Show & Tell: How I Met My Husband

How I met Your Father My Husband

1. Tell us about how and when you met your love and what attracted you most to him.

I met Ryan while on a marketing class trip during high school.  We went to the Wisconsin Dells together.  We dated for like two weeks and we parted ways.  Staying friends, we ended up going through our separate journeys but staying in touch.  While I was in college, Ryan was finishing his first deployment with the Marine Corps.  He started chatting me up on Facebook while he was gone and we ended up hanging out all of my winter break and he took me to the Marine Corps Birthday Ball that year.  He's really fun and incredibly attractive.  I just like being goofy around him and although sometimes we fight, I'm still crazy about him.

2. Show us the very first {or one of the first} pictures you guys ever took together. {Feel free to show us more than one}

2011 Marine Corps Birthday Ball in Las Vegas

3. Tell us some of your favorite memories that you two had together.

I went to my first Marine Corps Birthday Ball with him in Las Vegas, I braved a blizzard after my last set of first semester finals to see him after he came home from his first deployment, he said "I love you" for the first time in a phone call two seconds after he dropped me off at LAX- it went something along the lines of, "I forgot to say something..."
A lot of my favorite memories with him are really casual times when we're just having fun.  When we lived at Camp Pendleton, we swam in our local pool and we were so excited to have goggles to swim with and I'm pretty sure the little kids there loved us.  We're truly kids at heart.
 
4. Tell us your favorite qualities about this man, what makes him "the one." 

Ryan is so genuine and caring.  He cares for his family and friends so deeply.  He can be brutally honest, but you know that if something is horribly amiss, he'll definitely let you know.  Even though he's younger than me, he's definitely more mature.  I'm the dreamer and he's the realist.  He keeps me grounded and he really is my better half.  He always encourages me to cultivate new ideas but he's there to make sure they're realistic.  He's also really sexy and that is a definite plus ;)

5. Tell us what your "date nights" typically look like.
I like to go "all Pinterest" on him but they usually revolve around a lot of relaxing in pajama shorts and sweatpants, watching TV shows on Netflix, and occasionally going out to dinner.  Since we're often separated due to our military obligations, we just like spending time with each other and being goofy.
 

  

All Hallow's Eve

I don't know about any of you, but I'm kind of Halloween-d out.  I mean throwing a birthday party extravaganza in which everyone and their mom showed up kind of filled my quota for thrills and scares.  I'm also a little bit done with ducking under spiderwebs in our house- we went a little crazy with the decorations but hey, they're awesome.

I think the problem circles around the idea of celebrating Halloween two weeks early, and then having stores start putting up their Christmas decor before Halloween is even around.  Sorry Halloween, you get a solid 15 minutes of fame and then you're outta here.

Brit and I went to Michael's the other day and their Halloween decor was all on sale- a measly display of picked over items.  However, their Christmas aisles were well and thriving. So much for stocking up post-holidays.

However, there are some things that I still am enjoying this week.  I'm making attempts to watch some classic scary movies.  Every Halloween (or around that time) I muster up the courage and watch scary movies.  By that I mean, I usually flick on ABC Family and see whatever is in their line-up.  It's usually fairly tame and has a few jumps here and there but without cable, I'm resorting to Netflix.  I was introduced to "Children of the Corn."  Talk about a weird movie.  Religious zealots already weird me out but then make them kids who kill their parents and adults...woah talk about a strange movie to watch right before an election.  I especially enjoyed the 80s-style special effects.  That's the beauty of the classics, they're not too scary but they still freak you out a little bit.

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Plus Malachai (sweet name, scary ginger as pictured) gave a bad rep to ginger children everywhere.  He was seriously terrifying in the movie.  Isaac was no better (old man-child thing).  Watch the movie, get creeped out a bit and laugh at the awful special effects.  What I can't believe is that there are sequels...ugh.  I'm also making an attempt to read another Stephen King work, "It."  Hopefully I can get through it without terrifying myself.  Remember when we were kids and R.L. Stine's "Goosebumps" books were everywhere? 

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I remember being so nervous to check them out but after my first one and watching the series on Nickelodeon, I frequented that area of the library often.  Always a little bit creepy, but bearable.  Good solid stuff.  Having grown up, I wonder whatever happened to them or if he simply stopped writing.  I think I would love my kids to have those.  Those were my building blocks to reading and spending hours in libraries and bookstores.

