TGIF

Thank goodness it's friday.

I was thinking today, how much changes in a week.

Sunday of last week, our good friends who are a family of four

moved to Fort Bragg.

Tuesday of last week our friend Ashley, who was staying with us for almost 2 months,

finally got orders to join her husband in Germany.

Thursday she left for her home state.

Thursday we drive up to North Carolina to visit our friends.

Sunday we came home.

Tuesday, Ashley flew out to Germany, where she will be visiting with her husband until the big "D" comes.

Today, I'm grateful that I have these friends, I am also grateful that I've had some down time.

I wasn't supposed to have a ton of down time, I was supposed to do some FRG (Family Readiness Group, for the non-military readers)-realated training this week, but Stryker got sick again so I had to ditch those plans and take him into the doctor.  Again.

So today, Friday, I am thankful it's the weekend.

I am thankful I'm able to spend 2 whole days alone with my husband, it sure has been awhile!

I'm thankful that Stryker is feeling better,

and that Spuz is feeling normal (even though I just watched him cover his wet food with my sweatshirt...weirdo).

Today I have to take the dog out to play, go to the store, make some awesome looking amazing cupcakes (photo to follow)

attempt to go to the gym (preparation for awesome looking amazing cupcakes)

and make a class 6 stop (a convenience like store that sells liquor, wine, and beer...Again for the non-military readers).

All before we attend a BBQ with some friends of ours.

I'm not sure what the weekend will bring, but I'm looking forward to it.

I hope everyone has a fun-filled weekend.

If you're anywhere down south, you're probably having some beautiful weather...

We've been battling this 80 degree weather, it's been tough;)

Happy Friday!

♥

Christmas Recap

I hope everyone had a great Christmas leave and/or vacation,

and safe travels back home if you did any traveling.

Here are some of the highlights from Christmas Eve & Christmas Day.

We had a little shindig at our house, with our Christmas sweaters.

I had to get a photo with Stryker : )

Us on Christmas Eve.

Only a portion of our food from Christmas Eve.

Santa's treats.

Red velvet+cheesecake=amazingness.
If you follow me on Pinterest I pinned this...
Check it out.  It was good, and the red velvet wasn't dry!

Whiskey Sours....Complete with maraschino cherries!

Stryker & me on Christmas eve.  He's obviously trying to steal my thunder!

A family photo of the boys...Obviously there was a lot of cooperation.

"Look, I'm panting just like Stryker!"

Christmas day with Stryker & {one of} his new toys.

I believe that I had a mimosa and Jesse had orange juice.

Breakfast quiche, yummy!

He was happy to have his spot back under the tree.

Do I need to explain?

Spuz and his new gift from grandma & grandpa.

Jesse's reaction when he opened Stryker's gift.  His reaction was priceless, I'm glad I was able to capture it!

He thought it was pretty funny.
Stryker seemed to like his pillow pet, which I'm told is a tyrannosaurus rex. 

Play time!

Life is hard for our pooch.

And our cat : )

I will post more about our leave at a later time, I hope that starting this blog post is starting the new year   in a good way.

I can't believe that it's all over!

Have a great week,

♥

Friday Fun

I'm sorry it has been too long again....
Today I decided to be a homebody.
I worked on FRG stuff, ran 1.5 miles, and played ball with the dog.
And more FRG stuff.
Jesse got home, and I suggested we stop and get some fast food.
He said he needed to go to clothing & sales to get some things
when a friend of ours called and asked if we wanted to go to dinner with them.
So we went and did our shopping then went out to dinner.
We got home and Jesse had to meet some guys from work.
I am here updating the blog, watching Dateline, and doing more FRG stuff.
Such an interesting life! ;)


Here is an update on my 365 Project:


Day 30:  Waffles I made with my new wafflemaker.
I was awesome and made these for my husband after he had a very long night on staff duty.
And by long I mean very busy night.

Day 31:  Proof to show we spoil our cat, too.

Day 32:  Mr. Doodle with his eyes open.  Otherwise you couldn't tell what he was, lol.

Day 33:  Jesse got his bronze star....finally.

Day 34:  Fish tacos.  Yes, they were good and yes I had them for lunch the next day, too. 

♥

Catching Up...Again :)

Oh crap...Days 20-23.  Yikes!  I've gotta get ontop of this....

Day 20:  Oatmeal in the Crockpot, the before picture

Day 21:  The after picture

Get recipe here.

Day 22: My grandmother's rolls...Better this time!

Day 23:  Two out of my three boys

Hope you all are having a great week!

