Another Christmas has come and gone

Christmas was a little different this year. Usually, we celebrate Christmas morning/afternoon with Tim's family and Christmas night with my family. Sadly this year my family decided not to do anything. I was a little disappointed since we travelled all this way and we won't be back for another Christmas for at least another 3 years. I also made the stockings for all the kids and 2 of them won't even receive them until after we're gone. But we still had a great time with Tim's family. We had our traditional Christmas sushi followed by a friendly game of mahjong.

Part of my family did settle on a day after Christmas lunch where we rushed to open gifts, got to the restaurant late and scurried off to our respectful locations immediately afterwards. I think one of the best part of my day was when my oldest nephew who is 18 told me how much he liked his stocking. Then the 3 kids argued about who's stocking was better.

So far our trip home has been great! We had an awesome meal prepared by Tim's parents the day after we got home. We went to NYC to visit my brother, explore the city and watch Wicked. Got to visit the Rue's in Highland Falls for Christmas Eve and went back to West Point for the first time since Tim graduated. We were supposed to go skiing today but it rained all day and I got violently ill last night. So instead Tim spent the day cleaning the basement with his brother and I got to go shopping. It was sad to go shopping by myself but it beats cleaning the basement anyday. All I wanted was to buy some cute flats but I came home with no shoes and a bag full of sweaters that I won't be able to wear in 4 months. At least I went for the thinner sweaters and some of them have short sleeves.

Skiing has been rescheduled for tomorrow. Then we have to rush back for dinner with the parents. Tuesday will be our last day here. Gotta visit grandma and pack up. We'll have been "home" for 10 days but the time has flown. I really enjoyed our trip but I miss my puppies and I'm ready to get back to our own house.

We'll have visitors pretty much waiting for us when we get home to celebrate the start of the New Year. Then we go back to normal. I'm hoping someone will call me about that job I'm supposed to be starting. But if not I'll enjoy a few more unemployed months! Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!

ahh...the holidays are quickly approaching...

I have to say, I'm not a very festive person. I hate Christmas shopping and I always wait until last minute. We didn't put up any decorations this year since we're going home for the holidays. And once you start receiving gift cards as gifts, it's just not fun anymore. It's a good thing there's a better reason to celebrate Christmas than just trees and presents because otherwise I probably wouldn't participate at all. Bah humbug...

My parents were in town all last week. I enjoyed their visit. I had classes during the day so my mom did a little bit of cleaning every day. My toaster and microwave are spotless! Well, they were a week ago at least. I got to show off some of my culinary skills and learn some from them. We had real Chinese food in Atlanta. We've been here for 6 months and have only been able to find one good Chinese restaurant. My parents were here for 3 days and apparently found all of them. It's pretty amazing to walk into a restaurant I've never been to before in a city my parents have only been in for a few days and have them greet my parents like they were old buddies. I guess my parents had eaten there once already.

I don't know how much fun my parents had since we had zero time to spend with them but I know my dogs enjoyed their company. My dad keeps telling me how much he misses the dogs. I don't think he's ever told me he's missed ME before! Scout remained faithfully by his side the whole time. I'm pretty sure she thought he was a walking treat machine. Denny was a little more timid. He's never been chased by a seventy something year old screaming "why don't you like me" before. My dad has issues with dogs and small children not liking him. Whatever he has to do...they will like him before his visit is through.

Since my parents were in town, I got no Christmas shopping done. I decided to make stockings for my nieces and nephews. I have 2 done so far...much more time consuming than I first thought. My sewing machine is also giving me all kinds of grief. Hubby really wants to get me a new one for Christmas but I can't see spending money on a new machine when I have one that works. It doesn't work great but it works. I also ran into problems with ideas to fill stockings with for a 17 and 18 year old. I still haven't bought anything for the hubby yet.

Just a few more days until we fly home for Christmas. I addressed all my Christmas cards yesterday. I was excited to finally do photo cards but we were rushed and I made some poor decisions with them. The photos turned out soo tiny that you have to squint to see our faces. But alas I ordered 50 of them, the 1 hour photo machine at Walmart is broken and I just want to get them out before I give up on sending Christmas cards all together. I'll think smarter for next year. Hopefully next year's card will be set in Hawaii!

