07 March 2011
Deployed again...
I doubt anyone reads this anymore but if you do, I am keeping my current deployment blog on my original blog site so they were all together. If you're interested, the link is http://naylorfamily.wordpress.com/
16 March 2010
March 2010
16 Mar 10-So I know I've been a big fat slacker on this but it's been so crazy busy around this place that I have a hard time keeping up. I am going to try to do better and see how it goes this time around. I couldn't even begin to include all of the things that have been going on since I last posted so I will just leave it be. I just got picked up to go to the NCO Academy at Lackland AFB, Texas in San Antonio. It was a short notice notification and I have to be in place on Easter. I am scared but excited at the same time. It is going to be a lot of work and hopefully my fat butt will survive the physical training part of it. I'm looking at it as a new start to the life that I've let get away from me. I did finally manage through everything to knock out my Associate's degree. My credits were finally transferred to my college and applied to my Bachelor's and I figured out that in 18 short classes, I will also have my Bachelor's knocked out. I know that will take some time but I'm pretty excited to knock that out too!
14 June 2009
My ramblings-June 09
14 Jun 09-Okay, okay so I didn't hold up my end of the bargain with staying on top of this thing. Here is yet another attempt to get it done. As you can imagine, I have been super busy since Chris has been gone so that is my main "excuse" for failing at updating this! :) Buying it?? I hope so. Things have been going well for all of us. Chris has been able to do so many exciting things since he has been in Afghanistan and I'm so happy he's taken the opportunity to get them done. He has been volunteering at the hospitals and if you've been looking at the pictures on the site, you've seen some of the kids he gets to play with. It almost makes me excited to go back so I can get involved like that. It would have made my time go by so much faster had I known that you could do things like that. He's got just a month left and he is definitely ready to get home to us. He tells us that all the time. The kids are on summer break right now and they are happy to have a break from school even though they're at the same daycare at the school. I have been busy with school and the History class I'm in right now is kicking my butt a little but I'm still maintaining my A. I have my paper to write that is due (rough draft) on Wednesday so that has been stressing me out a bit. We've been making our normal weekend trips for our errands and trying to get them out and about and we've been managing. There is just way too much to fit all in here but we are doing fine. We have just been as busy as we can be. I hope everyone is doing well and I will try to do better at posting on here! I got a new phone (a BlackBerry) so maybe I can even post from work so I don't get behind with my normal nightly routine! :)
05 April 2009
My ramblings-Apr 09
5 Apr 09-It's been a busy couple of days. I have been so wiped out from not sleeping well. Finally last night I went to bed early and the kids actually let me sleep in. Friday when I got home from work I decided to unwind and do as little as possible which was very nice. I don't get much time to myself these days. The only thing I did was make sure I had everything loaded up in the van that I needed to take to the Easter event on Saturday. Saturday I was very stressed out about the whole thing and anxious to get it over with. Thankfully everything went very well and I was able to enjoy the day. We had a great turn out and the commander was very pleased. It was a great day! After I got home, Katie and her family came over and we had a nice visit with them. We still had to give Thomas his birthday present. LOL I can't believe how big he is getting and he's walking along furniture now and it's so cute! :) After that, we headed to the grocery store and to get my nails done. Harmony got hers down too and brought her friend Rachel along to get hers done as well. I was getting heavy eyed while I was waiting for their bed time to come so I was in bed shortly after them. I even fell asleep sitting up in bed with the computer on my lap waiting for Chris to e-mail me back. It was nice to finally catch up on sleep. Today I have to do homework and all my normal Sunday rituals.
01 March 2009
My ramblings-Mar 09
30 Mar 09-Okay so I slacked on this for a few days but it's been hectic. I don't know if I could possibly catch you up with everything but I will try. We had Miles' birthday party on Saturday and that was different. Usually I stay and clean up and set up and Chris does all the running around. It sucked having to do it all. Anyway, speaking of Chris, he is doing as well as can be expected over there. He's got a project he's working on and he's been staying busy and trying to make the best of it. It's his birthday today too and I know how much it sucks to spend a birthday there but we got him some cards that were sure to make him laugh and I made him some beef jerky. :) Anyway, so Miles' party went well although not many kids showed up. He still enjoyed himself. I took them out after the party so that he could spend his gift cards and money. Thank you to everyone who sent him cool stuff. He was happy as a little boy can be. I still can't believe that he is 6. Seriously, where does the time go?? I had purchased an inversion table to be delivered to the store (Walmart) and I put it together Saturday night. I am desperate at this point to get some relief from my back pain. It doesn't seem to help much though. I swear that is the last thing I buy that has to be put together. Again, I was able to do it but not without some stress and some choice words. LOL I had my mid term due on Sunday and I had been working on it throughout the week. It had multiple choice questions and essays that were worth 50 points each. I was thrilled when I woke up on Sunday to find out that I got all the questions right and a 49/50 on one essay question and a 50/50 on the other!!! Whoo hoo! I had an extra credit assignment too so I figured it wouldn't hurt to do it. I got a 100 on it so my current percentage in the class is 122%! LOL I sure hope it's safe to say that I will be getting an A in this class too... well as long as I don't bomb the final but I hope not. I took the kids out to Target yesterday. Poor Harmony desperately needed some new clothes. She really needed shorts. I bought more than I expected and almost died when I heard the total but that little lady grinning from ear to ear at all her new stuff. She's already planned out what she's going to wear for the next 2 weeks. :P She's so darn cute. I have been so exhausted. I am not sleeping well because of my back pain and my mind is always going with the things I have to do. I have been having some trouble with the dogs fighting and they're starting to do it in the middle of the night. Rascal got way too out of hand today with Scrappy and I fear that we might have to get rid of him. :( They don't act this way next to me or the kids but they woke me up at 3 a.m. with the fighting. I don't know why they're behaving this way. I got the kids school pictures back and they are loaded on the site. I will hopefully be typing up the letters to send with them and getting them out in the next day or two. Hopefully things continue to be slow at work so I can get that done. I have an appointment with Ortho on Wednesday and I'm frustrated because they don't do spines on base so they're just going to end up referring me downtown which will delay finding out what's going on. I guess it's not that big of a deal though because if they do say surgery, I can't do anything until Chris gets back. Mom, I tried to call this weekend to tell you a funny story about your son and Chris Cohen but couldn't reach you. Only you could appreciate it as much as myself, Ryan and Chris did. It's a good one! Also, Chris (my Chris) got a kick out of your card that came the day before his birthday and said sorry it's late. ;) That is all I can think of for now. I know there's more but I've written enough for one day. Hopefully the rest will come back to me.
25 Mar 09-Today started out fantastic. I keep meaning to post this but I found another old friend on Facebook. Mom, you're never going to believe this but it is Christopher Cohen!!! I couldn't believe it when I found him. I'll catch you up on that later. Anyway, he was posting comments to my pictures this morning and some of them just had me cracking up. Work was good. I got caught up again and that's always a great feeling. I made a doctors appointment because my back pain is getting significantly worse. I couldn't believe it but they actually are referring me to a surgeon. Does this mean I'm having surgery? No. It's just a consult but we'll see. I won't see the surgeon for a while so I will keep you posted. I had to run home after my appointment to grab the tables for the bake sale tomorrow. I managed to get 7 miles in on the bike today before my back just couldn't handle it anymore. That's about it for today.
24 Mar 09-Happy Birthday to my baby boy Miles!! <3 We cannot believe that he is 6!! Where does the time go?? After I picked the kids up from school, I took them out to dinner to a little mom and pop ice cream joint down the street. He picked to eat at Target but I really didn't want to drive there. We hadn't been to Scoops yet so I suggested we try it out. I don't know why he likes to eat at Target so much but they all love to eat there. LOL Anyway, he agreed to Scoops and said it's his new favorite. We ate and then had ice cream and he was happy as could be. :) It was a good day.
23 Mar 09-I got a little bit of a break today and had to sit at the house to wait for the guy from Sears to come and take a look at the exercise bike. The verdict is in and I did everything right!! :) The console was mis-marked for which way the batteries go in. Instead of negative on one side and positive on the other side like it said, it was positive on both sides. Thank goodness and now it works and I rode 10 miles on it so far. :) Other than that, I slept so horribly, I am headed to bed now. Tomorrow is an exciting day for me since it is my baby's birthday. I cannot believe that little boy is going to be 6!! <3
22 Mar 09-Boy did I have a long weekend. I am so ready to just collapse into bed. We went to Costco today to pick up some supplies for the Easter event for the squadron. I took the kids on base after that to grab some lunch and to get another pair of shoes. I had a whole list of things I wanted to do today but didn't get a whole lot of them done. I got done the things I had to do. I got another 100 on my assignment for my class. Now, I am headed to bed.
21 Mar 09-It's been a busy couple of days. Thursday I decided to complicate my life and buy an exercise bike. It was super easy. I bought it online at Sears.com and I went to pick it up in the store an hour later. I spent 4 hours trying to figure out how to put it together and rolling my eyes at the "some assembly required". Long story short, I got it all together and went to try it out but the console did not come on. I started to disassemble it to check and make sure none of the wires unattached and no suck luck. Friday was pretty boring at work. I headed to a dental appointment at 1 and then went to PT and to do my grocery shopping. That worked out very well. I have been so busy and I was so sore from working on that bike that I figured I would get to sleep early. No such luck. Chris and I chat a lot on Yahoo so I got to be late again. The kids woke me up quite early this morning and very rudely. Silly kids! Hearts Apart is a program put on the base to get deployed spouses out of their houses and get together. They have one main activity a month. This months activity was the zoo. We had a great time today and I got some great pictures. They are up on the website. After that, we headed to Blockbuster so we could have movie night. We rented 4 movies and bought some popcorn and candy and they stayed up until 9:30 watching movies and having a good time. Anyway, I messed up one of my nails while I was working on the bike so I figured we'd just stop in so I could get it fixed but ended up just having them fill them anyway. Harmony got her nails done again and she had shooting stars put on her thumbnails. It's too cute. I'll have to get a picture tomorrow. I still haven't gotten my homework done but I've done my reading so hopefully I can knock it out quick tomorrow. I have a laundry list of things to do tomorrow so it's going to be another busy one. I will be happy to get to work just to have a chance to relax.
18 Mar 09-Today was one busy but productive day. I actually had more energy today than I've had in a long time. Not sure why though. Anyway, just before I left work today, I had the coolest invitation to sing for a function. Some guy from the social security office downtown called and said they were looking for a singer at their building next month and asked if I could do it. McCain and Biden have been invited as well as President Obama!! He obviously doesn't think the President will show up but the others could and that's just awesome. I am nervous already. I have to call him back tomorrow to tell him yes. I had to check with Rich and Sheree' first to make sure they could take the kids to school because I'd have to leave an hour before the daycare opens to be there on time. This will be my first real event in the community and I couldn't be more excite about it!
17 Mar 09-I had a great day today! I got caught up with all my work and got to relax. I actually got so much done that we had time to do an 80s quiz in the shop. ;) I had a custodian from OSI (Office of Special Investigations) come out today who needed to do some paperwork that he couldn't do from his office. He's a stand in so he doesn't know a lot of the processes and it's my job to help him out. Anyway, as he was leaving, he shook my hand and "coined me". What that means is that he had a coin in his hand and transferred it to mine. That is standard practice for being awarded a coin. It's kind of like a great job or a thank you but done privately for you to look at later. I looked at it after I got in the shop and it was an awesome coin! It doubles as a bottle opener too! Brilliant design! I was so excited to get that from him. It's so nice to have someone notice what we do for them and I was truly grateful for the gesture. It's days like this that I love my job! I came home and attempted to hang my new picture frames. That didn't work out so well. I got the wall anchor in which was a feat in itself for me. I had never done that before and I got it. Then I tried to put the screw in and dropped the whole thing back into the wall and I heard it fall. LOL Oh well! I'm not a very handy person so I'll have to find someone to come over who is and put them up for me! :) Overall, it was a great day! Check out the pictures of my coin below...
16 Mar 09-Okay so today I am truly going to keep this one short. I am exhausted. It's already after 10 and I need some decent sleep. I had a good day today but it was extremely busy. Thankfully it was a productive day. I got a lot of overdue stuff done. I have one more project that has been neglected to finish and I'll be caught up and what a great feeling that will be. On that note, I am off to bed...
15 Mar 09-We had a great day today! I was lazy this morning and didn't get in the shower until 10 but I was working on my homework. I did not want a repeat of last week where I almost didn't get done in time so I wanted to have it done before I went anywhere today. I finished up about 2 p.m. and then put the kids in the truck (we drive it somewhere once a week so she doesn't get lonely lol) and headed for Ace Hardware to get a new timer for the sprinklers. I decided to make an impromptu stop at the nail salon to get my nails done for the first time in many, many years. I like them. Even Harmony got her nails painted and she was grinning from ear to ear. Miles was so good. I figured he would get bored and act up but he was enjoying watching all the "tools" they use. After a while, he got tired of the smell but he did so good. They all loved him in there and kept asking him questions. After that, we came home for a little bit until I realized that I had forgotten a paper. So, we headed back out to Fry's to get a paper and that worked out because I remembered then to order Miles' birthday cake. They are so easily amused with little trips out so it works out great. The rest of the night was relaxing. I just did the normal Sunday night getting lunches ready, laundry, bags ready, clothes laid out, etc. I did get to talk to my parents today... finally! It was so nice to talk to them. I will not go that long again. :)
14 Mar 09-We had a busy but fun day today. We went to the DM-50 picnic today at Bama Park on the base. It is put on by a committee in Tucson to show their appreciation for what we do and they do a few things for us throughout the year and it's always great. They go all out for us. This year was extra special because my friend Michelle coordinated the whole thing and it was obvious that she put a lot of work into it. The kids really had a good time and I was able to get lots of pictures that are already up on the website (see I'm getting better). We don't normally spend but an hour there and we actually stayed 3 hours because the kids were enjoying themselves so much. We had other running around to do but I decided to bring them home and let them clean up from all the junk food and relax for a bit before we headed back out. After a while, we headed to Party City to pick up the decorations for Miles' birthday party. He picked out a Cars theme and he of course wanted 2 of everything. We don't normally do goody bags but we decided to do them this year. After that we went to dinner and I don't know what got into them today (well, I guess I do... it was all the sugar) but they were in rare form and had me cracking up. After dinner we headed to Petco to get new beds for the dogs (minus Bella). Bella and Jade have been chewing the beds up and I cannot stand picking up any more stuffing from around the house. Hopefully they won't chew the new beds up because they are not cheap. Chris wanted to see all these random things that I talk about so I created a random photo album to put all that silly stuff in. :) Anyway, I think that's it for today. I wanted to get homework done but I've come to same conclusion as always --there are not enough hours in the day.
12 Mar 09-I had a good day at work today even thought it was super busy. After I got home and relaxed for a little bit, I took care of the dishes and started dinner. After that, I started on a project that took me all night. Goodness!! I bought a pipeline (well 2 of them). I was so excited to get it but wow, was that a pain. I got it put together no problem but there are 13 picture frames per... contraption for a better word. Each one of them had sticker paper to remove from both sides of the plastic that the picture sits behind. That took me forever! I can't wait to get them up on the wall though. It is going to look really nice. Okay, how boring is my life?? LOL Oh well, it kept my time occupied. The kids weren't so good today. They figured they would just get in their PJs and that they weren't going to take showers. Wrong answer. :) I had to remind them who was Alpha in this house right now. Thankfully I didn't have to tell them again. They had a long day because they went on a field trip to the Desert Museum. They were talking non-stop about it on the way home and they had a great time. They go to the Botanical Gardens tomorrow. It's been a fun week for them.
11 Mar 09-Another fun day of figuring out discrepancies from our inventory today. What fun stuff. :) After I got home from work today, the neighbor came over to give me some mail that I guess fell out of our trash can when they picked it up yesterday and it blew in his yard. He let me know that he just had his house treated for termites and that I should look at ours. I did and saw a termite tube so I have to have someone come out to treat it. :( It is mighty expensive to get treated for termites. I don't really have anything else to report today. It was busy but uneventful. :)
10 Mar 09-Yesterday was another busy day and I never got around to blogging so I apologize for that. Our LAN went down at work yesterday about noon and totally destroyed the input of numbers from our inventory. I did end up getting some errands done because we couldn't do any work so that was nice. I was able to get to the post office, drop the movies off, go pick up Miles' prescription and pick up pop tabs from one of the offices on base. However, once it was finally time to go home and nothing had come back up yet, I brought all the count sheets home with me. They needed to be done so we could free stuff up to be used again so I was fine with that. I didn't have any homework or anything to do so it worked out. Today was equally busy but not quite as bad of a day. We just spent most of the day cleaning up the discrepancies and starting the paperwork to get everything fixed. There were just a lot of silly problems here and there. It made for quite the stressful day. I was thankful to not have to come home and cook. I had made pasta last night so we just had leftovers. I ordered a 35mm film to digital converter and it showed up yesterday. I finally got a chance to check it out today and it's pretty cool. It doesn't work all that great (not worth the price) but it's nice to get some of those pictures that I didn't even have anymore in digital format. It's a great concept. I know there's more from today but I am completely brain dead. Ha ha! Until tomorrow...
8 Mar 09-I am going to keep this short tonight. It's already 10:30 and I have just finished everything I needed to do and I still need to try to unwind so I can get to sleep. Today should have been a relaxing day but it wasn't at all. I made breakfast for the kids this morning. I had to take over Chris' duty of the "big breakfast" on Sundays and that took me a while. It was 10 a.m. before I even got in the shower. I needed to dye my hair but I realized that I was out of hair dye so I had to run to Walgreens to get it. I decided to take Chris' truck out for a little spin so we went in it. I forgot to mention this to you, Chris, but the neighbor (the guy that does painting-I can't remember his name), looked at me kind of funny when I drove by in it. Ha ha! Anyway, the kids are on spring break so I had to pack their lunches. Well, I expected that I was going to have to pack them but Harmony, bless her heart, took it upon herself to pack them for me. :) What a sweetie. Chris' grandma called today to check in on us and see how Chris was doing. I had to get laundry done today. The biggest shock of the day was knowing that I had homework to do and can usually knock it out in a couple of hours after the kids go to bed. Well, about the time I was getting them in bed, I realized that I just lost an hour today and it was due at 9 my time instead of 10 like I was used to!! Ouch!! I managed to get it done and much to my surprise, I got a 100 but talk about stressful!!! I just cannot do it on the last day with it just being me. It does not work too well. Anyway, on that note (and so much for short), I am going to attempt to go to bed. My back hurts the worst that it has in a LONG TIME tonight so this ought to be interesting.
7 Mar 09-Today was a fun day. My plan was to take the kids to the base for the heritage conference (air show) but they decided they really weren't that interested in getting out and going on the flightline. They said they just wanted to watch it from the car. LOL We had plans to go to lunch and then grocery shopping and they were more interested in that. We went to Burger King for lunch and that should have been smooth sailing. Well, of course, something was messed up with the meal as usual. This time it was only that my chicken sandwich didn't have cheese on it. I paid for the cheese so I took it back up and asked them to just throw some cheese on it (no need to wait for a new one). The girl apologized and said the guy making the food was new. No big deal. Well, the idiot girl that was back there when she asked for some cheese, chucked it across the kitchen and it landed on some piece of equipment on there where they wrap up the food. It wasn't dirty or anything (at least I hope to God it wasn't) and they put it on my sandwich and the girl at the register apologized again. I explained as nicely as I could that I knew it wasn't her fault but that I saw Lauren (I heard her say her name) throw my piece of cheese across the kitchen and that I was not happy about it and would be complaining on Monday. I asked that she make sure she let her know that was not appropriate behavior. Thankfully in my "old age" I have learned some self control. Besides being on base and having the kids, I just did not feel like making a scene but it really pissed me off. Anyway, I continued to enjoy my lunch and forgot all about it until I started typing this tonight. We went grocery shopping to get some things I forgot when I went last week and to get them some sandwich stuff, Lunchables and some snacks since they're on spring break for the next 2 weeks and have to take their lunch every day. I figured it would be fun for them to have a movie day so we stopped at the shoppette to get some candy and rented some movies. Overall, it was a good day.
