22... "WHAT! You're only 22!"

I hear it all the time.. "What! You're how young!?" grrrr... I get so tired of hearing this! I guess for me it is because 22 years of my life have been lived to the utmost fullest. I have had some really horrible things happen to me, along with the miraculous, and awe inspiring. At a singular time I feel both too young and too old for what has been my version of life.

On this 22nd year, I find myself in such a wonderful and amazing place. Physically, mentally, and emotionally I am better than I have ever been before. I am living in England, a country full of history, castles, fairytales, and adventure. I have a husband who loves me more than I have ever loved myself. I have my annoying, boisterous, and lovable pooches. And I have my daughter. My dear Rhapsody. Who has brought me a fuller, more noteworthy life, with Joy I never thought a child would bring. Twenty two isn't looking so bad for me! 

And as my twenty third year of life is staring me in the face, for the first time that I can remember I can look forward without fear or apprehension. I know that I have my family and my God beside me to lead me through the years to come. I welcome the joy, frustration, love, and new friendships that this next year will hold for me. I know there is much that will happen between now and twenty three. I stand with my back straight and ready for whatever it is Life will give me now. Join me in another year of Military, Motherhood, and Madness. What? I needed another M. Everyone loves alliteration! 

Welcome To My Version of Life

Forgetful Me...

I go about my day and I always get random thoughts. Random ideas. Things pop into my head and I think 'Hey! I should write about that on my blog!' Then I get home... dum dum dum... And I get too busy. You know how it goes, one thing after another. Nighttime descends, I finally get Rhapsody to bed, I sit down with a glass of wine, Oh don't say you don't drink wine after a long day!  And I veg. I watch TV, I Facebook, that thing sucks you IN, and I avoid thinking! But here's the thing, I LOVE blogging. I mean. This isn't all that exiting when it comes to the world of writing, (please note my x key is broken and writing words like eXiting is very difficult!) but I like it none the less. I really don't know who I am 'talking' to out there, but I'm glad to be talking to you. To be getting my thoughts out to you!

Now this is a terribly long way to say... I will hopefully be writing more often. Taking time throughout my day to write my thoughts down, and let anyone who has the desire to know to much about me the ability to do so. I love writing. It is a passion of mine. I love writing what I am thinking. And will be using this blog of mine as an outlet to get this joy out. As well as to have a good vent every once in a while!

I'm going to attempt to organize everything into nifty little categories and tabs, but we'll see how well that works out for me. I hope to see you sticking around. Feel free to share your thoughts, agreements, even disagreements. I like to know what you think. Heck, I want to know about you too. So share away!

Welcome to My Version of Life

Feedback PULEASE!

I'm wondering what everyone thinks of the format, style, and look of this blog so far... I've been tweaking it the past few weeks and trying to make it more readable to people viewing online and on their phones. SO if you don't mind leaving me a bit of a comment below with your criticisms, and praises (especially praises!!) I am also looking to create a few more tabs/categories for the page, anyone got some inspirations?  I will take all that is said into account to make a more ...pleasurable... blog. (Now imagine all that in a creepy man voice ...pleasurable...) AND have a nice day!

Welcome to My Version of Life

Achievement Unlocked : Full Geekdom

Nearly 22 years of age and I have just realised my full entrance into Geekdom. In high school I was unpopular, smart, took all the hard classes and was in the JROTC. What more can I say? That draws a pretty good picture if where I was in the social food chain early on in life. I never would have considered myself a 'geek' just a bit too smart for my own good. (Yeah, I hated high school, stupid popular kids).


However, I have arrived at a whole NEW level of Geekdom... Gaming. Xbox gaming... Oh no!!

Richard, oh husband dearest, bugged me for ages to pick up the Xbox controller for more than just netflixing. I refused. Resisted. Revolted. And then... Resigned. Fine. I'll TRY your stupid game, with your stupid dragons, and your stupid quests. Stupid...stupid...stupid...

Oh how wrong I was.

I entered the world of Skyrim about 2 months ago... Now, I dream in the world of Skyrim. (You think I'm joking? I'm not. That's the sad part). It took me a bit to catch on but I was pretty hooked from the moment my head was on the chopping block and Alduin came swooping down upon me to try and eat my face off... I built my character quickly, and caught up to Richard's level in no time. However, I still didn't consider myself 'geek' quite yet...

