2012

January and February have flown by so quickly!

We rang in the new year in typical fashion for us: a low key night at home with a bottle of my favorite sparkling white. January, as a whole, was like a breath of fresh air. After a very stressful 2011, we were finally able to just breathe a bit. It really was almost an immediate relief. Brandon took some leave time, and finally caught up on his holiday days (since the ER has to be staffed 24/7, nurses don't automatically get days off for federal holidays. In a perfect world, each nurse is given an extra day off sometime around each holiday, but the ER here was understaffed for so long that it didn't happen for several months). So, we finally had some downtime to relax.

We went on our vacation, a cruise to Nassau, Freeport, and Half Moon Cay, which was amazing. A cruise is a stress free vacation. No cell phones, no computers. We were spoiled and pampered the entire week (a big thank you to my sister and my grandmother who gave us "funship dollars" for Christmas!). We snorkeled (a big thank you to Mom and Dad for the snorkel gear!) and kayaked. We went on some amazing nature walks and saw some absolutely beautiful beaches. This was the first time that I've ever swam in the ocean, and it was an experience that I will never forget.

Best of all, we were able to really relax for the first time in a long time. I kept saying, "I didn't even realize how much we needed this." It feels wrong for me to think of a vacation as a "need." It's such a luxury. But we did desperately need to relax. We both realized that we had been stressed for a very long time. 2011 was hard. It brought many changes, and major life changes-- even when positive-- are stressful.

When we returned from our vacation, we celebrated my birthday. It's the first time I've ever panicked a bit about how close I'm getting to the big 3-0. As a kid, I always thought that 26 was the age when you finally "made it." You were old enough to be taken seriously as an adult, yet still young. In my "life plan" (made when I was 8 or 9 years old), 26 was the age when my husband and I would have our first baby: after I had completed my doctorate, of course. I also imagined that I would be one of those women who slept in a silk nightgown, drank black coffee, and started each morning with a three mile run. I'm pretty sure that image was inspired by a Folger's commercial.

Well, at 26, I am married, so there's one similarity between real life and my childhood fantasy. No doctorate, and no plans for a baby, although we could get a call any day with a referral (a match) in our adoption. No silk nightgowns for me-- I'm a total pajamas girl. I do start every morning with coffee, but it's not Folger's and it's not black. I never run. Never.


February has been another great month. Brandon still had a couple of holidays, so his work schedule has been a little easier than a normal month (which is great, because they will soon be significantly short staffed again with several people deploying). We have made the most of our time. 

February brought some progress in our adoption process, although we don't have any news to share.

February also brought an unexpected realization. It hit me one day that this is really home now. I didn't expect to feel that way. I thought it would always feel like an extended travel assignment. But it doesn't. We've put down some real roots here. I know there will come a day when we'll be moving on, and that's okay. But it's nice that it feels like home in the meantime.

Speaking of roots, I also did some work in our flower beds this month. Last year we planted lantana, lillies, aster, and some moss roses (the moss roses didn't survive halloween, unfortunately. Next year we will move some lawn chairs down to the road instead of having kids-- and their parents-- traipsing through the yard). The lillies have sprouted, and will soon blossom. The lantana didn't fare so well. I cut it back to the ground this month, and hope it grows back. The aster will bloom this fall.

But, obviously, we needed some spring color. So this month, I planted rose bushes, African daisies, gerbera daisies, and a few other pops of color that caught my eye. The orange and lemon trees we planted last year are on the verge of blossoming. Most of the herbs I started as seeds last year are developing into tiny baby plants, and I have some new pepper plant sprouts. The full grown herbs from last year are all returning, and I added fresh oregano and a second basil plant (basil was the best investment I made last year, I used it at least twice a week in recipes).


So far, 2012 really has been a much needed breather after an exhausting last year. I'm excited to see what the rest of this year holds-- it could be a big one for us!

Christmas Visitors and Christmas Cookies

This is turning out to be a very special Christmas. . . despite the fact that Brandon is working 12 hour shifts the 23rd, 24th, and the 25th.

