Deep Breaths

Oh man, it was good to go to Yoga today. After the day I had yesterday, it was nice to take an hour to relax. All the little things just piled up all at once and I just got totally overwhelmed.

I got the water all sorted out today, and didn't have to pay anything extra since apparently my water bills were getting sent back (um, why didn't they let me know?!). And the water is still on, which is always a plus. So that's one thing down. And I went to the Post Office to figure out why they were sending stuff back. So hopefully that's resolved.

Still nothing on the toilet, unfortunately, except that the home warranty people confirmed they won't cover it. I wasn't really expecting it to get fixed until next week though. Good thing I have another bathroom! I'm just praying it will get fixed the easy way and they won't have to cut into my beautiful newly textured walls.

In other good news, Nick now has a new truck! We haven't officially paid for it yet, but the dealership sent us these pretty pictures today:




So it is waiting for us back home to drive back to Texas after the holidays! Yay! Speaking of which, we have officially booked a flight for us and the dogs to California in December, woohoo!!! We'll be there almost a month. YAY! Can't wait!

And This

Oh yeah, and I got a notice today from the city saying they're going to turn off my water tomorrow if I don't pay my bill. Lovely. I actually looked through everything and I haven't been getting my bills since July. So, I don't think I should have to pay the Past Due amount (over $100). But, of course, once I figured all this out, they were already closed for the day. But you better believe I'm going to call the city tomorrow and get all this straightened out. It was just yet another thing I really didn't want to have to deal with.

I'm just totally fried and sick of all this junk. It doesn't help that it was a long day today either. I had work (although we only had 5 kids, woo!), then went out to lunch with the ladies I work with and the women who go to the bible study, then went and did "training" for volunteering in a friend's Pre-K class, then of course all the lovely plumbing issues. Obviously, I know I'm capable of dealing with all this. I just really don't want to have to deal with it all by myself anymore. I'm just spent.

I really don't want to have this last month of this deployment be like this, but it seems like everything is just falling on my shoulders right now and I'm overwhelmed and tired. I'm just ready for it to be over already. I know God will get me there, it just still seems so far away. It's just not close enough to feel real yet.

All this comes on the heels of some good news though, actually. Nick heard yesterday that there are spots open for Captain's Course next November, which means that he would be home for over 18 months. Obviously, that would be totally amazing, especially after a year apart. Nothing is for certain yet (this is the Army after all), but it definitely doesn't look like he'd be going any earlier, and the next potential deployment for his unit isn't scheduled for a long time. So there isn't anything in the way. Yay for that!

Seriously?

Oh great. I just found out that when the guys who textured my walls moved my toilet, they broke a piece that will now cost me $200 to get fixed. That is, if they can fix it the easy way, not the hard (and obviously way more expensive) way. And of course, my home warranty doesn't cover people breaking stuff (um, why did I get that anyway?). Awesome. I called the guy who textured the walls to let him know & I think I'll get some money from him, but not that much. Is this deployment over yet? I'm so over this.

Sweatpants Kind of Day

Today, I got up and walked the dogs, getting dressed in my sweatpants for Yoga. Some contractors were supposed to show up and texture the walls in our bathroom (the one with all the wallpaper I took off) but I thought it might not take very long. Well, it ended up taking a few hours, so I missed Yoga, but the sweatpants definitely stayed on (and are still on).

Frankly though, I'm perfectly alright with it all because it was all gloomy today and I feel like I'm on the verge of a cold (yuck). So it turned into a sweatpants kind of day, and gave me an excuse to laze around with the dogs. And my bathroom looks awesome too!

Are We There Yet?

Now I know we are at the absolute tail end of the deployment, and the end is in sight, but man, I'm so over it. I'm just sick of the fact that my husband is thousands of miles away, and I would really like it if time sped up and he was just home already. I'm still keeping pretty busy, but 2009 has been a long year (and its not over yet), and I just want to be done with it. I know there are bigger and better things in the future, and I would so much rather be there already. Not that this year was a complete waste of time and didn't have its good moments. But, deployments suck. There's no getting around it. And I'm ready to move on already.

And I don't want to just be keeping busy anymore. I'm still in survival mode, trying to ride out this month+ of the end of the deployment. Trying to keep busy and get through it all. There isn't much excitement or variety right now to keep me from focusing on Nick's homecoming and wishing it was now instead of later. And there are just a lot of low, frustrating moments. And I'm just spent. God is graciously getting me through each day, but I just want to be there already. We're so close, and I know we'll get there. I'm just impatient.

Oh The Rufus...

It's official, Rufus cannot be trusted for more than 5 minutes alone. He managed to grab a bag of Halloween candy off of the counter (it was a good 6 inches back too) and ate every single mini Reeses, foil and all. Awesome. He's totally fine, but I'm not too happy about my Reeses being eaten by my dog! The little booger. He must've smelled the peanut butter inside. He is trouble. Oh, and he managed to get a candle off the table and take it outside. Thankfully, there are only a few little teeth marks. Meanwhile Scout laid down outside my door and slept. Those two couldn't be more opposite.

Oh the Rufus...

Fun at Work

I had work again yesterday. Overall it was a really good day. We had a good mix of kids and we kept commenting on how quiet it was. Some of the more "active" boys weren't there, which was definitely a contributing factor. The kids were a bit clingy, and for some reason, I was quite popular! I had one kid on each hip for like half of the time. I feel like I got a good workout in my arms, ha ha. It sounds crazy, but I'm really enjoying that job. It probably helps a bit that it's only once a week, but there are definitely some kids I enjoy seeing. I have a lot of responsibility, but I work with some great ladies, so it's not too bad.

Oh, and we had a lovely little biting incident between the 2 year old set of twin boys. One stole the other one's toy and thus the biting ensued. It was easily dealt with with a time-out and the mom coming to discipline. Honestly though, even with the incident, I really do like that job. It's nothing I can't handle. Boy am I going to be ready for kids, ha ha!

Speaking of training for kids, I had to put both dogs in time-out last night. They were driving me nuts!!! Rufus decided that he wanted to go out and stood at the door barking non-stop when I wouldn't let him out (because he proceeded to bark non-stop outside). And Scout was just doing his normal annoying whiny barking. So much fun! Thankfully, I got my 15 minutes of peace, and they were good from there!

Isn't this deployment over yet?

Big Sap

So I just watched last night's episode of the Biggest Loser, and when the contestants went home to see their families, I totally teared up. If you know me, I am so not a crier. There are very few things that would normally make me tear up, the least of which is a reality show. I don't think I ever had a reaction to anything like that before the deployment. It's not necessarily a bad thing, but I'm just surprised by my own reaction. And I've totally had the same reaction when family members come on Survivor, or there are letters and videos from home. Obviously, there is a common factor here. I know what it's like to be separated from and reunited with with a someone after a long period of time. It just tugs at my heart strings to see other people going through that. So thanks deployment for making me a big old sap.

Halloween

So I finally decided what to be for Halloween (or rather the Halloween battalion coffee coming up this weekend)! After a mental inventory of my closet (because I'm cheap and don't really want to buy a costume), I realized I had a tie-dye shirt from work last year. Add to that a pair of old flare jeans with a hole in the knee and voila! I'm going to be a hippie. I'm thinking about trying to find a peace sign necklace and a hippie head band (lucky for me, they're all the rage!). I'm also thinking about painting some flowers or something on the jeans or possibly my face. Pretty creative if I do say so myself!

I Spoke Too Soon

Well, maybe I spoke too soon about not being bored. I got really grumpy today and just really didn't feel like doing anything. Sure, there was a lot I could do (weeding, folding laundry, cleaning my car, etc), but I was really not motivated to do any of it. Seriously, who wants to do those things?! But, I didn't really have any better options, so I just kind of got into a monotonous funk.

I think I need some more fun projects. I found some cool felt stockings (since we own a total of 1 stocking) that you make and personalize at Hobby Lobby, but I'm waiting for them to go on sale because they were kind of expensive. I'm also waiting on Nick to approve a paint color for our guest bathroom (so I can paint it!) and a contractor to get back to me on texturing the walls (ya, I gave up on the idea of doing it myself)...those would help move things along a bit.

Oh, and it would help if this deployment was over already. Nick gave me a projected flight date, and it's a little later than I expected. Still well before the 365 day mark, but not quite where I wanted it to be. I know, we're almost there, but it still seems kind of far off.

Until then, I'm just going to keep on keeping on I guess.

So Glad

I had a couple nights this week where I didn't get quite enough sleep. As a result, in the afternoon, I was absolutely exhausted. It reminded me of when I worked full-time and came home exhausted every night, but yet still had chores and errands to do.

It was just such further validation that quitting my last job was the right move. I'm so much more relaxed and am able to get stuff done around the house during the day. I have energy and am not stressed. I love it, and I'm so glad I'm not working full time anymore. Coming into this deployment, I was so worried about keeping busy, but working full time was just sucking the life out of me. And God has been awesome in providing me with enough to do. I feel like I'm usually very susceptible to boredom, so it has totally been an answer to prayer.

Month 10 in Review

Another month down, woohoo! I can't believe in the last 10 months, I have seen my husband all of 2 weeks. That is totally crazy. And looking back, it seems like a long time, but I can't believe we've made it this far. This past month was kind of a blur. Obviously, half of it was R&R, but otherwise, I really can't remember much. But, we are almost there! He "should be" home "for good" in the next month or so (eek!). Anyway, here are some highlights from this past month:

- We had a fabulous 2 weeks together for R&R or "mid-tour leave"! We went to Austin, his family came to visit and we just hung out and were a "normal" married couple for awhile. I'm so glad Nick took it so late in the deployment. I feel like he'll be home in no time, which is good because I remembered why I kinda like having him around! It definitely gave me the stamina to get through these last couple months. I still have to get the rest of our R&R pictures from Nick, but he's currently without internet. I won't forget though, don't worry!

- I started my new job at our church as the childcare coordinator for a weekly women's bible study. It's been pretty fun so far! It's amazing how tired I can get chasing around, holding, and playing with little kids for 2 hours a week. It's definitely helping to break up my week and make my Thursdays a little more exciting.

- It started to actually feel like fall here! Yes, under 70 degrees is considered fall here in Texas. People put on their down jackets, beanies and scarves- no lie. I'm just happy for a little rain, and a little chill in the air. I'll take what I can get after a HOT summer! And it has gotten down to the 50s at night, so it is actually what the rest of the world calls chilly. Mmm, fall. I've been drinking lots of Apple Cider in celebration.

- My awesome "battle buddy" Alice left to go back home to Memphis for a couple of months. I'm doing ok without her, but I miss hanging out.

- I started going to a free Yoga class on post, which I'm enjoying a lot (especially for the price, ha ha). They hold it 3 times a week, but I have yet to go that much (holiday weekend on post). I took a couple Yoga and Pilates classes in college, so it's nice to get back into that.

- I got a beautiful new computer and I'm totally loving it so far! I'm still kind of transitioning from my old one, but it totally kicks butt.

- I started weeding my yard for hours and hours a day, only to find out that I have a form of "wild grass" that just looks like weeds. Good to know. At least I don't have to try to tame the wild beast that was my front yard! I still do have some ivy-like weeds that are taking over the backyard that I need to take care of though.

- I took advantage of Hobby Lobby's awesome sales and bought a whole bunch of holiday decorations at 50% off, woo!

- My totally adorable niece, Katie, turned 2 yesterday! I can't believe she's so big already! I talked to her on the phone and she wished me Happy Birthday too, ha ha. Can't wait to see her over the holidays! And I can't believe the last time Nick saw her, she was 1!


Countdowns
83% done with the deployment, 17% to go- and that's set at 365 days of deployment. There "should be" about 5% less. But, knowing the Army, I'm going to set my expectations low.


Deployment Goals

- This month, I cooked Garlic Lime Chicken and Baked Potato Soup- both delicious and pretty easy to make!

- I definitely dropped the ball on working out during R&R, although we still did walk the dogs and walk alllll over Austin. That counts, right?

- The dog training is going ok. Scout still likes to bark and whine at me...and may be hopping in bed with me at all hours of the night. But they won't be sleeping in the same room once Nick comes home anyway.

- I only missed one week of church in the last month because I was at the airport picking Nick up! Not bad. I'm also obviously working at the church once a week. They started the Heroes at Home group back up, but I'm debating going since we're almost done with the deployment. Nick wants to help out in the nursery and possibly go to the young marrieds class when he gets back, so I think we'll just do that instead.

- Ya, I didn't read at all this past month. Oops.

- As far as organizing and working on the house, I think the weeding definitely applies. I also finally went up in our attic, although that's pretty organized. I realized I'm missing some stuff (a couple CDs and DVDs), so I think I need to get slightly more organized, especially before we move sometime in the next year.

- R&R kind of killed the budget for the month, but it was worth it, so it doesn't matter! Oh, and maybe I should add a Hobby Lobby category to our budget, ha ha.


Prayer Requests

- That time continues to go quickly until Nick comes home. Also, that both of us are able to keep busy.

- For the transition back to "normal" when Nick gets home. Obviously, it will be difficult for both of us to get used to living together again.

- That we would both continue to make God a priority in our lives.

- Eyes to see all that God has done for us in the past year


Upcoming Events

- A Halloween themed Battalion coffee

- Halloween (which will probably be me handing out candy and watching non-scary Halloween movies, like last year. And the dogs may or may not wear their Army jerseys again)

- November- possibly the last month of this deployment!!!

Getting There

Today was a super productive day which included a trip to the hardware store, a trip to Hobby Lobby (where I took advantage of their awesome 50% off sales, and may have stocked up on Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas decorations! Love it!!!), and my first trip up in our attic, ha ha. Seriously though, I got a lot done, it was awesome! If things keep going this way, Nick will be home in no time!

Today a third neighbor offered to mow my lawn, and I finally gave in. When I went to the hardware store, I got some grass seed, and I wasn't sure which kind of grass I have. I thought it might be this one kind, which is a form of "wild grass", and he confirmed it. So, what looks like weeds all over my front lawn is actually grass. Who would've thunk it. I think I still have a few actual weeds in there, so we'll see when it gets longer again. But, for now, my front lawn looks nice, and I'm happy about that. Don't worry, I still have the back lawn to occupy my time, with it's ivy-like weeds everywhere...awesome. I like weeding back there better though because the dogs can come hang out with me. So it's all good.

Ok, random rant, but one of my all-time favorite shows is The Amazing Race. I have watched every single season without fail, and we are now on season 15. Oh yes. Well, 60 Minutes comes on before The Amazing Race, and it went over by 45 minutes yesterday!!! I find this especially hilarious because they named their show 60 Minutes. When I told Nick this he said "It's not 105 Minutes!". So now, my TiVo is set to record the entire hour after The Amazing Race. I don't understand how CBS can let a news show totally screw up their Sunday night lineup. I can understand going over by like maybe 5 minutes, but 45?! Shows should not start at 45 minutes past the hour, thank you very much. Rant over.

Fall Is In the Air

Over the past couple days, the high has been lower than 70 degrees. I love it!!! There's a nice chill in the air and it feels so nice to go outside. Of course, Texas has to throw in a few hot days here and there (the other day it was 88 degrees, and then didn't get above 70 the next day, so weird!), but overall, I'm convinced it actually is fall. Which is good, because it is October after all!

So I'm definitely getting into the fall spirit. I have my Halloween decorations up and ready, and apparently our next battalion coffee is a costume party! I have absolutely no ideas for a costume, any suggestions? I'll probably just be handing out candy on Halloween itself, so I'd rather not break the bank. But honestly, I really can't think of anything, so any and all ideas are welcome!

Not too much going on otherwise. I've felt pretty busy lately, although I don't really know with what. But busy is definitely better than bored. And I am making some progress with the weeds (I hope!), although two neighbors have commented that I need to mow. Ya, I know it looks horrible, but I'm on a mission to pull up as many of those darn weeds as I can!

Oh, I also just got a new computer (which I am writing this on because I finally got the time to start setting it up), woohoo! My old one has been slowly dying and having issues, so this was a must. It's nothing fancy, but I'm pretty excited! Maybe now I won't get the blue screen of death when I'm Skyping with Nick, ha ha.

Alright, time to watch some Army football!

Keeping Busy

Not too much to report around here. I've been doing a pretty good job of keeping myself busy, which is awesome (thank you God for answering that prayer)! I found out about a free Yoga class on post 3 days a week, and went for the first time yesterday. It was pretty good and I even found myself sweating a bit. I'm definitely going to try to hit that up as much as possible.

I've also spent endless hours attempting to pull all of the weeds out of my lawn. I swear, it's about 90% weeds. The front looks absolutely terrible. The weeds are about a foot long and are placed about every 6 inches. Unfortunately, I've been spending a lot more time in the back because the dogs can keep me company. But, I'm working on it. It's so ridiculous and time consuming though. I've pulled up so much dirt and the roots of these things go down so far. So, I'm sweaty and covered in mud by the end of it. Good times. But, I refuse to mow weeds, especially if the roots are as far down as I've found. I think this has the potential to replace removing wallpaper as the most tedious and time consuming project I've undertaken. But at least I'm busy!

Not too much going on otherwise. I have little projects and errands here and there. So ya, things are pretty good, just not very exciting to blog about. But I am definitely not complaining. I really haven't been overly bored yet, woohoo!!!

R&R

Alright, so I'm finally getting around to updating about R&R. Nick's internet is being dumb (I heard from him last night and he's finally back in Iraq), so I don't know when I'll have that whole bunch of pictures, which unfortunately includes the dogs attacking Nick when he gets home and our pictures from Austin.

Anyway, so R&R started out exciting when I finally got a call from Nick letting me know that he would be flying into our local airport within an hour. Eek! I was out walking Rufus, so I scrambled to get home, get gussied up, and get to the airport! Thankfully the airport is only about 10 minutes away and, of course, his flight was about 20 minutes late. I was a little bit antsy, to say the least. Oh, and I decided not to go to the gate since there are literally 6 gates at our airport and it takes about two seconds to walk from the gate through security. As soon as I saw uniforms, I stood up and started getting reallllly excited. Somehow, Nick was the first one off the plane, which I was totally not expecting. I totally lost it when I saw him and pretty much started bawling, but I would guess that's a pretty typical response after not seeing your husband for 9 months.

So then we went home & he greeted the dogs. Rufus (Nick's "sidekick") ran past him at first, but then totally flipped out. Then he got down on their level and the dogs just went nuts on him. Too cute!

The first few days were pretty surreal. I was expecting it to take awhile to get used to Nick again (like it always did when we were dating long-distance), but I feel like we just fell back into life together again. It was definitely weird to have him around, but it was easy to get used to him, if that makes sense. We didn't really do much, just enjoyed being together again.

Then, we took the boys to the kennel and drove down to Austin- or rather Lake Travis- for a few days. Of course, we stopped at our favorite BBQ place along the way, yum! We stayed in a cute little B&B and drove into Austin during the day. The first day, we just checked out the lake (which was super low) and ate at a great little restaurant called the Oasis which was on cliffs overlooking the lake.

The next day, we walked all around Austin, got massages (we found a cool deal where we got a couple's massage and also got to learn massage techniques ourselves), and ate dinner at Ruth's Chris (Nick was very excited about "real food" and got extra butter on his steak, mmmm).

Then on the last day, we explored the awesome parks in the Austin (don't know why we never went before!), found a Coffee Bean (um, I didn't even know they had them in the STATE!), got some tasty Mexican food, explored UT Austin and finally, I surprised Nick with a Pat Green concert!!! It was at this sweet outdoor venue and was, of course, awesome! There was one crazy part of our night though- we parked at UT and when we pulled in, we saw a sign that said we had to move our car by midnight because of the big football game the next day. We thought, no problem, since the doors opened for the concert at 7pm. Well, thankfully, Nick's dad wanted a shirt, so we went and bought one and saw the schedule for the night. The opening act didn't go on stage until 8:30pm, and Pat Green didn't go on until about 9:45...and we had to walk about 15 blocks back to our car. Unfortunately, we had to leave the concert a little bit early, which was lame, but we didn't really have a choice, unless we wanted our car towed. We literally made it to the parking garage with about 5 minutes to spare, and then drove back home that night. It was really nice to just get away and relax. I think we turned on the TV once while we were in Austin. Love it!

