Getting Back Into Our Routine....

Since we've been in Hometown, USA essentially homeless for the past week or so things have been really out of whack.

We're from a part of the country that has cold winters, so we had to bring our warm cloths. Next week though, we'll be in Florida, and while its not "hot" down there this time of year, it definitely necessitates a different kind of clothing than we wear up here in the winter! So we have our warmer weather clothes with us also. Add to that all the baby gear that a 9-month old requires and well, we could really use a Uhaul!

You can imagine how hard it is to move from one place to another each day. We have to lug all AJ's stuff around each time we go from my parent's to D's parent's house (about 20 minutes). After doing that for Thanksgiving, we decided that since we're spending the week in Florida with my family after Christmas, we would just spend the whole week here in Hometown, USA with D's family.

We did a few days at my parent's when we first got into town, but since Monday we've been at D's Dad's house. Its been really nice to relax for a while, but now that we've been here a few days it finally feels like we are settling back into our routine.

For example, I made a few goodies for all the festivities that we have planned for tomorrow. We're switching it up this year and doing fondue for dinner, so I made some treats to dip into the chocolate fondue. I made brownies (from a box) and peanut butter rice crispy treats. We're also doing marshmallows, bananas, apples and pineapple in the chocolate. I think we're planning to do assorted veggies and bread in the cheese.

It felt good to be back in the kitchen, making food for people again. Since we've been home, everyone else has been cooking tons of food for us and I miss being in the kitchen!

Now I've got the brownies in the oven, D is wandering around the house with AJ enjoying the time with family and I am sitting down to blog. My FIL is wrapping gifts in the most beautiful way that only he can, I'm drinking an ice-cold Dr. Pepper and life is good. :)

Enjoy your holidays, folks! I know I am!

So I've Been MIA...

I know I said that I was going to try and post more now that the move is on hold (underway?). We really have just been hanging around, lounging, playing, eating and enjoying spending lots of time with all of the extended family. We're getting all geared up to celebrate Christmas with D's family on Christmas Eve and we'll then pack up the car and drive to FL where we'll spend the next two weeks enjoying the warm weather and celebrating with my family for a while.

My brother, his girlfriend and sister and her boyfriend, along with my parents will all be in Florida with us for the first week, then we're on our own for a week until we drive to our new duty station and close on the house! Yay!

To say that we're excited to get to our new place and finally get to settle in somewhere that is 100% ours would be an understatement. We're so excited, but its also daunting because we've already spent so much money and we don't even live there yet! lol

In other news, AJ was baptized last weekend. We waited a really long time to do it (she is 9.5 months old), but we wanted to do it at home with the priest we know (he married us!). I'm really glad that we did wait! We were able to have all our families there to help celebrate with us! Pictures from the big day will come later (after I find my camera cable in the mountain of things that is our stuff).

I haven't really taken very many pictures so far this trip, but I'm going to try to get better! We're going shopping this afternoon with D's dad and then we'll be back to just hanging out again!

Anyway, I just wanted to check in with everyone and let y'all know that we're still around, just not too much is actually happening lately! I probably won't be online much until after New Years, so if I go MIA again, don't be surprised!

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and Happy Holidays, everyone!

Who's the Adult in Your House?

Because in our house its not me.

;)

The following is an actual conversation that took place last night.

D: Wow, that's a long blog post.
Me: You're a long blog post.
D: I guess I am.

Oh, and don't worry, the long blog post he was referring to was one I was reading, not writing!

There are a lot more reasons that D continues to be the adult in our house, but I just thought you'd like a glimpse into our otherwise mundane (and over-run by moving) lives.

You may continue on with your day now.

No ID Card For You!

Since we moved here 6 months ago my friend Meghan and I have been talking about going to get new military ID cards. Its recommended (but not required) that you update your ID card when your spouse makes the rank that ours are. We've literally been talking about doing this since the first week we were here.

Well, last week we decided to make appointments and go do it. You know, as sort of a last hoorah! Ha. We had plans to go to lunch afterwards.

After making my appointment I made sure to get my Power of Attorney (POA) out of the filing cabinet because I would need it to get a new ID card issued. If the military member is there, then you don't need it, but we didn't want the husbands tagging along on our girls afternoon out, so yeah, you get the picture.

Well, I stuck the POA on the front of the fridge and then didn't think about it again until this morning. When I realized that it was no longer on the fridge. I was secretly hoping that D had moved it from the fridge and stuck it in the portable file box we carry our important papers in when we move.

