Day 42

Well, I figure I'm doing pretty good.  In six weeks, I've only forgotten to post my blog twice.  So, this is another backdated post.  I spent most of the day cleaning, cleaning and cleaning some more.  Okay, so it wasn't as bad as all that.  Stuff does seem to multiply when I'm not looking, though.

Today's Wednesday, which means chain day:

For whatever reason, the kids decided it would be fun to do game show hostess impressions...lol.

Now I'm off to do day 43's post...

Day 41

Happy Tuesday, everyone!  Today was yet another unexciting day in my life.  I did manage to get some cleaning done...woohoo.  My plan was to start in the back of the house and work my way forward, and I actually got twice as much done today as I had planned on doing.  Now all I have left to do is the kitchen, the living room and the family room (and if I don't post tomorrow night, please send a rescue party...lol).

It's also been another one of those days where not much went on that was worth taking a picture of.  I suppose I could have taken a picture of one of my two clean bathrooms, but I didn't.  Instead, I took a picture of the doodling I did on my hand:

And with that, I'm outta here.  Til day 42....

Day 40

We're in the 40s...woohoo!!  Today started out with a bang...literally.  I woke up around 6:30am in the middle of a thunderstorm.  It took me a few minutes to realize that it was just thunder, not a tree falling on a house or anything like that.

Once I was up and ready to face the day, I went and picked Gabe up from his friend's house.  We stopped by his school to drop off a large bag of Easter eggs for their egg hunt on Friday, then I took Gabe to get a much needed haircut:

After that, we went to Subway for lunch.  Much to Taryn's disgust, we then headed off to the naval hospital for a couple booster shots she needed.  Hopefully that means she's caught up on shots for a while.

And that about sums up my day.  Tomorrow I need to start cleaning, but for now I'm off to bed.

See everyone on day 41!

Day 39

Today was another slow day.  I took the kids to breakfast at Golden Corral this morning.  I feel kind of bad; I had said I was going to take them every other Sunday - a tradition that I started with Taryn when Ben was on his WestPac deployment.  He's been gone five weeks now, and this is the first time we've actually gone.  After that, we went to Kmart and picked up some things.

We came back home and played around the house for a little while, then we went over to Gabe's friend's house.  The plan was just to drop him off so he could spend the night, but his friend's mother and I got to talking (and talking and talking).  We ended up staying for dinner, which was wonderful.  Sometimes I forget how nice it is to just be around other adults.

And that marks the end of my day.  I didn't really have anything to take pictures of today - I ended up taking this one when I went to mark the day off on my calendar:

I honestly can't believe that March is almost over already.  It still kind of seems like the days are going by pretty slow, so I'm always surprised when we hit the end of a calendar month, or the end of another month Ben's been gone. 

And now, it's bedtime.  Til day 40...

Day 38

We did a bit of running around today.  First, we headed out to Onslow Beach for Gabriel to do 'Buckets of Blooms'.  It was an event put together by Operation Homefront of North Carolina.  He got to decorate a bucket, then fill it with dirt and plant flowers in it.  Here's the end result:

Once his bucket was done, the kids played at the playground that happened to be right there. After that we went to Taco Bell for lunch, then we headed back on base for the 2nd Marine Division Easter Egg Hunt.  We got there about an hour before it was actually supposed to start, but everything was already up and running.  They had a petting zoo, pony rides, some game (sack races, spoon races, etc), several inflated play areas, face painting, etc.  Then there was the egg hunt (though Gabriel says it wasn't actually a hunt...kid's got a point).  Here are the kids collecting eggs:

And last but not least, the Easter Bunny:

All in all, a good time was had by everyone.  I got to hang out with a couple of my friends, and the kids had a blast.  Here's to the closing of yet another day.  See you on day 39!!!

Day 37

Today was a pretty good day.  I didn't get a whole lot accomplished, but I've been feeling kind of off here lately - that same old "I don't feel bad, but I don't feel good" thing I've been dealing with since before Ben left.  I don't know what it is, but I wish it would go away and leave me alone (for more than 2-3 weeks at a time...lol).

