Monday Musings

I swear our landlord is an idiot and I'm convinced the people in the housing office may not be much better. As I've posted, we have a mold problem in our apartment, but just on one wall that happens to run the length of three rooms. On Saturday, our landlord brought someone to check it out. His advice? To open our windows for an hour a day and then run our air conditoner for 2 hours each day.

Umm...what? Pretty sure that's going to do jack-crap as mold is still continuing to grow. The stupidest thing is that if our apartment were as humid as they are saying it is, then we'd have mold everywhere....not just on one wall in the house. I asked housing today to send out their inspector to look at it. I want documentation of this, so eventually when this mold doesn't clear up and I want to move out I'll have it all on paper. It's just so frustrating!

In other news...I'm leaving for Oklahoma next week! I'm excited, but I feel like a bad dog mom because I'm not taking Boomer. I just hate traveling with him and I'm always paranoid something is going to happen to him. Luckily, the lovely Becca has agreed to take in Boomer for the time I'll be gone. I know he's in good hands with her, so I'm not worried about him, but I sure will miss him!

Last, but not least I wanted to say I won't be posting much between Wednesday and when I leave for Oklahoma. I will not have my laptop and therefore will have to blog at the library. I think most of you know the reasoning behind this.

Army Positives

Even though I'm a military wife, I don't feel as if I blog a lot about military related topics.

Today though, is an exception.

I'll be the first to say I have a love/hate relationship with the Army. I go back and forth daily whether or not I want us to make a career out of this or to get out and lead civilian lives.

However, since we've been in Italy, I've been quite pleased with the company that Sean is in. Never before have I met a commander who is so interested in the lives of his soldiers and families. He always has a kind word for me when I see him and he individually hand-wrote letters to all of the wives in the company before this deployment to tell them how much he appreciated attributes of our husbands and our support.

Sean's 1st Sergeant is much the same way. I'm worried enough about this deployment as it is, but I feel 100 times better knowing Sean has such great leadership. Believe me...not every company on this post has it together like the company we are in. I've heard some horror stories.

Although I've not really become close to anyone in our FRG, I will say that we have a good group of wives. I've yet to see any bickering going on and there isn't a person that rubs me the wrong way. Our FRG leader is great too. Whenever she sees me around post she always calls me by name. Trust me...not everyone does that. That's something that is very important to me.

Last but not least, our Rear D guy is awesome. He's actually the guy who picked us up when we first got to Italy last year. I have complete confidence that if I have a problem while Sean is deployed that he will take care of it. In fact, Sean has already discussed with him our mold problem and the possibility that I will have to move during this deployment. He's assured Sean that if I have a problem, he'll be going to bat for me.

I feel lucky having this group here. I know not all units or companies are run this way and I'm sure somewhere down the line I'll have a bad experience with the Army and who's in charge of us, but for now I have no complaints!

Christmas Tidbits

Time for another Christmas related post!



I've compiled a list of some Christmas facts about my family, feel free to share some of your own in the comments.

1. I believed in Santa until I was in the 2nd grade and our teacher asked when we stopped believing in Santa. Needless to say it was a rough day.

2.One of our family traditions is to open one present on Christmas Eve. It's always new PJ's.

3. At one of my Grandma's we never have a sit down dinner. Instead we all bring snacks, it's one of my favorite traditions we have. My Grandma makes homemade candy too. It's heavenly!

4. One of my most memorable Christmas gifts was a Barbie dreamhouse. Second to that would be a horse.

5. My family watches National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation every year. We've watched it so much my Dad and I have most of the lines memorized and like to throw them out at family events.

6. When I was little I always wanted a White Christmas. That ended one year when we got one and we had to cancel Christmas Eve at my Grandmother's because the snow was too deep.

7.One of my favorite Christmas treats is Mexican Pinwheels, they are the perfect appetizer. One of these days I'll share the recipe with you.

8.Last year I had Christmas ringtones for every person on my phone. To say I love Christmas music is an understatement.

Weight Frustration

I'm having a girly "I'm depressed about my weight" day today.

To explain, I'll be the first to say that since Sean got back from Germany at the end of September I haven't been doing well watching what I've been eating or exercising as much as I had been. Somehow, my weight was maintained and no negative effects came from it.

However, today when I got on the scale it appears that it's caught up with me. In two weeks I've gained about 4-5lbs. My clothes don't fit differently and I've reguarly been eating well and working out for the past two weeks.

Sean says it's muscle. I'm not sure if I believe I put on that much muscle in 2 weeks. My only other thought is it's water weight for what's going to happen in a week or two.

I know people always say you shouldn't worry about what the scale says, but I can't help feeling defeated. I just don't want all the hard work I did previously to lose weight to be all for nothing.

Christmas Shopping and an epic fail

I'm excited to report I have the majority of my Christmas shopping done. I only have about six presents left to get and the majority of them I will do once I get back to Oklahoma. Can I just say how easy on-line shopping has made my life? Thank you Amazon, Snapfish, Ebay and Touch of Whimsy for providing me with good quality presents this year!

I'm also pleased that I got my tourist passport in yesterday. The downside of yesterday was that I rode with Sean to work and went to the gym, as is my normal routine. Normally I shower at the gym and take extra clothes and make-up. Well..I had an epic fail yesterday and forgot my make-up. So...I had to walk around post for about five hours yesterday sans make-up. Let me tell you...not a pretty sight. I was too cheap to buy make-up just for that day, so I made the best out of using my sunglasses to cover my under-eye circles.

One last thing to share with you. I have a new magazine favorite. In real life this person is kind of annoying, but her magazine is awesome. Seriously...it is. I highly recommend it. Any guesses who I'm referring to?



Yep. Rachael Ray. Don't knock the magazine until you've read it. I'm pretty sure you'll like it!

My Day

Well...my day consisted of a few interesting tidbits.

1. I found a Cartier watch in the cupholder of the treadmill I was using. It was very pretty, but I did the nice thing and turned it into Lost and Found. In all honesty, I'd want someone to do the same if they found something nice of mine.

2. Went to the housing office with Sean to discuss our mold problem we are having in our apartment. See...against the north wall of our house we have our two bedrooms and one bathroom. All three of them are growing mold on the ceiling and the back wall. It's the worst in our bedroom. Yesterday I moved our wardrobe and found a ton of mold. I'm talking about two square feet of green mold. When the housing office called our landlord his response was that we weren't airing out the apartment properly. Um....I lived in Louisiana which is humid as all get-out and we NEVER had a mold problem. Pretty sure it's our crappily built apartment.

So...looks like I might be making a move while Sean is deployed. I'm not really stressed about it, just sort of a hassle.

2 weeks until I go to Oklahoma for Christmas!

I Love Christmas: Christmas Music

I thought I'd do a few posts in December about what I love about Christmas. Technically I know it's not quite December, but I decided to overlook that fact.



Today's I Love Christmas post is about Christmas music. I actually made 3 Cd's yesterday of Christmas music. Some I already had on other cd's and some I just now downloaded on ITunes.

One of my favorite finds was a CD called Christmas Cocktails.


It's mostly traditional Christmas songs presented in a jazzy sort of hipster way. It's AWESOME! So....if you're looking for something new to listen to you should check it out. ITunes has the whole CD for $9.99.

As far as traditional songs I have my favorites of course. I'm going to share my Top 5 list with you.

1. It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year-Andy Williams
2. O' Holy Night- Celine Dion
3. Sleigh Ride- I love all versions of this, Boston Pops, Ronettes and Johnny Mathis
4. Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree- Brenda Lee
5. I'll Be Home for Christmas- Michael Buble

What are your favorites?