just so you know:

this is "angel", mom's dog.

and

one of these doofy things will be dad's on Jan 4th.

here i come!

well ok, the presents are loaded up in the car, i am packed (except for the things i'll use in the morning) - and all i have left to do tonight is finish the enchalada sauce, clean the kitchen, write a few more christmas cards, take out all the trash, and possibly make some candy... but i doubt it on the candy. perhaps i'll save that for when mom is up here.
i just paid my visa bill, which is now $5000. yeesh. but i take comfort in the fact that the payment wasnt actually due until january 11th, and i get paid again before that. so if i can make $400 of the $600 in my checking account right now last until january 18th, then on the 11th i can pay $1000 on my card. and by then, charles will be chipping in too. and february is 3 paychecks month!!! so i'm sure i can squeeze another $1000 then too, if not more! i'm liking where that's headed. plus, in theory, i'll have my tax return back by then and all of that will go that direction too. maybe if we play our cards right, we can have the furniture AND my visa paid off by the time he leaves - thus allowing us to save an ASS LOAD of money while he's gone. ooooh that'd be nice.
so that's what's on my mind now. i was totally stressed out today at work thinking of all the things still to be done. but now i'm sort of embracing the headache, literally. this time tomorrow i'll be playing with mom's new puppy and probably eating some sort of fried meat... not too much though - i packed my skinny jeans. :o)

dane cook....

is really funny!!!!!!! charles and i got to see him a couple sundays ago on a whim at the new sprint center arena downtown KC, along with about blablabitty thounsand of our new closest friends. horay!!! i had wanted to go to his show since the day i heard he was coming, but as charles' schedule is completely impossible to predict, i found myself spending $134 on tickets the night before the show since he happened to be off that night. the army is not condusive to "dates" or otherwise "planned activities", but that's generally ok with me. it reminds me to enjoy our spontaneous romantic dinners at chipolte and comedy shows, or randomly wandering around the mall and going to the almighty Dave & Busters on a monday night to play skee ball and coin games.

as you can see, we had really pretty good seats. the chute that he came out of was about 25 feet in front of us. he's not a bad looking guy for a doof ball! SU FI!

ps - i just figured out how to place a picture on the blog and move it around so it doesnt throw off the groove of my text. i'm so damn smart!

1st snow of winter

aaaaand while wichita got freezing rain, northern KC got 3-5 inches of snow! woo hoo!!! i even got out early from work for the occasion, a whole hour! here's the plan from work: anyone who lives outside of the leavenworth/lansing area left at 2:30, anyone living inside of leavenworth left at 3, and then there was me - the cheese stands alone - leaving at 3:30... although it was more like 3:45 because my LEAST favorite resident, mrs. willis, the bitch, came in and wanted to fight with someone about the utilities issue which was supposed to be discussed at the resident's meeting tonight (which was cancelled). why do i always end up being the one who has to deal with this crazy woman?! she's just nuts, and TOTALLY rude. once she finished glaring at me and being a big pest, she showed herself upstairs (something unheard of and even more rude and obtrusive) and tried to find someone from the army side of housing who might be above the housing company who she could bitch to some more. never mind the fact that there's 5 inches of snow on post and everyone has left early to try and get home safely, YOU FREAK. aagggh! she just kills me. if i hadnt been leaving an hour early, that would have totally killed my whole day right there.
but as it is, i'm good. i was home and in my pj's by 4:10, drinking hot chocolate.
in other news, i stepped on the scale this morning before i took a shower: empty stomach, no clothes. 178.8. that is WAY too close to 180. still less than my heaviest, 185, but this is the highest it will be until i am packing a mini-me. so my smoothie and i had a wonderful time this morning, and a lovely salad will bathe in my intestinal juices tonight. (i had pizza hut for lunch but only because i was too scared to drive home just for food when i had leftover pizza at work already.) but alas, here i sit. moo.

bye bye Daisy

i'm not going to dramatize the loss of daisy by doing some R.I.P. business, but all the same, i'm really going to miss her. when we brought her home on my 14th birthday, she could fit in the palm of your hand almost. she had the cutest little round fat belly and a tiny skinny tail that fluttered around when she was happy. her whole body was so soft, and then as she got bigger, just her ears. i always loved petting her ears because they were softer than anything i'd ever felt.

i'm glad i didnt have to see her in failing health and that i wasn't there to watch her quit eating and drinking and not be able to stand up or move. but at the same time, i hate it that i wasnt there to help take care of her. every one of our dogs that we've had to put down, at least i was there to say goodbye and cry on the couch with mom. there is a daisy sized hole in our family, crouching in the back somewhere, too afraid to be out and about.

the silver lining is there though - within a month, there will be at least one new puppy at mom and dad's house. i just wish daisy would be there too.

ROAD TRIP!

ok, went to haysville and i DID end up squeezing a fabulous 3 day weekend out of the deal. although i very much wish it had been under better circumstances. however it was really nice to spend so much time with my family. i find myself more confused about why krystal ditched us all than i was in the beginning, and more hurt, and much more angry. but it was cool to have my brother to myself again. but in all honesty, that's not even what it's about anymore. the last time i even thought about "having him to myself" was when he was in high school and they first started dating and i hated her for stealing him away from me - even though he hated me at the time. and so here we are, and as i'm driving to haysville, he calls me to ask if we can hang out saturday and run errands, just the two of us. talk about a breath of fresh air! un-interrupted adult conversation! quite a beautiful thing! (sometimes i feel like i have a strange appreciation for things that other people might take for granted, this is one of those times).
so yes, went to haysville, spent time with the family. saturday was hanging out/shopping/eating chocolate. sunday we had thanksgiving dinner - why not?! we were all actually there! and then monday cameron met with krystal for the first time and returned oscar to her. hellish day for cameron. hellish day for all of us. but he is more of a man, and continues to be more of a husband and a friend than she ever has, will, or did deserve. we're all so proud of him and how well he's handling himself and the whole situation. i dont think anyone could do so well, i know i couldn't.

my house smells

my house smells like dirty diapers. the trash in the kitchen is empty, as well as the bathrooms. it's kinda nasty. although i do need to clean the kitchen and REALLY don't want to. i'm incredibly tired.
still don't know if his dad and stepmom are coming up for the weekend. i'd love for them to come, and i'd also love to spend 4 days with my brother instead of 1.5... but mostly i'd love for them to call and let me know either way so that i know how to plan for my weekend. but i suppose in the long run, my plans won't change too much. it would just be nice to know how rushed and UNrelaxed i'm going to be on my 3 day weekend, especialy since i was incredibly rushed and UNrelaxed last weekend since i had to hurry up and drive all weekend to his grandparents and i'm still not rested up from that and have an ass load of errands to do this week.
too much to do, too little time. anyone want to come clean my kitchen? lizabeth? mom? no? well ok, maybe i'll do it. still waiting for that 2nd wind.

FYI - surgery is scheduled

it is official, i had to hound the nurses to get it done, but my surgery is scheduled for 7:30am on thursday october 18th. bring it on! well, not really, i'm not too excited about spending the morning with my legs propped in the air against my will as i am unconscious. but whatever. it must be done... and hopefully won't have to be done again (unless to remove a child).
not a whole lot else going on at the Casa Buford. this last weekend charles and i went to his grandparents Oneslager to spend time with them and his dad and stepmom. it's always fun to go out there, those are the ones who live out in the middle of no where. it was not until saturday morning that it occured to me how tight charles really is wound up. he was constantly fidgeting and had a REALLY hard time sitting still. he kept trying to get his grandpa to consent to go cut down a tree or something labor-intensive so that he could help. i was glad that his grandpa also saw that there was a serious need for him to just CHILL THE HELL OUT! and he eventually did, but it still bothers me that he spends his life on such a high frequency. i wish we could have more weekends away or take advantage of his 2 days off to do something more relaxing. i dont know how to do that, since his days off hardly ever fall on my days off, but i'd still like to find some way to help him use that time to unwind. open for suggestions:
also, back on the surgery - he will be able to take off work to take me there and tend to me. it was a battle, and hopefully they don't try and re-neg on their promise, at which time he would pretty much chew someone's head off. but as of now, the plan is for him to take care of me. :O) i'm looking forward to it.