I began to notice the change, the building towards achievement Geekdom, around about the time my husband SAVED over my game! I had just improved all my armour! And found an amazing weapon! And was in the middle of a quest! Honestly? Do you hear my right now? Big giant orange neon signs pointing straight at me with GEEK flashing across them in a pattern crazy enough to begin an epileptic fit in just about anyone... I was devastated when Richard told me his "mistake"! He was devastated! At least we share our Geekdom. Always a good thing in a marriage...
Even through all of that I wouldn't have described myself a Skyrim geek... yet... I said "I", not necessarily "YOU"...

Today was the pivotal point of my becoming a full blown Xbox gaming... Nerd... (What a gross word!) I began my game playing this morning. I had been working the last few days to get my character back to where I was before. Don't worry, I'd had a previous extra save a few weeks ago so my character wasn't completely erased. Just mostly. Anyways, I had finally gotten my girl back to where I was in the game. I thought to myself, "lets up the level of hardness today to Adept." After all, when I die I can just lower it again... Adept is what Richard plays on. The man who has been gaming for most of his LIFE... Anyways, I was the bomb diggity at playing on adept! As in. Too good. Geek good. Oh. No. Then... I levelled up my enchanting to 100... And was excited. Too Excited. And it hit me. Achieving Unlocked : Full Geekdom ...

Welcome to My Version of Life

You're A Stay At Home Mom? Ooohhh...

Fair Warning
This post may seem scattered, and ranty. That is because it is.

START RANT

S. There is a young airman who comes home with my husband every night for dinner. That is every night of the week. Whether Rhapsody has cooperated and let me make dinner in peace, or if I had to babysit earlier and was running behind and had to moby wrap Rhaps to feed her whilst cooking dinner for three grown men. Now this young airman, shall we call him G, is kind of... well... arrogant. I know this about him. Today my husband says, "So G thinks that being a stay at home mom can't be considered a 'real' job." Me, "What?" Hubby, "Yeah, he says stay at home mom's don't do enough to be considered working." My response? "Let him come say that to my face and we'll see who doesn't get a nice home-cooked meal for the entirety of his tour in England..." I mean. FOR REAL!?!? I had 'heard' of such thoughts before, but I thought they were behind us in the 21st Century. I wouldn't say that ANY mom's job, be she stay at home, blue collar, or white collar, wasn't good enough! However, as much as I have tried to ignore it, the stay at home mom is still looked down upon. Especially as a military wife (you know, just living off of your husband's guaranteed paycheck!) I get it when I run into kids parent's that I used to work with. "So when are you going back to the Youth Center?" "Oh, I've decided to be a stay at home mom for now. I'm really enjoying being there for my child." Que long pause... "Well that's nice..." Yeah. You are right. IT IS nice. I love it! I'm going back to school, handling ALL household chores, paying bills, taking care of my child. It's not always amazing. I get tired. ALOT. And sometimes, I want to go back to work. To get a BREAK from my responsibilities as 24/7 'mom'. Not that going back to work would make life any easier. You see, here's the thing. Going back to work would be a completely different kind of busy and stress. I honestly don't think you can begin to compare the difference between the go to work mom, and the work at home mom. I think it is very wrong to compare them in fact. All comparing does is make the opposing person feel bad about themselves as a wife and parent. And we live in a society that already does enough to try and bring every woman down to the level of dirt. Us mom's, working and stay at home, need to support one another for our decision. Because here's the thing, no matter what our profession is, we are sacrificing ourselves for the sake of our children. Going to work you sacrifice the time you would spend with your child to provide for your family. Staying at home you sacrifice the extra income that could be had if you worked. These are just the two most obvious sacrifices as well! There are so many that we mom's make every day to make sure our children grow up with everything they need to be successful. So before you ridicule another woman for her decision, think first about her SACRIFICES. We can all only do the best that we can. No one should ever look down upon you for what is YOUR idea of best.

And next time a G tells you that you aren't good enough, or your husband, tell them, "NO FOOD FOR YOU!"

END RANT

Welcome to My Version of Life

The WORST!

I am the WORST at surprises! Not that I can't plan them perfectly, but more like I just get SO excited that I end up telling! Especially when it comes to Richard. I have been planning a surprise hike, well, walk. Not much of England could be considered hike worthy. Not the Appalachian mountains kind of hiking that is. Anyways, I've been planning this surprise walk about, and all I've wanted to do is tell Richard about it! It is Thursday and I have kept mum about it this far so I THINK I can handle two more days...

