How was vacation you ask?...i'll tell you. Great!

Ok friends, it's been almost 3 weeks being home from vacation now. I’m sorry it took so long to get this posted…I’m sure you’ve all been dying to know how my trip to Virginia Beach to see John was….but then again you may have forgotten about it by now. I’ve been having internet issues at home, so I’ve had this all typed up, but no way to post it. Lucky for me, I have internet at work for backup.

It's a bittersweet feeling being home again. There really is no place like home, but i miss my husband. But, vacation was great! Despite traveling for 15 hours both ways, the extreme teeth pain from flying that felt like my face was trying to explode on the airplane (which i hear means i'll probably need a root canal), the humidity that trashes my hair and makes me look like C-R-A-P, the crazy drivers and millions of roads to get lost on because there really is no way to tell which direction the ocean is unless you're driving next to it, the inevitable break-out of my skin (still haven't figured out if its the sun or the new climate that causes it, but it happens every time i travel no matter what time of year or where i go).... It was all worth it because i got to see John :] I can't tell you how much i miss him, more and more each day. And the trip was not enough to quench the need. The first few weeks when he left were the worst, but it got easier after a while. Seeing him again started it all over, again. Absence really does make the heart grow fonder. But this time i think it'll be a little easier.

I got to see friends as well as john too, so that was a bonus. I managed to get myself healthy again just in time to get on an airplane and remember that i need dental work done. My ears where great though, so i was grateful for that, and in a stroke of genius on the way out of the house in the morning on my way to the airport, i remembered to grab the Kanka Pen (Blistex makes it) i had from the last time i flew to numb my mouth enough to make the pain bearable. it only lasted one flight though... I took every reasonable form of transportation except a train to get there, and 15 hours later i arrived in Norfolk/Virginia Beach, grabbed my rental car and stayed with one of my best friends in the world, Rachel, the first night i got in. I spent friday with her until i could go pick up john. We traded clothes (i got a super cute white bathing suit from her as trade for the dress i mentioned in a previous post), went to the beach, drove around, ate some lunch and then she came with me to pick up john. John didn't know what time we were coming, so when we showed up he was sleeping and came down to meet me at the door still rubbing his eyes. it was cute :) I got to see his barics finally. After talking to him for so long and having a made up picture in my head of what it looks like, it was nice to see how he's really living. It smells funny. Not his room, but more the entire building really. I won't try to guess why. Then we went for Mexican (something PA doesn't have a great selection of) and i got to see a little of Elizabeth City NC. I wanted to see it so i could decide if it was one of the places where i wanted to move to for sure since its one of the few options we have.... I don't want to move there now. The best part of it was that, besides the good mexican food, it has a Super Wal-Mart. Wow right? (I only say that's a plus because PA doesn't have the "super", just the regular. haha). It was a ghetto swamp land rolled into one in some areas. i didn't even know that was possible. I wasn't impressed, so i'm over wanting to go there now.
I was given a Toyota Prias Hybrid for a rental car. John hated it when i told him about it. He thinks they're ugly and that they don't have any power because they're Hybrids. I thought it was kind of fun to drive though. It has a backup camera and push button start, the "key" is just the key chain remote that you slip into a little slot, and you can't even tell its on when you start it. The Valet guy just about had a cow when we pulled up in it and he couldn't hear it running. He thought it was the coolest thing in the world, couldn't believe it was still on. By the end of the trip john was asking if i would like one of them. i think he had more fun driving it then i did.
After we dropped Rachel off we drove to the Hotel we were staying at. Our hotel was NICE. Fancy, and pretty, and great. And the whole trip was like being on a second honeymoon.
