Mommy for a Weekend

It has been a really long time since Mom and I got to spend an overnight with Cassidy (my niece) and this past weekend Nikki was sick so she asked if we could babysit for her so of course we jumped on the opportunity to get some needed "baby-time" and we got to keep her for the entire weekend!

Here's just a few things I learned from this weekend:

• Taking care of a puppy/dog is a lot easier then a baby! - Puppies, while they require play time and need to be taken out and fed, are fairly independent creatures. You don't need to hand feed them or watch them every minute to make sure they're not hurting themselves or doing something bad. Granted, when I first got Kugel, I did watch him all the time and wanted to cuddle with him all the time, but taking care of Cass was very time consuming. She is a very content baby for the most part so putting her in her play chair works for awhile, but she doesn't sleep all the time like Kugel does. I also found myself waking up to every little sound or movement she made during the night. The last time she spent the night here was when she was only a few months old and she woke up at 4 am screaming and woke up everyone in the house. So this time, I really didn't want that to happen again, but it also meant I didn't sleep very well either night she was here. The only night I ever found myself doing this with Kugel was the very first night we had him! 
• I hate changing diapers, especially poop filled ones - I have never been a huge fan of this...my gag reflexes don't like it much either... For the most part when Nikki is hear, I hand her Cassidy and say "she needs her diaper changed," but since Nikki wasn't around, I gave her to Grandma instead ;) 
• People judge - Friday night after picking Cassidy up, Zach (one of my younger brothers) and I went to Dewey's Pizza for dinner and while there, I had a lot of people look at me (a 22-year-old girl with no sign of a ring on my finger and no boyfriend/fiance/husband around) and I know they assumed I was a single mother. The older women (typically about 45 and older) would tell me how cute she was and well behaved, but the girls more my age would just stare. Then Mom and I took her to the park on Saturday and she even said "you know people think she's yours, right?" to which I responded with "well I am old enough that if I wanted a family, I would be able to have one," but I would just like to take this time to say that I am very happy that I have not had to deal with this experience at this point in my life. While I love children and want them someday, at this point and time of my life I know I would not be able to take care of another human being and personally don't want to. I have a hard enough time taking care of myself, I wouldn't want to have someone completely dependent on me. On that note, I do love getting to spend time with my niece, but at the end of the day, I like being able to give her back to her mother...especially when she needs her diaper changed! I would be a hypocrit if I said I have never judged someone for being young and having a baby before, but this isn't the first time this has happened to me. I have been mistaken for being Drew's mom (just because he has red hair doesn't make him my son people!), and before when I hung out with my friend Seth (he has a five year old little boy) I overheard someone say "that really sucks, they're not engaged or married and they have a kid!" 
• There's a lot of things people don't tell you before becoming a parent - Saturday morning when Cassidy woke up, I changed her diaper, but then found myself stumped as what to do next. I figured she was probably hungry, but I didn't know if I should give her a bottle or put her in her seat and feed her. I also didn't know if this should be right away or if I should wait a little bit. I have also realized that I don't really know a whole lot about babies. It's been a really long time since we had a baby around a lot (my brothers are 15 and 13 now) so I don't really remember which came first: crawling, walking, teething, etc. I have since found out that teething starts typically first (Cassidy has two teeth at 8 months old), and she is just starting to crawl...sort of...she seems much more determined to walk then crawl. And while she babbles her baby talk, there isn't much talking yet, so that somes last, but before potty training. 
• Kugel gets very jealous - he knows he's my baby, so when she is here, he tries to fight for my attention over her by constantly following me around and sitting as close to me as possible. However, he learned that if he sits under the high chair when Cassidy is feeding herself, he's likely to get some good food. 

That's about it, so I will leave you with some cute pictures from the park :D

Check out those eyelashes! 

Baby Soup! 

So stinkin' cute, but I might be biased 

She was having fun in the swing

Auntie M as Nikki calls me, got to take her for her first slide ride

Until next time,
XOXO,

Marci

New goals

Over the last week or so, I've been trying to come up with a list of goals to try to accomplish during the time that Ben is at TBS. I figured that while he's off sweating his little booty off in Quantico, I could make use of my time by trying to better myself and hopefully some others around me. It's just a short list, but I figure February will be here before I know it and if I don't keep them semi-simple, then I won't be able to complete them and I will have failed.

