What are you doing here?

Are you a friend or family member? How about someone that just came across my blog and enjoys reading it? Or are you someone that is only coming to my blog to take things from it to make fun of me on facebook? Well if you fall into the last category, then I have 2 things to say to you. 1. How unbelievably immature are you? You may think it makes you sound cool and funny.. but other people see it and they think how childish you are. 2. You're going to have to look else where for your material because my blog is going oh so private. If you hate me so much WHY are you coming to my blog and reading about our day to day lives? Congrats. I'm awarding you the Stalker-of-the-Year medal.

To the friends and family and people that enjoy reading my blog, please send me your e-mail address so I can invite you to read my blog. I'll leave it open for a few more days, but then i'll be going private. Either comment on here with your e-mail, shoot me a message on facebook, or e-mail me (mandeejhollis@gmail.com).

To those stalking my blog for gag material, you only have a few more days.. so read over as many entries as you possible can, write things down, do what you have to do because your access will be denied. At that point you'll need to find a new hobby. Here's a suggestion: Get A Life.

I did not want to make my blog private.. but I'm not going to tolerate people taking things I say and then making a joke on facebook for everyone but me to see. Even though I can't see it, there are people out there that think you are childish and will tell me.

Hope everyone has a fantastic weekend :)

Oh camera, how I loved you.

Yesterday truly was a terrible day for me. Right off the bat, the day started off terrible and it just went from there. First thing in the morning, Rosalie broke my camera. Yes, my wonderful ultra-zoom camera. I was devastated. I know.. it's a materialistic item., but that camera is constantly glued to my hand. For like the past 10 years I have gotten a new digital camera just about every year. This one was my all time favorite. At this point, the only cameras we have are the good one (which is no longer functional), a Nikon that my gram found in a parking lot, and an old digital that you have to hold the memory card in to get it to work. I love the Nikon that my gram gave us, but the problem with it is we don't have a battery charger for it and I was using a charger of my moms, but I sent it back to her. So when the last of the batteries die, then I won't be able to charge it.. and I've had a hard time trying to find a charger for it because it's an old camera. The camera is also in Qatar with my husband.

I went to the BX in hopes they would have something that I liked in the price range that I had set. After having an ultra-zoom camera, I'm not going back to a slim digital camera. It may be bulky, but I LOVE my camera. I'd kill for a DSLR camera, but with trips planned to Germany, Rome, and Paris this summer, a $800 camera just isn't in our budget. So I hit up the BX and all they have are are regular digital cameras, $1000 DSLR cameras, and ONE camera that is the same style as mine. The one I found that was similar to mine was a Nikon and it was $100 more than I wanted to spend. I seriously just about started crying in the middle of the BX. All I could think standing there in the BX was "My husband is coming home. For the first time in months we're all going to be reunited and I don't have an effin camera." If I would order one there's NO way it would make it here before Kevin arrives because our mail is literally snail mail. Every time I order something on crunch time, it never makes it.

I left the BX feeling so down. If you saw me, then you know that I was in a serious funk and absolutely not myself. I was so mopey the entire day. Well this morning Kevin gave me the okay to get the Nikon so that funk has lifted :) haha. My luck when I go to buy it they won't have any in stock. Story of our lives living overseas.

Speaking of summer vacations.. I need some advice from you Aviano ladies. This will be our first time hitting up Germany, other than having layovers in Ramstein. We're going to probably do 3 days and the top 3 things that I absolutely want to do are the Eagle's Nest, Neuschwanstein Castle, and the Dachau Concentration Camp. My question is this.. who has done these things and how much time did you allot for each? I just trying to figure out what days of the week to go and how much stuff we can do and see. Did you do these things on your own or with Edelweiss? For Dachau did you do a guided tour or just a walk through by yourself? I have been told by multiple people to do the castle on your own and not with Edelweiss. Any tips or suggestions for the trip?

That's all for now. Ciao!

Singing the Blues Again. I Apologize.

I just wanted to share.. I absolutely love this song.. and this is exactly how I feel right now. We have a date. Yes, we have a date when we'll be a complete family again. All three of us will be in the same country... but I just feel so down. Ugh. I want my husband back.

4 months in.. 1st deployment funk.

I like to think I've done pretty well during this deployment. I've stayed positive and upbeat. I've kept up with all my housework and laundry and have done lil projects here and there. I haven't just laid and felt sorry for myself. I've kept busy with Ladybug Creations and with Ladybug herself. I've taken on dual roles of mama and papa and have done it fairly well. I've done things that I've never done before.

I get annoyed when I see a spouse, who has a deployed husband, who CONSTANTLY complains about how hard life is without her husband and how they can't keep up with anything. That was never an issue for me because when Kevin was here I NEVER did housework or laundry when he was home; well, some laundry on the weekends, but I made sure all of my housework duties were done during the day because I don't want to spend the little time that I do get to see my husband cleaning. I can't stand the "woe is me" wife who can't cope with a deployment. Yeah, it's hard. I get that. I'm there now so don't say that I don't understand because trust me, I do. But our husbands aren't the only ones that signed up for this, we did too.

So now it's my turn. I'm taking my first stab at the deployment complaining. We're almost at the finish line so you would think I'd be super duper excited, which don't get me wrong, I am beyond excited to see my husband to be a family again. As most of you know, yesterday was my birthday. It didn't feel any different because I did absolutely nothing special for my birthday and Rosalie isn't old enough to comprehend it lol. Well I was in a funk. At first I thought it was because I was being the mopey-military-wife that was sad because her husband wasn't there for her birthday. Then it hit me that it wasn't that at all. Kevin and I have spent A LOT of holidays apart. Rosalie has only slept one night since we've been home. We've been home 2 weeks and in those 2 weeks, I got sleep ONE night and have been busting my butt trying to get this place back to normal and ready for Kevin to come home. That was it. My sleep deprivation had finally caught up with me and it really had my emotions out of whack. I'm just absolutely ready to have my husband home to catch maybe a TINY TINY break!

If there was anyone that I was short, distant, or snippy at yesterday... I apologize and don't take it personally.. I was just having a bad day. Hey, we're all allowed one of those every now and then aren't we?

We still lacked sleep again last night.. but I have to get things done. I have a TON of bow orders to fill and I'm starting the spring cleaning process in my house. I cleaned for a week straight when I got back just to get this place back to normal. Now comes the process of deep cleaning.. scrubbing, dusting, and washing everything.

As I said before, we've been spending a ton of time outside.. so here's a few pics :)

bow busy :)

Today I officially opened my store back up and am starting to get swamped with orders already! I have decided that bows will only be made when Rosalie is napping or in bed for the night.. I don't want to take away any time from her, so it may take me a couple extra days to get orders out. It awesome to see the demand for my bows! Thanks to all of you ladies for all your support and for the business to make this deployment fly!

Other news... well, that's really about it. We've been working our butts off trying to get this house back to norm and get ready for Daddy's arrival (which is sooo close!!!!!!!). We try to get out as much as we can because it kills Rosalie to stay inside. The other evening we went outside so Rosalie could cruise in her car. It started to get a lil chilly out and I made her come in. She sat in her car and pouted for half an hour. This picture kills me hahaha.

That's about it.. just wanted to stop in!

Ciao!

Cruisin'

I know that I've been a total slacker for pictures lately.. so I just had to share this-

Yesterday Rosalie's buggy came that I bought her in the states. I can NOT pry her out of it. Hopefully it stays nice out this afternoon so she can take it for a ride down the street. As soon as I got it together yesterday it started raining.. go figure. It was such a pain to put together because someone wouldn't stay off it long enough for me to put it together! So tell me.. what do you think.. does she like it? haha

It has a little horn that beeps and I've heard it nonstop since I put the car together.. she was even beeping it at the dog..

I confess...

For the first time in my life.. I cut the grass. In my almost 24 years of life, I have never once cut grass. ever. Growing up I had two older brothers, so I just always did the trimming. Now, Kevin always cuts the grass and I still do the trimming and sweep off the sidewalks, ect. Well.. today I had to do it. I was slightly embarrassed that I had to ask Kevin how to start the lawn mower. (Go ahead, laugh. I allow it) But, I did it and our yard looks great! I got all the trimming done and raked and got everything swept off.. and I even managed to get all our lawn furniture out of the shed and get it all wiped down.. while my kid napped! We were up the entire night last night and instead of laying down like I REALLY wanted to, I fought through it because there's just so much here to be done. For example, instead of going to bed last night when Rosalie did, I went out in the dark and pulled weeds out of my driveway. Yeah, i'm that obsessive compulsive; and yeah, it's wearing me down.

Yesterday was an extremely frustrating day for me. Once again, it was a sleepless night. We had tons to do so I couldn't just lay around like I wanted to. First we had to go pay our internet BILLS. Yes, I had said billS with an S. One thing I love about Italy- you can go months without paying a bill and they won't shut whatever it is off lol. Well we had 150Euro in internet bills accumulated from me being in the states... which is about $220 US dollars. After getting that done, we went to get the car inspected.. which I have never done here. Once again, that's Kevin's job. I thought it would take a max of half an hour... WRONG. We sat there for TWO hours. The line of cars was ridiculous.. only ONE person was inspecting cars. Rosalie was a lil trooper though. After that we had to go to Pass and Registration.. where I just about went over the counter at the lady. I handed her all my stuff and she goes "oh. you're JUST A SPOUSE. you need a power of attorney to do your registration." I was like "You're kidding me? I have it.. but I don't carry it on me. The car is in MY name.. so I didn't think I would need my husband's permission to register it" and she goes "Yeah well you do." God what a B. I left extremely angry. We hit up the BX and I treated Rosalie to a new book and toy since she had to deal with all that crap and I got a new hair dryer because mine's starting to short out. (which i LOVE it by the way.. I went from like a $100 salon dryer, to a con air and I love the $25 con air one wayyyyy more).

This morning after skyping with daddy (I love that's how our days start now instead of skyping at 8pm), we had to head to Bricofer, an Italian.. ummm.. hardware/lawn and garden store? lol I'm not sure what it is.. it's kind of like the Italian version of Home Depot. From the week I left to go to the states and this week of being back, we've had four light bulbs blown. It's a common thing here.. we stock up on light bulbs like it's our job. I actually changed 2 right after Kevin left and then more blew and I didn't really have the time to go to Bricofer since we were getting ready to head to the states. To get light bulbs in the commissary they are 110V and WAY over priced and since they are 110V they don't last long. These bulbs last a lot longer and are only like $2, compared to the commissary's $8 price. I also scored a sprayer so that when my weed killer comes I can spray my driveway. I was so excited because the BX/shopette never have them and I looked for one before I left the states, but all I could find were pre-filled ones.

We headed to the base and finished up all the registration crap and then hit the post office. Naturally I had 6 boxes there. lol. One box included Roey's sweet new ride i bought while in the states.. it's this cute pink car buggy that I can push her down the street in. I'm excited to get it together so we can go for walks. I know she's going to love it because my nephew has a lil blue one and she found it in my brother's shed and we couldn't pry her off it! Then we hit the BX to get gas coupons and to get Kevin's mom's birthday present. Seriously, I feel like I kicked todays butt because I got everything accomplished and more than I had planned!

Time to go relax before lil Miss wakes up! CIAO!