The Key

Hey All!

I have so much stuff to share I'm not even sure where to start. So let's start with something many of you may already know...my current whereabouts. It aches me to even say it, but I'm currently back in COLD ol' Iowa (Indianola, IA to be exact.) My hometown, which also means my childhood bedroom...yes my husband and I are currently staying at my Mama's house. And I'll be the first to say it's actually been AWESOME! I mean no mortgage payment, rent free, meals cooked, laundry is always done...why didn't I move back home sooner?! LoL

However, this was not the plan. In December I quit my job, sold my house, sold my car, sold a ton of belongings, and shipped our life over to Curacao where my Husband was working and we would be living for the next year or two. However the night before I was to actually move out of my home and a couple of days before I was to fly out of the country with my little dog and start a new life, we got some cruddy news. My husband's job was no longer going to work out, which was the whole reason we were transferring our life out there. Our entire plan had just shattered. All the time, money, and effort we had put into beginning our new life in Curacao had just went down the hole. It was very heart wrenching at first and we really weren't sure what to do next. It was a rough next couple of days trying to swallow everything that was going on and wondering why this had to happen to us, but I knew we would figure it out. So on the night before my original departure date, I was having dinner with my parents discussing different options and realized my airline ticket that I had already purchased was non refundable. DUH. Mom & Dad I'm flying out tomorrow morning who's taking me to the airport? Why wouldn't I go? I didn't have a job I had to attend, we already had paid rent in Curacao for the whole month of December, and honestly my husband and I needed each other. So I rearranged some clothes in a suitcase and took off. I was a bit of a trainwreck of emotions, okay a lot of bit, but I hopped on that plane and was ready to get some things figured out.

Long story short (for now) we spent a few weeks in Curacao and Aruba before heading back "home" to Iowa. (I'll post another blog later on about our travel experience to both of those.)

We arrived in Des Moines New Years Eve night, exhausted and no where near ready to bring in the New Year lol. My lovely Mother and her husband picked us up from the airport with open arms and took us out for some real fine dining at Applebee's. LoL After some food and beer we were more than ready for showers and bed. I'm pretty sure the whole household was asleep by 9:30. There was no chance of making it to midnight for us! The first day of the new year would be spent looking for jobs, a new home, and figure out our plan.

It's only been a few weeks, and since then I have started a new job at a property management company, we've purchased a car, and just recently we figured out our new plan. I'm so excited to share the new plan!

We're moving to the keys! The Florida Keys!

YAY! We are still going to get to live our "Island Life" and be state side at the same time!

Why the Keys you ask? Well my husband has been trying to get all of his certifications for Scuba Diving done while working at the same time for the last couple years, which is why we had to live near the coast or on an island. He did some research and the first school he found was Halls in Marathon Key, FL. It seemed like the perfect fit for what he wanted, so he made some calls and found out the next class begins in February! Greg is now enrolled and we are ready to go!

WOW we are moving so fast...but the next thing on the list was to find us a place to live. If you have ever been to the Keys (we haven't) but you'll find out fast that it is very EXPENSIVE! Depending on where you looked, most studio or one bedroom places were going for a minimum of $2,000 a month, and unfortunately they don't come with a Mother who cooks and cleans for you. LoL YIKES. We are still up in the air on a few things but I am pretty sure we found a great place to start off living at, that will even allow me to bring my baby (dog.)

So in the beginning of February, which is just a couple short weeks away, we begin our first road trip ever as husband and wife (and little dog too) to start a new life in the Florida Keys. We will pack up everything we can into our Chrysler Concord and hit the open road. 

I still plan on making and selling my art like I was going to do in Curacao, but I had also been doing some research for jobs and what not in the area, and came across an amazing Yoga teacher training school. As many of you also know I enjoy practicing yoga and have considered becoming an instructor myself for a while now. I feel like this is the perfect time to finally take action and pursue some of my personal goals, and what better place than in the Keys? So if all goes well I will be training to be a certified Yoga instructor in May!

NAMASTE.

I really didn't understand it at first, and it took a lot for me to believe that it happened for a reason...but I finally believe that us losing our "dream life" in Curacao was a blessing in disguise. Both my husband and I are now going to be pursuing our dreams and furthering our education in Florida, together. I am so thankful for our friends and family for supporting us while we've adjusted and I can't wait to see what the next speed bump brings. Nothing can hold us back. I'd say for our first three months of marriage we've had quite whirl wind of tests and we can handle anything at this point.

The life we live is anything but ordinary....

