Here is list 1:

2 before 42:

1. Lose 100 pounds.  Yes, 100.  Currently I am pushing the maximum density and I have had enough.

2.  Be able to ride my bike 25 miles, run 5K and swim 500 meters.

Before 50

1.  Accomplish the 2 before 42.

2.  Bike a Century.

3.  Finish a Triathlon.  (Probably not a full since I really have no desire to run a full marathon)

4.  Learn Russian.

5.  Learn German.

6.  Learn Spanish.

7.  Learn Italian.

8.  Work with entrepreneurs in Russa (and other developing countries).

9. Visit (or live in) Germany.

10.  Visit Spain.

11.  Visit (or live in) Italy (Remember Under The Tuscan Sun?  That could be me except for the divorced part).

12.  Visit Japan.

13.  Visit Australia and New Zealand.

14.  Learn to roller blade.

15.  Go Deep Sea Fishing.

16.  Visit Hawaii.

17.  Climb a mountain.

18.  Get a career.  So sick of all this perpetual switching.

19.  Take a cooking class.

20.  Take a Windjammer Cruise.

21.  Visit the Caribbean.

22. Go to Vegas.

23.  See all 50 states.

24.  Learn to make really great sushi.

25.  Own a house again.

26.  Publish something – other than my blogs of course.  I mean something people will really read.

27.  Learn to grow roses.

28.  Have a really huge garden.

29.  Own a fantastic little black dress with the perfect shoes.

30.  Go snorkeling.

31.  Learn to scuba dive.

32.  Have a positive impact on one other person and know it.

33. Take a really great vacation all by myself.

34.  Renew my marriage vows.

35.  Get a Pro-Stock license.

36.  Knit a pair of socks.

37.  Make Discover Indies a success.

38.  Master Yoga Class.

39.  Get my black belt.

40.  Live near a city with an airport big enough to actually offer last minute cheap airfares.

41.  Throw just one fabulous party that even my family would come to.

42.  Go whitewater rafting.

43.  See the Grand Canyon.

44.  Camp in Yellowstone National Park.

45. Visit Napa Valley.

46.  Visit New York City.

47.  Visit Washington D.C. again.  I think I was too young to appreciate it last time.

48.  See the Redskins beat Dallas at FedEx.

49.  Take advantage of some of those last minute airfares I am finally close enough to get.

50.  Take my kids (all 7) on one great vacation.  Given how scattered the oldest are, this could be a huge “opportunity”.

Friday’s my birthday and the annual case of pissed off has come early.  Nice.

I’m lonesome, bored and grumpy.  In fact I am probably lonesome because I’ve declared myself mostly unfit for human consumption.  Last week, we went to get Texas Drivers’ licenses (yup, I’m fixin’ to leave and I converted anyway) and my social security card – which has been in my wallet for at least a decade – wasn’t there.  Well, I had all my other documentation except for that and the clerk wouldn’t give me a break and I went OFF on her.  It wasn’t even her fault.  It was totally uncharacteristic of me and I was so ashamed of myself that after going down the road a piece to get verification of my social security number and order a replacement, I made a point to go back to that office and apologize for being a total bitch.  DH was with me and I had to confess to him that I am not happy with one single aspect of life at the moment.

No, I’m not hitting my friend the Lexapro just yet, but the kids are driving me nuts, the hubby’s crankiness with his class (you know something I have TOTAL control over), and my sheer, complete and utter boredom are just a bit more than I feel like dealing with.  I miss school (or just having a freakin’ job!), I’m sick to death of homeschooling and the “I didn’t feel like doing it so I’m just going to say “I don’t know” when you ask me why my homework is done” syndrome.  This is an ongoing problem as is the “You failed it.  Again.  Do it over.  Again” complex.  I am 100% sure (in case I haven’t said this before) that we will not under any circumstances homeschool next year.

