Once again, I nearly missed posting for this month.  I don’t really have an excuse, other than I really don’t have much to post.

This month has been rather uneventful. We celebrated the Mister’s birthday and made a quick jaunt to Nashville.  It’s certainly a lot harder to squeeze fun outings in now that we’re both working full time and I work 3 weekends a month.  Luckily, I finished some testing that was needed to be considered for employment with the county school district, so hopefully that helps with the job situation.

Regardless, we did get to take in some fun sights during our little excursion to Nashville.  We visited the Parthenon replica, the Nashville City Cemetery, and Fort Negley.  It was a learning experience and it reminded me of my days as an art student, toodling around museums.

Since lord only knows if we’ll ever get to see the real thing, I decided we needed to see the Parthenon, near Vanderbilt University.  The gallery inside didn’t allow photos, but it wasn’t very exciting–after seeing the galleries at MoMA and the Met, most small collections don’t compare.

Fort Negley was a stop along the Tennessee Civil War Trails as part of the Battle of Nashville tour stops.  It was the last fortification before the city of Nashville fell.

We stumbled on our last stop on the way out from Fort Negley. The Nashville City Cemetery was right below the fort and is the final resting place of a plethora of prominent Tennessee residents.  I don’t know enough about the history around here yet to really know who they were, but I did recognize a name or two on the headstones.  Of course, I sated my (morbid) curiosity of graveyards. It was a great day to walk around too.  65+ degrees in January, we’ll absolutely take it.

All in all, it was a fun time.  The rest of the month went by way too quickly. I can’t believe it’s almost February.  The Mister is set to go to JRTC for the month, so I didn’t get to plan anything spectacular for Valentine’s Day (then again, topping underwater scootering is going to be tough).  I got one of the part time receptionists to work for me this weekend so the Mister and I could have a couple days together before he takes off.  I don’t have anything planned yet, but I’m going to work on that. Don’t want to go too far, but staying home doesn’t seem appealing.  On the upside, I am going to the Supernatural Convention the last weekend of February so I’ll have a few things to post that month.  SUPER excited about it (plus, my Baby Sister is going to come visit so we can go together).

I’ll update more as soon as I can/when I get a spare minute.

Until then,

Cheers!

–A. xoxo

 

Once again, I am barely squeaking in before the new month (and the new year!) comes.

November was another blur of a month.

Professionally, I had every intention of taking the other position offered to me.  Sadly, the company decided they were not going to hire someone until after the holidays.  So I am still working with the vet clinic.  It has gotten slightly better now that I know what I’m doing and have settled in a bit.  But it is still not the job for me. I am actively looking, but until something else comes along, I am not leaving.

The holidays have come and essentially gone.  My parents came down for a few days and brought Maddie, their golden retriever puppy.  My sisters sadly had to work during the time mom and dad were here, so we didn’t get to see them.

While it was awesome to see my parents and spend time with them, we didn’t have much time off for the holidays. We were closed Christmas Eve, but if we had been open at all, it was a Saturday so it would only have been until 12. I was back to work Monday.  The same will happen for this weekend, except Saturday was still open.  Luckily it was my Saturday off.  Our whole schedule will change again in January so that will be a big pain.

But enough downer talk about work.  Christmas was lovely.  It was nice to decorate and have enough room to spread out this year.

Naturally, we did my side’s tradition of photos in front of the tree.  We even made room for the dogs, but no one was really able to all look at the camera for those.

I didn’t really get the cats to come out for photos.  They were very anti-social.  Really, Maddie is such a high energy pup, they wanted to steer clear.

Things quieted down a little this week.  I still haven’t taken any of my decorations down. Maybe I’ll start tomorrow. Today, the Mister was presented a quilt from the Quilts of Valor Foundation. It was a big surprise for him and he was truly touched.  It’s a beautiful quilt and he appreciates the sentiment.  Quite the honor.

Tonight, we took in a movie as we always do and had a nice dinner out.  We’re back home now and will probably pass out before midnight if the fireworks don’t keep everyone up.

2016 has been a heck of a year.  We left Hawaii after three years and got settled in our new (temporary) home in Tennessee. We went to California and got to check out Disneyland, the San Diego Zoo, and Wizarding World of Harry Potter.  We checked out Antique Archeology in Nashville and discovered some old treasures in Clarksville. I started new employment and the Mister dove head first into a new unit.

Here’s to the new year.

Until then,

Cheers!

–A.xoxo

I’ve completely fallen off the wagon posting every month.

First things first. Pow wow photos, as promised. It was a very white-washed event, but we did see some great competition and a few excellent pieces of regalia.

October was a heck of a month.

That phone interview turned into a job offer. I spent all month working full time and haven’t had time for anything else. We didn’t even carve pumpkins this year or give out Halloween candy (which if you know anything about me, you know how much I adore carving pumpkins).

Now,  I’m having very conflicted feelings for said job. It was something I was very excited to start but I have quickly found that it is not really for me. I won’t divulge details, just know that professionalism is lacking and dealing with pet owners is not my favorite.

Luckily, there is another opportunity available with the same pay rate, but closer to home and no weekend hours. They company is willing to wait for my decision. I’m hesitant to make the leap just yet as I’ve barely been working for my current job, but…time will tell. I have a few more days to make a decision so I’m going to take my time and weigh all my options.

Other than that, life has been relatively quiet. It’s been ridiculously warm for November. I was really looking forward to fall, but most of the leaves around here aren’t even changing yet! I don’t have plans for the holidays (should my job not change, I will only have the day of the holiday off) and I’m ready for this election to be over. Hopefully I can find something fun for us to do so there’s more to update.

Until next time!

 

–A. xoxo

Somehow, August got away from me. Just like July.  

On the house front, I was finally able to get most of the house in order.  The garage is finally cleaned out, even if the Mister doesn’t use it. I haven’t exactly gotten my closet all sorted, but without a job just yet, I’m being a tad lazy.  But for the most part, the house is finally in order and all the big boxes are unpacked and sent back to the moving company for recycling.

Luckily, I did get the fire lit under me mid-August as my in-laws announced they were coming to visit for a quick weekend.  It was a great motivator and I was really excited to see them, as we hadn’t seen them since our wedding (that’s over three years ago!).  It was a lovely visit. 

We got whisked away to Nashville to check out the Antique Archaeology shop there.

My FIL and I were super excited to go, but we all came away a bit disappointed. We didn’t expect to wait in line just to get in and we certainly expected more to be for sale inside.  Essentially, it was a glorified t-shirt shop.  It was a neat place, but so little was for sale and it was so full of people, we had a really hard time just looking around.

Luckily, Clarksville has a few antique shops that actually have things for sale so we were able to salvage the day (plus we had a lovely dinner out and spent some time enjoying each other’s company). Sadly, they weren’t able to stay longer. Thankfully though, we don’t live so far away so we can visit more often!

Other than that, August was a relatively low-key month. We spent a good chunk of our time at Rick’s Comic City in Clarksville, filling out our comic book collections.

Now that I’m relatively caught up with my series, I look forward to what I can find there.  Honestly, if they were hiring, that job is right up my alley! It’s great to chat with the guys about mutual interests and I’m such a nerd, I like all the organization that goes in to comic collecting.

Speaking of jobs, I have a phone interview next week! I was really discouraged when I applied and saw 129 people had applied before me.  But today, I got the email saying they wanted an interview. I’m extremely hopeful for this one. It’s a receptionist job for a local vet. It would be amazing. Pets and full time work.  I’m trying not to get too excited, but it’s only the second interview I’ve gotten since we moved here and it would be perfect for me.  Hopefully I can make a good impression.

