Mood:  cheeky

(Colors by Crossfade)

Morning…

Not much going on here. I got a call from the apartment complex and they said they need to check the breakers outside, but due to safety reason they need to wait until it stops raining. Haha. I am definitely cool with that, electrocution isn’t fun…

The pork chops turned out alright, well Flyboy at least really liked them. I wasn’t too hot on them; I think it tasted too much like beef stroganoff. Don’t get me wrong, I like stroganoff, but I have burnt myself out on it, so it will take a while before I won’t mind having it again.

Today we are running the 3 miles again, that should be fun… I plan on trying a pizza type recipe for the crock pot for supper, but I am not sure.

I actually slept until 530; I woke up because I apparently fell off the bed. Haha. I fell asleep around 2000 and then was up and down all night after midnight because I had apparently drank too much water earlier that day.  Grr to that.

Well I hate to go, but Flyboy just got done shaving which is my sign to start packing his lunch.  Hmm… soo much to choose from…

Hope you all have a great day! Take care!

~NikiRose

--------------------------------

Well...scratch that dinner plan... I have NO electricity in the kitchen, dining room or living room. I needed to cook the some of the ingredients on the stove top. GRR. Plus it is supposed to be drizzling ALL day. *sigh* This really blows... =/

~NikiRose

Mood:  chillin'

(Someday by Nickelback)

Morning.

Sorry about not posting yesterday. Monday was such a crazy day, very exhausting too. I was up from 200 talking with Soldier on the computer, and then had to run errands with Flyboy all over base. (Not the fun errands of course, the “waiting for an eternity” ones!)

Anywho, we have been having electrical problems in the apartment more and more frequently, so Flyboy headed to the office and had them file a maintenance slip. I am beginning to think that it was never my microwave and that it was the electrical issues that blew my microwave. We can’t even use the TV. because there isn’t enough power going to it to keep a steady image on the screen, if even that! I was really tweaked when I plugged the can opener into the outlet and it wouldn’t even work. Flyboy and I are thinking that there may be a break in the line since the bathroom, bedroom, AC, washer/dryer and the computer have no problems. I will say good thing I decided to make Crock Pot meals this paycheck, because I doubt the stove will work decent. (I had to plug the Crock pot into the outlet in the bathroom. (It was on the counter of course) This just really agitates me, you know?

Soldier and I didn’t talk about much it was more “chit-chat” than anything else. I really enjoyed talking with him again though. =) He is still scheduled to visit the States at the same time as before and like I’ve said, it all depends on how well he can catch Hops.  

Tonight I am making pork chops in the Crock pot. I have never made them in there before let alone the bathroom either. Haha. But I think they will come out alright.

I have my dentist appointment on Thursday, and luckily Flyboy was able to get it off. I am hoping that he can actually sit in the room with me while they work on my teeth, but who knows.

Speaking of appointments, I went to see the Oral Surgeon and it turns out that my top two teeth will be an easy pull but my bottom two will definitely need to be surgically removed. The great thing is that where they are located, there should be no issue removing them. They are no where near my jaw nerve or my sinuses. Yay me.  The bad news is I have to cough up the whole cost since our insurance has a yearly cap of $1200 and I will have used most of this for these two appointments in May. Blah. It is a really shiny penny too. I am sooo looking forward to giving that penny up… not. Lol

Anywho, I have dishes to do and pork chops to prepare, oh and some laundry to wash too. =S Hope you all are doing well. Take care!

