Men and their Sleepovers

If I remember correctly my last real sleepover was the night before my wedding and my good friend from Boston came down to Louisiana for the wedding. I had a pretty big hotel room all to myself and she was going to share a room with my other two best friends, a boyfriend and a 2 year old. Their room was the same the size as mine but instead of one bed, like mine, it had two beds and two cramped for four people, at least that's what my parents and I thought. I did what anyone else would do and told my friend that she could come sleep in the room with me and let the other four (baby, two friends and a boyfriend) sleep in the other room. Now you might stop and think, "why didn't you just let your friend with the baby stay with you?". Well, I would've BUT I had to get up really early to get my hair done the next morning, finally move out of the hotel room (FYI: I left Spain a week before my wedding and the hotel my home) and the baby had already passed out when the idea of a sleepover finally passed my brain. So yeah that was my last sleepover.

Tonight DH and two of his friends decided to come drink at the house, BBQ and lay by the pool. I thought it was a great idea being the fact that they had all passed their tests and where ending this half of their classes. So the drinking commenced with A LOT of alcohol for the three skinny guys. The drinking continued on through the night, with some BBQ of course, and on to our teeny-tiny temporary house. They all came stumbling in while I was, being the girl that I am, watching "Sex and the City" and began to plump themselves down on the floor, couch and/or chair. Slowly and surely each one began drifting in and out of sleep while Brownie decided to attack them (gotta love an energetic pup!). !SLEEPOVER TIME!
While sitting on my bed and having the sounds of snoring come out of DH, the guys and Brownie I'm relieved that NO ONE said "I'm fine. I can drive home." Because believe me, I would not have allowed that at all. - I maybe be small, but I'm strict when it comes to matters like those. - I'm relieved that they didn't feel the need to be "manly" about everything and drive home drunk. I'm just relieved that they were responsible. I'm relieved.

Off to find to earplugs :)

Wordless Wednesday

One of my all-time favorite picture: my husband presenting the colors (Nepal, 2008).

Wordless Wednesday

Circle of Friends Award

Thanks to Noelbelle at Devil Dog & Litigation Love for giving me this award...thanks girl, you rock!

Here are the details of what you should/have to do after you have received the "Circle of Friends" award/blog recognition:

1) Save "The Circle of Friends Award" image and post in on your blog

2) List five things you love to do [see below]

3) List five friendly bloggers. Be sure to comment on their blogs telling them you've given them an award.

Five things I love to do:

1) Travel: I have a serious addiction to traveling. Ever since I was born I've had this bug...it comes from living in 10 different countries on 4 different continents...no bad huh?!??!

2) Cooking/baking: Up until I got married I despised cooking. I just hated the fact of cooking for hours to just eat only in minutes. But after I got married and couldn't find a job I found a new love with cooking and baking.

3) Snowboarding: I'm not a sporty girl at all, just walking up the stairs kills me (lol). After trying out snowboarding and getting the hang of it quick I  can't get enough of it.

4) Shopping: As much as I hate to admit it, I do love to shop...BUT I do know how to control myself, so that's a plus...PHEW!

5) Learning: I love to learn about new things all the time. I know its sounds nerdy, but that's just me. I'm even considering doing another masters just because I want to learn more.

5 Friends Bloggers:

1) Carmen at We See The Same Stars

2) Amber at Goodnight Moon

3) Mrs. Muffins

4) Skinnie Piggie

5) Hellcat Betty

Congrats ladies!

Graduation - "Class of 2009"

10 years ago I graduated from high school.

5 years ago I graduated from college.

Today I graduated from grad school...

                            

Attending university in a foreign country takes some getting use to, even if they speak they same language!

From September 2008 to September 2009 I attended the University of Essex in the UK and obtained my MA in Human Rights*. Since the UK does graduation differently, you hand in your thesis in September but don't get your diploma in the mail until December and you have your graduation ceremony a year later (I know, very bizarre), I had my own graduation along with 20 other students. The education center on base has been hosting, for the past seven years, a "Graduation Recognition Ceremony" for all active duty, spouses and staff. I think its an excellent idea being that the majority of people might not have a graduation due to their classes were online or their school was on the other side of the ocean, like me, or just because.
I thought I was never going to have a graduation. I thought my chance to be clapped for my achievement was lost. I was wrong.

I also have to thank my husband, because apart from me suffering with writing my papers and my thesis he suffered from editing them over and over again. THANK YOU!

*Grad schools in the UK normally last a year compared to grad schools in the US 

Military Wedding Week Contest

December 12th, 2009

Houma, Louisiana

It starts...

