2013

In 2013 I...

• Tapped my boyfriend out at his coin ceremony and gave him the biggest hug after two months of letters and an occasional phone call
• Saw him graduate from basic training and experienced one of the proudest moments of my life
• Got engaged
• Spent most of the year away from my fiance and soon to be husband
• Eloped in the Wichita Falls, Texas courthouse (married my best friend)
• Switched from team iPhone to team android, and BACK to team iPhone
• Went to Texas a total of three times
• Experienced another proud moment when my husband graduated tech school
• Welcomed Shawn home after seven months away
• Planned a wedding in 3 months
• Posed for a photo shoot
• Had an amazing ceremony and gained another amazing family, hands down the best day of my life
• Packed up my life and moved 4,500 miles away with my best friend
• Said goodbye to everything I have known for the first 19 years of my life
• Realized the tremendous support and love my family has for me, and how much I truly miss them
• Bought our first car, and SOLD our first car!
• Made a house into a home
• Turned 19
• Gained a furry four legged family member who is my baby
• Found out I am going to be an aunt again, and again!
• Met a few moose, and a bear!
• Climbed a mountain
• Went skiing and snowboarding for the first time
• Learned I hate skiing
• And made new friends

WHAT A YEAR! 

Fun facts about the Fremgen's...

• Shawn and I went to school together since first grade, September of 2000.
• I can't tell you exactly when we met, it's not like sparks were flying in our little 6 and 7 year old minds!
• We became close friends in middle school, when we would hang out in town or at the base ball field down my street.
• I never thought I would've ended up with Shawn. In 11 grade he dated Nikole (my best friend) for about two weeks (LOL) and before we started dating, I swear he tried to get me together with his best friend. (LOL, again)
• We hung out A LOT before we started dating, there came a point where we were pretty much inseparable. 
• After we started hanging out a lot we had these nick names for each other. Shawn called me teddy bear and I called him puppy, which is actually a really funny story. He called me teddy bear because if he ever fell asleep or we were laying on the could he would always hold me like I was he little teddy bear, and he still does to this day. I called him puppy because one day Shawn was in the kitchen getting me ice cream (cause he's great like that) and my dog started waking towards me so I said "whatcha doing puppy?" (of course talking to my dog) and I hear from the kitchen "I'm getting you ice cream!!" So from that day forward, Shawn became my puppy.
• Our first kiss was in my kitchen at like 2am, and it was very awkward. :p
• We went to the carnival one night and we walked there and back (because I wanted too) and we were with a group of friends. On our walk home we stopped at the canal in town just to hang out. Apparently that is bad and public safety came and gave us an ear full. (It doesn't help that Shawn was caught peeing in public! nasty.) It was hilarious anyways because we were doing nothing wrong. Anyway, that was the night Shawn asked me to be his girlfriend (kinda). After we got back to my house and our friends left Shawn and I were hanging out in the den and I asked him "are you ever going to ask me out?!" and he answered by asking "Do you want to be my girlfriend?" So I said "sure," which by the way he bugs me about ALL the time. He says "you said SURE" This was August 4th, 2011.
• We never had any "breaks" like a lot of couples now a days, but when we went back to school in September, I was an awkward girlfriend. I am so not one for PDA so I would always awkwardly give him a little kiss and a hug. That phase passed pretty quickly though. I'm not awkward anymore, but I still dislike PDA, I don't need to see that.
• We had a pretty typical relationship through high school. We went to prom together and made it through graduation. And the real fun started (as you all know) when Shawn decided he was going to join the Air Force. 
• I was NOT a happy camper, to be honest, I tried to convince him out of it. It didn't work. He stuck with the commitment he had made to the recruiter and in November 2012, he was off to basic training, while I was stuck at St. Josephs College (BLECH).
• I worked at old navy and finished out a semester at St. Joes. My parents could have killed me when I gave up my full scholarship.
• 100 letters and two months later, Shawn graduated basic in January, 2013.
• I went with his parents and Grandma to his basic training graduation where Shawn asked me to marry him, (kinda). He didn't have a ring and we have already decided to get married through our many letter back and forth during basic. So on January 21st, Shawn gave me his dog tags which was our make shift engagement ring. 
• Shawn stayed in Texas for tech school and what I consider the "real" proposal was the day he found out he was going to be stationed in Alaska. I got a text from Shawn saying "Alaska lol time to get married" romantic right? and Just a few weeks later I was off to Texas to make it official.
• We got married March 1st, 2013 in the Wichita Falls court house.
• Shawn came home in May and we had our ceremony on June, 9th. So, if you're keeping track, that is three anniversaries. August 4th (three years together next August) March 1st (one year in march!) and June 9th! and if you want to include January 21st, our engagement day (kinda). We are a couple of many anniversaries! 
• Well, now we are here in Alaska as of June 20th. And not much has happened since my last update. Still waiting for some Christmas cards and Milo is still in the healing process for his leg! Oh! and Shawn won a surf board that I just got in the mail today! on our ceremony day (June 9th) Shawn entered a contest to win a jet ski when we stopped at shop rite before the wedding. Well, a few months later and he actually won a surfboard! That doesn't do us much use in Alaska... oh well! Maybe we'll trade it for a snow board ;) 

