One of my favorite things about being involved in such a close-knit military community, is watching everyone come together to support one another in times of need. One of the best examples of this is the way everyone takes turns taking dinner to families when new babies arrive. We recently had not one, but TWO babies born to moms in our Officer Spouse’s Club, and I took dinner to both families on Saturday. I got to see two newborns in just a little under an hour! And of course they were both adorable!

I’m telling you all this for two reasons:

1. I was the coordinator for both of these baby meals. And if you’ve ever coordinated baby meals for a friend before, you know what a PAIN it can be to organize! But I recently heard of a site called Take Them a Meal that does all the organization for you! You just input the contact information, likes/dislikes, and the days they need help, and then e-mail out the link (that is password protected) to your friends. The site does the rest! It even sends e-mail reminders to those who have signed up! Be sure to check it out!

2. I usually take chicken enchiladas as my new baby meal. I like to include black beans, homemade salsa, chips, and of course, something sweet. I used to buy Gladware to package everything in, so if I didn’t get it back, it was okay. But, I always had to buy new Gladware, because the stuff we already had tends to look a little stained if we’ve been using it, and it added $10 or so to every meal I prepared. So…I decided to purchase a bunch of containers from Garnish a few weeks ago, and now I have a stash to pull from whenever I make meals for other people. It also ended up looking pretty darn cute, if I do say so myself.

If you haven’t already, be sure to check out Garnish. The packaging supplies they sell are great for baby meals, parties, favors, and all sorts of other things!

This picture is of me and The Hubby last month at a friend’s wedding. I laughed when I saw it, because even though we’re posed together, it doesn’t really look like we’re in the same place. It was only because of a funny angle, but honestly it’s kind of how I’ve been feeling these last few weeks!

The Hubby and I have been in the same place but I just don’t feel like I’ve seen him at all…we’re like two ships passing in the night (like that naval reference?). Even though all our guests are gone, we’re still playing catch-up with all the things we’ve been putting off the last few months. We keep joking that we’re just like roommates at this point! I keep hoping we’re going to get a break and find some time to spend together, but we have a Bail (Navy goodbye party) tomorrow night, I have a goodbye dinner Saturday night, and a baby shower Sunday afternoon. It’s not looking good for us this weekend! It just amazes me sometimes that even when my hubby isn’t deployed or off training somewhere we can almost feel far apart! Do your schedule ever make you feel this way?

I am a HORRIBLE blogger!  It’s been THREE days since I last posted!  I bet you thought I fell off the side of a cliff or something, right? Were you calling the authorities because you’d thought I’d gone missing? I bet you were. But no need to worry! I’m just fine! All safe and sound. Just taking a few days of much needed R & R after hosting guests for months on end (my life’s so rough, you know).  I had a great weekend though, a little Bethenny Getting Married? Saturday morning, a massage Saturday afternoon, fondue with the hubby Saturday evening (made at home!), and a hike with the hubby and Paul the Dog on Sunday. Oh, and lots of sleep. What a weekend!

And now that I’m all nice and rested, it’s back to life in the real world. Well, until my Aunt Di and two cousins Charlie and Annie Kate come visit on Friday, then it’s off to Disneyland!!!

But tonight, the spouses of officers in my hubby’s squadron had a Officer Spouses Club meeting. It was nice to touch base with the ladies…I hadn’t seen many of them in months! It is such a great group, and I was so happy to have an evening to spend with them. For the occasion, I needed a really quick, but fabulous dessert. So I made what I call “Boozy Berries”.

These are AWESOME, and they take only 5 minutes to make. First, get the whipped cream going (remember…just dump one pint of whipping cream in your Kitchen Aid with the whisk attachment and let it go!). Cut up 1 carton of strawberries and mix with a carton of blackberries and a carton of raspberries. Cut up 8 or so mint leaves into tiny slices and mix with berries. Sprinkle with a little sugar (okay, a lot of sugar) and a little Grand Mariner (2 teaspoons or so).  At this point, your whipped cream should be looking pretty whipped creamy. Sprinkle with a little sugar (okay, a lot MORE sugar if you’re like me ). And TA DA! you’re done!  Serve the berries with a generous scoop of whipped cream.

So there you have it, another delicious 5 minute dessert brought to you by This American Wife! See you back here tomorrow!!!

So I just have to share with you this news story that was shown on our local CBS affiliate that features my friend Kalee whose hubby just returned home from deployment!

If you’ve never experienced a homecoming before, well, they’re just about the best thing ever.  Being apart from loved ones is pretty freakin’ hard, but that moment when you see each other again–it’s the most fabulous feeling in the world. And it’s AMAZING to watch. You military peeps know what I’m talking about.

So without further ado, here’s the news story about the recent Homecoming here at Point Mugu:

Navy Squadron Members Meet Sons for the First Time

Congratulations to Kalee, her hubby, and her kiddos, and all the other families who are welcoming home family members today!

Well folks, it’s happened again.  My hubby leaves for one day and all hell breaks loose here at home.  Okay, maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but it really is kind of ridiculous how many crazy things happen when he’s gone!  You see, a few days ago the hubby noticed that we were having some kitchen sink issues.  He was doing the dishes and put some things in the garbage disposal, and then they backed up into the other sink.  Gross, right?  We bought some liquid plumber, and used a little of that, and it seemed to do the trick…or so we thought.  Last night, per my hubby away M.O. I stayed up into the wee hours of the morning cleaning and organizing.  At midnight-ish, I decided to do my last chore before going to bed–the dishes. This turned out to be a horrible idea. As I was putting the last of some week-old beef stew down the garbage disposal, I saw that the sink was once again backing up!  Drat!

I determined that there was probably a clog in a pipe, and that I felt confident enough to tackle taking apart a bit of pipe to check for clogs.  I got a pan to put under the sink to catch the water that would drain out of the pipes and started taking apart the pipes.  While I was prepared for a bit of water, I was NOT prepared for the fountain spray of week-old, beefy, stewy water that sprayed EVERYWHERE.  It went all over the place underneath the sink, ran out onto the floor, and soaked me.  Yes.  I was covered in old, beefy, stewy water. Ick. Paul the Dog on the other hand, seemed to love it!  The worst part about it all?  There was no clog in the pipes!  I have since determined that there is some sort of jam/ leak in the actual garbage disposal…but that seems too advanced for me, so I’m waiting for the hubby to come home tomorrow to address that!  For now, the sink is at least usable again…not sure what I did, but it’s flushed out enough to be able to wash hands and such.  However, the garbage disposal is leaking so I’ve kept a pan underneath the sink.

I did manage to take a picture of the beefy, stewy aftermath.  It kind of looks like someone barfed underneath my sink.  Icky!

P.S. Dear Hubby, if you’re reading this, I hope you’re planning on reading up on garbage disposal repair on your way home tomorrow .

I have a confession to make.  I have an obsession.  If you haven’t yet discovered, I tend to become enamored, involved, or yes, even obsessed with things in my life (I think it’s a bit of the OCD in me). Things that have been the focus of my obsession in the past: my grey pants, Finding Nemo, my Starbucks travel mug, Dove chocolate, the television show Cops, flip flops, baking pies, folding t-shirts, learning the lyrics to “We Didn’t Start the Fire”.  What can I say? I think these small obsession add to my character and make me a VERY interesting person…right?

Something that seems to have some staying power on my top list of obsessions is the NPR radio program This American Life. Yes, it was even the inspiration for my blog title.  If you’ve never listened to This American Life, drop what you’re doing right now and go download an episode on iTunes (it’s a FREE podcast). It’s great to listen to in the car! What is This American Life?  It’s an hour-long weekly radio show (there were also three seasons of a This American Life television show on Showtime, which is also fab-o!) that features usually 3-5 short stories on a given topic.  Sometimes these are perplexing, sometimes they’re HILARIOUS, sometimes they’re sad.  Most of all, they’re just pretty darn interesting!

“Why is this crazy obsessive lady telling me this?” you ask.  Well, I recently started listening to older episodes, and I stumbled across an episode called “Somewhere in the Arabian Sea” detailing the lives of the men and women who live and work on an aircraft carrier!  The radio crew spent a few days on the boat sleeping in bunks, eating with sailors, and just try to find out what life is like for the 5,000 or so people living on this giant ship.  Since this area is so close to home, it was amazing to listen to.  If you’d like to listen to the episode, you may listen to it here.

And go subscribe to the podcast.  Now!

The Navy is full of quirky little traditions…one of my personal favorites is the “greenlight”.  What is a greenlight?  Well this tradition is,  I think, specific to naval aviation, in which all of the officers from a squadron (a group of aviators who fly together) gather with their spouses and call their commanding officer (or “Skipper”).  When the Skipper  answers, everyone yells “greenlight” and then proceed to descend on the Skippers house in a matter of minutes!  Can you imagine? You get a phone call and then five minutes latter you have a massive party at your house?!?  It’s a great time, and yes, I got to be a part of one of these parties on Friday!  I think this would be a fun tradition to start within a group of friends! What a fun thing to do on a random Friday night…it’s the ultimate surprise party! As we all know, some of the best parties happen spontaneously…so keep those party supplies on hand!

