I Need to do This More Often...

I'm trying to finish up my paper that's due for my class tonight, and I stepped outside on the front porch for a minute to clear my head. It was so nice, and the sounds of the birds and the crickets were so calming, I decided to bring my laptop out here to work.

It's so peaceful here. Yes, we're still in a subdivision, but we're in the farthest part of the subdivision. We live on a dead end road, and the road that intersects with the other end of this road also comes to a dead end. So there is very little traffic back here beyond the folks who live back here. I can hear the sounds of the bypass in the background while I listen to the crickets, and it almost reminds me of sitting on the back porch at my grandma's house in West Virginia at night when we'd go to visit them. Good memories.

Oh well, back to my paper. That was just something that popped into my head that I thought I'd share. I have to say...I love wireless. I just wish I could figure out why the heck my laptop keeps dropping my home wireless network, or vice versa.

Another Year

You know, the hubby and I both love being in North Carolina. We're both very happy with the area we're living in, and we love the opportunity to finally live close to our families for a change.

But...

This assignment is the pits. I hate what I see it doing to my husband. He LOVES the Army, and he normally loves what he does. But Recruiting is a completely different story. We both honestly thought that as Company Commander, since he wasn't actually the one going out and doing the recruiting, it wouldn't be as tough. He also had lots of ideas about how to make the job less stressful on the recruiters.

We were mistaken. He has just as much stress as the recruiters do; it's just a bit different, from different sources. And his ideas for making the job less stressful for them? He does the best he can, although with the mission they have it's extremely difficult. He's in a bad mood more evenings than not, which is not his nature.

And we have another year left of this. Thirteen months, actually. And believe me, we're definitely counting down. He wants to get into an assignment that will keep us here another year if he's not able to get to his school directly following this assignment. But he will definitely not be extending in Recruiting.

We're Back!

We're back from the Rally. We had a great time...lots of fun and great riding all weekend! I'll have stories to share later.

Road Trip!

We're going to the Outer Banks this weekend. I've been looking forward to this trip since before Christmas when we registered for the Rally. I figured this would be an awesome trip for several reasons. For one thing, we get to be on the bikes all weekend. How awesome is that? Not to mention the fact that we get to tour the Outer Banks while we're at it. There are lots of rides and events planned that look like fun. Even though I grew up here in North Carolina, I've never really gotten to see the Outer Banks. So I'm really excited about that. Plus, what better way to see this beautiful part of the state than on a motorcycle!

The hubby's bike isn't ready yet, so he's riding mine. I've got my mom's Sportster that she's letting me ride. She doesn't ride long distances herself yet, so she's riding with her boyfriend. The Sporty is quite a bit smaller and lighter than mine, not to mention the higher center of gravity it has, so it's going to be really different. Once I get going though, and really get the feel for it, I'll be fine.

The only down side is that the forecast for the weekend is isolated or scattered T-storms Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Oh well, if it gets too bad we'll pull off and find something else to do. I'm not too worried about it and certainly don't plan to let it ruin my weekend. There's a first time for everything, after all, and maybe this will be my first experience riding in the rain. I've pretty much been a fair weather rider up to this point.

So we leave some time tomorrow, depending on when everybody's ready to go, and will be back Sunday. I plan to have good stories and pictures to share from this trip.

My Daughter

I don't know what I'm going to do with this child.

I got a call from her teacher last week. Seems A hadn't been doing her homework. Hmmmm...she's been telling me she doesn't have homework. Come to find out, the teacher sends home a class newsletter each Monday that has all the homework assignments for the week on it. It also has the behavior report, and I'm supposed to initial it daily. Well, she wasn't bringing that to me.

Not only had she been lying to me and telling me she had no homework, she also lied to her teacher. She told her teacher that she had been doing her homework but her brother was hiding it from her. Poor J. So her teacher questioned J about it, and he told her that A had been lying to me. That's when she called me. When A realized her teacher was going to be calling me, she started crying. Mrs. R told me she didn't see any tears, but she sure could hear her.

So we got that straightened out, and that evening I made A catch up with all her homework she had not done that week. I also made her write sentences for me on top of that. She had to write 25 sentences about lying to her Mommy and her teacher. I told her that 25 sentences should fill up one side of a sheet of notebook paper. Well, she decided to write big so that each sentence took up two lines. She brought the sheet to me and said that she only had enough room for 13 sentences. Smart isn't she? So I informed her that the deal was she had to write me 25 sentences, and she could go back and fill the other side of the paper. She was in tears by the time she was finished and we went to dinner. So I honestly thought she had learned her lesson. She was grounded for the remainder of the week, through the weekend. No TV, no playing outside...she was allowed to read, and that's about it. I also told her that if I caught her in another lie she'd be writing 50 sentences and be grounded again.

Monday came along, and she was so excited to be off restriction. But apparently she hadn't learned her lesson after all, because she lied to me again that afternoon! Something stupid to lie about, but a lie nonetheless. So she stayed on restriction for Monday, and had to write me 50 sentences. Fortunately for her, I let her go to dance as scheduled, but only because I pay for it and she has a recital coming up in just over a month. So she REALLY needed to go to dance.

You know, when I was a kid, I lied about my homework. But I was in 5th grade before I did that. I hated Social Studies, so didn't do the homework, lied about it, and got in trouble. She's starting early though. Her thing is she doesn't think she needs to do it. She's above her grade level in nearly every area, but she needs to do her homework to stay that way. She also needs to learn that homework is part of her job as a kid, and we all have to do our job even though sometimes we might not like it.

Aaaahhhhhh...the joys of parenting!

82nd Airborne

Damn.

My heart goes out to the families, as well as to their comrades.

I picked up a copy of the local paper this morning with a headline on the front page about it. So far the names of four of those who lost their lives have been released.

There will be a memorial in May, according to one of the articles I read. I love, yet hate, those things. Love them because of the powerful tradition, hate them because of the necessity of having them. I attended way too many of them in 2004 and 2005.

So incredibly sad...

So Cute

You know what? I don't think there's much cuter than a kid missing her two front teeth. The Princess lost her second one today. Remember my entry about a week and a half ago about her asking her daddy to yank out her tooth? Well, she had been waiting patiently for her other front tooth to be ready and asked her daddy to pull it out today. I'm glad. She was missing one of them, but to me there's just something unbelievably cute about both front teeth being gone. And I just LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the lisp. The hubby has really been teasing her about it...it's irresistible. And she's actually been a good sport about it, which is kind of a surprise since she hates being laughed at. I think she's finally figuring out that we're not laughing at her, really, we just think she's soooo cute!

Oh, and the tiara? It's one of my sister's. She had a couple from when she was the Little Miss beauty pageant winner (I can't remember exactly which years), and I had one from when I was 2nd Runner-Up in the beauty pageant my Junior year. They didn't usually do tiaras for the First- and Second-Runners Up, but that was the last year that particular school existed as a high school, so they did more than usual. But my one of my sister's tiaras had "danglies" and that was the one that A loved, so my sis let her have it. That just made A's day.

We were going through our old books yesterday, too, and my sister and I loved the Sweet Valley books (Sweet Valley Twins for the middle-school-aged, and Sweet Valley High for the high-school-aged), and K gave A all her Sweet Valley Twins books. Yes, A is just in first grade, but she's at a much higher reading level, so she's on about chapter 6 or 7 of her first Sweet Valley Twins book. She was so proud to get some "big girl books." And she was really excited that one of the characters had the same last name she does. She asked me if I had read those books when I was a kid, and I had to remind her that when I was a kid my last name was different, so I didn't share a name with any of the book's characters. She thought it was really cool though.

I'll tell you later why she was grounded since Wednesday afternoon. She's back to normal schedule and privileges starting tomorrow though.

