Alba

So, due to our lovely weather this winter my skin absolutely hates me!  Typically I have very very oily skin and I have to use toners to strip the oil off my face.  I only use a very light moisturizer, typically.  However, this winter my neck started getting super dried out, then it started getting chapped and peeling, gross right.  Well then it started on my face!  First it was just around my nose and ears, no biggy.  I bought a heavier moisturizer and cortisone cream cuz it itched like a MoFo.  Chapping spread to basically all over my face to the point that I could not even wash my face!  So I decided that it was time to change face washes and moisturizers.  The heavy moisturizer just sat on my face, it didn't soak in at all, it was like sunscreen.  So I went online to one of my favorite beauty sites, Ulta.  I've been trying to stick with a lil bit more natural products for my face so I found these  
 and of course while I was shopping I also found these on sale   Maybelline's new Tattoo 24 hr eye shadow.  I love makeup so I knew I would have to get a couple to try them out. I received all my new products last night, yay!  I used the coconut wash and pineapple scrub last night and they made my face feel so soft and hydrated!  Then I put on the moisturizer and holy cow, it just soaks right into your skin and you only have to use a little bit!  This morning I woke up and no peeling or chapped skin on my face!  And my neck is starting to feel better.  I used one of the eyeshadows this morning too so we shall see if it really holds up the full 24 hours, I'm super excited to find out.  I absolutely love face products and makeup and I'm constantly trying out new things.  So, if you're looking for a new face care line, check out Alba, they're pretty reasonably priced and so far so good. And I love Maybelline eye products and the colors are so vibrant so I'm hoping I do not have a reaction to them as my eyes have a tendency to freak out and swell shut with some eye products so we shall see haha

Oh Dreary Day

It is raining, again.  Sunshine please come back, I was enjoying you the last few days...  Why is it raining in January anyways?  Why is it 47 today and going to be 25 Saturday? Don't you know Mother Nature that I hate the cold and rain?  Mother Nature's Response would probably be, well then go move to the damn desert haha  It's been busy at work the past couple of days and then today I have a few moments to actually think before it's back to scanning documents.  All I really want to do though is go home and curl up in bed with my hubs and puppies, ahhh that seems so nice right now....


Speaking of puppies, I attempted to talk my hubs into getting a 4th puppy earlier this week.  I know, sounds crazy, but it'd be another small doggy, specifically an Italian Greyhound.  I have a special place in my heart for lil Italian Greyhounds.  My first puppy that was all my own was one and she was with me when I went through some harder times and when my hubs was off training and what not for the Marines.  A few months before he deployed though she was outside with my hubs and the neighbor dog came running over and she ran off after him and was hit by a car and killed.  I was completely devastated, definitely one of the hardest things I've ever gone through and it still upsets me to think about it.  She was like my baby.  She had issues though, separation anxiety issues and she had them pretty bad after I moved down to Jville with her.  I always felt so guilty because I felt that she was unhappy and that's why her behavior was getting worse (it really was just her and that's how she always was, she did not like sharing me with anyone).  So of course when she died I felt even more guilty and I still feel that guilt to this day so when I see a lil Iggy that someone is trying to find a home for on Craigslist I feel an intense need to adopt them.  That's how we ended up with this lil princess

I mean really, how could you not want to take her home, she's so cute!  Anyways, I found such an Iggy on Craigslist this week and attempted to convince hubs that we needed another one, he did not go for it though.  Probably a good thing considering how much that cute lil girl has already cost us in vet bills since we got her. But I cannot help it!  I think when we move out to where we have land, I will prolly adopt lots of doggies.  I'm pretty sure my husband knows this already and is trying to delay the inevitable as long as possible haha

Dr. 90210

I watch Netflix a lot, especially since the weather has been crappy, and my newest show, Dr. 90210.  It's kind of fun to see all these people getting plastic surgery.  Some of them you're like oh yea you definitely needed it and then others it was like really.  I mean 17 year olds getting boobs.  But anyways, there was one episode that really stood out to me, a 24-year-old Marine wife, mother of 3, getting a breast augmentation and lipo and a tummy tuck, I believe, before her hubs came home from Iraq (these are older episodes).  It was just a really sweet episode.  The doctor that was doing the surgery was a woman and she said that she could not even imagine being 24, having 3 children at home, and her husband deployed and getting such a major surgery done, how strong she was and how she would not be able to go through that if it was her.  The doctor's statement was just very humbling to me because here you have a Beverly Hills plastic surgeon who is calling this woman, a Marine Wife and Mother, strong.  This was somebody who slices people open on a daily basis, it was funny hearing it come from her and very humbling.  I think a lot of people forget how hard it is on the families of our service members.  It's just not the service member that goes through a deployment, it's the whole family.  It was just a really sweet episode to watch and they showed how much more confidence she had afterwards and they showed his homecoming and it was just really sweet to watch.  He of course seemed to really enjoy her new look.

