HER FIVE CENTS

Okay! So here we go! Thanks again for being here! Let's be friends! 

I said to the kids, "how old am I?"  "You're thirty?" Jackson said. Sadie: "Yeah, that's why we got a three and a zero." Jackson, "I guess it's time to say that the candles we got light back on fire. Don't tell Daddy I told you. I'm serious okay? Cause then he'll be mad at me I think."

That's what my birthday consisted of. Happy times spent with 3 kiddos and candles that wouldn't blow out. They're Jacksons favorite.

I slept in till 7:45 a.m. and then hung out in our hotel home. I received some gorgeous flowers. Delivered to my door.

I used to not appreciate flowers. I used to think they were such a waste of money. That was back when I would have rather spent money on shampoo and conditioner. It's the same now, but I'm somewhat desperate for thoughtful things. And that's what they were. thoughtful. And beautiful. Daisies and a rose and pine. It was a wonderfully winter spring happiness bouquet, In a vase that I get to keep! I think that's secretly my favorite part. lol.

Then David showed up at the door with Starbucks and we went to lunch. I chose Panda Express. It was a bad idea. Because I maybe had some issues after we got back. I won't go into detail about that because it's gross. Now you're already thinking about it. Sorry. Anyway, I felt sick pretty much the rest of the day. I didn't even finish my Starbucks. It went in the fridge after David showed up because I like to save it for my midday snack,

David got home early and because I was so sick, I was desperate for a smoothie. Like a delicious Robeks smoothie. Nah. They don't have anything like that here .So I settled for Cold Stone. hahaha. Not even the same thing. Because I didn't even get a smoothie, I got a shake. It did the trick though! I felt better.

We had a cake when we got home. Yes, with the unblowoutable candles. It was fun. David had to put them out pretty quickly. we were both afraid that the fire alarms in the hotel would go off. He said he totally wouldn't claim it if they did. I agreed.

A couple days ago I got this computer I'm typing on right in this instant. It was my birthday present. I named it LisasFabTab. Cause its' got a keyboard, but the screen detaches and becomes a tablet. I don't even use my mouse because I can just touch the screen. It's fancy.

I decided to do in this blog post, 30 things. I was going to try and do one memory/unnecessary fact per year of my life. But I barely remember that. So I'll just write whatever the crap I want. And I'm really doing it for posterities sake. Sorry you have to read it. Skip it if you want to.

A Timeline of Events Not on Facebook

1. I was a giant baby. 
2. I have giant babies. A 9lb 3 ouncer, An 8lb 7 ouncer, and a 9lb 1 ouncer. Hueff.
3. I've had chicken pox. Its one of the few memories I have as a child
4. At the tender age of 5, I cried when people found out my dad smoked. I lived in Utah at the time. Enuff said. Right?
5. We lived in the same trailer park in Utah as some family friends who we would live next to 15 years later in Arizona. They introduced my mom to my stepdad. And me to a friend who changed my life!
6. If I could read all day long, every day, I totally would. You might call it an obsession. I'm not well read though. I just read what I like. This started in 3rd grade with Mrs. Peterson and her reading road.
7. It was around this age I moved from our single wide trailer park house, to a 3 story home. Mom, how did that happen?
8. That day, my sisters and I met our soon-to-be best friends.
9. My sister dared me to punch that best friend in the stomach and run away. I think I did it.
10. My sisters and I started our own library. It was in our room and it cost $.10 to rent a book.
11. We moved to AZ when I was 11ish. That summer holds record temperatures.
12. I used to babysit for my 5th grade teacher. Looking back, he may have been a chomo. lol.
13. I tried out for the cheer team in Mesa. And made it. I would have been going into 9th grade. We moved that summer to Paulden AZ. I was pissed.
14. BUT! We made it a big deal to get in touch with the coach at the high school. I tried out and got to be captain for I think the Freshmen team. I cheered at a Varsity game that fall with another JV girl when there was only 1 varsity girl who could cheer.
15. I met David while I was sitting on the grass at the church with my good friend Savanna. I don't remember it.
16. I do remember however, swearing I would never date him. HAHA!
17. I took a trek across the United States with him and his family in the summer of 2002. We kissed in every state. Holy cow. Don't tell his parents! Sorry mom and dad!
18. My assigned roommate at NAU my freshmen year became one of my best friends. I still call her my roommate. There shall never be any other roommate.
19. I have a Bachelors Degree
20. David proposed 5 months after he got home from his mission. We were married 3 months later. But remember, this had been a long time coming.
21. It was a year to-the-day later that my dad died. We picked the day before as his day of death because we aren't sure when it happened, and because I didn't want it to be on my anniversary.
22. We moved to Pennsylvania and lived in the apartment below the one where David spent 10 months of his mission.
23. My mom, dad and sister came to visit and it was during that time I found out I was pregnant. I had no idea. My mom is the one who suggested I take a pregnancy test.
24. Blogging became an integral part of my life around this time. I just got my freakin' blogs back from Myspace.
25. I'm starting to get wordy. But this is fun.
26. My friend Jaime, whom I met in college through my roommate (see #18) lived in NY at Fort Drum. I went to visit her because she was a mere few hours away. We were both pregnant at the same time.
27. We moved back to AZ and had a neighbor whose dog hated everyone. Except Jackson. She would let Jackson get right up in her face.
28. Sadie and Jackson are 17 months apart. I was lucky enough to have most my sisters present at her birth.
29. All my babies have been born rather quickly. Nevie included. I'm lucky. Genevieve wasn't even in our list of ideas for names. But we just knew.
30. This year has been more of an adventure than any other so far. By far one of the most challenging for me personally. David graduating, David gone for a month, then home, then gone. Living in a hotel, living at home, and turning 30! All crazy.