6 Mar 09-Boy did today suck!! LOL I started my day out by walking the flightline.... again. My feet hurt so bad this evening but the cool part of being out there half the day was getting to watch airplanes practice. They have what's called the "heritage conference" every year and they have all kinds of planes that fly around. Thankfully I got the whole count done and everything came out good. I felt so bad when I had to leave while everyone else was still there. I have done my fair share of inventories but I hate leaving when I know everyone else is working late. I know we're all just anxious to get it done. We do it twice a year and it is not fun at all but it's such a feeling of accomplishment once it's finally done. Anyway, because the inventory, I didn't have time to do anything else. I made popcorn for the kids tonight and they laid on the couch with their blankets and played Halo. They were getting along so well tonight. It was wonderful!
5 Mar 09-Today was quite the busy day. I almost got a break and got to go to lunch with Michelle but she ended up getting called away. :( It was nice to get to visit with her for a few minutes though. Once I got home from work, I made pork chops for dinner and then had to help Miles do his project. They were making "Leprechaun catchers". He had to design and decorate something to catch one in class tomorrow. That was fun but I'm just not very handy with stuff like that. He was happy with it though and he can't wait to show it off tomorrow. :) Tomorrow is going to be extremely busy. We are starting our 100% inventory which is never fun and I get to go do the flightline again. Normally on the first day, we are there until usually around 9 p.m. trying to finish up so we don't have to come in on Saturday. Fortunately and unfortunately, I can't stay late because of it being just me and the kids. It will be a nice change to not have to work that late but I always feel bad when I have to leave the shop hanging. I am sure I will be beyond stressed out by the time I get home tomorrow. I just hope I can dump it on the way home so the kids don't know but I'm pretty good at doing that.
4 Mar 09-Today started out a little scary. I was eating breakfast and heard something on the news that stopped me in my tracks and I had to rub the "sleepy's" out of my eyes and rewind so I could actually pay attention. It said there was a "bombing at the front gate of the main base in Afghanistan". Holy crap was all I could think and I immediately e-mailed Chris. Thankfully he was at a computer and e-mailed me right back. He had no idea that had happened. He heard it from me first. LOL How ironic is that. Boy is the shoe on the other foot now. Now I know what it's like to be at home and hear something on the news and just know that I had to get a hold of him to know that everything was okay. Thankfully the rest of the day was uneventful. I still didn't sleep well last night so I'm off to try it again.
3 Mar 09-Today was a day that I would not choose to do again at all. It started out as a normal day for the most part. I had a plan at lunch today and that was to go get the new video game Halo Wars for the XBox 360 for Miles. He has been so excited to play it. I had 3 meetings lined up today and a full plate overall at work. I went to Best Buy and ran by Burger King on the way back to work. I had to scarf down my lunch so I could make it back out the door by 1230 to get to my 1300 meeting. That did not pan out. The school called to tell me that Harmony had been accidentally tripped at school and she was complaining that her leg hurt. She wanted me to come pick her up and I called the nurses line and they told me to take her to urgent care to be seen. Two and a half hours later and x-rays taken and she's fine. She's probably just got a bruise from where she hit the ground. Thank God she's okay but boy did that make my day stressful. I had pork chops out to make but it was too late when I got home. So I improvised and we had breakfast for dinner and the kids loved it! The great news from today is that my instructor graded my final paper and I got an A on it. I was a little worried because I put so much into it. Now that it's graded, that makes my final grade overall in the class an A!! The coolest part is that she asked me if she could use my paper as an example for future classes!! How exciting is that?? :) I was grinning from ear to ear.
2 Mar 09-I am tired today. I am still not sleeping well. I walked 3 miles for PT today and my feet are really bothering me. When I got home I had to drag the trash cans out and mow the yard and my least favorite chore, cleaning up poop. Ha ha! I made it a week without having to ask for help. Our mower is about 5 years old Chris said and the stupid thing doesn't turn off when you let go of the handle. When he was gone last year, I figured out how to turn it off but I couldn't remember it this time. I had to get Frank from across the street and he couldn't figure it out either. He finally got it but it wasn't the right way to shut it off so I may be making a trip to Home Depot this weekend to purchase a new one! That will definitely be something new for me. My American Government class started today. I read through the syllabus and did my initial introduction post and that was it. I needed a day to brain dump and that's exactly what I did. Now I am just going to relax before bed.
1 Mar 09-Today was a good day. We all slept in a little bit and had a lazy morning which was nice. The kids played in the PJs until almost 10. :) After that, we made a trip to Target to get the kids some new shoes and to have lunch. They really enjoy eating lunch there and they have the best Blue Raspberry icee I've ever had. :P We went to Petco after that so I could get a mouse for Ali. After we got back, I continued to work on my final exam and finally just stopped over analyzing and hit submit and.... I PASSED!!! Whoo hoo! I will post my final grade once she grades my final paper and extra credit. Hopefully I keep my 4.0. Other than that, I didn't do much of anything else. Well, nothing blog worth. Just my normal cleaning, laundry, dinner, dishes, etc. I hope everyone had a great weekend!
Chris got his address today so if you would like to send him some notes or some goodies, I know he would appreciate it:
Christopher Naylor
455 ECES/FP
APO AE 09354
25 Mar 09-Today started out fantastic. I keep meaning to post this but I found another old friend on Facebook. Mom, you're never going to believe this but it is Christopher Cohen!!! I couldn't believe it when I found him. I'll catch you up on that later. Anyway, he was posting comments to my pictures this morning and some of them just had me cracking up. Work was good. I got caught up again and that's always a great feeling. I made a doctors appointment because my back pain is getting significantly worse. I couldn't believe it but they actually are referring me to a surgeon. Does this mean I'm having surgery? No. It's just a consult but we'll see. I won't see the surgeon for a while so I will keep you posted. I had to run home after my appointment to grab the tables for the bake sale tomorrow. I managed to get 7 miles in on the bike today before my back just couldn't handle it anymore. That's about it for today.
24 Mar 09-Happy Birthday to my baby boy Miles!! <3 We cannot believe that he is 6!! Where does the time go?? After I picked the kids up from school, I took them out to dinner to a little mom and pop ice cream joint down the street. He picked to eat at Target but I really didn't want to drive there. We hadn't been to Scoops yet so I suggested we try it out. I don't know why he likes to eat at Target so much but they all love to eat there. LOL Anyway, he agreed to Scoops and said it's his new favorite. We ate and then had ice cream and he was happy as could be. :) It was a good day.
23 Mar 09-I got a little bit of a break today and had to sit at the house to wait for the guy from Sears to come and take a look at the exercise bike. The verdict is in and I did everything right!! :) The console was mis-marked for which way the batteries go in. Instead of negative on one side and positive on the other side like it said, it was positive on both sides. Thank goodness and now it works and I rode 10 miles on it so far. :) Other than that, I slept so horribly, I am headed to bed now. Tomorrow is an exciting day for me since it is my baby's birthday. I cannot believe that little boy is going to be 6!! <3
22 Mar 09-Boy did I have a long weekend. I am so ready to just collapse into bed. We went to Costco today to pick up some supplies for the Easter event for the squadron. I took the kids on base after that to grab some lunch and to get another pair of shoes. I had a whole list of things I wanted to do today but didn't get a whole lot of them done. I got done the things I had to do. I got another 100 on my assignment for my class. Now, I am headed to bed.
21 Mar 09-It's been a busy couple of days. Thursday I decided to complicate my life and buy an exercise bike. It was super easy. I bought it online at Sears.com and I went to pick it up in the store an hour later. I spent 4 hours trying to figure out how to put it together and rolling my eyes at the "some assembly required". Long story short, I got it all together and went to try it out but the console did not come on. I started to disassemble it to check and make sure none of the wires unattached and no suck luck. Friday was pretty boring at work. I headed to a dental appointment at 1 and then went to PT and to do my grocery shopping. That worked out very well. I have been so busy and I was so sore from working on that bike that I figured I would get to sleep early. No such luck. Chris and I chat a lot on Yahoo so I got to be late again. The kids woke me up quite early this morning and very rudely. Silly kids! Hearts Apart is a program put on the base to get deployed spouses out of their houses and get together. They have one main activity a month. This months activity was the zoo. We had a great time today and I got some great pictures. They are up on the website. After that, we headed to Blockbuster so we could have movie night. We rented 4 movies and bought some popcorn and candy and they stayed up until 9:30 watching movies and having a good time. Anyway, I messed up one of my nails while I was working on the bike so I figured we'd just stop in so I could get it fixed but ended up just having them fill them anyway. Harmony got her nails done again and she had shooting stars put on her thumbnails. It's too cute. I'll have to get a picture tomorrow. I still haven't gotten my homework done but I've done my reading so hopefully I can knock it out quick tomorrow. I have a laundry list of things to do tomorrow so it's going to be another busy one. I will be happy to get to work just to have a chance to relax.
18 Mar 09-Today was one busy but productive day. I actually had more energy today than I've had in a long time. Not sure why though. Anyway, just before I left work today, I had the coolest invitation to sing for a function. Some guy from the social security office downtown called and said they were looking for a singer at their building next month and asked if I could do it. McCain and Biden have been invited as well as President Obama!! He obviously doesn't think the President will show up but the others could and that's just awesome. I am nervous already. I have to call him back tomorrow to tell him yes. I had to check with Rich and Sheree' first to make sure they could take the kids to school because I'd have to leave an hour before the daycare opens to be there on time. This will be my first real event in the community and I couldn't be more excite about it!
17 Mar 09-I had a great day today! I got caught up with all my work and got to relax. I actually got so much done that we had time to do an 80s quiz in the shop. ;) I had a custodian from OSI (Office of Special Investigations) come out today who needed to do some paperwork that he couldn't do from his office. He's a stand in so he doesn't know a lot of the processes and it's my job to help him out. Anyway, as he was leaving, he shook my hand and "coined me". What that means is that he had a coin in his hand and transferred it to mine. That is standard practice for being awarded a coin. It's kind of like a great job or a thank you but done privately for you to look at later. I looked at it after I got in the shop and it was an awesome coin! It doubles as a bottle opener too! Brilliant design! I was so excited to get that from him. It's so nice to have someone notice what we do for them and I was truly grateful for the gesture. It's days like this that I love my job! I came home and attempted to hang my new picture frames. That didn't work out so well. I got the wall anchor in which was a feat in itself for me. I had never done that before and I got it. Then I tried to put the screw in and dropped the whole thing back into the wall and I heard it fall. LOL Oh well! I'm not a very handy person so I'll have to find someone to come over who is and put them up for me! :) Overall, it was a great day! Check out the pictures of my coin below...
16 Mar 09-Okay so today I am truly going to keep this one short. I am exhausted. It's already after 10 and I need some decent sleep. I had a good day today but it was extremely busy. Thankfully it was a productive day. I got a lot of overdue stuff done. I have one more project that has been neglected to finish and I'll be caught up and what a great feeling that will be. On that note, I am off to bed...
15 Mar 09-We had a great day today! I was lazy this morning and didn't get in the shower until 10 but I was working on my homework. I did not want a repeat of last week where I almost didn't get done in time so I wanted to have it done before I went anywhere today. I finished up about 2 p.m. and then put the kids in the truck (we drive it somewhere once a week so she doesn't get lonely lol) and headed for Ace Hardware to get a new timer for the sprinklers. I decided to make an impromptu stop at the nail salon to get my nails done for the first time in many, many years. I like them. Even Harmony got her nails painted and she was grinning from ear to ear. Miles was so good. I figured he would get bored and act up but he was enjoying watching all the "tools" they use. After a while, he got tired of the smell but he did so good. They all loved him in there and kept asking him questions. After that, we came home for a little bit until I realized that I had forgotten a paper. So, we headed back out to Fry's to get a paper and that worked out because I remembered then to order Miles' birthday cake. They are so easily amused with little trips out so it works out great. The rest of the night was relaxing. I just did the normal Sunday night getting lunches ready, laundry, bags ready, clothes laid out, etc. I did get to talk to my parents today... finally! It was so nice to talk to them. I will not go that long again. :)
14 Mar 09-We had a busy but fun day today. We went to the DM-50 picnic today at Bama Park on the base. It is put on by a committee in Tucson to show their appreciation for what we do and they do a few things for us throughout the year and it's always great. They go all out for us. This year was extra special because my friend Michelle coordinated the whole thing and it was obvious that she put a lot of work into it. The kids really had a good time and I was able to get lots of pictures that are already up on the website (see I'm getting better). We don't normally spend but an hour there and we actually stayed 3 hours because the kids were enjoying themselves so much. We had other running around to do but I decided to bring them home and let them clean up from all the junk food and relax for a bit before we headed back out. After a while, we headed to Party City to pick up the decorations for Miles' birthday party. He picked out a Cars theme and he of course wanted 2 of everything. We don't normally do goody bags but we decided to do them this year. After that we went to dinner and I don't know what got into them today (well, I guess I do... it was all the sugar) but they were in rare form and had me cracking up. After dinner we headed to Petco to get new beds for the dogs (minus Bella). Bella and Jade have been chewing the beds up and I cannot stand picking up any more stuffing from around the house. Hopefully they won't chew the new beds up because they are not cheap. Chris wanted to see all these random things that I talk about so I created a random photo album to put all that silly stuff in. :) Anyway, I think that's it for today. I wanted to get homework done but I've come to same conclusion as always --there are not enough hours in the day.
12 Mar 09-I had a good day at work today even thought it was super busy. After I got home and relaxed for a little bit, I took care of the dishes and started dinner. After that, I started on a project that took me all night. Goodness!! I bought a pipeline (well 2 of them). I was so excited to get it but wow, was that a pain. I got it put together no problem but there are 13 picture frames per... contraption for a better word. Each one of them had sticker paper to remove from both sides of the plastic that the picture sits behind. That took me forever! I can't wait to get them up on the wall though. It is going to look really nice. Okay, how boring is my life?? LOL Oh well, it kept my time occupied. The kids weren't so good today. They figured they would just get in their PJs and that they weren't going to take showers. Wrong answer. :) I had to remind them who was Alpha in this house right now. Thankfully I didn't have to tell them again. They had a long day because they went on a field trip to the Desert Museum. They were talking non-stop about it on the way home and they had a great time. They go to the Botanical Gardens tomorrow. It's been a fun week for them.
11 Mar 09-Another fun day of figuring out discrepancies from our inventory today. What fun stuff. :) After I got home from work today, the neighbor came over to give me some mail that I guess fell out of our trash can when they picked it up yesterday and it blew in his yard. He let me know that he just had his house treated for termites and that I should look at ours. I did and saw a termite tube so I have to have someone come out to treat it. :( It is mighty expensive to get treated for termites. I don't really have anything else to report today. It was busy but uneventful. :)
10 Mar 09-Yesterday was another busy day and I never got around to blogging so I apologize for that. Our LAN went down at work yesterday about noon and totally destroyed the input of numbers from our inventory. I did end up getting some errands done because we couldn't do any work so that was nice. I was able to get to the post office, drop the movies off, go pick up Miles' prescription and pick up pop tabs from one of the offices on base. However, once it was finally time to go home and nothing had come back up yet, I brought all the count sheets home with me. They needed to be done so we could free stuff up to be used again so I was fine with that. I didn't have any homework or anything to do so it worked out. Today was equally busy but not quite as bad of a day. We just spent most of the day cleaning up the discrepancies and starting the paperwork to get everything fixed. There were just a lot of silly problems here and there. It made for quite the stressful day. I was thankful to not have to come home and cook. I had made pasta last night so we just had leftovers. I ordered a 35mm film to digital converter and it showed up yesterday. I finally got a chance to check it out today and it's pretty cool. It doesn't work all that great (not worth the price) but it's nice to get some of those pictures that I didn't even have anymore in digital format. It's a great concept. I know there's more from today but I am completely brain dead. Ha ha! Until tomorrow...
8 Mar 09-I am going to keep this short tonight. It's already 10:30 and I have just finished everything I needed to do and I still need to try to unwind so I can get to sleep. Today should have been a relaxing day but it wasn't at all. I made breakfast for the kids this morning. I had to take over Chris' duty of the "big breakfast" on Sundays and that took me a while. It was 10 a.m. before I even got in the shower. I needed to dye my hair but I realized that I was out of hair dye so I had to run to Walgreens to get it. I decided to take Chris' truck out for a little spin so we went in it. I forgot to mention this to you, Chris, but the neighbor (the guy that does painting-I can't remember his name), looked at me kind of funny when I drove by in it. Ha ha! Anyway, the kids are on spring break so I had to pack their lunches. Well, I expected that I was going to have to pack them but Harmony, bless her heart, took it upon herself to pack them for me. :) What a sweetie. Chris' grandma called today to check in on us and see how Chris was doing. I had to get laundry done today. The biggest shock of the day was knowing that I had homework to do and can usually knock it out in a couple of hours after the kids go to bed. Well, about the time I was getting them in bed, I realized that I just lost an hour today and it was due at 9 my time instead of 10 like I was used to!! Ouch!! I managed to get it done and much to my surprise, I got a 100 but talk about stressful!!! I just cannot do it on the last day with it just being me. It does not work too well. Anyway, on that note (and so much for short), I am going to attempt to go to bed. My back hurts the worst that it has in a LONG TIME tonight so this ought to be interesting.
7 Mar 09-Today was a fun day. My plan was to take the kids to the base for the heritage conference (air show) but they decided they really weren't that interested in getting out and going on the flightline. They said they just wanted to watch it from the car. LOL We had plans to go to lunch and then grocery shopping and they were more interested in that. We went to Burger King for lunch and that should have been smooth sailing. Well, of course, something was messed up with the meal as usual. This time it was only that my chicken sandwich didn't have cheese on it. I paid for the cheese so I took it back up and asked them to just throw some cheese on it (no need to wait for a new one). The girl apologized and said the guy making the food was new. No big deal. Well, the idiot girl that was back there when she asked for some cheese, chucked it across the kitchen and it landed on some piece of equipment on there where they wrap up the food. It wasn't dirty or anything (at least I hope to God it wasn't) and they put it on my sandwich and the girl at the register apologized again. I explained as nicely as I could that I knew it wasn't her fault but that I saw Lauren (I heard her say her name) throw my piece of cheese across the kitchen and that I was not happy about it and would be complaining on Monday. I asked that she make sure she let her know that was not appropriate behavior. Thankfully in my "old age" I have learned some self control. Besides being on base and having the kids, I just did not feel like making a scene but it really pissed me off. Anyway, I continued to enjoy my lunch and forgot all about it until I started typing this tonight. We went grocery shopping to get some things I forgot when I went last week and to get them some sandwich stuff, Lunchables and some snacks since they're on spring break for the next 2 weeks and have to take their lunch every day. I figured it would be fun for them to have a movie day so we stopped at the shoppette to get some candy and rented some movies. Overall, it was a good day.
