A basket for Nora!

For the past month or so, I've been waking up at 9am every day. Not to sound like a slug or anything but this is fairly early for someone like me. (One of the TINY joys of working my poverty level serving job is not having to show up until noon.) Waking up "early" isn't all bad: it gets my day and metabolism started hours sooner, so for that, I will be grateful.

I finished rough-sanding my trash-chair last night. Nest step: sanding with a finer grit for a smoother finish. I'm really crossing my fingers that it turns out okay. I'll keep you posted.

My all time favorite part about yesterday was...well, actually, I had two favorite parts. One, a guy named Devon picked up my Sunday shift so I don't have to work tomorrow and Two, I bought a basket for Nora (my beach cruiser)!! The bike shop guy gave me a military discount because he remembered Adam and I coming in ONCE during a walk around the neighborhood. He remembered Adam was a helicopter pilot and that we were both from Florida. What a cool guy! I can't wait to ride now. I love my bike and it has been one of the greatest presents Adam has ever given me! Unfortunately, even though my day began before I intended, I won't have time to ride. As soon as I finish my blogging, I'm going to lather on some tanning lotion and head outside to mow the grass and surprise Adam (who is around the corner at the hardware store). Then I have to wait for myself to stop sweating, maybe eat lunch and then fine-sand the trash chair. Gross as it sounds, sweat and wood dust would make for a very uncomfortable, cakey mess. After a shower, some laundry and heavy preening, Adam and I are meeting the AWSTS (training squadron) guys and their respective ladies and going to a Pub Crawl in V. Beach. I've never been to one of these things but apparently you pay money to hop around to different bars associated with the crawl and get discounted food and drinks. Usually the money goes to a charity or a fund raiser so it's not completely senseless imbibery.

A few days ago, I was told by a sweet, butchy lesbian that I have a "strong looking tongue". I don't get complimented often so I'll take what I can get...as awkward and hilarious as it sounded.

Today will be a wonderful day because there is NO chance of me accidentally touching poo. Happy Saturday everyone!
:D

Training, Destruktor & other news

Yesterday was a crazy, roller coaster of a day. I've been training a lot lately and one of the girls doesn't seem to be a good fit for the company. She's worked at our location before, which she reminds me of at least a dozen times a day and although she's decent at interacting with people, her attitude is getting in the way of her training. She tried to throw me under the bus by making up lies about me and trashing my abilities as a trainer to my general manager. Luckily, nearby was a friend and mid-level manager who stuck up for me. All that being said, it was difficult to go in yesterday and pretend to be nice to this evil, manipulative girl who passes the blame on to anyone but herself. Long story short, we (the company) gave her ample time to complete the training program and she was let go during our training session. She was pissed and as feisty as she is, I doubt we've seen the last of her.

My mood was lifted until I had Destruktor: The Tasmanian Toddler sit down with his white trash mother at table 12. This kid was standing on the booth seat bouncing up and down as if it were a trampoline. I was terrified that he would trip and fall and possibly bust his head open so I tried to stop him every time I caught him. The mother didn't discipline her child at all and the kid refused to acknowledge my presence. (Mom's cell phone was playing Family Guy and thus glued to Destruktor's face.) This trailer spawn soon found our (real) plant on a ledge and proceeded to shred the mulch and moss, making a holy mess. Finally the happy, disrespectful family left and I was forced to clean the mess. Oh, the joys of not having a busser. While picking up trash, I noticed Destruktor has chewed up a Tootsie Roll and the spit it out, getting it stuck in the booth crack. I slid my hand in the crack and swiped the brown candy out, realizing immediately it wasn't candy at all. Destruktor the Tasmanian Toddler left behind a nugget of poop for me (as if the minimal tip wasn't a large enough "F YOU"). I freaked out, almost threw up and cleaned the area. I DO NOT GET PAID ENOUGH FOR THIS! I mean, honestly, parents. Don't breed unless you intend to pay attention to your hellions...please and thank you. From now on, instead of saying, "Oh...sh*t", everyone who worked that shift now says, "Oh, TABLE TWELVE!""

Since there is no possible way to transition from a story so vulgar and, as I'm finding out for everyone EXCEPT myself, hilarious...here is some news:

ADAM PASSED HIS FINAL FLIGHT!! I couldn't be more proud o my baby! He's completed his entire flight syllabus from start to finish. Unfortunately, since he's gone through all of those rough patches, we have to wait for the Skipper to talk with Adam and approve him to advance to the "real squadrons". Keep those fingers crossed cause this guy has the final say. Adam's mom was right; The Navy's motto IS: Hurry up and wait. My hubby's job is teaching me more patience than anything else ever could.

