The road back

I think my writers block may have ended.. It may be time to jump back on this bandwagon.  My view from the home front has definitely changed. It's been almost a year since the hubby was medically retired from the Army and being a retiree is definitely an adjustment from active duty. Let me tell you.. getting out has not made life a bowl of peaches.
If anyone is still out their reading.... stay tuned. It's been and continues to be a bumpy ride

Bedrest and the Olympics.

It's official... with roughly 3 Weeks left I'm on bedrest.

I have to admit..it's not that bad. Hubby had to take leave to take care of the punkin.So he has off this week and then my mom will be coming up for 2 weeks. Hopefully, These kids hang in and my csection will go off without a hitch on the 15th. I guess I'll find out on Thursday. I'd love to have these kids on the 8th but I guess we'll see. I mean I'm carrying almost 11 lbs of babies and boy are they HEAVY.

When I went over to the Hospital the other night and they admitted me.. I was the ONLY person in the OB Ward. It was very cool to have all the attention and now I think I know every nurse by name.LOL. The hospital food here is kick ass... I was totally shocked. I got a menu and everything.

So I'm trying to be a good patient.. it is still hard considering we still have a 3 year old. She is still not totally understandng why mommy can't play in her room and can only play in mommy's bed. I feel bad..usually we have Kindergym, Dance and Storytime..but now she's not going to anything. Poor punkin is so bored.

Luckily for me the Olympics is on, that gives me something to watch. I'm an Olympics freak and watch all of it.. including Curling. Hubby and I got married 4 years ago last week when the Olympics was on. So it will always remind me of our wedding week.

Well I guess now that I have all this time on my hands I'll blog more..granted I'm not sure what I'll blog about since I'm stuck in bed..but I'm sure I'll think of something.

Another day

Tuesdays are always hectic in the morning here.

We have Kindergym in the morning so trying to get a 3 year old ready, dressed and out the door on time is always eventful. Add on the fact I preggo it.. well I'm sure you get it. Usually most days she cooperates..today was one of those days believe it or not. It was before that when the fun started.

Hubby got up this morning either with his alarm or before it cause I didn't even hear it, which was nice. I didn't even notice he was up until he was kissing me goodbye. I slept til about 730 when the punkin was yelling for me.

I didn't get up right away.. usually she just lays in her bed watching Mickey Mouse but this morning I hear her get up. I assume she is on the potty. I get up to check on her and she is sitting there on the toilet. COMPLETELY DRESSED in her jammies. Then I hear.. the sound of her peeing through her clothes. There goes my "yay for being potty trained" blog from yesterday.

Now the whole sight was so ridiculous to watch.. I couldn't even be mad. I asked her why she pee'd her clothes she just looked up and shrugged at me.

I love my kid.lol.

After getting her off the pot, cleaned and dressed we made it to KinderGym. Today was her last class until after the kids are born. It's getting a little much for me to get around, I tire out so easily now. I figure there's 10 classes a cycle so by the time the next cycle is good to go.. I should be too.

Meanwhile Hubby is on this new health kick. Since he got back from the sandbox and we Pcs'd... let's just say he's put on some extra weight from the lack of organized PT here and just general hub-ness.(It's a word -I made it up,lol).

A few weeks ago he was told that once he went to WLC he was pretty much on the list to go to the P-Board. Which I was super excited for. We were trying to figure out when a good time would be for him to go so not to conflict with the pending arrival of the kids...when the news came down he failed his tape test. Failure=no WLC=no promotion. Hence the sudden workout gung-ho-ness(another invented word).

Ever since getting here I hoped he would get all motivated to possibly put in his packet for PA (physician's asst) but no luck... he is definitely more motivated to be promoted, way more than he ever was in Hawaii... so hopefully the gym, protein shakes and fitness mags will pay off.

It's been over a week and so far he is still all about it. Let's keep our fingers crossed.

Forrest Gump

Forrest Gump is one of those movies that whenever it comes on I have to watch it. That: Shawshank Redemption, Blue Crush and Showgirls. Yea yea I know...Showgirls.

So there's been so many things I've wanted to blog about since the last time I signed on but everything seemed to pass by before I had the chance to actually blog about it. Now it just seems to late.

Such is my life.. Day Late, Dollar short.