That episode really surprised me because some of these girls are strippers or are in the "Adult" Industry and then you see someone who is so strong and deserving and it was just really nice to see.  After watching this show I can see why women become strippers, they make a shit ton of money, one of them had 3 houses and was only 23!  That's insane!  Anyways, after watching the show, it has scarred me for life from wanting to have kids haha  They can do some scary things to your body.  And after watching it there are a lot of different ways to have a boob job, I myself would not particularly mind it but I think they did say they had to be replaced like every 10 years.  Who has the money for that?  Can't we just get blow up ones where you hook up a tire pump every few years and re-inflate them?  I mean then you have your own flotation device if you fall overboard, just sayin'.

FAM Update

So an update on the Fertility Awareness Method charting that I started doing.  Please refer to this post, Vajayjay, if you are not sure what the heck I'm talking about.  So, I just finished up my first cycle of charting and figured I'd update you on to how well it went.  Let me start off by saying you definitely learn a lot about your body doing it! Getting used to remembering to temp the second you wake up is probably the hardest for me.  I'm so used to either getting up immediately to go to the bathroom or just laying there thinking for forever.  I really like that you can use the website of the book I mentioned to chart on and it's so helpful and makes things so much easier!  Predicting when I was going to ovulate was actually kind of fun, I had a good idea about 2 days ahead of time and when I realized via temping and whatnot that I had, it was like score one for me!  Ok, maybe I'm easily amused but whatevs.  So far my cycle is still too unpredictable and weird from going off the pill to actually use it solely for birth control but once it regulates out and I get the hang of it I think I will feel completely comfortable using it as birth control after I ovulate.  The jury is still out about using it before ovulation, will have to see how well my cycle regulates in a few months.  It's really nice too to be able to pretty well see when you are going to start your lovely period.  The only thing I miss about the pill, you can't manipulate your temping or cycle to have your period when it's more convenient.  I mean really, who wants to start on the weekend, not me.  


Overall though my body feels better being off the pill.  I've gone off a lot of my IBS medications, after I went off the pill they started making me sick which I thought was really strange.  But hey, less medicines, less money in copays, less things I'm putting into my body, better for me.  I really would recommend the book to every woman, even if you have no plans of using it for contraception or getting pregnant, it really does teach you a lot about your body and the more aware of your body you are, the more in-tune you become with your body and the better off you are.  So if anybody has read this book or has been trying the FAM, let me know what you think about it.  It's only been 1 month so I definitely have a lot more to learn and get used to, but so far so good.

Hello 2012

Wow, I cannot believe it's 2012 already!  2011 was a very busy year for us with buying the house and condo and redoing some of the house and the hubs starting school.  I'm hoping that during 2012 we can relax some and enjoy our house and hopefully finish up decorating it.  There's still plenty that needs done this winter to it.  Keeping up a house is almost a full time job haha  Anyways, how was everyone's holidays?  So sad that they are over now and it's back to work and school.  No more time off for awhile, even more sad.  Can you tell I enjoy my vacation time haha  The weather here has definitely turned to winter and it is beyond freezing out!  I will finally get to wear the carhartt overalls my hubs got me before Christmas when I go out to the barn after work.  As excited as I am to finally try them out, I'm not excited that it's 20 degrees outside today and I have to wear them to avoid freezing my tush off!  We even had our first bit of snow yesterday, prolly close to half an inch, but it was nice to watch it coming down.

This weekend I will be taking down all the Christmas decorations.  I'm very sad about this because I love watching the lights on the Christmas tree and it was our very first Christmas tree.  My mom used to always take down our tree on New Year's day, to me that is just too early and even more depressing.  If I could, I would probably leave mine up til February, but I need the space for my new sewing table.  When does everyone else start taking down their decorations?  Do you do it in phases or just all at once?  I'm going to shoot for getting them all down at once.  The SIL is coming over Friday night for a girls night so I figure that will be a good time since we had so much fun putting them all up together while working on our box of wine.  Guess I better get back to work, lots to catch up on...

PS What are your New Year's resolutions?  Mine, to get in touch with old friends that I have lost touch with due to being busy and transitioning from the military life back to civilian life and I guess from being lazy, I miss them!  I've already been in contact with one, my old riding buddy, and got to catch up with her yesterday, so nice!  Also to try new things, like sewing a quilt all by myself (my MIL and SIL helped with the last one) and doing new and fun things with my hubs!  We have plans to hopefully do some more camping this year.

Back to the Grind

Well I'm back to work today, so sad.  I love having time off from work to spend at home with my hubs and puppies!  It's so nice and relaxing, usually haha.  Thankfully I only work today and tomorrow and then I have another 4 day weekend for New Year's.  Yay!  Next week will be brutal with having to work 4 days, I know I'm such a big baby.  Oh how much I wish we lived out in the middle of nowhere where me and the SIL could start our own horse boarding stable.  We could totally kick ass at it!  So how was everyone's Christmas?  Mine was very nice.  We spent most of the holiday with the in-laws and my hubs side of the family.  It was our first Christmas in our new house and our first Christmas together as a married couple where we did not have to drive all the way from Jville to see the family.  My in-laws got me a sewing table for my new sewing machine.  I'm so excited because sitting it on the coffee table and sitting on the floor while using it is a bit difficult.  I'm hoping that I'll be able to start gathering up material soon to make a new quilt for our bed.

Before Christmas I sent an email to an old friend that I lost touch with when I moved down to Jville that I used to ride with and this morning I had a response from her.  I was super excited because I was not even sure that she still used that email.  I used to lease her horse and even named my horse after her horse because they are cousins.  Most of my horse friends from back in the day are no longer into horses due to college and life in general so it will be super nice to get back in touch with an old riding buddy.  It's nice to get in touch with old friends and learn what's been going on in their lives and the lives of people that you know (what, good ole fashioned gossip is fun haha).  The hubs is going hunting yet again soon, so hopefully I'll be able to meet up with her then since I'm sure I'll have extra time to do absolutely nothing.  What did I do when the hubs was deployed for 7 months???  I'm bored when he's only gone 2 days now!  It's too cold to spend hours at the barn, so that leaves me watching Netflix, a lot.  Oh what would I do without Netflix???  Guess I better get back to working since I'm only here a couple days this week, yay!

Merry Christmas!

Ok so I know it's a few days early but still, I'm excited!  I love Christmas!  Today is our Holiday Potluck at work and so I got to start my baking last night.  I made fudge!  Yummy, my favorite holiday treat!  Thankfully my wonderful hubs went out at the beginning of the week and got all the ingredients for everything I plan on making.  Last night I just did the fudge for today and made a venison brown sugar meatloaf.  It was so yummy!  I've never tried the brown sugar recipe but it was so yummy!  I'll definitely be making it again.  Tomorrow I get to make more fudge, a pumpkin roll and a cookie pie (regular cookie dough placed into a deep dish pizza pan).  I love baking!  


Last night the hubs took me on a drive to see some of the local Christmas lights.  People really do some amazing things with them.  There was one, quite large, house that had tons of lights that were flashing and blinking and the neighbor next door put up a lighted sign that said "Ditto" with an arrow pointing next door to the flashing light house, so hilarious.  That was my favorite haha  I love looking at the Christmas lights.  Would have been a bit better if there was some snow on the ground instead of puddles of water from the excessive rain we've been getting but oh well.  It was still super nice to spend time with the hubs and see all the lights.


Christmas Eve the in-laws have a party with all the extended family.  Lots of food and drinks and fun times.  I think afterwards we might bring the cousins back to our house for a "younger generation" party.  I don't think the older ones would like it very much if we cranked up the music and started dancing around the house.  We are making red and green (cherry and lime) jello shots with rum!  They were a big hit last year.  I'm really looking forward to having our first Christmas in our new house!  We've always traveled back home for Christmas since the hubs was in the Marines and we were stationed down in Jville, NC.  No traveling this time, except to drive to the in-laws, 10 min away, for Christmas dinner.  I'm really looking forward to it!


So, what do you guys do to prepare for the Holidays and what are you favorite parts?