However, just in case I feel tempted, I figured I can tell you all about it!

If you know my husband you know he is a big fan of the outdoors. He loves nothing more than going hiking for days in the woods with a pack on his back full of everything he would need. He finds great joy in building a campfire from scratch, drinking hot kool-aid, and exploring the woods around him for rocks to throw at..things.. Since we moved to England two and a half years ago it has been difficult to have that experience  Well, more like impossible. Wild camping (as they like to call Richard's way of the hike), doesn't happen here except in Scotland and some parts of Wales. ALL of England is owned by...somebody... And it is illegal to have an open campfire...anywhere... What people do instead is Walk. And no joke, people will walk trails (in the countryside, through farmers lands) from one pub to another. At at each pub they will stay the night (either in a tent in the beer garden or in a cheap room) and the next day move on in their walk. Richard and I REALLY want to do something like this before we move in September. This is not what I have planned for Saturday (it would've been awesome if it was!) I just wanted to give you some background on the...em...walking culture of England.

Anyways, I have planned a walk for Richard. It's in an area in Norfolk called Holkham. The place I really wanted to take him was 5 hours away. So this was second best. We will do a couple mile walks around the farmland, hopefully seeing some deer, and around the lake. Holkham is one of England's largest nature reserves, and is supposed to still be very beautiful in the British winter. Well, one can hope. We'll leave out for Holkham right after band practice on Saturday, have lunch on our walks, and head back by 3ish (it's completely dark by 4:00.) Saturday is supposed to be sunny in Holkham (yeah. right.) And hopefully it won't be terribly cold for one little princess who gets to tag along! Then, hopefully, babysitter permitting, I will get to take Richard to the local pub (directly down the street from our house) for a nice Guinness to celebrate a cold day of walking. All in all it should be a day Richard thoroughly enjoys.

And now when I get super excited and want to tell him ALL about it, I'll have to remind myself that I told you all, and maybe I can maintain the surprise until Saturday!!

Please Note: I don't own this picture. 

In fact, I technically stole it from the Holkham website... 

Don't tell? Thanks!

Welcome to My Version of Life

New Year, Changing Baby!

You know, they (the ominous "they") ALWAYS say 'it goes by too fast,' they grow up too quick,' 'hold on while you can.' I get all that. Really I do. (Please don't repeat any of what I just said...) BUT these past few weeks have brought a couple of changes with Rhapsody and they are FANTASTIC! I get SO excited when Rhapsody shows signs of growing up! So let's start with the first change of the New Year. Rhapsody is now an extremely accomplished roller over. If she is laying down she is rolling. Hanging out on the couch... BAM near baby face plant... Changing a diaper... WHOA upside down baby with half a diaper on... On the floor... NO! Reaching for a plastic bag... Nali's nose... Athena's ears... Xbox power button... She rolls, pushes, and flips to everything she can! I see some baby proofing coming in our near future...

Our next big change happened a couple days ago... Since we started trying at about 5 weeks old, Rhapsody has refused bottles. She had nothing to do with them and would scream until she fell asleep if daddy tried to give her one. We have tried everything (I do mean EVERYTHING) apart from forcing her with it (i.e. bottle or nothing.) Then on Tuesday she ate nearly a whole bottle (3.5 oz) before nursing for 5 minutes to fall asleep!! Today she ate another 2 ounces from a bottle! I honestly can't believe it. She is nearly 6 months old and I have been feeding her every hour on the hour... Now, freedom is nearly in my sight!!! I mean normal freedom (not the crazy go out and act like I'm NOT a mom kind of freedom.) Having a date (gasp!) with my husband, or going to the gym (oh the horror!) without my daughter is potentially in my future! Although I love Rhapsody with all my heart, some time away would be... Ah-maz-ing!

All good things come in threes (at least that's my philosophy!) Rhapsody has always shown the desire to move forward since two weeks after she was born (no joke!) Now she is showing even more progress to crawling! She's been getting up on her hands and knees and rocking! I know, I know... Such a weird thing to be excited about, nevertheless, excited I am! Hence the post about it... So stay tuned for more (boring maybe?) updates on that crazy baby I call my own!


Also, here is the video of Rhapsody the Roller Overer!

Welcome to My Version of Life