Enough procrastinating - back to homework for me...

Ugh

I've been having phone and internet issues this week. That coupled with my tendency toward procrastination is not good for my schoolwork. I'm going to be scrambling the rest of this course to catch up.

It also makes me realize just how much I have come to depend on technology. I was kind of lost when I couldn't get online. Yeah, I know; I'm probably addicted, but when we were in Germany I took care of everything back here in the U.S. electronically. It's what I'm accustomed to, and not likely to change.

On another note, my husband washed his cell phone yesterday. He was so mad at himself. At least HE'S the one that washed it, not me, so he can't blame the not checking of the pockets on me. Well, he checked them, but missed the phone somehow. No wonder with as many pockets as those ACU pants have. The worst part is that I didn't have insurance on it. You can bet that I'll be adding wireless protection now after having to replace two phones at full price. Guess we'll be heading over to the Verizon store today.

So besides the moving, that's what's been going on here. If it's not one thing, it's a million.

Not Much to Say

Yeah, I know...I've been light on the blogging lately. I guess I just haven't had much to write about.

Well, there's actually been quite a bit to write about, but I guess I've been too lazy to do so. Or too tired. Take your pick.

The moving is progressing. Slowly, but surely. I haven't managed to get as much done as I had hoped to get done this week. The dining room at the old house is empty now, though, so I have managed to get all that moved over here. I'm working on getting the curio set back up and the dining room here at the new house organized. Hopefully the hubby will get my plate rack hung soon so I can get my collectible plates back up (well the ones that fit on the rack anyway). We had a lot of them just hanging on the wall in the old house. This one is laid out a bit different, so we'll see how that will work here.

The friend of ours who is going to do the work on P's motorcycle was doing some work on mine this week. My baby was overdue for a service, so he did about the equivalent of a 50,000 mile service on it. There were some things that needed to be done before another long trip, and since we're going to the Outer Banks next weekend, he wanted to get it ready so we'd be safe. I got to help him a bit, and I enjoyed that. It was neat learning how everything works together on it.

That's about it from our house right now. Just busy with moving and the hubby's job is keeping him insanely busy this week. It's been NUTS! We just keep telling ourselves that this assignment will eventually end and then we'll be off to something else. The fun part will be the waiting game to see what our next adventure is going to be.

I'm Such a Dork...

I got our first mortgage statement in the mail a couple of days ago. I told the hubby and he said, "is it already due?" It hit me then how close we are to the end of April. Yep, May 1 the mortgage payment is due.

But anyway, I told the hubby I want to put the statement in my scrapbook.

He gave me "the look." You know, the one that says I'm nuts.

Yep, I'm a dork, but I don't care. This is a huge milestone, and I'm proud.

Note to Self...

When the 8 year-old boy is helping load boxes, pay more attention to how he's loading them; and be more specific with instructions.

This evening after taking the Princess to dance class, the boy and I went over to the old house to get stuff from the pantry and refrigerator that we hadn't taken to the new house yet. He was absolutely INSISTENT on helping me. Not a problem. I grabbed a big box from the garage, and the two of us set to work packing it up. I took the things out of the pantry and handed them to him, and he put them in the box. I have to say, he did quite a good job packing the things in the box neatly. I really got it too full, because I had difficulty carrying it out to the car, but I managed. So then while I put some things from the refrigerator into plastic bags to put in the car, J got some other things into the car for me.

Then we got to the new house and J brought the bags of refrigerator stuff in and helped me empty them and put the stuff in the fridge. Then I wrestled the box of pantry food into the kitchen. He said that since he helped pack the box, he was going to help unpack it, so we went in reverse. He took the things out of the box, handed them to me, and I put them in the pantry. As he took one of the food boxes out of the big box, I heard something spill all over the floor and hear, "Oh man!" I turned around, and there was macaroni all over the floor. He apologized and I just laughed and told him not to worry about it. I had less than a half box of macaroni left from Thanksgiving, and he had put it in the big box upside-down, so when he picked it up it dumped completely. No biggie. We'll just sweep it up. I told him to throw the box away, and we continued. As he was handing me pantry stuff, I noticed that macaroni kept dropping on the floor, so I asked him to try to make sure that there was no macaroni on the packages he gave me. Then I hear "Oh, man...not again!" I turned around and he's hold a box of Cream of Wheat, and there was Cream of Wheat in the bottom of the box. He was trying to make sure there was no macaroni on it and turned it upside down, dumping the stuff. Well, at least it pretty much ended up in the box instead of all over the floor. No biggie...I'll just sweep it up. Then I realized we had taken the broom back to the other house. Oh well...I figured we'd stop and get it when we had to go back to get A from dance.

In spite of the mess he helped make, J was a really big help to me this afternoon. Oh...I forgot to mention this. I had no room for all my plastic storage containers in my cupboards in the old house, so we had them in a big box in the pantry. I had also brought that over when we brought the food this afternoon. While I was finishing up with organizing the pantry, J brought that box in. It's a big box. It wasn't really heavy, but is almost as big as he is. What a great kid!

Who Needs Toys?

We haven't brought any of the kids' toys over to the new house yet. They've brought a few things, but the vast majority of the way too many toys they have are still at the old place. The reason for that is that the hubby and I are going to go through what they have and get rid of things they have outgrown, things that are broken, or things they no longer play with.

The kids are home from school and have finished their homework. They're upstairs playing hide-and-seek. There are lots of places here for them to hide, and they're having a grand time.

I think this is the perfect opportunity to downsize some!

So Much for That Idea...

The hubby told me earlier today that he planned to get to bed early tonight since he has to work tomorrow. He said he planned to go to bed around the time the kids go to bed, which is 8:00. Since we were up really late every night this weekend, which was a long weekend for us since he took both Thursday and Friday off to move, I understood why he wanted to try to do that. I just didn't see it happening.

It's after 10:30 p.m. now, and he's been up and down the stairs quite a few times since just after 9:00. He went up to give himself a haircut and made three or four trips down after he was finished with that. He's been trying to round up uniform stuff, making sure he has everything he needs here at the new house, and then asked me where his boots are. I told him that I had told the boy to take them upstairs to our bedroom since he was helping us bring in things from the car that we had brought over from the old house. He couldn't find them. I told him to look again, including on my side of the room and in the bonus room in case J got confused.

He just came downstairs asking if I'd brought any snack stuff from the old house. I should have known the man couldn't go to bed without a late night snack. :-) He was the one who got stuff from the kitchen the other day (and we haven't finished bringing all that stuff over yet), so besides popcorn (which is his favorite anyway), we hadn't brought over any other snack foods, not that I keep that much in the house anyway (not really conducive to the weight loss). So he popped himself some popcorn and is sitting here eating it right now watching the last part of "National Treasure." Great movie.

Oh, I asked him if he'd found it boots, and he said he had. When I asked him where they were, he told me that they were in our closet, but waaaaaayyy in the back of our closet. J had taken them and put them in the far back corner of our huge walk-in closet, and P didn't see them because of some clothes that I had brought over last week. I got a good giggle out of that. Kids are so doggone funny. We told him to take the boots to our room, and he decided they needed to be put in the closet. Smart kid! Now if only he'd keep his room clean and put his things where they belong. We'll see.

Some New Pictures

As I promised last night, here are some pictures from the new house. So far I just have pictures of the kids' rooms, and they're not even quite finished yet. But their wall borders are up, and their furniture is in their rooms, so you can at least get an idea of what they look like.

