christmas recap

well, it's been a busy week at the LW/LH house. in the past week,

-we purchased a new washer and dryer. i am in love with this set and plan to devote an entire blog post to how cool these things really are. did you know that i can sanitize my clothes without using any hot water whatsoever? cool, huh? anyone want to know what the name of the paint color in our laundry room is so you can copy it? sorry, i don't have a clue what the technical name is, but i like to call it the flamenco room. it's flashy and it won't last long. since we got the white washer and dryer instead of the cool red pair, we are going to paint the laundry room red and spice things up a bit. as if flamingo pink wasn't spicy enough...


-we received our furniture and things. because we thought it would be fun to camp out in our condo and new house for as long as possible, just to see how well we could survive on so little, we had them pack up all of our stuff and keep it in storage for a few weeks. it's a good thing that the company that packed us up did such a great job packing and protecting everything, because this is the truck that brought everything out of storage. it's probably a good thing that i didn't visit our things in storage to see what the facility was like.


-my friend, i'll call her "mrs. d," brought over some amazing homemade fudge and peppermint bark. she reads my blog and knows how much i love peppermint bark... it's a good thing that mrs. d agrees to go running with me every once and awhile, because i gobbled down the fudge and peppermint bark faster than you can say "weight watchers."

-my brother did fly out to help us paint after he finished his finals. unfortunately, i was waffling on the paint color decisions and halted all painting efforts until i could learn to be more decisive. after all, i'm a military wife and am supposed to make decisions quickly, right? not quite.. i think i've finally decided what to do and am going to lowe's this morning to make everything right. thank you, LH for being so patient and enduring the existing paint colors for so long.

-i graciously offered to fly us all back to my parents for christmas. unfortunately, my brother wasn't so sure of my piloting skills, as you can see in this picture (LH risked his life to take this picture from the runway).


my brother finally loosened up a bit once he saw that i knew what i was doing (notice that LH took the picture from outside the plane. he is a very, very brave man).


-seriously, though... we drove back to my parents and bozeman was more than happy to have a friend in the back seat. in this picture, he is leaning on my brother so they could both watch a movie together. he stayed that way for a long time, even though i initially thought that he was just posing so i could take a picture of them together.


-on sunday, my brother, LH and i rode to church together and then we all had to do some last minute shopping. since some of the shopping was for LH, my brother and i dropped him off at barnes & noble while we drove around in the crazy christmas traffic. we almost ran out of gas, had some rather interesting experiences trying to park the big truck in crowded parking lots, and eventually went back to get LH, who was waiting for us with hot chocolate for everyone.

-we had a ton of fun spending time with family at christmas. unfortunately, i didn't take a picture of the dinner that LH and i made for everyone. we were a little non-traditional this year: i made a mustard-dill salmon and LH cooked his famous steaks on the grill. i did manage to get a picture of bozeman on christmas morning, although i refuse to share the picture of me in my glasses with some major flyaway hair.


-we also met our mailman. you laugh, but that is a big deal in these parts. he has been on the same route for 21 years, so he knows everyone. our neighbors are incredibly friendly and LH and i quiz each other on their names all the time. neither one of us has done very well at remembering their names, and rather than ask them for the third time what their names are, i'm going to resort to searching through the GIS tax maps and creating a chart that lists our neighbors names. most of them have lived here for the past 20+ years and their kids have all grown up together. it's kind of nice to live in a place where everyone is so established when we know that we'll be moving again in three years or so. gives us a sense of stability. i know more about our neighbors here than i ever knew about our previous neighbors. this is the kind of place where people stop and talk to you when you are checking the mail, walking the dog or taking out your trash.

