O How My Garden Grows!

I absolutely love to garden and while I live in an apartment I try to do what I can. It's so relaxing to come home after a stressful day at work and spend some time watering and weeding outside. I didn't get on the band wagon quick enough this spring to rent a plot in town for a garden, so I've been growing a few things on our patio. We have a pretty big patio so I was able to put a lot of pots out there. I have peppers, jalapenos, tomatoes, lettuce, beans, peas, cucumbers, zucchini and yellow squash.

So far I have ton of lettuce and a few budding peppers and tomatoes. But this evening after work while I was watering I noticed this pepper on steroids. The rest of the peppers are just the size of gumballs so this one must be stealing all the miracle grow. I do have a decent sized tomato and jalapeno now too.

I can't wait until everything is growing - as you can see I have some flowers on the yellow squash in the background, but no fruit development yet. Hopefully when we get home from our 4th weekend there will be some!

Getting to Know You Sunday

So tired. K and I went to a baseball game this afternoon and i don't know what it is about the sun but it wears me out like there's no tomorrow. I didn't do anything but sit outside for a few hours and drink a few beers, but i feel like I just did hard labor for a day. And as careful as I was with my sunscreen application.....I forgot my hair part!! My scalp is red at my part so I'm sure it's going to be hurting tomorrow. Now I'm looking foward to chilling out with a big glass of water and watching Army Wives with the soldier.

But, since it's Getting to know you Sunday head on over to Mann Land 5 and link up for the Getting to know you Sunday. Happy Sunday!
1.If you had 5000.00 to spend on plastic surgery what would you have done?

Liposuction, definitely. Forget dieting - I'd just have it all sucked out!

2. Do you watch Soap operas and if so what is your favorite and why?
No soaps for me. I work during the day so I wont have an oportunity to even if I liked one.

3. Favorite clothing brand?
I'm not picky about brand, just as long as it fits, but Gap and Ann Taylor jeans fit me best, so they would have to be my favorite.

4. An afternoon shopping spree at your favorite store or maid service for a year?
Maid service for a year, hands down.

5. would you ever vajazzle?
Nope

6. Favorite Disney Princess?
Ariel, I absolutely love the little mermaid.

7. Last movie that made you bawl your eyes out?
Hmmm, I watched the old Ice Castles a few weeks ago and that was quite a tearjerker.

8. Have you ever broken any bones and if so what?
Does a toe count?:)

Cherished Moments

Yesterdays constantly remind me how very blessed and lucky I am to be married to such a wonderful man. I must have done something very good in a previous life to have him in this one. K's been home for a week now and the weeks after a reunion always seem more special in a way. I think it's because we still remember the loneliness of separation and the day to day trappings of life haven't dulled us to that yet. The same thing happens the weeks before separation. As emotional as those weeks are, I am deeply grateful for them as they remind us not to take our todays for granted.

Last night I didn't get off work until midnight and when I came home I found a trail of candles leading to our bedroom which was filled with candles and Soldier boy waiting up for me with two glasses of wine (keep it PG folks!). He knew I'd had a long day since I'd started my first shift of the day at 7am so he had done all of this to help me relax and wind down. We stayed up for another hour or so just talking. I love when we have these nightly talks about our dreams and plans for the future and I know it's one of the things I miss most when he's gone.

I'm still deciding which phone to get but I'm leaning towards a blackberry. The one I'm looking at has Skype so it would make it much easier to talk to K when he's gone.

Hellooo Summer

I think today would be the official day of summer in the Midwest. Finally a day without a single drop of rain, which is a miracle around here. This morning as I was getting ready the forecasters were predicting more severe thunderstorms, but there isn’t a cloud in the sky. I can almost forget that my plants are so wet the roots are rotting in the pots. The last few day’s I’ve had to cover them with tarps just so they wouldn’t get anymore water! But I do have a lovely pepper to show for all this rain, now I just hope this sun turns it into the sweet orange pepper I want it to be.


