R&R

R&R stands for rest and relaxation, but I think both of us were ready for some R&R after Rich's R&R! We did SO much while he was here and I loved every second of it! Here are a few pictures of some of the things we did for the two weeks that he was here:

Rich played indoor soccer a few times with two of our brother-in-laws. He loves any kind of sport and was happy to play.. even if he had to wear pink shin guards :) He also played in multiple basketball games both for a city league and church ball.
While Rich has been gone, he's gotten a new niece and a new nephew! He was so excited to meet them both. Here is Rich with little Jaxon

Lucky for me, Rich was able to make it in time for Valentine's day! We decorated cookies at my parents house and went out to lunch AND dinner to celebrate :)
Oh, and we also helped cupid deliver a Valentine to Parker at work :) He had quite the crowd following him.
We were lucky enough to have two free passes to Canyons so we spent a day out on the mountain. It was really fun other than it was a little windy at the top.. ok, it was REALLY windy. But still fun.

Rich's birthday was in January and we wanted an excuse to have everyone over to see him-so we called it a late birthday party and had cake and ice cream. The little kids loved the Army man cake :)
Everyone though we were crazy planning a cruise during leave.. Dates ALWAYS change with the military so we were really risking it. I was so set on a cruise cause I'd never been and being on a ship with all you can eat food, room service, entertainment and sun sounded like the perfect way to spend leave. Anyway, after some worrying of my own, it worked out perfectly! We went to Cabo San Lucas and loved it so much

After the cruise, we flew into SLC and just stayed there for the Linkin Park concert at the ESA. While we were there one of our friends just happened to be sitting a few rows behind us.. he is also deployed with Rich and was on his R&R. What are the chances? Anyway, I tried to be the crazy photo taking wife the whole time Rich was here cause I wanted to document the only two weeks we'll be together this year.. but I guess I'm not quite there yet. I forgot to charge the camera... so this was the only picture from the concert before it died for good:Oh, and Linkin Park is really good live but they didn't chose such a great band to open for them... Lets just say they weren't too creative with their choice of vocabulary :)

Although we had already had cake and ice cram, its tradition that my parents take out the birthday couple for lunch. Since Rich missed his, they had to make it up while he was in town. Turns out the best day to go was Austin's actual birthday, so we decided to do a combo. My parents didn't want to leave Heidi and Parker out however, so they talked and decided to celebrate Parker's birthday a month early! So we went out to dinner for the three son-in-law's birthday then had yummy cupcakes and MORE ice cream. The kids liked to help blow out the candles :)


Just a few days after that, Rich had to leave and go back for the last part of his deployment. I wasn't too excited about it, but he had to leave again before the countdown could REALLY begin. Not too much longer now and he'll be home for good! I can't wait for the day... Although we aren't perfect, I know that Rich and I are perfect for each other. We work together, and can correct each other when correction is needed. We can both be stubborn, but it just makes for a good laugh later ;) I love him so much and couldn't be more proud of what he is out doing right now!

Theme song for the last week :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-ImCpNqbJw

Posting once every two months isn't too bad, right? Ha ha... shoot. I'll {keep} work{ing} on it.

Here are a few pictures of things that have been going on in life for Rich and I. They are in no particular order, but here they are anyway- Starting with Rich

Christmas time spent out in Iraq. I guess they decorate for the holidays out there cause they had something similar for Thanksgiving. Kinda cool :)

Rich's brother Joe had his birthday in December. Someone found out that it was that day and took the two of them on a helicopter ride. Only a 30 year old could grow a mustache like that... ;)
Rich got to spend some time off his usual base. This is in Baghdad. He said that it was almost a culture shock to see things growing. Where he is there is just sand. Kind of fun to be in a new area.
Rich's birthday was on January 26th. He also got to go on a helicopter ride, but not because someone found out it was his birthday, it was because he was traveling all day trying to get back to his base. Unfortunately he didn't get back for almost a week, so he didn't get to open his packages till later.

