Visiting Family and Other Stuff

So, we spent the last two weeks visiting family. A week with his family and a week with mine.

It was...interesting.... And educational.

We spent a lot of time doing nothing with his family, but we did go to the zoo up there and we went out to eat with a few of his friends.

My family we ended up doing less, but more... We didn't go out quite as much but we did more stuff. I helped mom and dad finish the strawberry raised bed, weeded some of the flower bed, we went on a couple walks and we went down and tried to figure out where we would put a house if we decided to build a house on their property.

Overall it was a good trip, Benjamin did quite well on the trip, considering he's only 8 months old and we didn't have any major problems driving.

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When we got back my garden was MASSIVE! I picked two handfuls of peas, a dozen strawberries and there are some green tomatoes on the vines. There are tons more peas almost ready to pick and there will be a bunch more strawberries too. My blueberries are still growing, they're getting decent sized now, just need to ripen!!

My flowers are doing pretty well too, the Royal Allysum is about 4 inches tall and blooming and the marigolds I started from seed are starting to bloom.  The pansy's and Portulacas that are in my window box are going crazy and I got a bunch of seeds off then this morning.

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While I was on leave they called and told me they moved me back to the facility... I'm not sure why but it sucks, I'm still on day jobs but the hours increased to about 12-13/day instead of 8-10. No idea when I'm going to fit physical therapy, Benjamin's appointments and everything else in. I also don't know if I'll be able to take the classes I wanted to take for the Soldier For Life (SFL) program (basically the transition program for when you get out of the Army.

Well. I better go. Working on plans for my gardens and rabbit hutches today.  Will talk later!

Omaha Zoo!

We went to the Omaha Zoo today. Best zoo in the world. It's AWESOME! We got there at 0930 and didn't leave until 3:30pm. We wouldn't have left then but we were exhausted, had seen everything and didn't want to fight the crowds to go back through exhibits. I got tons of amazing pictures and Benjamin got to touch a stingray!

My ankle did amazingly well, we were worried because I don't have full range of motion in it yet and there were a lot of steps, but it didn't hurt at all. The physical therapist I saw last week says that it seems to be healing well except for the lack of motion. He's hopeful that I'll get it back with lots of physical therapy though.

Gonna be short today but I hope you all don't mind. I've got more farm plans so I'll try to update you when I have time. Oh! Garden is doing well, I have lots of green blueberries, a few strawberries and some peas starting as well as some squash flowers about to open! Hoping for a good year!

Gardening and Spring

I've got most of my garden planted! The peas have been in for a while, I put in my broccoli and my asparabroc (asparagus/broccoli hybrid) and a couple summer squash plants. I'm waiting for a little while to make sure that it isn't going to freeze before I put the rest of the squash in.
My blueberries and strawberries made it through the last couple freezes we had although the strawberries didn't drain quite as well as I had hoped and I think a couple of them may have died.
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My ankle is doing a lot better. I'm putting a little weight on it when I walk now (about 10%). The swelling isn't near as bad unless I'm on it all day. I'm hopeful that by the 14th I'll be able to walk on it and hold Benjamin because I've got another freezer meal workshop that evening.
I went to a Tastefully Simple workshop yesterday and we're trying the meatloaf tonight. Hopefully it'll be good!!

Fruit is Planted!

The weather warmed up a lot today (70*!) and my blueberry and strawberry plants were all delivered so I spent most of the day outside planting.
I'm doing a lot of container planting thus year since we'll be moving next summer. My blueberries and strawberries are all in pots, the rest (summer and winter squash, peas and broccoli) are all going into my raised bed. I went ahead and put the peas into the raised bed today, they're about 3 inches tall and starting to get little tendrils on them so I wanted to get them in before they got any bigger. I put some of the broccoli on the top of the strawberry basket, I used a laundry basket lined with a garbage bag for the strawberries so the whole top is open. The rest of everything I'll be waiting for a couple weeks to transplant everything else. I'd hate to get another frost and have everything die.
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I've only got 4 days left in my cast I think, hopefully it will be removed on the 25th. Yay! I'm hoping that they let me walk on it after that. It's hard to get around work on crutches! It's hard to do anything really... I had to have DH bring me all my stuff to do my planting today and he's been doing most of the cooking and stuff. Very demotivating!! I have had lots of time to read about plants and figure out what kinds of animals I want and cages and stuff. So that's been nice.

I've decided that I want bees. There's a couple of cool products out there, one of them allows you to drain honey from the hive without opening it up! And I love honey and the bees need help right now so it's a win-win! I think they'll be a second year project, plan for them and purchase all the stuff the first year and then get the bees the second year.

Well, that's all I've got for now. Will update later.

Surgery, Farm Plans and More!

So. I had surgery a couple weeks ago.... If anyone ever asks if you want surgery to tighten up your ankle, just say no! Or opt for amputation! LOL my little sister keeps saying amputation means permanent crutches but I say there are prosthetic limbs...

In all seriousness the surgery went fine and the recovery is going pretty well. I'm getting the cast off in a little while (25th!) and then I get a boot :( not sure if I'll be walking on it or not with the boot.

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I've got my raised bed built. I'm going with 'ask forgiveness, not permission' for the garden. They didn't say I COULDN'T build one so I figure as long as I fix it before I leave in good.
I've got broccoli, summer squash and winter squash planted and blueberry bushes and strawberry plants on the way :-)
I've also got my eye on a couple of farmers markets in the area that I'm gonna start going to. The plan is to can some fruits and stuff and freeze the veggies so we can have 'fresh' veggies all year long.

I've also got my goat fence plans, chicken coop plans and I think I know what I'm doing as far as rabbit hutches and stuff. Plans are finally coming together.
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I'll be back later!

Sunny Skies and Inspections

Kansas... It's days like these that's I LIKE Kansas... 65 and sunny! In January! We went to the zoo Saturday, wore our winter coats Sunday and back to 65 degrees today. Love this state!!

Bad news is that we're having an inspection at work this week and it's getting crazy LOL not worried about it, but still crazy...

Goings on about chickens and farming are happening, I'm starting my business plan... Got some great books at the house that I'm slowly reading through... Hoping that they'll help me out with the planning phase.
In about 4 months I can start ACAP which is basically just the army 'preparing' me for civilian life again... Pretty sure I'm going to be OK on the transition LOL. But ACAP is just another stepping stone to getting out... I can't wait to be free again. Don't even care if that means that I need to scrimp and save even more than I do now.

Well. That's all the goings on for now. I'll be sure and write more when things cool off!

Cilantro Lime Chicken

I've been on an experimental kick with recipes lately. Tonight we had Cilantro Lime Chicken which was OK but didn't really wow me. The flavor was OK but it ended up a bit dry and seems to me that I don't care much for the flavor of cilantro!! I probably won't try the recipe again, especially since it needed done a couple hours ahead of cooking so it could sit in the marinade stuff. I just don't have the time to devote to a recipe I don't really care for!!

Benjamin seems to be teething!! There are two tiny white specks showing through the to of his gums in the front. Seems a little early to me but who knows! He doesn't really seem to be upset about it and he is drooling less lately not more... Oh well... I suppose his little teeth will come through eventually!!

Tomorrow I go back to work, headed up to the company for a while, can't wait!! Gonna be nice to wait up at 7 and have two hours to get ready for work instead of waking up at 3 and having 40 minutes to get ready!!

Happy New Year!

I should really post more frequently!!! Maybe I'll be able to cause I've got the app now! :-)

Anyways, I have a new addition to the family! Baby Benjamin was born September 16th at 0208 :-).  He's healthy, generally happy and, at 3.5 months old starting to try talking! He was born with a full head of hair and it has only grown. It's getting lighter now than it was when he was born, however, it's just as thick.

We've moved since my last post, we now live on post. It's pretty nice, we have a fenced back yard facing the woods and I'm only 7 minutes from work.

Work.... I'm now working in the training office for my company. It's pretty chill, this week might be rough cause it's the first week I'll have been there since Christmas. I moved to the medication window for Christmas and New Years so they got a better work schedule. In the time since I've been out of the office the company has split, a couple sections that are actually shift work have gone to a different company. That'll make things a little better for me on one hand, worse on the other...  Better because we have less people to deal with, worse because I have to take them all off our numbers :/ gonna take some time but not insurmountable.

Future plans at the moment include going home and starting a hobby farm. Unfortunately I won't be able to do that for a while... Not done with my contact for a little over a year :-( . I'm not too upset about it but I kinda wish I could go home now LOL. Just been a rough little bit... I'm still a little depressed I think from so many changes and a lack of sleep.

We had a great Christmas this year. I got Tim his ballistic vest for air soft, he got me a bunch of cooking utensils I needed. Benjamin got a book (Winnie the Pooh) and a few talking toys and a cool rattle he can grab and chew on. We also got a few games from gram and pops and mom and dad. Basically we made out like bandits LOL. I can't think of anything else to say right at the moment so I'll go away. I'll try to post at least every week!

Pregnancy, New Cars... This is it!

So stressed out. I need to remember to breathe every now and again.
I'm getting better at it but things are moving so fast!

In November DH and I decided to start trying to have a baby. Last week, we got a positive test! YAY! Bad thing is that I'm due to go to school for the military soon. EEK! I'll be good though, got confirmation from a few different people and an appointment with my doc in a couple days so I'll ask her too but I should be fine to go. It's still earlier enough in my pregnancy to go.

Since we're expecting a baby we decided to go ahead on our new car. We've been thinking about getting into a new car since neither of ours would be able to hold Twig's big dog crate AND a baby seat. So we've decided to upgrade, we've been looking into cars since November when we decided to start trying for a baby... Finally decided that we'll go for a new Subaru Impreza 5door. They're super-nice, we got one in blue, it's got black cloth interior so it shouldn't show stains... bad news was the price-tag... I mean, we'll be OK (if we weren't I wouldn't have decided to get the new car!) but it's still stressful. I can't wait until I get out of school... then I'll be able to get my promotion and I'll feel like a million times better about everything.

I know it sounds like I'm probably not in a great place to have a baby, but honestly, I think we're in great shape to have a baby. I know I'm stressed right now, but really, I feel like half the stress is just me dealing with pregnancy hormones. Like, if I wasn't pregnant I wouldn't be stressed about this stuff. If I wasn't pregnant, I wouldn't have a reason to BE stressed, you know? Why bother? Hubby and I have been existing for a while now... little to no stress, we knew exactly how much cash we had on hand, but we still weren't getting anywhere... Now, I feel like I have a new meaning. I've got stuff to learn, something to live for... something new to take care of and help out. I LOVE teaching and I love babies. I feel like this is what I'm supposed to be doing. I finally, for the very first time, in my ENTIRE LIFE feel like I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing, and where I'm supposed to be.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year Everyone!

I've been working quite happily since the beginning of last August... It's a pretty nice gig, I'm the only female in my section which is pretty sweet, I don't have to worry about killing anyone! LOL Hubby and I have settled into our little apartment quite nicely and are actually considering having a baby. We've been trying since November, but no luck yet :(.

We adopted a 3 year old, tri-color, Rat Terrier in July, he's SO cute and he's gotten so much better around the both of us. He was super skittish when we first got him (hiding behind the couch for like 2 weeks!), but now he's awesome. He thinks that every single time we open the fridge he's gonna get fed, silly dog!

What else... We celebrated Thanksgiving, Christmas, and NewYears all by ourselves... A little sad, but we managed. We had a baby Christmas tree that we set up and we had a good Christmas, got lots of nice stuff. Among my presents (that I got for myself :D) was a chest freezer. It's small, but it was delivered today and I LOVE it! I'm gonna be able to fit so much more food in there for the dogs. I've already got an order of rabbit paid for and I'm gearing up for another order of raw food for them from RawPaws, they are a nice company that I've found that has a delivery point like 15 minutes away from me, can't wait to pick up some new proteins for the boys!

