Open When Letters & Care Package #2

Lay out of all the objects that went into Max's box this time!

Contents:

1 Men's Health magazine

1 pair boxing gloves & wraps

1 pair H&M shorts

Popeye Challenge Coin

Open When Letter Stack

Wet Wipes

6 packs of apple cinnamon nuts

Fudge Stripes Cookies

Pepper Jack Cheezits

 24 Nature Valley bars

Cajun Beef Jerkey

Scorpion Sucker

Assorted Candies

I recently traveled to Phoenix, AZ to visit some family, and while there got him some super spicy beef jerky and this scorpion sucker! The stinger has been removed.. but I still hope he doesn't actually eat it, that would be gross.

The Open When letters!! I have seen these all over Pinterest before and have been dying to try them! I finally got a chance to for this care package, I included 22 cards for various times that he might need them. Of course I put the very first ''open now'' card on top so he can understand how this thing works! 

All the cards! I used a combination of pictures of us, family, things we have done/been to, and a few off the internet to help give visuals to associate for whatever I wrote on the front of the envelope!

Here are a few of them close up!

Once deployment is over I'll be just graduating and move to Pearl Harbor to be with him, incase you were wondering about the Aloha Christmas! Next year it's an 80 degree holiday for us! :D Plus, as far as the other card, what is more inspirational than the Northern Lights?! (That may be just us though haha)

This was a card to open for when he was bored, so I have a list of things as far as some pre-wedding planning for him to do. Yes, we had a super awesome and lovely elopement- but in the next year or so we are going to have our "party wedding" as we're calling it with all of our friends and family, so I'm getting our planning started hah.

List of all the cards I made, I know it's a little hard for the gold writing to transfer in picture, so here is a list of all the cards:

Open When...

NOW

You miss me

You feel alone

You're angry

You're bored

You need an extra push

You miss comics

You've had a shitty day

You miss me again

You need to feel appreciated

You need to know how much I love you

You need motivation

You're sick

_____ is being a douche (name omitted)

You need a study push

You've had a good day

It's Thanksgiving

You need amusement

You need a good laugh

It's Christmas

There were a few more too, but I'm not adding those to the list because I'm sure you can guess why!

Lilly decided I was ignoring her too long I guess..

All the goodies packed into the box!!

Here is everything packed all nicely into the box! I know before I've shown pictures where I have it look all cute.. haha but this is once I have removed all the items from their packaging and pack as many things as possible in! This is how it looks right before I tape it shut and sent it off to my man! 

Oh, I suppose I should also explain the "ONE YEAR DOWN" part! This week was Max's one year of being in the U.S. Navy! Yay!! So much has happened in the last year it really does just blow my mind, I look so forward to everything else we have coming up in the next few years! Our adventures are going to be amazing, I can guarantee you that!

Getting SO excited to make the next one already! 

First Care Package!

I was so excited to put this first package together! I started thinking up ideas and collecting things while I was traveling over the summer. I shipped the package on the same day he deployed, so I found out last night that luckily it made it his first port the same time he did! =)

Contents

1 pack banana granola

14 chocolate mini granola bars

1 pair of pants (per request)

36 home-made Snickerdoodle Cookies

1 pack Swedish Cookies

1 bottle bbq sauce (to spice up the boring meats)

1 Sweden/Denmark flag pin

1 sweet card haha

1 pack beef jerky

7 varied Swedish chocolate bars

I knew everything else would be fine, but I was a bit worried about the cookies! He let me know last night that they tasted only a few days old and were not too dried out.. so I'll take it! =) I actually baked & packed those over 2 weeks ago, so I think we did pretty good. I double saran-wrapped about 6 per stack and then put all those in a larger ziplock that I sucked all the air out.

Overall this was super fun and I can hardly wait to start the next one!! 

And there he goes

 Hi, and welcome! (Forgive me because I'm not the greatest at this blog thing haha.) I'm Leah and seven years ago I met my best friend Maximillan. I could tell you a million long item list of why he is the greatest, but trust me he really is! This is us after we had been dating maybe a year or so, not too many pictures exist of the beginning, so consider this a privilege. ;D

After we graduated we did our first 2 years of communitty college together and traveled alot! One of the things I love most about Max is he is a fantastic adventurer. He is always ready to do anything and inspires me to crazy fun things like jump off cliffs into the ocean, get close to wild bison, and backpack into back country because the stars and campfires are worth it. That is so cheesy, but those are just a few reasons why he is the best.

The day he graduated boot camp is one of the top 5 best days of my life. That was the longest we had gone without seeing each other since we were 15. I learned a lot during that time about being strong and optimistic. Of course there were days when I was sad and wanted nothing more then to burrow into my bed.. but then what the hell would I write to him about? So I went out and took pictures and we made giant signs saying "We Miss You Maxi" to places like Disney Land, Downtown San Diego, our neighborhood. Just all over! I wanted him to know that he was always on our minds and even though he wasn't here, he was inspiring us to adventure. He said all those pictures was what helped the best!

Then during one of his leave periods to come home, he proposed!! After a week long backpacking camping trip into back country and 14 miles in (mind you carrying all of our gear on our backs), this is where he proposed! We had the whole lake all to ourselves and shared this incredible excitement despite how tired we were.  This day also ranks in the top 5 best days of my life. Can I just say again how awesome he is?! Crazy part, we decided to elope on our anniversary... which was 5 days after he proposed. He had everything ready to go and all that was left was for me to say yes! That hike down the mountain was my favorite- not only did I feel like a badass but we had this crazy adrenaline rush from being so excited and talking about all the details that we didn't even notice how exhausted we were. I wish we timed our way back down because I swear we set a record.

We eloped on June 6th, 2013 with our close family; and obviously this is so far the best day of my life! He is my best friend, and lucky enough for me- check out how incredibly handsome he is! I can't even begin to explain how much he means to me, but without Max I have no idea where I would even be. It's been hard because since we married he graduated A-School and went to his permanent duty station in Pearl Harbor; and I've stayed in San Diego to finish school. It almost works out perfectly because he will return from deployment about 2 weeks (**fingers crossed he doesn't get extended**) before I graduate in the spring!!! Once I'm graduated it's off to Hawaii I go!! So this deployment/my school is the last thing standing between us being together! 

The main lesson we took from boot camp was to be optimistic. Being adventurous and finding the good in things; and then sharing those with the other person is what kept us going forward. Max doesn't want me to feel left behind and sad, and I don't want him to feel stuck on a ship- so we do things to make each other feel better! That's honestly the only way I could ever want it to be, besides with this being our last obstacle I can hardly contain my excitement to get this deployment going and OVER WITH! So welcome to my little life and remember this is going to be the greatest adventure yet.