party like it's February 29th

I believe in celebrating almost every holiday, regardless of how big or small it may be. I also believe in celebrating achievements, especially in the form of celebratory meals served on the special plate reserved for just such occasions.

Christopher does not understand this.

Just this past Presidents Day I was bemoaning the fact we did not make James Madison mashed potatoes to go with our supper and he (Christopher, not James Madison) couldn't comprehend why I even had a recipe for that, let alone why I would make it.

I bet he didn't foresee that conversation when he walked down the aisle back in April.

Imagine my surprise and delight upon receiving the follow text this morning:

Christopher: Happy Leap Year/Day!

me: Why thank you! To you also! (Please note that I did not say 'we should have a Leap Year Party!')

Christopher: I wondered if that was coming.

me: Don't think it didn't cross my mind. Its not too late to start planning.

So that's how Christopher came face to face with this picture on the front door when he came home from work tonight.

Please don't ask what a frog fishing has to do with Leap Year. I never said my celebrating made a lot of sense.

To be honest, it hadn't even occurred to me to celebrate Leap Year. I'm so glad Christopher reminded me.

I once was lost...and lost...and lost

Today I tried to go the a new Zumba class but I went to the wrong gym. Then I got lost going to the correct gym. Then I got lost trying to find the library and the arts and crafts center. Then I gave up and went to the commissary.

Because I always know how to find the food.

Patrick Dempsey, my other good friend, might be jealous when he reads this

Christopher didn't have to work on Friday so our long weekend started off with a bang: we went to the laundry mat.

I know.

Try not to be jealous of our highly exciting weekends.

I hadn't been to the laundry mat in at least fifteen years so it was an experience. Just as I finished pouring a big cup of detergent into the special detergent spot, Christopher asked me, "Is that detergent or fabric softener?" It was indeed fabric softener. And to think that I spent a good seven minutes smelling various flower and fruit scented detergents at the store only to purchase softener by mistake instead. While my clothes may not have been exceptionally clean, they were exceptionally soft.

Saturday morning I awoke to the sound of bacon sizzling on the stove. I lay there for quite a while thinking how sweet it was that Christopher was making me breakfast. I was even going so far as to wonder if it was going to be breakfast in bed when I realized I couldn't smell any bacon. Upon further investigation, I realized the sizzling sound was not bacon. It was the water running in the sink while Christopher washed the dishes. It was very sweet of him to wash the dishes, but I must admit it wasn't nearly as tasty as a fresh plate of bacon.

That evening we had a date night. We now pose outside for all our pictures because HELLO! we have a lovely background.

We went to see The Vow and oh my word was it sweet. I loved it. I like that for once someone made a movie about a married couple being in love as opposed to married people running off with someone else's spouse.

The fact that my good friend Channing Tatum was in fine form didn't hurt either.

Just sayin'.

I'm quite the expert at singing national anthems

After four days, I think it's safe to say we're settled into our new home. "Settled" really is a very relative term when we’ll be here for less than two months, but this is our home for now. I feel like inviting Carrie Underwood over to serenade us with Temporary Home. 

On Tuesday I went to get an oil change for the truck. Contrary to what you may be thinking, I am not about to say I had another embarrassing experience at the mechanics. I never got to the mechanics because I got lost. There I was, wandering the roads of upstate New York without food or drink for a good hour. It didn't take me long to discover that all corn fields look the same and that REALLY didn't help my current situation any. 

I finally made it back to home sweet home and decided a good cup of coffee might help calm my nerves. Something went awry in my coffee/water ratio calculations and I ended up with the most watered down coffee I have ever had. It was not one of my favorite afternoons ever.

On to more cheerful topics. This is the view I see every morning when I wake up.

 The United States is in the foreground and Canada is in the back.

My morning ritual goes something like this: wake up, eventually decide to get out of bed, immediately walk to the door and look out at The View. I like to make sure Canada and the United States are still there, side by side. I always feel I should sing O Canada and The Star Spangled Banner at such moments.

Then I decide maybe I should spend my time doing things like making coffee correctly.

life with the looooooooootenent

You know what happens when you drive millions thousands of miles, cross through twelve states and sleep in four beds that are not your own all within three days? You get behind of things like sleep, eating the proper number of meals and documenting the day your husband became an officer. 

I don't have many pictures of the actually OCS graduation because the camera went into complete uselessness mode immediately after the ceremony started. I gave that camera MANY dirty looks. I bet it premeditated not working.

