Wordless Wednesday ( not at all)

It is what is on my mind.

Researched:

Pre-schools galore. ( and actually ended up finding this fascinating homeschooling option at http://www.k12.com which sent me on an hour-long rabbit trail)

Houses… it appears I need our housing allowances to increase by about $350.00 to get the homes I would like.  C’mon Mr. President, it has a stacked stone fireplace!

Residence. G and I were excited to ditch our Florida residence and get some snazzy Colorado licenses…but alas, Florida is one of the only states with no income tax. Oh how I hate practicality sometimes.

Some potential schooling options for me!

Weather…which led me on another rabbit trail for winter fashions. ( more pics to come with my picks) Please keep your expectations in check, I am not-at-all fashionable but will need your help.

Churches… I found one with a photography group that was very exciting. ( less exciting was its 30 minute distance from where I will probably live.)

Downtown Colorado Springs….places to walk, eat, hang.

All in all I feel I accomplished a lot. Got names on wait lists, saw our names go back another 8 spaces on the housing wait list ( which is the only wait list that I have sat on for over a month and been farther behind than when I started…awesome) and feel like I understand the layout of the city a bit more.

Tomorrow starts the pack-up to go to Florida.  My sister-in-law was kind enough to have her baby last night, so our Labor Day trip is perfectly planned. We will head out and be holding that little man shortly.

It is never a good idea to hold a newborn baby for too long though, huh?

They are mighty clever at reminding you of their adorable-ness, without reminding you of their other-ness.

I was blogged!

Wee Bit of Me Wednesdays

{one} what was your favorite birthday gift?

I will have to stick with my new Canon 50d… it’s delightful.  I was pretty high maintenance for my 30th bday, and enjoyed my big surprise.

{two} have you ever been cow-tipping or snipe-hunting?

No…and I don’t know what that is, but no.   I never grew up near cows, so this wasn’t an option, but glad I never had to hear about it either.  From everything I have heard, the cows are injured doing this, which puts it closer to cruel than funny, to me.  What is a snipe?

{three} what’s the strangest talent you have?

With very little emphasis placed on “talent”… I can move the bones? on top on my knuckles back and forth… which is very hard to explain…. and rather gross to watch.

{four} what are your favorite kind of chips?

Those really crispy potato chips, maybe they are kettle cooked, but that have a lighthouse on the bag.  They are delicious.  But, I am dieting…so let’s not talk about it.

{five} do you know any tongue twisters?

Not really… Sally sells sea shells by the sea shore… I never understood why it was fun to sit around and say these.

{six} what was the last movie you saw in a theater?

Eat Pray Love… I really enjoyed getting to see all the locations on film ( I REALLY want to go to India one day)…but it was not as good as the book. ( of course)

{seven} do you collect anything?

No… I am tempted to throw everything I own away at least once a week. So the last thing I want to do is add more stuff…. although, I would love a few antique cameras.

{eight} what is something you wish you were better at?

Hmm… Maybe cooking. I don’t really have any desire to be a great cook, but it would be practical.

Oh! I know! I need to be better at directions… I spend a great deal of my time behind the wheel lost.  Even with GPS, don’t judge.

{nine} what’s the worst habit you have?

Procrastination….or clicking away on the computer ( insert: Kindle, remote) when I should be sleeping.  But maybe I am just procrastinating about sleep.

{ten} when you wake up, what is the first thing you think?

Are the kids up? Where are they?

Your turn!

Sweet Baby

Last week I got the chance to take pictures of this little lady.  She was the most willing subject you will ever find.  She is the 4th girl to a new friend here in Georgia, and since I never had a sister, I am a bit jealous of  how much pinky, princessy stuff will pass through their doors.  I am almost done editing, but here is one that I love. 

I Heart Faces ( Beach Fun)

** We had a fun time at the Lake ….calling it Lake Army, because I can’t think of the name.  Abby was actually trying to convince me to come have fun…which is hard to do in murky, muddy waters in Georgia…unless you are an alligator…or a water moccasin…You get the picture. I have no idea where she gets this stance or glare from… 🙂

Phase 1, 2 and 3 completed

Phase 1: Depart Augusta for Savannah to take a quick drive around the town and eat at Paula Deen’s Lady and Sons Restaurant.  We departed, but did not get to eat.  Paula Deen may seem all hospitable and easy-going on TV, but let the record state that her reservations and wait list policies could please the most anal of personalities.  So…..forget her… we ate at Uncle Bubba’s Oyster house, which is her brothers, and it was delicious. 

Miles Driven: 134

Temperature Avg: 103…with spikes of 111 on my car reader.  Which makes me mean and depressed until I stopped and reminded myself about COLORADO…. then I was at peace again.

Phase 2: Savannah to Orlando

We arrived in Sanford ( outside of Orlando) late, but we made it the same day.  The kiddos were angelic for 99% of the car trip, and stops were minimal.  It was so hot…very, very hot. Sanford is the place of my birth, and where my parents grew up.  Sadly, there isn’t much family left in Sanford, but we did get the chance to visit my Mom’s Aunt and my Mom’s best friends mother.  It was actually a very fun day.  I hadn’t been there in some time, and the family there had not yet met the children.  All in all, a lovely day.

Miles: 265 miles

Phase 3: Sanford to Pensacola

We arrived this afternoon and within the hour, both kids were in their bathing suits and basking in Bampy’s undivided attention.  My father and the children are mutually in love, and were both very happy to see on another.  The kids were amazing again today, which was a bit surprising.  We have been pushing them pretty hard with driving long days and visiting relatives, in heat that suffocates, but they rose to the occasion. 

A strange parenting moment… realizing my children have left their toddler-hood and grown into little people.  Who can eat at restaurants, and travel and be reasoned wtih ( usually to all points above).  It is both exciting, and a bit strange to be leaving the diaper-bag-carrying-and-can’t-miss-naptime phase.  In fact, they didn’t even require potty breaks outside of what the adults could handle… helped by the fact that they were travelling with me and my mother, who are not going to win medals for fewest stops. 

Miles: 443

Grand Total: 889 miles, about 15 hours of car time, a dozen episodes of Mighty Mouse, 2 Happy Meals, 111 degree high and 93 degree low, 1 Holiday Inn Express that didn’t have A/C, lots of conversation. 

A good trip.  Pictures to come, this driver is tired.  And Phase 4 to Augusta will be happening next week…..

My 30 for 30.

I think there is a country  song that sings about “my next 30 years”… and while I do not listen to or really even enjoy country music, I get what the guy was singing about.  As I hit 30, I was surrounded by a huge amount of frustration at what I had contributed to the world.  Or better yet, at what I had contributed in the few years I had been giving it a go on “my own”.  It hardly seems right to count your first decade or so as accomplishments.. which honestly discounts a great deal of my big successes to date.

In my infant years, I was content baby…. walked early, talked early– heck, I even swam well ahead of the curve.  I taught myself to tie my own shoelaces, which is pretty big stuff. Which is a solid half-a-decade I have under my belt as being top notch.

Elementary school was a success… I passed all grades!  Even was in Mrs. Says First Grade honor class, and sang in the chorus of “Peter Pan”.  Took dance, piano, had birthday parties, pets, brothers.  I mean this kind of record in my twenties would have been amazing.  No major glitches.  I was a happy-go-lucky kind of gal.

Junior high was another success, I mean, from this decade long record you would think I was destined for greatness.  Yet again, passed all grades.   Weathered a move from New York to California and then to Virginia without any major psychological breaks.  And, not to brag, but I did pass junior high two or three times since my family moved a lot.  Outside of some standard pre-teen obnoxiousness, I was still doing well.

High school was a strange blend of friends in Virginia, and a new adventure in New York City’s all-girl high school.  I met some life-long friends, got a new car on my 16th birthday, had boyfriends, did well on the SAT’s and got accepted to college— geez, it just doesn’t get any better.

College came along…. a first test of life on the outside.  And, from what I remember, I wasn’t a complete basket case. 🙂  College was amazingly fun and I met some incredibly dear people. Learned a lot, experienced a lot and enjoyed the ride.  Met my husband my junior year.  Spent summers in Key West with friends, and working at camps riding horses. Ahh…the good ol days…. And while the waters got a bit choppier, the were not hard to navigate.

Enter my senior year of college.  Lots of decisions now.  I was not real happy with my major choice, and about to embark on marriage and jobs and finding my own way.  So there was stress… in rhetrospect… there was baby stress.  Little, tiny, cute stresses.  Stresses that were filled with promise… like, ” which career path should I take?” Because, after all, I could choose any!

Graduation, weddings and newlywed life were a piece of cake.  We moved to Florida, and got settled.  We both missed our friends, and missed Virginia, and the adventures that were so much a part of our dating.  But, we got by.  Stress was higher, life was harder….but not unbearable.  Then came babies, and mortgages, and debts and car payments.  Then came in-laws and finding friends as a “grown-ups” and countless other stresses that could spin the head of a seasoned decision maker, much less a late twenty-something.

The odd thing is… those years where life got so stressful were the years that I was supposed to be accomplishing great things! Climbing ladders of success, and helping people in pain.  I was supposed to be finding my niche in this world.  I don’t really think that went so well for me.  I think when my niche was supposed to be discovered, I wrestling babies and trying to figure out what APR means.  Or maybe what a mortgage actually is, and why debt is bad….very, very bad.

And some may argue that my niche was wrestling babies, and maybe that is where I need to stay.  But I just don’t know. Though wrestling babies is wonderful, and worthwhile, and  the most challenging job I can imagine- I still find myself wanting a career, or something.   And I tend to change hobbies, and interests and ideas A LOT.  And I might not feel the same way tomorrow, because that’s how I roll ( as Jackson would say).  But I plan on tackling the next 30 a bit more systematically.

And I am busy making my list…. my 30 for 30… which will cover my goals for the next year…. this pivotal 30th year.

I wanted to make goals for the next 30 years, but for a beginner goal setter that seemed outlandish.

Any of you goal setters? Like, write them down, kind of goal setters? Any topics you always cover?

Any way to organize my list? In order of priority? Importance? Or just let it flow….

Let me know… I am actually 30 and 1 month and one week today.  So I obviously need to get a move on it.

COLORADO!!!!!!!

Says it all.

Just when I had given up…. G calls me at 8am ( when I was cleaning the house….er, sleeping) and I stumbled down the stairs to check his Army e-mail account ( he was at a Change of Command ceremony, and could not access the orders on his phone but knew they were in….torture.)  It takes about 10 minutes to get the computer up, and get through all the pages you have to click on…. and had I actually been awake, I would probably have been VERY nervous at this point.

And then we saw it— Fort Carson, Colorado.

And the people rejoiced.

So Good-Bye temperatures of 100 with 70%  humidity.  Good-bye “palmetto bugs” and phallic symbols hanging off of bumpers. Good-bye camera lens that won’t stop steaming up, and burning my hand on the steering wheel. Oh this is fun, I may be back with a whole list of things!

And Hello! Colorado Springs and a home for the next 3 years…. it’s mitten shopping time here.

It’s inspiring

I almost want to start cooking after shopping at Earth Fare. ….a Fresh Market and Earth Fare in one city…..it is delightful.  I look at the foods and think about cooking and grilling and maybe even sauteing…. happy eating!

Where to go?