Saturday we went to Busch Gardens with our friends from back in the hood, Doug and Jenny. I met Jenny when i was 12 on the first day at church when my family first moved to West Virginia. She had some of her Bennie Babies with her at the time (this was back when they were at the start of super cool to collect). That was the same time i met John too. We were friends from the beginning. And then i met Doug at a church dance i went to a few years later....or maybe it was at Youth Conference when we went on the Church History tour through New York and Ohio. Either way, i thought he was a cool guy and it was obvious (to me at least) that he was in love with Jenny from the beginning. Doug is also one of Johns best friends. But yeah, we met up with them at the theme park. They had got stuck in traffic, but lucky for us, john hassled me all morning to be ready on time so we wouldn't be late and we ended up not having their traffic problems.
Busch Gardens was great. John and i got in free because he's military and they'll give one free pass to military and their family a year, so it worked out great. We ate some breakfast while we waited for Doug & Jenny, and i tried to share mine with the birds and take a picture of them but they always flew away when i got it in focus. I think they have a 6th sense or something. But it was good to see Doug and Jenny, and we all had a lot of fun. i felt like a party pooper by the end of the day because my feet were killing me from wearing the wrong flip-flops. But we all had fun, and at the end of the day we went to dinner together and had some more.
Sunday we got to sleep in together. It was great since john had made me get up early so we weren't late the day before and my feet were still sore. I had brought church clothes with me so we could go to church together, but john left his back at his dorms. John went out and got lunch for us though and after a little wait we went to swim at the indoor pool they had at the hotel. I think swimming in the pool was my favorite part of my time with john. The whole trip was great, but there's nothing like playing and having fun with your husband. i love not having to worry about anything except enjoying each other. After swimming for a while, we got ready and went to see Angels and Demands, got some dinner and ice cream, and then went to the new Star Trek movie too.
Monday was our last day together. We drove around trying to find the good beach, but went too far and found the wrong ones and got a little lost... but we got some lunch and got going in the right direction, and ended up at a mini golf coarse on Virginia Beach for a few hours. Another day of fun and play. After that we saw the X-Man Beginnings movie. We were a little late so we had to sit in the front corner seats where the screen is all out of whack, but i didn't really care in the end. We picked up Rachel after that and she came with us to take john back to the base :( I did really well not crying too much in front of him when it was time to go so he wouldn't worry about me, but it was sad. I ended up crying more on my first flight the next morning. The poor lady sitting next to me kept looking over at me not knowing what to do.
All in all, the trip was great. Worth the money, and the time. I miss my john, but he’ll be home in 5 more weeks, so I have something to look forward to now. I can see the end of the tunnel. We still don’t know exactly when we’re moving to Cali, but it’ll be 2-4 weeks after john gets home. I’m hoping I can go to girls camp with my ward, but it’s the 2^nd week of August, so I don’t think it will work out L I’ve been wanting to go to girls camp for years since graduating, but it never seems to work out. Oh well. Maybe next year.
I’ll be posting all the pictures from the trip in my next blog…I hope.

Big News! (no jenny, not that kind of news)

My big news right now is that we're moving. Very exciting and stressful news. That's life in the military though. I hate moving with a passion, but the sooner it happens then the sooner i get to finally be with my husband again. 5 months apart is a terrible thing to do to newlywed's, and the 3 days together the other week was not enough to make up for it (yes, i still need to blog and post pictures about that. soon!).
But, this week John did his picks at school (we were hoping for Hawaii but it wasn't on the billet for picks this round). He was 5th in line to pick, and there were only 2 slots for Sacramento so he didn't think we would get it. So he called to ask me where i wanted to go: Alaska or Florida?
"NOOOO. Not Alaska!"
i said. And then i cried that we had to move so far away to Florida. i've had all this time to prepare myself for our top 2 choices (HI and CA) and i hadn't considered florida at all. But the more i thought about it, the more the idea grew on me. I think talking to my dad helped the most too. He's never been there, but he helped make me think of it as a positive thing so i felt better about it. 2 hours later i was looking for a place to live online and getting excited about it. But then john called again.
"We're moving to Sacramento"
he says. I was actually mad at him for saying that. I told him to go back and change it to florida. He didn't though. We've been talking about where we wanted to go after he got done with school for a year now, so we accepted that we got what we want and we're happy about it.


