Signs of the Times

It's been one week now since Stretch left on the deer hunt. He's called a few times and is having a BLAST!!! No pun intended. OK, pun intended! He got his deer several days ago, but as of last night, there were still three unfilled tags in the hunting party. So Stretch and his uncle and cousins are still out there squeezing every last minute of daylight out of the final day of their vacation. I expect him back sometime around midnight.

After a week without my hubby, there are a few signs that make it apparent that he has been gone for way too long. These little reminders create a melancholy mood tonight as I sit in wait for my hunny to come home.

First off, there is the cascading mountain of unopened ebay packages that have arrived in his absence.
Then there is the laundry I sorted tonight. It's a very small pile. Not a single Hanes sock or blue work shirt to be seen. Weird.

In the backyard, there is no manual labor being performed. If I'm not mistaken, Scott, you're okay with this.

It's quiet, quiet, quiet. (But doesn't it look great so far?!)

And don't forget poor little Ella. She is so sad there are none of Stretch's clean clothes on the bed. She resorted to plopping down on the clean towels instead of his t-shirts. Poor kitty.

And of course, the most obvious sign is that I have time to actually take pictures of these things and bore you with the tale. So there you have it. I miss my boy tonight. The question is.......do I miss him enough to smother him with hugs and kisses when he gets home at midnight after a week without a shower? I'll let you know.

You're how OLD?

Today was one of those moments I realized how fast time is going by. My baby sister turned 30 today! Ya, I was there when she got married, when she had her third child, but none of those milestones had as much of an impact on me as today did. If she's 30, that make me, well........older. Where did the time go? Beano and I were just arguing little sisters like two months ago. It's really strange that my own two daughters are in the stage of life that I remember with my sister. See how much we loved each other?

I probably don't say it enough, but I love my sister! She is the best. I'd like to take a minute and set the record straight on a few things. First off, no matter what the judges at the Beauty Pageant said, Bean is the most beautiful, smart, charming, hilariously fun person around! She is so tough and resilient. I admire her more than she could ever know. I'm sure the judges that day only thought that the big sister was so painfully insecure that they'd better let her win. The little one could take it, she was such a trooper! It was totally rigged, because on merit alone, the little sister should have won!! And Texas is really a misterable place, very hot, humid and full of giant bugs! If you really look at it, going there was actually more of a punishment!

Then my sister was in high school, I was getting married and having my first baby. To this day I still feel bad that I was pretty self absorbed and never really understood what my sister was dealing with at home and at school. I know I've joked about her high school experience, but I consider it much more of an accomplishment than what I ever did. I was spoiled and stayed in my comfort zone to get through school. My sister on the other hand powered through on her own. Again, she was such a trooper, and through it all became my daughter's favorite aunt! The two of them were very close and to this day still are. Here is the Squid at Bean's wedding. What a beautiful bride with the sweetest little bridesmaid (even if the purple dress was laced with pins)! Flash forward 10 years and they're still close friends - and my sis is still the most beautiful.

It's a little known fact, but most of my life, I've been jealous of my cute sister. She always had such great hair and always looked fantastic no matter what. Well, maybe once she had a bad hair day.......

.....but it was only once (unless you count the mullet days.....but that wasn't her fault, it was the 80's and our mom got a little overzealous with the scissors at times.)

Here is a little trip down memory lane.....

Hey Vanna! And, weren't we darling? Matching jammies every Christams.



What a great collage to celebrate 30 years of the Bean!

And one of Beano's signature moves was the self portrait shot on every roll of film. It was always fun to find one of these in your newly developed photos.

I could go on and on, but I just wanted to make sure I sung the praises of my wonderful sister today. I am truly blessed to have her as family, as a friend, and the best aunt to my girls.



I love you JMKC! Never doubt what an inspiration you are to me! I might be the older sister, but you are the example. I look up to you more than you'll ever know! Happy Birthday!

Go Speed Racer!

Friday, 5:50 pm, and I'm HOME!!!!!! Thank you UDOT, I love my new Legacy Highway.


I know, totally pathetic that my life revolves around the traffic patterns in Davis County. But imagine being stuck in this every night for an hour, sometimes 90 minutes. This picture doesn't fully illustrate the sheer misery of the commute, but you get the idea. Now, both the new Legacy Pkwy and I-15 are around a 30 minute drive home. My family doesn't realize it quite yet, but they love the new road too. Why? I am just such a happier person when I get home now. And you know what they say, "When momma ain't happy, ain't nobody happy!"

Alright, onto more important business. Stretch shot his deer last night! He's so cute at deer hunt time. He is seriously like a kid at Christmas! I don't have specs on the deer yet, but I'll keep you posted.

Hello World!

I always thought of myself as computer savvy. After all, having my very own Commodore 64, on which I typed my fourth grade book reports, qualifies me as savvy, right? Well, somewhere between flipping the 5 1/2 inch floppy disk from the boot side to the run side, technology got away from me. And now, I'm the last one of my friends to have a blog. No longer! Here we go!

I also used to think of myself as somewhat of a writer, so I have been itching to start a blog for some time now. However, in reality my writing skills are mediocre at best. But that's okay. I get the fun of sharing my stories and you'll just have to suffer through my ramblings. Since I am a big scrapbook nerd, you'll also get to see plenty of pictures from my crazy life.

A little about me...I am a certain number of years old, married to the hottest soldier in the US Army! We'll call him Stretch; he's 6'4" and bullet-proof!


We have two beautiful daugthers, let's call them Squid (13) and the Bear (10). They are totally goofy, and most of the time, really sick of each other. Typical sisters! But oh how my heart swells when, on the rare occassion, I hear them laughing and playing together.


As most of you know, I spend a stinking-dang lot of time at work, which includes the oh-so-fantastic commute to and from! Having precious few hours at home is one of the biggest reasons I haven't started this blog before now (oh, and Stretch's ebay habit that occupies the computer a lot. Love you babe!). At some point down the road, I want to include a special feature in my blog where I'll regale you with tales of my workday. I think I'm going to call it "Occupational Hazards with Alice". I really hate that most of my life is spent at the office, but I look at it as entertainment to keep from going insane. You'll get to enjoy the humorous parts of my day without punching the clock and enduring the painful stuff. It will be so fun for you! Stay tuned.

Inevitably, you'll also be fed shameless plugs for my scrapbook business. Not too much, but just enough. More on that another day.

Hopefully this blog will come together and be pleasing to the pallet. For now, I'm just working out the bugs. Hang with me. I'll get there.