Update!

It has been raining. All. Day. Long. It is also bike week (for those of you who don't know, Josh has taken on a project bike) which meant Josh and I decided to try and walk from the station to the inlet to partake in some of the events and festivities. Wet jeans make me a miserable and grumpy person, so our trip was cut short and I am now bundled in sweats with a nice hot cup of hot cocoa. Back to Josh and his new-found obsession with bikes. And by bikes I mean a specific genre called Cafe Racers (there is actually a show committed to this genre of bike- pretty cool). These bikes are really vintage-y and what I like to call the muscle car of the bike world- They were made to 'just go fast' originally (back in the 70s) but are pretty much just badass today. If you want to check out the show, go here.

This is what the bike started out as and is now reduced to a bare frame waiting for soda blasting and paint, and a million parts on a five shelf storage unit. It is going to look 100% different when he is done with it, and it will look 110% awesome.

Other happenings in the world of the Mercers... I went back to school on the 7th for what should be my last semester (YAY!) although I'm already thinking of taking another Spanish class next semester and possibly a couple floristry classes just for kicks. I also recently (FINALLY) quit the front desk part of my job at Powerhouse and applied at Starbucks (I know, I know, I've always said I'm not a fan of Starbucks but working in the coffee environment is something I love! It also gives me a sense of job security per se, allowing me to transfer when we move) and I had an interview yesterday! Keep your fingers crossed for me :) Other than that, it's pretty much same-old, same-old over here. The dogs are doing great and Macy is progressing in training fabulously but maintaining her extreme goofball-ness.

Maith is just Maith. Over the past year he has become my shadow (for those of you who haven't met Macy, she is totally and completely Josh's dog!) and still thinks he is a lap dog. Even though he almost weighs as much as I do, I can't say no to this sweet face! 

We can't believe it's almost been a year since we made the big move and are excited to come home in a few months! We love everyone and hope you're having a great weekend!

My Big Fat Lengthy Update

It's been awhile since I've provided and update and seeing as there have been a million things going on an updated for everyone is much needed. 

I decided to take some summer classes to hasten the end of my AA and finals were the last three days of June. We had decided awhile ago to start looking for a house to rent with a little more space (if you've seen our furniture and met Macy, you can imagine why we weren't so happy in a two bedroom apartment) and a yard for the dogs to play in. We also had our one year anniversary on June 26th! Add all three events together and you get... Me finishing up my last week of schoolwork while working three days that week and getting ready to begin moving on the 24th. With the help of a couple amazing friends we got almost everything moved in two days and celebrated our first anniversary by putting stuff away in the house and spending time with each other. I finished and passed all of my classes and am now waiting for Fall Semester to start, my last semester of my AA degree! Woo hoo! 

Summer is most definitely the busiest season for CG STA Ocean City and the boats are out quite often doing boardings (making sure boats have the proper equipment on board- life jackets, fire extinguisher, etc.) and search and rescue missions. There have been multiple accidents and a capsized boat and many, many false alarms. Josh goes to Baltimore at the end of this week for his first flight physical, starting his journey into the aviation field and will be attending BTM school sometime to become Boarding Team Member qualified.  Josh is still loving his career choice and we both believe we couldn't have received a better first station than Ocean City.

We celebrated our first anniversary last month and I'll be the first to say it's been a crazy year that went by unbelievably quickly!! For all the inquirers as to when we will be having kids or those who questioned our quick engagement and marriage I will be rather blunt in saying you're going to have to wait awhile. We love being married and spending time with each other, exploring the East Coast and spending time with the friends we've made here. Plus we already have two kids to take care of- Maith and Macy of course- and Macy is enough of a handful for me for quite some time!

Josh and I have learned to rely solely on each other in our first year of marriage which is probably the best lesson we can take away from this past year! Our relationship is the strongest it has ever been and can only get better from here =) As I'm sitting here thinking of what else to say about the past year I can only think about how great it has been. I may be a little slow on learning how to be a great cook but I can assure you the house is clean of my bobby-pins and hair ties! (if you weren't at our wedding and heard my vows this won't really make sense to you lol) 

Throughout this year I've found I sound quite a bit like my mom. I had to call here a couple months ago and tell her "Mom, you remember when you made us clean the kitchen and you'd tell us 'you can't just vacuum, you have to sweep. The vacuum doesn't get everything off the kitchen floor!' Well that was repeated almost verbatim to Josh the other day." Couldn't help but laugh at that one and neither could she! 

