Check This Out

Hey all. We aren't blogging here anymore. You should check us out on our new blog at www.jarange.com. :)

We have a renter!

Haven't had an opportunity to sit down and blog for a while, so we have some catching up to do. Firstly, we got a phone call on a Friday morning from Emily's Rentals that someone was interested in signing a lease. Josh called me 5 times I think, I was at the gym. I love when he gets that excited. We had left a few things in the garage, so we went over to get them out and while we were there we actually met our renters. I got that warm fuzzy feeling just from meeting them. They have a daughter starting high school next year so they will be here for at least four years. The woman said she fell in love with the house instantly. She also complimented us on our paint colors and said the house felt like home already, even empty! We were so excited, and still are! They even asked about buying, which eventually we want to do, but for now its a great investment so we will stick with renting. So glad to get that taken care of, and not have that burden hanging over our shoulders. We have enough to deal with coming up!

Remember that food goal?

If you are my friend on my facebook then you might remember my "I'll cook three new meals a week" goal. Well, I have been failing miserably. Seems that although recipes look good on paper, they don't taste as good in the belly. There have been a few that I would consider making again, but for the most part, I'll stick with what I have. All for now.

Good Job Delta

I got a nice phone call today from a lady representing the CEO of Delta Airlines. Firstly, she apologized that one of my first duties as a new wife was to file complaints about our service. She continually apologized for Delta's lack of planning, and poor service. She offered us the money that we had to spend out of pocket and a $50 voucher each for Josh and myself....


It didn't make me forget what we went through, but it definitely made me feel better!


And she continually told me to thank my husband for his service to our country!

Swimming...

Swimming is not my strong suit. To be honest, I have a strange fear of water. I think it stems from having to wear contacts, and not being able to open my eyes underwater; thus leaving me with this fear that I may run into something. I don't know. Josh though, loves to swim and for him I am doing my best to learn. Of course, just like with anything, to learn something you must have the right equipment. Swimming equipment consists of a one piece bathing suit, and goggles. Let me quickly add, that unless you are a size zero or you have those bathing suits that have "tummy control," one piece bathing suits are not flattering.

So, here is a rundown of swimming lessons day 1:
1. Go underwater without holding your nose.
2. Work on correct arm technique for the "crawl" or freestyle technique
3. Work on breathing every third stroke. This is where things got interesting, and I got frustrated. Trying to think about too many things, I would be counting stroke in my head, trying not to kick too hard, keeping my chin down, when all of the sudden I would remember that I needed to breathe. I would try to turn my head to the side, gasp for air, and go into the next stroke, but I guess during that gasp the rest of my body would stop moving, causing me to stop moving and somehow I would suck in a mouth full of water instead of a mouth full air. I tried for about an hour, and with no luck at mastering the breathing technique, called it a day.

I'll update after our next lesson. That is all for now.

Assigned Parking?

So far we have been very pleased with the apartment. There have been a couple of things that have made me frown, but nothing serious until our parking lot experiences.

Moving in, we knew that there were no assigned spots. Obviously, some people didn't know this. One day, as I was getting something out of my car, this guy came out his back door waving. I told Josh, "Wow, that guy is really friendly!" Apparently,  not so much. That waving, was actually him waving us down to complain that I had been "parking in his spot." Here is the conversation as I remember it.

"Is this your car?" -- Neighbor
"Yes, that's my car." -- Me
"See, this is my apartment, and that's kinda my assigned spot. I mean, I know we don't have assigned spots, but that's kinda mine." -- Neighbor
"Um, ok." -- Me
"Isn't there a spot closer to your door that you could park in?"-- Neighbor
"No, not really. Our front door is kinda in the middle, and I honestly just park in the first open spot I see." -- Me

And, that was it. He turned around, walked back inside his apartment, and slammed the door. No sympathy. I have kinda avoided that space, but the other day he followed me in the gate and when I parked in his "assigned" spot, he jumped out of his truck saying, "Well, I guess I'll just park here on the side and carry in all this stuff." I think that was his attempt to make me feel guilty. It didn't work though. I was carrying bags of groceries anyway!

Friday, I came home from the gym and pulled in the parking lot. The "assigned" parking guy was in his spot, so I was planning to park in the one beside it. Too bad I couldn't. It was blocked by a trash can. Really? A trash can! How rude?! I told Josh about it, and when he came home, he nicely removed the trash can from reserving the spot, and quickly parked his car in that spot. It wasn't the first time we had seen that trash can blocking that spot either. Monday morning we will be complaining about the "reserved" spots, and people trying to make us feel guilty about parking in their spots, but I'm assuming nothing will happen to them.

