Veteran's Day

To start off this post I just want to say a big thank you to my husband and to all those that have served or continue to serve our country. Also thank you to the wives, girlfriends, fiancees, moms, sisters and widows of the men who serve. I know you all are just as amazing as the men that serve.

This is honestly the first picture that comes to mind when I think of Veteran's Day.

I'm not sure why that particular image, but it gives me goosebumps everytime I see it.

I'm working half a day today, although originally I was supposed to have today off, but half a day still works for me. Anyway, I'm taking my favorite veteran to lunch today (aka my husband) and I told him he gets to pick where we go.

Since today's post is all about Veteran's Day I thought I'd include some books that are great military reading. Some are about the current wars, others are about previous. At any rate I've either read them or Sean has and we recommend them!

House to House by David Bellavia
Charlie Company: What Vietnam Did to Us by Peter Goldman
Kill Bin Laden by Dalton Fury
Chicken Soup for the Military Wife's Soul
Married to the Military
Under the Sabers

Don't forget Band of Brothers, both the book and the series from HBO. It's simply amazing!

Not much else to say today ladies. Hope you have a great day!

Hanging in Houston

Can I just say I had an amazing time in Houston this past weekend? It was seriously the best time I've had with friends in a long time!

As you already know I met Sara a few weeks ago when she came to visit Ft.Polk, so I was eager/nervous to meet Lindsay for the first time. She's hilarious folks! I seriously laughed so much this weekend hanging out with those two girls. We had a lot of....interesting talks.

I thought it best to show what we did in a photoblog.

I don't have any of the photos from our trip to the mall, I think Lindsay has those.

Ok...after the mall it was this awesome park.



Isn't this little girl just the cutest thing?



Let the funny pictures begin!











An awesome sculpture



The guy was painting the church...so I had to get a picture of him doing that!



I love this picture of us!



Tasty fried pickles at Hooters



Makeovers at Ulta



One last group pic before we leave




Trying to get Jagger to do a cute shot....he wasn't really interested in posing.

It seriously was a great time and I agree with Lindsay when she said we all should have gotten together sooner!

Oh and one more thing. Hop over to Glamourous Life of a Housewife's giveaway. She's giving away the cutest casserole dish and pie plate!

Sometimes Being a Grown-Up Sucks!

So would you like the bad news first? Or the good news first?

Let's start with the good news shall we?

We got our flight for Italy changed from New Orleans to Dallas, which means a whole lot less driving for us. Originally when they asked us where we wanted to leave from Sean picked New Orleans thinking we'd be leaving from here, then he realized we'd be leaving from Oklahoma. So, thankfully that's changed and we even have our reservation number for it.

Looks like we are going from Dallas to Baltimore on January 6th and then from Baltimore to Italy. Yay! Now I just need to figure out the details with Boomer. I'd rather take him under the seat with me, since he's small enough to, but Sean wants him to be with the cargo. However, there is some restriction about pets not being checked when it's under 45 degrees. I'm pretty sure in Baltimore in January it's going to be under 45 degrees.

So..now the bad news. I need suggestions on this please!

A couple of years ago I purchased a brand-new car. In order to get the loan my mom had to co-sign on the loan with me. I wanted to get my mom off the loan and put Sean on there, but when I called the bank this loan is through they said that wouldn't be a problem, but they could not authorize us to ship the car overseas, even if it were for a military move.

No problem right? We bank through USAA and have our car insurance through them so surely we can get a loan through them. I called yesterday to do the loan application and we were turned down. I'll be the first to admit my credit isn't the best. I paid off a credit card this year and I'm guessing that's what is still hurting us. I checked our credit reports today. Sean's at about 712 and I'm in the mid 600's.

Now we are between a rock and a hard place. Realistically I know that public transportation in Europe is great and we could do without a car, but Sean wants one there just in case. Plus I still owe about $9,000 on this car and if we just sell it, then we aren't going to get that much out of it and will still be paying for a car we don't even have.

We HAVE to have written permission of our leinholder in order to ship the car, so just leaving with the car and not telling the bank we currently have the loan with will not work.

I bank locally here and thought maybe we could get a loan from them or my other thought was that we might be able to trade-in our car and get a loan from a dealership if we got a new car. However, I'm not sure how that would work.

Any ideas? Suggestions? Miracles for me?

I really don't know what to do and it's stressing me out.

At any rate have a great Friday! I know even with this stress I'm still going to have a great weekend with the girls in Houston!

PBS and Photography Musings...

First things first....a fab giveaway!

Check out Wearing Mascara's awesome make-up giveaway. I promise you won't be disappointed.

