Accident Prone

I think at this point we can all go ahead and admit that, yup, I am accident prone.

Not only am I a dropper, but I ruin TVs by touching them, regularly walk into walls and almost cut off my fingers while making dinner more often than I care to share.

This morning I was in an Actual Accident -- you know, the car kind.

I was making a simple u-turn after driving right by the turn for my dentist's office (on my way to a filling ... which I have evaded, for now). I saw the woman sitting there, waiting to pull across the road - and she saw me. But she thought I was going straight instead of u-turning, and by the time I had looked the other way to make sure no other cars were coming and pulled into the road, there she was, hitting me.

Fabulous.

The car doesn't have a lot of damage and I think her car wasn't hurt at all (I really couldn't see -- never did make it across the busy road to talk to her). After the police came and did their thing, we both drove away.

But I think it's safe to say that getting in a car accident on the way to the dentist is just as bad as going to the dentist itself, don't you?

The things that happen to me for your reading pleasure.

Fortunately we have very complete insurance on that car and won't have to pay more than our $300 deductible. But still -- ugh! -- $300!?! The dentist definitely would've been cheaper, that's for sure.

Oh, and remember our TV and the one we ordered to replace it? Yeah, got that home from Walmart only for Luke to discover that the entire screen was shattered. So back it went, and now we are waiting for the next one to arrive. Bonus: no football watching this weekend! (Luke does NOT consider this a bonus, for the record).

Homebody

I do not, in general, like vacations.

There are some vacations that I love. These are vacations where we have scheduled activities and lots of things to do. ... or those that are short.

The vacations that I hate should really be called "vacations." These are trips of any length over five days (including travel time), usually including visiting family and just hanging out doing nothing. These are not relaxing. They are extremely stressful. What will we do today? When will Dave get to nap? Will he nap at all? Will we all be miserable if he doesn't? Will we all just sit around and eat food and get fat? (<----- yes). Will I end up with some sort of cold or flu bug (<----- often).

Ugh.

But visiting family must be done. And so we are on "vacation."

I like being home. And I love structure. It makes me feel calm and organized. Without it I feel scattered and antsy and gross. I do not love it.

Cruises are perfect for me. At noon we get on the boat. There is "free" time and then there are scheduled meals and then there are scheduled trips off the boat. Everyone wins! Also perfect: Malibu Club in Canada, which we visited this summer. That was a full week of half the day spent doing a planned activity of either chapel or a meal or a family orientated contest and the other half of the day cycling through other activity options and/or napping. I always support napping.

Tomorrow we head home from Ohio. By the time we get back to Georgia we'll have had 11 DAYS of "vacation." Don't get me wrong, seeing family is great -- but there is a limit to how much of this lollygagging around I can take. Next time I vote we all go on a cruise. (<---- I, sadly, do not get a vote).

Hello From Ohio

Greetings from a land of cold. And snow. And Dave's new snow boots.

Yeah, we bought him snow boots ... because I just couldn't abide the thought of my poor baby's cold feet playing in the snow. And now we own boots.

We are staying this time around at Luke's sister's house about 40 minutes from his parents' house. Yeah, this means a daily uncool commute ... but it ALSO means WARMTH for at least 12 hours a day. (His parents' house is reeeeeally cold in the bedrooms). And less chance of me getting migraines (there's a lot of dust/mold there).

It ALSO means driving by Starbucks every DAY.

Yessssssss. I don't even CARE about how much that's going to cost me.

Family gathering in Ohio tend to revolve around one single thing: eating. It's not that I don't love to eat ... it's that doing so at that level for a week straight makes me feel really, really, REALLY fat.

And so this time around I've brought my winter running clothes -- and I intend to use them. And did yesterday.

As it turns out I run faster when I'm cold -- about a full 40 seconds a minute faster! Excellent.

Did 6.15 miles yesterday at a 9:20 average. Hoping to increase it to 7.5 today.

Oh, Of Course

We're getting ready to leave this afternoon for our Christmas trip to Luke's home -- a two day journey through Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky and a portion of Ohio. With a toddler. And Elmo.

