Becoming One Purple Heart (Formerly Purple Hearts)

Adulting

(Riley's Point of View)

It's just before 09:00 AM and I am heading over to Cassie's shortly where I am meeting Toby, and Nora as we are all helping move Cassie into her and Luke's new apartment. Yesterday afternoon I went to Frankie's parents house and picked up Luke's stuff  to move into their new place given they are married and it seems right that his stuff would be at their shared place. Luke doesn't have much stuff which doesn't surprise me given he is a Marine and they move around a lot, plus they are almost always in the gear the Marine Corps gives them so they don't really have a need for much in terms of clothing or really anything else as they share rooms in the barracks and they have frequent inspections of their living quarters therefore they like to keep their belonging very minimal. On the opposite end of things, Cassie has a lot of belongings in comparison to Luke, however she did downsize considerably as she ended up donating and selling most of her belongings minus her clothes and things related to her music stuff. I thought we were going to have to move all of her furniture which was going to be difficult, but I was surprised when she sold pretty much all of her furniture except for her bed and nightstands as they are a matching set. I was slightly puzzled by the decision at first given their new place isn't furnished so they were going to need some type of furniture and it can be quite expensive, but then she explained that she was really wanting this new place to feel like their place. In fact she said she was planning to decorate their new place with more neutral colors because she thought Luke would appreciate the naturals more. I actually think that decorating with neutrals will go much better in their new place given it's new construction that is very modern looking meaning their walls are all white, their kitchen appliances are stainless steel, and their counter tops are a white granite, and all of their door knobs, cabinet handles, faucet and things of that nature are matte black. Last week we packed up most of Cassie's stuff minus a few things that she was going to finish this morning. Before I head to Cassie's I am picking up coffee for everyone and Nora is picking up breakfast tacos for all of us. I am relieved that Cassie finally told Nora and Toby about her marriage, and I am very glad that they seemed to be accepting of it and supportive of her which is what I had hoped. The plan is to get to Cassie's around 09:30 AM and to eat our tacos before we being moving boxes to our cars before driving them over to her new place. I am hoping we can fit everything in one trip given she got rid of all of the furniture and downsides her belongings significantly. Once we get to her new place we will unload things and then begin unpacking. She also ordered a few furniture pieces from Ikea and Wayfair which which are supposed to be delivered this afternoon, so I imagine we will also help her build the new pieces of furniture. I am super excited for her and Luke and I think Luke will be super happy about their new place once he finds out about it. I just have to remember that when I am around Nora and Toby that I don't accidentally say anything about Cassie's diabetes as she did tell me they don't know about that. 

(Cassie's Point of View)

It's just before 09:00 AM and I am up early, well early for me, because I have a very busy but exciting day. It's been a crazy last week and a few days between our song Blue Side of the Sky going viral, getting to finally talk to Luke and hear his voice after 5 weeks, telling Nora and Toby about my marriage, hitting the 6 month milestone in my marriage and in Luke's deployment, signing a lease at a new apartment complex, opening a joint bank account, and packing up my apartment. Today is a big day because it's officially moving day. Making the decision to move was not an easy one as it was a decision that I had hoped I would have been able to make with my husband, but unfortunately with the timeline of needing to make a decision in combination with his limited access to outside communication I had to make the decision for us alone. Before I finalized my decision I spent a lot of time working with the housing team on base to ensure we were able to do this given Luke still has another 4 years to serve in the Marine Corps and there are a lot of rules and regulations related to where we are able to live. Through this process I learned that once someone is married, their options are based upon unit specific requirements. For us as a married couple with Luke being an active duty service member we have two choices when it comes to housing as a married couple, the two choices are: living in base housing or moving off base as long as we were within 15 miles of the base. If we live in on base housing we will have no rent payment or utility payments as they are both covered. If we choose to move off base we will be given a basic housing allowance of $2,900 per month as soon as I bring in our marriage certificate and we sign the appropriate paperwork. I did inquire about base housing as it actually seemed like a good option given it would be really easy for Luke to get to work, but currently there is a substantial waitlist therefore our only option currently is to rent something. After thinking about it for a few days and weighing the pros and the cons to either staying where I currently am or finding a new apartment and moving I decided to go ahead and sign the lease for this new apartment at the end of last weekend. The apartment complex that I ended up choosing for us was actually suggested to me by the base housing people and it just opened so we will be the first to live in our unit and apparently this complex partners with the base to help get military members housing so as a result we also get a discounted rental rate, therefore we were able to secure a 2 bedroom 2 bathroom apartment at this complex for $2,800 per month which is incredible given it's San Diego and rent is crazy expensive here. The place is much more spacious than my current apartment and I am excited to get to make this Luke and my home. In fact, I really think Luke will be happy with this decision as I think having a place that is truly ours just feels right given we have now embarked on a new chapter in life together and from the day we took our vows we agreed to be a team and a partnership for the rest of our lives and a place to live that is truly both of ours feels really fitting. When I think about it Luke was only at my place a few times and and he never slept there so I'm looking forward to the fact that this new apartment will be our home together with both of our stuff and a place that we will get to make memories in together. In fact speaking of stuff, Riley is bringing over Luke's belongings from Frankie's house so that I can move all of his stuff into our new place as I want to have his stuff in our home now that we are married.