Greece

The boyfriend and I went to Greece for the Valentine's weekend. He had bought me a new lens for my camera and I intended to play with it on the plane but I used the short flight to nap. Priorities. Nevertheless I managed to get some decent shots. This one below is my favorite. Enjoy it. Now let's move on to another fantastic shot...

Dat ass. 

It's in there somewhere folks. I promise. And I realize the photo isn't quite in focus but hey, that's what happens when he spins around mid-camera snap and catches me with the camera aimed at his dairiere.  All he could do was laugh, he's used to it. He calls me wild. I call him safe. I feel like if he were portrayed in a movie he'd be Nicolas Cage's character in that one movie where he is like OCD. I can't think of the name of it for the life of me. You know, the one where he goes back to pick up a single piece of lint because that was the only thing out of place. Or no! Dexter! He'd be Dexter, not because he has a dark passenger or anything (or does he) but because he's way schedule oriented, orderly, blends right on in. Whereas I'm certain I'd be a mess like in Along Came Polly. So we kinda need each other. I mean, after all, we don't need him murdering people when he's supposed to be sleeping and I don't need my grandmother's hand towel covered in diarrhea.  How did we get here? From Greece and holidays to Indian food and blood sample slides. Oh, ce la vie.

Let's get back to some more photos. Quite a few came out overexposed so there's that. But the ones that follow show a sweet little puppy that lived with a plethora of other dogs and cats just roaming the streets. The busy city. And some amazing pieces of history not quite frozen in time.

Oh, and then there's this guy, who is a trooper traveling with his go-where-the-wind-takes-her-wife.

You keep me safe.
I'll keep you wild.

February Flashback and Pinterest Addictions

When you're trying to edit photos but your computer, well, your 11 year old's computer, is sloooooooower than slow for some reason and you want to throw it across the room but you know you can't because your laptop is gone-zo because two years ago you spilled water on it and almost died from a panic attack during the spillage but it kept working for some reason so then you were happy but then two years later (also know as last month) you go to turn it on and it's dead, then you pay some dude hundreds of dollars to tell you that your MacBook Pro, that cost over $1000 is not going to work because the water damage you did to it finally corroded some component inside of it so now you're using your 11 year olds laptop but it's your old MacBook from your undergraduate years so it's like 6 years old and is suuuuuper slow and you're tempted to walk across the street to the BX to buy that beautiful iMac you saw on display last week but you have to pay over $7000 on the 4th when you move in to your new place so you know a $1200 purchase at this moment isn't smart so you stop editing photos and write a blog post on some two and a half month old photos you found because you couldn't get to your present day photos because, again, the computer is being stupid and yeah...

Whew! Who else is tired now?

Today I'm gonna rewind to February, Valentine's Day mainly. I know it's almost June but humor me, aight? I came across some photos of V-day Rumdizzle style and thought I'd share. Mother, I am sorry for not sharing sooner. Oh, and your yearbook for 2012 should be arriving to your house in a few weeks. I know 2013 is half over but I'm a mess I tell ya. Without further ado...

Ethan is in middle school. Read: Too school for cool. Read: No parties happening in the classrooms. Read: They will long for V-day parties in 20 years. Seriously, these middle schoolers think their too old for this shit and then one day BOOM they're 30 and E's like, "Dude, I wonder if Theresa likes me" and his friend is like, "Dude, Valentine's Day is tomorrow, wait and see what she writes on your valentine at the party." And he's like, "Dude, smart i.d." Because they shorten everything nowadays and instead of saying 'idea' they are gonna say 'i.d." Mark my words. Then tomorrow comes and Theresa gives the whole class Charlie Brown Valentine's that say "From, Theresa" But she gives E a Charlie Brown Valentine that says, "From Theresa. :)"

It's that simple gentlemen. Ethan! Write this down. Or bookmark this post or whatever kids do nowadays. That simple ':)' that she didn't give anyone else means, "Will you be mine" but when your 30 you don't get Valentine's parties and shit so you'll never know how Theresa feels because men are stupid and don't understand when women care about them it makes them absolutely crazy and they can't make. you. understand. truly. how. they. feel. Ok, for real this time, I'm getting to the point of this post...

Owen and Ari needed to bring Valentine's to their classes party for the big day. We make everything around here because when I was a stay-at-home-mom it filled my day but now that I'm a work fulltime mom I still feel the need to do these little things with my kidlets rather than go to walmart and buy them a box of valentine's and shove them in their backpacks. Plus I'm a nerd and like doing artsy stuff. So we whipped out our slew of crafts and got to makin'.  I loved that they both made their own cards. Instead of being worried about them being perfect and asking me to do all the work they made the majority of them. Of course I was in charge of doing stuff like punching hearts out of cardstock or cutting things.

