And Away We Go!

I’m a planner. I like to know what’s going on, and I like it to be going on the way I intended it to. The last time we moved I wouldn’t let CPT Fromage accept the assistance from a moving company, even though it wouldn’t have cost us a dime. Nope, I didn’t want anyone else touching my stuff! How could they possibly know how to do it the right (my) way? Though it had nothing to do with my opting to pack our things myself, that move was a disaster. I had to promise we’d leave it to the professionals next time. So here we are, nearly 3 years later and it’s time to move again. As was the deal, movers arrived this morning.

Now, I promised CPT Fromage we wouldn’t do the move ourselves, but nothing was mentioned about packing. Sure, they can lift all the heavy boxes and I’ll let them carry our furniture, just so long as I’m able to make sure my favorite mugs are packed nicely away where I can find them, our decorations are separated by room and books are boxed by subject.

For nearly a month now I’ve been carefully and thoughtfully packing our things. Every box has an itemized list of what’s inside and a strip of colored ductape to indicate how it will make the 6 hour journey, and where it will end up when we arrive. Orange tape on the boxes that will go into storage, green for things we’ll need at the apartment but can trust the moving company to transport, and yellow for necessities we can’t live without and will take ourselves in the U-Haul (Oops, I may have promised we’d never rent another one of those again…!)

We finished late last night, almost all of our belongings sporting a strip of colored tape. I was so proud! Then this morning came and we met the movers… 2 men who, albeit very friendly, must not suffer my same level of OCD…

Oh dear… They’ve emptied and repacked lots of my boxes! Books on religion mixed in with memoirs? Decorations from the living room are WHERE? In with my serving dishes? Oh my…

Thank goodness this pregnancy hasn’t made me a psycho-crazy-bee-ach. Lucky me (and even luckier, CPT Fromage), the bigger my belly gets the more mellow my mood. Odd, but a pleasant surprise, and it couldn’t have happened at a better time because otherwise this move would be killing me! I’m trying to let go of the stress that comes from knowing that my living room lamp is nestled up next to the coffee grinder, and just be appreciative that I didn’t have to wrap every single dish we own or deal with boxing up everything in the pantry again.

72 hours left in The Little Apple… Lawton, here we come!

(Erika doesn’t like moving either)

I Love Technology

CPT Fromage and I aren’t really… techy. For example, when we moved to our first home we decided it was time to get a respectable TV and retire the bulky TV/DVD combo I got at K-Mart when I moved out of my parents’ house. With a lot of help from the guy at Best Buy, we ended up with a decent (but not too big) flat screen. We decided we’d use some store credit we had to get a surround sound system to go along with it. Because the DVD player we had was a small, purple thing that cost less than $20 at Wal-Mart (another purchase of mine) we needed to upgrade that as well to make the sound system work. The guy at Best Buy tried to show us a Bluray player, and we scoffed! “We’ll stick with DVD, if you please!” We had so much money sunk into our DVD collection; no way were we going to throw that all away to start over with this “blu ray” crap…

We applauded ourselves for our responsible decision, that is until my sister and her husband (who are both very techy) got a new entertainment set up. They showed us the quality of their new Blu ray player, “Yeah, it looks great, but we didn’t want to start our movie collection all over. That’s just stupid.” That’s when my BIL broke it to us. For those of you who don’t know this… You can watch DVDs on a Blu ray player. Yep. True story. (I wish we’d mentioned our reasoning for the DVD player to the employee at Best Buy, he’d have saved us this whole situation!)

For his next birthday, CPT Fromgae got a Blueray player. And we love it. Even though it took us 4 years to jump on that bandwagon.

We also finally upgraded to…

A wireless printer. Actually, that could even be “a printer” as a general term. Yep, we can finally scan and print from the comfort of our own home!

Smart phones. Last year, before CPT Fromage deployed, I got an iPhone. Mostly because all of our communication would be electronic and I wanted to be able to check email and facebook and use Skype on the go. CPT Fromage’s phone, which he’s had longer than his wedding band, is on its last leg, so he’ll be joining the rest of society next week. No longer will he be the ridicule of his friends and coworkers!

A Gaming System. For Christmas this year, I got a Wii. Of course, it’s no longer the cutting edge system to own, but we’ve had a blast playing Mario Kart, even if everyone else has been enjoying theirs since 2006.

DVR. We don’t actually have it just yet, but when the installation guy comes to our new apartment, he’s bringing the box. Hooray for being able to record all of our favorite Food Network shows that we miss because they come on past our bedtime!

What next? Will we finally update the maps on our GPS systems, which are still using information from prior to 2008? Stay tuned to find out!

