Love is in the Air.... I think

This week, on the 29th, is mine and E's 9th anniversary. We have always tried to do something special to commemorate that day. Our wedding was a double ceremony with another couple who we shared an apartment with. I guess I was too annoying, cooked better than her, and was too clean, didn't drink enough, and liked going to bed too early so that arrangement didn't last more than 10 months after we got married. After they moved out, we only saw them once more.
Anyway, we got married on the beach. I'll have to dig out a photo later.* It was a lovely day and since we have moved back down here we took Dani there a couple of times. She gets huge satisfaction from being where we got married. She is a true romantic.

Our honeymoon consisted of 3 nights in a top floor corner room of a wonderful hotel on the island. Actually, it was very close to the hotel where we stayed while waiting for the house to close last year. We only left the room once because we thought we should at least go out to dinner. We raided the snack machine right outside of our room and had room service. One of the days, it might have been that Sunday, we layed in bed all day long, and wacthed an Animaniacs marathon. It is still one of my favorite memories of our honeymoon. I don't know why, maybe because it is so silly. Also one night we moved the sleeper sofa from our room out onto the balcony and we slept outside.

Our first anniversary we took a trip to Colonial Williamsburg. We loved it. I am a history freak, and I love old houses and buildings. I fell in love with Virginia on that trip and I would love to live there someday.

Our second anniversary, we found a B&B at the base of Mt. Hood, Oregon. I loved it there. It was so beautiful. We took a drive up to the mountain and saw the Timberline lodge and saw people skiing. We drove back down the mountain and found a lovely lake that we walked around. It was so peaceful.

Shortly before our 3rd anniversary Dani was born. So we didn't do anything that year. The next one E was deployed. For our 5th, we were in Alaska and all we could really do was go out to dinner. Which was fantastic. The 6th, we stayed at another B&B (I can't get the website to come up) in Anchorage with Dani in tow. For our 7th, I don't know what we did. And last year..... maybe we went to dinner. I don't remember.

Typing all of that out makes me realize that the last few years have been kind of rough. My favorites were the first 2. We are trying to make an effort this year. We don't have many funds because every extra dollar goes to my friend because we are buying her van. We only have $1000 left to give her.

Neither one of us is good at coming up with ideas. E wants to go shopping and go out to dinner, but there is that pesky money thing. So, I suggested a picnic on the beach. It seems harder this year because we aren't really doing that well together. We still love each other, and are attracted to each other, but I guess I am the problem.

My heart is just not into anything. And I find that very sad and not celebratory at all.


*BTW, I don't have a scanner, so whenever I want to upload a picture that I don't have on disk or memory stick I take a picture of it with my digital camera. I can zoom in so that all I see is the photo itself. Then I can put it on the computer. That's what I did with my profile picture in the corner.

Endorphins are my Friends

I made it through the last few days of summer break. I feel so much better. I have a few hours a day to myself. I can clean the house without interruption. I can make myself some lunch. I can even play a video game. Alone.

I started classes this week as well. I am a total geek. I love my accounting class and getting all the numbers to work out. I've probably never mentioned this but I color code my checkbook when I get my bank balance. I use an orange higlighter for deposits, yellow for debits, pink for checks and I use a blue one where I balance with the bank so that if I make an error, I have a starting point to reference to. Is that too much?

I also color code my calendar. I have 2. One hangs on the wall above my computer and the other is a day planner I keep in my purse. I have the family's schedule on these calendars. I highlight appointments for Dani in pink, me in yellow, doctors in orange, E in blue, and Girl Scout stuff in green. It's wonderful because I can look at a day of the week and see who has what going on.

Dani started soccer practice this week. She is having a blast, but my child is so uncoordinated. She has too work on her speed and her control of the ball. It's almost painful watching her. Last night she spent the better part of the practice staring at the sky watching dragonflies buzz by.
But she's having fun, and I know that she needs to work on those basic skills anyway. I just don't want her to get upset if she gets run over in game.

I also started working out again. I started noticing then when E came home from his mandatory PT at work he was in such a good mood. I finally was witness to all the hipe about endorphins. He was almost annoying. So, one morning after Dani left on the bus I jumped on the treadmill and did some weight work. I was in a good mood all day long and when E came home on a day where he didn't have PT, I annoyed him. Last night while Dani was at practive he and I took turns jogging around the soccer complex. It's about a 1/2 mile one time around. Finally both of us were in a good mood and it was lovely.

My other class this semester is a Wellness class and I will be getting a workout in there as well. I plan on running at home Monday and Fridays. Working out in class on Tues. and Thursdays and running the soccer field those nights as well. Wed. will be my light day where I clean the house and Sat. and Sun. will be down days. I'm trying to get back up to almost gallon of water a day habit and if I succeed at all of this, I can afford to visit our local ice cream shop for a weekly banana split. Right?