Mani Pedi Mondays

Who likes Mondays?!  I do not care for them too much because that means I have to pull my butt outta bed at the butt crack of dawn and drive through crazy traffic with inpatient stupid drivers (I mean really people, slow down and stop tailgating, you might prevent an accident!)  Anyways, when the hubs is in school (he's currently on winter break) he has class on Monday nights, so double boo to Mondays.  Well my sister-in-law's boyfriend also has to work on Monday nights, so we decided to make Mondays a lil bit more tolerable that we would have Mani Pedi Mondays.  This involves my SIL coming over after work and us either making dinner of some sort, something like frozen pizza or left overs or takeout, and watching shows, on Netflix until 2 Broke Girls comes on and then it's CBS Monday night shows, while doing our nails.  Now we have started to get a lil bit creative with our nail painting as we progress.  

What do these

plus these

plus this equal?

It equals these....  
       Snowflakes! (Sorry my phone camera sucks, so not the best quality). Yes I painted part of my fingers as well but hey it washes off your finger part within a couple of days and since it's a light color you can't tell too much in person.  Besides, how accurate can you possibly be when you include a nice large glass of wine into the evening.   


So, that's right we started using nail stamps!  It's a bit tricky to figure out how to do but we are progressing and learning how to do them better and better.  Some of the designs that have more details, like the snowflake, are harder to get to come out all the way.  My SIL used a mistletoe last night and that one turned out great!  So if you are bored with just plain old nail polish, try nail stamps!  They last a lot longer than stickers and are much easier than free handing it.  And if you don't like Mondays like me, try adding in a mani pedi day.

Using the GI Bill

Who would have thought that using the GI Bill would be such a pain in the ass!?  Are we extremely grateful that the hubs' education is paid for by the VA, yes absolutely.  However, the process sucks!  There are so many rules and regulations when using it, it gets a bit ridiculous.  The hubs was a mechanic on the Amtracks in the Marines.  So, logically he is going to school for his associate's degree/certification in auto mechanics.  So, he has to go full time in order to get full time BAH, no problem.  All of his classes that he takes have to be on the list of required classes for his degree program, no problem, until you see that a few of the classes have prerequisite classes that are considered "remedial" classes.  According to the VA coordinator at his school, the remedial classes must be taken on campus and not online (even though he has to go to campus for the other auto classes, it's not like he's taking all online classes) in order for the VA to cover the class.  Please tell me why this makes any flipping sense?!  It's an entry level math course, he could probably do it in his sleep but now he has to drive the 25 minutes to campus an extra 2 days a week during the winter to take the class in person so they will cover it!?  Why?!  Asked if he took the class online and paid for it himself if the VA would still consider him full time, nope because he is not taking the class in the required manner.  I really want to know who makes up these dumb rules.  Really, who even thinks of a rule like that?!  I can see wanting to make sure that the veteran is going to some on campus classes to ensure that it really is the veteran taking the class and getting paid to go, but one very simple class, come on people!


I'd have to say though that the VA really has not been much of an issue and that the greatest issue and frustration is with the school and their "VA department."  I really believe they are either extremely lazy and inadequate or just ill-informed and ill-trained in VA education matters.  We typically have to pay upfront for his classes because they do not get the paperwork in in a timely fashion and we personally have to remind them numerous times to send it in, even though it's "supposed" to be done automatically each quarter.  And then since they wait until so late to send in the form that if there are any issues, like said class above, it's too late to really do anything about it.  And we are not the only ones who have this issue.  I'm just very frustrated by this whole process and I wish it was easier.  I mean I really do not see how people who cannot pay for these things upfront can even afford it.  Thankfully we can just put it on the credit card and pay it off when we get the money.  I really think that service members who are going through the checkout process though should be made aware that they will likely have to pay upfront for school costs and be reimbursed later due to most colleges being extremely behind on VA verifications.  And I know so many people at different colleges that have this problem so I really think that in order for a school to be certified or verified, whatever it is, to receive VA funds, then they need to have better training and awareness for their VA coordinators.  VA coordinators should be veterans or spouses of service members/veterans, haha.  School and getting out is stressful enough on veterans and their families, I just think we should be able to make the process go as smoothly and easily as possible.
I would like to say that we are very fortunate for him to have this opportunity and for the VA to pay for him to go to school but sometimes you just want to scream at the people who make it so damn difficult to process it!

