Rainy Saturday

Yesterday after we dropped D off at the airport we made a trip to Trader Joe's to cheer us up.  AJ snagged a mini shopping cart that she drove like Nascar through the store.  When it was time to leave she threw a massive fit and now won't stop talking about the little cart.  Its too bad the nearest Trader Joe's is like an hour away.  While we were there we picked up some mini pumpkins and some heirloom tomatoes (amongst other things) to snack on.
 
My college football team is playing today and the game is on tv here where we live, on the other side of the country.  Its not often that I get to watch my boys play anymore, so I'm doing what any sane football-loving person would do, I'm DVRing the game so I can watch it and get other stuff done, like a trip to Tarjay with my little lady.  I love watching home games on tv because I get little glimpses of the beautiful campus and Midwestern foliage that I miss so much now that I live in the South.

Anyway, its rainy and cool(er) here today and D is gone, so I packed AJ up and headed down to Tarjay for a little retail therapy/grocery shopping.  What a great idea, huh?  Payday + Rain + Saturday = Worst Idea Ever.  it was seriously so ridiculously crowded there were no shopping carts left.  How does that even happen?  I decided that since it was insanely crowded, and I was already in what I can only describe as Purgatory, that I'd open the Target red card that is linked to your debit card and get the 5% off every time  you use it.  If that wasn't bad enough, it didn't go through so the cashier lady was trying to figure out what we wrong with their computer and ended up just giving me $3 off my bill, which was nice.  I almost never go to Target, unless I'm already running other errands in town, mostly because we live like 45 minutes away so I figured that getting 5% off would be a nice reward for the few times I actually need something there.  No dice.  Oh well.

On the upside, I bought AJ's Halloween costume while we were there and I told D that it was like divine intervention!  They only had one left and it was her size, plus it was only $20!  I even bought a 5 pack of fake mustaches for her to wear.  She is going as a pirate this year because I figure next year (and every year after) she will insist on dressing as a princess and this might be the last year before she has an opinion.


Also, on a super random note, I recently discovered that you can order Peppermint drinks at Starbucks all year long.  Who knew?!  While we were at Target today I ordered myself a half-caf Peppermint Mocha, which was heavenly.  Speaking of Starbucks, I think this is the first time ever that I've actually completed the Millenium Cohort Study that the military conducts every year.  My reason?  They are sending me a $10 Starbucks gift card.  I'd say 45 minutes of my time is worth 2 cups of over-priced coffee.  ;)

So, obviously my life is just about the most boring thing ever right now since I managed to write an entire post about shopping.  My apologies to you all.  I'll try to be more entertaining in the near future.

Boring Life and Toddler Meltdowns

Tuesday morning AJ was not wanting to wear underwear, so I let her wear a diaper for the morning and in the afternoon I bribed her to wear underwear.  Our day basically went downhill from there.  She was not happy about the whole sitting on the potty thing and she made that known (as if I needed reminding).  She sat 3 or 4 times for me (didn't go) and then decided she wanted to go outside.  After a brief lapse in judgment, I decided that it would be fine to go out for a few minutes.

Oh boy.  When the time to go back inside to sit on the potty came, a meltdown of epic proportions ensued.  She was not happy at all and the rest of the evening.  It was about this time (5:30) that I realized that I needed a few things from the grocery store for dinner, like fudge.  We headed out and of course she was a complete angel while we were out.  Figures.

I gave her a Reece's cup after she ate her dinner and she looked at it and said, "Oh my word!"  I started cracking up and so of course after that she was just trying to make me laugh and be silly.

This morning we went to playgroup in the neighborhood and AJ had so much fun just playing with all the other little kiddos that were there.  We came home and she told me that she wanted chicken nuggets, ketchup, broccoli and ranch for lunch.  She was happy because I let her get the chicken nuggets out of the bag and push the buttons on the microwave.  The best part of it all (according to her) was that I let her squeeze the ketchup on her plate (with some help).

D is supposed to be home early-ish today, which will be nice since we had a little miscommunication yesterday and I thought he was coming home at 3:30 and that definitely did not happen.  Haha!

Tomorrow my Father-In-Law comes to visit for the weekend so AJ and I are going to head up to "town" early and do some fall clothes shopping before we get him at the airport.  It finally got chilly here and I was scrounging through AJ's winter clothes from last year trying to find something that fits to wear today.  I've known for a while that I need to buy her fall wardrobe, but I just keep putting it off because its been so nice here still.  The real challenge is going to be getting all the things she needs without spending hundreds of dollars.

We don't really have anything planned for the weekend, but I'm sure we'll find lots of fun stuff to do with Grampa here!

Our Weekend

AJ wasn't feeling all that great this week and by the time Friday rolled around, we all were ready for a nice, relaxing weekend at home.  I'm glad we didn't make any real plans because she ended up coming down with some sniffles yesterday and was pretty sad.

Saturday we just stayed home, D mowed the lawn in the morning and then during nap time I ventured out to the grocery store for our week's worth of food.  D recently told me that he wants to eat healthier, so naturally I made some super unhealthy snacks for game day!  In my defense, we were planning on watching some football, and I had planned on making the stuff before he told me that, honest!

I was really considering going to the Commissary for my groceries because its much, much cheaper than our local grocery store, but luckily decided to just stick close to home.  I'm glad I did, because I totally forgot that the Commissary was having a case lot sale this weekend and I heard it was a total madhouse!

After I got home I made the snacks real fast and we got to watch the second half of the Army v. Northern Illinois game while munching on Buffalo Chicken Dip and Lil Smokies in BBQ sauce.  It was super yummy!

Today has been the official starting day of potty training, take 50.  AJ has just been having so much trouble with it, mostly because of the power struggle.  Every time we start to try it I decide she isn't ready and we go back to diapers.  Well, this time is starting out a lot like all the other times, but D and I are ready for her to be done with diapers, so we're going to really stick with it.  She has the ability to do it, but she doesn't care, so that has been our struggle so far.  Not to mention that she wants to do what she wants to do, when she wants to do it.  Have I mentioned she's 2?

Cross your fingers for us and if you have any helpful tips or words of advice for us on the whole potty training a strong-willed child, please, pass them along!

This afternoon we're heading across the street for a birthday party.  AJ's BFF turned 2 last weekend and today is her party.  With potty training and the sniffles, I'm not sure how long we'll last over there, hopefully long enough for some cake!

So, I Think I'm Back....

I left this little blog pretty abruptly more than 6 months ago and want to apologize to those of you who missed my random postings (hi, Mom!).  In all honesty though, I did have several people, both family members and other bloggers ask me if I was ever going to start blogging again.  My answer, even until a few days ago was always, no, and I couldn't really explain why.

I just think I wasn't ready to get back into the heavy-duty commitment that I felt blogging had become to me.  Yes, I felt like it was something additional amongst my list of 9,000,000 things I had to do everyday.  That isn't how it started for me, and I knew that until I didn't feel that way anymore I couldn't come back here and start blogging again.

Part of my absence is due to the fact that, for me, blogging was mostly about the community, as opposed to the actual writing.  A few months before I stopped writing I got to a point that I felt like I couldn't spend as much time in real life actually doing things as I wanted to because I needed to blog about everything.  Funny how that works, isn't it?

Anyway, I'm sure you can guess that lots of things have happened since I left you all 7 months ago.  Lots of things are the same as well.  We still live here.  Hubby started a new job which I will never, ever talk about on here.  Many of my friends have moved away, but many new friends have moved here as well.  We're still cloth diapering AJ, with every intention of potty training, like, yesterday.

And AJ, oh, AJ.  If I could even describe to you all the pain, joy, sadness, euphoria, frustration, love, anger and every other mix of emotions that she goes through every single day.  Oh, to be 2.5 again.

She is talking, and knows what she wants.  She has started recently picking up on phrases that we use, like "Mom, I'm having trouble with this," or "yuck, that's disgusting!"  Haha.

