April--Month of the Military Child

And I just happen to have three.

Fort Hood had a celebration on post today, so I ventured out with all three of the kiddos. We started out by picking up their free shirts and then over to pick up their free prize. They were happy.

They jumped in a jump house. Junior didn't like it. Em velcroed herself to a wall.

We had hotdogs for lunch. Popsicles for dessert. Chips. More ice cream--hey we are in Blue Bell country, you never pass up Blue Bell!

The girls participated in a wheelchair rodeo and won shirts and prizes. They met Miss Texas Wheelchair 2008 and got her autograph.

They threw footballs.

Em & Junior met Wonder Woman and Superman. Abs decided that they didn't look like real superheroes so she would pass because they were "weird".

We then headed over to the fire engine display and stayed forever. I let Junior out of the stroller and he was in heaven. The firefighters were from Fort Hood, and were GREAT! They were so nice and patient with Abs and Junior. (Em didn't want to do this part)



The girls got their faces painted.

In between we had two visits to the ambulance. The first time was because when we arrived Em opened the car door and whacked herself. She has a huge knot on her forehead. They gave her an ice pack and checked her over to make sure she was okay. We returned an hour later when Abs fell and skinned her knee.

We didn't win any door prizes, got a little bit too much sun, and we had one tantrum, but other than that we had a great time!

Cost......$0.

Compound Eyes

The girls are constantly leaving the door open and flies get in the house. Tis the season of the fly right now. Blech. I was chasing one around the house with a flyswatter this evening and Junior was laughing hysterically. My sweet Abs stated matter of factly "He finds it hilarious that you are trying to catch something that has compound eyes. Don't you know anything about compound eyes mommy?"

I smushed the little sucker. Compound eyes and all.

Thank goodness for disappointments

The girls had swimming tonight, so we loaded up and drove the 1/2 hour to the pool. We got there and there was lightening everywhere. They cancelled the lessons, and I was kind of ticked after driving that far. I accepted it, moved on, and headed back home. By the time we got to Killeen, the area where we had just come from, had a tornado visible (hadn't hit the ground yet), hail, and of course a Texas size thunderstorm. Sure glad we weren't in that mess!

Guess

Can you guess where I went today?

Three hints: Junior, ears, prescription

Yes folks, for the third time in 4 weeks, Junior has gotten another ear infection. He was on antibiotics still when this one started. I don't get it. I did see the doctor that I really like and he agreed to let me try a low dose of antibiotics daily over the next three weeks. It's not usually done anymore, but it worked on Abs and this will hopefully buy us some time to get his allergies under control and the weather to remain warm and then we can be ear infection free. We have to go back in three weeks to reevaluate. Keep your fingers crossed that we see some progress!

This was the 5th time we have been to the doctor this week. I loathe going to the doctor. I'm already germaphobic and thankfully the clinic has hand sanitizer thingies everywhere. He wanted to play with one of the communal toys, which made my skin crawl. I did contemplate whipping out my mini bottle of lysol and spraying it down and then letting him, but I left my purse in the car. Maybe next time....

While we were in the office with the doctor my phone rings. I ignored it. They called back. It was Gunner. I answered.

Me: I have to call you back I am with the doctor.
Gunner: The doctor? Again?
Me: Yes, again.
Gunner: Fifth time is the charm right?

Kitchen Update

The IA admitted they wanted an officer's mess, so they are now paying for it all themselves.

A new kitchen

Gunner is in a location where they get one hot meal a day.

Not a big deal, he's used to it and he gets packages filled with things he can microwave. The Iraqis have a contract with a guy who cooks their meals and delivers them three times a day. The IA is not happy because they feel like the guy is serving them poor quality food and not enough of it. Fair enough.

So what's an Iraqi to do? They tell my husband that they want a kitchen. The command tells my husband that Santa Claus is dead and they need to go through their people.

So this morning my husband was IMing with me and working with the translator on getting things taken care of. Apparently the last team in there gave the IA everything that they wanted and now they expect that. The team Gunner is on, is supposed to cure them of that habit of expecting the Americans to pay for everything.

To make a point Gunner said that they had some of the IA come over for what they have been eating for "dinner". In the end, the outlook is not good and the IA will probably get a kitchen with the bare essentials. Maybe then they can serve hot meals to the Americans?

Junior

A story about Junior here. The boy cracks me up.

Grrrrrrr.....

