Bitch Bitch Bitch

"Bitch, bitch, bitch." It's all I'm going to do in this post. If you don't wanna read it, I understand. I just need to get this off my chest, because I've already vented to Katie....and she said I'm allowed to do this!

We all knew when homecoming was. The guys knew, the wives and girlfriends knew, and me and Danny knew. If my husband was coming home from war, I would make sure he had a place to live (or atleast something lined up that would be happening soon) or at the very least...a hotel for him to stay at for a few days.

For weeks leading up to the guys homecoming I offered our house for people to stay, help with transportation, help finding places to live and sleep, hell...I went as far as offering to purchase a plane ticket for one of the wives because she wasn't sure if she could make it up. All of it went under answered, so I assumed everything was taken care of.

Boy was I wrong.

The guys were supposed to be home Saturday night..but like we all knew, it was pushed back. Well, I guess that's a good thing because one of the girls didn't even get here until Tuesday at 6PM. Me and Danny were invited to homecoming by Danny's best friend who was coming home, but we thought it should be a family thing (afterall, we wouldn't want a ton of people there when Danny got home.) So, we're old and headed to bed, and the phone rings. They can't get on base. They want to use our car to get on base...my first thought is no (no, not because I'm a bitch..but because the girl doesn't have a license.) But Danny says yes because there is another driver. Okay, fine. So we are getting ready to do the car exchange and plans change. They don't need the car anymore.

The next day, one of the guys visited me with his girlfriend. I asked her where they were staying. Her answer? "I don't know, he has to find a place." Uh...okay? Three hours later, a whole bunch of homecomings later, there are no hotels. I bet you'll never guess who got a phone call to drive an hour away to help check into a hotel because he's not 21.

That same night, actually 3AM, the phone rings. Danny's best friend needs a ride to work in the morning. Done. Except the phone keeps ringing, the texts are flowing in, and my blood pressure is going through the roof. Seriously.

The last straw came when I asked four people over for a cookout. Four people accepted, so there is a total of 6. So, I plan a bacon-wrapped filet, potato salad, corn on the cob cookout. How many people show up? Six. Who doesn't have enough food? Me. How embarrassing is defrosting burgers and not having enough of anything.

I'm sure I blew this entire thing out of proportion. I know being married to a Marine, I need to learn to be more flexible. However, these things have absolutely nothing to do with the military...it has everything to do with life and common sense. I don't think it's right to have someone come home from serving their country and not have anything ready for them. No place to live, and they need a place in three days. With so many homecomings this week, that's almost impossible. Especially since he has leave and won't even be here to find a home!

I don't like when plans change that I actually have control over, and maybe I'm uptight. And the only question I'm asking you guys is, is it fair to the guys to have absolutely nothing lined up when they come home?

And yes, as I write this..I realize how dumb this all is. But I was aggravated after our little cookout and needed to get this out!

My Favorite Activity

I love love love grocery shopping. I used to love going grocery shopping with my Mom. Even though there is a grocery store right across the street from our house, we would travel a little bit further just for a great grocery shopping experience.

Our favorite places for grocery shopping are Roche Brothers and Stop & Shop. Roche Brothers has an amazing cheese selection, I could literally stare at it all day. They have a great olive bar, with peppers stuffed with cheese and prosciutto. If you have never tried those, what are you waiting for?! But the best part of Roche Brothers are the prepared foods. You can go in there, get a healthy-already-made meal for the entire family. And it's so so so good! I miss their chicken wings!

Stop & Shop is perfect for someone like me. I don't like chatty cashiers, but I also loathe self checkout. So what's the only other option? Self-scanners. Oh.My.God. Here's how it works.

1. Bring your own bags.
2. Scan your Stop & Shop card when you walk in the door and receive your own scanner.
3. As you shop, scan the products, and bag them yourself.
4. At checkout, point your scanner at the screen...all of your products are shown on the screen.
5. Pay by sliding your money into the little box (same way you do self-check out)
6. Some people are randomly chosen to look through bags, to make sure nothing was stolen. It's totally random.

No talking, no human interaction, fast AND you save money! How? Your totally is displayed on the scanner..so you have no surprises when you get to the register! I LOVE THIS! And miss it so much.

Wednesday night is grocery shopping night for me and Danny. We do our shopping at Walmart. I like their cheap prices and they have a great variety of choices. I love meal planning and coupons. Here's another way to save money: make meals with a lot of the same products. Buy one thing, use it in several ways!

Grocery shopping at Walmart is not my favorite thing, but I love food and creating meals from it. This is our grocery list for our dinners:

Spinach
Lima Beans
Summer Squash
Corn
Grape Tomatoes
Lime
Bacon
Cantaloupe
2 Red Onions
Red Bliss Potatoes
Sour Cream

And here is what I'll be creating with only those ingredients:
Pepper-Jack Chicken with Succotash (cheese from last weeks meals and chicken from Reina!)
Bacon-Cantaloupe Wraps (have all the condiments and the wraps!)
T-Bone and Potato Salad (remember, our freezer is stocked with Omaha Steaks!)
Spinach and Steak Salad (yep, we have lots of steak in there!)

Meals that I don't have to buy ANYTHING for:
Catfish with double baked potatoes and veggie
Breakfast Skillet


Now I'm excited to go shopping...and start eating!

Day Five: Pay Day Rants, Tattoos and Cookout!

So, it's payday. I'm not sure if I've ever voiced my opinion about how much I hate direct deposit. I don't like having the money go into one spot. I like having a check in my hand, going to the bank, cashing it..and deciding how much I want to keep there. I live by the envelope system. I have since I was 16 and I really don't see myself ever backing away from it. I think it's hard for people to understand how it works. Danny doesn't. He just knows we are saving money. Anyway, today was payday. I had a fit this morning about how much I hate direct deposit...and then we moved on and I filled up my envelopes.

Me and Michelle went to Walmart to get stuff for the cookout. Like I said, it's payday. She thought it was so funny that everyone was stocking up on things for the next few weeks. I just think it's funny that you can tell when the entire town gets paid. Do most people just do their grocery shopping on payday? Maybe it's with the help of the envelope system that we go every week. I can't imagine getting everything I need/want only twice a month.

Okay moving on from my rant!!

Me and Michelle got tattoos today! We both got "Let It Be." She got it on her foot, I got mine on my wrist. That makes number 7 for me. And way more for Michelle! I just decided that someday I'm going to do a blog entry on all of HER tattoos! As usual the tattoo artist thought it was my first one. I guess I should start getting bigger more obvious ones! AND he thought all The Beatles were still alive...he must live under a rock!

 I'm paranoid that the birds don't look like birds!

I see a starfish, dolphin and wishbone...

We had a cookout tonight! The four of us, Reina and Dave, and Dan and Natosha. We had wayyy too much food. Reina made an awesome dessert, we named it the candy apple dip. It was a-maaa-zing! Miley even had a little play date!

Somehow we ended up at the bowling alley. Very rowdy, some of the boys had way too much to drink. It was a fun time hanging out with everyone! 

Rest of the Summer Plans

We plan to have a few more cookouts before the summer is over. Believe it or not, the freezer is still full of Omaha Steaks..and we're expecting more hamburgers in the mail this week. I tweeted that the burgers were a little small, Omaha Steaks saw that, apologized and insisted on sending me bigger burgers. Now that's good customer service!

My sister and her boyfriend will be here in exactly one week. So excited for that. We have an awesome night in Charlotte planned. We have reservations at a fancy-shmancy sushi place, a hotel reserved...and we're seeing this guy in concert!

We'll go to the beach a lot before the summer is over. Free fun! I love taking Miley to the beach, she loves to run and chase the waves. It's a lot of fun for all of us. I'm sure me and my sister will be spending a lot of time sitting on the beach while she is here...and getting this inked on our bodies....

Last night I saw a commercial for Busch Gardens and decided we have to go there before the summer is over. I look it up, we get free tickets. Found a hotel that we can bring Miley to, with no charge. Only a few hours away, gas isn't too expensive. And we save our change...and yes, our CHANGE is paying for this trip. SO EXCITED!

So excited about our Myrtle Beach trip at the end of August. My friend Lindsey is coming down, my friend Danielle is going to meet us there with her boyfriend...and a lot of alcohol will be consumed. It's a MUCH needed trip and I am so so so so so so excited!

My sister is bringing my wedding dress down with her. Trash the dress pictures WILL be happening.

With any luck we'll be in Maine for Labor Day and Danny's birthday. We'll be on the lake, soaking in the sun and relaxing. 

What do you have planned for the rest of the summer?

96 Hours

I have always loved holiday weekends. But a military holiday weekend is amazing. Danny got out of work early on Friday. We headed to Raleigh for dinner with the in-laws. Danny's step-dad got a new truck, one of those fancy-schmancy ones with OnStar. Seriously, how cool is that? You call, a lady picks up, and you tell her where you want to go. She then sends the directions to your truck. When a direction comes up, the radio volume and air conditioner get quiet so you can actually  hear whats coming up. AND it has a built in phone. The TRUCK has it's own PHONE NUMBER! All five of us called Danny's grandma. Oh, and dinner was good too!

Saturday, after Miley peed on our bed, me and Danny had a long-overdue date night. First, we headed to Target to get some shelves for our living room, I love having pictures around the house...you can never have enough! We had dinner at the Olive Garden. Red wine, pasta...mmm, it was a good night! We were going to see a movie, and I don't really remember why we didn't...but we ended up back at the house finishing up season 1 of LOST. Danny swore he would never get addicted to it...but if you're a fan, you know that's impossible! We slept on the floor Saturday night....after Miley peed on the bed, I washed my sheets...and was waaaay to lazy to make the bed!

 Date night!

Sunday we hung the new shelves and put up some new pictures. I've never celebrated the 4th without a crowd, so it was a little different for me. We made ribs and corn on the cob...very yummy! Then we headed out to New Bern for the air show. We got there waaay early. We sat in the sun, listened to music and people watched. For doing absolutely  nothing, I had a lot of fun. The air show was awesome. The first guy went straight up in the air and shut his engine off! A lady walked on the wings of an airplane. That is I-N-S-A-N-E. We wanted to beat the traffic, so we left early. We settled in for the night with the Boston Pops and Toby Keith. I love the Pops, I've seen their Christmas show so many times. Watching it totally made  me miss home!

 Drawbridge in New Bern

This dog was waaaay bigger than me!

This girl was so cute! And I loved her dress!

LOVED the air show!

Monday I woke up, and my hips hurt. I think the night on the floor and sitting at the airshow killed my hips. Danny says its because I don't drink milk (I like it in coffee, cereal, ice cream and cheese...can't do it straight.) I seriously think he is going to make me take vitamins. ICK! We went to the golf course, he hit a bucket of balls. I was just getting getting enough nerve to hit a ball myself when a ton of people came. I'm such a wimp, totally bailed. I promised him next time I would hit a whole bucket. We took Miley to the pet store, she get's SO excited when another dog comes up to her...she always pees. That girl needs some bladder control! We ended the day with a great dinner and a trip to Starbucks!

Fun in the sun!

Today was the last day of "vacation." We went down to Wilmington to do a little shopping. Jacksonville has so many stores, including two Walmarts, but there is NO KOHLS! We got some cheap beach towels, a couple area rugs and I got the cutest dress! I also started scoping out ideas for the summer essentials swap! We're grilling out again tonight...and probably going to end the day with more LOST.

You know what my favorite part of a 96 is? Danny only has 3 days of work...and then it's the weekend! LOVE IT! 

And just a little blogging business: if you are going to sign up for the swap, please do it before noon tomorrow. That way I can figure out the pairs in time for Thursday's post!  I haven't decided if I'm going to do it by location or randomly. Any feedback would be great!

Hope everyone is having a great week so far! 

Cook Book's Lie and Preparation for Saturday

Cook books lie. Don't believe them. Seriously! Ok, well I do like experimenting, and sometimes my experiments turn out great. Other times my experiments turn out ... scary. And of course there's the in between.

The chicken cordon bleu I made tonight did NOT look like the picture. That picture looks much yummier for one thing :P Mine actually didn't taste too bad, but it used Panko bread crumbs for the coating, and it just didn't work for me on chicken. I like it on fried fish, but it just didn't fit here.

