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.
07 February 2009
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!!
01 August 2008
My ramblings-Aug 08
26 Aug 08-Ugh! That's all I have to say about today. :( Come on 4 day weekend!!
25 Aug 08-Today was back to the grind. It's always nice to get back to a routine although some days I dread going back to work. I really need some good time off of work I think. Anyway, you'll see this once my site comes back up but it's down because too much bandwidth was used. I guess that's because all the girls from my mommy's group were looking at the pictures from my visit with Aileen. From now on, I'm just going to upload them to Photobucket or something so it doesn't clog up my site. Hopefully Jen will get it fixed soon. :( I hate when that happens. Anyway, Miles had his home visit today with his teacher and that was a lot of fun. He really enjoyed having her here and getting to show off his room and his pets and playing Candyland with her. I think that's such a neat program that the school does.
24 Aug 08-Today was just a day to get caught up on everything that needed to be done around the house that we didn't get to Friday because we weren't here and then Saturday because we were just too tired when we got home. Nothing interesting happened at all. :)
23 Aug 08-Sorry I skipped a couple of days in there. I've been a little bit busy. A few months ago, I found out that Aileen from my "mommy's group" was going to be here from New York on vacation. We definitely wanted to make plans to meet so I told her that we'd drive to Scottsdale and then stay the night there so we could go do to dinner and then breakfast before they headed out for Sedona. So, yesterday after work, we headed out for Scottsdale (near Phoenix). It took us a little longer to get there than expected because is just construction everywhere! Anyway, we decided on just having pizza since her hubby was headed to a Diamondbacks game. Aileen and the girls met us in the parking lot when we pulled up and it was just so great to meet her in person. She is just truly a doll and so are her girls. After dinner and letting the kids run around while we chatted, we went down to the pool. The place that they were staying in was a timeshare and it was absolutely gorgeous. The pool had a waterfall and everything (which the kids thought was just the coolest). Harmony and Gabbi became fast friends and were inseparable for the short time we all had together. We got back to the hotel and got to bed about midnight and then got up to meet them for breakfast. I have been blessed to meet 3 of the girls now off the site and can't wait to meet even more. On the way back, we decided to stop at this ostrich farm that we've seen for years in between here and Phoenix and I'm so glad we did. I was wondering how interesting it could possibly be but little did I know that it wasn't just ostriches. They also had deer, donkeys and birds to feed. It was awesome!! My favorite part was the birds and had we had more cash on us, we might STILL be there feeding the birds. It's only an hour from here so we will definitely be going back before they shut down for the winter in October! On the way back, the traffic was horrendous and we had no idea why. Chris realized that there were no cars headed at all in the direction of Phoenix so that probably meant accident. We had taken a different route to come back so we had to backtrack a little to get to the ostrich farm. We missed a deadly tractor trailer accident by a very short period of time. We saw it on the way back and just knew that someone had to have died in it. We found out after we got home that someone had. :( How tragic and scary. Anyway, we had a wonderful time visiting with Aileen and her family and I am so glad that we got the chance to do that!
20 Aug 08-SSgt results came out today and I had reason to celebrate another promotion cycle. My troop, Clint, made it so I was excited to see his name today and also to be able to tack his stripe on. I guess the commander didn't expect me to be able to hit hard and was surprised when I put some weight behind in. LOL Also on that list was Ashley my favorite female troop ever, Shane my protege' and my girlfriend Monica. It was a good day to celebrate.
19 Aug 08-Happy Birthday to Auntie Katie!! Harmony was so excited to call her and wish her a happy birthday today. It was cute. Katie said she was cracking her up. I got to go see one of my favorite men today-the chiropractor! Have I mentioned that I love that man?? I wish I could see him every day. At least 1 day every 2 weeks, my back feels better! I got to visit with Sheree' tonight which is always a treat for me. She lives right next door but we hardly ever see each other and it's definitely made us appreciate each other more. Me, her and Elise are planning a coffee date for next week and I'm so looking forward to it! Life is just so busy, it's hard to get girlfriend time in!
18 Aug 08-Not much to report today. It seems as though everyone had a case of "The Monday's". It was very evident as I walked through the door and no one said a word. Normally when anyone that works in our office walks in, they're greeted with "Good morning". That was not the case today. Let's hope tomorrow is better. Thankfully I had tons of paperwork come back today so I kept myself busy was able to send my airman home early. I hate days like today. We had a nice dinner tonight so that means a good lunch tomorrow! Other than that, that's all she wrote for today!
