Gimme A Break!

Sorry for the lack of blogging over here, there's a lot going on in my life right now and yesterday the stress took over. I love that post-it note to the left because it's exactly what I feel like doing lately.

Just for shits 'n giggles (really? who came up with that phrase?!), here's a look at what I have going on in the next several months, and why my IBS is kicking up all of a sudden. Oh, was that TMI (too much information)? Sorry!

May 22 - flying out of ABQ at 6:50 pm to Denver.
May 23 - arrive in ATL at 6 am
May 25 - driving to Pensacola, Florida with Kenny (this is a new change of plans thanks to the Air Force)*
May 26 - flying from Pensacola to Atlanta, from Atlanta to Denver, and from Denver to ABQ. Woot.
May 29 - flying to San Diego at 7 am
May 31 - HALF MARATHON - YEA!!!
June 1 - flying back home at 8 pm
June 7 - friend's bachelorette party
June 12 - friend's rehearsal/dinner
June 13 - friend's wedding
June 28 - ATM Chef Knockout
July 3–July 6 - Georgia to see Kenny
July 11 - FSIL (future sister in law) bridal shower
July 24 - Brother and FSIL rehearsal
July 25 - Brother and FSIL wedding!!
August 15 - Absolute last day to get TNT fundraising money in
August 24 - Vegas for my cousin's 21st birthday
September 1–September 15 - Going. Back. To. England!!!! (I booked my ticket last night!!!)

Um. So. Yeah. I'm kinda stressed. Not to mention, work is kinda stressing me out at the moment, but I think that's more due to thinking about all of the above than actual work. I also want to start working on all these little DIY projects I have for the wedding since I "have so much time," but now I'm afraid all the time is going to fly by without me doing any of the fun projects I want to do.

And as a completely different side note, can I share a major pet peeve with you? I can't stand it when people call pets (usually dogs) their "kids" or "babies." For some reason it just gets under my skin. No offense if you have an animal you love just as you would another human being, it's just a thing that really bugs me personally!

Okay, there's my rant for today.

*The Air Force likes to mess with Kenny and I all the time. It seems like whenever we make solid plans (usually they include purchasing a non-refundable airline ticket) they give him or change his orders a couple days after we get the ticket. For example: We bought the ticket on Friday and on Monday they told him he's going to Florida for work the day I'm supposed to leave. Oh, Air Force, you're really quite annoying.

Friday Poll

Whoops! I almost forgot to post a new poll for this week. Here are the results from last week, and I'm very happy to see there are two other readers who are left handed just like me (woot woot!):For this week I'm curious what you guys top your salads with! Are you all about the creamy ranch or a light vinaigrette?

Salad Dressing Preference:
* Ranch
*Blue Cheese
*Vinaigrette
*Thousand Island
*French
*Lemons
*Nothing
*Other

About 10 minutes ago, Kenny and I bit the bullet and bought a ticket for me to go see him over Memorial Day weekend. I couldn't be more excited about this, because that means I get to see him one. week. from. today!!!!! I must have spend at least two cumulative hours trying to find a flight that would give us the biggest bang for our buck, so to speak.

Here's my flight info so you can see the craziness I go through to see my man! Luckily I love traveling and usually don't have any problems sleeping in airports or on planes.

(click to enlarge and get the full effect)

I love the feeling after I buy a plane ticket somewhere! Hope you all have a great weekend.

Not-Frequent-Enough Flier

I've been flying back and forth to see Kenny for the past two years and I try to visit him every other month. Now, I'm not good at math (I wrote papers about math and played tic-tac-toe in my college math class and I still barely passed— but that's a whole other blog post), but after flying more than 3,000 miles round trip each time I go out there, you'd think I would have racked up enough frequent flier miles by now to have a free trip, right? Wrong.

