The Difference Between Iowa and Tennessee

It's been a long time since I've blogged, like six months worth. I lost interest in it, and let's be honest...life wasn't too interesting anyway. Same old, same old. But in the past couple months, life has sped up and changed quite a bit. I got engaged (future Mrs. Lt Dan), we moved to another state (Tennessee), and got another dog (black lab named June) and horse (Sheeba, also black)! I hope to be better about blogging, especially to keep everyone up to date with wedding planning and another (ugh!) move within the upcoming month.

 Pretty Miss Sheeba, with a bow in her hair. Dan hated it. 

Such good fur-babies (aka...waiting for a treat)

But onto the title... I've noticed quite a few differences between my home state of Iowa and my new adopted state of Tennessee. These aren't major things, but when combined, they really make me notice how different things are in the Midwest as compared to the South.

• The first thing I noticed when we arrived in Tennessee is that the dirt is red, not black. It pretty much is the consistency of clay and the dogs love to roll around in it, making them look like they've been in a brawl. So weird to see red soil instead of black, and not a stalk of corn to be found!
• We moved down the first week of June, and it also happened to be the week of the CMT country music fest. And every night on the news were multiple stories of country music acts- who was playing when, what was coming up the next day, different activities, etc. Even though the music fest is over, there are still plenty of stories about various artists and events each night. This is strange to me because in Iowa, the only subject that commands that kind of attention is the crops and/or how the weather affects them!
• This one hits me hard: THERE ARE NO CASEY'S IN TENNESSEE! I repeat, no Casey's gas stations. This is really terrible because I love Casey's pizza (and especially the breakfast pizza for a hangover) and their donuts with sprinkles. I have not found a replacement for it yet, they only have KangarooMart or Mapco stations around these parts.  Sad face, really sad face. 

• In the same vein, there are no HyVee's or Fareway's here, only Krogers and Publix. This also bums me out because Fareway has THE BEST meat selection.
• Everybody says y'all. :)
• Something else I noticed was that there are very few garages down here, mainly carports. I guess when there is so little snow and the temperature doesn't get too cold in the winter, there isn't a real need for them, but it still seems odd that so many houses have no garages at all.
• Last, but definitely not least, is the traffic. Holy hell, the traffic, and the inability of anyone in this state to follow the rules of the road while in said traffic. I swear to God, they give driver's license to 10 year olds and then lets them just figure out the traffic laws on their own. It's that bad. People crossing five lanes of oncoming traffic all willy nilly, cars using turning lanes as their own personal roadway, people honking at me because I follow the law (seriously, this lady honked at me at least 20 times because I wouldn't turn left into traffic coming from BOTH ways), and a general disinterest by the cops who see these violations. And then there are the people who think walking across a busy highway is a good idea. Oofta...or as they say in the South, bless their hearts.

I think I'll really like living here once I get over some of these differences. I already like it here because I've been able to work on my tan. :)

More to come!

Snowed In...

It's Thursday around 9 AM and I've been up since around 4:30 this morning because of this lovely blizzard that has enveloped central Iowa. I woke up so early this morning because my power was flickering on and off and my phone and heater were going crazy with the inconsistency of the electricity! I now have power fully (hopefully it will stay that way for the rest of the day!) and no work to go to, so I am still in my jammies...and plan on staying that way all day. The only plans for the day include drinking coffee and finishing my book, maybe listening to some Christmas music too.

The view at about 5 this morning...the door was staying open by itself due to the wind!

I will have to brave going out into the foot of snow we got in order to pick up Lt Dan from the airport. Hopefully the winds will die down enough for his flight to not get delayed too much and to land safely! He chose the worst day of the year to travel! :)

...and from a few minutes ago looking out the back door.

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas!

I love decorating for Christmas, it gets me all excited for the season and it is the one time of the year where I am actually wishing for snow. I like cranking the Christmas music and wrapping presents while wearing a chunky sweater and drinking a hot cup of coffee. Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside :)

This year is the first year I've had a real Christmas tree (not as in a live tree, but a tree that sits on the floor) because in the past I've always had a small half-tree that hung on the wall, and I was quite attached to it. But not this year, as it was destroyed in the fire, along with the majority of of my Wizard of Oz ornaments. This was really hard for me to accept, as I have had this tree for as long as I could remember, and I would get a new ornament every year as a present (We found some of the non-main characters but Dorothy, the Cowardly Lion, Tin Man, etc... are gone, but I am on the look-out for them!).  Thankfully, my mom snagged a cute, perfect apartment-sized tree from my neighbors as they were getting ready to move. I really love the way it looks, it kind of has a Charlie Brown look to it as is not very full and you can see the fake wood trunk all the way to the top...it gives it a very country chic feel!

I stuck with a simple antique/gold theme this year, with accents of red at the top and bottom. I got the star atop the tree at Michael's for $1.29 (on sale AND a coupon!) and jimmy-rigged it to the top branch with some string as it originally is supposed to hang on the wall and not on top of a tree. So far, so good!

These are the three main ornaments that I used to decorate the tree, pretty simple. I for sure wanted to use old skeleton keys and then built around that idea. I found some at an antique store in Virginia when I visited Dan but they were expensive so Dan treated me and bought (but I only let him buy a couple!), and then I began talking to my mom and she donated a bunch to me that she collected after my great aunt passed away. I love that I have some from my family and some from a trip I took with Dan :) My mom also gave me the idea to keep the tags with the keys...it really adds to the antique feel I think! 

The bulb ornaments I made myself...and I must say I'm pretty proud of myself! I got the idea originally from Pinterest here. I cut up a bunch of newspapers in tiny strips and then used a special ink to make them looked antiqued. I then modge-podged them onto the bulb and sprinkled some iridescent glitter over the whole ornament. Let me tell you...the first few looked HORRIBLE!!!!  There were gaps everywhere that you could see through and it generally looked like I let a four year old make my ornaments. Once I figured out a good way to apply the strips evenly, things went more smoothly. I really love these ornaments and I am glad they turned out so well after a few hiccups!

Lastly, the gold covered pine cones are from Target :)

My mom was cleaning out her Christmas decorations one weekend when I was home and I scored the mother load of decorations...at least for a freshly out of college twenty something. She pretty much gave me free reign and I got to pick and choose lots of cute Christmas/winter items (as long as they weren't the ones she was using) for my new place since I no longer had anything to adorn my apartment!

Cute little snowmen and snowmen candle that will never be burned!

This is a actually a garland for the tree but I decided to not put it on so I put it in the glass apothecary jar, which adds nicely to my red accents! To the right is an ornament that I made when I was in kindergarten.

My mom also gave a few Longaberger Christmas themed baskets! This one will hopefully be filled with Christmas cards (hint,hint: send me Christmas cards). 

Another basket, but I think I am going to keep this one up all year long because it is such a nice little place to hold my mail. Also one of my all time favorite signs...so much so I bought another one after the first got destroyed in the fire!

I have a few other snowmen and Christmas items from mom, but my Instragram was being dumb and kept quitting on me as I was taking pictures...so I gave up.

I also made a wreath for my door....I'm becoming so domesticated these days! I bought a regular tangled branch wreath from Michael's (also with a coupon!) and used some leftover spray paint to give it a white winter coat. I bought some festive ribbon and had mom make me a bow (I had attempted to make one myself but it look like I let the dog use it as a toy after I had sat on it...NOT PRETTY)...it is best to leave these type of things to the professionals! 

I thought it turned out pretty well until...

...the neighbors across the hall had to show me up. Jerks.

Another project I made while at home last month was this:

It was originally inspired by this Pinterest project but I knew I wanted to use sticks. I was going to put those sticks on a canvas and hang it on the wall, until I found some bead board up in dad's shed that he said I could use. So while he cut up the board to the right size, the dog and I were walking around the timber finding the perfect mixture of sticks for the project (and playing fetch, of course). I hot-glued the sticks onto the board but it didn't look quite right just yet. Dad then found some cool mahogany colored trim that he attached to the edges and it was totally perfect! (Side note: literally none of the Pinterest projects I do could not be completed without my parents it seems... they always take my ideas and make them 10x better!) I love that all the materials came from Campfire Rd.! 

That should be all my Christmas decorations for this year! But here is one more picture for your viewing pleasure:

Ruby slippers and presents under the tree.

Today I'm Thankful For...

Yep, it's finally the day where you can stuff your face and no one can judge you for it, fall into a turkey induced coma while watching football, and scour the Black Friday ads in order to plan your attack in order to get that $89 flatscreen. But today is also the day to remember that Pilgrims and Indians had a sweet supper so many years ago (and be thankful)! So here's what I'm thankful for this year:

• That I will be able to able to spend time with my family and eat lots of yummy food. Being an adult these days, means that I don't get to go home as often as I used to, so I should probably enjoy it :)
• That this year I will be in good health. Last year, I had a few too many beverages the night before Thanksgiving and stayed out too late...needless to say, the next day I wasn't feeling too hot and couldn't eat much until late in the day.
• That I have a full time job that I enjoy (most days). I think about the job I was working at this summer and I am so glad that I am not stuck there working on Thanksgiving, while having the children there throw their mashed potatoes at me or trying to pull my hair out because they didn't get an extra piece of pumpkin pie! I am also grateful that I get every weekend off and all the holidays...working at a school rocks.
• That Lt. Dan gets to come home for a couple days and that he gets to see him family too. I know I'm spoiled in that I just saw him two weeks ago, but I am glad he gets to come back to Iowa and enjoy delicious food instead of yucky spaceman food (MRE's). 
• That I have a roof over my head. It has been just over five months since the fire and I can still remember it like it was yesterday! I look back on the pictures from that day and I wonder how no one got hurt (good job Ames PD and FD!) and that people were able to recover some of their belongings. I love my new place (my own patio, washer/dryer, and dishwasher...yes please!) and am going to be sad when I have to leave it. It has spoiled me!

I have lots of other things that I am thankful this year, but I need to get ready to pick someone up from the airport and get cooking! Then off to the motherland (Monticello) for some fine fried turkey courtesy of Papa Dave!

Does This Make Me an Adult?

Making a real meal? And drinking wine with dinner? WHO AM I?!?

This is impressive for me!

I seriously try hard to make normal meals but more often than not I end up making mac and cheese or jambalaya. But since I have done pretty much nothing all day, I figured I could put some effort into dinner for once. I decided to make some spaghetti with Italian sausage sauce and green beans and some Texas Toast (still in the oven, hence not pictured). I feel so classy drinking a glass of wine (in a real wine glass, not a plastic cup!) instead of the standard Busch Lite or water as my drink of choice. But not to worry, I bought the $4 bottle of wine from Target, so it wasn't too classy!

And since I don't know how to measure a small portion of spaghetti noodles for myself (it ended up being almost the whole box...oops), I am planning on eating the same meal for lunch and dinner until Thanksgiving! (The bottle of wine will probably be gone by then though!)

Marine Corps Ball

This past weekend I flew to Richmond, Virginia to attend the Marine Corp Birthday Ball with Lt. Dan! I left after work and got into DC around 7:30 pm and then we drove down to Richmond. Every time I come home from visiting Dan I am always so grateful for Iowa traffic because things are so chaotic on the East coast! We finally got to our hotel around 10-ish and crashed for the night!

Happy 237th birthday USMC!

The next day we went to get some breakfast (at McDonald's...it a tradition) and we got stuck behind the King's College basketball team,  and each 7 foot tall player ordered at least two pounds of food, I swear! We probably waited in line for a half an hour before we got our food...grr. Dan also needed to get a haircut so we ran a few errands as well and headed back to the hotel in order to get ready. After much primping and priming we were ready to go in the afternoon. We had to travel a ways because our hotel was about 8 miles away from the convention center where the ball was being held (Note to self: next year book a hotel within walking distance!) but thankfully Dan had friends who had rooms near the center and we had a few drinks before the ball began.

Cocktail hour began at 6 pm and people milled around and got a few drinks, took professional pictures and introduced everyone to each other. Drinks were super expensive ($5 for a beer, $7 for mixed drinks in tiny glasses) but luckily we came prepared and brought in a flask. :) There were about 3,000 people at the ball and it took up three giant rooms in order to hold everyone. According to Dan, this is the second largest Marine Corps Ball in the country!

Our "ticket'" for the Ball

Around 7 people were told to take their seats and the speeches and introductions started. For some of them were able to sit, others you had to stand...and after standing for the duration of the cocktail hour, my feet were HURTING! Most of the other girls brought small purses or clutches, but me? Oh no...I brought my giant purse! It was a good things because without it, I wouldn't have been able to bring a comfy pair of flats to change into. I also had to hold my wallet, phone, Dan's wallet, Dan's phone, Dan's camera (he isn't allowed to put items in his pocket while wearing his uniform. My question- why have pockets in the first place then?!?), and the flask, of course. 

I tried to take a panoramic picture of how many people were at the Ball, but the "mood lighting" doesn't do it justice!

Literally the only picture of us from the ball, Dan must not like to use the camera he has. Sorry family members, you'll have to wait for the professional pictures to come in for a full length picture! 

After about an hour of speeches, I was never so happy to eat a salad in my life! It had been sitting on the table the whole time during the speeches and it was just there tempting me! We then had some yummy chicken with mushroom sauce, asparagus and squash (fancy!) before eating some birthday cake! And since the speeches were over, we were free to get up and roam about and start dancing and chatting some more beverages (while the people were giving their speeches getting up to go to the bathroom is a BIG no no!). At first the music was pretty tame (think Kenny G and Michael Buble) but things escalated quickly and the true colors of our nations supreme fighting force came through. That's right folks....Marines dancing. Some were good dancers...others not so much! See the picture below:

I attempted to get a picture of Dan dancing, but he was moving so fast that his face disappeared! :) 

Same dress!

Slight wardrobe malfunction...good thing that's what friends are for! 

Dan really likes to dance after a few beverages...and boy is it entertaining! He is the first to admit that he is the typical "white person dancer"....haha. I couldn't stop laughing! I have a better picture that shows exactly how much Lt. Dan was having, but I am forbidden to show anyone! It was so much fun, although I was a little disappointed we didn't hear any country music! 

Things started to wind down around midnight and we headed back to one of the nearby hotels to change into more casual clothes because we thought we might head out to get a bite to eat or grab a nightcap. There was one small problem though...I was literally stuck in my dress! The zipper was all messed up and three separate people tried to get it undone, but no luck. Finally, they just ripped it and I was free! Hopefully it can be fixed, because it is a nice dress! We changed, but after sitting down after a night of dancing, we were pooped and decided to cab it home. Our cab ride was quite the adventure, learning all about our cab driver's brother/nephew/cousin's (I can't remember) military history, his felony record, and then finally having him sing us his own dirty rap song. Needless to say it was the longest cab ride of our life!

The next day we checked out of the hotel, got some food at Applebee's (Dan got a free lunch because it was Veteran's Day!) and then did some sightseeing around Richmond. We went to Monument Avenue, which is famous for what else...monuments! Mainly they are of Civil War historical figures, but there is also Richmond native Arthur Ashe there as well. 

Stonewall Jackson

Lt. Dan, Stonewall and me. 

Jefferson Davis

Jeff Davis and Lt. Dan

Cannon

The Big Man himself, Robert E. Lee

J. E.B Stuart

The house where Stonewall Jackson died. 

We then left Richmond, and started our journey back to DC. My flight didn't leave until 8 that night so we had some free time. We went to some antique stores (where I got some cool old skeleton keys for my Christmas tree) and also went to the Stonewall Jackson "Shrine" and to the Fredericksburg battle field site. Being a history buff, these places were pretty cool to see!

I had a great weekend and had so much fun meeting Dan's friends and commiserating with other girlfriends/fiances/ wives about how much fun it is to date a Marine! 

One final piece of excitement from my trip was when an older gentleman tried to pass a fifth of scotch through security, which meant that I stood in line for about 45 minutes without shoes on because TSA wouldn't tell anyone what was going on! Thankfully, my flight got delayed by about a half an hour so it was all good! 

Oofta...this was a long post- sorry!

Swoon

This song is so perfect...and will be played at my wedding. For sure.

I seriously don't know how I haven't heard this song before...