Are you Wondering???

I'm sure there's a few of you out there that are wondering what happened to me. Wondering if I just drop off the face of the earth after Chad came home...........wondering, wondering, wondering. Well, I can't have that, so I'll break it down for you in a very quick, simple post. Chad came home...........................had duty 2 days later..............................we took Myshel to the doctor knowing she has strep (for the second time in a month) only to have the doctor tell us that her quick strep test came back negative and they'd send the more thorough one to the lab and call us on Friday if it's positive..........................we had a nice quiet Thanksgiving at home, ate pie and dessert with friends, Chad's complaining that his throat is hurting...............................Doctor called Friday morning, Myshel has strep ( I already knew that!!!) Chad had duty that day.................went to medical, he has strep.............. I had a tickle in my throat...................................... Saturday Chad was on antiboitics, and I was in bed with strep and a fever, barely able to swallow my own spit because of the pain and amazed that absolutely every part of my body can hurt at the same time. By 2:30 AM we were at the hospital emergency room where we spent 3 hours for them to tell me what I already knew, that I have strep throat........................... Sunday, I'm finally on antibiotics, but not feeling better, Myshel and Chad are doing great..................................... Monday I wake up throwing up and feeling, it it's possible, feel worse than before. Chad calls my doctor.........medication and strep will do that, keep taking meds.............grrrrr...........Tuesday, still have an extremly sore throat, thinking of suing for malpractice................Wednesday, sore throat's getting better, FINALLY, have a migraine..................Thursday, sore throat's much better, but not gone, have an even bigger migraine!

I think that's about my week in a nutshell! Hope yours has been better!

The Big "E" Is Back!

As unbelievable as it seems, after 201 days, the USS Enterprise, aka, the Big E is BACK!

And I'm sure it's no surprise, I am so flippin' happy about it!

So, I'll give a quick overview of the events of Friday night and Saturday along with some pictures:

First of all, for the first time ever, I went to the night before party that the support group puts on. I wanted to see the 8 foot long cake decorated like a carrier. The cake was pretty cool, the ice sculpture was pretty cool, the rest was not so great! Besides the fact that the food was fair and they didn't have very much of it considering the number of people that were there, there wasn't enough places to sit! After about 30-40 minutes Vance wasn't feeling very good and I sat with him at one of the tables outside while my friend stood inside to see if we won any door prizes. And we actually did! Can you believe that! We won an hour long massage and a chocolate fondue for 2. We split it and if you know me, you know that I took the massage! (chocolate is icky!) Vance did manage to get an autographed hat from The Gravedigger, which was pretty cool for him. So, that was Friday's events! I spent the rest of my evening wondering whether I wanted to take Vance to the pier the next morning if he was going to be sick........... He decided around 8AM the next morning that he'd go.

We were told that the ship would be pierside at 10AM, so we planned on being on the base around 9AM so that we could watch it come through the bay. I got everybody ready, waited for Candy, aka, the camera-lady and another friend whose husband is also on the enterprise. We got to the base as planned and we were sitting at a traffic light, looking at the water and I thought, "huh, we really should be able to see the ship by now" and as I thought that I looked to the piers and there it was, the Big E, already pierside! They came in early and we missed it, but it was ok, because that ment Chad would be off that much sooner! It looked soooo good sitting there! It's always a thrill to see that ship after a deployment!

We parked, a little further away than I had planned, walked over to the ship and waited! It was cold, but nobody seemed to be complaining much. I felt so bad for the people manning the rails, they had to have been freezing up there. Chad called me from his office and told me that he was waiting to excort a guy from customs off the ship. (customs has to come and inspect the ship to make sure that they got rid of all their forgein foods. They can't bring them back into the US and after he was done he needs to have an escort off the ship)

Now, normaly I wouldn't be happy about this, because it would mean that I would have to wait even longer for Chad to get off, however, that was not the case here. In fact, the customs guy and Chad's officers were a wonderful blessing that day!

Because he had to escort this guy, Chad was one of the first ones off the ship. He got off even before the officers did! Yeehaw! In fact, by the time that all the other 2nd classes were getting off the ship, we were already home! You've got to love that!

Chad and the kids ripped up the deployment chart, Chad passed out all his "goodies" he'd brought us and we spent the rest of the weekend enjoying having him home. He's back at work today for duty, but he'll be back with us tomorrow morning. It just feels so good, 'cause

THE BIG E IS BACK!

Final Countdown..........................

Countdown: 12 Hours

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
Wooooooooooooooooooohooooooooooooooooooooo!

They Just Make You Smile

I've been watching one of my friends little boys for her since she's gone back to work. He's a very laid back little boy and acts very shy (even though I know he's not at all that way at home) His name is Jared and he's almost 3 years old. Yesterday we were eating pizza for lunch. I let the boys, Noah and Jared, eat their pizza on a blanket on the floor while they watched the movie, Cars. Jared had a very messy face and so I asked him to wipe his mouth with his napkin, which was on the floor, too. He looked around, but didn't see it right away, so I asked Noah to hand him his napkin. Noah looked around and didn't see it right away either (strange, I think, since it was sitting on the floor between the two of them) Jared noticed it though and picked it up, said, "it's right here" and then put it back on the floor and waited for Noah to hand it to him.

Countdown: 2 days and a wake up hee hee hee

Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah

That about sums up my mood, my activities and my attitude. Blah, blah blah.

