The Newest Robinson

So for months now I have been begging Mike for a dog but it always came down to the fact that we just can't afford one. I was getting lonely and bored though and so we decided to take the plunge and make a new addition to our little family. Though costly, Max has made the perfect addition to our family. We adopted him from a rescue agency, Lucky Dog Animal Rescue, and they worked with us to get us the perfect dog.

Our First Family Photo

We promised ourself we would get a non-shedding dog due to Mike's allergies but once we met Max that went out the window. ALL HE DOES IS SHED. There is hair everywhere!!! Mike has adapted well though and doesn't react to him much but we are going to get him on prescription allergy meds anyway, just so he is more comfortable. I swear I vaccuum and within minutes you would never even know. We've deshedded him multiple times and bathed him and brushed him, all to no avail. Oh well, he totally makes up for it in cuddles and kisses! He is fantastic on a leash and does great with other dogs.

Last Saturday Mike was out of town so I took Max over to Beth's and he and Dora had a great time together. I was glad to see Max kind of break out of his shell and wrestle with Dora. Max gets tired pretty quickly and wanted to lay down but Dora just wanted to play, play, play!!! While the dogs and Audrey napped, Beth and I had a nice lunch and once everyone was awake we took the dogs to the dog park in Centreville. Max was SO overwhelmed by all the dogs and that he could run around in this big open space. He really stayed by Dora's side because she seemed to know what she was doing! He was totally tuckered out by the time we got back home.

Max and his baby after a long day of chasing tails!!

This past Saturday we got our Christmas picture taken with Santa at Petsmart. Max was a little apprehensive about the man in red.... but he tolerated the photo for Mommy because he knew it was very important to me :)

After Santa pictures, we went to Battery Kemble Park in D.C. which is an unofficial dog park, notorious for the "best sledding in DC". Dogs have pretty much taken over the park and you're not supposed to have them off the leash but everyone else was doing it so we followed suit and let Max free. He was SO GOOD. Didn't even run away. There was an Irish Wolfhound there named Lizzie and MAN! Did Max have fun with her or what?! Lizzie is HUGE and just wanted to romp around all day with Max, but again, Max got tired and walked away after a few minutes, but much to our suprise continued to go back for more! They played for about 45 minutes and then we packed up and headed home.

Max and Lizzie the Giant

Once home, Mike made some chicken wings and we watched the Army/Navy football game. No surprise that Navy beat Army and completed the "Decade of Dominance" :) Womp womp, poor Army :(

At night Max just wanted to cuddle and it was the perfect end to our day <3

My littlest love bug <3

Smelling the flowers....

Two days before we found out Mike's deployment was cancelled, Mike sold his car to a guy that I work with. Meaning we were down to one car. Since I am pulling 12-15 hour days at work, and we were living over an hour from work, we decided to move to Maryland to resolve a lot of that! I am now 7 miles from work, which allows Mike to take me to work and pick me up when I get off so that he can have the car during the day. Right now he is applying for jobs....trying to get anything he can find but right now he isn't having much luck. If we can just make it to January we will be fine! (We will be fine no matter what.) In January he is going to go back to George Mason to finish up his last semester and hopefully start his packet to commission as an officer in the Army. In February he goes to California for a month for two different Army schools, which will be good because it's a month's worth of income, and it helps him get closer to his E-7 advancement. He's been in contact with some active duty recruiters too so hopefully something will come through in the near future.

So about those 12-15 hour days at work....not for much longer!!! :) Our schedule just changed to 10am-10pm (or 10pm-10am if you work nights) BUT I am on the day shift until the end of November and then will be switching shops (departments, essentially) to become part of the briefing team that briefs the Commanding Officer in the mornings. That schedule is going to ROCK. 10am-6pm M-F...I am so excited!! I still have to work Thanksgiving and Christmas since the schedule was already made but I am excited to go work a different schedule with some different people. :)

As far as wedding plans go, well, we have none. Since the deployment got cancelled our funding pretty much went out the window. I continue to look at venues and ideas, but it's all talk right now since we can't take action. We are still hoping to have a June or September 2013 wedding. I'd like to have a barn/farm wedding but it's so hard finding a farm in Northern Virginia that doesn't charge $12,000 just to take pictures with their damn fence! Anyway, we'll figure it out eventually.

