Yes I've Been Gone But I am Back!

Hey all!

Yes I know I've been MIA but I have so much going on with www.armywife101.com that I just have neglected the poor little "Krystel Diaries". I promise I will be back with more to come!

In any event here is a new cooking video entitled " Krystel Makes Chicken & Broccoli StirFry!

Free Food!

Ok I admit I have nothing to say this week but here is a freebie Schwann's is giving out some FREE FOOD...Just go here and put in your zipcode and choose what you would like.

http://www.schwans.com/promos/freefood/freeFoodBegin.aspx

My Week Rant

The Last For A Year......

So it's 4:33 am as I am writing this and I am up for no reason... then again I know why I am up.

You see I'm at that same point I was at back in May 2007 . It is the week of an upcoming deployment and as much as I want to focus on work and everything else I can't. I feel like I have the weight of the world on me and it's not gonna go away until this is over. I do have to say though that minus the constant worrying, wanting to throw up from fear of the unknown every time your doorbell rings, and no nookie for a year a deployment isn't really that bad.

I always tell wives getting ready to go through their first deployment that the hardest part will be the week he leaves and the night of the day he leaves.

Everything we do this week I have to remember we won't get a chance next week to do.

I know it will be our last whatever's for a year. For instance last night I didn't feel like cooking so I called hubby and we were deciding what we wanted to order in for dinner and hubby wanted pizza and I wanted sushi and normally we would have just got both, but I knew that this would be the last time this week we got to eat pizza together as a family for a year.

Who would think that pizza would mean so much?

At the end of the day I know I am strong...I can get through this....I survived 15 months of this crap...I can most definitely survive a measly 12 months right?

Well stay tuned we shall see.

Searching for Steve Urkel

Ok this is definitley one of my corny videos but I'm not going to lie I love it.

I love it because as I stated in my previous videos I am obsessed with tv shows from back in the day .

The idea that I can visit an area where something was filmed is exciting to me ( can you tell I have no life lol?)

So anyway my brother and I till this day still watch Family Matters and we wanted to see the hotel where the Disney World episode was filmed so that's exactly what we did along with my hubby, mom and our two kids.

The name of the hotel was Disney's Wilderness Lodge . This was shot last August but I just decided to upload it online like 2 or 3 days ago.

Warning: Horribly Cheesy Editing plus extreme Cornyness

I Miss 90's Music & TV

I did not feel like typing , instead I felt like blabbing so enjoy and let me know ....

Do you miss tv shows from back in the day to ?

My Visit to Pearl Harbor

Today my family and I visited the most toured place in Hawaii PEARL HARBOR.

Let me just say that I feel guilty for not visiting sooner. Words cannot describe the emotion and feeling that comes upon you when you realize that you are standing on top of a sunken ship and hundreds (if not thousands) of brave men and women who gave there lives .

I already had a brief understanding of what occurred on December 7, 1941 but did not really have the indepth knowledge that I should have except for watching the movie Pearl Harbor.

Little did I know that the Airfield my husband works on was the site of the first attacks on PH.
Wheeler Army Airfield was a primary target and site of the first attack on 7 December 1941, leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbor.^[2] The Japanese attacked the airfield to prevent the numerous planes there from getting airborne and engaging them. The installation has a National Historic Landmark District in association with the attack on 7 December, 1941. The 1941 Flightline, hangars and barracks survive today^{[5] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheeler_Army_Airfield)}

The mood was somber as we boarded the boat to head out to the USS Arizona Memorial . When we arrived we were asked to remember that even though this is a tourist area it is still a cemetary and voices should be low and respect given. The most amazing thing is that 68 years later you can still see the oil on the surface of the water that has been bubbling from the sunken ship below the surface.


While I cannot stand living in Hawaii I have to say that today I appreciate living here alittle more and as sad as I am that my husband will be leaving me to go to Iraq ... I am really proud of the sacrifice he is making as did the brave men and women on December 7, 1941.

Wordless Wednesday-True Love

Normalcy for Me.......

As I am driving to my husbands job yesterday I pass airmen running, soldiers PT'ing in the middle of the road.

The speed limit from 6:30-7:45pm is only 10mph. Doesn't matter that their are actually people who need to get offpost to other jobs or to the Army Airfield across the street to get to the middle school. Our brave men and women own the road until a quarter to 8.

I pass a convoy of humvees with soldiers sitting at the top as if where about to go to war right here onpost.

