Reflections from a recruiter's wife

Sounds poetic, doesn't it? Ha! Reflections is just another word for bitching & moaning, but I'm not really doing that.

I never doubted the word of all the wives who "did their time" before me. I just had no clue what it would be like. It is kind of like a woman preparing for the birth of her firstborn-she kinda knows what's coming but on the whole, has no clue what's in store. Then after the fact, she thinks, "Oh, so this is what those other women meant."

I dunno. I am so used to the regular Navy, the "real" Navy. Not to say this is skate duty or anything. I am just used to a large command, and being in a military community and I think that has been a difficult adjustment. I am used to Steve having 36 hour duty every 8 days, and I am used to underways of all sorts of duration. I am used to being surrounded by other military wives. And kids.

So where do I find myself? Primarily, alone. Steve works six days out of seven, and long hours. That is not a complaint, it is just how it is. It has, however, taken three months to stop being a complaint. There was definitely a period of adjustment. At first I would stare at the few wives I have met (count 'em, two) who say that they are grateful to have them home each night, no matter how late.

Heh. I would prefer he had duty every 8 days. Even with the fact that he would be gone during those 36 hours, there was a predictablility to his work routine, and I knew he would be home by 6 each night.

But now, I usually see him by 9 PM. But some nights he gets home by 7 or soand scares me. Our door is really quiet and the other night I had fed the kids and was just pulling chocolate chip cookie bars out of the oven. And the kitchen door opens, but of course I don't hear it and I turn around and there he was just looking at us. Scared the crap out of me.

I have really learned over the past few months that the needs of the Navy do come first, now more than ever. There is a joke among Navy wives that if the Navy wanted your Sailor to have a family, they would have issued him one with his seabag. In other words, the Navy owns your Sailor and don't complain about anything because they supercede you.

I thought I had learned that lesson many time over in the past 8 years, like when my husband was still made to stand duty when I was losing our baby. I had to have one neighbor take care of my kids, and another drive me to the ER.

Then there was the time that I had weird symptoms all day and evening, but (gotta love Tricare) I could not get a same day appointment. So I called the nurse line that evening and told her my symptoms, and got a stern lecture for not being seen that day. Hello, no appointments available? I told her the same symptoms that I told three other Tricare people that day, and she was the only one alarmed by them. She told me to get to the ER. It seems she thought I was having a stroke.

So again, with the neighbors for childcare and transportation, because Steve was on duty. And I called the quarterdeck, which was a feat in itself. Steve told me never ever to call unless it was life & death. I figured that the Tricare lady thought I was going to die, well, he deserved to know about it.

After some runaround with the yahoo at the quarterdeck claiming she could not find my husband (he is on duty you idiot, look at the duty roster, he is the only one on the ship with our last name, etc) I ended up getting a message to him. And I made the yahoo cry. Hello Seaman Stumpf! I'm talking to you! Stupid cow.

Well Steve was frantic but still, no matter, he could not get relieved of duty. As it turns out, I did not have a stroke, but still the lesson was learned. No medical emergencies on duty days, because the Navy wants my husband planted firmly on the ship. OhhhhhhK.

Yeah. Back to recruiting. Life for a recruiter *is* the office. And nothing at home matters if they aren't making their quota. And bitching isn't going to bring home home any sooner the next night.

If you have had a day where the kids have been in your hair all day and your husband comes home, beat like a bad dog from a bad day & evening of work, you both need to blow off steam. Well his steam probably beats yours.

I mean, if the kids messed up 3 sets of clothes each and you have been doing wash all day and they spilled potting soil on the kitchen floor and before you could rejoice that it was only on the kitchen floor so you could easily sweep it up, the dog tracks it onto the carpet so now you have to vaccuum (again, since you already vaccuumed that day), and the kids are whiny because they, having spent 5 minutes using all 15 couch pillows to build a fort, are now bored, so you send them outside and they come in (hysterical) because they saw a snake ouside and are scared...well suck it up because you have a washer so it solves your laundry problem. And you havea broom and a vaccuum. And just pick up the couch pillows. Yeah it's more work but you know what? You don't have to worry about making goal, or potential recruits that lie about stupid stuff that disqualifies them from service and he has invested (and wasted) so much ime on them, and so on.

