Old News, New Pics

Sooooo.... remember about two months ago when we moved back in and I told you I'd post pictures when I got them? Well, I finally got them this morning. So for your viewing pleasure, some pictures of the move.
Our First Trip



Second Trip

Laura making sure Adam doesn't fall out of the truck...



Third and Final trip (whew!)

The neighbors getting suckered into putting stuff together! (Not in the kitchen! Not in the kitchen!)

As we round out 2006....

Well I know how we all just LOOOVE the surveys. I couldn't let 2006 pass without just one more. I got a lot of these on myspace, but they were mostly "who was your crush this year?" and "Did you go to homecoming?" so I stole the less-annoying questions and compliled them into one short survey. Yes, I have that kind of time on my hands. And you just spent the last 30 seconds reading about it....45 seconds if you're a slow reader.

1.) IS YOUR TREE STILL UP?
- Oh yeah. The way I see it, I can get another two weeks out of that bad boy.

2.) HOW MUCH DEBT ARE YOU IN FROM BUYING CHRISTMAS PRESENTS?
- We have a rule not to go in debt buying gifts. That's not what Christmas is about.

3.) IF YOU PARTICIPATED IN A CHINESE GIFT EXCHANGE, WHAT DID YOU GET?
- I am the proud owner of the "Super Sized Mother Hover". (it's a ginourmous frisbee...and yeah, I know ginourmous isn't a word. go with it.)

4.) WHAT IS THE MOST RIDICULOUS THING THAT HAPPENED TO YOU THIS YEAR?
- Jacksonville, NC. (Need I say more?)

5.) NAME SOMETHING YOU DID THIS YEAR THAT YOU'RE PROUD OF
- I put my family over my career.

6.) ANY REGRETS?
- Are you kidding? Everyone has regrets. Right now I'm regretting that bowl of ice cream I ate about 20 minutes ago.

7.) HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT NEW YEARS RESOLUTIONS?
- I don't do New Year resolutions. If you need to make a change, make the change now. No sense in waiting for the end of an entire year before jumping on it. (It also irritates me that I won't be able to find a parking space at my gym for the next 90 days.)

8.) SOMETHING YOU HOPE TO DO NEXT YEAR
- Go on a cruise with Rob.

9.) PLANS FOR NEW YEAR'S EVE?
- Rob and I will be celebrating via telephone. He's decided to call me at midnight in Iraq AND Eastern Standard Time. Think of it as a "His and Hers" New Year's Eve package. (When you've done a few of these in a row, you start to get creative).

10.) NAME ONE THING YOU SPLURGED ON THIS YEAR THAT COSTS MORE THAN $100
- Does an unforseen expense count as splurging??? If so, new tires for my car. That's right, I'm a splurging wild woman!

Oh, Lord.

A close friend of ours has experienced a loss beyond words. On Christmas Day her mother, brother and father were in a massive car accident in North Carolina. Her mom and brother did not survive and her father is currently in the ICU. I wish I had something uplifting to say here, but my reason for posting this awful news is to ask you to pray for this family. Our friends are rallying to support them in practical ways (cooking meals, feeding the cat, etc.) But what they really need is a comfort that we are not capable of providing.
I've sat and looked at this entry for 10 minutes now and I still don't know what to say next except to ask you guys: If you have ever been in a similar situation to these friends of ours and you have a recommendation as to what we can do to ease their pain, please by all means, let me know.
Thanks-

Merry Christmas...and stuff

Well, it's Christmas...again.
Rob and I are trying like hell to come up with some Christmas Cheer between the two of us (yeah, I know. just said "hell" and it's Christmas. Bad Danielle.) but we're "0 for 3" for times that Rob's been home for the Holidays so forgive us if our Christmas Spirit is wearing a little thin this year. Actually I think this is Rob's sixth Christmas in a row where he's been deployed somewhere.
Aaaaaand it sucks.
This morning every song on the radio was of the "I'll be home for Christmas" genre. I thought that was just mean. I finally resorted to some classical music (No words).
Anyway, I don't mean to detract from Jesus' birthday just because we both have bad attitudes. Like I said, we're trying... I still paid the toll for the guy behind me on my way home from Delaware today.
*If you travel as much as we do, you know that it costs $10 in tolls to go from Maryland to Delaware. We've made a habit of paying for whoever is behind us in line at one of the three tolls. (So now you know. Get behind the black Honda.)*
The thing is, I'm never sure if the "toll people" actually pass along my $3 and "Have a great day" to the next car... they probably just roll their eyes and buy something from the vending machine on their next break.