Oh yes, crafty stuff, I suppose you want to hear about that now right? Well, in my defense, cooking is an art! Not necessarily the way I do it, but does that really matter?

Actually, cooking is the biggest crafty stuff I did today. The rest of what I did was...preparing to be crafty? I guess that's the best way to put it. Or at least, that's what my exhausted brain is pulling out!

I ran a bunch of errands today, including crafty errands. I have a custom order that I've been working on and I needed to get some findings that I don't usually carry on hand. While I was out I ran across a going out of business sale and got some cardboard displays that I'm really excited about! It changes my display plans - but for the better! I might get you a picture before the Market on Saturday, and if I don't, you'll see it when you see my photos from this weekend!

A Home Cooked Meal

I've said it before, I'll say it again...I LOVE COOKING! I love creating, preparing and most of all...eating. I also think that eating as a family, no matter how big or small, is very important. I grew up eating dinner every night with my family. When I lived in the college dorms, me and my Roomie (yes, capitalized..she is mucho important) always ate dinners together. And when I lived with Danny's family for a few months, we always ate as a family. And now, me and Danny always eat dinner together. It's the perfect way to end the day, talking about the day, the week, important things, silly things, and most of all..enjoying food together. I also think that a little bit of background music can also help make the night better. Wine is optional!

Dinner as a Married Couple

You know how everyone has that one horror story about cooking your first married meal? Add me to the list. Which is weird because I'm a seasoned cook! I can whip up a homemade from scratch cake without even thinking about!

With a gas stove.

Tonight I tried to make pizza. How elementary is that?!?

First, smoke was coming out of the top of the range. Then I opened it (big mistake) and I was smoked out!

After a long day at work, Danny is now cleaning our oven. Someday he will come home and I won't have things for him to fix. I promise!

Featured Crafter: Sally Lee Home Accents

I first found Sally Lee Candles on Twitter.  I even featured her mulberry candle in my first treasury on Etsy.  She has expanded a lot more recently promoting her Home Accents, Sally Lee Home Accents.  Currently her promotion is on the famous Tiffany lamps.  She has a beautiful collection. I particularly love this unique 3 Butterfly Tiffany Style accent lamp. She has other related sister sites and blogs too.  Be sure to check them out.

I have become a part of her Ning site, Earth Friendly Marketplace.  I love being a part of that network.  It's very helpful and I've met some great people.  There is a good variety of handmade crafters and eco-friendly shops to talk to.  We welcome you to join us.

Not only is Sally Lee your one stop shop for everything home, she also completes that agenda with providing recipes and tips with That Girl Can Cook. She has a ton of great recipes, tips and links to other great cooking resources.

Be sure to follow these sites on Twitter, Facebook and Blogspot.  Everyone should have a one stop shop for all their home needs. 

Dinner's Served!

Some of my favorite things in the entire world: cuddling, puppies, and making dinner for people.

I absolutely love having people to cook for. It's even better when people appreciate when you cook for them. I can go all out and make a gigantic meal, but when it's tacos and people love it? It just shows me it really is the simple things in life that matter the most.

Tonight I had dinner made, eaten and cleaned up in a half hour. Someone should call Guinness...that HAS to be a record!

Perfect

Since September 18th I have spent a grand total of five hours at my own house. The house I pay $365 a month, plus utilities, to live in. I'd say this is a colossal waste of money. You live and you learn.

The first week out of the house I spent with Danny's sister, which completely through off my eating and sleeping schedule. I'm not sure if I'll ever recover.

This past week I spent in Jacksonville at Katie's house. We ate...A LOT. O'Charley's, Olive Garden, lots of home cooking, Pancho Villas, and the Seafood Festival! And me and Danny discovered we have a new favorite ice cream..Hazelnuts covered in Nutella. OH. MY. GOD.

I spent my days with Katie's dogs, Cowboy and Taber, who might look sweet and innocent..but after a few days I realized they were cookie thefts! Good news though, give a dog a high dose of pumpkin chocolate chip cookies..they WILL survive it.

