The Sweater Was Black

Ever have those days where you feel like your head is on upside down? I know I’m in for a long one when I start by showing the guards at the gate my credit card instead of my ID, or fix myself a mug of creamer and Splenda, then brew hot water and forget the coffee grounds!

Last night, after a particularly trying day, I left my cell phone at the Thai place. I’d called in a to-go order as a pick-me-up for myself, and ended up driving back and forth across town to receive my phone (I sometimes forgot how lost I would be without it, boy was I glad to have it back!).

Thankfully, my favorite food was waiting for me when I got home with phone in hand. Because I am an emotional eater, and green curry is my weakness, it did make me feel better. I may have licked the bowl. I’m not admitting anything, but it may have happened.

I ordered the cat pill box I shared on yesterday’s post, which, in addition to green curry, also made me happy. The orange purse would make me happy too, but I’m pretty sure when LT Fromage checked the bank account, HE might not be happy, so I’ll just enjoy looking at it for now!

Hooray for being half-way through Thursday. Tomorrow is the last day of the work week and when I get home, LT Fromage will be there waiting! Hopefully he’ll be excited to see Beth* nice and clean**!

*I like naming our cars. Mine is Iron Hide, from Transformers, and his is Beth. I named her after I dreamed that LT Fromage was running around on me with a grungy hippy named Beth. Naming his car Beth gave us the opportunity to make silly jokes like “I’m gonna shove this in Beth’s trunk!” Yes. We act like teenage boys sometimes. I won’t even start on “That’s what she said!”….

**I recently lost a bet on what color sweater LT Fromage wore the first time he met my parents. For the record, it was black, not blue. Thanks mom, for finding a picture and settling it. I wish you would have photo shopped a little blue in there before you emailed it to us though. I was going to get a cow, a pet cow! if it was blue! Instead I’m vacuuming dog hair out of the car.

Too Much Time On Etsy.com...

I very badly want an orange purse. I think this one would look great with my green winter coat!

I love the color of the bird (My MIL's favorite color, it's rubbed off on me!) and the locket inside the book

What a darling combo of bird and deer....

My mom loves old skeleton keys, this necklace makes me think of her, and thus, makes me happy

I want this clock. I want a room big enough to display it.

This is such a calming print, I have the perfect place for it in the living room



I need a pill box, because I currently carry around full bottles of Tylenol, Vitamin D, Ibuprofen plus a few others. I want to keep them in tiny, daily doses...

At first, I was put off by this deers strange eyes, but they grew on me...

Cats. Ehm.

Toby the Meerkat

What a beautiful fall day it is here! I hope everyone is enjoying this same weather, wherever you may be.

I had a crisp apple for lunch today in the park, a squirrel and a yellow butterfly for company. A wasp came by, but luckily he didn’t stay long. It’s so nice to enjoy some time outside with a good book (see the side bar for what I’m reading now), even if it is just an hour.

LT Fromage is away (again, as we’ve come to be used to, thankfully it’s only 3 days this time) so tonight will be nothing more than frozen pizza while I watch a few hours of Teen Mom, but I’m looking forward to cooking later this week. I’ve enjoyed our recent trips, but have been looking forward to eating at home again. Last night I was dreaming of the big, fluffy pieces of stuffed French toast I’ll make on Saturday (If you’ve never had stuffed French toast, it’s a must try!). I can’t wait for this weekend, to make beer cheese or maybe broccoli cheese soup and sourdough bread (with the help of my handy bread maker, since baking is not my strong point!), beef stew and bourbon peach cobbler. Soon, I’ll be able to pick up fresh apple and cherry ciders on my way home from work, I can’t wait!

Besides the fall weather and yummy warm foods, a few other things that I’ve been enjoying…

Arrested Development. Have I mentioned before that Netflix + a bluray player = awesome? It does. We just started season 2 and I think it’s tied with the Office for best show ever (Oh yeah, and Teen Mom).

Sweet potato fries dipped in mayonnaise and BLTs with baby spinach (with “fakin’ bacon” on mine, of course!). I don’t know how we both forgot about BLTs, but neither of us had thought of them in years until recently, now, we eat them on Sunday afternoons, yum.

Green curry. Yup, I’m still pretty much obsessed. We tried a place in Kansas City that got great reviews, but I still say nobody beats our little place here in The Little Apple. I think before LT Fromage accepts orders to another post, we’ll have to scout out the Thai restaurants before making any decisions… At least I finally know how to make it at home.

Our cats, Garrett and Toby. Gary already knows sit, speak and roll over so we’re working on beg. Toby can stand up like a little meerkat and it’s one of the cutest things I’ve ever seen, his balance is unbelievable. Next we’ll take on speak.

(They could be brothers! Tobes even has the same stripes)

“Smoke A Little Smoke” by Eric Church, “Walking Away” with Zak Brown Band featuring Allen Jackson and Deirks Bentley’s entire new album “Up on the Ridge”; also, “If I Die Young” by Band Perry and “Just By Being You” from Steel Magnolia.