What??! I told you! My Christmas Spirit is AWOL!

For want of a nail

Well..if there was any doubting it, I've come to the resolution that Iraq sucks, just as much as it did the last two times I was over here. However, in a concerted effort to figure out ways that I can stay connected with everybody at home, I invite you guys to all give some, if not all, of the following a try - just for kicks.

1. If you frequent any locations less than 5 miles from your house, walk there from now on. No driving. Walk everywhere. Should you actually have to drive somewhere, find at least three winter coats, put them all on, and fill the pockets with rocks. Then fill a backpack with rocks and put that on. Untwist a coat hanger until it's straight, shove it in the backpack until it sticks out of the top (radio antenna). Then get in your car and drive wherever you have to go, without adjusting the seat for comfort.
2. Should nature call, find a refrigerator box and cut a door in it. Place some books on the floor of the box to anchor it, put a bucket in the middle of the box, fill it with water/blue food coloring - there you have your toilet. Do not empty said bucket for at least four days for good measure. Leave yourself exactly 15 squares of toilet paper for the week.Make it last, people. Two-ply paper counts as two squares! No cheating!
3. Should you grow tired...troll the neighborhood for someone in the midst of moving their home, hopefully you'll find one of those nifty "PODS" moving containers in their yard. Grab a sleeping bag and a small pillow, get a little lamp, and crawl inside. For some reason you find two or three other people in there who you don't know. Make some space for yourself. Close the door to keep out the wind/rain/exploding mortar rounds that sometimes land in your general vicinity. Sleep for 3 - 4 hours a day. Stay up for 2 days straight at least once a week.
4. For your morning grooming routine, invite the entire block to your bathroom. Get everyone to line up for a shower behind you in towels and flip flops. Hop in the shower, turn on the cold water. Rinse for 30 seconds. Turn off the water. Lather up, rinse off. Repeat once. Hop out. If there are more than 8 people in line, the last two don't get a shower since you must run out of water at number 5. Sucks to be the dirty kids. Once you get done, walk in flip flops through some mud (distance between the showers and your bunk)...just so your feet are dirty again, and ready to put on some nice clean socks.
5. Tape a hair dryer to your belt (pistol). take it everywhere you go. tie the power cord to your belt. Every time you walk into a building, take the hairdryer out, inspect it to make sure it's empty (no bullets), show someone that it's empty, and walk into the building. Sleep with the hairdryer next to your pillow.
6. Eat strange food. Stop eating anything fresh, period. Buy powdered milk, and reconstitute it with cold water. Put this on your cereal in a little bowl for breakfast. Try to convince yourself that it tastes like real milk. Forget what real milk tastes like. Start to like the taste of reconstituted milk.
More to come folks....

Christmas Eve!

Merry Christmas Eve, everyone! I'm posting some pictures from Rob's 5k run this morning in Iraq. Apparently it was a 'fun run' with the pope, a nun, and Jesus (complete with a "Happy Birthday to Me" sash)

... Enjoy!

Oh what fun it is to...

Okay. Fun stuff from my buddy, Karen!

Go Here.

Dear Ssgt Santa,

A letter received today in Iraq...

Dear Rob.

I am eight. Thank you for being brave and protecting the world. I hope you don't get hurt. I'm sorry you can't be home to spend the holidays with your family. Come home soon. I want a guitar for Christmas. Yay!

-Joanna, Mrs. Anderson's 3rd Grade Class

I love kids. :-)

4 more days till Christmas

So, I've been kind of a shmuck about updating over the last few days. My guess is that you probably haven't noticed...that's okay. Neither did I.
I'd say things have been busy, but that's lying and with Santa coming and whatnot, well, I don't want to take any risks. Currently I'm sitting at home waiting for the WATER HEATER GUYS to show up. The should be here in about two hours ago. Yeah. About that.

Supposedly I will be starting my job next week. The paperwork is taking longer than they expected but I've already been invited to the company Christmas party (a little backwards?) so....whatever. I'm looking forward to attending just so I can say inappropriate things like "Hi, I'm Danielle. What do I do? Currently the only thing I'm doing for the company is drinking for free." I'm kidding, I'm kidding....sort of.

