Why, yes, I'm biased, but at least I was rooting for the classy side

Two weekends ago, K and I went to the Army-Navy game with friends. Two of K's close friends are Army grads, and one of them even played football while he was there. We made plans to go to the game together back in August, so we'd been looking forward to it for a long time!

Evidently so had the city of Philadelphia (where the game was held).

The game is one of the biggest rivalries in college football -- and some would even say it's the biggest rivalry. There are so many neat traditions involved in the game, so it was really cool to see them ...

... like how (similar to OU-texas) the fans are divided at the end zones, with one team on the left and the other on the right ...

... and watching the Cadets march onto the field. First Army ...

... and then Navy.

The West Point Cadets were very intimidating in how structured and serious they were. They chanted and sang in unison once they were all on the field.

Navy, on the other hand, was much more relaxed. They found ways to get little jabs into their portions of the ceremony. (As you can see, the Cadets on the front row had letters that spelled "BEAT ARMY" as they faced us. When they did an about face, the letters on their backs read "GO NAVY.")

The photo below was taken just before the game started. Navy had won the game the last 7 years in a row, so they were eager to rub in the past and their prediction for the day's result. As you can imagine, it got quite a cheer when they turned their backs to Navy's side. The second photo below shows the West Point Cadets staying classy, with nothing on their backs.

Instead of marching onto the field the way they marched off, the Naval Academy Cadets broke rank and ran.

Evidently another big tradition with this game is the game balls. There are two -- one from each school. Every year, the marathon team from both schools runs the ball from the school to the football field. It takes several days, and each member of the team completes a part of the run. Unfortunately, I didn't know about this tradition until game day, so we missed the running of the ball. The marathon team members were brought onto the field, though. I couldn't believe they had them run onto and off of the field. I'd be sick of running by that point!

One of the final big events (probably the biggest) before the game was having the Golden Knights land on the field. Very cool!

There was a flyover, of course.

Then, it was finally time for the game.

And unfortunately, we saw a lot of this.

West Point was leading 3-0 at the half. It was along first half, so we definitely didn't feel relieved, but it was nice to have the lead.

Halftime was a little different than what I was used to seeing. Navy's band was just a little bit smaller than the band I was in at OU (I'm pretty sure our clarinet section alone wasn't much smaller than this). What's funny is their band performed "Batman," which we did when I was in band at OU!

I couldn't believe it in the 4th quarter when the West Point male cheerleaders started benching the girl cheerleaders. Evidently that (like pretty much everything in this game) is tradition, too. Impressive!

Unfortunately, this silly mascot fight was the closest Army came to winning (well, aside from the coin toss).

When the game was over, Navy's bold pregame prediction proved true. A final tradition of the game involves each team standing behind the other as a sign of respect as both school's song is sung at the conclusion of the game. First, the winning team waits for the other to sing in front of their Cadets. Then, they all go to the other side of the field to sing to their Cadets. It was a display of sportsmanship that was really neat to see.

This may not have been the most interesting game I've been to sports-wise, but it was definitely one of the most memorable.

Feelin' that holiday frenzy

I have been a busy girl lately! It's finally my last week of work, and it couldn't come at a better time. Things have been sooooo slow. It's been maddening. I spend my days surfing the web for news stories, trying to find something to make the day go faster. I wind up spending more time on facebook than I care to, since I manage to work my way through the day's headlines pretty quickly. By the time I get home, I want nothing to do with the computer.

Anyway, I meant to do this a couple weeks ago, but I wanted to share our fun Christmas cards. We made two versions. It started out as a joke: Once we had selected our cards and chosen our photo to go on them, I asked K what he wanted them to say. He blurted out something silly, so I put it on the card to call him on his saracasm.















We thought it was so funny that we went ahead and ordered it! We got the minimum amount (12) and sent them to friends we knew wouldn't be offended or worried about having to hide it instead of putting it out with their other Christmas cards.

Everyone else got the standard well-wishing card.

We were very, very careful to make sure we sent the goofy card to the right people. I told K we'd never do the dual-card thing again, since I was worried we'd mess up.

The comments we got in response to the silly card, though, were pretty good. Maybe we will make it an annual thing!

You did NOT see this post

This has been a hectic week! K and I went to PA last weekend, and we chose this week to begin 5:30 a.m. workouts. It's been nice to have the evenings free to do nothing (without feeling like a bum for it), but it's also meant I've been a little more tired and haven't been on the computer so much. This too shall pass. :)

So we were in PA last weekend for a nice family tradition of K's. It was actually his first time to participate and mine.

K's grandmother came over from Italy as a teenager. She died when K was stationed in Korea in 2000 or 2001, so a few years before I came along. I've heard lots of stories about her, though, and most of them have been about how amazing of a cook she was. She did it all with her hands; she used no measuring cups or measuring spoons. Her food was authentic Italian, and its legend lives on in the family.

K's mom continued making her mother's recipes. The one she stuck with most was her mother's ravioli. When K's mom passed away in 2006, her sister and her husband (K's aunt & uncle) carried on the recipe. It was just the two of them the first year, but the next year, K's other aunt & uncle joined, along with K's dad. It's grown each year since. And so has the amount of ravioli they've made.

This was the first year K wasn't deployed during the ravioli fest, so we were excited to join in on the fun.

We made 1,124 individual raviolis.

The pictures I'm sharing now were met with quite a bit of protest from K's uncle. Since this is a family recipe, we have to make sure the secrets aren't compromised. I assured him that these photos wouldn't give away what goes into the composition of the ingredients. Only the assembly is shown here.

The most sauce I've ever seen at one time, and the biggest bowls and pots I've ever seen. They don't mess around!

Getting set up. We had two tables, with 4 people working at each. The other 2 people were cranking out dough as we turned it into ravioli.

Let the assembly begin!

The finished product! (Well, almost. We still had to cook it.) :)

We enjoyed homemade red wine while we made the ravioli. After a couple of glasses, I was feeling a bit tired and laid down. I wound up taking a quick nap, which meant I got teased quite a bit for falling down on the job. I assured the family that I was just using my time wisely while we were waiting on more dough. I told them I'd put so much energy and passion into the ravioli I'd made that I needed to rest to continue. Hopefully I didn't manage to get myself removed from future invitations!

After we had used up all the filling, we took a nice break to enjoy the snowfall that had started while we cooked. Piper had a blast playing in it with K's aunt & uncle's labradoodle!

Most of the ravioli went into bags and then to the freezer. After it froze, we divided up the bags among those of us who had made it so we can enjoy it throughout the year. (We already cooked some this week!)

But before we all left, of course we had to enjoy the fruits, er, pasta of our labor. Delicious!

So much for that attempt

I sent my cousin the muffins and some nice, quality reading in the form of Cosmo and US Weekly. I don't know if she reads either, but I figured there'd be nothing like some mindless, trashy reading to keep her mind off being in the hospital.

She's still there, and the baby still hasn't made his or her appearance yet. (Whew!) Unfortunately, neither has my package.

I sent it priority last Tuesday. It was supposed to take 2 or 3 days. When you factor in Thanksgiving, I figured it would get there Saturday at the latest. I had packed all the nice, homemade muffins (which took FOREVER to make, by the way!) in a cute little wintery tin. I didn't put them in an air-tight container or add the standard piece of bread to keep them moist, like I used to do when I'd ship them to K for the week-long trip they'd take to Iraq. I figured I wouldn't need that. The muffins would be fine for 2 or 3 days.

Who knows about 12, but I'm guessing it's not good. Bummer.

At least she'll still have the magazines -- if she ever gets them!

A photoshoot with Piper!

Sunday night after we put up our Christmas tree, I couldn't sleep well at all. I was stuck in that phase between sleep and awake, and for some reason I was really worried that our tree would topple over. How could a tiny stand with three stupid screws hold an 8-(plus-)foot tree up? As if that wasn't enough, we added lights. And tinsel. And decorations. We made it heavier. Idiots! Of course it's going to fall.

And if it didn't fall, it would catch on fire. I actually considered waking K to see if he thought the tree might catch fire. (What is it lately with all these weird dreams?!) Thank goodness, my fear vanished when I woke up Monday morning to a still-erect tree (*insert juvenile laughter) that showed no signs of having been on fire during the night.

On Monday, I put a picture of our tree on my computer desktop at work. I find myself minimizing all my open windows periodically so I can just look at it. It makes me happy.

Tonight K and I (and Piper!) did a quick photo session in front of the tree with my fabulous camera and the self-timer button. I managed to catch some fun pictures of Piper too.

I told K we'd have to put this last one in a frame for his dad, who adores Piper. (He's dog-sitting for us for New Year's. He's threatened to not give her back when he's done.)

I can't say I blame him.

Apologies to any male readers

Evidently sometime Monday, my face (skin only) decided to pretend it's 15 again. And it has yet to realize its error.

Nothing like a nice breakout to announce to the world, "I'm on my period!"

Ugh.

Our first Christmas tree!

On Sunday afternoon, K and I went got a start on decorating for Christmas. We visited a cute little Christmas store, where we bought quite a few nice ornaments, and then we headed to a tree farm to cut down our tree!

I've never had a real tree before. My dad is allergic, so it was never an option. K really wanted a real one, and I was excited to find a tree farm fairly close to us.

The tree farm was a quaint family-owned place. Since neither of us knew which type of tree we wanted, the workers were able to give us a few tips before they sent us out to survey the selection. They told us that people come out as early as the weekend after Halloween to begin staking their claims on trees! Some people had interesting ways of showing a tree was taken.

We couldn't believe how big some of the trees were!

I don't know if a lot of the average-sized trees were already taken, but it seemed that the trees were either 8 ft tall or 3 ft tall. I was glad we have tall ceilings in our living room! I had read an article that recommended buying a tree that's 6" to 12" from your ceiling. An 8-footer wouldn't quite be that height, but I figured it would be sufficient.

We found a tree that we were pleased with. It was a Leyland cypress, nice and full. There was one random stray branch on the side, but we could easily put that part at the back. The tree's height was good, and the top of it was really pretty. We found an employee who could cut the tree down for us. After he stood up from cutting down our tree, he bent over to pick up his saw from the ground ... and farted! I actually thought to myself, "It's a sign we found the right tree." (Hey, remember one of the biggest surprises I had once I got to live with K?)

When we got the tree home and inside the house, we were very glad that we hadn't gotten a tree any taller. I guess the stand (which isn't tall) added more than we'd bargained for. Thank goodness our neighbors had some good clippers! We trimmed the top of the tree and shaped it to hide our little alteration.

We put on Elf as we decorated the tree. As the movie was finishing up, so were we. K made us a couple mugs of hot chocolate, which we enjoyed during the final scenes of the movie. When we turned off the TV, we snuggled on the couch and surveyed our work on the tree with fresh eyes. We were pretty pleased with ourselves. K actually got a little teary-eyed, since after 4.5 years of being together, we were finally able to decorate our tree together. This will also be the first time we've been together for Christmas.

This is the most gorgeous tree I've ever had. I love that many of the ornaments are meaningful to us in some way, and I love that a lot of the decorations are new things we picked out last weekend. But the things about it I love most is that we chose it and decorated it together.

Thank God time marches on!

(This would have been more timely a few days ago, but hey, the holidays get busy!)

Last Friday (Nov. 27) marked two years from the day K deployed to Iraq (for the second time). K had the day off, but I had to work a half-day. As I sat at my desk, bored to tears with nothing to do since hardly anyone else was working, it was weird to think that two years earlier, I was just beginning the toughest year (and then some) of my life. In fact, until a couple weeks ago, just seeing that date on the calendar would always make my eyes well up with tears. (The date came up at work a good 5 or 6 times a day for the last couple weeks, so I built up an immunity.)

Needless to say, it was great to spend this November 27 with K for the first time since 2005 (remember, on that date in 2006, he was just about to come home from Afghanistan). And unlike the last three November 27ths, I was glad that I spent only a couple hours of this one counting the hours until I could be with my husband again.

I definitely called my family 9 billion times while preparing this meal

The night before Thanksgiving, I did not sleep well at all. I was so worried about everything I had to make, none of which I'd made before. I tossed and turned, and I had the weirdest dreams. In fact, one was so weird that it made me forget all the others: I actually dreamed that a starfish somehow found its way from the ocean, through the water lines, into our refrigerator ... and into the pecan pie sitting inside. (I didn't even make the pie -- I bought it!) So in the dream, when I pulled the pie out of the refrigerator and carried it to the table for our friends, I was horrified to find a starfish writhing around in the pie, with a couple of its arms sticking out of the top. (I told you it was a crazy dream!)

Thank goodness, I was worried for nothing. I made a few rookie mistakes, but nothing that affected the flavor. And they're all mistakes I'm sure K and I will laugh about when we recall our first Thanksgiving playing hosts:

1) The pumpkin roll that we accidentally rolled the wrong way (we made it short & wide rather than long & thin).

2) Having to turn my family's traditional sweet potato balls into a sweet potato casserole, since I forgot to drain the yams before mixing the other ingredients. (It's very difficult to make a solid ball with a liquid.)

3) The stress of making the dressing. My mom's "recipe" had only a list of ingredients (cornbread, sage, broth from giblets, salt, etc.), but no specific amounts. "Season to taste" doesn't help a new cook very much! The dressing wound up being everyone's favorite part, and it tasted just like my mom's, so I was relieved!

We made our cranberry sauce the night before Thanksgiving. It looked beautiful as it cooked, and it made the house smell amazing. Thanksgiving Day, we were pleased to find it was just as delicious as it looked and smelled! I'll definitely be making this again (although it was a TON for four people).

K did an awesome job frying (and preparing) the turkey. It was delicious!

Piper was eager to help clean up any turkey K accidentally dropped.

We wound up with a lot of food for four people (we had planned on my brother being here as well, but he didn't come in until Friday), but it was delicious! Since it was our first attempt, I cheated on a few more things than I'd have liked (gravy from a jar, store-bought pie), but we took on a lot for first-timers! Considering we cooked fresh green beans and used fresh cranberries for the sauce, I'd say we did well. K told me several times how proud of me he was, and how I should be proud of myself for doing such a great job.

(I can't believe I forgot to get a picture once the turkey was on the table -- wait, yes I can! Everything smelled delicious, and I was starving! Trust me, the table was packed.)

I'd say Thanksgiving was a success!

Ooooh, I want these

Why do they have to be $400?!

A question for the moms -- and the experienced "aunt"s!

My cousin is pregnant, and she's due Feb. 2. She went into labor last Thursday night. Now, she's in the hospital, and she has to stay there until the baby arrives. The doctors are doing all they can to delay the birth, and for now, it's working.

My cousin seems to be handling it pretty well. Her facebook updates are upbeat and positive. She's way tougher than I would be!

Since she'll likely be in the hospital on Thanksgiving, I think it would be nice to send her a little treat. I'm planning on making some pumpkin cream cheese muffins tonight for us to have this week and on Thanksgiving morning. I think those would be a nice, delicious Thanksgiving surprise to send to my cousin ... but I don't have much experience with pregnancy. Do you moms (and those of you who know more about this!) think that would be OK to send, or is it too unhealthy for mom and baby? (If it helps, I'm pretty sure my cousin isn't a big health nut.)

In addition to your advice, prayers for my cousin and her baby would be appreciated. I'm eager to see her baby pictures, but I want her baby to be as healthy as possible when he or she makes the big entrance!

