Well Hello There!

I know that I have neglected this blog, so again I will try and be better.

I haven't updated this bad boy since January, so let me play a little bit of catch-up for you all...

January

Jesse got rims for Big Black. 

Jesse & I celebrated my birthday at home.

We celebrated this little girl, Sophia's birthday.

We ate these super cute cupcakes.

We celebrated my birthday with friends.

We ate this chocolate & caramel cake. YUM.

We spent time with some of the best people ever.

February

We said goodbye to some friends... 

Well, sorta.

The guys watched the Superbowl...

And we socialized of course;)

We had French toast on the weekend for Valentine's Day.

We had a good Valentine's Day dinner.

We had a good ol' time for Stryker's birthday.

Jesse & I were farewelled from his unit.

March

We celebrated Ashley's birthday at home...

And out;)

We celebrated Renee's birthday...

Ashley & I traveled to Indiana...

And to Ohio.

We BBQ'd a LOT. 

We swam....a LOT.

We celebrated St. Patrick's day...

We celebrated Levi's birthday

We put bunny ears on pugs.

And they loved us for it.

We jumped around a lot.

We let little girls take pictures of us.

We ate blackberry cobbler & ice cream.

April

We went to North Carolina for Easter : )

We also said goodbye to some wonderful friends this month, our friend the Pippy's have moved on to the next chapter, and our friend Ashley finally made her way to Germany.

Hopefully in the upcoming months we will have a trip to Savannah, get a new car {more to come on that one}, see more friends, BBQ some more, my parents will come visit, we're going to Florida, and we {or myself} will be making a trip back up to the midwest again.

So basically, lots more stories and pictures to come!

Also, if you have a Droid or iPhone, download Instagram!  I am on there now, so you can follow me @marissamcadam : )

Have a great week all & happy hump day!

♥

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I hope you all have a great day....And don't drink too much! ; )

I am at the 'rents house for dinner.  We had corned beef, cabbage, veggies, and Irish soda bread.  For desert mom made a carrot cake.  Yum!

Hope you all have a great rest of the week!

Thursday Update & My "Big" Announcement

Since I haven't updated since Tuesday, I will give ya'll a low down on what's been going on in our neck of the woods.

Cars.  Oh, how we love cars.  I took my car in on Tuesday to get the headlights changed.  While the car was there, they said they noticed a leak of some sort (from a gasket they said) and recommended me to head into Honda to have them work on the vehicle since it was probably covered under warranty.  I scheduled the appointment.

Yesterday, I bring the car in.  My dad (who was in the area because he went to the hall) met me out these since the dealership would be dealing with my car.  They said everything should be done by mid-afternoon.  But, is anything that easy??  Dad dropped our other car off at his mechanic to get looked at earlier that day.  He and I spent the rest of the day taking the dogs for a walk (separately, that's a long story).  I also made a trip out to my FRG leader's house in there too.  I get a phone call mid-afternoon (I was starting to get anxious) telling me that they changed my oil and did something with the AWD fluid by my tires (I didn't realize there was such a thing), and that they had noticed it wasn't a gasket that was causing us the leakage, it was something else that they had to reseal and let sit overnight.  Is that okay? they ask me.  DAMN.  I stuttered, then said yes.  What else was I supposed to do, and better yet, what was I supposed to do about not having a car?? Son of a...

So dad calls his mechanic to get the low-down on the Civ.  They need to replace a $300 piece (insert expletive here) but he'd try something and if that worked we'd be good to go.  So we waited for a while, I called the dealer back and made sure they proceeded with the work.  How the heck is it that both cars have issues at the same time, and both cars have to be in the shop at the same time?  I am just curious to know how this happens.  Isn't the point of having two cars (other that having each spouse have one) to be able to have a back up??  Seriously.

Thank GOODNESS we get a call back from the mechanic telling us they fixed it without needing a new part (without the $300 dent in our pocket), and we could come and get it!  I got to drive my car home, but come this morning I had to have a ride to the dealer to get my other car anyway.  I have to say this situation was a blessing in the fact that: 1. Both the cars are fixed.  2. We got both of them sitting my driveway.  I didn't know how I was going to get them on post otherwise (and my dad hates going through security on post).  This will make it much easier when Jesse comes home on leave.  *Phew.*

So today I got my car, took Stryker out, prepared dinner in the crock pot (corned beef mind you...YUM!), found my vacuum sealer, packed and sealed Jesse's St. Patrick's Day package, and loaded my recycling bin with more paper (I wish they picked up once a week!).  I gave myself a break and decided to write an update.

On to my "big" announcement...haha.  I seriously haven't been meaning to hype this, but I had to wait for the right moment for reasons you could probably understand.  But:

I am now an FRG co-leader of Jesse's company.

I'm really excited to help and to be more involved with the FRG in the ways that I can.  Besides, I know that I will have to lead a company eventually after Jesse gets promoted.  It's only a matter of time and I might as well learn now.

I don't know how often I'll be updating come next week, my schedule is a bit busier than normal with work.  I will as much as I can, and it might be more that I'm thinking now.  But, if you don't hear from me you know why!

Happy Thursday!

A++

Stryker's first day at the doggie daycare on post went very well, as expected.  They give them a "report card" at the end of the day so you know the good and bad things your dog did when you come to pick them up.  They didn't give him a letter grade so I decided to grade him myself: A++.

