A Day Late and a Blog Short

You know...when you miss a day of computer time, all the blogs you follow tend to get into the millions as far as posts. Since I got busy yesterday I missed a day and had about 5 million blogs to get through. Ugh. I knew I was in for the long haul, so what did I do??

I grabbed a cup of coffee (or four) and hunkered down in front of my computer to catch up. I will say that I probably didn't get a chance to read them all because there were just too many! Yikes!! That will teach me not to miss a day.

So why did I miss yesterday? Well, I had a friend over for coffee and cake and we just did a bunch of talking. Her son, Z-Man, and Little Butt had a ton of fun playing together. They were pretty much crazy and insane all morning. At a certain point they went quiet so I had to go check on them...

They were quietly hiding under the bed...

and when Z-Man left...

Little Butt got out too.

They are pretty much the funniest craziest kids. It was a lot of fun.

They stayed until it was time to get home and get Z-Man down for a nap. While they were here, I received a box from UPS. It turned out to be a box full of books from my mom!

The Hubble was gone all evening preparing for a brief he had to give this morning so while Little Butt played in her room, I started the first book in the series my mom sent me. A couple hours and 100 pages later, I decided to finally call it a night and go to sleep. It was well after midnight and Little Butt had been sleeping since 9pm.

Of course, that meant I did NOT want to get up this morning...and that brings us back to the coffee that was much needed this morning.

At least we had fun yesterday. And we are making plans for the weekend! There's nothing like finding new friends to make the days pass by a little quicker. Whether those friends are in the flesh or the ones you discover through the imagination...they are amazing to meet!

Have you met any new friends lately? Were they real, found in bloggyville or found through literature?

Oh! I almost forgot! One of my newest bloggyville friends has charged me with the duty of answering a questionnaire for her.

A Modern Military Mother asked:

1. Are you a meticulous planner?
No, not particularly. I've found that there's just no way to plan for things. I've tried in the past but at this point I think I've given up. And I can never really make up my mind enough to plan for anything! But sometimes I do try...

2. Do you wear makeup & if so how much & how often?
I actually have a crazy obsession with makeup. I love to apply it and buy it and wear it. I have to be in the mood though. I always wear a bit of makeup if I'm going out of the house or having someone over. My makeup is so expensive though that if I'm just staying home with family I won't wear any at all. I do enjoy the days when I'm in the mood and can go a bit crazy with it. I love color! And glitter! And shimmer! I do love makeup...

3. What, if anything, do you wear to bed? 
For a while I was wearing an extra large men's undershirt and extra large men's pajama pants. I was pretty much swallowed in these bedtime clothes. I decided I would get something a bit nicer since I lost like 60 pounds. I still wear men's stuff to bed because they are just more comfortable. My favorite pajama pants are the men's pajama pants from Old Navy. My current favorite ones are dark blue with pin up girls on them. I wear those with a small men's wife beater. I love my comfy jammies!

4. Look over your right shoulder, what do you see? 
This canvas painting by Brent Lynch. We have him hanging next to her but she's directly behind me.

5. If you had to take a random item to an interview to help describe you, what would it be? 
I would probably have to take a book that is kind of worn and beaten. The book would have to be about many things. Kind of like a random thoughts or information book. I am pretty random and have an eclectic array of interests.

6. What film would you have liked a starring role in?
Annie. At a certain point in my life I wanted to be Annie. I wouldn't answer to anyone if they didn't call me Annie. I would walk around singing all the songs. I pretty much still know them...

7. Jimmy Stewart of Cary Grant?
Gene Kelly.

8. Do you swear in front of your children?
Ummm...yes. Haha! I know I shouldn't but I have a mouth like a sailor! The Hubble says I even make him blush sometimes!! I think that if we are too "oh you shouldn't cuss" then it makes the children feel like it's a fun rebellious thing to do and they will do it more. If it's part of everyday conversation it doesn't seem like such a big deal. And I'm not one of those people who care if I get dirty looks because my daughter said she was going to be a "little bitch" for Halloween or when she says "goddammit" or repeats when I say "wake the F*** up Daddy!"

