This is My Forties

This past week has been nothing but cleaning and fixing random stuff, taking things to the dump.  Ok maybe we did relax by the pool a little. A few things: furniture in Spain is complete crap.  There is no solid wood anything.  However, they proudly charge a small fortune for this compressed particle board furniture.  If you've ever been to Ikea, you know.  Additionally all plastics are brittle and expensive... not like our beloved rubbermaid.  I paid $100 for two large bins which broke immediately.  Never again. Our kitchen drawers have been broken since before we got here.  We thought "hey, let's fix them".  Not so much... another fab thing Spain loves to do is not make anything universal.  The hardware store only carries the newer versions of hardware to fix whatever Ikea's selling.  So, if you happen to have 30yr old kitchen cabinets with plastic drawers (yes, I said plastic, and not the nice bendy kind), you're s...

It's the 10 year anniversary of September 11th. I figure it's about time I tell my story of where I was ten years ago when tragedy struck. I enlisted into the Army in August of 2001. I had been out of HS for awhile, working the night shift at KMart for pennies. I tried college, but I didn't know what I wanted to do so I wasn't comfortable "wasting the money" while I figured it out. My boyfriend at the time started looking into joining the Army. I was MAD! I was sure recruiters were liars, but when I saw the option to become a linguist, I reconsidered my stance. I'd always been interested in foreign languages, having taken German, Italian, Latin, and French in high school, I was ready for more. I was ready to be a linguist and the big enlistment bonus was just that, a bonus. I said my tearful goodbyes and off I went to Fort Jackson, SC (aka "Camp Snoopy"). I assured my Mom I'd never go to war... like that is something anyone really...

Today started off fine. Kids were up at 5am which ended up being good since my alarm clocks morphed into a dream about my computer being stuck on a blue screen, shrieking at me... I tried to shut it down completely, even unplugged it, but the noise never stopped! Noah nudged me awake and I finally heard the alarms as alarms. Brennan was still passed out next to me. He was up at 5 also, but went back to sleep in my bed with me. So... we had plenty of time to get breakfast, get dressed, and get off to the bus stop. No rushing. Wonderful. Great. OK. Up until an hour ago. All of a sudden my power went out AGAIN!!! This happens so often in this neighborhood it just makes me crazy. Fine. I turn it back on ::CHUK:: flips right back off. So I have to go through one-by-one turning off and flipping back on all the breakers to see where the problem lies. The rooms affected? The PLAYROOM and the LIVING ROOM... which means no movies and no internet. I flipped every switch and u...

Recently the opportunity arose for us to move back to the good ol' U.S. of A. The more we think about it, the more we miss our homeland. While I am sure this is prompted by our lack of funds and use of a second vehicle (it's been 5 months now)... it's still merited. When we came to Europe I was thrilled. I was going to see Rome, Egypt, Argentina, Brazil, France, Scotland... EVERYWHERE. However, the exchange rate + military pay = travel?! yeah right, and good luck feeding yourselves! In a couple months our financial issues will hopefully be caught up and ironed out, but as of right now we're so annoyed with reality. I love it here. I love the weather, our home, the country itself. But, it's hard to enjoy it when we can't even get one damn coffee "out" without having to give up groceries or diapers. Too personal? Probably. I know plenty people struggle with the same problems and I figure you all can relate, whether it's taboo to openly ad...