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The Story of an Impulse Buy
MMmmmm… I went grocery shopping today. I was being so good. I made a list. I dug through coupons. I ate lunch. (I have an AFRTS* commercial permanently stuck in my head from high school about not shopping when you are hungry.) As I strolled the aisles of the store I came to a sudden halt. I could NOT pass up the Pillsbury Mini-Graham Cracker Crusts. /Total Impulse Buy/ Cupcake-sized graham cracker crusts calling my name. Telling me to fill them with homemade pudding. Add a dollop of cool-whip. Put some fall-themed sprinkles on them. It all played out before me in the aisle of the grocery store with a cart already…
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The Land of Fire and Ice Disrupts Air Traffic – DoD Roundtable
We were stationed in Iceland, the Land of Fire and Ice, for almost three years and saw the island at its best and worst at times. It was windy, cold, dark in the winter, required handrails on sidewalks due to ice and wind but it was a great tour! The people were helpful, liked Americans and treated us well. The land was always exciting with new adventures to see such as waterfalls, geysers, hot water lakes (such as the Blue Lagoon), beautiful geothermal heated swimming pools and much more! We visited Vestmannaeyjar (the home of Free Willy fame) and the ground was so hot in places the locals claimed they…
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Iceland Land of Ice and Fire and Fantastic Memories
This morning as I scrolled through new facebook updates, I saw that a friend had joined a group of which we were once part. I began to scroll through my own memory to recall other groups that really stand out in the fun factor of life. Fun factor could also mean… a stretching experience. Living in a land of light and dark did play games on the psyche. And when the game got tough, friends stood side by side checking to see that our folks were winning and not the elements! It was a long 3 year game, but within those 3 years we made friends that are exemplary of…
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Fridays are just Fine for Fish
Spicy and zippy dishes welcome the weekend! I am still thinking about having fish tonight and going through some of my multiple starred recipes. This Creole Fillet recipe came from a 56th ARS Squadron collection of recipes. We were in Iceland where Ysa, or cod was fresh and abundant. I have used haddock and even red snapper for this dish too.Creole FilletsServes 41 lb fresh solid fish1/2 c chopped fine onions1/2 c chipped bell pepper (red or green)1 clove garlic, minced1/4 c margarine or olive oil1 1lb can tomatoes, cut up1 T dried parsley1 chicken bouillon cube1/2 t Franks hot sauce1 T cornstarch or flour1 T cold waterHot Rice Thaw…
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(nearly) Worldess Wednesday: Sites of the Season
I have enjoyed the Christmas Season from Panama to Iceland and States all over the country. Each with it’s own unique ‘nitch’ on the month of December. (After all I can’t wear a sundress on Christmas in New York yet very comfortably did it in Panama. Snow skiing in Florida is out of the question but the mountains of Colorado & New Mexico were quite enjoyable. And we won’t even talk about the very dark December that Iceland entailed.) These are images of my Christmas season last year. You know what is even better about this year’s Christmas Season? HUBS IS HOME! Ah life is good! I hope you are…
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Finding the Positive in Goodbye
As a Military-Brat I know the pain that can be found in saying ‘goodbye’, whether a PCS on my family’s part or a friend’s family moving away. The tears, the fear of the future, the feeling of losing friends for forever. There was nothing easy about it but I do believe it influenced who I am, for the better. In 1984 my family PCSed from Lubbock, Texas (since closed Reese AFB) to Scott AFB, Illinois. I had my first real best-friend in Lubbock & it was my first real ‘goodbye’. We stayed pen-pals (this was before the world of email) for quite some time afterwards but at some point, many…
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Military Family Life Question of the week: What has your favorite assignment been and why?
We all have stories being military families… stories of places we LOVED living, stories of places we weren’t so fond of. Perhaps the dust-storms in Texas just aren’t your thing or perhaps you could have done without the humidity of South Carolina. Maybe you couldn’t get enough of the history of Charleston or the free museums and cherry-blossoms in DC. This is the life of the military. It’s more than an adventure, it is life-changing! You get to see the sites, opportunities to do things you wouldn’t have had you stayed & lived in your hometown. You have expanded your world beyond borders. My favorite place was Keflavik NAS, Iceland…
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Great Travel Weekend in the Great Lakes
Planning to travel? Need a reunion getaway after a long deployment? We recently had the opportunity to travel to Petoskey, Michigan for an extended weekend getaway for an anniversary (can barely count the number on both of our toes and hands)! What a great time and we saw some new parts of the world we had never seen before! We have lived overseas in Central America and Iceland and visited South America, the Caribbean and Europe. We have also lived in numerous US states from the Puget Sound of Washington to the Low Country of South Carolina. After retiring from the Air Force we relocated to Michigan to be near…
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Fish for your Health
The Internet articles are praising the value of fish: brain food, heart healthy mainstay and a great Omega 3 source. I love it that fish is good for you, as I love fish. Have always loved it, and have a storehouse of recipes to flip through each month while I make up the monthly chart of ‘marvelous meals’. I started this monthly chart when the kids were little and they started arguing over who was going to pick what we had for dinner. Cut out that opportunity for a brawl as soon as I could! Their dinner inputs were always welcome and sought after as I wrote up the menu…
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What Fun!
As a military family we found ourselves in many different parts of the world! Adapting to the environment we were in was always a challenge we took on with an almost eager glee! What can we do here that we couldn’t in the last place? We went “spranging” in Iceland, rode the transcontinental railroad in Panama and went to a secluded beach after a walk through the jungle, snow skied in New Mexico, hiked Mt Rainier in Washington, rode the surf in Florida, built an igloo in Illinois during a major blizzard and a host of other family events that were just fun and helped us enjoy the transitions in…
