Happy Memorial Day Weekend!

We are leaving after work to go camping for the weekend. We are going with my parents and my brother and his girlfriend. The weather is supposed to be beautiful so it should be a great weekend. We are actually going to a friend of my parent's place. They have a couple of camper hookups and it's only a couple miles for where we work. We'll probably try to sneak home tomorrow afternoon and take a dip in the pool.

Monday I'm working for a bit at my second gig. I might as well tell ya where it is. It's at the VFW; I'm a bartender there. They are opening early on Monday after the Memorial Day parade. So I'm working from Noon to 4. For the most part, I love working there. And the customers know I'm a military wife so they treat me good. I can't think of a better place to be on Memorial Day, for awhile.

Hopefully we can all remember the real reason for Memorial Day. So while we are enjoying the three day weekend, please try to remember those who paid the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom.
RIP Ricky Bobby. He was a friend of Matt's and his unit. He was KIA in August of 2007, while he and Matt were in Iraq. We miss you and think of you often.

Weekend Recap

This past weekend we went to the fairground for a concert. The concert started at 2 pm. It was so hot and the sun was beating down but it actually felt nice, to me. We brought the camper to the concert even though we live less than half a mile away. My brother and his girlfriend stayed in his camper and we had several other friends show up.

The concert was awesome. There weren't very many people at the concert (as in less than 200) so it was easy to get a good view of the stage. We went to do three things: watch Back Porch Mary, drink some beer, and get a Back Porch Mary t-shirt, as they are not available online. We succeeded in all three.



I'm not sure if any of you have ever heard of or listened to Back Porch Mary. I did a "What's on my iPod?" and featured them here. They put on an amazing show and are one of the few REAL bands of musicians I have had the pleasure of seeing lately. I was even more impressed with their performance this time, than the first time I saw them.



The last band to play that night was Jason Boland in the Stragglers. My husband really digs them. They are good but maybe a little slow for my taste. I would have rather seen them earlier in the day.

All in all, it was a great time and I'm hoping this concert happens again next year.

Sunday morning we woke up in the camper and were sweating our asses off. The air conditioner had broke and it was the hottest day of the year, thus far. We were probably still legally intoxicated had to abandon ship and go home. We went back and got the camper once we had recovered from the insane amount of alcohol we had drank the day before heat exhaustion.

No worries, we got a new AC last night for a hundred bucks and my dad is putting it in tomorrow night. While we were at Wal-Mart, we also picked up one of these:

I anticipate doing a lot of this, this summer:

Hope you all had a great week!

Bullets, Concerts, and An Award

First and foremost, the Silver Bullet is alive and kicking. One of our buddy's grease monkeys fixed her. We Matt bought the water pump and I assume anti-freeze and gave him a $100 cash. Our buddy guaranteed this guy could fix it. He wouldn't lie to us or try to screw us. So it cost us $155. Not bad. She runs like a champ again. And he even vacuumed her out.

This weekend we are going to an all day concert at the fairgrounds that is within stumbling walking distance of our house. We got a pup sitter for Saturday night. Thanks Mommy! If we just had Ozzy he could stay home. He has a doggie door and he's content being home alone. Vinnie has to stay in his pen while we are gone because he's so tiny that he could sneak under the fence and he'd tear the house up. I made sure to tell her that little Vinnie is far from perfect.

I think we are actually going to bring the camper there and sleep in it. My brother is going to bring his too so it should be a good time. Hey, at least we won't be camping in the driveway again. There are 5 bands that are going to be there: Back Porch Mary, Jason Boland, Matt Poss, Zach Huckabee, and John D. Hale Band. I love, love, love, Back Porch Mary. I could not be more pumped. I'm just hoping the weather cooperates.

Over the last two weeks I received this award twice. Once from A Lady in Waiting @ A True Long Distance Relationship and from Whitney @ Everything Happens for a Reason. Thank you both so much! I never expected for anyone to read my blog besides my mom and husband so for people to give me awards and stuff is totally unexpected and appreciated.

The rules say to pass it on to 10 other blogs. I've seen this on about 75% of the blogs I read so I'm going to skip that. If you haven't received it, considered it yours. I wouldn't follow your blog if it were not "sweet".

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Silver Bullet

First of all, a little background for those of you who don't know. In October, we bought Matt a truck and sold my sexy car. My baby. My eclipse. (That I never had any problems with) Gee I miss her. I now drive my hubby's old car. The silver bullet. She's a grand am.