HI ELIZABETH!!!!!

LOOK, I'M UPDATING IT, AND IT HASN'T EVEN BEEN "TWO WEEKS"!
but unfortunately i dont really have anything to say. i had a really crappy day at work today and then came home and took a nap for 3 hours on the couch. now it's pretty much my bed time and i'm gonna go to sleep again. you see? this is why i don't update it very often - you don't miss much! :o)

my name will soon be in print - don't tell mom

i'm hoping to surprise mom, so we'll see how often she checks my blog.... but i have volunteered to write the weekly article for The Leavenworth Lamp this next week because the usual person who writes it will be on vacation (in hawaii, of all places) and unable to do it. i am very excited about the opportunity and volunteered immediately when she put out the email asking everyone for help - something quite unlike me, to just put my "skillz" out there. but i figured the time was right and felt compelled to do it. it's kind of a big deal... well, to me at least - probably not to the general population of Fort Leavenworth. it's just the weekly blurb from the housing office staff, but i'm hoping to spice it up a bit. i haven't fully decided what i'm going to write about. i'm thinking i might do something along the lines of "an enlisted wive's perspective of the Fort Leavenworth community/being a new Army wife". this would be interesting only because on this base, the officers run the show and the enlisted guys get shit upon - that's the rule. so for an enlisted person (or anyone associated with an enlisted person) to have a voice might be interesting. my challenge might be to not be cynical or negative; because my job at the housing office in particlar has afforded me the insightes into just how many ways the enlisted personnel are currently and will be screwed over in the future, with reguards to housing at least. so i have to figure out how to spin it all with an optimistic light. should be a challenge. because if i decide to go with a more "personal story" approach, how many people would really give a care? probably not many... unless i do a really awesome job of it. and i haven't thought of anything that good yet.
but alas, i just recieved my task yesterday afternoon and have until friday to complete it. i plan to be done by wednesday so i can run everything past a couple people so that i dont make a fool of myself for my first chance to be in print. i'm obviously excited but nervous at the same time. i know that this is 100% me. which is good. bring it on. but at the same time, i am doing this to help out denise, the marketing director. the marketing director who WAS my nemisis, who stole the job i wanted. i now know just how much i am REALLY glad i didnt get that job, and i actually kinda like denise, she's really nice and seems pretty cool; but i'm still afraid that she uses other people to stand on so that she can make her way to the top. so i am struggling with myself as i do this and am afraid in the back of my mind that she will find a way to take some glory or somehow make herself look awesome as i do this. ya know, word has gotten out that i know how to write and everyone brings their documents to me for proofreading. well, she did it friday for the first time - she brought me her newspaper article before she submitted it so that i could proof it. interesting. i dont mind doing it - it's a great way for me to stay sharp and use my knowledge that God gave me, i just think it's interesting. but i guess i just need to quit worrying about the glory. like i just said, God gave me the gifts, and it is my responsiblity to use them to help people and not to keep a score card for myself. the chips will fall where they will fall. i guess i can just hope that God will see fit to let my bosses notice that i am using my gifts, or that i even HAVE those gifts, when the time comes for a raise - if that's what He wants me to have.

i'm not dead - i think i'll go for a walk!

(here's a picture of my grandpa kelly in his airforce uniform - this will be a part of my office decorations. something ELSE that i just remembered that i should possibly add to my pictoral montage on this blog.... but really, arent you totally intrigued now?!)

well, not so much on the going for a walk thing, it's cold and rainy outside..... i'd rather just make some chilli and put on my sweat pants and snuggle. well - scratch that, i only got 4 hours of sleep last night, i dont want to actually "make" the chilli, i'd be good with just eating the chilli and then doing the rest of those things.

