Monkeying Around for Halloween!

Last year, we took Avery trick or treating at a trunk or treating event held by our church in San Antonio. She was dressed up as adorable. OH WAIT! She's adorable everyday. She was a pumpkin. Here is the picture from last year.

What a difference a year makes, eh? So this year, Avery received a sock monkey outfit from her Gran-Gran. We decided that she would wear it for Halloween and it was perfect!

Troy really wanted to take her trick or treating, but he wanted to dress up. The first year we were stationed in Dover, one of our neighbors took his kids trick or treating and he was the highlight of our night. His daughter was Winnie-the-Pooh, his son was Piglet, and he dressed up as Tigger. He didn't just have a black sweatsuit that he striped with orange duct tape. It was a full on Tigger suit. ADORABLE.

Troy wanted to think of something that would tie Avery's monkey outfit to him. So they could be a pair. I love him :) This is what he decided he wanted to be:

The man in the yellow hat. Avery's sock monkey outfit could easily translate to monkey. So anyway...Troy asked me to find him a FULL ON YELLOW SUIT! Like Dumb and Dumber style.

Except for yellow of course. I was like, "um are you kidding?" So instead, I got on Amazon (oh good old Amazon, you are so dependable) and ordered a long sleeve hanes yellow t-shirt and a yellow hat. Total of 11.16 + shipping. I used black electrical tape to make his tie.

We walked outside to take a picture on the porch and Troy was like, "TAKE A PICTURE OF AVERY BEING CURIOUS!! GET IT? LIKE CURIOUS GEORGE???" Apparently being "curious" translates to putting your baby on your car and making a scared face. For the record: This picture was Troy's idea. He completely posed them both for the photo. Another reason I love him: He's silly.

Look how excited he is:

Getting ready to leave:

Troy said that they went to about 15 houses. And only about 1/2 of the people got their costumes. READ PEOPLE!!!

Avery was super excited about her candy. I know she doesn't look like it in the picture, but she ate 2 kit kat bars and figured out how to chew through a Butterfinger wrapper and was found eating the paper and some of the candy bar. Bad mommy points. Overall, she had fun!

Here is Avery enjoying her kit kat and making monkey noises while her mouth is full. For the record, we did NOT teach her that monkeys go "oo oo oo." We taught her that they scream. More like "aaaaaaAHHHHH aaaAHHHHHH" so that the pitch and volume go up at the end. It's more accurate.

My Oscar Speech...Should I Ever Win One. NOT. But this Little Blog Won an Award!

I'd like to thank Troy for be so ridiculous. Without your weird awkwardness, I would not have stories to tell about you. Thank you to Avery for being so cute. Without which half of the people reading this blog would not even look. Okay...anyways....

Okay so I'm pretty sure I will NEVER win an Oscar. But I did win an award. My first one ever. Literally.

So I read this blog called CrakGenius. And he is a genius. A witty, sarcastic, pessimist. I love it. Here are some of my favorite posts of his:

- His addiction. Not to crack. To Reeses Peanut Butter anything.

- Cars that he would drive in the Zombie apocalypse. GENIUS. He found these on Craigslist or an auction website. SO FUNNY!

- And a story about how he wound up completely naked in his front yard. It's such a good story, he broke it up into part 1 and part 2. I peed a little bit when I read them.

It's called a Liebster Award and started in Europe somewhere. It is designed for well known bloggers to recognize bloggers that they like and enjoy and encourage others to click over and give them some love.

Original(ish) Rules For The Liebster Award

1. You must thank the person who gave you this award.
2. You must display the Liebster heart on your blog.
3. You should nominate 3 to 5 up-and-coming blogs (with less than 200 subscribers)

In accordance with rule 1, thank you CrakGenius. You make me laugh with every post.

In accordance with rule 2, here is the Liebster award logo (I included 2, because apparently there is some confusion about which is the true logo):

So I am apparently a bad blog reader. All of the blogs that I read daily have more than 200 subscribers/followers. I read about 6 religiously. So I am going to have to ignore the nomination portion because I literally don't have anyone to nominate. Sorry Crakgenius. Love you....