I'm really glad that worked out, even though he was very wired when he came home.  I got him inside and he played for a little bit, then laid down.  I'm not quite sure where he is at this moment.

Other than that, the day went on without a hitch.  Yes, things are getting better.  I'm happy for that.  I have the next three days off so I'm out to do some things I have needing to do.  They're doing some schedule adjustments at work, so we'll see where that takes me.

I have a list of goals to accomplish this week, one of which is the St. Pat's care package I'm sending Jesse.  I hope to mail that out in the next few days.  I hear there are going to be some girl scouts at the PX late afternoon on thursday....So I'm going to make sure to get over there and buy me some cookies (and some for the hubster of course)!

Hope everyone has a great week.  Happy Monday!

Spring Themed

So as you can probably tell I've decided to change my background to a lucky St. Pat's theme, and I changed my signature on the blog too.  Just a couple things to keep things up to date.

Also -- I am really, I mean really obsessed with care packages.  I drove around Lakewood Town Center today trying to find some good green frosting to put on the shamrock cookies I'm making Jesse for St. Pat's (it has to be stackable).  I bought a shamrock cookie cutter a while back, and I bought some super cute sprinkles that are shamrocks.  I have a few other ideas for St. Pat's, so I might do a blog on care packages based on the holiday (and V-Day for that matter).  Since Jesse's not going to be here for Easter either, I have to say I've already started a collection of Easter stuff.  I have to be on the ball with these two holidays coming up, but I've already picked out these super cute cookies that I'm going to make (more on that later), and I bought some candy from Target and Fred Meyer that I haven't seen anywhere else yet.  All I have to say is good job, retailers.  You're making my year with the new candies you're coming out with this spring.

Yay for spring!

A Letter a Day, Hoosier Bars, and MORE

So I think I decided that I'm going to try and write Jesse a letter a day.  Now, I know that I may have said this before, but I think I am going to.  The mail isn't very quick getting over there, but I think that is my new goal.  Maybe we can call that my New Year's Resolution?  I don't know... I told Jesse I didn't have a New Year's Resolution, that I had enough to worry about.  He didn't really like that answer!

So, going back a couple of days, Wednesday was my day off.  I went and met a friend, Kristen, who's husband went through the same training as Jesse did at Ft. Benning.  They got up here almost two months after Jesse and I, so he left about two months after Jesse (he too is in 5th Brigade).  Her and I weren't close at Ft. Benning, but since I have lived here all of my life (or most of it at least) I offered to help them if the needed anything.  It will be good to have someone close by that is going through much of the same things as me!  She and I went to Marshall's and to Panera for lunch.  We talked for a long time, and we had a good time.  I also mailed Jesse his first care package in a little over a week.  I know that Jesse likes mail so I send something to him as often as I can.

Yesterday I ran some errands, made a few phone calls, and went out to the house.  I made progress at the house, I opened 3-4 boxes, which is good.  I haven't found our sheets or our bedding as of yet, but am finding a lot of bedroom stuff.  I also found all of our silverware, plates, glasses, and mugs, so that is progress!

After all of that I went to a downrange update, and I'm glad to hear that the guys are doing good things over there!  The Battalion Commander and Sergeant  Major are going to be taking leave in the near future, and both of them will be speaking to the spouses on how everything is going over there.  Overall, it was a positive meeting, and informative.  Most of the stuff they covered was 2-1 oriented, keep in mind Jesse is "detached" from 2-1 and much of them aren't in the same area as him.  But again, things are good and they are making progress over there.

Today I went out and got Stryker's stitches taken out!  He seems happy they are gone.  He really liked the veterinarian there, LOVED that he was giving him treats.  It was very funny.  He did well getting the stitches and is going to have to take antibiotics for another week to be sure that he has rid of his infection.  In total we were at the vet maybe 20 minutes, so basically in and out.  I went out to Michael's to visit my mom at work.  They already have spring flowers, Valentine's Day, and St. Patrick's Day.  They also have a bunch of their spring candles, candleholders, etc., out so it was tempting not to walk out with everything in my cart!  I did buy some Valentine's Day stuff for Jesse along with a couple of St. Patrick's Day things....  I'm getting excited to send him the stuff!  Which brings me to my next topic.....

Hoosier Bars!  I think I'm going to make an entire batch to send to Jesse (maybe for Valentine's Day).  I know when I say that name that people give me the strangest look... But they are good.  Chocolate, peanut butter, peanuts, and meringue bar cookies.  Basically Jesse really likes them and I'm pretty fond of them myself.  So, I wanted to share it with you.

Hoosier Peanut Bars

Preheat Oven to 325*

Crust:

• 2 c. all purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 c. butter, softened
• 1/2 c. sugar
• 1/2 c. packed brown sugar
• 2 egg yolks
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Topping:

• 2 egg whites
• 1 c. brown sugar
• 1 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1 c. chopped salted peanuts

In large mixer bowl combine all ingrediens for crust.  Blend with mixer until particles are find.  Press in a greased 13x9-inch pan.

To prepare topping beat egg whites in small mixer bowl until soft mounds form.  Add brown sugar gradually and continue beating until meringue stands in stiff peaks.  Fold in chocolate pieces and 1/2 c. peanuts.  Spread over crumb crust and sprinkle with remaining peanuts.

Bake at 325* for 40 to 45 minutes.  While warm, cut into bars.

Makes 36 bars.

Please let me know how you like them if you try them!