Becoming Army Strong

I'm one month, and one week into this 9(ish) month deployment, and I feel like I'm starting to finally understand why Army wives, and girlfriends say deployment separates the girls from the women. This stuff is TOUGH. These last few days have really been kicking my ass emotionally. I haven't been able to get in contact with KC since Thursday night. He emailed me that night and said he would call me the next day (Friday) and here we are on a Monday night, and still no call. No reply to my email sent yesterday morning either. I have been so beat up about it. I've scoured the internet to see if something went down in his province, but I haven't been able to pull up anything on the web. I absolutely HATE doing that too, but I can't help it, I have to look around to see, for my own sanity. That's the worst part of being just a girlfriend, you're not told if something does happen-God forbid.

My absolute total fear during this whole deployment is that something happens to him, I don't find out til way later on. Or even worse, I find out from watching the news and not expecting it. KC's mom lives across the country so I haven't met her yet, and he promised me he gave her my number in case something does come up, but I still worry.

I hate that I haven't talked to him on the phone in over a week now. We had such a good communication schedule going for a couple of weeks. We'd email back and forth a few times a week, and talk on the phone about once a week as well. Now I haven't heard anything for four or so days. I haven't slept well since Friday night. Last night I went to bed late because I couldn't sleep. I woke up at 3am wide awake. I stayed awake until 5:30, then got about 30min shut eye before I had to get up and get ready for work. And  the tears!! What the heck!? I don't EVER cry, and I'm a big sobbing baby in my bed at night. I'm just so scared that something horrible is going to happen to him. I'm so excited for our future, and all that we have planned when he gets back. I'm terrified that all that will be swiped away from me in a moments notice.

I also feel it wouldn't be right to tell him all of this. I really don't want him being distracted over there by being worried that I'm ok over here. I'm strong, I know I'll get through this, but deployment is definitely not for the weak.

What did you do to combat the deployment blues, and become Army strong?

Goodnight bloggers.

Journey: Beverly Hills 90210

I started watching Beverly Hills 90210 four years ago when I first moved to Seattle. I only started watching it because I saw that the first season was being offered on Netflix's instant streaming. It was all history after that! That one season took it's hold on me and never let go. A year or so later one of my friends (my roommate now) moved to Seattle and told me she also was watching Beverly Hills, but I was further along than her. Well long story short she finally caught up and when we moved in together we started having Beverly Hills nights.

We took a break for awhile due to various things going on in life. We had reached the last season before we stopped watching, and couldn't remember where we left off mid season. These last few weeks we've resumed our watching, and on Thursday night we hit a sad point. We were FOUR episodes away from completely finishing the series. We thought we had at least one more disc til we reached this point. We stopped watching and decided we need to have a proper Bev Hills finale.Call us crazy, but we like to make a whole night of it. Make dinner, drink good wine, and watch the last few eps. Anyway, I wanted to review some of my favorite moments in Beverly Hills to mark such an occasion.

  
 DONNA MARTIN GRADUATES!!

Who doesn't remember this episode?! Donna goes to prom, gets drunk, and isn't allowed to graduate. Everyone gets in an upheaval, runs around chanting "DONNA MARTIN GRADUATES" while holding their signs. This is one of the first events where we see that goodie two shoes Donna isn't as innocent as we think. I loved it. I loved that she broke away from her parents grip for a second. Because lord knows I hate Felice, and all the shit she ever said.
 

KELLY'S ENGAGEMENTS

  How about all of Kelly's engagements?! Ok, there was only two, but the one with Brandon went all the way to the day of before it got called off. THEY WERE IN THEIR WEDDING ATTIRE!! As much as I loved Brandon, we all know for some weird reason, Kelly and Dylan are meant to be. Kelly should have accepted this fact a long time ago instead of involving herself with Matt. Loved Matt. Until he went to the desert, got high on acid, and started screaming "MATT DURNING ATTORNEY AT LAW", then slept with some random chick. I'll give him a little break because he didn't know there was acid in that drink, but he should have told Kelly sooner, and not avoided it. Obviously I haven't seen the final few eps, but I can only hope that by the time it's over, Kelly comes to her senses about Dylan. Even though he's a big debbie downer in the later episodes, they should still be together.











Dylan's CRAZY life. He's an alcoholic, gets hooked on drugs, spends all his money. Gets it back. Watches his dad die when someone plants a bomb in his car. Seems to be on the right track when he marries Antonia, but then she gets killed by her own people when they mistake her for Dylan. Dylan than leaves for awhile, but comes back as a serious downer. THEN he finds out that Jack McKay isn't dead, but just in the Witness protection program, and he wants him to come with him. Dylan has gone through so much crazy stuff I don't know how that guy isn't completely insane.