Puppy Physical Therapy

So, our smallest member of the family, Ren, our lil Italian Greyhound, our baby, is having physical therapy today.  So cute!

Physical therapy, for a dog?  Yes indeed, I didn't know there was such a thing either until a few weeks ago.  Short background history, earlier this year Ren jumped off the couch and hurt her back hind leg.  Her limping got progressively worse and she lost all muscle tone in her leg.  The vet finally determined that when she landed on it wrong she actually cut off the blood supply to her hip and the top of her femur was dying.  So on Halloween she went in for surgery, a Femoral Head Osteotomy.  This is where they basically cut off the top of the femur so that it is not rubbing bone on bone and then over time the scar tissue forms a fake joint.  Since she only weighs 9 lbs this is a better option than a hip replacement.
So after the staples came out she still was not bearing any weight on the leg which had lead to her starting physical therapy.  Today is day 2.  She started right before Thanksgiving.  She has an entire day of physical therapy while I'm at work and when I pick her up they go over all this stuff to do with her and then I bring her back in a few weeks for a recheck.  Her physical therapist is absolutely wonderful!  She is so helpful and nice.  For Ren, in order to get her to put weight on her back leg, we put a lil book bag on her that is weighted and that forces her to use all 4 legs to keep balance.  This has worked so well!!!  Her therapist I don't think had much optimism for it working since she refused to let the leg be touched or touch the floor at all!  She is now walking on the leg and standing on it while standing still.  She still pulls it up when she's running but at least 75% of the time when she's walking now she'll use it.  I'm excited to see what her therapist has to say when I pick her up this afternoon.  I think she will be quite surprised!  She still has a lot of work to do to be able to use her leg to the best of it's new ability but I'm becoming more optimistic about it!
Oh the things we do for our animals...  I absolutely hate dropping her off for PT, she starts shaking and it's just so sad and pathetic, I literally have to speedwalk out of there without looking back to hold back tears, she's just so sad looking.  She grabs ahold of my hair with her paws and then looks back over the vet techs shoulder like one of those shelter commercial sad videos.  Thankfully it's only 5 minutes down the street from where I work but I have to constrain myself from calling to check up on her throughout the day.  Yes I'm that bad, but she's my lil baby and I worry about her nonstop.  Here's a pic of our kids and our Christmas tree....

  

I mean, really, look at those cute faces, how could your heart not just melt with those looks.

TGIF

Is it just me or did this week seem to drag on and on and on?!  I'm so glad it's Friday and only a couple more hours of work, I'm busy can't ya tell, and I'm outta here!  Tomorrow is the office Christmas Party and me and the hubs are looking forward to free food and drinks.
So I am wrapping up the Taking Charge of your Fertility book.  It is that oh so lovely time of the month for me so according to the book I should start charting on Monday.  I've read the whole part in the book about charting and using the Fertility Awareness Method as birth control part so I think I'm going to go ahead and give it a try.  Since I just came off the pill though I will need to chart for a few months to make sure that my cycles are regular prior to not using a backup method.  At this point in time I'm still pretty scared at the thought of not using a backup method while charting but I guess I need to see how the whole charting process goes and see if I can easily tell when I'm ovulating.  I can say though that every woman should read this book.  It really makes you more aware of your body and your cycles and I'm like oh yeah that anxiety I get every month right before my period, very typical symptom of PMS.  And here I was just thinking I was a lil crazy or crazier than usual.  Makes sense then why the pill had a tendency to make it a lot worse.  And really, who would have thought that cervical fluid could be so damn interesting?!  I didn't.  Sure it definitely sounds gross but after reading the book, I'm like wow, that's really cool.  Cervical fluid, cool, oh yes.  So basically ladies, our bodies are amazing!
I still need to get a picture of our Christmas tree and post it and I guess while I'm doing that I'll get a picture of our puppies in front of the tree to use as our Christmas card.  Of course getting all 3 of them to sit and look cute at the same time, probably would be like trying to get 3 toddlers to sit and look happy at the same time.  I may end up going to the store and purchasing generic cards... So what is everybody else doing this weekend to prepare for Christmas???  

