Liberty!

So here i sit, yet again... waiting for word... i'm always waiting for word. cause soon, oh so very soon Riley will be off work for the weekend. and i will be SOOO happy. but sad a little too. this is Riley's last weekend before he leaves me for 6 wait 4 wait 5... an undecided amount of weeks. he'll be doing training for his deployment. and i'll be stuck on this island. at least i have little Deezul to keep me company... if i don't strangle him :)

speaking of Deezul... he got bit by a bug or something so his Right eye is swollen, and he can barely open it. well it's getting better but it was REAL bad. i felt so bad for my little man. as we speak(or as i type) he's attempting to pounce on a gecko on our back porch :) his potty training is going AWESOME. he's completely potty trained. when i leave him in his room for an hour or so while i'm at the gym i come home to NO accidents PRAISE THE LORD!!! he has only had one accident in over a week and it wasn't an accident. he got pissed at me... so he squated right in front of me and peed.... ooooooo let's just say he KNEW he was in BIIIIG trouble!

well, for any of you who were worried about me. i am adjusting to island life. i've made a few friends. and have changed my daily gym time so i can go with these 2 other girls. i really like them... just as a p.s. :) we have tons of fun! and i am training for a 5k, so i've been running 3 miles everyday... pretty much with a few exceptions. i'm back on track to try and lose the last bit of weight. when i started this journey i never thought i'd actually be at the weight i'm at now. i thought it would be soo much more difficult. but it wasn't near as bad as i was thinking. and i'm down to the last 20 lbs until i hit my goal weight. and it's getting harder now. but i'm really hoping to be there by oct. i'm getting close. but now that i don't have that much fat on me... i notice every little spot that has some... cough* love handles*cough... they can die p.s. but for reals, i'm battling this last little bit. and i'm hoping with Riley being gone for at least 4 weeks i can get back on track. and when i DO lose the last of the weight. i want it to be known that my goal is when i eventually DO get pregnant.. that i will weigh LESS at my biggest pregnant, than i did before i lost all this weight. to do so i will need to continue to eat right and go to the gym while preggers.. but now that it's blogged... LET IT BE WRITTEN!

Swear Jar

so living on a military base has made me realize how much swearing really goes on! now i'll be the first to admit that me and Riley had NO problem swearing, and then like 1 1/2-2 years ago i go really sick of it and would get mad at him for swearing. he'd be playing XBox and that invokes feelings of rage in boys that only a game could. so we'd fight all the time about how much i HATED his swearing. and i'd basically get back a "that's too bad"

but that all changed when he went to bootcamp. most guys pick up a few new choice words at Bootcamp, but Rye wanted to be different. be became super involved with the church, and started really trying to set an example for the other guys. he didn't want to be they hypocritical guy who would say he was mormon and then do things he shouldn't. he's slipped up maybe twice in the last 6 months. and i've slipped up probably a few more times than that. but overall we are trying to be better. because when you tell people you are Mormon, they watch you closer, and hold you to a higher standard. i don't want them to ever be able to say "i thought you weren't allowed to do that?!"

that being said, i'm not here to convert the world. and i've always been "one of the guys" ask Rye and most of my other friends. i'm not one to blush when "Guy talk" comes up. and i'll usually offer my opinion of a girl they are talking about as in "GROSS YOU THINK LINDSEY LOHAN IS HOT?!" or "no, no, no Jessica Alba is WAAAAY Hotter than Jessica Beil"  HOWEVER... i do feel that in my own house and my car that people should respect my beliefs. obviously i probably can't stop all the dirty jokes and inappropriate comments. but honestly you don't NEEEEED to use the F word 14 times in a 15 word sentence... i mean c'mon! so after a few weeks of dealing with this i have decided to attempt to put a stop to it.

Soooo, i have started the swear Jar. i was looking for a Jar to put the money in, and all i could find was a little pineapple piggy bank... so it is officially the "Potty Mouth Pineapple" where bad words cost a nickle. i don't feel it fair to charge them EVERY time i am in their presence because i figure eventually they will associate me with not swearing. but when they are in my car or over for dinner. i keep a running tally of how much they owe me at the end of the night. and then they are not allowed over for dinner or given a ride until they pay up. i only charge 5 cents... cause i don't think they could afford if i charged any more. i'm confident that this will eventually work.

they try to DARE me and Riley to say bad words. like at dinner about 2 weeks ago this one kid was daring me to say i think the F word. and told me he would give me his old ticket movie stub if i did it.... ummmm first off. what kind of bribe is that?!?! so i asked him what i would gain from doing that. and he just kept at it. so i said Freak. he said no the other F word. "ooooh Fetch" nope the other one "Flip, Fudge, frick" i don't think these boys know how many OTHER things you could say. i don't know that they had ever heard anyone say "oh shoot, i left my sunglasses in the car" or "DANGIT! we missed the movie" or "holy Crap that hurt" we do get mocked... but secretly i think they have a different kind of respect for us :)

It's My Life

so it's 6:40, i'm sitting on the couch. usually i sit up here because Deezul likes to attack first thing in the morning and if i hide on the couch it reduces the number of puncture wounds and scratch marks. gotta love puppies. however this morning he came up and started licking my foot, and then tried to climb on the couch, and as soon as i helped him up here he curled up right next to me. and is now almost asleep :) so it's a nice morning. sooo, i take back what i said yesterday to my sister about wanting to strangle my puppy!

so when we moved into our place on base, we realized 2 things very quickly... the walls are whiter than anything i've EVER SEEN... and 2, there is no carpet, JUST linoleum. throughout the entire apt. so i've slowly been getting area rugs. and the next thing i need to do is paint. :) and i am way excited to paint. i got paint chips a few weeks ago and have been weighing my options. but i think i have the 3 colors picked out. I'm keeping them a secret though shhhh. i don't like baby-name stealers and idea stealers... ok well sometimes i'm an idea stealer, but not really. cause usually i twist someones idea soo much that it's totally different. and if i do steal an idea, it's usually from someone i DON'T talk to and don't know very well. cause why would i want the same things as my closest friends, that would be boring. so stay tuned, i should be painting in the next few weeks. we also have to start buying furniture. we are buying a big glass table from one of Rye's SGT's which is good, we have so many of the guys over for dinner all the time so a table that seats 6 will be good. plus we have the bar, that i need to pick up some bar stools for. the couch is the next find. we found a BIG nice one at the store on base last night for 600, but not sure if thats the one we'll get.

i am NOT ready for Rye to leave for this month long training. he'll be in Cali for about a month. and i don't know if he'll get to bring his cell. i'll keep busy with painting and working out. but it's still gonna suck majorly!!!

speaking of working out, i'm back on track, trying to lose the last little bit of weight i wanted to when i began. ok well i still have like 20 lbs till i'm at my goal weight... but i've been running 2-3 miles almost every day. and i am only weighing myself every other week, because if i weigh more often i become obsessed! so i can't weigh for a few more days... but i feel good! and i think that's more important right now than weight. ok not really... but i am sooo determined! i picked out my dress for the Marine Corps Ball, which i found out is on halloween. and my goal is to order it in a size 4. updates to come.

alright so totally off topic.... but i just finished reading "The Hunger Games" and the sequal "Catching Fire" and i am so excited for the 3rd book to come out next month!!! those books were WAY good. and nothing like what i thought they would be like! but i was pleasantly surprised. i'm putting the audio books on Rye's ipod for his trip to cali. i think he'll like them. so ya, if you haven't read them... pick them up!

alright, well breakfast is calling my name, till next time!

Praise to the Man!

so Riley was in the field for 10 days on what they call RimPac (Rim of the Pacific) it was basically just a training to test out new walkie talkies.. he obviously explained it with many many more official sounding words :) so he came back about a week ago. i was expecting him around midnight, so i had dinner ready to pop in the oven around midnight so he could have a hot meal since he'd been eating power bars and MRE's for a week. so i popped dinner in around 12:30, then turned off the oven and left it in so it would stay warm.... i didn't realize he wouldn't get home until 3! so then he showered (THANK GOODNESS!) and we sat down and ate dinner at 4 in the morning. then we laid down and took a 1 1/2 hour nap before he had to be back at work. needless to say it was a LONG day.

