The Last "Romantic" Outing

The last thing that Tim wanted to do before we left was to go overnight, just he and I, somewhere. Little did I know that he had alterior motives. He contacted a fishing guide somewhere in TX and booked a trip with him for us. We left one afternoon and got there that night. The motel that we stayed at was built for fishermen and location, not comfort and beauty. We got up at about 4:30 the next morning and were on the lake about an hour later. Anyone who knows me, knows that this was done totally out of love for my husband. I am so not a morning person. It wasn't the most exciting day that I have had with my husband but it wasn't horrible either. I had the first catch of the day AND the biggest catch of the day. Tim told me it was bigger than any bass he has ever caught. That'll teach him to take me fishing again. It was the first time I have ever been on a fishing boat with my husband and in an odd way, it helped to bring me closer to him. Below are pictures of Tim's first catch of the day, Tim wishing he were me and catching a big bass, my BIG bass catch, and the first bass of the day caught by me. :)

Playing Catch....My Summer Vacation

I hang my head in shame. I have been a bad blogger and haven't kept up so I thought that I would give you a quick update to what the Metcalf summer was like and then in the next few days fill in the blanks with pictures and more stories. We did a alot of driving(all of it done exclusively by lil' ole me.) But first, Tim came home right after school ended for his mid tour leave. It was such a wonderful time! We did some fun stuff like going to Sea World, but we also did a lot of just hanging at the house. And I have to say that I fell more in love with my husband during that time. It was just a rare time where time seemed to stop and we really got to enjoy being together again and really appreciate even the little things. When he left, the kids and I headed to Monterey, CA. We stopped off in Hesperia, CA first to say hello to my sister's family and my brother's family and I took the kids to a surprise trip to Disneyland. Boy, were they mad at me for waking them up so early UNTIL Connor read a street sign that said "Disneyland Blvd" and they figured out where we were going. Then it was a party to be sure. When we got to Monterey, we had fun with Grandmama and more family then we ever get to be around. Connor even got to build a robot with his Uncle Craig...a very cool sculpture that I need to get a picture of so that I can post it. We did the beach(A LOT), the Monterey Bay Aquarium, tide pooling, shopping, San Fransisco, and an adventure to Big Sur that ended up with us being stranded for a bit with a car that refused to start. Yikes. After our time in CA, we headed over to UT and saw more grandparents, more cousins, more aunts and uncles and did tons of fun, fun, fun things there too. My kids now think that I am made of money and I have to remind them that Summer is over and life is back to normal, budget and all. We ended our trip with more car problems, 2 new members of the family-kittens named Blossom and Roxas(yes, I lost my mind and drove from UT to TX with kittens), and we figured that we had drove through a total of 8 states this summer in all. Quite and Adventure and one my kids will not soon forget.

Another contest

Okay, in times like these finances are tight and finding advice is a good thing. Here's a good blog about it and they are running a contest right now where you could win a Wii or an ipod. I thought I would give it a chance and see if I can finally win one of these things. Check it out:
http://www.christianpf.com/wii/

My new neighbor

After repeatedly trying to discourage them from moving in, I finally gave up and let my new neighbors make themselves at home.....


mommy on nest


daddy watching near by



In the beginning, I kept knocking down their starter of a nest. Why, you may ask? They decided to build this nest right above my front door. Now, we are in for some bird bombadeering. Not the most pleasant experience to be pooped on while walking out the door...and I am hoping that they don't fly at us when the babies arrive. But, on the bright side of things, maybe I can squeeze a biology lesson from this. I know that these are not the best pictures. I will try to get better ones later. They are rather cute little birds, putting all annoyance aside and I think it is funny how they stare at me with an indignant look when we open the door.

Chop, Chop

So here is Laurel's latest self imposed hair cut. This time she only got her bangs. The scary thing is she is getting better at this. At least I know that someday she can have a career as a beautician. But I still hate the outcome of her dabbling.

BEFORE


I know that this isn't the best hair shot, but the point was to show you that her hair was long enough to catch in her ponytail.


AFTER


Like said, not the worse of her chop jobs.....

In other news, she busted out with a comment that floored me the other day. As we were watching TV she commented on how pretty she thought the girls on the TV were. Then adds:
"But I don't think I am pretty. If I was, Keven would like me."
WHAT?!
I thought these kind of self esteem issues and wanting boys to like you like a "girlfriend" didn't start for at least another 3 years or so. I explained that Keven did like her, but as a friend because boys this age don't like girls like that and that didn't mean she wasn't pretty(cause she is!) (SO biased here.)

