mff.

1. If you were a famous movie star, what types of movies would you star in?
Romantic comedies. I'd get to be happy, depressed, angry and in love all in one movie! I'd really get to show off my range...While I'm at it, I'd be happy to fill in for Hermione in Harry Potter. Call me.


2. What is a vacation you would like to take if money were no object?
I would like to go to Europe for 3-4 weeks.  Italy, England, Germany, France, Greece and Ireland. Then I would like to stop in the Bahamas for a week to recuperate. Then on my way back to CO, I would like to stop at Disney World and the Wizarding World of Harry Potter for about 5 days. Make that happen, k?


3. Did you have pets growing up?
I had tons and tons of fish- goldfish, betas, neon fish...the list goes on and on. Fish are great pets. Very low maintenance. Very fun to watch. Very fun to assign personalities to. I loved having fish so much that I even kept them as pets in college and in our first apartment. Spicy, Latte and Magellan were the best goldfish I ever had. I cried when they all died.

I also had a rabbit, Fluffy. Fluffy was a great bunny. He loved to roll around in the snow like a puppy. He was cute and cuddly and the closest pet we ever got to a puppy. When Fluffy died, I was in the third grade. My friend Carolina wrote me a sympathy card that said "I will pray for your rabbit up to summer." I'll never forget how much she cared. Her prayers meant the world to me.


Finally, I had a cockatiel, Squeaky. Squeaky scared me, because he nipped and his claws were always too long. 
We used to wear gloves to pick him up. Once he was out of his cage, he'd fly around the den like a maniac and land on the curtains where we could reach him. So you understand that we couldn't care for Squeaky well enough. We ended up giving him to my mom's best friend and bird lover, where he eventually met an untimely death due to an impacted bowel. To this day when I go into my parents house I can hear Squeaky welcoming us home. EEP! EEP!!


4. What do you do for exercise?
Oh boy. Now I actually have to put it in writing. In November, I started a 9 week training program- Couch to 5K. I went from not being able to run more than a mile without collapsing for an hour afterwards to being able to run 3+ miles every time I head out with only about a 5 minute recovery at the end of it. This program is awesome and totally attainable for anyone willing to try. I am extremely proud of myself for starting and finishing the program this month. This past week, I ran my first real race, the Jack Quinn's 5K, in Downtown Colorado Springs. I never walked, and I finished my fastest 5K to date. Now I'm continuing to train for the 5K on St. Patrick's Day. (I hope Andy will be home to run this with me) So. For exercise, I run. I'm a runner.


5. What is the best piece of advice you've ever received as a MilSpouse?
Nothing is set in stone, so don't have any expectations.

ten and change.

Ten months officially down this month. The deployment is finally coming to a close. You can tell everyone is getting really anxious to have their husband's home. We all seem more stressed, more sensitive, more impatient, more needy. In the new year, I've been known to say things like, "If this is what its going to be like for the next few weeks, I'LL NEVER MAKE IT" or "I'M RAPIDLY APPROACHING MY BREAKING POINT!" Slightly crazy? Yes.  But don't judge me. I'm judging myself enough for the both of us. I think this is what they are talking about when they say the last two months are the hardest...

In other news, I became the FRG Leader for my husband's company this month. I'm sure it won't put me over the edge. A second full time job, complete with the questions, concerns, rants and raves of tons of wives and family members who feel just like I do and possibly worse? I'm sure I'll be just fine. It's only been a few weeks and it has taken a lot out of me already, but I anticipate that once our guys get home things will mellow out. All of the families will be ready to be just that again....a family. And I'm not going to get in the way of that.

In actuality, I'm really glad I took the position. I love leadership roles. I love the support and loyalty I'm able to show for my husband and his job. I'm enjoying the new relationships I've already formed with the families. I truly care about them very much. It gives me comfort to worry about the needs others more than my own. With every email I send out to the families, I try to remind them of the relief that will come, when our husbands, sons and daddys return home from deployment. And I'm so glad I will be here to help guide them through these last crazy weeks. I'm going to do everything I can help them through this time of almost impossible change.

So. 10 months down, huh? Way to go, Dark Knights!!!

mff.

1. What do you usually want to know about someone when meeting them for the first time?
I like to know where people are from. Then I play "7 Degrees of Separation" in my head to see if I know anyone who even maybe lives in their state. I love the long shot of- "Oh do you know Jane Doe? She's from Utah, too!" 'Oh no...I don't....Utah's a big state." I also think knowing where someone is from can tell you a lot about who they are- their dialect, their personality, their food preferences, etc.


2. Would you rather know everything about your spouse, or be regularly surprised?
I'd rather know everything about him. I don't like surprises very much. I much rather like the opportunity to be prepared, to know what's coming. Who wants to be surprised by a skeleton in the closet? Creepazoid.


3. If you could live in one city for the rest of your life, where would you live?
London. Great pace. Great transportation. Great history. Great shopping. Great markets. Great people. Great tea. Great sandwiches. Great parks. Great flats. Great palaces. Great accessibility to Europe. Great everything.


4. When you go out of town, what one material thing do you ALWAYS take?
iPhone 4. Internet/phone/music/games. What more could you need?


