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I made it! After three days of driving and two nights of cheap hotels I am now residing in Maryland with my husband Nick at Fort Meade. My Mother-in-law, Julie, helped make the journey here a much more pleasant one than it would have been just driving by myself! So thank you Julie, for coming with me across the country! And for being willing to sacrifice your mothers day with your family.

Right before I left Utah, I gained a niece and almost lost a sister. Thanks to everyone’s prayers, my sister is still with us and I am excited for her to begin the adventure of a new baby. They named her Mersadie Nicole Hunter.

Since Julie and I got here on Saturday and her flight did not leave until Monday, we had Sunday to explore. In the morning we went to the local LDS ward, which although they were few in numbers, they were by far the noisiest ward I have EVER attended! After church we headed into Washington D.C. where we went to the Space and Flight museum. They have the actual Wright brothers plane…the very first plane to fly! Nick and I are pretty excited to be so close to the capitol and all the neat things to do and see.
I dropped Julie off at the airport this morning and Nick off at work/training. I spent the day organizing the few things that we have here. Most of what we own is currently in possession of the moving company who has until May 21st to get it here. Nick and I will be camping out on the floor until our stuff (including our bed which I already miss “sorely”) arrives.

Living on a military base is like being in a whole different world. It’s like a special club for members…you have to have an I.D. to even get onto the base, especially this one since the most secret top secret government agency is on this base. Sometimes they even search your car when you come on base! Once on the base, it’s like a town. There are different neighborhoods, shopping (all tax free of course!) and even a hotel! If we wanted to, we could stay on the base for the rest of our lives and have everything we need! But of course, there are some very cool things just outside the gate…this base is halfway between Washington D.C. and Baltimore. There are so many places to go and things to do around here that Nick and I are going to have to get busy if we want to see even HALF of it!

My beautiful wife Jen and I are less than a week away from reuniting! Friday morning she’s going to start the long car trip here with my mom at her side. I can’t wait to see her. We’ve been waiting SO long and now we’ll finally get to be together again.

Today marks the end of my performance exam in the Basic Still Photography course for this functional area (kind of like the last test on a chapter). I have already turned in my “perf” and am waiting for the grade. I hope I did well! Tomorrow is the written exam and so I’m going to study hard tonight so I can do well. Hopefully I’ll be able to bring my grade into the high 90s so that I can graduate with honors from the course.

Life at the detachment is ridiculous as usual. There are a lot of very stupid people who live in close proximity and unfortunately their actions often reflect on me even if I have nothing to do with them. I have a rising fear that everyone’s going to be on phaseback this coming weekend because of some very stupid actions from this last weekend. I hope and pray this doesn’t happen because I have a lot riding on my being able to leave on Sunday and see my wife and mother. Hopefully cooler heads will prevail at the detachment and the cadre will realize that isolated and individual incidents do not represent the whole of student company. Overall we are trying to follow the rules and do the right thing. We have a very intelligent and level headed 1st Sergeant and I hope that he will see that mass punishment will only exacerbate the situation. One of the main problems which is creating these incidents is overcrowding and poor living conditions, perhaps this will be taken into account. We are all making the best of a difficult situation. I realize that more problems make life difficult for the cadre, but I hope they realize that the privates at student company are trying their best.

Well, I hope things go well this week and that I won’t have any negative news to report when I blog next. As long as I get to see my wife and mother on Sunday I think I’ll live.

Today is Friday. Which means a lot of things for me. One of those things is that it’s almost the weekend. Another is the fact that today is my last day as the boss of my department because on Monday the real boss will be back from maternity leave at which point she will resume her place as the boss. I will then be stuck in that nowhere land where I don’t really have a “position” here at work other than that of transitioning all the information in my head into that of the boss’s head. Probably the most significant thing to me about today being Friday is that in exactly one week from now I will be driving my little white car across the whole country with my trustee mother-in-law at my side. Perhaps we should make a sign for the back of my car that says “Maryland or bust!” I don’t think I’ve technically ever been to Maryland. I’ve been to Washington D.C. which is rather close but I’m not sure if I’ve ever been into the state of Maryland. And I certainly haven’t been to the “state of MARRY land!” In one week I will be on my way to both of those states! WAHOOOOO!

