When the man wants pie...

Yesterday, when we were deciding what to make for dinner, Geoff had the freezer open and stated "I want a Buttermilk pie" My maternal instinct kicked in and said "silly boy, you can have pie for dinner", plus its not like there was a freshly made pie sitting on top of the stove.
I admit, I think I know Geoff fairly well and while I had no doubt that the man really could follow directions, I never thought that he would. Needless to say, by the time we had decided on a main course, the cookbook was open and Geoffs asking me "how much is a teaspoon?" I love this man! With the exception of not knowing how to "dust the top with flour" he earned his girl scout baking badge with flying colors. When the man wants pie, he really wants some pie!

((P.S. As i turn to get the camera he yells "if you take a pictures I'm going to dump this whole thing on your head" and I think the exact phrase captured was him saying "I'm serious"... luckily for me he wasn't))

You know you're in Kentucky when....

So, its a normal thursday day... Tiffany and I had overcome our bruised butts and vowed that we WOULD wake up early and go to the 9am spinning class. We WOULD withstand the pain and cycle till our legs fell off and we WOULD get in shape before the guys get back from Benning... Well, it was a nice theory!

Instead of a 8:30 call saying "You are going right, cuz if you're not going, I'm not going" I got a 7:30 call asking if I would go with her to the vet because her cat Tigger had gotten sick.
So we corner the cat, who had serious issues with the cat carrier and head out to Elizabethtown.

The animal hospital's waiting room was like all the other ones I'd seen, a carrier with two toy poodle pups in it, a big ole basset hound and us sitting there with Tigger. We notice that someone is having trouble opening the door so I got up to help... enter middle aged woman with long brown hair, dirty sweatshirt and...... THIS.....

She was just bringing in Mr. Big for his eye check up! A 7 week old colt sitting there with the dogs and cats. It was interesting that the dogs and cats didn't seem to be bothered... but we did hear Mr. Big whinny a time or two. You sure don't see that in Durham!

September 11th

September 11th, 2006 I, Laura Bartholomay Childs came dangerously close to wetting the bed. It was my first night/day at Ft Knox without Geoff and just as I was beginning to think I could handle it like a big girl I hear the one thing that sends you back to a 5 year old's fear...GUN SHOTS, from our living room. Thoughts of Geoff saying "I feel much safer leaving you on base for 6 weeks than in an apartment off post" kept replaying in my mind and before I knew it the shots were actually soothing. They kept going on and on as I drifted through the haze of confusion and before long I realized that September 11th on an army base was a pretty awesome and awe-inspiring thing. Whole companies were called to attention outside our door while the most honoring tribute of a 21 gun salute was given at the time when the first plane hit the Trade Center. YAY for life on base!

our new digits

I forgot to post our address:
PO Box 767
Ft Knox, KY 40121
(hint, hint...haha)

lessons we've learned....

Laura has to set aside time every week to "blog" because otherwise it gets pushed to the wayside... lets hope I can start keeping up!

I'd like to be able to say that in the weeks that I've missed that tons has been going on and now have pages and pages worth of updates, but I'm sorry to say that life just isn't quite that interesting.

Geoff and I made our first "real world" purchase and I am now the lucky girl puttering around post in the brand new Toyota Corolla! It was an exciting thing, mostly because the old clunky Taurus has gone to a better place and I actually have a dependable set of wheels to explore Louisville in. WAHOOO! That dependability is even more comforting now that Geoff is away from "home". He was a leadership development course in southern Georgia for the next 6 weeks and took the Camry so that he can back and forth to Atlanta on the weekends.

Back on base, the job hunt is still going... I knew that there were a lot of porn and pawn shops in the area, but I kindof thought there would be someother things too... places that would lead to employment, but alas we are still waiting. In the mean time I have discovered the two things that I need during Geoff's absense, a) scrapbook stores and b) a friend! I vowed that these 6 weeks would be productive and that the wedding scrapbook would atleast be started so the internet was searched and I found a handful of cute scrapbook and craftstores in the area (some that even have classes and get together nights) I'm really looking forward to having these around for Tiffany (see B above) and I to pass time in. Tiffany is the wife of Ray -going through everythign that Geoff is going though in Kentucky and this leadership course. Tiffany and I vowed to keep eachother company and more importantly... share the boredom!

Thank you all for the emails, letters and prayers, its great to be so lucky and loved!

Are ya 1? Are ya 2? Are ya 3....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GEOFF!
just becasue some way across the Atlantic asked.... heres a re-cap of the day

Theme: Cars (best summer movie by far, we're talking laugh out loud funny)
Weather: kinda rainy, but still hot
Meals: Waffles after PT, Sandwiches for lunch, Salmon Stakes with rice and green beans for dinner, Funfetti cupcakes and Rainbow chip icing for the grand finale (just made you hungry didn't we)

but most importantly... one WHOLE day and not a single craddle robber joke! Thank heavens for the little miracles :o)

PICTURES GALORE!

