OWW!

Brain...hurts....from...all...the...studying.

Castle Calendars

Some great friends of ours have started their own business selling baby scrapbook calendars. They make it easy to scrapbook and document your baby's first year. Not the crafty type? These calendars make it easy to record your baby's first holidays and milestones. They make great baby shower and birth gifts. Check out their Etsy site, CastleCalendars, enjoy, and spread the word. We'd much appreciate it.

34 and 1

My brain is tired. I promised myself that I would study every day starting this week for 2-4 hours a day for the AFOQT. And I successfully studied for 3 hours today. But now my brain and my eyes are killing me because I tore my last pair of contact lenses on Friday. And my glasses are about two prescriptions behind. Apparently, my prescription expired in April, so I have to get an exam before I can order more contacts. Have you tried to schedule an eye exam recently? It's ridiculously booked...even in a larger city an hour away. The soonest appointment I could book is on August 3rd. And do you know how much it's going to cost?!? Let me just say...thank goodness for parents that care or I would be part-blind for a long time.

But, on to the happy things. Last week was H's and Little Man's birthdays. For H's 34th, we visited the NM Museum of Space History. It is in the little town that we are staying in and I have never been there. Mister was really excited about it. Everyone enjoyed it. FYI, at the museum, HAM, the first astrochimp, is buried under the American flag. There are also a lot of different rockets and spaceships components on display. We all stood in front of two separate, large satellite dishes. If you whisper into one, you could hear it in the other as if the person is talking loudly right next to you. It was really awesome. Later, we had dinner with my family and H ordered some Chinese that he likes. I usually make a cake for the birthdays, but I thought it might be hard to find one H would like to eat that doesn't have eggs, milk, butter, or oil (part of his diet). I'm sure you can see the dilemma.

The next day was Little Man's bday. He woke up in the morning and had a huge smile on his face. I sang him "Happy Birthday" and couldn't believe that my little guy was one year old already. Later, we had a party with a bunch of family over. We had bbq, potato salad, chips, dip, cake and ice cream. I was going to make the large cake, some cupcakes, and a mini-cake just for LM. However, halfway through decorating the large cake, I realized that the hot NM weather was not conducive to successful cake-decorating. The cake was too sticky, the icing was melting and the layers kept sliding. So, after creating a large crack in the cake, I gave up. We bought a cake for everyone else and I had better luck with the mini-cake. So, if you ever find yourself baking and decorating a cake in NM on a hot day, here are the instructions:

1. After baking cake, stick in freezer to chill.
2. After chilled, spread icing between layers, then stick back in freezer to chill icing.
3. After chilled, spread remaining icing all over cake. Stick back in freezer to chill whole thing.
4. After chilled, decorate quickly. Then stick in fridge until ready to serve.

Now, I know why Tiny's cake did the same thing on her first bday. A castle cake doesn't look quite right when it's turrets are sliding sideways.

LM really dug into the cake and ate a lot of his lunch. He got a lot of new clothes and toys. Three gifts into it, he just wanted to sit and play with the new toys. He partied and played and shared with the other babies. And at the end of the day, he was pooped. He had a good birthday. I will post the pics in the next one for you to enjoy.

"Old Person" Camping

I am learning something really important from my studies for the AFOQT...I don't know nearly as much as I thought I did. I may have an English degree, but I don't know a lot of words. And I may have a lot of math practice from helping Mister with his algebra, but I can't figure out how to determine the uneven number of dimes and nickels in $2.20. I found myself asking the same question that plagued me through high school...when am i ever going to need to know this stuff? Well, I guess I have my answer...I will need it when I decide to apply for officer commission in the AF. So, I have a lot of studying ahead of me.

As for the title of this post, my parents had a camping trip planned this weekend and we are going to tag along. Now, when I think of camping, I think of tents on the ground, sleeping bags and a campfire for all the cooking. My parents, however, have decided that camping for them will be a large cabin, hot tub, pool, and beds. In other words, a bare-bones hotel. But, hey, I ain't complaining. I was never terribly fond of using leaves for toilet paper and sharing sleeping space with a moose (yes, it's happened). So, this weekend, we will be high in the mountains, enjoying the air and catching some fish. Catch ya later.

Do I Dare?

I have decided to apply to the Air Force as an officer. I'm almost afraid to put that out there because I have so much to do to apply and qualify and it will be quite a while before I know anything. I had to travel to El Paso to talk to the officer recruiter, which is 2 hours away. The recruiter was really friendly and helpful. Right now, I need to study to take the AFOQT, the officer candidate test. As soon as I feel prepared enough, I will head back down to El Paso to take the test. I will also need to pass a couple of checks, have a physical, get some letters of recommend, and put everything together in a packet. Then we will submit the package to a board for approval. That will take a few weeks. So, as you can see, there is a lot to do. I will have until the end of November when the board meets to submit everything.

Now that you know that you know the what, I will tell you the why. First, I have always wanted to join the AF. I had planned to join after high school, but life took a different route and I chose to stay home with my kiddos. And now I find myself in a position to try to fulfill that goal. Second, the benefits are impressive...full medical and dental insurance for me and my family, free base housing and utilities, free tuition assistance, GI Bill, and quite a bit more. I will also get job training and experience. We did a pro/con list of my joining the military and the only con we could come up with is the possibility of deployment, which varies with each career, and the fact that I won't be a full-time stay-at-home mom anymore. But the work schedule would be very manageable and consistent. Military also gets weekends and almost all holidays off. They also get a lot of vacation time off.

So, there are a lot of pros and I will be working hard for the next while to apply. So, wish me luck, keep your fingers crossed, send good vibes, etc. I would really appreciate it.

FYI

We are now in NM. We decided to head back west since the job in NC seemed that it was not going to add up to much money for all of Henry's long days, working hard. So, we are spending some time with my folks and trying to figure out our next move. We have a couple of ideas that we are toying with and I will probably share more on that soon.

In other news, our house didn't sell. After four months of trying to sell it to some friends, it fell through at the last minute. So, our agent is listing it again...bless her. And it seems to be a waiting game now to see if it will sell or if the mortgage company will just decide to foreclose. We'll have to wait and see.

Despite all of the upheaval and uncertainty, we are doing well. Safe, fed, healthy, etc. Hope you're all doing well too.