100 things

I should be sleeping, but this is my entertainment this evening.

100 Things

Ok, the point of this is to add color to the things you have done. And looking at it makes me realize that I have a LONG way to go. :)

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland
8. Climbed a mountain (in a car)
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo--not in public
11. Bungee jumped--will never do unless I am on Amazing Race
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty--saw it from the ferry
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked--I'm not crazy!
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice--no but I went to Venice with a friend and not my husband.
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset--Gunner was less than impressed to wake up at 5 to go see it in Hawaii and then the sunset we watched on Turtle Beach
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise--no, but I did sail from Florida to the Bahamas
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors--I'm a mutt, so I am sure I have
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing--went repelling, but walked up
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke.
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing--in Alaska and caught halibut, I loved it, and especially loved that they put the gross fish on my hook
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class.
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching--when I went deep sea fishing we saw whales, which was on my list of things to do, so the charter captain found some
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check--it really was the bank's fault and they paid all the fees thank goodness
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible--I graduated from Baylor so I took Old & New Testament in order to meet the requirements.
86. Visited the White House--the outside of it. Abs thought we should find the President because she was sure she could get us an invite for dinner
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a mobile phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Read an entire book in one day

I need to get out and do more!

Stupid People

They hired this new girl at the gym daycare. I don't like her. She is totally incompetent. Today she booted Junior from the daycare for hitting. I understand that and asked what led up to the hitting so I could figure out what I could do to eliminate the problem. Her response "I can't watch everyone, but a kid was crying and he was holding a spatula." Are you kidding me? Did Junior take the spatula? Are you sure he hit him? Why didn't he use it on the dumb girl instead? I was furious, so instead of arguing I decided to leave since Junior was booted anyway. While I was putting on Junior's shoes, I had to inform them that they needed to watch the kids more closely because one of them escaped and was headed out the door--he was about 2 and was out there with me for about 15 minutes. If I didn't have personal training I would be going somewhere else right about now.

The outlaws brought us our German breakfast this morning and later are coming over to watch Junior while I take the girls to get their hair cut. I am getting Abbie's chopped off. She wants it chin length, but I don't think I can go that short. Em wants hers above her shoulders.

Em spent the night with a friend last night and when they answered the door, I thought the mom was her big sister. Made me feel old....really old.....

No word from Gunner lately. He called Wednesday morning as I was running around trying to get everyone ready to walk out of the door because we were running late. He was supposed to call back, but nothing yet.

I don't know any of my neighbors, but my next door neighbor came over to tell me that my car was in the driveway with the hazards going. I should have checked everything after Abs popped her head in the front before getting out of the car, while I was freeing Junior from the confines of his carseat. I'll add that to my checklist before we get out of the car now.

So no workout today or tomorrow, but I have training on Monday, if I can get daycare. Ugh, I think this just causes more stress, but I have to go and want to go. I just need a nanny I guess.

...Gunner is on the phone right now and just told me he *only* gets 8 hours of sleep a night, but it's not "restful". What the heck is 8 hours and who the heck has "restful" sleep in this house? Good thing I kinda like the guy, or I'd wring his neck right now.

Still alive...

Report cards went out yesterday. No parents came after me or anything, so I assume all is well.

I went to dinner with the outlaws tonight and I was being good, until they delivered my grilled tilapia and there was a hair on there. She had just set the plate down too, so she apologized and whisked it away. The manager came out and apologized, but the damage was done when I ate Ab's french fries. My meal was pretty healthy, but then Junior got a cookie monster and I had to help him finish it off. Oh well, I will hit the gym hard tomorrow and run twice as far and twice as hard.

I'm thankful that tomorrow is the last day of school for the week. I am worn out!

The girls are in the midst of selling Girl Scout cookies. I always hated selling cookies when I was little. I had to go with my little sister who was a cute little brownie and I was a junior. I see the girls having to do the same thing, so we just pre-ordered a case of peanut butter sandwiches and a case of thin mints. Worst case scenario I buy them all and hope that people run out and want them?

I met with my trainer last night and I am super sore today. That's a good thing though. My MIL is going to come watch the kids on Wednesdays when I have training, but I will have to hope for a spot in the daycare on Mondays. Let's hope the new years resolutions people start dropping off.

Junior is still sporting his black eye, and daycare thinks he has ringworm so I am doctoring that. Thank goodness that we had the stuff from other treatments of the girls. We really aren't dirty people!

I've booked haircuts for the girls, and my FIL to babysit Junior for an hour on Saturday. I need a haircut too, but I think I will wait till Gunner is home and I won't have to worry about rushing home. I still want a week in a hotel with no phones or contact with the outside world...maybe.

The kids are finally nestled in bed, and after the tantrum that Abs threw at the restaurant, I was more than ready to tuck her cute little button nose into bed. At dinner tonight my inlaws also mentioned that when Gunner comes home they want to keep all three kids overnight for us. I don't think the kids or Gunner will have any part of that. Nice of them to offer, but if anyone is not staying in that house the first night, it will be me because I finally fell into a deep sleep after I parked the car in the driveway. I don't know about you, but I absolutely love that first night home because it is usually the first night of deep sleep in a long, long, long time. And if any of Gunner's kids wake up that night, I will push him out of bed to take care of it, and then curl back up and go to sleep. I hope he doesn't wake me up when he finally gets back in bed!

We really do miss you Gunner!!!

It really does happen....

My friend Abbey came over last night to hang out for a bit. During this time Abs made a huge black circle on her forehead and filled it in with the dry erase markers that I still hadn't hidden. While I was outside talking to Abbey as she was leaving I heard a lot of screaming. I go running in to find the toilet overflowing. Got that taken care. Changed a poopy diaper--the boy can tell me that he has pooped and is leaking but can't tell me that he needs to go to the bathroom, go figure.

