Finally Getting Somewhere With Getting Somewhere to Live! AKA: It's Officially Ours!!

Whew! What a busy few days the last ones have been! Let's see...where to start....

Ok, so on Monday we were supposed to turn in our pre contract to the housing office at 2:30pm. She called me around noon and told me to meet her at the Dome. I did and went to meet her. She tells me that the landlord does not want to pay for internet or cable. Ok, not a big deal. We do not want cable anyway and do not mind paying for internet. Especially since it will only be about $30 or so a month. Not a big deal! So our realtor calls the property manager and is asking when we can get the pre-contract and everything. So what it comes down to, is we end up going to meet the property manager at her work office to hopefully pick up the pre-contract. We get there and the manager tells us she has been trying to talk to the landlord all morning but he is not picking up or answering her texts. He told her he would be in a meeting but she had hoped he would be out sooner.

Planning Our First Dinner Party!

For Navy Officers there is this thing called the ward room. It is to keep morale up and get these crazy people to socialize in something other than a work setting! (There is SOOOO much more to it as well but, eh, we will go with basics (off ship) here.) It allows them to relax and have a good time and hopefully not have to talk or think about work! This, of course, doesn't always happen but they can still have a good time.

Getting a Place to Live......It Doesn't Always Work Out as Planned!

So, as it sometimes goes, the first place we had chosen to live fell through. This happened for multiple reasons:

1. I was never truly in love with the whole place, just really the master bedroom closet =)
2. The landlord was not only not willing to negotiate almost anything on our list (which we were fine
     fine with), but he also did not want us moving the furniture around. Um, hello? Who does that?!
3. Our realtor showed us two perfect places after we found out about the "no moving furniture" thing!

Our Lovely DIY Save the Dates!

I knew that I had to do something cute for our save the dates that was "us." I decided to use our engagement photos (some of which I even took myself with a tripod and remote!) and make cute overlays on them or generate a complete design all by myself! Not gonna lie, I got most of my basic ideas from Pinterest! However, I changed each on to fit our style and the style of our wedding! I came up with 10 designs total but decided to only use 9 of them in the end.

Corpus Christi, Texas & Surrounding Areas

The trip from Pensacola, FL to Corpus Christi, TX really is not all THAT long in the grand scheme of things but it sure seemed to go on forever. The drive is 733 miles following I-10 and it takes 12 hours.

Along the way we stopped in Mobile, Alabama to see the USS Alabama, the resident Battleship turned museum/tourist attraction. It was pretty awesome to see the ship along with the memorials they have outside of it. We couldn't stay long though because we had our little man, Iccabod, in the truck with us. It was worth the stop though!

So You're Going to Live in Bahrain....? You Can Negotiate Your Lease!

So before we ever got to Bahrain, I had been told how renting here was different than in the states. You can negotiate what a landlord provides for you! Now I’m not talking, ‘Hey, we lived here for a year already and if you make our rent go up $100 then we are leaving,’ type of negotiating. No. I am talking, ‘Hey, a 55-70” LED HD SMART TV would sweeten the pot,’ kind of negotiating. Crazy, right? I think it might be because so many people decide not to bring their entire household with them an just put a good amount into storage. Unfortunately, for us, we did bring almost our entire household and only put a few things into storage. So we will have lots of extras that we either can't use because they are not dual voltage or just won't have room (unlikely though). We mostly asked for stuff we don't really have anyway.

Art Journal: Part II

So this is the second post about my lovely art journal. The most recent pages are of my wedding planning! I am a very visual person, so not only do I love making lists, I love even more making lists that are depicted with pictures!! That is what I did on a few pages in my art journal.

Moving to the Middle East: Manama, Bahrain!

So we knew when we got to San Diego that we would both eventually be PCSing to Manama, Bahrain. Both my husband and I were very excited for this because this now meant we wouldn’t have to spend 6 months together and 6 months apart. Much better that I get to stay with my husband and only miss him a few weeks at a time rather than several months.

TMI: My Experience With the Mirena IUD

This is your your warning: You do not want to read this blog post if you are not comfortable with me talking about female anatomy and bodily functions! Don't say I didn't warn you....

Art Journal: Part I

I have been wanting to start an art journal forever and I finally have! I do not completely understand the difference between a sketchbook and an art journal but I have come to the conclusion that an art journal has your thoughts, ideas, and other stuff about you that maybe a normal sketchbook would not. I am so happy that I have finally started one!

DIY Gifts: 52 Reasons I Love You

When we were dating and our first Christmas was coming up I wanted to do something special for my husband (then boyfriend). I saw an interesting idea on Pinterest and I took it a step further.

The idea was I would get a deck of cards and come up with 52 reasons why I loved him. It may seem like a daunting task but if you truly love someone then it is surprisingly easy to come up with 52 reasons why that is. Even though 52 seems like a large number, believe me, you will be wishing you had more cards!

DIY Gifts: Date Night Book

My husband and I are always going back and forth on who has to choose what to do! Drive us both crazy....So, I decided to make him a gift that would solve at least some of our problems!! A Date Night Book!

Date Night Book
I got the idea somewhere online a while ago (sorry, no original link), it was most likely Pinterest.  Essentially, you can go through and write down "date nights" for you and your loved one to do! This takes  at least some of the back and forth out of deciding. =) I sat down and thought of all the things I thought would make good dates nights and made a list. They can be anything from seeing a movie to sitting at home snuggling on the couch or even going out and doing something bigger! It is all about making memories and spending time with the one you love. It does not actually have to cost anything!! My favorite part!