$16 an hour!

Our neighborhood put on a big yard sale today and I was super excited when I made $16 in under an hour off of a pile of clothes I had sitting around waiting to go to DI.  What a great day!


So I decided to buy some ammo and go shooting.  I also felt like my hard work in selling my precious clothing was worthy of some new beaded necklaces.  Which cost more than $16...woops!  Sorry Ben!

Most people that came to the yard sale were friendly and just enjoying a beautiful morning out rummaging through other people's things.  There were some pretty funny people though, that were there to bargain shop.  I almost laughed when two ladies walked off after I told them all of my precious clothing was $2 each...that's cheaper than DI.  However, it was all I could do to keep from lowering the price when a really sweet Asian lady took 6 items.  I cut her a deal...I couldn't help myself!  I told her it was buy 5 get one free :)

Then I bonded with a sweet old lady over my Thomas Kinkade puzzles--which were purchased when we were too poor for internet or TV.  But we could afford a collection of Thomas Kinkade puzzles from DI.  Funny the old DI price sticker was on there and that's how much the lady paid me for it...SAWEET!



So after a relaxing day at the range I decided to come home and make this delightful greek salad I found on the pioneer woman's blog:

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2011/04/greek-salad/

Followed by a delicious s'more made with a pink star marshmallow.  Yep today was a great day!

Not quite a perfect day though...it won't be perfect until Ben Brubaker comes home!  I love you Benjamin!!!!!

Dog days...

Today is starting off to be one of those days...

Notice these two paul mitchell products from the back?  They look almost identical...especially out of your peripheral vision when you are going through your morning routine on auto pilot. 

One is a heat seal product I spritz on before blow drying, it makes my hair soft and shiny and it smells delightful!!  The other is a spritz product I use on my dogs to repel fleas and ticks. 


Ruh Roh Reorge!!!


Can you guess which one I mistakenly grabbed and doused my hair with before blow drying this morning??

Let's just say that I am in no danger of having fleas or ticks in my hair this morning.

Drums Alive!

I went to the funnest class tonight that involved drum sticks and those big exercise balls...who knew they made such good drums?  And what a great work out!  It combined rhythm with dance moves and drum sticks...so much fun!  I even sweated, which is weird because I never sweat...or anything else even remotely similar to being gross :)  Just ask my husband...actually no don't ask my husband.  Because somewhere between dating and getting married he wanted to call and warn his brothers about some of the mysteries of girls that they never learned growing up in an all boy house.

So I repeat DO NOT ASK BEN.

Speaking of Benjamin, yes hon you were right 'Anne of Green Gables the Continuing Story' was super lame and really disappointing.  They were on such a good streak too with those first couple of movies.  Well you know what they say about trilogies! 

All the small things.

I was feeling very lonely on Saturday and not sure what to do with myself for the weekend.  I had an appointment to take my car into the dealership for a recall notice I had received.  It just happened to work out that I was 2 blocks from the Western Days Celebration and everyone and their dog was there.  I'm not exaggerating about the dogs just so you know.  There were a lot of dogs there! 

Anyway, I was beginning to feel very lost in the crowd of people and realizing that I don't have very many close friends here in Twin.  At least no weekend plans kind of friends.  As the parade came through the main street, all the American flag stuff had me close to tears.  I decided to split.  Just as I got to the last block before my stop I heard someone yelling my name and turned to see my boss Debbie waving me down.  I couldn't have missed her if I tried. It felt so good to see a familiar face in the crowd.  I thought it was so interesting that she ran into me when she did.

 It's just one of the many small things that lets me know someone is aware of me.

Church was lovely today, so many people are counting down the days with me until Ben's R&R.  I am always so touched by how many people know the exact amount of time I have left until Ben gets here.  I guess I am not alone afterall :)


On a side note I discovered a booth at the western days celebration that sold all sorts of emu products.  I had to stop.  I mean I HAD to.  There was no getting around it.  After spitting in Ben's face the night he rolled over in bed and told me he wanted to be an Emu farmer...I had to!  By the way it was laugh spit!  It's not like I meant to do it!

So I found a future manufacturer to buy Ben's Emu products from his farm...er our farm.

My place of Zen

I have been enjoying some peace and quiet lately.  I wake up to the sounds of birds chirping and the natural light of the sun coming up first thing in the morning.  No alarm clock is necessary, because I am fully rested and spring to my feet excited to tackle another day.  I call this my place of Zen.

My zen was interrupted the other night when the person who lives above me watched TV all night long...loudly.  Seriously until about 8:32am in the morning...not that I was watching the clock or anything...see paragraph above about no alarm clock necessary---place of Zen corrupted!!!

I tried to pin point the location of the TV, and in my delirious restless state thought that perhaps I could hit the power button with my .357 magnum.  You know help the guy out by turning his loud television off for him so that we could both enjoy my place of zen.  

But then I imagined someone in the neighborhood getting the wrong idea and calling the cops at the sound of a gun shot.  I didn't think my story of 'just trying to aim for the power button' through a wall would go over too well with the police.

 So I came up with Operation: When in Rome.  Which basically just means I listened to James Bond through my ceiling all night long.  Hey, at least it was Sean Connery's voice...I mean if you have to listen to a voice all night long might as well be one with a nice accent!

I'm seeing things.....

I looked at the date on my computer this morning and it says June 1, 2011.  That can't be right!!!  Deployment fever has struck again! My mind is playing tricks on me...


Then again I am in the 'only do what is absolutely necessary for deployment survival' mode...so maybe it really is June 1st. 

What is absolutely necessary for deployment survival mode you ask?  Well let me give you a list:

Answer unknown numbers
Wait for an hour on skype
Drag myself to work...brushing my teeth is optional
Going to the gym
and watching TV for a minimum of 3 hours

Yep that's all that's required in survival mode.  Of course when I finally get out of survival mode then I have a long to do list that looks a little something like this:

Brush my teeth
Call tricare to get a new card
Make Dr.'s appointment
Go to Dr.'s appointment
Make car recall notice appointment
Go to Car recall notice appointment
Make dentist appointment
Go to dentist appointment
Grocery shopping
Birthday present shopping for Maren
Cooking....ugh!  Do I have to??
Laundry...double Ugh!!
Take sick dog to the vet
Mail care package to Iraq
Clean house top to bottom for husband's upcoming R&R
Shave my legs
Get my hair done
Shop for cute homecoming outfit (this is more difficult than it sounds!!)
Did I mention laundry?

What can I say, I am a very busy woman!!!  But instead of tackling any of these things I think I will just continue to sit here on skype waiting for my cutie pie to call me.

Have a great wednesday!!

The Niagara of The West

The falls here are nicknamed the Niagara of the West and you can see why:

Ben called to tell me that there was flooding in Idaho.  I immediately thought he was talking about emergency preparedness. It's ok hun I got 5 boxes of mac and cheese (Kraft of course!) and a candle...you don't need to worry about me I'll be fine. 

But he was actually talking about how the falls would be amazing with the flooding :) 

 I told my parents about the flooding and they decided they had better see for themselves!

 We live in the prettiest part of Idaho.  Who knew?

 This is the canyon that evil canevil jumped...and missed.  Yes he lived.

 The whole parking lot was soaked from the spray coming off of the falls.

 The Mexican engineer and the New Yorker.  He'll have the tortilla with pintos and eggs, and she'll take a salami on rye.  An unlikely duo, but it works!

 Obviously! 

 My mom keeps telling me how photogenic I am. Finally I asked but mom it's not just the camera right???  ....right?

Irma looks pretty.  I guess it could just be the camera :/  Haha kidding! Look at that beautiful 102 year old smile!  Now that's the smile of someone who has really enjoyed life.