happy military monday!

:)

E's MPBOLC graduation was also today, how fitting for Military Monday! I couldn't be more proud of him :)

I only got to snap 2 pictures at military ball last night (well, bravo company's "graduation banquet" but set up exactly how a military ball would be) before my camera broke :(

"I'm in uniform, therefore I don't like to smile" lol. My dress is definitely PURPLE but it looks blue in this picture. Stupid camera!





























Aaaand some of the guys. I love E's face hahaha.


















E apparently finished 8 out of 42 LT's in his class, which I think is outstanding. He made it into the top 10. I'm so proud of him! Earlier on Thursday (before I arrived) they had their right of passage ceremony at the MP Memorial Grove. They are now official MP lieutenants, they just haven't officially graduated from MPBOLC yet. Graduation is on Monday :)

As for my camera, I had it in a wristlet and accidentally leaned on it with my elbow...therefore I broke the screen :(

It still snaps pictures and everything, but the screen is totally F'ed up and you can't see anything. This was actually a pretty crappy camera anyway. It was a red Kodak EasyShare 8.2 megapixel camera that I got for like $50. I guess it was time to buy a new one.

So I did! It's a black Samsung one, 12 megapixels and one of the guys I was talking to at the PX highly recommended it. I only paid $110 for it (including a 2GB SD card) which I think is pretty cheap. And no sales tax, either! That's what I love about the PX :)

what's your song?

I'm back in Fort Leonard Wood, and I made it safe and sound :)

I left at around 0445ish this morning and got here at 1530 (1430 central time). Eddie assumed that he would be done by noonish but of course that didn't happen lol...he wasn't done until around 1645ish. So I went to the PX and uh...yeah. Drove around. So much to do! haha.

I'm so happy to see him :) We're planning on getting Korean food with some friends tonight. Tomorrow is milball and Monday is his MPBOLC graduation! I'm so proud of him :)

Once again, Goodnight Moon is hosting a weekly "What's Your Song?" link-up. Head over to her blog to participate!

This week I chose "One and Only" by ADELE, because I think it is a beautiful song and I honestly CANNOT stop listening to her! She describes her style as "heartbroken soul" which I think sums it up pretty well. When you can't describe how your feeling, Adele just kind of puts it all in a song for you, if that makes sense.

MilSpouse survey!

MilSpouse survey from Erin @ Moore to Love :)

1. How long have you been a military wife?

Girlfriend: close to 3 years

Fiance: a little over 3 months

Wife: it will be 3 months on March 29th :)

2. What branch of service is your husband?

Army!

3. Active/Reserve?

Active

4. What is his job?

Military Police (don't hate!) He's at BOLC right now and will probably be on a staff position initially but once a platoon leader spot opens he is going with them.

5. How many deployments have you gone through?

None yet, but we have been separated before. 2 summers ago he went to LDAC and to Germany for CTLT and now he's at BOLC...but thankfully I see him pretty frequently, either through Skype or monthly visits. I know it won't be like that whenever he deploys.

6. ACU's or Class A's on your man?

I LOVE both, but I would have say dress blues :)

7. What do you like about being a military wife?

I haven't had any homecomings yet because I haven't been through a deployment yet (except for when he came home from CTLT), but I would probably have to say after being separated for awhile and then finally being with your man - waiting months just so see him, for a hug or a kiss (among other things ;) haha!) makes that wait worth it and it is such an incredible feeling!

8. Do you live on base?

Not at the moment. I'm not sure if we're going to live on-post at Fort Hood or not. As of now E would rather live off-post, but it all depends on what we can find down there!

9. What is your favorite base so far?

I've only been to Fort Leonard Wood, and honestly it kind of sucks haha.

10. What's the hardest part of the military life?

Being separated. Deployments. Having to constantly worry if your husband is okay and sometimes having to wait weeks (or even months!) just to hear from him.

