Housing Hell

This picture represents how I've been feeling all week.  The nightmare of finding housing has gotten worse and worse.  Let's begin from our second trip to Ft. Hood on Tuesday.

Tuesday

A management company emailed me three properties that allowed pets upon approval.  I'm confident that anyone that lays eyes on my 15 lb fluff ball will approve her instantly.  Zack had left the day before to go visit his parents in San Antonio so I told him to call and check up on when the properties would be ready to be viewed.  At 11:30am he told me that two of the properties would be ready to be viewed at 2pm and he was heading that way.  I had a test at 12:45pm and then immediately drove the 2 hours to Ft. Hood afterwards.

When we arrived, we viewed one of the places but the property off of Clear Creek, the gem, had the key checked out by maintenance.  We had to wait for the key, have the office lady look up my email to prove that the manager told me pets were allowed, and wait on the manager to verify her own words.  They told us that we could not drive a couple of streets (less than 2 minutes) away to view the property because it was 30 minutes till close.  We considered putting in an application and fee just to hold the place so we could view it.  We ended up deciding to drive back up the next morning and view it.  Stupid stupid stupid!  We drove to the place, peeked through the windows, and loooooved it!  Looking back, we should have turned right around and put in an application.  We drove around the neighborhood, stopped at a gas station, and drove to Temple by the time the management place closed at 5:30pm.  I knew we could have made it easily.  Grr.

Wednesday

To save on gas, we left my car at the Hampton Inn and Zack drove back to College Station.  [Thank you Hampton Inn for unknowingly watching over my car!]  The next morning we arrived at 10am and apparently someone had been staking out the place when they opened at 8:30am.  They had the key to our favorite place, held it till 1:30pm while we waited on pins and needles to get a call to see if it was available or leased.  Well of course they leased it.

Thursday

We were going to wait for the 3rd property to open up because it was identical to the other Harker Heights property, same price, and some nicer accessories.  Why not?  Well I decided let's not risk it and just put in an application tomorrow morning on the 2nd place.  The manager of rental company sent me an email saying the tenants of the 3rd place that we were going to wait for decided not to move.  She then told me that the 2nd property was not pet friendly.  What. The. Hell.  How many times do I have to tell this place to look up that damn email they sent me?  So now our backup options are apparently not options and Zack needs to move in by the end of next week.

We have an appointment with a place in Copperas Cove on Saturday that looks nice but I've noticed a trend of companies using pictures from 5 years ago when the property was newer.  We'll just have to see.  If it looks pretty good, I can guarentee you that we'll lease it on the spot just to be done with all of this.

This whole process is hell!!

Love, Heather

xo

Fort Hood Update

It appears that I've been a bad blogger again.  So here is what has been going on:

Last Wednesday

Zack graduated from Army Logistics University in Ft. Lee!  I'm so proud of him!  That also meant that he was finally Texas-bound after 6 months.  He then spent a couple of nights in Georgia with his old Texas A&M roommate, Matt, who is at Ft. Benning and about to start Ranger School.   He then went to San Antonio to see his family because he was banned from College Station until I finished my test.

Monday

I had my biochemistry test.  It was the last one before the final and I'm really hoping that I did good.  I also had a nervous breakdown on Saturday night.  I called Zack and cried/hyperventilated and claimed that I couldn't do this anymore and that I was going to fail.  Oh man.  The amount of mechanisms and pathways really sent me over the edge.  Apparently my two friends cried that night as well.  However, when I got home from my hellish test, my dearest Zachary was waiting for me!  It was wonderful.

Friday

We drove up to Ft. Hood yesterday to look for housing.  It was a complete nightmare.  We saw some townhome-type places in "4plexes" for good prices so we thought those would be a good idea since they were similar to his old place in College Station.  This one place had the neighbor out front, screaming in a muumuu.  The place reeked of smoke and actually made me sick.  To top it all off, the rooms were tiny.  Heck, it was all pretty small.  We saw a bunch of awful places and decided to really up our budget and pay a little out of pocket to NOT have to live in some of those areas.  We're now looking at a couple of really nice duplexes in South Killeen, Harker Heights, and Copperas Cove.  We're going up on Thursday or Friday to hopefully find one and if not we also have an appointment on Saturday.  Cross your fingers!  Zack wants to move in next week.