And of course this toddler is sick -- well, I think he is anyway. The doctor did not seem to agree.

Because I'm cheap we take full advantage of our practically free healthcare and use the on-post doctors, instead of paying to see someone elsewhere. No way am I doing that.

But the trade-off is that we see on-post doctors (I said that already but this time I mean "they are bad.") And so when I took my kid in Wednesday afternoon (in the middle of Epic Baking Day, pictures of which I will someday post) because his ear had drained and was gross, the doctor told me "he's fine." And when I pointed out a pussy eye, he said "allergies," and then prescribed a drop antibiotic for the ear (even though he's fine? what the ...) and an allergy medication.

I'm 99 percent sure neither are working.

And since his ear continues to drain once or a twice a day (which is groooooosssss) and his eye continues to be nasty, I'm pretty sure he is in fact sick and not allergic to God only knows what.

And this is what we're taking to the arctic Ohio with us. Aces.

(Oh yeah, I don't like Ohio in the winter because it's cold. Have I mentioned that recently?)

My Kentucky Home

Yes, you read that right -- Kentucky. And, as suspected, Fort Campbell.

I'm in the business of finding good things about this, so if you have something to add please let me know. So far the only thing I know about it has made my cheap frugal little heart sad: their gym with available childcare not only charges for the childcare, but also requires a membership AND charges extra for showers and lockers ($5 eachish a month).

I've never even heard of such rubbish at a normal gym, much less a military sponsored one. Plus it doesn't look like they have any pools. It's really hard to train for triathlons without swimming.

Since the gym is something I use at least several times a week, this little bit of information makes me s-a-d. So if you have something positive to add to the mix, please add it.

And if anyone can give me any advice about living on or off post (with this gym nonesense I'm leaning towards "off" ... although I DO like using hourly care .... ), do tell.

I'm sure Kentucky is lovely and we'll get along famously (once I find a gym). But I'm just going to go ahead and say it:

Sometimes I forget Kentucky exists. It pretty much ranks right up there with places like "Nebraska," "New Hampshire," and "Wyoming." When was the last time you gave any thought to Nebraska? Exactly.

Bonus is that before we move we will be able to easily drive up there and scout out places to live (unlike when we moved here from Washington). Meanwhile we're still going to be here in Georgia for at least six more months, until Luke finishes Ranger School (and we know how long THAT can take).

Fate Cometh

It has taken every ounce of my self control not to spend my entire weekend impatiently waiting for this afternoon. We are about to find out where will next move -- and the suspense has the potential to eat me alive.

Truly, we could've found out Friday. But by the time the hubby realized that the email with the link to his orders was in his inbox, and that said link wasn't working and he would have to call branch to find out what they said -- it was after business hours.

Ahhhhhhhh! It was like the Army was taunting me "I know where you're going -- but you can't! Hahahahah!!!"

Evil, evil Army.

But no worries, we're going to hopefully find out today. And since I wouldn't want to leave you out of the fun of suspense ...

Here are the possibilities (we think). They are in somewhat order of how we ranked them, although I'm kinda regretting it now since I made the mistake of googling Campbell and their gym looks awful and pool-less (not to mention pricey to use!):

1. Fort Carson (yesssss this is really the only one I truly want to go to)

2. Fort Campbell

3. Fort Knox

4. Fort Bragg

5. Fort Bliss

And then in who knows what order:

Fort Irwin

Fort Polk

Fort Drum

A God-Forsaken Base in Alaska

Luke seems to think we'll get Campbell. I'm pulling for Carson but with the way life seems to go for me, we'll probably get Alaska. God knows that what I'll blog from there will be way funnier than anything I could come up with somewhere pleasant like Colorado.

Priceless?

New, slightly larger TV on sale at Wal-Mart: $400

Humidifier: $30

Knowing that the odds of me frying our new TV are now lower: priceless


It's like crazy crap happens to me just so that I have something to write here. Wait until I tell you about the hairdresser I went to on Saturday who thought I was a lesbian. I know.

Meanwhile, the new TV doesn't get here until late this week. Until then I'm rocking some Hulu.