Today we headed to the gym bright and early so I could get daycare. I ran. I stepped. I had training. I am sore.

I put Junior down for a nap thinking that the search for shoes for all three kids would be much easier if they were all fed and rested. I even got a long nap. I packed snacks and loaded up all the kids to head out. I got my eyebrows waxed, with Abs holding my hands and telling me to squeeze if it hurt. Finished up there and headed to Kohl's to check for any good deals on shoes.

We couldn't head straight to the shoes without perusing through the clothes, purses, socks, toys, kid's clothes and clearance racks. Managed to find Junior and Em shoes despite the screaming that ensued when Junior wasn't allowed to try on the pink fur lined boots (no apple bottom jeans either). Made it out of there with all my hair intact and the kids still alive.

Feeling brave, I decided we should head to the mall and see if we could buy any shoes for Abs. We checked Dillards and found some cute boots for her but no tennis shoes--they only need to be no-tie and not pink, plus meet the dress code requirements. It's not an easy task. Headed to Gap Kids and found two pair of pants for her. Decided the girls needed hair cuts, so we walked by Aeropostale (sp?) and Em needed jeans so we ducked in there. Found two pairs of jeans on clearance and added a hoodie to the mix.

We headed down to the hair place and found that they were booked unless I wanted to wait an hour, which with three hungry children sounded less than appealing. Since we had polished off all the snacks we headed home to a delicious dinner of oatmeal and bananas....again. Hey, it was their request!

It's back to work for me tomorrow. I'm sure the other teachers won't be half as entertaining as this crew....

The present

Remember when I said I had the present made for my inlaws? Well this is it. I had a picture I had taken of Junior during R&R at the airport, blown up, put on canvas and then had the water color effect done. It's hard to tell in this picture, but it looks amazing!!!! I was so excited I dragged it into daycare and had all the parents asking me about it. I dragged it to my mom's that day, and she loved it. My inlaws are lucky that I had two made or they wouldn't be getting a present.

Anyway, I gave it to them and they seemed pleased. They don't show a lot of emotion, and are a little strange anyway, but I was excited about giving it to them.

Anyway, I used Canvas On Demand and they were amazing from start to finish. I wasn't sure about the watercolor effect, so I put it on my order and they called and talked to me about it. They were right on. One thing I loved is that they kept me informed every step of the way during the order so I knew exactly when to expect my shipment. The price wasn't too bad either, since they had a get the second one for half off. The water color effect costs extra, so I wasn't too excited about that until I saw the final product. It was worth it.

Dressing for success...

Abs came out and she had colored her hands with a red dry erase marker....all of her hands. She also colored parts of her shirt and her pants. She had on her grandpa's socks and a pair of knee high boots. She put her hair up in two hair pretties and had accessorized with jewelry....lots of it.

The red isn't coming off her hands so I imagine it won't come off her clothes easily. She had dressed to go to her Brownie meeting. She also screwed around with all the phones while I was in the shower, and we now have one that works until I can un-do whatever it is that she did.

Junior's black eye is a doozy. I need to vacuum since my roomba isn't working. It's 1 and I haven't fed the kids lunch yet. Where are the hotdogs?

Em just told me that when Abs took off the socks and boots that she colored her feet and ankles red too. Thank goodness we have a few days before school is back in session so that it can wear off.

My son is sporting....

a black eye. He received it courtesy of being in the wrong place at the wrong time while his sisters were fighting.

I went to the gym to meet my friend Mel at 9 this morning for a cycling class. The class was full, so we settled for running and then we went to yoga. I could only stay for half an hour because I had training at 10. After two hours of sweating, we headed home. I wish they had all day child care, as it was downhill from there.

I showered and we left so that I could go to work at my other job. Made it over there when the fighting between the girls escalated. I managed to squeak out my work and then we hit the road again. Tonight it's an early bedtime and a date with my DVR. I even thought about taking the girls to dinner, but I think we will settle for oatmeal again.

I rediscovered my curry spice in the cupboard, so I am eating it on everything and it makes everything taste better. I hope I don't start sweating it though!

The first plane of Soldiers from Gunner's unit returned today. Unfortunately we still have a couple months to go, but we are down to single digit trash days! There is light at the end of the tunnel...

Hmmmm....

So all of my children's grades are accessible to me online, and I can even have texts and emails sent to me if they have something entered below a certain grade. I wonder why they don't have a spot for immediate notifications of office referrals? the bad thing is that all of my parents have access to my student's grades. I will hope for the best!

Em went to a dance at school tonight. She's growing up. Nothing big or fancy, just a way for student council to make money I guess. She had a good time, and I went out to eat with the outlaws. Abs ordered this chocolate dessert, I had a bite, and I was in heaven. I'm not a huge fan of chocolate, but this thing, whatever it was called, just melted in my mouth. I'm in love.

Tomorrow is a work day at school, that I desperately need. I am hoping to crank out a million things in a short amount of time. I also need to hit the gym, and hard. I have my second training session on Saturday and then start with my twice a week on Monday and Wednesday. If you see someone stumbling around post, that would be me.

Em had a friend in the car the other day, and when I loaded Junior in, he meowed. Without even batting, Em said "My brother thinks he's a cat" and then went back to her conversation. Everything is normal in this house I guess. I wonder what they will say about their childhood one day. Might be a good thing I am not around to hear it!

Another day, another referral

I had my planning day today, so I am sitting in the conference room when an email with the subject line "Discipline Referral" came through. I cringed.

It said:

I’m writing to inform you that Abs was witnessed fighting with another student at lunch. After investigating I was forced to write both of the students up. I just wanted to inform you so that you would not be surprised if and when the office calls.