1. Get in shape - While Ben was home, he made me work out with him a few times and I really realized how lucky I am that my metabolism is awesome so I'm not a huge obese person. I literally do nothing and eat like crap but yet still manage to keep my weight and my body pretty healthy out of sheer dumb luck. I've been working out for the past week with my friend Abbie and we're putting ourselves through "booty camp" as we called it. She's trying to get in shape for a cruise next month and I would just like to be healthier. I also have recently purchased a mountain bike and roller blades and despite my wipe out a few weeks ago on the blades, I'm hoping to keep doing both of these activities to work up some endurance and maybe that will help me out a little in the long run. I've been using Pinterest and finding a lot of good workouts as well as some awesome recipes that I'm going to try to talk Mom and the brothers into trying with me, which leads to the next goal.

2. Learn to cook - This has never really been an interest of mine, but as I'm getting older, I'm realizing that Mommy won't be around to cook me dinner every night and I should probably start to learn to fend for myself sooner rather than later. As I mentioned above, I have found a lot of what sound to be good recipes so I'm going to try to give some of them a try. I attempted my first one today and it worked pretty well, but a smoothie isn't that hard to mess up ;)


3. Learn to do a pull up - In the process of working out, I would like to build the upper body strength to be able to do a pull-up. This is actually a lot harder for me then I thought it would be when I first tried one. Watching Ben do 15 in a row, I thought to myself, "Oh this can't really be that hard" until I tried and didn't move at all. So far this week, each time I've gone to the gym, I've used the assisted pull-up machine and gotten a little bit harder each time, and I'm hoping by the end of the six months at training, I'll be able to do at least two in a row without whining or failing. I figure if I aim for low, I can push further and be happy with my results!


4. Start playing my violin again - I found the poor dusty case sitting in my closet and opened it only to find a broken string and a highly out of tune instrument and realized I actually really miss playing my violin. While driving to Annapolis with Ben last weekend for Chris and Michelle's wedding, "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" came on and I remembered sitting in orchestra with Christie Lavoy pretending we knew how to play it and saying one day we wanted to learn, and I am (again) adding this to my list of goals. Maybe come the beginning of the school year (which is just three weeks away) I could go back to Fairmont and see if Mr. Wright (my awesome teacher from high school!) would let me help out in any sort of way, which leads me to the next goal.

                          Scene from The Hunger Games

5. Volunteer - "I volunteer as tribute!"
Ok, maybe not that intense, but this is something I have never really done before and I think I would benefit from it greatly. However, it's proving to be sort of a difficult task to find things to do, as stupid as that sounds. I'm trying to find something that is a re-occurring event instead of a one time thing, but I'm not really having much luck with it...it's almost as hard as getting a job it seems like! I've been looking to apply to SICSA (the local pound), but I feel that could be dangerous in that I might find a dog and want to keep it, and if I brought another dog home, my mother might kill me, so I think that might not be the best fit. I've also thought about trying Big Brothers, Big Sisters, but I'm not exactly sure how that works with people who have graduated from college. Does anyone know if there's an age limit to this? I feel I can really benefit from volunteering by figuring out what I like to do. I have all sorts of different little hobbies, but even though I just graduated, I still can't figure out how to put everything I love together to make the "perfect job," but I would really like to try. 


6. Find a job - As a recent college graduate, I'm struggling big time, even with living at home and only having to pay off my simple cell phone, car insurance and credit card bills because I know the dreaded student loan payments are knocking on my door. This is tough because I have three part-time jobs, but none of them are paying me enough to be able to pay the small bills that I have and not be living pay check to pay check and it SUCKS. I feel like I sort of wasted four years at UD because I feel that I didn't really get anything out of it except a heap of debt and some great memories. I still don't know what I really want to do with my life, I'm still just as broke as I was before (more actually) and I'm still living at home while being barely able to support myself without having to pay rent. I really would love to find a full time job or even an internship that would give me some sort of experience in my field of interest while still paying so I can support myself without the help of my mom.

7. Read more - Whether this is newspapers, books, magazines, anything, I want to start reading more. I've started slow on this, but I try to keep up to date on big events from Twitter where I follow CNN Breaking News, Dayton Daily News, NY Times, The Washington Post, etc. I've also just started a book called "Tell Me How This Ends: General David Petraeus and the search for a way out of Iraq" by Linda Robinson. I bought this book last year thinking I would be able to use it for a book report for a class and we never did the reports, so I never read the book, but everything I have read on it says it is an excellent book, so hopefully I'll be able to get through that quickly because I have a list of other books I would like to get to some time soon.