17 Aug 08-Happy Birthday to my friend Amy!! I had one of the busiest days today. It's already 9 and I'm just now getting to write in my blog before I go shower, get ready for bed and watch Big Brother. Today after breakfast and relaxing, I took Harmony, Miles and Bella to Petco to get mice. That is our weekend routine now and all the girls there know me. One in particular always comes to see Bella and commented today on how she's growing. They all just adore her for sure! Today was "sheet day" and that is probably one of my least favorite chores. I cleaned the fish tank today, did more laundry, put all the laundry away that I never got to yesterday, went through the kids backpacks (finally), cleaned the kitchen, blah, blah, blah. Chris finally installed the last 2 lights and was also working his butt off outside. It was just so hot and muggy that neither one of us wanted to cook. I needed a few things so I decided to go to Fry's and check out the deli for something for dinner there. It was nice that we didn't have to cook. So, now that the bags are packed, laundry is put away, kids are bathed and in bed, I am off to relax before starting another week. Ugh! Thankfully we have a 4 day weekend coming up!
16 Aug 08-We had our visit with Katie and family today and it was so nice to see them. Her boys are just the cutest!! They enjoyed the dogs and the other animals and I even took Ali out so they could "pet" her too. I got my baby fix in today big time! LOL Thomas is just the sweetest little baby. Thankfully he took to me and I got to hold him a lot and it was so nice. They are all just so wonderful and it's so nice to have more family in town. I've gone from having no family around me for most of my career to now having Chris' uncle who doesn't live in Tucson anymore but at least Arizona, Chris' cousin Bruce and now Katie and her family. It just makes being here feel a little more "normal". I put pictures up on the website today so go take a look and you'll see just how cute their boys are. We had a nice storm tonight too. We got an inch of rain in only about 20 minutes. I was just telling Chris earlier today that I was hoping for some good rain so it would wash all the dirt in the street away from when he was hauling truck loads of dirt here so we could extend the grass in the backyard. Boy did I get what I asked for. The backyard started to flood so poor Chris was in the backyard in the rain with a rake trying to dig a path for the water to flow out. He was soaked when he came back in but we sure needed that rain. Just as he was able to go out and do it properly with a shovel, it started to rain again. I say bring it on! I had to laugh as I was tucking Miles in tonight. Apparently he has my OCD. He couldn't get something on his shelf just right and would not let me tuck him in until it was perfectly straight. All I could was be patient and laugh.
15 Aug 08-Today was really, really hot and sticky. Yuck!! We had Mike's (Koeller) retirement today. It was bittersweet. I know he's moved on to bigger and better things but it will be weird not having him around. I sang for his retirement too and I'm so glad. I wouldn't have missed it for the world! Chris is playing poker with the boys tonight so it's just me at home with the kids. Harmony is super excited because Auntie Katie and family are coming to visit tomorrow. I'm so glad we're finally getting a chance to get together. I know Harmony is going to have a hard time sleeping tonight. She was jumping up and down screaming when she overheard me mention to Katie about coming tomorrow. It's going to be so much fun to see them!
14 Aug 08-We sure did get those storms I was hoping for last night!! We woke up at 11:30 p.m. to Bella barking and we couldn't figure out why. It was hailing and it was hitting the window unit and caused her to go into protect mode although the poor thing was scared too. I ended up sitting with her on the couch for a bit until she calmed down. The storm was AWESOME!! The news said we had 450 lightning strikes per 10 minutes. The sky just looked like a big strobe light. I was laughing because Holly was just mentioning yesterday that the storms were weak here after we'd done all this bragging to the "newbies" about how the monsoons are so awesome here. We all told her today she needed to keep talking smack about them so we could get some more raging storms! My rain barrel is completely full today!! Other than that from last night, today was one of the most boring days of my life. I never thought we'd see 4:00. After I got home and finished up the nightly routine, just before Miles got in bed, he gave me a very proud mommy moment to brag about!
13 Aug 08-It was a HOT one today! My goodness! I was drenched after doing my PT at 6 in the morning. It was already almost unbearable. It only got worse as the day went on. Humidity is up and storms are all around us. Hopefully they will hit because I really need to have my rain barrel filled back up. The garden sure doesn't need it but I really need my Oleanders to start growing. They are sure slow starters. Other than that, there's not much going on at all. I finally got a chance to sit down and relax after emptying book bags, making lunches, helping with homework, cleaning up after the messy clan, etc. Chris moved the Wii into the bedroom for me so I could actually play it. I never get to use it because everyone else is always hogging the big TV. :( Now I can actually enjoy my Wii Fit daily like I've been wanting to. Wow! I just realized, I have a TiVo, a laptop, a scrapbook desk, a treadmill with weights AND the Wii in my bedroom now. I might never come out!!! LOL It's like my own mini apartment! It will really be nice once I paint it and hopefully rearrange some.