As I am driving back from hubbies job I see a blowup doll on the side of the road with soldiers practicing CPR or something of the other on it.

I see soldiers doing the infamous soldier crawl on the ground holding there rifles.

When I get home I hear bullets flying over at the range that is around the corner from my home, along with a cannon or two. Lest not forget the constant buzzing of helicopters that looks like huge black mosquitos. I watch those fly towards the mountains most days from my porch.

They do this just as normal while everyday moms like me ride past to drop there kids off to school. The kids think it's soooo cool and I have to admit mommy does to.

Where Will We Live?

So it's pretty much come out in my other posts so I mind as well just blatantly spit it out. My husband is in the Army. I had tried to keep it quiet simply because I talk about it constantly on my other blog www.armywife101.com where I am documenting our countdown to deployment and just my life as a Army wife.

Anyhow we have 3 more years until my husband decides weather he will choose to reenlist or if he will get out permanently and we can truly start our lives in one place.

Before we moved to Hawaii in March of this year, we were stationed in Savannah GA. I admit people that I am obsessed with GA. I love being in the center of it all. If we want to jump up and go to Florida for a weekend we can quickly or we could hop down to Charleston SC or ATL.

I have been doing my research for almost 3 years where in GA I want to live in and I have chosen Cobb County. I must admit it feels extremely weird to make these kind of future plans when our future is so darn uncertain.

I think I found my dream house or the house I want mine to be similar to:

Ok ok I know probably alittle to fancy but hey Im from NY where this house would probably be well over a $1,000,000 and in GA it's $250,000.

In any event I chose something alittle more realistic :


Not bad for $160k right?

As much as I love the Army lifestyle and living on a military base and all that goes along with it, I am truly looking forward to living a nice normal live in the GA suburbs.

Wordless Wednesday

My kids crack me up ..... So I am going through my photobucket pics and videos and I come across this video from about 2 years ago.

Disclaimer: I normally do not nor did I ever let my kids do this but their dad was in Iraq and I wanted him to see what they were sneaking and doing .

Just that one time did I let them have permission. Oh and excuse my daughters hair it was early on a Saturday morning. Mama hadn't got the brush to her head yet lol!

10 Reasons Why I Hate Living In Hawaii.....

Ok so for the time being here where stuck in this heckhole.

Ok maybe it's not that bad I am probably being dramatic but it does suck here.

Here is my Sunday Vent List:

1. Their are no Super Walmarts. ( WTH I've lived in the South since 2002 I need a SW.

2. Their is no Applebee's. (Ok I am not there biggest fan but it would be nice to see it.)

3. There are no buffets. ( This means (for all my southern folks) no Ryan's , Golden Corral, or Crack Barrels.

4. They just got a Target. (How in the world are you just getting a Target)

5. Victoria Secret is soon to open. (Why in the world are they just getting a VS ?)

6. My ears pop no matter where we go.

7. The island of Oahu (that's where I live) is very small. I swear we have drove around it a million times already.

8. Waikiki is overrated.

9. Hawaii is overrated.

10. This isn't a reason but a fact I will never come back here after I move from here

My Whipped Angel Lush Cake

Another recipe from my archives Enjoy!

Yes I Really Do Work From Home.....

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Chef Krystel

So I have a passion for cooking and for a while I was making a weekly cooking video but I have just been totally lazy because I tend to be a perfectionist and the setup for a cooking video is alot.

Here is one of my fav recipes: Sweet & Sour Pork ( You can substitute chicken in the place of pork)

Week In Review.....

So I haven't posted in a few days ......I know bad bad me definitley not the greatest start to a new blog but wait I have a reason. You see I have another blog with a good amount of followers and subscribers and I admit I tend to pay it more attention .

Anyhow my week has been pretty good I am still getting used to having 6 hours of total freedom to myself while both my kiddos are at school. Whoooohoooooo I am freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

LOL is that bad of me to be that excited?

Anyhow as I mentioned my son started Kindergarten and what the heck do ya know , his teacher quit Sunday evening. He has a new teacher and she is awesome the problem is her husband has the same kind of occupation my hubby does and it causes us to move alot and well she will be moving .
She doesn't want to leave her little students in the middle of the year.

What I love about her is I get great vibes from her , you can tell teaching is truly her passion and she just has a way with kids. Gosh I wish she could stay :(

In other news life is getting ready to be different for year as my husband prepares to go away with his job, so back to being a loner for a while BLAHHHH!

