Press once for yes, twice for no.

I was recently telling my friend Ann

about how the communications in Afghanistan aren't up to par with how they were in Iraq.

My husband whom has been deployed for almost a month calls home at least once a week.

And when he does, about 10 minutes into the conversation I find myself saying:

"Hello? Baby, you there?"

(In the background I can hear something, just not him.)

Me: "If your there press a number."

Him: "Boop"

(Yes, I'm here)

Me: "Okay so your there, did you hear everything I just said?"

"Press a once for yes, twice for no"

Him: "Boop"

(Yes)

Me: "UGH! I hate these crappy connections"

Him:"Boop"

(Yes)

Me: "Can you hang up and call me again"

Him: "Boop, Boop"

(No)

Me: "Ugh, well I love you, call me again soon, and please be safe in whatever you do".

Him: "Boop, boop, boop, booooooop"

"I-LOVE-YOU-TOOOO"

Gotta love a man who can work the numbers on a phone to say " I love you ".

Just thought Id share.

How does this deployment differ from other ones for you.



My new favorite cookie!

Recently while catching up on my blog reading

I visited one of my favorite reads

" I Should Be Folding Laundry".

 And in one of her most recent post she blogged about her, Ritzy Peanut Butter Cookies.

They looked like the simplest cookies to make in the world.

Plus they looked delicious!

I mean seriously, who doesnt like chocolate, peanut butter and Ritz crackers.

So I mentioned on her blog that I would give it a try.

And  I did.

Three times.

And another time tonight.

Ok

Im addicted.

So all you really need is:

Ritz Crackers

Peanut butter

Almond Bark

Wax paper

AND THATS IT!

Now, I live in a VERY small military community.

Our commasarry did not have almond bark, so I used regular white chocolate.

Anyways first you make peanut butter cracker sandwiches.

Leave the flat side of the cracker on the outside.

I used all diffrent amounts of peanut butter.

But the more peanut butter the better.

Now after youve made all these wondeful little sandwiches its all down hill from here.

You melt the white chocolate in the microwave.

(She uses a double boiler, I use microwave, no clue how to use a double boiler)

And give your sandwiches a nice little bath in the chocolate.

Put them on a wax sheet of paper, and then in the fridge to cool.

For fun, I melted some semi-sweet chocolate and added alittle extra art to my cookies.

Quick. Simple.Delicious!

Have you tried any new recipes from your favorite blogs this week?

Its almost over

This year, my boys and I did the holidays

"just us".

My husband is deployed.

Again.

For the third time.

Usually, I just go straight through Christmas as if he was here.

I decorate.

I bake.

I take tons of pictures.

But those Christmas' were about 9 month into a deployment,

where I was fully functional and use to be being by myself.

SUPER MOM.

But this deployment is different.

 He has not even been gone a month.

Im still finding my "footing".

Its Isaacs first Christmas,

And it sucks.

I didnt decorate.

I didnt bake.

And this shutter bug left the camera in the drawer.

Now dont get me wrong, I had fantastic friends who invited me to their homes.

Which I appreciated.

(and I went)

But Im sure they could tell I really wasnt in a great mood.

I didnt mean to seem so down and well, weird.

But my husband is gone and theirs is still here.

Im not jelous, I am happy for them, that they had their husband home to spend Christmas with.

Their children had their daddies there to put together their toys.

But we didnt.

It feels weird to spend time with friends and their husbands.

Almost the third wheel feeling, with the addition of my three little wheels.

I dont know.

It just feels weird.

 

 



When I am sad, I.....

I have a confession to make,

*Ahem*

When I am sad, I buy a new pair of shoes

(The newest member to the family)

How do you deal with sad days?

Vacation Memories

Not too long ago, my family took our yearly vacation to Berlin, Germany.

We woke up early in the morning all bright eye'd and bushy tailed ready to make the 7 hour drive.

(We were a family of four at this time, I was pregnant with Isaac here and didnt even know it)

When we arrived in Berlin, we visited the Berlin Aquarium

We saw a few historical sites

And we went to the famous Berlin Zoo.

While we were at the zoo, the funniest, most embarrassing thing happend..

We were at the enterance of the Zoo, reading the site map, planning out our day

when I realized Junior was no longer at my side!

I freak out, and instanly turned in every direction possible

It was then that I found him, not to far off

With his pants around his ankles

Peeing in a bush!

Me: WHOA! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!

Junior: Going potty?

Me: Who told you this was okay?

Junior: Daddy

Then came the glare of death upon my husband.

His answer:

He's a boy, and that what boys do! We pee outside!

Not too long after this incident we came upon this statue at the Zoo



Its one of my favorite pictures from our vacation.

I cant wait to tell his future girlfriends about this!

What are your funny vacation memories?

-M-

Embracing the cold

I am proud to announce I am a

TEXAN!

From San Antonio to be exact.

I LOVE hot and humid summers, warm falls, and cool winters.

Notice I said cool winters not cold.

Us Southern Texans, we dont do cold, or like my Grandpa says,

"We dont participate"

Well living in Germany, I have no choice but to particiapate in cold weather

and I will admit I am stuggling with embracing any part of it.

Look at this leaf

I wish I could give snow a big ole' hug just like this leaf is.

Check out my kids



Junior embraced it with his whole body by making a snow angel

And Seann well he embraced winter gastrointestionally by eating as much of it as he could.

And Isaac we pulled him around in a laundry basket, he had no choice

I need to learn to embrace my surroundings.

Winter and everything that comes with it.

Where are you from? And where are you now?

How do you deal with the climate changes?

-M-

The BEST Mommy bag!!

Yesterday I found the greatest Mommy Bag-ever!

Its a bag for the Mom who is usually carrying a million things, and still trying to keep track of the child holding her hand.

Drum roll please

TADA!

Its called a motherchildbag.

Its spacous, it has a place for your cell phone and it gives you a third hand!

And it did not cost me an arm and a leg!

Only $12.50!

My three year old LOVES it!

(and so does Mommy)

He even says the picture on the bag is him and Mommy.

As a Mommy of three young boys

(5,3, & 9 months)
This was the best find ever!

-M-

This bag can be found at

http://www.reisenthel.com/

*disclaimer: I was NOT paid to write this post, or given any free merchandise*

This post was purely the thoughts of a satisfied customer



Double Exposure?

 

 The other night during my extreme boredom brainstorming sessions, I thought Id take a self portait. Now the lighting in my bathroom isnt the greatest, and was I working on manuel settings.

Which created shutter/exposure nightmares.

But I caught this picture.

In the days of film I guess we would call this a double exposure.

But in the digital world, what would this be called?

-M-

Photography (Foto Friday)

Part of my blog is deticated to Photography

Its something Ive grown up doing being a part of my Mothers Photography buisness

(AD Photography)

I love taking pictures

Especially scoping out places I think will be great for photos.

Last summer I found a little trail that was awesome for photos.

This location is my favorite place to take pictures.

I call it," My hiding spot"

Recently in my little town in Germany we have been getting tons of snow

And while dropping the kids at day care I wondered

"What does my hiding place look like now?"

So I drove over and this is what I found:

It was beautiful

So many photo opportunities!

I just wanted to lay down on my back, concentrate on one leaf and shoot.

Problem was I had no blanket

And I was literally knee deep in snow, feeling frost bite nibble at my toes

It was so worth it though.

-M-

This post has been linked to household6diva Foto Friday and I Should be folding laundry.

Friday Mil-Spouse Fill In



Its been a while since I have been able to do the Friday Fill-In, and I am super excited to be able to participate today! Here we go!

1.What is the best gift you have ever received or given?

The best gift I have ever given would be, a place for a couple to stay after the deployment. we had known this soldier a while, and he got married over MAX leave, and when the guys redeployed his wife wanted to come out and be here for the home coming, so we openned our little home to them, they stayed with us almost a month. I was happy that we were able to give them time together, and he was able to come home to someone.
Best gift I have ever received...... recently my mom gave me a camera... Its an old school camera that takes 35 MM film, but it has sentimental value to me. My Mom use to have her own photography buisness. She did weddings, quinces, Senior photos, you name it she did it. And as part of my up brining I was her assistant. I carried her equiptment, and set up her tripod, reloaded cameras and batteries.... Anyways, recently she gave me one of her cameras, and it just reminded me of all the fun we had together, and without even realizing it, she taught me another trade.

2.Do you celebrate holidays differently when your loved one is deployed/gone or do you keep tradition?
While he is gone I dont decorate. I dont want to have to drag everything up from the basement by myself, only to have to drag it back down by myself. So I bought a little 5.00 Christmas tree and me and the kids make due with that.

3.If you celebrate Christmas, do you put an angel, star or something else on the top of your tree?
We have both and put up whatever we are in the mood for that year. I am still looking for an awesome angel though, the current one we have doesnt do anything special, we bought it at AAFES the first year we were here.

4.What are your three favorite websites? My three favorite websites:
household6diva.com, facebook.com and gojane.com ( I am a shoe fanatic)

5.On your man do you prefer… boxers, briefs or boxer briefs? Or commando?
Commando of course!! LOL!!!

-M-

This post has been linked to the Mil-Spouse Friday Fill-In.