I'm sure this would be the case if I had stuck with one particular airline, but I'm cheap so I fly by who offers me the cheapest flight. This means I'm part of the Frontier, American Airlines, and Delta flier programs, all of which only give you super-flier status if you fly around a million miles with them.

I think I'm pretty close to getting a free flight (or at least the next membership level which means I'll get a free drink and movie on a flight - whoop) on Delta and Frontier, but here's my dilemma: I'm about to book two more trips for June and July, but the cheapest flight is on American. Do I pay around $100 more for each trip out there just so I can get the extra miles? Or do I go the cheaper route and just hope that someday I reach the next membership level.

My Mama

(When I lived in England in 2004/2005 I would periodically send e-mails home to friends and family. This was one of those emails - I hope you enjoy! Happy Mother's Day!)

A Father’s Surprise

My grandma loves England. My grandma loves England so much that she's gone abroad just to go on a garden tour, yes, a tour of only English gardens. So when she found out that her only granddaughter would be studying in England for a year, she booked her flight to London and convinced her long-time college friend, Betty, to go with her. Really, it was a great excuse for her to visit the UK again; this would be her sixth visit to England.

I couldn’t be more excited to have them come out and see me. Not only would I get to be with family again, but I'd also get some much-needed ‘supplies’ from home (i.e. tortillas, batteries, shampoo and conditioner, scarves, and basically anything I could think of, because everything is cheaper in America.)

About two weeks ago I was talking to my mom on the phone and she mentioned that my dad was also sending me a surprise! ‘Oh fantastic,” I thought, “Maybe he’ll send me Reese’s Pieces (he knows I love them, and can’t get them out here), or an article he saw on a band I like since he likes clipping things from newspapers sometimes.” I thought of all the possibilities of what the ‘surprise’ could be….

My grandma’s flight arrived in London at 7:30am on Friday, the 29th of October, and she told me she’d call if she could when she landed, to let me know she and Betty arrived safely, but she said ‘not too worry’ if she didn’t call since she would be busy and a bit stressed. She told me to expect the two of them sometime in the afternoon.

Around 2pm I began to get a little worried and considered calling Peter (the tour guide for the weekend) to make sure everything was ok. I also considered calling home to ask my mom and dad if they had heard from her, but I remembered that my mom was going to an all-day workshop and my dad was going to work early. I heard my mom's voice in my head telling me not to worry and to be patient. Luckily my best friend, who was also studying abroad in Australia, eased my mind and called me around 2:30pm. We talked for a little bit, but my thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a car.

I quickly got off the phone with her and ran outside. I gave my Grandma a huge hug and a kiss and I turned around to welcome Betty. But, there was one problem.

When I turned around it wasn’t Betty who I was looking at… it was my mom! MY MOM!!!! Thousands of thoughts were racing through my mind and I didn’t know whether to laugh, or cry, so I did both.
I heard her say, “Surprise! I’m Betty.” But at that moment I couldn’t comprehend what exactly was going on! I invited my mom, grandma and Peter into my house and gave them a very brief and scattered tour. They proceeded to give me treats and things from home. As this was happening I was still trying to put everything together – boy did they have some explaining to do!

About a half hour later we were ready to go begin our weekend of sightseeing and touring. And what do you know; the weather began to clear up the moment we left the university, and was actually unbelievably nice the whole time.

On the way to our Bed and Breakfast my mom and grandma filled me in on everything. They told me how EVERYONE knew about this surprise…EVERYONE, that is, except for me and all of my friends. So, for ALL of you who knew about this, I congratulate you for not letting the cat out of the bag!!!

It was on the way to the B&B when I finally calmed down and stopped shaking. I called my dad and thanked him for my ‘surprise!" I’m still so happy and so surprised; it’s very surreal. My papa’s gift was a very unselfish and amazing surprise, I’m very lucky to have such great parents!!!

Here are some pictures from the trip:

This one is hands down, my favorite picture from my entire time in Bournemouth, England.

Notting Hill on a Saturday!

