Climbing a Mountain (of laundry)

I'm still doing laundry. I'm so frustrated with it right now.

In case you missed it, I was supposed to be home from house-hunting last Monday and then Wednesday before Thanksgiving we were all going to drive to Hometown, USA together. Well, our flight for our first leg of the trip got delayed and we missed our connection. Luckily we were flying through Hometown, USA so we just stayed at my parent's house for the extra 2 days.

I was thinking (hoping) that D would have done a load of laundry (or perhaps folded a basket) while I was gone.

That didn't happen and now I not only have to do all the laundry from our trip, but I started doing what I thought was dirty laundry (because it was sitting in laundry baskets on the floor unfolded). Nope, it turns out that was the laundry I did before I left and didn't have time to fold.

UGH! I am doing more laundry than I needed. I don't think I'm ever going to finish this mountain of laundry.

I have to go fold the two loads sitting in my kitchen.

Home Sweet Home....

Well, we're back from our whirlwind house-hunting-Thanksgiving extravaganza! Its really nice to be back home but I have so much stuff to do over the next few days that I want to just head back to Hometown, USA and lay around!

Seriously. The laundry, grocery shopping, cleaning, etc. has really piled up over the past week. I realized this morning though, while menu planning and writing my grocery list that we have less than three weeks left in this house. Ack!

The movers are coming December 8th to start packing our stuff up. I knew that it would come really fast after Thanksgiving, but I wasn't expecting it to come this fast! I feel like there's too much to do and not enough time to get it all done! Oh, did I mention that we got the house? We're currently under contract and choosing carpet, tile and hardwood colors for the house! Things are moving fast, but we're very excited to finally be in our own place and have room to spread out.

I'm going to really make an attempt to get back into the blogging groove now that we're back! I didn't have my computer at my parent's house so it was hard to blog while we were gone. So anyway, I know I keep saying it, but I really am back!

A Red Letter Day!

So after all the action and excitment that comes with a holiday spent with family, we're relaxing this morning and eating leftovers. I decided to hop online and check out the activity in the bloggy world and lo and behold, I have reached 100 followers!

I want to extend a big thank you to everyone who has determined that I am worth following, and say welcome to all my new followers!


So the other night D and I were talking about my blog and I happened to mention that I was close to having 100 followers. He continues to be super amazed by my popularity (ha!) and he's convinced that someday soon we'll be living off the profits from my super-awesome blog and subsequent book (a la Pioneer Woman).

No, really, he thinks that.

Anyway, the conversation continued and he suggested that once I hit 100 followers we should have a special dinner to celebrate.

I kind of laughed at the idea, but after thinking about it a little, I like the idea! I'm going to expand on it a little further and let you all suggest your favorite recipes or menus for our dinner. It is, after all, because of you that we'll be celebrating! So, start thinking about what I should make, because I'm opening up the comments section for you guys to make suggestions for the next week.

Next Friday, December 3 I will officially close the contest and organize all the suggestions by dish type (like appetizers, main dishes, desserts, etc.) and I'll randomly choose the recipes that l'll make for our dinner! Don't worry, I will blog about the preparation and how the whole meal turns out so you all know how much we enjoy your favorite recipes!

So, get thinking and let me know what we should make!

Details: Make sure that you either submit the directions for making your recipe or you enable your email address on your profile so I can get in touch with you to get the recipe! If I can't get in touch with you and the recipe isn't included in your post, then your entry will be disqualified. Sorry.

Thanks so much for following me!

Oh, hi!

Sorry I've been MIA lately. I was planning on getting home and updating you all as soon as we knew anything about the house.

Plans changed drastically.

We got to the airport on Monday morning only to find out that our flight was delayed and we would miss our connection. They were planning to rebook us on a later connection flight which would have been fine, but considering the fact that our house is 2 hours from the airport, that would add a LOT of extra time to our travel day.

