Chillin'

I hate reading the "I'm sorry, I haven't been blogging" posts too... too bad this is one of those. I'm feeling random and uninteresting. I can't seem to focus on one thing long enough to get my thoughts together and form an entire post. The hubs and I got our R&R plans worked out a lil' better. Which helps. I'm still working. Still learning.
Speaking of learning. I was never really driven to "be" anything in particular. I wanted to "do" something that would be practical for my lifestyle, that I would completely loath 100% of the time and that would have the potential to earn money. I knew that being a stay at home mom and wife (SAHM) wasn't going to work. Unfortunately I'm not getting my education in a particular vocation. I've never cared much for nursing or something equally specific. My drive to get my degree comes from wanting, generally to be employed, and higher education seems more and more a necessity. I've had two people that they think I should "be" a writer/editor. I automatically think novels and fiction when I hear "writer". I said "no no I can't do that!" I really don't think I'm creative enough to write anything people would actually want to read. I'd never in a million years think up a world where Vampires sparkle in the sunlight and are not vicious for fun ::Cough cough::... I've been pondering it for a little while and I'm starting to really consider the editing idea though. I'll have to research it a bit and see how I can make it work with the military but I know I can "do" and "be" anything I put my mind to. I'm kind of excited about the idea. We'll see where it goes and how I can manage it.

In other than being inspired by my closest friends I've been busy doing average things, to include: spending time with my family, paying off debt, talking my husband out of cars we cannot yet afford, and dreaming of not absolutely hating buying a swim suit.

Coming up... more of the same. Plus a lil' girl's 2nd b-day party for this weekend. I'm excited, I've only had her gifts for about 2 weeks. I hope she loves them!

Day 36

I just wanted to share something about myself with the group:

I'm a person who likes to be honest with myself and with others around me. I tell it how it is. However, as a reasonable minded person I know that telling it, how it is, is based on my opinion, and what I know to be true. This being said, I always try to give my opinion in a sympathetic manner. I don't force my toughs upon others. Nor do I judge them for viewing the world differently than I do.

This personality trait often causes a lot of problems with people. Often because I have unpopular viewpoints; and evidently I have high expectations of myself and others. Silly me.

Now you all know.

I'm Confused

First, I'm confused why my co-workers find it acceptable and appropriate to discuss politics at work. When I initially spoke to a co-worker/peer about this about two weeks ago she reminded me that a lot of these people have been working together for over 10 years. Ok, that's fine maybe even valid, but I haven't been working with these people for 10 years. Hell, I just passed my 1 month mark! But they insist on dragging me into these discussions. Well, I have a different stance than most of the people at this company. Which is fine. I have no problem disagreeing on political issues. What I do have a problem with, is it, 1: being in the workplace, period. and 2: when my direct supervisor (HR Director of the company) figures out where I stand (opposite from him) and jokingly makes a comment about how they'll "fix me up" and how they'll "help me."

A: I DONT NEED YOUR HELP!

B: I DONT NEED TO BE FIXED!

C: GO EFF YOURSELF!

Totally inappropriate.

I did respond to my boss by stating,"S----, that is the beauty of a Democracy, we don't have to agree and there is nothing wrong with that." To which he stated, with a smile, I think jokingly AGAIN "We'll fix you up, we have a way of doing that around here."

D: WHATEVER.

(sigh.. it's time to go home, I thought!)

Second, I'm confused about the latest craze: Vajazzling.

You remember the BaDazzler, right?

Well, females have proceeded to "badazzle" their nether regions; their female business.

Yeah.

Strange, right?

Yes.

Evidently Jennifer Love Hewitt has jumped on the bandwagon. If you google this (which I'm sure you will out of pure curiosity) her face and name are everywhere!

I was also coerced talked into jumping on the Twitter bandwagon.

Hit me up if you wanna know why I truly joined Twitter, SamS_live.

Erin was kind enough to bust me out!

Here we go people, hopefully it should be fun.

Also confused about why The Cutest Blog on the Block is getting rid of my current blog background? BOO...