~NikiRose

Mood:  cheeky

Good morning…

Yup, another early start. =( I think I got more sleep than yesterday though, I’m sure that has to be some what of a plus, right? I fell asleep a little after 2000 and woke up around 400 after breaking the fever I had fallen asleep with. I wanted to go back to sleep but when I had gotten up to use the restroom I noticed Flyboy’s BDU’s were still hanging up on the shower rod un-ironed. (He is part of the ATSO Rodeo set up this month. I think I had mentioned a few months back he and some others were actually participating in it, he had to do the Decontamination Line, or something like that. Well anyway, he is helping with set up and he has to wear his BDU’s) So, instead of going back to sleep, I ironed them instead. I’m not upset with him for not ironing him, it pretty much is my fault as to why he didn’t iron them. I laid down on the bed since I didn’t feel good and I had him sit with me for a while. He was exhausted from setting up the ATSO Rodeo, that next thing I know I am wake up at 400 and he’s was in the same spot he was when I asked him to sit with me. Oh man, oh man, were his BDU’s a mess. (I think I need to better explain that.) Generally I keep his BDU’s creased paper thin and if they start to lose that “thin-ness’ it takes maybe and I mean maaaaybeee 5 minutes to re instill those sharp corners. Anyway, he had one of those practice recalls where they call for the 300 pound Deployment Bag and what have you. Well this time for some retarded reason (and I stand by that statement and so does about everyone who had to pack and carry these beasts) they wanted one of the X amounts of uniform sets to be BDU’s. So now my beautifully pressed, sharper than a knights sword BDU’s had to be rolled up and stuffed into an over stuffed bag, ready for a moment’s notice. Bah. Guess what, two weeks later, “oh, by the way, when you show up to help set up the Rodeo, we need you in BDU’s”. Not a problem, except it was the night before, a very informative phone call 2 hours before bedtime. Flyboy assured me he would iron, and he did. I told him he needed starch, and well, you know how men are; they don’t believe you until after they finish the project and realize if they would have listened to you it wouldn’t look as awful as it does now. =P (I heart you Flyboy!) I mean yesterday his uniform looked okay, but after all the work he did, it didn’t hold the creases like it does when I take care of it. (Not to brag or anything. He knows I’m right though. I mean heck, I got kudos regarding his uniform from a Major. =P There was uniform inspection back when he was in the TRS and he was the only one who had a perfect uniform. Hehe. I so totally win! The Major was very impressed with the creases and not to mention the so-shiny-you-can-see-your-reflection-and probably-use-your-boots-as-a-mirror-to-shave type shine. =D These weren’t the boots that come shiny either; I had to put A LOT of work into these ones. Hehe. Anywho I didn’t have to do all that for him, but he was so busy with studying, I felt I had to help some how.) Okaaay… where was I? I have totally lost where I was going with this. Hmmm… OH! So yeah, these puppies seemed like they had never been ironed before, like ever. You could say it took me a bit to fix them. They are hanging up waiting to be worn.

Wow, I didn’t realize the time, Flyboy should be waking up in about 10 minutes. Which means I will be kicked off the computer (between 600-630 is “his” time) and instead of being bored, I will probably make him breakfast. Hmm... What to make him though… OH!!! I know! I got to go, I need to start cooking!!!!

I will back in a few… I hope. Take care!!!

~NikiRose

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Okay, I’m back. Flyboy is in the shower now so the computer is all mine, mauahahahaha. =P I am sure you are curious as to what I made eh?

4 eggs

¼ c milk

¼ c fresh mushrooms chopped

¼ c steak snacks

2 chopped green onions

2 pinches of fresh chopped parsley

¼ cup of cheddar cheese

If you haven’t guessed yet I made a surprisingly VERY tasty omelet. Hehe. We shared it of course. Oh, and instead of topping it with salsa, I heated up some of the Left-Overs from last night and put some of the baked beans and a little of the drippings on it. (About 3 spoon fulls) Flyboy was very happy. =) yay me!

Dinner last night, well… I wasn’t too fond of it. I think it needed some veggies in it, like corn and green beans. It was missing something; I don’t know what though, just seemed too sweet. However next time I make Beef Stew, I will use this recipe as a base.

Tonight Flyboy wants me to make lasagna, little does he know, I’m making a veggie one. =P hehe. Well, I better get dressed; I’m still in my pajamas, so I can take Flyboy to work. I have a lot of cooking to do today, not to mention I still have to separate the fruit. (I lost track of time and I was almost late to my appointment yesterday. Good thing I looked at the clock!!!)

Hope all is well with you. I will fill you all in on the appointment later. For now, Take care and have a great weekend!!!

~NikiRose

Mood:  cheeky

Good morning!

I decided I would take a short break from Grocery Day and write today’s post.

First off, I LOVE THIS WEATHER!!! It has been raining for 3 days now and the 7 day forecast says...

Last night I fell asleep around 2200 and woke up 5 hours later and couldn’t fall back asleep. Apparently my body thinks that 5 hours is enough for someone who didn’t sleep at all the night before. =/ Anywho, I cooked Flyboy up some Breakfast Burritos and brewed him some Orange Tea. Oddly I could only eat one burrito, but I drank all my tea. =D I dropped him off at Flight P.T. and headed for the grocery store. I was $3 under budget and could have been about $10 but I got an extra case of water (the water out here is NASTY and it makes you pretty sick. Base water is tolerable, but I am not into having a soar throat 24/7, you know?) and I also got an extra pound of stew meat. I think I did pretty well, although my goal was to be under by a WHOLE lot, oh well. I don’t think I will have to shop too hefty next pay period since we will be having Left-Overs at each meal this period. (They will be frozen and eaten later. =D )

Iput away all the food that needs refrigeration and I put some of it in the Crockpot. In a few I am going to start bagging up the fruit into individual servings (I hate how onions burn your eyes… grr) and probably eat something for lunch, though what I will have for lunch, I have no clue.

I’m sure you are wondering what is in the Crockpot… Well I am trying a new recipe I found online; it’s called Crockpot Cowboy Stew. So, I have stew meat, diced potatoes (I’m using the little yellow and purple ones, they tend to be cheaper) chopped onion and baked beans in BBQ sauce. I don’t think there is enough sauce so I added about cup of water to it to make sure nothing burns, well and cooks. We shall see how it turns out in about 8 hours. =) I think tomorrow night I will make some stir fry, and yes, I am going to do it in the Crockpot. Hehe. =P

Well before I lose all my motivation to continue my chores (I’m really getting sleepy sitting here) I am going to start bagging up fruit. I hope you all have a great day and watch out for glowing puppies!

~NikiRose

Mood:  not sure

… morning?

Well, I’m awake… again… been for I guess you could say all night. I came across some EXCITING news, kicker is, I can’t share it until after the timeline passes. So I am being eaten alive by this news, kind of a killer lol (no pun intended)

Flyboy requested I make him a country style breakfast this morning, so I should be starting that here pretty soon.  I have worked on my grocery list for this upcoming shopping trip and I am hoping I can achieve a new “under budget” record. =) I am feeling lazy so for this pay period, our meals shall be cooked by the slow cooker, with the exception of two, but even so that is like 10 days of slow cooker meals. That should keep the dishes down, I hope…

Flyboy and I have discovered his serious coffee addiction, so we are weaning him off and putting him on tea. (The natural kind that looks like potpourri… much, much healthier =) I put like 2 spoon fulls in the coffee pot and it works GREAT!) Yeah, I sort of made the mistake of having some Orange Tea before bed, so that didn’t help with the sleeping either. =/

This month is going to be a VERY busy month.  I have two dentist appointments this month, the 7^th and I have yet to schedule the next one. Flyboy has Monday the 4^th off and that day will consist of running around base updating documents. The next week (week of the 10^th) Flyboy’s work schedule is really screwy and he may not get off work until late. (Bah to training) The next week, (week of 17^th) that Monday is looking like a day off, and he has already scheduled one of his comp days for the Tuesday following. That Friday, 22^nd, is an off day due to Memorial Day weekend and the last week of the month I have to ready EVERYTHING for the trip, not to mention Flyboy is flying sometime this month too! (Knowing our luck it will probably be right before we leave too!) Somewhere in there I need to coordinate things with Soldier, BlueEyez and Bob regarding this trip not to mention talk with Radar to see if he would house sit for us.  Busy, busy, busy.

Umm… I don’t know much of anything else at the moment. I guess I shall let you all go for now. If anything else news pops up, I will let ya know. Until next time… Take care!

~NikiRose

Mood:  accident prone

Morning…

I hope you all were able to sleep last night. I went to bed around 1900 and then woke up at 230 and had a really hard time falling back to sleep, even though I was so tired I could barely keep my eyes open.

I did dishes and made Split Pea Soup yesterday, Flyboy was really excited. I think the soup came out pretty decent this time. I decided to add some crushed Triscuits and a dash of shredded cheddar cheese to my bowl and it tasted YUMMY!!!

I talked to Soldier yesterday morning. He got the packages I sent and had to fight off his buddies from eating the goodies I sent. Don’t worry, I packed a couple magazines for them to flip through, so they got something too. He is still coming out at the end of May, but as of when he gets to Cali, he has no clue. They are making him take HOPS rather than going commercially, so he may be there on schedule or he may be there after we get out there. I am crossing my fingers that he gets there before we do, otherwise that will really screw things up for him. =/ He is doing pretty well out there; he has discovered that he likes Lotus Seeds. (They were part of the nut/trail mix I sent him, you know, the mix I make for Flyboy…) That is pretty much it for Soldier.

I am hoping I can push having Left-Overs for dinner tonight. Flyboy isn’t a big fan of Left-Overs, but I think after an intense Squadron P.T. a nice hot, thick bowl of Split Pea will hit the spot.

I STILL haven’t found the cause of that smell, so I am going to conduct a follow up investigation. Grr. Well, I better let you go for now. I am really thirsty and need to find my water bottle… Take care!

~NikiRose

Mood:  hungry

Hey there everyone!  Flyboy here! 

Ok. So I got the day off today for getting up at 0430 yesterday to work the City’s Marathon.  It is very nice to get some days off when we work on the weekend.  Sometimes I feel as if I work in a very thankless work environment.

For the past couple of months, I’ve practically been the only scheduler, and it had fallen upon my shoulders alone to take the task of keeping my office operational.  I will admit that I had gone in over my head, and I began to make mistakes.  I suppose that I had protected myself from repercussions with my integrity; I owned up to the mistakes I made and pointed out the things that were out of my control.  Finally, over the last several weeks, I made several suggestions to Leadership to hire some new schedulers and get new people trained up.  I am now the Scheduling Trainer, and am on the backburner to schedule.  In a way, I am glad to have the break, so I can refocus on managing my weight issues, but at the same time, I can hardly handle the idle time that happens on a daily basis.

Now, normally, when things start going like this, I would take some leave, get some R&R and come back to work somewhat refreshed.  But right now, of course, I am saving up my leave for a big, true vacation; our trip to Cali. I have some reservations, however, to the trip.  I suppose that I can’t help but be critical, I suppose that I can only handle so many of the troubles in Niki’s past.  I just get the thought that I need to vent all this out, because Niki is extremely stressed and struggles with a very deep depression and general distrust of everyone.

It bothers me to hear of all the manipulation and downright childishness that had occurred when Niki’s father passed away; his death occurred in a very vulnerable period in both Niki and Soldier’s lives.  This was a time when they needed a family to cling on to, but I feel that in all of the emotional distress that occurred in the aftermath of his passing, my wife and her brother were almost forgotten in the feud that waged on.  I can see that her dad was truly a gift to all of you, and the void that he left behind is a reminder of how much love he had for all of you.  The problem, however, is how divided the family became in his absence.  I can understand the frustration, the disappointment and the sadness that filled all of your hearts.  I can understand how you felt when Mississippi Mom moved on so quickly, but I can assure you that she too was grieving, and that is the path that she turned to; I feel that she had fallen into a deep denial that she is just beginning to recover from.  She has admitted to me that she regrets some of her decisions as she was blinded with pain.  On the other hand, I must say that the way that she (and my wife and her brother) was shunned away from all of you is a very unfortunate choice. Mississippi Mom was left with no one to lean on, and the choices she made were an attempt to find some comfort and peace in the absence of her family. I understand that you all felt betrayed, that you felt, “this is too soon”, but to turn it into a feud has created deep emotional scars in my wife; scars that I will end up spending the rest of my life trying to heal.

What saddens me the most is that the rift in the family continues even today.  While I can see that many of the negative feelings have faded, I sense that it still rages underneath the surface, a raging fire that burns all of your hearts.  This fire has consumed much of the family: it has divided where love should have conquered.  It breaks my heart.  What’s worse, I know that this rant of mine may not even begin to heal the wounds.  I know that this will also take the entirety of my life to repair, and I may also be isolating myself.  But I feel that I must take a stand: for the sake of my wife, for the sake of her brother, for the sake of everyone involved.  All this resentment without forgiveness is sin in its finest…

I don’t mean to be rude about all of this, I just want to make this family whole again.  I am really concerned about all of it; to have Niki partially dreading a trip home speaks much about her pain.  It says to me that things are dysfunctional, especially when she was raised in a Christian home.  The fact that a family has broken apart so badly tells me that Niki’s father was an especially great and loving man.  I can see this in Niki’s gentle determination to make things right in this world; in Soldier’s desire to protect the ones he loves; in Niki’s dad’s own writings and teachings about the bible and how we all should live as Christians.  They all speak to me, and tell me that this would not be the way he wanted things to be.  He lived a peaceful life, an example of who we should strive to be.  I think that he would tell us all that it is time to forgive each other, and remember how he lived, and love each other with the same passion that now burns in his children’s hearts.

I guess that I have ranted enough for one day… after all, I do have the day off! Lol…

Flyboy out.

Mood:  irritated

Morning.

I hope everyone’s day gets off to a good start.

There isn’t much going on here. Flyboy landed safely last night and had a good flight.

I’m sorry this is so choppy, but I am in a bit of a bad mood, and really don’t want to get into it. Hopefully this weekend off from driving will help.

Take care, have a great weekend.

~NikiRose

Mood:  accident prone

Morning,

Not much going on here, which is more than fine with me. Today I have a feeling will be a BEAUTIFUL day, definitely a day to head to the beach, but apparently we don’t live close enough.

Flyboy is doing his “thing” today, hope he packed himself enough food in his lunch =S I was so out of it this morning, I am surprised that I actually got him to work alright. Yesterday we worked out at the gym near the squadron again. I really like this one, it has a very comfortable atmosphere and it smells like dad’s shop in Cali. Hehe. (Very happy smell) Anywho, we were going to run for 3 miles, but Flyboy was, lets face it, a dummy, and didn’t bring the proper clothes for running, so he had us do some toning instead. I didn’t find this out until AFTER we were heading home. If I he would have told me earlier, I would never have had us jump on the treadmills. He is lucky he didn’t make this mistake on Squadron P.T. day. Haha. I heart my dummy. =) For some reason though we were there for over 2 hours, it was pretty fun really. I think it is because I shot some hoops while he was still stretching. (I stretched while he was changing out of is uniform… a good 20 minute stretch) Tomorrow I will make sure he packs everything so we can run again.

We had spaghetti for supper, with salad of course. My last shopping trip I decided to buy a jar of Ragu, just because I am getting tired of making spaghetti sauce from scratch, especially when I am starving. I got the veggie mix one, It was pretty good, but waaaaaaaay too sweet. I like my sauce with that rich garlic smell accompanied by a nice spicy kick. Not what I got though. Flyboy packed what I didn’t finish last night for his lunch today, I just home the ovens are working on the plane.

I really need to wake up… I get plenty of sleep but every morning with the exception of one a week, Flyboy wakes me up in the middle of a sleep cycle, so I am more groggy than I should be.

Anywho, I think I may get the laundry going, that always seems to make me wake up. Hope everyone is doing well, Take care!

~NikiRose

Mood:  smelly

Good morning,

I hope you all are having a decent morning so far. =)

I got a call back from the Med Group yesterday and apparently I have a perfectly normal knee. Go figure… Anywho they wanted to know if I wanted to do therapy for it and I think I will pass. The pain is very intermittent; it was just that the last time it was horrible. That moveable piece didn’t show up on the x-ray and they have no idea what it could be.

My dentist appointment went quite well. I REALLY like these people, they know what they are doing and are very nice, not creepy nice either. I am really excited with that, well as much as I can be. Due to unforeseen factors, they weren’t able to do the cleaning, so they rescheduled me for May 7^th. Yay? The Dentist looked at my wisdom teeth and said that he could pull the top two no problem, but the bottom two would definitely need an Oral Surgeon. Yay? So I have to call the Surgeon up later this morning and schedule a consultation appointment, and then go from there. They aren’t too worried about my wisdom teeth, mainly just the cleaning. Though he said that if my wisdom teeth were my number one priority to go ahead and get that taken care of first. I am really glad I didn’t feel pressured to do anything; you know how they like to guilt trip you and everything. I am more at ease, well as much as I can be.  Right now I am crunching numbers to work it into our budget.

Other than that, our trip to Cali is so far still on for the set dates. I haven’t heard anything out of Soldier, but that reminds me. You will NEVER believe the odds of this…

Flyboy’s flight just got a new guy and he is married to a gal with my first name. We knew this for a while, no big sweat, right? Wrong. Flyboy brought up our Cali trip, and then how he couldn’t wait to have a nice piece of Tri-Tip, my hometown style. The guy totally agrees thus sparking a very interesting conversation… Ready? Well she and I both went to the same high school, when I was a freshman she was a senior. Yeah, and we both have the same first name, and lived a few blocks from each other. That is pretty ironic, but the fact that we both have the same first name, each married an Airman, that both wound up at this base, in the same squadron, in the same flight, and yeah, the EXACT same job class. (There are two different job classes in Flyboy’s flight, the computer nerds and the jocks who pedal the exercise bikes that turn the rotor domes, Haha. ((Not really but basically yeah))) He, like Flyboy is the nerd. At first, I didn’t believe them, so I looked her up in the year book and yeah sure enough. I think I had a class with her, like a math class or something. I specifically remember that name because the teacher had to use our last names to separate us. But yeah, what are the odds on that?!? Really kind of freaky... Luckily his name isn’t Flyboy( Haha), that would be a little over the top, and I think Flyboy has a much higher I.Q. *cough* 145 *cough* Though, they have kids, and we don’t yet, but still, I mean, come on… They are going out to Cali after we get back, should be interesting. Haha.

I think that is it for now. I am cooking the steak to make steak snacks and then I might put some split pea in the crock pot, I don’t quite know. We had tacos last night and I discovered the source of the smell. The hamburger!!!!!! It really tweaks me in the wrong way, because that meat hadn’t even been in my fridge for 7 days!!!!! I got jipped by the commissary again, grr. Oh well. As long as it doesn’t smell anymore, right?

Well, I better get to my daily chores. I have been informed that we are out of spoons… *rolls eyes* Take care everyone!

~NikiRose