New Girl On Post: September 2008

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Pictures and other plans

Lots of things for me to mention today!

First of all, a big, huge, thank you to Mr. and Mrs. Mojito for kindly tweaking my html code to clean up my columns a bit. They have no idea how much I appreciate that!

Secondly, here are a few pictures of the apple tart that I promised yesterday. Again, I apologize because they aren't the best quality, I'm having some problems with the close-up aspect of my camera.

Yes, there is a slice gone and some apples gone from up top. It was hard keeping Sean and I out of the tart before I remembered to take pictures.

I also got the picture of the dry cleaning place. Enjoy!

One more picture, this is one of my favorites that I took this weekend. I really love our old courthouse and it makes a great photography subject.

I get paid today! Yay! Which means I'm taking myself to Alexandria tomorrow after to work to hit up Hobby Lobby and the mall. Forever 21 and Limited here I come! Sean will be watching the Cubs game tomorrow night so he won't need any entertaining and I can shop to my hearts desire. I thought about going Saturday, but Sean asked if I wanted to go to Shreveport this Saturday so I jumped on that.

Last night I took Boomer on a walk around the golf course on-post and he loved it! I don't walk him as much as I should and he really enjoyed all the new sights, sounds and smells at the golf course. He even let a random lady pet him which is big for Boomer. He normally isn't into people touching him that he doesn't know, but this lady loved him! He doesn't usually walk for long distances and the golf course track is about 2.2 miles so towards the end he jumped up and had me carry him. Thank god that was only for about a quarter of a mile. My little Min-Pin is kind of heavy! It really wore him out though, so by the time we got home he was ready to sleep.

Anyone watch Dancing with the Stars last night? Misty May-Treanor continues to blow me away. I am so suprised that she is as good as she is. Kim Kardashian failed to impress once again and Cloris Leachman just scares me.

Monday, September 29, 2008

The Apple Tart Experiment

I wish it could still be the weekend! I had a very nice, relaxing weekend. I got several things accomplished on my to-do list and still had time for some other things.

I did make an apple tart this weekend. I used this recipe. It was a bit time consuming, as I decided to use handmade dough instead of taking the easy way out and buying dough. This was my first foray into dough making and it was hard! At first the dough came out really really sticky, but with some flour and some patience I finally got the consistency right. I used Granny Smith apples, as the recipe called for them and quite honestly they are my favorite, but the tart ended up...well very tart. I thought I had some cinnamon on hand, but evidently it disappeared somewhere in the last month or so and so I didn't have any to put on top of the tart. Sean pronounced it as delicious and he really loved the crust. I thought it was ok and a bit time consuming for it to turn out less than stellar. I took some pictures, but I'll have to put them up tomorrow as I was too lazy to upload my pictures that I took this weekend onto the computer.

I did get out and take some pictures. They aren't spectacular, but I'm still trying to learn all the features of my new camera and it's going to take me awhile to get everything down pat on that. I did also get a picture of that crazy dry-cleaning sign that I mentioned last week. I'll try my hardest to get that picture up tomorrow.

I also cheered on my Oklahoma State Cowboys to a 4-0 start to the year and might I add they are now number 21 in the rankings on the AP poll? Of course, our arch rival OU is number 1, which I had to hear about from my husband all weekend, but what they do doesn't concern me.

This morning before I headed to work, I stopped off at in/out processing to get my no-fee passport taken care of. Thankfully there was absolutely no line and I was in and out of there in about 10 minutes. I didn't close my eyes in the pictures they took and so that was a great plus for me. I tend to close my eyes a lot in pictures. It's a matter of annoyance for me. Anyway, she told me my passport should come in within about a month and then I can get my Visa taken care of. I'm just glad to get the ball rolling on this.

Here's hoping this Monday goes by fast!

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Sunday, September 28, 2008

Boomer's Birthday!

On my way home from work I stopped and got Boomer a hamburger Happy Meal and also a new squeaky toy.

He was quite delighted by both presents.

I love how his head is down in the box. It was funny to watch him eat the fries. He didn't scarf them down, but instead delicately picked each one out of the box and ate it.

This is his best pleading look for Sean to please throw his toy.

Friday, September 26, 2008

Friday Fun Questions Volume 6 and Survivor

Is anyone watching Survivor this season? Sean and I watched it last night and I think I'm already hooked. I already have my favorites (Marcus) and those that I cannot stand (Jillian, Charlie) thank goodness Jillian was already voted off. Her accent and know it all attitude were making me crazy! Where they are at is beautiful though. I really want to go to Africa sometime in the near future. I can't find anyone who wants to go with me though. Where's everyones sense of adventure? Huh?

Today is Boomer's (our Min-Pin) first birthday. Yes, I'm one of those people who celebrate their pets birthdays. Sean had to take him to the groomer today to get his nails clipped, but I told Boomer I'd make it up to him by getting him a Happy Meal. No, I'm not going to let him eat the ENTIRE Happy Meal.

Time for some Friday Fun Questions!

1. Three websites you frequent the most?
2. What's one thing you really want for Christmas?
3. Any shows this season you are already addicted to?
4. Are there any foods that you were hesitant about trying, but then did and loved them?
5.What room in your house is your favorite and why?

My answers:
1. Blogger.com, armywivesforums.com and hotmail.com
2. I really want a laptop for Christmas, but I know I'm not going to get it, so the second thing I really want is a Chi straightener.
3. I already mentioned Survivor, but I'm also liking Dancing With the Stars
4. My first cruise I was hesitant about escargot, but I tried them and love them! I try to order them every time I can. Delicious!
5. I think my favorite room in our house is the bedroom. Mainly because that's where Sean and I relax the most and just have fun watching TV together.