The Monte Carlo Hotel and Resort

Recently my husband and I took leave from the busy world of parenting and soldiering

and took a much needed pre-deployment" Honey Moon".

For weeks we planned our trip.

First things first, drop the kiddos off with Grandma

Then jet set to

LAS VEGAS!

(Yes that took weeks to put together)

It was a first time for the both of us and we were excited.

We picked what we thought was the best hotel, with an upgraded room

and prepared for relaxation.

Well thats not what we got.

First we flew Delta.

We have never flown Delta before

And all I will say is, we will never again fly Delta.

3 flight delays later were were in Vegas.

Exhausted!

So by the time we get to the Monte Carlo, we were tired and just ready to get some room service and lay down.

The next morning, we woke bright and early to see the sites and gamble.

So getting dressed, I thought Id make the covers, and noticed nasty old blood stains on the sheets!



So started to take them off the bed, and found PUBIC HAIR in between the sheets!

UGH!

I called the hotel manager and waited on the phone for 20 minutes for her to answer.

While waiting I noticed this in the jacuzzi tub!

MORE PUBIC HAIR!

So I complained, we got upgraded, but we hated the room we were upgraded too.

We wanted a relaxing spa weekend.

Instead we had to pack all our belongings and move ourselves up to a room that was not romantic at all.

And guess what.

We still had to pay for it.

 It was not relaxing.

And took up time on our little get away.

So disappointing.

So Thank You Monte Carlo for a nasty room!

-M-

P.S. Im sure you gather from this post that I will not be returning or reccomending you to any of our military families.



Santa I want......

When my brother and I were little we had a special way of
telling Santa what we wanted for Christmas.

We would wait for the Sunday paper, usually the first Sunday after Thanksgiving,
and get ahold of the Toys"R"Us catalog.

We would then cut out every-single-toy we wanted, shoved it in an envelope and took it to the mall for our yearly photo shoot with the "Big Man".

                  (Notice the 2 envelopes in my Brothers hand)              

Thinking back, I liked the way that worked out.

Santa knew exactly what I wanted, and I didnt have to worry about him getting confused.

     So I have continued that tradition with my children, ya know so they dont have to worry :)

They had alot of fun circling toys in the AAFES catalog

Seann even got some help from his Auntie Risa.

And the end of it all, we closed the books and mailed them to
 Santa at the North Pole

Or maybe it was Baumholder? Who knows close enough, right?

Either way, no confusion for Santa!  

How does your family tell Santa what they want?

-M-

40th Engineer Castle Cake

Recently I tackled the task of creating a Castle cake

I took about 80 Rice Krispy Treats, a round cake pan and a knife and went to work.

After about 30 minutes of mushing RKT into a cake pan I had pillar one



I had also started to think

"Man this is harder than I thought it would be"

About an hour after that I had pillar #2 and alittle piece of the middle.

At this point I started to feel good about myself because

1) It started looking like a castle

2) The hardest part was behind me, or so I thought.

2-3 hours later is looked like this

Then I had a crisis

Red Frosting I bought, was not sticking to the RKT

So I had to go old school and whip out the powdered sugar, frosting and Wiltons Red dye.

 Thing was, I was not prepared to make frosting.

So I called the one person I knew would have the goodies I needed.

HH6Diva.

The phone call went something like this:

HH6: Whats up lady

Rib: Frosting Crisis

HH6: What do you need I am on my way!

About 30 minutes later she arrived and we went to work.

We started mixing dye and frosting.

Ran into another issue, true red was not coming out true red

it was coming out hot pink.

Now as much as I love hot pink, Im sure my CSM would not appreciate a Hot Pink Engineer cake.

Now HH6Diva is quiet savy when it comes to social networking.

So she went to work on twitter asking her "peeps" how to get true red frosting.

We got all kinds of answers.

But the one that seemed to make the most sense was, keep adding dye until it looks red.

3 jars of Wiltons dye later, it was ENGINEER RED!

Here is a picture of Ann addin' some Engineer red frosting to the RKT Castle.

The final product

The next day

Red hands and all

Ann took this picture of me cutting the cake at the social

What is the craziest cake you have ever tackled?

-M-



At this point

I have abandoned by blog for so long, and again I am back

I wish I could be an faithful blogger like HH6Diva.

She is actually a great friend of mine, and I read her blog almost daily

and talk to her about it too.

I need to work on devoting time to my blog.

So in the weeks of time that I havent blogged, my husband has been promoted

My husband has deployed

And I have completed another sucessful Battalion Event for the 40th

Busy lady I have been

Still no excuse, it time to start devoting time to me.

Things that I like

Things that I want to do.

At this point, its time.

-M-