So much has happened since the last time I wrote.  Not that I've been busy or anything, just lazy I suppose.  Well, Michael and I made it to our 1 year anniversary!  Exciting, right?  I'm so thankful to have him as my husband.  Really, I couldn't have hoped for a more perfect match!
Our biggest news is that we are expecting our first baby in March.  We are both SO excited to be blessed with a little bundle of joy.  Our baby boy can not get here soon enough!
In a previous post, I wrote about our decision for Michael to re-enlist.  With this unfortunately comes another deployment.  When we decided to try for a baby, it was a month after his re-enlistment; I knew that deployment was likely, but I convinced myself that it wouldn't be so bad.  His unit is scheduled to deploy sometime between April and June, and I would just moved home to Louisiana with the baby.  It all seems so real now, and I'm definitely regretting the decision to re-enlist.  Its not that I don't want to move back, I do miss my family, friends, food (haha) among many other things...but it comes at the price of having Michael away.  Which I definitely do not like.  His deployment did get pushed back to 9 months, but so much can happen in 9 months...I know he's not thrilled about being away, but at the time it was a good career decision for him.
Anyway, enough of that...On a lighter note, I'm so ready for the holidays!  Thanksgiving in just a few days and then Christmas!!!!  It's taken a lot for me to not put the tree up yet.  Hope I can make it til next weekend!

A pretty great weekend.

I would consider myself a complainer.  I think my mom would too.  This weekend I have no complaints...surprisingly!  Yes, I did spend it in Washington.

Saturday started off with chopping off about 6 inches of my hair.  And I LOVE it!  I'm so glad to have short hair again.  I texted Michael right after saying that I felt like me again!  After that I came home and met Michael (after a morning of fishing) and we went to my most favorite place IKEA.  Where we got a tv stand...one I have been eyeing for a few months now. 

This morning we headed over to Point Defiance for "Taste of Tacoma."  Which turned out to be a pleasant surprise.  It's pretty much an annual festival where restaurants from the area set up booths and serve food.  There are also carnival rides, arts and crafts booths, and 3 stages of live music.  Of course we head straight for the Louisiana food booth...where fried alligator, jambalaya, and crawfish etouffee were served.  It wasn't as good as home, but definitely enough to satisfy me.  And to top it off we had some pretty good lemonade and I even got a snoball!  Success!  Got my crawfish, lemonade, and snoball all in one place!  And to top it off the weather was absolutely perfect!  Except for my sunburn, but hey, I'll take it!

Good decision...Or not so much?

Most of you have read my Facebook status from earlier today, you know the lovely event at Subway?  Alright, I get a little angry when I'm hungry...anyways, this is how my day went.

Just to let you know, I try to have as little contact with the locals as possible...Louisiana has some idiots, but these people give new meaning to the word.  And I have dealt with some pretty outlandish people.  With the exception of my coworkers, the general population of Washington is just dumb...driving, talking, breathing,

1.  The subway girl.  Takes FOR.EV.ER to order her 3 sandwiches, and then informs the poor worker that she has yet another sandwich to order.  At this point she had only decided on meat and bread.  The two easiest choices.

2.  Square Peg customer (as a co-worker so kindly named him).  This man didn't have a lick of sense.  Poor guy.  Basically he didn't understand what 3cm thick was, or if his bathroom vanity was standard....a very generic conversation was extremely hard for him to grasp.  Which, okay, I understand not everyone is familiar with countertops etc, but this was his third purchase from us.  And, when given a form and told his selections were on the right side...he chooses one from the left.

3.  Cowboy hat girl.  At the post office I was fortunate enough to stand in line behind her.  She was wearing a small child's toy cowboy hat, blue.  With a see-through burn out t-shirt and platform flip flops.  Oh and the beginnings of dreadlocks, which really just looked like dirty hair.  And the best part...(I'm pretty sure these were the letters) F U C...you get it...tattooed on the fingers of her left hand.

I'm sure I could think of others, but you get the point.  So this all happens on the day after my husband and I decided that we are going to be staying in Washington for the next 3 years.  I feel like God or some other force is trying to tell me that this wasn't the best idea....which goes back to was this a good decision or not so much?  I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Ok, so I'm sitting at my desk at work and....

Talking to Aaron and in walks Shane with a mud-flap to a truck.  Aaron asks why he has it in hand.  Shane exclaims "did you guys not see what just happened?!"

