Out and about.

Today was a great day! Just what I needed after a lonnnnggg week of work. It started out with me sleeping in until 10:30 (gasp!). It's been quite a while since I've slept in that long and it was wonderful. Then I met up for lunch with the lovely ladies you see above. Mmmm... Mexican food! It was actually kind of a sad lunch because two of my good friends Katie and Diana are leaving next week to go to their new bases. Today was our last time all together as a group. I'm going to miss them both so much! I know though that the community of AF pilots is pretty small and we are bound to see eachother again.

After lunch, I drove out to Tuscaloosa to do some shopping for my trip next week. Tuscaloosa is about an hour away and is the nearest town with any decent shopping. Okay let's be honest here... I basically went there today just for Target and Starbucks. What can I say, I was having withdrawals :) Anyways, it was a beautiful day so I opened the sunroof, rolled down the windows, and blasted some good music the whole way there. And when I got there, I cruised right into an open front row parking spot (which never happens, right?) and then proceeded to find some amazing deals on some very cute clothes for the cruise. Seriously, it was a great day out and about.

Now, I'm home and have no plans to leave for the rest of the night. Jake is going out with some guys tonight so I'm going to put on my jammies, pop in a chick flick, and catch up on some scrapbooking... the perfect way to end a perfect day! Hope you all are enjoying your weekend so far!

Thankful Thoughts #17

Today I am thankful for music. For me, music is so powerful and listening to the right song can make my whole day better. Instantly. Music makes the hard times bearable and makes the good times that much better. Everyday when I get off work, I plug my iPhone into the car and blast whatever song I'm loving at the moment and seriously... instant happiness :)

I like so many different kinds of music and my playlists are always really random. I love country music (Carrie Underwood, Rascal Flatts, Brad Paisley, Taylor Swift). I love music I can dance to (Black Eyed Peas, Kesha, Rihanna, GaGa, Jay Sean). And yes, I am that girl that dances in the car, in my room, in the shower, while I vacuum... always always dancing. I also love Christian music (Praise You In The Storm by Casting Crowns always helps me get through tough days). I love music that calms me down and makes me happy (John Mayer, Train, Kings of Leon, Owl City). And I can always enjoy some good ol' Frank Sinatra or Tony Bennett. I love it all!

Last night, I bought a ton of new music on iTunes in preparation for my trip in a few days and my new playlist is making my Friday extra wonderful. Here's one song that I'm currently obsessed with, Hey Soul Sister by Train...

Book club.

Over the past year or two, I've discovered how much I love to read. I guess I've always known that I like to read, but when I was in school it was never very appealing to pick up a novel after hours of reading boring textbooks. Now it's become my weekend hobby of choice to pick up a girly novel and just read for hours. This past summer I found out that my good friend Ann also loves to read. Ever since we've been swapping our favorite books and talking about them together. We've been kind of like our own little book club and have mentioned numerous times how fun it would be to join a real book club someday...

Well, someday is here! Last week we discovered that there is a spouse's book club starting here on base! We both signed up for it and I am sooo excited. There are about ten other spouses involved so far and basically we just all read the same book each month and then meet at the end of the month to discuss our thoughts on it. The book for March is My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult. I'm really happy about the book choice because it has been on my list of books to read for a while now. Has anyone read it? I'm hoping it's good! Here's the book jacket...

Little stinkers...

In case you can't tell from the picture above (and please ignore our temporarily disgusting yard), the dogs decided to scratch and chew through one of the big panels on our screened porch . I know, I know, they look so cute and innocent. Jake actually came home to quite the funny scene on the day this happened...

Bailey was barking uncontrollably (nothing new there) so Jake went outside to get her to stop. When he went out on the back porch he not only discovered their massive screen destruction but also figured out why Bailey was barking... Badger had jumped through the hole they made and was stuck inside the porch! It must have scared him that he actually made it through because he would not jump back through it to get outside and was huddled in a corner. Poor guy! And Bailey was too scared to jump through it too so she was just barking at him from outside. Oh goodness... just another day in the life of puppy parents...

Speedbump.

Up until yesterday, I was flying down the road to my dream career pretty effortlessly. Things were lining up all too well in regards to starting school April 1st. I suppose eventually I was bound to hit a speedbump, or a roadblock, or some other type of other metaphorical road situation...

Here's the issue: Remember how I was getting all that financial aid through the Air Force spouse grant? Well, turns out that program ran out of funds and has temporarily halted operations, which unfortunately means that my big plans to start school again in a month have been put on pause as well. I'm hoping that "temporarily" means that the wait is short term, but realistically I know that the military takes a long time to sort out issues like this, and without the $6,000 worth of grant money it's just not feasible for me to start the program right now. Ugh. I hope this situation works itself out quickly so I can start my classes... Prayers please!