Our Trip to Bama (Sorry it is so long. . lol)

Well, it has been a while since I have been able to sit down and blog. It has been a crazy busy month. We just got back in from Alabama last night. We had a good trip. We didn't get to do everything that we wanted to do or see everyone that we wanted to see, but we never get to accomplish all of that. . which sucks.

We decided before we got there this time that we were going to take a more relaxed approach to things and just do what happened. . and it sort of worked. It just gets so frustrating when certain people are calling constantly asking if we are going to go see so and so or when we are coming by there. DAMN!! We will get there when we do. It pisses me off that we drive 8 hours to be there. . we are only there for a very limited time. . but people can't seem to try and accommodate us. It would help out tremendously if people would all meet at one location so we can see everyone at once rather than us having to drive all around 2 counties trying to see them. Then they get pissy if we don't get to make it there, or if we only get to spend a short period of time there. Oh well.. that is my rant. But things will be changing in the future. . we have decided. . if they can't make the time to meet us in the middle on things then we will not make time to go spend time with them. And this whole childish "well are you gonna go see so and so or you never come see us" thing is just over. LOL. Anyway. . ha ha most of you know who I am talking about.

Back to the topic. . our trip was good.
**The night we got there Brandon had booked us a room at the new Westin at Bridge Street. It was so freaking nice. It was only like 20 yards from all of the cool restaurants like Ketchup, Dolce, PF Chang. . and so on. . so we had a great pick of where to eat. We got slightly buzzed and walked around Bridge Street for a while and then headed back to our very nice hotel room. Great to have a night away from the kiddo. . then we got up early the next morning and ate at Cracker Barrel. . lol.
**New Year's Eve was just pretty much another day. Mom wanted us to come out and party with them, but we didn't have a baby sitter so we chose to stay in. We hung out with Kristin and Josh and played the Wii most of the night. It was pretty fun. Nothing wild and crazy. Mom came in completely wasted. . knocking over lamps and spilling drinks everywhere.. then she got a little out of hand and I almost punched her out. . so my stepdad made her go to bed. . but that is a story for another day. lol
**New Year's day was fun. We kind of just chilled out that morning and took our time getting ready, then we decided to go see Nanny. When we got out there she was cooking and about to go over to my favorite Aunt's house. So we crashed their party. lol. 2 of my cousins and their families were there. . so we got to see them too. Maddison had a blast. . so many people to play with. We ended up eating (black eyed peas, pig, and greens of course. . lol) and then sitting at the table and talking until like 2am. . ha ha. . I am sure they were glad to see us go. But it was a lot of fun.
**We spent all day Saturday and Sunday out at Nanny's house getting lots of things done for her. I knew she has a to do list a million miles long and she isn't able to do most of the stuff on it herself. . so while I had Brandon with me I wanted to get out there and get them done for her. My mom, stepdad, aunt and uncle also came and helped out tremendously. We didn't get as much done as I had hoped but we got the main things done. We organized her entire garage, organized and deep cleaned the entire kitchen, and moved my little brother out. (FINALLY!!) They guys got the yard raked, 3 motion lights hung outside, her garden lights installed, her door locks changed so the brother can't get back in, and lots of other little things done. She was so grateful, but I am just so happy that we got some of it done for her. . there are a few other things that still need to be done, but mom says she is going to go do them as she can.
**The rest of the trip was good. Unfortunately Brandon's grandmother got put in the hospital right after we got there, after a few misdiagnoses they finally figured out she needed her gallbladder removed. She is home now and seems to be doing great.

I think that is about all of the highlights of the trip. . lol. Maddison got tons more Christmas presents. . yay. . ha ha.

It is good to be home, but I do miss everyone. I hate that we can't see them more often. I am not feeling very well today. . I seriously hope I am not getting sick. I wasn't feeling well on the trip home yesterday either. . I even took a nap in the car which is not like me at all. Last night was awful. . I didn't sleep hardly any. But I don't have time to get sick. . lol. I have to unpack today and then start getting all of this Christmas down!! I don't want to look at it anymore!!! And my hubby is not going to be able to help with any of it! GRRRR!! He has to work all day today and then he has watch tonight from 2400-0800. Then he will have to work again tomorrow. .because his lovely LPO is not allowing comp time. . nice. Anyway that is a rant for another day.

