Those Big Ambitious Plans I mentioned...

I'M GOING BACK TO SCHOOL!!! No more career ADD for this girl! For once I've finally made up my mind as to what I want to do for a career! At least for now ;) And what is this so called career I am about to pursue, you ask? Radiography!!! That's right folks! In the next few years, I will be taking your x-rays! Lucky you? Chances are it sucks that I'm having to take your x-rays, but lucky you that it's me!

That's going to be me in a few years!

This whole school adventure hasn't been an easy one..... But I guess that's the thing with school... It's about learning and this has been a learning process... Thank goodness for a husband and a Mom who give me that kick in the butt when I want to throw in the towel! Pretty sure I wouldn't be sitting here on the couch staring at my Anatomy and Physiology book if it weren't for those two ;) Not to mention my Dad and sister helping along the way as well!

Me every time something took a wrong turn with school...

Those two have gotten me past wanting to throw in the towel when I found out I hadn't even actually applied to the radiography program and found out I still have 4 prerequisite classes I need to take. My family reminded me that I'm not very far from where I thought I was and that the end goal is still in sight! They helped me through the teary decision to put my two weeks in at work to pursue a job that will be more flexible with my school schedule.

 

 

Don't worry  I won't be paying the bills this way....

I'll just still be serving you scrumptious meals at a restaurant near me! (Location yet to be determined)

Everything from starting school again to getting a new job is going to be quite the adventure. Hopefully a less teary eyed and more confident adventure. So I guess to wrap this up my friends.... Here's to nothing but success in my new endeavor!

I Should Probably....

Give an update? Be a better blogger? Tend to my cooking blog since I LOVE to cook? Not just sit around and play Farmville2 and Candy Crush? Probably.... I guess I should probably yammer on into oblivion about my wonderful few months back in the good ol' Washington state and the move to North Carolina. I could also yammer on about the fun DIY projects the husband and I have done and sound all savvy with my DIY tips... Oh and I also could mention the big ambitious plans I have in motion for the next couple of years!!! Settle down now ya' all... I'm not talking about having babies or anything crazy like that.... yet ;) So I guess grab a cup of coffee, tea, etc, and be prepared for some blog bombing! (That doesn't sound nearly as good as photo bombing... but I tried right?!)

Bidding Adieu to Peru

Well the day has come... I fly out tonight.... Still somewhat in denial but I'm finishing up packing, so I guess we could call that progress? I started off my Peruvian journey with white wine meltdowns and feelings of neglect by my friends. Thankfully I started to get busy with a little bit of wedding planning and started to adjust to every day life in Lima. The social aspect was still quite the disappointment until we got back from Key West. While we were on leave getting married.... Mao, Joe, Midziany, Hector, Ivonne, and Oscar had all moved to Peru to begin their tours here. I found Mao to be overly intense and somewhat scary when I first met her. However that is not the case. She is the most loving, caring individual, who just goes out of her way to make sure everyone has a great time. Midziany and Ivonne are also equally loving and caring. I couldn't have asked for better people to walk into my life here. All of them and their children have made a huge difference in my Lima life. I'm leaving here with a much larger family than I came here with.

There's also friendships that are just beginning. I've met some really fun people in the last couple months of my time here. These friendships might have been short and sweet, but they truly aren't over. I mean who else could I just randomly yell out 49! at and have them respond back with 49! Chris and Guy were a great addition to my ever growing collection of friends.

All the people I've so far mentioned, threw Scott and I an amazing "Going Away" party. I am fondly calling it my "See Ya Later" party. There were other wonderful amazing people that had a hand in the party, as well as the people who came to wish us well. This party also makes it hard to leave Peru. The over the top factor just really showed how much everyone cared to have us in their lives. I can say I'm leaving here a happy, well loved girl :)

Tomorrow evening I'll be arriving at SeaTac International Airport. I'll be greeted by my loving parents and sister :) Once we get home, it's time for a quick shower, dinner, and SLEEP! The next day, it's game on with getting back in touch with all of my Washington friends! I might have gone through a phase where I felt they didn't care anymore, but I just needed to remember life in Washington was going on without me. Time didn't stop and their lives, jobs, etc. didn't stop either just because I left. There is also just a huge difference in the way people in the USA communicate versus down here in Lima. Here we still pick up the phone and call each other because we have no clue if a text will go through. When I left the states, to make plans you just send your friends texts. Not having a stateside cell number really hindered that ability to just text to keep in touch. Well great news Washington friends! I will be back in action as soon as I'm stateside! If you don't remember my old cell number, send me a message on FB and I'll send it to you... But be forewarned, it will probably change like 3 weeks after I get there :) Scott and I can't share a cell phone for too long so I'll give him back his number and get myself a new one!

I guess it's time to bid adieu to Peru... Peru will always have a slice of my heart to call home. I will miss physically seeing my Peru friends, but I know it's not the last time I will see any of them. I look forward to seeing my Washington friends and mostly my family. My Mom has spent countless hours chatting away with me on Facebook so I didn't get bored or lonely :) Thank you to all who have made this place a memorable one.

Living in Denial

Well aside from being the worst most inconsistent blogger probably ever.... I've been somewhat of a busy bee! Although the rest of September and most of October I didn't have anything special planned, both months just flew by! Now here we are at the end of November (which was my most jam-packed, fun filled month recently) and I'm still in borderline denial about moving. I mean the suitcases are basically packed and sitting there on the floor staring at me, but I still don't feel like I'm moving. It feels like I'm about to go visit my family for the holidays and then I should be coming back. However, that is not the case. After the holidays, and once Scott is done with training, we hop in the car and head East. We will visit some family and friends on the way to Ft. Bragg, NC.

Ft. Freaking Bragg, NC. Not our top choice what so ever. This is thanks to the "wonderful" branch manager who decided since he was on his way out of that position to not give a flying F***! and just stick us at a really really big Hooah! base..... Yay...... We really wanted to go over seas again, but we are "at the needs of the army" and that's where they feel we are needed. Prior to this, I've only had negative reviews of Ft. Bragg. After talking to a variety of people (and people that are currently stationed there, that my friend Anne knows), it seems to be just like anywhere else. It is a place that one can love if you find the right things to do, places to go, and surround yourself with positive people. Our friends Mao and Joe hope that if they can't stay here, they go to Camp Lejeune, NC. Camp Lejeune is only about 3 hours away from Ft. Bragg! How fantastic would that be for long weekends!?

Speaking of Mao, she is hosting our "going away" party. I think I'm just going to start calling it our "see you later" party (see that's me still living in denial). This party is on Saturday and I can't wait to see what that crazy, fun woman cooks up :) It's basically a guaranteed good time. If you don't have a good time, then you can't be our friends anymore and you might want to seek professional help for that mental disorder you might have.

Alrighty, I digress. With the impending doom of me leaving, I've just been embracing what time I do have left here. I still have 2 must do things on my list before leaving. Ride a Combi and go paragliding. In case you were wondering what a Combi is.... It's basically the crazy, decrepit bus that people use to get around. Somehow these people understand it's system, but I see it as a major traffic causing inconvenience and something that tried to run me over once (Scott thinks I have Combi PTSD and that might be true). They seriously are the biggest pieces of crap. I personally think the dirt holds them together... Well enough about those, I could go on and on. So here is a picture of one for you.

Maybe if I was a more consistent blogger, I wouldn't have to ramble on.... I mean I've skipped over Scott's awesome birthday BBQ that I threw for him (we had chocolate chip cookie dough cupcakes! yay!). I haven't even addressed the fun times that were Halloween, the Marine Corps Ball, Breaking Dawn Part 2, Thanksgiving, Lady Gaga, dog sitting (again), a girls "going away" lunch for me, and other fun get togethers (such as the night Scott became a Colombian). I should just do a photo-blog post of some of these fun times.

Well here is to hoping that the sun comes out and the wind picks up for some good, sunny paragliding today!

It's the Final Countdown!

Yup.... I went there... You're welcome. This time in 3 months I will be freezing my ass off. Now there isn't much to be freezing off if you know me. I will be dressed for what I think is going to be subzero temperatures. Where am I going? Oh you know, just rainy and cold Washington State. Weather pending, it should be sunny and 80°F by the time I leave Peru. I'm trading that in for 40°F and rainy? Must be crazy, but I love my family and where else will I go while my husband is in training? Any takers? If there are, you might have to fight my Mom for me though... I've never seen her fight but if it's for me, I imagine her doing some crazy shit like Nikki/Jessica in Heroes...

So what do I have planned for these last few months here in Peru? And where are we going next in our fantastic Army journey??? Nothing really planned for the rest of this month, nothing really planned for October (I can't even plan anything for Mr. Scott's birthday because of a higher up official in the Army making a whirlwind stop here in Lima), but November my friends, it is all about November! Marine Corps Ball, Lima 10k, Breaking Dawn Part 2 aka Amanacer Parte Dos, Thanksgiving and LADY FUCKING GAGA BITCHES!!!!!

