Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Camping

There were 10 of us who went camping last weekend. In order to prepare for the trip I created this long list that was, in Dave's words "a list to move to the wilderness forever." I mean, I didn't miss a thing on that list. Then my brother shot back a list of his own after telling me how ridiculous mine was and here is what he came up with:

CAMPING LIST
1. Beer
2. Liquor
3. The Rambo Knife (It has almost everything you will need to survive in any terrain.)
4. Beef Jerky
5. Minds willing to be molded because I will be the teacher!!!!
6. The cloths on our back
*Don’t worry about food, wood, tents, antibiotics, tooth brush, or anything else. Nature provides all of that for us.


Okay, so his list was accurate for the guys but us ladies needed to at least have a tooth brush and our face wash! The guys created tools out of branches to roast marshmallows and hot dogs. Made hot water by letting all the air out of a plastic water bottle, sealing it tight and setting it in the hot coals for 5 minutes. It may not have been the healthiest way to heat water but it worked great! Then once we had an empty glass bottle of liquor, they were able to use that to heat water for our coffee and hot chocolate. I learned some pretty neat things!

While we were camping we played games, sat around a camp fire, cooked, went on walks, explored, made s'mores (delicious!), chopped wood, watched the wildlife (birds, deer and etc.), went fishing, drank, laughed and had great conversation. Now that's what I call life! No one was worried about what to wear, how their make-up looked or their hair style.

There's something very calming about being in the middle of nowhere with people who are important to you, no phones, no TV and minimal supplies. I never realized how much Dave and my brothers knew about the wilderness. I was constantly fascinated by the alternative ways they did things. These guys were in their element and I felt very secure out there with them. We stayed Friday and Saturday night then came home Sunday early afternoon. I could have stayed at least a week if not longer. Dave and I often dream of a more simple lifestyle. We get worn down by the daily doings and the fast pace living, which I'm sure most of you do. We're grateful for all we have but it's nice to step away from it all every now and then.

I would love to go camping again some time soon and you should too!

Will be posting pictures soon so stick around!

Cereal Writer

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Bad habits

I've created a habit over the last few years that I want to throw out the window! Ever since the MR and I began dating, he has been going out to sea or on deployment and I've had this bad habit of wishing the time away until he would return home. Now that we're moving away from our friends, my family and he's getting out of the military I no longer want to wish the time away. I feel like I can relax for the first time in a long time. I am going to stop this bad habit and enjoy all the time I have with my family and friends. Life is too short to wish it away!

Do you have a bad habit you want to throw out the window? Remember, any input is welcome here and it's easy to do; just click "comment" at the bottom of my post!

On another note, we have a very fun weekend coming up so don't be shy!

Cereal Writer

Monday, October 19, 2009

You'll never guess! (video included)

Do you have any idea what the MR and I did this weekend? Take one guess......Nope, that's not it! The MR and I had our first Trapeze lesson.

When we arrived there we immediately signed a waiver then got started with a mini "how to" course. My first time up the ladder was very challenging due to my fear of heights. I climbed to the half way point, looked down and nearly started to cry. I was terrified! I said to the instructor "I think I'm afraid of heights" and she said "that's okay, don't look down and keep climbing." That was the best thing she could have ever said to me. Once I got to the top I was fine. Well, not completely fine since I knew what was coming next, the jump! I waited for them to strap the MR in and watched him jump. He did very well considering he was just as nervous, which I was surprised to hear. Then it was my turn. I followed the commands, however, I'm not sure if I jumped willingly or if they pushed me. Either way, I made it off the platform and was swinging in the air. I have to admit, I did have a hard time following the "drop" command. I thought they were crazy to expect me to let go of the bar and fall to the net. The net seemed fairly far from me. Their pleading and begging went on for a good minute and a half until I finally let go and landed on the net. I had to realize that I needed to trust these people and if I let my guard down I could potentially become better. Once I finally started to trust them I did get better and was able to fulfill the tricks they were teaching us.

I would do this again in a heartbeat and definitely want to progress. This was by far the MOST exhilarating thing we have done thus far. You have do to it too! We go to bed talking about it and wake up talking about it. It was extremely exciting. Who knows, you may see me in the circus one day!

Below is a video of my final trick.

Below is video of the MR's final trick (he caught on faster than I did!)

I hope you enjoyed this post! Please write me a comment and let me know your thoughts, or else, I'll never know you're thinking ;)

Cereal Writer

Friday, October 16, 2009

Out on the town with Nana

Nana came up the coast to see me today. She was going to meet me for lunch but I told her to go to the doctor to get her toe looked at instead. It was infected and I knew she was in pain. I called to check in on her at about 4pm on my lunch break. When I told her I was on lunch she said "you're not going to be hungry for dinner tonight. I might as well drink my dinner." That's Nana for you!

I'm hungry now so I asked if she'd like to go grab a bite to eat. She accepted but had two requests; the first was that we go to a sports bar where she could watch the game and her second was that we play cards while there. She still insists she's keeping a running gin score but I don't believe her! Or maybe I'm just in denial? Any who, she's playing the piano while I'm supposed to be searching for a bar (writing this post). She's yelling at me from the piano "YOU HAVE TO PLAY WITH FEELING, LIKE THIS (insert piano noise here)!!!" I have never met such an energetic 83 year old in my life!

We're off to the bar!

Oh and I'll let you in on a little hint; the MR and I are doing something really exciting tomorrow afternoon. I promise to tell you all about it. Can't wait!

cw

Oh and by the way...

I'm dying to know what you think about my blog. Please leave me a comment at the bottom of any of my posts and let me know how you like it. I would love your feedback!

Thanks,
Cw

Move #1 of 2

In case you haven't read my previous posts, the MR and I are going through a lot of life changes. One of the major ones is that we're moving across the country in December. A lot has happened in our life the past couple months.

Since we want to have a place to live when we move east in December, we decided to take a trip there last month to search for a home. Our first home together!!! We were there for 5 days. The first day we saw and drove by at least 30 homes. What a day that was! The rest of the days we saw more homes and wrote offers on a few others. The home shopping was fun and exciting which over powered the stress of it all. We were able to spend a little quality time with family. We love seeing them and now we're going to live by them very soon! After all the home shopping and enjoying the moments with family we headed back to the west coast.

We arranged to move out of our current home 9 weeks early and move into a friends home to save some money. That move was going to happen a week after we returned home from the east coast. It seemed like the moment we hit the ground we started packing. We had 4 days to pack before the movers arrived to take our things. We wanted to pack ourselves to save $1,500. We thought, how hard can packing be? So, we began packing on Monday. He decided that I would only pack the kitchen and he would do the rest of the house when he got off work early the next day. I'm pretty sure he decided he had to take control because I was packing as if I were playing a game of Tetris. I'm waaaay too thorough for him. By Tuesday the MR looked at me with beer in hand and said "how much was it again for them to pack this for us?" We laughed about it knowing that we realized just how much work it was. We finished up odds and ends on Thursday night and the packers arrived bright and early Friday morning. Friday evening we were going to sleep on a blow up mattress in our empty home, however, when we peeled it apart, it was covered in colorful, gushy mold. Lets just say, whatever was in my stomach before we opened the mattress was no longer going to be there after we opened it if I continued to look at it longer than .02 seconds. It was horrific and beyond disgusting. The most disgusting part was that it looked like that because one of our friends who ate TONS of garlic shrimp and had too much to drink one night, decided to puke all over the blow up mattress, another mattress in the room, floor, wall and ceiling fan (I know, baffling). It was scrubbed that night, rolled up and put away. I don't know whose idea that was! So, guess what Mr. Frugal Steel Stomach said? "Oh, fshhhh, I can spray this down with bleach and we'll be good to go!" You should have seen the mushed up, disgusted look on my face. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. There was NO way I would sleep on that thing. I repeat myself, NO WAY! I would rather sleep on rocks than sleep on that thing. I put my foot down and decided we should go to Target to buy a new one. The MR didn't like this idea but I wasn't budging!


The next day we moved into our friends home 15 minutes from our old one. We love their home, dogs and neighborhood. During that week the MR was out to sea and I was handling a never ending to-do list that mostly had to do with real estate transaction documents, loan documents and leaving our old home. Once the MR returned home he was able to help and the storm started to calm. We are really enjoying our new neighborhood, it's quaint and quiet. We walk everywhere with the dogs. We will be in our friends home for another 6 weeks then we start a whole new adventure...the move to the east coast! We're really going to miss everyone here on the west coast but we can always visit :)


Stay tuned...

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Good news and bad news

I have good news and bad news for you. Which would you like to hear first? Okay, good news it is! The good news is that my weekend was great. The bad news is that we didn't go streaking or blackout, sorry to disappoint.

The weekend was pretty smooth other than a couple of my "moments." I, took these moments well, however, I'm not sure the MR enjoyed them so much. Let me share with you one of my finest from this past weekend. I was trying to figure out what I should wear to our friends' comedy show (of course the MR had been dressed and ready for 45min by this point) and was really stuck on the shoes. I wanted to wear my red pumps so I asked the MR what he thought about them (mistake #1 - If I had already made up my mind on the shoes, why would I consult the MR?) and his response was "well, I'm not so sure about those. What about your black boots?" I knew the black boots wouldn't work because my pants weren't long enough for my liking. I tried them on and sure enough, my pants were too short (like the rapper) and I didn't have any other shoes that I thought would go well with my outfit. Bringing the MR into this dilemma frustrated me even more but I really value his opinion so I was torn. For the next twenty minutes I held a silent grudge against him and I'm sure, huffing and puffing around the room (very immature, I know but it was a "moment"). With all the huffing and puffing I managed to slam my finger in the door, let out this huge gasp and started sobbing. I'm sure this was karma for my silent grudge against the MR. He of course came to comfort me and I pushed him away. When I finally calmed down he said "I was trying to comfort you but you pushed me away. Why?" I smiled (knowing how stupid I was) and said "because you didn't pick the shoes I wanted you to pick." He laughed in awe and I said "didn't you want the truth no matter how petty it was?" It was a funny start to our evening and we had a great time at the comedy show.

I hope you can relate weather you're a man or woman. Care to share your own "moment" with me? I would love to hear it!

Cereal Writer

Friday, October 9, 2009

Blackouts and streaking

I have such a great feeling about this coming weekend. The MR is home ALL weekend which I love and we don't have too many plans. One thing I've realized is that the MR and I are definitely starting to enjoy different things in life. We don't care to join in on the night life as much anymore, but every now and then its fun. We're content at home with each other and some friends, tasty wine, nice music, good conversation and we're always up for an exciting adventure. Our weekend will consist of those elements along with several walks around town, a card game or two, exercise, a friends' comedy show, great food, a family fun BBQ, snuggling, making breakfast, the perfect cup of coffee or tea, lots of laughter and...we're content! So what I'm trying to say is, don't expect me to write a post on Monday about our wild weekend full of blackouts and streaking, at least for this weekend, sorry. However, things don't always go as planned (wink wink).

Slow down this weekend and enjoy the moments.

Cereal Writer

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

We did it!

I know, it's been a while since I've written. My excuse is that my life has been so busy lately (life is just that way) but you would think that since I have lots going on that I'd have lots to write about, right? Well I do!

The MR and I finally jumped (slid, fell, got dragged, whatever you want to call it) off a cliff for our 3rd anniversary...Can you believe it?! I know, I can't either! On the morning of the event, I was feeling a little nervous but I knew it was happening no matter what! I was determined to take the chance and do something I never thought I'd do. Naturally (I think), I called everyone I love to let them know what I was about to do. I ended every conversation with "I love you" and told them if anything were to happen to me, I'd like all my clothes to go to my sister and my Honda civic to go to the MR. The MR was nervous about my hesitation since this was supposed to be a joint gift from each other for our anniversary and he didn't want to do it if he was going to go it alone. After breakfast and the phone conversations with my loved ones, we headed to the glider port.

When we arrived at the gliding port I started to feel even more nervous. We went into the shop, put our names on the list, signed our lives away and paid to basically get dragged off this cliff and hope for the best. We saw another couple who just returned from their flight and they were so excited about it. The girl even said "I just can't take this smile off my face!" I thought to myself, "Okay, there are little kids doing this. Come on Cereal Writer, you can do it!" I asked the woman at the counter if I would have an opportunity to speak to my instructor to make sure I would be comfortable enough about the event and she said "Absolutely, they will not take you unless you're comfortable."

When we got outside we met up with my Aunt and her friend who, after the greeting, felt inclined to say "You know, someone got hung up on the cliff here last weekend. He survived but he had to be rescued off the side of the cliff." REALLY??? Did he have to go there?! And guess what? Right after he told us that story, whose name did they call first? MINE! Yes, I was up first, before the MR (lucky duck!) The gentleman took me to my instructor who I shook hands with and began to ask my comfort questions to; "Are you going to take care of me? Will I be safe?" He answered "yes, this is my third time and if I do a good job then I can get my certification. Now run forward and then when I say "sit" tuck your legs and sit on your harness. Oh and how old are you? Okay, well I've been doing this for twice your age, I'm not going to drop you...RUN!" Now mind you, this word exchange was happening for a total of 1.5 minutes while he was quickly strapping me into the harness. So much for feeling comfortable before the take off!

I ran forward toward the wind as fast as I could, even though I was going nowhere, tucked my legs and sat when he yelled at me to do so. Off the cliff we went! Sound affects don't go over too well in writing, sorry. Since my legs were tucked before we went off the cliff, I didn't get the pleasure of running off the cliff, he did...darn! When we were in the air, he gave me a tour. Poor guy, I wasn't even listening to a thing he said. I was too worried about my safety and all the strange sounds and movements. Then he proceeded to answer a call on his cell phone, tell me to relax continuously (which was absolutely impossible) and tell me things like "your hair smells good" until we landed. I swear he was behind me the whole time mushing his face into my hair. Nothing like being strapped to another person in a harness, in the sky with no where to go, and hearing a bunch of pick up lines. To be honest, the landing was my favorite part. I couldn't enjoy myself while in flight because it was so new and I was too nervous. Once I got on the ground, the true emotions hit me. I was in shock that I actually did it and yes, I then realized just how neat it was. There was something very freeing about it not to mention the beautiful views.

My take off!


Then it was the MR's turn to go off the cliff! It was fun to watch him take off and know what he was experiencing up there. I know he was able to enjoy more of it than I since he's not afraid of much. After every crazy/dangerous thing we do he says "that was so cool! I want to get certified!" I'm like, "yeah, okay, check that off my bucket list!"

Dave Landing!


It was an amazing third anniversary with the MR. This was an experience we will never forget and one day tell our kids and their kids all about. The MR has encouraged me to do things I never thought I'd do in life and to step outside my comfort zone. He's taught me to be more adventurous and open to new things. He's everything I ever wanted in a husband and everything I never thought existed.

I wonder what we'll do next year. Any ideas???

And, I think you should know, I've missed you!

cw