I'm getting closer to my due date... well not my actual due date .. but the doctor imposed due date for the twins. The specialist said one thing (36 weeks)and my obgyn(38 weeks) said another.. but as much as I'd like to be the early due date.. I'll try and split the difference. I'll probably be as big as house by then and non-mobile but whatever. Hubby wants the kids to be born on St. Patrick's Day.. but I said I really didn't want them to turn 21 on that specific day of the year. I guess I just think too far ahead,lol.

Punkin is now officially potty trained(knock on wood). Took 3 weeks of hardcore no pull-ups during the day.. now she hasn't worn any to bed or out and about for a week. I'm so happy she did so well. I don't even have to help her anymore with the pee pee.. she does it all on her own including the flushing and washing hands. Saves me some money before I have to go and start buying diapers all over again.

We've got 2 sets of neighbors moving out this month.. one is getting out and the other is going to my old stomping ground of Hawaii. I'm kind of jealous.. I miss it way more than I thought.I hope the new families have kids.. that'd be great for the punkin.

I haven't really made any friends over here. There's one mom from kindergym that we had our first playdate with last week. Punkin had fun.. they're due to PCS in June. I'm back to square one...it quite a change from when I had a support circle at Schofield. The only positive is that all my real friends are only an hour and a half away.. so I have them when I need it.

Sorry this was a lame post.... they'll get better.. I promise.

I just need to be more on the ball.

Happy belated Christmas!

First things first.. I'm typing on my new Netbook..yay! I guess sometimes you do get what you ask for.

Well it's been an interesting week to say the least. This was our first Christmas home in 3 years and Hubby's first Christmas to spend with the punkin. For her 3 Christmas' so far the last 2 he was in the sandbox and the first one he was in Hawaii and we were in NJ. This was also the first Christmas since his mom passed... so it was very bittersweet for him.

The interesting.. all started the day before Christmas Eve.. hubby had just gotten home from work and in the shower .While we were starting to pack up ,our fire alarm goes off. Not one.. but all 3. I'm not cooking anything so I have no idea what is going on and we can't get them to go off. I call the MPs and they call the fire dept... meanwhile we decide maybe its best if we go outside just in case. Hubby starts the car and the punkin and I wait inside since its like 18 degrees or what not.

The fire dept calls back confirming we called... I tell them yes.. fire alarms, no fire, can't shut them off. He tell us to evacuate the premises(which we have already done) and the'yll be right here. Now we live basically next to the firehouse so they could've liked walked across the lawn so they were here super fast.

Our house is historic.. like ancient, built in the mid 1800s and our boiler was apparently that old as well. Our boiler had broken and was apparently burning something that caused so much heat that it set the fire alarms off. I was worried it mught be carbon monoxide but it wasn't so that was a blessing.

Now since our ancient boiler was basically 2 mice running on a wheel to make it work they tell us that it's gonna take them a while to find us a new one and we won't have any heat but they're giving us space heaters. We didn't really care.. we were leaving so that worked for us... but the whole thing put us about an hour and a half behind schedule.

We leave at about 330ish and now we get stuck in holiday traffic and rush hour.. so our 1 1/2 hour drive turns into 2 1/2 hours. Gratefully I big preggo didn't have to pee..and punkin was good in the car. While we were in traffic ,Housing called and told us they found us a boiler.. they were going to come in and have it installed so this way when we got back our heat would be working..

Yay.. bonus.

Christmas itself went off without a hitch..we hit all 3 sets of parents so it was a long day. Punkin made out really well, she got a bunch of fun stuff.

The saturday after Christmas, I decided to get the punkin's haircut. Her first. I needed mine done too, so I figured I'd kill 2 birds with 1 stone. Grandma came along for the ride to watch the punkin while I got my haircut. I went first and she watched and looked like she was gonna be good. Her turn came.... she started out pretty good but once the girl got to this huge knot.. it was all over. She started screaming and wouldn't let her finish. The girl only charged us 5 bux.. but I had to go home and fix it. Can't let my kid go around with unfinished hair. I did a pretty good job.. hubby says she looks like a little girl finally...opposed to a what .. i dont know.

We finally got home Sunday night to no heat.. so they had to emergency come out and fix it which they didn't fix so we had to call them again yesterday which they did fix. So it's nice and toasty in here now.

Today is day 2 of crash potty training.. day 1 went well... hopefully today there won't be any poop on the floor.

I guess we'll see...wish me luck

What I want for Christmas!

No it's no World Peace...although that would be very nice.. don't get me wrong. The stuff I want is just way more practical for me.

I want pedestals for my washer and dryer and my laptop fixed.

