Happy Birthday

My favorite game in the entire world....well besides Dr. Mario.

I heart regular nintendo.

Yes, it's 5 am on the first day of summer vacation and I am at school.

I survived!

I have just completed my first year of teaching 2nd grade.

I can't believe I did it! I still have to go in and work half a day tomorrow, but I am going in early, will say my goodbyes, cry, and then hit the road. Bike drop off is tomorrow for my tri, and then the triathlon is on Sunday.

I've trained. I'm as ready as I'll ever be. I can't wait!

But for now, I can sit back and relax and know that I did a lot over the past year and a half to make it to the part of saying I am a teacher. I still have to take my two summer courses in order to get my certification, but I am confident that I will make A's. Instead of Gunner being gone this summer while I am in class, I will have a PCS to keep me occupied, camp for Em, a trip for Abs, and more potty training for Junior.

Never a dull moment! Pictures from the ball to come soon....

Conversations

Gunner put Junior in the tub, where he climbed up on the sides while Gunner filled the tub with water. He grabbed his parts, and proceeded to pee and laugh hysterically. Great.

After the bath:
Me: Sweetie why did you pee in the tub?
Jr: Ummmm.....it's fun.
Me: It's gross!
Jr: No, I'm not gross.
Me: Why did you poop in the tub (which is what followed after the peeing incident)
Jr: It was small poop.
Me: Where are you supposed to go to the bathroom?
Jr: In the toilet.
Me: Don't you want to wear underwear?
Jr: No, I don't like wunder-wear. It's terrible.
Me: Why is it terrible?
Jr: It's just BOR-ING!

He says boring just like his sisters. Lucky us!

Fast forward to today...

I get a text today from Gunner. It said "Jr getting booted from daycare for lesions again. Can u get him?"

I had just dropped off my students, so I said I would and ran over to grab him. I went in.

Me: (seeing his form that HAS to be signed by a doctor) It's the same thing he got sent home for two weeks ago. (said to no one in particular)
Kim: (Jr's main provider) YOU haven't even SEEN him. Just WAIT! (said with major attitude)
Me: (Junior runs up) Hey sweetie!

I put Junior on top of a low bookcase and lift his shirt

Kim: See the lesions?
Me: Ummmm.....no. I see where he fell in the sand, he wasn't cleaned up, and the sand irritated his skin. He has very sensitive skin.
Acting director: Right here, these are lesions.
Me: You're kidding right? It's eczema. Are you trained to determine what a lesion is?
AD: I have been through a training.
Me: It wasn't a very good one.
Me: I'll rush him to the er and tell them he is covered in lesions, they will get a good laugh.

So we took him to the er, where sure enough we sat for hours for them to laugh and laugh when they saw him. They said it was eczema and there wasn't a lesion on that boy. They said continue current treatment, signed our paperwork and sent us on our way.

I'm disgusted. What a waste of my time.

We cooked dinner, put the kids to bed, and I went for a swim.

1.5 days till school is out, and then I have to work that half day on Saturday. I can't wait. They have already hired my replacement, I guess I better get working harder on a job in Colorado!

I did figure out how to make TO DO lists and email them to Gunner from my iPhone.

I am sure he will be THRILLED that I have learned how to do this. He always says I make lists of lists, and now I can share each and every one of them with him.

Another round of homecomings here at Hood. It's so nice to see my friends back with their Soldiers!!!

Highway Robbery

I tried to make a reservation for a hotel and it was more expensive to use a military discount than it was a AAA. Does that make sense? I guess they do the same thing for most airline tickets too, so I shouldn't be too surprised.

Then Gunner went to give notice at the housing office and he asked about getting our house cleaned. When we moved from our old house to the new house, we decided we didn't want to pay the big bucks to get our house cleaned. It would have cost us $320 and in the end after we scrubbed that house from top to bottom, they charged us a $290 cleaning fee. We argued it and the manager said he would have charged us more!

So any money that we get for leaving the house in the middle of the month will go to pay......are you ready for this.......the $390 cleaning fee for this house. After 4 1/2 years here in this house, I won't even attempt to try and please these people. I'm telling you, it's a conspiracy in order to suck you dry. We cleared Germany and Fort Lewis with no problems, so we know it is possible. Very few of our friends have had luck with Hood though. Just seems like a huge ripoff.

I'm on hold with maintenance right now waiting for them to pickup so I can have them out to fix everything wrong with this place. I guess when you think about my lack of repair bills, even when the baby gate pushed into the wall and made holes.....three times.

....We forgot about going to the summer camp orientation for SAS and made it just in time. One more thing to check off the list.

I got a scholarship for summer school. Guess having a 4.0 finally paid off for something!

I am almost all the way packed up at school. It looks so bare in there. Looking back, the year went so fast, even if at times I was pulling out my hair!

I bet the next 6 weeks just fly by.

Coordination

I'm starting to panic a little bit. I cannot leave Texas until I am done with summer school.

So I need a place to stay until mid-July.

Abs is leaving mid-June to go on her dinosaur expedition with my mom to Utah.

Em will be here with me, but is going to camp for a week right before I am done with school.

Gunner has to sign in early because he has school in KY for 6 weeks from July-August. He might take Junior with him since "supposedly" the daycare information was uploaded to Carson. Let's hope there is room for him or he might be in formation with him.

The inlaws have offered us a place to stay, but seriously, they have 5 HUGE dogs and they (dogs) rule the place, and no one cleans.

We are hoping that there is room in the guest house on post and it is cheap. Local stay by the week places are pricey.

A friend offered her place. Another friend offered her house, but I just hate to impose with a whole crew of people. We will house sit probably our last week here for one of the friends, when I am down to just one child.

We have way too much stuff, and my list of things to take keeps growing and growing.

I am a worrier. Gunner takes it all in stride and doesn't worry, he says because I do enough for the both of us. It drives me nuts that he doesn't worry!

Do I take my school stuff and hope I have a job? I am in the process of filling out the application to teach there, and I have GREAT references from my principal and others, so I am hoping that I can find something. I haven't even brought home everything that I have at school yet. How did I fit so much in my classroom? This week my students are going to help me toss everything I think.

We decided we would give the girls a rubbermaid tote and they could take whatever they could fit in there. Abs came out in tears because she could only fit one of her three feet long dinosaurs in there and she would need to chop of the head. I assured her that her dinosaurs could still go, but that she needed to fit her toys and everything else in there.

Abs came out with her handmade dream catcher and decided it needed to go in a box for breakable things. It's made out of pipecleaners, but I assured her that we would find a way to get it there in one piece. Then Abs found a stash of shoes boxes and started filling them with stuffed animals.

Em got wind of this and decided it wasn't fair that she had half a dozen shoe boxes, so she needed some too.

Then the girls presented us with a plan to make room for their toys. They want to sell all their clothing, use the money to buy material, and Em will sew them all new clothes once they get to Colorado. They are both so excited about this plan, that I told them maybe we could get rid of some and we could use some material I have to make a few things. Em is already designing them. Here's her latest projects from Project Runway II.

So, I am drinking a monster, making lists, checking them twice, and have decided that it will all workout. Worst case scenario, we are over our weight limit and have to pay. I just left a message with my sister to see if she wanted my piano, Gunner took another load to the inlaws and I have boxes and a HUGE pile to go to my mom. She is going to be less than thrilled, especially since she is due back from her worldwind vacation to China, Thailand, and Korea.

Maybe she will be too tired to notice the pile in her living room that I left....