Alright, I've put off finishing the stockings for long enough. I have 4 out of 8 projects that must be completed done and 10 more projects I'd like to do. Wish me luck!

Well that was interesting....

I love Thanksgiving! Every year I look forward to the feasting, nap and feast again. This is the first year I did almost the whole meal by myself. This is the first Thanksgiving after we got married where Tim is actually home and we had people over. Sadly, this was the first one that disappointed me. I've worked over Thanksgiving and even then it was better than yesterday. At least when I worked, people would bring me food and I would feel like I was loved.

I spent all day cooking. I woke up at 6:50 so I could start the pies. Pies that I told everyone I was making so what did they bring? Pies. I have 4 pumpkin pies in my fridge along with the other 3 that I made. All together there were 10 of us including children. We could have eaten just pie.

Unfortunately being the over planner that I am and thinking about how my family goes back to eat at least 3-4 times during the day, I had about 10 side dishes and some appetizers. Tim complained ahead of time that he thought it was too much food. I, of course, thought it was too little food and that we would run out. I hate it when I'm wrong.

Our guests arrived an hour and a half late, except for one faithful friend who came through with her mashed potatoes even after driving all night to get here. They stayed for a little less than 2 hours and there is approximately 1 tablespoon of food missing from each casserole. Then they politely excused themselves and left. So now I have enough food to do Thanksgiving every day for a month or so. And I don't expect people to help me clean up. In fact, most of the time when people ask me if they can help with anything, I politely decline because they are guests in my house. But it would have been nice if someone, anyone would have at least offered.

Thank goodness my husband is anal about getting the house back in order...'cause we all know I'm not! And since the festivities ended at 7, we had plenty of time to clean up. So the house is nice and clean again minus the few pots and pans we still have to put away and furniture we have to reorganize.

I'm not angry that I spent all day cooking for pretty much what amounted to nothing. I'm just disappointed. I've always spent Thanksgiving with family or good friends. I wouldn't have even minded cooking for strangers. What I'm angry about is that it ruined the whole experience for my husband. He vowed that we would never do Thanksgiving at our house again. We will either go to someone else's house or eat at a restaurant. He missed the last 2 Thanksgivings and he'll miss the next one. Why did this one have to suck? Everyone who knows me knows that I invite everyone. If you don't have anything to do and I'm planning something, you're invited....even if I don't know you...even if I just met you on-line.... Now I'm starting to regret that. Even though we have known these people for years and years, we're apparently not really friends and I made an error in judgement....

Busy week....

I am feeling exhausted...and no I'm not pregnant. It has just been a very busy week. A few weeks ago I decided I had to visit Amy A. She's one of the few that has visited me without a return visit from myself....which I was reminded of every so often. So after working around her hectic travel schedule, we decided on a date. Of course, things did not go as smoothly as I had hoped.

About a week before my scheduled trip, I found out a good friend from high school was killed in action in Iraq. It was devastating. It happened the day before the Fort Hood shootings but I found out the morning after. Amy S. was a good friend. Even though time and distance separated us she always made an effort not only to keep in touch with me but all our other friends. Sadly, between all my high school friends...she was probably the only link left. She always wrote very encouraging e-mails to me. Not only was she in the army herself but she was also married to a soldier and they were stationed at different posts for the majority of their marriage. She was so excited to start their life together. They finally moved in together at the beginning of this year, bought a house, and deployed together over the summer. This was her second deployment to Iraq, his third.

I knew I needed to go home for the funeral but I had no idea when it would be. So I decided to go visit Amy A. anyways and just fly out from Nashville after the arrangements had been made. I needed to get away and luckily Katie and Sierra were able to join us. It was great catching up. We only got to spend about a day and a half together but I was happy to see how much Sierra has grown and Katie in the mommy of a toddler mode. Of course every time Katie chased Sierra, I would look at Amy, giggle, and ask...can we really do this? It was just what I needed to get my mind off of things for a little bit.

Then I headed home for the funeral. It was weird. There were all these people I recognized from high school but I didn't know their names. It was amazing how many people showed up for calling hours. I waited for about an hour and a half but some people waited up to 3 hours. Her old roommate from Germany was there and a few friends from Fort Lewis. Unfortunately most of her friends and her husband's support were still in Iraq. It was really tough to watch her husband. He has no relationship with his family so she was his only family.