I think one of the main reasons I stopped blogging was that hubbys desktop broke in Hawaii. Luckily it happened right before he got back so he fixed it as soon as he got back from the Sandbox. Then he got a new laptop and gave me his old one which the punkin one day proceeded to jump on and crack the screen. Hence no laptop. Then we moved and were trying to get settled.. yada yada yada.

I know ... excuses, excuses.

So anyway I just want a new screen... I've been asking since July.

Next my washer and dryer are just too low for my giant huge Twin belly. I usually end up sitting on the floor (they are both front loaders) switching clothes from one to the other. Getting up off the floor these days is not an easy task.. so for convenience pedestals would be super. At the time we were trying to save money and was't deemed a necessity.. I deem it a necessity now.LOL

FYI~ I will be getting neither for Christmas... but I can hope.

Ok.. so let's start over,

Today I had my doctor's appointment after completely having preggo brain yesterday and going over to the hospital for my appointment only to have them tell me it was today. Good thing I'm totally over feeling stupid about those things.

I am measuring at 28 weeks even though I'm only 24.. I feel like a house. Twins are rough towards the end.. the positive is I only have 2 1/2 months left. Hopefully they will stay in and cook as long as I need them too. We are having a boy and a girl which means I am totally done with all the pregnancy stuff... I told the doc today " hey since you've got me open anyway to take the kids out.. I'd really like to be tied at that point" He was like sure no prob.

Punkin in excited about having a "bruda and sistah".. it hard to believe she can organize pretty full sentences. She bossy, demanding and acts like she's 10. Oh how I can't wait til she's a teenager. She had to have her tonsils out the beginning of October.. which was very traumatic for mommy. I don't recommend that for anyone under the age of 3 unless absolutely necessary. I'm glad hubby, grandma and grandpa were here for that.

West Point is okay.. It's hard to get used to the fact that basically you live on a college campus... only more strict and quiet. My college days were faarrrr from that.lol.

I am unemployed.. that wasn't the plan but when we found out we were having twins it didn't really pay for me to go back to work. I would've had to have quit basically through the holiday season so we just said screw it. I'll probably go back to work after the kids are born.. I'm thinking of being a tour guide.lol

Hubby got back from Iraq and luckily we had no "re-integration issues" as they call it. We actually are probably better now then we were before or during the sandbox. He likes his new job kinda... he's got great hours here and gets to "interact" with a lot of cadets. He was in the ER when he first got here and that was right up his alley but they decided to move him.... which works for me because now he's not working midnights.

As for now, I am liking being close to home, unfortunately this weather is a doozy.I've been here since July and still have not climitized yet. Punkin did love her first snowfall though.

Otherwise I think that's really all for right now. I'm definitely going to make an effort to do this again... and soon.

Has it been a year!

I swear I never meant to be away this long... alot of people probably totally forgot who I was. I decided to start writing again..I need some stimulus for my brain.

I've got some time on my hands now and a bunch of stuff to start blogging about again.This is one of my new years resolutions.. be it a little early.

Examples of stuff to blog:
The move to West Point
Being Unemployed
Transition to housewife again.. since hubby returned from Iraq.
Lastly.. being pregnant and getting ready to have Twins... yes folks.. Twins...which are due pretty soon.

Well.. I am off to my doctors appointment now and hopefully back on the computer either today or tomorrow.

No more long absences..that's the goal.

RIP Shell Belle

Thursday Morning at apprx 2am The Hub's mom died.

It was a huge shock.. no one expected it quite this fast.

It's been a very heartbreaking week all around. I'm very grately that he was able to be home and spend the last week of her life with her. I wish I would've been able to be home to support him. Unfortunitely that didn't happen.

As I wrote in my last post the doctors had given her a longer life expectancy than it actually turned out to be. After surgery everyone was very positive that she would be able to have somewhat of a coherent quality of life. The first 2 days after surgery, she was able to somewhat talk ,sit up and eat very puree'd food.

Unfortunitely she ended up having an Acute Mol Siezure.(i think I spelled that right).

After that she basically stopped responding and stopped eating.. the doctors told my Hub and family she had about 48 hours. They moved her into hospice and tried to make her as comfortable as possible. The Hub, his dad and his sis.. basically moved into the Hospital and waited. Almost exactly 48 hours from the time of the last prognosis.. she went to sleep for the last time.

