Merry Christmas

There are 2 more presents now under the tree. The bag is Steven's "stocking" and the red one is from my grandparents in Virginia, and the big one is mine! The two that aren't under there here are for Steven.

I fell in love with this in Khols when I found it, we also have a mini snow globe that has the same "N" in it.

A glass ornament I got from the coffee I went to a few weeks ago.

We found this at the PX Monday, we have some other ornaments but since we don't have hooks, we couldn't put them up because the string wouldn't go through.

Anyways, we miss everyone back on the mainland and wish them all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year as well.

We love you and miss you.

Happy Thanksgiving

We are very thankful for our family and friends. We love you guys!

Spending the day apart has not been easy, but it's apart of the Army lifestyle, so we just go along with it. Luckily we will get to spend Christmas together, which I was afraid we'd miss as well.

One week tomorrow and then Mandi gets to join Steven! We are both very excited about this!

Our little house

So Steven went and looked at a house the other day for us to rent. He took a few pictures and yesterday he moved in! Since our furniture and other belongings aren't going to be there until Jan. the Army set us up with loaner furniture, which if we hadn't of  rented a place on Post we wouldn't have any furntiure until ours go there. So we got really lucky. God truly has blessed this process...even on days when I'm about ready to give up!

 Here are a few pictures, they are from Steven's phone so they aren't the best quality.

He also bought a used car last weekend.

The front yard...there are a few palm trees!

This is a big room that we'll use as the living room and dining room....the whole house has this dark floor except the bathrooms which have white tiles!

The kitchen, it isn't really big, but it'll do for now!

This is the little laundry room, we have rental washer/dryer right now, so we'll have to buy one later!

Here is the 2008 Ford Focus he bought....I am taking my car on Dec. 3 to have it shipped and then I'm hopping on a plane on Dec. 4 to head to Hawaii!

Married Life

So Steven left Sunday for Hawaii. I dropped him off at 5:30am in Atlanta. I cried, I couldn't help it. I didn't think I would, but I did. It was sad.

He got in about 11pm Eastern time. I'm not sure the time zone, but they are 5 hours behind, so he got there about 6pm Hawaii time. We talked for a bit, I couldn't sleep, so we chatted, and I finally got some sleep about 3am. Woke up and then fell back asleep until almost noon. And shortly after waking up he texted me to tell him he was up. It was 7am.

We called on Wednesday or Thursday last week to check on when the movers/packers would come. They freakin' lost our paperwork so we had to fax it to them. I called to let them know we had sent it. The woman said to put the 15th on the paperwork, and when I called to let them know we had faxed it, the same woman told me that was wrong. I wanted to scream...but luckily she could change the date. So I hadn't heard anything, and so I called today and they haven't even gotten to our paperwork....she said to call her back Thursday if they don't call me. But crap they'll call Steven and he's in freakin' Hawaii....I just thought about that, ugh....

We are still waiting for our marriage certificate to get here. The lady at the probate court said she put it in the mail the other day, and I was expecting to get it before Steven left, but it hasn't come yet. His grandmother said it should have been here by now, since we're having it mailed to an address just down the street...she said it takes like 1 day to get mail from Dahlonega to another address in Dahlonega. I will be calling tomorrow to find out what the deal is if we don't have it. Steven has to have it for Housing and Finance and to pout me on the orders, and I need it for my Social Security and Military ID, and other things, I'm sure.

I took a butt load of texts books to a bookstore to sell them, I mean, like 30 books. I sold TWO.....I put the rest in a box they had for books for Africa.

Went to Wal-Mart and bought Steven his Fry Daddy, and a few other things for the house. We could possibly live on Post. He's going to get on the list, hopefully they'll find something, and if not hopefully he'll be able to get a loan from the Finance Department for first and last months rent. We'd be without any furniture until ours got there, but if we live on post we can rent or borrow furniture from the Post. Can't do that if we live off Post.

Anyways, this is pretty long, so I'll let ya'll go. Just thought I'd update everyone on married life so far!

12 days...

Steven left for the field today. It's his last and final thing to do in BOLC 3 before graduation on Tuesday the 27th. I dropped him off at about 4:30am, so I would have the car in case of an emergency and so I could pick up my dress on Friday if it is ready. He's going to get a ride back, but I told him I'd gladly pick him up. But having left his cell phone in the room he would have no way to get a hold of me.

We have 12 days until the wedding and we have so much to do and so very little time. He graduates a week from tomorrow, and we'll have to drive back to Dahlonega. He has a paper with a list of things he has to get done before he can leave. And hopefully he'll be able to get it all taken care of on Monday, but if he doesn't we'll have to do it on Tuesday after graduation. And we went to do some of those things the other day and we were talking about what needs to be done once we're married for me to be able to go to Hawaii. Well, the first step is getting married. The next step is getting me medically cleared which can take 2 months. I can't go anywhere near Hawaii until I'm cleared. So Steven more than likely will have to go alone. Not permanently, but just for a couple months. My best friend, Emily's, husband is a Medic in the Army and they are stationed up in Fort Belvoir, VA - he works at Fort Meyer. He told Emily that he could medically clear me! So I had already mentioned going to see them in Virginia to Steven, but now this is a great reason to go up there. Not only can he do it, but he might be able to get it done quicker! I'm not going to get my hopes up tooooo much, because it is the Army we are talking about...but he might be able to pull some strings!

The reason for getting medically cleared is because the Army treats Hawaii as an overseas PCS...so we'd also have to have an oversea's brief and do some other things. But we can do those things at any Army Post. I can get my ID and get in DEERS in Chattanooga at the Armory but I'd have to go to an actual Post to get cleared and what not. It's just so frustrating.

Anyways, just thought I'd update ya'll on our progress and move to Hawaii!

-Mandi

The beginning

We're moving to Hawaii in November. So I (Amanda) have created this blog to share with our friends and family about our life and what's going on!

Enjoy!