Weekend Visitors and a Day at the Movies

Busy, Busy, Busy is the name of the game!!! Last weekend my in-laws arrived here at my parents house so we had a houseful. My momma & poppa in law had come down from Jacksonville the weekend because they had to be in Miami on Monday to fight the traffic and get my momma in law's passport done, her's is up for renewal and she has to see the German consulate about it since she is still a German citizen. Cool huh?! I kinda wanted to go myself just to see what it looked like LOL! I... AM... a German citizen too after all. Yup, I have duel citizenship since my mother is German and I was born in a regular German hospital and not in a military hospital or on post. While they were here though, we took the munchkin to see Brave, which btw... is spectacular! If you have little girls, I encourage you to go see it with them... it's very much the "mother-daughter" movie! It's one we will definite buy when it comes out and, the kiddo is already bugging me about telling Santa that she wants a bow & arrow set for Christmas this year, so she can be just like Merida! Ohhhhh boy! If she does get one, it will be a nerf one (for now) LOL!

In other news I also put my first down payment on our cruise for when hubby gets back!!! Woohoo!!! So awesome!!! In about 115 days we will be sailing to our lovely Bahamian getaway! Yes, that's right... we are booked for a 4 night 5 day cruise to the Bahamas and Key West! I also bought my ball gown for it as well, hubby will be wearing his tux and I wanted to make sure I look just as good standing next to him for our pictures, and while being swept around the dance floor! Its ocean blue and sparkly, and glittery, and beautiful and perfect!

MilSpouse Friday Fill-In (For June)

Wow! I almost forgot about these... now that they are once a month or is it once in a while? I forget about them a little more easily. Wow... not to get off track but I just have to get this out... Did I really just see Jordan Knight (from New Kids on the Block) do a jingle for an Old Navy commercial? Wow... is that what they have really come to? *sigh* I guess that's what they have to work with since their big come back tour was such a big flop LOL!

1. What’s one thing in the past month you would have changed?

I think it might be safe to say... I'd change just about EVERYTHING! Holy crap it has been a rough time the past few months... lots of ups and downs, lots of drama and lots of WTF momnets LOL! But what's a deployment without a little drama right? LOL!

2. What was your favorite thing that happened in May?

That would be the munchkin's Kindergarten graduation! I now officially have a first grader! It's been kind of a rough year for her... she is far more advanced than the other kids in her class and therefor gets into some trouble when she gets done with her work early, her school also doesn't have a "gifted program" for kindergarten... another reason I particularly hate our school district/state for education. They also decided about 3/4th of the way through the school district that she needs to see a speech pathologist, she does have trouble saying certain words like "Whispers" or "Seashells" or "Pumpernickel", but that is a whole other blog post lol! Never the less... we made it and hopefully she will be happy in first grade with a great teacher that sees her potential not her faults like this year.

3. June includes the first day of summer… what are your plans for the summer?

Well since we are in the beautiful state of Florida... those plans will include... beach, swimming in pools, shopping at Ikea (finally) amusment parks like Seaworld, Bush Gardens and possibly Disney... we shall see... the bright side of having extra money from a deployment?... extra money to do awesome things you don't normally get the chance to. The down side... its a LOT harder to save that money LOL!

4. Do you use the services on base (gym, financial planning, family services, daycare)? And if so, what’s your favorite one? (thanks to Shanon at Modern Meets Traditional for this question!)

We do... with things like "parents night out/give parents a break" we also try to do some of the fun things our base offers like; geocasheing, fishing rodeos, the free pool etc. I look at it this way... these programs get funding and if no one uses them then the following year they get less funding or they might stop getting funding at all... and then no one gets to have fun. The one we enjoy the most is obviously "parents night out/give parents a break" its a great time for us to relax without having the kiddo around, its a chance for us to go on a real date and have someone we trust watch her. She also enjoys it very much because she gets to go to the youth center and play video games, roller skate in the gym, watch movies and eat pizza with her friends. And seeing how our nearest trusted baby-sitters (our parents) are about 400 miles away, this comes in handy! :)

5. What are you looking forward to in June?

Just having another month behind us and being one month closer to having hubby/daddy home. :)

Greetings from the Sunshine State!