I emailed back to see what happened. I got this:

Apparently, (I had to do some investigating) Abs spilled pickle juice on another girls lunch bag. On purpose or on accident... I don’t know. The other student wanted to get the pickle juice off her bag (was she mad? I don’t know) so she spilled it on Abigail's jacket. According to witnesses Abigail started crying and threw a lunch bag at the other girl. I don’t know who hit first because no one saw it, and of course Abigail says that she didn’t hit... But other students did see both girls hitting each other. Neither student tried to tell the aid what was going on.

I don’t blame either girl for getting mad, but I am unhappy that neither one of them made the right choice.

I think I’m going to have to eat lunch with my kids or assign seats or something... This is getting ridiculous.

Then the office called. 1/2 day of ISS. Last time she loved going because she was the only one in there and the lady sat there and helped Abs do all of her work. So while talking to the principal, I ask to speak to Abs. We go over how I am not happy and then had this conversation:

Abs: What’s all that noise, where are you?
Me: In the office because I had to get a call from your principal
Abs: I’m in the office too! (said with great enthusiasm because we are in the same place)
Me: I know, I am not happy about that.
Abs: What’s going on in your office?
Me: We are not here to compare and contrast what is going on in our offices.
Abs: Oh, okay, well I love you. (she was disappointed that I didn't want to trade notes with her)

I wonder what Gunner did when he was little that made him deserve a child like this! I love her anyway.

Run, Run, Run

It took an hour to get into the daycare at the gym today. All these people that have resolutions need to get out of my way! By the time I finally got to a treadmill, I had battled Junior and Abs for that hour and was ready to burn off some something.

I ran. I did the stairmaster. I worked my abs. I felt guilty and went and got the kiddos who were less than thrilled to see me. Apparently I ruin their "good time" at the gym. Never mind that we needed to get them fed and into bed. The kids had a delicious dinner of cheerios and corn chex--with milk! We followed up with frozen gogurts. Now they are tucked into bed and I can clean, get ready for tomorrow, do some exercises, and contemplate cleaning out the car.

--I think Junior ate something fluorescent green (maybe a crayon?) because his diapers have been "glowing" that color. Better than the acorn he left me one time.

--Abs is fixated on selling those drippy cards for her school that cost $10 a piece and you get local discounts. I refuse to let her sell them in order to earn stuff that we can buy at the dollar store. Apparently if you sell 15 of these cards you get a limo ride to a pizza lunch at Cici's. She described in great detail how the dollar store does not sell limo rides. I've never been in a limo either.

--I took away Ab's lightbulbs so that she would sleep at night. I just wrestled a flashlight away from her. She hit her head on a chair coming out to go to the bathroom and stepped on a lego going back in. She asked for a lantern. Wonder if an outhouse is next on the list.

--Em is so responsible, with occasional streaks of being an 11 year old. Had a meeting with her teacher after school today. Apparently she had her glasses on her desk last week, but never wore them. I asked her about it today and she told me that she didn't like them anymore. They are cute on her! I'll have to take a look and see how they checkout since it has been a while. Maybe it is time for a new prescription.

--I always write these posts and never post them till the next day.

Screaming Children

According to the ugly faces that were made at me while I was at Walmart today, my child is the only one who screams throughout the store. After dropping the girls off at Girl Scouts, Junior and I headed to the gym so I could get in a workout. The daycare was packed and had about an hour wait, so I decided to head to Walmart and get my shopping out of the way since I had to get the girls around that time.

I entered the store with a screaming baby and it just went downhill from there. I had to go get diapers and stuff, so it wasn't like I could walk out. We ran up and down the aisles grabbing a few other things that we needed while Junior continued to scream. At one point after the millionth person gave me a dirty look (remember I was at Walmart in Killeen, so there probably were a million other people there), I was ready to scream with him. I looked at bras because my size is hard to find and he proceeded to fill the cart with bras. Got him untangled from the mess of bras on his head and hung them all back up while he sat on our loaf of bread. I'm sure squished bread tastes better anyway. I tracked down some fat free mayo and then grabbed bananas on the way out the door. By this time he was trying to escape from the cart and they sent someone over to load up my groceries while I held on to him.

It.was.great.fun.

So no workout today I suppose. Maybe tomorrow we can make it to the gym, not have to wait too long, and Junior won't bite anyone and I can run, run, run.

Volunteers Needed

Today I met with a woman by the name of Kelly Rossetto who is currently working on her PhD at the University of Texas--I won't hold that against her (Sic 'em bears!). She is during her dissertation on studying the effects of deployment on families in order to help practitioners to develop resources to help us. Anyway, she can visit with you if you are in the local area (The Great Place) or she can call you on the phone if you would rather go that route. Junior loved her, although she might have been wondering about the little boy who runs around with mittens all the time! She was very nice and professional, and I am all about helping get additional resources for military families. I know that there are plenty of people out there that can provide valuable information to help her as most of my readers are on their first, second, third or even 4th deployment or more.

If you want to get in touch with me to pass on your information, feel free or you can email her at krossetto@mail.utexas.edu.

The day is still young and I just have about half a million more things to do before I hit the sack tonight....

Are you ever ready?

Hmmmmm....depending on when Gunner actually comes home, we might be down to single digit trash days. Is that possible? Am I ready? Not.even.close.

So let's recap, just a few days, you know how the military can change things. We had no orders and were staying here for the next million years. Then Gunner got orders to go to a school at Fort Knox, enroute to........Fort Carson. Just what I wanted a few days ago! But since we didn't get them, I had moved on, made plans, and accepted everything. So now I guess we are going, but it opens up a whole new set of problems.