so yes, just wanted to do a little blog here for the one or two people who check up on me to say that i'm alive. i have lots and lots of pictures to post on here and i'm quite excited to do so but have, as always, been a bit occupied. our super fun house guest left this morning, but not before i finished the blanket i was making for his daughter (hence the 4 hours of sleep). so that will be one set of pictures. we got some new furniture; i took a trip to another state; i DO fully intend to write a novel about my health and thoughroughly gross everyone out/embarass myself by showing the world my nose snorkel - but i just havent done any of those posts yet. but i will do them, along with a couple other random things i've taken pictures of along the way... like me playing in the ocean. I LOVE LIFE!!!

honestly, i hope that when i die, i am remembered as a person who never missed an opportunity to live. pass it on.

Scratching one more thing off that list....

well, i did it - i finally saw Dave Matthews Band in concert. perhaps not many people knew that that was one of the things on my ever-growing list of "Things to do before I die", but it was... and i did it!!!!!! my amazingly wonderful friend MEGAAAAAAAANNNN made the 3 hr trek up here to share the experience with me and we had a BLAST!!!! this one on the right is a picture from my phone (with 8x zoom). dave is the man in black in the middle. sooooo cooooool. the one on the left is how far we "actually" were away. still good seats though i think. :o) well worth it. charles bought me the ticket for my birthday.. not cheap. about $80 when all was said and done, more expensive than metallica! but again, worth it. i've been to a LOT of concerts, and dave matthews band was BY FAR the very BEST one as far as musicianship goes. each one of the band members play like a machine! they played for 3 solid hours and the styles of each song varied from rock to samba, and every one of those guys hung in there like a champ till the very end and STILL played some pretty kick ass solos at 11:30 at night... not to mention the fact that dave was singing his heart out the whole time and never faltered once. pretty amazing. by far, the best live band i've seen. my only regret is that i didn't know about 95% of the songs that they played, but that's ok. i appreciated them for their musical qualities and the effects they held upon the crowd just the same.

and now, i have nothing left to do but go out and purchase some dave matthews band cds. i used to own one from back in the "columbia house mania days"when they first came out, but it was lost in the first round of cd theft a couple years ago. but thats ok, i'm off to nebraska furniture mart tomorrow and i'm hoping for some really cheap cds there. maybe i can find a live album! that would be cool if it wasnt $40! so we'll see. if all else fails, i'll have charles do some online digging and load up my ipod. much cheaper....

ROUND THREE: Harry Potter break

when did Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows come out? July... bla bla blaa...?? i think it was the 17th, i'm not sure... but i DO know that i was one of the dorks at the book store pre-registering for it and arrived at 1am to pick up my copy (note: i was NOT there at 12:01am in costume, so i'm not that bad). i then came home and was able to stay awake to read the first chapter or so, then fell asleep. however, i woke up the next morning and proceeded to read for pretty much a day and a half straight until it was finished. WOW! anyone who really knows me will know what a harry potter nut i am, and WOA!!!! soooooo awesome!
the most difficult part was waiting for charles and my mom to finish reading it so that i could talk to them about all of the exciting parts - which they have now done. both were equally thrilled by the amazing story (although not as giddy about it as i am, especially charles... although we have shared our private moments of "go Ron!!"'s and exclamatory "Mrs. Weasely!!!!"'s) but i passed the time during which the book was otherwise occupied by reading another book, and now i have decided to read it again - it's that good.
if you have not already done so, go out and pick up the series from the beginning and read them all. not only are they well written, but they're just plain fun!

an ode to my beautiful friends and their adorable kids

when i was home for the previously mentioned fiesta, it was suggested that my 2 best friends and i take a picture together and i'm SO glad we did! i miss them so much and i honestly could not have two more wonderfully amazing friends. God gave me 2 of His most beautiful angels to look after me and they do a fantastic job.

and so, to my judy and my elizabeth: i love you both very much!!!!

ROUND TWO - a trip home for mom and dad

HOLY MOLEY THAT'S A LOT OF RING!!!!!

Who doesnt love my mom and dad?!

this was mom's surprise face

shortly after the news of cameron and krystal's unfortunate circumstances, i got the opportunity to pull a fast one on mom... well... mainly DAD was doing the pulling of the fast ones, but i got to help:

july 29th was my parents' 35th wedding anniversary and my dad had planned quite the fantastic ordeal to celebrate! it's easier if i just go down the list of surprizes i think -

1. sunday morning before church, i walked in on mom as she was putting on her makeup. she had no idea i was in town. i had been in wichita since saturday afternoon having a WONDERFUL time visiting with the stockemer family and my friend judy while the mission impossible theme song played in the background as i drove all over the west side of town hoping that mom and dad didn't stop at the same intersection as me at the same time.

2. sunday morning DURING Mass, dad asked the priest to bless their marriage vows. mom was very pleased and surprised. we went out to breakfast to celebrate. then mom had a bridal shower to go to that afternoon (we made up a fanstastic story about how i had made plans with elizabeth and that she might as well go ahead and go to the shower because i wouldnt be available anyway for her to spend time with otherwise - thus effectively getting her out of the house for speed cleaning and food preperation)

3. sunday afternoon by 4pm, about 30 people were crammed into my parents' house for a bbq and dad was slaving away at the grill as mom came drifting home from the bridal shower. someone shouted "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!" (ooohh so convieniently, seeing as mom's birthday is july 30th, one day AFTER their wedding anniversary - so she thought she was entering her surprise birthday party). as she made the rounds to greet everyone, dad prepared the way for surprise number...

4. the man who was the best man at their wedding is now a priest: father mike. father mike made the drive to be at the party and it was a wonderful shock for mom to see him there. also a wonderful shock was surprise number....

5. before saying grace before meals, dad made a bit of a speech: his voice started to shake, and it was at about that time that i started to cry. dad told everyone how glad he was to have everyone there to share the day, especially father mike, and especially mom. then he asked father mike to renew their wedding vows in the living room. he had me stand next to mom and a good friend of the family stand next to him. then he proceeded to pull out a brand new, HUGE wedding ring for mom and have it blessed. by this time, i was balling. and needless to say, mom was shocked beyond belief... although she didn't cry.

overall, it was a rediculously happy weekend, and much needed for the family, i must say.

Let the updates begin: ROUND ONE - "the divorce"

NO IT'S NOT MINE!
well, since it's been a long time since i've blogged anything, and i dont even know if anyone reads this, i figured i'd start back into it by explaining why i've been busy and sort of gotten out of the habit of getting on the computer and writing about my life. so i'll start with the begining of the end: the divorce in the family. i actually debated for quite a while whether or not to adress this in blog or not, but i figure that by now, everyone would probably have heard about it, so if you are surprized by the news, then i guess you can just enjoy the feeling.... we were surprized too.
my brother and sister-in-law are in the process of getting a divorce. aparently their 8-year marriage has been troublesome throughout and they have just done a really great job of hiding this little bit of information from everyone. so about a month ago, krystal came to everyone and announced that she no longer loved cameron "as a husband". *cue the collective "HUH?!"*
needless to say, we were all very confused and shocked by this revealation, and it has caused quite an upheaval within the family since we all love kyrstal so much. but there's not really anything any of us can do except for keep on loving and supporting them. dad hopped a flight to italy and is there now to help cameron sort through the wreckage; and krystal is doing her own thing. we all miss her very much.
life is funny sometimes. i sure didnt think those two would be the ones with the broken marriage. but the whole situation has made the rest of us a lot stronger and has taught us a lot.
so anyway - that's step #1 in the explanation of what i've been up to. more to come...

fun times at the Buford house

i swear - i will post some SUPER fun pictures soon. right now, as i type, i have been banished to the computer room as my husband and his cousin assemble what is sure to be a fantastic amount of glass and metal (which probably in NO way matches the rest of the living room furniture but looks "modern") that holds up the new forty-some inch flat screen something TV that he just bought. please, don't get the impression that i'm upset about it. i'm honestly quite excited! and he even called me at work and asked me if he had permission to spend his own money on this TV that we had been discussing (and he had been given permission to buy) months ago! so it's all totally good here. i'm 100% thrilled to watch Harry Potter movies and chick movies on a big huge tv while he's at work next week! :o) alas, if only we had cable! but anyway, when i came home from work, they met me at the door and made me hold the mail over my eyes and walk with my back to the living room and march straight upstairs without peeking so that they can produce the "grand effect" of a finished product once they get it put together.
why is his cousin here? such grand entertainment!! nikki, matt's wife, is away for her job to dallas, so matt took vacation from his job to spend the week here. SU-WEET! we're having a BLAST! he's here till thursday. charles worked yesterday so matt and i hung out and had lovely conversations and then discovered that the "china buffet" in leavenworth KICKS ASS!! and now that charles is off work for today and tomorrow, they have begun their two day adventure by staying awake all night last night playing xbox, sleeping all morning, and then spending THOUSANDS of dollars this afternoon. tonight we're grilling hamburgers and hot dogs on the grill. should be fun times since i dont think any of us really know how to operate the grill. tomorrow we're going to see the die hard movie then hitting dave & busters so that we can all spend lots of money playing video games that those boys could rightly play for free right here. it'll be great!! :o)

well might i say, EVERYONE must go see Transformers!! now. go do it now. you - go see it now.
finished? ok, do you not agree that it is the GREATEST SUMMER MOVIE OF ALL TIME! i mean: "WOW!". totally amazing! many, many very enthusiastic thumbs up!
in other news, i got my hair cut. i even took a picture of it myself this morning because i was able to fix it fairly well for the first time since i got it cut on saturday. but since i am upstairs and the camera is downstairs, the downloading of the picture will just wait until a later date. but i think it's cute. i fancy myself at times to look like keira knightly with my new haircut. i have not made this admission to my husband, i prefer to enjoy the fantastic reality only in my own mind. oddly enough, this comparison came to me the morning after i got it cut when i first woke up and looked in the mirror - who knew that smooshed hair full of styling product could turn into "oooh! now that's a keira knightly style! i'm going to try and deliberately fix it that way today!". and anyone who knows me is well aware, i'm sure, of my lack of skillz with the hair products... but i'm proud to say that i am improving and that my head looks less and less like butt every day!
4th of July: the cliffhanger from a previous post about my volunteer excursions in working with my nemesis turned out to be unfounded. the day actually turned out extremely well and this lovely person with whom i do not get along was pleasant enough. (actually, she has done nothing directly TO me, it is only my weakness as a person which leads me to harbor anger towards her. for full disclosure of my shame, just ask.) so anyway, the 4th of july picnic on base was a downright blast! for my part, i helped my coworkers run a booth (once the rain cleared) where we had kiddie games such as water balloon toss, etc. but the most amusing was the watermelon eating contest and seed spitting contest. the contests were divided into age groups, the best of which were the adult catagories. alas - not much is more amusing than to see a grown man - an officer, no less - shove his face into a huge wedge of watermelon and slop it around like a pig. i'm not joking: these guys were picking watermelon out of their ears. it was AWESOME!
well, i think that pretty much brings everything up to speed. i am almost done with the blanket that i am making and will post pictures of it soon. in the mean time, i think it's time for some ice cream!

now i've got it!

finally! ok: this is our house. the experiment worked, and now i must dedicate myself to taking cooler pictures to post on the blogs.

a new discovery

perhaps it worked, i dont know... i think maybe i figured out how to add pictures to a post? yes/no? well, i don't really have much to say since a couple of days ago, i was just messing around and stumbled upon that little tidbit of knowledge.
tomorrow is the 4th of July - i get to sleep in! although, sadly, my body has become accustomed to waking up early, so i can't sleep much past 8 or 9 anymore. it sickens me. but i will sleep in anyway. i am still working a bit though because i volunteered to work for a few hours (time and half!!! and at $10 and hour regular pay, who's going to turn down time and a half?!) at the MWR picnic/4th of July party on base. the housing office will be putting on a watermelon seed spitting contest, so i will be cutting, serving, and judging that i think. sounds good and messy. and although i'm not much of a drinker, i heard there will be some alcohol purchased for us, which might be very much welcome after spending the afternoon working underneath my nemesis.... (yes, the cliffhanger)