Shell was a kick ass lady. She was well loved and will be greatly missed. She pulled no punches and took no shit from anyone. Hub's from a very small town and his family has lived there for decades. She used to own the only beauty parlor in town. She cut everyone's hair and knew everyone. Hub's mom and dad have been together since she was 14 and he was 17 and have shared everything together. I can't even begin to imagine what his loss must be like. When the Hub and I first started dating years ago, she used to call me a cradle-robber cuz I was 20 and he was 18. She'd say that I was always out to corrupt her little boy, if she only knew it was already too late.

I'm sorry that she won't be able to see her grandkids grow up.I'm sad the punkin will have no memories of her grandma. Shell was so excited about us moving so close to home. I'm so sorry and sad for my Hubby's loss..I know he is being so strong for his family... and I wish there was more I could do for him. I can't imagine what the rest of our lives are going to be like without her. It's very sad.

RIP MOM WE LOVE YOU AND YOU'LL BE MISSED.

Now in the next 3 days,opposed to sending him home,they are sending him back to Iraq... for less than a month. Basically he gets theres packs up and then gets sent here. Give a guy a break... he just lost his mom and he's got less than a month left of his deployment. I'm worried. I'm afraid he's gonna completely flip his shit when he gets back there. Seriously, what a waste of time and taxpayer money. I think the whole thing is just ridiculous... and I would love to see the Army just once NOT be a bunch of douschebags. That'll never happen.

When it Rains it Pours.

Well the Hub is at home in NJ...he landed yesterday. Someone being sent home from Iraq and not for R&R means one thing... very bad news.
The Hub's mom was just diagnosed with a Brain Tumor... prognosis..bad, very bad. Let's just say this New Year hasn't turned out so well so far.

Hub's mom in the past 6 years or so has been a very sickly woman. She had major surgery to insert metal rods in her neck, where they didn't know if she was going to live, when he was in Iraq the first time so they sent him home on emergency leave. A few years ago she had a pain pump inserted, so this way they could administer the doses themselves whenever the pain got too bad. Over the years she had started to do things that everyone chalked up to the medication like mood swings, randomly falling asleep and other things that I'm not to sure of.

Well recently the pain had gotten really bad, so they went in to adjust her pain pump.. and on Christmas Eve.. she apparently wasn't really responding to anyone and started throwing up. So they thought she was going into overdose.. and went to the ER to adjust her pump again.

So the day after Christmas... I don't really know what happened but they had to take her back to the ER. At this point they decided to do a CAT scan. The results of the CAT scan showed that she had this tumor.

That night the Hub's sis called me at 730pm my time so I knew something was wrong. That phone call came right in the middle of the giant island wide blackout. From that point on the past week has been nothing but non stop hecticness.

The hub pretty much has instant access to the computer in Iraq.. so I text messaged his email to call me ASAP it was about his mom. Then proceeded to try and send a red cross message. It took almost 2 days for the red cross message to get through and only 2 hours for my hub to call me back. Telling him that his mom had a brain tumor.. and it was pretty bad, was one of the hardest things I ever had to do. Especially him being over there... I felt and still feel terribly helpless.

At this point.. the doctors have the prognosis at very bad.. and the doctors Red Cross message stats that "Life expectancy is poor". I see those words, know how sick she is and think. Bad.

Apparently his commander saw those words and said...

" Not good enough,, I need a better definition of 'life expectancy is poor. what does that mean exactly"

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?????

Now.. let me say something. My hub has done his year in the sandbox...he was one of the lucky suckers that got suck in this 15 month rotation bullshit..that only truly affected a few Brigades. What's 2 months off 15.. you seriously can't function the last 2 months without one soldier.

Ok. so now the hub is beside himself. He hasn't been able to see his mom since the punkin was born. Thats' almost 2 1/2 years.. if something happens before he gets home.. I don't know what he'll do.

I'm pisst off.. and think this is complete bull. The fight to get my hub home starts. To see the emails coming through about how upset he is and how he doesn't know what to do kills me. It makes me feel more helpless. So I do what anyone else in my position would do. I start making phone calls. Not Army bullshit phone calls .. f that. I go above that.

Lets just say some phone calls got made.. like Senate phone calls. Needless to say the phone calls didn't really go anywhere... but when I told my Hub that I was doing that.. his packet got signed and he was on his way home in 12 hours.

Don't mess with me or my family... I'll take you down how we do in Jersey.... Politically.

Now that the Hub is home .. I've gotten better details. Sadly, the type of tumor she has is the worst tumor you could possibly get. It's about the size of a Mango. The doctors removed only about 40% of it because they wanted her to have the best quality of life she can for the short amount of time she has. They give her anywhere from 3 months, if they do nothing... 19 months if they try and shrink with the chemo.

