So Many Movies... so little time.

Anyone notice all the good movies to see right now. I don't only mean in theaters. Lets take a look at all the movies I wanna see right now:

  

I know, it's quite the hodge-podge isn't it? Hoping I get a weekend with my husband in the next 3 Months since I don't recall having an entire weekend with him in the last 3 Months; hopefully we'll do nothing expect lay around and catch up on movies!

What are you watching these days?

I'm gonna do it!

I was talking with a friend last week and she told me how another friend of hers is currently experiencing something I hope to never experience once I become a parent. They are currently testing their son to see if he has cancer. Her son is only 3 and a half years old. Heartbreaking, I know!
I want to be able to help. To help anyone who could use my help. So, what am I going to do? I am going to register with the National Marrow Donor Program. Here's how I see it: My bone marrow could, possibly save someone that would have otherwise not been saved. It could be a child (your child, my nephew, any child!), or a father, or brother. All I know is that if it were my nephews than I would want EVERYONE to get tested. I would want your help.
Char blogged about her Pay It Forward (marrow donation) process. I found it inspirational. I hope you will as well.

For all of my MilSpouses out there who are interested. You don't have it as easy as our civilian buddies. You can't simply click "Join Now". All DOD civilian employees, Active Duty Militiary, Reservists and their immediate family members are special (duh, as if we didn't already know that!). You can check this list to see if your base/post offers the screening (there are OCONUS locations as well) or you can contact a recruiter at 1-800-Marrow-3 to request the screening Kit. I was SHOCKED that in Colorado Springs with 5 bases, none offered this screening, so I contacted a recruiter. They do prefer to send out large shipments for Donor Drives but they will send out one or two kits. I contacted my FRG and Kevin is spreading the word within his unit to see if we can get anyone else involved.

*fingers crossed*

This was a choice I made all on my own, I was not contacted by the National Marrow Donor Program. I feel it is just an amazing cause which could possibly equate to an amazing-life-altering opportunity to help (possibly save the life of ) another person. No pressure or judgement from me if this isn't for you. :)

WTF? (#2)

The last time I blogged with this title it was alllll about TV finales.

This time it's all about Lingerie Football. Yes, that's right. It's an all female football league. And yes they are running around with their asses and boobies out playing football.
(course this implies their hardcore... riiight)
Take a look and judge for yourself:

Does anyone else see fake lashes?

Stop feelin' me up, I'm here to PLAY!

Game Face!

Serious players right there. 

SUCCESS

All my ingredients

baking away

Icing!

Last two!

DELICIOUSNESS!

So lets start with these yummy, delicious little gems! I was a bit nervous about my first undertaking of homemade-from-scratch-Martha-Cupcakes, especially since Lola didn't have a stellar experience. Well, thankfully these turned out great! They are so moist and delicious I am SOOO proud of myself. (maybe a little over excited about this?) (NO!)