Here's a photo of the boy's room once we got the border up and his furniture in his room. I talked the other day about how much trouble we had with the prepasted borders we got for his room. We ended up ripping the majority of that down. Yeah, we could have gotten some glue for it, and P could actually probably have made some for it. But at that point, we were fed up with it. So we found a really nice self-adhesive Nascar border that looks really nice with his furniture and his wall color. And it took us all of 15 minutes to put that thing up on the wall, where after about an hour and a half the darn prepasted ones were falling off the walls.

Here's the part of the American Chopper border we were able to keep up in his room. He was so disappointed at the thought of not being able to have American Chopper in his room at all, so he was pretty happy that we were able to leave this up for him. Then he told me, "Mommy, I really wanted to be able to have the 'Black Widow' chopper on my wall." We saved part of the border that we had left, and the hubby has something planned for him. I'm not sure what it is, but if I know the hubby, it will be something that the boy will just love. It's killing J, wanting to know what it is, but he's just going to have to sweat it for a bit until we get the other house empty and clean.

Here's a picture of the princess's room after we got the border up and her furniture moved in. She absolutely LOVES her room. She was just tickled when she came in and saw it.

Her room from another angle. She got this cute Disney Princess vanity for Christmas, along with a matching wall shelf with pegs to hang things on. So as you can see, the colors and border that she chose for her room matches her theme perfectly. Her bedding is Bratz, which she chose when we first moved here, but the colors still match, even though the characters are different.

Here's a closeup of her wall border. I just think it's so sweet!

I have more to write about, but again, I'll have to put it off till tomorrow. I have to catch up on some school work and get to bed before it gets too late. The new house is shaping up quite nicely and is already starting to feel like home. A very messy home right now, but home nonetheless.

Guess What...

This is my first blog entry from the new house!

I have some pictures to share, but it's late, so I'll do it tomorrow.

I intended to write last night, but I had issues with my DSL modem. It just wouldn't connect. So I got tired of fooling with it and decided to give them a call today. Within about 10 minutes of talking to the lady at Embarq, I had my internet up and running, and my wireless router working. So I'm in business now.

We spent our first night here at the new house last night. The hubby's dad came down and brought his little trailer yesterday. So with his help and his trailer, we were able to get a LOT moved. We got quite a bit of our larger furniture moved, to include the bedroom set from our room, so we had somewhere to sleep here last night. It felt good, and we were incredibly exhausted.

I'll have more tomorrow. It's late and I need to go to bed.

Busy, Busy Day

The hubby plans to take Thursdays and Fridays off for the next few weeks (when he can) so that we can get our moving done. He wasn't able to take last Thursday and Friday off because his 1SG was on leave. After all, at least one or the other of them needs to be available.

So we spent most of the day trying to get some stuff moved to the new house. We didn't get started as early as we had hoped. I got up with the kids and got them off to school this morning. I knew the hubby needed to rest for a little while...he hasn't been sleeping very well the past few nights. Well, he hasn't really slept well in a couple of years, but the past couple of nights were worse than usual. So I thought I'd rest on the couch for a little while after the kids left since he was still in the bed.

The kids get on the school bus about 7:15 in the mornings. So I came back in and laid back on the couch with my pillow. About 7:30, just as I was starting to doze off, the hubby's government cell phone rang. I swear, that thing is the bane of my existence. I cringe and grit my teeth every time I hear it ring. So I couldn't just ignore it. I thought about grabbing it and taking it up to the hubby, but noticed that it was a friend of ours. So I answered it and talked to him for a few minutes, and he mentioned that he may come over a little later. OK, no problem. Just call me because we're going to be getting some moving done...that way I can let you know where we are and give you directions to the new house if need be. So after I talked to him, I got up and made a pot of coffe, sat down and checked my email and checked blogs. Then I decided to try to rest for a little bit. Just as I started dozing off again, the home phone rang. Dammit! This was about 8:30. It was the same friend who had called earlier. He was calling to see if it was ok if he were to stop by within the next half hour. Sure, no problem. So I went up, got the hubby out of the bed, and got dressed myself. Then I got my cup of coffee and started getting my makeup on (there is a very limited number of people who see me without my makeup). Just as I was finishing up with that, he arrived, and we visited with him for a while. He's the same friend that's helping P get his motorcycle fixed up. Plus, we just enjoy his company, so we always look forward to his visits.

After he left, we decided to try to get some stuff moved over to the new house. Our goal is to be staying over there by this weekend. That doesn't mean we'll be completely moved in, but we'll have what we need to sleep comfortably and at least basic living necessities. We knew the kids' rooms were going to be moved before we got our bedroom furniture moved, and I remembered that we still hadn't put the kids' wall borders up yet. So I suggested we go over and try to get that done before we moved their bedrooms over.

So we went over and got to work on that. A's wallpaper border was self-adhesive. Peel-and-stick. When I ordered J's, I honestly thought his was the same way. I need to go back and see if the product description specified. So we followed the instructions to put those borders up, and it was such a pain in the rearend! And then when we finally got it up, one of the borders started falling off one wall, and looked like it was going to fall off another. We tried to put the part that had fallen back up again before going into A's room to put her border up. I checked on J's a couple of times during the time we were finishing A's, and it looked like it was going to stay. But after we finished the girl's room, we walked back over to the boy's, and the same border had fallen again. So we ended up just taking it down and decided to go see what kind of self-adhesive borders Wal-mart had. It was a section of the American Chopper one that kept falling. This really bothered me because J had his heart set on that border, and it looked so nice when it was up.

So we went over to Wal-mart and found a Nascar border that was really nice. When the kids got home from school, we had them do their homework and then clean up their rooms and the bonus room (their mess) while we were loading their bedroom furniture up into the truck. Since we had finished the border in A's room, we took her furniture over first. After we unloaded her furniture and put it in her bedroom, we put up the new border that we bought at Wal-mart for his room today. We did manage to leave part of the American Chopper border up in his room. There was one section of wall where it seemed to be staying up without problems. So for now, we're leaving it alone. That way he does have some motorcycles in his room, too. That made him happy. Then we went back to the rental house and loaded his furniture up and took it over to the new house. With his yellow walls and red furniture, with the borders, it looks so nice. I'm just so proud of the decisions he made on how to decorate his room.

Tonight they're sleeping on their mattresses which are laid on the floor. At least they're not sleeping on the floor. We've done that quite a bit in the past between houses, or when we moved into a new house before our belongings arrived. J said he didn't know if he'd be able to be comfortable without his bed. I reminded him that at least he's sleeping on his mattress instead of just on the floor. They're so spoiled! :-)

We went to a local Mexican restaurant for dinner tonight, and then went back to the new house for a couple of things. P has to fix A's bed. She has a poster bed and shortly after we bought it, she managed to strip the upper portions of her posts by swinging on them. There's also another broken spot on her footboard, and I can't for the life of me figure out where that one came from. So the hubby has to fix that, and remembered after taking all the pieces for the bed over to the new house while his wood glue and clamps are still here at the old one. Also, the kids have picture day tomorrow (I guess they're having Spring pictures made). So since we had taken their furniture over and had left their clothes in their dresser drawers, we picked up something for them to wear for their pictures while the hubby was getting together the things he needed.

When we came downstairs, I had turned all the lights off upstairs, and the lights downstairs were still off, so the house was pretty much completely dark. I came downstairs, the girl was behind me, and the boy was bringing up the rear. I came into the kitchen and asked the hubby if he was ready to go. He didn't respond. Right about that time, A came into the kitchen, and J was right behind her. P jumped out at them making spooky sounds. A screamed and hit the floor. J was still in the hallway, but threw himself to the floor anyway. I busted out laughing (probably cackling actually...lol), and the kids both started giggling. They love it when somebody scares them. I guess it's the adrenaline rush. So we were giggling the whole way home, and the kids took turns trying to scare each other, unsuccessfully.

