Super Sonic Seat 9

Hiatus Ended

2010-09-24T22:40:00.002-04:00

Today, I managed to break my...really long...hiatus from working out. Since I arrived back in Yuma from my 2 week vacation in Ft. Sill, I haven't felt like working out, nor have I really had tons of time to fit it in.

One of my good friends has been asking me for the last 2 weeks to "train him" and I wanted to but, since it's WTI time and I've had some weird form of bronchitis for the last week, I haven't been able to...until today! It felt really good to get back into the gym. My friend and I struck a deal. I'll develop a diet plan and critique his lift form for as long as he manages to drag my really lazy butt to the gym, or whatever venue we're supposed to work out in that day. Hopefully, we'll keep each other on track through WTI.

Oh, I'm also running a half marathon in November. Even though I've run (ok, run/walked) 2 marathons, this is my first half. I have a bad habit of doing absolutely no training and showing up on race day, letting the cards fall as they will. My average marathon time is 5hrs, so I'm setting a goal for the half of sub-2:10. If I feel really squirrely towards the end of WTI, I might shave that down to sub-2hrs. Maybe I'll even train for this one!

Sad Redefined

2010-09-20T21:25:00.002-04:00

Question: What is the most pathetic thing you've ever seen?
Answer: Two dogs who are barely able to walk...or can't really walk at all.

Story: It's WTI time, which means that normal tasks must be divided between Charlie and I. On Sunday, that meant that he took the dogs for their weekly outing while I went to the grocery store. He decided to go for a hike in the mountains and when he returned 90 minutes later the dogs were blissfully worn out. They both slept on the floor for a looooooong time, actually about until it was time for them to eat. Oden has never, ever missed a meal, nor does he ever fail to come running when the bag of food is opened. Well, on Sunday, neither dog came running. In fact, they attempted to get up, each attempted a step and then promptly laid back down. Upon further inspection, Bailey was sporting front toe pads that were cracked and one was torn. Oden doesn't have any visible pad or foot injuries but he was unable to walk on one front leg and one back leg. Basically, Charlie and I had to carry our poor puppies around all night and then again a couple of times this morning.

Luckily, both dogs seem to be feeling much better this evening. They are both still walking a little painfully but they can move under their own power and don't avoid walking.

The Lesson: Dogs don't wear shoes but they should!

Those Days

2010-09-15T22:12:00.002-04:00

Ever had "those days?" This week, for me, seems to be full of them. I just can't seem to find motivation for anything...work, Crossfit, life...waking up in the morning. I've decided that it's a test of wills between me and the universe. So far, the universe is winning in Crossfit and life - I haven't worked out in about 2 weeks and I don't have a "life" - but, to date, I'm holding my own because I do wake up every morning and I do go to work every day.

We're in Service Charlies at work this week, for those who aren't familiar, it's a very uncomfortable uniform and the female version tends to look like something a flight attendant would wear. The silver lining of being in "Chucks" is that you can go places off base. Normally, we wear cammies to work and you can't be "in public" in cammies. Today, some of my colleagues and I went to lunch at this great hole-in-the-wall Chinese restaurant (off base). We ordered a TON of food, even taking into consideration that there were 5 of us eating. Anyway, a family paid for our meal. Sometimes I don't like my career choice. Sometimes I don't like the Marine Corps. Sometimes I don't like my job in the Marine Corps. More importantly, sometimes people do things that make me remember that, regardless of my momentary feelings, what we do is important and people do appreciate it.

Thanks to the family who paid for our lunch and fair winds and following seas to your son/grandson who's deploying to Afghanistan tomorrow. I think my streak of "those days" might be over.

Snakes.

2010-09-07T15:03:00.002-04:00

It's been 22 years since I've seen a snake "in the wild" and that was totally on purpose. The last time I saw a snake out of cage, I was 5. Little blonde me, with big blue eyes and chubby cheeks, was corraling my 4-H lambs in a pen outside my parents house. As I chased my lambs around the pen, trying to get their halters on them, my mud-booted foot stepped on a black snake. It was one of those garter/gardner...whatever...snakes that eats bugs and stuff and is basically harmless but this little guy shot straight up in the air, I remember it reaching apogee around my head height, and scared the ever living crap out of me! I was so scared that I ran back into the barn, jumped over the fence, ran out of the barn and parked myself on top of a very small tree stump in the side yard. I was standing on one foot, crying my eyes out and I did not move until my mom came and carried me off the stump and into the house. Hello fear forever!

That brings us to today. I don't have to work (I'll make up for that on Sunday, when WTI starts) so I'm spending the day lazing around the house with Oden and Bailey, doing just a little bit of work. I decided to let the dogs out to play catch for a few minutes. My dogs are prey driven so they love fetch...almost as much as they love chasing the little lizards that frequent my back yard. They took off toward the mulch pile where they normally chase lizards and started chasing something. After about 10 seconds, I realized that the lizard was moving much more slowly than it should and was not darting in and out of the cracks in the block wall at the back of my yard. My spidey-sense told me to go check it out and...my dogs...were chasing a baby snake. I have chosen not to learn all the types of snakes that live around here, so I immediately assumed it was a baby rattler and commenced franticly yelling at my dogs to leave it alone. By the time I got to the back of the yard, the little snake was standing up (raised up? hiked up? I don't know), striking at Bailey. My black dogs don't normally listen when they have prey in sight but I guess the pups are smart enough to tell the difference between "frantic yelling" and "regular yelling" because they obeyed and I immediately put everyone in the house. The moral? I hate snakes and I may have to move very soon.

P.S. - Neither of the black dogs were bitten and both appear to be totally confused by the fact that I refuse to let them go outside. Think I can train dogs to use a litter box? Additionally, my heart appears to be functioning normally despite the massive heart attack that I suffered earlier today.

Half Days

2010-07-06T20:08:00.002-04:00

Before I lament about the "half day," let me first apologize for my lack of pictures lately. I feel like I'm waiting to get the wide angle lense of my dreams but the truth is I really like sitting around my house and there's not a whole lot to take pictures of around here. Maybe when it's not 100 degrees at 9am I'll venture out and hike so I can take pretty out door pictures.

Now to my point...west coast Marines got a "72" (3 days off) for the 4th of July holiday. My squadron let us go at 1200 on Friday, though not very many were actually able to leave then, and had us return to work at 1200 today. I won't discuss how I didn't read that part of the email and showed up for work at 0720 to find a locked building. What I really want to convey is how useless half days are! It's feels as though you have no time to gather your thoughts, prioritize your tasks for the week and generally get organized! Everyone in my office sat around thumbing through emails (can you thumb through an email?) and talking about their weekends. No one did anything because we were all directionless. Not to mention the fact that most of the folks in my building are on leave right now so the place is empty. It's funny how lack of people take away a lot of the motivation to get stuff done. Perhaps those of us who are not on leave take the "they aren't working so why should I" approach? I hope that I can do that for someone when I finally get to take leave in August!

What are your thoughts on half days? Do you skip them all together because they are totally unproductive?

My Favorite 4th of July

2010-07-04T22:28:00.002-04:00

Today is the 4th of July. The birthday of our beloved nation. A favorite holiday for the great majority of the USA and of mine too. Whether it's for the colors, the family or the fireworks this day is special.

I love this country and because I love this country, I have spent a great deal of time away from it. I spend an even greater deal of time away from my family. This year, this 4th of July, this day, I can say for the first time since 2004 that I have spent three hundred and sixty-five days in the United States. That's right, one year ago today I got off a plane in Cherry Point, NC after stops in some place I can't remember, Germany and Iceland and I was home. Coming home is a feeling that you never forget.

I know I am not alone in my feelings for home and I know that I am one of the lucky few who can, today, say that I've been home for an entire year. To all my brothers and sisters in arms, those who are gone forever, those who are waiting to come home and those who were lucky enough to spend this day with their families, thank you. This country, our country, would not be without you.

Escape Artist

2010-06-06T20:43:00.006-04:00

My new dog Bailey is a canine Hudini. In the 10 weeks she's lived with me, she has broken out of (and destroyed in the process) two kennels. The first was a full wire kennel, which is the same type I've always kept Oden in. She bent the walls and basically ripped the front out of that. This past Friday, I came home and she was running around the house. She had pulled the door out of the front of her plastic travel kennel, you know the two plastic halves with a wire door?

Well, Charlie and I decided NOT to spend $650 to buy an aluminum kennel and to try to make our own out of plywood and 2x4s...so that's what we spent today doing. Here's the start. I know, it doesn't look like much but that will change very soon!

This is about half way through. The top, bottom, front and back are 3/4" plywood, the sides (the kennel is laying on its side in the photo) are lengths of 2x4 to allow adequate ventalation for Bailey. At this point, we were about 2 hours into the project. The only mildly difficult part was the door, which Charlie managed to cut and fit by himself because I made my weekly phone call to my parents.

This is the final product! I put a kennel liner inside so that she has something soft to lay on. Please don't be frightened when you notice that there are 4 locks on the door. She really is a master of escape and we were afraid that if the door wasn't reinforced from all aspects that she would quickly be out and running around the house when she is not supposed to be!

Lastly, because I love him, he's such a good boy and it's been quite a while since I've posted a picture of he and I...here's my favorite boy Oden. Isn't he just the cutest pup you've ever seen? You may have realized that sometimes I spell his name with an "I" and sometimes with an "E". I reserve the right to continue that interchange because I haven't decided which one I like better and, he's a dog so how I spell his name really makes no difference!

I'm finally crafty!

2010-06-01T18:35:00.004-04:00

I'll begin with a bit of a sad tale. Charlie and I had a fun camping/hiking trip to Flagstaff and Sedona planned for the long weekend . Everything was ready to go and we were basically waiting for Saturday morning to come so we could leave. Friday night when I got home from work, I noticed that Bailey's hind leg was bothering her. We're still not sure what's wrong but she has trouble walking on not-smooth (rough for those of you who talk good English) surfaces. Of course, we decided to postpone the trip and not force Bailey to walk 30 miles in two days on a bum leg.

That leads to my craftiness! Charlie gave me a sewing machine for Christmas (at my request) but I haven't gotten around to using it until today. I made Odin and Bailey a "place" in the living room. It's just a dog bed but it's big enough for both of them and it's made of memory foam, so it's super comfy. I used some felt-esque fabric for the top and canvas for the bottom. I should also admit that I did not attempt sewing in a zipper. Instead, I was incredibly lazy and used adhesive velcro strips to close the end.

Though both dogs seem to enjoy their new bed, they did eventually get annoyed with my picture taking...it kinda looks like they've both been kicked in this picture but I assure you they have not.

Maybe I'll get around to making something else soon...

How's It Going?

2010-04-24T19:48:00.002-04:00

I often get this question regarding WTI and for a while, I didn't have any idea how to answer. WTI is chaotic, stressful, fulfilling, miserable, overwhelming, amazing and many other things but that's entirely too long an answer for such a simple question. During this WTI though, the answer came to me and now I simply say "The best thing about WTI is that once it starts, it will end." Perhaps that's seems pessimistic but it was the best I could muster while actually in the middle of WTI.

We're through Academics phase and getting ready for flight phase. The pilots are already flying but my peeps are practicing planning. I HATE practicing planning but something miraculous happened today. The students finished their practice planning early, like 2 hours early, so I'm home before sunset on a Saturday! Yay students!!!!!

I'm not dead...

2010-04-14T23:07:00.003-04:00

it's just spring WTI. What's WTI? It's Weapons and Tactics Instructors' Course, the biggest part of my job here at Marine Aviation and Weapons and Tactics Squadron -1 and it means I spend 3 weeks in Academics phase, about 11hrs a day at work, and 4 weeks in flight phase, which can be anywhere from 13-16 hours a day at work. Yeah, those times are "at work," not "hours I spend awake or doing stuff during the day." Thank God Charlie is here to take care of the house and, more importantly, the dogs.

Oh, did I forget to post about my new dog Bailey? I adopted her from one of the Marines I work with. She's 3 years old, just a year younger than Odin, and she's a pit-lab mix. I bounce back and forth between thinking that Odin is a pit-lab and a boxer-lab. I suppose I could cotton swab his mouth and pay a couple of hundred bucks to find out for sure but I don't really care that much. I love my little mixed dogs and they love their new primary care taker, Charlie. I'm not entirely sure what Bailey, Odin or I would do without him.

Pictures of the puppies will come as soon as I get my life back!

Weekend Goals

2010-02-26T19:15:00.005-05:00

I've recently been trying to "better myself" in the realm of keeping my house clean and keeping my schedule from becoming overwhelming. Thus far, my success rate has been fairly high but one job, one project is standing in my way of what I'll call "90% success." My office has yet to be unpacked since I moved to Arizona and in the last 7 months, it has become a repository for everything I didn't have any place else for.

I've been planning to clean and organize the cave of junk for the last two months or so, I even considered entering Org Junkie's 28-Day Organizing Challenge; alas, February has come and is about to leave and my room is still a mess. See isn't my desk embarrassing!

My plan is to fix that mess this Sunday. Yep, I'm only giving myself one day to get it done because I know that's all the focus I'll have to devote to it. If I drag it out over the entire weekend, I'll still be sifting through stuff until the day I move out of this house.

Last big announcement: I'm getting another dog. She's a "sort-of-rescue" dog who needs a new home because her family is moving out of the country and can't take her along. I'm hoping to get her next weekend, pics will follow!

My Bug

2010-02-07T19:33:00.005-05:00

My dog Odin arrived in LA on 13 Jan, thanks to the awesomeness of Pet Airways and my mom for driving Odin to Chicago so he could get on the plane. Though the airline is small and only services a few airports, it was totally worth it. Odin was super excited, happy and seemed very well taken care of when I picked him up.

Since his arrival, he's been adjusting to life as an "inside dog" again and I've been adjusting to black dog hair all over my white tile floors. That transition was fairly easy, though I'm not proud to say that I'm now ok with my floors being fairly filthy!

It's been great having the dog to make me drag my lazy butt out of the house though. Charlie was also here for a few weeks so we took Odin out on the Colorado River while Charlie ran old gas out of his bass boat thing and scouted fishing/duck hunting spots along the river. Odin loves the wind blowing on his face as the boat runs along. He also got to go swimming, courtesy of another scouting adventure with Charlie. Funny how Odin loves standing water but the sprinklers in my yard don't really work for him.

I also purchased a doggy pack for Odin so that he can carry his own water and snacks when we go on hikes and long walks. We tested it out along a bike trail that also runs along the Colorado a couple of weeks ago and Odin loves it! He didn't try to wiggle out of it and, even though he's very easy to walk, he was exceptionally well behaved during that long walk. I think it's going to be a great addition to his walks and will hopefully help tire him out some because he has a TON of energy!

I Feel Better

2010-01-03T14:46:00.002-05:00

Why? Because I got to help out one of my neighbors today. I ran into her while she was cleaning out her garage and I was taking out my trash. After we had the obligatory "how was your holiday?" discussion we chatted a little while longer and then she said it, "My smoke alarm started chirping at 6:30 this morning and I can't find the battery." Now, having experienced this same thing, albeit on a little louder scale, not long ago I offered to help. Obviously, swapping the battery was easy for an expert such as myself (heh heh) and the problem was resolved pretty quickly.

So I feel better because I helped my neighbor, kept her from having to call the fire department because all her smoke detectors were going off and...because...well...because I'm not the only person in the world who got stumped by a smoke detector battery!

What WAS that?

2009-12-30T14:34:00.002-05:00

Today quickly turned in to "errand running" day around Yuma. I went to the post office, Lowe's, work for a few hours, then decided to stop at Wal-Mart on the way home to see if they had any good movies on sale. Wal-Mart was absolutely packed but that's not the point of my story.

After dodging 5 million snow birds to get back to the DVD racks, I started browsing the sales. Not much on the $9 and $13 racks blew my skirt up so I pushed further back into the depths of the DVD area, where I discovered a large bin of movies for $5 and quickly began maneuvering my cart toward it. I'm not the best cart driver in the world so when the bin began shaking right when my cart got near it, I assumed that I'd bumped into it. Then I realized - all of Wal-Mart was shaking. This was quite odd to me and it took me a good 2 seconds to realize it was an earthquake.

Now, y'all know me. Y'all know that I grew up in Ohio and have lived almost my entire life in the eastern half of the US. I have experienced only one earthquake before this while I was at Auburn, in the middle of the night. I lived in a mobile home at the time and when the shaking started at 3am, I actually considered the possibility that some drunk college kid had just run their truck into my house. That seemed much more plausible to me than an earthquake.

