The Bonds of Sisterhood are Just as Strong

Have you ever met someone and had an instant connection? You meet this person and you just somehow know that you were meant to be in one another's lives? Some immediate spark or knowledge hits you and you know without a shadow of a doubt that you would fight for this person? That has happened to me a few times within the last few months with some of the ladies I have met recently. It happened in January with Miss T and it happened two weeks ago with Miss L and Miss J.

Let's start at the beginning...

Yesterday morning, Little Butt and I wake up and we decide to do craft time. I've been wanting to work with her and her letters recently so we (I) decided to do the Alligator A! craft from No Time For Flash Cards.

By the way, if you have little ones at home, the No Time For Flash Cards site has tons of ideas for crafts and fun learning. Little Butt was very proud of her alligator!

So after craft time, I'm looking through things on my computer and getting ready to post a new recipe on Jolts & Jollies (my cooking blog) when Miss L calls me. She asked if The Hubble had told me about Mr. J (Miss J's husband). Apparently, Mr. J had a crazy intense seizure that morning and had to be taken to the hospital by ambulance. Miss L wanted to go to the hospital to lend moral support to Miss J and I jumped up to join her.

Miss L went to grab coffee while Little Butt and I got ready and jumped in the car to fly over to the hospital. Miss L and I arrived at the hospital at the same time and had to ask a lot of questions and page Miss J in order to find her. Unfortunately Mr. J and Miss J were in a Neurology session and we didn't even get to see them until they were leaving. But we waited patiently in the waiting room, just me, Little Butt, Miss L and Baby L.

Once we did get to see them, we quickly made arrangements to pick up the J-family kids that evening and make them a couple casseroles to keep them fed during the next few days of craziness and tests.

So that's what we did. We went to the store and whipped up a couple dishes for them. Then met up at their house around 5pm to grab the kiddos because they were going to stay with Miss L for the evening while Mr. J and Miss J went back to the hospital for more tests.

I was so glad that Little Butt was a good girl all day. She just went along for the ride. She was super duper happy that Miss L had a DVD player in her car too!

Now that I am reflecting on the day I can't stop thinking about how I just met these ladies two weeks ago at a party and have only seen them once since, at the spouse coffee. I think it is important to know that there are people out there who care about your well being and are willing to do whatever it takes to help. I instantly fell in love with these ladies and I am truly hopeful that the little I could offer was helpful in this time of need. These are my sisters, my fellow Army wives, my family. I will be here no matter what they need, all they need do is call.

Me vs Housework

I believe there are some jobs in life that certain people are made to do. House cleaning?? I was definitely not made to do this job! My MIL?? She was definitely created for this type of work. She loves it! Her house is always immaculate. I, however, was never meant to be a housewife and sometimes I try my hardest to figure out how I got here.

Oh wait. I know how I got here. I had Little Butt, decided to quit my job, and here I am. A stay at home mom who needs to earn her keep somehow. Isn't it enough though that I cook?? I guess not.

Anyway. The battle between me and the house started early this morning and I am pleased to report the score:

Manna: 1
House: 0

That's right! I win! {insert evil laugh} Mwahahahahahahaha!!!!

I do feel much better when the house is nice and clean though...

How about you? Are you one of the lucky ones who enjoys housework or do you dread it like I do?

Here Comes the Rain Again

So I'm starting to notice a trend here. Earlier this morning it was a gorgeous, sunny day. I finished writing this blog about the crazy weather we get here and I look up and out my window and see that the sky has grown a bit darker than I remember.

Yes. It rained a bit. The rain came on so suddenly I saw people run from house to house. As soon as I took these pictures and sat down. I looked up again. Not even five minutes later...

It became so dark the street light turned on. This is one o'clock in the afternoon. Crazy! Soon after the rain came again.

And what do I find then??

Little Butt looking out the window! She sure does love these rain storms I guess...

Here's The Hubble's poor little grill getting rained on.

I guess we won't be escaping the rain anytime soon...But this weather definitely doesn't make me want to clean my house.

Does it rain a lot where you live?

Does cloudy/rainy weather make you want to get things done or just be lazy??