When it comes to Halloween costumes, I love making my own.  I have a really hard time buying costumes because 1. They're expensive 2. They're made from really cheap material.  All-in-all, it's not worth it to me.  I love dressing up and thinking of really original and unique costumes.  That's why I went as Ms. Frizzle from the "Magic Schoolbus" fame.  Who doesn't love Ms. Frizzle?  An educator exciting her students on a quest for knowledge = an A+ in my book.  I definitely enjoyed fellow blogger Lindsay's post on the best costumes are homemade.  In year's past, I went as Witch's Brew (witch costume in relation to an alcoholic beverage), a mermaid, Eve, Skunk, Minnie Mouse, a school girl and a cowgirl.  Now those last two in the list were from freshman year of college and I had soon realized that I needed multiple costumes and I didn't want to spend money on them, or ask my parents to buy me any more things than they had already invested in me that year.  My most risque costumes were probably Junior year when they were a mermaid and Eve.  I handmade them but they featured very elaborately decorated bras and other accessories.  Essentially it showed off my mid-riff.  Being married, I've toned it down a bit.  Nevertheless, my argument is you can make a better costume on your own than spending $50 on something that looks terrible. Ahem the ladies that attempt the slutty nurse outfits.

Finally, it wouldn't be fall without some delicious baked treats.  I just attempted to make Caramel Stuffed- Apple Cider Cookies.  Seriously so delicious!  The batter in itself is a treat.

Caramel Stuffed Apple Cider Cookies Recipe

It was a little difficult for me to find the Alpine Spiced Apple Cider Instant Original Drink mix, but just take a good long look in the hot chocolate mix aisle and I used Werther's Chew caramels because that's all I could find.  I chopped them in half to get more bang for my buck.

P.S. This post might be a little late seeing that many of the parties were last week, but keep in mind the effects of what you choose to be for Halloween.  What is "your good fun" could actually be seriously insulting and showing a blatant disregard for the diversity of the people around you.  A few years ago my university had athletes dressing in black face as part of a costume.  The cultural and historical significance of that is so far beyond dressing up to get schwasted at some house party.  That's just one example.  I've seen people disregard entire cultures, people within their neighborhoods, and even their own friends because they choose to use Halloween as an excuse.  Ignorance or not understanding something is not a strong enough argument to belittle other people.  With all things, take your head out of your ass and think.

Currently [V1: Halloween12]

I came across this link-up called, "Currently" and I thought it would be perfect for things that I wanted to express without putting it into a random post.

worrying, listening to, wishing, observing, considering

Currently Worrying: I try not to worry about too many things but I think the thing that I am most worried about this week is the concept of marriage. While scrolling through the boards of Pinterest, this caught my eye, 25 Ways to Communicate Respect to Your Husband. It's a really good post and although the author references passages from the Bible, I think it's still strongly applicable to any marriage. I started to think into this more and how I could respect my husband Ryan in a more positive light. I am by no means a perfect wife, I'm actually a really goofy partner. I'm naturally bad at sharing, I'm stubborn and can be very difficult depending on the situation. There's a lot in this list alone that I need to improve upon.  

Like keeping the house clean- I'm terrible at this and I don't like to clean but it's something that I actively need to work on.  Ryan told me that when I take over the counter space in the bathroom with my make-up, lotion, hair products, etc., it makes it difficult for him to find a space.  In turn, he feels like when he moves up here and finishes his Marine Corps contract that he won't have a space up here.  That definitely broke my heart.  Then I feel terrible, so I am trying to make sure that my husband feels like he belongs here and that I'm not being incredibly obnoxious with my use of space.  Dress to Please Him- this is a funny one.  While Ryan was deployed, it was like a get out of jail free card when it came to shaving my legs.  If I didn't want to wear make-up...whatevs.  It's not like I was trying to attract anyone.  It's laziness at its finest and an art that I cultivated for over seven months.  However that occasionally creeps back in whenever he visits.  I'll all of a sudden realize that my legs aren't shaved and they're awfully prickly.  I usually notice this when I realize that I've also taken over the bathroom counter space.  See my predicament?   

Be Content- This is a tricky one.  I love my husband as my best-friend and partner.  I love the life that we share together.  I think the problem with this is that we are hand fed ideas from the media, books, movies and even Pinterest on what life is supposed to be like.  Sometimes, I struggle with this.  Would having the headboard hand carved from scrap wood that costs a million dollars be really cool...yes, but is it within our budget...no.  That's usually the problem that occurs with things.  I've been really wanting a DSLR camera for blogging and just taking pictures of our life and family.  They're expensive cameras and I asked for one for my birthday but the same time, I need to be realistic.  I have to actively work on all of these things and more.

Having just found out that one of my friends is getting a divorce, it only further reinforces why communication in a marriage is so important.  We get into fights but a marriage is a partnership and I could never see myself in that situation but at the same time, that's because we both actively try to compromise.

