Well, it hasn’t been very exciting.  We went shopping yesterday and got a new haltee for Casey-puppy.  He’s terrible to walk, but took him out yesterday using it and it was much, much easier!

Today, we went to the base exchange and I got a new movie, “Marley and Me”.  We’ve seen it before, but I just loved it so much that I wanted to own it.  I have all the movies that are related to our animals, and Marley is so much like Codiak that it’s just a little eerie.  I know, I’m weird when I pick out movies!  😉

And that’s all that we’ve done today.  We’re so boring.

happens to me. I’m currently baking cookies for the FRG fundraiser and that’s really not interesting at all.

Everyone’s freaking out about the Swine flu, but I’m not.

I’m drinking a beer, half watching re-runs of friends and all of the animals are outside, so as to not bother me while I bake.  Have I mentioned lately how much I dislike baking?  I’m good at it, but I don’t find anything relaxing about baking or cooking.  Nothing.  I haven’t been able to sit down for more than 5 minutes at a time.

Speaking of, I’ve been sitting for 7 minutes.  Gotta go.

Well, it’s officially unofficial!  We’re currently scheduled to head to Ft. Carson.  This could change since there are no orders, but this is how it stands at the moment!

Just wanted to let you know.

While we were in Amsterdam:

* I took a toke of someone’s “cigarette”–one puff was more than enough! WOW!
* Saw the Red-Light District and got gesture-yelled at by one of the prostitutes. The red-light in Amsterdam is not like the red-light in Germany! Sex–no, they put it OUT there. It was reminiscent of a live “JC Penney’s” ad. The girls were in undies posing or whatever, but nothing overtly sexual. There was a door behind them and it seemed pretty sterile to me…a bed with clean white sheets and a sink.
* Walked down “CoffeeHouse” row. The entire street smelled like pot. Sweet cigarettes. No, I didn’t go in. My husband is not allowed inside and out of respect, I did not enter one either. Considered getting an “Amsterdam” bong from a head shop for a souvenir, but wanted the wooden clogs more.
* Went to an Irish pub and met some interesting peeps. That’s where I had the toke.
* Saw the tulip gardens.
* Did not visit any museums (and I ALWAYS visit museums!) The Anne Frank house had a line that wrapped around the street at 10 am. We considered standing in line, but we considered the historical significance about the house, instead. Walked to the Rembrandt museum, which cost 8 euro and didn’t seem worth it. We then walked to the Van Gogh museum. There was also a line that wrapped around the building an hour before it closed…also not worth it…then there was the Rijksmuseum which was 11 euro (way too much!) which was also closing in an hour. We considered going to the diamond museum which was free and no lines (ironically) but we were already so tired by that point!
* Visited the Keukenhof gardens. My husband was bored after an hour, but stayed with me for nearly 7 hours. I couldn’t get enough! It was fabulous!
* We thought that we’d visit a military museum in Arnhem, but it didn’t work out so well and we became pressed for time. We did visit a cemetery and saw the famous Arnhem bridge (but did not drive across it). The cemetery was not an American cemetery, either. We were the only ones there besides the grounds keeper. The people who were buried there were polish, british and dutch. We noticed a stark contrast between American and non-American soldiers–non-American soldiers were older and many with families. There were very few men who were in their late teens and early twenties. Many of them were in their mid to late 20s and even some privates as old as 38. It was pretty impressive. As Americans, we tend not to think about the other people who lost their lives in the war and come to think of it, never seen a cemetery for German soldiers who fought. They may have been OUR enemy, but they were someone’s HERO! And I think the point gets lost sometimes…they were just people, kids like our grandparents were back then. They were just as much sons, brothers, uncles etc as our guys were and all of the guys who lost their lives need to be remembered…not just the “good guys”–insomuch as the men and women (all 6.5 million of them) who innocently lost their lives.

A couple of days ago, we got a little bit more information, but getting this bit of information has actually broadened things a bit and it is more unclear than ever before.

The news that we received was that our FSTE was approved until Aug.  Change of command will be on June 4th at 10 am.  If you’re here, you should come.

We are going to take advantage of the short time that we have left here and Rob is busy planning the last three weeks that we will be in Europe.  On the agenda: Amsterdam, Luxembourg, Zurich, Innsbruck, Salzburg, Venice, Rome and other places that I can’t quite remember because the list is rather long.

The other bit of information that we can “probably” count on is for Rob to attend IO school at Ft. Leavenworth for 12 weeks.  I still don’t know where I’m going to be.  We should have that bit of information in the next 6 weeks or so (or so I hope!)  So, since there’s not much else to say, I will bid you a fair goodbye and will keep you posted as we get more information.  Ciao!

My husband just spoke to his branch manager today. He has the extension paperwork, but will not approve it…at least not yet. There is still no one but my husband to fill this slot and time is becoming more precious.

Rob will call again next week to see if there is any other news. I think there are 2 things about being married to the military that are the most stressful. 1) Deployment. It is never easy to see your Soldier deploy. 2) Not knowing where you’re going to be stationed and when.

If I were a betting woman, and I only occasionally gamble, I would put my odds on we’re moving soon–as in April–soon. I hate not knowing. I hate not being able to plan certain things. I’ve always been the kind of person that can live by the seat of my pants and just go with it, but certain things need to be planned. Like: I want to go back to school. I can’t won’t submit applications to any school if I don’t know where we’re going to end up living.  I would like to have a look around the web to see about a place to live.  And I’ve done some of that already, but in all likelihood, the houses that I am looking at now will not be available when we move.

