{decked out}

When my mom and sisters were visiting, they helped me sand down my deck. Talk about a labor of love. There are chores I don't think I'd ever accomplish if someone weren't around to encourage and help me. My mom bought all the supplies, showed me what to do, and left us with just a wee bit of staining to do and a bunch of pretty flowers to pot (since all of mine had lately died). Phillip and I finished the staining on Saturday and touched it up on Sunday and I not-so-patiently waited until this morning to move our furniture from the back porch to the front. My grandparent's neighbors recently sold their house and wanted to get rid of their staging furniture. I got all this gorgeous stuff for free! Yay! We currently have 3 dogs tearing up our back yard (2 of which we are watching on a semi-permanent hopefully temporary basis) so I needed to get that furniture away from their grubby sleeping bodies and boredom-induced pillow shredding sessions. I want to show you the flowers, too, but I haven't weeded my yard in a shameful number of weeks and it's not pretty. Also I just potted them yesterday and they're not great looking just yet. I cannot wait to drink my coffee out here in the mornings and read books in the shade of our giant pine trees! 

P.S. The stain is photographing weird, but it's actually incredibly pretty. We used Cabot's Australian Deck Oil in "Natural" and it is awesome so far. 

It feels great to finish a project now and then! Thanks Mom, Lydia, and Sophie! 

A simplified list {on moving}

Things I will miss about living on base:

1.The view from my back porch:

Our new place has things to look at, certainly, but not this feeling of openness and privacy and SKY.

2. That running track. Well, mostly the feeling of safety I have when running on base. I will miss our late night walks around the deserted paths and knowing I'm safe no matter how late it is.

3. Speaking of safe, I will miss the fact that I don't have to always lock my car, house, etc.

4. I will really miss Phillip coming home for lunch every day. He'll still be able to come home sometimes, but not nearly as often. Plus that means I'll have to start packing a lot more lunches. And I'm bad at that.

5. Watching the planes/helicopters/jets fly over.

6. The master bathroom. Our new house has one (it was surprisingly hard to find a house with a master bath!) but it's way, way smaller. I'm going to miss having my own sink.

7. Having someone else mow our lawn. And come fix our microwave. Etc.

8. The proximity of the BX/Commissary/Gym. Not that I go to the gym....

Things I won't miss about living on base:

1. The rent. This place is pricey, ya'll.

2. The little notices for lease violations we get for no reason. We've gotten them for failure to remove snow (even though we HAD removed the snow) and also failure to remove pet waste (even though we HAD removed the pet waste!) Whoever writes those is either angry or nuts. 

3. The extra 5-10 minutes it takes to get anywhere due to the slow speed limits on base and extra distance.

4. I will not miss the poor dog having to be tethered outside. I cannot tell you how happy I am that she will finally have a yard! Also, I will not miss the times she's escaped from the tether and caused me no end of humiliation. 

5. The stained white carpet.
6. Sharing a wall with our neighbor. It gets in the way of blasting music late at night and shouting at the TV and my dog.
7. Having to get a pass for every single person who ever wants to visit our house. That's time consuming and really annoying.
8. The super high electricity bills.
9. The maintenance guys walking in while I'm in the shower. Yeah, that happened.
10. The no talking/driving rule.
11. The nervous fear I have of breaking a rule, ruining something in the house, etc that keeps me from feeling completely and truly at home.

Good news! The moving "pros" outweigh the "cons" at present!
See you next week from our NEW HOUSE!!
Have a great weekend!

Snow day

Good morning friends!

It's snowing here! I love snow. And lucky for me, I don't really have to go anywhere all day until dinner time. It's a perfect day to stay at home and drink coffee. 

And also a perfect day to play with my new cell phone app, "Retro Camera." 

So enjoy all my fuzzy pictures of the freshly falling snow!

I'm not going to lie to you, this is our Christmas tree. 

It's dead and has been sitting out on our back porch for weeks.

Snow makes everything so bright! It also mystifies our normally pretty view. 

I like the composition of the first pic better here, but I love that giant snowflake that jumped into my second pic. 

Ok, so maybe this pic looks a little like a prison? I promise it's not!

Prison again. But pretty snowy prison with a craggy leafless tree.

Also, you should see my dog. 

She begged to go outside, but then proceeded to whine and refused to leave the porch. 

Good thing we got lots of walks in earlier this week. I refuse to leave the porch, too. 

Have a wonderful weekend!

{first of December}

                                                                 Source: beautiful-portals.tumblr.com via Daniella on Pinterest

                                                                   Source: lifeingraceblog.com via Daniella on Pinterest

                                                                                Source: theberry.com via Ashley on Pinterest

                                                                          Source: thebeardly.com via Daniella on Pinterest

Happy first day of December! The day dawned a little later than usual for us, due to a delay in the workday brought on by a gorgeous snow storm! I didn't mind one bit. 

We're expecting more snow and extra cold temperatures for the next few days, and I'll admit that I love the changing seasons and the clean feeling snow brings. I also love staying in and drinking hot drinks galore. 

