Finding Out About Our First Deployment...

On Monday Austin called me to tell me that he wanted to bring me out to a nice dinner, so I was super excited!! I got all dolled up and when he got home he gave me a beautiful arrangement of flowers. I thought he was being soo very sweet and I was loving being doted on. We went to P.F. Chang's and ordered our dinner. We were just enjoying being in each other's company and eating a delicious dinner.

"Babe, I need to tell you something. It's making me more nervous then when I proposed to you." My heart started to pound because I knew that whatever was coming was not going to be good. He then went on to tell me that he was going to be deployed in August. I started to cry and my hands were shaking. I didn't know what to think because he was supposed to be in a non-deployable unit. He told me that the week before they asked if anyone would want to get deployed and he raised his hand without thinking about it. So Monday morning they had him and Hamilton play Rock, Paper, Scissors (when he told me this I was pissed) and Austin won so they pulled him into the office and told him he was going to be switched over to the 3-1 unit and be deployed in August. I could not believe that the only reason he was the one going was because he won at Rock, Paper, Scissors. So it will be him and 3 or 4 other guys from his unit going to 3-1 and deploying with them. There was a chance that he wasn't going to go because of paperwork but now it's for sure. 

It made me laugh when I realized the flowers and dinner were his way of buttering me up. I'm scared and unsure of what's going to happen but I'm planning on moving home to use my Millennium Scholarship. I'm not sure where I'm going to live yet or what else I am going to do there. I'm planning on going to church with my Cordano family and hopefully helping my Aunt and Uncle with the youth group. Maybe I'll get a puppy to help me keep my mind off things or a teacup pig if I can convince Austin. ;) 

Austin asked me to wear a yellow ribbon everyday while he is gone because of a cadence they sing about a girl who wore a yellow ribbon everyday while her soldier was gone. So I'm going to do this to the best of my abilities and try to send him care packages regularly and talk to him as much as I can. 

I've have been praying as much as I can for God to help direct me in the way that I need to go and to be both of our strength. I know that the only way for us to get through this is if we are both focused on God and count on him for ours needs. I don't know what God's plans are but I'm trying to trust in Him because he knows exactly what is going to happen. 

I definitely would accept all prayers with open arms and will greatly appreciate them. Please pray for Austin's safety and well being and for my sanity while he isn't here. 

Christmas Vacation 2010

This year for Christmas, Austin and I decided to surprise our parents. We let them believe that we weren't going to be able to go home. So on December 20th and 1 in the morning we set out on our adventure. We turned the 17 hour drive into a 15 hour one. The stretch between Vegas and Minden was the hardest!! Seany was my inside man and helped me plan everything out. So he was in Reno with the family and when we told him that we were at the house he tried getting everyone home. It didn't work very well. They were taking a long time so Austin and I decided to visit Aunt Heidi, Uncle Shane and the boys. They were super surprised as well!! It was so nice to see them. So then we went back to the families house and waited. Seany texted me and told us to hide in the bathroom so we went in there and waited. Not too long later Seany dragged Mom into their room and said, "Merry Christmas!" She was really confused until she looked into the bathroom and saw me. She screamed, "Diana" and started bawling!! She was soo surprised!!! She said it was the best surprise ever!! Then Seany brought in the rest of the family was were equally surprised. I was so excited to be home with my family.
A couple days later my best friend Liz came over from Fallon to hang out. We stayed up super later and "Party Hardied". We had tons of fun and I was so excited to see her.
We went to Grammy and Papa's for a Christmas dinner with the Cordano's. It was nice to visit with everyone that we had missed. My Aunt Jenni and Uncle Mark got us what they called marraige counseling: Nerf Dart Guns. Austin and I have already played with them and they are super fun!! He was trying to clean and I attacked him, and so a war started. We managed to lose one of the darts, of course. It was really nice to see everyone.
On Christmas Eve the family, including Leannia and Jonny, sat around the tree to exchange the letters that we all had written to each other. We also gave the boys their present, MRE's, and Mommy and Seany's present, a picture that we got taken. They got us a big wall clock and I was super excited cuz I've always wanted one!!! There were lots of tears and laughs. First thing Christmas morning, Austin and I got up, loaded the car, and woke everyone up to say goodbye. It was hard but we were excited to surprise Austin's momma.
It started snowing on the way there so we had to drive a little slower than we wanted to but when we got the Melissa came running out saying, "I knew it!!" And of course she started crying. We went inside and had some yummy breakfast and opened gifts. Melissa made us a beautiful quilt and they got us lots of decorations. They spoiled us. Then went over to the Edward's house to surprise them as well. We then went over to Nana and Papa's house for more presents, games, and dinner.
While we were there we got to celebrate Micheala's 18th birthday with her. We went to an Italian restaurant called Strings. It was very tastey. Austin and I got her the new Donkey Kong game for the Wii. It was exciting to be able to celebrate it with her. We are so proud of her for graduating. She is gonna do great!!
We also went sledding while we were there. It was soo much fun!!!! I was so excited to go! I've missed the snow because there was NONE of it here. We sledded down the mountain, had snow ball fights, froze our butts off, and had an absolute blast doing so.
Our trip home was very sucky. It was supposed to be 18 hours but it ended up being 24! We hit tons of traffic all over California, and we had to stop at a rest stop to get some sleep. We stopped at this gas station in the middle of nowhere and there were at least two inches of ice all over the parking lot!! It was crazy. All around it there wasn't any snow or anything but the gas station was covered. It was so weird. There was lots of ice on the highway on the way back and when we got to El Paso, it was..... SNOWING!!!!!! I could not believe that as soon as we left the weather decided to got cold. It was ridiculous!! And of course it was all melted the next day.
For New Years Eve, all Austin and I did was sleep. We were going to get up at 11:55 and watch the news for the countdown but when the alarm went off we were too tired to do anything. So I sent everyone texts wishing the a Happy New Years then went back to sleep. It was super exciting. Haha.
We picked our friends Sam and Kayla up from the airport the next day and we were going to hang out with them that evening, but we were all too tired. Austin and I spent the whole day cleaning up the apartment because it looked like a bomb exploded with everything that we brought home. We are very thankful for everything we got, but most importantly, we are thankful for being able to be with our families during this Christmas season. There is nothing like being with family. We have missed them tons.
We had a great Christmas and are looking forward to many more amazing memories with our families.

