Year In Review

It is hard to believe that 2011 is almost over! The first half of the year was kind of boring. When summer arived it started to pick up a bit. Here goes!

January--I had the pleasurable experience of doing jury duty. I had thought it would be the most awful thing ever, but it actually turned out not to be too bad. Kind of interesting, actually. Other than that, January was a fairly boring month.

February--I think there was some snow that month--yay! For Valentines Day Eric got me an XBox and an XBox Kinect, he also got me a teddy bear to add to my collection. Our good friend Mike returned from the desert, and we had a big get together with Mike and Audrea and their boys and Chris and Heather.

March--We went up to Albuquerque one weekend with Mike, Audrea and the boys and went to the zoo, aquarium, did some shopping, out to eat, and the Fiery Foods Festival. It was wonderful! I think that's about all that happened in March.

April--Eric and I have decided that we REALLY don't like it here in Clovis anymore. Well, I think Eric still likes it a little, he says it's not horrible, but IDK. We decide to start exploring our options on where we can go next. Eric updated his dreamsheet--he put Alaska, Hawaii, England, Germany, Turkey, and Spain on there. We have our fingers and toes crossed for orders out of our craphole on Earth. Not much else happened in April, I believe. We did go to Fort Sumner with Mike and Audrea and the boys over Easter weekend.

May--We start preparing for our vacation road trip with our parents! All the details of the trip are in my older blogs. We had a fantastic time! We left on my birthday!! It was a terrific birthday present and a terrific trip! We logged 3700 miles in two weeks.

June--All good things must come to an end--We dropped our parents off at the airport in Denver and traveled back to our craphole on Earth, Clovis. Although, we had a reason to smile though--no, not orders, unfortunately........but my cousin, Marla, her husband, Tim, got transferred out to Cannon, and they had just moved here when we got back from our trip! We were psyched!

July--Our 7th anniversary was on July 3rd. We spent time with Marla, Tim, and their boys. Over July 4th weekend we went down to White Sands, Ruidoso, and Roswell. July 4th we watched the Portales fireworks with Mike, Audrea, and the boys.

August---Not much happened in August............still haven't gotten orders yet.....cries.......

September--We went to Carlsbad Caverns over Labor Day weekend with Marla, Tim, and the boys. One weekend we spent the weekend over at their house on base, and went to Family Day on the flightline and watched the WVU game together as a family. It is nice to have family out here!

October---Eric got word that he is going to have to do a class and go TDY at Little Rock, and I could go with him if I wanted to. If I wanted to? Stupid question, honey......lol! So at the end of October we went to Little Rock for a couple weeks. We also got a new car while we were there! We traded in our HHR for a Ford Edge. I love it! It was too good of a deal to pass up. We still haven't gotten any orders yet. Eric decides that he is going to try to put in for a BOP(Base of Preference)--tries to, but can't until February.

November--When we got back from Little Rock we had our friends Mike, Audrea, and their boys staying with us for a couple weeks because Mike had retired from the AF and they were moving back to his hometown in NY. *sad face*. I guess part of military life is saying goodbye to wonderful friends. We got through that. We will always miss them and keep in touch. For Thanksgiving we had supper over at Marla and Tim's. Oh, and I had forgotten that Marla and I had gone to the midnight premiere of Breaking Dawn....it was a lot of fun!

December--Just got started. Already proving to be an interesting month. We have an ice storm on the way. :/ We should be on our way home to WV in a couple weeks for Christmas, and we are so excited!! I hope everyone has a magical and blessed holiday season!

Photos

Since Eric REALLY doesn't like getting pictures taken, we don't get professional pictures done very often. Right before Mike and Audrea left, (Audrea is a photographer), she wanted to do a photo shoot with us. We fought and fought with Eric, but finally he agreed. He didn't cooperate well, though, but the pictures did turn out really well, even if my husband was not smiling. I will post a few of my favorites.

Picture of the Month

Mike, Audrea, me, and Eric right before Mike, Audrea and family moved away from New Mexico.

Update Part Duex

When I was writing my last update I forgot to mention a couple things that has happened since the last time I blogged.

We did go to the Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque in October, we went with Marla and Tim and the boys. It was a good weekend, we stayed at one of the hotels that is close to the Fiesta grounds, so it was handy. If we ever get our pictures from that weekend uploaded I'll have to put a couple on here.

A couple weeks ago, my best friend and her husband (Shaylyn and Remington, the ones whose wedding I was in last year), welcomed their first child, Kaiden into the world. I can't wait to go home and meet him, I am Kaiden's "adopted aunt".

So I guess I should update.....

