Time to catch up!

 Whew. I can finally breathe. What a busy couple of months it has been! 

For those of you who didn't already know. Kyle was allowed to come home for 30 days. He was home for almost the entire month of July. We finally had our beautiful wedding and he was even here for my birthday! Perfect timing.

There is a lot for me to talk about. So, I'll just start from the beginning.

Kyle came home June 27th. Many people thought he just got 30 days off, but that isn't exactly how RA (recruiter's assistance) works. Kyle came home because his training was postponed due to not enough trainers/teachers to lead Kyle's classes. Kyle was in Virginia for an entire month basically not doing anything but PT (physical training/working out) every now and then. So, his superiors finally gained some brain cells and decided to allow Kyle's platoon to have RA. They could only have 30 days. Kyle and I planned it so that it would give me at least 1 month to plan a wedding (more on that later). So, Kyle came home and was off on the weekends. He reported in Monday morning and learned that his job every day was to gather referrals (guys/girls ages 17-20 are ideal) for the recruiters to call and schedule interviews to see if they're interested in joining the Marines. Basically- Kyle is the guy who walks out on the lot when you're looking at new cars. He talks you into buying the new car, and instead of doing paper work and all the financial aspects of buying a new car, he sends you to his boss who takes care of that. Does that make sense? He actually did really well! He was to get 2 referrals a day, which sounds really difficult. But, when you're Kyle and you have the personality of a bulldog (a sweet, but stern bull dog) you're pretty much set. And, luckily for Kyle, the recruiter he worked under in Carrollton was incredible and allowed him to leave early if he had his 2 referrals for the day. Kyle, being the smart man that he is, had a brilliant idea. About 3 nights a week Kyle would go to Walmart, or any other shopping center and be a car salesman. We all know teenagers like to hang out at shopping centers at night. Prime time for Kyle to work his magic. He would get his 2 referrals, go home, go to work the next morning, turn the referrals in, and basically be done by lunch time. I was SO thankful for that.

Enough about Kyle and his harassing talents.

I PLANNED (and succeeded in planning) A WEDDING IN 38 DAYS!

Yeah, I said that right. I can't believe it myself to be honest. It was a pretty difficult process. Lots of tears and headaches, and some arguments. But, all in all, it was a beautiful day. Luckily, I already had a very good idea of what I wanted - flowers, venue, photographer, already had my wedding gown, catering was pretty easy to narrow down. The "bigger" things were taken care of. I went straight to etsy.com for all of the behind the scenes stuff.

Things I bought on etsy.com for the wedding:

garters
wedding cake topper
flower girl dresses
flower girl's gifts (personalized pearl bracelets)
Drake's bow tie
the robe I wore as I got ready
wedding koozies (favors)
a plaque I used as decoration

And everything turned out incredible. The flower girl dresses even came from Finland! How cool?! The koozies were a hit with everyone, as was Drake's bow tie collar. The cake topper matched the cake perfectly, and the garters... OMG. Precious. Kyle got a kick out of them. The robe is precious. I've worn it a few times since the wedding as I get out of the shower and get ready. The plaque I bought will definitely be used in our future home. I don't mean to toot my own horn, but I'm pretty impressed with how quickly me (with the help of my mom, sister in law, and friends) pulled this wedding off. So, TOOT, TOOT. 

*If you have any questions regarding our wedding - any questions at all, please feel free to ask.*


I really feel married now. We were legally married March 13th of this year, but it didn't really sink in until our wedding had taken place. We never said our vows the day we got legally married, so I think that is probably why. I have my wedding band, and I have a new last name - that I haven't legally changed yet... I'm procrastinating that. I'm so excited to truly call Kyle my husband now. It's one of the best feelings in the world, to be married. That probably sounds strange. But, to know how loved you are by someone other than your mom, dad, etc. feels so incredible. And to love someone with every fiber of your being! I seriously cannot explain it.

With every hello, there has to be a goodbye. And, it was really hard to do. Kyle left to go back to Virginia last Sunday (July 28th). Our plan was to try to get me to go through security with Kyle so that we could seriously cherish every last moment we had before he got on the plane. We were told by a few that they would allow it for military families, and we were told they wouldn't allow it, period. Can't hurt to ask. So, we did. And, it is true- only for military families. I got a gate pass, had to show my military ID, went through security, and spend about another 30 minutes with Kyle. We were both a mess. But, we're pretty used to separation more than we're used to being together. Plus, we know when we'll see each other again and we're SO very excited for that date to finally get here.

I really feel like I soaked up every moment I was with Kyle. We cannot wait until Labor Day weekend! (that's the next time we'll see each other, if you hadn't already figured that out.)


P.S: Not sure if you noticed or not, but, I had to change the name of my blog again. I was searching through military spouses blogs and found one that had the same as my old one (the ramblings of a marine wife). So, I searched "married to the marines" and luckily, it wasn't taken!