Well, I figured this day was as good as any to end my months long moratorium on blogging. So, in honor of my wife and our first year apart (together), I raise my glass, (in this case a bottle of Mountain Dew), and wish my wife a Happy 1st Anniversary.

I remember first counting the passage of time in our relationship in terms of weeks after we started dating..then eventually months....then our Wedding restarted the clock last year and we counted the days, then the weeks and the months all over again. Fiery Demons of the Underworld (No, not my mother-in-law) were raised when I forgot the 31 week anniversary date!! Ok...it wasn't that bad, I guess.

All in all, I'd say our first year has been very blessed. Not having my wife home has allowed me to claim my domain in our new house. I can stay up late as much as I want....eat anything I want.....I have complete control over the TV....sometimes I even leave dirty dishes in the sink! It has truly been a blessing to have one more year of Freedom!

Although I'm sure my wife is plotting and scheming to supplant me from my stubborn way of life once she returns, I currently remain happy in my delusional fantasy that at least for this one year, I've been King of the Castle.

Perhaps deployment isn't a bad thing after all. Hmmmmm...they're already asking for volunteers to stay over in Iraq longer.....and I'm really starting to like the sound of Major Marissa Mitchell. Yes....it has a much nicer ring than Captain Mitchell, I think.

Alright honey....all joking aside, I'm ready for you to come home and just be Princess "Cupcake" Mitchell and start bossing me around. (yeah, right).

Happy Anniversary, Baby!

By the way, Patti.....I was just kidding about that Demon of the Underworld comment.


......Honest!

ETA: Oh! ...and Happy Anniversary to my wonderful In-Laws, Dan & Patti, who Marissa and I have the honor of sharing this perfect date with.

We bought the house that I posted about earlier. We close on the 20th! I'm thinking of painting all the walls olive green and a dark khaki so Marissa will feel right at home. Nah....I'm actually thinking bright fluorescent orange!! Such tough decisions to make.

In other news....if you're local, watch the Register/Standard next week (Aug 9) or the following week (Aug 16) for Marissa's next article. The editors love her writing and are trying to space out her articles to run once a month or so when they have space.

Hello everyone. No, I'm not dead. I just don't post as often as my wife. Let's face it, she's a much better writer than I am and her posts are a good 80% more enjoyable than mine anyway, so you're not really missing out on anything. Ok, I lied....her posts are 100% more enjoyable than mine. But that's ok with me. I know I married a wonderful woman! Enough with me, let's get to some updates:

For those that didn't know, Marissa is going to be writing a few articles for our local hometown newspapers the Newburgh Register and Boonville Standard. She'll be submitting several articles during her deployment, probably one a month or so, to compare and contrast life in Iraq with that of Warrick County. Her first article was already published. If you missed it, its still online and can be read here: http://www.tristate-media.com/articles/2007/07/03/warricknews/editorial/01mitchell.txt

Finally, I wanted to share than Marissa and I have been looking at buying a home. We've found one house we really really really like and I thought I'd just share a couple of photos. This house in located in Newburgh, over near Sharon school.

Marissa and I have looked at several other houses on the market and this one keeps coming back at the top of our list. We still have a few that Marissa wants me to go out and tour, but I have a feeling if this one is still on the market in a few weeks an offer will be forthcoming.

I hope you've enjoyed this little update....stay tuned for another in about three months or so...........

Mike, out.

Army Insignia 101: A brief explanation of the insignia and patches found on Marissa's Army uniforms.

Alright, some of you have asked me questions about some of the pins, patches and other insignia you've seen on some of Marissa's Army uniforms in photos, etc. I'll give a little primer here explaining some of these.

Disclaimer: I've always been a big military history buff and my explanations here are those of a layman. I'm sure Marissa will come along and correct me should I misinform you.

US Army Captain's Rank Insignia

This is Marissa's rank. She is a commissioned officer, charged with leading Non-Commissioned Officers (NCOs) like Corporals & Sergeants and other enlisted solders, such as Privates, PFC's, and Specialists.

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This will be quick, because I haven't learned much....

I've learned....

• This is much easier than I thought...
• This is much much harder than I thought...
• When in doubt, Marissa is right...
• My things are now her things...and her things are still her things...
• I can either be right, or I can be happy.
• When we move into our house, my boy stuff (posters, wall decorations, etc.) will all be replaced by girl stuff.
• I shouldn't blog anything negative about my wife.

Today is February 23, 2007. Its been two months since my life endedI got married and just over one month that I've been on my own again. Marissa and I tied the knot on December 23, 2006...a full six months to the day before the date we had originally chosen. Of course all of you reading this already know about the wedding and you also know that we moved up our plans because of Marissa's mobilization back into the Active Army. But I guess for the sake of thouroughness if I intend to do better with my side of the blog and keep things up-to-date, I need to start back at the beginning.

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Ok everyone, I apologize for not taking the time to update this thing regularly. Everyone I know, my family, my friends, and even people I don't know have been giving me grief for having to look at the same blog entry for almost two months. Unfortunately, I don't have time at this moment to get 100% caught up seeing as how I'm running late to have dinner with the "in-laws", so I thought I'd give you a little primer of things to come.

The last few months have just blow by....everything happening so quickly. But I've experienced alot of things in such a short time and so I think I have enough material to entertain and amuse you for at least two minutes. (Once I am able to update this thing...)

Some topics that I'll be posting about:

- Marriage Update #1: What I've learned.
- "Mini" Honeymoon to Gatlinburg
- DHS Training in Alabama
- Funny calls from work
- My personal psychoanalysis of my wife
- My father

So please stay tuned in.....updates will be coming, starting this week.

At 6pm last night I had the last meal of my single life.

Marissa really wanted Edgewater Grill so we there for dinner. We ordered the Tri-colored Tortellini.

Yar, Play me a dirge, matey....for we walk the plank today. Arrgggg!!!

So its Wednesday night and I'm stuck at work while Marissa, her family and my mother are at Choir practice.

Did I ever mention how much I hate working 2nd shift? Its not that I hate the spatchers...its just the hours really really suck. I'll get home at 11pm and be wired and hyper until at least 2am....but poor Marissa will be sleeping then.

Alright, back to work for me.

Went to Patti's 1880's Settlement for dinner wtih last night with Marissa's family. The trip was just about two hour each way but well worth it. I didn't get any photos of the place and I wish I would have taken my camera along. We ate in the Mr. Bill's dining room and it was decorated for Christmas. There were ornaments and lights hanging from the ceiling....a large five foot stocking and a large bi-plane covered in lights as well.

I had the Don's Chicken, (seasoned chicken breast with bacon & cheese), a baked potato, salad, and flower pot bread. I followed it with a slice of turtle pie. It was all wonderful.

The town of Grand Rivers, Kentucky was also beautiful. The town was celebrating its "festival of lights" and the whole town was just amazing with the Christmas lights. I wish we could have stayed longer but it was already getting late.