Car Shopping is for the.......Humans

I'm finally doing some serious car shopping! After my failed Cash for Clunkers attempt where I decided on a Saturday to trade my car in for a new, tiny one and then they decided Saturday night to end the cash for clunkers deal a couple years ago...B and I have finally decided (well, with the Air Force and the 18 hours my car has to go to get to our new home) that it's time to get a new car for me.

Hopefully, my car will hold on until May/June-ish, and I'll be getting one then. But, I've been doing some serious research and I've narrowed it down to two vehicles that are highly similar that are both 2 wheel drive, automatic, 4-cylinder, small suvs. Only difference is about $3,000--however, one is a little bigger than the other so the difference makes sense. I'm going to try to test drive both in the next couple weeks.

The nominees are:

Toyota RAV4 (yes, this color)



OR

Hyundai Tuscon (yes, this color)




Thoughts?

Dude, Just Close the Closet

Writer's Workshop!

Although I'm rather late on it this time around. But I'm avoiding grading super long character diaries (in retrospect this was a horrible assignment to give--I have to spend wayyy too much time grading them).

This week's topic: One pet peeve that shouldn’t drive you crazy, but does.

My pet peeve?

Open Closets.



They drive me insane.

I don't know why. I hate when the closet is open. It bothers me a lot. I mean...it has doors for a reason. You opened it, why can't you close it?

Closets always feel messier than the rest of the room to me. But, when it's closed, no one notices and everything looks clean and shiny.

This applies to every room in every type of building. If there's a closet, it should be closed. End of story.

I mean...doesn't this just look like crap?



It would look so much nicer if it were closed.

Dude, just close the closet.

Tidbits and Things

Not too many exciting things have been going on lately. Tomorrow is Valentine's Day! Exciting! Unfortunately, B and I aren't even in the same state so it will kind of be a bust. Maybe I'll hang out with my single friends? I think that's a viable option.

However, I get to see this shining face ALL next weekend:




B just went to Alabama for a training, and that's a minor 10 hours from here compared to the 18 hours Wyoming is, and I have a 4 day weekend so I'm going to see my hubby! I'm excited!

In other news...

Brady was sick not this last weekend but the weekend before that, slept with me, slept on my face, and I STILL have some of her illness.

I've decided that I need to move my chapstick because Brady knows it's location too well. When I cleaned yesterday I found three stray chapsticks stuck around under furniture and stuff. Usually, she just gets some out, holds it up and says "Mammay did you buy this for me?" My thought is usually something like ...yes, and that's why I put it wayyy back in that drawer so it would be easily findable--surprise! But I just say "yes" and she goes "thank you for buying this for me Mammay. i love it." And then we go shopping and she tells me everything I try on looks "beautiful" on me while doing this...




And all is forgiven.

I got a new smartphone. Much different than my basic slider with no keyboard was. However, it's autocorrections are simply fantastic. I tried to type something about my mom being home to take someone to the airport today and it replace "mom" with "abduction".....good times!

And, lastly, I discovered that I'm missing a Reba CD and a Sara Bareilles CD case. I'm pretty sure they are together having a super awkward party. But, in any case, I'd like to rediscover both of them!

See what you haven't missed in my seriously pathetic lack of posting?? ;)

Owlcakes

Last week we had a couple snow days and, although I'm sure I'm probably the only one who felt this way, I was incredibly bored. I mean, I never mind getting the "you have a snow day" call in the morning, but I'm kind of on a deadline this semester with certain lessons that need to be taught at certain times, so I'm really not that into them at the moment. So I decided to go get some materials to make some sugarplums and some cupcakes. I took the sugarplums in for a couple classes and some coworkers at lunch on Monday, but didn't make the cupcakes until last night.

I chose this design a long time ago, because they are pretty easy to make and relatively cheap. I think they turned out pretty well...




My first bell couldn't just accept the treat...they were all "WHY did you bring us cupcakes? Is it your birthday?" And I'm all "...um, can't I just like you?" Any other class and it would have been a bribe, but not this class!

I had a couple left over and took them to lunch where a couple people decided that, because I brought sugarplums on Monday and these today, that I'm a super crafty person. I don't know if that's a good thing or not? But I mean...at least they'll remember my cupcakes when I leave in May :D

Now I have to figure out some cupcake creation to make for Little Man's birthday this weekend! I want to make some kind of cupcake cake (one that does NOT fail) like a racecar or alligator or something, but I'm not sure if I'm good enough for that.

Any suggestions?

Actual Update Say Whaa?

I know it's been awhile since I've made an actual life update instead of just pictures! But, this time, it's happening! In fact, I don't even have a picture for this post. Fact.

I got back to Ohio on December 27th and left my poor hubs at our new base wayyy out west. I started teaching again on January 3rd. I really do like teaching, but I've been to several different schools for my degree in the last couple years and, frankly, they were starting to make me hate it. This particular placement, however, is absolutely amazing. I have juniors and seniors, which is quite a different scene from the freshman and sophomores that I have had in the past, and I love it. Looove it. Plus, I have a pretty awesome teacher working with me this time, which is also a far cry from the usual.

B is lonely out in the middle of nowhere, but he really loves his job so it's not that horrible. He has some training about 10 hours from here in February and I have a 4 day weekend, so I'm going to head down and see him then. I think I'm also finally going to make the jump from my local cell phone service to Verizon so we're on the same phone plan.

Question: Droid Incredible--yay or nay?

I haven't been too super busy lately as I have no classes this semester and I only work my part-time job on the weekends. I'm not used to not being busy. I'm not sure how to handle it--I was bored within 30 minutes of waking up today.

Fortunately, this is a pattern that looks like it's going to continue for awhile. The last couple years I feel like everything I've done, I've done super quick. Last year I had to hurry up and get all my finals done in May, because our wedding was that weekend. The morning after I finished doing 10 credit hours in 5 weeks last summer we left for our honeymoon. The morning after I finished taking all my finals early in December, we left to move 18 hours away. It's been go-go-go.

But, this summer, I have nothing to do. It's just me and work, and some glorious weekends at the lake! B will be at a training, so I'll visit once or twice, but other than that...I have nothing until August.

I hope I don't go stir crazy!

Make it Melt

This post is part of Mama Kat's Writer's Workshop.

Prompt: The last time your heart melted.

Exactly 2 weeks ago, the midget and I both turned another year older. Brady turned 3, and I turned...well, another year older.




Now that she's three, she constantly says things to me that just make my heart smile. I save messages she, somehow, manages to leave on my cell phone because there is just nothing that's much more adorable.

But, the last time she really caused a full on heart-melting was about a year ago, after she had just turned 2 years old.



She had gotten up a little before me. I could hear her playing with her toys in the living room for probably about a half an hour before I joined her. I should say that this is not unusual...she gets up before me all the time.

But, on this day, I walked into the living room. She heard me come in, turned around, yelled my name and ran to me with her arms up. I should also say that this is quite normal, as well.



However, her royal cuteness wasn't done acknowledging me. She put her two tiny hands on each side of my face and exclaimed, "Mammay, I love you."

This is the first time she had said this without someone prompting her too. She then wrapped her arms around my neck tight and put her head on my shoulder. And my heart was lava.

I just love my midget.

Decoration Station

Our house has grey carpet. Which I love. Except that every room, sans the kitchen and the bathroom (which are both brown and cream), has brown furniture. But, since I'm back in the eastern time zone and B is still at the house in the mountain time zone, I'm done decorating until I go back in the summer.

So far, this is what we have. I know it's lame, but we had very few days to get everything unpacked, organized, and put together and even fewer dollars to decorate with.

This is the only room we really attempted to decorate. And it's still curtain-less. I bought blue curtains and received green curtains, so they went back. :(

Living Room:




Kitchen




Spare Bedroom



Who ever lived in our house before us decided to paint the basement dark purple, so I'll spare you that picture :)

Funny Faces

Merry Christmas! A day late, I know. Tomorrow I have to leave here and go back to our home state, as I start teaching again on Jan 3rd until May. We have the house set up here and relatively done. I'll post pictures and such in the coming week.

But, for now, I just wanted to show you some adorable faces of one of my newest nephews, Raj.

Like this adorable face when he's happy...



And then this adorable face when he thinks something is hilarious...



Does that face not make you the happiest human in the world??

Things We've Found Around Here

Chalk messages on downtown walls...



Giant boots...



More antelope than I care to acknowledge...



And giant fields of buffalo...




We meet with the inspector to do a walkthrough of our house in Tuesday, and we move in on Wednesday barring any drastic issues. We plan on having everything put away, put together, and the living room decorated for Christmas (...we won't be sharing the rest of our house with anyone back home, because we don't have time to make them look pretty!) by Christmas! It ought to be fun!

20 Hours Later!

We made it!

We made it through Indiana, which I failed to photograph.

Then Illinois...


Then Missouri...


Then Kansas, where we missed the state line but found this awesome sunset...


By the way, I hate Kansas.

Then we made it through Colorado...


And, finally, to Wyoming!




We were here for less than an hour before we almost hit an antelope, and then found a mall :) Tomorrow we'll go exploring a bit more and check in with housing to see if we might get into our place pretty soon. If we're even getting a place on base!