Texas Roadhouse Rolls- Copy cat recipe

One day I had a craving for Texas Roadhouse Rolls and the Cinnbutter.  After a few attempts of my own, I realized they were coming out waaaay too heavy.  So I went on the hunt for the perfect recipe.  Some of them were okay and others were just "meh".  Then I found this recipe at 365 Days of Baking and so far *I* think it's the best one I found!

I was really unfocused with my baking today.  I have heard many Army wives talk about Murphy's Law showing truth shortly after their spouses leave for BCT or Deployment... well the Hubster hasn't even left yet and it seems that Murphy's Law is starting to show it's face around here already.  After dealing with a really sick dog (we thought he had a blockage), I decided to bake today and pulled out the carton of eggs for the recipe only to drop them and break every.single.one of them! Oh yeah...awesome.  So I ran to the store and grabbed some eggs... so far, all is well, and I got to baking some Texas Roadhouse Rolls (copycat recipe) and some Cinnbutter (also, copycat recipe).  Oh and I also kept forgetting to take pictures, so the pictures are not all that great and a couple blurred... awesome... But here it is:


I made 13 smaller rolls that I froze for future raising and baking, and I made 12 HUGE ones for us to snack on the next few days.

INGREDIENTS:

4 tsps. active dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water
2 cups milk, scalded and cooled to lukewarm (directions on scalding below :) )
1/2 cup plus 1 tsp sugar, separated
3 TBSP melted butter, cooled slightly. (Plus some for brushing the finished rolls)
7-8 cups flour (I used about 7)
2 Whole Eggs
2 tsps. of salt

In the bowl of an electric mix, dissolve yeast in warm water with the teaspoon of sugar. I mix it with a whisk and let it sit for a minute or two, to make sure it foams and bubbles--to make sure the yeast is good! If it does not foam/bubble, dump it and get fresh yeast!



Using your dough hook, mix in the milk, 1/2 cup of sugar, and about 2 1/2 cups of flour to form a medium batter. Mix thoroughly and allow it to stand until light and foamy; about 8-10 minutes.

*FORGOT TO TAKE A PICTURE!*

Add melted butter, eggs, and salt. Beat well. Add enough flour to form a soft dough.



Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and allow it to rest for about 10 minutes.
While dough is resting, prepare a large bowl by spraying it with cooking spray, or as I do, put a small about of oil in the bowl and smear it around with a paper towel, lol :)

Knead the dough until it is smooth and satiny. Place into prepared bowl and turn over coating in oil.



Cover bowl tightly with saran wrap (plastic wrap) and set to rise in a warm place until it has doubled in size, about 1-2 hours.



Punch dough down.

On a lightly floured surface, use a lightly floured rolling pin, flatten the dough into a rectangle about a 1/2 inch thick.



Fold the rectangle in half vertically, so it's now about an inch thick and lightly roll together to seal the sides.



Allow to rest for 10 minutes, then with a dough scraper, cut the rolls into desired size.

Place the rolls on a greased baking sheet (I prefer using parchment paper), cover with a damp towel and allow them to double in size, about an hour or so.



Doubles in size (I forgot to take a picture, so here's an oven shot ;) )



Preheat oven to 350*F and bake rolls for 10-15 minutes or until golden.

The Hubster and middle boy duckling dug into them before I could take a picture ;)



After removing from the oven, brush with melted butter and enjoy :)

Cinnbutter Recipe:
1/2 cup butter (1 stick, room temperature)
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup honey
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat butter until it is smooth. Add other ingredients and whip until all ingredients are well blended, stopping to scrape down the bowl.

I left my butter too close to the oven and it began to melt...




These really are magnificent tasting rolls. We took some on a winter family trip with my in-laws and everybody loved them!! I hope you enjoy them too!!


SCALDING MILK:
Scalding milk is a very simple process! It's not something you can buy, but if you have a sauce pan and milk, you can do it!  To scald milk, you simply bring it to the brink of boiling! That simple.  So heat the milk and as you see the foaming bubbles starting along the edge and steam rising from the milk, you have now scalded your milk :)

Walk the walk...

