Update

So it's been Spring break here. That is always a ton a of fun when my husband is gone and my teenager left me for more exciting relatives. So just me and the little girls. We have spent quite a bit of our time with a neighbor and her three children. We both have been watching eachothers children so we can go to our part time jobs without having to pay for childcare which worked out great. On our off days we had a few adventures. We went to Haunama Bay snorkling! It was beautiful and even my littlest who doesn't put her face in the water yet got to see the big fishes! We went to the park today ( it was my day to keep the kids ) we took baseballs, a bat, gloves, frisbees and a soccer ball. We had so much fun running around and playing. I've noticed my friend's boys are very different from my little girls. My girls have melt downs when they don't like the way things are turning out and boys, they just beat the crap out of eachother. Somedays, I think I'd rather have boys. My middle bundle of joy had a huge melt down at the build a bear store at the mall. It really befuddled me becuse this melt down was AFTER I told her she could make an animal of her choice. I don't get it. She just lost complete control of herself and wouldn't stop crying. We have this rule if you cry at a store you can''t get anything and so she didn't get to get anything. This made her even more upset because I had already told her that she could go and make one. We had never been to one of these places before and our friends had gift certificates to use so we went along. My youngest of course was unjustly deprived of getting her as well because I got all flustered and walked out of the store to calm myself and the other one, so of course she had to have her own melt down. More fun for me! Arugh! My friend has an awesome job of being a mystery shopper. We are lucky because we often get invited on her mystery shops that include resturants. So yesterday we went to TGI Fridays, one of my favorites. So the two of us moms and five children in tow went to this resturant for dinner. What a fiasco! the waiter was awful the service was bad and our food took over an hour to come out! I wanted to stand up and shout Hey she is a secret shopper I suggest you try real hard to please her! I didn't. We ended up (by we, I mean my friend... I don't complain) complaining to the manager and getting all 7 of our meals free! who hoo! that was worth the wait.

Barb wanted to know about the inlaws...well I talked to Katie the other day. Clint was scheduled to arrive that night so she was very excited. They are back in Colorado at least for a few weeks until her gets out of the Army and they move down to Texas. So I would guess they won't be blogging a whole bunch anytime soon. They aren't as dedicated as Jack to the whole blogging thing. Not many people blog as much or as often as him, especially when he was home on R&R grrrr don't get me started on that!

Anyhoo...my teenager is arriving tonight from her Spring break away from her sisters. I think she had a good time. Too bad I got her report card a few days ago and she'll be grounded as soon as she gets home. Oh well... that's what she gets for blowing off her English homework. I am such a mean mom. :(

Oh and our cat had kittens!! awwww.... perfect timing second day of Spring Break.

no juicy for you

Last week I wrote this letter to the commanding general of Jack's division through his "open door policy". I have never ever done anything like that before. I just got really annoyed at all the people here squabbling and scrambling to get in these new homes that are going up on our post. At first it was all great and wonderful these new homes were intended to replace really old, bug infested homes our most junior soldiers and families were living in. Some awesome general (I believe it was Gen Mixon but not exactly sure) decided the golf course on this post was less important than these soldier's living in a decent home. So he put into action a plan to rip up a golf course and put in hundreds of new homes. Way to go!! All was great until the general deployed to Iraq. With him away, some of the (let's just say non- lower enlisted) spouses decided their families were more deserving than these lower enlisted families. Shameless if you ask me.
I was going to post the letter up here but thought twice about it...so much for juicy.

012345

WOW! 12,345 that's a ton of people! I was looking at my blog today and saw that # on the counter! 012345 hmmm. I know alot of those are myself and Jack but still alot of people come by and see what I have to say. I wish I had a more interesting life for you all to read about. maybe if I wasn't such a chicken I could tell you all about my neighbors...but it might have to wait until I am out of this war zone. ha ha ha
so until then...
This morning I woke up to a little 4 yr old in my bed. I went to bed alone, like I've been doing for some time now. but I rolled over this morning and there she was just like the last ten mornings in a row. I have tried to get her to sleep in her own bed through the night, I mean she used to do this with no issues at all before Jack left, shouldn't be too hard. Every night I give her lots of kisses and hugs and tuck her in real good I even told her if she slept in her own bed all night she'd get a piggyback ride upstairs the next night. Apparently this bribe hasn't been working so good because she is there in the morning more times than not. So this morning I decided to ask her why. Her answer was so precious I think I am going to just have Jack deal with it when he gets home. When I asked her why she was always in my bed in the morning she said with out even missing a beat "because I love you so much I never want us to be apart". Awww okay you win. Who can argue with that? Not me.

