Home Sick Part 5,348

Thanks for all the encouragement on my last post. It means a lot 😉

Today was a fairly good day until the bottom dropped out a couple of hours ago. I don’t really want to talk about it. My head hurts, I’m frustrated, and exhausted so I’ll probably just go to bed or lay on the couch and half-heartedly cheer on Bama. Perhaps the source of my annoyance is J’s job. He’s in the field. I never enjoy when he leaves, but now I really don’t like it because I have no break from little man. Seriously, props to the single moms…I have no idea how you do this full time. I think the difference is that if you’re raising a child alone, you hopefully have a support system around you. I suppose I have that, too- with all of my TWO friends in the area. I’m so thankful for Jen and Melissa…seriously. I’d go nuts without someone to talk to.

I just really miss home when J leaves. I know he’s my home now, but when he is gone, no matter how short of a time, I long for Tennessee. My family is one of those Leave It To Beaver families. There’s no drama, everyone likes one another, and everyone lives within short driving distance to one another. Everyone except me. And tonight- that really sucks. Most days that really sucks. I miss them all so much.

I’ll quit complaining now. I AM thankful for Captain J’s job because it allows me to stay home with my sweet young un, but tonight I dream of the day he’s a civilian again because I can hear Rocky Top calling my name…

Roadtrip!

May I start by thanking you? Thank you oh so much to all of you who read my last post and commented, texted, sent emails, or facebooked me with encouragement on the matter. It warms my heart to hear that you all care about what’s going on in our little world and it reminds me that I’m not alone. From the bottom of my heart, thank you!

I promised some happy things, didn’t I?

How ’bout I tell you about our quick weekend in Home Sweet Tennessee?

We hopped in the car on Wednesday and set out on Baby K’s first ever roadtrip. We had a 12 hour drive ahead of us and that’s not counting stopping to feed/burp/change little man along the way. I was pretty sure we dropped our marbles somewhere when we set out on this adventure, but Baby K was such a little gentleman. He is a good little traveler. His grumpy moments were few and far between on our drive. In fact, his daddy was much more irritated than he was.

Captain J was in a poopy mood. At one point, I asked him if he needed me to help drive. His response? Without even the slightest tilt of his head, he said, “That’d be a death sentence.” Still trying to lighten the mood, I told him I would sing to him to keep him awake if he’d like. For some reason, he declined that, too. What’s up with my boys not adoring my singing voice? Earlier today Baby K puked after I sang him a song. I digress.

Anyway, we eventually pulled into my parents’ house in my small, sleepy little East TN town at around six in the morning. Our arrival coincided with my step-dad leaving for work, my brother getting up for school, and my mom anxiously waiting to get her hands on her newest grandson. Within an hour, they looked like this:

I’m so glad they’ve had some precious moments to bond.

Yaya had to go pick up another cute grandson of hers to take him to preschool so Baby K and I hung out while Daddy slept. We posed…

and made funny faces…

and had a grand ole time! It felt so good to be home and finally be able to show off my little bundle of joy to friends and family who hadn’t met him yet. While we were in town, we went to my former high school’s football game. My sweet boy must be athletic–he caught his first football!

Just before the game, Baby K was overloaded with a host of new (and old) admirers. He met his extended family and my very best friends. Here is my little man with his great-grandmother, aka “Mimi”:

Perhaps he got spoiled with all that attention and that’s why he has been acting totally insane the last couple of days?!

Anyway, we had a ball. We visited “JuJu and Pap” at their boat. We hung out with “Lolly and Pop” at their yacht club party. We I ate at Carl’s a lot. And by the end of the weekend, we decided it just wasn’t enough. Captain J started to re-think his whole military career, but that is another post for another time…

We drove home with a blanket of sadness over us. It’s hard to drive 12 ish hours in the opposite direction of the ones you love when you know you won’t be returning for awhile.

The good news was that we only crossed the Mississippi once on the way back…

I can’t say that’s true for the way there. SOMEbody made a few wrong turns. I won’t mention any names, but it might be the one who claims to be “a master of land navigation”. Maybe.

Anyway, all went well so long as the paci was firmly in place-

and our little Louisiana town never looked so good as it did when we pulled in our driveway. “Home” at last.

weekend

This is the ole ‘I didn’t do much this weekend but I’m going to tell you about it anyway‘ post. Ye be warned!

