Wow.  If you thought there was a lot of time before my last two posts....LOL.  I actually half forgot about this blog, but I just thought of it and wondered if it was still available online.  Yep!  I went through and read all my old posts.  It's cool to look back and see what was going on in my life during that period.  Kind of a public, permanent diary.  Ha ha.
A LOT has changed since my last post.  Some of the changes had just begun at that time and set me in a completely new direction, but I kept things private at the time and it was a very painful period for me.  Basically, just as we were moving into the retirement home we had spent more than a year planning and six months constructing, my husband decided he wanted out.  Long story short, there was someone else.  At the time I was willing to forgive and just wanted to work things out.  In hindsight, WTF was I thinking!?  I held on for a while, but finalized the divorce after about a year and a half.  It was very hard to do, but I knew I couldn't move forward and start healing until I did.  I worked part time in New Mexico and went back and forth between there and NM for a couple,of years.  It was great!!  The third year, my company said they couldn't pay travel and per diem any more.  I elected to change to full time, but kept Allissa in the house in Texas since she was in her last year of high school.  I had a flexible work schedule so I still went home to Texas about three weekends a month (although I now had to pay for it.  ☹️). After a while I figured out the best schedule was for me to leave work about 2 pm on Friday, which would get me to Texas around 7.  At first I would return to NM on Sunday evening, but the flights always seemed to be delayed.  After a few times of getting to NM at one or two in the morning and going to work at six, I elected to fly out on the first flight available on Monday morning, which would get me to work by ten am.  Those flights were never delayed and I would just adjust my schedule the rest of the week to make up hours.  It was tough though because I could never really be settled in either place.  An opportunity came up for me to get a job in the D.C. area.  I had always planned on trying to get a job out there at some point, so I thought it was a good idea to at least apply for it even thought I loved my job in NM.  I ended up getting the job and moved to Maryland.  Best decision I ever made.  I ended up reconnecting with someone I knew in the Army and he had had a similar experience marriage-wise.  We started dating mid-2012 and will celebrate our third wedding anniversary next month.  He is wonderful!! They say everything happens for a reason and I guess that's true because I couldn't be happier.

And the trend continues...

Almost eight months since the last entry. Is that a new record? Ha ha. In my defense, things have been really hectic over the last six months or so. We've had many changes in our lives, some expected and welcome, and some...well, not so much. But that's life for you. Anyway, I am now retired. I got selected for promotion to CW4 right before I started my terminal leave and I seriously considered staying in and taking the promotion, but after long hard thought, I decided to make the leap and get out even though it would have been more financially beneficial to stay in. I just had to decide what I wanted more... the extra money or the chance to start my new life and spend some time with Allissa before she heads out into the world. If I had stayed in I would have deployed for a year plus and I just couldn't do it. I've already missed so much. I want to enjoy the last bit of time I have left with her before she moves out. Anyway, I got a part time job in New Mexico which I really enjoy. My co-workers are great and we all get along well. One of them is someone I worked with for a bit in the Army and it was really nice to have someone I already knew there to help me get settled in. I had a lot going on then and he was a real lifesaver. I had never been to New Mexico before - just driven through on I-10 heading out to Arizona. It's so different from where I live, but I love the mountains and Santa Fe is close and is a nice little city. Except for being away from Allissa, I always look forward to going to work. I also like that when I am at home I have a lot of free time to spend with her and get things done around the house. We moved into the new house at the end of May/beginning of June. I had about two weeks between the time we moved in and the time I was due to start my new job which worked out perfectly. I was able to get pretty much everything unpacked and put away before I had to go to work although every time I go home it seems there's a project I need to work on to finish getting things the way I want it. The last two trips home, I spend working on the flower beds. When they put them in, they neglected to put down weed barrier and I was tired of dealing with a jungle every time I got home. I was going to pay someone to do it, but neither of the people who were supposed to give me estimates gave me one in a timely manner so I figured I would just save the money and do it myself. So, I went to Lowe's and got everything I needed and tackled it on my own. It wasn't that difficult, just very tedious and laborious, so I did regret not having someone do it for me at times, but I figured I needed the exercise anyway. It looks pretty darn good, if I may say so myself. I chose black mulch which looks fantastic now that it's all done. I'd like to put river rock in, but it's kind of expensive, so I'll probably hold off on that for a bit. I probably could have gotten it all done in one trip, but I had to go to my 20 year high school reunion. Sheesh, am I getting old or what? lol I had a good time and it was the first time my sisters and I have all been together in a few years, so that was nice. We spent a bit of time being catty about who was looking old and wrinkly. A little mean-spirited, I know, but I am completely sure they were doing the same thing to us. Besides, some of them were real b*****s back then, so I don't feel that bad about gossiping about them. There was this one girl who kept walking past our table and giving us the evil eye. I don't even remember having anything to do with her in high school, so who knows what that was about. Whatever. She was definitely looking a bit worse for wear. meow! Well, enough of that.
We got a new puppy. He is the cutest thing! Allissa wanted a dog that was hers since Charley is more attached to me.

