, work out stuff for him, 

and my darling got me such a beautiful coach purse.

the best part about that is, there was only one left and there was a minor stratch, 

so they gave us 5% off.

also, in two weeks, the purses are going on sale for 15% off. I just need to take in my receipt and they will give me money back.

they're like...paying me for using their purse. 

it was so awesome being able to spend freely, it was such a fun last day to have him here.

oh, did i mention that we paid off his credit card and my credit card this week??

then i made cookies for jon to take with him on the plane(s).

i tried to make the frosting RED for marine corps colors...it turned out pink.

i sent my husband to afghanistan with pink cookies.

that night, we went on a date. 

his hair cut is a joke, fyi. he wanted to get a flattop for his deployment.

he's so so awful.

we went to bed at a reasonable time, knowing we had to wake up early.

i woke up earlier than i expected, however. at 1:50 am to be exact. 

my angry, angry stomach woke me up, screaming at me, telling me i had to throw up.

i hadn't felt anxious or an overwhelming feeling of anticipation until that time.

and boy was i anxious.

i woke jon up and told him i wasn't going to take him to Camp Pendleton to drop him off.

jon has been working about an hour away for three months.

every morning around 4-5:20, jon would kiss me goodbye.

i'd barely wake up enough to say 'i love you'.

on the days that jon got to go in later,

(appointment, or something...)

i would wake up and we would talk. 

and it was the hardest ever for him to leave and for me to watch him leave.

so, for months, i have been telling him that on the day of his deployment, 

i wanted him to just kiss me goodbye while i was asleep.

it was a joke. but the morning before he had to leave, i wasn't joking. 

he rubbed my tummy until i fell asleep.

when he woke me up at 4, i knew i had to take him.

he woke me up, undressed me (uh), and carried me to the shower.

(what am i going to do while he's gone when i have to wake up early? 

i simply can not get myself out of bed sometimes...)

then we were on our way to camp pendleton.

this is us at 5 am...feelin pretty good about the situation.

jon was assigned to be a Guardian Angel. meaning, he had to stay awake at every stop to make sure everything was okay, also it meant that he got to carry rounds with his gun...

doesnt he look like such a nice guardian angel??

we waited...and waited. until finally the buses came around 845.

so we said our goodbyes. just hugged, and cried.

it was so hard to say goodbye.

i love him dearly, and i just want him to be safe.

i'm so proud of him though, and know that 7-8 months will go by fast.

we've been preparing for this since march.

remember?

so i've got this.

i'm not going to say it doesn't suck.

but the good parts about it?

finally i can sleep through the night, i'm not constantly pushing jon back onto his 'side' of our full sized bed.

and

the extra $$, obviously. paying off bills and saving saving.

and thats about it.

as soon as i returned home from camp pendleton, i came home to this.

little rumbi, licking the tears off my face.

she is such a good companion.

she is biting me 99.9% of the time, but she sure does keep me company.

when i get out of the shower, i open the door to see her laying on the carpet in the hallway.

when i'm working, she's sleeping at my feet under the desk.

when i'm eating, she's sitting on my lap at the table.

when i'm sleeping, she's also sleeping (or biting my fingers and playing with my hair) on jon's pillow.

she runs to the door when i get home, cries when she thinks i left but am really just upstairs, and jumps around so happy when i wake up in the morning, hours after she first started biting my hand.

in fact, this is her positioning right now. i love her.

and lastly.

here is my jar of candies.

see how its already almost empty!!?

i've already eaten two.

come home soon, baby.


p.s.
kelli, thank you for flattering me. 
and making me feel better about my poorly planned wedding. :)

news.

jon got a call yesterday.

every time his phone rings, my stomach drops.

see, he is on 24 hour call now.

they could tell him they are leaving and they'd be gone within a day.

it is quite frightening, but i know that he is going so it can't be too much of a shock.

and whenever he finally leaves, that means i can start counting down until he comes home.

i counted out 217 junior mints yesterday and put them in a glass container.

thats 7 months if every month has 31 days. so it gives me leeway.

i will eat a junior mint every day that he is gone.

its actually comforting, because the glass container is already half empty.

it really doesn't look like that many junior mints...

mmmm stale candy:)

well, the call was telling him that he is no longer going to Camp Dwyer.

it kind of freaked me out.

what we 'knew' about camp dwyer-

-it has wi-fi, laundromats, and cans. 

(not sure EXACTLY what a can is...all i know is that it is NOT a measly tent)

-jon would have been at the same camp as two of his good friends from school, one of his buddies from the shop here, and would have been in good contact with kenny, his best friend from high school.

now jon is going to a brittish camp with 9 other marines, and he will be the only generator mechanic.

he will be sleeping in a tent. 

internet? who knows.

its rough getting such news when we have guests. we don't have any alone time to talk about it, and i don't want to sound freaked out in front of his little brother. 

its hard not to bicker in such tense circumstances. so we did.

and when i stormed up to our room, jon followed me and annoyed me until i laughed. he is such a tool.

this was me trying to pout. i love him.

and a little family photo.

me kissing the cat, jon eating it.

typical.

wk 10.

the last couple weeks have been crazy. bear didn't come home before we left for texas.

we flew there tuesday night. we had such a ball! that'll be another post.

we came home saturday night around 10 pm. still no bear.

we decided that on sunday morning, we were going to drive to utah in the morning and surprise our family.

sunday, we woke up at 5 am and left at 6 so that we could be home by sunday dinner at 530.

it was so much fun seeing the family and surprising Camille. she is the sweetest.

the next morning we went to the pound to look at kitties.

well....we left with one.

we wanted to name her after something that would remind us of home.

so we named her Rumbi.

its a bit soon to get a kitty after bear left. we're both so sad about him being gone. 

the point of getting a cat was to keep me company while jon is away. i wanted him to spend time with a new kitty too, so that he didn't just come home to a cat he doesn't know. 

we still want bear to come home. 

and this new little kitty is so so so sweet.
p.s. those specks on my jeans? yeah. its snot from rumbi sneezing. she was sick when we got her, so we're in the process of nursing her back to life. we are good parents.