On Friday, Baby K and I met up with a friend and her daughter for coffee at a local joint. This town where we currently reside has slim pickin’s in the coffee department (read: every department) so imagine my utter joy at finding a place with a huge list of specialty coffees! I want to try every single fall inspired cup! Here are some photos from our little date:

(Whoa…that picture is too big)

(There…that’s better)

We had such a good time. It was nice to get out of the house and talk to another adult. Captain J just isn’t very good at girl talk. Aside from K getting milk drunk and puking all over my dress, we had a lovely outing. Ha!

On Saturday, we watched football until it was time to have dinner. We ate over at said friend’s house with her and her husband. Again, this was fun, too until Baby K screamed, “TAKE ME HOME!” which sounded more like “WAAAAAA AAAA AAAHHH!”

This young un has quite a set of lungs on him.

Finally, Sunday we were able to take Baby K to church. We had refrained from doing so up until this point because as my great grandmother used to say, “That’s a lot of fellowship to wash off your hands”. We were afraid that people would be touching him, breathing in his face, or (*gasp) wanting to hold him. I went prepared with hand sanitizer for the really persistant ones, but everyone was on their best behavior. They all welcomed him to church from a distance which made this new mommy very thankful. I really like that church.

Afterwards, we came home to watch some more football. Unfortunately, our pro team didn’t do so hot. It. got. ugly.

But at least we were cute in our gameday gear:

And now we’ve arrived at Monday. I’ve been cleaning the house, entirely sleep deprived all day. The highlight was when I heard the *honk honk of the mail lady and saw that my new cloth diapers had arrived. Woo hoo!

It’s weird what adults get excited about, huh?

We’ve had some other excitement around here, too. Yesterday the pups got to come inside for awhile and hang out with the baby because J had a situation outside to attend to. A poisonous water mockasin was lurking by the porch and we can’t have that, can we? Captain J took care of it (with a shotgun).

We also had a rather huge spider running around the hallway the other night. But after a double (ok, maybe tripple) tap, that sucker was history.

There’s lots of creepy, crawly things in Louisiana.

But we like it here.

 

And A Vol Was Born

With Fall brings football and this makes for a very happy Mrs. K.

Adios, summer and your 100+ temps!

Let’s play some football (and sip pumpkin spice lattes and play in a big pile of leaves)!

When I’m away from Neyland Stadium on game day, I always feel a little sad. Before the Army came into my life, I was at just about every home game. There’s nothing like wandaring around campus with 100,000 other fans in a sea of orange. Tailgating with family and friends, listening to the band play Rocky Top, and watching the Vols throw around a football makes me happy inside. But as you know, the past few years I haven’t been able to go to many games. For some reason, Captain J wouldn’t let me fly from Alaska to Tennessee just to watch young men throw around a football. Although, I did make it to one game last year.

Anyway…

Here we are- Ft. Polk, LA. Hours and hours away from Knoxville, yet again.

We’re still celebrating, though. And now a UT fan is born.

And boy does he get mad at the thought of the Vols losing.

Good thing he won’t have to think much of that 😉

He was even sporting an orange diaper. Super fan in the making!

We were all settled in around the t.v. with our favorite vices-

Beer and Paci.

Oh my, how things have changed.

Good game, boys! We’ll see ya next week. 🙂

Get your jollies

Well, THAT didn’t go as expected as evidenced in these photos from tonight:

That looks like a happy Steelers fan prepping for the big game, doesn’t it?

And that looks like some yummy food and a decorated place to celebrate! Let’s get a closer look…

Granted, football season is over, but I thought I’d share this with you for next season when you throw a football party. Y’all know, I love to play around in my craft room! I didn’t have much to work with, though and I really didn’t want to spend much money on this. I ended up only purchasing green craft paper, chalk, and some ribbon. The rest of the materials I had laying around my casa.

To make the table dressing simply roll out some green paper, find the middle and put the fifty yard line there. Then count down the “field” on both sides and voila! You have cheap, easy, and super cute decor for the big game.

I also had fun making a black and gold paper chain and draping ribbon wherever I saw fit. For the helmet in the middle of the field, I got online and googled “steeler helmet printouts”. After printing, I got to feel like a kid again and color away! 🙂

Ya gotta get your jollies somewhere if you’re team is gonna let you down! Better luck next year.

