Military Monday – We Have Contact Again!

Well, after a month of no contact I finally received a email from Cpl Honda. Yes, it is Cpl Honda. He was promoted on Feb 1! He said he feels like he can get on with his career now. Career is an important word because depending on the day you ask he would say he might want out or he might stay in. I’m sure other military families reading this will agree with that statement.

He also said they are making their way back to this side of the world and that makes this mommie very happy! There is nothing better than homecoming! I have only been to one and that was for my nephew, Sgt. Red. You literally can feel the happiness and excitement in the air.

So I guess I can start thinking about what I need to get done. Here’s hoping the deployment gremlins will leave me alone. So far, so good. Knock on wood. I think threatening to unleash the cat on them may have worked.

So, yes I will start the thinking!

Sunday Brunch – SuperBowl

Super Bowl. It is one of the most celebrated events in America. It is probably the most watched event on television all year. I could be wrong, but I am sure it beats out the Pope’s Christmas Eve service.

I worked in the retail grocery business for 12 years and even though Thanksgiving and Christmas were busy holidays for us, Super Bowl by far, was the busiest day. I worked in the Deli and I would go in at 2:00 am to prepare the sub sandwiches, party trays and fried chicken for the customers hosting their Super Bowl parties. The week before I could tell which customers would be hosting the parties just by looking at what they had in their shopping carts. Hot Wings, Chips & Beer. Yes, the Saturday before was crazy. Corvette wanted me to go to the grocery store yesterday. Yea. No!

So he went. Yes, he did return without too many battle wounds, but I warned him. It was as I suspected. Chaos!!! He also ran into several neighbors and friends. Because I believe everyone goes to the grocery store before Super Bowl. Sorta like Black Friday, but with food.

So, I really do not have a preference on who should win today. I am mainly in it for the commercials. I am told that Doritos, CareerBuilder and Budweiser are the commercials to watch for.  We will see.

It is pouring rain here in the Desert Southwest. I do not mind. After all, I will not be leaving my warm house, except for shoving Lucie, my big red dog, out the door, to take care of business.

Happy Super Bowl Sunday! If you have to go to the grocery store, may the force be with you!

juliannah’s Super Bowl Burritos

1. 1lb rump roast, in crock pot or oven until done
2. Season with onion powder, sea salt, pepper and seasoned meat tenderizer
3. 1/2 cup ranch beans, 1/4 cup Jarlsberg cheese, 1/4 cup Dubliner cheese & leftover Portwine cheese ball
4. 1/4 cup salsa mix all together in food processer.

Prepare Mexicali Rose refried beans (can be found at Albertsons)

Put meat, cheese and beans in tortilla and enjoy! This recipe was made on the fly. So feel free to change ingredients. This is mainly how I cook. I had to use leftover items. So there you go. BTW Corvette loved it!

Waiting for the Light Again

I wrote a post a while back about waiting for my cell phone light to flash. When it flashes I know I have email. That is my primary communication with my son, Cpl Honda. The last email was January 5. Yea, one month today. Sigh.

I am calling him Cpl Honda because he was supposed to be promoted on Feb 1, but I do not know for sure. I could not find any pictures of promotion ceremonies anywhere, so I will have to wait. Again.

I did read where the cast and director of Avatar visited the ship. Very exciting for them I am sure!. I have not seen it yet, but I saw a preview and it looks quite spectacular! I like to see Hollywood supporting our military. I know there are quite a few that do such as Gary Sinise, Kid Rock and Dennis Miller to name a few.

Reminder. Don’t forget to check juliannahbydesign for my upcoming giveaway.

Any who, I guess I will just sit here and stare down my cell phone while singing, This little light of mine…

Announcement

I will be hosting my first giveaway on juliannah by design. I am excited about this and look forward to hosting more giveaways in the future!

*Update* I had to remove the details due to certain rules here on WordPress.com.

