Saturday

I got my delivery from Gunner today and I was totally surprised. Someone knocked at the door and Em peeked out and when I asked her who it was she told me "someone with flowers". I opened the door and received a beautiful bouquet of flowers with a sweet card for Gunner. He knows after almost 14 years how to melt my heart. Our anniversary is the 17th, and I can still say after 14 years that it just gets better and better, even if he is not here all the time. Who the heck am I kidding, he's not here most of the time. I still love him though.

I went to school today with my mom and the kids to decorate my bulletin board. We pieced something together, and I am just hoping that it will make it through the week. It's cute though, and very, very busy. I noticed when we went in that the door was open, so when we left I checked it and it was unlocked. I called a friend who told me she would track someone down. Two hours later someone was supposedly on the way when a MP pulled up. I went over to him and explained the situation and he said he would stay there until someone arrived. Junior was tired and the wind had about worn all of us out, plus we had no food. The last thing I wanted to do was to leave the school unsecured and be blamed if something happened, so I did my part.

Had dinner with my mom and the kids and then my mom took all three kids back to her house. I have to go over there and work before I pick them up and then run them to Girl Scouts tomorrow afternoon.

I still have a million 3-dimensional shapes to make, supplies to separate for my lesson and my big appraisal by the principal too. I'm nervous, but figure I have nothing to lose, plus it is the last week of classes before the Christmas holidays, so I am super excited about having two weeks off from school.

Off to bed after working on my lesson for my appraisal. I hope I did it right, and I hope I don't get too nervous! Wish me luck!!!

9 months

We've made it 9 months.

All three kids are still alive.

I still haven't given up diet coke. I also live on having a monster each afternoon. I don't hit the gym as much as I would like--okay honestly it hasn't been much at all since I started working, but I am hoping to change that over the Christmas holidays.

I still haven't cleaned out the garage or sorted through the piles of stuff that I said I was going to, but I didn't want to be an overachiever and do it all the first 9 months of the deployment, right?

I haven't lost any weight, but there's still time.

I'm just glad that whether the deployment is 12 or 15 months, we are over halfway there.

Abs is up and so far has made a mess, spilled cheerios, broken the remote and spread legos out all over her room. Good thing she has only been up for half an hour and an even better thing that she is spending the night with Grandma tonight so I can have a break!

My stars...

I taped Enews last night and sure enough there were my sweeties! Here's the pic my friend sent.
I took the girls to Hobby Lobby tonight. Abs rounded the corner away from me, and I was madly running to catch up with her, I heard a crash. I called out her name, knowing what was coming, and sure enough a lady at the end of the aisle said "Yep, it's Abs!". I really think I am ready to retire from this parenting business. It exhausts me.

Yesterday in my class......they found......lice! I'm still itching, although I was given the all clear. Can you imagine the wordless Wednesday pics I could have had though with the 4 of us with mayonnaise on our heads and plastic bags?

I want to tell you that I am sleeping in tomorrow, but I would never utter those words for fear it will come back to bite me.

Check this out....

My friend Mel called to tell me that Gunner and Junior were on tv. Apparently E! did a segment on gifts and they profiled a digital picture frame and there was Gunner and Junior. She had to do a double take and sent me a pic on her cell. Too funny. So check it out at 10 pm tonight! It was on Enews or something like that. Channel 53 if you are in the Hood.

More tales from the other side....

Read here about my menagerie....I laughed and laughed.

I'm thinking about what I want for Christmas.

I think the germaphobic side of me wants one of those light wands that kills germs.

The practical side of me wants things for my classroom.

The non-practical side of me wants a day at the spa.

The realistic side of me just wants a day with a minimal level of catastrophes for me to clean up.

What's on your list?

Lock up your valuables

Abs is in her "I can't sleep" phase again.

I remember having a conversation with her early this morning, but that's the extent of it--never a good thing.

When my alarm got up this morning I heard someone stirring.

I went and found Abs sitting quietly on the couch--a sign of trouble.

I sent her to go potty, and then went to check my email on my laptop. I found 5 games open and going. I checked to see how far along she was in Virtual Villagers, and luckily it didn't look like she had been playing more than an hour.

When I sent Abs back to go potty and get dressed, she danced all the way down the hallway...loudly. Some days I wish she had a mute button. I checked email and went back to her room to check on her and she was sitting naked on the floor playing legos. She also decided it was time for Em to wake up and she had flipped on her light.