In other news, we had an Organization Day for our new unit.  I was a little put out with the whole thing.  No one was overly friendly and didn’t bother to reach out to me.  It really makes me miss my old FRG.  I still have yet to hear anything about our FRG meetings and if my email is on the right list.  That’s super frustrating to me. I have my heart set on doing more with this FRG (maybe enough to a Molly Pitcher nod?) but thus far, I am not impressed with it.  It’s hard enough to PCS to a new place…I really need to figure out how to connect with the new gals.

Aside from that, we haven’t really done much. That needs to change too.  So, we’re going to an intertribal pow wow in Kentucky tomorrow and Sunday.  I’m really excited to go and connect back with my Cherokee roots. I haven’t been to a pow wow in years. Once I get some photos, I’ll definitely post some. I really love pow wows and it will be nice to get back to that.

Unfortunately, other than that, I don’t have much going on. So until next time!

Cheers!

-A. xoxo

Holy buckets, it’s August already! I don’t really know where July went, but it blew through before I noticed it.

I’m still working on unpacking the last few boxes from our movers. One day, my garage will do more than hold all the empty boxes and packing papers. I’ve been extremely gungho about finishing up the house…at 10pm. I am going to have to hustle to get stuff done soon though. I turned in a few applications for jobs so I’m crossing my fingers.

I’ll finish it. I just need to quit having things come up at THE most inconvenient times. Like having to get my debit card switched because there were some fraudulent charges. Or having to go to the hospital on post so I could be put in the system to get my prescription refilled (seriously, my pharmacist’s word isn’t good enough??).  I think my icemaker is broken AGAIN so that’ll be another road block, but we’ll see.

I’ve finally gotten a bit of time to snap a photo of our new place.

Isn’t it cute? We have a ton of space and a giant fenced in back yard for the pup.  Our neighborhood is really close to the main crossroads we need to get anywhere.  Unfortunately, as you can see by the clouds rolling in, we haven’t been able to enjoy our outdoors as much as we’re used to.

It’s basically rained every day, except for like 7-8 days the entire month of July.  But it was so hot, the humidity was unbearable. Luckily they don’t get storms here like they do back in Nebraska, so we haven’t had to deal with anything too nasty.

Speaking of Nebraska, I had to go home for a long weekend mid July for my Grandad’s committal ceremony.  We buried his ashes at the cemetery.  It was hardest for me, since I wasn’t able to make it home for the actual celebration of life last spring.

Initially, I wasn’t going to go, but I’m glad I did.  The drive was a grueling 10 hour trek alone one way and I didn’t get to stay long. It was nice to be with family and I got to visit my adopted grandma on the way home, so it was well spent.

Since then, I’ve just been going through boxes and writing down all the missing or broken items for claims (somehow, we have 4 spoons to our name and an entire utensil tray is missing…). Now it’s just a matter of organizing and putting things away.  Hopefully after that I can get back to applying for more jobs and getting settled in Tennessee.  I have already started a list of places I want to see in the area, so crossing my fingers I get this place in order ASAP!

Though…there is this obstacle….

I’ll update some more as soon as there’s something to report.

Until then,

Cheers!

–A. xoxo

Finally got the internet up and running at our new place! We get our HHG tomorrow–thanks to a last minute cancellation.  We’ve been in our new place since 1 July, but we’ve been living out of our suitcases and hanging out on our air mattress. I’ll post more about the new place etc… in a different post.  This one is all about our trip from California after picking up our car in Los Angeles.

We flew out on 20 June and stayed near LAX that night.  The next day, we couldn’t pick up our car until mid-afternoon so we drove to Buena Park and checked in to our hotel early.  Once we got the car settled, we decided to use our 3-Day Hopper pass to Disneyland.  We wanted to get there in time to map out our other trips and see the parade/fireworks.  It was well worth it, as the parade is brand new this year (even better for us, as neither had been to Disneyland before).

The next day, we decided to drive up to Universal Studios in Hollywood.  Sadly, we only had one day to see Universal, but we definitely made the most of it! We mainly wanted to see the newly opened Wizarding World of Harry Potter inside the park and it didn’t disappoint.  As a huge HP fan, I was more than happy to spend most of our trip in that section.  But, there were some great rides outside of that area too, like Jurassic Park, The Mummy, and Transformers! It was such a neat experience (even though I’d already been to Universal Orlando).

Day 3 of our trip was back to Disneyland for some rides and more sights.

Day 4 wrapped up our Disney adventure with Disney’s California Adventure theme park.  We checked out the Tower of Terror, Grizzly River Run, and saw Radiator Springs from Cars.  It wasn’t the best Disney park I’d been to, but it was a fun experience watching my husband act like a total kid. I even convinced him to get some ears.

After California Adventure, we drove down to San Diego for the next couple of days of our trip.  We stayed on a Navy base which made our stay MUCH nicer. Our first full day, we went to the San Diego Zoo and celebrated 100 years of conservation there–even got our first caricature done.  As neat as it was (seeing pandas was the best part!), I still maintain that Omaha’s zoo is still the best.

The last day in California was spent at Sea World San Diego.  We took in some of the last Shamu shows and saw dolphins and beluga whales.  It was fun, but we were pretty over people by then and had to drive the 5 hours through the Mojave Desert to get the Vegas.

We made it to Vegas by 9pm that night and lucked out big time with a free suite upgrade at Excalibur.  The Mister really enjoyed the hotel.  It’s too bad we couldn’t stay longer.

We took two days to drive back to Nebraska then took a day off, before driving to Tennessee.  I’ll update again once we get settled. Hopefully that process doesn’t take too long.

Until then,

Cheers!

-A. xoxo

 

Well, everyone made it back to Nebraska in one piece.  It’s been a heck of a first (nearly) four weeks back. It hasn’t really sunk in that I’m home, even if it is just for a short time.  Granted, my first week back was totally focused on the Baby Sister’s high school graduation. The last few weeks I’ve basically been running all over the place. Picked up my car in St. Louis and picked up the Mister in Kansas City. We’re currently at the gun range, testing out a few hand guns before making our decisions for what we purchase. Busy busy, you know.

I didn’t have the time to go out and do really anything my last weekend in Hawaii. The movers came on 6 Friday and were around until like 8:30pm that night. Saturday I was able to convince the Mister to go to the swap meet one last time, but he only let me circle through once. 8 Sunday we had to get the furkids to the airport three hours before our flight. We got to fly to Chicago together, so that made me feel better. I sent them to Kansas City so they wouldn’t have to be cooped up in the car for another 11 hours from Nashville.  My mom picked them up and got them all settled by mid-afternoon, so by the time I arrived at like 11pm that night, we were all worn out.

I haven’t really taken any photos, other than family stuff, since I’ve been back. There’s still a little time before we mosey on though. I plan on hitting the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha soon. They are always expanding and I have always loved it.

I met up with some old friends from HS for dinner and drinks a couple weekends ago, so that was excellent.  I made it back in time for my 10 year reunion and my mom’s side’s family reunion. All kinds of fun.  I have another reunion on Friday, but I’m still debating on whether or not I want to make the trek. I’m really tired of driving right now!

As nice as it is to be home, I’ll be glad when we get a new place settled. Right now, nothing feels very permanent. All of our HHG are shipping, the Charger is shipping to LA…I am sleeping in a spare room at my parents’ place (because my room from HS is in the basement and I don’t want my overly adventurous cats getting out down there and getting stuck in a wall or something (Taz has already found a way to get up in the ceiling down there when mom’s cat opened the basement door–she was hiding for over 12 hours). Living out of my suitcase and realizing I didn’t bring nearly enough warm clothes…  I feel a little homeless at the moment. I’m such a wimp with this climate change. It was a somewhat chilly May too, so I had to go raid the clearance rack at Rue21 for a couple more pairs of jeans and some cardigans. To be fair, I spent like $25 and got two pairs of jeans, some long yoga pants, and a couple sweater cardigans.  All stuff I can wear when it really gets cold. June came in hotter than hot, so it’s all a weird adjustment.