Then I got this great idea. Our layover was supposed to be in the airport in my parent's town. We were planning to drive the 6 hours from our house to Hometown, USA today, so I decided that it would just be so much easier to stay here in Hometown, USA. I quickly told the ticket agent to cancel my second flight and we arrived at my parent's house Monday afternoon. D and the dog are still at home and will be driving up this afternoon.

That catches you all up to last night.

I got word from our realtor yesterday evening that the offer we submitted was countered, which we were (honestly) expecting, so we approved the changes and are under contract! Yay! Now that we know we're getting the house, I am so excited!

We definitely have a lot to be thankful for this year! I most likely won't get on to post tomorrow, so happy Thanksgiving, everyone! See you later this week!

Looking Forward

So in case you forgot, AJ and I made the trip to our next duty station this weekend to house-hunt. When I say "house-hunt" I really mean we wanted to look at the house we found online. We went out to the neighborhood today and walked through it, it's not finished being built, so we walked through the framed out house and the did a walk through of one of the finished ones across the street. It's going to be so awesome if we get it!

We made an offer and should know by tomorrow whether or not it's been accepted.

I'm super excited and hope everything works out! This house is more than three times the size of our current house (the shoe box we live in) and in a great neighborhood! I kept telling AJ that the closets in the new house are bigger than her current bedroom!

Anyway, I just wanted to jump on and let you all know what's going on! Keep your fingers crossed for us!

MilSpouse Friday Fill-In...

I figured that I should stop being lazy and get back to participating in the Friday Fill-In again! Its been a few weeks since I last linked up, but in my defense, I haven't been being lazy, I've honestly been super busy (and out of town a lot!).

Here we go....

1.If you had to be shipwrecked on a deserted island, but all your human needs – such as food and water – were taken care of, what two items would you want to have with you?

I'm going to assume that D and AJ would be with me already, so I'm bringing my computer and Dr. Pepper.


2.If you were a salad, what kind of dressing would you have?

French because its the best.


3.If you had to live on a ranch, what kind of animals would you raise/own?

Dogs? I'm not really a livestock type of person, but if I had to choose it would be cows or horses.


4.If your life was was portrayed as a movie, who would you choose to play you and your significant other?

For me, its super easy. Julia Stiles (because I look just like her). D looks like the cartoon character Stan from American Dad. Can he be played by a cartoon? No? Then I'm going to choose Jake Gyllenhal because he kind of looks like him.


5.What was the last thing you put a stamp on (envelope, duh, but what was in the envelope)?

An envelope that contained a check payable to my friend for my part of the hotel room we stayed in when I went to my college reunion with all the girlies. I sent her a check a week and a half ago, but I sent it to the wrong address (genius) so I had to send her another one.

Did You Hear?

I'm sure a lot of you have already heard about this, but Shutterfly.com is giving bloggers 50 free holiday photos cards this holiday season! I don't know if you've ever looked at their stock, but they have some of the cutest, as well as some of the classiest photo cards I've seen.

We have ordered photo cards the past few years and I just have to say, if you've never designed (and I use the term design very loosely) your own cards, then you're missing out. Shutterfly makes it so easy to get your very own personalized cards! All you have to do is upload the photo (or photos) you want to use and then drag and drop the picture in the correct location on the card. The best part is that the cards all have a little saying, but then you're able to add in any text you want in the greeting section of the card.

D's first choice.

Another one we like.

We have a bunch of awesome pictures that we took this year, so choosing one (or a few favorites, depending on the card you choose) was hard for me. Luckily, you can try out a bunch of different cards and photos to see which combination is your favorite before you decide on one.

Have I mentioned how easy this is and how nice they always turn out? I am so excited, especially since I'll be able to show off a super cute picture of AJ for all our friends and family this holiday season! Don't forget, they also have calendars and photo mugs that you can create as well. I know that we're planning to make an "AJ Calendar."

To browse all their Christmas photo cards, just head on over there.

An Honest-To-Goodness-Real Post

Its only been 1,942 days since my last real post, so I figured that we were due.

