TWILIGHT

And I forgot to write about the movie Twilight! OMG it was great. They captured the awkwardness of it all so well. There were small changes, and of course it was not as good as the book, but it was worth seeing if you love Edward, or Bella. I am impressed, plus Summit Entertainment met their goal so they are starting production of New Moon! YAY!

Fun Fun

Today we went out to Land Between the Lakes to take Jon's jeep offroad. It was really fun. That thing handles very well, better than I expected. We also got to take some great pictures of the outdoors and visit Fort Donelson, sight of a critical civil war battle. We saw some bison, that was neat. But most of all we just went out for the day to enjoy the earth, Jon is very grateful to be back in the world of trees and leaves and grass so he has wanted to spend a lot of time outside, even though it's quite cold. I guess I am going to start baking pies, we are hosting Thanksgiving at our house since Jon cannot leave the area yet. We will have over 20 people, it will be fun, but there is a lot to do. We are frying a turkey and smoking a turkey and I am making 3 sides and my mom and grandma are doing the rest and all friends have to bring a dish. We are also making 2 pumpkin pies and 2 pecan pies. It's going to be yummy! I'll post pictures of our table! My parents are bringing up 3 folding tables and lots of chairs because my table on seats 6. It's a little stressful but Im glad everyone will be together.

Life

Well it seems that I have been living a permanent vacation the last week. Jon got home late Saturday night a week ago today and we have had so much free time. It has been wonderful to spend time together after so long apart, its almost as if you have to get to know each other again. It's been really fun, everything has gone pretty smoothly, no fighting or being upset. The first 2 days were a little rough trying to adjust to having 3 other people in the house (we have room mates) plus all the family that was up here for his homecoming. So if anyone was wondering the awesome homecoming gift is a 1999 Jeep Wrangler with a 3 1/2 inch lift and some mud tires on it! He was very happy. Other than lots of cooking, sleeping, and hanging with the dogs we havent done much. We went to Nashville last weekend and my best friend got engaged! We ate at this cute little place called Bistro 215- the food was amazing, its right next door to the movie theater in Green Hills Mall. Jon has pretty much the next 6 weeks off work. We wont be back on a schedule until after the first of the year. We are going to Utah in December, so that will be fun! Ive noticed that I really need a job now that our expenses are doubled. Anyways, I'll keep you posted.

OCD

So, I have been testing myself to see how much will power I have. I normally dust my house twice a week and vacuum about every 2-3 days depending on my schedule. I dont even need to do it I just feel like its dirty and if I see one piece of dog hair I assume it is in places all over the house that I didnt see. So I then obsessively clean every inch of everything. So I knew that Jon would be home this weekend and I was trying to wait until Friday to clean because I would be cleaning extra well. The last time I vacuumed was last Tuesday, one week ago. I only had 3 days to go and I cracked. I am not sure what caused the break down, probably the destruction of Walter, our 5 legged squirrel toy. So in conclusion I have no will power at all, I have OCD and I am a germaphobe. Secondly, I have been training my dogs to be good alone in the house while I am gone for longer periods of time. They normally stay outside but because of the upcoming winter, Kirra's lack of fur, and the climate we will be experiencing in Seattle I have decided to get them used to being house dogs. They sleep inside and are inside whenever I am home but since the addition of Kirra to our family they have not been left alone inside very much. When we lived in an apartment before we bought our house we had Marley and Sophie. We lived there for a year and they never harmed anything so they are not the problem. Kirra, my mini horse, doesnt understand that I love my things and she sees pillows, rugs, and anything she can reach, which includes everything but the mantle, as fun things left for her. So I put my remote controls on the mantle because she LOVES them and proceed to go out for the evening. I returned to find everything intact, or so it seemed, with the exception of Walter. Which is fine because that's her toy and she can destroy him as much as she wants, better than my wall. Later on did I realize my dog is a wierdo. She had moved my bathroom rugs into the guest bathroom, and those into mine. She had moved pillows from one couch to another. And had eaten all the chocolate candy out of my fall leaf dish wrappers and all. The only thing keeping me from calling an exorcist was the little drool marks on the corners of everything. So I picked the right dog? She is just like me. I guess she thought I needed help decorating, but she's a goof. Which is better than her eating the dry wall like my uncles dog. So, today I made these red river burgers, they have adobo sauce and serano peppers. They were awesome! I am worried about Kirra eating the chocolate though. Not so much for the candy but for the wrappers. When she was a baby she ate an entire piece of a rope. and then could only poo it out a little and Jon had to pull it out. EW! Hopefully it wont come to that, because if so, that will be one hell of a welcome home present. PLUS I got the best welcome home present for him ever, I will post later about it just in case he reads this I dont want to spoil it!