Rob is doing well. He's tired all the time and working super hard. We finally finished our first game of Battleship and he annihilated me. Yep. "Merry Christmas, Honey, I just sunk your battleship. Awwww..We're like a little Norman Rockwell painting.

Happy Birthday, Tiny!

Is there anything better than having your friends "kidnap" you in your pajamas at 6:45am on your birthday for breakfast at Friendly's?




Yeah, I don't think so either.

#301

Okay. I don't have much today. But I'd like to point out that apparently this is our 301st entry on the blog over the past 2 years. Not bad huh? Who'd have known I would come up with that much to talk about! (shut it).
So, um, Tada!

P.S. Battleship Update:
This morning I found one of Rob's ships. The tides they are a-changing!

Sometimes I wonder if other married couples read our blog and think "why don't we do fun stuff like that" or shake their head and roll their eyes at each other.

Then I just decide you're all jealous. :-)

Family Update

Thanks for the prayers, guys! Laura and I drove back to Maryland last night. We're planning to be back in Delaware on Saturday to check in on Deda again. In the mean time he has more than twice the allowed amount of visitors at any given time, so I'm sure the nurses were relieved to see some of the Kukich clan leaving for a few days. Deda is recovering amazingly well so far. We've all been encouraged by his repeated attempts to trick us into letting him just walk out of the hospital. Deda is actually a celebrated spy from WWII (yep. you can Google him) We're guessing he still has some of that spy training in him. And side note:"Deda" is Serbian for "Grandpa". (Look at you, learning something new everyday!)


In other news, Remember that interview I had last week? Well, as of Monday evening, circa 7:30pm, I officially became a member of the WORKING CLASS! That's right, folks, my days as a trophy wife are over! I'm meeting with the HR representative today to get all the paperwork filled out, etc. and I will be on my way back to "Business Danielle" post haste.

In the mean time, Rob got my Christmas package in the mail today, complete with half of a travel-sized "battleship" game. He is currently sinking all of my ships via internet. You'd think as competitive as I am, I would have picked a game that he doesn't actually have TRAINING in. You know, like Chutes and Ladders, or Connect Four. I might as well have picked "Risk".
Stupid Battleship...

Family Stuff

Just found out that Deda (my grandfather) had a stroke this weekend and is in the hospital. Laura and I are driving up to Delaware tonight to see him and the rest of the family. Please keep him in your prayers.

E-A-G-L-E-S: EAGLES!

So, today I got an AWESOME surprise! My buddies Jenn and Rob (different Rob) had an extra ticket to the EAGLES vs. REDSKINS game at RFK stadium and they invited me along! (!!!!)
You guys should know by now that ALL Kukichs are Eagles fans- but this was the first NFL game I've ever seen from a stadium... and the first pro-ANYTHING game I've ever seen FROM THE NINTH ROW.
THIS was our view!


Here's the crew: Chuck, Rob, Jenn, and Me


And the final score!! (Heck yeah, baby!)



Thanks for an AWESOME day, you guys!

The Office Christmas Party: Don't Leave Home Without It

Tonight must be the official "Office Christmas Party" night for the great state of Maryland. All of my nieghbors (re: extended family) are out hopefully not drinking too much in front of their respective bosses and waiting to see who will be the first coworker to decide that dancing on the tables is a great idea...
I've never been much for the Office Christmas Party. I'd rather spend a Saturday night with people that I'm not paid to sit near for 40 hours a week.
Then again, this year is a little different... I suppose that considering my current occupation is "trophy wife", you could consider tonight my own, personal "Office Christmas Party". I just had a nice, long conversation with my boss over in Iraq and my big plans for the rest of the evening consist of some comfy pants, a good DVD and the Captian. AND I don't have to worry about Janice-from-Marketing getting up on the table to sing her favorite rendition of "Grandma got runover by a reindeer".
Yeah, my office SO rocks.
P.S. Speaking of my boss (wink, nudge), I got another letter from Rob today and as promised, he included another one of their famous posters... thought I'd share

My guitar beat me up

Right now I hate the guitar.
The pads of my fingers are actually throbbing. (sounds like an exaggeration... it isn't). But the women's Christmas banquet last night went pretty well. There were about 150 women that showed. Rob had promised to call right after my interview and was determined to get ahold of me to find out how it went. It was 4:30am -his time- (middle of the guest speaker's message -my time) when his call finally got through. I swear anyone else I would have sent to voice mail, but you don't ignore calls from Iraq. Even when you're sitting at the front table in a banquet hall and everyone watches you get up and leave. Although later they found out that it was Rob calling from Iraq. I don't think it's possible to get a more sympathetic crowd than 150 Christian women. After dinner I was swarmed with invitations to Christmas dinners, weekend plans, etc. I thought that was really nice.

