Happy Hallo-weenie!!

You know what I love about Halloween?

Black.

I painted my nails black last night.

This is not my hand.

I think it makes me look a little bit goth. I like it.

I also like that I get to make my dog wear things like this amazing Dorothy costume from the Wizard of Oz.

Abby dog, circa 2008.

Another reason I like Halloween is because we get to do things like dress in funny outfits and go parading around town knocking on strangers' doors asking for candy. Ahem. I mean, the kids do.

Last night before our party.

For some reason I can't find our pictures from last year's BN Trunk or Treat. Sadness.

Halloween, 2008. Missing hubby.

Miss AJ is also getting in the Halloween spirit. Pictures of her costume will be posted Monday for Mamarazzi Monday!

She's just so darn cute.

In honor of Halloween, tonight we're having my mama's famous traditional Halloween dinner, Beanie-HalloWeenie. aka Baked beans with hot dogs in it. Classy. (love you, mom)

Reese's Pie & Monster Cookies, Oh My!

In honor of Halloween (and because Lord knows we don't have enough sweets in our house right now) I decided to make a few goodies that either use candy in the recipe or remind me of candy. I found both of these recipes elsewhere, so the credit is due to Pioneer Woman and Family Circle magazine.

If you have any parties this weekend or just have extra m&m's that you can pilfer from your kids' candy bags, then you might want to make one (or both) of these recipes!

Pioneer Woman's Monster Cookies

• 2 sticks (1/2 Pound) Butter (salted) Softened
• ½ cups White Sugar
• 1-½ cup Brown Sugar, Packed
• 2 whole Large Eggs
• 1 Tablespoon Vanilla Extract
• 1-½ cup All-purpose Flour
• ½ teaspoons Baking Soda
• 1 teaspoon Baking Powder
• 2 teaspoons Kosher Salt
• 1-½ cup Oats (either Quick Or Regular)
• ½ cups M & M's (more To Taste)
• ½ cups Pecans, Chopped (more To Taste)
• ¾ cups Chocolate Chips (milk Or Semi-sweet)
• ½ cups Peanut Butter Chips
• 2-¼ cups Rice Krispies

Preparation Instructions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Cream butter with sugars until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla and beat.

Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, and kosher salt. Add to mixing bowl and mix till combined. After that, add in remaining ingredients in whatever quantity you prefer. Add more nuts if you’d like, or more M & M’s, more peanut butter chips or chocolate chips.

Add Rice Crispies at the very end, mixing until just combined. Do not overmix!

Use a cookie scoop to scoop balls of dough onto a cookie sheet. Bake until golden brown, then allow to cool on a rack.

Serve with glasses of cold milk.

Reese's Pie (via Family Circle)

• 1 refrigerated rolled piecrust (from 15-ounce package)
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup light corn syrup
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup chunky peanut butter
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips, plus additional for garnish (optional)
• Frozen whipped topping (such as Cool Whip), thawed (optional)
• Chopped peanuts (optional)

Directions

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees F. Fit piecrust into a 9-inch pie plate. Flute if desired. Refrigerate while preparing filling.

2. In a small bowl, lightly beat eggs with a fork. Stir in corn syrup, sugar, peanut butter and vanilla extract; mix until completely blended.

3. Remove piecrust from refrigerator and sprinkle with chocolate chips then pour peanut butter mixture over top. Cover edges of pie with aluminum foil.

4. Bake pie at 375 degrees F for 20 minutes; remove foil. Bake an additional 15 to 20 minutes more or until knife inserted near center comes out clean. Cover and chill for 2 hours. Garnish with whipped topping, remaining chocolate chips and chopped peanuts, if desired.

MilSpouse Friday Fill-In...

Link up at Wife of a Sailor.

1. What’s the nicest thing a stranger has ever done for you?
I can't really think of anything specific, but I always appreciate it when people hold the door for me. Here's the story that goes along with it. I grew up in a town full of pretty snobby, rude people who are too self-involved to hold the door for strangers. When I went to college people would hold the door. Not just for someone right behind them, but they would literally wait for you, while holding the door.