Now I wish I knew the way out of this funk…Orders might help.  A job would for sure.  Neither is within my control.  I’ll start with a nap.

there’s us.  The AGRs are in a great state of flux that is hopefully ending soon.  Initially, the AGR MSG’s were going to be held over until after the SGM board results come out in July(How’s that for alphabet soup?).  Thankfully, someone put a bug in the right ear and that has changed.  Hopefully, we’ll have orders this week and hopefully they won’t be for Harlingen.  Wichita isn’t my first choice, but it isn’t Harlingen and that, my friends is something.

But the net effect of all this in-limbo-ness and this “I don’t want to go there”-ness is that everyone is cranky.  Rather than adapting a “Fuck it, let’s have some fun!” we’re all collectively kind of crawling into our shells and waiting for the moving trucks to arrive.  It sucks.  It escalates the suckiness of remedial Army kindergarten to a different level.  All this uncertainty and unhappiness dominates conversation and just makes us crabbier as we absorb our friend’s pissed off, add it to our own and pass it along the line.    Add a crabby-sick-of-school-this-is-a-total-waste husband in the picture and you may as well forget it.  We’re all crawling into our closets  and cleaning out our stuff and just waiting for this to be over with.  Unfortunately, without orders, no one knows when that will be.

Sort of like I should with the blogging

I have developed an extremely pissy attitude(okay, pissier attitude) and I’m not afraid to share it.  At this point in time, truthfully, we are 100% not sure about where we will be living six months from now.  We have assignment advice – which is meaningless at this time – sending us to Wichita, Kansas in late September.  It’s better than Harlingen, I’ll grant you, but I’ve been looking for jobs there and it is disheartening.  You know since I am not in school, I need a job.  Not financially but MENTALLY I need a job.  Plus if DiscoverIndies is ever to be a full-on go, I need a little traveling and spending money.  I’m lucky I have a husband who humors my whims in this area.    But the minute I find a job in Wichita, the AGR will send us someplace else.  Wichita also means someone’s going to points east in 2010.  Won’t that be great?  Sure.

Another thing contributing to my pissy attitude is sheer boredom.  We haven’t extended or received any social invitations in a few weeks and I am bored out of my skull.  So I am amusing myself slightly by cooking for the family as though we have actual friends.  Cool huh?  We indulged ourselves in a new gas grill and inaugurated it with a grilled turkey and a grilled ham on Easter Sunday.  The night before, our previous gas grill sealed its fate by having inadequate size to hold three cedar planks for salmon.  Plus it has hot spots and is four years old so it was due for replacement.  Were I a product reviewer, I would tell you that the new grill is phenomenal.  You can even add wood chips of your choice to enhance the flavor.  We used hickory with the turkey and ham and it was phenomenal.  I also highly recommend this as a ham glaze.  Don’t let the “hot pepper” scare you.  It’s not at all hot, just tangy, sweet and delicious.

Did I ever show you these?

Those’d be herbs in pots on the patio and real-live vegetables in containers in my backyard.  The herb pots contain your garden variety assortment of herbs and are doing quite well.  It’s nice to go out back and snip what I need for dinner plus the green breaks up the HP brown.  HP is very, very brown, dusty and windy.  For Sunday’s turkey, I snipped sage, thyme and rosemary.  I know.  Now you’re hungry and no, I don’t care.  If you want to eat my cooking, show up at my house.  It’s pretty simple.  Hell, invite me over!  I’ll cook.  Seriously.  I love cooking.  I even clean up my own messes.

Last a quick update on the 1 bag, 5 dinners thing I promised.  We’re two dinners in.  The shopping list did not fit in 1 bag, but probably would have fit into two and I did have to adjust the recipes and the shopping to feed five or six instead of four as applicable.  The shopping took less than 30 minutes (nice!) and the bill came to about $55.00.  The total was $65 but I had to buy some other stuff so I don’t think that’s too bad.  It doesn’t cover lunches or breakfast though so I’d estimate a weekly grocery bill in the $75 range with those included and closer to $100 per week if you go a little all-in like we have on the weekends.  Cedar plank grilled salmon isn’t cheap but it is totally worth it.

