Family Pains

Not too long from now I will be bringing Soldier home! I am beyond excited and cannot wait until he is back home and can take over snow removal duties! No, I just want him home with me. I didn't think anything could bring me down until I got a call from his parents. They are planning on coming down for his graduation as well, which is great, that haven't been to anything of his. Not his basic or AIT gradution or his LDAC grad so I'm glad for him that they will be there. He's worked so hard so I'm glad he'll have a few more people there to congratulate him.
But....they want to make a big family vacation out of it and come down early and stay later. I'm not even coming down as early as they will be because K still has to be at training everyday until he graduates. He doesn't have free time to hang out. So I was a little disappointed that they were going to be there already when I get to see him for the first time in over a month. And I know Soldier wants to get home right away because it's been awhile since he's been home.
I make it a practice to NEVER complain or say anything negative about Soldier's family because they're basically nice and I don't have any problems with them, other than with things like this. And I don't want him put in the middle or feeling like he needs to pick sides. I know he's the baby and the last one to leave the nest, but sometimes I feel they cling a little too much and I'm not sure how to tell them we need some alone time together and that K has told me that the minute they are released we are jumping in the car to head home.

The Cookbook

I got a package in the mail from my mother-in-law. She has a tradition that she has given a cookbook filled with family recipes to her children for their wedding. I was fairly excited to get it because I love to use family recipes that have been passed down. My family still makes a lot of traditional Norwegian and German food and I’d like to incorporate some of K’s heritage into our cooking. Plus there are some of her recipes that he would like to have (her chocolate chip cookies are to die for).


Boy was I aiming a little high! This cookbook has recipes for mashed potatoes, jello jigglers, green been casserole, rice krispy bars, applesauce made by cooking down apples and throwing in a few red hot candies, cider…you get the picture. Pretty basic stuff and nothing I couldn’t learn how to make by reading the can or the box. I was incredibly insulted when I got it. First, we’ve been married for about 2 years now, and I can definitely cook better than this. I’m pretty sure I’ve got how to make mashed potatoes down!

I immediately called my mom to ask if I was out of line for being so upset. (My mom will definitely tell it like it is and I trust her to put me in check when needed). She said I wasn’t. Who knows, maybe my mother-in-law is still having trouble coming to terms with losing her ‘baby’ and is keeping these favorite recipes to herself so that I can never make cookies like that and then she can still be the best provider for him. I don’t know, I think I’m stretching for that one, but I just need to try and see why she would do something like this. It probably wasn’t even intentional, my in-laws are nice people, they just do some frustrating things. I can’t tell K how mad I was because regardless it’s his mother and I’m not going to say something mean about his family to him even though when K saw it he was pretty disappointed too. I’m going to have to call my sister-in-law (K’s brother’s wife) and see what her cookbook was like…

Weekend in Review

Finally just got home after a very busy end to the week and a weekend away from home. This weekend was my friend's fiancee's funeral. I went with a few of our friends and it was a very sad service. The 82nd Airborne flew down to be the pallbearers and give him military honors at the funeral. It was very touching to see those men become so emotional over a soldier they probably did not know. My friend is still grieving very much but is starting to accept that he is gone. I believe the funeral actually helped her.
Immediately after the funeral I drove up to where K works and he got off early and we headed to his parents to visit them for the weekend. We don't get down there enough so it was nice to see them. Just got home an hour ago and realized immediately on entering that we forgot to take out the garbage before we left. STINKY!
I checked our mail and saw that I have a Summer Swap package from Renee at Waiting to Exhale waiting at the post office, so I'm excited to pick that up tomorrow. Then I headed out to my garden and had a meals worth of beans to pick and several more tomatos, peppers and yellow squash are coming in. I even saw a few cucumbers that were starting! Can't wait for another month when they should be big enough to pick. My mother-in-law gave me 3 strawberry plants so I planted them and hope they'll do ok. I then planted more beans and peas and should have another batch of those in September. I hope you all had a good weekend!

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!