Staycation, Day 6: An A-MAZE-ING Day

A corn maze has been on my bucket list for as long as I’ve had the list but there was never anyone I wanted to get lost among the stalks with until now. Last fall season, Robert was away so I knew it would have to wait. Staycation day 6 seemed like a perfect fall day to mark the maze off the list.

Under a bright blue Carolina sky, we headed out to Ken’s Krazy Corn Maze in Garner. The primary objective of the corn maze is to find the 12 stations which are hidden among the twists and turns. Sounds simple, right? Yeah, it might be, if you had a map. But oh, yeah, they don’t give you that. You’re armed only with your keen sense of direction, your formidable powers of navigation, and a flag to wave if you find yourself hopelessly lost or just hopeless.

The good news is that we did not wave our flag. We also did not find all 12 stations.

It started out simple, until we took the first right turn. From there, we went down rabbit trails. We hit dead ends. We declared ourselves lost. We declared ourselves un-lost. We went in circles. We backed up and started again. We laughed. We went in more circles. We backtracked again. We laughed some more. And occasionally, we found a station and we cheered like we’d hit some sort of Mother Lode.

But as it is the journey and not the destination that matters, we had a great time laughing and getting lost and doing it together. And isn’t that what this staycation has been about all along?

Staycation, Day 5: What's for Lunch?

Perhaps the best part of a staycation is that there is absolutely nothing stopping you when someone says (at 9a.m.) “let’s have lunch… at the beach.”

We hopped on the bike and took a back road down to Wilmington where we enjoyed shrimp burgers and lemon pepper fries by the water.

Then we drove a little farther to the ocean and put our toes in the sand just long enough to take a fun photo (forgive the helmet hair; I haven’t quite mastered that yet!).

Heading home, we just enjoyed the scenic route of the open road.

Since Robert got home, I have been waiting for the moment that would finally, officially reset my internal compass from the off-kilter, perpetually anxious mindset that accompanies having a deployed husband to the steady, as-relaxed-as-any-military-wife-can-be mindset of “normal”, non-deployed life. Other military wives told me it would happen in time but in all honesty, I was starting to think that moment was lost on me. I’m thrilled to report that somewhere between the ocean and home, with the wind in my hair, the sun on my face, and my arms wrapped around my most favorite person in the entire world, I heard the distinct click of the direction arrows line up to relocate my true North. It was a beautiful sound, not one even the distinct rumble of a Harley engine could drown out. J

Staycation, Day 1 & 2: Walking Through History

On the heels of the 352 day deployment (not that I was counting days or anything!), Robert gets block leave, a chunk of vacation that’s supposed to give him time to catch up with family and work on that honey-do list that grew around the house while he was away.

Lucky for me, I have bosses that understand that even though I didn’t deploy, I needed the block leave too.  

We’d kicked around going somewhere tropical but the last thing Robert wanted was to get on yet another plane (can’t say I blame him there!) so we decided a staycation would be perfect. We’d stay home, go on a few little adventures, and just use the time to catch up. Our two weeks of fun began yesterday, at 4 a.m. because we have a puppy who doesn’t understand “sleeping in”. I suppose he was just helping us to make good use of our time. J

I needed new tires on the car and an oil change so we hopped in the car and took Chet on a visit to my parents’ house, out in the country where he could romp and play. Robert hadn’t seen my grandparents since our wedding so we swung by their house too; Gus  and Robert took a walk down history lane in my grandfather’s tobacco museum. As much as Gus loves telling those stories, Robert loved hearing them; it was like watching two kids in a candy store and a great way to start our staycation.

This morning we continued our walk down history lane with a trip to the Titanic exhibit at the Museum of Natural Science in downtown Raleigh. As soon as we stepped out of the car, the bottom fell out and by the time we got to the museum door, we were drenched! We laughed and decided that maybe it was fitting that we were soaking wet while we learned about the ill-fated “unsinkable” ship.

If you’re even the slightest bit interested in the RMS Titanic or history in general, this exhibit is a must see! Each ‘passenger’ is given a boarding pass that details an actual passenger on the ship. I was a second class passenger who was transferred to the Titanic after a coal strike caused my original voyage to be cancelled (wouldn’t that be just my luck!?!). Robert was a wealthy landowner who had actually medaled in fencing in the 1908 Olympics. At the end of the exhibit, we were pleased to learn that we were both listed in the survivors of that tragic night. I’ve always found the mysteries of the Titanic’s demise interesting, but having the personal details of actual passengers made it that much more so.

I’d say our staycation is off to a great start… stay tuned for what adventure we have in store for tomorrow. In the meantime, I hope your week has been something you’ll want to look back on when you’re walking down history lane. I hope it was something epic, something remarkable, something MORE.

Weekend Top 10

Without a doubt, some of my favorite blog posts are the Weekend Top 10 features. They are ways to quickly recap all of our adventures and when we look back on them months later, it feels like a speed skating roll down memory lane.

So, here we go… this weekend’s Top 10.

10- After a year’s hiatus, the grill finally made a comeback. Steak… it’s how Friday night should be.

9- When your puppy doesn’t understand that Saturday means sleeping in, you can get a lot done before the sun comes up.

8- Although working out at 5am isn’t fun, at least you get it over with early.