Today we're going to talk about buying a house. In case you missed the last post about this topic, you can click here to read all about it. A few weeks after I posted that we decided that we weren't going to have enough time to buy a house so we decided to live on post. Then we found out that we can't do that either so we settled on being renters again. Here is the post about that situation.

There has been a lot going on (behind the scenes) that I didn't tell you guys about. Sorry, I'm a bad blogger! I also have an 8 month old who has mastered crawling and thinks she can walk. Please note, she can't walk, she just thinks she can. See where I'm going with this? Today I'm going to attempt to bring you all up to speed on the house saga that is my life.

Anyway, on to the story.

We're squarely back in the corner of "we're buying a house when before we get to our next duty station."

We had a conversation with another couple (at a Halloween party while dressed as Homer and Marge Simpson) who told us that they just purchased a brand new house in a neighborhood that we like for a price we can afford. We started looking at some of the floorplans that we found online and decided that we like one of them.

We got in contact with the listing agent and they were super pushy and tried to get us to sign a contract without our realtor getting involved. I tried to get a list of options from them and they assured me that once we made an offer and went under contract they would give us all that stuff.

Wait, what?

Ummm, I think I want my agent to get in contact with you so that we know exactly what we are looking at before we sign anything. Let me tell you, she was less than pleased to hear this. I'm pretty sure that, no, I know that she thought I was a total sucker and was just going to go along with her plan and sign on the dotted line without even reading the offer.

Fast forwarding through all the boring stuff after we ruined her day by being intelligent and you get to the present day. AJ and I are leaving Saturday to fly out there to look at the house before we make an offer. If for some reason the house we want is no longer available we have seen a few others online that we liked that I'm going to check out as well.

D would be coming along, but he already had plans for the weekend to go visit a friend from his last unit who lives kind of close to where we're stationed. He hasn't seen the guy in a while and since we're getting ready to leave, we figured that he should get down there soon. I would have liked to wait for him to be able to come, but as you are all aware, Thanksgiving is next weekend and then we're moving. We want to make sure that we're able to close on the house in time to get settled before D's next school starts.

So that is the short version of what is actually a much, much longer story. I'll make sure to update y'all again once more progress has been made on "Operation: Find Us A House." Until then, you can look forward to my regularly scheduled mindless posting!

Just kidding. Hopefully I have something important to say in the next few days.

Race Weekend (In Pictures)

Before I start this post I want to let you know that I didn't take my camera with me to the race, so there are no pictures from Sunday since we were running and then traveling home and the last thing I wanted to do was worry about getting my camera out!

The water taxi on the riverwalk.

A yummy restaurant on the riverwalk (happens to share a name with the dog we had growing up).

Me and my sister posing on a bridge.

Waiting for lunch!

My parents on the bridge.

The twin cypress trees.

The statue in Travis park.

"Lest we forget, our confederate dead."

The restaurant where we ate dinner Friday night.

My mom getting "branded."

My mom and sister "rocking on" at the expo.

Yummy Texas beer!

The statue at the Alamo.

My family in front of the Alamo.

Oh, Hi There....

My name is Beth and this is my blog. Remember me?

I ran a half marathon this weekend. 13.1 miles. I didn't finish in under 2 hours, but I also didn't really think I would. I did finish in a personal best of 2:05:53. My previous best (and only) half marathon time was 2:12:andsomeseconds. I'm pretty happy that I was able to shave 7 minutes off my time, especially since the last time I ran 13.1 miles was before I had created human life.

Now that I've finished this race, I'm parked somewhere squarely between being super pumped for my next race in February and really, really, dreading it. I am dreading all the training runs that lie between me and my next race, but I'm also very excited about running the race.

Before this weekend I hadn't raced in almost 4 years. The last half marathon I did was in January 2007. I forgot about how much fun it is to run in a race and know that you're going to beat people. I forgot how motivated I get when people pass me (competitive, much?). I forgot how much fun it is to tour a city while you're running through it.