When I know there are big changes coming I like to be as orderly as possible.  Sometimes I love the chaos of it all, but with the thought of him being gone, it breaks my heart and I am not being very orderly.  Some may have noticed I haven't added any recipes or craft stuff, or anything that seems fun for a blog... I just have been so focused on keeping my kids busy and making these last few days together as enjoyable as possible, but I feel like I am so off my normal routine that it makes things worse.  A part of me is anxious for him to leave just to get into a routine again!  But it keeps becoming more and more real that he IS really doing this and HOW long he will be gone!  When I really take a moment to think about it, it's like a 50lb weight is on my chest.  Or my shoulders.

When I try to talk to people close to me about this, it's the worst feeling in the world when they have a "you knew what you were signing up for" attitude.  But please someone explain to me why that is supposed to make this any easier?  Explain to me why I am supposed to be okay with half of me being gone for over half a year? Just because we signed up for it to better our lives?  I thought the people treating me like my husband was dying was horrible until this whole attitude started.  I am not asking for anyone to feel sorry for me or to take pity on me, but at least try to be understanding! When I really need help, please be there as best as you can be if you can at all.  But don't tell me you are going to help me and be there for me and the kids and then be nowhere to be found when I truly need someone...  Okay now that this vent is over...  I will admit I do have some pretty amazing friends and family, but I won't lie, I've already made a mental list of who I won't count on so much because of past experiences ;)

But now that I have vented and the Hubster lazily sleeps on the couch, I think I am going to go bake :)

Have a fantabulous day :)

It's days like today (and yesterday) that I dread

(This is from Yesterday: January 28, 2013, saved it as a draft and forgot to finish it)"
I knew from the moment we signed up for military life that the Hubster being gone was going to bring days of sadness, loneliness, frustrations, and so much more.  He hasn't even left yet and today I just feel sad.  I was able to bury the sadness most of the day, until I got an email from the oldest ducklings teacher.  We know he has anxiety problems, and obsessive compulsive behaviors, and all of that affects his sleep.  He doesn't sleep well at night and he has night terrors often.  It's heart breaking to think that he's struggles with so much, and the closer it gets to his dad leaving the worse it gets.  He was recently put on medication to help him fall asleep at night and so far he's done well on it. I'm pretty much anti-medication for children, in the sense I like to try everything "natural" first, like diet change, calming remedies, etc... but it has gotten to the point of really needing something for him.  It is making the Hubster feel very guilty for leaving, and it's making the household more tense. 

Today: January 29, 2013:
Finishing where I left off yesterday, I think we are all officially set for the Hubster to leave.  Our POA is done, utilities/car insurance/etc. are ready to go, everything from his list is bought and packed, and we had our big blow-out fight this morning.... I think we are ready to go. Everything is better now, but this morning was not good. Not good at all :(  I have tried my best to keep things as stress-free before the Hubster leaves, but this morning it unraveled.  Hopefully that is all done and out of the way.  

Valentine's Day early... and a "remember why" basket

It's getting closer and closer to saying farewell...

We've got our power of attorney in order, our checking is all set up, utilities are ready to go, and he's done working.  Tonight we are celebrating an early Valentine's Day and I am very excited for it! The boy ducklings are going by their grandma's and after the girly duckling goes to bed, I am cooking us a nice homemade chicken alfredo dinner and we are going to curl up with a bottle of wine!

Normally we do a lot of romantic things for Valentine's Day, we never really buy gifts for each other, we feel they are overrated, buying gifts for each other doesn't keep our love and passion for each other strong.  But we will buy something if we know it has true meaning to the other.  Instead we try to DO something romantic.  I will admit, I am usually the one who comes up with the more "fun" non-traditional ideas.  For example, the Hubster idea of romance include: taking me to our local football field and "touring" the area and then giving me a superbowl jersey signed by my favorite player... or leaving hershey kisses in a trail leading to the bedroom with roses and candles all over... so not bad stuff, just more traditional or expected ideas.