I'd love to hear your answers!

My list of things to do this weekend:
1. Take pictures of surrounding area and funny signs around town
2. Go to Hallmark and buy a new Yankee candle. I really want that chocolate cupcake one!
3. Cheer on my Oklahoma State Cowboys. I'm hoping for a 4-0 start.
4. Buy a new nose stud. I'm tired of the pink one I have in.
5. Make something tasty this weekend. I'd like to make some kind of apple tart. Does anyone have a good recipe?

So what are your weekend plans?

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Shoe Addictions

Well, I'm happy to report that I finally got to watch the Sex and the City movie last night. I really enjoyed it, even though I've heard a lot of people say they didn't like the ending. Honestly, I wasn't suprised by the ending and I did really enjoy the movie, even though it was a little longer than I thought it would be.

Other than that I just went to the gym and did some weight-lifting and swung by the commissary to pick up a few food items that we needed.

I'm hoping Sean gets home at a decent time tonight, even though it's only been one night I really do miss having him around and I hate not being able to hear from him even in a text.

Can I just say I love the Walk the Line soundtrack? I think I'm going to download all of it on ITunes. Actually I think I prefer Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon singing then June Carter Cash and Johnny Cash. Sean was shocked the other day when I told him that it was really them singing, I guess he thought it was a voice-over. Walk the Line is one of our favorite movies to watch together, we also really like 50 First Dates. Sean has secretly admitted to me that when he has watched them apart from me he's cried on several occasions. That was a shocker when I first heard it since I've never seen him cry! Don't you just love it when they admit that stuff to you?

I was driving back from lunch yesterday and noticed a dry-cleaners sign that I'd never looked at before. It had the name of the dry cleaner and underneath it had it's slogan. The slogan just happened to be, "A Great Place to Drop Your Pants" I laughed so hard! I have never seen anything like that. I'm going back this weekend when I take pictures around town to take a picture of it. I promise when I do I'll post it on here so you guys can get a laugh.

I'm loving these shoes:

I have them in black and I really like them, so I'm thinking I might have to get them in red too.

I also like these:

Can I admit something? I'm addicted to shoes! Sean mocks me for my massive pile of shoeboxes in our closet, but I really have cut down on my shoe buying and I've even gotten rid of a few pairs that I never wear. When I was a shoe salesgirl I honestly bought a new pair about every week. I could afford to because I knew when the great sales were and also when shoes were marked really low I could have first dibs on them. I miss those days! Not really, because I hated retail, but the discounts sure were nice!

I'm waiting on my mother to send me a banana pudding recipe and a potato soup recipe. I've asked for them twice in the last couple of weeks and she keeps forgetting. Granted she's a busy lady, but I really want those recipes! Just thinking about the banana pudding makes my mouth water. That recipe comes from my grandmother who makes the most amazing pies you'll ever eat. She does homemade crusts that are so good, that you'll actually want to eat the crust by itself. Almost everytime I come home she makes me a pumpkin pie, regardless of the season just because I love pumpkin pie so much. I wish we were going home for Thanksgiving this year, I'd really like to experience some of her pie....

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Ladies Night

I'm having some problems with Blogger today. I'm not sure if it's just my computer or actually Blogger. In case you didn't notice I'm playing around with some new layouts and I actually changed to a three column template so I could unclutter the blog a bit. I'm sure it'll change a few times before I settle on something I really like.

Tonight Sean will be staying out in the field, since they are doing some land navigation and it appears he won't be back until sometime Thursday. So I'm designating tonight as ladies night, even though it just involves one lady, me.

On the agenda? Going by the PX to pick up Sex and the City, which I am so excited about! I missed seeing it in the theater and I cannot wait to sit down and enjoy it. I'm also going to pick up a birthday card for one of my best friend's little boy. He'll be turning one this weekend and I need to get a card for a fellow Army wife who's husband is deployed. She's not living on-post and I know she gets pretty lonely so I think I'm going to try to send her a little card or something in the mail each week just so she'll have a little cheer.

I was so excited when I got home yesterday because I got my favorite magazine in the mail. My mom got me a subscription to Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel for my birthday this year and it is the BEST travel magazine. I highly recommend it! This month they even had an article on 25 Things They Love About New Orleans, which gave me some good places to check out if I ever make it back there before we leave.

I saw the neatest idea on Flickr yesterday. A woman is doing 365 days in photos. She takes pictures of things in her world (mostly her son) and gives each picture a day. I'm really thinking of doing this. One picture a day wouldn't be too difficult and it would be neat to look back on your year in pictures.

I've stumbled upon a lot of great blogs lately and I wanted to take a moment to recommend them to my readers.

1. Make Mine a Mojito- Mrs. Mojito seriously could be a model (just look at her) but she is such a great writer and writes some hilarious posts.

2. Misadventures of a Newlywed- She's hilarious and has a great sense of style. If she lived closer I'd so try to be her friend in real life. I can only imagine how much funnier she is in person.

3. Glamourous Life of a Housewife- Again, a very good writer, hilarious posts and the descriptions of her cooking and decorating abilities make me very jealous!

Oh and for all your military gals out there if you have a recipe that you'd like to contribute please email it to us at militaryrecipes@gmail.com or email me personally to be added as a contributor to MRE's: Not for Me!

And other sidenote, as soon as I get my house decorated in a decent manner for fall I will certainly share pictures!