I kept forgetting to take my camera over to the new house to take pictures of the kids' rooms after we got the borders up. I'll try to remember it tomorrow, so then I can even get pictures of the kids' rooms with the majority of their furniture in them.

I Don't Even Know What to Say

About this.

A friend of mine sent me an IM today asking if I'd heard about the SecDef's announcement. I'd been busy with moving, and then trying to catch up on some rest today, so I hadn't heard. So when I asked her what was up, she sent me the link to the story.

My response?

Shit! I'm sorry, but this just pisses me off. I'm going to try to do more than just bitch and rant here, but I really got a burr under my saddle about this one. I don't usually complain about the Army. Yeah, there are some things that aggravate me, like my husband's current assignment, but for the most part, I'm pretty happy with my husband's career choice. It's tough sometimes, but the benefits generally far outweigh the negative aspects.

WASHINGTON — Beginning immediately, all active-duty Army soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan will serve 15-month tours — three months longer than the usual standard, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Wednesday.

It was the latest move by the Pentagon to cope with the strains of fighting two wars simultaneously and maintaining a higher troop level in Iraq as part of President Bush's revised strategy for stabilizing Baghdad.

"This policy is a difficult but necessary interim step," Gates told a Pentagon news conference, adding that the goal is to eventually return to 12 months as the standard length of tour in Iraq and Afghanistan.

What, a year-long tour in Iraq or Afghanistan isn't long enough? Now soldiers are going to typically spend 15 months deployed? I know there have been occasions when for one reason or another a unit's deployment has been extended for an additional three months, but for the most part, the standard deployment for Army units for OEF/OIF has been 12 months.

This part bugs me:

He said the new policy does not affect the other main components of the U.S.
ground force in Iraq: the Marines, whose standard tour is seven months, or the
Army National Guard or Army Reserve, which will continue to serve 12-month
tours.

Maybe somebody out there with more insight or intel than I have can enlighten me on this. Why is it that (according to this article) the Army is the only service whose troops are going to feel the effect of this? The Army already has longer deployments than the Marines (7 months as mentioned here) and the Air Force (not mentioned here, but typically 6 months from what I understand). I don't really begrudge the members of these services and their families shorter deployments, but is there not any way for the other services to fulfill some of these additional requirements?

Gates acknowledged that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are making life
difficult for many in the military.

"Our forces are stretched, there's no question about that," Gates
said.

He said the new policy also seeks to ensure that all active-duty Army
units get at least 12 months at home between deployments. He said it would allow
the Pentagon to maintain the current level of troops in Iraq for another year,
although he added that there has been no decision on future troop levels.

I'm so happy that Gates can acknowledge that the forces are stretched. That's quite an understatement, don't you think? And as far as the policy seeking to ensure that all active-duty Army having at least 12 months home between deployments, how long have they been saying that? A year isn't long enough. The 90 days soldiers are required to remain with their units following a deployment isn't always enough time. But that's a whole other soapbox that I won't get onto right now. So as for this new "termporary" (I'll believe that when I see it) policy ensuring some kind of predictability, I don't buy it. After all, if the Defense Department decides a unit is needed back in Iraq or Afghanistan before their year home is up, they're going to go.

There's one more thing about this article that I want to specifically address:

Soldiers will get an extra $1,000 a month for the three extra months they serve,
he said.

I'm very happy that soldiers are going to be compensated in some way for additional time they're going to be deployed. But there's a bigger picture here, and I can almost guarantee that soldiers who have had their deployments extended in the past are going to wonder whether they'll see any of these benefits.

I remember there was a time when the Army was tracking deployment days for soldiers. I couldn't remember what the numbers were, but I remembered that there was compensation for soldiers who had extended or multiple deployments. I also remembered that this was suspended after the attacks on September 11, 2001. When the Army went into Afghanistan and, later, Iraq, the majority of deployments were for a year. So I did some searching, and found this website and then compared it to this one. According to both of these, if soldiers were deployed more than 400 days in two years, they would receive $100 per day in excess of the 400. So I did the math, and determined that even with the $3000 extra that soldiers would be receiving for the extra three months they are deployed, they're still losing $2500 of what they would receive under the old system. As my husband told me, it's better than nothing, but why the extra three months anyway?

I know I'm not looking at this completely rationally. I can freely admit that. I'm looking at this as a wife whose husband will more likely than not deploy again in the future, since the Army is his career. I have friends whose husbands are currently deployed or who will be deploying soon. Does this new timeline affect them? If and when my husband deploys again, I'm looking at our having to survive 15 months instead of 12 - him in a combat zone, the kids and me going about our daily lives without him. An entire year without him is more than enough, much less 15 months.

Are these decision-makers considering the effects on soldiers as individuals? Do they know what a difference just one month can make, not to mention three?

And last but not least, I'm sure this will be used as yet another example of how "Bush is evil." And, frankly, I'm sick of hearing it. We need to look back farther than the current administration. After all, if the military hadn't undergone the cuts (in personnel and budget) that it did nearly a decade ago, perhaps we would have been more prepared for this war.

Just something to think about.

And one more thing...my husband's current job is stressful enough as it is. How do you think this will affect recruiting?

Snaggletooth

The hubby and I were sitting here this evening, and the kids had been upstairs playing. I was chatting with a friend of mine and he was catching up on some of his TV shows on the DVR.

The princess came running downstairs and stood next to the hubby's chair. She said "my tooth's really wiggly, Daddy, and I want you to yank it out!" I looked at her in disbelief. What?!? She WANTS her daddy to yank out her tooth?? I can remember my dad offering to pull my loose teeth out using various methods (floss tied to the doorknob, pliers, you name it), and the thought always sent shivers down my spine.

It was pretty funny watching him trying to get her tooth ready to pull. He got a paper towel and dried the tooth off so he could get hold of it. As soon as he got it good and dry, she'd run her tongue over it. He protested, then dried it off again, only to have her run her tongue back over it one more time. He protested again, asked her to leave it alone because if she wanted him to pull the tooth it had to be dry so he could hold it with her fingers. Finally, he dried it one more time and she left it alone.

So he grabbed the tooth, and gave it a quick yank. I noticed that out of the corner of my eye, and looked up. A had a look of surprise on her face, but didn't make a sound. Daddy showed her the tooth, and she grinned. She looked at him, then looked at me and said "it didn't even hurt!" Then she had to go check herself out in the mirror.

Of course I had to take a picture. She was just so cute after he pulled her tooth. She was skipping around the house happily, talking about how happy her teacher was going to be, because her teacher keeps some kind of board so she knows when each student loses each tooth. And she's talking with the cutest snaggletooth lisp now, too. She was telling her daddy what toy she got with her Happy Meal from McDonald's before she went to bed tonight, and told him "I got the Wicked Witch of the Eastht!" He had her repeat it so he could hear the cute lisp, and then J wanted to hear her say it again, too, and we all got a case of the giggles. She looked a bit embarrassed, but we assured her that we just want to enjoy hearing it while it lasts because once she gets her two permanent front teeth in she won't talk like that anymore. She seemed ok with that. Unlike her brother, she can't stand it when people laugh at her.

I should also share that she was torturing me in the car while we were waiting at the drive-through at McDonald's this evening. She had told me earlier that she thought she was going to lose her next tooth tonight because it was "really wiggly." So she wanted to show me, so propped herself up in the backseat of my car where she could see herself in my rearview mirror (meaning I could see her, too). As she propped herself up there, she used her tongue to push her tooth as far forward as she could. I said, "Eeeewwwwwww, A, stop it!" She thought it was pretty funny that it bugged me, so chose to try it a few more times, with me telling her to sit down and stop it each time. Stinker!

