Day 13 - Neighbors

Neighbors are funny things, sometimes they are pretty darn cool and other times they are downright strange, once in awhile they are more than you could ask for. We have run the gamut with our neighbors over the years. Most have been friends and we have kept in touch with many of them even if it is only the yearly Christmas card.
In OK we had upstairs neighbors in our first apartment that we had a great relationship with. And in fact with the great timewaster invention of facebook we have reconnected. They are ones we kept up with years with annual Christmas cards. Moved on to the base and had stellar yard neighbors who again we do the annual Christmas card exchange; our wall mates there notsomuch. Onto Colorado and again facebook has been the most recent way we have kept in touch with our wall mate. Our cul de sac neighbors who were LilBlues best friends we have kept up with over the years through little care packages from our different assignments and we even met up in FL for a fun one day reunion a few years back. Another one of the cul de sac neighbors that LilBlue connected with we reunited with in NE a few years ago! That's the beauty of this AF world. Unfortunately in VA neighbors were not so friendly and while we were always cordial there were no real connections made. And the connections that were made in our neighborhood we did not keep up with! Part of that was us. We were in an apartment complex and our location while we loved it did not open us up to much neighborly interaction. On to AL and we did have awesome good neighbors. They have even called every now and again just out of the blue. I think they think it's fun to track us down and get in touch and say, "so where are you now and what are you doing?" LOL

In Italy our neighbors definitely win THE BESTEST EVER award...seriously, we loved them and I think they thought we were pretty okay.

Recent reunion with Italian neighbors.

The kids!

In NE we knew our neighbors but we were not all that close. However, LilBlue did enjoy that area and is still there. It's a friendly midwestern feel and she loves it. We always take the time to drive through our old neighborhood when we go back to visit.

In FL MiB and I had one doozy of a neighbor, just think whack job. But while not a true next door neighbor we had great on the street friends who were truly awesome. They were 3 Doors Down and we spent many a Sunday evening together as well as several mandatory fun events which were made way better due to the relationship the four of us shared. Moving on to LA and we have some great neighbors once again, in fact we are surrounded by awesomeness. It is neat to know the block or curves as I call it so to speak and since we are off in our own little neck of the woods it's great to be able to reach out if needed for a myriad of things!

2nd Annual Columbus Day Gathering--even though last year it was known as the New Kids on the Block Party!

Just a couple of the curves kids :)

 

  Queen B with her Marine daddy

 Our LA neighbors at our recent block party!

Ordinary life is made way better with good great neighbors (who are also friends)!

Day + # post explanation is here.

Weekend WrapUP

Once again we have had a fun, full weekend! The fun started Friday at neighbor's promo! Congrats MAJOR!

Promo at Hanger2

Then we went on to a function at the club came home to a little round the table time. 


Saturday was rainy but not as much as today. We got out and got our errands done before the neighborhood gathering. That was a Mexican feast complete with The Machine in full operation. We tried our hands at strawberry daiquiri's. IF we do them again there will need to be tweaking but they were acceptable for a first time batch! 

 The Machine is filled and ready!

Good time was had by all! There was even some football watching amongst the eating and visiting! Go Game Cocks. Would you believe that until last night I NEVER new there was a team that had such a name? We had a very faithful avid Game Cock fan in the house I learned much!

 Game Cock fan!

 Football fans!

 Today has been a lazy day as the rain has continued to fall and it is steady unlike yesterday where it was sprinkling mostly. On and off for most of the day with smatterings of steady falling rain coming late in the evening. Today we woke up to semi wetness and then pretty much steady falling rain has commenced. We toyed with the idea of a movie but did not follow through. It's just been one of those nice, slow, relaxing days, though I had thoughts of being productive I pretty much just stayed right next to MiB in our favorite chair all the day long! Watched a little golf and a little football and did a lot of snuggling! Life is good :)

NOTE: The opening of the 31 day challenge will open tonight...so I'm really trying to get my act together and get linked up. I am not going with my with Day 1 posting. I'm just going to link up the one I talked about the challenge a few days back! I sure hope I can figure it all out as I do not want to be late to the party...

Weekend WrapUp

The weekend was once again waaaay too short! Friday evening was spent with the neighbors enjoying THE machine, we had the proper supplies so it was a good mixture.

 Neighborhood Crew minus a few...

Then Saturday we took in the Dragon Boat races where I did not take one single picture...hmmm. And one of our very own 2d wing teams took 3rd OVERALL. Way to go AMXS :) In between boat racing MiB took me to lunch at Jersey Mike's, which I do enjoy, this time we tried a hot sub. It did not disappoint, the Philly cheese steak is way good but can only be a treat as it is very high in the caloric intake and we know I am trying to watch that :/ Then we had another evening of desserts where we took a lovely cheesecake with sweet strawberries on top. Again, sorry no picture :( I was just not in picture taking mode that day I guess...

