Deployment Ceremony Info

Hey All,

Just a quick note to give you details about the deployment ceremony for my unit since I know some of you would like to be there. I obviously don't have EVERYONE included on this email, so please feel free to send it out to others that you think would be interested in knowing about it.

The ceremony will be held at:
Hickory Grove Baptist Church
60150 Hickory Grove Rd
Charlotte, NC 28215

Date/Time: January 3rd at 10AM.

This ceremony is for Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 1st Bn, 113th Field Artillery Regiment. The 30th Heavy Brigade Combat Team, our parent unit, will have a ceremony later in 2009 closer to actual deployment, although I have zero details about that ceremony.

I intend to blog from deployment to this blog, so please check back regularly. I'll do whatever I can to keep semi-regular updates.

Sincerely,

Jim

Moving Update

Thanks to everyone checking in on me and seeing how they could help. It has been a marathon of a week that's for sure. We've had every type of contractor possible. The boys regularly ask for Chris our electrician or Rick the plumber. But our lights and ceiling fans are fixed and our house is painted as much as it's going to be at this point. The leak has been fixed so after 3 days of no water we are all clean again. The whole kitchen is installed and I'll be doing our first load of laundry tonight. I'm now legal on the internet and not poaching off of our neighbor. We have tv/cable now and I can actually send e-mails instead of only reading them.

I found one last box for the kitchen but it's pretty much done and I'm getting used to where everything is. I even got to cook a huge batch of soup on the new stove and it was awesome. I did manage to get the Christmas tree up and all lit and decorated. Thanks to Staci and Jason Elliot and Poppi there are even presents under the tree!

The boys playroom is last and packed to the brim. I'm thinking about taking a day off tomorrow but we'll see. The boys were getting excited when I told them Daddy was coming home soon. They were saying Daddy...... yippeeeeee! We tried out the new gym and we loved it. They have an even nicer playset there. I did some driving and fell even more in love with the area. I got lost in a golf neighborhood and thought about just moving our stuff into just one room of some of these mansions we came across. Man there are some nice houses in this area.

Hope everyone is getting ready for the holidays. I know I'm not even remotely close or even started!

Quotables

Cooper: "Momma don't touch Bear's towel!"
Me: "Cooper are you bossing me around?"
Cooper: "No!! But don't touch Momma."

This morning the boys climbed into bed with me Bear toting his lovely flashlight. (Thanks Bebba) He starts flashing it in our eyes and cackling....
Me: "Bear if you shine that in our eyes again I'm going to have to take the flashlight away."
Bear: Shines it in our eyes again with a decided glee.
Me: I take the flashlight away.
Bear: Crying commences.
Cooper: "Bear- you gotta say sorry!"
Bear: Crying suddenly stops, "Oh, sorrrryyyyy!"

At Lowes Today
Our last trip was supposed to be 45 minutes but turned into 4 hours and we still walked away without blinds. Coop had grown men on the floor playing cars with him it was very cute. Today though he decided that everyone needed hugs. An older woman in a sari was trying to catch up to her husband and Coop saw her and yelled, "Awwww give me a big hug!" and took off for her. Luckily she was receptive. He did scare one gentleman today as he attacked his leg. So we worked on him asking first before giving hugs to strangers. He seemed so disappointed.

Santa Claus also showed up at Lowes. He was obviously doing some last minute shopping but took the time to talk to the boys. Coop yelled after him, "Thanks for stopping Santa, see you sooooon!"

We've Moved!

I can't believe it's only Wednesday. The last week feels as if it's been an entire month. We have moved out of our apartment that was to be for 3 months but turned into 3 years and into our new house in Apex, North Carolina! I will send pictures once I am out of box hell! We unloaded an entire POD plus an entire apartment. Needless to say we have way too much stuff.

The boys are doing absolutely amazing. I took them to the apartment to clean out the last bits and turn in our keys and they didn't even bat an eye. I asked if they wanted to say goodbye to the apartment and Coop said, "Let's get outta here!" They have named the new house Peggy Sue. Whenever we are coming home they are shouting for Peggy Sue. They LOVE the front yard and are constantly asking to go outside and play on their little scooters. I can't wait to get a fence up and feel safe letting them run around. So far the neighbors have been wonderful. I couldn't find the keys to the POD locks and the locksmith got stuck in our very wet yard. Neighbor comes out and in about 3 minutes has him towed out it was so cool. Turns out there are a lot of families in the neighborhood so I'm looking forward to meeting them. I have sliced my thumb with a knife and feel totally helpless without a thumb!!!! BUT tonight I have 94% unpacked the kitchen and successfully hijacked a neighbors wireless internet. Meg, our new babysitter, and I had to go through every box to find my battery to the laptop and I kid you not it was in the very last box we looked in. Tomorrow we have the dishwasher, fridge, stove and dryer being delivered. No washer in stock yet so the dryer will just look pretty. The cable company is scheduled as is the plumber so we won't be leaving the house tomorrow. The boys bathtub is broken so I had to turn off water to the whole house tonight. I was so proud of myself for figuring out how to do that!!

I had a class to teach on Sunday- still not sure how I pulled that one off. With out Bebba here this weekend I'm sure I wouldn't have. They came to deliver the stove and it turned out I didn't have the right connection- just so happened to have the electrician there who could fix that but while we waited to talk to him Cooper pulled out all the instruments we had and had all of the guys playing music and dancing. We went to drop off the cable box and Coop announced to the whole office as he barged in, "I'm here!!!" As we made a quick dash to the bathroom he interrupted some folks giving a presentation to tell them he was going to go potty now. Oh and on move night I asked the movers not to put his crib back together so he is now in his big boy bed. He fell out once but has been fine ever since. The new routine in the morning is for both of the boys to jump up on the bed and fly into my arms. Good for me as I've not been able to work out in a week!

I'm hoping to get a bit more situated before Jim comes home for the holidays so we can focus on enjoying our time together. I'll be sending out an e-mail with our new address and new phone number shortly!

First Week Without our Jimbo

After our whirlwind Thanksgiving trip we rushed home to get Jim packed and ready to leave for the first leg of his deployment. (When I say rushed I mean we tried but every 30 minutes Coop would yell, "Stop the truck I need to potty!") I think he loved the hub-bub. I'm still not sure how Jim packed his whole life in a rucksack and a bug-out aka backpack but he did. We did our normal night ritual and he put the boys down and said good bye. He's gone away for trips before and I'm not sure how to describe it but it just felt really different and really final.

Jim's normal work day before being deployed consisted of him leaving at 5:30 am and not getting home until 6ish. So the week days had a touch of normalcy to them. He could still text and call so there was still connection which made it quite bearable. It was hard in the evening but they adjusted very nicely to Jim reading them their books over the phone. Jim would tell them to get into bed and off they would go. I'm not sure I can explain the adorable factor when they hug the phone but it's one of the cutest things I've ever seen.

One day as we were getting home Cooper said, "Oh yeah, I get to see my Daddy!" Saturday morning both the boys woke up asking for Daddy and both said to me, "Momma you lost Daddy." I replied he wasn't lost he was just at work and they said, "Oh ok!" and that was that.

Between packing, wrangling with our loan processor, scanning over 100 documents, working at the daycare, and a surprise visit from Poppi it was a very hectic week. I almost adopted a puppy but ws able to talk myself out of it when the cute factor faded and I thought about having to walk the dog in the winter and not being sure if the boys could handle it yet. This next week promises to be even more nuts as we close on our house, paint, move, get our POD (after 2 years!!) and teach a class I don't think I'll get much more sleep this week. I do have to work on a bit of a balance for me. I can't function on this little sleep or the poor quality food I'm eating. I don't want to end up sick that's for sure.

So overall we survived our first week I think with flying colors. The boys are truly the most amazing little guys. Whenever I needed a hug they just seemed to know and I would find them giving me the most wonderful hugs and kisses. I can get through anything with hugs like that!

Stop And Smell The Roses