2. If you are having a hard time going to sleep, what do you do to help yourself?
I used to just stay up and read or get on the computer and search for the end of the internet. Now, with an 8 month old baby, I don't really have that problem anymore. ;)

3. Name something that makes you wish you were a kid again.
Christmas. I love it, but there is something about Christmas morning that just makes me want to wake up at 6 am and run downstairs in my jammies to open all my presents!

4. What is something you never believed until you experienced it?
I never believed that motherhood would change me so much. Everyone says that it does, but I couldn't see how it would happen. Now that I'm settling into this life, I never believed that my priorities would shift so much from what they used to be. I can honestly say that my life is forever changed, for the better!

5. What can’t you say “no” to?
I have the hardest time saying no to D. He has this funny way of convincing me to do anything he wants! With that being said, I'm not known for being a push-over. D is pretty much the only person who can get me to do whatever they want.

Some Updates....

I wanted to update you all on a few things.

1. Thank you all so much for all your comments on the housing issue. I had totally forgotten about AHRN.com. This website is amazing!! Also, we're talking to a realtor as well, and we're trying to keep our options open. Basically, if the timing works out, we'd like to buy a house, but I'm not getting my hopes up and I was able to find several houses for rent in what I think is a decent area.

2. Thank you also for your comments and advice on the camera question. You all echoed what we were finding through our online research. I'm still not sure which one we're going to get, but that is mostly because we don't have stores here so I haven't had a chance to go check any of them out yet!

3. The class that D is in the midst of ends in just over a month and all the guys in the class (including D) are planning on growing moustaches for graduation. Ugh. There are not many things that creep me out more than a moustache.

4. AJ's Halloween costume is all ready and I can't wait to get her in it for trick or treating on Sunday!

5. I watched Rocky Horror Picture Show today after not having seen it in years. Man is that a weird movie.

6. Our neighbors moved out of their half of our duplex a few weeks ago and since the housing company is renovating the houses in our neighborhood (and we live in a not-yet-updated house) I didn't think we'd be getting new neighbors. Well, today a moving truck pulled up and started unloading. We have new neighbors, folks! I'm kind of happy (because they could be friendly!) but also kind of nervous. Our last neighbors were super quiet, and we never had any issues with noise. I don't forsee these neighbors being rowdy, but you just never know. I really hope they're quiet, especially since the bedrooms are the rooms that share the wall and I don't want AJ's nap schedule to get interrupted.

Anyways, that's all for today, folks. Tomorrow is MilSpouse Friday Fill-In, so make sure you come on back tomorrow morning!

**Sorry if this post was disjointed and confusing, we have a lot of "plans" (<3 the Army) that are up in the air right now and I'm just all over the place lately.

Housing Woes...

So a while back I blogged about how we were planning to buy a house at our next duty station. We had decided that we were ready and since we kind of know that we're going to be stationed there on and off for the rest of D's career it seemed like a good time!

Well, then we got to thinking about it and since D is going to be TDY en route for 2-ish months during the PCS we decided to wait. We were planning to live on post for a year and then buy a house. We have orders so we started the application process for living on-post in hopes that we'd be able to get on the wait list sooner.

When we checked online, the wait list said 6-12 months depending on which neighborhood we were interested. Typically the list that is posted online is kind of embellished so that they cover their butts and don't tell you its going to be a 3 month wait and then you end up homeless for 6 months. When I called the housing office yesterday to ask a question the receptionist informed me that the wait is indeed 6-12 months. For realz. Ugh.

That means that if we want to live on post we're going to be in lodging a hotel for the entire wait. We can't stay in lodging on post because we have a dog and most of the on-post lodging does not allow pets. Double ugh.

Needless to say, our plans have changed again and we're now looking at both homes for rent and homes for sale in the area of our next duty station. To say I'm getting stressed out would be an understatement. For some reason I'm having a really hard time finding quality home rentals in our price range. I've gotten some advice on neighborhoods to look at, but I can't find any homes in those areas that are for rent within our BAH.

