fall at Fort Leavenworth

so i've been meaning to take fall pictures of leaves for a couple of weeks now and i've finally done it, unfortunately i waited until most of the leaves had turned and/or fallen off the tree. but here are a few good ones that Claudia and i took this week:

my weekend

so other than painfully missing my husband who was in wichita for the weekend at a birthday party, i had an AWESOME weekend!  aaah how beautiful is life when surrounded by loving friends!  my resident superhero, Elizabeth, and her trusty sidekick Matt braved the 3 hr drive to come see me with 2 little ones.  i can't really imagine how much trouble it really was to make the trip, especially with Matt not feeling well and missing out on some football games, but the van was loaded down pretty well, so i'm guessing there wasnt much left at their house without them.  anyway, we had a great time!  they took me out to dinner and a show - the Melanie show.  (highlights included "MOM!  I HAVE TO GO POOOOOOP!", which is always funny... but probably not so much so to mom after the 10th or 12th time...)  then Dora and Ariel helped us brush our teeth.  i think we mostly slept through the night and then woke up to have some buscuits with our hair going in all directions.  after getting cleaned up we then got things ready for my chocolate party (the "reason for the visit").  time in the kitchen with lizabeth - gooood.  and then of course we ate chocolate.  and that's good too.  :)
really, the best part of it all was seeing Matt and Elizabeth as parents.  You all who read this and are already parents, i dont imagine you see yourselves as i do, the one without kids... well, you might, i dont know... but it's pretty amazing.  spending time with my friends this weekend was the coolest.  we are all still pretty much as we were *10 years ago* in high school.  matt is still quiet, still clearly wants nothing more out of life than to please and take care of his family.  lizabeth is still one of the most creative, brilliant, patient and loving people i know.  we can still laugh about completely rediculous things for no reason at all, she's still my best friend. but now they're all that stuff plus "mom" and "dad".  and it's just the coolest thing ever for me to see.  their kids are just like they are: extremely intelligent, polite, creative, all good things.  i really enjoyed the experience. 
unfortunately, i didnt take many pictures of their visit.  elizabeth put a few up on her blog that she took, but here are mine:

i showed melanie how to turn on and off the lamp with the little button that you hit with your foot, she was pretty excited about it.

Claire was resting up for the drive home, wanted to make sure to be on high alert for the next 3 or 4 hrs of car seat time.

financial adventures

so when we moved into the house we're in now, it was "for sale" or "for rent".  obviously we chose to rent.  in keeping with the "wild hair up our butts" theme of 2009, i.e. - buying 2 new luxury cars in a 3 month period - we have decided to try and buy our house.  yes, i realize we are in the military.  but for Charles' job field, Ft Leavenworth is the #1 duty station out of about 4 or 5 remaining possibilities that he could be stationed.  in the last 2 years, at least 2 or 3 other prisons have been closed and everyone is coming here, hence the 2nd new prison in this post that is opening soon.  so IF we ever do get transfered somewhere else, after our 2 or 3 years there, we'll be coming right back here.  simply put, it is likely that of the 15+ years he has left before retirement, we will be here at LEAST 10 years of it. 
so yes, if we can pull this off and close on it before November 30th, we will get the $8000 tax credit next year on our return.  throw that in the bin with the tax credits we'll get for buying 2 new cars this year, and that'll be niiiice. 
how will we pay for this adventure, you ask?  we wont.  behold the miracle of the VA Loan: we go to a financial institution that will give us 5.125% interest on our house, they contact the VA and get us set up for the VA loan and then the loan covers EVERYTHING allowing us to buy a home with absolutely NO money out of pocket AT ALL.  so if we can get the closing costs and all that crap rolled into the loan, which i imagine we can, then we're good.  plus, right now our rent is $1150, but a house payment would obviously be LESS because it's ours.  so by doing this, we will actually SAVE money each month but still receive $1266 from Uncle Sam each month to pay for housing.  cha-ching.
so i'm doing all the footwork and will be calling the bank today.  i've already put a call into the landlord to find out what their asking price is.  oh, and i have 1 co-worker who's a real estate agent on the weekends and is providing her services for free, and another co-worker who's a property manager and will manage the home when/if we have to move away for a bit.  TOO EASY!

"if i could be anywhere"

if i could be anywhere

it wouldnt be here.

perhaps i'd be eating

with loved ones more near.

my friends and my family,

you bring me such joy!

we could cook something tasty

or shop out our hearts,

maybe go to Russsel Stovers

and fill up our carts.

the sun would be shining

but a cool breeze would blow.

Carlitos and Bean Weens

could be everywhere i go.

maybe we'd travel

someplace farther away.

i'd take lots of pictures,

new things every day!

aaahhh daydreams are glorious

they keep me from work. 

welcome distractions from an office of jerks!

waiting for my turn

so i'm down with the whole "wait till the time is right", "you're just not ready yet", "it will happen soon/on it's own/etc." thing.  i get it, if God wanted me to be a mom, i'd be a mom.  but here lately i'm wanting it so badly that it almost makes me cry!  yesterday at work i googled "infant photography" and found some random professional photographer in michigan or something that takes the most beautiful pictures of babies and i seriously sat at my desk for about 10 minutes with tears in my eyes looking at these photos.  i see the joy in the lives of all my friends with kids and i want that for Charles and me.  we're extremely happy and in an awesome place right now in our lives, but i wish God thought it was our turn for that next step!  sure i'm not in very good shape physically, and sure we have 2 big car payments right now - but i'm doing better at taking care of myself and we're going to have car payments for the next 5 years, so that's just life.  we've been trying since he got home - going on 8 months now.  granted, the first 6 months were extremely stressful so i dont think they really count - but all the same, for a brief period of time in those 6 months, i WAS pregnant, so i know it's possible.  now life is beautiful and we are stronger than ever and i really think we're ready.... but God's not 100% on board i guess. 
next Friday is the feast day of Saint Gerard Majella, the patron saint of motherhood.  my good friend Deanna sent me the link to a website about him (http://www.praying4ababy.com/stgerard.html) and i have it bookmarked on my desk at work so when i'm reflecting a lot on it i will click on it and say the prayer for motherhood.  i know it will happen eventually, hopefully soon, i'm just getting impatient.  the military lifestyle isnt the greatest for continual stress-free baby making.  charles will likely be gone for a couple months after the first of the year for school, and will possibly be gone for longer for something else and then we would move, so i feel like every month that passes is one more month of failure and brings us one month close to a period of time apart, during which no baby making will happen. 
sorry to rant and rave, i'm just thinking about it a lot lately.  if it occurs to you, say some prayers.  thanks all. :)

random stuff

so i'm at work and got my most pressing projects out of the way so i'm sort of killing time and thought i'd post some pictures from my computer.

this is "my group" in a picture taken at our poorly-attended housewarming party.  but as always, my friends were there in force.  Left to right: Joe and Claudia, me and Carlitos, Shawn and Christina.  Shawn is the newest addition to the bunch.  he and christina have been together a few months now and we've never seen her happier.  he's a super nice guy and treats her very well, much to our delight.  this was the first time we all got to really visit with him and he passed the inspection.

i'm not 100% sure when this was taken, not too long ago - i think for grandma's birthday... maybe mine.. i'm not sure.  but it has grandma in it, so it's cool.  gotta love grandma.

here's my sweet bean weens.  carlitos thought it would be funny to put a handcuff key on her collar, you know, in case one of the three or four pairs of handcuffs that he has stashed around the house are used against us someday and my some miracle, beanie is left untouched - we simply have to call for her (and hope she feels like listening for once) and then we will be saved due to his forethought in putting the handcuff key on her collar now.

yes, funny... and odd... but funny first... i guess...

my dog is cute, so i dont care.