Fly me away!

I have been wanting to update everyone lately, but really haven't had much to talk about. Things have just been a little off here lately. Our car getting stolen, Chuck working non stop, and me feeling in a rut.

I must say I am ready for things to just chill out a little. It seems that we always have some sort of chaotic thing going on here, and it's getting old. I need a vacation. You know in the last 10 years I have not had a vacation. Yah it's true. Chuck and I never got a honeymoon due to the Marines not giving him more leave. And well living off of the Income he gets with the Marines doesn't leave for a whole lot of fun to be had. I mean I have been to some places in California.....but that doesn't really feel like a vacation.

Chuck is leaving for Norway in a few days, and I was told that I could come with this time. I almost died I was so excited....but then reality set in. I don't have enough money to go. Blasted money! Chuck is going to pull some gear out of a cave in a mountain somewhere that is super secret. He doesn't even know where he is going yet. But I was told that I could come with, hang out in the hotel during the day, and then Chuck and I could explore during the evenings. And then he could take a few days leave after that so we could hang out in the country. But my airline ticket is about $1,000 each way. And then we have the problem of who would watch the dogs, because we can't afford to board them. Then the simple fact that.......I don't have a passport! Aughhhhh It is very disappointing not to be able to go. I have never been out of the country. Sure I have seen the Mexico border, been so close I could touch the fence. But I have never left the US of A! Don't get me wrong, I love the US, but I ache to go to Germany, and just experience life. I feel isolated you know.

Being a Military wife I guess sometimes means that you ride your husband's coattails, and live off of his adventures. But that yearning to be able to have an adventure of my own never goes away. Sure moving every 3-4 years is an adventure in a way, but it leans on the side of it being more irritating than adventure. You move to an unknown place, you don't have friends, then you spend 3-4 years there, make friends, find a routine, and get comfy...then it's like a rug is pulled out each time and Psych....you get to do it all over again, and say good bye to those you call friend now, and know that you probably will never see them again. ;0( It's hard to deal with some days.

So yes I am jealous of my husband sometimes. I know that all his deployments are not all fun and games, but he does get to go on quite a few cool adventures. I wish so badly I could join in on them now and again. And not just the fun ones. I wish I could share the good and the bad with him, not just him going through the bad ones alone.

I am trying to think of all the places he has been....Guam, Hawaii, Singapore, Australia, Greece, Egypt, Germany, Italy, Uganda, Iraq, Kuwait, Dubai....and I know that I am leaving out a lot of places, but I can't think of all of them right now. But that seems pretty cool to me that he has been able to experience all of these amazing places.

I guess I just need to find a way to be satisfied with riding coat tails for now.


XoXo-Andrea Carla

Chuck Gets another N.A.M.!!!

So last Sunday Chuck got back from the field with all the reservist's and even though he got home around 3 p.m., he had to stay at the shop until about 9 p.m.!! So I went over there to keep him company while he dealt with the stupid reservists. Some of those guys just kill me. I was in the armory with Chuck while he received the weapons through the window from the reservists. Chuck would ask them "Is this your weapon or borrowed?" and half these guys would give the wrong answer. I mean really how hard is it to know if this is the rifle you were issued, or is it one that you borrowed because you have never been issued one before? Aughhhh So it was a few hours of stupid kids giving the wrong answer over and over and over again! It was really irritating, and kinda funny.


Luckily I happened to be there, when Chuck received a second award for a Navy & Marine Corps Achievement Award!!! Luckily I had my little El cheapo camera with me, so I could take a picture, but alas it was dark enough that I couldn't get a good picture. So I made a video of it instead! ;0)But yet again it won't upload to this thing! Blast!! I am so proud of Chuck for receiving a N.A.M.!! ;0) He is such a great Marine, and I really am proud of all the sacrifices he makes for our family. ;0)


Chuck recently came across these really cool shoes called Vibrams, and I have to admit that even though I think they can look really ugly....They are so incredibly comfortable!!! I love my Vibrams! ;0)

XoXo-Andrea Carla

Lola's Carnapping!