What's a girl to do? How do you find housing when you PCS? Do you move and then look or do you have an idea of where you'll live before you leave your current duty station?

Also, totally unrelated!! Grab my button from the right hand side.... ---->
Thanks to Erin from Moore To Love for helping me out again!

Calling All Photographers!!

My Father-In-Law is getting us a camera for Christmas and I need help! I have no idea what the best Digital SLR cameras are or even what features I should look for.

I'm hoping that some of you may be able to help me figure out what types of things you have found necessary and what features we should not worry about. We also aren't set on any particular brand or model, so if you've had good or bad experiences with any of them, or maybe are loyal to a certain brand for some reason, I'd love if you would share!

Keep in mind that I'm totally a photography novice and this will be basically the camera that I "learn" with, so I don't really want anything super crazy nice, expensive, or hard to use.

I also am not sure if most DSLR's come with a lens or not. Can someone shed some light on this for me or perhaps explain? From what I've seen several of the lower-priced cameras include a lens, but some don't so I'm not sure. Oh, also, have I mentioned that I don't know what I'm doing?

I looked online at consumer reviews last night and it looks like there are 3 or 4 models that are consistently recommended, but I thought I'd ask all my lovely readers what their opinions are, since I know some of you are crazy good photographers!

Anyways, thanks in advance for your help! Oh, and if you know any super-awesome photographers who don't read my blog that would be able to help, send them my direction! I can use all the advice I can get.

Mamarazzi Monday

It's Monday again and that means its time to show off all the fun and exciting things that happened over the weekend! If you want to join in, head over to Household 6 Diva to link up!

Climbing on the bed.

Who, me?!?

I also had a video to upload for you all, but Blogger took forever to upload it and then in the end, it wouldn't let me upload. So annoying.

Overcoming Injury

So I'm pretty sure that D would disagree with me and explain how my intense, stabbing back pain is not actually an injury, but a result of poor maintenance. You see, my hamstrings are so tight and under-stretched that they've pulled my hips all out of whack. Now I'm experiencing some of the worst back pain imaginable. Its difficult for me to stand up straight and it doesn't seem to be getting any better, despite the almost constant stretching I've been doing.

It is really getting me down, mostly because its making everything more difficult (read: taking care of AJ), but also because I had really planned on buckling down and hammering away at the half marathon training (since I'm registered to run 13.1 miles 3 weeks from today and I'm totally unprepared). I'm getting really, super nervous about this race now and I was hoping to feel confident going in.

At least I know that if all hell breaks loose and this race goes horribly wrong, I have another half that I'm signed up for at the end of February. Even if I have to walk more of this race than I planned on (and I planned on not walking any of it) I will have a shot at a do-over 15 weeks later. We'll just have to see how this pans out.

With that being said, I haven't run since "injury" day, which was Thursday. My back was a little sore so I decided to go for a run and see if it would loosen me up. I was planning on running 5 miles and had to cut it down to only 3 miles. I barely made it home and was actually running through scenarios in my head that included calling 911 when I collapsed on the street. I was honestly thinking about how I needed to make sure to hold on to the stroller so AJ wouldn't roll down the hill and get hit by a car.

I'm now thinking that I will probably go out and run tomorrow to see how I feel running in hopes that it will either make me feel better or make me realize that I can (or can't) run with the pain. I'll update you all on how it goes!

Anyway, that it what is happening in my life right now. If you have any advice or words of encouragement, feel free to bestow it upon me! I can use all the help I can get! Oh, and good luck/job to all my bloggy friends (and IRL friends) who ran the Army 10-Miler this morning! You rock!

MilSpouse Friday Fill-In...

Here we go again!

Link up at Wife of a Sailor.

1. Are you a night owl or an early bird?
I'm totally a night owl, I have trouble falling asleep most nights, so I stay up! The funny thing is though, as soon as I get up in the morning, I'm up. As soon as I am actually "awake" I start talking and it annoys D so much!