Considering the last time I posted was July, I guess I should update. I kind of forgot about blogger, truthfully, lol! Hmmm....lets see. I worked on losing weight on my own, and nothing was working. I went to a nutritionist, it helped a little, but not much. The nutritionist got very angry when I told him that my doctor suggested weight loss surgery, and said that was not the answer. I'm glad I didn't go that route. I have found Bee Pollen Pills, and they are absolutely WONDERFUL!!! I am taking ZXT Gold, I have been taking them for a month....I have lost 17 pounds. And they are completely safe!! And I feel great!

Back in October Eric had to do a class so he went TDY for two weeks at Little Rock, and I went with him. It was heaven getting out of craphole Clovis for awhile. We absolutely HATE New Mexico now! :( Eric is going to try putting in for a BOP in February, he's putting in for Dover, McGuire, Charleston, and Little Rock. Of course there's no guarantee that he'll get the BOP since he's not 1st term, so it sucks, but we're hoping and praying.

At the beginning of this month we had to say goodbye to our best friends out here in New Mexico, Mike and Audrea and their family. Mike retired and they moved back to New York.

We had Thanksgiving with my cousin Marla and her family, who just moved out here in June. It was nice!

We are planning on going home to WV for Christmas if all works out.....we are looking forward to it, we haven't been home in over a year!

That's about all! Hope whoever reads this is happy and healthy!

July 4th Weekend

For once, Eric actually had the whole 4 day weekend off, it was wonderful. The 3rd was our 7th wedding anniversary. He got me 2 dozen red and pink roses. So pretty! On Friday we went to go watch Transformers and went to Leals with Mike and Audrea, and on Sunday we went to Roswell, Ruidoso, and White Sands with Tim and Marla, Marla is my cousin who just moved here. On the 4th we had a cookout and watched the Portales fireworks with Mike and Audrea and the boys...it was a wonderful weekend!

Vacation Pictures part 2.

The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado...where Stephen King got his inspiration for the movie "The Shining".

Hubby and I playing in the snow at Rocky Mountain National Park in Estes Park, Colorado

a geyser in Yellowstone National Park.

Devils Tower, South Dakota. You may recognize this from the movie "Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind".

Vacation Pictures.

Of course, Mount Rushmore.

The Badlands of South Dakota.

Me and my mom, getting ready to ride the train in Durango, Colorado.

Right outside of Pagosa Springs, Colorado.

Hubby and I at the Great Sand Dunes National Monument, in Colorado.

Picture of the Month

Me, my aunt, and my mom during a family visit in 2009...out in front of Joe's Boot Shop.

Riding Along In Our Automobile.

Well, our vacation is over. It was a funfilled two weeks of awesome. We met our parents in Denver, and went to the Great Sand Dunes National Monument, Durango and Silverton Colorado, Ouray, Colorado, Telluride, Colorado, Dinosaur National Monument in Utah, Mount Rushmore, the Badlands, Wall, South Dakota, Deadwood, South Dakota, Devils Tower National Monument (the one from Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind); Cody, Wyoming, Yellowstone National Park, where we saw Old Faithful, Grand Tetons National Park, Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and Estes Park, Colorado and Rocky Mountain National Park. Wildlife we saw on the trip: antelope, elk, moose, grizzly bears, big horn sheep. Our family logged 3700 miles in two weeks. It was a blast! When I get all my pictures uploaded on facebook I will upload a select few on here as well.

My Most Dreaded Day.

My most dreaded day of the year is Mothers Day. If you've ever dealt with infertility, you can feel my pain and understand. Most of this weekend has been HORRIBLE. I have been in a horrible mood. It doesn't help that Aunt Flo is here, either. But anyway, today (the dreaded day) I got a special surprise from my husband. He got me flowers and a card, from him and the animals....he even put Napolean and Ace's (our cat and dog's) paw prints in the card. It was so sweet, it totally made my day.

Easter Sunday Fun.

Sumner Lake Dam

Jeremy, Cody, Audrea, and Jacob

We were actually able to get a picture of Eric!!!

Me and Audrea

The men rock climbing....they actually climbed to the top.

On Easter Sunday we went to Sumner Lake with Mike, Audrea, and the boys. It was a lot of fun, although I got sunburned pretty bad, and I think Mike did too. Here's a few pictures from the day.

Picture of the Month.

So, I haven't really been keeping up with my pictures of the week....so I guess I'll start doing a picture of the month. This is from the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta in 2009. We plan on going again this year if nothing changes between now and October.

Family Fun.

Audrea and Mike

Me and Eric

the boys outside of the zoo.