His school ends after school would start for the girls at Carson. School won't have started in Texas though. And all this boils down to that I just spent thousands of dollars to become a teacher, and now I can't teach?? Geez. It'll all work out, it will just give me something to worry about in the here and now.

I never made it to the gym yesterday after I carted children around, sat in class, worked, carted children around and finally ate dinner.

My mom took Abs and Junior and I to Luby's last night because it used to be buy one adult meal, get a child's meal for free. The place was deserted, so that should have been a red flag for us. We get up there and they have done away with the free kid's meal and raised their prices. Trying to stick to my new meal plan that I paid the big bucks for, I asked the guy behind the counter if he had anything that wasn't cooked in butter, fried, or greasy. They came up with something like a hamburger, which I am sure they didn't use the lean meat for. I passed and didn't eat at all. The people were extremely rude, and when we asked if they were closing they were non-committal about everything. Strange. If by some miracle they aren't closing, then they will be soon since they have such poor customer service. My mom showed me the receipt where they charged us for a drink that we didn't get, so I took it up there and they told me the ticket was from Burger King. That was a nice ending to the horrible meal. Guess I should pay closer attention!

Fell into bed last night after talking to Gunner, just exhausted.


So much to do, so little time.

More random thoughts from me!

--Em got invited to go to the movies for a friend's birthday--she told me it was next weekend. The mom called today and it is this weekend, so I am frantically trying to rearrange plans since I have class. We have it worked out--I think, and everyone is happy.

--Went to the dinner with the outlaws tonight, always an adventure.

--The clinic where Abs has PT called today and they had a lot of cancellations and told me I could take Abs in early if I wanted. Sounded good to me. I rushed around, went to my meeting, dropped off one kid, picked up another, drove here, drove there, and managed to arrive 5 minutes earlier than usual. I tried. The therapist tries to do things that not only strengthen Abs, but also tire her out. I hope it worked tonight. (Update: It did not work, the kid was up from 2 am on. I took her lightbulbs away, and she played quietly in the dark till about 5:30 when she started in on the opera singing)

--I'm starting to get new car fever. It's not going to happen for a long time though. It took me two years to pick out the highlander. Maybe in another 10 years.

--For some reason I always get a hole in the part of my right sock, by my big toe. Maybe I secretly have a vicious toenail?

--Ab's physical therapist recommended that she get into karate or tae kwon do. She said that is the best exercise to maintain Ab's development of her gross motor skills, and continue strengthening her core muscles which is the problem. Probably not a bad thing to do for her, so I will check into it...when Gunner is home.

--If I could wear jeans to work every day, life would be good.

--I didn't hit the gym today and I missed it--Would love a good run right about now.

--My sister and I had a cat when we were little and we named it Piffles. How in the heck did we come up with that? It had 4 kittens that we named Miss Piggy, Wobbly (she was never the same after the accident), Nibbles and Tiger. My mom kept putting them in a plastic Girl Scout cup trying to take a picture for the Girl Scout calendar. This was before digital cameras so I think we have about 3 rolls of these kittens and a cup.

--When I was little, my parents had cattle. My sister named the bull, Horny. She also had fish named Salt and Pepper that she accidentally boiled to death in warm water.

--I was a swimmer in high school.

--I went to a Michael Jackson concert on his "Bad Tour". I still like his old stuff.

--I saw the B-52's in concert and I still like them.

--I was on the sailing team in college and it is how I met one of my best friends, Dave. We haven't seen each other in about 5 years, but we still talk almost every day. We lived together shortly before I married Gunner and he was actually one of Gunner's groomsmen.

Most of these I wrote last night and got sidetracked and never posted it. I thought I lost it when Abs was on my computer at 2, trying to play Wedding Dash-2, my latest addiction. I'm sure you are relieved to know that it wasn't lost!

Jaws

I waited 45 minutes tonight to get into the daycare at the gym. Finally got a spot for my plethora of children, and I hit the treadmill. I was about 25 minutes into my run, when my trainer came over to tell me that I was needed in the daycare.

On the bright side, Abs did not flood anything, but instead Junior bit somebody. So we got kicked out of the daycare for the rest of the evening. I hope he doesn't do this when I have a training session, or I am out big bucks!

Ab's PT & OT got canceled on Tuesday so we spent the evening at the gym and I went back to spinning. The lady was really nice, but not the best class I have been to. Gunner and I used to go all the time to spinning and then ride on Saturday. Oh the plans I have when he gets home! That's assuming that HIS son will behave himself.

Life is busy with all of us back at school. I have class this weekend and I am sure I'll get piled high with papers and everything else. I haven't even bought my books or picked up my parking permit, but I've got two days still, what's the rush!

Free?

Today's the day they give babies away
With half a pound of tea
If you know any ladies
That want any babies
Then send them over to me.

We are currently out of babies, so I am subbing a 7 year old girl. She does not sleep and will wander your house at all hours of the night. She will keep you on your toes at all times.

Any takers?

I think I slept all of 2 hours last night if I was lucky. So glad that I have to be at work today, I am sure I will be a barrel of laughs.

Sunday

I took Junior to the grocery store today. First, why does eating healthy have to cost so much? And I thought 4 oz of cheese would be a little slice, not a huge amount. Good for my tummy, not good for my bank account. Cheese is expensive.

Usually Junior will stay in one of the carts for the entire trip, but not today. He managed to escape and step all over the food. Then he wanted out, and proceeded to fill up my cart with cans of tuna. I got that straightened out and he decided it was time to "skateboard" down the aisles which means he scoots sideways yelling out "I'm skateboard, watch out people!". I convinced him to help me push the cart, and while I was looking for the perfect yogurt for my meal plan, he ran it into a display of CD's and ran it over. So we picked up that and moved on to the frozen food section.

