Tombstone Arizona

About 3 weeks ago when Jon (the boy's Father) got home, he started taking the boy's for weekends, which has been REALLY hard on me. As most of you know I can be a bit of a control freak and he can be a bit of a scatter brain, so each weekend I stress over making sure I've sent enough clothes to ensure they are dressed properly for every possible scenario, that they have a comfort item of choice, and toys and what not to entertain them while there, since this whole "single parenting" thing is so new to him. I hate not knowing what they are doing 24/7 and knowing they are safe, but I have to get used too it and keep busy so I won't freak out..lol. So starting 3 weeks ago Matt and I have begun to have free weekends and frankly we LOVE IT! I haven't been able to sleep in on weekends in almost 9 years..lol..so this is fantastic! We spent the 1st weekend just around the house, the 2nd in Tombstone and last weekend we had Evan (a friend of Matt's from Florida) down for our wedding and spent it just soaking each other in once Evan headed home.
Our trip to tombstone was really fun, I always love going there, and this was Matt's 1st time, so it was really cool. They do a wild west shoot out each day, something like what they do in Jackson Hole for all you Idaho people who know what I'm talking about, only about 5 x better. The entire town is so full of history it's literally like stepping back into the past. Most of the pictures are self explanatory, just us around old crap..lol...or in a stage coach, or at the old court house. What a fun fun trip we had and believe it or not, we spent less than $40.00 in all including, gas, food and trinkets..lol It's been a real budget cruncher month, but yanno that made it more fun, we had to walk around a lot more and really investigate the town on our own.
Afterwards on our drive home we saw some really beautiful areas we just had to pull over and take pictures of. We had actually wanted to get down and walk and explore a bit but .....border town..lol..so there was barbed wire all over..lol..oh well it's still very pretty. I hope before Matt goes to Basic Training we have a chance to take the boys to Kartchner Cavern's, one of the few truly "wet" caves in the U.S.
It's really amazing, I don't even know if you can take pictures inside but if you can I plan on barraging you all with a ton!

Keep your fingers crossed, we have turned in all our "ARMY" paper work and now we are just waiting on him picking his Job (in the next day or two) and then off for that dreaded Pyhsical..lol...keep us in your prayers if you can. Thanks!!

~Mr. & Mrs. Morris~

Well, we got married yesterday!!! WOW WOW WOW the loops your life can throw at you! You either have to be flexible and bend with the loops or break and fall. I prefer to flow with life's changes than allow myself to get so set in my ways so much so that I can't find happiness in my life even if it isn't going exactly as I had planned or expected. If I had that point of view my life would be a very sad one indeed. However sliver linings are every where every day, and yesterday is one of those!

As we previously mentioned, Matt is going ARMY so long as his leg passes the physical next week. Based off of that, our own research, the recruiters and family and friends who are also military it is almost 100% necessary to be married before he signed those papers next week. Either be married now, or have to wait up to 3 years and have little to no chance to be together between now and then. We love each other so much that the thought of not being able to be together isn't an option for us, So instead of waiting we decided to get married this month, hoping that within 6months to a year we can plan a small reception or get together with family. when we called the court house to schedule it, we found out they were booked for over a month out since the judge only does them once a week on Fridays for less than an hour..lol. But..."silver lining" the judge had a cancellation for yesterday at 1:45...lol..sooooooo either do it now now now or we wouldn't be able to before he left for the army. Well well well....lol...we booked it, and low and behold a friend from Florida that Matt knew back home happens to be living a few hours north of us in Mesa, Az (who is also going ARMY) was able to head down here last min and be a witness/ best man for Matt and we were so fortunate, he was an absolute blast to have around! Evan thanks so much!!!!! We love ya!

We got married in the Cochise County Court and you know what, it was just as sweet as I would have expected, My husband is the sweetest, most amazing man, I could see his intense love for me and the boys in his eye's when he said I do. I am on cloud nine right now, but then again, since meeting Matt I am on cloud 9 most of the time. He's a wonderful man, who is spiritual, strong, funny, animated, respectful, hard working, and loves me so much that I feel so fulfilled at being allowed to be my full self I can't imagine being happier! I love you Matthew. So very much!

