It's Friday!!!

Let me just say that having two mojitos last night at dinner is most definitely my limit. Yes, I am a lightweight haha. It was nice that Kyle was home at 1:30 and we were able to have an early dinner together. We spent the rest of the night relaxing, he playing video games and me laying on the couch half asleep. :) We are party animals I tell ya! However, we did indulge in this amazing s'mores pizookie at BJ's, good gracious it was good.

 

 

Yesterday afternoon was yet again another Change of Command ceremony for Kyle's unit. Let me just say that I am not an overly emotional person, but for some reason it got me thinking about when we will say goodbye to everyone in less than two months. It looks like Kyle's color casing ceremony will be the beginning of October and having to say goodbye to the soldiers/families of the company is really getting to me. They are an amazing group and I will miss them tremendously.

I have 2 midterms that I need to work on today and tomorrow so I can get them submitted before heading up to Arizona early Sunday morning. Let me just say that midterms that consist of all essays is not fun! Remind me again why I am going to school at 29?! Haha. Just kidding, I am loving every second.

 

 I found a few more races to register us for in Louisiana, thank goodness Kyle just nods and smiles. :)

I hope you all have a great Labor Day Weekend!

There Is Good In Everything

Since our time in El Paso is coming to an end I wanted to do a recap post of sorts. Before we moved here we had so many people tell us what a horrible place it was. I compiled a list of all the things people said and my thoughts after living here for almost 2 years.

1. You are close to Mexico and the violence is really bad.

Ummm yea no. El Paso has been named one of the safest cities for the last few years. When you have a high concentration of 3 letter agencies the crime tends to stay pretty low.

2. The dry desert climate is not enjoyable and it's too hot.

You are talking to a person that was born and raised in the dry desert heat of Las Vegas. I'm good.

3. The people are not friendly at all.

I have met some of the nicest people while living here. The locals love the military and are incredibly welcoming.

4. There is nothing to do.

This is the one that made me laugh! We have visited more places, been to more concerts, seen more sporting events, ran more races and gone to more festivals than I could have ever imagined or hoped for.

5. The shopping is bad and there are no good restaurants.

While I don't care too much about shopping, we have a Target and that is good enough for me. Oh and we have a Jason's Deli and bitchin' Mexican food, I call that a win.

 

6. Fort Bliss itself is a horrible post.

Now let me just say two words, Freedom Crossing, if you have not seen it look it up. It is absolutely amazing. How many posts have a Buffalo Wild Wings, Irish Pub (the only one in El Paso mind you), Under Armour and a plethora of other stores in one place. While there are things that I might have changed about the units on Fort Bliss (but that can be said about any unit in any place) overall it has been an amazing place.

7. The medical care at the clinics/hospital is not good.

I have to say that I have had a great experience with the doctors here, of course there are those I had differing opinions with but the overall care has been stellar.

8. El Paso is an ugly and dirty city.

Every city is dirty lol. There is nothing like the El Paso sky, it is stunning and our mountain view is amazing.

Of course everyone's perceptions are different, we do our best to embrace everywhere we go. We have loved our time here in El Paso/Fort Bliss and we know that we will embrace our new adventure at Polk as well.

We will miss you El Paso/Fort Bliss, thank you for the amazing memories!

A Gift

For the last few months I have been trying to come up with a gift to give Kyle after he cases his company colors. Thankfully a friend of mine and fellow senior advisor is amazing when it comes to painting and crafting. She makes lawn flags and these really neat painted metal buckets:

Jess Army Crafts

She can create them in any color/design and I knew this is what I wanted to do for Kyle. His will be MI (military intelligence) blue and will have his company logo on it:

It will have Stalker 6 and CPT Smith above and below the logo respectively.

She has started working on it and I am really excited to see how it turns out. I have plans to fill it with his favorites things when I give it to him, to include beer of course. ;) 

I really hope he likes it!

Happy Tuesday!

It Was A Good One!

As usual this weekend was pretty awesome.

