An Engagement Announcment

Ah, the secret is finally out of the bag: my baby brother is officially engaged. Whoa! Yeah. I know. It's pretty crazy.

I have serious mixed emotions about it, but it's not my wedding; I need to just shut up and be happy for him the two of them.

He's been carrying the ring around with him for several days, and I'm pretty sure it was about to burn a whole in his pocket. From what it sounds like, Amanda pretty much has the whole kit and caboodle planned already. To each their own, I guess.

It was strange being over at the Sloan's house last night. They all know Chris on a completely different level than how we know him or Amanda. They know him like a son and like a brother. I know Amanda like...a girlfriend who we see every once in awhile. I'm sure we'll get to know her better, but in the mean time it's like they're taking away our Chris faster than any of us are prepared for.

They've also only known each other for less than a year - and I understand that people get married and live prosperous and happy lives together, but I just pray that they're preparing for a marriage and not just a wedding. It's way too easy to be wrapped up in "love" and the prospect of having a wedding, than actually plan for a life together.

I think it's also strange for me because I'm the oldest and I'm supposed to be the one to experience things first. And now I'm the one being left in the dust. It's a strange concept for me to grasp. Kenny suggests we jump the gun and beat them at a wedding with an elopement in Vegas - ha.

I'm excited to get to know Amanda more and I wish them the best of luck.

Overheard at Dunkin Donuts:

I was in desperate need for a DD coffee, and while I was waiting for my French vanilla brew to be filled a man walked in. This was the conversation:

Man: “Oh my gosh, I can’t believe I found a Dunkin Donut’s here!”

[side note: Someone with that much exuberance demanded that I look at him. This man was in his 50s, wearing a burnt orange shirt with the state of Texas printed in the middle and the word “TEXAS” right above it; he had more than a beer belly and looked as though he needed to shave about three weeks ago.]

DD lady: “Well, what can I get for you?”

Man: “Coffee. Extra large. Extra cream. Extra sugar.”

DD lady: “You pour your own cream and sugar.”

Man: “WHAT?!!”

DD lady: [a little louder this time because maybe she thinks he’s a bit hearing impaired] “The cream and sugar is right there for you to pour yourself.” [She points to me pouring my milk into my coffee.]

Man: “You don’t do it for me?”

DD lady: “We don’t do it here, the customer does.”

Man: “Well never mind then. I don’t want to do it myself. NEVER MIND!”

[And then he stormed out of DD. I was right behind him (I had finished pouring my own milk into my own coffee) and I noticed this guy was driving one of the largest trucks I’ve ever seen, and he had a burnt orange “Texas” license plate on the front of his big ol’ truck.]

Me: “Go back to Texas!”

Some things...

*I went with my baby brother on Tuesday to shop for an engagement ring for his girlfriend.

*He's proposing...sometime (Amanda may somehow happen to read this so I can't go and SAY when it's gonna be!)

(side note: We had a family discussion about this - I've been kinda resentful about him getting married for several reason - and I feel better about it now. They want to get married next summer, but Kenny will be deployed. I know it's not my wedding, but I asked if they'd consider waiting till Kenny got back so he can be there, too, and he said they'd think about it. I REALLLLLY hope they will.)

* I still don't know who to freaking vote for. I hate this election and I want it to be over.

* I just bought my ticket to see Kenny over Thanksgiving. I was originally going to take two days off work and be out there for four days. Well, we were talking about it and if I end up taking that Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday off then I can be out there for NINE days! It's a little confusing, but I think it'll be worth it. ...This will be the longest period of time Kenny and I will be together in one place, and I think it'll be really good for the two of us.

*He'll be out here for his TDY in TWELVE days! Even though he'll be here we still have both families and friends to see, so it'll be two weeks of having him home, but not the same as nine days together in a place that I could potentially live one day...

*He officially bought his house yesterday and got the keys. He's a homeowner :)

*I promise more things are going on in my life that don't include him...I just can't really think of anything.

*Oh! Work is awesome :)

*Crap. And my throat hurts a little bit.

Tiny Pokes, Major Pain

I'm pretty positive my dentist enjoys watching me squirm and make grimacing faces while my mouth is wide open. I also think she like prodding my gums with very sharp and tiny tools just for fun, all the while I'm just thinking to myself, "lady, you're damn lucky I've been coming to this same office for the past 25 years, because I would like nothing more than to bite down on your fingers right now." I mean really, what would stop me from doing that?

