feeling OCD today? read on...

at mr. and mrs. d's new year's eve party, someone said something about ironing and i couldn't have been more excited. at the time, i was stuffing my face from the box of peppermint bark that was sitting on the table, but i quickly swallowed what i was chewing to add my two cents, "you should really try ironing your sheets!" the girls sitting around the table just stared at me. mrs. d knew about my penchant for ironing and managed to get the conversation going again. i was so taken aback by the obvious lack of ironing love at the table that i just let it slide and didn't bring it up again.

looking back, i realize that maybe i should have explained this whole "ironing your sheets" thing to the girls a little better. i have no doubt that as they were driving home with their husbands that night, that i was the topic of conversation. "did you notice that strange blonde girl that kept trying to convince us that we should iron our sheets? who does she think she is? a martha stewart wanna-be?" maybe if i had been open enough to sharing my ironing secrets, everything would have been peachy. just maybe.

and since i missed my opportunity at the new year's party, i've decided that i must give in and share my secrets with the blogging world. because if i don't, who else will convince you that ironed sheets are the best thing ever?!

so here it is, pictures and all:

first, you start with fresh-out-of-the-dryer-sheets. they don't actually have to be removed right when the buzzer dings. in fact, this picture was taken an entire day before i actually did the ironing that you'll see below. see? i'm not completely OCD.

and yes, the laundry room is still flamingo pink.

next. make sure that your iron is properly warmed up. i like to set it on the absolute hottest setting possible and then walk away for a few minutes while it really gets hot. oh, and make sure it is full of water and that the steam button is ready to go. **note: do not, i repeat, do not starch your sheets! although i seriously love this bottle of starch, i always abstain from using it on sheets. otherwise, LH might try to completely halt all future ironing efforts.**


alright, now here comes my biggest secret: you don't actually iron the entire sheet! that's right... you just fold everything a few times, then let the steam pass through all of the layers to do the dirty work for you. for whatever reason, i like to start with the pillowcases.


see how little there is to actually iron here? this is easy, folks! now, unleash the secret weapon: steam!


moving on to the sheets. see how much i've already folded this giant, king-sized sheet?


and look at this! the sheets aren't even folded perfectly. they still turn out just as scrumptious.


wanna know another secret? wrinkles are fully acceptable. as long as they are wrinkles created by a steaming iron, that is.


don't forget to STEAM!!!!


now you get to peak inside and decide if you want to flip the sheet over and iron from the other side. i usually do. you can never iron too much, you know.


and here, is the final product. sort of. don't pay any attention to that spot on the wall. i think it was from a bedside reading lamp that the owner had on the wall. see how there are creases and a few wrinkles in the sheets still? it doesn't matter. your skin will be thanking you when you fall asleep between the ironed sheets. they feel 100 times better than straight-from-the-dryer sheets do.


and, if you are still reading after all of this ironing nonsense:
A Cowboy’s Wife is having a contest on her food blog! You can win a Hamilton Beach® Stand Mixer and she’ll ship anywhere so everyone is eligible!

fort wifey

last week, we had to drive back to our previous home for a memorial service. it was a sad occasion and unfortunately, for a friend of LH's that he had deployed with last year. i'm grateful that we were able to go back for the service to remember LH's friend, talk with everyone and receive some semblance of closure. life is fragile...

while we were in town, we decided to stay in our empty (and still unsold) condo, so that bozeman could come along with us. we had plenty of offers from friends to stay in their guest bedrooms with nice, cozy beds, but we thought that we might wear out our welcome very quickly once said friends realized that we were also bringing along our very friendly and very furry 80 pound golden retriever. instead, we prepared for another adventure in suburban camping.