Allissa and Kenny

Of course, now whenever I am home both dogs sleep with me. Allissa is starting to complain that now Kenny is attached to me too, but I am NOT getting another dog! I think it's just that I am more affectionate with them than she is. I'm always playing with them and petting them and they pretty much follow me around the house. I'd like to get a cat now that I can, but Charley has always chased cats whenever he sees them, so I'm not sure it would be a wise move. I'd hate to get a cat and have him hurt it.

Kenny snoozing in his favorite spot.

Well, that's about it for now. More later. I'll post some photos of the house when I get home or you could just look on my Facebook page. I think you can look me up by name or e-mail address. Good-bye!

Almost Done!!

Well, we're getting close to being done with the house., We've done the paint and stain and they are going to work on the floors soon. It is really exciting, but has been stressful too. Cliff has been away a lot for work, so I have had to make some decisions on my own. I always end up calling him and asking him a million questions because I'm afraid of making a mistake that he will hate. I did make a mistake with the original paint color. Luckily, they had only painted the garage and as soon as Cliff saw it he called me and said it wasn't going to work. It didn't look that color on that little sample he painted!! I rushed over there and as soon as I saw the color, I knew we had to change it. Luckily, we only had to eat the cost of the paint since they hadn't painted the whole house yet. If they had, we'd have had to pay the labor twice too. Anyway, the new color is much better and closer to what I had in mind. Whew!! I will be so glad when we are finished. What with the retirement and work and everything else going on things have been pretty stressful. I still don't even have a definite job lined up and I'm getting pretty nervous about it. Cliff is pretty supportive and reassuring though so that helps a lot. I'm sure things will calm down once we get moved and settled in, so I am anxious for that day to come. Plus, the weather is warming up, so we will be able to spend a lot more time hanging out with our friends. They can't wait for us to move in either. Our place is going to be the entertainment center. Cliff's media room is going to be awesome. The guys are definitely going to enjoy watching sports in there. It'll be great. Everything is working out just the way we planned, so far. We've been waiting for this day for so long and now it's almost here. Yay!!

Busy, busy, busy!!!

Wow. I just decided to check out the old blog and I just can't believe it has been almost a year since I last posted. Time sure flies. We have been super busy. We no longer live in Korea. Yes, I miss it. Allissa does too. I told her she would. She had a lot more freedom of movement in Korea. She could walk across the street to get onto post and catch the post shuttle. Itaewon was a ten minute walk or she could catch a taxi for a couple of bucks to get out to Myongdong with her friends. No way would I let her do that here. It is good to be closer to family and friends though.

The biggest news for us is that after a huge amount of turmoil and angst my retirement was finally approved. It took forever!! I'm glad it got approved, but now I feel like I am way behind the curve in finding a new job. I do have a prospect lined up and have a telephone interview is on Wednesday. Wish me luck!! It would be great if I get it although it does involve quite a bit of travel. On the other hand, I will also have a lot of time off which I could use to go back to school and spend some time with the rug rat before she heads off into the world. I've been thinking about getting a teaching certificate.