I'm not going home. I got permission to go from work as long as I was back for inventory by the 11th.Which really irratated me that I had to be back for that.They sent my Husband home from a war zone but no one can run my inventory. whatever.

I had gotten my plane tickets.. booked the whole 9. The punkin and I were supposed to leave tomorrow. Hubby told us not to come home. He says it's not that he doesn't want us there.. he just doesn't think its a good idea. He gave lots of valid reasons. cost of the ticket, most of the time he'll be at the hospital, what happens if I fly out there and she passes and then then have to fly right back, him and his sister don't want anyone to see her looking the way she looks, etc. I just want to be there for him.. if it was me.. I'd want him there. So as much as it hurts my feelings, I honored his wishes, canceled my tickets and are staying behind.

Now.. here's the next thing.. when his leave is up.. they are sending him back to the box. Is it me.. or does it make no sense that he'll have about 1 month left.. but they are still going to spend the money to fly him ALLL the way back to iraq only to fly him ALLL the way to Hawaii a month later. Wouldn't it make more sense to just send him here. Ohhh our tax dollars at work.

So that's whats up.. sorry my first post of the year is a big sad bummer post. I'm not a religious person.. but if anyone wants to send some prayers this way.. they'll always be appreciated.

I really hope 2009 isn't going to be too terrible.

The Rain on Christmas

Well Merry Christmas (and a belated Happy Thanksgiving)to all. I know it's been a while but the hecticness of Christmas at the mall is finally over... hence the first blog in over a month. I seriously haven't even opened this sight in like a month.

Today was a very mellow day.... I sat home.. just me and the kid, completely enjoyimg the solitude of it all. Again it rained on and off all day so best bet was to stay inside and that's exactly what we did.

A bunch of stuff happened in the last month... so I'll bullet point it and catch everyone up.
So here it is in no particular order

~Went to the base Christmas tree lighting.. always strikes me as kinda crazy when you get to watch the Christmas tree get lit in shorts and a tee and it's like 70 degrees.


There was a grammar school choir who sang a jingle bells song version of Santa being fat and the 60 year old choir director decided to do a solo and she was terrible. I taped her and actually thought about putting her up on YouTube. The punkin loves the lights so everynight we drive past the tree on the way home.. Since I didn't put up a tree this year, it's like our own tradition.. just the 2 of us.

~The Hub got promoted and finally made his E5... and we got our report date for West Point..so we'll be back east by August.. so if anyone wants to hang .. let me know.

~Dec 6 .. he was officially gone a year..and that means I've been writing this blog for a year. It went by way faster than I thought it would.. and now we are at the less than 2 month mark from home. I have to admit I do kind of dred having to share my house and bathroom with another person again , even if it is the Hub .For those who started late on my blog (and are actually still reading it).. here's the first post.. And so it begins..... I was a way more entertaining blogger back than.

~The squatter asked if he could move back in with us when they get back from Iraq.. and was told a resounding NO! The hubby blamed me, but it was him.. it's ok, he can blame me all he wants.

~Work was insane.. people are crazy this time of year. Black Friday was ridiculous, I had a girl pass out in the store at 845am waiting in line because she didnt eat. Since she was only 15 and was shopping with her friend .She was an unaccompanied minor and had to be taken away in the ambulance. She was fine.... just stupid. We did over 20 grand that day and were the #11 store in the company that day. Oh the craziness.

~There were 2 rushings of the punkin to the ACC. One for pink eye.. the other for an inflamed tonsil. The pink eye didn't worry me so much but the tonsil was so big in the back of her throat I completely freaked. Then she had a reaction to her medicine.. nothing serious but it just seems to be 1thing after the other. Her tonsil is still crazy big... i wonder if it doesn't go down if they'll have to take them out.

~My friend *J* threw a Christmas party at her house and turned the air down to like 60 so it was freezing cold and felt like winter. It was a blast and I finally learned the true definition of a "white elephant" gift .

~We've had 2 Video conference things to see my hubby since the one on Halloween. The last one was terrible.. the signal kept dropping and towards the end I couldn't hear him. It didn't really matter though... he got to see the punkin run around and stuff.

~I got totally obsessed with the Twilight craze... granted I had jumped on the bandwagon way before everyone else.(TEAM JACOB-CUZ REAL MEN DON'T SPARKLE DAMMIT!) I do have to admit I was way disappointed by the movie. So I'm kinda over it. I have started reading her book The Host.. started out kinda slow but now not so bad.