Okay, so the interview. I have no idea how it went on their end. My end is best described in three words: "Scary as Hell". They asked so many technical and intricate questions that I started to have flashbacks of my senior finals in college. I can't imagine that they left out anything that would necessitate a third interview...unless they plan to take blood. I got a look at one of the guys I'm up against and he was probably at least 15 years older than me (which is bad news because his resume probably has 15 more years of experience). But whatever. I know my stuff. My guess is that it's anybody's game.

K, saving the best for last; Rob sent me his first picture from Iraq today! Ladies and Gents, may I present my goof ball husband, who finds new ways to make me smile on a daily basis, and his goof ball buddy, Jay


Love it. :-) Merry Christmas, Boys!

I've Been Busy

I know you've all been on the edge of your seats wondering where I've been. So, in order to help everyone sleep at night, I figured I'd update... even though I really don't have much to report.

Rob's good..still working hard. Those of you who know him know that's about all he can tell me. So. Now we're all up to date on that (insert sarcasm)

I'm keeping busy. And those of you who know me, know I can tell you ALL ABOUT IT! (Lucky you).

I mailed all of the Christmas presents that need to be mailed on Monday. THAT was an adventure. I make it a point to only go to the Post Office once during the holidays (if I can help it). People be crazy, yo. I know I seem a little "Type A" what with mailing all gifts at the very beginning of December, but I have a theory (which has been echoed by my friend, Victoria). Gifts need "tree time". What fun is the Christmas tree if it's completley bare of gifts until the night before you open them? That's the whole reason we spend time putting ribbons and wrapping paper on them in the first place, right?

On Sunday I got a phone call from our church asking me to come sing carols for a women's Holiday dinner on Wednesday (as in tonight). I haven't picked up my guitar since I did this exact dinner LAST year. The past three days have been spent blistering my fingers back into shape practicing Christmas Carols. Yeah. Ouch.

Additionally, Andy (our realtor turned godfather) managed to land himself in the hospital over the weekend - scaring the life out of all of us! He's on the mend now (still not too late to say a prayer for him). And I'm planning to stop by again and whip him in a rousing game of Scrabble. *Andy - Don't expect me to go easy on you just cause you had major surgery... :-)

And (that's right, there's more) I have my "second interview" today at the company I REALLY want to work for. I'm hoping there aren't more than two interviews. The suspense is killing me and things are already S-L-O-W in the corporate world because of the Christmas season. Everyone is busy planning important things like the company Christmas party and that White Elephant gift swap thing. Yep. So fingers crossed and say a prayer at 3:30pm.

I think that about wraps up the last few days. I need to get back to practicing for tonight and reveiwing my interview questions so..."The End".

Moving Right Along

Well today someone else moved BESIDES THE TOWNLEYS! (A small party goes off in my head just thinking about us NOT moving)... Steve and Holly moved today and all of the "Young and Marrieds" showed up to help. This was by far the fastest move I have ever participated in (and that's saying something!) And there were lots of jokes about how Rob and I have provided only THE BEST training on "speed moving". This never gets old. Ha.....ha.
Before we knew it, we were playing board games (GO my favorite sports team, GO!) and consuming our respective body weights in hot drinks and marshmallow popcorn.
Anyway...congrats on your new digs, O'Neills! And thanks for the exercise :-)

The biggest downfall of our new Apple laptop is that I have to re-learn everything. (I know, I know. Cry me a river). I think my new "Beta Blogger" has switched some things around on me. No linking pictures, etc. So until I figure out how to make you work for it, here's a freebee picture of the happy, freshly relocated couple.

The New Paint Job.

Okay honey, here's the damage I did yesterday to our home. (wink, nudge). There aren't any pictures/curtains hung up because I think you have to give the paint a good 12 hours before hanging stuff. (So it looks like we just moved in...again...) That's my job for today...
K, BEFORE: (folks at home, do you see what I mean about the Christmas theme?)




AFTER: