Hysterical Thoughts

We are PCSing to Ft Stewart, GA. It's our next duty station. It's been a couple weeks since we heard from our POC at housing. She called today. Our move-in date is exactly 1 week from tomorrow. I have to pack up an entire 6 person household in a week. God thinks he is hilarious. He's up there laughing, throwing wrenches in my plans, & watching me squirm. I'll. Show. Him. :o)

Ick!

Making blogger templates is totally grating on my nerves today. Absolutely nothing wants to go my way *sigh* & I was even keeping it simple - Ugh!

What My Dreams Are Made Of

You see this back?

Have I ever mentioned how many times this particular back has been the primary focus of an infinite amount of daydreams?

Oooh & these shoulders & arms are definitely the things my dreams are made of *sigh*

So glad to have them back home with me ♥

A Lil Somethin' Somethin'

Have I mentioned lately how much I love my husband? I mean really! He is absolutely everything I am not. We are opposites in so many ways & yet we mesh perfectly.

It's been too long since he has been under my roof for an extended period of time. I am enjoying every annoyingly amazing minute :o)

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day Daddy!! I love you!!

Countdown Butterflies

Less than 48 hours, I have less than 48 hours!! I'm so excited! He'll be here to play with the kids, to help around the house, to steal all the cover, to leave his dirty clothes lying where ever..... he's REALLY coming home this time! Non stop butterflies - that pretty much sums it up.

Tomorrow is Father's Day :o) A big HAPPY FATHER'S DAY goes out to my daddy - I love you♥ & to Dave ♥always & forever♥   The kids & I will be hangin' at the lake with my daddy & Debbie. I'm sure there will be photos so be on the look out for them tomorrow evening. Lots of love & hope everyone has had a great weekend!

News: Good, Bad, or What You Make It?

You see, my mom got a kick out of my horrendous experience that I blogged about a few days ago. Yeah the one where I spent HOURS cleaning my car for a rogue rain cloud to sit over the WalMart parking lot & ONLY the WalMart parking lot for a total of 3 minutes to ruin my gorgeous, freshly washed car. MmmHmm that one. So I figure it's only fair that I share this lil tid bit of info.


Below you will see what I made for dinner today. Cheesy Rotini, Baked Beans, a yummy salad with black olives, & Oh! What's that? MEATLOAF Mmm Mmm Good. My mom cannot, to save her life, make a meatloaf that will stay together. She's even used my recipe & it still falls apart. It's the ONE thing I do better than she does in the kitchen. So yeah I thought I'd rub that in her face here, publicly on my blog since she laughed hysterically on the phone yesterday at my misfortune this weekend. HA!!



After dinner I had 2 scoops of Edy's Caramel Delight ice cream in a waffle bowl with lovely pecans - delish!



I got a call from David today, 1 call & a text message really. Bad news - his car needed an alternator otherwise he wasn't going to make it home to NC next Monday. So he got that taken care of. Good news - Our POC at Stewart received our housing paperwork & she's going to call him tomorrow with the availability roster to let us know what's available. I can even go down & look at houses if I want & set a move-in date YAY!! Though I believe I'll wait until Dave gets home to check out the houses.


I can't believe that the time is finally here. In less than a month we will be living in GA, close to the beach. I'll be LIVING with my husband *sigh* my cup runneth over ♥ I've got butterflies as if it's homecoming or something lol! 6 days from today(almost 5 Ack!) & he'll be in my arms once more, everything will be right in our world, & he'll be back to driving me absolutely insane.... oh how I've missed him.


It rained today, the sun popped out & the rain was still coming down so of course I grabbed my camera to take a few shots. No rainbows today but the glistening rain through the sunshine was beautiful enough.



& my flowers are blooming, summer really IS almost here!

Hysteria

My days have been numbered, I figured as much. Life was going pretty well, not always MY way but the way that was necessary. Yesterday was the turning point. I can only take so much negativity, I only put up with so much. So a telephone call ruined my evening & pretty much my day today. I don't deserve rudeness. I don't deserve to deal with someone's negativity, especially when it seems that the only time they call is when they want to bitch about their day. I get it. Life's not perfect. Things don't go your way. You have to realize that sometimes things are out of your hands & you gotta roll with it.

So I've been pullin' a lot of favors from the big Guy upstairs. My prayers have been answered numerous times over the past few weeks, it's really quite amazing. I am extremely thankful. But one thing I've learned is that God has a sense of humor, he thinks himself hilarious. Sometimes I agree, sometimes I don't. Today. I. Didn't.

I figured I'd work off some of my irritation by washing my car, really cleaning her up inside & out. The weather is nice out, clear blue skies, gorgeous shining sun, no worries. Blood, sweat, & tears went in to cleaning my car today - lots of sweat, a tiny bit of blood, & a few tears when I smashed my finger. Lo & Behold my car is shiny & beautiful - CLEAN!

I decided to hit the local WalMart to grab a few groceries, to include ice cream because the kids have been good & helped out today. No joke - I'm in the store & guess what I hear.....

RAIN!!!! It flippin rained on my newly washed car!!!! I paid for our groceries, walked out the door, the parking lot is wet, the vehicles are gleaming with fresh rain. I packed up the food, the kids, & headed out the parking lot. Guess where the rain fell. No where else but the WalMart parking lot. The road is dry, the sky is clear, it was JUST. AT. WALMART.

I laughed hysterically the whole way home & thought really, really, REALLY hard about hitting the liquor store. *deep breath* Oh how funny He thinks He is.

I think I DO need a drink.

Ding Ding Ding In This Corner....

The kids & I watched a helpless firefly get snared last night. It was pretty awesome :o)



I don't have a problem with spiders, even though my phobia states otherwise.



They are fascinating creatures.



And as long as they aren't ON me then we're cool.

This ol' gal was hungry.

& she was fast, my camera couldn't keep up(hence the blurriness)

So that's how we spent about an hour of our evening yesterday. It was a lesson in science & life.

I was outside our back door yesterday, early evening when a thunderstorm rolled through. I got some great pictures of the rain. Afterwards I took the following pics of flowers, these were 2 of my favorites. Enjoy!

Let's Play a Game

Dave shipped some boxes home, full of his things, weighing about 500 pounds. Boxes that would not fit in the Altima. I had to sit them in front of our front window because quite frankly there's no room for them anywhere else. It's obstructing a certain someone's view of the street. So we'll play a game & see who that certain someone may be.


Look closely, do you see anything at all odd here?

How about here? Is it becoming clear?

Oh wait, look!! It's Princess Kitty Glitch!

I guess she figured if dad was coming back & she was losing her spot on the bed then she'd make herself at home on the boxes. & seeing as how these boxes are in front of the window that she sits in every day, that it was only fair.

I love this cat. I'm so blessed to be her person ♥

Love Letterman

I used to watch Letterman nightly. I stopped a few years ago, couldn't really tell you why. But this episode here: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/20090611/en_ynews/ynews_en386 is why I love this man. He is funny, he makes fun of himself not just others, & he keeps it real. Read the article & watch the video at the bottom - hilarious stuff(if you get his humor lol)!

Palin is a woman who is against sex education in schools & yet her oldest daughter, a minor, popped up with a teenage pregnancy, hmmmm, should we be listening to her? Pfft hell NO. She's ridiculous & was a poor choice for McCain. There were so many other perfectly suited women he could have chose from, he chose the wrong one.

Newness, Goody Goody Gumdrops

I've been writing blogs from the moment I came upon the internet scene, over 5 years ago. Manic Transmissions is mostly about me, my experiences, my thoughts, my family, etc. MT is quite young, I'm only a few months into it but I'm already contemplating opening another blog that is more about my kids, husband, & myself, us as a family. A lil something for my family & friends to keep up with us without all the manic ramblings from me. I like my randomness but not everyone visits my page to hear me talk.... or maybe they do. I just figured a new blog, family oriented, would leave out all my extra BS & get straight to the point of what most of my family is looking for: my kids ♥

So with that in mind I've created: http://joneshousehold6.blogspot.com/

I'll eventually buy a domain name like I did with MT & when I do the above link will redirect you to the new domain name, no biggie. & I'll make my own website at some point for our family & you'll all be kept in the loop :o) but that's farther down the road.

So there ya have it Jones Household 6 is up, I haven't put my touch on it yet. No blogs up but hopefully by this evening. I've got tons of pictures from the last days of school *sniff* that I'll be sharing over there. Feel free to visit both blogs, I'll continue my usual crazy obsession with food & whatnot over here & JH6 will be about my kids. They're cute lil buggers so you should definately drop in over there & say Hi :o) Hope you enjoy!

♥Bree/Brandi
*& just to clear up any confusion, Bree is what Dave calls me, he has Forever, it's what I answer to when he's around, I hear it more than my actual name lol! I know some of you are new & didn't want to confuse you :o)*

Army Positive

Though Dave may very well be put out of the barracks this week, this only pushes our wait on housing up YAY! You see once he clears barracks management & intel then we get to forward all our housing paperwork to our POC at Stewart. Being put on the wait list even sooner than we originally thought, which means maybe, just maybe, while he's home we'll get that call to come check out houses. & hopefully if things are all right with the universe, he'll sign lease papers when he reports for duty. Our POC seems confident that we'll be moved in & good to go by the time school starts on August 6th. I sure hope she's right.

Positive: Moving up on the wait list

Now if everyone else sticks to their word things will go smoothly from there...... hmm, prolly shouldn't have said that.....

She Cooks! Shhhh Don't Tell Anyone!

So I was irritated enough at the Army yesterday to warrant a food blog :oP


I made my deliciously delectable Creamy Chicken Enchiladas(recipes at the end, promise). I don't think they can really be called enchiladas because there's no red sauce whatsoever. But they aren't burritos either. They ARE my own creation & they are so sinfully delightful.



There's just one thing........... I can't tell you all my ingredients, it's a secret, no one knows. I don't reveal secrets, whether mine or anyone else's. So you're outta luck HA!



It obviously involves chicken, cheese, flour tortillas, & a creamy substance of sorts with a few extras for punch. Bake it at 375 degrees long enough to melt the cheeses - about 10-15 mins.



Throw it together on a plate with spanish rice & a salad(hey I like salad with anything ok?!!). A few extras like jalapenos & Kalamata olives, which are divine! I love a grand olive pickled in red wine vinaigrette YUM! Voila it's What's for Dinner!



I've decided to share my basic recipe with you, I figured it was only fair after I've tempted you with the pictures :oP


Bree's Creamy Chicken, er, Enchiladas? LOL!
For a family of 6-8

5-6 chicken breasts - I usually use about 2 and a half pounds of boneless, skinless chicken breasts

• I cut them into strips & boil them until done. Then I do a lot of choppin' & dicin'. I don't like big chunks of chicken in my enchiladas.
• While the chicken is boiling, get your rice started, you can make your own or buy it ready to go in a box, whichever you prefer. Sometimes I like to make my own but not today :oP

1 LARGE can of creamy chicken soup

1 12oz. bowl of cheese sauce - I use a medium hot cheese sauce

1 8oz. tub sour cream

• I combine the above 3 items in a pot & bring to a slight boil - DON'T leave it there, the cheese will burn. Once it's good & soupy you should be ready to pour it over your diced chicken in a pan. DO NOT use all the sauce, you'll need some left to pour over the enchiladas before you place them in the oven.
• Now here is where I throw in a few of my extra secret ingredients. Feel free to add whatever you like, make it Yours! I like it spicy so I add a few diced jalapenos when the kids aren't looking lol!
• CHECK on your RICE! I love rice, burning it is a sin in my house, seriously....
• Now spray an 11x13 casserole dish with Pam, my new best friend.
• I use the LARGE burrito size Flour Tortillas, I'm partial to WalMart brand, I don't know why but they are always the freshest :o) Place your chicken mixture in the middle of your torts, roll them, place them seam side down in your dish, & tuck under the ends - you don't want your chicken escaping!
• Once you've used up all your chicken then pour the remaining sauce mixture over your enchiladas. Top with your fave cheeses & bake at 375 for about 15 minutes.

Finish the rest of your preparations while your waiting. Make sure the rice is ready to go, add a salad, or whatever else you're feeling partial to. The more times you make it, you'll start adding more & more ingredients to it, & make it your own :o) It's really good, pretty simple & straight forward. Enjoy!