6 Mar 09-Boy did today suck!! LOL I started my day out by walking the flightline.... again. My feet hurt so bad this evening but the cool part of being out there half the day was getting to watch airplanes practice. They have what's called the "heritage conference" every year and they have all kinds of planes that fly around. Thankfully I got the whole count done and everything came out good. I felt so bad when I had to leave while everyone else was still there. I have done my fair share of inventories but I hate leaving when I know everyone else is working late. I know we're all just anxious to get it done. We do it twice a year and it is not fun at all but it's such a feeling of accomplishment once it's finally done. Anyway, because the inventory, I didn't have time to do anything else. I made popcorn for the kids tonight and they laid on the couch with their blankets and played Halo. They were getting along so well tonight. It was wonderful!
5 Mar 09-Today was quite the busy day. I almost got a break and got to go to lunch with Michelle but she ended up getting called away. :( It was nice to get to visit with her for a few minutes though. Once I got home from work, I made pork chops for dinner and then had to help Miles do his project. They were making "Leprechaun catchers". He had to design and decorate something to catch one in class tomorrow. That was fun but I'm just not very handy with stuff like that. He was happy with it though and he can't wait to show it off tomorrow. :) Tomorrow is going to be extremely busy. We are starting our 100% inventory which is never fun and I get to go do the flightline again. Normally on the first day, we are there until usually around 9 p.m. trying to finish up so we don't have to come in on Saturday. Fortunately and unfortunately, I can't stay late because of it being just me and the kids. It will be a nice change to not have to work that late but I always feel bad when I have to leave the shop hanging. I am sure I will be beyond stressed out by the time I get home tomorrow. I just hope I can dump it on the way home so the kids don't know but I'm pretty good at doing that.
4 Mar 09-Today started out a little scary. I was eating breakfast and heard something on the news that stopped me in my tracks and I had to rub the "sleepy's" out of my eyes and rewind so I could actually pay attention. It said there was a "bombing at the front gate of the main base in Afghanistan". Holy crap was all I could think and I immediately e-mailed Chris. Thankfully he was at a computer and e-mailed me right back. He had no idea that had happened. He heard it from me first. LOL How ironic is that. Boy is the shoe on the other foot now. Now I know what it's like to be at home and hear something on the news and just know that I had to get a hold of him to know that everything was okay. Thankfully the rest of the day was uneventful. I still didn't sleep well last night so I'm off to try it again.
3 Mar 09-Today was a day that I would not choose to do again at all. It started out as a normal day for the most part. I had a plan at lunch today and that was to go get the new video game Halo Wars for the XBox 360 for Miles. He has been so excited to play it. I had 3 meetings lined up today and a full plate overall at work. I went to Best Buy and ran by Burger King on the way back to work. I had to scarf down my lunch so I could make it back out the door by 1230 to get to my 1300 meeting. That did not pan out. The school called to tell me that Harmony had been accidentally tripped at school and she was complaining that her leg hurt. She wanted me to come pick her up and I called the nurses line and they told me to take her to urgent care to be seen. Two and a half hours later and x-rays taken and she's fine. She's probably just got a bruise from where she hit the ground. Thank God she's okay but boy did that make my day stressful. I had pork chops out to make but it was too late when I got home. So I improvised and we had breakfast for dinner and the kids loved it! The great news from today is that my instructor graded my final paper and I got an A on it. I was a little worried because I put so much into it. Now that it's graded, that makes my final grade overall in the class an A!! The coolest part is that she asked me if she could use my paper as an example for future classes!! How exciting is that?? :) I was grinning from ear to ear.
2 Mar 09-I am tired today. I am still not sleeping well. I walked 3 miles for PT today and my feet are really bothering me. When I got home I had to drag the trash cans out and mow the yard and my least favorite chore, cleaning up poop. Ha ha! I made it a week without having to ask for help. Our mower is about 5 years old Chris said and the stupid thing doesn't turn off when you let go of the handle. When he was gone last year, I figured out how to turn it off but I couldn't remember it this time. I had to get Frank from across the street and he couldn't figure it out either. He finally got it but it wasn't the right way to shut it off so I may be making a trip to Home Depot this weekend to purchase a new one! That will definitely be something new for me. My American Government class started today. I read through the syllabus and did my initial introduction post and that was it. I needed a day to brain dump and that's exactly what I did. Now I am just going to relax before bed.
1 Mar 09-Today was a good day. We all slept in a little bit and had a lazy morning which was nice. The kids played in the PJs until almost 10. :) After that, we made a trip to Target to get the kids some new shoes and to have lunch. They really enjoy eating lunch there and they have the best Blue Raspberry icee I've ever had. :P We went to Petco after that so I could get a mouse for Ali. After we got back, I continued to work on my final exam and finally just stopped over analyzing and hit submit and.... I PASSED!!! Whoo hoo! I will post my final grade once she grades my final paper and extra credit. Hopefully I keep my 4.0. Other than that, I didn't do much of anything else. Well, nothing blog worth. Just my normal cleaning, laundry, dinner, dishes, etc. I hope everyone had a great weekend!
Chris got his address today so if you would like to send him some notes or some goodies, I know he would appreciate it:
Christopher Naylor
455 ECES/FP
APO AE 09354
07 February 2009
My ramblings-Feb 09
28 Feb 09-Ah finally it is the last day of February. One more month down! I had to set my alarm for 6 this morning to get ready to take Bella in to get fixed. The drop off went smoothly but when I went back to pick her up, it wasn't so smooth. I will NOT be going back to that place. Anyway, I'll get to that in a minute. On the way back from dropping Bella off, the kids decided they were still hungry so I figured I'd swing by McDonald's and treat them to breakfast. Harmony mentioned wanting to go check out yard sales so after we ate breakfast, we headed back out. She is so funny about yard sales. She is really into it and enjoys going but once we get there, she gets a little shy and wants me to help her find stuff she likes. Silly girl. They both got a couple of things and I even picked up a couple of shirts. Chris called before we headed out and it sounds like things are working out with the tent. They were having some wall lockers made so they could put their stuff away. He said one of the guys that lived in the buildings that I lived in came over to check out the tent and said he'd rather live in the tent than the metal tin. I would have to agree. I'm glad there's a positive spin on it for him. He's having some trouble getting the pictures on the website because he doesn't have internet in his room and trying to use the Wi-Fi anywhere else is a joke. He might end up having to send home his SD card so I can upload them for him. I am still waiting on his address. I will share that when I get it. Okay, now back to the story of picking Bella up. I went to the desk to check in and the lady told me that she would put my sheet in the stack and the other guy in there would call me up to pay and have her brought out. Well, my sheet didn't make it in the stack and I didn't realize it until a guy that I recognized from the morning when we dropped her off came in after me and got his dog before me. Of course they apologized and he told the tech that Bella was ready to go home. Well SHE FORGOT!! Holy crap was I pissed. Lucky for them I had the kids with me or I would have made a scene. It was ridiculous. I finally grabbed the tech and told her that I heard him tell her that my dog was ready to go home and asked what the hold up was. The first girl saw me back at the counter and said "Again?" I almost lost it! Idiots! I will definitely not be going back to that place. I was thinking because shots were so cheap there that I would just take the dogs there but no thank you. I will wait for an appointment at the base vet where they are professional. So that was my day. Fun huh? :)
27 Feb 09-Chris finally made it to Afghanistan. He called me today while I was on my way home from grocery shopping to tell me he had made it. I was relieved to hear it. Unfortunately, he got some bad news about living arrangements once he got there. He is living in what I referred to while I was there as Camp Cunningham. They are completely booked on rooms so they converted the old cardio tent into a home for these guys. :( I was so disappointed to hear that. Who sends people over and they don't have rooms for them?? If it's not hard enough to deal with that place and you have to start out with living conditions like that. They say they're going to be there for the whole 4 months. I don't see how that is even possible but we'll see how it goes for him. I just hope that doesn't start getting his spirit down. I actually preferred living in a tent but it sounds like it's quite different for him. Anyway, I called his grandparents when I got home so they knew he was safe. I tried to call his dad but the home number I had was disconnected and his cell phone went to voice mail. I know his grandma will be spreading the word though so I wasn't too worried about it. The rest of my day consisted of 8 hours of working on my final paper! Yikes! I guess that's what I get for just starting it today but I work better under pressure but that was tiring. Now I just have my final exam to finish tomorrow and I will be all done with American Pop Culture! Whoo hoo! Miles was busy building blanket forts in the family room today which was adorable. I think that's about it for today. Tomorrow I have to set my alarm for 6 so I can take Bella in to get fixed. :(
26 Feb 09-Today was a busy day. We had our monthly commanders call which meant another key spouse bake sale. We ended up making $206 from it! It is so exciting to watch how the different flights get in to hosting the bake sales. I'm glad that people aren't complaining about having to do it. Chris is still doing well but very bored still sitting at Manas. He finally leaves at 4:30 a.m. tomorrow so he's almost out of there to make the short trip to Afghanistan. I know he is ready to get settled. He says that he has a new found respect for the traveling I had done over there twice now that he's gone through it himself. It is not fun and it is very exhausting. Anyway, he'll be there soon and I will start making my phone calls to his family to let them know he is safe and sound (they don't get on the internet so wouldn't be reading this). I am off tomorrow because the kids don't have school and the daycare is also closed. Every year they get 2 days off for the rodeo. It is still amusing to me after being here so long that they get out of school to attend a rodeo that we don't usually go to. We went in the past but it's just too hot and not very interesting to them so we don't bother.
25 Feb 09-Another day down. Chris is at Manas now (Kyrgyzstan). He finally flies out for Afghanistan tomorrow night so I will update again once I know that he is there for sure. He is only having to spend a couple days at Manas so that's not too bad at all but as he quickly learned, there's not a whole lot to do there. They have a lot more places to get internet access now than when I was there so we've been able to IM back and forth which has been nice. I know he is just ready to get there and get settled. I had to go to the flightline again to count launchers some more. I had to drag the tables in to work today too for my key spouse bake sale tomorrow. Hopefully it will be a good money maker. We have a big event coming up for Easter so we need some funds for that. I ordered some business cards today with the website address for the key spouse website and we're going to hand that out at the function to encourage people to come to the site. I will be playing photographer for the day and I'm going post the pictures of the kids with the Easter Bunny on the site so hopefully that will bring more traffic to the site. Anyway, we just goofed around the house tonight and I did a paper for extra credit for my American Pop Culture class after I put the kids down. All in all, it was a good day.
24 Feb 09-I am exhausted today. I didn't sleep very well last night waiting for Chris to call from his stops. I left the laptop up too in case he got online. I kept waking up and checking to make sure I didn't miss a call or an IM. Chris forgot to turn his alarm off so that woke me up at 4 something. Miles woke up about 20 minutes before my alarm. Overall it was just a rough night. Hopefully I will sleep well tonight but I haven't heard from Chris yet so obviously that will be on my mind as I attempt to sleep. From where I last mentioned, he went to New Hampshire, to Iceland and then Romania. I'm not sure if there were any more stops before he got to Manas in Kyrgyzstan but I haven't heard from him again. He called when he stopped in Iceland and again before he left for Romania but unfortunately, I was on the flightline and cell phones are not allowed out there. :( Now I know how nerve wracking this was for him waiting to hear from me to know that I made it safely. Work was work today. I stopped to get water after work, stopped at H & R Block to pick up the amendment paperwork, picked up the kids and the mail and headed home to start dinner. I really want to start expanding what I cook so I found some pan fried chicken recipe on allrecipes.com that came out really good. The kids gave it "2 thumbs up". LOL I cleaned out Miles' hermit crab tank and then got them in the showers. Once I finally got them in bed, I cleaned up the kitchen and then got on my treadmill to run/walk for a bit while I watched The Biggest Loser. Yes, my life is interesting! :) This is how it's going to be for the next 4 months. I will have my routine and hopefully I won't go too stir crazy.
23 Feb 09-What can I say about today? It sucked. We said goodbye to Chris today. Harmony seemed okay but poor Miles had tears in his eyes. What was even worse for me is that he waited until he got to school to cry. I know he didn't want me to cry and he's smart and knows I would have if I had seen him cry. :( Breaks my heart! It was different taking him to the airport instead of the way that I usually deploy-in a big room full of crying and sad families. Poor Chris has been stressed out and he's tired and just ready to get there. It is 9:45 p.m. and I just got a text from him telling me he was boarding in Virginia to start heading over so please think of him. Hopefully he can get some rest and get there and get settled. He is unsure of his route at this point so I don't know if he'll be making the same stops that I did but I will update as I get those updates. Anyway, on a lighter note, I was going to take a break for a semester to get in a groove with the kids but I decided against it. I might as well keep up on it while I'm on a roll. :) So, I signed up for American Government today. We will see how that goes. It starts the day after my current class ends. Thank you to everyone for all the love, support and well wishes for Chris and our family. It means so much to us!
22 Feb 09-Today was another busy day. I packed all of Chris' stuff today and poor Scrappy is all too familiar with the moving of the bags. He definitely sensed it. Thankfully the kids seem okay at the moment. I'm sure tomorrow will be a different story. I need to stay strong for them so hopefully I make it through it. I am still excited for him to see where I've been though and to get the experience. I think he is going to enjoy himself. Please think of him as he makes his journey out tomorrow. I will keep everyone that reads this posted on how he's doing and when he gets there. Thank you. (Mom, I promise, promise, promise I will call you soon. I have been such a bad daughter.) :)
20 Feb 09-We had a good day today. We went to the annual Vail Pride Day at the fairgrounds (Vail is our school district). The kids climbed the rock wall, pet a horse, we checked out their artwork that was on display and ate lunch. It was a nice day. We played some more rock band tonight too. Chris is just trying to enjoy his last couple of days.
19 Feb 09-Today was another running around day. The biggest thing of today was dropping my van off for it's 100K mile check up. That was a little expensive but I guess not really for everything they did. I just hate spending money for something I can't see. LOL I guess "she" needs to keep running for me though until we pay the truck off. We went grocery shopping today too and determined that we are never allowed to go shopping again together. It was an expensive trip but it's good because I got all the Easter stuff and I won't have to grocery shop much next time while I'm adjusting to being on my own with the kids. I finally got a chance to work on my quiz too so that was nice. I really need to get cracking on it. :) Tomorrow should be more relaxing than the rest of the week.
18 Feb 09-Today was yet another busy day. We got some more stuff for the house and Chris surprised me with a flash for my new camera. So now, I have the camera, extra lens, carrying case, tripod and flash. Whoo hoo! I set up a drop cloth to see if I could take professional looking pictures in the house. We'll see how they look during the day. We picked up his weapon from the armory today and took it over to the main armory so he can pick it up this weekend. It's almost time for him to go and I know he's stressing out about it. Other than that, there's not much to report for today.
17 Feb 09-Sorry I missed yesterday. We had a very busy day shopping because we got our tax money. Of course my disclaimer before I post this is that of course we saved and paid off bills too. I finally, finally, finally got my wonderful SLR camera and I LOVE IT!!! It takes such fantastic pictures so I am going to learn how to use it so I can start posting pictures. I bought a tripod and camera case for it today and I can't wait to use everything. Chris needed some stuff to take with him on his deployment to help pass the time and we picked up all that stuff today. It was a good day.
15 Feb 09-Happy Birthday to my brother Ryan!! I hope you had a great day! :) Today was PJ day for me. It has been kind of nice without football and having people over every Sunday so I could just relax and stay in my PJs. Of course, I still got plenty done around the house. (Sunday is laundry day! LOL) I will be glad once this class is over so I can have my days back. I just finished my paper and now I can relax and hang out with the kiddos and get caught up on some T.V. shows! The paper that I had due today was rough. It was all about "zines" which I know nothing about. Even reading about them on the internet and picking 2 of them to write about, I struggled my way through it. I just hope it was enough! I am off all week to spend Chris' last week with him. The kids have school tomorrow even though it's a holiday so we have all week to just hang out while the kids are in school. I will be packing him up this week and we'll be do some shopping to get some stuff he needs for his trip.
14 Feb 09-What a great Valentines Day!! Chris put out roses in a vase and then some mini roses in pots that he hung on the wall while I was getting ready for our Saturday outing. It was a nice surprise. We went to "A" Mountain and let the kids hike around. They had a lot of fun and I got some great pictures (which are on the site already). We were going to go to this cute little Italian joint that I love but Chris and the kids haven't been to yet but the wait for a table was too long so we went to Texas Roadhouse instead. I'm glad we did because we had a great time and a great (whew, but expensive) meal. The kids thought it was so cool to eat peanuts out of the shell and throw the shells on the ground. :) I had never been to a place like that before and we really enjoyed it. While we were in this little lookout spot on the mountain, Chris pulled a box out of his pocket that shocked me! I had no idea he had another surprise in store for me. He bought me a tennis bracelet!! I had been wanting one for a long time and I was so surprised that he got me one! It was a great day!
13 Feb 09-Thank God it's Friday!! That is all I have to say about today! I had a nice lunch out with Holly today and that was the highlight of the day. :)
12 Feb 09-Much better weather again today! I got to see my favorite doctor today (after over 3 weeks without), my chiropractor! Whew! I needed that. That was probably the most he'd ever been able to crack my back. Other than that, I have nothing else to report for today. I am just ready for this week to be over with. Mom, I am on leave last week (to spend Chris' last week with him) so I will call during the week. :)
11 Feb 09-The weather was much better today thankfully. I went back to see the doctor today about my back. I never got the results of the MRI so I wanted see what the outcome was. The report said that my disc was worse than the last one. It wasn't a whole lot worse but it was still worse. He gave me some pain meds and updated my profile so we'll see how that goes. Other than that, it was a pretty boring day.
10 Feb 09-I got a call at 12:30 a.m. telling me that we were not to report until 9 a.m. do to weather. At 2:30 a.m. (ish) Miles came and woke me up to tell me that it was snowing outside!! They said we were going to get it but I wasn't sure I believed it would be that much! It was nuts! It was nice going in late and it made the day go by fast but it was cold!! Other than that, not much to report. It's still cold but the snow is all gone. Back to the grind as usual tomorrow.
9 Feb 09-Today was a good day. I was lucky enough to find an old wonderful friend from when I was stationed at Whiteman. We were dubbed as twin sisters and everyone knew us. I was looking for her for years and finally found her. She had no idea who I was because she didn't recognize me after all these years. She remembered me with long, brown, curly hair. Anyway, it was fantastic to find her and I enjoyed catching up. I also got a wild hair to pull out old pictures a few weeks ago and I finally got around to scanning them all in tonight and posted them on Facebook. It was fun to make people smile with old pictures. Not a very productive day but it was fun. Tomorrow, we're supposed to get snow in the valley. That ought to be interesting. I'm thinking warm thoughts tonight!
8 Feb 09-I thought I would miss football being on today but it's 6 p.m. and I'm still in my PJs and it's wonderful! :) I was super busy today doing laundry (which had been neglected for a while because of everything else I had going) and working on school work. Due to the fact that I have homework due on Wednesdays and Sundays, I don't normally get my homework done for Sunday until Sunday. She hasn't posted the assignments ahead of time either so I can't get ahead like I did in my last class. She did post ahead finally yesterday so I'm going to try to get ahead a little bit so it's not quite so stressful. It was a cold and rainy day today so there was another reason not to get dressed. Dinner is going now and then it will be bath time, time to put the laundry away, then I have to dye my hair and get all my stuff out to get ready for work tomorrow so that will take up the rest of my evening. Whew! I could have used a couple more days off though.
7 Feb 09-Okay, so contrary to popular belief, I'm alive. I apologize.... again... for taking so long to post in this thing. I just have not had the strength or the energy to do much of anything. Let's see if I can pick up where I left off. Grab a snack, this will be a long one. :)
Thankfully I survived the exercise although it sucked!! It had been way too long since everyone had done one and it got messed up from the very beginning. I won't harp on it because I don't even want to think about it anymore! ;)
On the 16th of January, I sang for the Martin Luther King Jr. breakfast. It was a good time and thankfully I did well. I was amazed at all the work that went into setting that event up. I really enjoyed it and was happy to be a part of it. I received multiple e-mails afterward thanking me for my participation. I also received a picture that was taken of me and the chaplain while we were waiting for everything to get started. I will put that in the photo albums tomorrow. I got another e-mail saying that we should be receiving a letter from the wing commander thanking us as well.
My class that started on the 5th of January is going well. I currently have a 95% in the class and I am so happy that I'm getting the hang of it. It's still very stressful. My last class had homework due on Sunday and it was one assignment per week. This class, I have a discussion post with 4 replies due on Wednesdays and then a paper due every Sunday. I also just took my midterm on Superbowl Sunday and scored a 95% on it!! Whoo hoo! The class is American Pop Culture if I haven't mentioned it yet. I realized that I don't know crap about pop culture but I'm learning. :)
Let's see... what else? We filed our taxes on the 24th and I'm enjoying the benefits of buying a house. ;) It couldn't come at a better time because of Chris getting ready to deploy. Speaking of that, have I mentioned it?? See, I can't even keep track of myself! If I haven't mentioned it, Chris is leaving for Afghanistan on the 23rd of this month. Thankfully it's only 4 months and I know I'll be glad that he'll get to see where I've spent so much time but we're all going to miss him. It will be interesting to hear his take on that place.
Next, just before my second week long exercise started, I got a bad sinus infection. :( I am still trying to kick it some 3 weeks later. Chris had it too and it lasted a long time. I survived the second week of exercises too but it was sooooo boring! I spent the whole week on the verge of tears though because of being sick and just dealing with stress. I have been having a rough time lately.
Now finally on to February. This month is inventory time for me at work which means an extremely busy schedule. I had two troops at work and one just left for Korea so I only have 1 left. He was on leave last week so it was just me. It was kind of nice though because a good friend just left for Italy and it hit me harder than I could have expected so it's been nice to keep busy. Wednesday I had my monthly meeting with the commander for the key spouse program. It was lunch at the golf course this time so that was a nice change. It is so refreshing to see how excited he still is about the whole thing.
The Superbowl was a blast but of course we hated the outcome. We had a nice turn out and a lot of good food. I made my chicken biscuits of course and they were a hit again. Chris and I were up until 4 a.m. so I was exhausted the next day but thankfully we had the day off.
Now onto my nightmare turned awesome ending! So, every year, I sing for the yearly Maintenance Professional of the Year banquet. It is a HUGE deal in semi formal uniform at Pima Air and Space Museum. I love doing that one but I get completely stressed out before doing that one because it is such a big deal. Anyway, they booked me for it last August. Then, I got a call a couple of weeks ago and they said they had asked someone else to do it and I was not happy about it. Well, as it turns out, they had already printed my name in the programs and the group commander asked if I was who did it last year and said he wanted me to do it again. So, they called and begged me to do it and I agreed. It was hard to say yes but my name would have been mud had I not done it. Anyway, I got there and they showed me as a Staff Sergeant in the program AND my name was spelled wrong. :( I tried to let the emcee's know that my rank was incorrect so they wouldn't call me a Staff in front of everyone. They called me a Staff when they announced me anyway. However, it was made known by someone else and the Chief that said it publicly apologized to me and told me he owed me a drink!! (He asked me to stand up and everything.) I was shocked and embarrassed but it was great! :) Anyway, the best part of the night was that it was the best performance of my life!!! Sick and all, I nailed it and was so proud of myself!!! I just LOVE singing at that place. The acoustics are fantastic. I had tons of people coming up to me afterward telling me what a great job I did. I was grinning from ear to ear all night!
That was last night and today came the highlight of the year... getting to sleep in!!! Whew! Exhausted doesn't begin to describe me.
So there it is Mom. Sorry to worry you. I had tried to call a few times (and on Dad's birthday) just never left a message. I didn't know if you had service with the cell. I still have his card here because I had nowhere to mail it! Ha ha! I just need to get through this month and hopefully things will be back to almost normal. Normal except that Chris won't be here.
27 Feb 09-Chris finally made it to Afghanistan. He called me today while I was on my way home from grocery shopping to tell me he had made it. I was relieved to hear it. Unfortunately, he got some bad news about living arrangements once he got there. He is living in what I referred to while I was there as Camp Cunningham. They are completely booked on rooms so they converted the old cardio tent into a home for these guys. :( I was so disappointed to hear that. Who sends people over and they don't have rooms for them?? If it's not hard enough to deal with that place and you have to start out with living conditions like that. They say they're going to be there for the whole 4 months. I don't see how that is even possible but we'll see how it goes for him. I just hope that doesn't start getting his spirit down. I actually preferred living in a tent but it sounds like it's quite different for him. Anyway, I called his grandparents when I got home so they knew he was safe. I tried to call his dad but the home number I had was disconnected and his cell phone went to voice mail. I know his grandma will be spreading the word though so I wasn't too worried about it. The rest of my day consisted of 8 hours of working on my final paper! Yikes! I guess that's what I get for just starting it today but I work better under pressure but that was tiring. Now I just have my final exam to finish tomorrow and I will be all done with American Pop Culture! Whoo hoo! Miles was busy building blanket forts in the family room today which was adorable. I think that's about it for today. Tomorrow I have to set my alarm for 6 so I can take Bella in to get fixed. :(
26 Feb 09-Today was a busy day. We had our monthly commanders call which meant another key spouse bake sale. We ended up making $206 from it! It is so exciting to watch how the different flights get in to hosting the bake sales. I'm glad that people aren't complaining about having to do it. Chris is still doing well but very bored still sitting at Manas. He finally leaves at 4:30 a.m. tomorrow so he's almost out of there to make the short trip to Afghanistan. I know he is ready to get settled. He says that he has a new found respect for the traveling I had done over there twice now that he's gone through it himself. It is not fun and it is very exhausting. Anyway, he'll be there soon and I will start making my phone calls to his family to let them know he is safe and sound (they don't get on the internet so wouldn't be reading this). I am off tomorrow because the kids don't have school and the daycare is also closed. Every year they get 2 days off for the rodeo. It is still amusing to me after being here so long that they get out of school to attend a rodeo that we don't usually go to. We went in the past but it's just too hot and not very interesting to them so we don't bother.
25 Feb 09-Another day down. Chris is at Manas now (Kyrgyzstan). He finally flies out for Afghanistan tomorrow night so I will update again once I know that he is there for sure. He is only having to spend a couple days at Manas so that's not too bad at all but as he quickly learned, there's not a whole lot to do there. They have a lot more places to get internet access now than when I was there so we've been able to IM back and forth which has been nice. I know he is just ready to get there and get settled. I had to go to the flightline again to count launchers some more. I had to drag the tables in to work today too for my key spouse bake sale tomorrow. Hopefully it will be a good money maker. We have a big event coming up for Easter so we need some funds for that. I ordered some business cards today with the website address for the key spouse website and we're going to hand that out at the function to encourage people to come to the site. I will be playing photographer for the day and I'm going post the pictures of the kids with the Easter Bunny on the site so hopefully that will bring more traffic to the site. Anyway, we just goofed around the house tonight and I did a paper for extra credit for my American Pop Culture class after I put the kids down. All in all, it was a good day.
24 Feb 09-I am exhausted today. I didn't sleep very well last night waiting for Chris to call from his stops. I left the laptop up too in case he got online. I kept waking up and checking to make sure I didn't miss a call or an IM. Chris forgot to turn his alarm off so that woke me up at 4 something. Miles woke up about 20 minutes before my alarm. Overall it was just a rough night. Hopefully I will sleep well tonight but I haven't heard from Chris yet so obviously that will be on my mind as I attempt to sleep. From where I last mentioned, he went to New Hampshire, to Iceland and then Romania. I'm not sure if there were any more stops before he got to Manas in Kyrgyzstan but I haven't heard from him again. He called when he stopped in Iceland and again before he left for Romania but unfortunately, I was on the flightline and cell phones are not allowed out there. :( Now I know how nerve wracking this was for him waiting to hear from me to know that I made it safely. Work was work today. I stopped to get water after work, stopped at H & R Block to pick up the amendment paperwork, picked up the kids and the mail and headed home to start dinner. I really want to start expanding what I cook so I found some pan fried chicken recipe on allrecipes.com that came out really good. The kids gave it "2 thumbs up". LOL I cleaned out Miles' hermit crab tank and then got them in the showers. Once I finally got them in bed, I cleaned up the kitchen and then got on my treadmill to run/walk for a bit while I watched The Biggest Loser. Yes, my life is interesting! :) This is how it's going to be for the next 4 months. I will have my routine and hopefully I won't go too stir crazy.
23 Feb 09-What can I say about today? It sucked. We said goodbye to Chris today. Harmony seemed okay but poor Miles had tears in his eyes. What was even worse for me is that he waited until he got to school to cry. I know he didn't want me to cry and he's smart and knows I would have if I had seen him cry. :( Breaks my heart! It was different taking him to the airport instead of the way that I usually deploy-in a big room full of crying and sad families. Poor Chris has been stressed out and he's tired and just ready to get there. It is 9:45 p.m. and I just got a text from him telling me he was boarding in Virginia to start heading over so please think of him. Hopefully he can get some rest and get there and get settled. He is unsure of his route at this point so I don't know if he'll be making the same stops that I did but I will update as I get those updates. Anyway, on a lighter note, I was going to take a break for a semester to get in a groove with the kids but I decided against it. I might as well keep up on it while I'm on a roll. :) So, I signed up for American Government today. We will see how that goes. It starts the day after my current class ends. Thank you to everyone for all the love, support and well wishes for Chris and our family. It means so much to us!
22 Feb 09-Today was another busy day. I packed all of Chris' stuff today and poor Scrappy is all too familiar with the moving of the bags. He definitely sensed it. Thankfully the kids seem okay at the moment. I'm sure tomorrow will be a different story. I need to stay strong for them so hopefully I make it through it. I am still excited for him to see where I've been though and to get the experience. I think he is going to enjoy himself. Please think of him as he makes his journey out tomorrow. I will keep everyone that reads this posted on how he's doing and when he gets there. Thank you. (Mom, I promise, promise, promise I will call you soon. I have been such a bad daughter.) :)
20 Feb 09-We had a good day today. We went to the annual Vail Pride Day at the fairgrounds (Vail is our school district). The kids climbed the rock wall, pet a horse, we checked out their artwork that was on display and ate lunch. It was a nice day. We played some more rock band tonight too. Chris is just trying to enjoy his last couple of days.
19 Feb 09-Today was another running around day. The biggest thing of today was dropping my van off for it's 100K mile check up. That was a little expensive but I guess not really for everything they did. I just hate spending money for something I can't see. LOL I guess "she" needs to keep running for me though until we pay the truck off. We went grocery shopping today too and determined that we are never allowed to go shopping again together. It was an expensive trip but it's good because I got all the Easter stuff and I won't have to grocery shop much next time while I'm adjusting to being on my own with the kids. I finally got a chance to work on my quiz too so that was nice. I really need to get cracking on it. :) Tomorrow should be more relaxing than the rest of the week.
18 Feb 09-Today was yet another busy day. We got some more stuff for the house and Chris surprised me with a flash for my new camera. So now, I have the camera, extra lens, carrying case, tripod and flash. Whoo hoo! I set up a drop cloth to see if I could take professional looking pictures in the house. We'll see how they look during the day. We picked up his weapon from the armory today and took it over to the main armory so he can pick it up this weekend. It's almost time for him to go and I know he's stressing out about it. Other than that, there's not much to report for today.
17 Feb 09-Sorry I missed yesterday. We had a very busy day shopping because we got our tax money. Of course my disclaimer before I post this is that of course we saved and paid off bills too. I finally, finally, finally got my wonderful SLR camera and I LOVE IT!!! It takes such fantastic pictures so I am going to learn how to use it so I can start posting pictures. I bought a tripod and camera case for it today and I can't wait to use everything. Chris needed some stuff to take with him on his deployment to help pass the time and we picked up all that stuff today. It was a good day.
15 Feb 09-Happy Birthday to my brother Ryan!! I hope you had a great day! :) Today was PJ day for me. It has been kind of nice without football and having people over every Sunday so I could just relax and stay in my PJs. Of course, I still got plenty done around the house. (Sunday is laundry day! LOL) I will be glad once this class is over so I can have my days back. I just finished my paper and now I can relax and hang out with the kiddos and get caught up on some T.V. shows! The paper that I had due today was rough. It was all about "zines" which I know nothing about. Even reading about them on the internet and picking 2 of them to write about, I struggled my way through it. I just hope it was enough! I am off all week to spend Chris' last week with him. The kids have school tomorrow even though it's a holiday so we have all week to just hang out while the kids are in school. I will be packing him up this week and we'll be do some shopping to get some stuff he needs for his trip.
14 Feb 09-What a great Valentines Day!! Chris put out roses in a vase and then some mini roses in pots that he hung on the wall while I was getting ready for our Saturday outing. It was a nice surprise. We went to "A" Mountain and let the kids hike around. They had a lot of fun and I got some great pictures (which are on the site already). We were going to go to this cute little Italian joint that I love but Chris and the kids haven't been to yet but the wait for a table was too long so we went to Texas Roadhouse instead. I'm glad we did because we had a great time and a great (whew, but expensive) meal. The kids thought it was so cool to eat peanuts out of the shell and throw the shells on the ground. :) I had never been to a place like that before and we really enjoyed it. While we were in this little lookout spot on the mountain, Chris pulled a box out of his pocket that shocked me! I had no idea he had another surprise in store for me. He bought me a tennis bracelet!! I had been wanting one for a long time and I was so surprised that he got me one! It was a great day!
13 Feb 09-Thank God it's Friday!! That is all I have to say about today! I had a nice lunch out with Holly today and that was the highlight of the day. :)
12 Feb 09-Much better weather again today! I got to see my favorite doctor today (after over 3 weeks without), my chiropractor! Whew! I needed that. That was probably the most he'd ever been able to crack my back. Other than that, I have nothing else to report for today. I am just ready for this week to be over with. Mom, I am on leave last week (to spend Chris' last week with him) so I will call during the week. :)
11 Feb 09-The weather was much better today thankfully. I went back to see the doctor today about my back. I never got the results of the MRI so I wanted see what the outcome was. The report said that my disc was worse than the last one. It wasn't a whole lot worse but it was still worse. He gave me some pain meds and updated my profile so we'll see how that goes. Other than that, it was a pretty boring day.
10 Feb 09-I got a call at 12:30 a.m. telling me that we were not to report until 9 a.m. do to weather. At 2:30 a.m. (ish) Miles came and woke me up to tell me that it was snowing outside!! They said we were going to get it but I wasn't sure I believed it would be that much! It was nuts! It was nice going in late and it made the day go by fast but it was cold!! Other than that, not much to report. It's still cold but the snow is all gone. Back to the grind as usual tomorrow.
9 Feb 09-Today was a good day. I was lucky enough to find an old wonderful friend from when I was stationed at Whiteman. We were dubbed as twin sisters and everyone knew us. I was looking for her for years and finally found her. She had no idea who I was because she didn't recognize me after all these years. She remembered me with long, brown, curly hair. Anyway, it was fantastic to find her and I enjoyed catching up. I also got a wild hair to pull out old pictures a few weeks ago and I finally got around to scanning them all in tonight and posted them on Facebook. It was fun to make people smile with old pictures. Not a very productive day but it was fun. Tomorrow, we're supposed to get snow in the valley. That ought to be interesting. I'm thinking warm thoughts tonight!
8 Feb 09-I thought I would miss football being on today but it's 6 p.m. and I'm still in my PJs and it's wonderful! :) I was super busy today doing laundry (which had been neglected for a while because of everything else I had going) and working on school work. Due to the fact that I have homework due on Wednesdays and Sundays, I don't normally get my homework done for Sunday until Sunday. She hasn't posted the assignments ahead of time either so I can't get ahead like I did in my last class. She did post ahead finally yesterday so I'm going to try to get ahead a little bit so it's not quite so stressful. It was a cold and rainy day today so there was another reason not to get dressed. Dinner is going now and then it will be bath time, time to put the laundry away, then I have to dye my hair and get all my stuff out to get ready for work tomorrow so that will take up the rest of my evening. Whew! I could have used a couple more days off though.
7 Feb 09-Okay, so contrary to popular belief, I'm alive. I apologize.... again... for taking so long to post in this thing. I just have not had the strength or the energy to do much of anything. Let's see if I can pick up where I left off. Grab a snack, this will be a long one. :)
Thankfully I survived the exercise although it sucked!! It had been way too long since everyone had done one and it got messed up from the very beginning. I won't harp on it because I don't even want to think about it anymore! ;)
On the 16th of January, I sang for the Martin Luther King Jr. breakfast. It was a good time and thankfully I did well. I was amazed at all the work that went into setting that event up. I really enjoyed it and was happy to be a part of it. I received multiple e-mails afterward thanking me for my participation. I also received a picture that was taken of me and the chaplain while we were waiting for everything to get started. I will put that in the photo albums tomorrow. I got another e-mail saying that we should be receiving a letter from the wing commander thanking us as well.
My class that started on the 5th of January is going well. I currently have a 95% in the class and I am so happy that I'm getting the hang of it. It's still very stressful. My last class had homework due on Sunday and it was one assignment per week. This class, I have a discussion post with 4 replies due on Wednesdays and then a paper due every Sunday. I also just took my midterm on Superbowl Sunday and scored a 95% on it!! Whoo hoo! The class is American Pop Culture if I haven't mentioned it yet. I realized that I don't know crap about pop culture but I'm learning. :)
Let's see... what else? We filed our taxes on the 24th and I'm enjoying the benefits of buying a house. ;) It couldn't come at a better time because of Chris getting ready to deploy. Speaking of that, have I mentioned it?? See, I can't even keep track of myself! If I haven't mentioned it, Chris is leaving for Afghanistan on the 23rd of this month. Thankfully it's only 4 months and I know I'll be glad that he'll get to see where I've spent so much time but we're all going to miss him. It will be interesting to hear his take on that place.
Next, just before my second week long exercise started, I got a bad sinus infection. :( I am still trying to kick it some 3 weeks later. Chris had it too and it lasted a long time. I survived the second week of exercises too but it was sooooo boring! I spent the whole week on the verge of tears though because of being sick and just dealing with stress. I have been having a rough time lately.
Now finally on to February. This month is inventory time for me at work which means an extremely busy schedule. I had two troops at work and one just left for Korea so I only have 1 left. He was on leave last week so it was just me. It was kind of nice though because a good friend just left for Italy and it hit me harder than I could have expected so it's been nice to keep busy. Wednesday I had my monthly meeting with the commander for the key spouse program. It was lunch at the golf course this time so that was a nice change. It is so refreshing to see how excited he still is about the whole thing.