No idea when we're leaving, but john will be back on July 17th(!!!!!), so i'm going to assume we'll be packing up and leaving by the end of July or early August. He's mentioned a family reunion or something in Utah around that time, and we want to stop and see both our families for a little while too. The end of summer will be busy to say the least. We don't know if we want to buy a home or rent, but we'll be there for at least 4 years so we'll figure something out. I think the thing i'm the most excited for is that i'll be able to see john for longer then a few months. FINALLY! Our longest stretch spent together has been 6 months, and our first anniversary is Aug 1st.
Now i have to find a way to tell my main office that i'll be moving.... i'll only be 45 minutes from their office down there in Cali, maybe they'll give me a job there?

john wanted a blog about him

Today was the first time john saw our blog. He didn't really believe that i had started one like he wanted, but now he knows: it's real. He thinks its pretty :) so i have his approval for that at least. But...he didn't think there was enough about him in it for it to be considered "our" blog. My bad i guess (love you muffin!). But in my defense, it's hard to write stuff about his life when i don't see him every day. He's on the other side of the country!

if you didn't already know, john is in the Coast Guard and right now he's away at A-School in Elizabeth City, North Carolina for 5 months. YUCK. We got married last Aug. and 6 months later in March they ripped him away from me. When we got married we knew it was going to happen though, so we had prep time to be ready for this. He's been gone for a little over a month and a half though and we're holding strong still. It was hard the first few weeks, especially for me, but i'm doing a whole lot better now. The hard part was not being able to talk to him when i wanted to or for as long as i wanted to. Some days i'll be lucky to talk to him for 5 minutes before he has to go study. After being spoiled by seeing him every day...like a normal newly wed couple...it was hard for me. Weekends are kind of nice because he calls up to 5-8 times sometimes though. Its kind of cute actually, even when we're out of things to talk about because we haven't done anything all day he still calls. And he's sweet in not calling me before 9am (my time, 12 noon his) on saturday mornings. It's kind of a sacred day for me because it's the only day i get to sleep in past 7:45.

So, here's some things about john....He's doing great in school. He's really working hard at studying to make sure he's at the top of his class in ranking and so he can get his first pick of base assignments. His top choice is Hawaii at the moment (how often do you get the chance to move to hawaii right? might as well do it now), and then its a toss up between Sacramento and Elizabeth City NC...but the "toss up" part might be my wishful thinking...for him it might be Hawaii, Cali, and then NC in that order. At the moment i'm a little partial to NC though :) we'll see after vacation next month though. So yeah, he's doing well in school with high score on all his tests. he's pretty happy about that. he's making friends (which is probably a bigger deal to me then it is to him), he's losing all the weight he's put on since getting married (not may fault he was eating enough for 3 people in one meal. i only made that much so he could have left overs for lunch the next day) by playing Wallyball with ALL his free time. I miss him a lot, but he's doing really well and we're already almost 2 months through this.

The great news is we get to see each other in May!!! Super Excited! I'll be taking off a few days from work and flying out there for Memorial Day weekend. We're going to stay in Virginia Beach at a super fancy 4star hotel that john found super cheep online and we'll have tons of fun. The beach, theme parks, the aquarium (that one's for me!), site seeing and shopping, mini golf, and all kinds of fun stuff. Plus! i'll get to see one of my best friends Rachel cuz she moved out there a few months ago, so that's a bonus. So this trip will break up our time apart in half and i'm so grateful. it'll be a great little vacation together :]]