After frantically searching through each and every paper in the box, I did not find the POA. I knew that they wouldn't let me get a new ID without it, but I went and tried anyway. I mean, I had an appointment! As you can probably guess by the title of this post, I did not get a new ID card, but my friend Meghan did!

So, the moral of the story folks, is that you should never try to do anything extra the week you move. Just stick to moving, its stressful enough.

If You Love Barry Manilow, You're Going To LOVE Insane Clown Posse!

What do you do when you officially have no furniture in your house and the baby goes to bed at 6:30 pm?

You watch stand up comedy, of course!

We're currently watching Zach Galifianakis (the weird guy from The Hangover) and he is so funny! (The title of this post is a line from the show we're watching right now.)

via

I have always been a fan of stand-up comedy and I am really enjoying the time we've spent sitting around watching funny, funny people the past few nights.

I have been working on my cross-stitch stocking that I'm making for AJ and just laughing. I'm looking forward to ordering Chinese food and spending some more QT with D tomorrow night. Even though moving is pretty stressful, its helpful to relax and decompress by laughing together.

via

We always order Chinese food the first and last night we're in a house. Its kind of a tradition we have.

What are some of your moving traditions?

Mish Mash

This past week has been kind of crazy (to say the least). I mentioned a few days ago that the movers came and went. We also had D's graduation and the graduation reception for the course he just finished.

Here are a few pictures from all the festivities.

D's BFF, right after he realized that his name tape broke...

The whole group that is heading to our next duty station.

N was presented with this "doo rag" because at one point during the 6-month long class he wondered out loud if he could get a wave in his hair.

These two boys love each other too much sometimes. :)

As their other (better?) halves, at least we get along!

A quick prom pose.

D, right after graduating from his course!

Posing with the graduate!

All four of us after graduation.

Our backyard this morning!

Go Army!

Sink Navy!


While I've never made it to the game, I always look forward to this weekend! I'm really hoping that this year Army wins (since they finally have a shot!).

We're all decked out in our black and gold today and we're heading to a friend's house to cheer on the Black Knights!

WE'RE DONE!

The movers are done that is!

This was officially the fastest pack/load we've ever had. And can I say Hallelujah to that?!?

Packers showed up at 0930 yesterday and left around 1700.

The loaders were here bright and early this morning (read: 0745) and were driving away with all of our HHG (household goods for all you civilians out there) at 1145! WAHOO!

I'm sitting here on our couch with my feet propped on the ottoman waiting for 1430 to roll around so I can leave to make it to D's graduation on time! AJ and the dog are both napping and life is good!

Wait.

You thought I said that all of our stuff was gone, right? Well, I think I mentioned before that my little (24 year old) brother moved about 2 hours away from us right? Since this is his first apartment he is going to be inheriting our couch, loveseat, and ottoman when we leave and we're getting new ones at our next duty station.

Considering the fact that we have to hang around this hell hole place for another 5 days our plan to have the brother get the couches early next week could not have worked out any better. We have somewhere to sit for the next 5 days!

After our last move I could not be happier with the way things went over the past 2 days. To give you an idea of how bad that move was, I'll attempt to explain what happened when the moving truck finally pulled up to our house (14 days after we got here).

Side door of the truck opens.

Driver pulls several random objects off the top and starts holding things up in the air asking, "Is this yours?"

One of the things he held up was a pillow.

I'm not kidding.

It wasn't our pillow. Thank the sweet baby Jesus.

If you've never had the military move you before (or just professionals in general) then let me explain a little something real quick. When you move the packers and loaders (usually two separate crews) go through everything you own and tag it with little numbered tags. The tags are a specific color and they write down what each and every item is on an inventory as they go through.

There is no reason that the driver should ever pull something off the truck and ask if its yours. He should know that your shipment is everything with the yellow tags (or blue, or green, or whatever) and as the crew brings the boxes and furniture into your house, they call out the number on the tag. 47! 189! 2! etc. As you hear the numbers, you quickly scan the 8 (or more) sheets of inventory and check off the number.

At the end, you should know exactly what you're missing.

Needless to say, we had a few missing items last time, not to mention a few broken items. Couple that with the fact that it took 14 days for the truck to arrive after we got here, and well, you could imagine that I was less than pleased. We didn't get here super fast or anything. We had a 3 month old baby at the time.