CrakGenius also requested that we respond to his 11 questions:

11 Questions For Awardees

1. Are you a grammar Nazi? (Spoiler: if you wanted to tell me that “awardees” isn’t a word… you are)

I am going to go with no. My husband has to read all of my posts before I publish them as my acting editor. The problem is, I read a lot. Like A LOT. My brain has learned to correct grammar, add words, and correct spelling automatically so that I don't really see it. My brain just skips right over it. Have you seen this floating around facebook?

I cannot tell you how easy this is for me. The only issues that I have (that would qualify me as a grammar Nazi) would be the improper use of there, their, and they're as well as your and you're. COME ON PEOPLE! Get with it.

2. If you had to choose just one, Facebook or Twitter?

I'd go with facebook. I don't have a twitter account. Don't tell me merits of twitter. I don't need another time suck in my life.

3. How long have you been blogging?

I've been blogging since the middle of June. I moved to Alamogordo, New Mexico while Troy was in training and we were living in a hotel room. I started out of boredom and was SO OVER calling and talking to people about the same updates. I swear, I spend 4 less hours a week on the phone talking about the same story. So thank you blogging!

4. What’s the worst search term which led someone to your blog?

It's not a "bad" or "embarrassing" search term, but the best one would be "frilly socks." Apparently someone was looking for frilly socks and was led to the blog with this post. About Troy using a "frilly sock" of Avery's to bandage my dog's foot. SURPRISE!

5. What’s your most popular post and why?

My most read post is about the day that Troy and I fought all day putting up blinds and installing ceiling fans. I think the reason it's popular is because a lot of people can relate to the silly crap that couples fight about. And the things you say in frustration. I also think that people who know Troy and I pretty well, know that generally, we try to play nice in public. So putting that fight out there in words for all of eternity on the internet was a little view into our relationship that we try to hide.

6. If you could have one superpower, what would it be?

Um. Tough question. I'm going to have to go with the ability to make a day last for longer. I feel like I can never get everything done that I want to do. My to do list keeps getting longer. And it's not stuff that needs to be done. I always get housework and cooking and cleaning done. My problem is "me time." I have so many projects to do, books to read, and movies to watch. My DVR is FULL. So maybe my power would be to move with the speed of light so that I could get all the stupid responsibility stuff done so that I could have me time. What would that be called?

7. What’s your favorite curse word and why?

I'm gonna go with shit. For sure. It's my favorite. It's my "oops" word. I am super clumsy. So I probably say it or think it several times a day. It's also my praise word. As in "you are the shit" or "I am the shit." Which really doesn't make sense. Why would something/someone awesome be proclaimed as "the shit"? It's also my go to name calling word. As in "you are a shit" or "he was a shit head." I need to find a new favorite oops/praise/name calling word. Avery is a sponge.

8. What’s your porn star name? (First name is the name of your first pet, last name is the name of the street you grew up on…)

Haha....mine is really good. My dog's name is Optimus Prime and the street is Landing. So it's Optimus Prime Landing. Translating to "The Number One Landing" spot. Yucky. And hilarious.

9. Do you have any tattoos? If so, how many? If not, would you ever get one?

I do have a tattoo. It's a cross in the center of my shoulder blades.

10. Introvert or extrovert?

This is a tough question. I am terrible in groups of people that I don't know. I just sit and listen. So an introvert in groups. I do better in a one on one situation. But then (as mentioned here) I talk way too much. I just get nervous. I would say in general I am an extrovert. I feel like you'd have to be an extrovert to some degree to write a blog. You are sharing moments and stories from your life with the whole world.

11. How did you meet your spouse / significant other?

Troy and I met in church youth group when we were 16, right at the beginning of our junior year. We started dating our senior year while I was at JMU and he was at ECU. It wasn't pretty. But we made it! Long distance relationships CAN work!

So that's me. Thanks so much for the award CrakGenius. I wish I could continue the tradition and give it to someone else, but I don't read any blogs with less than 200 readers. Fail on me.

3 Couples Who Have Influenced Our Marriage and Lifestyle: Part 3

Lesson 1 from Bryson and Lori Smith: Love God. Love People.

Lesson 2 from Rob and Cynthia Wittwer: Work Hard. Play Hard. Choose to be Happy.