I didn't have and couldn't find Red-Gel Food coloring so I used old school McCormicks food coloring. I've read that you'd have to use more of it if you don't have the gel. So I proceeded to use 1/2-3/4th of the bottle, and it was just perfect (if I do say so myself!). For the icing I only used 3.5 cups of confectioners sugar versus the 4 cups the recipe calls for, and it was plenty sweet. The only aspect of these lil beauties I wasn't thrilled with was that all of them weren't full and round on the top. It's really a pity when you don't get the "muffin top" you're looking for. You can find the full recipe here, if you're interested (and I strongly recommend you get interested people).

~~~
Aside from my amazing cupcakes I have more good news. The company I am currently working for found someone to replace me. My last day will be next Friday. This is a good thing because it will free up my time to really stay on top of the other things I have to accomplish for this PCS.

There's one more thing... I know, how much more could a girl want than delicious Red Velvet cupcakes and unemployment? Nikki (she hasn't been mentioned on my blog in ages, but she's a great friend who just happens to live directly across the street from me), may have a friend that wants to rent our house! EEEKkk! :) everything seems to be falling into place. As I typed that I'm doing my best to fight every negative urge in my body... I have this feeling of waiting for the other shoe to drop, like it's all too good to be true.

I'm gotta run! Don't forget to get baking ladies and LINK up... tells us how it went!

Wants and more

On this fine Wednesday, I want nothing more to be unemployed again. Don't get me wrong, I am very blessed to be employed; have an income to help pay our mortgage and other bills. I am grateful. But over the course of the last week I've learned how un-understanding people can be. (leave my grammar alone, you know FULL well what I mean!) People, at least these people, don't care that if I don't get certain things accomplished I won't be added to my husband's orders and permitted to travel with him. Which would separate us over the holidays.

I also want to get my Red Velvet Cupcakes baked already! I went to the store tonight and picked up what I need, so tomorrow night it shall be! If you haven't done so already, bake em' up and link up with Lola!

I want to know if I can take my washer/dryer to Germany?

I want forward progression with all of this moving nonsense.
-It's official we won't be selling our home, but we'll be renting instead. Please keep your fingers crossed for us! There are a lot of ways that this could go badly for us but we really need it to work out for the best!
-My husband needs to not be in the field first and foremost. So that he can deal with JPPSO and S1 and get us organized on his end. I want to schedule JPPSO to come get and ship our stuff away so we can get out of this house and get it rented sooner rather than later.
-I did learn today that I don't need to get my Travel passport and my no-fee Passport prior to leaving. I can get the No-Fee passport on post (which I already knew) and then get the Travel Passport in Germany. That helps me out a little. I'm nervous about giving up my only proof of citizenship though. I was born in Germany (some of you may remember some of my earlier blogs and telling you my father was in the Air Force), so I have a Certificate of Birth Abroad. Which is not as easily replaced as your birth certificate from Colorado or Oregon. I jumped online and click, click, click and had my husband's Birth Certificate like *that*. In my situation I would literally have to write a letter to the Department of State in Washington DC requesting a new Cert. of Birth Abroad. Well, I'm glad I only have to worry about one at this point...

I want to go to bed! Ni ni lovely's.

Good times and Free Stuff!

First and foremost I must announce the winner of my Simply Bags giveaway!

The Doll from Shepdogg: One P, Double G 

you will soon be the proud owner of your very own personalized, insulated lunch bag! I will contact you soon with additional information.

Thank you to everyone that participated and for showing your love to Simply Bags. I have a feeling they'll be getting some of my money very soon!! I'm still eying some of these bags! 

I hope you all had a great weekend. I know I did. Kevin finally had a full weekend home from the evil field! I wish he wouldn't have come in at 130 Friday AM though... I didn't sleep right with him in the bed... sharing is not a strong suit for me especially when it comes to the bed/pillows! 

All the same we kicked the weekend off with Fort Carson's Run/Walk for the Fallen. This the second year in a row we participated. We went last year a short 4 days after Kevin's redeployment. This year was a big more emotional for me. I saw a few faces and names I recognized. It was very sad. On Memorial Day I blogged about Sgt Matthew Ingram and his widow, my friend Holly. I spent a lot of time thinking about their family Saturday. You see not only had I known them and saw Matt's picture at the Walk, Saturday (8.21) just happened to be one year since Matt died in Afghanistan. Holly was with family on Saturday and that's probably the most anyone in her shoes could hope for. 

Still it was moving to be apart of it for another year:

Lots of people

Soldier running for all of 2-12 Fallen;
In the Tan is the Post Commanding General

Brody getting some love from Walk kids!

We really did have a great time and were so glad to be there participating!

Thankfully after such a somber event our day took a much brighter turn. Kevin and I planned a night away. We headed toward Denver, after a stop at the Outlet Mall in Castle Rock (and scoring an amazing new pair of Under Armour flip flops) we made it to Denver and finally I reunited with my beloved Pinkberry! I've blogged about my love affair with Pinkberry many times. When we were in San Diego for the 4th of July we went to Pinkberry (you know, because it's a HUGE deal out there) and they didn't have my FAV Pomegranate flavor. Jerks! They had the gall to tell me it was "Seasonal". Ppsshh! Well my new favorite Pinkberry had my Pomegranate with Capt'n Crunch for me in the middle of August! I love it, it was amazing. YUMM. Kevin laughed, at me. I'm ok with that though. It was that good!

We finally made our way to our hotel relaxed poolside in a hammock for a while then headed out for the night. We stopped at Lila B's for a quick drink where we had a great bartender, who somehow (I may have indirectly, possibly dared them into it... but who really knows) wound up giving us free shots to prove he was better at making them than his bartender buddy (from upstairs, Thomas). After the drinks at the bar we had an amazing dinner at Lucy's and headed to Comedy Works for our main event! We saw Greg Giraldo, from The Last Comic Standing. He was hilarious. 

The Hubbin and I had a great time. It was so great to get out of town even for just a night. Sorry I don't have pictures but like the crazy lady I am I forgot our new Camera! BOO! 

I hope everyone had a great weekend just as I did and that some of you (unlike me) found the time to bake yourself some Red Velvet Cupcakes! Get to it ladies! Can't wait to hear what you think of the recipe. I'll get mine knocked out this week!! 

First Addition

Lets go people!!!!! I'm excited for this, the first installment of L+S Cupcake Club!

For this first installment Lola and I decided to on my fav Red Velvet (p. 30) with Cream Cheese frosting (p.303). So give it a go ladies let me know what you had to change, adapt to your pantry, what failed or succeeded by linking up on Lola's post, here. 

Check out the recipe on Marthastewart.com !!! 

Happy Baking, spread the word get the people involved! 