Now if it would just hurry up and be the weekend so I can get out and enjoy it. I wish K didn’t have to work so we could have gone camping this weekend. We got a huge stinking tent for our wedding (I’m serious, I think it’s bigger than our apartment) and we haven’t even used it yet – though we’ve loaned it out to plenty of other people already. I’m so excited he’ll be starting his new job next week because then he’ll have nights and weekends off. What a luxury!

I’m able to upgrade my cell phone now and I want to get a phone with internet and email, but I am completely lost and overwhelmed with the choices. Now’s the perfect time because Verizon requires data packages with any phone with a full keyboard (which is all of them, what a scam!) I would also like one that I can use to check my work email when I’m on the road. What Smart phones do you have and what do you recommend?

Date Night

We were finally able to have a date night tonight! We’d been so busy with family on Father’s Day and I worked a 10hr day yesterday that we didn’t get time to go out with just us. We stuffed ourselves at our favorite restaurant and then went to the movie Get Him to the Greek which was pretty funny. Very awkward in some parts, but overall funny. It was just nice to be able to spend a whole evening together without anything to do but just have fun with each other. I love date nights and I’m going to have to treasure each one until K leaves again for training in the fall. (big sigh)

Getting to Know You

I hope everyone had a great Father's Day. My hubby, K, came home so I had a great day! It was so nice to see him again and to be able to spend a day just lounging about ouside in the sun. I know this is a little late, but here is the Sunday Getting to Know You

1. While at the beach, pool, etc..Do you cover up your assets or show them off?
I cover em up! Nobody needs to be seeing my assets, I'm pretty modest.

2. Road trips or Plane trips?
It depends. But I would probably go with plane trips just so I could get there sooner

3. I can't stand it when...? People don't use their blinkers...especially when you're waiting to turn out in front of them. Really, how hard is it to use the blinker!!

4. Have you ever gone topless at the beach?
No, again, no one needs to be seeing my assets
5. How many blog carnivals do you do a week?
1-2

6. My favorite thing about the weekend is...?
No work, sleeping in, breakfast with the hubby, drinking a whole pot of coffee, leisurely reading the paper, being outdoors, I love it all
7. Pancakes or waffles?
pancakes with chokecherry syrup
8. Water Park or Amusement Park?
Amusement Park - I love rides!

Waiting

It's official, DH is on his way home! I have everything ready; the house is spic and span, I have plenty of groceries, his birthday gift is wrapped and and his cake is in the freezer. Now I just have to wait. I've tried reading for a while but now my mind is wandering so I turned on the tv and there is nothing on so now I'm going to try watching a movie and working on my knitting to see if that will help pass the time. We'll see, I'm just so excited!

Blonde Moment

DH family is very big on remembering birthdays and anniversarys and when we got married his dad sent me an excel spreadsheet with everybody's birthday and anniversarys listed so i could remember to send them a card and/or gift. This is very different than how my family opperates. We're much more lax about birthdays and usually just give each other a call on the day unless it's a mile marker birthday or anniversary. So it's no big deal if I am off a day or so.

Trying to be a good daughter-in-law I started making monthly calendars with everyone's birthday and anniversary for the month listed. This month I messed up. DH's mom turns 50 this month, I put it down on the calendar as today. I called her to wish her a happy birthday and we chit chatted for a bit. I talked to DH later and let him know and he tells me his mom's birthday isn't until tomorrow. Now I'm so embarrassed and feel so bad. And I can't believe he didn't mention it earlier that I had the wrong date on the calendar. Ugh, this is just sooo like me!

On a brighter note, DH comes back in 2 days! Yay!

Running for Cover

I got a little freaked today. Okay, maybe more than a little. We had a few severe storms roll through that produced a couple tornadoes and a ton of funnel clouds. It's amazing how just 15 minutes ago I was freaking out about where I would go because the trees outside our building looked like they were going to be pulled out of the ground the wind was so high and the rain/hail was beyond pouring. But now the sun is shining and it's as humid as ever.