AbbyDog is still hanging out.  I think she really likes it when we leave her and go away for the weekend, though.  We have our neighbors come by and let her out and feed her and stuff, but for the most part she just gets to sleep, uninterrupted, for the entire weekend.  Come to think of it, that sounds fantastic, where do I sign up?  She always seems much happier to see us on Sunday after we take the little terrorist out of the house for a while.  ;)

We've gone on a few quick trips, one up to Baltimore, MD to see some of my family and another down to Myrtle Beach, SC for an Army-sponsored marriage retreat on the beach.  Um, more beach, less marriage retreat, please.  But hey, the hotel was beautiful, the food was free (and yummy), and the whole thing was free, and that is all that counts, right?

So there you have it folks.  I glossed over a bunch of stuff I'm not really ready to share on here yet, but I wanted to update you on where we stand.

As far as blogging daily again, well, I can't necessarily promise that, but I am going to try and get on here with some regularity and keep you all up to date on my life.

Haircut and Other Things

We haven't been all that busy since coming back to Hometown, USA. Yesterday AJ and I went on a little Mama-Daughter lunch date and got some real, honest-to-goodness, hometown food. It was wonderful.

AJ has been waking up super early for whatever reason, so we're all a little tired. She was so tired yesterday that she almost fell asleep in the car on the way to lunch. I'll tell you, I did not have high hopes for how lunch was going to go with a sleepy toddler, but it was great. We were there early enough that it wasn't very crowded, plus its not a sit-down restaurant, so we didn't have to wait around forever for a waiter to come and take our order, bring us our food, etc.

We had another early wake-up again this morning, so when I noticed AJ was laying down on the floor with her blankie watching TV, I knew it was about time for nap. I'm actually pleasantly surprised with how well she's been doing since she is so tired. I guess I'm kind of hoping that this will continue through until next week when we make the drive home. Maybe she'll be so tired by that point that she'll nap the whole way home. Wishful thinking.

As for me, I'm excited. We have a big, fun, busy weekend planned! I'm starting things off right by getting my first haircut in a long time(since AJ was a newborn?). I think I'm going to do something drastic. I'm ready for a change. Plus, anything other than a trim would be drastic based on how long my hair is now. After my hair cut, we're heading to the in-laws for dinner. Tomorrow morning AJ and I have a breakfast date with one of my roommates from college who lives in the area. We're going to the best breakfast place around, so I'm definitely looking forward to that.

I'm planning on getting my hair cut like one of these ladies below. What do you think?

I like the length of LC's cut without the bangs, though.

Heidi's hair looks great, but mine will never stay styled like this.

I like the way Jenn has her's styled in this picture.

Gwyneth's hair is most likely what mine would end up looking like. We have the same hair "type."

My sister is also making the trek home for the weekend so she can spend some time with us while we're here, even though we'll see her next month in sunny FL. The plan for Saturday afternoon is to take AJ to the Children's Museum now that she is actually old enough to enjoy everything. Following that, we're going to order pizza from the neighborhood joint infamously known as "Little I." (Short for "Little Italian.")

Sunday we have another busy day planned, we're going to hang around in the morning, but then after nap we're going to head into the city to go to the Auto Show and then have dinner at my cousin's house. He and his wife have a baby who is about 8 months old now and the last time I saw her, she was a newborn! Crazy how time flies, especially with little ones!

That's the big excitement around these parts! I'll be back Monday to update on the weekend, hopefully with lots of pictures (if I remember to charge my camera tonight) of everything, including the new hair cut!

Settling In...

Well, we made it to Hometown, USA yesterday afternoon. AJ was, once again, a delight in the car (seriously, she's pretty good on long trips for a 23 month old). We didn't have to get up super early to leave, so we got a chance to spend the morning with my Aunt before we left. We hit some snow and sleet for about the first hour, but after that, it was all smooth sailing.

We stopped for lunch at our normal lunch time and I decided to treat AJ to one of the restaurants I grew up with, Steak 'n Shake. We don't have any around where we live right now (or really any of the duty stations we've been at) so it was the first time she has been. She thought it was great! I mean, you get an awesome hat, AND a milkshake? Win-win!

She clearly was loving the hat.

Speaking of milkshakes, after we finished eating, I was trying to get AJ loaded back into her car seat and I set the almost full milkshake on the center console while I wrangled her. It was that moment that my devil-child, AbbyDog decided to jump from the backseat to the front and knocked it over, spilling the ENTIRE milkshake on my leather seats. Awesome. I tried to get her to lick it up and she looked at me like I had three heads, undoubtedly thinking to herself, "I would NEVER eat something that isn't mine." Thanks, dog.

After managing to clean that up with the 4 napkins the Steak 'n Shake waitress so kindly gave me we got back on the road again. (FYI Steak 'n Shake waitress, 4 napkins is NOT a "bunch.") AJ fell asleep almost instantly and took what is, to date, the longest car nap on record for her, 55 minutes.

We didn't encounter any other real problems the rest of the trip unless you count the numerous $3.80 tolls coming into town. $3.80? Seriously? That is crazy! I can get a drink at $tarbucks for that amount, but no, you're charging me the same amount to drive on a highway. Brings new meaning to the term, "highway robbery."

We beat my parents to their house, which I knew we would, because they were flying home from CO yesterday, so we let ourselves in, got unpacked and ran to Trader Joe's to get some stuff to make dinner.

AJ decided to get in this basket and it tipped over, so naturally, I took a picture before helping her up.

She was "cooking" in her kitchen before I could get her jacket off her.

Can I just say how wonderful it is to live in an area that has so many options for grocery shopping? When we were stationed at Ft. Lewis, we were really spoiled. We had everything (except Whole Foods) and the stores had great products. I honestly loved grocery shopping when we were there. I also love grocery shopping here. There's WF, TJ's, and more, all right around the corner. Its fantastic! In fact, this morning we went to WF and stocked up on some of the things AJ likes to eat and I got my lunch from their deli bar (which is to die for, BTW).

Speaking of being spoiled, this afternoon I'm heading out, sans bebe, to get a 90 minute massage. I'm anticipating it to be heavenly. My mom gave me a gift certificate she has, so its going to basically be half price. I can't wait.

Ah, this is why I can't come home all that often, my wallet can't afford it! ;)

Bloggy BFF Meet-Up!

I didn't really mention it before, but AJ and I are on a little road-trip of sorts. Its the same one we make about every six months or so, we drive from our house to my Aunt and Uncle's house, stay a few days, see all my grandparents and relatives and then drive the rest of the way on to my parent's house. We're going to be in Hometown, USA for about a week before we head back to our house to welcome the man home from the field.

Well, last time I was here I took AJ out for Skyline Chili and ice cream at Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams as a Mama-baby date. This time we had an extra person on our date with us. My bloggy BFF, Moe, is back in town and she met up with us for a late lunch and ice cream yesterday! We had tons of fun, we chatted, we laughed, we wrangled AJ, we shared food!

We were both laughing because we told our significant others that we were going to meet a relative stranger and neither of them really seemed all that concerned for our safety. ;) We both said we were glad that we aren't axe murderers or something!

The three of us at Jeni's.

It was so much fun to finally meet Moe in real life, and I hope that I get another chance to come through town again so we can expand past Skyline Chili!

After eating ice cream (in the dead of winter, mind you) I realized that we were close to the neighborhood and house I lived in as a little girl (from ages 3-5) so I drove past it and took a picture of it for my parents to see. I was lucky that there was a For Sale sign in the front yard, otherwise I would have felt like a huge creep!

My old house. I promise there is a "For Sale" sign just to the left of the picture. ;)

I also have AbbyDog with me on this trip, and she has been making herself feel right at home at my Aunt and Uncle's house. So much so, that my Uncle had her doing tricks last night for a little snack before dinner.

AbbyDog doing tricks.

Abby, right at home. Jumped up and sat at the kitchen table before dinner.

We have another day here before we hit the road again. Tomorrow we are going to see my mom's parents and a cousin of mine who still lives in this area. It should be interesting.