Anyway, there's your little lesson on how to move when you hire a professional moving company. I consider myself to be somewhat of an expert considering that this is the fourth time we're moving in three years (fifth if you count when I moved from Hometown, USA to GA to join D at BOLC).

Alright folks, I'm signing off for now. I'm going to relax for an hour until our neighbor gets here to watch AJ for the graduation.

Following Up....

I've noticed that a lot of bloggers are struggling lately with motivation and I think that its just that time of the year when life gets crazy and blogging takes a back seat. I think this is especially true with commenting on other's blogs as well.

The reason I bring this up is because I don't know if you remember a few weeks ago when I told you all that to celebrate reaching 100 followers I was going to collect your favorite recipes and randomly choose a few to make a celebratory dinner. Well, due to lack of comments, I'm going to have to postpone for a while.

I only got 2 comments and that was going to be a pretty interesting dinner of 7 Layer Bars and Cheese and Chocolate Tunnel Cake (although a whole dinner of just desserts is my type of dinner, I don't think the hubs would go for it. He's so responsible sometimes....).

So anyway, I'm going to continue racking my brain for something exciting to blog about so that I don't bore you all to tears any longer and hopefully I'll be back very soon with something interesting to say!

Oh, also, bear with me if this week is slow on my blog, we have a formal tonight (I'll post pictures) and then the movers come tomorrow and Thursday.

I'm excited to get all dressed up for the ball tonight, even though I'm wearing a dress from my closet. I knew that we had the reception coming up, but I hadn't gotten any information from D before we went back to Hometown, USA for Thanksgiving. When we got back here he handed me the invitation. If he had let me know a few days earlier I could have looked for something new while we were in civilization. I think that he purposely held out on me so that we wouldn't have to spend money on a new dress. Grrrr.

Oh, also, I mentioned the other day that I was pretty sure he scheduled the movers the same day as his graduation so that I wouldn't be able to attend. Well folks, I got confirmation of this last night. I swear, he's lucky I'm so madly in love with him.

Anyway, I should have plenty of time to blog after the movers are done, since we won't have any furniture or tvs and the internet will be our only means of entertainment for a few days.

So, look for some new stuff soon!

Who's Ready for a Vacation?

I know I am!

D and I were talking yesterday about something and I mentioned that we're going on vacation in 3 weeks. After saying it out loud I almost had a break down because I couldn't believe that it was still that far off.

Seriously. Could we fast forward through this move and go right to vacation?

Oh, I forgot to mention, we're moving next week.

D graduates from the school he's in next week, the same day the movers are coming. I'm pretty sure he planned it that way so AJ and I wouldn't go to graduation. At least I am able to go to the reception on Tuesday. One of our good friends here is going to watch AJ for us.

I'm excited about getting dressed up and going out, but kind of bummed that since we live in the depths of hell middle of nowhere the reception is being held at the Officer's Club and not somewhere else that could possibly be fun/cool.

Have I mentioned that I'm glad we're moving?

I'm not excited to move, but I am looking forward to being done with this whole moving every 6-10 months thing we've been doing the past 3 years. Ugh.

In other moving news, things with the house are going just swimmingly. So well, in fact, that I'm allowing myself to get excited about it. I know, I'm weird. The thing is, I've gotten excited about enough stuff that was hardly even remotely related to the Army and had my soul crushed over and over again. Now when something good looks like it may happen, I have to remain uninterested and stone cold in order to not have my hopes and dreams dashed again.

I know that all you MilSpouses know what I'm talking about.

Anyway, the move update is this:

We took everything off the walls yesterday. I bought Mr. Clean Magic Erasers at Lowe's (after 5 moves, these have really proven to be one of the most valuable tools you can own). We made a list of things that we should put in the car.

This move is infinitely more complicated than the past moves for a number of reasons. They are:

1. We're buying a house.

2. We're leaving here mid-December and not moving into our house until mid-January.

3. We're spending half the time in Hometown, USA (cold climate) and half the time in FL.

4. We have to pack accordingly for the climate in each place while still keeping what we bring in the car with us to a minimum.

Okay, I know there are more reasons, but I am getting a little overwhelmed thinking about them all right now. So, if we could just fast forward a few weeks and get to my vacation, that would be great!

Oh, sorry for being MIA and then posting a big, long, complainer post.

The Pictures From Our Travels

The first thing AJ and I saw when we got off the plane at the beginning of our journey. I thought it was fitting because AJ loves taverns. lol

AJ and her Daddy hanging out on Thanksgiving. She takes her holidays very seriously.

AJ hanging out with family on Thanksgiving.

AJ eating whipped cream for the first time. I walked in on this after the fact....

AJ trying to break out of my childhood bedroom at my parent's house. She was hilarious. She would lean over and look at herself in the mirror and just laugh her butt off!

Me and AJ hanging out at D's dad's house the day after Thanksgiving.

AJ and her great-grandpa (who happens to look just like Joe Pa).

AJ, her grandpa and Grandpa's dog, Rocco.

My New Project

Two quick things....

First off, AJ has a cold and has basically been a miserable baby the past few days. That's part of the reason I haven't really been around after I promised I would be. Sorry!

Second, while I was home in civilization I went to Hobby Lobby (yay!) and got the stuff to start AJ's cross-stitch stocking. I've been trying to find time to work on that (don't worry, I don't think its going to be done by Christmas, I'm hoping for next Christmas) and blogging has taken a backseat for the time being.

I kind of feel like I've lost my mojo a little bit, so I'm going to blog when I have things to talk about, because I don't want to bore you all with my laundry woes!

Don't worry, I have a few things to talk about soon because we're getting ready to move. Yes, again!

Climbing a Mountain (of laundry)

I'm still doing laundry. I'm so frustrated with it right now.

In case you missed it, I was supposed to be home from house-hunting last Monday and then Wednesday before Thanksgiving we were all going to drive to Hometown, USA together. Well, our flight for our first leg of the trip got delayed and we missed our connection. Luckily we were flying through Hometown, USA so we just stayed at my parent's house for the extra 2 days.

I was thinking (hoping) that D would have done a load of laundry (or perhaps folded a basket) while I was gone.

That didn't happen and now I not only have to do all the laundry from our trip, but I started doing what I thought was dirty laundry (because it was sitting in laundry baskets on the floor unfolded). Nope, it turns out that was the laundry I did before I left and didn't have time to fold.

UGH! I am doing more laundry than I needed. I don't think I'm ever going to finish this mountain of laundry.

I have to go fold the two loads sitting in my kitchen.

Home Sweet Home....

Well, we're back from our whirlwind house-hunting-Thanksgiving extravaganza! Its really nice to be back home but I have so much stuff to do over the next few days that I want to just head back to Hometown, USA and lay around!

Seriously. The laundry, grocery shopping, cleaning, etc. has really piled up over the past week. I realized this morning though, while menu planning and writing my grocery list that we have less than three weeks left in this house. Ack!

The movers are coming December 8th to start packing our stuff up. I knew that it would come really fast after Thanksgiving, but I wasn't expecting it to come this fast! I feel like there's too much to do and not enough time to get it all done! Oh, did I mention that we got the house? We're currently under contract and choosing carpet, tile and hardwood colors for the house! Things are moving fast, but we're very excited to finally be in our own place and have room to spread out.

I'm going to really make an attempt to get back into the blogging groove now that we're back! I didn't have my computer at my parent's house so it was hard to blog while we were gone. So anyway, I know I keep saying it, but I really am back!

A Red Letter Day!

So after all the action and excitment that comes with a holiday spent with family, we're relaxing this morning and eating leftovers. I decided to hop online and check out the activity in the bloggy world and lo and behold, I have reached 100 followers!

I want to extend a big thank you to everyone who has determined that I am worth following, and say welcome to all my new followers!


So the other night D and I were talking about my blog and I happened to mention that I was close to having 100 followers. He continues to be super amazed by my popularity (ha!) and he's convinced that someday soon we'll be living off the profits from my super-awesome blog and subsequent book (a la Pioneer Woman).

No, really, he thinks that.

Anyway, the conversation continued and he suggested that once I hit 100 followers we should have a special dinner to celebrate.

I kind of laughed at the idea, but after thinking about it a little, I like the idea! I'm going to expand on it a little further and let you all suggest your favorite recipes or menus for our dinner. It is, after all, because of you that we'll be celebrating! So, start thinking about what I should make, because I'm opening up the comments section for you guys to make suggestions for the next week.

Next Friday, December 3 I will officially close the contest and organize all the suggestions by dish type (like appetizers, main dishes, desserts, etc.) and I'll randomly choose the recipes that l'll make for our dinner! Don't worry, I will blog about the preparation and how the whole meal turns out so you all know how much we enjoy your favorite recipes!

So, get thinking and let me know what we should make!