Wedding Glimpse

September 27th, 2014....The best day of my life. I got to marry the world's most incredible, handsome, loving, crazy man! I'll be updating my site soon (as I am WAY overdue) with some more blogs, but for now a glimpse at my perfect wedding day through the camera lens of Kapture King Productions. He did SUCH an incredible job capturing all the little details and important moments of our day. This video brings so much emotion to me every time I watch it (I've probably watched 100 times and cried each time,) I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Kayaking

The First Day of 2014!

So it's New Year's Day and we decided we would go kayaking. This is something I'd never done before, and especially never thought I'd do in the Ocean. So we packed our beach bags and snacks and hit the beach. They have community use Kayaks and life jackets at one of the shacks. So we hauled them down to the shore and off we went. I really don't have a lot of upper body strength and it turns out this Kayaking stuff is one hell of a workout lol, so again I say I am so thankful I have a patient boyfriend. =)

We kayaked all around the area for about 2 1/2 hours which by the end of that I was real wimpy. Greg mentioned Kayaking over to the 1st island but I didn't feel like I had the strength to go against the current and wind after a couple hours already in. So after some practice we will give that a shot, and hope I survive! We saw a few sea turtles pop their heads up but nothing that was really close to us. It was still really awesome to see the insane colors of the water and the clarity of it all. What an incredible first day of the year. If this is any indication of how the rest of 2014 will go, I'm in for a real treat....because my life is already way better than I could have every imagined. Here's a few more shots of us kayaking around the Pacific. 

As you can see it was a beautiful experience. So happy I got to experience it with my man....it's even more bittersweet because back home in Iowa it's been record low temperatures. Knowing that it's 85 every day here and how miserable Iowa winters are, makes being here THAT much better! It is going to be a rough adjustment going back in March.



PEACE OUT!

S is for SHARK!

BEACH DAY WITH MY HONEY!

Greg was home at 8 A.M. from work the next day so we decided to pack a cooler and head to the beach. After chillin and hangin out for a while we decided to throw on our snorkel gear and swim around. Now Greg had previously told me that around the marina there were a lot of sharks, so naturally I told him we were staying the F*** away from that area. LOL.

We swam out to some coral and saw some really pretty fish. I even saw a black and gold Hawkeye fish....GO IOWA! 

As I said before I sometimes struggle with swimming so I make Greg hold my hand while we snorkel along. I look left and see what looks to me like a sting ray, you know that creature that KILLED Steve Irwin....

I grab Greg's arm and squeeze him as I "hide" behind him, he signals to me that it's okay and it won't hurt us, but I was still freaked out. We swim off the other way making our way towards the shore and as I'm finally calming myself down Greg taps my arm and points right. So I turn my head....A F*ckinG SHARKKKKK! 

OMG I instantly cling to him and think to myself, "just breathe, don't freak out, remain calm, that F*cker will eat you as soon as it smells your fear. AHHHHH Greg again signals to me that it's fine and as hard as it is for me to believe him I trust him but was sure as shit ready to get out of the water! I could see him keep looking behind us to check for it and as I am quickly flapping towards shore all I could hear was the JAWS theme song thinking he was behind me the whole time. LOL But we made it back to shore without any shark attacks! RELIEF! Once we sat down Greg told me that it was actually an Eagle Ray that we saw not a Sting Ray, and the Shark was a Black Tipped Shark and apparently neither one of them are anything to worry about. I am still not convinced, however I am grateful that these two guys had no particular interest in a petite serving of Iowa Inked Chick Filet. HA SHEW!



TONIGHT IS NEW YEARS EVE!

What better way to bring in the New Year then on a warm beautiful island?!

The "Outrigger" bar and grill is throwing a party. Now this isn't your typical bar or NYE venue. The bartender isn't the average hot young half naked 20 something. LoL His name is Wally and he's worked her forever I guess. 

Awesome right?! LoL It was technically a Masquerade, but we didn't wear any because there is no party store or Wal Mart for that matter on the island. We did put on some borrowed masks of our friends though for a few photos opportunities.  

It was a really low key and fun NYE. My main wish I got and that was to be able to kiss the love of my life at midnight! =) We did just that and were home by 12:15. What a great way to bring in the year 2014. Hell 2013 brought me so much, 2014 has a lot to live up to but I have no doubt! Hope you all had a great New Year! 

PEACE OUT!