Christmas 2011, our first and so far only Christmas together! He was in basic last year so we will have to make up for that this year :)

I was just very bored today but I hope you enjoyed reading my fun facts. I'm sure there are so many more that I can't think of right now, so if I do I will make a fun facts part dos! Until then, BYE! 

Tis' the Season!

I want to start off by saying how thankful I am to have the opportunity to make our house a home. I was just looking back at the pictures I took from when we first moved in and man, was it bland! In the last six months we have transformed this house from the cold cookie cutter housing into something unique, that is just ours. I love decorating and I can't wait to continue to personalize each and every room in the house! And, you might of guessed... I love decorating for the holidays too! 

We have had our tree up since before thanksgiving!

We may have jumped the gun a bit... but I love our decorations!

This definitely makes it more homey for the holidays and maybe it will help make it better that neither Shawn nor I will be heading to New York for the holidays.

But we will have our home and our little family and friends to spend Christmas with! Now the lights outside, they were a challenge to put up!

Well, without a ladder and all! Good thing I have a very creative husband :)

Milo helped decorate, by knocking all the ornaments off the tree with his whip of a tail... everyday! 

But he's cute right? :)

We also had an amazing photo shoot so we will always have a keepsake from our very first Christmas as a family together <3

I am so thankful for my beautiful little family!

We had an amazing photo shoot with an amazing photographer. Even Milo was a great model! Speaking of Milo...

December didn't start off very well. On December first clumsy Milo took a tumble. He was playing with Shawn and chasing him down the stairs when he decided to jump from about eight stairs up. I've never heard him cry like that before and I never want to ever again. He broke four toes in his paw and he is now in a cast for a while and we are hoping that the splint works because if it doesn't the vet said he may need surgery.

Our pup is strong though :) He is back to his normal self... running around like a crazy boy with me chasing after him trying to calm him down! We know Milo is going to be fine and heal nicely because he is an amazing and strong dog and we have hope that he will not need surgery <3

Milo will hopefully get the cast off mid-January, but for now it is weekly check-ups. Thank goodness the cast doesn't phase him and he will be just as happy for the holidays!

 Thanks for reading again! We want to wish you the merriest Christmas and the happiest New Year! Happy Holidays from the Fremgen family, your favorite eskimos! <3

 Shawn, Ariana, and Milo of course!

From the start...

       