Finally, our house. We love it. Not only that is has more space, but we love that we are now only about ten minutes from the station (compared to thirty-five) which makes it easier when Josh texts me saying "I don't have a uniform. I have watch real soon :( please come save me" and I needed to be there in fifteen minutes. What would husbands do without wives? =)  The dogs love the yard and have plenty of freedom within our HUGE and they are kept in by an invisible fence- one of the best investments we've ever made. It wears Macy out without wearing me out and Maith just likes the freedom to go where we go. All four of us are doing well and surviving the humidity over here! Next big and exciting event: Mom and Dad Mercer coming to visit!! Can't wait to see them!!

Lengthy update, I know, but I had to fit everything in! I hope everyone is having a fabulous day and have a very blessed week! 

Another quickie ;)

Just another quick update for everyone and a prayer/keep your fingers crossed request!

We fell in the "Salisbury Trap" when we moved here, otherwise known as "thinking we would prefer to live closer to the 'city' than the Ocean." Yeah. Obviously that one isn't working out for us.... We have been contemplating renting a house closer to Ocean City for awhile and have started searching within the past month or so. Josh wants to be closer to the station as to avoid the half hour commute to and from work almost daily and I would love to have a yard to kick the dogs out... I mean let them play in =) (Macy's a puppy with energy and I'm an overworked student and wife, what do you expect?! lol) Needless to say we found an amazing little house that is the perfect size for us and within walking distance of our really good friends Logan and Jessi. I put in our application on Friday and are hoping like crazy that we get it! Please keep your fingers crossed and say a prayer for us that it works out!

Just a quick update

First off, for all of you still back in Spokane, I would like to mention that we haven't even seen temperatures in the 70s for well over a week and I have a good start on a tan =) It is currently 90-something outside with nothing but sunshine and blue skies.

In other news, I started school again about two weeks ago and after this week I will already be halfway done with this quarter! Yikes! But it's going well and I will only be one more semester away from my degree! Things are looking up at my job as this week we should be reconfiguring my schedule to allow me to work with Laura, one of the owners, doing more administrative things like contracts and working between both gyms taking care of members.

More importantly, Josh has his name on the A-school list! This means he is just waiting until there is room for him to go to school for what he wants to do in the Coast Guard, which is AMT- Aviation Maintenance Technician. For him to go to school we will be moving to Elizabeth City, NC and then who knows from there! I'm so incredibly proud of the work he is putting in and blessed to have had such an amazing man put in my life.

There ya go, short and sweet. Just wanted to keep everyone updated!  

It's been awhile..

I figured it's been awhile since I've shared updates with anyone and would rather do this than go change over the laundry...

My brother was here at the end of March, first visitor from back home, and we had a blast! Zack and I started off the trip by "taking a tour" through Baltimore (his phone navigation was acting screwy) and spent the rest of his trip hanging out. We went to Ocean City and DC of course, but if you asked him his favorite part of the trip he would tell you it was going to see the Miami Heat v. Washington Wizards game =) I was super sad to see him go home =( We had about a week and then we had the pleasure of having Grandma Jane here for the weekend. Josh was on duty so we spent a lot of time at the apartment or at the station visiting with him.

Our most recent visitors were my sister and her husband and little girl. It was SO amazing having them here and we did the usual touristy trips: DC, Ocean City, Station, Assateague. My favorite part of the trip was having my niece Whitley around <3 Not being able to see my nieces, and of course my one nephew Aiden, is the down side to being over here. Miss them SOO much!!

We won't have visitors again until July when Mom and Dad Mercer will be here, but we'll be plenty busy until then! I had a two week break from school and I start summer online classes this Monday. This quarter is only six and a half weeks long and is probably going to kick my butt!! At this rate I will have my AA  completed by Christmas and will most likely start right back up again and try and fast track my degree so I can be done before we leave for our next duty station. We also started working with a trainer to get Maith and Macy trained well. Doing dog training the right way is a TON of work, especially when I'm outnumbered half the week, but it is already worth it. I finally decided after being completely miserable at my job to start looking for a new one and have my eye on a local coffee shop with similar standards to Grinders. Josh is busy at work as well, he went to the range yesterday down in Chincoteague and qualified shooting, I'm really proud of him but not surprised because he knows what he's doing with guns, he just won't openly admit to being a spectacular marksman. =) Summer is their busy time at the station with an insane amount of people on the beaches and waters of Ocean City and his schedule will be changing accordingly, creating a desire on our part to move closer to Ocean City to lessen his commute to work. 

So, as always, we are in constant motion with a thousand things going on at once. The more we are over here the more we are loving where we are at (70* weather starting in March is definitely a helping factor) and loving life. We have each other, family back home that loves us and we love them, and two dogs that momentarily drive us insane- we have everything we need. Hope everyone is doing well!!

Love, Em and Josh

My grumpy little rant =)

Many Democrats are quietly rooting for a shutdown on the belief that it will make Republicans look extreme and saw the members of Boehner’s caucus about to run out of other options.- FoxNews.com

Of all the people you know and interact with on a daily basis, do you know any who would go to work and work their hardest when they're not getting paid? That's right, the U.S. Military! If this government shutdown happens, the hardest working Americans will be going to work just as much as they do regularly without being paid for their hours until the government can afford it (sorry, but that's the most RIDICULOUS thing I've heard) What does this also mean?? Military wives are going to have to work harder at everything they do to provide for their family. I have overheard people say things like this: "well if you're in the military you're living on base in military housing anyways so they'll be fine." I'm appalled that people are so ignorant and care so little about those that protect their lives daily.

Meanwhile, instead of diligently trying to work out a solution to prevent this from happening, Republicans and Democrats are bickering like siblings, trying to sneak in abortion and environmental conservation laws with this crisis, and in my above quote- Democrats are just being idiots! Don't get me wrong, it's not that I don't care about these issues that are trying to be tied in, I just believe that if there is a crisis where millions of hardworking Americans will still be putting their lives on the line for everyone, including those who hold the fate in their hands, the biggest issue should be the first and only thing addressed.

Sure, I'm very biased in this issue because it personally affects me. Regardless, I come from a military family and would still be having the same reaction if I wasn't a Coast Guard wife. This military shutdown will devastate military personel and their families, yet the government can't seem to pull together to even make some sort of decision as to what to do.

Oh America, what have we come to?

It's the little stuff that counts!

Today while I was walking into school I was realizing I wasn't in the greatest of moods. It was just one of those mornings that you wake up with less motivation and energy than a soggy piece of bread. It was gloomy and rainy, Macy was tearing around the apartment before I was even fully awake, and I knew I had a lot to do today and tomorrow. While walking into school I noticed Nancy, the janitor, holding the door open for everyone and greeting them as they came in. From about 100 feet away I heard her say to a younger girl "you betta getchor hand outta his back pocket, you got an education to get honey!!" This immediately brought a smile to my face and undoubtedly changed my outlook on the whole day. I have never once seen this woman cleaning anything at the school. Instead, I think she has taken on the role of impromptu counselor because it is easily seen that she cares immensely about people. She is always chatting with students, giving them advice, and always a smile. The woman is missing her four front teeth but I swear she can light up a room better than Paul McDonald on American Idol.

To heighten my mood even further, while we were at the dog park today I was approached  by a man who asked if I had gotten Macy from the Wicomico Humane Society. Upon replying yes, I was informed that he had adopted her sister, Carmen! Being the sap that I have turned into after Josh joined the military, it almost brought me to tears. They immediately remembered/recognized each other and I have never seen her play as hard as she did with Carmen. I am truly blessed to have such amazing siblings who I have grown up with and are so close to today! 

It's the little moments in life that truly matter. These are the seconds in which God is telling us "I love you, have a great day!" We just have to take the time to notice them, appreciate them, and thank Him for them!

NEW ADDITION! -The Dog Blog

Macy is learning that Maith isn't trying to be mean when he growls and is even starting to growl back when they're playing tug-o-war, both tails wagging!

With school and work for me and Josh traveling to and from the station throughout the week we are pretty darn busy.... But if you know us you know we don't sit still for long, if at all! All of that added up can only mean one thing..... We have a new puppy! Miss Macy is a black and tan coonhound, adopted 3/1/11. Poor Maith had waited long enough while Josh and I adjusted and got settled here and he was in dire need of a friend. Being big fans of adopting from shelters, Josh and I started watching online for dogs going up for adoption and went in just to "browse". Little Miss Macy was the sweetest thing at the shelter and we fell in love (how could you not?!) We took Maith in the next day to see if it would even be a possibility and they got along great! Still being a baby Macy didn't really know how to play (She had gone into the shelter with her sister but they separated the two and neither of them really got play time), but I'd say she is learning pretty quickly.. We just brought her home yesterday and have had five accidents in the house so far, but one great night of sleep. She cried in her kennel (insert memory of the scene in Lady and the Tramp on Lady's first night home + the typical hound dog howl) for about five minutes but then settled down and slept the whole night through! She is a quick learner (though I wish she'd be a little quicker with this whole house breaking thing) and already knows to stay out of the kitchen, and big brother Maith isn't trying to be mean when he growls.. he's just playing. Speaking of Maith, he has been SUCH a trooper through the past two days! He's been very tolerant, is enjoying going outside every hour on the hour, and is more than happy to have someone to play with- his tail is always wagging as he chases her to steal his toy back. He's used to being the youngster in the house (both Lucy and Ily were older than him) so we catch him watching her with an expression of "kid, you're not so bright" and while she was getting settled in last night, rather noisily, we heard him let out a sigh like "just go to bed!". Our doggies definitely don't lack personality- that's for sure! Hopefully by the time you're reading this Macy has gone potty outside... Here's hoping!!

Probably her first time looking into a mirror and wondering "who is that?!"She even pawed at it a couple times, trying to get the other doggie to play.

So far...

As most who are/will be reading this, none of this information will be of much surprise to you. Just thought since this is kind of meant to share our experiences and whatnot I should actually divulge some of the thing's we've done so far!

On October 15th 2011 we moved into our apartment with nothing more than an air-mattress, some plastic silverware and utensils, clothes, and a lone pot to cook in- thanks dad Mercer for that one =)  That was definitely an adventure for us in itself! We had to wait a couple weeks and with much appreciated help from Mom and Dad Mercer and Jess and Tom, we finally got our beloved problem child Maithas via big scary airplane. On our way to Baltimore to pick Maith up, we decided to see some sights. Our first stop was Arlington National Cemetary (AMAZING- Incredible what it means to those so involved with the military), then we spent a couple hours in Washington D.C. which I think was on a Thursday and turned out to be not such a great idea... We saw some of the big monuments minus the white house but spent most of our time in RIDICULOUS traffic with our Xterra- Yep, we got some funny looks.

We are about 20 minutes away from Assateague Island (with the wild horses) and spent a couple hours there this fall but only saw three wild horses. With the time we arrived in Ocean City nearly everything was shut down so we are still waiting to experience the full OC effect when things are in full swing this summer. I started school again in January and found a job working at a gym in Salisbury- something to keep me busy.

One of our biggest adventures was driving 20 HOURS-all three of us in the mini cooper- straight to Florida to spend some time with Grandma Jane. We had such an awesome time with her and can't wait to see her again soon! We definitely decided to split the drive up on the way home- paying for the hotel was well worth our sanity.

 It seems as though we haven't done much with our time over here, but we definitely plan to do TONS more. On our next trip to DC we are determined to get cupcakes from Georgetown Cupcakes (known as the show 'DC Cupcakes' on TLC) We plan on spending time in Baltimore when my brother Zack comes to visit (MARCH 24!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) and can't wait for things to pick up around here! There is so much to see and do over here on the East Coast I can't even remember all of it! Until we do something else exciting....

First Post!

I always said I wouldn't be a blogger... And here I am. I decided to finally take the plunge for two reasons: I was inspired by a poem and I'm big on family- I want to be able to share our experiences with everybody. The poem from which I borrowed by title was presented by my English professor in class last Friday. The poem called my attention to the beauty and simplicity of beginning. Though our beginning was anything but simple, it's something we are proud of. The three of us (I'm including Maith, he's part of our little family too!) took probably the biggest risk of our lives by packing up and moving across the country, but we have been so incredibly blessed by doing so! Not only is our marriage stronger, but we are more whole as individuals. In the short four months we have been here, we have experienced more than we ever could have hoped for. We are growing and learning, and loving every minute of it!

Looking Around, Believing
by Gary Soto
How strange that we can begin at any time. With two feet we get down the street. With a hand we undo the rose. With an eye we lift up the peach tree And hold it up to the wind — white blossoms At our feet. Like today. I started In the yard with my daughter, With my wife poking at a potted geranium, And now I am walking down the street, Amazed that the sun is only so high, Just over the roof, and a child Is singing through a rolled newspaper And a terrier is leaping like a flea And at the bakery I pass, a palm, Like a suctioning starfish, is pressed To the window. We're keeping busy — This way, that way, we're making shadows Where sunlight was, making words Where there was only noise in the trees.    http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/19709