25 and 26

This week we celebrated my 25th birthday and my parents 26th wedding anniversary. I think it's pretty neat that I was born the day before their 1st wedding anniversary! The parents & brother drove in from Texas a week ago and have been keeping me company, they are also calling this their "break from the heat" vacation. Although- I still think it's hot here! It worked out perfectly, we had a little bit of a cool front roll through, and for a few days it was in the 80's with rain showers off and on all day. They loved it!

For all you iPhone users out there who love music. Download the Spotify app immediately! It was just released in the U.S. You basically get access to all the music you can think of (think iTunes) and you can stream it for FREE to your computer, make playlists, and then sync to your iPhone. Ta-da! OOORRR- if you want you can pay $5 a month and bypass using your computer and just stream directly from your iPhone. How awesome is that? I will probably buy the subscription.

And also- here's an article about Frank flying SU-37's in the Ukraine here. He's enjoying himself over there for sure...

Sad that my parents went home today :(...but I'm looking forward to the weekend!

Here are a few photo's from the last week or so:

2 dozen roses from Frank for my birthday

The current state of the jungle behind our pool. Basically all the ground you can see in this photo was covered about 12 ft. high with weeds and brush before my dad tackled it. The pile of weeds and old bushes/branches was HUGE when he was done. We still have a few dead tree stumps to remove. Look at our banana trees on the right! We have about 10 of them! They grow soooo fast- you can literally watch them grow, I am not kidding.

FDR's house in Georgia. This is actually where he died when he was President.

Callaway Gardens

Parents

Butterfly at the Callaway Gardens Butterfly Conservatory in Georgia

Annnnddd...another one

 

 

 

 

 

Traveling husbands

Frank is leaving for the Ukraine tomorrow…which means it’s packing time in our household (it seems we are always in a state of either packing or unpacking here)! It stinks when he leaves for long-ish periods of time, I’m always sad to see him leave, but this trip won’t be too bad (2 weeks). Because of Frank’s job, it’s not uncommon for him to be gone a week or two out of the month. Sometimes it’s consecutive and sometimes it’s broken up into a few days here, a week or two there. It really hasn’t bothered me for the most part (except for missing him, of course). I’m pretty used to it since it’s been like this since we started dating 5 years ago, and half the time we were dating we lived in different states. 

My mom was asking how we were doing with him being gone so much- if anything, it makes the times we are together even that much better, and it definitely helps us not take each other for granted (not that we would anyway). Of course I get lonely sometimes…and it’s then that I wish I had a pet or something to keep me company around the house, but I’m really not home all that much. I usually try to enjoy the times he’s away as much as I can, and do girly things that he probably wouldn’t really want anything to do with, ha (for example...the sewing classes). Sometimes I'll visit with friends or fly back to TX for the weekend. Luckily this time my family is coming to me :)...speaking of that, I have about a bazillion things that need to get done before they get here!

Just in case anyone wants to see where Frank will be: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myrhorod

Holy Underwear!...and other random stuff

I don’t even know where to begin- it’s been too long! So I guess I’ll just fast forward past the last month. Let’s just say we’ve been busy (as usual), and we haven’t really done much with the house because A. it’s too hot and all we want to do is either sit in the pool, or sit in the inside and hang out, and B. We are master procrastinators!).

Anyway- we do have all our furniture now, and I got a sweet deal for some patio furniture on craigslist…woohoo! I didn’t really realize that patio furniture would come in handy so much, but we use it a lot and it’s really nice to have places for guests to sit when we’re having get-togethers outside. I’ve also bought some patio lights to hang up, but haven’t gotten around to that yet.

This weekend we painted the laundry room and all the cabinets, it’s finished except for the laundry tub that needs to be replaced (the old one is soooo gross!). We also had blinds installed in the whole house last week and it has made a huge difference! Now I can finally start on the curtains. I’m taking a refresher sewing machine class later this month and hopefully I’ll gain some mad sewing skills! Joann Fabrics is having a 50% off sale on all their home décor fabric and I should probably go ahead and buy some before the sale ends…

Fabrics- Too many options for me to decide on anything! I seriously spent an hour in the 3 aisles of home fabrics- I am not ashamed.

In non-house news…Frank is leaving in 2 days for the Ukraine. He’ll be there about 2-3 weeks for a program called “Safe Skies”. Basically they’ll be cross-training with the Ukraine Air Force pilots. Frank is the second in line for planning this trip and he’s been super busy coordinating everything, there are approx. 140 people going from their base. It’s a big operation, but he’ll have fun, I’m sure! He’s flying a jet there, and back…so keep him in your prayers! It’s a looong flight! I was really close to buying a ticket and meeting him somewhere in Europe after the program ended, but we decided to wait and take a vacation later on. 

Frank and I's 1st anniversary is next month! It's not over yet, but this first year of marriage has been really awesome. I guess it could be because we are still in the newlywed bliss phase, but I don't think it's going away anytime soon! Being married to your best friend is pretty much the best thing ever...I feel super blessed to be able to share my life with him. Is being married supposed to be this fun!? 

Speaking of fun...soooo....I'm just going to go ahead and get this out there. Frank owns holey underwear. Anyway, he has had this holey underwear and has been wearing it on occasion since we got married...it may be only 2-3 pairs or so, but still. It's HOLEY UNDERWEAR! What 32 year old man who can afford new underwear chooses to wear holey underwear? Apparently my husband does. So, the other day while I was folding the clean laundry I threw his holey underwear away in the trash. The kitchen trash. Which APPARENTLY is a huge no-no...Frank had no idea that I threw them away. The next day he opened the trash and saw them in there. The expression on his face was priceless. It was like I threw away his favorite t-shirt or something. I seriously thought for a second that he was going to dive in there and rescue the underwear. Hahahaha...it makes me laugh so hard to think about it. Anyway- he said the fact that I threw them away doesn't bother him, but if I do that in the future he wants me to throw them away in a place where he won't see it. Boys....they are so weird. I am proud to say I finally have a husband who does not own one pair of holey underwear. We are making progress... (and he did give me permission to talk about his underwear, I'm not that mean!)

My parents are coming to visit in a few days (right after Frank leaves). They’ll be driving in from Texas and they’ll be here over my birthday on the 19^th and their 26^th wedding anniversary on the 20^th; yes, I was their first wedding anniversary present :). They haven’t seen the house yet, so I’m excited they are coming to visit. I just wish Alabama was more exciting…at least it will be a break from their 105+ degree weather in TX…yuck!

Random- but this has got to be the weirdest "game" ever:  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lying_down_game

Oh! I almost forgot, we have a pet now! Well, it's not a real LIVE pet, but we consider him our first pet because he plays in our pool, has a tail, and we found him on craigslist...that counts, right?? We've thought of a few names for him...but nothing has really stuck. So for the time being, I just call him "little pool guy". 

Little pool guy (our pool cleaner)- isn't he cute?