Gleetastic!

I know I am due to post about a ton of updates and reviews, but I have something I wanna talk about, and that's one of my favorite shows, Glee.  I love Lea Michelle, I love musical theater, and I love Becky, the Cheerio that has become Sue Sylvester's number two gal.

I also love that the show is talking about something real and something that I am very passionate about.  Becky has down syndrome.  This week's episode brought to the surface that people with disabilities are still people, with their own thoughts and feelings.  I am going to school right now to be a Special Education teacher, and I wish that more people understood that about these kids.  They laugh, love, and feel.  And they hurt.  There is a movement called Spread the Word to End the Word.  Check it out, google it, friend it on Facebook, and realize that words hurt.  Please.

Guess who's back...back again...

So, December and January have been fast and furious months.  We had Joel's family in town for Christmas, I had Lasik eye surgery (I can finally see!), we went to Vegas for a week, came back, and closed on a house the next day!  Today (OMG, did we really do this on Friday the 13th?) we are moving in to the new place, next week I start a new job, and last, but certainly not least, grad school starts back up Tuesday.  So, I am so sorry I haven't been on to blog!  I will certainly update as soon as I can, and when Joel deploys at the end of the month I am sure I will have ample time.  For all that have remained faithful to read my little corner of the world, thanks!  And now, back to moving...

Giveaway Winner!

According to Random.org, the winner is Cindy!  Cindy, I see that you left your e-mail in the comment, so I will be contacting you soon to redeem your prize.

Merry Christmas to all!  Or happy Hanukkah, as the case may be.  I feel so blessed this holiday season, even though I am quite busy!  I wish you and your families all the joy in the world.  Thanks for reading my little piece of the world.

Alive! But without internet...

Hey all!  I promise I will announce the winner of my give-away soon!  My router went "kaput" on me and it took about a week to figure that out, versus the provider.  Should be fixed tonight.  In the meantime, thank God for smartphones!

Christmas came early! And my first giveaway!

Are you ready for Christmas?  There's so much to do!  And in our case, we have a ton of family coming over.  There are many different food things to consider, and the above picture will help out with that.  My husband loves Kikkoman soy and Teriyaki sauce.  He was stationed in Japan and has specific tastes.  He finds them to be the best here in America.  While I am not a huge fun of soy sauce (or Asian type food in general) Kikkoman still saves the day with their delicious milks and bread crumbs.  This weekend, Joel is even trying out their french toast recipe!  I'll keep you updated with progress on that.  It looks delish!  They even have a yummy mac & cheese recipe that the family will be tasting over Christmas.  Who knew?  Thanks to Kikkoman and my early Christmas gift, I now have a ton of new recipes for holidays.

In the spirit of yummy food and giving, for my readers I would like to offer a giveaway!  For my military related readers, the prize is a $25 gift certificate to the commissary to help lighten your holiday load.  If you don't have access to a commissary near you, the prize will be an assortment of the yummies you see listed above, plus a spoon rest and a Kikkoman rubber ducky.  That guy is so cute!

How to enter?  Easy!  Just leave me a comment stating what your favorite holiday dish is, and then stay tuned to find out the winner!  I will take entries until Tuesday, which is my last final for the semester.  Eek!

Happy winning everyone!!!

So much!

Too much going on!  I wanted life to go slow and steady so January wouldn't get here and my husband would not deploy.  But, that hasn't been in the cards.  Time just keeps on rolling by.  I swear I will get caught up soon.  Stay with me!  Here are a few topics that you can expect to see coming up before the end of the year.

* The Holidays.
* The end of my first semester at grad school.  Eek!
* Did we or didn't we buy a house.  Say what?
* My first ever give away.  Hint?  Kikkoman.
* Preparing for Joel's deployment.

See, busy, right?

Miami Dolphins #1!!!

Ok, I know this is going to sound crazy because I am a born and raiser Hoosier from Indianapolis, but I am a massive Miami Dolphins fan.  Huge fan of football in general, but especially the Dolphins.  My three year old self's crush of Dan Marino evolved into a deep sense of pride for my team.  Win or lose (we seem to be doing too much of the latter lately) I will always root for them.  That is why I was super excited that they were playing close to me in Kansas City.  No offense to Chiefs fans, I have nothing against my team, but I just knew I had to make the trip. 

I had never been to Kansas City before, so I knew I also had to try some of that famous Kansas City BBQ.  I was not disappointed!  It is even better than the local St. Louis style.  Based on a friends recommendation, we went to a place called Fiorella's Jack Stack BBQ.  I hate to say it, but it was perhaps some of the best BBQ I have ever had.  Reggie Bush was even there that night, so you know it was fabu!  I will let the pictures speak for themselves.

 Pork BBQ Sandwich

 Joel's Ribs

Seriously the best creme brulee I have had in America.

And the best part of the weekend?  Miami got their first win of the season!  Yeah, I know, this post is long overdue, but I had a great time and wanted to make sure to recap.  I have a lot of posts that I need to get on.  Stay tuned!

Happy belated Halloween!

I hope everyone had a blast!  I dressed up as Marilyn Monroe ala "Diamonds are a girls' best friend." 

Joel was of course TDY.  No bueno.  But, I had friends over and loved seeing all of the neighborhood kids in their costumes.  I especially liked the homemade ones.

Here is what I tried to look like:

So here I am, in all my glory.  I coulddn't find pink gloves anywhere!  Oh, and no making fun!

MilSpouse Friday Fill-in #63

I have had the worst week.  Hopefully this weekend will be better.  But, for now, I leave you with Wife of a Sailor's...

1.  The best part of October was finishing up my first Master's class, and getting an A in it!

2.  The worst part of October was Joel being TDY so much.  Makes me think of the upcoming deployment.

3.  For Halloween, I’ll be Marilyn Monroe a la Diamonds Are a Girls' Best Friend.

4.  I hope that in November will finally bring me a job!

5.  Wifey has posted MilSpouse Secret Santa. I will hopefully be participating.

Is it really almost Christmas?

So, lately I have been seeing Christmas decorations everywhere, and let me just say, I am not excited to see them.  Christmas is never as relaxing as it should be!  In fact, the only non stressful part of Christmas I have found lately comes in the form of the Christmas cards that we make each year. For that, I have Shutterfly to thank. They make it fun and easy to get creative (which I am normally not!) in order to make some personal and beautiful Christmas cards. Last year's were fantastic! We took some of our favorite travel pictures and made a collage on a photo card and added some fun holiday quotes. Bam!  The perfect Christmas card!  They were fantastic, and our friends and family really seemed to enjoy them.  Here are some examples of what I am loving this year.

This is the exact template that we used last year!  I am excited to see it back.  It worked so well for us.  Somehow I am going to have to scan in what we did...

How fun is this?  Please someone I know with kids send this one to me!

Lastly, I think the dogs are getting their own ornament this year.  What a perfect way to remember 2011!

So, anyone know yet what their Christmas cards are going to look like, yet?