So while he was in the bathroom shaving his head before showering he was telling me how i got a song stuck in his head, and he'd been singing it since the day he left for the training. so we started trying to figure out what song it was. we knew it was a hymn from church because he said i sing it to Deezul.... ok real quick Deezul is such a hellion sometimes, but the second i start singing him hymns he settles down and falls right to sleep. it's the most amazing thing EVER!!! so i do it quite often haha. so i was going through a bunch of hymns i normally sing. and then he said it was one of my favorites. so i started naming off my favorite hymns... and let me just tell you, i have ALOT! well mystery solved it was "I Need Thee Every Hour" A GOOD CHOICE!

so then it was stuck in BOTH our heads and we needed to hear it. so he told me that we REALLY needed to download some MoTab (that's the Mormon Tabernacle Choir for you non-Mormon readers) so the next day i went onto ITunes and downloaded a mix that would fit our taste. but it got me thinking about my favorite hymn.. and while i always have a rotating group of favorites my very favorite has always stayed the same. and i know WHY it's my favorite. i can pin it down to the exact sunday it became my favorite. which makes me wonder... how many of our choices of what we like are based on things our parents said when we were little? think about it!

so here is the story. to any one else it may not seem like a big deal but it's one of those things that has ALWAYS stuck with me. i must have been 5 or 6, and i was sitting on my dad's lap in sacrament meeting at church. and you know how you look up and see what hymn numbers you are singing and see if any that you really like are up there. well my dad was skimming through the hymn book and just seeing what was on the Agenda to sing that sunday morning. and Praise to the Man was on there. and i remember him whispering in my ear that it was his very favorite hymn. then when it came time to sing it, i was excited to hear what my dad's favorite hymn was... now my dad is not a singer. and i don't know if he usually didn't sing along or if i just don't remember it any other time. but i remember him singing along loud and proud and bouncing me on his knee. my dad doesn't go to church anymore, but every time i hear that song, i think of how excited he was to sing it, and i wonder if it would still make him smile to hear it.

Frog and Toad

do you remember those books?! we would read them in 1-3rd grade. i LOVED them. and then we'd watch a few of the poorly made movies that were made to go along with them!

anyway, TOTALLY not the point of tonights post. so Riley is still away. he should be getting home sometime LATE tomorrow. so pretty much like 3 in the morning is my bet. so it's just me and Deezul holding down the fort still. he really is the BEST idea we've ever had. he makes me feel needed. so i stay plenty busy taking care of him. and then when i turn off all the lights... he gets as close to me as possible and falls right asleep :) he's lightly snoring as i type.

so being all alone, little things make me jump. i'm not scared to be on my own... BUT here is an example... last night i was letting Deezul out one more time before bed. so it was like 9, and he had just peed so i was walking over to make sure he was done and grab him to take him inside. on my way over to him... i was avoiding his little "land mines" and rocks... and ONE OF THEM JUMPED! i screamed... and i'm really not a screamer, but it came out! i look closer and it's that dang toad from the other night!!! and there were like 3 of them.. ugh! i'm totally shuddering as i relive that horrible moment! ewwwwwwwwwww but at the same time i'm kind of excited they are still around. cause when we were in Utah Riley would want to go frog hunting when we would walk Ozzy with his parents. he'd try and catch the biggest frog down at the park. and they were pretty big... like the size of 2 mcdonalds nuggets... but this one is like BIGGER than a big mac.. and i'm not even exaggerating! so i think he'll be pretty excited to walk out back and find a huge one.

so ya. thats my update! i went and had dinner with a few other wives tonight which was way fun! we sat around and talked for hours... i'm glad i'm finally meeting other people! and they are all pretty cool too. it's funny being on this Island has made me pretty good at explaining what a Mormon REALLY is.... and being about to give the basics about what we believe. and how to shoot down rumors.. i've been to my real ward twice now. and each time i've brought a different visitor. i'm learning people don't really HATE us Mormons... they just DON'T understand us at all. i'm so happy i'm Mormon. it adds sooo much to my life. after church on sunday i went to the gym monday morning and a few of the girls from relief society were there, i recognized them, and i think they MAY have recognized me. i think they thought they knew me but couldn't figure out from where. they'll place it on sunday.

anyway... now i'm just rambling... sooo umm GOOD NIGHT!

ooh ooh i read "the Hunger Games" AWESOME! i can't wait to read the 2nd one!!! that was a REALLY good recommend to all the people that suggested that one! oh and if you haven't read it yet "My Name Is Memory" is AMAZING. it came out the beginning of June and it is soo good! i found that one all on my own and almost noone has read it cause it's new... but i think it is a MUST read!  oh and "13 Reasons Why" is probably the best book i've ever read. soooo READ those 3 and you won't regret any of them!!!

I'M A LIAR!!!

i totally VOWED to keep my blog updated since i have plenty of time... but have i? sadly.. no. so i apologize! and as a punishment to myself... i'm going to attempt to catch up on all that I've missed blogging. so hang on kids, this may be a bit of a ride.

alright, last time i left you with a huge cliffhanger... ok not really. but Deezul had just peed the bed on Rye... HAHAHAHAHAHA i still laugh when i think about it. i guess he walked on it and then went up to give "dad" a good morning kiss. so as Rye puts it "he came up and put his Pee Paws on MY FACE!" Rye tried to be pissed... but really... thats like one of those memories that we'll laugh about for years :)

Deezul is HUGE now!  he's 10 1/2 weeks. and i can't believe how much he grows! and lucky for me he is doing pretty good with potty training. he never really did bad with it, but he had his days when he just refused to go outside. but this morning i was SOO impressed with him. i'd taken him out a few times but i guess he drank more cause he was whining by the door. k so our sliding glass door looks over the hill we live on. and he can see the neighbor kids that he plays with. so half the time he just whines cause he wants to go play. so i was ignoring him. but he was persistent and kept whining and scratching. i FINALLY took him out after like 4 minutes. and he peed a TON. i was sooo proud that he didn't give in and pee on the floor!

he loves his toys, and bones... and he's super destructive of anything i leave where he can get it. so i'm learning.

Riley is gone. he left last monday so he's been gone a week now. and he should be back later this week. he's on Rimpac... basically he is out in the middle of the ocean on a big navy ship testing out their new "coms" as he calls them... i just call them what they are... Walkie Talkies :) and after that they are putting them on helicopters and flying them to the big mountains that i can see from my back porch. and they are going to hike and crap.. i dunno.. who knows what goes on with these trainings. but they are probably bonding... which is a good thing! so it's just me and Deezul. he knows it too, he's super sweet at nighttime he comes and snuggles
right next to me and stays there all night. this morning i woke up to him licking my armpit... hahaha a bit awkward... i wasn't sweaty or anything... i think he just likes the way my deodorant smells. oh my random puppy.. i'm really glad i have him to keep me company.

So for the past 2 weeks Jenni has been visiting. she's Zack's little sister... who i lived with while Riley was at boot camp. so she flew in 2 weeks ago and left on sat... it was SOOO sad to have her leave! i don't even know if i can sum up all that the 2 of us did... so i will attempt to make a list
-Jenni caught Gecko's on our back porch... a few times 

and Riley accidentally stepped on it... haha and the second time... Rye was careful... but deezul stepped on it and cut off its tail and like broke it's leg... that's my boys for ya here is the smashed gecko :)

- took her to our breakfast spot to try Riley's favorite Banana pancakes with macadamia nut sauce

-we got all sparkly... and went to the midnight showing of Eclipse :) YES!!! Riley and his friend Jon came too. Riley just wanted to spend time with us girls... Jon... well i think maybe he thought Jenni was hot.. THAT and he admitted that he actually kinda likes twilight... there are a few pictures here. :) the last one was as the lights were dimming for the movie to start :)

a big thank you to Riley and Jon (Grass) they had to work the next morning. we got home around 3 am... and they had to be up only 2 hours later... so thanks Bum for being such a good sport! AND he said it was the least sucky twilight movie! THATS AN IMPROVEMENT.... he likes them... he just doesn't want to admit it :) haha

We took lots of pictures of Jenni. i've been DYING to use my camera.. since i haven't had any models on the island yet.. Jenni is always up for an adventure! 

umm ya... she's gorgeous! i took a TON. maybe i'll post them on my photoblog... ok i will. later this week. so that was MOSTLY what we did. umm we went to church on the 4th. and then when we got home later that night from having dinner with one of Rye's friends... there were people all over our back lawn... cause our place sits on that hill overlooking the beach. which is where the fireworks were being done. we brought kitchen chairs out back and got to see them. which was awesome that we didn't have to fight a crowd!!!

 There is Riley... doing what i always harass the Gardiner family of doing of the 4th of July... being boring and being INSIDE... it's my favorite holiday... and they make NO effort. :) well don't worry i make enough effort for us all :)

he finally came out. after Deezul sat and whined at the door for him to come join us :) THATS MY PUP!!!

and then the night  that Riley left. i took Deezul outside to go Potty before we started a movie. and it had just quit raining. so i follow him around and he goes over to this storm drain man-hole thing. and starts sniffing a rock the neighbor kids put on there. so i'm trying to see it in the dark. to decided whether i'll throw it somewhere or not. and i swear this thing looks like a giant toad. so i call Jenni out to bring her phone down so i have some light... sure enough. it's a HUGE TOAD

anyway i think thats pretty much my update for now. I'LL BE BETTER AT BLOGGING.... haha we'll see.