UPS

How many of you love your UPS man?  I do!  Our dogs even know the sound of his truck when he comes around the corner and start barking.  I love our UPS man because he delivers all the goodies I order online (I do  a large bit of our shopping, besides actual groceries, online).  In a way UPS guy is like Santa, except I had to pay for all the things he delivers, that's the only down side.  I love tracking my packages and I love love love when stores use the UPS notifier, then I get an email directly from UPS when my packaged has shipped.  Yesterday I received such an email stating that my Mary Janes have shipped and should be here later this week, yay!  Just in time for our office Christmas Party Saturday night :)

Over the weekend I went shopping with the SIL and we got all of our Christmas decorations for the tree and for outside.  I'll have to post a pic of the tree later, it turned out fabulous!  Who would have thought that going shopping the first weekend of December though would resemble Black Friday shopping!  There were so many people out, it was ridiculous!  We ended up at about 5 different stores just looking for decent bulbs for the tree at an affordable price.  Finally, Wally World and Kmart were offering just what we were looking for.  This is our first Christmas in our house and the first time we've put a tree up and thanks to Grandma, we have a fabulous tree.  Since hubs was still out hunting at that point, me and my SIL decided to put up the Christmas Lights outside since it was going to be the last decent day for awhile.  Oh how I wish I'd brought my camera out with us.  The neighbors were driving by laughing at us, no joke.  We ended up crawling out an upstairs window and sitting/hanging off the roof to put some of them up and then where the bushes were I couldn't fit the ladder, so I was hanging off a barstool sticking out of the bushes while my SIL was holding on to me.  I'm sure we were quite a sight.  But they all went up and worked and look so nice!  The hubs was very impressed with our skills, especially since he knows both of us are afraid of heights.  We did need a glass, or 2 or 3, of wine when we were done.  Hubs has been informed that he will be in charge of taking them down because we refuse to climb back up on the roof.  Hubs is now back from hunting, yay, he was the only one of the group to get a deer, poor lil deer.  Now we need to go get a deep freezer so we have somewhere to put all the meat....

VaJayJay

Oh yeah, I'm going there today.  How many of us really know a lot about what goes on in our bodies, specifically our lady parts?  I thought I knew quite a bit, I work in a medical setting so I definitely should know, right, nope definitely not!  So, I recently had to go off my birth control pill because it was causing nasty side effects, anxiety, mood swings, just feeling really icky.  I called up my doctor, she stated that birth control cannot cause those side effects.  Really, that's interesting since those are the side effects listed for the pill, I even double checked on drugs.com.  If your doctor does not know the side effects of the medication they are prescribing, they should not be prescribing it.  I am definitely seeking a new doctor at this point.  I've gone through many BC pills and have had similar reactions to all of them, although with this one they were definitely the worse, the side effects honestly scared me with how severe they were.  So I decided that maybe it was time to look into other forms of birth control and went off the pill completely and scheduled an appointment with a gyno.  I was super excited for my appointment, thought I would  find out some awesome form of birth control that doesn't stuff hormones into your body or cause nasty side effects, was I disappointed, oh yeah.  What the hell, all these advances in medicine and there's nothing out that there's effective without a bunch of side effects.  Who rules the Drug industry, men definitely.  If they had to endure this shit, there'd be new stuff out there ASAP!  Could you imagine men PMSing, haha the world would grind to a halt, of course I think some men PMS just like us, or at least they act like it.

So whats a girl to do??  Condoms, come on those aren't as fun.  Spermicide and sponges and diaphragms?  Lube is gooey and nasty I can't imagine having to squirt some spermicide up there.  IUDs?  Not the best choice if you've never had children and some of those have hormones as well and the ones who don't typically cause heavier periods, no thanks.  Implanon and the shot, hormones.  We already know my body does not handle hormones well, just ask my hubs.  So I got on a chat support board for the USMC that I'm apart of and go to the wives' and girlfriends' section and post my dilemma.  Their answer, much as the same ones as above, except someone mentions this....