Did you make it this far? I totally think everyone should do this. A loose timeline of events for your life. It was really fun! I challenge you my readers, to do the same. Please? Do it for me? For my birthday? ;-)
 

I've thought about keeping a journal about all the super crappy things that happen to me on a daily basis. It's not like, world shattering stuff, it's more like I'm-going-to-jump-off-a-cliff-if-this-happens-again kind. And I mean that in the least suicidal sounding way. Once again, I will remind you I am somewhat of an exaggerator in my speech/words/thoughts.

So here's a short list of the mighty stupid things that have occurred or KEEP occurring, just in different forms.

• When I first got here to Fort Huachuca (I think I told you about this), got the kids out, myself out, and walked to the distance to the commissary door to find out it is closed on Mondays. What?

• Tried tightening the lace on my moccasins that ALWAYS comes loose and it broke.

• Didn't have a key to the hotel room after getting home and getting out and getting unloaded. At the door of course.

• Went to the FAMILY gym. Where my kids can play right in front of my face and Nevie cried. She could see me and cried. Bawled actually. There were toys. And a Barbie movie. Hysterical.

• Tried to go to the gym every day since being here. Been successful ZERO times.

• Went to the library. This involved leaving post, driving, getting out, getting the stroller all situated and making yet another long walk to the front door. Closed. Apparently EVERYTHING opens later or is not open at all on Mondays. Mondays?? WHYYYYY?

• Got soda/pizza/spaghetti sauce/chocolate syrup/jelly on my white shirt/brand new sweater/fancy blouse. And this is not always my fault. I have kids remember?

• Got the urge to go to the bathroom at the most inconvenient time. Again, not always me, but kids too. For example, while we're in Target and looking at toys which, makes everyone mad because no one wants to leave those aisles!



Mikey by Joey Ellis (stickers for Messenger on Facebook) Many of these show how I feel.

• No sleeping. Ever. It's just not a thing here. So there's that, and did I mention how we don't sleep?

• In a hurry, and there's no gas in the vehicle.

• Changed Nevies diaper. And its crappy. And we're on the bed. And she decided to go crazy. White sheets. Yup.

• Went to church. It was Stake Conference. (It started 2 hours before our normal time).

• Changed another one of Nevie's diapers. It was the last diaper. The little closing strap thing... ripped off.

• Decided to go gluten-free 3 days before Thanksgiving. Winner!

Anyway, there is so much to be grateful for. But that's why all 834 of your friends are doing "30 Days of Thanksgiving.". lol.

I too have much to be grateful for. And I am. I'm just not talking about it right now. :-) What are you maybe not grateful for? Or what are you so thankful for? Tell me!

I think I'll start a series. Well, I'll probably just use the term "series" to denote the blogs in which I write about my life in the Army. So far it's proven to be nothing short of cray cray. Again, I did not mean to say that. Another 16 year old term. Oopsy. Actually cray cray is a fun term. I'll keep using it. Okay, so here's a run down of my day.

It started early. We are in a room on post. It's actually a really nice room in comparison to other hotels. It's 2 rooms, has 2 flat screen TV's, a desk, a fridge, a microwave, 2 closets, and lots of other storage space. It really is so nice. Anyway, even with all of the space, we have 5 people in our family which is proving to be interesting as far as sleeping arrangements go.

David had a PT test today and came back to shower. It was like 6 a.m. Nevie woke up. Thus began our day.

So we leisurely got ready for the day. I tried to get everyone out the door by 9 to get to the continental breakfast. Neh. That didn't work.

We headed up to the gas station that has a bakery attached to it. We bought croissants and cinnamon rolls and breakfast sandwiches like any good mom would. They ended up all over the floor and all over our clothes. Yes, our.

Then we headed to the DEERS office to get me an ID card. It's very frustrating to me because according to the website, you don't need an appointment for a DD Form 1172-2. The website wasn't allowing me to make an appointment so I assumed it was correct. We headed to the office where I had to carry Nevie in the stroller up the stairs whereupon I was greeted by a sign that said something like, "You don't need an appointment if you have a DD Form 1172-2 (FOR HOUSING)". What? So then we go sit down in the waiting room and the TV with information on it said something like "You need an appointment regardless of what you are here for. Disregard all the other information we have lied to you about. We just wanted to test you." No it didn't say that. But basically it said we had to go see Mr. Someone in room 6 for an appointment. So we went on over and saw Mr. Guy and he gave us an appointment for 15 minutes later. We walked back to the waiting room and barely sat down before we were called back. Hueff. That's what my kids say instead of Phew! I think I was sweating by this time. Just kidding. Ladies don't sweat.

So I got my ID. And it's a fugly picture. I'm going back for a different one. It's REALLY bad. I almost want to post a picture but it's so gross. You'd vomit in your mouth. I think they should let us take our own pictures. There'd be an incredible amount of hold-the-phone-up-high-above selfies. And probably peace signs. At least everyone would be pretty and happy with their pictures. And they'd all be properly filtered, as in, cross-processed or my personal favorite, Nashville (from Instagram).

We went on over to the commissary. CLOSED on Mondays. Yup. Found that out after getting everyone out of the van. Bleh.

Here's the really fun part. We went back to the hotel and I headed to the front desk to get a copy of the key that I lost/didn't have/david may have taken. There I was told I couldn't get a copy because David didn't list me as a guest. Don't worry though, there were notes stating that he has 3 kids. But no wife. I find it rood. Just kidding. So there I am, standing there with two forms of ID with the same last name, telling them I have an 18 month old who REALLY needs a nap and they still tell me no. You would be pleased to know that I was very kind. I believe that being nice gets you further in life. Anyway, they told me they had to speak with David.

I sat in the van with my 3 kids. Waiting. I may have texted David a couple of bad words. Can't confirm or deny that though. It didn't take long. But in the process of waiting, Nevie tipped over a cup of water that was sitting on the dashboard. It was a large cup of water and there were lots of papers on that dash. That's fine, we can move past that.


It was this that really got me. After getting the key, I was driving back to where our room was and my Venti Starbucks White Mocha/Mocha Chocolate Milk fell out of its place. Onto the passengers side floor. No big deal right? It had a lid on it. Well I picked it up and there was a giant huge gaping crack in the cup. A freakin' CRACK!!! So it went everywhere. All over my dry-clean only petticoat, my very light colored tan jacket, the scrapbook paper I purchased per sheet from a craft store and my gossip magazines. I immediately started crying at that point. Couldn't help it.

Walked back into the room without having to insert the key because lo and behold! The cleaning lady was there! I'm sure she thought I was some hot mess and felt really bad for me because she so graciously put on giant yellow gloves to remove Nevie's shatty diaper from my hands.

By this time it was 10:00 a.m. Yup. That's right 10 AM! And it only gets better.

Thankfully, David came to the rescue. I think the Lord knows us because he came home on a long lunch (the first one he's ever had, he said) with another Starbucks, Sour Patch Kids and a pizza for lunch. I'm thankful.

It is November and it seems everyone's on the gratitude bandwagon. I really am too and I know it's seeming as if that isn't the case. These things just make for much better reading than, "I have the best husband in the world and he's better than yours" you know?

I wish you better luck with your experiences at DEERS and IHG and with your Starbucks.

Loving:

1) Sears Automotive Service (Um $21 for an oil change? Yes please. PLUS they gave me a coupon for $5 off my shopping in-store. I HIGHLY recommend it. David even said you can't even buy all the stuff to do it yourself for that cheap. Eeee). ooooh! Plus, they totally fixed the stuff that Wal-Mart started. I hate Wal-Mart.

2) Smash* books. It's totally the lazy-womans version of a scrapbook. I super believe in them. I have started collecting them. Don't be surprised if you get one as a gift. They're THAT cool. I have zero books completely finished. Here's one of my kind-of-finished pages.

Now onto the things I'm hating.

Pretty much just Wal-Mart.

That's it. lol. So can you help me with shows to watch? Girly style and a tiny bit smutty which equals dramatic. What are you loving and hating? 

Its taken 8 3.5 years to get from here to there.

The Scream

I thought I'd collectively announce that after much anticipation we FINALLY received our orders. I don't technically know what that means except that we got more information. No dates, but good news. And that is that my hubs is kind of a rock star.

We got the orders via word of mouth. I don't know if that means they are official or what. But anyway. So here's what we know, besides giving up our first born child (sorry Jackson), we will be active duty, with a military intelligence branch.

I just found out that the information we got was not actual orders but accessions results. I don't know how to spell accessions. Whatever. Anyway, so basically what that is, is where David stands nationally out of all the graduates of the ROTC program for 2013. He ranked 115 out of 5300-5500 cadets. That puts him in the top 2 percent. He also was in the top 10 of the battalion which includes 7 states. So he's kind of a badace. I know right? Amazing.

Even though this is not specific dates, I feel much better and much more at peace about life knowing that we will most likely get what we requested. Hahahaha. Yeah right. That's not ARMY. But at least we will hopefully MAYBE get what we want. lol. We're supposed to get dates and such in a week. So I'm counting on a month. Ugh.

In other news, I have a blister on my nipple. Gross right? Did you want to know that? I bet you did. It's cause I'm still breastfeeding Nevie and she's getting teeth on one side or something. I can't be sure.

Also, it's Day 5 of the bikini body mommy challenge. And I'm on day 2. lol. You can find the challenge on Facebook. It's freakin' hard. And I'm sore from the fitness test. Oh man. Yup. I'm only telling you this so I'm accountable.

I always think of random things I want to say but then I don't know if it's super annoying. Is it? Do you want to hear the annoying things? Or merely the cool kid stuff that you care about? Well you probably don't really care about any of that bragging stuff I just told you. But it's for posterity anyway.

Oooh. This is a selfie. I took it at work and I'm gonna post it on my secret Instagram because I haven't showed my face there. It's only body pictures. I know right? That's weird. I can't wait to see the progress. Also, stop staring at that giant zit on my face. It's stress okay! Ugh. Also, it's unedited. No fancy filters or anything. Just the glowing sun and my frizzy hair.

Our own private parade

Jackson, 6 years

Nevie, 16 months

This is from when Sadie covered her face in chapstick. For fun

This was actually supposed to be a picture of grandma and the grandkids in the background but it ended up being a good one of my man.

Yesterday I started this post via my phone app about my feelings about David leaving for LDAC. But when you're on your computer apparently you can't see the phone posts. Whatever. I'll be using that site to stay updated. The LDAC one. You can too.  It's interesting because I don't remember much of what I was feeling yesterday (which is why I made the post). I'm feeling today: Sad

I'm actually super glad the time is finally here cause I always have a bit of anxiety up until he finally leaves. Do you realize he has left me for at least a month for the last 3 years? No big deal right?

This summer will be a different story. Nevie is in a different phase of life. One where she doesn't want to take naps and wants to follow me around like crazy. Like a crazy little puppy. It's endearing and also a little bit.... hard to do anything.

I'm also feeling annoyed. At the flies that have taken over my life. They aren't usually this bad until like July. So why are they crazy gross everywhere? It's like I live in a super dirty house. Oh wait, I do.

I also think it's because I have chickens. And kids. And food everywhere. Ew.

I'm sweaty. And have to go take care of kids. They are in the bath and only long enough for me to write this.

I have his address. Do you want to write him? Send him packages? I want you to. And he does too.

I'm thankful for everyone's support. I love ya all! SO much!

I actually need to write real quick about a person I am so grateful for lately. Her name is Caden (am I allowed to say that out loud?) Anyway, we met at the military ball only a few months ago and became instant friends. Her hubby was/is in the Army with David and we tease them all the time that we haven't met before recently. She's been a blessing. We're both going through this new Army life together and it's been nice to have her. Ugh. So lucky. She also happens to be beautiful so I feel thankful she is even my friend. Cause she's the popular girl at school. You know what I mean?



 

Here's a funny story.

Dining Room

Dining Room Floor

Living Room

Another living room angle.

Upstairs

Hallway

Dual head shower

Master bath

Guest bath

That's Jackson sitting there!

Maybe someday we can buy the house back and live there. Eh? Sorry. This is another bragging blogger post. But I can't help it. I'm kind of lying if I don't mention that he had help. The missionaries, and his dad, and my dad, and his brother Abe all were a part of making this happen and to them I am grateful.  I'm trying to keep up with the Blog Challenge I'm participating in but I have some other stuff to do. So pictures ALWAYS work right?