Late(r) night ramblings

Here's what I've realized: after 25, my bedtime drastically (and I do mean drastically) became earlier. Did this happen to you? Late nights used to be, y'know up until midnight or 1am (let's not kid ourselves: I have never been a super great night owl). Currently, my "late night" is 10:30. The other night we had some people over for dinner and they stayed until midnight! I couldn't even tell you what we talked about for the last hour and a half they were here (delightful people, though they were) - my brain had completely shut off and gone into sleep mode. Imagine your computer in sleep mode: physically still on, but totally resting. That was me, at the dinner table (with guests!)

In any case, I'm explaining my new late night situation because, well, at nearly 10pm, that's just what tonight is quickly becoming. And so, as I think most of us do, on later nights, we tend to ramble. Which I shall now commence.

I bought the last set of curtains today for the living room. I'd like to say that I was astonished at how expensive curtains are and that I turned on my heal, with toddler in tow, and marched straight to the craft store, where I bought gorgeous fabric and came home to make the most lovely curtains on the planet - for cheap. But, this is not at all what happened. Instead, for the last week, I have been hmming and huhing over mediocre curtains in the store scrounging for available coupons, discounts, etc. And today, I finally bit the bullet: I found them on closeout (the saleswoman told me that twice. When I asked what that meant she promptly told me that I wouldn't be able to get them again once they were sold out. That makes sense... but I'm not sure why I would need to buy the same curtains again. I digress.) And they look lovely.

Also, I'm getting ready to go to Portland for a certain someone's wedding, so I'm working on getting through things in the fridge that I know Greg won't eat while Nate and I are away. Namely, buttermilk. Which I will confess, is not actually mine. I salvaged it from my sister's fridge before she left for a couple of weeks. So, I've been baking! Today, I made buttermilk chocolate bread and banana bread. Tomorrow, I'm thinking about trying out buttermilk cookies (I'd never heard of such a thing until I Googled. Fingers crossed they'll be tasty).

Today, it was 101 degrees at 8pm. Pure insanity, I tell you.

Also: my foot really hurts. Which I told Greg, at 8 months pregnant, it's just not fair to also have some kind of pulled muscle thing in your foot. Really, it's just unnecessary. (What is necessary treatment is ice cream and a lovely pedicure. I've got the ice cream down - still working on the pedicure).

Nate is also doing some seriously grown up things: he helped unload the dishwasher tonight and put the dirty laundry in the washing machine. He also has mastered a very indignant "no!" when he's not thrilled about something, and he bats his eyelashes. What a ham.

Our house, in the middle of our street

Yeah! We moved in! And the boxes are (mostly) gone! For those perpetual movers out there like me, you know that having boxes just hanging around is... a major gripe. It's something that signals you're still in transition, still "moving." So, yes, we've been in our house for four nights and all but three boxes are out of the dining, kitchen and living room. Nate's room is totally unpacked. And... well, we're working on the office and our bedroom. But, for the most part, it's feeling under control. (Big smile from me).

More than anything, it feel amazing to have more than 400 square feet to live in! (Yes, I am aware that almost every time I reference the temporary apartment that we were living in, it shrinks in size. That is purely a reflection of how we felt living there. Every day, that place got a little smaller, and smaller, and smaller!)

The house is not huge, but it's functional, and it works, and there are perks to it: someone else mows the lawn (hooray!), and when the dish disposal doesn't work, I can just call someone (who might take their fine time to come by and fix it, but the point is that I  don't have to fix it, right?!), the neighbors are super friendly, and all with kiddos, and we have a carport and a garage.

Of course, there are things that are not so great: the kitchen is small (and there is no logical place for your trash can!). There is a giant metal support beam in between the dining area and the living room (making it a tight fit for the table), and there is only one bathroom. And it's about the quarter of the size of our bathrooms in our house. (Sigh). But we are all in all more than delighted to be here. And (almost) moved in.

That means we are (almost) ready for visitors.

So... when are you coming?

Oklahoma critters

Here's a heads up: there are critters in the mid-west. Of course, we knew this before we moved here. But being here and seeing them is quite another thing.

In addition to spiders (and while they are big and wicked looking, we get some pretty creepy spiders in Washington, too), we've seen june bugs the size of a half-dollar, armadillos (all dead - may they rest in peace), crickets, grasshoppers, beetles, and two of these gems:

That's right: baby scorpions. In our "humble" little apartment. Two. Did I mention that there were multiple ones? Also, did you know, the smaller the critter, generally the more harmful they are to you? Greg went on a crazy bug hunt after the scorpion sighting, and resolved to make sure we had the thickest, strongest, most weather resistant weather stripping in our house.

Not that it won't keep out persistent little critters.

One more thing...

In our (ahem) sweet little "apartment", there is internet, but it's not wireless. So, the moments I have to set-up the laptop in the edge (really, I'm not kidding) of the corner of the counter (again, I'm not kidding), are few and far between. Thus, multiple posts today.

Here's the latest (non-photo) update on what's going on:
Today is Greg's first day of school! Okay, not really. It's called Day Zero. The first official day of his class when they get their pictures taken and put together notebooks of the things they will be studying during the academic phase of his pilot training (see? Notebooks and pictures - I told you it was like the first day of school! I even had to make a run to the store for new pencils, tape, and scissors.) He'll be studying "academics" for the next six weeks.

We are delighted (delighted!) to be moving into a house next week! We were offered a place on base - a blessing! - and will be close to Greg's squadron and Sarah's house (though, I'll be honest, if you live on base, you're pretty close to... everything on base.) It'll be a little smaller than what we're coming from, but enough space of all of us and the baby on the way. We are so excited. More details, and pictures, to come once we've actually moved in!

That's the big news from Enid, America. How's your summer wrapping up?

New state, more family, more pictures

It was so awesome, as I think I've mentioned, to go from visiting with family in Colorado on our drive to OK, to seeing family everyday in Oklahoma. Just as we're all about to climb the walls from space deprivation (truly, I think it's a malady that we all suffer from in this small, (I try to remember) humble abode), we escape for a bit of sanity to Sarah's house. And Nate practically unbuckles himself to weasel out of the car and into the welcome hellos from the kids.

Enid, OK (you remember: that's where we moved. The bustle metropolis of Enid, OK. Or Enid, America as people on the base here are fond of calling it.) is a sweet little town, with just enough to do for Nate. Good parks, a great children's museum, plenty of ice cream and frozen yogurt shops (necessary when you're fighting against 98 degrees on a cool day.)

We went to the train museum (Oklahoma's Railroad museum I'll have you know) and Leonardo's, the children's museum last week. I've got to get better about getting some pictures snapped, but here are a few:

At the Railroad Museum minutes before a great thunderstorm literally rolled into town. 
(Side note: one thing that I sort of love about the midwest and southern midwest? Thunderstorms. You can smell them almost - the air gets thick and sticky and there's a sweetness to the air. And then big drops - I'm talking dime-sized rain drops sporadically splat on to the cement. You have to look quickly for those first drops, because the hot pavement soaks them up almost immediately. And then suddenly, the thunder bellows, and the rain drops really start to come down, and before you know it - you'd better have found some place to take cover because you'll be drenched.)

Inside the steam engine at the Railroad Museum.

 Here are Lance, JP, Nate, and Trinity at Leonardo's in town. Nate really did have a great time, despite his awesome expression. (I took points for everyone looking at the camera at the same time.)

A picture post

It's been a little while since I've posted some pictures (that's a hazard of moving, a very busy little man around the house, and trying to find that silly little camera cord to download pictures amidst all the boxes, bags, etc.)
A recap: from Phil's 35th birthday party. What's a birthday without a pinata?!?! Phil took this one out in style, complete with a feet-out-from-underneath-him swing (and a miss.)

Nate and Luke on a mission.

 Grandpa with Nate, Luke, and Sloan

 Nate and Luke at Owen's Beach. Yes, that's our little man in rubber boots, a onesie, and a jacket. What can I say? It was a sunny day in the northwest, and Nate was insistent on going in the water.

 Snacks before bedtime!

 In Colorado on our drive east to Oklahoma. We're just getting warmed up for what's to come.

Oklahoma is OK!

Whew. We made it. Early mornings followed by long days of driving (and endless hmm-ing about what/where to eat. The roadside options tend to get a bit... stale after a while, and considering the "options" in the last few days was more like "what's the lesser of the evils here?" Rest assured, I've had my fill of roadside eateries for a bit.), but we managed to roll on to Vance AFB just in time for Greg to get his check list of inprocessing duties. It's 5 pages, front and back. It's plenty to keep us busy for a bit!

Our humble residence for now is a luxurious 15x30 "apartment." I put that in quotes because while it has a kitchen (with a dishwasher!) and a bathroom, as well as a living room and a bedroom, let's not kid ourselves here: an apartment would imply a hallway (unless we're talking about a studio, right?) or some distance between the bathroom and the kitchen or the kitchen and the living room or the bathroom and the living room for that matter! Let's just say that we are happy to have some space to ourselves, but oh wow, are we redefining "space!" Thankfully, we have taken refuge at my sister's house most days of the week, for hours at a time. And dinner. She's been an angel for welcoming us to dinner - I can't imagine cooking in our tiny little place in this heat!

Nate's keeping busy with his cousins (and they love to entertain him!) and we are working hard at keepng cool. Today, it's balmy: a mere 85 by 8:30am. It was cool enough for Nate and I to go for a run this morning outside! Earlier this week, the high temperatures around the peak of the day reached 115 degrees. Really. Even the weatherman on the evening news noted that "having temperatures 100 degrees and above from 10 am until 10 pm was just plain ridiculous." Glad we're all on the same page.

On our second day here, I bought pool passes for us. Seems that might be our nightly ritual . It's refreshing for all of us, and Nate sure enjoys being a "water baby."

There are a few things that I forgot, having lived in the  northwest for so long:
Cicadas. They are like tree crickets, and they make noise all night long. After a while you don't hear them, but in the early hours of the day, there's quite a symphony!
Hot pavement. I know it's hot outside, but somehow I managed to disconnect the temperature fromt he pavement baking in the heat. Both Nate and I have been caught "just running outside really quickly" to only get three steps down the sidewalk, yelping in pain. Wear shoes, or flip flops, folks. It's hot.
Thunderstorms. We saw them during or drive, but I forgot how quickly they start and how quickly they end. And within 10 minutes, you can barely tell it rained, hailed, and was even windy for a few minutes.
Short(er) summer days. It's dark by 9pm here!

We're still settling in an figureing out which end is up, but we'll be sure to keep you posted as we learn about things like... oh, a house. And an address.

Keep cool out there, we sure are working on it here!