My female friend Kat wasn't able to help out as expected and we ended up asking our next door neighbor Matt,..(lol..yes another one,) who is really cool and went with us to the court house as our 2nd witness. We only asked him an hour before hand!! Woo talk about short notice huh..lol

Mikey, Cody and Matthew were all there and happy for us, with conflicted emotions and all, as to be expected. They one minute love Matt to death and the next feel like liking Matt some how impedes their ability to love their Dad. But they were happy for us none the less. After wards we came home and Cody headed off to a sleep with his new best buddy Avery, and Mikey and Matthew went to their Dad's for the weekend.

Matt, Evan and I had a great dinner, BBQ pork ribs, homemade bread sticks, Mashed potato's, corn on the cob, and chocolate cake. yummy. We spent the evening kidding around and watching movies and just hanging out. I love when you meet someone who is a friend of your significant other and they just MESH perfectly with the group. There was no awkward air at all, it was awesome. He crashed on the couch and was complete delight to have around, I look forward to seeing him again soon, and wish him all the best at his Basic Training!

Now Matt and I are spending our 1st weekend as Man and Wife! We love you all and appreciate those of you who are there to support us. Wish us luck in all these new endeavors!!

Rachael and Matt

!!!!!ENGAGED!!!!!!

I'm sure this comes as no surprise to any of you who read the last blog, but YAY, I'm engaged!!!!!

Matthew told me today that "I want to be your everything forever, I love you baby, will you be my everything forever???"

AWWWWWWW........... sigh
oh happy day...man I'm in love and it feels so great!

church

Me and the boys (Mikey, Cody, Me, and Matthew)

Matt and I

cracking ourselves up taking pictures in the lobby

HEHE trying not to laugh


my Matthew

My Michael....and then My Cody

Matty and I walking out to the car.

I forgot to add these pictures from a few weeks ago when we went to church. I know some of them are on the slideshow below but you can't really see them clearly or see the great facial expressions on the kids faces. If you double click each picture it enlarges huge and you can really see it much better.

Man I have some handsome men in my life! What an amazing little family I have!

Matt's Sierra Vista slideshow...this is my family...

Summer time fun

A year in Matt's life.........take a seat...you'll be here a while.

