Married to the Army

One More Thing Off The List...

I have loved Jimmy Buffett for as long as I can remember. We have always tried to get tickets whenever he came remotely close to where we live but never had any luck. They always seemed to be sold out before they even went on sale.

A few days ago, he posted a bulletin on myspace saying there were new concert dates. Sure enough, Atlanta was on the list. The tickets went on sale this morning at 10am. So I've stalked Ticketmaster all morning! The first time I clicked on it, it found two tickets. I was so excited but after I finished putting in my credit card information, it said my request could not be processed at this time. Total excitment went to complete disappointment in no time flat.

I must have searched for tickets another 30 times with no luck before I looked up the phone number. When I called, I figured I was in trouble since the first option was "press 1 for Jimmy Buffett". I called on my house phone and my cell phone at the same time. My house phone turned out to be lucky while the cell phone was a total bust!

I have two tickets to see Jimmy Buffett live! I can't wait! I've been waiting to do this for so long! The concert is just 5 days after my birthday so this will be my 32nd birthday present! I think we'll have to have a cheeseburger in paradise before the concert! ;)

Great Phone Call!

Some of you are aware that I could definitely use some good news right now as the past week has been very rough for my best friend and her family.

And my great news came last night. When we got home last night, the answering machine light was blinking. I pressed the button and heard "This is the Director of Admissions at the University of Georgia and I have good news..."

Woohoo! I have officially been accepted to the MBA program at UGA! Finally, I will be a Georgia Bulldog! I am so very excited about this program and have been sitting here with my fingers and toes crossed for several months.

I begin the program in May. The way it looks right now, I'll beat Rob to graduation by one semester! :)

2008 is off to a great start!

Hopefully, this post will not jinx that!

Yesterday, both Michigan and Georgia won their bowl games. I'm happy any time anyone beats Florida no matter who it is and of course, Rob was thrilled. The Georgia game was actually kind of boring. I've never watched Hawaii play so I have no idea if that was their normal level of play but it definitely didn't seem like they really showed up for the game.

Last night, we had a rare sight - at least for us here in Georgia. It snowed! We came outside at half-time and it was coming down pretty good, at least by Georgia standards. The news called it heavy snow showers. Whatever. It doesn't matter to me as long as we were able to see it. It was so much fun to stand outside and have it swirling all around. I didn't even notice how cold it was. And that's really saying something for me!

Hopefully this is a sign of good things to come! Hope your New Year was as great!

I'm Still Alive!

Wow, this has been a hectic few weeks. Just seems like there is so much going on with a deadline attached. I promise I will soon get back to being a regular poster on here!

Good news to share though - I did really well on the GMAT. I have been studying continuously for this test since August. I was dreaming every night about triangles, a2+b2=c2 and all of that alegbra and geometry that I forgot as soon as I finished the class way back when. I took the test last Thursday and did really well. So now I'm preparing my application for grad school which includes four essay questions. I'm hoping to apply by the early deadline of November 2nd.

So just wanted to post a little note that I will be back full force very soon!

Camping

I went for my first camping experience ever on Monday & Tuesday. Rob's parents pulled their camper up to one of the state parks in the north Georgia mountains. We went up and met them on Monday after Rob's classes and stayed the night with them.

I'll admit, I was bored. It was really nice up there on Lake Burton and the scenery was beautiful. They had a nice campsite that was shaded and we spent most of the time up there outside. We of course had the obligatory campfire on Monday night complete with S'mores. I definitely wasn't complaining about that!

As I was laying there in a reclining chair facing the lake, Rob asked me if I was having a good time. I responded it was okay and I just wasn't used to not doing anything. We were pretty well cut off from everything - no internet or television and my cell phone died right after we arrived. His dad responded and said that really relaxing is something you have to learn to do. I think he's right! Though it does seem kind of an odd statement.

But today is back to the real world, which I'm having a hard time getting back into right now, with an overflowing email inbox and a million things to do. I better get with it! Here's a few pictures from the Georgia State Parks website:

 

Take Time To Laugh

I was going to try to write some eloquent article about taking time out from your day just to laugh and smile. But I just couldn't find the words to write an article that will match up to this video. So I'll just say, if you're looking for a good laugh, take two minutes out of your day to watch this.

What a great way to start the day!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMQt7ARAqXs

Mondays

Sometimes Mondays just really live up to their own stereotype. Yesterday, we had some thunderstorms roll through that were a little rough. No complaints here about the rain as we desperately needed it. But the windows in our bedroom started leaking. Lovely! Our house is only three months old. We have a warranty, thank goodness, but I can't find even a phone number to call about it. I have a call into the builder to see if they can help.

Second, we were charged about $15 in roaming on my cell phone. We have a nationwide plan and I know I was sitting in my house when I made the phone calls. When I called someone at 11:56am, it was roaming. I talked for 2 minutes and called someone else at 11:59am and it was not. I was standing in my kitchen the entire time. Explain that one! Rob already tried to talk to our cell phone company and got nowhere with it. So I figured I would give it a shot. She told me my name's not on the account so she can't talk to me. Now I KNOW my name is on there as I've had to call in the past when Rob was deployed. Besides the fact that when I log in online to our account, it says Welcome Stacey! She said she couldn't help me and hung up.

And last, our DISH went out during the storm last night. No big deal, it usually goes out when we have a big storm. Well this morning it still wasn't back so I called technical support. After doing all kinds of stuff to it, they decide they need to send out a technician....who can come on Wednesday at the earliest. The only thing I really care to see is the season finale of Army Wives. Other than that, I'm not too concerned about what I'm missing.

So no television. I'm afraid to use my cell phone in the house because who knows if they'll decide I'm roaming. And now I'm worried about our windows too.

Sorry for the whining post but man, it is definitely a Monday!! And its only 9am!

My Birthday Adventure

On May 31, I turned 31. Last year's birthday was not so great. Not what we actually did but just the fact that I rolled over to a new decade. In fact, Rob decided we would start counting backwards so actually this year, I turned 28 for the 2nd time. Next year, I'll be 27! lol

Rob said it was my day and we could do whatever I wanted. Since we were in a brand new house in a brand new area, I wanted to go shopping. I had a long list of things we "needed" (AKA wanted) for the house. Rob hates going shopping unless we're going to Bass Pro or REI but he hung in there like a real trooper while I dragged him all over northeast Georgia.

That night we had been planning to go to Dave & Buster's. We have always lived at least two hours away from one so it was nice that there is finally one just down the road from our new house. I love their blackened chicken alfredo and we both love to play the games. Rob loves the video games more and I like seeing how many tickets I can rack up in a night. I'm definitely competitive and not a very good loser either!

We went into the restaurant and ordered our drinks. Just about the time, he was finished taking our food order, the waiter dumped an entire glass of tea in my lap. I was absolutely drenched. I had on jeans so I had no hope of soaking it up with the one towel he brought to the table. My shirt was sopping wet as well. I headed to the bathroom praying they would have a hand dryer but no luck.

I went back to the table and sat there miserable. So Rob went to tell the host that we were leaving to buy me something else to wear and would be back. At this point, not one person had apologized for drenching me in tea. And they all knew it was my birthday.

We went to a nearby store and I picked out an outfit quicker than I ever have in my life. Rob paid for it and then brought it back to me in the dressing room to put on. Once that was situated, we headed back to the restaurant.

As soon as we sat down, they brought our order out and it was obvious it had been sitting for a while. Pasta is just not that great when its lukewarm. But given their total lack of concern over dumping tea in my lap, I doubted they would care the food wasn't hot so we didn't even say anything. We paid the bill (the full bill, no discount at all!) and for the first time ever, didn't leave the waiter a tip. I always tip something even if the service was lousy. But being that he never did apologize, he didn't get one.

Rob begged me not to let it ruin the rest of the night. So we went out to play the games. I beat him in basketball twice - which never happens. So I think he may of been letting me win! Whatever works - I needed something to go right at that point!