Currently Listening To:  Madilyn Bailey- she is amazing and does really sweet covers of songs.  I'm particularly enjoying her cover to Justin Bieber's song, "boyfriend."  Her songs are also available on iTunes.  They're super catchy and I'm definitely jamming to them as I write this :)

Currently Wishing:  Nikon D3100 - Amazon link

Swoon...that's all I need to say.  I've wanted a DSLR for so long.

 Currently Observing:  Two things- the first is that a lot of people are voting early and that is awesome.  It's our responsibility as [well-informed] and responsible citizens to vote.  Plus it's my first time submitting an absentee ballot due to the military- if you couldn't tell, I'm pretty excited.  I also strongly encouraged my husband to vote and he submitted his absentee ballot even before I did!  My second observation is how bad I have been at communicating and keeping in touch with my friends.  I've started using Facebook as a crutch.  My reliance on checking people's FB profiles is embarrassing.  I think the 2+ hour time difference combined with training has become my dominant excuse but at the same time, I need to work on that.  So friends, if you're reading this, I have not forgotten about you.  I simply just suck at keeping in touch :/

 Currently Considering: Seeing the movie, Cloud Atlas. After seeing a few friends post about their love for the book on Facebook, I visited our local bookstore and picked up a copy.  Here is the movie trailer (extended version) if you haven't already seen it: 

 I also really would like to see the movie, Argo.  Dear movie theaters, if you could cut the cost of tickets to 50%, I would appreciate it.

In other news, I need to get my Halloween greeting cards out to my family and friends and I'm actually looking forward to taking down my Halloween decorations.  I'm more of a Christmas gal ;)

 

A Visit to Wine Country

How about this view?

I went on my first wine tasting yesterday and it was really nice!

I already live in wine country due to being stationed here, so the title is a little misleading.

Regardless, it's absolutely beautiful here and with my roommate's bff visiting, it was time to explore a little bit more of the area.

 

About four of us went to Curtis Wineries and sampled five different wines.

It was $10 a glass, so for the four of us, $30 was spent.

Brittany and I split a glass, so that's one way to save a little as well as make sure the driver can taste but isn't really taking in alcohol into his or her system.

Curtis Winery

My crew partner, Ashton and I

I'm a newbie to this but I do know that they had a chocolate pairing taste available.

What I was surprised by was that they didn't offer those things right away.

I would have really like to have sampled sweeter wines.

I'm not really a dry wine kinda gal.

They have a really cool opportunity to invest in a charity wine called, Semper Red.

Proceeds from the wine purchase go to help the educational efforts of children of fallen Marines.

I haven't tried it yet but I definitely purchased a bottle and hopefully it will help a child with receiving higher education.

All-in-all, I definitely want to go to other vineyards and try their selection out.

My crew partner had an amazing idea for Christmas gifts and I think I might copy the idea and send bottles of wine back to Sconnie nation...we'll see ;)

Have a happy Sunday!

How to Make a Kick-Arse Halloween/Birthday Party

Step 1: Recruit sweet and yet, totally awesome friends to help with everything.

Halloween masks from Wally World

Step 2: Have your schmexy partner help you hang decorations because you are vertically challenged.

Step 3: Stand back and admire your decorations

Even Holly is festive!

Step 4: Buy more decorations and party supplies.

Actually this is a good point to keep track of what you are spending and what friends may be willing to contribute.  We don't have a ton of seating, so we asked our friends to bring over their folding chairs if they had any.  We recently hosted a pot luck and our friends contributed liters of soda, plates, napkins, etc.  Those will be rolled over to this party.  I picked up paper Halloween napkins ($1 at Target), straws, cupcake liners, a cupcake tower, glowstick balloons (they're really cool), and a few other decorations.  I plan on asking friends to contribute cases of beverages or snacks to assist in costs.  The day of the party, I texted friends to bring over more cups.
One thing I would recommend is maybe/maybe not having a keg.  We had one at our party and it became a free-for-all for people to come- not intentionally either.  Throughout the night, I was stressing due to the amount of people who came to an "invite-only" party...woof.

Step 5: Plan Your Food

We had light refreshments and snackage.  Basically a ton of cupcakes, chips, pretzels, all in Halloween theme.  Again, friends will assist in contributing things for s'mores or chips for the snack bowls.  Our friend Babs made this amazing pizza dip...yum yum!

Step 6: Entertainment (aka order "Hocus Pocus" from Amazon)

I totally plan on having Hocus Pocus playing in the background along with episodes of True Blood. I'm sure there will be college-themed games going about to because let's face it, I love BOOM.
We didn't actually end up playing anything on the TV, due to the amount of people already there.

Step 7: Make sure you've already passed out your invitations by this point because if you haven't...FOR SHAME.