~~~

O, and don't forget to enter my current giveaway for A Simply Bags insulated Lunch bag (value of $19.99)!!

Click here for details-- CLOSES THIS SUNDAY, 22 AUG!!!

What a Difference a Year Makes

One year ago today my husband returned from a year long deployment to Iraq. He should have been home a year ago, yesterday. But we know how the Army operates on their own schedule, with no regard to what I may want. Jerks. HA!

That was one of the most special days. It was hands-down the best day of my life, to date. (yes, this includes our wedding day) I've never experienced such a variety of emotions all at once like that. Relief, nervousness, excitement, anxiousness... patience was no where in my hodgepodge of emotion, sadly. I mean seriously if only patience was the normal, given emotion for that situation. Because you know we're on the Army's time here. Nothing happened on time, it was always "just a little while longer". It wasn't as poorly organized as my Brother-in-laws redeployment ceremony but it definitely wasn't good times.

I was so lucky to have my family around though. I don't know what I would have done all day if I didn't have my Mother and Father-in-law to keep me occupied and LB to visit in the hospital that day.

Today, even though my husband has been in the field for most of the last 3 months I am still grateful that he's home.

(don't forget to enter my giveaway gals!! Closes the 22nd!)

It's Wednesday... It's here!

Yesterday I teased you with BIG news. I blogged about it and I even tweeted about it. You ready for it?

The lovely Lola propositioned me! I know... I blushed at first but then I realized how good of an idea she had! What we've decided to do is start a Cupcake Club. Along the same lines as a Book Club-- only BETTER and more delicious.

Mrs. Lola and I were needing some motivation to work our way through Martha's (yes, we're cool like that and on a first-name basis) Cupcake Cookbook:

Here's how it'll work folks: The 20th of every month we'll announce that month's flavor, everyone (that means YOU!) will attempt to make it and then blog about it and link up via McLinky! Tell us what you loved, what failed, if you changed the recipe at all... and please, please at pictures.

Now I don't claim to be an exceptional baker. But I'm hoping this lovely idea will help to inspire me to bake more often and get some more of my followers involved! I love that you all read my blog and enjoy hearing about the day-to-day haps, but some of you Lurk. You know who you are. So... Come out, and participate!

Presenting L+S Cupcake Club:

It's only a day a way...!

Have you entered the Simply Bags giveaway?! You simply must, if you haven't already. For those who aren't of the tweeting persuasion you still have one chance to enter this giveaway, but you'll have to blog about this (either in a post or on your side bar) and leave a comment with a link here. 

Mrs. Lola and I will have a joint announcement tomorrow. So you better be excited and check back to see what's in store! It'll be fun. Promise. 

In other news it appears a price drop is in the future for my home. Another meeting with the real estate agent is scheduled for tonight. We shall see. I was really hoping for some interest. We have a great home- so I think (ha!) and I'm just wishing someone else would think so too. I was thinking of posting it on Military By Owner... Has anyone used this site? Successes? Failures? Do tell.

In other news, the hubs and I will be participating in a Run for the Fallen on Fort Carson Saturday morning. Don't worry my dedicated readers, no I won't be running. You know, because running is meant for when you're being chased and all. I will however be walkin' it out like a PRO! I believe in the cause and want to participate (along with some family and friends!). After the Run/Walk we're going to head to Denver for some fun and a relaxing night away! We need it. The last few weeks have been stressful. Plus, the Army has kept my husband for most of the last 4 months so I miss him.

I'm bored at work so I could ramble on and on, and on, and on and on... but I won't.

Saddened

I'm sad dear readers!

Remember that exciting day when I announced that Kevin and I were PCSing to Germany? I was sooooo excited to learn that my sister and her family would be joining us there also! I know that people do it all the time without their sisters and nephews, but I was just so excited to experience this with them. Sadly, we found out that Levi (my bro-in-law) 's orders were canceled! We aren't exactly sure why, but regardless he isn't going.