I'm also uber excited about February because I know tons and tons of people who are going to be converging on Disney World to run the race. It should be a big, amazing, awesome time!

So, with that being said, the countdown is now on...I have three weeks off before I start my 12 week training session for the Princess half!

Sorry, no pictures today, but I'll try and get on and upload pictures from this weekend and get those posted ASAP, because, um, San Antonio is a super cute and fun city.

There's also a lot of other stuff going on in my life right now that I'm going to be updating about very soon, so stay tuned! Oh, and I promise that I'm going to start reading all of your blogs again (and then subsequently commenting as well). I. Promise.

Wish Me Luck!!

I'm off to spend the weekend with my parents and siblings and run a half marathon! I've been spotty at best with my training and I told D the other night that I really just can't wait for this race to be over so I can take a break and not feel guilty about missing runs.

I'm not taking my computer with me, so I won't be around for a few days, but I'll make sure to post lots of pictures from the weekend and update you all on how the race goes once I get back.

See you next week!

Oh, and I also promise to actually put some effort into some posts in the very near future. I really, really, really promise!

Happy Veteran's Day, everyone.

We should remember the sacrifices that America's veterans have made for us and our freedoms everyday, but especially today. If you know someone who has served, be sure to take the time to thank them today.

(Source)

A Veteran is someone, who at one point in their life, wrote a blank check payable to the United States of America for an amount up to, and including, their life. That is beyond honor, and there are way too many people in this country who no longer remember that fact.

I don't feel like I have the time or mental energy to write something that would really do justice to this day and all it stands for, so I'll thank my veteran and leave it at that.

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday

Watching the Army football game this weekend, supporting her team!

P.S. Happy Birthday, US Marine Corps!

8 Months?!?!

How is it possible that this little girl:


is already 8 months old and doing this:

on her own?

She's growing up so fast, I can't even believe it. She has started to stand unsupported for a few seconds every few tries and its only a matter of time before she can do it on her own.

Happy 8 months, AJ!

Weekend Recap

I'm back from my crazy girls' weekend away with my college roomies and to say we had fun would be an understatement. We have been known to be a little overwhelming when we're all together and we always think its hilarious because we totally are! There are seven of us, so even if we didn't all have strong personalities we'd be a little intense, but it just so happens that we are all outgoing and tend to "talk over each other."

The first picture of the weekend (in the parking garage of the hotel).
L to R: Sara, Abby, Mary, Me

When we got to the hotel Friday night there was some sort of wine and food tasting going on and we could not figure out how all the 12 year old had gotten a hold of beers! One of my favorite lines from the weekend was, "I own t-shirts that are older than you!"

All the girls at "our bar" Friday night.
L to R: Lindsay, Abby, Mandy, Mary, Shelby, Me, Sara.

All in all, we drank a lot of beer (and Four Loco) and ate lots of greasy food (like fried pickles) and spent lots of money on school spirit gear! It was so much fun to be back in town and even though the football game was away this weekend we watched it at Buffalo Wild Wings and it was crazy! For the sake of PERSEC (personal security for all you non-military folks) I won't say which school I went to, but the game was intense up to the very last play.

Taking a shot with Mary.

The original four from Freshman year.
L to R: Me, Sara, Mary, Abby.

All the girls after the game.
Clockwise from top left: Shelby, Mandy, Mary, Me, Abby, Sara, Lindsay

A Survey From A Bloggy Friend....

aka Get to know me a little bit better!

Moe from A Million Margaritas tagged me in a survey meme and I decided that since I'm going to be gone this weekend I'd schedule this post to run. When I get back I'll give y'all a full recap of what went down during my weekend with the girls (at least the parts I can talk about....;).

Anyways, here we go!

1. If you could be friends with any fictional character who would you choose and why?
Hmmmm. Mary Poppins? The kids were always having tons of fun and going on crazy imaginary adventures with her. I don't know that she would be my answer out of all fictional characters throughout history though. I'd really have to think about it.

2. What is the best date you've ever had? (It could be with the person you are with now or someone from the past)
D took me to see the Nutcracker last winter at the Pacific Northwest Ballet. It was a fun night, just the two of us. We had plans to go out to dinner afterward, but since I was pregnant (and exhausted) we hit up the McDonald's drive-thru on the way home. We also went on a date last winter and he took me to the Space Needle restaurant. It was awesome to see Seattle lit up at night like that.

3. What was the last good book that you read?
Uhhhh, I can't even think of the last book I read, let alone the last good one. Some of my favorites are Jane Eyre, The Bell Jar, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, and The Poisonwood Bible.

4. Someone gives you a hundred dollars and tells you that you have to spend it today - on yourself. What would you buy?
Easy, shoes.

5. If you could travel anywhere in the world what would your top 5 places be?

1. Maine.
2. Italy.
3. Greece.
4. St. Barth.
5. Turks and Caicos.
   

If any of you have suggestions on where to go for an amazing vacation, let me know. D told me the other night that he wants to take a an awesome trip after his next deployment since we never went on a honeymoon.

6. What are 2 or 3 items on your "bucket list"?
I don't really have a bucket list.

7. If you could live the life of one TV character who would it be, what show are they from, and why?
Any of the characters from Parenthood because they have their extended family there to support (and annoy them).

8. When you sit down for Thanksgiving dinner in a few weeks what will you say that you are most grateful for this year?
My beautiful, sweet baby girl and the fact that I've been lucky enough to have my hubby home with me the entire year.

MilSpouse Friday Fill-In...

Welcome back! To link up, head over to Wife of a Sailor.

1. A different twist on last week's question. This week, the first question is: what’s the nicest thing a MILSPOUSE has ever done for you? (brought to you from navy_smurfette)
Hmmm, I think the thing that makes the biggest impact on me is just when a MilSpouse is not fake and makes an effort to make you either feel welcome or included. We've moved a lot (more than is normal, even for the military) in the 3.5 years D has been Active Duty and the things that stand out really are those who have made an effort to make me feel welcome.

2. How often do you drive faster than the speed limit?
Pretty much always. Its usually just a few mph over, but sometimes (depending on the road) its more than that.

3. Did you have a nickname in school? If so, what was it?
Bethie T in junior high and high school and my girlfriends in college called me Biz or Bizzy. Sometimes D still calls me Bethie T and it just makes me laugh.

4. If your life was a book, what would the title be and how would it end?
Even though I know there's already a book with a similar title, I think it would probably be "This American Wife" and it would end happily ever after, of course. ;)

5. Look back (in your planner if you have one) to September 14th... what did you do that day?
According to my calendar, I did nothing, but according to my blog I drove to our state of residence (about 2 hours) with AJ to get the Jeep registered. Ah, now I remember what a fun day that was. You can read about it, here.

I'm Versatile...

Kaylee from Devil Dog Darling bestowed The Versatile Blogger Award upon me! Her blog is awesome, so if you haven't checked it out yet, do it now. (I'm being bossy today.) Thanks so much, Kaylee!!


1. I'm not a huge fan of breakfast-y foods. I prefer to eat "regular" food no matter what time of day it is.

2. We are gearing up to move to our 6th duty station in a few weeks and I actually feel like I'm getting worse at the whole PCS process. Is that possible?

3. I started listening to Christmas music this morning and really debated watching the movie White Christmas as well, but decided that its too early.

4. I'm the type of person who develops deep friendships very quickly, but it has to be the right person.

5. When I wake up before the sunrise, no matter what time of year it is, it feels like Christmas morning to me as I lay in bed or feed the baby.

6. I hate black olives, but I don't mind green ones.

7. There's a very strong probability that I am actually addicted to grocery shopping. I love planning meals and then going out to buy the ingredients for them. I realize that most sane people loathe the grocery store, but not me. I miss Fred Meyer (WA people will know what I'm talking about).