Pizzas 4 Patriots

While watching the news this morning, I heard a story about an organization that sends pizzas to our military serving in Iraq. Retired MSGT Mark Evans started this charity when awhile ago his son asked him if it was possible to send pizzas to the troops. Thinking it was a great idea, MSGT Evans went on to contact DHL, Pizzaeria Uno and Miller Coors together they made it happen, flying pizzas to the troops the Fourth of July, 2009.

One February 7 the troops will once again receive a shipment of pizzas along with footballs to toss around in anticipation of the Super Bowl. Read more about Pizzas 4 Patriots and see how you can help provide our heroes with some of the best pizza in the US.

Watch the video of MSGT Evans on Fox and Friends.

Another great organization doing all they can to support our troops!

Sunday Brunch – Wedding Mishaps

I posted about Cinderella’s wedding on juliannah by design. What I did not talk about was everything that seemed to work against us getting to and from the wedding. Let me start at the beginning.

We left last Friday the 22nd. We had to travel two hours to the wedding destination and I needed air in my tires so I stopped at Discount Tire to fill the tires. The technician started filling the tires and when he got to the last one he said, “Ma’am, will you please step out of the car?”

So I do and he proceeds to show me cracks in my front tire. Then he tells me all the tires are the same and if I keep driving on them we could be in a very dangerous situation. Great. So a few hundred dollars later, we were finally on the road.

Next, we just had to leave in a winter storm that also brought blizzard conditions to the Desert Southwest. Luckily the blizzard was further north, but we did experience rain, sleet and high winds. I do not much like driving on the highway, so needless to say it was a bit of stress for me.

We arrived at our hotel, which I must say was very nice. It was a Hilton, so there you go! We went to the rehersal and then we attempted to go the rehersal dinner. I misunderstood Cinderella’s directions and of course we got lost. After going back and forth and some choice words, we finally arrived. Corvette actually had the nerve to tell me we were rude for arriving late. What does getting lost have to do with being rude! As it turned out, several other people arrived after us and they were not late because of getting lost. Hah!

One the way back to the hotel we somehow missed the street for the hotel and wound up getting lost again! I finally stopped at a store and and got directions back to the hotel. Yea, you guessed it. More choice words.

The next day we arrived at the church with no problem and caravaned to the reception. All went well and we had a great time. When it was time to leave I was told to follow one of the bridesmaids back to Cinderella’s house where I would be spending the following week with Butterfly while Cinderella and Tango honeymooned in Hawaii. Ok great except when we went to leave the bridesmaid was gone. Ok. So I went back the way we came and Corvette who was driving Cinderella’s car back pulled up along side of me and yelled that the gas light just came on. Great. Again. Of course we were kinda of in the middle of nowhere and it took awhile to find a gas station. We did. We finally made it back.

The rest of the week was pretty uneventful except for a secret between Butterfly and me that we agreed we will laugh about in twenty years. I am sure you can figure out what it has to do with. Ok, so fast forward to this Saturday, the day we are due to go home. I woke up about 8:oo and was playing with my Blackberry before everyone else woke up. The phone rings and it is our alarm company calling to say the alarm was tripped at our house and what do we want to do about it. What? I am a hundred miles away! So I tell them to call the police and then we run around like mad people trying to get our stuff together. We throw everything in the car including my Chihuahua, against his loud protests and start back. Corvette calls the alarm company and they know nothing at that point. We call my good friend Lady Godiva and she agrees to go to the house and check things out. We finally get a call back from the alarm company and they tell us the police said everything seems ok. Lady Godiva calls us back and after going to our neighbor’s house and jumping our side fence (we do not have a gate, dumb, I know) tells us everything is ok and no one broke in. Phew. We are happy to find out we still have all of our worldly possessions.

Now you would think this would be the end of it. You. Would. Think. Apparently a truck became disabled on the highway and we became stuck going about 10mph or at a dead stop for about an hour. So what would normally take 1 1/2 to 2 hours took us just about 4 hours! Can you say, What the @%$#!

