Family Christmas Party

Spending time with family is always the best part of Christmas. I was lucky enough to get time off from work to be able to come home for the holidays. Yesterday was the Kent family Christmas party. It was chaotic but still tons of fun. We first went caroling to a few families near the house. After that we all got together to eat and do a gift exchange. It was tons of fun. I got a few good pictures, but it was easier to just enjoy myself. But I'll share what I got.

These first ones are what I got of everyone getting ready to go caroling.

 This is McKinley (I'm not sure that's how you spell her name). She's a little ball of energy and is always entertaining to watch.

 Riley, he's cute and sweet and fun to play with.

 This is Ella. She's actually a very happy baby, but she wasn't liking my camera. I couldn't get her to smile long enough to take a picture.

Almost everyone. It's almost impossible to get everyone into one picture anymore because it's grown so much.

The rest of these are after caroling. I didn't get any of the actual caroling or the five vehicles it took to get us all around. Oh well... 

 I was only in picture, but I figured I should share it, cause I hardly am in my blog. This is me and my brother Andrew. He likes to cuddle. 

 McKinley again, almost every time I took out my camera she wanted a picture.

Hudson was another one to always want his picture taken when I brought my camera out.

 Travis and Cara, his wife, enjoying their meal.

 All the kids eating at the table, along with my mom and Allen, her new husband.

 Alicia, Andrew's wife. She's expecting a new little girl in the next few months.

 Travis and Dillan (also not sure if I spelled his name right either), his baby boy. He's super cute!

 Grandma Kent, still alive and kicking! She didn't realize I was taking a picture and was about to say something.

 Rick, my brother, not really posing, but kind of posing for a picture.

 One of the gifts came in a big box and of course all the young kids flocked to it and wanted to play in it. I just had to get a picture. The kids from left to right are Cynthia (once again with the spelling), McKinley, Saylor, (below her is Nick) then Ella, Riley, and finally Dillan.

 After all the presents were open and the party was beginning to wind down. I was once again trying to get everyone in the picture, and once again failing.

Troy, my brother, always good for some sort of crazy face to make you smile. 

I'm excited to be home for Christmas. The only thing that would make this better was if Ricky was here with me. I miss you and love you Ricky!

Christmas tree

This year I wont be home, in Texas, for Christmas. I'm going home to Idaho to be with family. But even though I wont be here I still wanted to put up a Christmas tree, to help me get in the Christmas spirit, since it isn't snowing here, or even coming close to being cold enough to snow here.

I know that it looks kind of goofy from this picture, but I was playing around with my editing stuff, and well, I like it. I still feel like we could use more ornaments, but those will come with the years. 

Things and happenings...

So life has finally gotten back to semi-normal. It's still crazy as ever but I no longer feel stressed out about it. 

I had a pretty good Thanksgiving. I spent it with some friends and their family. Unfortunately I forgot my camera so I didn't get any pictures. I also made it through Black Friday. Surprisingly it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. Sure it was constantly busy but I did miss the 2:30 am rush. I was one of the lucky ones chosen to come from 5am - 5pm. But 12 hour shifts still makes for a long day. Luckily I didn't have to be on the registers the whole time either! That really helped. (I don't like being on registers but I'm just so good at it, they can't really keep me off them.)

Anyways I'm still trying to recover from Black Friday, since I haven't had a day off yet, but one is coming, just not fast enough.

In other news, Ricky is doing really good. He's missing home and family, especially with the holidays coming. He is still working hard and has gotten Airman of his squadron and Airman of the month. And because he got those he has been put into a group that they will choose Airman for the base! He's excited and is hoping that he gets it. I am too.

In completely random news, I got a letter from Santa saying that since Ricky and I don't have kids we have to buy our own Christmas presents this year but still say they are from him. It's kind of lame, but I got the list and I know what we're getting for Christmas! I've even been able to get most of it already. I actually only have a few more things to get. :)

Sorry for no pictures, but they will come. I promise. 

Oh one more thing... 22 more days till I get to go home!!!!

Parvo, not fun

This last week has been crazy. I know I probably say that every time I blog, but they all seem to be so crazy, and hectic and stressful. This last week was especially so because Chester, my puppy, got the parvovirus. For those who don't know what that is, it is basically a flu virus that usually only affects young puppies and can really harm, or even kill them (usually from dehydration or secondary infection). Like only 20% of dogs actually make it through this disease. I had to call in to work and get the week off because I couldn't afford the $700 plus it would have taken to get Chester admitted into the vet's care. I barely had enough money to get his medications. Luckily I have some friends here on base that had just gone through this with their 3 puppies, so they were able to help me know what to do and actually gave me some supplies that I didn't get, that turned out to be the saving grace from me and Chester.

