busy season

I'm back in Idaho for a couple of weeks. I'm basically back for Schmitty's 11th birthday and Ralphie's Transformer Halloween. Then I'll head back to Omaha for two more weeks. I just hope the weather holds out, 1,000 miles on icy roads wouldn't be fun.

My in-laws are here, I love them! I think we're going to Jackson, WY, and Jackson Hole today. That'll be nice. I bet it's beautiful right now, it was beautiful when we were there in June. I'm sure there's more snow now and hopefully a few colored leaves still on the trees near the lake. I HAVE to remember the camera.

Speaking of that, I had a bad dream this morning that I forgot to leave my cell phone in my car and took it in to work with me. I was dreading having to report it to the security office in the middle of my 5-year update. I woke up quite distressed. I hate that.

off i go

Sort of in to the wild blue yonder... I'm on my way to Omaha today to do some IDTs, I know the drive will be killer. I'm going to spend tonight in Cheyenne which is a little over halfway. I just want to get this over with, what a pain.

Our computer took a dump last week so we finally broke down and bought a Mac. I think I now have Mac fever. I bought an iTouch yesterday so we can do FaceTime while I'm gone. My brother-in-law called us using it to show us our brand new little niece! It was so cool that I decided I wanted to be able to do it while I was away. I'm taking the computer with me since I'm enrolled in two online courses and leaving the Touch with Yago.

I need to shower and finish packing. Ugh. I'll have my cell phone on me if anyone wants to give me a jingle!

oh boy see

We drove across the state to Boise over the holiday weekend to eat our way through the town. Yago and his family are big fans of Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives so we went to a couple of restaurants that have made it to Guy Feiri's list. We were on a strict budget but it was very good, we especially splurged at Pizzalchik. La Vie en Rose was our first stop, they had terrific french toast. I got an orange caramel french toast, Yago's was a fresh peach with homemade custard. Delicious.

In other big news, Ralphie starts preschool today! Can you believe that? I'm quite conflicted but it's only half-day preschool and I decided four days a week instead of five days a week. That way we can still hang out together on Fridays. He has to wear slippers at the school so yesterday we got him a pair of Lightning McQueen croc-like shoes. That got him excited about going. Well, that and the promise of a snack!

Schmitty seems to be adjusting to his school too. He says every day he feels more like he's fitting in and making friends. I think he's doing well. He's so cute that I know if nothing else, the girls will like him wherever he goes. (I may be a teensy bit partial.)

I'm preparing to go back to Omaha in three weeks so I can get my annual requirements out of the way. A good friend and former neighbor has offered to let me stay at her place for free! So generous, I love her. I'm dreading being away from the boys, it makes me a little sick. My main focus is staying in until 2014 to pass on the Post 9/11 GI Bill and then I'll retire.

I should be working on my class right now. I'd better go log on.

assignment

I start a couple more classes soon. The first assignment for a world religion course is a 200-300 word essay about yourself. I kind of hate the introductions because I don't really know what I should put in there.

Back ten years ago I had a list of I'll-never-be-one-of-those-people things I refused to do. I wasn't going to be a wife that called her husband at work all the time with some stupid crap. I wasn't going to cover my desk with pictures of my kids, blehck. I also wasn't going to bore people with incessant stories about my kids.

Well. I call or talk to Yago everyday while he's at work. Not necessarily because there's something going on that I'm too fragile to handle on my own but because I like to talk to him. (Didn't see that one coming...) I can't help but put a picture of my kids on my desk. They're cute. Besides, even if they can't see my desk I feel like it's a betrayal if I don't have their picture there. And what do I have to talk about if I don't talk about my family? Not much.

So this essay... it will be a challenge. As I sit looking at my nearly empty coffee mug from Paris maybe I can discuss how I came to worship the Coffee Bean. I am nothing if not pious in my devotion. I remember when I first converted from Catholicism in Monterey. StuckinMD was instrumental in my baptism.

lil' campers

We went camping last weekend with a couple that Yago works with.  I have to say I was nervous... I never get much sleep and I hate bugs and being dirty.  That said, it went surprisingly well.  Yago made some great camp food but I'm not sure how much more grease my body could have digested.  I ate a bowl of bran cereal as soon as we got home.