Good thing we're not planning on kids anytime soon

I don't really cuss on this blog much. It's really usually not necessary in my posts. In real life though, particularly around K, my vocabulary is a bit more colorful. We often use cuss words when we joke with each other, and we love calling Piper a little bitch. (I think she actually likes it too.)

Anyway, so I was reading a blog the other day where the author announced she was pregnant. It was actually the same day that ER had told me she was pregnant. The blogger referred to their baby as "our bean." I've heard a few people refer to their unborn children as "bean" or "peanut." I thought it was cute until I realized a LOT of people refer to their fetus that way.

I turned to K. "Promise me that someday when we have a baby, we won't call it 'the bean' or 'peanut' before it's born."

"OK ..." K said slowly.

"We have to call it something original," I said, "like 'little shit' or 'fuckface.'"

This news made my day

ER called me tonight. "I have a little bit of news for you," she said. She told me she'd dreamed last night that she told me, and I reacted the way I did when Rachel told me she had gotten married.

(Haven't blogged about that one yet. Rachel married a douchebag in a secret ceremony, which she told me about four days later. When I called her. More on that crap later.)

Anyway, I was pretty sure I could guess ER's news, but I kept quiet, just in case.

"I'm pregnant."

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!" I started tearing up. SO excited for her. It happened fast! She just told me in August that they were going to start trying. Her husband thought it would be fun to be able to tell everyone at Christmas. "You guys better get crackin'!" I told her.

She just got the official word from her doctor yesterday, and they told her she's five weeks along. Right now, they're putting the due date somewhere near July 20.

I'm so unbelievably excited. I can't wait to see ER in maternity clothes, to watch her belly grow, and to pick out tons and tons of gifts for her and the baby.

The only people they've told are ER's parents, her sister and BIL, and me. They want to tell her in-laws in person at Thanksgiving, and then her husband can start telling his friends (since he has to tell his parents first!). Not long after we got off the phone, I texted ER: "You guys are champs for being able to keep this quiet. I'm so excited I want to tell everyone, and I'm not even the one who's pregnant!"

I feel like I'm going to be an aunt!

I'll spend enough time in the kitchen NEXT week!

K is gone again. We didn't know about this trip until this morning.

Originally, he was supposed to go to Colorado this week for a conference. Then, a big Nor'easter hit last week, and a lot of the military bases in this area got closed both Thursday and Friday thanks to all the flooding. (Actually, a lot of EVERYTHING was closed Thursday and Friday.) The Colorado trip got cancelled, since there was no time to plan everything and get it approved.

K and I had talked about going to PA over the weekend since one of his friends would be in town. Once K was off Friday & I wasn't -- and since he was no longer supposed to be gone this week -- I told K to leave early and make it a guys' weekend. (Plus, it got me out of 14 hours in the car!)

And then this morning K's boss told him the trip is back on. Awesome. I told K to tell the boss he's on my shit list. (K had already told him.)

Now, I've got the night to myself, and it's crazy how much more time it feels like I have when it's just me. It's about the time K and I would usually reluctantly get up to get ready for the gym. What's funny is it always feels like no time at all since dinner, but tonight, I could've left 40 minutes ago. I've been lazy and trying to think of an excuse to not go.

I may have found it. I'm watching the Food Network and getting ideas for Thanksgiving dinner. We're staying at our house for the holidays this year. My brother will probably drive up, and K's work friend and his wife might be joining us if they don't head home for the holidays.

I've never cooked turkey, and I've never cooked real stuffing. This is going to be a big deal for me! Giada De Laurentiis just told us to not try any new recipes at the holidays, since you don't want that additional stress and have to worry about feeding it to your friends and family. Ha! Like I'm gonna be trying any of this crap on my own this week! If K's not here, I'm not cooking!

For the days when you need a pick-me-up

I saw a link to this site on PostSecret, and it's amazing!

http://1000awesomethings.com

Good thing I didn't read this article a year ago

Check out the needle-in-a-haystack trick these sanitation workers did. If I'd read this article last December, I'm not sure I wouldn't have tried for a little miracle myself!

