Our New Year in iPhone Pictures

You know, I don't think I have ever been to an adult New Year's Eve gathering with more than 5 or 6 people.  A few years ago Rob and I rang in the new year with his mother in Florida, as we watched a Law and Order marathon and drank champagne.  This is how exciting we are.

But really, we aren't big party people, so this is for the best.

This year, like the last few, we spent the holiday at Rob's brother's house.  My sister-in-law and I are close so we always have fun drinking and playing games together (usually Apples to Apples).

This is what I wore!

When we first drove to their house we decided to eat at the China Din-ah, which contrary to what you are probably thinking is not a Chinese restaurant but just a restaurant located in a town called China.  For some reason I was feeling really nauseated--a problem I've had for the last two weeks--so I ordered a caesar salad.  Though the chicken was marketed as "grilled" it was actually "boiled, kept in the fridge for 3 days and then microwaved" so suffice it to say, worst salad ever.

Back at their house, we caught up on a few episodes of "Dexter," got back massages from my sister-in-law (who took a class on the subject a few years ago), drank margaritas and cocoa cabanas, laughed a lot about their giant, evil cats and the cats' propensity for spooning each other, and ate our weight in snacks.  But I didn't have dinner so snacks are a totally acceptable replacement.

It was pretty exciting to say goodbye to 2011 and hello to 2012, since 2012 will definitely be a year of changes for us.  We counted down like all people do and I got 3 or 4 New Year's kisses from my favorite person in the entire world.

Below is the first picture I took in the New Year, one of me and my sister-in-law, Jessi:

On big milestone holidays like this, I'm always reminded of how lucky I am to have my Robbie safe and alive with me at home and not in some far-off land getting bullets hurled at him on a daily basis.  

This morning we got up bright and early to head home and enjoy the all-day Syfy Twilight Zone marathon, which is where I'll be most likely for the rest of the night.

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday this year, and I send you all my best wishes for 2012.

Also, I succumbed to blog peer pressure and bought "The Hunger Games." I finished the first book in a total of about 3 hours and obviously had to buy the second.  I was quite dubious--as I'm not usually a fan of YA fiction--but I found the first book very enjoyable and had a hard time putting it down.

Birthday Week with pictures!

First, thank you all for the sweet words about my blog's new appearance.  Rob told me that my last post should've been titled Look at Banner, Michael! so I really dropped the ball on that one.  My apologies.

Last week, as you know, was Robbie's birthday week.  Since his birthday week coincided with his no-more-Army day, I decided that he deserved a whole week of birthdayness rather than just a day or two.  We've now decided that we'll each have a birthday week when we fall on the wrong side of a decade (Rob turned 26 this year) or when we hit a decade.

The central theme of birthday week included (1) Rob getting to choose what we ate for dinner every night, (2) Rob getting to choose what activity we engaged in, and (3) many mutual exclamations of "It's birthday week!"

On Monday, for example, we had a fun cafe night.  First, we made banana-berry-honey smoothies.  For himself, Rob made falafel balls and popped them into a pita with avocado, sprouts, and tomato.  I had a sammich with provolone, avocado, tomato, sprouts, and locally-made dijon mustard. Quite yummy indeed! We also saw Crazy Stupid Love which we really enjoyed.  Still gotta see Cowboys and Aliens though.

On Tuesday we made homemade Chipotle meals. We mixed rice with cilantro, cooked some chicken and peppers, and added cheese, pico de gallo, and guacamole.  This has become a favorite in our house the last couple weeks.

On Wednesday, we went out to eat with Rob's dad, brother, sister-in-law, and sister.  We went out to our favorite restaurant, which we patronize so often that they call us by name and treat us really well. I mentioned that it was Rob's birthday (not the actual day but you know) and they brough us ice cream and other fun desserts and sang to him, without me even asking!

Pardon the crappy cell phone picture.

 Thursday, as you know, was the day that Rob officially got out of the Army.  When he was in Iraq, I sent him a canister filled with 365 slips of paper, each of which had a memory, inside joke, song, or quote that made me think of him.  We found it in his box of Iraq letters and realized that he didn't read through all of them; so on Thursday, we read through the remaining slips together!

 Finally, on Friday we invited Rob's coworkers, Amie, Sara and Sarah, over for a End of Summer Work/Birthday/Out of the Army party.  I bought snack food and booze (Rob specifically requested Grey Goose vodka), and also some flowers because I'm nice like that.  I took everyone out to eat at the aforementioned restaurant and we came back here for gift exchange.  The girls made really sweet cards for Robbie and tie-dyed shirts for each of them (and me too!).

Along with the very romantic air conditioner I bought for Rob's birthday at his request, I bought him the 30 Rock original soundtrack and a mustachioed Octopal from this awesome shop.

I'm more or less sure that he's more excited about it than this picture conveys.

But one of the best parts of the evening was when we took Rob's Army contract into the yard and burned the sucker to commemorate his freedom from the Army.  It was a good feeling.  This was also the point at which Rob informed me that his risk of getting called back into the Army had actually been far higher than I had realized, so needless to say I am pretty excited about this day finally coming.  Plus I'm pretty excited about how amazing the fire pictures came out.

 We had a really awesome time with everyone.  I did learn a valuable lesson, which is to not mix a downer (like vodka) with an upper (a 5-Hour Energy I took to stay awake).  I ended up getting really sick and sleeping for a total of about 3 hours the entire night because I was so wired.  Fail on my part.

Hope you enjoyed hearing about birthday week, and I hope you all had an amazing week and weekend!