We were woken up Saturday night by a fight at a neighboring campsite.  Some guy drove by screaming, "Motherfu@#er!" at the top of his lungs, it woke the kids up too.  We heard one of the guys recounting punching a family member in the face.  When Yago went out to go to the bathroom and see what was going on he heard someone say something about a gun.  After that he called the cops.  Not cool to be camping next to hillybilly rednecks talking about guns.

Oh, I almost forgot.  We went tubing down the river.  Sounds fun, right?  Not if at the beginning you find a leech on your leg!  ARGH!  You know what's worse than bugs?  LEECHES!  I got it off my leg but then it was stuck on the innertube.  Oh, the humanity.  I wish I could say I didn't spaz out but I cannot.  Then a dragonfly on me.  I was screaming like a little girl when Debbie asked me if I was screaming because I saw a snake.  SNAKE?!  Dear lord.  She said she thought the dogs were keeping them away so I tried calling the dogs to me but they were so far ahead they completely ignored me.  Oh my god.  I was so tense... trying to keep my butt out of the water and doing constant leech checks.  Not fun.

done(ish)

I picked up the basement!!  Huge step forward and something I wanted to surprise Yago with when he got home.  We never really finished unpacking the basement but the kids and I made great progress earlier today.  I didn't even notice the smell...

I went to check on Yago's coworker's cat (are you still following my story) and there was some leak in the basement.  Since I am not "handy" in any way, shape, or form, I just kind of panicked for a bit.  I could hear the water and see the floor wet but was afraid of being electrocuted because the walls aren't finished and there are a bunch of wires all over the place.  I couldn't figure out how to turn off the water to the house so I pulled some levers near where the shutoff should have been.  Things seemed to improve.  It's not anything too terrible, just some wet cement floor and insulation.  I told Yago's coworkers about the whole thing so they could call their property manager.  I'll check it again in the morning and by afternoon the tenants should be home.

I'm done with the daily ice cream.  I think we'll transition to a weekly schedule.  God that stuff is good.

avoidance

I've enrolled in two online classes that begin next month.  Have I mentioned how much I hate the online courses?  I'd much prefer to be in a classroom but I don't think I can swing that for a while.  The courses I WANT to take have only been offered at the overseas campuses which kind of irks me.  I can't afford the class, airfare, and hotel.  Why don't they offer what I want to take at any of the stateside locations?  Instead, I'm going to wind up taking a ton of economics courses which will probably be more practical but not as interesting.  I really was hoping to be closer to done by now but I took the spring and summer off due to the move.

I unfriended my sister on facebook.  I guess that's bad but whatever, I spend too much time annoyed by her.

Why doesn't the carriage return in Blogger work anymore?  I have to use the arrows to move my cursor to start a new paragraph.

There are only two more weeks of summer vacation left.  It has flown by!  The school days here are only six hours and they have days off all the time.  At B-T Schmitty spent close to eight hours a day in class and had school a lot of days when the public schools were off.  All those federal holidays like MLK Day and Presidents Day?  His butt was at school.  Not so here.  I can't believe he gets out at 2:20.  I think it'll require a lot of extra work at home which means lots of fighting and pouting.  Ugh.

Yago comes home tomorrow!  I have seriously put on five pounds in the two weeks that he's been gone.  I mostly blame ice cream.  The local dairy here has the best ice cream I've ever tasted and I've taken to eating at least one, and usually two, big bowls of it a day.  Sooooo good.  Milkshakes, sundaes, topped with homemade chocolate chip cookies...  It's good with everything.  I'm hoping to do better today.

Much cleaning to do before Yago gets here.  (Mostly hiding empty ice cream containers.)  :)

baby come back...

For god's sake, can't Schmitty and Yago just come home already!?  Ralphie is great, even occasionally cuddly.  Holy crap though, I have to make an effort for us to DO something.  Otherwise we sit around and take turns choosing television shows while eating nachos and rice krispy treats. I hereby promise to get out of the house and do something active and FUN tomorrow.