I don't know why people feel entitled to parking spots. It really doesn't make sense. God forbid you have to walk more than 5 feet to your back door. Really people, really?

Wedding Reception

Just wanted to post the link to the website that has all of our photos from the wedding reception. We are very pleased with them!

 Reception Photos

The password is amjo31911

Dear Blog

Dear Blog,

I am sorry that I have been neglecting you. I don't have time to think, let alone sit down and write. Currently, I have time because I am on hold with Time Warner... I will be back in full force soon!

Amanda

Honeymoon

Its been a while, but with the Honeymoon and moving this past week, I haven't had the chance to blog. I've been dying to tell everyone about our honeymoon... so here goes.

It snowed the Monday we were supposed to leave St Louis. We were prepared, as there was a second flight that we had for back up later in Atlanta, that would get us to Jacksonville  in time to board our cruise ship. We had boarded our plane when the pilot announced that we had to go to the deicing pad. After two hours, and no movement, we were informed that our plane would not be taking off from St Louis that day. Reason being, "Delta has no deicer. Don't plan on trying to book with another company, as all of St Louis is out as well." I was crushed. Realizing that we wouldn't make that connecting fight in Atlanta and wouldn't be boarding our cruise, I started bawling... right there in my seat. Josh continually tried to convince me that we would figure it out, but it wasn't working. Being the amazing husband that he is, he was able to get someone from Delta on the line and rebook us a flight straight to Nassau, Bahamas where our ship would be docking on Wednesday. This still meant that we had to stay in St Louis that Monday, leave early Tuesday, fly to the Bahamas, stay overnight there, and then get on our cruise. At that point, I was a basket case.

Josh's dad picked us up and took us back to their house. While there we booked a room at a hotel in the Bahamas, which wasn't actually as bad as we though. Our Honeymoon was moving in the right direction. No snow Tuesday morning, and our flight went off without a hitch. When we landed in the Bahamas convinced that we could only go up from here. That was until we watched everyone on our flight get their luggage from the carousel and leave. Realizing that we didn't have luggage, I again broke down. Bawled in the airport. Josh laughed, filed a claim, and we went off to the other side of the island to our hotel.

So, we are in Nassau, with nothing. I had a tank top and a pair of shorts in the carry on, but poor Josh had nothing. No soap, razors, toothpaste, contact solution, or bathing suits... We walked to the tourist area and bought some stuff, including two bathing suits. Back to the hotel we went to change and get in a few hours at the beach, and then it happened. You know that moment when you hit your breaking point. That happened when Josh "tried" putting on his swimming trunks and they were too small. We laughed so hard, so hard we rolled on the floor, so hard that my stomach hurt from laughing so hard. Poor Josh layed on the beach in his long pants while I basked in the Caribbean sunshine.

The next day our ship came in, and we boarded. Eventually our bag came and the rest of the week was amazing!! Looking forward to our next Carnival Cruise, and never flying Delta again. Sent out a nice letter today to the Delta CEO explaining the situation, and looking forward to getting something back. I'll post pictures soon, Josh is still editing.

Downsizing

Its official, we have listed our house on Emily's Rentals. To all of you, this is a shock because you know how much time and dedication we put into the house, not to mention that most of our memories are in this house. 

Months of discussions and weighing our options has lead us to believe that this is the best choice for us.  I LOVE our house, but its house is huge, 4 bedroom, 2 1/2 baths, 2 car garage, about 1/4 of an acre, and with the deployment (much too) quickly approaching it would be a lot for me to handle on my own.  So, its a done deal. We really think we will get a renter in quickly, because...

 Who wouldn't want to cook in that kitchen?           

  Or spend holidays with their family in this awesome dining room?

Or wake up in this huge master bedroom?

Or pull into that driveway ever day? 

 We love our house, but this seems like the best option...After the deployment (regardless of staying in or getting out) we won't stay here at Ft. Hood, meaning we would have a few months to sell our house, or rent it, before moving onto somewhere else. This way, we won't have to rush into making a decision in such a short amount of time.