I did get a picture of the three star general who was the keynote speaker. It has been my personal mission for the last decade or so to eat supper with a four star general, but so far I have not. As I don't foresee that happening anytime soon, I spend good deal of studying any generals I do come across. You know, the ones I always see when I'm out and about at Walmart or the gas station. In other words, I don't see them often. And yet here one was, right in front of me. I was impressed.

There was a mass swearing-in during the ceremony, but afterwards Christopher had his own swearing-in with his Uncle Cliff. I liked Uncle Cliff; he had elephants on his tie.

My only duty following the ceremony was to remove the covering from Christopher's epaulets. For a few seconds there I almost caused an emergency when the knife I was using to cut the thread slipped. That would have been interesting.

It really is impossible for Kim and I to attend any event without taking our picture, so here we are again. 

I am so proud of Christopher for all his hard work. At the rate he's going, I may have a real chance at eating supper with some form of a general. But for now, I entertain myself by coming up with alternate spellings for lieutenant. The options are liutenant, liuetenant,or lootenent. I usually go with lootenent and just keep adding o's to match however I'm feeling at the moment. Obviously I'm one serious officers wife. 

Valentines Day with the soldiers

Yesterday was so fun. Kim and I had been talking and texting about the Valentines Day graduation formal for months and it finally happened. We decided to make a big day out of it and do all sorts of fun girly things. We had our nails done, we ate chocolate, had lunch together, and went to the salon to have our hair done.

When we got back to the hotel we got dressed and ohhed and ahhed over every little thing. We were slightly excited.

Finally our men arrived and we got to the formal. We were so happy to be there that we celebrated the occasion by taking more pictures.

Kim with her boyfriend, Ian.

Christopher and I were the very first people to go through the receiving line. I like to think that's because the high-ups just couldn't wait to meet me, but in reality it was because Christopher was carrying the American flag in the Color Guard so he had get through quickly. I considered bringing a sign that read "PAY ATTENTION, FOLKS. My husband is carrying the American flag." but I didn't think that would be appropriate considering the circumstances. To keep myself occupied after he left do perform his duties, I looked at the lovely tables and took pictures of the food. As soon as Kim arrived downstairs I rushed over and told her the dessert options. Dessert was a topic that came up approximately 750 times that day. 

We spent the rest of the evening talking, eating, listening to a keynote speaker who came from a long line of Hawaiian warriors (no one else at my table thought that was a funny as I did), reuniting with long-lost friends (meaning Kim and I would see each other after fifteen minutes apart and act as if it had been DECADES), and seeing lots of people in uniform. I've always been a fan of a good uniform. 

Tomorrow is the graduation then we're headed home! 

I can't help falling in love with you

Chugging Away

Please note: This is titled Chugging Away because I’m on a train (could I be any more clever?). I have not taken to excessive drinking during this time of transition in my life.

Today marks the beginning of my 10-day trip up and down the east coast. I just said goodbye to my family and am traveling on a train bound for Philadelphia. I always hate saying goodbye to my family. It makes me sad every single time. The (very) bright side of leaving them means that I get to see Christopher in three days! I arrive there on Monday, then Tuesday (Valentine’s Day!!) we’re going to his graduation formal. I am so excited about that. I love any chance to get dressed up. Thursday is the Big Day. The day he finally graduates from OCS. After that, we’re actually going to LIVE TOGETHER again! It’s going to be wonderful.

The BIGGEST news of the day is.…drum roll....sound the trumpets….ring the church bells……alert Brian Williams and the evening news..…the staff of Oh Laura Darling, Inc. and the staff of Dandelions and Daffodils, Inc. are meeting for the VERY FIRST TIME today. This is big, people. BIG. Last week we took our friendship to the next level by talking on the phone for the first time. This week we’ll see each other live and in person. Our plans for the weekend revolve around eating and visiting Ikea.  As I told both Mom and Laura, if for some strange reason we don’t get along, we can just eat all weekend. You certainly won’t hear me complain about that. We are very open to rearranging our schedule if Mr. Brad Paisley would like to show up for a private concert. We wouldn’t complain about that either.

