Home For Awhile..

Chris has landed safely, home from his Korean adventure where he ate food like baby octupus and some other things with tentacles.

He came baring amazing gifts, and we are so happy to have him here. particularly since we had a ridiculous wind storm last night that would have scared the beejeezus out of me. Instead I slept blissfully wrapped up in his arms, not worried about a thing.

He is off again in a few weeks, and that's strange to know. I feel bad watching him poke around the house. I know he feels sort of alien to the contents of it and to our routines, and I want him to feel like he is home, and not just at a temporary stop. It's hard though, when we had almost just moved in. I think he knows though, that home is where his family is.

And I hope to solidify that next week when we go to cut our Christmas tree down. I couldn't be more excited to do this for my very first time. I absolutely love the ritual of getting out the Christmas boxes and remembering all of our stuff and am thrilled that we get to do this part with him. I feel like he will be with us and our kids at Christmas, even though he physically won't; be here. Putting everything up together gives us the opportunity to start some new traditions in our new home.

Happy Valentine's Day!

So Happy Valentine's Day to everyone, although I am postponing the holiday until Chris gets home. Hah!

Jessica and I went to Harry's Seafood Bar & Grill last night. We had one of those grown up dinners that start with drinks at the bar and last three hours. It was a wonderful night out without Zoe, and we got to try a lot of new things, plus we met a fabulous bartender who recommended everything we should eat throughout the entire meal and I found an amazing bottle of Chilean red wine! See Beth if you are ever going to the Harry's in Carrollwood.

Zoe got flowers at school from Christopher. She feels so special and keeps bragging about them to anyone who will listen.

I have also been asked to write a military spouse blog for USAA. It's a huge honor, and I am looking forward to sharing my experiences with everyone there so that next time they get a spouse on the line maybe they will have a better idea of what they are going through. The crazy part is that they have hired a professional photographer to come take pictures of me and it is scheduled for two and a half hours! NUTS! I have no idea what to wear! Help!

I DID IT!

So not to pat myself too much on the back or anything, but I just finished my first class! With an A! While going to work full time, taking care of a three year old and having a deployed husband! So not to toot my own horn or anything, but YAY ME!

Alright, enough with the gloating. I have a week off between classes and I am really excited about it. Zoe and I joined the YMCA and I have actually managed to work out 2 of the last 3 days. They do a "parents night out" twice a month, so I get to drop Zoe off to play for three hours from 7 - 10 for only $5.00. And before you go assuming I am going to have an exciting night out, let me tell you - I might get my hair cut and possibly shampoo some bedroom carpets! Hah!

My Aunt Eleanor is in the hospital, but I think she is going to be okay. I am really wishing I could be with my family right now, but it would be hard to juggle there in NJ with a three year old. I might try to make it work soon anyway.

Zoe knows her continents! It's very cool! She is also becoming quite the whiz at adding and subtracting.

We are hoping to get Chris home somewhat soon. We are really, really missing him! I haven't been able to speak to him in a few days and I just can't get used to how that feels.

Happy Valentine's Day! Any exciting plans anyone? I have a hot date with Zoe, some foam Easter projects and some sushi! Hah.

Crunchy Eggs!

Zoe and I have been having a great weekend. She helped me cook eggs yesterday morning, she cracked all the eggs herself! Very impressive.

Today we are going out to buy an elliptical, we have been doing lots of research and Christopher is getting it for me! Whoo! I am so excited. I can't wait to exercise at home after Zoe goes to bed.

I hope everyone has a great super bowl Sunday.

This is how lame I am..

But I am ridiculously excited about the grocery store trip I just had! I saved over $50 in coupons at Albertson's and got some amazing deals. It was definitely a stock-your-freezer kind of trip!

Some of the highlights: \

I got 9 pounds (about 12 steaks) of sirloin steak for $20! They had a coupon for buy 1 - get 2 free! This is going straight in the freezer for when Chris gets home - he will be so excited!

Turkey bacon is the one healthy item I can't sell in my house. Both Chris and Zoe will gladly tolerate whole wheat pasta, multi-grain tortilla chips, whatever but you can not take away their bacon. A compromise - we get center cut (it's a little less fattening). They had a buy one get one sale, so I got six packages of bacon for $15.00!

I had clipped two coupons for wholly guacamole a few weeks ago not sure I would ever use them, because it's pretty expensive, but they had a sale of 2/$4 (about half off). I had coupons of another $1.50 off, so I got two packages of guacamole for $2.50. Wholly guacamole is super natural with no added preservatives, so that was WAY CHEAPER than buying avocados and doing it myself.

I got 5 lbs of groun beef for $8.00. I separated it and put it straight in the freezer.

Philly cream cheese was on sale for 4/$5. I had three .25 cent coupons, so I got them for .99 cents each. I use fat free cream cheese to bulk up everything!

Sargento shredded cheese was buy one get one free! Again, one went straight in the freezer.

There were a few other really exciting deals, but I am sure this is boring enough.

All told, I had get this - $56.93 in COUPONS, and $49.05 in store savings. So a grocery bill that should be beenabout 223 was only $117! And I literally won't have to shop for a month!!!

The very first time I am glad Christopher is gone.

Today during a practice jump at MacDill Air Force base, one of the Special Ops paratroopers somehow got blown off course and ended up underwater. He died later at Tampa General Hospital.

I can't imagine what his friends and family must be going through, my heart really goes out to them.

This has hit entirely too close to home for me. I always worry when Chris has a jump, but I guess the reality of him being hurt has never really hit me. I couldn't stop shaking for about 30 minutes after I read the news article, and I haven't been able to get it out of my head all day. I am just, for the first time ever, so thankful he is deployed right now because he certainly would have been on that jump had he been home today.

Procrastination!

I wish I could remember what circle of Hell that the procrastinators were in Dante's Inferno, but I am too darn lazy to look it up.

My internet time, lately, has been spent on homework and so my blog has been sadly neglected. And I have all kinds of exciting news too. Well, it's not that exciting. But I did make hummus using my food processor. I spent $1.78 making a two months supply that I would have ordinarily spent at least $32.00 on! So exciting!

And I found this fabulously disguting recipe that I would never eat in a million years, but I am going to use it as the big surprise coming home dinner for Chris:

http://www.bbqaddicts.com/blog/recipes/bacon-explosion/

It's like, a bacon weave, with sausage smashed in, and a whole bunch of other disgustingness. But given the fact that he refuses to wake up on weekends unless he can smell bacon, I think he might approve!

I promise to do my best to update more often. We are well, we are both about finished with our current classes, and we each have an "A" thus far. Zoe ate her weight in calamari and gelato tonight, and has parent/teacher conferences in two weeks. That should be interesting!