Oh, happy day

Today was a good day. I wonder how many of my post start off that way? I suppose it’s not a bad thing to recognize that life is pretty darn sweet around here. I woke up feeling not quite so wonky, not quite so fatigued. Out to breakfast, I discovered that Starbucks will make any of their drinks decaf. Enter happiness overload. I vowed to cut out caffeine (except for the occasional sweets) when I found out I was expecting. No cokes, no coffee, no so-many-other-things-I-love. Oh, how I’ve missed my daily dose of coffee. I enjoyed a cup without feeling bad about myself one bit.

Later, I felt so good that the hubs and I took Drifter and Holly for a walk around the park near our house. As always, they loved getting out and about. Holly donned her easily excitable demeanor as she looked from tree to tree spotting squirrels and flighty birds. Drifter seemed to just be glad to be among the living. He’s so social; you would think he never sees humans or other dogs.

I'm ready to go, Mom!

Guess what? After our stroll down lover’s lane, I STILL felt pretty good. J headed off to the grocery store to prepare for THE GAME while I stayed and tried to clean the disaster area my house had become. We began to prepare to watch the Steelers vs. Jets and settle in for the night.

Needless to say, this game contributed to my good day with a win from the Steelers! AFC champs, yet again. It’s a pretty exciting Sunday around here. Just ask Drifter-

GO STEELERS!

p.s– Take a look over at the right hand side of the page. See the nifty poll located there? If you haven’t already, go vote to tell me whether you think we’re having a baby girl or baby boy. Thanks y’all!

Will you go vote?

Pretty please!

So, I have a favor to ask of you. It’s so easy, I don’t know why you wouldn’t want to do this one little thing for me 🙂 See, a good friend of mine has a son that is up for player of the week (for football) from our hometown. All you have to do is go vote for Wade Plemons. There’s no sign up at all…just a simple click of the mouse and I’ll be happy. Will you do that for me? Pretty please?!

VOTE HERE.

Bonfire Bliss

On Saturday night, our good friends from church- Justin and Michelle- asked us over for some good food and a bonfire. It was the perfect evening for it. They dug a pit in the ground, stacked up rocks around it, and built a fire to warm us up. Fairbanks is usually in the twenties now at night so the flames were much appreciated. While we were gathered around chatting and enjoying a beer, two moose walked right up to us in the yard. This is something I don’t think I’ll ever get completely used to. I don’t freak out anymore like I’ve done on previous occasions, but I am very aware that I need to be on my toes. We brought out a gun, just in case. Moose season is over so I’m sure we would have had some questions to answer if we had shot them, but we were okay with them so long as they were okay with us. In Alaska, one can never take too many precautions when a mama moose and her young are around! For the most part, these humongous creatures keep to themselves.

We didn’t let them stop us from enjoying the great outdoors. I can’t tell you how happy I am to have met this couple. I’ll definitely miss them when we leave. It’s sobering knowing we probably only have a few months left here. I’m beginning to realize how much it’s going to suck (for lack of a better term) to say goodbye to friends- not to mention, the beauty that Alaska holds. Michelle is one of those people who is completely easy to talk to. She’s intelligent and interesting and most of all, a strong Christian influence. I really enjoy spending time with her. Thank God for the dog park and meeting new friends 😉 Drifter is good for something afterall!

Enjoy some photos from Saturday night:

Noticing my sweat shirt, you’ll probably realize how the beginning of my Saturday went. I woke up and was pumped for the TN vs. LSU football game. I watched Tennessee win that game and then lose it on a technicality. Yes, they screwed up- but the game was over! What about calling all those helmets hitting the ground ref?? Pretty sure that’s a 15 yard penalty! Ugh. I was livid.

The only thing that turned my day around was watching Alabama beat Florida. That never gets old!

My Sunday was pretty great, too. We had a wonderful service at church and then we got to see something really happy later on that day. I’ll be sure to share that with you later. Right now I’m going to take out the book of the week and get to reading. Unfortunately, Captain J had to head into work because some punk soldier was arrested and now J has to do paperwork because of it. Thanks a lot, whoever you are- for taking my hubby away from me yet again. Hmph!

And now I’ll quit complaining.