11. Do you go to the grocery store or commissary?

Both. if I'm buying a lot of stuff, then I'll go to the commissary.

12. Do you work or stay at home?

I work!

13. Do you have a lot of military wife friends?

Not really. I'm hoping to meet a lot of fellow wives when I go to Fort Hood, though.

14. Do you prefer Walmart or the PX/BX/MCX/NEX?

Other places, only because those other places generally have a better selection of things; however, if I'm buying something a little more expensive (such as a GPS or some high-end makeup or some high-end fragrance) then I'll just go to the PX for that because it's cheaper. Oh, and same with Coach purses, too!

15. How did your husband propose?

First we went to our favorite sushi restaurant and indulged. Then we were going to go get some ice cream from my favorite parlor by his house and then he wanted to go take a walk on the towpath. I was stuffed on sushi so I passed on the ice cream, but we still went for a walk. I was wondering why we were walking here because we've never just "randomly took a walk" on the towpath before. We went bike riding down there before but that's pretty much it. Anyway we were walking and talking and the towpath has a canal with a canal boat that comes by that is pulled by horses and you can take rides on it and stuff. My first thought as E was explaining this to me was, "is the water shallow enough for those horses?" LOL he always makes fun of me for that now. I'm smart, but sometimes I say the stupidest things. It made sense to me that those horses would be in the water pulling that boat, but they actually pull from the side. Whatever, I didn't know haha.

Anyway, we kept on walking and then he stopped, faced me, gave me a hug and a kiss and told me how much he loved me, got down on his knee and popped the question. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a guy riding his bike our way but then he stopped and turned around - he didn't want to ride by during our moment haha. OF COURSE I said yes and I jumped into his arms.

16. Did you marry him after he joined or before?

After.

17. How long have you been together?

This fall will make 4 years.

18. Any kids yet?

Not for at least another 5 years. I actually can't ever see myself having kids haha

19. Any kids yet to come?

No!

20. Is your husband one of those "I am a soldier hear me HOOAH" kind of guys?

Absolutely not.

21. Have you ever done combatives with your husband?

hahaha yes! he was teaching me ground fighting. we did the same stuff in this self defense class I took in college because I needed a PE credit. One of my friends said, "I'm pretty sure this is called sex in my house" haha.

22. How many bases have you lived at?

This will be my husband's 3rd (Fort Lewis for LDAC, he was somewhere in Heidelberg (can't remember the name) for CTLT in Germany, and now he's in Fort Leonard Wood)

23. If you could change one thing about the military?

Shorter deployments!

24. Do you like military balls?

I love them! There is one coming up in April just before E's MPBOLC graduation :)

25. Where does your family live?

Ohio & Connecticut.

26. What do you do for a job?

I'm a nurse tech...basically an intern. I will almost have that RN!

27. Have you ever gotten in a fight with an NCO's wife?

Nope.

28. Name one thing you do when your husband is gone?

I become a work-a-holic! I also might start to continue my education once he deploys by working on my master's to help keep me busy. It all depends on when that will be, though. I also spend more time with friends.

29. Do you think other wives do that too?

I know a lot of other wives do anything to keep themselves busy. It helps make the time go quicker. Your husband doesn't want to hear about how you lock yourself up in the house and don't do anything. He wants to hear about you doing things and having fun (within limits, of course).

meet me in st. louis...

Friday was oleoresin capsicum day. Saturday was stay-up-all-night and drink in St. Louis day (or night?). Saturday itself was pretty low-key and then we all decided to leave at 5pm. It takes a little over 2 hours to get there from Fort Leonard Wood but we made and we decided to check into our hotel before heading off. We stayed at The Hyatt right by the Arch. Here's the Arch from our window :)

We went to Ranoush for dinner, which is an Arabic restaurant. I've had Arabic food before and when I had it (which was like in 8th grade lol) I didn't care for it too much. A couple of weeks ago I went to Aladdin's and I was blown away by their food. I had their Arayiss "pita-pitza" which was a toasted pita with hummus, seasoned lean ground beef, parsley and pine nuts. It was SO SO GOOD. Since then I have been craving Arabic food, so going to Ranoush was nice :)

The food was excellent. They ran out of a lot of things though, including lamb, and lamb & rice is apparently a very popular dish in the Middle East. We ordered quite a few appetizers:

- libbeh - Arabic yogurt with olive oil and spices...kind of reminded me of sour cream. I do not like sour cream, so I didn't like this one very much.