My last nerve... yeah, it walked out awhile ago

I have never been so ready for school to start in my entire life. Maybe it's not entirely fair, since I don't necessarily want it to start for me, but for Dani. She is driving me nuts. I know she is bored, and I am not much fun. But I can't take it anymore. Most of it I'm sure is to blame on my sucky attitude. However, I am also frustrated with her. Somewhere she had decided that she can sass me, and when she does it, I want to slap her. I don't, but I want to.

The past few days I have been asking her to sit and write some simple words, numbers, and her alphabet. I told her that she couldn't watch TV or movies until her page for the day was done. And we are not talking a thesis here.... it was a page of that really wide ruled paper with the dotted lines that help kids with their lettering. There are five lines on a page and I wrote one word on each line and asked her to finish that line with that word. So, what was her solution? She went the whole day without watching any TV or movies meanwhile complaining to me how bored she was and 'frustrated'. I told her countless times, "All you need to do is sit and write for 5 minutes and you will be done". So, she sits there for half and hour on one word and cries. I know that school work isn't fun. But writing has not been her strong point. So, I'm trying to give her a refresher before school starts on Monday.

I also want school to start for me. I wanted to take a few CLEP tests this summer, but I didn't. My local library has the materials, but they are on their database and I have to be in the library to use them. Sure, I can do that. I'll just take my talkative 6 year old who loves to act out the storylines in whatever story she is looking at and demands an audience. I'm sure I'll do real well on those tests. Not to mention, I have felt completely useless this summer. I would like to do something productive.

I registered for my classes and that was a pain in my ass. My school has 3 different campuses and education centers on both bases. So while you are registering for classes you have to pay attention to what campus you will be going to that semester. I try to keep my classes to 2 days a week. And I wanted to take 3 classes. But the campus nearest to me was not offering 3 consecutive classes on my class schedule on the days that I wanted. So, I looked at the other campus and they did!! And when I registered for them, 2 of the 3 were already full. I was pissed.

Oh, and that counseling thing? Yeah, we still haven't done that. If I get a referral from my PCM, E will not be able to go to those sessions with me because he will not be covered under a civilian referral. So, we have to wait until his PCM on base has an opening "to meet with us" to determine what our needs are and then he will put in a referral for us.

And lately, I feel like I am losing my mind because I am so angry and frustrated. And I swear to God, I cannot go anywhere without seeing a pregnant woman. While we were visiting my mom, we went barhopping one night. We went to 2 bars and there were pregnant women there too. I couldn't believe my luck. Needless to say, I got trashed.

My New Dining Room

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, I undertook a redecorating project. My dining room. In my post D&C stupor I didn't take before pictures so I had to search through our pictures and I found one of the dining room from February at E's birthday party. He had the best time. Only women were there. Anyway, notice the pansy border, pansy valances, and I don't know if you can see, but the walls are covered in plaid wallpaper. You may remember last July or August, I redid the kitchen in that blue to the left.

My plan was to bring the blue the rest of the way into the dining room and have the bottoms of the walls white. I thought that wainscoting would be a homey and comforting touch.

So, I stripped the wallpaper. Underneath the walls were yellow, so just in case, I primed them. Then I got out my blue paint and painted the walls. Then I painted the window sills the same white that I painted my cabinets last year. After the painting, E helped me figure out the measurements to cut out the window shapes in the wainscoting and I did that with a jigsaw. Then E and I took a crash course in how to use a mitre saw and box to put up the chair rail and molding around the windows. Here is what we ended up with. I really like it.

I am accenting with black iron accessories. I plan on getting some kind of black light fixture and we want to put white crown molding along the ceiling. We want to take the crown molding through to the living room as well to try to blend the blue and cashew color that we have in the living room. Also, way down the road, I want to extend the tile in the living room throughout the kitchen and into the bathrooms. But that is far away. For now, I can live with the green floor.

Next I think I want to do Dani's room. It is currently a very dark but cheery blue color. I am thinking white on the bottom half of the walls with art centers like a dry erase board mounted onto the wall, or a chalkboard. On the top half of the walls I haven't made up my mind if I would like to see different shades of pink stripes, purple stripes, or both. I'm trying to get Dani's input but she wants her room like it was in Alaska. Which I can't find right now, but it was a pink jungle. Complete with palm trees, monkeys, giraffe, elephant, and flamingo. All painted in pink. It was delicious.

I couldn't resist

You're Night!

by Elie Wiesel

You've had some truly horrific experiences, especially recently, and
you can barely stand to discuss them. While many people are afraid of getting close to
you because of this, it has also built a fascination and admiration of you that is hard
to rival. You know that things are about to get better soon, but that the trauma will be
impossible to forget. You are short, but powerful.


Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

Who Spilt the Beans?

I guess if you HAVE to break a glass canister full of dried beans, it might as well be while you are vacuuming.

Good times.