The Bride

The Groom

The Bridal Party

The Groomsmen

The Marines

The guys practicing the sword detail.

The Ceremony...

Many amusing things occurred during the ceremony:

-when my dad walked me down the isle and gave me away 

he almost tripped over my dress

-when exchanging the wedding bands I put the ring 

on the wrong finger! 

(hey! on my defense that's where the Priest told me and so....)

-when we were kneeling DH made me laugh that I made

a loud snorted, classy I know, I coughed to cover it up

-once married and we walked down to the sword detail and 

saw one of the Marines held it upside down

I loved them all...

The Reception

The Details

        Grooms cake

wedding favors

Photo credit to Photography By Louis

Sweet Blog Award

I'm so excited I just received my first blog award, YAY, from Kaylee at Small Wonders because she thinks that I have a Sweet Blog!

So now I'm awarding the Sweet Blog Award to the following 10...congrats ladies!

1. Amanda @ Adventures in Italia

2. Heidi @ Empty nest, PCS and all the rest

3. Heather @ This is the story of a girl...

4. Jordan @ Southern Hospitality

5. Sarah @ Adventures in Life

6. Dani @ Hard Corps Love

7. Rachel @ While you where gone...

8. Noelbelle @Devil Dog & Litigation Love

9. Tiffany @ A Balancing Act

10. Marissa @ Living the Life of an Infantryman's Wife

read and love their blogs :)

   

A cupcake for my cupcakes

Since I'm still between the process of job hunting and keeping my sanity I have leaned on the kindness of baking...cupcakes, that is. Because I enjoy baking I'm in need of guinea pigs to test my baking on and make sure they are edible...HEY! I need to make sure they are good :P So I've leaned on the kindness of hungry Marines who happen to be my husband and his classmates. So far I've received rave reviews of my cupcakes, "YAY!". Lately though, I kind of went on sabbatical in making cupcakes, I don't know the exact reason I guess I just got lazy?
So a couple of months ago I tried a cool new recipe, courtesy of JavaCupcake, "Cookies 'n Creme"...YUM! even the name sounds delicious! So I went ahead and made them. They tasted amazing and looked delicious except for my frosting which looked more like melted icing. Overall, the appearance could've been better. One day DH and I got to talking and he asked when I was going to make cupcakes, especially the cookie 'n creme ones, again because he, and his classmates, wanted more. "Apparently" I told him, "the day you make me breakfast in bed", I don't think I ever said this but we all know men, right :) So he made me breakfast and brought it to me in bed, the next words I heard "ok, now you have to keep your promise and make those cupcake"[insert mischievous smile here]. Little stinker! So I caved in, I also had nothing better to do, and went ahead and made them with JavaCupcakes' suggestion of using real butter rather than the 50% vegetable oil and 50% what-not-ingredient I used as butter (FYI: I just started baking, hence I didn't know the difference) et voilà!  They look and taste so yummy.

BEFORE

AFTER

Happy Mother's Day...or better said Happy "Dog" Mother's Day

Since I don't have children, and for right now we are not planning on having any anytime soon (I still feel young at 28!), I feel like I am a mother...to a 5-month-old pup. I mean she's just like a child: she keeps me on my toes, I clean up after her (ie: toys and "extras"), I give her baths (which she hates with a passion), I walk her, I feed her...to me all those sound like motherly love.
So Sunday morning I wake up to Brownie's rubber chicken squeak like crazy [*squeak*squeak*squeak*] in the living room. I wake up, DH was already up, and walked in to the living room to find DH trying to feed the dog paper as she was looking at him with the rubber chicken in her mouth. I was obviously confused and said,
"Babe, why are you trying to feed the dog paper?"
At that point DH started laughing and Brownie continued to chew on her rubber chicken [*squeak*squeak*squeak*]. He came over to me kissed me and said "Happy Mother's Day" and handed me the piece of paper he tried to feed Brownie. It was a Mother's Day card that he had made on the computer on behalf of Brownie [see below]:

Too cute! 

After I read it and went all mushy on DH and annoyed Brownie by petting her and tickling her then DH said, 

"So, I was trying to get Brownie to bite the card so that it would look more real, more like she made it."[insert the both us laughing here *HA*HA*HA*]

What a great way to start a morning. I have to give DH credit, I wasn't expecting anything at all, being that I'm not a mother, but he really outdid himself with this gesture...and of course, so did Brownie :)

                    

Vanilla Cupcakes with Buttercream Icing

Vanilla Cupcakes with Buttercream Icing*

Cupcakes 

Ingredients:

-2 cups of flour

-1½ cups of sugar

-3 teaspoons of baking powder

-4 eggs whites

-2 eggs (with whites)

-1 cup of milk

-1½ teaspoon of vanilla extract

-½ cup of shortening

Directions:

- Preheat oven to 350℉ and line cupcake pan with paper cups.

- Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, shortening, milk and the vanilla extract.

- After mixing it well add the egg whites and the egss and mix until the batter is fluffy and with no bumps.

- Fill each cup (a little more than half way filled) and bake until golden brown or 20mins.

- Cool for about 5-10 mins.

Icing

Ingredients:

-2 cups of confectioners sugar

-½ cup of butter

-1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

-2 tablespoons of milk

-food coloring if desired

Directions:

- Cream the butter until smooth and add the vanilla extract and gradually add the confectioners sugar.

- Add the milk and add more sugar if desired

- At this point you may add any food coloring

*NOTE: this picture was taken while I was experimenting how to make frosting/icing with real and "not" real butter. As you can see from my other post I did the same mistake but corrected it and it made a fluffier frosting. Follow the directions as written and with REAL butter. Will update picture!

A "side-note" on Human Trafficking

Here's another article I wrote for my grad school blog: essexjusticeleague.blogspot.com.

(image credit: Anny Jacoby: Personal Safety Expert)

This is a "side note" I had last night after I watched the movie "Taken" starring Liam Neeson who is an ex-CIA agent who is overprotective of his distant daughter with whom he is trying desperately to reconnect. Neeson's character has traveled the world and has seen the atrocities that the world holds. The main subject of the movie is human trafficking in a first world country, France. For years human trafficking occurred in third world countries mainly in Eastern Europe (former USSR countries or former Yugoslavian countries) where they were taken to western Europe in hopes to have a better life but they were tricked into drugs and prostitution. This movie shows that no matter where in the world you are, being it first developed or underdeveloped countries, young woman are always going to be at risk. But does this movie depict that its dangerous for women to travel to Europe? As a European I do feel that this movie did give a bad image to Europe, but lets face what movie doesn't give a bad image to what country?, but as a young woman who has lived all over the world, in developed and underdeveloped countries, I have to say that being a woman is always going to be hard no matter what country you live in. There are dangers all around no matter the circumstances. The danger of Europe lies within the east and west. Western Europe has been very fortunate for the fact that 99% of the countries are in the EU and because they are not underdeveloped due to the support from its neighboring countries and Germany's economic stance. Eastern Europe has been somewhat left in the shadows after the break from the former-USSR and former-Yugoslavia and therefore many of those citizens began trafficking women, and children, in order to "makes means" (aka: become rich by risking the lives of others).
The main subject of this blog is western Europe and human trafficking, are young women in danger when traveling to Western Europe? Everyone who travels to Europe, or any other place in world regardless of gender or age, is at risk of being in danger, the number one rule to follow is: COMMON SENSE. Unfortunately the human race is naive and we all believe in the kindness of strangers and want to believe that everyone is kind and trustworthy. Remember: Human Trafficking among women and children is real.

(image credit: Ethnic Central)

                                                   

Brownie

My dog is my child, no seriously she is. If Brownie were to commit murder I think she'd get away with it, I mean c'mon, what puppy wouldn't? ok, maybe the vicious ones that have rabies coming out of their mouths *eek*.

DH and I have been awful at taking pictures lately. I think the last time we used the camera was when we got Brownie and headed to San Diego for the weekend and even then we didn't take that many pictures...only a few pictures of Brownie of course :)

So here are some random pictures of her...enjoy!

She decided that laying on top of me and 

chewing one of her favorite toys was ok.

Now let me clarify something, 

I'm not a Saints fan, DH is, I'm a Pats fan...just an FYI.

She's getting ready for the World Cup!

Helping DH with his homework.

Apparently the most comfortable place 
for her is on my foot!

DH and Brownie watching TV.

And this is how she sleeps...seriously.

MilSpouse Blog Hop

I'm brand spankin' new to this MilSpouse Blog Hop, so please bear with me. For what I understand, and I hope I don't get this wrong, is that you are suppose to write a brief bio about yourself and if someone follows you the courteous thing is to follow them back and vice versa.

My name is Ines and I recently married the love of my life who is in the Marine Corps, so yes, I am new to Military life. We have been together 3 years prior to getting married and now we are living in beautiful 29 Palms. My blog is very random and the subjects jump around just like my attention span :) I tried to stick to a "theme" but I realized that I like writing just about anything (ie: Military life, our puppy, life, etc). I just finished an intense year doing of my masters and now I'm job hunting like a maniac trying to find a job, so wish me luck!
I hope to meet Military Wives so that being new to this life wont be as bumpy :)