Gabriel invited one of his friends from school over to play this afternoon.  They did good til I let them get on the Wii.  First they wanted to play a game where they had to work together, then they wanted to play a game where they fought against each other.  So, that was the end of them playing Wii.  Then they started playing with Gabe's DS.  Two boys, one DS...yeah, you see where this is going.

Once his friend left, we went out to dinner at Olive Garden with a bunch of the lovely ladies I've met on a message board I belong to.  We had a lot of fun sitting around talking; I took the camera, and Gabriel was taking pictures of everyone.  Here's a picture Taryn took of the group of us:

And thus ends day 37.  Goodnight, and see everyone on day 38!!

Day 36

Today was pretty much just another day.  I finally finished the laundry that I started yesterday.  What do you mean it's not supposed to take two days to do four loads of laundry?? lol

We were invited to Lacy and Brian's house for food and friendship, so we spent a chunk of the evening over there.  We had some pizza for dinner, then we played a few hands of Scrabble Slam.  For anyone who hasn't played, it's definitely interesting.  We got back home just in time for the kids to get ready for bed, and now here I am.

I didn't actually take tonight's picture, but I saw this and it made me chuckle:

Since mail delivery has been anything but regular for the guys, that could very well describe a lot of the packages they get.  I mailed Ben's first two care packages around three weeks ago, and he still hasn't received either of them (though he didn't get an Easter card that was mailed a few days after the second care package...go figure!).  Keep your fingers crossed that the mail starts getting straightened out a little better before too much longer.

And on that note, I'm off to bed.  Goodbye til day 37!!

(I W/N/M/L U)

Day 35

Today was definitely an interesting day.  I volunteered to go to the grocery store with Lacy, as this was her first time tackling that particular task with her foster kids.  It ended up not being too bad, though we found out the hard way that the NC WIC program is *very* strict about what you can and can't get.  Oh well...you live, you learn.  I got home and started the laundry that I've been putting off for a few days now.  I still have one more load to do tomorrow, and then it's done for the week.

After the TV dinners I mentioned yesterday, we headed off to a "Kids-n-Deployment" workshop.  I thought it was just for Ben's unit, but it turned out to be for both Ben's unit and one of the battalions under his unit.  We had fun, though.  The kids went to a different room where they got to decorate a shipping box, saw a puppet show, sang, and did who knows what else.  We moms, on the other hand, got to have some adult time.  We learned about ways to help kids cope with the various issues that come up during a deployment, and other such stuff.

Today is Wednesday, which means it's time for a deployment chain picture!  The kids decided they wanted to be all cute in showing them off this time:

Here's a picture of Taryn holding her chain upright, so you can see how long it actually is:

And with that, my friends, I'm off to bed (at a halfway decent hour, for once!!).  Til Day 36...

P.S. I love you, baby!!

Day 34

I was actually out of the house for most of the day today.  I went to Family Readiness Assistant training, which was interesting.  I learned a lot; the current Family Readiness Program is definitely a lot different than the old Key Volunteer Network (and different from the Navy Ombudsman program, which was the last thing I had experience with).

Not much else went on today.  Gabriel picked out dinner:

Mini cheddarwurst and french fries!  So many people seem to get such a kick out of my food pictures, and I'm not sure why.  I guess they're living vicariously through my culinary ineptitude...lol.  No food tomorrow - it'll be the weekly deployment chain picture.  It's amazing how fast these things are growing!!  Now if only the deployment would go by that fast...lol.

See everyone on day 35!!

Day 33

Believe it or not, I have pretty much nothing to write about today.  About the only productive thing I did today was go to the exchange to pick up the refill for Gabe's inhaler.  While I was up there, I bought a couple books and a few things for the kids' Easter baskets. 

Speaking of Easter baskets, I have to figure out when I'm going to give them to the kids.  Taryn will be leaving for her dad's house the day before Easter; I want to see if I can give Taryn her basket on Saturday without Gabe having a fit about not getting his til Sunday. 

