Sunday, November 29, 2009

Typical Newlyweds!


We spent Saturday exploring Annapolis, Maryland. We started with a tour by a colonial era tour guide. She was great! She dressed the part. She explained everything from the origin of "putting your best foot forward" to the desperate desire of women from that era to take a little arsenic to appear more pale. We explored houses built in the 1700 and 1800s. We toured the Maryland State House. (It was TINY compared to the Texas State Capitol building!) We then headed over to the US Naval Academy and took a tour. It was very beautiful. The Academy sits right on the harbor and we arrived right as the sun was setting. Nothing more beautiful than a pink and orange sky. : ) As we headed back to the car, we popped into Starbucks for hot cocoa before heading off to dinner at Medieval Times restaurant. That's right, a reenactment of a medieval tournament, complete with horses, goblets, and jousting. It was so much fun! (I know, we're dorks.) We enjoyed our Saturday, it was so incredibly beautiful outside.

1st Thanksgiving as MRS = A Success!




Oh the nerves as Thanksgiving approached! I was so incredibly stressed and I didn't even realize it. Let's rewind to the week prior to Thanksgiving.

Word spreads fast. My dear husband, in his desire to look out for some of his fellow Marines on the "comfort food" holiday, invited a few Marines over to eat. Now please understand, each Marine eats the portion of at least 2 normal people. 2 RSVP equaled 4 folks in my head. My good friends were also planning to stay in town, so I invited them over as well. With a party of 6 to cook for, I began planning my menu. I've heard the horror stories about baking a whole turkey and the inside NOT being completely cook. So, I decided to modernize the process a bit, and cook the breast of the turkey only (with homemade gravy of course). I found some great recipes for cider glazed stuffed turkey breast, so I thought I'd try that out. Great. Now, let's see... what else sounds yummy? Grandma's stuffing. Oh yes yes yes! And... yams, of course. Green beans and cranberry sauce. And um, pumpkin pie. Yes...the PERFECT menu for my 1st Thanksgiving dinner as a MRS. I started my grocery shopping and $200 later, I felt 100% prepared to start cooking.

So as Saturday came, Thanksgiving felt closer than ever! The natural next step was to figure out what to cook first. As I began thinking through the dishes, I realized that it was physically impossible to cook my entire menu in one day. (Then I recalled my grandmother cooking days before Thanksgiving in years past. I finally understood.) When I finished backtracking time, I realized I'd need to start cooking on Tuesday for dinner on Thursday. WOW! I had no idea this was going take that long. Well, with cleaning the house and picking up a few last minute items, I may as well start setting the table 4 days beforehand. Geezz. In an effort to not over stress and cut down on the work, I decided to take out Grandma's stuffing and substitute bag stuffing. (Love Grandma's stuffing but it is a 2 day process by itself!) We'll talk about why that was a terrible idea later!

Fast forward to the day before Thanksgiving: Bright and early, I awoke...cooking and cleaning. I began by unwrapping my turkey breasts. I felt the cold mushy flesh of an animal for the first time. (Yuck! I usually get boneless skinless chicken, so this was very new to me.) I almost lost my stomach as I put them in the apple cider brine. After 17 hours of absorbing the sage, thyme, and apple cider mixture I was ready to manually de-bone and divide up my turkey breasts to prepare them for being stuffed. All in all, the turkey process was not only long...but incredibly...uneasy on the stomach. I ended the night with my hair all over my head. I'd worked up a decent sweat just getting the house in order. I spent the remainder of the day preparing a few dishes so Thanksgiving day was dedicated to finishing the turkey, making the gravy, and reheating other dishes. The table was set, the beautiful bouquet was on the table, and the cranberry was chilling, stuffing ready to be baked, green beans ready to boil, yams all done, and pumpkin pie ready to be devoured. I finally fell into bed around 1:30a.m. (On my way to bed, I noticed, my dear husband had cleaned the guest room and vacuumed the carpet. So sweet.)

Bright and early, my alarm woke me around 8:30a.m. I knew my dear friend Kim (and her husband) were coming over around 9 to help me finish cooking. Michael got up and finished cleaning up the house as I finished cooking. Kim and Kenny showed up (with their beautiful snuggly 3 mo. old daughter, Addison). Cooking commenced. Throughout the process, I realized I didn't have a roasted turkey wing to make my gravy. (It wouldn't be memorable if I didn't forget something!) So, Kenny and Michael went to the grocery store to hunt down a roasted turkey wing. Well, the closest thing they came up with was a raw turkey leg. : ( So, homemade turkey gravy left the menu as fast as it had come. No worries, that shaved an hour off our cooking time. Finally we were down to putting the turkey in the oven. The final step, such an awesome feeling. Kim and I excitedly stuck the turkey in the oven and then realized we had NO idea how to tell if it was done. Trip #2 to the store. Kim and I went this time to get a meat thermometer. Sold out you say? Almost. We found the last few. (So we bought 2 just in case!) Back home, thermometer's in and meat was cooking! I smiled a sigh of relief as the work was finally done! I even had a few extra minutes to video chat (SKYPE) with my family back home in Texas.

