Anniversary Numero Dos!

Two years ago yesterday, September 12th, Rory and I tied the knot in Washington, DC! Our lives really haven't been the same since! It has definitely been a match made in heaven (and I'm even saying that after TWO YEARS!!! Hehe!)! Anyway, in honor of our two year mark we thought we would have a great weekend together, which we did, and here's what happened. I took Friday off so that we could spend an extra long weekend together since I got back from 29 Palms late last year and we went to Ihop for our Anniversary dinner, not this time! Friday night I made a special dinner for Rory, which consisted of Lobster Tails, Steak, and Grilled Artichokes! Dinner was great, but it was just the start to the weekend! First thing on Saturday we exchanged gifts, Rory bought me an Acoustic Guitar (which I LOVE!) and I bought her an aquamarine Necklace and Ear Ring set. The rest of the day was preparation for dinner. We arrived at Melisse, a 2-Star Michelin rated french restaurant in Santa Monica, and an AWESOME night began! It was already awesome because we were together, but the food made it even better! We both had a four course meal that was beyond our expectations! I would go into detail about the food, but my taste buds are still speechless! Also, I don't really know how to make food sound good besides putting "Mmmm" behind it, and that just doesn't do it justice! Anyway, that was yesterday. Today was what we both had been looking forward to! We went to something that nobody that I know has been to. We went to Trapeze School! It was something that we had both seen on the pier in,Santa Monica, and had said we wanted to do. We hadn't thought too much about it, but a few weeks ago, Rory was sent an e-mail that had a coupon for a trapeze school in Escondido, so we decided to do it! It was the best decision that we have ever made! We spent around 5 to 10 minutes in ground school and then we started. We started out doing a normal swing to learn how it feels, it's actually quite a rush just swinging normally, but that's not all we would be doing! After just one swing, they taught us to swing and switch to holding on by our knees and then doing a 360 to dismount the bar. I felt like it was a pretty fast transition, but they were the professionals, at least I hoped! Now for those of you who don't know, the Brosius family is actually related to P. T. Barnum from the Barnum & Bailey Circus, so I guess you can say that this is in our blood!!! Yeah...... Riiiight! Ok, so after my first knee hang, the instructor told me to go to the side so that I could learn "The Plunge!" This isn't a name that I particularly liked considering we were swinging from a swing from 20-30 feet up in the air! It was actually not too different from the knee hang, except you just don't hold on by your knees to the bar. You hold on to the bar with your hands and with your legs above your head, you straighten your body. It's to set up a catch with someone on another swing as you leg go an "plunge" through the air towards the other person like a gigantic missile! That's basically how the artists there described it to me, lol. We finished the day by being "caught" by another trapeze artist on another swing as we hung upside down from our knees! The pictures are below! It was one of the best experiences that either of us have had, definitely in our adult life, but a definite recommendation for those of you who would be interested in trying it out. It was a great weekend and we are proud to make it two years already! We are still madly in love and are looking forward to our next 80 to 90 years together, unless we decide to live longer, but we'll update the blog before then to let you know, :o)! Thanks!

If you can't tell, I'm on the right of this picture, and Rory is on the right in this one!

Herbie...Fully LOUDed

It is 3:52 am. Matt and I are sitting on the couch. Why, do you ask? Well, because we own Herbie, that's why.

This past Thursday evening, Matt and I enjoyed an evening out, and on our way home had the unfortunate luck to run over a large nail in the road. Thankfully, it happened as we were turning on to our street, so we were able to get the car home. After trying unsuccessfully to patch the tire at home on Friday, we had a tow truck take the car to the nearest Pep Boys to replace the tire. Pep Boys replaced the tire, no charge, and Matt brought the car home, just in time for our Saturday evening date (we drove to Cheesecake Factory at Fashion Valley).