I thought he wasn't tall enough to open the freezer doors, but he was. He then tried to put himself in the freezer, but wanted to have his coat and hat on. Got him out of the freezer and then we continued to the front of the store. Damn HEB for putting a HUGE toy section in. After I dragged him away from the toys, he "helped" me unload the groceries so that I could pay for them. With that completed he wanted to help the sacker load up the groceries into the cart. That got boring so he took his buddy buck and wanted to spend it. When the machine ate his buddy buck, he was back to "helping" everyone within a 6 foot radius. He told everyone his name and was getting to know the general population of Killeen. The sacker was great and told me that I would either need his help or a few extra hands that he couldn't offer today.

He gave Junior a balloon with a lollipop attached and we were headed out. Why anyone thinks it is a good idea to hand out balloons I am still not sure. We managed to make it out to the car in the cold and wind and not lose it thankfully.

Groceries are put away, we are relaxing in front of the tv before we go to the gym at 1, and then my friend Abbey sent me this link. Wouldn't that be a nice surprise? Still not holding my breath.

And for some random thoughts:

--Remind me not to put pants that snap up the crotch on my son. He unsnaps them all and wants to wear a "skirt".

--My mom kept the girls last night so I had an evening and a day of no fighting! I wouldn't get this at Carson.

--School is back in session tomorrow and no matter how much I prepare, I am never ready.

--Yesterday in the car, Abs was giving Em a hard time. Em of course knows everything and corrected Abs. Abs response was "Don't you know sarcasm when you hear it Em?". I wonder what Abs will be like when she is 8.

--I want to see Mamma Mia the movie. I wanted to see it on Broadway when we were in NYC, but that wasn't one of the $3 tickets for the military!

--The economy is affecting many of my friends, and one just found out last night that he is out of work as of this week. Not a good thing since he just relocated for the job. Makes me glad that Gunner and I both have job security.

--I never got my car in to get serviced over the break, so I guess I will try out their pick up and delivery service while I am at school one day.

--Every muscle in my body hurts. I need a nap. I am headed to the gym as soon as the daycare opens.

--Junior isn't a Junior, but it is what my friend called him when I was pregnant. We didn't find out the sex and it drove her nuts. I was shocked that we had a boy.

--I'm kind of excited about giving the outlaws the present I got them. When it gets delivered I'll post pictures, I hope it turns out like I expect.

--I'm tired of changing diapers, I don't know how people have a litter of kids.

--When I was in college, the first color printers that were affordable came out. My dad brought me one and I used it to create a spreadsheet of my income vs. expenses. He laughed and laughed and gave me an increase in my allowance. Not exactly what he had in mind, but it worked.

--I've never seen the move "It's a Wonderful Life". Maybe next Christmas?

--I used to think that crocs were ugly and I would never wear a pair. Now I live in them, and they are great since I am on my feet all day at school chasing children. Never say never.

--Em wears a size 8 in women's shoes. I need to get her a larger size and it drives me nuts that I have to shell out adult prices for shoes for an 11 year old. Good thing I like her!

--I once worked for Golden Corral for 3 1/2 days. It was awful and my only experience with working in a restaurant--hopefully my last.

--I always wanted 4 kids. What was I thinking? Three is definitely my limit. Abs is the equivalent of 5 children.

Off to the gym....

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!

German Breakfast

I mentioned before that the outlaws bring us a German breakfast each Saturday--brotchen, bierschinken, German pastries, and pretzels for the kids. Junior knows as soon as the box and bags arrive that there is a pretzel and he runs and asks for it. I can never get it to him fast enough! This morning the pretzels were larger than normal and reminded me of Germany.

45 minutes later and Junior has given up on eating the pretzel. He brought back a pretzel in shreds and tole me it was "tooooo big".

I *heart* FLY

Em's new pen is great. I am half tempted to get one for Abs for her birthday. Abbie has a fine motor skill delay and attends OT after her PT each week (and I can't find the address of the girl that asked me about that, but Abs is what they consider a "low tone kid". She just didn't develop her muscles, although you could never tell from looking). Anyway, she has to practice her handwriting which she hates since it is difficult for her. Em let her try out her FLY pen and Abs is now penning a letter to her dad. We can hook the pen up to the computer, it will gather the info, we can select to change it into type or send it in her handwriting, and email it off!

Oh, and the only reason that Em loaned out her FLY pen is because she wanted to get her hands on Abbie's Diji. Junior is in the crib protesting having to take a nap, and I am on a tossing rampage still. I just finished a bowl of Oma's german potato salad for lunch. She made me a huge bowl of it for Christmas--maybe she's not so bad after all. I would love for her to learn to say my name correctly though, I mean I did marry her son 14 years ago.

This morning we had to go get Ab's prescriptions and take them to get filled. I love to go to Sam's because their pharmacy is fast, but they were out of one of her medications. We did peruse the aisles looking for Christmas deals, but I controlled myself and didn't go overboard. I am seriously working on the 1,000 of white tissue paper for $2.50 that I got there almost three years ago.

We were walking by the meat aisle and I was looking for lamb chops. Em chose to remind me that she had decided to become a vegetarian--she hasn't had meat since yesterday. Then Abs decided she wanted to be a vegetarian and so I had them name off vegetables that they would eat. My food budget should drop dramatically for one or two days until they start eating meat again. I guess at least this would prevent Abs from having access to bones that she could save...

Scrooge & Bones

Yes, our Christmas tree is down, loaded into the garage, and all I need to do is vacuum. Our neighbor, Megan at Fort Lewis, used to call me Scrooge because I wouldn't leave the tree up. I love Christmas, but our house is so small and it takes up so much room. We still have one more Christmas celebration at my mom's house on Sunday.

Since I was cleaning up the Christmas stuff, I got on a roll and while the kids were playing with their new toys. I am a stacker by nature, and come by it honestly on my mother's side. It's bad. I decided it was time to file and sort and toss. I found Ab's backpack from last school year hidden in the corner behind some boxes.

I started to clean out her backpack (the nice one we got her in Hawaii before Gunner deployed) and found all of her missing socks...dirty of course. I found tons of scraps of paper, broken pencils, hair pretties, rocks, and then I reached in a pocket and pulled out a bone. I kind of freaked out for a bit, and then sat there looking at it.

It's a bone from a t-bone steak. One that is dried out. I'm sure she found it outside at BLORA this summer, and that's what I get for not cleaning out her backpack sooner. I'm totally disgusted. I might need to clean her room tomorrow and make sure she isn't hiding anything else out in there. I guess at least it wasn't a human bone....

Merry Christmas!

Looks like a lot of presents, but I bought a tree that you can't put much underneath, so it all sticks out.

Probably the only year he will be excited about toothpaste.

Ab's big present. I found a great deal on these, for half the price at the px, plus a game and $20 off! Woohoo!

Em didn't pose for any pictures, but she was happy with her Fly Pen. (Another great deal I found--woohoo!)

My mom came over for presents, and we were waiting for the outlaws to bring over dinner like they said, but so far it has been an hour and they haven't called or anything, so I guess we will eat Christmas dinner here. Not a big deal, and less drama that way!

....They showed up. It wasn't so bad. They stayed about 45 minutes to an hour and then left. Gunner called last night and today and will call again tonight when we don't have all the hoopla to interrupt our conversation. His Christmas was uneventful, but he did talk to the kids and so that made him smile.

I'm ready for a nap......

Look What I found...

I finally uploaded some pictures and videos that I had on my camera. I found this video that I shot of Abs right after I found half the house flooded. I wanted her to explain to her dad why everything was wet. She looks kind of homeless since she hadn't brushed her hair yet, and she was sleeping in one of Gunner's brown t-shirts.

And this my friends, is my daughter Abs....live...how can you not love this face?

Christmas Eve

I cleaned today. The maid hasn't been able to come in three weeks and it is killing me!

I wrapped presents. Still have Santa ones to do, but we are halfway there.

Junior and I ventured out to the mall with 25 million other people. I checked out kaybee toys, since they are going out of business, but didn't see anything my kids needed. I look at everything now with the idea of "do I really want to pick this up when it is all over the floor?" and then I put it back.

We hit Steve and Barry's since it is going out of business. They had tons of stuff for cheap, cheap, cheap. I got a pair of shorts for Junior, two tank tops for Em, two pajama pants for Em, a shirt for Abs, a shirt for me, and I think another shirt, for $10. You have to sort through all the stuff, so I didn't have time to look since Junior wasn't cooperating. There was a lot of stuff that wasn't very nice--as in I don't need to have a shirt advertising pot, or one that says "I have big nuts" or anything crazy like that. People were buying carts of stuff and so I anticipate that all of Killeen will be dressing the same and wearing the same 84 cent baseball caps. One of the guys told me that they were closing on Saturday so things would be even cheaper on Friday and Saturday. I think I'll pass.

I tried to go in a few more stores, but the lines were so outrageous that I just couldn't do it. Now I know why I do most of my shopping online except for the small stuff or a few specific items. I am not one to go peruse the mall looking for a gift, unless I know exactly what it is that I want.

We are watching The Chronicles of Narnia right now, and I am about to tuck Em, Abs and Junior into bed. More later.....

Christmas Eve Eve

Apparently in Em's book, this should be a holiday as well.

I took Junior and Abs to daycare today so Em and I could get some shopping done. While dropping off Abs, she heard that 5th grade was going to see a movie tomorrow and she wanted to go. I signed her up to go, which required three wild goose chases, and 2 phone calls. If you travel down Battallion here at Hood, rest assured that the numbers are not in order....ANY ORDER--Expect to go from building 125 to 190 to 368 all within two blocks.

I did get Em's respite care updated so she can go for free tomorrow. I planned to spend Christmas Eve with all the kiddos, all day, and now two want to go to daycare so Junior jumped on that bandwagon as well. Hmmmm....a day to myself? I'll take it, and I think I will go play catch up at school or something. I'll get Junior early and then we can do a few last minute purchases.

Em and I took Junior for a haircut today since he was starting to look really woolly. I got a high and tight, and it's just as cute as can be. Pictures to follow once I find my battery charger for my camera. The guy tried for about 5 minutes to get his cowlick under control and finally told me it was hopeless. Gives him personality.

I had dinner tonight with my FIL and BIL. I think Tom is overwhelmed when he spends time with the kids. Junior adores him, and he's really good with them. Tom got a strawberry on his dessert so he was going to divide it between Abs and Junior. He put it up to Junior and told him to take a bite. Junior inhaled the entire thing, stem and all.

I just realized that I started this yesterday, so it's a day late...probably a dollar short too!

Here we go again....

Abs was sitting on her bed playing her leappad and came out of her room and told me "I barfed".

Woohoo!

I went to checkout the damage and she got her leapad, her bed, the floor. Not very much.

While I was cleaning up the mess she returned with the biggest barf bucket she could find. She could probably give her brother a bath in it.

She is now in the tub singing opera, feeling better. I wonder if it was her deworming medicine?

Is the sick diet around the corner for all of us?

We got the Christmas tree put up, and it looks nice. It's a pre-lit tree, but I can't figure out how to get the top colored lights on. Who wants a tree that's totally lit anyway. It gives it personality.