My ideas can be "traditional" but I always try to put a fun spin with sentimental meaning to it.  Our first sweetest day together he had to work, which it was only Sweetest Day, so I was not too concerned about it.  Instead I decided to go to his place of work, break into his car and fill it with streamers, balloons, a HUGE stuffed dog and a card.  I was nervous that he would find it too lovey-dovey, but he loved it and took pictures so he could show his mom.  So that same year for Valentine's Day we went to a small Italian restaurant that his parent's friends own, and it was the most romantic setting with dim light, Italian music, and candle lit dinners.  He bought me flowers and then took me back to our place where he had the Hershey kisses example above waiting.  Well to lead into my story, after a few years of being married and having ducklings, I wanted to rekindle our romance.  I decided a scavenger hunt would be fun, but I had to figure out how to do it, where to lead him, and where to end.  I decided to use the GPS, roses, and the Italian Restaurant from our first Valentine's Day.  He thought I had to work that night so he was not expecting much.  I put 6 locations in the GPS and labeled them clues 1-6.  I left a rose at 4 different locations: his sisters house (she was the reason we met and he was dropping the kids off there); the place he kissed me for the first time (my parent's front step); the place he proposed; and the place we were married.  On each clue I wrote about what that moment or place meant to me.  The last clue led him to the Italian restaurant where it made him believe he was just picking up dinner to bring home and I put our home address as clue 6 in the GPS to make him believe it more.  The catch was, I didn't have to work and I was there waiting at the restaurant for him.  The smile on his face when he walked in and saw me was heart melting and priceless.  We enjoyed a very romantic dinner and went home and had a very romantic evening together.  He said that was the best Valentine's Day he could ever imagine.  It's those moments that keep our love alive and remind us how much we mean to each other.  If we just went to dinner and bought each other something like jewelry or tools, it shows nothing IMO other than be able to buy each other something.  Instead we are reminded exactly why we fell in love with each other.

Tonight, since we are celebrating early, and he knows the plans, but I have thrown in a small surprise.  Army life can be hard.  It's scary to think that his duties are going to come above the family, that he can be called out at anytime and he has to go, no matter if it's our anniversary, birthdays, Valentine's day, etc. I know it can put a strain on many marriages, so tonight after we eat, I am going to have us curl up in the living room with a bottle of wine and we are going to put together a "remember why" basket.  It will entail letters we write to each other of exactly why we love each other, some of our most favorite memories, cherished memories, and it will include a bottle of wine.  If we ever feel things are getting too hard, we will pull out our "remember why" basket and spend an evening doing exactly what we are going to do tonight, but we will read our letters instead of write them. 

In 6 1/2 years, if there is one thing I have learned, it's that marriage takes a lot of hard work, and whether we want to accept it or not, so does love.  We have to work hard to stay in love with each other.  I had a very hard time accepting that, I felt being in love with each other shouldn't take hard work, but after fighting to save our marriage around year 3, I have learned how much romance needs to be a part of our lives, with kids or without.  We need to work to remind each other no matter how hard love is, we are still in love with each other.  It became even more real after I watched my mom lose my dad, the love of her life.  It made me appreciate what I still have and made me think of what life would be like with him gone.  It really made me realize how much I want to fight to keep that love, my love, my best friend.

I know we will get through our time apart and hard times to come, and we will have our "remember why" basket just in case we ever start to forget.

So enjoy your love, no matter how hard it seems.  Put pride aside and think about how much that love means to you and how hard you are willing to fight for it.  Happy early Valentine's Day ;)

Busy Bee!