~Both my neighbors upstairs have moved out and they are completely renovating both apts. New screen doors, ceiling fans, the whole nine.. I think they are getting hardwood floors. It sure sounds like they are getting floors.. its really loud. This whole place is like unbelievably empty.... ever since the other Brigade left... even all the wives went home. I'm like one of 7 or 8 people left on my block.. but hey at least there's no traffic

~ I did the punkins xmas pictures for the christmas cards myself.. they came out pretty kick butt. I posted the semi fuzzy /far awayish ones.. just cuz you all know I don't like to post pics of the fam or the kid. Yay for snapfish and their very cool card selections. Yes that bottom one is right outside my patio gate.

Otherwise I think that is really everything. I am going to try and make a more conscience effort to blog... hopefully it will make these last 2 months go by super fast.

Merry Christmas all... hope you are all doing well. I'll try and catch up on all your lives in the next few days.

Decisions, Decisions

So I meant to blog yesterday but I fell asleep .. and then I meant to blog the day before but my power went out. So fingers crossed I'll finish this blog.

I've decided that I'm going to continue blogging, I'm sure that within the upcoming months with the hubby coming home and the PCS move I'll prolly need to vent and bitch. My current blogs may be as spuratic as they are now.. but they'll be around.

Next I've decided that I'm quitting my job. Probably not long after Christmas, my date is very tentative. I love my job but my last few months here, I'd really like to be able to spend it with the Hub, the punkin and really just enjoy Hawaii. Once I get back over to the mainland I'm sure I'll start back up again.. maybe even try something different. I'm not sure what but I guess time will tell.

I'm just getting to the point where I'm ready to move on from here. Once I finally leave here, I will never come back.

Hawaii has been a huge part of my life for the last ten years but the memories and friends (Good and bad) will be with me forever but I'm ready for it all to finally be in the past. A lot of my memories here ....I basically was alone. Yet, there are some memories that no matter how hard I try.. they ain't going anywhere. I also know that once I leave here there will be some people that I will never keep in touch with... that's sad to me but a fact of life. Another sad fact is.. I'm kinda okay with that.

I'm ready to go.

Homeward Bound

Well today is re-enlistment day. The Hub is officially staying a soldier for another 6 years. God help us... well .. help me. LOL.

They are doing some Veteran's Day Re-Up ceremony.. so Hubby was all over that and had to re-enlist to be part of that. There was another reason why Hubby had to re-enlist basically ASAP.

Since the hub had passed the promotion board, we had been throwing around a lot of ideas on where we should go next. Whether he wanted to change his MOS. He wanted to stay here... I told him if he re-enlisted to stay on this island.. he'd be staying by himself cuz I was not spending another 3 years here. Needless to stay he passed on that idea.

He also wanted to go to a non-deploying unit. He felt like he missed so much of the punkin's early days that he didn't want to miss anything else...so it began.

I wanted to go south.. he wanted to go back to Jersey. I didn't want to go back to Jersey... I just came from there. I wanted to be close to home..but far enough away to not be bothered all the time. He said middle east coast VA/DC/MD. We bounced around a couple of places and finally decided on a place. Then was he going to be able to get into a non-deploying slot. Oh the Drama.

The place we decided on was closed .. so he had to apply to see if there was going to be a slot open at the time ,we were due to peace out of this place. He said usually you get a yes or no answer within like a day or 2.

A week and a half ago he put in for the slot... and we waited. Day one and 2 passed with no word. Hub said that was normal. Then day 3 and 4 passed.. with still no word. I started to get discouraged but the Hub said not getting an immediate response was a good sign cuz if the slot was closed they would've came right back and said no. Another whole day went by when at like 4 am the following morning i get this text message:

"Guess what? We be going to West Point, I got the notice today. Luv you"

That's right we are headed to West Point. Which is super exciting for me... since it basically is only an hour drive from home for us. After spending all this time alone.. I get to hang out with my friends and fam AND the Hub is not deploying. Everyone back home is really happy. I think they are more excited to see our kid then actually us,LOL. Hub is just excited for Army football and the close distance to Yankee Stadium. Oh the priority.

The hub is locked-in but needed to re-up sooner than later to make sure it stays ours. So today is that day... and hopefully the Army doesn't screw anything up within the next 8 months.