Have you noticed the lil' note on my blog about how it's going away in a few days?

Couldn't have a better time to start working on new digs around here!!

Also, don't forget about my giveaway going on right now!

CLOSES tomorrow Friday, 23 July 2010 at Midnight (MST).

Get your entries in now!!

Free Stuff

I love free stuff.

Do you love free stuff?

If you don't, that's just strange and you should!

For those who do,  you should read on:

As previously mentioned I won a bloggy make-over from Mrs. Muffins. We should be getting started very soon and I'm very excited!! I've been wanting to change the name of my blog for quite some time now, but I can't come up with anything clever and fun and interesting, that describes me and that I like! I've come up with things that are clever but don't describe me. And things that I like but aren't so clever. So this is where the give away comes in people. I've been blogging for 1 year and 5 months and some of you know me pretty well. So I want to you're help with my new blog title!

Here's how it works:

Entries:

You can have as many entries as your little heart desires.

But keep the goal in mind:

1 brand-spanking new Blog Title for lil' ol' me which must be clever, fun, interesting and most importantly describe me and what my readers will find here!

Winner:

If I choose your suggestion as my new blog title you will be the winner.

(nope nothing from random.org today people)

The lucky person out there will receive a $15 gift certificate to CSN Stores. You will be able to choose anything from any of their 200+ shopping sites which include home decor, electronics, kitchen accessories, bedroom vanity, furniture for you home and many, many more.

This give away will close next Friday, 23 July 2010 at Midnight (MST) and winner will be announced Saturday the 24th!

Good luck and I can't wait to hear all of your suggestions!

BREAKING NEWS!

BIG HUGE News coming your way people!

So remember wayyy back in the 8th when I first told you all about the possibility of going to Germany?

And I teased on Wednesday about off-post housing in Germany. Well its official we're headed here:

 Baumholder, Germany!

Wait... that's not ALL the news. Some of my long-time followers know that my sister, Katie also married a soldier (her high school sweetheart actually) and they are currently stationed at Fort Carson. Well yesterday she calls me on my cell, while I'm at work. I text her back because I can't be on my cell phone at work and ask her what's up? She replies "CALL ASAP." Ummm ok... My first thought was what about the kids? eeek!

So I call IMEDIATELY.

She says, "So we're going to Germany too."

I said, "SHUT UP. No you're not."

You see my sis and her family have/had no desire to go to Europe. She was excited for us to have the opportunity to travel and see more of the world but please believe she laid the guilt trip on THICK when I told her we had orders (but at the time didn't know to which post in Germany).

She says, "No, seriously we do have orders. Levi called branch to see what his options were and they told him he has to report February 2011.

She also was able to tell me which post they were going to.

I was puzzled, as Kevin and I actually tried and pursued our orders and were told they didn't know specifically, to which post we were headed.

Well, as I'm on the phone with my sister and Levi is on the phone with Kevin, telling him the exciting news!

Kevin found out at that same time that we were headed to Baumholder!

Oh did I forget to mention where my sister and her family are going?

Yes, you probably guessed it: BAUMHOLDER!

Kevin and I were looking forward to being just "Samantha and Kevin" for a while but I know that my sister and my nephews and even Levi being there will make the transition a 1000 times easer.

It was really just crazy how the whole thing worked out! But I couldn't be more excited.

Wait... I have approximately a million things to accomplish before 10 December:

SELL HOUSE

SELL a car (can't decide which one)

SHIP a Car

PACK and SHIP our household possesions

Get Brody Squared away to take him with us

Germany drivers license

Living on or off-post???

(kevin insists that we have to live off-post... because on-post they have apartments. Evidently he's beneath apartment living at this stage of his life. I tried to remind him that it's Europe and it's not like we'll find a single-family home with a huge yard. But what do I know?!)

That's just to name a few.

I have to get everything organized and ready to roll in a mere 5 months. I'll be contacting a real estate agent this weekend! Hopefully we can get the ball rolling on that FIRST!

So that's the BIGGEST news. But I also VERY excited to announce I won a bloggy make-over from Mrs. Muffins, via Shepdogg: One P, Double G!

It will probably be a week or two in the making.. since I'm fickle and indecisive.

Stay tuned for all the exciting changes to come...!

HAPPY FRIDAY Readers!

Cookies n' such!

My buddy Jen hosts a weekly recipe blog hop. This week she is featuring Cookies!!

Who doesn't like cookies?

If you do (don't like cookies) than you can just stop being my friend.... NOW!

Here's one of my fav recipes:

Cheesecake Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

Ingredients:

1/2 c Sugar

8 oz Cream Cheese

1 egg

1 Package rolled Chocolate Chip Cookie dough.

Directions:

Spray Pam in the bottom of a 9x13" baking pan. Press about half of the cookie dough into the bottom of the pan. In a small bowl mix together the other ingredients and pour over the first layer of cookie dough. Then add the remaining cough on top of the cream cheese mixture. Bake for 18 mins at 350 degrees or until golden brown on top.

And ENJOY!

It's a fav. I've also tried this once with brownies and cream cheese.... YUmmmmm!!

*~*

I love that my last post encouraged a few new followers and that you all felt as strongly about it as I did.

*~*

A big-warm 235th HAPPY BIRTHDAY to the US Army!

Hooah. 

*~*

In other exciting news the hubs and I got iPhones this weekend.

Do you have an iPhone? 

What accessories must we pick up?

Do you know of any cheap places to pick up accessories? 

I couldn't find a Blogger App. Have you found one??

What a day

Friday started off in quite the frenzy. I rolled over to my husband still asleep... I looked over to the window and the sun was up... ugh! Sun being up and my husband still being in bed during the week equals BAD! Well, he was voluntold to hit up Sam's Club for BBQ supplies. His troop was playing paint ball all day then having some burgers at 5. Needless to say my early morning scare was a gift from the Army- allowing me to sleep-in during the week with my hubs. :)

Well, after I got out of bed and got my day started the real excitement began. My sister being 35 weeks and 5 days pregnant was having pretty intense contractions. My first thought: "thank god her husband made it home 3 days ago!" My second thought: "Hmmm, he's at briefings all day. I guess I'll have to head down that way." I get to my sisters and she's in tears. I get Nathan ready to go to his friend's house for a few hours, then get Katie into the car and to the (new) Labor and Delivery floor at Evan's (on post). They hooked her up to monitors and we came to find out the baby was perfectly fine (other than being impatient), she was contracting and dilated 1 cm. We were originally told that they wouldn't give her anything to stop the contractions/labor since she was 35 weeks and 5 days. At 36 weeks she would be considered full-term and they would have delivered the baby on post. Prior to 36 weeks they would have sent us over to the local civilian hospital. All the same, they sent us home and told Katie to go back to be checked for further dilation after 4-5 hours.

*4-5 hours later*

Levi is taking Katie, who is having VERY intense (buckled-over-on-the-floor-crying) contractions back to the hospital, and I'm trying to console a very, very, very upset 3 year-old and get him to my house for dinner. Needless to say Nathan was highly upset over his dad coming home for only 10 minutes to change and take his mommy back to the hospital- cried screamed for over 30 minutes for his daddy. Separation anxiety is going to be a sad, cruel part of this child's life. :(

This time at the hospital they actually did give Katie a shot to stop the contractions. This initially made things worse on her but eventually did decrease the contractions!

Oh, did I forget to mention she has finally (thank the lord) landed on a name for my soon-to-be-new nephew?

LOGAN CHRISTOPHER

After being told she was having a girl, deciding on Madison Hope and then changing their minds to MaKenna Hope and then finally being told/seeing without a shadow of a doubt that they were in fact having another bouncing baby boy they chose Caden Christopher as this little baby's name. Well, no offence to anyone who has named their baby boy Caden or has a family member with this name I am just not such a fan. I didn't like the name from the beginning. BUT as soon as I made peace with this name and start referring to him as Caden my sister decides she isn't so thrilled with it anymore. UGH!! I wanted to scream. All the same this little bundle of joy will have a name, whenever he choosing to come screaming into our lives!

After all of that nonsense our weekend seemed to slow drastically down! Thankful for that! We made it through Katie's baby shower without the baby coming and without LAME games and still had a good turn out and a lot of fun. :)

In other news this is my 294th post! wooo... that just kind of impresses me. When I started blogging about a year ago I never thought it would last this long, that it would help me as much as it has, or that I'd actually make some pretty damn good friends because of it! 300 here we come. I'm debating on whether or not to do the whole "Question and Answer" thing... what do you think?

Time to get my Baked Ziti on the table... yummm!

Umm... EXCUSE me Blogger????

Can anyone please tell me why all of a sudden Blogger has decided that I no longer follow any (= ZERO) blogs?

URG!

This is just enough to make me drop an "Eff" bomb in the middle of the afternoon.

Maybe it's a kink; will work itself out and all will be magically rectified in a few hours?

We'll see.

(she says unbelievably)

*~~~*

Yes, I know it's Wednesday and you're all dying to know what I WANT....

But you'll have to wait. I have to run an errand. Ha...! Gotcha.

;)

Apologies and Help

I have to start by apologizing for yesterday's rant, directed towards Qwest. While they did really ruffle my feathers I felt like no one really appreciates logging onto their blogger dashboard and read a post like that one. UGG!

Moving on. Two days ago I posted about creating my own blog award with new and unique "rules". The more and more I think about this, the more and more I really would like to do it. SOooo, I'm trying to recruit one of you graphic designer types to help me. I want to create some kind of custom button for this award for recipients to post on their sidebars/blogs!

Anyone game? Send me an email if you want to get involved.

The People

Over the course of the last week my follower numbers have been all over the map. At one point I was up 5; then down 4; up 3... you get the hint. At the end of the day I don't care (as I've stated 80,000 times before) if I have 5 or 6,000 followers. But the recent fluctuation in my followers has forced me to question why people choose to follow another's blog.

Why do you follow my lil' bloggy-boo?

What leads you to follow a new blog?

Under what circumstances do you stop following a blog?

Personally, I search around on a new blog before I commit to following it. I read numerous posts before hitting that lil "follow" button. I have only stopped following blogs after there were negative after negative after negative posts. Just too much if you ask me. Yes, we all get down. Yes, we all go through rough patches. I just don't really get into the wallowing. Any-whozle, i just wanted to offer my own answers to the above questions so that everyone would feel a bit more comfortable responding to them.

Don't be shy. I truly want to know all of your answers!

Shout Outs!!!:

My husband ROCKS! So this past weekend my husband saw firsthand my affection for a well made cannoli! Today he wanted to do something special for me. He made a few stops after work and picked up the following goodies for me:


Moscato (if you like a sweet white wine, or aren't much of a wine drinker at all you'll enjoy this inexpensive bottle!)

Flowers (awww)

Two Cannoli's, two Tiramisu and two Cheesecake 'domes'! The Cannoli's weren't much compared to the ones in Jersey, the shells weren't crunchy and the ricotta wasn't up to par! however the cheesecake domes were amazing! Yumm.! I still haven't gotten to the tiramisu -- I've only had this one other time and I wasn't a huge fan. But I know my tastes have changed, so maybe I'll be more partial to it now!



All the same my hubs is the BEST! :) <3 <3 <3


~***~


Next, we have Kaitlin, from Life of a Busy Wife (a non-milspouse) blog which I love! She is currently celebrating her 300th post with a give-a-way!!! And I want it! Please go check her out! PS: We love her Puggle! :)

Coffee and Waffles

I love gloomy-guss kind of days! Just love them. I think today (being a gloomy-guss kind of day) will be wasted on me. I feel unusually motivated. I popped right out bed completed excited to find that the sky was full with grey cloud cover.

I rushed downstairs started a pot of coffee and some waffles for the Hubs and I. :)

I used Aunt Jemima's Waffle recipe on the back of the box -- they were YUMMY!

