Respect

Work has been hella busy the last three weeks because of an audit we had. Long story short, 20 years of paperwork and 1,867 certified letters later, I am ready for it to be over! Tomorrow should be close to the end of it for me and I cannot be more excited. The reason for this post isn’t to complain about work, but rather praise my coworkers.

The letters we sent were to customers requesting they come in and make changes to a form they filled out. Today a customer came in. For privacy of that person I will change the names, Bob and Jane will be the names I’ll use.

Bob received a letter requesting he come in and make a correction to his paperwork on a gun he purchased while stationed here in 1996. Today, Jane came in to correct Bob’s papers. My coworker informed Jane that only Bob could make the needed corrections and he apologized. Jane then pulled out her wallet and showed us proof that she was once Bob and could, in fact, make those changes. Not a single person of the 4 of us standing there made a smirk, snide remark or gawked at Jane standing before us. I am so honored to be working with a group of people who respects everyone for who they are today and doesn’t ask questions.

Happy almost Friday everyone!

Can I just cry, please?

I got Brant’s “Welcome Home” banner and I cannot wait to put it up! It is so close to home coming and I am almost finished with my “before he gets home” chores… ALMOST. All that is left is sanding and staining some tables. I feel so accomplished with myself and I am still doing great with school while working full-time. I was so worried about it but so far, so good. That being said, of course things would start going downhill in other areas of my life. Stupid. I wish I could be in Alabama with my family AND in Alaska being a responsible adult. Just typing that made my eye twitch. Thankfully I am not actually needed back home for things to start looking up again.

My headaches are back. Lame. They’re not so bad that I can’t function so all is well-ish and I think I’m going to see if they go away once things at work slow down a bit… the last thing I want is to be poked on by the idiots at Bassett.

I don’t hear from Brant very often but when I do, life is great again. We did get the official mail-stop notification, though (insert squee here!)

So it looks like things are on track for homecoming and eyeball gouging (due to homework and headaches). Life is good.

Here We Go. =)

2012 thus far

There are two days left in January and I am ready for February. No, I am not excited for Valentine’s day, groundhog’s day or Super Bowl XLV Sunday – The Saints aren’t in it and I honestly don’t care if Pats or Broncos win. I am also not excited for leap year because it just extends the stupid month one more day. I just need it to be over with already… As a matter of fact, I just want it to be April because that, supposedly, is the month Brant will be home with me and our boys. Today is day 263 and I am praying to God we don’t have 102 left. If it happens, we’ll deal with it then, but one can pray, right? I got his banner a couple of weeks ago and until then it hadn’t quite hit me that we’re in the last months of this damn deployment. Think about it, his “Welcome Home SSG Walker” banner is already here! Just typing that out gave me chills!

Ugg. OK, back to the present:

I am no longer unemployed (thank you God) and I am entering my final (hopefully) 12 months of school to get my associate’s degree. I am the assistant for the general manager at the Eielson AFB Exchange. It’s strange being behind the scenes of something like this… at least for me it is. Everyone, for the most part, has been extremely welcoming and I adore my boss. I have been working for a couple of weeks now and so far I really love my job. Since there is a lot going on with fiscal year ending and all, I haven’t been able to actually train… Hands-on training is my favorite, though.

January has been a great month, I guess… Other than:

It has been so bitterly cold this month! I don’t even want to try to count the number of times I’ve had to put air in my tires. No, there isn’t a slow leak in any of them… the cold does this to tires. Talk about a pain in the butt.

OH! There’s been some creepy stuff going on around here, too! This house is trying to convince me I’m crazy but I know I’m not….

For the last few weeks I have been hearing music play randomly… it’s never been loud enough for me to pinpoint where it’s coming from but I can hear it well enough to sing along.  I mentioned it to a few friends and they all laughed at me. I let it go.Then a few weeks ago I found this in my yard..

It looks like a glove under snow but there wasn’t a glove under there.

A couple of nights ago I was sitting in the living room doing homework and I heard the music again. I muted the TV and jumped up. In a corner by the heat register I heard it, clear as day. I listened to two DJs, one man and one woman, talk about the weather for the weekend and reminding everyone to keep their arctic gear with them. Then a song came on, All Your Life by The Band Perry. I sang along for a few minutes and then got creeped out. I couldn’t find where exactly it was coming from though.