On the new house front, I put a deposit in for one near Fort Campbell. I saw a few places over Memorial Day weekend and decided to up our budget.  Everything we saw was really gross or tiny, so I gave us a little wiggle room in the budget and finally found a beautiful place that I’m really excited to get settled in to.  When our HHG arrive by June 28, we will have a place to send them and still have plenty of time to get situated before the Mister has to report mid-July.

Our Charger shipped to California so we can have a bit of a road trip/vacay back . We’re looking to see Disneyland, Universal’s Wizarding World of Harry Potter, the San Diego Zoo, and SeaWorld San Diego while we’re out and about. Depending on which way we want to go back, there’s a lot of other neat places we can stop that the Mister has never seen (all of which are relatively inexpensive or free–hello National Park pass!). I wouldn’t mind seeing Yosemite or Carlsbad Caverns. I’ve been to stuff like Vegas and the Grand Canyon. But if we go that way, there’s Arches National Park in Utah that I’d love to see (well, any of the Mighty 5 would be lovely). Sadly, I don’t think we’ll end up with enough time getting back to Tennessee to really make too many stops outside of what we already have planned.  All the more reason to plan another trip west down the road.

It’s been a crazy ride getting back to the mainland and trying to get settled.  Obviously, I completely forgot to update last month (truth be told, I started this post shortly after I arrived, but then got sidetracked with everything else going on around here). I should be more on the ball now, but we’ll see how the rest of the month goes.  Lots of fun stuff coming up, so bear with me and stay tuned!

Until then,

Cheers!

-A.xoxo

 

April is winding down and I’m really starting to feel the time crunch.

I fly out on Mother’s Day to go back to the mainland. I’m in utter disbelief. I can’t quite figure out where the last three years went.  The Mister can’t leave until June, so I’m going to be staying with my parents with all of my furbutts.  It’ll be quite the time.  Thankfully though, it’s only for about 4 weeks.  Hopefully we’ll be able to do a little bit of a roadtrip when the other car ships, so we can stop and see a few places The Mister has never been.

I don’t quite remember what we did over my birthday weekend, other than going out to eat. I was so worn out from work, I don’t think we did much. Last weekend, we went to the swap meet at Aloha Stadium to pick up a few more last minute things our families requested. I’ll probably make one last trip there before the movers come, just because I really like going and will truly miss it (even if it’s just a bunch of kitschy, touristy junk).

This weekend, I convinced The Mister to go to Honolulu and see all the sites we missed when we took the ghost walk ages ago. We got to check out things in the daylight which was neat. It was a nice little outing.

I got to see a few churches and a cemetery that I’d been eyeing, so I was pretty excited! We also got to see the Mission Houses, King Kamehameha statue, Kawaiaha’o Church, and a few others.

Essentially, we checked out a lot of Hawaii’s historical sites. I’m glad I got to see everything in the daylight. Hawaii is mix of so many cultures and beliefs, it’s neat to see how they all intertwine. Christian missionaries brought their religion to the islands and it took off. Most of Hawaii’s monarchy embraced it with open arms and took it as a means to make their whole kingdom literate. Kamehameha is responsible for uniting the Hawaiian islands into one kingdom.  Washington Place was where the governor lived until 2002 and the capitol is open air to embrace nature. See what I mean?

As I took in the sights today, I realized how much I’d miss being here. On one hand, I will NOT miss the traffic, intolerance, bugs, or the distance from home; but on the other, so few places have this unique history or amazing weather all year round.  I realize how fortunate I was to live in a place people often only visit, if at all during their lifetimes.  I am truly thankful for the things that came from my stay here (especially 3 of my furbabies), but the adventure will continue at the next station. I’m excited to see where that road takes us.