12 Aug 08-Today we had a squadron "stand down" and had to go to the theater for a briefing. What this means is that it was time for the commander to get us all together to brief us on what has been going on. In the group overall, there have been a rash of incidents that are concerning to senior leadership. I won't share them all here because it's like airing dirty laundry and I don't want to do that. It was basically a "come to Jesus" meeting and it was eye opening. Hopefully it does the trick because I was here 4 years ago when things went down the tubes and we worked long hours and life was hell. I have been praying hard that things don't go down that road again. Other than that, it was another quiet day in my world.
11 Aug 08-Boring, boring, boring is all I can say about today. I went to to the doc. He gave me some drops to try and said if it doesn't get better to make an appointment with my off base eye doc and they'll put in an emergency referral so that was good news. Hopefully the drops will work and it's just acting up because of my recent sinus infection but we'll see. Other than that, nothing to report. Be back tomorrow with hopefully more to talk about. :)
10 Aug 08-We had more fun shampooing carpets today! (Or should I say Chris did.) Anyway, the most exciting thing of the day was getting in the garden and harvesting veggies. We pulled out some huge radish and cucumbers and pulled a ton of lettuce. The kids had cucumbers (by request) for snack today and I made salad for dinner from the garden. We'll have to take quite a bit to people at work to get rid of it because there is just so much. Chris said that there are about 30 more cucumbers growing. He also pulled out two gourds. I have no idea what to do with them so I'll have to search the internet for those. LOL I don't think they'll make it to Halloween for decorations! My eye is bothering me unfortunately. A couple of years ago I had to have surgery to have some of my natural tube that connects my nasolacrimal duct (or commonly referred to as tear duct although that's not what it is) and have a plastic tube put in because the hole is so small on mine that it would get blocked easily. Well now my right eye is doing the same thing. What happens is that my eye constantly waters because what is supposed to drain out down the tube can't because I can get the tiniest speck of dirt in there, comes out of my eye instead. It's annoying because it blurs my vision and causes the skin in the corner of my eye and the side of my nose to become irritated from wiping away the tears and stuff so often. I really don't want to go through that surgery again and all the poking and prodding in my eye but it's better than the annoyance of my eye constantly watering. I can't wear mascara or eyeliner now on the bottom either which makes my eyes look small. That may sound silly to you but I'm pretty set in my ways when it comes to my make-up. LOL I go with what works and what looks good and I hate having to change it. Ugh! More to come on that.
09 Aug 08-I guess while I was at dinner last night, Cody was out front playing football with some of the neighbors. Well he jammed his finger and was complaining that it hurt but his range of motion was fine so I didn't think too much of it. I've had that happen and I know that it hurts. Today, we went shopping at the BX and I saw that it was turning a little purple so I showed Chris and he took him to urgent care to get it looked at. We were guessing it was sprained and that's what it was. The doc taped his 2 fingers together and ordered x-rays for him. However, the x-ray place was closed so he'll have to take him this week. They said it wasn't broken though so that's good. We got Miles his "big boy" haircut today and he really liked it. The stylist was just making such a fuss over him and his big blue eyes and long eyelashes. I was getting a kick out of it. He was quite talkative to her which is unusual for him to do to a stranger. I couldn't help but just sit there in the chair and smile at him. We bought a steam cleaner today for the carpets which was fantastic. I like our Kirby but we really needed something that could deep clean. Let's face it, with 3 kids and 4 dogs, the carpets get some spots on them that we can't tell which one of them made it. That thing is awesome. Chris is going to be busy for a while. I told him that I even want to move furniture eventually. LOL Poor thing. I have all these projects. I told him that the one I had for myself was to paint. I really, really, really want to change some of the wall colors, especially in the bedroom. I want some kind of warm brown tone. Something other than that green. I do not like that color of green at all. Yet another benefit of owning our home!! We all had a nice lunch together too and then came home so Chris could take Cody to urgent care. I took the other 2 and Bella with me to get mice and fish food. That's always an adventure. One of the girls there came up to us and spoke directly to Bella about remembering her. She is just so in love with her. How could you not be? She's adorable! LOL I think that's about all that went on today. I just love the weekends!
