Driving Across America..well, John drove.

This has taken me forever to write for a multitude of reasons...laziness, adjusting, moving, sleeping, grumpy kids, sickness, and playing at the beach...Either way...here it is! Better late than never!

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So we have finally completed our little adventure! Only to begin another one, here in beautiful Hawaii!

We began this little adventure of ours in North Carolina. From North Carolina, we drove all the way to Sacramento, California. John and I decided to leave the night before our original departure day. We loaded up the trailer, the car, and the girls and we were on our way! When it started getting late, I crawled into the back seat next to the girls and lay down to sleep. We loaded everything into the trailer so the trunk was completely open and most of the seats were folded down. I was able to lay down and stretch out without a problem!

John was a champion and drove all night long. He woke me up at about 6am so he could get some rest. He had driven all the way to Nashville, TN. Originally, we were going to stay and spend a day touring Nashville, but, when we arrive, we took a look around and decided to press forward to St Louis, MO. I picked up the driving while John rested his head. I’m not too sure he slept, but he got to close his eyes for a bit.

We arrived in St Louis and spent the rest of the day at the Magic House, a children’s discovery museum. This is by far the best children’s museum I have ever stepped foot in. The girls had way too much fun…and, honestly, we did too! This is a MUST if you are going to St Louis with kids. That night was the first of many awesome dinner selections (by yours truly). We went into the city and ate at a little dive restaurant called Sauce on the Side.  It was decorated with the classic chalkboard feel, which I loved. It turned out to be delicious. Freshly made-to-order Calzones! Also a MUST if traveling through the area.

The next morning we packed up and headed out.  On the way out we made a quick last minute decision to stop by the Gateway Arch. Now, obviously, if you are going to St Louis, you have to stop at this. But, as it was, both John and I had already been there and stopped at it. But, in the end, we decided that we wanted to go see it with each other and create that memory with us as a family. This turned out to be a really good idea and also a really COLD idea. St Louis was by far the coldest place we visited on our trip. We parked the car and trailer and jumped out to load the girls into the stroller. It was 27 degrees out and none of us were prepared for cold weather. So, we sprinted down to the Gateway Arch, snapped a couple family photos, and headed back to the car! Let’s put a CHECK in that box!

From St Louis, we headed to Kansas City to meet up with HS friend of mine, Danyle, and her husband and son.  I picked out another restaurant called Fiorella’s Jack Stack BBQ. It had some pretty good reviews, but driving through the city area to get to it, you wouldn’t have guessed. As we wandered around the city trying to find it, John looks at me suspiciously, thinking I had picked a restaurant in the ghetto! I think that just may be from neither of us being used to the city. Either way, we arrived at Steak House, and, to our surprise, the place was gorgeous! It was huge inside and decorated beautifully with large cathedral ceilings. It had an upscale log cabin feel to it. It turned out to be a bit on the expensive side. But, it was delicious, and so worth it! Especially the time we got to spend with Danyle and her little family! We spent that night at their house and headed out the next morning to Colorado Springs.

Let’s just say that I don’t think I will ever elect to drive through Kansas again, if given the choice. It was awful. A whole lot of nothing! It was flat and brown and really windy. Thankfully, John being the amazing man he was, battled the back and forth of the trailer the whole way. I picked out a couple sights along the way which turned out to be complete busts. The first was to see the world’s largest gopher. I think it was supposed to be a wood carving. We got to the location and John so wonderfully pointed out, “This looks like a trailer park that was hit by a tornado.” Honestly, it probably was. The next was a litte café in some obscure town along Hwy 70. The town was quiet and desolate.  We arrived at the café, and sure enough, it was boarded up and closed, its sign blowing furiously in the wind. It was a bit creepy, kind of like a scene in a horror flick right before the serial killer pops out. We resorted to eating at a truck stop that happened to have Quiznos. I, personally, really like Quiznos; however, this was the worst Quiznos I had ever been to. The lady helping me literally sighed and rolled her eyes as I ordered my simple Caesar wrap. She reluctantly reached for each ingredient and ended up piling the wrap so high that she didn’t even bother wrapping it up. And it was disgusting.  John gently reminded me that we weren’t allowed to have a bad experience on the trip as I stared regrettably at my meal that I didn’t end up eating. Well, there goes $18.