I got her to get dressed and now she is brushing her hair and singing opera.

On Sunday, the girls made an advent calendar in Girl Scouts. They each glued a hershey's kiss to the calendar to open each day. Em walked out and asked where all her chocolate went. Abs of course has no idea what happened to them, so now Abs has lost her calendar to Em. Ab's response was "I just don't see the rationale in that." Ummmm....yeah....I don't see the rationale in half the stuff she does, but it doesn't stop her!

Em just came out in shorts. Apparently I am out to get her because her jeans are not clean. She claims that she only has one pair, not the 4 pairs that I have bought her. Considering that is is freezing outside, I vetoed the shorts and she is sulking in her room. I can hardly contain my excitement when I think of Em being a teenager and Gunner gone for a year and I have to figure her out on my own!

Junior is still asleep amazingly, but it is 5:40 am and now time to wake him up. He hates to have his pajamas taken off (I still put them on backwards), so morning time is always an adventure while I try to convince him that there is more in life than footie pajamas. Maybe that is what is missing from mine....

Only in Texas

Can it be a balmy 70 degrees and then it dropped and now is sleeting outside. At least ice is hitting the back door and it's cold and wet outside. Too bad I can't just lie in bed tomorrow and relax.

And here are the updates on the kids:

Em--she cracks me up. She has a book report due in two days and has switched books numerous times. Does she get an easier book each time? Nope, she keeps moving up. I told her this was her last change because she was running out of time. Tomorrow will be filled with homework for both girls.

Abs--I was on the phone with my friend Mel and Abs was in the shower. I was checking on her and all was well so I continued my conversation while I cleaned up a little for dinner. I heard a lot of noise from the bathroom and so I figured I better check it out. What I found was the entire bathroom drenched. Abs was taking a cup, filling it with water, and throwing it up on the ceiling. It was all over the ceiling and was raining down. Her rationale was that she was in a tropical rainforest. How can someone so smart not think things through?

Junior--He woke up screaming Sunday morning "I'm stuck, I'm stuck, I'm stuck" and screamed some more. I jumped up and ran in there. There was my baby boy with huge tears in his eyes and running down his face. Where was he stuck? He was stuck in the crib and couldn't get out. I told him it was 5 am and he needed to go to sleep but then he smiled and told me thank you for getting him unstuck as well as saying "I waked up Mommy". I couldn't resist so we got up bright and early. Little stinker! He still hasn't had a haircut, so his cowlick is out of control.

I'm hanging in there and counting down the days till Christmas vacation. 8 more school days!!! Woohoo!

Books

I had to order some books for a lesson, and so while I was at it I sorted through the 5 pages of books that I saved in my amazon cart for later.

I settled on these:

The Soldiers' Night Before Christmas--"'Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the base
Only sentries were stirring--they guarded the place.
The soldiers were sleeping and snoring away
As they dreamed of 'back home' on good Christmas Day..."

One Christmas Eve at a military barracks in the Middle East, some homesick soldiers are paid a visit by Sergeant McClaus, the Santa of Soldiers. This lively and poignant tale is inspired by Clement C. Moore's classic yuletide poem.

The Night Before Christmas in the Military--Santa receives thousands of letters from children who have parents in the military. He decides this year he'll do something extra special for the troops that are away from home.

The Soldier's Tree--In a world where bigger is often better, a tiny tree realizes that its extra small size can make an extra big difference. This book is a wonderful deployment tool designed to help military children enjoy the Christmas holiday while separated from a loved one overseas. Military families will be inspired to create their own Soldier's Tree which can be sent to their special service member serving abroad. With a poetic storyline and perfectly imperfect illustrations, The Soldier's Tree is sure to be loved by children who wear the stars and stripes of America.

Oh yeah, I am sure these will make me upbeat and happy about the Christmas season.

Have you heard of the Impossible Patriotism Project? It is a great book for kids. It's about a class that is doing a project on patriotism and one little boy can't think of anything to do. He tries to come up with an idea and wishes that his dad was there to help him, but he is deployed. So at the end of the story he does a picture of his dad and talks about him. I read it to my class and could barely make it through the book. The girls really like it though.

So those are my picks of the weeks. I spend way too much money at Amazon.

I should get a book on howtogetyourchildrentopickthingsupinsteadofwalkingonthem.