Finally, I've decided that I'm gonna really make a push to go more green/natural (not like, totally organic, just working my way into things slowly). My first step, since I just ran out of shampoo, is to go with The No-Poo Method. I only ever washed my hair every other day anyway (mostly 'cause I'm lazy and because I hate using expensive shampoo!), now I just use a mixture of baking soda and water to wash my hair with, about a tablespoon or so of baking soda and make it into a paste in the shower until it's slippery, then rinse it out. I haven't done the apple cider vinegar (ACV) rinse that most of the places say you can do to condition because I haven't really had any trouble with dryness. I've been doing this for about 8 days now, and hubby says it doesn't look unclean or anything. It FEELS a little odd (kinda greasy, but not really), but it's not really that bad and it's been getting better every time I wash it. Next step, start my own garden! Yes, I live in an apartment, however, I've got a great front porch and I'm planning on growing some really nice veggies and what-not this summer. I'm not really planning on being able to totally sustain us as far as veggies, but if I can grow some squashes, beans, peas, carrots and hubby wants to try potatoes, I'd love it. It'd just be a container garden, but I'm pretty sure we'd be able to grow a few plants here and there.

Well, I think I've covered everything for now. Hopefully I'll be able to post a little more regularly!

This Army Life is Crazy!

I graduated basic and AIT on time... crazy I know... it was actually pretty fun... nothing like I thought it would be. It was really a lot easier than I anticipated. Now I'm at my duty station... working my way through the last week or so of training before I can actually do my job. I've met a few people that are really helpful and stuff and I should be able to get my OCS packet put together soon and start the next phase of this crazy life.

DH is working on reenlisting as well. We've talked about it a lot and we both think we're ready for it. He still has a few more things to finish before he knows for sure if he'll even be able to but he's hoping to find out early next month.

Oh! I almost forgot! I'm hoping to restart working on my MBA next month as well. It'll be all online... so I'll be able to work on it when I'm not working. We shall see...

Christmas Time OH Christmas Time!!

'Tis Christmas time!! YAY!

We had Christmas with my parents on Friday, currently at my grandparents' for today and tomorrow, gonna open gifts with grandparents Sunday... and then Christmas with hubby on Tuesday! :D

Less than 2 months to go until I leave for basic training! EEK! It's starting to get scary! lol I know I'm gonna do awesome on my APFT... at least the pushups and situps part, I know I'll PASS the run but I've only been getting like a 9 minute mile... and I haven't run 2 full miles in a while. I'm hoping that we'll do some serious PT at the next few future soldier training sessions, now that it's snowing I'm definitely not going out running for fear that I'll twist or break an ankle, at this point, if that happens I won't be shipping on time.

Today while we were traveling we had car problems (why does this always happen!) we drove from home to dad's building, cleaned the building, drove to the gas station... he had pulled up to the wrong side, tried to turn the car back on to move it and it wouldn't start... Dad came and jumped it and we drove it to an auto parts store and got a new battery which fixed the problem. Don't even buy a car from Bizzaro's... we just bought the car and, after getting a new battery, it is starting up WAYYY better so they had to know that the battery was on its way out. Anyways... got that replaced, thankfully we had cash in the bank account, if that had happened 2 days ago we wouldn't have even been able to afford it!

Well... I'm gonna finish this then because we're headed out to watch The Hobbit soon :D

Counting Down the Days!

Wow, time has been flying by! It's December all of a sudden... a fact which I noticed as I flipped the page on my calendar the other day...

I'm still working on getting my run time down and I'm praying that I don't have to do a APFT in the cold! Hopefully they'll just take my word for it that I can make the run in the allotted time... not betting on that though! I need to work on pushups and situps too but I'm not really worried about them... I've done a few here and there... banged out 70 pushups over the course of like 15minutes the other day whilst chatting with other future soldiers! I ran Sunday afternoon 'cause it was so darn nice outside. Went 0.61mi at an 8min/mile pace. Not too shabby! I almost died doing it though... DH says I need to pace myself better but I'm not really sure how to do that. I was planning on going running today 'cause it's a nice temperature, but it's been raining off and on. As soon as I'm done with this I'm gonna go see if it looks like the rain will hold off for another 15-20 minutes and then get ready and go out.

I did purchase new running shoes the other day! They were my birthday present from DH :D. I ended up getting another pair of UnderArmour ones, I just really like the way the fit! At the end it was between those and a pair of... I think Nike's... the ones with the knobbly sole, they are what he took with him and they WERE nice, I just didn't quite like the way they felt and they were the same price as the UA ones. I wanted ones that I was comfortable with.

