Dangerous indoor activities...

I was going to blog today about the nasty weather we've had the past couple days and look to endure for the rest of the week, but instead I thought I would blog about what we've been doing to keep ourselves occupied indoors to avoid the awfulness outside.

Yesterday, Sgt D and I decided that we could warm ourselves up a little by play Wii sports. I turned the game on and sat through the information screens about putting on the wrist strap and watching out for furniture around you. After all I have seen those screens every time we have played this past year, I didn't really need to watch this time. Well...maybe I should have. While I was doing my round of punching the bag on the boxing, trying to determine my Wii Fitness Age, I ended up whacking a wire shelving unit we had stuck in front of our fire place temporarily until we could find a better home for it. I yelped, and ended up with a fat bruised pointer finger on my right hand. Let me tell you, it HURTS! After that little incident we decided to move the shelving unit until we were done playing, but the damage had already been done...

I guess next time I should pay a little more attention to the warning screens on the Wii...and maybe to my surroundings as well...

I hope you are all finding fun ways to occupy yourselves during the nasty bit of cold weather we have had lately, and more importantly I hope you have managed to do it injury free...unlike myself!

Upcoming Road Trip

Sgt D and I are planning a 3,300 mile roundtrip from Lakewood, WA to Salt Lake City, UT (for one night), to Belen, NM to San Mateo, CA, and finally back home. We will be doing the first two legs in 48 hours. I almost think we are insane, but on the upside we will get to see both of our families, which I can't wait for. We haven't seen Sgt D's family since last year at Christmas, and I'm hoping at New Years we will be able to see some friends that I haven't seen in quite some time.

Keep your fingers crossed that our trip goes well...better yet keep your fingers crossed that Sgt D and I can finish our classes successfully before we leave for our trip. I can't wait for this quarter to be over, it has been a really long one!

Bad Blogger Strikes Again!

It has been at least three weeks since my last post. I've been a little busy, what with taking three graduate courses and substitute teaching several days a week.

Today is Veteran's Day. A day for remembrance and also a day to be thankful for the members of our armed forces, both past and present. Today I am thankful. I am thankful to my husband, to the men and women he serves with and I am thankful for all who served before them. Even if you do not agree with the wars our country is currently fighting, I hope you can find it in your heart to still appreciate the men and women who are sacrificing their lives fighting those wars on behalf of our country.

1 year and counting...

Well folks, we made it! Sgt D and I just passed the one year mark in marriage. Yesterday was the official day, but my new quarter of school started last night, so we slipped away last Friday for a romantic weekend in Bellevue, WA (home of Microsoft). We stayed at the Hyatt in downtown Bellevue and we were truly in the heart of the city. Here is a picture of view from our room (we were on the 17th floor).



We got in late on Friday, and had a late dinner at PF Changs. On Saturday, we got up early and walked about a mile to Gilbert's for breakfast. For those of you from San Francisco, it really reminded me of Squat and Gobble, and was absolutely worth the walk. On our way back we stopped at the mall and can I just say it is probably the biggest mall I have ever been to in my life. I mean the Nordstroms had three restaurants in it!!!



Saturday night we went to Daniel's Broiler for dinner and it was probably the best dinner I have ever had in my life. Here is the view from our table on the 21st floor of the Bank of America building.

While we were eating dinner another couple got engaged. We thought that was a good omen, celebrating our one year anniversary and seeing another couple begin their adventure together. At the end of the night another diner was kind enough to take a picture of us, and since we don't have many pictures of us together I was really excited about that!

Here's to many more wonderful and memorable anniversaries to come!

Victoria, BC

I just got home yesterday from Victoria, British Columbia with my parents. We had a wonderful time. We stayed at an amazing B&B that my mom found name Abbeymoore Manor. It was so beautiful. We stayed in the Primrose and Rose rooms. I sadly was without SGT D this trip, he had to stay home for some Army stuff, but he is definitely going to do his best to make it on the next trip up there.

We went to the Butterfly Gardens, Butchart Gardens, The Royal British Columbia Museum, Government House and the White Heather Tea Room for afternoon tea.

Here are Dad & Mom at Butchart Gardens

Here are mom & I at Butchart...

We had an amazing time, our only regret was that Sgt D couldn't join us. Hopefully next time though!

Vacation!!!

This week and next week I am on a two week vacation from school. Although I am substitute teaching for science tomorrow. I still need to make some money...

I have been super busy knitting away. So far I have made a super cute purse for my 7 year old

niece for Christmas and I have finished a pair of socks that I started two years ago.

I also found out my grades today for my first two master's classes and I am proud to say that I have a 4.0 GPA. Heck Yeah!!!

My next blog post will hopefully have pictures of Victoria, Canada, as that is where my parents and I are going next week. So exciting! Sgt. D can't come because of work, but his job is an important one, so he is forgiven.

Other than all that, nothing else new going on here. Same old stuff just a different day.

Math

So a lot of people in my life think I am completely incapable of doing math. I would like all of those people to know that is fundamentally not true. For the record I received all A's and B's in high school, it wasn't until I got to college that math, specifically Calculus, became a struggle and I started to dislike math.

The way math was taught in high school we were essentially trained to be dependent on our fancy Texas Instrument graphing calculators to do all the work, and we never really learned how to solve most math problems by hand. No one told us that when you get to college they take those fancy calculators away and expect you to be able to solve math problems by hand. I have always felt that aspect of my education is where I was truly short changed. I was never prepared for that part of college, and in a way set up for failure. If you have not been given sufficient training on something, no matter how hard you try, you are less likely to be successful at it. (Something I have learned from my Master's in Education classes.)

Well yesterday was a fantastic shot in the arm for my mathematics self-confidence. I substituted for two Algebra classes and one Geometry class and I was able to not only remember how to do the math, but I was able to teach it. That whole if you can't do, teach saying, did NOT apply, because I was able to do as well. It made me feel really proud of myself, and made me feel much better about substituting all subjects rather than sticking with specific ones.

I Survived!

I made it successfully through my first two days of substituting. I covered for a nutrition and health class (x3 periods), two ELL (English Language Learners) classes, steel drums (x2 periods) and concert band. I have now been experienced teaching in the high school and teaching in the middle school. I have to be honest, I preferred the high school. I know that everyone says high school kids are not the ideal age group, but I have to be honest, they are easier to talk to, and I didn't feel that there was nearly as much drama. All the classes I have covered so far, with the exception of the ELL classes, have been electives so that could also be why it has been so great the past two days. The middle schoolers kept me going the entire day, the only time I sat down was at the end of the day to write a note to the teacher. The high schoolers knew what they needed to do and for the most part were very self-sufficient.

I am really looking forward to getting some experience in the core subject areas of history, English, math or science. Just so I can get an idea of what those classes may be like.

Autumn in Washington

Autumn arrived a week early in Washington this year. It was as if the state just decided to hell with summer, we are ready for crisp days, freezing nights and, oh yeah, bring on the RAIN. I'm used to California summers that sometimes last through the middle of October, well let me tell you, I do not have my hopes up for that to happen in Washington.

The leaves have already started to change color, and it has started to rain again. In fact I just looked at the forecast for the next four days, and Google is telling me that it will rain 3 out of 4 days. Although, I guess in a state where if it doesn't rain for a week people think that we are going through a drought, the rain is actually a good thing. I mean after all it hasn't rained here in like what...three whole weeks. Probably the driest I have felt since moving up here.

I guess what all this boils down to is if you are planning a visit up here anytime soon, bring your raincoat, galoshes and perhaps a thick wool sweater for the night time, because you are going to need it!

