Lazy Sunday With Pinterest

I totally love cooking. As of late, my go to for cool new recipes is 

. I have made several things I have found there and I am often meet with success and happy tummies.

Here are some yummy looking things that I have yet to try, but are on my list.

Baked Cheese Dip:

Source: smells-like-home.com via Alana on Pinterest

Fried Pickles:

Source: joshandkinze.blogspot.com via Alana on Pinterest

Baked Oven Fries:

Source: annies-eats.com via Alana on Pinterest

Garlic Mushroom Bruschetta:

Source: donalskehan.com via Alana on Pinterest

Broccoli, Chicken, Tator Tot, Cheese cassarole:

Source: kathiecooks.blogspot.com via Alana on Pinterest

Fried Egg:

Source: shutterbean.com via Alana on Pinterest

Bacon Bowls:

Source: notmartha.org via Alana on Pinterest

Baked Eggs:

Source: userealbutter.com via Alana on Pinterest

Idaho Sunrise:

Source: gimmesomeoven.com via Alana on Pinterest

Military WifeStyle

Well since my URL is Confessions of a Marine Wife, I guess I should occasionally talk about the military WifeStyle.
I don't think I am the typical military wife. For several reasons.

1.  Most wives I meet have been with their husbands since the beginning of the military life. Though I have sort of known Paul since forever we have only been together for about 7 years. He has been active duty Marine Corps for 13 years.
2. We usually make our friends on the civilian side of the area we live in. While some of our friends are active duty military, many are civilians who work with or around the military. 
3. We don't really participate in military life. I am not active in outside activities, like the Marine Corps Wives league or Family Readiness. Also in history we have only made am appearance at holiday parties and such. 
4. We don't have kids.   This is a big thing, when you live on base at a Marine Corps installation. 90% of married people, especially my age (29) have at least one kid. If not three. 
5. We, sort of, avoid military life, in certain aspects.

Currently living in Helena, Montana, that doesn't have an active duty military presence, it's really easy to live a normal, civilian life. People have no Idea I am a military wife. I can go to a restaurant, a bar, a grocery store, without being singled out because my husbands hairstyle or the Marine Corps coat I am wearing. Being really military means nothing here.

But I am. I am a Marine Corps Wife. 

I had a conversation with a Woman Marine today that really made me think. She is married to an active duty Airman, but she still sees herself as a Marine before an AirForce wife. I have known military wives in the past and while often they see themselves as Military Wives, that doesn't define who they are. But to a certain extent being a Marine Wife defines who I am. And I am very proud of it. I am a very proud wife. I love and support my husband, even though sometimes I freaking hate his job and sometimes I feel like I am under-appreciated and forgotten about, This is my life, and I am one of the few, the proud, the Marine Wives.

Being married is hard, being in a long term relationship is work. 

Being married to a man who may, at the drop of a hat, leave you for weeks or months at a time for training or to rush off to a foreign country to defend your freedom, is really fucking hard. Being married to a man, who's job requires him to move across the state, country, even world, every three years is really fucking hard. 

Where are you going to be in 2 years? 

in the same town as you are now? 

in the same state as you are now? 

how about the same country? 

I have NO IDEA where I will be living in 2 years. 

I am hoping we will be back in Japan, but who knows. 

I hope I don't sound stuck up or pretentious about it. Because I don't mean to. But My life is so different, so out of the ordinary. And sometimes it really hits me. How different my life is, and how flexible I have to be. Really I never know what's next. But that is part of the excitement. 

Jalapeno Poppers!

I made these jalapeno poppers tonight as a starter for our leftover dinner.

I got the recipe from this pin on pinterest:

Source: aisletoaloha.blogspot.com via Alana on Pinterest

Someone loved them so much he wanted a second batch. Too bad I didn't have anymore dough to make a second batch.

The only thing I did different was I used Reduced Fat Crescent rolls.

&

We dipped them in some Raspberry Chipotle sauce that I got a Costco a few months ago. 

But yeah, they are amazing. I will be making them the next time we entertain.

Pinterest

not really so lazy here, as I just got back from shopping and now am about to clean house, but.. 




So, here we are, in the beginning of winter. And I am already planning my spring gardening. 
I'm gonna go big this year I think. 

I'm planning a raised bed garden on the right side of the yard, closer to the house so It will get evening shade from the porch. 

Source: sunset.com via Alana on Pinterest

planting ideas: 

Source: gypsymagicspells.blogspot.com via Alana on Pinterest

Source: chickensintheroad.com via Alana on Pinterest

I'd like to start composting again. 

Source: planetgreen.discovery.com via Alana on Pinterest

I want to go over to the junk yard down the street and ask him for old tires and hang 5-6 along the fence and put flowers in them, or maybe herbs that need full sun. 

Source: myhangingbaskets.com via Alana on Pinterest

I want to put in a small patio area at the bottom of the stairs from the deck. and put something like this down there. 