Spouse Coffee with a Twist

 The other night I went to my first spouse coffee here in FLW. I had never met these women before and it was incredibly intimidating to walk  into a room full of women I didn't know. But, I decided I would go anyway. How else will I get to know them? How else will I meet people and possibly make friends?

Well, the weekend before I went to one of The Hubble's classmate's son's birthday party. Haha! Say that 10 times fast! Anyway...at this party I met the wife of the classmate (Miss L) and another classmate's wife (Miss J) who went to the party. The three of us got to talking and they both admitted they were not planning on attending the coffee.

You see, in a training or "school" environment when everyone is moving in and out so quickly, it's difficult to set up and maintain these functions. However, I've found in the past that they can be super fun.

So...by the end of the party, I had both of these women convinced to attend the coffee! Woohoo!

The next few days (after I stepped back and thought and OVER analyzed the situation, because that's what I do) I started to believe that maybe I'm a pusher. These ladies had no intention of attending the spouse coffee, but give them 10 minutes with me and they had promised to go. And they showed up too!

I took The Pioneer Woman's Sundried Tomato Pasta Salad. I put on my cutest hot pink pumps.

And I went to the coffee. There were way more women there than I had anticipated. I thought there would be maybe a handful but ended up being about 20!

We ate, we talked, we received new information about the town. We did not however, actually drink coffee, much to my dismay. There was no coffee to be had! Mind boggling! Soon our phones started blowing up.  Many of the husbands were texting to ask how we were and if we were all right. We wondered why until we opened the big steel door of the BN classroom we were in and became aware of the intense storm that had started. There was insane rain pour, electric type lightning, cracking thunder, large balls of hail, and to top it off...tornado sirens. We were completely oblivious!

We ended up waiting for a small break in the storm (for the hail and tornado sirens to stop) then I kicked off my heels and ran, barefooted, in my cute outfit, to the car. And even though I was only a few feet from the door, I was drenched by the time I got there.

I could barely see out the windshield through the rain with the wipers on high. The Hubble had been on the phone to guide me in and I had NO IDEA where I was. I called him and asked him to help me. He told me to go the way I came. Hahaha! Men! I told him it was dark and raining like crazy and I was confused. He helped me get home.

I came home and it was not raining here but there was an electrical storm going on and we had no power. The Hubble said the power had been off for about an hour or so. It stayed off for another hour or so past me getting home. Little Butt and The Hubble were having fun with it though. They had chairs lined up next to a window so they could watch the storm.

Eventually the power turned back on. The food in the freezer was still frozen, but I didn't trust the fish that had been in the fridge.

Even though my first spouse coffee here was pretty insane. I'm still really glad I went. Hopefully the connections I made there will only get stronger in the future.

Has anything like this ever happened to you?

Has weather ever impacted an event or a function of yours? How?

Hurry Up and Wait

 The Hubble and I were talking this morning about the "options" we have for our next duty station.

See...we have this interesting position that makes all the little lists that have been emailed out obsolete for us. About a week ago the class was emailed a list of follow on assignment options. These options were pretty sweet deals if you ask me. There was Colorado, Hawaii, Florida, Texas, I think there was even a couple Germany and North Carolina options in the mix. Well, the problem we face is that these are all command queue positions. The Hubble just came off of a 36 month command with 12 months Rear-D prior to that. So...none of these spiffy options apply to us.

However, there's a program The Hubble wants to get involved in that we have heard some places where we could "home base" from. These places include Florida, Virginia, and Belgium! I would be all over that Belgium idea. We've actually been talking about and researching Belgium. The bad news is that we can talk and we can dream but we really have no idea yet what our options will be. Then, even if we know the options, we don't know what we will actually get.

Furthermore, we don't know if we will be here until October or March. There are so many possibilities right now. On one hand I feel like the whole world is open to us. On the other hand, I feel as though we are so limited and we have no control over our lives.

This not knowing and always waiting can be extremely frustrating...

Do you enjoy knowing where the road is going to take you?

Or do you prefer to have complete control over your life and the direction it's going?

For Further Reading Check Out:

• Hurry Up and Wait Part Deux