Speaking of television shows...  We moved here as Oprah was wrapping up so I don't have that DVRed anymore.  We've also cut back on our cable out here.  Now I give Yago crap about not being able to watch the Golden Girls on Hallmark or OWN but honestly I don't mind.  However, in my viewing vacuum I have totally taken up Tabitha's Salon Takeover.  It's on about three hours every morning, that's a lot of sitting on my dupy with coffee.  Such a guilty pleasure.

our house

Is not a very, very, very fine house.  I abhor this place.  It has the fake laminate wood floors that are buckled and peeling all over the kitchen.  The downstairs carpet is disgusting.  The entire downstairs is dark and stinks making me not even want to go down there at all, and that's where Schmitty's room is.  The fence is peeling.  I just plain hate this place. 

The house is tiny, I've realized that even if I did have friends I'd be embarrassed to invite anyone over.  I'd have to make excuses for all the things wrong with this place, explaining that it's a rental.  The choices made for the house are not mine.  If it was just a case of being small but clean I could deal with it. I'd hopefully make it cute, but this place is a disaster that the landlord openly says he doesn't want to soak money in to.  I think I'm cured of choosing places to live without physically seeing them first.  No more online house shopping.

Yago leaves tomorrow for a couple of weeks in D.C.  When we first found out that he had an orientation in D.C. we thought I'd go with him and hang out.  The grandparents volunteered to watch the kids for us.  That fell through and I'm a little bummed.  I also know it's wrong to be irritated that my MIL doesn't take vacation to be my personal babysitter but takes vacation time to volunteer at church camp and vacation bible school.  I'm a bad person.

stories

I've kind of been thinking about who to tell about my new blog.  I haven't told any of my family which is weird.  I realized a few years ago that I made a big mistake when I told my mother about my blog.  Since she never uses the computer she told my dad about it.  Writing knowing my dad was checking it everyday put the holy brakes on anything I wanted to write about.

I started blogging before I met Yago when I was dating other people.  It's was a fun and interesting chronicle when Yago and I finally hooked up.  I thought the entry pertaining to our first date, with Schmitty in tow, was quite amusing.  I didn't think the relationship would go anywhere but look where we are now.  Yago used to comment frequently but for some reason he completely stopped commenting once we were married and living together.  When I asked him why, because he still checked my blog almost daily, he just said he felt like he shouldn't anymore.  I didn't really understand the explanation to be honest, something about how he thought it should just be mine...  It kept me from complaining about anything too personal because he checked it all the time but there also wasn't the banter that there used to be either.  So I haven't bothered to tell Yago yet.

My sister used to check it frequently when I lived overseas but she's apparently lost interest.  That is actually good news because I wrote an extremely scathing entry one day after she thoroughly pissed me off.  Honestly, she hurt my feelings and I unleashed a rant that I shouldn't have.  As far as I know she never saw it before I deleted it. Yago read it and looked alarmed when he asked me about it.  He strongly encouraged me to delete it and I did the following day.

I guess my point is that I used to write funny and personal stuff fairly frequently but that hasn't been the case in a long time.  I didn't delete my old blog because it is a chronicle of my life with Schmitty before Yago.  I also love going back to read some of the entries when Yago and I were dating.  He was pretty funny and a lot of fun to date.  I mean, he's fun to be married to but dating is different.

I think my point is that I need to write about the funny stuff again.  Because there is funny stuff but I feel like I forgot how to tell a good story.

adjustments

Last night we, as a family, rode our bikes to dinner at a steakhouse and then around town.  I have to admit I was reluctant at first... It turned out to be a nice evening.

Yago has signed Schmitty up for a week of scout camp... IN MONTANA!!  I'm not very happy about it and know I'll be a nervous wreck the whole time.  All I can think of is the tornado at the Little Sioux camp a few years ago followed by a rash of electrocutions.  What if there's a big storm?  A flood?  What if he just wants to come home?  Did I mentionYago will be in D.C. while Schmitty's gone giving me plenty of time to brood.  A full week of me and R2  (Ralphie and Rana).  Egads.

Update:  Still no friends.  Sheesh.  I'm pathetic.

caper

The boys and I just went to check the mail.  I returned home to find the fresh, still warm, banana-blueberry bread that I'd recently pulled from the oven half devoured.  Stupid dog.