So Saturday we went up to Albuquerque with pretty much the people we consider family. It was a blast! We went to the zoo, the aquarium, the Fiery Foods Festival, a couple of shops, and ate at Twisters and Dions Pizza. So much fun, and was really mood lifting to see the mountains.

In My Life

One of my favorite Beatles tunes.



There are places I'll remember
All my life, though some have changed
Some forever, not for better
Some have gone and some remain
All this places have their moments
With lovers and friends I still can recall
Some are dead and some are living
In my life, I've loved them all
But of all these friends and lovers
There is no one compares with you
And these memories lose their meaning
When I think of love as something new
Though I know I'll never lose affection
For people and things that went before
I know I'll often stop and think about them In my life,
I love you more
Though I know I'll never lose affection
For people and things that went before I know I'll often stop and think about them In my life, I love you more In my life-- I love you more

Vacation Bliss Is Approaching.

I can't wait!! We are going at the end of May on a vacation with our parents, like the vacation we went on a couple of years ago when we went to the Grand Canyon and all the places in between. We are driving up to Denver and meeting our parents at the airport and starting our vacation there. We will then proceed from there and go to Rocky Mountain National Park, and then head up north to Yellowstone and Mount Rushmore, and we will be making lots of stops in between. Two weeks.........ahh. I can't wait!

Picture of the Week

Yes, I'm feeling nostalgic. In this picture here I was about 3 years old, and I am swinging with my Grandma Robinson, who died when I was about 7, so I don't really remember her at all.

Le Sigh.

So on Monday when I had my doctors appointment, my doctor told me that I am borderline Hypothryoidism. I absolutely LOVE the Cannon clinic, I like that they are thorough, and are willing to help you when you need it. If we were back at Hurlburt I have a feeling I'd STILL have questions unanswered, but at least I know now that I have PCOS, (which they didn't even BOTHER to test me thoroughly with back at Hurlburt), I probably have Hypothyroidism, and I never would have found that out if we were still back at Hurlburt. They would have just shrugged me off. I can at least say I like Cannon for their Clinic.

Other stuff.....well....it's starting to run my last nerve. We have now been here almost 3 years, and we did like it at first.....we came in with open minds, and that helped. But boy do I believe people now when they said way back when "the place will wear on you".......It has.

Valentines Part Deux.

Balloons..............

Bears.................

And carnations in a Hershey's Kiss vase! :)

So today I wasn't really expecting anything from Eric since he bought me the XBox and XBox Kinect last week, but tonight he brought me home a dozen red carnations in the cutest vase EVER, two little bears, a balloon, and a chocolate cupcake with cherries on top. It really was too much, but my hubby sure does know how to give gifts!

Picture of the Week

My Aunt, me, my mom, and my Grandma.

Valentine's Came Early.

So Eric comes home this afternoon with a big grin on his face and I pay no attention, he goes out and checks the mail, when he comes back in the house, he comes back in with an XBox 360/Kinect Bundle. I have been wanting a 360/Kinect ever since the Kinect came out, now that we have a little extra money he went out and got me this as a Valentine's present. I do love my hubby!

Just a plain old update.

Things have been going pretty well. We got our tax refund back. We paid a good chunk of it to our credit card. Eric got a new camera, he got a Nikon D3000 or something like that. I also got an IPod Nano, which I am LOVING. We were going to also get tickets to the Texas NASCAR race in April, but we decided against that, I don't think we realized how expensive NASCAR itself has gotten....it's no wonder people has lost interest in going to races. So we're just going to save the rest, and pad our account a little with it. Nothing wrong with that.

I've got a doc appointment coming up. I had my blood tests done about a week and a half ago, I don't have any idea how they are going to turn out. Hopefully ok, but lately everytime I eat, I am hungry about an hour or so later...like extremely hungry, like I never ate a thing, and I am extremely thirsty too, so I don't know. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst, I guess.

Other than that things are going pretty well...lol! Hope you all are having a fantastic February so far.

TGIF...almost.

Well, it's been kind of a rough week with our pipes frozen most of the week. They still aren't dethawed. But this isn't a time to think negatively. Let's get on to the positive.

1. Snow. (I find it very beautiful.)

2.The fact that I didn't have to be OUT in the horrible, cold nasty weather.

3. I will be thankful for when it starts warming up in a couple of days. Snow I can handle. But these arctic temps are for the penguins. (pun intended).

Hope everyone has had a good week and has a good weekend! *crosses fingers and toes for my Steelers on this Super Sunday*

Picture of the Week

Me and one of my best buddies out in NM, Audrea.

Yay for snow!

It finally snowed! We didn't get as much as they called for, but we still got something. The base was on a 2 hour delay today. Our pipes froze....but at least we know how to take care of stuff like that. I could take days and days of snow. Love it!

