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!

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 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!

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!