I am relaxing after my crazy cycling class :)

♥

Getting Behind

So obviously, I haven't posted anything from my 365 Project...And today will not be a post about it.  I will have to catch up at a later day (maybe tomorrow??).

My weekends always seem crazy, my husband gets off late on Friday...We decided to do something, maybe do drinks & dessert...But by the time I had made dinner I had all but decided I didn't want to do that anymore.  We went out for frozen yogurt (its good if you haven't tried it...like soft serve ice cream).  There's a little place in Lakewood by the dog park which is excellent, called Black Bear Yogurt (or BBY).  They had amazing flavors like cake batter and caramel.  Jesse bought a pint of Bubble Yum (I think that bubble gum ice cream is bad, there is no way I'm eating frozen yogurt).  We enjoyed our food and came home.  Eventful night!

Yesterday we got up early and went to a cycling class at the gym...The trainer was good, he really kicked my butt.  Even Jesse was pretty happy about the results.  We stopped and grabbed some Starbucks (got my last drink before I get my gold card!!!  Yessssss) then came home and made breakfast...And egg scramble with some rolls that I made on friday (complete with honey....yummm).  We showered and met some friends at the dog park.  The dogs played tons, it was partly sunny outside -- in Washington it gets crazy at the park...It seems as though people haven't seen the sun before.  There probably were hundreds of dogs at the park.  We then went to BBY and got some frozen yogurt with our friends.

When we got home Jesse had made up his mind that he wanted to go shopping for my birthday (which is coming soon!).  I stayed home and basically did nothing, my body was tired from the class earlier that morning.  When Jesse got home he immediately wanted to give me the gifts he got me, and gave me all but one.  He got me some clothes from American Eagle and an iRobot vacuum.  He can hardly stand it most of the time...I convinced him not to give me everything he got me.

We then went out to dinner, to an amazing place in Steilacoom.  LOVE Jake's.  We came home, realized the vacuum was charged than ran it...Much to the dismay of our dog & cat.  The dog basically couldn't be within ten feet of it, and the cat watched comfortably from the stairs.  Today I'm going to try it upstairs.

So that brings me to now.  My husband is fishing, and I need to get myself together to take the dog out before he starts driving me crazy.  He's peacefully sleeping on the couch, I know as soon as I move he will think it's time for him to go too.  After I take him out I'm going to move some stuff upstairs so that I can run my robot!  How exciting....Haha.

I hope you all enjoy your sunday...And have a great week!  I will post photos from my 365 project soon!

♥

Snomg!

That's the hashtag on twitter at least.  #snomg!  People in Washington are dramatic about the snow.  I should know, I am a Washingtonian.  Love Washington, but don't get me wrong, they're dramatic about the snow.  A trace to an inch, things are okay.  Any more than that you might as well forget about watching any of your tv shows or leaving your house because may places are shut down, the Army cancels work, people are slipping, sliding, and crashing on the roads.  The people who make the news know that most places are shut down and school is cancelled - so they have news and weather on 24/7.  Watching that, people won't want to leave their house!  Sometimes their correct, other times....They're not.

Anyway, here is some photos of the snow.  At least this year they're not calling it Snomageddon.

Kitty in the snow.

Stryker's snow angels.

Stryker with snow on his nose.

Snow on the fence.

I have to admit, it was hard to go to sleep because I knew it was going to be gone in the morning.  As much as a majority of time I hate the snow, there is something magical about it.

Here is my photo of the day:

I rearranged the kitchen:)

Have a good one!

♥

Injured Soldier & Care Package Ideas

So I'm posting my second entry for today...I don't count my blog at 12 AM as an entry :)  Stryker is at daycare so I can get some stuff done (Spuz is acting like an only child right now)...And here I am!  I was supposed to be cleaning, but oh well...

I want to first say that if you are interesting in sending items or cards to an injured soldier in Jesse's company, please shoot me an e-mail or Facebook me.  We're trying to give him as much support as possible as he goes through this difficult time.

I also want to share with you this entry from Laura from Diamonds and Dogtags.  Amazing ideas on stuff to send to your soldier/marine/airman/sailor.  Seriously, I'm stealing some of her ideas.

Happy Friday!

Ten

I have been tagged by Dana at Happy Life as an Army Wife to list ten things that make me happy.  Sorry it took me so long to do a new post....I've been working on this one!!