Details: Make sure that you either submit the directions for making your recipe or you enable your email address on your profile so I can get in touch with you to get the recipe! If I can't get in touch with you and the recipe isn't included in your post, then your entry will be disqualified. Sorry.

Thanks so much for following me!

Oh, hi!

Sorry I've been MIA lately. I was planning on getting home and updating you all as soon as we knew anything about the house.

Plans changed drastically.

We got to the airport on Monday morning only to find out that our flight was delayed and we would miss our connection. They were planning to rebook us on a later connection flight which would have been fine, but considering the fact that our house is 2 hours from the airport, that would add a LOT of extra time to our travel day.

Then I got this great idea. Our layover was supposed to be in the airport in my parent's town. We were planning to drive the 6 hours from our house to Hometown, USA today, so I decided that it would just be so much easier to stay here in Hometown, USA. I quickly told the ticket agent to cancel my second flight and we arrived at my parent's house Monday afternoon. D and the dog are still at home and will be driving up this afternoon.

That catches you all up to last night.

I got word from our realtor yesterday evening that the offer we submitted was countered, which we were (honestly) expecting, so we approved the changes and are under contract! Yay! Now that we know we're getting the house, I am so excited!

We definitely have a lot to be thankful for this year! I most likely won't get on to post tomorrow, so happy Thanksgiving, everyone! See you later this week!

Looking Forward

So in case you forgot, AJ and I made the trip to our next duty station this weekend to house-hunt. When I say "house-hunt" I really mean we wanted to look at the house we found online. We went out to the neighborhood today and walked through it, it's not finished being built, so we walked through the framed out house and the did a walk through of one of the finished ones across the street. It's going to be so awesome if we get it!

We made an offer and should know by tomorrow whether or not it's been accepted.

I'm super excited and hope everything works out! This house is more than three times the size of our current house (the shoe box we live in) and in a great neighborhood! I kept telling AJ that the closets in the new house are bigger than her current bedroom!

Anyway, I just wanted to jump on and let you all know what's going on! Keep your fingers crossed for us!

MilSpouse Friday Fill-In...

I figured that I should stop being lazy and get back to participating in the Friday Fill-In again! Its been a few weeks since I last linked up, but in my defense, I haven't been being lazy, I've honestly been super busy (and out of town a lot!).

Here we go....

1.If you had to be shipwrecked on a deserted island, but all your human needs – such as food and water – were taken care of, what two items would you want to have with you?

I'm going to assume that D and AJ would be with me already, so I'm bringing my computer and Dr. Pepper.


2.If you were a salad, what kind of dressing would you have?

French because its the best.


3.If you had to live on a ranch, what kind of animals would you raise/own?

Dogs? I'm not really a livestock type of person, but if I had to choose it would be cows or horses.


4.If your life was was portrayed as a movie, who would you choose to play you and your significant other?

For me, its super easy. Julia Stiles (because I look just like her). D looks like the cartoon character Stan from American Dad. Can he be played by a cartoon? No? Then I'm going to choose Jake Gyllenhal because he kind of looks like him.


5.What was the last thing you put a stamp on (envelope, duh, but what was in the envelope)?

An envelope that contained a check payable to my friend for my part of the hotel room we stayed in when I went to my college reunion with all the girlies. I sent her a check a week and a half ago, but I sent it to the wrong address (genius) so I had to send her another one.

Did You Hear?

I'm sure a lot of you have already heard about this, but Shutterfly.com is giving bloggers 50 free holiday photos cards this holiday season! I don't know if you've ever looked at their stock, but they have some of the cutest, as well as some of the classiest photo cards I've seen.

We have ordered photo cards the past few years and I just have to say, if you've never designed (and I use the term design very loosely) your own cards, then you're missing out. Shutterfly makes it so easy to get your very own personalized cards! All you have to do is upload the photo (or photos) you want to use and then drag and drop the picture in the correct location on the card. The best part is that the cards all have a little saying, but then you're able to add in any text you want in the greeting section of the card.

D's first choice.

Another one we like.

We have a bunch of awesome pictures that we took this year, so choosing one (or a few favorites, depending on the card you choose) was hard for me. Luckily, you can try out a bunch of different cards and photos to see which combination is your favorite before you decide on one.

Have I mentioned how easy this is and how nice they always turn out? I am so excited, especially since I'll be able to show off a super cute picture of AJ for all our friends and family this holiday season! Don't forget, they also have calendars and photo mugs that you can create as well. I know that we're planning to make an "AJ Calendar."