Merry Christmas!!!

Well, my Christmas is getting better organized, thank the lord. I have gotten everything finished or figured out. All the gifts are bought, and wrapped!! Most are under the tree. (The only ones that aren't are the ones that Santa is bringing tonight.) I got a lot of cooking done today. The rest will be finished tomorrow (Just finger foods). I am excited, and relaxed which is nice. Christmas used to be so hectic when we went back to Alabama. It was rush rush rush, we had 3 places to be on Christmas Eve and count them, 5, places to be on Christmas day. Needless to say we were always exhausted which in turn made us pissy. . and we usually spent the day arguing. Last year we decided that we were not going to take the first leave period so we would just stay here for Christmas. It was so nice. Christmas Eve we spent at the beach, and Christmas morning we got up and let Maddie open and play with her toys, while I cooked Christmas dinner. Then we had friends over and we just ate, hung out, and relaxed. It is going to be pretty much the same this year. Today I got all of the food that could be made in advance finished. . we got the house cleaned really well, and now we are relaxing. We are going to go bake cookies for Santa in a few minutes and then after that we will chill out, maybe play a little Wii. Tomorrow should be nice as well. Maddison can do as she wishes and we will have finger foods all day and we have told our friends that they can come and go as they please. . nothing formal.

My dad will be here around the 27th, so we will spend a couple of days with them and then on the 30th we are off to Bama to see everyone else. This should be a good holiday!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas!!!!

My disorganized Christmas. . .

I feel like I am so behind this year. I still haven't finished all of my shopping. I am almost finished, but I need to get my sisters gift. . which I think will just be a gift card, because I have no idea what else to get her. I think we have enough stuff for Maddie, I am going to drag it all out tonight after she goes to sleep and start wrapping and seeing what all we have. Hopefully it is enough and we won't have to get anything else. I still do need to get a few stocking stuffers though. This is the first year that I have not sent out Christmas cards. I usually have them made by around thanksgiving and then have them sent out the first week of December, but it has been so crazy this year that I have not had a chance. So, sorry guys, no cards this year. lol.

I had the perfect gift idea for my friends, but I went to Michael's yesterday to get the stuff to make them, and they didn't have half the crap I needed. . grr. . i should have gotten it at Hobby Lobby when I had the chance. . but no. . I couldn't make up my mind then. So blah. Everyone's stuff is going to be late. . lol. . I am just going to extend the holiday for everyone this year.

This year, I ordered most everyone's gifts from my Cafepress Shop. Not only because we were on a budget, but I like giving people personalized gifts. But to top it off. . I am not finished yet.. lol. . I still have a calendar, a framed print, and a mousepad to make. Hopefully I will be able to finish those tonight and get them ordered. I dunno when they will get here. I ordered some stuff last week and had it shipped to my mom's house. . and it got there 2 days after I ordered it and I used the economy shipping. So maybe it will get here quickly. If not, oh well, ha ha.

Today we have to go to the commissary also, and I haven't decided what we are going to do for Christmas yet. I usually do dinner here on Christmas day, and invite our friends that didn't go out of town, and the single guys from the squadron. But I was thinking this year that instead of dinner I would do a "finger food buffet" type of thing on Christmas Eve. Kind of like we used to do every year at my dear Aunt Margret's house for as long as I can remember. I dunno, and I still haven't even really talked to any of our friends about it yet.. lol. So we may have nobody this year. GRR. . I hate being so unorganized. My month has just taken a lot of turns that I did not expect it to take. But even though it has been crazy busy, it has been a lot of fun too.

Oh yeah, Brandon is home from Fallon now, he got home Friday night. It is good to have him back, even though he was only gone for 3 weeks. . lol.