Obviously those are only three of MANY memorable moments from the series. I could go on and on. Especially about all the CRAZY situations that Kelly Taylor was involved in. A drive by shooting, amnesia, using coke, being engaged multiple times, sleeping with Jake (from Melrose place), and shooting and killing the man who raped her who also coincidentally (I think NOT) was being represented by Matt. For being kids from Beverly Hills 90210, they sure saw and experience a lot more than most kids growing up. What were your favorite moments from this show?

I don't know what it was that made this show so addictive, but it is. I think the fact that each character had something different to bring to the table made it so good. I started watching Melrose Place this last year since I knew I was going to need a replacement, and that show would never take Bev Hills place. That show lacks the good characters that Bev Hills has. Everyone in Melrose Place goes crazy at one point or another, they all hook up with one another, and all of them are terrible friends to each other. Bev Hills characters all stay somewhat the same. Donna is always the kind one, Steve is goofy, but good hearted, Dylan is caring, but doesn't let his emotions show. They don't all sleep with each other, and have these insanely dysfunctional relationships. I guess you could say in some strange way, they're relatable. I will miss spending my rainy sunday afternoons cuddled up on the couch yelling at the tv while watching this show.

Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend so far!

Life Lessons: Friendships

 There sometimes comes a point in a friendship when you have to turn, walk away and head for the door. You realize you can only extend the olive branch so many times, and give so much of yourself when you see the act is not reciprocated. Friendship is a two way street. Life is too short to waste your time on people who don't understand this. Be thankful for those friends who do understand, and appreciate this. Those are your true friends.

I have too much going on these days to put my worry into someone who doesn't appreciate me or value the friendship. I feel that most of my friendships are easy going, and operate with little to no effort. That sounds wrong, but it isn't. It's almost like an unspoken agreement I have with my friends. We all know that life is crazy, and we become busier with every year we grow older. Because of this we don't always talk. Sometimes we go months without having a phone conversation. However, when we do see each other we pick up right where we left off, as if no time had passed between the last time we saw each other. I love that I have this situation with all my closest friends. We have that mutual respect and appreciation for each others lives. I feel like at 25 years old I'm done with the stupid games, and immaturity, but life continues to be a constant weeding out process when it comes to friends. Although it has significantly slowed since my teen years, I have to remind myself that it still continues at any age. Some people are just not meant to be in your life story til the end, and that's OK. That's life.

Good Night Bloggers!

Weekend Recap: All things Halloween!

My little miss Matilda Jane

This whole weekend was covered in Halloween goodness. So much Halloween that I seriously feel like the 31st of October has already occurred. I'm ready to bring on Thanksgiving!

Awesome spartan hat made out of a pumpkin and a broom

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On Friday evening I trekked down to Georgetown with a few friends to attend the Elysian's Great Pumpkin Beer Festival. Over sixty different pumpkin type beers to try! Holyyy moley was I pumped. There were four of us that went as a group, and we decided we would get the most bang for your buck if we all got a different type of beer sample at each station and then sipped on each others. It seemed that beers were either really good or really terrible. My favorites were both Elysian beers: The Great Pumpkin Ale, and Night Owl. I don't remember the names of the really horrible ones, but the flavors ranged from tasting like a taco with BO to candy corn.

Saturday night was my first costume party of the 2012 season. I went with my mom and Stepdad to some friends Halloween party. If you couldn't tell I was Wilma Flintstone. Real simple, and cheap costume. I hate spending money on costumes so this was an easy one. The party was great! I have never seen anyone put so much effort into their decorations. It really paid off. There was amazing appetizers, and really fun games. I even manged to win one! I found the smallest pumpkin in the house and won a cute cheese and cracker basket.

Sunday was spent cleaning, drinking pumpkin eggnog lattes, watching Beverly Hills 90210 and Dexter with my roommate. Let's talk about these lattes. I had no idea PUMPKIN eggnog existed!! It is amazing! It is even more amazing when I steamed it up into a latte. The perfect fall treat. My roommate finally ordered up Showtime for us, and now I can start watching the 7th season of Dexter. I finished up Ep 2 last night and am in the middle of Ep 3 right now. I think I need to start blogging about the episodes once I'm caught up.

How was your weekend? Do anything Halloween related?

