Evening with the Stewart's

Saturday night Mike, Carma and little Nykita came over for dinner. The girls ordered Azteca... and then made the boys go get it! Unfortunately Nykita wasn't feeling too hot and the evening ended a little early... but we still enjoyed their company and are so sad to see them move next week!

Sweet Face...

She had a few happy moments!

I tried for real smiles... but Ben's a punk!

Daddy kisses!

Happy Birthday/Vetrans Day!!!

Ben had Friday and Saturday off this weekend!!! Friday night Ben met me at work and we went into Seattle and had dinner where we ate for our first date: Dicks in the U district. :) We then jumped back into traffic and went to the Sonics game (tickets courtesy of a partner at the firm I work for) It was actually a good game at the end, though we lost by a basket to Utah.
Yesterday morning I had my massage and then we took off for Tacoma, with a quick stop at the Super Mall first! Yesterday was the Marine Corps 232nd birthday and Duke's Chowder House was gracious enough to give a free entree to all the Birthday Marine's with ID. So we had lunch on the Tacoma waterfront and then hit the antique malls downtown... We wrapped up the evening quite early and just lounged on the couch the rest of the night.
... And the reason I'm bad at this: I again, forgot to grab my camera!!! I realized this just past Federal Way as I was admiring the Mountain and loving what a nice day it turned out to be! UGH!

Ben was supposed to have tonight off but wants some new toy for his guns so he took an overtime shift... Gun 'toys' come from overtime :) Not that I'm stingy, but if they came from the bank account, he'd have way too many! (As opposed to the just 'too many" now) Last Saturday we found out the the training class County was sending him to last Sunday was cancelled and rescheduled for today... So Ben's essentially working all day, on his holiday too no less... "Happy Vetran's Day honey, thank you for your service!!... Now go to work for 17 hours!" :) Don't feel too bad for him, before leaving he showed me what toys are going to be on there way soon, so he's pretty excited.

He's in Kirkland tonight so hopefully they all behave up there or they'll be sorry! Tired Ben = Grumpy Ben... The boy doesn't really like giving tickets as much as he like catching people... It's like me fishing - I like to catch them, but I really like to let them go more than keeping it and cleaning it, and then figuring out how to cook it, or if it's really edible??? I'm not a seafood person, can you tell?
For him it's all in the hunt! Though there are plenty of fools out there who just love to talk their way INTO a ticket... He has fun with them too :)

Sorry...

So the reason there aren't any pictures up from the ball is because i just don't have any!
I forgot my camera and then it turned out that no one from Ben's unit stayed for dinner, they all headed out right after the ceremony. Last year Ben's unit started to 'piggy-back' onto the other unit's ball so things aren't quite the same. We missed last year's ball becasue Ben was training for County, or we would have realized that paying for dinner was just a waste. The other unit didn't even acknowledge that anyone else was there. They had a guest speaker and gave him a gift and it was just from them... This other unit really bugs me anyway: They all have 'red tags', actual peices of red tape on their uniforms and tht signifies that they joined the Marine Corps ONLY if they never see combat! WHAT?!? I have to say that I was far from thrilled that Ben went to Iraq, but I am incredibly proud of him... and his courage to do so. Why join? I know that not everyone can go out into the field, but to join in complete refusal is just kind of cowardly to me.

And due to the fact that this unit's never been anywhere - some only have a few medals and ribbons, so they photographer they brought in was taking the pictures from far away... Ben's uniform is far more impressive with 6 medals and a ribbon to show off - and you can hardly see them with how far back the picture was, not to mention poor quality photography. I think what will end up happenning is that soon we'll stage another photo op.

Left to do...

It just occured to me that I'm not ready for the ball! When did I become so bad at being a girl!?!

Things to do before Saturday afternoon:

• Figure out what to do with my hair! (The last cut I had was really bad, so this probably means that I'll need to go to a salon and see if they can fix it)
• Get a pedicure
• Find nylons
• Wax/pluck my eyebrows
• Find a clutch/purse to go with my dress

Not to mention:

• Pester Ben into going to get his hair cut. An absolute must before tomorrow night as the sides are too long for a Marine to show up at drill with... And make the man part again this month with his side burns. Every month he has this sad week without the side burns :)
• Pluck or convince him to wax the two, thankfully blonde, caterpillars above his eyes - They're about to merge.
• Iron his Dress Blues
• Find his shiny dress uniform shoes since the move (and the white gloves)

And still 'manage' to have fun tomorrow night with Mike, Carma and baby Nykita at the new South Center Cheesecake Factory. I'm thinking this will be the easiest part of my to do's!!!

In the meantime (bored at work), I'll just sit and enjoy the cute picture sent to me from Moses Lake: