killing time again - the anniversary adventures

so last night charles and i experienced a Nine Inch Nails concert, it was my anniversary present to him. I had seen them a few years ago and he wasnt able to join me... and considering they are one of his all time favorite groups (can't really call them a "group", it's one guy who does everything and he just hires musicians to tour with him, but for all intensive purposes, they will be a group) I couldnt let another opportunity like that pass us by. I'm so glad i spent the money for the tickets because come to find out, this is their last tour. NIN has been touring since 1989, so he's put in his time for sure. the show was pretty awesome, although there was a definite presence of illegal substances. Jane's Addiction is touring with them, along with another opening group. we didn't stay for Jane's Addiction because it was already 9:30 and we had an hour drive so we opted to just go home. we did not remember to bring the camera, but just assume that there were lots of flashy lights and people with green hair and black baggy pants.
tomorrow is our 3-year anniversary and he has made reservations for us at The Melting Pot, which will be a new experience for us, we're excited. and then our house guests will be gone (at my request). eric is having his back surgery tomorrow (pray for him, he's very nervous) and i just straight up asked carolina to find somewhere else to stay for that night. i had about 2 weeks alone with my husband before they moved in, so damnit - i've earned an anniversary night alone!!!!! it's too bad i'm not 30 pounds skinnier and looking fantastic in whatever disguisatory black dress i decide to wear tomorrow, but luckily my husband loves me anyway and i dont have to worry about how disgusting i think i look - i'm going to eat all sorts of fondue at the restaruant and drink some wine and just enjoy the evening exactly as i am!

more Marissa

not so sure about these crazy people taking pictures of my bald head...

a smile!

Dawn's graduation

Charles' little sister graduated from Campus last Sunday, it was a nice weekend - much family togetherness and fun.

April and Dawn:

Charlie Sr., Dawn, and my fantastically good-looking husband:


walking across the stage:


I wouldn't dare miss out on a chance to take a picture with him in his uniform!

the graduation party at his dad's house with cousin Ben (pretty sure Charles' dad is crazy...)

another work event

so yes, as previously stated, work has been very busy. last night i did another cooking class and i think it was quite sucessful. i didnt have a huge turnout, but it was fun and everyone enjoyed themselves. i even had someone call me a few minutes ago who had never gone to one of our events and just wanted to let me know how much fun she had. it made me feel really good. :)

here is the BBQ guy. this man knows more about BBQ than any one person probably should.



my venue: the Hunt Lodge. it got more full than this, but whatever, here it is.


yes, i do public speaking now! go me!

Work event

So ok, i have been super busy at work lately with lots of events to plan, plus being short-staffed, in the busiest time of the year, AND having an Army Site visit next week. but yet, in an effort to avoid the massive amounts of work i have to do to prepare for yet another event tonight (BBQ Cooking Class - horay!), i am blogging. escapism? possibly...

Last Saturday i had an event which was the final event of a three month series i called "the fat fest", although oddly it was publicized as "Slim Down Fort Leavenworth". so this final event was to be the culmination of greatness and was a Family Fun Run/Walk and Awards Ceremony Cookout. Have i pushed that line too much in the last month? possibly. so i spent about $600 of company money and many many hours planning to have a whopping 4 families show up. it was a total bust, but everyone had a great time, and really, that's all i care about. i am so stressed at work that i dont care if my events are successful or not, they are obligatory and so if i "have to do it", at least we might as well have fun. i measure in fun, not attendees, and so far i'm kicking ass.

here are some pictures from the day:

this is us eating our victory hot dogs while the families are out doing the run/walk. it took us quite a while to get the fire going and then hardly any of them ate.. but we did!

i had also procured a massive inflatable slide for the event, much to the enjoyment of the kids. but after they all left, we were cleaning up and just had to figure out how to deflate it. running leaps did the trick. claudia, charles, Major Gollinghorst's son, and myself:

then came taking down the tents and putting them back in the boxes... easier said than done. Charles had to try and get something out of the bottom of the box so that we could fit the tents back into it. good thing he's skinny.

going...

going...


gone!

Our newest Goddaughter

the other day i got to babysit our newest goddaughter, Marissa Jamie Sumpter. she's about 6 weeks old.

my goodness, can you tell that i have some serious baby fever?? (creeeepy!)

even charles held her - and of his own doing, not even forced upon him like last time!

finally the rest of the vacation photos!

ok, so these kind of go backwards because i didnt realize until now that the pictures would just stack on top of each other, but you get the idea.
above: final pose
below: Charles being totally molested by Pooh


so to get these pictures, we waited in line for probably an hour, it was the most we waited the entire week, and we were the only people over the age of 10 wanting to take pictures with them, much to the entertainment of those around us. i skipped to Tigger, totally skipped.
below: Charles pretending as though he is not enjoying the wait in line. (we were actually having a blast playing with the little kids in line around us and watching the Disney hype unfold)




this is my favorite picture of us there, i will be framing it.

this one's for you Lizabeth, she had a fake accent and everything! I was missing you.

artsy flower picture:

so we actually made two seperate trips to Magic Kingdom - this is the first one. we went on our last day, Friday - before Spring Break... it was rediculously crowded and neither of us were handling it well, so we did what anyone would do - we hopped on the monorail and went around until we found a hotel with an open bar. our second trip to Magic Kingdom was much more relaxed (as evident by the Tigger and Pooh merriment)

another beautiful picture: the following weekend was the Garden Festival at Epcot so everything on the grounds was really pretty amazing.

we beat off old ladies and kids to get this picture, then the guy who was taking it insisted on getting two or three until he could get the majority of the "Universal" in the picture with us as the globe spun. i think it made a rather nice photo though.

Captain America liked Charles' shirt, they had a lovely chat about UFC fights.

Lego Land dino at Downtown Disney

lego Star Trooper

family photo

view of the right side of the hotel from our

room