BIG Update

Well, it has been a while since I posted anything. I guess I will go back to Austin's family'ssurprise visit.

At one in the morning on November 11, Austin's parents, sister and best friend Robert showed up at our house to surprise Austin. His mom went in and woke him up and she scared him so bad that he almost pubched her!! We had a great week with them here. We went to the zoo, and the circus. We went to base so they could buy some souveniers and they also got three puppies!! While they were here we had an early birthday dinner for Austin and an early Thanksgiving. We got Austin an ice cream pie, instead of cake, but we forgot the candles... We had a lot of fun and I am soo glad that they were able to come visit. It was so nice to have some famiy around!!

For Austin's birthday we ordered some pizza and got a couple movies and just hung out together. It was nice to just spend time together.

For Thanksgiving, Austin had a four day weekend. Thanksgiving morning we went to a football game. Austin and Sam played in it and Kayla, Chomper and I watched and talked. It was super windy so we went home with dirt everywhere!!! Austin had a lot of fun and got beat up. They played on turf so he got a horrible scrape on his knee and he was sore the whole weekend afterwards. On Saturday, we went to the mall with Sam and Kayla and it was CRAZY!!! We thought that only Black Friday would be ridiculous but Saturday was just as bad. We had a good weekend.

We have been doing very well and we are hoping to come for Christmas and we should know soon.
I have pictures posted on Facebook from our Thanksgiving.

Two Recipes and an Update

     Not much has been going on here in El Paso. Austin still has his class and I'm still just chillin in the apartment. I did however get ahold of the education department on base. This is the last week that Austin has his class and then he will start car pooling again so next week I'm going to talk to a counselor at El Paso Commmunity College and then go to the ed department on base and get everything figured out. I also have to work on FASFA... Not too excited about that. Haha. I'm not too excited about this weekend... Austin has to work from Saturday morning to Sunday morning. I was really mad when he told me. Then Kayla texted me and said she needed me to take pictures for her becasue she wants to make Thanksgiving cards so now I have someone to hang out with. Yay!! I'm not looking forward to Saturday night by myself though... I always hear noises when I'm here by myself. So we will see how it works out.
      I tried out two new recipes; Easy Crescent Taco Bake from Pillsbury.com and All American Meat Loaf from Crock-Pot. They were both really tastey!!

Easy Crescent Taco Bake
1 can (8 oz.) Pillsbury refrigerated crescent dinner rolls
1 lb. (at least 80%) ground beef
3/4 cup salsa
2 tablespoons Old El Paso taco seasoning mix (from 1-oz. package)
1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese (4 oz)
   Shredded lettuce, as desired
   Diced tomato, as desired
Directions:
Heat oven to 375 degrees. Unroll dough; seperate into 8 triangles. Place in ungreased 9-inch square pan or 10-inch pie plate; press over bottom and up sides to form crust.
In 10-inch skillet, cook beef over medium heat 8 to 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until throughly cooked; drain. Stir in salsa and taco seasoning mix; simmer 5 minutes. Spoon meat mixture in crust-lined pan; sprinkle with cheese.
Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until crust is deep golden brown and cheese in melted. Served with lettuce and tomato.
*We put refried beans on the bottom before put the meat in the pan. We also added some sour cream. Yum!

All American Meat Loaf
3 lbs. lean ground beef
4 cups bread crumbs
2 cups ketchup
1 cup onion, chopped
4 eggs, beaten
2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. black pepper
4 tbs. tomato paste
16 slices cheddar or American cheese, cut into strips

In a large mixing bowl, combine all ingredients, except for the cheese and tomato paste. Shape half of the meat mixture into a loaf. Arrange 8 cheese strips on the meat, and top with remaining meat, pressing the edges together to seal. Plase in Crock-Pot. Top with tomato paste and remainging cheese slices. Cover; cook on Low for 6 to 8 hours or on High forr 3 to 4 hours.
* I just made the meat loaf the way I usually would then added the cheese and tomato paste. Austin's suggestion is to add the top layer of cheese until its almost ready. It was super tastey!!!

I hope that you enjoy these recipes as much as we did!! If you have any recipes that you would like to share just email them to me. My email is springbabybug@hotmail.com. I love trying new recipes.

Pumpkins Puppies and Recipes OH MY!

This last weekend Austin and I went to New Mexico with Sam and Kayla and we went to a family farm that had a pumpkin patch, a corn maze, all kinds of games and booths, a giant slide, a tire graveyard and all kinds of fun things to do. We got a pumpkin and carved Jack from the Nightmare before Christmas. I have pictures from it and of our pumpkin on my Facebook. It turned out really cute!! Sam and Kayla carved Hello Kitty into their pumpkin and they also got a pumpkin for their puppy Chomper, I'm not sure if they carved that one or not. Kayla and I made pumpkin seeds that turned out really tastey.
Sunday we went to a mall on the other side of town and then went and looked at a puppy. He was super adorable!!! Then we went gracery shopping at the Commisary. We had the hardest time trying to find the pumpkin so that I can make a Pumpkin Roll for Halloween at Sam and Kaylas. We stopped by Entertainmart on our way home and got the movies KickAss and Why Did I Get Married Too? Both were very good movies. Tyler Perry never fails to make a good movie.
Last night I made Caribbean Pork Chops which were very yummy. I've decided to start posting the recipes that I find that are really good. This one is a Crock Pot recipe.

Caribbean Pork Chops
2 tsp. ground allspice
2 tsp. black pepper
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
2 tsp. ground nutmeg
4 tsp. dried thyme
1 cup scallions, finely chopped
6 tbs. soy sauce
4 tbs. fresh ginger, grated
2 Habanero chilli peppers, seeded and minced
4 tbs. garlic, minced
4 tsp. sugar
2 tsp. salt
8 lean pork shops, 1 -inch thick

In a food processor, combine all herbs and spices with the scallions. soy sauce, fresh ginger, chilli pepper, garlic, sugar and salt, and process into a coarse paste. Coat the pork chops with this paste and place in Crock Pot. Cover; cook on Low for 7 to 9 hours or on High for 4 to 5 hours.
*I don't like spicy food so I didn't add the peppers and it still tasted really good. Since it was only the two of us we only had four pork chops so halfing the recipe works good.

Let me know how you like this recipe! I'll post more as I find more. =)
Enjoy. =)

Airshow and New Car

A few new things have happened... I think the biggest new thing is that we got a new car. A 2008 Toyota Corolla. Its pretty nice. We traded in our truck for a down payment. Last weekend we also went to the Amigo Airshow. It was really big and there were way to many people there. I don't like big crowds so I got frustrated really fast. It was cool to see the different planes and vehicles. They also had a Jet powered school bus. It raced one of the planes and it clocked in at over 300 mph!! It was crazy!! We also hung out with Sam and Kayla this weekend. We hung out with them Saturday and played card games and we also went to the Airshow with them.
 Austin has been in classes this week and he has them until November 4th. He isn't too happy about it because they are the same classes that he had to take when he in-processed. He is bored so he tries to text me during the day but he isn't always able to.
We are hoping to come home for Christmas. We are really missing our families and friends. Next month we should be able to know whether or not we are actually gonna be able to come home.
This weekend we are going to a pumpkin patch and corn maze with Sam and Kayla. Its  about a half hour drive away. For some reason El Paso doesn't have any farms around so we have to drive a ways to find one. Oh well, it will be fun anyways. =)
I've added some pics of the Air Show and a pic of our new car below.

Teeny Little Update

This last weekend Austin and I hung out with Sam and Kayla again. We went to their house Friday night and had pizza. Kayla and I got to bond while the guys played Halo on Sam's x-box. They are really nice people and I like them a lot! Saturday we met up with them again and went to Bob-o's and play mini golf and some arcade games. Then we raced go carts and then went on bumper boats. We had an absoute blast. We went to another little store then went to a Halloween store and looked at all the crazy costumes and weird Halloween stuff. We then went across the street to the mall and got some ice cream. We found a table and just sat and chit-chatted while we ate our ice cream. Then we went to a store called FYE, For Your Entertainment, and checked out some movies and looked at some posters. Then we came home and relaxed together. I'm really happy that we have met another couple who are at the same point in their lives so we have someone to relate to!! This week Austin and I have been just hanging out together and enjoying life. We are looking forward to Austin's four day weekend this weekend!! I finally get to have some time with my hubbie other than just the weekends... We get four whole days!!! Yay!!! Well this was my little update and I'll post again soon!!