Did You Know?

I'm completely helpless when it comes to interior decorating. Seriously...I couldn't decorate my house to save my life. This my friends is a problem.

I've never broken a bone in my life. (Knock on wood)

I was born and raised on a small cattle ranch. Raising cattle helped pay for my first two and a half years of college.

My biggest fear is going over a bridge or flood water in a car and being trapped. Just the thought terrifies me.

I don't consider myself a girly girl, yet I love clothes, make-up and the color pink.

I'd rather do weights than cardio

Know-it-all people annoy the crap out of me

I think it's odd that I have blonde hair and hazel eyes. Somehow I feel as if I should have blue eyes.

I can't get into Grey's Anatomy for the life of me. I tried once.

If everyone else jumps on a trend, it makes me NOT want to jump on that trend. Case in point: Everyone is now buying Vera Bradley bags at the PX. I think they are cute, but don't want to carry something everyone else has.

Hot pink is my fave color to paint my toenails

Due to a food-poisoning incident from my childhood, I refuse to eat Lunchables. Even the sight of them makes me gag.

I've known one of my best friends since the eighth grade. We bonded over a mutual crush

Sean is one of the funniest people I know. He's got this really dry sense of humor and there are a few times where I've laughed so hard I've cried

You will never see me wear Crocs. Yes, I'm sure they are comfortable, but they are UGLY! (However I do not judge you if you wear them)

I'm obsessed with Ansel Adams. One of these days I've sworn to myself that I'll buy one of his original photographs.

The coolest military gals I've met have been off Blogger. I hope to meet more of you in the future!

More Portofino

As promised!



This is actually Santa Margarita, the town you take the ferry from to get to Portofino



Those Italians LOVE to smoke.



Flowers are everywhere!



Irises



Some kind of daisy I presume



Sailboats on the sea



Our table for lunch and the view of the sea. Gorgeous!



A lonely little boat



Vespas lined up on Santa Margarita



Europeans and their crazy postcards. I have no idea what this is supposed to mean.

Eight is Enough

8 Things...

I was recently tagged by Tara at The Watermelon Tree and Steph of Adventures of Jon and Steph and I thought today would be the perfect day to do this. Hopefully when I get home tonight I can do a bit more editing of my Portofino photos and get them up so you guys can see some more.

8 Things I Look Forward To...
#1.) Sean coming back from training
#2.) Seeing my Mom and Brother in about a month
#3.) More Traveling
#4.) Acquiring more camera equipment
#5.) Becoming a professional photographer one of these days
#6.) Possible Greek Cruise sometime this year
#7.) Cinco de Mayo dinner tomorrow night
#8.) Christmas in the States

8 Things I Did Yesterday
#1.) Worked
#2.) Edited pictures
#3.) Bought a few items at the commissary
#4.) Played with Boomer
#5.) Read some blogs and blogged myself
#6.) Ate pesto covered pasta
#7.) Texted Sean a few times
#8.) Watched Season One of the Office

8 Things I Love
#1.) Shopping online
#2.) Cute stationary
#3.) Flip-Flops from Old Navy ( I bought six pairs last week)
#4.) Seeing Europe
#5.) Taking and editing pictures
#6.) Loose wine
#7.) Blogging (Natch)
#8.) Non-fiction books

8 Things I Wish I Could Do:
#1.) Buy some more photography equipment right now
#2.) Lose those pesky ten pounds
#3.) Magically transport myself to see family and friends without the long plane ride
#4.) Find a good place to walk Boomer...like a dog park
#5.) See Normandy on D-Day this year ( I have to work)
#6.) Run for long distances
#7.) See my parents!
#8.) Eat some crawfish etoufee right now

8 Shows I watch:
#1.) The Ghost Whisperer
#2.) Entourage
#3.) Big Love
#4.) Celebrity Apprentice
#5.) Weeds
#6.) The Office
#7.) Six Feet Under
#8.) Ummm...I don't watch that many shows now that I don't have regular TV.

Those are my 8's. My turn to tag....YOU! Come on, you know you want to!

Here's the rules, just in case you want to follow them:

1) Mention the name of the person who tagged you.
2) Do the lists of 8.
3) Tag 8 bloggers of your choice.
4) Let them know that they have been tagged!

I tag:

1. Lindsay at And We'll Just Laugh Along the Way
2. Jenny at Yellow Ribbon Diary
3. SS at Under Construction
4. Sin Gal
5. Whoever else has yet to be tagged to do this!

Portofino Preview

My trip yesterday to Portofino was FANTASTIC! I'm putting up a few pics of the day, but editing is slow-going so it's taking me a long time to go through 400 pics. I'll try to get more up later on.

I had such a good time exploring the town and taking in the west side of Italy.

We started out the day bright and early and left post around six, I ended up sitting next to a free-lance photographer who is on contract here working with the high school kids on-post. She and I quickly became acquainted and spent most of our time in Portofino together, exploring and taking pictures.

Of course, knowing me I had to taste my way through Portofino, which included fresh-baked foccacia bread, fresh shrimp scampi and ravioli filled with sea bass, not to mention some gelato. I bought some pesto too, since the region that Portofino is in is known for its pesto. I have to admit that since getting to Italy I've been disappointed with the pesto I've eaten. It just didn't taste good to me. So last night I cracked my jar of pesto and tried it with some foccacia bread. Heavenly! Just amazing. It was so good. Now I'm regretting I didn't buy more!



Pesto and foccacia




This was on the ferry over to Portofino. I thought their matching clothes were cute.



One of my first views of Portofino



View of the sea from the lighthouse



There were beautiful flowers everywhere



Me on one of the paths. Please excuse the windblow hair



Isn't it gorgeous?

If You Can't Say Something Nice....

First up, if you haven't seen the new awsomely bad Etsy Items post then please look at the post below. I promise you don't want to miss it.

Now..on to the good stuff.

I blog to vent, to voice my opinions, frustrations and happy times. I blog because I like the awesome group of military and non-military women that I've met since I've been blogging.

I do NOT blog so that I can get comments like this:

"So Toby WAS NOT the jerk and low life that so many of you said he was. I hate when people jump to conclusions and say bad things about people when they don't even know what is said. Not many artists go to places for the troops like Toby does,Toby Doesn't get paid for going over there he does it on his own. So all you others who bad mouthed him are terrible people for saying what you did. I don't care if he only stayed 10 minutes, he came and he performed, be thankful for what you get."

I have to say one thing about this above comment. I think its great Toby Keith does a tour for troops, but if you think I or anyone attending the concert should have been grateful for ten minutes of Toby Keith then you are sadly mistaken. Maybe people like you should be grateful for my husband and all the other military guys who defend YOUR freedom.

I don't care if you don't agree with me, that's fine. I respect different opinons as long as they are put out in a respectful way. I don't expect every single person to agree with what I have to say, but if you don't agree then please don't personally attack me OR my readers who choose to comment. I and all my readers have the right to say whatever we want to say BUT if you're not going to say something nice or respectful then don't put it in a comment. If you're really that bent on saying nasty things then e-mail it to me. Oh..and if you don't like what you read, then don't come to my blog! Problem Solved!

I really don't want to make this blog private, as I know there are a lot of people out there that read this and don't comment and I want to keep it open for them.

Sorry for the rant girls, I'm just tired of disrespectful, rude people.

Awesomely Bad Etsy Finds: Volume 2

That's right ladies, time for another installment of awesomely bad Etsy finds!

Want to find something for that special man in your life?

If he's a military man, may I suggest this? A hand grenade shaped soap.



Maybe he's a Star Wars fan? If so, no problem!



He'll love this Death of Mace Windu ornamental wall hanging.

Want to let him know he has your whole heart? Look no further then this anatomically correct heart sun catcher.



Special date planned and you just don't have the right earrings? Why not flashback to the 80's with these Glow Worm Earrings.



(As a side note, Glow Worms were an awesome toy, just not awesome jewelry)

Have a hard to buy for person in your life. Give them something they'll never expect with this jar of preserved octopus tentacle!



( I have no idea why this is on Etsy)

Hope you enjoyed this edition!

Let Me Hold Your Hand

Today is my day off! Woo-hoo! It's gorgeous outside so I'm thinking Boomer and I are going to take a walk a little bit later on and then I'm planning some tanning outside on the balcony. I wish it would stay this way!

Ok, so I'm sure you're all tired of hearing about Toby Keith, but I promised I would say what happened at the concert AND be truthful about it so here it goes.

- I do know of at least two soldiers that got their pic with him and got something autographed. I think there was a little meet and greet for some of the soldiers before the show.

-Pictures were allowed at the concert, but no video (which I obviously get)

-Toby played for an hour. I was kind of expecting an encore, but there was none. He played, he left stage, people left. The End.

-USO had front row VIP seats. Wouldn't you know it I forgot my camera. I could have got some AMAZING pics. I could seriously kick myself.

I was reading a post on a forum the other day where a girl was talking about how her husband told her when he got back from being deployed that he was taking her to the gym with him everyday because she currently complains all the time that she needs to go, but never goes because she doesn't want to go without him.

Ladies...she won't even go to the gym by HERSELF! How is this possible? Also, its not like he's only been gone a week or two. He's almost ready to redeploy. I seriously sat there for a minute because it was so mind-boggling to me that this girl refused to go to the gym because she was scared to without her husband.

At first I felt bad, because there were all these other Army wives giving supportive comments and such like, "Oh I totally know what you mean, I don't go to the gym without my husband either."

Then I felt a sort of pity for this girl. I look at the girls that blog that had husbands deployed and I never thought you girls were too scared to do anything. You went to Crossfit, you traveled, you did marathons, went to concerts, etc. You didn't let him being deployed stop you from anything. I won't let that happen to me either. The last thing I want is for Sean's deployment to instill a fear in me that I can't do it without him. I mean, I may want to experience some things with him and wish he was there everday for the little things, but I refuse to be scared to do what I want to do.

Do you know women like this? Do you ever say anything to them? Am I just terribly mean?