No presents yet underneath it, but that's probably a good thing since Junior is way into presents now and thinks that they should all be for him. We have a Fisher Price little people nativity set under the tree and he thinks the baby is his cousin Wyatt. We put the tree up while Junior was napping and he didn't know what to think when he got up.

I finally watched Front of the Class, the Hallmark movie from several weeks ago. It was really good and made me want to teach 2nd grade--wait, I do, but my kids, well, are my kids. Great story though. I would like to think that I would be able to go forward and dream anything if I had that much negativity towards me, but who knows.

....several hours later and Abs is fine. We'll just chalk this up as one of those random times that she barfs. She actually does it quite a bit. My mom is coming over to get all three kids, I just need to feed them and dress them for bed. Done. Thank goodness they like oatmeal! I'll spend an exciting Saturday evening cleaning, sorting, folding laundry, and sleeping. You know, I used to be a more exciting person!

Gunner called the other night, but was hard at work after running missions. He sounded tired. He had gotten several Christmas boxes from some friends in Washington and my uncle in CA, and even one from his parents. During his first deployment, on clearance, I bought 24 stockings at Michael's for cheap, cheap, cheap. They are still sitting in my closet waiting to be used. Maybe the next deployment?

Abs tonight--she was upset because I told her she needed to go to her room until she was calm. She threw a fit, then as she was storming to her room we had this conversation:

Abs: Mommy?
Me: Yes?
Abs: Crown is spelled c-r-o-w-n.
Me: Okay, go to your room.
Abs: Remove the c and you have r-o-w-n.
Abs: Then add a f and you have f-r-o-w-n frown.
Me: Where are you going with this
Abs: Add an -ing and that's what I am doing right now. F-r-o-w-n-i-n-g. Frowning.

She then went to her room.

And how come the minute you run out of trash bags you manage to find millions of things to throw away? Probably the same reason that I was trying to be energy efficient and buy those super expensive lightbulbs that are so dangerous when they are broken. I discovered that they really don't fit in any of my light fixtures because they are too long.

Missing Gunner...

Deworming

Luckily Abs still goes to a civilian doctor, so my mom was able to convince them to call in a prescription for Ab's worm problem. I talked to the pharmacist and the doc put in a refill. Thank goodness. She said the worms probably didn't clear up from the first time since they only gave Abs one dose. Time will tell. I'm so grossed out, that I hope this is the last time we have to go through this.

I got an email from Ab's teacher today:

I’m sorry to inform you that I had to write Abs up this morning. While I was testing another student at my U table my students should have been finishing up their writing from Wednesday morning. During this time Abs chose to exclaim “Prepare for war!” She proceeded to throw a pencil at another student. The pencil hit the other student’s arm. Thankfully the other student is un-harmed.
I’m sorry that we had to start the morning this way. Expect a phone call from the office.

I shouldn't laugh, but I imagined it being totally quite, everyone hard at work, and "Prepare for war!" being yelled out by my daughter. She ended up getting D-hall during lunch. Maybe they should make that permanent since she wasn't there to cause a riot at the lunch table or ask people if certain words are part of the English language.

Remember the cupcakes that I went out for late at night? Well Em brought 9 of the 12 back. I told her she should have stood over her friends and made them eat all of them!

And Junior??? He thinks he is a cat--he meows and everything. I used to think I needed to breed like crazy to make sure the world is full of sane people--now I am thinking it is a good thing we stopped because maybe we are contributing to the problem?

Gunner's Children & the Poop Patrol

Junior is doing great with no binky. He did find one last night and sucked on it for a few minutes before Abs pried it from his mouth and gave it to me. He cried, but tonight there were no tears. He still says every once in a while that he needs one.

Em has been reminding me that she needed cupcakes for tonight. We had PT and OT tonight too, plus we were meeting the outlaws for dinner. So of course I forgot. Em came out at almost 9, after I just gotten Junior to bed. We loaded up everyone and ran to the store.

It's 9:30 at night and Abs comes out because her bottom itches. So I take a look, like every good mother would. The girl has freaking worms AGAIN. Are you kidding me???? Can this really be happening???? So I think since my first day off of school is on Monday, I will add going to the doctor to the list of things to do. I could go to the er, but sitting in the er and catching the flu or something before Christmas doesn't sound like much fun. Until then, the poop patrol is back in business.

Ab's teacher emailed me on Tuesday to tell me that my daughter almost got a referral. Apparently at lunch she wanted to know if bi&$^ was a word. None of her friends would answer so she asked the aide. The aide replied that it was, but not a word she should be using. So Abs was content with that answer, and luckily the aide likes her and my daughter's teacher and the entire class, so she didn't write her up. Great.

We miss you Gunner!

Happy Anniversary Gunner!

Thanks for 14 years of love, children (well they started coming around year 3), chaos, PCSes, TDYs, togetherness, loneliness, laughter, tears, deployments, and reunions. I think we have covered all the emotions! I should have known when you were deployed for our FIRST anniversary, that it was a sign of things to come.

We have had 7 addresses in those 14 years, three kids, 3 big moves, 4 year long deployments, two trips to NTC (yeah, we lucked out the first 10 years we were married!), an endless number of field problems, and thousands of nights aparts.

It was by chance that we met, but by hard work, determination, and love that we are still together. No one can say marriage is easy, and I think it is twice as hard when you maintain it with one phone call a week.

I wouldn't trade Gunner for anything (remind me of that after he has been home for about 3 months and is leaving his dirty laundry everywhere!), and I can't wait to see what the next 20 years hold.

Why I hate Barnesandnoble.com

I have to teach about Hanukkah tomorrow and do a craft, etc. On the 12th I ordered some Hannukah books and paid $3o to have them sent two day express. I was supposed to have them yesterday, but when I checked the status, it showed that it wasn't even going to ship till Wednesday. I had to teach Wednesday morning, so that wasn't going to work.