So, excuse me while i get a little girlie for a little bit, but writing so much about him makes me miss him more. I love the fact that i still have a crush on him. There are days that i'll find myself going through pictures i have around the house or online and all i can think is "...he's so cute." I love him. he's so handsome. i know there aren't a lot of people that care for red hair, but for as long as i can remember i've always had a thing for redheads and i've never figured it out. It was destiny i guess. We're going to have cute kids. This is a pic of john with one of his nephews (maybe Coty can tell me which one cuz i'm sure she knows her kids better then anyone, but my guess is that its Sam).If there is a baby or little kid around, if he's not the one holding them then he's usually close by. There are tons of pictures as proof of that. I think it's kind of cute. He's a great person and it's easy to be drawn to him. i love him :) There are things about him and things he does, i feel so blessed to be married to him. And he's a great husband. He'll surprise me some times. He pays attention and remembers the littlest things that i didn't realize half the time i had told him. He'll come home with things that are super special and sweet for me. And he puts up with my craziness (and i really do have my moments). When he's bored and not being entertained by something, even if i'm busy, he's in my face asking for all my attention. Commercials, walking around, shopping, even at church. Kisses ALL the time. Its kind of cute the way he does it even if it gets exhausting sometimes. But i love it. He's always trying so hard to make me happy. And he has a 6th sense for knowing when i'm crying, especially when we're watching a movie. That's one of the reasons i realized that i liked him a little more then a friend. We went to see August Rush in the theatre and he caught me crying and wiped away my tears for me. He still does it....i miss him :(

ok, this was a blog all about John. If i say any more i'll probably start crying. If you want to say hi to him, or say great things about him, you can leave a message on here :)

A little about John, and then some about Twilight...

So, John has been gone for 3 whole weeks. The first 2 weeks it felt like it was whipping on by (man how time flies!...), but now its starting to feel like its been forever. At least on my end. John is doing well in his classes though. He's definitely in the top half of his class, if not the top half of the top half. He's trying super hard so he can have his pick of base assignments when its time. I'm proud of him for putting so much energy into doing well while he's there. He's also on a lose weight mission there too. He feels a strong urge to lose all the "happy weight" he's put on since we got married (if he doesn't he won't make rank at the end of school lol). The only things we seem to talk about are what he's eating, how much time he spent in the gym that day, and how much he has been studying. it makes me feel like a slacker some times... But still, he's passing all his tests, and training really well, and he says to say "Hi" to everyone. I told him i was going to write that in there for you all and he was surprised that we have a real blog. I told him back when i created it that we had it, but for some reason he thought i had started it and wasn't doing anything with it. I'm not as good at it as some people, but i am doing better then others.

