After these messages

...I'll be right back!

*My man is in town, so I'm skipping time on the computer to hang out with him. I'll resume blogging when my life becomes boring again*

A Belated Christmas Story

I've had my iBook G4 since April 2006 and I've loved it each and every day. But in the past year it's been having some problems. Luckily none of them have been computer-threatening (i.e. I haven’t lost info on my hard drive….knock on wood), but they have been just plain annoying. On top of that, it doesn’t have much space anymore. I’m constantly moving photos and music to my external hard drive just so I can have more room. I realize these aren’t huge problems, but it was enough to pique the interest of my tech-savvy boyfriend.

And so, for Christmas Kenny presented me with a gift in the form of a card, and inside the card was an I-O-U for anything at the Apple Store. Needless to say, I’m one lucky gal! I tossed around the idea of getting an iPod or an iTouch (I may have left my iPod on an airplane last year when I went to visit the previously mentioned boyfriend). But when it comes down to it, a computer is what I want and a computer’s what I’m going to get!
I think I’m going to place the order today (through my Apple-store-employee-and-cousin Monica) for a new MacBook and wait on pins and needles till it comes in the mail and then I’m giving Kenny the iBook so he play and tweak it to his liking. In the mean time, I need to ship my iBook off to the Apple-fixer-upper place because it broke again, but I think I’ll wait on sending it till my new one comes in.

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...

Adios Oh Eight, Hello Oh Nine

Last year around this time I posted my resolutions for this year:

MAKE a scarf.
TRAVEL to England.
MOVE out of my parents house (maybe - I actually enjoy living there)
GET a pet hamster
GET published in another magazine
EAT healthier (this is with the exception of literally the past two weeks!)
DO more spontaneous random acts of kindness
VOLUNTEER for an organization I'm interested in.
CREATE a book from my European pictures
READ at least one book a month.

As you can see, I didn't do too well with keeping those resolutions. So this year I'm not making a resolution list. As you can see from above, I like crossing things off. In fact, I may put my 2009 To Do list on the side of this blog so I can cross them off as I accomplish them.

Without further ado, here's my 2009 To Do list

Visit England again (the plan is to go in September)
Make a Scarf (this one will continue to appear till I actually make one!)
Get published in another magazine
Start my own Web site
Lose 25 pounds (ideally I'd like to accomplish this by June 13.)
Meet someone from MIG
Run (and walk) a full marathon
Work out at least three days every week, but won't freak out if I miss a day
Dye my hair
Read at least 10 books
Bake more

Tonight should be exciting to say the least. In about two hours I'll be joining Kenny, Amanda, Chris, my grandma and my parents at The Cooperage for dinner, then two hours later Kenny and I will join his parents for dinner. No, that's not a miss-print; we're having two really yummy dinners tonight. Ah, the things we do to make each other happy.

After dinner we're scooting over to the west side for the annual New Year's Eve party. Kenny and I met at this party three years ago and got together at the party two years ago, so we're also celebrating our two-year anniversary today/tomorrow! With that said, I need to go get ready. I hope you all have a wonderful NYE and will continue to follow me and my typing into next year.

Have a save and very happy new years!

Happy Belated Turkey Day

Last night I promised I'd post about Thanksgiving and my week in Georgia, so while my geeky boyfriend watches Star Trek, I'll get my type on.

I'm seriously shocked by how fast the time has flown by. I know it's cliche and all, but seriously; I can't believe that it's already 12:01 (est) on Saturday. I technically leave tomorrow and that makes me ridiculously sad.

Kenny and I spent the beginning of my time here shopping around and finding home decor to fill his house and make it a home. I think it's safe to say that he now has a workable and enjoyable kitchen. On another day we took a trip to Lowe's and picked out two shades of paint, one for the guest bedroom and the other for the guest bathroom. The next day we opened the cans and started covering the white walls with colorful paint.