Well, I need to go get some lunch. Something healthy you ask? Nope! I'm thinking Arby's.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Fall Decorating

I started decorating my house in some fall decor this past weekend and realized that I needed some more fall decor ASAP. I don't have that much and I yearn for the days when I could drive ten minutes to Hobby Lobby instead of it taking an hour to get there. Then I stopped and considered the fact that there are not going to be any Hobby Lobbys in Europe and since you can't shop online at their site that I'm going to be having major Hobby Lobby withdrawls!

I was looking around online today for some ideas for fall decorating and found some really interesting ideas. Why can't I be this crafty/creative?

What I really need is for this woman to come decorate for me.

If only. A girl can dream right?

Anyone else checked out the new Yankee Candle scents for fall? I've seen several I want. Chocolate cupcake being high on the list as well as any sort of pumpkin scent.

I realized yesterday that Sean and I could possibly moving in about two months and there are still a ton of things in Louisiana that I haven't yet visited. I still want to see Oak Alley Plantation, extensively see Baton Rouge, visit New Orleans again and also visit a few National Historic Sites in the state. I also planned on going over to Mississippi to visit a few places, but if I'm going to do all of this I'm really going to have to get on the ball. I just don't know when/if I'll ever be back here and would really like to experience those things on my list. Guess after this next payday I should start taking care of that!

I'd like to thank the Academy....

So, one of my new favorite bloggers, Misadventures of a Newlywed, was kind enough to give me a blogging award today. I love awards! They are always a great addition to my otherwise ho-hum day.

Characteristics for the Smile Award:
1. Must display a cheerful attitude. (I'm not always the best on this, but I try!)
2. Must love one another. (I love reading all of your blogs)
3. Must make mistakes. (Ha! Have you read my posts?)
4. Must learn from others. (I've learned a ton of things in the amount of time I've been blogging on here.
5. Must be a positive contributor to blog world. (I do my best)
6. Must love life. (Most of the time)
7. Must love kids. (I do, although I don't want any at the current time)

These are the rules for The Smile Award:
1. The recipient must link back the the award’s creator
2. You must post these rules if you receive the award.
3. You must chose 5 people to receive the award after receiving it yourself
4. You must fit the characteristics of the recipient of the award, as posted by Mere
5. You must post the characteristics of a recipient.
6. You must create a post sharing your win with others.
7. You must thank your giver.

Here are my picks:

1. Sgt and Mrs. Hub aka Andrea: She definitely fits all of the above requirements. Her blog was the first blog I started reading on Blogger and I've been hooked ever since! She's amazing. If you haven't checked her out, you must do so ASAP.

2.Katie at True Life: I'm an Army Wife: Katie has the cutest dogs ever and is really a great blogger. I always enjoy reading her blog. Most importantly she was the one who came up with the great name for our military recipe blog!

3.Small Town Louisiana Girl: She's living in Louisiana like myself, although she is a native and I am not. She's always got an interesting blog and she's an LSU fanatic.

4.Trying Our Best: a fellow military wife, who has two young sons and always manages, even with the worst of situations to bring a chuckle to her posts.

5. Lindsay at And We'll Just Laugh Along the Way: Lindsay is great! I think if I were ever to live near her I'd want to hang out with her...alot. She is hilarious and I love her blog.

In other news, did anyone watch Dancing With the Stars last night? Who were your favorites? I thought Brooke Burke, Lance Bass and Misty May did a great job! I was even plesantly suprised by Warren Sapp! Cloris Leachman was crazy! I seriously asked Sean several times if she had been drinking prior to the show.

I have a question for all you working gals out there. What do you listen to at work? Do you bring CD's? ITunes? Or Internet Radio? Personally, I listen to Live365.com. They have a ton of stations and it's free, but of course there is a price to pay in that you have to listen to occasional commercials. Usually I like to listen to a 70's mix on there and occasionally a mix of the last thirty years. Today I'm listening to music from Walt Disney World. I love Walt Disney World and sometimes to tide me over until the next time I go there I'll listen to some music from the parks. You should check it out sometime!

Monday, September 22, 2008

Morning Express and the Christmas Season

I have to say this weekend turned out pretty well, even though I didn't get to do everything I wanted to. My plan was to go out Sunday afternoon and take some pictures in town, but due to some Vodka and Red Bulls from the night before I was feeling way to icky to do that. I really didn't even have that much, but after yesterday I remembered why I do not drink anymore. I just hate feeling like I've wasted a day because I don't feel well.

Anyway, Sean grilled alot this weekend, chicken and steak plus some really good potatoes and baked beans. I went ahead and made another batch of Chocolate chip cookies since everyone loved them so much and also since I had all the ingredients to make them without going to the store. I also made Green Enchiladas yesterday and got a few pictures of that. I meant to upload them to my computer last night so I could share them with you guys today, but I didn't have time this morning.

My second belly-dancing class is tonight and I'm excited for it. Although I wish it wasn't 2 hours long. I think one hours is sufficient. Plus, I really want to start watching Dancing With the Stars this time around and it conveniently falls on the night and time I do belly-dancing. Ah well, such is life!

Do any of you watch Morning Express with Robin Meade on CNN in the mornings? Sean got me hooked on it and now we both love to watch it. He mainly because he finds Robin Meade attractive and me because I think she's simply hilarious! She does the craziest things sometimes and I can't help but laugh. If you do watch the show did you realize she's turning 40 this year? Before I found that out I honestly thought she was about 30. Not that 40 is old, but I didn't picture her to be 40! She's obviously aging rather well.

