Hey Everybody!

Hello Everyone! Our Christmas was very nice. My mother in-law and her husband came to see us for a couple days, it was nice to see family this time of year. Jason and I took them out to eat at The Oak Steakhouse in downtown Charleston, we all enjoyed the great food and nice atmosphere! Jason surprised me with my very first stocking, he actually got one for both of us and had our names embroidered on them, they are silver with white....very cute! Jason got a jersey of some guy from some team, Jones something or another is his name. He also got a couple flags of the Detroit Tigers and Michigan Wolverines to hang outside in front of our house. He really likes them. I got various perfumes, which I LOVE! Sunflowers is my favorite! =) But, my favorite present that I received is my Study Bible. I already had a NIV Bible but found it difficult to understand and it just became kind of overwhelming, so my mother in-law bought me a Study Bible. This one actually comes with frequently asked questions and answers in the margins so it helps out when you are reading. It also has suggestions of what to read first so you get a understanding of the basics before you jump into trying to read and understand the whole entire Bible. Some things that Jason and I both used were gift certificates to a couple of our favorite restaurants given to us by my parents, Thanks Mom and Dad, we used the gift certificates already! Dinner was excellent! Well I hope that all of you had a great Christmas, take care and have a SAFE New Year! **Lisa**

Remembering Pearl Harbor.

I've been watching some specials about Pearl Harbor on the History channel today and to see all the Honor and Valor that numerous proud sailors exhibited on that day makes me proud to be in the Navy. It also makes part of me anxious to be able to have the opportunity to show the same valor these men did so many years ago. Another part of me hopes to never have to be in an actual fighting situation, not because I'm scared or afraid or anything, but because a human life is a terrible thing to waste, friend or foe.

Also if I serve in the capacity that I wish, and was in a fighting situation there would be mass death and destruction, and I think that fact scares everyone.

On a lighter note, here is a list of the things I miss most about Detroit (friends and family excluded):

1. The Castle, which is a no brainer to top my list
2. Kim's restaurant in Troy, haven't been able to find comparable Chinese food down here.
3. Jet's Pizza
4. A Little Caesar on every corner (there pizza is average but you can't beat the price. Pizzerias don't know the meaning of a $5 dollar pizza down here)
5. 7-11
6. Detroit Sports
7. Drew and Mike on 101 WRIF
8. People who know how to drive
9. People that aren't confused when you order a "pop"
10. A non-military community (Don't get me wrong I love the service, but sometimes I feel that everything around here is focused on the Military and it would be nice to be able to go to town and not have everyone know I'm in the service)

I'm sure there is more things I miss but that is a pretty good list... Almost forgot Mr. Pita ... Maybe in later posts I'll post more things I miss.

To all of you that say a Cat couldn't fight it's way out of a wet paper bag I offer the following evidence to the contrary:



Lisa left her closet door open tonight, and we started to hear a rumbling in there, which is normal I guess, Tony is always getting into things. After a little while Lisa decided to investigate and next thing we know we see Tony caught in the handles of a paper bag running out of the closet like a bat out of Hell down the hallway. He ran so fast and so wild that he tore the bag and left paper all over the hallway, that is the part not caught around his neck as displayed in exhibit A. He was so freaked out that he then ran and hid under our bed for about 20 minutes or so. Here is another picture:

He did finally let us take the bag off from around his neck. So he is fine.

Our first Christmas Tree

After 4 years of marriage we decided that it was about time that we have our first Christmas Tree. So remembering all the good times I had as a child, going to the tree farm as a family and cutting down the tree ourselves, I wanted to give Lisa the same experience. I was able to find a tree farm not too far from our house. Knowing that Lisa loves surprises I told her we were going to look at a car for me. When we got to the farm and Lisa saw all the pine trees she was so excited, she never had a real Christmas tree before. So we spent about 45 minutes or so looking for one to cut down. We settled on about a 7ft tree that the guy was nice enough to let me have for the price of a 6ft tree.

Well we got it home and had a hard time getting into the stand so we asked Tony to help out and he was happy to lend a paw:

Well now that we had a tree we had to go to the mall and buy decorations, my favorite, going to the mall and dealing with idiots around the holidays. I was so excited.

After what seemed like hours and 100 stores we got everything that we needed.

Lights - check
Ribbon - check
Ornaments - check
Tree Stand - check
Tree Skirt - check
Tree Topper - check (not as easy to find as I thought it would be).

So Lisa did most of the decorating but I helped out too. Here is Lisa putting the finishing touches on our very first Christmas Tree:

As you can see we went with a blue/silver theme and I think that it turned out pretty good for a couple of amateurs.

At first we were a little worried that Tony may knock down the ornaments or actually climb into the tree like Sophie does at her parents house. But after the initial curiosity Tony has pretty much left the tree alone.

Well here is a Picture of the final product:

My first time doing color guard.

Well today was the first time that I performed for color guard. It was for a graduation here at school. Things went pretty good, I kinda messed up a couple times, this first time was very minor and probably not noticed by many if anyone at all. The second time though, was during the National Anthem with all eyes on us. My job is to carry the Navy Flag, and during the National Anthem I lower the flag. Well it was windy out and I was holding the flag against the flag pole so it wouldn't blow all over the place. By holding the flag the way I did I kinda made a sail, and the wind took a hold of the flag. I didn't drop it or anything but I did have to take a step or two to regain control. After I recovered I was able to stand still for the most part.

One of the events that I perform at Lisa will be coming to, so we will post some pictures in my uniform when we have them.

Hope you all have a nice weekend.

-Jason

THE BOXING MATCHES!

Hey guys,
Well the boxing matches that we saw were really cool! I'm really glad that we went. The first match was going good, until the one guy I was rooting for stared to bleed a little bit from being hit by his opponent. I felt bad for him, but it is a part of the game....nothing you can do. It was funny with the announcer between games though, he was making fun of a couple of the boxers because when it was time for them to come out they took longer than expected because one guy didn't have his shoes on, He was like " Do you know your Boxing tonight? You can't fight without shoes!" -OK...maybe you had to be there- Anyway...we ended up sitting in good view of the ring, we also sat next to one of the Boxer's fathers, he seemed really nice. My favorite part was the last match, it was between "The Hitman" and some other guy. These two guys were competing for a belt. Needles to say....I was rooting for "The Hitman" all the way!!!! He was awesome, and I even got to take a picture with him after he won! We will be going to other matches, our next one will probably be in January. Enjoy the pics and talk to you later....*Lisa*

Yeah.....that's me and "The Hitman"!


This is that fighter and his father after he won his match!