Home!

I. Love. America. I flew in on June 2nd for Kate and Joe's wedding. She was a truly beautiful bride and I had so much fun at their wedding! Now I am here in Texas for 3 more weeks just hanging out with my family and friends! It has been so wonderful to see everyone again. My niece grows more and more precious everyday. She amazes me with her little personality and how she already knows EXACTLY what she wants- "mama." But she's slowly getting adjusted to me again....now we just have to get her saying "Corrie" or at the very least something resembling a word with a 'c' at the beginning!

It is a bummer though that every upside has a downside...no Matt while I'm home. He didn't have the leave to come with me on this trip so we have to be without each other for a month, which isn't very much fun. But absence makes the heart grow fonder and will just make us appreciate our time together even more!

What do I do???

So people ask me all the time: What do you do all day? Then I go through the internal dilemma of what I should say to respond. Grey's Anatomy marathon each day?...probably shouldn't mention that. Eating chocolates while surfing the web?...nah probably not that either. So I decided to compile a list of the things that I do everyday as a stay at home wife.

1) Laundry- I am absolutely amazed at how much laundry 2 people can make. I long for the day we have our OWN washer and dryer and I don't have to go downstairs to get to it.

2) Dishes- when I said I long for the day we have our own washer and dryer, it doesn't even compare to how much I long for the day when we have our own kitchen! With an actual countertop (not a makeshift desk one) and a dishwasher, and all of our wonderful kitchen wedding gifts!

3) Cooking- Matt and I live in the Punk Dorms- aka a hallway filled with other Lieutenants but no other wives. So this means I get to cook a lot. Seeing how I have next to no experience in the kitchen with food other than Easy Mac, it's nice having a bunch of willing guinea pigs. A lot of my day is spent planning what's for dinner.

4) Hanging out with other wives- there are a lot of wives that come and go on the ROK and it's nice to have lunch or coffee with them during the day. They give me a chance to get out and explore more of South Korea

5) Wait on the hubby- I know it sounds lame, but I honestly like waiting around for Matt. He works so hard and I love seeing his face as he walks through the door, and being able to give him a welcome home hug.

I am so happy with the 5 things that I do everyday. So yes, I am happy being a stay at home wife. And yes, I do get bored. But we are so blessed to have this year together with me not working and no deployments on the horizon. Just being together. And that's what I do. :)

Alaska

After my trip to Seattle, I flew up to Fairbanks Alaska to hang out with Matt for a few weeks while he was there on TDY. It was truly beautiful there- the mountains were absolutely gorgeous! We were even lucky enough to be able to see Mt. McKinnley which the park ranger people said only about 30% ever saw due to weather. Below are a few of the pictures from our trip!!

We went to the Chena Hot Springs!

I finally got to stand on some ice!

We took a tour of their greenhouse too!

Then we saw the Aurora Ice Museum

They had some pretty elaborate ice sculptures!

And an ice bed you could actually stay the night in.

And a "toilet" you could actually use!

AND an alter you could ACTUALLY get married at!

We swam in the hot springs that was actually too warm!

Hanging out with the moosen :)

On our trip to Denali National Park

Beautiful mountains

The Juvat wives!

Crush em!

We went to the North Pole too!! Where santa lives!!

And hung out with some friendly moosen

Elves!

Santa's sleigh

And real live REINDEER!

Seattle

So after Matt and I had only 3 weeks in Korea together, his squadron went TDY to Red Flag Alaska and I decided to go with him! But first I had a 4 day layover over in Seattle where my mom, sister and beautiful niece met me! We had a great time and it was so wonderful to see my family...it just wasn't near long enough! I can't wait for June when I'm home for a month and really get to spend time with them.

Here we were at the top of the space needle.

At Pike's Market

Eating delicious cupcakes!

Me and mom outside of the First Starbucks!

After Wedding Pictures

So it has become a popular thing to 'trash the dress' after you get married...however I cannot imaging destroying my amazing wedding gown, so I wanted to have an after-wedding photoshoot. My wonderful loving hubby agreed to dress up again with me and my awesome sister said she would take the pictures, so the Tuesday after our wedding we had the most perfect sunny Texas day and we headed out to our family pasture to take some pictures. My sis did a wonderful job taking them and Matt was such a trooper! I LOVE the way they turned out! They are so fun and you can definitely see Matt and I's true colors in them :)

Here are a few of my favorites:

Husband and Wife!

Well the wedding day has come and gone. It was more beautiful and wonderful than either of us could ever imagine. And as always, it went by way too quickly! I still cannot believe that it is over, and I am a complete facebook stalker of everyone's pictures. I can't wait for Robin to have ours processed! But here is one she posted as a preview:

Isn't the chapel just gorgeous?! We cannot thank everyone enough who helped us prepare for this day. It took a village to help plan and get everything ready, and as I said, it was more than I thought possible.

Now we're here in Korea, Matt is back to flying, and I'm starting our married life as a stay at home wife :) And I couldn't be happier. It is truly wonderful to finally be able to share all the mundane everyday life things with Matt: dinner, tv shows, laundry, and my favorite- falling asleep next to the most wonderful man in the world.

Life is Crazy, is it not??

I took a look at my planner today...it's definitely madness. All those in nursing school can testify to the insanity that ensues when you try to write everything down. Between trying to cram in my 124 hours of clinical (which I only have done 32 hours of), my other clinical, lecture, work, volunteering hours, church, friends, family, talking to Matt AND wedding planning...I wonder how I have any time to sleep at all! All of you wonder-women out there who do it all and have kids too, I'm seriously impressed. :)

So wedding plans are moving along. I have 4 different appointments this week in trying to get all the vendors nailed down. Last thing that needs to be done is finding the right florist and bridesmaid dresses! That is more stressful than just about anything else. My girls are being super sweet and reassuring me that they'll love anything I pick out but it's getting slightly ridiculous. Pewter is apparently not a common color for dresses...although it should be! It's only one of the best wedding colors there is! I may be slightly biased however... :) I did pick up my dress last weekend and I absolutely LOVE it. And tonight I bought my shoes! Which are going to promptly be dyed hot pink! Here they are-

In pretty much in love :D

Amy and I went to Canton yesterday and we had so much fun shopping and looking at all the stuff we wanted to buy! It's truly endless the different things that can be used to decorate your house. I cannot wait for the day that I get to have full decoration rights over Matt and I's home! He won't know what hit him. They days of bachelor style and posters on the wall in the living room will be long gone. If I can, I definitely hope to pottery-barn our house up, in the cheaper "i'll make it myself" kind of way. My mom is a genius at redoing furniture so I'm betting with her help we can have a decent looking home.

And just as a side note: its only 46 days until I see Matt, and 127 days until our wedding!!