Like the needs of the Navy, the bitching of the Navy supercedes your bitching.

Two things to say: one, how sad is it that when my kids or my dog make a mess, I am happy if they do it on a surface that is easily cleanable? On the one hand I think it makes me look laid-back and willing to accept that kids make messes and not some uptight freak like Bree VandeKamp. On the other hand, Ithink it means I need a Mommy's day out of lunch & shopping or sightseeing. I need to get out of this house! (insert maniacal laughter at that prospect.)

And two, I don't want you all thinking that Steve tells me his venting outweighs mine, or that my days aren't hard. It is not a contest, to see who has had a lousier day. I don't get that vibe from him. These are just my observations as a Navy wife. I just can't wait til we are back in the regular Navy and then I can complain about silly 3-day underways.

What else? Anything new on our home front? Max is methodically chewing through the kids' toys. Heh. Less for me to pick up or trip over. I have also taught him how to "talk." I howl at him, he howls at me.

Jonathan and Katie start school in 3 weeks. Yay!!! Gee, I think I should call and enroll them...
I used to joke to Steve that he moved me to the Arctic tundra, because normally when we were living elsewhere we would go visit his parents and it would be freezing. So we move here and proceed to have the hottest summer I have ever endured in my 27 years. Yeah. Except now it is very chilly after sundown and in the morning. It is a nice relief but I told him this morning as I was seeing him off to work (love those working Saturdays) that he *had* moved me to the Arctic tundra. Cold in August? Sheesh!

I have gotten re-interested in scrapbooking, and that takes up some of my free time (and money). I am still cross stitching, crocheting and knitting. Yeah. I'm old. But when I am up to my knees in snow, I can stay inside and those activities will eat up the winter hours.

So that's about it for now.

The results are in...

STEVE MADE CHIEF! We just found out 5 minutes ago. I had to post real quick. Now, off to do some celebrating!!!

Hello from the new house

Yeah. You read right. We did get the new house that we were supposed to move into. I am sitting in the office/4th bedroom right now. Not that we have any use for it as a bedroom right now. Sigh.

So anyway, 4 bedrooms, 2 full baths, eat-in kitchen big enough to house my big table that was too big for my previous two houses, and the kitchen has an island that is electrified. All the lower cabinets have these little roll-out shelves so storage space is doubled. No garbage disposal, which is odd, and electric stove, which I have to get used to using again. The sink does have a sprayer hose. I love those things.

What else? No AC but we have 3 window units and 6 fans, you think that'll do? We finally have our cable, internet and phone back again. Email me if you need my new info.

If you come in the front door it is a split level, you can go up to the main floor or down to the basement. On the main floor are two bedrooms, and if you go upstairs from there, there are the other 2 bedrooms, and the 2nd bath. So the kids are upstairs by themselves. Going upstairs to the upper floor, the stairs have a huge landing that is electrified and is ready for internet hookup as well. So in the event that we ever hear the pitter patter of more little feet and need to use the 4th bedroom for more than an office, we can just move all the office-y stuff to the landing.

The living room has a giant window made of three panels. The panels on either end open up for air circulation but the middle one is just for viewing. It has a lovely view of the huge front yard. Max the dog likes it to watch for bunny rabbits.

Downstairs to the basement and you find the laundry room, and a couple of storage areas, and a bit of semi-finished basement. It is carpeted with curtains on the 2 windows. I am going to put my treadmill and exercise bike in there. Any random crap that is left in boxes will go into the storage areas. Any spillover from that (shouldn't be much) will go out into the 2-car garage. Since we ony have one car , we are not pressed to find a place to put extra boxees.

This is the biggest house I have ever lived in. There are huge front and back yard and a long driveway. The backyard has a little deck that leads to our sliding glass door off the ktichen. There is a fire pit the size of a kiddie wading pool and a stone to sit on and watch a fire burn. Theere is also a fort of sorts for the kids to climb on. About 4 feet off the ground, it's a platform with a ladder. They think it is wonderful.