Klondike Bars. Like BLTs, another long forgotten treat. The perfect dessert.

Lamebook.com, regretsy.com, awkwardfamilyphotos.com and awkwardfamilypetphotos.com.

Enjoy the fall weather, before winter sneaks up on us! And make some stuffed French toast this weekend, you won’t be sorry!

Note To Self: Always Carry Hand Sanitizer

Happy Monday! (yeah, right)

Florida was a blast, which of course, makes it harder than ever to come back to work today.

The beach house we scored was adorable; I especially loved the 4 post bed and the paintings placed in old window frames. Our ceilings in our place are too short for a bed that fancy, but I’m totally planning to bring the frame idea into our house soon. The location was also great, we could walk everywhere, or, if we didn’t feel like walking, there were a few golf carts (rented for the wedding party) around for anyone to use.

Quick word about the golf carts: I can’t wait to get old and move to Florida or Arizona so I can drive one of those things around everywhere. I’m so gonna pimp mine out with cow spots and paint some flames on LT Fromage’s.

L&P’s wedding was beautiful, it went off without a hitch (even the weather held out, despite rain the days before and after the ceremony) and LT Fromage looked as handsome as ever in his dress blues. L looked stunning; she and P are perfect for each other.

Those newlyweds really like to drink. I wouldn’t call them alcoholics because they seem to have it under control, but P ordered a PBR at breakfast on Friday. I’m just saying. There was a full bar, provided by the couple, at the beach house that served as the main congregating area for the weekend. There was Maker’s Mark, which is LT Fromage’s favorite, and I’m not sure how much wine I drank, but it may have been counted in bottles instead of glasses; I had mango margaritas and then there were the “beergaritas”, which are a great combo L served up using margarita mix, Bud Light Lime and tequila. LT Fromage and one of his friends were excited to have found Yuengling on tap, so between the three of us we downed 7 pitchers on Friday night. I’m not sure I’ve ever had so much alcohol in one weekend. I may have consumed more alcohol last weekend than in my 25 years leading up to this weekend, but it gave me enough liquid courage to venture out into the ocean.

This was not my first time seeing the ocean. I lived in Long Beach, CA for a while and saw the Mediterranean with LT Fromage on our honeymoon; however I’d never been in the water father than my ankles until this weekend, since I can’t swim. On one hand, I had fun playing in the ocean. On the other hand I thought I was going to drown, my bottom came untied and fell off (Thank GOD I was able to grab it), I swallowed about a gallon of salt water, ended up with sand in places where sand should not be and I got a shark bite*.

*Ok, it’s probably not a shark bite. I probably scraped my finger on a rock. But it hurts and it’s way cooler to say it’s a shark bite, so that’s what I’m calling it.

I don’t know what I was thinking, but I only brought 3 books for the trip. I finished “Party of One: The Loners’ Manifesto” before we even boarded the plane; I read “Too Late to Say Goodbye” during the flight and first night in Florida and was left with only “Running With Scissors” to last me Saturday and Sunday, which of course it didn’t, so I spent the last leg of our journey wishing I read slower or brought another book. Since I didn’t have anything to read, I was very aware of the guy sitting next to me (No, not LT Fromage, the guy on the other side of me) who was picking his nose for the whole flight. After he picked, he would flick it. Or eat it. I really wished I had a book. And some hand sanitizer.

Over all, we had a great time, but I’m glad to be back home and return to our day to day routine, I missed my structure. Fall is defiantly here in Kansas (4 days of Florida beaches made it seems even more cool and crisp when we got back home last night), I’m pretty sure I’m going to bake a pie this weekend and break out the crock pot for some stew or something…

Until Monday....

Happy Anniversary, Mr. and Mrs. Wunderlide

What a wonderful weekend! We stayed at the Hotel Phillips, a beautiful hotel in Kansas City, where we were surprised with chocolate covered strawberries in our room with a card addressed to Mr. and Mrs. Wunderlide. The strawberries were great, the room was lovely, but Wunderlide is not our last name. Close. But not right. (Last year, our honeymoon suite offered a bottle of champagne and a note for the Weatherfords, which is again, not us. We’ve got a tough last name, it happens a lot.)

LT Fromage planned so many fun things for us to do; we started with Mediterranean food on Friday night and saved room for Kadayif, a dee-lish cheese/pastry dessert. We had a yummy breakfast at the hotel on Saturday and then went to the City Market, a 145-stall farmer’s market to check out all the treasures: fresh produce, spices, breads, jewelry and other trinkets. We shared a big bag of kettle corn and freshly squeezed lemon and limeades and went home with a cow bobble head and a bag of Spicy Thai dried pasta (I can’t wait to make it with peanut sauce!).

We had planned on eating Indian food for lunch, but nixed it to try Grinder’s. The valet recommended it to us and when he mentioned it was featured on Food Network’s Diners, Drive-in’s and Dives we decided we had to check it out! LT Fromage got the Bengal, one of their featured pizzas, which is a Northwest India inspired pie covered in tandori chicken and crab. I ordered the Fun Gi instead. After removing everything that had once been alive, I did take a bite of his, since it was the one Guy ate, and it was so yummy! As if the dining experience wasn’t cool enough, there was a garage door across the street painted like a cow, where I insisted we pose for a picture. (I wish we could upload pictures, but right now our laptop is dead and on its way back to the store to be repaired. I've got my camera phone and lifted images from google in the meantime!)

Of course, it rained on Saturday afternoon, and not just a little, it poured. It was reminiscent of our honeymoon where we battled rain all but one night. The weather didn’t stop us from strolling (under the cover of eves) and stopping into shops to look around downtown.

Saturday night we had intended to see “Going the Distance” but couldn’t find a theater showing it, sadness, so we just chilled out for a while before going to the WaterFire show on the river where they lit big fire pits all down the river. There was music, fire dancers, food, drinking and some other cool stuff. Sadly, the rain caused a late start and early finish, but we had a great time anyway.

For dinner LT Fromage had picked a tapas bar, Extra Virgin. Neither of us had ever been to a tapas bar before and it was a great first time! We enjoyed caprese salad, and tried the chick pea fries which were so yummy. I picked the Garrotxa “Cati” cheese that was recommend by the waiter, LT Fromage was daring and ordered Fried Duck Gizzards. I kid you not. Ew. He said he liked them, however. We were so full after we shared a baked pasta fromaggi and a bottle of Riesling.

On Sunday we had Ethiopian food for lunch and some of the best hot spiced tea ever. We bought 2 miniature beer steins at the River Market Antique Mall, which is 4 stories and full of the coolest goodies, including the dinner set I grew up using, the one my parents registered for at their wedding almost 30 years ago! Does that qaulify as antique? I'm not sure. It was fun to see, though!

LT Fromage found a perfect card that made me cry and then laugh at a reference to our “terrible” first year of marriage; he bought me a gorgeous diamond and sapphire journey pendant necklace. He was thrilled with the 17-inch tall beer stein I found for him. We braced ourselves for some wicked freezer burn and cut into the top of our wedding cake. It was surprisingly not that terrible (just like our first year of marriage!).

(Aren't you digging the black and white floor tiles and the cow spots on my fridge? I love my kitchen!)

I hope you all had equally wonderful weekends!

I Love Being Mrs. LT Fromage

LT Fromage and I are celebrating our 1 year anniversary on Sunday. I am so lucky to be married to my best friend, who makes me laugh every single day and always makes me so proud. Plus, he’s crazy good looking.

Since LT Fromage (who was Cadet Fromage back then!) came into my life, 3 years ago, we’ve spent thousands of dollars in plane tickets to share long weekends and attended various formal Military events, including his graduation from West Point. God knows how many minutes we’ve seen on our cell phone bills. Our car has been all over the country and I can now claim that I’ve slept in 2 airports.

We’ve spent as much time apart as we have together and learned that if something’s going to go wrong, it will happen as soon as he leaves; like the time I went down to the basement to relight the water heater and found myself shin deep in water, or when I got laid off the week before Christmas and he was in the field with no cell phone. There was also the time I blew a tire on the interstate in the middle of nowhere 5 hours from home with both dogs in the car. While he was away, he jumped out of planes, planned and led missions, slept in vehicles on cold winter nights and polished his leadership skills with platoons of soldiers.

When the Army isn’t keeping us apart, our life is filled with so many wonderful moments, starting when we spent our honeymoon in Italy; 10 days of a beach-view apartment and some of the best food I’ve ever had. Together we’ve visited a dozen states, eaten at many new restaurants, cooked a million new meals and made so many silly trips, like the time LT Fromage once took me to see a giant cow statue in front of a Best Buy in Columbus, GA (on that same trip, we made a long stop at a field of grazing Holstein’s so I could visit and take pictures). LT Fromage knows how much I love tanks, we’ve been to the Patton Museum a few times and he’s brought home shirts and tiny model tanks; for my birthday this year he took me into a live Bradley and arranged for me to shoot in a simulator. We’ve been to every cheese factory we’ve ever come across and we’re on a never-ending search for the perfect gas station nacho.

LT Fromage and I laugh more than anyone else I know so even the little things, mundane everyday occurrences, often turn into situations where we laugh until we cry. I love the silly little things we do; we have so many goofy games and traditions, inside jokes and stories. We sing in the car and we make up silly songs for our pets; we have tickle fights, we wait behind doors to scream BOO! and we have ongoing competitions for who can interrupt the most yawns (by inserting their finger into the yawners mouth. Except LT Fromage got a little too excited once and almost interrupted a girl from his work. That would have been awkward…). I can’t imagine my life with someone who didn’t love being silly, so when LT Fromage does my favorite “tah dah bow” in his sock and boxers, I fall in love all over again.