Buckingham Palace changing of the guard.

White Cliffs of Dover

Stonehenge

Us posing in front of Stonehenge with a local paper!

Getting Healthy

One of my best friends from high school is literally traveling the world right now. Mike has been to Italy, Greece, Egypt, and is now on his way to India; I’m so impressed that he actually “did it.” Everyone talks about achieving their dreams, but how often do we actually get out there and make them happen? He sold his car, bought the ticket and hasn’t been back home for many months. It’s just amazing to me.

When he first left I would get a little sad reading about their (he went with another friend of mine, Abel) adventures, but now I can read them without wanting to purchase the next flight out of town. These days I’m not as antsy reading about how much excitement he’s having because I know that I’m just in a transition phase right now. Traveling is in my blood and I know I’ll be back with my passport in tow when the time is right.

In the mean time, I’m keeping my adventures close to home. In other words: I think I’m about to start fighting off yet another cold. I’ve literally been going nonstop for the past 17 days; I’ve been traveling, drinking, eating all the wrong foods, not sleeping, not drinking water, and so on and so on. My body is pretty mad at me right now and is screaming at me to start taking it easy again and bring it back to a healthy state.

With that said, I worked out this morning despite waking up with a sore throat (bleh) and a somewhat stuffy nose and I had a Lean Cuisine for lunch. The workout darn near killed me, but hopefully I can keep it up. And later today after I get home from work I’m going to take a nap and work on catching up on all that sleep I’ve missed.

When Bliss Says Bye

Kenny's plane took off ten minutes ago and I'm not on it. No, not that I was supposed to be on it, it's just that he's going back to Georgia and I'm staying here, the way it's been for the past two years.

You'd think saying goodbye and dealing with a long distance relationship would be easier after two years of sporadic encounters, but it's not; if anything, it's getting harder.

The two of us had an unbelievable time together during the past two weeks and we were lucky to see each other nearly everyday. In fact, it was almost like having a boyfriend who lived here! But now we go back to our countdown (26 days days possibly; 40 days for sure) and look forward to the next time we see each other.

Till then, I'll truck on and continue my life of having a relationship thousands of miles and several states away, and I'll be thankful for dating in the 21st century when I have devices like cell phones (what would I do without unlimited texting???!!!) and instant messaging.

Here's to seeing my love again in t-minus 26 days...

And He's Off

Well, I had him home for 12 fantastic days, but now he's somewhere in the air flying the friendly skies on his way back to Georgia. It was great while he was here. I got to see him almost all of the 12 days - usually at night for dinner. He got to see my work, go to a work party, we went to three Halloween parties (!!) had dinner with both sets of parents and grandparents and then we had dinner with both parents together. Whew. It was a whirlwind.

And now I'm sad because he's gone. The thing is, Kenny will always miss out on different functions because of the military. Tonight my friends are having a party and tomorrow we're celebrating my great aunt's 95 birthday, but he'll be back in Warner Robins and not here. There will always be something he's missing.

I do feel bad though because I've been sick the last few days and haven't been able to see him as much. It started off on Wednesday just feeling like a cold was upon me. On Thursday I woke up and felt like I was gagging and chocking on something. The uvula in my mouth/throat was swollen and preventing me from swallowing; combine that with all the aches and pains I was feeling and the fever I had and I was definitely under the weather. I slept most of Thursday and hoped I'd feel better on Friday. Friday morning rolled around and I felt worse. My throat felt like it was on fire, so a trip to the doc was in order.

It turns out that the rapid throat culture says it's not strep, but the doctor still gave me an antibiotic, so I'm hoping it's going to kick in ASAP. My throat still feels like it's on fire though. And now i'm going to go take yet another nap.

Picture and Update Fest!

Oh goodness, it's been awhile since I've posted! Well, I'll try to make this short and sweet, but we all know that's probably not going to happen!!