I'm passing the award along to:

Abbey @ Trading Diamonds for Dogtags
Lora @ My Camo Kids
Moe @ A Million Margaritas
Elizabeth @ The Young Retiree

Moe also tagged me in a little survey that I'll get to soon, I promise! AJ is cutting her top teeth, so I haven't had much time get on and blog lately, so I'm trying to get caught up when I get the chance!

So What?!

I'm joining in a new meme this week that is hosted by Mama Dew at Life After I "Dew." I found her blog through another blog I follow and thought it would be fun to join in the fun!

So what.....

if I'm already listening to Christmas music. It makes my heart happy.

if I like to eat my lunch at 10 am. Its AJ's nap time and I like to actually be able to eat my food without her trying to throw it on the floor.

if you luuuurve your $100 baby carrier. I already have one of my own and I did not come to the commissary to have a conversation with you about yours.

if I don't make the bed everyday. We're just going to get back into it at the end of the day.

if you voted yesterday. Good for you. I don't understand why everyone felt the need to "announce" it on Facebook and frankly it annoyed the heck out of me.

I'm sure that next week I'll be able to think of tons more to add to my list, but that was pretty fun for my first time! Its kind of a nice outlet to get things off your chest. If you want to join in, be sure to link up.

A Big Month!

First and foremost, Happy November! Its finally starting to feel like Fall here. I love it!

The tree in our front yard, taken this morning.

As for me, I have a lot of plans this month.

This weekend I'm heading to my alma mater to have a little reunion with all my college roommates. We (all 7 of us) lived on the same floor in the dorms Freshman year and then continued to live together the rest of our four years there. Sophomore year we were in the dorms again and then Junior and Senior years we rented a 6 bedroom house off-campus! I haven't seen (most of) them since last September when Mandy got married!

Me and most of my girls (Mary is missing from the picture) at Mandy's rehearsal dinner, 2009.

I'm super excited to see them all again but I'm leaving AJ home with D for the weekend and I'm already having mini panic attacks about being away from her all weekend! I know that she'll be fine, its not that, its me missing her so much that I'm worried about.

My second big event for the month of November is the 1/2 marathon in San Antonio. To say that I'm worried about it would be an understatement. Not only am I having the same reservations about leaving AJ home with D and his dad (her grandpa) but I'm also worried about being so sore I can't walk after the race. I have just under two weeks before race day and my vow is to get back out there and run the next two weeks. I reall wish that D and AJ could make the trip to San Antonio with me, but we just decided that it made more sense for him to stay home with her instead of spending all the extra money for them to come. With that being said, the weekend should be super fun. The race is part of the Rock 'n' Roll series, which are always a good time. I ran the RnR half in Pheonix in 2007 and had a blast!

My sister and a friend at the expo before the Pheonix 1/2 marathon, 2007.

The next weekend, my baby sister is coming to visit! Its been a long time since she has seen AJ and I think she's having withdrawals. :) My brother lives close to us, but my sister doesn't so she doesn't get to come out here that often. She's getting ready to spend part of her second semester in Australia, so she really wants to get all the AJ time she can before she leaves!

My sister and me in FL, 2010.

After that, we have Thanksgiving! We're heading back to Hometown, USA for the families' annual traditional Thanksgiving festivities. We'll most likely run the Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving morning with my family, it should be fun!

If you are still with me after all that, I applaud you! Now just imagine how exhausting this month will be. I'm exhausted after just typing it all out. lol Even though it will be a busy month, I'm super excited about all the fun things we have planned.

What do you have going on this month? Any fun plans? Does your family have any Thanksgiving traditions?

Mamarazzi Monday: Halloween Edition!

Happy Halloween, everyone! AJ got all dressed up yesterday to celebrate and got to go ring a few doorbells in our neighborhood with her Daddy. She even brought home some candy (that she grabbed out of the bowl herself) that D already ate! Ha.

Without further ado, here she is!







Her dog-sister also dressed as a ladybug.


Happy November!