- hummus - best damn hummus I have ever had!

- falafel - it's made from ground chickpeas and some other things, then deep-fried. Vegetarian. It was delicious.

- kibbeh - seasoned lean ground beef in a little shell that's deep fried, like the falafel. Also very delicious.

Of course everything was served with warm pita bread :)

For our entrees, I ordered the beef shawarma. I didn't really understand the difference between that and the beef kafta which sounded the same, but the beef shawarma was amazingly good. It was lean seasoned beef that almost had a chargrilled taste to it with sauteed onions. It wasn't salty or greasy at all and the beef itself was flavorful but light. It was served on more pita and with a huge vegetable salad on the side. I didn't finish it and I felt bad, especially after Zaid told me that I didn't eat anything lol but I stuffed my face. It was just like a never-ending plate of food! E had the chicken shawarma, basically the same thing. It was also very tasty!

Afterwards we went to the Nara Cafe & Hookah Bar for drinks and hookah, obviously :) Last time I smoked hookah (before going to Missouri) was probably 2-3 years ago at this place by campus. I probably won't smoke it again unless E & I go back to Zaid's house when I go back to Missouri in April for E's MPBOLC graduation :)

Mingo (his nickname) and Zaid

After staying there for awhile, we barhopped. Lots of cool little bars, but my favorite was the Jive & Wail. Underneath it said "dueling pianos" so we decided to check it out.

It was 2 dudes and 2 pianos on stage who take requests and will practically play ANYTHING. When we walked in, we saw this:

This was at like 0130 and there was this old guy dancing on stage. He was so cute! They were playing "I've Got Friends in Low Places" :)

I was OBVIOUSLY drinking :)

They played some other stuff including "F*ck You" by Cee Lo Green but at 0200 they kicked us all out because by then it was 0300 and that's when the bar closed...

it actually sucked going that night because EVERYTHING closed an hour early. Zaid kept telling me how there is "24 hours of drinking in Las Vegas and that we need to go" haha. I don't really drink all that much, just once in awhile, and when I do it's not very much. I get drunk the quickest but also sober up the quickest. A few sips of wine will get my face turning red like in the picture above...it's quite sad, really!

I can understand Zaid for wanting to go out and drink and party. In Saudi Arabia, people drink, but it isn't socially acceptable...you drink in the home, but you don't go out and party like you do here. He graduates at the same time E does but then has another two weeks in Missouri for a course that he will have to take, and afterwards he goes back to Saudi Arabia.

We took a shuttle back to our hotel at like 0530...there were some other people who were very drunk riding with us, along with another man who just so happened to be black. I'm proud to be an American, but sometimes my fellow Americans are so damn ignorant. They said a few racial slurs to the black man. Then one of the guys (who had a scarf) wrapped it around his head and said to Zaid "look, I look like someone from your country" and Zaid just gave him this look...then one of the girls with that guy mentioned how Zaid kept giving him looks and asked "are you going to kill us because he said that? Just so you know he isn't with us!" :/

We finally got back to our hotel room, had a good time ;) then passed out and woke up 4 hours later. We went back to the area where Ranoush was because the other night I saw some plush Chain Chomps (Mario, anyone?) in the window, but when we were finished with dinner they were already closed. There just so happened to be a Chipotle next door, so we ate there :)

We then went to FroYo, which I've always wanted to try. They didn't have the taro flavor which I really wanted, but what we got was delicious.

