And baby makes three

So over the next few days I'm going to share the posts I made that I never published, no pictures, just words. I try to not do that because I think it's boring, but whatever.  



As I am typing this I have no immediate intentions of publishing. If you are reading then I have decided to make it "facebook official" and go to the world with my pregnancy. But until that time this is a journal of my journey.

Wednesday, March 28, 2012
It has been about 17 hours since I took my first pregnancy test. It showed a faint positive. I am due to start my period Friday. I will likely test again friday morning. I am nervous. The last time I had a positive test (almost 4 years ago) within a week I was having a miscarriage. I am not that excited right now, I am scared. It doesn't seem real. I suppose if I can make it through this first week it'll start feeling real. Maybe in two weeks we'll start telling family. But I don't think this will be "facebook official" until I am out of the first trimester. Every time I got to the bathroom I check to see if I am bleeding. I hope this feeling stops soon. I did some calculations on different websites and if you use the date of my last period I am due on December 7th, but if you count the day I ovulated my due date is December 3rd. So it looks like baby may steal my daddy's birthday of December 6th.

Thursday, March 29th 2012
I am having a real hard time keeping my mouth shut. I am afraid to tell family becuause it will be a part of their lives and I don't want to get anyones hopes up just yet. I really am having a hard time not telling my mom, I tell her everything, like almost everything. I talk to her usually twice a day, and we talk about work, how we slept, the dogs, whats on TV, our moods, the weather, everything. I don't think I can last through the weekend not telling her.  I told a girl at work today who was pregnant. We were talking and I saw her drinking green tea, and I asked if it was okay while pregnant, she said yes, I said something like wow that's a relief, I love green tea" to which she replied "are you pregnant?" and I couldn't lie, so i told her yes, but we aren't telling anyone yet.
Oh and tonight Paul said I smell like pickles and sugar cookies, he thinks my pheromones make me smell like that, he's weird.

Friday March 30 2012
Ive noticed I get sick when I eat, that's really the only time I notice any sickness, but when I eat about 30 min later I get nauseous.
And I am ridiculously tired, like yawning every 15 minutes tired. But once I go to bed at night the insomnia hits again.
I made it through today. Today is the day my period was due, and it never showed. I am excited about that. The next week will be tough but I think next weekend we will tell our parents. I think they need to know, even if something bad happens, I want them to be aware of whats going on.

Sunday April 1st 2012
Nothing new, just very tired, very nervous every time I go to the bathroom. But getting less anxious every time.

I've got Baby Rabies

Oh this has been a hard secret to keep. But second trimester starts Friday, and Dr. appt today showed all was well, so it's time to share the news!


Have a lovely day, and remember to find me on Facebook!

-Alana

Crock Pot Pork Roast

Below you will find my recipe for an almost all in one pot dinner. 

Pork roast & potatoes with onions and garlic, all in one pot, 

The only thing made separate was the gravy. 

you'll need:
a bone in piece of pork
a few red potatoes
an onion
some garlic
a few sprigs of rosemary
salt and pepper

for the gravy:
drippings from your pork roast
corn starch
milk
more salt and pepper


For the roast:
add all the ingredients into the crock, I put onions and garlic down first so they can cook fast and release their oniony goodness, with some rosemary for flavor.
Then add your meat and potatoes, more rosemary.
liberally add salt and pepper.
Put that crock on low for 6-8 hours or high for 4-6 hours.
Pork is done when it's approx 160 degrees.

When all is done with your roast, take it all out and pour your drippings into a small pan, in a little cup mix cold water with about 1/2 tbsp of corn starch, once it's mixed add it to your drippings. Turn the heat up to about med high and stir. when it starts to thicken add about 1/4 cup of milk and continue to stir until desired consistency is reached. If your gravy doesn't thicken up add more cornstarch, mixing it with water first. But depending on how much drippings you have (I only had about 2 cups) you don't want to add too much cornstarch or your gravy will be weird and gel like.
Add salt and pepper to taste.

disclaimer: 
I am not a cook, I am a woman who likes to cook. Most of my measurements are approximations. I hope that you enjoy my recipes as much as I do. But for any kitchen failures, I am sorry. 

Have a lovely day, and remember to find me on Facebook!

-Alana

Memorial Day

Gone, But never forgotten.

Have a great Memorial Day, and find me on Facebook!

-Alana

Oven Roasted Potato Wedgies

Oven Roasted Potato Wedgies 

yes, I called them wedgies.

I think that sounds more fun.

preheat oven to 400
quarter a few red potatoes
drizzle with olive oil
sprinkle with desired toppings
-seasoning salt
-rosemary
-thyme
-garlic salt
stir
arrange on baking sheet
(it may not be necessary to place raised on a cooling sheet, but I feel it helps them cook evenly)
cook until desired tenderness is reached (mine are a tad overcooked)
(about 20-30 minutes)
enjoy with whatever dressing you like, I like plain yellow mustard.