Mother's Day Contest

Okay, I just found a fun blog that is written very witty and makes me laugh about mother hood. It is called The Meanest Mom. Right now they are having a REALLY cool mother's day contest. If you want to win some COOL loot go to this blog posting and follow that steps. Good luck to all!!

http://themeanestmom.blogspot.com/2009/04/mothers-day-giveaway.html

On the right track?

So, I finally got serious about working out. I have been struggling this time around with Tim being gone. It has really bothered me. I am usually very independent and proactive.....I have never been a wife that mopes while he is gone. And I am not really doing that now, but I haven't been functioning so great either. Procrastinating more than normal, not sleeping, feeling like I am losing my mind...Anyhow, I knew that exercising would be a great release for stress and that it would help in the long run with my sleeping problem. Plus, I don't want to be fat anymore. I am SO much cuter in my head....and then I look at pictures and wonder when the fat chick showed up. Ha. I know they say that the camera adds 10 pounds but when they took pictures of me last it left that and more on me once they were done taking the pictures. Anyhow, my neighbor and I banded together and we have started out this week being workout studs. We even had a trainer show us what to do....hopefully now I can be good at home too and change my diet up so all the exercising will get results.
In other news, Laurel cut her bangs. ARGH!! That child!!!! She is killing me with all the haircutting. At least I know that she has a future in the beauty business someday. And at least this time it was only her bangs. Yes, they were chopped pretty short, but I am hoping that it grows fast and in no time look cuter again. I will post a picture of her chop job in the next post.

The great destroyer of sleep

I haven't really been sleeping to begin with so the title isn't all that truthful, but I now have one more reason for my lack of sleep.
Last night, Laurel came to me complaining that her ear really hurt. Usually this is cause for me to think "Uh oh!" but this time for a different reason other than an ear infection. I sent her away once because I was distracted but she came back and this time said it really hurt! And would you look in my ear? So I peered inside and there was an earring back in her canal! Yikes. So, I got her to lay down calmly and pulled it out with tweezers. Thankfully all was well.....or so I thought. As the night when on, she kept telling me that her ear still hurt. She had an ear infection. It was just a coincidence that it was also the ear that she put the earring back into. And why that happened still baffles me....was she thinking it was some Chinese ancient healing secret and would make things better? This is the kid that shoved a sponge capsule(you know the kind that look like pills and when you put them in water they pop into shapes) up her nose and didn't say anything. I never know what she is thinking. Anyhow, I didn't get much sleep last night. About 2am after listening to her alternating screaming and moaning, I took her down stairs and turned on the TV. Thank goodness for cable and Noggin that runs 24/7. I took her in around 1pm and THEN learned that she was running a fever. Bad mom! I never thought to check. Anyhow, I hope that she sleep better tonight. She is dosed with her first dose of Amoxicilian and drugged with Motrin. The Murphy's law in all of it: I had a horse ride planned this morning for a Wife's coffee thingy that I was really looking forward to and was invited to lunch tomorrow by a friend that I rarely hear from. Sigh. Can't seem to catch a break this time around while Tim is gone. I am SO going to need a vacation......

Spring has Sprung

Spring. It is just about my favorite season. I love seeing all the colors and lushness of things growing. I have always fantasized that one day I would be able to have a veggie garden and a lush flower garden too....kind of like an English cottage garden. Well, if you have ever lived in military quarters, you know the difficulties of doing that and that they all look the same and sterile pretty much. So I decided to spruce up the front walkway of my piece of military home. It was fun to go out and get the flowers. I told my mom about it and she asked me to take a picture of it before it all died. Either that was a commentary on my gardening skills or a commentary on the weather of TX and how inhospitable it can be. I would have done more but I ran out of money. Gardening can be pricey.





In other news, we just had our spring break. It didn't so much feel like a break as a quick breath of air. It zoomed by too quickly. The kids thought that if I wasn't doing something kid friendly every moment that I had failed, but we still managed to go bowling, see Escape to Witch Mountain, play in a park, eat out, go to the Ward camp out and go to the zoo. Not a bad list. Most of those things happened in 3 separate days. I am not a constant fun machine contrary to popular belief(my children's mainly). I wish that I had had more energy and money to make a trip with the kids somewhere, but alas, it wasn't meant to be. The Zoo was a highlight. It wasn't huge but had a good amount of things to see. They had these wood cut outs that you put your head on top to take pictures with. Fun for the kids. I especially liked the boys shot on the lady bugs. ha.