I grew up as a military brat. I went to 3 different high schools and the longest I have ever lived somewhere was in college. I lived in that town for 5 years. That's a long time for me. Troy was a military brat too. But after his dad got a staff job at the Pentagon when Troy was in 6th grade, he stayed in the same school system until high school graduation. We were both used to moving and making new friends and starting over.

Troy and I got married right after undergrad and they scheduled him to go to ASBC in Montgomery 3 days before our wedding. Oh. Hell. No. Troy called and asked them to move it back seeing as how they were giving him 2 weeks notice to report to Alabama and our wedding was already paid for, guest airline tickets were bought, honeymoon arranged, etc. They obliged. Thank God. However, that meant that his active duty date was pushed to November 6th of 2007 rather than in July.

We lived in a tiny apartment in downtown Harrisonburg with my roommates (I was starting my 1st year of grad school, which was on campus). It was seriously the tiniest, cutest apartment you ever saw. Anyway, we got lucky and Troy and I got an on base house. And it was brand new. Seriously awesome. They literally finished the house painting the day before Troy moved in. Poor guy. He had to move in by himself because I was still in school and he didn't know anyone there. Yet.

TRUTH AND SHANNON FINCK

His first day reporting to work, he met Truth, another 2nd Lieutenant with vast prior enlisted experience. And yes, that's actually his first name. And Truth was on babysitting duty for the new LT. The job NOBODY wants. Watching the newly commissioned officer, who has no idea how the military works yet, asking all kinds of silly questions and is trying to figure out their ass from a hole in the ground. Truth had been prior enlisted for 8 years (like Rob) but he got picked up for Officer Training School after busting his butt to get his degree while working full time and raising 2 kids.

Lesson 3: Have your own friends and have your own hobbies.

Truth and Shannon were dating when they were 18 and 19 (Shannon was a cougar...rawr) and working in an Italian restaurant. They got married and Truth went off to basic training and Shannon lived with his parents and their first born, Jake. She's a saint. I kid. I've met Truth's Mom and she's AWESOME. She brought me puppets for when I worked in a school and the kids loved them. Anyway, they were finally joined again when he finished basic. They had another little boy named Issac.

It is important to mention that their ENTIRE families live in Ohio. Grandparents, brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews. Their whole life. In Ohio. "The Land of Milk and Honey." Seriously. When they talk about it, their eyes glaze over. And Ohio State. Don't even get them started. Truth met Jim Tressel when he was deployed and it was like he met Jesus in the flesh. I learned the most interesting things about Ohio. The first Buffalo Wild Wings was there. Every time we went, they mentioned it. Rascal Flatts is from Ohio. Every time they were on the radio, they mentioned it. They plan to move back there when Truth retires from the Air Force. Wright-Patterson AFB is the number 1 move on their wish list. Being away from their very large families is hard very for them.

When my Thanksgiving break started (JMU got a full 10 days, not just a 4 day weekend) I drove from Harrisonburg, Virginia to Dover, Delaware and let me tell you...it was my first time doing ANYTHING as a military spouse rather than a dependent. It is so stressful. I couldn't figure out where I was going on base. I had never done a move without my parents. Moving to a new place and knowing no one except your husband is scary. Because we were newlyweds and I still hadn't decided if we had done the right thing. And the military is scary.

Troy brought me over to meet Truth and Shannon the first night I was there. They had just moved from old base housing into new base housing and Troy had helped them with their "across the base" move. I remember when I met Shannon, she was super quiet. And me being me, I couldn't shut up. I feel this need to talk and talk and talk when there is silence. You can psychotherapy me or whatever but I can't help it. Poor Shannon took the brunt of my babbling while Truth and Troy talked shop. Looking back on it, that was probably the best thing for our friendship. She understood early on that when I was on a roll, to get out of the way or hop on the train cause I can bulldoze you with my chatter. She still makes fun of me and the way I can talk for 15 minutes without prompting.

I can say looking back on it, that particular instance of babbling was nervousness. She had kids that were 9 and 11 and a was super-experienced military spouse. I was talking and talking hoping that I would say something that she connected with or thought was funny, hoping that she would be my friend or feel sorry for me or something. Which I know now was a risk. When Shannon meets people, she's super quiet and takes everything in. Well, I'm a whole lot to take in. I think she could tell I was scared. So I met them right before Thanksgiving and didn't see them/talk to them again until June, 7 months later.

I finished the coursework for school and was going out to start my clinical rotations, which were all arranged in Dover. Shannon didn't work at the time and the guys were working like crazy because they were having an ORI (some kind of crazy inspection) and I was super lonely. So I was being a little pushy about spending time with Shannon. It was the first time as a military spouse where I needed the support of another spouse to get from day to day and vent because (seriously) Troy slept in his car instead of coming home.

Shannon is super into hobbies. And TV. She introduced us to Big Bang Theory. She knits and crochets. She paints. And refinishes furniture. And dumpster dives. And does drive bys on trash days. And hits up Goodwill on military discount days. And antique stores. And uses crackle paint. And has quick and easy recipes. She taught me how to fry chicken. And use my crock pot. And plant flowers. And make homemade wreaths for every season. She is my original pinterest. I would use her house, style, and sarcastic quotes as inspiration. She showed me how important it is to have hobbies and interests that absolutely DO NOT include your husband at all. If you structure your life around your spouses schedule, hobbies, and friends, you'd never get anything done as a military spouse. Having a military spouse means always depending on yourself. You can't depend on them to be home for dinner or help with the kids. Or change your oil or cut the grass. You have to be the mom and the dad. The chef and the chauffeur. The landscaper and the banker.

Truth deployed in January of 2009 and Troy and I took care of Shannon. Troy went over and played video games with the boys while Shannon and I went to midnight Twilight movie premieres and went to yard sales every weekend. We had them over for dinner. And had Christmas in July. Complete with decorations and music. I spent at least an hour with her everyday, but to be honest, but could have been up to 18 hours. We would have these epic movie rainy days that started at 8 am with coffee and breakfast and ended with popcorn and beer at 2 am. When Truth came home in August, we took a trip to Atlantic City for the weekend and it was EPIC. I look back at it and kind of wonder how we lived. So much alcohol. Not enough sleep. So much conversation and laughing. It was so good to be back together.

And then Shannon and Truth got orders to Elmendorf, Alaska 2 weeks later and 3 weeks before Troy was leaving for a deployment. I was crushed. We were in Germany on vacation when she told me. I was devastated. I was depending on my friend to take care of me while Troy was deployed the same way that we had taken care of them while Truth was deployed. That sounds so selfish, but I was seriously counting on them. As it turns out, they ended up living with me for 2 months (after Troy had left) while Truth went ahead to Alaska to get settled and moved into their house.

The day they left to fly to Alaska, I felt like my world ended. It was seriously awful. My house felt so empty. I went from having Troy and Optimus to having Shannon, Jake, Issac, Lucy, and Optimus to just Optimus. We were so depressed. I totally threw myself into work and hobbies. I kept busy. I kept going to Goodwill on wednesdays like we had done. And crafting. And I watched 6 seasons of Lost in 3 weeks. It was an addiction. I started watching the Bachelorette with my friend Brittany every monday. And going to girls night with some of my neighbors every tuesday. And I had an epiphany.

If I am going to be a happy spouse of a military member, I have to have my own interests, my own friends and my own life. And that's okay. Shannon totally got that before she met us and just integrated us into her life. They left, and I'm pretty sure her world didn't end without me.

I feel like the lesson I learned from Truth and Shannon was learned indirectly. I became super dependent on them and our friendship. They were the first people that we had a great connection with in Troy's military career. And we love them SO much. But when they moved, I was devastated. I had to relearn how to keep myself occupied and literally GET A LIFE. Having friends is SO important and having hobbies is SO important. I knew this, but it was reinforced when reality hit hard and I was left alone.

When Troy is home, we definitely love doing things together. But we also realize that when we have our own interests and friends and spend time apart, our time we spend together is better. You bring a different experience, perspective or skill to the conversation. You have more to talk about.

As much as Troy and I love each other, sometimes you just want to do something alone. Or with someone else. To make yourself better. Or the world better. Or have an experience to share. When you get married, do not lose yourself to the title of husband or wife. Or become dependent on someone else to keep you happy. You need to have things that you do alone that bring you joy.

Thank you to the Fincks for abandoning me or I may not have figured this out. And this is becoming SO important now that Troy's schedule is such a mess. I love you guys.