Final 2 days at Polk

Well, all our stuff is officially packed and out of the house. Hopefully it all makes it to Italy in one piece. No I'm not holding my breath on that one.

After work last night we went to the house to clean.

Can I just say I HATE deep cleaning a house. Quite frankly it sucks and I wish I could just nod my head like Jeannie and it all be clean.

I think most of the deep cleaning is done, minus the carpet cleaning. That I will have to do tonight. I spent last night vaccuming and cleaning the baseboards. Yes...that's right me cleaning the baseboards. In every room.

After cleaning for a few hours last night we went back to our hotel room.

I was all pumped about staying in the Magnolia House on post. It's got great rooms, cute kitchnettes and the beds are comfy.

We are staying in the Cypress Inn, which I guess is an annex of some sort.

Word of Warning: If you ever stay at Fort Polk, avoid the Cypress Inn at all costs.

It's Amenities include:
1. Tiny Shower
2. Uncomfortable bed complete with lumpy pillows
3. Paper thin comforter for a great cold night

I think I slept the best out of the three of us.

I'm really not trying to come off being Miss Complain about everything today. I promise. I'm just ready to go home to Oklahoma. Which we will be doing Friday after I get off work.

Tonight is the final night of cleaning. We have our final inspection Friday morning at ten. Since Sean has to go to work and final out that day Boomer will be coming to work with me. It's ok since Kelly and I will be the only ones in the office.

My boss took all of us to lunch today for my goodbye dinner, which I was grateful for. I had a delish steak and baked potato. Looks like those pesky five lbs I wanted to lose before I went home aren't going to disappear after all.

Oh well...'tis the season to eat lots of goodies!

We got a little bit of snow last night. It was mostly slush on our car, but Baton Rouge got several inches today. Where is this wacky weather coming from? I didn't expect for it to be snowing in Louisiana before we left!

14 Days Until Christmas!

What a Weekend!

This weekend was pretty jam-packed with constant action for me.

Thanks goodness I have today off from work (unexpectedly as of Friday) to try to get some more things done around here.

Friday I was off work early and as soon as Sean picked me up we went to rent a carpet cleaner for our home. I also swung by the commissary to pick up some things to make banana pudding.

The banana pudding turned out wonderfully! Just smelling it when it cooked reminded me of my Grandma's house.

The steam cleaning went well, but boy was it a process! We had to clear out every room we did, vaccum extensively and then spot treat it for stains. Only then could we steam clean it. I think it turned out well, but that steam cleaner was a beast to manuever!

Saturday was football day and more steam cleaning. Once that was out of the way I cleaned some around the house and made some chocolate chip cookies. I think this is my best batch yet. Sean grilled us some delish t-bone steaks and I watched my Oklahoma State Cowboys come away with a victory against the Missouri Tigers, now we are ranked #8 in the nation! I cannot ever remember being ranked this high and I am ecstatic. However, Sean is disappointed in his Sooners and their shoddy performance against the Texas Longhorns.

Sunday I was up early to go with my friend Lauren to her husband's redeployment ceremony. She wanted me to take pictures of their homecoming and I was happy to do it, but I have to say it was a little awkward standing among all the re-uniting couples snapping pictures. I got a bit emotional though, the whole thing just got to me. I'll have to post a few pics I took of her and her husband though, maybe tomorrow once I can edit them a bit.

As soon as I got back, Sean and I jumped in the car and headed to Lake Charles. He really needed some new clothes, so that was our main objective. That and eating neverending pasta bowl at Olive Garden. Sean ended up with some great stuff, we both ended up with full tummies and I even got a Jen Lancaster book that I've been dying to read so it was a very fruitful trip.

The only damper on the weekend was Boomer being sick, he had a few bites of my tuna steak on Friday night and I'm not sure if that's what made him sick or if he just had a little bug. At any rate he was a very sick puppy until late Saturday night and I babied him....alot. This is the first time he's been sick since we had him though, so I'm glad we all weathered it ok.

Now back to cleaning the house!

Whew...it's Wednesday!

Can I just say I'm glad it's Wednesday? Only a few more days until the weekend and then late next week my parents will be here. Yay!

So starting off today I would like to thank Positively Preppy in Pink for bestowing a blog award on me.



I'm going to break the rule though and not pass it on, as I did pass this award on a few weeks ago.

So thank you Postively Preppy in Pink! If you haven't checked out her blog, you should. It's on my daily reads and who doesn't love reading about her internship in London?

Last night, since Sean is in the field and won't be back until Thursday, I decided to watch all the shows I know he wouldn't want to watch. I fit in a little What Not to Wear (can I just say I love how Stacy London dresses? I want her wardrobe!) two episodes of Sex and the City and a little Will & Grace. I also caught a little of I Want to Work for Diddy on VH1. The people who want to work for Diddy are insane! I could never be someone's personal assistant and make their life more important than my own, especially in the case of Diddy. He's such a man-diva. If I could meet him face to face I'd tell him to give up on trying to stay in the spotlight with constant seasons of Making the Band. GIVE IT UP! You'll never develop another artist like Mase or Notorious BIG, time for you to stop trying.

Although it sounds like all I did last night was watch TV, I actually went to the gym for about 45 minutes for some cardio and I even fit in some cleaning around the house. With my parents coming in and another possible houseguest, I thought it wise to start cleaning now. So I cleaned the bathroom, swept the kitchen and dining room floor and even whipped myself up some scrambled eggs and peanut butter toast. I've noticed when Sean is gone I get a lot more done. I suppose because our routine at night is to hang out and watch TV together and when he's not there I don't feel obligated to do that.

I was playing around on Photobucket yesterday and found the coolest gadget. Remember my pumpkin picture?



Look what I did to it:



Halloween like isn't it?

I think I'm getting off work early on Friday. There is another parade that is going to be on our street. I've never seen a town that loves parades as much as Leesville. Who am I to complain though? It should mean I'm getting off work two hours early. That is something I can appreciate.

I need to steam clean our carpets this weekend. We've been putting it off for the last month and it's come down to I have to do it now. As long as I can pull Sean away from the Texas/OU game long enough I think we can get it done.

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!

Moving Out

It's a beautiful, sunny day here in Louisiana. Boomer is laying in a sunbeam in the floor of the bedroom, I'm taking a break from cleaning the house to sneak in a blog. Sean is out in the field for a few hours today, but should be back this afternoon.

I'm also quite pleased because our neighbors are moving out. They are actually a Marine family and he is a recruiter in the next town over from us and so they have been here for about a month and a half, but they are moving out today. I'm not sad because, A. the wife and I had a conversation about deployments and she made it known her husband annoys her and if he weren't recruiting she'd want him deployed again. B. they have 3 dogs, two of which are considered dangerous breeds here on post and they CONSTANTLY bark everytime I set foot out the door or even open the door for that matter. That I can do without.

So, in the meantime I'm going to enjoy having no next-door neighbors and hope for some good neighbors this next time around.

This weekend has been interesting so far. Friday night Sean and I went out with four of his friends and it was pretty much my job to keep them all in line. Sean actually had to calm a few of them down a few times. You know how younger 20-something guys can be. It was entertaining though to say the least and they all insisted on calling me, "Mrs. Payne" I don't know if it was a respect thing or what since Sean and I are both older than all of them, but I finally told them to just call me Melissa. Did they listen? Nope...I was still Mrs. Payne all night. For some reason a few of the places we were at kept giving me trouble about being underage. I may look young, but I'm almost 25 and I guess I could take that as a sort-of compliment, but it really got to be annoying after awhile.

Anyway....I guess I should get back to cleaning. I'd like to get done before Sean gets home.