1. Jesse.  Now, how could I start off this without him?  I don't feel like getting all mushy on you, so I won't.  He is the love of my life, he makes me laugh, and he's a total goofball.  He is what I am not.  We are pretty much exact opposites.  I am indecisive, he is decisive.  He can sit there and tell someone what he thinks without them getting offended, and is fearless in doing so.  He's proud of what he does and loves his job.  He's great at hanging pictures (I know this is weird, but it amazes me!).  He's confident and outgoing.  He's a good handyman, and wants to learn and do all that he can.  He is, for the most part, motivated.  A lot of the time you can't get the boy to sit down!  He can be a little nutty, but always means well.
2. Stryker & Spuz.  I love animals.  They are awesome.  I am a huge animal person.  I have a hard time if either one of them aren't around me.  My crazy, goofy, 90 lb labrador/german shepherd has a great temperament, never jumps on people, and is easy to train.  He is great with kids, other animals, and is a gentle soul.  He scares strangers who don't know him, often because of his size (yes, I think that's awesome).  When he looks at me he melts my heart.  Spuz is a fuzzy little man that we adopted at 3 weeks (yes, bottle fed even!).  He has an attitude of a cat, but rarely does anything destructive.  He loves his mouse toy, his scratching post, and canned food.  He doesn't eat too much, but gets daring to go outside.  Usually noises scare the bejesus out of him so that doesn't last long!  He is a cat who has a mean streak (I'm not gonna lie he will occasionally attacks me in my sleep), but always keeps an eye on me wherever I go.  And he's fascinated with water.  Either way, the two of them never judge, and are great companions.
3. The US of A.  How can I not love this place?  The more I think about places that are third world countries (like Afghanistan) I am more and more grateful that I was born here.  Many of you have heard stories of your own of experiences your family members have had with Iraq and Afghanistan with how people live.  I think it's hard to wrap your mind around living in places like this.  How many people's houses are literally mud huts, they have arranged marriages, and don't know their birthdays (just to name a few things that Americans don't often think about).  They fear for their lives because people like the Taliban are so forceful, vicious, and heartless.  You know those movies where they kill everyone in your family besides one person?  That happens there.  In real life.  They don't have clean water much of the time, many people don't wear clothing that looks clean, and if they do it doesn't stay that way.  They are far from the luxuries that we have here, and they take whatever they can get and as much of it as possible in fear that they won't have it tomorrow.  We take so much for granted.  We are so lucky here.
4. Mil Spouses.  I have to admit, I never thought that I would be so grateful for such a group of people.  Fort Benning was the beginning of my journey as a true Army Wife, and I have met so many amazing, beautiful, strong, resilient men and women along the way.  In no particular order:  Katie, Ashley, Cherie, Cassidy, Crissy, Kristen, Dana, Chantal, Clarice, Cathy, Kelly C., Kelly R., Sarah M., Heather, Clarice, and Merideth, you all have been amazing awesome women who I have been inspired by or gathered great strength from.  Thank you for being in my life (and sorry if I missed you in my name drop!!).  For all of you in the blog-o-sphere of life, you too make me laugh and sometimes make me cry.  I enjoy knowing you and reading your stories, they are both motivational and inspiring.
5. The Great State of Washington.  I love this state.  You have everything here.  You have oceans to your west, mountains to your east, and desert on the other side of the mountains.  You have rivers, lakes, and the Puget.  You have great wildlife like seals, whales, elk, deer, and bears.  You have evergreen trees standing tall on every hillside, and Mount Rainier is an amazing sight in the background.  You have the amazingly destructive yet beautiful volcano that is Mount Saint Helens.  There is great food, organic is huge here.  Wild salmon, clams, oysters, and more fresh seafood are abundant here.  Lots of wineries.  And if you get bored, you have Idaho to your east and Oregon to your south.  They too are full of amazing and beautiful adventures.  Wherever the Army takes us, I see us coming back here to stay and spend the rest of our lives when the craziness is over.
6. The Ocean.  Yes, I touched on this on my previous point, but I want to say it again.  I love the beach!  Chances are if its somewhat nice out and I have time off, that is where I'll be.  Granted the Pacific Northwest doesn't give you warm sand, warm water, and you definitely don't want to swim in most of the waters here (even though they do surf a lot in certain places here).  I love the fresh fish, shopping, and most of all the water.  Long Beach, Illwaco, and Ocean Shores Washington are a couple of my faves up here (Oysterville is near Long Beach, visit there to get yourself some very fresh oysters if you're an oyster lover).  You can't deny Oregon though (believe it or not their beaches are different), with Astoria, Seaside, Cannon Beach, and Lincoln City.  While your out there visit the Tillamook Cheese factory (get yourself some fresh and local ice cream and cheese!)  Not to mention most all of these places have their own farmer's markets in the summer with amazingly great treats.
7. Laughing.  I think this pretty much explains itself??  It's always nice to get a good laugh...
8. Baking.  I absolutely love doing it.  I love mixing things by hand and seeing the end result.  I also have a sweet tooth which doesn't help any!  I do make some killer care packages though filled with all sorts of sweet treats.  I want to expand my horizon with this, and will likely do so.  I think I'm going to make cupcakes from scratch for when Jesse gets home on leave.  My mom bought me a cupcake tower for my birthday and a cupcake icing decorator tool for Valentine's Day.  So I likely will give that a try!  I even saw them make icing from scratch on the Food Network with vanilla from a vanilla bean (by the way, check out the Food Network Magazine...They have stuff other than baking in there.  Some GREAT looking food!).  Love it!
9. Chocolate.  Dark chocolate is the best, but I'll take anything I can get!  I have to say, dark chocolate fondue (like from the Melting Pot) is to die for!
10. Starbucks.  What can I say?  I am from Washington, the great state of where the first Starbucks was founded.  Need I say more?  Oh yes.  I normally order a tall white chocolate mocha with caramel sauce.  Jesse and I both get the same thing. :)