A lot of people honored her memory during the funeral service. There were people holding flags through some of the small towns we drove through and fire trucks with ladders and flags raised. Our local newspaper announced the night before that the Kansas "church" that demonstrates at soldier's funerals would be in attendance for the funeral. I really thank God that they either didn't show up or there were so many supporters that we didn't even notice them there. I was able to catch up with some old friends and remember all the ways Amy S. affected our lives. Everyone kept joking about how mad she would be that we were all making such a big fuss over her. Please keep her family and especially her husband in your prayers.

After my brief trip home, I spent an additional day with Amy A. before returning to my hubby and pups. She even cooked me a wonderful meal and some really great tasting muffins. So now I'm back in GA, trying to get things back to normal. We're preparing for Thanksgiving at our house.

Rest in peace Amy Seyboth Tirador. We love you and miss you!

can't sleep

It's 0144 and I can't sleep. Hubby's been having trouble sleeping lately because apparently I snore really loudly. We'll go to sleep together but about 50% of the time he'll move to the guest room in the middle of the night. This has only been happening since we moved to GA and our guest room is conveniently located next to our bedroom. I, however, rarely have trouble falling alseep or staying asleep. But tonight, we went to sleep at 2230 and I woke up at midnight and have been up ever since. Hubby moved to the guest room after half an hour of listening to the dogs lick themselves.

When I do end up waking up in the middle of the night, my mind starts racing. Tonight, it was about our impending move. This is probably spurred on by the overseas brief I'm attending in about 6 hours. I e-mailed an old OIC of mine who moved to Hawaii last year to see what the word was on a job. He pretty much told me I have no chance of working on post. So now I have to get a new license and hope there are job opportunities off post. But still at about midnight I realized I had to submit my resume to CPOL immediately (to the non-existent job, mind you). I also realized my submission to the hospital here had expired a month ago and I had to renew that as well (also to a non-existent job). So here I am. Those things took me about 5 minutes to complete.

I almost completed my first pair of pajama pants in class today. We didn't have enough time. Unfortunately, today was the last class. But she's letting us sneak into her other classes this week to finish them up. So hopefully they'll be complete by Thursday. I'll have a week off and then I start class #2. Skirt, trouser or fitted shirt...what should I choose? I think for this class we only have time for 1 project.

Today I had lunch with a girl I first met when we got to Texas in 2006. We never quite hit it off and we ended up going our separate ways the rest of the time there. We had some mutual friends but we never hung out. I heard through the grapevine that she was bored so I figured I'd give her a call. We ended up eating for 30 mins and talking for about 3 hours. It was great! We talked about everything...and I really mean everything. Now usually in these situations, I tend to get myself in some trouble. Sometimes I put my foot in my mouth but most of the time I just say too much. I realize more and more each day that I'm way too open with strangers. Within 5 mins of meeting me you've probably learned my life story and when I get my period. I hear myself saying things that are not appropriate when you first meet a person but I can't stop myself (even though the little voice in my head is begging me to stop). So I end up overwhelming people and driving them away. That's part of the reason I can't make friends. Surprisingly, today I did the same thing but she was open to it and we had some really good conversation. The crappy part is that she lives about 30 mins away. But I'm hoping we'll still get to hang out every once in a while.

I've made quite a few friends here but not really anyone who I can call up at anytime to hang out with. I can't really complain. My time is occupied and I've met some really great people. Alright, I better try to get some sleep. I don't know how I'm going to make it through 3 hours of an overseas brief....

babysitting and more!

I haven't done a lot of babysitting since I left home. I think because I don't have any kids people just don't think I like them or I'm not good with them or something. Either way it doesn't really hurt my feelings. Babies are fun to play with when mom or dad are around because when they get cranky, you can just give them back. But I'm not opposed to watching someone's child for a few hours. Just like I don't love dogsitting but I do it because I know people need someone they're comfortable with to keep their dogs. It's probably a bonus that I do both of these things for free.

