still snowing

No, not snowing again, but still snowing. It never stopped! Before I could leave the house this morning, I had to scrape a good 2 inches worth of snow off of the car... It's kind of crazy: I was looking at the pictures that I took when I first got over here, and everything looks so green. But, when I first got over here, I was thinking that everything looked red and yellow. It's amazing the change in perspective. At first, I was comparing everything to how green it is in Florida. Now, that everything is brown and white, I'm comparing it to what it looked like when I first arrived. And I'm still enjoying the change, even if I did nearly lose my fingers to hypothermia in the process of clearing the car this morning. :)

After posting yesterday, I realized what a pathetic little post it was and decided that I needed to correct the oversight as soon as possible. So, consider the following what I should have included in yesterday's post:

It was nice to have Bran home for the weekend. When I picked him up from the unit on Friday afternoon, I had actually been on my way to the commissary to stock up. But, he got back before I expected him to and that meant that he got stuck going with me to the store. I offered to take him back to the house, because he definitely didn't want to go, but he told me to just go to the store. I told him that I really didn't mind, that I could take him home and go back, but he was like, "It's not just that I want to go home. I don't want to go to the store, but I don't want to go home either if you're not going to be there." (I'm not sure that I got that verbatim, but you get the idea.) He was being rather surly, and kind of sulky, but how could I be frustrated with him when he was sulking that he couldn't be home and be with me at the same time? And he would rather go to the store with me than be home by himself? So cute. :) I just hope that I never have to leave town without him.

Saturday afternoon, I decided to tackle trying to make some apple pies. I'd promised one to Herr Dreher anyway, for taking down the wall paper in the master bedroom, and I just thought it would be fun. I made the whole thing from scratch, which was...interesting. I didn't have a pastry cutter, so I had to use a potato masher to blend the flour and the shortening. and I didn't have a rolling pin, so I had to use the salt container to roll out the dough for the crust. It worked rather well, actually, but by the time I was done the container was ruined (it was only card board) and I had to transfer the salt into a Tupperware container. And what do you know, but the crust came out perfect! Not like a patchwork quilt, like my first crust, but whole and beautiful and even! I was so excited... When I got the crusts prepped, I started on the apples, but there were so many of them! Bran ended up coming downstairs to peel them for me, while I sliced them. I'm so glad that he did...I would have been there all night otherwise. After that, the rest was easy. I just had to mix the apples with the sugar and stuff, roll out the top crusts, and top them. I have to tell you, I am quite pleased with the results. The first one went to the Drehers, but Bran got into the second one before it was anywhere near to being cool, and proclaimed it to be a total success. I even really liked it, and I'm not a huge fan of apple pie. So maybe I'm bragging here, but I'm proud of myself. :)

Sunday, Sarah came over and we made devil dogs, which are oh-so-sinfully good. :) She made the cream filling while I did the cookie/cake batter, and it worked out perfectly. And, right as we were finishing up with the cookies, it was time to start the Mexican pizza for dinner. Yum! Of course, by the time that the pizza was done, I was pretty much full from the devil dogs, but that's ok. One of Bran's friends from the unit came over too, which was cool. It was the first time that Bran had had a friend over to the house, so I thought it was a good thing. Christian Gill, or just Gill, is one of the guys that went to Vilseck with him, and I guess they bonded. When Gill showed up, he had a house warming present for us, or more specifically, for Brandon. The guy got us a huge flippin' bottle of Johnny Walker Blue Label scotch whiskey! According to Bran, that's a $120 bottle of scotch. The silly thing came nestled in a bed of silk, along with an official bottle number and a booklet, for crying out loud. I don't know what happened in Vilseck, but they must have really bonded. Anyway, expensive liquors aside, dinner was awesome. The company was great, the food was great, everything was great.

Monday we didn't do much of anything. Bran and I went to the gym, but on the way there, the called and told him that he'd be leaving again this week, so when we got back to the house I got started on laundry. Fun, fun. Since he left, I've been mostly working on my arts'n'crafts projects. Not just the ctoss-stitch, but I've started crocheting a large throw for Sarah. Apparently, she's always wanted a handmade blanket, so she's commissioned me to make one for her. I'd forgotten how much I enjoy crocheting. :)

And...yup, that's about it. Now I feel that I've redeemed my sorry excuse for a post, from yesterday.