Two More Weeks!

PCS
Today begins the final 2 week countdown until we leave. We have set November 27th as our move date. Today we moved 15 or so boxes down to the garage, along with 2 bookshelves and my cedar chest.

Our garage is only about 3 feet longer than the truck we will be renting, so this is good practice for loading. :)
We are going to try to move almost the entire apartment down ahead of time to avoid having to go up and down the stairs a million times the day we move out. All of the pictures are of the wall, and many of my kitchen appliances have already been put away, so things are starting to look a little bare. It makes me feel good though, knowing I have 2 weeks to go and that we're making good progress. Too bad there are so many people we want to see and so many things we want to do before we go!

We still don't have a place to live, though we've contacted a few rental agencies already. We are VERY anxious to know what our new place will be like. He wants a garage, I want a fireplace. We'll just have to wait and see!


                                                     Other News
Yesterday we successfully junked my Camaro! It was sitting in the garage for so long! Thank you Sacramento for ruining that process. So much red tape! But thanks to the nice people at West Coast Auto Registration Services on Camp Pendleton, I didn't have to go to the DMV at all! Yay!
Bye bye old car!

Also, I'm excited because I am half way to becoming a certified Clinical Nutritionist! I get to put C.N. after my name soon. Pretty cool! After that I will begin training to make/use herbal medicine. I will be a Certified Clinical Master Herbalist, or CCMH. Don't any of you worry. I do not plan on becoming a shaman of any kind, as some were led to believe. haha

Its still October.

It has been a weeks since I left Starbucks. I had been there almost 4 years. It doesn't seem like a long time, but it is the longest that I've ever had the one job. I will miss the friends that I made there. :(

My San Francisco Treat

On a lighter note, I really enjoyed my trip to San Francisco! I got to see a lot of beautiful CA on the way there too. I ave to say that the cable car rides were my favorite part about this year's SF Fleet Week. All military (and dependents) got to ride for free, so we took advantage of that and went to and from the wharf many times. Oldbreed Brass was really cool too(find them on YouTube and Facebook). I was able to enjoy good food, good shopping, good company, and good music. We're really going to miss the 1st Marine Division Band.

READY SET PACK!

I get to start packing for real now. With the move less than 2 months away, I'm afraid that time will slip away and I'll be packing frantically at the last minute (as usual). Most of our books, movies, and video games are packed away, a well as a few of our dishes. Tomorrow I'l do a few more boxes. I have empty ones everywhere!! But its hard to judge how many you need before you start. Its too bad my camaro is taking up all the space in the garage... it would be nice to be able to store full boxes there.

Throughout the packing process, I hope to throw out a lot of junk. I've already ditched some clothes, and I went through all our files and tossed unimportant and/or old things. I really really really want to have less stuff to move. Its such a hassle!

Coming soon:

Check back in a few days for coverage on the following topics:

- Birthday Ball plans and prep

- Packing update

- School update

- Whatever else I can think of. :P

Four More in the Corps

4 more

Juan reenlisted today. Yep. So his new EAS is Spetember 14, 2015. I went to the little ceremony they had in the company office. I met a bunch of Marines that I'll never see again, and then watched Juan swear his oath in front of a huge crowd of 3 people. Then I was given my first red folder! Its just a certificate of appreciation, but still. Its a red folder (as if we didn't have enough of those laying around the house already).

This also means our move to Lejeune is official! I've already packed one box, but I need to get working because Juan will be pretty busy in the last few weeks before we go, and I don't want to end up doing it all myself! I still don't know where we're going to live when we get there... but I'd like to get serious about buying a house that we can rent when we leave again. Trulia.com is my best friend right now.

Sorry for the short post, I just wanted to get the news up(and brag about my red folder :P).

Oh my!

Just in time for Christmas!
    Recently things have been hectic. Birthdays, parties, a wedding, and....*drum roll*   orders! Yes thats right. JD has orders. We will soon be leaving our lifelong home of sunny Southern California to go to a foreign land, far far away. 2,600 miles away actually, to MCB Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. From the warm, cliff-lined west coast, to the heavily-wooded shores of the east coast. I think seeing the sun set behind me while I'm at the beach will take some getting used to. 


    We have a little more than 3 months to pack up our possessions, drive across the country, and find a new place to live. The cost of living is VERY different there than it is here. I shouldn't be surprised, but I am used to paying way more for rent. Our BAH will be lower, but rent is 1/3 of the cost. :) Too bad most of the paces for rent out there are mobile homes...


    After learning about the move we have been excited, upset, angry, hopeful, and hopeless. Fortunately, it ended with excitement. The area is a lot different than SoCal. We don't know where to shop for food, where to go for fun, what the weather is like, and most importantly, we don't know anybody out there save a few acquaintances from the School of Music. I like adventures, and this will be my greatest yet.