This should not have been an out of the ordinary trip, but because it is a car owned partially by the Queen of Bad Car Luck, Rory Brosius, it was. Briefly, let's recall some of my car ownership follies:

1. The 1982 Mercedes. Enough said.
2. The Sebring filling up with water and the entire electrical system going out.
2.Blowing up the Sebring on the Woodrow Wilson Bridge in rush hour traffic
3. Blowing up the Jeep on the Woodrow Wilson Bridge in ruch hour traffic, then getting stranded in Greenbelt until 8:30 at night
4. Nearly totaling Matt's Alero on day #3 of his deployment (this is why Herbie is currently pissed at us AND out to get us)

Now, lets get back to our lovely Saturday night out.

As we are driving down the I-5 towards San Diego, we hear a loud horn blast. Startled, we both look around to see no cars that we had cut off, no road raging drivers, no nothing. We quickly realized that this was indeed OUR car, honking at itself. This was surprising, mainly because the car has not had a working horn since I wrecked it LAST OCTOBER. Over the next 20 or so miles, every time Matt hit the brakes, the horn would blast. We pulled into Fashion Valley, the horn honked, we parked the car, the horn honked. Once we parked, Matt got out to disconnect the horn, but couldn't figure out which fuse to disconnect. We had dinner, came back to the car, and Matt opened the door for me, once he closed it, Herbie honked loudly, once, which sent us into fits of laughter. Matt thought he managed to un-stick the horn after we loudly honked at several cars in the parking lot. We drove home without incident, and laughed as we pulled into our apartment complex at 11:30, thinking how hilarious it would be if our horn started honking.

Not so hilarious, actually. 4 hours after we pulled in, the horn began to blast, without stopping. We both woke up with a start, and Matt ran down stairs. He said it was funny, because he could see every one's rear lights flashing as they pushed the remotes to make sure the obnoxious car was not theirs. After a few minutes, I heard the horn stop and Matt came back in the house and told me he was going to look up the "issue" online. He said that there were 21 instances of strange horn blasting and in most, after the first loud honking, there was a second; as he was saying this, the horn began to honk again! He got it to stop, again, then found out which fuse to disconnect.

Now that the fuse is disconnected we both have adrenalin stomachaches and pounding hearts, and can not sleep.

Thanks to Pep Boys, who put our car on the lift, shorted something out and gave our car the automobile equivalent of Turret's Syndrome. The Brosius family (and neighbors) really appreciate it. Let's hope that Herbie is done with his outbursts for a little while.

Cruising!

Hello everyone! After a one year break from the blog, here I am. Matthew has graciously written the last several blogs to get us back up to date (a task far too daunting for his lazy lazy wife), so here is my attempt to KEEP us up to date! During the week of June 8th, I was able to take a week of leave to spend some time with Matt during his post-deployment leave block. Now, being not so hot at planning vacations, the week was quickly approaching with no plans made. Two days before my vacation was to start, we STILL didn't have anything on the books. Now, I'm not one to complain about lack of vacation plans...I am generally just happy to lay around at home and not work; but, Matt and I did want to take a real vacation (our first ever!). Thus began the last minute vacation search! We decided on....drumroll please....a cruise! Matt had been on a cruise before, but I hadn't, and well, who doesn't like the concept of eating like a piglet for 5 days and seeing some pretty sights!? Well, we got a great deal out of Long Beach that sailed to Catalina.

So on Monday, June 8th, the puppies headed to their temporary home at the vet's kennel, and we drove north to Long Beach. We arrived at the ship a few hours early, so we got on and enjoyed our "lunch" (by lunch I mean enough calories for several WEEKS), and waited for the ship to set sail. We participated in the normal safety drills and the ship got underway around 5pm.

Without regaling you with all the details of the 4 day cruise, I will give some highlights!