My dad also emailed some of my brother's high school senior pictures.  I can't believe he's about to enter college!  Where did the last 4 years go?  Anyways, I wanted to share my favorite: Jason and the cuda.

Love, Heather

xo

My First Blog Award!

This is my very first award!  I'm excited!  Mrs. Muffins has kindly given me this warm and fuzzy Blog Hug Award.

The rules for this award are:
One: Tell us about a memorable hug you’ve had. It can be a person, pet, whatever…
Two: “Hug” at least one other blogger or as many as you like.

Although I love daily hugs with my dog Madison, one particular hug with Zack sticks out in my mind.  All last summer I had been dreading Zack having to leave for BOLC and living out of state for 6 months.  When he left in October, I knew I had to adjust quickly and wait for the 24 hours that I got to see him during Thanksgiving.  A couple of weekends after he left for Ft. Sill, I was taking my dog out and was quite irritated with her selective hearing.  I huffily came marching around the side of the building and looked down the sidewalk to see Zack standing there.  I thought I was dreaming.  I walked up to him, not believing that he was actually there.  I thought, "oh boy, now I've really lost my mind".  Then he gave me the biggest, best hug and it finally sank in that he was really there.

Now to pass on the hugs!

Carrie, this means you have to actually write a blog!

Bonnie, I'm passing on a hug for all of the great cleaning/buying tips! You're fabulous!

Mrs. P, I can't think of any other blogger who deserves a hug more.

Love, Heather

xo

Why I Hate Wood Floors

As usual, as I'm preparing to disappear for days, I feel the uncontrollable need to clean.  The OCD person in me really comes out when I need to start studying.  I just can't do it if my room isn't clean.  With that being said, I just spent two hours vacuuming, dusting, wiping down, cleaning baseboards (they were embarrassment at this point), and mopping my room, bathroom, and hallway to my bathroom by hand.  Why you ask?  Because I got a little too carried away and broke my mop awhile ago and have yet to buy a new one.  The product of my cleaning is a clean room/bathroom and a rant.  I'm going to list why I am not a fan of wood floors.

Disclaimer: I realize wood floors are very popular and truly are beautiful so please don't think I'm trying to offend anyone.  Plus, you'll see why I REALLY hate mine in a minute.

Why I Hate My Wood Floors

1.  They are always dusty

2.  They seriously become dusty within a day of cleaning them

3.  Running a vacuum over carpet is quicker and easier than sweeping and mopping everything (ESPECIALLY since I had a Swiffer and had to use like 10 refills per clean)

4.  The "current" of air flow leads straight to my room, meaning all dust, hair, EVERYTHING comes this way

5.  I have a roommate so I can't control the cleanliness of everything

6.  The laundry room is also near my room. Yay lint.

7.  The feeling of getting crap on your feet if it's been more than a day since cleaning

8.  It hurts my knees to get on the ground and play with my dog

9.  The lack of carpet underneath the doors means no insulation and a lack of barrier for noise.  I might as well study with my door open.

Now here is where everyone goes "oooh...that's why she hates her's"...

10.  When we signed a lease to this apartment we thought they would be laminate like in the kitchen at our last apartment.  Wrong...they're VINYL!

11.  Vinyl scuffs easily and it takes a lot of elbow grease to get them out

12.  Vinyl is much easier to damage

13.  The flooring wasn't even installed properly so there are some gaps in between "boards" that collects dust and the flooring itself isn't even level.

14.  Upon move-in I noted that there were a couple of "boards" in my room that lifted and my bed was unknowingly put on one of those "boards".  The vinyl "board" warped and cracked.

Take Home Message

I would never recommend vinyl flooring to anyone.  I'm not a fan of wood (and the like) flooring in general for my home.  I think it looks gorgeous in any other home- just so long as I'm not the one maintaining it.

That's all for my rant.

Love, Heather

xo

Bittersweet

I am in the midst of chaos right now.  I took a TEAS nursing entrance exam today and memorized a two-page essay because I wanted it to be really strong.  And yes, I was the only freak who actually did this.  I am thankful that the woman mentioned the topic last summer and I wrote it down!  Tomorrow I get to leave at 6am to drive to Waco, TX and retake the HESI since this particular college requires that you take it at their campus.  Can we say money ploy?  To top it all off, I have a major biochemistry test on Monday that I'm already about a week behind in studying for.  Obviously I want to get into nursing school but I kind of need to graduate too.  Y'all can expect me to be MIA for a few days.