9. Do you knit of sew or do any other 'womanly' craft?
Well, we all know I love to cook and bake!! LOL! I also dabble in other things. I taught myself to knit. I've done scrapbooking. I know how to cross stitch. But I just enjoy crafty things. I also draw, and read. I just have a ton of interests and sometimes I go through phases and try to learn as much as possible!

10. Twitter or Facebook?
I do both but mainly I update Twitter. I can update and respond through text messaging on my phone. I can FB through my phone too, but all those game and app updates ruin FB for me. It makes me angry and slightly violent.

Now you should absolutely head over to A Modern Military Mother's answers to these questions because they are hilarious! She's one rad lady!

Okay! That's it!!! I'm sorry to have made this so long! I can't choose just a few people to answer these questions because I really want to hear (or read) all of your answers. So if you want to be nice to me, take these questions and answer them!!! Thanks! And if you actually got to the end of this crazy random and insanely long post, will you be my best friend??? Because you are awesome!

Pets Photo Challenge: I Heart Faces

I know I'm no "photographer." I've only been getting into the camera and taking pictures within the last year or so. I'm beginning to become obsessed with taking photos and trying to learn new things to do with them.

I recently found a site called I Heart Faces that hosts weekly "challenges" and provides tips on fixing and playing with different photo techniques. I don't have photoshop and from what I understand it's a pretty expensive program.

However, with that said, I Heart Faces is having a "pet" challenge this week. See...we had this insane cat, Devlin, who loved to bathe and take showers with us. We couldn't leave a water bowl out for him because he would just play in it. Whenever we turned on a faucet, he would come running. So, even though this picture is a far cry from the talent pictured (pun intended) over on I Heart Faces, I couldn't help but share my nutcase cat. This picture definitely illustrates what Devlin was all about! So  here's my submission:

I could have chosen really pretty pictures of his face, but this just cries Devlin! I hope you enjoy! If you have a great "pet" picture, head over to I Heart Faces and link it up. Good luck!!

Little Butt Loves the Stairs: Mamarazzi Monday

Here at our new house we have some stairs. We haven't had stairs in a home since Little Butt was way little and not walking yet. So, needless to say, she's become pretty obsessed with the stairs.

She likes to lay on the stairs and pretend she can't climb up. Some days she will start at the bottom, today she was at the top. "Help! Help me mommy!"

On this particular day she even tried, with all her might, to grab onto anything that would help her reach the top and not slide back down! "Almost there!!"

It didn't work. Alas, she is doomed...

The battle has been lost. The attempt to reach the top has been ceased as she slowly slides back down the stairs she struggled so valiantly and bravely to conquer. She's gone...forever. "I will always love you dear Little Butt. I'll miss you!"

My First Bloggy Award!

I received my first bloggy award!! Penny over at I could be fake thinks I deserved this award:

This is pretty exciting to me. I mean, I've seen those awards going around...you know the ones. The ones that think your blog is cute and awesome...but this one. This one says I have substance. It's amazing to me that Penny thinks I have substance because I think I just ramble! LOL! Thanks again Penny! This means a lot.

Now, winning an award does not come for free. It is now my duty to pass on the bloggy love. Here are the rules that go along with accepting this award:

The Rules:
~ Thank the blogger who awarded it to you.
~ Sum up your blogging philosophy, motivation, and experience using five words.
~ Pass it on to 10 other blogs which you feel have real substance.


My blogging philosophy in 5 words or less: Life as I know it...


Ten other blogs that I believe have substance:
(this is not quite 10, sorry!)

In no particular order:

Calm Crazy
In Every Good Love Letter There's a Soldier and His Girl
It's a Hooah Life
Scatterbrained Wife of a Soldier
A Modern Military Mother
Riding the Roller Coaster 
4 Nuts in a Nutshell
A Day in the Life of 5 

So there it is. I am pretty new to this wonderful world of amazing blogs so that's all I have for now. Thanks again Penny! 

Mil Spouse Friday Fill-In

Recently I have found this whole amazing community of mil spouse blogs. I happened to find Wife on a Roller Coaster (awesome blog!) and through that blog found Wife of a Sailor (another awesome blog). Well, Wife of a Sailor has started a new meme: Milspouse Friday Fill-In. I haven't participated in anything like that but I figure what the heck...why not?? So here is this week's:

1. How did you and your spouse/significant other meet?

Me and The Hubble actually met in college. He was the dude who would fall asleep in class...in the front row! Yup. I constantly watched that guy thinking: "who the Hell does he think he is falling asleep right in front of the professor?!?!" Then he stole my seat and I showed him my butt. LOL! Yeah...I think I need to write a post about this soon...