To browse all their Christmas photo cards, just head on over there.

An Honest-To-Goodness-Real Post

Its only been 1,942 days since my last real post, so I figured that we were due.

Today we're going to talk about buying a house. In case you missed the last post about this topic, you can click here to read all about it. A few weeks after I posted that we decided that we weren't going to have enough time to buy a house so we decided to live on post. Then we found out that we can't do that either so we settled on being renters again. Here is the post about that situation.

There has been a lot going on (behind the scenes) that I didn't tell you guys about. Sorry, I'm a bad blogger! I also have an 8 month old who has mastered crawling and thinks she can walk. Please note, she can't walk, she just thinks she can. See where I'm going with this? Today I'm going to attempt to bring you all up to speed on the house saga that is my life.

Anyway, on to the story.

We're squarely back in the corner of "we're buying a house when before we get to our next duty station."

We had a conversation with another couple (at a Halloween party while dressed as Homer and Marge Simpson) who told us that they just purchased a brand new house in a neighborhood that we like for a price we can afford. We started looking at some of the floorplans that we found online and decided that we like one of them.

We got in contact with the listing agent and they were super pushy and tried to get us to sign a contract without our realtor getting involved. I tried to get a list of options from them and they assured me that once we made an offer and went under contract they would give us all that stuff.

Wait, what?

Ummm, I think I want my agent to get in contact with you so that we know exactly what we are looking at before we sign anything. Let me tell you, she was less than pleased to hear this. I'm pretty sure that, no, I know that she thought I was a total sucker and was just going to go along with her plan and sign on the dotted line without even reading the offer.

Fast forwarding through all the boring stuff after we ruined her day by being intelligent and you get to the present day. AJ and I are leaving Saturday to fly out there to look at the house before we make an offer. If for some reason the house we want is no longer available we have seen a few others online that we liked that I'm going to check out as well.

D would be coming along, but he already had plans for the weekend to go visit a friend from his last unit who lives kind of close to where we're stationed. He hasn't seen the guy in a while and since we're getting ready to leave, we figured that he should get down there soon. I would have liked to wait for him to be able to come, but as you are all aware, Thanksgiving is next weekend and then we're moving. We want to make sure that we're able to close on the house in time to get settled before D's next school starts.

So that is the short version of what is actually a much, much longer story. I'll make sure to update y'all again once more progress has been made on "Operation: Find Us A House." Until then, you can look forward to my regularly scheduled mindless posting!

Just kidding. Hopefully I have something important to say in the next few days.

Race Weekend (In Pictures)

Before I start this post I want to let you know that I didn't take my camera with me to the race, so there are no pictures from Sunday since we were running and then traveling home and the last thing I wanted to do was worry about getting my camera out!

The water taxi on the riverwalk.

A yummy restaurant on the riverwalk (happens to share a name with the dog we had growing up).

Me and my sister posing on a bridge.

Waiting for lunch!

My parents on the bridge.

The twin cypress trees.

The statue in Travis park.

"Lest we forget, our confederate dead."

The restaurant where we ate dinner Friday night.

My mom getting "branded."

My mom and sister "rocking on" at the expo.

Yummy Texas beer!

The statue at the Alamo.

My family in front of the Alamo.

Oh, Hi There....

My name is Beth and this is my blog. Remember me?

I ran a half marathon this weekend. 13.1 miles. I didn't finish in under 2 hours, but I also didn't really think I would. I did finish in a personal best of 2:05:53. My previous best (and only) half marathon time was 2:12:andsomeseconds. I'm pretty happy that I was able to shave 7 minutes off my time, especially since the last time I ran 13.1 miles was before I had created human life.

Now that I've finished this race, I'm parked somewhere squarely between being super pumped for my next race in February and really, really, dreading it. I am dreading all the training runs that lie between me and my next race, but I'm also very excited about running the race.

Before this weekend I hadn't raced in almost 4 years. The last half marathon I did was in January 2007. I forgot about how much fun it is to run in a race and know that you're going to beat people. I forgot how motivated I get when people pass me (competitive, much?). I forgot how much fun it is to tour a city while you're running through it.

I'm also uber excited about February because I know tons and tons of people who are going to be converging on Disney World to run the race. It should be a big, amazing, awesome time!

So, with that being said, the countdown is now on...I have three weeks off before I start my 12 week training session for the Princess half!