    For those of you who will ask me later, yes I will be able to continue school when we move. I selected the distance learning program for this very reason. You never know when your husband will get shotgun orders. :)


    Also, I don't plan on staying with my current job. I need to devote all my time and energy into packing, moving, and working on my studies as much as possible.


On another note
    I really really need to get my wisdom teeth pulled out. AND I have this happy little eye tooth poking out from the roof of my mouth. I fear that they will have to pull that one too, OR I will have to get braces. Too bad TriCare Dental only covers spouse orthodontics until age 23... I must hurry!!


SO! In summary, we're moving to the other side of the country in less time than it takes to finish a semester of school, and I might get braces! Yay! :P




Semper Gumby,
    Brianna

There's no place like home!

Kansas
The house located on Cloud Rd. in Richmond, KS is a sad looking house. But I love it! I only get to visit but once a year or so, but it is an experience I think everyone should have sometime in their life. We spent hours rummaging through all the dusty junk upstairs, every so often finding treasures. A few antique typewriters in perfect condition, some photo negatives, an ancient Bible, and a handcrafted cabinet that we estimate to be civil war era. So cool! I just hate having to sift through the junk piled to the ceiling to get to it. :) In a few weeks, we're having a contractor remove a few trees and grade the front yard so water doesn't run under the house anymore. The first step on a log road toward making it livable again. :)

Rolling Hills Zoo
  Six miles west of Salina, KS is one of the coolest zoos ever! Very few visitors and plenty of exotic animals meant we got to get up close and personal without screaming children running around in front of you...
We got to see the rhinos in their big barn. They were HUGE! We fell in love with a miniature zebu ox in the farm animal section of the zoo... and now we want to have some on our own farm!

Bed & Breakfast
  We stayed in a B&B in Salina for one night. It was interesting. Beautiful custom house that belonged to a world champion side-saddle horse jumper. She had English hunting decor alll over the house! I loved all the little foxes. :) Only downside to that part of the trip was that Wynona talked a LOT.

Farming
  I got to drive the tractor as usual. But this time I actually got to do something useful rather than waste gas! Uncle Don is preparing the fields to plant soybeans later this summer. I got to disc about an acre of one of the fields. Discing is what they have to do before plowing and planting. It's basically "tilling" the soil.

Weather
  Seems like EVERY time I visit the sunflower state, we experience the wost weather they've ever had. This time wasn't too bad, but we did get the same storm that brought tornadoes to Oklahoma, killing 5 people. We had thunder and lightning for about 20 minutes. I love thunder!

Kansas is always fun, but this was the first time I'd gone without Juan. :( I was definitely glad to return home after those 8 fun-filled days.

#3 Basic Totoro and Makkuro

This box gave me some trouble. I used a smaller box, and found that it was too shallow, but continued to use it anyway. :( The Totoro was a pain in the butt to make, and the meatballs were too big. I still need a hole-punch to make pupils for the eyes.

I think it turned out ok. Totoro is so cute! Design is still rather simple, but I'll learn. haha

The rice used for Totoro's body is colored with (believe it or not) mocha powder! haha. Juan said he couldn't taste the chocolate, and I'm glad. I just didn't have anything else to color it with!

The makkuro are made with meatballs this time, but I made their eyes too big.

I LOVE how I end up filling so much of the space with greens. It looks so pretty and provides a good excuse to include a salad in a hungry man's lunch. I'm actually surprised he even likes the cutesy factor. He would never show his co-workers, I'm sure. They can just read my blog anyway. :P

#2 Mini Lunch

I usually eat a lot of food at meal time. I have come to find out that it is because I feel compelled to eat everything in front of me. A whole bag of chips, cookies, etc. When there is extra food, often times, we eat it without thinking.

The box I created was not for my husband, but for me. I tried to keep it balanced by filling much of the space with greens, but I still included some pasta, rice, berries and some protein.

I found that it was plenty of food, and I felt satisfied because I ate all of it. This is a 16 oz container, so imagine fitting your entire lunch into a grande cup from Starbucks. haha

There is no real theme to this, just a hodge-podge of items.

The Makkurokurosuke, a character from Ghibli's "My Neighbor Totoro," is a rice ball wrapped in nori. His eyes are made of white cheddar cheese and nori.

The little wanna-be octopus in the upper left corner is a miniature hot dog; sliced, and heated in a skillet.

I love eggs! The hardboiled egg here has a sliver removed to make a mouth. I need to get some black sesame seeds for small details like his eyes.

I put shells and cheese in a bento container, and skewered some berries for color(and desert!)