We had a very lazy morning! We are watching our niece who is almost 2 and she is a wild one, in a good sense, but between her and our littlest duckling, we have been on our toes.  I finally got motivated and now I just bleached the heck out of the boy ducklings bathroom!  It's the only thing I don't like about having boys, they pee all over, and sometimes on purpose. . .   Like my almost 5 year old who thinks it's okay to try and kill flies with a stream of urine (o.0) That's mah boy...

My next project is our front closet/utility closet.  Then it's on to the kitchen.  I am thinking Chicken Alfredo for dinner and then I want to make some homemade cinnamon rolls for tomorrow since the ducklings don't have school (records day), oh and also because it's supposed to be -8 with windchill tomorrow :-(  Not a big fan of the cold here!

I will try and post both recipes.  I admit the Hubster laughs at me when he sees me taking pictures of all my foodies as I cook them.  He's such a putz, which is why I fell in love with him! He also only has 3 days left of work and then he's off until he ships out.  Sigh.... I am trying not to think about it.  It's such conflicting emotions to think I am sad about him leaving, but yet I am anxious for him to leave because the sooner he does, the sooner this all done and over with and we can move onto the next phase of our lives... Alright, well I am going to get back to cleaning, just thought I'd check in.

Banana egg pancakes

Having a lactose intolerant child can be frustrating sometimes. I am currently drafting an entire post on it that I will turn into its own page about lactose free recipes and snack ideas. I always feel frustrated when I find lists of toddler snack ideas and half of them she cannot eat because of dairy. Milk and ice cream are her worst, but cheese and butter affect her too. I haven't tried sour cream or yogurt, but when I was nursing they didn't seem to have much of an effect on her, but neither did me eating cheese, but her eating cheese is a different story, but if I even took a drink of milk, she'd be screaming all night.

We generally substitute goats milk for her and I cook with rice milk also. The issue is how expensive goats milk is. Right now I pay $3.98 a quart, so it adds up quickly.

I found this pancake recipe on Pinterest and she loves them! We love pancakes but I prefer them made with milk and it got costly making them with goats milk. So I made these for her and they were a big hit!!

Ingredients:
1 banana
2 eggs

That's it! Mush the banana and beat in the eggs! Fry in a pan!

Enjoy!

Shopping is done! And I was under budget!

It feels good to have food in the house again! And I am exhausted to say the least. I took the littlest duckling to the doctor, she unfortunately has an ear infection :( but afterwards we went picked middle duckling up from school and hit the stores.

I always go to Walmart first. 1. Because their prices are usually a little cheaper and 2. They price match! I spent the most money there, but got most of my groceries there! I don't buy meats there because I cannot help walking past the chicken and singing "chickity china the Chinese chicken, you eat a drum stick and your brain stops tickin'" lol I don't know why their meats bug me so much but they do. I also picked up a few things I forgot to put on the list and that always worries me because of going over budget. But today I actually stayed under budget ($170) by.... $10 dollars!! Whoop whoop! It always excites me when I pick up a few extras and still end up under budget!!!

We then hit up Pick n Save. I only bought stuff I had coupons for and they had on sale for less than what I can get at Walmart. I spent 48.06 at Pick n Save and 110.56 at Walmart! I saved 16.94 at Pick n Save.

As you will notice in the picture below, much of my stuff is generic brand, and I take no shame in that. I use to hate buying generic but I learned to doctor it up and deal with it. When you save .20 on 5 things, that's a dollar saved and if you keep doing that, it adds up.

So this is how I do it, my shopping trip prep that is. I go through all of my cupboard, my fridge, and my freezer the day before.  I take stock of what we have, get rid of anything expired, and take note of what is about to expire.  I then go through the grocery store ads and figure out what is on sale and make a shopping list from there.  On my list I write the items needed on the left side of the paper and then I make two columns on the right.  One is for MY estimate of what that product will cost and the other is for writing in the actual cost while at the store.  Yes, I am one of those ladies who is in the store with a binder, my list, and a pen in my hand, and I manage to do it with children with me ;)  But I enjoy it and it saves us money :)  By writing down what *I* think the price may be, I can see how close I am to our budget, and I ALWAYS try to estimate up because I would rather be under my budget than over! By writing out the actual cost, I can better plan for the next trip when I need the same product!


