TGIF!

I look forward to Fridays soo much and I'm glad its here because it is looking like a fabulous weekend! Temperatures have already been hitting the low 80's here in the Lowcountry and we are headed back to the lake this weekend. Last week, my mom was in town and we took her out to Short Stay, the Naval Recreation Area, on Lake Moultrie. S is participating with the Sailing Club on base and has been taking sailing lessons. He is good friends with the instructor, who agreed to give me lessons on the side, so we are all about sailing lately. I REALLY enjoy Short Stay anyway; it's basically an RV park, but you can also tent-camp there as well as rent out cabins and villas (condos, basically) right on the water, cookout, hang on the beach, rent boats, etc. I love going to the beach and hanging here in Charleston, but it is nice to get away from here sometimes.

Here are a couple pictures from last weekend's trip :)

Brunch with my mom..pecan-encusted french toast, YUM!

Being a tourist in my own city...Downtown Charleston

A few weeks ago, S and I took an overnight trip to Savannah, GA, which is about 2 hours away. We stayed at an amazing bed & breakfast, The McMillan Inn. I highly recommend it! Here are a few pics:

S and I on the pier at nearby Tybee Island

The McMillan Inn

So that is a little look into my life through pictures. I have a lot more sailing pics, but haven't uploaded them to my computer yet, plus I'm sure I'll take a lot more this weekend.

We are quite the busy bees over the next couple months. When S gets off duty tomorrow morning we have a couple more things to move into storage then we are headed straight to Short Stay for the day. Next weekend, we are planning a whole weekend trip to Short Stay, Friday and Saturday. The following weekend, we are registered for the Cooper River Bridge Run, which is an annual 10K here in Charleston; its a huge event with 40,000+ runners. We were training pretty religiously for a while, but when my seasonal allergies/sinus infection kicked in last week, that all got put on hold. This has been a busy week with me moving and everything so we have been bad about working out :( Yesterday, however, I left work early for a doctor's appointment then, since it was still pretty early, we went to the driving range to hit a few golf balls then played 9 holes. The weather was perfect, but the bugs are definitely back out in full effect.

S is going to meet his family in Florida the first week of April (I'm not going because I don't get as much leave as him and I'd rather save it for this summer when his fam comes to Charleston to visit). We are going to Kentucky the first weekend in May for the Derby and then we are headed to Connecticut to see my family over Memorial Day weekend (this will be the first time that S will meet my dad & brother and probably many other family members and friends). I am super excited for all of our upcoming plans. I have to admit, while I do want kids, it sure is nice to have the freedom right now to do whatever we want. I guess we should take advantage of it while we can!

Waiting on my Sailor..

S is meeting me at work and we are going to grab dinner out tonight.. I still have about 30 min. until he gets here so update time it is!

This past weekend was pretty uneventful. I was feeling under the weather so I didn't get nearly as much done as I wanted plus it rained so that never helps. The only thing I did so far was go through my dressers and closets and put aside a LOT of stuff to bring to Goodwill. I am moving into a two bedroom apartment upstairs from me with a roommate and I have to be out of my apartment by March 15. I decided that it does not make sense to spend the amount of money that I spend every month for a one-bedroom apartment that I hardly ever stay at. S lives about 2 miles away from me and we usually stay at his place (even though I kinda like mine better). I actually found this new apartment on Craigslist, however, I did find out that the girl is a friend of a friend and completely normal, which is comforting. Turns out her boyfriend also lives very close by and she spends most of her time at his place so it works out great for both of us. I'm kind of looking forward to moving in with a roommate though and having a little bit bigger place.

Lucky girl.

S and I will be attending the Submarine Birthday Ball this year at the end of April here in Charleston. I'm SUPER excited for an excuse to get dressed up and to be out with him in his dress whites :) I bought a dress recently from Ann Taylor, but I'm starting to have second thoughts about it. S has been in the Navy all this time, but this will be the first ball that he attends. He told me "cocktail attire", but what do guys know about that??! I googled photos from past Naval Balls, etc. and I see a lot of long, more formal dresses. My mom is going to be in town visiting next week so I told her that we might have to do some dress shopping.

