Celebrating Six Months of Full-Time Domesticity!

If you know me pretty well, you know that I have an odd ability to remember dates, some important and some not.  One date I remember is that six months ago this Saturday I was set free from the clutches of the pit of misery that was the preschool I was working at here.  I’ve been so incredibly grateful to have all this time to do all of the fun things I’ve been doing. (For more details, um, read the blog!)

On a separate note, I will say that living here and shopping at the smallest grocery store I’ve seen since I left Montana has definitely taught me the value of buying and eating in-season produce.  Because that’s pretty much what they carry.  For right now, that means lots and lots of apples and apple products, squash, and pumpkin!  For the first time in my life, I am welcoming fall with open arms!  No trepidation about blizzards that inevitably arrive with fall in the mountain west.

I have to admit I’ve been kind of afraid of squash, so weird and varied.  But this year, Real Simple published a wonderful sort of “Squash 101” article about the different varieties and how to prepare and cook them.  So I timidly bought one butternut squash, one acorn squash( I had at least heard of those varieties) and one spaghetti squash( I went, “What?!” and Caleb said, “Oh yeah.  We used to have those all the time; they’re good”).  

Tonight was my first attempt with squash; I sliced an acorn squash(Wow.  Not that easy) tossed the slices with salt, pepper, thyme, and olive oil and sprinkled parmesan cheese on top and roasted them for thirty minutes and you know what?  It was delicious!  I love squash!  On Saturday I’m making a soup with pureed butternut squash and I also have a recipe for spaghetti squash that I’ll be trying soon.  Stay tuned. 

Now here’s a blurb I wanted to post nearly a month ago but we’ve run into some complications with getting our bowls(thanks a lot, Amazon!) so I decided to just post some pictures of some goodies from our shower without the bowls.  Here is a picture of our new dinner plates, salad plates, everyday flatware, steak knives, dessert bowls, wine glasses, napkins, place-mats, and carafe.  Ah, you should see them in person.  Seriously.  Makes you want to come visit, doesn’t it? 

And to top things off, here is another sample of some gifts from the shower that we’ve just really enjoyed having.  Especially the food processor.  I did not grow up with a food processor so I reluctantly agreed when Caleb said we should get one and what do you know?  It is amazing!!!

To bring this post full-circle, I’ve just been feeling very blessed and grateful to have some nice things to use and appreciate and time to enjoy all the little domestic projects and other interests I’ve had the time and energy to pursue in the past six months.  And I’m thankful for the cooler weather.  Lincoln should have made Thanksgiving the last Thursday of September.  By the end of November, half of the country is sitting in an airport waiting on a flight delayed by a snowstorm.  And it is too close to Christmas.  Just my two cents. 

Horseback Riding

Yesterday I got the opportunity to do some horseback riding through some friends of a friend who has horses.  The last time I was on a horse was over four years ago so I was a little rusty and unfortunately these horses were a little older and not accustomed to being ridden much, so they were kind of set in their ways, which is a problem because the first rule of riding is that the horse has to know that you’re in charge.  We had a bit of a power struggle initially but did warm to each other just as the sun was setting.  I still really enjoyed being around the horses and hope to do it again soon.  

Latest Little Project

Last Friday while I was enjoying a rare day off and waiting for evening and the AF Ball to arrive, I decided to rearrange our bookcase according to color!  I had seen this in a few places and was dubious that we had enough colored books to make it work and I also enjoyed having the books grouped by content but I gave it a try and I love how it looks!

Here’s before:

And after: 

I kept all of our board games, CDs, journals, photo albums, and Academy yearbooks down at the bottom, mainly because I was afraid putting the Academy yearbooks up at the top would tip the bookcase over, ha ha! 

So here’s a close-up of just the color-coded shelves without all the miscellaneous items on the bottom two shelves:

Overall, much nicer to look at and a great way to spend a Friday morning! 

Air Force Ball

Well we had a great time at our first Air Force Ball last night! We danced all the way up to the last song that the band played, enjoyed some good food and talking with the five couples we knew who attended( for some inconceivable reason the ball is not very popular with the student pilots!  So we pretty much knew Caleb’s instructors, people I babysit for, and some other spouses I know from being social on base).

There were, however, some technical difficulties that put us in an awkward position.  When we arrived and checked in, the poor 2nd Lts. roped into working the event had no seating assignment for us on their little spreadsheet.  We awkwardly stood around the lobby for 15 minutes or so, waiting for someone in charge to tell us where to sit.  Then they came up and said that a couple recently said they wouldn’t be able to make it after all, so we would be sitting in their seats and keeping their place cards because we ordered the same food.  This couple happened to be one of the higher-ranking officers on base who is in-between command posts, i.e. he used to have a big important job on base but now someone else has it and he is waiting around until his next assignment is ready for him.  There is more waiting in between moves than you might think.  Anyway, he and his wife, who worked with the student spouses a lot and is the most classy, gracious, down-to-earth person you could ever hope to be like, were supposed to be sitting at this table in the back of the room with some other random parties (the rest of the room was arranged according to squadron, i.e. people you work with and know).  So we got a big kick out of telling our few acquaintances that we’ll be standing in for the Lt. Colonel and Mrs. for the evening!

So we’re sitting at our table and taking pictures with our place cards and observing the singing of the national anthem, a drill team performance, the entrance of the official party, etc. when who should come up behind our seats but the Lt. Col and Mrs!  We practically jumped out of our--their--seats and explained what happened and we had to stand around awkwardly again waiting for the people in charge to give us all some seats!

In the end they found seats for everyone and we got over our embarrassment and enjoyed the evening!

Weekend/Update

First of all, I am very sorry that I neglected to take any pictures over our long weekend.  I will try to do better next time and I will probably take some pictures soon of some of the new goodies around the house.

Over Labor Day weekend we made the eight-hour trek to Kingsport to spend the weekend with Caleb’s family!  In addition to the two of us and Caleb’s parents, little sister, aunt, uncle, and cousin who still live in Kingsport, Caleb’s older sister came down from Annapolis, his grandparents came down from Richmond, and three cousins came home from school for this weekend! Saturday we went to the wedding of a lifelong church friend of Caleb’s that was officiated by Caleb’s father, so that was fun.  On Sunday afternoon, Caleb’s home church hosted a wedding shower for us that included lunch and cake and of course opening presents. We were very touched by the thoughtfulness and time put into the shower and were very blessed by all the gifts we received. :-)

Surrounding those two celebrations we enjoyed time visiting, eating, and playing games with Caleb’s family.  Then after lunch on Monday we headed out through the deluge that covered our entire path to Mississippi.  We did get a short surprise visit with another of Caleb’s uncle and aunt as our completely separate paths intersected at virtually the same time, but other than that the drive was a bit nerve-wracking.  At least for me.  Caleb pretty much remained his usual calm self.

Last week and this week have been two very busy weeks for us.  Caleb has been flying at least once and usually twice a day now due to the other class in his flight graduating and the new “baby class” not being able to fly yet, so his class gets to take all the available flights, and they’ll continue to have priority over their “baby class” until graduation to make sure they stay on schedule.  They really do call them the baby class, that’s not me adding my personality!  And I have been babysitting four or five times a week pretty consistently now.

This Friday we are attending our first Air Force Birthday Ball as a couple!  This is a formal event so Caleb will be wearing his mess dress (if you haven’t seen it just go to thesaurus.com and you’ll see a picture of him under dashing or dapper ;-) ) and I am wearing a floor-length dress.  The evening includes cocktails, dinner, a speaker, and dancing!  We are looking forward to it and I promise to take at least one picture!