The Easiest Most Delicious Bread You'll Ever Make

Who else is excited that college football is finally here?! I've been waiting since January for this! There is nothing like ESPN College Game Day on a Saturday morning.

We'll watching the Notre Dame game this afternoon at a friends' house, and I've elected to bring some beer bread. They had never heard of beer bread, so I'm excited for them to give it a try. Can you honestly think of anything better to go with football than beer? And bread.

This stuff is seriously delicious and SO easy to make. Only three ingredients and no bread hook or machine necessary. It mixes just fine in my stand mixer with the paddle attachment.

Ingredients:

• 3 cups Self-rising flour
• 1/2 cup Sugar
• 1 12oz bottle Beer

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 375 F.
2. Combine the flour and sugar in a large bowl. If you don't have self-rising flour, you can use 3 cups all purpose flour, 1 1/2 Tbsp baking powder, and 1 1/2 tsp salt.
3. Pour your choice of beer into the flour combo and mix. Do not over mix. Just enough to make a lumpy sticky batter.
4. Pour the batter into a greased loaf pan and bake for 50 min to an hour until the crust is golden and crispy. 
5. If you're feeling extra adventurous, pour 2 Tbsp of melted butter over the loaf immediately after removing it from the oven.

Obviously, the type of beer that you use makes a difference. Do not try Corona! I've had the best luck with varieties of Blue Moon and Shock Top. Really, any darker beer is pretty good.

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How a Review Product Saved My Sanity

I received two Mighty Handles complimentary for review purposes. All opinions are my own.

If we're friends on Instagram, you may have seen the photo that I posted on Monday about my street being blocked off by a moving truck. The neighbors always park on the side of the street, so there was absolutely no getting through. Normally this wouldn't be an issue, except I had just gone grocery shopping. A whole week's worth of food. In the back of my SUV. Way down the street.

Squint really hard, and you might be able to see my Tahoe back there

Needless to say, I was pretty annoyed. There were tons of cold items, so they had to get inside right away. I couldn't risk my Ben & Jerry's falling victim to the 100 degree oven. Enter Mighty Handle.

Mighty Handle is the easiest way to carry more grocery bags across a parking lot, walking in a neighborhood, up a flight of stairs or from your car into the house. The patent pending handle and anchor design system distributes weight evenly allowing consumers to carry up to 50lbs of bags in one hand. The no slip handle is ergonomic and comfortable. And the balanced weight system ensures bags flow toward the center so contents don't slosh or get damaged. Mighty Handle is also great for carrying dry cleaning, housewares, even paint cans!

Since I received two of these puppies, I was able to bring most of my groceries into the house in one trip. If I wasn't such a weakling, I possibly could have managed to get it all. Let me tell you though, these handles each held five or six bags containing heavy items such as the two gallons of milk that the girls go through every week, and cans upon cans of vegetables and tomato sauce. V even likes to play hang on to the handle and have Hubs lift her. Probably not condoned, but that tells you how sturdy the handles are.

The best part about this product is that it allows you to carry more groceries than you'd normally be able to with no pain. I know I'm not the only one who has lined their arm with plastic bags to avoid multiple trips back and forth from the car, and man those bags hurt! Mighty Handle is also great if you're a mom like me, and need to hold the hand of a little one in the parking lot. One of these would have been ideal when Hubster and I got our first apartment together, on the second floor.

Mighty Handle is one of those products that I didn't know I needed until I got it. It's easy to keep in the car and even easier to use. I really can't say enough good things. If you're interested in getting yourself a set, they're $9.99 on Amazon. Not a bad deal at all for something that is really handy!

You can vote here to help get Mighty Handle on Walmart shelves!

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Social Anxiety

Last night was Wine Wednesday for the wives and female Soldiers in Hubster's class. I was invited and reluctantly said yes. It's not that I didn't want to go, I just don't handle strangers and social situations well. I only really know two of the wives from the class, and meeting new people seriously freaks me out.

I spent all of yesterday afternoon silently freaking out. Like butterflies in my stomach, heart in my throat, I hope I don't pee on myself freaking out. I even had to Google social anxiety to check if that's what my problem was. It turns out, that's not exactly my issue. According to Wikipedia (the know all, be all of life), social anxiety has to do with the discomfort and concern of being judged by others. Honestly, I couldn't care less what people think of me. I just prefer to sit in my hermit shell and not speak. I ended up being so nervous, that I left the house without eating dinner. There was plenty of food at Wine Wednesday, so it wasn't a major deal.

When I got to the house where the event was being held, I didn't see the cars of the ladies I know. Panic mode! I slowly walked towards the door and rang the bell. Once I was in, it really wasn't that bad. I felt even better as soon as I had a glass in my hand. I swear think I'm not an alcoholic.

Source

My peeps showed up a short while later, and all was well. I chatted a bunch and made a new friend. Events like this are never as bad as I make them out to be in my head. I'm going to have to start getting used to it any way. I'll never make friends in Hawaii if I don't push myself out of my comfort zone.

Is anyone else nervous about talking to strangers like I am?

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Water Color Hand Print

When V came home from preschool on Monday, she was so excited to go back "tomorrow". During the day on Monday, they started preparations for a paint project that was happening on Tuesday. My heart broke a little, because V only goes Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. In order to not feel so guilty about her missing out on her art project at school, I came up with a project of my own.

Just after Hubster left for work in the morning, the girls and I made a quick trip to Walmart to pick up some water colors. They were anxious to start as soon as we got back home. It took a little preparation first, but I am so excited with how everything turned out.

What you'll need:

• White cardstock
• White crayon
• Water color paint & water
• Damp paper towel

Directions:

1. Start by tracing a hand print onto the cardstock using a white crayon. Color the hand print in completely with the white crayon. It's difficult to tell, but if you look at the paper at an angle in the light, you should be able to see it. When in doubt, just keep coloring. Make sure to press a little with the crayon so that there is a decent layer of wax.
2. Hand over the water colors to the kiddos and let them paint the entire page. No worries if they paint over the hand print.
3. Once the water colors have dried, take a damp paper towel or cloth, and wipe over the hand print. The water color should all come off in that area. 

An alternative to the hand print that we also did, was to tape down each girls' first initial with masking/painters tape, and let them paint around that. When it dried, I peeled up the tape.

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Meal Planning Monday - Week 24

Life is so great lately! Slightly stressful, but I really can't complain. Well, I can, but I won't.

Hubster got his Request for Orders (RFO) late last week. Originally we were scheduled to be reporting to Hawaii by November 1, but since he graduates in mid-October, we wouldn't have much time to get everything together and say goodbye to our families. The new report time is mid-November. I'm excited because it means we'll only be without Caesar for a month, and we'll have plenty of time to visit our parents.

I'm also kind of excited about the possibility of being able to take the girls trick or treating around me parents' neighborhood. The same neighborhood that I always trick or treated around. I seriously love when the girls get to experience the same things that I did as a child.

Yesterday we went out on our friends' boat on the Lake of the Ozarks. It was seriously one of the best times I've had in Missouri. We did some tubing, and then anchored for a while to hop in the water. It was so hot out and the water was perfectly cool.

I've decided that next week will be my last meal plan post for a while. I might switch my meal plan day, but I would really prefer to just do weekend updates on Mondays. Plus, I think 25 weeks is a good run.

Week 24 Menu:
Monday: Chicken Parmesan 
Tuesday: Indian Butter Chicken
Wednesday: Black Bean Quesadilla
Thursday: Chicken Tortilla Soup
Friday: Korean Tacos
Saturday: Marsala Pork Chops
Sunday: Spinach & Cheese Stuffed Shells

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Hop rules:
1. Follow your hosts. Alejandra at Munchkins and the Military and Lisa at Sorority Life to Army Wife.
2. Link up your weekly meal plan or favorite recipe.
3. Check out a few other blogs!






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Happies & Crappies

This is my first week linking up with my happies & crappies. I have some complaints, but I didn't want to blog about that without including something positive.



Happies

1. V started school this week! She's really been enjoying it so far, so I'm happy! Having her gone all day gives me a huge break.
2. I got a Influenster VoxBox in the mail yesterday! I had no idea what was going to be in it, and I was pleasantly surprised. Everything is actually stuff that I need and will use. I also have another VoxBox on it's way. The one I already received is the Paradise VoxBox. There is nothing more appropriate to get our move to Hawaii started.
3. Caesar is ready to go! The vet stuff has been taken care of, I have his rabies certificates and Hawaiian import form. I am just missing a notarization on the import form and I'll be able to send everything in. I might wait a while though, since he won't actually be allowed on the island until mid-December.
4. I made the most amazing bread from scratch yesterday!! SO GOOD! If I would have let the loaf rise more before sticking it in the oven, it would have been the perfect loaf of Cuban bread! I'm quite excited about this since no one outside of Miami knows what Cuban bread actually is. It's differnent from the French loaf that some grocers try to pass it off as.
5. My dentist appointment wasn't so bad yesterday. They did the scaling on the left side of my mouth. When I went in to have my right side done, it was a lot more painful than I was expecting. This time, I went in expecting it to feel like child birth in my mouth, which I think helped with the pain.

Crappies

1. V is sick today. She started running a fever last night. A little Tylenol helped for the evening, so it's back. Because she's sick, there is no school for her today. It'll be the three of us stuck at home while Hubster is gone on a class float trip. 
2. Speaking of V's school, I'm not impressed. The owner is kind of a shady b. Like I said before, the class itself is wonderful, but the way that the place is managed, is not good. She keeps telling me that she'll get me a school handbook "next time" but I don't ever foresee that happening. The first time we went in, she said he office was a mess because she was rearranging, but no, a month later it's still like that. Since I have no book, I really don't know how to handle V's sick day today. I'll speak to the teacher next week, because it's become obvious to me that I won't get anywhere speaking to the owner. 
3. Along with V being sick, so is Caesar. Hubs and I each had to get up last night to take him out to poop. This morning he's had diarrhea. I suppose that's what he gets for digging in the trash last night and eating scraps.
4. V's gymnastics session ended last week. I was hesitant to sign her up again, because I wasn't a huge fan of the gym. I grew up with my sister training next to Olympians, and this gym was not like that at all. The last straw was when the owner didn't let me reschedule a class that V missed. The gym was closed due to the flooding in town, so we were told that we could reschedule the following week. Apparently, I waited too long. Oh well. Hopefully we can find something better in Hawaii. 

And that's pretty much the gist of my week. Nothing overly exciting in my neck of woods.

I hope everyone has had a wonderful week, and has a great weekend!

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My Subscription Boxes

Yesterday was a great mail-wise. I had two of my subscription boxes delivered! We don't normally get anything more than junk mail, which always makes these a welcomed treat. These boxes always take a week to get to me from the time I receive the shipment email, so I was full of anticipation yesterday.

The first box was my Goodies box. I was disappointed that aside from the cookie mix, everything was a tiny sample size. Although I wasn't super impressed by the box, for $7 I can't really complain. They've gotta make money somehow.

With it being back to school season, the theme of this month's box was Box Tops for Education. I guess each of these products has a Box Top on their packaging. I'm not positive though since only one of the seven items I received came in a full-sized box.

In the August Goodies box there was:

Sea Salt & Butter by Rocky Mountain Popcorn

Southern Pecan Liquid Coffee Brewstick by Barnie's Coffee

Hershey's Chocolate Chunk Cookie Mix

Fiber One Chocolate Fudge Brownie

Nature Valley Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter

Mott's Medley's Assorted Fruit Snacks

Tangy Zangy Wild Berry Twisties

If you'd like a Goodies invite, leave your email in the comments. The first five get it. By using my code you'll be able to skip the line, and you'll start out with 100 points. I think there is another 100 available for filling in your profile. At 300, you get a free box.

The second box I received was Caesar's BarkBox. Is it sad that I was more excited about the dog box than I was about the people box? Although the $29 price tag is a bit hefty for a box of surprises, I was much happier with the contents of this box vs the other one. If you sign up for the six month plan, the cost is as low as $19. And it doesn't hurt that I got this one free, thanks to Megan.

Reading the email description about this box already had me excited. They mentioned playing in the water, and even though Caesar doesn't know it yet, he'll be swimming like crazy once we move to Hawaii. Caesar usually isn't a fan of treats, but I'm hoping that since these are something new, he'll enjoy them.

In the August BarkBox there was:

Aussie Naturals Floaties Shark

Plato Duck Strips

The Honest Kitchen Ice Pups

Primal Pet Freeze Dried Liver Munchies

Barkworthies Food Topper

Next month I'll be trying out Love With Food, as a recommendation from one of my pledge sisters.

Do you subscribe to any boxes?

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Happy Tuesday

I just got home from dropping Veronica off at her first day of preschool! Angels sing! Her teacher seems like a super sweet lady. I'm looking forward to talking to her when I pick her up this evening. I'm so excited for her. She's so smart and is going to have so much fun!

Since V has been acting extra crazy lately, so I was extremely happy to finally be able to get her started. For now she'll be going Monday/Wednesday/Friday, and we'll see how that goes.Since today is Tuesday, she goes back tomorrow! Yay! Two days in a row is exactly the break that mommy needs!

My only complaint about the preschool is that the owner doesn't seem super organized. Like no one had any idea she was starting today, and the owner didn't happen to be there. She also told us that we could drop off and pick up at any time, when clearly we were late this morning.

Today, Adri and I will spend the day cleaning up and hanging out. Next week we'll start our brand new routine! The commissary is now open on Mondays again, so after dropping V off, we'll head there. Shopping with one kid vs. two will be glorious!

Caesar's vet appointment went great yesterday! He got his microchip put in and his blood drawn for the rabies test. Now we just have to wait 120 days, and he should be good to go to Hawaii! I felt like such a weight had been lifted off of my shoulders after that appointment. I was also able to get a rabies certificate signed with a pen, and I ordered one from our vet in Georgia. Everything is falling into place!

Hubs is meeting with the assignment officer today, to hopefully find out when we'll actually be heading to Hawaii.

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Meal Planning Monday - Week 23

How was everyone's weekend?! I'm looking forward to this week! V will finally start school, and I've got a whole bunch of appointments to take care of.

My killer dog (thanks for all the comments on how handsome he is) Caesar, goes to the vet today to get the process started for sending him to Hawaii. He'll have to be microchipped, and have his blood drawn for rabies testing. I read Hawaii's guidelines over and over again all weekend, as well as printed out all the documents that I need so that the vet can help me out with it. Today should be an interesting process. They'll be lucky if they can hold him down to stick him twice.. HAHA! He's freaking strong!

Later this week, I'll have my second two-hour dentist appointment. I forgot to take my blood pressure meds before the last appointment, so they could only give me the crappy drugs, which didn't do much in the numbing department. I'm not going to let that happen again this week!

If you missed my post this weekend, make sure to check it out here, and find out how you can easily donate (for free) to a cause that supports our wounded veterans.

I'll be honest, Hubs was gone last week, so there wasn't a whole lot of planning put into my meal planning..

Week 23 Menu:
Monday: Food? Sorry, I lost the list!
Tuesday: Ricotta Stuffed Chicken
Wednesday: Honey Pecan Pork Chops
Thursday: Mini Corndogs
Friday: Fried Chicken Salad
Saturday: Korean Beef on Rice
Sunday: Ravioli in Creamy Pink Sauce

<br /> <a href="http://www.munchkinsandmilitary.com/search/label/meal%20planning"><img src="http://i1146.photobucket.com/albums/o530/armywifemommylife/MealPlanMonday_zps8cc53c82.jpg" border="0" alt="Meal Plan Monday with Munchkins and the Military"/></a>
Hop rules:
1. Follow your hosts. Alejandra at Munchkins and the Military and Lisa at Sorority Life to Army Wife.
2. Link up your weekly meal plan or favorite recipe.
3. Check out a few other blogs!






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Support The Wounded Warrior Project

When Purple Heart Day happened a little over a week ago, I took it upon myself to do some digging into my family's history of military service. My granduncle Patrick, had been killed in World War II, but when I looked up a list of Purple Heart recipients, I couldn't find his name on the list. I always remembered my grandpa having this AMAZING shadow box dedicated to his brother hanging up in his office. In the shadow box was the American Flag folded up in a triangle shape, some photos, a letter addressed to my great grandmother which started out with something like, "we regret to inform you," and the Purple Heart medal.
 
With Hubster being in the Army, and having deployed twice, I am relieved to say that he's always come back with 10 fingers and 10 toes. Not everyone is that lucky, though.

The Purple Heart is a military decoration awarded to those who have been wounded or killed while serving in the United States military.

Wounded Warrior Project is one of the wonderful nonprofit organization that does so much to support these injured service members and their families. The main focus of Wounded Warrior Project is to raise public awareness, help wounded service members help each other, and to provide programs and services which meet the needs of the wounded.

Mission has partnered with Wounded Warrior Project to create Mission's Acts of Service. From now until September 30, Mission will donate $1, up to $100,000, for each act of service shared. Sharing your act of service is easy. You can visit the Mission Facebook page to share your story or upload a photo, or even tweet how you support our wounded veterans using: #MissionActsofService. Each participant may submit one of each of these types of entries each day from now until the end of the program.

I hope that you'll consider participating. This is such an easy way to help support one of the best nonprofit veteran organizations out there. Click here to participate and
for more information.

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Do Your Friends Know?

A while back when I was chatting with Sara about blog stuff, the topic of friends popped into the discussion. Mainly, our friends knowing about our blogs. To my surprise, I wasn't the only person who kept blog life and real life separate. I had separate personal and blog Pinterests, Instagram, and email accounts. God help me if I ever mentioned the word blog or liked a blog Facebook page on my personal account. For the longest time, I wouldn't even tell Hubster the name of my blog, because I didn't want him reading it either.

I have no idea why I was so scared to let people know that I blogged. You know when you record yourself talking and then you play it back and it sounds like the most annoying thing you've ever heard in your life? I pictured it to be something like that I guess. Why would anyone want to know about my day to day life anyway? I was cool sharing my thoughts and such in the blog world, because chances were I would never run into a blog friend in real life. Heaven forbid anyone ever move to St. Robert, Missouri.

Slowly, my real life friends started finding me. I'd be lying if I told you that I wasn't mortified when a real life friend found my Twitter, followed by my blog. People were liking my Facebook page, and on more than one occasion, Google outed me. I have no idea how people kept finding me.

Because I had maintained separate social media accounts, my personal ones were lacking when it came to updates about life and the girls. I slowly started opening up to the idea of being open about the blog. I deleted the personal IG and added everyone on my Munchkins&Military one. I did the same with my Pinterest. Occasionally I'll post blog stuff on those outlets. I haven't made the jump on Facebook yet though, because EVERYONE I know is on that. I'm sure that once we get moving to Hawaii, it'll be the easiest way to keep everyone in the loop about our lives. Plus, who doesn't want more readers?

Do your friends know about your blog?

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Training a Fight Dog

I have seriously typed up this post three different times already. For some reason, I can't just figure out what I ant to say, and how to say it. I'll just start with what sparked me to write this.

On Sunday we took Caesar to the dog park on post. We don't have much of a yard for him to run around in, so even though he gets to play outside daily and sometimes I run up and down the stairs with him, it's nice to let him run loose at the park. The dog park is an old fenced in baseball field, so there is plenty of space. When we got there this weekend, there were a few other dogs. All much smaller than him, because he's 75 pound lab/pitbull mix. I worried a little since sometimes he can be overly friendly and playful and I didn't want anyone getting squished.

After sniffing some butts and running around a little, Caesar came back to a corner with us to do some sprinting with Hubster. I stand and watch. I can't outrun the dog. A new dog showed up, and just like it was a spiffy new toy, all the pups ran over to get their sniff on. No issues so far.

But then, this crazy bitch showed up. Literally. Haha! A little poodle thing was first at the gate to greet it, and the dog flipped out and attacked it. Being the awesome little gigantic hero that he is, Caesar ran over to the rescue, followed by Hubster. The poodle owners kind of just froze in terror as Caesar swept in and Hubs snatched up the little guy. Owners of crazy bitch did nothing. As Caesar was trying to meet the new dog, it snapped and attacked him. Think: standing on hind legs, angry growling, and lots of sharp teeth. The dog photos that I Googled were rather graphic, so I'll spare you and use these bears as an example.

Here at Fort Leonard Wood, and most other military installations that I'm aware of, Pit Bulls, Rottweilers, Doberman Pinschers, Chows, and wolf hybrids are deemed as "aggressive" breeds, and not allowed to live in housing on post. They always put the word aggressive in quotations also. In the past, we've had trouble renting off post, because some apartment complexes also ban these breeds.

Well, the dog causing the attacks on Sunday was none of the aforementioned breeds. For almost as long as I've been alive, I've always had an aggressive breed of dog. Two Dobermans and a Pitbull. You know, the breeds of dogs banned from living practically anywhere, because they'll chew through walls and kill your neighbors. We've NEVER had an issue any of the dogs being aggressive. In all honesty, it really does come down to the training. If you don't train your dog to not be a douche, it's going to cause issues no matter what breed it is.

Now that we're house hunting in Hawaii, I'm finding Caesar's breed to be an issue. Luckily, I got smart when we got a new vet here in Missouri and I omitted the Pitbull part when I was asked what kind of dog he was. His paperwork now says "lab mix" and I shouldn't have to worry about aggressive breed restrictions. In the future, he'll just be a lab mix. I don't what he's mixed with. Do you think his block head gives it away?

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We Found Out Where We're Going..

I did plan on posting about my puppy today and our dog park ordeal over the weekend, but instead I have news..

Yesterday, we found out where the Army will be sending us once Hubster finishes us the course he's currently in.

It looks like I'm going to have to suck it up and get used to warm and sunny tropical weather.

We're going to Hawaii!

I am nervous and excited! As I'm sure most of you know, we've been researching Hawaii like crazy already, but now it's for real.

I'm kind of freaking out about getting our dog over there and finding a place to live. It's kinda difficult when you're an ocean away. I made an appointment for Caesar for next week to get hopefully be able to avoid the whole quarantine dilemma.

We still have so many things to figure out. Like which car we're taking over, if we are going to live on or off post, but we still have a few months. Since Caes is like 600 pounds, it's been difficult to find a place that will rent to us. And since he's part pitbull, it's even harder. But more on that tomorrow. (:

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Meal Planning Monday - Week 22

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HUBSTER!

I love you!

How was everyone's weekend? We had a good one. Even though it was Hubster's birthday weekend, we didn't do much. I have his favorite dinner planned out for tonight, and might head out to pick up some balloons and streamers. 

We made a trip to the dog park yesterday where there was an insane dog attack everything in it's path, but more on that tomorrow. I'm just proud of my boy for being a little hero and protecting the small dogs. 

This is our menu from this past week. Once again, we had spaghetti and meatballs for dinner yesterday. After the weekend, I really only feel like boiling water.

Week 22 Menu:
Monday: Salad with Ham and Hard Boiled Egg
Tuesday: Chicken Pasta Soup
Wednesday: Baked Ravioli
Thursday: Southwest Eggrolls
Friday: Pork Roast with Vegetables
Saturday: Mexican Pizza
Sunday: Spaghetti and Meatballs

<br /> <a href="http://www.munchkinsandmilitary.com/search/label/meal%20planning"><img src="http://i1146.photobucket.com/albums/o530/armywifemommylife/MealPlanMonday_zps8cc53c82.jpg" border="0" alt="Meal Plan Monday with Munchkins and the Military"/></a>
Hop rules:
1. Follow your hosts. Alejandra at Munchkins and the Military and Lisa at Sorority Life to Army Wife.
2. Link up your weekly meal plan or favorite recipe.
3. Check out a few other blogs!






Check out my fantastic sponsor:

Happy Weekend!

Good morning! I didn't want the whole weekend to pass by without me updating the blog, so here I am!

It was a pretty crazy week around here. It rained almost nonstop, so both of the towns next to our town flooded. A bunch of appointments had to be cancelled due to the fact that people couldn't get out of their homes. Unfortunately, a young mom and her toddler were killed in the flooding. They just found the mom's body not too far from our house yesterday.

Duty station wish lists were due yesterday.The branch manager was emailing the course leader in the middle of the afternoon, because people had still not turned in their lists. I'm hoping that it meant that he was working on assigning people, and maybe we'll know by Monday.

Thursday I went to a social that Hubster had for work. I got to meet some of the leadership, the classmates and their wives. Honestly, I'm anti social, so I wasn't all that thrilled about having to meet the wives, but after being pushed into a circle of them, it wasn't so bad. We were chatting, chatting, chatting, until the general who was hosting the social got up to talk. He introduced his wife, who happened to be in the small circle that I was chatting in. The wives of Hubster's classmates and I all turned to each other with shocked looks on our faces. Of course the men all made sure that we made them look good.

Not much in store for this weekend. Hubs has a bunch of homework to do, so we'll most likely be homebodies. The park around here is flooded anyway.. If you want more of me though, you can find me on the Military Town Advisor blog. And I'll be participating in a Teen Choice Twitter party this afternoon at 4pm est. You can join in by using the hashtags: #share5 and #teenchoice.

Have a great weekend!

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Greek is Greek - I'm a Phi Mu

I am a big dummy! I had this down in my calender for today, when in fact the link up actually started yesterday. Opps. Good thing is that I'm still able to join, and hopefully find me some internet sisters.



I'll be honest, I went into sorority life looking to party and meet guys. I really had no idea what being in a sorority entailed other than what I had seen on that old MTV show. Anyone remember that one? Well, I got my fill of parties, met tons of people, plus plenty more! Becoming a Phi Mu was truly a life changing experience.

I need to start from the end and say that without having joined a sorority in college, I can guarantee that there's no way that I'd be where I am today. I wouldn't have found my amazing husband or had the two little trolls that I love more than anything in the world. Shout out to my sisters for making me go to the FIJI house for fraternity rush.

So I went into sorority recruitment with opinions based off of what my friends were telling me. You know, which sorority was the good one and which ones I wanted to avoid. Needless to say, I was dropped by my first choice. It pretty much crushed my soul. And then I met the sister who ended up becoming my big sister. She was nice, pretty, and even had a tattoo with a Phi Mu meaning behind it. That's what I wanted. I wanted a sorority that meant so much to me, that I'd be willing to tattoo it on myself.

At first, being in a sorority was not what I was expecting at all. We had to learn stuff, like the Greek alphabet and history. Not quite what I signed up for. Where were the parties?! Who knew that all of that history would turn out to be the important part and what I actually remember now, four years after graduation. Fun fact: Phi Mu is the second oldest Greek letter organization for women.

Something else that I didn't expect was all of the volunteering and philanthropy that was associated with being Greek. Being in a sorority is hard work! We held our own events, supported the events of other organizations, and prided ourselves on raising the most money for Dance Marathon. It wasn't until after I became a mother that I really realized all that the Children's Miracle Network does. I thank God that both of my babies are healthy. Knowing that I helped to donate to hospitals that take care of sick children is an amazing feeling.

Go get yourself some ice cream. TODAY!

Leadership took a ton of work as well. Throughout the years I held plenty of chair positions. The pinnacle of leadership was my junior/senior year as the recruitment director. Recruitment takes effort. After all, you're securing the future of the sorority. It was a frustrating but rewarding experience. Not everything went according to plan, but my two littlest sisters were a result of that recruitment, so it was definitely a success.

One thing that I didn't expect, was the opportunity to travel. I was able to go to a few leadership conferences in Georgia, some social events, plus all of the unofficial trips that sisters took for fun. Being that I lived at home during college, and we didn't have a house, some of our travel felt like it was the closest we got to real sorority life. A bunch of college girls away from home is a fun time!

Can't forget that time that we stopped in Godknowswhere, GA for tattoos and piercings by a guy with leopard hair.

One of the greatest things, other than the Hubster and the babies, to come out of sorority life is my bestest best friend in the whole world. Through thick and thin, up and down, we've always been there for one another. When I go home, she's the one person that I always have to make sure I see. I love this one so much that she got to be there when V was born, and later became her Godmother. My parents have also adopted her, since we're just about inseparable.

Not only did I gain sisters, but some brothers as well. I have my big and little brother, who have both literally become part of my family. "Little" who also happens to be Hubster's little brother, is V's Godfather. "Big" is in Army, sometimes it feels like he is the only person that I can relate to in real life. Plus a handful of others that I absolutely still adore!

I got the tattoo, plus all of the meaning behind it. A chapter that loved and supported me. Friendship, philanthropy, leadership, new experiences. A million things that I had no idea were even missing from my life until I joined Phi Mu.

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