Has anyone started their Christmas shopping yet? I want to get started on it now so that when the season is actually here I'll have all of it done and can concentrate on us getting moved. Getting Christmas lists from people is like pulling teeth though! Luckily Sean is easy to buy for. I'm getting him an IPOD for Christmas and a few smaller things. That's the only person that I know exactly what I'm getting for them though. Everyone else is up in the air, although I'm pretty sure I'll get my uncle some scotch again. I'm serious when I say that was probably his favorite gift. I'm not sure my aunt appreciated my gift to him though!

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Trying out the new camera

Yesterday I babysat one of our friend's children and I had the opportunity to play around some with my new camera.

Here are a few results.

The above picture is my favorite that I took, but please ignore the dog carrier in the background. I've been trying to find away to increase the shadows to make it disappear, but have yet to succeed without making the rest of the picture too dark. I don't have Photoshop, so that's not an option, but if anyone else has a suggestion please let me know!

I love this one too, if you look closely you can see everything but his eye is black and white. I love some of the tools in Photobucket.

I love sleeping babies!

As you might have noticed, I prefer black and white pictures when I'm photographing people/things.

I'll be updating on the rest of the weekend hopefully later tonight.

Friday, September 19, 2008

A Chubby Child

So, I was browsing through my Facebook pictures and came upon this:

How chubby was I? Note the fat rolls on my legs. But yet, I still think in all my chubbiness I was cute. I tell my mom often I want a precocious child like myself, minus the tantrums. (I used to throw horrible fits when I was a little girl.)

My mom's favorite expression about me is, "When you were good, you were very good, but when you were bad you were horrid!"

Ha ha! I can imagine now what my future children are going to be like. Sean and I were both interesting children.

Weekend Plans?

It's Friday! I can't think of a better way to celebrate then sitting back and having a few Margaritas. OK technically I can't do that until after I'm off work, but the thought is nice. Actually, even when I'm off work I won't have any Margaritas. I very rarely drink now. I'm not a fan of the calories that come with those tasty little concoctions! Although I will bend sometimes and have a White Russian. Now those are tasty.

Anyway, my jaw is killing me today. I think the culprit might be those pesky wisdom teeth of mine that haven't come out yet. I'm just dreading having that whole procedure done. For starters, I hate the dentist. My dentist back home was the nicest man, but I just hate going. I'll confess something, I have weak teeth. Which translates into me having extensive work always being done. When my mom told me she'd rather go through the pain of childbirth then get her wisdom teeth taken out again, I knew I'd be in for some pain. So, I've been putting it off, but I really do need to take care of it before we move, if that does happen.

I'm excited about this weekend. We don't have anything big going on, but some friends of ours, the Darlings, are dropping their baby off with us for a couple of hours on Saturday. I volunteered to do this the other day because I think couples need some time off from their babies from time to time and I enjoy taking care of babies, so it's a great plan!

Time for some cute winter clothes! Here are a couple of things that I like from where else, but Forever 21!

I like the cheeriness of the coat, it's so vibrant!

This looks comfy and classy at the same time.

So what does everyone have planned for the weekend? Any fun plans?

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Some Thursday Survey Fun

Lindsay tagged me for a survey and since I love surveys so much I was happy to participate!

Here are the rules:

1. Link to the person who tagged you
2. Post the rules to your blog
3. Write 6 random things about yourself
4. Tag 6 people at the end of your post and link to them
5. Let each person you have tagged know by leaving a comment on their blog.
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is posted.

1. I organize my clothes closet by pants, dresses, shirts and also by colors. The colors go from white to black, with colors like blue and green next to each other. I also organize all my shoe boxes by brand. Sean likes to mock my OCD tendencies. I also organize all of our VHS and DVD by alphabetizing them.

2. Most of my best friends I've known since I was much younger. We stayed friends all through high school and college. I actually made a lot of friends in college, but rarely talk to them anymore.

3. After I graduated college I wanted to work for the National Park Service, hopefully in some sort of museum capacity. I applied and applied, but never got a job. I really wanted to work somewhere out West like Grand Teton National Park, which happens to be my favorite.

4. When I was younger I thought people were either born with bangs or they weren't. My mom had to inform me that people weren't born with bangs, that they were cut!

5. I really like to sing when I was little, although I only performed in front of family. My mom reacalls me singing Lionel Richie's "Truly" and the first song I remember singing was "You're a Grand Old Flag".

6. When Sean and I were dating (long-distance) a tradition of ours was whenever either one of us would eat Chinese food to share our fortune with the other. Sometimes we made some up just for fun, but always ended up confessing what the real fortune was. I remember one of Sean's clearly, "the desires of your heart will come to pass." That was a real one! I remember how he hinted around after he got that one about us getting married.

I tag:

1. Semper Gumby
2. Rachel
3. Small Town Louisiana Girl
4. What She Said
5. Emily
6. Same Girl, Different Place

If you girls have already done it, I apologize!

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Blog Promoting and Boomer

Thank you to everyone who replied to my blog yesterday with well wishes, hang in theres or advice. You have no idea how much I appreciate my support system on here.

I'm just going to take this day by day and see what happens. I know that in the end everything will work out for the best. It always has in my life, even when I wondered how it could.

I wanted to participate in WWWAT today, but yet again I forgot to get on the ball and take pictures. However, American Mum has some great shots of four generations and the cutest little girls room I've ever seen for her daughter Chloe so you should head over there and take a peek.

I know I've mentioned Cake Wrecks before on my blog, but if you haven't checked them out yet, you must! They had a Curious George cupcake creation on there that I seriously laughed about for 10 minutes. Cake Wrecks is a must read, trust me!

Have I mentioned before I have the naughtiest dog known to man? I'm pretty sure I have. He is into anything and everything. I know most of that could be solved by putting him in his carrier during the day, but now that's he's house-trained I hate doing that to him. I informed Sean the other day that we need to have the British dog-trainer off of Animal Planet to come train him. I love watching her show! I think my main problem with Boomer is that he's so anti-social. He LOVES Sean and I, but anyone else that comes to our door is his sworn enemy and he barks and barks at them. It's annoying for us and the guest. I wish I knew how to get him to stop it, any suggestions out there? I'll give this to Boomer though, he makes Sean and I laugh everyday. He's the smartest dog I've ever owned and some his antics are beyond hilarious. His new favorite thing is when I'm in the kitchen he likes to stand on his hind legs and walk around like a person. Sometimes it's a bit freaky to be chopping onions or something and see this little two foot tall dog walking around like a little person. I need to get it on video so everyone can see how hilarious it is!

Sean is doing ranges this week which puts our evening hours on a weird schedule. He's not sure what time he'll be done tonight and suggested I bring home some food. Problem with that is since he doesn't know what time he'll be done the food could be cold and honestly what fast food tastes good when re-heated. My solution was to stop by the comissary and get some Marie Callendar microwave dinners. If you have yet to try these and you eat frozen dinners from time to time then you should check these out. I know some of the Army wives prefer low-maintenance dinners with our husbands are gone to the field or are deployed.

The other day I had a chicken breast with poblano pepper sauce meal complete with corn and black bean mix and rice and it was amazing, the chicken is good quality and doesn't taste funky which is very important to me. Here's a link to browse some of their offerings. Just try it, I promise you'll be impressed.

Wow, I did a lot of promoting in my blog today. What can I say? I like sharing good things with others.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

I hate the Army today

I apologize in advance for this being a very uncheerful post today.

Some of you know from a few weeks ago that I mentioned the Army taking steps to have Sean discharged after he failed his second PT test. He had to go get a physical today as part of that. Sean has several bulging discs in his back from jumps over the last few years. He had an MRI done on his back last year around this time and the PA then told him to never jump again. He obviously didn't heed his advice.

Today when the doctor examined him for this physical he looked at his MRI report and told Sean that the Army shouldn't be kicking him out for not passing his PT test, in fact, he told him he shouldn't be running at all or doing the kind of physical things that he is doing. He wouldn't sign off on Sean's phyiscal though and so now we are possibly facing Sean being medboarded. If he is medboarded it would be better than just being discharged because I believe we would receive a small settlement, wouldn't have to payback his re-enlistment bonus and Sean would still be able to use his GI bill. According to Sean we still would have good health insurance.

I'm upset, as much as I tried not to be I know it showed on my face when he told me that. I'm not mad at him, I'm not disappointed in him. I just HATE how everything is up in the air of what we are supposed to do. We are supposed to move in four months, if they go ahead with the medboard then when will we find out we aren't PCSing? How long will this medboard take? I HATE that, absolutley hate the fact I don't know what's going to happen to us in the next few months. Because with the Army there are no clear answers.

I'm not going to lie and say I'm not going to be disappointed if we don't end up going to Italy. I will be, I will take that very hard. I had my heart set on going and if we get out of the Army, quite honestly I don't want to go back to Oklahoma and live in the same place I've lived for the last 23 years. I just don't want to do it. However, I don't want to Sean to be in great pain and continue to injure his body either just so I can go to Europe. I guess I'm just scared because although I've only been living this life for a short amount of time, I assumed this is what I would know for quite awhile and to have that possibly disrupted is just scary.

Anyway...enough of that. I did bellydancing last night. It was fun! Although I can feel it in my hips today! It was about an hour and a half long, we did a get to know you intro and some other fun things and also did a lot of moves. I will definetly be going back! There was a guy there last night who was writing a story for the on-post newspaper and taking pictures. If I happen to be in one of the pictures then I'll try to scan it and show you guys. Let's hope he didn't get a picture of me from the back.....

Monday, September 15, 2008

Monday Random Thoughts

What a perfect day it is here today. The sun is shining, the air is a crisp 72 degrees and it feels wonderful! I wish it could feel this way here all the time!

The rest of my weekend was good. Yesterday was a lazy day for us, although I did clean on the house some and also get some cardio in at the gym. Sean made hamburgers and french fries last night complete with Swiss cheese and mushrooms on my burger. I have to brag and say my husband can cook like no man I've ever known. He just improvises on so many things and they all turn out delicious. There have only been one or two times where something he cooked wasn't perfect. He actually did all the cooking this weekend. The only things I made were Spinach Dip and some delicious chocolate chip cookies courtesy of Andrea. Seriously the best chocolate chip cookies I've ever made and I've been making cookies for a long time.

So, I have this weird thought process I noticed when I walked down to the post office a few minutes ago. I hate walking across crosswalks or crossing the street when I have to deal with traffic (light or heavy). I get extremely paranoid if I have to walk in front of a car because I feel as if they are critiquing me as I walk in front of them. How crazy is that? I've had this paranoia since I was in middle school and it still hasn't stopped. Does anyone else experience that? Or am I the only weirdo out there?

Tonight is my first bellydancing class at the gym on-post. I'm so excited! I think it's going to be fun and hopefully I'll have some awesome abs in no time. I'll make sure to report tomorrow on how the class goes tonight.