Carnivore in the Making

As I’ve mentioned here before, I’m a long time vegetarian. If it ever had a face or a mom, you wouldn’t find it on my plate. For nearly 3 years I’ve been cooking up poor little animals for CPT Fromage, but my mouth never watered, not once did I sneak a bite or reconsider my eating ways. That is, until I got pregnant.

Dude, I’m growing a tiny carnivore in here.

It started with fish: Fish tacos, fish sticks, grilled fish… Next I had 2 roasted chicken wraps and I hoped it would stop there but yesterday CPT Fromage was telling me how good his lunch was… Barbeque. Someone in my tummy must have been eavesdropping because for the rest of the afternoon my stomach growled. I tried to offer other things, different, vegetarian, protein options, but someone was having none of it. Barbeque was the only answer. I ordered a brisket plate. I don’t know the barbeque lingo, so I wasn’t sure what that meant, but it had a ribbon icon next to it indicating that it was one of their most popular dishes. Personally, I found it rather fatty/chewy/meaty but 4 servings of sauce helped make the parts I found eatable more palatable.

Bleh. Baby Fromage seemed to have been satisfied, and our German shepherd was more than happy to help me out with the left overs, but I hope from now on this kiddo sticks to foods that I like to eat too. Like, it would be awesome if we could have some cravings for my favorite foods, like some Thai or mac and cheese (actually, I’d be happy if I could just stomach the foods I used to love! Apparently, someone finds them repulsive because they keep being sent back…)

Years from now, when this little Fromage is a mouthy teenager and claims I don’t care about making them happy/don’t love them/other youngster gripe, I’m going to remind them of the brisket (and the fish, and the chicken) and the 14 year run of meat free dining that was interrupted for their dietary preference. Now THAT’S love!

*I’m pretty sure the only reason this 4oz Fromage is demanding when it comes to dining is because I haven’t been able to eat hardly anything from the get-go. I’m down 14+ pounds already, so I suppose this wackiness is just my body making sure I’m fueled up properly for this pregnancy when I am able to eat something.

Old Ladies Rock

One Hot Mama

Another way I’ve been avoiding packing for this move (see yesterday’s post) has been making appointments. We aren’t leaving the country, we won’t be relocated to an African village far away from any health services, but in our last few weeks I’ve packed my schedule with various checkups as though I won’t have the opportunity to attend to any basic needs once we leave the Little Apple.


Today was my dentist appointment.

As a girl, I LOVED going to the dentist! If insurance had covered more than 2 visits a year, I’d have been there every weekend. There was nothing better than the feeling of freshly cleaned teeth. I even enjoyed most of my experience with braces. I was a pretty dorky kid, especially when I wore that stupid “I Love My Dentist” shirt to my appointments… sheesh… As an adult (who no longer owns said shirt), the prospect of clean teeth is nice, but the hassle (and scraping and the like) hasn’t seemed worth it. I’m ashamed to admit, but I’ve only been 3 or 4 times since college.

Thankfully, all that time without a professional cleaning didn’t do much damage and I’ve maintained my perfect record of never having a cavity. Too bad that’s where the good news stopped today. This afternoon I go back to be fitted for…

Dun-dun-dun...!

A retainer.

I thought I did my time! Wasn’t 5 years of orthodontic care enough? Looks like if I want to keep my pearly whites nice and straight (minus the one rebel that shifted, the real reason I went in today) this is what must be done… At least it’s the clear kind, and not the wire one I had so many years ago, and I’ll only be wearing it in the evenings. It could be worse.

I thought being a mom-to-be would make me more grown up, but the pimply face this pregnancy has brought on (something I never actually struggled with as an adolescent) paired with my (non)metal-mouth makes me feel otherwise! Next week I go for an eye exam, maybe I’ll be sent home with big ol’ thick glasses to complete the look!

Don't Be Jealous of My Ride

I’m stalling again. I hate packing and somehow I’ve managed to convince myself that all of our belongings will nicely place themselves in boxes if I wait around long enough. We’ll see how that works out…

Things I’m doing instead of packing?

Watching TV, which is sort of a bust. I tried watching Lifetime, but I kept crying, because now everything makes me cry; then I switched to Game Show Network, but in addition to being super emotional, I also have “Pregnant Brain” and Family Feud is just no fun when I can’t think of any answers to play along…

I cleaned the rat cages. I mean deep cleaned, like 2 hours’ worth, disassembling and scrubbing… I don’t know how 2 hours of that was better than packing, but it felt less terrible.

Spent some time on Tumblr, Pintrest and FoodOnMyDog. (Awesome, awesomer and most awesomest!)

Wishing I could have a hot fudge sundae, but alas, I am too lazy to get dressed and go on a quest for somewhere open at 11PM to make me one. Also, I can’t utilize a drive-thru at Sonic because I can’t roll down the window on my new ride. We sold my truck this summer for something more kid friendly (super sad face - I miss my truck!) and for the time being, I’m driving my parents’ old minivan. I know you all wish you were this cool, but we can’t all be driving mom-cars with broken windows and huge dents on the side!

Sort of being resentful that CPT Fromage is away at a training, because if he was here, HE could drive the car with a working window and go get my late night snack.

As you can see, I’m quite busy at the moment, so if you’ll excuse me, I have some mismatched socks I really must sort.

One last thing…While I’m not being productive, uhm, at all, let me remind you to be. If you live in a state where you can exercise your right to vote tomorrow, go do it! (And if you’re undecided, and even if you’re not, check out Ron Paul. I know he looks like a long shot, but what a great candidate! And it ain’t over yet!)

Sawing Logs

First of all, thanks for the congrats! It’s nice to know I’ve still got a few readers out there!

Now, on to today's post…

I have one super-sexy quality: I snore. Don’t hate, not everyone can be this awesome.
I’ve always been a snorer, my younger sister used to claim I’d kept her up at night in our shared room. Later in life, roommates would pick on my loud Zs. But apparently, according to CPT Fromage, I “never used to snore before we got married” I tell him I just kept a lid on it long enough to snag him, but he’s trapped now, so let the fun resume! The snores are back in full force these days, sometimes so loud and violent (can snores be violent?) that I wake myself up!

In some instances, my snoring can be more embarrassing than others… Like when I let ‘em rip at the couples’ massage CPT Fromage and I treated ourselves to for Valentine’s Day. Look, rub my feet and calves and I’m out. I can’t help it!

Don’t worry too much for CPT Fromage because I am not only a super-sexy-snoring wife, but also a super thoughtful one, so I spend a lot of money on Breathe Right Strips. These things make me even sexier (can it be so?), even though they don’t totally eliminate my sound of sleep. I know that when my gentle snores wake CPT Fromage in the dead of night, he must roll over and gaze lovingly upon his resting wife… My hair a mess, raccoon eyes from unremoved eyeliner and a plastic strip across my nose; I know what he’s thinking: “I’m one lucky guy”. Or maybe he’s contemplating smothering me with a pillow, who knows.

Sometimes my snoring is a good weapon to have in my arsenal. When CPT Fromage and I have a lover’s quarrel near bedtime I have this up my sleeve…

“Yeah, well, I’m going to take off my Breathe Right Strip tonight!”

Although it would probably be more effective if I wasn’t shouting it from downstairs on the couch.

A Lot Can Change In 9 Months

Oh my. You may have noticed I fell off the blogging bandwagon for a bit. Ok, longer than “a bit”. I assure you all was well, I just came to learn that there is very little for me to say when I’m home alone with no job. Being the introvert that I am, most of my drafts were glamorized accounts of laundry, housework and bill paying. (Rivetting, I know, I’m sure you’re itching to get your hands on those unseen posts!) Forgive me for not recounting every moment of deployment, but there’s not much to say besides I’m glad it’s over and relieved that CPT Fromage came home with all his limbs still attached.

Now that our family is whole again, let me share all the exciting stuff coming up for us in 2012:
CPT Fromage got the branch transfer he so badly wanted, which is exciting for him, and great news for our little family. Because there’s a lot of training involved, he’ll be stateside (read: not deploying) for a minimum of 2 years. 24 glorious months without Skype dates, frequent trips to the Post Office or having to carry all of the groceries in by myself!

In 9 months’ time, we will have addresses in three different states. Lots of Army schools means lots of moves. Goodbye, Kansas; Hello, Oklahoma! (Look out, North Carolina, we’re on our way!) Lots of packing, phone calls to the utility companies and change of address notifications are keeping us busy but we’re excited to start this next chapter of our life!

My last 9 month announcement… Yep, it’s that one…! A Baby Fromage is on the way! Our little one should make his or her appearance on August 29th, and we are over the moon excited!

(12 week ultrasound)

Yes, this was happily planned!

No, we don’t know the gender yet (but a 3-D ultrasound at 12 weeks indicated we may be buying blue!). We do plan to find out and should know April 4th!

We haven’t yet decided on a name, but I’ve been having a blast scouring baby name books and forums for the most ridiculous monikers I can find. Kidding, kidding! (Truthfully, that is a guilty pleasure of mine, but rest assured we won’t have an Areola Minnow Fromage)


Well, enough blogging and back to packing… 17 days until the movers arrive! Wish me luck!