So she's going to have a visit from the tooth fairy tonight. I'm thinking she might get an extra dollar since she was so brave. Maybe it's just me, but I was impressed at that.

Tax Time

You know, usually I really look forward to tax time. Even though we changed our withholdings a few years ago to pay less out in taxes throughout the year, meaning a smaller refund, we've always gotten a decent refund anyway.

I've been stressing this year, though.

Remember when I wrote here and here about my job situation? Well there was another aspect of that which I apparently didn't write about at the time. When they put me on consultant status, meaning I was no longer an "employee," they put me on a 1099 instead of a W-2, meaning they were no longer withholding taxes from my pay, beginning in October. Thank goodness that I only had three months of this, or else I would have REALLY been screwed.

I've been doing our taxes myself for years now. One year, I let H&R Block do our taxes. We ended up having to pay. Not a huge amount, but back then it seemed like a LOT. But with what we had to pay on top of what we had to pay H&R Block, we weren't at all happy! In retrospect, the outcome wasn't all the fault of the tax preparer. P's employer had him withholding at Married and 4. This was before kids...what were we claiming? The dogs and cats? Whatever. But the tax preparer didn't really go out of her way to help us make sure we were getting the deductions we were eligible for. So after that, I started doing our taxes myself. A couple of times I went to the tax center on post since it was free. But since our returns have always been pretty simple - usually done on the EZ form, there was really no reason I couldn't do them myself.

So I sat down to do our taxes this year, but everything was different. I used a couple of different programs and I was coming out having to pay taxes. And I mean REALLY PAY! So I figured I'd wait until closer to the deadline until I finished and submitted them. I never do that! This is the first year for as long as I can remember that I haven't had our taxes done and gotten our refund by mid-February. Usually I get everything done as soon as the W-2's are posted electronically.

We had an appointment with our financial advisor early last month, and part of the annual review is asking about tax returns. I told him what my numbers were, and he suggested that we get professional tax assistance this year. He also mentioned that things were going to start to get more complicated since we bought a house. So he gave me the business card of a lady he recommended. H&R Block. Hmmmmm.

I finally called her late last week and had an appointment with her Monday evening. She was awesome! She helped me realize how many deductions we were able to take, especially since I was considered self-employed for the last three months of the year. She took us from having to pay out the rear to getting a refund. I cringed a bit when I saw the fee, but I figured that with the money I'm saving in the long run, the fee is more than worth it.

So I'm feeling much better about the taxes now.

Spring Break

I love my kids more than anything.

But I'm ready for them to go back to school!

Today is the last day of their three-week intercession. For the last week they've been fussing and fighting almost constantly. They get tired of each other after about two weeks. But when I separate them and tell them to leave each other alone for a while, they beg me to let them play together again with promises of no more fussing.

I'm glad they're in year-round school. At least I only have about a week of fussing to put up with, with the exception of summer when they have six weeks off. I don't know what we'd do if they had three months during the summer.

Tomorrow's going to be wonderful. I'm going to enjoy the few hours of peace and quiet while they're in school. Hopefully I can get motivated to finally start going to the gym again.

UPDATE:

I just had a reminder of why I'm not able to get anything done when they're home.

I was trying to load clothes from our closet into my car to move them over to the new house. As I came back inside after taking some out, I hear them whispering, one asking the other if I'm coming (I can't always tell their voices apart when they're whispering). I guess one of them was supposed to be the lookout for the other.

So I went upstairs and asked what they were doing. At first, they claimed to be doing nothing, but the guilt was written all over J's face. A's a much better liar than he is, which is scary. I asked what they were sneaking. A insisted they weren't sneaking anything, but J finally fessed up to sneaking candy out of their Easter baskets.

"We were hungry for a snack," A said.

Yeah, they're starving. No more candy for them for the rest of the day.

I Love My Kids

They remind me to appreciate the little things.

I love the fact that they usually still call me "Mommy." Sometimes they call me "Mom," but it's usually "Mommy." I love that. They pretty much always call the hubby "Daddy." I called my dad "Daddy" up until the day he died. So I guess it just makes sense that my kids would have a lot of the same habits.

We were driving back from my mom's house today, and out of the blue, the boy says, "a helicopter shape!" What? He was looking at the clouds. One of the clouds looked just like a helicopter minus the propeller. As I was looking at the cloud he pointed out to me, and making sure the hubby saw it, I tried to remember when was the last time I sat out and watched the clouds just to find shapes. I can't remember. So we talked about the shapes of clouds most of the afternoon, and listened to them point out different ones.

Gosh, I love my kids.

They keep us young. Have to in order to be able to keep up with them.

There's never a dull moment with them, and I look forward to future adventures with them.

New House Pictures

As promised, here are pictures of the house. The picture of the outside is a new one...I just took it the other day. I think it was Tuesday. You MIGHT be able to see the new azaleas we put out if you look closely enough. :-)

Besides the pictures of the kids' rooms, all the pictures of the inside of the house are the ones I took before we closed. So our refrigerator hadn't been delivered yet, and the bathrooms weren't completely finished. Other than that, most everything looks about the same except for the cleaning I did last week and the things we've moved over there. Once we get more of our things moved over, and things aren't such a mess, I'll share some more photos.

Moving Days

Well, we got started moving today. We didn't get a lot of stuff moved over, but we got a few of our larger pieces of furniture moved.

We were able to sleep in some this morning. When we got up and the hubby cooked pancakes for the kids, I had to go upstairs to tell them to come down for breakfast because they had the door to the bonus room closed. I asked them why they had it closed, and they said "so we didn't wake you up." Awwww! They're finally getting it! :-)

Once we had breakfast and coffee, the first thing we did was go over to my mom's to get the bedroom suite she gave me. It's the one she and Daddy used in their bedroom for almost as long as I can remember. We got the bed taken apart, and the mirror taken off of the dresser, and then started bringing everything downstairs to load on the truck. That was fun. That furniture is nice and solid, and of course quite heavy. But we got it all loaded up and moved over to the new house.

After we unloaded that, we came over to the rental to start loading things up to take over to the new house. The hubby had already moved the dining room table and chairs over a few days before. Today we decided to empty out the buffet and take it over. The small china hutch that we've had in the entryway here was the next thing to be put on the truck. He also wanted to go ahead and take over the entertainment center that he built for our big screen TV, which we've had upstairs in our bedroom because it won't fit in the family room in this house. So after we got the buffet loaded (that baby's HEAVY), we went upstairs and emptied out the entertainment center and got it on the truck. After that, we still had room for a couple more pieces. So one of the cedar chests and the wine rack the hubby built a couple of years ago were loaded up, and once he got all that tied down, he was ready to go.

While he was tying down the furniture, I busied myself boxing up some of the things we had taken out of the different pieces of furniture to take over to the new house. We're really trying to make this move as simple as possible (if simple could ever be used to describe a move) by putting things in boxes, taking them over to the house, and putting them away right away. So we went to the new house and unloaded his truck and my car, and then called it a day. I'm gonna be so sore tomorrow! I told the hubby I think I got my workout today - weight training!

This will serve as a reminder to me about why we never do DITY moves. We always let the Army move us.

I haven't forgotten about pictures. I just haven't had a chance to get any good ones yet. I'll put up a few that I took before we closed on the house, but I really want to post more once we get mostly moved in. But I know I have at least a couple of friends who really want to see pictures, so I'll put some of those others up.

Appreciation

Today the hubby and I had to go up to Raleigh. His Battalion was having a ceremony to present the recruiting awards from the past two quarters.

Fortunately the ceremony only lasted about an hour. It was almost lunch time when we left so we decided to get something to eat on the way home. I had a gift certificate for Cracker Barrel that his aunt had given us for Christmas, so we decided to stop at the one in Dunn. We wanted to get out of Raleigh before stopping. The hubby hates driving in Raleigh.