Frustration

So, I have learned over and over again to never trust anything the army says, but after this week, I am filled with internal rage and hatred for them. I try not to hang on to what they tell me, but when your husband has been gone for 15 months and is due home within a week, and they keep changing the day, its very frustrating. Not only do I know nothing, HE knows nothing which is not very promising. I dont understand why every day feels like an eternity when we just made it through 65 weeks. Which is 455 days give or take a few. And yet 6 days feels like death. Plus no one knows anything so 6 days may just be an absurd number I have created in my head so make it seem like less than a week. Well I dont know, the army is stupid, they do things the most backward way, there is just too many people involved.

Flannel

In my haste to publish my first entries, I forgot to talk about flannel sheets. I bought some today hoping to make my bed warmer/more colorful . Since my dogs have taken over my life I take my bedspread off at night so they don't ruin my 400$ Pottery Barn bedspread, I needed something other than my fleece blanket because I refuse to turn my heat up above 70 degrees (I'm not having TVA get any more of my money). In all of this, I looked at jersey sheets, fleece sheets (which I decided would feel like hell), and then thicker regular cotton. I decided to go with flannel because when I lived at home with my parents I had some flannel sheets with little umbrellas all over them and on some level I was probably looking for that same comfort. I have reach a conclusion, flannel is the perfect thickness! It creates the most perfect temperature between them and my fleece blanket I should be warm all winter, with no harm to my velvet bedspread (which all but adheres dog hair to itself). Plus Kohls just happened to have polka dotted flannel sheets in the exact same colors as I needed. I am afraid my husband is going to melt down when he comes home and realized dots have taken over 3 rooms of the house they previously did not exist in. Dots are not girly, I got them in manly colors. He already commented on how painting my office light blue is some kind of precursor to forcing him to have children. (Sorry Jon). He also said he is going to take my china cabinet into the back yard and beat it with a sledge hammer. Take in mind I spent 12 hours refinishing this by myself after I bought this horrible thing at a yard sale. Then he proceeded to say that we should auction off our wedding china once he figured out how much it cost. I have been wondering lately if he will even recognize the house, we had only lived here for 3 months when he deployed and I have changed so many things since then, a lot changes in a year. I think he will like it, all major furniture pieces are still the same. With the addition of one china cabinet.

To all my design friends

Sorry for anyone who tried to read the grey text before it was black...

Still Day 1...

And I, the graphic designer, just spent an hour looking at premade layouts for this blog. It was very demeaning. Im not impressed with the Twilight movie soundtrack although R.P. surprised me by actually making music instead of just calling himself a musician.

Day 1

Well, I guess I can just jump right in. Do to the high demand of my thoughts, I have decided to post a blog. Just a quick recap of the past year. My husband is deployed, my dog is big, and Im a graphic designer, so on to today. I did the most horrible thing today, something that no one should ever have to do, and that is clean a toilet that you do not even use. I have a guest bathroom and in preparation for Jon's return I have been slowly cleaning every inch of the house and today was toilet day. It was quite gross, and you know they should really make something for the hinges around the toilet, that gets grimy and you have to resort to a toothbrush and if you dont have an old one, then you're just SOL. Other than that, I almost broke my hip trying to make my great dane Kirra get in the bath tub and after she knocked me down and stepped on me for the 5th time I resorted to a sponge bath. She didnt enjoy it at all. I spent the rest of the day shopping for winter clothes with my friend Jess and her sister Rose, plus our little tag along Isaiah (who is 1). Tomorrow is kitchen day on my cleaning list and it should be just as great.