Now I've been to visit West Point and gone to Bear Mountain a few times, but if anyone (all 4 of you that still read my terrible blog) has any suggestions, advice or just general info I could use I'll gladly take it.

The countdowns begin.

Another day, another post.

So on thursday the punkin turned 2! I bought her an Alice in Wonderland dress and that was her birthday dress.(Benefit of a Halloweenish birthday!) She was so cute.

Hard to believe that my little girl is 2, it went by so fast I can't believe it.
This whole year went by super fast.. which I guess is a good thing.. considering my hubby left in December. Only a few months left.

For Halloween she was Minnie Mouse.I never post pics but I am breaking my rule cuz she just looked so adorable!!!She was totally amused with the whole concept of trick or treating thing. When she got tired I would have to carry her from house to house... but always wanted to walk up to the house herself.



Lastly after trick or treating.. we had our first VTC(video teleconference) with the hubby in Iraq. His computer is not completely working so hence no webcam. This was the first time we got to see each other since he was home in April. He got to see the punkin all dressed up in her costume. It was really great to see him, I miss him bunches.

Only like 3 more months... I hope it goes fast.

I do want to post... I think.

Most days I don't want to write. It feels more like a chore than anything else.

I can't decide if it's just the fall funk or if I really don't want to do this anymore.

This time of year always gets me like super bummed. There's never enough time, work is always insane and even though fall is my favorite season... this is the worst time of year for me emotionally. It really doesn't help that my hubby is deployed and I'm stuck out here pretty much by myself

Maybe it's just that I don't have time or I just don't think I have anything really worth blogging about. I've been debating whether or not I want to keep blogging for the past month or so now.

This deployment is slowly coming to an end and the whole point of the blog was to have a place to vent, bitch, yada yada throughout the whole thing. Apparently (knock on wood) it's been way more uneventful than I thought it was going to be.

So now I've come to a crossroads.. and I'm still debating.

Sigh

SUCCESS

Finally. My hubby is promotable!!!!!!

The Hub went to the Promotion board and passed.

He was like super nervous and freaking out all day the other day. Totally thought he was going to get kicked out of the board.

Apparently he did like super well and was 1 point shy of perfect at the board. Now we wait for the point spread and hopefully the rest of his pending points will give him enough points to actually get promoted.

Keep your fingers crossed!!!!!

I had so much more I wanted to blog about.. I just can't remember.
I guess that's a sign I should go to bed.

Milestones

So the punkin pee'd in the potty for the first time the other morning.
I was so excited youd've thought I won the lottery.

The fact that I was so excited..... made her clap and yell yay!!

She hasn't done it again since.
Now she just sits there... with her clothes on.

It's amazing what motherhood does to a person that peeing can bring such happiness.lol.

My other Milestone is that we've only got about 4 months left of this deployment.
That's only 20 burrito nights to go.

Downswing

Just as things are starting to look up...I should know better.

The hub's grandmother passed away this weekend.

She had cancer..... we only found out about 3 days before she passed. The Hub's family didn't want to tell anyone she was that sick... I guess they didn't want anyone to worry. So it was kind of sudden... sort of.

The past few days have been very hectic seeing if the Hub would be able to get emergency leave.. to get home for the funeral. He was denied. I feel terrible that he is so far away all alone... I wish there was something I could do for him.

I wish I had some great story or funny anecdote to tell but truth is I only met her twice maybe three times. I'm sorry my daughter won't get to really know here.

She was greatly loved and will be sadly missed.
RIP Grandma Marge.

Psycho .. party of one.

So Saturday night was another Parent's Night Out.

Instead of actually going out we decided to stay in and just BBQ because not all kids could be watched. Usually it's the same four or five of us... this is our clique. Not by any means do we portray to be the "cool kids".. basically we're a bunch of old NKOTB fans. We are very accepting since we are all in the same boat.. and we let anyone hang out with us.

Anyways this week, there was an extra person invited to our bi-weekly Pow-wow. She is new to the island and her daughter is friends with my friends kid. So feeling bad that she was new.. she was invited to hang out.

She seemed normal enough at first. Then she did the first of many very strange things... and you'll see why.

We are standing in the living room and she whips out her phone goes something along the lines of "Hey I need all your phone #'s.. you first!" she looks at *T*. *T* relucently gives her # and then I'm standing next to her.. and she's like "you next". At that point I didn't know what to do so I gave it up. She then proceeds to call both of us and says " here this way you have me in your phone already".

*T* and I look at each other with this really confused look. I think maybe she's just lonely cause she's in a new place and just chalk it up to her newness.