I’m so excited!  My hubby is finally home after being gone for three weeks!  I’m off to spend the weekend with him, but in the meantime, I thought I’d share this super-sweet video with you all of a dad returning home from Iraq to greet his kiddo.  I’m sure many of you have already seen it, but it gets me every time!  Have a great weekend!

It’s time.  Gather round blog readers, it’s time for me to tell you about my worst night home alone.  Somehow, when you sign the paperwork making you a 100% bone-fide military spouse, you agree to deal with all sorts of things on your own: plumbing problems, exotic childhood illnesses, and well, my little problem….

My hubby was going to be gone for about a week…leaving on Monday, coming home on Friday.  My aunt was also coming into town on Friday, staying until Sunday, and then on Sunday, my in-laws were coming for a week!  Exhausting, right?  Well…in that week I had to myself, I decided I would take on two projects.  Number 1: I would paint our upstairs guest bathroom.  We had been living in our house about six months, and it was still sponge-painted yellow (ICK!).  Number 2: I would paint the built in bookshelves in our downstairs guest bedroom.  They were a stark white, and I decided to paint them a chocolate brown!  Lovely! I would have three days to paint, and then a last day to clean the house before all our guests!  So I bought the paint and the  painting supplies, and I spent evening one prepping the areas and priming.

Evening two was the big painting night. I started pretty early and painting was going okay…of course, taking a little longer than I wish it was.  I was in the upstairs bathroom with the door closed as I painted the wall behind the door, and I smelled something funky.  I thought it was all the paint fumes in the small bathroom, but after I opened the door, I quickly realized the smell was coming from downstairs.  As I walked downstairs, I quickly realized it was the smell of something burning!  I hadn’t cooked all evening, I had just eaten a sandwich for dinner, so it wasn’t the stove or the oven.  I hadn’t used the fireplace, the heat wasn’t on.  I quickly realized the smell was coming from on side of the house, the side closest to where the water heater was.  Yikes!  I called my hubby, and was a little panicky, and he told me to go turn off the water heater.  So I walked outside to where the access to water heater was and turned off the heater.  As I was walking back inside I looked at our golden retriever, Paul, and saw that his face was all wet.  As I started to walk a little closer, I realized that the smell was coming from HIM!  I locked him outside, and googled “dog” “burning smell”.  And learned that oftentimes a skunk spray, yup, skunk spray, starts off as a burning smell.

I had left our sliding glass door open that evening so that Paul could walk in and outside without me opening the door so I could concentrate on painting.  He had been sprayed, and then come in and rolled around on the carpet to try to get rid of the smell (the area where I had been smelling the strong burning smell).  At this point, it was pretty late in the evening, so I made Paul sleep outside (for the first and only time ever), and I went upstairs to finish painting for the evening and go to bed. I had to stay on the paint schedule so I would finish before our guests came that weekend!

As I was finishing up, I started to feel a little sick.  I realized then that the deli meat had been a little old, and yes, I was facing some stomach issues.  Sooo…one really rough night, one sick day, three dog washings, three bottles of peroxide, one giant bottle of baking soda, and two coats of paint later, I had a painted bathroom, a painted bookshelf, a healthy tummy, a not AS stinky dog, and a fresh smelling carpet.  Seriously folks, you can’t make this stuff up. And what did my husband say when he came home?  ”This place smells like skunk! ” Arrrrg…but I love him anyway

Note to self:

+

= BAD NEWS!!!!

But if you ever need a recipe for deskunking a dog, you just let me know!!!

Since I’ve been writing so much about baby showers lately, I felt that before I move on to other things, I should tell you about Operation Shower.   This organization, started in 2007, is a pretty fantastic nonprofit seeking to recognize and honor the sacrifices military families make by producing and coordinating baby showers and “Showers in A Box” for expecting military personnel and military spouses whose husbands are deployed.

As a rule, military deployments are pretty darn difficult, but many military spouses really take one for the team when they give birth without their husbands by their side (I’ve had friends go through this, and I just keep my fingers crossed that this doesn’t happen to my husband and I).  Operation Shower seeks to recognize these women.  Last year, Opeartion Shower held Eco-Conscious Baby Showers at Ford Hood, Texas and Scott Air Force Base, Illinois for moms-to-be who were also spouse of deployed or soon to be redeployed military personnel. Each mom-to-be received a festive box filled with baby swag including clothes, toys, books, and other essentials.

You can read more about theses particular showers on the Hostess with the Mostess blog. They’re pretty cute, so I encourage you to check them out!

If you would like to contribute to Operation Shower, you may do so at the Operation Shower website here. I’m sure you will make the day of a worthy mom-to-be!