Perfect breakfast. Perfect start to this gloomy-guss day!

~~~

I need to hit the gym today and I think we're planning on visiting with my Aunt for a while. We haven't spent much time with them since Kevin found his way home.

~~~

I have to say I really appreciate the response to yesterday's post!! I love that I'm not the only one who's been down this path. I love that my readers appreciate the truth and that it isn't always easy or all love-making and being so happy you could just shit rainbows... ;)

I love my readers!!!

Happy Gloomy-Guss Sunday!!

You Can WILL Do Better

I just went back and re-read some of my most recent posts. Obviously I've gotten pretty lazy. I haven't been proof reading. I'm embarrassed.

I'll update everyone in a few, for now I'm headed to the gym -- hopefully that will turn this day around! :)

Heads up

I just added a play list to my page. I'm going out on a limb here, but I'm assuming that not everyone is going to enjoy my choice in music. So if you aren't interested in listening to my short play list the music player is located at the bottom of my page so that you can stop it from serenading you. (:

This play list includes some classics and some new tunes that I adore. I love the version of "I'll Be" that is on this play list; this is also mine and Kevin's wedding song.

"Awww."

<3

I hope you all enjoy it. Can't wait for "I Want It Wednesday!" Wooo

Victory...

NehNehNeh NA nEH! :-p

So after consulting with Lola, I've decided that if you use the "List" Gadget when creating a list (imagine that) that you are unable to alter the HTML code at all. So I just used the Text gadget instead and had no problem using the codes that KiKi gave me yesterday! :) Woo Hoooo

~~~~~

I had an extremely lazy Sunday. I left the house at 730 PM, and only because my MEAN MEAN MEAN sister-in-law, Mindy decided to update her status on FB with something about Brownies! Damn her! ;) Well... I ran to the Safeway and got myself one of those desert things that you add water and heat up and some vanilla ice cream to throw on top of my warm gooey, yummy brownie!

~~~~~

I'm waiting for the lunch-time rush to pass so that I can hit the gym, so I flipped on the Food Network (a favorite of mine) and saw Sandra Lee (the Queen of cost-effective cooking) making a Chick-Pea Salad! I am going to have to give this a shot. It looked great, canned and drained chick-peas, red onion, green pepper, olive oil, carrot, lemon juice, s&p... YUMMM! I'm just sad they didn't have a picture for you all to see.

~~~~~

PS: I CANNOT WAIT FOR MY HUBS TO GET HOME! This anticipation is killing me!

Why doesn't this work?

So I completed some of the things on my new list on the left over this weekend. But I can't manage to get the whole strike-through text down.... I went to google to find out how to manage this, per a commenters direction. So in the title of this blog is how I put tried to apply the "line" or strike-through text to the items on my list that have been completed. I got a error message saying I could not apply that HTML...? :( HELP

Vocabulary of a 3 year old

GQ WHAT?

So this lil' stud as many of you already know is my nephew Nathan. He is 2, but about to be 3 the end of September. Well his Daddy just deployed to Afghanistan and his Uncle Kevin has been in Iraq for almost a year. I never imagined in all my life that "Afghanistan" and "Iraq" would be in the vocabulary of a 2 or a 3 year old! It's kind of disgusting how our world has changed... all the same I'm pretty impressed that he understands and remembers and can tell anyone who asks that "Uncle Kevin is in Iraq." and "Daddy is in Aghanistan"!! I love this kid!

~~~~

PS: I'm super excited that I now have 50 followers! :) WOOO hoo! Thanks for showin' the love people. In the beginning and honestly still writing on this blog wasn't about how many people read it... it's theraputic for me and an outlet. Some people call this "blind support" and I suppose it is but maybe we all need a bit more blind support and we'd all be a bit happier/better off. =)

My First Award

I am so excited that someone tagged me for my first award!! For this aware I have to list seven things about myself that you didn't know, so here goes:

1) I curse like a sailor. Not much to explain there; it is what it is.

2) I HATE pickles! Honestly you couldn't pay me enough to eat one... I just couldn't handle it.

