The Few, The Proud, The Wife: December 2011

12/31/11

!!!HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Happy New Year

(image credit: Comments Yard)

Feliz Año Nuevo

12/29/11

Shabby Apple Giveaway Winner Is....

And the winner of the darling dress,

Azure Coast, sponsored by Shabby Apple is...

SEMPER WIFEY

!!!CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Please email me within 48hours (thefewtheproudthewife@gmail.com) to claim your

prize!

12/24/11

Merry Christmas/Feliz Navidad

From my family to yours,

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

De mi familia a la suya,

FELIZ NAVIDAD!

12/22/11

Shabby Apple Giveaway

I LOVE Shabby Apple.

Browsing through their website you feel like you

are in a vintaged-inspired modernized world and, you know,

that their clothes will fit you like a glove.

Today,
Shabby Apple is giving away one dress to one lucky winner..

Azure Coast

I can totally see myself wearing this dress with a pair of big dark sunglasses

and high heels galloping around Europe....or on base for that matter :)

Can you?

RULES:

- you MUST "like" Shabby Apple on Facebook

- you MUST be a follower of this blog

Additional Entries:

- follow Shabby Apple on Twitter (@ShabbyApple)

- follow Shabby Apple on their blog (Shappy Apple - An Apple A Day)

- tell me which is your favorite item an the Shabby Apple website

*please leave a comment for every item done*

*open to US Residents only*

Winner will be notified on THIS blog ONE week from today (December 29th)

at 12pm PST.

!!!G'LUCK!!!

*All images are from ShabbyApple.com*

12/16/11

"exuse me, but I think you have the wrong room..."

"Hola" from sunny-Madrid, where the sun doesn't rise until

8am, dinner is served at 9pm, commericals last very close to 10mins and

drinking and eating is a way of life.

Source: noholidaynolife.com via Joans on Pinterest

The trip was long.
We had to stay the night at a hotel near LAX (funny thing happened)
because our flight to Boston, where we

made our connecting flight, left at 7am. Of course, I didn't sleep being that we had to be up

at 3am. We left LA with the sun barely up and arrived to Boston with the sun setting. Getting to Boston

I had to fight the urge of wondering the city (oh, I miss you Boston).

After walking around to stretch our legs we munched on some amazing Dunkin' Donuts and
even took pictures with Santa!

We arrived to Spain E.X.H.A.U.S.T.E.D. and now we are just
fighting with jetlag and enjoying our vacation.

So here's the funny thing that happened at the hotel:

We checked in at the hotel near LAX, grabbed our suitcases and followed
the directions given to us by the front desk to get to our room.
It ended up taking us forever to get to our room and I thought to myself,
"why did the
front desk tell me to go this way?"
We get to our room and our key wasn't working...GREAT!
I ran back down and they re-whatever to my card to make it work.
I head back to our room and our card still wasn't working...DAMMIT!
All of a sudden we hear:

Stranger: " this is my room"
[DH and I exchanged glances]
Stranger: "this is room 308. my room"
[I stop and give DH the "oh-shit-is-happeneing-look"]
Me: "why do I have a feeling that I misread our room
numer...[fumbling with my things I find our
room number, 380!]...yes, I did misread. I am so sorry."

At this point DH couldn't stop laughing and I, of course, turned beet
red of embarassment. Thank goodness the stranger had a sense of humor.

12/14/11

MilSpouse Holiday Blog Swap

Welcome to the first annual "MilSpouse Holiday Blog Swap" presented by

Riding the Roller Coaster.

This an organized blog swap hosted

by MilSpouse bloggers around.

Before I introduce my guest blogger, I want to remind you all to

head on over the Riding the Roller Coaster for more fun filled

holiday stories after you have read this story...

(pssst. I'm featured over at All Because Two People Fell In Love)

My guest blogger is Poe Kitten @ Many Waters.

Poe Kitten is a New Englander married to a Sailor and they are

currently living in the Pacific Northwest.

I love her blog! She writes about everything and anything.

So, without further ado, I present to you Poe Kitten's guest post...

Hello lovely readers, I'm Poe. I'm excited to take over Ines's blog today...thank you for letting me! I think she's been enjoying having her husband home and I hope they have a wonderful holiday together.

I love Christmas. It's my favorite holiday season. I love the decorations and food and family and reason we celebrate Christmas. One of the best parts (to me!) of the season is the traditions. I love how the traditions connect the years and give each year deeper meaning. Since getting married, it's been interesting meshing traditions. Mostly it's been me sharing traditions with my husband, but he's gotten one or two in there! Not all of my family traditions have survived the years but several still exist. We've managed to incorporated several into our family and there are several that we hope to add!

The first tradition is to get our tree. Growing up my family usually had a real tree but The Man had great memories of going out and cutting down their trees. I've always thought it sounded like fun so it was easy to embrace this tradition! We're still trying to find our favorite tree farm. This year it took us about 20 minutes to find the tree, cut it down, pay for it and drive out. That's was the quickest tree finding expedition I've ever experienced! I can't wait to do this with our kids!

The Man & Poe with our tree, 2009

One of my favorite traditions is going to church on Christmas Eve. I prefer a candlelight service but any Christmas Eve service will do. After talking with people we head home and another tradition comes into play: new pj's. I've had new pj's for every Christmas Eve I've been alive for (all 32 of 'em!) DH has gotten grown to enjoy this one as he now gets new pj's too. We get into our new pj's and snuggle, maybe pop in a Christmas movie and just enjoy the tree and each other. Often we'll open one or two gifts on Christmas Eve. We just about always consider opening them all but I usually keep us from doing that as I want to prolong the surprises in store just a little longer! I love the anticipation.

Then we go to bed. As a kid I tended to sleep in on Christmas morning and had to be woken up. The older I get the earlier I wake up and want to open gifts. I try to wait till a reasonable hour but I can't promise that always happens! Once we're up, stockings are always first. Stockings can be amazing and so much fun to open! After stockings we stock up on cider/hot cocoa/coffee/tea and The Man works on homemade cinnamon rolls. Once that's done and they are either rising or baking, we go back and open gifts. One at a time so we can enjoy giving and receiving, because both are fun!

The Man making cinnamon rolls

There are a couple of traditions we'd like to start. One is that we'll buy an ornament every year for our munchkins. We'll enjoy them as a family till the munchkins moves out and then they can take them with them. My parents did this for me and The Man's did it for him. We had more ornaments as newlyweds than we should have and it was great!

(image credit: The Dollar Store Craft)

Another tradition I'd like to start is by making a memory ornament every year. I found it on Pinterest (where else?) and think it's a great idea! Basically you get an inexpensive ornament and then write memories from the year on it. Brilliant! I have a hard time keeping track of what happened when and I know my memory going to continue to go!

What are your favorite holiday traditions?

Are there any that you would like to start?

12/13/11

"Fraudulent Activity"

I am one to hail the attentiveness of banks. The fact that they call you to notify you of "odd" activity shows that they are actually taking a very serious interest in your money. Before DH deployed we were in Napa and received a call from the bank about "fraudulent activity". The fraudulent activity was the amounts of wine bottles purchased on our trip. I was just thankful they called and didn't cancel our account.

Although, at times, they go the extreme and block your credit card without notifying you: It was the week before I got married - at the time my bank was in the UK - my bank decided to "block" my card and not let me use. Not only did this happen once, but three times in one week! Not only did I have to call my bank, but the fact that it happened three times after I notified them that I was living in the US several times was beyond me. Also, don't get me started on how long it took me to transfer my money and close my bank account. Needless to say, I no longer use said nameless bank.

And now, the latest one...

The other day DH and I headed to the outlets to do some last minute Christmas shopping. On the way to the car I told DH that I "needed to use the bathroom" and hurried to the store where he had been gawking and drooling over an item. I went into the store and purchased the gift. Since I was in a rush to not get caught, I felt as thought the sales associate was taking forever in getting my gift ready. Why does that always happen?! So I headed to the car thinking that I had this whole scheme down to a T. I got in and all of a sudden, as if it they where watching me, he gets a call from our bank talking about "fraudulent activity". WTF?!?!?! I kept my fingers crossed that they wouldn't say the name of the store. I got my wish, but they did say they amount...DOH! I looked away and told DH, "just press 1 and don't ask any questions". I couldn't believe that of all the time, they called that time. I almost got away with it and he wouldn't have known!

12/12/11

!!!HAPPY {2 YEAR} ANNIVERSARY!!!

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY BABE!!!

I love you

Forever & Always

12/7/11

Lesson's Learned at the USMC Ball

I've learned quite a bit from every ball I have been to so far. For instance, to not wait until the last minute to get dressed and do your hair to what dress I should buy. This is what I learnt at this year's ball.

Don't bother with getting a professional manicure UNLESS you have acrylics or gel.

I normally don't do anything crazy when I got to a ball. I usually do my own hair, make-up and nails.

This year I decided to pamper myself and get a mani/pedi. I mean, c'mon, I paid next to nothing for

my dress. I had shoes and purse and all was left to buy was my Aladdin-Genine looking bracelet and big statement earrings. So, of I went for my mani/pedi. LOVED my pedi, always do. But my nails, I loved them until they chipped hours before the ball. BUT, fear not, I did bring nail polish since I knew that could be a problem.

I am too old to go clubbing anymore.

After the ball DH and I and some of the other Marine's and their spouses/dates decided to go clubbing. BIG MISTAKE. I was bored fifteen minutes after we arrived. When the hell did I get this old?

Always bring flip flops

Lets be realistic, I can't walk in heels. I mean, I can but I can't. Get it? I'm flats/Converse-type of chick, put me in heels and you will be guaranteed that I will walk funny.

I will leave you all with pics of DH and I at the ball...