My DI at work

Navy OCS: "Navy Owned, Marine Trained"- Sign posted outside OCS Building

Happy St. Patty's Day!

We love St. Patricks day! I will even go as far as ranking it in my top 5 of all holidays. Whats not to love? Everyone, Irish or otherwise all come out to celebrate, we gorge ourselves in corned beef and cabbage and there is the always fun task of turning everything you can think of green; beer, mash potatoes, cookies, nails, hair etc. When Todd and I first got here one of the first things we learned about lil ol' Newport is that they have a big ol' Irish population and that St. Patty's day is a huge celebration! Never been known to shy away from any sort of celebration/party, Todd and I wasted no time putting on everything that we could find green , met up with our equally obnoxious green friends and had a great day! There was a parade followed by hundreds of people celebrating in the streets. This place just gets better and better!

Shan, Jennifer and Beth just before leaving for the parade

Todd and Shan + green whistles = good time

Jennifer with one of the clowns during the parade

The group

Moving on up...part deux

Thats right folks, the Coy-ay's are continuing to build our empire. Our newest purchase...a new SUV!! YEA! We just bought a 2008 4x4 Nissan Xterra! It is gorgous and by far the cutest SUV on the road in my unbaised opinion. We are so excited now to finally have a vehicle that (a.) has 4 doors, and (b.) can comfortably fit more than 2 people. We can't wait to take it off-roading and camping this summer!

SIDE NOTE: For those that were worried, the Civic is still alive and well. It's fate was in question there for a while but in the end we decided to keep it and is now transporting Todd to work. The Camero will now be on display in our garage and will be available for sunday drives during the summer if anyone is interested.

I'm tough.

The Tranbargers go east coastin'

We adore our families so we were SO excited when my parents came to visit us this week. We really hope that this will be the start of a ton of visitors coming out our way ::hint hint:: We had a great time showing them our new home. Of course in typical Tranbarger fashion, my dad didn't waste anytime relaxing on our couch while offering 'suggestions' on how we could improve a few things around the house (always keeping us on our toes, dad!) and mom with her magical talents somehow made our place feel even more cozy and comfortable with her cooking and organizing, a talent I really hope is somewhere in my DNA. We ate, drank and viewed the sights till there were no more sights in Newport to see. It was very sad to say goodbye but we hope they will be back soon!

Cute parents on the Cliff walk

Sunset in Newport

Of course we had to check out a few battleships...these are the Tranbargers!

Mom and myself walking around town

New Bedford, MA, outside the whaling museum

Fort Taber, caught in a freak storm, I love that Todd is behind us trying to look into the fort, he could care less about the rain:)

The fam with the Sauls.

Moving on up!

The other day, Todd and I sat down at our dining room table, the same table I'm pretty sure I had in college, for dinner. As we looked around at all the boxes that held our beautiful wedding china and crystal we had an epiphany...we are no longer struggling young adults. With this realization firmly in our minds we scampered off and bought a new dining set. Three short but anxious weeks later it arrived. We spent the entire night setting it up and placing our GORGEOUS china and crystal (thank you everyone again!) in the china cabinet. When we were done, as we stood back to admire our new dining room , Todd hugged me and said "Sweetie, I think we've arrived". :) Would anyone like to come over for dinner?

Pre-makeover, notice our wedding gifts still tucked away in boxes :(

Post makeover

All our beautiful wedding gifts

Happy Valentines day!

Happy Valentines day! I know this day is just an over-comercialized Hallmark holiday but I still love it! Any day that involves flowers, candy and little pink hearts is a-ok in my book. Since its on a Thursday this year and my sweet (hard working) husband falls asleep almost before the sun sets we decided to go low key and celebrate at home. We made pizza, had wine and watched movies. It was a perfect evening. Hope everyone had a wonderful love-filled day!

Aww, I love flowers

We had to make our pizza festive!...yes we are dorks

I had to include this picture. Todd loves cherry pie, and this was my first attempt at making one, I was so darn proud of how it turned out, I had to take a picture...yum!

Hi Moms...

One of the fun perks of Todd's new job is every Thursday before a graduation, we go to an event affectionately called 'hi moms'. Like on MCRD, every Thursday before graduation they have a meet and greet with the candidate Officer's families, give out awards and introduce themselves. There is food and drinks and I love seeing Todd all dressed up. Then there are a few speeches from the Officer, Petty Officer and Drill Instructor in charge of the graduating class followed immediately by the DI assembling the whole class to do push ups. It is really cool to see them working. I can't wait to see Todd graduate a class!

My DI