And that's all my phone has to say about that...

 Typical morning view:

"Good. I have woken you. Now feed me or I'll start purring incessantly and biting your eyebrows."

 

 some good stuff right there ^^

 

 First ever attempt at making scones. Strawberry with a strawberry and lemon glaze. They tasted like freckled lemonade from Red Robin!!

 

 We bought this cat bed when we first moved here in December. He refused to have anything to do with it until about March. Now he would rather sleep in this than anywhere else. Sometimes he picks it over sleeping with us!

 

 large rock by our front door.

 

 I've become an addict.

 

 Made a trip to the library on base yesterday; it made me happy.

 



 Being unemployed is pretty disheartening. However, reading books in your back yard and laying in the sun all afternoon is pretty darn fabulous.

 

 Everything a cat could want, all in one spot: a cozy bed, a sliding door to look out of, a shoe box full of mousies and jingly things, and a box fort.

 

 this made me laugh. JoJo and I attempted to feed some ducks stale crackers a few weeks ago down at the lake near our house. this sign appeared shortly there after. It is funny because the birds had never been offered crackers and had no idea what to do with them. out of probably 40 ducks we got 2 interested. And a squirrel.

 

 The weather has been weird. Monday it was barely 50. By Thursday it hit near 70.  I've been determined to enjoy the sun (cloudlessness) regardless. Coats and sunglasses combined.

 

 Little signs of life along my walks.

 

LOTS of signs of life in my garden!! I've got foot tall sugar peas, sprouting green beans and little baby spinaches, lettuces, cilantros, and basils. Parsley and Lavender hopefully making an appearance soon. Tomatoes next month! I'M A REAL FARMER!!!!



And that's all my phone has to say about that:

Saturday we spent the day with my husband's public speaking class.

The kind professor is also a local pastor, and he brought the class out of their classroom and to his church to use the mic in a big space. Then he had us all to his beautiful home and fed us. Not like the usual hot dog cook out- an entire Salmon! I brought cookies.

 

Customary never-ending fascination with boxes which all cats possess.

 

Knitting a blanket.

I've crocheted many, but knitting is much slower going for a project this big. Been at it for months and only 45 squares in. By fall I WILL have a nice Queen sized stripey blanket. I love how it looks so far!

 

This mama's boy has to get himself into everything I do. He is such a good helper.

 

Been learning to drive stick on my new (used) car. Finally, we are a two vehicle family!

Husband bought it from a friend relocating to Japan.

 It's a Teal 1996 Nissan 200sx. (haven't gotten pictures, but this one here is what it looks like)

 I tried to learn driving standard at age 17 and failed but I'm happy to say with my husbands help I'm doing much better this time around and there has been minimal stalling.

Also, my previous driving experience has been my family Suburban, my Durango, and my husband's Dodge Ram. A little car is a new thing to me. 40 mpg is nice though!!

 

Tip: don't make the same mistake we did. You don't need both a cat and a paper shredder.

 Most cats are willing to help with shredding (not being serious, but he sure is a good shredder)

 

Been dehydrating fruits in my oven (post to come).

I think they are super delicious. JoJo does not.

 

Meal planning: it is a good thing. But we are pretty routine people. Tacos on Tuesday, Breakfast for Dinner on Wednesday and Fishes on Fridays. Only have to get extra creative on Monday and Thursday. It works for us. (and yes, we do eat on the weekend, but I don't try and plan it.)

Somehow the Word of God always seems to make more sense and impact me more when I am outside.
Ive been talking walks in the lovely weather (praying as I go- something my friend Jeri taught me)down to a pond on base and doing my study (this one from my church!) there.
I always take notes and doodle when I read the Bible. It just works for me.

seriously wish I could sleep in a literal ball like this.

out for a spring time walk. Finally some sunshine around here! Weather in the 60's!
 (anyone know what type of tree this is? blossoms were all...fluffy and pompom-y...not a cherry tree?)

Not sure how it got there but a section of our garden area by the front door is FULL of mint (because mint will do that. it takes over everything). Brought some inside and been making tea!
 

Blinds are super ugly, but a nice sunset peaking through makes them a little bit better.

 

 

**Wanna apologize if these posts are super random, but they are more for the benefit of my folks back home than anything else. Hope they aren't annoying you too much. Just try and tolerate me and my excessive cat photos, please.

Home Tour: Our Base Housing Bedroom

Since moving to Washington I've had a significant bedroom downsize. While the husband was deployed at was living at home, sharing an over-garage, converted attic bedroom (of like 400 square feet)with one of my sisters. Walk in closet, room for 2 twin beds, a couch, 3 chairs, a desk, a table to seat 4, a keyboard, etc. It was BIG. And now I live on McChord AFB with my husband in base housing. I love our house. It is little and cute. But did I mention little. I am not sure of the actual square footage, or the specific square footage of rooms, but our bedroom is a lil' thing. However, I adore living here and actually being in the same geographic location as my husband. It's great.

When I moved out here and he returned from Qatar we had NO furniture to our names. I shipped some dishes and blankets, packed my clothes in a suitcase and that was it. We spent weeks on an air mattress with a open sleeping bag as a blanket and all our clothes in piles and suitcases (and we were plenty happy about it after 2 years of long distance and 6 months of deployment). Eventually we got a (super nice) mattress, but had to wait on our bedroom set to come back into stock. Since then it has been slowly progressing and looking more and more like a home.

Due to the temporaryness of being in military housing, we have opted not to paint or hang curtains (because we have to return it to as was upon leaving), so the challenge is finding other ways to make our house look homey. Black/red/white/tan is my favorite color combo, and it is on the approved as "not too girly" list by the husband. Slowly, our bedroom is coming together. We've been here for about 5 months; not quite there yet, but well on the way.

Here's a lil' peak:

air mattress phase

 

mattress on floor phase

 

Finally, about 2 months in, we got some furniture.

Hard to get everything in a picture, but we got a set with bed frame, chest of drawers, dresser, and one night stand (and I, to this day, remain nightstandless. Still hunting.)

 

While I greatly miss my walk in closet, I am very thankful for the closet space this house has. Our room as two decent sized closets with sliding doors. Separate closets are wonderful! Guess whose is whose?

 

I think art is a key way to turning a space into a home. However, we (I) have yet to find some reasonably priced art fitting for the bedroom. The words over the window are a decal from Urban Outfitters ($19)  that just arrived by mail last week.

 

 My plan is to take one of my own photos, probably something regarding nature or architecture (hopefully from our upcoming 1st Anniversary trip to HAWAII!- more details soon!), make it black and white, blow it up and hang it over the bed.

 

Little bits and pieces also make a home more homey.

I swapped out the red dresser runner for my vintage hand made British flag.

I picked up a unique lamp for $5 at Goodwill.

 I continue to hoard throw pillows.

 

I also recommend finding yourself a rascally furbaby to shed on your blankets to add character to your home. Our furbaby finds a freshly made bed to be most exciting (jumps, runs, spins and digs) and cameras are also pretty fun to get in the way of.

 

As time and budget allows I hope to keep adding character and personal touches to our bedroom.

The husband was content once we had furniture, but for me it is all a little too...new...I hope to find some older, used and vintage pieces to mix it up a little.

 

And that's all my phone has to say about that...

This week according to my phone.

This is my cat. This is the face my cat makes when I am taking notes for school and he desperately wants to chew on my pen. Any pens left unattended in this house will be pen-napped and will wind up under a fridge or couch with many little teeth marks in them. Silly cat.

 

We had been putting off buying a weed whacker and lawn mower as long as possible and then all of a sudden it poured for like 2 weeks and that grass just kept on a growin'. Finally we got that situation taken care of. By the end we had a huge pile of grass and it looked like a freshly hayed field.

Also, please note my husbands stylish combat boots and jeans. You can fight wars in them or weed whack your grass- super practical!

 

This blurry mess is my husband playing the 1st Squadron intramural volleyball game of the season. JoJo's the blue blur, haha.

 

Finally, it decided to stop raining and let me plant some more of my garden!

 

wearing a bracelet or two (or 6) on Friday evenings to our young couple's small group so that the leader's beautiful blue-eyed baby girl will want to play with my jewelry and be my bff.

 

BEWARE OF THE BIG EYED MONSTER...