353 Chilly Night

After a long day of unpacking and rearranging, the LT convinced me to leave the house. We drove out to an outdoor shopping area and walked around for a little bit. It was pretty cold, but we enjoyed the lights and new stores.

On a side note, this photo was taken with my phone and no matter what I did, it always made the lights look like this!!

347 Stuff

Our "stuff" was delivered today. 

It was a hectic day of dodging boxes and determining how to fit our things into a smaller place.

These green tags are the ones I pulled off the furniture as it came in. I am sure I missed a bunch, but I learned my lesson from the last move.

If you don't take them off right away, you forget about them. And then the glue gets gross and they never come off!

Now for the hard part...

338 Leaves!!

I really don't like leaves. I think I may have mentioned that before...

Anyway, this is what we came home to. The entire neighborhood was blanketed in leaves. It is really quite a sight!

337 Goodbye Sky Harbor

(sorry LT, not the best photo)

Today we made the long haul back to Ft Benning. We will be there about a week and a half and then we are on to bigger and better things! 

I just want to fast forward through the next two weeks though... anyone know how to do that?

322 Night of the Living Dead

Ok, so not really. I am alive.

It was close for a little bit though.

(not really)

We spent the day at the LT's mom's visiting with family. I spent a lot of time on the couch, but am feeling better now.

I certainly enjoyed the sunset this evening!

321 SVDD

(same view, different day)

Still sick.

Tonight, it's Twilight.

I'm so over this.

320 Ugh

This is my view tonight:

I am flat in bed. 

Sick.

I'm the third person in this household to get this stomach bug and not happy about it.

So I am in bed watching Harry Potter praying no one else is subjected to this!!

295 Me and Nature. We Don't Really Get Along...

We had dinner tonight with some friends. As per usual with the army, just a day after seeing a family reunited early, this family got the surprise "you're deploying in 2 weeks" notice just a few days ago. Such is life...but I digress...

We were enjoying a lovely meal outside when I looked down at my phone to find this:

I had to use the LT's phone for this screen shot

Gross!!!

On the plus side... I am thankful it was my phone and not my head...or my food!!

293 Green Surprise

I was sweeping out some dead leaves from our driveway and a bright green tiny thing came flying out! Upon closer examination, I realized it was an itty bitty frog! It's hard to judge the size by this photo, and the thing was so darn fast I couldn't get a great shot, but this is in concrete, and those pebbles in the concrete are pretty tiny! 

This was the cutest critter that I could have been surprised by while sweeping leaves. (Other things found - black widows, roaches, giant brown spiders, worms...)

272 Lovely

I am counting down the days until we can move out of this "house". Reason #477, this little guy who got stuck in the kitchen window for a while.

Fortunately, the crappy screen that is not properly attached that let him through had a gap large enough for him to find to exit as well. 

I'm fine with the nature. Just stay out of my kitchen.

261 Uuhhhhh....

Don't you love it when you get a message like this?

Luckily, I was able to go through the fixes and things are working great now.

Scared the crap out of me though!

234 Yuck

I raked up this pile of leaves this morning.

Yuck.

I never thought I would complain so much about trees!! 

I really don't like the look of fall leaves.

Nor do I like them stuck to my car or tracked into my house.

I am probably complained about this before, but I'm complaining again today.

If the next place we move to has so many trees, I will make sure we find a house where there are not too many around our house.

The leaves are obnoxious, the shade blocks my beloved sun, and when we have a lightning storm, I am so nervous that one of the gigantic ones in the back yard will fall on our house!

Ok, thanks for letting me get that off my chest.

I know I'm a horrible person for not liking trees, and for complaining about something so trivial.

I'm done now.

225 I'm Trying

As Relief Society president, one of my duties is to help with the general welfare needs of the members in the ward. There is a new single mother who moved in who was in need of clothes for her daughter and three small boys. Miraculously, another woman in the ward had recently cleaned out her son's closet and had a bunch of boys clothes in just the right sizes for the boys in need. The woman was supposed to bring them to church today so I could give them to the family in need. I had purchased some clothes for the older daughter and brought those with me. The mother was so relieved to have a few new outfits for her children. When I found the clothes donor at church, she said she had forgotten to bring them and they were in a bag by her door.

No problem. I had a feeling that would happen anyway. I just told her I would pick them up after church and deliver them to the family. The LT was going to visit another area south of us where they hold meetings in the afternoon to help out so the girls came along with me.

As planned, I picked them up and then sought out the other woman's home. They live in a trailer park that most people know the location of, however, I did not. I plugged the address into my GPS and set off. Unfortunately, the GPS was confused, but I didn't realize it until we got to the wrong location.

At this point, the minor frustration of getting the wrong directions was magnified by the fact that I was starving, and my gas light had come on. I have been trying to be a much better example in keeping the Sabbath holy for my girls (not stopping by Taco Bell on the way home from church...) and the numerous fast food restaurants seemed to be taunting us. I will say how amazing the girls were. Not one complaint.

I was fuming at my luck as I turned around and went back the way we came to find our destination. In doing so, we passed by this church a second time, and I saw this:

I realized that what I was doing was service. I had been able to go out and buy new clothes for my girls without a second thought. This woman had to rely on the kindness of others to clothe her children. I also realized that my attitude wasn't helping things and I it would be very soon that the clothes would be delivered and I could be home and eating.

The scripture Matthew 25:40 instantly came to mind:

And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

And I thought, yes, I think I have made God smile today.

215 I Miss the Dry Heat

This is what happens to a cake in humidity. The cake is dry, but that frosting is a mess! I didn't even have it sealed tightly, but this Georgia humidity can mess everything up!!

194 Lame

So today has been a pity party/woe is me kind of day. I really have absolutely nothing to feel sorry about.

But nonethless, it was one of those days. Every time a friend moves out, the reality that we are still here slaps me in the face. I really don't mind being here, but the fact that our time here is indefinite just gets old. I would love to know what our next step might be. I realize though that we are incredibly blessed and that the LT has a job, and we have a home and awesome health insurance and good health and a happy family and that is what really matters.

But sometimes, we all get in a funk.

Tonight I went shopping with a friend. She decided she was tired of me wearing the same shirt in a different color every day. I regularly complain about the lack of shopping in Columbus, so she said she would take me to TJ Maxx because she finds all kinds of great things there.

I ended up finding six cute shirts despite the fact that I could be one of the pickiest people in the world when it comes to clothes. 

I did not however, buy the bunny shirt.