So we're sitting there in Cracker Barrel enjoying our meal and conversation, when this older gentleman comes over to our table. He looked at me and apologized for interrupting, then looked at my husband, leaned down, and shook his hand. He thanked him for his service and the job he does, and told him he prays that he continues to stay safe. We're pretty used to that, because he has people come up to him fairly frequently when we're out to eat and he's in uniform thanking him for his service.

Then the gentleman did something that we've heard about, but have never experienced personally. The gentleman asked if he could buy our lunch. P told him, "Oh, no, please." But before we could say anything else, he took our ticket laying there on the table, told us to leave the tip, and he was buying our lunch. Before we could even say thank you, he had walked away. We were both speechless, and I was in tears from his kindness.

So, for those of you who do so much to support our military, thank you. We appreciate the kindness more than you could ever know.

Almost 11 Months

I went back to my archives today to see when exactly I started this blog. I knew I was getting close to the one year mark, but am not quite there yet.

I was reading my archives from May and June of last year, and I just have to say that I'm so glad that I started blogging. There are so many memories that I have captured over the past eleven months, especially the little things. Little things that I possibly would have forgotten otherwise. Like our last visit with Frau Hammer, or my last Mother's Day in Germany, or the last wives' Coffee I went to that last week, or some of the details of our trip back to the States, particularly where my husband allowed my Leatherman to get confiscated at the airport. And all of that was just in May. That was my first month blogging, and I only blogged part of the month. I didn't really hit my blogging groove for a few months.

It's just amazing to me how far I've come over the last year. I don't think I'm a better writer than I was almost a year ago, but I've definitely become much more comfortable. I've come to realize that I'm keeping this blog for ME, although I do appreciate those of you who come and read it. There are still things that I hold back, and probably always will to protect my hubby and kids, but I open up more and more every day.

I didn't really have any long term plans when I started this blog, other than having a way to keep in touch with my friends and family. Now, though, I can see myself keeping this up for a long time to come. My reasons for writing have changed. Although I do still want to have this as a way to keep in touch with friends and family, letting them know what's going on with us, my primary reason for blogging now is to have an outlet. This has ended up being very therapeutic for me. Sometimes when I have nobody else to talk to about things, my blog is a wonderful way to get things off my chest.

I'm so glad I started this...

No More GWOT?

Give me a Break!

Do these people really have nothing better to do?

Yeah, it makes TOTAL sense to change the name of this thing after five years (typed with MUCH sarcasm).

And the thing that kills me is that the name probably wouldn't have been an issue if Bush hadn't been the one who said it first.

I mean, HONESTLY!

NC Weather

You've gotta be kidding me!

I've been waiting for it to rain pretty much all day, because it's been in the forecast. While we were at the new house having the satellite installed, it started sprinkling and thunder was rolling in the distance. We did get a little bit of rain while we were there this evening.

After we left the house, we made a quick run over to McDonald's for supper. I really need to go the grocery store, but I've been putting it off as long as possible so that when I do go to the grocery store I can just take the new groceries to the new house instead of having to worry about moving them from the old house to the new one.

There was a severe thunderstorm warning until 8:15 tonight when we got home, but they ended up extending it to 9:30. We finally starting seeing lightening and hearing thunder starting at about 9:15 tonight, so they ended up extending the warning again. The hubby went to bed around 10 p.m. although I'm still up. That's pretty typical for us...I'm a bit more of a night owl that he is. After all, when the kids are in school, I can usually take a nap after I get them off to school in the morning. So as I was sitting here reading blogs, the rain started sounding awfully loud. I walked over to look out the door to the back patio, and we were having pea-sized hail falling along with the rain. It's still about 70 degrees outside, and is supposed to be in the mid-80s again tomorros, so I was kind of surprised about the hail. The hubby even came downstairs to investigate, and we both stood at the back door watching for a couple of minutes.

He said, well, the hail probably isn't enough to cause much damage. It could probably ding up my new car pretty good. I hope not, though.

Moving Along

Things are going well at the new house. I had to have someone from the phone company come out today because we were getting a dial tone at the box on the outside of the house, but not on the jacks on the inside. So the man from the phone company came and tested the box, and then came inside to test the jacks. He plugged his tester into the jack in the kitchen, and he got a dial tone. Then he plugged the phone I had in, and there wasn't one. So he said I had a bad phone (which kind of bummed me out because it's brand new), and went through to check all the other jacks in the house. While we were upstairs, I realized that my phone was fine. When I first plugged it in to the jack in the kitchen and didn't have a dial tone, I followed the directions the phone company had left when they installed the line to check the box on the outside of the house. I was able to get a dial tone with it there, so I knew the phone was fine. So when we got back downstairs, he plugged the phone back in to the jack, and it had a dial tone that time. We were both very puzzled, trying to figure out why it worked that time but not all the other times before. Oh well, at least the phone's working now, and I think I have the internet up and running too. I haven't taken my laptop over yet to be sure, but we have all the equipment and everything. Now all I need to do is take my wireless router over, and I'll be in business!

I also had our Dish Network installed today. When I called to schedule the installation, they gave me a time window of 12-5 this afternoon, so I had to plan to be there all afternoon. I didn't mind too much, because I still needed to finish cleaning the house so we can start moving in. I got the entire downstairs of the house cleaned this past weekend, so just needed to get the upstairs cleaned. I figured the upstairs wouldn't take me quite as long as the downstairs had. After all, I only had to clean the two bathrooms and vacuum all the floors, where downstairs, the kitchen took me quite a bit of time since I had to clean the counters, clean out all the cabinets, and everything else. I'll tell you, although I was able to just vacuum most of the floors upstairs, I realized just how big the house really is. That was a lot of carpet to vacuum, and it took me a while. I just love how big the rooms are, even though it means it's that much space to clean.

While I was cleaning, the hubby was bringing stuff over to the new house. He brought over some boxes and other stuff from the garage, and also brought the dining room table and some chairs, as well as the table and chairs from our kitchen. I'm hoping tomorrow I can start moving some dishes and things from the kitchen, as well as empty out the curio cabinet and buffet in the dining room, so that we can move the rest of that furniture over. We don't use the formal dining room set very often, so should be able to go ahead and move it to the new house pretty soon.

One thing that we did notice when we were getting the satellite installed was a discrepancy in the lot size. When we signed the contract on the house, the realtor gave us the exclusions and "rules" for the subdivision where the house is. Those exclusions state that each house is supposed to have 10 feet from the side of the house to the property line, meaning that the houses are supposed to be a minimum of 20 feet apart. Well, on the side of the house where they put the satellite, there are only 17 feet between our house and the house next to us. That means that each house is losing a foot and a half of lot space from what we should have. The other side is fine. A foot and a half may not sound like much, but when you consider a foot and a half from the front of the property to the back of the property, that's a lot of square footage that we're losing. So I called our agent (who was on vacation, and I hated to bother her...but she's back at work tomorrow), and she said she'd try to find out tomorrow what we need to do about it.

I know some of you are really wanting to see pictures of the new house. I will share some, I promise, but I really want to wait until we get more of our stuff moved over so that you will be able to tell what the rooms are without me posting descriptions. I have some pictures I took of the inside of the house that I showed to the hubby's family before we closed on the house, but I really want to wait and share pictures once it's becoming more of a home for us. I did take a better picture of the front of the house today, but I left my camera over at the new house when we left this evening. I'll take more pictures of the outside tomorrow (I have someone coming to install the alarm system in the morning), and will share those.

