Motivate Me

Before I get to the actual purpose of this post (Twitter), I have to first discuss the pictures I found! I googled "Twitter", and then chose "images" and there were so many options! Can we just talk about for a minute how many different versions of that damn twitter bird there are? A. LOT! I was originally just looking for something like this:

Pretty standard right?

Well I saw these and just thought they were hilarious and adorable:

This one is my favorite- thought the lil' winky face was so cute!
Ok so now that we've discussed all the twitter birds, I'd like to now get back to the topic at hand: My motivation.

I need motivation. I need some kind of Twitter-vention. I need to know what you Tweet about? (so naturally I can tweet about it too) I need to know if you re-tweet or tweet at/to Celebs... or are you scurred? I need to know who you LOVE to follow, anything good out there?? I'm feeling like quite the Twitter failure people. So I'm currently trying to re-commit myself to the Twitter-verse. I downloaded Tweet Deck (because that's what the cool kids have, right??) I figure if I see more of other people's tweets that I'll be motivated to tweet more often, myself. Thoughts?

Motivate me... or follow me here. But preferably both! :)

Sharing

...is caring!

Lola, you know her- my homie from L+S's Cupcake club!? (yea, where's that been btw... I know it'll be back in January, eeek!) Has been going through quite the rough time the last few weeks. She's such an amazing Mil-spouse blogger and someone I consider a friend! Lola was diagnosed with Aplastic Anemia and needs a bone marrow transplant. She has a tough road ahead but she's strong and surrounded by great friends and family! Please offer her your support!

While you're at it please visit BeTheMatch.org and register to become a Bone Marrow Donor. You could be a match for Lola or someone else!

I posted here, about registration and some specifics pertaining to military and their dependents. While my life has been turned up-side-down with this PCS, this is still a cause I feel just as strongly about and will be registering upon our arrival to Baumholder. Which will be (surprisingly) much easier than if I had done it from Colorado (since they're set up at the medical facility to do the testing).

---

Logan
Last night in Colorado



Nathan

I'm missing these boys! Such handsome fella's in their own ways, aren't they?

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. :)

Thoughts and Prayers Please

A friend of mine received bad news last night. Her husband currently deployed to Iraq fell out of a tower. He is on his way to Lundstuhl and then back (thank God) on US soil. She received word that his back is broken. I don't have any other details.

This is obviously a very serious injury and I'm asking for prayers and thoughts to go out to the Cox family.

Thanks.

Baby Names

Are you protective over names that you have picked out for your future spawn*? 

Where you protective over the names you picked out while you were prego??

Well, I have a short story to share with everyone: 

Last night I found out a girl I was semi-friends with in High School is pregnant with Twins. She asked for name suggestions, and since this is one of my semi-new favorite past-times I sent a few options. Names I like but are a bit further down on my list. I would never share my first choice names with random folks. Because, well, I'm protective over them! It rather tweaked my melon when one of her other FB homies suggested both my first choice names for boys and girls! 

Here's hoping she didn't like either of them...

And hoping her other FB homie stubs her toe today!

Because, Karma is real.

(hahaa, laugh people it's a joke).

Happy Sunday!

*just a friendly reminder, I sometimes refer to children/babies as "spawn"... but as always it's meant with love and adoration. 

What to do....

What to do... What to do....... 

Today I feel like I'm just treading water; twiddling my thumbs. I'm not bored. I'm sort of uninspired. 

Have you felt this way? What did you do to change it? What do you do to maintain??

I'm waiting to hear about an interview I had on Friday. I KILLED the interview. I was extremely confident when I left the site, I sent my Thank You email so I feel like I've done everything I could to prepare for the interview and everything prior to and now it's out of my hands. They told me they wanted to make a decision by today. So of course I've been on pins and needles all day and I still haven't heard anything.Good news is that my candidate profile on the company's website indicates that I'm still in the running. 

time will tell

Inspiration

Do you watch Oprah?

Confession: I do. I just started watching Oprah about 3 months ago. I know, I know... I'm behind the curve. All the same I'm on the bandwagon, until the end. Even though that end will be just next year.

I have to say this is one hell-of-a week on the Oprah show.

Lets recap:

Yesterday

Oprah had Harpo Hookups.

(boy were they some good hookups too)

The best thing I've seen in a while was Will.I.Am of the Black Eyed Peas giving two struggling families their homes. Both families were on the verge of having their homes foreclosed on and he used his own money to pay off their homes. See it here. Will.I.Am has started the I.Am Home Fund to help American families keep their homes. Will.I.Am said yesterday on the Oprah show,

"A lot of people are losing homes; not because they are living beyond their means, because there aren't any jobs." He also said, "I'm ok. I don't dream to be like mega-crazy-rich. I just wanna create, make music and help people when they need it, and not wait for a big natural disaster, but look at the things that are happening right now."

I couldn't have said it better myself. Will.I.Am paid over $350,000 to save these two families' homes! He was  extremely generous and very gracious and I couldn't have been more surprised. I don't know why. I guess I just assume Hollywood folks aren't that way. I assume they're thankful for what they have and at some point they may work hard but I never expected this kind of generosity. Bravo, Will.i.am!

Today

Oprah had young stars/singers on the show: Justin Bieber and Charice. What an amazing voice that girl has. Justin is pretty good for what he does too. Lets face it, I'm not really his target audience but I can appreciate the boy's got talent. All the same, the kid is a big deal. Take a look at these 3 young girls getting the surprise of their life! Their father, Cpt. Simon had promised them he'd take them to a Justin Bieber concert, sadly he was deployed and was unable to keep that promise. HOWEVER, when the Oprah show found out they found a way to make it up to the girls! Oprah flew the girls, Micaiah, Amari and Eniya and their mother to Chicago for some site-seeing with Justin Bieber and front-row tickets to his performance on Oprah. 

Why do I care? 

Sort of not sure. Other than the fact that when they showed Cpt Simon on webcam telling his daughters of their surprise, I lost it. Just cried like a friggin' baby. I'm not sure why. Lately I haven't been able to keep myself together when I see things like this happen. Last week for Ellen's Mother's Day episode she had Marines sending their love to their prego wives and I cried then too. 

WHAT THE "F" IS WRONG WITH ME?

I really am not usually like this. 

Phew... now that I've pulled myself together I wanted to say that watching things like this really just kind of, warm my heart. I appreciate people who have the ability to help others, actually HELPING OTHERS. 

Before I'm inundated with comments of possible pregnancy (due to my emotional-ness)- no no I am definitely not with child. Sure of that. "Aunt Flo" paid me a visit this week. :) just FYI.


Heads up for my fellow Twilight Fans:
Thursday, 13 May, the cast of Eclipse will be on my girl Oprah's Show!
Robert Pattinson, Kristin Stewart, Taylor Lautner and Dakota Fanning. 
Oprah calls Rpatz and Kstew out on their "alleged" relationship. So that should be interesting. 
I know I definitely will not be watching intently.

DONATE!

On April 24th I will be walking for 5 miles with my friend Lauren. Why will we be walking, you ask?

We're walking for the BABIES. 

More specifically Lauren's beautiful baby girl, lil' Miss Hannah. 

You see... Hannah was born August 26, 2009 at a mere 3lbs 1 oz. Lauren's water broke at 30 weeks while her hubby was deployed to Afghanistan, and Hannah was born a week and a day later. 

Hannah wound up spending nearly 2 months in the hospital.

We are participating in this March of Dimes event in hopes of raising money for preemies like Hannah!

So if you will be in the Colorado Springs area on the 24th and want to join us please just send me an email and I can help get you in touch with Lauren.

If not please go here and sponsor Lauren/our team! 

~~~ 

On a more somber note:

If you haven't heard Marine "Cpl. Jonathan D. Porto, 26, of Largo, Fla., died March 14 while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan.  He was assigned to 1st Battalion 6th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C. " (DOD Press Release)

His proud widow blogged about it as Mrs. P over at A Little Pink in a World of Camo.

This Marine was laid to rest on the 24th in St. Petersburg, FL. 

I post about this now hoping that all of my readers will send donations to his young daughter:

 Donations can be sent to

Aberdeen Proving Ground Federal Credit Union 
ATTN: Collean McKinney for the account of Ariana Ralyn Porto
P.O. Box 1176 
Aberdeen, MD 21001

all checks should be made payable to Ariana Ralyn Porto

I'm thinking that it's the least we can do. I mean, we all dipped into our pockets over the earthquake in Haiti... but here's a real sadness, real close to home; within our military community. 

Show your support for the Porto family, especially Ariana. 

Visit Mrs. P here --- show your support. 

Here we go!!

I've decided that I'm DONE with my post-holiday funk! I'm just over it. I'm sick of being down in the dumps for no good reason... So, screw you post-holiday-funk. See ya. I'm moving on to bigger and better things; brighter days.

Here's what you may have missed/What I failed to report:

Kevin finally unpacked from deployment.

(yeah... only took 5 months, but it's finally happened)

We got a surprise visit from the "New Bed Fairy"

(we've moved up in the world of mattresses. Hello, Ultra-Plush Serta Mattress!)

I've been lending my hand to my very pregnant sisters nesting habits! We've successfully painted baby Caden's room. I'll really need to get some pictures. She made me choose the paint colors and I think it looks fantastic! Just yesterday we put the bedding on/in (whatevs) the crib, hung valance and two pictures. Now the room just needs a few finishing touches.

I am in the running for a NAF position at Schriever AFB.

(I know I know... I'm Army (hooah and all that) and this is AF. But hey, it pays and that's truly what I need out of a job. Lets not forget my Pops was AF for 21 years. So... umm I was expecting to insert an AF alternative to "Hooah". I'm at a loss. Ooops.)

Oh, we also 86'd all of the Christmas decor. That was a sad day. :(

I got over it.

I really crave order so it was a good thing.

Here's what's to come:

Get back to my bloggy!

((it's really missed me))

Get motivated.... in every way.

((weight loss, here I come. chores, reluctantly necessary. job.... ugh -rolling eyes-.))

Visit my best friend in DC! We'll be finding out the sex of her baby (to be named Samantha, because I'm fantastic).

Start a job.

((fingers crossed... I'll do everything I can on my end))

Have carpets steam cleaned.

((oh-so-necessary))

Sell stuff on Craigslist.

((damn recession))

My favorite Brother-in-law returns from A-stan!!

((Wooooo))

My second nephew graces us with his presence in March!

My ONE YEAR blogger-versary!

I am most excited to keep myself in check. We all have emotions and they aren't always fun or pleasant. Sometimes we are down in the dumps. But, I'm done with that for the time being. Please forgive my absence, I don't like to broadcast my pity-parties. As I said I'm in to brighter days. I am going to work on laughing more. General Happiness.

Anyone else notice I now have over 100 followers?

Love. It.

:)

Some Stuff

Everyone watches Ellen, right?

If you don't...

You need to start.

She's hilarious and amazing!

Anywho... I was watching Ms. Ellen, she had Marie Tillman on the show today. This was Marie's first interview since her husband left the Arizona Cardnals to join the Army after the 9-11 attacks. Pat was tragically killed by friendly fire just two weeks into his second deployment. The Pat Tillman Fountation's main purpose is to support and provide assistance that would otherwise not be available to servicemembers and their families in order for them to attend college and receive their degrees.

Check out our the website here.

I went with my sister today to register for baby BOY necessities! You see we've registered once before but for baby girl thingies. Today was the day to rectify that situation.

It was good times.

PS: Kevin found the battery-charger for the camera. Tomorrow=Christmas decor pictures! Wooooo!

Incase you're crazy and unaware... tomorrow is also PAY-DAY!
~***~

Did anyone else hear that Stephen King paid $12,999 to get 150 guardsmen home for the holidays?
I think this is a great gesture.
I am confused why if these men and women were involved in training over the holiday why command is allowing it regardless of who is paying for it.
I know that, for instance, if Kevin were at NTC over the Christmas holiday they wouldn't be coming home for two days. Regardless if Stephen King paid for it.
Read the story here.
I'm just wondering if any of you can explain to me why this was an option for this unit?

See I'm always trying to learn new things. :)