Some things that I have done.. graduated college! We had our pinning ceremony and got Pres. Benson to speak at it. My parents came down along with Rich's dad. My sister in law had her baby at the same time so Rich's mom stayed up with them. I don't have a picture, but Rich and I got a new nephew Jaxon Jacob Brandt!
Nate and Kacee came from Atlanta for Christmas. Some of their friends from GA came with them to go snowboarding over the break. I wasn't planning on going, but ended up finding a cheap day pass so I couldn't resist ;) When Rich comes on leave we're going to the Canyons. I got two free day passes at a military appreciation thing I went to a while back and have just been waiting around to use them!
My whole family got together for Christmas again. My mom usually volunteers to work a 1/2 day on Christmas so that those with little kids can be home. Because of this, we've been celebrating on Christmas Eve. It's nice because we're all married now and for those of us kids who have in-laws close by don't have to decide who they're going to spend the holiday with. ANYWAY, my dad had been working on a surprise present for my mom for months, and the plan was to take her out of the house while it was delivered Christmas Eve. We used it as an excuse to have all of the girls go get breakfast that morning. When we returned, my mom had this baby grand piano set up next to the tree!

The only other things that I did worth mentioning is- moved in with Heidi and Parker to their new house, ha ha, took the NCLEX and PASSED, and got my first job as an RN! I work for Harmony Home Health and Hospice doing pediatrics. It's not the kind of home health that you probably think of. What I do is stay at one home all night while the parents of the patient sleep, and monitor the child. For example, my patient I've been with has a trach and is on a vent. I stay by his crib and make sure he can still breath and is getting enough oxygen etc. Basically I get anxiety attacks all night long then try to sleep during the day... ha ha, fun huh?

Upcoming events: Rich is coming home for his R&R SOON! I'm not supposed to say exact dates for safety reasons, and I'm really terrible at keeping things like that to myself.. so please don't ask me, ha ha. Just know that it is soon and we will be spending Valentine's together unless something crazy happens! *knock on wood* We have a cruise booked so pray for good weather and that my passport comes in time (did you know when you change your name, there is no simple name change option for passports? You have to reapply and re pay the full price!)

Hopefully between things actually starting to happen in life besides school, and having a job where not a lot is going on most of the night.. I'll be able to keep up on this whole blogging thing a lot better! Keep an eye out-it might within a month that I update again! ;)

Thanksgiving

It's 11:30pm and I should be going to sleep... But I have this routine where I HAVE to get on my computer before bed. It's going to be a hard habit to break when it's time.

My blog isn't usually in my routine of things I check before bed, but after seeing that I haven't posted Thanksgiving pictures, I figured I'd better get on it before Christmas comes and goes as well. Pictures are in reverse order. Sorry.

The kids LOVE climbing on uncle Austin/Daddy

Kaleb FINALLY got to eat his cupcake after being so patient all day..

Race and Adylee all dressed up

My favorite picture from the day :)
Cupcakes my mom found online and the girls all made. All edible (except the toothpick name tag of course).
Dinner is served!

Deployment

I was just thinking today.. and sometimes I wonder what people think about me. Or more like, how they think of me. I hope that I'm not that poor girl who's husband is at war. I hope that I'm not an example to people of why they don't want to be with a soldier. Sometime I hear moms telling their daughters, or friends telling each other that they wont marry someone in the military because then they might have the difficulty of going through a deployment.

How selfish is that? To not give a guy a chance because he's signed up to protect your freedom. Thank you to those of you who aren't like that. I just want everyone to know that I do not regret my decision to marry my husband in the least bit. In fact, watching him do this and going through this together has made me fall even deeper in love with him and brought us close in a way that nothing else in this world could. This is not a self reassurance post, I've always known this. I just want everyone to know where I stand in this situation. You might think, as people have told me, that it takes a special person to do what I'm doing... well I didn't exactly sign up for it. You just take what comes. I promise I don't have any super powers that are allowing me to be just fine during this. You would do it too if you had to. Deployment isn't the worst thing that can happen in a marriage.

I appreciate all of you. Thank you for your support. Please know that I am happy. Life is good right now :)

I don't know why I posted this... just thinking out loud I guess.