The next day was pretty exciting too, ha ha. We picked up the dogs from the kennel and decided to take them to the park. We found this little creek, and of course, our water-loving dogs hopped right in. I had Scout's leash and it wasn't quite long enough, unless I wanted to hop in the water myself. So, I gave him a little freedom and let him swim a little and Nick did the same with Rufus. Well, it took them about 2 seconds to take off running down this little creek...towards the pond. Not only is Scout a water-loving dog, he's also a retriever, and of course, there were a bunch of ducks in the water. You can probably see where this story is going. Scout chased and chased those ducks and about 20 minutes later (seriously), we finally managed to get Scout's attention and Nick pulled his tired butt out of the water. Thankfully, we didn't get in trouble or anything, but it was not a fun experience. I can laugh about it now, but man, we were not very happy with our wet dog.

Nick's family flew in that night and stayed for a few days. We watched a lot of football, ate a lot of good food, and played a rousing game of Balderdash. We also took them to church and had a fun little BBQ with some friends afterwards.

The rest of the time, we just hung out and relaxed at home which actually helped the 2 weeks seem like a lot longer. Some of the highlights include:
- An ongoing Trivial Pursuit battle (final score: Nick- 8, Courtney-2)
- Lots of movie watching, mini golf (I won by one swing!)
- A trip to the awesome Alamo Drafthouse which is a movie theater with a full bar and food!
- Three trips to Chipotle
- Lots of snuggling, kisses and all that lovely "normal" married stuff
- Daily dog walks
- Dinner at a beautiful restaurant overlooking a local lake

Nick was also extremely helpful around the house, which was awesome and unexpected, especially since he's been working full time (weekends included) these past 9 months, and this was supposed to be his vacation. Overall, an awesome R&R! It definitely reminded me what I've been missing and I'm soooo ready for Nick to get home "for good"! I love how easy it was to get used to Nick and I feel like I've fallen in love with him all over again. It was the perfect mix of relaxing and fun and we both just enjoyed spending time together, whether we were out doing something, or hanging out at home. The countdown has begun again!

Finally, here are the pictures I have:

In the backyard with the in-laws

Hanging out with Delaney, Marlee and the boys


Nick in his natural habitat

Nick and his "sidekick" Rufus in his Army jersey

Nick looks like he's having way too much fun mini-golfing

Snuggles with Scout

The Capitol Building in Austin

At the Pat Green concert in our cowboy boots

The awesome outdoor Pat Green concert

First Day of Work

So my first day of work was yesterday. I like it a lot so far! We had about 12 kids total (at the most, we'll have 25, but that's if everybody comes on the same day), although we put the non-walkers in another room, so I only had 9 in my room. Pretty good kids overall, although there were definitely some active little boys! Oh, and thankfully there were 3 teen helpers and another adult to help out. It'll definitely help Thursdays go by a little faster. And then you add on the battalion bible study that night, which is awesome.

So far it hasn't been too boring since Nick left. Or at least as boring as I thought it would be. I'm trying to figure out a routine for myself though to help the days go by a little faster. I found out about a free yoga class on post that I'm going to check out and if I like it, that's 3 times a week. I'm also debating volunteering someplace. I really want to walk dogs at the no-kill shelter in town, but I'm worried it's just going to break my heart too much. So, this weekend, I'm gonna look at my options and kind of make a gameplan for each week. As much as I think I can probably get by watching TV, running errands, and working on the house (I might be crazy, but I'm thinking about possibly texturing the walls in our bathroom myself...eek), I feel like I should actually be doing something good with my time. So who knows.

Still haven't heard from Nick, which is surprising. I'm thinking he might be stuck in Kuwait or something, but who knows. It's kind of rough going from having him home for 2 weeks to no communication, but I guess it's helped me get back to this form of "normal". I miss him like crazy though.

Oh, and I swear an R&R update will come soon (hopefully tomorrow). I just realized that most of our pictures are on Nick's computer, so those might have to wait a little bit, but I'll do what I can.