The Manda and Stew show

MAINE IS COLD!

2008-09-20T16:32:00.000-07:00

Well we're all settled in now here in Maine and there's a couple things i've learned:
1) Maine is cold
2) Mainers don't pronounce their "R's"
3) MAINE IS COLD!!!!
Stew's doing fine but as for me.... well im used to warmer climates....virginia,maryland,CALIFORNIA! And the biggest problem! People here in Maine are not my size... I was issued sweaters and jackets for my job.......they don't have any smalls!!! so i look like a doof hopping of an ambulance in a jacket that goes all the way down to my ankles. But hey! at least im warm! so my college is right on the ocean, infact its surrounded by water on three sides ( bad for parking ;) ) And last week in class I asked... Does it snow here too? you know with the water right there and all? Well the entire class got a good laugh out of that! I guess it snows on the ocean too here!!!!! Well here are some pix!!!!

Fun in Maine :)

2008-08-03T17:29:00.000-07:00

Since Stew has been home, we've been having so much fun! Between geocaching, downhill mountain biking, and site seeing, we've kept pretty busy and we have enjoyed ourselves very much. Our Friends Jerica and Rob came up from Maryland to visit us here in good ol' Maine...

We went to the beach, Rode at Sunday River Bike Park and went geocaching. To the right are some various photos of our adventures.

and Kona is gettin pretty daring!

Half way there!!! 12 weeks left!!!

2008-03-08T17:16:00.001-08:00

Hey everybody!!! I just wanted to let everyone know that friday was HUMP DAY!!! So now we start the 12 week count down!!! Of course it probably wont actually be 12 weeks because nothing in the Navy ever happens like it is supposed to. To celebrate i sent Stewart another package with two type of cookies this time and lots of candy and a supercross t-shirt and some other goodies!! I brought cookies into work also, when they asked why i just said "its hump day" no one at work understands what we go through and they probably never will. I get a lot of " i don't see how you could let him go do that" or " i could never not see my husband" its probably even created a wall between me and the other girls. They don't really know what it's like to be alone on a friday or saturday night or cook for one person. I've never lived in a place where I'm not surrounded by Military and it's been really hard. A lot of people can be close minded and shut you out because they haven't known you since kindergarten. ( I've been to seven different schools) I haven't once since i've arrived here hung out with a friend or even been invited to go do something.
I've grown up with tons of hump days waiting for my dad to get home from the boat or where ever he might have been deployed to at the time.I learned this deployment how much harder it is from a wives point of view. I've never appreciated fully until now how strong my mom is and she's been helping me be the same way. Its a lot harder than people might think, especially those who don't understand the Military life.
Stewarts deployment hasn't been to bad, he has his own room which is pretty uncommon. Last month he was waiting on his macbook to get fixed so we didn't get to do too much talking. He's up for his second class exam this month!! Hopefully all goes well!! He should find out right after he gets home if he makes it or not. But lets hope he does!!!
I haven't done too much, just worked at the hospital. Mom and Dad Mullen came out to visit right before Christmas and it was a lot of fun! We went to Virginia to visit my brother and see his new car. It's so cool, he got a light blue Infinity G-37 imported from japan. Last weekend my parents and I went to supercross and had a lot fun. Chad Reed won!! And finally! We actaully got a good snow in our area! 6 inches! Its the most i've ever seen before so i tried my snowboard and well i crashed...a lot.....
Well that was just a little update! We're hoping to head out west this summer for a visit, we got to get moved into our house first.

SUPERCROSS!!!!

My legs look small compared to my jacket..

I still have puffy cheeks from the surgery :(
And they're off!!

One month down FIVE to go!

2008-01-14T09:07:00.000-08:00

The first month is supposed to be the hardest but we're through it! YAY. To celebrate today I bought living room furniture!! So ya now we just need a house but it will come closer to when Stew is coming home. We're excited!!

2007-12-14T21:09:00.000-08:00

Here are some more pictures of the trip and Bahrain. Enjoy!