I know that it will be exciting for Kevin and I to be just the two of us; have a fresh start; concentrate on our own little family. This will be a really great step for us. I'm just really super sad people! Kevin and I tried for these orders, we wanted them. We also never in our wildest dreams thought that my sister's family would be there at the same time, at the same post. So, in the beginning I knew that it would be hard on me to be that far away from my family, from my nephews. Not for nothing,  I didn't have to think about going to Europe without family, missing birthdays and holidays. But now I'm smacked in the face with that reality.

It sucks.

Another Try, Shall we?

Ok, people. I'm going to give this giveaway business another shot!!!! This time we have a sponsored Giveaway.
First and foremost go check out Simply Bags.

Here are a few of my favs:

LARGE TOTE

Laptop Bag

Large Damask Tote
{great for the Beach!}

Aren't they great? I have a feeling a travel bag/overnight bag/Lap Top bag could be in my future. You know with all of the traveling ahead. EEEK! (excitement)

So here's the deal. I will be hosting a giveaway for an Insulated Lunch Bag (value of $19.99).

Here's how it is going to work (some of the same entry rules as the last failedgiveaway):

1) Follow ME on Twitter: SamS_live
2) Tweet this giveway
3) Blog/Post about this giveway (including a link to Simply Bags)
4) Follow Simply Bags on Twitter (they have many of their own giveaways from Twitter also)

So you have four possible chances for entries! Each entry must have a separate comment on this post including links, where applicable.
This giveaway will close one week from today on, Sunday August 22 2010. All entries must be received by Midnight. Winner will be chosen via random.org and announced ASAP (hopefully Monday 8.23.10)! 

Lets see if another sponsored giveaway does the trick!! :) 

Family

I am a person, who believes very strongly in family! I believe you should never openly (more specifically on social networking sites) put your family down. Busting your husband, sister, brother, mother, cousin, nephew ect,out on Facebook isn't cool. It's simply unnecessary and immature. What bugs me even more are the passive aggressive Status updates/Tweets. Just come out with it... hell if you insist on airing your dirty laundry at least do it in a way that everyone reading can actually understand.
I digress.
I can't control other people or what they choose to put out into the universe.

All that I know is that family is precious. I have learned that people, even sometimes the BEST and greatest of friends let you down or dump you.* I know it, you know it, we've all experienced it. The way I was raised, family is forever. Whether you like them or not, or even love them today or not, simply does not matter. You always have their backs and know that no matter what they will be there for you.

It saddens me when I see things on Facebook from members of my family that diminish their relationships within the family. I will never understand this? If you really have that little respect for your ______ (whatever: husband, sister, brother, mother, cousin, nephew ect) you should (in my humble little opinion) figure out what is broken within your situation and fix it. I am a reasonable person, people. I know that life is not this black and white. I know that all things cannot just be fixed, just-like-that.

I am also a person that believes very strongly in respect. If you no longer love or respect your _____ (whatever) than respect and honor what you once loved and respected about that person. What was once good about it.

Sorry for being "preachy" today. I had to get this off my chest though!

*this post is not meat to, in anyway diminish the GREATEST and BEST of friendships, so don't take it that way.

TGIF!

Something else I MUST add, since I'm bitching about social networking sites is WHY, WHY do people Tag themselves in YOUR pictures? Does this bother anyone else BUT me? C'mon... seriously, I know it can't be just me. Now in the big scheme of things, is this a big deal? Absolutely not, but it does aggravate me! 

I WANT it Wednesday...

Ok ladies, it's our first addition of "I Want it Wednesday" with the new digs!
Can you feel the excitement? I'm stoked! haaaaHA

I want....

Canon Rebel XS start "kit"... oh yes I found a fabulous deal on this and will be picking it up by the end of the week!!! Soooooo excited!

I want....
People to call for appointments to see my house!
I want....
Someone to buy my house!
It's been on the market almost a month and no calls. In all fairness it wasn't listed at a competitive price until last Friday but still! NOT. A. SINGLE. CALL. I'm starting to feel the pressure folks. I know we have some time, I was just really hoping for some more traffic! :(

I want....
to go here:

for New Years!
Kev and I will be in Germany by this time. I'm making peace with the fact that we'll be stuck in crummy temporary lodging for Christmas without our personal items. (sad face) But New Years would be a perfect opportunity to do some GREAT sight-seeing. And what better place to ring in the new year (in a new place country  continent)??
I am extremely excited about the idea and hope to start the planning ASAP!

I want....
to win a small amount of money in the lotto. I mean I'm not greedy I don't need 200 Million to myself. I would be over-the-freaking-moon for a measly $200,000.
Just putting good things out into the universe... I'll let you know how it works out for me! haaaHA

Happy Hump Day!!!