on friday morning, bozeman and i came back from our walk to discover that LH was still sleeping soundly, but that didn't stop the two of us from being rowdy. while chasing bozeman around the living room and laughing at him for slipping and sliding on the pergo floors, i noticed that LH had pulled my inflatable mattress pad over the top of his head to block out the sunshine and our noise. it looked like the perfect spot to pounce on, but i resisted the temptation as i thought about how his little fortress that he had created to block out our noise reminded me a lot of the forts that my cousins and i used to make at my grandma's house.

at least once a year, my family and i would fly down to florida to visit my grandma and the white, sandy beaches that surrounded her. one of the best parts of those trips was that two of my favorite cousins lived just down the street. the fact that i was a girl didn't stop them from including me in their fun, and we would ride bikes, chase lizards and climb trees until the sun went down. once the sun was down, we went back to my grandmas and upstairs to her guest bedrooms, because that was where the world's best fort making materials resided. in one room, she had two bahama beds with mattresses that could easily be turned on their sides and topped with blankets. once we rolled in a few chairs and sofa cushions, we transformed the room into a serious fort-maze. we would actually take turns creating the forts and then blindfolding one person and timing how long it took them to get from the door to the end of the maze. we had a blast creating dead ends and road blocks to climb, and i think i was a teenager by the time we stopped building the forts (which we built for my younger brother, of course).

after remembering just how much fun i had in those forts, i'm already planning for our next trip out to visit LH's family... we have two nieces out there who are the perfect age for climbing through forts. they also have a ginormous sectional sofa in the family room and a whole other sofa in the living room that we can combine to make one super sweet fort. i'm sure my sister-in-law will thank us for introducing such a fun past time =)

if the dog accidentally stabs you with a stick, it's best not to wipe away the blood with the hand that bagged the dog poo five minutes earlier

yep, bozeman got me pretty good with a stick yesterday morning. i did bleed, but i managed to successfully wipe away the blood with a clean hand. had i not decided to wear shorts in 22 degree weather for our morning run, i probably would have avoided the whole situation.

on another note, there is a spider in my 4runner. i repeat: there is a spider in my 4runner. it has been there since saturday, and i have made LH drive me around in the truck since then. today, however, LH is at work and i am supposed to meet him on base to workout in the gym this afternoon. that means that i have to drive myself there in the spider car. i really don't like spiders. at all.

last year, while LH was deployed, i encountered a really nasty spider in our condo. i had just taken out my contacts and was reaching up to turn off the light on the fan before crawling into bed when i saw a big spot on the ceiling that hadn't been there earlier. i squinted my eyes really tight, and even with my horrible vision, i could see that it was a rather large spider. and it was hanging out on the ceiling directly over the bed where i was about to go to sleep. i put on my glasses and woke up bozeman, insisting that he kill the spider for me. unfortunately, he was only about 7 months old at the time, and hadn't quite perfected his doggy-walking-on-the-ceiling skills, so i resorted to plan b: i dashed to the kitchen, hoping that the spider wouldn't change his position while i was out of the room, pulled on my rubber cleaning gloves, got the vacuum, and attached all of the extensions to the vacuum's hose. i also decided that it was important to wear shoes in case the spider dropped down onto the bed and i had to stomp him. tennis shoes and rubber gloves make quite a statement when worn with pajamas. now that i was properly outfitted (my glasses provided the eye protection that i required), i switched on the power to the vacuum and reached as far as i could reach, but still couldn't get the spider into the hose. i realized that i had to actually stand on the bed to reach him, so i stood as far out on the corner as was possible, then reached and squinted my eyes, just in case the spider jumped onto me to avoid the vacuum's suction. thankfully, the vacuum-spider-removal process was a success and i left the vacuum running for a full minute more, just to make sure the spider was deep inside the dusty vacuum bag. not leaving anything to chance, i unplugged the vacuum and ran at full speed to the front door, which i opened just long enough so i could drop the entire vacuum outside. it stayed there until the next evening, when i got home from work and donned the rubber gloves again while transferring the vacuum bag to a trash bag and then to the dumpster outside.
i really hate spiders.

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.