As far as our upcoming PCS is going everything seems to be going according to schedule. I need to go get my no-fee passport and Sean is going this week to schedule a brief with transportation on all the things we need to do and also so we can get signed up for packing, etc. We also got the stuff to study for our International Drivers' licenses. There's a lot of signs and a booklet to look over, but I think I should do pretty well. I don't plan on driving that much while we are in Europe, but I want to be able to just in case I want to. I'm getting so excited though! I've been looking over the 3+ travel guides I have for Europe and I'm really thinking about ordering some of Samantha Brown's Passport to Europe DVD's. Does anyone have those? I love the show, so I'm thinking they might be good to have.

Hope everyone has a good Monday!

Saturday, September 13, 2008

Riding the Storm Out

Well, all is well here at Fort Polk. I say that and the tornado sirens just went off a few minutes ago. ::rolls eyes::

Actually, the tornado sirens have gone off 3 times since last night. 4:00 in the morning and waking up to sirens is not my idea of a good night, but after Sean checking the radar on TV and seeing no meteorologist in sight we went back to sleep and amazingly weren't blown away.

Let me just say this. As a native Oklahoman I've experienced my fair share of storms and tornadoes. I've been very, very scared in many situations and when I was about 12, after a particularly bad storm season, I was convinced I was going to die in a tornado. I'm no rookie when it comes to bad weather. No offense to all Louisiana people, but the tornado watch/warning system in this state sucks. I don't think tornado warnings here and tornado warnings back home mean the same thing. Thus, I've pretty much begun to ignore the sirens around here.

I'm sure hurricanes are much worst in the coastal areas. I never want to experience a hurricane while living on the coast, but honestly? Up here the effects haven't been that bad and I've seen worse storms in Oklahoma. I guess I'm just used to a different type of storm. Again, not knocking hurricanes, I know they cause destruction and damage, but I think tornadoes back home have me a bit more scared than these hurricanes.

We weren't completely unscathed from the storm. Our electricity went out this morning and stayed off about an hour and then went off again later in the day and finally came back on about an hour ago. There are some limbs down and the Fort Polk website says there were some electric poles down, but otherwise it looks like we escaped so far with minimal damage.

I elected not to go to Alexandria today and decided instead to wait until the end of the month and the next payday. Hobby Lobby wouldn't have done too much damage on my account, but I know Forever 21 and the Limited would have. Instead I'm typing up some recipes on MRE's: Not for Me and catching up on some reading. Later tonight for supper Sean is going to make pancakes, sausage, hash browns and eggs. I'm more than ready! Breakfast for supper is one of my favorite things!

I hope all my fellow Louisiana people are all right and I hope the rest of you have a great weekend!

Friday, September 12, 2008

My Day Off

Fun Friday Questions are taking a hiatus this week folks, sorry about that! I've just been busy doing other things today and it sort of slipped my mind.

As I mentioned, I'm off work today and remarkebly Sean is too, which is quite unexpected. We used this day off to do some boring adult errands. You know the type: bank, grocery shopping, getting the car's oil changed. The commissary today was INSANE. I think the combo of hurricane panic and it being payday didn't help. Also the commissary was closing early due to the hurricane, as many places around here are so that didn't help either. Personally, I'm not too concerned about the effects around here, but I guess others are.

What amazes me is the people that have yet to evacuate from Galveston. Hello people? It's an ISLAND! WTH are you thinking? I'd be out of there in a heartbeat!

I'm really thinking about going to Alexandria tomorrow and shopping at Hobby Lobby and Forever 21. I know Sean will be busy with watching the college football games tomorrow and I have a need to do some shopping.

I got paid yesterday and let me just say what a wonderful employer I have. I missed quite a bit of time due to the hurricane and our server being down, but I was still paid as if none of that happened. It was so nice to get a normal check and a really big suprise. I do love working there!

That's about it for me today folks, I'm thinking about getting back to cleaning. How unfun is being an adult sometimes? Cleaning the bathroom and doing laundry on a day off? Sometimes I yearn for the carefree days of childhood!

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Heroes At Home

Spread the word on this! I got an email from my FRG leader regarding Sears Heroes at Home Program. If you know some families that might not otherwise have a good Christmas I suggest you pass this on to them.

Go to www.sears.com/wish to check it out.

In other news, it looks as if I'll be off work tomorrow to "prepare" for the hurricane. It looks like Sara will be getting the brunt of the storm. Events are being canceled around here and once again Wal-Mart is packed with people getting ready for the storm. This time I don't know if we'll be so lucky not to feel some effects of the storm since we will definetly be on the east side of the storm. Guess we shall see how it pans out. At any rate it's not going to affect us like it will the Houston/Galveston area.

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

My Husband Wouldn't Be Caught Dead In This

Ok...so I know I already posted once today, read my post below if you want to read weird gym experiences I've had recently.

However, I was looking through the Lily Pulitzer catalogue and ran across this:

It won't let me post a pic..so please follow this link

Note the pants, yes I do mean the clownesque pants.

So I do like Lily Pulitzer stuff, but seriously, what man would wear this? I mean come on! My husband would rather go naked then wear pants of that coloring.

I just can't help but laugh!

Odd Happenings at the Gym

Well, we are up to 12 recipes on MRE's: Not for Me! and all look delish. So, keep those recipes coming everyone! I can't wait to try a few out.

I'm back working full-days at work. Actually I have been since Monday, since our server was back up late Monday morning. I'm grateful, because although this will be a smaller check than usual, it should at least be a somewhat decent one.

Can I just say that the gym has the freakiest people? Has anyone else noticed this? Or I am alone in the odd people flocking to the gym here on-post?

Let me give you some examples. I go to the gym alot, therefore I see the same people almost everyday and everyday there's something odd that makes me laugh and I have to tell Sean about.

