STRESS!

Well, Cliff's retirement has been approved, so we will be moving forward with some significant life events. He's looking for other employment and has had several offers. We're still not 100 percent sure where we will be in six months and it is quite stressful. We'll have several huge life events taking place all at once and I'm feeling the pressure already. There are so many things to consider and we are not taking anything lightly. One part of me just wants to make a leap of faith and believe everything will work out the way it is meant to. Another part of me is making a detailed analysis of each component and how they all interrelate and trying to determine the chain of events that can occur with each decision. I'm driving myself CRAZY! I'm sure I haven't been much fun to be around this week because when I get stressed I am very cranky!
Allissa got her report card last week. Overall, she did very well. However, she has really been struggling with Algebra and it showed. I would have been pretty irate if I didn't know how hard she has been trying. If it weren't for her homework bringing her grade up, she might actually have failed. It was pretty close as it is. She just has a hard time picking up the concepts no matter how much effort she puts into it. I can work with her on it one day for an hour and the next day give her the exact same problem and it's as if she hasn't ever seen it before. She won't even know where to start. I just don't get it. I was always really good at math - especially Algebra. Anyway, we have a conference scheduled with her teacher and will hire a tutor to try and get it sorted out. She's actually not supposed to take Algebra until ninth grade, but kids in AVID take it a year early. Allissa consoles herself by saying that she can retake it next year if she fails, but I keep telling her she can't look at it that way - that should only be an option of last resort. That's a self-defeating attitude to look at it that way in my opinion and it won't be any easier next year.
It has been really warm in Korea this winter. It has only snowed once and there have been only a handful of days below 30 F. I didn't even switch from a light jacket to my heavier coat. It's been in the 40s for all of February and even in the 50s for the last several days. Usually February is pretty frigid and we've had one last snow in the first bit of March for the last several years. Even though I'm not crazy about freezing weather, I wish it had been colder and snowed more since this will be my last taste of a true winter if we go to Texas. Of course, it may not be since that is now up in the air.

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Today is our 15th anniversary! And before anyone gets all snippy about how cheesy it is to get married on Valentine's Day, we didn't actually plan it that way. We were stationed in Germany at the time and it is a total paperwork nightmare to get married in Germany. We had a VERY short engagement. He proposed on New Year's Eve and we were married on Valentine's Day. We kind of had to have a short engagement. NO! I wasn't pregnant! - our unit was shutting down and we were about to be put on orders. If we didn't get married before that happened we probably would have been separated. Anyway, because it was more difficult to get married in Germany, we scheduled a wedding trip to Denmark. You left on Monday and got married on Friday. It just so happened that our Friday fell on V. Day. I paid for the trip. I don't remember why. Maybe I had more money in my checking account at the time. I don't remember. I do remember that they gave me a $200 discount for paying the full amount up front. Anyone who knows me at all knows that I am a bargain shopper, so I jumped on that deal. It was really pretty inexpensive all around. For $600 we got round trip train tickets from Berlin to Vejle and hotel accomodations for the week which included a free meal at the hotel restaurant each day. It was a great trip. I love Denmark. The people there were so friendly. I remember that Cliff had forgotten to bring a transformer for his iron and needed to iron his pants, so we went downtown to look for one. We went into a store and they didn't have what we needed, but the clerk knew where they did sell it so she took us outside and led us down the street to the shop where we could get it. How nice was that? It was really beautiful there. I would love to go back one day. The wedding ceremony itself left a bit to be desired. It was rather surreal. There were a bunch of couples there. Mostly US military from Germany like us. We were the second to last to get married, so we had to wait for a bit. When it was finally our turn, we went in and stood at the head of this big u-shaped table in front of the justice of the peace. He asked me, "Do you want to marry him?" I said, "yes". Then he asked Cliff, "Do you want to marry her?" Cliff said, "yes". Then the JP said, "you're married". Talk about anti-climactic. We just kind of stood there for a second and then one of us asked if it was ok if we kissed and he said we could, so we did. Just a quick peck which was a little awkward, quite frankly. The whole thing was just kind of weird. I think we were both expecting something more along the lines of a traditional ceremony. Then, we had to sit down and sign the papers. They had my birthday down as March 2nd instead of February 3rd so we had to wait while they redid the certificate. I don't know if that would have had any effect on the legality of the marriage certificate, but I wasn't taking any chances. I already felt like it wasn't a REAL marriage ceremony! It's kind of funny now, but I was a bit disappointed at the time. We intended to have another wedding for all our family and friends once we got back to the US, but by then I was pregnant with Allissa and there was no way I was going to walk down the aisle like that so we never did. I got pregnant so soon after we got married that I was worried that everyone would think that was the reason he married me. Ha ha. Allissa was born nine months and nine days after we got married. She was actually a bit early - she wasn't due until Dec 5th and I had her on Nov 23rd.

Fifteen years sounds like such a long time, but it has gone by so quickly. I have a picture collage on my desk at work and one of the pictures is of us on the night he asked me to marry him. We both look so young. What were we thinking!? I have to say though that agreeing to marry him is probably the best decision I ever made. He's been a better husband than I ever hoped to have and I love him more today than I did the day we got married.

Brace Face

Gosh, I can't believe it is FEBRUARY already. Wasn't it Christmas just last week? We had a great holiday season. It was nice to all be together for a change. I got an awesome new camera for Christmas. It's a lot more sophisticated than my old camera, so I am still trying to get the hang of it.
We've all been pretty busy. I had to go to San Antonio for about a week last month. It was great because I got to visit our friends in Harker Heights and talk to the house designer about some changes we wanted made to the floor plan. Chris and Angela's house is fabulous! I hope our house turns out as well. Ang was busy finishing up the decor while I was there. She and I have very similar tastes and I am not a born decorator, so she's going to help me once we get ready to decorate our house. I'm so excited! I've always wanted to have a nicely decorated home, but I just don't have a clue as to what to do or where to start, so our house tends to be rather plain. I also got to visit our old friend Bill and meet his wife. We went out to dinner one night and had a very nice evening. There was a girl at the restaurant whose birthday it was. Someone announced that she had gone to the San Antonio auditions for American Idol (she didn't make the cut) and persuaded her to sing "Happy Birthday" to herself. She wasn't that bad, but she wasn't that good either. She seemed to think if she sang louder it would cover her faults - it didn't. You have to give her kudos for having the courage to get up and sing in front of a bunch of strangers and open herself up to criticism though. I wouldn't do it, but... I know I can't sing well. I wonder how many of those people they show talking about how good they are but who end up being horrible singers are truly that deluded. They have ears, don't they? I'm sure there is a percentage of them that just want to be on television and get some notoriety out of it. It worked for William Hung. In his case, I watched and interview with him and either he's a really good actor and is milking it for all it is worth, or he truly believes he can sing.
Cliff has been busy preparing for retirement and scouting out job prospects. I'm a bit nervous about such a big change in our lives, but I know everything will work out. We're just not 100% sure we will end up in Texas as soon as we'd like. Allissa will be crushed if we don't go to Texas. She really wants to start high school with her friends. I'm a little more ambivalent about it. On the one hand, I wouldn't mind going to the East Coast because I have some really good friends there and it would be closer to most of my family. On the other hand, we have been talking and planning on Texas for such a long time already. I just want to get started on those plans. We also have very good friends there. Really, they are like family to us.
The other thing that has happened is that I finally got my braces. Yay! I have been waiting for years. I'm still anxious though because I've had periodontal problems in the past, so I keep thinking that something is going to happen and they're going to take the braces off and I'll never have straight teeth. I've been taking really good care of my teeth though. The brackets and wires make it a little more difficult to clean properly so I brush after I eat or drink anything besides water. I try and take my time and brush very thoroughly. I bought one of those waterpik things and I make sure I floss every single day as well. I was pretty good about that before, but sometimes I would skip. Flossing with braces was the hardest thing to get the hang of. Especially the first couple of days because the spacers had pushed my teeth forward and my front teeth were super tight. It hurt really bad when I was trying to get the floss between them even though I was using super fine floss. But they've moved back so it doesn't hurt anymore, thank goodness. I've gotten a lot better at flossing without getting the floss tangled up in the brackets. I don't have to look in the mirror anymore. Which is good because I generally floss at night while I'm watching tv. I know, it's kind of weird, but it's so much more convenient to do it that way. Otherwise I'm in the bathroom for 30 or 40 minutes and it's boring, so I end up skipping things sometimes. Anyway, I have the brackets on my bottom teeth, but I don't have the archwire because I have to have one tooth extracted. I have an appointment for that on the 14th and I think he is going to put the archwire on that same day.
Allissa is doing well. She was on the swimming team and enjoyed that a lot. Swimming is over now, but she is starting volleyball. She thinks she may be on the advanced team for that. She'll find out on Monday. Other than that, there's not a whole lot to talk about. Have a great day!