Kentucky Pet Peeves

So I was reading a friend's blog (thank you Stephanie) and was inspired. She wrote of pet peeves. Everyone has them; I'm no different. In fact, depending on the day, I have many more than I would on better days. I decided to write a few about our army experience here in KY. In no particular order (some days I'm more bothered by the following than others), here are some of mine.

1. Ammon. Being gone. ALWAYS. Is this because I miss him so desperately and that the thought of him being gone is making my soul ache? No. But, it makes things very hard. And if I do leave, and Ammon does something, whether it be change a diaper, load the dishwasher or take out the trash (which men should do anyway), he tells me about them right away because he actually did something and he wants me to praise him for it. YAY AMMON YOU CHANGED A DIAPER ONE TIME IN FIVE DAYS! (Nothing against Ammon of course. I know he would do things a lot more if he were here. That's the whole point I guess).

(I also hate hate Ammon being gone all the time because that means we never get to spend time together. It is never just us, and hardly even just the three of us. It is so hard not seeing him. I hate having conversations through texts and waiting to see if he can call me through breaks. It's not easy. And I think this is the hardest part of all. Ammon being gone sucks on almost ALL levels).

2. Ammon usually has the car because we only brought our jeep out here while my bug stays put in my mom and dad's trusty driveway. So, on most days, I'm home stuck. Which means:

• When I do happen to "need" the car on a particular day (you know to do off-the-wall type things like grocery shop and walk around Target) and Ammon needs a ride to work, I have to wake Matthew up at 4:30 am, load him in the car, drive 18 minutes to the barracks, and drive right back. After a 40 minute drive, do you think a one-year-old wants to go back to bed? No. It takes him about an hour to realize he was forced to wake up and didn't do it on his own.
• Matthew stays inside (especially when it rains everyday like it has been).
• I am involuntarily burdened to come up with new ideas to keep me sane and to keep Matt entertained.
• Working out is difficult and is always put on the back burner because "I'm home so I can do it later." When Ammon is home on that rare occasion and I can go to the gym, it means I can't put it off and I get in a real workout when I'm out of the house.
• I obsess about the house. I look at the floor and literally sweep/vacuum/mop every single day at least once.
• I am on the internet a lot. My email is checked thirty times a day and I look on our bank account every half hour (I'm not kidding).
• Which leads me to that. When I'm home, I'm constantly, and I mean CONSTANTLY obsessing about our finances and money. I come up with seventy-five different scenarios in my head a day about when we can pay off this debt, what our financial spreadsheet looks like next year (literally), and how many months it will take for us to save up enough money if blah, blah, blah. It is actually quite pathetic.

3. Stupid drill sergeants. We have had a lot of issues while being here with Ammon's fellow DSs in his unit. I think everyday something else comes up. What does that mean for me? I usually hear about it when Ammon gets home and then I'm left to worry about what can be fixed and how we can fix it when Ammon is gone all day. This also means that I have never seen more drama in any group of girls as there is in Ammon's unit of all men. I don't ever want to hear people talk about Relief Society again! Let's talk about an all men reserve drill sergeant unit who is mobilized before we talk about women.

4. The speed limit on base. Most of the time, we are going 15 mph and I'm not joking. The Castillos got their new car and the average speed, even after the long highway drive to Nauvoo, was still 28 mph! The MP (military police) are so ignorant and on such a power trip and sit and wait for anyone that outranks them to go 1 mph over so they can give an E6 a ticket then get in their car and look proudly at their lousy E2 rank. This also makes it at least a 20 minute trek if we want to go anywhere because our housing complex seems like it is a million miles from everything when you're only going 15 in the car.

5. The cell service that SUCKS worse than any place I've ever been in EVER in my life. If my cell phone is not in one exact place by our window in our kitchen, I can't get calls, texts...nothing. So when I finally do get them, they are either so old that it basically means it is pretty pointless for me to ever return anything at all. If Ammon ever does need to get a hold of me in the mornings after his 24-hour shift and I have the car, I have to just pray that I will hear my phone while I'm up sleeping at 5:30 am.

6. Our disgusting houses that were built in the 1970s. Every time we turn around, there is something else wrong with someone's. The company (Knox Hills) charges the army an arm and a leg for them too. You can go off base and get a house and the rent will be $650 for a three-bedroom. Ours on base is $927/month.

And lastly:

7. The other women that are living on base. I was so sad when I realized how UNFRIENDLY and judgemental most of them are. Even the Mormon ones. I've tried talking to people on our street, and they literally look me up and down as if I just asked for the firstborn child. All the DSs call them KFCs (Kentucky Fat Chicks...rude, I know) but I don't think we'd look at them so rudely if they were nice. I would say 8 out of 10 of them are WAY OBESE and stay-at-home moms, so maybe they have their own pet peeves they are blogging about as we speak right now.

I started writing this hoping I would be able to get a little bit about Kentucky out for posterity (sense the sarcasm since I'm sure NO ONE, not even Matthew would like to know what I didn't like for that moment in my life). Now, it seems like I am the most pessimistic, pathetic person alive. Don't get me wrong. Except for these things, there really isn't anything else that bothers me because I know that I'm lucky enough to be here with my husband when a lot of other wives have to deal with theirs being in Iraq or Afghanistan. I will have to let you know what I like about Kentucky. But that is for another day.