I love coming home at the end of the day to a man I love who loves me just as much and takes wonderful care of our little family. He’s always thoughtful and good at making me feel special (Like when he brings me my favorite Starbucks and flowers at work, or gets home early and vacuums and does laundry) and this weekend he’s planned us a wonderful mini-vacay to Kansas City to celebrate our first year as husband and wife. I’m so excited for our getaway where we’ll try some new restaurants and visit the farmer’s market, stop by the renaissance festival and see “Going the Distance” (A cute looking movie about long distance relationships, at which we are pros!), but I’m even more excited about what’s to come: making more memories, establishing more traditions, starting a family that consists of some 2 legged children instead of just 4, facing whatever life brings us as we grow old together (Although LT Fromage would argue that I am already old).

Thank you, LT Fromage, for being such a wonderful husband. Thanks, mom, for making me talk to him 3 years ago, even though I didn’t want to. We owe you one.

Mere Mother Gooseries

I have been singing “Itsy Bitsy Spider” wrong for years. I learned of my error while watching, of all things, MTV.

It does not in fact go like this:

“ The eensie weensie spider went in the water spout
Then came the rain and the spider was washed out
Then came the sun to dry up all the rain
And the eensie weensie spider when in the spout again. ”

Huh. All this time I was singing it wrong. LT Fromage has been trying to tell me that for years, but I couldn’t be sure until it was confirmed by a reliable source. Like Teen Mom.

Cheese Filled Baked Meatballs

Not much to say today, but just in case you haven’t made up your mind about what to cook, this is what we’re fixing for supper tonight in the Fromage household:

Cheese Filled Baked Meatballs

Ingredients

1 package ground beef (I use 80/20)
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 egg white
1 1/2 teaspoons dried basil
1 1/2 teaspoons dried parsley
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper
1/2 cup bread crumbs
2 mozzarella string cheese sticks

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the ground beef, ½ of the breadcrumbs, Parmesan cheese, egg, basil, parsley, garlic powder, salt and red pepper flakes. Mix until well blended. Divide the meatball mixture into 10 meatballs (about the size of a golf ball).

Place the remaining bread crumbs into a small bowl and cut the string cheese into 10 equal pieces (about ¾ inch). Using your (clean!) finger, in each meatball create a hold to add a piece of string cheese. Shape the meatballs into rounds, being careful to cover the cheese, roll in the bread crumbs and place the meatballs in individual, miniature muffin tin cups. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden and cooked through.

Serve over warm pasta with Emeril Lagasse’s Gaaahlic Pasta Sauce (yummy!), French bread and caprese salad. I’ll be making this caprese salad tonight instead of our usual, which is half of the salad with standard olive oil and balsamic, the other half drizzled with pesto.

There Are Websites For That

(not our real cake - an image I lifted from google. Our wedding photographer sucked, ehem, don't use RJ Reynolds Photography in Denver, so we have no good pictures. Bleh.)

Friends of our recently got married at the justice of the peace. We took lots of pictures, celebrated with champagne in the court house parking lot, and went for a reception dinner at my very favorite resturant, the local Thai place (yum!).

My Non-Sucky-Army-Wife friend, L was also there. L is actually somewhere between NSA wife and NSA fiancé, since she has also visited the JP, but her wedding in Florida is coming up in just a few weeks.

L was asking about LT Fromage and my upcoming anniversary. I was proud to announce that we are coming up on one year on the 19th of this month (Unless you go by our JP wedding, which was more than 21 months ago). L then said this,

“You know, there are websites out there with tips to make it not so terrible after a year.”

Excuse me? Who do you think you are to say something like that? Do we look that unhappy? Weren’t you just about to throw up because we were being so cute and lovey? I’m pretty sure I’ve never mentioned to you that my marriage is terrible….

I think she almost shot rice out her nose, “No, no! I meant the cake! You know, how you freeze it and eat it on your first anniversary!”

There are probably websites for making a marriage not so terrible after a year, too, but I’m happy to say we’re just googling ones for the cake.

Later that night, LT Fromage and I lay down to go to sleep, still giggling about the “terrible year” mark that was approaching when I realized I’d left my locket on, the one LT Fromage had given me for Christmas last year. LT Fromage warned, “You’d better take that off,” and leaned over to whisper, “or I’ll choke you in the night.”

Gasp!

I treasure my locket, and of course would never mean to ruin it, but I had no idea that LT Fromage took it so seriously! I quickly removed the jewelry, my eyes as big as saucers as I asked for clarification of that disconcerting comment…

“Or it’ll choke you in the night.” It. The necklace. It would probably be uncomfortable and restraining if it became tangled. Phew!

Maybe we do need that website after all, how to make marriage not terrible after the first year. (If you survive!)