Today's picture is a sneaky one I took of Taryn while she was texting back and forth with her cousin:

I find it almost impossible to believe that she's actually comfortable in some of the positions she lounges in.  The remote beside her head is sitting on the center console of the loveseat, which is right beside my elbow.  Talk about horrible posture!

And now, I'm off to bed.  I'm going to a training class tomorrow, so I actually have to get up and get moving when my alarm goes off...*gasp*.  Until day 34...

Day 32

Look at that...yet another day behind us.  Today was a fairly slow day.  Gabe and I hung out around the house until it was time to go pick Taryn up.  While she was at her dad's, she found a bed that used to belong to her cousin and decided she wanted it.  So, they brought it with them.  Unfortunately, it was too wide to fit in the bed of my truck.  So, her dad ended up following us home to drop it off.  It's currently sitting in the garage, because the frame requires slats to hold the boxspring and mattress up.  Taryn mistakenly thought her bed had slats, but it doesn't.

Once we got home, I got to talking to Lacy; she and her kids ended up coming over for dinner.  I made spaghetti (yes, I actually cooked...lol).  The kids have been asking me to make it, and I've been putting it off because of the massive amount of leftovers we'd have if it was just the three of us.  Here's what we had left:

Not much else to report on.  I got a phone call from Ben today - things are pretty much same old, same old for him.  They finally got their mobile PX...now if they could just phones and internet, or maybe even just a post office so the mail might be a little more regular.  Though he did finally a card I sent him...his first piece of mail since he got there.  Thing is, there are two packages out there somewhere that were mailed before the card was.  Packages have been proving interesting - he said that when he got over there, some of the advon guys were still waiting on packages that had been mailed a month or so previously.

And on that note, it is beyond time for me to get to bed.  Be back on day 33!

Day 31

Today was an absolutely gorgeous day...it definitely felt like spring finally sprung. The kids got to spend a lot of time playing outside today.  The only drawback is that all the kids seem to have decided that my house is THE place to hang out.  Every time I turned around, I was chasing a kid out of one part of my house or another.  The worst one was this little girl who likes to repeat herself over and over and over.  Gabe let her onto the back porch, and Harley had come out there with me.  I lost count of the number of times I heard "I love your cat" and "This cat is so cute" in a single five minute span.  The next time I see her mother, I'm going to have to ask how she deals with that annoying repetiveness without going completely crazy...lol.

In good news, a friend of ours found someone who wants to rent our house in Virginia.  I'm really happy about that, since it means it will only have been empty for a month.  Even better, we have someone vouching for the new tenants, so we hopefully don't have to worry about our house getting all but destroyed again.  So, I spent most of the afternoon coming up with a new lease, since we won't be going through a realtor this time.

Today's picture is from when Gabe was playing outside earlier.  He likes to tear around on his scooter; the scooter apparently got the best of him, as evidenced by the strawberry on his chin (and in case anyone is wondering, the mark on his cheek is pizza sauce...lol):

He said that he tried to turn while he was going too fast, and he fell.  I was actually kind of surprised; he didn't even tear up like he usually does.  He just came in and showed me his boo-boos, then he went back outside and got right back on his scooter.

And there you have the highlights of my day.  Here's hoping for a slightly more exciting (but in a good way) day 32!!

Day 30

Yet another oh-so-exciting day in my life.  Sadly enough (especially for those of you reading this), I have had pretty much nothing going on in the past week.  It's funny how I'll have a really busy week, and then nothing the next week.  Hopefully that'll change as I attempt to get more into volunteering.

I actually made it out of the house a couple times today.  I finally made a much needed trip to the commissary.  That's one of the semi-nice things about Ben being gone...I can buy the same amount of food as I would if he were home, but it'll last twice as long.  Everyone should be proud of me - the kids have only eaten TV dinners two or three times since Ben left.

Once the kids got home from school, I had to go meet up with Taryn's dad so he could take her for the weekend.  That's one of the semi-nice things avout having moved to NC - I drive 30-45 minutes each direction to meet him halfway, rather than the two hours each direction I had to drive when we lived in SC and then VA.

Not much really happened to take pictures of today, so I had to improvise:

I managed to catch them in one of the occasional moments when they're acting like they like each other (sort of...notice how Harley's got his back turned to Abbey...lol).

And with that, I have nothing else to say.  The weather is supposed to be really nice tomorrow, so hopefully Gabe and I will get out there and do something worth taking pictures of.  Til day 31...

Day 29

Today was a rainy, icky day.  But, it was also an exciting day, as evidenced by today's picture:

We have officially survived the first month of this deployment.  Now we just have to get through the next eleven or so months (and I say 'or so' because you just never know when it comes to the Marine Corps).

In other news...there isn't really much other news.  I slacked off today and didn't clean the family room like I was planning to.  It's all good, though.  I think I've done more cleaning this week than I usually do in a month, and I've managed to make a pretty good dent in all the TV shows I had backlogged on the DVR.  I'm hoping things will pick up and get a little easier now that we've hit that one month mark...we shall see.

Hope everyone's having a great week!  See you all on day 30!!

Day 28

Today found me still working on this chaotic place I call a house.  Yesterday I worked on the kitchen...today it was the living room.  The only thing I still really need to work on is the counter between the two rooms, where things like to gather.  I think tomorrow I'm going to attempt to tackle the family room, which is by far the worst room in the house (and yes, I freely admit that it's mostly my stuff - though you should have seen it when Ben was packing!).  After that, the only hot spots I'll have left to take care of are the bathrooms.

Gabriel has made a new friend...a little boy who just moved in a few houses down from us, and who rides Gabe's bus.  Gabe got to go over to his new friend's house to play for a couple hours after school today, and the new friend is already trying to talk his mother into a sleepover this weekend.  As much as I miss living in Virginia, I'm really glad Gabe has such a large assortment of kids to play with right on our street.  Now if Taryn would only come out of her shell a little bit more.

Today's Wednesday, which means it was time for our weekly deployment chain picture.  These things are really growing; the bottom link of Taryn's chain is resting on the floor, so they're just about as tall as she is now:

For comparison's sake, here's day 21...

...day 14...

...and day 6 (we didn't come up with the once a week idea til the second week).

I'm almost afraid to see what they're going to look like even halfway through this deployment.

And on that happy note, I'm outta here.  Day 29 is just around the corner...

Day 27

Happy Tuesday!!  I don't have a whole lot going on this week, so I've been working on getting the chaos in my house under control (and honey, if you're reading this, it's not any worse than it was before you left).  I swear the items in this house multiply and scatter when I'm not looking - I just have to figure out how to get it to stop...lol.

I actually cooked dinner again tonight.  I don't have any pictures, so everyone is just going to have to take my word for it this time.  I need to get to the store one of these days before we run out of food.  That usually takes a while; when I go grocery shopping, I don't always remember that Ben's not here and I don't need to buy quite as much.  Lacy gave me some recipes before Ben left...I think I'm going to start trying them out.

Speaking of food, here is today's picture:

I was going to take a picture of the kids actually eating their ice cream, but they inhaled it too fast.  So, I got a picture of Gabe's empty bowl instead.

And on that note, I'm going to head off to bed.  Til day 28....

Day 26

Ah, another Monday.  Today was laundry day.  I usually do laundry on Sunday, but my schedule got thrown off with daylight savings and the potluck.  I figure that as long as everyone has clean clothes, it's all good.

Ben called early this morning so he could talk to the kids.  He doesn't get to talk to them nearly as much as he'd like to.  Taryn leaves for school at 7:30am and Gabriel gets home at 3:30pm, which is 4:00pm to 12:00am Ben's time.  The only phone he can use to call home is at work, so he doesn't usually call until most everyone is gone and he's pretty much done for the night - around 10:00pm his time (1:30pm our time). 

Him calling was actually really good timing, too.  I remember hearing my alarm at 6:30, and the next thing I remember is the phone ringing at 7:20.  Gabriel was still in bed, and we have to walk out the door to catch the bus no later than 7:40.  Had Ben not called, I probably would have ended up driving Gabe to school.