I'm still trying to think what to give away for my 200th post. Sorry to the ladies in Europe, but I won't be giving away a plane ticket anytime soon. So keep those suggestions coming!

I'm getting super excited about this upcoming weekend. I'm hopping over to Houston to hang out with Sara and Lindsay and I'm thinking it's going to be a blast!

I got a wonderful award from D.A.R. over at The Student and the Soldier today.



Thanks D.A.R.! I'm glad that people enjoy reading my blog as much as I enjoy reading theirs.

I'm supposed to pass that along to a few other people, so I'll pass it on to a few of my new favorites.

1. Sarah at Dance Shoes and Combat Boots. I just recently started reading her blog and I'm really enjoying it.
2. Honey and Quilts- I like the way she writes and her quilts are amazing! I told her I'm going to come visit her in Germany once I get to Italy. I have a feeling we'd have a good time!
3. My Home, My Life- she's always got a great post waiting for you and she dislikes blow-up lawn ornaments as much as I do. That right there deserves an award.

Does anyone watch Antiques Roadshow? Sean and I try to watch it every week. (I told you I was old) Anyway, I'm constantly in awe of the things people find in their homes/garage sales/estate sales or has been passed down in their family. Last week, one lady had a scrapbook one of her ancestors had made of various Confederate and Union leaders, with their autographs, pictures, etc. It was amazing! I wish I had something cool like that in my family. As far as I know we are lacking in cool antiques on both sides of my family. Does anyone have any neat antiques/family heirlooms in their family? I'd love to hear about them if you do.

Sean and I watched a very interesting program last night on PBS about the Medal of Honor. Did anyone else catch it? Some of the things these men did were AMAZING! It really was an eye-opener for me and how heroic some of the people who have served our military from the very beginning have been. Several parts almost made me cry. Especially seeing the crosses at Normandy. I plan on visiting there while I'm in Europe and I know just being there I'm going to cry. It's such a historic/meaningful place.

Ok...enough sad talk.

I have my eye on a new telephoto lens for my camera. I'd ask for it for Christmas, but it's ridiculously expensive, so I'm going to leave it off my list. I think it'd really take my photos to a new level honestly and I like the option of having a telephoto lens.



I honestly do want to be a photographer. So in reality I do need to buy things like lenses, flashes, Photoshop to help with that. Sean is great in encouraging me with this dream and my friends are too. My only dilemma is what market I choose to work in. I personally enjoy taking landscape, outdoor, wildlife photos, but unless I sell those to magazines, websites, etc I don't see so much of a market in that. I do really enjoy taking pictures of babies and children, but working with people kind of makes me nervous. Not that I'm not a people-person, but the fact I'm taking pictures of essentially memories is scary to me. That's mainly why I don't want to be a wedding photographer, because I know how important that day is and I'd hate for my pictures to not reflect what the couple wants. Make sense? I guess I just need to take my photography one-step at a time.

Oh and one last thing. Look at these cute dresses! They'd be perfect for a holiday party. (Forever 21 of course!)






Have a superb Thursday eveyone!

Tasty Delights

So yesterday when I was at the commissary I picked up something that I thought might be good, but my beliefs were confirmed when I tried it last night.



That's right. Pumpkin flavored eggnog. I love eggnog and I love pumpkin pie and this is the perfect combination of the both of those tastes. I almost melted onto the floor when I took my first sip.

For those of you that aren't Pumpkin Eggnog fans, they have other flavors too like Cinnamon, Gingerbread, Sugar Cookie and Vanilla. It's made by Hood and it's to die for!

Last night I made some delish Taco Soup that I first saw on either Make Mine a Mojito or Blue-Eyed Bride's site. I'm not sure which, but at any rate it was so good! Sean loved it and honestly so did I. It was really low in WW points too so that was a plus (even though I'm not following the WW plan)

Sean is now on this big weight-loss kick. He's worse than a girl! He started counting calories yesterday and all I heard all day was what amount of calories he had left and blah blah blah. I'm all for losing weight, but I cannot count calories. I'm not a math person so that's my excuse. He's hopping on the scale every chance he gets and was disappointed this morning when he hadn't lost any more weight. I swear! What happened to my potato loving husband? In reality, it's good for me that he's on this weight-loss kick because it makes it easier for me to eat heathier. When he's eating normally he makes way too fattening foods!

Sean and I stopped by housing yesterday and set-up our pre-inspection and date that we are moving out. So, it's official. My last day in Louisiana will be December 19th. We have our last inspection that morning at 10:00 and then we'll be on the road and back in Oklahoma by that evening. Hard to believe it's coming up so quickly!

