California!

Have a few more pictures to share from Mike!! He keeps telling me how in love with California he is!! We have talked about maybe moving to Washington state at some point, but I can definitely see California in the future! At this point I think I would travel anywhere with him as long as we could actually be together!

Didn't get to talk to Mike on the phone yesterday, bu he said he had an easy day yesterday - got fitted for body armor, and then 9 of them went on an adventure to the beach! "So we found a van and are sneaking off post!" Have not heard yet how that turned out - but it provided for some awesome pics and I'm sure some already needed time away from post (which he says is tiny!)! He reassured me that since the capt. was with him they wouldn't get into too much trouble!






Also found out that Mike wasn't able to take his lap top with him, so this is kind of frustrating, but at least right now we are able to text back and forth.

I had the sad realization yesterday that this weekend will be the first weekend that we won't see each other at all! That thought really took me by surprise. I'm so used to him being at Knox during the week, but if he can't come home I go visit him and see at least a little bit of him! This pill was hard to swallow, mostly because it is making it a new level of real. I was so used to my weekend plans being with him and when I realized yesterday that tomorrow was Friday and I didn't have much going on it was like crap! I got to be social and organize stuff again!! Anyway, looking forward to spending some time with a friend or 2 from high school tonight! Gotta try and stay busy! :)

Got an email from our wedding photographer last week with a preview of our wedding album!! Overall it looks great, I emailed her back with a few questions and potential changes and am waiting to hear back on that!! Definitely excited to have that in my possession finally!!

I finished Twilight yesterday - read it in less than 24 hours!! Trying to set up a time with Jill to get the next two books - I might just go to the library though to get it sooner! =hooked!! Claire (shout out!), I would love your list of good books to add to my so far non-existent summer reading list!! I want to read Eat, Pray, Love before the movie comes out but other then that I don't have much on my list! Other people who read this, if you have book suggestions, please share! Reading provides a new level of stimulation that watching all six seasons of The Hills did not.. Go figure!!

Alright, breakfast time and on to the rest of my day! Love!

Twilight - the cure?

After a long, tedious day of applying for jobs (yes, still thankful that I continue to find jobs to apply for!) I sat myself down and started reading Twilight (thanks to dear sis-in-law for loaning it to me!). Given that I'm a very slow reader and already on page 94 I find myself wondering if this Twilight phenomena might be the cure to the Army blues! Granted, I have no clue what time I actually started reading it, but I guess that speaks for itself that I'm engrossed! I've heard much criticism about the poor writing and "awful at best grammar" but it is surprisingly fascinating and fun to read! Besides, I'm not a grammar queen (if you haven't noticed!).

Just finished "cooking" a skillet meal for myself that I think is tasty enough to share! I love the bertoli meals as any easy meal when I'm not in the mood to cook, but they are just so dang expensive! I recently discovered Voila! they are considerably cheaper and pretty tasty! Nutritional? Eh?

Mike has arrived safely in the desert! Haven't heard much, but he sent two pictures of his living accommodations! Even though you can't really tell from the pictures, the room will house 40 soldiers! good times! Hoping to be able to share more pictures of the area as I get them!

Back to Twilight for me, folks!

new recipe! new hair cut!

So far it has been a WONDERFUL weekend! :) Mike got in on Thursday in time for a late dinner which was super yummy! I made a new recipe from my Southern Living Slow-Cooker Cookbook = French Dip Sandwiches!! This one is worth sharing folks!

Ingredients:
1 (3 1/2 - 4 lb) boneless chuck roast, trimmed and cut in half *I got a little trim happy and ended up having probably 8 smaller pieces in the crock pot*
1/2 cup soy sauce
1 beef bouillon cube
1 bay leaf
3-4 peppercorns, crushed *wasn't sure about this so I used my pepper grinder and just cranked it a few times - probably 1/4 tsp?*
1 tsp dried rosemary
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp garlic powder
12 french sandwich rolls
Swiss cheese, optional (provolone would be yummy too!)

Directions:
Place roast in a 5-quart slow cooker. Combine soy sauce and next 6 ingredients; pour over roast. Add water to slow cooker until roast is almost covered.
Cover and cook on low for 7 hours or until very tender (by the way, I was cutting it close on time so I had it on low for a bit, cranked it up to high for 2 hours and then back to low for a bit and it was ready!) Remove roast, reserving broth = au jus!; shred roast with 2 forks. Place shredded meat evenly in rolls and serve with reserved broth for dipping.

The recipes says it makes 12 servings, but it definitely wasn't 12 "Mike-sized" servings. I think I bought a pack of 8 buns and that was more than enough! We also added a slice of swiss cheese to the sandwich for some extra yumminess!!

Mike and I met up with his parents last night for dinner and then to Blue Ash for their summer concert!! The music was great!





As promised, here is a before and after picture of my hair!! I was so ready for a change and wanting to lose some of the length which gets so HOT in the summer!




Well that's about it for now! Going out on a double date with the brother and sister in law!!

Back home!

hello!! back from Ft. Knox and very tired! Mike had to be up early so I just left soon after him!! I've had a few questions wondering if I was really up at 5:30 am blogging the other day - and I think that was California time! I fixed the time zone so we're current. Thanks for the concern.

FRG meeting went well - got updated information about dates and a going away party for the soldiers. It is really hard for me to believe / comprehend how soon Mike really is leaving for training. As some of you know, he was supposed to leave much earlier this month, but that got cancelled - so we're constantly preparing for him to leave and readjusting.. somewhat draining! bottom line even though I have feelings of "wanting to get this over with" I'm not ready for him to leave and will gladly drive to Knox as much as possible even if it only means a few hours together.

Still on my movie kick - just watched The Lovely Bones.. not the best. I read the book a long time ago and was curious - nothing great though! And depressing too! Leap Year still takes my top pick for best movie watched this summer!!

I want to start adding pictures to jazz up some posts so let's start with a few pictures of Amelia! She's a funny girl. Maybe later I'll post some before and after pics of my new haircut!! :o)


meet Amelia!


playing with her scratching mat :)


OK mom and dad Seagram just called and are going to stop by the apt to help with a project = clean up time!!! lol.

Weekend, baby!!

It's Friday!!! And this Friday is the start of an Army weekend!! Mike has drill at Ft. Knox, so I'm going down to visit him and to attend the FRG family support group meeting on Saturday!! I'm also in the market for some new army wife stickers for my car, and ever on the hunt for the classic Army t-shirt which seems unreasonably hard to find!! ya know, the kind that just says "army" on the front - like the pt shirts, but not the pt shirt? All I can find has awful flowers all over it!

In other news we just found out that one of my cats, Fiv (we have two, Amelia who is almost 2 and Fiv who is 7) has "Feline idiopathic cystitis" wowzer! I'm learning much more about cats then I ever imagined! Not really a bad thing, just surprising. Thankfully, I've really fallen in love with these girls and appreciate the responsibility of being a soon to be single mommy of 2! ;) fortunately, just temporarily!

Anyway back to the cystitis - we took Fiv to the vet last weekend b/c she was not using the litter box properly and we were concerned about a potential UTI.. after much expense including a urine culture the vet discovered that fortunately it's not an infection (especially since the prescribed medicine was making her throw up and I discontinued it after a few days) but this cystitis thing which is an inflammation. Anyway, probably enough detail about Fiv and her bladder for this post - basically we have a sick cat on our hands and she needs to be pampered! Fortunately this includes giving her wet cat food, which she loves - and seeing her chow down makes me feel like a queen.

I have been on a movie kick lately!! It's much too hot to do most things, in my opinion! Watched Leap Year last night and would actually recommend it! Pretty cute! Have you seen any good movies lately? Let me know!!

OK time to pack and get ready to head to Knox!

New life, new blog??

well folks, I've been thinking.. not really sure what all this blogging is about, but there have been a lot of new happenings in my life and why not.. blog about it? sure! I guess that's the way of doing things these days? My best guess is this blog will be a strange assortment of thoughts, new recipes I like, cool things I see and anything else I feel the need to share! So get ready!