A natural birth control method, no not the Rhythm method, completely different from that.  So I figured, what the hell, I'll read it and see what it's all about.  At this point we gotta use condoms anyways.  So I ordered my own copy and I just received it last night.  I started reading it, hubs is still hunting and seriously, cleaning the house, so not fun.  So far I'd have to say that I'm really liking it.  It's very funny too, it mentions what would happen if an IUD type product was made for guys, very funny to imagine and they even included a picture.  I'm only through the introduction and the first part of the next chapter but I am very intrigued by this process.  I really thought that it would be a book all about getting pregnant, but it's not.  It is definitely all about understanding your body and your cycle and how to tell when you are ovulating, etc.  Even if I decide that the Natural Method won't work for us, I will at least have a better understanding of my body and what goes on down there, cause let's face it ladies, it's not like anybody else is going to give you a mini seminar on it.  I will keep you updated as I read along and my thoughts on it and if I decide we should try it.  After reading the introduction though, I never want to use any hormone related product again or an IUD (not that those were looking too appealing anyways).  Has anybody else read Taking Charge of Your Fertility and successfully used the natural birth control method?  I've heard of several people who have intentionally gotten pregnant using their charting method, but that's kind of the exact opposite of what we want in this stage of our lives.

Oh and since I have stopped the pill my moods and mental state are back to normal, well normal for me, I'm an emotional person to start with.  No more hormones for this chick!

Hump Day

I do believe this week is going by about as quickly as a turtle stuck in molasses.  Probably because last week was a short, 2 day, work week for me and this week is not.  The hubs is out hunting poor, innocent, cute lil deer, to feed us for the next year.  Poor deer.  I like deer meat but I do not like the process of getting it to our freezer. I just like to pretend it comes that way.  It seems so weird when hubs is not home now.  I was used to him coming and going frequently when he was in the Marines, but now that he's home all the time I just don't know what to do with myself when he is gone.  Let's see, I could be very productive like I used to be when he would be out in the field or whatevs, I could clean the whole house, wash the carpets, go grocery shopping, put up the Christmas decorations, finish decorating our house with the stuff we have stashed in the spare closet from our 1 bedroom apartment days.  However, a nice nap when I get home this evening and watching Netflix sounds so much more appealing.  Why would anybody want to clean when they can take a nap and veg out in front of the TV?  I want a maid, somebody to clean the bathrooms and dust and vacuum.  Those are the things I hate most about cleaning.  Well I really don't know if there's any one part that I actually like about cleaning except the end result, a clean house.

So I did decide to go ahead and get the Mary Janes I posted yesterday.  I just could not resist, especially when I found a $5 coupon online.  Total amount spent with shipping, $16.  Can't beat that.  Now I just cannot wait until I get them!!!!  I love getting packages in the mail, it's like Christmas when they come haha  Me and the SIL have a shopping trip planned for Saturday to get Christmas decorations since we have pretty much no decorations.  I have already told her though to keep me far far away from the shoe area, they're my weakness.  Shopping, my friend; cleaning, my enemy (although I'm sure my bank account prefers cleaning to shopping).  Why can't I win the lottery???

The Beginning...

Well hopefully this blog will be the beginning of something super fun.   I guess I'll start off with a little about myself.  Last August my husband went on terminal leave from the Marine Corps, his official EAS was in Oct.  We moved back home from Jacksonville, NC and in with my in-laws, thankfully I have wonderful in-laws and my best friend is my SIL.  I was very fortunate to find a job right away as a regulatory coordinator (basically the paper pusher) for a medical research company and my hubs is a full-time student pursuing a degree in automotive mechanics.  We have 3 doggies that are basically like our kids and I have a horse (I've had him 11 years and I love love love riding!).  We bought our first house in January of this year and then bought a condo in September as an investment property.  We are now landlords, eek, and my hubs would like to continue investing in rental properties so that eventually we can move out in the middle of nowhere and have our own farm.  We live in the suburbs now and while we have a nice house, neither one of us are city people and we are itching to move out in the country.


I love fashion, shopping, makeup, DIY projects, decorating, reading, and my animals are my babies so that's probably what the majority of this blog will be about.  I really enjoyed our time in the military and actually miss it quite a bit.  The sense of community and belonging are so strong when you are in the military.  Not to mention a sense of security almost.  It really felt like real life began when we got out of the Marines and in a sense life seems a lot busier now.  It really is completely different now that we are civilians again.  Although I do love that I do not have to worry about when the next field op or deployment will be or if the hubs will be coming home late because somebody lost a piece of gear.  I feel extremely blessed to have my little family and I'm really looking forward to what our lives together hold.


So, first bit of fashion input for my blog.....I really want these!!!!

    Which can be found here:  Urbanog

I love Urbanog! (This is not a sponsored advertisement for them I just love them!)  They have Deals for the Day which is when you can find gorgeous heels for around $12!  Now I just have to decide if I should get them.....