Ari is obsessed with mustaches. So her cards were mustache related. She's a creative peanut, she wrote things like, "I mustache you a question - will you be mine?" So. damn. cute. that kid.

She needed something to put all her valentines in at school so we took a jar and decorated it. Hey, I like to use what we have.

 

And yes, I spray painted the lid. #It'sTheLittleThings

And here's my baby posing like the ham he is.

Oh, and since it was just me and three minors on Valentine's day they didn't want me to feel unloved so they made me coffee. And by 'they' I mean 'Ari' because she's the only one that knows how I like my coffee made. And as I was getting in the car to go to work, with coffee in hand, Owen ran back from the bus stop to give me a flower that he picked. "For the best Mommy ever" as he always says. They have no clue but it's little things like that that mean a lot to me. Seth always asks what I want for holidays or special occasion and I try to tell him that the things that mean the most to me aren't things he can buy. That may sound corny but for me it's true. Some chicks dig diamonds and stuff. Me? Making me coffee and picking me a flower means more than a dinner and bouquet of roses ever would.

Speaking of which, my favorite gift from Seth to this day is two broken heads from his watches that he gave me and put in a shadow box. It's a long story but here goes: we met at field training (our version of basic training) and we were pretty much attached at the hip the whole time. Seth was our flight commander for a while so when he was in front of our flight preparing to march us from one event to another people would sometimes ask him for the time or he would simply look at his watch to make sure we got there one time (for instance, if we showed up a few minutes too early or late for chow we didn't get to eat so time was of the essence for those 28 days). A week in to it and the straps of his watch broke so instead of looking at his wrist for the time he'd have to pull out the head of the watch to check the time. He had the supply officer buy him a new watch on one of her supply runs but that watch, too, eventually lost its strapped. So he now had two strapless watch heads.  So I'd ask him everyday, in formation, out loud, in front of our CTO and FTO, "Cadet Rumbarger, could you please tell me what time it is?" And he'd stand there, at attention, and have to pull out this little round head of a strapless watch, hold it up to his face, put it back in his pocket, pop back to attention and say, "It is 1310!" And we'd both struggle to keep our bearing and not die laughing because it was so ridiculous to see him pull out his broken watch rather than simply consult his wrist. So yeah, two broken watch heads are my most treasured gift because of the meaning behind them.

Not only did Owen think of me on Valentine's day, but he also hung on to his daddy for dear life when he came to visit a few weeks before Valentine's day. We celebrated it while Seth was with us rather than actually on 14 Feb. Seth had been in Owen's room with him playing and when he went to leave the room Owen jumped the floor and grabbed Seth's leg begging him to stay.

I love the relationship these two have. Seth has been around since Owen was two years old so all Owen knows me with is Seth, and their bond is a close one and I absolutely love seeing them together. Owen is totally a Mommy's boy, but when Seth is in town he's all about Daddy. Seriously. Seth and I will be sitting on the couch and Owen will come downstairs after waking up in the morning and he'll go sit on Seth's lap and I don't get so much as a "Good morning Mom"...it's like I'm chopped liver.

Oh, and on a more updated note, we signed for our house today! It's official - we move in on 4 June! We will be furnitureless because our household goods won't be here for another few weeks but that's fine because we will keep busy painting anyway. At first we planned to just paint over the crazy bright kitchen and laundry room and maybe liven up the curently cream/tan living room walls but after looking over photos of the house we took we realized the sunroom will need painted too because it's currently a muddy orange color and while I love yellow and orange they just aren't jiving for me in the shades the owner picked. And then I made the mistake of getting on Pinterest and I've come up with all sorts of fun ideas like a stripped accent wall in the kids' playroom and a moody gray living room, and awesome color blocks in O's room and and a super dark blue half bathroom. I'm pinning my little heart out. Seriously, if you click here you can see the thousands of pins that I've pinned. On my, like, 30 different boards. I'm sure my family would appreciate it I focused less on my 'For The Home' board and more on my 'Recipe' board. Fo' real.

Lorri The Not-So-Magnificent Chef

Seth Nolan, Be Mine...

Forgive me, I've been off the grid for the last week or so, hence the lack of posts. So let's go back, shall we? Waaaaay back, back into time...


