Navy Ball...Second try was a charm!

On the 13th, we tried our luck and snagged another babysitter and took off to another military ball. This time it was the Navy Enlisted Ball, which was a much more fun experience! It could have been that it was much smaller and we were able to hear our conversations with others at our table. It could've been that we actually   had a decent meal for our money. It was buffet style, which meant our first plate was twice as full as the one at the Air Force ball, with food of our choosing...and we could go back for more. And it tasted so much better! Here's Ed enjoying said meal:

We even were sitting right next to the food tables... it really helps one's mood when you get to eat at 6:00 instead of 8:00.

The ceremony was brief and not extremely boring to anyone who is not versed in military whatever...such as myself. And I wasn't freezing my bejeebbers off the whole time :-) And we were up and dancing by 8:00! Woo hoo! There's a just a few things that made this night enjoyable.

 This time, Kristi and Mike were able to come. (Mike was outta town last time), which is always a party :-)

 And we had the lovely Alicia and Will to keep us company once again. We sat by them at the Air Force Ball as well.

 The only actual Navy person at our table, Matt and his awesome wife, Andrea. Don't they look like they could be models for some "Navy Couple of the Year" promotion or something. Dang! My friends look nice!

 And some strange couple that was there...oh wait...

 That would be us. I didn't put much effort into my dress and makeup. I was bound to just have fun regardless!

 And the last couple, Alan and Jerilynn... looking Fab!

 The Girlies... Laughing at our husbands. You know, same ol', same ol'...

 And our husbands. 

Yes, mine is the shortest one, yet again. What's your point?

 The whole group... look at how Matt's hand is placed to make it look like I'm totally feeling up Andrea... Awkward!! And everyone of us that has this picture...same thing! *face palm*

So we learned that fancy shmancy doesn't equal better. This was way more low key and was SO much fun! I'm glad I didn't back out...and then Hunter even slept all night for me so we were cool in the morning for church! Thank you, Babysitter!

Update on our Garden

When we planted our garden back in July, we had 2 different tomato plants, 2 identical cucumber plants, a strawberry plant, and a golden zucchini plant...because it seems everyone has zucchini coming out of their ears because it's easy to grow, and I wanted to feel successful. Yeah, I'm weird like that.

Since we needed to get more soil for the pot that the strawberries were supposed to go in, I just planted it with the others until we could make it back to Home Depot. It died within 2 days. I put it back in the original container with the intent on taking it back when we went to go get more soil. It's been 3 months, and we've never made it back to Home Depot. It's still sitting in the container, dead. {Laziness, you may think. Maybe. Or maybe the inability to find a time in which Eddie could make it there that was not during rush hour...killer here. But I can't lift those bags of soil. Fact.}

First out of the gates were the cucumbers. They went crazy! Before I knew it, I had a couple full grown cucumbers, that we cut up and enjoyed. But that was the last the family had any interest in them. Pretty soon,  we had 2 more, then 4 more, then more and more and more! So I've just been giving them away as fast as I pick them. I did hold onto 2 a few weeks ago, but no one ate them and they went bad :-( The plant itself had  reached out of the box and was all the way to the trampoline and intertwined in our A/C unit. Next time, I think one plant will suffice! A couple weeks ago, I finally bought some trellises to contain them so we could mow the lawn. I'm trying to think of how many cucumbers we've picked so far and I think we've picked a couple dozen...and they're still growing.

The zucchini didn't fair as well. I think it's been choking itself or something. There are still living parts on it, but most times it starts to bring forth fruit, it grows a couple inches...then slowly shrivels up and dies. We managed to get one full grown zucchini. I didn't even get a picture because I thought there would be many more...but none so far. I'm not sure if any more will come. Definitely not what I expected.

I got the tomatoes with the expectation to not have a high expectation. Many veteran gardeners in the ward have just not had success with their tomatoes here, mainly because we are restricted to container gardening here on base. I thought I'd try anyways. I'm glad that I did. We have at least a dozen, of varying stages, growing right now, and today, this guy was ready to leave the vine!

So for our first family garden, in our little 2X8 box in our backyard, I'd say we did pretty good!

See the small red box in front? That's the strawberry corpse...

AIr Force Ball 2012

This year, we actually went to the Air Force Ball. I had a dress and everything already, but completely changed my mind and bought all new stuff because I wanted to. It was our anniversary, after all! 6 years! Some days, that seems like a long time...and other days it doesn't seem very long at all. 

Me and my date :-)

While I am glad to have had a fun night out with Eddie and some friends, I guess I'm not much of an adult...or military protocol lover...or warm-blooded {I was freezing!}...because frankly, it was boring. Since my friend, Andrea, "crashed" our ball {and my other friend, Kristi, didn't get to go due to hubby being gone}, we're going to give it another shot and crash the navy ball next week. This time, I'm not going to put as much time into looking so fancy and just wear one of the other dresses I already have. *Fingers crossed*

Some of my beautiful friends!

and their husbands

This may not be the best picture, but I just love the set up of it. We're all looking up toward Chrissy and it seems like we are just gazing at her and her glow :-) If you know her, it totally is befitting of her! 