I Love Being An Army Wife

As predicted, things have changed yet again. With LT Fromage’s replacement* arriving in the next six weeks, he’ll be slotted to another job. We have no idea what yet what, but I’m sure it’ll suck. Sorry, LT Fromage ::sad face:: This may affect deployment or it may not. We’ll know by November. Right now we’re both gritting our teeth and waiting for April, when things should improve greatly for both of our careers. 28 more weeks.

(*It’s not that he’s doing a poor job as commander; but LT Fromage is just that – a LT (Lieutenant) and the commander’s job is generally held by a Captain. He was picked to fill the spot while it was open, but now he’s got to hand it over and take some kind of staff job.)

Moving on, Thursday night there was another one of those lovely Senior Wives Coffees (Not because I’m a actually a senior, thought LT Fromage likes to joke that I am; I was invited because he is a Senior Leader and I am his wife).

I need to make something clear before I start; this is not the Family Readiness Group (FRG), which is a support system for ALL soldiers’ families. I see the need for that. No, this is a social group for only the higher-ups’ wives.

I would also like to point out that not all Army Wives are stupid. I have some awesome Non-Sucky Army Wife friends, it's just that there are a lot of Sucky Army Wives out there, and they're much more interesting to talk about. If you take a look at the post, "Real Army Wives", we're primarily talking about group B here today, "Wearing Your Husband's Rank", and the women who enjoy doing so.

Anyway. Back to the coffees.

Have I mentioned how much I hate these things? I hate them. I loathe any kind of “mandatory shoulder rubbing”, especially when it’s a group of women who have nothing in common except that their husband’s happen to work together. No one else does this! There are no groups for Accountants’ Wives or Firemans’ Spouse clubs! I wouldn’t go except that my involvement (or lack of) reflects back on LT Fromage. The things we do for love.

So, if you don’t mind, I’d like to take a moment to address the “charming” group of women with whom I am obligated to socialize and whose company I am expected to pretend I enjoy:

Dear Sucky Army Wives,

I think it’s great that your husband graduated college and now leads America’s finest into battle to protect our country. Yep, they sure do work hard; they’re an impressive group of men. But guess what:

You didn’t do anything! Most of you are umemployed, stuck up, bossy and overweight. Get over yourselves. Quit looking down your nose at everyone, the only impressive thing you did was marry an officer. Get off the couch, get your own college degree or hold down your own job and then maybe I’ll give a $H!T. For Christ’s sake, I’ll applaud anything that required more effort than watching daytime TV 40 hours a week.

Especially LT Fromage’s boss’s wife. Get your kids under control and quit being a bee-ach. You suck and your husband is an idiot.

(I hope the tiny italic font indicated that I said that part quietly and quickly!)

Rant over.

Lady Fromage Does Not Bake

During the first 6 months or so of married life, I’m not sure that I once served LT Fromage the same menu twice. I know that for some it’s a chore, but I love to cook.

When I resumed working full time, we talked about how we would restructure our lives to adjust to the decreased time for housework; frozen food was a suggestion that was submitted and quickly shot down. Exotic and new cuisine is now reserved for the weekends when I have more time, but during the week I love to come home, put on my cow print apron and begin gourmet burgers or a new recipe for breaded meatballs to go over homemade pasta (made on the weekend and then frozen for later) with a fresh capresea salad. Pizza with barbeque sauce, sautéed red onion and grilled chicken (We also love this one from Busy Bee Lauren) shows up every few weeks and green curry makes a weekly appearance, since I learned the secret.

Our weekends are filled with Thai, Indian, Italian, Southern or whatever other flavors I’m craving. Saturday morning breakfast is always so big we never even plan for lunch; instead we eat until the “food coma” hits, and then nap it away on the couch.

LT Fromage and I are always on the hunt for new places to eat, new things to try and new shows to tune into on Food Network. Currently, we’re watching a lot of Iron Chef America and Chopped, with some Best Thing I Ever Ate and Dinners, Drive Ins and Dives thrown in. I couldn’t believe it when LT Fromage announced the other night that he didn’t like watching baking shows because “That doesn’t take any skill”

HA!

I can make Paneer, (even my own cheese). I make fresh pasta. Thai curry? No problem. But baking? Way out of my league.

There were the rolls that wouldn’t rise; my mom walked me through her infamous recipe step by step, but instead of soft, fluffy dinner rolls, we had gooey lumps with supper. Next I made the rolls that rose too much; I thought we were in some kind of dinner-bread horror film when I saw them, they were at least the size of soft balls! A few weeks ago I bought an “easy” box of Red Velvet cake hoping it would be as simple as described, but it began crumbling as soon as I finished icing it. It looked so pathetic with huge chunks of cake and gooey icing sliding down onto the plate! I was supposed to take it as desert to a lunch, but opted to pick up a frozen Key Lime pie instead. Things were going surprisingly well when I started making these brownies last week, that is, until I broke a wooden spoon in the batter and ended up with so many little pieces we had to throw them out (We did try a bite, and they were AMAZING!... minus the spoon. Whatevs). I won’t even mention the time I caught our kitchen on fire.