I know I don't floss and brush my teeth twice I day, but I do brush, floss, and use this special mouth wash the recommended every morning. That's gotta count for something, right? Wrong. I have to see the dentist every four months now instead of twice a year. Lame. Apparently my gums are not like they should be. I've never had a cavity (knock on wood), or anything more serious than needing braces, and I'm constantly praised on having good teeth and a great smile from them, but that's not enough.

When I was younger my mom would always take my brother and I to Dairy Queen after an appointment, because no kid willingly likes going to the dentist. And let me tell you, today is definitely one of those days that I needed a Blizzard. I would have broken my diet to get one today, too, but unfortunately I got out of there at 10 am and DQ wasn't open. I'm taking a rain check.

Expect More

Some days/weeks I get on these exciting blog hypes and write as often as possible, and then there are times like this where I don't write at all. I actually have A LOT I'd like to talk about, but by the time I get on here it seems silly, so I don't blog. Instead, I read what my other favorite bloggers are up to.

I do have something exciting to mention: two weeks from today my boyfriend will be in town for two (!!!) weeks. I'm pretty ridiculously excited to see him for more than just a weekend. Heh. Imagine that, a girlfriends actually wants to be with her boyfriend for more than just a few days. That's really what I have to look forward to.

And these dates:
Oct. 28: Kenny comes home
Oct. 31: We get to dress up for Halloween together
Nov. 26: I fly out to Georgia for Thanksgiving!
Dec. 3: Best of the City Party (woot woot)
Dec. 24: Christmas fun begins
Dec. 25: CHRISTMAS!
Dec. 31: Kenny and I celebrate two (!!!) years together
Jan. 24: My birthday and possibly heading to Miami to see Jeff and Meghan

I'll make this my October resolution to blog more. Expect more from me.

Healthy Choices

As I type this I'm wishing I could magically lose wight by positive thoughts and actions, because about a half hour ago I turned down a free meal at El Pinto. Maybe you don't understand. Here's the thing, El Pinto is my favorite New Mexican restaurant, and I do not—EVER—turn down enchiladas, let alone free enchiladas from my favorite restaurant. Except for right now.

Yesterday, seven of us at work decided to take the weight-loss plunge. We're calling it Albuquerque The Magazine's Biggest Loser. I have to lose 28 pounds by January 1. That comes out to 3 months (13 weeks) and equals 2.1 pounds a week, which is what's recommended. All the girls at work are committing to lose weight, we're calling it Albuquerque The Magazine's Biggest Loser and the winner gets $400 (we all chipped in $50). So. I don't want to lose - well, I want to lose, I just don't want to lose the competition!

I worked out this morning and I hurt right now (the good kind of hurt), so hopefully I can keep that up. So healthy choices is my new motto from here on out. Hopefully they don't include saying "no" to my favorite meals too often.

Oh, and in place of having cheesy, rolled enchiladas smothered in some of the best red and green chile around with delicious Spanish rice and refried beans, I ate my Healthy Choice frozen meal at my desk. Go me.

Fire!

I was just sitting here on the couch and surfing the net when I started getting a headache. Then I noticed that there was the smell of sulfur; it kinda smelled like the Fourth of July exploded. Then I heard the sirens. I knew this had to be bad...and close.

I grabbed my mom and we jumped in the car. We didn't have to go far at all, our street looked really foggy, but it wasn't fog, it was smoke. We drove just a bit (i'd say half a block) and discovered that an abandoned pub was engulfed in flames. We left about 15 minutes ago when it looked like it was dying, but it's on the news now and the building's engulfed again. The WORST part is that the wind is blowing directly towards my house. I can't tell you how much I reek of smoke right now. UGH.

Good news is that nobody was injured or hurt...my tummy's just upset (not helping my IBS) and my mom had to use her inhaler. IT STINKS!!!! The fire also doesn't have anywhere to jump, so that's a good thing.

Here are a few pictures I took - my camera SUCKS and out of 28 shots, this was the best I could get. (Seriously, I can only take one picture before my camera dies and I have to turn the batteries. I think a new camera will be in order soon.).





I know it doesn't look like it, but they just showed on the news that the whole left side is now in flames. They're letting it "burn all the way out"....um...doesn't make much sense to me.

AH! The journalist in me realllllllllly wants to walk back over because the fire's going again (the sky is red outside my house), but my stomach hurts and I'm tired.

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! :)

Here We Go!

Typin' at the airport...on my way to see Kenny...pray for safe travels for the both of us :)

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!).

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.

