Virginia Is For Lovers

Cumberland:

Two weekends ago, Mike and I celebrated his finishing the bar with a trip to his grandparents' house in Cumberland, MD. Turns out the Friday before that we found out we had another thing to celebrate: we got word that we are staying in DC for his first station!!!! This means: I GET TO KEEP MY JOB, WE GET TO STAY CLOSE TO FAMILY AND FRIENDS, WE CAN NOW PLAN OUR FUTURE! We also found out when Mike's ODS dates are which means we basically have an idea of when we're getting married. It now looks like December 21, 2014 (also the winter solstice).

We got to celebrate this news with Mike's mom, sister, aunt, and grandparents. I also went on a shopping trip (I may have unofficially (just for fun) tried on a wedding gown with feathers hehe). I can't remember the last time I went shopping with just the girls so I may have gotten a little too excited to and bought several new socks, underwear, and workout clothes. I don't know how I went this long without an underarmor sports bra! (Thanks Frances and Papa Buck!)

Other highlights of the weekend included: spicy shrimp, quesadillas, snickers ice cream cake for Mike's mom's birthday!, cheesy olives, and of course my favorite saltine cracker toffee! I was so excited to be able to take a recipe book home of many of these recipes and a jewelry chest from Frances.

I realized I forgot to get the story of Papa Buck and Frances's courtship, but I hope to write that down next time we visit.

We also stopped by my house on the way back home and were able to babysit Ashton (see video below) and load up on some pasta salad and more tomatoes to take back home, along with some of the most delicious spicy sweet pickles my stepdad made.

Officially VA residents!:

This past weekend, Mike and I had the DMV on our To Do list. It only took us about two hours total there and now we are both VA residents and my car is registered/titled in VA! I'm hoping this is my last time switching everything over since we'll have military status next time we move, but if not, I trust myself to be an expert at it by now.

We are finally settling in to our new place. We have acquired last-minute pieces of furniture and I even tried to get a plant to make it more home-y (which Rupert immediately tried to eat so I'm going to have to give it to our upstairs roommate).

Mike and I have also been enjoying our close proximity to two different gyms. Because he's trying to get in post-bar Navy shape and now has a 3-month membership to my gyms, I've had an extra incentive to not skip workouts. :) It's always been really hard to workout after work for me, but he has been really good at helping me find some more energy after work.

When Mike and I went to a fancy restaurant to celebrate staying in DC, this was our "compliments of the chef" amuse bouche. It was so miniature that I laughed/cried for about 5 minutes and still was unable to look at it without laughing. I hope someone out there understands.

A cute video of Mike feeding Ashton. Don't listen to me in the background. Seriously. My style of videography involves telling people to do more exciting things.