There is another Home-o-Rama this Spring and I am very much looking forward to it. We went last Summer and it was a blast looking at half million - million dollar homes that I'd never be able to afford. It's crazy how much I love simply looking around. I did get a few great ideas for renovation ideas in our budget and now the fact that Home-Owning is just around the corner (well, hopefully) it's even THAT much more exciting. Man, 5 years ago, I would have been bored to tears by all this nonsense. Must mean I'm getting old...but it's not too bad. :)

I found an old, wooden chair along the road in a pile of trash while Adam and I were riding bikes the other day. After our ride, I drove back to the trash pile, met the old woman throwing it out, had a brief conversation about dogs, arts, and life, then headed home. As soon as I have some free time (I'm aiming for Saturday) I'm going to run to Home Depot and get some sandpaper and wood stain to re-purpose my trash find. It's my first time ever doing something like this so I'm hoping it turns out as awesome as I'm imagining. Don't worry, I'll take pictures!

Sidenote: Never realized how difficult it is to eat a rapidly melting popcicle while going fast down a hill, trying to keep your hat on your head all simultaneously keeping you and your bike from running into trees or traffic. Ugh, I'm such a novice.


Also, on previously mentioned biking trip, Adam and I discovered the house we want to buy was unlocked. We sneaked in and took some pictures and ran out before anyone caught us. Pretty sure it's not breaking and entering...but it might have been trespassing. Oh well, here's some pictures. Still waiting on our mortgage guy to get off his tush and submit preapproval paperwork. (We call him almost daily at this point so we're hoping that will light a fire.)

This was the only photo I could upload in time. Gotta run off to work.

No Water For Elephants

Two posts in two days?! You're welcome, friends.
; )

So, I'll admit that deciding (last minute, of course) to see Water For Elephants on opening weekend wasn't the best idea but I honestly wasn't expecting it to be sold out. It was. After leaving the mall a little disappointed, Adam and I decided to stop by Doumar's BBQ for some of their famous ice cream. This place has been featured on the Food Network on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives as the place that invented the ice cream cone. Here, check it out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckynqhvV7VA

Now they aren't lying when they say that people of Virginia are VERY proud of this place. People up here LOVE Doumar's and I'm only guessing it's based of the history of the diner because the BBQ is the worst I've ever had and the ice cream just taste like...well, ice cream. Nothing special. But dear LORD, don't ever tell a local you don't like it unless you want them to screech in protest. (I learned that the hard way.)

It was late when we got home but we started watching The King's Speech instead of going to bed. We didn't make it all the way through so we're going to have to go back and finish it. So far, it seems like an incredible movie.

Today is Easter and it's really hard for me to spend holidays away from my family. I'm so used to the traditions and time together and the fact that I can't hop in a car and drive to see them is a harsh awakening. Hopefully Adam and I will purchase a home soon so we can hurry and move in. Then we'll be able to have friends and family come celebrate with us. I miss you guys!

Happy Easter, everyone, and don't forget to check below and read my blog from yesterday. Its a little more detailed about my three week posting hiatus.

The final week of April

I never realized how many people actually read this thing until I didn't post for nearly a month. Well, I am back and SO MUCH has happened.

First, and most importantly: Adam passed his PQM board!! Since his current squadron doesn't fly on Mondays OR Fridays he's scheduled to fly his final check ride on Tuesday. This means that when he passes (knock on wood) he will have COMPLETED all of his flight training and will move into an honest-to-goodness squadron! Days leading up to the board were pretty stressful so I tried to eliminate as much of that as I could. I ordered bagels and a box of coffee from Panera and woke up early to get them while Adam slept in. I wanted a buy a fruit platter, too, but they're ridiculously expensive so I just bought fresh fruit to cut up and made my own dip. Adam took the food in for the panel to munch on and apparently, it was a huge hit. Everyone, please keep your fingers crossed for the final flight!

Earlier this month, I made Adam an Easter Basket with his favorite candies, some man-stuff, a couple blu ray dvds, etc. I'm horribly impatient so I had to beg him to let me give him the basket before Easter. I couldn't tell what he loved more; the sweet-tart jelly beans or the Top Gun dvd.

Last weekend a girl from work, Megan, her boyfriend, Nick, and her little sister joined Adam and I at the beach for some fun. We wanted to go to Crushfest, a festival at Watermans, but the line to get into the bar was TWO HOURS long and we were NOT waiting. The streets were packed with people so we decided to go to Planet Pizza instead. The pizza was good but the service was awful. It took us 20 minutes to get a pitcher of beer! After two pizzas and three pitchers between the five of us, we cashed out and started walking the boardwalk. Adam got the bright idea to rent one of those little China-men bicycle carts and so before we knew it, our huddle was peddling off calories down the bike path. You couldn't tell just by looking at it, but those things are exhausting!! At least I can say I've done it.

