90 Days

Well time seems to be flying now. I swear it was just Monday morning and now here we are Thursday afternoon. We are in the midst of yet another lovely winter storm....check out the map above. It started snowing here at around 6 AM and is due to keep snowing until 7 pm tomorow. I have heard that we may get anywhere fom 4 inches to a foot!!!! Wow I should be in swimsuit shape by the end of the weekend because of all the shoveling that I am going to have in front of me. Wishfull thinking I know but hey I have to motivate mself somehow. When I talked to Donte he said it was nice weather in GA......Gee thanks hon thats just what I want to hear......you enjoy the lovely weather and I will start shoveling the million mile driveway....OK well it's not a million miles long but I need sympathy darn it. It's cold and yucky out there!!!! :0) Well Daniel is hoping for a snow day and Donnie wants to go to school so he wont have to make it up in the summer....I have to say that I can go either way. If it's a snow day I will snuggle deeper into my big fluffy bed for a few more hours......if we have to go in at least it's Friday!!

95 Days To Go

Well We have almost made it through the first week. The first week is always the hardest so I was glad to put it behind us because the first week is always the hardest. Donnie was gloomy for the first few days but has settled into his new role as the "Man of the House". This is a job that he takes very seriously. He even tried to mop the kitchen floor yesterday when I was upstairs putting the clothes away. He knows how much I hate doing the floors and even though I had to redo them after he was out of sight it was the sweetest bit of help that I have ever had. Dannie isn't gloomy but he sure is sensitive. I suppose it effects us all differently when 1/4 of the family is gone.
I let them have a buddy spend the night last night and they took full advantage. I made a huge pot of Chicken and Dumplings and some sweet tea. The boys tore into it and spent the night drawing and playing Wii. They even camped out in the game room. At 2 AM I had to tell them to go to sleep. I fell asleep on the couch and woke up at 7. They were up 20 min later.......READY TO GO. Man I wish that I had their energy. They filled up with waffles and jumped straight into round 2 of playing the Wii. Their buddy went home and now they are vegging out in the living room, watching "We are Marshall".
I on the other hand have 1001 things that I should be doing but am blogging instead. I'm dreading 6 AM.....it comes so fast!!! This week should fly by. I swear I have full days just about everyday this week. I think I'll join the boys with the whole vegging out program!

BRRRRRRrrrrrrrrrrrr

With the windchill we hit -30. Now I like the Midwest and all but the cold is awful. I have shoveled snow everyday this week. Long johns and my big fuzzy boots are my new favorite things.....yes even more than Twix......and my dogs look at me like I have 1001 heads when I open the door for them to go out. I literally just let them out for them to do their business and let them back in. Murphy dives into his big blue pillow like he is parachuting from a million feet above. Then the topper, this morning Donnie, Dannie, and I walk into school......I give Donnie a kiss and go to give Dannie loving and he looks a bit weird......luckily I was carrying my big green cup......and all of a sudden I see him lurch......I automatically put the cup to his mouth as he hurls. I get him to the nurse and he washes his mouth out and she takes his temp. Perfectly normal......????? We agree that he can lay down for a couple of minutes to see what happens. He swears that he is fine and is practically begging me to go to class. I tell him that I can take him home and that he can rest. Nope he says he haaaaaas to go to class. So 15 min later with the nurses blessing he gets his backpack and trudges off to class. I settle into a day of work. Around 1100 L tells me to go down to Dannies class. I just about took off in a sprint......no easy task in heels on a slick floor. When I get there Dannies buddy says "SHHHHHHHH he's sleeping" There was my baby fast asleep at his desk. His teacher says that they were in the middle of reading and she looked back and Daniel was knocked out. I gathered all his things and got his report card. Woke him up to take him home and he says....very groggily.....I have to stay in school. Then puts his head back down. I finally got him home and found out why he was so adamant on going to school today. Report Cards. The little button wanted his report card....well I would too if I got straight A's. My neighbor America took Dannie in and he slept the rest of the afternoon. He never got sick again but he slept the rest of the day until 30 min before I got home. He ate and apple and was content in front of the TV. He ate pizza and chicken soup and drank a ton of water and went to bed. Thank goodness he feels better!!! Donnie did great on his report card too all A's and a couple of B's. I am so very proud of my to young men.