1. There is a young woman who comes to work out who wears jeans, tight jeans mind you to work out in. Last time I saw her she had her hair braided into a Mohawk. Didn't think that was possible? Neither did I! She had Apple bottom, skin-tight jeans on, a midriff shirt, silver sandals, and lots of jewelry on. This girl is probably about 20. However, how is that outfit to work out in comfortable? I mean jeans and sandals? Not any sandals either. These things were platforms! That's not the only time she's showed up in an odd outfit. It's so bad that people literally stare at her when she's there. I'm not talking the good type of staring either!

2. It never fails that the he-man, macho types are in the gym when I'm there. Since I like to alternate weights with my cardio, they're usually all over in the weights. What kills me is the men who sit there and flex in front of the huge mirrors. It's one thing to look at yourself when you are doing free weights, but I'm talking walk over to the mirror, full on flexing going on. The oddest occurrence was when a 40-something man was at the gym working out with his young son. After every single exercise he did he walked over to the mirror and flexed. The funniest part was when he took off his shirt and proceeded to admire himself for about 2 minutes. It was all I could do not to laugh out loud. I kept looking around to see if anyone else was catching the show that I was.

3. Then you have your fully-decked out girls, similar to number one mentioned above. You know the type, they have full-makeup on, smell heavily of perfume and are wearing the shortest shorts known to man. I ask this, how is that comfortable? I much prefer comfy Nike shorts, a sleeveless t-shirt and no heavy makeup or perfume.

4. The array of awesomely bad gym fashion never ceases to amaze me. Hey, I'm just in a t-shirt and shorts, but I've seen swim trunks sported, really, really short shorts on men that were actually really obscene and an amusing array of spandex. Remember the outfits from Jane Fonda's workouts in the 80's? They've actually made an appearance in present time.

You gotta love the gym and the crazy shenanigans that go one there!

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

We Finally Got Them!

So yesterday we FINALLY got Sean's official orders. He re-enlisted for Italy, but at the time they told us we were only guaranteed Europe, we could be going to Germany. Honestly either was fine with me, but our official orders do say Italy and also tell us what company, etc. Sean will be with.

I'm so excited! The only blip on my radar is this stupid PT test, but I have faith that it will be taken care of and in a few short months we will be on our way to Italy. I'm so excited, but also a bit nervous at the same time. I know it's going to be a wonderful experience though.

I have to say I really hate election years. I hate the us vs. them mentality and I hate sweeping generalizations that people make. I was reading a blog yesterday where a woman was talking about why she was voting for X candidate and her husband was deployed and he was voting for X candidate and in fact where he was deployed there was a large to small ratio of men voting for X candidate. First of all, how do you know the exact number of men who are deployed that are voting for the same candidate you are? Pulling a ratio like that simply because some of your husband's friends or people in his unit that he knows are voting the same way he is doesn't mean X number of people in his same situation are voting the same way. I just hate when people do that. Like they can positively prove that? Just irritating to me.

I talked to my mom the other day and she informed me that she and my dad and my brother might be coming down here to visit during their Fall Break. I'm so excited about this. Last time they were here I didn't really get the chance to explore with them and I'm hoping this time we can go down to Baton Rouge and also visit Oak Alley plantation, which has been a must-see on my list for sometime now. I feel bad though because I told her I might not be coming home for the actual Thanksgiving holiday. I can tell she was a little sad about it, but I'm not sure if Sean does have that weekend off and if he does, all those from his unit that have to stay because of rotation asked if we could put together a Thanksgiving dinner for everyone. How can I say no to that? I tried to make my mom feel better by explaining we would probably be staying with them for most of December, but I think she was still sad.

In other news, our gym on-post now has a belly-dancing class. How fun is that? I really want to go and the best part is that it's free! It's on Monday evenings from 7-9. I didn't go last night since I had other plans and had also already been at the gym for an hour prior to that, but I think I'm going to start going next week!

Monday, September 8, 2008

Weekend Report

I kept meaning to get on this weekend and blog a bit, but I guess some laziness overtook me and it just never happened.

I had a good weekend though, I hope everyone did too!

For starters I had my very first massage. It was heavenly and oh so relaxing. I enjoyed every minute of it and the lady who did it was wonderful. My only complaint was the greasy condition my skin was left in from the massage oils. I would have liked to have washed that off before putting my clothes back on, but maybe I'm just being overly picky!

I also got my new camera on Saturday night! The Fed-Ex guy dropped it off around 7:30 that night and boy was I suprised! I didn't really expect the camera to get here until Monday since some of the routes have been messed up due to the hurricane aftermath. I've been messing around with the past few days and taken a few pictures, but nothing worthy of sharing on here. Once I get some good pictures with it I'll share them on here. I'm already amazed by the low-light pictures it's taken though. That's one beef I had with my last camera, but this one is already amazing me!

I'm only working half days at work right now because our main server, which is housed in Baton Rouge, still isn't up and running. That means the program we use for 90% of our work here isn't running and thus we aren't able to put any claims in. I'm hoping it gets fixed soon because my paycheck is going to be crap unless I start working full days soon. We're also abuzz here at work because of Hurricane Ike. It's looking like it might possibly take a Rita type path, which would put us on the east side of it. I'm hoping it dissipates, but it's a little early to tell where it's definetly going for right now. I'm just glad we are still well-stocked just in case.

I've been working on my college scrapbook in the last week since I have all these half-days with nothing to do. I've been meaning to do this for several years, since I've been out of college for two years and quite honestly a fun project has become tedious! I'm only in the winter of my freshman year and already I'm overwhelmed. This thing is going to take awhile to complete, but I want to get it done so I can start on other scrapbooks. If only the nearest Hobby Lobby wasn't an hour away.....

