Chapter Two: Moving Forward

A chapter in our lives is coming to an end and I new one is beginning.

Here is a quick refresher for those of you who missed the last chapter: In April 2009 CJ and I bought a house, four bedroom two bath with a nice fenced in yard. I taught Second Grade ELD for a year and CJ decided in October he no longer wanted to be a nursing student. Then in November he joined the Navy. In December we added an adorable puppy to our family.

Now the start of our new chapter:

Soon our three years of living in Prescott Valley as a married couple will end. CJ has been waiting for this day to come and finally it has. Since November of 2009 CJ has been waiting to leave for Naval Recruit Training. On September 1^st of 2010 CJ flew out to Great Lakes IL for two months of rigorous training and learning Navy life. For two months I have to resort to living out of a storage unit

and my parents home. As of September 15^th 2010 I officially reside in a small bedroom with a twin mattress at a home I thought I would never live in again.

My mom and my In-Laws and I will go to Chicago on October 29^th to watch CJ graduate from basic training. At that point we will find out when we move to South Carolina for two years, where CJ will do schooling for Nuclear Propulsion. There is so much to be done between now and then and I have a great friend whose husband is in the Airforce who is really helping with information.

I write to him everyday and so far only one phone call has come through. All I have received from him is a box with his clothes he wore to boot camp, so hopefully in the next few days I should be receiving his information about graduation and how to get my military ID.

I am so grateful to have a husband that is willing to serve his country and be strong enough to be away for two months. He is going to be a great Navy Sailor (and very Handsome too!). I can't wait for the next section of our chapter to start!

Going to Boot Camp

Yesterday was our big day. CJ left for BOOT CAMP!

CJ had to be transported down to a Sheraton hotel where he checked into his hotel room, and we checked in about an hour behind him. Then we met our family at Old Country Buffet where my sister-in-law brought two cakes for us. The first cake is obvious for my birthday, she did an amazing job! The cake tasted great!
This cake Meghan (sister-in-law) and her sister-in-law made for CJ. If you notice in the bottom left you might be able to see where they put CJ in a life ring surrounded by sharks. It is really cute.
The next day My mother-in-law, grandma and I went down town Phoenix to the MEPS station.

Then we met him over at the airport. I did so well with not crying until I had to leave him behind. I lost all control!
Now it has been one day and I am realizing I miss a lot of little things he does for me. Just reaching over to touch his leg when we sleep, or waking up to him and a kiss.
I love you CJ with all my heart, you are going to be the best Naval Sailor ever!

Summer time FUN!

Well one week till CJ leaves and I am in a tizzy trying to pack the house and move back in with my parents. We have found a renter and hopefully the family will take care of my house.

But besides the rush of moving we were able to get away this summer and go visit my Best Friend and her husband in Oceanside. We decided we would go camping instead of renting a room. It was fin and was in a beautiful part of California. We had a good camp site and well had a new adventure for the Warrens.
On the second day Karisa and Ivan stayed and had breakfast, the boys had a lot of fun playing with the fire. My brother came up from San Diego and spent the day with us as well. After breakfast we went to the Wild Park, it was hot but we saw some amazing creatures of Gods Earth.
Then we went to Camp Pendelton to there beach, we let the boys play in the waves and then we had a BBQ down on the beach. It was a lot of fun..
I am going to miss spending time with them and well we hope to be stationed lose by soon.

When are you an adult?

This last couple months has been less than great. So much has happened that has given me reason to question when society THINKS I am an adult.
So I pose the question; when is a person considered an adult?
Is it when you turn 18?
Is it when you go to college?
Is it when you live on your own and pay your own bills?
Is it when you have a degree?
Is it when you get married?
Is it when you live so many miles from home?
Or finally is it when you have your own children?

I am not sure which of these are correct if any...
Let me plead my case, I am 25, went to college and received two degrees and lived away from home and payed my own bills. I was married at 22 and we own our own home. So did I pass?
My brother recently told me that I am not an adult, his argument well is that since I live in the same town as my parents I am not an adult. He just got done with four years in Japan. He is 23 and well still acts immature, he is very stubborn about even trying to understand the religion that CJ and I have chosen to live our life by, he has decided that living in PV well isn't where we should be since our parents live here. So he has decided he is the adult and we are not yet. Is he an adult?