 "Uhhh, no."
He then begins to explain the story...let me set up the scene.  The building that I work in is on the left corner next to a round-about. (These idiots in Washington apparently don't believe in stop signs, just driving in circles.)
So he says...
 "My dad was coming to pick up pallets and cut the corner at the round-about.  There was someone else coming the opposite way and got mad that he cut it..(I'm guessing he cut the guy off)...so the guy turns around and whips into our parking lot and flies up next to my dad and throws a cup of water in his face!  So my dad rips off his side mirror and throws it at him, and yanks off his antennae and windshield wiper.  The guy then peeled out of the parking lot and ramped over the concrete block next to the loading dock!"

hahahah! What a bunch of psychos!  Someone save me from this place!!!!

Augustus Jackson

...is who I have to thank for the modern recipes for ice cream.  And before him, Roman Emperor Nero and Chinese King Tang.  Shout out to all of them in creating ice cream, my most beloved dessert.

Speaking of food, I'm starving and watching "Diner, Drive-Ins, and Dives" episode of BBQ in the south is not helping.  Oh man, stops in Louisiana, North Carolina, Texas, and now Mississippi....I'm gonna have to go eat.

PS--apparently God reads my blogs or something because after my last rant about the awful weather...its been beautiful and will be through the weekend.  It's short lived and starts raining again on Monday, but hey, I'll take it!

Let's talk about the weather and other things like that.

I need to complain about the weather.

Would you honestly believe that it is the first of freaking June and I am STILL dealing with mid 40 degree weather?!  On a daily basis...not just a random morning cold front.  Every. freaking. day.  This is the most miserable place ever.  Why oh why anyone thought it was a good idea to settle here so many years ago is beyond what my little brain can comprehend.  Idiots...and if you heard the history of settling in this area, you would more than agree.  The city was built on saw dust.  A wet city built on saw dust.  And major sewage issues.  Saw dust and sewage.  Need I say more?  One more thing...8 ftx15 ft sink holes that were like 9 ft deep.  Horses disappeared and people drowned in the streets.  Yes.  They were idiots.

http://www.undergroundtour.com/  .........check it out, it's true.

I can not wait to leave this place.  The amount of anger that I am overcome with every morning that I step outside into the cold, is too much for my body to handle.  I actually leave my house angry and get more mad on the 10 minute drive to work.  And as the day goes on,  it only gets worse.

Oh but you say "the sun was out today."  Who cares?! It's still cold.  I mean it IS nice to see the sun, but what's the point if its cold AND ITS JUNE!  Wasted sunshine is what I say.

I would oh so gladly switch places with all you people complaining about how hot and sweaty you are.  I would give anything (ok maybe not anything) to be hot enough to think about sweating.

I completely understand why Seattle has the most suicides.  If I stayed long enough, that would probably be a consideration....at least it's warm in hell.

Alright, enough of that.  I should probably find out who invented ice cream and thank his/her family for helping me to make it through the days...

Next....so I've been searching and searching for an antique sideboard/buffet for a tv stand in the living room.  Well kind of obsessed with searching for one.  I have a few contenders, but I found a place online and will venture to the store on Saturday!  I'm pretty excited about it.  Hopefully, my trip will be a success!  If not I have a back up plan.

http://fleamarketchics.blogspot.com/  --------such cute stuff!

Oh and on a lighter note, I got the cutest nail polish this past weekend!  Raspberry something or other...anyway I've been pretty pumped about it.  I know, I know, its the little things in life.

And that's all for tonight!  Good Night!!!  :)

Better late than never...

I know this is a few days late, but I've been thinking about what I wanted to write about for Memorial Day...well obviously I haven't come up with anything yet....so here goes:

I would like to thank all of those who have given their lives in serving and protecting us.  They all deserve the utmost respect because without their daily sacrifices we wouldn't have the freedoms that most (myself included) take for granted.  Thank you to my husband for all that you do, and to all of the other soldiers that are currently serving in the military.

Yesterday...

Yesterday I tried to change the headlight on my car. 
Yesterday I failed at trying to change the headlight on my car.  

Rewind...last weekend I bought the cutest little bistro set from World Market to put outside for alfresco dining with Michael when he finally returns home.  After a confusing second trip to the store, (at first I was told that I would have to get a rain check for the table, only to be called back 10 minutes after leaving the store to tell me that they found one...) I am at home and seriously struggling to get the outrageously heavy table top out of my trunk...when all of a sudden Squid, my car, slams her trunk closed!  Oh yeah, while I'm leaning into it.  Can I tell you about the pain this caused?  I'll just say it caused an instant bruise...right on my back bone.  But I finally got the damn thing out and assembled, so all is well.

