Since we moved ourselves a couple of weeks ago, I now realize why the movers always cringe when they see our bookshelves.

Because this time around, all of these books were moved by yours truly.

The first time my friends and I walked down there, we saw a lot of crummy little stores (many of them selling single rolls of toilet paper on the sidewalk – strange!), graffiti, and trash.  Not my idea of a good shopping experience.

I had been told time and time again that there were some good stores with inexpensive dresses for sale down there.  Since I have a ball coming up next week and nothing to wear, I decided to make a trip to see if I could find anything.

Thankfully, I had three friends along with me.  One of them had already bought her dress in one of the shops and was able to show us around.

She was a bit surprised that the store she bought her dress in had burnt to the ground.

There were a few more dress stores nearby though, so we were still able to shop.

The first store we went in was huge.  It was completely stuffed with dresses – so stuffed that you could barely get from rack to rack without pushing your way past the dresses.  They weren’t separated by size or color or style.  They were just everywhere.  In every color you could imagine.

Shopping there was definitely not for the faint of heart.  The dressing rooms didn’t even have a place to hang dresses.  And I didn’t want to take my shoes off since the floor was so dirty.  It was an experience.

After trying on about 10 dresses, I finally found one that I liked.  It’s long and black and stretches.  All of my friends who are going to be zipped up into tight dresses will be jealous when I’m comfortable at the ball.

My other friend couldn’t find what she wanted at the first store, so we hit some of the smaller ones.  I really wish I had taken pictures of some of the freaky mannequins and interesting dresses in some of them.  One of the dresses was a bedazzled bright blue with cheetah print.  I wonder if I”ll see anyone wearing that one next week…..

All of the stores seemed to be run by Korean men, and staffed by Mexican women.  At the third store we went in, my friend was trying on a number of dresses, trying to find the right size and style she liked.  The lady helping her insisted that she found the perfect one, even though it wasn’t what she wanted.  After a couple more dresses, the lady stopped helping her.  When I went to bring a dress to her to try on, the saleswoman said “Mr. Chin says no more dresses!”.

I was floored.  How can you sell dresses without letting people try them on?  They lost our business.

I know that I definitely wouldn’t shop downtown by myself, but I had a fun cultural experience with my friends!

How far out of your comfort zone do you go to find a bargain??

Before I get comments about how it isn’t THAT big, let’s remember that I live in post housing.  And my last house had a kitchen half this size.  I feel like I’m in a mansion!!

I’m so excited to have so much space above the cabinets to display my Polish pottery.

(Please excuse the mess.  I suppose I should have cleared the counter and put away dishes before taking a picture…)

There are 16 drawers.  I now have a cutting board drawer.  And an apron drawer.  And a cloth napkin drawer.  I don’t know what to do with myself!  The hardest part is deciding where to put everything.

There are 31 cabinet doors!!  Thirty-one!!  I have space to store everything.

And look how large the countertop is between the kitchen and the dining room.  I’m trying to decide whether or not to get some bar stools.

Here is the view into the dining room/homeschool room.  You can see that I already hung the dry erase board on the wall.  I almost didn’t do it, because it isn’t the prettiest thing to put on your wall, but the truth is we use it a LOT.  I’m thinking about dressing it up a bit with some decorations around it.

We even have a decent sized little pantry.

All of this space almost makes me want to cook something…

Have you ever had a kitchen this big in post housing?

He was alone and afraid.  Later we realized that he was bleeding a bit and we think that he might have been hit by the weedeater.  What started out as a little cut turned into a larger one after he was moving around.

We were going to keep him and nurse him back to health (my neighbor is moving and couldn’t take care of him).  The kids even named him Bugs.

After we saw how bad his wound was getting though, we had another friend take him in to get taken care of by professionals.
I really hope that they were able to stitch him up and that he heals.

My kids enjoyed him for the short hour we had him.   They’ve been begging for a fluffy pet (we have lizards and fish right now).

Have you ever nursed a wild animal back to health?

Anyway, on to my introduction….

I’m Jennifer and my blog is Sergeant Major Mom.  I actually chose the name, because at the time my husband was a First Sergeant and that meant that I outranked him.   My son was also going through a phase where he would say “Yes, Sergeant Major!” every time I asked him to do something.  It was cute, but he has unfortunately since grown out of it.

I have been married to my wonderful husband for 13 and a half years now.  He has been serving in the Army for over 24 years (longer than many soldiers have been alive!!).  Since I’m 35, that means that I was 11 when he joined.  I did NOT know him then.  That would be weird.

We have 5 beautiful children, whom I homeschool (ages 12, 10, 8, 6, and almost 4).  They keep me busy.

In what little free time I have, I enjoy taking lots of pictures, blogging,

and doing genealogy.  I actually have another blog, devoted solely to my genealogy obsession: Climbing My Family Tree.

In a former life, I served in the Air Force.  It was so long ago that sometimes it seems like it didn’t even happen. I am now thoroughly indoctrinated into the Army way of life.

We are currently stationed in sunny El Paso, Texas.

