Whats new?

Let me go back to Thanksgiving first. Meric and I had a couple of his coworkers over for Thanksgiving. And yes they were girls, you know Meric. :) It was nice, but weird not having very many people. Also I somehow managed to ruin the mash potatoes. Don't ask me how, all I can think is that not every kind of potato is good for mashing. Also it always suprises me how many people in the military we hang out with who don't drink. We got some Martinelli's (sp?) and had our wine glasses out for dinner. One of the ladies turned her glass over until we said it was only juice cuz we don't drink. When Meric was going through school, we never had his classmates over to the house because they couldn't have fun without drinking. Knowing the reputation of the armed forces we figured most of our non-member friends would be the same way, but so far most of them aren't big drinkers.

After Thanksgiving, we did NOT go black Friday shopping. There was no way I was getting up early and fighting the crowds. It is amazing how busy our shopping areas get for such a small town. Meric and I pretty much just hung out at home and ate ourselves silly. (No diet over the holiday)

The last few weekends we have gone out geocaching. We are up to six now and are getting better at it. We have even found a few that you exchange little goodies. To explain a bit better, there are some that are small and only can fit a log for people who find it to sign. Then there are others that are bigger so that you can put stuff in it. The rule is that you take something and leave something. Some of the objects are called travel bugs. Those you log on the website and give them goals. For example Meric and I are thinking of starting a travel bug here with the goal of it reaching Spokane. So people who find it are suppose to move it from one geocache to another until it reaches its destination. I know it all sounds so geeky, but it is actually kinda fun when you find them.

On Friday Meric and I went to our first military ball. It was fun to get all dressed up and go out. Of course once we got there the fun ended. It was so boring. There was a schedule, but we were almost an hour behind. By the time we got our food we were all starving. On the tables there was a bottle of wine (for all the toasts, 8 toasts to be exact) but no one at our table drank so the bottle went untouched. There was also tea for everyone to drink. And at a table that seats 8 there were only 4 water glasses. Everyone else was drinking the tea so Meric and I hogged all the water. The waiters would go around and fill up the tea glasses, but no water. Then they had a guest speaker, some retired general. Talk about boring. The begining of his speech was all about the war and how it is going to continue. Who wants to hear about that at a Christmas party? The end of his speech was a little better. He told a few jokes including the one Dad just used on the Hillyard Herald. (Sorry Dad but that one is super old) After that they had an award ceremony. By the time they got to the dancing everyone was tired and totally bored. I don't think the award ceremony is normal at the Christmas ball and really was, I think, an inappropriate time to do it. So not a great time at our first ball.

On Saturday Meric and I got a letter in the mail from DSS. We were accepted into the class on foster parenting and it will start January 7th. I am really glad I decided not to go home after Christmas. We were told the classes would start sometime the end of January, not the first week. I would have missed classes if I had gone home. Anyway, we are excited to start. The sooner we start the sooner we are done and on to the next part.

That is it for now!