World Market:  Asian Poppy Candle and Hurricane Candle Holder

 

 

 

 Anyway, back to the headlight.  Why anyone would design a car light to be removed from the back of the headlight, but not leave enough room for it to actually be taken out and replaced from the back is beyond me.  I can not, for any reason, grasp the concept of why this was logical. 

So, my dad (who is on the phone instructing me) is trying to explain how to remove the front, which honestly isn't helping because his description is incorrect.  SO in the background my brother starts chiming in...mind you he is in the hospital bed, and probably heavily medicated...and actually correct!  But his correctness (damn kid) is useless because the screw is stripped.  And I call it quits.

Lesson learned:  I need my dad and brother to take care of Squid.  From tire changes, to oil changes, to headlight changes...It's like she was in a nursing home and taken care of by two wonderful nurses and uprooted and moved to a new place without any care takers.  So she is rebelling against the lack of care.

I kind of feel bad for her.

New Reads...

I have always enjoyed reading.  I don't often read books, but every once in a while I pick up a great book and let myself become completely enveloped in the story.

As most of you know, I have been back and forth to Louisiana a couple of times in the past month and the flight is quite lengthy for my attention span.  Especially if I don't have a window seat....

So I picked up Water for Elephants in the airport.  I really want to see the movie (Reese Witherspoon is one of my faves), and have heard great things about it and decided that I should read the book first...because we all know that the book is ALWAYS better than the movie.

WOW.  It was not what I had expected.  I wasn't sure what to expect, I guess just that it was a book during the Great Depression about a guy in the circus, that brought water to elephants.  And it was that, and SO much more.  I loved the story, but won't ruin any of for those of you who don't know it yet.

In the back, there is an interview with the author about her research before writing.  Reading that gave me an even greater appreciation for the book.  She did all this research about elephants and the circus and the train circus life.  She went on a few trips and made contact with old circus crew members.  There is also an underlying reference to the Biblical story of Jacob.  The interview sort of spelled out the author's "design process" for the book, which I thought was pretty cool.

Anyway, I would highly suggest reading Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen.  Now I am super excited to see the movie!

Lesson 1

Since I am on the complete other side of the country from about 95% of the people that I know, and am absolutely bored out of my mind;  I thought that blogging would help the time to pass.  I have never thought of myself as a writer, but I have been known to come up with some pretty extravagant stories...usually with the help of friends and, according to most, a little exaggeration .
And with that, here is my lesson learned today:

Living in Washington and being married to someone who has to leave often has lead me to face things I never thought I would have to do, and especially not alone...which also has lead to some pretty interesting days.

Never a dull moment around here. 

Today started off with a sick Capone.  And that's just that.
Once I got home from work I had to deal with an overflowing toilet.  I've never seen a toilet overflow like this.  I'm not sure about everyone else, but when something goes wrong, my mind goes blank.  I did manage to turn off the water (or so I thought).  Which solved the problem temporarily.  Then I turned it back on, which apparently only agitated the situation and sent the toilet into a violent rage of overflowing water.   When all else fails, or just when I fail, I call my Mama.  She always knows best. 

"Turn off the water,"  was her advice.  Genius. 

And so the violent rage stopped.  I was left with a massive amount of water in the bathroom (which I just mopped and cleaned yesterday).  What a joy that was to clean.  Again.

And finally finished with me almost falling outside in the wet yard at about 11pm, all because tomorrow is the coveted 'recycling day.' --which you do not want to miss because people around here just don't throw things away.  This is a whole other topic which I get into at a later date.

At around 11:15pm, I had the idea to start blogging.  Mind you, I was washing dishes and cleaning the kitchen...yes, I'm that bored. 

I guess it's the designer in me fighting to come out and stay up all hours of the night;  really I have no explanation for my random need to stay up for no reason at all.  

A word from the wise, "Turn off the water."

Tomorrow's lesson:  Fight the inner design student, and go to bed at a reasonable hour because work is not going to be fun in the morning.

Good night!

So....

So, I've got a job.  Washington is proving to not be such a terrible place.  I saw the sun today.  Had a pretty good weekend AND thanks to Monday Marathon (reality tv junkie, so about 3 hours were designated to tv tonight) had a pretty great night.  OH and my taco soup was a success, and now we have enough to last us pretty much the rest of the year!