I called B&N and told them that I selected for my items to ship as they were available, and that wasn't happening, so I wouldn't be able to use them and I wanted to cancel my order that wasn't going out till Wednesday (this was Monday).

Me: I want to cancel my order
Lisa: You can't, because it is too far along in the shipping process.
Me: Are you kidding me? It's not shipping for two more days.
Lisa: That's how it works.
Me: It's not a very efficient system.
Lisa: You are the one that signed up for all items to be held until they were ready for shipment.
Me: No I didn't, I wanted them shipped as soon as each item became available.
Lisa: Oh yeah, you're right.
Me: So I want to cancel my order.
Lisa: You can't, but you can refuse the shipment.
Me: I can't refuse the shipment because I will be teaching a unit on Hanukkah without books.
Lisa: Well you can ship it back to us and receive credit minus shipping.
Me: So you want me to pay to ship something back to you, after I paid $30 to have it shipped to me.
Lisa: Right.
Me: Well, I won't do it. You can credit my credit card for the shipping and then I will keep the books.
Lisa: I can't do that because you requested two day air and it cost $30.
Me: Well are they coming in two days?
Lisa: No
Me: Can I speak to your supervisor

Joelynn the supervisor: This is part of the management team how can I help you.
Me: I want my books, a refund, or my order cancelled today.
Joelynn: We can't cancel the order it is too far along in the shipping process.

This went on for a while, going around in circles and circles.

Me: How come you can't cancel my order?
Joelynn: Oh, I can do that, but I thought you wanted the books.
Me: Are you kidding me, I don't want anything from B&N.
Joelynn: I can cancel the order, it will ship and come back.
Me: Will I get a total refund including shipping. I can ship a package to my husband in Iraq for less and it will get there faster.
Joelynn: Yes.
Me: Including shipping?
Joelynn: I said yes.
Me: Can you put that in writing?
Joelynn: No, I can't do that.
Me: So how do I know you will do that.
Joelynn: Because I said I would.
Me: You and Lisa also told me over the course of an hour that I couldn't cancel my order.

This went on forever, and so supposedly my order will be cancelled and I will get a refund including my outrageous shipping charges. And this is why I will stick with ordering from Amazon.com. I'm sure this will be a battle, but I shouldn't be penalized for their mistake!

Houston, we have a problem...

I was down to two binkies. Somehow when Junior got up this morning he binky was missing and I couldn't find the other one stashed away. He cried this morning but didn't ask for it after daycare today, so I forgot....until now. My sweet baby boy is crying himself to sleep over a binky. I went in there to calm him down, covered him up with his fuffy, and then he asked me to please look for his binky. I told him they were all gone, and he started up again. I reminded him that he was a big boy, and he told me no "I a baby and I want my binky!". If you can use that many words, it's time for it to go! This is the same little tot that for the first 5 months of his life while Gunner was deployed, I rocked him in his carseat with my foot while one arm dangled off the bed and held his binky in because he couldn't figure it out. I was too tired then to fight him.

We had to run to Office Depot tonight in the freezing cold to get a toner cartridge for my copier. We get in there and Abs has to go to the bathroom. I send Emily along to monitor and I am working with the sales clerk to find the right cartridge while chasing Junior who has managed to poop. I am saddled with everyone's jackets and hats, my 500-lb purse and my list. Abs comes running out, so I get her to hold Junior's hand so I can pay for the cartridge. We are still waiting on Em to come back from the bathroom at this point, so I start to look at construction paper.

I'm perusing the construction paper and Abs is on the same aisle with Junior in tow. Twenty seconds later it is quiet and Abs is sitting on the floor alone reading a book. I couldn't find Junior anywhere. I round the corner after calling his name and hear all this giggling. The boy has put himself inside a backpack and is trying to hide. I drag him out, grab my cartridge, all the coats, hats and gloves, and then go back to get Abs who has decided that she wants to help again, but this time she wants to carry the construction paper.

By this point I am wondering why I didn't get a cart. I load Abs up with construction paper, grab Junior's hand, the coats, hats, gloves and my purse. Abs decides that the paper is too heavy and she would rather checkout the m&m display.

Thankfully Em appeared around this time, and I got her to take over Junior, and I wrestled Abs and my purchases up to the front. Em decides that this is the time to tell me that Abs found a bottle of air freshener in the bathroom. Apparently Abs got done before Em and washed her hands. Around that time Em heard all this noise and asked Abs what she was doing. According to Em the conversation went something like this:

Em: What are you doing?
Abs: Oh just freshening up the place a bit
Em: Do you have air freshener?
Abs: Duh
Em: You better put it down, mommy will be mad
Abs: She likes things to smell nice
Em: Not in a public bathroom
Abs: Whatever
Em: I'm telling
Abs: I stopped
Abs: The bottle is empty now
Abs exits the scene.

Em said the place smelled like a giant flower. Great. I apologized to the salesclerk, and headed out with everyone and everything.

I asked Abs about what happened once we hit the car.

Me: Abs, what happened in the bathroom
Abs: Did something happen in there?
Em: She's talking about the air freshener
Me: Em, let her talk
Abs: I don't recall anything special happening in there.
Em: You're lying Abs.
Me: Let me handle it Em.
Abs: Oh, you mean the bottle of air freshener that Em sprayed all over the bathroom even the mirrors?
Em: I did not
Abs: Well it wouldn't be me, I was trying to wash my hands. You know how those pre-teens can be mommy.

I then reminded everyone of proper bathroom etiquette and decided that I will not venture out in public again for the rest of this deployment.

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.