It started earlier this afternoon with some storms and tornado touch downs about 10 miles from here. And then a stronger storm and more funnel clouds came through just a few minutes ago. We live in an apartment on the top floor of our building, so not exactly the safest place to be during a tornado storm. I didn't have any friends with basements close enough for me to make it there in time, so i panicked for 15 seconds and then just headed to the hallway on the first floor. I'm definitely ready to have a house with a basement. But, now it's sunny and it looks like we're clear for the rest of the night. Now I can get back to the season finale of Lost I have recorded (I know, I know, how could I have waited this long). Hope everyone is safe tonight.

It must be Monday

This morning at work I lifted up my phone to make a call and I guess I don't know my own strength because I accidentally smacked myself in the lip with the receiver. Now I have a big fat lip. Lovely. I am so glad the working part of today is over and I can now kick back, go for a run, and then read some of my book.
O, and DH comes home in 6 days!

Getting to know you Sunday

I've seen this on a few other blogs and thought it was a neat idea. Head over to MannLand5 and link up so I can get to know you too!

Here are the Queastions:

1. If you could have one of Superman's, powers which one would you want? Superhuman strength..Flight..Superhuman speed..X-Ray vision..etc

Definitely Flight, then I could always fly to were DH is :)

2. The best thing I ever won is....?
My husband...does that count?!
3. Have you ever skyped with a bloggy friend?
No
4. What is your favorite Summer month?
June, except this year, because it's summer, but not as humid and hot as July and August

5. Pool, Lake, or Ocean?
O, this is tough, I LOVE the ocean, but I love watersports like skiing, tubing and wakeboarding on lakes. But I think I'm going to have to go with Ocean since I hardly ever get to see one!


6. One of my favorite Summer memories is.....?
DH came home from deployment two summers ago, that has to be my favorite summer memory. And family camping trips.
7. What's your favorite secret bargain?
hmm, probably dress pants from Old Navy

8. Do you plan on or have you been watching the World Cup?
I haven't yet, but probably will when my husband gets home because he's a sports fanatic.

Another Birthday Away

Today is the Soldier’s birthday, and he has to spend it alone in the field. He has been in the Army for a little over 6 years now and since that time he has only had 1 birthday at home with family. That’s the curse of a summer birthday in the National Guard I guess.

I always feel terrible about his birthday because he does so much to make my birthday very special each year. He buys me flowers, gets a cold stone cake (yum!), makes a huge elaborate dinner and always buys the best gifts. He’s usually so giddy about the gift that I think only once he’s managed to last until the day of the event before insisting I open the gift because he knows I’m going to love it and can’t wait to see my reaction. He’s so cute. I’ll never forget the birthday he tried to make me a cake, it was a disaster. The first go around he forgot the baking soda so it was flat as a pancake and hard as a rock. The second time around he must have added double the liquid, or half the flour, because it was just a gooey glob. But he tried a third time, and success!

Last summer he was home with me for his birthday and I tried to do it all; bought an ice cream cake (his fav), make crab legs and steak for dinner, bought him a gift I thought he’d love (the newest call of duty game). Dinner was perfect, cake was delicious and the gift…..he had already bought it for himself! This is not the first time this has happened, he did that with Christmas last year. I was going to get him some hunting gear and - what did i find a week after I bought his gift? The same thing hanging in his closet!!  I think for this birthday I’m going to get him a gift card to best buy, should be safe enough :).

Marriage 15

Believe it or not I have found a new love in running. Last month I ran a 5K. I was so happy for me because I had let myself get severely out of shape after we got married. I am a very lucky gal in that he does most of the cooking…..with butter….lots of it. One day I weighed myself and I had gained 25 pounds since we had gotten married. Yep, 25! And no, I didn’t really notice, I really only wore either dress clothes (which fit looser) or sweatpants lounging at home, and it was the winter. I never did have a habit of weighing myself, even through college I never gained the dreaded Freshman 15, I was always active playing all types of sports, so as long as I was moving I didn’t really pay attention to what my number was.

Well, somehow after that I managed to gain another 15 lbs (well, not somehow, I started my job and it’s primarily a desk job) and had to go up a clothing size.

After that shock on the scale, I knew something had to change, now. I made some drastic changes in what I ate. I now do the cooking and have tried to go to more of a raw veggie/fruit, lean protein diet and cut out anything you can buy in the middle of the grocery store. A dietitian game me this advice, he told me to do all of my shopping along the outside walls of the grocery store and never go down the middle aisle. I thought this was kind of weird until I thought about it, all of your produce, dairy, grains and meats are located on the outer walls of the grocery store, everything else is just processed packaged crap.

I also started working out, 6 days a week for at least 45 minutes a day. I started this in February and since then I have lost 37 pounds! I’m back in the “normal” range for my height/weight and have more energy than ever. And my husband isn’t complaining too much either ;). To celebrate my success I ran a 5K and I just signed up to run a 10K in October. I am very excited and can’t wait for this rain to stop so I can get in some running outside!

Countdown

Every time Soldier leaves I try to stay focused on the day to day and creating a new routine so that I’m not constantly thinking about the fact that he’s gone and I’m alone now. We’ve had plenty of separations for me to hone my skills on, and I’d have to say that I was pretty successful through most of them. During his first two deployments I was in school full-time and working 4 part-time jobs (not exaggerating), so I was able to keep myself so busy that looking back those years just flew by.


Since we’ve been married and I’ve graduated from college our times apart have been shorter; one weekend a month and then a complete month last summer. Last summer I thought I was going to go crazy for that month he was at Ft. Lewis. He wasn’t able to communicate with me at all, no phone calls, no emails, no letters, nothing. He’s my best friend and whenever anything happens to me or I have news he is the first person I want to tell, especially if it’s something funny or a blond moment because he gets such a kick out of those. Plus, I now just have a full time job so my nights and weekends are free and I have a lot more time to myself. I try to fill it up with friends, books, running and projects (I’m going to finish that quilt this week!), but the next time he deploys I am seriously considering getting a part time job just to stay more busy.


Every time he has left I have tried to wait as long as I could before thinking about the exact day he would be back. I tried not to think about how many months until he was home, or how many of our family members would have birthdays before he was back or what movies would finally be released to theatre or on DVD before I got to see him again. And it never fails that it doesn’t last long before my calendar has a countdown marking off how many months or days before he returns. This time, I made it a whole week plus before I wrote down how many days left until my hubby is home. He comes home in 11 days!

SATC 2

Warning! There may be some spoilers in here!


This weekend I went to Sex and the City 2 with a friend. I have been a huge fan of the show since college and loved the first movie. I was so excited when I heard they were coming out with a second movie, but I did think "what are they going to make the movie about?". I felt like the first movie had brought a lot of closure to the series already. Regardless, I couldn't wait to see it and then rehash the story lines and fashion over cosmopolitan's after. What a disappointment! I felt like the beginning scenes were too forced and we didn't get to see the husbands as much as I would have liked. Steve is still my favorite and he was in there for about 15 minutes. I was wondering about Carrie and Aiden and how far they took it after seeing some of the previews. I would have been so upset if she had blown her marriage with Big by cheating with Aiden after stringing us along for 10 years. So I'm very glad that worked out and they stayed together. And the clothes - not great. I am not a fan of arabian nights pants.  Long story short, I'm glad I saw it at least, but it sure didn't take us long to analyze the movie over our cosmos!

About Us

Here's just a little about the Mr. and Mrs.