Thank you all for listening to me babble!  Now I have a task for a few select members of my blog-o-sphere.  I get to select three people to pass this task on to and keep the tradition going.  Soooo, my three choices are:  Chantal, Cheryl at My Air Force Journey, and Hell Cat Betty.

Roller Coaster

Today basically fit into two words:  roller coaster.

The day started just fine, our manager is a bit stressed about sales.  We were decently busy all morning, I took my lunch, walked down to Starbucks (dropping my cell phone in the middle of the mall), ate, went back to work.  Our second shift came in, I started working on some repair jobs that had come in.

Then I got nicely yelled at on the phone by a jerk.  You know, I don't think that sums it up well enough.  I'll sensor myself though....but you get the picture!

I had to step in the back to compose myself...Feeling like I was going to cry.  I always tell myself, demand myself not to cry in situations like this.  I surprisingly overcame it.  But when things like this happen I often think to myself how much I want my husband.  I just think:  my husbands deployed!  Not that I expect or think that I deserve special treatment, I just believe that you never ever know what's going on in someone else's life as you are treating them like absolute crap.

Then after all was said and done, my nerves were calmed, I jumped back in the swing of things.  I didn't help many people, but the first person I helped hit on me.  Asking me if I was married, for how long, etc.  They told me that things were still good since we're still in the infancy of our marriage (for me coming up on four years doesn't seem that young).  I told them that it stays pretty fresh since my husband is in the Army and that you don't really see your husband ALL of the time (side note, like they said on the Nightly News last night: "if the Army would've wanted you to have a wife they would've issued you one"...that's a pretty good quote even though I prefer: my husband's mistress is the Army, and sometimes that bitch gets all the attention).

But anyway, that was #1.  Number 2 didn't fully divulge was he was thinking, just commenting that I was probably married with kids, and it wasn't appropriate for him to say.  Good plan.

Number 3 I guess wasn't technically "hitting on" me, but when I walked over (he was my manager's customer) he felt like he wanted to tell me everything about the pendant he just bought, the chain he was wearing, why, etc.  Totally military I might add.  He barely took his eyes off of me.

By the end of the day (I got let out early) I felt okay.  The traffic sucked. One rule about this state is the "looky-loos."  BOTH sides of 1-5 (the interstate that runs from Canada all the way to California) often has looky-loos.  So, if both sides of the freeway is stopped chances are they're gawking at someone on the side of the road with their emergency blinkers on.  One negative thing about living here is definitely the traffic.  One plus:  I actually turned on my A/C in the car.  It was that warm.  When my A/C wasn't on I enjoyed having my windows down and my sunroof open.  That is the life!

I picked up my puppy from daycare, he was so ridiculously hyped up that he was trying to play with Spuz by basically jumping on him.  90 pound jumping dog + cat = no go.  Haha.  That and Stryker wouldn't settle down and was running from room to room whining with a giant overstuffed toy in his mouth.  WoW.  He finally decided to give it a rest and pass out in our room.  Seriously, doggie daycare is awesome.  And the people at The Pet Brigade are awesome.

So right now I am fine, I think I'm going to finish my day off with some TV and a glass of wine. I'm going to try and keep motivation to get some more stuff put away around here so that when my husband gets home one leave (I'm going to start a mental countdown very soon) that I won't have anything out of place.  Haha!  Right.

