Friday, February 11, 2011

Valentine's Day During Deployment

Gunner and I aren't the mushy type, and the thought of battling crowds on Valentine's Day is not appealing to me.

Ummmm....right now what is appealing to me is getting back into my house!!

Anyway, what do you do to celebrate Valentine's Day while they are gone?  Out to eat?  Movies?  Something special with the kids?  Do you buy the kids presents?  Get a babysitter and go out with a friend?

I'm sure Gunner will call if he can, and to be totally honest, that's okay if that's all he can do.

I have a friend whose husband wraps presents for every holiday and extras for when she is "blue", and leaves them with another friend to deliver at the proper times.  Considering that we moved 5 days before he left, I knew that was happening, but I thought it was a great brilliant idea!

How do you celebrate?

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Homecoming Ideas

Okay, so I can count on one hand the number of trash days I have left, and it could be sooner.

Gunner is coming back to a stressed out wife, and three angelic (while they sleep) children.

We're meeting him at the airport and going through security, just for the heck of it.  Can we take balloons through?  I'm thinking we can't.

Any cute ideas for shirts for the kids to wear?  Or should I just buy them each a new outfit?

Any great places to find a welcome home outfit for myself?  I'm thinking that since I will have three children to chase (okay, so Em doesn't need much chasing) that I will need to have jeans on.  Any ideas will be appreciated.

I already warned him that if the next few weeks go like the last few, that he shouldn't expect the house to be spotless.  I don't anticipate buying furniture or a tv or much of anything before he gets back.

I feel like I am dropping the ball as this is his last homecoming, and I live for these.  How can I make it extra special?  (Yes I know that seeing us will make everything good to go, but surely you have a few extra ideas!)

Any help will be appreciated!!!

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Hotel Living

I love the beds in this place.  By far the most comfortable hotel beds I have ever slept in.

The bathrooms are big.

Because I am the lightest sleeper in the world, I have piled all three kids in the adjoining room and am able to sleep.

I love having all the beds made by someone other than myself.  (Okay, honestly, I don't make the beds that often at home)

I love that breakfast is ready when we walk downstairs.  At home we are under the direct order to grab something as you run out the door.

It's much easier to wake up three people living in the same room, and not upstairs where they can hide under their covers.

Did I mention the beds?  Oh, and let's not forget all the comfortable pillows, and not that cheap stuff at the other places!

In the meantime:

We are running out of clean clothes and I refuse to pay the price for the hotel washers, but might be forced to suck it up.

We have lost the remotes to both tvs.  Operating Locate Remote did not work well this evening, so we will try again tomorrow.

They don't have DVR.  I can't remember the last time I watched tv and didn't have the fast forward button available.  Heck at this point though I would just take a remote!

We miss Sammy the Dog terribly.  He's apparently doing great at Erin's house and has made a BFF.  The kids asked if we could have visitation rights, lol.

The lack of a kitchen is getting old, and I might actually cook when we get home.

House Update:  They came, they drywalled, and they drywalled over one of the pipe turn off/on switches, so it is off and can never be turned on.  Brilliant?  I had to call it in.  It's freezing here and I saw that they stopped by and made sure my water was off, hiked my heater up to 79 or something (ummm.....are you trying to make me have a massive electric bill???), and are dripping all my faucets.  They haven't even seen my summary on damaged items yet, but so far it is over $8000 and that's without all the stuff that can't be replaced, like the shrunk that will need to be repaired.

We still don't have carpet, and who knows when the house will even be dry enough for that with the crazy snow and ice.

I can now look on this whole situation and while I can't laugh, I can realize that I will survive it.  I had a friend that came over on Saturday and helped me take 5 million pictures (give or take a couple million), and then took me out for a drink.

While the FRG is useless, I did get a call from Rear D offering to help me however they could.  There is a light at the end of the tunnel, and in the meantime there's always my comfortable bed, perfect pillows, a bottle of cupcake.....now if I could just find that remote!

Monday, February 7, 2011

Winner!

Sorry, due to the flood and everything else I forgot to draw a winner, but the winner is HMB over at Table for Two:  Me & You.  

Congratulations HMB!