This weekend I am babysitting. Dad just deployed and mom has a reserve weekend. Luckily the training is relatively close by so she opted with dropping him off in the morning (6 AM) and picking him up in the evening (8-9 PM) instead of having us keep him overnight. Although that probably wouldn't have been a problem seeing that he went to bed right away, didn't get a bath and saved his poop for me for the next morning anyways. Really I was hoping if I fed him rice cereal at 7 PM he would have pooped it back out before 6 AM. Honestly, I haven't changed a poopie diaper in about 4 years. Anytime I've watched babies in the last few years, they've only peed during my shift. I almost threw up! I can pick up dog poop without flinching but for some reason the first poopie diaper just really got me! The 4 since then haven't been a pleasure but it's tolerable now.

After the first day, Tim was like "why is he eating all the time?" But then by the second day he was convinced I was feeding him way too much. Apparently 8 month olds should only eat 3 times a day like we do. I had to explain to him that all the bottles, cereal, baby food and snacks mom packed were for one day, not for the week. You also have to keep in mind that this is an 8 month old that wears 12 month old clothing.

I was unsuccessful at keeping him on his nap schedule but he finally drifted off to the sounds of Halo. In a few hours I will have survived the weekend with no major mishaps and only one melt down (by the baby, not me). This weekend I learned that I love pack n' plays and my dogs are actually pretty good with the baby. They get a little scared when he cries and acts like he's going to punch them through the netting of the pack n' play but other than that it's been a pretty good weekend.

I also started my sewing classes 2 weeks ago. The first lesson consisted of a field trip to JoAnn's Fabric so our instructor could tell us what to buy and what the difference between all the fabrics are. The second week, we were supposed to start sewing a tote bag but we took too much time learning to thread our machines and sew a straight line. So this week we should be starting and completing the tote bags and starting on pajama pants. I know most people think I'm a dork but I'm really excited about learning how to sew.

On Friday, I visited my friend who was babysitting in Atlanta. She makes purses, ornaments, diaper bags, changing pads, and pretty much anything you can sew. The kids were at school for the day so she gave me a little workshop in sewing. I made a baby taggie. They seem pretty simple to make and in the end they were pretty simple but while I was sewing it, I definitely struggled. I'm hoping she can teach me a few simple projects before they PCS but they live in Augusta so we'll have to see if that's going to work out. Sadly she practically lived across the street from me when we were at Hood but we never made the time to get together. I also didn't know how talented she was until the past year. I knew she was talented but I had no idea she had gone to national competitions for designing and sewing when she was in high school.

Well this post seems long enough. Better get some food ready for when the baby wakes up...

hobbies...

I've had a lot of hobbies in my life. I'm easily interested in things but I have a really hard time following through. I used to love music. I still do, but not like I used to. I keep telling myself I'm going to get back to playing the piano, violin and guitar. I've also always wanted to take voice lessons but I've never gotten around to it. Now we lug around a key board, a violin and 2 guitars to every place we move. I also took ice skating, ballet, tap, and gymnastics growing up. I revisted ice skating and ballet a little in college so of course I had to get the stuff that goes along with it.

I had a period in middle school and high school where I got into tennis and bowling. That was mostly from tagging along with my brother and his friends. So I acquired a tennis racquet. I didn't get the bowling shoes until college when we started going every week. Of course, as soon as I bought shoes we stopped going. I started up with golf in high school. My brother and I usually shared a set of clubs. I got my own clubs when we were in Colorado.

College brought on the rollerblades, skiis, hockey stick, racquet ball and my collection of Bibles. Then I got married and thought I must have a sewing machine. I've had that sewing machine for 4 years now and the only time it was used was when I was somehow able to make garters for our squadron ladies. Most of that credit goes to my husband who was the one who kind of figured out how the darned thing works. I also started my collection of scrapbooking stuff.

When I got to Texas, we added stamping accessories that are still in their original packaging. Then came the dogs and all the dog stuff. We did dog training, I wanted to start dog agility but all the clubs were too far away. All the while I have my expanding collection of cookbooks, none of which I had ever used until now. I also decided I wanted to be a photographer. I convinced myself it was worth it to buy a DSLR because eventually we'd have kids and I'd want to take pictures of them. 3 years later, no kids...and hardly any pictures. Sadly 3 new models have come and gone since I bought my camera. I also bought a mountain bike after we moved far away from the mountains and found out I'm too chicken to go mountain biking!

Now my thing is fitness. So we got the workout DVDs, the adjustable dumbbells, balance ball, 3 yoga mats, stretch bands, and so on and so forth. I'm also into cooking. Good thing I already have my pots, pans and cookbooks. We have our boogie boards ready for Hawaii (we bought them during our vacation there). We've already discussed surfing and kayaking.

So what is my point? We have too much stuff!!! We can't continue these army moves accumulating all this stuff everywhere we go. Of course the worse part is, it's all my stuff! I refuse to get rid of any of it, so the only thing that's left is to actually use some of it.

I need to make a list of goals I plan on accomplishing in the next 6 months before our next move. I've already started the goals of getting in shape and learning how to cook. I'd love to learn how to use my camera before we get to Hawaii so I can actually take pictures as soon as I get there (while resisting the urge to purchase photoshop). I found a sewing class at a local college where I can get the basics down. I'd love to make at least one scrapbook. We've actually been using our mountain bikes, sadly we've been using them as road bikes. I do still enjoy an occasional game of golf. We'll start with that. I'm starting to both bore myself and exhaust myself while typing this entry.

Making lists

I find that if I don't make lists or schedules for myself, I will get absolutely nothing accomplished. Now I'm not saying that I get everything on the list accomplished but I usually get at least 75% of the tasks done. The other 25% is usually sacrificed when I log onto facebook or start blogging! I made my "to do" list on Sunday and for some reason this week seems very daunting. Perhaps it's because I didn't have a list last week so everything I was supposed to do was never done.

I haven't been able to get myself to go to the gym after all the muscle pain this weekend. I got the hubby P90X for his birthday so he forced me to do that last night. All I wanted was to eat cheesecake! I was really not in the mood to exercise so he chose the yoga one so it wouldn't be as strenuous. I'm not a good yoga person...I giggle a lot and distract other people. P90X yoga is no joke. We were both sweating when the sessions was over. Me, not as much because I didn't push myself ...I don't like it when my muscles shake! I don't want to feel the burn! AND I still ate my cheesecake when I finished my session. I refused the turkey deli meat my husband offered me in exchange. Seriously? Turkey vs cheescake....is that even a choice?

I wanted to go to a fitness class today but somehow I forgot to include it on my to do list. Oh wait, I did write "work out." Shoot, well we'll see. I already missed the good class of the day...

I'm getting old...

All my muscles hurt! In particular, my legs but my arms aren't feelin' too great either. I skipped out on the gym for a week...the longest time I've not worked out since I got back "home." So on Friday, I decided to do 3 fitness classes. First off, I ate breakfast right before I left for the gym. Less than an hour later, that breakfast and I re-visited each other. It was bad...I was nauseated for the whole class and eventually my stomach decided it was not going to take the abuse any longer! I felt better after my bathroom break so I continued on with the other classes. I tried to throw a 2 mile run into the mix but I knew my limitations.

On Saturday I decided to add some more aches and pains to my already sore muscles with a 7-8 mile bike ride. It was supposed to be an easy bike ride since it was on a paved trail through the woods but I'm too chicken to go down hills so I road the brakes all the way down. I'm also afraid of curves so I had to almost come to a stop to round bends. Then I'm not fit enough to make it back up the hills. Unfortunately my mountain bike will never meet a mountain side.

I can't believe my other half turned 30 this week. I knew it was coming up since a certain friend of mine has already hit 30 this year...but it just brings it that much closer to me. It's just a number, not a big deal...but for some reason in my head it kind of is.

I made a new friend last week. We met at a wives get together thing. We both seem to be talkers so this should be interesting. We're going to get together this week so wish me luck. I've had people ask me how people could not like me...I don't know... maybe you should ask the thousands of woman on this post that don't! Sometimes I feel like maybe I should tone myself down a little bit. Maybe seem a little less eager to make friends. But then I figure, eventually they'll have to meet the real me and if they can't handle it...I'd rather know now.

This weekend...