Well to catch everyone in my family up on my life and to introduce myself to Rachael's family and friends and Rachael to my family and friends I figured that I would add a blog to our family site. I'll start back in October of 2007 since that was the last time that my family was able to see me...some even longer than that. After Jordan's (my little brother's) wedding I went back home to Northern California with my wife Katelyn and daughter Aislinn. At that particular time Katelyn and I were having some issues in our marriage and a few months later she up and left me taking Aislinn with her. For a while she was letting me take Aislinn on the weekends which I made the best of until finally all the divorce papers were done and signed and Katelyn decided then that she didn't want me in Aislinn's life anymore. The following months were extremely hard for me especially on holidays that I didn't have any family to spend with and wasn't able to see Aislinn. Finally in April my life did a complete 180 going from being divorced, depressed and alone in California to being extremely happy when I met and became friends with Rachael. It was great having Rachael to talk to and vent to because at the time she was going through a divorce herself so having someone else that understood what I was going through was a great strength to me. Finally after being friends for a few months and getting to know each other over the phone and Internet we decided that Rachael would come out to visit me seeing how I lived in Northern California near a world renowned Culinary Academy which Rachael was extremely interested in visiting. So at the beginning of June 2008 her and a good friend of hers' Amanda came out for a week to visit and see all that my neck of the woods had to offer. We had so much fun going to San Fransisco to the wharf and to Alcatraz and driving around Napa checking out all the wine vineyards and beautiful scenery. Rachael and I really hit it off. We had so much in common and enjoyed alot of the same things from styles to music to being raised LDS. For Rachael...a week was just not enough...so after flying back to Idaho Falls she proceeded to pack her van up with all 3 kids and drove 16 hours back to my house to stay for 2 months...lol. It was only suppose to be a week for me to meet her kids but we hit it off so well that we decided to stay an extra day...and another day....and another day...ha ha and so on. Yes I know. Weird but it was the best summer I have had in a long time. The kids took right to me and we all had such a great time once again going to San Fransisco so the kids could see all the sites and see things that we had gone and done while Rachael was there the previous week. While in California, Mikey (Rachael's oldest son) got a chance to meet his biological father for the first time ever. So we decided to meet him and his family down in Santa Cruz and go to the beach and the boardwalk with them all. It was SUPER FUN and Mikey's Bio Dad and his family were very nice. While down there we stayed in San Jose at a pretty nice hotel and had a great time ourselves there as well. We got the chance to go see and do a tour at the Winchester Mansion which for me being a firearms guru was extremely interesting. The boys enjoyed the tour of the mansion. On our way back up to my house we once again stopped in San Fran to take the kids on the old trolleys. They had alot of fun doing that and it was really fun for Rachael and I as well. Some of the other things that we got a chance to do was go to a really cool beach at Bodega Bay which happens to be one of California's most deadly beaches. Ha ha so obviously we didn't go swimming but we had fun anyways. So finally it came down to the time when Rachael and the boys absolutely had to go back home. One of the things Rachael had offered her ex husband in their divorce is that with his military career that for the first few years if possible that she would move near him so he could have time to spend with his boys. Hence the reason she had to go home because the Army gave her less than a week to move to his next duty station. This brought us to where we are now. Sierra Vista, Arizona (Fort Huachuca). Rachael moved here at the beginning of August so the boys could get situated in their new school. I stayed in California for the next month and a half working and saving up the money to move. At first it looked like it was going to be a long time before I would be able to move but my best friend who is like an older brother to me (JD Sagley) helped me out by letting my borrow the money I needed to move to be with Rachael because 1. He cares alot about Rachael and 2. He knows how much I love Rachael and wanted a change in my life. Thanks JD, I love you man! I appreciate all you have done for me! So after leaving a pretty good job with some great friends in California I got my chance to move to Arizona to be with Rachael. So here I am in Arizona now. Everyone knows how bad the economy is right now so finding a job has been a difficult thing for me lately since I've been here. Especially being in an area where the jobs are really competitive and most people around here have military experience. So with the hard times I have really had to re-evaluate my life and my career goals. My end goal is to become a Federal Law Enforcement Officer with either NCIS or FBI and so on. So being military is a good way as well as a quick way of gaining the experience and schooling requiered to even consider those positions. Being from a family with a decent amount of military experience, being military is something that I have always looked at and wanted to do. Of course most people including my family know about my medical issues with my past knee surgeries and all that so in the past those issues have kept me from being able to join the military. In the past I have been turned down by the Navy and Marine Corps because it was too soon after my knee surgeries so I hadnt fully recovered but as of late I have been looking into the Army and they seem to be a little more laid back with their medical policies but at the same time I have had many years to recover fully from my surgeries. At first I was a little hesitant because I have always been gung ho about the Navy and Marine Corp but the farther I have looked into the Army the more I have come to like what they have to offer from jobs to schooling to bonuses and just over all Army life. So as of right now I am just waiting on my medical records to come in from my orthopedic that did my surgeries and then I'm off to MEPS to do my ASVAB and Physical to get started on my Army life. Hopefully everything will go well and I will be able to pass all required fields so please everyone keep me and my family in your prayers that I will be able to do so if its what is right for me to do for myself and my family. I really want this. I've been working my butt off everyday to train doing things from running 4 miles a day and 2 mile bike rides and an hour or so in the gym doing all types of workouts. The biggest help in all this is I finally have a companion who being an Army brat and ex Army wife understands the military and the way it works and is very supportive whether I get in or not but she has been a great help and motivator for me in all this. This is something that I just didn't have in my previous relationship. As of right now I have the opportunity of going in as a possible E-3 Private First Class or E-4 Corporal because of my being an Eagle Scout and previous college credit hours and state licenses and finishing the Army Pre-enlistment checklist. Rachael and I over the past month or so have talked alot about marriage. We love and respect each other very much differences and all and if this whole thing with the Army works out there could possibly be a wedding in the near future. We will keep everyone posted on that. Because of the time frame between MEPS and BCT and AIT there isn't a whole lot of time to have some grand wedding so it will probably be something small or in a courthouse for now but if so we do plan on having some small reception for family and friends after my training. (For those who don't speak military...MEPS = Military Entrance Processing Station......BCT= Basic Combat Training.....AIT= Advanced Individual Training....which all in all = anywhere up to 6 months to a year). We haven't discussed marriage solely because of the military. We have discussed marriage as a goal for the next 2-3 years but because of the military the only way we would still be able to be together is if we are married or else moving becomes out of pocket which just does not work financially for either of us and neither does separation if we can help it. Deployments are one thing....but separation by choice is not an option when you truly love someone........I mean come on....who else is going to wash my ACUs? Ha ha just kidding she does other house chores too (ya it's ok..she knows I put this in here....what a good sport huh! ). (oopps forgot...ACU= really cool digital camo uniforms). Other than that....that's my life in a nut shell........Married, Divorced, Sad Sad Sad, Very Happy, Fun, Fell in Love, Change of scenery and now going Military...hopefully with lots of prayers and luck....Love you all!!! I will keep you posted and like I said in the email to all of you....leave us comments and email us. We'd love to hear from you all and catch up on your lives and also have the chance for all of you in my family to meet Rachael and get to know her as well as her family and friends to get to know me a little better as well.......enough rambling...I'm out!!! ha ha
My email address.........norcal707mcm@yahoo.com
Rachael's................cute_sassafrass@yahoo.com

