Starting out..

Hi everyone! I am new to all of this. My friend introduced me to this website a while ago, and I am just now getting the chance to sign up and see what it's all about. I know a lot of you keep up with my webshots, and I am just starting to not like that site very much. It takes forever for my pictures to upload, and once they do, I find that at least 2 or 3 are missing every time, VERY ANNOYING! So I am going to try this out and see if it is any better! This will also (hopefully) help keep all of our friends and family up to date on our lives outside of pictures =] So here it goes..

First of all, does anyone else feel like 2008 is going by WAY too fast? I remember January like yesterday. I was waiting so patiently for Matt to come home and it felt like time was never going to speed up. Looks like I got my wish because I just blinked my eyes and here it is August already =[ It has already been over 6 months since Matt has returned home from his deployment and we have been trying to soak up every day. He has been thrown around so much with his job that it's ridiculous. When he came home, he was a police sergeant with his best friend. It worked out well-the hours were FANTASTIC, he worked next to someone he liked, and we were both all around very happy with the situation. Then an opportunity came along that we couldn't pass up. 2nd Marine Division was looking for Marines with around a year left on their contract to come work for them. This would mean getting off of work around 2pm everyday, a very low stress job, and of course the best part of all, NON-DEPLOYABLE! We were thrilled. Matt and his best friend (the other police sergeant) both put their names in and we waited. Well I guess his current unit had other plans for him because after everything, he did not get to move to Division. He was instead sent to be a higher up's driver. This job had it's perks as well, but nothing even comes close to being non-deployable, and this job inevitably means he will be deploying again next January for another year. Sometimes it's very hard to look at the positives when all you can think about is seperation. Anyways, he has been at his new job for a few months now and has settled in. He already has a driver under HIM, cool huh? =] So just keep him in your thoughts! He has less than 5 months until he leaves again and it's very hard for any of us not to think about. I know it's hard for me having him gone for so long, but I can't even come close to imagining how hard it must be for him to leave everything he knows for years at a time.

Back to reality I guess. We have had a great summer here! I'm not sure if I e-mailed everyone or not, but most of you know our struggle with base housing. We were stuck into an old house again earlier this year and tried to make the best of it. However we recently FINALLY got moved into a new house on base!!! We are both SO excited. I believe we have doubled our square footage, haha. We have SO much more space to just live in and enjoy. I have posted some pictures on our webshots album, but for those of you who don't feel like venturing over to that site, here is what our new house looks like!

It is a 2-story, 2 bedroom, 1.5 bath home! It is beautiful =] All of the interior pictures are over in our webshots account. Basically, we have a huge living room, dining room, kitchen (with dishwasher!!), laundry room, garage, 2 bedrooms, master bath, half bath, and a big back porch! It's GREAT! In our entire married life, we have never had a dishwasher or even been able to put both of our clothes into one closet haha. This home has been so exciting to us. A couple weeks ago, we decided to re-do the garden, here are some pictures.

Before:

After:

We worked very hard on it and are so proud! We also got crafty and did a few painting projects, what do you think?

Matt made a birdhouse:

Our welcome sign:

Sydney & Maverick's signs:

So that is about it for this year. Recently, we have not done much. We have been relaxing a LOT. This past weekend we took the dogs to the dog park to let them get some energy out! They absolutely loved it. Matt ran laps with Maverick the whole time, and Sydney joined in a few times, haha.

Once we got home, they decided they wanted to "neighbor-watch" and this is what we caught them doing!

Aren't they adorable? =]

The Carolina Panthers have started playing again! Matt is a big fan and I'm starting to get into it too. Here is a picture of us watching the game this weekend!

Just wondering, what does everyone think of the Olympics so far? My opinions: Michael Phelps is AWESOME! I'm sure he will win all the medals he needs to make his record. I am kind of ticked about the men's gymnastics team getting bronze. They deserved silver, no doubt about it. But what can you do. I am proud of them for at least placing after losing both of the Hamm brothers. I am a little obsessed with the Olympics =] Leave your comments on what you think!

So, basically that is our current life in a nutshell. I hope you enjoy this new way of communicating. Let me know what you like/dislike or what you want to see/hear more of! If you comment make sure to leave your name unless you want to remain a mystery =]

PS-go vote in our new poll!! (on the left) We'd like to know who reads our stuff!

Love,

The Mitchell's