So, i'm sure you all know that Twilight came out on DVD last weekend. John and i got to be among the small amount of masses that watched it for the first time where the books/movies supposedly take place. Jealous right? i will tell you right now though, the Port Angeles depicted is not what its like here in real life. i'm not even sure there is a "bad" part of town. I know some of you may have been worried about me being here all alone like john's mom was after she saw the movie, but it's really not like that here. There is a shady townhouse complex that's a bit of an eye sore in my opinion that i don't plan to walk around in the dark any time soon, but every town has that kind of place. The crime rate here is nothing of note. i think there is more suicide then anything (considering there's rain and overcast 9-10 months of the year i can see how that is possible).
So, i didn't even know it was a trend at the time when i read the books. The first time i saw the book was at John's parents house over a year ago. I found his sister Sarah in every room of the house with her eyes glued to it like a zombie. She said it was about Vampires but i didn't give it much thought after that cuz i assumed it was just one of the regular young adult book i don't read any more. Then a few months later i was hanging out with my bed ridden friend Rachel at the time who had just had a huge tumor taken off of her liver. her sister had sent a care package to give her things to do while she was stuck in bed all day. I flipped through the first few pages and read a little, but i wasn't sucked in right away so i didn't think too much about it again. Then john and i found out we were moving to Port Angeles last July. I had no idea where it was, i had never heard of it, and i had to pull a map out to find it. When i told Rachel that was where we were moving, she actually knew where i was talking about. She said that was where parts of Twilight take place. So, i asked her if the books were any good and she said they were. So that got me thinking about them finally. When john and i got married, after the honeymoon i had to go back to Preston for a month while he was in Seattle on the boat until we were stationed to the base here. I was walking around the airport all by myself and saw the book on a stand at Borders there, so i figured "sure. why not?". I purchased the book and went to sit by my gate. That night i finished 1/3 of the book. i was hooked. i would have read more if i hadn't gotten lost leaving the Salt Lake airport. yes, i know. who gets lost in Salt Lake? Me. i wasn't paying attention to the signs and ended up on the belt loop headed south instead of north for about an hour. It took me 2x's as long as it should have to get home. Oh well though. My fam was out of town for a few days so when i got home i had free time. I set up a box for the cat to have her kittens because i noticed she was following me from room to room with a look in her eye looking for a good place to do her business. So, while i did my best to keep her out of my lap during her little miracle of life (yuck!), i kept her company and finished the book that day. It took me a total of 2 weeks to read all the books because i had to wait a few days for the last book to come out. I sat around the house glued to them like sarah had done. i just had to know what was going to happen. They're easy reading, but they're entertaining.
When the movie came out john reluctantly came with me. But i kind of think he liked the movie more then i did, and more then he'll admit to as well. Every day for months, if it was rainy or overcast he would say it was a good day for vampires to be out lol. it was cute i thought. I know the movie will never be his favorite and will probably only watch it to humor me if i chose to watch when he's around, but i'm ok with it if he doesn't. i wasn't thrilled with the movie, but it wasn't the worst one i'd seen either. i'm only ok with it though. I hate the actor that plays bella for one thing. I can imagine her looking like that and maybe with edwards character too, but the girl has a stick up her butt in my opinion. She always has this disgusted look on her face like she's annoyed to be there when people talk to her, even in other movies and interviews i've seen her do. But it was all bad acting, and it didn't follow the book as well as it should have.
If you like a book enough, the movie is always a let down. But, we get over it most of the time. Like for Harry Potter. The books were great, the movies are great, but the movies don't have everything that the books have. My mom says the Star Wars movies are better then the books though. The best thing to do is to never read the book within 4 months of watching the movie for the 1st time i've decided. I made the mistake of reading the book within the week of watching the movie for a few different titles. But i can watch those movies now and not be so harsh as i was the 1st time, and sometimes even end up liking the movie a lot. Last week i started reading Twilight again...it was a mistake though. in my defense, i ran out of books that i haven't read in the last 5 months, so i figured i would give it a whirl again. I read it in 3 days and then made the mistake to go buy the movie and watch it. I hated the movie more this time. Dang it. but oh well i guess. The reason i buy movies any more is to make sure i have them for any future kids we have....that'll be my excuse for that one at least lol. Maybe later i'll watch it again and decide i can stand it.
So, last night i finished the 2nd book, New Moon...i had forgotten how boring that one was. i almost skipped it all together when i realized it, but since its easy reading i just decided to get it over with. Now on to book 3 again...

Email to the Airline

So, john left for North Carolina on the 1st. Not my favorite. Saying goodbye was torture. On friday after i got off work we loaded his stuff in the car and drove to Seattle to spend the night there because his flight was so early saturday morning. We checked into the hotel and then went out for dinner. After that we tried to stay up as late as possible to talk and spend time together because we knew once he went through security the next morning at 5 a.m. that was it for 5 months. it would be all phone calls after that. sadly we were asleep before midnight though. we were talking one minute, and seconds later john was snoring. Seriously, we were watching Cast Away on tv and he said something about Tom Hanks being his own dentist with the ice skate, and then he was snoring before Tom even hit the skate with the rock. But i just laughed at him and turned the tv off. So we didn't last the night. the next morning we got up and took the shuttle the hotel offers over the airport. Check in was fast though. Faster then i would have liked. And the line for security was looming in wait for him to go through it. Since he was on orders with the millitary they had to do a special checkin with him so he wouldn't be charged for baggage, and just when she was finishing up putting tags on his bags, she turned to me and asked if i wanted to go to the gate with him. I could hardly hold myself back from jumping in her arms to say thank you! All emotions spilled out of my eyes when she handed me the pass to go through. She gave me a pass to spend 2 more extra hours with my husband, and for that i love the airline. So, this week i felt so moved that i wrote an email to them to tell them thank you, and this is what i said:

My husband is enlisted with the US Coast Guard
and is on orders now to attend a school they have
in Elizabeth City, NC for the next 5 months.My
husband and i have only been married 7 months as
of this weekend. With his service in the Coast
Guard over the coarse of the 6 months of our
engagement we only saw each other twice, and then
after we did get married and back from the
honeymoon we were separated again for a whole
month until we could be stationed to an airbase
together. Our time together has been precious and
a blessing, and we haven't taken it for granted.
I love my husband very much, more then i will be
able to express to him in this lifetime, and being
away from him again has not been something i have
looked forward to. This past weekend my husband
traveled with your airline on orders from the
US Coast Guard to this school and i was the one to
take him to the airport in Seattle so I could say
goodbye to him there. With the change in
regulations after 9/11, I knew I would be saying
goodbye to him before he went through security and
I wasn't too thrilled for that time to come, but
while we were getting his baggage checked your
ticket agent asked if I would like to go to the
gate with him. I don't know if it was the
depressed look on my face, or if its a general
practice you have, but it was like hearing a voice
from heaven. An absolute blessing. The floodgates
i had so desperately tried to keep up that morning
couldn't hold back my emotions any longer. She
checked my ID and gave me a security checkpoint
pass, and i was barely able to squeak out a "Thank
You!" without sobbing all over her. It was a
surreal experience and blessing to be able to
spend an extra 2 hours with him at the gate before
he left on his flight. I can't thank you enough
for that.
*I think the airline industries' respect and
treatment of our countries armed forces and their
families is applaudable from everything i have
witnessed over the last few years. No baggage fees,
discounts inside airport businesses, and free
headphones to men in uniform on flights with
various airlines. I've seen many things, all given
without asking for anything more then the service
they are already giving to our country. I know
none of these things are a general public
knowledge, but still, THANK YOU!
*With our budget i'm almost sure that i won't be
able to see my husband John until he completes
his training in 5 months and returns home. I know
there are other wives and husbands or parents and
loved ones of military men and women that go a lot
longer then that without seeing their loved ones,
but as a wife, I want to thank you from the bottom
of my heart for that extra time i was given with
him, even if it was only a few hours. I needed
it, and i love you for it.
*Again, thank you, thank you, and thank you!!
**With sincerest gratitude,
**Cassie Hurst

The next monring, i received a response from them:

Dear Mrs. Hurst,

I appreciate your e-mail to United Airlines
Customer Relations.

Mrs. Hurst, I'm delighted with your positive
reaction to our service. Your kind message is
both appreciated and meaningful to all of us here
at United.  We always try to provide efficient
customer service to all our customers and we are
pleased to know that United could be of assistance
to you as a result of which you were able to
spend some more precious moments with your husband
at the airport.  Please be assured that your
positive comments will be shared with the
management here at our headquarters as well as the
airport management team.  They will be ecstatic
to read such a positive reaction to our service.

We hope you have a happy married life and we look
forward to delivering quality service to you and
your husband when both of you travel with us to
different destinations around the world.

Regards,

Anish Chandran
United Airlines Customer Relations


I just wanted to share that with someone, i don't know why. But it really was a great experience and blessing
to have so i am grateful. After he got on his flight i went back through the airport and back to the hotel to my
room to take a bath and cry some more. The rest of the day wasn't that amazing. I got a stupid call from rude
verizon (that i hate), and then i couldn't get any more sleep before checkout

i'm staying busy with work and young womens and church stuff this week, but i think it sucks to not have him for 5 months.