Army Life

I briefly mentioned before how I was definately not having a "cool with the Army" kind of week, last week. Well it's continued into this week. Hmm let me explain.

Dave is considered a geo-bachelor, he lives at Hood, the kids & I live in NC. You see when he was stationed at Hood within 45 days they were deploying to Iraq so I chose not to interrupt my children's school year & stay put. When he redeployed to Hood a few months ago, we knew he wouldn't be staying there long so there was no point in moving then either. We are PCSing to Stewart in July. So he was going to be at Hood for less than 4 months, I mean there's no point in moving the children there to enroll in a new school for the last 2.5 months. That was my reasoning, I thought it was pretty damn good reasoning.

Today Dave learns that they are booting our guys out of the barracks. They were told just this morning that they had to be out as quickly as possible. Seriously, no joke, throwing guys out on the street with no where to go. At first we thought it was just the geo-bachs but nope they're throwin' out the single guys too! These guys who have been back in the states for less than 90 days after serving in a COMBAT ZONE now must find themselves a place to stay until they PCS out of Hood.

Most of these guys are leaving anyway, the rest of 4ID are going to Carson within the month. They seriously could not have waited another 2-4 weeks??? It's ridiculous! & certainly another one of the many, many things wrong with the Army.

Thankfully Dave will be staying with a friend until his friend PCS's to Carson next week, then he'll be in a hotel room until he leaves to come home the week after that.

I seriously believe that the Army needs an overhaul. There are tons of room for improvement. I've never seen such a clusterfuck in my life.

*Edited to Add: After everyone moved out & found a place to go, barracks management came in & said that they weren't clearing that building today & didn't have any orders TO clear that building...... so why in the hell would their superiors be under the impression that these guys had to be out by the end of the work day today??? This entire day of CHAOS was for naught. That is certainly the Army for you. C-L-U-S-T-E-R-F-U-C-K

Simple Things

My Saturday evening with no kids led me to a quiet hill where the most important things are the simple ones. Horses, for example, bring peace to a heart by just being near them.



Gardens, where tons of hard work & lil bit of prayer go a long way. It's rewarding to know that you can grow your own food. I look forward to doing just that one day, when this crazy Army lifestyle is over, of course.



Rows of green ♥ Potatoes, green beans, corn, squash, zucchini, okra, cucumbers, & tomatoes - simple things that make life grand.

We went diggin' for taters yesterday evening. I forgot how much I like to get my hands dirty, the smell of the moist dirt. The search for potatoes is like treasure hunting :o)

Ah, the memories of simpler times. Times that were filled with family, food grown from gardens, and love.

After filling up 2 buckets of potatoes we washed them off, laid them out to dry, & sat out under the night sky watching the moon rise. Certainly some of my most favorite simple things...

Today's Magic Number is 5

5 years ago today this chubby, impatient, beautiful lil monster came into my life. I thought he was going to be born in the car but luckily we made it(hence the impatient part).
*the first couple of pictures were scanned into my computer, sorry for the crappy view*

Just look at this chubbiness. I mean this kid had some serious fat at birth & it only progressed. We would get through a bout of RSV & a seriously distraught mommy that first year.

At 1 year old we knew that terror didn't begin to describe our little bundle of joy.

He had the sweetest face but was into everything. He was high maintenance, very demanding, & always a handful for anyone who was around.

By 2 years old it was worse. At the time it was a nightmare. Seriously. When we decided to have baby #3 I certainly wasn't expecting anything like Camden. *He's wearing his sister's socks*

You know what else he was? The most loving, caring child I'd ever met in my life. He can be driving me crazy one minute & have me rolling on the floor in laughter the next. He wasn't what we expected.... he was MORE ♥


At 3 years old he bravely said goodbye to his daddy, not fully understanding that daddy wouldn't be back home for a long while. At this age the emergency room visits were becoming quite frequent. Another battle with RSV caused him to be hospitalized & on a nebulizer for a night. Later that year he would drink kerosene & a call to poison control had us at the hospital once again. & early in 2008, months before he turned 4, a tumble off the bunk beds would land us in the emergency room late one night with a broken arm. I declared after that there would be no more hospital visits for at least 3 years. :o)

At 4 years old, he wanted ice cream & mini golf for his birthday. & we even managed a phone call from daddy in Iraq.

Here he is today, on his 5th birthday, so grown up, finishing up PreK, & ready to start Kindergarten.

I never expected that night, 5 years ago, that I could be so proud to call this lil man my son. He was impatient to get into the world & he's been a rockin' tornado ever since. He hasn't slowed down & I figure one day, too soon, he's going to grow up to be a multi million dollar entrepreneur....

Or a Stuntman lol!

Happy 5th Birthday Camden!! We're lookin' forward to what you have up your sleeve next ♥

Love you,

Mom

Random Thoughts Part I

I promised a blog not full of food & since tomorrow is destined to be a busy, busy day I figured I'd do it tonight.

There have been several things on my mind lately. Prepare yourself for a bit of randomness that may or may not come together at the end of this post.

Random Thought #1
Why in the land of the free, home of the brave are we still so set against anyone who is different from what we deem 'normal'? There are men and women in our military who are gay. Deal with it! They are no different, would not serve our country any differently than a heterosexual. When you strip away our sexuality, the color of our skin, our culture, you will find we all bleed the same. Love is Love is Love. So long as there is love in a person's heart, who are we to say it's wrong?

Random Thought #2
I must say that when the abortion doctor was killed a tiny little thought crossed my mind "Well isn't that some karma". Abortion is such a difficult topic for me. I don't believe it should be used as a form of birth control. I do believe that if used for the purpose of terminating a deformed/malformed fetus, a fetus who did not develop correctly, or would be born with severe disabilities, it could be termed ok with me. But then again, doesnt that fetus have a right to life just as any other would? It's hard for me to say what's right or wrong, it's not my job, it's God's. & that I think is where my problem lies. For me abortion isnt just the scientific side of things: can it be considered a baby, when does the heart really start beating, when does the fetus/baby feel pain, etc etc. It's more than that: should we play God? Who are we to decide who lives and dies?

There's also the rights of the mother to consider. I think a woman should have the right to choose what happens with her own body. But then again if she'd have chose to protect herself to begin with she wouldnt be in the situation of making an even harder choice. There's so many different circumstances I could go through & point out why I agree or disagree with the choice of abortion. I won't do that tonight, it's tiring, & normally leaves me feeling even more on the fence than I do already.

As for the doctor murdered in his own house of worship, I'm sorry for his family. It must have been extremely hard loving someone who got so much bad press & all the threats & attempts on his life. I understand what he was trying to do. He was trying to give women an option & paid for it with his life.

Random Thought #3
The Army is not on my good side lately. This has not been one of those "I'm cool with the Army" weeks. Could be due to my impatience & their extreme lack of motivation to get anything done. Needless to say I still believe I could run the Army by myself & do a better job than the people there now.

Random Thought #4
20 days - 20 days until my love comes home to NC to LIVE with us until we PCS to Stewart(I wont get started on that clusterf*ck tonight). The most I've LIVED with my husband out of the past 22 months is 30 days & that was in April of this year. I'm looking forward to his socks in my floor, tripping over his boots, washing 3 extra loads of his laundry, the smell of his aftershave in my bathroom, the feel of his 2 day scruff on my skin *sigh* I cannot wait!

Okay so I'm done with random thoughts for the night. I need to call my hunny & bid him good night ♥ This will be continued though, trust me lol!

What's For Dinner?

I love mushrooms, always have. I love mushrooms with just about anything. Today I'm enjoying them with minced garlic & butter with a dash of EVOO.



Stir them around, saute'em a lil bit.



YUM!



Hmm, let's grill some steak. Why? Well because I love steak too.

Throw your juicy steak on a plate, cover with your mushrooms, & add a salad. Voila!

That's What's For Dinner!

I promise I'm not turning into one of those food blogs that make you hungry every time you view it. It's just that at this particular moment in my life Food is my comfort. I'm a bit stressed so I'm eating more. And please take note that I've mentioned having a tumultous love affair with food. *sigh*

Next blog won't contain food I promise. Though it may very well be a touchy subject. Enjoy!

MmmHmm...

My daughter just used the slang word "bidness" in a sentence...that's a little perturbing to me. I think I need to lie down.