Yep, I'm ready to move in now. I have the phone, internet, and TV now, and will have the alarm activated tomorrow. What more could I need? I'd even be willing to sleep on the floor for a night or two to be able to sleep in MY OWN house!!

Weekend Photos

I've been promising to put up a few pictures from the weekend we went to the mountains. I finally got Blogger to cooperate with me so that I could put them up. Well, sort of. Usually I can upload several photos at a time. This time I had to add them one-by-one, which took longer, but at least I got them up.

This first picture is the one I took at the first place we pulled off after we left Maggie Valley. That was the place that was touted as the most photographed spot. The view was beautiful. My mom pointed out to me where Ghost Town was. We'll have to go there some time and check it out.

The next three pictures were taken at the last place we stopped to take photos on Saturday. As you can see, the spot is on the Tennessee/North Carolina state line. The view there was no less spectacular than the first place we stopped. I just love the mountains, though, and could just sit and enjoy the view all day.

These next couple of pictures are just different views of the mountains from the lookout.

Yet another lovely view. As you can see, the weather was perfect, and the scenery was incredible. Although it will probably be a while before we're ready to ride in the mountains again, I'm trying to remember what a great time we were having.

I'm really looking forward to going to the Outer Banks the end of this month. That should be a really fun time, and I can't wait. I hope the hubby's bike will be ready by then!

Insurance

So I called our local insurance agent yesterday afternoon to see about keeping insurance coverage on P's bike. I knew that chances were we wouldn't be able to have any more than liability coverage, but I wanted to make sure I got it taken care of as soon as possible. I didn't want them to just drop the bike off the insurance altogether (I don't know if they would or not, but didn't want to take the chance), because then we'd have to turn the tags in to the DMV, and go through having to register it all over again when we get it ready to ride.

When I called yesterday, the lady I spoke with said she didn't deal with salvage very often, but she thought that liability was the only thing we'd be able to carry on it. She wanted to check with her boss before she told me anything definite, and promised to get back with me. I didn't hear back from her yesterday, but she called me back a little after 9 this morning. She had told me correctly...we can carry liability only on it, so she removed the collision and comprehensive today. I don't know whether we'll ever be able to have any additional coverage on it; it may just be a matter of having someone come out and inspect it like they would an older vehicle. I guess we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

I got kind of tickled at her when I was talking to her yesterday, though. I told her what had happened and why I was calling. She said, "GMAC hasn't paid out the claim yet, have they?" I told her that actually they had, and she kept saying how impressed she was. Yeah, we were too. We were very pleased with how the claim was handled from start to finish.

One interesting thing...when I took the check to the credit union to deposit it, they had to put it on hold for five business days. I was kind of surprised, because usually when I get a check like that from a company or a bank check, I have immediate access to the funds. Then she said something that I found kind of odd. She asked me before she went to make a phone call (not real sure what the phone call was all about) and get her supervisor's approval if it was a check for a claim. When she got back I questioned her about it, and she said that claim checks have a high probability of being returned. HUH?? From a national company like GMAC? Whatever.

I Love My Friends

I talked to an old college friend today. I reconnected with her through MySpace a few months ago (actually, she found me and contacted me), and found out that she lives in Raleigh, which is about an hour and a half away from where I live. She's originally from New Jersey, so I was a little bit surprised when I found out how close she was. Before she contacted me through MySpace, it had been over ten years since I'd seen or talked to her last, which is really sad since she was one of my best friends my Sophomore year. We met our Freshman year, but got really close the next year after a couple of our other friends left. So although I don't keep up with my MySpace page the way I should, I'm glad I have it, because I've reconnected with several people that I lost contact with years ago because of it.

I called Melissa this afternoon because I found out when I went to lunch with the hubby today that he's going to have to be in Raleigh Friday for an awards ceremony. I asked him if it was one of those things that family members were invited to or not. I figured one way or the other, I'd go up that way, too, and try to meet up with Melissa for lunch or something while we were there. So I called her to see what her plans were for that day. She's going to be working, so she wouldn't be able to get together until about 4 that afternoon or later, which I thought would be ok, because the hubby's thing was scheduled to go until 2 p.m., and I figured we could all grab an early dinner or something.

Well, we ended up being on the phone for over an hour this afternoon. That may not seem like a lot, but I'm not usually one to talk on the phone. After the first few minutes we were on the phone, we were talking almost like no time had ever passed between us. It's so nice to have friends like that who you can just talk to like that after so much time has passed. We're not going to be able to get together this week like we'd hoped, because it turns out that the hubby's thing is going to be over earlier Friday than we'd thought (his Battalion Commander is hoping for close to noon), and he wants to get home and try to do some moving that afternoon. Am I gonna argue with that? I think not! So I called her back this evening, and we agreed to try again in a couple of weeks.

Well, not only did I get to talk to my old college friend this evening, but Christy called me, too. I always love talking to her. She and I probably have more in common than most people realize. So she was asking me about the new house, and about the whole home-buying process, and I was telling her all about it. I wish everybody could have an experience buying a house like we did. Everything went so smoothly, and I feel so blessed. So I told her that she and her hubby should have no problems buying when they're ready. We've all heard horror stories, especially when it comes to dealing with the VA guaranteed loans, so I hope that the hubby and I can help someone out with sharing our experience.

It was just so great talking with both of my friends today. Even though they each knew me at completely different times of my life, they each have played a significant role, and I have such fond memories associated with each of them. It's funny, because Melissa knew me during my incredibly shy phase (yes, I really used to be shy, for those of you who know me now). She and I talked about that some today, and she acted so proud when I told her that I'm no longer that shy girl, and that now I'm not afraid to assert myself when need be. And Christy and I have shared so much, from good times to difficult times. Although I wasn't one of the 2-2 gals, I think she always knew that I'd be there for her if she needed me, and vice versa. She sort of represents a different period in my life, but no more or less important than Melissa. I just find it interesting that I talked to both of them today. I have a tendency to connect things like that in my life that may not be connected otherwise.

So, like I said, I love my friends. Each of my friends plays such an important part in my life. Those of you that I call friend, regardless how close we were, you're important to me and I'm thankful for you. Some of my friends I know in real life, and some of my friends have been "cyber" friends only. Neither is more or less important than the other, because as I said before, you each play an important part in my life. Thank you so much for your friendship and support, and for listening to me when I needed you. I am truly blessed.

Ugh

Well, I said I was going to upload some of the few pictures that I managed to take last weekend. Blogger doesn't want to cooperate. I'll try again tomorrow.

Good Day

I feel like we got a lot accomplished today, and it feels GOOD! The morning started off slow. We're out of coffee, which is a problem I'm going to have to solve ASAP! I've been putting off going to the grocery store, but I don't think I can put it off any longer...gonna have to go tomorrow. So I puttered around on the computer a bit while I woke up, and then I did some schoolwork. I'm still terribly behind, but there's still tomorrow.

The hubby asked me what I wanted to try to get done today. I wanted to try to go over and get as much cleaning done as I could so we could start moving things over. There was still construction dust in the cabinets and on the floors, so we weren't about to start taking dishes and things over until we got that taken care of. The hubby needed some concrete mix so he could install the new mailbox we got the other day. Yeah, he technically could have just buried it in the ground and it would probably have been ok, but he wanted to put the concrete in to make sure it was good and stable. So we headed over to Home Depot before we went to the new house. We decided while we were there to check what they had in the Garden Center. Box holly bushes were planted along the front of the house when it was built, but we wanted some color in front of the house. P wanted to take the holly bushes up and transplant them before they had a chance to develop their roots, and we wanted to replace them with azaleas. So we went ahead and bought enough azaleas to replace the holly bushes that were in front of the house. P moved them around to the sides. We got pink ones and red ones. They're going to be so pretty once they grow some. There are lots of other plants and trees we want to put out, but the azaleas were one of the first things we needed to take care of since we had to transplant what was already there.

After Home Depot, we went and had some lunch, and then headed over to the new house. P had loaded the kids' scooters in the car so they'd have something to do while we were working. J grabbed his football, too, so he and A could throw it back and forth. And I got the stereo that P got me for Christmas that plays my iPod. I clean much better and stay motivated if I have good music. And I have a wide variety of music on my iPod. So we got to the new house, unloaded the car, and P went to work outside and I went to work inside. And the kids went to work at playing hard.

I managed to get the entire downstairs cleaned this afternoon. I was amazed at how gross the floors were. I don't know why, but I was. They didn't look that dirty, but when I looked at my mop pad when I was finished mopping, it was really gross! Maybe I'll go over the downstairs floors one more time tomorrow. The kitchen took me the longest, of course. I had to clean all the counters and wipe out all the cabinets and drawers before I ever got around to the floor. And some of the cabinets hadn't even had the sawdust and stuff cleaned out yet, so I had to take the vacuum cleaner to them before I wiped them out. Once I got the kitchen done, though, the rest didn't take me very long. And I felt good after I got it all done. The upstairs shouldn't take me long at all. After all, all I'll have to do up there is clean both bathrooms, and then vacuum all the floors.

The hubby got quite a bit done outside today too. He got all the holly bushes moved around to the sides of the house, and all the azaleas we had bought planted. I guess when he transplanted the hollies, he took up some sod that was beside the house, because I saw him putting some down in the back yard. If it will take root, that will be perfect because the back yard has some bald patches right now. I did notice that the sod in the front yard is starting to look green now. It was pretty brown about a week ago. He also got the mailbox changed. The new one looks so much better than the flimsy one that was up there. And the shrubs look so nice! He did such a great job out there, and I can't wait until the azaleas grow and really start to bloom. We got Encore Azaleas, and apparently they're supposed to bloom all the way through fall. I hope so...we'll see.

One thing that I had hoped we'd get around to getting done today is getting A's wallpaper border put up. But since we got there later than we originally planned, we didn't quite get around to it. Hopefully that won't take too long, though. Maybe if the hubby gets home early enough from work tomorrow we can get it done tomorrow evening...I really don't want to attempt that one by myself.

So that's the progress we've made so far. I decided today that we need to get moved out of this rental ASAP before it burns down. The electrical wiring in this house is definitely not up to par, and I was reminded of that this morning. We were getting ready to leave and I walked into the bathroom to brush my hair. When I reached to flip the switch to turn the light on, I heard a loud pop and sparks flew from the light fixture. I yelled and Paul came to see what was going on. When I heard the pop, one of the light bulbs had actually been blown from the socket and was hanging by one wire. So now the metal part of the bulb is (I think) still in the fixture and the rest of the bulb is gone. Craziness! I'm just glad we're moving.

Weekend Trip - Part II

There's one thing that I didn't mention in the last post. At least I don't think I did. Even though the hubby had to be air lifted to the hospital in Knoxville, they didn't keep him over night. After they did the CT and X-rays and ruled out any serious injuries, they released him.

Now I get to talk about the incredible people we met.

There were a couple of guys on sport bikes riding behind us when the accident happened. There were other guys in a pickup truck that stopped and stayed at the scene the entire time. I know my mom got the names and addresses of everybody who helped us out. I'm so glad she thought to do that, because I was pretty out of it, and focused on staying with the hubby.

By the time my mom and I got back to the scene of the accident, the guys that saw it happen, and some others, already had his bike picked up and were in the process of figuring out how to get it up the bank. They tied ropes to it and pulled it up the bank with the truck. After the ambulance transported my hubby, they all stayed around to make sure that his bike and mine were taken care of. After the park rangers did all the measurements and finished their reports (since we were in the National Park they acted as the police), they loaded P's bike up in the back of the pickup truck. The young man on the sport bike who witnessed the accident and stayed around the whole time, Chris, had P's bike taken to his parents' house until we figured out how everything was going to come together. One of the other guys rode my bike to the same place since I had gone with the hubby.

Chris stayed with my mom and her boyfriend (I'll call him V from now on), and brought them to the hospital after they got the bikes taken care of. Since they were all on the bikes, we got a cab from the hospital. Chris took us over to his house to wait until V's son arrived with V's van and trailer to transport the bikes back home.

Our cab driver was incredibly nice too. He stopped by the pharmacy on the way to Chris's house so we could go ahead and get the medication that the doctor had prescribed for P. While we were waiting for the prescription, he stopped his meter instead of letting it continue to run since it took a while at the pharmacy. Then he went inside and bought ALL of us water, not allowing us to repay him for it. Then we found out that Tricare wouldn't pay for P's prescription, since it was one of the same ones he's already on (but didn't have on him) and it overlapped with the last time he'd had it refilled. OK, fine. Well, instead of letting me walk over and get money from my mom (since I didn't have any cash on me), he paid for it and said we'd settle up once we got where we were going. Then we went on to Chris's house, and when we got there, he actually rounded the total fare down, asking us to pay him less than the meter read. He was definitely the nicest cab driver I've ever had!

So we got to Chris's and he and his roommate cooked us dinner. They cooked steak, beans, and pasta salad. It was delicious! I just wasn't able to eat much due to my nerves. But Chris had also asked his roommate to get some cold beer, and that was one of the first things they asked P was if he was ready for a beer. Oh yeah! After dinner they let us just rest at their place until V's son got there. It was a little after 4 a.m. when we left Chris's and headed back to the hotel. That was a 2 hour drive, so it was after 6 when we got to the hotel. V and my mom requested a late check out from the hotel, and with the circumstances, they let us extend checkout to 2 p.m. Thank goodness! So we were able to get some sleep before having to make the drive back home. V's son and his girlfriend rode V's bike home, and the four of us brought the van home.

So many people did so many nice things for us last weekend, and I can't express how grateful I am to everybody who helped us. I'll definitely be getting the list from my mom and sending thank yous to them all, and probably a gift card of some sort. We were so blessed. There's definitely a lot of truth to what I've always heard about bikers taking care of each other. We experienced it first-hand a week ago.

The bike doesn't really have that much damage to it. The gas tank is dented, and it is scratched in quite a few places. The glass on the speedometer was busted, so of course the speedometer was broken. But insurance for motorcycles is interesting. We found out that any part of the motorcycle that was dented, dinged or scratched had to be replaced, not repaired. Not only that, but for Harley Davidson motorcycles (and maybe others, not sure), they don't allow for after market parts to be used. They have to be HD parts. So by the time the appraiser accounted for all the parts that had any kind of damage, even just a scratch, the repairs were going to cost more than the market value of the bike. So the insurance company totalled it. But we bought the salvage and are going to repair it. We have a friend who builds motorcycles and can help us get the parts and do the work for next to nothing. So it would have been stupid not to salvage it. We've already gotten the insurance settlement, and I just can't get over how quickly they moved on the claim. Five days from start to finish.

So even though I would never want to go through this again, it has turned out pretty well. My husband is ok...he's still a little sore. His black eye is almost gone. He's still limping because his ankle is still bothering him, but it's getting better. He's keeping his Baby, and our friend is going to help him do the customization on it that he's been wanting to do.

Does this make me hesitant to continue to ride? Nah. This could just as easily have happened in a car. In fact, there was a car that ran off the road up there earlier that day. I haven't ridden since last Saturday, but I haven't really been able to. We've been busy with the new house, and the kids are home from school. So I can't really go riding when I'm by myself with them. I'll get out as soon as I get a chance though!

I'll share the pictures I took here in a few minutes.