The next day, I hand wrote a two page letter to the Dave and Buster's headquarters and dropped it in the mail. Whether we hear back from them will determine whether we ever go back there again. Hopefully, I will at least finally get an apology!

My Weekend Adventures

We had a great weekend! On Friday night, we went out to the American Legion with some friends to play Bingo. I played Bingo as a child but I've never played for money so this put a whole new spin on it. My grandmother (Mema to me!) used to play all the time at one of the Legions here in Savannah. I called my dad as we sat down at our table to see if I happened to be at the same one - hoping her luck would rub off on me if I was. She played at a different one but apparently I did get her luck as I won $50! It was a fun night and Rob even really enjoyed it.

On Saturday, his parents came over and while his mom was at a concert, we went with his dad to a Sand Gnats game. For those of you not from this area, the Sand Gnats is a very fitting name for the team! I'm not a big baseball fan at all so I wasn't looking forward to the event too much. The game actually wasn't too bad until about the 7th inning and then it just seemed to drag on and on! But when we were entering the stadium, one of the girls stopped us and asked us if we would be willing to participate in a game on the field at the end of the 1st inning. My husband volunteered us!

At the end of the 1st inning, we went out onto the field with a huge slingshot and three water balloons. Our goal was to hit one of the advertising signs on the back wall. We thought we would be standing fairly close to the sign. WRONG! They had us about 75 yards out from it and told us no one had ever really even successfully launched the water balloon much less hit the sign. Rob's dad and I held either end of the sling shot while Rob was in charge of releasing the balloon. The first one popped as soon as he let it go. The second one got some air under it though not near enough to travel 75 yards! On the third, the visiting team was all screaming at us to hold the ends of the slingshot higher. We did and when Rob released the third one, it broke...all over him! He tried to get them to give him a prize for hitting himself but he only got a few laughs for it.

We ended the weekend with dinner at a friend's house. The food was great and we were able to meet a few new people. Unfortunately, now it's back to working on Monday! Oh well, it was fun while it lasted!

Very Excited!

When we received the phone call on April 13th that my grandfather had passed away, we were packing up the car to meet with the realtor in north Georgia. We had found a house on our previous trip and were planning to meet my parents at the house to get their opinion before signing the contract. Obviously, our plans changed with that phone call.

After the funeral was over and things were beginning to go back to normal, I called the realtor to set up another appointment only to find out that the house we were planning to put under contract had just had a contract put on it by someone else.

I was really upset. But I also believe that things happen for a reason and for whatever reason, that house just wasn't meant to be. We went back to north Georgia this past weekend to start the house hunting process over again. Saturday morning was very disappointing as there wasn't anything we saw that was even a possibility. We started getting very nervous as our time is running short. My parents were on stand-by about two hours south just waiting to get the call that we had found something for them to come and see.

That afternoon, things turned around for us. We found four houses that were possibilities. Four! We were really excited that we had found several that we were happy with and would now have a choice instead of feeling like we would have to settle for something.

The one we chose is the perfect house to us. It is a combination of everything we liked from the previous houses we looked at without the negatives that we didn't. There is a "river" (looks more like a mountain creek or stream to me!) that runs though the neighborhood with a 6 mile nature walk. The house itself backs up to a nature preserve that can never be disturbed by other construction so we'll always have greenspace behind our house. The neighborhood is full of couples that appear to be close to our age which is great since we're moving to an area where we know no one. And the floor plan of the house is great as well. All of our "must haves" are in this house. Not to mention the fact that it is new construction so we'll be the first ones to live there. The yard is a little smaller than we originally thought we wanted but lawn maintenance is included in the homeowner's association fees. Can't beat that!

So we signed our life away yesterday, Or at least that's how it felt as we must have signed 20 different papers. Now, we're on countdown to a closing date. Tomorrow, we go to the transportation office and then on to Rob's retirement brief. Things are definitely happening fast but we're excited!