Love from Iraq

Wednesday morning my outlook express cratered. I'm sure it had something to do with the 4,569 unread emails. Or maybe the over 15,000 deleted emails. (I keep everything, and often don't even click on the junk emails) Gunner called from Iraq to see if he could help fix it, to no avail. I told him the error codes, etc. and he asked when I would get online again. The girls had swim lessons, so I wasn't able to get on till almost 9 that night.

My dear, sweet Gunner said he would call me then. Unbeknownst to me, he went back to his room, googled instructions (my whole computer locked up), wrote them down, set his alarm, called me, explained the instructions, and went back to bed. He loves me.

My email works.

I'm off to email him.

One more thing...

One thing I don't like about Junior going to a clinic on post is that if come the afternoon he gets some ailment, our only choice is the ER. Daycare called today to tell me that he had pink eye. Great. I go pick him up at 3 and we head to the er while I try to get an appointment at the clinic. After giving them every bit of information on my husband they tell me they have a first available tomorrow at 1 p.m. I take it and continue on to the er.

We get to the er and it's pretty empty. Good thing since I have to get the girls before 6. We move through the er relatively fast--don't even get me started on the rude doctor. We get a prescription to have filled in the pharmacy downstairs. We race down there and wait in line so we can get a number and wait some more. Since family members are not first priority, we wait. They aren't even calling our classification of numbers. The lady next to me has been waiting 50 minutes and she is 10 numbers before me. The clock is creeping. The Soldier next to me told me to go get the kids and then come back and if I missed my number to tell them I was in the bathroom.

So Junior and I race down the hallway, through the er, to the car. We race over to the school, pickup the girls-Abs has decided her foot is broken and has to hop to the car. We head back to the er, run back to the pharmacy (Abs ran so I guess her foot was miraculously healed after I told her I was not going back to the er).....and we missed our number by 5 people. I saw an open counter and asked for the prescription and he luckily gave it to me.

So Junior will go to work with me tomorrow and hang out with my mom. Good thing he likes tortillas for our weekly mexican lunch.

Here's hoping that we can avoid the er for a while, but I better refill the sanitizer bottles in the meantime.

Making Progress

A while back I said that while Gunner was gone I was going to do three fun runs/walks/bike rides. My first one will be on the 4th of May! I'm excited, but also know that since I haven't been to the gym lately that I will be walking it.

If I can find care for the kids, I am doing a 25 mile bike ride on the 31st. Somehow the thought of pulling them in a trailer or trying to convince Em that riding 25 miles would be fun, is not appealing.

I tried to sub today but nothing was available so instead I am madly listing things on ebay.

Mona-ME-sa

Drawn by Abs. Another self portrait....

A miracle on Sunday....

Took Junior to the ER this morning--he is fine--and we were in and out, including xrays in less than an hour. We even went to Darnell. There was absolutely no one there.

There is basically nothing they can do about him coughing all night long till he starts to barf. Lovely. They did say that his xray looks better than it did Thursday, so at least it is headed in the right direction. He has an appt with the allergist on Thursday.

And Gunner's son thought having his temperature taken rectally was hilarious and giggled the whole time.

On the homefront--every once in a while the sound goes out and we have to reboot the cable box. This morning it went out and Abs said "Where's Daddy when you need him?". Come on, I could move mountains if I had to! So with her lack of confidence I have chosen to not fix it till much later tonight. It's so peaceful....

Friday Part II

Our nails are done.Abs in a bright blue and Em in a bright purple. I of course stuck with conservative red. Boring.

We shopped. We ate. We talked. They declared it a great day.

We were on our way to daycare to get Junior and I said something about the powder all over the bathroom.

Em: There was powder all over the shower last night.
Me: There was?
Em: I mean all over, I wondered what you were doing mommy.
Me: Abs? I thought you confined it to half the bathroom.
Abs: Well it said shower to bath.

Friday!!!

The girls are off of school today and Junior is feeling better. I took Junior to daycare and the girls and I are doing a mad dash of cleaning the house. I told them if they would clean their rooms that we would have times to go get our nails and toenails done. What girl doesn't like that? Em is working and Abs is......well being Abs. I figured after our nails we could go get ice cream, pick up Papa Murphy's for dinner and pick up Junior and have a nice evening.

Then I went to the bathroom. Abs is not allowed to use my bathroom AT ALL! Apparently she "forgot" that rule. My bathroom is now decorated in powder. To be fair, most of it did make it in the trash can and was absorbed by the soaking wet roll of toilet paper that she dunked in the toilet. I know I should make her clean it, but the thought of Abs with water and powder....it is a recipe for disaster.

I better run since Abs just informed me that Em was holding her in slavery. Never a dull moment....

UPDATE: I went to clean the girls' bathroom and made Abbie stick her hand in the toilet to fish out the approximate three pounds of toilet paper that she had stuffed in it. She was crying and told me that she just wiped her nose. I don't know what possesses her sometimes. She has clean hands now, the toilet is unstopped and I am considering locking up the toilet paper and rationing it out.

More

Lunch with the Iraqi Army.

Mutton anyone?

Pictures from the Front

Mud hut with trash fence. My Soldier.

Gunner actually sent more pictures but blogger is fighting with me and we have swim lessons in a bit, so it wins.

59 trash days

Still making progress in the trash front.

Junior is still sick. He's been running a fever since Tuesday and has been on antibiotics for an ear infection just as long. No change. Can't wait till the appointment line opens up and I can get him in there again. It's no fun watching him being miserable.

Abs should be up but instead she is crying for her daddy. When will she learn that if she goes to bed when I put her there that she will not be so tired and cranky in the morning? Instead I spend almost every evening chasing her out of the window, the hallway or my room, where she is reading.

Em is already dressed and playing with Junior.

My friend Peggy is having a problem with her roommate not using soap to wash the dishes. She's looking for ways to talk to her without hurting her feelings. My suggestion was that she should talk to her while she washed her own dishes and lick the fork and put it in the drawer. It sounds like a sure fire way to make a point if you don't want to address it head on!

I got Junior an appointment this morning and I am hoping he doesn't have pneumonia. Poor little guy is watching Barney and hanging out. I never knew one small body could produce so much snot.

I'm done

I finished my observation journal tonight. About 50 pages of my ramblings.

I'm done and it is going in tomorrow morning so I don't have time to lose it.

Maybe I am too old for school.....

Wordless Wednesday

The first picture my mom took and the second one was from my el cheapo digital camera.

More pics here.

Round Rock Express

The RR Express had their opening night on Friday, April 11th. They usually let the military in free, but they made the first night 4th ID night, so I picked up tickets to go. The girls got out of school early for the 1st CAV welcome home party (useless fact about Gunner--he was in 1st CAV when we met a hundred years ago). We didn't attend the welcome home party and instead got ready to leave the next morning for Dallas.

Anyway, the girls and I picked up Junior and went to my mom's house since she was going to go along with me. I can take three children out in public, but it is easier to have an extra set of eyes on them--especially on Junior and Abs.

All 4th ID Soldiers and families were supposed to go on the field before the game started, but we of course were late and got there after they were already out there. Not a big deal, but the kids thought it would be cool. If you were over 21 and had an ID card you could have one free beer and peanuts. Ahhhhh......it hit the spot.

Earlier in the day when I got the girls from school, Em swung open the front screen door and bopped her sister in the head. It left a mark and a huge bump (which is now a huge bruise). While sitting in the grass Abs somehow managed to fall over and hit her head on the concrete wall. She cried and cried. We weren't off to a good start. She unfortunately wasn't wearing the green colander on her head at that point. The green colander was a gift from my uncle to my mom years ago. Somehow the kids latched on to all of them--yes, she received more than one--and they use them to carry things, as helmets to play soldiers, and Abs wore it to the game so she could use it to catch a baseball.

Junior wanted peanuts but because of his allergy to eggs we were supposed to hold off. Luckily I had granola bars in my purse. Although he had just eaten an entire happy meal, he scarfed down three granola bars.

Then there was a ball....high in the air.....coming our way.....luckily the right fielder caught it. With the way things were going it probably would have hit Abs in the head.

The kids were hungry. They wanted everything that anyone was selling. I finally agreed to get them a sno-cone thinking that it would take a while to eat and there would be enough for everyone. Well Em didn't want to share with her sister. Abs and Junior didn't have a problem sharing though. Once Em realized she was going to go without she agreed to share. They finished the sno-cone and then wanted cotton candy. Lemonade sounded good. They could really use a funnel cake. Why was I starving them? Why couldn't they eat anything? The whining continued. Never mind that I had just dropped $18 on Mickey D's for the kiddos and I knew they had full bellies. I just have a hard time dropping $4.50 on a bag of cotton candy or $3 on a lemonade.

Finally after an hour of the kids wanting to eat the entire time, watching very little baseball and Junior running off in every direction, we called it a night. The kids did have fun though, and that's all that matters right?