We continued on through Kansas until we noticed a bunch of flashing lights ahead of us. They closed the freeway! John pulled off angrily because, of course, we didn’t plan on staying in some random town in Kansas. It turns out that they closed the freeway due to high winds upwards of 70mph. That didn’t stop John; he wandered around some back roads (which led to us seeing the world’s largest easel…sweet!)  Eventually, he found an exit back onto 70. He drove, battling the high winds, for quite some time. It was another creepy scene since we were literally the ONLY people on the freeway. We got low on gas and exited to fill up. As we pulled off, we saw a line of cops blocking the entrance back onto the freeway. Damn it. If only we didn’t need gas. We thought for sure we would be stuck, again, but thankfully the cops left shortly after we arrived. The freeway had opened back up!

I can’t remember how much longer it was before we got to Colorado Springs, but it was early enough to grab some dinner! I picked out a place called Shuga’s. It turned out to be kind of a bar since it was so late. So it was a little odd having the babies there. But the food was outstanding!  We got up the next and went to the Garden of the Gods. It was so gorgeous! I spend a lot of time standing up through the sunroof taking photos. I wanted to capture everything! But, honestly, eventually all my pictures looked the same. A bunch of rocks. And they didn’t do the actual landscape any justice. It was an amazing natural wonder, though. A must. The we went to a tattoo parlor called Pens and Needles where John had his wedding ring tattooed on in the form of a Celtic cross (fitting since John’s heritage is Scottish). It turned out really nice and he is so glad to not have the ring on anymore. It is always bothering him at work, driving, and whenever the weather changes and his fingers swell or get smaller. Anyway, I wear it now, around my thumb!

We were going to try and see more in the area, but we decided to press on to our next stop, Cortez, CO! A very obscure little town, but it got us close enough to go see Four Corners Monument in the morning; about a 2 min stop, by the way! All that driving in the desert for us to get out and step on the little circle in the middle. John steps on it and says, “Okay, I’m done. We can go!” He had been looking forward to checking off “Be in four places at once” from his bucket list.

From Four Corners, we drove to the Grand Canyon. We ended up entering the part through the East entrance (I RECOMMEND DOING THIS IF YOU ARE TRAVELING EAST TO WEST!). This made things easy because we stopped at each viewpoint and then reached the visitors center which we didn’t really care to drag the kids into. It took all of maybe two hours to get through it. We were supposed to stay the night there, but for $250+ a night, we kept driving to Barstow.

“I ain’t ever going back to Barstow.” John kept quoting. Apparently its from one of the 2Fast2Furious movies…either way. We went! We mainly went to go to the McDonald’s at Barstow Station which was supposedly very cool to see. It was pretty interesting, it was a little shopping area and McDonalds was made from the inside of boxcars; pretty neat. We were going to grab something from there, even though we avoided fast food the entire trip. Thankfully, the line was too long and we decided to leave.

From Barstow, we drove through the nothingness of southern California, got gas for an astounding $4.69/gallon (yikes!), and stopping in Leemore. I think this was near Fresno, so I don’t need to elaborate on the smell…yuck! We stayed at NAS Leemore with friends of ours dating back to our time in England! We had a great time catching up and meeting their son who was about the girls’ age!

The next morning we took off on our final leg! Off to Sacramento! It was another boring drive, but we redeemed it by finishing up our Podcast Series, “The Peasant Princess”. We got into Sacramento at a pretty decent time and finally laid our heads down, after a 7 day road trip, for a decent nights’ sleep…

Road Trip Activities for Toddlers

So, we are planning a 9 day cross country trip from NC to CA with myself, my husband, and my two little girls who are 1yr and 2yrs old. Sounds fun, right? Thankfully, the girls are good little travelers and I have planed the trip with lots of activities and stops that should entertain the babes.   I have confidence that it will go well. But, you never can be TOO prepared, right? Right? RIGHT? Right. 

So, I decided to start the search for good road trip activities. I realized that most things I found were not really geared towards the early-toddler aged kids (maybe because we are the only crazy parents willing to try a road trip with this young of kids). 