Yesterday was the longest day ever in history, I'm sure of it. It just went on and on and on, which I think is where my blah mood started. It's lingering into today, though, and that's not good. I think I have a list of about 100 things I'd like to get done before Chad comes home and if we're lucky 2 might get done. I had a friend tell me the other day, "my house wasn't clean when he left and it's not going to be clean when he comes back". I'm starting to think that's not such a bad philosophy. Blaaahhhhh

My kids are home from school today, too. And trust me, they really need to go back to school. Myshel is babysitting all day, so that is at least one less attitude in the house, but trust me all the other attitudes more than make up for it. Noah had a bad night. I think his throat was hurting (they told me that could/would happen around the 5-8 days after surgery) so today he's tired and grumpy and thinks the world, or at least this household, should revolve around him. Vance is in a "leave me alone, I don't care about anything" mood, which isn't good, because his mean mother expects him to help out today. McKaylie just doesn't want to do anything she doesn't want to do. And me, my attitude is blah, blah, blah, blah. All of these together make a very volatile combination. There could be casualties..................

It didn't help that it rained, no poured, the entire day yesterday. I mean, literally, it did not stop pouring rain all day. Yes, that definitely added to the blah effect.

You wouldn't think that the attitude of our house would be blahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, considering we are so close to being done with this deployment, however, I think that that is a factor, too. The last few weeks are always hard, you're so close, yet not quite there yet. You can see the end, but you still have to get through the day to day stuff until "the" day is here. Blahhhhhh

I'm sure we'll get out of our blah funk, but it could be another very long, blah, blah day.

countdown: 4 days and a wake up

Home is Where the Navy Sends Us.................

It was brought to my attention this morning that I have not told everyone that we have our orders. Chad's transfer date in next June and we've been looking at orders for the last few months. There are several reasons that we have not told many people. First and foremost: We dont' have the written orders yet. I know that might not mean much to you non-navy folks, but I know that all you navy folk are nodding your heads and saying, "ahhh, yeah". It doesn't necessarily mean anything, but I've dealt with the navy long enough to know that things can change and not that they can't change after you have orders in hand, but they're less likely too. So, we usually wait until we have the written orders before we start announcing anything. Second: Against my better judgement, (things can and do change alot, sort of thing) I'm starting to get excited about these orders, and well, I don't want to jinx it, silly, I know, but that's the truth of it. However, I'm willing to take a leap of faith, and let you all know that our next duty station will be in Newport, Rhode Island. We're excited about it. Both Chad and I think that it will be a great place for our family, at least for the next three years.

Countdown: 6 days and a wake up.....................

Not My Smartest Moment..............

The kids and I were making a big sign to put on the garage door for when Chad comes home. We had it all laid out on the dining room floor and used a big fat marker. While all the kids were writing their own messages and pictures on it, Myshel asked, "what are you going to do if this bleeds through?" My first though, "oh crap", but I said, "oh, it wouldn't do that, would it?" Sure enough it did. Definitely not my smartest moment. I wished I'd thought that through first. So, if anyone knows how to get permanent marker off a vinyl floor, let me know!

Countdown

7 days and a wake up........................

The Definition of Swallow Is..............

My conversation with Noah while he was eating his lunch today................

N: "It hurts."
Me: "It hurts when you swallow?"
N: "No, it hurts when the food goes down."
Me: "Does it hurt when you drink your juice?"
N: "Only when it goes down."

School Pictures

I hardly ever buy school pictures. I think they're too expensive and they usually never turn out the way I'd like them to. McKaylie was set on getting pictures this year, though. So, I bought school pictures for her and crossed my fingers. We got them back today and I am very pleased. Yeah!!!

Is she not the cutest girl ever?????

One Down, One To Go.........

Noah had his first surgery on Monday. They removed his tonsils and adenoids. In a nutshell......... he did unbelievably, amazingly, exceptionally well! He cried about putting on the hospital pajamas (I knew that was coming) and he was very upset when they first brought him out of the anesthesia, which is very normal. That's it, though. He did really great in the recovery room, too. He didn't even complain or fuss. What a blessing! I know the Lord blessed him and watched over him through the whole day and even now at home while he's recovering (which is going really smoothly, too) We couldn't have asked for this surgery to go any better. Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers for Noah, they were all answered and then some!

Not Quite a "Family" Picture

Have I ever mentioned that I love Lincoln Housing. Well, I do, for many different reasons. One of the big ones is because they have lots of give aways for their residents and they provide a lot of free activities. AND in October if you're one of the lucky ones to get registered first, they'll pay to have a family portrait taken for the Holidays. This is the second year in a row that Chad hasn't been here for the "family" portrait. It was ok last year, because we didn't quite make the "cut", but this year we did and as much as I like the pictures, it's not the same without Daddy in them. I had planned on only having the kids pictures taken, but they kind of tricked me into the pictures. These are the two I like the best..............if only Chad were in it, it would be a nice family picture. Thanks Lincoln Military Housing!

Happy Halloween

We went trick-or-treating through our housing. Just imagine hundreds of costumed children out searching for candy...........It was crazy. Fun, too, I guess. McKaylie said it was kind of fun. Noah was pooped after about the first 20 minutes and Myshel carried his bag for him the rest of the time. Two pirates (the little one still not in his full costume), an Ice princess (fitting isn't it???) and a dog

Enjoying the loot

Book Character Parade

McKaylie's school let the kids dress up in the afternoon on Halloween, but they had to dress up as a book character. Their book and costume also had to be approved by their teacher. Mcakylie still wanted to be a dog at school, so we found her a book about a dog, Biscuit. She wasn't the same color as Biscuit but she didn't care. It was fun to watch all the kids during their parade.