Hellooooooo from sunny Florida!!! We made it to Florida! YAY! We actually crossed the state line on Saturday May 26th, despite the child having a stomach bug straight from hell (including projectile vomiting) and driving through Tropical Storm Beryl... we made it just fine! :) It has been hot, Hot, HOT since we arrived! Thank god for pools and A/C! I still would choose to take this heat over the heat and humidity in Mississippi any day of the year! At least down here we have a nice ocean breeze. We even grilled out on Memorial Day, it was under the awnings of my in-laws house since we were slammed with rain but never the less we did cook out! LOL! Now that we are finally here and have been patiently waiting to come to my sacred meca/homeland I find out that hubby might be home sooner than expected as well... but... it is the Air Force and just like any other branch of service... I am not going to hold my breath, nothing is ever set in stone unless he has a ticket in his hand LOL! But wouldn't that be nice... on the other hand he could stay just a tad bit longer... I am not quite finished saving up our cruise money LOL! Anyway... hope you all are doing well... will update again soon. Much love from the Sunshine State! :)

Kindergarten Graduation... next stop College!

Woah! Is it the end of the school year already! That flew by... especially these last few weeks! Seems like it was just yesterday that I was sending her off to school for the first time. I now have a first grader! Hard to believe the next time I will attend one of her graduations she will be 19 years old, hubby and I will be in our 40's and her grandparents will be in their 70's! Craaaaazy!

The kindergarten classes at her school did a really great job putting on a ceremony and preforming a song for us parents. They sung us a song to the music of Frank Sinatra's New York, New York only instead of it saying "I wanna be a part of it... New York, New York." they said; "I wanna be a part of it...First Grade, First Grade." Sooooo stinkin cute! The kiddo has been practicing all week so, I've been able to see the preview but the whole production was awesome! They even did the little chorus line kicks and all! Here's a few pics of us enjoying the moment! I am one proud momma! My baby girl is growing up so fast into a wonderful and fantastic little girl. Now... next stop... College! LOL!

The munchkin and her graduation cake :)

Getting ready to sing their song... awwwwe!

Receiving her Kindergarten Diploma! :)

Book Review: Deadlocked By: Charlaine Harris

Growing up with telepathic abilities, Sookie Stackhouse realized early on that there she'd rather no know. And now that she's an adult, she also realizes that some things she knows about, she'd rather no see-like Eric Northman feeding off another woman. A younger one.

There's a thing or two she'd like to say about that, but she has to keep quiet-Felipe de Castro, the vampire King of Louisiana (and Arkansas and Nevada), is in town. It's the worst possible time for a human body to show up in Eric's front yard- especially the body of a woman whose blood he just drank.

Now it's up to Sookie and Bill, the official Area Fire investigator, to solve the murder. Sookie thinks that, at least this time, the dead girl's fate has nothing to do with her. But she is wrong. She has an enemy, one far more devious that she would ever suspect, who's set out to make Sookie's world come crashing down.

I really loved the book! It was a great page turner and as always, I managed to finish it in a few days time (would have finished sooner but ya know, life gets in the way of my reading habits). I was pleased to find out some of the answers I had questions to about the remaining fae. I was also glad to see life progress in positives ways around bon temps. I wonder now though, with only one book in the series remaining for Charlaine to write... what choice will Sookie choose for herself. Do all roads really lead to Rome for her, so to speak? Or will she decide something completely different? There are so many choices and its too soon to tell, but one thing is for certain... I can't wait till to read the finale!

Book Review: Adrift on St. John By: Rebecca M. Hale

No one knows better than resort manager Pen Hoffstra that the idea of a tropical paradise is an illusion. So when a young woman named Hannah Sheridan disappears and a water taxi sinks mysteriously off the island of St. John, she is not surprised that all is not what it seems to be.

Pointing out Hannah's resemblance to the Amina Slave Princess from the 1733 Slave Revolt on St. John- whose ghost is rumored to haunt the island-the local community quickly latches on to the belief that her spirit is behind the sinking and the disappearence.

Only one person on the island knows the whole truth, an it's not what anyone suspects...

I really wanted to like it...

I could only get about 3/4th's of the way through this book. I felt like it had a lot of potential, however it just let me down. I'm not particularly crazy on books that I read the ending before the beginning either, so that's one of the other reasons this book and I got off on the wrong foot. I also wasn't too fond of the characters. I had a really hard time connecting with the main character , she seemed a bit lazy and too sardonic for my liking. I'd like to say that I will go back and reread this some day but I doubt that will happen. I will keep the series in mind though and remain hopeful with book # 2 in the series, I just will probably try to barrow from the library first before I buy next time.

The Wild and Crazy Roller Coast We've Been Riding Lately!