Please excuse my over excitement and use of foul language. Let's start with the Marine Corps Ball. That's November 3rd and is going to be a blast and possibly a half. Already ordered my dress and that should be showing up any day now. Can't go wrong with pretty dresses, great friends, and booze. Next up is that Lima 10k. I should probably get off my ass and start working towards being able to do it. Well I could do it as is, I'd just be limping around for days like I was after that 7.3K I was totally unprepared for. Also doing that is pending as long as it is NOT the day after the Marine Ball. If it is, sorry but F that... No way on God's green earth or in Hell am I getting up after the Marine Ball to go run... Chances are I will be going to bed at like 3 or 4am so ummm no, just no.... Breaking Dawn Part 2! Mr. Scott can finally celebrate the last Twilight Saga movie he has to take me to, ever. He just has to buy it for me on DVD later so I can watch it again and again while he's away. In a way I guess that is more exciting for him than me. Next up! Thanksgiving. I have no clue where or what we are doing but it's just going to be a fun time regardless. Now here is where I get super super excited about Lady Gaga again! OMG OMG OMG I'm going to Lady Gaga!!!! BEST HUSBAND EVER!!!!!!!!!

Here is the back story to Lady Gaga where I proudly where my asshole of the month crown! So  I was not ready for bed and decided to be a bad girl and indulge in some late night Facebooking and web surfing on the night of Sept. 5th.... Well I go to KOMO 4 News' website and what do I see??? Lady Gaga will be at the Tacoma Dome on January 14th! Now if that is not exciting then I don't know what is. Well that's where I am wrong because it can get more exciting than that. Upon further delving into this Lady Gaga at Tacoma Dome, I go to her website where I find a list of her current tour dates..... I pretty much just about pissed myself with excitement when I saw "Lima Peru, November 23rd, Tickets on sale September 6th".... Now enter in asshole moment... Mr. Scott is dead asleep in the bedroom... What do I do? I run in and pounce on him like a cat high on cat nip and start demanding/begging to be allowed to put Lady Gaga tickets on the credit card the next day.... As you can guess that got a big fat NO! I was so mad and called him the asshole for not even saying "I'll think about it." Fast forward to when Scott gets home after work on September 6th... I decide I should immediately apologize for my rude behavior the night before and politely ask again if we could go. I was smart and decided not to ask at 6:30am or while he was at work.... So after my apology, Mr. Scott starts to inform me of how surprised he was that I was soooooooo clueless that she was coming to Lima until now. Apparently she had added Lima to her tour in mid-July. He had been watching for tickets to go on sale since then........ I bet you can guess what happens next in this story! If you guessed I start crying as he pulls out two tickets to Lady Gaga on Nov. 23rd...... Then you guessed right!!!! Sorry no prize for a correct guess today kids! So seriously... Best husband ever.... This Little Monster can't wait to put her paws up!

Okay enough about my rambling of my love for Lady Gaga.... I'll just add another reason my husband is the best husband ever....

See that's me! Me as a Pin-up tattoo and me dressed up as an Army Pin-up girl! How freaking fantastic is all of that! Very.

I've probably rambled on plenty for this blog today! So I'll leave you with a few other September highlights...

#1 Sept. 10th - The best Mom ever celebrated her birthday! Happy Birthday Mom!
#2 Sept. 11th - My sweet little Grandma Ann celebrated her 80th!!! Birthday! Well she didn't really celebrate too much cause she didn't want to, but it's her birthday and that was her choice :)
#3 Sept. 11th - My hilarious, fashion loving cousin Chela also celebrated her birthday! She celebrated  by taking Grandma Ann to lunch at my former place of employment :)


I'll save where are we going next for another blog post... That's a story of disappointment in it's own... I'm doing my best to turn that disappointment into a whole bunch of positive excitement though!

Winter? Where are you going?

Well again with a blink of an eye, July has come and gone. The same could be said for August. I have mixed feelings about this. While I can't wait for some sunshine and warmth, I also don't like how fast time seems to  be flying by. July was seriously uneventful, aside from the fun of dog sitting for the month. That brought some interest to my life. I miss the pitter patter of little paws coming down the hall to see what I'm doing. Get ready for a laugh! I also miss the sound of oinking as I cook dinner. That's right oinking. We had two very confused chihuahuas in our custody.

Bubbles and Precious

Precious being camera shy

Bubs!!!!!!!!

 Bubbles aka Bubs (just an FYI we had like 5 or 6 different nicknames for each dog) thinks that she is a baby pig. She oinks and snores about 90%  of her day. Now Precious aka Skinny, thinks she is a show pony. She believed that she must prance around instead of walking. She also would be the biggest attention whore I've ever met. She put me to shame as a high needs individual.