Low fat red velvet yogurt on the bottom (that tasted just like red velvet cake!) and low fat cake batter yogurt on top with fresh strawberries, blueberries, blackberries and slivered almonds. We devoured it. E loved it, and so did I.

We went into a few stores then headed back to Fort Leonard Wood. For the rest of the evening we just relaxed, played COD4 nazi zombies and watched The Living Dead. Him & I are perfect for each other :)

And now I'm back in Ohio :( I almost contemplated staying another day, because Missouri randomly got hit with a lot of snow/freezing rain this morning. It wasn't bad by FLW, but about 45min out it was REALLY bad. I saw a lot of accidents, including a flipped-over semi. I decided to just keep going, because according to the weather forecast, Illinois and Indiana and Ohio would be fine. The beginning of Illinois was bad but the rest of the drive was fine.

Oh, and today must have been "cut off Melissa" day. The worst was when I was in St. Louis...the highway split off into two exits and this woman went into the wrong exit then quickly crossed over and cut right in front of me. The weather was bad, there was a lot of pick-up off the road from her car and for a moment I couldn't see anything. The exit ramp was also a turn so I was very scared that I would either hit her, hit the barrier or have the car behind me rear end me. Thankfully none of the above happened, but it still scared the shit out of me. Stupid drivers :(

Oh, and I still do NOT have my wedding band. We placed the order before the New Year and still nothing. I called Jared today and apparently the band did come in, but it didn't pass their inspection standards. So that's good that they're picky and they want to make sure you get a quality ring. The bad news, is that their vendor is over in Japan, and with everything that is going on over there, the band probably will not come in until May, probably after the wedding. They said they have another vendor that they use that will create a replica of the ring in the size that I need in about 3-4 weeks at no extra charge.

And speaking of Japan, I still can't believe everything that is happening over there. Still keeping them in my prayers ♥

Yesterday, E and the rest of his group got OC-sprayed.

the spray went from ear-to-ear, then they had to go through an obstacle course. They had to knee and punch some targets (30 seconds each), OC spray a target (but that was just water) and then arrest someone. Afterwards they went to the decon station.

I felt so bad for all of these soldiers because I can only imagine how much it must suck to get sprayed in the face like that. Getting gassed or tased is nothing compared to getting OC-sprayed. Gas is like 10 minutes of suck, tased is a few moments of suck but OC-spray is like over an hour of suck. I captured pictures of E going through the obstacle course and then followed him to the decon station where I helped him and the other soldiers. There wasn't much I could do, other than pouring water on them, offering them paper towels and getting them baby shampoo and telling them to face the wind to help with the burn. One of the soldiers said to me, "you know, you're a very nice person. thank you." That made me smile :) I told E to slather sour cream on his face after flushing with water because it will help neutralize the burn. A lot of the other guys laughed, but once they slathered some sour cream on their face they realized how much it helps :)

Now E can no longer make fun of me for slathering sour cream all over my fingers and hands one day. We made guacamole and added some finely-chopped jalapeno to the mix. I didn't wear gloves and failed to properly wash off those capsacein oils. I just used some soap and water. That didn't work. Later that night I took a shower and rubbed my eyes and they were burning and then my fingers and hands felt like they were on fire. It was miserable. There was nothing that really could be done because the pores in my skin were already open and the capsaceins have already penetrated into the skin, but sour cream and dairy provided temporary relief. Once some ibuprofen kicked in I felt a lot better. Now I'm NOT comparing the burning from the jalapeno to the burn in your face/eyes from the OC spray, but it really helps to neutralize that burn! Now every time I chop up jalapenos I rinse with sour cream/yogurt/milk and then soap & water. I haven't had a problem since :)

(click to see full pictures because of my stupid layout...)
































































Lol aww...so proud of him! His face is fine now :)

Last night we went to The Hub which is a German restaurant. I don't mind German food, but I've never been "blown away" by something by so much where I *HAVE* to have it. I got the zigeur schnitzel, which intrigued me because of the "jalapeno & mushroom sauce." when I got it, it just looked like a bunch of brown gravy...wasn't spicy at all. There was only like 1 little slice of jalapeno and that wasn't even hot. At least the pork was tender.

E got the kaiser schnitzel with spaetzle. The kaiser schnitzel had some sort of weird creamy sauce on it that tasted like it was mustard-based (and I hate mustard) but it had a really good flavor. E loved it. Everything was good, but I would rather go to Seoul Garden or El Jimador the next time I come here. Plus the service at The Hub was VERY slow. We waited over an hour just to get our food.

Tonight we're going to Saint Louis so that should be interesting :) We're going to an Arabic restaurant for dinner which I'm excited for! :)

Thursday Five & What's Your Song week 3!

Nicole over @ Flip Flops and Combat Boots is doing a link-up called Thursday Five. Here are this week's words:

Peaceful

Loved

Awesome

Lucky
Smart

1. The most Peaceful part of my day is in the morning - drinking coffee and getting my morning fix of Blogger, Twitter, Allnurses and Facebook!

2. E makes me feel Loved every day! The way he makes me feel and the way he treats me is exhilarating...no one else can compare! I feel so Lucky to have such a wonderful husband.

3. Although I haven't done a whole lot (because there isn't much to do here at Fort Leonard Wood lol), so far it has been Awesome because I get to spend quality time with E :) Unfortunately I have to go back home soon :( But I will be here again in about a month for E's military ball and MPBOLC graduation :D

4. Lately I've been feeling Smart...nursing school friends have been asking me a lot of nursing-related questions that I've been able to answer! I better be able to, I've got this NCLEX coming up lol.

And this week is also week 3 for What's Your Song, hosted by Goodnight Moon!

Another favorite song of mine happens to be called Silver Lining by Rilo Kiley. Above I was talking about how well E treats me and how lucky I am to have such a wonderful husband. Before I started dating E, I was dating this asshole named Greg. He was nice at first, and pretty attractive at that time. Then as time went on I guess he started to get "too comfortable" and started to treat me like crap. He would always check out other girls and say to me how pretty and hot and sexy they were and say "why don't you wear something like she is wearing?" One night we were sitting in his kitchen eating dinner and out of the blue told me, "you know, a little bit of makeup wouldn't hurt you." His mom was sitting right there and ridiculed him for what he said, saying it wasn't nice but he just shrugged and said "but it's true." It was just things like that. He also could NEVER admit when he was wrong. I was always wrong and he was always right. He wrestled in high school and thinks that is the "manliest" sport that exists.

I'm sorry, but honestly, I think wrestling is kind of gay haha. Nothing like having two guys rubbing up against each other. :X

Then he went to Florida for a week with some friends. The FIRST thing one of his friends told me was "don't worry, he didn't cheat on you." 8 months later (and by this time I moved on and was dating E) my friend Nicole found out that he did cheat on me. It pissed me off because I was still with him for 2 months after he got back from Florida, but oh well. He was really upset when I broke up with him, but whatever, it's his loss. Then he messaged me on Facebook saying I was dating an ugly guy and that the military is for pussies....later he messaged me telling me he was going to join the Marines and be "a real man." He never did.

E would NEVER say things like that me. He ALWAYS compliments me and tells me how pretty and beautiful I am. He always treats me with respect.

This song reminds me of my ex but also where I am today and that I have someone so much better. I was your silver lining, but now I'm gold.

Day 6 - Fort Leonard Wood

Day 6: Post a picture of the base your man is at and tell 5 cool things about the base.



Oh what to say about Fort Leonard Wood lol... (I'll try my best!)
1. Obviously, E is here! That is the BEST thing about this post ;)
2. It's warmer here than back home (OH-IO!)
3. It's got a cool MP memorial. I love the bronze crossed pistols statue:



Along with that memorial is also a chem and engineer memorial.