Day 1: Catalina- We dropped anchor in Catalina on Tuesday morning. To get to the island, we had to load up on teeny transfer boats (more about those later) and be taken into the docks. We went over with the plan to participate in a scuba tour in the afternoon, so we had a few hours to kill. We rented bikes and rode around the beautiful island for two hours. The most exciting part of our bike ride was riding up to the top of Avalon to the Wrigley Memorial. and Botanical Gardens. It was a long ride and the Bike Rental place failed to tell us we would need cash to enter the gardens. After finding the admission fee minus .50, I asked the "nice man" at the admission counter to the park if he had a military discount or some other such discount that might allow us to enter the park for $7.50 instead of $8.00. He laughed at me and made a sarcastic comment, for which I wanted to leap across the desk and strangle him. Sooo, I scrounged some more in the backpack and my wallet and came across the FINAL .50, so that we could actually go in.

We had a nice time looking around and climbing the monument. The view from the top overlooking the harbor was AMAZING. Once we finished up and rode back to the harbor we decided it was far too cold to do the snorkel tour (the water was 57 degrees and all you wore was a shortie wet suit) so we rented a sea kayak instead. We paddled our kayak around the island to a little private beach and looked for shells. I was there we found the biggest sand dollar I have every seen. See for yourself!!

If you ever have the chance to see Catalina, I definitely suggest you do.

Day 2: Ensenada- For several months, cruises were not allowed to take port calls in Mexico because of the swine flu scare. Originally, our cruise was not supposed to make a port call, but surprise surprise, when returned from
Catalina on day one we had a letter on our bed announcing that our cruise would be the first to make a port call in Ensenada in over two months! Because the locals and the excursion staff on the cruise weren't prepared, there wasn't much for us to do in Mexico. We got off the ship expecting to be able to go winetasting (nope), or to the beach (nope), or to take a horse ride (no, again); however, there was an excursion planned to the market and La Bufadora. I'm afraid I don't have too much to say about Ensenada except that I had the best taco of my LIFE at the market. Other than the tacos, the random retiree who befriended us, and a very very cute chihuahua puppy, the excursion was a bit of a bust, just because we were hoping for something a bit more exciting than shopping and looking at water shooting out of rocks.

Days 3 and 4: For the rest of the cruise we spend alot of time eating (who? me? NEVER!), reading, and just spending time with one another. It was nice to be totally disconnected for a few days...no cell phones, no computers, etc., and really be able to focus on one another. I think I can say that we came back refreshed, relaxed, and about 10 pounds heavier (no, I'm not joking).

I realized it took me over two months to post this blog and I am a little embarrassed about it! However, I am recruiting to my friends out in blog-land to keep me honest about updating this blog at least once a month. If you see I haven't updated (or you know we did something exciting that I'm not sharing!), email me or call me, and I will try my hardest to get on it! I'm looking forward to writing a few more blogs in the coming days to update you guys on July and August!

I would also like to take the opportunity in this blog to say "thank you" to all of our friends and family, who helped Matt and I get through his deployment (now that I am a little less emotional, and can do it without getting all weepy!). I am especially thankful to my "California Family"- friends who acted as family during the holidays and on those weekends when I just didn't want to get out of the house. You guys kept me occupied, laughing, and happy...essentials when you are counting down a very large number of days! Another thank you goes out to all of you who sent emails, motomails, letters, and packages to Matt in Iraq. I know that he really appreciated everything and enjoyed those little pieces of home when he could get them! It was a very hard 7 months, because being apart for that long just stinks, but with all the support we received from you guys, it went by a quickly as possible!

Bad Breath, Baseball, And Bathing Suits!