Hi guys! I'm still here... I dunno if you've noticed but here in the South we have been experience very peculiar weather lately... yes, a massive shit-storm has been raining over the state of Mississippi for the last two weeks! Ok, ok... maybe just over my house... but still! Sheesh! When's a girl gonna get a break! We've experienced everything from becoming nomadic vagabonds and fleeing our termite and carpenter ant infested housing to being hacked to death by a horrible virus on my brand new computer. Yes, its been a suck-tastic few weeks! I just hope the worst is behind us... because my inner "umbrella" is starting to stink of poo lol! The important thing is... I'm still here, I'm still blogging and remain (at the very least) sarcastic about it... :)

On a good note... I did take the munchkin to a magic show recently; which of course she loved! Thank you to the A & FRC on base for giving us the freebee tickets! Those guys rock! We also have been gearing up for summer and starting to put aside some things we are taking with us to Florida. The kiddo is extra excited about this... since we will be spending a whole 2 months with both sets of grandparents! YAY! I also have a few trips up my sleeve as well; to North Carolina and to Seaworld. The kiddo also participated in her first field trip! And of course, I volunteered as chaperone. We went to the Institute for Marine Mammals here in Gulfport and had a great time petting stingrays & manta rays, digging for sharks teeth and watching dolphins! We finished up this week with a trip to the movies to see the Avengers! And Oh my goodness! Did we have fun! The movie its self was phenomenal! And this is just the start to a kick ass superhero summer! (Spiderman, The Dark Knite Rises etc.) The munchkin has also informed me now that Hulk is also her favorite (along with Captain America) as far as Marvel is concerned, and when I asked her why, she said... "Because he gets angry and then he smashes mom! And that's awesome" LOL! I'm glad she has a great appreciation for the big, green and (often) misunderstood lug... :)

So that's all for now... until school winds down in a couple of weeks! Woohoo! I can't wait to sleep in! And we get to Florida... I will post from there before you can say "Summer Vacation"!

My Mini Blockbuster...

That is what I've been up to! I don't know if I've ever mentioned it before but we have over 800 movies in our collection, not counting what I bought recently and the TV season we own as well. I know how crazy that sounds, and how we must look like a mini block buster, but before you can ask... yes, we really do watch them all... at some point LOL! In my house alone we have dedicated 1 full bookshelf, 1 half bookshelf, and two cabinets above our entertainment center to dvds, tv series and blu ray dvds. That's a lot of space! And a lot of wasted space taken up by the bulk of the cases!

We've been living like this for over 5 years now and it has been slowly driving me up the wall, everything is so cluttered up and it take a while to find any particular dvd. I try my best to keep it organized and labeled but its hard, with that many dvd's if one or two get out of order chaos will soon take over; and then of course once that happens... no one wants to spend all day correcting it right?!

Until now...! I have stumbled upon my ultimate "get organized" tool for my colossal dvd collection, while shopping around at target! They now make these cool "movie sleeves". You just take out the dvd cover (if you want it, I did!) put it in the sleeve and take out your dvd and slid it in the extra sleeve insert and whala! Then take that big, black, bulky case and shooov.... ok... chuck it in the trash! ;)

It's as easy as that... you can go from this...

and this...
and this...
and *gasp* this...
(and BTW... those are stacked 3 deep)

To this...

There are 25 sleeves of dvd's there in the pile compared to the 25 big, black, bulky, empty cases.
And as you can tell from the picture, 25 sleeves take up as much space as about 4 cases. Yes folks, I think we have a miracle! I plan on putting the new dvd's in really cute bins, once I get the chance to get all the dvd's organized into the sleeves and I find some material to cuteify
(yes, I totally made that word up) the bins. I then want to store the bins in our new storage coffee table that I just bought last week. This is going to be a project and a half when considering the extent of our collection but it's something to keep me busy with from now till vacation! :)

What do you think?

This is a close up of what the sleeves actually look like. I put the cover (because I just couldn't talk myself into getting rid of the covers) to face the back of the sleeve and then the dvd's toward the flap. There is an extra plastic insert inside the sleeve so that you can put your dvd's in there and the wont become scratched; and as you can see it holds more than one dvd. You could probably even get three in there if you needed to; 2 in the sleeves and one loose. :)

Around Town...