Cupcake's sweater...hehe

Ok so normally I get UBER annoyed with people who paint their pets nails, and put bows on them and clothes and what not.......but I had to!!!!!! It was so cute!! Now I see why they do it!

come on now...I have 3 son's and a BF...my house is all testosterone! I needed something pink...HA so her nails are painted pink and in the Target $1.00 section I found this little sweater...which so will fit...for about a week...but OMG! how cute is that! Not to mention...HELLO!!! She's winking at the camera!! lol

ok thats enough of that...hehe

Their Daddy is home.

Things post a divorce can be really messy, and for a while there things weren't exactly friendly, however now, things are GREAT! So lets all hope and pray they stay that way (fingers crossed!!).

Jon asked me to come pick him up at the airport in Tucson on Saturday, so the boys and I drove an hour and a half to get him. It's always so heart warming to see kids run into the arms of their Father coming home. It was so sweet.

Afterward he took us all to Wendy's for a quick lunch and I drove us all back to Sierra Vista, where I then took him to the car dealership (and waited a mere 2 hours...lol) while he signed for his new car, then helped him load his car with back packs and his luggage and the boys things and car seat, as he wanted to take them overnight to his motel to be with the boys. It was really sweet seeing how Mikey kept hugging me saying "Mom, I love you but is it ok to want to go to Dad's too??" lol..AWWW!! Matt and Jon and I have been doing all we can with the kids in the past 6-7 months to really teach them that it's ok to love all of us in different ways, in different homes, and still be loved by all of us. That none of us blames them for wanting to spend time with the other parent and so on. So I reassured all of that them I was so happy that they got to go be with their Daddy, and that if they missed me all they had to do was ask Daddy to call me.

Seeing as Matt and I had our 1st ever night without the kids, without a friend or family around we went on our 1st "REAL" date...lol. We went to see Eagle Eye at the mall, and guess who we ran into. while waiting in line for tickets........lol......Jon and the boys, eating pizza at the mall. Jon had yet to meet Matt, so it could have been a potentially bad situation, however the kids ran up and hugged both of us and chattered on about what they had been doing with Dad, and Matt very maturely stuck out his hand and introduced himself, and YAY for Jon, he swallowed his pride, shook back and said "jon." lol

BABY STEPS!!

By this morning Jon had to drop off a few things the boys forgot at his motel, and needed to use my Internet , and within 10 mins Jon and Matt were chatting ARMY and careers and what not. Mind you neither was about to become blood brothers but they were talking and without me having to prod them to do so! YAY....man I took a deep breath then! Things are going great right now....so woohoo...

On another note.....EAGLE EYE was really really good! I loved it!

HALLOWEEN!!

Matt and I at the Trunk or Treat at the church. For some reason he loves this picture, he seems to think it's uber cute...I'm not such a fan but it makes me laugh at the facial expressions a camera can catch when you are waiting for that darn flash! lol

Getting Ready to take the boys trick or treating.