Chester at the vet. He was just starting to come down with parvo. 

This was what I got from the vet, well most of it is from the vet. the pepto I bought. This is what is left over, I had another syringe and some pedia lite that I had to inject into Chester in order to keep him hydrated. I wont go into more detail about that just know I had to do it every 1-2 hours throughout this week (and no I didn't get alot of sleep). 

 Chester from earlier this week. He actually doesn't look to bad. I didn't get any pictures of when He was really down, but just know that he looked 10 times worse then this.

 This was taken yesterday I think. He was finally starting to feel better, but I think you can see that he lost a lot of weight.

 Today, He's finally eating and drinking on his own! 

 You can kind of see just how skinny he looks now, but in all honesty he's not that bad. Now I just need to get some more fat on him.

 So this week with all the stress and time off I had, I decided to escape reality by reading the series that I bought earlier this year. I really liked theses books. So much so that I am actually finished with all of them. :)

 Finally, I just wanted to show off a bit and say that I got my Christmas/Birthday present early this year. I'm really excited to start using it. No more fuzzy pictures from my phone.

I am really glad to have made it through this last week, and still be sane! It was so stressful dealing with sick things, but I did get a small insight into how to deal with sick children. Surprisingly I still want kids.

Now I just have to make it through black Friday, and I'll be golden! Life should get alot less crazy after that. I hope...

It's done!

So I finished that project today! I'm pretty excited about how well it went.

I was going to blog about each different stage, but I finished it too fast to really want to do that. So I'll just show all the stages now.

 This was after I got every thing cut out and sanded. 

 This is after I finished painting them. (the black blob in the corner is chester trying to get in the picture)

And the finally, on the wall and everything. The picture makes them look a little crooked but they're not. So what do you all think? Was it worth my time? I enjoyed doing it. Plus it kept me busy for 3-4 days. 

Speaking of time passing I can't believe it's almost been a month since Ricky left. (it will be 4 weeks on Wednesday) I feel like it's been longer but then again I'm not keeping track of days very well so it also feels like he left a week or two ago. Crazy crazy... 

Well now I need to find something else to occupy my time. Any suggestions are welcome, especially if they are cheap, I'm trying to save money.

Deployment dilemma and new projects

So Ricky's computer died. Usually this wouldn't be a problem, but his charger is broken so he's unable to charge his computer. That means that we cant talk on skype till I get the new one to him. I wont be able to send it out till tomorrow so that means in about 2-3 weeks we can start talking regularly again. For now we're using our phones to communicate but that is going to get expensive. Other then that the deployment is going really well. I'm doing great. I've been super busy with work and friends and everything. I had a 12 hour shift yesterday (not something I want to do again anytime soon) and I've been out with friends most every day this week. Ricky is doing great. He's being his usual wonderful self and getting complimented for. He's fixing planes by himself and even helping other shops and feels so accomplished all the time. 

So in attempt to make sure most every minute of every day is filled I've taken on another project, with more to come but I'll be doing one at a time so that I might actually finish everything that I want to.

This is what I'm working on now.

I know it looks like a board with lines on it but eventually it's going to be an awesome decor for my house. I can't wait till it's done!

Week 2

I'm sure most everyone who reads this already knows that Ricky is gone. He has been gone for exactly 13 days, not that I'm counting or anything. :) I was told that an average 4 month deployment lasts about 120 days, but I was also told to expect delays and other such happenings that might cause his returning date to come later, so I'm going for about 140 days which is 20 weeks. I can count weeks better then days, cause there's not as many and I'm really trying not to keep track of days so that I don't get caught up waiting for Ricky. I still want to live my life with out completely loosing my mind while he's gone. Sorry I'm rambling, I'll get down to business.

For anyone who doesn't have it already, Rick got his address and all letters and packages should be sent to

Richard Farnsworth

386 EMXG

APO AE 09855

Also note that only the US postal service will ship over there and it can take up to 3 weeks to get there, so they suggest no fresh food. They also said no porn or alcohol, but if you know us, you know we wouldn't ask for that stuff in the first place. 

So life with out Ricky has been tough. I'm not gonna lie, I don't like it. I miss him terribly and I've had to cry myself to sleep some nights. Mostly I try to not think about anything. I'm going for numb and out of it, and so far it's been working. *Just so no one gets over excited I'm making this my disclaimer. I'm trying to be funny. I'm fine I promise* I've also been trying to stay busy. I've been working a lot more. I am constantly having friends trying to get me to go out and do stuff with them, and sometimes I do, and sometimes I don't. It really just depends on how I feel. I'm kind of touch and go with my mood swings right now. But I am keeping busy with Mutual and Chester so I'll talk about those right now. 

