Iowa

We've been in Iowa for the past four days visiting Super Hubby's family. I love his sister and she is always good for a place to stay. Every time I am here I think to myself, "When I grow up I want to be just like Sister-in-Law...."

SH has had a good time visiting with the neice and nephew, friends and family. Our kids have been insanely dramatic attention-seeking drama queens, and are always ready to pop in with a tearful complaint along the way.

Tomorrow we head to Wisconsin to see my family. I am not sure how that will go - only time will tell.
The weather here has been wet and cool, but I would take wet and cool 8 days a week over hot and muggy. It is so amazingly green here. I love all of the leafy green trees and emerald green grass. This little city is about as All American as you can get. I love it. I would live here. SH still isn't interested in returning here, and I am still not sure why. I guess we will continue to look for our perfect place.

I will post some photos here soon!

Favver's Day

Today is Father's Day, or Favver's Day as my delightfully sweet baby used to say before he became a saucy and know-it-all pre-teen. I bought Super Husband his presents last weekend with both kids. This is the first time ever in recorded history that we have had both kids on Favver's Day. That alone should make it special. I bought some of SH's favorite things. I hope he likes them. I hope he doesn't mind waiting to open them until after I get home for work. I hope he doesn't mind driving 5 hours towards our midwest destination after he opens his presents.
It's Westward HO! at approximately 4 pm EST today.

Today

It is just another day. Yesterday I worked 16 hours. Today I work 8 and have to clean the house because we are going on vacation tomorrow (after another 8 hour shift) and I hate coming home to a messy house. In an effort to "help" me clean the house Super Husband did the best thing possible and made a pot of coffee, put my Harry Potter book in the CD player, took both kids and left the house. lol - he really knows how to help! This is the fastest route to a clean house.

Living a good life

New flash. January is cold.
Thank you.

Oh, and as of yesterday, I am one year older.

New Years - 2011!!

Here are some of my goals and hopes for the new year - this year - 2011. 
I plan on changing what and how we eat. DH and I watched Food Inc. last night and were shocked to say the least. By the end of the year I would really love to be a vegetarian, not because I don't like the taste of meat, because I love it, but for many other reasons. 
I want to do my first 5k by spring. 
I start school again in a few weeks. My goal there is not to quit. 
My goal is to get off of orientation or find a job that moves me closer my desired specialty in women's health. 
And, this isn't a resolution, but a prayer - that my husband gets selected and we get to move out of here this summer.


Amen.

"I hate it here"

I have said these words more times than I care to count. I have said them at every single location that we have ever been stationed. Usually I say it around month three. At this point I have settled in and the newness has worn off. By this point I am really missing my friends from previous duty stations and all of the differences between me and the locals have stopped being "cute" or "quaint" and just started pissing me off. Then, usually within a matter of weeks, I make friends, learn the backroads, find the best places to shop and the really good restaurants and bakeries - in short, I settle in.
That being said - I hate it here! We have been here since July 2009, and I have lived here full-time since May 2010. I still cannot wait to leave. I know that this is a short term duty station with no possibility of settling in. Therefore, I haven't been allowing myself to get too friendly with the locals, and the military population here is so small the the number of potential female friends is very small, and I am done forcing myself to make friendships work. I am not saying that there aren't some nice ladies here, but no one who is BFF potential. It's a little sad and a lot frustrating. I cannot wait to leave here. I want to go back to Tennessee, or Washington, or Germany, or even try out Colorado.  Shhhhhhhh.... don't tell the Army, but I would even be willing to go to North Carolina, something I had been adamantly against in the past.
I miss being a part of a big military community. I miss having a group of people with whom I can laugh and roll my eyes with when we talk about the dumb stuff locals do, or commiserates with me about the deployments, TDYs, etc. People I can compare notes with. People with the same nomadic lifestyle. People who have kids going through the same stuff mine is - our third culture kids.
And to cap off this whine/rant let me sign off with these parting thoughts: *eh-hem* I hate the cold! I hate the way people drive here! I am sick and tired of living in this shitty house! I hate it here!!

Coffee

There are so many reasons why I love coffee... lets review the basics:
1) It's delicious.
2) It wakes me up when I am tired.
3) It smells good.
4) It has almost no calories (before I add all of my favorite coffee things to it).
5) I can drink it all year long
6) It is just as good cold as it is hot.
7) It is a reassuring part of my daily routine.
8) I can get it just about anywhere.

Ummm... coffee.