7- “This is the best lasagna I’ve ever eaten” is a pretty fantastic compliment. Feeling like Betty Crocker sure puts a girl in a good mood.

6- Did you know that college football hash marks are wider than NFL hash marks? If you’re ever on Jeopardy, you can thank me. J

5- After eating a week old brownie, I have a new appreciation for Robert always telling me they were still good when they got to the other side of the world. When your motto is “when you don’t know what to do, throw a brownie at it”, a little white lie is what a girl needs to hear to make her believe all’s quiet on the western front.

4- When you leave the puppy out in the house while you go to church, be prepared that he’ll probably “read” the paper and “thumb through” the coupons… all over the house… by the time you get home. (It’s a good darn thing he’s cute!)

3- Staying up until midnight is worth it when it means two weeks of vacation starts at 12:01.

2- Half a fence is better than no fence… and by this time tomorrow, a whole fence will make for two very happy puppy parents.

And the number 1 best part of the weekend was…

1-  that this place is once again filled with the sounds of football, the smell of fresh brewed coffee, and the love that makes a house a home.

And then there were three

Off and on for the last several months, Robert and I have been talking about expanding our family. And by expanding, I don’t mean my waistline. I’m talking about a four legged, floppy eared, wiggly tailed, bundle of fluff. Robert’s wanted a puppy for as long as I’ve known him but the deployment put those plans on hold. Or so I thought.

In April of this year, I got an email that Robert had found the perfect puppy. What?? You’re not coming home until September! I can’t raise a puppy from now until September by myself! Yep, that’s me- Little Miss Panic Attack.

The good news was that the world’s most perfect puppy hadn’t been born yet so I had time to research food, register for puppy class, puppy proof the house, and generally wrap my head around the idea of being a puppy parent. Isn’t it funny how quickly Little Miss Panic Attack can turn into Little Miss Masterplanner?

With the puppy plans settled, all we had left to decide on was the name. Robert chose the first name- Chet- and I convinced him to let me choose the middle. As a joke, I told him it should be Ercheze so that his full name would sound like Cheddar Cheese. Robert didn’t find that too funny but somehow it stuck and more days than not, our baby is referred to as “Chetter” or “The Cheese”.

Chet came to our home in July and despite a few growing pains and one chewed up cell phone charger, it’s been a fun couple of months.

I'm sure The Cheese will make regular appearances here; after all, he's a member of the family... our family of three.





The Boys of Fall

If you’ve known me for at least two minutes, you know that I love, love, love football. Well, I take that back. If you knew me in high school, you know I performed with the drill team for every football game but that I couldn’t tell a hash mark from a Hail Mary. We went to socialize, not watch the game, and I couldn’t even tell you the final score by the time I got home. But somewhere between high school and now, I actually started learning what was happening on the field and I fell in love with the game. I’m not an expert by any means but I know enough these days not to ask stupid questions when I’m in mixed company. I actually even impress myself sometimes (but not very often!)

I’m a supremely lucky gal because Robert loves football as much as I do. He’s a lot more vocal about it, mind you, but if there’s a game on, we’re pretty happy campers. If I could only get him to pull for my teams… but I know that’s a lost cause; he remarked Sunday that “there’s nothing like loyalty” so I guess we’ll just agree to disagree.

But the one thing we do agree on is that there’s not anything much better than a game on a perfect fall afternoon so we headed out on Saturday to watch the Carolina Tarheels host the Pirates from East Carolina University.

We couldn’t have asked for a better day. The weather was picture perfect- not a cloud in the sky but a moderate 75ish with a slight breeze. The seats were fantastic- 50 yard line, of course! The company was amazing as always; there’s nothing that isn’t fun when Robert’s around.

Carolina won but I guess some things never change; it occurs to me right now that after spending an entire afternoon actually watching the game, I still can’t tell you the final score. J

Sometimes Behind is Right in Front

When I decided to start this blog again, I said I'd put the deployment behind us and was ready to move full steam ahead toward the future. As it turns out, I was, as we like to say at our house, "less than right".

Yesterday, after Robert received a standing ovation from the congregation at church welcoming him home, I looked at the bulletin and noticed it was September 23. September 23? Last September 23, I was dropping him off to get on that plane bound for lands I never want to think about. I remember the foggy drive down to the base, the tearful goodbye, the miserable ride home, and the endless string of sleepless nights that followed. As I sat there, it dawned on me that deployment is not something you put behind you; it's one of those things that you carry with you always. It's not in your central line of vision but it's always there, blurry in the corner of your peripheral view. From time to time, it'll remind you that it's there, sort of like a sore muscle or that bruise you'd almost forgotten... until you touch it.  So I guess the memories associated with deployment and the year we spent apart will raise their little noggins from time to time; it's to be expected I suppose. I just hope that when they lift their little eyes to mine, I'll smile and be reminded to appreciate what I have and to not take any moment for granted. After all, it's soldiers like Robert who are protecting our liberties and our freedoms, those things we so often take for granted, that gave me those memories in the first place. Even though they aren't always pleasant little jaunts down memory lane, to honor him, I will honor them.

I know that the new memories created over the coming days will far outweigh the old memories of the past year. Case in point- we had a FANTASTIC weekend and I'll tell you all about it tomorrow...

In the meantime, I hope your weekend was worthy of a scrapbook page and that your week will be something special, something fantastic, something MORE.