Bibs! Bibs were definitely a must as Rory and I found a new place to eat! It's called 'Auggie's House of Crab' on the Pacific Coast Highway. We haven't found a place that has Blue Crab on the west coast, UNTIL NOW! This place was AWESOME! Although they didn't use Old Bay Seasoning on their seafood, it was still very good! Together Rory and I ate a pound of Shrimp, a pound of Stone Crab Legs, a Blue Crab, an order of Steamed Mussels, Fries, and a small Salad. We wanted to make sure we were eating right so we ordered the salad instead of the soup, too many calories! We knew it was a good place to eat when the waitress was strapping bibs around our necks as we sat down. I didn't really think it was necessary and nearly took it off before we got our food, then I started eating..... keeping the bib on was a GOOD idea! After the meal I had seafood on my shorts, my face, my hands, my arms, basically everywhere! Thankfully Rory had done the same! I wasn't the only one. YES! Rory went to wash her hands after eating and came back from the restroom laughing. I asked her what she was laughing about and she pointed to her hair. Apparently when she was breaking open a crab, some meat flew into her hair. I think she was just saving it for later, at least that's my excuse for saving all the sauce on my lap! Anyway, that was our experience.

Now for the baseball! Big Brother Big Sister (BBBS) had a fundraiser for Operation Bigs, which is the BBBS program on base that Rory works for, in San Diego. The fundraiser was a huge success and raised $25,000! Rory had a Big and Little that were introduced and walked the game ball out to the pitcher's mound. It was really cool being able to see how happy they were to be out on the field! Rory and I had a great time at the game and did what we always do best, EAT! We had Phil's BBQ before the game, garlic fries during the game, and a snow cone (pictured right) after the garlic fries! We didn't stay for the whole game, mainly because neither of us are Padres or Phillies fans, but also because Rory had to work the next day. As you can tell from the picture, it's a normal June day in California! It has been really cool lately, not only at night, but during the day as well! Our seats were in the about 30 feet from the Denver section! At 5,250ft, we weren't at the highest seats, but very close! Anyway, it was a good time. So yesterday we

decided to go surfing since we haven't gone in a while. The waves decided they wanted to be difficult and not let us far enough past them to actually surf without being tossed about a thousand times! Fortunately we were finally able to make it out and try a couple waves. We still aren't 'great' by any means, but we are working on it! There were some waves that were a good size for learning, and then others that were a bit 'big' for us! As you can see from the picture on the left, we were able to get on a few waves and do our thing. Unfortunately for the little black dot (another surfer) right in front of that surfboard, we aren't the best at turning yet, and 38 stitches, 2 casts, and a new surfboard later, we are hoping to get out there again soon! If you're reading this and think that picture is Rory and I and think this story is real at all, then I'm sorry but you need to get to know us a LOT better! Actually, we can barely stand up on a wave and are holding off from taking pictures until we actually can! So that is it for today's blog! WE ARE FINALLY CAUGHT UP WITH LIFE! On the blog that is. It is completely up to date. If I left anything or anyone out of what we've done lately, than deal with it! I mean, sorry! Hehe! Thanks for reading and check back soon!

A post a day will keep me on here always!

Rory and I had a great start to our Memorial Day Weekend! We began by travelling to Virginia Tech for the wedding of our friends Amy & Jeff! They were married on campus at the 'Inn at Virginia Tech' where they both graduated from. It was a beautiful wedding and we were both extremely happy to be able to make it! We wish them the best and are happy to be with them at this mark in both of their lives. That weekend also marked the start of my post-deployment leave. Rory will be off the last week of leave, so we are planning on doing something during that week. Other than that, we are just trying to take it easy and continue doing what we've been doing. Rory has been doing a lot with work lately due to it being the end of the school year, so she is definitely deserving of a break as well! The dogs have
been working hard as well. As you can tell by the picture they have been trying to rest and catch up on the sleep they've been missing. They have such a hard time sleeping that they decide they should jump up into the bed and see if they can sleep better there. Somehow they always wait until we're asleep before getting in bed. I sometimes wonder if they know that when we're asleep, we can't tell them to get off the bed...hmm? Weird! Anyway, they are doing well and Boomer is even learning to catch the tennis ball when it's thrown to him! Sprite still hasn't learned the point of fetch yet. She believes more in the 'watch the ball leave mommy and daddy's hands so they'll be free to pet her' way of playing! She will be needing to go on a diet soon if she doesn't stop eating all of the food, then sniffing around like a little hoover searching for more food! Well, that's all for now! In the next post I'll be blogging about Shrimp, Snow Cones, Baseball, and surfing! Thanks!

You're a mean one! Mr. Grinch!

The Grinch was present for Christmas this year. I was not here to experience it, but as you can tell, Rory had Max to spend time with. Boomer was so upset because he was missing the Grinch to go with his outfit. His Grinch was about 8,000 miles away in Iraq. I spent Christmas day the same as any other day in Iraq. Woke up, patrolled to the entry control point, and began normal operations. We did however bring some music as we waited for the Iraqi Police to show up. Unfortunately, the Marine that brought the music wasn't aware that he only had Country Christmas Music. So we spent the morning listening to Randy Travis singing "Have a holly jolly

Christmas!" As you can tell, it was a wonderful

day! I was very surprised however to find that

the Iraqi people celebrated Christmas as well.

They passed by the entire day saying "Eid

Saied!" which is Arabic for "Merry Christmas!"

That is how my Christmas was. Rory spent

her day with our friend Jessica Oxford's family.

The holiday season was not the same as usual,

but it came just the same. We are looking forward to no longer being apart during the holidays and being able to begin our own traditions. The best gift that either of us had this season was being back together! We are hoping and praying that it is a gift that we will never have to get again! Our family is now back together and hoping to never be seperated again. I left a few things out of the last post, and one of the things I left out was pretty big. We have a new addition to our family! We have a little girl now who is very cute! She has been very loving and gets along with Boomer very well. Within a few hours of being home she was already comfortable being around me and knew who I was. She loves to sleep in our bed at night although Rory and I try to keep her in her own bed. Unfortunately, she starts to cry and eventually ends up in our bed anyways. Her name is Sprite Brosius and is a few years old. Rory rescued her at our apartment complex when they had a shelter come by and were offering a waived fee for pets if you were to adopt a pet. She has been a very good addition for the family. Rory scared me when I called and said that she "had a surprise for me!" She told me she got another addition for the family! I instantly thought "It's a CAT! NO!" Thankfully it was a dog! It was a very cute dog who was a perfect addition! As you can tell from the picture, it's like brother and sister. They often act like brother and sister when they chase each other around and drag each other by their collars! Boomer has been a very good big brother by teaching her about household manners. He taught her about going outside, going to her house, and what to do when told about treats! That's about all that I have for now, but I will write more later! Thanks!

Reunions!!!

A lot has happened since the last time anything was posted on our blog. Rory has a new job working for Big Brother Big Sister which she started in March. She loves it and is, as usual, doing very well! Rory and I have spent a lot of time apart due to my job. I left, shortly after the last blog entry, for a month of training at the Armpit of the earth, 29 Palms. I arrived home on September 12th, 2008 just in time for our anniversary! We celebrated by going on a dinner cruise on the San Diego Bay a few days later. On October 5th, 2008 I was deployed to Iraq where I spent 6 and a half months. I was scheduled to return on the 5th of May, but the date was pushed up a few weeks and I returned home on April 14th. As you can see from the picture above, Rory and I were once again together. During that time we definitely felt the love that exists between both of us. Nearly 7 months apart and the only change was our love had grown. We had grown together. Knowing that nothing could separate us far enough for our love to fade. Now we are back together and spending as much time together as possible. While on deployment, Rory took surfing lessons so that we could surf together when I returned. We bought surf boards 3 days after I had been back and have been surfing periodically since being back. It was really cool seeing her stand up on a wave the first time we went out. I began my post-deployment leave on Memorial Day weekend. We started the leave by taking a trip to Virginia for our friend's, Amy & Jeff, wedding at Virginia Tech. We were happy that we were able to attend and be there to see them both. That was basically a quick overview of what we've done since the last post, maybe we'll be able to keep up with it this time. There is less going on now, so we'll see! Thanks for reading!