So I love Forever 21, but this little outfit on their website?



I'm going to have to say no. It reminds me of a homeless person. I'm just not digging that look.

Hope everyone has a great Wednesday!

Randoms of Yours Truly...and the long awaited hair pic

I've been tagged by KD over at Life of the Wife , Katie at True Life: I'm an Army Wife and Melissa at Flying Tiger.




I always love hearing random things about people so I live for tags like this.

1. I have a thing about numbers, even though I hate math. For example, when pumping gas I like the amount to end evenly on the dollar. If I'm setting my alarm clock I have to set it in a number ending in a O or 5. Same way when I'm cooking something in the microwave.

2. I've never seen The Notebook or Titanic all the way through. I'm not really a fan of chick flicks.

3. My family makes fun of me because they insist I say batato instead of potato. I don't think this is true though.

4. Before this year I'd never had a massage and I've still never had a pedicure.

5. If I could go back and do it over I'd choose a different wedding dress. Paying out of pocket for my own wedding didn't leave me enough money to get the dress of my dreams.

6. When I was younger I pretty much refused to eat meat. Exceptions were hamburgers and chicken fingers. I loathed roast and refused to eat steak. Thank goodness I got over that as an adult. (I was 20 before I really started liking steak)

7. I love to dress up, but I could be perfectly content to wear a hoodie, jeans and tennis shoes everyday. Alas that would put me on What Not to Wear so I try to mix it up.

I'm not tagging anyone because I'm pretty sure almost everyone has done this, so if you want to do it, feel free!

Ok...so here's the hair pic. Yeah...to some it may look the same. Yes, the cut pretty much is, but I swear the color is darker.

Holiday.....Celebrate!

I'm currently typing this from the comfort of my own home. Am I sick? No. I just have today off as a paid holiday. Shocked? So was I! I'm not one to argue about paid holidays though. I'm just enjoying the free day.

Not too much on the agenda today.

- take Sean to go vote after lunch
- drop extremely overdue library books off, pay for library book that Boomer tore up
- stop by the commissary to get a few things to make for soups
- stop by the PX for random items like cards and that Yankee Christmas Wreath candle I really want.
- take long overdue pictures of my new do

Sean's briefing at Transportation went well yesterday. We, of course have more paperwork to look over and we actually have set days when they will be coming to pick up our stuff. December 8,9, and 10th for all the separate shipments. Thankfully, Sean will be taking care of that as I will still be working. I was pleased to find out though that since our washer and dryer have to be put in storage here that I can also put some other stuff with it. I don't think I'm going to take all my books with me to Europe. My Danielle Steel collection can definitely stay here as well as some text books I kept from my college days. The more important books, like my Nancy Drew collection, will of course be packed and sent.

I've been tagged by two ladies for a random list of things about myself and I PROMISE I'll get to that sometime today. I think I'll post the pics of my hair with that post, so look for it at a later time today.

So....I have a confession to make. I've already been making Christmas ringtones for my phone. Yes, I know it's not even Thanksgiving, but I thought I'd get a head start on it. I've already made about 8 and I'm sure I'll add a few more before I'm satisfied. I told Sean his ringtone was going to be the theme from The Grinch. Muah ha ha.

Anybody here drink Kefir? I've been wanting to start drinking it, as it helps improve your digestive tract, kind of similar to yogurt. I've been looking for it at the commissary and local stores, but haven't found it anywhere! Finally on our last trip to the commissary I noticed they were now stocking it. It's so good! I got the pomegranate flavor and I'm really enjoying it. It tastes like fruit smoothie with a yogurt twist. I highly recommend it!

I'm currently coming up with a meal plan for Thanksgiving. It looks like we are indeed still going to be hosting Thanksgiving dinner for around 15 people if not more and so I'm trying to decide what I'm going to be making and what others have said they'll make. I'm also trying to gauge how much food will feed that many people! I'm pretty sure we'll have turkey, stuffing, rolls, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, potato casserole (yes I love potatoes)hot corn casserole,green bean casserole, corn, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie and banana split cake. I'm thinking about a couple of appetizers too like spinach dip and something else. Anything else basic I'm forgetting that should be on there? I don't think I'm doing the turkey or the stuffing and the casseroles won't be hard at all since they can be pre-made the night before and then just baked that day. I've never hosted my own Thanksgiving, so it's going to be an experience for sure! I will miss having Thanksgiving with my family though, but at least I get to see them for Christmas.

Time for me to fold some laundry. Have a wonderful Election Day!