The Smell of the Seasons
There is a certain something that goes with the burning hazelnut candle on my coffee table, cuddling in a warm blanket and watching a dark movie like Interview with a Vampire with the lights down and the feeling of fall all around. I have a peace that I have not felt in a long time, hubby is at work and I can’t wait for him to get home and join me in this wonderful mood.
It is that amazing time of year where the feeling of everything starts to change, the trees take on the colors of fire and their leaves fall like snow, the smell in the air is one of spices and autumn and the holidays are coming around. We will have Halloween coming very soon with all of the childish fun and excitement it brings, kids dressed in cute little outfits, tons of candy, fun decorations and scary entertainment. I have movies picked out on netflix set for a movie marathon should that be the choice for Halloween night or I may go to a party or out with friends, there are so many options. Then there will be Thanksgiving, the first Thanksgiving with my husband in Washington as well as the first I can do anything. Last year I had my wisdom teeth pulled the day before but this year our shop is thinking of getting together and having a shop Thanksgiving meal for those of us not going home. A fun group gathering for our odd little family. Then the smooth transition into the winter holidays, the subtle change of scents from cozy heavy smells you want to wrap yourself in and make you hungry to the wintery fresh scents that make you feel like you are walking through a pine forest or unwrap presents under the Christmas tree. Christmas will be a wonderful experience I hope. This will be one away from my family with just hubby and I creating our own traditions. we can decorate our own tree and unwrap presents with just us on Christmas morning. Family is always nice to have around but there is something to be said about a nice Christmas with just the hubby and I. Can we all tell that I am excited for this time of year? Summer used to be my favorite season but I think I have grown into a lover of fall and winter, I think I am equally in love with each.
I have been doing laundry on and off through out the day and cleaned up a bit here and there. The house still looks cluttered and a bit messy and we still have boxes all around and have way too much stuff but we are finally making it a home. It is really the little things that make somewhere a home, just small things probably different to each person that makes a place feel comfy and lived in. Hopefully over the next bit of time we can sort the boxes, donate a bunch of stuff and really get everything settled. We are so close and that just adds to the awesome feeling.
We also had a minor epiphany not long ago. It is something that we had vaguely realized before but it really hit home recently. I was in Hawaii for just over a week and while I was there had no real reason to spend any money. When I got home I realized just how much was left in my bank account and how much we screw around and waste money. I got back and we could actually do things and have fun! We went out yesterday to see Jo Koy perform because I found out the day of that he was in the area and actually had money for tickets. We had the money to buy lights and a coffee table to help with our home, we could actually do what we wanted without being afraid that we couldn’t pay bills! It is a great feeling and hopefully one that can keep up. When we discovered how much extra there was we did the calculations and saw how much we could have, not enough to be rich by any means but enough for us young adults to live a life and enjoy it. Now I am planning to settle in tonight and budget and hopefully get a lot of our old debts paid faster and get rid of them and still balance everything and have fun, that is the goal at least. I think I will also start cooking a bit more at home, or maybe strike a deal with my husband, he cooks the 2 days he has off, I cook the 2 I have off and we can eat cheap food or leftovers the other three days. With us living so close to work we are already saving a ton on gas, especially since he works really close to me so we have managed to cut down a decent amount of spending so far. The whole idea of getting things paid off and potentially having money really makes me happy and excited and that excitement seemed to have finally hit my dear hubby.
Washer Woes…
My washer is broken and it really sucks. I have a ridiculous amount of laundry to do but I can’t do any of it. On the bright side the reason it is still broken is because the maintenance guy at my apartment told me that if I can hold off until Tuesday (well Monday technically but schedule dictates Tuesday) I can get a brand new washer. Apparently the ones we currently have are so old the parts are going obsolete and are therefor more difficult to find and the complex just got a budget for new appliances. Good timing for my washer to die I think. So, I am sucking it up until Tuesday, then I will come home from work, bask in the awesomeness of the new washer and do boat loads of laundry…yay? Is it sad that my life has fallen so low that I am excited about a new washer? I guess that is an entirely different matter.
My sister is coming out in less than a week! I am excited and so looking forward to it. I need a break from life and this will hopefully be exactly what I need. I feel bad because I can’t get days off from work but the reason is valid and I will explain it sometime later, whatever the case I have sadly limited how we can spend time here but my sister is awesome with finding stuff to do even in time limits so it will be great. We at least have some basic plans already set up, the fair, a free concert, I am sure she has found a bunch of other stuff. It also kind of depends on the weather, she is excited for the rain but it can limit our options as far as stuff to do goes. I am sure another cooking adventure will take place, I think there was a deal that this time she would cook for me and I will absolutely call her on since I love home cooked food but I hate the effort it requires. I am a generally lazy person, I get bored with it but the output of energy usually just isn’t any fun. Of course it always depends but my preferred thing to do is sit on the couch and watch movies or play games, things that don’t require much, its sad but true. Anyway, sister’s visit…should be good fun my current challenge is to get that room straight (also made worse because of the washer situation), she says she would be good so long as there is a bed and a path to it but I really want to do better than that so I am trying. I have made a decent amount of progress, at this point I can probably get the space for the bed and the path but I am trying to do more, it is not so easy, husband has a bunch of stuff that he *still* has not sorted even though he keeps telling me he will be getting it done. I think I am just going to try to condense it down into the minimum number of boxes and just throw it somewhere…like at his head 
We will see how it all goes I guess.
Wish me luck!
Friday! Yay! Managed to get out of work early and now I am hoping that I am going to really enjoy the weekend. I definitely need to get a bunch of homework done so I am thinking tonight I will go grocery shopping and actually get some good and healthy food (yay for payday!), tomorrow I will do a whole bunch of homework while hubby is at work (we will have to see how that one actually works out) and Sunday we have our friend coming over to help get our apartment straightened out. I am really excited, I hope the plan to fix up the apartment doesn’t fall flat because I am sooo ready to have that extra space back. I plan to just turn it into a miscellaneous room, we have an extra TV we can hook up which won’t have cable but if one person wants to play games while the other is watching tv we can go in there. I plan to throw the yoga mat and weights and any other home exercise equipment we get in there so it will be the little work out area too. Plus I want it set up so that I can maybe study in there or have a reading area. That way I won’t be distracted by the cable and have a bright nice area to be. Plus it will also be available as a guest room, definitely am ready to make real proper use of that room.
So I think that’s it for this weekend, that is the plan. Most weekends don’t really work according to plan but hopefully this one will at least work mostly to plan, even if I can just get a chunk of that room done I will be super happy…I need to find a pawn shop or something to make quick money and get rid of some of this stuff…
Easter Egg Bust
Blarg! I am broke again…eventually this will stop happening. I think we have our system worked out, we just have to clear up the mess from the end of last month and hopefully it makes everything smoothed out and good. I also probably could have not bought the stuff for hubby’s Easter basket but I didn’t do anything for Valentine’s Day because I was so broke and it bothered me, I like having the traditions and always being able to give something for the holidays so I wanted to make sure to do something and not miss a something special again…even if it is not a lot of money put into it and a little skimpier than usual, it is still at least something.
It’s another weekend! I slept until noonish today…probably not the smartest thing but it was nice. I originally intended to get all of my cleaning done today so that tomorrow would be just relaxing with hubby since we both have the day off…I failed. I have cleaned some, dishes are done (mostly) and counters are scrubbed and I am in the process of washing the sheets and blankets. Luckily today I think I might actually remember to flip the mattress when hubby gets home, we keep meaning to do it but never manage to remember. And even though I really intended to do way more than that I got caught on Farmville in facebook and watching the mass amounts of episodes of NCIS I have recorded on the DVR, I am kind of pitiful but weekends are for relaxing.
Last night we got out a bit, they had an adult easter egg hunt at some new soccer fields down the street. It wasn’t so much of a hunt like we really thought it would be, it was pretty much a throw all of the eggs on the field and when they say go everyone runs to grab what they can. Honestly it was really disappointing, we were all crammed together but managed to be second row back, when we were released the first row pretty much grabbed everything. Hubby managed to snag one egg which had a couple of candies and a gift certificate to a place down the street for a month of some sort of martial art, I might go check it out soon and see if the certificate works for adults or just for kids. The hunt was a bummer but we ended up going to hang out with some of the friends we went with to the bar. We relaxed, hung out and played pool, it was a pretty nice night.
Home Alone…
Hubby is off to his first day of work and I have the apartment to myself for the first time since he got here. I am enjoying it, I love him and I love spending time with him but everyone needs a little time on their own. He usually gets his time because he was here before while I was at work and he stays up way later than I do. I haven’t really done a whole lot today, just kind of sat here and relaxed. I moved a couple of pieces of furniture and have been doing some laundry and doing bits and pieces of things here and there but not going too crazy. Luckily hubby did a lot of cleaning last night before he came to bed, he also started marinading some meat for dinner tonight and I smelled the marinade and I cannot wait to have dinner tonight. Hopefully he comes home happy from work and hopefully the day was generally a good one. I know he is happier now that he has a job, he is one of those that without it and without money of his own he is very unhappy and feels like he isn’t putting anything into a household; even if he were doing all of the cooking and cleaning he wouldn’t be happy. So him having a job takes away money stress as well as some extra stress and annoyance from him so it will make life easier.
Edit: Dinner was amazing!
Only About 8 Hours To Go!
Woot! Hubby is finally on his way! He left last night but only got a few hours in before he stopped to sleep but he is back to driving now. He is past the Grapevine and my next worry is Mount Shasta since it will be mountain windy roads with possible rain and or snow. He is about 8-9 hours away though so I am excited. All I can say is it is about time! He kept running into a ton of problems when he was packing up the truck and he would call me all upset asking what he was supposed to do. I was just kind of sitting here most of the time wondering what the hell I was supposed to do seeing as I was in Washington. We think we seriously miscalculated the cost to fill up the tank but hopefully he still has enough money to get up here. Once we actually figured out how much it took to fill the tank we recalculated and he should be able to make it…hopefully.
I have just started to clean and get my apartment ready. I figure with another 8 hours it should be fine, this place doesn’t take a lot of cleaning. I just need to actually try to reorganize some stuff on top of the usual cleaning but even that shouldn’t take long because there isn’t a lot of ways to reorganize it. I am going to try to get some clothes out of the way, maybe put my blues and uniform stuff in the hall closet or something since I don’t use them very often, I’m not sure. I need a dreser or some plastic sealable bins to put my out of season clothes in but seeing as we aren’t sure he will have the money to keep up with gas I think I will wait before making any extra purchases.
I think snowboarding for this year is out. We were going to try to go this month but honestly I think it just won’t happen but he seems to be ok with that and even though I really wanted to do it I am fine too. At least I have the pants and jacket so I won’t have to worry about it next year. The plan at the moment seems to be get him here and then he wants to pretty much immediately try to start working again. Hopefully he can work at the shop on base to make carpooling easier but we will have to see. If not then my supervisor has already said it would be fine if I ride with her to work so it will work out one way or the other. Hopefully he can get a job really quick which will be extra money coming in. Obviously he brings in extra bills so if he is bringing in the money to cover them plus some extra it should be nice. On my own I usually have a little bit of extra money to play with so he should have enough to cover himself so we aren’t always stuck in the apartment. Other than that our new goal is to try to eat a lot healthier than we have been which may be hard on a budget but to also work out more. We have the gym in our apartment we may as well take advantage of it. With a little work hopefully we can both get to where we want to be and that will help us be happier in general, I know being more in shape is making me happier in general already so actually getting to where I want to be will be awesome. I actually ran about one and a half to two miles with out stopping the other day and the last time I did that was tech school before my waiver so yay!
The downside of vacations…
I don’t wanna clean…or pack. I guess I kind of have to though, anyone want to do it for me?
The Bright Side
So here I sit in a clean apartment (today is the designated cleaning day, this also applies to others I know so I wonder if it is left over from tech school?) waiting for my laundry to run through and trying to figure out what to buy at the grocery store. I am hungry and should probably eat first before I go to the store (procrastinating is simply the art of finding excuses) and then from there I will go. But I still don’t know what to buy. I only need food for about a week because after that my wisdom teeth come out and I think I will pretty much be on a liquid diet, I plan to shop for that the day before so stuff won’t go bad…or get eaten early I figure chicken, it is kind of my basic staple, and then I figured whatever is cheap but that isn’t exactly conducive to menu planning and budgeting. Oh well, I have this same issue every week, I just need to find recipes that look super easy and/or super tasty. It’s pretty much too late to buy crockpot stuff because I will want to be going to bed by the time it is done cooking, then again maybe pot roast again with more veggies and let it cook while I am at work? Then again I think I am a bit paranoid for that, I don’t like leaving things that cook unattended, but isn’t that the beauty of a slow cooker? Hm, maybe pot roast would be worth getting over it for.
So I am counting down, a usual I have a ton of count downs because I get bored and play with numbers. Anyway, I have my countdown to Christmas, that is the most obvious, countdown to my teeth getting pulled, that one is nerve wrecking and of course the one that is potentially the countdown on my marriage, that one is scary. I have myself set up surprisingly well. I have decided that if he does decide that he doesn’t want to stick around I will volunteer for a tour in Korea. Originally I thought that it is mostly seen as a place you don’t want to be stationed but I have done a little researching and found a lot of good stuff. It is actually kind of exciting though still not something I would be so quick to jump on if I stay married. If I do that it would be a little while off because I need at least a year here but I but the time that decision has been made it will be 5 months, almost halfway. Then thinking about from what I have read it takes about 6 months for a divorce to get finalized so by that time I am all ready to go. I would have to hope that he could find somewhere to live that would work with the cats and then he could have them. After a time in Korea I would be able to get a base of preference which means I could use that to do what I always wanted and move to Europe. I am really lucky. I have set myself in a position where a divorce, though painful, would open different but still great doors. I would rather be happily married but if I get to the point where that is not an option at this time then at least I can still have some fun and love my life instead of spending a ton of time unhappy and going through a routine and nothing else. Instead I will throw myself somewhere new and not give myself that routine to fall into. My question now, is this just a matter of I set myself up this way or is it a matter of perspective? I have seen many women fall apart when a marriage ends and rightfully so, but I have also seen those that lose themselves and just stop really living and seem to think that they don’t have anything else to do or any other options. As far as I see it (optimist in me), there is always other options and always the bright side and always potential, you just have to find it. Sometimes it is harder to find and sometimes you do need to take a bit of extra time, I am not saying just to jump into stuff and go crazy if a marriage ends, mourn it if you need to, but don’t let that end your life. Find your bright side and get to it, it can’t stay bad forever unless you let it.
Now that I have rambled, anyone have any dinner suggestions?