2. What makes you jealous?
Hmmm, the only time I've really been jealous during our relationship was when D was deployed and his ex-girlfriend emailed him a few times. I found out because he had me check his AKO periodically and I saw some back and forth between them. I was jealous because we were in a situation where he barely had time to talk to me and he was using part of his time to talk to her. As soon as I told him how I felt he stopped talking to her.

3. Have you started Christmas/holiday shopping yet? When will you finish? (There's only 63 days left!)
Usually I would have already started, but since we have no stores here the movers are packing and shipping our stuff at the beginning of December I'm planning to wait until we get back to Hometown, USA before I start. I'm typically on top of this sort of thing, though.

4. What would you have a personal chef make you tonight?
Crab cakes, lobster bisque, Filet Minon, horseradish mashed potatoes, asparagus, shrimp arrabiata, chocolate cake and a white chocolate macadamia nut pizookie (warm) with vanilla ice cream on top.

5. Where was your first kiss?
It was in Virginia Hansen's backyard in Hometown, USA when I was 14.

My Poor Puppy Dog....

Pup pup hasn't been feeling very good lately and has been acting really weird. I made an appointment for her at the vet this week and we didn't exactly walk away with great news. She had been drinking lots of water (like LOTS) and couldn't sleep at night. She kept us up all night the other night so I made the appointment for her.

Resting with all her friends.

The vet ran a bunch of tests, including blood and urine tests and she found that Abby's platelet count was 23,000. The normal range for a dog her size is 175,000-500,000. So obviously, her count is really low. The vet said that sometimes the machine used to run the test messes up, so they checked it manually and unfortunately, it was still low. They had us come back to draw more blood to determine if maybe it was the sample that was tainted or something and the third time they tested, Abby's levels came back low.

We have an antibiotic for her and the vet seems to think that its due to an infection she contracted from a tick. She said that it is fairly common in this area. We need to go back in a month to have her levels checked again, so hopefully she does well on the medication.

I'm not going to lie, if that was confusing its because I honestly have no idea what I'm talking about.

The thing that scares me is that I Googled. Oh yeah, I went online and googled "dog low platelet count" and read all about the terrible things that go along with having low levels. Words like "infection" and "cancer" were mentioned a lot, and my research did very little to assure me that Abby would be fine.

If you've ever googled anything medically related then you know that no good will come from it. In most cases, the information that is available online (and is easily located) is most likely the worst case scenario and not at all what is going on in your case.

Anyways, the poor puppy dog is currently sleeping on the couch, watching Law & Order: SVU, so I'd say that things are looking fairly normal around here.

Wordless Wednesday

Stating The Obvious

Erin from Moore to Love did a blog redesign for me! What do you think? I LOVE it!

If you are interested in a redesign for your blog, email her and see what she comes up with for you!

Thanks, Erin!!

Revisiting An Old Post....

A while back I announced my intentions to become a more positive person and really be thankful for the things I am blessed to have in my life. This is becoming even more important to me as I see AJ growing up and very obviously starting to mimic us. I don't want my daughter to mimic the negative traits I have. I want to be a good example of a loving, caring, gracious person for her. In order to do that I really need to start being more mindful of the way I react to things.

I need to be more patient with her. I get really frustrated at times because she is very strong-willed (like her Mama) and it makes my life more difficult. Instead of accepting it and being the bigger person (ha!) I let it get to me. I need to realize (and I do) that she doesn't do these things to make me mad or frustrate me, she does them because she's a baby!

I need to be more grateful for the things that I have in my life, like my amazing husband! I want to be patient with him. I want to teach my daughter what a healthy, loving relationship between two people looks like. The best way to do this is to lead by example.

So, as is the case with anything worth doing, I'm getting back on the wagon and I'm going to reinvest myself again.

Halloween Ideas

I realized that I've kind of been getting ahead of myself lately with all this talk about Thanksgiving and Christmas and should probably figure out what I'm going to dress AJ as for Halloween!

Before we begin, I should let you know that I am that mom that dressed our dog, Abby, up for Halloween each year. This will continue. Last year she was a lady bug and I think she's going as a cow this year, which is fitting for a number of reasons. The first being that she has gained the FLW 5, which is what we here at FLW call the (at least) 5 lbs that everyone gains when they move here. Second reason is because I bought the costume last year and (yes, I bought our dog 2 costumes last year so we could choose) thus, I don't have to buy her a new one this year!