Jury is back, and it's not good

I'm not a quitter. I don't want to be, anyway. But I hate this job.

There's nothing really bad about it, I guess. It's not unbearable. But I don't like it. My coworkers are OK, but the work itself? Not so good. I thought when I applied that this would be an admin/editing job. It's neither. It's entirely data entry. For a newspaper.

A newspaper.

I'm not a newspaper person. I struggled with that at my first job in Dallas. I felt like an outsider wandering the halls while everyone around me tried to figure out how to get people to subscribe to the paper again. I didn't subscribe, and I didn't want to.

The money isn't that good here. Not good enough to convince me to stay. But I can tough it out for the two months the job lasts, right?

Only there's so much memorization. So many special cases, and so many things that change on a regular basis. I've noticed myself zoning out when I get crazy code updates. I can't justify paying attention and committing these thigns to memory if I'm just going to be here for two months.

No matter what happens, I'm not in it for the long haul, so I've decided it's not worth the effort. It's nice earning a paycheck again (even if it is smaller than what it was 6 months ago). But is that enough reason to stay at a job that's not worth the effort?

For now, I've decided that my job search is not only back on, but it's in high gear. If I can find a job -- any job -- to take the place of this one, I can justify leaving to myself. But until then, I'll continue what I'm doing now: Thinking every five minutes about how much I'd like to just get up and never come back.

Restarting the counter

Until K and I moved to VA, the longest we'd been together consecutively was 20 days (his R&R last year). That all changed, though, just days before we moved out of our apartments in Dallas and Louisiana. Since June 24, we saw each other every single day ... until yesterday.

On Tuesday, K had to go to some sort of conference in Arlington. He left just after we met up for lunch.

I've been fine with him gone. It's been barely over 48 hours, so it's not like it's been that long.

But it's funny how you can get used to having someone around so much. He's on his way back home now. It'll be nice to have him back home, especially just in time for our weekly TV date (we love Flash Forward)!

Jury's still out on the job

But I did overhear (and participate in) some interesting conversations on my first day.

Overheard

Twenty-seven-year-old girl discussing (all day long) boys and dates she's been on. Went on one date last week with a lawyer ("Oopsie!") who was decently cute. "We'd make pretty babies!" she said. And she couldn't figure out why she doesn't have a boyfriend. Two words, woman: SLOW DOWN! (She also talked about how she wanted to find a boy to pay off her debt. And if he was fun to look at too, bonus. I'm thinking she's not the most mature 27-year-old I've met.)

Participated

Coworker: "Is your husband in the military?" (looking at my ring while asking)

Me: "Yes."

Coworker: "Is he an officer?"

Me: " ... Yes." (I hate that question, since if a person is asking it, they probably will judge me in some way based on the answer. Never mind the fact that I'M not the officer, and I wasn't born an officer's wife, either. Not to mention the fact I've never lived on post, and my first experience being an officer's wife is at a post where my husband is surrounded by people who outrank him.)

Coworker: "Air Force?"

Me: "No, Army." (What made her pick Air Force?)

Coworker: "Dang it, I was on a roll!"

Participated

Coworker: (incredulously) "You're married?"

Me: "Yes."

Coworker: "How old are you? You look so young!"

Me: "I'm 26."

Coworker: (slightly relieved) "Oh, so you're old enough to be married. You look 21!"

Overheard/Sat cautiously nearby but didn't participate

Nearest coworker strolled in at 10 this morning looking thrilled it was Monday (sense the sarcasm?). She was even more excited to learn that she had a new neighbor, since it meant that half her belongings, which she had arranged on my desk, would have to be confined to her own desk. She asked my boss whose idea it was to put me there. My boss said there was nowhere else for me to go. Coworker offered to move to another area of the building. I thought of telling her I don't bite, but I kept quiet in case she did. (Lucky for me, she's much nicer in the p.m.)

I can hardly wait for tomorrow (sense the sarcasm again?)!