The ward camp out was fun too.....until we tried to sleep. I sit here and laugh because it was kind of a comedy of errors. The kids and I slept in a small 4 man tent. I blew up a queen mattress that filled most of the tent. You see, I had the brilliant idea that Gavin, Laurel and I could share that mattress and Connor could sleep next to use on some different cushioning. Connor complained about every noise. At one point, a baby awoke in the tent next to us and after listening to it for a moment, Connor whines to me that he can't stand it anymore and for me to do something. LOL. I told him to chill that the mom was taking care of it and he would have to just deal until the baby calmed down. We also heard a pack of canines of some sort howling and yipping. It wasn't scary but it did keep me up and listening to what was going on. In the midst of all this, Laurel flipped and flopped to find a comfortable (and warm) position until by the end of the night she was rolled up into a small ball almost on top of my head. And the tent inside was wet when we awoke.....something about warm bodies and heavy breathing versus cold air outside makes for a damp interior. I didn't get much sleep if you can't tell. I enjoyed the socializing with the members, but I learned what I would and wouldn't do next time I go camping. Yes, there will be a next time.
In the times that we weren't having massive amounts of "kid fun", I hung at the house and napped, read, and cleaned. It was nice not to have to get up morning at 5:30am. Tim is doing well himself also and we are already counting down the days until he comes home in June for R&R. Oh, and all my friends there in MO, if you know someone looking to rent a house, ours will be vacant at the end of April. I so hate owning a house right now.......sigh. Chin up, I tell myself. There are only 2 more months of school and then I can escape TX for the summer.

Twilight Contest

A friend of mine pointed out this blog so I thought I would try to win too. If you are a fan of Twilight go here:

http://frugalupstate.blogspot.com/2009/03/twilight-giveaway.html

and try to win this cool prize. And if you do win...let me know so I can live vicariously through you. :)

Gavin's Diorama of a Forest

So I was talking about this diorama to someone and told them I would post a picture. I thought it turned out pretty okay. Way to go Gavin......but can I just say that he tried to get me to spend about $40 making this thing???Crazy.....

A Jay Bird moment.....

Have you ever hear the phrase "naked as a jay bird"? If you haven't, now you have. Why do I bring that up? Well, it goes like this....Laurel has invited her friends over to play the other day. They are like the 3 musketeers. You don't much see one with out the other two. Very cute little girls, but can be your typical girls when together...squealing, giggling, the works. Anyhow, the time came when Kately was picked up by her mom and then we were waiting for Bailey's dad to come. Laurel and Bailey were having a good time playing upstairs so no worries that he was a little late. When he did come, I yelled up for Bailey with no answer. So I trudged up the stairs to get her. I could hear them giggling in Laurel's closet so I opened the door to find them both......completely nude. My first thought was "AHHHHHHHHH!!! what the heck??!!" and my second thought was "AHHHHH!!! what are you doing??!!" but instead I was calm and told them both sternly to get their clothes on quickley and come downstairs cause it was time for Bailey to leave. I went downstairs and continued idle chatter with Bailey's dad and waited. Once she left, I calmly pulled Laurel into a private room and told her that she was NEVER to do that again. We don't play nude and if someone even suggests it we say NO!! I never yelled or sounded upset. I know that it is a "normal" thing for kids to do....be curious about their bodies and others. I had to have a moment of relief that it wasn't a boy in the closet cause then I may have lost my cool. My question is this: would you say something to the mother of the other girl or let it go completely since I already addressed it with my own child?

I'm Flying!!!!