So that's about it for the new house, which is still mostly packed up because I am on the internet. I took a pic with my cell phone but I cannot load it up here so when I unpack the digital camera I will take a few pics and post them so you all can see the place.

<>

Add in some head thumps against my desk and pull out some hair in clumps. Yeah. That's my life right now.

If I were my friends, I would be tired of hearing from me.

So. We are not moving to the nice new house that we were so enthused about. The move fell through on the day that we were supposed to pick up the keys. We had already forwarded the mail and I had to arm-wrestle two postmasters at two separate post offices to get my mail re-routed back to my house.

We have a phone-cable-internet trio. We arranged for services to be transferred, and then we had to catch them before they were actually transferred. We thought that the move was just delayed at that point, so we delayed the transfer by a week. Well they cut off our phone service, and gee, didn't get around to hooking it up for the next 11 days. It did not matter how many times we called, we were at the mercy of the cable company.

A week goes by and they cut off our cable and internet. They did this a whole day early, before we could even tell them that the move had been cancelled and we wouldn't need to transfer services after all. They did not just transfer services, but actually came out to the house (we were not home) and unhooked the wires on the little box that's attached to our building. We called them for 3 1/2 days, and each day, someone would lie to us and swear that we were going to have a tech show up and reconnect us. Liars, all.

We finally get our services reconnected and now life is trying to settle back down to normal. Whatever that is.

I rode my exercise bike today.Did I tell you we got an exercise bike? So that me & Steve don't get bored with just using the treadmill. So I rode it today, folded a mountain of laundry and washed the dishes so that I could cook dinner.

I am working on crocheting some blankets for pregnant friends of mine. One friend of mine is due soon, and we don't know if she is having a boy or a girl, so since I love to crochet blankets for my friends' babies, I made one of each. So no matter what she has, I can send it to her in the mail. Then another friend of mine will soon have 4 young children, and the older ones are still young enough to appreciate blankets, so I am making 4 for her. Another friend of mine is having a boy and I have already sent her blanket for him. Also, another friend who feels quite left out by everyone else getting blankets has kinda-requested one for her 1 year old son. If my still-pregnant friend has a girl, I will send the boy blanket to the mother of the one year old. If not, I will make another. No big deal.
I like to make blankets for my friends.

So that's about it.

Food!

When I was younger, I thought that Kid Cuisines and going to McDonald's was top cuisine. I also loved "make your own dinner" night at our house, when Momma didn't feel like cooking. Bring on the ramen noodles!

When I became a mother, it was a cross between balanced food and convenience foods. Prepackaged this or that, like juiceboxes or fruit snacks. Whatever was portable was king.

After my second child was born I had a pretty set menu of meals in my repertoire, few of which required much cooking. Still a lot of prepackaged cooking.

Then came the Food Network, and I think it can be divided into 2 time frames. At first, it was exotic food that no one would want to eat, like Suid Ink ice cream a la Iron Chef, or meals that look pretty and the chef can make, but when you try it's a horrible flop.

The second time frame was more realistic food, easier to cook, with fewer ingredients that are unfamiliar to the average cook. Or else they just made us more familiar with seemingly odd ingredients. That carries on now.

I became more aware of the food we were eating and how we were expecting garbage to fuel our bodies. Juice boxes usually contain only a percentage of real juice. They are mostly sugar. Fruit snacks are glorified candy.

Just eat fruit. I tried to implement this after the birth of my second child, and she eats fruit more readily as a snack than her brother does. But she is more familiar with the concept of fruit as a snack than her brohter is. I got her brainwashed young, ha ha. Jonathan is more recalcitrant. He might eat the occasional apple or grapes and he claims to love bananas. But every day at 10 and 3 when the kids say they're hungry for a snack, I offer fruit and Katie pounces on it while Jonathan balks.

So food has been a journey lately. I have replaced white rice with brown and am currently phasing out white pasta for wheat pasta. It has a nice flavor.

I frequently go looking for vegetarian recipes to introduce us to new vegetables and to show the kids that you don't have to eat meat every night.

I also feed the kids 30 minutes later on "new food" nights. Hunger makes anything taste good.