08 Aug 08-Thank goodness this week is over. It was sure a long one after my short leave. I really feel like I need a vacation! I went out to dinner tonight with Leah, Kelly, and Tiana. We went to Outback Steakhouse. It was the first time I had ever been there. It was a little expensive for me but it was really good. It was nice to get out and enjoy some time with friends. I am going to miss Leah so much when she leaves. I just adore her. :) Other than that, not much is going on or not anything that I care to talk about. Things are work are getting kind of crazy but not in my shop. It's things that the flight as a whole will end up having to pay for so I'll deal with/post about that when the time comes. Hopefully supervision has a handle on it so it doesn't come down to that. We'll just see how it all goes. I've been down that path once before here and I surely don't want to go again. We are taking Miles to get a nice big boy haircut tomorrow for his pictures on Tuesday. I'm so excited for his first school pictures! They are all doing so well in school. Cody just started back this week too and he said he really liked it and he liked his teacher. I guess people said bad things about his teacher so he was apprehensive that he might not like him. He said he did though so that was good. That helped to spark the conversation with him about hearing what other people say but not forming an opinion based off of what he hears. I told him to always find out for himself. I have always been that way and want to instill that in my kids as well. I'm not a first impression kind of gal. I hope that others are the same way because if people went off first impressions of me, I might not have as many friends as I do. I know that people have off days or just aren't good at meeting people. I never hold that against anyone. Anyway, since I've truly lived up to the title of my blog tonight, I'll close with that. I am ready to get a good night sleep finally. This is the first night that my OCD has NOT kicked in even though I'm still up late. I cannot wait to sleep in tomorrow!
07 Aug 08-I had another fun day cutting up at the office. I was a little moody today for some reason. I'm not quite sure why but I'm over it. LOL I paid off a few more bills today and figured out my budget and what we have coming in versus going out. I'm in major "planning for our first mortgage payment" mode. Scary! My lights came today so I was super excited for that and Chris was nice enough to put up the 3 out front for me today so we could see them tonight and they look so nice. It took me a while to find them but I think I did well! The pics are in the house album on the site. :)
06 Aug 08-I am such a dork. I just got done signing up for e-bills for every account I own. Most don't have balances but just in case, I wanted to set them up. I even created a new account just so the e-mails wouldn't get lost with all the spam in our main account. I was super excited when DIRECTV said they would give me a $5 credit for going paperless! Whoo hoo! I saved tons of trees today. Okay, so don't think that I am going to turn into a tree hugger or anything. I won't be quite like that (not that I think anything is wrong with it, it's just not my style) but I am really enjoying this whole going green thing. On my "Mommy's group" we do a weekly photo contest and Michelle, who is an awesome photographer, teaches us things that our cameras can do and urges us to use our manuals to learn more. She gives us tips and has us try new things. I did that today to submit my photos for the contest and it was a lot of fun. I'm going to need to learn how to do all this stuff anyway because I really would like to be a professional photographer when I retire and set my own schedule. After being the military's "drone" for 20+ years, it would be nice to call my own shots! In case you are wondering, I am starting to feel more human although I am still feeling quite run down. Besides that, I just really had a good day today.
05 Aug 08-I got to start my day by seeing one of my favorite men-my chiropractor. Besides him always making me feel like a million bucks, he's always such a joy to talk to. After I got to work I spent an hour or so cleaning the bathroom in our building. As a NCO, I shouldn't be doing it but no one else did it so I had to do it. It will be pointed out that I had to do it and how the bathroom should stay. I don't even like cleaning my OWN bathroom! Yuck! It was nasty!! The rest of the day was just catching up still from the week that I was on leave. I was busy at home tonight going through the kids backpacks, packing their snacks, my lunch, my gym bag, paying bills, balancing checkbook, etc. Whew! I am amazed at how much paperwork having multiple children in school generates. I decided to get a little more organized this year and start scanning in the papers that are important and keeping them in their own folders and then throwing away the actual paper copy. It's so nice to have that capability!!
04 Aug 08-It was so nice to get back to the grind today after my whirlwind trip. It was nice to have some normalcy again. I received a call from the Command Chief this morning thanking me for the interview again and letting me know that I wasn't selected for something I didn't do, that the interview was very good but he just went a "different route" whatever that means. He said that he could tell I had a bright career ahead of me and hopefully we'd cross paths again. I thought that was nice and it made me feel much better.
03 Aug 08-I am back home now and finally settled. It was such a whirlwind of a trip but I had the best time ever and realized just how much I missed my family and I can't wait to get back and spend the kind of time I want to with everyone. My brothers wedding was so beautiful and everything was so perfect. It was such an emotional day for me and I hadn't even thought about it being that way. The whole setting was just beautiful and I could not be happier for them. We all just love Juliet so much. As far as we're concerned, she's been in our family for years anyway, now it's just official. She was the most beautiful bride. The reception was really nice too and I had a blast just watching my kids enjoy themselves. Harmony was the life of the party for sure. She showed off dance moves that I had no idea that she had. It was great. Miles ran around doing cartwheels and rearranging the chairs from the wedding. They were so good and did their parts so well. When the reception was over, I took them in the pool at the hotel until 11:30 and then they finally crashed at midnight. I am just exhausted and my whole body hurts from carrying luggage and everything else. I am going to recoup today and get back to work tomorrow. I don't think I posted yet either that I did not end up getting the job as the executive assistant that I applied for but I'm okay with it. I know I did well and I just wasn't what he was looking for and that's okay. I am thankful for the experience and I'm glad I put myself out there to go for it.
25 Aug 08-Today was back to the grind. It's always nice to get back to a routine although some days I dread going back to work. I really need some good time off of work I think. Anyway, you'll see this once my site comes back up but it's down because too much bandwidth was used. I guess that's because all the girls from my mommy's group were looking at the pictures from my visit with Aileen. From now on, I'm just going to upload them to Photobucket or something so it doesn't clog up my site. Hopefully Jen will get it fixed soon. :( I hate when that happens. Anyway, Miles had his home visit today with his teacher and that was a lot of fun. He really enjoyed having her here and getting to show off his room and his pets and playing Candyland with her. I think that's such a neat program that the school does.
24 Aug 08-Today was just a day to get caught up on everything that needed to be done around the house that we didn't get to Friday because we weren't here and then Saturday because we were just too tired when we got home. Nothing interesting happened at all. :)
23 Aug 08-Sorry I skipped a couple of days in there. I've been a little bit busy. A few months ago, I found out that Aileen from my "mommy's group" was going to be here from New York on vacation. We definitely wanted to make plans to meet so I told her that we'd drive to Scottsdale and then stay the night there so we could go do to dinner and then breakfast before they headed out for Sedona. So, yesterday after work, we headed out for Scottsdale (near Phoenix). It took us a little longer to get there than expected because is just construction everywhere! Anyway, we decided on just having pizza since her hubby was headed to a Diamondbacks game. Aileen and the girls met us in the parking lot when we pulled up and it was just so great to meet her in person. She is just truly a doll and so are her girls. After dinner and letting the kids run around while we chatted, we went down to the pool. The place that they were staying in was a timeshare and it was absolutely gorgeous. The pool had a waterfall and everything (which the kids thought was just the coolest). Harmony and Gabbi became fast friends and were inseparable for the short time we all had together. We got back to the hotel and got to bed about midnight and then got up to meet them for breakfast. I have been blessed to meet 3 of the girls now off the site and can't wait to meet even more. On the way back, we decided to stop at this ostrich farm that we've seen for years in between here and Phoenix and I'm so glad we did. I was wondering how interesting it could possibly be but little did I know that it wasn't just ostriches. They also had deer, donkeys and birds to feed. It was awesome!! My favorite part was the birds and had we had more cash on us, we might STILL be there feeding the birds. It's only an hour from here so we will definitely be going back before they shut down for the winter in October! On the way back, the traffic was horrendous and we had no idea why. Chris realized that there were no cars headed at all in the direction of Phoenix so that probably meant accident. We had taken a different route to come back so we had to backtrack a little to get to the ostrich farm. We missed a deadly tractor trailer accident by a very short period of time. We saw it on the way back and just knew that someone had to have died in it. We found out after we got home that someone had. :( How tragic and scary. Anyway, we had a wonderful time visiting with Aileen and her family and I am so glad that we got the chance to do that!
20 Aug 08-SSgt results came out today and I had reason to celebrate another promotion cycle. My troop, Clint, made it so I was excited to see his name today and also to be able to tack his stripe on. I guess the commander didn't expect me to be able to hit hard and was surprised when I put some weight behind in. LOL Also on that list was Ashley my favorite female troop ever, Shane my protege' and my girlfriend Monica. It was a good day to celebrate.
19 Aug 08-Happy Birthday to Auntie Katie!! Harmony was so excited to call her and wish her a happy birthday today. It was cute. Katie said she was cracking her up. I got to go see one of my favorite men today-the chiropractor! Have I mentioned that I love that man?? I wish I could see him every day. At least 1 day every 2 weeks, my back feels better! I got to visit with Sheree' tonight which is always a treat for me. She lives right next door but we hardly ever see each other and it's definitely made us appreciate each other more. Me, her and Elise are planning a coffee date for next week and I'm so looking forward to it! Life is just so busy, it's hard to get girlfriend time in!
18 Aug 08-Not much to report today. It seems as though everyone had a case of "The Monday's". It was very evident as I walked through the door and no one said a word. Normally when anyone that works in our office walks in, they're greeted with "Good morning". That was not the case today. Let's hope tomorrow is better. Thankfully I had tons of paperwork come back today so I kept myself busy was able to send my airman home early. I hate days like today. We had a nice dinner tonight so that means a good lunch tomorrow! Other than that, that's all she wrote for today!