Say a prayer...

Next Wednesday, Sept 24th, I will be teaching in a high school classroom...all by myself.

I have signed up as a substitute with the local school district in order to get some real life experience in the classroom and also to pay for school (both equally important). My first job will be in a high school music class. I felt pretty confident that I could handle this assignment, after all, I was in the band from the time I was 10 until I graduated from high school. On and off for 7 years, I should be ok...right? There was another assignment open for teaching math at the same high school on different days, but I figured I should play to my strengths and math has never been one of them. I have been learning in all my classes that the teacher needs to be the authority and I do not want to walk into a setting where my students probably know more about the subject than I do, that wouldn't be fair to anyone; me, the teacher I am subbing for, or the students.

I hope it all goes well...pray for me on Wednesday, I'll need a little help. Not to mention confidence!

Allergies part 2

Wheat, Eggs, & Milk...what do these three items have in common? They are all things I am not allowed to enjoy for at least the next two weeks, and maybe longer :(

My new allergist wants to see if the reason I get so many headaches, among other issues, could be caused by these foods. It is seriously depressing, and might I add expensive to find foods that do not contain these products in them. I am, however, giving it the college try, I figure I owe myself that much to figure out what the true cause of all my headaches may be.

Yesterday Sgt D and I made a trip, for the first time since moving up here, to Trader Joes. They are so wonderful there. They let us taste food before buying it, and told us about their return policy, which can be easily summed up "if you don't like, return it, no questions asked." The other thing they did that I really appreciated was taking us on a brief tour of the store to show us some of the items they carry that I can still eat, and they also printed out a comprehensive list of their gluten free products. There are still somethings on the list that I can't eat because they still have milk or eggs in them, but at least it gave me a starting point.

Here is a list of some of the things I was able to find:

• Brown Rice Tortillas (actually pretty good, this is what we got to taste in the store)
• Brown Rice Pasta (last nights dinner, and it tastes just like regular pasta)
• Brown Rice Bread (this one will require some adjusting too, but at least I can still have some form of bread)
• Egg free mayonnaise (thank GOD!)
• Dairy free margarine (haven't tasted it yet, but looking forward to it)
• Wheat free cereal - Puffins Cinnamon flavor (I have the feeling this will become snack food)
• Soy Milk, plain & vanilla flavor (Sgt D said he won't be drinking this, so I'll still be buying regular milk too - I can't expect him to follow the diet too, that would be cruel)
• Wheat free sweet & sour sauce

Sgt D is being pretty wonderful about all this, trying a vast majority of the foods without complaint. He will still have anything he wants for breakfast & lunch, but dinner he (and I) are going to have to adjust to this new diet.

Wish me luck that I can actually stick to this...

Allergies :(

I posted a blog earlier about being allergic to Washington...I wish! Yesterday I went for allergy testing, and of the 50+ things I was tested for, only one came back positive. Wait for it...CATS! I apparently have an allergy to my attack cats, which is why I have been having asthma attacks daily for months and months now. The attack cats are headed back to California to live out their golden years, and I will not be allowed to have anymore of them. The kicker of all of this is that I still have to have allergy shots for cats because I have been having attacks when I'm around other people, which means that my sensitivity is really high and could cause me problems. To say the least I cried....

Promotion!

Cpl D is now SGT D. That's right people he got promoted. It actually happened on Wednesday, but I have been so slammed with school work and taking a CPR/First Aid class that I haven't had time to post about it. I'm sorry.

Here are some pictures of his promotion ceremony. Let's all celebrate with him!!!

And now for some pushups!

A few words from the Captain...

Don't feel bad if you missed out on the ceremony. I did too, I was in class :(

Sad but true...

Cpl D told me a story this morning that made me want to shake my head in shame at my own gender. Apparently during formation yesterday, his battery was lectured on how they need to prepare their wives for the possibility that they may be deployed sometime in the future. This meant "teaching" them the following things: how to drive, where the commissary is located, how to pay bills, etc. I didn't know who to be more disgusted by, these women for not taking a more active role in their own lives and families, I mean seriously, being a full-fledged adult woman and not knowing how to drive, let alone where the commissary is, give me a break! Or should I be more upset with the men, for letting the "little missus" get away with that sort of behaviour.

I can understand how some men like taking care of their wives and how some women really love being taken care of, but at a certain point, you are more of a child than an adult in a relationship, when you don't even know where the commissary is located. (For you non-military folk, the commissary is the grocery store, it is the size of a Costco and rather hard to miss as it is one of the largest buildings on post.) I realize that I am one of very few people in enlisted realm of the army that is pursuing an advanced degree and that being from California I am a little bit more outspoken, and probably in the eyes of some people in the military quite brazen, but I just think that women got the right to drive, vote and do all the things men did a long time ago, and it is a pretty sad state of affairs, when a group of women would rather be taken care of coddled than take advantage of their privileges and rights. It is sadder still that their husbands have to be reminded to teach them how to do such simple tasks as paying an electric bill and finding the commissary.

Sorry for the rant faithful readers, but I couldn't let this one slide...

The Olympics

I am a big fan of the Olympics. I have watched every year for as far back as I can remember. The past few Olympics though have been rocked by scandals of Olympians abusing Human Growth Hormone or other performance enhancing substances. This is beyond disappointing for sports junkies like myself who enjoy watching these games for the sheer fact that some of these sports are sports we played as children and we enjoy watching people who have turned them into an art form. It is also disappointing because the young children of today look up to these Olympians as role models, and what kind of role models are the children of today getting if all they are learning is how to cheat and not get caught.

This year there is a truly inspiring story of 41 year old female US Olympian on the swimming team, Dara Torres. She is in her fifth Olympics and is the mother of a two-year-old little girl, Tessa. Due to all the scepticism regarding her quick comeback after her pregnancy and her age, she is taking part in an experimental drug testing program just to prove that she isn't taking performance enhancing drugs. I find it slightly sad and an interesting statement on our times that she has to prove ahead of time that she is not on any performance enhancing substance. No longer do we live in a society where you are innocent until proven guilty, now you have to go out of your way to prove your innocence before even being accused of a crime.

Considering the sheer number of US Track and Field medals that were revoked earlier this year in reaction to the recent drug scandals that have rocked the USOC, I personally am hoping that the Olympic athletes keep in mind that they compete not only for themselves, but when they put that US uniform on that they represent the millions of Americans at home who are rooting for them and cheering them on. When they fall down, we fall down with them, and we are tired of being dragged down in their drug scandals.

I wish all of the athletes good luck as they begin their Olympic journeys tomorrow. I hope they do themselves and their country proud.

Licorice

I love licorice. Black licorice, red vines, red rope at ball games, and most recently Cpl D was turned on to Australian Style Gourmet Licorice which comes in all kinds of flavors, so far we have tried Green Apple, Black and Watermelon, all of which are delectable.

You may ask yourselves why I am writing about licorice, well, dear readers I am writing about it b/c today, I opened up my new bag of Australian Style Gourmet Black Licorice, yes it comes in a bag, only to find my big fat love of a cat, Patches, standing at my feet looking up at me. You see he heard me open the bag and assumed I was opening his bag of cat treats, which duh, of course meant I was going to be feeding him. How could I resist? I was absolutely forced to open the bag of cat treats, give Patches a few morsels for himself and only after I had done that, did I then help myself to a piece of licorice.

Congratulate me!

I'm going back to school. I am finally getting that Master's degree that I have been wanting to get for forever and a day. Next Monday, August 11th, I will be starting classes at St. Martin's University, Fort Lewis satellite campus and I will be starting my course towards a triple teaching certificate and a Master's in Teaching. I will be the first person in my family to get an advanced degree as well as the first person in Cpl D's family. Talk about big!

