Oh the good ole' USMC...

How I just love thee!

Matt & I always knew we would get married, it was just a matter of time.  When he chose to join the USMC it threw a small wrench into our plans.

He left for boot camp October 2005 and after graduation in February 2006, we considered getting married over boot leave on Valentine's Day.  I, at that time, was still in dream-land where I thought it would be possible to still plan our wedding like "normal" people and therefore I decided I didn't want to get married then.  After being in MOS training for a few months, we considered (again) getting married quickly, just the two of us, on my visit for Easter...  My trip was moved to Memorial Day and by then we (again) decided to wait.

Finally after arriving at his PDS (Camp LeJeune) in July, he called me saying, "I bought your tickets for next week-end.  You'll get here Friday, August 4th, and we're going to the courthouse and getting married.  I'm tired of being away from you, and I'm not waiting any longer."  (Awww.... Right?)  So we said screw tradition!  (Since when have we done anything traditional anyway?  Leaving home and moving in together at 17 isn't traditional.  Nor is packing-up and moving 4 hours away, a year later,  to a place you know no one nor have anything to do there.)  After securing witnesses (Thanks again Matt & Christy!  Wouldn't be where we are without you guys!) I flew from Austin, Texas to Jacksonville, North Carolina.

Now if any of you have flown into the lovely Albert J. Ellis airport, you can imagine the thoughts running through my head as this was my first impression of what would soon become my new hometown.  After stealing a few quick hugs and kisses, we (There's four of us now: Matt, Christy, my Matt and me) all hopped in the car and began our trek to find the courthouse.  Soon after, Matt realized he's left all of our paperwork in his room...  On base!  Thank God Mitch knows how to "step-on-it" (And had been here a few weeks longer than Matt and knew where to go around here!) and made it onto base and back in town with good timing...  Sort of.

You see here in Jacksonville, the Magistrate's (like the Justice of the Peace) office is open 24-hours.  Great, right?  Yes, until you find out that you have to get all of your paperwork from the courthouse first, and they close at 4:30 on Friday's.  YIKES!  So here's the four of us, driving around Jacksonville in Christy's Mitsubishi Lancer (With my luggage still crammed in the trunk because we didn't have time to stop at the hotel yet...  Which my sweet husband-to-be forgot to book.  That would be our next challenge!) trying to find this courthouse.

Finally, with absolutely no help from the woman on the phone, we arrived and rushed in to file our paperwork.  Thank God we got in there without a problem and were able to get everything done because I was scheduled to leave first thing Monday morning.  (Although I certainly would have changed my flight if absolutely necessary.)

It wasn't until we were in the Magistrate's office that I realized I was still wearing the black Tommy Hilfiger t-shirt dress I had traveled so comfortably in.  I nearly had a heart-attack (Especially since my nightmare as a teenager that I would get married in a black dress because I wasn't a virgin.  The irony is quite laughable now, but at that very moment.... I was having quite a panic attack!) when I realized that my beautiful Victoria Secret white linen dress was still in my luggage in Christy's trunk.  But I said, "screw tradition," yet again and just went with it.  (Looking back now, I really wish that I had spoken up about this and insisted we find a hotel room where I could shower and get ready like I'd originally planned before we "ran out of time".)

So here we are...  After 3 years together, standing in the Magistrate's office, taking vows with our best friends as our witnesses...

And for my sake, the dress I was supposed to wear:  (It's actually still in my closet even though I know I will never be a 0 again.  Just can't seem to get rid of it!)

That night at Outback Steakhouse with Matt & Christy

After three short days together, I flew back to Texas as the new Mrs. Dragon and began planning our "wedding" for that December.  We had a lovely wedding where we (finally) exchanged rings in front of family and friends...  However, we don't consider this our anniversary as it is not the day we became husband and wife.

Since then we have been unable to celebrate our wedding anniversary together.  In the summer of 2007 for our first anniversary, Matt was in Iraq.  I didn't receive a phone call, but I did get to chat with him online briefly.  In 2008 for our second anniversary, he was again in Iraq and was able to call home that time to say he loved and missed me.  This past summer, 2009, he was in Afghanistan.  Our anniversary fell in the middle of the 10 weeks I hadn't heard from him as he was invading the city of Dahaneh with 2/3 Golf Co.

So this year we will be celebrating our fourth wedding anniversary.  We were so excited for him to finally be home during a summer and had been discussing what we might do to finally celebrate our "first" anniversary together. A few weeks ago Matt informed me that they would be beginning field rotations soon in order to prepare the boots for their first deployment.  I jokingly said that it would be our luck for him to be here yet "gone" for the first anniversary we could actually celebrate together.

Well by now, I've sure you've guessed it...  He just informed me that he will in-fact be leaving Tuesday, August 3rd to go in the field for one week.  :-)  I could just punch myself for even jinxing it!

So there you go...  That's my luck.  Thank you USMC!  Love you too!

Semper Gumby!