There are a couple of possibilities, however, the strongest of all the scenarios seems to be at Ft. Lewis, Washington (state).  If we get stationed there, I will likely go to school in Tacoma.  Where should we live?  Should we try to get quarters on post or off?  Will the quarters on post have a yard for my dogs to play in?  The number of animals that we have shouldn’t be a problem.  It’s simply a matter of getting an exception to policy, and for that, it’s pretty easy to do.  We have numerous friends that have more than 2 animals and live on post so I really can’t see why that would be a problem.  I just want a yard.  My dogs deserve to play outside and off leash.  If we opt for on post housing, Gizmo will not be allowed outside.  He’s not really an outdoor cat, but he needs exercise too.  I have put both Lilo and Gizmo on leashes and it just looks silly.  I definitely get looks for it–and quips.  Gizmo never goes far and he’s scared to death of traffic, but he still needs to be able to play outdoors.

On the other side of the coin, living off post, we just have to find a landlord that allows us to have pets in their home.  Typically, a pet deposit will be required and if we live in an apartment building, there might also be additional requirements such as nutering our dogs.  It’s probably going to happen anyway, but I don’t want my landlord to tell me what to do with my pets.  I’m responsible and they don’t go off leash outside of my house or my property.  Some apartments also have additional rules as to the number of pets that can live there and sometimes weight can be a factor.  We most likely won’t be living in an apartment building, but I don’t want to rule out anything at this juncture–I don’t even know where we’re going to get stationed.  Living off post also has other considerations.  Deposits and pet deposits, where to live that is most convenient to both my husband and I and that is a nice neighborhood.  School districts don’t even enter our thinking right at this stage because we don’t have children, but I do want to go back to college, so we need to find a place that is somewhere in the middle for both of us.  However, college will be a temporary thing, so it doesn’t matter if I have to drive an extra say 15-20 minutes to get to campus.  That really doesn’t bother me.

Oh, the life of the military family.  I hate sitting in limbo like this.  I want answers!  (and I am not the only one!)

It has been a long time since I’ve even looked at this blog! I spend the majority of my time on Facebook, now.

I’m in the process of finishing cleaning my house. Things have been crazy and we are going to be moving soon. Where and when is still unknown, but a move in our near future. I am trying to go through all my stuff and trying to get rid of what I can. I finally went through my closet and found a ton of stuff that I needed to get rid of.

The progress that I am making is slow, but it’s progress. I didn’t have a lot of goals to accomplish today, but getting the trash taken care of and doing several loads of laundry is on my list. I’m nearly done with the trash and I’ve done a couple of loads of laundry.

I have an FRG meeting tonight and I have to leave in a couple of hours for that, so that is why my goal list is rather short today.

The dogs let me sleep in almost an hour today, so that felt pretty good…of course, we all went to bed around midnight, so they let me have a little extra sleep when I go to bed late.

Anyway, nothing new really going on, but just thought I’d let you know that I’m alright and I’m still around!

Thanks for reading and TTFN!

Today, Rob and I did a bit of cleaning and we’re going to go out to dinner tonight!  It’s gonna be so much fun!  We even started talking about getting our Christmas cards done soon–I can’t WAIT!!!  Woohoo!!!  I don’t want to give away the surprise, but it’s great!!!

As for Christmas gifts, I am worried that everyone’s going to be disappointed.  I know, it’s a silly thing to worry about, but what we’re giving as gifts this year is out of LOVE!  I don’t want to talk too much about it cuz then I would be letting the cat out of the bag…again, something I don’t want to do!

Okay, so I have to go get ready to go out for dinner!  Thanks for reading!!!!!

As many of you know, I am going for a career change when I get back to the states.  After talking with a friend of mine several months ago, she told me that she thought I would make a great nurse because I love working with people, I want to help them and in her opinion, she says I’m smart.  😉

Well, after doing much research, I think I’ve decided which college I’d like to attend.  CSU-Pueblo.  The problem right now is that I have about 25 credit hours of prerequisites that I have to take  — and I missed the deadline for admission this coming summer!  ARG!  To top that off, I have to complete 50% of the prerequisites before I can even consider applying to the Nursing School.  This is across the board!  Apparently, there are about 300 students that apply to the program and only about 180 for the 2 programs (accelerated and traditional–I’m going to go down the traditional route) are even accepted!  So, it’s highly competitive!   Okay, I’m can handle it…Seriously, that’s alright!

I’m cool and calm and relaxed and so on…YEAH–NOT!  Okay, so first I have to breathe.  Next, I need to figure out how I can study for Microbiology, A & P and Chemistry BEFORE I go back to school so that I will do well in these classes.  The better I do, the better my chances that I wouldn’t be wait-listed or not accepted at all!  So any suggestions on how to start studying for these classes before I take these classes?  As a student of history, it was just a matter of reading the material and writing some papers.  I guess to me that is easy…chemistry–not so much.

I just need to know how to get started without taking the classes first.  There isn’t time for me to audit a class and then taking it for credit later.  So, I’m going to have to figure it out.  But, seriously, any help would gratefully accepted!!!!

Thanks for reading and have a great day!  🙂

Yes, yes I am.  I miss snow.  There hasn’t been a snow storm here in quite a long time.  We got a fluffy snow on Easter this year…but I want a fall snow!

I was really disappointed when it didn’t snow on Halloween!!!!

Oh well.  Maybe my prayers will be answered soon!!!!