My Last Supper!!!!

My last supper as a Wife of a Deployed Soldier was fabulous and well enjoyed. The night before I already knew what I was going to cook. Meal planning and prepping ahead has become a habit that works well for me. I seriously contemplated stopping and treating myself on my way home, skipping cooking what I had planned to cook. I mean after all I was just about to complete our 3rd deployment just hours later. BUT I did not. Seeing as I splurged a bit on my lunch and got Ice Cream which was NOT planned, I knew I needed to stick with my dinner I was already planning to having. I mean it was so super simple to fix and I knew it would be so extra yummy. I've used our grill a few times though out the deployment but only on the weekend's. It's not time consuming at all, I just never think about it during the work week. That was until last night. I wanted to fancy my plate up a little bit and had a few things left over from meal prepping for the upcoming weeks freezer meals to do just that. So while I made dinner ahead of time for "Homecoming Night" as well as a tasty dessert, I had my last dinner as a "single wife" cooking in the oven and on the grill. 

After finally finishing up in the kitchen I sat down for the last time (for a while at least, fingers crossed) to enjoy my dinner. I was glad I didn't give into temptation and stop for Take Away on my way home. Homemade / Home-cooked is always a much better and healthier choice. 

Grilled Chicken, Baked Potato, Sauteed Fresh Broccoli 

Get in my belly, oh so yummy!!!!! 

I can not wait to start cooking yummy tasty meals for the hubbs and I again. I've missed cooking and being able to sit down together in the evenings, talking about our day and life. Its the little things yall.  

Now please excuse me because now that this is posted, it's pretty certain that.........

           HE's HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Not to worry I'll be back soon with a full recap of our 3rd Re-Deployment Ceremony, pictures included!!!!

My Worst Nightmare.....

sound asleep, dreaming peacefully, only to be woken up at 2:30am by the fire alarm going off in your house beeping so loudly saying "fire in house" is not my ideal of a perfect evening. i jumped out of bed, checked over the balcony (had to make sure there wasn't a intruder, that's another story) and raced down stairs to let the pups out. i unset the house alarm and started checking every room in the house. i couldn't smell smoke, i didn't see fire or even see smoke. the stupid alarm was so loud. my heart was racing like crazy and panic was starting to set in. what to do, do i leave, who do i call, i'm home alone and my fire alarm was going off. i couldn't get the stupid thing to stop beeping. i stepped out on my front porch to see if there was anything going on out side. mean while its 2:45am by this point and i called my neighbor but she didn't answer, so i called the other one. nothing. called the first one back again, her husband this time. he didn't answer. omg, i'm literally freaking out. i felt awful at the though of going over to wake them up, but what was i suppose to do. i went over and knocked on the door. thankfully he had just gotten up to call me back. i explained in a panic what was going on and with out hesitation he came over to check the house. again we found nothing but got the alarm turned off. he semi sorta put my mind at ease and went home. i shut and locked the front door, hung my jacket up and the freaking alarm started going off again. que, heart attack again, i opened the door yelled at E to come back but he'd already gone back inside. while trying to turn it off again i was calling him to come back over. when he did the alarm at that point started saying carbon monoxide detected. i'm literally panicking at this point, i have many fears in life, hello i'm human. but one of them is my home catching on fire and loosing everything. it terrifies me. i'm sure as it would any one. E suggested we called 911 to have them come out and take a look around the house to make sure there was no sights of it and that everything was ok. when i did the first dispatcher suggested changing the batteries first. when i explained to him A) i'm home alone and want to have my house checked out and B) i don't have any batteries here at the house, he seemed a little more understanding. trying to keep my cool and not go off on this guy because i didn't want E to see m crazy side, he then transferred me to another dispatcher whom i explain the situation to. they agreed to quickly get someone out to the house and suggested we wait outside till they got there. it had started to rain again and so E said I could wait at their house and we'd watch out the window to see when they came. i don't even know how long it took them to get to my house it seemed like forever probably because at this point i was exhausted and still panicked something was wrong. praying my home wasn't going to catch fire. finally the local volunteer fire truck came down our street, I guess when you live in the country and its 3:15am that's what you get. first he stopped about 5 house two early and almost went to the door. how awful would that have been, if he did and woken up that poor couple. i quickly walked down to him as he was getting out and asked if he was here for the alarm call. i pointed out that my house was down a few more. once he came down and i explain what was going on. him and E went in and checked over everything again. he did a carbon monoxide test on the house and nothing read over a 0 which was good. he checked and found no signs of smoke of fire through out the home. what in the world could have caused this then. i was at a loss. E checked the batteries and replaced the ones that were low. he suggested that may have been the reason it went off. i've never heard of such a thing, i've always just known them to beep a constant steady beep till you replace it. the main two in the house where the ones going off so maybe they are different he suggested. the local fire department guy left after completing his checks and E made sure i was settled and ok. i apologized a million and one times and couldn't thank him enough. i felt awful. it took me a good hour plus to fall back asleep and i didn't end up waking up till 9am. which that never happens. sleeping in for me at the most is 7-7:30am. the night really got the best of me. thank goodness i had the day off, i'm not sure i could have made it in to work if i hadn't. i didn't have a lot to do today, a couple errands but the last thing i wanted to do was work out and put myself together. i wanted comfort food and to be lazy. however i picked myself up got my work out in and headed out the door, shakeology in hand. ran my errands and got my to do list done. came home baked muffins for my ever so amazing neighbors and delivered them with replacement batteries in hand. it's been a world wind over the past several months but i'm pretty sure this tops the cake. i'm over the deployment, throwing in the towel, i need....there's no longer a want i NEED my husband home. i mean of course i want him home but you know what i mean.
frozen pipes in the winter, fire alarm's going off in the spring, summer please be nice to me i don't know that i can handle anything else. 

My Valentines Day / Girls Night

Yesterday (Friday) at work was horrible, down right no good. So bad I wanted to throw the towel in and quick everything. If I'm being honest the hubbs told me to go for it and just to focus on school but I can't do that. I'm going to have bad days we all are right!! But we've got to kick up our feet, pour a drink and move on. And that's just what I did. Friday night I came home fixed myself dinner and poured myself fruity little cocktail and enjoyed the evening on the couch. 

This Morning I woke up at 6:45 in the morning, I forced myself to go back to sleep. There was absolutely no good reason for me to be up that early. Saturday's have become my only days to really sleep in because I go to church so early on Sundays. So back to sleep I went not waking up again till 9am. I was in heaven. The dogs didn't even budge a bit and just laid there with me. Just shortly after I got up the hubbs got on line and we were about to chat for a good part of the morning. All while I deep cleaned the house, vacuumed every room, dusted, started and finished laundry, cleaned out the car, did some touch up painting on our coffee table. Pulled out some things from a box I'd packed away months ago and even had myself a little breakfast. I felt so productive and good about myself, it was a new day and I was making the most of it. After the hubbs called it a night and went to bed I got my work out in and took the pups on a 40 minute walk around out neighborhood. It wasn't warm by any means out but it was totally bearable and the fresh air was good for me. When I came back home I continued with my "Me Valentines Day" which included a mud mask and a nice steamy hot bath, that may or may not of lasted over a hour. Its very very rare that I take time for myself and put everything else aside and so today was much needed and welcomed. 

I need to remember to do this morning often. 

Later that afternoon I got ready and headed out to dinner and a movie with some of the girls from work. Girls night are something I look forward to, of course who doesn't. I'm slowly coming into my grove here in TN with making a good group of friends and going out. 

We met up at Chili's for dinner and over do Margarita's, let's just say they were fabulous!!! And we'll be going back again sooner rather than later!!! 

Tropical Sunrise- was to die for!!! I had two!!! 

New Monogrammed Converse kicks I ordered, & My RockWell
Watch from the hubbs for V-day.

My friend Nisha had already seen American Sniper but Brit and I hadn't yet. I was in the middle of ready the book when she went and I wanted to finish it first, which I did last weekend so we made plans to go see it. It was definitely a good movie. I'm glad I had read the book before hand. It answered a lot of questions I would have had, as well as filled in a lot of empty spots that they did not put in the movie for one reason or another. "After all its hard to put someones whole life story into a 2 hour movie" as Taya, Chris Kyle's wife said in the book. So many people asked and made comments about me going to see it while the hubbs was deployed. Making sure I could handle it. It didn't even cross my mind at all, he's in a different place right now, fighting a different war. Him and Chris Kyle were in Iraq at the same time in the same city back in 2007-2008 which I happened to think was kinda ironic. I was ready for the tears and panic attacks to happen through out the movie but they never came. Not to say my heart wasn't racing the entire time because it was. The part I got choked up at the most was the end after the movie when they did a tribute to Chris Kyle. It's definitely a must see if you haven't.

Seriously I love these!!! I've never owned a pair of converse before and when I found these on instagram I knew I had to have them!!! After waiting almost two months for them, a mix up in the mailing I finally got them last night, the day before Valentines day. So of course I had to wear them out. Even if it was 3 degrees out and boots would have made so much more sense. I had a great night with the girls from work and can't wait to do it again!!! They definitely made this Valentines Day great considering the circumstances with the hubbs away. 

That one time I turned my heater off......

With this being our first home we've owned or even had to pay utilities. I've been super paranoid / OCD about our electric bill. We do our best to conserve water and electric when we can. So much that I turn my heater off when I'm gone to work during the day. Why am I gonna have the heater running all day when I'm gone for 10+ hours most day's. Ok yes the dogs are home and they might get a bit chilly from time to time but I refuse to pay a outrageous electric bill. I knew this past week the temps. were going to be in the single digits but didn't think anything about it. I turn my upstairs heater on when I get home from work to warm up my bedroom for a couple hours before I go to bed. Leaving the downstairs one off. Yes its chilly, but that's when a good blanket comes in handy. So Tuesday night I turned it on when I got home at about 7:45pm and then off around 10:30pm when I went to bed.
Wednesday I got up went to work till 6pm got home around 6:30pm that night and went to start dinner when I had NO WATER. I panicked and ran around opening all the cabinets under the facets. Because of course that was gonna help right then. The current temp. at the time outside was 3 degree's and the "feels like temp" was -6 degrees. I kept thinking that, this was not happening. I have to cook dinner, take a shower, give the pups water. I called our friends C & R to ask them what I should do, and after much deliberation C was on his way over to crawl under the house through the crawl space to see what he could do and to make sure the pipes hadn't busted. In the mean time I continued cooking dinner and wen to my neighbors to ask him if he could help me turn the water off from the main supply at the street. He so kindly agreed and told me to go wait inside that he'd be right over. A couple minutes later he came over fully suited up head lamp and all. He explain that this same thing happened to him last winter and that he used a extension cord and a electric heater and set it up under his house to defrost his pipes.
I explained to him what I'd been doing during the day w/ leaving the heater off and he of course laughed and shook his head. He asked me to go get my hair dryer and he went home for a extension cord. I explain to him that C was on his way and would be here in just a few minutes but he went ahead and said he didn't mind. The poor guy crawled under my house and proper the blow dryer up on the frozen pipes on high to defrost them. Then he continued around the house closing all the outside vents that led under the house. Who knew you could close those things, I sure as heck didn't know.
Just shortly later C arrived and the two of them chatted it up in my kitchen while I finished cooking my dinner, praying my pipes didn't bust and that this was going to work. About 15-20 minutes later the water started running at the kitchen sink. (I had turned the facet on so we knew when the pipes had defrosted) E let if go for a bit longer to fully defrost them before turning off the blow dryer. They both gave me the speech / lesson about how I need to at least leave the downstairs heater on when its freezing out especially during the below freezing temps. and that it takes more out of the heater to go from 40 or 50 up to 68 when I turn it on at night.
Lesson Learned for sure and my heater is on. Not gonna lie though that minute it starts to warm up the slightest some I'll be turning it off. I also left the sink in the kitchen slowly dripping while I was at work the next day (another thing they told me to do, which I also remembered after the fact). I did put a large bowl in the sink to catch the water. I was not going to let it run all day and waste it. Heck No!! I poured that right in the dog water bowl. Go ahead and call me crazy I look back now and almost shake my head about it and well maybe laugh a little, but in all honesty somethings aren't though of till it happens. This being one of those things. The last thing I want to do is have to pay to repair or replace a busted piper and / or have it flooded under my house.
When I told the hubbs what had happened his response was "ya, I was worried about that happening". Dude I'd been telling you the outside temps. all week, why hadn't you said anything or mentioned being concerned. Men I tell ya......gotta love them.
I'm so thankful for our two fabulous friends that jumped with out hesitation to come over and help me.

Merry Christmas 2014 (our card & letter)

A Year of many changes good and not so. We rang in the New Year in the middle of Time Square watching the ball drop. Bucket list: check. Followed by an unexpected snow storm, causing us to drive back to South Carolina. Mid January the girls and I met up in Miami for our 2nd annual Country Music Cruise. Early February we took a trip to Tennessee to do a little house hunting and enjoyed catching up with some of our Hawaii Army family. Gabe Graduated his final group of PTV’s going through BCT, his time on the Trail was quickly coming to a close. April was a big month for several reasons Gabe received his EIB (Expert Infantry Badge). We bought and closed on our very first home in Clarksville, TN. We celebrated my 27th birthday with some great friends. Gabe and the pup’s bid far-well to Ft. Jackson and Aloha to Ft. Campbell. While I stayed back to finish out the school year at EDS. The first weekend of May I drove up to TN to celebrate Gabe’s 31st birthday. Our house hold good’s were also being delivered the same day so we were able to get our new home unpacked and set up. Later that month I had a unfortunate accident and wrecked my car, just a week before I was suppose to move to TN. We can’t say Thank You enough to the Meyer’s family for everything they did to help. Finally making my way to TN, I started working shortly after I arrived. I excepted a position at a local Preschool in there Pre-K program. It’s been an adjustment but I’m enjoying it. Gabe spent his first couple of months at Ft. Campbell as a Platoon SGT before he was moved to his current position as a Squad Leader which he seems to be enjoying. The summer months came and went far to quickly. Gabe was away for the month of August at JRTC training at Ft. Polk. While I took a course at the local College in preparation to start school in the spring. We were lucky enough to have The Gabriel’s come out for a visit early September. We took full advantage of having guest’s and played tourist the whole week. We also took a few fall road trips that included South Carolina, West Virginia, and a Anniversary get away to Chattanooga. November by far was the hardest month as we embarked on our 3rd deployment. We said our “See You Soon’s” as Gabe headed off to Afghanistan just day’s before our 7 Year Wedding Anniversary. I’ve managed to stay busy since he’s left to help pass the time. He has settled in as best he can and has been quite busy since then. If you think about it please keep him and his Unit in your thoughts and prayers for a safe and quick return. I spent Thanksgiving with some of our fabulous Army Family, The Brooks. Followed by some traditional Black Friday Shopping with a Friend. I’m excited to said I’ll be spending Christmas in Arizona, thanks to the Gabriel’s. It’s been quite some time since I’ve been back so it will be great to catch up with family and friends. 

With that being said we do have a spare bedroom and I’m open for visitors starting now, through next fall. Or any time for that matter, your always welcome!! :) We hope that 2014 has been a great for you and your family. 

We can’t wait to see what the New Year has in store for us. 

Happy Holiday’s 

( Now that our big not so great news is out, I'll be blogging more about our journey through deployment number 3. )

This is the 8th Year we've ordered our Christmas Cards from ShutterFly and we will continue to do so in the future. I absolutely love the options, amazing deals and sales they offer. Not to mention the quick turn around time on shipping. Be sure and check them out for all of your photo gift giving needs.