Anyway, I know this is a lot of rambling, I am just having a lot of scattered thoughts about all the stuff I have to do, and writing about it is helping me organize my thoughts. But now, I need to get off here and head to the commissary, and do some more running around. Hope everyone else is having a better organized Christmas than I am. . lol.

Ho, Ho, Hoe

So Friday night was the command Christmas party. It was okay. . nice to get out and go to an "adult" function without kids! There was food, (which was good, but cold) dancing (which at some points was very entertaining. . lol), door prizes (which seemed to be rigged.. of course), awards ceremony (which was mostly BS), and lots of drunken sailors (which was friggin hilarious for the most part).

Brandon's former LPO was drunk off his ass and hitting on me all night. . trying to get me to "go home with him", which is hilarious in itself considering that he lives in the barracks. He is married and his wife lives in a different state, lol. He is not the kind of person that would ever cheat on his wife, so that is what made it all okay and funny. I played along for a while and then it just got annoying. . so we convinced him to go find another chick. We told the photographer to follow him around because we knew he would end up doing something stupid. By the end of the night he had his picture taken with most every woman there and every single one of them was trying to run away in the pic. . lol. . he called one of the female senior cheif's a lezbo to her face. .and almost got punched out by one of our other friends. . fun times!

I walked out the door and forgot my camera. . which sucks. . but the command had hired a photographer to walk around all night. . so if they ever get the pics posted on their website I will share some. There are quite a few hilarious ones that he showed me throughout the night. . (some including my dumb hubby).

The skipper did not hand out promotions or mention them at all. . so we are not sure what is going on with that. .I guess we will just have to wait and see. Hopefully he will do them.

We decided to blow the joint about an hour early because most ppl were heading out anyway to go to after parties.. we had to go pick up the kid from the cdc so we couldn't go anywhere else. We did win a Poinsettia and a game of golf for 2, so that was cool. . but as we were about to leave an officer walked up and just took my poinsettia off the table right in front of me and walked off with it. Brandon had to chase him down and tell him to give it back. . and he didn't want to. I thought I was about to have to go psycho bitch on an O. Luckily he finally relented and gave it back. . dumbass.

All in all the night was good. . it was decorated lovely and held at the newest hotel in town. . everyone had a good time. . even though I am sure some didn't remember it the next day!

Where has the time gone??

I was cleaning out some old pics and stuff from my photo hosting site that I use when I stumbled across 3 videos that I had taken of Maddison when she was 8 and 9 months old! I sat here and bawled like a baby when I watched them. One is of her taking some of her first steps. You can see it HERE. She is so little!! Then one is of her in her little Asian dress that we had just gotten in the mail that day from daddy. He picked it up for her while he was in Korea. See HERE. And the last one is just of her sitting in her highchair eating. Nothing special, but I am so glad I got it on video now. You forget how cute they are when they are doing something as simple as eating. It is not all that cute at the time because you are so tired, busy, etc. . so you just don't really appreciate it as much. See it HERE.

I just thought I would share. I am in amazement to this day that this little girl is actually mine and what an amazing kid she really is. I just cannot believe how fast the years are flying by. You hear it all your life from older people, but it really is true. I blinked and now she is 3.

Happy Veteran's Day!!

I just wanted to take a quick moment to wish everyone a Happy Veteran's Day and to say Thank You.

Thank you to all of our former, current,and future servicemembers. Thank you for your sacrifices. Thank you for your bravery. Thank you. I am so very honored to be associated with such a wonderful and amazing group of individuals. It has been life changing and eye opening and I am forever grateful. I love you all so very much!

Simply Breathtaking. . .

Brandon and I took Maddie to see Disney's Mickey & Minnie's Amazing Journey on Ice Saturday night down in Savannah. It was amazing. We have been to several of these shows, but this was by far the absolute best! The skating was phenomenal. The story was great. The transitions between acts were seamless. The costumes just amazing. Special effects were over the top.

It starts as Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, & Goofy decide to take a vacation.