These are all the husbands of the previous group.
Military men are good looking, aren't they?

Andrea and I.
Words can't describe what an awesome chick she is! She did my hair and makeup for the night. Between her and my other friend, Kristi, I get a good workout of the abs :-) They are one thing that will be missed from my time here!

Trunky

As the course of time with Lexi starting school is finally into a {somewhat} regular routine, I find that I just am chugging along. Nothing too exciting, really. I have decided that since my schedule has magically become tighter...what's up with that??... I don't always get the stuff done that I want to. Actually, a big factor is that Hunter went from content and calm, to a very curious get-into-everything crawler, to a hey-look-at-me-walking-all-over-the-place-and-get-into-everything-faster-than-you-can-catch-me phase. Yep, boys are a different ball game. So I am taking a breather while he naps, Lexi is at a birthday party, and Carissa is sitting here by me, singing to herself :-) Somehow, I still need to finish Halloween costumes these next two weeks whenever I get a minute with Ed at home, which just became a lot less, starting this week with his new schedule AND starting back up with school! Yeah!

Oh, but today was nice to just sit and listen to conference in my home with my little family. I guess one perk of watching it live in Hawaii is that it means we start conference at 6 am, which roughly translates to getting a good half an hour (sometimes more!) of the first part with no noise (read: no kids) and then when they do wake up, they are eating breakfast for a good while. Today, Lexi had a soccer game at 9:00, which we hurried back from and got back on the couch by 10:00...ready for the second session! Then they colored, snacked, built temples with duplos...while we all listened again :-) Now Ed is at Priesthood and it's only 2:30! How 'bout those new changes, huh? If Hunter does school at the same track as me, he'll be eligible a few months earlier than previously. I can deal with that! :-) And a temple in Tucson? Pretty cool. Still doesn't mean I'd want to live there, but there are a lot of places that are great and beautiful with temples that I wouldn't live if I had the choice! Ha! {If you know me, I can stop there and you know plenty of places in that sentence that I don't need to mention and offend those of you that love those places!}

Speaking of places to live... oh, how I'm waiting ever so patiently to find where we will be heading next. I'm at the point that I don't see any need to buy anything else for the house because I know that a) we will be moving soon enough that I can wait, b) it will be less expensive, no matter where we go and c) less to move, less to risk damaging in transit. {I may just be excited to buy a new van after we move that isn't crawling with cockroaches!} One reason for my patience {which is improving, but still lacking for the most part} is because if we get our orders after the new year, it's a better chance of being mainland! {HOME!} Yes, I do want to move to Colorado more than anything. What are the chances? Don't really know. But I'll tell you what- Every time Ed got a TDY trip to the Springs, I encouraged the schmoozing to the people there in hopes that they'd be asking for him when the time came ;-) I truly am homesick for Colorado. I miss bundling up with hot cocoa and blankets to watch movies while it snows outside. I miss the cool crisp air of fall and the pumpkin patches on real farms with animals. I miss time with family. I miss all the craft stores that I would just go and walk around in for hours. Or a grocery receipt less than $100 for a regular trip. I miss road trips. I miss having a day to go out with Eddie and go to the temple and lunch and know that my kids are completely safe at Grandma and Grandpa's. I can't wait for Hunter to meet his Grandpa in person. I miss the friends I made there, though many have moved on to adventures of their own. You know when you just feel like you fit somewhere? Yeah, that's how I feel about Colorado. I guess it's just the people there that just make it feel so welcoming.

Not to say it's horrible here. Though I am ready for a new home, I will miss all my good friends I've made here. Fortunately, we all seem to be leaving within months of each other, so not so much loneliness on this side of the tracks :-) It took me a while to click with some good friends because I had some pretty awesome friends before. Mostly, with the military life, many people are just so busy all the time. No one's schedules stay coordinated, which makes church quite interesting. I have two callings to make up for the fact that they can't find anyone else for them that isn't constantly MIA. I hope that we are able to live off base just to have more consistency in that aspect.

So if it seems in my posts in the next 8 months that I sound all "trunky"...it's because I am. Bad. I've already arranged a prospective inventory of my food storage that I will be getting until we move. I already am planning Christmas to include things that will be easy for the move. I've already started a list of "donating when we move", "put on craigslist when we move" and "throwing away when we move" lists. Every time a kid breaks something, instead of being upset, it's a "well, there's one less things to move. Yes!" Oh and Pinterest! I have so many projects that I'm soooooo going to do...after we move :-(

Would it be too much to put up a counter on my blog of how long 'til I move?

And because you made it all the way through this "journal entry" post, here's some pics of my wonderful family: