Turkey, Football, and Beach Dreams

Ok...here is other update of the happenings in the Jernigan household over the past several days.

We had the priviledge to spend Thanksgiving with good friends of ours the Sala's. Melanie and I split up the cooking and made a HUGE feast. We had two international officers join us to experience their first American Thanksgiving. One was an officer from Kuwait and the other from Panama. It was fun to watch them try all the traditional holiday foods. Melanie was the photographer for the event and she is out of town so I apologize for the lack of pictures.

Dan and I spent the next day at the Sala's lounging off our turkey dinner and consuming leftovers while we watched the CU-Nebraska game. What a game! For all of you who didn't catch it...CU WON!!! We loved all the pictures of the Boulder area and could not believe how much snow is on the ground. It was 50 degrees here that day. How quickly you forget what winter is really like. It is still hard for me to believe it is the end of November.

Our minds have had trouble focusing on winter because all we can think about is the So Cal weather we will soon be enjoying. Yep! That's right! We found out we will be stationed at Camp Pendleton!! Dan will be with 1st Combat Engineer Battalion for the next two or three years! We are truely excited to be returning to a place we hated to leave. I am still not sure when we will be arriving. As per usual I will be moving with Jackson and Dan will be joining us later. Dan begins his school in North Carolina on Jan 28th and will graduate about May 19th. Since that is cutting it a little close to my June 6th due date Jackson and I will probably head to CA no later than the last week in March. The housing situation is still up in the air. We have friends of ours who have been on the waiting list since the beginning of October and they are currently number 23 on the list...a whole two slots less than they were when they signed up a month ago. We are hoping to be able to get into housing but if not we will just rent somewhere for a short while. We will keep you updated on our next big moving adventure as the plan unfolds.

Jackson is coming up on his 1st birthday on 12/10 and is trying so hard to get his first tooth. So he is whining for me to get off the computer and put him down for his nap. Here's to hoping his teeth come in soon...I am not sure how many more sleepless nights I can put up with.

Pull Up A Chair...We Have A Lot Of Catching Up To Do

Ok so I have been terrible up updating this blog. Things have not been quiet around the Jernigan household as you will soon see. This pregnancy has brought with it many more symptoms of morning sickness and COMPLETE exhaustion...I guess that is what you get when you are chasing a very active 11 month old. SO let's see where to begin...




On Wednesday, Nov 7th my mom flew in from Colorado for a week. I actually made it safely to the airport (anyone who has driven in VA and the DC area knows what a feet that really is-by the end of the year VA will more than likely take the lead for the most highway fatalities). On Thursday I introduced my mom to pajama days. A pajama day is when Jackson and I spent the day in our PJs! Great relaxing fun...you should try it some time. Mom was so helpful and dove right into doing the MOUNDS of laundry and dishes that had piled up.





Saturday, November 10 was the 232rd Birthday of the Marine Corps. For those of you who do not know, the Marine Corps makes a really big deal out of their birthday and celebrate it with a huge ball. This year the ball was held in Richmond (A dirty nasty city about 75 miles south of Stafford) and since mom was in town Dan and I got a hotel room and stayed the night down there. No Marine Corps ball is complete without one really good story...we made it to the hotel safely, had gotten dressed, and headed down to the cocktail hour. As it got closer to the time of the ceremonies we decided it would be a good idea to check the seating chart and locate our table in the main ballroom. We quickly scanned the list of over 800 names and came up empty. After a much closer inspection of the list we still did not find our names on the list. HUMMMM...I know we paid in cash and signed up over a month in advance. After tracking down the officer in charge of the ball we discovered when they had made some last minute adjustments to the seating chart they had deleted about four tables from our company, including the table of the company commander. So long story short, we ended up standing in the back of the ballroom for the duration of the ceremonies and then were taken to the hotel restaurant to be served our meal. Although the situation was extremely frustrating we ended up enjoying our time with our friends. The next morning we headed out with the Sala's and the Elliott's for brunch at The Tobacco Company. The food was great and the atmosphere was enjoyable. Over all, we had a great weekend. Happy Birthday Marines!

The Girls - Trisha, Melanie, Me, and Tess

The guys - Dan, Abdula (International Officer from Kuwait), Rich, & Aaron

The Prego Girls - Me and Melanie

The Dads-to-be - Rich and Dan

Breakfast - Aaron and Trisha Elliott, Rich and Melanie Sala, Me and Dan

Dan had Veteran's Day off so we decided to take mom to Baltimore to the National Aquarium. It was so fun to watch Jackson look at all of the fish. He was mesmerized as we walked down the center of a five story coral reef full of fish. If you find yourself in the Baltimore area the National Aquarium is a must see.





On Wednesday we said goodbye to my mom. I wish she could have stayed another week or more. It truly was wonderful to have her around. Jackson really misses her!

Sunday Dan and I celebrated our sixth anniversary. My how time flies when you are having fun. Dan let me sleep in and he took Jackson to get me breakfast in bed and flowers. It was a memorable morning. I hope for many more fun adventurous years to come. Being in the Marine Corps I doubt we will lack adventure.

I had another doctors appointment on Monday and the baby looks great and is growing, growing, growing. After the ultrasound the OBNP decided not to change my due date and said I am growing a big baby! YIKES!! So all is well with the pregnancy and I am starting to feel a little more like myself as I head into my 12th week.





