Work hard, play hard!

While Mark was here I stole some pictures off his computer of what he’s been up to so I thought I would share! The first ones are just shots of where he works….poor guy is stuck in an office all day…

with this outside! How sad right?

Of course this isn't RIGHT outside cuz he's on base but it's somewhere on the island :)

The pics of Okinawa that I’ve seen really are gorgeous and I really wish I coulda gone to visit him there! But that’s alright…he promised to take me to some paradise someday :) Anyway…

Since Mark is the boot Ensign, he helps plan a lot of the activities for the guys there on their day off. They usually work 6 days a week but one or two Saturdays a month they get off. They go out to dinner a lot too and Mark says he’s had some good food out there! So a couple of the activities he has pictures of are a hike and a trip to the aquarium.

The hike looked gorgeous, lots of jungle, waterfalls, cliffs, and ocean! SO gorgeous! Here’s some pics!

Mark and his buddy Matt! They were our next door neighbors in Gulfport and went to church with us so that was awesome! I love Matt's wife, Nicole, and am excited to go back to MS and be near her again! As well as my other buddies too. :)

No clue what this is :)

Eating at some local place, the pic below is the menu!

Then I guess the island has a pretty nice aquarium. The main attraction is this HUGE whale shark…isn’t that crazy big???

He also had pics (taken by the battalion photography guy, not Mark) from a concert that the MWR put on for the guys and families on the bases there. They had some chick named Natalie Stovall, some band named Safety Suit, and Bowling for Soup (they’ve got some good songs and also wrote/sang the theme song for Phineas and Ferb!). We both know/like Bowling for Soup so I’m sure he liked them. I don’t know the other two.

And here’s just a few random pics I found on there!

I guess there's a lot of these lion statues around in Okinawa. Mark wants to get a pair (smaller of course :) to put on the front porch. Pretty cool!

My dashing husband! :)

I wasn't a fan of this pic but here it is anyway! :) They had a little "competition" on who could grow the best mustache I guess...Mark didn't last too long cuz the other guys were better but he did try! I"m just glad he got rid of it before he came home :)

So yeah..I don’t really have much to say since these are his pics but hopefully you liked them! Pretty hard life though right? I know he’s a bit bored sometimes and gets tired of sitting in the office all day but I’m glad he’s somewhere safe and gets to have some fun! I think some of the trips he has coming up are fishing on the ocean and snorkeling…no fair!

"One of the very nicest things about life is the way we must regularly stop whatever it is we are doing and devote our attention to eating."

Another two quoter day! This one wouldn't fit but I thought it was funny :)

"My therapist told me the way to achieve true inner peace is to finish what I start. So far today, I've finished two bags of M&Ms and a chocolate cake. I feel better already." --Dave Barry--

One fun thing about having Mark home was that I actually cooked! I cook while he’s gone but not as good of stuff, mainly cuz I’m lazy and hate cooking for one person! It’s just a pain and by the time dinner comes I just don’t to make the effort. So when Mark came I got my new cookbook out, Our Best Bites (which is AMAZING btw!!! It's by these two Mormon mommas who have a blog together and just came out with this book), and picked out some dinners and made ‘em!

One night I made this yummy rosemary pork tenderloin with rosemary potatoes and steamed broccoli. It was delicious! I love pork tenderloin and love trying new recipes on it. And I LOVE steamed broccoli (luckily Evelyn does too!) and this was delicious and so easy. Just a little olive oil, salt, and pepper and wa-la! Then with the potatoes I used fingerlings, which I’ve never used before, but they turned out great and super yummy. The sauce was a little more mustardy than I usually like for potatoes but they were good.

Another night I made lasagna from the same book. I asked Mark what he wanted me to make when he came home and he requested lasagna so he got it! This lasagna sauce was completely made from scratch and was pretty good! Mark loved it (and so did Grammy! I couldn't eat the rest of it after Mark left, there was half a pan left! so Grammy got leftovers from me :). I made some breadsticks (from the same book :) which turned out ok but I didn’t use the right ratio of seasoning on top so they woulda been better if I had. (I SWEAR I took a pic of the lasagna but can't find it...oh well :)

The third thing I made while Mark was here was pizza and pizza rolls. It used the same dough from the breadsticks (which is so simple and easy btw!) and this time it turned out amazing! I made their pizza sauce for it and also used it for the marinara to dip the pizza rolls in. The pizza was great but I think I liked the pizza rolls better. The garlic bread seasoning on top was SO YUMMY! They went pretty quick so next time I’m gonna have to make more of them. Unfortunately I forgot to take a pick of them so sorry about that. :)

I have made one other thing from this cookbook but not while Mark was here. It was their stuffed zucchini. Dad’s garden has started spouting out zucchini (big ones too which work perfect for this!) so I grabbed some and made this one night. It was SO DELICIOUS! I’m a big zucchini fan and absolutely loved this. I didn’t exactly follow the directions to the ‘t’ cuz I didn’t have everything but it was the basic gist of it and it was great. Dad and Mellisa tried some too and both like it as well.

So that’s all from that for now! I’m gonna try to be better at cooking for myself so I’ll try some more later and report! I think they have quite a few of the recipes in the book on their blog as well as great tips/tutorials/fun stuff so head on over and check them out! They are great!

The reason it hurts so much to separate is because our souls are connected. --Nicholas Sparks, The Notebook--

I actually found a lot of good quotes for this blog title, it was hard to choose! SO here's a couple more real quick :)

Missing someone gets easier every day because even though it's one day further from the last time you saw each other, it's one day closer to the next time you will. ~Author Unknown

You can kiss your family and friends good-bye and put miles between you, but at the same time you carry them with you in your heart, your mind, your stomach, because you do not just live in a world but a world lives in you. ~Frederick Buechner

Distance between two hearts is not an obstacle, rather a beautiful reminder of just how strong true love can be. ~Author Unknown

Anyway....

This past week and a half have flown by and I’m not too happy about how quick it went! As most of you know Mark came for his leave visit this past week and a half and it was so wonderful to have him home! Evelyn loved having her daddy here and LOVED all the attention and play time she got. I loved seeing them together again and quite enjoyed not being Evelyn’s jungle gym for once! I also enjoyed the break from changing diapers (Mark graciously accepted my request of him changing all the diapers while he was here, I think I only changed 1 or 2! Good man…. :) Anywho…it was a wonderful visit and I’m so glad he got to come.

Mark and I spent the first night in Kansas City (Evelyn spent the night with Grammy and Grandpa) and had a wonderful time. We ate dinner at the Cheesecake Factory, which was YUMMY!!! Then Saturday we did a little shopping and then went to see the last Harry Potter movie before heading home. Man that was a good movie!!! I loved it! I was balling (or trying not to, tears were streaming but inside I was balling like a baby). It was such a great book and they did really good with the movie. Anyway, it was a perfect little getaway for us as we spent the rest of Mark’s visit with Evelyn.

We got home Saturday afternoon and as much as I would like to say that Evelyn was ecstatic to see her daddy, it wasn’t quite the case. She had woken up from her nap just MINUTES before we drove up and she’s not a very happy person after waking up and that day was a bit more grouchy cuz she hadn’t seen her momma in 24 hours so it was a bit rocky. Mark went in first and she heard that door and came running, saw him, ran past him (crying all the while), and ran straight to me. Poor dear! I was taking a little video to capture it but stopped it right there. So no pics of that! And no video cuz this still won’t let me upload….ugh!!!! So yeah…we went home pretty much right after that and after she calmed down (and opened a present from Mark) she was just dandy and they played and played and had lots of fun. It was wonderful! I love seeing them together. They are so adorable. He misses her so much and gets so sad about missing out on her learning/doing new things! So it was nice to have him interact with her even for just a week and a half. She has been working on her colors lately and really picked a few up while he was here so he loved being a part of her learning something new. (She now knows pink and blue 99% of the time and red, purple, and yellow 80%...she picks things up so quick!)

