Happy Belated Birthday to ME!!!!!!

I know I haven't been on for a while and its because I've been pretty busy with our new baby (puppy) named Emily!  She is 8 weeks old and Yellow Lab, she extremely cute, smart, and very funny.  I'm still trying to get her to realize what her name is and working on potty training, which I know will both take some time.  Emily was our late Anniversary gift to each other, but the main reason we got her was because last week when I took Jake to the vet and we discovered that he had been abused in his past and that he is overly protective of both of us and our home.  The vet, wonderful lady, said we need to socialize him more so we decided to get a puppy!  I know some of you are asking why a puppy and why a lab?  Well Jake has no fear for big dogs, for example David was taking a walk with Jake one day and came across one of our neighbors walking their Bull Mastiff and Jake gets all feisty and starts barking like crazy, so this dog looks at Jake and starts to bend down to eat him, David yells "NO" and picks Jake up, who has no fear at all and continues to bark hysterically!  So we decided it would be best if we got a bigger dog so that he would learn to live with one and slowly be able to be more hospitable towards others.  A puppy, because we think it would be great for them to grow up together, which they are doing great together!

Now for my Belated Birthday gift from my husband; who is as excited as me?  Ready?  He got me this BEAUTIFUL washer and dyer set!  I'm in LOVE with it!  We were spending about $60 a month on doing laundry at the mat here at the apartment complex, so we decided to get one so it would eventually save us some money each month. On Tuesday when it got installed I was super excited and did about 7 loads of laundry!  Yeah I know that is a lot, but we've been kind of behind in laundry, well mainly I did all of our clothes including all of David's uniforms, sheets, towels, and quilts and such!  I had so much fun!

Now for some Military talk, I've recently learned that after living apart for some time it does take a lot of time and patience to get back into the swing of things.  For instance David and I have been arguing a little more than usual, I mean we have been married a little over a year now and we really haven't lived together all that much except for on weekends while were stationed at Fort Lee, Va.  So we are trying to learn to live with each other.  So my advice to those of you with deployed spouses or significant others in training; COMMUNICATION.  We need to work better on that, I guess a year apart we have learned to communicate in a certain way, but we need to communicate better as a couple.  Right now he is away for the week with his company for field training, its weird because I miss him like crazy and getting tired of being cooped up in the house all day and night with no one to talk to but a baby and Jake, who obviously don't talk back.  The weird part is the fact that it also feels comfortable because I've been this way for a year now.  As other wives have put it, they say that they have a routine and when their husbands come back they end up having to learn to live with each other again.  So my advice is for everyone to try, yes their are going to be hard moments when your communication is off, but you still have to try, that is the key!  So I'm going to try and follow my own advice when David gets home this weekend.

Time for some reader interaction, haven't done this for a while:  What was the favorite gift a significant other has gotten you and why was it so important to you?  Mine was going on a cruise with David to the Bahama's as a Christmas gift to each other, it wasn't the fact that we had gone to foreign country or anything like that it was because I had gotten to see him for the first time in six months and it was great to be able to spend the that week alone to ourselves, well kind of alone.

Here we go.....

So I know I said I wouldn't be able to post anything about baked goods, well we had unexpected guests yesterday I decided to be a great hostess and make a cake and a great pasta dish with homemade garlic bread.  It was all quite delicious and I'm extremely happy that it all turned out so well! 

So for all of your great entertainment I have a lovely vanilla three layer cake with strawberry cream cheese frosting and fresh strawberries.  So here you go I got this recipe off of Pinterest, which was pinned from Baby Gizmo Blog orginially. 

• Frosting -
• 2 8-oz packages of cream cheese, room temperature (I used low-fat)
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 4 cups powdered sugar
• 1/2 cup seedless strawberry jam
• 3/4 cup chilled heavy whipping cream
• Cake -
• 3 cups cake flour
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 3 cups sugar
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 7 large eggs
• 2 TBSP vanilla extract
• 1 cup sour cream (I used low fat)
• 6 TBSP plus 1/3 cup seedless strawberry jam
• 2 1/4 lbs strawberries, hulled, sliced (about 6 cups), divided