Many people reading this blog may actually be kind of surprised that I am going for teaching, but believe it or not, I actually started my teaching credential about 6 years ago when I was still enrolled in college in California, so it isn't as big of a stretch as all of you might think! I will be going for the following teaching credentials: History (of course!), Social Studies, and Humanities. This will give me the opportunity to teach grades 6 through 12 and the Master's degree gives me the opportunity to go into administration if there are not teaching positions available. For all of you who thought that I didn't like children, I bet you guys are all shocked right now!

Now if anyone would like to donate to the "Send Mrs. D to School Fund" please feel free to email me, I am not so proud that I will say no to a little tuition assistance ;)

Patches Bit Me Today!

My big fat love of a cat bit me today! I am a little upset about this but then again he feels like he is being violated and I am the one doing the violating...although it all happens to be for his own good. Anyone who has ever met Patches would say that he has a few issues, he is severely over-weight, he is anti-people, and lives almost exclusively under our bathroom sink. Also, when you put him in his cat carrier he howls and it actually sounds like he is meowing the word "NO!"

His reason for biting me is that he was in a scissor lock between my legs having a pill shoved down his throat. Now all of this I assure you was for his own good. My dear love Patches has developed Hyperthyroidism, which in a cat can be very dangerous and can result in death. In most cats, although not Patches, it can result in severe loss of weight (obvious from the picture above and the severely depressed couch cushion, that he is not suffering from that side effect), depression and an overall lack of activity in the cat. It can also result in liver damage. With the exception of the weight loss Patches has all these side effects.

As of Friday, August 1st, which also happens to be my dad's birthday, Patches has started medication which should hopefully reverse all the side effects, including the liver damage and restore him to full health. Keep your fingers crossed that Patches will get healthy and that I will get to keep all of my fingers in the process of getting him healthy!

Cpl Ds Leave

Cpl D was on leave from June 30 to July 8. We had a wonderful time exploring Peugeot Sound and the Olympic National Park. We went on two amazing hikes - one called the Quinault Loop Trail that was 4.0 miles long and one called Marmot Pass that was 10.6 miles long (we only made it about 8 miles though - it was a long day). We also went on the Seattle Underground Tour, visited the Tacoma Art Museum, the Washington State History Museum and we attended the Tall Ships of Tacoma festival. All in all we had a really fun and relaxing time together.

I am really looking forward to the next time Cpl D has leave - which will hopefully be in October as we are planning a trip to Hawaii to celebrate our 1-year anniversary. In the meantime we have lots of pictures from this time to remind us of the great time we had.

http://picasaweb.google.com/paws7281

Age is a matter of perspective...

When I was 15 years old 30 seemed really old, now that I'm turning 27 in a week and a half it doesn't seem so old anymore. My perspective has changed. Another thing that has changed about age is that before I moved to Washington I used to be the youngest. I was the youngest person in my family being the baby and all, I was the youngest person on my team at work until right before I left and hired my replacement, I was the youngest of my of my friends (give or take a month), I was just used to being the youngest. Now though, I'm the oldest, and there are a few people who seem more than happy to remind me of that fact.

A couple of weeks ago we moved into our new apartment, it is a really awesome place, much bigger and in a newer part of the complex. Most of Cpl D's platoon came to help us move and with the exception of one guy who had been in the army over 15 years, I was older than every person who came over. Including two NCOs and an Officer who outranked Cpl D! Most people don't realize that I'm 27 years old (for all intents and purposes), I can admit that when I don't put anytime into my looks, I can pass for a teenager, but when a 20 year old says to me upon finding out my age "Oh WOW! You're OLD!!!" I have to say I was a bit taken back. I have never thought of myself as old before. My grandparents are old, not me, but as the title of this post says, age is a matter of perspective, and for a 20 year old 30 probably seems old, and as I'm a lot closer to it now than I ever was before in my life, I guess in his eyes...I'm old.

...I can't believe I just said that :)

Home Sweet Home

So we have moved into our new apartment, and it is really lovely. The rooms are larger, the neighbors are 100 times nicer and quieter. Overall, I would have to say the move was definitely worth it. I haven't taken pictures yet, maybe when I get back from California next weekend.

Did I mention that I'm going to California? That's right, I'll be home for a week. I am so excited to go home and spend Father's Day with my parents, it will be nice. The only thing that is kind of a bummer is that I am going to be away from Cpl D for a total of two weeks, b/c he has been in the field all this week, and I'll be gone all of next week. Oh well, it will be worth it.

Well, this is going to be a short post, because I'm tired, and it is late. Good night everyone :)

Allergic to Washington?

Is it possible to be allergic to an entire state? I've been pondering this the past few months. Mainly because ever since Cpl D and I moved up here I have managed to get one bout of illness after another. I have honestly spent more time at Madigan Army Medical Center in 8 months than I have at any other hospital in my whole life, and as my family can attest to, that is darn impressive. I have been hospitalized for migraines, sinus infections, colds, and today I was informed that I most likely have pneumonia. So if it is at all possible to be allergic to a state, I think I may quite possibly be allergic to this one. It is either that or I am just so homesick for California that my body is attacking itself from the inside and will do so until Cpl D manages to get himself stationed in California. If that is indeed that case, I am in serious trouble as there are only a few duty stations in California and none of them have his MOS at them...

On another note, history was made last night and as a history major I just have to mention it on my blog. This country has nominated an African American man to run on a major political party ticket. It was an exciting night for our country and I can't wait to see what happens in November, both as a citizen of the United States and as an Army Wife, seeing as the person who is elected will be my husbands new boss.

Lazy Days...

Cpl D and I usually start our days pretty early on the weekends. We are usually up before 8 and moving, getting things done, but not yesterday. We didn't get up until well after 9:30 am, which is probably the latest we have ever slept in and the day just kind of snowballed from there. On Saturday night we had rented a movie, "I Am Legend" with Will Smith, and we didn't finish the candy we got to go with our movie, so we actually had candy for breakfast. (My mother would be so ashamed of me right now.) Cpl D had Junior Mints and a Hostess Cherry Pie and I ate half a box of Red Vines. We then spent the rest of the morning and much of the afternoon packing our apartment, doing army correspondence courses and I ate lunch - much healthier tortellini and chicken as compared to the candy for breakfast, Cpl D never had lunch. We didn't even manage to take showers until 3:30 in the afternoon. It was probably our laziest day ever, even though as far as the packing goes we got a lot accomplished.

We now have a veritable barricade of boxes going through our living room. The cats are so confused, the know what boxes are at this point, having gone through enough moves by now, but the last time they didn't move with the boxes, they moved 2 months later, so they don't have a clue what's going on. On the upside, with the exception of our clothes - which aren't getting packed, and our kitchen - which is the last thing getting packed, we are done packing. That is a nice sense of relief, considering how long it took to pack last time.

The Deal

You make this deal with yourself when you marry someone in the military, their career comes first. Usually it is because you don’t really have a choice, you got married really young, right out of high school, neither one of you really had an education or a skillset and the army guaranteed a life. It guaranteed housing, food, medical benefits, a pension if you lasted 20 years, and a salary that covered all your expenses if you lived modestly enough. If you are like me, you got married in your mid-twenties, you already had a pretty decent career going, and your husband was looking at making the military his career. You figured, 17 more years in the military would not be so bad and with your college degree and the skills you had already acquired working for nine years in the corporate world, getting a job anywhere would be a relatively easy process…that is until you got to your first military town, during a recession. The closest and best jobs are more than 50 miles away and while you get 1-2 job interview offers a day you can’t afford the gas, the commute or the time away from your marriage, even if you landed the job (and job title of your dreams). It comes down to sacrifice. You have to be willing to put it all on the line for your spouses career. As everyone keeps reminding you, you did sign up for this. You no longer live in Silicon Valley where there are job opportunities around every corner. You need to figure out how to make it work. Someone spent $150k on your education, they thought you were smart enough to invest that much money in you, prove them right and figure out how to make this work. Figure out how to “have it all”. The job, the husband, and the happiness you deserve.

Pushed Too Far

Cpl D and I have officially been pushed too far by our neighbors and we are moving. Unfortunately, we are not moving out of our complex, just out of our building and to a different building on the complete opposite end of the complex.

This blog is titled "Newlywed Adventures in the Army" and sometimes I feel as though I don't spend enough time talking about the army aspect of our newlywed adventures. Well, let me elaborate a little. The army doesn't tell us where to live, but they have this program called the "Rental Partnership Program (RPP)" where they are essentially "in bed" with Equity Residential Properties and they offer a 5% discount on rent, no deposit fees and if the person in the military is deployed you are offered the ability to easily break your lease. Equity also manages all of the on-post housing as well. As I said the Army and Equity truly are "in bed" with one another and I wouldn't be surprised if there were some form of kickbacks occurring on both sides.

We were led to believe that by becoming part of this program that the army would be our advocates if we had problems with the complex, especially if the problems involved other RPP residents. Boy were we wrong! Not only are they NOT our advocates, but they actually side with the rental property on everything, as though the fact that we have gone to both the rental property and the army on numerous occasions with complaints regarding noise violations and now property damage was not enough. Somehow we should have done more.

The worst part of all of this is that our lease isn't up until November 4, 2008 and we are stuck here until we get orders moving us somewhere else OR we are willing to pay 1.5 times our current rent to break our lease. The Army has proven that it isn't willing to go to bat for its soldiers and their families, and that they would rather protect their business partner. I feel totally violated, and the worst part is that there is nothing I can do about it. Come November we will be looking for a different rental property, not associated with the Army or Equity, and if we can manage we will be looking to rent a house so that we do not have to worry about sharing walls with rude, inconsiderate, childish neighbors.

I guess you could say...that I/we have been pushed too far!

Good weekend, gone bad...

Our Memorial Day Weekend started out kinda rocky...at least weather wise. We decided that we were going to head down to see Mt. St. Helen's, after all, we live in Washington, we figured we should see the Volcano that caused one of the largest natural disasters of our time. It poured rain the whole way down to the National Park, we were really hopeful that it would go away the further south we went, but no, it followed us all the way to the Monument. We finally got to Highway 504 and went to the 4 different visitor centers along the route ending at Johnston's Point. During a presentation by a very knowledgeable park ranger we learned that the mountain was only visible 140 days a year...go figure we visited on one of the 225 days per year when the mountain is not visible.

We went to bed trying to figure out what we would do on Saturday, we were thinking of heading back up to Olympia to go to the Farmers Market again or maybe heading up to Lacey to go to the spring fair. However, Saturday morning we woke up to a gorgeous sunny day, quite uncommon in Washington. We drove back up to Johnston's Ridge (skipping all the other visitor centers this time) and enjoyed the most beautiful view of the mountain. About an hour later, we headed down to the valley and went on the Hummocks Trail. A Hummock is a mound of earth caused by a debris avalanche, the ones we walked through used to be part of Mt. St. Helen's, now they are part of the valley floor. Our hike started out with beautiful sun, and by the end of the hike it had begun to trickle rain, as we got into the car it was a torrential downpour, and absolutely awesome to the weather turn so quickly.

Sunday was very relaxing. We celebrated the fact that one year ago on Memorial Day Weekend, Cpl D and I officially got engaged by going out to dinner. We what used to be one of our favorite restaurants, Sea Grill. We will not be going back. The food was wonderful, but the service left so much to be desired, that we feel next time we would rather spend our money and time elsewhere.

Monday is where the weekend all went downhill. We went grocery shopping and discovered that we had been the victims of a hit and run. My Rav4 had a bunch of paint damage to the passenger side rear panel and the best part was that it turned out that our next door neighbor is the person who hit us. I hit rock bottom with our complex. Cpl D and I just didn't feel safe living here anymore. Today though, we talked to our complex and they are offering to allow us to move to another apartment in a different building. Our rent will go up a little, but at least we will be away from the neighbors on both sides of us that have been nothing but nightmares since we moved in. I hope everyone else had a better weekend than we did.

Baking

I really do love to bake, don't get me wrong, I love to cook too, but baking makes other people happy and as I seldom eat what I bake, I love that what I bake makes other people happy. When I was down in California last month, my mom gave me a new book called Cookies, by Martha Stewart. Last week I made the Snicker Doodles from the book and as they didn't have chocolate in them I actually partook of a couple and they were quite delicious. Today I am making the chocolate chip cookies from the book, sadly I will not be trying any, as I do not want to tempt the migraine fates. I will have to wait until Cpl D gets home to find out if they are any good, but from the first batch to come out of the oven they are the right color and they smell divine :)

Since I haven't been working (one whole week now) I have baked cookies a total of four times. Once for Cpl D because he had duty and I always like to bake for him and the other soldiers he is on duty with. I figure it is the least I can do for the guys when they have to stay up for 36 hours straight. I baked peanut butter and chocolate cookie for a soldier friend of Cpl D's that is stationed in Korea and I also baked oatmeal cookies for a soldier friend of ours that is stationed in Iraq (I'm friends with his wife).

I swear if I could find a way to make money off of my baking and photography I would be a very happy woman. If you can figure out a way, let me know :)

Learning Photoshop

So for the first time since I bought a digital camera (2.5 years ago) I am finally bothering to learn Photoshop. I took a digital photography class last year, but I didn't actually learn photoshop, I have always relied on just being able to take a good picture. The book that was required for my class was Real World Digital Photography by Katrin Eismann, Sean Duggan, and Tim Grey, but to be honest I never actually opened it until now.


I spent about three hours yesterday learning how to insert layers and play around with the coloring, the hue & saturation, the color balance, the contrast and a million other things yesterday. Unfortunately, I am working with a really old version of Photoshop, version 7, but for now it will do.


I worked on two photos, one that I took back in 2006 at the Conservatory of Flowers in San Francisco, and the other that I took this past weekend at the Rhododendron Gardens in Federal Way, WA.

Here is the orignal photograph before any photoshopping:

Here is the photograph after I spent a couple hours playing with it:

Here is the original Fern Photograph:





Here is the finished Fern Photograph (this one I was able to do a lot quicker, b/c I was more familiar with Photoshop):

Washington State Capital

Today Cpl D and I went to Olympia, WA, the state Capital of Washington. It was another beautiful day and we just couldn't be couped up inside. We went down to the wharf and to the Farmers Market which is open May through September, Thursday thru Sunday. It was the perfect day for a farmers market.

After we went to the Farmers Market, and picked up a loaf of cinnamon bread (can't wait for breakfast tomorrow) we drove up to the state capital building where we discovered they were giving free tours of the capital building and joined in on one.

One thing that I personally found highly disappointing was the fact that there were several war memorials there, which was very nice to see, however, none of them had been well kept over the years. You could hardly read half of the inscriptions or any of the names. I found it to be really disrespectful, and it brought me back to Berkeley, CA. Everyone up here in Washington compares Olympia to Berkeley and for the first time it really felt true to life.