Okay, before I go all Blackstreet on you I'll only take you back 15 days ago to Valentine's Day. What? What's that you say? Valentine's Day was only six days ago? Well, it may have been for you lucky bastards that get to have your significant other by your side everyday, but for us Rumbargers Valentine's Day was on Saturday, the 10th. That’s because we have a crazy schedule in la casa de Rumbarger and we knew we were literally going to be on opposite sides of the country come 14 February. So naturally, we simply choose to make the best of our situation, which I suppose is the life of any mil-to-mil couple.

I tend to be a bit of a romantic. Lovey dovey. All the while slightly dorky, therefore I make or buy things that are sentimental and mean something special to us. Where as Seth tends to be…well…a guy. He’s oblivious as to what to get me for any holiday and requests a list from me the day before he needs to produce said gift. He’s getting MUCH better, however.

We went to dinner – our thing is sushi, but we had just eaten sushi the night before, so naturally we went to Olive Garden (my personal fave) and then hit up a movie. 

And as far as gifts went, well, he won’t ever tell me what to simply buy him so I’m stuck coming up with something on my own. And since I’m a mush, I went all lovey dovey. First, I got three balloons (I should've gotten four because they were supposed to represent each year we’ve spent a Vday together but I obviously had a brain fart and only got three), I wrote a memory on paper and tied a memory to each balloon. I snuck the balloons into our bedroom when he was still asleep that morning so that he’d wake up to find a few of my favorite memories of us.

He was sorely lacking some décor on his new nightstand we built so I took it into my own hands to make this scrabble-inspired art.

The significance? Seth had never, ever, ever, ever, never, never played scrabble until he met my grandmother for the first time. Scrabble was a staple in my house growing up so I was blown away when I learned Seth had never played the game before. And anytime we visit my grandmother you can bet she’s gonna break out the scrabble board. So when Seth met my Grandmother for the first time he also met scrabble. The first word he played was ‘sad.’

Yep, I took a picture of him making his first move of his first scrabble game because I’m a total sap like that.

And let’s just admit that Vday isn’t Vday unless you’ve got some chocolate consumption on the agenda. And since my man probably would wince at a heart-shaped box filled with choloclate I decided to simply buy him some of his favorite candies and write silly notes on ‘em. I also made him two little scratch-off cards instead of getting him a typical Valentine's card.

Lastly, I made this lamp shade, which may seem silly because, well, it’s a lamp shade. But I actually wrote him a love letter on it. So all that messy handwriting you see is actually a letter to him. I got the idea from, you guessed it, Pinterest. The talented gal wrote her son a letter on his lamp shade and I, being little Miss Sappy McGee, absolutely loved the idea. I also printed a copy of the letter for him also so that he could easily read it. 

And what did he get me? Well, a cute little stuffed animal and a coffee mug, because he knows that I'm a coffee addict, although I have gotten much better and have significantly reduced my caffeine consumption. He also bought me loads of chocolates and hot pink roses like any awesome hubby would. And he knows that I have a totally unhealthy obsession with white ceramic animals so he got me this horsey! 

Isn't he a stud? I named him Vladimir. I've never named any of my animals, instead they just end up getting called Mr-so-and-so. Example, my owl on our living room built-ins is simply called 'Mr Owl' and my stately giraffe is just 'Mr Giraffe.' 

I'm just now realizing that I've got some unconscious sexism happenin' because none of my animals are 'Mrs' or 'Miss.' Anyhoo, my horse just needed a name, I mean, look at that face, how can you not name him?! 

He just looks like he commands that I name him. And Vladimir just seemed to fit. Seth thinks it's weird and awkward that I named an inanimate object but think of it this way, guys name their cars - right?! I rest my case.  

Last, but definitely not least is this way cool coffee mug. 

Yeah no, that's not a lens to my camera, it simply looks like one, it's actually a coffee mug but I decided I needed a little greenery in our room so I'm using it as a planter.

Is it not the coolest thing you've ever seen? I must say, my man did goooooood. And then of course he finished things off by giving me a love note he wrote and it made me bawl my eyes out two sentences into reading it. I went in to full-blown ugly cry, people - it wasn't pretty. I had to do the super fast hand wave in front of my eyes to dry my tears so that I could continue to read. Yeah, I was a hot mess. 

So there we have it, the most amazing Valentine's Day to date. I hope ya'lls went just as well. And please tell me I'm not the only one with a weird obsession! Or at least tell me that Vladimir is a fitting name for my shiny, ceramic horsey!

Much Love,

Lor