Today's picture demonstrates the nonsense I have to put up with from my four-footed children.  Both of them have decided that the best place in the whole world to sleep is on the top of the couch right behind my head:

It's not really an issue until they start sticking their feet (and occasionally claws) on the back of my head.  I think Harley knows I'm speaking ill of him, because he's currently in that same spot - except with his back to me.

I actually have a second picture to share today, too.  I didn't take this one; I pulled it from an article on the website for Ben's unit about the unit taking control of their 'battle space':

I have no idea who the Marine in the picture is, but I thought it was a really cool picture...I hope everyone else likes it too.  If anyone wants to go take a look, here's the link for the unit website: RCT-2 Articles  There are a bunch of different news articles to peruse.

And on that note, I'm going to sign off for the night.  Day 27 awaits...

Day 25

Wow...this is three days in a row I've actually left the house!!  This afternoon was our first regiment event - a St. Patrick's Day potluck, where we decorated pillow cases to send to our guys.  I think I did more talking than decorating, but it's all good.  Taryn decorated a pillow case for Ben before he went to Iraq, and he ended up hanging it on his wall instead of putting it on his pillow.

Those of you who actually read my blog get a picture two-fer today.  Here are pictures of the kids at the potluck:

I don't have much going on this week.  I need to mail a package to Ben tomorrow, and that's about it.  So, I'm gonna hit the sack, and not come back til day 26!

Day 24

I was actually out of the house for most of the day for the first time since Ben left.  I took a class called LINKS; for those who don't know what I'm talking about, LINKS stands for Lifestyle, Insight, Networking, Knowledge and Skills.  It's basically a class that teaches everything from rank to reading an LES to places in the community to volunteer.  It's actually the second time I've taken the class; the first time was not long after we moved to SC.  I know - a lot of you are thinking, "You've been married for almost nine years...don't you know all that stuff already?"  Part of the reason I went this time was because I'm thinking of volunteering with the program, and I knew that one of the first things they'd tell me is that I need to take the class again.

LINKS actually gave me the subject of today's daily picture:

This is the goody bag that we got when we finished the class.  It had all kinds of information in it, plus a few magnets (which I'm sure Ben will just be overjoyed to hear about...lol).

I hope everyone remembers to spring their clocks forward tonight (as if I wasn't already having enough issues remembering the time difference).  Good night, all...I'll be back on day 25!!

Day 23

Not much to report on today.  I made a Kmart run with Lacy this morning, and finally got the trash can to go with all the new stuff we bought for the kids' bathroom.  Once the kids got home from school, we made a commissary run to get a dessert to take to the regiment potluck on Sunday (and a light bulb to replace the one that went out in the refrigerator the other day - it's hard to raid a dark fridge!!).

The kids went to "Kids in the Midst" tonight.  They didn't really say a lot about what they did, though they both came home with super hero capes and these bags

From what I gather, it's supposed to help kids learn to live 'in the midst' of military life.  I felt kind of bad, because I don't think Taryn had as much fun as Gabriel did.  Then again, Gabriel is a lot easier to entertain.

I'm going to an all day class tomorrow, and I'm going to find out about volunteering.  On Sunday, I'm supposed to be getting more information about volunteering with Ben's unit.  I figure I've got to do something to keep myself busy - might as well help other people along the way.

And on that note, I'm off to bed.  See everyone on day 24!

Day 22

I think this is going to be another short post, as there just wasn't much going on today.  It rained on and off all day - though it did stop raining long enough for the kids to get home from school for once, rather than raining harder like it usually does.  Pretty much the only constructive thing I accomplished today was to help my neighbor put a crib together.  My neighbors and I manage to keep each other pretty entertained, and it's hard to say who spends more time as whose house.

Today's picture was actually taken yesterday, but yesterday was our chain picture day and this picture is too cute not to share:

He left his hair like that just long enough for me to take a picture, then he smoothed it all back down.  Only six, and he's already very particular about his hair...lol.

So ends the day...on to day 23...