Fall is Here! Fall is Here!

Huzzah! There are pumpkins on street corners and in stores, there are Halloween costumes for sale, and pumpkin spice lattes back at starbucks. I officially have an excuse to sit at home with a blanket, a book, and a cup of mint tea and just "enjoy the air" as I like to say. Our windows are always open (except when our neighbors are outside smoking, poisoning us and ruining my fall air) and there are apple trees everywhere! I've been sporting all my deep yellows, oranges, and browns just to feel more festive. I love autumn weather. I can't get enough!
We've been to the cider mill where we bought some home made apple cider and some yummy apples (that I made awesome apple pie last week with). We had a picnic at Thompson park, followed by a trip to the Watertown Zoo. I'm enjoying this weather- a lot! It's warm in the sunshine and nice an breezy everywhere else.

I love watching the leaves change from green to yellow to red , and then everyone in the neighborhood pulls out their rakes and makes big piles. And if you don't like big piles of leaves, then i'm sorry, you are no longer my friend.

Happy Autumn everybody!

Good (Early) Morning

This morning I woke up at 6:30 (the sun didn't come up until 7:30) to take Mr. Eckstein to work for the week. They have a 4 day work week out in the field rucking and running fake missions. Which means I will be at home alone all week. And I. don't. like. it.
I made myself breakfast and sat outside for the morning with my book and a cup of coffee and enjoyed the morning air. It's only 12:48pm and I can tell this is going to be a looong week. Well, here's what my morning looked like.

Yogurt, granola, and bananas.

Bossypants by Tina Fey

My view

Happy Monday everyone. I hope you all have a lovely week.

On the Weekends...

Sometimes, our weekends look like this:

(he's in the middle)

We attended the Annual Battalion Ball for the Army. We got all fancied up and ate some sub-par food. We were gonna stay until the dancing, but that was the last event for the night and there was no way we were stickin' around for 3 hours just to dance. So, we went home and put on a little Frank Sinatra and danced in our apartment by ourselves. That was more fun, anyway.

And sometimes, our weekends look like this:

I made homemade apple pie this weekend for the first time! 3 times! We purchased some yummy apples from the cider mill last weekend and then Dugan came home with an arm-full of little apples from a tree he saw the other day so, I went on an apple pie, making frenzy.  The house smelt like warm apple pie, giving our home a feel for fall. The pies turned out GREAT- complete with flaky crusts and a sweet apple center and some vanilla ice cream on the side. Ohh, yeahh! 

 This weekend I've been sporting my finest pair of sweatpants. We spent this morning watching The Office and some Lost, playing some Paper Mario, and then went for a little walk. It hasn't been productive, but I don't care. I'm productive throughout the week, I like laying around the house on the weekends.

 

side note: Ramona came down with something this last week; pneumonia I think. I've never seen a cat so sick. Poor kitten. I was very scared the other night that she was going to die and I stayed up all night with her. I took her to the vet, the doc gave her some pricey antibiotics, and she is looking 110% better.

Ramona

We've talked about pets, and both of us want a dog when we have a yard and when we live somewhere that doesn't snow the way upstate New York does. But with us waiting for a dog, I am home alone while Mr. Eckstein is at work throughout the day. Yes, I am working but only two days a week and it still gets too quiet around the house! I've been alright with it since we moved in in June but the clouds have been hovering over us- making me want someone around to brighten my day.

Anyway.

When I was in Ohio, there was a litter of kittens outside the doorstep of our friends' neighbors house and, I kid you not, it was the most adorable sight I've ever seen. They were huddled together and shivering and it was heart melting! Anyway, I found a way to snag a picture with one and give it back to its mama before she got mad.

The baby kitty was very scared to meet a person- and I felt so sad to leave them there to shiver in the cold morning. BUT- you can't take home every cat with you. Well, you can but you shouldn't.
Dugan and I talked about it and we went to the SPCA to look at all the many many cats they had up for adoption.

Two days later, we came home with this lovely lady:

Ramona

Despite Dugan's prior complaints of cats, I catch him snuggling her and giving her kisses. He loves her. Yay!
She fits right in, attacking everything she can get her tiny paws on and snuggling with me every second she gets.
I am happy with the decision to adopt a kitten. We still want a dog, but it'll be awhile before we decide to do that. And when we do, at least dog and cat will have each other. 

OHIO

The drive from Fort Drum to Ohio looks all very similar. It's 9 hours of green fields and cows and corn and trees. Needless to say, there's not much of a variety in scenery to look at. But, we drove all the way there- and it was well worth the trip. After stopping in Brockport for a night (which i've been meaning to do for quite awhile) We went to Columbus, followed by a bit of Mansfield, and then Cedar Point!
In Columbus, our friend Ross showed us the worlds coolest book store I have ever seen! It's called the Loft and it's 3 stories of 32 rooms completely stacked with books. I was blown away with this place.

Seriously, it was awesome. I wanted to move in.

So, then there was Cedar Point. If you know me, you know I don't do roller coasters. It's not because I'm scared or they make me sick... I just don't like them. I enjoy watching everyone else scream and cry and scare themselves to death. I did go on three roller coasters (can you believe it?) and they weren't too bad considering they were the 3 smallest roller coasters at the park, but that's not the point. We had fun. Our friends Krissy, Tony, Ross, and Kelsey all joined us at the park. Although it was cloudy and our day was cut a bit short because we had to drive all the way home, it was $80 well spent.

Can't wait to see our friends again.