Back to the story at hand...today's earthquake in Yuma. After I realized what was going on, I started trying to figure out what I should do. What does one do when stuck in the bowels of Wal-Mart during an earthquake? There are no sturdy surfaces to hide under, anywhere you move puts you closer to shelves full of merchandise that could plop down on top of your head. I sized up my options and decided to...continue sorting through the movie bin. I wasn't close to any merchandise shelves, there was nothing to dive under and the shaking didn't seem bad enough to make the rafters or lights fall so searching movies until it was all over seemed like the best idea. Turns out, many others in the store didn't agree with me because they were running around searching for a place to make their dive. Most of them didn't succeed. Everything was fine though, it wasn't a strong tremmor even though it lasted for several seconds. I heard that some merchandise fell off shelves but nothing major.

So the answers to the two questions I've asked myself today...1) What WAS that? It was an earthquake, moron! 2) What does one do when stuck in Wal-Mart during an earthquake? Keep looking at movies because $5 is a great deal and you're getting a brief opportunity to browse while everyone else tries to hide!

I'm still totally over 2009.

Prayer Request

2009-12-27T17:17:00.002-05:00

I just got back from an awesome trip home for Christmas. It was so great to spend Christmas with my family and to get to see everyone in just 2 days! Reflecting on the happy time I got to spend with my family, enjoying all the gifts we have in eachother leads me to my request...

One of my very dear friends had a baby, baby Andrew, a few days before Christmas. A few hours after he was born, he was diagonsed with a heart problem called Transposition of the Great Arteries. My friend's husband was in Afghanistan at the time of Andrew's birth but because of this serious issue, the father was able to come home on emergency leave. The whole family is together as baby Andrew goes in to open heart surgery tomorrow to hopefully begin correcting his heart problems. I'd like to ask for prayers for my friend and baby Andrew as they await surgery tomorrow and then hope that Andrew is able to recover. I can't imagine how difficult this Christmas has been for that family.

Any thoughts or prayers you can offer in the coming days are most appreciated!

Dear 2010

2009-12-21T18:51:00.000-05:00

Please hurry and get here. You seem like such a nice year, with your clean even numbers. There's already so much to look forward to as you approach. My puppy's coming to live with me, my housewife is coming to live with me, I get to move to my real job as the DASC division head. I'm so excited for your arrival!

As for 2009, we're through! It's full of such little annoyances that they've added up to a deal breaker. Let's examine the most recent evidence.

1) The smoke alarm ordeal
2) The chip I got in my windshield last week
3) The nail I got in my tire over the weekend
4) My garbage can exploding packing peanuts all over my driveway and promptly spread to all my neighbors yards and driveways

Yes, 2009 I have moved on. I wish you the best of luck though, please just leave me out of it.

He Kills Me...

2009-12-20T20:33:00.000-05:00

Who am I talking about? My Daddy! I don't have the words to say how much that man has made me who I am; for those of you who know the two of us, no words are necessary. He taught me, at the same time, how to write a check and high crawl on the old, cracked laminate floor in my parent's kitchen. That floor isn't there anymore.

Anyway, when I talked to my folks last week (I've tried to always call them on Sundays, ever since I left home for college) Daddy had a comment about my post a few weeks back about how my weight has gotten a little out of control. Daddy said, "Kiddo, you need to go on a diet." Thanks Daddy, I hadn't grasped that at all!

This week I had more time to talk to "the fam" because I wasn't 2hrs removed from a weekend of physical pain...i mean my fantastic Crossfit Level 1 Certification...and facing a 3hr drive back to Yuma. So I called my parents before supper...yes, I say supper...time so that I wouldn't have to listen to Daddy fuss because his food was getting cold. We had a generally standard chat, updating everyone on the goings on of our lives, health, work, etc. AF and UJ (my favorite aunt and uncle) showed up at my parents house while we were on the phone so I got to say hi to AF and UJ, which is always fun. Especially getting to talk to UJ, he was my favorite childhood...life long really...pal and I miss him terribly.

Back to how Daddy kills me! I told Mom and Daddy that I'd let them go because they had company and, well, I'll be home in a few days and we need something to talk about, and we began to say our goodbyes. Daddy started his normal "You take care kiddo." which really means "I love you Kid" but he actually said "You take care Kiddo and be safe and I'll see you on Tuesday."

"Daddy, I'll be home on Wednesday." I said as Mom echoed my words to my father. Daddy answered "I thought you were coming home on Tuesday. I'm not going shopping on Christmas Eve!" Apparently Daddy hasn't shopped for Mom's Christmas gift yet. I think I can con him into shopping on Christmas Eve though. Perhaps I should call Mr. John and prep the battlefield a little. Mr. John is always the best way to get Daddy to do anything he doesn't want to do!

How to end hunger

2009-12-08T16:40:00.000-05:00

I've discovered the best way to make your stomach tell your brain "No more food, thank you." Simply fill your house with fresh fruits and veggies and some type of lean protein (I chose chicken) and get rid of all your cheese, bread and anything else that contains gluten or is delicious. I promise after a couple of days of eating like that, you would rather gnaw your right arm off than eat another bite of spinach!

What does that mean, I've been doing a good job eating/working out relm this week. I worked out Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday and am taking a rest day today. Tomorrow I'm going to do something relatively light, probably some 800m tempo repeats in preparation for my Combat Fitness Test on Friday, along with some core work. Thursday will be a rest day and then I'll jump straight into my super-fitness weekend. Friday morning I take the CFT; it focuses on short bursts of all out effort over 3 events...should be a good time, I've never taken it before. Saturday and Sunday, Charlie and I are attending a Level 1 Crossfit certification in Phoenix. Even though I wasn't able to follow my weekly plan exactly, I think I'm doing pretty good job following the spirit this week. Next week though, it's on like donkey kong...or something like that.

Family Unite!

2009-12-05T17:11:00.000-05:00

I'm getting very excited about going home for Christmas. The Donnelly's have a Christmas morning tradition that has existed for at least 60 years and I'm sure it's much older than that. We all get together and have breakfast very, very early on Christmas morning. I remember first going to my Great Aunt Margaret's house (I think that was her name) and then when she couldn't host anymore...maybe when she died, I don't remember that either, Christmas morning moved to my parents house. I want to say that was when I was 2 or so.

Anyway, my building excitement for Christmas morning makes me think of lots of things, mostly all the great food traditions that my family and extended family have. There are lots of recipes that I love and have no idea how to make. With that in mind, I've decided that my family wide gift for next Christmas is going to be a Donnelly and extended family cookbook. Mostly, this is a selfish undertaking so that I can have my family's food and carry on some of the traditions while I spend the majority of my time away from home and my family.

So what do I need...I need everyone who has a recipe that holds some family meaning, not necessarily tied to a holiday, to send them to me. I'd also like to include things like craft projects, games, decorating ideas and the like. Basically, it's a way to carry the family around with you when you can't be home. Ok family, let's get it done!

Too much to say

2009-12-04T17:17:00.000-05:00

I left work early today and have been ~~sitting~~ toiling around my house, wondering what I should write about. There's just too much so I'll give a quick blurb about several things.

1) My trip to Quantico - never confuse effort with results. People sometimes find themselves in over their heads and need to learn to recognize, reassess and actually fix the problem.
2) Eating/Working out - I get a C for this week. I managed to PT a couple of times but did not manage to actually follow much of a paleo/zone inspired diet. Hopefully I will remedy that with my trip to the grocery store where I only purchased cooked chicken, veggies, fruit and some cooked turkey sausage (not so paleo/zone but I don't want chicken for breakfast).
3) Joined a Snap Fitness that's 1.3 miles from my house so I can run to and from the gym on weekends and week days when the base gym is close. Soon, the savings in not having to drive to base to workout on weekends will even out the money I'm spending on a gym membership.
4) I bought some patterns for handbags, skirts and pajama pants that I really want to make. Now I just have to get a sewing machine.
5) In the desert, 70 degrees feels like 35-40 degrees in places where the average temperature barely gets above 80. I've lived in the desert for the last 11 months and I'm currently sitting in my 72 degree house in sweatpants, a sweatshirt and cold weather slippers.
6) 6pm.com is the best website of all time. I got 2 pairs of $100 shoes for $15 each and only $7 for shipping. LOVE IT!

Ok, I'm out!

