My Boss

Can I just say that even though he may be very tough to work for and a little intimidating, I am so thankful for how he keeps me under his wing. Since I'm a temp, some people treat me like crap as I'm not an official Aflac employee. Ron always makes me feel like I am an employee and that really goes a LONG way.

Just today this lady was very snipity with me because I could not reach him on the phone and at the last moment called her back to let her know and she totally chewed me out that she didn't have time and when I tried to apologize she said "Okay, okay, okay" and hung up on me.

Well just in passing I mentioned to my boss that I was still waiting on dial in informaiton for a call he needs to be on. He asked me why and I simply told him the answer and he said put me through to her, this is unacceptable.

I just am very thankful to work for a man who cares about his staff. He's a great lead by example kind of person.

The Commissary

I read this lady's blog (Boots in the doorway http://bootsinthedoorway.blogspot.com/2010/02/commiscary.html) and saw her story on her first experience with the commissary. I thought this was hilarious, and decided to write about my own. Now it isn't my "first experience" story, but it IS my firt HORROR experience story, lol.

My first horror was on the day before Christmas! My husband and I were spending it alone, it was his first Christmas not furnished by the DFAC and our first being married. I had never cooked a Christmas dinner ever before and wanted it to be just perfect for my hubby who had just returned from Iraq and hadn't been in a "home" for Christmas since he was in the Army(he went straight to Germany and never really got to come home much during the holidays due to deployments). I wanted everything to be perfect for him, I was scared to death because I had never cooked a meal to this caliber before.


One word of advice, don't ever go to the commissary on days like this. Heck, don't go on paydays, Mondays, Sunday evenings, or anywhere relatively near a holiday. On any of the aforementioned occassions you will find: mothers with screaming children, Guard families that do not live close and leave with three carts full of groceries to last the whole month, and retirees and their wives that act like they own the place.


Needless to say this was a nightmare! Those retirees are SOOO rude! I mean I get it, you were a spouse or servicemember at one point, but please don't treat us newbies like poo!

There was one "single" mom of a new baby (you can tell when someone is deployed by the amount of food they buy). Her baby was sleeping in his carseat in the cart and the mom was reading the instructions on the box of stuffing. This mean older lady came up to the young mom and slammed her buggy head on into the new mom's. She then proceded to tell the mom that she needed to know what she needs to buy and not stand around in the way. I was apalled but that young mom held her own. She popped off at the lady that it must be hard shopping for a large family (there were clearly many people she was shopping for based on her cart's contents) but that she wasn't sure how to make stuffing and wanted to know her other ingredients needed as she's never done this before and had no way to get home to her parents for the holiday and that she'd take a lot less time looking if she had any help by say, oh a husband who wasn't delpyed! I so had a go-girl moment after that mean ass grandma walked away in shock.

So here's my suggestions for you grumpy grandmas out there:
1. Don't be so mean, you never know someone else's story
2. Don't hog the food, I promise the world won't stop if you don't have a whole cart full of meat
3. Don't act like the world revolves around you. I don't mind you shopping on post, but you're not better than me and I'm no better than you. We're all part of this big ass Army family, and your shit does stink, just like mine, the lady with 9 kids, and the soldier down the asile who is loading up on Little Debbie cakes.

Almost that time again

Well we're almost done with our separation!! John will be graduating on August 12th from the US Army Drill Sergeant School at Fort Jackson!!! I can't wait to see him put on that Drill Sergeant hat, he's worked a long time to get to this point in his career.

We're fortunate enough to have family that can make it to John's graduation, as of right now we will have my mom, John's dad, John's Nana and John's "big brother" Tony at the ceremony. We're so thankful to have such a great family that can come out and support him :)

After the ceremony, we're going to get on the road and head out to Hilton Head for a long weekend with Dad & Sally!! Since we didn't have an official honeymoon or anniversary, we are going to celebrate our one year anniversary on the very beach we got married on one night while at Hilton Head. We're going to get a seafood dinner (our favorite) and go out to the beach we got married on and have a picnic. Don't tell John, but he's got a good anniversary gift waiting on him for that night! I got him something he needs for work, and has wanted for a good long while :)

Our other plans for the weekend are to spend as much time in the ocean as possible, eat as much seafood as we can consume, and laugh so hard our stomachs hurt! I can't wait to spend this time swept away with my hubby!!