They also proved my husband, somewhat right. Now I say somewhat because I still fully believe I need a puppy in my life. I do recognize his point that it is a slight inconvenience at times to have to take the dogs down and outside across the street to the park and supervise their every move instead of just letting them outside into a fenced yard. I can also see his point of that when I start working again at our next place, how much time will I really have for the dog? I have faith that I'll figure it all out and be able to work full time and still have a very happy, well loved dog :)

Alrighty then, let's fast forward through most of August. Highlights! We finally got the new couches we were wanting/needing/told we could get. The DAO has some shit furniture. I'm talking ugly green and gold fabric, broken down, and just plain awful. Chief Lee had finally secured some funding for the office to get some new furniture. Thanks to Chief, we got some new couches and will be getting some new rugs this weekend :D You all have no idea how happy it makes me to not look like the broke ass college kids with mismatched furniture.

We would have had a matching leather love seat if it hadn't been blasted and broken by a fork lift

yeah! Stylish grown-up furniture!

Those couches arrived just in time for what I like to think of is the best and most important highlight! Our one year anniversary!!!!!! Yeah buddy! One year down, 14 to go! Just kidding! We had a great anniversary! We did most the celebrating on Saturday, the 18th. We started that day off with some Chifa in Chinatown with Chief Lee and his girlfriend, as well as some shopping. After a fun filled afternoon there that included Chief making the day of a homeless man by giving him S./10 (basically $4), we went home and got changed for our dinner at Mesa 18, at the Park Hotel.

Mesa 18 was delicious but expensive for the portion size. It's definitely one of those places where you are paying for the name of a Chef. I am glad we went though. Delicious food and OUTSTANDING service. After the excellent meal, we popped inside the hotel to their bar called Jackle & Hyde. Scott had a Manhattan (probably the best one in Lima) and I had a Lychee Martini. Both were delicious, but we decided to move on to our favorite bar Houlihan's for some cheaper drinks. After a couple rounds, we returned home for PJ's and nightcap :)

Our actual anniversary was on Monday, the 20th. I had this wonderful steak dinner planned. That all got sidelined when some idiot of a woman decided to slam into the side of the work vehicle Scott was carpooling in because she was missing her exit. I guess minimal damage to both vehicles and no injuries, but this woman would not admit fault even with the police telling her it was her fault. Accidents aren't settled here the way they are in the states. Instead of the police just being able to cite her and then everyone goes home, everyone had to go to the police station to file a statement. With this lovely delay, Scott didn't get home until just after 7:30pm. At this point I felt frustrated by that idiot woman and her attempt to ruin my anniversary (like I wanted to hunt her down and slam her face into the steering wheel. My dad wonders where this hostility comes from and it's honestly because I have nothing better to do), so I had no desire to grill steaks, saute mushrooms, roast asparagus, and let alone clean it all up.  Thankfully my sweet husband agreed to just going out to our favorite pizza place for pizza and wine. We just saved the steak dinner for the next night. The previously mentioned sweet husband also surprised me with flowers and chocolates! The added bonus was he came home with my stuff I ordered from Victoria Secret and a shirt I had ordered from another site :) After dinner, while I put my new clothes away, he surprised me (again! I know I'm spoiled) with some of my favorite sparkling red wine! I think I married a keeper. He definitely turned the night around.

Now that our anniversary has come and gone, not a whole lot is going on for the rest of the month. Tomorrow I've decide to go on a social binge and go to a ladies coffee, lunch with the girls, and Chief Lee's going away office party. Next thing I know it's going to be September and I'll only have 3 months left here in Peru! Hopefully some nice weather will start rolling in before I have to go and have my second winter of the year......

June Happenings

So June came and went with a quickness! I felt like I was just saying how I had 6 months left here in Peru and somehow now it is less than 5 months! So what sort of fun crap did I squeeze into the month that was gone in a blink of an eye??? I did a 7.3K run/walk for charity and took a vacation to Buenos Aires, Argentina and Colonia, Uruguay with the hubby!

Let's start with the run/walk.... The hubby and his boss ran it together.... I flew solo.... Now since I didn't exactly train for this, it was probably not my best idea ever, At points during it, I did hate life a little and questioned what I was thinking. Oh I remember, it was for the disabled children of Lima to have a new therapeutic center! I wish I had a camera for when I was jogging across the bridge and the faster people were on their return to the finish were coming down the other side of the bridge. What a great turn out! Anyways here are some pictures that best describe the run.

I know you all have seen this one before and basically is what I would say was the "during" of the run

Immediately following the run picture.... Sunshine and Rainbows bitches! I felt great!

What I felt like by the end of the day and for the next few days.... Since I basically never jog I stiffened probably worse than this old lady!

It was for the kids and that's what matters :)

Ten days after the run, the hubby and I were in Buenos Aires! Now it was cold compared to Lima so I should have brought a couple extra sweaters! What a beautiful city! The first day we walked around and got familiar with the area we were staying. We ate at the hotel for dinner, well more like Scott ate and I took 3 bites of my food and called it good. For some lovely reason I didn't sleep for more than an hour on the plane so I had been up since 9am the day before. I just felt sick and tired (and maybe had a meltdown at the Sao Paolo airport due to Scott's dip passport and the cunt that was trying to deny him boarding cause he didn't already have a visa for Argentina in it. She was not understanding he was traveling on tourist purposes and not official which means he doesn't have to already have a visa.... bitch....) and was ready to fall asleep in my "pumpkin soup". I would more like to call it pumpkin baby food... Didn't taste bad but just didn't have that silky smooth soup thing going on.... After finally getting some sleep in the glorious king size bed (we have got to upgrade our bed when we leave here) I was feeling much better! We did a city bus tour that took us all over different parts of the city and right by the Ferry terminal that we would be going to the next day.  I forget what we did for lunch but for dinner we did an Argentinian grill. Delicious! and also we found a wine that we absolutely love there! Now I was not a smart cookie and I indulged in a bit too much wine and guess what?! Hangover the next day, yay me...... Again that dip passport caused us some problems at customs in the ferry terminal... They get so uppity about how it's an official passport and how he's supposed to already have visas in it even though he's not traveling on official business... Supervisor do wonders though, they just basically say whatever let him through... After a nice little nap on the ferry to Uruguay I felt okay.

We rented a scooter to ride around town on for only $25 for the day. Checked out the beaches on the Rio de La Plata, old town Colonia, and I think we ended up in more of a local residential area but that was cool too. We had this great intention of eating at this burger stand Scott had read about, but the dude wasn't open yet and we were starving... and of course right as our food gets delivered, home dude opens his stand.... If we had known he would open then, I would have starved for the extra time to pay half the price for what we read are totally amazing burgers.... Now if people in Argentina and Uruguay believed in posting hours of operation, then this would not have been a problem and I would have had a great burger instead of an overpriced mediocre burger. Colonia was a nice small town with wonderful colonial autumn charm :) You don't need more than a few hours there though. The ferry ride back was not so pleasurable... Thank the lord riding around bitch on a scooter cured my hangover.... Over half of the "tourist class" (they have different classes on the ferry) was obnoxious loud ass school children that most of the boat wanted to slaughter by the time we docked in Buenos Aires... There was one chick having a "Little Annie Brazilian airport meltdown" over the fact she was asked to move her stuff out of an empty seat to try and get these kids to sit down and the obnoxiousness of the children..... Hate to break it to you chica, but putting on your sunglasses did not hide the fact you were crying... We all knew you were before you put them on, so just own up to your tears and let them sparkle in the sunlight!

Due to late night eating (I mean like places don't open for dinner until around 8 or 9pm), we ended eating at a pretty cool Thai place... yeah yeah yeah... I know... We were all the way in Argentina and ate Thai food.... It was one of the only places open so don't judge... Also we had Argentinian grill the night before and knew that was basically what would be served at the Tango show the next night...

Our last day before we flew back, we spent "shopping". I use the " " because we didn't buy anything. Nothing really jumped out at us as a must have item.... We had lunch at a nice cafe where we received some of the best service we've ever had in South America... Food was delicious as well... We got back to the hotel to hang out and have a bottle of wine before getting ready for the Tango show... That is where I realized these boots I liked were actually $300 and not $400 which meant they were only $100 over my boot budget... I however chose not to slam a bottle of wine just to run and buy the boots so they will be known as "the boots that got away"... I just couldn't do that to the delicious wine though....

The Tango show.... no words for how great it was! We got seated at a great table and had the best view of the show! Dinner was great too, as well as the basically unlimited wine. I can't remember the exact name of the theater but if you are in Buenos Aires, just go to the hotel Elevage and ask them to recommend a tango show with dinner... It was only $140 a person and that included transportation to and from the hotel, dinner, the show and the unlimited wine... Well worth the money.... In fact I even recommend the hotel... Good breakfast, nice rooms, and good customer service....

I think I've basically rambled on enough for the June happenings, so I'll leave you with some pictures of our trip :)