Truth in Advertising

2009-11-29T23:10:00.000-05:00

I am a bit of a fitness nerd. I can talk the nutrition and programming talk pretty well, in fact many of my co-workers and friends come to me for advice and recommendations. That being said, I'm horrible at holding myself accountable to my own standards, especially when I'm home in the states. While in CONUS, I weigh no less than 15lbs more than I do on deployment. This isn't because I don't eat on deployment, I do and quite a bit. It's because 1) I'm lazy and the thought of sitting on my comfy couch often outweighs my desire to go to the gym or do some other form of physical training and 2) I think beer is the most delicious beverage ever created by man. So, just about 5 months post deployment and I'm 13lbs heavier than I was on 4 July when I got home. I'm not deploying for a couple of years to I have to stop relying on those to get me back in to shape.

If I'm going to be able to live with myself while providing diet and exercise advice to my friends, I have to get myself on track. I don't live my life by a scale because I'm always heavier than I look and much heavier than typical females of my height, in fact my BMI is well into the obese range, but I do live my life by pictures. The one on the left is from just before my return home and the one on the right is me 4 days ago. I'm making a sort of an early New Year's resolution to get myself back on track.

The Plan:
M-W-F Heavy lifting and sprint/repeat work
T-R Crossfit metcons
Weekends - riding my mountain bike, distance running, hiking or whatever I feel like doing that involves getting off my butt

Meal Plan:
Focus on a Paleo/Zone type diet that is heavy in lean protein, vegetables and good (Omega-3) fats

I forsee this schedule lasting from now until the end of March. At that point, I'll re-evaluate where I am and adjust my program accordingly. I have a pretty fitness oriented next couple of months. 11 Dec I'm taking the Combat Fitness Test. 12-13 Dec I'm attending a level 1 Crossfit certification. 17 Jan I'm running a marathon in Phoenix. A good gauge along the way will be my Physical Fitness Test in mid-March. I'll be attending a conference in VA until Friday so I'll have to adjust my desired schedule a bit this week and then again from 24-27 Dec but for the most part, I should be able to follow my plan.

Expect frequent updates about my diet and exercise, as well as postings of pictures. Unless I have someone to hold myself accountable to, other than me, I am not entirely sure that I an break my cycle of get fat at home - get in shape on deployment. Wish me luck!

Thanksgiving

2009-11-29T22:43:00.000-05:00

Despite not being able to go home for Thanksgiving, it was a great holiday. Charlie came to Yuma, we packed a pumpkin pie (the other was held in reserve for us) and went to the Forsythe's for "a very Forsythe Thanksgiving." There were lots of people from work in attendance and it was a really great time. Charlie arrived at 11am, we came back to the house, changed and prepped the pies and arrived at the Forsythe's at 1pm. Chris was busy preparing his fantastic turkey which was brined in apple and spices and hickory smoked. He smoked it on his beast of a grill nicknamed "Oprah," I won't share why but it's a completely appropriate name. All told, 4 families, 2 singles, Charlie and me and a host of kiddos were in attendance and the fair included 3 turkeys, a ham, a duck, green beans, dressing and stuffing, mashed potatoes and 4 pies. All the food was delicious. The whole day finished around 8pm, adults with full bellies and all the kiddos running around outside on a sugar high from the pie.

I am very thankful for such wonderful friends who open their home to others so that we can enjoy a holiday together and build a larger sense of family. It really was an honor to be in attendance but I'm looking forward to going home for Christmas.

Birthday Ball

2009-11-24T19:16:00.000-05:00

This is about 10 days late but I just got the pics, which I stole from friends on Facebook. The Marine Corps Ball was on 14 Nov. I'll say that it wasn't the best ball I've been to because the food wasn't very good but the ceremony was one of the best I've seen and, at the end of the day, the ceremony is what celebrates the Marine Corps and is what really counts.

First, the food. The entree itself wasn't horrible but everyone showed up expecting Chicken Marsala and Tri-Tip steak. We were actually served sliced roast beef with gravy and chicken with something that might, at one time, been Marsala sauce. I put some Ranch dressing on the roast beef and it tasted just fine. The real confusion of the meal was the salad course. It was a mixed green salad served on top of a big leaf of bib lettuce. Why? There were actually two salads combined to one in this dish, based on what they added to the lettuce. Mandarin oranges, cranberries and walnuts go together nicely but when you put them on the same bit of lettuce as olives, cucumber, tomato and onion it just doesn't make sense. The dressing selection (Italian and Ranch) only made sense with the later half of the salad components. I guess I shouldn't complain - put enough Ranch on anything and it tastes fine, so that's what I did. Needless to say, I got about a weeks worth of fat calories from dressing that night.

Part of the ceremony is the Adjutant reading the Birthday message from General Lejeune. It's a pretty big deal because that message is one of the most time honored documents in the Marine Corps and the poor Adj has to stand in front of everyone, holding a scroll, and read the whole thing. It's about 5min of reading. One of the wives had the nerve to make fun of our Adj during the ceremony. She wasn't making fun in her head or even in a quite manner to her husband. She was full on laughing and making comments to the other people at her table. I had more than half a mind to walk over to her, grab her by her scrawny neck and kick her disrespectful butt out of the ballroom. Honestly, I was pissed. If you don't care about the ceremony, then don't go the ceremony! I should add that MOST Marine wives are awesome, just this one sucked.

Moving on...I didn't hang around too long after the ceremony and dinner, which turned out to be a good call because my pals who did were at it until 5am. Before I left though, the DASC fire team got together for a picture. Don't we look great! I felt like a bit of a bag because I forgot to have my medals fixed, which means I was missing a couple of stars. Of course no one knew that but I knew and it bothered me a bit all night.

So, that was my first Birthday Ball in a couple of years. I've been deployed 2 of the last 3. It was nice to see the whole she-bang again, not just have cake and go back to work. Though, having cake and going back to work has its place too. All in all, it was a great night with friends. Happy belated birthday Marines.

Thanks Yuma Fire Department

2009-11-16T19:27:00.002-05:00

Well, my Monday got off to a great start. About 4:30am I was thrown from my cozy bed, close to a fit of panic because all 6 fire alarms in my house were screeching loudly. I hurried all around the inside and outside of my house trying to find the fire but to no avail. Why then, were all of my fire alarms going off? Before I took further action against the noise pollution drowning my thoughts, I rushed to my bathroom and grabbed a set of ear plugs that were left over from WTI. Then went to the garage, brought my 8' ladder inside, pulled one of the smoke detectors down from its mount and attempted to check the battery. Apparently, I haven't seen a smoke detector made after 2000 because I could not, for the life of me, find the battery compartment. All of my devices are wired to house power so I was very close to assuming that there wasn't even a battery compartment to be found. I pushed all the buttons and rattled the thing around but it didn't even pause. Next, I tried to read the teeny-tiny print on the back but that was fairly futile since it's in 2.5pt font and my 8' ladder only got me about 2 feet away from my stupid high ceilings.

At this point I was stumped. I tried googling every possible variation of smoke detectors going off and couldn't turn up anything more than "check your batteries"...thanks google, I did think of that, how about some directions to find the effing battery compartment! It's now 5:20am and I was basically out of options. I decided to call one of the non-emergency lines to the local fire department because who would know more about fire alarms than they do? The nice lady on the other end was very patient with my lack of self-sufficiency. She offered to send some people out to look at my alarms.

5:35 the firemen arrive. Sadly, they weren't calendar worthy but they were super nice and braved the ear splitting noise going on in Casa del Donnelly. Eventually, we decided that one of my six alarms had a dead battery (no, it didn't chirp at me at all before hand) and that had set off all of the alarms. I still don't understand how that works. I only had 2 9-volt batteries so they replaced two batteries, showed me where the compartment was and they took down the remaining 4 wailing banshees and by 6:10 my morning was back to normal.

So I had my very first "someone help me" moment that actually required physical help from someone I didn't know. Usually I would call my parents; Mom or Dad would provide an insightful answer, direct me through execution and I would learn something AND not look like a total incompetent at the end of the day. Needless to say, I'm humbled by the whole experience and wish I had paid more attention in my 2nd grade fire safety class.

Great way to start a Monday.

Time for an update

2009-11-15T15:09:00.007-05:00

WTI has been over for 2 weeks and I've been busy getting back to "normal life." First on my list of things to do was a trip to Hawaii to visit Charlie. Too bad I'm going to lose my excuse for random Hawaii trips in a few short months...not that I'm not super excited for Charlie to be in Arizona. Anyway, back to the latest Hawaii trip. It was short but we managed to squeeze in quite a bit.

We went to the beach and Charlie tried to get me to surf...I opted for a boogie board because they're more fun to lounge around on. I mean, the waves were like 2 miles off the beach and you have to paddle all the way out there! Ok, 2 miles is an exaggeration BUT Charlie paddled for at least 15min and didn't make it all the way out to the waves so I think my lazier decision was by far superior. I had a great time paddling, letting the already broken waves gently push me back toward the beach and then paddling some more. I also spent a decent amount of time just hanging out on top of my board. Sorry, no pics from the beach because 1) I was in the water and 2) I was afraid someone would steal my camera if I left it on the beach while I was relaxing in the water.

We also went on a short hike to a beautiful waterfall, mostly because Charlie neglected to take me on that hike the last time I visited. The trail was super muddy and I almost bit it hard several time. Thanks to my new Vibram Five Finger shoes (toe shoes in Amanda language) I did not fall though. I also experimented with a skort on this hike. I bought one from Title Nine, my favorite clothing store of all time, and had been looking for a "active" adventure to wear it on. Turns out the skort is a viable option for hiking and probably for several other activities. I don't think the one I have is suitable for running and the idea of running in a skort is still pretty odd to me but I'm starting to warm up to the idea.

Last noteworthy outing for this trip, supper at the Kona Brewing Co. YOU ABSOLUTELY MUST EAT THERE IF YOU VISIT HAWAII! The food was amazing. Seriously, every single thing we ordered was among the best food I've ever had. Even better, Kona makes a series of the best beers ever. Ever lager and ale we tried was fantastic. I wish I had a bigger vocabulary to describe the whole thing but I don't so trust me that it was unforgettable food and beer. Plus, you can sit on the water while you enjoy great food and drink. The pic is actually from pre-dinner at Fromagio, which was also very good but no where near Kona!

So the big takeaways are 1) toe shoes are the best things ever and 2) Kona Brewing Co. is basically perfect!

First Week

2009-09-19T22:12:00.003-04:00

Well, the first week of WTI 1-10, my first Weapons and Tactics Instructors' Course as an instructor, is complete. One of my C3 (Command, Control and Communications) colleagues said it best with "it's like a stateside deployment." Every morning this week, I arrived at work no later than 6:30am. This morning (Saturday) I arrived at work at 5:00am. I only got home before dark twice and on both of those days my "get home time" was not before 5:00pm. Maybe this makes me pathetic but I love it! I love working tons and tons! Maybe it's because if I'm at work all the time I have a viable excuse for being so lazy around the house. I literally didn't have time to clean, pickup, do laundry etc for the entire week. This brings me to my next point.

I need a wife! Please don't be confused, I don't want a husband. I need someone who cooks, cleans, picks up, deals with "around the house" things in general so that I don't have to because I DON'T HAVE TIME!!! Most of the guys I work with (I'm the only girl in C3) have wives and spend their days raving about how nice it is to have someone pack their lunch for them or whatever. Clearly, I need a wife.

I'm currently working in the Academics department, patiently awaiting the time when I get to go to my permanent home as the DASC division head. I really like Academics. Mostly, my job entails fixing everyone's problems (much like what I've always done in the Marine Corps), making the inventory and generics exams and making sure that generics week goes smoothly. Since generics is over, I'm basically free to go play with C3 and, most excitingly, the DASC.

Next week commons begins so the 12hrs of classes per day, for 6 straight days will be way more interesting than generics and I REALLY need the refresher. Even though we only get 1 day off per week, I can't wait for Monday to start. Flight phase is just 2 weeks away as well, which is even more exciting. Longer days, planning, traveling to the sites...I can't wait! I'm sure this will wear off quickly after my first class is over but I'm relishing it for the moment.

I'm also relishing finishing my week of in the best possible fashion - watching the AU v. WV game on ESPN. My first AU game of the season! Simply fantastic week!

I'm Homeless!

2009-07-29T12:26:00.002-04:00

Well, I'm not really homeless but my house is totally empty. Literally, the only "furniture" I have at this moment is a lawn chair and a blow up mattress and that's what I have to live on for the next 10 days or so.

Mom and Aunt Frances went back to Ohio yesterday after a solid week of cleaning and packing and a short vacation down to Myrtle Beach. I honestly don't know if I would have gotten everything done without their fantastic help. Thanks so much guys! I love you!

Today is my last day of house hunting leave and I'm really not excited to go back to "work" because, these days, work is very simply going in to the office and sitting - I have nothing to do at work, I really don't even have a job! I suppose I shouldn't complain about this extended break for working, I'll have my hands more than full pretty much from the moment I check in to my next command.

Grocery bagging - The new rocket science???

2009-07-18T12:24:00.002-04:00

I have just returned from my bi-weekly trip to the grocery store. Since I do not recycle, my little attempt to "go green" is to take my own grocery bags, rather than getting paper or plastic bags. I took 3 medium size fabric bags to carry home the roughly 20 items I planned to buy. Cashiers and baggers typically get confused by these bags so they under-pack for the bag size, which is why I brought an extra bag.

I was in the checkout line and the cashier began scanning my items...after she spent 5 minutes trying to figure out how to get my fabric bag to fit on the plastic bag rack! She proceeded to put 4 items, weighing a total of 2 pounds, in to the bag and then she looked at me and said "I don't really know what to do with this." I DON'T REALLY KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH THIS?!?!?!?!?! It's a bag...put stuff in it until it's full and then hand it to me! Previously, I assumed that anyone over the age of 5 understood this concept, let alone those whose job it is to put things in bags all day long! Perhaps I grew up on Mars but I'm pretty sure that all the kiddies from my hometown could manage the concept of "put stuff in the bag." I tried to let her continue to do her job, because basically I was paying for her bagging service whether she could pack my items or not, but when she could not manage to put a 6 pack of beer in the bag (she tried to lay it sideways on top of several other items of various sizes), I was forced to take over and bag my own groceries. Part of me wanted to ask for a discount since I did 50% of her cashier/bagger duties but I did not.

I'm not a fan of the grocery store anyway and things like this absolutely reinforce that feeling!

There's something to be said...

2009-07-13T17:14:00.002-04:00

Though I'll never speak ill of being home, there are a few things that Iraq has to offer that are really easy to get used to; most involve household chores. First, you NEVER have to cook in Iraq. No, the food isn't always great but it's always there and all you have to do is show up. Second, laundry service - you drop your laundry off (no more than 20 pieces!) and someone does your laundry for you. The most effort I put in to doing laundry for the last 6 months was putting a little bit of extra detergent in my socks. I don't know what they use to wash clothes over there but without extra detergent the sweat, dirt and weird chow hall smell builds up pretty quickly. Third, you can go an entire deployment without spending any money if you want. You don't pay for food, laundry, gas or any other day to day expenses unless you really want to buy something. Even bottles of water are free! Lastly, there's a huge difference between cleaning an 8x12 room that is minimally furnished and cleaning a 1500 sq ft house that is full of stuff. I hate cleaning and that's really all I've been doing since I got back!

All that aside, I'm so glad to be home and to be getting ready for my move to Arizona. That preparation has been going very smoothly thus far but that may change after tomorrow when I set up my government move for all of my household goods. I've become addicted to Facebook since I got home; that isn't helping my cleaning/packing/get back in to a normal schedule efforts. I really should stop complaining since all of my friends are still waiting to come home (I got some special treatment because I'm moving).

I'm Home or Happy 4th of July!

2009-07-04T10:36:00.002-04:00

HELLO!!!!! I arrived home from Al Asad, Iraq at about 0530 eastern time. Following the 2 hour evolution that is trying to get your bags off the plane, I came home and immediately went to Wal-Mart. I know that some of my friends will frown at that but they too shop at Wal-Mart, at least sometimes, and I contend that you don't know how great it is until you live without it for 6 months.

I will say that I was pretty sad leaving Iraq. This was my 3rd trip in 4 years, most of the Marines I was deployed with were on their second deployment with me and I left this time knowing that I will most likely never go back there. That's an incredibly odd thought for me because I considered registering to vote in the Jan elections there.

Now that I'm home, I have to do my "post-deployment training," which basically consists of a bunch of briefings telling Marines not to get drunk, drive their cars and beat their wives all in the same day. Once that is finished, I have to get ready to move to Yuma, AZ. I'm going to buy a new car (mostly thanks to the new government rebates offered for fuel efficient cars). That's pretty much all of the excitement I have lying ahead in the next month or so.

I haven't taken a shower in 3 days; I need to remedy that stat!

Been Awhile

2009-03-19T13:36:00.002-04:00

Well my friends, I have made my way back to the face of the earth. Ok, so I was never really lost, I was having some technical issues with my personal computer. Mostly because the contractors who keep our rooms from burning down due to electrical fire shorted out the converter in my power cord and I just got another cord today. Also, it doesn't seem like I've been gone for 2 months already. Time is really flying by!

I don't have any fun stories for the most part and it would take about 5 years to upload pictures with this connection (not that I'm complaining, having internet in my room is AWESOME!). I wish I could say that I had cool stories but I would have to kill you if I told them, that would be the furthest thing from the truth though. I did get to hang out with some Iraqi pilots, which was pretty awesome but other than that, I haven't done much that rates a "Wow!"

I'm almost done with my first college class and half way through my second. That puts me over the 50% complete mark for getting another degree. I'm pretty excited about that. Lucky for me, school work does a good job at filling the time when I don't have real work to do. My other time filler, more like my "me time" is spent in the gym. I've gotten in to a pretty good groove and have made some decent progress in getting stronger.

Yep, that's pretty much my life...work, school, workout. I do eat a lot of desserts. The carrot cake in the chow hall is one of my vices.

Ok, enough of my boring drivel. Until next time!

What a New Year!

2009-01-01T12:19:00.003-05:00

Christmas leave has been great, just not very restful. I got to go home to Ohio for the holiday, it's always nice to spend some time with the family. We did all our traditional Christmas stuff, like Christmas breakfast at my parents house with all my dad's family. There's a new addition there, my little cousin Colt. Yes, I know Colt is not a name I would pick but he's a great little baby and I'm going to call him Sam to overcome my humor with his given name.

So 2009 has several things I'm looking forward to. First, I'm going to be moving to Arizona at some point. That's exciting because 1) I get to leave Havelock and 2) I get to buy a new car when I get there. I've started working on another bachelor's degree in exercise science. Hopefully this one I'll actually use some day! Lastly, after this year I'll get to stay here for a couple of years. Perhaps I'll only go back to Iraq for elections. I'm fairly certain that I already have enough time there to apply for citizenship but after this next several months, I'll probably be awarded citizenship by default...kind of like common law marriage.

Anyway, I leave soon so I won't be blogging for awhile. I know, I know, it's not like I was a daily or even weekly blogger...don't judge me! I'll do my best to post from time to time and I'll check in with you all as much as I can.

I hope everyone has a great and safe 2009!

Happy Thanksgiving has passed!

2008-12-02T18:11:00.004-05:00

It's officially Christmas time! I must admit that I'm a huge dweeb and put up my Christmas tree before I went home for the Thankgiving holiday. I had a good reason though! I'll be home for Christmas so that's nine days that I won't be able to see my own tree...I deserve those nine days because this is the first year I've been able to put up my own Christmas tree.

I had a great Thanksgiving with my family. My mom makes the best pumpkin pie ever and I ate a whole one by myself! Thanksgiving dinner wasn't the only thing on the schedule while I was home, I also got to help Mom put up her Christmas trees. In total, she has somewhere close to 11. I know that sounds like a lot but my mom has the biggest heart ever and she loves her trees so she deserves as much happiness as she can get. She only has three big trees and it's a huge chore to get them all up and decorated so that's what Charlie and I helped with. We decorated the Santa tree and the "miscellaneous" tree and Mom decorated her angel tree. It turned in to a family affair when one of the trees wouldn't fit in to the turn table that Mom has for her big trees and Daddy and Charlie had to devise a method to make it stand up.

Charlie did very well working through the whole thing. Putting up all those trees, with all those decorations is a big job and requires a lot of dedication, so kudos to Charlie for hanging in there! The one good thing is that Mom has so many ornaments for each tree that it winds up being totally fully so you don't have to worry about there being empty spots.

Aside from Christmas trees and getting ridiculously fat, I got to spend some time with my dog, who has been in the gracious care of my parents for over two years now. I also got to meet my cousin Mickey's son Colt for the very first time. Colt is a month old or so and he's just precious! I didn't hold him because he's not classified as an infant yet and babies are catching ya know! I'll hang out with him some more when I go home for Christmas.

Well, I know none of this was very exciting to read about but it was my holiday and, like I said, I had a fantastic time! I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and that you have a spectacular Christmas/New Year's season in store!

Yet Another First

2008-11-04T17:32:00.006-05:00

This is the very first election, since I've been of voting age, that I've actually been able to go to a polling location and vote. Between going to college out of my home state and being deployed, absentee ballots have been it for me. Checking a name on a flimsy piece of paper and sticking it in the mail always seemed to lack the majesty and sense of importance that I thought should come along with voting.

My mother and aunt have worked the polls in our home town for as long as I can remember. I have always loved election days because those ladies bring some fantastic food for the poll workers and it always fascinated me how the punch card thingy (yes, that's a technical term and I was a simple child) worked.

So this morning, I woke up bright and early ready to drive down to the middle school that is my polling location. I arrived promptly at 6:30am and I was impressed at how smoothly and quickly the workers were getting people ready to vote. It all seemed so official. They checked my ID, I stated my name and address, signed a paper and then the ladies put my very own bar coded sticker on my "authorization to vote" form. I had to take my authorization form to another table to receive my ballot - of course, my excitement was peaking at this point. I was about to receive my very own punch card for the first time ever! I walked up to the table, presented my form and was handed my ballot. IT WAS A BUBBLE SHEET!!!!! I voted for the freakin' President of the United States in the same manner that I took every standardized test in my academic career! I might as well have voted absentee and put a stupid check in the stupid block! Needless to say, I was underwhelmed by the experience, if not a little heart broken. Oh well, I guess I can feel good that I did my civic duty and contributed to the democratic process. Maybe I'll vote for the county fair board the next time I'm home during the summer...at least I know they still use punch cards!

I finished!

2008-10-29T18:40:00.003-04:00

No, this picture does not have anything to do with what I'm so excited about. It just cracks me up and it seems appropriate for Halloween this week.

So what did I finish...As I've mentioned before I'm an amateur, and inconsistent, Crossfitter. There's one Crossfit workout in particular that I have never been able to complete. Many Crossfit WODs (workout of the day) are named after women and some after heroes. My nemesis to date has been "Barbara." This ugly Betty is 5 rounds of 20 pullups, 30 pushups, 40 situps and 50 squats. The object is to finish all 5 rounds as fast as you can. I've tried this one probably 3 times before and haven't made it past 3 rounds (perhaps I'm just weak minded). I did it again today and for the very first time I finished all 5 rounds! My time was 25:56. I'm sure that doesn't come even close to what experienced Crossfitters post but I'm super proud of myself none the less.

I owe many thanks to my friends Jack and Gibby who endured this torture with me and kept me motivated the whole time. Cheers to you my friends!

Oh, Happy Halloween to all!

MCAA Awards

2008-10-19T12:24:00.004-04:00

After a month and a half of long days supporting exercises, I finally got a short break. I drove down to Myrtle Beach, SC to attend the 2008 Marine Corps Aviation Association awards banquet. Unfortunately, I couldn't attend all the festivities that happened during the week because of work. To be honest, I wasn't really looking forward to the event because I'm not very good at hobnobbing but it turned out to be a lot of fun. You couldn't swing a cat without hitting an active duty or retired general officer, but aside from that, everyone there was really nice and very friendly. As I've mentioned before I wasn't really excited about this award, however it was a very humbling experience to have Marines who served in WWII congratulating me, telling me what a big deal this is and that they were very proud of me.

The trip was also highly worthwhile because I got to hang out with my good friend Andrea. She used to work with me but recently moved to another duty station. I hadn't seen her in two months and that's a long time to go without seeing someone who provided some levity and sanity in the work place! Andrea won the award that I received last year so that was pretty cool as well. Anyway, it was great to catch up with Andrea.

Well, that was my weekend. I'm actually looking forward to this week because we only have daily business to take care of, no exercises. That means I'll get to work close to normal days...no more 14 hour work days this week! Maybe I'll use my extra time to work out!

Pretty, Shiny and Pretty Shiny Fish!!!

2008-10-12T12:37:00.003-04:00

As my good friend pointed out, my last post was a bit ambiguous regarding my description of the lovely fish at the NC aquarium. I wish I could say that I intended the ambiguity but really, I'm just bad at English. So here's a few pictures of the fish and you can decide for yourself how to describe them.

Ok, so perhaps pictures taken outside a glass tank in the dark don't quite do justice to the bright colors and shiny scales. I guess you'll just have to take my word for it.

Great Weekend

2008-10-06T18:41:00.003-04:00

Charlie came to visit this weekend and as always, it was fantastic to have him here! We did lots of fun things...well, I dragged him with me to most of my favorite places like Wal-Mart, Lowes and Sam's Club. Our most noteworthy excursion was to the North Carolina Aquarium in Pine Knoll Shores. I haven't been to a zoo, museum or aquarium in quite some time but it was really fun. That picture is Charlie watching the fish in the "shipwreck tank." It's full of sharks and pretty shiny fish that swim around in their little schools and are totally hypnotizing. The aquarium was also my first picture taking excursion in quite some time. Those pictures will be uploaded to my Shutterfly site shortly.

The downside to our weekend was that Auburn lost to Vanderbilt on Saturday. Apparently, Auburn was playing well in the 1st quarter but things went down the toilet when we started watching in the 2nd quarter. I'm tempted to conduct a little experiment, not watching Auburn play for the next couple of weeks to see how they play. I doubt I'll actually do that because Auburn is the only football that I really watch and I try not to be superstitious but it is an interesting thought none the less.

I took Charlie to the airport this morning, which sucks, but I'm so glad I got to spend the weekend with him. I can't wait until December when he's going to be here for almost the whole month!

Tough Decisions

2008-09-28T18:13:00.002-04:00

When faced with blistering work week that you know will cause you to wreck your house, leaving heaps of clothes and dirty dishes all over the place, what do you do when the time comes for your weekly house cleaning? Do you take the proactive approach and scrub every little thing so that you can quickly overcome your disaster the following weekend? Or do you resign yourself to the fact that you'll just have to work really hard next weekend to clean the house and take this weekend off from cleaning so as to rest for the upcoming helluva work week? As it turns out, if you sit and ponder these possibilities long enough the answer presents itself. You'll have sat around all day (allowing for ample rest) and have only enough time left for a cursory cleaning of your house...meaning that you'll have not quite so much catching up to do next weekend but you will have to work a little harder than normal.

Lucky for me, Charlie doesn't judge me based on the cleanliness of my house. He's coming to visit this week and, though I felt some obligation to give a clean presentation 1) he'd know it was totally fake because he knows that I'm actually cluttered at heart and 2) I really, really, really hate cleaning. There's nothing growing in my fridge or on my countertops and my floors are clean...so what if my kitchen table is covered in crap and will remain that way probably for the rest of time!

In closing, cheers to all of us who accept our cluttered lifestyle but manage to appear outwardly organized (as long as you don't enter our homes)!

I love work

2008-09-06T19:24:00.003-04:00

When is enough, enough with regards to meetings? I mean really, I've been forced to endure no less than five "higher level" planning meetings for fairly large scale training events where we spent hours on end discussing absolutely nothing useful. The most recent was yesterday, with the meeting being made more painful because the everyone else had the day off. Should that really be bothersome to me, no because I didn't go back to work until Thursday so in reality I only worked 1.5 days this past week but I digress. We literally spent an hour listing, not discussing or addressing, the issues that we mentioned, not discussed or addressed, at the last planning meeting. At slowleadership.com, they discuss how excessive meetings usually signals a lack of trust in subordinates, at least someone can make light of the frustrations of underlings!

When does this ever really stop. We have meetings to prepare for meetings to prepare for briefs. Don't people realize that we have email and telephones? That it's not always necessary to have "all players" assembled in the same room for countless hours because "all players" usually have things to do to get ready for whatever it is the meeting is preparing for!

Blue Hawaii...not so much!

2008-09-04T20:43:00.006-04:00

So my Hawaii vacation...was FANTASTIC!!!!!!!!! The Snicklefritz will forgive my extra excitement but it was really that good. To be completely honest, I was expecting something a little more like Hawaii looked in the Elvis movie Blue Hawaii but as it turns out not so much. I didn't taste a single fresh pineapple. I went to Honolulu to visit my college (and new) boyfriend, Charlie. Honolulu is a lot more city than I expected but it was still nice. Oahu in general was awesome, partly because I've never been on an island before but mostly because I got to spend time with someone who makes me really happy (that's kind of a new thing for me).

So what did we do...we hiked Diamond Head , went to the North Shore, sat on the beach and cooked good food. It was nice to cook for someone besides myself for a change. I spent a lot more time in the sun than I thought I would...turns out sunscreen would have been a good idea. Currently, I'm picking skin off my shoulders like crazy. At least the pain from the burn has gone away. Generally, it was an amazingly restful weekend and exactly what I needed. Charlie was a superb tour guide and took me to the most beautiful places. We also visited the Arizona memorial (pictures posted later) which was sincerely moving. On the same day, we also walked around the USS Missouri and may I just say that battleships are the coolest thing ever. I mean seriously...nine 16" guns that can shoot 20+ miles! Who ever thought it was a good thing to retire those?!?!?!? Simply amazing. I've been on a ship that fired a single 5" gun and that was a pretty big boom but nine 16" guns...I can't imagine what that feels like!

At the end of the day, I'm ready to face the hell that is going to be my September and October.

In other news, I'm getting ready to endure my first hurricane. It looks like Hanna will pass over relatively quietly but some people around here are getting seriously worried about Ike. Honestly, being from the Midwest I'm terrified of hurricanes. Give me a tornado or flood and I'm ok but hurricanes...not so much. Also, I've decided to make photography my new hobby so expect some totally random pictures to show up soon. I even bought a "grown up" camera that has super cool zoom and several features that I'm not even close to understanding yet!

Until then,

Cheers!

It's Been Awhile

2008-08-21T20:00:00.006-04:00

Well, I wish I could say that I've been up to very exciting things since my last posting effort and that caused my delinquency but I can't say that. I've simply been working A LOT. Since my last post a couple of big things have happened...my divorce got finalized (big huge YAY with lots of clapping!!!), my name is Donnelly again and I found out that I won the Marine Corps Aviation Association Command and Control Officer of the Year award.

I'm certainly the most excited about the divorce part. The award, is causing mixed emotions. It's quite an honor but I'm not really a big fan of personal awards in my line of work. In the DASC we work in crews so any success or failure comes from the efforts of many, certainly not the efforts of one. That being said, the recognition should go to all of the great Marines I had the pleasure of working with in 2007.

The rest of my time has been devoted to getting ready for a large exercise and planning for our marathon training schedule in October. Next week though, all my energy will go in to getting ready for my trip to Hawaii over Labor Day weekend. I promise to have lots of beautiful pictures to share come September!

I'm so handy!

2008-08-02T11:40:00.003-04:00

I fixed my dishwasher! Ok, so I really just took the door panel off, jiggled something things around, put it back together and hoped for the best but it worked none the less. I must give a big huge thank you to my dad for explaining how to take the panel off and for giving me such an awesome toolbox, complete with those little star-tipped screw driver thingys that were instrumental in getting the project done.

The only problem I have now is that it's 11:45 on Saturday morning and I've accomplished my major tasks for the weekend! Looks like I can spend some quality time reading my Rachel Ray magazine and learning more about the Zone diet. Cleaning and laundry can wait until tomorrow.

Fallen Heroes

2008-07-23T20:08:00.002-04:00

I found out this morning that the Marine Corps lost 1stLt Jason Mann in Afghanistan. He died about a week ago when a roof collapsed on him. I didn't know him extremely well but we were in NROTC at the same time. He participated in the Winter Field Meet at Auburn several times and rocked the competition; that's where I first met him. He was also in my Company at Officer Candidates' School, where he was the honor graduate. Jason is one of those prolific leaders, simply remarkable people, who you don't ever forget.

If you're a religious person, please pray for his family and his Marines. If you're not, please keep them in your thoughts. I know I will.

Back to the Stone Ages!!!

2008-07-23T17:20:00.002-04:00

Literally the day after my mom left (sob) the latch on my dishwasher broke (big sob)! I've jiggled it around a bit and I may, or may not, have pounded on it with a rubber mallet...yes that was more for my sanity than anything else...but it won't latch! So for the last 4 days I've had to hand wash my dishes. Now, I grew up in a house that had no dishwasher so I'm familiar with the concept but I did everything in my power to avoid my mom giving me that chore. Additionally, I'm not currently equipped to wash my own dishes because I have no drying rack. I have to cycle through wash, rinse, dry, put away repeat until all the dishes are done. Perhaps this highlights an underlying theme of my life but I'm extremely lazy when it comes to being domestic and I don't really mind admitting it.