The Superbowl was a blast but of course we hated the outcome. We had a nice turn out and a lot of good food. I made my chicken biscuits of course and they were a hit again. Chris and I were up until 4 a.m. so I was exhausted the next day but thankfully we had the day off.
Now onto my nightmare turned awesome ending! So, every year, I sing for the yearly Maintenance Professional of the Year banquet. It is a HUGE deal in semi formal uniform at Pima Air and Space Museum. I love doing that one but I get completely stressed out before doing that one because it is such a big deal. Anyway, they booked me for it last August. Then, I got a call a couple of weeks ago and they said they had asked someone else to do it and I was not happy about it. Well, as it turns out, they had already printed my name in the programs and the group commander asked if I was who did it last year and said he wanted me to do it again. So, they called and begged me to do it and I agreed. It was hard to say yes but my name would have been mud had I not done it. Anyway, I got there and they showed me as a Staff Sergeant in the program AND my name was spelled wrong. :( I tried to let the emcee's know that my rank was incorrect so they wouldn't call me a Staff in front of everyone. They called me a Staff when they announced me anyway. However, it was made known by someone else and the Chief that said it publicly apologized to me and told me he owed me a drink!! (He asked me to stand up and everything.) I was shocked and embarrassed but it was great! :) Anyway, the best part of the night was that it was the best performance of my life!!! Sick and all, I nailed it and was so proud of myself!!! I just LOVE singing at that place. The acoustics are fantastic. I had tons of people coming up to me afterward telling me what a great job I did. I was grinning from ear to ear all night!
That was last night and today came the highlight of the year... getting to sleep in!!! Whew! Exhausted doesn't begin to describe me.
So there it is Mom. Sorry to worry you. I had tried to call a few times (and on Dad's birthday) just never left a message. I didn't know if you had service with the cell. I still have his card here because I had nowhere to mail it! Ha ha! I just need to get through this month and hopefully things will be back to almost normal. Normal except that Chris won't be here.
02 January 2009
My ramblings-Jan 09
14 Jan 09-I am still alive. I am just worn out beyond belief from this exercise. I have some news to share soon but it will have to wait until this weekend. For now, I just wanted to post to get something on here. It's taken it's toll on me working these long hours. I'll post more this weekend!
11 Jan 09-Sorry I haven't posted. Work has been nuts. We have an exercise coming up next week and the prep for it has been a little crazy. I don't know how much I will post next week while I'm working 12s but I will certainly try. We had people over for football again today which is always a lot of fun. I really don't have much to talk about yet. Besides busy, life is a little boring. :)
7 Jan 09-I am beyond exhausted today so this one will be short. I was able to get my homework finished with 30 minutes to spare. LOL I think I'm going to like this class but I'm definitely going to have to think a lot more than the last one. I really want to keep my 4.0 so I'm hoping to kick butt in this one too. Today was just super busy and I'm so ready for bed. Until tomorrow... (Forgive the worthless post but I just want to make sure I keep my promise and stay with it this time!)
6 Jan 09-Oh the joys of preparing for an exercise. We had briefings today and then even had to go to the squadron to "dress up". It was nice to make sure we had everything but I'm an old pro at exercises. LOL Chris was a little "off his game" today. Normally he is the one that walks around the house scaring people. I don't like it so I don't know what came over me but I got him back today. He was walking out of the bedroom and I clapped and yelled behind him. LOL It was hilarious but I still don't know what came over me. The reason he said he was off his game was because Miles was able to scare him later in the hallway. I guess that's a little bit of payback. Nothing else interesting to report today. :)
5 Jan 09-I survived my first day back to work thankfully. It was actually kind of fun but I was sure busy. We were doing all of the prep work for the upcoming exercise. I got some of my class work done today and finally read through the syllabus. This class should be a lot of fun but I have A LOT to learn. There is just a lot of terminology that I don't understand. I am just proud of myself for keeping up with it. I can't stop this time until I get my degree. It was freezing today. I am so ready for winter to be over already. The kids had a good first day back at school. They were wiped out tonight but they were happy to be back in school. I think that's it for today.
4 Jan 09-Today was relaxing. We just hung out at the house and watched football. I did a couple of loads of laundry and that was it. It was a cold and rainy day though. I am ready for warmer weather. Unfortunately that's not coming for a while. LOL We did get a new Wii game today. The girls on my mommy's group were talking about Outdoor Challenge and how much fun it was. So, Chris went and bought it today and they were right! It's a blast! It's a great workout too. (Sorry I didn't get a call in to you today. We had company most of the day and then it was bath/bed time.) Tomorrow will be the kids first day back at school in a couple of weeks. I've been off work for a week too so tomorrow is going to be a long day for sure! I start my next class tomorrow too. Back to stress city! :)
3 Jan 09-Today was another good day. I headed out early to go shopping this morning. Little Thomas was having his birthday party today so I wanted to get him a gift. Turns out though that he and Katie are both sick so they canceled it. :( I hope they feel better soon. I had to get a few other things too and ended up picking out something for myself which is something I rarely ever do. I am always on my desktop computer to blog, play on MySpace, chat with the girls, etc. When I do my schooling, I use the laptop because I can take it somewhere quiet. It was quite the pain to do my homework without an actual mouse so I bought a laptop mouse today. It's pink and I love it! :) I got to get a coffee this morning too which is always a treat for me. After that, I just took the rest of the day to relax (and of course do some laundry because that is never ending in my house). :) I signed up to do fantasy football for the playoffs so I watched it to try to learn how it works so I can play the whole season next year. Anyway, Chris had to go to work on Friday for a little bit because he was being "coined" by the 3 star general! I am so proud of him for all his hard work with Santa's In Blue and I wanted to show off his 2 coins he received. One is from the 3 star general and the other was from the 12th AF command chief. Both of these coins are by very important people and are a HUGE deal! :)
2 Jan 09-Whoo hoo! We actually made it through 2008! Thank God it's over too. I wanted to do a kind of year in review thing but I think I'll save it for this year and keep track of all the cool stuff that is going to happen. I can only stay positive about how this year is going to go. No more negative for me. I predict this to be a great year and I'm going to keep up with that thinking as long as I can. It's been good so far. Granted it's early but all I can do is take it one day at a time. We had a great day today. We went to Mt. Lemmon today and let the kids sled and snowball fight. We also brought home our usual truckload of snow and put it in the front yard. It is amazing to me how many it attracts when it's sitting in the front yard. :) I managed to actually take a bunch of pictures AND post them all in the same day. It's amazing! ;) I got some really great shots of the kids. We took a picnic lunch up and just enjoyed all being together. I hate that ride up and down from there but it was still fun. I'm going to try to enjoy the next 2 days off before starting the month of hell. Wait, I said I'd be positive. Well, you'll just have to give me that one because exercises suck! There's no denying that! I will be beyond stressed out but it will be all good in the end. I hope everyone had a wonderful New Years and I hope that 2009 brings great things for all of you!!
11 Jan 09-Sorry I haven't posted. Work has been nuts. We have an exercise coming up next week and the prep for it has been a little crazy. I don't know how much I will post next week while I'm working 12s but I will certainly try. We had people over for football again today which is always a lot of fun. I really don't have much to talk about yet. Besides busy, life is a little boring. :)
7 Jan 09-I am beyond exhausted today so this one will be short. I was able to get my homework finished with 30 minutes to spare. LOL I think I'm going to like this class but I'm definitely going to have to think a lot more than the last one. I really want to keep my 4.0 so I'm hoping to kick butt in this one too. Today was just super busy and I'm so ready for bed. Until tomorrow... (Forgive the worthless post but I just want to make sure I keep my promise and stay with it this time!)
6 Jan 09-Oh the joys of preparing for an exercise. We had briefings today and then even had to go to the squadron to "dress up". It was nice to make sure we had everything but I'm an old pro at exercises. LOL Chris was a little "off his game" today. Normally he is the one that walks around the house scaring people. I don't like it so I don't know what came over me but I got him back today. He was walking out of the bedroom and I clapped and yelled behind him. LOL It was hilarious but I still don't know what came over me. The reason he said he was off his game was because Miles was able to scare him later in the hallway. I guess that's a little bit of payback. Nothing else interesting to report today. :)
5 Jan 09-I survived my first day back to work thankfully. It was actually kind of fun but I was sure busy. We were doing all of the prep work for the upcoming exercise. I got some of my class work done today and finally read through the syllabus. This class should be a lot of fun but I have A LOT to learn. There is just a lot of terminology that I don't understand. I am just proud of myself for keeping up with it. I can't stop this time until I get my degree. It was freezing today. I am so ready for winter to be over already. The kids had a good first day back at school. They were wiped out tonight but they were happy to be back in school. I think that's it for today.
4 Jan 09-Today was relaxing. We just hung out at the house and watched football. I did a couple of loads of laundry and that was it. It was a cold and rainy day though. I am ready for warmer weather. Unfortunately that's not coming for a while. LOL We did get a new Wii game today. The girls on my mommy's group were talking about Outdoor Challenge and how much fun it was. So, Chris went and bought it today and they were right! It's a blast! It's a great workout too. (Sorry I didn't get a call in to you today. We had company most of the day and then it was bath/bed time.) Tomorrow will be the kids first day back at school in a couple of weeks. I've been off work for a week too so tomorrow is going to be a long day for sure! I start my next class tomorrow too. Back to stress city! :)
3 Jan 09-Today was another good day. I headed out early to go shopping this morning. Little Thomas was having his birthday party today so I wanted to get him a gift. Turns out though that he and Katie are both sick so they canceled it. :( I hope they feel better soon. I had to get a few other things too and ended up picking out something for myself which is something I rarely ever do. I am always on my desktop computer to blog, play on MySpace, chat with the girls, etc. When I do my schooling, I use the laptop because I can take it somewhere quiet. It was quite the pain to do my homework without an actual mouse so I bought a laptop mouse today. It's pink and I love it! :) I got to get a coffee this morning too which is always a treat for me. After that, I just took the rest of the day to relax (and of course do some laundry because that is never ending in my house). :) I signed up to do fantasy football for the playoffs so I watched it to try to learn how it works so I can play the whole season next year. Anyway, Chris had to go to work on Friday for a little bit because he was being "coined" by the 3 star general! I am so proud of him for all his hard work with Santa's In Blue and I wanted to show off his 2 coins he received. One is from the 3 star general and the other was from the 12th AF command chief. Both of these coins are by very important people and are a HUGE deal! :)
2 Jan 09-Whoo hoo! We actually made it through 2008! Thank God it's over too. I wanted to do a kind of year in review thing but I think I'll save it for this year and keep track of all the cool stuff that is going to happen. I can only stay positive about how this year is going to go. No more negative for me. I predict this to be a great year and I'm going to keep up with that thinking as long as I can. It's been good so far. Granted it's early but all I can do is take it one day at a time. We had a great day today. We went to Mt. Lemmon today and let the kids sled and snowball fight. We also brought home our usual truckload of snow and put it in the front yard. It is amazing to me how many it attracts when it's sitting in the front yard. :) I managed to actually take a bunch of pictures AND post them all in the same day. It's amazing! ;) I got some really great shots of the kids. We took a picnic lunch up and just enjoyed all being together. I hate that ride up and down from there but it was still fun. I'm going to try to enjoy the next 2 days off before starting the month of hell. Wait, I said I'd be positive. Well, you'll just have to give me that one because exercises suck! There's no denying that! I will be beyond stressed out but it will be all good in the end. I hope everyone had a wonderful New Years and I hope that 2009 brings great things for all of you!!
24 December 2008
My ramblings-Dec 08
31 Dec 08-Happy New Year to all!! I hope you have a wonderful evening and that 2009 is 100 times better than 2008. I've been a busy little bee the last couple of days. I got the thank you notes done (they're typed as usual because my arthritis is getting worse as time goes on) and mailed out with school pictures, I've FINALLY updated the website with new pictures (next comes an overhaul of the bios pages), cleaned out all of the 2008 bills and receipts, organized all of my 2008 photos and created new folders for 2009 (also backed them up on my external hard drive). Whew! Just typing all that makes me tired. Ha ha! I want to start the new year out right and just be able to relax. My first month is not going to be fun because we have two exercises with means 2 weeks of 12 + hour shifts. After that, I hope the rest of the year is smooth sailing. I have a whole plan in my head for how this year is going to play out but who knows if I can actually make that a reality. We shall see. Anyway, I hope everyone stays safe tonight and brings in the new year right!
29 Dec 08-Today was a great day. I am off for a week but I made myself one long to do list. I do that whenever I have time off so I don't feel like I wasted it. I figured I'd be nice and help Chris out and take down the decorations outside since he's working this week. He was pleasantly surprised to come home today and see the majority of it done already. I haven't told the story on here yet but I have some injuries and due to those injuries, I can't climb on the roof so I had to leave that for him but he was so happy that I got everything out of the yard. All he had to do when he got home was bring it all in the garage so he could put it all up in the attic once everything is down. It's nice to be able to do something nice for him once in a while. I had to laugh earlier because our friend Steve came over to collect his children and knocked on the garage door. I told him to come in and he saw me in the kitchen cooking dinner. He's a single guy and he said, "Man, first the decorations and now you're cooking dinner? I need to get me one of those." He's so funny! It's nice to have some free time to do all this stuff that I want to do. I even made it out to the dry cleaners and to get me some coffee. I wish every day was like today. :) I hope everyone had a good Monday!
28 Dec 08-We had a very nice Christmas and a very nice weekend. It was nice to just relax to be with my family this year. Thank you to everyone that sent cards and gifts. This was the first year that the kids seemed truly happy and grateful for what they received. Today was a nice quiet day at home with our friend Budda and his kids. He's leaving soon for Italy and it was the last weekend that his oldest boy will be here. The kids just love him to pieces. They all have such a great time together. Anyway, I just registered for another class yesterday so my stress starts over again but I really needed to get it going again before I lose that desire to finish. Other than that, there's not much to tell... or at least not yet. I will update things as I remember. I am off this week (Thank GOD!!) so I will be finally posting pictures. Hopefully I can figure out where I left off because I know it's been a while. I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas!
24 Dec 08-Merry Christmas Eve to everyone! I know it's been forever and for that, I apologize. It's been over a month and I was shocked to see that! I wouldn't even know where to begin so I will try to write about some things and fill the rest in later as I remember or, for real, keep this going this time. I'm planning on 09 being a much better year for all of us and I know I'll want to write about it. Things have continued to be hectic around here as usual. Sometimes I wonder how I juggle it all. Sometimes I feel like Superwoman, other days I feel like I am barely keeping my head above water but I guess that's what keeps life interesting. I have a great job, a great family and great friends and that's all that truly matters so I'm doing something right. Sundays were normally my day to catch up on it all. However, since our "football crew" has grown on Sunday, I've been enjoying hanging out with all of them and enjoying my favorite sport! :) I am so excited to see my kids faces tomorrow when they see all their goodies that they can finally open. I was lucky enough to get all my shopping and wrapping done in one day so that when I put my tree up on Thanksgiving, I got all the presents under it the same day. It's been torture for the little ones! LOL I finally started feeling the nostalgia of it all this week. I promise, promise, promise, I will get pictures loaded before Sunday and also try to stay up with this the best that I can. January will be rough as we have 2 exercises which means 12 hour shifts for a week straight for each of them. I get most of my stuff like this done at work but unfortunately, my blogs are all blocked so I can't do it there. Hence the reason for the delay. But I'm back and lively and will try! Merry Christmas to everyone! May you all be as blessed as I am!
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29 Dec 08-Today was a great day. I am off for a week but I made myself one long to do list. I do that whenever I have time off so I don't feel like I wasted it. I figured I'd be nice and help Chris out and take down the decorations outside since he's working this week. He was pleasantly surprised to come home today and see the majority of it done already. I haven't told the story on here yet but I have some injuries and due to those injuries, I can't climb on the roof so I had to leave that for him but he was so happy that I got everything out of the yard. All he had to do when he got home was bring it all in the garage so he could put it all up in the attic once everything is down. It's nice to be able to do something nice for him once in a while. I had to laugh earlier because our friend Steve came over to collect his children and knocked on the garage door. I told him to come in and he saw me in the kitchen cooking dinner. He's a single guy and he said, "Man, first the decorations and now you're cooking dinner? I need to get me one of those." He's so funny! It's nice to have some free time to do all this stuff that I want to do. I even made it out to the dry cleaners and to get me some coffee. I wish every day was like today. :) I hope everyone had a good Monday!
28 Dec 08-We had a very nice Christmas and a very nice weekend. It was nice to just relax to be with my family this year. Thank you to everyone that sent cards and gifts. This was the first year that the kids seemed truly happy and grateful for what they received. Today was a nice quiet day at home with our friend Budda and his kids. He's leaving soon for Italy and it was the last weekend that his oldest boy will be here. The kids just love him to pieces. They all have such a great time together. Anyway, I just registered for another class yesterday so my stress starts over again but I really needed to get it going again before I lose that desire to finish. Other than that, there's not much to tell... or at least not yet. I will update things as I remember. I am off this week (Thank GOD!!) so I will be finally posting pictures. Hopefully I can figure out where I left off because I know it's been a while. I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas!
24 Dec 08-Merry Christmas Eve to everyone! I know it's been forever and for that, I apologize. It's been over a month and I was shocked to see that! I wouldn't even know where to begin so I will try to write about some things and fill the rest in later as I remember or, for real, keep this going this time. I'm planning on 09 being a much better year for all of us and I know I'll want to write about it. Things have continued to be hectic around here as usual. Sometimes I wonder how I juggle it all. Sometimes I feel like Superwoman, other days I feel like I am barely keeping my head above water but I guess that's what keeps life interesting. I have a great job, a great family and great friends and that's all that truly matters so I'm doing something right. Sundays were normally my day to catch up on it all. However, since our "football crew" has grown on Sunday, I've been enjoying hanging out with all of them and enjoying my favorite sport! :) I am so excited to see my kids faces tomorrow when they see all their goodies that they can finally open. I was lucky enough to get all my shopping and wrapping done in one day so that when I put my tree up on Thanksgiving, I got all the presents under it the same day. It's been torture for the little ones! LOL I finally started feeling the nostalgia of it all this week. I promise, promise, promise, I will get pictures loaded before Sunday and also try to stay up with this the best that I can. January will be rough as we have 2 exercises which means 12 hour shifts for a week straight for each of them. I get most of my stuff like this done at work but unfortunately, my blogs are all blocked so I can't do it there. Hence the reason for the delay. But I'm back and lively and will try! Merry Christmas to everyone! May you all be as blessed as I am!
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01 November 2008
My ramblings-Nov 08
17 Nov 08-I had a wonderful day today! I accomplished so much!! I got all of my Christmas shopping today and are you ready for the kicker??? I GOT EVERYTHING WRAPPED TOO!!! Whoo hoo! What a fantastic day! It is going to be so nice to not worry about shopping anymore. I got Harmony's birthday stuff too so I have no more money left but it's done. LOL I can actually start paying off Christmas BEFORE it gets here. Yay! Now I can just relax and enjoy the holiday season.
