With Great Sadness ...

Shelby and I are looking for a kind family to take our cat Allie (and possibly Satchmo). We are unable to take them with us to Hawaii and have no one else who is willing to take them. This is very hard for us and sad. If you would be able to take in this sweet girl, please let Shelby or myself know. We appreciate your consideration more than you know....

If You're Happy and You Know It Clap Your Hands

Happy Wednesday Everyone!

Did anyone watch biggest loser last night?  I LOVE THAT SHOW! It's so motivating and inspiring to watch.  Last night the contestants got to go home for 1 week and they had to bike a marathon.  What a HUGE accomplishment for each of them! Everyone finished! Everyone also did really well on their weight loss, the most losing 14 pounds in just a week! AMAZING!!

Tristan has a couple new "tricks".  :-)  His cute trick is HUGGING.  He has a HUGE bear that my mom got for him, and he walks up to it and hugs it - it's adorable! His version of hugging is to lay his head down on the bear and "pat" it.  It's so funny but SO CUTE!  Yesterday he even "hugged" our cat Allie.  He's so sweet!  His 2nd trick is CLAPPING! I've been trying to get him to clap for forever! FINALLY yesterday at Best Buy he decided to clap. YAY!  Shelby and I are standing in the middle of the store cheering for him and clapping with him.  I'm sure we looked silly but we didn't care!  ha ha

Shelby and I have made a good pit of progress towards our move this week.  It was starting to get a  little overwhelming, but we've managed to move past some of that frustration.  I know some of you are reading this and probably wondering, "why are you so stressed out and overwhelmed?".  It might seem stupid to some of you.  I know that being stressed out isn't going to make the process any easier - and I'm trying really hard to stay calm and go with the flow, so to speak.  The frustrating part is that nobody has any answers.  At the beginning of the week Shelby and I were seriously clueless about alot of things.  Important things.  We're slowly finding out (well, we already knew this.. so I guess we're just being reminded) that one person doesn't know what the other person is doing.  For example: there could be 2 people working in the same office, one person tells you one thing and then the other tells you something completely different.  When you try to clarify, each person acts like they have no clue what the other is talking about.  It's really hard to get answers that way.  With most things being on a deadline, it makes it a little stressful when you can't get the answer about what you're supposed to do.  What is really frustrating is that you can't handle this stuff yourself.  You have to go thru someone else who is also clueless about what needs to be done.  It's just a big mess.  Thankfully Shelby was able to call someone himself and get some answers about our car.  We also got a call yesterday that our housing application had been received in Hawaii.  Things are slowly coming together.. it's just so nice to have ANSWERS and not wander around clueless all the time. :)

I just checked my calendar and I've gone 2.5 months with NO SODA so far.  I've passed my goal of 1 month by quite a bit :) That's a nice accomplishment!

Happy Wednesday!

Good Morning!


I'm finally getting settled back into my daily routine, so I thought I'd take a moment to say HEY! :-) We got back into town LATE Sunday night from our Thanksgiving trip to Mississippi. We had a great time and I will post pictures about our trip a little later. Monday I got some errands taken care of around town and cleaned up my house a bit, since we left it a mess when we left for Mississippi. I hate coming home to a dirty house :-(

Today at work I'm just doing some miscellaneous filing and organizing. I've been working hard trying to find out everything we need to know about our next duty station. Things there are very different, which is kinda surprising to me! But, that's OK. :-) I'm making a notebook with all our forms and information, etc. We HAVE to stay organized or we'll go crazy. I REALLY wish I could share where we're going .. but I'm so afraid of making a big announcement and then our orders getting changed. I know that's probably silly, but I do hope you understand! Shelby got word yesterday that we will be in Jacksonville through July 4, so we're going to be staying longer than May. See, things changed already! ;-) We're supposed to get our orders sometime in January or February (such a long span of time, which sucks) but as soon as we find out (FOR SURE) I will share the wonderful news!

This is not my pantry, but this is how I like it to look!

Changing subjects - does anyone like to keep schedules for themselves? I know some of my fellow OCD girls like to make lists religiously. I have a "Cleaning Schedule" that I used to use when we lived in Virginia Beach. It worked great for me! I was so incredibly particular back then that my kitchen towels had to be folded the same way, and the lines on them had to match after they were stacked - the same went for our towels. In my pantry all my cans had to be facing the same way and had to be in line - like at the grocery store. Everything had its place. Since then, and since I've been working full time, my little cleaning habits have started to slowly change. I was in a weird place (within myself) and I really didn't have the motivation to do ANYTHING. Thankfully, I've started to notice that I'm getting back to my insanely particular ways - and honestly, I like it that way. I know its crazy .. but I like it when my shower products are in line and facing the same way, when my pantry is all neat and organized, when Tristan's baby food is organized by type and all facing a certain way, when things are spaced evenly apart on my kitchen/bathroom/any type of counter. I'm the girl who straightens the picture on the wall in a public bathroom. ha ha I'm in no way as bad as I once was, but I can feel myself getting back to those habits.

Anyways - I thought I'd share my "cleaning schedule" with you! I had to update it, since we no longer live in a one bedroom apartment in Virginia Beach. Maybe it will motivate you to make a cleaning schedule of your own! :-)

I pick up every day, so don't think that I only clean my kitchen on Monday! ha ha! This is for the "deep" cleaning that takes a little longer than everyday normal cleaning. Just FYI!!

Monday

Kitchen: Wipe down ALL counters & appliances, Floors, Clean the Sink, Clean out the Fridge

Floors: Throughout the whole house

Weekly Grocery Shopping (not a cleaning item, but it's still part of my "to do" list)

Tuesday

Living Room: Dust all surfaces, Wipe down surfaces, Throw away old magazines, etc

Dining Room: Dust all surfaces, Wipe down surfaces, Gather stray items

Office Area: Organize & Clean desk area, dust and wipe down all surfaces

Wednesday

Master Bedroom: Clean off all surfaces, Dust, Gather stray clothing and other items

Master Bathroom: Dust and Wipe down all surfaces, clean the shower, sinks, and toilet

Tristan's Room: Gather stray things, put things away, and dust

Thursday

Guest Room: If needed

Guest Bathroom: Clean all surfaces, Clean shower, sinks, toilet

Floors: Throughout the whole house

Friday

Organize the Laundry room to prepare for Laundry Day Saturday

Saturday

Laundry: Wash, Dry, Fold, and PUT AWAY

Strip Beds and change sheets

Dust where needed

Clean the floors if needed

Sweep outside and gather stray things outside

Sunday

Clip Coupons

Plan Meals for Following Week

Plan Grocery List for Following Week



What's your cleaning schedule?!?!

Yay For Days Off!

Did ya'll have a good Veteran's Day?  Shelby was out of town for work, so I spent my day off taking care of some things around the house and spending time with my favorite little man!

I got to sleep in until about 8:00 and then Tristan and I got ourselves ready to go for a play date and a friends house.  We also went out to lunch and Tristan sat in a high chair (At a restaurant) for the FIRST time ever!  Such a big moment ;) 

I ran by Publix to get some things I wanted to get before the deal went off, and then we went home where Tristan took a nap and I took care of some things around the house.  I was able to get quite a few things accomplished and it makes me feel SO GOOD to have a productive day!

Yesterday was our anniversary - so we ate homemade meatloaf and watched TV.  It was a very low key - uneventful - evening .. but I enjoyed it!  I'm hoping to finish up on some things today.  The pugs had muddy feet from being outside in the rain, and now my hardwood floors have little puglet prints on them! I REALLY wanna get that cleaned off, especially since Tristan is crawling now!

Moving on to TODAY ..

I've spent a lot of my morning looking up information on military moves and housing, etc.  I'm having a hard time finding job listings for my field.  Does anyone know is the police station on base hires civilians?  I'd really like to find something in the CJ field, and not just do some random job.. but I'm having a hard time finding something. :(    I'm SLOWLY finding information on things we need to know about moving.  It's actually not that easy to find!  Not as easy as I was expecting, I guess.  I REALLY hope we get our orders soon so I can share with you where we're going!!

Don't forget that my 100th post is coming up soon!!