On Friday, Kyle cooked us dinner, he is such a sport and has no problem doing that after working all day. The rest of the night was spent lounging on the couch. I love nights like that.

Saturday morning we were up bright and early for the Rhino Run 8k. We ran this race last year and loved it. All of the money goes to helping out the local El Paso hockey league. It was the same course as last year which was nice but it was really humid.

I started out at a much faster pace than I wanted to but I slowed it down and just enjoyed the race. To my surprise Kyle and I both placed in our age groups. He took 3rd in his and I took 1st in mine! 

My goal for a race is always to just finish so placing is an added bonus. We had such a great time.

Once we got home and showered we were off to run some errands. We had to pick up some moving supplies and opted for lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings, we earned it lol.

Sunday was more relaxed as usual and consisted of laundry, grocery shopping and studying for my finals this week.

I hope you all had an awesome weekend! Here is to a great week.

Some Things You Didn't Know...

I have been working on this post for a few days and to be honest it has been fun thinking about things that some people may now know about me. 

Here we go:

I have a really hard time keeping my opinions to myself. I do however try to remember that there is a time and place for everything.

I went skydiving in 2006 with my sister. I have been wanting to do it again ever since. 

I was born and raised in the same house my entire life, my Dad still lives in that same house. It's pretty awesome.

I used to be really involved in Church...however I was soured on it for various reasons and have found no reason to go back.

My first concert was Nine Inch Nails and A Perfect Circle, I was 12 years old and my Dad and brother took me. It was AMAZING...well until I got pulled into a mosh pit and my brother has to fish me out. :)

I don't like wine...I have tried all kinds and nope not liking it.

I have an obsession with slipper socks, I have roughly 25 pairs and they all correspond to holidays. Yup, thanks Target.

When I was growing up I wanted to be an architect, not sure what happened to that dream. Oh yeah I can't draw and I hate math. lol.

I have never seen any of the Stars Wars movies, Kyle is trying to change that haha.

I have never broken a bone but now that I have said that I might have jinxed myself.

I hope you enjoyed these! Have an amazing weekend everyone!

...It's Only Wednesday?!

This week seems to be dragging on...I was sure it was at least Thursday when I woke up lol. Anywho..

One of the things that I love the most about military life are the ceremonies. Even the smallest ceremony has so much meaning behind it. On Monday, we celebrated our brigade mascot, Chester's, 2nd birthday and his promotion to SGT. We are one of the last units to have an actual living mascot.

It was so cute seeing him wander around in his vest and enjoy his birthday cake. He has such a sweet personality and I always look forward to going to brigade events because he is more than likely there.

Kyle has started packing up his office, taking things off the walls and boxing it all up. I have to say it is really bittersweet. One of the cool things though is that no one else will command this company. Kyle will be the last Stalker 6 for Bravo Company.

We had our pre-move inspection yesterday with the moving company and we are set for the end of the September. Time is moving fast for sure!

Happy Wednesday everyone!

Running and Beer...Yes Please!

This weekend we had another race. This time is the Fort Bliss 10 Miler in the Heat. We ran this race last year, it was actually my first official race that was a significant distance.

It started at 7am and to be honest it was perfect weather, it was overcast somewhat humid (it got worse as the race went on) and we even got a few sprinkles along the course.

I was happy with the pace that I was running at, I was not going in to break any records haha. I was keeping a slow and steady pace and still managed to best my time from last year by a few minutes so I was happy. After the race we had our traditional Starbucks which there happens to be one right across from the gym the race was held at.

We got home and showered then headed off to Las Cruces for the Tour de Beer festival. I am normally not a beer drinker but I did find a few that I enjoyed. We had a blast, we got our commemorative glasses, beer tickets and listened to live music. It was a great way to end the day.

Sunday was a bit more low key, I made homemade cinnamon rolls for breakfast, we did some shopping and looked at new dining room tables. We are toying with the idea of getting a new one but we will see.

I hope you all had a great weekend!