Anyway, I compiled some of my favorite ideas along with some of my own. They are super easy to make! They do take a little bit of time, but not much. Maybe two evenings sitting in front of the TV drinking wine...yeah, that should be enough time. :)

Here it is:

-The Box I originally started storing everything in an accordion folder. That didn't work out all that well because it was a bit to small (even though it was one of those monster folders!). So, my husband made a Wal*Mart run and bought me this. He is estimating that it cost him about $20...maybe $25.

-Supplies I filled the top with Crayons, Sticky Notes, a Sharpie, a whiteboard marker (white board inside) and Kleenex to wipe the board off...after all, who likes using their hands? All that blank gunk? Yuck.

-File Folders Inside, I used filing folders which I already had. I used sticky notes to create "Tabs"

-Flash Cards These are leap frog flash cards. They are the kind that you can use with the little green dog (whats his name? Scout? That's it)  I didn't want to bring the dog, it takes up to much space. So we just brought the flash cards.

-ABC/123 These are foam letters that I made. You can buy adhesive, pre-cut letters at Wal*Mart (or any craft store). I took the letters and stuck them to a piece of flat black foam board and cut around them. Then, I took adhesive magnets strips, cut them to size, and stuck them to the back. Voila! (The metal cookware is from the Dollar Tree)

-Pipe Cleaners from the Dollar Store. I don't recommend cutting them at all. The little wires poke out. Not good for the little ones.

-Books Books I already had. Little ones with pretty colors and fun pictures.

-Stickers These are stickers from the Dollar Tree. We kind of went all out and a little crazy, but oh well. I stuck them to foam board of various colors, cut them out, and stuck a magnet to the back. I separated sticker sets so I could keep the variety and not overwhelm the little ones with too many themes at once.

-String Shapes I cut of these shapes from foam board and used a single hole-punch to punch holes all around the shape. We got shoe string at the Dollar Tree, but John got excited when he saw the colorful fuzzy string and thought it may be more interesting for the girls to use as opposed to shoe string.

-Popsicle Sticks We got these colorful popsicle sticks at the Dollar Tree. Again- stuck on magnets and Voila!

-Fishing These were a bit of an adventure to make! We were limited on supplies since the packers are in the middle of boxing our stuff. I cute out these little fishies from foam board and labeled them 1-10 (not necessary, of course...but how much of this post is ACTUALLY necessary?!) Then, I found a straw in our bare cupboards, used some left over 550 cord (string will work fine, I just didn't have much available). I strung the string through the straw and tied a knot at the end to keep it in place. On the other end, I used Krazy Glue to glue the cord to a larger magnet. Each fish has small metal clips on them (my husband bought them at Wal*Mart, I think they were in the jewelry making section). I learned that you cannot use a magnet for the fish because they will stick to the pan and the game will be pointless. Sounds obvious, I know, but I still tried it.

-Balloons and Buggies Dollar Tree goodies. Little Balloon something-or-others. John got them. I wouldn't recommend them for toddlers because the solution is toxic. But, adult supervised would be fine. And we also have puff balls! Adrianna calls these "buggies".

-Coloring White board and coloring book.

-Necklaces The girls love these. We used to have some purple ones that they wouldn't go anywhere without.

-Glow Sticks These are the best! Got these from the Dollar Tree also! We cleared the rack. The girls call these "glows" and they adore them! Plenty for the trip.

Our DITY Move...partially...

As many of you already know, we are PCSing from Ft Bragg NC to Camp Smith HI. This time around, I was very involved (as much as I could be) in the planning process. We will be driving our POV + U-HAUL from NC to CA and we will be shipping our car out of Richmond. We are storing the contents of our U-HAUL in CA. You CAN ship your POV from a location other than the nearest shipping facility ONLY if an alternate location is fiscally beneficial for the DoD. Here is a list of shipping locations and a few fun rules!

Entitlements? Who wants to know about those?! Everyone. So here they are:

DLA: aka Dislocation Allowance. You get this if you are going without your own household goods. It is meant to partially cover expenses incurred during your move. Chances are, you are eligible. How much do you get? Here are the DLA Rates (effective 01 January 2014).