Okay, so I couldn't wait to share how cool today was!!! I learned the basics of how to fly the trapeze. I got there and they took me to a hanging bar that was near the ground and showed me what to do and how to do it and then went through the rules of making sure the I listened to them.....that is most of the work. Making sure that you do what you need to do when they tell you to do it. It was so fun!! My first time climbing the ladder, my heart was pounding. I couldn't believe that I was actually getting ready to do something that circus people do. I stood up there and got hooked up and then they told me where and how to stand. "Ready" means bends your knees a bit and then they say "hup" which means hop off and start to swing. I did it and then flubbed when it came time to pull my feet up in front of me, into a tucking type position and then move them onto and over the bar. I was bummed that I had failed. While still hanging there, they had me swing my feet front, then back, then front again and then touch me knees in a tucking position to fall onto the net below. Basically, that makes you do a back flip. SO COOL! I did that with ease. Next time I got up, they gave me more pointer and told me that I was just anticipating it too much and had starting to try to put my feet up before I was supposed to. I got into position and hopped when told and then waited......I got it this time(it was a struggle, but I refused to give up until my feet were over that bar and I was hanging upside down by my knees. Then I had to pull them back through and into a hang again and then do my flip dismount. It was such a cool feeling. My hands are swollen a little and I banged my toe on one of my last tries, but it was worth all of that. I can't wait to try it again. And next time, I am going to try to do the actual letting go and jumping into the arms of the guy who hangs there! Can't wait! BTW, most of the pictures taken were done by Gavin. Not too shabby of a job. Thanks Gavin and Thanks to Dana who asked me to come and have this adventure with her and took the first picture that you see on this blog.

SO Behind!

Okay, you know it's bad when you come to your own blog and see nothing......no old blogs....nothing. So, here I am writing a new one. I don't know that I will get everything caught up but I will at least give you and overview of how life has been for the last little bit.
Connor's homeschooling is going okay. I could be doing better but as someone pointed out to me the other day, why sweat it too much when he will never use about 90% of what he learns at school. Not that I am slacking in his teaching, but I just need to write a list out of what I still need to teach him and get more organized. Organization is the reaccuring theme in my life right now.
Gavin is doing okay for the most part. He just finished making a diorama of a forest habitat. It turned out very cool and I hope he gets his well deserved A for it. He did leave the whole thing until the last day.....poor kid picking up my procrastinating genes....He has a kid in the neighborhood that has decided to make his life a little more difficult. Bully's really suck. And it bites even more knowing that they used to be friends. Gavin just got sick of being the brunt of all of this kid's jokes and teasing all the time so he quit hanging out with him. I may have to step in soon and put an end to it if it goes much farther. If Gavin ignores him, he sees it as a challenge and ups the anty and if he reacts the kid tells him what a wuss he is. Can't win...
Laurel is her usual girly self. She thrives on going to school and having her 2 friends come over as much as possible. She is so going to miss them when they both move this summer. Speaking of missing things, she really is missing Tim. He sent a picture of himself with a 5 yr old Iraqi girl(he missed Laurel and she reminded him of her). When Laurel saw the picture, instead of being interested in it and excited to see another little girl, she got jealous. "He can't take that little girl homw with him, mommy!" was about the only thing she told me. I explained that that wasn't going to happen and she was happier after that.
In big news, I drove to CA and took pictures of my neice's wedding. It went pretty well. I liked some of what I got and I wish now that I had had more time to take even more pictures. Hindsight, you know, I now can think of a million more poses that I would love to shoot. The drive was crazy though. The last couple of hours on my way home all of the zoo decided to come out to see me. I had to drive on some back little highways. I almost ran over a bunny, opposum, skunk, and then hit a deer that was having a party in the road with all of his friends. He just took a running leap at me as soon as I passed him. I only side swiped it so no damamge to the car.....don't know if the deer survived. Also on my trip, I got to stay with my sister in law Kathy one night. It was a blast to hang out and see their neck of the woods. Other than that, I am hanging in there.....by threads somedays and other days are cake. I think my biggest problem is that I am just not sleeping and it is causing me to feel a little crazy at other times. I can't remember things well and just don't feel motivated a lot. I am not one who has ever let deployments get the best of me, but I think this one has. Talking to another woman in my ward about it, she told me that this wasn't uncommon. Our bodies react to the stress this way sometimes without our conscious brains telling it to. But on the bright side of things, I am making friends.....it's about time....and getting to do fun things sometimes. Today I am taking a class of flying the trapeze. I can't wait! I will have to update my blog to let you know how it went. Gotta go get ready. Next blog I will post pictures.......Miss you all.

Hot n Cold

Argh! I wish that I was talking about Katy Perry's hit song.... The weather has really messed me up. One day it is 80's here and then next it is in the 30's. Today happens to be a 30's day and I can't get warm. These are the days that I wish that I could cuddle up in bed all day and just read or veg with the TV. Either I am cycling or coming down with something. Alas, I must be a responsible adult and get back to Homeschooling Connor. Antonyms and Synonyms here we come.

let the games begin.....

If I smother my daughter do you think anyone would notice? Ha. I know that the crap hits the fan every time the husband leaves but I thought I would at least have a grace period. Not so.
Sunday morning I slept in late because I hadn't slept much the night before. There are just some nights lately that I have extreme insomnia and that doesn't work so great when you have to get up and function for 3 children the next day. Anyhow, I was thanking my lucky stars that church didn't start until 1pm. Usually, I hate that time slot, but it was working in my favor this Sunday. So I rallied the troops....Connor and Gavin(with a bit of grumbling) got dressed and ready and fed themselves some lunch. I got Laurel into her dress and tights and went into the bathroom to do her hair. When I walked in, I thought..."i should put my contacts on so I can really see what I am doing". My glasses are an old prescription. I hardly wear them so I haven't updated them in a long while. I opened up the cap on one side and couldn't see the outline of my lenses floating in the liquid, so I stuck my pinkie in. No contact. I looked at the lid......no contact. Okay, maybe I was tired last night and put them both in the same cup. So I open the other side. No lenses there either. AHHHHHHH!!! Come to find out that Laurel poured out both my lenses and put in new liquid. She was only doing what she has seen me do a 1000 times before....only she didn't realize that there was anything in the liquid. The crux of it all is that I have no back up pair. I am left with weak glasses that are scratched to all heck. So, we stay home from church....bummer. It's okay, I think, cause I can go tomorrow to Walmart and get a walk in appointment. I get through my morning of teaching Connor. I made it a short lesson day so I could cram in the appointment and some other important errands. I get the the Dr's office and fill out paperwork only to find out that they won't see me after all. My Tricare health insurance was never changed to this region so they won't pay for any medical stuff. Are You Kidding Me?????? I called Tricare and found out that Tim changed his stuff but none of the rest of the family's. I am sure it was an oversight on his part.....he probably thought the form he filled out changed it for everyone, but IT DIDN'T. I have to go find the office now and fill out forms. In yucky geek glasses in which I can't see that great in.....Yay! It could have been worse...my glasses could have been broken, like they were for many years, with only one ear piece. That would have been cool.

362 days and counting

Is it too early to be counting down to when Tim comes back? Ha. Saturday was his send off. We woke up at leisure....at least I did. Tim woke early and watched the last of his fishing shows on the DVR. He was trying to convince me to tape a few for him while he is gone and keeping them until he gets home. Don't think so. We did some last minute checking to make sure he had what he needed which turned into "let's go to Walmart..." So we got everyone ready, into the car and then went to the PX. It was closer. After that we picked up some BK lunch and picked up his Chaplain and I dropped them off at their first of many lines to stand in for the day. He had to draw a weapon(both a handgun and a rifle) and get accounted for. They wanted to make sure it was really him and not someone taking his place(I would like to meet the person who can get away with that...Ha.) We didn't stay for all that cause we weren't allowed into the building so we went home and sat around until he called us around 3pm. We could go to a gym to hang out until they loaded up onto buses to go to their flights. Walking in, there was a sea of BCU uniforms huddled into groups with civilians hanging near by....some hugging,some laughing and talking,and almost all of them taking pictures. It smelled of hot dogs and packed in bodies....not my favorite smell. Anyhow, we hung out with Tim for about an hour. We talked a bit, ate some picnic type food(source of the hot dog smell), was introduced to others and took some last minute snapshots ourselves. Then he walked us out to the sidewalk, squeezed us all 2 or 3 times a piece one last time(I got a couple of kisses too) and with a few last word to the kids on how he wanted them to act while he was gone, he turned and went back to start the loading process. I felt a little lost the rest of the day, but it hasn't hit me really that he is gone.....FOR A WHOLE YEAR...again! I will be fine though.

We didn't make it to church the next day. Laurel was up and down all night with every excuse under the sun. I am sure that she was just echoing what I was feeling internally. I was going to go anyhow, but when Connor woke up and told me that he had thrown up too, I threw in the towel. Monday was a relax at home kind of day and then we went to the neighbors and hung out until way too late. Today, instead of cleaning or watching the inauguration(I am such a bad example,but politics really bore me no matter who is involved), I was on the computer helping Gavin work out some issue with his DS lite for most of the morning and a couple of hours past lunch. I have to give my self a huge pat on the back for figuring it all out and becoming the hero of the afternoon for doing so. We then ran some more errands which bored my kids to tears and to reward them for their patience went to a movie-Hotel for Dogs, ate and came home. All in all, not bad for my first extended weekend without the hubby. I hope all of them are this smooth....yeah right. But if they aren't I am thankful for bedtimes and heartfelt prayers that I know are heard.