8. Religion - This has never really been a top priority to me, but as I sat at my great-grandma's funeral on Tuesday next to my "brother-in-law" who knew absolutely nothing about the ceremony we were in, I realized that I really didn't know too much more. I was baptized Catholic when I was younger, but my mom never wanted to push me into something that I didn't want to do, so she never pushed private Catholic schools or even going to church and in the end, I know nothing about my so called religion. I know a few prayers, but that is from hearing them repeatedly at weddings or trying to learn them in the few masses I have attended in my lifetime. This goal, I know is going to be the most challenging, but if accomplished, could be the most rewarding. I really don't even know where to start or what to do to work on this, so any support or ideas are welcome, but it is something that I would like to explore more in the near future.


9. Continue to blog - self explanatory


So that's it, hopefully I'll be able to accomplish some, if not all of these tasks in the near future. Wish me the best of luck and until next time!

XOXO,

Marci

A month long "vacation"?

So yet again, I find it being a month since my last post. And yet again, I find myself doing a huge catch up of everything awesome that happened. I guess I sort of suck at this, but I think it's fun and I don't really know how many people read it, but it does keep everything straight and I think it's fun to go back and "re-live" everything that I have been doing, so I hope if anyone actually reads this, that you find it at least sort of interesting.

Anyways, oh my goodness! What a crazy month May was! If you follow anything (facebook, twitter, etc) then you may know that May, for me, was a pretty crazy month due to graduations, weddings, vacations, work and so on.

Week 1
The first weekend in May was my graduation party and graduation. I can't believe I am done with college. The past four years have flown by and I know I will never forget the people that I have come to be friends with. I can't say that I will miss sitting in classes, but I will miss getting to see my friends every weekend! Looking back on the last four years, there are a few things that I wish I would have done maybe a little different: 1) I would have loved to get to study abroad! Everyone always says that is one thing they would never change, but I never got to experience it. It wasn't that the opportunity never presented itself, I just never had the money to do it, unfortunately. 2) I probably also should have majored in something else...journalism is a quickly dying career and I unfortunately feel like I went to college and really learned nothing, but with the path that I was on in school (paying myself so needing to graduate in four years), I didn't really have time to babel in other classes so I sort of went with what I knew. Now people are asking what I plan on doing with my life, and as of right now, I still really don't know. I don't mind writing news stories, however, it seems like more of a hobby unless you live in DC or NYC or LA (aka big cities) and can write for a big name paper. But even then, I wonder how I would get a job since I can't even seem to get an unpaid internship with the local newspaper. With this career path, I will need experience before I will get my first "big-kid job" so I have been applying for unpaid internships around the area. The most common question now though is "what are your plans for the future" to which I answer "try to find a job, just like everyone else," but it's not that I can't find a job. Currently I have three jobs (wedding photographer (part-time), a filing secretary in a law office (part-time), and an assistant manager at the local grocery store (part-time, most hours)) and they are keeping me very busy, they just aren't really the types of jobs people expect someone to have with a four year college degree. But, back to graduation. It was the longest ceremony ever...with a class of 1, 460 kids, you would think it wouldn't be that long, and when I say we didn't even have a commencement speaker, you would think even shorter; but it took right around three hours. I was actually pretty disappointed in our actual ceremony, though. As May rolls around, you hear about all these schools with their speakers and who is speaking who, so I had some expectations, but then I found out we weren't having anybody speak and was a bit let down. I wasn't expecting President Obama, but I was thinking we would have SOMEONE. Also, the whole process was very disorganized. We (the graduates) weren't told anything prior to the morning of except what time to be at the stadium. When Dave, Pat and I got to the stadium, we walked around the entire place (along with everyone else) as we tried to figure out where to go. Once we figured that out, we continued to walk around aimlessly until about ten minutes before we started our march-on when the professors finally lined us all up. Luckily, I got to sit next to one of my best friends (Caroline) during the whole thing so that made it all a little better to sit through the hours of names. After the ceremony, I came home to have lunch with my family that came, and even my Dad made the drive from Florida just to support me! My family is seriously the best! And anyways, big-kid job or no big-kid job, I still made it through four years and received a diploma! So here's a few pics from the big day! 

Brenna (my roommate from freshman year) and I! 

I love this girl! I'm so glad I met Caroline and we've stayed friends since freshman year!
Also glad we got to sit next to each other during the graduation ceremony! 

Headed down to the floor! 

Shaking Dr. Curran's hand

Mom and I after the ceremony

Grandma, me, Poppie and Cassidy

The brothers and me

Even Dad was able to make it to graduation! 