Oh.  And in case moving wasn't inconvenient enough...  They don't pick up the boxes anymore.  I called to arrange the "debris pickup" and it was denied.  Upon further investigation I found out the military stopped covering that service UNLESS... you're a widow, you're wounded, OR you specifically request the movers unpack you and they take the boxes the same day.  They didn't offer to unpack and I wouldn't have had them unpack anyway.  I just wanted them to pick up the boxes three days later when I finished unpacking myself.  Another reason I hate movers. Or moving, whatever.

better

Last night we got the first drops of rain that I've seen since we moved.  It frequently looks like it's going to storm and then nothing happens, quite a let down.  Anyway, last night it sprinkled for about five minutes and then we had a totally cool, super bright double rainbow.  When I opened the door to poke my head outside I squealed in delight and called the family out.  Yago snapped a photo but you can't see the double rainbow and it doesn't do it justice.

I forgot to update on my fitness evaluation last week... I rocked that thing!  I was quite surprised but Yago said I was where he thought I would be.  It was funny because they had the SAME bikes from the AF ergo test years ago.  They did other stuff too, it was more thorough than the old PFTs but it was funny to see those bikes with the heart monitors.  My body fat is under (just barely) 20% which is awesome for me.  So funny how when someone official tells you that you're in excellent shape and have low body fat you suddenly feel skinny and want to eat a bunch of ice cream...

Well, I'm in desperate need of a nap.  Incidentally, we have two annoying, yappy dogs that live next door.  I kind of want to punch my neighbors in the face because they leave them out all night as far as I can tell.  They are constantly waking me up, even Yago is pissed.  Our bedroom windows happen to be right next to the fence.  Anyway, I need a nap.

down with the sickness

Saturday we went to the Craters of the Moon national park and hiked through some lava tubes, basically caves.  After the park we went to ERB-I which was the first nuclear reactor that produced electricity and then to Pickle's for lunch.  It was a great day trip and we even got a geocache along the way.  It was fun but I could feel my throat and air passages burning.  By the time we got home I was full-on sick.  I'm not a very good sick person, but I don't think anyone really is.

Yesterday I snapped at Yago after I broke our vacuum cleaner, as if it was his fault.  (Our $500 vacuum cleaner.)  I got pissed and tried yanking it around the table only to chip the table leg and pull the hose from the canister.  Then I yelled at Yago for not doing enough cleaning and unpacking.  I'm not very nice.  He'd actually spent the day trying to fix various items that didn't make it through the move in very good condition.

Hopefully tomorrow is better.  It could only get better, right?

new awesomeness

There's a local dairy around here that Yago and I have been hearing about.  They still deliver milk.  Naturally we had to check it out because Yago loves old-timey stuff like that.  I called to set up a weekly delivery and found out they even deliver ice cream.  Oh.  My.  God.  Ice cream?  Where I don't have to stand in front of a case at the grocery store and have an internal debate about the caloric content?  Which flavor?  Who likes what in the family?  Finally just giving up and moving on because I can't take the bickering in my head anymore.  I can just set it up to be delivered to the house and forget about it.

We went to the dairy last night to try the ice cream.  We got to see a couple of calves, some goats, horses and went on a horse-drawn wagon ride around the farm!  I think we officially love this town.

Well, the gym isn't so awesome I guess.  I'm going today to get my complimentary fitness assessment.  Ugh.  It's never as good as you want it to be.  It's always super busy and the classes are full of girls that have their hair fixed and makeup on.  They wear skirts (workout miniskirts) and funky hats.  It's a little much.  Oh well.  Maybe I'll start the fad of going to the gym looking like I just rolled out of bed, because I did.

A Fresh Start

I'm starting another blog.  Hopefully it'll motivate me to post more often.  I've been very busy the last few months but haven't put much down.

We just moved to Idaho Falls and I'm really liking it so far. My favorite part -- actually there are two -- I haven't gotten a single mosquito bite and the nights are cool.  I wish I'd been able to take my neighbors from Bellevue with me though.  Before moving I had promised myself to be more outgoing but I know I'm shying away from talking to people or from introducing myself to others.  It's ironic because I'm constantly nagging the boys to go outside and meet some kids.

Maybe today I'll initiate an introduction...