Last night when I was coming home from work, I was at "the stoplight" in the town we live in. I hear a dinging noise. I though maybe it was the gas light because I have a habit of driving it until the light comes on. I looked down it and it was a light indicating that the temperature was high.

The bar I work at part-time is about a block and a half from the stoplight. Our house is like six blocks away. So I drove to the bar. By the time I got there, there was a ton of steam coming from under the hood. It was bad. Real bad.

I went inside and the bartender was out back taking the trash out. She came in the front door where my car was parked and said, "Hey Steph is that your car smoking?" To which I replied, "Yep." She come back with, "Uh, want a drink?" To which I say, "Yes, please."

So I called the hubby. He came and rescued me and called a friend of ours that lives in town and is a mechanic. He wasn't going to be in town for another hour so we had to stay and wait for him. He eventually showed up and told us that its probably a water pump. As long as that's it, it won't cost a lot.

Today Matt is taking off work early and hauling the silver bullet to our buddies shop. Then he's going to come get me and we'll pick it up. I'm hoping things go that smooth. This is just one more reason I love my hubby. I don't have to deal with it. He's going to take care of it all for me.

Here I am

I usually don't blog on the weekend but the hubs is out golfing, in the rain, and I have little to no motivation to get busy on my to do list so here I am.

Last night we went to the bar that I work at to give them my availability for June. We had a few beverages and Matt played the pull tabs. He got one that allowed him to put his name on the board. There are around 20 names on the board and when all the tabs are pulled, there is a tab on the back of the board that gets pulled and that corresponds a number on the front of the board for the winner. Anywho, Matt won. $100. We bought everyone at the bar a drink, which was like 7 or 8 people and left with $50 more than we came with. Sweet.

As I mentioned, Matt is golfing today. It's a United Way golf outing. He asked me two months ago to go with him and something just told me to say no. Today is here and it is exactly 57 degrees and raining. I'd rather stay home and vacuum.

Speaking of vacuuming, I have a nice long to do list to do today but so far all I have gotten done is telling the puppy "no" about 137 times and I'm working on drinking some coffee. Oh I also went online and check my grades for the semester that just got over. I did get all A's. I'm happy about that. I wasn't sure I would be able to pull that off.

Since Matt is gone today, if I see the neighbors outside, I'm going to have a chat with them. Don't worry, I'll be nice. And I'm also going to be documenting everything that happens, as suggested. Thanks for all your input yesterday.

That's about all I have. Hopefully the pups will take a nap so then I can get some stuff done. Hope you all have a great weekend!

Neighborhood drama

Let me start out by saying, we love our house. We both worked very hard for the house, everything in it, and everything in the driveway. Our house is cute and it feels like home.

We live in a small town. A very small town. 2000 people small. Our neighbors next door are really sweet old people. She has brought us delicious pies and zucchini bread that we didn't really care for but that's besides the point. They wave at us and are generally good neighbors.

We don't really know too many of the other neighbors. The guy behind us mows his yard about every other day and waves at us. The guy to the east of us is young and single and is not home a lot but he waves when we see him.

The problem lies with the neighbors across the street. The word in town is that the dad got a DUI on his lawnmower or moped. I've heard both stories. I've also heard from several people that the guy has done time in jail for drugs. A little pot I believe. I know good people that smoke pot. I'm not one to judge about that sort of thing. The thing is they have people constantly coming and going from there house. The are constantly leaving there house. Still we don't really care what goes on there, as far as that goes. We just kind of joke about it. "There goes the neighbors again." "Got another customer."

The thing that is an issue is their kids. I think its a mine, yours, and ours kid deal. I know they have one together and there are others that are there sometimes too. All boys. The real problem is that they shoot at stuff with their beebee gun in the front yard, toward our house.

Now when we bought the house, Matt was still in the Army and at Ft. Lewis and I had to deal with the home inspection and all that good stuff. When I had the house inspected, one window was cracked. The homeowners fixed it as part of the deal. We closed on the house sometime in June and didn't move in until the beginning of August. By the time we moved in, there was a beebee hole in the front picture window. I meant to get it fixed but I never got around to it. Over the winter, the crack grew to half the size of the window. It has to be fixed now.