15 Nov 08-I had to go to work this morning but thankfully my 0800 meeting was finished at 0758 and I was home by 0830! LOL They had nothing for Ammo so I got to make all the calls for people that were in to go home and to brief the Chief and Captain. Now my day is not lost. My laundry is started and we'll be working in the yard today. Bulk pick up is on Monday so we'll be cutting tree limbs and stuff. It should be a nice day. I just got the e-mail from my mom that they are heading out to Arizona and they will be here on the 26th! We are all so excited to see them!
13 Nov 08-Today was the day from hell. Yikes! Work has just been a little nuts and I'm getting irritated with people making decisions to do things that affect my accounts and my custodians. That drives me nuts! Other than that, it's been a very quick week. It has just flown by which is great. I'm on Ammo super standby this weekend so I've got to work on Saturday but I'm going to finish my Christmas shopping afterward so that will be really nice. :) I have Monday off so I'm looking forward to that. Tomorrow is going to be rough. I have my annual maintenance training and it is "death by videos". Some of the videos are older than my time in the military and it's awful. LOL I get through it every year but God is it boring. Wish me luck!
11 Nov 08-It was so nice to have a day off in the beginning of the week. Happy Veteran's Day to everyone serving and everyone who has served. I had a "girls day out" with Harmony today. She has been getting a little worse in her behavior and has been getting 1-2 yellow lights a week at school. It's been frustrating and yesterday, I got a little carried away while trying to talk to this child who is jumping up and down, flailing arms, etc and I wanted to take her out today to apologize to her and explain calmly why she cannot behave this way. She needed new undies and she really likes ankle socks (but doesn't have a whole lot) so I took her to Target to get those things. After that, I took her to Starbucks so we could sit and have a drink. She was so thrilled and it was nice to get to sit down with her away from the house and talk to her about what has been going on. I think she understands better now and we just enjoyed being together. Then, out of nowhere, I decided I would take her to finally get her hair cut that she's been wanting. She asked for an A-Line cut and I wanted to give her what she wanted. She looks ADORABLE with her new "do". The pictures are on the website. She is so happy with it. She was just glowing. We got home and she let me fix it a little bit and then hugged me and squealed and asked if she could go see her friends so she could show it off. :) It was a great day! I spent quite a bit of time in the garden today. Everything was dead so Chris finally got in there with the weed eater and I came behind him and broke down all the corn stalks and sunflowers. That was hard work! Unfortunately, we have a rodent problem. We found another mouse in the garden and it came from another yard. Chris got some stuff to seal up the crack to try to keep these rodents from coming in our yard! Yuck! (Don't worry Mom, we'll have it taken care of by the time you guys get here. Ha ha!) We set up our compost bin finally too so we were able to put stuff from the garden in the bin instead of in the trash! That was fun! It's late here but I am finding it hard to unwind. Chief results come out tomorrow morning and I am waiting for a name to show up on that list. I've felt in my heart that it would be there for a long time. It is my friend Ralph who is one of my mentors and I am so excited for him! I think that's it for today. :)
09 Nov 08-I apologize for the break again. I had a 3 day seminar I attended this past week and I didn't realize how much NOT doing anything could just take it out of me. I need to be busy to keep my energy up and 3 days of sitting in a classroom sure did not do it for me. I have been busy with school too. I did not like having to do the majority of my work on the day it was due so I am trying to do a little bit each day which has definitely been beneficial. I have half of my assignments done that are due next week and it feels great to be ahead. Now I just have to pray I can keep this momentum up! Everyone has been doing well. Miles just got new undies and that's probably one of the most exciting things we've done lately. Ha ha! That kid is so easy to please. We will be getting their progress reports this week and I'm sure there will not be anything in them we don't already know. Technology is wonderful. I am in close e-mail contact with both of their teachers and I can even see Harmony's grades online. It is helpful to see when there is a subject she might need some extra work in so we can catch it before it is too late. I signed up for the Black Friday website and received an e-mail Saturday morning about a sale at Walmart. Normally I am not up as early on Saturdays because I sleep in due to getting up at 4:45 all week but for some reason, I was up earlier than usual and I'm sure glad I was. Walmart had a pre black Friday sale and I was able to send Chris to get some gifts for the kids that were a steal but we also got a laptop (for Chris) that was $650 on sale for $298!! What a steal! He came home with it and I smiled and told him Merry Christmas! LOL Now I don't have to worry about his gift. He really did need a new laptop as the old one he was using was in bad shape after Miles stepped on it after I got back from Afghanistan last year. Chris will be much smarter with this one and make sure it doesn't sit where it can be damaged when it is not in use. We couldn't pass up that deal. We put the old ratty one (that works fine, it's just in bad physical shape) in Harmony's room so she'e excited to have her own computer. All we need is one more an they'll all have their own computers which will stop some of the fights that go on in this house! I'm sure there is more that I could post about today but can't think of any more right now. I am anxious to get back to work after 3 days away to see what I have missed. We work Monday and then have Tuesday off so it will be a nice break during the week.
02 Nov 08-Nothing special happened today. I was able to catch up and get all the laundry done. I finished up my homework and was happy to see the all the grading caught up and I have a 92%. :) Other than those 2 things, I just watched football and got another 3 miles in today. Laundry took tons of time though so I had no free time today. I also updated the website with the kids Christmas wish lists finally!
01 Nov 08-Today was a good but busy day. The kids were beat of course from last nights festivities. I went with Elise to some type of home show where they showed all about how to use items you already have that you might be ready to throw them out and make them new. It was eye opening for sure and made me want to go out and yard sale! LOL It was a lot of fun. It was just nice to sit and chat with Elise. I forget how much I miss good conversation with good friends until I have it. I got 2 miles in tonight and only 2 because I got started about an hour later than I usually do. I missed the last couple of days so I really wanted to get it in. I still have some homework to do tomorrow and loads of laundry but it was so worth it to get out today. Oh, before I forget, we stopped at Walmart today so that Elise could get some yard for the kids to keep them occupied. (David was on call so she had to bring them along.) Anyway, they learned how to finger knit in Girl Scouts and Harmony learned in after school care so I picked some up for her too. She was so excited when I gave it to her today. She had been at a birthday party for part of the time that I was gone and it was a nice surprise for her to come home to 2 new things of yarn. She's really good at it. It's too cute. We have our sports fanatic (Miles), our scientist (Cody) and our creative one (Harmony). It's so fun to see how different they all are.
**Mom, I don't know if it's too late but I am going to make their Christmas wish lists tomorrow and post them on their bio pages. Sorry it's taken so long! :( If it's too late, I'm sure you already got them something great. You always do! Now that it's November, the kids already sense it's clsoe to your visit and we can't wait to see you guys!!
15 Nov 08-I had to go to work this morning but thankfully my 0800 meeting was finished at 0758 and I was home by 0830! LOL They had nothing for Ammo so I got to make all the calls for people that were in to go home and to brief the Chief and Captain. Now my day is not lost. My laundry is started and we'll be working in the yard today. Bulk pick up is on Monday so we'll be cutting tree limbs and stuff. It should be a nice day. I just got the e-mail from my mom that they are heading out to Arizona and they will be here on the 26th! We are all so excited to see them!
13 Nov 08-Today was the day from hell. Yikes! Work has just been a little nuts and I'm getting irritated with people making decisions to do things that affect my accounts and my custodians. That drives me nuts! Other than that, it's been a very quick week. It has just flown by which is great. I'm on Ammo super standby this weekend so I've got to work on Saturday but I'm going to finish my Christmas shopping afterward so that will be really nice. :) I have Monday off so I'm looking forward to that. Tomorrow is going to be rough. I have my annual maintenance training and it is "death by videos". Some of the videos are older than my time in the military and it's awful. LOL I get through it every year but God is it boring. Wish me luck!
11 Nov 08-It was so nice to have a day off in the beginning of the week. Happy Veteran's Day to everyone serving and everyone who has served. I had a "girls day out" with Harmony today. She has been getting a little worse in her behavior and has been getting 1-2 yellow lights a week at school. It's been frustrating and yesterday, I got a little carried away while trying to talk to this child who is jumping up and down, flailing arms, etc and I wanted to take her out today to apologize to her and explain calmly why she cannot behave this way. She needed new undies and she really likes ankle socks (but doesn't have a whole lot) so I took her to Target to get those things. After that, I took her to Starbucks so we could sit and have a drink. She was so thrilled and it was nice to get to sit down with her away from the house and talk to her about what has been going on. I think she understands better now and we just enjoyed being together. Then, out of nowhere, I decided I would take her to finally get her hair cut that she's been wanting. She asked for an A-Line cut and I wanted to give her what she wanted. She looks ADORABLE with her new "do". The pictures are on the website. She is so happy with it. She was just glowing. We got home and she let me fix it a little bit and then hugged me and squealed and asked if she could go see her friends so she could show it off. :) It was a great day! I spent quite a bit of time in the garden today. Everything was dead so Chris finally got in there with the weed eater and I came behind him and broke down all the corn stalks and sunflowers. That was hard work! Unfortunately, we have a rodent problem. We found another mouse in the garden and it came from another yard. Chris got some stuff to seal up the crack to try to keep these rodents from coming in our yard! Yuck! (Don't worry Mom, we'll have it taken care of by the time you guys get here. Ha ha!) We set up our compost bin finally too so we were able to put stuff from the garden in the bin instead of in the trash! That was fun! It's late here but I am finding it hard to unwind. Chief results come out tomorrow morning and I am waiting for a name to show up on that list. I've felt in my heart that it would be there for a long time. It is my friend Ralph who is one of my mentors and I am so excited for him! I think that's it for today. :)
09 Nov 08-I apologize for the break again. I had a 3 day seminar I attended this past week and I didn't realize how much NOT doing anything could just take it out of me. I need to be busy to keep my energy up and 3 days of sitting in a classroom sure did not do it for me. I have been busy with school too. I did not like having to do the majority of my work on the day it was due so I am trying to do a little bit each day which has definitely been beneficial. I have half of my assignments done that are due next week and it feels great to be ahead. Now I just have to pray I can keep this momentum up! Everyone has been doing well. Miles just got new undies and that's probably one of the most exciting things we've done lately. Ha ha! That kid is so easy to please. We will be getting their progress reports this week and I'm sure there will not be anything in them we don't already know. Technology is wonderful. I am in close e-mail contact with both of their teachers and I can even see Harmony's grades online. It is helpful to see when there is a subject she might need some extra work in so we can catch it before it is too late. I signed up for the Black Friday website and received an e-mail Saturday morning about a sale at Walmart. Normally I am not up as early on Saturdays because I sleep in due to getting up at 4:45 all week but for some reason, I was up earlier than usual and I'm sure glad I was. Walmart had a pre black Friday sale and I was able to send Chris to get some gifts for the kids that were a steal but we also got a laptop (for Chris) that was $650 on sale for $298!! What a steal! He came home with it and I smiled and told him Merry Christmas! LOL Now I don't have to worry about his gift. He really did need a new laptop as the old one he was using was in bad shape after Miles stepped on it after I got back from Afghanistan last year. Chris will be much smarter with this one and make sure it doesn't sit where it can be damaged when it is not in use. We couldn't pass up that deal. We put the old ratty one (that works fine, it's just in bad physical shape) in Harmony's room so she'e excited to have her own computer. All we need is one more an they'll all have their own computers which will stop some of the fights that go on in this house! I'm sure there is more that I could post about today but can't think of any more right now. I am anxious to get back to work after 3 days away to see what I have missed. We work Monday and then have Tuesday off so it will be a nice break during the week.
02 Nov 08-Nothing special happened today. I was able to catch up and get all the laundry done. I finished up my homework and was happy to see the all the grading caught up and I have a 92%. :) Other than those 2 things, I just watched football and got another 3 miles in today. Laundry took tons of time though so I had no free time today. I also updated the website with the kids Christmas wish lists finally!
01 Nov 08-Today was a good but busy day. The kids were beat of course from last nights festivities. I went with Elise to some type of home show where they showed all about how to use items you already have that you might be ready to throw them out and make them new. It was eye opening for sure and made me want to go out and yard sale! LOL It was a lot of fun. It was just nice to sit and chat with Elise. I forget how much I miss good conversation with good friends until I have it. I got 2 miles in tonight and only 2 because I got started about an hour later than I usually do. I missed the last couple of days so I really wanted to get it in. I still have some homework to do tomorrow and loads of laundry but it was so worth it to get out today. Oh, before I forget, we stopped at Walmart today so that Elise could get some yard for the kids to keep them occupied. (David was on call so she had to bring them along.) Anyway, they learned how to finger knit in Girl Scouts and Harmony learned in after school care so I picked some up for her too. She was so excited when I gave it to her today. She had been at a birthday party for part of the time that I was gone and it was a nice surprise for her to come home to 2 new things of yarn. She's really good at it. It's too cute. We have our sports fanatic (Miles), our scientist (Cody) and our creative one (Harmony). It's so fun to see how different they all are.
**Mom, I don't know if it's too late but I am going to make their Christmas wish lists tomorrow and post them on their bio pages. Sorry it's taken so long! :( If it's too late, I'm sure you already got them something great. You always do! Now that it's November, the kids already sense it's clsoe to your visit and we can't wait to see you guys!!
03 October 2008
My ramblings-Oct 08
31 Oct 08-Today turned out well but sure didn't seem like it would for a while. We had commanders call this morning so I headed to the base for that. Afterward, we headed to Miles' school for his community contributors parade. It was so fun watching all the little ones walk the school grounds in their "outfits" for their jobs. Anyway, that was the good part of the day. I went back to work after the parade and finished up all my work and was excited to get off work an hour early because I had grocery shopping to do. I was halfway done with my shopping when the fire alarm in the commissary went off. Ugh! I was so tempted to just leave but I needed to do the shopping and it wouldn't be fair to the people that work there to make them put away my stuff so I spent almost 30 minutes sitting in the van waiting for the fire department to clear us to go back in so I could finish my shopping. I was just in the mood to relax at that point and knew that wasn't going to happen. Finally, I got it all done and still had to get gas. I rushed home (I use that term loosely because it was in the middle of rush hour traffic) to get the groceries unloaded and get the kids ready to go trick-or-treating. I missed the pumpkin carving but I told Chris to just go ahead but take pictures for me (which are on the website along with all the other pictures I hadn't posted yet that I thought I had. Oops!). Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised when I came home to find Cody already in a costume after hearing him say he wasn't going to dress up or go out trick-or-treating for the last couple of weeks. He ended up wearing my old blue M&M costume which was too funny! We've gotten a lot of use out of that thing! I got the kids ready, snapped a few pictures and off we went. We covered some good ground and the kids decided to use pillow cases this year instead of buckets and got A LOT of candy. I'll have to start sneaking some of it out to work for the boys soon! We had a great time and then came back to help Chris hand out candy. It turned out to be a great day. Cody is having a sleep over at a friends house and it's 9:30 p.m. and Harmony and Miles are still playing in the neighbors garage. I'm headed to bring them home, get them in bed and crash! What a day!!
30 Oct 08-I had a great day today! The wing quarterly awards were today and I was asked by the command chief's office to sing. I was nervous as always but I did really well. I always feel like I accomplished something when I sing. I have a couple more things lined up and I don't think it will ever stop. :) The kids are really excited about Halloween. They have worn their costumes more this year prior to the actual event than any other year. It has been fun though. The kids have been learning all kinds of cool things at school. The kids voted yesterday and even came home with their ballot receipts. I had never heard of that before. Too cool! They were not to be coaxed at all. Miles voted for Obama but couldn't tell us why and Harmony wouldn't tell us who she voted for. We were told not to push so we just left it alone. I am curious but I will respect her. Anyway, Miles also had a project where he had to choose a job he would want when he grew up but it had to be a job that he could explain how it contributed to the community. He chose being a soldier so he could "protect freedom". He drew a picture of a soldier standing in front of a flag. It was too cute! They are having a parade tomorrow where they will wear something that shows what job they chose and walk the school. I will post the pictures this weekend. We will both be there to watch our boy walk proud tomorrow. We've been having some issues with Harmony lately. She has been lying to us as most kids do and we just try to reinforce that you do not lie. Well, she lied to me yesterday which I found out about from an e-mail from her teacher. I e-mailed her teacher about it wanting to get her side of the story and then she talked to Harmony and she lied to her teacher. I was shocked that she would lie to her teacher but we're working on the issue. Anyway, I'm just looking forward to a nice weekend with my family.
28 Oct 08-Hello again! It's been a week. I don't know if I will remember everything that's been going on but I'll just start typing and see what comes out. I've been busy with work and school and just life in general. I finally got some pictures posted. I've been continuing with my walking/running and thankfully I've been able to run a lot longer/further. I still need new shoes but I'm trying to deal with it. Anyway, the kids are doing well. They enjoyed their red ribbon week last week and their crazy hair day was fabulous! They had so much fun with blue spray painted hair. School is still going well for me. It's a little confusing at some times and I had to call my mom for help but I know I will get through it just fine. I guess not a whole lot as changed around here. That's all I can think of for now.
21 Oct 08-The kids had crazy hair day today for red ribbon week and we just had a blast getting them ready. It started last night when I was trying to figure out what I was going to do with Miles. They were already in their PJs and I decided it would be fun to take them to Walgreens and pick up some spray color for hair. They thought that was the coolest thing to go out at night and in their PJs. Harmony's hair was easy to do this morning but not quite a fun to brush out tonight. They had a great day though so it was all worth it. I had to rinse out the blue bathtub after washing that stuff out of Miles' hair. Anyway, this is my busy week so I'm just hoping to get through it. I was able to get 3 miles of walking in today. I'm trying to increase the mileage as often as I can. My feet really hurt though. I really need to get new and decent shoes.
19 Oct 08-This time of year is so crazy. It seems like there is always something going on. Yesterday was by far my most favorite day! I finally got to go meet the twins and they are just precious!! I could have stayed there looking at them and holding them for days! It was so nice to catch up with Pam and Dwayne too. We miss them so much! This week has been a bit more challenging figuring out how to go back to work and get my homework done. I really need to get it in gear and figure out a plan that is going to work for me. Dwayne helped me out greatly by letting me load Microsoft Office on my laptop so I can take it and disappear when I have homework to do and need some quiet to get it done. I am a little more stressed out than I had hoped because of going back to school. I was out of the game for far too long and I'm afraid that I'm just not getting it. We'll see after this week how well I did with my first paper. The paper for this week is worth as much as the final paper so I can't afford to mess it up. Thankfully I have not lost my excitement for school though. This week we have tons of stuff going on. I have a key spouse meeting, some fundraisers for school, fall festival at the school, Seth's birthday party next Saturday and then a carnival on the base. I'll be thankful once this next week is over!
15 Oct 08-Nothing to report today. It was completely uneventful and I am exhausted. :) Good night all!
14 Oct 08-It wasn't as bad as I had expected going back to work today. I was tired but all in all, it was a good day. I actually took a small lunch break today which is something that I don't normally do. I had to go out and buy the new Kenny Chesney Cd! Whoo hoo! Ha ha! It's awesome as usual. It is a lot more mellow than most of his CDs but I really enjoyed it. I only listened to it 7 times or so today. ;) You just can't go wrong with any Kenny CD. That is about all I have for today. I continued my walking and thankfully, because I am back to work, I have 3 days a week of duty time to walk as well so on those days, I will get double! I am going to make sure that I still walk on those days. I really want to strengthen my back. It's been getting worse so I'm hoping the more I exercise, the better it will get but we'll see.
13 Oct 08-I've been trying to just enjoy my last few days off without being on the computer a lot which is why I haven't had an entry in a few days. The most exciting thing that happened in the last few days was Pam and Dwayne had the twins on Friday. They had 2 girls!! Isabel Adriana and Chloe Jayden. I cannot wait to meet them. We were hoping to go today but hopefully some time this week. They are absolutely perfect and they were great size for twins. Chris did some clearing out in the backyard today. It has definitely been cold at night and early morning. When I say cold, I'm talking 30s already. Brr!! We know the kids won't be using the pool so he took it down. We want to spruce up the backyard so he took the fence down too. He took some of the old kids toys out too which was great. The backyard already looks bigger. I listed all of the stuff he took down on Craigslist too and it was all gone quickly! We're discussing what we want to do in the area where the pool was. We'd definitely love to get some pavers or something to make it a nice patio. I know he's always mentioned wanting to knock out our window and making it actually a sliding door so we'll see if we eventually get to that. We don't have the money for that right but it's nice to think we can do that. It will be nice if we can do that eventually. Now that the kids are getting older, we can definitely take advantage of making the house more "grown up". I think that's about it for now. I am in a funk about going back to work. I could have used some more time off. It's always a little intimidating to go back after any amount of time off wondering what changed while I was away. Some of the e-mails I saw really make me question what's been going on.
09 Oct 08-I am beat today. I'm not sure what sucked the life out of me today but I'm looking forward to sleeping in on Saturday. I don't think we have any plans this weekend so that will be nice. I am so not ready to go back to work. I spent most of my time playing the Wii with Miles today. We had tons of fun. I had a pain in my side tonight so I only got a mile and a half in.
08 Oct 08-Today was a good day! I didn't even leave the house. Ha ha! My internet was down this morning so that wasn't a great way but it got better as the day went on. I got another great walk in tonight and my lovely kiddos drew some GREAT art. I was really impressed. I will upload them to their albums on my website tomorrow. For now, I am headed to bed. It was nice to have some extra energy and popped right out of bed this morning. I hope tomorrow is the same.
07 Oct 08-I had a nice quiet day at home today. I only left the house today to go get mice. Normally my leave feels like it flew by. This time, I felt like I should already be back at work but I still have another week and it's so great. I worked on some more of my assignments for next week. To my surprise, my instructor graded my 1st week assignments already. I have a 92% so far in the class! I learned some stuff today with the few things I was marked down on. That was a great thing for me. I finally decided on my next class as well. I'm not sure when I can sign up for it but I'm looking forward to it! I have been trying to improve myself over all so I have been trying to be more active too. My diet is horrible so I need to up my exercise so I don't gain all that weight back I lost while I was deployed. I got 2 1/2 miles in which isn't great but it's better than I've been doing. Besides my back pain, my knees have been giving me problems as well. I'm trying to just work through everything. I truly do not want to go back to the doctor.
06 Oct 08-My online class started today and boy was I overwhelmed at first. I asked Chris to print some stuff out for me and when I had printed stuff in front of me, it made a lot more sense. I spent as much time as I possibly could going through all of it and I actually got all of my first week assignments done, a quiz which I got 100% on and some of next weeks work done too! I am scared to death of failing but I'm just trying not to think that way. It's been 14 years since I've taken classes and the online world is definitely different! Goodness times have changed. I have to write 2 essays and a paper before this class is over. I have to figure out what I want to take next. Thankfully I have a little while to think about it but it's definitely intimidating. Wish me luck to get through this. I am hoping that I can get through all of this with flying colors. It's going to be so great getting to know people. Hopefully this will open up a whole new world for me!
05 Oct 08-It's been another busy and productive weekend. I got a lot of stuff done this weekend. Yesterday was a little emotional for me. It was my yearly walk for the Vasa Previa foundation. We have been doing this walk together since Miles was 5 months old. He still doesn't quite get what we do this for every year but some day he will and it will be fun for him to understand. The girls donated a bit to the walk too so that's always exciting to help the foundation out. The kids finally decided on their costumes. Harmony is going to be a Bratz cat and Miles is going to be a soldier. We found cute costumes for both which is how the finally decided. Cody said he is too old to dress up so he just wants to stay back and hand out candy. :( While it's totally understandable but I just wish they weren't growing up so fast! Elise got home today so I gave her turtle back and her mail and all that fun stuff. She was so sweet and made us some brownies as a thank you. The kids were having so much fun playing outside today too that our normal schedule was way off. (Mom I'll call you during the week since I didn't get to it today.) I've got one week off left to relax before going back to work.
03 Oct 08-I have been having so much fun this last week on leave. Thankfully I have one more week off. I finished going through some boxes this week which was great. Now it really doesn't look like we have a lot of "stuff" even though most of it is in the attic! That was the biggest accomplishment of the week. Other than that, I've just been relaxing and working on more Key Spouse stuff. I went to my training appointment for it this week. The website is set up and I designed it this week as well. It was all perfect timing because the newsletter was mailed this week. I am so excited to get people involved! I feel like I've accomplished something now that I have the website done.
30 Oct 08-I had a great day today! The wing quarterly awards were today and I was asked by the command chief's office to sing. I was nervous as always but I did really well. I always feel like I accomplished something when I sing. I have a couple more things lined up and I don't think it will ever stop. :) The kids are really excited about Halloween. They have worn their costumes more this year prior to the actual event than any other year. It has been fun though. The kids have been learning all kinds of cool things at school. The kids voted yesterday and even came home with their ballot receipts. I had never heard of that before. Too cool! They were not to be coaxed at all. Miles voted for Obama but couldn't tell us why and Harmony wouldn't tell us who she voted for. We were told not to push so we just left it alone. I am curious but I will respect her. Anyway, Miles also had a project where he had to choose a job he would want when he grew up but it had to be a job that he could explain how it contributed to the community. He chose being a soldier so he could "protect freedom". He drew a picture of a soldier standing in front of a flag. It was too cute! They are having a parade tomorrow where they will wear something that shows what job they chose and walk the school. I will post the pictures this weekend. We will both be there to watch our boy walk proud tomorrow. We've been having some issues with Harmony lately. She has been lying to us as most kids do and we just try to reinforce that you do not lie. Well, she lied to me yesterday which I found out about from an e-mail from her teacher. I e-mailed her teacher about it wanting to get her side of the story and then she talked to Harmony and she lied to her teacher. I was shocked that she would lie to her teacher but we're working on the issue. Anyway, I'm just looking forward to a nice weekend with my family.
28 Oct 08-Hello again! It's been a week. I don't know if I will remember everything that's been going on but I'll just start typing and see what comes out. I've been busy with work and school and just life in general. I finally got some pictures posted. I've been continuing with my walking/running and thankfully I've been able to run a lot longer/further. I still need new shoes but I'm trying to deal with it. Anyway, the kids are doing well. They enjoyed their red ribbon week last week and their crazy hair day was fabulous! They had so much fun with blue spray painted hair. School is still going well for me. It's a little confusing at some times and I had to call my mom for help but I know I will get through it just fine. I guess not a whole lot as changed around here. That's all I can think of for now.
21 Oct 08-The kids had crazy hair day today for red ribbon week and we just had a blast getting them ready. It started last night when I was trying to figure out what I was going to do with Miles. They were already in their PJs and I decided it would be fun to take them to Walgreens and pick up some spray color for hair. They thought that was the coolest thing to go out at night and in their PJs. Harmony's hair was easy to do this morning but not quite a fun to brush out tonight. They had a great day though so it was all worth it. I had to rinse out the blue bathtub after washing that stuff out of Miles' hair. Anyway, this is my busy week so I'm just hoping to get through it. I was able to get 3 miles of walking in today. I'm trying to increase the mileage as often as I can. My feet really hurt though. I really need to get new and decent shoes.
19 Oct 08-This time of year is so crazy. It seems like there is always something going on. Yesterday was by far my most favorite day! I finally got to go meet the twins and they are just precious!! I could have stayed there looking at them and holding them for days! It was so nice to catch up with Pam and Dwayne too. We miss them so much! This week has been a bit more challenging figuring out how to go back to work and get my homework done. I really need to get it in gear and figure out a plan that is going to work for me. Dwayne helped me out greatly by letting me load Microsoft Office on my laptop so I can take it and disappear when I have homework to do and need some quiet to get it done. I am a little more stressed out than I had hoped because of going back to school. I was out of the game for far too long and I'm afraid that I'm just not getting it. We'll see after this week how well I did with my first paper. The paper for this week is worth as much as the final paper so I can't afford to mess it up. Thankfully I have not lost my excitement for school though. This week we have tons of stuff going on. I have a key spouse meeting, some fundraisers for school, fall festival at the school, Seth's birthday party next Saturday and then a carnival on the base. I'll be thankful once this next week is over!
15 Oct 08-Nothing to report today. It was completely uneventful and I am exhausted. :) Good night all!
14 Oct 08-It wasn't as bad as I had expected going back to work today. I was tired but all in all, it was a good day. I actually took a small lunch break today which is something that I don't normally do. I had to go out and buy the new Kenny Chesney Cd! Whoo hoo! Ha ha! It's awesome as usual. It is a lot more mellow than most of his CDs but I really enjoyed it. I only listened to it 7 times or so today. ;) You just can't go wrong with any Kenny CD. That is about all I have for today. I continued my walking and thankfully, because I am back to work, I have 3 days a week of duty time to walk as well so on those days, I will get double! I am going to make sure that I still walk on those days. I really want to strengthen my back. It's been getting worse so I'm hoping the more I exercise, the better it will get but we'll see.
13 Oct 08-I've been trying to just enjoy my last few days off without being on the computer a lot which is why I haven't had an entry in a few days. The most exciting thing that happened in the last few days was Pam and Dwayne had the twins on Friday. They had 2 girls!! Isabel Adriana and Chloe Jayden. I cannot wait to meet them. We were hoping to go today but hopefully some time this week. They are absolutely perfect and they were great size for twins. Chris did some clearing out in the backyard today. It has definitely been cold at night and early morning. When I say cold, I'm talking 30s already. Brr!! We know the kids won't be using the pool so he took it down. We want to spruce up the backyard so he took the fence down too. He took some of the old kids toys out too which was great. The backyard already looks bigger. I listed all of the stuff he took down on Craigslist too and it was all gone quickly! We're discussing what we want to do in the area where the pool was. We'd definitely love to get some pavers or something to make it a nice patio. I know he's always mentioned wanting to knock out our window and making it actually a sliding door so we'll see if we eventually get to that. We don't have the money for that right but it's nice to think we can do that. It will be nice if we can do that eventually. Now that the kids are getting older, we can definitely take advantage of making the house more "grown up". I think that's about it for now. I am in a funk about going back to work. I could have used some more time off. It's always a little intimidating to go back after any amount of time off wondering what changed while I was away. Some of the e-mails I saw really make me question what's been going on.
09 Oct 08-I am beat today. I'm not sure what sucked the life out of me today but I'm looking forward to sleeping in on Saturday. I don't think we have any plans this weekend so that will be nice. I am so not ready to go back to work. I spent most of my time playing the Wii with Miles today. We had tons of fun. I had a pain in my side tonight so I only got a mile and a half in.
08 Oct 08-Today was a good day! I didn't even leave the house. Ha ha! My internet was down this morning so that wasn't a great way but it got better as the day went on. I got another great walk in tonight and my lovely kiddos drew some GREAT art. I was really impressed. I will upload them to their albums on my website tomorrow. For now, I am headed to bed. It was nice to have some extra energy and popped right out of bed this morning. I hope tomorrow is the same.
07 Oct 08-I had a nice quiet day at home today. I only left the house today to go get mice. Normally my leave feels like it flew by. This time, I felt like I should already be back at work but I still have another week and it's so great. I worked on some more of my assignments for next week. To my surprise, my instructor graded my 1st week assignments already. I have a 92% so far in the class! I learned some stuff today with the few things I was marked down on. That was a great thing for me. I finally decided on my next class as well. I'm not sure when I can sign up for it but I'm looking forward to it! I have been trying to improve myself over all so I have been trying to be more active too. My diet is horrible so I need to up my exercise so I don't gain all that weight back I lost while I was deployed. I got 2 1/2 miles in which isn't great but it's better than I've been doing. Besides my back pain, my knees have been giving me problems as well. I'm trying to just work through everything. I truly do not want to go back to the doctor.
06 Oct 08-My online class started today and boy was I overwhelmed at first. I asked Chris to print some stuff out for me and when I had printed stuff in front of me, it made a lot more sense. I spent as much time as I possibly could going through all of it and I actually got all of my first week assignments done, a quiz which I got 100% on and some of next weeks work done too! I am scared to death of failing but I'm just trying not to think that way. It's been 14 years since I've taken classes and the online world is definitely different! Goodness times have changed. I have to write 2 essays and a paper before this class is over. I have to figure out what I want to take next. Thankfully I have a little while to think about it but it's definitely intimidating. Wish me luck to get through this. I am hoping that I can get through all of this with flying colors. It's going to be so great getting to know people. Hopefully this will open up a whole new world for me!
05 Oct 08-It's been another busy and productive weekend. I got a lot of stuff done this weekend. Yesterday was a little emotional for me. It was my yearly walk for the Vasa Previa foundation. We have been doing this walk together since Miles was 5 months old. He still doesn't quite get what we do this for every year but some day he will and it will be fun for him to understand. The girls donated a bit to the walk too so that's always exciting to help the foundation out. The kids finally decided on their costumes. Harmony is going to be a Bratz cat and Miles is going to be a soldier. We found cute costumes for both which is how the finally decided. Cody said he is too old to dress up so he just wants to stay back and hand out candy. :( While it's totally understandable but I just wish they weren't growing up so fast! Elise got home today so I gave her turtle back and her mail and all that fun stuff. She was so sweet and made us some brownies as a thank you. The kids were having so much fun playing outside today too that our normal schedule was way off. (Mom I'll call you during the week since I didn't get to it today.) I've got one week off left to relax before going back to work.
03 Oct 08-I have been having so much fun this last week on leave. Thankfully I have one more week off. I finished going through some boxes this week which was great. Now it really doesn't look like we have a lot of "stuff" even though most of it is in the attic! That was the biggest accomplishment of the week. Other than that, I've just been relaxing and working on more Key Spouse stuff. I went to my training appointment for it this week. The website is set up and I designed it this week as well. It was all perfect timing because the newsletter was mailed this week. I am so excited to get people involved! I feel like I've accomplished something now that I have the website done.
01 September 2008
My ramblings-Sep 08
30 Sep 08-Whew! Today was a busy day. The kids and I went grocery shopping today and I got way more than I had expected but I guess we needed it. We were low on a lot of things so now we're good for a while. One of these paydays, I'll be able to get the bare minimum but I figured while we were saving the money on daycare, I might as well take advantage to get the things that we need. I came home and put all the groceries away and grabbed some quick lunch and then decided to make some beef jerky. My friend Mike is in Iraq and I'm sending a goodie box out to him tomorrow so I figured I'd send something homemade to him. :) I started working on the website for the key spouse program today. That's going to be fun to design. That's about it for today.
29 Sep 08-Happy Birthday to my Mommy!! :) Today was my first day of leave and it was great to be off and relaxing. Of course, I did get yelled at by my boss for checking my work e-mail. Oops! She gave me a direct order to stop checking my webmail and enjoy my leave. I didn't do much of anything but some yard work and cleaning up the kitchen and computer room. I didn't feel like doing too much else. Actually the yard work took me a while. All of the houses on this street (and a lot of the other streets) have rocks at the other side of the sidewalk near the street. Anyway, all the kids that play in the neighborhood don't realize that they run through the rocks and kick them out into the street and all over the place. I was staying on top of it for a while but for some reason stopped doing it. I even had to sweep halfway in the road to get all the rocks back where they belonged. I'll definitely have to stay on top of that from now on. What a chore! Tomorrow I get to go grocery shopping and then I'm not sure what else I will do with myself with my time off.
28 Sep 08-I am so thankful that everything went well on Friday. I can't hardly remember what I said when I was in front of my squadron but I'm guessing it went well. I haven't been up to much this weekend. I went through some boxes and finished up the last few things in the closet after Chris cleaned it out. It's so awesome to have my closet back! I can walk all the way in to the back of the closet and it's wonderful! I am looking forward to 2 weeks off of work to get stuff done around the house and just hanging out with the kids. Tonight, I am enjoying all my favorite shows being back on. So far I've watched The Amazing Race, just finished Desperate Housewives and now I have The Unit and Brothers and Sisters to watch! Whoo hoo!! I'll need those 2 weeks off just to catch up!
25 Sep 08-So I have absolutely no reason for missing blogging yesterday. I think I just simply forgot! Oops! Anyway, today was quite the day. I had an 8 a.m. meeting at work, then a 10 a.m. meeting with the commander about the Key Spouse program (and it went wonderful and I am still completely excited!), then off to the Airman and Family Readiness Center (A&FRC) to schedule my training for the program, then to the BX to get shoes for a function tonight, then back to work for a bit and then to the 2:30 p.m. Booster club meeting (the commander asked if I could go so he could introduce me) and then finally to the Airman Leadership School (ALS) graduation. My troop Clint graduated tonight and I am so proud of him!! It is now almost 10 p.m. and I am BEAT!! Whew! I'm so glad this day is over. One more day and then I am off for 2 whole weeks! Tomorrow I get to do my most hated thing - public speaking! Yuck! I know I need to learn to do it so I'm fine with it but I have no idea at this point what I'm going to say. The commander wants to introduce me to the squadron. I will write more about the program and anything else tomorrow. I'm off to watch Grey's Anatomy or Survivor and then get to sleep!
23 Sep 08-Boy is it true what they say that when one door closes, another one opens. I was presented with an opportunity that is right up my alley! Michelle had mentioned my name to the commander a couple of weeks ago to possibly run a program that is very important to our squadron. It is called the Key Spouse program. What I didn't expect was that the commander would personally visit me at work and tell me some of his thoughts/views and to tell me that when she mentioned my name, he thought I would be perfect to run it. I was so honored to be given the opportunity to support the military spouses of my squadron and having a military spouse, I've been on both sides of it and I know I can bring a lot to the table. I already started researching tonight to get ideas and to see what I could do to really get this program to take off. I have an appointment with the commander on Thursday to hear some more of his ideas and to really get this program going. I am so excited to be able to do this and even more so because it's so important to him and he is an awesome commander! We are truly blessed to have 2 great commanders back to back! The program is basically making sure that the spouses of the military members are included in functions and know what events are taking place on the base. It is especially important when the military member is deployed that contact is made with their families left behind. I just get chills thinking of what this program can be. Michelle is just so awesome to have me come to mind when she hears of opportunities like this. I cannot wait to get started!!
I came home to a nice surprise today as well after my wonderful day! Chris went and bought all the supplies to go the attic. What I didn't know was that he was going to make 2. There was an original opening in my walk-in closet and he got up there and put the plywood down and cleared out the insulation so not only will he have one in the garage, but know I will have one as well in the closet!! I am so excited to put stuff up there this weekend!! Storage space is no longer an issue in my house!