TLE: aka Temporary Lodging Expense. You get this on your way out. You are entitled 10 days if you are moving CONUS to CONUS and 5 days if you are moving CONUS to OCONUS. Why is there a difference? I don't know. Although I don't have actual regulation to back this up, I don't believe you will get per diem (for meals) while you are in TLE because you are still receiving BAS aka Basic Allowance for Subtenance.

TLA: aka Temporary Lodging Allowance. This is only applicable if you are incoming to an OCONUS location. First, you are required to seek on base lodging. If you cannot, you have to get a letter of Non-Availability from the lodging facility you attempted to reserve. In this case, you can pick where you want to stay. Be sure to confirm that your stay of choice is an approved location. You can get TLA for up to 60 days. In our case, we are waiting for base housing. I am under the impression we will be waiting well over 60 days to get a house. So, what do we do? We find a place to live in the mean time. Speak with the housing office at your incoming location. They will be able to confirm for you that, as long as you REMAIN on the waiting list, the government will pay to move you BACK on base once you are offered a house. This is awesome news! Still a pain in the ass. But, in the military, what ISN'T a pain in the ass?

DITY Incentive: aka Do It Yourself (Personally Procured Move - PPM). You get an odd amount of money depending on how many pounds you are "doing yourself". The Travel Office will handle the details for the DITY move (NOT FINANCE)..it gets confusing..But, the travel office will be able to approve you for a certain amount of weight and will then give you the amount of your incentive pay. I don't know the exact estimate, but it comes out to about a little less than $1 per 1 lb.

A big issue we had...PER DIEM! Everyone loves per diem! I get WHAT? Plus WHAT? Plus WHAT? YES! As it turns out, we don't get that. Here is the problem. The DoD will only purchase you a plane ticket from your location to your destination. You don't get to choose the departing location. You CAN change your tickets, but it will cost about $36 per ticket to change. We changed our flight to depart from CA (rather than NC). So, we thought, HEY! We're En Route when we drive to CA! Its the right direction! Right? ..Right!?...RIGHT!??! ...Wrong. Apparently, since we are doing a DITY move, we are not eligible for Per Diem. Only Incentive Pay. It turned out to be about a $1000 difference (loss on our part). Damnit.

If you really want to get to the nitty-gritty check out the Joint Travel Regulations (I did, and although it was boring as all-get-out, it was worth it).

The GOOD NEWS? Hooray! I love good news! Doing the budget for our trip and comparing it to our expenses (Yes, I'm a nerd. I have an excel AND a powerpoint AND a custom google map) we actually come out on top. Quite a bit. So, I'm happy with it :)

Post regarding travel plans SOON!

And, HEY...share this with your military friends. This is all information that I wish I had so easily at my fingertips. A lot of times, the problem is that people just don't know where to look or who to ask...

Oh, ALSO! U-HAUL isn't as expensive as I though. For our weight requirement, it was a little over $300 for 9 days! woo hoo!

If you like delicious things...

You will definitely LOVE this...

When I was in High School, I worked for a Nestle Tollhouse franchise for about 5 seconds (okay, like a few weeks). They used to make the most delicious cookie bars and would overprice them...for a good reason. I don't know what they were called, but I remember making a mental note of how I was making them. I'm sure the recipe isn't exact, but it works and it is delicious! This is usually a Christmas time treat :)

I am going to go ahead and name them... Sugar Cookie Cups +Plus ..plus...plus.

Ingredients:
1/2 normal size package of chocolate chips
1/2 normal size package of butterscotch chips
1 package (24) Pillsbury sugar cookie pucks
Some sort of caramel candy that you can melt
Milk (I think the original recipe used creamer)

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to cooking instructions on sugar cookie pack (probably 350F)
2. Separate sugar cookie cups and place each one in a MUFFIN tin
3. Place cookies in oven and cook approx 3 min short of normal cookie instructions
4. While cookies are in the oven, mix chocolate and butterscotch chips
5. Pull cookies out when your timer goes of and portion out chips on each cookie (probably around 1 T of chips per cookie)
6. Put cookies back in oven and continue cooking to full amount indicated on the original instructions.
7. White cookies finish cooking, melt caramel **To do this, I used a double boiler and added 1T of milk at a time until the mix was smooth enough to drizzle. Use your own judgement, but I wouldn't advise adding more than 1T of milk at a time. Caramel takes awhile to melt, at least in a double boiler, so plan accordingly**
8. When cookies are done and caramel is ready, drizzle desired amount of caramel on each cookie cup.
9. Allow to cool and enjoy!

