Oh my gosh, Oh my gosh, Oh my gosh!!

6 Days and a 'wake up' until our 'two weeks of family' begins! YAY! We are so excited, we are not sure what to do with ourselves. Next Thursday the entire Tranbarger Clan: parents, Goldfarbs, aunts, uncles, cousins, fabulous grandma...the whole she-bang, will be making their way over to our neck of the woods for my cousin Katie's fabulous wedding (YAY!) and a quick visit to Newport (YAY!). We can't wait! Then on the following Tuesday Todd's fabulous bro and our fabulous sis-in-law, Brian and Sandra come for a whole week! YAY! Yes, I'm just a tad excited. We have been preparing for this for so long (which explains all the furniture purchases), we can't believe its FINALLY here! We can't wait to show everyone this beautiful place. Now if time could just hurry along...::checks watch:: :)

Welcome to our home!

And so it begins...

For years my dad has been tormenting my mom by bringing home books by the box full from various swap meets and yard sales, all of the military/history persuasion. Being the elegant woman that she is, she has accepted this quirk and has found a place for each and every book all the while maintaining an organized and immaculate house...she is really a fantastic woman.


Well someone ::glares at hubs:: let it slip that he also likes military/history books.


And so it starts...today we received a box. It was full of Marine/WWII books. It was from my parents. It came with a guarantee that more were coming. Hooray.


On the flip-side, my Todd is just tickled pink with his new books. He spent at least 2 hours riffling through them with great care and consideration before proudly categorizing them on our bookshelf. Not only have they been mentioned to buddies at numerous social events but I believe there are full days soon dedicated to reading them. Hooray.


Anyhoo thanks mom and dad for the books! :) I appreciate you starting this habit more than you know. ::sighs::

California Dreamin'....

We love Rhode Island. Its beautiful and we couldn't be having more fun here but there is something that this place just doesn't have (besides our families) that really makes us homesick. Mexican Food. Correction....good Mexican food. Don't get me wrong, they try but I think we are just too darn far from the border for New Englanders to grasp true Mexican cuisine. Coming from California, this is a tragedy. The closest thing we have to Mexican food here is Titos or excuse me, Titos Authentic Mexican Cantina, as their sign reads. Todd and I were so excited to try it but once we took a look at the menu it became obvious that 'Tito' had probably never visited our neighbor to the south much less tasted their cuisine. On their menu, Tito's offers such 'authentic' Mexican delicacies as: fried chicken, buffalo wings, cheeseburger burritos, enchiladas made with ricotta cheese and chimichangas with chicken, peas, carrots and gravy, which we assumed was a Mexican version of a chicken pot pie. Sadly for Tito tacking on the word 'taco' or 'enchilada' to their dishes does not authentic Mexican food make. Don't get me wrong their food was tasty and I am a bit of a snob but it was just not like home.

So to my folks and all the 'Super Mex' crowd ::waves:: heading out tonight to enjoy your weekly Mexican food fix, there are two people on the east coast that would really like to join you. :)

Time to open a Newport location :)

Check these beauties out!

Yes, I know it's beyond comprehension how exciting our gardening posts are but seriously, wouldn't you be proud? :)

He got frocked!

Today we can officially call my sweet Todd a Gunnery Sergeant! I am so proud of him! Today was the promotion ceremony and I got the great honor of pinning on Todd's new rank. It may have been the most nerve-wracking thing I have done in years! :) The entire command came out to watch and afterwards everyone came up to congratulate the new Gunny. My husband is awesome! ;)

Everyone in formation. All the DIs are in front.

Todd and his two fellow DIs were being promoted.

The boys with Master Guns and the Major

Pinning on his new rank

Happy day!

Aloha from Rhode Island!

This summer the entire Coyer Clan jetted off to Maui for a fabulous family vacation. Toddi and I originally planned on going but with his schedule and my new job we soon realized that it just wouldn't work. Boo...sadly in Rhode Island we stayed. Well today we got such a fun surprise! Our mailbox was full of fun Hawaiian goodies. We received yummy chocolate covered macadamia nuts, a cool key chain with my Hawaiian name and a post card. We couldn't have been more excited! Thank you Don and Barb ::sends hugs:: for bringing a little Hawaii to us. We hope you had a great trip! We really wish we could have been there :(

Who wants to BBQ?

Whoever I put in charge of that intervention has some serious explaining to do! We bought a new patio set! Really though, its been so warm outside recently that it would be a pity not to sit out on our deck and enjoy it, so we feel this purchase was completely justified. Also with so much family coming in a few weeks (yay!) what kind of hosts would we be if we can't offer them a place to sit, right? :)

Fabulous!

Fabulous!

Cute hubs munchin' on a hot dog. :)

Yes, those are twinkle lights wrapped around the deck. I believe it was my dad ::waves at dad:: that raised the question as for the need of the twinkle lights. Well here is my answer. You were at our wedding, we love twinkle lights! They are pretty and look very cool at night and I think they are fun, so there!

The Greatest Appliance Ever!

Tonight Todd and I took our sticky cranky selves to the PX and purchased what may have been the greatest invention ever....a window air conditioner. Oh my goodness! We brought it home, placed it in the window, turned it on and I kid you not, the clouds parted and birds sang. It was that profound. This little device has improved our lives immensely. We spent the next 3 hours laying on our bed in air conditioned bliss discussing why we hadn't done this earlier.
Now if we just throw a mini fridge in there we'll definitely never leave that room again.

best purchase ever!

We are Master Gardeners!

Toddi and I really can't stop patting each other on the back. We are so impressed with our glads! They are about two and a half feet tall and it looks like they will bloom just in time for our family's visit. Perfect!

hey there!

A Tale of Two TVs

WARNING: Asking a Costco employee to 'check the back' for a particular TV that will look just fabulous in your bedroom WILL leave a 15 minute window for your husband to sweet talk you into agreeing to purchase an additional TV for the living room.

It happened.

Car salespeople have nothing on Todd.

You have been warned.

Television #1...of course permanently tuned into the History channel

Television #2....permanently tuned into the Discovery Channel...huh, who would have thought? :)