Hi there!!! Have you missed me? LOL! Sorry we've been kinda busy lately... which of course is a good thing while the hubby is away. My In-Laws came from Florida for Easter weekend, they drove in on that Thursday and stayed till the following Monday and we've been busy ever since! Hope you all had a good Easter! It was my first Easter NOT cooking and man, I'll tell you... I could get used to that! I never understood why people ended up going out to eat for the big holidays but I TOTALLY get it!!! Think about it... you don't have to cook and you didn't have to plan, you didn't have to spend extra money on food that might go to waste, there's no mess to clean up and everyone still gets to be together and have a nice meal! It was just the four of us... me, munchkin and momma-in-law and daddy-in-law and we decided (and by we, I mean I) to go to the Beau Rivage Casino Buffet. It was awesome! They had all our usual regular favorite foods (I LOVE the pasta station) and roasted Turkey, Glazed Ham, Prime Rib and Snow Crab!!! All for $29.99 you can't beat that folks!

We also went to the Easter Egg parade & egg hunt, which I have to say I was a bit disappointed in... The parade was almost non-existent (and whoo, they threw old mardi gras beads... like we don't have a ton of those already at home) The egg hunt was small and the kiddo didn't get a whole lot of eggs and all they had inside were cheap candy like tootsie rolls and smarties. I guess its better than nothing, but next time I will know better and just skip it to do my own at home.

We went a few days to the beach and lounged in the sun and flew our kites which was awesome since we've had alot of wind from the weather system that moved over Texas a week or so ago, ya know... the one that caused all those Tornados... Which by the way... the kiddo has been eating up the news on that stuff lately LOL! She is still very much on her "tornado kick" ;)

I also took my in-laws around to the local spots while they were here, and I think they really enjoyed seeing the "off the beaten path" not so touristy spots. We have a small beach community down here that is just over the bridge from Biloxi and its called "Ocean Springs" (ya might have heard me mention it before... I used to work over there). I have always loved it, and thought it was a charming little town with a beautiful historical center. They have cute boutiques and shops, amazing restaurants, cafes and bistros and its just beautiful to stroll down the cobblestone streets under the shad of the magnolia trees, when they are in bloom. It's really like page right out of Southern Hospitality magazine... they even have a old fashioned salt water taffy store and a 50's five & dime soda shoppe!

I know we've done a ton of other stuff but this is all I can think of at the moment, time seems to be flying by and there are days where I struggle to keep up with it, but I am grateful! We have offically 36 more days of school left (and until we are Florida bound) and about 90 days left till we go on our vacation to North Carolina! Woohoo! I can't wait!!!

Here's some of the pics I took while strolling around town... I just love the vintage look of everything... hope you like them. :)

This one is from inside the five & dime and soda shoppe and its probably my favorite.

It reminds me of the place that my grandparents used to work at.

They also brew and bottle their own cream soda! Its still the same family recipe from 1943!

Old fashioned hard candy... and one oogling kiddo LOL! Only .20 cents!
See! You still can get "some" things for less than a quarter ;)

My favorite donut shop ever! Hands down they have the best donuts ever... why?
Because they are made with potato flour! And the potato flour makes them light and fluffy!
Plus everyone in there is nice as peach pie... don't believe me?... come see for yourself any day of the week the counter inside is packed wall to wall ;)

The Military Child

Just in case some of you didn't know... April is month of the military child. All across our nation every branch of service is celebrating our little hero's and things are no different around here. I'd like to take a minute to thank my child for being a little hero as well. Her courage, understanding, patients and resilience never cease to amaze me. She is six years old, and in those six years she has had to move four times to four different house, four different states, had to be the new kid on the block four different times. She has made new friends from moving and had to learn how to say goodbye to those same friends. She has endured over 10 different TDY's with various time frames as to when her dad comes home and most recently a deployment which she will have to endure for quite some time. She has learned to use a computer, send e-mail and skype since she was four years old. She has attended 3 different schools and she had the pledge of alligence memorized before any of her other classmates. She knows what it means to salute someone and why we do it. She understands that daddy leaves because duty calls and she might not always know where he is, but that he loves her and will come home as soon as he can. Yes, my child is amazing; she never asked for this kind of life, and was never given the choice to choose it, no... she was born into it. She never got a say so, yet she endures the hard times with a smile and knows how to make the best of every situation. She is part of amazing group of children that will one day undoublty grow up to be some of the best adults, she is a military child and this time it's me who is saluting her! I love my amazing Air Force brat and she makes her daddy and I very proud! :)

Daddy Came In The Mail Yesterday

Ha! Don't I wish... If that title were true to the exact words I would be ecstatic! If only it were really that easy LOL! What I really meant was... our daddy doll came in the mail yesterday. When hubby had gone in to have his deployment breifing sometime before he left, I also had a briefing with the Airman & Family Readiness Center on base, they gave me LOTS of good tips, signed me up with their monthly newsletter of free stuff for us deployed spouses and families to do on and off base, they even gave us "Play Passes" which are a new and GREAT concept! --I'll get to that part in a little bit. Among all the great info was a pamphlet about "Daddy Dolls" and the "Operation Hug a Hero" project. These dolls are AMAZING! I went online the week that hubby left and ordered one for munchkin straight away... all I had to do was upload a full length picture of hubby and they take care of the rest! It takes a while for them to make it and then it take a bit to make it through the mail system but after that, its instant smiles! We got ours in the mail last night and she hasn't left "daddy" out of her sight since! I'd let her take it to school with her today but sadly I don't think school would let her keep it with her. She doesn't go to a DoD school which is a shame... because this public school doesn't understand what its like to be a military child, despite being in a big enough military town. Alas, I told her "daddy" will be right here waiting for her when she gets home from school and ready for lots of love and hugs. I can tell already just within the last 12 hours that having this little piece of her dad has raised her morale 100% and made deployment that much easier to get through. So, if you have a little one and your hubby is or will be deploying soon... I HIGHLY recommend getting one of these dolls. Check our your A&FRC or FRG and see if they offer a voucher coupon to get one for free first, but if they don't have no fear... they are really easy to order and not all that expensive. So far, it's been worth every penny to have a little bit of "homeland security" for her.

She started to tear up just a little when I took him out of the box.

But then started to cheer up a little when she thought of all the cool places we can take "daddy", woohoo! Can you say road trip?! lol! :)

Dino-rific Weekend!

What have we been up to? Paleontology of course! LOL! And another of our magic tree house books/craft/project. I have noticed how we've been reading them a little out of order but honestly it doesn't matter to me, I'm just glad shes been taking an interest in reading and, learning about new things like dinosaurs such. We finished reading "Dinosaurs After Dark"and she has been craving to learn more about dinosaurs... so we borrowed a few books from the base library and discussed how dinosaurs lived and what fossils are. I found a few great craft/projects about dinosaurs through google and pinterest.com and well... we went a little nuts LOL!


I decided to whip up a batch of salt dough and I found some plastic dinosaurs at Walmart... I laid out our "rocks" and then smashed down a dinosaur in the middle of each of them, hence making an imprint or what I like to think looks like a fossil. ;) Then we baked them for quite a while, after they finished baking and cooling we painted them and then let them dry.


We "burried" them in sand and dirt from the back yard and then "dug" them back up to dust them off and pretend we were excavating them! It was AWESOME! And if you have a kid who's into dinosaurs... I highly recommend partaking in your own dinosaur dig! Oh so much fun! And your kids will love it!


I then glued a make shift dino of my own on some heavy stock paper and let her paint over it so she could see the "bones" of the dinosaur... she thought it was pretty neat how the paint didn't stick to the bones...


We also made a hand print dinosaur and her very own dinosaur necklace! The necklace she LOVES and I probably will have to pry it off of her at some point LOL! Best of all... soooo easy to make! I just took the left over plastic dinosaurs and screwed a frame clasp screw at the top and then threaded it through a ball chain. And wha-la! Instant dinosaur necklace and instant fun! For hours!

It's Care Package Season

I honestly get it now... I have figured out why spouses (and their children) go so crazy trying make the perfect care package... think about it... you sit, you wait, you listen when they call, you give words of encouragement and remain calm and strong but aside from that we are helpless to do anything for them... EXCEPT send them a little bit of home.

We are currently preparing our own little piece of home package to be send out soon. The munchkin and I are going shopping for "Daddy supplies" and she is totally psyched! She can't wait to buy him things and send it all in the mail. She has prepared her coloring pages and art work to be send as well and it just warms my heart to known she is gonna make all the difference to her dad. It's the little things ya know?

I never really fell into that whole "military wife" thing. I've always fit into that slot like a square peg in a round hole... you would think I would have been a better fit, growing up an Army Brat but to tell you the truth... I was glad when my dad was done, I just wanted a normal life; where he was home all the time. So this actually makes me feel good, this actually makes me feel a little less awkward and a little more honored to be a military wife. It also feels good to send my hubby some love, just little things to let him know we miss him and are thinking about him.

I can't wait to go out this weekend and get some stuff to fill up the box! I can't wait to decorate the box! The only trouble I'm having is deciding on how to decorate it... Easter theme or our Anniversary theme? They are very close together... or... should I just send separate boxes? LOL! I could really get into this! I have a feeling hubby is gonna need a separate foot locker to get all this crap home again LOL!

What do you send in your care packages? How do you decorate them? Remember... I'm new at this so any advice or suggestions would be awesome!!!