Now we just need to figure out what the rest of us are going to dress up as. D and I are going to a Halloween party on the 29th, so we need costumes that will also be usable on Sunday the 31st. I also think that we're planning to take AJ around to a few houses for Trick or Treating, so obviously she needs the cutest costume ever.

I'm not limited to ordering a costume, but I can also make something (somewhat) simple. I know how to use a sewing machine, etc., so I'm not limited to glue gun costumes. lol.

Anyone have any ideas or cute costumes they've seen babies wear in the past?

Double Fail.

Someone sent me this video the other day and I have to say, it was an interesting advertisement. Watch it and see how you do. You don't need sound for it to work.

I just have to let you know, that I did not see what I was supposed to see, and also I couldn't keep track of how many times the white team passed the ball. Double fail.

MilSpouse Friday Fill-In...

We're back for another week of fun with Wife of a Sailor's MilSpouse Friday Fill-In! Can you all believe that its been 17 weeks since this meme started? It doesn't seem like its been that long! A big "Thanks!" to the Wifey for putting this together each week!

As always, if you'd like to join in, link up at her blog.

1. What are some things on your bucket list? (from New Girl on Post)

I'll be completely honest with you all on this one. I don't have a bucket list. I enjoy reading about all of your goals and how awesome you are when you achieve them, but I'm not really a big goal-setter.

2. How long have you been a MilSpouse and where have you been stationed so far? (from Raising Roscoe)

I've been a Military Wife since December 28, 2007, so almost 3 years. We've been stationed at Ft. Benning, Ft. Hood, Ft. Lewis and here. Yep. 3 years and we're on our fourth duty station.

3. What is a list of songs that sums up your life so far? (from Confessions of a Sailor's Wife)

Brown Eyed Girl by Van Morrison
Crazy Bitch by Buckcherry
Another Lonely Day by Ben Harper
Collide by Howie Day
If I Had $1,000,000 by Barenaked Ladies
Whatever You Like by T.I.
Only the Good Die Young by Billy Joel
Come As You Are by Nirvana
Breathe by Anna Nalick
Just A Dream by Carrie Underwood
The Way I Am by Ingrid Michaelson
Fast Car by Tracy Chapman
It's Still Rock And Roll to Me by Billy Joel

This was kind of fun to think about what songs to choose. Some are because they represent a time in my life while others are just songs that I love.

4. What is your favorite kind of pizza?

I really like Hawaiian pizza (pineapple and Canadian bacon), but haven't had it in years. I'm also a fan of Buffalo Chicken pizza from California Pizza Kitchen.

5. What are three good things in your life right now?

My daughter, my husband, the weather and the fact that Christmas is coming up (that's 4)!

A Few Randoms....

I don't have anything to write a whole post about, so you're going to get a little random list of things that are on my mind. Enjoy!

• Each time I think that AJ has settled into a sleep routine she mixes things up and wakes up a whole bunch during the night. I don't get it! I haven't done anything differently in her bedtime routine, so what gives baby?
• I have a few trips planned in the next month and I feel like they've been on the books forever, but they're finally in sight! The first is to my college town to reunite with my six (6!) roommates from college and the second is to San Antonio for the Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon. I'm super excited about both!
• I'm super scatterbrained and just realized that we never got our security deposit back from our townhouse in Washington. I emailed our landlord yesterday and they didn't have our forwarding address, so the check got mailed out yesterday! (Um, hello Beth, that's quite a bit of money that you forgot about....Mommy brain, anyone?)
• The dog is currently laying on the ottoman and just started sliding off...Hilarious.
• Christmas is just around the corner, which means that Thanksgiving is even closer. Both of these facts mean that we're super close to rejoining civilization, moving, and spending time in Florida! Can't wait!
• We're officially cloth diapering full time and its going pretty well. We've had a few leaky diapers (mostly in the morning when she sleeps the whole night) and I'm still getting used to using the diaper sprayer without drenching my whole bathroom, but we're getting there. I'm happy with the way things have been going so far. Its almost at the point when it doesn't feel any different from using disposables now.
  