4. The post isn't overly huge which in a way is nice. I know when I move to Fort Hood in May it'll be a big change, but I'm ready for that (and nicer weather!! lol)
5. There is a really good Korean restaurant (Seoul Garden) and Mexican restaurant (El Jimador) off-post.

That's pretty much it lol.

FLW: Day 1 1/2

For some reason my other post deleted my little blurb about what I did yesterday in FLW.

I drove all day yesterday and actually made good timing - left at around 0615 and got here around 1600, Missouri time. I had to wait awhile because E had a briefing from some Army general about how four officers got DUI's this past weekend (not in FLW, I guess just throughout the Army).

We went to Seoul Garden with Zaieed, a member of the Saudi Arabian Royal Guard (they guard the royal family) and Mingo, another 2LT. Zaieed and three other members from the SARG are here training with the Army to learn tactics and other things. Dinner was delicious, we tried some sushi which was good but the Korean food was amazing! I got my usual kimchi jjigae and E tried the yook gae jang (which is a spicy shredded beef soup with clear noodles and other veggies). Zaieed got this seafood pancake (similar to kimchi pancakes only with chunks of seafood, including octopus...mmm) and Mingo got some spicy chicken bulgogi. The meal came with traditional Korean banchan or side dishes, and they had a new one that I tried - lotus root. it was soooooo good...can't really describe it but it was very sweet and tasty :)

After dinner we went to Zaieed's house and met his cousin and another member of the SARG. I tried some Arabic tea, which tasted a lot like honey, but oh my it was so good! Then we smoked hookah lol - double apple rose (which tasted different than the one I had back at the Firefly and the Miraj....this one had a strong licorice aftertaste) and grape, which was my favorite. I haven't smoked hookah in who knows how long.

Afterwards we went to The Blackjack Lounge on-post so that E could play some pool. He remained undefeated with his partner, but at one point I told him to either lose (lol) or to have him give me his room key so I could go back. I only got 3 hours of sleep the night before and was exhausted and cranky. We went back, I showered, and passed out.

Today we went to El Jimador, drove around FLW, spent a bunch of money at the commissary and then played some Black Ops Nazi zombies :D

MilSpouse Friday Fill-in!

Hosted by Wife of a Sailor! Sorry I'm a day late. I spent all day yesterday driving to Missouri and now I'm back in Fort Leonard Wood with E :D <3>

♫ I'm coming home, coming home... ♫

Today I drove nearly 12 hours from Fort Leonard Wood back to my home in OH-IO. I left by 0840-ish (definitely took my time...when I was leaving to go to FLW, I was up and ready by 0500 lol) and got home around 2030.

The past 4 days went by soooo fast. It also didn't help that I came on a week when Eddie was busy with BOLC stuff. I pretty much saw him in the morning when he got up for PT (at like 0500 lol), went back to sleep, then got up around 0700 when he came back. He would hang around until around 0740 and then went off to his classes. I saw him for lunch, and then I had my evening time with him. Between then I would just kind of hang around lol...I made several trips to the PX and commissary and then ventured off-post to the huge super Walmart (there is *SO* much to do in Fort Leonard Wood!) and just patiently wait for him to come back home. Yesterday was our only "whole day" together but regardless I'm just so happy I got to see him and spend time with him. I can't wait to go back there again and this time I'll stay longer. Thank goodness February is a short month :)

I'm also starting my NCLEX review class tomorrow. Is it sad to admit that I'm actually kind of excited for this? haha. I have been trying to motivate myself to study on my own and although I've been doing a good job, I don't think I'm doing as well as I should. I'm hoping this review class will help motivate me more and put me on the right track as far as studying goes. There's soooooo much information that we're required to know and it can be really overwhelming. This will also make me one step closer to becoming an RN, which I should hopefully have my March :D I'm still waiting on my ATT, though.

