Day 78

Today was kind of aggravating.  My original plan for the day was to go out and do a little shopping for some stuff to send to Ben.  Then a lady from AMCC (the company that manages base housing here) called yesterday afternoon to say that someone would be coming by today to check our crawlspace for leaks, and that I had to be here because they had to come into the house and turn the water on.  She said that our house was near the top of the list, which meant that it should be done by lunchtime, and that it should take a maximum of 10 minutes.  I figured it was no big deal...I'd just go out after they came by.  The hitch in my plans?  They never showed up.  Hopefully they won't try to rectify that tomorrow, as I'll be gone pretty much all day.

I had my first regiment volunteer meeting this evening.  That's yet another part of my plan to keep busy while Ben is gone.  It's always nice to be able to sit and talk to other adults at least a few times a month.  This week has been jam packed, and it isn't done yet.  It'll be nice to be able to slow down a little bit next week (though after a few days, I'll probably be complaining about time passing too slow...lol).

I have a good picture tonight:

I'm going to a potluck baby shower tomorrow morning, and I made four dozen cookies to take with me.  Well, four dozen minus the few I ate. =)

Hope everyone's having a great week!  Be back on day 79!!

Day 77

Not really much to blog about today, as not much happened today.  I think Gabe was on a mission to drive me as far up a wall as he possibly could; since it was his early release day, he had even more time than usual to do so.

Other than that, the day was pretty boring.  But you guys get the best part...the weekly chain picture:

I'm still trying to figure out how I want to hang these up.  I'd like to put them up in a draped banner kind of way, but I'm afraid that will make them too long to fit in a picture (and they still have almost 290 links to add).

And now, I'm off to bed (and before midnight!!).  Til day 78...

Day 76

Today was one of those oh-so-lovely overcast days.  It was raining pretty hard when the three of us got up this morning, but it mostly petered off by mid-morning.  I had a LINKS meeting this morning, so I at least made it out of the house (and farther than the bus stop!) and had coversations with actual adults.

Wendy's did a fundraiser for Gabe's school tonight, where they donated 10% of all sales made between 5:00 and 8:00.  I figured that was as good of a reason as any to go out and eat, so we did.  They also do a school night at CiCi's Pizza the third Monday of every month; I'm not sure how much they make off that one, though.  I wish Taryn's school would do more fundraisers like that, instead of always doing the "here, buy something out of this catalog" type fundraisers.

I'm doing a plant picture for the second night in a row.  Tonight it's the little plants I planted over Easter weekend.  Here's what they looked like back on day 57:

And here's what they look like now (the left and center pots are switched in the two pictures):

I'm definitely going to have to get new pots to put them in here shortly.  I'm not quite sure what's going on with the center one.  I can't even put new seeds in there, since I don't know which plant it is...lol.

Night all!  See you on day 77!!

Day 75

Monday...more cleaning.  Blah.  I stripped my bed down and washed everything, then put it all right back on the bed.  Anyone who really knows me wouldn't expect anything different.  I hate, hate, HATE folding sheets...and the bigger the sheets are, the more I hate folding them.  Since we have the biggest bed in the house, that makes for a lot of hate.

Gabriel had a doctor's appointment this afternoon.  For anyone who doesn't know, he was diagnosed with asthma back in December.  We had suspected it for a while, but every time we'd end up having to take him to the ER because he couldn't breath right, they would say it was bronchitis, or an upper respiratory infection, or pneumonia.  It all came to a head back in December, when an ER visit turned into him being admitted because they couldn't get his breathing where they wanted it to be.  That was when they finally diagnosed him, and they put him on a twice daily inhaler.  He went in today so they could take a listen to his little lungs, and so I could get the prescription for his inhaler renewed.  He's all good for another year.

Today's picture is all flowery.  No, really...these are the flowers Gabe planted at an Operation Homefront event back before Easter:

Flashback: what they looked like when he first planted them:

I haven't been doing anything special with them (in fact, it turned out we were really overwatering them for a while), but they really took off.  Eventually I'm going to have to find somewhere else to plant them; I'm just not sure where yet.  Maybe I'll just get an actual pot for them.  I hate the thought of planting them at the house, and then having to leave them when we PCS.

In any case, it's now past my bedtime so I'm going to sign off for the evening.  Onward to day 76...

Day 74

It's definitely been one of those days.  Gmail decided to send out one of those screwy "here's a random URL" messages to every single person I've ever e-mailed in my life again this morning, so I spent a good chunk of time sending apologies to people.  I went and changed my password, which I was told might help.  I guess we'll see.

The kids and I did our every other Sunday breakfast at Golden Corral this morning.  Breakfast is the only meal I'll usually eat there, since I don't eat enough to justify paying their lunch and dinner prices.  As it is, it costs almost $20 for the three of us to eat breakfast (and that's without drinks).

I decided today was a good day to clean.  Actually, my general opinion is that no day is a good day to clean...but I did some if it anyway.  Imagine my surprise when I discovered that our living room is actually quite decently sized when my kids don't have stuff all over it.  Not only that, but I'm fairly sure the piles of stuff around the outer perimeter of my kitchen were hiding a counter.  Who knew?  I know the house still isn't anywhere near where it should be given the fact that I'm usually home by myself all day, but I like to think I'm making some progress.

Taryn decided to turn into little miss attitude right before bed, much to my disgust.  I don't know what it is with her, but she gets into these little snits that make me want to hang her by her toenails and not let her down til she's ready for college.  If this is what she's like as a preteen, I'm not sure I want to be around when she actually becomes a teenager...lol.

And with that, I'm going to sign off for the day.  Maybe I'll actually watch Army Wives the actual night that it's actually on...and then maybe I'll actually go to bed while it's still actually today.  Yeah, I know...that's a lot of actuallys and maybes.  Maybe I just like saying actually.  And actually, I'm going to stop rambling now.

See everyone on day 75!!

Day 73

Today was a total slacker day in our house.  I think it was in preparation for the busy week I have ahead of me.  From Monday to Sunday, the only day I don't have something going on is Wednesday.  That's all I'm going to say at the moment, though; that way I have more to write about as things happen.

Today's picture was actually from yesterday, but I'm posting it today.  This is Taryn getting her graduation certificate at the end of LINKS for Tweens:

I told her she can always go back in the fall, when she's 13 and can take LINKS for Teens.  I'm not sure she's very enthused about it, though...lol.

And with that, I'm off.  Back on day 74...

Day 72

Yeah...it's Friday!!  Not only is it the end of the week, but it's the end of the month too:

We have now successful survived two full months (plus a half a month)...only nine full months (plus half a month) left to go.

Today I made the mistake of going to the commissary.  Don't get me wrong...grocery shopping isn't usually a faux pas.  However, going to the commissary on payday - yeah, that's playing with your life.  There were more people out shopping than I care to think about.  Had it not been for the fact that I was going to a party tonight and needed something to take with me, I would have waited til next week to get my shopping done.

Taryn did 'LINKS for Tweens' this evening; at this point, I'm not really sure whether she had fun or not.  She tends to be a bit of a non-joiner, and it takes a while to get her to say whether or not she likes something.  I guess I'll find out eventually.

Last but not least, we went to a party this evening also.  Two of the friends I've made down here will be leaving before too much longer, so we all got together as a way to say goodbye.  We had a lot of fun, and Gabriel took a lot of crazy pictures.  I'm going to try to get them posted on Facebook tomorrow; if you don't have me as a friend on there, add me! =)

And with that, I think I'm going to sign off and get to bed.  I suddenly can't stop yawning...and Saturday means I get to sleep in!!  Til day 73...