Almost time for the weekend....thankfulness times 2.

Yup, you got her.....

things I am thankful for this week........

1. I got to do Jury Duty. (my how things change! well, I got $116 check in the mail today...so that changed my tune a bit....and I'll gladly sit in a courtroom again for 4 hours, lol!)

2. My friends here in New Mexico.

3. The fact the lady who took my blood at the lab on Wednesday was able to get it on the 1st try and I wasn't used as a pin cushion for once.

It's been a pretty quiet week.....that's all. I hope whoever reads has had a good week! :)

Hooray for Taxes!

So thankful that my dad does our taxes....we get a break from having to go to a place like H&R Block or somewhere like that. But anyway, our taxes were done over the weekend and we got a nice little hunk of a refund back. Most of it is going to be payed towards the credit card, but we're saving some out to play with...Eric is upgrading his camera and getting some sort of fancy Nikon he's been wanting, that'll be put to good use when we go on vacation in May....and we're going to buy tickets to the NASCAR race in Fort Worth on April 9th. plus we'll have a little bit left over to pad our savings with....so we did good this year. :)

Pictures from my trip home this past fall.

My cousin Jason, his daughter Madisyn, and me.

Hannah, me, and baby Claire. (my cousins children)

Me, my aunt, and my mom at the Lunatic Asylum in Weston, WV (if you've seen Ghost Hunters you've seen this place on there before)

all of my best girls at Shaylyn's bridal shower

and BlackWater Falls.....our trip to Canaan Valley.

these of course are just a few random ones from my trip home......i have lots more on my facebook.

Pictures from the Wedding.

Sabrina, Mary Beth, Jenny, and me....best friends from HS

of course, the wedding party

during the ceremony

us girls.....Claire, Hollie, Maggie Beth, Eva, Shaylyn, me, Jamie, and Lauren

the girls again

Now that I have figured out how to post pictures in my blog, I can finally post pictures from the wedding that I was in back in November. :) *Note* these aren't the professional pictures, just pictures taken from my camera.

Picture of the Week

I love my wonderful husband so much and I am so thankful for him and all he does for me :)

Steelers - Here We Go Steelers 2010 - 2011 version

It's Friday.....can I get an Amen, and things I'm thankful for this week.

I got this blog idea from another AF wife I'm friends with, so I think I'll start doing this every Friday...it is a good idea to be reminded of the things you are thankful for.

1. Sunshine
2. My wonderful husband
3. Having an accountant for a dad
4. W-2 came out today...and will be done by the end of the weekend!
5. Exercise....(it's becoming like a drug to me, honestly)
6. Football.....(I may feel different by the time Sunday ends, but hopefully not)

All may sound cheesy, but that's for this week edition of "Thankfulness"

Picture of the Week.

Whew.

I must say, after last week and the week before that, it is quite a relief to finally be back to my old ways again....doing pretty much nothing. Oh, I do the regular stuff, like cleaning and laundry and stuff, but you know what I mean. I pretty much don't go out unless if I have to. So it's nice to get back to my regular ways this week, and I am lookin forward to it. :)

Whole new way.

I promised myself at the beginning of January that I would get right back into my exercising and eating right, but I'll admit, I haven't. I was afraid that once I got away from my TOPS meetings, and having to weigh in every week, I would stray away from everything and start gaining weight back, which is exactly what I'm doing. I think my big eye opener today has been the fact that I only have until late May to lose the amount of weight that I want before we go on our vacation with our parents, and I don't want to be in the same shape as I was when we went in 2009 to the Grand Canyon, and other places.

I have put my own foot down and decided that this coming week is going to be a whole new way for me....even my hubby has started working out religiously. I have no room for slacking now. If anyone has any suggestions, I welcome them.

Picture of the Week.

It wasn't so bad.

I had to go in yesterday for jury duty. It wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be, actually, it was kind of interesting. I was supposed to go in today, as well, but I got a call this morning telling me that the case had been decided on already and we didn't have to come in. So all I've got is tomorrow afternoon and hopefully I'm done. Maybe tomorrow afternoon I won't have to go in either. :)

New Years Resolutions

1. Lose 50 pounds by May. (I believe that's possible.) That is when we are going on our vacation with our parents, and I want to be in a whole heck of a lot better shape than when I was when we went on our last vacation.

2. Exercise every day.

3. Drink less soda and more H2O.

4. Dust off my Bible and read it more.

5. Worry less about what others think of me....and dwell less on the past.


That's it. That's all of my resolutions for the New Year....Good luck to those who have also made resolutions.