Tuesday evening was sure eventful for us. Chuck got home around 5:30 p.m. and we sat on the couch for a little bit discussing if we should really run into town to get some groceries, or if we should just stay home. Well we decided to run into town. We went to the grocery store for some chow, Bed Bath and Beyond to look at a dehydrator, and to the book store...well because I am an addict for books. Then we headed home. We were only gone from about 6:30-8:30 p.m.. When we pulled onto our street Chuck stopped in the middle of the road and just stared ahead, and then kept looking behind him and then in front of the car. I didn't understand what he was doing and didn't understand why he didn't pull forward those few feet and into our driveway. I asked him and he pointed and said "I parked the Yukon right there!" he was pointing to in front of our house where there was now an empty spot. My mouth just fell open. We got out of the car, and I asked him if he was sure he hadn't parked somewhere else. He ran down the road a little and then said "I am sure I parked there!" I immediately called the Police Non-Emergency line and we reported our beloved Lola carnapped!

I called the insurance and reported the carnapping, and an officer showed up really quickly! We called our Lowjack service and the guy I talked to spoke horrible English. That is such a pet peeve of mine. I spelled out the city where we live so many times, and he still couldn't get it. He even called me back short while later because he still couldn't get it. He wasn't even in the U.S.!!! Thank goodness he passed it onto someone who was in the U.S. eventually, and we got everything activated.

The officer was really awesome and helpful. I was very pleased with how quickly she got things going. She said she would go to her car and activate the Lowjack from there. So we reported the carnapping at 8:30 p.m. At 9:30 p.m. a CHP helicopter got the first ping from our lowjack and followed it out to a ritzy gated community in Alamo called Blackhawk for a few hours. It was hard for the helicopter, because they would get a ping from the car, and then lose it again. Then it pinged again saying it was on the move, and they followed it to the Danville / San Ramoan area. We got a call at the crack of dawn stating they had located the car and it seemed in running condition, and that we had to come get it or pay the $500 tow charge. (ouch)

So we peeled ourselves out of bed and headed out into the night to find out lost Lola. We got pretty lost trying to find the police. The directions that they gave us where crap. But we eventually found her.

The officers that were there, had her doors and hatch open. We were in a nice looking neighborhood, and were surprised that this is where they were. The officer's were pretty sure that they knew who did it, but they had no evidence besides that the police dog went from our car to the back of these people's garage. But apparently one of the family member's is in prison, another in Jail, and the little brother is a hooligan, and the sister works and a really scuzzy bar in town. And the mom (who they all live with) was getting evicted from this nice condo complex. The officers thought they had stolen our car to move their mother!! They even found a car seat in the back of our car.

Luckily we were able to bring Lola home. Apparently they had a universal key that was able to unlock and start our car!!! so that means no broken windows and such. But I felt so violated that someone did that to us. I mean we have been parking in front of our house for about 2 years now, and we live in a pretty safe neighborhood I thought. Now I am afraid my car Bells will get carnapped, or our home will get broken into!! ;0/ Thanks for reading about our little California adventure!!

XoXo-Andrea Carla

Alcatraz!

So Chuck has been wanting to go to Alcatraz since we moved here, and I have to say I have not desired to do so. But he found a website that sells tickets for really cheap,(http://www.alcatrazcruises.com/ )We paid $26 per ticket instead of the normal $56... and Chuck made the decision to go while he was on leave. We decided to go on his last day of leave, and so we got up early to take the first tour. We got ready, and were just about to head out when go figure his work called! They wanted something and instead of looking for it, they just went ahead and called Chuck to ask him to find it. Aughhhh This drives me nuts!! I swear his whole shop would stop functioning if it wasn't for him! Finally after a small delay we were able to head out.


Traffic was pretty slow due to an overturned semi on another one of the bridges going into San Fran. We chose the Bay Bridge, and it took forever to get to the toll part. In fact it took so long a Blimp was able to fly over us, into San Fran, and almost completely lap us before we even got to the bridge! You gotta love California traffic sometimes! Although I have to say I am a lot more patient in traffic than most are. We finally found parking and such, and the only one that wasn't really full was $35 a day! ouch! We parked over by Pier 39, and then walked up to Pier 33 where our boat was waiting. It was a very good sized boat. 3 floors, but I am thinking it was flat bottomed because it rocked a lot. The weather couldn't have been better. It was in the 70's all day, and perfect weather. We had a short boat ride to Alcatraz Island and had a short little intro to everything. Then we headed off on our own.


