Yesterday was my birthday and it was actually one of the most stressful days I had had in a while and also since Rick left. I have been trying so hard to be brave and think about all the positives of him being gone, like losing weight, finally getting to my knitting, and that it's only 2 months, etc. But yesterday, he called me at work right after he had gotten back from a flight. And I know he was tired and that he's under even more stressful situations than I am. But he didn't seem that enthused to talk to me, and barely said Happy Birthday to me. And that's when I broke down. I couldn't stop crying all day. I could barely answer the phones at work without sounding depressed. My co-workers Rachel and Elizabeth took me out to lunch and that was fun, but I was still not feleing well from the morning. The afternoon went by slowly and when I got home, I made plans for dinner with Ashley, Elvis and Zynda. Again, still crying througout all of this. Finally I started getting ready and got a lot of phone calls from friends saying Happy Birthday. So that was nice. Well, on the way out, I had forgotten that I had set the alarm and it went off. So I was late to dinner waiting around to see if cops came even though I had disarmed it. Finally, I got to dinner almost 30 minutes late and crying and depressed as hell. Ashley took me into the bathroom and we talked for awhile about what had happened during the day. I was able to calm down and then go and enjoy dinner. After dinner, Zynda and I went to get some Starbucks and we talked for quite a while. It was good to vent and enjoy a Chai Tea. :) I am feeling a bit blah today. I don't hear from Rick very often, not even through e-mails, and it's getting to me. Other couple friends are saying that's such a good way to keep in touch and that is not working for us. I don't know if it's cause he doens't have time or doesn't want to or another million other excuses. I also don't want to complain to him about it cause that's another stress he doesn't need to deal with. So it is very stressful to keep it all in. I can't wait until he comes home. And then I won't have to worry about stuff like again, or at least until the next deployment.

On February 16, 2007, my friends Ashley and Elvis got married at the Omaha Courthouse!!! It was very nice ceremony done by a judge. Jimmy was Elvis's witness and I was Ashley's. Afterwards, we went out to dinner at M's Pub. I wish them lots of love and happiness and that their future together is bright... wow, very Hallmark card like. Haha!

In the last couple of days, Bella and Leo have been missing their daddy. So they decided that they wanted to send themselves to Daddy and keep him company while he is away. Bella's eyes remind me of the Puss in Boots in the movie Shrek! Haha!

I miss Rick a lot. Though, I do like having the whole bed to myself. But then it's a colder bed and it's not as welcoming at night as when he is there. I can't wait until he gets back. 1 week down, 7 more to go. Yes, it's going to be a long count down.

I miss the hubby.

It's been weird being on my own again. Not too long thank goodness but still, it's hard. I'll be looking forward to the weekends that I have stuff to do and not being bored at home and being sad by myself.

Okay, haven't written in a while. But I was just wanting to let you know that IT'S SNOWING!!!!

I love the snow... I don't like driving in it but I love being indoors and watching it fall. I am right now at work, HELL to be exact, but it's okay for the moment. I have the snow to watch. I'm surprised that so much is falling since I don't think the town was thinking it would be this much.

Nothing much is going on. Rick and I are getting ready for his deployment. Pretty dang sad about it. But hopefully the 2 months will be QUICK. And that he will be home safe and will be here for the start of SPRING. But for now, we are enjoying the SNOW.... :)

I hate my job, started putting more resumes out there. Hoping someone will call me soon and get me out of here! Hoping that I will have a new job once Rick gets back.

Okay, that's it for now. :)

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!
Lots to talk about! Let's see... where do I start???

My mom just left this morning, she had been here since the 18th of December, her first time out this far East in the US. It was pretty chilly for her, so we got some nice thermals to help her out. It had been months, since July, that I had seen her and she looked so good! We set up the guest room for her. She slept in every day and made dinner for Rick and I every night. She cooked everything that we loved and would clean the house while I was gone to work.

Last week, I finally had all my days off for the holidays and I got to spend a lot of time with her. It was a lot of fun. We drank a lot of tea and talked about what was going on in our lives and how I was going to convince her to move out here! Haha, she's contemplating it. :)

On Sunday, New Year's Eve, it snowed! It was the first really snow fall of the season and I was SOOOO happy that my mom got to enjoy it! I played in it all afternoon, coming in and out of the house, taking Leo and Bella outside to check it out (they were NOT happy with the cold.) and then watching it fall with my mom and husband. My mom didn't venture out until the next day, when it was finally sunny and a little warmer than the day before.

She left this morning, with lots of snow still on the ground and ready to go back to California and it's semi warmer weather.

I cried and cried and Rick was there to comfort me. I still can't believe that when I get home tomorrow, she won't be there, ready to greet me and ask me what I want for dinner. I'll probably see her again in about 6 months. That's something to look forward to!

Today at work, one of the program coordinators came up to me and asked if I could translate some words to her. I did and then asked her what the information was wanted for. This year, her family "adopted" a family at one of the schools that we have programs set up for. It was their Christmas list. And her family was going to provided them with their gifts for this year. The first 2 children asked for coats, some toys, socks, pants. The last child had a different idea of what he wanted to Christmas.

This was his list:

Tide
Ramen
Pinto Beans
Rice
Body Wash
Toliet Paper

It was shock, and very saddening. The child hadn't asked for a toy or even a piece of clothing that could help him with the weather here. He asked for nessecities for his family. So I told the coordinator that Rick and I would want to help in some way and that she would let me know....

Next day...
The coordinator told me it was a bigger family than she anticipated. So Rick and I will definetly be helping out. I'm so excited! Rick in the past has helped people with anonymous donations, I never really did, so it's exciting that we get to do this together and be able to help a family with their needs!

<-------- Birthday Girl!

Whoa! What a month November has been! Rick and I have been so busy on the weekends, even weekends that we are suppose to be relaxing are usually then filled with going out to visit friends. This month, we have parties to go to, a wedding and then a birthday last weekend and now this weekend is Thanksgiving. But the wonderful thing about this is that I no longer have to count down the days until Rick leaves me on deployment because he's not leaving until Feb.!

Ashley and Elvis ------->

Last weekend was Jenny's birthday. She turned the big 3-0! And looking gorgeous while doing it. We had dinner at a place here that we had never gone and it was sooo good! M's Pub has awesome and it's a really cute restuarant. There were about 12 of our, including my friend Ashley and her BF Elvis and some other couples. After dinner, we went out for a couple more drinks, and then went home. I was so tired! I'm ready to just sleep and eat for this upcoming weekend and I can't wait!

Yes, my husband is making a funny face.

Okay, now I know I shouldn't been getting too excited about this, but Rick is (almost positive) staying for Christmas instead of deploying!!!!!!!

Now, I can't get too excited about this, since we haven't gotten a confirmation from anyone and the military is famous for changing its mind. But I'm on CLOUD 9 at the moment and it's made my day better! YAY! Anything to make my work day better...

P.S. This past weekend, I saw the movie Stranger Than Fiction. I recommended it. It's different from the other characters that Wil Ferrell has play, so that's good!

It's been over a year now since my second wedding. Haha, if you know me, you know what I am talking about. :)

I was just looking at some pictures from that wedding. It was probably the bestest way to go. Short and sweet and I got to wear the mostest perfect dress for me and still have my cheesecake and pizza!

We have a friend that is getting married tomorrow. Well, she is having her wedding party and all that. She got married a while ago and is having the party tomorrow. It should be fun, lots of people we will know and all of it brings back the memories of my wedding and how great it was. ESPECIALLY THE CHEESECAKE!! Hmmmm.... if anyone knows Layers in Monterey, they know that's the best place to get cake and other wonderful sweets. Most people at the wedding remember the cheesecake over everything. HMMMM.... I'm going to have to get some next time I'm there.

Hmmm... nothing really going on here. We have quite a bit of work to do on our yard this weekend. Earlier this week, we had a nice wind storm and it blew off all the leaves off the trees in our front yard. Our trees were still quite full of leaves, so our yard is a mess. I'm not really looking forward to it. It's been really chilly outside.

Hmmm.... okay, I think I'm done for today. Work is boring as usual and I'm still looking for a new job. We'll see what happens.

WHOO HOOO!!!

My best friend Felicity is having a baby BOY!! She just found out. I'm so excited for her! Yay! Now I know what color to buy things in! That's so exciting for her! I wish her the best on all the rest of her pregnacy and that her family is healthy and strong and ready for a new adventure!! YAY!!

I HATE MY JOB.

Everyone get that? I HATE MY JOB.

Everyday when I am getting ready to come to work, I think about a million and one excuses of why not to come. But then I remember that I have a family, we do need my paycheck to come into the family account. That's the only thing that keeps me going. I've talked to Rick about it... but it just seems like I need to stay here for a little longer, so that I can eventually leave and get a better one.

I know I can do better than this job. I know I am smarter than this, that I can do so much more. But... it just seems that I don't know where I am heading. I didn't finish my degree and I don't know how useful a Spanish degree would be. So I don't know what I am going to try to finish my degree in.

I don't feel useful, this job depresses me every time I come in. I don't think it's healthy for me to be here. :( I am going to try to get out of here soon. SOON!! I hope I can.... I will try to be as positive as I can when I am here, but it's hard to keep that constant happiness when I HATE MY JOB. Okay, I'm done for the moment. Maybe I'll vent later about this.

For quite some time, I have been drinking tea in the mornings. I love having my black or green tea in the mornings. They have just enough caffine so that I'm not super wired, just a nice pick me up at 8am that is always needed.

My favorite to drink is Chai tea. It doesn't even need to have milk in it. And I rarely drink any tea with sugar. I also love to have green tea with a hint of Jasmine in it. I thought it was weird when I first bought it but I really wanted some tea for the next morning so I bought the box and I really like it. At home, right now I have 4 boxes of tea. I bring one package to work in the morning, one for the afternoon and then save my chamomile tea for the evenings. Last night, I had one cup of it and by 10pm, I was passed out. It was nice to end the night with my tea.
There are also health benefits to tea: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15197558/. READ ME!

Fall has come into Omaha.

Kinda. Leaves are starting to turn.

Kinda.

Yesterday, the weather was beautiful. But HOT! I don't think we had had a hot day in weeks. It was bad. This town is starting to get mosquitos and gnats. Which I don't get, it's been cold and were they just staying in the warmest places they could find and then came out as soon as it got over 80 degrees!?! I got bite about a million time. Okay, that's exaggerated. But they are still my own bites and are killer itches. I haven't been outside today, we'll see how it feels at 4:30.

It was nice to play outside yesterday at the house. We are still not done with cleaning out the apt. but are almost outta there. You know, it's the stuff that can't fit into the boxes or super heavy that you can't move by yourself. Being outside at the house was awesome though. We had the ktties out and playing, then resting and Rick got a little sun on his face. I got bit by stupid gnats. What are they good for in this world? Perhaps the spiders just needed another thing to eat. GRR!!!

Leo and Bella are getting to playful lately and that was fun to watch in the yard. They compliment each other very well. Here's a recent picture of them together, hanging out on the front porch. Note the work that will eventually will have to get done to it. We will have to replace boards and stain it all nice. I can't wait. lol.

Okay, okay, I know I know... I haven't written in a while. That's cause I've just been so dang busy! Well, not at all at work, but with the rest of my life.

So we got the house. We are almost all the way moved in. It was the worse weekend to move in. We closed last week on it. And almost right away we started working on it. We painted the living room, took the carpet off from 2 rooms upstairs. And we painted a bathroom and made holes in a couple of rooms that eventually got filled in.

And then I got sick. I got a cold. YUCKA! I still have a cold. I'm surprised that I was able to do anything this weekend. We moved all of our big pieces this weekend since it was the only time that we had. Unfortunatly, they all don't fit in the right places. The bedroom furniture won't go upstairs, which made us frustrated and then we decided to pull off the frame to see if that helped. It did a tiny bit. We have slept in the living room for the last 2 nights. It's kind of cool. We have the tv to fall asleep to. :)

There is no hot water in the house yet, because we kept missing the gas dude. So hopefully when I get home today, there will be HOT water finally. I had to wash my hair with very very COLD water.

I'm feeling a little better, though while here at work, I felt like I had a fever for an hour or 2. I don't know what that was all about. But it feels better.

It's absolutly gorgeous here in Omaha. Fall treats this town well. I have been enjoying it, we will have a day or 2 of rain and then beautiful sunny weather with a nice crisp wind. I wish it was like this all the time.

I've been thinking about how Rick and I are finally settling down. It's crazy to think a year ago I was still in Monterey and just trying to find us a place to live here in Omaha. I'm happy at how everything is working out in our lives. I just need to find another job or something. That part of my life needs to get better. I need to finish my degree and get going on finding something that keeps me working my brain, cause it's going dead from boredum. I think that's possible... right? haha. That's about it that's going on. I'll put pictures up of the house sometime soon, with the new color of living room and the kitchen that will be hopefully done later this week... Ciao!

Okay, this is week I hope goes by really fast. We are moving into our house at the end of this week, which means we should be out of the apt. by Monday. We don't have a lot to pack, but still is stressful thinking about stuff like that.

Hmmm.... nothing else is really going on. There's nothing much to do until this Friday. The weather I think has been wonderful. It's been raining, which was much needed by Omaha. And so yesterday, Rick and I just watched movies and hung around the house, though in the morning, we went to Lowe's to see what materials we needed to make one of the rooms of the house into a walk in closet. That will be fun! Especially for him, he will finally get a chance to really play with the tools that his dad bought he last winter.

Today is the 5th year anniversary for the attacks made to the US. It's been interesting what stories have been online and all the memorials they are doing for it.

That's about it. When we move, I'll take pictures of the house to show you the before and afters of the purple kitchen. LOL!

Everyday I talk to Felicity. We've known each other for just about 6 years. Time has gone by so fast and we've been through quite a bit with our own personal lives. I miss her lots and hope that I get to see her soon. It's been just a little over a year since I last saw her. Crazy!

Lately, we've been talking on GoogleTalk. Best invention ever! I finally know what's going on with her life day to day, though most of our talks are about how much we hate our jobs. :) HAHA! But it's all good, we understand each other and it's awesome to vent to someone that feels the same way you do.

She is like the bestest friend that you could ever have and I miss her all the time. I wish that we lived closer, though it is a bit better instead of me living in Cal at 3000 miles away, I'm only 1500 miles away in Omaha. Hmmm... I don't have any pictures to add of her and I. I'll look at my pictures at home. :)

Since I don't have children, I like talking about my cats... hahaha. I'm going to become the Cat Lady one day, though they would prob. kill me since my allerigies would get just worse and worse because they would all be indoor cats.

Anyhoo, so I *heart* my cats Bella and Leopold. Actually, Leo is Rick's. But he's finally warmed up to me and since Rick has been gone all week, then he's been mines. They have gotten a little bigger since we got them from the Humane Society. Leo for sure, he's hard to pick up now!!! They lay around and I try to play with them, Bella's too wired for me sometimes, Leo is just so chilll that he never plays. I'll get him to play one day. :)

I *heart* my husband!

I just want my husband to come home. I get to clean house today to make sure that he comes home to a clean place. I can't wait to see him!!

Hmmm.... I wonder if he got me anything from England.... hehe!

Painting by Chagall...

Okay, I decided to write about the house again. Maybe it will get me out of this funk.

<----- (House)

So yesterday we had the inspection on the house done. It turned out that all it needs is foundation help on the kitchen side, some plumbing help, electrical wiring changed and that's about it.

SO.... that makes me wonder about what we should do. It's in a WAY better shape than the other house that we looked at. So that's good. But do we want to put money into it, turning out to be a MONEY PIT??

There's another house that we looked at, that's just up the street and even though it's smaller, it's foundation looked good, from what Rick could tell, newer appliences and it's got 2 FULL bathrooms, so that's a plus. Newer washer and dryer too. So it's a toss up. Rick's decision. I talked to him last night about it all and just kind of left it up to him to decide.

I personally wouldn't mind the smaller house with the newer stuff and that would mean not worrying about things too much for a couple of years, instead of worrying all the time about when the wiring will go nuts and make a fire or the plumbing just die on us all of a sudden. It's scary to think about that stuff. That means we would definatly put off the baby making for even longer, just because it is only 2 bedrooms, while the house that we put a bid on is 4 bedrooms. I don't mind that since we've already made our decision on all of that. We would wait for 5 years. But there could always be the OOPS! baby. You never know. I've been on the pill for like 7-8 years so I'm almost positive it won't happen, just never know though. Anyway, back to the house. Again, I left it up to Rick to decide. And since he's in England, I'll just have e-mail and maybe a phone to see what's going on with all of that.

He called me last night. It made me so happy!!! He's so tired though. And this morning I got a message from him. I can't wait to see him. I has been since Jan. that we have been a part for more than day. So it's bumming me out. We'll see how I do when he gets deployed :0/

Ending on a good note... It's almost lunch time so I'll get to eat my PB&J unless... I go across the street to eat a QUESADILLA!! HMMMM....