2. What is the best thing about being a MilSpouse?

I think the best thing is the travel. Living in new places. Having new experiences. Knowing that you are somehow involved and are participating. Being able to give a soldier a good home and creating new relationships and families all over the world. Also, just knowing something...more. It's hard to put into words...it's the feeling.

3. What is the hardest thing about being a MilSpouse?

The hardest thing actually kind of goes along with the best thing for me. The never knowing where you are going. Seemingly to constantly be in limbo. Not being able to plan for a future of more than a year or so and know that even if you try to plan, it's going to change. Putting parts of my life on hold because I don't know what's going to happen next. 

4. What is your favorite dish?

This one is too difficult for me to answer. I love food. I love to cook (as you may already know). I love all types of different types of food as well. I love Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Greek, Southern, pretty much everything you can think of. I know this doesn't really answer the question...there are just too many great dishes out there to pick a favorite!!!

5. If you could change one thing in this world, what would it be?

Petty differences and judgments. I wish that people could accept the differences that we all have instead of fight against them. All this does is create drama and I don't subscribe to drama. I don't like crazy maker's because it just makes life too hard. Instead of judging and hating on one another, why can't we embrace other's differences and maybe learn something new in the process??? Why is it so difficult to understand that we could learn so much about the world and different experiences if we could get over our own judgments and petty differences and listen and get to know one another.

We Are the Champions

Today I battled a coconut and I killed a small pizza. Life is good. LOL!

Okay. I guess I can start at the beginning of the epic battle that took up my entire afternoon. Sometimes I decide to make treats for The Hubble's class. So far I've sent in espresso walnut cake, lemon blueberry bundt cake, and The Pioneer Woman's bacon onion cheddar biscuits. So one day The Hubble comes home and tells me that a girl in his class has asked me to make something gluten free, sugar free, and dairy free. Basically, she wanted me to take all the fun out of a baked good and send it in for her. Okay, sure lady, whatever you say.

Well, things got a bit worse. The girl actually sent home with The Hubble a bag of almond flour (basically ground up almonds) and two cookies that she wanted me to recreate. Apparently this girl enjoys the Paleo diet. The people who subscribe to this diet choose not to eat anything that wasn't available in the Paleolithic era. The cookies have four ingredients listed, almond flour, ginger, macadamia nuts, and unprocessed coconut. Well, do you know how hard it is to find coconut that isn't sweetened or processed?? Right. Enter in the opponent. A fresh coconut. I did my research. I found that if you put it in the oven for about 15 minutes it will crack.

The first issue was trying to get the milk out. The Hubble has apparently decided it's time to play hide and seek with his screwdrivers. I was going to hammer a screwdriver into the eye of the coconut. So that was a lot of fun figuring that out without the screwdrivers. Then let me tell you...the oven thing?? Yeah. It doesn't work. I pretty much beat the crap out of that thing until it submitted to me and opened!

This whole process took a few hours of intense labor, many colorful words, and burnt fingers because putting the coconut in the oven apparently cooks it, not cracks it! Who knew?!?!?! I think I finally figured out the cookie recipe, I just have to wait until The Hubble takes them to her to taste tomorrow.

By the time this was all over there was no way I was interested in making dinner. So we ordered pizza. The Hubble and I actually routed each other on and made it to the finish line with each of our pizzas! We had never eaten a small pizza solo and we were in it to win it baby! So the score for today:

Coconut: 0
Pizza: 0
Manna: 2

I think there is a clear winner here folks. However, unfortunately the only picture I snapped of this epic coconut battle was on my phone. So here's my crappy phone photographic proof that I won! Take that coconut!!

I'm Getting Too Old for This Sh....

The Hubble and I had a great night last night. We didn't really do anything. We just sat together at the table and talked. Little Butt ran around playing. Riding her firetruck. Riding her plane. Going up and down the stairs. She was pretty much in her own world (as usual).