It's a BOY!!

No, I am not pregnant and just now announcing it to everyone. But my niece had her baby this morning! I am now a Great Aunt for the 4th time. He is a sweet baby boy named Emmett Thomas and he was a little over 9 pounds. Wow....I never got big sumo babies like that. A quick funny connected to his birth: Meg got checked by the nurse and she was totally dialated. She said she would go talk to the DR. about pushing so to kill time they called me. She was on the phone talking to me and when the nurse came back in and told her it was okay for her to push(I had no clue any of this was happening). She just nodded and continued to let me talk for another couple of minutes when she handed off the phone to my sister, her mom. My sister then informs me that they were trying to get her to push and she was putting them off cause she was on the phone with me. Oops. She should have just told me. Ha. Modern drugs are a wonder.....Well, Congrats again to Meg and Jared on their beautiful baby boy! Love to you all and big hugs all around.

Happy New Rear

Okay...so it is the beginning of a new year and we all seem to hyper focus on resolutions-big goals that most of us never even begin to attempt. Usually my resolutions go something like: I will lose weight this year....no really I will and to do that, I will cut out sugar and exercise more and find a well balanced healthy way to eat to obtain this goal. A week later after researching all the latest greatest diets, I abandon the thought all together. Not because I don't want to be in shape(hey, I have one of those, it is just the wrong shape....it is more of a blob than anything) but because it takes too much brain power to remember that I can eat that but not this and I have to eat it every X amount of hours and then I have to strain to put my body into unflattering clothes to sweat in. Whatever......But once again, I find myself at the point where I am going to try to attempt this once again. Who knows-maybe since I proclaimed it to all of blogdom it will actually happen this time. I even got a book to go with my new fortitude....It is called the Abs Diet for Women. I figured that was a good place to start since I have NO abs to speak of.....they are WAY buried under a layer of jello and stretch marks. It is basically a way of eating that I don't have to calorie count(if I don't want to) and I won't starve in the beginning while my body readjust to this new way of eating. There are a set of "super foods" that you try to incorporate at least a few in every meal, you eat 3 meals and 3 snacks a day, and you exercise at least 30 minutes a day and you get a cheat meal once a week to eat whatever you want. It claims that by eating this healthier way with the super foods interspersed, that your body will learn to burn fat(and not just any fat but the hard to burn stuff on your belly)all the time and not just when exercising. I was horribly cursed by the Miller Family genes that were passed to my from my Maternal grandmother. After having children, we never look unpregnant again. Well, not with out support hose or a LOT of dieting and exercise. So here it goes.....Wish me luck and from time to time, bug me about whether or not I stuck to it. I am almost finished with the book so by my estimation, I will begin the torture....I mean diet....sometime next week.
In other news, I am quickly approaching my 36th birthday and wondering when I aged. Not that I think I am old....I certainly don't feel old, but when did all the signs of aging begin to sneak up on me. I mean, where did this weird(and random) old lady witch hair come from that sprouts from my chin from time to time. And coloring my hair for fun is a thing of the past.....although I blame my grey hair entirely on Tim's multiple deployments. Ha. The nice thing is that when most people who don't know me find out my age, they are surprised and think that I am younger than I am. Maybe my immature way of acting helps out in the long run.....kidding. I still see myself in my own head as the 19 year old that married Tim oh so long ago....with a pre-baby body. Say that 3 times....pre-baby body, pre-baby body, pre-baby body. Tim has told me that he has some surprise for me around my birthday. I am trying not to hype it up too much in my mind. His surprises can go either way. I hate that he told me now though cause now I feel like the kid wanting to sneak in and look through the Christmas gifts before they are wrapped. Ha. I will be fine....I only have until the weekend after my birthday(Jan. 8th for all of you who don't remember). And then after that, we will slip right into me being abandoned once again for a year long deployment to Iraq. Dang, I am starting to hate these things. It wouldn't be so bad except that I don't know many people here to do babysitting so I don't know how often I will be getting a break. Especially since I also teach Connor during the week and Laurel's primary class on Sunday....oh well, good thing I love my kids....there is no escape in sight.....Really, I do love them. Really.