For Brittany's party I made two types of invitations, coffins and toe tags.  Coffins went to large apartments and toe tags went to individuals.

Step 8: Costumes Required.

If people showed up without a costume, they experienced the Asian Tornado.

Holly as Yoda

My "Ms. Frizzle" (The Magic Schoolbus) Halloween Costume

Step 9: Present for the Roommate

A LLAMA! Well not a real llama, a stuffed animal one to remind her of her adventures here and that we have an Emu/Llama farm down the road.

Sketch on her envelope (of her card) because she loves Batman

Our life is awesome.

Show & Tell: When I was 17

1. When you were 17, tell us what kind of car you drove, where you worked, and what you were usually up to on the weekends?

I drove this beauty- a Nissan Altima to all of my extracurricular functions and class on a daily basis.  I was and still am an overachiever but I did everything I could in high school to boost my resume for college and it worked in my favor.  I worked multiple jobs including working at a bakery, indoor amusement park/arcade, and lifeguarding.

Clogging the slide- so much fun and yet probably very dangerous
ah hell, I was 17 :P

2. Show us a picture of you when you were 17 {roughly}.

You know we all had mirror/duck face pictures while growing up.
This became one of my favorite "going out" shirts freshman year of college.

Homecoming Court

Percussion section (yup, I loved being in band) and being in the percussion section was a blast. 
Here I am with one of my favorites :)

3. When you were 17, tell us what you wanted to be when you "grew up."

I definitely wanted to be something in marketing.  I was a part of the advanced marketing program at our high school and competed in DECA.  We ran the top school store in the state and I also had the privilege of competing internationally.  I didn't fall too far from that plan as I graduated from UW with a degree in strategic communication and gender & women's studies.

Wisconsin Dells trip with some of the Advanced Marketing ladies

4. When you were 17, tell us the kind of boys that you dated. Did you have a type? Do you have a relationship you remember well? Tell us about it.

My husband as a freshman or so in high school.
I actually met my husband while I was in high school on a school marketing trip.
I didn't really date in high school.  My parents were incredibly strict and I wasn't too keen on the guys that went to my high school so I kind of just hung out with my friends.  College provided a better variety of guys but the irony is that I married a guy that I went to high school with.

 He kind of looks like a homeless man here but he was incredibly cute and charming.
All of the girls liked him and so I knew right away I should stay away from him lol.
Before you knew it that lumber jack-looking man became a Marine.

5. When you were 17, tell us where you pictured your life 10 years from then. Did it turn out the way you expected it to?
I definitely did not expect to be married nor did I expect myself to be an Air Force officer.  I started ROTC while I was in college, so I didn't even graduate high school with that plan in mind.  I definitely would give myself some choice advice on what boys to date in college, how to approach difficult classes and not to worry about the small things.

Remember to use the promotion code HOCUSPOCUS to get a free ad space and guest blog post from now until mid-November.

    

5 in Five

Fantastically Average has this simple, yet practical link-up that I am just lovin' for a Monday.

Five goals that you would like to complete in five days.

Mine are rather mundane but it gets a little spicier towards the end of the week.

1. Do the laundry.  

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Yes, the large pile that I periodically stare at while typing this.

Did anyone else notice the baby in this picture? Um, that's not mine.

 2. Plan a morale party for the last day with our instructor.

Missiles training is going by so quickly and our current instructor has been awesome so we're celebrating on Thursday with an in-class shin dig.  Remember those back in grade school?  Your classmates all brought in snacks and the best ones were the goodie bags that parents made.  Plus you got stoked outta-yo-mind when you saw the TV on the tv cart in the classroom.

We're totally doing this except I'm without a Barbie backpack 

and we're all past the legal drinking age.

#oldschool

3. Add more Halloween decorations

Let's be honest, one cannot have too many Halloween decorations.

4. Take a lot of pictures at Brittany's Halloween-themed Birthday Party.

 Expect a blog post because Kim Erskine is the shiz-nit at planning parties.

Expect a Katy Perry-last-friday-night-extravaganza

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Don't you just love the 80s? The music, the hair, the neon colors...so fantastic.

 

5. Remember to vacuum more than once.

Hi, my name is Kim and I own a German Shepherd.  Literally so much dog hair everywhere.

I did, however, purchase a Furminator via Amazon and I am so excited to get it.

Amazon is my homegirl.

Thank you for making an app to make purchasing thing(s) more convenient.

Don't forget that I'm doing a swap-ortunity this month!

Get a FREE ad spot when you enter the code (all-caps) HOCUSPOCUS once you checkout.

Not only do you get a free ad spot, but you will also be featured as a guest blogger.

Sha-zam...life is good.