When Mike proposed at the orchard we also picked out a pumpkin so we carved it together. Cowboys themed, of course! I had to work the Saturday before Halloween which is when everyone did their partying but I was off on the 31st, which was a Monday, but we decided to go out anyway. We knew we'd be alone is our costumes but we got dressed up in our long-planned costumes and when out to National Harbor for a drink and an appetizer and then just went home. Pretty uneventful but it was fun :)

 Osama bin Ladin and SEAL Team 6 :)

Our Dallas Cowboys Pumpkin :)

Mike's birthday was Sunday and I had to work so he stayed home and watched the Cowboys game. We celebrated on Friday night at Old Glory in Georgetown and had a great time. A bunch of Mike's friends showed up, and some of mine did too. It was a great time, had by all. I even saw my Dad's name up on the wall for the Bourbon club! That was pretty neat :)

 Us at Old Glory

Dad's name and year that he tried all the different bourbons at Old Glory



Our lives are kind of all over the place right now and it feels kind of chaotic but right now we are both really happy and just "smelling the flowers" and enjoying what we've got and what will come. My commute is better, my schedule is getting better, and most of all, we just love living by ourselves. Living with roommates was getting to be so frustrating and we were just ready to have a place of our own. :)

Life is a-changin'!

I know it's been a while since I updated but we have been super busy lately! First things first: Mike's deployment to Afghanistan has been cancelled! This is excellent news and I am ecstatic!! He is disappointed because he was really looking forward to deploying again and having an income again but there are definitely worse things in life than finding out he won't be in a war zone! :) About two months ago we had reserved a weekend at a cabin in the Shanendoah Mountains as our "last getaway before deployment". So even though it really was not our last weekend together, we went anyway and had an incredible time! It was up this huuuuge mountain deep in the woods with no cable or internet, no cell reception, nothing! It was so quiet and peaceful and all the leaves had started changing colors.

It was super cute with a loft upstairs with a bed, a nice kitchen and a fireplace. The first night we went to a little family pizza shop and got it to go, went home and watched a movie and just hung out. With all the hustle and bustle of his deployment and my terrible work schedule, we really don't get to just hang out anymore. It was wonderful. The next morning we drove about an hour away and went horse back riding on this awesome farm. Mike's horse was ginormous!!

Horseback riding was really long and we went back to take a nap and then went back in to town (way too much driving that weekend. Took about an hour to get anywhere.) and we got Chinese food to go! Again, just went home and watched two movies and hung out. Overall it was an awesome weekend with just the two of us, not talking on our phones and dealing with other stuff that awaited us at home. We need to have get-aways more often!!

Still have more to update but I will do that later... stay tuned :)



The Search is Over - He Proposed

I had been thinking of starting a blog for a while but really couldn't think of what I would want to write about, but after Mike's proposal, I decided I wanted to include everyone in the story, and of our rapidly changing life!

Yesterday I got off work around 8am and was soooo tired but Mike insisted we go apple picking in The Plains, Virginia with Blair, since she was still in town from school. I was super stubborn and cranky because I was tired but I agreed. So we packed up a picnic and picked up Blair and headed out. We got to the orchard and they were CLOSED and I was so bummed out because I totally could have been sleeping in bed instead of driving an hour to No-wheres-ville, Virginia. So when I was ready to say, "screw it" and go home, Mike said there was another orchard across the street so we went there and thankfully they were open! (Mike later told me he was FREAKING OUT inside when he saw the first one was closed because apparently he had this planned out since February!) Unfortunately when we got there, we were told all the apples were picked over the long holiday weekend but we went up onto a biiiiig hill and unpacked our picnic! We were taking lots of pictures when Mike said, "Come here, let's a take a picture there." So I got up and we posed and then right before Blair took our picture Mike got down on one knee and told me he loves me more than anything he's ever loved before and wants me to be his wife! I started crying, naturally and was hugging and kissing him and finally he was like, "Are you gonna let me put the ring on you???!!!" and it was awesome and perfect and so much better than I could have ever imagined.

Needless to say, I said yes. No wait, I SCREAMED YES! And I CRIED YES! And Blair told me to, "Shut up and smile!!!!!!" So that's what I did...... :)

Later in the night we went to Glory Days, where we had our first date, and we sat in the same booth and I felt all oogily-googily and butterflies like I did the night I met him. It was the best night ever :)

I can't wait to start this new chapter of our beautiful life. He is my best friend, and am so glad this search is over.... ;)