My First Day ALONE

Greg had to work today so I am on my own. I was pretty lazy all morning since I was still not feeling 100%. After a while I decided to grab my DSLR Camera and head out on the bicycle to capture some of the scenery. HOLY HOTNESS. Lugging that thing around while pedaling against the winds in 88 degree weather makes for one hell of a workout. I hadn't planned out my photography session very well, because I had to wait about a half an hour for the condensation on my lens to go away...woops. I was a little worried about getting lost at first, but then I realized the island is way too small to actually get lost. So I spent the day venturing the island solo and soaking up the scenery. I got quite a few pics so I'll share some...

First week on the island

I'm playing catch up here from my journal because I haven't been able to blog due to Greg's laptop being down. So here  is the first page of my journal:

12/31/13 7:05 AM 

It' my 4th day on the island and I've yet to adjust to the day and time difference. Which basically means I wake up at 3 AM on the dot every day which would be 9 AM back home. On top of that I haven't really felt good since I've been here. My whole family was fighting a stomach bug on Christmas, so I assumed that combined with a 33 hour travel itinerary, jet lag, and lack of good eating has been what's dragging me down. Yesterday around noon I finally started feeling myself. So on to the good stuff let me catch you up from day one!

One thing not many people have probably experienced is flying on/off of a runway of which the whole length of is the entire island....for those of you who haven't let me tell ya SCARY SHIT! I fly often enough I never really get scared but when you look down and see your descent is almost complete and you still see no land under you, just ocean you start to panic. I just knew we were going to touch down in the ocean. Obviously I'm aliving writing this so we made it but talk about freaky. Here's a little pic to get you some of an idea...but not really capturing the no land part:

Obviously I'm alive writing this so we made it but talk about freaky! And as you can imagine the same level of freakiness taking off, it looked like we were going to drive right off the runway into the ocean.

So after a few more island stops and a bit of a delay I arrived into Kwajalein. I felt like a kid at Christmas when we pulled up. As I walked off the plane I could see Greg waving at me outside the fence. AHHH FINALLY! But all the passengers had to go inside the "Airport," which is the size of my living room. As soon as you enter all the officials make you put your bags on the red line, take a seat, and fill out paperwork. The polic K9 comes in and sniffs the baggage and after about 20 minutes of processing I was the last one to be let FREE lol. I hopes the door and found my love hiding around the corner trying to surprise me. 

BEST HUG AND KISS EVER

It was so great to finally be back in his arms. BUT after all this flying I'm still not to my final destination. The next flight we have to catch is a daily flight they run back and forth from Kwajalein to Roi. That flight was only about 15 minutes and it was really awesome to be able to see the different tiny beautiful islands in the chain of the Marshal Islands from above.

White Snow to White Sand

Guess what?!?!?!

I'm out of here! I am leaving Iowa the day after Christmas for the months of January and February and can't wait to get out this miserable cold weather! I'm going to stay with my boyfriend who currently lives and works on a tiny (basically deserted) island in the middle of the ocean. Rough right? Well here is a picture from my front door step today...

And here is a picture my boyfriend sent me of the view he has to deal with...

Any sane person would clearly prefer the 2nd picture, the white sand and beautiful blue waters over Iowa's dead trees and freezing cold snow and ice. 

So what the hell is this place called and where exactly is it you ask?

Kwajalein Atoll. Ever heard of it? Me neither. It is part of the Marshall Islands and to put into perspective it's about halfway between Australia and Hawaii and just 9 degrees north of the equator. The island Kwajalein is 3 miles long by barely 3/4 mile wide. The population is around 1,000. Small right? WELL if you think that's small the island Greg (my boyfriend) is on and where I am going is 50 miles North of that island and is called Roi-Namur. Roi (for short) is just 2 miles long and 1/2 mile wide. Population here is 100. Now that makes Kwajalein look big huh? To put it in Midwest Iowa farmer terms basically that's a well off acreage around here. TINY! 

Here is a picture from the plane that Greg took of the islands....

Here is a map to show you how far across the world my other half is from me..

And here is the breakdown of the Kwajalein Atoll islands....

It's crazy isn't it?

Well if you know either of Greg and I, It really isn't. This adventure of tiny island living and long distance madness couldn't be more perfect for two people like us. We are both crazy, spontaneous, outgoing, always up for a new adventure type people. Our love story in itself and the how we met story is a crazy story and will be a whole new blog in itself, so stay tuned for that one! <3 You really do find it when you're not looking. So here's to the next 17 days and hoping they fly by so I can see my honey, I miss him beyond words! Just look how cute we are....

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