Last night, Matt's truck was parked out front. He normally parks in the back. When he got out of the truck he heard a bebe bounce off the tree. (How the heck you spell rickashay?) The kid shooting the gun is not the one that normally is. This one is older. The parents of course weren't home. Matt watches him shoot toward our house for about five minutes. The kids was like 13. I think if we would have talked to him rather than the parents, it would have only made matters worse. Matt called the cops. If it were up to me, I wouldn't have called them but he was mad and there was no reasoning at that point.

The cop shows up and is literally there 30 seconds. The kid walks up to the cop car with the gun. He must have told the kid to put the guy away. After that we did not see him.

I'm thinking the next time I see the parents, I'm going to have a talk with them. Tell them, "Hey we aren't stupid. We know what goes on over here and we don't care. But if we have any more broken windows our dings in our vehicles, we will have a problem." I also thought about sticking the bill for the new window in there mailbox.

You guys and gals are all smart, what do you think I should do?

Giveaway Winner!

Last night at 7 p.m., my giveaway came to an end. I didn't use a Mr. Hat or whatever you can find on the internet these days. I did the drawing the old fashion way. Here are all the entries in a bowl.

I had the hubby draw a winner. No peeking.

Even little Vinnie helped.

And the winner is ................

Mrs. S. from The Adventures of Mr. Superman and Mrs. S. So Mrs S, please e-mail me your address to imwatchingairplanes@yahoo.com and your prize will be on its way. Congrats!

Thank you to everyone who entered.

And also a big thank you to Random Musings!

Why can't the weekends be longer?

This weekend was kind of a blur. Friday night, well I think we just chilled, played with the pups, and I made bacon wrapped pork chops. They were delicious.

Saturday morning we took the pups and went to my mom's house. She just had shoulder surgery and she wanted to see the boys. She's fine. The surgery went well. Then we went home and took a nap and I worked at the bar Saturday night. It was actually pretty fun.

Matt built a fire in the backyard while I was working and had a few friends over. When I got home, I had a few drinks with him and we decided since he'd been sitting around a fire all night that we could just sleep in the camper and pretend we were camping. So we camped with the pups, in the driveway. I'm sure if they neighbors saw us, they definitely think we are nuts now.

Sunday morning we woke up bright and early and went to my parent's house for breakfast. I wish we could have spent more time with the family but I had to work again yesterday afternoon. I am only going to be working about 3 days a month but I'm the only one there without a kid or two so I got to work Mother's Day. No biggie.

I really like my new job. The manager is very easy to get a long with, I stay busy, I make decent money, and no one expects a lot from me. I don't think I could really ask for more.

I'm tired today though. I have a final tonight and a final in the morning and then I'm done. I have one online class this summer and it doesn't start for awhile so, I guess I'll sort of be on vacation until then.

Hope you all have a great week!

Don't forget to entry my giveaway.

Military Spouse Appreciation Day

I have posted this before but I want to post it again for my new followers. This is an essay I wrote for school. Happy Military Spouse Appreciation Day!

The Military Wife of Today

There have been many groups of women throughout the history of America that have helped to make this nation the land of the free and the home of the brave. Perhaps, the most overlooked group of influential women throughout the history of our nation has been military wives. As long as there has been military in our country there have been military wives. The military wife of today may have conveniences that make her role easier than ever before however, this does not make her life any more desirable. A military wife must be strong, patient, understanding, and loyal to her husband and her country. She will stop at nothing to make sure her husband is as comfortable and as happy as possible, even when he is thousands of miles away.

In the military, it is not the service member’s choice where they will be stationed or even if they will stay at that duty station throughout their career. A military wife will pack up all she owns to move to a place far away from her friends and family to be with her husband and will possibly do this several times. She will give up everything she knows to spend time with him. Or she will stay at home and wait for him if that is what they believe is best. She will patiently look forward to his return and never question her reasons for entering into such a marriage. Either way, she will do it whatever is best for her family’s future and do it with a smile. She understands that he has to do what he his told and she will never complain about it.

A military wife will deal with her husband’s deployment as a strong brave woman. She will stand next to him, smile, and take pictures with him on the day he leaves. She will never have felt as proud of him than on that day. She will soon fall apart and pick her self up again, repeatedly. A military wife will put her own needs aside to make sure that the package she is sending him makes it to the post office “today”. She will send a package on every birthday, holiday, and two or three between. She will become a professional at packing the comforts of home into an 11-inch by 8.5-inch by 5.5-inch box. She could also pack a bowling ball into the same box if her husband asked her to. The clerk at the post office becomes a friend rather than a stranger due her constantly picking up boxes and dropping off packages.