For mutual a couple weeks ago we made these boards. (I apologize about the quality of picture, Ricky took our camera with him so I've resorted to using my phone till I get my Christmas present.)

I'm not sure what they're called but they were a pain to make but we had fun doing it.

Chester has been a monster since I started to potty train him, but I think we might have it down now.

 He's growing so much. In a few weeks I'll have to take him in to get his shots. That should be fun.

I also have been slowing rearranging my house and trying to decorate it more. This is the latest thing I've done.

 For those who don't understand I switched my bathrooms around so that the 2nd bathroom is what we call Ricky's bathroom and our bathroom in our bedroom is now mine. Ricky wanted duckies and I agreed as long as I could take it from him and make it the kids bath, as soon as we have kids. (And no I'm not pregnant, I'm just home alone and can do what ever I want)

 This is my bathroom. I decided that I wanted it back and that is why I switched the bathrooms around.

This last picture is on here because I'm starting to get really excited for Christmas, and I decided to get my family presents. *This is a disclaimer saying that I do not have the means to get everyone in my family presents (this means extended family) so I apologize if I got your hopes up, but I'm poor and am still working on getting the money to be able to come home for christmas. No hard feelings*

If any of you (my siblings) are reading this and are curious, yes everyone is getting the same thing, this was all of the wrapping that I've gotten done so far. If your wondering what it is well too bad. I'm not telling. You can find out on December the 25th!  Oh and Nikki thanks for the idea. :)

Well thats how life is going so far. I'll be sure let everyone know how Ricky is doing (right now he's fine, he's really enjoying being on the flight line there. He's finally feeling appreciated for what he's doing, and he feels like he's doing something really important, cause he is. I'm very proud of him.) and try to keep you updated about both of us as best I can. For now just know that I've got about 18 weeks till I see him again. I hope it goes fast.

Crazy, Crazy, Crazy!!!!

So life keeps getting crazier and crazier... 

You know how my car battery died a few weeks ago, well this last week or so the battery to Ricky's truck died. So we had the joy of trying to find a vehicle big enough to be able to start it. But we were able to get a new one and the truck is "running like a champ" as Ricky says.

 Our destructive dog just got to be too much so we had to get rid of her.

This is the corner that she dug out so that she could get to 2 of our neighbors yard.

This is the 2nd whole she dug when we blocked off the first whole.

This is the corner that she and the neighbor dogs have been chewing on to get to each other.

This is the other fence that she's been tearing the wood off to try to get to the neighbor's yard. 

So we got rid of her and got a new puppy. One that gets tired after playing for 20 minutes. 

We got a Great Dane!

His name is Chester.

I know your all jealous cause he is super cute and lots of fun. 

I also got a hair cut.

 What do y'all think? 

So I now know when Ricky is leaving, but that is classified information, so I can't tell you till after he's gone for safety reasons, and if I do I'd have to kill you. But the reason I'm telling you this is because I decided I needed a few more pictures of us together before he goes. So we got creative and went out and took some pictures of us!

 This is us in our back yard, you can see Chester trying to play with us.

 These next few were at fort phantom hill. We found it while we were getting lost trying to find the lake. It was really pretty there so we decided to get some pictures there.

 Me

 Ricky by the cannon.

 Us by a window in an old store house.

Us in the window on the other side. It was a cool window.

So y'all will have to tell us what you think of all of them. I would absolutely love some comments, especially if they are compliments.

What's been happening around here...

So life has been extraordinarily crazy! 

I'm going to start with my poor car.

First it started with a trip to Walmart one evening. My car decided that it wasn't going to start for some reason. Eventually it did so we were able to get home, and we thought that it was all fine and dandy until one morning a few days later my car wouldn't start again. We were pretty sure my car had completely died, but after calling the dealership, and doing some trouble shooting we found out that it was just a dead battery.

I was happy it only cost around $50.00 instead of $200.00 to fix what was wrong or worst case having to buy a whole new car.

The other thing that has happened was that  my car got backed into. As you can see it's not that bad, at least to me. Ricky on the other hand completely freaked out and got mad at me even though it wasn't my fault. So eventually we are going to get this fixed, eventually.

In other news, we (me, Ricky, a bunch of our friends and their children) went to the county fair here in Abilene. It wasn't that great but I haven't been to a fair in so long that I can't really remember what I really enjoyed about it.

We went on Military appreciation day so we didn't have to pay to get it. So it was worth it to hang out with some friends. Of course we did find out that the rodeo was the next day. Ricky was kind of bummed about that.

Also Ricky has been upgrading his 22. It looks a lot cooler to me now and it shoots more accurately now with the red dot sight. Ricky's really proud of it.

Also Ricky is getting all of his stuff ready for his deployment, which is coming up a whole lot faster then I want it to.

But with any luck it will go just as fast.