I made tacos recently and I cooked up some firm tofu with the taco meat. Everyone ate them, no one noticed anyting, but still my husband gagged when I told him about the tofu. I was hesitant myself to try tofu. It just seems synonymous with the word "yuck." When raw, it does smell like stinky feet, but the flavor is, well it has no flavor. It truly does taste like whatever you cook it with. I tried it raw and cooked. But it wasn't bad, it caused no digestive ills either, and so I will probably try it again in another dish.

I am not saying we can't eat some good old fashioned crap every once in a while. I get the urge to hit the drive through, or to eat a donut, mmm refined flour and sugar and no nutritive value whatsoever. The kids also come grocery shopping with me and get to pick out their own snacks, subject to approval. Right now they like YoGos, and I think letting them eat a little bit of measured-out junk food will make it seem less like taboo or forbidden fruit.

This food odyssey has caused no small amount of ill will from my friend Cynthia. She threatens me with reports to CPS. My poor kids, she says, having to eat the slop I feed them. Well tonight's dinner would have set her off. The reason I even made the recipe is because I could not say the name of the recipe without laughing.

Brown rice, Broccoli and Walnut Surprise. It reminds me of cafeteria food, where the word "surprise" would be randomly tacked on to jazz up the menu. I decided to make it to see if it was any good.

Fresh broccoli, steamed in my new steamer basket, brown rice, baked in the oven to prevent scorching since it takes so long to cook, and walnuts, 1/2 cup, toasted in the microwave. A few herbs & spices, top with cheese, and yum, a simple savory meal. Katie had 3rds, and Jonathan currently is still working on his broccoli. Sigh. He looked me straight in the face when I was dishing up and informed me that he would not be eating the broccoli. This is fresh broccoli, steamed, nice and tender-crisp, not soggy, and he has maybe 8 bite-sized florets. No tree trunks or anything. Give me a break.

I need to close for now, but one more thing: my own mom says I am cruel to make my family eat lima beans. This from the woman who made my brother eat a whole can of peas because he said he wouldn't eat them, or didn't like them, or something. I remember Ernie scooping spoonfuls in his mouth and swallowing them whole like pills, with a big glass of water. He didn't like the mush.

Anyway. That's it for now, about food.

On again, off again, on again, now it's off again.

So we found out last Thursday that the birth mother was having twins. And we were excited, only to have our hopes dashed. The birth mother has decided that twins are a novelty, something cute, and all of a sudden she can support two lives.

Pardon the bitterness but when it was "just" one baby, she asked us to care for the child because she could not. She has no job, no home of her own, no car. But now she has decided that she can raise two poor innocent babies. I am sickened and disheartened. She just wants the attention that she will get from having twins.

I would like to apologize to the residents of the state of CT, where the birth mother lives, since she is going to be scamming off the state to receive benefits that legally, she shouldn't receive. She will be raising those babies on *your* tax dollars. So Congrats, state of CT! It's twin girls!

End rant.

TWIN GIRLS

We were expecting a baby boy to join our family in October. An ultrasound scan today revealed the birth mom is carrying twin girls!
I am going to let that sink in.

We are moving again!

So we will be moving to our new house on 7 July! Yay! We finally got ahold of the correct people in both housing offices, and away we go! I have a housing inspection set for Monday the 26th and fun fun fun, we have to move ourselves! I need to research U-Haul rates.

I said earlier that I registered at BabiesRUs, well I was looking at Walmart.com and they also have a registry, a bigger selection, and lower prices on a lot of my items. So I deleted some things from the BRU registry, and created a WM registry. I was specifically looking for a Safe Feeder (even though the baby will not need it for many months). I could not find it at either the BRU or WM sites. I knew they had them at One Step Ahead, so I looked online and lo and behold, they have a registry too! They also have many items you never knew you needed until you saw them. And I registered there. (blush)

So I feel like quite the greedy pig now. Who runs around with 3 registries? Even if we don't have any baby stuff left, and even if some items were site-specific, ehh, I still feel like an oinker. Oh well. I can just call them wish lists. Oooh, that sounds better now doesn't it?

"I registered and created a little baby wish list at such and such store."

Much less piggish.

Ok well I did the dishes today but I need to still do some more cleaning if some housing cow is going to be traipsing through the pyramid on Monday. TTYL.