The nice thing about the tour is you do it yourself. And you can stay on the island as long as you want. Boats leave every half hour, and so you choose when you leave which is very nice. We spent four hours on the island. I didn't find it as amazing as Chuck did. But I loved the birds and gardens. I liked seeing the outside of the buildings more than the inside. 50% of the island is closed because it has become a habitat for birds. Since there are no predators on the island many different kinds of birds besides seagulls have come to nest on the island. So no one is allowed to go to certain parts of the island....not even the rangers that work there.


We spent four hours on the island and both got pretty sunburned! lol Chuck and his bald head forgot a hat, and neither of us thought about sunscreen! ha ha ha So now we are both using the Solar Cane to stop the burning. After we were done, we headed back on the boat to walk around Pier 39.


I hope you like some of the pics, and the video of some of the birds making the funniest sounds! ;0) don't forget to turn off the music at the bottom so you can hear the birds! ;0)


XoXo-Andrea Carla


View of the main Guard tower The Warden's or the Commandant's 15 room mansion. Solitary Confinement Alcatraz Island Cannon guarding the way to the prison Back of Prison, and the recreation yard Prison cell Broadway row Confinement Golden Gate Bridge

The opening and closing of the doors on Broadway


The Snow Egret making funny sounds like the Yip Yip Martians on Sesame street!

Goodbye Ice Cream with Sister Goulding

So it's been another 6 weeks, and so that means transfers for our beautiful sisters. Sister Goulding got the dreaded call this time, so on Monday we took the girls out for some good ole Ice Cream! ;0) Chuck and I really like the the San Francisco Creamery, and so we thought the girls should give it a try. Here are our photos of our night out.

XoXo-Andrea Carla
The Gang!


Sister Aston


Sister Goulding


My Man Husband

Right Place, Right Time

So yesterday after I went to the Dr.'s for a regular visit, Chuck and I were on our way to his work so he could issue out ammo and weapons for an all honors funeral. We were headed down Ygnacio Valley Rd, when right next to us we saw the back end of a van get lifted up, and the back window just pop and spray glass everywhere!! I saw everything happen and it noticed that the woman driving who had hit the van was elderly. So I had Chuck pull over and I jumped out and only grabbed my phone. I called 911 and asked for officer assistance. Luckily no one was really hurt. It seems like only minor bumps and bruises, and no one wanted medical attention. The people in the van were all right. The little kids were luckily in their car seats, or it would have been a completely different story. Chuck had to go to work, so he left me there since I had reported the accident I needed to stay. So I stayed and made sure everyone was all right. The driver of the van was 7 months pregnant and a high risk pregnancy. She was a little difficult to talk to. She was so upset about the accident that she wasn't able to listen. I was concerned for her because she was only lasting on the large amount of adrenaline she had just received, and might not feel so great once it starts to drop. I finally got her to sit down and rest a little. The elderly woman was holding it together pretty well, but she was really shaken up. I kept my arm around her the whole time trying to calm her down. You could tell she was mad at herself for the accident and she was upset because she didn't know how to get her husband from the gym. She kept trying to call him, but he wasn't picking up since he had already put his belongings in his locker at the gym. So I called the gym and had them announce over the intercom for him to come to the counter. She was so relieved once she was able to talk to him. I thought it was cute how she was able to relax a little once she could talk to him.

Both cars were towed, and I gave my statement. It turned out a third car was involved, but he only nicked the corner of the SUV and not much damage was done at all. After the cars were gone, and the police left I was still there because Chuck had left with my car. So I was at the accident for a few hours. But I am glad I was there to help. I was the only witness who had stopped and the only one who had stopped to help. I am glad I did though. And I am so happy that everyone was all right.

XoXo-Andrea Carla

The Blind Side Review

Do you think that movie makers finally realized that they have been making some craptastic movies lately, and so now they are pushing out good one's?