Here they are, hot off the press.... NEW PICTURES
Rascal Flatts, our Apartment, Honeymoon and all

Happy viewings~
http://laurabartholomay.shutterfly.com/

so many changes...

So many changes in such a little time...
GREETINGS FROM FT. KNOX! We got to town two days ago and finally have time to visit the internet, things have been moving pretty quickly so I'll try to give a cliff notes version of the past few days

(I will come back and out of order do entries on Seattle, Rascal Flatts and our apartment)

We showed up Monday at noon for Geoff to inprocess but everyone was at lunch so we decided to figure out housing instead of wasting time. At the housing office we learned (contrary to what we'd been told over the phone) that they HAD to house all of the LTs coming through for "snowbirding". --To put it simply, Geoff's classes don't start untill the end of October so he's here doing busy work or "snowbirding" alond with 80 other people until then.-- So Winnie, our friendly housing officer, put in a search for a room open July 30-Oct. 28th and nothing was available. She called her supervisor in and boss lady said "oh, you can find something... try the 4778s" at which point Winnie's eyes got rull big and she shot us the "I'm hooking y'all up look". So she signed us in to our room, gave us the keys and sent us on our way. Where as most people are staying in a 10 story tower in a hotel room type space, Geoff and I have a full one bedroom apartment, full kitchen, furniture and the works. All of our neighbors out rank Geoff by 6-10 years, so we candefinatley say that good ole Winnie hooked us up. We are trying to figure out a way to stay here the whole time (until April) so I will keep you posted.

So the move-in is going like move-ins go... lots of trips to the Target and supermarket and back to Target again. Unpacking clothes, figuring out drawers and cabinets, battling with the air conditioner, you know, the usual!

"semper gumbi"

Aunt Mary Lynn said it best when she told us that the US Department of Defense motto (no matter what the branch) should be Semper Gumbi.... always flexible, and she couldn't be more right! We've been going through a lot in this past month trying to clarify Geoff's orders and get Laura signed up and in all of the right systems, trying to pack for 3 different places and still not being 100% sure of what all is ctually going on.

Geoff is still out in Seattle working at LDAC camp, evaluating all of the rising senior ROTC cadets. He will be out there for another month but if you want to sneak in a letter or card his address is: Lt Geoff Childs; ROTC-WF-2006; FLRC Committee; Box 339543; Ft Lewis, WA 98433-9543.
We have just heard that when he moves to Ft Knox Kentucky in August that Laura will get to join him, which is huge relief. The only catch is that we are lead to believe that we will essentially be living in a hotel room until April, but "semper gumbi" right?!? Laura is eager to put all of our wonderful wedding presents to use and "play house" but we're guessing that might be a while.

So until we have an actual mailbox, or an actual roof over our head for that matter... our addresses are laurabchilds@gmail.com and geoffdchilds@gmail.com!

raw emotions

Toasting to the amazing Best Man

How many times in life do you honestly belly laugh?

Last night Hannah and I had a quick meet up at the mall to exchange pictures and quickly catch up on how things had been going for the past couple of weeks. She handed over a CD of pictures she had taken at the rehearsal dinner for the wedding and as I look through them I am struck by 2 things.

1) How blessed and I to have a time in my life where raw emotions, honest to God emotions, not caring what I should act like or how I should behave emotions are as free-flowing as they were that weekend. I look through the pictures and remember how I smiled my biggest and most honest smile and also cried the most real tear during those couple of days.
2) How talented Hannah is in that she captured these emotions so perfectly... I hope that she makes a wonderful career out of it one day because such talent should be shared. ~Laura

practice makes perfect... or something

I'm trying out new picture posting tools.... don't mind me ;o) -Laura

 

the pro proofs are in....

WWAHHOOOOOOOOO.... John Elkins rocks my world and had the pictures from the wedding back at lighting fast speed. I'm working on compiling digital pics that people took that day but I just can't wait to share some of my favorites.

I have to admit, getting these back has just sucker punched me with missing Geoff. I wish he were here to ohhh and awww with me, or even just to make fun of me while I ohhhh and awwww... he does that well. Instead I got the sneak peak and had to share my excitement with him having no idea what I am talking about. I know that this is probably tiny in the grand scale of times when I am going to be missing him and wishing he were right here with me, but still.... guess I have to get use to it for a few months~

okay, enough whining... here are some of my favorites, ENJOY!
http://laurabartholomay.shutterfly.com/action/

~Laura