My step sister is 22 and is pregnant with a little boy. She has some college under her belt and lives with her 21 yr old boyfriend. She has never said anything to ever effect my not being an adult, but my step mother and my dad are treating her as though she is an adult. This may just be my ranting and my strong beliefs, but it hurts to see this.

I rant about being an adult and well just because I say I am an adult does it mean I am. What do I need to do to help make my parents understand that their adult children are tired of being treated like they are 12 years old? What can I do to make me feel like I have been doing what is right for me and my husband?

I am growing impatient as I stay here and get treated as a child, I hope that moving across country from our parents will then remind them that we are old enough to make the decisions that are appropriate for my family and not be second guessed by everyone!

Am I Really Ready??

OK I am getting scared about up coming moves.

Since October of 2009 CJ and I have been waiting to finally start a real count down till his ship date.

He is leaving September first and I wont see him for two months.

So since November CJ has installed a gadget in his phone that counts down the days till he leaves. So it was always on 250 days or 200 then 100, but then CJ went in to the office yesterday and had to take his final Urine test and tomorrow he has to take his final Individual Fitness Test.

Which means he is in his last 45 days! Can you believe it he has six weeks till he leaves!

When we move we are only allowed one car to take,

so we talked and mine is the oldest and gets the worst gas mileage.

So we just did some word of mouth selling and found a family who needed a car for their sixteen year old. It felt so weird to see my car drive off.

Then today the boy who has my car pulled up to the church and all of a sudden I felt so sad that I didn't have my car any more.

Then this last weekend we took a trip to California to see my Best Friend and her husband who is also good friends with CJ.

This will probably be the last time we are all together for a couple years. We had a lot of fun!

This week we have been planning a Temple trip with my padres and a

BBQ after with my side of the family. We want everyone to see us probably for the last time for a while.

I just got an email from my MIL and she wants a final Temple trip for CJ's side of the family before he leaves.

This part of our lives is coming to and END!

So 42 days till CJ leaves and I am trying to make sure I will not loose it while he is gone. Can't wait for our new adventure!

Change

So I have been the same since I was in high school, long red hair. I never minded. A couple times I even layered it and I have high lighted it. But this time I was ready for something to change. It was hot outside and well my head was hot. So I went from this:To this:
I love my hair, I was going to go shorter, but I chickened out at the last minute, so this is how short I could go. But It is thinner for the time being and I am so Excited to have a cool head!

California Trip with the Warren Clan

So in April the Warren Clan consisting of Mother-in-law and Father-in-law, Sister-in-law and her hubby, and little brother-in-law, and CJ and I, went to California for a little trip. The rest of the family went for a week, but CJ and I could only swing four days out there, but we packed them full of fun things. First we went to Sea World. I am only posting a few pictures, cause well between my Mother-in-law and brother-in-law we had 100's of photos. My mother-in-law also had shirts made for each of us, matching for couples.

This is the view from a balcony at our hotel. We were right on the beach, very beautiful everyday!
One of the many great creatures at Sea World, this Otter was so happy just swimming around his tank all day!
I don't know if you can see it, but yes that is water coming out of Shamu's mouth and well it reached us. We were completely soaked after his performance.
This is called a strawberry anemone. They were so pink, I wanted to take one home with me!
OK so this walrus was very LARGE! He swam right up to the glass and was spitting his food into the glass and then eating it again, it was quite disgusting.
Then there was the shark exhibit, this was last on our list of things to do, we had the whole place to ourselves. We went through the shark tunnel once but kept walking back to the beginning and watching the sharks swim over us.

Then on Friday CJ, Meg, Colton, and Jordo went sea kayaking, I felt like getting a major sunburn while chatting with my mother-in-law on the beach. The burn didn't hurt till the next morning when my skin was tight. CJ said they saw Seal Lions on a booey, and another nest of them on the rock out cove they passed.


The next day we went to the San Diego Temple and did an endowment session. It is so beautiful in the Temple, I could have spent years in there just sitting in the Celestial room pondering.

All in all it was a great trip with tons to do and well I needed a vacation from my vacation. Thanks Nedra and Stephen for our trip!