It's a long weekend! It's weird because every day is the same for me. Weekends don't really mean anything to me anymore. Usually we're stuck at home with the hubby doing homework and I'm doing whatever I normally do. But last weekend we ventured out to Atlanta. We saw Alton Brown at a live Good Eats show and had a great dinner at a Chinese restaurant. One that actually serves more authentic food. Sure the menu was in Chinese and we were chancing it when my husband randomly pointed at something and said "I have no idea what that is but we'll take it." It turned out to be a delightful 5 course meal with soup, chicken, fish, vegetables, and dessert.

This weekend we're going to bring the dogs to a special Atlanta Braves game. It's "Bark in the Park" an annual fundraiser for shelters. We're staying at a dog friendly hotel where we'll be within 2 miles of a dog park. We might check out a hot air balloon festival on Saturday. I'd love to ride in one but I don't know how the tickets work for that.

On Tuesday, the hubby officially turns old...I mean 30. His parents sent us a wonderful package with some of his favorite foods to make sushi with. Yup, they next day mailed fish to us. So there's a lot going on in the next few days but first tomorrow will be decontamination day. Having 4 dogs in the house for a week kinda makes the house smell like a kennel. Time to get rid of that and any leftover traces of poo...

this course sucks!

So the CCC is killing us! One of the wives and I were discussing how short-tempered it makes our husbands. The annoying part is that it's just this one instructor so apparently everyone else gets out early and gets lunch breaks meanwhile our husbands come home, bite our heads off and lock themselves in their offices to do homework until about midnight (on a good night). Then on the weekend, my husband sleeps all day to make up for not sleeping all week. Fun times. Apparently they switch instructors halfway through. I just remember before getting here all the other guys telling us this course was a piece of cake. This is the nastiest piece of cake I've ever eaten!

yup, still not good at blogging...

Since my last post, I went to Columbia, SC to visit with Ellen and Keri. The trip was way too short but I'm glad I got to spend almost a day with each of them. I probably hadn't seen Bella in over a year and she has grown a lot since then. I still can't really understand the baby babble but I can pick out some words and sometimes string up a sentence from them. I also got to meet the infamous Miss Skylar. She's awfully cute but a little cranky on the day I chose to see her. Stubborn as a mule! In the last few months I've gotten to see a lot of different friends interact with their kids. From my best friend since high school, to college friends and then army friends...it's interesting to watch.

Since my trip to Columbia, not much has happened. I tried unsuccessfully to get a volunteer position at the pharmacy. I have made no progress in my attempts to be a housekeeper or cook. I skipped the gym yesterday which brings me dangerously close to the downward spiral of never going again. My dogs are as unruly as ever and class seems to keep my husband forever on edge. Fun times!

I was hoping to go on a trip to Vegas with some of my childhood friends but then I realized as an unemployed army wife, that's really not feasible at this time. My nephews were supposed to come visit us next week but the plane tickets are too expensive. So the next thing I have to look forward to is the army spouse orientation. I know, sounds exciting...don't be jealous. I also lost my workout partner last week because her husband came home from NTC. I probably won't see her again until he deploys in a few months.

But I am determined not to get into a funk. There are tons of things that need to be done, I just don't want to do them. Somehow I need to just get it together and soon!

new post...new life...

All my friends have switched from xanga to blogspot and I refused to make the switch. Every few years I end up with a new website because everyone has found the new fad and every time I tell them I won't switch....but I always do. I'm such a follower...

So here I am in Georgia. We got here about 6 weeks ago, 4 of which I spent in Albany visiting family while Tim was left behind to unpack. Every time we move I get really excited about what lies ahead. What will I experience? Who will I meet? But then we get settled in and I realize what I left behind. Good friends, a steady job, a life I had built for myself. Then I have to start all over again. People always ask me how I do it. I don't know, I just do.

So begins my pity party. A party I have to throw myself at least once a move. Where I whine about not having any friends and how bored I am and how insane my husband is driving me. I know, I have to give it time. In reality I have only been here for less than 2 weeks and we've already gone to dinner with an old friend and I'm meeting up with a new potential friend at the gym in half an hour. Things already look better in my first 2 weeks here than it did for my first year in Texas.

The hard part for me now is all the free time I have and the expectations it brings. I am not the housekeeper or cook of the year. I just wish some people would understand that and accept my limitations. I am trying though...

Gym time, let's see what kind of pain the step instructor can bring upon me today...