Instructions

1. FROSTING: Put a small/medium bowl in the freezer to chill. In a separate large mixing bowl, beat cream cheese and butter until smooth. Beat in sugar, then jam. Remove that chilled bowl from the freezer and beat cream in that chilled bowl until peaks form. Fold whipped cream into frosting. Cover; chill for a couple of hours until it’s firm enough to spread. (If you are in a hurry, you could put the frosting in the freezer to chill quickly.)
2. CAKE: Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Butter and flour two 9-inch cake pans with 2-inch high sides. (I used 10″ cheesecake pans – aka springform pans – because they were the only round pans I had with high enough sides and they worked great!) In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition. Beat in vanilla. Add sour cream, and beat for 30 seconds. Add flour mixture in three additions, beating to blend after each addition. Divide batter into prepared pans.
3. Bake cake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 50-60 minutes. Remove from oven and cool for 10 minutes. Run a sharp knife around the edges of the pans, then turn cakes out onto a rack to cool completely. I threw the two cake layers in the freezer for about an hour to make the cake assembly easier.
4. Using a serrated knife, divide each layer in half horizontally. Place one half, cake side down, on a cake plate.
5. Spread 3 TBSP of strawberry jam over the cake, then spread 3/4 c of the frosting over the jam. Arrange 3/4 c of the sliced strawberries on top of the frosting in a single layer. Repeat two more times with cake layer, jam, frosting, and strawberries.
6. Top with remaining cake layer, cut side down. Spread two cups of frosting over the top and sides of the cake in a thin layer, then frost with remaining frosting. Stir remaining jam to loosen, then spoon teaspoonfuls onto the top and sides of the cake. Use the back of a spoon to swirl jam decoratively into the frosting. This recipe makes a very big 4-layer cake that will feed a lot of people. It says it has 12 servings but I definitely think it feeds even more!

So I hope all of you thoroughly enjoy this recipe as much as I did!  I can't wait to try another recipe!

Another Day in the life.........

Well life around here has been quite boring lately, like I said David has had ten days of leave called TDY, means he gets leave to get settled in his new place.  Since he has a great wife (me), we were settled a long time ago!  He has taken this time to stay up late, play video games, and sleep in.  We have done our "adult" activities as I had hoped and extremely happy with.  He actually took me out to dinner!  I know what a shocker, but it was nice and he even cooked dinner the other night, well hot dogs, but it was great to sit back.  Other than that we have pretty much stayed home, which gets boring for me, so I've cleaned, explored Pinterest (best site ever!) and worked out using the gym here at the apartments and Zumba.  Tomorrow, David's unit is planning on going to Saint Simons for the day, it would be nice to sit back and relax in the sun and have the ocean at our feet.  Wouldn't you say?  Its going to be about an hour and half drive there, but I would have to say its worth it, I mean just look at that view!!!!  Plus we will be with good company laughing and probably getting burnt to a crisp, well at least I will.  Better remember to bring the sun screen!

A special shout out to all my military significant others:
 I know how hard it can be to stand by your Soldier, Marine, Airman, Sailor, etc, but I want to thank all of you for putting up a Hell of a fight for the ones you love.  All of you know as well I do that putting up with the military BS is harder than it looks and the easiest people to talk to are ones who are going through the same situations.  The thing is, we live a hard life of deployments, training, financial difficulties, night terrors, PTSD, loneliness, and so much more, but by sticking by our loved ones the reward is so much greater than the tribulations!  That first time you see them after graduating basic, or getting off the plane from a long deployment, in a land far away.  That one minute of being in their arms, its like the world has stopped and all there is is the two of you in that moment.  As military wives, husbands, girlfriends, boyfriends; we live for that one moment, the months apart, phone calls, letters, and Skype from thousands of miles, its all worth it for that one minute together.  No body really understands that except for those who have lived it or are living it.  So I thank all of my girls who are dealing with a deployment at the moment or are separated because of the service, Nicolle, Miranda, and Chealsey. Rock on!  HOOAH!

Today I made an appointment for Jake for on Monday so that he can get his Rabies shot updated and get a check up.  Also here in about a couple of hours we are going to go to the Georgia DMV and transfer from being California citizens to "Georgiaians!"  I'm a little nervous but I know we will be fine, what we are going to get done exactly is switch over our drivers licenses and get new plates for the car and in doing so hopefully we can get the car put in both our names instead of just mine!  Wish us luck!



                                                Dear Kaitlyn and other reader~

I'm sorry for not posting any baking recipes or anything foody for a while.  My excuse is that my mixer is a piece of sh*t and I'm dying to have a Kitchen Aid one so that I can bake to my hearts content!  I even went out and bough souffle dishes because I've been dying to make some!  Right now I have a couple of ones on ebay being watched, since that would be cheaper than having to pay full price.  Yes, Aunt Yvonne, I have looked at Goodwills but none of the ones I have checked have had one.  On some good news on that front, since I'll be going to school for that here soon, hopefully here in about six months I will have started those classes and can give lots of pointers and such.  I'm sorry for asking you to have some more patience, but that is all I can do at the moment.

