Change

Ive changed this deployment, we adapt to our surroundings...part of the Marine corps is Improvise, adapt and overcome. I have adapted to combat and its mental state required. Unfortunately I like almost every Marine have transferred this to our family life and personal life as well...Ive become someone who thinks that everyone has a knife in their hand and their ready to stab. I need to release that mentality! I dont want it. I just want to go home to my lovely family and have a normal yet exciting life with Brandie and our lil puppy, horse, and soon a child hopefully! I dont want this deployment mentality to interfere with me and my family. Brandie, you are my life, if I had one thing in this world I could keep and had to throw everything else away, I hope you know you are the only thing I would hold onto...nothing else matters when it comes to you. Youre my sweet tea, my princess, my baby, all I want is you. Im going to be ok when I come home, this deployment has been very stressful, and I know you will hold my hand when I get back and walk me through getting rid of this stress and I will help you too. I know you have had a very stressful experience as well. We are married, a team, we will help each other to be comforted and happy. Our lives together are going to be such happy ones! I love you darling and I cant wait to hold you again!

MUAH!!!

Hey baby, I really miss you out here. I cant wait to come home and snuggle with you like we did before I had to leave. Its hard to believe that seven months is almost over. Also hard to believe how close we are getting to our 1 year anniversary :) Can you believe it?! We have had a quite a lot happen in the last 9 months and Im sure weve got many and many many many adventures to come! I cant wait to spend every day with you and go through every exciting day with you by my side. I never dreamed my life would be spent with someone like you. Sure I imagined it fun and happy, but you brought a new and better meaning to both those words. You opened a part of my life that noone else could. Im your one and only forever and always. Noone can take that away from you. I love you so much darling. Cant wait to be home with you! MUAH!!!

BodyRock

Hi everyone, last night I found an AMAZING at home full body exercise routine to get into shape. I am also going to start working out to P90X when my husband comes home so I will be challenging myself everyday to get the perfect body. The challenge I am currently working on is for 30 days and I am determined to do it and to see the body that I can accomplish in only 30 days!! Every day I will be posting that days routine under the tab "BodyRock" so if you'd like to try it, you can do it with me! Would anyone else like to join? Just go to www.BodyRock.tv and they have all of the challenges and even videos to show you how to do the routines there for you! Good luck and I hope you enjoy it!!

TWO WEEKS!!!

Did I say that loud enough or should I say it again...?

TWWWOO WEEEKKS LEFT!!!!!!!

I must say that this has been one crazy, mixed up, and insanely stressful deployment... But guess what?? The love of my life will be home in less than TWO WEEKS!!!!! I am getting so excited to finally have him back home! I am cleaning the house top to bottom, making sure it is stocked a mile high with his favorite goodies and treats, and I am decorating like a crazy little elf form the North Pole!! I am can't wait for his butt to be home. It has been 7 months TOOOO long!! I can't wait, I am so excited I could scream and cry at the same time! 

Well I guess I have expressed my excitement enough, I just can't believe it is FINALLY OVER!!!! ;)

I can't wait to see those dreadful busses pull up that stole him away from me 7 months ago... I'll see you soon babe, I love you!! MUAH

Welcome!!

WELCOME EVERYONE!!

My name is Brandie, I am a photographer and I am married to an MP in the United States Marine Corps. Nathan and I have been married almost a year now and I must admit, it has been a roller coaster from the start... We married April 16, 2011 and then Nathan deployed only a few short months later in July. We do not have any children but we plan on trying to conceive as soon as he comes home from deployment this coming up February. We currently live in the beautiful sweet southern state of North Carolina. It has been once crazy and wild ride but we have enjoyed every minute of it together.

Being a military wife is a HARD job but I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. 

This is our journey in life, follow along on our ride.

Thoughts on the Deployment

Hello everyone,

This deployment has been the worst yet a great 7 months of my life. Brandie and I have had our ups and downs but we are tied together by that unbreakable bond of love. We are happier than ever and loving each other more than the day we married and more and more each day!

During this deployment I have not only learned more about marriage and how to act, more about Brandie, but more about myself especially. I realize that you cant expect everything you want in a marriage...the secret is giving it EVERYTHING that YOU have! This is what I am going to do in my marriage is give it EVERYTHING I have. It aint much, but Im giving everything.

Brandie dear, I love you more than anything and I cant wait to be home holding you in my arms as tight as possible and not having to let go! You bring meaning to my life and every time I see your picture over here or talk to you on the phone I cant help but smile thinking of how amazing and wonderful you are darling. Im coming, just a little while longer baby. I love you more than ever!! MUAH!!

P.S. I cant wait to try your home cooking :)

Deployment!!

This deployment is finally starting to come to an end:)

There is only about a month to go before the love of my life is finally home from that wretched sand box! I have been crazy busy lately trying to get everything ready for his big arrival back home, I can't wait to have him back! I have been cleaning, picking up little decorations here and there and trying to straighten everything out in our house so it feels all nice and homie for when he gets here. I received his Homecoming sign in the mail a few weeks ago and I have been dying to hang it up:) My wonderful husband is finally coming home after what seems like the longest time away from each other. I am just so ready for it to be over with so we can finally start to get our lives back on track and back to normal! We are hoping to buy a house, maybe find a new car and I praying that hopefully we can try to start a family when he comes home! But most of all, I just want him home!! I will keep everyone updated on any progress as it comes, so keep a look out:) Love you all!!!

