Semper Gumby

For those of you that might not know, Semper Fi is the Marine Corps motto which means "Always Faithful". A spin off saying to that is Semper Gumby which means Always Flexible. This is a saying that you MUST live by and embrace when you are a military family. Things are always changing wether it be where you live, work schedules, or deployments.  They may tell you that your husband won't be leaving for another 6 months for deployment, and then 2 weeks later he will be leaving for deployment in 2 months instead. Or, you might get orders to California and they will change it last minute and instead you're moving to Japan. In this lifestyle, you will learn to go with the flow and how to handle anything that gets thrown at you. 

At first, it can be a little overwhelming if you are used to a set schedule and like to plan everything. You will be disappointed, but hopefully you will start to get used to it. Change can be fun and exciting, you don't have to worry or be afraid of it! 

In 2013, I was getting ready for my wedding and we knew that my husband was going to get deployed in the beginning of 2014 to Japan. One week before the wedding, he got a phone call saying that he would be leaving in November to go on a different deployment to Afghanistan instead. This broke my heart. We had 5 months of married life together before he left. I decided to move down to North Carolina to try to start a life down there. I applied to countless job; literally I lost track of how many jobs I applied to. I just graduated with my Bachelor's 2 weeks before moving down there and there weren't any jobs down there that required a Bachelor's degree so ultimately I was over-qualified for everything I was applying for. I didn't mind what-so-ever, but apparently they companies did. I ended up moving back home for deployment and working there. When my husband came home from deployment, I moved down to NC once again and started applying to jobs (before I even went down there). This time I ended up getting one job interview for a job that I REALLY wanted to work at but they decided to suspend the position after interviewing for it. I was at a loss and getting extremely frustrated. (This company ended up calling me back to OFFER me a job 2 weeks before we moved!! It was pretty upsetting)

Anyways, here I was, chillin in NC for the second time trying to find a job and nothing was working. I finally decided that I was going to cave and start selling for a Direct Sales company. I had actually researched some of this the prior year but was too afraid to start one. A random ad showed up on my Facebook for a company called JewelScent. The ad had a pink candle called "Hope" with a pink breast cancer ribbon on it and 3 rings! I was intrigued because who doesn't like candles with rings inside and because Breast Cancer Awareness is near to my heart. What sold me on it? The fact that you can choose your ring size!!! I signed up to become a consultant that very same day without even trying the product first! Crazy, I know. But it honestly is perfect. The products JewelScent has are classy and elegant compared to the other similar products on the market. The best thing is: I can sell it anywhere we may go in this crazy life of ours! We drove across country for 9 days and I was still selling products and making money! 

This life we live is very crazy and one constant will be my direct sales business. I will have a full time job, but next time we move it will have to change again. 

I would love to talk to anyone who has questions about JewelScent, joining a direct sales company, or even just military life in itself. I've got a little bit of insight ;) 

www.jewelscent.com/jessiross

Instagram- @jewelscentbyjessi 

*Jessi Ross

Cross Country Road Trip

It's been about 5 months since I posted, {SORRY!!!} so I have a lot of updating to do!  Since then {September} a lot has happened, but the most important thing: we moved across the country! This was our first PCS {permanent change of station} so I had no idea what to expect. It all happened so fast, too.

We got official word that we were moving on November 24th, and the movers came and packed up all of our belongings on January 8th. They had planned on coming to our house January 7th-9th; okay works for me.  So there we were, January 7th, up early waiting for them to arrive at 8 am only to receive a phone call at 10 am from the truck driver asking if he could come on same day as the packers{on the 8th}. We found out the packers weren't coming that day from the truck driver!!! I was livid! We made a few phone calls and he was correct, they changed the date and didn't even bother to tell us.

Anyways, January 8th came and 3 guys knocked on our door to start packing our things in boxed. Then, about an hour later 2 more guys came to pack the boxes onto the truck. 5 weird men in my house at one time, talk about stressful. Having to make sure they take everything and don't break everything. They were there and left all within 5 hours {we don't have much stuff yet} and our house was empty. We still had 5 days until we could leave North Carolina.

Last picture in North Carolina

It took us 9 days to get from North Carolina to California because we stopped to see family. On our second day of traveling, in Alabama, a rock came up and cracked my windshield. It was constantly growing so we decided to get it replaced. We stopped that night in Mississippi and Jon's dad's house and the next morning we went to go get new tires on my car {they were long overdue}. Well, we arrived at Walmart, hit a bump in the parking lot, and there went the crack in my windshield, straight across to the other side. So, we definitely needed to get it fixed right then and there.

$700 later, we were on our way to Arkansas to Jon's grandparent's house and then we spent the weekend in Missouri visiting both of our families. Once the weekend was over, our main goal was to get to California!

On Monday morning we hit the road and left Joplin. Our plan was to drive about 6 hours a day since we were both driving and we had Rocky, and to stay at La Quinta's since they allow pets for free! That first day, Rocky was really sick so we had to stop about 5 times for him.  We ended up staying the night in Clinton, Oklahoma {middle of nowhere} but at a VERY nice La Quinta.  It was so nice, we didn't want to leave the next morning.

We eventually left Tuesday morning and drove to Albuquerque, NM to stay the night there. On Wednesday, we drove to stay in Flagstaff, AZ and stopped at the Petrified Forest National Park on the way. It's not a very "popular" national park, but it was pretty cool!

Flagstaff is 7,000 in elevation and I could definitely feel it! Driving there up the mountains was crazy but the city was gorgeous in those mountains! Thursday morning we went to the Grand Canyon before we went onto California. It was VERY cold and extremely windy. We will definitely be going back when there is better weather! 

We stayed at the canyon a little longer than expected which called for a late arrival to 29 Palms, but we were in no rush! We had finally made it to the hotel, had some dinner and were knocked out for the night! The next day we started looking at houses and started our lives in Cali!

*Jessi*