But, I still have a few more adventures left before I leave. Keep your eyes peeled.

Until then,

Cheers!

-A.xoxo

It’s been a crazy couple of weeks.  Tax season is winding down and the last rush is on its way.  Basically, the flood gates will be open and I’m just hoping to survive.  So, I decided that last weekend, we needed to go clear our heads and do something peaceful. Thus, we decided to go check out a working Korean Buddhist temple in Honolulu. I found it on a whim through Yelp, looking for something unique to fill up our bucket list before we leave the island. Since we’d already been to check out the more tourist-y Byodo-In Temple in Kaneohe, this was a hidden gem.  “Gem” is right! It was so much more colorful and because it is an actual practicing temple, we were able to fully immerse ourselves in the area.

The Mu-Ryang-Sa Temple (Broken Ridge Temple) is tucked away in a residential area. We parked on the street and would’ve missed it entirely if we hadn’t been looking for it.  Right away, we noticed the reason for the Broke Ridge namesake. Because of building restrictions, the top of the temple had to be halted. Now it clearly shows a flat top where a peak should be.

Remember when I said it was colorful?  I mean, it’s insanely bright. Everything was so intricately painted. The amount of detail was extraordinary.

I really should have expected it. The minute we walked up, we were greeted by four huge statues that were just as colorful and detailed as the outside of the buildings.

As we continued into the complex, we found even more statues…

…and discovered a little hidden corner with  hundreds of Buddhas commemorating the departed faithful.

While photography was not allowed inside the buildings–it’s considered poor taste to photograph places where the actual worshipping was taking place (they were all fantastic as well), I did snap a quick one from the outside.  It was just as intricate as the rest.

Overall, it was a peaceful experience and I’m glad we were able to experience it.  I’m not sure what is planned for this weekend–I had a long week and haven’t really had the energy to make any plans.  Plus, my birthday is Sunday so I’m not gunning for much more than relaxation.

But, as I just got word that I’ll be leaving the first week in May, I will be doing SOMETHING.

Until then…

Cheers!

–A. xoxo

Well, we had our first March excursion last weekend. We met up with an old friend (who just happened to be one of the groomsmen from our wedding that recently got stationed here) and his family for a hike to Ka’ena Point.  It wasn’t much of a hike, but a walk along an old road.  The area is used for off-roading with 4-wheel drive, but foot traffic is welcome.

Ka’ena Point is said to be the “jumping off point” for spirits departing this world.  The energy out there was definitely something special.  While the full walk goes from North Shore around to the west side of the island, we only went about halfway.  Still, that was about four miles round trip. We were fortunate enough that it was overcast with a great breeze because there is literally no shade or cover.  We hardly saw anyone else on the trail and only had to move for a Jeep a couple of times. We got caught up in beach combing and checking out the tide pools.

Before we knew it, we’d almost walked to the west side of the island before turning back. We originally went out thinking we’d only be out walking for an hour or so. About three hours later, we decided it was time to go grab some food.

I don’t know what the plan for this weekend is, aside from getting together with the same family for Easter on Sunday.  I wouldn’t mind checking out the trail from the other side of the island, but we’ll see. There are a few other spots I want to catch before we leave.  I’m slowly but surely crossing them off the list.  Hopefully the surf will calm down for some snorkeling at Shark’s Cove before we leave.

I am definitely feeling the time crunch. On the one hand, I can’t wait to get home to see my family.  On the other hand, I will miss this weather and all the cool adventures we go on here. I know we’ll have more adventures when we get to Fort Campbell. I just don’t have an exhaustive list of where yet.

There will be some sort of adventure this weekend…I’m just not sure what it’ll be yet.

More to come.

Until then….

Cheers!

–A.xoxo