The Notebook

"My Dearest Allie. I couldn’t sleep last night because I know that it’s over between us. I’m not bitter anymore, because I know that what we had was real. And if in some distant place in the future we see each other in our new lives, I’ll smile at you with joy and remember how we spent the summer beneath the trees, learning from each other and growing in love. The best love is the kind that awakens the soul and makes us reach for more, that plants a fire in our hearts and brings peace to our minds, and that’s what you’ve given me. That’s what I hope to give to you forever. I love you. I’ll be seeing you. Noah"



**I know this is not a letter written directly to me or either of us but I was watching this movie (The Notebook) and all I could do the entire time was cry my eyes out!  I have read this over and over and over again and I realized that we have that kind of love, "The best love is the kind that awakens the soul and makes us reach for more, that plants a fire in our hearts and brings peace to our minds". This is exactly how you make me feel, everyday since the day I met you, this is how you have made my life! You have put so much love and fire in to my heart and I honestly couldn't imagine my life without that fire. Nathan, you are not only the most amazing and wonderful husband a woman could ever dream for but you are also my best friend. You have become my entire life and the only thing that truly matters to me (other than our little Honey Bee). I can truly and honestly say that you are my soul mate, and I don't ever want to spend my life without you. I know our lives haven't turned out the way we had hoped or wished for, and I am sorry we have had to spend so much time apart from one another. You will be home soon baby, and our lives will be perfect again. I love you and I'll be seeing you soon. I miss you and love you. 


Your loving wife

Selfishness

About 6 and a half months ago I was driving along and I came to a fork in the road. The road to the left was named "Nathan" and the road to the right was named "Brandie". I had so many voices telling me that I should go left...but if I took that turn I wouldnt be able to turn around. I stood there for awhile staring at the names of the two roads. I saw that the one named Brandie offered more happiness, not because it was a nice road, but because I saw it needed travel. I wanted to offer it all the happiness I could. I wanted to walk down that road and never turn back. The other road named Nathan had had its wear and tear...it was time to travel another road...........Maybe this is a weird way of saying it but thats for you, my wife, to decide ;) What Im getting at is that I chose to marry you, not to make me happy, but to make YOU happy. Yes Im the happiest man in the world because I married you, but when it all comes down to it, I just want to put you first in my life. That's what couples do. They put each other first. :) Putting you first in my life makes me happy, because I love seeing how happy I make you. I love you baby...so so much. MY MAIN POINT IS, I HAVE LIVED MY LIFE, NOW IM LIVING FOR YOU :) My goal in life is to put you first above everything else, especially myself...I love you and want you to be happy more than anything...I have a lil thing I want us both to do for each other today or tommorrow...I want to sit down for maybe like 5 minutes with a piece of paper and pen and just write a list, a list of attributes that we like about each other. And when were done we share it with each other. Lets both do one and Ill let you decide if you want to post it up here or if youd like to keep them just between us two. :) I love you Sweet Tea! I cant wait to see it...XOXOXO

Patience

Im not even sure what to put for the title of this post...ill think of that later. Ive been thinking about you all day. How much we love each other and I honest to God believe that we are one of the most amazing and wonderful marriages this world will ever see! We are meant to be together always and forever. Our lives no longer two but one...Im just going to spill my a few thoughts from my heart on you baby and think of a title later... ;)
I remember when we first met. As soon as I saw you I couldn't help but smile, I remember how beautiful you looked there wearing your cowboy boots and your carhartt winter coat and the scarf around your neck. Your bright blond hair spilling down your back and a similar smile on your face. I knew I loved you right away.
Now we are married, I am deployed, we have some trouble, but we have worked through it. We are learning to be patient with each other. Patience is one of the pillars in love. Any relationship will be tried by anger or frustration but patience calms people down. It gives each person the extra time to think about how they are acting or reacting and we learn to better ourselves and in turn our relationship and our marriage. Im so glad that we are learning patience. Our love means nothing to us if we dont fight for it and we are fighting for it! We both love each other so much. I see it every day...every time I look at a picture of you smiling at me, every time I see those pictures of you on our wedding day, I know it wasnt me making you happy, but it is my love that makes you happy. Im not perfect, youre not perfect, but together we complete each other and continue to teach each other how to come closer together and more perfect for one another. A deployment is rough because we are newlyweds and we still have a lot to learn about one another, but we are doing well. So long as we stay patient with one another. Be slow to anger and quick to forgive. We are both learning. I have trouble doing this too. But everyone does at first. We are learning, learning together, to work together, be there together, and live together, and love together.
Brandie you are an amazing woman. And you grow more amazing every day. Im overjoyed that I get to spend my life side by side with you and each day admire more and more the amazing woman, wife, and mother you are becoming. Im with you every step of the way.
Hard times are never over, they will come, but with each time, if we stick together and push our way through the hard times, we will always come out together, always and forever.
Im so glad I have you, Im so glad I can be there for you, I wish I were home right now. Home to give you that love and affection you deserve. I love you darling, I'll be home soon. Just be patient...Muah!!! <3

P.S. We have come so far...now over 6 months being married! Those have been the 6 most happy months of my life! Those 187 days...those 4499 hours...those 269940 minutes...those 16196400 seconds that I have been married to you are the happiest of my life...and they are continuing on this very second... And they get happier and happier the more I realize, I am married to YOU!!! I love you Brandie.