I tip my hat to you, bakers. I envy you and your ability to make dough rise and present a beautiful finshed product (and keep splinters out of your friends’ and families’ mouths.) I’m going to keep practicing; I’ll be making these this weekend!

My Favorite Things About Fall

Cooking in the crock pot – I love coming home to a hot supper, even better if I also used the bread machine that day. Warm, already prepared food and fresh bread… That’s a winner!

Cherry Cider. There’s a great local place that sells the yummiest cherry cider, a splash of rum makes it even better on cool nights.

Sweaters. I love warm, fuzzy sweaters, open sweaters and cardigans over colorful t-shirts, hoodies and even old sweat shirts.

Scarves, gloves and socks. My feet have been in sandals all summer, my hands and neck uncovered, I can’t wait to wrap them up in warm cozy things!

Sweatpants. I’m such a bum. I love my sweat pants and “lounging clothes”.

Changing leaves and sunflowers blooming. Set aside your perception of Kansas, because we’re in a heavenly spot with hills and trees; a nice surprise in a flat, Midwestern state.

Hayfields. Something about a hay field with big round bales just makes me catch my breath. I don’t know why.

Orange, brown and yellow fall colors. Nuff said.

Deep layers of blankets on the bed, sleeping with the windows open so that the house is cool and crisp and I’m toasty warm while I sleep.

Drinking hot tea before bed. I think the absolute best way to fall asleep is cuddled up with LT Fromage under a down comforter reading a good book and drinking a warm mug of Sleepy Time with some half and half… zzzz….(Try the new vanilla version of Celestial Seasonings Sleepy Time tea if you get a chance!)

Breaking out the space heater. We’ve got a tall, oscillating space heater that brings the bathroom to a toasty 92 degrees so that stepping out of the shower in the morning feels oh so nice.

I love you fall. Please stay forever.

Lady Fromage's Love Life

While I’m very happily married now, I was, at one time, a single lady. I’d like to share with you a few of the men who weren’t quite hubby-material.

1. The Tuba Player

I was a shameless online dater. Being an introvert with no time on my hands made this a handy way to meet the boys. (So glad I’m past that time in my life!) The Tuba player seemed nice when we talked, he no exes to whom he paid child support, was going to school and he wasn’t really into the club/bar scene. He told me he played the tuba, which, I guess is… unique. We decided to meet for coffee. The man showed up late, with a white Hanes undershirt on, only, he seemed to have forgotten the over shirt part of his outfit. TIP: Don’t wear undershirts on a first date, especially when they have day-old BBQ sauce stains on them. I’m no skinny bee-ach, but this guy LOOKED like a Tuba. I told him at the end of the date that, while he was really nice, it just wasn’t going to happen for us. Nope. Nothing there. Goodbye and good luck. I told him that every time he called for the next month, too. “Hello? Oh, it’s you. Still nothing, I’m sorry.” I finally resorted to swapping cell phones with my mom for a few weeks. It took multiple calls to what she told him was a wrong number to finally get rid of him.

2. The Shoulder Licker

Feeling brave (Or maybe it was buzzed) at a baseball game, with encouragement from my friend P, I approached a nice-looking man a few rows in front of us. Mostly being silly (Or drunk…) I told him the bar we’d be hitting up after the game, he took my number and I returned to my seat next to P and we giggled for a while, then forgot the whole thing. The Shoulder Licker later got in touch to find out where I was (not at the bar). P opted not to join me on my impromptu date, but checked to make sure I made it there okay, and made me promise to check in again shortly. The Shoulder Licker bought me a beer and we started talking, he was very interesting, polite and funny (Or I could have been drunk). Then he kissed me. (Shamefully admitting that I was not only an online dater, but a total kissing slut also) I was totally down for a little tonsil hockey, what I wasn’t prepared for was the long, slobbery licks on my shoulder. If you’re thinking this was romantic kisses down the neck, get that out of your head. It was like making out with my dog. I don’t even want to think about that. Ew. As if that was going to get him somewhere, he put his hand a little too far up my thigh. I did what any girl would do. I slapped him and I left. P and I had a grand ol’ time laughing at that one for a while.

3. The Swing Dancer

Another shameless online connection. The Swing Dancer was a perfect combination of charming and silly when we talked. We met up at a bar to play pool, and he actually seemed to have potential, which was more than I could say for anyone else I’d met thus far. I agreed to a second date where we went, yes, Swing Dancing. Being terribly clumsy, this was not perhaps the best activity for me. There were no sparks, but he was not nauseating to be around. Afterwards, we went back to his place to watch a movie (I do in fact mean watch a movie, and only that). This was where I decided he was not marriage material. “His place” was his parents’ basement. TIP: No one wants to meet your mommy and daddy on a second date. He finally, after agonizing over his collection of EVERY SINGLE DISNEY MOVIE MADE, chose the (actually, pretty cute) animation, “Happy Feet” as our feature presentation. We descended into the basement, where, when he turned on the lights, I was surrounded by glass encased shelves filled with porcelain dolls. I hoped, I prayed they were his mother’s. They were not. I couldn’t run away, Lady Fromage is sometimes too polite for her own good. I did, however shoot him down when he began praising himself for his “kissing and massage skills”. Um. Nope. Play with your dolls, honey, I’m outta here.