Time for me to get myself together. As I walked toward my room, it dawned on me that I'd been staring at those same pants for at least the past 2 days. I looked in the mirror and realized I hadn't slept but a few hours over the past 3 days. I'd gotten so lost in getting ready for the holidays that I completely forgot to put myself back together. I took a little time to myself, and thanks to Bobbi Brown, MAC, Olive Oil (the brand), and Victoria Secret... I was back to my fabulous self.

That night, I slept for almost 14 hours. Clearly, I was worn out. The dinner was great. Truly truly great. (Seriously, Kim's husband, Kenny ate like 10 slices of stuffed turkey!) My husband enjoyed the food. Our friends hung out after dinner and we spent the evening with pumpkin pie, cool whip, a snuggle doggy, a cuddly 3 mo. old, and Transformers 2. What a blast!

PS: Bag stuffing is a NO GO in the future. It was bad, but it WAS NOT GRANDMA's stuffing!

Monday, November 2, 2009

Married To A Marine Officer Means....



Some wonder. Some will never know. Well, I'm hear to tell you all about being married to a Marine Officer. Here are my top 6 observations of this very unique lifestyle...

1) For starters their haircut's will never be what they were before. If you haven't heard of a HIGH-N-TIGHT, then Google it. Don't worry, I'm more a tapered-fade girl myself too. However, I warmed up to a "medium-red" (which is a less dramatic version of a high-n-tight) pretty quickly. If you still don't know what
I'm talking about, the next time you see a Marine, ask him. : )

2) The color olive green begins to permeate every part of your life. [As I write this I'm wearing olive green sweat pants.] You'll find that everything from water bottles to boot foot cushions come in olive green! AND, that the Marine Corps will REQUIRE Marines to have 10 of everything! If green is not your color and you plan to join the Marine family, Id encourage you to find a room (or closet) to dedicate to all things green your Marine will collect and just throw it in and CLOSE the door. : ) I personally like green, so it's been quite nice. **wink**

3) The amount of food a Marine Officer can consume is quite impressive. I mean, I was raised in Texas where the men pile their plates a few inches high but, soon after you can typically see exactly where this food sticks to their body. The Marine Officer can put away thousands of calories easily and stay in perfect trim shape! They burn so many calories everyday with all of the PT (working out) that they need to eat hearty and hefty meals. This past Friday, Michael and I entertained (and fed) 5 of his fellow Officers. I don't believe I have ever cooked that much food in my life. Within an hour, it was all gone. Leftovers? Please!

4) Random outbursts. Umm, I'm not sure how else to describe it. Whether he is singing cadences to himself as he cleans his boots, or reciting motto's while he takes out the trash, the Marine Corps spirit, as they call it, lives in him! This spirit is contagious...I admit, I've caught it. Anytime one of those Marine Corps commercials with the men in uniform twirling their rifles comes on, I get chills up my arm and a big goofy smile on my face. I love it. "Ooh-rah!" may also be randomly shouted at very exciting moments." It is an expression of camaraderie an
d pride. I love seeing my Officer so motivated and driven by his passion for the Corps. What can I say?! There is no man happier, than one who loves God AND loves his job. : )

5) Marine Officers have a high standard of cleanliness and order. Something about OCS (Officer Candidate School) transforms them into men (and women) that crave order, obsess about planning, and maintain impeccable cleanliness. This can create quite the list of tasks for the wife that isn't a fan of housework. However, my grandmother raised me well...and I happily maintain our home. (The fancy dishwasher, extra large washer/dryer, frequent house guests, and my
natural OCD desire to clean also help motivate me to get the job done!) ***Now if I could only get him to buy me a Dyson. Hmmmm....

6) The odd hours begin to seem normal after a few days. I mean who would think it's strange to get up at 3:45 a.m. to travel to work, only to return 16 hours later...if you're lucky. And I thought a 40-hour
work week was demanding. Boy oh boy! Although, there's nothing more appealing than a man in uniform coming home from a hard days work ready for one of his wife's yummy meals. Ahhh... I love it! (If you're wondering if I get up to make him breakfast as well in the mornings...the answer is YES!) <-- We'll see how long I can keep that up. **wink**

All in all, married life is great. I'm married to a man that loves his job. Work isn't work to him and that makes me very very happy.