The biggest news is we just found out Dan will be a Combat Engineer for the Marine Corps for the remainder of his carrier. The selection of their military occupational specialty (MOS) is a complicated process...here is my understanding of how it works...all of the 2nd Lt in the company are ranked according to their performance in The Basic School. The class is them broken into thirds (A top 1/3, middle 1/3, and bottom 1/3). Each 2nd Lt ranks their preference of MOS from 1-15 and then all the information is shoved into a computer. In order to get a quality spread the top 1/3 of the top 1/3 is given their first choice based on the needs of the Marine Corps, then the top 1/3 of the middle 1/3 are given their choice of MOS, and then the top 1/3 of th bottom 1/3. It continues on selecting MOS by thirds and as the Marine's first choices are taken by Marines chosen before them MOS further down on their list are selected for them. SO needless to say depending on your class standing you may or may not get one of your top 5 choices. After the computer spits out what it feels is the appropriate MOS for the Marines the SPCs (not sure what this stands for, but it would be the equivalent to a drill instructor at boot camp with a lot less yelling) from all of the platoons get together and swap MOS for their Marines to get the best fit possible. After all was said and done Dan's class standing was the bottom 1/3 of the top 1/3 which is great when you look at it over all but not so great for MOS selection because he was not given a choice until the 7th pull. However, he did get his second choice of Combat Engineers. He is a little bummed about not getting his first choice of Infantry, but is glad he will be in an MOS where he can lead Marines.





SO...what does that mean for us? After Dan graduates from The Basic School on Jan 18th he will head down to Camp Lejeune for a two or three month engineer school. Because the school is shorter than six months the Marine Corps will not allow me to accompany him, so I will be staying here while he is in school. My friend's Melanie and Trisha will be staying behind too so I will have plenty of company. We still do not know what duty station we will head too after Dan completes his MOS school, but we are trying our hardest to get back to Camp Pendleton in southern CA.





I guess that is all from VA...sorry it was such a lengthy update. Now that I am feeling a little better I hope to update more often. I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Sunshine On A Cloudy, Rainy Day

We awoke this morning to a downpour of rain (the picture is of our back yard). Not a good thing to wake up to on a morning I know I have to drive 25 miles North to Woodbridge on I-95. For those of you who are not from the area, I-95 would be more appropriately named Parking Lot 95! But I headed out anyway and made it to my destination without too much trouble. Where was I headed you ask? I went to catch the first glimpses of Baby Bean #2! Yes, you read correctly, I am pregnant AGAIN! Yes, if you do the math Jackson and Baby Bean #2 will only be 18 months apart! Crazy? Probably, but that is how it worked out and we are excited to welcome another little one into our family! So far the official due date is June 6th, but that may change with the next ultra sound, we shall see.

Baby Bean #2, 9.8 mm, 7 wk, 0 days

A Beautiful Fall Day

It was recommended to us by my Aunt Trellis to visit Harper's Ferry, WV in the fall. So we figured since she lived the the area for over a decade she knew what she was talking about so we took her advice and headed over. What a neat place indeed. Richard and Melanie Sala (good friends of ours from CU who are also at TBS) joined us in this little fall adventure. We decided we would walk through the little town and take a little hike around the area. Although the leaves were not at their peak the weather was GORGEOUS! We walked by a little church on the hill that was built in 1890, took in the view from the Harper's Ferry cemetery, wandered through the woods, took in the crisp air on the banks of the Shenandoah river. It was truly an enjoyable day.

Richard and Melanie on the chapel steps.

Family photo at Jefferson Rock

View from the cemetery. The picture does not due it justice.

Dan and Jackson on the Shenandoah River

DANGER! DANGER! DANGER!

Dan read an article in Time Magazine about the book The Dangerous Book for Boys by Hal Iggulden and had to have it. The book is chalk full of fun things boys love to do and fun facts to learn. Some of the subjects included are the 50 state capitals, building your own go cart, Rugby rules (Dan especially appreciated the inclusion of this subject), famous battles, great adventure stories, and SO much more. I love the list he has at the back of the book, Books Every Boy Should Read. GREAT! Needless to say Dan didn't waste any time before sharing this book with his little boy. Every father of a boy must have this book!

Up To No Good

Jackson has become very good at low crawling to get himself around. He is a quick little bugger and it doesn't take him long to get into something. For example, this package of Kleenexes. Honestly, I turned away for all of a minute and this is what I find. Our lives have really changed since entering the mobile child phase! It's a good thing he is cute!

Arlington Cemetery

We are quickly realizing our time here in the Washington D.C. area is possibly drawing to a close and we have yet to go into the city and do any of the tourist things. SO, we hopped on the Metro on a Saturday morning and headed into DC. We decided to spend the afternoon at Arlington Cemetery and the Iwo Jima Memorial. It was an absolutely gorgeous fall day. The humidity and heat have subsided for the most part so being outdoors has FINALLY become tolerable. We visitied the tomb of the Unknown Solider, where I could not help but tear up as I read the inscription.

We then headed over to the Marine Memorial or the Iwo Jima Memorial. I was not prepared for how HUGE the monument actually was. What an amazing site! A must see if you are ever in the DC area! Here are the pictures! ENJOY!

I am sure there will be many more trips into DC before the year is over, stay tuned for our future adventures!