Have a lovely day, and remember to find me on Facebook!

-Alana

Friday Letters

My first time doing Friday Letters, I hope you enjoy. 

Dear Montana,
It's May. This is unacceptable. My house is at 3900 feet. I am supposed to run away this weekend but with this shit we may not make it.

Dear Dogs,
Thank you for letting me sleep a little past 9 today, I really do appreciate it.

Dear Husbeast,
If you come home and Skyrim is broken or missing? It was the cat.

Dear Skyrim,
DIE ALREADY!

Dear Hair,
Behave please.

Dear Skin,
I'll be 30 this year. Please stop acting like im 17.

Dear Tucson, (& Mexican food, Sushi, Eegees, Whataburger & Weinersnitzel)
I'll be there soon enough, just wait. Hopefully in July!


Have a lovely day, and remember to find me on Facebook!

-Alana

Free Annual National Park passes for AD military

photo credit: Okinawa Navy MWR

From Whitehouse.gov :

Starting on Armed Forces Day, this Saturday, May 19, we will be offering all active duty military a free annual pass that will grant access to service members and their dependents, to more than 2,000 sites across the country, including National Parks. 

The annual pass will be accepted at all public land sites that charge entrance or standard amenity fees, including those managed by the National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Army Corps.

you can figure out where to get yours here

Hope to see you at the parks this year!



Have a lovely day, and remember to find me on Facebook!

-Alana

Just a Picture Post

It's another cold and dark day here, so I'll entertain myself with some pictures.

Last week:

Sunny. And our closest neighbor to the east is a world away. 

Our neighbor to the West is almost as far away. This is the house with the mean dogs that bark relentlessly at me whenever I am outside. 

White Moth, never seen one quite this white before.

Our eclipse view from Sunday.

Yeah, no eclipse for Helena. 

Today is yuck.

Yuck to the left and ick to the right.

But Aiko has her piggy. 

so all is well in the world. 

I will add that by the time I finished writing this (9 hours after I started it) the clouds had blown out and the sun is now shining, But it hasn't gotten warmer than 55 degrees. 

Have a lovely day, and remember to find me on Facebook!

-Alana

Dreary Day

It's a yuckie day here in Montana. The weather has been so bipolar lately, it's depressing.
Last week we had 3 days of 70+ hot and dry, little wind, but great sunny weather. I worked on my tan, I read in the sun. I hung out with the doggies in the sunny spot. It was great.

Then Friday it got yuckie, and has been yuckie for the most part since.
I like it hot. I like hot and dry. I don't mind rain, but I'm not a lover of humidity. Although a little humidity makes my hair and skin lovely, unlike most people.

But here it is, May 22, and it's cold and rainy. Feels like a February morning in Tucson.

(except it's raining now, get with the program Weather app!)
(oh and my thermostat says it's 55 at my house, and the wind is kickin! )

And it's going to continue to be gross until Monday. Highs in the 50's lows in the 40's rain every day.

Maybe we'll run away for the weekend. Or maybe we'll just hunker down and clean. The house could use a really good spring cleaning. We had some tentative plans but Pauls work may interfere with them.  I really won't know what's going on until it's happening this weekend.


Have a lovely day, and remember to find me on Facebook!

-Alana

Happy Birthday Blog!

Blog is 5 years old!

Source: fuckyeahcutefood.tumblr.com via Lauren on Pinterest

It was actually the 17th, and I missed it.

I can't believe this has grown so much over 5 years. 

It started as more or less a diary, for me to share my worries and fears. 

It was also a way to keep in contact with my family when I moved to Japan and phone calls weren't as often. 

Now I have more readers than just my close friends and family, and I couldn't be happier. I love sharing my life and the lessons I learn with so many people. 

I appreciate every single person who reads this and I hope you enjoy it!

Cheers to another 5!

Source: kblog.lunchboxbunch.com via Alana on Pinterest

Have a lovely day, and remember to find me on Facebook!

-Alana

I am lucky and I know it

Source: 27.media.tumblr.com via Alana on Pinterest

I talked to an older gentleman the other day, he was in the Navy at the end of Vietnam. We discussed how lucky people in the military are. So many people are born, live, have children, and die, in the same town, and their children do the same. On it goes for generations. Many people will barely leave their comfort zone. I have family members that were born in the Southwest and have never been beyond the Az, Nm, Ca, Nv area. I cannot imagine my life without the travels I have had. Not only are we given the opportunity to live all over the world, but we don't have to pay for it.
I feel lucky because I get to move every 2-4 years. I get to see a new part of the world, a new culture, a new landscape.
Paul and I have been living in our house for about a year and a half now, and I am getting the itch to move again. We have never lived in one house for more than 2 years. Sometimes I look forward to putting roots down somewhere and owning a home. Having something solid. But then again I think that I would miss this so much, the excitement of "where will I be in 2 years". Maybe I'll change my mind when we have school age children, but right now I love the adventure of moving. I love the fact that I know (with the help of movers) I could be packed up and out of this house in 48 hours. The thought of moving excites me. Another adventure. I do love adventure.