• Running has been going well this week. One of my IRL friends (oh how well she knows me) suggested on here that I just let it go, not feel guilty about it and start fresh this week. Well, I've run 9+ miles already this week, today is my rest day and I have cross training tomorrow and a long run Saturday. Excited to bust my butt the next month and be ready for the race!

Anyways, that is where I'm at right now. Hopefully you enjoyed this little random glimpse into what my life is looking like right now. AJ just woke up from her nap, so I'm off to get her!

Feeling Motivated, Christmas Does That To Me

Have I ever mentioned my total and absolute obsession with all things Christmas? Well, I am completely and totally obsessed with Christmas and I'm one of those people who likes to surround themselves in a Winter Wonderland during the holidays.

The past few years I've listed Christmas Decorations as the first thing on my Christmas list. We've accrued some pretty nice stuff, but its all (for the most part) store bought. I have recently decided that I would like to start making a decoration (or several decorations) for our home each year. I think it will have more sentimental value than store bought decor and will possibly end up being cheaper than buying the decorations.

A few things that I'm thinking about are making a table runner, a tree skirt, cross-stitching winter or Christmas themed images, cross-stitching stockings and possibly some sort of quilting project.

Obviously I won't be doing all of these things at once, nor will all of these projects be attempted this year.

We are currently stationed in a location that is mainly for training and we will be PCSing shortly before Christmas this year, so we won't be decorating our house. That means that I'll have a year to finish any of the projects that I start this fall/winter.

So my questions for you are, do you have any favorite sites for finding patterns or crafting ideas? How about projects that you've completed that you're happy with the results? I'm really open to any ideas!

Mamarazzi Monday!

AJ's Grandpa was in town for a visit this weekend. Needless to say, she was spoiled with lots of new toys, play time and photo shoots! Here are a few of the highlights!

Snuggling on the couch with Grandpa!

Playing with all her new toys from Grandpa!

Trying to break out!

Hanging out with Daddy, watching football.

Hamming it up for the camera. Pretty girl!

Running Rut

I have a question for all of you runners out there.

What do you do to get yourself out of a rut? What motivates you to run when you can't find motivation?

I'm signed up to run a half marathon in just over a month and I'm really struggling lately with finding the motivation to do my training. You'd think that the fear of having to run 13.1 miles would be enough motivation, but sadly, its not.

I think part of the problem is that I was hoping the running would help me to shed some (all) of the baby weight and at this point, its not happening. So now I'm plodding along (unmotivated) and not losing weight. Ugh. I seriously thought that as I got back into shape and started losing weight that the running would become more fun. What is the problem here?

Please help me!

MilSpouse Friday Fill-In

Welcome back to MilSpouse Friday Fill-In! Link up at Wife of a Sailor.



1. What is the longest road trip you've ever taken?

Sophomore year of college my roommates and I drove from our college to Tempe, AZ to visit a friend at Arizona State University for spring break. It was 1,500 miles of driving for a vacation. Technically the longest trip I have been on was when we moved from Ft. Hood to Ft. Lewis, 2,356 miles of driving, but since it was a move, I don't count it as a road trip, even thought we did the touristy things along the way.

2. Do you collect anything? Tell us a bit about it.

I always wanted to collect something when I was younger, but never really got into anything in particular. The collection that lasted the longest for me was shot glasses. Those came in handy in college. ;)

3. What is your favorite part about being an adult?

Um, I can do whatever I want.

4. What song brings a tear to your eye?

Forever Young by Bob Dylan because it was on the playlist that D made for right after AJ was born. I banned the song from our house for a while because I couldn't hold it together.

5. Describe your first plane ride (how old you were, where you were heading, etc).

I don't remember. The first place ride that I remember was when we flew to Orlando to go to Disney World when I was a sophomore in high school. I remember it vividly because I blew chunks all over the place. (Yes, I'm super cool like that.)

The Kitchen: Army Style

If you've been following along the last few weeks you've had a chance to sneak a peek at where we live (the living room and master bedroom). You may also recall that we live on post (in what was formerly government quarters, but is now privatized), so this house is not quite what we would have chosen for ourselves, had we rented a house or apartment off post. That being said, you really can't beat the convenience of living 5 minutes from work and the grocery store. There are literally weeks days that I don't leave base.

One of the nice things about this house (yes, surprisingly there is more than one nice thing about this house) is that we have nice hardwood floors and our stuff looks good the way we have it arranged (big thanks to my Father-In-Law, the Interior Designer, on that one). Some of the downfalls of the house are shown in the following pictures, we call it, "the kitchen." It also doubles as....

The Laundry Room....(Our hallway houses a bike rack too, in case you were wondering.)

The Office...

My storage closet....

The Mudroom...

And the kitchen...In case you were wondering, those drawers on the right are approximately 5 inches wide. Super useful.

The stove (duh) and every kitchen utensil known to man next to the microwave.

We also have sweet antique-y light fixtures.

This one too (although I secretly think this one is pretty, shhh! Don't tell D, it will ruin my reputation around here).

I also have to add that while our kitchen/laundry room/office/mudroom appears to have a lot of storage space you would be surprised to find out that the inside of these cabinets contains permanent shelves which are approximately 1 inch too close together to store anything bigger than say, a drinking glass. This would be the reason my laundry detergent sits on top of the fridge.

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed the mini-tour of our kitchen. Thanks for stopping by!

I'm WAY Behind...

I just joined reality and started watching glee.

We're watching the current season, but also playing catch up with our Netflix and watching the old seasons as well. I can't believe it took me this long to get hooked on this show! Its amazing.

Are there any other Gleeks out there? Any seasons/episodes that I should get excited for?

Man Vs. Food

Last week D found out what language he will be studying for his new job so Saturday we took a trip to the big city to check out the university bookstore's stock of language books. While we were there we obviously stopped by my brother's apartment and picked him up! We had a little bit of time to kill before the bookstore opened, so we headed toward campus to get lunch. Brother knew about a BBQ restaurant that was featured on Man Vs. Food, so we went!

The restaurant is called Pappy's Smokehouse. Here's the front of the restaurant.
The storefront is deceiving in two ways. The first being that you're not allowed to walk in the front. You have to go in the back door because that is where the end of the line is. Secondly, the front looks like its a sketchy place, totally not the case, folks!

On to my review. OMG. It was so good! We walked in a few minutes before noon and waited in line for about 15-20 minutes to order.

The line in front of us.

And the line behind us.

My food. A half slab of ribs, sweet potato fries, baked beans. Yum!

D's food. Pulled pork, cole slaw, sweet potato fries.

Brother's food. Brisket, baked beans and cole slaw (he was holding it).

In case you were wondering (like my mom was) about what food Adam Richman from Man Vs. Food ordered while he was there, prepare to be disgusted.

On the menu it is called the "Adam Bomb" and here's how its listed:

The "Adam" Bomb - In honor of our friend Adam Richman from The Travel Channel's show Man vs. Food. A Big Ben with a Hot Link Frito Pie. $42.99

Now, you might be wondering what a Big Ben and Hot Link Frito Pie are.

Frito Pie - Fritos topped with your choice of meat, baked beans, cheddar cheese and onion. $6.99

THE Big Ben - A full slab of Ribs, a Beef Brisket sandwich and a Pork sandwich, 1/4 Chicken and 4 sides. $36.95

Yep. He ordered and ate $43 worth of food. Basically he ordered all of the food that the three of us had. The difference is, he ate it all and we took to go boxes!

Holding AJ while I try to eat.

AJ eating her first sweet potato fry.

The craziest thing about this place is all the food on their menu is available until the sell out. And seriously, they sell out. Every. Single. Day.

I'm glad that we got there early enough that we didn't have to wait that long in line. The food was definitely worth the wait though.

