Lots of Happy!

We have internet at home at last!!! It is such a relief not to have to go somewhere else to use the computer. EVERYTHING is online now and I'm not very comfortable banking, paying bills, blogging, emailing, facebooking, blah blah blah all on a public computer. It just makes me nervous.
It's a wonderfully drizzly day at Fort Bragg today, which is revitalizing to me. I love to wake up to the sound of rain tip-toeing on the roof. I like needing a little lamplight around me while I do laundry and such - it's such a cozy glow. *contented sigh*

First, I want to congratulate my little brother and his cutie-girl on their marriage February 13th. I waited until I could put a picture on here though, so you could see them in all their glory. :) They had such wonderful photography! I am so happy for them because a lot of our pictures were unusable because our photographer didn't notice her flash wasn't working and I know just how important those are, especially to the girl. I love how happy Brandon's been since he met Emily. They go together like peanut butter & honey (well, if you haven't tried it, give it a whirl -- and Emily gets to be the honey, btw). It was so cool to meet the girl Brandon is in love with. I didn't expect Emily and John to laugh and discuss how alike Brandon and I are while Brandon and I shook our heads skeptically. John kept chuckling at Brandon because the whole evening my little brother had this giant smile on his face. :) They held hands and teased each other and Emily beat us all at Clue. It was also nice for me to be with them at Christmastime. Though seeing their sweetness together reminded me of how much I missed John, it warmed me through and helped me deal with our Christmas apart better than I would have. I'm so so happy for them. I also have included another anime depiction of them for fun. :D
Other good but less cool news: I'm through with my medications for my kidney infections and I should be all better. (I'm going to keeping drinking a lot of water to make sure, though.) We've been getting our furniture organized around our new place better and it's becoming a less bare existence. I've never moved so far away before; I've always been near family that could help out with dinner or use of laundry facilities or so on. Thankfully, the army is quite supportive. We had access to a lot of the things we needed and it helped us through the awkward times of, "Well, we can't cook the groceries we bought because we haven't found any pans yet," or "Quick!!! Find a big spoon cause I need to stir this in like 30 seconds!" (Usually John started looking in a box of towels and I tore open a kitchen box and threw things everywhere until I found a spoon to wash at lightning speed. I love it when he's cute and flustered and not sure how to help. It is the most adorable thing.)
I was able to get a good picture of one of the many squirrels our trees serve as a home for. I had to be sneaky about it, but I got a couple and I chose the best one for y'all to see. They make us so happy! The other day we saw one running along the telephone wires over the street we were driving on. We both squealed in delight at the exceeding of our cuteness thresholds. We've also had 5 or 6 of them hold meetings in the patch of dirt around our shrubberies or sit on our steps while they munch (cause what they do cannot merely be referred to as eating, it's much too adorable for that name) on their acorns that fall from our trees. AND somewhere nearby we can hear owls hooting as they wake up at sunset. (I'll never get over losing the owls that lived in our trees in our rental house in Mapleton, so if there are some hooting nearby it fills my soul.)
And, in other news, I finally took the plunge and highlighted my hair. I've always been nervous about it and for a long time we simply couldn't afford it so, now that we're doing alright, I threw caution to the wind. I did just go for light brown for my first time, though John strongly recommended purple or pink. :D It was very exciting and I feel so renewed and revitalized. John looked at me devilishly at the restaurant afterward and said, "I keep expecting my wife to come in and find me with you." (I responded classily by blushing and giggling like a schoolgirl. :D I always ruin moments like that!)
Well, this post is ridiculously long and I appreciate anyone who reads and I send hugs to any commenters. ;)