A few days later, I opened the window above my kitchen sink and saw footprints in the snow. There is at least 2 foot of untouched snow in my yard – nobody walks past my front door. I went outside to look closer and sure enough, foot prints. From where they start it looks like someone pulled up in front of my garage, got out, walked to my kitchen window, and then cut to the left (from where the picture was taken) and walked to the road that leads to my neighbor’s house. I need to add, the road I am referring to is a private drive for only me and my neighbor. We don’t have any “neighborhood kids” around. I am hoping there’s a logical reason behind the footprints but I can’t find one.

I am not necessarily scared but I’ll be happier when Brant is home.  I’m not crazy though, this shit is happening. I am determined to get someone else to hear the music, too!

The last thing I am going to mention in this post is heartbreaking but I feel it is something worth mentioning. 

Jessica Genovese went to be with God on January 23, 2012. She lived a very short life of 23 years and will be remembered for many, many more. I do not know facts about what led up to her being on life support but if what I do know is the truth, I am glad she’s no longer in pain. Jessica put up a fight but in the end, God’s will to have her with him was stronger. She and I had grown apart over the years but I still have very vivid memories of Jess and her larger-than-life laugh. If you knew her, you know what I’m talking about! May you rest in peace, Jessica. I pray God touches her family and friends and gives them peace with her death.

These Dogs… I just love them =)

I do not know what I would do without my boys. Axel-Rod is my cuddle buddy when I have a down day or I’m not feeling well …

Gartholomew, well, he’s just all about loving on his momma. He’s always right there next to me, no matter where I am.

They’ve always been my babies. Spoiled rotten and all that mess but this deployment has shown me just how amazing they are. They make me laugh daily! Here are some funny ones of them from recently…

Garth cuddled with a reindeer head…

And he claimed the recliner…

Axel loves to “fight” blankets and frow his hair out.. he does it quite often. Today he came out of his “fight” looking like Justin Bieber..

And here are two videos of Axel-Rod playing in the snow. The first one is him messing with the snow shovel, making my job impossible, and the second is of him chasing the snow flakes as they fall. The best part of the second one is watching his tail spin in literal circles.

Snow Shovel

Tail Spin

I just love my boys!

A Fresh Start & Catching Up to 2012

It’s been over a year since my last post. I fail. I am not going to say that a resolution of mine is to post more because we all know resolutions never stick. Let’s just say I want to start posting on a regular basis and leave it at that.

Now for a bit of catching up:

My last post was on September 14, 2010 and was about things I learned while living in South Korea. Since that post, Brant and I PCS’d to Fairbanks, Alaska and he deployed to Afghanistan.  Between Korea and Alaska we went home to Alabama for a month and drove from there to Washington before catching a plane (and shipping the car) to Fairbanks.

 

We lived in a hotel for about a month and as you can imagine, we were pretty sick of hotel living by the time we got our house. The boys didn’t mind hotel living though, just meant less places they had to follow me to. Speaking of the boys; Axel-Rod Wayne and Gartholomew are doing great. They LOVE the snow and don’t mind wearing their bootie

December, 2010

We left Alabama on December 11 and drove up to Illinois to see Lisa, Brant’s sister. After my epic fail of driving my car into a ditch at her house we enjoyed a few nights with her and the nephew (her hubs was in Afghanistan) and hit the road.

It was a pretty smooth drive until we hit the super snowy states… then it got a little scary. I cannot tell you where we drove through, which states we stayed the nights in or how many times we had to stop to the let boys (Brant included) do their business. I can tell you that our stay in Oregon was my absolute favorite!

On December 16 we got to Tacoma, Washington and spent a couple of days there with a friend we were in Korea with. We also dropped the box off to be shipped to Alaska and rented a car. Brant picked out a minivan and now begs for one… weirdo, right?

 

Brant and I got to Alaska on December 18, 2010 and it was -48*F. It literally hurt to breathe! Our stent in the hotel room began (or should I say continued?) and so did life in Alaska. We didn’t get to experience much without a car and it being SO flipping cold out.

January, 2011

A few weeks into January we moved into our house on post. We bought a TV, futon, folding chairs, and TV trays to live off of until our HHG arrived. Surprisingly, our things from Korea beat us to Alaska so we had a bed, clothes, and some kitchen things but the majority of our belongings were in storage and shipped out of Alabama.

February – March, 2011

 

Our HHG from Alabama finally arrived the first week in February. We had a week of trying to get things unpacked and in order (while both of us working 40+ hours a week) before Brant left for NTC in California. I wasn’t too happy about the only person I actually knew in Alaska leaving me for a month but life did go on. In March, Brant came home from NTC and our life in Alaska actually began. We got back to a routine of date nights, really unhealthy dinners and arguing over who was going to put the booties on the dogs.

April, 2011

The first week of April we went for a random drive and ended up in Denali National Forest, it’s beautiful! It was an amazing day and we loved it so much we decided that block leave would be another drive through it to Anchorage. Anchorage before Afghanistan was a needed break from the constant reminders that Brant was leaving soon.

Denali:

Anchorage:

Reeeeed Robin. Yumm.

May, 2011

 

Brant left for Afghanistan on May 11. Luckily, I met Elena about a week before when she did my hair. She has been the most amazing support system throughout the last 8 months. I said “See you later” to the love of my life and made friends I know I’ll never forget. The month of May was pretty epic. I also started back to school and working at the CDC on post.

Packing for deployment

June – August, 2011

 

June was pretty uneventful. I had a baby shower and some kiddo birthdays to go to but for the most part I stuck to a routine and busied myself with school. July 11, 2011 marked two years since I walked down the aisle and two months since Brant and I said see ya later. August, well, nothing exciting this month either… Laurren’s Monster Baby Shower was about the extent of exciting.  Oh, I moved off post and to North Pole, AK. It’s pretty cool saying I live in North Pole.

Keg o’ Root Beer for the baby shower

I’m officially Santa’s neighbor. No big deal. My living room here is almost as big as my entire downstairs on post… Lame.

September, 2011

 

I got to see Brant!!!!! Brant took an early R&R from Afghanistan so he could be the best man in his brother’s wedding. We met in Alabama and oh my, it was so amazing to be in his arms again!

I got to meet my niece.

I had to wear a dress two days in a row (rehearsal and wedding) and Brant was the best man:

AND we went fishing with Grandpa <3

I missed date nights with my love

October – December, 2011

October has my favorite holiday… that’s about it for that month. November we had an amazing Thanksgiving in North Pole. December: I turned 24 (I just had to count…), played Secret Santa with a couple of different groups, had a great Christmas dinner (in North Pole – admit it, it’s cool), volunteered at Fairbanks Rescue Mission for Christmas breakfast and dinner prep (most amazing way to spend Christmas day!), and a super delish brunch with the ladies.

The girls and I had a pumpkin carving party… I think they turned out pretty good!

Thanksgiving!

I made pecan and cranberry stuffed turkey!

We made too much food!

Christmas was also really great, even though I missed Brant and home, my girls made it very memorable.

Hobbs was Santa… or something.

2012!

I rang in the New Year with the most amazing set of women. I am so grateful for the support system I have this deployment. I really am blessed.

 As  you can see, I’ve had a pretty good year, given the circumstances.

While being in Korea I’ve learned…

While being in Korea I’ve learned:
I’m not the only one who talks funny.
I think I’m racist in the sense that I now officially think all Asians look alike.
using simple hand gestures to get what you want is totally universal.
I’m fat because I don’t eat kimchi.
I fall down a lot because I don’t eat kimchi.
not everyone uses the phrase, “I’m going to town.”
how to speak “taxi Korean”.
some people are actually offended by being called sir or ma’am.
not everyone knows what common courtesy is, sadly.
to cook for one.
to cook Korean.
how hard it really is to give up a pet.
to manage TWO homes.
tornado season is more fun than typhoon season.
fruits and vegetables taste different in other countries.
rudeness is a nationally spoken language.
potty training puppies when you have pneumonia and bronchitis is nearly impossible.
that living abroad with my little family isn’t something to be scared of… it’s the most amazing experience I’ve had yet!

Thanks for making Americans look bad, asshole.

I am so sick of some of these assholes in foreign countries making Americans look so bad! We are guests (in most cases) in another country and all you can do is laugh at and/or make fun of the locals for their broken English – and to be clear, I’m not talking about the sites that joke about the ‘Engrish’ and the funny signs we post of English used incorrectly in another country. I’m talking about those who do these things to be mean. It disgusts me. I can almost guarantee they’re speaking English better than most of us are speaking Korean, Chinese, German, etc. They don’t HAVE to learn English to get by while living in [insert country here], it’s their country. Because of their dedication, we don’t HAVE to learn their language either especially when they study constantly, pay LOTS of money for classes and practice every day with one another to learn OUR language. Of course it gets frustrating at times and I find myself wanting to just walk away. That’s human nature. I’ve learned to be patient with them. They’re trying!

Now, I don’t know about other cultures but the Asian culture is scared to speak in front of a foreigner because of “losing face” if they say something wrong. Bless their hearts. I just wish I had the courage and discipline they do to learn such a difficult language.

It’s been said that English is the hardest language to learn and I think I’d have to agree, at least for a foreigner. Our language is so stretched out with nouns, verbs, pronouns, participles, fragments, adverbs, etc.

Now, I also realize there are those foreigners who are just complete assholes to Americans because they just don’t want to deal with us and my thoughts on that are that being the bigger person isn’t all that hard, especially when you don’t know what the other is saying, know what I mean?

August 2010 Update

I realize it’s been forever since I’ve posted and it seems I’m only getting worse at keeping up with this thing. I’m sorry.

So, it’s the end of August and things are starting to come together for our PCS to Alaska. We’ll be going home first for about a month before we head to Alaska and we’re both so excited! We’ve recently decided that we want to drive to Alaska instead of fly… make a few stops along the way, see the country, etc. YAY!!! Brant is looking into becoming a Warrant Officer and if he does, we’ll be back in Alabama for a while.

Mean while, we have less than 75 days left here and we’re trying to cram in all kinds of touristy things! Last weekend we went to the WAKO Championship here in Seoul. It’s a kickboxing championship and was pretty awesome! There were people there from all over the world, the girl from America had her ass handed to her by a Korean… It was almost too hard to watch. There were also children that performed and those little ninjas could fly! I’m convinced they were just attached to puppet strings! After that we went to a soccer game. Soccer is HUGE here. It’s like Alabama football, almost. I don’t understand soccer but I had a great time watching everyone go completely nuts. Strange enough, it was comforting, like being home for football season!

This last weekend we went to Nanta! It was so amazing! It’s like Stomp but in the kitchen with pots, pans, knives and such. They cook some stuff, sing, dance and make some jokes. If you’re in Korea I recommend you go to one of the shows!

Axel and Garth are the same as always, except Axel will not leave his ears and back legs alone! His separation anxiety has him scratching and chewing so much while we’re gone that he’s losing his hair in places. My poor baby. We’re going to the vet later this week, AGAIN, about it. Hopefully now that it’s getting worse they’ll actually help me. Le Sigh These people are quacks!

Y’all know how clumsy I am and well, I’ve done it big again (the last two BIG things were falling up the stairs and cracking ribs and spraining my wrist = allergic reaction to pain meds). On August 3 I twisted my knee. The doctor thinks I might have torn something but the X-Rays came back clear… needless to say, I have PT with ajimas twice a week, pool PT every day and exercises I have to do at home 4 times a week. I’m not allowed to do yoga for a while ( ) but I have plenty to keep me busy I suppose.

AND what’s most exciting to me right now – I’m losing weight! Since quitting my job, moving to Korea and always, ALWAYS, always being sick or injured in some way I’ve gained about 60 lbs when I already needed to lose about 20. So, I’m doing it! It’s only been a week so far and I’ve lost 7.7 lbs. I’m ecstatic!

Ok. Off to cook some lunch for the husband. =)

The Homefront Life

I am a moderator on a site that was made for the military family. It’s an online family for those who just need someone who understands. =)

Lost in Seoul

Brant and I bought a 1997 Daewoo Leganza last week and well, of course I had to be the one to get lost in Seoul. Epic failure.

I picked the car up on Thursday and Brant made plans to meet me at home after work so he could get it. I got the car registered and still had hours left before Brant would be home so I took advantage of having the car and went to the commissary. I started home and still had almost an hour before Brant would be there.

I turned a 10-15 minute ride home into two and a half hours. One mishap took me out of Seoul and into what I would call “slum” areas. I was forced on an express way (these people have no mercy around here… and driving laws are rarely ever enforced). No big deal, right. Get off at the next exit and turn around, right? HA! I tried that… but that exit didn’t come for miles and it didn’t offer an on ramp for the opposite direction. Thankfully a R.O.K. soldier Brant knows directed me over the phone until I got back on track. I’m not going to lie; I got tears in my eyes when I saw landmarks that are near my house. FINALLY I made it home with $250 worth of thawed out groceries, a sore spot on my lip where I’d chewed out of nervousness and a bladder that was about to erupt!

Brant laughed, I cried.

Le Sigh