On the flipside, once I get my RN, I'm pretty sure my job won't let me work as a tech anymore, which sucks because I'll be unemployed and who knows how long it will take for me to find an RN job! I still have wedding shiz I need to pay for too, plus rent and other bills. I'm hoping they'll let me slide since I'm getting licensed in Texas and not Ohio, but we'll see. Maybe I'll just keep my mouth shut about it!

Randoms

I cannot figure out for the life of me how to change the background on this blog! I found a really cute layout from The Cutest Blog on the Block and I'm following the instructions but it only sort of works, and I have no idea why!

So far I haven't done much today ha. I went to Starbucks at the PX this morning and decided I would be productive and make lab value note cards (NCLEX stuff), then I decided to go to the other PX to look around. That one is set up much like a Walmart and everything is discounted by at least 20% and non-taxable. They had like a mini Ulta/Sephora (carrying Smashbox, Too Faced, Lancome, Estee Lauder, Clinique, Elizabeth Arden & Philosophy stuff, + fragrance and drugstore makeup), they had Bath & Body Works stuff, Coach/Dooney & Burke purses and Vera Bradley! Of course they don't carry EVERYTHING but I thought it was pretty cool that I can get this stuff on post. I wanted to buy a Coach handbag sooooo badly but I still can't afford one at the moment lol.

I went looking for "military pride" things. I ended up just buying this water bottle lol, but I love what it says and I needed a new water bottle anyway haha:



And speaking of other military pride things, my keychain from Just Initials came in:

Honestly, I've seen keychains like this that are made better (and better quality!) than this...this one is just a single piece of fabric with embroidery. I have not, however, found a business with keychains similar to this that make Army-themed ones. Regardless, I still love it!

I also wanted to showcase Melissa's Marvels. She makes really cute custom-made military-themed jewelry! I've been meaning to order a charm bracelet from her, I'm just waiting on $$$. Definitely check her stuff out, though :)

For now I'm just hanging out in Eddie's room until he comes back for his lunch break, whenever that will be :)

Fort Lost-in-the-Woods

Well I made it to Fort Leonard Wood! I left yesterday at 0630 and stopped twice - once to pee (lol) and once for gas. The next time I stopped was when I got to Fort Leonard Wood (to pee and for more gas lol). My car did very well on the way down here, considering it's like 600-some miles. The drive itself wasn't bad at all, just looooong and boring. St. Louis was probably the worst part because it was so busy. I thought about stopping by to see the arch but I didn't want to risk getting lost and St. Louis is also the worst city in the U.S. and I swear the part I drove through on the way looked kind of shady haha.

I did get lost right when I got here, though. I got off the highway, went down some winding roads surrounded by trees and questionable houses then came to a security gate (which was definitely NOT the main gate). Then my GPS took me off-roading (literally) and before I knew it I was on base. Totally bypassed the big main gate haha. I drove around and eventually made it past the main gate and then went off post...and found a gas station. I was stressing because I had to pee sooooo bad and I was just about on E at that point from aimlessly driving around! I made it though :) I met up with Eddie at some random building and he decided to pay (lol) for my stay here so that I can get my own room key - it would just make it a lot easier because I came during the week and Eddie has class.

I'm so happy to be here and so happy to see him and be with him. I missed him so much <3

Eddie got me a PoA so that I could enroll in DEERS and get my military ID card. I know everyone has told me something different, but this DEERS office wanted my birth certificate and SS card...so instead of mailing around important documents I figured it would be easier for me to just come here in person and do it (and of course spending time with Eddie is a plus!). So that got taken care of, I got my military ID card (and I *HATE* my picture lol) and now I can access the PX and Commissary. I decided to just go to the PX because they have a Starbucks there lol. Oh, and I have Tricare now, yay! But of course now I have to decide between Standard or Prime and I have no idea which one to get (I have Standard right now).