Backing up:
Kenny came in Friday (9/5) night! But he was supposed to originally get in on Sept. 2, then that was delayed to Thursday the fourth in the morning, then it was the fifth in the morning...and so on and so on.

I freaked out when I heard it was going to be delayed AGAIN because I was supposed to leave Sunday at 8 am. I called Delta and spoke with some not-very-nice lady who only cared about following the rules and was going to charge $450 to change my flight for later that . Yeah, that wasn't going to fly, so I called back and talked with a supervisor. I pulled the "military card" (hey, I wasn't about to spend $900 on this trip) and she worked with me and we ended up changing my ticket to come home on Monday morning for a $170 change. Now, I could handle that.

I stayed with Kelly, Bryan and their two kids (THANK YOU A MILLION, AGAIN!!!) and we made a sign for Kenny before he got in:


But back to the homecoming. It was awesome. I had NO idea what to expect, but I just went with the flow. We actually got to see the plane fly in and land on base.


There must have been about 50-75 (maybe more, i'm a bad judge of numbers!) people waiting for their loves, family members and friends to get off the plane. The rolled the stairs up to the plane and then they started deboarding. It was such a sight to see.





I started crying almost immediately because a little girl ran up to her daddy and just hugged him like there was no tomorrow. He said, 'Ok, I have to stand up now," and she just shook her head and said, "I don't wanna let go of you again." Ah. It breaks my heart all over again!

Kenny was one of the first to come off the plane, and I know this sounds really, really silly/stupid, but I was most nervous about not recognizing him. You see, they were ALL wearing the SAME uniform/color and I was just so afraid that I wouldn't be able to pick him out. But the minute he came through I knew it was him.

Really there were just lots of hugs and kisses and tears. I think I cry more when I see homecomings not directly related to me, but damn do I love them! I saw moms reunited with their kids, dads who missed birthdays and lots and lots of love all around.

And that was my first homecoming; I apologize for how long it took me to get the pictures up!

Now back to real time:

I had a pretty good day yesterday! I got to sleep in a bit and then went gallivanting around town with my mom. We had lunch at a yummy casual Italian restaurant and I had a very delicious sandwich! Then I came home and took a nap (I LOVE Saturdays because taking a nap in the middle of the day is perfectly acceptable).

After the nap I decided to make some cupcakes. I LOVE cupcakes and decided I'm going to make a valid attempt to make them more often! Today the church my dad grew up in out in Tome has a "Fiesta" for all the churchgoers and at the park they have a cake walk, so I wanted to make some for that. I'll try to remember to take pics of it!

I had SO much fun making them! Here are some pics:

Me (I'm even wearing an apron! Go me! lol):


The FUNFETTI batter:


pouring it into the mini cups!


What 80 mini cupcakes without frosting look like:


I dyed the white vanilla frosting pink (it's much more vibrant in person):





And blue!:


And then I mixed the two and made a purple:

I ended up having two more pans of each. Woohoo! I'm really excited about doing this and can't wait to make more! :)

On hold

Heh. I knew better than to get my hopes up and get excited. I just knew it. Kenny just called me about a half hour ago. As soon as I saw the familiar Air Force number I knew it would be crappy news. He always calls at night, so for him to call about nine hours early meant something was up. He started the call with, “It’s not my fault.”

And it’s not, and I know that. They’re delaying his departure by a day because of the hurricane, which I whole-heartedly understand. I realize a day isn't a whole lot in the whole scheme of things, it’s just that when you only have less than 60 hours to spend with your love to begin with, every hour counts. We’ll be down to being with each other for about 48 hours now and I’m now there’s one less night that I get to spend cuddled up in his arms, but I fully expect to do my best to make every moment count. It just sucks and I’m praying he doesn’t get delayed more—something I can honestly see happening since Hurricane Hannah hasn’t even hit the US yet. I made myself not cry over the phone, and I didn’t cry when I hung up, but I can feel the tears on the brink of falling now.