I will have photos and hopefully videos of the graduation soon :)

Time to catch up

Gosh, we haven't done a good job keeping this up since we've been back stateside :(

Well here's a recap of November 2009 to June 2010

November: we spent most of this month traveling to see family while John was still on leave. We had the chance to spend over a week total with the Haines' family. One trip was to Myrtle Beach to see all of John's cousins and Aunts for the family Thanksgiving, and the other was to Hilton Head to see Dad and Sally. In Myrtle Beach, we took Ranger to the beach, where he had a TON of fun chasing birds. We also got to be with Connie and Jason when they got engaged before he deployed to Iraq. Hilton Head was nice to be with Dad and Sal. Ranger had too much fun on the beach, he became our Salty Dog that weekend. Sal fell in love with her new fur grand baby, Ranger.

December: John went on the "trail" as a turtle and LOVED it! I got a job with Aflac's WWHQ and just loved the job!! We ended up spending Christmas together alone at home. I made my first Christmas dinner. Thankfully the only thing that sucked was the crab stuffed mushrooms. Apparently I did something that Rachael Ray didn't explain on her show. I mean I followed the directions, but they were just terrible. Dad gave us a Wii, so John got the new Mario Brothers game for Christmas and I think we spent three whole days playing that game. We also got a new puppy, her name is Sophie. Poor thing almost died on us the day after we adopted her. No worries ... that terror is in perfect health now :) She's a boxer mix ... I think the mix is demon ... but she's now roughly 6 months old and 50 lbs!! I'm worried what we're in for :(

January: We spent New Years Eve at our neighbors house (Espie and V) and had sooo much fun! They've turned into long time friends. Mom also got to come down for my birthday. Too bad it rained the whole weekend.

February: We got our first official snow in Columbus. Took the pups out ... Sophie hated it. She's too prissy for snow. We spent John's birthday togeher, followed by Valentine's Day just before he had to leave for BNCOC. Then rest of February was spent working hard and missing John.

March: Mom came down and I put her butt to work planting new shrubs and flowers :) I also visited Tony & Katrin in Huntsville, AL. Had a great time seeing them ... but I was sicker than ever. I always end up sick around them.

April: I flew up to Virginia to visit John for Easter and we had a blast!! We went fishing and flipped a canoe. Not funny at the time ... but pretty funny afterwards. We went to Bush Gardens and rode all kinds of scary roller coasters. My favorite was the Alpengeist. We spent time with his "extended family" the Pecks. And we visited Yorktown and Williamsburg. We decided to plan a vacation to follow history one day. Starting at Jamestown and following everything through the Revolutionary war.

May: Well May was a roller coaster. I lost my job with Aflac at the end of April, and got a new job with Greystone Properties as a leasing consultant. Spent the month getting ready for John to come home. Bought paint for him to paint our home with. We ended up hating one of the colors. We had a visit from our friends Tony & Katrin on Memorial Day weekend. Had a BBQ. And prepared for John to leave again :(

June: We had just a few days toghether before John left for Drill Sergeant School. Most of this time was spent getting ready, he had a HUGE packing list of Army crap to bring! We said goodbye - or really see you soon - the night before our 1 year anniversary. Tears on my part were included. He laughed at me. It's usual.

Now I've got the challenge of a huge to do list before John gets home.

DRIVING ON THE AUTOBAHN

Hello, Columbus

Well I've made it. And John is a day behind me. We're FINALLY here. Ready to start our new lives in our new home! I go today at 10 to get my house ... I can't believe it ... MY HOUSE!

So I still have a ton of stuff from Germany to put on our blog, it may just take a bit ... since I've got to get moved in and get a job :)

Furth Fest

Furth is a town just outside of Nürnberg that we frequently travel through. They had a fest, a beer fest where that weekend they were celebrating the town’s beer.



John and I joined Mark and a bunch of his friends at this fest for a night.

I learned quite a few things about these fests while there. There is a group of teens or young adults, who are in charge of guarding the fest’s pole (I don’t know the correct German word for this and for that I’m sorry). These young adults guard it from Friday afternoon to Monday afternoon. The girls make the decorations for the hoop around the top of the pole, and the guys cut down the tree that hold it up. Apparently there’s a ceremony that the town has when they put up and take down this pole.



Anywhoo … at the fest there’s like a carnival outside the beer tent, with rides and food and candy stands. Inside the tent there’s a TON of tables, usually jam packed with people and beer stands and a big stage.

Bands will play, but they only play famous German songs and even some covers of American songs too. When the bands are playing though, there’s soooo many people up on the benches singing and dancing to the songs that if your feet are on the ground then you are not having fun.



This blog has a lot of media on it, since John and I though it’d be cool to put both videos and photos online. Most of the videos are LOUD … so you may want to turn down your speakers.