During deployment a military wife will also check her e-mail between ten and a hundred times a day, just to see if her husband has had time to send her a short message. He usually works between twelve and fifteen hours a day, in a desert and she understands when he doesn’t have time, but she continuously checks anyways. She will sleep with her phone by her side her every night. When a twelve-digit number is calling her phone at four in the morning she does not hesitate to answer because she knows it is her husband calling. She doesn’t get upset when after five minutes on the phone with him the call is disconnected. It can happen repeatedly and she is just happy to have heard his voice and know that he is alive and well.

While he is away a military wife will not hesitate to take over all shared responsibilities. She will mother, cook, clean, do the accounting, and take care of the cars, the lawn, and the pets. Also, she may possibly be working non-stop to help them with their future. She will stay very busy during the day and cry herself to sleep occasionally at night due to the pain missing him has caused. She will worry about him and patiently wait for him until he returns. A military wife will be proud that she can handle everything on her own while he fights for the country they both love.

Not all women are capable of dealing with everything that is involved with being a military wife. The women that can’t live the military life find out shortly after entering into it. Those who can, will do anything it takes to make their marriage stronger than they had ever dreamed of. They will ignore the things others will say such as, “How do you do it” or “My husband went to Europe once on business.” They know that standing behind their husband and his love for his country is their number one priority. A military wife would not change anything about her life except to have the man she loves home more often.

The never ending semester

This semester seems like it has been the longest one I have had so far. I'm not sure why. Maybe because it has been the hardest one so far. Maybe because I took more classes than ever before. Not sure. One thing I am sure of is that I am ready for it to be over.

Tuesday night I handed in a final for my night class. She graded it while I was there. I got a 100% in the class.

Today I took a test in my business class. I got 29 out of 25. He grades on a curve and I've gotten over 100% on every test. The final is Tuesday morning. If I don't even take it I would get an 89% in the class. So as long as I study a little I will get a A in that class. Who am I kidding? I'm sure I'll get all my notes together, make a nice study guide, and freak out a little.

In my College Algebra class, I'm getting about a 93% right now. The final is not comprehensive. It's just over the last couple chapters which is a bunch of word problems and matrix algebra. To me, this makes sense. It's something I could use someday. Don't get me wrong, I'm a numbers girl but some of the things we have learned seem a little out there. I got a 98% on the quiz over the material on the final. So, I'm fairly confident that I can do well on the final and get an A in this class, as well. At the beginning of the semester, I was not so sure about this.

So, two finals and this long semester is finally over. I can't wait to be able to enjoy some time with the hubs, the pups, and enjoy the weather.

Don't forget to enter my giveaway, if you haven't already.

And Happy Finals Week to all my college friends. ;)

Giveaway because I'm a winner!

I won a great giveaway from Random Musing of My Life. This is the second giveaway I have one from her. It always great to win her giveaways because she puts some fun little surprises in the package. And who doesn't like surprises? This is all the good stuff I received.

The best part is that because she loves me so much she is so generous she is allowing me to have a giveaway and is going to send my winner a Lysol No-Touch Hand Soap System. I was stoked to get mine. It's so nice by the kitchen sink, just slid your hand under it and out comes the soap. And it smells great too. Thanks again!

Here how you can enter:

1. Leave me a comment saying you want to win. (1 entry)
2. Follow me. (1 entry)
3. Blog about my giveaway and let me know. (1 entry)
4. Follow Random Musings of My Life and let me know. She is awesome. (1 entry)

I'll draw a winner May 12th at 7:00 central time and let you all know the next morning. Good luck!

What a weekend!

When I got home Friday from work, little Vinnie had escaped from his pen in the garage and had made himself comfortable in the house. But how can I be mad at this face?

Friday evening we got some stuff done around the house. I finally took all my plants outside and was able to put the furniture back to how we like it. We also fixed little Vinnie's pen so that the little turd can't get out.

I also got some homework done. I can't wait for this semester to be over. I still have 3 test to take, a homework assignment to do, and an assignment to turn in. There is a good possibility that I will get A's in all of my classes so I most likely won't be saying good-bye to my 4.0.

Saturday we had a wedding. We probably stayed out longer than we should have and after dark is a little fuzzy. We had a great time and got to see some of our good friends.

Yesterday we watched the Cardinal's win and did a lot of this:

And today it's back to the grind. Hope you all had a great weekend!