My hooligans at "fright night" at the Cove pool. Our Local aquatic center which is THE BOMB!

Man I loath the way the picture up loader on the blogger site works. I can never get the pictures in the order I want, set where I want, and so forth, so it there is some fantastic trickity trick I don't know...help a sistha out yo!

So...Our day started at 6 am with 2 very hyper elementary aged boys who couldn't wait a moment more before they were be-costumed and be-painted. Oi talk about trying to paint on make up with goo in your eyes..lol. We were very BUDGET costumes this year as it was a tight month and the "early pay" I was supposed to get had yet to "TADA" into my bank account. So out of necessity the boys came up with their own costumes. Mikey was a pirate, since Matt luckily had pirate hat! yay! He dug out a toy compass, and a kaleidoscope that looked like a telescope, with some face paint and a Jerry rigged eye patch he was good to go. Cody had decided he wanted to be...a Rock star vampire (this was before school) and had me color on a giant red star over one eye (a la kiss and Gene Simmons..lol), wore his camo pants (which ALL rock stars wear Mom..DUR!) and a motorcycle T-shirt, and carried around a toy musical guitar to school. Due to some technical difficulties, another 7 year old, and a toilet his face paint disappeared and when he came home from school he no longer wanted to be a rock star...or Kenny's friend..hahaha...wonder what happened. Jk...I know what happened....so come time for trunk or treat...he just wanted to be a vampire with a Mohawk....

Matthew got to be Harry Potter, as luckily we had a HP robe from a previous years costume, and his Church clothes went well underneath of it. Paint on some Glasses and a HP inspired scar and he was the favorite everywhere we went!

The older boys only had half a day of school which was of course all one big party. Then home for some play time, and pizza to fill the bellies up before the sugar iv drip was put in! I read them a Halloween book while they ate, it was so fun, I'd been dieing to read it to them for weeks! Matt and I had purchased these really great new Halloween books at borders earlier in the month. One was "The night Before Halloween" by Marjorie Dennis Murray, and "Boogie Knights" by Lisa Wheeler. OMG Mommies.. I heart these books! They were so fun! The art work especially was so vibrant and full of surprises I've read them over and over just for my own viewing benefits! Yay for children's Halloween books!!

We ended up hitting Trunk or Treat, where I have NEVER seen so many cars, the stake center was full, almost every spot , and cars parked all up and down two streets, it was awesome, it took us almost an hour to make it one side around and then head back the other side. The kids pillow cases were so full! Matty was the delight of everyone, he was well mannered and ever so cute as a Harry Potter, we had people doing double takes and giggling all night. He ate up all the attention.

Then off to the city park for Fall Festival, where there were businesses and yet again more candy giving, a movie in the park (Scooby Doo 2), and even professional photographers taking free pics...(I was too sore and lame to wait my turn). We decided the lines were too long and headed to get in line for the "fright night swim" at the pool. So much fun! It has this huge wave pool, 2 huge slides that swirl in and out and back into the building, a 45 person hot tub, a kiddie slide and kiddie swim area and a large diving pool. We went in and swam and had a blast, it was all decked out for Halloween, and even the life gaurds were handing out baggies full of candy to trick or treaters. Then as we were leaving, Cody wanted to brave the haunted house (which was strangly set up in the woman's locker room, having moved the womans area temporally to the "family" lockers). ....... he did NOT enjoy..lol..Matt said he was literally clinging and squealing like a little girl! It was hilarious. He came out laughing and saying " MOM~ I will NEVER go in there again!" lol. We ran to the store and picked up some grocery items, stopped for some late night Mc'Ds and headed home to start "The Corpse Bride" as a family around 11 pm where Cody promptly put himself to bed, and Mikey and Matthew followed not too long after. Matty was so tired he had taken off half his clothes and bare butt fell asleep on his floor..lol..Matt kindly helped him into something to sleep in and back off to bed. So cute!

All in all we had a fantastic night! I hope all of you had as fun of an evening! The boy's Dad gets in tomorrow so there will yet a other post on that...ohh goodie the fun is about to start..haha.