Shout Boo

Happy Halloween! I wasn't sure if trick or treating happens in apartment buildings, but I got some candy just in case; I can take it in to work if no kids come by. It is kind of sad that all of my Halloween related activity (aside from watching Orphan on Saturday), including visiting a pumpkin patch, roasting seeds and attending a Halloween party (where I got those sweet bat rings), happened through work, but it's better than nothing, right? I probably should have dressed up the kittens. I am sure they would have hated it, and me, but only for a little while. Have a spooky day!

PS- Shout Boo! was one of my favorite Halloween songs from the early days of piano lessons, long long ago. 

- From the desk of Mrs. M

New Phone and Snow Day

Saturday I worked 6:30 to 3 and 10:30 to 6:30 this morning. It snowed a lot more than I was expecting, but it was pretty cool. Today you would hardly know that yesterday was a snowy slushy mess. I got an iphone yesterday, too (no more Droids for this lady), so aside from the first two photos, I've been playing with the awesome camera and Instagram app. As usual the kittens are my photo subjects. They were curious and also a bit scared of the falling melting snow today. 

I'm off to work again, but only until 8 tonight. 

I miss Pitt and I miss my husband.

- From the desk of Mrs. M

Fall Kittens

And then Huxley jumped up to get to the half-wall which is also slanted and he would have likely toppled off the building. I'm not sure how I simultaneously took this photo and lunged to grab him, but I guess it's those superpower mom/cat owner instincts kicking in. Also, is it my camera, or the leaves, or are my grey-and-white kittens kind of brown?

- From the desk of Mrs. M

Eight Months Old

Look at how cute and tiny.

Happy 8 Months!

- From the desk of Mrs. M

Laptop Arrives!

Well friends, just as I posted this morning an update on Kyle's computer, expressing my hopes that it would arrive without delay or problems, I get home from work tonight to discover it arrived today/yesterday! What a good end to the day! Here is Kyle's message.

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Less than two days after sending an email full of doubts concerning the specifics of address I had sent, the package arrived here! It's a Hewlett-Packard ProBook 4525s with a classy dark brown aluminium body. It runs very cool and has a functioning battery (something my Dell Inspiron failed at rather early). The HP is about an inch wider than the Dell but about an inch less deep.

I am still getting used to the off-center touchpad and keyboard as well as getting all programs, settings, and such back to what I prefer. I had forgotten exactly how much better Chrome is compared to Internet Explorer.  I'm sure there will be more technical observations later, but for now I am just really stoked to have a nice laptop I don't need to worry about.

Images from notebook-center.ru

Enough of that gushing, though. I want to say thank you to Brandon and Sarah for putting this together and especially to every one of you who donated to make this possible. I will try to do something for each of you to show my appreciation. Letters or knicknacks from Kuwait? I don't know what sort of "free" time I will be afforded, but I will work something out. It was an unpleasant week or so moving from one base to another while the old Dell refused to function or cooperate, but I was completely surprised when Sarah told me that there was already a computer ordered and on its way here. The jpeg "advertisements" she made made me smile each day. BC, you picked a classy machine. Thanks again everyone; I don't deserve you all.

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I think he is the best.


- Mrs. M

Thank You

Ok, so I made one of those thermometers as promised, but it looked stupid, so I will just tell you our progress!

A very big Thank You to the following friends and family for donating:

Galen. Sam. Jilli. Dan. Matt. Aaron. Emma. Richard. Erica. Mom & Dad Haviland. Isaac. Sean. Toby. Bhavna.

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At this point we have received payments for $565 and commitments to donate totaling $615. Which means: we've covered the cost of the laptop! We will look into getting him a case and a mouse to go with it. All additional money will go towards things for our soldier, though we're not too sure of the mailing situation at the moment, so they might not get to him until he returns. Kyle wrote this in his latest mass email the other day:

"So the last address I sent you all said "-----"  as per an email put out from our Captain to the Family Readiness Group at Fort Hood, BUT everything I've heard since then has said put -----.  It makes me worried about any stuff you all may have already sent, especially the laptop Brandon and Sarah arranged for me.  I want to say thank you to all of you who donated toward it; I was going to do a big thank you post and maybe letters for the individual doners, but it's looking like I may not have the time/access to do so whenever the parcel finds it's way to me.  It meant a lot to me that Brandon and Sarah set that up and find so many people eager to chip in to surprise me."

Thank you so much everyone! I'll let you know what else we get for Kyle, and hopefully when his computer gets to him over there. 

-Mrs. M

Cooking with Husband

Obviously cooking with husband is not something I have been able to do very much since back when we both lived in Pittsburgh. But we both like to cook, especially together and for each other. The Dexter opening credits (he has been watching over in Iraq) make him hungry for breakfast, so I am planning such a meal for him when he returns (I am quite good at making breakfast). Cooking for just myself is hardly inspiring, I make dinner for the kids Monday through Friday, and cook at my other job as well, so I actually don't have to eat meals at home much, a lot of frozen veggies, yogurt and granola bars. I've been collecting recipes and ideas of things I would like to make once he is back (not all at once).  These photos of tasty treats are all from Healthy Food for Living. I gravitate towards things with avocado for him, seasonal specialties for me (still in pumpkin mode), and things with mango for us both. Mostly anything that looks or sounds delicious.

I think I will start accumulating some pictures of the meals I make the kids. We get our food mostly from the food bank, so there's a lot of cans and packaged food, nothing too spectacular, but I've tried to be a little creative and put some things together that I didn't see on the menu before I arrived. Today I seasoned and roasted the seeds from the pumpkins they carved the other day (and made chili for dinner).

PS- You can find links to the recipes that make the food above on my Pinterest page.

- From the desk of Mrs. M