Happy MiliSpouse Appreciation Day

I first just want to give a BIG SHOUT OUT to all ALL my Milispouse bloggers out there and even the ones that aren't bloggers. Being a Military Spouse has got to be one of the hardest jobs. 

So we don't go off to war..........but we are left at home to tend to the family. 

We don't work the long hours.......but we go to sleep alone. 

Our life isn't put in danger daily, but we worry sick because our loved ones is. 

We never have 100% communication with our Soldier when we want.........so we take advantage of the moments we have together. 

We chuckle at others when they complain about their spouse being away for the weekend, and in our head we are thinking "I'd give anything to have them gone for just 3 days."

Our life must go on when they are away as well as our children's life and the rest of our family. 

We are the ones who pick up the pieces and put the puzzle back together when its fallen apart.

 We manage to hold it together when we think things couldn't get any worse and then they do. 

Being a Military Spouse ISN'T for everyone, it takes a STRONG person to fill those shoes. I'm so blessed to be one of them and for each and every Milispouse that has come into my life. 

It's a hard life packing up and moving every couple years, meeting new people, learning a new area, finding a new job, learning a new culture. 

As hard as it may be some times I WOULDN'T change it for the world. 

My Soldier had the day off today so we were able to celebrate MiliSpouse Appreciation Day by having lunch together at one of my favorite places. 

Zoes Kitchen, the hubbs had never been before so I was interested to see what he though. Thankfully he liked it which is good because I don't know what I would do if he didn't.

 (my Zoes lunch date friend may be leaving soon, it would be a bummer if I had to go alone. ) 

Speaking of lunch dates with the hubbs I've enjoyed them quite well randomly the last few weeks. I saddened knowing that they are soon going to end. Cycle break is almost over and its back to reality for the two of us, and life on the trail. I'm not looking forward to it at all.  The insanely long hours, weeks and weeks straight with not a single day off. NOT EVEN A WEEKEND DAY. I've tried to prepare myself for our first full cycle expecting the worse but I'm sure it will be a million times harder than think. Many people refer to it as a deployment the only difference is they aren't in a war zone and they come home at night. Only to shower, change, go to bed to get up in a few short hours to do it all over again. We have 22 months left (that sounds better than a year & 10 months

) on the trail, its a two year assignment. That is if they don't ask him to stay and teach a 3rd year at the Drill School. Even then I know for a fact he would do everything he could to get out of it. He is not at all excited about being a Drill SGT. I still have hope that it will change with time but right now it doesn't look promising. 

~DAY 211~

Just US!!!!

We had a full date day planned for today. We headed out to Shaw Air Force base to check out the Thunderbird Air show. It was pretty cool as it was last year when I saw it in Hawaii. I took a few pictures but instead of boring you with them I've decided to share my favorite part of our day. 

This one above was taken right before we left the air show, I love his smile!!!

From there we headed to the local Strawberry farm, which happens to be just around the corner from post. I've been wanting to go for a while now but whenever we've make plans something would always come up. 

 A couple people I know have been and they tried to explain to me how it was set up but it just didn't make sense. Something you kinda have to see to get. We decided on two small baskets vs. a large bucket to pick and fill because we didn't want to get to many and them go to waste before we made our way through them. 

The field was so large line with rows and rows of Strawberry plants filled with large red plump berries!!!! 

He was seriously on a roll picking, we each went on a different row across from each other. 

I have to say he got some pretty large ones, I was impressed. 

My freshly picked Strawberries, ready to take them home and chow down!!!! 

 Aren't they so PURDY!!!!!!! They were super tasty as well!!!! 

Cottle Strawberry Farm should be open till around the end of May so I'm thinking we might try to make at least one more trip out there before they close for the season. 

The best part about today was it was just the Mister and I. We had nothing planned with anyone else, no worries on being some were by a certain time. It was a go with the flow kinda day and enjoy the moment. 

~DAY 206~

oUr LaZy SuNdAy

DAY 101

Today was a bit different then normal Sundays for us and its something I'm going to have to get use to at least for the next 8 weeks. 

The hubbs only day off right now is Sundays, during the week he is working from 4am-9pm or later. It really sucks and I don't understand how they can have class that late every night but thats the army for you. Before we went to sleep last night I asked the hubbs what he wanted for breakfast in the morning after he got back from Staff Duty. UGH, yes even on his day OFF he had to go in for 2 hours from 5am-7am. I was still in bed when he got home so its not like it was time we were really missing out on together but it was sleep he was missing out on. He has been so tired the last 4 days I can only imagine how its going to be in a few weeks. 

Any how back to breakfast, he wanted pancakes BLAH....I LOVE pancakes but I am not a fan of the mix he picked out from the commissary. I offered to go get his favorite Dunkin Donuts while he went in to work but nah, he wanted pancakes. So like a good wifey I made him what he wanted and had myself some as well. As I was making breakfast he was out back with the pups and I kept thinking yay its only Saturday.......wait no its not, its freaking Sunday we only get one full day together. 

After breakfast we took the pouches on a walk, we've been trying to take them out at least once every weekend. This gives them a chance to really run around, go crazy and get all their energy out. I love taking them out, it makes me smile so much to see them running around enjoying the great outdoors. I snapped a few videos on my cell when we were out and wanted to share one with you.

After our walk we decided to take a trip to Target, the hubbs needed a few things for school and I wanted to see if they had something back in stock that I'd been looking for. Sadly they didn't have what he was looking for but lucky for me they had what I was looking for. I finally broke down and purchased my first Ipod Nano and its PINK, this is the first Ipod of any sorts that I own. I know crazy right how have I gone this long with out one. I've been running while using me cell phone in a arm band listening to Pandora but lets just say thats its become a b~sting to get in and out. I'm not techno savvy at all so I had been hesitant about purchasing one but the hubbs assured me I would be fine and he would help me set it up. I can't wait to go on my run tomorrow and try this baby out, I'm so sure that it will be much more enjoyable to run with. 

Before heading back to post we stopped for a quick lunch at a place called "Cook Out". I've been wanting to try it out for a few weeks now and every time we are out I completely forget about it till we pass it after we've already had lunch or its not that time. Today we REMEMBER, to best describe it you could say its a burger joint with a little bit of everything else and milkshakes. I went with a BBQ plate that came with french fries, coleslaw & huss puppies total cost $3.99 & the hubbs had a Chicken plate that came with fries $3.99, I also got a sweet tea that was $2.00. Our entire meal was less than $11.00 I was in love and couldn't believe how good the food was for such a awesome price. We will for sure be visiting back again, I so wanna try their milkshakes but it was just way to cold out for that today. 

As we headed back on post this was the truck in front of us. The hubbs made a comment to the gate guard about it possibly being some type military explosive devises. That's when he said "no its 1200 boxes of pizza....PIZZA...... 1200 boxes really thats a whole lot of pizza. The gate guard said they were headed to the Solomon Center which is the community center on post. The pizza was all bagged up in black trash bags, I'm sure to make transporting easier. But gosh I would hate to be the person eating them, it was so cold out and who knows how long the have been sitting there while they loaded it all up. When we got up to the red light next to the truck we noticed the truck ahead of this one was also loaded down in the back with bags of pizza CRAZY!!!!!!!!!!!

The rest of the afternoon we spend at home relaxing and being lazy, the hubbs went to a study group the guys were holding for a hour. I took advantage of him beginning gone and ran to the commissary for a few things. I feel like we've done really well together this week with him having to take extra time outside of work to study & sleep during odd hours. The only thing I'm still trying to figure out is how I'm going to manage dinner. Not knowing when he will get off each night makes it hard to plan what we are having and when to cook. I want him to be able to come home to a freshly cooked meal, not leftovers that I made a few hours prior that he has to heat up. However at the same time I don't want him to have a super late dinner because I know he's going to be tired when he gets home, wanting to get some sleep shortly after. 

Any suggestions ?!?!?! We do at least one maybe two crock pot meals a week, and that always seems to work really well for us. 

Lunch Date :) w/ My Lover!!!

After our fabulous day chilling out on the beach under the gorges sky we opted to take our date day just a bit more. A late lunch at a new place it was......Luibueno's Mexican Seafood & Fish Market. It replaced Rosie's Mexican Catina a little while back which was a sad day for us. We loved Rosie's, it was a nice quite Mexican joint in Haleiwa. Taco buffet on Tuesday nights was the best.
Now Luibueno's Mexican Seafood & Fish Market sits in its place, looks the same from the outside but once you step inside you completely forget your in Haleiwa. They have made it look like a up scale restaurant which I give them props for it is very charming. Looking through the menu I couldn't hardly pronounce any of the names of the items but the descriptions sounded really good. I decided on the Chicken Quesadilla which were SOOOO good, it came with two and I was only able to eat 1 1/2. Gabe went we a burrito that included rice & beans on the side. He wasn't as impressed as I was with his meal. Nor was he with his beer he got. The chips and salsa were GREAT we both dug right into them, but then again we are big chips & salsa people so what can I say. We ended lunch with Fried Ice Cream which was a taste of Heaven with a slice of fresh strawberries. OMG, I loved it and could of ate the whole thing by myself but Gabe & I split it. :)



I don't know that we would go back again for lunch or dinner, maybe for some Fried Ice cream but that would probably be about it. The price's were a bit high for the quality of food they severed and the serves as well. None the less it was good, a great afternoon lunch. Just not on our top list of returns. We enjoyed the day though, that didn't at all damper it in any way.