OH, the Aroma of a Malfunctioning Morning
I knew it! I just knew that having three 3-day weekends in a row was just too 'good' to be true, sure we got the 3rd three day weekend but yesterday morning's return back to the work/school week sure started off with a bang....
Let me preface this by saying that I've been wanting a new microwave. Yes, we have one that works BUT it's super small because I bought it with the hopes that we'd be betting overseas orders soon and would quickly be leaving it behind...yeah that was a year ago, sigh! So having come to the conclusion that overseas orders may never happen I started thinking about getting one again, and then put it off, but Bubby just happened to drop and break the microwave plate...you know the clear glass wheel that you put your stuff on? He dropped it when making bacon the other day, so that was my final excuse to go get one. And yes it was an accident, I was on the phone with my dad so I can prove it ;p Sure your microwave still works without it and just a regular plate in place (Yes, we tried it) but it also happens to burn stuff like popcorn, ect...guess they make those tempered microwave plates for a reason...who knew ;)
So Mr. B and I headed out yesterday to get one. We found one we liked and then headed to check out toasters as Mr. B has been wanting a new one since our old one likes to eat your toast and waffles before you get to them...I know we have some serious issues going on here. So he finds a nice toaster on clearance, as well as a blender. We bring them home, unpack them, and viola they are ready for business.
So first thing this morning Mr. B notices that our water heater is not working again...this is at 'least' the 3rd time we've had issues with it :( You know what they say about free military housing...you often get what you pay for, LOL. Free does not alway equal = best or often not even good! So I tell Mr. B I'll call it in when I get back from dropping Boo off at school.
I attempt to make Bea a waffle in the new toaster, 5 minutes later I realize it hasn't popped and I walk in the kitchen and it's not even on...I start looking for some 'magic' button. Not being able to find one I call Mr. B down to make the toaster that he picked out work, LOL! He gets it on and less than 30 seconds later the waffles pop out, BURNT! She wasn't having that so we go for attempt number 2, it results in less burnt waffles that will pass as edible. Then Mr. B tries to make toast for himself and ooopps another burnt incident. I had no idea a new toaster would have such a learning curve...ugh! Reminder to self...do NOT buy new appliances the night before a school morning!!
So I head upstairs to do Bea's hair after getting out the English muffins for Bubby. A few minutes later I hear Bubby yelling for help. My hands are embedded in hair and rubber bands so I yell for Boo to help him. I quickly finish the hair and notice a horrific smell traveling up the stairs. I start yelling for the doors & windows to be opened before the smoke detectors start going off!
I sure wish I could post just a sampling of the air quality we were breathing it was FOUL and still is....HOURS later! It was so bad that it caused the dog to throw up twice and then poo in the kitchen...all this before 6:45 am! Sweet, the day is off to a good start!
Apparently Bubby had tried to cook 2 frozen halves of English muffin on a Styrofoam plate! 30 seconds in the muffins are blackened and the plate melted, with smoke pouring out of the microwave! Just touching the plate as permeated my hands with such a horrible stench that even after washing my hands the dog will NOT come near it....oh the things I do to take a picture to entertain others ;)
So we get the foul smelling inedible muffins out of the house and I rush the kids to the bus stop. As Boo and I are in the car driving down the street I start to smell something funky! I then realize that we've been violated by the offensive smell and are taking it on the car ride with us! I crack the windows but it doesn't seem to help. Luckily for Boo it's only a 20 min drive, unfortunately for me it's 40 mins! I am trying to pinpoint the source of the offending smell, I smell my clothes, we're smelling Boo's bag, and I realize that it has saturated my hair...which I've worn down in a ponytail...of all days to do such a dumb thing! This keeps the horrid smell wafting around my face and nostrils as I try to drive down the road, I feel my eyes watering from the fumes that are relentlessly attacking my eyeballs! I seriously start to consider if I could put my hair out the window and roll it up...sure it would look funky but at least I'd be able to breath! I decided that it's probably not a good idea because with the way the morning is already going I'd probably arrive home minus the ponytail and I somehow think that Mr. B would not approve of me with a 'military' haircut, LOL!
Here are pictures of the offensive items....
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| Yes, those used to be english muffins! |
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| The backside, yep there used to be plate under them |
So I get home from dropping Boo off and walk into the house to a smell that makes me gag, I open windows, doors, and start researching the Internet. I boil vinegar, lemon, & water and place bowls of vinegar all over the house...the result a house that still smells horrible and that people should not be living in and breathing this air...alas here I am breathing it all up. And even worse the servicemen are on the way to replace the water heater, I am horrified to find that they will be working for several hours in the midst of this odor...hope they get worker's comp, LOL!!
After endless amounts of Fabreeze, What Odor, boiling vinegar, candles and fresh air I'm starting to feel like we may be able to live here through the night. The kids just walked in and Bubby asked "What is that smell?!" I look at him and ask "Are you kidding me?! You know what it is!" And he told me that it smelled like chicken...so I guess it's good if the first thing you can smell is dinner and not the pungent smoke that has terrorized me all day long.
So for the rest of the week the kids will be eating cearal for breakfast...until we can figure out how to operate these high tech toasters and microwaves, I am NOT doing that again tomorrow!
First Baby of 2011
Late Saturday night I got the call that my first client of 2011 was in labor! It was a loooong birth...the longest I've been at in awhile (17+ hours!) and I was exhausted but overjoyed! I left here around midnight (Sun am) and did not get home until around 6:30 pm on Sunday...missing a full night's sleep in the process! It's worth the sacrifice though because I LOVE being able to support moms & dads during this amazing experience! And thankfully Mr. B & the kiddos are able to carry-on just fine without me here for the day, that makes it soooo much easier knowing that all is taken care of at home!
I have a break for a few weeks, then I'm back on-call for another client...I have 4 more coming up in the next several months! I also hope to work on taking some pictures during labor for my clients as well, we'll see how that comes along.
Cruise Day 3 - Calica, Mexico
Our first port to visit was Calica, Mexico!
The first task of the day was to figure out how in the world to debark from the ship, it was literally like walking through a rat's maze, LOL! Now for future reference we know you have to go to the 4th floor and go alllll the way forward to get down to the 3rd floor and off the ship! It was much easier the 2nd day after mastering it on the 1st day :)
Right off the gang plank we were 'forced' into some photos with locals dressed up...good ole Carnival trying to make a $$. Then after we got past the forced pictures there was some locals dressed up taking pictures for donations. They were dressed like the local Indians so of course Paw Paw had to get a picture :)
We were able to easily get a van for 5-8 people (we had 7 people) for $20 from the port to X-Caret. It was a large van and we all easily fit. The van ride was 7 minutes and we seen interesting signs such as precaution signs for Iguanas. The ride back in a van for the same amount was cheaper, it was only $16 and we couldn't argue with that.
Xcaret (pronounced Ish-Karray) is great park to spend the day, there is lots to do, too much to do all in one day, but we sure got our money's worth! Me being the bargain hunter that I am decided to find the best deal...and NO we did not go through Carnival. I used the Xcaret site and bought us all the Xcaret Plus pass which included a buffet, 2 drinks, snorkel gear, lockers, & towels. So we only spend $7 in the park for the WHOLE day for our family of 5!
First we headed to the Xcaret Plus section to get our lockers and snorkel gear, it's a separate and reserved section for those with Xcaret Plus tickets, which was a great benefit. We get to the snorkel area and we are the first and only one's there for the first hour! The water was clear and following the fish was fun! Even after the first hour only 1 other couple showed up, we were spoiled to have it to ourselves for so long. Mr. B & Boo went further out while I worked with Bea in the cove area. Once she got the hang of is she LOVED it! Bubby on the other hand wasn't such a big fan, he didn't like the way the rocks and stuff looked underwater and it freaked him out a bit. If we'd had a longer time to work with him (one-on-one for a day) then I'm sure he'd be fine. He lounged in the comfy chairs and checked out the iguanas for the majority of the time.
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| The Flying Men was a neat little show to watch |
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| Boys with their Mexican Pepsi's |
Next we headed to the bird breeding area (Bubby's pick) where we saw tons of parrots and baby hatchlings. It was a neat area to walk through and enjoy the beauty of the park. We even climbed up some 'faux' Mayan stairs to get a birds eye view of the park.
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| Who would've gussed that baby parrots are so darn ugly?! |
Then we headed to the lunch buffet, everyone was hungry and ready to eat! We choose the one over by the Puma & Jaguar exhibit. They had quite an assortment of food, something for everyone including Mr. B's dad who does not like Mexican food. Drink options were Mexican tea (kinda like ice tea but not really) and orange juice (which tasted like Tang). There were several dessert options as well from pastries to soft serve ice cream.
After lunch we headed over to check out the butterfly exhibit, which included a waterfall and stained glass ceiling. The kids had fun trying to stand still and have the butterflies land on them. The stained glass ceiling was amazing!
We checked out the arena replica of the Mayan ball game on our way to ride the 360 view scenic overlook tower. It was an amazing view of the whole park and we could even see our ship from up there!
After that we headed to get life jackets to float the underground river, I was worried about Bubby after the snorkeling incident, and he really wasn't too sure about it...but he loved it and had a great time! I'm so glad we got to do that as a family! It was a really neat experience! They say it takes 45 minutes to get through the whole river, we swam it in about 30 mins. The water was initially freezing but as soon as you got in you adjusted and it felt great! The only downside was that the life vests started to rub our arms and we all got a bit of vest burn.
The weather was great, it was slightly overcast and not too hot. Another thing I love about going off-season is that the park was not crowded! There were beach chairs, huts, & hammocks readily available for those who wanted them.
After that we were ready to head back to the ship. We stopped and got our free drinks and watched the baby quail hatch for a bit. It was neat seeing the kids get to watch a baby bird hatch! I noticed that the park was very clean and the bathrooms were kept very clean as well, this is always a great treat!
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| Watching baby quail hatch |
Taxi ride back was just as fast and we were back an hour before leaving port. Mr. B & his dad checked out the market stalls with Bubby right outside the gangplank while the rest of us headed on to get ready for dinner. Dinner in the dining room was uncrowded tonight and we were done 30 minutes earlier than normal, our waitstaff told us that was normal on port days. After dinner we headed back to crash and prepare for our next excursion the next day!
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| Frog towel animal |
Over the Moon
I am over the moon excited with my new obsession...photographing the moon! LOL!!
These were all took on different days, you can see the progression of the moon's visibility! So far the moon has been hiding the past week so I haven't gotten any more and the cresent ones I tried didn't come out and it was too chilly to re-try that night.
For all the photography nerds like me these were taken with a 300 mm lens. ISO 200, f/7.1, 1/250
I was so excited that 'I' was able to acutally take these pictures! I know not exciting to some but to a budding photographer it was awesome ;)
Happy New Year 2011!
Welcome to the New Year, it's 1/1/11 today! I've got my sights set on the horizon and all that 2011 has to offer! We were very blessed in 2010 and I know 2011 is going to be an adventure as well!
So what goals do you have for the New year? I really am not fond of the word resolutions...I think it's way overused and too easily abandoned ;)
My inspirational quote to start the year:
"We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give."
-Winston Churchill
My Goals this year:
To give more to others: Family, Friends, Neighbors, & Strangers
To finish my Photography class...even though I have 2 1/2 yrs left that I 'could' use to finish it
To start my Photoshop class by the start of March
To successfully complete a few newborn
photography sessions
To continue my spiritual growth, this last year has been amazing!
My Biggest Hope for 2011?
That we get orders sometime this year, and even better that it doesn't require a year deployment to get them....
No, AL is not that bad. We have friends here, a great church, but living Stateside is NOTHING like living overseas...you'd have to have 'done it' to fully understand what I mean.
The kids are now in good schools (after the initial first year mess with the younger 2) BUT private school tuition is NOT cheap and we face the reality of having 2 in private school in the next few years...that in itself is scary!
We've been here 2 years and 2 months...this time....if you add our previous tour of 4 years, we're at over 6 years here in AL! You know what they say...too much of anything can be a bad thing and it's starting to feel like we're getting close to the too much mark. But I know we're here for a reason and I try to remain positive that He will have other plans for us soon!
Recap of 2010
What happened in 2010? I'll try to sum it up with a quick re-cap...
Mom came to visit in Jan, I think we can now officially call her an AL tourist with all her trips down over the past 6 years, LOL!
Jan- I found out that after YEARS of having swallowing issues that I really had a problem...esophageal stinososis, that would require an out-patient surgery to correct it.
In Jan I also got braces! Only the uppers, the lowers didn't get put on until Nov.
The kids and I did a self-move to a house on base in Feb (hard to believe it'll be a year in Feb!)
I subbed full-time for 6 wks right after moving into the house, I know crazy right?!
I learned that I am capable of way more that I even thought I was and while the deployment wasn't necessarily 'fun' or 'easy' I learned that by leaning on Him all is endurable :)
May brought the 1 year mark of Bubby getting allergy shots, that's a whole LOTTA allergy shots!
Then May brought excitement as Mr. B came home from Afghanistan on Mother's day, it was the best gift after 8 long months!
In June I had my EDG procedure and it has truly changed my life, I now have NO problems swallowing and I've overcoming my fear of swallowing pills that was associated with them getting stuck in my throat!
We made a 2 week trip to WV in June to visit family, the kids had a blast hanging out with their cousins and we enjoyed visiting with family.
July brought the Missoula Children's Theater to Maxwell and Bea got a part in Pinocchio!
We had some great visits with several friends who came through the school on-base this year and enjoyed their company and the memories...it felt just like old times :)
In August Mr. B & I lead our first small group, it was a great experience!
We went on an our first cruise to Calica & Cozumel, Mexico. It was great to get away for a vacation!
We were able to celebrate Thanksgiving & Christmas with Mr. B at home this year
And BEST of all I'm happy to say that this year was free of broken bones/surgeries/major injuries for the kids!! Wahoo! I'm still not sure how we pulled that one off! ;p
