Lost Kid

I went to the gym today before my first meeting with the trainer. I ran 3.5 miles. I'm tired.

Met with the trainer and got my meal plans, etc. Yikes! I went out for Mexican as my last hurrah.

I went to get the kids from the daycare, and Em and Junior came running over. Abs is usually engrossed in something, so I wasn't surprised she didn't run over. I called her name again....and again....and again....and again. She never came. The daycare isn't that big, so I entered and started searching high and low. No Abs. The daycare workers were looking, and I saw one look really worried, and that's when I started to panic. Everyone was searching, and finally one of them uncovered her hiding in a corner behind something, in a little ball. I didn't know whether to wring her neck or not. I told her she scared me, and she was apologetic, and then she ran off to get her shoes. Gunner's kid....shoot, they all are.

Made my shopping list for tomorrow, and plan to hit the gym before I work my other job and get the girls. School will be back in session on Monday and I still have a few things to do before then.

I talked to Gunner last night and he said that they are giving blanket orders for the units, and all of his brigade is supposed to go, so there is still hope. There is some technical acronym, but I can't recall it. I still would rather go to Korea. He thinks I am insane! I'm always up for an adventure.

Day 1--Check

Hired personal trainer.

Ran 2 miles before I met with him.

Heard how much of my body was fat and got disgusted.

Eating more black eyed peas, rice, and having a beer. My last hurrah. I'm not much of a drinker. I am more surprised that I even had a beer here, but knowing I have to cut it out, makes me want one, kind of like when I was pregnant and couldn't have one.

Hopefully it will be money well spent. He rated me a 4 for cardiovascular if I could run 2 miles. I can run more, but running on a treadmill is easy....put me outside and I will die. I'll work on that though.

Last weekend before school starts. It was beautiful today and we should have gone to the zoo, but maybe sometime this weekend. I start my class up again next Saturday. Ugh! I look back at my blog and I see how stressed I was when I first began taking classes, and now I look at it as a ton easier than what I am doing in the classroom. Maybe I should be a college professor....new plan #47593? I think I need a few more master's degrees before then though.

Still missing this face:

What does she look like?

We spent the evening with my friend Abbey and her three kiddos. Em came out of her shell and really hit it off with Abbey's oldest daughter. Abs and the middle one hit it off, and Junior chased her son around who was less than impressed with the little guy. Can't say that I blame him much since Junior was in all of his toys, etc. He was a trooper though. My kids are already bugging me on when they can spend the night over there. I hope that question didn't scare Abbey off! An overnight with Abs requires monitoring...constant.


One of Abbey's daughters got a makeup set and Abs asked if they could make her up. I agreed and Abs had a minimal amount of makeup on when they completed. Of course she couldn't leave it at that, and snuck back in there and came out looking like this:

She was one sparkly little girl. We tried out their Wii and fell in love with it. Here's a pic of Abs doing the hula hoop. Thank goodness she didn't get a shot of me on it, it was not pretty!

The kids are nestled in bed, except for Abs who is out for about her 20th drink of water. We were missing Gunner today, but knowing his homecoming is sooner rather than later is a little easier. I remember right before he left I was kind of depressed reading all these blogs with Soldiers and Marines that were getting ready to return--not that I wasn't happy for them. It just seemed so far away for us, almost untouchable. Now, while it is still a long ways away, we are fast approaching the 10 month mark. Yeah, NTC is "Just a walk in the park Kazansky. "

Happy New Year!

I did manage to stay up till 12:03 in order to finish the chapter I was reading. I caught up on tv shows and cleaned. Can't get much more exciting than that!

I hit the gym this morning and ran 2.3 miles. I got tired of the movie that was showing, so I had to move on. I really need to drag out my IPOD and get it charged.

I always heard that you should spend half of New Year's with your family and half working. I do need to type up my lesson plans. Of course I also heard that you shouldn't start the year with dirty laundry--impossible in this house. I ate 2 grapes at midnight. I'll hit the black eyed peas and collards hard today, with some ham slices to boot. Totally forgot about the cornbread. Here are all the other superstitions I could find. I'll stick with the black eyed peas and call it good.

A lot of people don't like to make resolutions because they aren't likely to keep them. I figure it doesn't hurt to set some goals for yourself, and I do that at the beginning of each deployment, so why not now?

1. Of course the obvious is to lose weight. With Gunner's arrival this year (boy it feels good to say that), I need to speed up the process. Hitting the gym and looking into a personal timer is where I am at with that one.
2. Run an adventure race and a triathlon. (The adventure race is in the works, and the triathlon, well, I probably have a long ways to go, but I am determined. I also want to do one bike ride of at least 4o miles. Gunner's going to join me on these.)
3. Clean out the garage. This is definitely a year long process, but all that crap that I am hanging on to is going, going, gone.
4. Continue making all A's in my graduate classes, and look into get some other certification too. Maybe a reading certification or a math. I also want to get certified to teach other grades so that I can be more marketable or use it in any future careers.
5. Take a trip outside the US with Gunner.
6. Take the kids to Disneyworld.
7. I'd love to join the Army reserves, but I guess that's not going to happen with the probability of deployment. Would love the challenge though. I think I just want to go to boot camp. My husband says I would have a hard time taking orders. Who me?

