I'm a little confused on one thing. How does Catherine Elizabeth get shortened to "Kate" with a "K"? I'm sure there is some reasoning behind this. But if I were going to be a princess, that would be all that mattered to me! Call me anything you want! I was getting sick of all the wedding coverage over the past several months because I didn't care much about the royals of another country. Heck, they don't even govern anything! But as soon as I got out of the shower this morning, I turned it on just as William and Kate began to walk back down the aisle. And what a trek! I wonder if they have rehearsals just like we do in the US? Or do they have microphones in their ears telling them what to do? Either way, I thought they both looked calm as could be!
I love loved her dress! I still till this day wonder why I never tried on a lace dress! Also, if I were the little girl's mother on the left, I would have had a talk with her about smiling and look a little more excited! That was her 15 minutes of fame!

The other day I was watching one of my new favorite channels, The Oprah Network and they were reviewing the show they did on military families. Tom Brokaw came in to talk to Oprah and her staff and told them that if you don't know anyone that is currently serving, then you don't really understand. I can agree with that, to a degree. My brother is a USAF pilot and was in Kuwait for four months. He came back in early March. I know that he goes to dangerous areas, but for the most part, he had a room to himself - sort of like a dorm and was fed well. My dad was a career Marine Corps officer and even he makes fun of my brother for his cushy USAF lifestyle.

That is certainly not the case for everyone. Billy's sister's husband is in Afghanistan for a year and these soldiers sometimes don't even have the basic necessities. I received an email from my SIL requesting supplies such as razors, shaving cream, deodorant, etc. Just basic stuff that I can't believe the Army isn't providing! She is even collecting ramen noodles! I am just floored. We sent our brother in law a package a couple weeks ago, so I got my super mom on the job for this next shipment. She contacted the Gold Star Mom(moms who have a son/daughter who passed away) and they have packages ready and waiting to be sent! I am so thrilled and so impressed with these women who relentlessly support our troops! If you have any interest in sending anything - even a card, it would be much appreciated! Everything can be sent to:
Alexander Cline
E Co, 2-2IN, 3BCT
TF Ramrod
FOB Andar
APO, AE 09364

This is my SIL's husband, Alex on the left:

Who joneses for food more than me? Only my dear husband. He wants very specific things all the time. Like a chicken tender sub from Publix or a Dunkin Donuts coffee. Let's be real - it is rarely anything that I make that he wants. One thing though that he always wants is dessert and I would say we have something on hand most of the time. He other day he said that it's ok if we have dessert every day because we're past the point of getting fat. He is dumb. I'm 28 and he's 31. I'm sure our metabolism will slow down a bit more between now and say....65? So I do not buy into that argument, thank goodness. But most of the time, I do oblige and make something and of course eat something too.

Today's easier than easy bake oven dessert is brownie cookies! All you need is a box of brownie mix, an egg, 2tbs water and 1/3 cup of oil. Grease the pan, throw some dough on like so:



And voila! COOKIES for all my friends!

What a weekend! Full of highs and lows, but mostly good. This morning I'm just recovering from the backlash of expressing my opinion. Sometimes, I guess if you don't have anything nice to say, you shouldn't say it at all. It's just hard to know those boundaries with family and biting my tongue when I think I know best.



Friday: I got out of work early because we had our annual college awards banquet. I have never gotten free food out of this place, so I was sure to get my share! Actually, a textbook company provided it all, so I still have yet to have a meal from them! Perhaps that is fine because I packed on nearly 5 pounds due to the weekly Chick-Fil-A at my last job. I got home, caught some Oprah, played with Patton in the pool, pulled some weeds and then enjoyed 15 pages of the poetical argument in Plato's Republic.


Saturday: Grocery shopping, unsuccessful bathing suit shopping, napping, article summarizing and then dinner/drinks at Bar Louie. If you have a Bar Louie near you, sign up for their email newsletter and you'll get $10 off your 1st purchase! www.barlouieamerica.com/

Sunday: Cooked Billy some greasy breakfast to nurse his 4 drink hangover, bathed Patton because he rolled in bird vomit/feces, church, mopping/laundry, and then we headed to the beach for our Baptism!