I’m getting really keyed up on being frugal to conserve money for Discover Indies and also to explore whether it is possible to be a frugal grocery shopper without stockpiling.  As an Army family, stockpiling doesn’t make sense because of how often we move and how little storage space military housing typically has.  We have a chest freezer and I do try to use it but we’re already in the stage where we need to start drawing that stash down.  Six months is a long time but some of those big bags of vegetables will take a long time to use up too!  Especially with summer and the welcome anschluss of fresh produce coming.

What suggestions do you have for living frugally without stockpiling?

Stay tuned tomorrow for a totally awesome (long overdue) kids post.

Lately I’ve been trying to become more aware of my “footprint” and be more respectful of the environment. Recycling is hard but I’m working on it (with three people that just toss things and can’t master the “sort” concept I have to choose my battles, right?). I’ve been trying to reuse things and avoid the disposable. My knitting lately has consisted a lot of swiffer cloths and not just because they’re all I can handle thankyouverymuch. They work great, they’re machine washable and they definitely serve a purpose in my messy, messy house. The other cleaning device I dig is my swiffer duster because it reaches the ceiling fans easily and does a good job. I don’t like buying the disposable duster refills though so I tried to make one. Here’s the result. If you like it and want to duplicate, I’ll tell you that you can raid the remnant bin at your friendly W-M*rt and make several for just over a dollar. I got creative and bought a second half-yard of polar fleece. No, I don’t know why. To make it, cut a piece of fleece just big enough to go over the prongs of the duster and then cut four 5 x 7.5 inch (it’s not precise, trust me) pieces of polar fleece. Put the four big pieces in a stack and then put the small piece on top of them – about two inches up from the bottom and roughly centered. Stitch up the middle and then along each edge of the small piece and cut the fringe. It’s fleece so it won’t ravel and is machine washable. If you have a quilting or “walking” foot, I recommend using it but it’s not essential. It just makes it easier (and helps me justify what I spent on the walking foot about four years ago).

Apparently I’m crafty.

I’m working on our 12 Days of Christmas but a monkey wrench went into that today when the stupid commissary was closed. We’ll pick up food for the pantry another day. Tomorrow’s St. Stephen’s Day and, while lots of ideas involving Stephen Colbert have rambled around in my head, nothing is materializing. I am realizing how little I have in common with my own damn family. Most everything that I think is fun they’re not interested in and, since I’m not much of a cheerleader, I’m losing the battle. Anyone interested in helping take care of all the junk food in my house and playing some games (Nintendo or otherwise) tomorrow should just come on over. I’m bored and no one wants to play with me. I may fall back on statistics to occupy my time and that’s never good. Yes, of course, I’m knitting but after awhile my hands start to hurt so I can’t (unfortunately) spend all day with DPN’s in my hands. I’ve finished three projects in the last two weeks and that has got to be a record even if two of them are swiffer cloths.

I have resolved that 2009 will not suck as much as 2008 did. I hope I am right. More on that later. I’d love to know people are still reading my bloggy nonsense.

Happy Boxing Day!

Here’s the thing about Army training: it’s written at about an eighth grade education level so if you’re above that (as most people are) you’re bored shitless. I’m expecting to be full-on bored shitless for the entire three days of orientation but, on the bright side, I should get to see a friend I haven’t seen since 1991! And! This friend makes amazing margaritas. You call that a double bonus.

We have to go to this orientation in anticipation of the big move to Texas. I have no idea what to expect except it will suck. As anticipatory training, I was supposed to take these AFTB classes. Each is 9 hours of training according to the program. They’re online, self-paced and worthless. I completed all three 9-hour courses in about sixty minutes. Yes, my friends, you too can be AFTB Level III educated on your lunch break. In this training you get to learn dumb stuff like how to read a pay stub and how to write a check. I was also quite relieved to learn that if he’s deployed my “husband should make arrangements to pay all the bills by allotment” you know, so I don’t dirty my hands with money. Or is it because I don’t know how to write a check?

Regardless, I must go to this orientation and I must put my best Army Wife smile on and pretend to like it. I’ve been asking for an agenda without success and that, especially for Army stuff, is a very. bad. sign.

So how do I entertain myself next week?  Leave your suggestions in the comments and the best suggestion will win a very special prize hand selected by me during our trip next week!