The Ranch

Dear Cherry Springs Ranch, You were the best end to a rollercoaster trip back to Texas this worn out gal could've asked for. Fresh killed turkey, OldManHB's first sniff of the freshly dead, the ranchkeep's pet pig (razorback genetics included), haunted bunkhouse, my new favorite lab in the whole world Tikka, and our best friend Travie.  Oh, and did I mention no cell service and no internet?!  I think that part might have been the absolute best!  I only hope that we get to make it back to visit you more often.

Tinsel Time in Texas

We made it home-home to Tejas this year for the holidays.  Well, for the week before the holidays.  It was about seven days of family time and it was jam-packed-to-the-max.  We spent, oh, about 24 hours with each family.  There was wrestling and make-your-own-pizza, there was Bass Pro range time and Cafe Medi, there was a trip to the hair salon to somehow facilitate growing this pixie out more fashionably, a million goofy faces, there was Sushi Domo to celebrate living through the Mayan apocalypse, and a good ol' Joe's home-cooked breakfast with the grandparents before hitting the road to end out trip home in the Texas hill country.  But those last two days were so awesome, they deserve their own post (coming soon!).  And we did it all in enough time to be back at our humble abode in NC to spend Christmas morning just the three of us, and Christmas evening at the movies, just like has become our tradition for the past five years.  What more could you wish for out of the holidays?  Oh yea...we still get a few more days of peace and quiet, just the three of us.

Happy Holidays!

Merry Christmas!

Dear friends & family, Wishing that each and everyone of you was blessed this Christmas day, and will continue to feel the merry season far into the New Year!

xoxo - Monkey & Pig

P.S.  The laptop I busted has been replaced and I'm back in the digital world.  More posts to come soon!

For the Love of a Monkey and Pig: New Roomy!

For the Love of a Monkey and Pig: New Roomy!: Hey everyone, this is Munkee! I know I know, you don't hardly ever hear from me on the blog, but I'm pretty bored today and felt like I...

New Roomy!

Hey everyone, this is Munkee! I know I know, you don't hardly ever hear from me on the blog, but I'm pretty bored today and felt like I could jot down a few words for the world to read.  So late last night, our other room mate finally arrived at the house(she originally was supposed to be here in April).  The first night wasn't to bad, outside of dinner around 8 o'clock.  We put a new twist on our chicken pasta that we make fairly regularly but frying the chicken, and it was delicious!  We watched the Disney movie Brave and it was really good.  Today I woke up fairly early and took old man HB to petsmart to get his nails clipped, and since then its been a lonely day of lounging in bed with HB with golf on the TV in the background.  It's been a pretty good day, but much lonelier than our normal weekends running around with Ogie.  T'is our new life, guess we should learn to enjoy it.  This is Munkee signing off!  

Pig's Ramblings

I can't wait to cuddle the shizz out of OldManHB over the upcoming Christmas exodus.  (MonkeyHubby had a photo session with him and our new camera for fun last night.  MonkeyHubby has some pretty good creativity when he's in the mood.)  But, nevertheless, this week has been a frustrating one all around, and HB cuddles would be an amazing respite right now.  A respite from the ups and downs of reclass orders dropping all around me while I find out that my status didn't get switched from a med hold to awaiting a reclass until yesterday.  Yes, that's right, yesterday.  29 folks got orders, and I will still be here forever.  I'm a tad frustrated.  But anxious and nervous all at the same time since this game of Russian roulette just got real-real.  Can you have this many emotions at once?!  So tired.  On a lighter note, I may not be amidst the 29 soldiers getting to leave C Co purgatory next week, but my roommate is.  So what does that mean?!  A barracks room to myself, for a little while at least.  Hopefully longer than shorter.  At least there's somewhat of a silver lining, right?!

Thanksgiving Weekend 2012

This past weekend was everything that I needed it to be.  Four days with MonkeyHubby, OldManHB, and Ogie.  Three sleeps in my own, plush, feels-like-a-cloud, king size bed, while playing cuddle-footsies with MonkeyHubby.  One big get together dinner with friends.  One good night out with just hubby, our favorite Cheddar's salad, and a decently priced bottle of wine.  One cheer-filled night in front of the Aggie game.  Whoop!  Two days of rambling about town and doing a tad bit of holiday shopping. (We bought ourselves this years Christmas present and it brings to you the beautiful pictures above.)  Ah!  Amazing weekend.  More than anything, it was four days to remind me that there is life outside of C Co 832D.  That one day, maybe far down the road, but one day, I will get that normalcy again.  I will get that daily love, and comfort, and completeness, that belonging.  It will all be waiting for me whenever this kidney stone of an experience called TRADOC finally comes to pass.  For now, 21 sleeps until Christmas exodus friends!

Pig's Ramblings

Do you ever have those days where your brain just won't turn off the negative commentary?  The kind that just keeps on and keeps on nagging you?  Two days until Thanksgiving and I'm swamped by annoyances, judgments  dismissals, what-ifs, why-mes, he/she's-so-stupids, and all that nasty mess.  I know lack of privacy and lack of sleep are making it just that much harder to sift out the bad and generate some good, too.  I keep trying to focus on finding some contentment.  Keep trying to revisit different happy-places: four-wheeling in the mountains, rainy day naps with MonkeyHubby, laying out on a beach somewhere, shopping (yes, shopping is a happy place when you don't have a budget to worry about), etc.  But everything here, in-the-moment, just seems to override and overwhelm what little good I can muss up.  It all leads me to the conclusion that we should have an off-switch for our brains.  A switch that when flipped leaves you a happy, zero-worried, innocent, naive bubble of a person.  A child in all wonderfulness of the word.  (I used to be able to sit and meditate and get some semblance of this desired state, but when you have a roommie, well, time to meditate just seems unavailable.  Maybe in the shower?!)  Either way, noon on Thursday needs to get here FAST because that's probably my best bet at returning to non-headache-filled sanity.  (Oh yea, did I mention that I'm pretty darn sure my crap-mood has been causing daily headaches?! Oh joy.)  Speaking of, it's time for ibuprofen.

Pig's Ramblings

Dear Monday, You're lucky that you're only three sleeps away from Thanksgiving!  Tsk, tsk!  Dear Weekend, For all of your cuddles, early bed times, mass amounts of hotcoffeestylecaffeine, early holiday shopping, and Carrabba's dinner, you were wonderful.  I only wish you lasted longer than two days, do you think you could make that happen?! Mmk, thanks.  Dear OldManHB, I love having your fuzzy butt to cuddle up to.  Even though you howled at the hotel and interrupted our dinner date, I still love you.  And I would say you're crazyspoiled, but the FURminator is worth every penny!  Dear MILPO, I'm excited and nervous that you have jobs open again for reclass folks like myself.  Ugh, I've got to get this out in the universe, please don't give me 91C, I really would prefer not to be an A/C repairwoman...

Pig's Ramblings

Dear Officework, You're usually a pretty decent distraction as the hours sloth by, but today, you are just adding to my annoyance.  Not enough busy tasks and too much intruding of my personal bubble.  Yes folks, that's right, at the age of 26 I still feel like my kindergartner's personal bubble should be religiously respected.  Actually, there should be different levels of bubbles.  Some people should stay way far away, and others, whom I like, may come a tad closer.  Dear Lunch Excursion, You are the best thing that has happened to me this week thus far.  (I think.  I can't quite remember much of what has happened this week, honestly.)  You made it possible for me to enjoy a sushi lunch.  Yum nom nom!  Dear MonkeyHubby, The more and more I listen to other 'men' your age have generic conversations, the more grateful I become for your intelligence and maturity.  Seriously.  You have your childish moments (thank you Army Infantry), but at the heart of it all, you're a well-rounded, intelligent, loving, respectful, mature man.  THANK GOD.

Pig's Ramblings

Dear Wednesday, You should be Friday.  Dear Creativity, You seem to have gone missing lately.  My brain feels like a blur of blah.  Maybe it's because I've been reading more for escapism than for an actual brainworkout lately.  Time to change that.  I will be working on picking up some new books to spark my synapses.  I've picked up I, Lucifer and it's quite interesting.  The vocabulary is ahhmazing and making my brain hurt, in a good way.  More to come hopefully because this one's a shortie.  Dear Fancy Canon/Nikon Camera, You should magically find your way into my hands.  I want to take big beautiful pictures that wow and amaze.  Dear Thanksgiving, You are fast approaching and that makes me happy.  I've been trying to refocus the negativesoulsuckingmood that C Co breeds towards gratitude in reverence of your coming, but it's been hard.  Maybe this weekend with the MonkeyHubs and HB will make strides forward.  Especially since after that it will only be three working days until your 4day weekend.  Dear OldManHB, You better bring your A-game when you come visit this weekend buddy.  There is a crowd of Army folks missing their own pups here who are dying to meet you, play with you, squeeze your wrinkles, and stretch your ears.  I'd say I hope you're up to the challenge, but I know you bring smiles wherever you go!

Pig's Ramblings

Dear Diet, You have totally sucked me in this long weekend.  Hershey bars, honey buns, zebra cakes, chocolate chip muffins, pepperoni pizza, many, many, many DrP's later my stomach, both internal and external, are angry with me.  Hopefully that salad I picked up for dinner as a peace offering will get this new week started off in better fashion.
Dear Flu, You hung around way too long.  But I'm finally starting to feel better.  Although, you still make my head feel light and fuzzy.  PT should be an interesting adventure this week.  Sigh.
Dear Tulsa, You stole two of my absolute favorite veterans this past weekend.  (Yes, that's right, you caught it, a slight of hand mention of Veterans Day - Thank you ALL!)  But that's okay because Ogie and SPCJohnson had a great time, didn't spend too much money at the Tulsa Gun Show, and are bringing my absolute favorite hound back to NC with them.
Dear Friday, You can NOT get here fast enough!  Mainly because you bring with you MonkeyHubby and OldManHB, but you know, I'm excited for you!  Come faster, come faster!

Pig's Ramblings: Love After 7 Years

Well, sadly, there are no fun weekend shenanigans to report.  Sandy stole our weekend passes so there was no time for MonkeyHubby and Pig.  It made for a bad mood to say the least.  I spent the mass majority of my weekend hermitted up in my room reading.  And thinking.  Mainly reading, but my brain never seems to stop causing trouble for itself.  And, as we approach November 25th which will be 7 years of MonkeyHubby and I being together, I wondered what love is after 7 years in the making.  So needless to say, I asked MonkeyHubby, just like I ask/tell him every random thought that comes through my head, to see what his thoughts were.  His response was just the romance I needed to hear on a gloomy weekend.  For him, our love feels like walking hand in hand with Old Man HB, playing footsies all night long, holding hands different than anyone else because it's our special way, and spending all day Sundays in bed just hanging out with each other.  It definitely made me smile from ear to ear, and feel all warm on the inside.  Truly must be what love feels like.  But of course, my brain didn't stop there, it wondered, since all of those things are things you feel when you're together, how we feel our love in our current separation.  I've been thinking on that one and it's a toughie.  The separation just is what it is, and trust me, while we just do what we have to each day, it does wear on you.  You miss each other, you lose touch on certain aspects, and that can rub you wrong sometimes, but you push through.  So what little things still make us feel that love even with the miles between us?! Twisting my wedding band around my ring finger feeling the weight of it and it's commitment, snuggling my nose in my stuffed monkey when I crawl in bed at night knowing he's cuddled up to my pillow back home, and running my fingers across the Texas flag that he moved from his own rigger's belt to mine after his tour in Afghanistan.  The little things that remind me we're always connected because we always want to be.  To me, that's what love feels like 7 years later.  There may not be any butterflies anymore, but there also aren't any fears.  There may not be as many electrical sparks, but there aren't any doubts.  There may not be as much unknown to explore, but there is more comfort than anything else in this world.  And I wouldn't give it up for the world.

Pig's Ramblings

Congratulations SPC Johnson!  You poured your heart out on the field this week and are officially an Expert Infantryman, I'm quite proud of you! On another note, Sandy has poured rain and misery all over our weekend, which, we no longer are getting together.  Thanks C Co for seemingly being the only company who revoked our phase 5's for the 'bad weather' this weekend.  Fabulous of you, no doubt.

Pouring with sarcasm...

Pig's Ramblings

I have officially complete my first pass request form in hopes of spending a WHOLE night with my MonkeyHubby this weekend!  Of course, it's all pending on tomorrow morning's PT test, as well as my reclass, but that should be no biggy whatsoever.
I was lucky to have a very good friend give me a call last night and check on me, on a day, after a weekend, that I really needed it.  Jud's a sweetie, full of good reminders during rough moments.  Not to mention he has the cutest new baby!  And, he's headed to another promotion board soon, time to send some extra good juju his way!

MonkeyHubby is working on getting his EIB (Expert Infantry Badge) this week, so far he's passed his PT test, day land nav, night land nav, and his first lane.  He's gonna do awesome and rock it the rest of the week so that he'll have some new bling for his uniform soon!

Pig's Ramblings

I read a lot this weekend.  And napped a lot this weekend.  And watched quite a bit of Netflix this weekend.  It was fantabulous.  I really wished for nothing more than to be alone in peace and quiet this weekend, and I got about as close to that as I can get living in barracks, so I'll call that a success.  I also was reminded why you never use glitter nail polish...it's hard as heck to take off!  Oh, I also learned that apparently 40 minutes still isn't enough time for toenail polish to completely dry.  Boo having to put boots back on all the time...I miss flip-flops.  Happy end to the weekend folks...hope your Mondays aren't too bad!

Pig's Ramblings

I've been reading a lot lately.  It's the only thing that keeps me feeling like my brain isn't just turning to complete mush while I wait to get re-classed and start up school/classes again.  When I first got back to Fort Lee a few weeks ago, I really, really did not want to be here.  So I consequently immersed myself in some Laurell K. Hamilton style escapism.  But, having finished off the two books I had of hers, I picked up a newbie yesterday that I randomly grabbed on paperback sometime this past summer. I made it about 50 pages in yesterday and so far I'm intrigued.  It jumps back and forth between a modern day PI and 16th century Christopher Marlowe.  I love books that have more than one 'story' going on at the same time so I think I'll like this one.  The front of the book claims that if you liked The Da Vinci Code that you'll love The Intelligencer, I guess we'll just have to see!