Counting Down

Well Donte left yesterday for ANOC and made it to GA last night. It was harder this time to see him go. It's funny how you get used to them being home. I think that the last two years we were at Bragg he was only home for maybe 6 months. Between Iraq and all the schools he was always gone. Now it was nice that he came home on the weekends when he was at school and the boys and I only had to count down the weekdays.......this time he's roughly 888 miles away so there will be no driving home for the weekends. Donnie always takes it really hard when Donte leaves. He is truly such a loving child and his Daddy is his world. I was just the incubater that child eats, sleeps, and walks like his Dad. Dannie looks at it as Dad will be home soon and as long as he's not in Iraq and can talk to him everyday then it's OK. I am so used to Donte being home now.....heck for the past eight months he has been home. Sure the days are long sometimes but he comes home every night and we have had so much fun as a family. It's nice not to have to rush everything into one weekend because he is leaving again. I am grateful that he is not overseas and that we will be going to visit during spring break.....it's something that has to be done and at least we are counting down now...1 day down......100 to go! It's nice that we will go down to two digits. I will take 101 days over 365 anyday!! Oh and by the way my Old Man turned 34 the day before he left :0) We were all so glad that we were able to spend it together.

ANOC

Well with becoming an Sergeant First Class comes ANOC. ANOC = Advanced Noncommissioned Officers Course. So for the first time Donte is leaving for almost four months and the boys and I will be here......in a non military surrounding. Now dont get me wrong Donte has gone many places in the past where we are home without him but we always had a huge military surrounding. The Hospital on post, an FRG (Family Readiness Group)that was always at hand, plenty of other wives and kids that were going through the exact same thing. I am sure that everything will be fine and that we will cope I'm just a little nervous I guess. It should be interesting to say the least. The boys have made great friends here and so have I. The boys are also playing indoor Soccer so we will be extremly busy with that. In fact they had their first game today. They tied 2 / 2 and had a blast. The coach is nice and the kids are great. I also met some really nice parents. The Soccer facility is nice. It sure beats having to play in the freezing rain on a fied outside. It's nice and comfy and........no stains. Thank God for astroturf!!!

Happy New Year

I still can't believe that it's 2008. Time is already flying by. We are back to school on Monday and boy is it going to be hard. The boys and I have been staying up late and sleeping in. I am going to set my alarm for tomorrow morning so we can get used to getting up and back on a normal schedule again. I am excited to go back and see everyone and knowing that the sooner we go back the sooner summer comes helps. We had a really good snow storm come through a few days back and it was so pretty outside. There s just something about everything glistening that makes it magical even when you are in your 30's. The dogs of course have another perspective on it.....they like to eat the snow......that equals letting them out every 5 seconds. Whats a girl to do?

The boys had a sleepover night before last and they requested hot wings and pizza. The pizza was store bought but I decided to make the hot wings at home. I figured while I was at it I might as well make plenty and few some for later nights. I was making hot wings for three hours......but on the plus side I have three huge baggies of hot wings in the freezer. Anyway the kids tore into the 4th bag and needless to say those are all history. In fact I did a lot of cooking over the holidays and was able to make extra of just about everything to freeze for a later date. Thank goodness because I have those lazy days that I just don't want to cook so I can just defrost and serve it up. I am supposed to make some Tilapia tonight but I am having trouble getting motivated.....speaking of fish......We are watching Happy Feet for the 50 millionth time. That movie just doesn't get old. It has to be one of the cutest movies ever. Even though the boys are getting older they still love to watch it.

Well I better get off my hiney and get to cooking......oh the joys :0)