Happy Friday all, and enjoy your weekend!





PS - SpouseBuzz had this great link and music video which I encourage you to watch!!! 

Happy Valentine's Day

Of course Valentine's Day is tomorrow, but I wanted to get it out of my system now.  Ha.  I hope everyone has a great day and treasures those moments with those most special to them.

I had a good day today:  my normal dog park trip, my parents came over and helped me with some things, and I finished off the day with a dinner with a couple of friends.

The rest of the night I'm going to relax (maybe with a glass of wine?), hopefully talk to my husband, and then go to bed.  Tomorrow is going to be a busy day -- I'm not really sure if I'm going to be able to get everything I need to do done.  I'm picking up my Valentine's Day gift (more to come on this later), I need to get some cat food, run Stryker out to my parents house, go to an event for mil spouses, maybe go out to dinner, and bring our cat home.

We'll see how it all goes -- and how smoothly.

Have a great holiday, everyone.

Photo Booth is a Great Creation

Me & 'The Bug'
Taken via Photo Booth on my MacBook
(After a webcam convo with Jesse)

So, life has been crazy the last few days.  Work has been mainly my life -- I feel like I've been working, talking to my husband, and sleeping.  Oh yeah and maybe eating.  And making Jesse his Valentine's Day goodies for his next care package.

Speaking of care packages, his V-Day care package is probably going to be such a topic it's going to have its own blog entry.  So stay tuned for that!

Lately I've been feeling a little under the weather.  Normally I'm great with not getting sick (minus the time in 2004 when I got sick with strep throat and asthmatic bronchitis on Christmas Day.....talk about fun!) but I seem to have caught something.  With the H1N1 shot that I got, I guess I let my guard down... Then got a cold.  Awesome.  My throat hurts, I'm a bit achy, I've developed a cough, and my head was hurting by the end of my shift today.  Thank goodness I have off tomorrow!  After I am done here I will be going to bed.

Other than that I am SO thankful this month is a short month.  It's still a while before the leave time, but I am really excited that shaving off a few days will make time go a little faster.  I will take whatever that will help me speed this thing up.

Have a happy Thursday and I will be making my best effort to get on here more often again!

Pretty Kitty

Today Spuz has been unbelievably clingy to me.  Maybe he's cold, maybe he misses Jesse, maybe now he loves me (it was debatable before).  Either way he keeps coming into my room, looking at himself in the mirror, getting attention, getting the occasional nap in, among other more strange things.  Regardless, the little bugger is growing on me more than he used to.  He often times rebelled when Jesse was gone.  Jesse would go into the field for however long and Spuz would wait for me to lay down in bed and then wait calculatedly to attack me.  I would have these little pep talks with him (yes, I am serious) telling him how it wasn't my fault dad went away, that it was the Army's fault and he would be back.  I do think that this worked for some length of time.

Enough cat talk....  My day went by quickly, I had a lot to do at work today.  I've been relaxing since I got home.  Dad has off tomorrow, so he'll probably help me out with more stuff tomorrow.

I want to start taking more photos.....I will try and post some here soon.  I think I have eight of them in my January album on Facebook.  This month has been decently uneventful, I don't know if that's good our bad.  Regardless I'll try and take photos of something!

Our Boys

Stryker and Spuz are sooooooooo cute!

So, a couple of things I would like to share today.  I found this article earlier on SpouseBuzz that I think is a good read for both MilSpouses and Civilians.  I think she gets the feelings out pretty well about deployments.

Second, I found this article in the Tacoma News Tribune that mention's Jesse's Battalion and the last fatality they had on Christmas Day.  They mention Lt. Col. French, who Jesse worked with some time after her got to the middle east.  Also, KOMO has this article covering the same fallen soldier at Ft. Lewis.  Cpt. Schuab is mentioned in this article, he a part of the command here at home.  I just thought you might be interested in some perspective of the people that Jesse and I come in contact with often.

Other than that I worked all day, got to come home about forty-five minutes early, and am relaxing now.  Tomorrow's a busy day, I know I have talked about it a lot already in previous blogs.  I have to get up early in the AM, so hopefully I hear from the husband before I hit the hay.

Goodnight!

Christmas Cards

Jesse's Cat Spuz, helping with Christmas cards

My first round of Christmas cards should be going out sometime tomorrow!

Expect to see yours in the mail soon.

If you want one, and didn't get one, please e-mail me!