I'm a grown up.

Sometimes the best part of adulthood is that I can do what I want. Like put our Christmas tree up before Thanksgiving. I wasn't planning on it, but I had brought everything out to reassess what we have and what needs to be replaced. Then somehow it just ended up all put together and lit up.
Our tree is hilarious. It was $20 at Walmart last year and it looks like it. But it's small enough that it would have fit in any of the varied apartments we've lived in so we'll keep her around for awhile longer. We must have thrown out our tree topper last year or forgotten to pack it.....and the options on base were slim.
I don't like red, green and gold. It's just not my style. Unfortunately whoever does the buying for the stores here is a big fan of that color scheme. This was literally the only silver topper available. It's so TACKY. So overly tacky that it's almost kitschy.



We are adding three new ornaments to our tree this year. The first is this plaster ornament made to look like an origami dragon. I wanted a crane, but the dragon was more impressive in person.

And a special appearance by Bella and Edward. I can't help but smile when I see them dangling from the tree. They're pretty detailed up close.

Thomas was a must for the tree. I keep him at the very top because my Thomas sees no reason why he can't play with ornament Thomas. Nevermind the 20+ trains he has already.


Ta-da! The final product. She looks a little sparse, like we put her on a diet or something. Part of me wants to fill her up and the other part says it will be fun to watch our tree fill up as the years pass by.


I've been picking out cookie recipes, because while I can't cook to save my life, I can bake very well. Our stockings are waiting to be hung as well as the advent calendar from my childhood. We also have our elf on the shelf hiding away for his Thanksgiving day appearance.

I can't wait.

The neighborhood and paint on my pants.

It's not an ocean view, but it's ours and it's home. These are from our bedroom balconies.




Meanwhile at my feet T was painting his choo choo picture. He was very focused on the task.


I however was not focused....and went out in public like this. Josh "didn't notice" until we were home.

Perhaps it's hypocritical of me...but I sincerely hope T never wears this for real. I don't know that my heart could take it.




But Josh makes it look good. Not that I'm a big fan of dress blues anyway, but it is nice to see him all fancy schmancy with his accomplishments dangling from his uniform.

I've only gone to one Marine Corp ball, we had our first kiss shortly after that ball. We were at our friend Joey's (one step away from being declared a natural disaster) apartment to change out of our formal gear and into after party outfits but Josh was being mopey. Then.....

Angel: What's wrong?
Josh: I'm just tired.
Angel: (Walks right over and plants a kiss on his lips) "Still tired?"
Josh: Nope


The end. Who knew we'd be married three months later?

My boys

I love them.


As a family, we're big fans of gorilla hugs. and fish kisses. and butterfly smooches.

Thomas is the only one who enjoys being held upside down though. He's silly.

Lessons learned.

1. Olive oil and vegetable oil are NOT interchangeable. I don't think I'll be getting a show on the Food Network anytime soon.

2. Always stir vigorously after you let your 2 year old stir for you....or you'll end up with visible egg white ribbons throughout your baked goods.

Does anyone want a piece of the world's worst banana bread??


3. You don't always get what you pay for. I've got a thing for perfume. I have quite a few and I wear it all the time. Josh could care less, but I buy a $10 Bath and Body works spray called Dark kiss and he notices it, mentions it and continues to sniff me. Who knew? Also, the ghetto rigged, double sided tape medal mounting I did, is still holding up and no one noticed at the ball. I'd like to believe it's because I'm amazing...but maybe they were just all distracted by the guy wearing a bunch of medals he didn't earn.

I get an F for preparedness.

So last night, the carbon monoxide detector beeped. I have a HUGE fear of carbon monoxide. I mean, I'm sure it's a calm way to go and all but I'm not really up for dying just yet.

PS. I googled carbon monoxide and the third result was how to kill myself. That's delightful eh?


Anyway, it beeped three times, so of course I ran to it to look at it. The light that is normally green was red. Uh oh. I assumed it meant a battery issue but it's plugged in. Does it have a backup battery pack? I don't know. I can't open it up. There are no screws, there are however two arrows, one pointing north and one pointing east...so that does me no good. I unplugged it and replugged it. No change. So I stayed up for a few extra hours to make sure I didn't start feeling any of the symptoms I learned about in my previous google search. I didn't so I opened all the windows and turned on all the fans and went to bed. I still didn't sleep very well what with my need to have a hand on T's stomach all night.

I think we need to see if they sell these monitors at the BX, you know, ones with English instruction manuals. That would be handy.

I should also really look up how to call 911. And how to use our escape hatches. And keep my phone charged.


Josh gets an F too by the way. He's going to the ball tonight with his medals held together with double sided tape and superglue. He's always mounted his medals himself, but because he has more this year they are supposed to overlap which means we should have had them professionally mounted. Oops. He'll probably get in some trouble for that oversight. I told him he has free reign to blame me somehow. I'm a good wife like that.


It's basically my only redeeming quality today. I'm going to go email our housing agency now to see if they can tell me what's wrong with our detector.

I love peanuts.

Happy Halloween! I've been slacking on my pimpin'. No blogging at all. We rearranged the furniture. Josh got a ($200) speeding ticket. I've wrapped a bunch of Christmas presents. That's the basic wrap up of our lives.




Anywho....T-man was a peanut for Halloween. We chose that costume because the price was right. He's 2. What does he care? I'm happy to report that we did not see one other peanut while trick or treating.

We T or T'ed three times. Saturday night on base at Kadena with a group from Josh's shop.

Saturday afternoon at the BX, where people gave him HANDFULLS of candy.
...and Saturday night on Foster base housing.


He filled his bucket 3 times, and this picture is of only one bucketful. He was very excited about that Ferroro Roche chocolate.



His version of "trick or treat" sounds like trrr trrr. He has been saying more and more words everyday. It's making me feel a lot better. I don't know if anyone else will understand him just yet but Josh and I both do and can now answer "What doin?" and "Wha is at?" 75 times a day.


Saturday is lets go take a crapton of pictures and hope we get at least 3 good ones for the Christmas card day. I'm excited.