We have good friends stationed in Florida who asked if they could stay with us the 23rd on their way home to see family in Arkansas. Um, yes!! I hadn't seen my friend in two years, I was so excited to have them visit. . . even if it was going to be super short. Brandon had to work, but he got to spend some time with them on the 24th before they left. It was so much fun, and I loved having our very first house guests in our new home.

But even more exciting. . . my parents called and said that they are coming to visit on the 26th! So my parents, my sister, my two brothers, and their puppy will all be camped out at our house for a few days. I seriously can't wait. It will be so much to have a big family celebration!

I have to admit, I am a little bit nervous, since we've already had one Christmas disaster. I baked and decorated cookies, and placed them in a decorative tin underneath the Christmas tree. I honestly didn't think anything about it. . . until the next morning, when I walked in and found our German Shepherd puppy with his head stuck in the tin. He had eaten a dozen frosted cookies. This was not good.

He made it through the day without having an upset stomach, so I thought we were okay. But at 1:00 AM, while my house guests were trying to sleep and Brandon was at work, the dog began vomiting. Over, and over, and over again.

The smell was about as rancid as the time Brandon put raw fish guts in the garbage can (in the middle of summer) and forgot to place the can at the curb on trash collection day. It was so bad that I began vomiting. All while trying to be super quiet so that I wouldn't wake our sleeping guests.

The puke fest continued for three hours straight. After it was finished and all of the vomit was cleaned up, it took carpet cleaner, Lysol, Febreeze, Febreeze Air Effects, and two Scentsy burners to hide the stench enough for me to sleep in the room.


The silver lining to the story is that I may never be tempted to eat a frosted sugar cookie again.

Dream Sheets

Last week, Brandon received an email that it is time to fill out his "dream sheet." The dream sheet is where we get to list the places we would like for Brandon to receive an assignment.

We're only six months in at this point, so I was a bit surprised that it's already time to be thinking about this. We had been told that we could potentially be stationed here for six years, so PCSing feels very far away. But, realistically, they could move us much sooner than that (and we could request to move anytime after the two year mark).

Filling out the dream sheet is complicated for us. We have to make some major decisions. Brandon is required to work ER for two years, but can request to switch to something else after that. It's not guaranteed that the request would be granted. . . there is a shortage of ER nurses, so if the needs of the Air Force dictate him staying ER, then that has priority.

There are only a few bases that have fully functioning hospitals with ERs. So, if he stays ER, there is a limited number of options for the next duty station. Of these, only one or two would make the cut for an actual location based dream sheet. The rest of our top bases do not have ERs, and would require a career change.

So, the big question is, what does Brandon want to do with his career? Honestly, I don't think he has an answer to that yet. He is still so new to the Air Force that he is still learning about all of the opportunities he has. He could go a lot of different directions, and he's still trying to decide what the best fit is for him. I think there is a strong chance that he will stay ER and eventually go into ER management. He loves the ER, and he is good at it.

The real question for us has become whether Brandon is going to make a firm decision on a career path and list duty stations where he could further that, or just "roll the dice" so to speak by putting down our top location choices and agreeing to work wherever they stick him.

As crazy as the last option sounds, we are honestly thinking about it. He'll be a Captain when this next PCS happens, and we've seen the same thing happen to experienced Captains over and over again here: they get this duty station, work a few weeks in the ER, then get pulled to another department. Captains need to get management experience in order to advance to the next rank, so sometimes they get randomly plugged into available management spots. It would be disappointing to sacrifice our very top choices for duty station in order to stay ER, then Brandon get switched to another department anyway.

Like I said before, it's complicated. . . and truthfully, we could think about this from every angle and make a perfect plan-- then the Air Force could throw us a curveball that changes everything.

But in the meantime, it's fun to dream about all the exciting places we could live.

Vacation is just around the corner

I was hoping to have a funny story to tell you about some dramatic cooking disaster on Thanksgiving. . . but it went off without a hitch! It was actually quite a lovely day, and the cooking wasn't even stressful. My, how I have changed since the summer that Brandon and I were engaged and I actually broke down crying in front of him because he asked me to cook him some bacon and eggs and I was unsuccessful at both (and nearly burnt the house down when the bacon pan caught on fire). I never thought that a mere 5 years later, I would successfully cook an entire Thanksgiving dinner by myself. . . well, minus turkey, which simply needed to be reheated in the oven for a couple of hours.