22 Sep 08-I've got a busy week planned this week. Today thankfully I didn't have to do anything but work and take my new skirt in to be altered. It has to be a certain length so I had to go drop it off at alterations. Tomorrow is Leah's going away lunch and I'm so glad I don't have any prior engagements that would keep me from going. I wouldn't want to miss it for the world. I am going to miss that girl big time!! I have a training meeting after that. Wednesday Bella has a vet appointment for her last shots and then I can schedule her to get "fixed". Thursday I have an ALS (Airman Leadership School) graduation to go to. My troop, Clint, finally graduates so I will be there to support him. Friday we have commanders call in the morning and then a promotion ceremony in the afternoon. Whew! I'll be ready for leave. Chris bought our new faucet today and I like it!! It's shiny!! Ha ha! (Mom the picture is in the "House" album.) He plans on buying the supplies for the attic storage tomorrow and getting started on that, with Rich's help. I am excited for him to do that so I can have my huge walk-in closet back!! I'll just be happy to get through this week and have 2 whole weeks off! Oh and if you haven't checked out www.yearbookyourself.com go do it!! It is so funny! (Again Mom, the pictures are in the Chris & Tiff album. You'll LOVE them!!)
21 Sep 08-Okay, let me see if I can get back at this thing again. I've just been in a little bit of a funk. I don't know if it's been the weather change, my allergies acting up, crap at work or what but I just go through that every once in a while. It's no biggie. Anyway, there hasn't been too much going on around here. Just trying to get through the every day stuff. The kids are on their first week break. Chris is home on leave with them for the first week and then I'm on leave for the 2 weeks after that. It will be nice to save some $$ and give the kids a break from being at the school. I'm sure Chris will find projects to work on while he is off. Our faucet just quit on us today so he'll have to go get a new one tomorrow. That's about all I can think of to share what is going on. I am going to try to be better about keeping up with this.
15 Sep 08-Again, sorry for the break in posts. I was super busy over the weekend. I had to go shopping for a baby gift Saturday morning and I attempted to get my oil changed. There were too many people in line for the oil change so I got the gift and came back home. I wrapped the gift, scarfed down some food and then headed to the baby shower. After the almost 2 hour baby show, I headed to the commissary to do my grocery shopping. I ended up running to multiple people that I ended up chatting with for a while. After I got home, I started putting tthings away and then had to do some more rearranging in my pantry. Needless to say, after all that I was exhausted. All of this was after having been woken up at 5:30 by Cody asking to play a video game. Ugh! Sunday was probably the most exciting day because I finally got to line dry my clothes!! Whoo hoo!! I didn't end up with a clothesline but looking at the back patio, I asked Chris if he could figure out something and he sure did. It basically looks like a closet, but outside! It was so awesome to dry my clothes outside. It didn't take any time at all and I only had to put each load in the dryer for 5-10 minutes to soften them up and take the wrinkles out! Laundry is now officially my favorite chore!
11 Sep 08-Today felt like Monday for some reason. It wasn't really bad or anything, just felt like Monday. Things are good when we're busy but when we're not, time ticks by slowly. Anyway, they were having another case lot sale at the commissary today. It's like going to Costco without the membership and they only do it every so often. Chris got a bunch of stuff and it's always fun to see how much is in one case of stuff that we need. I usually just go for the body wash because it doesn't go bad. We got cereal, body wash, toilet paper, fabric softener, some snacks, etc. :) That will lessen our grocery bill for a while. We had parent/teacher conferences today with both Harmony and Miles' teachers. They both went great as they knew they would. Miles' teacher is just so smitten with him. She said he was doing great and she has no concerns about him. She said she never has to worry about him and that he can sit anywhere on the carpet that he wants while they're going over their letter board because he doesn't get distracted by anyone or get caught up in talking. She said he's just such a sweetheart. I guess she let him do something one day that she wouldn't normally do but she said she just couldn't resist those big sad eyes looking at her. Boy has he got her number! LOL Harmony's teacher said Harmony is doing very well also and that she's right on track too. She said she has improved a ton since the school year started. The only problem with her this year has been her chattiness (can't imagine where she got that from!!) but we think we've all fixed that for the most part. I guess she also tends to shut down when she doesn't understand something but she's gotten better at that too. I was so proud of both of them today and so are their teachers. I would love to be able to go to Cody's conference when he has it but no such luck. Either way, I have 3 terrific, smart kids and I'm a proud mommy!
10 Sep 08-Today was another boring day on the home front. However, I did start my day with a good laugh. I just cannot get enough sleep like I mentioned yesterday. Well I guess I slept HARD last night because when my alarm went off this morning, I just felt like I was not awake yet. I couldn't focus, I couldn't think and I couldn't walk. I got around to the end of the bed and just fell for some reason. I just kind of veered away from where I was trying to walk. I dropped my shampoo in the shower, dropped my cup when I got it out for my milk, etc. Thankfully it was a PT day and I was able to walk my 3 miles before work so I could fully wake up. It's just before 8 p.m. right now and I am going to attempt to go to sleep now so I can try to get caught up on sleep. I think I need a full day in bed to recover from whatever this fatigue is.
09 Sep 08-So Mom, sorry you're not hearing this from me on the phone but it looks like the move to Cali isn't going to happen. It's still up in the air but they had 2 volunteers finally step forward that are stationed there. That definitely takes him out of the lime light. However, they have to go through the approval process. So, that means that he's still in the running for it if they don't qualify. It's so hard because I really want to go to be close to my family but it would be so hard to be away from Cody and to figure out what we were going to do with this house. It's definitely out of our hands so we'll see what happens from here. I think my iron may be low so I may be going to the doc soon to get tested. It happens every once in a while. I'm assuming that because I am just exhausted all the time. I can't get enough sleep. Nothing else really to report. I had a fun day at work today.
08 Sep 08-Oh what a month this has been already. Let's see if I can catch everyone up to date. Chris received news that he has an assignment as a non-volunteer to do instructor duty at Beale AFB in Marysville, CA. He still doesn't know as of yet if he has to go or not so we'll keep you updated. I sewed on my new stripe on the first so that was pretty exciting for me! Nothing has really changed though. LOL I've been busy since last week with a 100% inventory of our ammo. We do them twice a year and it's a busy time and just a bunch of work. We were at work until 7:45 p.m. Friday night and then for about 6 hours on Saturday. We're finishing up this week. That's pretty much all that's going on but the possible pending assignment to Cali is a HUGE deal. Obviously we're worried about the house and leaving Cody. Other than that, it would be a fantastic opportunity for both of us!
04 Sep 08-I will have to take some extra time this weekend to catch everyone up on what has been going on. Right now, I just don't have the time and I need to sleep instead of blog. I will do my best to update on Sunday with all of it!
02 Sep 08-Today definitely felt like a Monday even though it's Tuesday. Every messed up thing that could have happened, happened. I won't bore you with the details but boy was I glad when 4 p.m. came! Now I get to watch 90210! Whoo hoo! I am such a kid sometimes.
01 Sep 08-Forgive the last week of my site being down. I can only assume that the pictures I posted from Aileen's visit to the girls took up too much bandwidth on my site. Jen (my webmistress as I call her) doubled it so I hopefully won't have that problem again. Thursday was pretty exciting for me. I applied to the American Military University and signed up for an online class. I really need to finish my CCAF degree. I am so proud of myself but scared at the same time Wish me luck! We've had a fun weekend. Friday we didn't really do a whole lot. We painted the dining room which turned out fantastic! Saturday I went to my first football game. We went to see the U of A Wildcats play and the whooped up on Idaho 70-0. It poured the whole time but it was awesome! The pictures will be up on the site after I finish posting this entry. Yesterday I wasn't feeling well so Chris worked on painting the bedroom. I can only assume that it was the stadium dog that had my stomach upset but who knows. Thankfully whatever it was is gone now. Today, we watched Katie and Wade's boys so they could go riding on his motorcycle. It was nice to give them a chance to get out and I got my baby fix again. :) The most exciting part about today is that I am officially a TSgt now!! I get to show off my new stripe tomorrow!!
29 Sep 08-Happy Birthday to my Mommy!! :) Today was my first day of leave and it was great to be off and relaxing. Of course, I did get yelled at by my boss for checking my work e-mail. Oops! She gave me a direct order to stop checking my webmail and enjoy my leave. I didn't do much of anything but some yard work and cleaning up the kitchen and computer room. I didn't feel like doing too much else. Actually the yard work took me a while. All of the houses on this street (and a lot of the other streets) have rocks at the other side of the sidewalk near the street. Anyway, all the kids that play in the neighborhood don't realize that they run through the rocks and kick them out into the street and all over the place. I was staying on top of it for a while but for some reason stopped doing it. I even had to sweep halfway in the road to get all the rocks back where they belonged. I'll definitely have to stay on top of that from now on. What a chore! Tomorrow I get to go grocery shopping and then I'm not sure what else I will do with myself with my time off.
28 Sep 08-I am so thankful that everything went well on Friday. I can't hardly remember what I said when I was in front of my squadron but I'm guessing it went well. I haven't been up to much this weekend. I went through some boxes and finished up the last few things in the closet after Chris cleaned it out. It's so awesome to have my closet back! I can walk all the way in to the back of the closet and it's wonderful! I am looking forward to 2 weeks off of work to get stuff done around the house and just hanging out with the kids. Tonight, I am enjoying all my favorite shows being back on. So far I've watched The Amazing Race, just finished Desperate Housewives and now I have The Unit and Brothers and Sisters to watch! Whoo hoo!! I'll need those 2 weeks off just to catch up!
25 Sep 08-So I have absolutely no reason for missing blogging yesterday. I think I just simply forgot! Oops! Anyway, today was quite the day. I had an 8 a.m. meeting at work, then a 10 a.m. meeting with the commander about the Key Spouse program (and it went wonderful and I am still completely excited!), then off to the Airman and Family Readiness Center (A&FRC) to schedule my training for the program, then to the BX to get shoes for a function tonight, then back to work for a bit and then to the 2:30 p.m. Booster club meeting (the commander asked if I could go so he could introduce me) and then finally to the Airman Leadership School (ALS) graduation. My troop Clint graduated tonight and I am so proud of him!! It is now almost 10 p.m. and I am BEAT!! Whew! I'm so glad this day is over. One more day and then I am off for 2 whole weeks! Tomorrow I get to do my most hated thing - public speaking! Yuck! I know I need to learn to do it so I'm fine with it but I have no idea at this point what I'm going to say. The commander wants to introduce me to the squadron. I will write more about the program and anything else tomorrow. I'm off to watch Grey's Anatomy or Survivor and then get to sleep!
23 Sep 08-Boy is it true what they say that when one door closes, another one opens. I was presented with an opportunity that is right up my alley! Michelle had mentioned my name to the commander a couple of weeks ago to possibly run a program that is very important to our squadron. It is called the Key Spouse program. What I didn't expect was that the commander would personally visit me at work and tell me some of his thoughts/views and to tell me that when she mentioned my name, he thought I would be perfect to run it. I was so honored to be given the opportunity to support the military spouses of my squadron and having a military spouse, I've been on both sides of it and I know I can bring a lot to the table. I already started researching tonight to get ideas and to see what I could do to really get this program to take off. I have an appointment with the commander on Thursday to hear some more of his ideas and to really get this program going. I am so excited to be able to do this and even more so because it's so important to him and he is an awesome commander! We are truly blessed to have 2 great commanders back to back! The program is basically making sure that the spouses of the military members are included in functions and know what events are taking place on the base. It is especially important when the military member is deployed that contact is made with their families left behind. I just get chills thinking of what this program can be. Michelle is just so awesome to have me come to mind when she hears of opportunities like this. I cannot wait to get started!!
I came home to a nice surprise today as well after my wonderful day! Chris went and bought all the supplies to go the attic. What I didn't know was that he was going to make 2. There was an original opening in my walk-in closet and he got up there and put the plywood down and cleared out the insulation so not only will he have one in the garage, but know I will have one as well in the closet!! I am so excited to put stuff up there this weekend!! Storage space is no longer an issue in my house!
22 Sep 08-I've got a busy week planned this week. Today thankfully I didn't have to do anything but work and take my new skirt in to be altered. It has to be a certain length so I had to go drop it off at alterations. Tomorrow is Leah's going away lunch and I'm so glad I don't have any prior engagements that would keep me from going. I wouldn't want to miss it for the world. I am going to miss that girl big time!! I have a training meeting after that. Wednesday Bella has a vet appointment for her last shots and then I can schedule her to get "fixed". Thursday I have an ALS (Airman Leadership School) graduation to go to. My troop, Clint, finally graduates so I will be there to support him. Friday we have commanders call in the morning and then a promotion ceremony in the afternoon. Whew! I'll be ready for leave. Chris bought our new faucet today and I like it!! It's shiny!! Ha ha! (Mom the picture is in the "House" album.) He plans on buying the supplies for the attic storage tomorrow and getting started on that, with Rich's help. I am excited for him to do that so I can have my huge walk-in closet back!! I'll just be happy to get through this week and have 2 whole weeks off! Oh and if you haven't checked out www.yearbookyourself.com go do it!! It is so funny! (Again Mom, the pictures are in the Chris & Tiff album. You'll LOVE them!!)
21 Sep 08-Okay, let me see if I can get back at this thing again. I've just been in a little bit of a funk. I don't know if it's been the weather change, my allergies acting up, crap at work or what but I just go through that every once in a while. It's no biggie. Anyway, there hasn't been too much going on around here. Just trying to get through the every day stuff. The kids are on their first week break. Chris is home on leave with them for the first week and then I'm on leave for the 2 weeks after that. It will be nice to save some $$ and give the kids a break from being at the school. I'm sure Chris will find projects to work on while he is off. Our faucet just quit on us today so he'll have to go get a new one tomorrow. That's about all I can think of to share what is going on. I am going to try to be better about keeping up with this.
15 Sep 08-Again, sorry for the break in posts. I was super busy over the weekend. I had to go shopping for a baby gift Saturday morning and I attempted to get my oil changed. There were too many people in line for the oil change so I got the gift and came back home. I wrapped the gift, scarfed down some food and then headed to the baby shower. After the almost 2 hour baby show, I headed to the commissary to do my grocery shopping. I ended up running to multiple people that I ended up chatting with for a while. After I got home, I started putting tthings away and then had to do some more rearranging in my pantry. Needless to say, after all that I was exhausted. All of this was after having been woken up at 5:30 by Cody asking to play a video game. Ugh! Sunday was probably the most exciting day because I finally got to line dry my clothes!! Whoo hoo!! I didn't end up with a clothesline but looking at the back patio, I asked Chris if he could figure out something and he sure did. It basically looks like a closet, but outside! It was so awesome to dry my clothes outside. It didn't take any time at all and I only had to put each load in the dryer for 5-10 minutes to soften them up and take the wrinkles out! Laundry is now officially my favorite chore!
11 Sep 08-Today felt like Monday for some reason. It wasn't really bad or anything, just felt like Monday. Things are good when we're busy but when we're not, time ticks by slowly. Anyway, they were having another case lot sale at the commissary today. It's like going to Costco without the membership and they only do it every so often. Chris got a bunch of stuff and it's always fun to see how much is in one case of stuff that we need. I usually just go for the body wash because it doesn't go bad. We got cereal, body wash, toilet paper, fabric softener, some snacks, etc. :) That will lessen our grocery bill for a while. We had parent/teacher conferences today with both Harmony and Miles' teachers. They both went great as they knew they would. Miles' teacher is just so smitten with him. She said he was doing great and she has no concerns about him. She said she never has to worry about him and that he can sit anywhere on the carpet that he wants while they're going over their letter board because he doesn't get distracted by anyone or get caught up in talking. She said he's just such a sweetheart. I guess she let him do something one day that she wouldn't normally do but she said she just couldn't resist those big sad eyes looking at her. Boy has he got her number! LOL Harmony's teacher said Harmony is doing very well also and that she's right on track too. She said she has improved a ton since the school year started. The only problem with her this year has been her chattiness (can't imagine where she got that from!!) but we think we've all fixed that for the most part. I guess she also tends to shut down when she doesn't understand something but she's gotten better at that too. I was so proud of both of them today and so are their teachers. I would love to be able to go to Cody's conference when he has it but no such luck. Either way, I have 3 terrific, smart kids and I'm a proud mommy!
10 Sep 08-Today was another boring day on the home front. However, I did start my day with a good laugh. I just cannot get enough sleep like I mentioned yesterday. Well I guess I slept HARD last night because when my alarm went off this morning, I just felt like I was not awake yet. I couldn't focus, I couldn't think and I couldn't walk. I got around to the end of the bed and just fell for some reason. I just kind of veered away from where I was trying to walk. I dropped my shampoo in the shower, dropped my cup when I got it out for my milk, etc. Thankfully it was a PT day and I was able to walk my 3 miles before work so I could fully wake up. It's just before 8 p.m. right now and I am going to attempt to go to sleep now so I can try to get caught up on sleep. I think I need a full day in bed to recover from whatever this fatigue is.
09 Sep 08-So Mom, sorry you're not hearing this from me on the phone but it looks like the move to Cali isn't going to happen. It's still up in the air but they had 2 volunteers finally step forward that are stationed there. That definitely takes him out of the lime light. However, they have to go through the approval process. So, that means that he's still in the running for it if they don't qualify. It's so hard because I really want to go to be close to my family but it would be so hard to be away from Cody and to figure out what we were going to do with this house. It's definitely out of our hands so we'll see what happens from here. I think my iron may be low so I may be going to the doc soon to get tested. It happens every once in a while. I'm assuming that because I am just exhausted all the time. I can't get enough sleep. Nothing else really to report. I had a fun day at work today.
08 Sep 08-Oh what a month this has been already. Let's see if I can catch everyone up to date. Chris received news that he has an assignment as a non-volunteer to do instructor duty at Beale AFB in Marysville, CA. He still doesn't know as of yet if he has to go or not so we'll keep you updated. I sewed on my new stripe on the first so that was pretty exciting for me! Nothing has really changed though. LOL I've been busy since last week with a 100% inventory of our ammo. We do them twice a year and it's a busy time and just a bunch of work. We were at work until 7:45 p.m. Friday night and then for about 6 hours on Saturday. We're finishing up this week. That's pretty much all that's going on but the possible pending assignment to Cali is a HUGE deal. Obviously we're worried about the house and leaving Cody. Other than that, it would be a fantastic opportunity for both of us!
04 Sep 08-I will have to take some extra time this weekend to catch everyone up on what has been going on. Right now, I just don't have the time and I need to sleep instead of blog. I will do my best to update on Sunday with all of it!
02 Sep 08-Today definitely felt like a Monday even though it's Tuesday. Every messed up thing that could have happened, happened. I won't bore you with the details but boy was I glad when 4 p.m. came! Now I get to watch 90210! Whoo hoo! I am such a kid sometimes.
01 Sep 08-Forgive the last week of my site being down. I can only assume that the pictures I posted from Aileen's visit to the girls took up too much bandwidth on my site. Jen (my webmistress as I call her) doubled it so I hopefully won't have that problem again. Thursday was pretty exciting for me. I applied to the American Military University and signed up for an online class. I really need to finish my CCAF degree. I am so proud of myself but scared at the same time Wish me luck! We've had a fun weekend. Friday we didn't really do a whole lot. We painted the dining room which turned out fantastic! Saturday I went to my first football game. We went to see the U of A Wildcats play and the whooped up on Idaho 70-0. It poured the whole time but it was awesome! The pictures will be up on the site after I finish posting this entry. Yesterday I wasn't feeling well so Chris worked on painting the bedroom. I can only assume that it was the stadium dog that had my stomach upset but who knows. Thankfully whatever it was is gone now. Today, we watched Katie and Wade's boys so they could go riding on his motorcycle. It was nice to give them a chance to get out and I got my baby fix again. :) The most exciting part about today is that I am officially a TSgt now!! I get to show off my new stripe tomorrow!!
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