You are probably wondering if I still have my sanity. Yes, but I am done with weddings, vacation, driving and false alarms.

Somebody pass me a margarita. Please!

And order me a pizza!

The Wedding

I posted about the wedding here. Please visit to read about Cinderella’s wedding and to view pics. Bear with me I am using a different computer and I am taking some time to relax and watch mindless TV.

Here is a pic of Butterfly, a mini-me of Cinderella, and the very special flower girl.

Good News and Bad News

So which would you like first? Since I tend to be an optimist, I am going with the good news first.

As of Feb. 1, LCpl Honda will be known as Cpl Honda. YEA!!! He has waited for this for a while. Since there are  so many people in the Marine Corps and there are only so many slots it is really hard to pick up rank. He now can have the blood stripe and sword. Awesome!

I found out in an email that came to my Blackberry while at work. Love my phone! I was even emailing him in real time for a bit. This is only the second time that has happened. Last time it was at 3:00 in the morning, so yea for me too.

Now for the bad news. The deployment might be extended. Can you hear the big sigh! It was really a scream, but since I was at work I decided to spare my co-workers. After all they already listen to enough of my craziness.

He could not say why, but I have a sneaking suspicion of the reason and I think that has to do with natural disasters. Could be wrong, but I do not think so.

So looks like I will deal with the deployment gremlins a little longer. I might just have to put the cat in the garage. See how they like that!

Cinderella’s Wedding is Coming!

Please go read about Cinderella’s upcoming wedding!

Deployment Gremlins

I have read on a few military wives’ blogs about deployment gremlins. I am assuming they are problems that only crop up during deployment. My gremlins definitely inhabit that damn car. Yes, LCpl Honda’s car.

Just when you think, all is well the curse of the car strikes again. LCpl Honda emailed me on Sunday night. This is what he said:

Subject Car Registration stuff… again

“Hey I know we thought this stuff was done but I need you to check on something for me. I got a letter yesterday from the ****** DMV about my car not getting registered and being late, they said I owe them $500 some odd dollars. Anyways I need you to contact the ****** DMV and tell them that my car is registered in ****** now and make sure that I don’t owe any of that money. Thanks Mom, love you.”

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

Breathe Juliannah.

Once again, images of Power of Attorneys flying back and forth and people refusing to speak to me go through my mind. Why, why, why?

I decide to wait until I get home from work to call because I do not need to be standing in a parking lot begging some unknown person to help me. When I called, I get a computer telling me that the wait for a human should be less than ten minutes. Ok, I can do that. After a few minutes, the voice comes on and says the same thing. After 10 minutes, the voice comes on and says the wait is now longer than 10 minutes and I should hang up and call back later or another day.

I. Don’t. Think. So!

Sooo, I just put the phone on speaker, sit it on the table and take a seat on the couch. I figure there is no way I am going to hang up and call back. I am still trying to figure out how less than 10 minutes can turn into more than 10 minutes. I really do not think you can take cuts on a phone line. Nope, I think it was a ploy to get people off the phone. I never had much love for the DMV anyway.

Now this is the real funny part. 30 seconds after I put the phone on the table, a woman answers. That’s right. Gotcha DMV! So I brace for the worse and start to explain the situation. She tells me I need to mail the original letter and write on it that the car is registered in my state. Ah, I explain that the letter is floating somewhere in the middle of the ocean and besides that I just received a Christmas card from LCpl Honda postmarked Dec. 15 yesterday. That is not happening.

She thinks for a minute and then tells me to send a copy of the registration along with a letter stating the car is registered. She also asks me about LCpl Honda and his deployment and says to thank him for his service. Finally, an angel amongst all the devils I have spoken to throughout this deployment!

So another car problem solved. Except the car battery is dead again, but that is Corvette’s problem.

I am sure the gremlins had something to do with that too. Because I am sure, when I am gone they are rocking out to the radio and playing with LCpl Honda’s GPS.