Mamarazzi Monday

Friday night AJ and I went on a little girls' night out trip to the local cloth diaper store and bought some cute fluffy diapers! Sunday morning she was wearing her first cloth diaper (and super cute baby legs)!

Standing like a big girl, showing off!

Remembering

If you remember my post from 9/11 you'll recall that I wrote about remembering where I was when I found out what happened. I likened the situation to the way our parent's remember where they were when JFK was shot, and our grandparent's when Pearl Harbor was attacked. These are moments that shook the foundation of our nation. As a group we can all recall where we were, how we felt and the aftermath of the tragedy.

I also think that as individuals we all have personal moments like those I mentioned above. For me, it was October 2, 2004. I was a Junior in college, watching a football game at a bar when I saw that I had a missed call from my mom. I remember thinking that it was weird that she would be calling me on a Saturday morning because she knew that I'd be watching the game/drinking/not able to talk. I think deep down I knew something was wrong. I remember telling my friend that I needed to call her back because I knew something was wrong.

I stepped outside the bar to call her and as soon as I heard her voice my gut feeling was confirmed. She didn't even have to say it for me to know that something terrible had happened. When she spoke the words my heart started beating faster. I denied it. Immediately, I said, no.

"Beth, Jack was killed in Iraq."

No. No. No.

Jack was a friend from the neighborhood that I grew up with. We worked together. We hung out. We were friends. We grew up together.

He was the funniest kid I've ever met. He enlisted in the Army after high school. He had deployed to Iraq with the 1 CAV out of Ft. Hood, TX. He was shot and killed while working at a highway checkpoint outside Baghdad, Iraq. He was 21 years old. He was a lot of things to a lot of people, brother, son, nephew, friend.

It has been 6 years, and he is not forgotten. We will always remember you, Jack.

"Life is short, play hard!"

-SGT Jack T. Hennessey, USA
KIA 1 OCT 2004, Baghdad, Iraq

MilSpouse Friday Fill-In

Before we start, I have to let you all know that this week was a lot better than last week on the AJ sleeping front. We did a few days of crying it out, which probably was more traumatizing to me than it was to her and then she kind of "got it." She's still not consistently sleeping through the night (although she does sometimes) but at least she is taking naps during the day.

On to the post!

As always, head over to Wife of a Sailor to link up!

1. What is the silliest get-up you have ever worn outside of a Halloween party? (from To The Nth)
I'm not going to lie, I don't really have that great of a memory (part of the reason I blog is to document what is going on in our lives so I can look back on it and remember things) and so I don't really have a memory of me dressing up for anything other than Halloween.

2. What is something that you gave up in order to live the military lifestyle? (from Pennies from Heaven)
Having friends? lol I'm just kidding (kind of). But seriously, I quit my job, moved away from all my family and friends and pretty much the only lifestyle I had ever known to be with a boy. If I had to do it all over again, I wouldn't change a thing. :)

3. If money wasn't a factor and you could go anywhere in the world, where would it be? And why? (from Life and Times of a Displaced Jersey Girl)
I think right now it would be a toss up between a few places. #1: Hawaii because I have never been there and I could use a relaxing vacation. #2: Alaska because I think that it would be amazing. A friend is PCSing there next year and I've been hearing all about the cool stuff and it just seems like it would be the adventure of a lifetime! #3: China because of a secret reason that I may talk about more in the future. I know that its not fair to leave you hanging like that, but that is just how its going to be right now. Sorry! ;)

4. If you were going to join the military, what branch would you join? Or which MOS/rating would you choose? (from Anonymous)
Um, no offense to anyone (male or female) who is in the military, but I would NEVER join the military. Its just not really my thing. I'm fine with being a milspouse and more specifically an Army Wife, but me actually being in the military would be a disaster.

5. What is your favorite thing to make for dinner? (from Armendinger Party of 4)
I have a bunch of favorite recipes, it is going to be hard to choose just one that is my favorite. Of course my favorite thing to make for dinner is a lot different than my favorite thing to EAT for dinner. Favorite thing to make for dinner=take-out. Favorite thing to eat for dinner=Stuffed Peppers.