Sorry, no pictures today, but I'll try and get on and upload pictures from this weekend and get those posted ASAP, because, um, San Antonio is a super cute and fun city.

There's also a lot of other stuff going on in my life right now that I'm going to be updating about very soon, so stay tuned! Oh, and I promise that I'm going to start reading all of your blogs again (and then subsequently commenting as well). I. Promise.

Wish Me Luck!!

I'm off to spend the weekend with my parents and siblings and run a half marathon! I've been spotty at best with my training and I told D the other night that I really just can't wait for this race to be over so I can take a break and not feel guilty about missing runs.

I'm not taking my computer with me, so I won't be around for a few days, but I'll make sure to post lots of pictures from the weekend and update you all on how the race goes once I get back.

See you next week!

Oh, and I also promise to actually put some effort into some posts in the very near future. I really, really, really promise!

Happy Veteran's Day, everyone.

We should remember the sacrifices that America's veterans have made for us and our freedoms everyday, but especially today. If you know someone who has served, be sure to take the time to thank them today.

(Source)

A Veteran is someone, who at one point in their life, wrote a blank check payable to the United States of America for an amount up to, and including, their life. That is beyond honor, and there are way too many people in this country who no longer remember that fact.

I don't feel like I have the time or mental energy to write something that would really do justice to this day and all it stands for, so I'll thank my veteran and leave it at that.

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday

Watching the Army football game this weekend, supporting her team!

P.S. Happy Birthday, US Marine Corps!

8 Months?!?!

How is it possible that this little girl:


is already 8 months old and doing this:

on her own?

She's growing up so fast, I can't even believe it. She has started to stand unsupported for a few seconds every few tries and its only a matter of time before she can do it on her own.

Happy 8 months, AJ!

Weekend Recap

I'm back from my crazy girls' weekend away with my college roomies and to say we had fun would be an understatement. We have been known to be a little overwhelming when we're all together and we always think its hilarious because we totally are! There are seven of us, so even if we didn't all have strong personalities we'd be a little intense, but it just so happens that we are all outgoing and tend to "talk over each other."

The first picture of the weekend (in the parking garage of the hotel).
L to R: Sara, Abby, Mary, Me

When we got to the hotel Friday night there was some sort of wine and food tasting going on and we could not figure out how all the 12 year old had gotten a hold of beers! One of my favorite lines from the weekend was, "I own t-shirts that are older than you!"

All the girls at "our bar" Friday night.
L to R: Lindsay, Abby, Mandy, Mary, Shelby, Me, Sara.

All in all, we drank a lot of beer (and Four Loco) and ate lots of greasy food (like fried pickles) and spent lots of money on school spirit gear! It was so much fun to be back in town and even though the football game was away this weekend we watched it at Buffalo Wild Wings and it was crazy! For the sake of PERSEC (personal security for all you non-military folks) I won't say which school I went to, but the game was intense up to the very last play.

Taking a shot with Mary.

The original four from Freshman year.
L to R: Me, Sara, Mary, Abby.

All the girls after the game.
Clockwise from top left: Shelby, Mandy, Mary, Me, Abby, Sara, Lindsay

A Survey From A Bloggy Friend....

aka Get to know me a little bit better!

Moe from A Million Margaritas tagged me in a survey meme and I decided that since I'm going to be gone this weekend I'd schedule this post to run. When I get back I'll give y'all a full recap of what went down during my weekend with the girls (at least the parts I can talk about....;).

Anyways, here we go!

1. If you could be friends with any fictional character who would you choose and why?
Hmmmm. Mary Poppins? The kids were always having tons of fun and going on crazy imaginary adventures with her. I don't know that she would be my answer out of all fictional characters throughout history though. I'd really have to think about it.

2. What is the best date you've ever had? (It could be with the person you are with now or someone from the past)
D took me to see the Nutcracker last winter at the Pacific Northwest Ballet. It was a fun night, just the two of us. We had plans to go out to dinner afterward, but since I was pregnant (and exhausted) we hit up the McDonald's drive-thru on the way home. We also went on a date last winter and he took me to the Space Needle restaurant. It was awesome to see Seattle lit up at night like that.

3. What was the last good book that you read?
Uhhhh, I can't even think of the last book I read, let alone the last good one. Some of my favorites are Jane Eyre, The Bell Jar, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, and The Poisonwood Bible.

4. Someone gives you a hundred dollars and tells you that you have to spend it today - on yourself. What would you buy?
Easy, shoes.