The night before last, The Hubble came home and basically fell asleep into his dinner plate. After pulling a couple all nighter's the boy was just beat. And let me tell you...this chick? Yeah, no sympathy for that guy! No way, now how. It's his own damn fault he decided to procrastinate and not start his crazy intense paper 3 weeks ago when he found out about it. Instead, he waited until about 4 days before it was due to work on it. Oh well. He finished it and he hopefully won't be pulling that nonsense again. I hope this was the smack in the a** he needed.

So yeah. Last night we sit down to a great dinner. We had great conversation. And naturally, because it's us, we popped over a bottle of wine with dinner. Then popped open a bottle of wine with dessert. But let me tell you, having a dinner of nothing but fish and vegetables and the lightest dessert you could ever dream of (which I'll be posting about on my food blog on the 27th), with a bottle of wine each, with no carbs to soak it up...what I'm saying is we got....tipsy? Haha! We got pretty buzzed. We had intense conversations about where our lives and the Army are taking us. We had a fairly heated conversation about the General McChrystal blunder. Then we both became passionate and loud about where we want to go next. It's still a guessing game at this point. There's a program he wants to get into that will take us one of three places: Virginia, Florida, or Belgium. I can't help but dream about Belgium.

Anyway...I digress. That all is for a different post. Today it's all about the fact that waking up after last night's antics has not been my favorite thing to do today. I have punchy head and dry eyes. I'm trying to motivate myself to go workout but I just haven't achieved that yet.

The one person who benefited from last night's dinner?

That's right! Little Butt! We got so into what we were talking about that we kind of lost track of time and missed bedtime. By a lot. We (and I use the royal "we" here because it was really The Hubble) realized it was 10:30pm and she wasn't in bed yet! Ooops! Fail!!

So I've decided that people who are officially in their 30's should never pull nights like that. We are just too damn old.

Please tell me I'm not the only one who does this stuff! Do you have any drunken home stories??

Dad's Day 2010 Recap

I know this is a day late but I wanted to share what we did for Daddy's Day. The Hubble stayed up until 4am yesterday (Saturday night) because he's been working on a paper that was due today. He's known about this paper for a few weeks now so I just can't bring myself to feel sorry for him and the fact that he has had to pull a few overnights to get it done. So when Dad's day rolled around I had no issues waking him up when Little Butt and I got up. LOL!!! Actually, that's not true. I closed the door and tried to let him sleep in but he got up with us anyway.

We started by giving him his Dad's Day presents. We got him Anthony Bourdain's new book, a hamburger patty press, his favorite candy bar, and a counting coin jug thing.

After the gift opening, I made him some breakfast. Then we decided to go have a fun day at the park.

Woah! Look what Daddy can do!!

That's incredible!

Little Butt can do some spectacular tricks as well! She even climbed this ladder alone!

But Daddy has a bit more experience.

Next it was time to explore the "forest."

We looked at rocks...

And trees.

But it was so hot...

So we had a watermelon snack!

But it was still super hot so we left. We went home to take a tubby...

Then we went out to dinner.

A BBQ dinner.

Because BBQ is "man" food (make sure when you say "man" you add a low growl with that).

Oh yeah...I'd say he had a good day.

Wakey Wakey Eggs and Bakey

I think I needed yesterday's dream to help get me out of this...mood? Funk? That I've been in lately. I don't know what it is but I've been feeling kind of weird and annoyed. Especially when it comes to The Hubble.

I know that sounds terrible. But we've barely seen each other these last...pretty much 3 years...possibly longer. Let me give you a little rundown:

February 2006 he deployed to Afghanistan.
July 2006 he came back to be Rear Detachment Commander. He had 300 other wives and didn't have time for me. No problem. I'll wait.
August 2007 he took command of a company after having given up Rear-D one month prior. Work schedule from 4am-10pm until he moved us to TX in October 2008, went back to duty station while leaving us in TX.
December 2008 Deployed to Afghanistan until December 2009.

Even though he's been back since December, Little Butt and I were still in TX and he was in NY. We met up and moved to our current duty station at the end of April. So we have pretty much been living together only about 2 months. Actually, a little under two months.

I've been having a slightly difficult time adjusting to him being home...all the time.

See, The Hubble is now in a school environment. He had a week and a half off when we first moved here. Okay, that's fine since we needed to unpack and everything. Then he kept going in and coming home for a couple days. When he finally started the actual class, he came home at noon for a week or two.