Week 2
After relaxing for a whole 24 hours after the ceremony celebrations were over, I was headed with 2,000 of my closest friends on a road trip to Daytona Beach, FL for a week of free beer, sun, the beach and best friends. The trip, also known as Dayton to Daytona, is the seconds biggest event held in Daytona, only behind the Daytona 500. If you've never heard of this trip, just think MTV's Spring Break and it's sort of like that...but with all kids from your school. The trip wasn't the first for me, I went my sophomore year and junior year, but this year was the first time that I was one of the "cool kids on the block" (recently graduated senior) and I wasn't the young kid in the group either. I went with Jenni (I went to high school with her and she was a 5th year senior this year), Caroline (I lived next to her my freshman year and we've been best friends since!), Shannon (I just met her this year, but she is incredible! I see many more adventures in our future!), and Kelsey (ok, so we snuck her in...she goes to Miami University, but she's awesome!). The Monday after graduation, we all met up at Shannon's house and headed for our 15 hour road trip through the night. We got in to Daytona and headed straight to the pool deck for the first day, and from there, every day runs into each other and before we knew it, it was time to leave. On the last night, we went to the arcade for some free corn dogs and to ride the Farris Wheel before heading out at 1am to drive through the night again to come home. Daytona was a week of fun with my best friends and I love everyone that I have gotten to know over the last four years and I will never forget any of you! You have made my college experience the best thing it could have been!

Shannon and I on the second day

Dana, Becky and I on the second day

Group from freshman year on the third day!
(Left to right: Pat, Deven, me, Becky, Elliott,  Dana, Matt)

Some of my best friends on the fourth day!
(Left to right: Eric, Pat, JC, me, Shannon)

Shannon, me, Kalynn, Caroline on the fourth day

Caroline, Kalynn and I made a band with our prizes from the Arcade

The roommates on the last day
(Left to right: Jenni, Kelsey, Shannon, Caroline and me)

My school "roommates" on the last night. Thanks guys for letting me crash on your couch all the time!
(Left to right: Pat, JC, me, Eric, Dave)

Found a guy with this bird and he let us hold him! 

Week 3
After Daytona, I had a few days to relax before heading up to Columbus, OH for my aunt and uncle's wedding. Danny and Renee have been together literally my entire life, so it was about time they tied the knot. I was asked to be a bridesmaid, so Friday morning, I jumped in my car and met the girls at the salon to get our nails done. After that, we went to the rehearsal at the golf course and then off to dinner. The worst part about it though, however, was that I was sick (thanks a lot Daytona!) with what the doctor told me was tonsillitis and I was miserable. I had gone to get medicine a few days before and was really hoping that when I woke up Saturday morning, I would feel better...and luckily I did! Well, sort of. So we met again at the salon to get our hair and make up done and then headed to the hotel to get ready! After solving a minor hair crisis (Renee's curls fell out because of the heat so two of the girls ran to a CVS to buy a curling iron), we met with the boys for pictures. The day completely flew by, but it was so much fun! The wedding and reception were both gorgeous and I was so happy to be part of their day! We all had a blast and Renee looked beautiful!

The beautiful bride and I

Bridesmaids
(Left to right: me, Michelle, Jen and Kelley)

The groom and I!

This is what my brothers did with the petals that were along the aisle

Walking down the aisle - Riyad and me

Danny when he saw Renee

Renee and her Dad

They're MARRIED! 

Wedding party

Bride and groom with the nieces and nephews 

First Dance

Mother/Son Dance

Bridesmaids in the photobooth 

Cousins and Grandma in the photobooth

Me with the couple! 

Week 4 and 5
Commissioning week. Enough said. But seriously, this week was INSANE! And it was pretty awesome! I love getting to go to Annapolis. It is a beautiful city and I am actually going to miss getting to visit there a few times a year, but for commissioning week, I was there for 14 days!!! That's the longest I have ever been there before! I ended up going up a day before Ben's family because I really wanted another excuse to wear my beautiful dress that I had bought last year for ring dance and on Wednesday night, there was the graduation ball, so I flew up there just in order to go to that. Also on that day, however, was the color parade and I met up with miss Kristy Yi (FINALLY) and we got to sit together and chat. Grad ball was a lot of fun and I even met a few friends of Ben's that I hadn't met before, so that always makes things interesting. The next day, Ben's parents and sister got into town and we moved into our "home" for the week. His parents rented this gorgeous house about ten minutes from the academy and it's was so nice to not have to be cooped up in a hotel for the whole week. That day before they got there, Ben and I got to see the Marine Corps Band and Silent Drill Team performance. The drill team was pretty cool, but I was a bit skeptical about how "silent" they are and bet that if you were to put a microphone on them, they were probably whispering to each other. During the week, we also got to check out the NEX (Navy Exchange), the MCX (Marine Corps Exchange), the Marine Corps Museum, took a ghost tour of Annapolis, got to meet the Superintendent and see his BEAUTIFUL house!, and hung out with a lot of family and friends! Come May 29, I got the first peek at Ben in his new Marines uniform when he came into my bedroom and asked "do I look ok in this?" He then got a big smile on his face and was so handsome! The day then flew by! I got great seats in the stadium because I snuck down to a different section then we were supposed to sit in (whoops!), but I got great pictures too! Defense Secretary Leon Panetta gave the commencement speech about to the graduating class about their futures in the service. He told them the focus was going to be in Asia as they begin to be deployed within the next year. He said, "it's up to your generation to ensure that our fleet remains unrivaled by any other nation on Earth. That's why you came here."

