Love at First Sight

I recently saw the most wonderful thing ever, my husband!  Thursday morning I got up.... well, I don't know if it's getting up, when I didn't really sleep... and got to see my husband in the airman's run!  He's in the second row, far right!  Rocken those BCGs :)

Some of them have funny faces because they are all singing while they run...

Not as hard to find as I thought!  Lets see how the coin ceremony goes....

The airman's run was fun and made me super excited to talk to him in a few hours after the coin ceremony!  I love my Airman!

Pintrest and Butterfingers for My Man

I most definitely have a Pintrest addiction.  I knew that this wonderful little site filled with so many things would be a pleasant distraction.  This is why I didn't let myself venture into its beautiful world until I had finished all my classes --- I was afraid that I wouldn't graduate with so many new things to try on the www.  Now that I am a college graduate, I'm loving all this non-procrastination Pintrest time!  This is my first Pintrest find that I've made.  The butterfinger clone.  Way easy, super fun, and tastes so darn yummy!  Only three ingredients too!  The only twist is that one of them is candy corn, which is really hard to find in the spring unless you have a candy store that stocks everything.  Thank you Powel's!

I'm making these to take to Nathan at his graduation.... if they turn out that is, I totally bought real butterfingers just incase these were a flop.  He loves butterfingers and with his current state of no sugar at boot camp I'm pretty sure I'm going to make quite a splash when he gets these.

How it went down:

I measured out 1 lb candy corn.

Poured it into a microwavable bowl.

And microwaved em at 30 second intervals until it became a hot, smooth sticky, sugary lava.

Had to avoid sticking my finger into the hot sticky delicious mess.

Mixed in the peanutbutter and drank in that wonderful aroma that fills the entire house.

Then the into a 8x8 baking pan lined with parchment paper, where it is pressed and smoothed out.  Then it is cooled completely.

This is getting exciting!  Cutten out my candy bar shapes...

And dunkem em in 16oz dark chocolate candy coating...

And then get a tummy ache from all the samples I ate just to make sure I was doing it right.

The final verdict.... I'm so making these again!  Didn't even need my store bought back up.  They aren't exactly like a butterfinger, but oh so deliciously close!  I'm so excited to give these to Nathan in a few days!

I missed Nathan's phone call today

My phone decided to go on the fritz when Nathan called today.  I'm feeling a little heart broken right now.  This picture pretty much says how lonely and sad I feel.

I love her photography

At least I get to see him later this week....

He's a BEAST Skittle Hoarder

It's taken me a while to get this update posted, but non the less.... a week later, here it is!


I got to talk to Nathan!  He survived BEAST week.  BEAST is an acronym for "Basic Expeditionary Airman Skills Training." It is where the airmen test everything they learned in Boot camp and are taken to a field training site, to go through a simulated combat deployment.  To me that means that they are having a really-intense-multi-day-paint-ball-gun-fight, but I know it's more intense and organized than that.  Nathan said looking back on it, it was fun, but actually doing it wasn't.  He's happy to have earned some man points doing all those manly things that week.  Let it be known,  we joke about him being only 51% male.  I did not marry him for his manliness... I have yet to find someone who is better to take shoe shopping.  The man has taste in women's shoes.  


He lucked out with the chores though this last week.  He was in charge of handing out MRE's (Meals Ready to Eat).  He had to open boxes of MREs and pour them into a bin for everyone to take.  On top of this being an easy job, he got to see which ones had the most desirable desserts and he kept the ones with Skittles for himself and his buddies.  He loved that sugar.  It's funny how when you can't have something, that's all you want.  No sweets being served at boot camp leads to a lot of people craving ice-cream and candy.  


Nathan has been making requests in every phone call for me to embrace the fat kid in me and spend the majority of the time he has off base, eating ice-cream.  I told him I could make that sacrifice for him.  But honestly, I love ice-cream and would eat it all day even if my arm wasn't in a twist.


He gave me some tips on how to first find him when I get to tap him out.  Tap out happens after the coin ceremony where the airmen are presented with the Airman's Coin to symbolize their transition from trainees to Airmen.  Friends and family then go find their Airman in a sea of blue uniforms, where they all stand in formation until a family member touches them (hence, tap out).  He told me to hold up my left hand with four fingers up (note my Hunger Games Nail Polish!).

Then to look at my ring finger.  That is the position his flight is going to be in.  What a smart man giving me a visual, cuz otherwise I would have had no idea what he was talking about.  He then said something about the layout of the place we will be sitting in and tried to give me direction on that as well, but I retained none of it.  He said he'd tell me again in our next phone call because he knew I wouldn't retain that info. 


Nathan also told me I had better be running to find him and knocking down old ladies with their canes to get to him as quickly as I can.  Not because he doesn't want to stand in formation for forever, but because he wants me in his arms as soon as humanly possible.  I'm totally okay with that.  


I'm terrible at finding him in a crowd and I'm a little afraid that him wearing the same outfit as everyone else, on top of not having any hair, and wearing funny glasses will make this process even harder then normal.  I will have the Airman's run before hand to try and find him and imprint his new look on my brain so that I can find him later though.  The Airman's run is on Thursday morning and it will be the first time I get to see Nathan in 8 weeks!  It's a celebratory run to say Hurray! Boot camp is over!  He will be running 2.5 miles with his flight and singing jodies (marching songs).  I wont get to say hi or anything, but hopefully I will be able to get a good enough look at him to know what to look for in the coin ceremony. 


I'm so happy that this time next week I will be in Texas with him!

Old things

I love old things.  I love old movies (Casablanca), music (Louie Armstrong), sayings (that smarts!), fashion... I could keep going.  Obviously, I love to shop vintage and these are some recent finds I fell in love with. 

Teal earrings from Corvallis, OR and pink depression glass from Capitola, CA.  Depression glass was handed out for free or at a great discount during the great depression.  Sometimes is was in boxes of food as an incentive to buy, or handed out in places like movie theaters to get people to come in.  Some piece are very valuable, mostly the ones that are a rare color, or pattern because people started collecting em in the 60s, but this one isn't.  I just think it's purdy.

My Fortune Cookie

This made me very happy....

How did my fortune cookie know?

I'm getting extremely excited for Nathan's graduation!  This time next week I will be in Texas :) and I will be a proud military wife.

I Love Letters From Him

I believe that these are the last letters I will get from Nathan in Boot Camp.  I can't believe that I get to see him next week!  It's strange how the days seemed to be so long, but the weeks have rushed past.  The last time I saw Nathan, I was attempting to study for a midterm that I miraculously passed!  And now, I'm all graduated, moved to CA, and working as an intern.  Crazy.

As usual, Nathan's doing awesome.  He got to shoot the M16.  He didn't do great, but he didn't do poorly either.  Out of 24 rounds he hit 14 targets.  The people who got 22 out of 24 will receive a ribbon for marksmanship and that is something you can earn at any time during your service in the Air Force, so he says that he plans on getting that eventually.  Even though he didn't do great, he did well enough to not have the other boys make fun of him.

Do you remember me mentioning that he has this new fondness for yogurt?  It hasn't died off yet.  They get pretty good food there and he listed off all the wonderful things that he ate for dinner and at the end of it he told me about this yummy bread that he discovered.  He made it "yummier" by putten yogurt on it.  That still makes my taste buds want to run away in fear.  I keep saying to myself, "it's like a cream puff," but it's not working, it can't get over the strangeness of it all.

His other letter was really short and was mostly about the future and how happy his is to be almost done.  We are excited to eventually find out where were are going to be stationed, which we wont find out for a few more months, but in the mean time, we can agree that where ever we get sent to will be amazing because we get to be together.

We started making plans for graduation and how were are going to spend our time together off base.  I know he's going to be drained and mostly want to sit and eat sweet things, but he seems to think he will have the energy to explore the Alamo.  I'm good with whatever as long as I can be near him.

I can't wait to talk to him face to face.  Week seven is almost over... week eight is graduation.  I can see the light at the end of the tunnel :)

My New BFF

I have a new best friend.  His name is RJ.  He's a very beautiful Macaw.  He just recently came to Pandemonium Aviaries.  He's not the usual bird to show up, but the owner still owes a few favors and the local Humane Society asked if she would be able to give him a good home.  His owner recently passed and he's been having a hard time adjusting.  He doesn't talk much and hasn't let anyone, but the owner touch him.  When I walked in, he was perched on his cage and I chatted him up.  He mostly ignored me.  I heard that he liked to dance so I asked him if he had the moves like Jagger.  Again, he ignored me.  But later when I got back from my lunch break, I was helping one of the other interns with a project and he climbed down his cage and walked across the room to come see me.

And then he sat next to me while I asked him how his day was going.  I told him that I was new here and needed a friend.   He didn't seem to mind the idea of a new friend.

So then I asked him again if he had the moves like Jagger?

He nodded yes.  So, I sang for him and we had a dance party.  I tried to video his mad dancing skills and he got a little camera shy, but got over it quickly.  He's a sucker for attention.  I'm trying really hard not to laugh in the video and no judging my baby talk.  I can't help it.  He be so cute.  I LOVE his moon walk!

Isn't he the tops?

Another Letter!

Nathan's graduation is getting closer and I am so excited to see him for a few days!  He's doing well, had the obstacle course and according to him he, "kicked some serious butt!"  He was really proud of not freaking out in the high parts and not falling into the water obstacles like a lot of other people. 

He made a request for a picture of me.  I had sent him one in the second week, but it never reached him.  Besides, wanting to see my face, he wants to show me off.  I hear that people are curious to see who the crazy lady is that married Sinex.  So I had to find a picture where I didn't pull a strange face... which was actually really hard.  I ended up going with a wedding photo because I was actually trying to be pretty that day.  He was glad that I sent him that one.  Not only did he prove that he had a beautiful wife, but that he looks good.  His friends were shocked that he was the guy in the photo.  I guess he's not rocken the bald head and ugly glasses.  I can't wait to see for myself! I bet he's dreamy in his BDG's.  That's the name for the frames they give you at bootcamp... it stands for Birth Control Glasses because they are oh so unflattering on everyone. hehe

I love his letters.  They are not only filled with wonderful stories about what is going on in his life right now, but he scatters sweet things everywhere for me to read.  At home he tells me he loves me about every 10 minutes (I'm not stretching the truth much here), so it's nice to have them about every 10 sentences.  I'm spoiled like that.

Thank you to friends and family who wrote to him!  He doesn't really get the time to be able to write back, but he wants you all to know that he's thankful to hear from you!

Being away from him is so much harder than I ever thought it would be and sometimes I feel like pulling the plug and telling him that this is ridiculous and should come home, but seeing reminders like this remind me that it's all going to be worth it.

"We are build the foundation for a beautiful life together."

I love being married to such a wonderful man :)

Paper On Canvas

I am inspired by Britt Bass.  I saw a piece of hers recently that has had me experimenting with paper for months to figure out how she does it.  The way she can manipulate paper makes me feel like I've been swept in a breeze of petals, being tossed in the wind.  I love her work and wish that I could capture the movement the way she could, but I think it's pretty good for a first try.

Longest Phone Call Yet!

I just heard from Nathan!  He is doing really well and says that these next few weeks are going to just fly by because they have so much packed into those weeks.  He got 10 more minutes on the phone then normal because he's leader was so impressed with them this past week!  He knows how to put together and take apart some fancy gun, and he's learning to shoot some other gun tomorrow that he's really excited about.  Sorry I don't know what they are, he told me, but the information didn't stick.  This last week was the one where they went into a gas chamber.  They went in with all the gear and masks on and then had to take off the masks and say something (I don't remember what it is called), but he got as far to say, "AB Sinex reporting," before the gas started effecting his body.  He said that it wasn't scary at all, which completely baffles me.  He's a barometer for needing to worry.  Whenever things come up, I can tell if there is going to be a good or a bad result by his reaction.  It's like he preprogramed to know if things are going to turn out poorly and if they aren't, he doesn't sweat it.  And he knew that he was in a safe controlled environment and so he didn't worry about it.

The only exception to that rule is roller coasters.  I love a good ride, the feeling of your stomach doing a back flip and losing track of which way is up.  Nathan, however, like his stomach to remain stationary.  For our first anniversary, we went to Vegas and stayed in a hotel that has an indoor theme park.  We were so excited!  The first ride I wanted to go on was the biggest one there.  It had loops, and corkscrews, and a big drop.  We sat down in the coaster and the harness came down over our heads and he begins to FREAK OUT!  He tries to push the thing in as far as it could go, afraid that it didn't lock or fit him tight enough so he might slip out or something.  I had never seen him like this before and I had no idea what to do.  And then he starts talking about his death, and how did he get here?  If he could have had jumped ship as we were climbing up that first big drop, I think that he would have.  I tried to calm him down at first and when I decided that wasn't going to happen, so I just enjoyed the entertainment he provided.  That same experience happened on every ride we went on except for the ferris wheel and the water ride.

We went on the water ride a lot.

It was super fun watching him freak out every time, but it was also nice to watch him have a good time, so we went on the most exciting ride he could handle, the water ride, a lot.

He told me that he puts yogurt on everything at boot camp.  It is apparently consumed at every meal and his favorite thing to do right now is to take a biscuit and dollop some yogurt in it and pretend that it is strawberry shortcake, a jelly filled doughnut, or a cake with frosting.  I laughed so hard and told him that sounded kinda gross.  He defended it and told me I should try it, it's like a big cream puff apparently.  I do love cream puffs.  I dunno if I have a yogurt covered biscuit in my future, but I will keep you posted.  It still sounds gross to me.

We are past the halfway mark for boot camp now.  He's starting week 5.  I'm so happy that it is almost over!  The last week in April is his graduation and I really cannot wait to see him.