The other thing that has been keeping us busy is building the house. It's been a lot of fun, but stressful too because we have to decide every single aspect from where the outlets are placed to well...everything. We pretty much designed the floor plan ourselves. I think we did a good job and I can't wait until it is all finished. Tomorrow I have to pick out paint and stain colors. I think this is probably the most stressful part. I'm just worried that the end result won't look right because we're picking out things individually and it's hard to imagine how it will all tie in together. All these contractors should be in one place so you can see everything side by side!

Well, I'm tired. I just wanted to write a quick blog so it won't actually go over a year. : )

27 Dec 07

03 Jan 08

06 Jan 08

12 Jan 08

10 Mar 08 - Kitchen

Kitchen/breakfast nook

Living Room

e-mail update

Well, I didn't really have anything special to blog about.  It has just been a while since I've written anything so I thought I should.  I noticed that the last time I logged into my blog to update it it was all in Korean.  I figured that it was just because I was using the laptop and it didn't have the cookie on it.  Sometimes if I clear everything and try to go to google it will come up in Korean and I have to click the link to get google in English.  Well, blogger is now affiliated with google which is convenient in a lot of ways, but I didn't see a link to get it in English.  I was able to muddle through it and make the changes I wanted to make, but it was kind of a pain in the neck.  Well, now I'm using a different computer and it's all in Korean too.  I don't know what I did wrong!!  I think it must be going off the IP address or something.  Blogger offeres the capability to post to your blog via e-mail, but I didn't know the address I was supposed to send it to.  Fortunately, I can read Korean and I can understand it as long as it it a word I already know or a cognate.  If it isn't, you can forget it - I can sound it out all day and still not know what the heck it means.  I had to get out the dictionary and look up the words on the thermostat to figure out how to control the heat and hot water. Anyhoo, if you sound out the characters, e-mail is pretty much the same in Korean as in English, so I clicked on that link and it came up with the address I needed.  Yay!  I've been meaning to try that out anyway.

Cliff and I went to see 300 last week.  A whole group of us went.  We went to the Korean theater at I-Park and got tickets for the VIP room.  It's got seating for about 30 people.  The seats are set up by twos with a small table between them.  The seats don't have much more padding than a regular theater seat.  But other than the lack of padding, it's nice because it's basically a recliner so you can kind of stretch out and relax.  There's plenty of room between the seats and it's all stadium seating so no matter where you sit you get a good view of the screen.  We didn't have a camera with us otherwise I'd have taken a picture.  I guess that means we'll just have to go back soon.  : )  A free drink is included in the price, but there is also a menu of snacks for you to choose from which seemed to be reasonably priced.  There's also a couple of buttons on the table you can press for the attendant to bring you water or a beer.  We didn't know it, but they will also bring you a pillow and a blanket.  How awesome and cozy is that?!   You'd think you'd pay a fortune to get in there, but it really wasn't that bad.  It was 25,000 won per person which is about $27 with the current exchange rate.  It's what, $9 or so for an evening show on average in the States now?  Plus, at least $3.50 for a drink.  It was worth the extra bit of money for tableside service and not being crammed into a packed theater for a brand new movie.  For me, anyway.  Cliff really enjoyed the movie.  I liked it, but not as much as he did.  I really liked the story behind it and the historical aspect and if they had stuck to that, I'm sure I would have liked it a lot more.  I just didn't like the ogres and other creatures that they had in the movie.  That obviously wasn't realistic and detracted from the story, I thought.  We also saw a movie on post this weekend - Shooter with Mark Wahlberg.  This time Cliff didn't care for it as much as I did.  He thought it was too different from the book or something.  I know they did change some things, but I still thought it was good.  I read the book about four or five years ago, so I didn't remember the storyline exactly anyway.  The book is almost always better than the movie anyway.  I think Mark Wahlberg did a good job.  He has turned out to be a much better entertainer than you would have suspected back in his "Marky Mark" days.

Well, that's about it.  Have a great day!