-and the best one yet: we are going to watch some bull riding on new year's eve. at least, that's the plan. mr. and mrs. d are also having a party that we are looking forward to on the same night.

i hope you all had a very merry christmas and aren't kicking yourself too hard for indulging in all of the yummy foods. i hope you spent time with the people most important in your lives and also remembered why we even have a christmas to celebrate: that god sent his son here to save us.

the horse and his dog

bozeman has several stuffed animals: a duck, a goose, a pheasant, a horse and he used to have a cow that squeaked. a few weeks ago, we decided that the cow was just too stinky and dirty and beyond help and that he needed to be replaced. this was a tough decision for me, because bozeman had picked out the cow all on his own during LH's last deployment, but it had to be done. LH and i went to the pet store and perused the selection of dog toys, trying to find just the right toy to replace the stinky cow. finally, we both agreed on a horse with a squeaker in it. it seemed a little weird to let the dog chew on a horse, but we didn't get too worked up about it.

it turns out that bozeman has bonded very well with the horse. they do just about everything together. at first, i thought it was just cute and a coincidence that he was treating the horse like his little friend. that was, until LH and i caught him giving his toy duck a drink from his water bowl last night. now we have to rethink these pictures and wonder how smart bozeman really is.

this was at our condo before we moved. i snuck up behind bozeman and caught him sharing the view with his horse. i think they were secretly plotting how to catch some of the feral cats together.


uh oh, i've been found out! notice the innocent look on bozeman's face. the horse doesn't look so innocent, though. he looks rather mischievous, like he has been teaching bozeman the ways of catching wild cats. naughty horse.


here they are together last night in our new house. both were exhausted from a long day of exploring and playing. i covered them with the blanket, but bozeman did the posing. i think he knew i wanted to take his picture and put his arm around the horse for me.

bundle shmundle

i'm on the phone with our phone company right now, trying to bundle our home phone, long distance, internet and wireless plans. the customer service rep is checking to see if our existing wireless plan qualifies for a bundle discount and then she has to check to see if our home bundle qualifies to bundle with a wireless plan. who knew it could be this complicated? i have been researching the plans and talking to these people for 3 hours already today. i find it pretty amusing that it took me a total of 15 minutes online with the dmv to update both LH's and my drivers' licenses and vehicle registrations. i'm going to call the dmv and see if they want to be my cell phone and internet provider.

christmas cards

it's amazing how much you can get done in an empty house! life seems so much more simple and surprisingly, neither LH or i have gotten bored yet. bozeman may have a differing opinion if you happen to ask him. last week, we sent out our christmas cards. this seems to be quite a feat for our household. last year, we took the christmas picture, wrote the cards, and then never mailed any of them. we were determined to do it differently this year, and we succeeded! it feels so good to have that out of the way. the picture at the top is of all the cards that i attached to my clipboard to make addressing the envelopes easier.

now, i am just trying to finish up some christmas shopping. LH took awhile to give me his "list" and so i am just getting started on his presents. i can't buy everything on his list, so i need to narrow it down. will you suggest which things you think i should get for LH?
*chaco flip flops
*easton baseball bat
*baseball glove
*grill
*framed antique maps of the states where we have each lived
*a new baseball hat (bozeman ate about three of his favorite hats)
*tools (the tools that we have around the house now are so cheap, it's like the equivalent of me using an easy bake oven to cook a turkey)
*a manly tool belt
*casio pathfinder watch
i think that is just about covers it all. okay, i'm off to go finish changing our address and all the fun that goes along with that.

moving isn't so bad after all

as you can see, bozeman travels well. in fact, he does some of his best sleeping in the car. so do i... good thing LH is such a wonderful husband and doesn't mind doing most of the driving. it's also a good thing that he is such a good driver so i don't get car sick when he drives. i could tell you some stories about me getting car sick... but you might be eating lunch while reading this and i don't want to spoil your appetite.

we just got back from spending a few days with wonderful friends in our new city. i call them wonderful because this is the second time that they have welcomed us into their house, dog and all, so we could go house hunting. this time, they even had a brand new german short-haired pointer puppy who became bozeman's best friend. hopefully, they will have some play-dates once we get settled so they can wear each other out! i know LH is hoping that they will have some play-dates just so he can play lego star wars on our friends' xbox 360. have you ever played that game? so. much. fun. i can't understand why LH would get upset when my character shot and killed him, though. whoever decided to create a video game with lego characters was a genius! no blood and guts and it's actually funny when c3po's arms get ripped off. and no, i'm not promoting violence.

so here is the good news: we signed a lease for the house and will be moving in as soon as the movers can get our things out of storage and into the house. i am thrilled. we looked at several other houses just to make sure we were getting the "right one," and i even told LH that i could live without stainless steel appliances (our realtor told me to think about what i was saying) but in the end, we ended up with my favorite house. of course, now that we have signed a lease, i'm expecting our condo to sell right away. well, expecting might be too strong of a word, maybe i should say hoping? praying? begging and pleading? at any rate, we have a place to live and i'm very excited about it. now, we just have to convince my brother to come visit after he finishes his finals so he can help us paint, paint, paint!

what's red and white and sometimes dark?

if you guessed peppermint bark, you are a woman or man after my own heart. the christmas season without peppermint bark is like a swimming pool without water: it just isn't right. while visiting my parents for thanksgiving, LH and i were relaxing (i was sleeping, he was watching a movie) on the couch after a long drive, when my mom handed me a box the size of a candy bar. it was, in fact, a candy bar, but not just any candy bar. it was a peppermint bark candy bar from trader joe's! oh man, even though i had been asleep and still was pretty out of it, i took a big bite of it and chewed very slowly. mmmm.... the dark chocolate mixed with the white chocolate to create a heavenly, chocolately flavor that was just crunchy enough from the pieces of peppermint bark. i didn't finish the bar right then, and set it down on the counter top to "save for later." later, funny enough, ended up being when LH woke me up to go to bed. i grabbed the candy bar as we started walking up the stairs and took another big bite. this time, i didn't mess around and i chewed much quicker. in fact, by the time LH had brushed his teeth and was all ready for bed, the candy bar was all gone and i had a big smile on my face. nothing like peppermint bark for a midnight snack during the holidays. or any other time of year. only, it's so hard to find it any other time of year. and why does peppermint bark have to be so expensive? i think i'm going to learn how to make it myself so i can eat it year round. anyone have any good peppermint bark recipes to share?

oh, christmas tree

moving woes

well, the movers emailed us today to say that all of our furniture and belongings have arrived in our next city and could be delivered today. the only problem is that we don't have a place for everything to be delivered to. you see, when we wrote the contract on the house, my husband wisely put in a contingency that we would not close until our condo sold. in a different housing market from today's, we would more than likely go ahead and close on the house and expect that our condo would sell soon. in this housing market, however, we are not taking any chances. the last thing we want is to be stuck trying to sell both the condo and the house a few years down the road when the military transfers us again. this has been especially difficult for me because i became so emotionally attached to the house. for awhile, i refused to accept any other options and only half-jokingly told my hubby that he could live in base housing and i would live with my parents until our condo sold and we could buy that house. unfortunately, either he talked to my parents, or my mom read my mind (which is more likely), because my mom told me that i couldn't move back in with them. darn. of course, i wouldn't really want to live separately from the hubby for any reason other than a deployment (and i've even considered stowing away for those occasions. did you know that they have signs at military airports telling you that it is a crime to stowaway or harbor a stowaway?).

i've taken solace in these verses right here: Matthew 6:25-34. these words tell me not to worry about tomorrow, because our heavenly father will provide for us. if he takes care of the little sparrows, how can i think that he would forget about us and our needs? he has it all under control, and even though things may not go according to my plans, God knows exactly what is planned for the hubby and me. i also trust my hubby in his decision making and his ability to find a replacement house for us if need be. when we got married, i agreed that he would be the head of the household and i'm doing my best to be supportive of him.

for now, the hubby, bozeman and i are living in our empty condo with a few outfits each, our mac computer and printer, one pot, one pan, a baking sheet, four dinner plates, four salad plates, four cereal bowls (which is not nearly enough when you eat as much cereal as we do), four spoons, four forks, four knives, one paring knife, one chef's knife, tongs, a basting brush (why did i feel it was necessary to keep this?), a pizza stone, several dish towels, no oven mitts (oops), and a pantry and refrigerator full of food. oh, i almost forgot our miniature, pre-lit christmas tree that is taking up residence in our empty living room (picture coming soon). if anyone wants to send us any care packages, we will gladly accept them!

p.s. we obviously still haven't decided on a nickname for my hubby. a few are in the works and i'll share as soon as there is a consensus.