Monday night when I get home from my biochemistry test (oh lovely night tests), Zack will be there waiting for me!  I banned him from College Station until then because I wouldn't study if he was around haha.  As much as I am dreading this test, I'm so excited to see Zack!  He will be a Texas resident again after 6 long months.  And might I add that Madison is going to freak out when she sees him!

Speaking of Madison...

She managed to get under the covers a couple of days ago...

...and literally tuck herself in! I still haven't figured out how she did it!

Love, Heather

xo

Top 2 Tuesday...Beauty Secrets

This is my first "Top 2 Tuesdays"!  Yay!  So this week is top 2 beauty secrets.  My "beauty secrets" are not that elaborate so I'm curious as to what other people's top 2 beauty secrets are.  I'll go ahead and list the two that I like the most.

1. Olay Regenerist Microdermabrasion & Peel System

 

These little gems are my life-saver, particularly in the winter.  The derma-crystals exfoliate and then you apply the activator serum on top of the derma-crystals to act as a mini-peel.  It helps exfoliate dry winter skin and makes your face feel really smooth.  I want to buy some of the regenerating serum too.  I'm completely sold on any Regenerist product.

 

 

 

2.   Pond's Cold Cream

I use this to take off my eye makeup every night.  There is nothing that this stuff can't take off.  I've also heard it's good for your skin in general, particularly for moisturizing.  I've used it on my face several times and even Zack commented on how soft my face felt! (BIG deal for such an unobservant male)  Note to self: use this again before Zack moves back to Texas on Monday!

And there you have it.  I don't feel like the cold cream is much of a "secret" at all but I hope all of the ladies out there will discover the amazing Regenerist line.

 

P.S. Don't forget to share some of your secrets!

Love, Heather

xo

How I Almost Died

Well here I am at a ridiculous hour of the night, which actually is pretty normal for my insomniac self.  I forced myself asleep by 8pm because I had the most painful headache I've ever had.  Before that, Zack told me to go lay down because my vision was spotty and I could barely read the email my professor sent me.  Now let's recap as to how this came about:

A certain evil man, Matt, owns a place of torture, The Body Lab - Crossfit.  Today I walk in and do my warm up (no biggie- hurdles, foot work, shuttles) and walk over to Krista (because the evil man is busy talking) to find out what the workout of the day is.  At that point I got to hop right on the machine and do a 500m row as fast as I can.  I pushed through the end and was thinking "man...that hurt but it really worked a lot of muscles".  Usually our workouts are short and high intensity (the Crossfit way) so I'm thinking that wasn't too bad at all.

Then Krista says, "Go ahead and rest for a few minutes before you move on."  Whaaaat?  I look over at two buff, military-looking guys struggling with something called Karen.  The name sends shivers down my spine.  I watched as the two men squatted until they touched a medicine ball below them on the ground and then exploded up and threw another medicine ball "over the paint" which was probably 10 ft up the wall.  They called time after 8-9 minutes.  Luckily, I got to enjoy the same experience with two other men.  I did 100 of these babies (after a 500m row) and was the first one done.  Ok so I beat one guy who only did 75 but the other guy technically did 150.  I called time and collapsed on the ground.  I almost died.  Every bit of me ached.  As I've already said, I really suffered later this evening.

The way the Body Lab works is there are blocks of 2 hours of open gym time.  This staggers the amount of people there quite nicely, actually.  The problem: the moment you walk in the door you can usually find about 5 very in-shape men sprawled out on the floor looking like they are about to keel over.  You're typically not too optimistic at this point.  There is really no way to physically torture Matt, but I'll have to find some way of repaying him for killing me everyday.

In an unrelated note, I like putting a picture in every blog so I'll post one from the lake years ago because I love the lake house and find the lake calming.

Love, Heather

xo

Flashback Friday

 October 08 - Airshow with the Us Air Force Thunderbirds in Fort Worth.  VIP Breitling tent!

July 07 - A puppy Madison and I on my birthday! She was the cutest furball!

Love, Heather

xo

Friday Fill-Ins

1. In 1992, I was enjoying Winnie the Pooh on VHS.
2. My heart melts when I hear/see a baby's laughter and smiles.
3. Do what you can, with what you have, where you have it.
4. With Zack is where I'd like to be.
5. The trees and flowers are telling me that they are germinating...all over my car.
6. The never-ending diet that just keeps going on.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to cuddling up with Madison and getting some sleep, Saturday my plans include Chilifest and Sunday, I want to actually get some studying done and watch the season premiere of Army Wives! 

Love, Heather

xo

I Wish I Could Walk

So from my last post on Monday, my muscles were aching.  By Tuesday morning, oh. my. gosh.  I can't even remember the last time I've experienced so much pain from soreness.  I figured my arms and legs would be sore since they ached the day before and I also figured my abs would follow suit from the ab workout.  Well...follow suit was an understatement.  To top it all off, I felt like my latissimus dorsi muscles were going to kill me.  Yesterday I wanted a raised toilet more than ever before and to top it off, the Body Lab has me drinking about a gallon of water a day. Ahhh!  I tried to do the workout the trainer told me to do (and pretty much fell on my face during the first push up I was so stiff) in hopes that it would loosen me up but it really didn't.

I was in an almost equal amount of pain today until I went to my workout. Sprints. Ugh.  I haven't done sprints since I was in high school...and it showed.  BUT I'm staying positive because I know it's just a matter of me getting back into shape.  I do however miss fatty/sugary foods.

Today is Zack's birthday by the way!  Happy 26th birthday Zack!!  He finishes up in Virginia in exactly one week and then finally moves back to Texas.  Needless to say, I'm beyond excited.  I'm not excited, however, that tonight Zack began throwing around the "d word".  Granted a different brigade is deploying relatively soon but if Zack gets to Ft. Hood and they switch him that brigade...that would be awful.

Love, Heather

xo

Ow.

I started my program today.  It began with a mandatory nutrition class and then I had my first workout.  Even though I am a nutrition major and can tell you just about anything about nutrition on a molecular level, Texas A&M doesn't teach you how to apply it.  Sorry A&M profs, time to face the facts.  The nutrition is based on the Zone diet and it involves eating every 3 hours which is AWESOME because I'm hypoglycemic!  The workout kicked my butt.  My arms and legs have been in pain since I left the gym and I have a feeling that my abs will join the party tomorrow.  I LOVE it!!  Sure soreness hurts, but it feels like success if that makes any sense.  It means I had a productive workout.

Basically workouts at the Body Lab are what my mom's trainer would describe as "burn out" exercises.  Burn out days are intense and push you to your max.  The Body Lab believes that the length of your workout doesn't matter, the intensity does.  So if I can do the same thing you do in half the time, the results are better.  Maybe I'll get back to:

Ok so maybe I won't look like a high school volleyball player but maybe I'll get close!  The sad thing is I thought I was downright obese in high school.  Anyways, I'm going to be in severe pain tomorrow but I'm really excited about this whole process!

Love, Heather

xo

Time For a Change

It's official.  I'm a brunette.  I'm excited and slightly nervous for Zack to see it in person.

I went home to Houston for Easter to spend it with my parents and grandparents.  It was fun but they're on a Quick Weight Loss diet that's high protein and little/no carbs.  That means we ate grilled chicken and veggies/salad all weekend.  No Easter candy =(

On Wednesday night I texted my friend of 3 years, Matt, and asked about a certain place to train because Matt ran CrossFit A&M for many years with a friend and then began his own business based on CrossFit.  Needless to say, he's a professional on the subject but I was under the impression that he was only training semi/professional athletes these days.  Well he went off about "trainers" and even worse, gyms.  It was a nice long tangent until he suggested I join his place.

Well I met with him and I start tomorrow.  The Body Lab (his business) is an invitation/referral only business that combines nutrition, training, and accountability as it's main objectives.  I'm very excited and very nervous!  He's going to absolutely kill me but he guarantees that you will either gain or lose 20 lb in the first month (athletes would want to gain muscle weight- obviously I will be in the losing category).  Tomorrow I take the mandatory nutrition class and then have my first workout where they assess my abilities and what needs to be rehabbed (shoulders and knees from 12 years of volleyball!).  I'll definitely be posting tomorrow and bitching about describing how it went.

Love, Heather

xo