My Aunt Bev makes this amazing broccoli/chicken ring but since we eat that fairly regularly, Adam and I decided to experiment with the filling. We created a BBQ Chicken Ring and it's delicious! Here's the long-awaited recipe that I've been promising everyone:

BBQ Chicken Ring Preheat oven: 350
Ingredients:
2 rolls of Pillsbury Crescents
2 cups of chicken; cooked and diced
11/2 cups BBQ sauce (we love Bullseye or Jack Daniels)
1/2 cup of bacon; cooked
11/3 cups of ched cheese; shredded
1 8oz can pineapple rings; diced

Step 1: Cook the chicken and bacon then preheat the oven.
Step 2: Mix all ingredients together in large bowl (except for the crescents, of course)
Step 3: Unwrap the crescents and lay them out like this. (The wide ends should over lap and the ends should dangle off the pan's edge.)
Step 4: Spoon ingredients on top of the overlapped dough.
Step 5: Pinch tips of crescents and pull them over the "filling". Do this step for each of the crescent tips. When you're finished, it will look like a delicious food wreath.
Step 6: Bake for about 10-12 minutes or until dough begins to lightly brown. (You can choose to brush the top with egg whites, if you'd like. It makes the crescent rolls more golden in color.)

If you guys would like, I can also give you Aunt Bev's yummy Broccoli Chicken Ring, too. A bit more ingredient but the same idea.


Adam and I found a house that we're very serious about. It's a tall, skinny, new home near the beach which is the exact opposite that we've been drawn to. We finally realized that although we LOVE the character of older homes, turn-of-the-century houses often require excessive maintenance and/or extreme renovation...something we don't have the time/money for. The older home that have already been restored are waaaay out of our price range so that means looking into new builds. This "birdhouse" as I've nicknamed it doesn't have much curb appeal and zero yard (it's more like a free-standing condo) the inside of it is AMAZING. I really hope our mortgage guy gets off his bum and starts helping us out...for a change. It's the best bang-for-our-buck that we've found thus far and we're going to put an offer down, if all works out.

I apologize for all my hyphenated cliches. I might have gone a tad bit overboard in this post. I'm trying to finish quickly because we're leaving to go watch Water For Elephants very soon. I absolutely adored the book so I'm really hoping the movie doesn't suck.

Happy Easter, everyone!!

(Oh yes. Also, I apologize for any grammatical errors, spelling mistakes or repeat info. I didn't proofread anything and I'm being hurried out the door.)

Hello, again...

Man, it's been a while... a whopping TWO weeks since I last updated and although I don't have a TON to share, there are some interesting events worth mentioning.

First, and most importantly, I WAS ACCEPTED INTO ODU!! Adam and I have decided that I'm going to begin classes in the fall since Spring term starts in a month and a half (which is NOT enough time to raise funds, get loans, secure the RIGHT classes, etc). I will FINALLY be able to finish my degree and (eventually) get a REAL job that doesn't involve serving food!!

Adam surprised me with a brand new phone the other night after I came home from work. But this isn't just any, old phone. No! It's an iPhone4!! I know, I know...I've become one of the hipsters I've always made fun of but NO WONDER they love this phone so much. I'm kind of addicted. I can't wait to figure out how to use Facetime (video phone calls) because it looks like fun. It was sweet of Adam to forgo HIS phone upgrade to give to ME. I really am a very lucky lady!!

I've been working a lot and when I'm not working, I'm watching Scrubs on Netflix. I'm on the 5th season (out of 9) and it's currently one of my favorite shows. I was reading but I needed a break from that. In all honesty, I'd like to have a break from everything...work, reading, life...and just go off the grid for a week or so (with the flyboy, of course).

The weather has been TERRIBLE lately so I can't ride my bike, walk the dogs or even be outside without freezing or getting rained on. A little bit of warmth and some sunshine is all I'm asking for. That isn't too much, right?!

I know this is a silly thing to get excited over but I bought some Avon stuff from a representative that came into RR. I'll be getting my package in the mail this coming week and I'm really looking forward to it. I got all kinds of beauty products, mail polish, hair care stuff and a fedora!

Adam is still doing okay. The squadron ran out of flight hours so everyone has been grounded for the past couple weeks. He starts flying again on Tuesday (along with everyone else) but who knows how long it will take to finish these last flights. Hopefully it wont be too long, so we can take a much needed vacation we've been dreaming about.

Well, I'm beyond bored so I'm going to head to Walmart and get a few essentials. Have a great week!