Who We Are

After reading the blog of a good friend of mine earlier today, I realized it would probably be a good idea to tell a little about who our family really is. :)

Jesse and I met in November 2004 online (AOL!), and started sending emails to each other twice a day - before school, and just before bed. We later progressed to phone calls, and he finally asked me out in February 2005. Our first date was on February 13, 2005. We dated for a couple of weeks, broke up for a few days, and got back together on March 13. We dated another few weeks, broke up again for a few days, and got back together again on April 26. We were "promised" to each other on June 4, and the promise was that we would one day end up in Colorado together. That has yet to happen, but we both still have faith that it will. I moved in over the summer of 2006 with him and my brother, which was the summer before my last semester of high school. We were engaged almost two years after we started dating, on Christmas Day 2006. Shortly after I left for college at Myrtle Beach in September 2007, we called off the engagement. It was my decision, and one I'm still glad I made. My worst fear was divorce and I had to be sure that what we had was true love and that we weren't just staying together because it was comfortable. I dated a couple of guys during the time we were broken up, and Jesse ran off and enlisted in the Army. He shipped off for Basic on Halloween, and thus began our letter writing relationship. When I came home for Thanksgiving that year (after making several stupid mistakes while away at college), I felt so empty. My best friend wasn't there, and I missed him. We decided, via snail mail, that getting back together was a must. He came home, much to my complete surprise, on December 19 and he gave me my engagement ring back. He left again on January 3rd, and we were back to our letter writing relationship until April 3rd. In those letters, we managed to plan our entire wedding, and we were married on April 13, 2008. We flew to Korea together on April 19, only to have to deal with a paperwork mix up that sent me back home on April 26. I got my own apartment, enrolled myself in school, and found a part time job to keep me occupied. On October 3, he came home on leave, and we finally were able to move back to Korea together on October 15, 2008. We got our first apartment alone, and started exploring the area. Because I'd been told I had infertility problems, we decided in November to start trying to conceive our first child. On January 10, 2009, we got our positive pregnancy test, and thus began our family of three. :)

So, now that you've read the history - here's a little about us individually.

Jesse has been in the Army for a little over two years. He's an MP, but has a much more specific job than just "cop". He investigates traffic accidents and when he's not doing that, he's half regular cop/half pencil pusher, depending on what needs to be done. He has a fairly good schedule. It has definitely improved over the last few months, and while he still gets some on-call shifts, it is nothing like it was during my pregnancy. Anyway. He is best friends with my older brother, Zeb, and they love to play Xbox games together (specifically CoD2:MW). He's not much into NFL or NBA, but he does love MLB and NCAA sports. He's in love with the Boston Red Sox and the University of Michigan Wolverines football team. He is just a few classes away from getting his AA in Criminal Justice, but has switched gears and is now pursuing a degree in History. He goes to American Military University, and will be starting classes in a few weeks.

Cori Aletta is our beautiful daughter. She was born on September 23, 2009 at Hyosung Hospital in Daegu, South Korea. She just turned three months old last week, and is seriously the light of my life. She loves to smile, coo, and nom on her fists. She's constantly trying to sit up, scoot, and stand by herself.

Then there's me. I'm Hilary and I'm a stay at home mom (SAHM). I do enjoy it, and it is certainly better than being a stay at home wife. I was ready to commit myself after a year of staying at home all day by myself. Now that I've got a beautiful little girl to take care of, it has gotten much better. The only thing that would make the situation better would be if we were in America and could actually go fun places to occupy our time during the day. I like being crafty - working on scrapbooks, knitting, sewing, graphic arts, things like that. I've recently gotten more into photography (who wouldn't when you have an adorable little model like Cori?!). I don't claim to be any good, but it's fun and I like learning different techniques. I've taken two semesters of college, but quit when I realized I was throwing money into a black hole over classes that were doing no good to me or my future career plans. I don't know what my passion is yet, but I'm constantly trying to figure it out. I can't wait to get a degree under my belt. I love to learn new things - words, history, facts, whatever. I just love to soak up as much information as I can. I started out as an Early Childhood Education major, switched gears to an English major, and lastly changed to Criminal Justice. Who knows what direction I'll actually end up going in?

As a family, we live in South Korea. Jesse has lived here for almost two years, and I've been here for just over a year. We don't really like it, but we try to make the best of it. We only have to deal with living here for another 9 months because we will then by PCSing (moving!) back to the states. We're hoping to end up within driving distance of home, but we should find out hopefully around March or so.

Anyway, that's us. We aren't the perfect family, but we sure are happy and make the very best of what life gives us.