Hiatus part two, Aloha edition.

So, after those two actually decent blog posts, I'm off again! Like a herd of turtles!

All joking aside, this is my big trip to Hawaii with my bestest friend in the whole world Beth to visit her awesome sister Katie and her two baby boys (she blogs too- check her out!) with a bit of a stop in Seattle to visit Beth's family and her other sister Carolyn. These three gals are my adopted sisters, family by choice I like to say, so I'm super excited to be spending time with them all- especially Beth. Can you tell I miss her???

Also, its been fun to watch Swiss get ready for a week without me. I think it is cute that he's realizing how not fun it is to be the one left behind... even if it is only for a week! Yes, very sappy and newlywed of us. You can barf if you are overcome with the gushieness of it all. I won't blame you!

In any event, I'll be off the radar for another week or so. Hopefully all the downtime on the airplane and in the airport will stir up some more posts of substance and I'll come back ready to go. Hope you all have a great week and we will see you soon!

Later aligators! -Tucker xoxo

My bad.

Ugh- so I promise I haven't gone AWOL. I mean, there are 4 unfinished blog posts in my queue as I type this. Somehow none of them ever got finished... some were too personal, some were too bitchy (re: family), and some I just couldn't get off the ground. Ah well, it happens to all of us I suppose!

Things here have been a not-so-wonderful shade of dramarific... things are swell with Swiss & I, but there have been family issues that have been of the "push my buttons" sort. But -I think- we have worked them all out and we leave tomorrow on a 2-ish week road trip of the south-eastern nether-regions of our country.  There will be beaches, the consumption of seafood and a couple of stops in places I've never been before (New Orleans! Charleston! Memphis!), as well as a few I've known and loved before (Pensacola! Savannah! The Smokey Mountains! Nashville!). I'm looking forward to getting away with the husband and the puppy and spend some time with his family. It will be interesting for sure.

And a side note to our trip and any future pet-assisted trips you might be planning: DO NOT let your more by-the-seat-of-your-pants travel planning hubby (even if he has been suspiciously successful with this method in the past) lovingly shame you out of planning 3+ weeks ahead. YOU HAVE NO IDEA how hard it was to find a hotel in some cities that a) took dogs and b) weren't already booked or ridonkulously expensive. Anal-retentitive always wins in these cases. ALWAYS. And you can cite me on that!

Otherwise we've been moving along on the USS Reintegration. Sure, we have our small hiccups, but mostly things have been good. We talk, we have our few spats, and then we are back to normal. It is swell. Though it has been an adjustment (as I knew it would) from the blissful, bicker-free existence we had post-wedding/honeymoon and pre-deployment. I think that, more than anything, has been the readjustment for us... in a good way. We are normal and we aren't living in a fairy tale (close, though!) and we have normal couple things to work through. Happily, the most stressful part of our relationship is when Fletcher wants/needs to get up every morning and neither of us want to do it. And that ain't too shabby!

Today we got to spend the day at the nice outdoor recreation area on post for a Battalion Organizational Day. Rumor has it there will be a mechanical bull and free food. Now, if there was free beer I would easily be able to say our 'work' Friday is better than yours. Followed with a "nana-nana-boo-boo!" because deep down I'm an 8 year old. But I digress. Sometimes it still trips me out, living on post... yesterday I dropped Swiss off (and picked him up) at a Dining In event and 4 times drove past a unit getting combat equipment handed out to them. I forget that even though Swiss's unit is home, other units are still leaving nearly daily. I forget that there are spouses here gearing up for what we just finished. I hate that I forget that. I hate how insular life can be even on an Army post. You know... it isn't our unit...

But I will write more about that later. Perhaps from a beach somewhere in South Carolina? I have loads I want to say, I just need to get myself in the right head-space to do it. Anyway, there's your update and a real-live blog post not advocating the culling of dumb Americans. Happy Friday Everyone! :)

And the saga continues...

So, how did I spend my weekend? With the flu. Awesome, right? On the plus side, all the nausea and inability to eat without feeling miserable acted as a makeshift diet pre R&R and I dropped 3 pounds. Woo hoo. Also, I got to watch 7.5 consecutive hours of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. God bless you TBS.

The saga that is the selling of our house continues. We have been *ahem* "blessed" to have not only an inexperienced buyer (which is okay because I was inexperienced too when I bought my first house and would hardly consider myself an expert of any kind these days) but also, apparently, an inexperienced agent. No, not mine. She's been mostly great. But the buyer's agent apparently has no idea what do to in this situation and has been sending pointless and unreasonable requests via e-mail (aka: not in the formal response of an offer, etc). So we had been treading water, getting closer and closer to the closing date with a buyer who would not look for a new bank or submit an official request for a change to the offer. Ugh. So despite my last post, and in the hopes of either coming to a concrete decision or having more time back on the market, we put out our final (and very reasonable) offer to the buyer yesterday. It was in no uncertain terms. Take it or leave it. He has until the end of business today to decide.

So... I'll either be sprucing up the house tonight to have it ready to be shown again this week or finally able to breathe a sigh of relief that this ordeal is 'behind' us. At this rate? Either one is okay by me. Tomorrow I leave for San Francisco to hang out with Beth and hopefully get to meet up with Burn my Biscuits. The camera is back and in working order so I'll have plenty of quality times with the sights of the city by the bay and my trusty DSLR. Now, on to the business to getting well enough to eat my body weight in sushi... Happy Monday all!

Splat.

Splat, originally uploaded by jptshawn.

Between my job running me into the ground like some poor horse on the Pony Express and the broken washing machine (the motherboard, of course, $300+ to fix, natch), the malfunctioning A/C post inspection (Midwest! August! Humidity! Fun!), having a total meltdown on the phone with Swiss last night and Fletch spilling his completely full water bowl all over the kitchen this morning... I am feeling decidedly like the bug.

I'm off to DC for the weekend to visit some really amazing Ladies... there will be sight seeing, wine/beer drinking, kvetching, knitting and Colin Firth watching.

I am hoping to return feeling much more like the windshield.

Have an excellent weekend everyone! See you on Monday...

Wedding weekend.

Okay folks. I am outie like a bellybutton for the rest of the weekend (Yay vacation day!). My bestest friend in the whole wide world (that isn't my husband) is getting married this weekend. Yay Beth and Ethan!

So, this wedding weekend means I will be out of the blogosphere, twitterverse and interwebz for the next couple of days. I intend to imbibe plenty of libations, eat well, sleep in and celebrate with a purpose. Because it isn't every day your best friend gets married, right? Plus my date is Beth's teenage sister who loves Project Runway, Sex and the City and high heels... me thinks we will get along splendidly!

Enjoy your weekend, soak up the good weather and relax. Y'all have earned it! And if you have some spare good thoughts, throw them out into the great wide universe for good real estate karma (for us!) and a wonderful happily ever after to Beth and Ethan.

Outie like a bellybutton.

So I am off to the land of Beer and Cheese... otherwise known as home. I'm off for a weekend of March Madness (Rock Chalk Jayhawk!), great conversations, wedding cake samples and shopping for home decor items. Also known as a weekend with my best friend Beth (who is super amazing, crazy smart, pithy and insanely fun).

Have a super weekend everyone! See you on Monday!

It begins.

Okay- the madness that is our wedding officially begins today with the arrival of my dearest Mom and her best friend (my second Mom) Carolyn. HOORAY! So I am signing off for a few weeks. We are off to wine country for the honeymoon and I will get back to blogging when we return... likely after Swiss' PCS move in early November. Boo hiss.

I'm off to become Mrs. Swiss and I couldn't be happier! Fingers crossed for good weather and thanks for all your well wishes! Take care internets! :)

Love,

Tucker

Slacking.

My Mum is in town for the week. I will try very hard not to use this as an excuse to slack off on the blog. We have lots of fun wedding stuff to get done and Swiss, being the Prince Charming that he is, is taking my mom and his out for a day of fun on Friday. Isn't he the best? Anyway, I will try to sneak some posts in this week... promise! Have a Happy Tuesday Internets!

Doh!

Well that took all of 4 hours.

Swiss now knows about "surprise" vacation number one.

And you won't believe how the cat got out of the bag. It would seem that someone from Swiss' brigade failed to drive back the brigade's government van from Warrior Forge in Fort Lewis, WA. Mind you this was over a month ago. And now someone has to fly out to Seattle to go get it and drive it nearly 2,000 miles home.

Seriously.

And oddly enough, the brigade has NOT chosen to make the IDIOT* who failed to complete his orders go get it. Nope. Swiss gets to go get it. And drive it 2,000 miles back.

Seriously.

So now Swiss knows that I took "surprise" time off. He had to know because as luck would have it, my vacation day is the same week of said Van Recovery Mission. But the second cat is still in the bag. For now...

*I am sure the fellow who did this is perfectly nice, however his choices in this matter have given me no other choice than to call him an idiot. If the shoe fits...

Image courtesy of maury.mcown on flickr.

Olympics Induced Break

So the combination of Swiss being home on a short leave and the Olympics has conspired to soak up all my free time. I'm working on doing better...

4 Day Passes are my Friend.

I love a good 4 day pass. This weekend? Great 4 day pass. We went to the new sushi restaurant in town. Yummy goodness. We drank wine. We spent time with family. We did yard work. We went to a movie. We did all the things normal couples do on normal weekends. And it was wonderful.

And then Swiss surprised me with a schmancy fire pit for the back yard. He even bought goodies for Smores and a bottle of Merlot. And we had a romantical night in the back yard where it all began. He's good. Real good.

Anyway, back to the grind with him at his ROTC post (Big week: New Captain!) and me at Stressful New Job. But it isn't so bad this time. I will get to see him soon... we are off to my parent's house next weekend for our wedding shower (its a couples shower so Swiss can share in the fun... ha!). Food! Presents! Uncomfortable moments when someone gives me lingerie with my father sitting next to us! Swell!