5. If you could travel anywhere in the world what would your top 5 places be?

1. Maine.
2. Italy.
3. Greece.
4. St. Barth.
5. Turks and Caicos.
   

If any of you have suggestions on where to go for an amazing vacation, let me know. D told me the other night that he wants to take a an awesome trip after his next deployment since we never went on a honeymoon.

6. What are 2 or 3 items on your "bucket list"?
I don't really have a bucket list.

7. If you could live the life of one TV character who would it be, what show are they from, and why?
Any of the characters from Parenthood because they have their extended family there to support (and annoy them).

8. When you sit down for Thanksgiving dinner in a few weeks what will you say that you are most grateful for this year?
My beautiful, sweet baby girl and the fact that I've been lucky enough to have my hubby home with me the entire year.

MilSpouse Friday Fill-In...

Welcome back! To link up, head over to Wife of a Sailor.

1. A different twist on last week's question. This week, the first question is: what’s the nicest thing a MILSPOUSE has ever done for you? (brought to you from navy_smurfette)
Hmmm, I think the thing that makes the biggest impact on me is just when a MilSpouse is not fake and makes an effort to make you either feel welcome or included. We've moved a lot (more than is normal, even for the military) in the 3.5 years D has been Active Duty and the things that stand out really are those who have made an effort to make me feel welcome.

2. How often do you drive faster than the speed limit?
Pretty much always. Its usually just a few mph over, but sometimes (depending on the road) its more than that.

3. Did you have a nickname in school? If so, what was it?
Bethie T in junior high and high school and my girlfriends in college called me Biz or Bizzy. Sometimes D still calls me Bethie T and it just makes me laugh.

4. If your life was a book, what would the title be and how would it end?
Even though I know there's already a book with a similar title, I think it would probably be "This American Wife" and it would end happily ever after, of course. ;)

5. Look back (in your planner if you have one) to September 14th... what did you do that day?
According to my calendar, I did nothing, but according to my blog I drove to our state of residence (about 2 hours) with AJ to get the Jeep registered. Ah, now I remember what a fun day that was. You can read about it, here.

I'm Versatile...

Kaylee from Devil Dog Darling bestowed The Versatile Blogger Award upon me! Her blog is awesome, so if you haven't checked it out yet, do it now. (I'm being bossy today.) Thanks so much, Kaylee!!


1. I'm not a huge fan of breakfast-y foods. I prefer to eat "regular" food no matter what time of day it is.

2. We are gearing up to move to our 6th duty station in a few weeks and I actually feel like I'm getting worse at the whole PCS process. Is that possible?

3. I started listening to Christmas music this morning and really debated watching the movie White Christmas as well, but decided that its too early.

4. I'm the type of person who develops deep friendships very quickly, but it has to be the right person.

5. When I wake up before the sunrise, no matter what time of year it is, it feels like Christmas morning to me as I lay in bed or feed the baby.

6. I hate black olives, but I don't mind green ones.

7. There's a very strong probability that I am actually addicted to grocery shopping. I love planning meals and then going out to buy the ingredients for them. I realize that most sane people loathe the grocery store, but not me. I miss Fred Meyer (WA people will know what I'm talking about).

I'm passing the award along to:

Abbey @ Trading Diamonds for Dogtags
Lora @ My Camo Kids
Moe @ A Million Margaritas
Elizabeth @ The Young Retiree

Moe also tagged me in a little survey that I'll get to soon, I promise! AJ is cutting her top teeth, so I haven't had much time get on and blog lately, so I'm trying to get caught up when I get the chance!

So What?!

I'm joining in a new meme this week that is hosted by Mama Dew at Life After I "Dew." I found her blog through another blog I follow and thought it would be fun to join in the fun!

So what.....

if I'm already listening to Christmas music. It makes my heart happy.

if I like to eat my lunch at 10 am. Its AJ's nap time and I like to actually be able to eat my food without her trying to throw it on the floor.

if you luuuurve your $100 baby carrier. I already have one of my own and I did not come to the commissary to have a conversation with you about yours.

if I don't make the bed everyday. We're just going to get back into it at the end of the day.

if you voted yesterday. Good for you. I don't understand why everyone felt the need to "announce" it on Facebook and frankly it annoyed the heck out of me.

I'm sure that next week I'll be able to think of tons more to add to my list, but that was pretty fun for my first time! Its kind of a nice outlet to get things off your chest. If you want to join in, be sure to link up.