17 Aug 08-Happy Birthday to my friend Amy!! I had one of the busiest days today. It's already 9 and I'm just now getting to write in my blog before I go shower, get ready for bed and watch Big Brother. Today after breakfast and relaxing, I took Harmony, Miles and Bella to Petco to get mice. That is our weekend routine now and all the girls there know me. One in particular always comes to see Bella and commented today on how she's growing. They all just adore her for sure! Today was "sheet day" and that is probably one of my least favorite chores. I cleaned the fish tank today, did more laundry, put all the laundry away that I never got to yesterday, went through the kids backpacks (finally), cleaned the kitchen, blah, blah, blah. Chris finally installed the last 2 lights and was also working his butt off outside. It was just so hot and muggy that neither one of us wanted to cook. I needed a few things so I decided to go to Fry's and check out the deli for something for dinner there. It was nice that we didn't have to cook. So, now that the bags are packed, laundry is put away, kids are bathed and in bed, I am off to relax before starting another week. Ugh! Thankfully we have a 4 day weekend coming up!
16 Aug 08-We had our visit with Katie and family today and it was so nice to see them. Her boys are just the cutest!! They enjoyed the dogs and the other animals and I even took Ali out so they could "pet" her too. I got my baby fix in today big time! LOL Thomas is just the sweetest little baby. Thankfully he took to me and I got to hold him a lot and it was so nice. They are all just so wonderful and it's so nice to have more family in town. I've gone from having no family around me for most of my career to now having Chris' uncle who doesn't live in Tucson anymore but at least Arizona, Chris' cousin Bruce and now Katie and her family. It just makes being here feel a little more "normal". I put pictures up on the website today so go take a look and you'll see just how cute their boys are. We had a nice storm tonight too. We got an inch of rain in only about 20 minutes. I was just telling Chris earlier today that I was hoping for some good rain so it would wash all the dirt in the street away from when he was hauling truck loads of dirt here so we could extend the grass in the backyard. Boy did I get what I asked for. The backyard started to flood so poor Chris was in the backyard in the rain with a rake trying to dig a path for the water to flow out. He was soaked when he came back in but we sure needed that rain. Just as he was able to go out and do it properly with a shovel, it started to rain again. I say bring it on! I had to laugh as I was tucking Miles in tonight. Apparently he has my OCD. He couldn't get something on his shelf just right and would not let me tuck him in until it was perfectly straight. All I could was be patient and laugh.
15 Aug 08-Today was really, really hot and sticky. Yuck!! We had Mike's (Koeller) retirement today. It was bittersweet. I know he's moved on to bigger and better things but it will be weird not having him around. I sang for his retirement too and I'm so glad. I wouldn't have missed it for the world! Chris is playing poker with the boys tonight so it's just me at home with the kids. Harmony is super excited because Auntie Katie and family are coming to visit tomorrow. I'm so glad we're finally getting a chance to get together. I know Harmony is going to have a hard time sleeping tonight. She was jumping up and down screaming when she overheard me mention to Katie about coming tomorrow. It's going to be so much fun to see them!
14 Aug 08-We sure did get those storms I was hoping for last night!! We woke up at 11:30 p.m. to Bella barking and we couldn't figure out why. It was hailing and it was hitting the window unit and caused her to go into protect mode although the poor thing was scared too. I ended up sitting with her on the couch for a bit until she calmed down. The storm was AWESOME!! The news said we had 450 lightning strikes per 10 minutes. The sky just looked like a big strobe light. I was laughing because Holly was just mentioning yesterday that the storms were weak here after we'd done all this bragging to the "newbies" about how the monsoons are so awesome here. We all told her today she needed to keep talking smack about them so we could get some more raging storms! My rain barrel is completely full today!! Other than that from last night, today was one of the most boring days of my life. I never thought we'd see 4:00. After I got home and finished up the nightly routine, just before Miles got in bed, he gave me a very proud mommy moment to brag about!
13 Aug 08-It was a HOT one today! My goodness! I was drenched after doing my PT at 6 in the morning. It was already almost unbearable. It only got worse as the day went on. Humidity is up and storms are all around us. Hopefully they will hit because I really need to have my rain barrel filled back up. The garden sure doesn't need it but I really need my Oleanders to start growing. They are sure slow starters. Other than that, there's not much going on at all. I finally got a chance to sit down and relax after emptying book bags, making lunches, helping with homework, cleaning up after the messy clan, etc. Chris moved the Wii into the bedroom for me so I could actually play it. I never get to use it because everyone else is always hogging the big TV. :( Now I can actually enjoy my Wii Fit daily like I've been wanting to. Wow! I just realized, I have a TiVo, a laptop, a scrapbook desk, a treadmill with weights AND the Wii in my bedroom now. I might never come out!!! LOL It's like my own mini apartment! It will really be nice once I paint it and hopefully rearrange some.
12 Aug 08-Today we had a squadron "stand down" and had to go to the theater for a briefing. What this means is that it was time for the commander to get us all together to brief us on what has been going on. In the group overall, there have been a rash of incidents that are concerning to senior leadership. I won't share them all here because it's like airing dirty laundry and I don't want to do that. It was basically a "come to Jesus" meeting and it was eye opening. Hopefully it does the trick because I was here 4 years ago when things went down the tubes and we worked long hours and life was hell. I have been praying hard that things don't go down that road again. Other than that, it was another quiet day in my world.
11 Aug 08-Boring, boring, boring is all I can say about today. I went to to the doc. He gave me some drops to try and said if it doesn't get better to make an appointment with my off base eye doc and they'll put in an emergency referral so that was good news. Hopefully the drops will work and it's just acting up because of my recent sinus infection but we'll see. Other than that, nothing to report. Be back tomorrow with hopefully more to talk about. :)
10 Aug 08-We had more fun shampooing carpets today! (Or should I say Chris did.) Anyway, the most exciting thing of the day was getting in the garden and harvesting veggies. We pulled out some huge radish and cucumbers and pulled a ton of lettuce. The kids had cucumbers (by request) for snack today and I made salad for dinner from the garden. We'll have to take quite a bit to people at work to get rid of it because there is just so much. Chris said that there are about 30 more cucumbers growing. He also pulled out two gourds. I have no idea what to do with them so I'll have to search the internet for those. LOL I don't think they'll make it to Halloween for decorations! My eye is bothering me unfortunately. A couple of years ago I had to have surgery to have some of my natural tube that connects my nasolacrimal duct (or commonly referred to as tear duct although that's not what it is) and have a plastic tube put in because the hole is so small on mine that it would get blocked easily. Well now my right eye is doing the same thing. What happens is that my eye constantly waters because what is supposed to drain out down the tube can't because I can get the tiniest speck of dirt in there, comes out of my eye instead. It's annoying because it blurs my vision and causes the skin in the corner of my eye and the side of my nose to become irritated from wiping away the tears and stuff so often. I really don't want to go through that surgery again and all the poking and prodding in my eye but it's better than the annoyance of my eye constantly watering. I can't wear mascara or eyeliner now on the bottom either which makes my eyes look small. That may sound silly to you but I'm pretty set in my ways when it comes to my make-up. LOL I go with what works and what looks good and I hate having to change it. Ugh! More to come on that.
09 Aug 08-I guess while I was at dinner last night, Cody was out front playing football with some of the neighbors. Well he jammed his finger and was complaining that it hurt but his range of motion was fine so I didn't think too much of it. I've had that happen and I know that it hurts. Today, we went shopping at the BX and I saw that it was turning a little purple so I showed Chris and he took him to urgent care to get it looked at. We were guessing it was sprained and that's what it was. The doc taped his 2 fingers together and ordered x-rays for him. However, the x-ray place was closed so he'll have to take him this week. They said it wasn't broken though so that's good. We got Miles his "big boy" haircut today and he really liked it. The stylist was just making such a fuss over him and his big blue eyes and long eyelashes. I was getting a kick out of it. He was quite talkative to her which is unusual for him to do to a stranger. I couldn't help but just sit there in the chair and smile at him. We bought a steam cleaner today for the carpets which was fantastic. I like our Kirby but we really needed something that could deep clean. Let's face it, with 3 kids and 4 dogs, the carpets get some spots on them that we can't tell which one of them made it. That thing is awesome. Chris is going to be busy for a while. I told him that I even want to move furniture eventually. LOL Poor thing. I have all these projects. I told him that the one I had for myself was to paint. I really, really, really want to change some of the wall colors, especially in the bedroom. I want some kind of warm brown tone. Something other than that green. I do not like that color of green at all. Yet another benefit of owning our home!! We all had a nice lunch together too and then came home so Chris could take Cody to urgent care. I took the other 2 and Bella with me to get mice and fish food. That's always an adventure. One of the girls there came up to us and spoke directly to Bella about remembering her. She is just so in love with her. How could you not be? She's adorable! LOL I think that's about all that went on today. I just love the weekends!
08 Aug 08-Thank goodness this week is over. It was sure a long one after my short leave. I really feel like I need a vacation! I went out to dinner tonight with Leah, Kelly, and Tiana. We went to Outback Steakhouse. It was the first time I had ever been there. It was a little expensive for me but it was really good. It was nice to get out and enjoy some time with friends. I am going to miss Leah so much when she leaves. I just adore her. :) Other than that, not much is going on or not anything that I care to talk about. Things are work are getting kind of crazy but not in my shop. It's things that the flight as a whole will end up having to pay for so I'll deal with/post about that when the time comes. Hopefully supervision has a handle on it so it doesn't come down to that. We'll just see how it all goes. I've been down that path once before here and I surely don't want to go again. We are taking Miles to get a nice big boy haircut tomorrow for his pictures on Tuesday. I'm so excited for his first school pictures! They are all doing so well in school. Cody just started back this week too and he said he really liked it and he liked his teacher. I guess people said bad things about his teacher so he was apprehensive that he might not like him. He said he did though so that was good. That helped to spark the conversation with him about hearing what other people say but not forming an opinion based off of what he hears. I told him to always find out for himself. I have always been that way and want to instill that in my kids as well. I'm not a first impression kind of gal. I hope that others are the same way because if people went off first impressions of me, I might not have as many friends as I do. I know that people have off days or just aren't good at meeting people. I never hold that against anyone. Anyway, since I've truly lived up to the title of my blog tonight, I'll close with that. I am ready to get a good night sleep finally. This is the first night that my OCD has NOT kicked in even though I'm still up late. I cannot wait to sleep in tomorrow!