W.O.F. Sunday

let me go off for a minute here: what the hell kind of marketing idiot came up with "w.o.f."?! i can see the focus group - "hey, i bet we could make lots of really tiny and cheap merchandise for these poor suckers to buy and start filling whole new sections in our God-forsaken gift shops if instead of spelling out the tediously long phrase: "Worlds of Fun", we just shortened it to "w.o.f."! and then, as our new slogan takes a GIANT leap towards all things rediculously hip and trendy, we will start putting "w.o.f." on ALL of our merchandise! that way, by the time we finish butchering the name of the theme park, all of the concept artists that spent hours and hours developing coordinating rides/music/decorations/themes throughout the park to imitate different parts of the "world" that offer different kinds "of fun" will be forgotten completely and lost along with the abysmally stupid idea of "w.o.f."! GENIUS!
so anyway, i went to WORLDS OF FUN yesterday. and oh yes, i did indeed have: worlds of fun. my sister-in-law messaged me on a whim friday because she happened to have the weekend off and so she drove up here sunday and we went up there to spend $40 wandering from roller coaster to roller coaster screaming our heads off. it was actually the first time in the 9 years that she has been in my family that we have ridden a coaster together and it was a BLAST. i'd have to say that my favorite was the Mamba. it was not one of the upsidedown ones - but we made the special exception to sit in the front row each time we rode it so that we were the very first ones to experience the feeling of dropping straight down into obvilvion at high rates of speed. if i hadnt been too busy screaming, laughing, and spitting on myself, i probably would have soiled my pants. but luckily i was otherwise occupied.
in other news: mom and dad left for Vegas today. i am very happy for them and am hoping that they win lots of money so that they can help me pay for my plane ticket for an upcoming trip to north carolina in september. (but mostly just hoping they have fun - which i know they will) they're seeing lots of shows and dressing up and spending lots of money. they will be gone until friday. i can't wait to hear from them to know how it's going. :O)
also, charles completed his motorcycle safety course this weekend, which means 2 things: 1 - he will be able to ride the bike on base once he gets it back this week (2002? ducati 750 turbo, yellow - for those who dont know); and 2 - he went back to work today and i wont really see him again until this weekend. he's on "swing shift" for the next 3 months and works all afternoon/evening. so i usually celebrate that by taking a nap in the evenings since i dont have cable. i need to clean the kitchen too, but since that is my least favorite job, i am puting it off. gotta love that procrastination!

and so it begins

i have become rather fond of myspace blogging, and have thus decided to try my hand at another "venue of blog". i am not sure if this site allows for public searching or if only those privledged few to whom i allow access will read my "rantings", but i will begin, i suppose, by introducing myself.
my name is michelle. i'm almost 25 and am among the few women in my circle who have yet popped out a child; although i hope that this will not much longer be the case. my husband and i have been married just over a year, and what an informative and trying year it was... but well worth the effort. we are a military family and stationed at fort leavenworth, kansas. this is quite handy for us since we are both from the wichita area and are thus only 3 hours from the family and friends who we miss and love so much. i currently work at the housing office on base and very much enjoy my work. although it is just a temporary job and will possibly end in august, much to my dismay. i do have a college degree, and although it was great fun to study, it has proven to be the least practical field in the entire universe. caution: do not get a creative writting degree unless you marry someone very rich and are willing to be a lazy ass for the rest of your life and mooch off of everyone. lastly, i love to travel. i have been to europe, but have not seen nearly enough of the world to satisfy my hunger. charles and i are hoping to be stationed in germany soon, and from there, i hope to branch out and see as much of the surrounding countries as possible. i firmly believe in the values of making every day the best it can be and living life to the fullest. everything can be an adventure if you make it so! and only YOU can make yourself happy! these are just a couple of the philosophies on which i try to base my existance. such tidbits of knowledge, along with occasional shopping trips and copious amounts of chocolate and snuggling are what keep me going from day to day.