Source: google.com via Alana on Pinterest

Have a lovely day, and remember to find me on Facebook!

-Alana

Sometimes I over do it

The last few days I have been all alone, and not leaving the house, between  not wanting anything bad to happen and a monstrous cold sore I developed (and I am extremely vain, and I don't want to be seen by anyone), I didn't leave the house until last night when Paul came home.

So I've spent too much time online, and that always leads me back to Okinawa.

I want to go back, there are lots of reasons, I've explored them before. But what I think it boils down to is food, friends, community, relaxation.

The food is simply amazing, and leaves nothing out, you can even get Mexican! (not great by mexican standards but still good, and good enough to hold me over)
We made some amazing friends over there. Friends that I will have forever.
Community, maybe part of it was that we were peaceful quiet neighbors, but even our Japanese neighbors always made us feel welcome. The Americans there have a sort of camaraderie where they are always available to help. I remember on one of our first weeks there we were without a car and walking and it started to rain, as it often does, and it poured. This family driving by saw us walking in the rain, without umbrellas, and she stopped and let us, soaking wet, into her nice clean car. She gave us a ride to base.  It wasn't totally out her her way, but it was totally unexpected.
The island is just so relaxing, I loved being able to ride my bike to the beach, and just listen to the waves. Even though traffic can be hectic, there is just something about driving around the island that I found peaceful.
Life just seemed so much simpler there.

I don't feel like we have that here.
Food is plain and boring, Chilis, Applebees, McD's. Yeah there are some local joints but everything is really burgers and fries or fried something.
Friends yeah, i've complained about that to no end, but It's really my fault I don't have friends.
Community, I don't think many of my neighbors even know each other. We've met a few of them, but except the woman across the street who lent me her phone and a ladder those two times I locked myself out, I wouldn't call them our friends.
Relaxation, although this place is nice, it's not relaxing. That's due to a combination of Pauls job that sucks, and my deep hatred for winter. I can't be relaxed when I'm all seasonally depressed.
Everything is so complicated. Life is so complicated.

But I've gotten sidetracked.
So over doing it... I have spent the better part of the last three days internet stalking Okinawa.
I have found more things to feed my hopes and dreams of one day going back.

OkiNinjaKitty - I don't know much about her yet, from what I gather she is living on Okinawa with her husband who is not part of the military (I think he is a contractor). She has a youtube channel where she posts Vlogs about life in Japan, and a facebook page. Some of them actually make my heart hurt to go back.
In fact this video is very near my house, maybe 15 minutes on my bike.



a bit more about this in a moment...

Also, Okinawa Hai, which i've been following since moving to Okinawa in 2008, has added a facebook group to go along with their facebook fan page.

And then there is the good old regulars:

Total Okinawa- where I can go and look at houses available for rent.

and the blogs:
Ramblings of a Marine Wife
True Love Conquers All

Those are the main ones I stick to, but i've even been finding myself on Okinawa Yard Sales. Which is just silly.

So I've over done it, and now I am sad.
Today my heart just wants to go back to the island, I just want to ride my bike up and down the pacific seawall. I want to splash in the ocean with the dogs. I want to walk to the izakaya with Paul and have an Orion and some takowasa, to have ramen in American Village, and Gyoza at the Sunabe Seawall at 4 am. To snorkel in the ocean, and hike up a castle. I miss these things so much, I just hope that someday they will happen again.

After watching OkiNinjaKitty I am entertaining the idea of vlogging again. I have thought about it before but I'm a little camera shy, also I don't know what I'd talk about. But I am giving it more thought. Maybe just show more of Montana. More about our house and our neighborhood. I need a dashcam. some way to hook my flip camera to the car and the handlebars of my bike.
I'm excited about this, maybe next week I'll have a video to share.

Have a lovely day, and remember to find me on Facebook!

-Alana

Fifty Shades of Grey

Everyone is reading it, Everyone is blogging it. Are you?

Source: amazon.com via Alana on Pinterest

If you haven't read it, it's the story of Ana Steel, a young, passive, shy, almost college grad and her whirlwind romance (can you even call it that?) with agressive, dominant, extremely wealthy, Christian Grey, who is a few years her senior.
Christian takes Ana into a world of sex and erotica that she, a virgin, has never known.
As much as Ana tries to resist him they are electrically drawn to each other, be it a mutual passion, or something else, they simply can't stay apart.
The book explores in great detail a world of dominance and submission, hot and heavy sex, and naughtiness that makes the book so hard to put down.

stop biting that lip.

Source: media-cache7.pinterest.com via HEIDI on Pinterest

When entertaining the idea of casting the books, many people feel that Kirsten Stewart and Rob Pattinson are ideal. I can see how they would see them in the roles, but that is because these books started out as Twilight Fan Fiction. Fan Fiction is more or less when the fans take the characters from books or movies, and make their own stories. 

Please don't take that information and write these books off. They only slightly resemble Twilight, and it's not that noticeable unless you know. They are still good books. Well I've only read the first, and it's a good book. 

This erotic romance that has EVERYONES panties in a bunch, is rumored to be a movie someday. Although I can't imagine how they will do it without at least an NC-17 rating.

The book features some very torrid sex scenes, and as one friend put it "makes you cross your legs".

So without further adiu

Christian Grey: 

Source: Uploaded by user via Alana on Pinterest

Jonathan Rhys Myers

Source: fastandfuriousbitch.tumblr.com via Alana on Pinterest

Paul Walker

Source: pint-erest.blogspot.com via Alana on Pinterest

William Levy 

Anastasia Steel:

Source: hairstylesmodel.com via Alana on Pinterest

Emma Watson

Source: Uploaded by user via Beatrice on Pinterest

Leighton Meester 

Source: ohnotheydidnt.livejournal.com via Alana on Pinterest

Ana Kendrick 

(even though I would like to leave all the original twilight cast out of it.)

So there you have it, My choices for Christian and Ana.
Agree? Disagree? I'm curious what other people are thinking.


Now on to my next book. 

It's just part of his job

Recruiting Duty sucks.
haha.

Okay well I need to explain a bit first. For the USMC recruiting districts are broken up into 6 areas.
We are in the 12th. Marine Corps District.
In the 12th there is 8 main RS's.
Salt Lake, Seattle, Portland, Sacramento, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, and Orange County.
We fall under Salt Lake.

I couldn't tell you how many stations fall under Salt lake, But I think we have the whole SLC area (maybe even all of Utah?), most of southern ID, part of Nevada (?), and all of Montana.
In Montana there are offices in Kalispel, Missoula, Great Falls, Helena (us!), Bozeman & Billings. But our office here in Helena, is more or less a sub station, and we fall under Great Falls (about 1.5 hours north)
So several times a month Paul has to drive up to Great Falls for paperwork, or whatever. Usually once a month he has to stay overnight.
Paul also has an office in Butte, and he covers several smaller areas surrounding Butte, including but not limited to Anaconda, Townsend, and Deer Lodge. The guys here in Montana have some of the largest areas to cover per recruiter because the population in Montana is so small it doesn't justify more recruiters. So they spend a lot of time on the road.
But anyway, A few times a year Paul has to go down to SLC for training, This week is one of those weeks. Today he left, I think he'll be home in a few days. But it sucks. I hate being alone, and since we got here bad things happen to me when he leaves. Even for day trips.
I lock myself out
I get in a car accident
I lock myself out again
I get the flu
A dog gets sick/hurt
My car wont start
The internet breaks
I get the flu again
I lock myself out a third time
(see a pattern here? I now have a key hidden outside, so that shouldn't be an issue)
Bad things don't happen every time he is gone, but if something bad is going to happen, I can guarantee he will be out of Helena.
I have decided I am not leaving the house until he is home. The dogs are on lockdown. For them there will be no crazy fun, no wild activities, no trips to anywhere.
I just need to go get milk and eggs and I am set for the next few days. I could actually live out of the house without leaving for about a week at least, but I have to work.

Seasons Changing

I don't make it much of a secret that I don't like living in Montana very much. 

One thing I have learned while living here is that Summer is my season. Winter is my enemy. 

I just can't handle winter, I hate being cold. I hate being so cold that my bones hurt. This last winter was mild and for that I am grateful. Paul and I have one more full winter left in Montana, then we will hopefully leave in early winter 2013. 

The last few weeks it's been warming up here though. I really like Montana summer. 

Besides the wind, I just can't handle the wind, but whatever. 

So today it's supposed to be 87 and I am so excited. I have to go to the chiropractor but I plan on spending the rest of the day outside with the dogs (and doing laundry)

Proof that winter is a distant memory:

The doggies sure do love playing outside 

Taco loves outside too, but he mostly has to stay indoors because he has a habit of making a run for it.

This years baby cows were born a bit ago

 And last years babies are getting bigger.

We've been playing outside a lot

And the horses and mules from the back pasture have returned

I drove out to Hauser Lake a few days ago, it's about 20 minutes from the house

Renji

Aiko