Dinners were awesome, I made my famous cheese stuffed meatloaf, a pork tenderloin stuffed with cherries, raisins and cornbread, and pizzas! Katie made a yummy taco salad. And Danny showed off his sandwich making skills! I love eating dinner with other people, and making dinners together makes me happy and reminds me of being home!

Now I'm back in Carrboro, but only for tonight and tomorrow..and then I'm headed to Boston for two weeks! I have some news to tell my parents..and the next weekend we'll be telling Danny's mom. OH BOY!

Barracks

I'm not sure about you girls..but before I met Danny I always thought of barracks as being set up like they are in old movies..lots of concrete, tons of bunk beds in one room, and lots of scary guys walking around in big hats. I was SO wrong. The barracks remind me of a dorm room, plain walls, ugly floor, and two of everything (beds, chairs...) The same dumb rules apply too...I still can't figure out why a George Foreman grill isnt allowed (especially when they take chow hall privilages away because of flight schedules.)

I have grilled out with the guys a few times at the barracks, which is always awkward. I'm comfortable with all of the guys Danny hangs out with..however, there are always other guys around..just staring. I swear I'm always the only girl there. It gets kind of uncomfortable! But on the other hand, I'm lucky that I get to see everyone so often while the other girlfriends live in different states. The girls look forward to seeing pictures of their guys while they can't be there. I'm glad I can help them out!

Danny is going to come home the next three weekends..it will save us a lot of money (hotels start adding up..and my nerves can't handle staying/sneaking in the barracks!)

OH! And his mother know text messages me. We played an awkward game of twenty questions the other night...I'm not really sure how I feel about it. I want her to like me, but I don't want her to be TOO comfortable with me, and be butting into me and Danny's relationship. How do you draw the line?!

Something Cute

It's always hard being away from Danny during the week but short and sweet phone calls and texts get me through the day. This is one of my favorites:



I'm getting used to our weekend routine, we are both learning to love the Greyhound system. Last weekend was great, I feel like all we do is eat and drink when we are together..atleast I won't be getting fat alone! I didn't end up meeting his Mom last week, so I got all nervous for nothing. It's on for this weekend though. They are having breakfast at their house on Sunday, and for me..it's never awkward when food is involved. AND it's a chance for me to show off my culinary skills! Homemade from scratch sticky buns...MY FAVORITE!
I'm getting spoiled with all texting and calling we are doing. It sucks because in the back of my mind I know when he is deployed it won't be happening. But on a positive note, I'll probably be able to get rid of my unlimited texting though..and have a much cheaper cell phone bill!

Last Chance!

It's the last chance to save money in my Etsy-versary sale! Everything in the shop is 20% off between now - and whenever I wake up tomorrow! Do you have something you've been keeping your eye on? Now's the chance! So head on over to my shop and check it out :) There are a few new items too...

On a totally different and completely random topic - I've discovered that I do enjoy cooking. I've never really had a chance to learn to cook too much because between health problems and just being insanely busy...there was never much time to cook! So I knew the basics, and I can follow a recipe really well, but there weren't a lot of dishes in my repertiore. 

Then, when I got really sick we took a bunch of foods out (mainly milk) that took away over half of the dishes I knew how to cook! It was so frustrating! Add that too being a newly wed, both of us being picky eaters, and just not having the energy/health to cook much...

Yeah, for awhile there I was just completely depressed about the whole cooking thing. Lately though, I'm enjoying it! I've finally found enough dishes that we both like, and that are easy to make when I'm not feeling great, that cooking in and of itself doesn't stress me out. So now I'm having fun branching out and exploring some!

My fall back though? If it's leftover it'll probably find it's way into an egg burrito for breakfast or lunch :P I tried a lemon chicken recipe the other day that was ok, but the hubby didn't really like the rice that it cooked in. Which was funny because I liked it and usually HE'S the rice freak. Anyway, there's some chicken left over from that with just a hint of lemon flavor to it. So I fried up the chicken with some onions and garlic, mixed it into some scrambled eggs, and put it on a tortilla with lettuce and olives! Ok, olives for me, and cheese for the hubby :P I miss cheese, but there's no reason to make him miss it too!

So that's my randomness for today :P