Qatar and Bahrain

2007-12-11T17:43:00.000-08:00

I finally arrived in Bahrain. I figured I'd post some pictures so everybody would know what it looks like over here. This first picture is of our tents in Qatar. It's like 5 in the morning and foggy. Those tents were actually pretty nice. That next picture is just me later in the day. The galley there was awesome. In the two days we were there, I ate like 12 times at the galley. We played some ping pong and ate most of the time. Surprisingly it was pretty nice. On Monday the 10th we departed Qatar for Bahrain on this little rickity Navy airplane I thought was going to fall out of the sky. We got to Bahrain and surprisingly Bahrain is pretty high tech. The city is so modern that it amazes me. We checked into our five star hotel where we will stay for the next six months. It's a hard life i know. Actually it will be pretty hard, being away from everything you know is mind boggling. I can't quite make my mind adjust to life out here. I miss all of you and especially you Mandy. But the good new is that it will be over soon! Six months and I'll wake up. Well there will be more to come soon!

Vacation over..

2007-11-24T18:40:00.000-08:00

stew left today for Maine. he'll leave soon from there for Bahrain. The next six months are going to be really hard.Be safe Stew! I love you so much!

Our first tree!

2007-11-14T18:20:00.000-08:00

Since Stew will be in the sandbox during Christmas, we decided to decorate our tree early. It's not much but it sure is special to us- our first Christmas together. Pictures of "Christmas morning" coming soon to a blog near you! So anyway... my days are counting down until Stew leaves the states for the desert. The exact date is the 26th of this month so Stew is trying to milk every moment he has with his wifey... ME!!! This will be the first time in our lives that we celebrate Christmas before Thanksgiving. Aint it crazy?!- but then again, that is our life.

Another day in Indiana

2007-11-12T15:31:00.000-08:00

Today we resurrected Manda's car, jumped on the trampoline and rode the dirtbikes. I must have great luck with that yamaha because I got stuck in a big hole and popped the chain off. Meanwhile Mandy parked her bike so she could point and laugh. I did fix the chain and got unstuck and here's the picture. Since Skylar said there were too many of Manda and not me I decided to fix that. Here ya go!

Indianer!

2007-11-10T13:58:00.000-08:00

We took leave and made the 18 hour drive to "Befford" (Bedford), Indiana, Mandy's parent's homeland. Haven't done much here yet than help Mandy's parent's unpack and put stuff together in their very nice new house. Today we got out and rode the dirtbikes around, well actually she rode because I couldn't get the Yamaha to start. Honda Rules! Or so says Manda. When I get back from Bahrain I think I am going to get myself a KTM SX 450F. It's supa cool yo! The house sits on a 6 acre lot and is fun to hot rod around on. Here's a little piece of useless trivia- Befford is the Limestone capital of the world. The limestone from here was also used to build the Pentagon where Mandy's brother just so happens to work. Or more like sit around and surf the web while collecting a ridiculous government salary. My government salary however isn't so high class, but I do get 30 days paid vacation yearly. WooHooo! Mandy's plans for the six months that I'll be gone is to work fulltime at the hospital as a phlebotomist and part-time at Maurice's while going to school full-time to become a flight RN. At least that way she won't be spending all of my hard earned money. I take that back, she still probably will.

The grand state of Maine....

2007-11-10T13:27:00.000-08:00

Thus far Mandy and I aren't too fond of Maine. We transferred to Brunswick on October 1, and it was pretty for about three weeks then everything and I mean everything died. To go to a sit down place and order a good tasty steak, well let's just say that's impossible in Maine. Bland is the seasoning of choice here. For the first ten days of our stay at the barracks we had no hot water. It was quite funny seeing Mandy try to wash her hair the Navy way(in 30 seconds).....so ya. On a positive note we did have room service, which meant we actually changed our sheets once a week, and when I say we I mean the maid. Supposedly there are moose here but we have yet to see one first hand. There are three restaurants, ruby tuesday's, friendly's and applebees which are all pretty much the same thing. While it will take some getting used to, the quietness is pretty nice. We have met some really nice people and once we finally get a house It will turn out to be quite a fun place to live.