Well I guess i'll continue my Zumba classes and Pillates and at least I can eat alittle differently since I will only have to cook for me and the kids.

Yeah being alone again this sucks........................

Ok So I Cried....

Ok Ok I admit I cried.

At what? My baby boy ( he is 4 ) went to his first day of school today.

So your probably saying well most moms cry when there little ones go off to school right?

Well in my case when I first met my hubby he was a full time single dad and I remember going to the school with him on his daughter's first day and seeing parent's crying and I remember saying "Oh they are being so dramatic , why are they crying"?

I now know they weren't being dramatic at all . It is extremely hard to let your little baby( yes because even though he is 4 he is still my little baby) be left in the hands of someone else all day , to fend for themselves in this cold harsh cruel world. Ok maybe I'm being dramatic now *lol* but you get the gist.
Not to mention (no pun intended) his teacher seems like Japanese is more her 1st language then English . In my mind I want to ask how do you plan on teaching my baby English if you can't speak it.
Then again that can be me overreacting because we do live in Hawaii, but oh well.

We shall see how this school thing pans out.

Until then

Krystel Carrington Signing Off
P.S. Ok that's not my real name well Krystel is but I was named after Krystle Carrington on Dynasty , I just wanted to see what it felt like to use the full name

I Stood Where Jasmine & Halle Stood !

As I grown older I've become more and more obsessed with the Antebellum period as well as the Slave Era. Thanks to my husband's career we get to travel constantly and one of the places we were lucky enough to live was Savannah GA. This area was great not only for it's rich history but also because we were right in the middle and could easily get to places like North Carolina , Atlanta , Florida and one of my favorites Charleston SC.

Charleston was my favorite because I had started researching my family history (The Middletons from South Carolina hence Middleton Plantation.) and really wanted to find out what I could about my little piece of what I like to call my rich family HAAAA! Ok yes I am a Middleton and Arthur Middleton (a signer of the declaration of the independence is my great great great great great great grandfather ,but I doubt its the great love story I would hope it to be.

Anyway back in 1993 the three part series "Queen" starring Halle Berry , Jasmine Guy, Tim Daly, Ann Margaret, Paul Whitfield and a host of top actors and actresses premiered on NBC. At the time I remember being really intrigued with this movie for no particular reason other then my friend's (from elementary school) uncle was in it (he played Halle Berry's son Abner). In short "Queen" is sort of a followup to Roots and tell the story of author Alex Haley's grandmother a Mullato and her life in which she struggles to seek her identity .

Anyhow I have this obsession with visiting plantation homes so this past February the kids, hubby my mom and brother and I hopped into the Expedition and drove to Charleston SC. I had been researching and researching and found out that Boone Hall was where Queen was filmed along with other movies such as "The Notebook" and "North & South".

I think what I am most obsessed with about this place was that I was standing where real slaves lived and also Jasmine Guy & Halle Berry spent a good portion of time here filming this movie.

Here are some of my pics ... This place is beautiful so I just had to share:

Who is Krystel?

Hi I'm Krystel.

I'm 27 years old a mom of 2 and married to the love of my life for the past 6 years.

I'm definitley not new to blogging or the internet world. I am the proud owner of another blog that documents another part of my life which I would like to keep seperately from this one .

That other part of my life which I live daily is what was the deciding factor in creating "The Krystel Diaries". I have come to realize not many people understand or care to understand the other part of my life and frankly I blog about that other aspect so much I wanted to expand on another side of me for once.

Don't worry realistically speaking their is no possible way for me to keep the other little piece of my life hidden, I am sure I will slip up soon. If your that curious to know just check your followers list on your blogs and you will see.

Anyhow "The Krystel Diaries" will share my love for travel, Disney World, late 80's and 90's tv suburban neighborhoods, foods, roadtrips and whatever other crazy but exciting thoughts pop into my head.

Let me put the disclaimer out there I follow alot of other blogs and I admire the authors, and writers and their awesome styles of writing. With that said what makes me different is I am an awesome speller (damn is speller a word lol) but I hate punctuation and grammar. I did well in all my english classes but I am lazy when it comes to the technical side of writing. I honestly just like to get what I have to say out. I hope that you get a laugh a giggle or at least have a "this chick is crazy"moment out of my post but just ignore any grammatical errors.

Smooches
Krystel