Coffee Talk (VENTI-ing)

*I don't think I'm a fan of the SLAM organization. #1, it's clique-y (as are most military wife organizations though). #2, it stands for Sweat Like A Mother. Basically, it's moms working out in local parks with their kids there. I always saw it as something I couldn't be a part of when I didn't have kids. Again, clique-y. #3, your kids are there. I always see pictures of well-behaved toddlers in strollers or whatever. LOL. Mine would NEVER. My kids have always been good in strollers but not just sitting there. Not in a million years. As newborns, sure. But no. The utter distraction would be so bad for my morale. Paying for group fitness classes at a gym where I could drop them off in childcare would be my dream. Since that doesn't exist (military base gyms do not offer and have never offered childcare :), SLAM was developed so you never have to leave your child's side for even a second. #4, it's just as expensive to join as a gym. I can do workouts at home and be distracted and not frustrated in public for free. I can't think of much worse than hauling two small and potentially disagreeable children, snacks, toys, strollers, wagons, water, WEIGHTS (it's b.y.o.w), and whatever else to an outdoor(!) workout class...in Missouri, in the summer.

It's also really funny because I made a friend here and she said she's had trouble making friends because they all go to SLAM and that's how they hang out and I was like I cannot get out the door in time for a 9am workout class in the summer. And she was like 9am?! and that's how I knew we'd get along. If I'm going to meet her anywhere, we go to "around noon" activities. That's my summer personality. We met at the park at like 11am the other day and she was like It's nice to be out early. << That is what I look for in a friend in the summer. 

*I follow several bloggers who consume a lot in terms of buying. I buy a lot too, I feel, but following these people makes me feel better about my own habits. For example, one said she owns this in three colors because it's JUST SO GREAT. 

It's a $150 Lululemon jacket. THREE OF THEM. I can't even fathom that amount of excess from a so-called normal mom. She also said she gifts a $300 blanket to people when they move into a new house. I could never. 

*My fitbit doesn't track steps when I'm pushing the stroller. 

*Wells bought this egg thing with his birthday money. Immediate regret. It came with slime and foam and sand. Not just one. All three. 

They come in all styles, shapes, sizes, and colors. Do not buy one, ever.

Complaints lately...

I saw this jacket on IG and on FB on my phone. I couldn't log into my StitchFix account on there because my info wasn't saved and I tried to find this jacket/sweatshirt hybrid on my computer. COULD NOT FIND IT. Like, I searched every which way I could think of on the website. 

Finally, I reached out via Twitter, asking if I could just please have the link...and then StitchFix sent me a DM saying they couldn't send me the link like I'd requested, but could take a look at my account. Um, no? I just want the link. So much for spending $68 on your product, StitchFix. I really would have done it too. It looks like the perfect spring jacket. 

I ranted about this over the weekend. Military spouses who refuse to leave the base are kind of the worst. Maybe it's because we were stationed in Alaska first and everything interesting was off the base. Maybe it's because I've never lived on base. I use the base for lots of things here: the dog park, walking trails, UPS, haircuts, etc. But I've also learned that a lot of spouses don't even want to be friends, really, if you live off-base because it's too inconvenient. 

Virtual school? I don't know, guys. It just seems so annoyingly...privileged? For me, personally, it was nice that 3 snow days in a row coincided with me being sick because I was in no condition to go to work last week. However, the internet in rural Missouri is known to be terrible to begin with. You put thousands of kids + teachers + military teleworkers at home, depending on Meet, Zoom, and Teams...not much gets accomplished. Last year, Zoom was kind of boring to teach, but it was simple and I didn't mind it. This year, it's not the norm so we spend more time trying to figure out why certain features aren't working. Last year, the remote classes were for kids whose parents wanted them to be in remote school, so they did everything in their power to make it work.

Consistency is good when it comes to classroom learning, but expecting students to attend online class for 3 hours a day on surprise snow days is peak privilege. We're assuming every has reliable internet, an adult to help them troubleshoot, food to eat, etc. I don't like it. (I hate that the purpose of public schools has essentially become to feed children, but it's true that our students get two meals and two snacks at elementary school each day...Wells does too, even though we pay tuition there. Parents have been completely absolved of responsibility and I don't like that either.)

What are you complaining about this week? 

Gripes and Grievances--February and March.

I don't actually have as many grievances in February as I had in January, so I'll combine it with March. But I think it's good to get some of this out in the open. Clear the air and all.

+Valentine's Day. It's going to seem petty, I'm sure, but that's what this post is for: petty grievances I need to get off my chest.

I don't get Valentine's Day. I think it's a perfect and fun holiday for kids, much like Halloween. There comes a point where you just have to let it go, though. I don't expect anything for Valentine's Day. We've definitely celebrated with gifts, fancy dinners, etc in the past and we even got engaged on February 14th. It's just not something I insist on celebrating. And then, when you have a baby...am I supposed to dress him (yes, him) up in hearts or whatever? I mean, maybe if I had a girl. But I've noticed that in school, boys just love giving their superhero and Lego Valentine's cards to each other. It's not about the frills. Especially because I don't think we even left the house on V-Day. To buy a heart onesie for one day at home seemed like a waste of effort and money.
So I was very confused with what I was supposed to do with a baby boy. Scott and I only tend to celebrate when we're apart for deployments, by sending gifts and care packages.

+The people who bought our house paid for a well inspection. They paid $600+ because it was something they wanted. That's fine and within their rights. However, the company did the inspection wrong, were completely negligent, and gave them the wrong information. They tried to say it would be a $1,700 fix. It cost Scott $14 to fix it.
These people paid $600+ for the incorrect information.
It's a gripe, to me, that the housing market is maintained by crooked inspectors and unlicensed "professionals" and you don't know who you can trust. Colorado Springs has grown so quickly that everything falls through the cracks and no one asks questions. You don't even need to be licensed in Colorado to be a home inspector.
The upside was that Scott spotted their incompetence right away and he said They have no idea they're inspecting the well of someone who just got a masters degree in hydrology. That's not even to brag; it's just fact and happenstance that that's what happened here. I can't even imagine how many people they rip off a week.

+Also, our real estate agent isn't anyone we'd brag about or recommend. It took us a long time to find him and he wasn't even that great.

+Car dealerships. From promising military rebates, to refusing to budge on a price and letting us walk away over $200, I'm so annoyed by them. We even set up an appointment and said we would buy the car that night (they offered us a deal and we communicated through email) and they weren't ready when we got there. We had to leave because they couldn't promise to get us into finance until after 8pm that night. Then we went back another night and they almost still weren't ready, even though we set up an appointment. We kept at it because they were offering a considerably better deal than we'd seen at any of the other dealerships. (Side note: I love car shopping with Scott. He's not afraid to walk away and I appreciate that. There will always be a near identical car at another dealership. There is no shortage of vehicles to buy or people trying to sell them to you. It's especially fun when they keep calling back and asking what else they can do and you just tell them they had their chance already. They never know what to say.)

+Twitter battles. I don't know why I comment but sometimes I can't help myself. Anyway. I gave up Twitter for two weeks and then felt better.  I don't have over-indulgence issues with Facebook because it's lame. I don't get that way with Instagram. But I can get lost in a Twitter thread for 30 minutes. It's pointless.

+Winter is something I'm pretty much over at this point but I know the heat and humidity will bring about a whole new world of complaints from everyone on social media and in real life. So I don't quite wish for summer yet. However, due to winter weather, the gym closed early one day. This was their notification system:

In the world of emails and texts and whatnot, that's what L.A. Fitness decided to do. Morons.

+I'd forgotten how many people in this part of the country smoke cigarettes. It's disgusting. Like, every other person you meet smells like smoke. And they're always smoking in their cars and throwing the butts out the window. You'd get a fine for that in Colorado or Wyoming because you'd be starting a fire. People have no idea. I heard a podcaster say months ago about how It's 2018, and if you still smoke cigarettes, I don't even know what we can say to you anymore. I concur.

+People who refuse to go outside in the winter or in general with a baby. I can't with that. I've noticed that just in the last two weeks, people have started to voluntarily leave their houses in Pennsylvania. "Poor" Wells has been outside almost every day of his young life. We started walking the dogs together when he was 3 or 4 days old. Someone told me they were stuck in their house all last summer with a newborn (kid was born in April). How? Why? Do you hate yourself? Who chained you to your couch? You did that to yourself. The only days last summer and fall when I didn't take Wells out for a walk were the days when the wildfire smoke would blow into town. In fact, I remember when he was 5 or 6 days old and I wanted to take the dogs out and it was going to start raining. By the time we drove to the trail, it was pouring. We waited ten minutes and it got worse. Finally, I stayed in the truck with the baby while Scott took the dogs with an umbrella. It was very disappointing.
Most days in winter, embarrassingly, my biggest decision is Do I take him? or Do I wait for Scott to get home? On the really bad days in Wyoming, I would wait for Scott to get home. Here, if it's really windy, miserable, blowing snow, absolutely freezing (below 20 degrees F), etc, we'll skip a walk but I never feel good about it. On days when it's questionable, I put on his snowsuit and put him in the Ergo with a blanket over him. On days when it's warmer, he goes in the stroller.
We came across a couple on a walk a month ago (a 50 degree day in February) and they said something about telling him some day that it was once warm enough to take a walk in February when you were a baby!!!!! 

I also feel bad for the dogs of Pennsylvania who want to be outside running around (not all dogs do) and their owners won't take them out. I don't understand how they live with the guilt, to be honest.
I can't remember if I mentioned it here before, but I say to Wells You're tougher than this because you're a Wyoming baby pretty often. He's going to grow up with me brandishing his Wyoming birth certificate any time he whines about the weather.

Alright, that's enough for today. Apparently I feel pretty strongly about that last one.

Stuff and Things... 10/27

Last one in October...whew...

I don't understand these people who say the year is "just flying by!!!".

My sympathy meter is at like .000004% when it comes to people who lament about "losing" their husbands to hunting season. PA friends, I'm looking at you.

Also, even when my husband is here, he hunts. I've got deployments AND hunting season. And duck-hunting season is much longer than deer season, I'll have you know.

(Jensen Ackles, your facial expressions make this too easy.)

Onto other topics...I'm pretty sure that, at this point during the deployment four years ago, I was sitting in my car each day at lunchtime. It was a dark time. I'm getting to that point again.

I've stopped checking my work email at home. It doesn't matter if I'm doing nothing but looking up gifs of Jensen Ackles and Zooey Deschanel. I'm not checking my work email at home anymore because this is what happens when I do:

Okay, that wasn't really another topic...

So I've not been watching The Walking Dead at all in the last two years. It just started to lose me. I've read up on what happened on the premiere (no spoilers here), and I'm still just meh. I am a die-hard fan of seasons 1-3 and I would like to, once again, thank Rick for naming this link-up for me.

Tell me something good! What's your favorite gif?