Source: home-solutions.hsn.com via Alana on Pinterest

I'd also like to do an in-ground fire pit. 

Source: google.com via Alana on Pinterest

Lady Gaga

I fucking love Gaga. She is so, just awesome. I love her music, I love her message.

I also love this song, it's my favorite off the album and the video is bad ass.

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oh and BTW! I created a facebook fan page for my blog. Yeah I was bored today. But if you want to follow me and you don't have a way to follow the RSS feeder, you can click on the link and 'Like' My page and I'll update it whenever I post a new blog.
Enjoy!

One Year!

Happy One Year, Home! 

One year ago today we moved into our home. I still remember when I first saw it. I cried. I knew it was the home for us. And things have worked out well. We've been here for a year and we still love it. No major problems, we still love the area, we still don't really know our neighbors (although we have met most of them). I've locked my self out twice.

Oh, and we still haven't finished unpacking. 

I think there are two or three boxes downstairs. 

But they will likely join the other box or two that never get unpacked because it's simply stuff we don't know what to do with but feel the need to keep. 

It was an adventure that brought us here. In two more years, an adventure will take us away (hopefully back to Okinawa, Japan.)
Helena is growing on me, but not quite as much as I would have hoped. I love the non-winter months, all 3 months of them. I still hate winter, but I'll give it another year. 

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the last year: 

Nap Time

I think my body is still fighting sickness because I have been unbelievably tired. Well today I had nap time with the doggies.

I love the way they love me. 

edumacation

I spent the better part of 2008-2010 busting my ass in school. I am not a great student but if it weren't for math I would have had at least a 3.5 GPA, but nearly failing one math class screwed that up bad.

The last class I took was History of the American West, earlier this spring. That class really burned me out. It was terrible, the teacher wasn't great. I don't feel like I learned much. Quite a bit of this was due to my own extreme laziness. Which I also partly credit to being a bit depressed, since we were still new to Montana, and I was still completely hating the bitter cold winter.

Well it's time to get back in the game if I ever want to graduate. Also I am currently living in a sweet spot for my Major- History/Environmental Management(minor in english), I want to work in the National Parks Service or Forest Service, or teach. My ideal position would be summering in a place like Yellowstone, or Yosemite and teaching visitors the history of the area, both natural history and early American history.

I would love to share my love of the outdoors with other people. I'd love to give future generations the education on preserving our nations history.

Source: travel.nationalgeographic.com via Alana on Pinterest

Source: Uploaded by user via Alana on Pinterest

So that brings us to now. I am trying to decide where to jump back in. I am about 40 credits in on 120 required for a double major with a minor. Gah! 81 credits to go! So most classes are 3 credits each, thats 27 classes to go. If i do two classes a term thats 13 terms. 5 terms in a year (Spring 1&2, Summer, Fall 1&2) So I could theoretically be done in 2 years. 

Well thats not as bad as I thought. 

Assuming I don't fail math again. 

And I can maintain a GPA. 

And I don't die from exhaustion.

3 classes a term is considered full time for my school, because they are shortened terms, 8 weeks long I think. 

So yeah, what to do now? 

I am thinking to get that Math out of the way, also since the local University is in session right now I could probably find a tutor for relatively cheep, which I know I will need. 

As much as I hated my other writing course, I may want to just get it out of the way too. Or I could do something like humanities, or a computer class. 

le' sigh

or I could take another class for my History, or start classes on my EM, because I haven't even started those yet. 

or I could work at Mc'Ds when I grow up. 

Day Five

I don't much care for morning, but sometimes it's an inevitable part of my life. So be it. 

Day Five: Morning Sky

Now I've got two for you, one is about 4-5 am and the next is still an absurd time, around 7. 

Too dark to be alive: 

 but the damn dog had to pee.

and still too early for me: 

but I had to go to work.

these are taken from different places, the first was out the front window, the second from the middle of the back yard. all were taken too early, when it was too cold.

I should totally be sleeping now but I got into a movie and now it's 2 am, movie is still not over, and I have to, against my will, call it a night. Because I have to work on being a normal human again. Since the wedding week of madness, my internal clock has been haywire. It thinks that drinking happens until 2 am (thanks sister and friends) and that I should sleep well past 11am (thanks booze, and insomnia)
I am trying so hard to sleep normal but my body just isn't having it.

My baby sister got married.

Wednesday November 23,

My sister became the 6th woman in our family to get married on this day. 

<3

My father walked her down the isle

They said their vows 

My parents saw their baby get married. 

We took fun pictures 

Paul and I also celebrated our 5th anniversary

And the happy couple got silly. 

Andrea and Matt on New Years Eve two years ago while sister was visiting me in Japan.  This last two weeks of wedding stuff has been bananas. But it all came together beautifully.

Friday Paul and I started our drive home and got back to Montana yesterday. 

Now we relax.