07 Aug 08-I had another fun day cutting up at the office. I was a little moody today for some reason. I'm not quite sure why but I'm over it. LOL I paid off a few more bills today and figured out my budget and what we have coming in versus going out. I'm in major "planning for our first mortgage payment" mode. Scary! My lights came today so I was super excited for that and Chris was nice enough to put up the 3 out front for me today so we could see them tonight and they look so nice. It took me a while to find them but I think I did well! The pics are in the house album on the site. :)
06 Aug 08-I am such a dork. I just got done signing up for e-bills for every account I own. Most don't have balances but just in case, I wanted to set them up. I even created a new account just so the e-mails wouldn't get lost with all the spam in our main account. I was super excited when DIRECTV said they would give me a $5 credit for going paperless! Whoo hoo! I saved tons of trees today. Okay, so don't think that I am going to turn into a tree hugger or anything. I won't be quite like that (not that I think anything is wrong with it, it's just not my style) but I am really enjoying this whole going green thing. On my "Mommy's group" we do a weekly photo contest and Michelle, who is an awesome photographer, teaches us things that our cameras can do and urges us to use our manuals to learn more. She gives us tips and has us try new things. I did that today to submit my photos for the contest and it was a lot of fun. I'm going to need to learn how to do all this stuff anyway because I really would like to be a professional photographer when I retire and set my own schedule. After being the military's "drone" for 20+ years, it would be nice to call my own shots! In case you are wondering, I am starting to feel more human although I am still feeling quite run down. Besides that, I just really had a good day today.
05 Aug 08-I got to start my day by seeing one of my favorite men-my chiropractor. Besides him always making me feel like a million bucks, he's always such a joy to talk to. After I got to work I spent an hour or so cleaning the bathroom in our building. As a NCO, I shouldn't be doing it but no one else did it so I had to do it. It will be pointed out that I had to do it and how the bathroom should stay. I don't even like cleaning my OWN bathroom! Yuck! It was nasty!! The rest of the day was just catching up still from the week that I was on leave. I was busy at home tonight going through the kids backpacks, packing their snacks, my lunch, my gym bag, paying bills, balancing checkbook, etc. Whew! I am amazed at how much paperwork having multiple children in school generates. I decided to get a little more organized this year and start scanning in the papers that are important and keeping them in their own folders and then throwing away the actual paper copy. It's so nice to have that capability!!
04 Aug 08-It was so nice to get back to the grind today after my whirlwind trip. It was nice to have some normalcy again. I received a call from the Command Chief this morning thanking me for the interview again and letting me know that I wasn't selected for something I didn't do, that the interview was very good but he just went a "different route" whatever that means. He said that he could tell I had a bright career ahead of me and hopefully we'd cross paths again. I thought that was nice and it made me feel much better.
03 Aug 08-I am back home now and finally settled. It was such a whirlwind of a trip but I had the best time ever and realized just how much I missed my family and I can't wait to get back and spend the kind of time I want to with everyone. My brothers wedding was so beautiful and everything was so perfect. It was such an emotional day for me and I hadn't even thought about it being that way. The whole setting was just beautiful and I could not be happier for them. We all just love Juliet so much. As far as we're concerned, she's been in our family for years anyway, now it's just official. She was the most beautiful bride. The reception was really nice too and I had a blast just watching my kids enjoy themselves. Harmony was the life of the party for sure. She showed off dance moves that I had no idea that she had. It was great. Miles ran around doing cartwheels and rearranging the chairs from the wedding. They were so good and did their parts so well. When the reception was over, I took them in the pool at the hotel until 11:30 and then they finally crashed at midnight. I am just exhausted and my whole body hurts from carrying luggage and everything else. I am going to recoup today and get back to work tomorrow. I don't think I posted yet either that I did not end up getting the job as the executive assistant that I applied for but I'm okay with it. I know I did well and I just wasn't what he was looking for and that's okay. I am thankful for the experience and I'm glad I put myself out there to go for it.
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