I'm sure you are wondering, "Where will Amanda live?" and that brings me to the next section of this blog. "Where will I live?" We signed a lease today at an apartment complex here in Killeen called

The Bridgemoor at Killeen. They are really cute, and more like garden homes than your conventional apartment.  We liked them because they have real hardwood floors, granite counter tops, and real wood cabinets, plus there is only one floor so NO walking two dogs up and down tons of stairs every few hours! 

Apparently, there are some pretty awesome tax advantages to the renting of our house, and with following our Dave Ramsey guidelines, we are all about saving money and making money anyway we can. That's all for now. I'll update on the progress of finding a renter, moving, and trying to figure out where to put all of our stuff!!

Our favorites...

Trying to be creative and entertain myself (while Josh is playing COD and talking to someone via headset), I decided to compile a list of our favorite things to do together.

-- Saturday morning biscuits and gravy.  Josh lives for this Saturday treat, and since we don't usually eat breakfast together, its a nice treat for both of us. Josh usually takes care of the sausage, while I get the table ready and throw the biscuits in the oven. He is very particular about the process (that I think he stole from his mom), and I usually forget to add pepper, so he takes the lead. Its a great way to spend our Saturday morning together planning the day.

-- Going for bike rides. Last summer we spent most weekends taking our bicycles out for 15-20 mile rides. As long as we have enough water and the wind isn't blowing like crazy we are good. Hopefully we will be able to take advantage of our nice weather and bikes before the deployment.

-- We love doing projects together. Painting, organizing, planning...  You name it, we can do it. Occasionally I step in paint and get paint on the floor, or Josh measures the crown molding the wrong way, and we have to take a break, but for the most part its awesome. We spent a lot of last summer and the fall improving our already nearly perfect house. We painted most every room, added crown molding and chair rails in some rooms, and organized the garage. We are so proud of our accomplishments.

Talk about busy...

This week has really been crazy. In addition to 18 hours of classes and studying/homework time, usually an hour and a half at the gym a day, keeping our house relatively clean, and making sure the dogs get their social time, I've decided to help Josh's troop's FRG by being a co-leader. We love our current leader, but with the guys deploying soon she could use all the help she could get.

So this week, I had training Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, & a meeting on Thursday. Also, had my regular couple of college classes a day too. It was nice though, because I was already on post, I got to eat lunch with my husband 3 out of the 4 days.  Plus, I really learned a lot at the trainings, so it was worth the added busyness.

Also, I picked up my reception gown today. I have started referring to it as "the reception gown," because I got tired of explaining that we are already married, but I'm wearing it to the reception. Its perfect, and I love it! The only person who has seen it is Laura (be jealous)!!!

All for now... 

PRK

On Friday Josh had a form of laser eye surgery called PRK.  He spent most of the weekend in a pain medication induced sleep, with dark sunglasses covering his eyes.  Occasionally he would ask for frozen peas, a glass of water, and me to set the alarm on my phone to make sure he woke up to put his eye drops in; for the most part he was a good patient.

He has "quarters" for the week (meaning he doesn't have to go to work), but of course he went. Thankfully, we had the long weekend and he had one extra day to recover. Tuesday was his first day out of the house, and we spent it getting me enrolled in DEERS and Tricare. He kept his eyes pretty well blocked from the sun with the dark glasses and hat.

Wednesday he got a ride to work, but today he drove himself. He has a follow up appointment this afternoon, where the doctor will take out the protective contact lenses that were covering his eye. From here out, the pain should be gone. He will still have to apply drops and now this ointment type medication until it runs out. He was also advised not to prolong his eyes to sunlight or submerge his face in water... This might be a problem, as we are leaving in 19 days for our Caribbean honeymoon.

                      

                                        

                            

 

Happily Ever After...

Well, as of February 17th, 2011 Josh and I are married. He said, "Its like we've already been married for months, I knew you weren't going anywhere," and this is so true. So, lets give a recap of the week...

Monday morning after my first class I checked my messages and had a urgent one from Josh, "Call me when you can, its important." I immediately called, assuming something bad had happened. The opening lines were, "I have good news and bad news." He proceeded to tell me about the eye surgery and the date and how it was the last opportunity, and I proceeded to get mad and say mean things and act irrationally. I think I even hung up on him. We had already decided that we were going to get married on Friday, the 18th at noon, and Lucas and Laura would be there, so when that had to change my feelings were obviously hurt. I calmed down about 5 minutes after the initial hang up, called back, and apologized. What's one day anyway right? Josh said, "We are lucky that we get to spend one more day married than we initially thought," and its true. Its not about the day, its about us...

So, we went to the courthouse in Killeen around 2:30 on Thursday, and were married by Justice of the Peace, Garland Potvin. In true Amanda style, I laughed the whole time. In true Josh style, he starred into my eyes lovingly and said every word perfectly. Was reminded how lucky I am to have found him, and now get to spend the rest of my life with him. Afterward we tried to celebrate with sushi at the restaurant we went to on our first date, but it didn't open until 5 and Josh had to go back to work (I'll get that in a minute). Instead, we had Red Lobster, where a toddler at the table beside ours flirted with me the whole meal. Then we came home, attempted to call our immediate family members, were unsuccessful, and Josh went back to work.

Josh is amazing, and I'm such a lucky woman to be his wife. Looking forward to an amazing future together.

Oh yea, Josh had some drama at work this week, so he had to spend our wedding evening taking care of that. What better way to start my life as a Company Commander's wife, right?

Puppy Dinner Time

I love how excited the dogs get when they know its dinner time. I hate the nights that I have class or something in the evening and Josh gets to feed them, makes me jealous that he got to share in their excitement and I didn't. We are very proud of them for knowing which bowl is theirs... usually. Super proud of Athena who has recently started eating all of her food when we put it out for her. Before she was a grazer, would eat a little here and a little there, but I guess she realized that Albert would sneak and eat her food if he got a chance, so she is now eating everything at once.

Anyway, the video is super cute... excuse me "egging" them on, I just love how excited they are!

Eye Surgery

Thankfully, those Army eye doctors called Josh today about finally getting his LASIK surgery. Too bad its scheduled for Friday morning, the beginning of a four day weekend. Apparently, it's the last day he can actually have it done, and still have the amount of days it requires to heal before the deployment. We are thrilled that it's finally getting taken care of, hopefully this surgery's results last more than 6 years unlike the first time he had it done. I'll be glad that he can wake up and see... And jealous all at the same time. Jokingly, I tell him that I'm only marrying him so I can have eye surgery. Maybe having to take care of my blind Josh all weekend is my payback :)
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Blogging from the iPad

We like to think that we started the iPad trend in the Range family. Josh bought ours when they first came out, then either Darrell bought Joan one or Joan bought Darrell one, then Jason got his. When we are all together, it's like iPad overload, and sometimes we have to put them away or, "our brains will turn to mush," as Jason says.

The iPad is so convenient. We take it everywhere, an hour car ride to Austin or a twelve hour car ride to Columbia... It goes everywhere. I'm blogging from it, about it! We are contemplating getting a second one for Josh to take with him to Iraq.

Enough about the iPad, I sound like an Apple commercial!




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Home on the Range

Clarify

I usually refers to Amanda.  Josh might get excited and throw in a couple of ideas here and there, but usually it will be me. Didn't want to confuse anyone.

New Blogger

I realize its February 10th, but I'd like to share our New Year's Resolutions with the world.  We set the goals pretty high!

• Get out of debt fast! Using the Dave Ramsey idea, of course. Josh has a minor obsession with Dave. Luckily for us, there is a workshop starting at the beginning of March here at Ft. Hood. I think Josh was the first person to sign up! 

• Finish school! This one is strictly for me, Amanda. Two more semesters, that's all. I can do this, I can do this!

• Get back in shape, and stay in shape! With Josh being in Command, and myself working all day and going to school all night, we had a hard time finding time to exercise last year. As a result we were not happy with the way we looked. This year will be different. Since January 2nd, I have been working out six days a week and am loving the results. Doing a mix of cardio and weight lifting.  My serious obsession is RPM.  We love going to the gym together too, I feel like its a date sometimes.  Its nice having Josh beside me cheering me on and vice versa.

• Have a better relationship with God! We usually do pretty good at attending church every Sunday, but if we miss one week, its easy to miss the next week, and the next, and so on. I don't feel like its necessary to attend church to have a relationship with God, but it definitely helps me get in a better place. I've been trying to read a little from the Bible each day and pray more and harder.  

•  Spend more time together! Not just time, quality time.  Sitting beside each other watching Netflix does not really count as quality time, to us. The gym feels like quality time, as does cooking together, date nights, and even riding in the care together.  This one is easy, for now, but when the deployment comes finding a  minute to sit down and talk will be hard on both sides.

That's all for now. Not a bad first blog. -- Amanda