My Best Friend

   

You're more than my husband.

You're also my best friend.

It's your story, but tell me did you lose a shoe?

Our PCS Journey

 

It was a cool day when we packed up the truck and said goodbye to Virginia.

This had been a place that my husband and I have called home for several years. But we were excited to leave.

We went to Indiana to visit family.

Blurry Lousville above. My husband was driving and I was using my cell phone. But I love the colors in the photo.

We drove from Virginia leaving in the afternoon.  We decided to drive straight through. We took separate vehicles because he was driving the truck and I had the car.

We spent a few days visiting family. And then we started heading to Washington.

The Plain States

I mentioned to someone who was soon PCSing themselves to Washington that the drive wasn't that bad.  But I had to admit that in the plain states I started questioning why we were doing this. 

It seems I could only take so much flat land lol. 

Our first true stop was Mt Rushmore.  We decided to stay the night in Keystone which was a lovely quaint town. And I'm glad it wasn't the busy season lol.

 

Of course we PCS'd during the WINTER!















And then we went to Devil Tower

And then we hit our second set of mountains...

Because our next stop was Yellowstone!!

Yellowstone

I jumped for joy when I found out Yellowstone would be open when we were PCSing. We decided to stay on Cody, Wyoming... because hotel was wonderful.  But with the drive to Yellowstone don't do this when the road to Cody and Yellowstone is closed. Which it was and it was a 3 hour drive to Yellowstone.

Did I mention it was snowing??

Old Faithful

 

And an hour later...

We PCD's during WINTER!! Once we started heading up the mountains the SNOW started.  Now in Virginia when it snowed it basically shut everything down.  But what I found out in higher altitude is that it is actual SNOW! Snow flakes!! I hadn't seen snow flakes in a while. Mush in Virginia.

And my darling husband waited with me for Old Faithful to blow. Gotta love that man.  It was over an hour... we waited over an hour in the cold, snowing, wet... you get the point.

We made it in one piece. Some of our furniture didn't.  Thankfully when we arrived Nick's Sponsor helped us move in. With my bad shoulder I could barely lift anything.

We then ran to Ikea to replace the things that broke...

I don't think I can explain the feeling you get when you open the back of a moving truck and see pieces of furniture you love crumbled. You just have to square your shoulders and say "I guess I truly didn't need that."  And smile ever so loving at your husband because now you're out a dresser.

Ikea to the rescue. We picked up 2 dressers for less than what we thought, thus we bought two. Stained them a nice dark color.

Ohh... I'm leaving out the BEST part.

Everyone has a horror story for when they PCS, right?

We were in the middle of nowhere  Montana and the car stops working. The check engine light came over and I pulled over and turned off the car... and the gas peddle stopped working.

Luckily my quick action. I called for a tow truck and sent my husband into the next town to rent a tow.  The tow truck came and we hooked up the car to the dolly (after meeting up with my husband in the next town).  It is VERY hard to explain to someone where you are when you are looking at your map in your iPhone and explaining to them.  Because I was in the middle of mile markers I didn't know which mile marker I was at, just the town I was near.  But at the end of the day it took about 2 hours out of our schedule.

He drove the rest of the night and in the wee hours of the morning we ended up in Western Washington.  We went to our apartment, signed our lease, and began unpacking.  And rented a car after taking ours to get fixed.  Thankfully it was just the computer issue and after reprogramming the car was fine.

I enjoyed our trip across the United States.  Glad that we got to visit the things that we did. And I smile as I say this...... I HOPE TO NEVER PCS AGAIN!!!!

Just Eat Cake

I've had a really bad week...

So I ended up at a bakery.

I bought a half a dozen donuts and took a pic to tease my husband. 

This bakery has cupcakes too. Bacon cupcakes and donuts at that. So had to tease my husband. 

It seems that once your hubsand goes away everything goes wrong. And that is all I've had all week long. 

So donuts for dinner tonight. 

Homemade Fish Sticks or Fish Fingers

Blogging from my phone again since my laptop charger hasn't arrived.

I went to Pike Place Market and got some halibut. While eating some baked halibut I just thought that this fish would be a great fish to make fish sticks out of. 

So I tried it. My first attempted I made fish nuggets. I can admit I was nervous so made smaller ones in case they weren't good. 

But they were a hit. 

So I decided to do fish sticks or what I call fish fingers because I made them bigger than fish sticks. 

First you're going to need white fish. I used halibut but there are other types of white fish you can use. I took the skin off and sliced them into thick chunks. 

For the wet mix I used 2 eggs. For the dry mix I used bread crumbs, panko, garlic powder, onion powder, salt & pepper (you can add more it's up to you). 

I dipped the fish into the wet mix, then the dry mix. I tried to use a wet hand and dry hand but let's face it... Doesn't always work out that way. 

I then fried them in canola oil. And tada. 

Fish fingers!!

These are yummy. I pair them with my version of curly fries. 

Now go make yourself some fish sticks!! 

Trip Through iPhone Photos

I will properly add photos of our trip later but for now these. 

Mount Rushmore... Honestly isn't as big as I thought it would be. But it's breathtaking. 

Devil Tower... Now this thing is huge. 

And I heard my first rattle snake in Montana. Joy! 

Everything's Going to be Alright

This has become my theme song lately...

Being helpful...

I've recently experienced something traumatic... traumatic enough that I have PTSD.

The twitching began first, then the flashbacks, the fear... the fear of each day of it happening again.

I shake, more like rocking.  Sometimes I can stop, like when I take the medicine to help me sleep.  I enjoy those 5 seconds in the morning when I wake up and I am not shaking, I haven't started shaking.  Those pure 5 seconds of bliss, bliss is the term I want to use, before the shaking stops.

I want to forget what happened, bury it behind me and pretend it never happened. JUST FORGET IT.

But I can't.

I've had to explain over and over I have PTSD.  That a doctor told me that I have the worst case of PTSD that he's seen, and he's seen people coming straight back from war with PTSD.

My body hurts, from the shaking.  I'm sore.  If I fight the shaking it hurts worse, so I've learned to just go with it.

I've had to go out.  Not just because I don't want to be a hermit, but because I have to talk to people. I've had to seek help.  And people stare.

They stare, and no your staring doesn't magically make my shaking stop.
Actually it tends to make me worse... because I feel those stares.

To be helpful, don't stare.
Don't give me medical advice, psychological advice... I HAVE PEOPLE WHO PROFESSIONAL DO THIS FOR ME!!!

Don't ask me to talk about it. I RE-LIVE IT ALL OVER AGAIN.

You can ask me how my day is, what I have planned. You can do so many different things.

So I'm asking be helpful, don't be harmful.

PTSD is hard enough to deal with. It's invisible wounds that hurt. It takes time to heal.