Nail files: HALLOWEEN!

This week for nail files I decided to go for a seasonal color. I did black shellac, with both ring fingers painted an orange shellac topped with a sparkly orange top coat! I've gotten some awesome comments on them thus far, and it really makes me more excited for Halloween everytime I look at them. Happy Friday!

I have a heck of a time taking good pics of my manicures :-)

Wine and lots of birthdays

I started my weekend off by attending an event called "Swirl With Your Girls" at a winery near by. About 20-30 minutes north east of Seattle is a city called Woodinville. This small city is home to over forty wineries. Some of the wineries sprawl across acres of landscaped terrain, and others are so small that they operate out of business parks filled with other small wineries. The event we attended was held at what is considered to be one of the bigger wineries located in Woodinville. It was an all girls event featuring everything girls love: Wine tastings, appetizers, cheese, and shopping!

I picked up a fun gray,cuff style bracelet from one of the vendors. I also ordered the coral necklace from Stella & Dot. I had never heard of Stella & Dot, but I couldn't believe how cute their jewelry was! That little number should be arriving in my mailbox sometime this week.

Mom and I enjoying our ladies night!

 It was a really fun event, and you get a lot of bang for your buck! We were given eight wine tastings and endless amounts of cheese, crackers, and various appetizers. We even got our lips read! We put lipstick on and kissed a piece of paper. The lady who did the readings asked me if I blog, because I should. I thought that was funny considering I have just started to blog. She told me that it would be very positive and upbeat.

The NW has officially received fall-in full force!

 On Saturday afternoon I headed further up north to attend a couple birthday parties. One for a thirty year old girlfriend on Saturday evening, and the other party for a three year old cutie (My best friend's nephew). It was great to see old friends.

Finally got to wear this necklace on Sunday

Holding a friend's adorable little girl!

The birthday girl in the middle!

I also got to take some amazing fall photos this weekend. I keep kicking myself when I'm out running because the fall foliage has been so gorgeous, yet I never have a camera. I made sure to get some pictures this weekend. A lot of these fall photos were taken at a cemetery. Kind of creepy right? haha. It may be at a cemetery, but the location is kept nicely manicured so it works for great pictures!

What did you do this weekend?

Crazy crock pottin!

Fall arrived in Seattle today. I slept with two blankets, and my window closed last night. I also burrowed deep into my bed so that I was so comfortable and warm that when 6:30am rolled around I was less than thrilled to get out of bed and start getting ready for work. It was a foggy, chilly morning in Seattle. I, for the first time this season, brought out one of my winter coats to wear. That's a sad day folks. I was really hoping that it would burn off and we'd end up with blue skies by the afternoon, but no such luck today. It kind of worked out perfectly though because on Monday I took advantage of my day off and whipped up a bunch of Crockpot freezer meals! I got my inspiration from www.SixSistersStuff.com blog. What a fun blog! I can't even believe it's about six sisters, no boys! Anyway, one of the sisters did a post about eight freezer meals in an hour. I decided to take on the challenge, because the results sounded worth the small amount of time.

This is everything I needed from the store to make 7 meals!

I decided to make seven of the eight meals mainly for the fact that I didn't like one of the meals, and seven is a good enough amount of food for me! I went to the grocery store and bought everything needed for those seven meals for right around $75.00! These meals will easily feed four people. I am going to be eating each of these meals for a couple days so it's definitely a good deal because that equals around $10 per meal made. You seriously can't beat that. I made note of what time I started, and began preparing all my meals. I felt so accomplished the further I got into putting meals together, and the six sisters were right, it was actually fun to put them together! Some took mere minutes to complete while others took longer.

Cilantro lime chicken

It took me an hour and fifteen minutes to prepare six of the seven meals. I took a break after the sixth because I needed to go for run before it got dark out. When I returned I started on the final one, but then lost track of time completely because KC finally called!!! It was so amazing to hear his voice. I talked to him while preparing the last one but clearly my focus was on him, and not finishing the final meal as fast as possible.

As you can see in the picture on the right, that's how much room all seven meals take up (the meals are all stacked up on the left side of the freezer. It isn't too bad space wise. I would say that so far the little time spent on the meals has been worth it. I have yet to throw any into the crock pot yet, but I'm planning on cooking up my first one tomorrow! The weather today makes me look forward to the season of crock pot use. Do you have any good crock pot recipes that you make for those cold fall and winter nights? I love trying new recipes.

The loooong weekend

Green Lake in the fall

Since I was one of the lucky ones who works for a employer who observes Columbus day, I had yesterday off! I seriously loved this long weekend. It didn't go by too fast or too slow, and I got the right amount of entertainment and relaxation.

On Saturday my dad came down to Seattle, and we had lunch out on the patio of the restuarant we ate at. YES, you read that right: the patio! It has been non stop beautiful weather here in Seattle. I'm not even kidding. It has been in the seventies for days at a time! I can't even remember when we've ever had warm and sunny weather extend this far into October. They say the rain is on its way in the next few days, but I'll keep acting like it's summer until the rain actually comes.

 Saturday night I got together with my mom to go see the musical Legally Blonde that was playing at Magnuson Park. I love the movie, and when I heard a friend of a friend was in the show I thought it would be fun to see. It was a great show. I love seeing certain actors light up on stage while performing. It's those individuals that you know are meant to do this work. They had put in new quirks of their own, but overall they followed the screenplay.

On Sunday I got to go to one of my new favorite restaurants, Black Bottle. If you're in either Seattle or on the eastside it is worth checking out. It has a really good atmosphere. It runs on the darker side with pretty, dark wood furniture. The music is always good when you go there. The first time I went there it was all Notorious BIG, and Snoop Dog, but all their good songs. On Sunday it was a mix of Adele, Feist, Foster the people. They have a great selection of beers, and the food is UH-mazing. Try the pear and Gorgonzola flatbread. Ohh my gahh. I think about eating this flatbread all the time. :-) It was a fun afternoon catching up with an old friend.

YUMMY in my TUMMY!

 Tomorrow I'm going to blog about my first adventure in crock pot freezer meals. SO FUN and you feel extremely accomplished in just a short time!

I feel homesick, and I'm at home.

I keep trying to tell myself this.

 It's been a little over two weeks since KC deployed. I have had this same gross feeling in my stomach all weekend, and a heavy heart. I already really miss him. It's almost like a home sick feeling, but I'm sitting at home right now!! I think the fact that I haven't talked to him on the phone since last Sunday or received an email from him since last Monday makes it even worse. I hate not hearing from him for more than a few days. It's as if him talking to me, and me hearing his voice calms my nerves. The more often I hear from him the better I feel because I know he is alive and well. So here I am, seven days since I heard him, and three days since I sent him an email with no reply back yet. I realize this is probably normal for any soldier over in Afghanistan, but it still freaks me out.

I've been keeping relatively busy this weekend, but there still has been the thought of him in the back of my head. There always is, but this time it's the thought of wondering why I haven't gotten a email or phone call from him. Every time my phone notifies me of a new email I find myself holding my breath when I click on it. Holding my breath and hoping that when I open my inbox it will be an email from him. Not yet. I guess I will keep playing this game with myself until I hear from him.

It truly sucks being in this situation, and having no prior experience to know what the norm for all this deployment stuff going on. It sucks not having a support system of people who have gone through this before. If any of you out there can offer any words on this, please do. I'm really at a loss of what to think and do.

I LOVE this time of the year!

 Fall is my favorite season. It's perfect weather wise. Here in the Northwest it means that it is still sunny, but cooler so you can pull on comfy sweaters, and fun boots. The sky will be blue, and because of that it makes the leaves on the trees that much more radiant.

I completely missed out on fall last year because I was temporarily down in Georgia for work at the end of the summer right up until Christmas of 2011. If you've ever been down in that area you know that there is only a couple types of weather down there. It is usually hot. When I left Georgia to come back to Seattle in December it was 85 degrees out! Just days before Christmas! Anyway, I didn't realize how stoked I was for fall this year until about a week ago. I spent Saturday shopping for all things Autumn. I got a cute sign for our door, a light up pumpkin, and gourds (to name a few things!). I'm also planning a pumpkin carving night!  I have been loving the pumpkin spice lattes, pumpkin beer, and fall scented candles. I can't get enough.

I went for a run after work today through the surrounding neighborhood to soak up some of the amazing colors going on outside. It was one of those days that you feel like you could keep running for a long time because you don't feel tired. I usually run the same route every time, but today I mixed it up! I love that my neighborhood is so distracting for me when I run. I get caught up looking at all the houses that line the leafy streets in Seattle. I look at each one and decide what I do and do not like about them. I would love to live in a big old house someday. One that has been updated, but still has that old feel to it. I used to never think about houses this much, but maybe it's the sign of the times that I'm growing up and see purchasing a house and settling in in the near future.