Caramel

Cookie Pucks in Muffin Tins

Chips!

Finished Project

Oh So Yummy!!

Adrianna likes them :)

Love is...

Patient.

Really? To me, that is bad news. This is not good. I am FAR from patient. But, I DO love my kids, my husband...etc etc.

I created this little piece of artwork, framed it, and set it in our bathroom. "Love is patient", it says. I told him that I think it would be a cute idea to go through the list in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8, starting from the beginning. We would work together focused heavily on each trait. Then, once we both feel that the other has improved a great deal, I would create artwork for the next trait and frame it..so on and so forth!

Well, its been sitting on our counter for about a year now. And let's just be honest, I don't think it is ever going to come down. I think we are stuck at "patient. What the heck?! Why am I so bad at being patient? That seemed to take too long to answer. So, I think in order to answer that question, I have to "know my enemy"...what makes me IMPATIENT...? Well, that is much MUCH easier question to answer. Pride. Selfishness. Greed. Laziness...Oh My Gosh. The list goes on.

So, how discouraging is this? I am getting the feeling that some people are gonna read this and think, "Uhm, this doesn't apply to me! I love my husband/kids/insert-important-person-here no matter what, without fail, ALL.THE.TIME....I'm gonna call your BS. I'm sorry. Good luck with that, seriously. We are selfish and self-centered human beings. I honestly believe we really aren't capable of perfect love for that very reason. We are in love with ourselves more than anything. Even if we wish we weren't. Even if we don't think we are. Even if we try really-super-ubber-duper hard not to be. We fail...

Ohmigosh, Liz, this is depressing and kind of mean...

Okay okay. THERE IS GOOD NEWS! :) (Oh really...??)

This reminds me of a sermon I heard at Living Stones in Reno. They talked about Jesus (of course!) and His perfect love for us. He loved us perfectly and sacrificed His life so that if we loved Him, our "trying" would be enough. He knew we couldn't be perfect, but thankfully, Jesus redeemed us and has forgiven us for being imperfect. (*phew!*)

In addition to this, in the sermon, they talked about viewing others through a filter. We will call it our "Jesus Filter". Jesus loved us despite our imperfections. And he loved us perfectly...So what I am thinking is that, if we make a habit of viewing others through our "Jesus Lens", that we will be MUCH better equipped to Love the way we are intended to Love. Although, we know we will never be perfect, it is a huge relief that there is some ounce of hope.

And THAT, my friends is very, very, very

GOOD NEWS!

1 Corinthians 13:4-8

Love is patient, 

love is kind. 

It does not envy, 

it does not boast, 

it is not proud. 

It does not dishonor others, 

it is not self-seeking, 

it is not easily angered, 

it keeps no record of wrongs. 

Love does not delight in evil 

but rejoices with the truth. 

It always protects, 

always trusts, 

always hopes, 

always perseveres.

Love never fails.

Behind the Glass

As I have done probably hundreds of times, I went in to shower and brought the girls with me. I set them on the floor where I could supervise them throughout the duration of my shower. I made this one quick, but when I shut of the water, I decided not to come out. I leaned my back up against the glass and slid down. There I sat. I pressed my face up against the glass and just sat there. There they were. Babies under the age of 2. Playing with the toys I had set out for them, slapping their hands against the tub and toilet, climbing on top of the toilet and climbing in and out of the bath tub. They took equal turns coming to visit me. They pressed their faces up to mine and slapped the glass next to me. I stayed put. They couldn't get me. In that moment, I couldn't decide who was the animal in the glass cage... Me? Or them?

I stayed.

It wasn't until the girls started playing peek-a-book with my robe, which was looped on a precariously hung hook on the back on my door, that I beckoned the girls to calm down.