Today was a nice relaxing start, then it was airport shuttle time.

 

 Smiling, before being stuck in Dallas for over three hours...

For some reason I did have an odd feeling about today's journey.Not a BAD feeling I just thought hmmm, I hope it goes smooth but I had that gut feeling it wouldn't, turns out my gut was right. There was a delay with the plane coming into Dallas and once it was finally there they still had plane part issues. After over three hours in delays they were finally off the ground. What's even worse is once he was in Dallas turns out he could of "caught a ride" with the higher up guy on the installation who was going to the same location. Gotta love communication and coordination or lack thereof. Such is life, he will be much later, hungry and tired but he will be. He will make the most of it and will have a great week as there will be reunions and celebrations for one of our own being named a TOP 10 :) It's all good. He has just safely landed in our nation's capital and hopefully he will make it to the hotel without any issues and sleep well! Though I know he is hungry so there may be a Mickey D's or some other food stop first!

Have a great week, I plan to. And while I had hoped it would be a little slower and quieter while MiB is gone looking at my calendar that is not the case. Oh, well, welcome to the third week of September. Can you believe that? There are only three FULL months left of this year...oh my, I feel time is passing too quickly.

Neighborly evening!

Since there are so many new faces in the neighborhood and many wanted to have another gathering after our ice cream social we decided to have a little driveway cookout. It was a nice evening for it and many came out to join in.

 ALL the kids enjoyed the toys!

Just a whole lot of much needed chillaxin' going on! Great evening, good food! The weather was so good, even if it was a bit HOT when we started by the time we were ready to call it an evening it had been perfect for a long time!

I might be afraid!

So I have an iPhone, I do like it and for the most part I know how to use it...I still learn new things on it ALL the time and I do really love it's capabilities. I do NOT like updating the iOS. Every single time I have done that there's been a glitch. Usually I nearly having a coronary and we end up spending way too much time trying to get it figured out. Thank goodness for my tech savvy MIB. There are other things I very much dislike about my phone! I do not like having to pay for a data plan AND a texting plan, I think that's a rip off but I like both features so I pay it every single month. Grrr

So why might I be afraid? Well you see, I have been getting this message on my phone about an expiration date...

I have of course googled it cause google IS the CIA you know! LOL Anyway this message may be an issue and I may or may not have a serious problem. I love the ambiguity! Boards, forums and yahoo answers are wonderful aren't they? So while we are off to the beach next week, I may or may not need to make a stop at the Apple store! In addition, IF we HAVE to make that trip to the Apple place do not fret for not all will be lost as SPRINKLES is just down the road  :) I will not be able to be that close and NOT go,. I am fearful as there could be s'mores cupcake in my future, or a lemon coconut, or pumpkin or carrot, oh geez, do you see how this could be bad? Very bad, just sayin'

It's hump day and the we are having couples night in the neighborhood, looking forward to it! Not to mention we are meeting up for the movies on Friday :) Maybe even have dinner first, these ENA (Eastside Neighborhood Association) folks are awesome!

Thursday Thoughts

Greetings, excitement in the neighborhood last evening, hope it's quieter today. In addition we are a full neighborhood now :) Can't wait to meet the last three arrivals. Lots more action on the streets, playgrounds and at the mail box. Funny!

Planning an ice cream social as soon as we get back from G-Town.Would do it this weekend, but MiB is out and then next weekend we leave for G-Town so will have to wait til we return. Will be fun! And as hot as it's been it will be refreshing!

So today is a catch up day, have lots to do, had planned to be home most of yesterday and after a failed attempt at getting new spectacles and shopping with LilBlue I didn't get home til nearly 5:00 p.m. and the WW ladies arrived shortly after. It was a good day but I didn't get some things accomplished that I wanted to. I will try again to day!

Oh, did you catch the "shopping with LilBlue" part. Yes, that's right, we shopped together via the phone. We were at the same store and walked through it and talked about things for the wedding, it was crazy fun! I can see this happening many more times in the next year :)

Gotta run, many prayers being lifted today for many reasons...

Thoughts:

• Ready for a farmer's market run...
• Just a reminder...it's still HOT here!
• Praying the prayer that NEVER fails
• Thankful to answered prayers as well!
• MAYBE, just maybe I will go to the pool today :)

Food :0)

Italian and Chinese, I love them both! Dinner the last two nights respectively...

 

 We have enjoyed the fresh farmer's market tomatoes for several weeks now! I love this combo, not necessarily together every time but they are great anytime!

 Veggie fried brown rice and pork egg rolls.

They are so much work to make but they are oh so good. MiB was saying how much he would like egg rolls so I caved and got all the necessary ingredients to make them. It took a trip to two off base stores since the commissary did not have egg roll wrappers. First time that has happened in 26 years. They did have the frozen spring roll wrappers but I prefer the fresh egg roll wrappers that are traditionally found in the produce department. They were good, really good! I also double batched our favorite sweet and sour sauce for dipping. YUM. Tomorrow or the next day we will have the leftovers with Chinese corn chowder.

Going to bed now, it's been another busy day and neighborly night as we delivered two more plates of welcome brownies! We are filling up out here, woohoo! Night!

Going back to the BIG O

Seems too soon to be sending her back. Didn't she JUST get here???? UGH

Since we were having a gathering this evening, I did not make the airport run, the twins did. Of course, we did not snap pictures before she left the house. Thankfully, they did take a few at the airport as they were dropping her off.

 With Uncle G

MiB w/LilBlue

  Smiling...didn't know about the delay yet!

When she left the house it was all good as far as what the online status of her flight was...ontime! However, shortly after making it through TSA there was a weather delay announced due to storms in the Dallas area, specifically lightening. That went on for quite a while, her 4:25 departure turned into a 6:30 one but she did finally make it to Dallas. Then more delays due to weather. Her original Dallas flight was 6:45 but we knew before she left here that her connecting flight was also delayed so no worries on missing it. The Dallas delay was a concern for me as we did not want her stuck there overnight and we just kept praying something would break loose. Her flight got off the ground out of Dallas just after 10:00 p.m. And finally after 9 hours and some change she finally landed in the the BIG O shortly after midnight!  Since the BUD had to be a work she had to arrange an alternate ride home...thanks to BUD's family for that!

What a great week we all had, looking forward to next month when we will eek out another visit at an as of yet undecided location. Thoughts and plans are still forming, but I think water and most likely sand will be involved :) Can't wait. Course don't want to wish the days away until then so we will all work hard and make the most of the days until then, most importantly for LilBlue as she tackles Spanish IV.

Gathering tonight was as always F*U*N. We celebrated birthdays and promotions. I wish we would have documented better but I was on and off the phone with LilBlue throughout the evening keeping up on the travel saga she was living and really fell down on the job. In fact I felt a horrible hostess as I kept stepping away to speak with her or text back and forth. I know our guest understood but I still felt a little schmucky.

For some reason feet and flip flops were discussed and all those present wearing them decided a picture was in order...that was all but one :)

FlipFlop Central!

And ohbytheway the margarona's were a HUGE hit. Let me tell you I was not sure they would be with this crowd but they were. EVERYONE had one and liked it. I have some thoughts on tweaking it for next time but for this time I did it like this. Which is a little bit different then the recipe I was given, I went with light Corona and used Fresca instead of 7-Up. Next time I will make my own limeade using splenda to cut the calories even more.

Margarona's

12 oz light Corona

12 oz Fresca

12 oz can frozen limeade concentrate

12 oz tequila 

Splash of triple sec

Mix and serve over crushed ice. Simple and refreshing!

One of THOSE busy kinda days!

Let's recap the evening we had last night before we move on to today!

So last night we were honored to be able to celebrate the wedding of a dear friend...and sadly it was also a farewell; we will certainly miss her as she moves to FL to start a new adventure with Mr Bill! I know she has many, many happy days ahead! Congrats to both Miss H and Mr Bill :)

 

 

 Cutting the humongous cake! It had strawberry filling in some layers!

 They really did eat some cake!

Watching the staff taking apart that cake was quite a show; it leaned, they pried and lifted and it was a lot of work getting it apart but they did!

Now on to today, the very busy will it ever end day! Really it was just floating from one event to the other and it did end! It was a lot of fun, but also a lot of running and a few wardrobe changes!

 New OG

 New 96th and the triplets! OH MY :)

Neighbors retirement :(

 Diamond B at the LRS CoC

Unfortunately by the time we were at the last event this evening I had forgotten to snap a picture...it was the going away of GI moCjaM. Farewells are the most bittersweet, and this was no exception, but they are not going far so it was not so hard!

Night all it's been a busy, busy day!

Mother's Day

My honey let me sleep in, I managed to do that until after 7. Which is BIG in my world, I usually wake up and then have to get up, I don't do well going back to sleep...I wish I could but I just don't do that well.

I did a bit of nothing, then did some more nothing, while baking a cake. MiB went to the river and I had the house all to myself and did some more nothing while I also did a bit of laundry. Once I knew MiB was headed home I started a little bit of lunch prep. MiB was cooking out on the grill for me. I much prefer a home meal to out. I just do. I am not sure if this stems from the fact we eat out often for events or that I just prefer my own cooking but I like to eat at home! So it was baked potatoes, salad, corn, rolls and a nice steak on the grill! It was heaven. We ate at the table for the first time in I cannot even remember, we lingered over our food, talked about nothing and savored the moments of just being. 

After lunch we took in a movie. Yes, I chose a chick flick! I had read the book, it was good, typical ending, the guy gets the girl, but that's okay with me, I enjoyed it! 

Then this evening we had a little farewell gathering in the neighborhood for one of our own. The DOC and Ms S are moving on. We will miss them, they are a wonderful couple and we have loved them from the moment we met them. It's another one of those bittersweet things that comes with the territory!

I'm so sorry there are no pictures...I had my phone available just didn't use it! Booooo for me :/

AirShow Day 2

Oh what a perfectly, beautiful day for an airshow! Gorgeous blue skies dotted with white clouds made an absolute perfect backdrop again today for the flying about that took place.

 

A RED BULL jumper brought the flag in for the National Anthem!

I was so sad the B-2 was unable to make an appearance but the B-52 flew again. It also did the "bombing run" as well. Kind of cool cause the B-52 that flew today was 008 which is also known as "balls 8"  and was MiBs short term commander on his year long tour. They really only passed in the night so to speak but each seem to have connected and made quite an impression on the other. He is a stand up guy and I love the humbleness I have always observed in him. He is also an Airman's Airmen which is of course the best kind and most impressive in my book.

The Black Diamonds were also back as well as the headliners, the USAF Thunderbirds. Again, it was a stellar show. Other impressive acts, which really they all were, but I loved seeing the Oakley plane hovering just above the flight line with his smoke streaming out and the Red Bull plane was also amazing!

 The really cool Black Diamonds!

 

 

 Thunderbirds were back and doing their thing as good as ever!

 MiB even sat a moment in the Commander's Tent area and enjoyed some of the show!

Today we also took time to take a little closer look at some of the static displays.

 

B-2

 

 

 The AMAZING B-1B

While we were out doing post checks we ran across the P&Q girls...they are everyone. Seems to reason, they have to be everywhere so they can be minding our p's & q's for us, otherwise we might find ourselves in trouble :/ I might have mentioned this but they do have their hands full trying to keep us all straight all the time!

 P&Q girls, er ladies, yeah, no they are girls in my book!

Speaking of doing post checks we also ran through the parking areas, you know just checking things and people out, you'd be surprised the folks that show up for these events. Anyway, eagle eyes MiB spots this bag under a vehicle. I have my thoughts but you know Mr Official, he retrieves a Defender to make the call, safe or unsafe...they determine it is okay and we go on. 

I have a theory that they took the bag, which was filled with juice and kidlet snacks, got to the security checkpoint or read the guidelines of the security checkpoint and decided they wouldn't be let in or couldn't get in so someone ran it back to the vehicle and they had no keys to put it inside so they stuck it underneath. Makes perfect sense to me, but it could have easily been a bad thing in some circles. Best to be safe rather then sorry! We were!

 Suspicious bag under vehicle...

Since we did lots of post checking and went to the fartherest out post to make sure no one was being forgotten we had to gas up today. MiB did the honors and back on the circuit we went. I think our little mule got good gas mileage and if they would have let us I think MiB would have drove SMARTie around for the day but the little cart was fun too!

 Gassing up :)

 We also enjoyed fine food prepared by Superior Grill. Met lots of volunteers who kept traffic coming and going throughout the day, handed out candy and shared sunblock with those same said volunteers. I know they have had two very long days and while they may not think they did much they most certainly did. They were the work horses, the FOD walkers, the face of our base and they represented well.

Munsy Neighbor was there and she is all happy cause I brought her a drink :)

I have done a couple loads of laundry already and could do more but I am turning in for the night and praying for restful, peaceful sleep! It's another full week and I need to be ready to meet it head on! Night, all!

Brown Hat Girls

Due to schedules that have been crazy our weekly Whine Wednesday group has been out of sorts and not meeting as scheduled at our regular place and time. It was looking kinda iffy for this week what with soccer games, baseball practice and you know, life in general but we all made it. Yes, finally this week we were all back together again.What a gabfest it was as we caught up on our lives and planned our weekend activities. 

Mrs Marine who was a soccer mom earlier in the evening dashed in straight from the game donning her stylin' sunshades and hat. Everyone oohed and aahed over her cuteness. She is too cute for real! And since the Airshow is coming up we all thought we all might need hats and shades so we took turns trying on Mrs Marines getup! 

 THE Hat Owner

Neighbor #1

 Neighbor #2

 

 Main Baser 

 Yours truly...

Yeah, the owner pulls it off best but we had fun trying! And I might try to find something to wear for the airshow since it could be warm and a hat might be a good thing!

This weekend is one of the big hubba baloo events for our base and we are all going :) Some of us are even staying at the venue where the event will be! There will be pre and post gatherings, it will be, wait for it, E. P.I.C.  How could this group NOT have fun, we are the neighborhood social committee! Of course the only minus is that they all get to sit together and MiB and I will be off at another table, but again, we are not going to dwell on that, there are the pre and post gatherings after all to look forward to!