1. How long have you been married? 1 year, 7 months
2. How long have you been together? 5 years

3. Where did you go on your first date? Cold Stone. It was early June and I suggested we eat our ice creams outside and the weather got COLD fast. I had a sweater, he was in shorts and a t-shirt and even though he was freezing we stayed out there for hours talking.
4. Where did you go on your last date? We went to the races.

5. Where were you married? In my home town in the fall
6. What was your best/favorite wedding gift and from whom? One of my high school friends made a fold out collage of pictures and things from our wedding. It was so creative because she took things from our invitations, program, and even some pieces of our wedding decorations to make it and folded it all up in a box that we had given out the wedding favors in. Very special.
7. Where did you honeymoon? The Bahama's!
8. What food do you like now because of your spouse? Fried food, and yes, I'm working it off now!
9. What type of music do you like now because of your spouse? A little more rock music.

10. What movie or television program do you like now because of your spouse? Sports center

11. Favorite PG thing you like doing together? Talk in bed until late at night 

12. Last gift you bought your spouse? A gun

13. Last gift your spouse bought you? a beautiful bouquet of flowers the day he left for AT

14. Favorite things about your spouse? His sense of humor, his no bullshit attitude, his generosity, how he can make me laugh, he's silly but serious when he needs to be, he's caring and always makes me feel special and he is my absolute best friend and rock.

What a day

  Why is it that nothing ever comes up until your husband is gone? I kissed the Mr. good bye this morning and sent him off to AT. And then a few hours later he texts me because he needs me to scan and email him a copy of his passport for a job he was just offered! Well, we keep all our important documents in a safety deposit box at our bank. No problem, I will run over after work and get the passport, scan and email it. Well, this is were the fun starts.
  Low and behold, while we were going through the process of adding each other to all our accounts at Wells Fargo, somewhere they neglected to add me to his safety deposit box. I (shamelessly) played the military card and let them know my husband was gone and couldn't get this himself and he needed it today. They called their ethics rep to see what they could do for me in this situation. Turns out she said they couldn't do anything. At this point they very well could have just told me "sorry, better luck next time. It's against our policy to let you in to the box." But, being from the nicest state in the union, one of the banker's went home to get his passport so he could get me their 1-800 number for emergencies hoping I could have them fax me a copy of DH passport. In the meantime they came up with an idea to have Hubbs sign a release at the town where he's staying for AT, and then faxing that over for me to sign. That didn't work. Finally someone, me, asked about a power of attorney. Viola! They do have a POA for situations liek this and were able to have DH sign the POA at their branch and then fax that to our Wells Fargo so I could get into our safety deposit box and get his passport. I was at the bank for an hour and a half and they were SOOO helpful. I think they could tell I was desperate to get the passport today so the Mr. could get that job he wanted. I felt terrible for taking up so much of their time on a busy Friday, but they were great. I'll be writing Wells Fargo a very nice thank you letter for all the trouble they went through
  And the kicker is -  his passport wasn't even in the deposit box!! Yes, that's right, he had left it in our safe at home! I told him tonight he's lucky he already bought me flowers before he left today or I'd be wanting a nice bouquet for this :)
(And no, I wont be telling Wells Fargo the passport wasn't in there after all)

 

Introduction

Hello to anyone coming across this. I have to admit I have some reservations about beginning a blog. I mean, do I really have enough going on in my life to keep people entertained and reading this? Some days I don't think I have enough to keep ME entertained! And I'm a pretty private person so I'm not sure how sharing my story with the world will feel. Ok, enough already, here goes.
I'm a 24 yr old college grad who is married to the best man ever. He recently graduated from college and was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Army. We have been married for almost 2 years now and fortunately it's been a pretty smooth ride. We've survived one year long deployment and lots of months or weeks here and there apart. I am currently working full time in a career field I LOVE, but did not get my degree for, so the next step is graduate school for me. Hubby is looking and looking for that first "big kid" job after college! Thanks for reading and I promise I'll get better.
O, and if anyone can help me out on how to make my blog look cute....please please please let me know!! I am computer illiterate.