Here is the dress that I recently bought:

I'm thinking about going with these shoes (or maybe the shoes in the dress pic?):

I was thinking about wearing pearls with the outfit. Anyone have any ball tips or suggestions? It would be greatly appreciated!



Kentucky for the weekend!

Friday, February 24, 2012:
Checking in from th U.S. Naval Weapons Station, waiting for S to get off work. From here, we are driving up to the mountains of Eastern Kentucky to see his mamaw and papaw for the weekend. It's his papaw's 80th birthday next week and his whole family will be in town to celebrate.

Fast-Forward to today.

Monday, February 27, 2012:
I am exhausted after our whirlwind trip to Kentucky. It took us 7 hours to get there and 7 hours to get back. We were only actually there for about 36 hours. It was worth it though. We had a really nice, "surprise" birthday party for papaw, catered with typical Southern cuisine that included fried chicken, mashed potatoes, creamed corn, mac n cheese, cole slaw, biscuits, etc., etc., etc. I also love when his mamaw makes eggs and biscuits & gravy for breakfast. I love that Southern food, however, I feel like all the working out I did last week was completely negated. Time to get back on track!

In Charleston, there is so much to do that is based around eating and drinking, I am finding it very hard to lose weight these days. A couple weekends ago was the Lowcountry Oyster Festival, which I believe is the largest oyster festival in the country and this weekend we are going to be attending the Charleston Wine & Food Festival. If you are ever stationed here in Charleston, you will never run out of things to do. I will save my Charleston "must-do" and "to-do" lists for another day!

So as I mentioned, we had a 7 hour dirve, both ways and one of the things I love about driving in the car with S is that we always manage to entertain ourselves for that long without any music. Don't get me wrong, I am a huge music-lover, but we always have so much to talk about that we didn't need to resort to that. We talked a lot more about the future; where we might end up, where we would like to end up, and what it would be like for me. I told him that I am really nervous because he is always telling me that Navy wives can be such terrible people sometimes (I think this is just coming from his past experience). I believe that there MUST be some normal girls out there, that one day, I will be able to relate to and become friends with. He said that they are not all that bad and it is a good support system. I was starting to get really nervous thinking that if we end up somewhere far away, I'm not going to have anyone to be friends with! He assured me that would not be true and that it would be really hard to get homesick living somewhere like Hawaii. I think that no matter what, my first instinct is going to be to try and find a job on base. I want to work with the Sailors and their families anyway, and work would be a good distraction for me. Although when I asked him what I would do if we moved to Hawaii, he replied with, "just hang out" or "you could just surf all day". Oh geez...

One perk that he told me about this weekend is that, at times, when he is underway and gets word that they will be pulling into a foreign port (ie. Italy), he would be able to let me know to buy a plane ticket and meet him there. I was not expecting that, but how amazing! Apparently, he has had friends on the boat that have done that before with their wives. I guess I better get over my fear of flying because something like that is not going to be a short flight!

Okay, I am cutting this post off right here as it is quite a bit longer than I had intended. I could go on to write a storybook sometimes.

The end.

A little more about me.

I am originally from Connecticut, born and raised. I graduated from the University of Connecticut with a B.A. in Sociology in 2004 and completed my MBA in 2009. I have been working in Higher Education since I finished grad school. Mostly in Admissions, but I recently landed a state job at the local community college. Although I'm still only considered a contract employee, I'm hoping to be hired full-time permanent very soon. I am hoping that with my education and background, I will be able to work for the Navy some day as a civilian or at least be able to find work wherever we may end up. I definitely want to have kids and soon hopefully, however, I definitely feel the need to work until then and then I'll see where life takes me. I would like to continue in my career, but if I need to spend more time at home with the babies then I am okay with that, too.

S and I have been taking it slow in our relationship, taking into consideration the events that happened in the not-so-distant past. I know that S will only be in Charleston for so long and although I absolutely love this place, I will go wherever he goes. Before the end of his contract, he will have to go back out to sea again. He seems to think that there is a pretty good chance that he will be on a boat out of Kings Bay, GA. I wouldn't say that I am compeltely opposed to moving to GA. We shall see.

So that is my story in a nutshell. I'm hoping to connect with other girlfriends/wives like myself. So if you are out there, feel free to say hello!