4. The Reds Fan

My mom set me up with the Reds Fan. He was, oddly enough, her boss (Her much younger boss). He was single, I was single, he was well educated and polite and she thought we might like each other since we were both big baseball fans. The Reds Fan brought flowers when he picked me up for a Saturday Rockies game against Cincinnati. My mom really dropped the ball when she failed to inquire about was what team he liked. Some people take politics seriously, or religion, my thing is baseball. If you don’t like my team, I don’t like you. The Reds Fan was, well, a Reds fan. We spent the entire afternoon cheering for opposing teams, and not in a friendly banter way, this was as serious as open heart surgery. We both knew that our loyalties would never allow us to be together, but we finished the date over pizza and a beer. All of his stories at supper revolved around alcohol, each one ended with “But I’m really not a lush or anything,” My mom later informed me that he was arrested for drunk driving, his license was revoked and he was sent to jail. The best part of that date? The Rockies won.

I consider myself the luckiest lady in the world to be married to LT Fromage, who is a good dresser, a great kisser, has never collected any porcelain dolls (In his parents basement or otherwise) and above all, likes the right baseball team.

Hooray for the 3 Day!

What a wonderful long weekend! Isn’t 3 days off just perfect? And, it of course means there is a SHORT WEEK ahead! Hooray for the short week!

Friday night we went to a hole-in-the-wall Jamaican restaurant with some friends. The company was even better than the rum punch (which was soo yummy!) and we were oh-so-excited when our friends N&A announced they are getting married… tonight! N&A have been engaged for a few months, but A is finishing an internship in Germany so she won’t be coming to the US for a while yet, which means their “real” wedding will have to wait, but they made an appointment with the Justice of the Peace* to make things official in the meantime. LT Fromage and I are so honored and happy to be invited to share this day with them!

*While it doesn’t make much sense in the “civilian world,” Justice of the Peace weddings are a pretty common thing among Army couples (LT Fromage and I did it too). There are some serious benefits to being a married Service Member and being married to a Service Member, and sometimes a wedding just doesn’t fit into your schedule right away, as with N&A.

LT Fromage and I had a great time on Saturday, despite being very over-dressed for what turned out to be an uber-relaxed, down-home, country style wedding. For future reference, when canned beer is served from of coolers in the back of a pickup truck before the ceremony even begins, cut off jeans and a halter top are apparently appropriate attire. A suit and tie and Sunday best dress look quite out of place (Now I’m not knocking it, it was their day to do with what they wanted, but the invitation didn’t indicate that there would be hay bales, otherwise believe me, we would have dressed down…).

In addition to fun things like dinner dates and weddings, we slept in (After a long week of pre-5 am mornings, still being in bed at 9:30 feels incredible), had big breakfasts of French toast, pancakes, eggs, hash browns, bacon and sausage, orange juice and fresh ground coffee and didn’t worry about doing the dishes until long after lunch time. We finally tried out a recipe for Auntie Annie’s Soft Pretzels (I made mine with jalapeño and cheddar while LT Fromage chose cinnamon sugar… Both were dee-lish!). For supper, I made a pineapple and mussel red curry from my new Currie Cuisine book (which was very tasty!).

On Sunday I made BLTs (with baby spinach instead of lettuce, and veggie bacon for me, of course) for lunch, served with sweet potato fries and cold sodas. The weather was simply perfect so we went to the shooting range, which is a little far away but when the trees are still full of leaves and the sunflowers are blooming, it’s a beautiful drive. LT Fromage is a much better shot than I am, but we had a great time, as we always do, and my aim is ever-improving.

We were even able to watch 2 full movies this weekend(Man on Fire and Youth in Revolt), which doesn’t sound like a big accomplishment but movie-watching is something of an indulgence for us these days, since 2 hours of down time is hard to come by anymore. Not to mention the time we spent reading! (We’re both avid readers, what can I say?). Lounging on the couch, reading, eating and watching TV together...Pure bliss.

I hope everyone had an equally wonderful long weekend!

Oh yeah, and I got a letter from my school, letting me know I made the Dean’s List. NBD ;-)
::happy dance::

Bad News/Good News

Before I start, I have a quick confession:

I ate a fish taco last night.

I saw Bobby Flay make one on Throw Down a few months ago and it made my mouth water; I’ve wanted one ever since. For more than 6 weeks, I’ve been craving a fish taco. (Which is weird. I never liked fish much, even before I became a vegetarian… thirteen years ago.)