About a half hour goes by and food is done so we sit outside around the patio table to eat. So "Newbie" looks up and goes.. ok.. so everyone tell me about yourself. We all looked at each other and really no one said anything. We all know each other and really don't think there's anything to tell. To break the silence I go " I work". Newbie goes.. everyone here is stay a home moms so we all work. ( Are you kidding me .. i know that.) I realize at this point it's all downhill tonight.

Newbie proceeds to start her life story. I paraphrase " Let me tell you a little bit about myself. I'm not embarrassed by this but I thought I'd let you all know I'm Bi-Polar" At that exact moment punkin starts calling for me and one of *L*'s kids bring her out to me. I have to get up and go inside but I never get to hear the rest of the story.

I come back outside about 10 minutes later and she's still talking and all my friends basically just have "deer in the headlights " look on their faces. For the next half hour everyone rotates in and out of the house from the table and this lady never shut up. She talked about extremely inappropriate things that no one really gave a crap about. Hot guys, her sex life, her husband .. a lot of it I blocked out. It got so bad that *J* and I started text messaging each other under the table cuz no one could get a word in.

I rotated into the kitchen with *C* and she looks at me and goes .."were you and *J* texting each other" I said yes.. you could tell" she goes " yes I was trying to text you but I couldn't get the thing to send look" she has this text that says " hey are you 2 texting shit?" it was the funniest thing .

Anyway we all finally went inside and started to play singstar. (It's like Kareoke only super fun) That was the only way she finally stopped talking.. but she complained about all the songs that she didnt know any. That's the point no one knows all the songs thats the fun part.

Eventuall the night came to an end. I was about to go upstairs to go get the sleeping punkin out of the playpen when Newbie asked if I could drive her home. She apparently walked and didn't plan on staying as late as she did. I said yes.. it was 10:45., what was I gonna do make her walk home alone in the dark.

Now the day before the punkin was running a fever and was being a little crabby but that morning she was fine. I go upstairs to get the punkin, I pick her up and carry her downstairs. At the point she proceeds to PUKE all over me. It was like she knew she was going to have to go in the car with that lady. At that point *J* volunteers to drive the newbie home.

I have friends who are bi-polar and I've worked with people who are bi-polar... and they're all relatively normal. Most are on medication... but none of them have randomly spewed that info to me on the first day I met them.

I feel bad about this whole thing.. but I really have no desire to hang out with her again, even if it's not her fault.

Does that make me a bad person?

Upswing

I know I haven't written in a while.. I haven't really been motivated to write about the Army and Army life. It's been really crappy around here with that so I figured, I'd just not say anything. I'm finally going to explain what's been going on.

The past few months things have been kinda at a standstill with the hub and the Army.

The last time my hubby was in Iraq he broke his leg/ankle.. nothing serious but serious enough for him to have to have surgery and be put on a Med profile. After his surgery he was supposed to have physical therapy.. but out of his 36 appointments... he was only permitted to go to about 8 or so of them. He never heeled properly so was told he can't run anymore.

What's the biggest part the the PT program ..... running.

Partly because of that, partly because of the actual injury and partly because my hubby likes McDonald's a little too much.. he's had a really hard time keeping his weight down.

He's been on profile for a really long time.. and hasn't been promoted since prior to 2003. He'd been given the benefit of the doubt for a long time and now it was time to shit or get off the pot.

This time since he's been in the sandbox, there was almost a complete change of command in his unit and the new command basically thought he was a crappy soldier because of his weight and seemed pretty hellbent to med board his ass right out of the army.

Hence mine and his complete loss of faith and dis-illusionment with the Army.

Apparently some time last month ,after he failed his last tape, his 1SGT realized the hub is not a shitbag. He made the hub his personal pet project to get him off the flag and get him promoted. This was the new goal. PT twice a day, strict diet plan.. the whole nine. He was getting taped today and this was basically it.. pass or civilian life.

So everything was very up in the air..but things finally are looking up..

Today he passed his tape test.. that means he is off his med flag, able to re-enlist and able to get promoted. All total he's lost 44 lbs ( he was heavier than we initally thought). Is it wrong for me to want to kiss the 1SGT for being all HOOAH?lol

This is a big relief for both of us. The not knowing what the future was going to hold for us has been very stressful and nerve-racking... now it seems that everything's gonna work out( knock on wood). I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

I guess I can still write my blog since I'll continue to be an Army wife.