Thanksgiving post to come soon. Hopefully.

Quick Update

Alright, this will be a short one. The reason? Other than the fact that my life isn't all that exciting right now, I got acrylic nails and can't type to save my life.. ha ha. I finished all of my nursing school clinicals so I am finally allowed to have them for the first time in two years!

I never know what to post about Rich because he's not really allowed to even tell me what he's doing, but just know that he is still safe and just bored to death. Here's what he gets to look at for the next year:

Lets be serious, who wouldn't get depressed having to leave your family and go there for a year. I'm so grateful for people like him who are willing to do what he does in order to protect our country as well as others. If you feel so inclined, please send him a letter or shoot him an email if you have his address. If you want it, send me a message! I know he would greatly appreciate it. He misses his friends and family.

Next: I had a quarter-deployment crisis (not really, just an excuse for change), and colored my hair back to brown! I had never colored my hair (including highlights) till a couple of years ago so I haven't played around too much with colors... I guess now is a good time to try things out ;) Anyway, I've only had short brown hair and really wanted long brown hair, so here it is! ha ha..

Halloween I spent at my parent's with my sisters and their kids. They were all different bugs.

From the left: Butterfly, Ant, Bee, Spider and Lady Bug. The lady bug costume got left at home all except the tutu, but she only made it to one house anyway so it wasn't a big deal, ha ha.

I'm sure I'll post pictures later, but today was Adylee's baby blessing. They were able to do it at my parent's house because their sacrament schedule is all messed up for the next couple of weeks. Because of that and the time that they decided to do it, Rich was able to be on Skype and at least sort of be part of it :) That was fun. Adylee looked so pretty in the little dress that Heidi made and red shoes Heather made. My sisters are so talented... I think they took all of the creativity genes before I came along, ha ha. Oh well!

I guess that's all for now. And it's taken me forever to type up this much, so I'm quitting, ha ha. Later.

Well, it's been two months and I figured it's time for an update. Today is my lazy day and I haven't had one of those in a VERY long time. I'm in my last semester of nursing school and holy cow.. it hasn't been too difficult so far, but I feel like I don't have a free second ever. I think my poor husband expected our conversations to be based around his schedule (we both did), but now we can only talk for an hour at 9pm (his 6am) because I have to be in bed by 10 so I can wake up at 5am! Waking up at 6am when you don't have anything planned for your day till 9 isn't the funnest thing. Love you Rich :)

Some of the things I have been doing lately, Kaleb turned 4 in August.

I went down to Hurricane's Peach Days with my sister Heather and her family.

My sister Heidi had her little girl, Adylee (did I get the spelling right this time? ha ha)

Before all of that (sorry, these aren't in order) I went to Washington to visit Rich one more time before he left the states. We did SO much while we were there... The space needle probably isn't worth the $16 per person to go to the top FYI if anyone goes. Unless you REALLY wanna be able to say you've gone up there. I didn't think it was that amazing and there are plenty of other things I'd rather do with $32. Rich's Aunt and Uncle live in Washington so we made a Sunday drive to go visit them. They came to our wedding and I hadn't met them before, or seen them since so it was really good to get to know them better. They have two "dogs" that they love very much, Jasper (picture below) isn't really a dog however.. He's a wolf! Check it out..

With Rich being away, I started doing a little business. I'm not going to go into details, but if you're married or have friends who are getting married and might be interested in bridal shower/wedding gifts let me know :) I have the perfect ideas for those occasions!

Rich has been gone for three months now. It has gone by very fast and very slow at the same time, just like so many things in life. It's really easy to look at and talk about the negatives in situations, so here is my attempt to be positive:

Because of my husband's service...

I get invited to free dinners with prizes. I got two free day passes to the Canyons :)

I get to drive this for a year!

Military discounts.. usually not a huge amount, but hey, it adds up!

Roommates :)

And if that's not enough, I get the satisfaction of knowing that my husband is defending all of our freedoms and gets to wear this uniform every day. What's hotter than that?? ;)

Till next time!

-Ashley