I have a few chores to get done today, but other than that I plan to wear my cuddliest sweater and play indoor tug-of-war with my dog. 

Also, no-shave-November is officially over, and I thought that poster was appropriate and funny. 

Congratulations to any men who made it through without having to shave for work. 

Have a great Thursday!

Diary of an Unwilling Air Force Wife: I think I need to move

This week has solidified my strong desire to move off base. Forget the stained white carpets, the lack of fenced yards, the supremely expensive electricity bills, and the ridiculous rules. I now have more concrete reasons. I really need to move.

At around 11AM on Monday, I took my dog out for our daily walk. It was pleasant enough outside to wear shorts and a sweatshirt and I walked along with my coffee in hand. I ran into another woman walking her two tiny little pups and I stop to chat with her when we both realized that we knew each other. We sat next to each other in a military spouses class a few months ago. We chatted for a minute and then each continued our walks in opposite directions around the housing complex. Somewhere on the other side, I ran into Kristine again. We stopped again, let our dogs sniff each other again, and chatted some more. I even put her phone number into my phone so we could get together at a later date. While we were talking, a young man with two puppies came upon us as he chased his dogs (sans leashes) down the path. His dogs of course stopped to meet our dogs, so he stopped too. I mistakenly called one of his dogs a husky when it was something else, but he was friendly and told us all about the breed(which I promptly forgot). Dog owners always have things to talk about. 

But then.

I have had this idea weighing on my mind that I really need to find someone whom I can pay to shovel the snow off our driveway when we're out of town this winter. I had thought to myself that a teenager would perfectly fit the bill, because they'd be eager to earn a few extra bucks and would be strong and able. With these thoughts darting through my head, and my normal social awkwardness making me a bit fuzzy, I said "You're the first teenage boy I've met on base" by way of introducing this driveway shoveling subject. 

"Ma'am," he replied, "I'm 21 and I'm in the Air Force."

Oops. I quickly and fumblingly apologized, and we stood there for a moment, a group of awkward strangers whose dogs' leashes were entangled in a giant web, keeping us literally tied together for a long minute of terrible silence. If it weren't for that, I probably would have run away immediately. One of us managed to change the subject after that interminable minute, but there was very little left to say. He gathered his dogs to take them back home and Kristine and I quickly said our goodbyes. Basically, we all wandered away in a confused and awkward haze. 

In my defense, the poor guy looked very, very young, and he had a young voice to match. And he wasn't wearing his uniform, so how was I to know? Oh, the wedding ring on his finger, you say? To that I say, shut up. Just kidding. I will never, ever, reference anyone's age, ever again. And I'd gladly pay the housing office $200 to shovel my driveway if I could take that moment back again. 

Obviously I have to move.

Oh, but that's not all.

Apparently the maintenance team is performing "winterization" tasks this week in all our homes. 

They sent out a letter informing us of that fact, but I forgot.

Yesterday, I was in the shower covered in soap and suds with my razor in hand when I heard the dog start to bark. Sometimes she barks when someone walks through our yard. But she kept barking, and barking, and getting louder and louder and angrier. I rinsed off as quickly as I could, threw on the nearest robe, and emerged, skimpy and dripping, to find out what was going on. 

"Hello?!" I called as I opened my bedroom door.

"Maintenance, Ma'am" came a loud strong voice, slightly muffled by my dog's incessant barking.

They apparently rang the doorbell, although I never heard it, and then just let themselves in.

I guess I should just be glad my dog didn't bite them.

Or should I be? Don't I want my dog to bite strange men when they come in my house and I'm indecent? 

 I really, really need to move. 

A simplified list of {things I love about my dog}

1.) The way she chases her tail
2.) The cute grunting noises she makes in her sleep
3.) Watching her play and wrestle with (and stare adoringly at) Phillip
4.) The way she lies at our feet and snuggles as close as she can to us at all times
5.) The happy/hyper leaping dance she does whenever I pick up my tennis shoes or the leash
6.) The way she runs like a dolphin, leaping like a little puppy instead of running like a normal dog
7.) How safe I feel when she is in the house with me to bark or growl at strangers
8.) Never having to pick up food I drop on the floor
9.) Walking her in the sunshine
10.) Her ears flopping around her head when she shakes herself
11.) Her yawns

A simplified list {things I dislike about my dog}

1. Cleaning up her poop
2. When she jumps on my guests and is super annoying to them
3. Barking at everything
4. Hair shedding everywhere
5. The way her tail thumps against the wall in her sleep in the middle of the night and wakes me up
6. When she breaks free and runs barking after a neighbor (especially the children on bicycles), it's embarrassing and terribly difficult to catch her
7.) When she gets too hyper on a walk and runs in front of me or tries to knock me over to play with another dog
8.) That I can't sit or lie on the floor in my house without her trying to jump on me/hit me in the face with her tail
9.) When she tracks mud all over the floor
10.) Waking up from a nap on the couch by a wet lick in the face