We have another gem here folks! Now yes this movie won a lot of awards, and Sandra Bullock did deserve the awards she got. But nowadays that isn't saying much just because a movie wins something.

This movie was great. This is not a crying movie, but a feel good movie. It is awesome. If only more people were like this! I would have liked to see more about Michael's brother or other siblings. But really this movie did not seem to be lacking anything. This movie is very well put together. I will explain a little about the movie the best I can, but I do apologize if I mess it up.

Mike or Big Mike as we meet him is living on a couch at a friends house, and the father gets him and his son admitted to a Christian school. Big Mike is a very large black man in a school of mostly white kids. He feels out of place, and keeps to himself. He does not do his homework, because he does not know how to study. No one has ever taken an interest in him, and so he feels very out of place in his current setting. He hears the people who are letting him stay on their couch fighting about him, so he takes his only belongings and runs away. He does not have anywhere to go, so he stays in the laundry Mart where it is warm, and in the school gym at night because it keeps the winter chill off of him. One night he is walking back to the school and it is very cold outside. But all he owns is 2 t-shirts and a pair of shorts.

The Tuohy a respectable Memphis, Tennessee family are going home one cold night and pass Mike on the street. Leigh Anne tells her husband to turn around and go back where they find out that Big Mike has no place to go for the night. The Tuohy's take him in for the night and it he sleeps on the couch. It lasts a couple of night's, and then Leigh Anne cleans out the spare bedroom and buys Mike a bed. Something he has never had before. It is really a great story and I don't want to tell to much more. I will copy and paste the IMDB.com synopsis, but if you don't want to ruin the movie....don't read it.

I give this movie 4 out of 5 stars. It is a great movie, it has great content, and it is a feel good movie.

XoXo-Andra Carla

"The Blind Side" is based on the remarkable true story of Baltimore Ravens offensive left tackle Michael Oher (Quinton Aaron). Michael grew up in the inner city housing projects with his mother in Memphis, Tennessee aptly named "Hurt Village". Michael's story begins with him being homeless and coming from a broken home with a drug-addicted mother, and an absentee father. Because of his family circumstances, Family Services took control of his life as he was growing up. Unfortunately, he was being bounced around in and out of foster homes, and now as a teenager he has taken it upon himself that he would rather be homeless. By a stroke of luck, and the coach's wish for a player the size of Michael, he ends up enrolling in a private Christian school where the Tuohy kids go. Michael is a quiet person. He is shown to have a kind of childish personality, because he tries to play with kindergarten children (Rachel St. Gelais) who reject or ignore him. Michael is befriended by S.J. Tuohy (Jae Head), the youngest Tuohy whose connection to Michael starts the ball rolling.

One icy winter night, as Michael is walking down the road to the school gym, where he is sleeping, Leigh Anne Tuohy (Sandra Bullock) with her husband Sean (Tim McGraw) and children Jae and Collins (Lily Collins) pick Michael up and take him home for the night. However, he stays for the next night, which puzzles Sean, although the children accept Michael matter-of-factly. Soon, Leigh Anne offers him a room and bed. As she starts making him greater and greater favours, he comes to research through Michael's exams, and the only positive feedback that teachers could ever say about him is that he had big protective instincts. Leigh Anne will use that to explain him how to play in the field. Up to that moment, he wasn't able to get the hang of the game and its rules, and he wasn't able to understand what his role in the field was.

From that moment, Michael starts to play well and be useful to his team. At the traditional Christmas card photograph of that year, Leigh Anne invites him to appear on the photo. Leigh Anne's friends Beth (Rhoda Griffs), Elaine (Eaddy Mays) and Sherry (Ashley LeConte Campbell) meet regularly at a local expensive restaurant. The friends laugh about Leigh Anne's "project in the projects", but she cuts it off, saying that if they don't respect what she does, she will stop seeing them.

An opportunity arises for Michael to play at university level. However, he needs his grades to improve, so the Tuohys hire a private tuition teacher, outspoken and kind Miss Sue (Kathy Bates), who will immediately succeed. During their Geography lesson, she makes a stupid remark about some university burying the bodies of dead people in their game field, which Michael seems to believe blindly.

There comes a moment when Leigh Anne wants to have a face-to-face conversation with Michael's mother(Adriane Lenox). Although she seems unresponsive in the beginning, the mother finally wishes Michael the best. She says that social services had branded Michael "a runner", and she forecasts that Leigh Anne will find one day that he has run away for good without giving any previous notice. Leigh Anne also faces some guys from the projects which had threatened Michael. They are left speechless when she threatens them and is not afraid of them at all.

3 universities want Michael. S. J. talks to the coaches, and leads the negotiations on Michael's behalf. When Michael gets his grades high enough, he must make a decision, and he does. He chooses the university where Sean had played for, and where Leigh Anne was a cheerleader. That causes Investigator Granger (Sharon Morris) to move onto the matter before Michael arrives there. She questions him as though they were holding interrogatory preceding at a police station. She thinks that the Tuohys and Miss Sue are using Michael to benefit that particular university.

After thinking and questioning Leigh Ann on the matter, Michael realises that the Tuohys are now his family, and tells Granger that that's the reason for him to choose that university.

The film ends saying that he'll succeed and become a professional player later on. S. J went out to the game field with Michael before all local games.

Sherlock Holmes Review

I find it amazing that good movies come in spurts. For a while it seems movies aren't good at all, and then suddenly you find a few gems amongst all the crap.

Chuck and I have seen a few trailers for this movie, and it looked pretty good. But alas most trailers we have seen lately look good, but turn up being not so good. Chuck and I normally just buy the DVDs instead of going to the movies because it is much cheaper. But sometimes if we are not so sure about the movie....we rent it on PPV. So last night we watched Sherlock Holmes on PPV. And we loved it! It was funny, it kept you on your toes with interest, and is entertaining. I was afraid that it might be good, and then half way through just take a dive towards bad. But it never did. You learn to love Watson, laugh at Sherlock, and start rooting for Miss Adler. The plot is great and Sherlock does not let you down. And you learn to like the funny little things in the film like how Sherlock keeps testing his drugs on the poor dog. I love the dog!

I hope you like the movie as much as we did. We think we might just be adding this one to our home collection.

I give this 3.8 out of 5 stars! ;0)

XoXo-Andrea Carla

Pancake Flippage

I thought this would be much more entertaining than writing about it! lol

XoXo-Nonnie

Confessions from a Neglected Kitchen

I thought this would be much more entertaining than writing about it! lol

XoXo-Andrea Carla

How to Train your Dragon Review

When this movie trailer came out, it looked great! It didn't look like it had any hidden messages in the script, and it sounded funny.

So the day Chuck took leave, within half an hour he was called back in. ;0( So I went with him. After he was done with work, we just kind of ended up at the movies. It wasn't planned, but we thought why not. We hit up an afternoon matinee to avoid all the kids and teenagers.

We put on our 3d glasses, and got ready to be amazed!

We are first introduced to Hiccup...You learn to love him. There are a few famous people doing voices in this movie. And the one that You can really recognise is Gerard Butler. Hiccup is a Viking, but not your average one. He is to much of everything. To skinny, to weak, to much of a klutz. And all he seems to do is cause problems when he tries to help when the dragons attack. Poor Hiccup just wants to help, but everyone else is bigger and better than him. Hiccup works for the town Blacksmith, and he even has a hard time doing that because the weapons are so much bigger than he is.

When the dragons attack, they steal all the sheep and farm animals from the villagers as well as burn all their homes down. Hiccup builds a machine to take out a dragon because he isn't strong enough to lift a weapon. There is one dragon that is more dangerous than the rest. The Night Fury has never been seen before, and never misses it's target! It is faster than the others, and the most dangerous. One night when the dragons attack Hiccup gets out of the Blacksmith hut, and takes his little invention out to test drive it. He waits for the Night Fury to attack and actually hits it on the first try. He can see it crash land not far away but no one will believe him that he got one. And everyone in the village makes fun of him for saying that he got one. He sneaks out of his home to try to find the dragon, and what does he find?....a black dragon all tied up and hurt. He pulls out his knife to kill it so he can really be called a Viking, but he just can't do it. Poor Hiccup cuts the dragon loose, and lets it go.
He comes back later to see where the dragon went, and finds the injured Night Fury dragon. The dragon is caught in a sort of crater and can't fly out. It is hungry and tired. Hiccup sees what this dragon needs and starts to earn his trust. He gets him food, and builds him a new tail so that he can fly. It takes a few bad tries, but they become good friends, and in enters our new friend Toothless!

Hiccup is put into dragon training, and he finds a way to work with the dragons without hurting them, and no one but Astrid seems to suspect anything. Hiccup finds out that these dragons aren't really dangerous, but that they are trying to defend themselves. But he doesn't know how to let his father know that there is a way to work with the dragons instead of trying to catch and kill them. And so here is the story of the movie.... ;0)

I laughed through the whole movie, and out loud quite a few times. This movie is a great family movie, and I think it is by far the best movie I have ever seen. I love this movie, and I cannot wait to see it again. I highly recommend this movie. It is a fantastic movie!

I give this movie an easy 5 out of 5 stars!! Rush out and see it now!! ;0)

XoXo-Andrea Carla

Planet 51 Review

The commercial for this movie looked pretty good. Chuck and I love cartoons, and so when this one came out we were pretty excited about seeing it.

When it was released on DVD we thought hey why not grab it and settle in for a great date night. And well that is just what happened.

This is a great movie! Chuck and I were laughing and found it to be pretty good. We loved the Alien's and the human. The dog like robot named Rover is pretty entertaining. I love this movie, and highly suggest you watch it as soon as ya can.

I give this movie a 4 out of 5 stars!!

XoXo-Andrea Carla

Alice in Wonderland Review!

When I saw that this movie was coming out, I was pretty excited! And as an added bonus Johnny Depp was going to be the Mad Hatter!! ;0)I mean really who could be a better Mad Hatter than Johnny?!!

Chuck and I were not expecting to go to the movies, but things just kinda happened and there we were off to watch the new Alice in 3D. We sat on the very top row, in the middle.....our favorite! We weren't surrounded by to many people. There were a few annoying teenagers around us, but it wasn't to bad.

As the movie started the anticipation was pretty big! I couldn't wait to see the movie!
We put on our 3D glasses and started to be introduced to the characters. First we meet Alice and the lord she is to marry..he is not cute...so much so I couldn't really find a movie photo of him.

His name is Hamish, and he is a little icky. While Alice is talking to Hamish mother, we see the White Rabbit for the first time. He is quick, and seems to hide a lot, but you just don't get a good look at him. Next thing you know, Alice is falling down the hole and bumping into and bouncing off of things. She lands in the room with the drink me and eat me stuff. And then walks through the door to find our White Rabbit.

Instantly we meet some characters and two of them are Tweedledee / Tweedledum....and I have to say these two are super creepy looking. I am normally a fan of the two, and love them......but these new ones I do not like!

I started to notice that the graphics were not that good at all, and you could really tell how fake it all was. Now I am not saying I was expecting it to be real, but sometimes the graphics are so great it looks real. Alice starts running from some monster dog....the mouse pops it's eye out with it's needle/sword....and Alice and the twins get away. Next the twins are scooped up by a big bird and poor Alice is by herself. We are also introduced to the Red and White queens. I loved the Red Queen! She looked fantastic, and the White queen is funny! She tries to put off a front of being so peaceful and kind, but you see for a minute that she is just normal! lol You find out that Red has a lot of insecurities. Her head is to big, and so everyone in her court has something to big, like ears, a nose, or a belly. But the thing we really find out, is that everyone else is fake. You really learn to like Red.


Overall I think the movie wasn't that great. I was pretty disappointed in the whole thing. The graphics were poor, and I was not wowed by it at all. I feel that I wish I hadn't paid for the movie. I think it is worth seeing, but don't pay for it. And I do not suggest this for children.

Wait to see this one until it is out on PPV folks. I give it a 3 out of 5 stars!

XoXo-Andrea Carla