          Our adventure started long before we found out we were going to be "Eskimo Living." Shawn and I have been in school together since first grade, and we became close friends in middle school. I guess you can say our adventure began August 4th, 2011, when Shawn finally worked up the nerve to ask me out! We graduated high school and that is when Shawn decided he was going to join the United States Air Force. I'm not going to lie, I did not like this very much. All I could think of was all the time we would have to be apart. It made me crazy. We were nearly inseparable from the summer of 2011 until the day he left for basic training.
        Shawn left for basic training nearly a year ago on November 19th, 2012. Basic training was the longest two months of my life. We got to talk once a week, and we got a 12 minute phone call on Christmas. We went through all the holidays apart, starting with thanksgiving and ending with New Years. On January 17th, Shawn's parents, grandma, and I flew down to Texas and I finally got to reunite with MY AIRMAN! After 8 phone calls and countless letters (well, I wrote 100 in 8 weeks so maybe not countless) it was finally time. It was the most exciting feeling when I tapped him out and we got that first hug after two months. It was one of the proudest moments in my life, and that's when we knew we didn't want to be apart for the rest of our lives. On that trip down in Texas, Shawn gave me his dog tags and we were officially engaged.
          Shawn remained in Texas so tech school, which was another 5 months. This is when we got the news. Shawn would be stationed in... ALASKA. The funny part is, he sent me a text right before he left for school so I couldn't ask him any questions all day until 2 am New York time when he got off school. I was shopping at tanger when I got a random text during the day reading "Alaska... time to get married lol." REALLY? What a sweet proposal, was the LOL necessary?! Anyways, here I am in tanger outlets and I find out that in only a few months, Shawn and I will be leaving everything we know to move 4,500 miles away to Alaska. OH BOY. Here comes the water works. I don't think I have ever felt more anxious than when I received that text, and for the next 8 hours I just had questions running through my head, and so did my parents!!!
          After the shock set in, and all my questions were answered, it was settled. We were moving to Alaska. Not even a month later I was back down in Texas in a court house, marrying the love of my life. He picked me up from the air port and we went straight to the court house. He got me a beautiful ring and we said our "I dos" in the little court house of Wichita Falls Texas on March 1st, 2012, where someone in the office had got married the same day and they were having a little party in the court house! The judge who married us was hysterical. After the "ceremony" he gave me a hug and said "I only hug the pretty ones, (looked over to Shawn and said) you're a very lucky man!" It was short and sweet and then it was back to NY for me.
           I took one more trip to Texas during Shawn's tech school and then it was time for Shawn to come back home so we could really celebrate the beginning of our lives together and spend just a couple more weeks with our family and loved ones before we embark on our adventure to Alaska. It was a great feeling welcoming Shawn back home to NY after a long seven months away. We had an amazing ceremony and reception on June 9th, 2012 with all our family and loved ones. It was all I could ever ask for.
           Two weeks later we were on our way to Alaska, and so far so good. Now, don't get me wrong, New York is 10298532093842098 x better than Alaska, but we're here together and that is what matters. We have an amazing house and two cars and we got a puppy, Milo! Milo is a boxer mastiff and he is my fur baby, he is such an amazing dog! Winter has started here in Alaska and this snow is crazy. I'm sure I'll get used to Alaska eventually, at least the view is nice! I have been home two times already in the nearly six months we have been here and it never gets easier saying good bye to my family. But I wouldn't trade what we have for anything in the world. We are so lucky for everything we will be able to experience and everything we have. This is our "story" and all about our Alaska living. Hope you enjoyed reading and I'll post more updates whenever I get bored! :p

Center Moriches Graduating Class of 2012!

The night before he left for basic training.

We got to skype before his flight took him off to basic.

Holiday letters were fun to make! He loved getting them :)

Hannah was my favorite to hang with while Shawn was away, She'll always be my bff!

Shawn was able to send me a christmas present, it made me so happy.

count downs were essential.

more holiday letters!

While my friend was at her husbands graduation she saw Shawn and managed to snap a pic! I was so fortunate!

too cute to not put in. USAF represent!

Letters and new friends got Shawn through basic <3

Almost TEXAS time! getting ready, every detail!

Almost there!!! I couldn't contain the excitement

THERE HE IS! the love of my life! SO PROUD to be his wife, This was one of the best moments. I love him so much.

So proud of my basic graduate!

We're engaged <3

Trips over, but at least we could text! ;) time for tech school!

AND WEDDING PLANNING!

Snap Chat wedding announcements! #hashtag #CLASSY!

That ring though <33333333

I'm sorry, did you say ALASKA?!

Wedding planning was a great distraction during time apart<3

last trip to texas!

WECOME HOME!

Is he handsome or what??

The most perfect day.

We really enjoyed our last couple weeks together with family and in the beautiful place we both grew up and will always be our home, long island <3

But, it was time to go to Alaska...

We will always remember our wedding day!

12 hour flight later..... ok, it is pretty

and our truck isnt too bad either ;)

but our house may just be my favorite part of the whole state of Alaska!

And, it was time for an addition to our little family (the furry kind!) 

he is the perfect pup! and much bigger now!

Well, this is our life in Alaska, and there is much more to come! :)