5. Using no more than 10 nouns, and ONLY nouns, describe yourself.
Wife. Daughter. Sister. Military. Internet. Music. Puppy. Runner. Reader. Volunteer.

mff.

1. What are you looking forward to most in 2011?
...this question is a gimme! I'm most looking forward to my husband coming home from Iraq. He's been gone for 10 months. I'm ready.



2. What is something random you do on a boring night when your significant other is away?
...also a gimme? I sit at the dining room table and write this post on my blog.


3. What has been your greatest adventure as a MilSpouse?
...this is just getting ridiculous. Ahem. This deployment has been my greatest adventure as a MilSpouse. Highs and lows, ups and downs, its been an adventure to say the least.


4. What is the ugliest fashion trend you ever bought into?
Platform shoes, overall shorts, scrunchies, purple lipgloss- to name a few.


5. What was the high point of last month?
Being home with my parents for New Years Eve. We had an amazing dinner, played games, talked, laughed and made fun of Dick Clark (I know, we're absolutely horrible and it's NEF). But we made up for it by setting the house alarm off at midnight and then banging pots and pans and blowing our vuvuzela on the front step. I just know the neighbors appreciated it. Happy New Year!

not even funny.

I went home to New York for Christmas this year. Being around family seemed like the only way to make it through the biggest holiday of 2010 without Andrew. For some reason though, I guess this holiday was destined to be a gong show...

I took the red eye to JFK and got the most literal translation of the flight- red eyes from lack of sleep. I think I got about 30 minutes, just after we had taken off. When I woke up, I was convinced I had slept for 3 hours. No such luck. I arrived in New York on Christmas Eve at 6AM, totally exhausted. I took a 3 hour "nap," in the middle of the day and spent the rest of the afternoon with my parents decorating the Christmas tree and putting out our gifts. I kept myself up for the midnight church service, where I sang in the choir with my mom. I got hit with a nice wave of sleep-deprived nausea about halfway through that, but the service was everything I remembered it to be: serene, beautiful and filled with the holiday spirit. Just what I needed.

Christmas day I woke up with an hot, swollen and infected big toe. Very random and very painful. My sister and her husband came over for our family gift exchange in the morning, where I iced my toe and contemplated going to an emergency clinic to have my toe lanced. In the end, I opted to just do a hot foot bath with hydrogen peroxide in it. FYI- it worked! My extended family came over for a delicious lasagna dinner that evening. And my grandmother had a fantastic gift for the whole family (all 18 of us)- tickets to Mary Poppins on Broadway, the very next day!

So the next morning, we woke up to some very dark gray clouds, threatening huge amounts of snow. True to form, they started dumping buckets (18 inches total, when all was said and done) onto quite an unprepared Long Island. With threats of suspended train service to and from NYC, part of our family made the decision to forgo the musical and hunker down at home. The other part saw a supercalifragilisticexpialidocious show and then got stranded in the city. Looks like one thing went my way this trip!

The rest of the visit went relatively well. I was able to drive to NJ to see some college friends for dinner. I did some shopping/returning with my mom, dad and sister. And before I knew it, it was Wednesday night. Time to hop a flight on JetBlue, back to Denver.

I got to the airport about 2 1/2 hours before my scheduled departure; waited in a bag drop line for over an hour; waited on security for about 45 minutes; and then waited at the gate for another hour, through two delays and an eventual cancellation, due to a lack of First Officer. The plane was at the gate. The pilot was present. 3 in flight crew members were ready to go. But for some reason, the FO decided not to show up. No warning. Just a nice cancellation at 10:15PM. I waited in the info line for about an hour, before getting through faster on the phone to JetBlue where I was told the next available flight was Monday night. A five day layover? AND no offer to pay for a new flight, nor for my additional parking fees and dogsitting fees? Cool. Thanks, JB. Give me my money, bitch.

So New Years in New York it was. Although I missed my pup and friends like crazy, I couldn't have planned a better way to ring in 2011. Filet mignon with a roquefort sauce, roasted cauliflower with pine nuts and garlic, salad and pinot noir? Yes, please. And my husband was able to call me from Iraq, to wish me a happy new year at the stroke of midnight. Things that went my way tally: 2.

All looked good for my flight this evening. I flew through security, paid $10 for a cup of coffee and a bottle of water, and was at my gate with an hour to relax. That's when things started slowing down. The plane arriving from Denver was delayed about 20 minutes getting to the gate, which delayed us boarding  by about an hour. Then we sat on the tarmac for 1 hour and 45 minutes, before taking off. Just sitting there. Why board us, if we ain't goin nowhere? Torture: You know when it's real.


I'm in the air now, utilizing free holiday wifi courtesy of Google Chrome (we're up to 3, now). I should land just after 10PM, an hour late, which means I won't be able to pick Lily up until tomorrow morning. Do I need to go on? But wait! Stay tuned...because I'm sure my car will be under a foot of snow in the airport parking lot, and it will be -6 degrees as I try to clean it off with my sleeve...

NEF: not even funny. (My 8 year old cousin came up with the new acronym. Add it to the list.)