3) I'm like a burnt marshmallow: Hard and crispy on the outside but a big mess of mooshiness on the inside.

4) Since finishing the Twilight series I've been miserably bored at night. I'm considering re-reading them. But then I stop myself because I don't have the first one (although I did barrow it from someone, so I have read it) and also because I think Kevin would enjoy them so I want to wait and read them together when he gets back. On the other hand I finished the last three (which I do have) in a month's time, maybe I could do it again this time.... See it's ridiculous.

5) I'm paranoid to the point of obsession. I think paranoia is at the heart of all my irrational fears; tornadoes- I mean really, the thought of something coming from the sky and erasing everything it flies across completely weirds me out. There isn't any hiding from it. Next, I have a real fear of Armageddon. The whole 12/12/2012 business with the Mayan calendar really a sore subject for me. It's things like this that keep me up at night. I get an idea into my head and it kind of rules my life for a few days until I manage to logically mislead my own thoughts. It's a wicked mess...

6) Going back to #5, I'm highly and personally offended that they made a movie about 12.12.2012. I don't know the name of it but I saw the preview at Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. John Cusack plays in it...

7) I often disguise my emotions with anger. When I'm sad or just miserable about anything I show my distress by becoming hostile, irritable, grouchy or just altogether unpleasant. I pick stupid fights with people and I'm usually pretty abrupt. It isn't fair and I try to be more forthcoming with my true emotions but it is extremely difficult for me to do. (I think this kind of relates back to #3)I realize that this isn't fair to the people around me and ever sense I figured out that I do, do this I have made an effort to be better... it hasn't been a very good one though. :( I will however be better going forward.

Now I'm supposed to tag some other bloggers. Erin, who tagged me didn't say how many she just did 3, so we'll see what I come up with:

I'll have to first start by saying I remember Jen- Crazy Shenanigans, Becca- Mrs. GI Joe and Lola- Not all those who wonder are lost, getting tagged a few months back so I gotta pass on you ladies but PLEASE believe if this award had different requirements than (from a few months ago) you would definitely be on the top of my list!!! Mean it, sincerely.

I gotta show my hubby and my sis some love. Also, Lauren (Not just another Pregnant Army wife) and Megan (The Not So Normal Life of an Army Wife).

Ok so those are my picks and that's some crap I don't think you knew about me...

I have one question for everyone (because I know a lot of you have done this). How on earth do you do the "strike through" text? When I am posting a blog it isn't an option on my font drop down. Someone on someone please teach me... I have been racking my brain and fiddling with this damn thing for weeks now and I cannot figure this out for the life of me! Please, and THANK YOU!

*sigh* today...

I notice my followers keep increasing. That's flattering, considering I feel as though I've been pretty sluggish with my blogging lately. I just have approximately 100 things going on and when I get five minutes to myself I really just want to sit and do something brain-less, like watch One Tree Hill or General Hospital (it's what I do). Sadly, with the state I have been in lately blogging just has not been the priority it once was. I think we all get that though right...?

All the same.Yesterday I hit the gym, which I was this ~> <~ close to not doing at all so it's a miracle I got off my ass and did it in the first place! =) Of course I felt better afterwards. Also, I complained a few posts ago about being broke, hot, and AC-less. WELLL... (laTEda) we are now proud owners of a Feature Comforts Evaporative Room Cooler! =) This is the cheapest (and I do mean cheapest) way to effectively "cool ones room." True to form I purchase this lil' beauty and our heat wave heads out. So it hasn't actually been that necessary the last two days (since it was purchased). I'm ok with this, thus far, but I am under the assumption that the heat will one day- eventually, return to Colorado Springs. Maybe I don't need it today (thank the Lord for ceiling fans) but I'm sure it will prove necessary; essential once more.