                                                    With love,

                                                    Curvy Army Wife

P.S.~If you have suggestions or anything that you would like to see on the blog then feel free to let me know on my Facebook page or through a private message.  Like if you don't like the back ground or the color schemes for the moment feel free to put in your in-put.

Scrubbing along at Life

Happy belated Independence Day!  I hope everyone had fun in their own festivities and were somewhat safe!  I know we had a great time with our new friends!

So today is a week into our 30 day challenge, I'm super excited, though to be honest I have been slacking a lot this week since it has been the 4th of July weekend. Having a soldier as a husband has its benefits when it comes to becoming healthy, once you ask for help of course!  He has a plan for me; for example, eating every two-three hours a day of small meals, well except for a big breakfast.  Then trying to workout every so many times a day; like for instance deep cleaning the apartment today, and doing a session of Zumba or maybe going to the gym here and working on some strength training, and some adult "exercise" that is great for burning calories.  With his help I'm sure I can accomplish anything with him at my side!

For this afternoon I've already done two loads of dishes in the dish washer, and picked up some stuff so doesn't look as cluttered, but I still have to vacuum, dust, laundry, and a huge scrub down of both the kitchen and the bathroom.  I think I might have David do the laundry (except fold and put away) and also take out the trash, I think I can do everything else myself. 

Some news on the Georgia front:  First; Daniel has gone home!!!!!!!!! YAY!  I can actually sleep through the night without going out to tell the little rascal to be quite at 3 a.m.  Don't get me wrong I love my Brother-in-law to death, but man do I love my sleep, plus especially when David has to be up at 4:30 to drive to work for PT in the morning, I kind of get protective!

David started work in the "shop" this last week and half with his unit and they have taken us under their wings, which I'm thoroughly thankful for.  The "shop" is the small group of 94H's (David's MOS) who make up a group of about eight men who are all nerds just like David and like to get into as much shenanigans, so in lame-mans terms the next couple of years should be quite interesting.  On a some what positive note I know that when he does deploy I trust these men that he will be in good hands, which can be highest honor any Army wife can give.  

Not just have the guys taken David in so have their wives, they have taken us both in, including myself.  I'm super excited to have started to make friends with four wonderful women!  Just this last week we had a 4th of July celebration at one of their houses and went to the see the free concert on post all together.  Then on Friday it was one of the ladies birthday's so we went out for dinner and then a sports bar, where we had SOOO much fun!  Last night to top it off we went and set off illegal fireworks and had a great BBQ.  So I do have to say that I'm happy that we have been welcomed with open arms.

So for all of those who have been dying for pictures of our apartment, I have not totally let you down.  You see I took some pictures and tried emailing them to myself but for some reason I think they got lost in cyberspace some where. So I'm going to try here in a couple days again and see if I can get it to work.  Hopefully if I don't try and send so many in one email at a time I might be able to get it function and corporate with me.

Day One......

Well for all of those who are joining me, we have started our 30 day journey to being healthy and exercising!  I hope everyone had a some what successful day like I did.  I know for a fact that there are a total of about seven us who are participating and I'm super excited for all of us and our results.  I went for a walk to the gas station by us to get some water and the Sunday paper, then I decided to take a hike through the forest behind our apartment.  It was actually really relaxing.  As for eating I tried to eat as well as I could with barley anything in the fridge.  See its hard to do that when there isn't anything in the freezer and not much in the fridge either!  We made due though when we went to the grocery store, spent and arm a leg, but we did manage to get half of the groceries in fruit and vegetables.

I haven't gone to work out yet today but I've been pretty good with what I'm eating.  As for dinner tonight I'm making oven chicken sandwiches with a salad and maybe some fruit to go with it.  Its going to be delicious and that is for sure!  While we are on the topic of food, I found this great recipe to substitute the bad part of cake.  Instead of all the eggs and oil, you take one package of cake mix, 1 cup of Greek Yogurt, and 1 cut of water; mix together and bake as instructed, and your all ready to go.  I think I might try it tonight and see how it comes along with some fresh strawberries and maybe a drizzle of some sort!  

As for anything new in our lives, we had an issue with our car this morning.  Apparently a belt broke this morning while David was getting back to work after PT.  Well it was no good, he isn't giving me all the details but I'm a little worried to be totally honest with you.  We did get our DLA today so hopefully we can get it fixed using that and maybe some of the other stuff that is wrong with it.  We want to get a new car here in a couple of months, but right now is just not a great idea; we could manage it but I just want to be more financially stable before we add a car payment on top of everything else. 

Any healthy recipes that anyone would like to share?