So here is my loot and for $160 I think I did fairly well, especially picking up quite a few extras that were not on the list.  It should feed my family of 5 for 10 days, and then some, but I have two boy ducklings in a growth spurt, so we'll see ;)

Happy Birthday Papa Bear

I know I was excited about my grocery shop in the last post, but I woke up this morning noticing the date right away and I have a bittersweet sadness hanging over me today.  Today would have been my daddy's birthday.  He's been gone for almost 3 years now and I can't say the pain has gotten better, it's just more tolerable.  He was the best dad a girl could ask for and he was a great husband to my mom.  We miss him everyday and I hope he is celebrating up in Heaven today, because he sure is loved <3




This picture is from either my freshman or sophomore year high school homecoming :)



RIP Daddy.

Frugal shopping day!

Today is my most favorite day: grocery shopping day! I budget about a $300 grocery budget for the five of us. I like to shop every 10 days, so I make about 3 grocery trips every 10 days, meaning I spend about $100 each time. With the Holidays everything was thrown out of our loop, so we are a pretty empty nest when it comes to food.  So today I will get back on track.  Because our budget was a little off over the holidays and because we went through so much of our stocked food, I have budgeted about $170 for today's trip. So I will be buying 7 days worth of home-cooked meals, 2 nights are planned out to be left over nights --They are not my favorite, but I dislike, I mean HIGHLY dislike wasting food-- and also a "whatever" night where we might just make sandwiches or use up random ingredients in the house, or even better, breakfast for dinner on those lazy nights I don't feel like cooking.

I was actually kind of shocked talking to a different recruiter at our local recruiting station because he feeds a family of 3 spending almost $700 a month! He was just as shocked when I told him I feed a family of 5 at $300 a month!  He asked me how I do it.  To me it's simple: 1. home cooked meals generally cost less then boxed meals; 2. we do not spend an abundant amount of money on pre-packaged snacks (They will bring your grocery bill up REAL fast!!) and 3. I enjoy the challenge of finding the best deals and figuring out ways to lower our grocery bill every month.  I always--usually-- grocery shop on Thursday because our ads come in the mail on Wednesdays.  Sometimes I have to wait until Friday or Saturday depending on when our 10 days are up, but I ALWAYS like to go through the ads first. 

I also make out a 7 day menu.  Normally I go through our food stock to see what I have available already and what needs stocking.  I then plan my meals around that.  I should add right away that right now we are spoiled when it comes to beef and pork.  My mom and her boyfriend bought part of a cow and have a lot of ground beef, roasts, etc. in stock to share with their kids.  My brother also decided he'd raise a pig and gave my mom and I each a quarter for mothers day last year (although we didn't get it until like September ;) ) but it has lifted a lot off of our grocery bill as for buying meats.  This has allowed me to spoil the duckling a little more with pre-packaged snacks for school.  They get upset with me because I have snacks for them that are strictly for school and snacks that are for at home, which usually consists of fruit ;)

Anyways, here is our 7 day menu for this week:
-Cheesy potato casserole with ham
-Tacos/Chimichangas
-Roast - with mashed potatoes and corn
-chicken enchiladas
-Chicken Alfredo --homemade sauce--
-ranch chicken lasagna
-sloppy joes --homemade sauce--

So that is what our menu looks like.  Many of those will provide an abundance of leftovers!! I also only buy enough to feed our family.  This took some getting used to for me because I was so used to buying sooo much food, that we would have enough left overs from one meal to last us another 4-5 days!  At one point we were throwing away a lot of food and it made me sick! I hate throwing away food! --maybe a little bit of a Christian Grey thing going on here ;) -- But I have learned to proportion our meals to feed us, and maybe give us one day of left overs! I will cook the meals that require food that goes bad quicker than others.  This weeks menu doesn't have a lot of vegetables in it, but I usually add them as sides anyways.

I enjoy doing this, and I used to grocery shop every month, just once a month.  I found we were wasting a lot of food that way and that I could bring our bill down more and not waste as much food by shopping every 10 days.  I stick to my list as best as possible, and I try to never go shopping hungry! That is the worst!  And that plays a lot into the B.E.D. too.  Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this and I feel like I am forgetting something, so if I remember, I will come back and edit it.  Look for the update later today to see how my shopping excursion went!

Sassy puppy's....

...They are my favorite ;)

My poor sassy puppy decided he wanted to go for a run this morning... Except he wanted to do it by himself without a leash... After a little over an hour in 20 degree temps he decided to come home... Shivering. Now mama covered him and is giving him some love now that he's out of timeout!

My dog really is like one of my ducklings. The Hubster said he is absolutely NOT allowed to sleep in our bed while he's gone, but I think I'll be sleeping on the couch more than anything :) so the pup can sleep with me there :)

I did learn a good lesson when I got this dog. No matter how strong you are, there will come a point when you take your child to the humane society for a monthly visit and leave with an animal. Middle duckling and I went to play with some of the dogs and kitty's and never before did I feel the urge to bring an animal home like I did with our puppy. He was 10 weeks old and he was amazing with middle duckling. He gave him kisses, he would just sit on his lap and lick his fingers, he let duckling poke and pull and explore him and did nothing but kiss him and sit on him or right at his side. I had tears in my eyes and before I could realize what was coming out of my mouth I said "we'll take him!" The lady just looked at me and went to get a counselor to get the process started. Needless to say, we left with a puppy. An hour later the Hubster came home from work and I was scared to death of what he'd say, and although he was mad to say the least, by the end of the night he was in love with him too. The pup has had his moments of trying us to the point of almost getting rid of him (chewing through the side of his crate and taring the side of our bed apart!) but we love him and went and got him a metal crate, lol. He's 10.5 months old right now and other than his car anxiety he's a great dog.

He also reminded us exactly how poisonous raisins are to dogs... I came home last week to the vomit massacre of 2013 and realized he'd eaten the baby ducklings raisins for her that morning, but now he's well and happy again!

So remember, raisins and grapes are toxic to dogs, if you're going to keep visiting the humane society to please your child--you're not always as strong as you think lol, and finally remember if you adopt a pet, you are a forever home, not just a home until they're naughty enough or you get bored with it.

And if you or your spouse are enlisting or already enlisted, remember to check out laws about what areas (FDS and PCS) don't allow aggressive breeds. It sucks, but most bases won't let any breed considered aggressive to live on base :( and some cities have ordinances against them.

In case you're wondering our pup is a lab/hound mix. He's a howler :)

Event Planning!

So after spending a crap load of money to get my business degree and study event planning, I am finally putting it to good use... I am planning events again!  Okay, so they are all personal events to me, ones that I am personally apart of, but I love event planning and I can use them to start building a portfolio.

This year I have a baby shower, wedding shower, and bachelorette party to plan.  Also, helping with any wedding plans my best friend wants me to since I am her Matron of Honor! I am thinking I will be kept fairly busy this year while the Hubster is gone!

I have always loved planning events and throwing parties.  As soon as someone says "a _____ shower, or a wedding, or a birthday party"  my mind starts running wild of so many different ideas!  I love making people happy and impressing people, but that is exactly why I haven't pursued my own business or even working for some else yet... I love it so much, that when they don't like it, it crashes through my heart and I feel like I let the whole world down.... again, a bit dramatic, but I take it very personally knowing I put my most creative, heart-felt effort into planning the event.  But for now I will sit back and be super excited about the events I have to plan this year :)

This past summer I decided to go ALL out on the princess ducklings first birthday this past September.  She is my last baby and the last first birthday I will have for one of my ducklings, so we did a milk and cookies party.  For putting it together on short notice and on a very tight budget, I think it turned okay... I was pleasantly surprised how everything turned out.  Her party was a Sunday and I spent 12 hours in the kitchen the day before baking EVERYTHING!  I then gave up and just ordered sub sandwich platters from Cousin's Subs and put those out as the "entree" with chips.  They went over GREAT!  I was pleased! So here are some pictures from our Milk and Cookies First Birthday party!