Thanksgiving went off even better than expected. We woke up early on Thursday to start brining our turkey with a recipe Kenny found while watching the Food Network. The Good Eats Roast Turkey had to brine for 6 hours and then cook for another three(ish). While the bird was soaking up flavor, we cleaned the house and got to work on the other dishes we were providing: Kenny's homemade rolls (so. freaking. delicious! but I forgot to take a picture - just trust me about how good they are), my grandma's yummy green bean casserole (this is before it went in the oven, so just imagine the french onions all brown and crispy!):salad (manderan oranges, mushrooms, tomatoes, onions): mashed potatoes, gravy (from a recipe out of a magazine), and Sandra Lee's Sweet Biscuit Wreath that I made...all...on my own (with Kenny rooting me on from the sidelines):
We invited the Harr's over for dinner (they brought an addicting pumpkin butter, stuffing, sweet potatoes, chocolate meringue pie - yummy, a sister, a father-in-law, and two ridiculously cute kids) and they arrived just as we were taking the last parts of the meal out of the oven. Truth be told, the turkey took about an hour to cook longer than we expected, but by the time that bird came out of the oven we knew it was worth it.

Not only was this one of the juiciest turkeys I've ever seen, but instead of the flavor overpowering the meat it added to the richness of the turkey. Unfortunately, I made some gravy that I didn't think was that great and I poured it all over my meat. But on the bright side, there is plenty of meat leftover.




The whole meal was fantastic; I loved the company, the food, and even the cooking process and cleaning up after.

As surreal as it sounds, Kenny and I haven't fought or even argued this entire trip. Going back home is going to be hard. He'll be coming home for Christmas, but it's not the same. I'm planning on visiting again in February and I already can't wait. Tomorrow he and I are going to Callaway Gardens' Fantasy of Lights for our 2nd annual Thanksgiving weekend tradition (ha - we can now say it's an annual tradition!) and I can't wait.

Next up I'll have to post pictures of my new car...but that will come on a different day. Oh, and I hope you all like the new look of this blog. It's not a huge difference, but it's enough for me to notice and enjoy.

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! :)

Happy Delayed Tears

*So I wrote this yesterday, but instead of pressing "publish" I accidentally pressed "save now", so here ya go:

Well, i woke up today at 5 am because of two reasons 1) there's a class at the gym I wanted to go to at 5:30 and B) I have to be at the airport tomorrow morning at 5 am, so I figured I'd try to ease myself into it.

But now I'm awake and sitting on my couch and it's 5:32 because I also realized I wanna check into my flight and have to do that at 6 am. No gym for me. I may do something from my ON DEMAND here after I write this.

It kinda sucks, but there's a slight chance Kenny will be delayed even further. He said he'd let me know ASAP today, so I'll be on pins and needles trying to figure out what to do. I'm going to do my best to not freak out and just go with the flow. This is what being a military issued girlfriend is all about... right?!

On a plus note, my Kenny is too freaking good to me. We were talking last night about him staying in the AF and he asked me if I thought I could do this for another 18 years. I said I could and that it'd be different if we were married, because I'd be there when he got home and it wouldn't be this difficult dealing with airplanes and worrying about time off work. Well, then I reversed the question and asked the same thing to him and he said, "I know i can, as hellicaious as it is out here, i like the job and everything. Im willing to give it up in a heartbeat for you though. And id never ever regret it." And I absolutely believe him.

Heh. Then I told him that I may have been crying (it was an emotional day yesterday!) and he said, "i still feel bed. its my job to make you not cry." And I thought about that for awhile.

When I was younger I used to like this quote:
The one who makes you cry isn't worth your tears, and the one who is worth your tears would never make you cry.

I remember that from growing up and I thought it was silly, because every boy I had been with or liked had made me cry for one silly reason or another. And now here's Kenny. I'll admit that I've absolutely cried over him, but every single time I can think of me crying it's been because of something the Air Force has done. Not him. He has never made me cry. And that makes me smile (and maybe cry a little bit...but they're happy tears! Happy tears don't count, because he makes me cry happy tears all the freaking time!).