If I can't find anyone around here who has an idea how to fix it, I'll ask my dad when I call the fam on Sunday. He's extremely skilled at over-the-phone long distance repair. In fact, he's helped me fix my heat pump, install light fixtures and take apart various contraptions countless times at distances of up to 4,000 miles.

Should anyone handier than I have suggestions on how to fix my stupid dishwasher latch, I would be ever so grateful! At this point, I'm considering rigging something with bungy cords. At least I can be resourceful, it not at all handy.

I love my mom!

2008-07-19T12:12:00.002-04:00

Well, Mom left for the airport this morning. I love her visits! I had to work this week so while I was working she was "entertaining" herself by cleaning my house and finishing up a few projects for me. She cleaned all my baseboards, completed the touch-up painting that needed to be done and organized my garage. Honestly, a harder working woman has never been born. It never ceases to amaze me how she can accomplish in four days what it took me six months to even get started! She's a compulsive cleaner, which is great for me because I'm certainly not. I learned quite a long time ago that it's pointless to try to clean to impress her because she'll find something to scrub or wipe down. It's much better to just try to maintain a general level of cleanliness and let her do her thing.

Aside from being the hardest worker ever, Mom's also really good at helping me spend money. While she was here she helped me find new blinds for my living room (they were torn up by my dog, Odin, and drive her nuts), I had to return them because they were too big, and an air compressor because you never know when you'll need a little compressed air. I purchased a new toolbox, a grill and several other smaller ticket items for my house including a large picture frame and a painting for my kitchen, both from Target.

Let's see...we also unclogged my shower drain, put away laundry that's been sitting in the laundry room for a week AND she put some order to my laundry/gear room that was overflowing with random crap that I usually just drop on the floor after I use it and leave sit until I need it again.

Basically, my mom visiting is the best thing ever. I can't wait for her next vacation to NC!

Cooking for Friends

2008-07-17T21:07:00.003-04:00

So tonight, I made another RR favorite "Southwestern Chicken Pasta Bake" from the 365: No Repeats book. This is one of my favorite go-to recipes that a little pot intensive as it requires one to brown and season the chicken, one to make the cheese sauce, one to cook the pasta and one to bake the whole thing in. It's totally worth it though. I refuse to actually measure things so each time I make it the seasonings are a little different but no less delicious. I did manage to take a picture of this one, although it was half eaten. I added the additional cheese to make the cheesy, crusty top because well...I feel that there are few occasions where you can have too much cheese. Maybe in time, my food photography will improve but this will have to do for now.

I'm going to try to remember to take the advice of my brilliant friends and freeze the leftovers that I won't eat but it's more likely I'll take those to work and pass them out to anyone who's hungry.

Oh, last note - I made this meal for my mom and one of my good friends, Brian, who is deploying next week. Cheers and best of luck my friend. I'll see you in a couple of months.

I have house plants!

2008-07-14T19:23:00.007-04:00

The other thing I forgot to mention about the 4th of July weekend is that I bought house plants and (gasp!) they're still alive! I tried to buy some heartier plants this time, I've tried flowers before and I killed them about 5 days later; so I'm counting these as a victory already. This plant normally lives on a table that is currently housing my computer because I spent last weekend working on several very exciting power point presentations that I have to give, or give to others to present, this week. It's funny how you join the military and wind up with a Master's degree in power point.

This one is probably my favorite. It's a two-fold love, I'm a huge fan of this little planter and these are my most difficult plants to kill. Yes, I'm still in the middle of finishing up my house painting (evidenced by the paint can in the background) but luckily for me, my mom is coming to visit this week to take care of that for me. Yay for Mom's who have summer vacations! Sadly, this pic highlights the fact that I'm in serious need of new window treatments for my dining room...or any window treatments at all for that matter!

My last sweet little plant is bamboo, also very friendly to those of us who's green thumb got cut off at an early age. I'm hoping to have a garden someday but my current digs don't support that. I suppose if I was home more I could build myself some boxes to grow herbs and the like in but that's a little too much "project" for me right now.

My cooking this week has been limited to microwaving rotisserie chicken from Wal-Mart and sauteing some veggies. I know it's not that exciting but it's tasty and takes about 10 min. to finish. My weeknights don't really leave a lot of time for food prep and I'm not smart enough to cut RR's standard 4 guest menus to feed just one person. Yeah, math was never my strong suit!

Growing Hobbies

2008-07-07T19:18:00.002-04:00

I met two of my old hobbies over this long weekend. The first is cooking and the second is Crossfit. I worked out every day over the weekend and I certainly needed to with all the cooking and eating I was doing! Thanks to my hero in the kitchen Rachael Ray, I whipped up more 30 minute food than I could possibly eat by myself (though I gave it a gallant effort)! From her 30 Minute: Get Real Meals I made "Indian Summer Turkey Chili" and snagged her baked tomatoes to add to a steak and cheesy garlic mashed potato dinner. The mashed potatoes turned in to cheesy horseradish mashed potatoes because I came across this fantastic horseradish jack cheese at my local Food Lion and had to try it! Seriously, how bad can any cheese be when you put it with a potato but this was beyond all expectations and I highly recommend it! My last delicious feast was Baked Pesto Chicken from South Beach Diet: 30 Minute Meals. It's the easiest thing in the world to make but it's SO FANTASTIC. I put the leftovers in an omlette with some mozzarella cheese the next morning and that was great too.

Sadly, I wasn't smart enough to photograph my yummy treats before I devoured them; I'll try to give that more consideration as I continue cooking.

Bad Blogger!!!

2008-07-07T19:13:00.002-04:00

Wow, I can't believe how long it took me to find something to discuss. I blame it on the 4th of July 96. A 96 is what military-types call a long weekend and they come in two varieties. The first is the 96 that falls all by itself, during a time when you haven't taken leave for months and all your chores have piled up so you spend the entire 4 days doing housework or yardwork or other "day to day" tasks that have gotten away from you. The second is the 96 that falls close to other 96's, which all fell in to category 1, so you spend this 96 doing absolutely nothing and loving it. That's what this 96 was for me.

There something to be said for having accomplished all your housework, taken all the little trips or adventures that you've been yearning for and having absolutely nothing to do with your time. Time gets away from all of us because life is busy but that's especially true during a deployment workup cycle. I spent my weekend reacquainting myself with my friend time because I had so much of it on my hands and nothing "productive" to do with it. Three cheers for doing nothing!

My First Time

2008-07-01T19:24:00.003-04:00

Welome to the world of blogging to me! I was inspired to start a blog by the two girls who created the name "Super Sonic Seat 9." We spent many a bus ride to and from school playing all sorts of make-believe games on my mother's school bus. These twins have inspired me in so many ways! One is an interpreter for deaf children at a school in northern Ohio and the other is a super-crafty sewing genious who lives on the East Coast.

I think the crafty one inspires me the most. She's gone through several iterations of "life choices" ranging from pharmacy school to accounting and now to working in a library. As for me, I chose the military very early on (1st grade) and have pursued that ever since. I've achieved more than I could have ever imagined to that end but most days of the week, I find myself wanting to try something else. I rotate between being a "smoke jumper," an OR nurse, an Army helicopter pilot, a crab fisherperson or simply being a livestock farmer again. I can't imagine the courage it takes to change what you want to do with your life, especially after you've started on one journey; I'm not sure I have it.

Why is it that when you find security in one job, you generally cease to be willing to change regardless of your heart's desire? I'm not quite sure what my heart's desire is, perhaps that's why I'm not ready to take a different leap. Perhaps that's why a lot of people aren't willing to take that chance. I welcome any opinions on the subject, since I'm really at a loss.

When I ask for "anyone's" opinion, I realize that few people will view this blog but hopefully my "Super Sonic Seat 9" fellow plank owners will and they'll appreciate it's meaning just a little bit.

Note: "Plank Owner" is a Navy/Marine Corps term for people who were founding members of an organization.

I can't neglect to mention my ASLTerp friend. I wish I knew how to link things to text now but I don't. She has the most fascinating blog about her job and life in general. I can't imagine the amount of patience it takes to interprete for deaf school children. I appreciate this even more since my school bus driving mother has started working with autistic children at the grade school that all the Super Sonic Seat 9 clan attended. Hearing the stories my mom tells and reading my terp friend's stories gives me a new appreciation for my life and how blessed it's been. My hat's off to ASLTerp. You are a truly amazing person and I'm so endlessly thankful to know you.