Life changes

So, it's been a roller coaster at my house for the past few days. I can't edit my posts fast enough, you know?

We are still trying to move into a new house. We have to be released from housing before we can get in the new one. The new house lady told Steve she needs an answer tomorrow. So we have been alternately calling and dropping by the housing office, and no one is ever there. I left a voicemail but it has not been returned. Grr! If we don't get some sort of answer, we may not be able to get the new house I described before, but we will get *a* new house, somewhere. Oooh, a mystery house. Maybe this one will be closer to town?

As for a new vehicle, we may have to pass up on this sale, but there is always a sale on, right? We are going to do our research to get the best deal possible. Any suggestions?

Finally, concerning a new baby. The adoption is back on. Just a few birth mother glitches which have hopefully ironed themselves out. So, unless something major happens, we will be adopting a baby in October. We think it is a boy, and I will keep the blog up dated about the gender. Birth mom has an ultrasound next week.

In a fit of excitedness, I registered at babiesrus.com for a few things. Our youngest will be 6 and we don't have much for a new baby. We have a bassinet, but no bassinet sheets. MIL has a spare crib and she thinks, a mattress to go in it. Woohoo. I am all for saving money, you know?

Well it is late and I am tired. Tomorrow is the last required day of school. Monday is the "real" last day but it is a half day and no one in Jonathan's class is going, so far as I know. So I think we will be skipping school and sleeping in like a bunch of truants on Monday. Yeah, watch Katie actually want to go on Monday. Night all & TTYL.

A new house and car, but no new baby.

You all have read about the small house we live in. We should be moving here in the next few weeks to a 4 bedroom house. It is huge, with a 2 car garage, 4 bedrooms, a partially finished basement, a huge kitchen with an island, and carpeting so I don't have to deal with the hardwood floors any longer!

It has a huge front yard and back yard, with a fire pit the size of a kids' wading pool and a horseshoe pitch as well. It is a nice big house. There will be plenty of room for us all. Oh yeah, and 2 full bathrooms! Yay! And plenty of closet space! I can actually unpack our boxes from the move 8 weeks ago.

Finally, a local car dealership is having a huge sale on fully loaded minivans! Who cares if they are 2005 models? They are 50% off, and brand new! Woohoo for the minivan, even if it is known as the "loser cruiser"! LOL! It will be nice and roomy!

We thought we were going to adopt a new baby in a few months. No sooner do I blog about it and put the word out, then circumstances change. So no new baby in October.

We miss you, Mr. Bill

Most of you probably don't know who Mr. Bill is. He battled cancer for 6 years, I think. He lost his battle last week. I just got word tonight. He will be buried in Arlington in a few weeks. We miss you, Mr. Bill. My thoughts are with you, Miss Judy.

Wired for sound

So I wrote a post, which Blogger decided to eat. Here is the condensed version:

The speakers on my computer haven't been working since before Steve left. They do now, because I fixed them--woohoo!

Steve will be home in a few days. I am still organizing stuff here in pyramid house. You can't blame the mess on "just moving in" when you've been here 6 weeks. Sigh.

Also, I am posting some names here of friends that I have lost touch with. I had previously mentioned a friend on a message board, and she Googled herself, was led to the message board and was able to get in touch with me after many years! Yay!

So, I want to see if I can regain contact with Greg Wilburn, Jo Hunt, Alaina Collins, Ursula Leggarreta, Brandy Mayer, Ben Heath and Taunika Taylor. More names in other posts when I have more time to walk down memory lane. Adios, y'all.

Redefining pathetic

Last night I was IMing Jordan. She said she misses my cookies. I told her I haven't baked since I left CA. I don't have anyone to bake for. That thought alone made me cry. I'm utterly pathetic.

I am watching Sister Act

It brings back memories of living in Italy. When we first moved there, we were waiting for our household goods to arrive. Our express shipment had dishes, sheets, and we had our TV, VCR, and one tape...Sister Act. We watched it every day, for months. My mom, brother and I knew the script. We sang the songs. There was nothing else to do there, and nothing else on TV. We called AFRTS "a-farts" for a reason. There wasn't squat on TV. (Armed Forces Radio & Television Services, for you civilians.)