I grew up going to church and asked my parents when I was about 10 if I could get baptized, but they said that I was too young to make that decision. Billy was baptized around the age of 4 or 5 but very rarely went to church. This has been a decision that was long overdue for me, but we have never lived in one place for more than a year to get involved enough to do this. Our church doesn't have one of those pulpit pools, so the beach was the only option. Not my ideal venue, given that it is spinner shark season, but everyone made it through unscathed! We're both extremely happy with our decision!

Maybe Baby

I found out 2 days that I'm going to be a double aunt. Two of Billy's sisters are pregnant. I found out about the first one in January and when they called me to tell me I was going to be an aunt...I asked who was pregnant because I wan't expecting it from any of them. I found out about the 2nd one on Wednesday evening which was equally as shocking because to my knowledge, she didn't even have a boyfriend. But she did have an ex-boyfriend and now he's back in the picture. It's all very bizarre to me because I always assumed I would be the first one to have a baby since I seemingly have my life in control...education, job, healthcare, home...you know. But truly, none of that matters.

Any woman can have a baby, no matter what their life is like. We were talking about that at work yesterday and not saying this is the case with my SILs...but just a portion of society in general - the entitlement class. Many women who don't have a job or much money receive things like welfare, WIC money for food, discounted childcare and VPK. Then there are the women who are just above the threshold from receiving those benefits, who work their tails off to make ends meet and then fork over half of their paychecks for childcare. My question is what is the motivation for the women who don't work, who are living of government funding, to get off their rears and contribute to their families and society? Are these programs enabling laziness and a sense of entitlement from these programs? I believe the answer is sometimes yes. It's just not fair. Women like me who wait and plan to have children...seem to get the short end of the stick for being responsible. I don't make a lot of money, so when it does come time for my child to potentially enter day care, it will be a lot of my salary that goes toward that expense. It's almost not worth working.

So while I won't have the first baby on B's side of the family, I guess the bonus will be that I can get hand-me-downs!

Where is my raise?

The lady who I work with who left the country for an undetermined amount of time decided to come back on Monday. She just sent us all an email letting us know she was in the office. WTF? Thanks for checking in the past 4 weeks to let us know when you were coming back, where all your files were, etc. If I were in my last job, someone surely would have been fired over this. Here, you can do a lot of stupid crap and keep your job. Good to know. Maybe I’ll start playing online poker, or selling social security numbers during lunch…I have to be warned like 3 times before I get fired, right? Ohhh the joys of government jobs.

Today’s comment of the day:

“Be sure to check your odometer to track your mileage for your meeting at the other campus.”

Me- “I use google maps to track mileage.”

“Oh really? I never thought of that. You’re so smart.”

Yep, that is why I get paid the big bucks, folks. Google maps. I have also shown them how to cut & paste, use survey monkey….you know, the technical stuff.

For months...I have been seeing my college age SIL use the term "norts" and I had no idea what she was talking about. I finally decided to check urban dictionary. Question: answered! Nike shorts!!!

When I was at UVA 4 years ago, is when I believe I noticed them starting to become popular with the runners. And let me tell you...running is a phenomenon at UVA. Everyone runs, all the time. It's like a constant road race on the sidewalks. So the first time I saw them at TJ Maxx, I bought a pair to see what all the fuss was about. And I'm so glad I did!

I wish I owned more pairs; right now I only have 3 and I wear them almost every day when I'm either walking the dog or walking myself. They are hands down, the most comfortable, flattering, non-riding up, durable pair of workout shorts I have ever owned. I have pink, navy and aqua and wish I had more. I'm sure the 2 people that read this blog also have them...so this isn't as much of a product review as a clarification for the new college girl slang. What can I say? She keeps me young! One of her latest posts is below. Enjoy.

There are a lot of things that I would do for my sisters, but being a sober sister at formal is absolutely not one of them. TSM.

We say Limitless last night in the Theatre with tickets B's mom got us. It wasn't one of the best movies I've ever seen, but we both really did like it. Perhaps I was a fan because Bradley Cooper was in it? Ohh yes. Behind Jake Gyllehaal, he's probably my fav. I did hate his character in He's Just Not That Into You though.

When the move was starting, it showed Robert DeNiro's name on the screen and all the NY transplants(which is all that exists down here) around us resoundingly commented, "Ohh Robert DeNiro" like they didn't know he was going to be in the movie. I saw another lady who brought a book into the theatre. Wow, she had low expectations of the movie.

On the way home from our little date night, we each got a Wendy's Frosty. So all in all, a great night!

What do I want to be when I grow up? I'm always thinking about it. What is the next step? What will I be doing in 5 years? 10 years? More recently, though, I have been thinking about how my job will affect my future family. I have my Master's in Education, which is concentrated in Student Affairs Practice in Higher Education. This basically only qualifies me to work as a college/university administrator. Which is what I really enjoy doing, but the schedule is the typical 9-5 M-F.
My first idea was to earn 18credits in graduate level english courses to allow me to teach at the college level. Well guess what? It is freaking hard. I don't know that I can do 5 more classes. So that is in limbo for now.
The next idea came last week when I had an epiphany about future children. Who will take them so soccer practice? Not me because I don't get home from work until around 6! So that led me to the FL DOE website. All I need to do is pass a subject test and then I am hirable at any FL public school. An even better idea is that I can work at a private school and get my kids free tuition because we all know that FL public school are no bueno.
And then there is always the PhD that is always looming - which would lead to more dollars, but also more work and long, or longer hours...but it in the field that I desire.
So what to do? I just don't know!

If you did not catch the Country Music Awards on TV last night, you missed out. They were so refreshing! I have more respect for most country music artists than pop music entertainers. Yes, entertainers. Do you see Katy Perry or Ke$ha rocking their own guitars? Didn't think so. I love Miranda Lambert and I thought she deserved all of her awards.

Lady A even thanked her for winning Album of the year last year, so they could win this year. Also, Taylor Swift, who I may be too old to be a fan of, won artist of the year. I saw a special on her about a year ago about how she designs all of her own shows, videos, and obviously writes and signs her own music. Well deserved award, in my opinion.

Now, don't get me wrong, I love my pop music just as much as any other girl, but sometimes I just don't want to hear a voice synthesizer.

Tim McGraw is coming here again next month. We saw him last May, but Billy was pretty unruly, so I don't think we'll be going again. Lady A opened for him last year and this year it is going to be the Band Perry, who I also really like! We'll see what happens though. I would really like to see him again with the calm, normal version of my dear husband. :)

This week I had a rare run of good customer service. On Monday, I stopped at CVS to get Billy some Schick Quattro ravor blades bc they were having a sale. When I got home and opened them, one of the packages had nothing in it! So I decided that going back to the baffoons at CVS would probably not help and I decided to call Schick. They were very apologetic and sent me a coupon for new blades. Bravo, Schick. Way to take ownership. Next, I went to Publix and they accept competitor coupons. I had a $5 off your bill coupon from Winn-Dixie and it wouldn't scan. The manager gave it to me anyway. Last weekend, I got a pair of khakis at Marshalls for B and laid them on the bed for him to try on. Next thing I know, Patton had chewed the tags off of them AND Billy tried them on and they didn't fit. I put the tag remnants and the receipt in a baggy and trecked back to Marshalls. The lady laughed when I told her the story and happily exchanged them with the correct size for me. I went to the Wachovia ATM to deposit some of the birthday checks I received and when I put in my bank card, a screen with balloons came up to say Happy Birthday! What a nice gesture! In January, I switched to paperless billing with AT&T bc they lured me in with a $10 visa gift card. I noticed that I hadn't received it yet so I called them up. Turns out they didn't have it in their rewards system, but they are sending one out to me ASAP. Now, this is a case of them just correcting their mistake, but at least I didn't have to pull teeth to make it happen! Lastly, a creepster produce stockerat Wal-Mart goes over and above every Saturday to tell me how pretty I am. Now, I fly through that section with my head down to avoid him...he can keep his customer service to himself!