I had a dream the other night that I showed Laura my dress for the formal and she turned up her nose in disdain. She suggested (it was actually more like FORCEFULLY INSISTED) I wear something a more like this

If I’m looking to make a spectacle of myself during my first public event as an officer’s wife then yes, BY ALL MEANS, I will wear such a highly inappropriate getup. Forget the furniture and décor of Ikea, we have some animal print to find.

friends help us get a beautiful life

My Zumba teacher is a very sweet lady named Belem. She moved here from Mexico a few years ago and has worked very hard to learn English. She's so cute when she talks because she's still learning the language, and she's constantly talking about how fascinated (and sometimes frustrated) she is with American culture. Just yesterday she asked me to explain to her what the groundhog of Groundhog Day has to do with winter. I said he really has nothing to do with how much winter we have ahead of us, so basically it's a pointless event in our American lives. AND YET WHAT HE PREDICTS MAKES IT ONTO NATIONAL NEWS. Sometimes I don't even understand our culture. We decided that OBVIOUSLY we'll have six more weeks of winter since the first day of spring isn't for six weeks after Groundhog day. We don't need a little prairie animal to tell us that. 

She heard this is my last week at Zumba before I move, so she gave me the sweetest card and tiny Vera Bradley bag. I know it's still difficult for her to write in English so it was very sweet of her to do it for me.

My favorite part is, "I hope you get a beautiful life".

I'm sure Swahili is a very useful language to learn

Saturday evening I had my friends Katie and Rudy over. Dani was supposed to come also, but she seems to have fallen off the edge of the earth and disappeared. I hope she's ok.  

After Rudy left, Katie and I had a video chat with her boyfriend Zachary. It came up in conversation that, contrary to what he and the rest of the world (my own family included) believe, I speak Swahili. No amount of convincing would make him believe, so we scheduled another video chat for an hour later where I would showcase my skills. We needed that hour so we could research 'how does one learn all the best Swahili phrase in one hour?' Our friendship has always been based on go big or go home, so we went BIG with our new-found Swahili knowledge. We made Zachary a movie of us speaking Swahili complete with drums, African garb, and phrases such as, "Hello, Zachary! You have a nice nose! Certainly! Indeed! You do!" 

I'm sure all American girls spend their Saturday nights making Swahili videos for a boyfriend in far-off state. 

(When I told Christopher what we were doing, he told me a fact about the grammatical structure of Swahili sentences. He said it was just something he "picked up along the way." What I would like to know is what way does he travel on that he would learn such things? He has a fact for almost everything.)

Last night I went to visit these crazy kids.

I'm moving again on Friday so I'm squeezing in last minute visits with some of my favorite people.

the facts about Phil

These are the facts. The facts about Phil.

First name: (I'm just covering all the bases here, people): Philip

Also answers to: P.Hill, Philster, Philberry, The Most Philanthropic One
Height: not very tall
Location: New England
Siblings: four brothers (Interestingly, they are each named after one of Jesus' disciples.)
Denomination: Baptist
Education: a Bachelors degree in history
Day job: works for a medical software company
Night job/hobby/what he does when he's supposed to be working: penny artist

Interesting tidbits: He used to drive an ice cream truck as a summer job. His favorite flavor of ice cream is raspberry chocolate chip. Our families have known each other for 24 years. He will eat any food except blue cheese. He can make an awesome puffer fish face that is reserved for only the most special people and occasions. 

Phil is a Christian young man who is very involved in his church. He is great with children, enjoys hiking, politics, playing games, and telling stories. He even has his own fan club- The P.O.P Club. Granted, P.O.P. stands for Pick on Phil, but its members are all teenagers who make it their personal mission in life to pick on someone they truly enjoy having around. He is completely self-sufficient when it comes to laundry, but slightly less successful when it comes to cooking. He frequently tells me the contents of his bachelor refrigerator and I make up a weekly menu for him. We have yet to hold a follow-up meeting where he tells me he actually FOLLOWED my carefully laid out menu. "What do you mean you didn't want to go through all the work of thawing out the meat?! All you have to do is take it out of the freezer before you leave for work and it will be thawed when you get back. How is that too hard to remember when you have to walk by the freezer to get to the door?  YOU NEED A WIFE."

Phil needs a wife who loves God wants and wants to raise children in a Godly home.  She must appreciate his sense of humor and be capable of constructing a weekly menu. Who knows, Phil might even make his special puffer face for you! ;)

I know for a fact that posts really do work because I am the living proof. Christopher’s sister (hi, Stephanie!!) posted about him on Kelly’s first link up last July and we were the first couple to get married because of it. We have now been married for 9 months and 5 days. :) 

Do they also sell prosperity and long life?