I think it is bad here with nothing to do, well Italy was a whole 'nother story.

Today the weather was nice and Katie, Jonathan and I went to the birthday party. About 25 kids, surprisingly enough, no fights or unhappy kids. Burgers, dogs, sodas, juiceboxes, cake, ice cream, and a huge bouncy house thing that was a maze and ended in a slide. It also got to be about 200 degrees in the sun, so they turned on the sprinkler to cool it down. The kids had a blast, soaking wet, and covered in mud! Moms watched kids in cycles as other moms took their turns to run home & grab swimsuits and towels.

I helped out with serving cake and cleaning up, and opening random kids' juices. It didn't matter that no one knew me and I didn't know them. I just started passing out plates of cake. And once some kids saw me punch a hole in the foil top of the "Little Hug" juice for my kids with my car keys, they lined up for me to "pop a top" for them too.

The mom and dad both thanked me for my help. I could see they wanted the party to be a fun one, and it was--I didn't see any unhappy kids. I just figured I could help them out because I know how hard I work to make my kids' parties fun, and then I am friggin' exhausted afterward.

The kids did a decorate-a-big-paper-horse craft, and spent loads of time on the bouncy house maze slide thing. Jonathan actually came home and took a nap! Katie was pretty low-key afterward, but no nap. We had a late dinner and went to the store for some cross stitch thread. We were out late, and ate late, and I let them stay up late, and they are currently out like lights. Gee maybe they will sleep late in the morning.

The other day Katie woke up at 4 AM and crawled into bed with me. Not before she pushed me over and grabbed one of the two pillows I sleep with, either. "Share, Mommy." I didn't notice her leave the bed, but I noticed her come back, with the dog! He knows that he is supposed to stay downstairs. Katie let him out of his crate, called him, and up the stairs he came! I woke up again to her patting the bed in an effort to get him to jump on it. He did, and when he saw me glaring through one half-open eye, his ears drooped because he knows he was being a bad boy. Katie scooped him next to her and I just went back to sleep. Sigh.

Well it is midnight now, and I can't sleep as usual. I am going to do some more cross stitch. I have a lot to finish in just a few months before FIL's birthday. For those of you following the captivating drama that is my life, I still cannot find the crochet hook. So I bought another one. And the new neighbor does have a wife. I saw her. That is all.

More rain, a neighbor and questions to ask yourself about living in this house

It started raining again today. Katie has been invited to a birthday party tomorrow so I hope the showers stop soon. We came home from school and there was a man coming out of the house 2 doors down. He said hello, and I asked if he was moving in. (There have been a lot of workmen spiffying up the three empty houses lately so I thought he might be another one of them.)

He says yes, and introduces himself as Dave. I told him my name and that Steve would be home in about two weeks. He asked what branch of service Steve was in, and I told him Navy, and he said he is Army but he works with all branches up at MEPS. He asks Katie how old she is, and when she answered, he said he has a 3 year old little girl in the house. I am assuming that he has a wife too, but he never mentioned her. I thought that she was in the house with the little girl. I hope he just wasn't leaving her alone in the house. I also hope that he has a wife because Steve isn't home and I am man-shy.

We shall see what sort of neighbors these people turn out to be. We have 2 other families near us, and they don't say a single word to us. Sigh.

Lasagna is in the oven for today's dinner, and will soon be out. Earlier today I started sorting Katie's room and have chucked 2 huge boxes of broken toys and crap. I am back-burnering the kids' rooms over the weekend. If I do it while they are in school, they cannot protest my throwing out all of their stuff. So I will continue the mundane effort to organize the downstairs part of the house over the weekend.

Instead of nagging the kids to put their things away, I have composed a list of questions they need to ask themselves about living in this house. I will post them, and since they can both read now, I don't even have to ask the questions, just point to where they are posted.

They are as follows:

Where do your shoes go? Your bookbag goes there too.

Where does your coat belong?

Where do dirty clothes go?

Where do dirty dishes go?

What happens to toys that come downstairs?

What do you need to do to the bathroom light and door?

Should we run in the house or up and down the stairs? Why?

What do you need to do to your bedroom light and door?

Is your room clean each night before you get in bed?

Are you being gentle with the dog?

Are you keeping your hands and feet to yourself?

and last but not least...

Does whining ever change my mind and get you what you want? Ever?

That's about it. Tonight is popcorn & a movie night. The kids have chosen a Spongebob movie. I think I'll read.

I want to be a drop-off mom

Every day when I bring my kids to school, I park in the side lot and walk them to the door. We are usually a few minutes early and they get to play on the playground with a couple hundred screaming kids. Fun, right?

But each morning, when the alarm goes off, I wish I could just be a drop-off mom. These moms don't park, they pull alongside the fence, where there are two little gates and paths leading to the school. Their kids do a tuck and roll, and the moms pull a U-ie and drive off. And in the wee hours of the morning, when I don't feel like even getting out of bed (much less getting dressed and taking the kids to school) I want to be a drop off- mom, too.

Tonight for dinner we tried something new. Moroccan chicken with vegetables, in foil packets, baked in the oven. Picture chicken breasts, seasoned with a mix of cumin, cinnamon, salt and pepper. Petite diced tomatoes and sliced zucchini accompany this, and they are also seasoned the same as the chicken. Bake and put on a bed of rice or couscous, then eat.

Katie did a few fake gag and puke noises to show her appreciation. Jonathan picked at his, but in the end, they were both hungry so they ate almost all of it. I am a mean mommy and I don't cook separate meals for the kids. Eat what I cook or be hungry.

Me, I had to choke down the tomatoes as a good example, because I don't like them much. The seasoning was good but every now and then the cinnamon would come through and kind of throw me off. Cinnamon on chicken, you know?

I am working to make better eating choices. Tonight's dinner was the embodiment of this effort. More fresh fruits and vegetables. More fiber and less junk. Not that some junk isn't allowed. Making it forbidden just makes it more desired.

So that's about it. I lost my crochet hook, much to my distress. I have three, but the other two are still packed in my boxes of craft stuff. I just had the thing yesterday. Sigh. I guess it doesn't really matter since I haven't yet unpacked the yarn I will be using to make my friend a baby blanket. But I do have yarn available to make yet another friend a baby blanket. But the one friend was first in line. So I want to get started on hers. Where's my crochet hook?

Men falling from the sky

After school today I took the kids to the park. There is a big park adjacent to the school and I was knitting a scarf for my friend Jessica while the kids played. I heard shouting and turned around. Behind us, a ways back, was a big helicopter with two propellers dropping men out of the sky with little black parachutes!

That was the excitement of my day. Not much goes on here, so that was probably the event of my week.

I can't believe that it has been yet another month since I last posted. It's not like I am so busy here. So what has happened since the lasy time I posted? Steve left for recruiting school. He returns in about 2 weeks.

I changed my home phone number. If you need my new number, email me. Vonage phone service is abysmal and their customer service sucks donkey balls too. So I went with a reliable service, who is worth the $20 more a month. I tried to save money by going with Vonage but they are crap. And for Curtis, the smart-mouth customer service rep, you can just sit on a pointy pineapple, buddy. End of rant.

I am watching the season finale of American Idol so I can call my friend Julie and tell her who wins, in another time zone. These are the scintillating things that happen in my life. I'm so exciting!

We have actually started getting mail regularly.

I got the car inspected.

It rained for 2 weeks solid if I recall correctly. We didn't flood. But the car has developed a leak, and I don't know where. I just know that if it rains for more than a day, I have a huge puddle waiting in my front passenger side floorboard. Not in the driver's side and not in the backseat, on the in the front floorboard and there is no obvious leak, no watermark or stain on the car's interior that would indicate a leak, so I have no clue where it is coming from. Sigh.

I finished my friend Jordan's baby blanket and also made a cape for the dog out of heavy yarn.

I washed the dishes and the kids helped me sort laundry. I am currently washing whites. The kids are upstairs but not asleep yet.

I have instituted a "no TV between dinner and bed" policy and you can guess how popular I am with the kids about that. I turn the TV to classical music instead. Once I clean off the kitchen table dinner will once again be a family event and not a reason to sit at stare at the TV.

Well that's about it for me. Nothing going on.

Back to my old routines

Well here it is, about 1:30 AM and I am still awake. Just like when I was in CA I kept late house too. I have been doing "moving-in" type things around the house, organizing stuff, but also mundane things like laundry & sweeping the floor. I like my Swiffer because it keeps the floor nice. This hardwood floor is driving me nuts. I sweep, then little bits of I don't know what turn my feet black. Or I feel little gritty stuff underfoot as I walk, even after I sweep, so I Swiffer around in a vain hope to clean the floor. Sigh.

So everyone in the house is asleep but me. I have the kids' school clothes ready, and bookbags ready, so it's basically wake up, eat, dress & go. Their school here does not start until 8:30 which seems so late to me. But it's ok. I know the kids like to sleep in a few more minutes.

Not much to say, just trying to get settled in. It is nearing 2 AM so I guess I better turn in so I can get up in 5 hours. Adios y'all.

It has been a month...

...since I last posted.

What has happened in that time? Steve came home from deployment. He was only gone for 3 months instead of the usual 6 because he had orders, and we moved across the country, from California to Massachusetts.

We drove across the country in the smallest car on the planet with 2 kids, 2 birds and a weenie dog. The trip was long and mind-numbing, but still not too bad. I think we only had one instance where we were scrambling for a gas station to make a potty stop for the kids.

We live in Marine housing by an Air Force reserve base. It is microscopic. I refer to it as the pyramid because the basement is huge, the main floor is small and the upper floor is miniscule. One of the so-called bedrooms is only 8x9. It is more than a little ridiculous.

Everything in the kitchen is new. The floor, the counters, the applicances. The hardwood floor in all of the other rooms is a novelty, since I have never had one before. I guess I need to learn how to care for it.

I guess the kitchen is an eat-in one, since there is certainly no dining room. But neither is there room in the kitchen for the little table we eat on. My big formal table is relegated to the basement for use as a scrapbooking surface. There is no room to put it upstairs.

The yard is ok in the front, in terms of size. It is a weed patch and I put down some grass seed today. It is rather drab and I intend to put up tiny decorative fencing and plant some flowers near my door. In the backyard, again it is sizeable but if we want a fence we have to put one up. Sigh. I also wanted to put aside a small bit of the yard as a vegeable garden. We'll see if I feel like doing that.

We lost about 75% of the storage space, closets and cabinets that we had in the other house. This creates a challenge in terms of unpacking because we have nowhere to put what it is that we unpack.

For those of you who knew us in Virginia, this house appears to be bigger than the VA house, at least on the main floor. In VA the kids' rooms were much bigger. We also had no garage or basement, and we have them here. But from my description, it sounds like this house, the pyramid, is smaller than the VA house, commonly referred to as the shoebox. It is bigger, but we have more stuff, or bigger stuff, so you cannot really tell.

I like the trees in the neighborhood, and the close proximity to the school. But like VA, we have to cross a busy 4-lane street to get to the school.

This housing is a ghost town. I suppose it is because they just finished renovations, and they usually put a hold on people moving in until after renovations are completed. Steve said he saw the list of people about to move in so maybe soon I will have more than the approximately 20 neighboring families who are here now. And maybe some of them might talk to me. I guess I am just used to Silver Strand, with all its people.

We live right off the main drag, with lots of stores and stuff, so it is not like Coronado, I mean Gilligan's Island. I dont have to drive more than 2 miles from the house to find 2 grocery stores, some East Coast version of Costco, Friendly's, Dunkin Donuts, WalMart witha Subway inside, every fast food imaginable, (except In-N-Out Burger, to my chagrin) a Home Depot, etc. Lots of stores. I have to find the nearest Michael's and see if there is a scrapbooking store around, and I also need to locate the library.

I haven't gone on base yet. It has an Exchange but not a Commissary. I am 2 hours from the nearest Commissary. Sigh.

Anyway, I have to get back to cramming things into the whopping 3 closets we have, so I will post later. And more often than once a month. I am trying to embody the sentiment of "Bloom Where You're Planted" but so far, it's not working.