It wasn’t our choice of duty stations, but since it looks like we’re going to be here for a couple more years, I’m going to make the best of it.  I’m a firm believer that you can be happy wherever you get stationed if you let yourself be. I know that Household 6 Diva is heading my way and I’m looking forward to meeting her!!  Anyone else out there at Ft. Bliss?

El Paso is  actually kind of growing on me.  I need to start learning Spanish though, because it drives me crazy that I can’t understand anyone in town.

Thanks for stopping by my little blog.  I can’t wait to “meet” you all!! If you want the longer version of who I am, here is  my about me page.

Please consider adding me to your reader or liking my page on Facebook.   You can also find me on Pinterest, which I’m addicted to. I know I’m not the only one!

No, we’re not PCSing, but we will be moving to a slightly larger house just a few streets away.  It has a much larger kitchen, an extra bathroom, carpeted bedrooms, and a 2-car garage instead of 1.  It will be worth the extra effort to move all of our junk yet another time.

I really wish that military housing was a bit more standard from post to post.  I can understand them needing to be a different style depending on where you are living, but they should at least be close in square feet and amenities.  It’s hard to go back and forth between houses that have two living rooms to those that only have one.  The house we’re in right now is a bit over 1300 square feet.  For a homeschooling family of 7 with 24 years in the Army, that is just not big enough to be comfortable.  We are literally on top of each other all day long.

I had briefly considered finding a home off post, but I can’t get past the convenience of Andy being able to walk to work.  I like the sense of community on post also, so I guess I have to give up the idea of having a family room and an in-ground pool in the backyard.  Someday we’ll live in a house that we actually fit in – it just won’t be anytime soon!

If you are military, do you usually live on post or off?  We’ve gone back and forth (owned twice, rented once, and lived on post the rest of the time).  They all definitely have their pros and cons.  We’ve found that even though we’ve enjoyed having larger homes off post, we always end up spending more money (in both utilities and gas for commuting).  We’ve decided to try to stay on post until he retires and we build our dream home.

So, I might be kind of quiet on here this week.  We get our keys this afternoon and then have 5 working days to get everything moved over.  Since we’re doing it ourselves, it’s going to be a lot of backbreaking work.

When I signed her up for the chime bells class at homeschool co-op, she was okay until she found out they’d be having a small performance at the end of the semester in front of the moms and the other kids.

She feigned sickness the morning of the performance, but I wasn’t buying it.  I knew that she needed to do this to overcome her fears.

And I’m happy to report that she did great!!  (and she sticks her tongue out when she’s in deep thought.  It’s hereditary!)

He built our dining room table last year when he got bored.  I like it when he’s bored.

I have to take advantage of his enthusiasm. So, my question is – what should I have him build?

My “things I want my husband to build” board on Pinterest is filling up, but I can’t decide what I’d like first.

Maybe a bed {like this one from www.ana-white.com}

Or an outdoor dining set {also from ana-white.com}

Or perhaps a castle bed for Lexie??  {also at www.ana-white.com – are you sensing a pattern here?  She has great ideas!!}

 Or maybe an outdoor playhouse for Tori??  Decisions, decisions….   What do you think??

I don’t have the perspective of being a civilian wife, so I’m not sure if this a purely military phenomenon or not.  Are there many Bunco groups on the civilian world?  When I told my mom I was playing she was a little surprised.  She remembered her mom being in a Bunco group in the 50′s or 60′s.

All I know is that the two times that I’ve been a part of a Bunco group, I’ve had an absolute blast.  I’ve made great friends and had so much fun!

I know it sounds like kind of a boring game.  Rolling dice.  Over and over again.  My husband has often wondered what the big deal is.

But it’s not about the dice.  It’s about the conversations, the food, the relationships, and the good times.  (The prizes are nice too!)

I had the great privilege of being a part of a Bunco group this past year with a bunch of ladies from my neighborhood.  Most of us barely knew each other when we started.  We were all new to the area and looking to meet people. We’ve all become great friends over the months.

Each month, a different woman would open her house up and put on a spread of delicious food.  We’d each pay in $15, eat dinner, and play 4 rounds.  We switched it up each month – from playing simply for the pot of money (with prizes for different categories) to winning prizes that the hostess bought (with the money everyone paid in).  We’ve had themed months – Death by Chocolate, St. Patrick’s Day, etc.  We throw in a game of Left, Right, Center at the very end (for $3 a piece).

We just had our very last Bunco night this past week.

This month’s theme was 80′s night and it was like totally rad!  If someone would have lit a match in that room, it would have exploded from all of the Aqua Net. 

There were shoulder pads, neon leggings, and big earrings galore.  We were rocking out to the Cars and Madonna.   It was a blast!

Our husbands will soon be graduating from the Academy and everyone is going their separate ways – ready to start new adventures all over the world. I, however, am not moving.  We got orders to stay here at Ft. Bliss.  I guess that means I’ll have to start up a new Bunco group this coming fall, won’t I?

Have you ever played Bunco before?