Five Years

Donald and I celebrated 5 years of marriage today.
Well, technically we celebrated last night.
Melting Pot and a trip to REI.
Nothing thrilling, but that's what happens as you get older I guess. You just get comfortable, and we're fine with that.
The only thing worth noting is that as we left Blockbuster (where we found nothing worth renting) Donald got "sassy", locked me out of the truck (with a fat smile on his face), and tried to drive away.
No problem... he drives a truck.
I hopped in back and decided to be content with the short, albeit cold, drive home. He caved (score one:Katrina), and managed to stop laughing long enough to let me back in.
Dork.


I could spend hours writing mushy details about how wonderful he is and how great our life has been.

But I'm sure he's grateful that I won't. Instead, we'll let a few pictures do the talking.

I LOVE YOU, BABY LOVE!

I hope the next five years are equally phenominal!

Most Rockin' Husband Ever

My flight to Thailand on Sunday left at 10pm. That gave me all day to pack, clean the house, dye my hair (blonde roots with dark hair? not so hot), clean out my car, pre-pack a few days worth of Donald's breakfasts and lunches, and even get some X-files/snuggle-time in.

Except that when I woke up at 8:45 and printed out my itinerary, it became abundantly clear that my flight left at 1pm.

9 hours sooner than I thought it would.

And I hadn't yet packed a SINGLE item.

I allowed myself 90 seconds of complete chaos. I screamed, I hugged Donald, I cried, and then I said nothing.

Then we got to work. I ran around the house screaming and squawking, throwing random items of clothing at Donald while he ENTIRELY packed for me and reminded me, step by step, of what I needed to bring.

I took a shower while he finished packing and loaded the luggage up, and then we left for the airport.

I left him with a heaping load of dirty dishes, several loads of laundry, and all sorts of other tasks to complete that he doesn't have time or energy for, and he didn't complain once.

He works roughly 60 hours a week. I... I work 20, and am now spending 2 weeks of rest and relaxation in Thailand.

But still, somehow that amazing man frequently pulls BOTH of our weight. He amazes me, and I adore him.

Chamber of Commerce Charity Event

On Friday night Donald, along with 3 other members of his brigade, were invited act as representatives at a charity event for military children hosted by the Gig Harbor Chamber of Commerce. Of course he needed a hot date to accompany him, and I was more than willing to do so.

The food was delicious, the company was friendly, and it was wonderful seeing so many people recognized for all the hard work they had put into bettering their community. That, and they filled an entire van full of toys for needy children at Fort Lewis.

The best part though?

I got to dress up!

The Best Four Years

Yesterday was our 4th Anniversary....

Can I just say that I am one darn lucky woman?

I mean really, how could you NOT love that face?

Impressed With Myself

I'm very impressed with myself. I did some math today. Since Donald and I were married, we have been apart for 25.75 months due to deployments and training. We've been together for only 20.25. Alas, yet another reason to be impressed with myself (the first reason was for the math I willingly did!). The alternative to immense pride is to be a miserable wreck, which I've been fighting against a lot lately!

I honestly don't know how missionary wives in the 18- and 1900's did it. Kissing their husbands goodbye for years at a time without phones, USPS, and the INTERNET?
Can I get an "amen" for the INTERNET?!? I could NOT be an Army wife without it. I'm forever indebted to Al Gore for the sanity it has provided me.

Orange County Mud Run and Eco-Fest

Last month Donald we took a trip down to California to visit some of our good friends and family. While there, Donald did the Orange County Mud Run on a team with 3 of his friends. It was the most hilarious thing I've ever seen him do.

For four young men who are native to SoCal (two of whom aren't even white) they certainly are a very pasty bunch.

From left to right: Adam, Rudy, Donald, and Albert.

The only place to pin their numbers was the tooshie. Justin didn't seem to mind helping out.

I, however, did so reluctantly.

It was just a 5k course, and wasn't very difficult (which I'm sure is much easier for me to say, since I didn't run it!), but they made the most of it!

This one was taken toward the start of the race, before they met the mud!

Okay, bad news. The mid pits weren't placed in an area that was accessible to bystanders. Bummer, right? I really was looking forward to watching them prance through the stuff. As you can see here, though, there definitely was a mud pit. However, I'm told it wasn't a very deep or intense one. No, they just LOOK like they had to swim through it. They apparently didn't fight against the stuff. They SAVORED their time in the mud, and got well acquainted with it.

My husband never does things half-hearted, and playing in the mud is no exception!

Now we come to my favorite part of the race. This is where everyone ELSE decided to cheat. After they crossed that little red rope, everyone was supposed to CRAWL through the sand.


Did they all? Only at first...










Crawling 15ish feet must have seemed too hard or boring for everyone else. Some people were even going around the obstacle entirely. Not Mr. Integrity though. Donald believed in the spirit of the race.















Do you love how he folded his shorts over in a sexy yet functional diaper-style?

He low-crawled through the un-fun people. While they stood impatiently in the congestion, he stealthily worked his way through the small crowd. Cheaters never prosper!

Look closely, and you can see Albert stuffing sand down Donald's shorts.

Then they went through some tubes before running off to finish the rest of the course.

The aftermath:

They stood in line for at least half an hour to hose off, and then we called it a day. They ran out of T-shirts in Donald's size, so he grabbed one for me. Isn't it cute? I think so. His loss is my gain!

Our Third Anniversary!

3 years
36 months
1,095 days
26,280 hours

since we became Mr. and Mrs. Donald Winn.


Due to the war in Iraq, we have only had the pleasure of being together for half of those three years, so we cherish every day we have in each others presence.

Outside the Frankfurt, Germany Temple

They've been the best three years of our lives!

Critters in the Hood

Twenty minutes ago we received a knock on our door from a woman we go to church with. Apparently she's had an odd smell in her car for the last several days, and traced the scent to the hood of her car... and found today that it was, to her worst suspicions, a dead animal. She doesn't "do" dead animals(and either would I!), she told Donald, and with her husband being in Iraq she desperately needed help extracting him from the top of her engine. We stood several feet away while Donald did the dirty work. The whole process took under 2 minutes, and it was absolutely hilarious.

Gross as it seems, it was definitely the highlight of my weekend.

Oh, and Donald deemed the creature to be chipmunk. Or maybe a squirrel? It was hard to tell, I guess, and I certainly wasn't going anywhere near the thing to make a positive ID on the species.

RIP, Mr. fluffy rodent thing.

Halloween

Our first holiday back together was fantastic!

He, true to character, went as a devil. I was his fallen angel. Not creepy at all, I know... but we sure looked cute, right?







With so many people having only been in town for a few days, all plans were very last minute. Ultimately, we ended up having a casual BBQ at our house. A handful of people came over with their kids and we stuffed our faces while playing Rock Band.

The Curb Trick - Iraq

Donald's a riot.

Check out this video of him in Iraq, from several months ago:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7agGR9vgyqk

My Sleepy Soldier

My husband is amazing. He's been in Iraq for 14 months now. I don't hear from him as often as I'd like, but that's what I married into and I can't complain much. He gets online once or twice (sometimes 3 or 4, if I'm lucky!) times a week, usually for about 30 minutes at a time. Phone calls are out, so our online time is all we have.

Well, he's working a job right now that's taken him away from his usual location. There, he has INTERNET IN HIS ROOM - wireless - on his laptop! He got online last night a bit after 9pm, and after having a long, long, long day... he gets online to talk with me. He ended up falling asleep at the keys within about 40 minutes. Literally. I wouldn't hear from him for several minutes, only to receive a "I love you. What? I'm sorry. I fell asleep... I love you." This pattern went on for nearly an hour. Every time I'd PM him, the chime would wake him up, and he'd try his best to respond.

The conversation was going nowhere, really. Finally, after about 10 minutes of silence, I decided to let him sleep. I stayed online for another hour or two, and watched his status go from "available" to "idle".

Of all the silly things in the world that could have made my day - THIS was it. It was as if I had physically watched him fall asleep. Just being able to share something as mundane with him as falling asleep...

it was the highlight of my week.