I've been updating everyone on the status of my sister's IVF lately. Well, yesterday they completed the "transfer". The doc implanted two of the BEST of the BEST embryos yesterday. Now my sister is on bed rest-ish for the next 5 days. This is to give the lil' embryos the best chance to "stick"... eeek! hopefully my sister doesn't freak because I said "stick" but I'll be damned if I don't know what the actually terminology is. I'll tell you one thing about this IVF (my sister, not me) is going through, I sure have learned more about my reproductive system than I ever felt necessary. Boy O' Boy!! So we'll find out July 11th (via an old fashioned blood test) if she's pregnant. Then it'll be a few weeks after that to find out how many babies/fetus' there are. YES- that's right I said "how many." IVF, evidently increases the chance of multiples exponentially. It's funny. We've been joking with Levi (my bro-in-law) about the fact that he got his wife 'knocked up' RIGHT before he deploys but didn't have ANY fun doing it! ha ahaaHA Well, that's the other news people, Levi took off this morning on his 4th (yes you read that correctly) FOURTH deployment.

Levi is the kind of guy who doesn't like to make a big show of things. He likes to down play just about everything. His step-mother is in town with her two kids to help Katie (while she's bed resting) for a few days. This is something completely new for him. Usually it's just been my family to see him off. So I think with his lil' sisters being around, Nathan being older (being able to grasp that he isn't there), and the IVF this departure is hitting him pretty hard. It's awful but this appears to only get more and more difficult ladies. It would stand to logic that it would get easier in some way, "been there done that" and all. Well I was wrong. My logic is horribly flawed. It gets worse. Thankfully (the light at the end of the tunnel), he will be home in January/February. Levi PCS'd to Ft. Carson last summer and was owed dwell time from his last tour/unit. So he didn't ship out with everyone else in February. Well this being their 4th, they are pros! They can 'do' 9 months on their heads with one hand behind their backs! Too easy. However, they will be standing up-right with all hands on deck. Too much happening right now and the next few months. Thankfully, this will help time FLY. I have found that setting goals (more or less) in time, that it seems to help the time go by faster. For instance: Mid-August Kevin will be home(wooop whoop). 29 September is Nathan's birthday. That will be here all too soon. October, Halloween. November, Thanksgiving and Dad's birthday. December, (the obvious) Christmas. January, New Years and possible Homecoming. See and JUST LIKE THAT he's home. I love this. This is what has help immensely over the course of my first deployment with Kevin. Something that I tried to get Katie to do throughout their deployments. It has helped me alot.

*~~~~~*

When I was 18, and graduating High School I was creating a scrapbook of that final year. The first page was "A Letter to Myself", dated 17 May 2003. Here is just a small portion of that:

"Then my sister who always invents new ways to impress me with her unwavering support, bravery, attitude, and independence. I've also gained a brother, who I can't say enough good things about. He's an amazing soldier, with whom I have the utmost respect for. You're in my thoughts and prayers!"

Funny how reflection can force you to truly take stock of your life, who's in it, who's stayed with you, and who you've gained. Also, how much truly stays the same. My sister is still all of those things and more. Just as is my brother. Still a brave and amazing soldier. I'll see you all too soon "Ugly"!

Lil' Bit of This... Lil' Bit of That...

I haven't been the bloggiest blogger this week... basically I haven't had much of anything positive to say this week. Usually when I get like that/this I tend to keep my nonsense to myself. Why spread it around?

Also blogger has been a pain in my ass the last 2/3 days also. I have been attempting to blog (a few things here and there) and leave comments on some of your recent posts but it keeps timing out. This is the only site that is happening with. It's quite frustrating! So I have been keeping up with your blogs- as much as blogger would allow.

Other than that the OC on Soapnet finally caught up to where my bootleg copies of the seasons left off and has subsequently started over! Still a fan. =) Even though it's completely obvious why the show ended after Marissa caught the axe. Far less enjoyable with the Seth/Ryan/Summer/ Taylor combo.

Job update: still unemployed. Interview on Wednesday was a complete waste of time... they were looking for someone with other qualifications-- he actually apologized for wasting my time. He was a nice guy though. Far less optimistic now too... =(

Jeeee sorry I'm full of helpful positive energy. I'm debating on whether or not to venture out to Safeway for some necessities.... Prolly not?? hmmm.