This is what we got set up the night before. My neighbor stayed up and helped me until after midnight, and we got the table set up!


Here we were starting to get the table all put together. We had 5 different flavors of cookies, whoopie pies, funfetti cupcakes, chocolate cupcakes with cookie dough in the middle and cookie dough frosting (amazing!), redvines, pixie cups full of blueberries and strawberries, take home bags, the tub with ice for the milk, and mini milk jugs for milk.! Oh and the sugar cookies with fondant "S".




Also, the cupcake stand was destroyed by a naughty puppy, so we just put them out on the table, but it worked well



Here is the final outcome of the dessert table:


I don't have one of the table with the sandwiches and strawberry lemonade, but it all went over so well! Everyone loved it, and everyone loved taking home cookies. All of the print outs and labels I got from HERE

And the straws, cupcake papers, and sticks for the chocolate dipped oreos, and to go bags came from: HERE

The mini milk jugs, I just got people to drink a whole lot of starbucks store coffees, and the cookie jars were cheap at walmart, resale shops, and the drink tub is from target!

Getting ready for the long distance relationship...

Well, it's officially getting closer until we say "see you later"... and I am getting more and more anxious every day! We've been trying to get everything done, from switching to a national banks-to our POA (power of attorney).  Next week Wednesday is the Hubsters last day of work and then he's off until he leaves... I am going to miss him so much!  But there is still so much to do!

I am hoping to have our taxes filed before he leaves, but if not that is okay, we'll have it covered with the POA.

I need to get him the items required on the army packing list for basic.  Then I am also sending along a few toiletries, some envelopes, address labels, pens, and paper.  I want to make sure he can write whenever he gets a chance!

We will meet with his recruiter in two weeks to write up our POA so right now we are just making sure we have everything listed that we want to include in it.

I know there are a few other things, but I cannot think of them right now.  We are also going to be doing things like going out to dinner with family and spending as much time together as we possible can.  I have some fun things planned for us.  I have also been trying to plan out two trips, one with his family to Florida, and the other to see him graduate from BCT.  The boy ducklings will be missing a fair amount of school, but oh well, such is life.  We will go to Florida for two weeks in March/April with my in-laws and I figure it will help them keep their minds of daddy being gone.  The Hubster is disappointed he'll be missing out, but he's excited for us to go.  They'll only be missing a week of school for the two weeks we're in Florida, thanks to Spring break!

So that is where we are at.  There is a lot going on in the next 7 months and I am just trying to wrap my head around it all.  It's pretty sad when I find myself getting jealous of women whose husbands are about to graduate BCT, and mine hasn't even left yet.  oh well.  I will survive this and all will be well.

M.I.A. and Sh*t's getting real...

Sorry I've been M.I.A. we've had an intestinal thing come through the house and luckily the littlest duckling and I have been the only ones to be infected, but I'm sure the other two ducklings will have their share soon enough :(

Hubster ships out for training eventually.   The past two days the ball has been rolling and my nerves are growing more and more... Sh*t's gettin' real.  I received my first email from FS (Family Services) and joined an online forum for new Army Wives and it's seems pretty cool, but it's all so nerve racking.  This whole process has been.  I am confident in our insurance choice though, and I am feeling more confident in moving, etc. when our move date comes.  I have also been looking into hotels, etc. for his BCT graduation.  I need to figure out who is all coming with me. . . Hubster wants me to bring the ducklings... which is okay, it's just going to be hectic.

We meet with the recruiter in a week and half to write of a POA (power of attorney) and we also need to change our banks over to a more national chain...  It really does feel like sh*t is gettin' real....