Adrianna immediately came over to the glass where I sat, opened her arms wide and hugged as much of the glass as she could as she cooed, "awwww..."

I got out.

Being Married to a Married Man

Ugh...this is a little venting I think, so it isn't as tactful or sympathetic as it probably should be.. But, its true, regardless...

What to expect as a military wife...Things I have learned.

I started out this journey 2 years ago thinking, "Well, this shouldn't be too hard! I AM in the military, so I understand what his obligations are." I realized how wrong I was. I realized that I signed up for something much MUCH bigger than I ever could have imagined...

1. Where will we live?
The question that all military wives will ask themselves every three years (give or take). Where are we going to live? Are we going to live on base? Are we going to rent? Are we going to buy (DON'T DO IT)? What neighborhood should we live in? What will we do for childcare. Will I be able to find a job in MY career field?

As a military wife, I am learning that this is NO planning for myself. At least no long term. No, I can't have a career. No, I can't open a business. At least not one with a store front. No, you won't ever find a promotable job because you will have to leave any job you find within 3 years. Well, what the HELL am I supposed to do, then?

Will we have a washer and dryer? A refrigerator? If we take ours, will they fit? Will the girls have to share a room? How much of our stuff are we going to have to sell? Will our neighbors be loud? Will they be obnoxious? Will they have unruly children? Is our house going to be adjoined? Will we have to listen to you-know-what every night through the bedroom walls?

The answer seems to always end up with--SUCK IT UP. Stay at home. Raise the kids. Clean house. Do laundry. Clean the kitchen. Un pack. Re arrange. Make dinner. Make breakfast. Make lunch. Watch every freaking TV show there is to watch. Find busy work and hobbies just for the hell of it. KEEP BUSY. STAY STRONG. BE YOUR OWN. BE INDEPENDENT.

2. Be Independent
Now, when someone figures this out, let me know. Shocking, eh? Liz? Dependant? Never...True story folks. I have always been my own. Independent little fire cracker. I did whatever I wanted without any fear of failure. After all, why would I fail? I was capable of anything! Now? ...I lose it simply when he forgets to tell me that he won't be home for dinner or when he is "too busy" too call me or text me throughout his day. Seriously? Am I really THAT girl, now? How sad is this? There used to be a day when I could care less. I had my own things going on and whatever "he" was doing was so inconsequential. But, not anymore.

Sometimes I feel guilty and THIS is why--I find myself WISHING he would just go away. Be HERE. Or be GONE. Don't be in the middle. Don't be wishy-washy. Don't "sometimes come home" and "sometimes show up for dinner" and "sometimes have to go in on the weekend" and "sometimes come home, sleep, and go back that same night". DONT BE IN THE MIDDLE. Don't be unpredictable. Be here. Or GO THE HELL AWAY. It is much easier when I KNOW he isn't going to come home for awhile. When I am SURE that I am on my own. When I know that I am going to be on my own and alone. I can get over it then. Because THEN I have no choice. It is what it is. The Army took him and I am on my own....I can deal with that. I can cope with that. I can adjust. And I am good at it. But this unpredictable in the middle BULLSH*T....I can't do.

3. Don't assume that you come first
Because, lets be honest. You don't. Not that he doesn't WANT to put you first. Its just that he CAN'T. The military (army, in my case), doesn't allow for that to happen. There are rules. Regulations. Lawful Orders. You can't escape them, and they aren't as lenient as regular civilian fair and ethical working laws. These rules and regulations allow for a MUCH more demanding work life than any civilian job I have ever seen. I will tell you now, he doesn't get paid NEARLY enough for the amount of work that he puts in. And its not just him, its most of these poor guys that never see their families, that bring their work home with them, that deploy overseas.

4. You married a married man
Sorry. You did. I did. We all did. We married a man who is first and foremost dedicated to the military (army).

And that is just the way it is.

You'd think I'd better understand the demands seeing as how I serve as a reservist and have served on active duty....But, I don't. And my heart goes out to all the women who are unfamiliar with the military and have to figure it out from square one. You are strong women. And my hat goes off to the women who have mastered the craft of being a military wife...

...I beg you to tell me your secret...