Friday Letters

Dear Husband, I could really use some help sometimes. Also this help would be way more appreciated (and WAY less stressful) if it could be done without you loosing your temper. I know you hate dishes, so do I, but slamming shit around is only going to get you fired and me fired up, I just want help, I don't want to be angry with you.

Source: tribaltattoos24.com via Lori on Pinterest

Dear Internet, while I do appreciate you coming back so promptly after the fire, you still suck. Satalite Internet just SUCKS.

Source: blog.oliverphillips91.co.uk via Christopher on Pinterest

(btw, i totally have 16 tabs open right now, too many? maybe)

Dear Pintrest, You've been a little bit of a Fail Whale yourself.

Source: Uploaded by user via Raphael on Pinterest

Dear Body, You could start looking a little more pregnant and a little less fat any time now.

Source: thelensloves.com via Krystal on Pinterest

That is all for now. Click on the link up at the top of the page and join in on the fun!

It Is What You Make It

(Beating a dead horse, if you are a long time follower, I've been over this time and time again)

"It is what you make it"

I had uttered those words so many times while living in Okinawa, I just couldn't understand why people would piss and moan about living there. Beautiful views, wonderful people, amazing weather (part of the time, unless you like unpredicted rain, which I grew to like) Sure it can be confusing, living in a foreign country where most locals speak very little if any english, where many road signs are only in Japanese, the whole road system is very confusing at first. Yeah you will miss things, American food, forks, pizza. But there is so much that is amazing to me it outweighed all the bad.

Now a year and a half later, back in the states, I am eating my own words. I think that I have a new kind of depression, Regional Depression. I am not even sure if that's a kind of depression, maybe it is. But every day I find myself thinking "if I could just go back."
I now understand how all those wives felt that hated Okinawa, that just wanted out. They counted the days until they could move back to the states. Yeah there are good days, but I can say with 100% of my heart that a bad day in Okinawa, was better than a good day in Montana.

I've tried, I really have. I just can't get down with the weather, it's either too cold or too hot to play outside, and I love being outside. The short time that being out side is doable we normally do it, but with my pregnancy this summer, I've been too miserable to enjoy it.
I just want to go for a walk on the beach, sit in the coffee shop at the mall and people watch, buy all the hello kitty stuff my heart desires. Every night I wish for a handfull of things one of them being the opportunity to go back. I know I can't stay forever but I want to be there as long as I can, I feel like we were short changed, Paul was deployed almost half the time we were there. He missed so much.
I should be grateful, My husband is home, he's not deployed, he comes home almost every night, He's safe.
I just need to suck it up, we have about 16 more months left here and I want to be able to look back and not think of Montana as the shittiest place ever. Maybe I'll get out today, it's only about 65 right now, not to hot, not too cold. My new motto "It is what you make it" It's gonna suck if I let it, Only I can make myself enjoy it here.



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

-Alana

Corral Fire in Western Montana

We Have internet back! We only lost it for about 24 hours, which is quite a surprise to me, I expected us to be out until friday at least.

Monday afternoon we had a wild fire start on Scratchgravel Hill about 5 miles from the house.
We hiked Scratchgravel last year, you can see pictures of the Scratchgravel Hike here.  I think it's safe to say that everyplace in those pictures has been destroyed.
These are a combo of pictures from my iPhone and my Nikon so some pictures may have poorer quality.


Day 1:

This picture was taken at about 4:45, the fire started at 4:20. 

quickly progressed

just before I left for work at 6 the wind changed direction and our house was bombarded with smoke. 

On the freeway on the way to work, the fire was quickly spreading.

From work, you can't even see the hills, normally they are very clear. 

By Monday night when I got off work at 10 the fire looked like it was under control. The mountain looked like someone had sprinkled orange glitter all over it, or christmas lights, it was twinkling all over. But there wasn't much smoke. 

Day two:

Even when I woke up in the morning it wasn't smoking much and looked pretty much done. 

About 1030 the winds picked up and quickly reached 45mph with gusts up to 70. The fire picked back up and roared out of control. Things looked much worse this day.

Driving into town on the freeway

Heading back out of town on a small highway. About 20 min after I took this they closed this highway due to 0 visibility and safety hazard from people pulling over to watch the fire.

I got as close as I could without crossing police lines and took some pictures of the hills.

The fire is mostly confined to the hills and the adjacent fields, but the high winds were blowing the smoke east.

By tuesday night things had calmed down quite a bit again.

Day Three:

Looks like this is finally under control. You can see how the east face of this entire hill area are completely charred. There are still about 250 fire fighters up there according to the newspaper, but it looks like they have it covered. 

The most recent update states that there was over 1,800 acres burned, 4 homes lost, but no one was hurt or seriously injured. There is still some concern of it flaring back up, but things are looking much better smoke wise. 
The fire was accelerated by extensive dead trees that had been killed by pine beetles, and by severely dry conditions.
We were never in iminent danger here at the house, but I did make a list in my head of the things I would grab if I only had a short time to evacuate: Animals, fire safe, hard drives & laptops. Everything else is easily replaced.


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

Wildfire impairing my blogging

We've had a wildfire going just down the street. It looks mostly contained now, but it knocked out our Internet. I'll update more when I have Internet again. I've got lots of pictures.

That one time I smeared poo on my face

No not really. But it sure looked like it.

I'm trying to deal with nasty pregnancy acne. I had to stop using Retin-A. There are also so many commercial face washes that are not suggested for use when pregnant. The top ones being salicylic acid and benzyol peroxide (well benzyol peroxide isn't out 100% but there hasn't been much research either way, so I am avoiding it).

If anyone has any pregnancy safe skin treatments or even just ideas please share in the comments, I'll try anything!

So before I put anything on my skin I research it. I found this one recipe for a natural face mask/wash containing honey, lemon, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

Source: myyellowsandboxblog.com via Alana on Pinterest

Totally looked like I smeared shit on my face.

I do think it significantly reduced my redness. I haven't seen much of a change in my acne yet, but it's still early. One suggestion, if your honey is sort of stiff DO NOT MICROWAVE IT, it gets really hot and stays hot, and too runny to put on your skin. I had to put mine in the freezer for like an hour to get it to solidify enough that I could spread it on my face. 

Shout out to my sister for this idea too, she rocks! 

I've also been using 100% natural apple cider vinegar as a toner (ACV) I use 1 part ACV and 1 part water, the first few times I didn't mix it with water and I smelled like easter eggs, You know that smell when you are dying them? yeah that was my face and back. 

But the thing I really like about the ACV is I don't have that dry feeling on my face after I use it. I can skip lotion if I don't need the extra sunscreen, like when I shower at night. ACV balances out the PH of your skin, so it's not over dry or oily. It's like magic smelly juice! 

I would be so happy to get my skin under control before the baby comes. It's really depressing to look in the mirror and see the mess on my face, neck and back. My back is the worst, it's a nasty mess, but thankfully people can't really see it. 

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

-Alana

Annual Challis Caping Trip 2012

We just got back from our Annual trip to Challis Hot Springs

This is the post from last year: Challis Hot Springs 2011
I took way more pictures last year so check them out.

Our annual trip to Challis is for Paul's Recruiter training, and mandatory fun time. Anyone in the military knows about mandatory fun time. Most units we've been with it's a day, family day, where everyone gets together for a BBQ and other outdoor fun. But since we are all spread out over several states we have to meet in the middle.

This year was a day longer than last year, and in my current condition that was one day too many. 4 months pregnant, camping in 80 degree weather for 5 days was too much. I felt like a party pooper but I was just having such a hard time during the day. But we still managed to have fun.

We had some problems with this little guy at first. He was attacked shortly after Challis last year and has shown quite a bit of fear based agression towards other dogs since. Although we've been training against it, but this weekend was tough for him. There were so many families, and about half of them had dogs. As each day went by he calmed down more and more, but he was still a hand-full with his incessant barking and he would often run to the end of his lead with his lunging and barking.

Cooling off

our campsite, we are the one in the back with a screen room.

Beating the heat. 

Cooling off in the AC in the car because it was just too damn hot. 

The biggest deal this weekend (to our little family) was Paul's reenlistment ceremony. 

It was done on the last full day after the eco challenge. 

4 more years in the Marine Corps for our family. 

Aiko wouldnt eat out of her dog bowl the whole time, so she ate off the floor. 

The drive home Renji was very anxious to get there.

And now I have two pooped out naked doggies. They get to be harness/collar free for a few days because they have been living in harnesses all week and have some areas that are a rubbed a little raw from them. 

(and they are so cute naked)

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

-Alana