I haven't yet found another 31E that's leaving at the same time as myself... Actually, I haven't yet found another 31E... I've heard that it's a relatively uncommon MOS, not sure if that's good or not lol. I'm not too worried about it though, I mean, it's about the uniform and serving my country, not so much about the exact job. Besides, I tend to be the kind of person who at least tries to see the best side of everything. I figure, if 31B wasn't available for me then there must be a reason for it. We shall see. I've also heard that we cross-train with the MPs a lot and I can always reclass when it comes time to re-enlist (assuming I choose to do so!). A few people that I've talked to say that MPs tend to stay with the Army until they retire, apparently they make more in the military than they would in a comparable job in the civilian world? IDK, but I suppose I shall find out!

OK... back to civilian life here for a bit before I close this down... We rearranged the house... DH is trying to see if we can get another couple (he works with the guy) to rent out the other half of the house... we have to get my parents on board with the idea obviously... The biggest problem is that there is only one shower (the other bathroom is only a 1/2 bath) and there's only one washer/dryer. The shower is in a fairly common part of the house (you'd just have to walk through one parties living area to get to it) but the other half the house has the washer and dryer and you have to walk through what is currently our bedroom and stand in what is basically our living room to use them... IDK, i mean, if he really wants to share stuff with them I don't really care. I'm not gonna be there for most of the time anyways and I know that it would be nice for him to have someone at the house sometimes. The other nice part is that when we move out that couple might actually want to purchase/continue renting the house (they were talking about buying one but they couldn't get the financing or something). So yeah... we might have roommates as of like... January. Again, we shall see!

Welp... I suppose I should go... gonna try to go on a run, then got a tiny bit of shopping to do, and then I have to clean the building 'cause DH works late tonight. Sooo, I shall (try) to post in a few days! I know... I'm terrible at updating this thing!!!

Winter is here...I think...

It is my believe that winter is here. The temps have stayed well below warm for quite some time now and there has been frost on my vehicle now for two days in a row. I am somewhat encouraged because, although the temperatures here are below freezing, the temperature in Oklahoma still is not. This means that I MAY have some chance of not getting hypothermia and freezing to death whilst in basic training. (Please note that I say "MAY", I'm pretty sure a person could freeze to death in any temperature below about 75). Anyways, this whole "frost" development probably means that I should invest in a snow scraper, yes, I live in Erie PA in mid-November and I do not own a snow-scraper. I swear I had one last winter... but perhaps it stayed at my parents house, I do not know. What I DO know is that I had better get a new one before my car is hopelessly and completely buried in snow.

The other thing that I have noticed about this whole winter thing is that when you run your heater, your gas bill goes up. This is a much more sad prospect than that of being outside to freeze to death because now, I'm doomed to die in my house. Either we run the heat and then are unable to afford the gas bill (although we are still in the trial run of the heater and trying to figure out exactly how warm we can be without going broke) or we keep the heat low and freeze to death. The bright side of the latter part is that we will have great credit 'cause we won't have any late payments.

Next week is Thanksgiving week. We will be traveling Wednesday and Thursday for sure because I work Monday and he works Friday. Now we just have to figure out if we can be gone Tuesday as well or if we need to stay at home so that we can do the cleaning at the building... I'm really hoping that we can head up to the in-laws on Tuesday so that we can have a little extra time up there. Worst case scenario we go up Tuesday night and get there around 8-9pm. That won't be too bad, I've done it before. We shall have to see.

I do not work Black Friday. A fact for which I am thankful. I have no wish to attempt to deal with hordes of pet-purchasing people. However, I will probably attempt to get my own black Friday shopping done... Assuming we can afford to... I definitely want to get some Christmas shopping done because I'm sure I'll find stuff that's on sale that I can give to some of my siblings. Most of whom I have zero idea of what I'm getting them.

Well, I was planning on also putting in here something about the wonderful food that I've been making in the crockpot but this is already getting long and I can't really remember if I already did a crockpot blog... SO, for now. I say adieu, I shall be back later. Good-Bye to all and have a GREAT Thanksgiving if I'm not back before then!