Juicy?

Well I am not sure this is juicy but it's a warm fuzzy part of the bigger story which I will tell later (I am still giving the general a few more days to respond). So as you know I live on a military post. I try to be involved as much as I can and keep up on issues and events going on in our area (as every good military spouse should do). Anyways in my attempts to do this I went to one of our town hall meetings. If you have never been to one, I highly recommend it. The officials of the post attend this meeting. people like the LTC of the division, the DeCa guy, the AAFES guy, the provost marshall, housing manager you get the idea. They get the head of whatever facility where they anticipate the issues will come from. Great plan if you ask me. They also give out door prizes in an attempt to get more people to attend. The Army is awesome! They really want us to be there and tell them what's on our minds. So at this particular meeting the issues were mostly about the new traffic pattern necessary because of renovations being made at the main gate. So people had the opportunity to say what was bothering them because of this change, for instance one lady lives near the smaller gate opened to let people off post and she has observed vehicles speeding and not stopping at stop signs. She was concerned for her children's safety. So the MP guy said no problem we'll get a few patrol cars out there and enforce the speed limit and rules more. (and sure enough the next day I went out that gate twice and both times a patrol car was sitting there with a radar gun I smiled and thought now that is awesome, after I slowed down of course)
So another lady had an issue of troops doing PT in her front yard. Physical Training is done on post M-F mornings from 7-7:45 am. Every soldier, which is alot, has to run around and exercise. Mostly they run, but they also do sit ups and ruck marches or even play football. They mostly do this in big groups, units or battalions...whatever. They also call cadence when they run. These cadences are songs that keep them in step and build up excitement I guess. When you have a ton of guys singing it can be a little loud and sometimes a few obscenities fly here and there, not surprising it is the Army ya know. So this woman was upset that she had smaller children who didn't have to get up for school and these soldiers were waking her and her children up doing PT too close to her home. So the LTC said well, they shouldn't be doing PT any earlier than 7am, shouldn't be in a housing area so let me know after the meeting where you live and I'll go out there figure out who it is and get it right for you. That sounded awesome to me and thought it was the end of that well she kept griping about it, got disrespectful to the LTC and was just rather unsatisfied by his solution. So he took some other peoples questions and then came to this other lady who stood up and said: "um yeah I just have a comment for that other lady...I live about 20 feet from Area X ( a range I guess) and I hear all day nights and weekends too mortar fire, gun fire and the dude on the loud speaker calling out orders...is it annoying? Sure it is. But I deal with it because I know I want our soldiers to know how to shoot and I know I want them in top physical condition so I live with it, knowing it makes our homes safer everyday. You live on a military post for the security it provides and then bitch because that security training is too loud in the morning that you want to sleep in?? GIVE ME A BREAK!!! wow! I couldn't have said that better myself! I wanted to go hug that lady! We all just clapped for her as loud as we could!! Right on sister! you get it! you really do! I am glad I am not the only one who is grateful to live here, respectful of our soldiers and leaders who sacrifice everything to go defend us and our country. I don't even know that woman, I tired to find her after the meeting but she had already left. I wanted to shake her hand and thank her for having the courage and saying something we all wanted to. Thank you whoever you are!

well thanks Jack!

AS if I needed a little extra pressure right now...my dear Jack has really set you guys up for disappointment... sure I have a few ideas but...who can live up to juicy ? I just have a few stories about the drama that is unfolding in our little Paradise over here. Don't get too excited...I don't want to disappoint anyone. I'll work on them this weekend unless someone decides to swallow a dime or ... ya know, throw off my groove in some other inventive way.
"I'm sorry but you've thrown off the emperor's groove" ...aahhhhh....

OY!

Yes that's my word of the day...just when things seem to be moving right along, fine and dandy...cablamo! All I can say is Oy! I don't even know what that word means. I suppose it's spanish for something close to Damn! or Hell! at least that fits in the context in which I use it. Who the hell knows? Now please don't send me a bunch of emails educating me on the spanish explicatives...I get all the Spanish I need from Dora the Explorer. Just saying I've had a hard day. I am tired and I am going to bed. Maybe tomorrow will be better. I have a good post in my head about Supernanny. I was watching that a week or so ago and that lady JoJo just freaking amazes me. Who is she? Does she have children? All I know is she really rocks. She can come over to my house anyday!! How about Tomorrow? I got a teenager that needs her naughty bench!