They travel to Africa. (This is the Lion King Scene) Here are a few photos.




After leaving africa they take a trip to the bottom of the sea. (The Little Mermaid) This was Maddison's absolute favorite part! She was literally trembling with excitement as Aerial came out! It was so worth the money for the tickets!!!





Next they went to Hawaii. (Lilo and Stitch)
This was really cute as well!




Next we are off to London to Visit Peter Pan! This was so great! Maddison freaked over Tinker Bell. And they all actually flew!







And for the Final Act everyone came out and did a couple of songs! I highly recommend this show to anyone! I hope that we get a chance to see it again one day. We all 3 thoroughly enjoyed ourselves!!

I do Love my Country.

I love this country so much it hurts. I am so blessed to be born into such a wonderful place. A place of freedoms and opportunities. A place of free speech which I am about to exercise. If you don't like my opinion that is fine with me. You are entitled to your own, which is another great thing about this place. So here goes. .

Yesterday Barack Obama was elected the first black president of the United States of America. I think it is so wonderful that America was able to prove that you don't have to be born a millionaire, a white male, or to a political family to become the leader of this great nation. But, I think that we chose the wrong man to break that stereotype. I am disappointed in the American voters. For the ones that went out with an informed decision on their candidate, kudos to you. But for the rest of the millions that did not, I am so very worried for you. I would be gracious and concede victory if I felt like America made this huge decision with an informed mind. But that is not the case. I am devastated. Not because McCain lost, but because this country has gone to shit. When you have interviews proving that people are voting not on issues, but on race, we have a problem.

THIS POST says pretty much exactly how I feel. . so I am not going to retype it.

Anyway, I could go on for days about this. But I am choosing not to. The people I am closest to know how I feel, and 99% of them feel exactly the same way. I just felt like I should share, and say . . IT IS NOT MY FAULT!!!!!

Wooo Hoooo!!!!

I found out last night that they are REALLY putting Brandon on days!!! yay! He will start this coming Monday. This will be the first time in like 4 years that he has been on days! It is going to be a huge adjustment for us since it has been so long, but I am up for the challenge. I am really hoping that this will help me get Maddison into a better bedtime routine. Lord knows she needs it! I am just really excited. And I guess if for some reason it doesn't work out that we like it, then he can get switched back, because the higher ups are not happy that he is getting changed anyway. . lol. They don't like working with the guy that he is switching with. Anyway, yay good news for us. I am just going to have to reschedule my days now, which is going to be interesting. It sucks that they waited this long to do it though. Because he will be leaving right after Thanksgiving to go on DET until just a few days before Christmas. And then in January they go out to sea for a while. . and they have a DET scheduled for every month after that until deployment in July. Hopefully he won't have to go on all of them.. but I am not holding my breath. He always has to go. The Navy hates us for some reason. . lol.

I am also biting my fingernails about this election today. I am concerned. I was very confident that Bush would be reelected and he was.. . but I am not feeling so confident this time. There are too many people out there not making very informed decisions and voting on race and not the issues. Well, there is nothing more I can do. I voted. I have campaigned the best I can, now I sit back and wait. Lets hope the country makes the right decision so 4 years from now others are not regretting theirs. But in the mean time I will be glued to the TV this afternoon as polls start closing!! And if you read this and have not.. . . GO VOTE!!!! It doesn't matter what you believe or who you are voting for, just get out there and exercise your right! If you don't. . . don't bitch for the next 4 years!

Say Bye Bye. . .

To the Working white uniform. . lol. Brandon had watch tonight from 1600-2400, which is the last watch of the day. Tonight at midnight they switch over to the winter blue uniforms. Which means that he is officially the last person in the command to wear the summer white. Next year it will be decommissioned. They are getting rid of that uniform, the working blue, and the utilities. These 3 uniforms will be replaced by 2 new ones. The dress whites are also getting a makeover and will look different by 2010. I dunno, being all nostalgic I thought I would post pics of him and Maddie in his whites for the last time ha ha. . yeah I'm a dork.