She loves picking "flowers" for me :)

So we pretty much just hung out around home for Sunday and Monday, playing and enjoying each other’s company, and also getting ready for a little trip we took. We went to Nauvoo on Tuesday and stayed til Thursday. It was a quick trip but really great and I’m so glad we did it! We spent time with Monie and her fam and saw the new baby, sweet little Kellen! That baby is SO good and SO adorable! I’ve never seen such a chill baby…but I’ll get to him later. We did a little photo shoot of him so I’ll dedicate a whole post to that later. So yeah…on Wednesday we hung out with them and then went to a waterpark in Burlington which was pretty fun. Kady and Evelyn had a great time playing in the water and running around like little kids do.

(Dancing with Daddy at the hotel! SO adorable!)

That night we went to the Nauvoo Pageant, which was wonderful, although we were all so beat and tired and cranky we didn’t stay the whole thing. Evelyn would NOT stay still and kept running off and since it’s at night it was pretty hard to see where she went sometimes…I was kinda afraid to lose her! So we went home and went to bed instead. :) Thursday morning Mark and I dropped Evelyn off at Aunt Monie’s and went to the temple to do some temple work, which was so wonderful. It’s always wonderful to go the temple with your beloved but it’s even more wonderful to go back to Nauvoo where we were married and where we can reminisce and feel the wonderful spirit that is there. I absolutely love that place and love going back with Mark. I feel so grateful that we were able to go while he was home.

Daddy offered to share his hot dog with her...

And she grabbed it and ate the whole thing!

How can you resist that face though? :)

After we were done at the temple we picked up Evelyn, made some lunch, and headed off! We drove part way to Columbia where we did a little shopping (Mark needed some new running shoes for PT) and then went to my good friend Rori’s for a BBQ dinner with her, her hubby, and my other two good friends, Jeanie and Cheryl. It was great to see them all and enjoy some time with friends. I rarely get to see those girls anymore (darn growing up and getting married/jobs/etc.!) and it’s always wonderful to get together. We stayed for quite a while and then drove home (amidst and nice lightning storm chasing us) and spent the rest of Mark’s short visit spending every possible minute together.

Here's just a funny one from the pics we took :)

I had my best friend Sarah take some family pics of us while Mark was here, which went pretty good, except Evelyn, of course, wasn’t cooperating and kept running around and not paying attention to anything but what she wanted to do so we don’t have too many of us all looking at the camera but got some cute ones anyway! I’m just gonna have to get used to having lots of pictures of us up and walking or side shots or less formal shots. :) That girl is So active! Mark spent lots of time playing/chasing her outside and she loved having him at her beck and call to play with :)

So the rest of the visit was pretty calm, just spending time together, which was perfect. But Monday came all too soon and we were soon dropping him off and he was gone. :( It was very sad but we got through the first 4 ½ months and can get through these next four! Just gotta keep busy like before and it’ll be gone before we know it. I’ve still got a craft to-do list as long as my arm or longer (pinterest is getting SO addicting! So many cool things on there), so hopefully I can get some things done! Then in September we’ve got some traveling to do (hopefully it all works out) so that’ll go quick and then it’ll be October (Evelyn’s 2^nd b-day…holy cow!!!) and then November!

There you have it. I’m afraid this week won’t be too productive…it’s BLAZING hot (it was a high of like 108 yesterday! UGH!!!) and that always makes me more lazy/reluctant to do anything too productive…Evelyn gets cranky cuz she’s all cooped up inside and then bothers me when I’m doing projects so I don’t get as much done…vicious cycle :) I’m praying this excessive heat crap will go away!!! So yeah…I think that’s all for now! Evelyn’s asleep and I’m getting there so off to bed for me! Love to you all!

Evelyn and I went to Chipotle for lunch after we dropped Mark off at the airport...she was really into the burrito! She has good taste :)

The Kansas City Temple! This is a shot I got with my phone while driving by from the airport :) It's SO pretty!!!