Now we are in full Christmas mode. We weren't going to buy a tree this year-- but we did. We weren't going to decorate-- but we did. We weren't going to buy each other any presents-- but we did (sort of. We bought two snorkel vests for our upcoming vacation. More of a life insurance type thing than a Christmas extravaganza, but still).

Our "real" gift is the vacation, which works out pretty well since it's pretty much "free."

So what is that vacation? Well. . .

It involves some snorkeling. . .

some kayaking. . .

and some time at sea. . .

We are cruising to the Bahamas!

Well, *I* am cruising to the Bahamas. We're hoping that Brandon gets to come along. We've already been thrown a few curveballs that threaten to ruin his vacation. But so far, we've been able to juggle them all. Here's hoping we've seen the last of the problems, and that it will be smooth sailing from here on out!

Thanksgiving: New Traditions

We don't normally do the big Thanksgiving meal. I love it, and always loved it growing up. But it was never practical when Brandon was travel nursing. Our Thanksgiving tradition became going to out eat. . . usually for Thai food.

We briefly flirted with the idea of doing the big family meal this year because my parents mentioned the possibility of visiting. But when their visit didn't work out, I assumed we would do like always and just go out to eat. There's a Thai restaurant nearby that I've been dying to try. I've been saving it specifically for Thanksgiving.

But today (Tuesday, as in two days before Thanksgiving), I mentioned to Brandon that I've really been missing my grandmother's dressing, and that I might make a batch this week. Brandon heard that and thought I was offering to make Thanksgiving dinner. His eyes lit up and he said, "Yeah, I would be totally fine with that. Some dressing, maybe some sweet potato casserole. You could do a chicken if you don't want to cook a whole turkey just for us. But if you do the turkey, we could use the leftovers for turkey noodle soup or something like that."

"Oh," I stammered, "You mean. . . me cook the whole meal instead of going out to eat?"

"Right! That was a great idea. Thanks, babe."

. . .

So, two days before Thanksgiving, I headed to the commissary. At 5:00pm.

Without a meal plan, a grocery list, or recipes. Without the faintest idea of how to cook a turkey.

I know.

I'm an idiot.


My grocery shopping trip was chaotic, to say the least. I walked the entire store four times. I bought items totally on instinct. Thanks to my Food Network addiction, a decent sensory recall, and several opportunities to scope out the shopping carts of women who obviously knew what they were doing, I managed to walk out of the commissary with every single ingredient necessary to make all of our favorite Thanksgiving dishes.

I even had one miraculous stroke of luck, and one moment of brilliance.

The miraculous stroke of luck came when it was time to pick out a turkey. Obviously, they were pretty picked over this late in the game. There were a handful of HUGE frozen turkeys, and several frozen turkey breasts. Neither one felt right for us. I wanted a small-medium size whole turkey. I was seriously regretting not ordering a restaurant turkey, like I had thought about when my family was possibly coming.

I happened to glance into another shopping cart and saw it. A reasonably sized whole turkey, fully cooked. What?!? Where were those? I had been up and down every aisle in the store and hadn't seen anything like that. As it turned out, there were a few secret, hidden turkeys. Fully cooked, smoked turkeys that weren't actually out on the floor. Thanks to a very kind manager who took pity on me (it probably didn't hurt that I asked him, a man, if he could tell me how to cook a turkey), I scored the very last one. When I first asked him about cooked turkeys, he said they didn't have any and that I had probably seen someone with a rotisserie chicken. But when I said, "Okay, so this frozen raw turkey. Do I just, you know, put it in the oven?" he said, "You know, we actually did have some smoked turkeys in the back, let me see if we have any more left." He brought it out and said, "You can just heat this in the microwave." Hahahahahaha. I was so, so grateful to him for finding me the perfect turkey.

The stroke of genius happened when I was thinking about cranberry sauce. I definitely wasn't going to make cranberry sauce from scratch. Neither of us really even like cranberry sauce. I just take a little each year because I do like having something light, bright, and fruity with my turkey and dressing. So, I started thinking about pomegranates instead. My first thought was to get a couple of pomegranates and use the seeds in a little salad. But since they were out of pomegranates, I had my little moment of brilliance-- cranberry pomegranate martinis. Perfect, right? You get the cran and the pom, those perfectly tart Thanksgiving flavors, but in a yummy pre dinner cocktail. Oh yes. I'm pretty sure martinis will be our new Thanksgiving tradition.