It’s getting closer and closer to the time that my beautiful wife Jen will get here, and I for one am more excited than a ten year old on Christmas Eve! I miss my wife so much and being apart from her these last five months has been incredibly difficult. I love her with all my heart and when she gets here I’m going to be the happiest man alive!

My mother Julie Lloyd is also going to be coming to Fort Meade. She’s going to be driving with Jen to keep her company on the extremely long drive. I’m excited to see her, especially since I missed her birthday and I’ll miss Mothers Day too, but I’ll only miss Mothers Day by about 17 hours so I think I can still say “Happy Mothers Day!!” when I see her. Jen and I are extremely grateful for my moms willingness to drive with Jen.

School here at Fort Meade is getting a little tougher. I scored a 75% on today’s quiz, the lowest quiz score I’ve received, but my average is still in the 90s so I think I’m ok. The army is being ridiculous as usual in that I have not received my Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) as of yet, so they owe me for about 2 months of housing! Hopefully the BAH situation will be resolved before my wife gets here and our housing office starts demanding rent!

Anyway, I love my wife and I can’t wait to see her. Less than two weeks now!

It has finally come! The day that I can say I will see my husband in two weeks! Only two more weeks of work, only two more weeks of Utah and living alone in a moldy basement! On Friday, May 9th, I will jump in my car and begin the long drive to Maryland, 31 hours long. I wish that there was a way to just be there on May 9th…but since no one has invented a way of teleporting yet, I will just have to be patient and make the journey.
Just think, on Monday, I can say that I leave “next week”. It makes me wonder if these next two weeks will pass quickly or if they will feel like an eternity like the last few weeks have.
My heart is already in Maryland, which is making if difficult for me to give my all at work. I remember right before my boss left for her maternity leave, her heart was not in it and I have to admit that it bothered me. So I am trying hard to give it my all and not become absent minded at work. But to tell you the truth, I just want to be out of here. I know I shouldn’t wish my days away, saying that I’ll be happy when this or that happens. But I think that this is a big enough thing that I am looking forward to that I should be allowed to just wish I was there! How many people have lived apart from their husband for the first three months of their marriage? I believe that it is a difficult enough task that I should be allowed to wish it was over! Wouldn’t you?

This is me and my gorgeous new wife Jen! We’re smiling but in all actuality this captured moment is rather bitter sweet. It’s the day after our marriage, so we’re happy as can be about that, but this is also the last time we’re going to see each other for three months. The bulk of that three months is now over and at the time of this post we’ll only be two and a half weeks from being in each others arms again! We’ve been through so much to get to where we are, and more than likely we will have to endure much more, but through our adversity our marriage has found a strength I feel is uncommon for the short length of time it’s existed. We are so desperately in love and so incredibly committed to one another.

As you can see, I married a stone cold fox. Jen is ridiculously beautiful, and what’s more she’s got a brain to match. In many ways she’s more intelligent than I (i.e. she didn’t drop out of college to join the army) and I love her for it. I’ve been trying to get her to pursue a masters degree because in my opinion a mind is a terrible thing to waste and she’s certainly got the intellect to continue on in school, but we’ll see how it goes.

It’s been so spectacularly difficult to be away from Jen these last few months, especially because we haven’t been able to spend a single night together since our marriage on the day I graduated basic training. The day Jen gets here will be one of the happiest of my life, I can’t wait to see her! I have so many wonderful things planned for us like trips to Washington D.C. and Baltimore, candlelight dinners, romantic carriage rides and many other activities. Knowing that I might deploy sometime within the next year has really made me think about how precious the time is we’re going to have together while I’m stationed here in Maryland.

This blog will be a good way for Jen and I to let our friends and family know how we’re doing, as well as record the ups and downs and terribly romantic day to day happenings of newly wed life. Log in every once in a while to see what’s going on in the life of the Lloyds!