Oh yeah, and I just discovered a really lovely sunburn to go along with the beautiful weekend of sun that we had. It was well worth it though. Here is a picture to let you know what color my shoulders are right now :)

Rhododendron Gardens

Today it actually felt like summer in Washington. In fact we have had two summer like days in a row. It has been rather amazing. Cpl D and I decided to get out and enjoy some of this gorgeous weather and take some photographs, so we headed up to Federal Way, WA, which is located between Tacoma and Seattle to the Rhododendron Gardens. It was so gorgeous there, although, totally hot and a little uncomfortable due to the fact that there wasn't so much as even a little breeze, but beggars can't be choosers and I'm thrilled to death with the beautiful weather we are having.

I used our wonderful Nikon D80 in an effort to start working on building a true portfolio of the artwork that I love to do, Nature Scene, and Cpl D used our little PhD camera. Here are a couple of pics that I shot.

A view of the Ferns (looking down)

The most beautiful blue I've seen in nature...

More pics will be available on my Google Picasso account once I go through and work on somethings. I am really going to be working hard these next few weeks and months on getting together a marketable portfolio. Wish me luck!

Bad Blogger...

I seem to be suffering from a somewhat incurable case of Bad Blogger. I know it has been more than two weeks since my last post, and so much has happened since then. To start with, this past Tuesday I quit my job. I did this for a lot of reasons, the most important of which was that it really wasn't working out, the company I was working for just wasn't really ready for a full on Marketing program and all that entails. I thought that we would all be better off if I left, and I was right. I am now looking for work, and I will probably temp in the meantime, if anyone knows of any companies hiring in the Tacoma, WA area, let me know.

Other than that, Cpl D has finally selected the job that he wants to do in the Army and now we are filling out Top Secret clearance forms and waiting for everyone in our lives to be checked out so that he can find out if he can do this job. If he can, we may or may not be moving again. I am voting for the move. If nothing else, he will certainly be leaving for 5 months of training in Arizona if he does get the job, because that is where AIT is, I would personally love to get stationed in Arizona, right by Tucson.

I have decided that while I look for a job I am going to start re-focusing on my photography and really trying to figure out a way to sell it and make some sort of an income off of it. If anyone has any ideas or knows what I need to do, please let me know, as I am definitely new to this area.

I hope all my readers are well.

Here is a little something that I saw the other day in the town I live in and it should lift anyone's spirits and truly make you believe that there really are people out there willing to go the extra mile:

Love it or hate it

I am beginning to realize that I'm going to either have to love the army or hate it. There really is no in between. Not at this point. The army is in every aspect of our lives. We schedule our vacations around it, our weekend trips around it, doctors appointments around it, basically we schedule our lives around the army and the people who lead it and can arbitrarily decide whether or not we can do the things we want/need to do. I never realized that by marrying Cpl D that I too had joined the army. I mean, I knew my life had changed, but I didn't realize that we were essentially going to have to ask his command permission for everything. Permission to visit my parents, permission to go to the doctor, permission to have surgery, permission to go on vacation and for the location we want, permission to re-enlist and when we re-enlist permission to re-enlist for the 25 crappiest or most dangerous jobs in the army. The army controls everything, and from what I have noticed, the more you try to deny it, the more they take over your life.

Early morning wake up call...

Cpl D is basically a poorly paid baby sitter sometimes, and I have to admit that at times it drives me a little crazy. I have been sick all week, and this morning he had to get up at 4:15 am to be at work by 5:30am. Believe me, I don't envy him. He is so sweet though, he always gives me a kiss good-bye in the morning before he leaves, although most mornings I am up already when he leaves. This morning though, I was still passed out because I am still sick, trying to recover in time for a minor surgical procedure I am having next week. At 4:59am Cpl D's cell phone started to vibrate and it immediately woke me up and in an effort to get to it, as he was out of the room, I banged my head into the corner of the wall, so hard in fact that I still have an indentation. I hate starting my day like that. Now I am trying to concentrate and work, neither of which is easy with the splitting headache that I have...

Another example of life in the army, early morning wake up calls.

Facebook

It's official, I'm on Facebook. I've had an account for a while now, not that I've actually done anything with it, but last night Cpl D got one, and this morning I had a friend request from him and one of his friends. Then I started to play around a little. Imagine my surprise at all the people I found on there. People I haven't spoken to since high school are on there, people I have searched and searched for on Myspace but never found are on Facebook. So now I am on both, Myspace and Facebook. I'm sure for now that I will stick with both. I have already reconnected with a really good friend from college and a couple of really good friends from high school, and even a couple of Cpl D's friends. I put a couple of pictures up and we will see where this goes. I know after I graduated from college I dropped off the face of the planet, but now that I have moved out of my home state, I am beginning to realize just how important community is, and I need to rebuild mine, even if everyone in it is 800+ miles away.

Embrace the Suck

Embrace The Suck. That is what you are supposed to do in the Army when something sucks, like the weather or the overall situation. You are supposed to embrace and deal with it. We went to a battery BBQ on Friday for Cpl D's Battery Commander who is leaving this week for an appointment to go teach at West Point and to get his second Masters Degree. I guess you could say the guy is pretty intelligent. For those of you who don't live in Washington, let me give you a glimpse into our Spring so far this year: Rain, Sleet, Snow, Hail, and Sunshine (for about 10 min at a maximum of 45 degrees). During the BBQ we experienced each of these variations of weather. The guys in the battery kept saying "Embrace the Suck". I kept thinking to myself, can't we just go somewhere warm and inside before we all get sick. Now I'm not sure about that "we all" part, but I know one thing is for sure, I am definitely sick. I guess I didn't "Embrace the Suck," and to be honest I have no plans to so in the future either. The only way I am going to a BBQ in the future is if it is a minimum of 85 degrees out and there is no rain, sleet, snow or hail in the forecast!

Army Whiplash

I am now suffering from a severe case of Army Whiplash, or at least that is what I am going to call it. Not 20 minutes after I posted my blog yesterday did Cpl D call me and tell me that 31B was already filled and it wasn't going to happen. In a matter of 24-hours the army had already turned him down. What I really don't understand, and what I really truly want someone to explain to me, and not one of my readers (sorry, but I want an answer from the army this time), is why are they making it so damn hard for someone who genuinely wants to stay in the army to stay in the army? Every time he finds a job that is open, they close, every time he finds a job that he is interested in, nope he doesn't have the right outside the army training (which by the way isn't even listed on the goarmy.com website). It is downright frustrating and to be perfectly frank it is starting to piss me off. For an organization that is having trouble reaching its enlistment goals, let alone its re-enlistment goals, you think they would work a little harder with the soldiers to make sure that they stay in. All this is doing is making us want to finish up the next year and get the hell out. We are not going to do that because that isn't part of our "plan" but it is certainly starting to rub me the wrong way.

I will do my best to keep you posted on Cpl D's re-enlistment and job change status, and in the meantime I am going to schedule myself a massage for my severe case of whiplash!

Things change fast...roll with the punches!

I received a phone call yesterday while I was at work, Cpl D is going from 13M to 68T to 31B. For all of you non-military folk who read my blog that translates thus: 13M is a Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS/HIMARS) crew member - Cpl D's current MOS. 68T is an Animal Care Specialist - which is what Cpl D wanted to do, but it turns out you need to have vocational training for before you even can be considered for the MOS. 31B is Military Police - which is hopefully what Cpl D will be approved to do by the DOD. Things change fast in our lives, so fast that sometimes I don't know what page I'm on. If you can't keep up, I don't really blame you.

We should find out by May 15th if Cpl D has been approved to go to 31B AIT (Advanced Individual Training), which will consist of 12 weeks of training in Missouri. This means I will be home alone, with the attack cats, yet again. The nice thing about 31B, if he is approved and gets through all of the training, is that all military bases have Military Police units, this opens up our choice of duty stations to a lot more options. Who knows we could even end up in Europe.

Go GIANTS!

I'm at home right now, in the bright, sunny, warm, and DRY state of California visiting my wonderful parents for the weekend. Last night I had a W family Spring/Summer tradition for dinner - frozen yogurt, don't knock it till you've tried it. It really hit the spot when I got off the plane and immediately started to sweat. I guess I have finally gotten accustomed to the 30 and 40 degree weather we have every day in Washington, so pretty much anything California could throw at me was going to feel warm.

My morning today started out so wonderfully. I woke up around 8:30, visited with my parents and ran to the Farmer's Market with my mom. Then dad and I went up to the San Francisco Giants game against the St. Louis Cardinals. We took the train up, seeing as I've never actually taken taken the train to a ballgame before it was fun. The game was a pitcher's battle until the bottom of the 6th when the Giants scored 5 runs in the inning. It was starting to look like the Giants were going to run away with the game, but alas, they blew it in extra innings.

While at the game my dad and I did manage to find something that I have been wanting for a very long time, which I am very very excited about. We bought me an "I See Orange People" t-shirt. I have wanted one of these ever since they came out, which I believe was about 5 or 6 years ago the last time they were in the running for the World Series. We also got Cpl D a really cool retro blue t-shirt that I think he will really like too.

I must be off as we are about to go have dinner at one of my favorite Bay Area restaurants, Central Park Bistro, on 4th Ave in San Mateo. If you are ever in San Mateo, CA I highly recommend it.

Our First Field Problem

Cpl D just got home from his first field problem since we got married. He spent 10 days in Yakima, which is high desert in Washington, babysitting a radio living and off of less than 4.5 hours of sleep broken up into 2 and 2.5 hour chunks a day. I stayed home with the cats and was pretty much lonely the whole time. My parents were great, they talked to me every night, even on the nights when I'm pretty sure they wanted nothing more than to just eat dinner and veg out, they kept me company. I read three books, watched re-run tv and several DVDs to keep myself busy. It still felt like a good portion of my life came crashing down...sorry faithful readers, but I will not discuss what aspects came crashing down out of respect for my family and also because I have brought some of the issues to the army, and I'm not really sure I can discuss them on my blog.

Cpl D's homecoming was great. We had a pizza dinner on Thursday night, he got home far too late to cook. We have spent the past 72 hours doing nothing but laundry. Every single item from boots to back packs to socks to sleeping bags had to be washed. Not to mention regular laundry. We have tripped our circuit breaker at least 6 times, we have had to give one cat a bath due to his personal health issues (we actually felt really bad for him), and we still need to vacuum up all of the Yakima dust that Cpl D brought home with him in his ruck sack, duffel bag and back pack. While he was there some of the most immature hi jinks I have ever heard of occurred, and let me tell you, I'm glad he is in the army and not me, with my temperament, I know I would not survive.

I am so glad he is home. I missed him dearly, and I am not looking forward to his upcoming temporary duty assignment to White Sands, New Mexico which has been pushed back to sometime this summer. I am looking forward to Cpl D working on his correspondence courses, making his sergeant, and looking for a new MOS so we can get out of this unit!

Welcome to the Army

Well, for the first time since he came home from Germany in October, I am going to bed alone and Cpl D isn't going to be coming home in the morning. He is in Yakima, Washington, in the field for 10 days of training. It is cold, rainy and snow is expected on Thursday there, and he has already text messaged me once informing me that everything that could go wrong has gone wrong, and they only left 12 hours ago. I am not that lonely yet, after all I have my attack cats, Patches and Paws, to keep me company, and so far they are doing a great job. Both of them are on herbal pep up supplements (as I have to put it in their communal water bowl) and let me tell you, it is amazing, they are like different animals, I am tempted to try a little myself - don't worry it is for humans too.

I am trying to think of ways to keep myself busy until Cpl D returns so I don't get too down while he is gone, so far I have purchased two new novels that I intend to read, I'm going to try one new recipe that I know he will not eat and I really want to, and I am considering getting a massage this weekend seeing as Friday is my payday, but we shall see how everything pans out. I am going to be a pathetic girl and do what I did for the 4 months between when I saw him in May and when he came home to me in October, I am sleeping with his Notre Dame sweatshirt, it gives me comfort and frankly that is all that matters, I don't care if it makes me a little pathetic, so long as I'm not crying myself to sleep or anything. Besides this is a good test for White Sands, which is supposed to be for an entire month...eeek!

Busy Busy Busy

Cpl D and I have been super busy the past couple of weeks and it does not help that I was struck down with a nasty sinus infection that sapped all my strength and made me miss 4 days of work (luckily I can work from home). To say the least, yet again, I have been a bad blogger. Let me catch you up on what has been going on in our lives, the three second update. Cpl D turned 24 last week. We didn't really celebrate too much though because I was really quite sick although I was able to surprise him with dinner reservations for this past Sunday night in Seattle at the restaurant on top of the Space Needle. He was, needless to say, really excited because he has been wanting to go back and had really wanted to try the restaurant there. The above picture is the two of us all dolled up for dinner. I think we look pretty cute.



We spent the afternoon in Seattle, going to Pike's Place Market to buy my dad some Turkish Delight (I now know why he didn't share the last time he was here...adult food my foot! It is just yummy and he didn't want to share any!). We wandered the market trying to find a unique gift for Cpl D's father who has a birthday approaching soon. Then we headed over to the Seattle Center and the Space Needle where we were lucky enough to catch an amazing view of the Space Needle at sun down. We had an amazing dinner in the revolving restaurant at the top of the needle, where, over the course of two hours we made two full revolutions and enjoyed a complete view of the Seattle skyline.


For the other big news going on in our lives, I can only provide limited details, and for that I am sorry. I will, however, tell you all that I know at this point in time. Cpl D has decided to re-enlist, for those of you who are hearing about this for the first time by reading about it on the blog, I'm sorry, please feel free to call us and yell at us, but the decision was only made on Thursday evening of last week. He has also decided to change careers within the army, and has picked Military Police, or 31B, as his new MOS. The Advanced Individual Training (AIT) for this MOS (Military Occupational Specialty) is 3 months and takes place in Missouri. I will not go with him for the three month training, but will remain behind in Washington and continue to work. We do not know when he will get a school date, although we are hoping for April, so that it will not interfere with our October "Honeymoon" plans in Hawaii. Sorry all, but I do not have any more details than that. I will try to blog more regularly this month, as I know I have been a bad blogger recently.

College in the Army

Cpl D started college last month...well college in the army anyways. This version of college is nothing like what I experienced at SCU, that is for certain. At SCU our professors were responsive, our assignments were well written and well explained to us, and we actually had real lectures. Now I admit that Cpl D's class is online, but I would still expect that there would be more to the class than here's the book write 4 papers and take a 50 question multiple choice test as a final. The professor is rather unresponsive, sometimes taking upwards of a week to respond to an email, which is beyond frustrating. When you are paying money for higher education, you expect to get more out of it than here's a book, now write me a paper. Did I forget to mention, that the only comment back on his first paper, was that "this was more complete than anyone else's"? How can you learn from that? Anyone with a library card can learn for free like that. College is supposed to be about someone imparting their far superior knowledge base unto you and you taking that, doing further research and learning even more. It is supposed to be about pushing yourself, it is supposed to be an environment that promotes the exchange of ideas, but this environment, thus far, doesn't even promote furthering your knowledge outside of your textbook. I can't wait until next semester when Cpl D tries another class and a different professor and hopefully gets the college experience that he deserves.

White Sands

So Cpl D is heading to White Sands, NM at the end of March for a month, lucky him, and oh yeah, lucky me too. I get to be alone in Washington for a whole month. Now let's remember that I'm up here by myself, in a pretty unfamiliar place, with almost no friends (although the people I work with are pretty cool, so that does help a little) and I'm going to be alone. Lucky for me I have my great attack cats for protection. (Don't they look scary, intimidating and ready to fight off intruders!)


Now I know that I signed up for all the army stuff when I married Cpl D, in fact one of the many things I love about him is his commitment to his job and what he does. How can you not love that about him. But you have to remember that the past two months I have been going through some pretty horrible medical stuff and when someone asks me what is wrong and I tell them that I'm upset because Cpl D is leaving the day I have my consult for my next major test and the procedure (one which is pretty painful, and which I cannot drive to or from) is going to be while he is gone and all anyone can say in response is "Well you signed up for it." All that makes me want to do is punch you in the face. I'm not looking for sympathy, but you can be a little more understanding than that! I mean come on, my husband is going to be gone for a month, I'm going through a ton of medical issues right now, I have to have at least one pretty painful medical procedure, AND on top of that potentially surgery. Don't just say "Well you signed up for it"! Don't you think I know that!!! Or do you think I wasn't there on my wedding day when he was wearing his Class A uniform and looking so handsome I could hardly keep my hands to myself?!?


This is really our first major adventure with the Army, and one heck of an adventure it will be, we will be separated for the first time since he got home from Germany (at least this time we will only be 1 time zone apart), I will be living on my own again (the first time in over 6 months) in a very unfamiliar place, and I will have to go through medical testing without any family around which will be entirely new for me. If we survive this (and I know we will), then, as the saying goes, we will survive anything.

Newly Discovered Passion

I always knew that I enjoyed cooking. At least, I enjoyed eating, and in order to eat you had to cook, so I enjoyed cooking in that sense. However, since marrying Cpl D I have come to realize that this may truly be one of my passions. I absolutely love trying new recipes, even when they turn out awful, like last nights dinner out of my "Cooking for Today: Quick & Easy" cookbook. I tried poached salmon with penne for two reasons, one it looked like something I could do with the skills I have learned the past few months and I am trying to learn to eat fish, so it was a perfect fit. Well, the recipe can be easily described with one sentence: Can I have a little salmon with my lemon? It was all LEMON! Cpl D and I hate wasting food, and for the first time ever last night we threw out the entire dinner and we got take out. It was that bad, and I can honestly say that I followed the recipe ingredient for ingredient, step for step, and it was just awful. Oh well, not every recipe I try is going to turn out perfect I guess.

Tonight I am making a fish stew out of "Cooking for Today: Pasta". This is a tried and true recipe that I have made once before that Cpl D and I really enjoy, only what Cpl D doesn't realize is that he is coming home to a candlelit dinner for two. Tomorrow is our four month wedding anniversary and I think we just needed something a little special tonight. Our apartment smells amazing (if I do say so myself) and I think he will really like my little surprise.

I am going to continue with my cooking adventures, trying new recipes and learning new skills. This weekend I am planning on baking a pie, by myself, for the first time ever. Cookies are no big thing, brownies are a snap, but a pie...now that intimidates me, so we shall see how I do. Especially considering I have the most unreliable oven on the planet. Who knows where all this cooking will lead...probably to just a really happy family in my future, but you know, that is all anyone can really ask for.

The sun and my mood

I have never really fancied myself as a true California Girl. I don't have blonde hair, I love the sound of the ocean, but I don't like to get into it (I need a much more tropical version of the ocean, give me Hawaii or Tahiti), and tanning is out of the question. However, ever since I moved to Washington, because of the good old US Army, I am beginning to realize just how much of a California Girl I am, and more importantly, just how much of a sunchild I am. I mean the sun came out today and today was the best I felt in a week or more (which is about how long it has been since I last saw the sun). I went for a mile long walk outside and another mile inside on a treadmill, and I have to tell you, even though I was freezing during the outside walk, I enjoyed it a whole heck of a lot more!

I heard recently that Seattle has the highest suicide rate in the US, or some crazy statistic like that, I am beginning to see why, the weather up here is pretty darn depressing, and if you let it, it can really get you down. I am starting to find coping mechanisms. I started working out last week, and even more this week, and the endorfins help unbelievably. I just wish my health had been better during the first 4 months we had been here and I would be working out just to keep healthy instead of to keep healthy and to get down from a size 8 (damn near 10, I'm not to proud, I can admit it to myself and the world) back to my old size 4. Part of the problem is I got sick, the other part of the problem is that several doctors put me on medications that cause weight gain, and guess what...I GAINED. Well, Cpl D and I are supposed to be celebrating our 1-year anniversary in beautiful Oahu and I think that is one heck of a goal to work towards and I am going to keep it constantly in my sights as I work out and try to get my body back to where I was comfortable. Cpl D is wonderful and tells me I am beautiful all the time and that I should never feel like I need to lose weight for him, and I'm not, I'm doing it because I want to be healthy, stay healthy, and I want to be more comfortable in my own skin. We already eat really healthy, so now that I am off the weight gaining meds, I am pretty sure that simply adding the daily workouts will be the key to success. Feel free to encourage me, and I will update you all on my progress as I go.

If I don't write tomorrow, Happy Valentine's Day to everyone celebrating. Cpl D and I are not celebrating until Saturday, we are going to go to the Sea Grille in Tacoma, and we are very excited.

Real Life Vampires

I have become convinced, and I mean absolutely convinced, that vampires exist. I think that they live amongst us and work at hospitals in labs and they take our blood. The guise is that they are doing it for our own good, but really, they just want it all for themselves. Really, the reason I have become convinced of this is because over the course of the past six weeks I have become a veritable pin cushion for the lab techs at Madigan Army Medical Center. I mean, I think I have had every blood test known to man, and some of them more than once, and what is worse, more than once in ONE WEEK!

It didn't even cross my mind until I finished reading my the novel I was engrossed in last night "Blood Canticle" by Anne Rice, one of my favorite authors. I have read all of the Vampire Chronicles and all of the Mayfair books, and I honestly am beginning to think that maybe they aren't just books...fantasy come to life maybe?

Out of fantasy land and into reality land, tonight I am making Cpl D Turkey Paprishka over noodles with broccoli. This afternoon, after the trip to the vampire lair, I did an amazing workout on my workout ball that I know I am going to feel in the morning and I know will make me sleep through the night. However, best thing of all is that I wrote this post and I know that at least one of my readers will be shocked to see two posts in two days from me, and he knows who he is :)

Hello February

So it was pointed out to me, yet again, that I haven't posted in awhile and I am being a bad blogger. Ok, well last week was like a really really bad week. Just when I decide, on the first day of Lent, that I am going to try to give up stress (or at least deal with it better) I land myself in the emergency room, for the 9th time in 6 weeks!!! Can you believe it?!? This time for something completely unrelated to the migraines and I get to go through an entirely new set of tests starting next weekend with a CT scan of my abdomen.

Well after the horrible week that Cpl D and I had, we decided that for date night this week we would go to a great restaurant called Indochine in downtown Tacoma. The food was amazing, the atmosphere was phenomenal and the best part was that it was a truly adult restaurant and there were no screaming children there. We enjoyed a nice quiet meal on the water (they have a fountain inside), some wonderful conversation and had a truly nice time without evening thinking about the week's events.

The rest of the weekend we spent resting and relaxing. I'm not really too sure what we are going to do for Valentine's Day, my sense of it is, not too much. I'm not too big on the holiday and Cpl D just gets home from work so late that doing anything too big at night is kind of difficult. I am however looking forward to the long weekend coming up. We will need to find another new restaurant to try (comment me a suggestion!) and maybe something fun to do in the area since it is a 3-day.

I promise to do better this week with posts.

Good-bye snow, hello slushy rain

My snow day is over and with the exception of some very dirty snow and slush left behind, you would never know it was even here. It is currently raining an interesting combination of snow and rain, it rains for 20 or 30 minutes, then it snows for maybe 5. It is super cold outside and has made me cancel my planned workout for the day, the last thing I want to do is get out of my clothes, even if it is to simply put other clothes on. I am just too cold for any amount of undressing.

I am slowly beginning to realize that I am probably never going to adjust to the weather up here and I'm not going to adjust to the lack of light during the winter, so I have to find different ways to cope with my new surroundings in order to not be miserable for the next 22 months. For starters I am trying to focus on all the positives in my life and there really are so many to focus on, as I am a very lucky and blessed person. Secondly I am learning to do something I have always wanted to do, cook. I try new recipes every week, and some weeks, almost every other day, and for the most part they have all been very successful. The other thing I am doing is fixing things that remind me of home, like chicken stir fry and the baked biscuits and beans casserole dish my mom used to make. They are awesome comfort foods that really make me happy. Lastly I am trying to work on my overall health. The doctors want me to learn to control things like my posture and my heart rate, so I'm working on that as well. We'll see how it all goes.

I'm outta here, I have to go make dinner for Cpl D, tonight we are having Scallops based on a recipe out of my favorite cookbook, Better Homes & Gardens, Cooking for Two, copyright 1968.

Snow Day!

For the last three days I have been watching the weather for Lakewood on my Google homepage and it kept saying that it would snow. We got a little slushy rain, we got a little sunshine and we got a few clouds, but no snow. This morning CPL D (he got a promotion last Tuesday, we are totally stoked for him) and I were getting ready for work as usual, and he came into the bathroom where I was doing my hair and informed me that everything was covered in snow. The truck looked really pretty actually. I have never had a snow day in my whole life being a born and raised SF Bay Area girl, so this is all very new to me. I took my little cat Paws outside in the snow and he walked around for a little bit, then promptly ran back into the apartment, apparently it wasn't up to his spoiled house cat standards.

My boss told me to stay home this morning, I work about 20 miles from my house, and usually my commute is absolutely cake. It takes me 25 minutes, door to door, to get to my office. However, I work in Bonney Lake, at the top of the hill on highway 410 and they get the snow even worse than we get it where Cpl D and I live, so there was no way that my boss wanted me driving into the office.

I don't know what to do with myself this morning. I am guessing there will be some knitting, and some yummy breakfast making, and possibly some reading too. I'm reading "Blood Canticle" by Anne Rice (one of the only Vampire Chronicle books that I haven't read). It should be a nice morning, and if I get really bored, I can always play with the Wii.

I am really hoping though that Cpl D's unit is also released for the day. I don't like the idea of him out there driving in this stuff and I really don't like the idea of him running around in snow when he is sick. Did I mention that he was sick? He came down with something over the weekend, I am just hoping he doesn't share.

Well I'm off to have a little fun on my snow day :)

Life

One of my readers asked me today when I was going to start blogging again (ok, really it was my dad, but he reads my blog, so he counts as one of my readers!), and I told him maybe tomorrow. A lot of things lately keep getting that answer because I have been so busy trying to maintain. With all the health issues going on, I was thinking to myself last week that things couldn't get much worse...then my mom called my husband to find out if I was home from work, turns out I was home and she was calling to tell me my Papa died. This isn't the first time I have had a grandparent pass away, in fact, my Papa was my last living grandparent, but this is the first time I have been away from my family and the vast majority of my support structure. I think I have dealt with all of this pretty well, I've cried a few times, baked a whole lot of cookies and started a new knitting project in the effort of keeping myself busy. This is also the first funeral I am going to miss. Everyone feels that in light of my new job and my current health concerns that getting on an airplane and dealing with altitude changes is probably not the best idea ever. I'm very sad I will not be there with my family.

I love my family and I really wish I could do more, other than be a shoulder over the phone. I also promise to be a better blogger and to start blogging about the fun adventures Aaron and I have been having. Starting with the fact that we have had two dinners made with...wait for it...FISH! Even more shocking than that is the fact that I actually liked it. I may yet survive the latest diet imposed on me by the medical world.

Dietary Restrictions

As most of you all know, I suffer from migraines, occasionally, very severe migraines, like the type I have been suffering from the past three weeks that landed in me in the hospital. My new doctor over at Madigan, has put me on a new diet, with all kinds of new dietary restrictions. Get ready for this: no aspartame, MSG, Aged Cheeses (not too schocking), pork (in all forms), yogurt, sour cream, bananas, nuts and peanut butter (which could quite possibly kill me), and of course chocolate. Most of these restrictions I can live with 100%, but taking away yogurt and OMG peanut butter really could be the end of me.

I am going to try to follow the diet for at least a month and see what happens, my hope is that some things I will be able to re-introduce and others I can learn to live without, I'm just hoping that peanut butter is not one of the things I have to learn to live without :(

Bad Blogger

So I know I have been a bad blogger, it has been 3 weeks exactly since I last posted something, but I have a lot of good reasons for not having written. In the last 3 weeks I have been in the hospital for a total of seven days, not to mention we were traveling for 2 of the last three weeks and we didn't exactly have reliable Internet access the whole time. I'm sorry for not being a better blogger, but that is just how it is right now.

I have been struggling with a horrible migraine the past three weeks, thus the hospital stays, and I have discovered that while all hospitals have their issues I would pick a military hospital over a civilian one any day. The care is incredibly complete, and they believe you when you say you are still having pain. The civilian hospital couldn't solve the problem I was having, so when I went in for my second (and final visit there, on Christmas morning), they decided to accuse me of being a drug addict. MAN WERE THEY WRONG!!! I guess that is the problem I have with medicine, if you don't get the right doctor, who is going to be your advocate, then you really can be treated very poorly. I learned that the hard way.

We spent Christmas, once I was out of the hospital with Spc D's family, they are absolutely wonderful. They said that they would have me eating like a cholita in no time, if that means eating spicy foods, I'm not too sure about that, but I can proudly say that I did try everything that was given too me, even though the Chili was so hot, I thought my tongue was going to sue me for separation. While we were in New Mexico we visited with some of Spc D's friends, and we did something especially exciting for me, we went to the place that my Papa was born at, which was so amazing for me to see. We took tons of pictures, all of which are viewable on my picasa page.

When we left New Mexico, we split the driving in Spc D's old Dodge Dakota, not the most comfortable car ever, but definitely a point A to point B vehicle. Shortly after arriving in California, we bought a new car, a 2008 Toyota Tacoma, PreRunner SR5. It is silver, and currently named "The Bad Ass Truck", who knows how long that name will stick.

We made it home and have been struggling with my health issues ever since, but I am going with the notion that things cal only get better. Oh yeah, we also picked up two more members of the family while we were in California...Patches and Paws and live with us, though there are some nights when I would dearly love to kill Patches for all his crying at 2 in the morning. We are happy they are here, it gives the apartment a much homier feelings.

That is all for me, more details and everything soon, when I have a little more energy.