Mother's Day....

Well,
Today went really well. The kids were great, the hubby was nice, I got breakfast in bed and that never happens. We had lunch at an extremely good Italian place, I mean REAL Italian food. I got to watch Desperate Housewives and Brothers and Sisters. The kids were extremely well behaved, very little fighting, only a little whineing and they just really tried to make today a good day for me. I'm hoping they'll keep it up after today too. LOL

I'm not so hopeful about tomorrow being as good as today. I have my first mammogram, and I'm more than a bit nervous about that. That whole flattening out the boob thing just bothers me. No way it won't be painful, I'm a DDD!!! But at least I breastfed as long as I did, so the tissue isn't as dense as it used to be. Never thought I'd be glad I had saggy boobs. LOL
Oh my, it's late.

We are looking into dogs. The one I was really interested in was adopted out, so she's not an option any more. My husband has found a MASTIFF puppy he wants. No, can't have a medium sized dog, he wants a HUGE dog. LOL I have found a litter of australian shepherd puppies that I like. They can be adopted next weekend, and there are 6 girls, and I want one of em. One is blond, one is solid black, and the rest are that patchy look that aussie sheps seem to have. Very cute. That's a normal sized dog. around 35 pounds instead of over a hundred. Geez, I cannot believe he wants a dog that big. She's going to eat A LOT while she's growing, and she won't live very long being that big of a dog. Maybe I'll mention that. Our Lab dying in January really got to him. Maybe that will make him rethink that one. She is cute tho. We're going to look at her this week, and if she's the right dog, she's going to be coming home with us.
Not sure I want a puppy. I want a dog, but if you have them from puppy stage, there is a bigger bond. Oh well, we'll see how this goes.

Finally coming out of it, I think....

Well, I think I'm starting to come out of the funk I've been in since we got here. My husband told me today that this is normal for me, that I do this funk thing every time we move. Well, I didn't when we left Fort Iriwn, but that place is hell on earth. I've never been so glad to leave somewhere in my life, well, maybe my hometown, but that's the only time that has ever even been close to that.
I keep going back to that line from Roadhouse....Aw, it's not anything I'm not used to, but it's AMAZING what you can get used to. That pretty much sums up my life right now.
I'm not particularly happy about living in a teeny town again, and the heat is starting to get to me a bit. We all miss our friends and our life in GA, but we're adjusting. It's getting better.

Well, we moved....

Well, we moved. We are now in southern AZ. Beautiful, mountains, dry, very dry, and mecruial weather this time of year. One day it's hot enough to wear shorts, the next, you need a heavy jacket.
We had a hellish trip across country with an overloaded Uhaul, and tired and very sick people trying to just get here. We faced torrential rains, hail, tornados, were re routed because of a bus wreck in Atlanta, did I mention we were really sick for part of it?? But we made it. We've been here about a month, and are in a very weird house until Sept. Then we'll be moving into military quarters, which are absolutely FREAKIN GEORGEOUS!!!here. Up in one of the canyons, just really beautiful, even if there are bears, mountain cats, turkeys and javelinas that come around on trash day looking for food.
It's been good to reconnect with old friends, meet new people, butI really really miss some of the people we left in GA. I knew I was goingto miss them, but I'd forgotten how hard it is to leave real friends behind when you have learned to count on them. I miss the trees too. Not as much as I miss my friends, but I miss the green and the trees. There isn't much green here. It's pretty. Beautiful. But it's not green like it is in the deep south. No big trees exceptfor the one that's really a cell phone tower, that's been dressed up to look like a pine tree. I feel really disconnected. I know I'll find my niche here, but I feel really out of whack.
The kids are starting to come back normal. Still higher drama than usual because they miss people, places and our routine too. But it's getting better.
I feel depression coming on. I am goingto be better about taking my supplements. They help, but not if I leave them in the bottle. Coming here was what needed to happen. I know that. It's a good place to be. I know that too. But right now, I just want to go home, and have the life Ileft back. I know it can't happen, but it's what I'd wish if I could.

Possible slight reprieve....timewise.

HI,
Looks like we might be sticking around for a few weeks longer than we expected. There is a big thing that they are bringing people in to help with from other bases, paying for TDY, and we are looking at leaving. They want my hubs to help with this project rather than get us out of here in 2 1/2 weeks. LOL So we are looking at the possibility of a 30-60 day deferrment on moving to Arizona. YEAH!!!!
I canNOT relax. I have to keep going like we are moving the end of this month. I have to, or I won't get everything done that we need to do. But it will be really nice if we can get a little wiggle room on this move timewise. I've said that from the very beginning.
Driving cross country in April or May means less chance of storms (Ice or Tornado), better weather overall, and when you are dealing with a moving truck, that's big.
This is really good news. Now I'm going to keep my fingers and everything else crossed that we get two months instead of one. LOL
But I'm really glad about this...

Tired....

I am so tired. The ear junk has moved into sinus and throat junk. I do NOT have time for this crap right now. I have SOO much to do. My husband and I are both packrats. I have thrown out about 6 30-gallon trash bags of just junk. 4 bags of that size have gone to the thrift store as donations, and that's not even the tip of the iceburg. I know we picked to do a DItY move so we would be forced to go thru all this stuff, but it's just such an overwelming task. A whole house, and a storage unit that need to be gone thru before we can move. So MUCH STUFF. How in the world did we get this much crap we don't need??? What was I thinking when I bought some of this junk? LOL It boggles the mind. The sheer amount of craft stuff is amazing, I won't even talk about the books. Cook books, science books, ciriculum books, books on snakes, books on liards, books on the weather, books on insanely diverse subjects, not to mention the bodice ripping brain candy that borders on twaddle. (okay, some of it crosses the border, but most of it is at least entertaining.) I have got to go thru more per day if we are going to be ready to do this move next month. I can't believe in a month we will be cleaning this house to hand it back to the military.
One more stitch n bitch, one more first friday, this Saturday is our last performance from Storyland Theatre. I won't be here for Masters or Arts in the Heart this year. I'm going to miss this place, and more than a couple of people. It's time to go, and it feels right, but I'm going to miss being here more than I've missed anywhere else we've lived.

Going thru junk.....

And I found an old poem I wrote about 20 years ago. Since we are going thru a move, it seems really relavant right now.I think it sounds a bit like a greeting card. LOL, but that doesn't make it any less true. :)

The only good in goodbye, is the next hello.
When people who care are seperatated, there is an almost physical pain.
There is also the surety of the ache of "see you later" is far outweighed by the joy of a shared past and memories of time together and building your friendship.
The pain of saying goodbye is merely the price tag attached to caring about wonderful, special people.
The more special and wonderful the person is, the higher that price tag runs.

Written by Nisha Martin, if copied, please credit...

Seems like we military families have to deal with this so much. I think learning to love and leave friends is one of the hardest things about the military life.
I know it's one of my top three least favorite things about the Army.

Ouch!

I've been kind of out of it for the last couple of days. Tues, it felt like I had a bug bite or a zit in my ear. Okay, nothing big.
Wed, I couldn't hold my head up when I woke up.My other ear was bothering me as well.
It was really bad. So bad, that I went to the doc--something I don't do very often. Got a military doc who was NOT a doofus. Turns out I have a really nasty double ear infection. Oh joy. I can barely hear anything. Thank goodness for closed captioning on tv or I'd be bored silly. I've been in bed for about 2 days straight, except for the trip to the drs office.
The ABX drops the doc gave me have helped considerably, but it still hurts. If I'm as much better tomorrow as I am today, I'll actually be able to get some things done around here.
So if anyone has been trying to get ahold of me, this is why you haven't been able to. :)

I love these!!!

Every year, English teachers from across the USA can submit their collections of actual analogies and metaphors found in high school essays.These excerpts are published each year to the amusement of teachers across the country. Here are last year's winners....
.1. Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that hadits two sides gently compressed by a Thigh Master.
2. His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a dryer without Cling Free.
3. He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy who went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking at high schools about the dangers of lookingat a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it.
4. She grew on him like she was a colony of E. Coli,and he was room-temperature Canadian beef
5. She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like thatsound a dog makes just before it throws up.
6. Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.
7. He was as tall as a six-foot, three-inch tree.
8. The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated because of his wife's infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly surcharge-free ATM machine.
9. The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn't.
10. McBride fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement likea Hefty bag filled with vegetable soup.
11. From the attic came an unearthly howl. The wholescene had an eerie, surreal quality, like when you'reon vacation in another city and Jeopardy comes on at7:00 p.m. Instead of 7:30.
12. Her hair glistened in the rain like a nose hairafter a sneeze.
13. The hailstones leaped from the pavement, just likemaggots when you fry them in hot grease.
14. Long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossedlovers raced across the grassy field toward each otherlike two freight trains, one having left Cleveland at6:36 p.m. Traveling at 55 mph, the other from Topekaat 4:19 p.m. At a speed of 35 mph.
15. They lived in a typical suburban neighborhood withpicket fences that resembled Nancy Kerrigan's teeth.
16. John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met.
17. He fell for her like his heart was a mob informant, and she was the East River.
18. Even in his last years, Granddad had a mind like asteel trap, only one that had been left out so long,it had rusted shut.
19. Shots rang out, as shots are wont to do.
20. The plan was simple, like my brother-in-law Phil.But unlike Phil, this plan just might work.
21. The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind youget from not eating for a while.
22. He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck, either, but a real duck that was actuallylame, maybe from stepping on a land mine or something.
23. The ballerina rose gracefully en Pointe and extended one slender leg behind her, like a dog at a fire hydrant.
24. It was an American tradition, like fathers chasingkids around with power tools.
25. He was deeply in love. When she spoke, he thoughthe heard bells, as if she were a garbage truck backingup.

Southern New Year's traditions....

I have learned something a few days ago. There are more new years traditions in the south than *JUST* black eyed peas (eaten for luck) and greens (eaten so money is never scarce) You aren't supposed to do laundry on New Years, so you don't wash someone out of the family. You usually eat the greens and peas with pork of some sort and cornbread, and wash it all down with Southern sweet tea. (that means absolutely as much sugar dissolved in the hot tea as possible BEFORE you ice it for those of you born above the Mason-Dixon line)

Looking for kids spanish immersion program.

Since we are moving to Arizona in a while, I need to find a good Spanish program. We're going to be living about 10 miles north of the border-as the crow flies. (Three hours by road) I've looked at Rosetta Stone, and I like what I see, but it's SOOO STINKING EXPENSIVE!!!
If we are going to live that close, we need to learn to speak spanish. So if anyone has any suggestions, I'd love to hear them.

starting here...

Different blog...
Yesterday stunk. Our ancient lab mix had to be put down and buried. I'm still sad, and keep trying to put food in her bowl like I've done for the last 13 years. We were able to bury her on private land, in an animal cemetary. Being military, and not able to bury here where we will be for years, (since we don't live there yet) this was the best place for her. It's really weird not to have her around. She's made all of our moves since Germany with us, and loved to travel around, and loved people. I think I'm really going to miss her for a long long time.