I'm just not used to him being around so much! I know this all sounds horrible but it's difficult to having your own space, schedule and home to having someone around constantly! Now I'm not saying it's a bad thing...I'm just saying it's been an adjustment.

I think my dream was a definite wake up call though. It's time to buck up and get through this adjustment period. It's been about two months and I should be able to adapt quicker than that. I need to. The time we have together is so short and so precious that I shouldn't waste it by being annoyed that he's coming home at noon every day and taking a nap.

I need to appreciate the fact that we pretty much have a year of stabilized time together. I need to be grateful for this time that we have to reconnect and share our lives. I need to not take him and this time for granted and use it for all that it's worth. Because who knows what tomorrow may bring. Life is too short for the adjustment period to be longer than this. It's time to get it back. To be happy. To be together. To love each other. It's time baby. I'm here. Now. I'm in it for the long haul so let's get after it.

Can't Shake the Feeling

I had a crazy, horrible dream this morning and I just can't shake it from my system. I even woke up for a while then went back to the dream. Blah. I feel jittery and yucky and emotionally drained this morning.

The dream was about The Hubble. Losing him.

The first dream I found out somehow on the phone that he was dead (the details are a bit fuzzy on how this happened but you know dreams). I had been told this news and had been crying for an entire day and trying to still go through my life and do the things I was supposed to do. The next day, I was a bit better, then the official news came. A man came to my door with a note, kind of like they did in the old days. My mom and older sister opened the door and my older sister received the note and started crying and saying "no, no!" Then I grabbed the note and sat on the floor to wait for the FRG reinforcements to arrive (which all the briefings I've gone to says this is supposed to happen).

That's when The Hubble woke me up to kiss me goodbye before he took off for PT. I felt his face and his shoulders. I could hardly believe he was still here. I hugged him as tightly as I could and he asked if I was okay. I told him I had a bad dream and he told me I was okay. I told him that I was happy he was okay.

Okay, things are good. He leaves for work, I go back to sleep (it was 5am and there's no way I was getting up then!!).

I guess I went back to the dream. This time, I was refusing to believe he was gone. I kept getting things that made me think he was still alive. I received a letter from him in the mail. I was at a book store and someone official looking brought me another note, but it was from The Hubble. I kept denying that he could be gone. Then I received his things in the mail. As in true weird dreamy fashion, all of his things were just stuffed in the mailbox. No box or anything. And it was the type of mailbox we had in Ft. Lewis that connected from the outside to the inside of the house through the wall. As I was pulling out PT pants and shirts I was on the phone with my older sister (in this dream she had no idea since I hadn't told her since I didn't believe it). I was telling her that this must mean he's really gone. Then I knew. I pulled his shaving kit out of the mailbox. I looked inside and his wallet with his license and ID card was there. I started screaming and crying hysterically. The ugly cry. The one where you can't breathe. This is when I woke up for good.

I feel bad about posting this. There's a blog I know of where the girl recently lost her hubby and she's really going through this. She posted recently and she's on my mind a lot, which could be why I had this dream.

People deal with the reality of this situation all the time. I've known a couple people who have had to go through this. Mine was just a dream. Get over it. I just can't shake it you know?? I needed to put it somewhere. It felt so real. It took everything I had, all my energy, my emotions. I'm exhausted.

I hope and pray that this dream will never come to fruition. But I know I don't really have any say over this.

I hope Little Butt had better dreams than mommy did....

Do you ever have dreams that feel so real that you  have trouble getting back to "reality"??

Are they ever good or usually pretty craptastic?

Playtime and Exploration Fun

Sometimes I go through my pictures and I am punched in the gut by some of them. We went playing around the neighborhood recently and the above picture is one that I captured. I think Little Butt is just absolutely stunning in this picture.

At first we didn't know what to do outside. And it was WAY hot.

But then we found some rocks...

And thought it would be fun to throw them.

Then we looked at dried up worms.

Little Butt tried to run away...

But quickly came back.

Then we discovered the gazebo...

So we climbed...

And hung out...

And sat...

And ran from side to side.

Little Butt is a ball of energy. She's tons of fun. She's smart. She's beautiful.

How did I get so lucky???