Excerpt from ABC News:
ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told a graduating class of naval officers today that rapidly changing global challenges for the United States meant they would be tasked with leading a military in metamorphosis.

“You must be prepared to respond to whatever threats we confront in the future with courage, with creativity and with leadership,” Panetta said, “Adapting to new challenges is what the naval service does best. This is not a time for playing it safe. It’s a time for imagination, a time for initiative.”

Panetta told the graduates the threat of a nuclear North Korea and Iran, cybersecurity, the rising prominence of the Asia-Pacific, and the ongoing pursuit of terrorism were reminders that “we are still at war.”

“All of this coming at a time of increasing budget challenges here at home,” said Panetta.  ”Our nation now looks to you, the next generation of military leaders, to confront the challenges I just outlined.”

Panetta touted NATO’s success in Libya and America’s commitment to a 2014 drawdown in Afghanistan. He told the students that strengthening ties with China would be “key” to peace from the Pacific to South Asia.

“That reality is inescapable for our country and for our military,” he said.

As the military’s strategies evolve, so do the very makeup of its members, said the secretary.

“You are men and women from every state in the union and 12 foreign nations; rich and poor; secular and religious; black, white, Latino, Native American, Asian; straight and gay.”

There were many awesome things witnessed during this ceremony, and one cool thing that was announced during the ceremony was that it was the 100th anniversary of the cover toss. It is a symbolic gesture of no longer needing their midshipmen covers because they are being commissioned into their respective branches (Navy or Marines) and receive a new officer's cover. Another moment was when Panetta talked about the diversity of the Class of 2012. This is the first class that has been able to openly admit they were gay and not have to worry about facing anything for it, and when he said this during his speech, the whole crowd cheered. However, the coolest moment of the ceremony, one that I know I  will never forget, was when Kevin Hillery's name was called. Now, most people don't know his story, but it is one that is incredibly heroic. Just a few months before commissioning, Hillery was competing in an adventure race when a tree was struck by lightning and fell on him while he was riding his bike, paralyzing him from his rib cage down. With just a few months before graduation, the Navy decided to let him graduate and medically retire him right away. The most moving thing was when he wheeled himself up the ramp to the stage and the entire stadium stood up to applaude him. It was the coolest thing! As 1,099 midshipmen received their commissions, I was one of many proud girlfriends/significant others/ family members as I watched Ben and all of his friends walk across the stage to receive their diplomas and I know they will all do great things in their lives as they move forward in their separate paths. 

Marine Corps Band

Marine Corps Silent Drill Team

Ben and me in front of the Marine Corps Museum 

At the Marine Corps Museum 

After coffee with some cool girls!
(Left to right: Kristy, me, Nikki)

Ben and me after Baccalaureate 

Supe's Garden Party

Ben, me and Lee
Lee has been a great guy and has helped me out with SOOO many surprises! 

Last picture with my midshipman (Ben in his uniform and me in my pjs!)

Ben and Dave walking onto the field 

Blue Angels fly over

Marines being sworn in

Getting ready to walk on stage! 

Ben shaking hands with Leon Panetta

He's graduated!!!

Cover toss!

2nd Lieutenant 

Mary Ellen pinning on his bars

Getting his new cover

Me and the new 2nd Lieutenant Rinklin! 

Getting his first salute from his Uncle Marty 

Getting his first salute from his Uncle Marty 

So after all of the craziness of commissioning week, Ben and I stuck around a few extra days for one of his really good friend's (Seth) wedding. Ben was actually in the wedding at the end to do the sword arch which is pretty cool. Congrats to Seth and Tracy! Your day was beautiful and we were so honored to get to be a part of it! 

Adorable gifts from the rehearsal dinner! 

Ben and me at the rehearsal dinner 

Me with the 26th Company boys!

The bride and her ladies

Tracy and her dad walking down the aisle

Congrats Mrs and 2nd LT Freedman 

Sword Arch

Tracy and her dad dancing (this is my fav pic that I took all day!!!) 

Ben and I 

So that's it for now, so until next time, I bid you all farewell! 

With lots of love,

Marci