When I texted Brandon that I had bought a turkey and was going to cook the entire Thanksgiving dinner, he was so excited. He wrote back that he couldn't wait to have our first "real" Thanksgiving together. I realized he was right-- we had never had the full Thanksgiving experience together.

So with that, here is the menu for our very first "real" Thanksgiving:

Pomegranate Cranberry Martinis
Wheat rolls
Watergate salad (a family fave)
Smoked turkey with dressing
Green bean bundles
Sweet potato casserole
Fried Okra
Sugar Free chocolate pie


I'm thrilled about our new traditions!

Catching up, and big changes.

Seems like it's getting longer and longer in between posts. A lot has happened around here, so I'll try to do a little catch up!

We have a new baby in the family. He was definitely a surprise! Brandon has been begging for a German Shepherd for years. This little guy fell right into our laps-- he's a Purebred, and was 5 months old when he came home to us. He had a medical condition that made him "special needs." This condition (which I would name if I could remember what it is) affected him so badly that when we got him he couldn't even walk. His first owner took him to a shelter. He was adopted there, but the second owner got spooked by a veterinarian who had a glass-half-empty attitude. So, the second owner decided he couldn't keep him. It took Brandon about 2 seconds to decide that we could handle it. He hadn't even met the dog yet. :)

The awesome thing is that two weeks later, the medical condition is pretty much non-existent. All it took was a couple weeks of meds, a nutritional change, and some patience as he learned to walk. He is now RUNNING and GALLOPING around our house. You would never know that anything had ever been wrong. I'll be honest. . . it's sometimes a headache to have a 50 pound puppy around here, but thankfully, GSDs are incredibly intelligent and easy to please. Right now, our biggest problem is that he likes to drag all of the dirty laundry from the hamper into the living room floor (I know the obvious solution is to keep the laundry room door closed, but I swear, he's figured out how to open it). Yes, it's embarrassing when somebody drops by the house and I have to explain why my bra and Brandon's boxer shorts are in the floor, but if that's the biggest problem we face, I'll take it!

Another big change is that I cut off my hair for Locks of Love. I haven't yet taken a good picture of the final product, but my hair is now pretty short (shorter than it is in the picture above), with heavy bangs and layering. It's the most edgy haircut I've ever had. When I'm in the mood to wear a pretty dress to church, I'm not a fan. . . but when I'm rocking my skinny jeans, boots, and a cute scarf, I LOVE it. It's so much fun. I kind of want a nose ring now too, but Brandon isn't convinced.

Brandon took me to a Renaissance Faire, and I got to fulfill a lifelong dream-- I met Captain Jack Sparrow! The RF was a benefit for St. Jude's, and I loved it so much that I want to volunteer next year.

We've also been doing quite a bit of fishing. Sadly, we haven't caught a thing. But when our friends catch fish, they sometimes give it to us, so we've enjoyed some really awesome fresh fish dinners! I've never been a big fan of the water, but Brandon's actually gotten me to go fishing in the ocean, in a canoe. Yes, it was kind of scary. . . but canoeing beside a school of dolphins is quite possibly one of the most amazing things I've ever experienced. I'm enjoying the water so much that I actually asked for a snorkel set for Christmas, and plan on doing some snorkeling next year.

Speaking of next year, it looks like we're going to be doing some major traveling. Possibly some together, definitely some separate.

Remember that vacation we were planning to take for our 5th anniversary? Our second honeymoon, first real vacation? The one that we had to cancel three days prior, because the Air Force disapproved the itinerary at the last minute? Well, even with travel insurance, we didn't get any of our money back. But, the company we booked through was nice enough to give us a credit toward a future trip, worth 75% of what we had spent. So, we used our credit to book a new trip for next year. We will NOT attempt to go to Mexico again, we have decided to go somewhere completely different. So far, Brandon's leave is approved and there are no problems with our chosen itinerary. But, we've learned that anything can happen. So while we are hoping to travel together next year, if Brandon's leave falls through at the last minute, I'll be going solo. On a trip out of the country. Yikes! Brandon is insistent on this. If we cancel, we'll lose the credits/our money. Brandon is definitely not cool with that. So, either way, I'm going on this vacation. We are just praying that Brandon gets to come along! I would be seriously bummed to travel and have all of these amazing experiences by myself. I want my best friend with me.

Brandon will definitely be doing some solo traveling. He's scheduled for a TDY early next year, and it's the kind I can't tag along on. . .  which is too bad, because he'll be going somewhere that I actually really want to go. It's a pre-deployment training TDY, where he will have weekends off, so I am keeping my eyes open for super cheap flights. If I could find one of those $99 round trip flights, I would totally fly up for a weekend to visit him.

Of course, pre-deployment training means that he might be doing some MAJOR traveling of his own next year. I try not to think about that though. When Brandon first went to training, they told him that he would probably have between 12 and 24 months before first deployment. That sounds like such a long time. . . until I remember that he has now been in for over six months. Time is flying so fast. Just another reason I am praying that his leave doesn't get messed up again-- I want that real vacation with him before he is up for deployment.

Putting down Roots

We just finished our 12th week here. If this was a travel nursing assignment, I would already have packed up most of the house and we would be loading up the car on Wednesday morning!

Instead, we are putting down roots. Literally.

It feels like we've been here much longer than a typical travel assignment, probably because we've squeezed so much more life in over these past three months. Less sightseeing, definitely, but more life. We've developed friendships, we've settled in. We've decorated our house and had dinner parties. We've gotten used to the grocery stores and visited our favorite restaurants more than once. We've met people at our church, and we know our neighbors' names and chat with them at the mailbox or in our shared driveway. It's different than our travel lifestyle, where we remained rather anonymous and were focused on seeing as much as possible instead of getting to know the area well. It really is a different mindset. When we were somewhere like D.C. or California, our priority was seeing as much as we could, as quickly as possible. There was just so much we wanted to squeeze in that we couldn't spend any real time anywhere. Here in our new "hometown", there is still SO much we haven't seen or done, but we're taking our time and actually getting to know the place and the people. It makes a difference. We're normally ready to move on by now (unless it's a pretty special location), but we're really settling in here. . . which could be a dangerous thing, since we could be here for 6 years or we could have to leave in 6 months.


About those roots: When I said literally, I meant it. We are "landscaping." That's landscaping in quotation marks, because we have no idea what we are doing (remember how we haven't even conquered the grass yet?? In fact, it's completely brown again because the weed killer we put on it killed everything) and because we are going the low budget flower bed route. But a few potted plants and three days of sweating it out in the "garden" has made a HUGE difference. Honestly, just pulling out the dead plants and adding fresh mulch improved it-- the few things I planted were just the icing on the cake. We are really lucky to have a super long planting season here in the Deep South, which means that even my 50% off bargain bin plants are taking off! Here are a few of my favorite things:

Chives, spearmint, and peppermint. I also just have to brag about the pot. . . Lowes end of the season clearance, I grabbed it 90% off for $1.57!!

Sweet basil, parsley, and (hopefully) oregano. I just planted the oregano seeds, so we'll have to wait and see on those.

Soon to be Thyme, Rosemary, and Cilantro. Another steal-- these pots were $9.98 at the BX, but I grabbed them from Lowes for $1.28 each!

These are tomato seeds. Honestly, I have no idea if these are going to grow, but I decided to give them a try. I'm following directions on these. I'm supposed to keep them underneath plastic wrap until they sprout, then transfer them to a hanging pot. We'll see.

Our lemon tree! Citrus trees do really well here (duh) and I'm hoping this one will pay for itself since I use lemons in my cooking every week. If nothing else, it adds something pretty to our backyard. The extra fencing is for Fiona, who is small enough to slip underneath the real fence.

My mums. I fell in love with these and they add a much needed pop of color to our house. 

Obviously, I really love the practical things. I spend a small fortune on herbs for cooking every week, and have always wanted to grow my own. Tonight I'll be enjoying my first glass of iced tea with real mint from my own plant!