I’m sure the one I had couldn’t touch Bobby’s, but it was actually pretty dee-lish. (I’m so sorry, fishy, for eating you!)

Moving on.

A few things that seemed bad this week, but turned out to be pretty okay:

1. I almost jumped through the phone to strangle my momma the other day for inviting my sister’s in-laws over for Thanksgiving (or so I thought!). We don’t even have room for our OWN families, much less sissy’s in-laws! As is it, we already have to book hotel rooms and borrow ovens and cookware from friends to make it work! Thankfully, I was misunderstanding the story my mom was telling me; my SISTER and her HUSBAND are coming for Thanksgiving, INSTEAD of going to her in-laws! Phew! Thanks, mom, for not inviting the whole world over to MY house for the holidays! Hooray for sissy and my new brother-in-law joining us after all!

2. We’re going to Florida for a wedding this month, which is going to be super-duper fun! Because A. We really like these people (LT Fromage’s former commander, the one he replaced, and one of my good Non-Sucky Army Wife friends) and B. I’ve never been to Florida and the beach sounds amazing right now. Well, yesterday the hotel we’d booked called to say they’d made a little uh-oh and overbooked so our room was not in fact available. LT Fromage was about to jump through the phone to strangle the reservationist. But then this happened: to say they’re sorry, they offered us a BEACH HOUSE one block away for $100 LESS than we’d paid for the hotel! Boo-yah!

3. This deployment news is actually turning out to be pretty alright. Without divulging too much (Because none of this is definite yet, and some of it is a secret… sshhh!), we’re looking at a very short deployment beginning at the most perfect time. If all goes well, LT Fromage will leave precisely when I plan to quit my current job and start working from home. Actually, MY FOLKS’ HOME! Going home is actually good news for me because I love my family and moving back home will be pretty cool. Not to mention it will save us a big wad of cash (Like, 3 months of rent, utilities, etc!) Again, timing is everything, and there’s one more element that needs to fall into place (the secret!), but it’s looking good, really good! :-) And of course, for LT Fromage, deploying as the Commander of his troop, well that’s pretty freakin' sweet for him!

(On a side note, deployment means another run of NTC (yep, he’ll have to go again) which will delay our Vegas vacation; but we should be able to go afterward, and even stay in Vegas longer than we originally planned, so that’s not even so bad.)

I’m so excited for Thanksgiving, everyone we wanted to come will be here, and no one will be there that we didn’t invite! Our mini-vacay to Florida is just weeks away – Beach House here we come! And for the time being (Until the Army changes things again, which they inevitably will), this deployment isn’t looking so bad after all!

Holy Cow!

I have a slight obsession with cows.

I drink my coffee from a cow mug. I have a cow print apron and a cow print chef’s hat; cow salt and pepper shakers, cow cream and sugar holders. Cows adorn the kitchen walls in picture frames and vintage metal signs. I have cow socks, a cow baseball cap and cow t-shirts. Last Christmas, LT Fromage bought me big, black cow spot magnets to transform our fridge into a Holstein (My favorite cows). I have stuffed bears dressed as cows, floppy cows 3 feet long and tiny cows to hook on key chains. My most treasured cow is one LT Fromage gave me for our first Christmas, his name is Sir Loin and he sleeps in bed with us every night.

Yesterday, as I was searching for cow pictures on google images (true story), I stumbled upon a website where I made a very exciting discovery – There are MINIATURE COWS. How I never knew this I’m not sure; I would have thought that surely they would be listed in my “Field Guide to Cows”, but somehow, they stayed under my radar until yesterday.

Long ago I successfully convinced LT Fromage to let me own my very own cow (one day, when we’re not renting and have more than a little fenced yard). Now, instead of preparing for the arrival of the “real” Sir Loin, we can look forward to bringing home the Petite Sir Loin!

Fall Days and Cows

Autumn is my favorite time of year, but sadly, it lasts about 24 hours here; we go straight from blistering hot summer into bone chilling winter. Today feels like one of the few fall days we get to enjoy here in the Little Apple. The leaves haven’t begun to change quite yet so we are without the brilliant colors, but the air is crisp and cool and today is simply perfect. If I wasn’t at work today, here’s what I would be doing.

Reading “A Wrinkle in Time” by Madeleine L’engle, drinking a mug of hot raspberry tea with cream and Splenda while wrapped up in a king-size down comforter and listening to Ringo Starr’s 1970 album “Sentimental Journey”.

I doubt it would go over well if I showed up to work today in my cozy green sweatpants, snuggled in a big blanket, but I did throw in Tim McGraw’s newest CD while I went over year-end contracts this morning drinking a fresh cup of Dark Roast Hazelnut coffee in my favorite cow mug. Not a terrible substitute.

Between wrapping up my morning and breaking for lunch, I found these pictures, which I love. Enjoy!