I also need to get in gear and start putting my recipes on MRE's: Not for Me! I've been meaning to do that the last couple of days. Lindsay put up a few recipes we had emailed to us and she did a pheonemal job. It looks really good! I can't wait until we have a huge collection on there!

Everyone enjoy your Monday!

Friday, September 5, 2008

Friday Fun Questions, Volume 5

It's that time of the week! Time for Friday Fun Questions. I actually had a tough time coming up with questions today and it almost slipped my mind that today was the day. Guess all this hurricane business had my mind elsewhere!

1. In what style would your dream home be? What are some must-haves you would want to be in it?

2. An author's work you consider to be a must read?

3. What's a TV show that's no longer on that you miss watching?

4. If someone made a movie of your life, who would you want to play you?

5. What's one invention you can't imagine living without?

My answers:

1. I'd love to have a Greek Revival home ( you know a plantation home?) I can just imagine myself sipping mint juleps on the porch! I'd want it to have a huge wraparound porch and high ceilings with a magnificent staircase and a cozy living room with a fireplace. Oh and a big kitchen too!

2. I think Doris Kearnes Goodwin is phenomenal. She really captures the lives of the people she writes up and makes them as if you know the intricate details of their lives.

3. I miss all the old shows like Green Acres, Petticoat Junction, Let's Make a Deal and those sorts of shows. TV Land used to play some of them, but now are playing the likes of Third Rock From the Sun and Just Shoot Me, not classic TV in my opinion.

4. I'd want Reese Witherspoon to play me. She's funny, intelligent and a good actress. I think she'd play me in a believable way.

5. I'm sure a lot of people might say this, but I cannot imagine not having the Internet and not having the ability to find anything within just a few seconds at my fingertips. I wouldn't have met all you fabulous blogger people either without the Internet!

Let's hear those answers!

Thursday, September 4, 2008

A tad stressed...

I'm a bit stressed today.

Sean failed his second PT test in a row this morning and things are not looking good for him. He was well above average on his sit-ups and push-ups, but failed his run by ten seconds. That's exactly what happened last time.

Now, after getting a counciling statement, he is going through the beginning stages of possibly getting discharged because of this. He's already been put on no-jump status, which means we are already going to start getting less pay since he can't jump.

If he doesn't pass this next PT test then it's going to be really bad, it's actually up in the air right now if we are even going to go to Italy. I hate not knowing what's going to happen and I find it a bit ridiculous that this whole situation is even a big deal.

Please pray that he passes his next test and all this will be taken care of. I know we could make it if he was discharged, but I don't even want to think of that and how hard it's going to be.

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

MRE's: Not For Me, is up!

Emily was a doll and put our template up for our new recipe blog, if you want to check out what it looks like head to www.militaryrecipes.blogspot.com and see what MRE's: Not for Me! looks like in it's beginning stages!

To categorize it we are going to be separating it into normal categories:
Appetizers
Soups/Salads
Main Courses: Beef
" ": Poultry
" ": Pork
Vegetable/Side Dishes
Desserts

AND we will also be categorizing it according to main ingredients as several of you have suggested. I'd like to put submitted by under each recipe, so if you email recipes then please put your Blogger name to cut down on confusion.

I know Lindsay was working on links for printable recipes, which I think we would all love to see. So, Lindsay if you've made any headway with that let me know. :)

Again, if you have any questions or suggestions please do not hesitate to let me know.

Simply Smashing!

So in reference to my blog title, let me explain why I chose that. See...yesterday I was in the bathroom applying some make-up, when my liquid foundation fell off the bathroom counter and onto my big toe. I'm pretty sure my next door neighbor could hear my howl of pain, but that's not even the worst part. Evidently it bruised my toenail badly, because even slight pressure on the nail leads to excruiating pain. I'm not going to be suprised it all if it falls off, it's that bruised.

I'm off work again today. I'm not sure why, although one of my co-workers called last night and attempted to explain, but her phone was cutting out so badly I couldn't here her. I'm hoping we go back tomorrow because even though I'm getting hurricane pay for the days we are off work, it's really nothing compared to what I'd be making actually being at work and right now is not a good time for me to not be making that much money. So...I'm hoping we go back tomorrow.

My most exciting news of today would be something I purchased yesterday that I have been wanting for a long time. A Canon Rebel XSI!

I had narrowed it down between that and a Canon 40D, but honestly I just couldn't afford the price difference of the 40D and I wasn't willing to put the remaining amount on a credit card. So I bought the Rebel XSI. I had originally wanted to buy it off aafes.com, but when I looked at it on there yesterday it was no longer on sale and gone back to $895.00, which is ridiculous to me. So, I went back to beachcamera.com, where I bought my camera before this one. I had a wonderful experience using them before and I am very pleased with the deal I got off there this time as well. The camera was over $200 cheaper on their website and I didn't have to pay sales tax or shipping. My camera should be here in about a week and I'm so excited! I cannot wait to start using it!

In light of gaining a couple of pounds with all the food I've been eating waiting out Gustav, I need to go do some Turbo Jam.

Have a wonderful Wednesday everyone!

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

It's Over

Well, Hurricane Gustav moved through our immediate area without much damage, but just over the line into Rapides Parish most residents are out of electricity. We got lucky and the storm went more north of us which put us on the western side of the storm, which is the better side of it.

Our electricity is not out (obviously) and it did flicker a few times, but thankfully stayed on. It rained most of last night into today and just recently stopped to a drizzle.

Hopefully I'll be back to work tomorrow and the residents of the coast will be back to their homes quickly.

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