FDS: Fort Campbell KY

Well, we made it through basic training! It was a very long 4 months (minus the 2 weeks he was able to come home during Christmastime). We sure missed Daddy. It was a wonderful blessing for us to be able to live with Max's parents during that time and for Roxy to get to spend so much time with her Gangie, Pop-pop, aunts, uncles and cousins. Max graduated from OSUT on March 15. I'm so glad we were able to go visit him and see him graduate and spend that time with him. It was so wonderful!

We also found out during that weekend the gender of our baby! I had the ultrasound tech write on a piece of paper the sex of the baby then she sealed it in a envelope. We opened it together on the day of Max's Turning Blue Ceremony. BOY!!!! It was so great.

Max found out the previous day where our first duty station would be.... Fort Campbell Kentucky! Since we were withing driving distance from there, we had the opportunity to drive Max up there to report to his unit instead of him taking a bus. I was awesome to get to spend that extra time with him. We had to do a little change of plans with the extra driving involved, but it worked out great! 

Max spent about 4 weeks in-processing at Fort Campbell while Roxy and I waited back in Texas to hear news on when, where, and how we'd be getting to Kentucky. It was a tough 4 more weeks, not knowing what would happen. I like to have my ducks in a row so it was hard for me to be patient, but I am learning! Luckily Max was able to get 10 days of PTDY to come help us move and we did a PPM move, where we moved ourselves instead of the Army moving us. We're glad we ended up doing things that way, despite a few difficulties. We were able to pocket some extra money doing it that way, which always comes in handy!

So I'd consider us pretty settled here at Fort Campbell. We live on post in some crappy, old, government housing! But we don't care! We're so happy just to be together, and we're enjoying our little life together and      our daily routines. Our lives revolve around our little girl, but we wouldn't have any other way. It amazes us how big and grown up Roxy is getting. She is now 21 months. She is starting to talk a lot and loves playing at the park, watching Barney, playing with baby dolls, and singing to her favorite kids songs, even though she can't quite get the words right. 

We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of our son and can't wait for Roxy to be a big sister and to be able to start all over again with another tiny special little gift from God. I'm 32 weeks along, so just a few more weeks to go now, he'll be here before we know it! Can't wait!

 30 weeks

 Little monkey hanging on a tree

 Making a mess!

Learning how to find the good strawberries at the H&S Farms Strawberry Jam

Our townhome-style apartment in Fort Campbell

My DH

Max has been gone from us for 19 days now. He was in reception for quite a few days but he has been officially training to become a soldier for the past 10 days. I was able to find the Facebook group for Max's company and they uploaded photos and videos yesterday! This was the only real good one of Max. He's running his heart out! I've received a couple of great letters from him and he sounds like he's holding up really. He's had a couple of great experiences. I'm so thankful for that! We love our army Daddy. And only 18 days from now he will be home with us! 

Roxy and I are staying pretty busy, babysitting a 4 year old girl part time, and doing activities that keep Roxy's busy little mind and fingers occupied. We love our little monkey monster!

Cute dresses!

I just bought one of these dresses last month.. it's soo cute! They are doing a giveaway and the winner gets a free dress every month for a year! Awesome!!! Here is the link to sign up so you can have a chance too :

http://blog.shabbyapple.com/2012/10/why-because-we-love-you.html

This is the dress I bought ... super cute ! It's for my Halloween costume ... can you guess who I'm going to be ?

Proud Army Wife

So, I'm about to begin a life as an 'Army wife.' Max has enlisted in the Army so for at least the next six years we will be living the military lifestyle and experiencing the ups and downs that goes along with it. All in all, we are excited! I don't mind moving around, and Max has mostly lived in Texas his whole life so we are looking forward to experiencing some other parts of the country and hopefully the world. It would be a wish come true if we were able to get stationed abroad. Anywhere overseas would suit us just fine, but our top picks would be Italy, Germany and Japan!

We do realize this is not a typical thing that a family at our age would normally do. We definitely have to deal with our share of comments and bewildered facial expressions when we share with others. BUT, we continue to feel that this is the right decision for us and it's the path that Heavenly Father wants us to go down. The most wonderful thing for me is that I am now going to be able to quit my job. In fact, my last day is Oct 17th! Yay! Another wonderful thing is that I've found a family that I will be able to work part-time for, I am going to babysit a little 4 year old girl about 25 hrs a week. This way a) I will be staying busy while Max is away in Georgia and North Carolina doing all his training for 7 + months (minus 2 weeks for Christmas)  and b) we'll be able to have some extra income and be able to save our dollars! I feel so grateful and it feels like one of those times in life where everything is working out. So I better keep my guard up for the next challenge that comes our way :)

Happy Happy Birthday Roxy dear!

Our little baby has become a toddler! Happy Birthday (belated) to Roxy! She got way too many presents from Grandma and everyone, but she had tons of fun opening them and playing with them. The Dr Pepper cake was also a hit with her! We love you Roxanne! You are so smart and sweet and GROWN UP!

The Monkey

Well, obviously, the hugest thing going on in our lives over the past couple of years is giving birth to our sweetest little daughter. Roxanne Lois Weaver was born on 9/5/11. It was Labor Day. She came 6 days early. She has been the best baby !!! By now she is 11 months. She has quite the personality. She loves to dance. She loves music. She loves to talk and babble and hear her own voice. She loves watching kid videos on Youtube. She loves trying to sneak into the bathroom and play in the toilet when we're not looking. She loves to EAT! The girl has some CHUNK to her. In short she has been the become the center of our lives and we're just rejoicing every day and thanking God that we have such a wonderful, healthy baby girl to snuggle on every day. What a blessing! Here are some photos/videos in ascending age.

Hi. So, it's been awhile. hahaha Obviously a lot has happened in the past, what ... 2 years ?  For whatever reason I decided I'm going to try to start blogging again. So here goes. I won't go into anything real huge now I'll just start with something fun! I've been looking at a lot of travel blogs during the day when I have free moments. I saw this travel-themed survey 'ABC's of Travel' and though it would be neat to fill it out. It was so fun!! It made me happy to think about some of my fondest travel memories I've had. Yay.

A: AGE you went on your first international trip
I went to Rome, Italy for 4 weeks to study Italian in a language school right after high school

B: Best (foreign) BEER you’ve ever tasted
Butterbeer at The Wizarding World of Harry Potter @ Universal Studios       J I don’t drink real beer

C: CUISINE (favorite)
My favorite thing to eat is freshly baked bread. So for that reason it would probably should be French, but I love so may Italian dishes so that is maybe the truer answer.

D: Most and least favorite DESTINATIONS
Most Favorite: Basque Country. San Sebastian, Biarritz, St. Jean de la Luz… all amazing.
Least Favorite: Belize. Everyone there just felt really shifty. We did not feel very safe.

E: EVENT you experienced that made you say “wow”.
Climbing to the top of St Peter’s Basilica and seeing the amazing views and Vatican City and Rome. I fell in love with travel at that moment.

F: FAVORITE mode of transportation
Renting a scooter and zooming around!

G: GREATEST feeling while traveling
Learning something new about a different culture and being able to appreciate it.  

H: HOTTEST place you’ve traveled to

Thailand was stinkin' hot.

I: INCREDIBLE service you’ve received and where
Seoul, Korea. The girl that led the tour was incredibly kind and friendly and even emailed me photos because I had forgot my camera. [This is a photo of me enjoying a traditional Korean meal :) ]

J: JOURNEY that took the longest

Coming home from SE Asia. Bangkok to Seoul… 4.5 hrs,  10 hr layover, Seoul to LAX… 11 hrs, LAX to SLCL… 2 hours.

K: KEEPSAKE from your travels
I don’t buy trinkets very often but I like to keep city maps that I used. I especially like it when they are kind of torn and battered because it means I used it a lot and got to see a lot of things J

L: LET-DOWN site; why and where
I can’t really think of a good one. Getting my purse stolen while in an H&M in Madrid was not a high point. But that’s not really a let-down. Just a crappy misfortune.

M: MOMENT that you fell in love with travel
Same as my ‘wow’ moment. But another one was relaxing on a yacht in the Bahamas while the wind was blowing through my face and seeing the most gorgeous blue water ever.

N: NICEST hotel you’ve stayed in
I tend to go the cheap route. Probably the nicest would be the Gaylord Texan right here in Grapevine, or maybe the Animal  Kingdom Hotel at Disney World.

O: OBSESSION- what are you obsessed with taking pictures of while you travel?
Anything that is weird or makes me laugh. Like huge posters all around Bangkok of the Thai King doing random stuff like playing the Saxophone.

P: PASSPORT STAMPS- How many and from where?
I love my passport. I will be so sad if they have to completely erase all the stamps when I sent it in to get my renewal/name change. I think I have probably somewhere around 30.

Q: QUIRKIEST attraction you visited and where?
It’s really not that quirky because it’s very on the beaten path for anyone travelling to SE Asia, but seeing the ‘elephant farm’ in Chaing Mai where they train the elephants to play soccer or paint pictures is really quite funny.  


R: RECOMMENDED site, event or experience
Snorkeling in the Florida Keys. So so so beautiful and amazing!

S: SPLURGE- something you have no problem spending money on while you’re traveling
Food. I love trying everything.  

T: TOURISTY thing you’ve done
Vang Vieng in Laos -- tubing down the river and stopping along the way to have a snack at the bars and play on their rope swings. Pretty dang touristy but it was so much fun.

U: UNFORGETTABLE travel memory
The best road trip ever.  Spending a week in Laguna Beach with 3 awesome friends and laughing more than I have in my whole life, maybe more than I will ever again!

V: VISAS- How many and from where?
4 – Brazil, Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos. The Coolest looking one is the Cambodian.

W: WINE- Best glass of wine you’ve had, and where
I don’t drink wine. But a memorable ‘virgin’ beverage was freshly squeezed passion fruit juice in Hawaii.

X: EXCELLENT view and from where?
Riding on a bus through the mountains Laos and seeing the beautiful green countryside.

Y: YEARS spent traveling
8

Z: ZEALOUS sports fans and from where?
I’m not really a sports fan but in Brazil they have a ton a national pride and they seem pretty gung-ho about their soccer teams down there.  

I don't have kids yet but I love this video. I think we can all relate to those people who are always trying to one-up you...

California Love?

We have been thinking about moving to Southern California. Good idea? Bad idea? We don't want to live in Texas anymore. We just feel like moving. So far we have talked about Seattle, AZ and California. We like the California idea. It's kind of scary to think about moving and starting over again though! Ahhh !

Our Nation's Capitol

Here are a few picks from our trip to Washington DC in January!



President George Wasington's Tomb at his home @ Mount Vernon



Ships at Jamestown, VA




The whole gang



Me and Momma

Washington Monument

Air and Space Museum

Speer women in front of the Capitol Buidling

A portrait of Max's favorite President, Andrew Jackson!

at the Ronald Reagan Airport

Dr. Pepper, the White House, and Baklava

So not that anyone reads this, but I decided to write today after a 7 month hiatus. Basically, I'm not a great blogger because I don't have much of interest to share. Anyway, life is pretty sweet right now. I love my sweet husband a lot. We are so happy together! We miss each other when we are away all day. I'm excited for babies but it's not time yet.

I also really like my job right now. Since last August, I have been working for Ryder Logistics. This job is a great fit for me! I work on the Dr. Pepper account and I coordinate shipments of Dr. Pepper finished goods to get from the plants where they are made to other locations. Basically I'm emailing and on the phone all day with carriers and Dr. Pepper people. It requires a lot of patience and customer service skills and tedius, detail-oriented tasks. But luckily I can do that stuff all DAY, and I do lately. This weekend I am even working some on Saturday and Sunday. Which means, HELLA over time! Yes, I still work on an hourly basis. I am actually still a temp through an employment agency. I have heard that they are "working on something" for me so that I can get hired on as a full-time Ryder employee soon. That means more money, health benefits and paid vacation days. Yay! Hopefully it won't take another 7 months to make that happen.

In more interesting news, Max and I went on a vacation to Washington DC and Williamsburg VA a few weeks ago!! We had an AWESOME time. We went with my Mom, my Aunt, my Aunt's granddaughter, and my cousin. We had a good ol' Speerneck time. For me the trip's top make- fun -of-my-mother worthy moment was when we were moving inching down the road slowly on a crowded bus, and at a stop where several people were getting off, Mom got all nervous and practically shouted and the person next to her "should we get off this bus???" HAHA as if they would know if we should get of the bus or where we were going, etc. Mom really makes me laugh. She goes out of her way to ask people questions, without ever taking 2 seconds to try to figure something out for herself.

Another memorable moment in the trip was when we arrived for our White House tour and OD had brought her camera, even though it was clearly stated in our paperwork that there were NO CAMERAS in the White House. Well Lynda decided that she would find someplace to stash the camera and ran off. After the tour we found out that she had gone the the Willard Hotel (very fancy and historical hotel) and asked them to keep if for her. When they said no she stuffed the camera between some seat cushions, along with 2 donuts she had in a plastic bag. Ironically when she came back to retreieve the items, the camera was still there but the donuts were gone. HA! Crazy Speer ladies.

Since I'm somewhat of a foodie I suppose, I had fun EATING on the trip. The best was this Lebanese restaurant we ate at. Ahhh hummus, shawarma, and flatbread, plus the best piece of baklava I've ever eaten, among other things. Another favorite was a Persian restaurant, also delicious. Good kabob.

I'll have to post some pics later. Basically it was really really cool. Very affordable too!

That is a little snapshot of my life at the moment. All is well in Texas!

I am still looking for a job. But I am waiting to hear back from a job, they said they will let me know tomorrow. It's an administrative assistant position at a High School in Denton, TX. If they accept me, I will get an in to the school system, they hopefully it will be easy for me to get a teaching job (after I get my Texas Teaching Certificate, probably sometime within the next year). ! ! !!!! !!!

Why doesn't anyone want to hire me? I am totally awesome. I would blame it on the economy, but I'm kind of tired of that. I think it's me--I need to take a different approach. Maybe start "pounding the pavement." What's great (but kind of annoying) is that Max spent like 2 days looking for a job, and found one. Geeez. Well, I'm glad he's better at getting jobs than I am. Because before long my job will be having babies. YES

IN OTHER NEWS:
I'm going out of town "on business" this weekend. Yes I will be going to Oklahoma City to babysit for a special event. Why someone would hire babysitters from a Dallas agency to work in Oklahoma is beyond me. But, it will be worth it I think.

I have a whole list of things I want to do/buy once we have jobs, such as
-Get a GYM membership. YUCK I am grossly out of shape
-Go to some museums in Fort Worth and Dallas
-Buy some protein power. Just can't justify it right now. But my body is needing it!
-Eat at this awesome chinese restaurant that has free delivery
-Go to Zara. Duh.


Here are some photos of this summer:





Visiting The Alamo in San Antonio-
The 'Venice of America' haha that's
a strech.


Photo op with the sassy Watson girls at
Courtney's wedding



Good ol' Sam Houston


I caught a delicious bass in Oklahoma (not an actual bass)

TOOL

OK. Me, Max, and Max's friend Chip went to see TOOL last night. Can I say, I am so happy we were able to by those tickets when we weren't jobless and broke because it was AMAZING.

We were SO CLOSE TO THE STAGE. Like 10 feet away from as close as you could be, about 20 feet away from guitarist (and claymation artist, interestingly enough) Adam Jones. They played a really awesome set. I would have to say that the best was Lateralus (from Lateralus). It was intense, moving, inspiring, energetic, and the 2 person drum duet (sounds funny. Drum duet.) with drummer Danny Carey plus a guest random shirtless drummer sporting an rad Indian headress was NUTS. In the most sensational way.

Afterwards was not to bad either, going to Max's aunt&uncle's place and jamming in their recording studio. Well, I mostly watched everyone else jam, but also sang some vocals on High and Dry (Radiohead) which was a lot of fun.

I must say, it was pretty refreshing to actually get out and have fun instead of sitting at home and being poor as dirt. (Hey though, we're a lot better off than a lot of people because we ARE dirt poor, but we are DEBT FREE which is actually quite awesome.)

One more exciting tidbit: Max spotted a new photo on the TOOL fanclub website (on the homepage)taken at the concert last night, and even though we can't quite prove it because it's dark, we are pretty darn sure we are IN it! Whooo!!! In the bottom left-hand corner. We refrenced it to the heights of people who were standing around us and uh, YES I am pretty sure we were captured in this amazing moment. I can't get the photo off the fanclub website to post but you can see it here: http://www.toolarmy.com/home/


YAY for CONCERTS!!!

SEEKING EMPLOYMENT

I lost my job over two weeks ago. DAHHH! They hired me in the hopes of getting a bunch of new business after the launch of a new website, but it didn't really happen, so they couldn't justify extra help anymore. Some kind of FAMILY BUSINESS. Didn't even give me any warning.



Now I have to start all over with THE JOB SEARCH



For now I am back to watching babies for cash money. Otherwise known as "babysitting." I thought about doing the nannying thing again full time, but I just can't. I just don't want to. I JUST DON'T WANT TO DO IT. If I am going to be watching Max's babies at home for most of my years I just wanna do something else in before those years come. Somehow I have not been worried about finding a job. And we have been really blessed out of nowhere, just like we are supposed to be, because we pay our tithing. Like, my old work randomly put some more money in my account the other day. Crazy. Maybe it's guilt money for firing me. I'm taking it, whatever the reason is.

So actually, I had a job interview today. To be a teacher of English at an international language school in Dallas! I can't believe they let me even interview with them! I basically have no experience teaching, besides tutoring. And I don't even have a Texas teaching certificate, just a regular old TESOL certificate [TESOL stands for 'Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages]. So, I will have to wait another week or so to find out if they want to hire me. CROSS YOUR FINGERS and PRAY FOR ME! Because I would LOVE to teach!!! I would love to teach English! I would love to teach English to Koreans (and a handful of others from a few other countries) how to distinguish r's from l's!!!! PLEASE, HIRE ME!

Oh and one other blessing, I got hired to work part time as a tutor for Studypoint. They pay is good, flexible schedule, and if the Elite Language Institute decides to hire me, I will be able to tutor between teaching classes!!!

I think I am going to get my teaching degree. Here in Texas you just need a Bachelor's Degree in anything and then you can basically get a certificate online in as early as 6 weeks. AWESOME plus teachers in Texas make good money starting out, like $44K the first year or something like that. I would love to teach ESL!!! Maybe for the 2010/11 school year???

Ok, Max and I have been watching episodes of this show lately called Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job. hahaha. It is bizarre, raucous, and slightly innappropriate at times, but I must say it is hilarious. They basically just make up the most random of fake infomercials, songs, newscasts, all kinds of arbitrary junk really and make it into a show. Here are a few videos for your enjoyment,

love this Josh Groban one, it's especially funny when you've seen the weirdo "casey" sing these ridiculous songs before



And this one has to be my favorite: HOBBY HOLES

It get's a lot stranger. These are some of the milder videos.

ENJOY

-HOOLIE

I can't wait to see my family.


In 6 days I get to fly to California and see all 28 of my immediate family members/their spouses and offspring. PLUS all the aunts uncles and cousins on my Mom's side of the family.


I can't wait. I got a little spoiled having so many of my family members in Utah and seeing them all the time. I have my husband's family all over the place down here, but it miss mine !!!


Trinity Lake is one of my places to be. We have a tiny little house there. It makes me so happy.









My beautiful niece Kyrie at Trinity Lake.


Have I mentioned I can't wait?

I recently had a conversation with my husband about how I would probably never have a blog. And who knows, perhaps this will be my first and only post! But as Max always says, girls don't know what they want, and they want what they can't have.

So I think I'm starting a blog

My life has changed drastically over the past several months.

#1 I GOT MARRIED.

Falling in love was the last thing I expected to happen last summer. And yes, I became engaged to Max a mere 3 months after we had know each other. I know, IT SOUNDS NUTS TO ME TOO. I always felt pity for those silly girls who just wanted to get married to have constant attention or whathaveyou. But, Max is not like other guys! He is my dreamlover. He's the sweetest, funniest computer geek ever

#2 I MOVED TO TEXAS.

I am a resident of Keller, TX, which borders Fort Worth. A google search for an image of Keller revealed the most common thing to be houses looking about like this:




Yep. Basically it's a growing middle-class suburb of Fort Worth and all the houses look about the same.

I abscolutely never saw myself ending up in Tejas 'neither. . . it is so different from my native Northern California Coast and obviously from Utah. I am staying open-minded about it though. It is starting to get warmer, greener, and little buds on the trees are beginning to bloom. This pleases me! But, I am looking for culture here. Interestingly enough there is a cool-looking Buddhist Wat (temple), right here in Keller! In fact, it is the Buddhist temple with the largest Buddha statue in the US. Go figure! I want to check it out soon.

#STARTED WORKING FULL-TIME

So my "real job" after graduation has turned out to be working in a furniture store in the Lease department. BUT I do speak Spanish daily which does exercise skills I learned in college. But after a 4 month journey of working as:

a)student exchange rep

b) translator

c) babysitter

d) nanny

I think I have finally found something that will stick. At least for now....haha. But let's just say that I am so grateful to have a steady job in this unsettling economic situation! Yay! Count your blessings!