Not sure why its taken me until Friday night to post about last weekend, seeing as I meant to do this on Monday.  It was a busier week though, I volunteered at the library a few days and got called in to substitute teach at the high school today (it was blissfully uneventful!).

Lance had a three day weekend last week, and we kicked it off by kicking our 2 weeks of healthy eating to the curb, but the first taste of Pond Creek Barbeque's smoked baby back ribs made any feelings of regret melt away like meat from the bone.  Their potato salad wasn't as awesome as I remembered, but all in all it was worth the 35 minute trek to the shack in the middle of nowhere.

Saturday morning we volunteered for Habitat for Humanity with Lance's class.  Rory Gilmore made it look a lot cuter and more productive than it actually seemed to be, and it didn't help that it was freezing. My contributions included helping to hold up walls (no, that isn't euphemism, they actually needed help standing!) and fetching 2 drill bits- one of them was even the correct one! Lance, ever his father's son was really proactive about all the building stuff.  That night we had Kristen and Jordan over for game night which was a lot of fun! We tried out a trivia game we got for Christmas, 'Smart-Ass'.

Sunday was spent at the gym, then Church, then a whole lot of nothing, then some planning for our Monday trip to Tulsa. By planning, I mean looking at the website for the Philbrook Art Museum in Tulsa to make sure they weren't closed on Martin Luther King Junior Day- and they weren't!


....they are, however, closed on all Mondays- a fact we only came to realize as we saw it posted on their front gates.  That was my big plan for the day, and although its no de Young- I was really looking forward to it! The trip wasn't a total waste, as we went to Kilkenny's Irish Pub.  I was a little skeptical when Lance insisted on eating there; there are a lot of reasons to be proud I'm Irish, but the food isn't high on the list! I got a cottage pie which was great- but would probably have been better if it wasn't a freak temperature day of 72 degrees.  Lance got a burger that was cooked in red wine, it was very tasty and I think I'll try and make something similar.

We ended up coming back earlier than planned, I imagine we'll try to venture into Tulsa again- this time with better planning! Coming back early had one benefit though-if you've been wondering about our latest apartment woes, you're in luck, because per usual this place never fails to be falling apart somewhere.  This time it was our upstairs neighbor's washing machine that led to a waterfall from our kitchen light fixture- and I mean a ton  of water! Its all cleaned up now, and there isn't any permanent damage- but its just the most recent in a long string of maintenance issues we've had here. I called the housing office on base to see what they would do, and both they and Lance called with strong words for our landlord.  We've been promised that things will change, and I really hope they do- since we only have a few more months here it doesn't seem worth moving, but I get scared that we won't be so lucky next time and something will get damaged (other than the time plaster fell and hit me in the head in the middle of the night, of course).

With a new year, I think its a good idea to get back into keeping this blog- especially since this will be such a crazy one! 2012 is a gypsy year for us, with Lance graduating UPT in April, we'll soon find out where he does his follow on training, and eventually where we'll be for 3 (ish) years afterward.  I'm hoping to get a lot of traveling in,  and maybe even take our postponed honeymoon??

The last few months of 2011 were busy, exciting, sad, and trying.  The job I gushed about in my last post turned out to be a bust and not at all what I was told to expect, while I liked being busy and making money, it just wasn't worth the ethical and emotional toll.  While moving on was upsetting, I know now that it is definitely for the best! PLUS that meant Lance and I could spend a lot more time in California for the holidays!

We got to do so much fun stuff while home, but the best part was just hanging out with family and friends.  We went to St. Helena for a day with my family, where we window-shopped and wine-tasted (Lance has been bitten by the bug!), got to spend a whole day with Aaron, Rachel, and our adorable nieces in their new home, and had a laughter filled afternoon in Davis with Lance's parents- along with a lot of needed 'chilling out' with everyone.

Christmas day was spent in a perpetual food coma (Just kidding- the whole break was spent in a food coma...) at our house and the Nealon's, and we brought in the new year with fireworks by the river with Sarah and her sister.  I loved being able to host Sara and I's annual Christmas party with our friends from high school again this year too!

Coming home to Enid was tough, being home with Lance makes me realize all over again how much I love our family (well, and frankly how weird they are!), but I'm excited about the promise of this year. Already I'm lining up some new volunteer jobs and craft projects, setting up dates with friends, and planning a few weekend trips- and Lance and I both have been hitting the gym a lot to get rid of holiday poundage!   I'll try to post more so these blogs aren't all just general summaries of a few months at a time!

(PS- this post was sans photos, but, as usual, check the photostream at the right to see what we've been up to most recently!)