That's all I can think of quickly, but I am sure I will add to that. I need to do something a lot more fun, like take pictures, or learn to speak spanish (since I will obviously never leave Texas) or climb a mountain--other than the mountain of laundry that I have to do or the mountain of socks that I need to match.

...Abs is currently lecturing me on how they need to raise the Titanic, how many crates she thinks it would take, how it should be done, and that women should have been in charge of the evacuation because they could have fit more than 64 people on each lifeboat.

New Year's Eve

Gunner called from Iraq, where he was already celebrating the new year. Unfortunately he was celebrating it by working all night. He didn't foresee any black eyed peas on the horizon, so he asked me to eat his share. Since he hates them and just eats them to appease me, I am sure he is devastated.

I was supposed to spend the day with my mom and sisters, but one sister had a barfy kid and wasn't feeling so hot herself, so this germaphobic passed. Instead I spent most of the day nursing a migraine. I guess I finally drank enough caffeine and took enough medicine to make it go away.

"The Great Place" has all these motorcycle safety signs all over the post. I liked this one in particular:
Gunner wants a motorcycle, and I don't mind him having one, but I just worry about the other idiots on the road. He had wrecked one and was going to buy another one, but instead bought me an engagement ring. I think that has turned out to be a far better investment, don't you?

I hung out with my friend Abbey tonight. So nice to not have to worry about anything--she's a down-to-earth, mom of three, and is absolutely hilarious so I always know I will laugh. Even though Em wouldn't talk, Abs just made herself at home, and Junior bullied her 4 year old, they invited us back.

Tomorrow the outlaws invited us out to lunch. I'll just put my black eyes peas and collards on to cook before I leave.

Ran while I was at the gym yesterday, and got a good workout in--now I can barely move.

Update on the pottery wheel--Abs was excited to do it after daycare today, but we left the batteries at my mom's house, so we are going to get some tomorrow morning so that we can give it a shot. Pictures to follow. Oh and did I mention that she also got a stamper set with like a bazillion stamps and inkpads? Last time I let her near an inkpad she used it to paint her body. I am hoping for better results this time.

If things don't go according to plan with her new art supplies, I anticipate auctioning off her one-of-a-kind masterpieces for big bucks to help pay for repairs. It's probably a good thing we still live in housing.

Happy New Year! Resolutions to follow, once I can think of more than one....

Christmas in the Hood

I went in to work today, worked for 4 hours and still didn't get half the stuff done that I needed to, so I am going back tomorrow. I could spend all day, every day there, and still think of more things to do. Em was a big help, although she was redoing my library and read every single book there.

I did squeeze in a nap today though, which was very much needed. We met my friend Melinda for dinner at a local taqueria. A real hole in the wall, but the food is good.

On Gunner's ASK (Assignment Satisfaction key) we signed up as a volunteer for a 2 year accompanied tour in Korea. Did I mention we are looking for any change? Did I mention that I will get an email from Gunner asking me what I volunteered him for? Doubt we will get it, but we are trying.

I had a great time at my mom's last night for our other Christmas. My siblings went above and beyond for the kiddos, and they are still enjoying their presents. My mom got Abs a bisque porcelain doll, and Abs ripped open the doll and said "Look a Bisquick doll!". She's still calling it her "bisquick doll". On the way home we were talking about how Grandma and Grandpa picked it out, and she got all excited thinking that Grandpa helped pick out a special bisquick doll for her.

My sister made me some beautiful earrings. She also beaded my mom a necklace that I've got my eye on. More pictures to come of those. I wonder if she would make me some cool earrings to wear for Chris' homecoming. Hey, we are down to weeks, we have to start planning in order to make it through. Well plan for the homecoming, clean the house, finish my to-do list, and lose weight!

An open letter to my brother and Tia:

Dear Dave & Tia,

Abs face lit up when she saw that you got her a deluxe pottery wheel, with batteries. This beautiful pottery wheel comes with a wheel (of course), 3 modeling tools, sponge, EIGHT PAINTS, a 2lb bag of CLAY, and a paint brush. How thoughtful! Abs is very eager to get started. She originally wanted to get started in the living room or her room, but I have convinced her that the kitchen table or outside is a better area, so we will be doing that in the next day or so. She also mentioned that maybe you would like to make pottery with her and she should take it to your house! What a great idea! Think of the things you could create with her! While I envision Abs covered in clay from head to toe, and her putting her baby brother on the wheel to spin around while she paints him, it is a great gift, and I know we will have fun using it together.

Does this also mean that you would like to receive a pot to display? Maybe we could send it along with Egg-bert?

We love you!

Love ABW, et al.

P.S. Seriously, it was a great gift, and she is super excited about using it!

No orders

Looks like we bypassed orders for Carson. I was rereading all the information that they sent out and they were to notify everyone in December. Somehow I doubt someone is waiting till December 31st to cut us orders to escape from the Hood. I always told Gunner I could do anything or go anywhere for 3 years--we've been here over 6, it's time for a change!