Sea of Orange

Hmph! Grrr! WHYYYYYY? That pretty much sums up my disappointment in my football teams yesterday and today. I went to watch my vols play, but apparently they only wanted to play for the first half. In case you don’t know, it.got.ugly….so ugly, in fact, that I had to leave in the third quarter because I couldn’t watch it anymore. It would have been awesome to see TN win to the number 7 team, but I knew it was a lofty hope. I still had fun before the game and during the first two quarters, though! Meaghan and I drove up to campus early to tailgate with my grandparents. They’re so much fun! I’m still glad I went. I felt right at home in the sea of orange and I can’t wait to go again next year. Hopefully I’ll be able to watch a game or two in Alaska when I get back. It’s just not the same pouring a glass of O.J. and settling in to watch a ballgame at 8 in the morning, though…Darn time change!

As if a loss from the college side wasn’t bad enough, my NFL teams let me down, too. Raiders lost, Colts lost…it was a bad weekend for my favs. Oh well at least the Steelers won! Enough about football- I don’t want to get all worked up again. Let’s back up to Friday, shall we?

I had plans to go to Cookeville (my college town) to visit some friends there, but we re-scheduled so everyone could make it. I ended up spending time with my loves- Laura and Miranda. (Thanks for the flowers, balloon, and chocolate, MLJ!) We did a little shopping, then went out for sushi, and then we went to see a fabulous 80’s cover band, The Breakfast Club, in the Old City. I can’t really describe to you how much I missed these ladies. I had a great time catching up with them! I rolled into Loudon (and into bed) finally around 1 am with plans to wake up at 5 am to go fishing. Unfortunately, my step-dad and I woke up, drove to the fishing site, put on our waders, and then the sky opened up. It poured! I haven’t seen rain like that in so long, but I heard they REALLY need it in this area so I suppose we couldn’t complain. I was still thankful for the time to hang with Joe so all was good!

All in all, it was a good weekend. To remember back nine years ago at how scared I was, how intimidated, paranoid, and heartbroken I felt and then to recognize how far this country has come gives me hope. Life was only made more precious to us nine years ago. I was happy to have spent a “normal” September 11th eating terrible foods, spending time with family, and watching a little football. I spent the day appreciating the little things and enjoying each day I have left here on Earth. As it should be! But what powerful emotions that day can evoke. I was sure to take a few moments to remember those who were directly affected by the tragedy in prayer.

I have many more activities to attend to so I might be MIA this week. I also want to tell you that I’ve been taking lots of pictures that I’ll be sure to share with you in a couple weeks when I get back to Alaska- I just forgot to bring the cord with me. Forgive me?

One more thing…After I posted (Mil)ing it Over, other ladies joined in and I have since added their links. Go check them out, would ya? Tell em Mrs. K sent ya!

Boys of Fall

The crowd is intoxicating with its loud sounds of war and the palpable excitement emenating from the fans that fill the stadium. If you look around, you’re bound to see some attractive southern belles in skirts and pearls parading up and down the seat isles. They have their touch of Tennessee orange perfectly cooridinated with the rest of their ensemble. If you find me there though, I’ll be the girl with the t-shirt or jersey on, standing up, emersed in every play.

 

100,000 plus fans come from all walks of life to come together for one cause: to cheer on UT football and scream out, “It’s GREAT to BE a Tennessee Vol…” Oh, how I cannot wait to get home and back to the SEC- football at its finest.

Fall is definitely my favorite season. It brings with it beautiful, vibrant colors and crisp, fresh air. It also brings the best sport known to man- American Football. Someone remind me why baseball is supposedly America’s Favorite Pasttime?

Fall also brings about Halloween which is the coolest celebration ever. Yes, I still go trick or treating! Maybe these costumes will give you an idea of how much I love watching the sport-

 

 

I’m so excited to head south and experience good football again. These Alaskans just don’t know how to do it. Who can blame them, though? It’s too cold the majority of the year to play outside. As you can imagine, there isn’t an abundance of teams to play either. I look forward to spending some time on UT’s campus and cheering on my Vols at Neyland Stadium while I’m in town. I was also really excited to see my little brother play for our hometown’s high school team, too but he hurt himself  right before the first game and is out for the entire season. What a bummer! He was working so hard at practices and lifting. I think he’ll preoccupy himself some other way, though.

Looks like a hard life, right? Happy Birthday, Jake (if you’re reading)! I love ya and you’re easily the best little brother a sister could ask for.

Go Vols!