Perfect Timing

I sent my lovely computer away Monday around 2 pm to be fixed. I packed it real tight, taped it shut and kissed it goodbye, crossing my fingers I’d get to see it at least by next week. You see I’ve never had good luck with computers when they break. In fact, most of my junior and senior years of college were spent cursing at Best Buy’s Geek Squad for being no more intelligent than an ant. Seriously.

So when I checked the tracking number for my iBook last night I was SHOCKED to find out that it was already being shipped back to me. Wow. Talk about fast service. Not only that, but when I called to report my laptop’s booboo they answered my call in less than five minutes and were actually helpful, unlike just about any other customer-service hotline.

My dad called me this morning around 10 am to let me know that Fed Ex Air had just dropped off my laptop. Again, talk about fast service. I’m not all that great at math, but by my calculations that comes out to less than 48 hours from the time I sealed the box to the time it arrived back on my doorstep.

I’m tellin’ ya, once you go MAC you never go back.

Another awesome timing story happened this afternoon. Kenny got online for a quick five minutes before his flight and was way happier than necessary for being stuck in a desert. Well, it turns out that the cookies I sent him on Saturday arrived today. Can I get another “wow”?! That means they got there in about three days. Seriously, that’s just crazy! No word on how delicious they are yet, but he promised me he'd share them with his crew :) Is it wrong that I’m questioning whether he’s really stationed in Qatar or not? I mean I can’t even get something I ordered online to get to me that fast! Simply amazing I tell ya!

Lazy Monday

Well, I'm still typing on my precious laptop. Yup, Murphey's Law has allowed me to use my computer this weekend. It freaked out on me once, but other than that it's been fine. It's kinda hard for me to send it away since it's actually working, but there is something wrong with it and it needs to be fixed.

Yesterday I went to my yoga class and the usual girl was out of town. Boy, oh boy was it a workout and a half! It was an hour and a half long, but I loved every second of it, even when I was cursing under my breath that there was no way my body was going to do what she was showing us to do. But then I somehow did it! Class kicked my butt, but I feel great today.

My countdown is down to just NINE DAYS!!!!! So close, but still so far away.

Today we got a memo that we don't have to go into work till 3 pm because we're hosting the Chef Knockout at the Convention Center this afternoon. This is going to be a really fun event! So this morning I think I'm going to hit the gym, get a long-overdue pedicure at this new place that opened up by my house (they're offering FREE designs!), send off my computer, and then depending on what time it is, do a little research for an article I'm writing. Then I'm off to work till 10 pm.

Off I go; I've got people to see and things to do!

iBook's under the weather

I realize it’s been awhile since I’ve blogged, but nothing interesting worthy enough to write about has happened lately…until yesterday.

I got home from work, flopped down on the couch, and opened up my iBook. What I saw on the screen wasn’t my mauve background but black and white vertical stripes taking over the entire screen. My hands start immediately shaking. And then I get frustrated. I tried the touchpad mouse pad to move the mouse, but instead of moving the mouse, which I couldn’t see, I moved the stripes. The stripes went from black and white to mauve and black and every color in between. With my hands still shaking I started to cry. This is my only connection to Kenny right now and instead of being able to talk to him, my screen is dancing with stripes.

Thankfully my mom is the coolest mom EVER and saves everything, including the box to my iBook so I could call tech support. LUCKILY my computer was still under warranty (some of the tears were little dollar signs dropping down from my eyes, because I was thinking about how much it’d cost me). The nice man on the phone talked me through some unsuccessful steps to resolve my “issue” and in the end he said I’d have to send it in.

This shouldn’t affect my hard drive, but just to be safe I backed everything up. The thought of losing my computer with years of work on it just makes me sick to my stomach…and the thought of not being able to chat with Kenny online just makes me plain sad. Thank goodness it’ll only be gone for “about a week” and that this is towards the end of his deployment.

In other not-so-depressing-for-me news, I bought my ticket to go see him ☺ In 12 days we won’t have to deal with being separated by an ocean and thousands (millions???) of miles. I seriously can’t wait!!!!

Tonight I won’t have to sit at home and throw a pity party for the (temporary) loss of my laptop, because I’m going to the Isotopes game with the girls; always a fun time.

….till next time…

Oh, hell no.

This article on CNN makes me outraged! It's one thing to charge fliers for carrying on extra baggage, but do not, DO NOT charge our troops going overseas for a deployment. It's not like they don't have enough to worry about, but now when they get to the airport they may have to shell out money? Come on! Our men and women don't need to rethink taking particular items with them when leaving their homes, their families and friends, and their lives for 3-15 months. They're doing us a service; you'd think we could do one for them.

Edit (8/14): If the link above isn't working (it was giving me a blank page this morning) try reading it here.