I Love My Dogs

Its official...I love my dogs. I just took them on a walk despite the fact that it was 28 degrees and the wind chill was 17! Brrr. I actually thought it was a little warmer than that (30s), oops! Honestly though, it was as much for exercise (for them & for me) as for peace of mind. They drive me absolutely nuts when they don't get their walk. Don't worry, I was all bundled up with 4 layers on top (including a down jacket with hood), thick socks, flannel-lined pants, and a beanie. So I was good to go. I even worked up a sweat!

I swear though, the things I do for those two! They are definitely keeping me sane and are really good snugglers at night. I woke up at one point last night and I was pretty much pinned in between them. I wish I had a camera. Its definitely nice to have a warm body to snuggle up to.

So, Deployment Day 3 went pretty well. I wasn't too excited about getting up early for work this morning, but the day went by fast. I feel like I looked up and it was time to go to my last class! It was a pretty typical day and my kids were awesome as usual. I'm really bummed though because Nick called me THREE times at lunch and I didn't think to look at my phone on silent IN MY POCKET. Grrr. I'm definitely going to turn my phone on vibrate during lunch from now on. I was totally checking my phone throughout the day too. I could kick myself (and I actually almost cried)! He said he was going to call back sometime tonight at least though. Otherwise I'd really be mad at myself. He's made it to Kuwait and got a phone card, so yay!

After work, I sent off my Christmas cards (YAY!) and attempted to find a Wii Fit...ya no luck. I'm trying to spend Christmas money on it and I think I waited waaay too long. I'll have to figure something out, but I'm thinking I can always get one for my birthday in February. Bummer though. One of my deployment goals is working out more and that was going to help a lot. I'll figure something out though.

So ya, I did a bit better today, but the little things keep reminding me of him and bumming me out a little. I should get started on trying to fill up the rest of the night (the worst time of day for me, ick). 3 days down though and the Donut of Misery (excel spreadsheet with a countdown until Nick comes home) is officially at 1%, woo!

Deployment Day 2

So things are pretty good today. I'm actually surprised at how well I'm doing. I still don't think it has fully sunk in yet. I'm definitely kind of out of it. I slept much better last night though, so that helps a bit too. It probably also helps that I got a surprise E-mail from Nick this morning! He made it to Ireland this morning and they had free wi-fi, woohoo! I pretty much burst into tears when I saw that in my Inbox. It was a really great surprise. Thank you Mom & Dad for getting him that iPod for Christmas because thats how he E-mailed me :)

So the whole story from yesterday is that Nick's flight was delayed (he was originally supposed to leave at 9am but ended up leaving at 10pm) because of bad weather on the East Coast. They were supposed to stop somewhere on the East Coast to refuel for the first leg, but they ended up just flying to Ireland. He should be on the way to Kuwait next, I think. I felt so bad for Nick though because he basically sat around since I left at 1:30am the night before. I think he slept for about an hour.

I could've gone back and hung out with him, but we both agreed that saying goodbye was too hard the first time and we didn't want to go through it again. It would've been nice to see him, and it was weird that he was still here, but it would've just been prolonging the inevitable. Definitely not fun, quality time together either.

I went to church this morning, which was a little weird without Nick. Thankfully I had someone to sit with (Rach!) and ended up going out to lunch with "Heroes at Home"- the group of spouses of deployed soldiers. I didn't go to the group this morning, but will definitely be starting up when I get back from CA in January. I met another wife from Nick's brigade, so I won't be the only one at the beginning of the deployment (everybody else that I know of in the group is nearing the end). So ya, pretty good day so far. My only real plan for the rest of the day is to do my Christmas cards and watch Die Hard (that's a Christmas movie, right?). And maybe I'll take a nap too since I have work tomorrow...

Deployment Day 1

The deployment has officially begun. Nick had to report at 11:30pm last night and I left around 1:30am. I could've stayed until about 4am, I think, but it was just torture. I'm surprised I was awake that late anyway. I usually can't make it past 11:30pm.

His plane was supposed to leave around 9am this morning, but I just got a text from him, and it won't be leaving until this evening because of weather on the East Coast. Ick. Its weird knowing he's still technically here, but I can't see him. And I'm frustrated for him that he's stuck for another day. I know we both were ready to just get this overwith.

We had a really good day yesterday though. I'm sooo glad I took off from work. We slept in, took the dogs on a walk, did random errands, watched a movie, ate a delicious steak dinner (that I made! I'm getting good with the BBQ!), and just hung out. There were a bunch of last-minute things we needed to take care of, so it was a little less relaxing than I envisioned, but it was still really great. And I didn't start crying until about 30 minutes before we had to leave the house.

Overall, I did pretty well last night. Our goodbye was really hard, but I know we can do this. I know its not going to suck so much after awhile and I know God is taking care of us. I wish it didn't have to be this way, but its not like theres anything we can do about it. I'm just praying that we get to talk as much as possible and get into a routine. Thats my biggest concern.

I'm doing alright today, but am just kind of in a haze. I honestly feel like I'm in shock. I really just don't know how to react. I'm not quite as miserable as I was when Nick left for NTC (pre-deployment training), but I'm definitely not "ok" yet either. I'd say I'm mopey. I didn't really sleep that well last night either. The dogs were definitely good snugglers though. I'm just trying to keep busy and I definitely have a full to-do list of possibilities. I've already cleaned the house and I'm going to try to tackle our Christmas cards next.

Oh, really exciting news...apparently our package was not stolen! Last night one of our neighbors stopped by with it! It was delivered to the wrong house!!! WOOHOO! That was such a relief, especially because I was starting to get so annoyed with our neighborhood. So yay for that!

I'll leave you with some pictures from last night:

Sleepy/snuggly dogs

Scout getting one last snuggle

Us


Nick saying goodbye to his "sidekick" Rufus

Saying goodbye to Scout

About to say goodbye

Home Again...

Ah, its nice to be home again. Our flight was fine and we actually got to sit together this time (we flew on Southwest). I really loved being on vacation, but I'm very much a routine person and its nice to be slipping back into mine. Although waking up at 6:15am tomorrow for work doesn't sound very exciting. I just know the kids are gonna flip out when they see me though.

So the dogs got ridiculously excited when we picked them up & they saw us. Scout is a lot skinnier than when we dropped him off, but he was getting on the chunky side, so its not too bad. I'll be taking him to the vet for his kennel cough vaccination soon, so I'll see how much he weighs. He looks good though, not like when we first got him.

And Rufus looked like a crazed dog. His winter coat has come in & we had been brushing him a lot to smooth it down. Well, we didn't leave a brush or anything at the vet, so his hair was all over the place. Pretty cute.

The boys laid down and slept like the whole drive back, so I think they had some fun at the kennel. Glad we found a good, (relatively) cheap place. Boy, I missed those guys though. Its going to be positively torture when I have to leave them for 3 weeks over Christmas. We were literally looking at pictures and videos of them. They really are our kids.

We had some fun surprises when we got home tonight. Apparently our house was egged at some point when we were gone...awesome. And, I had ordered a bench for the backyard online and we had some friends come and check the house for packages and stuff. Well, they mentioned that they never saw it & it wasn't here when we got home. I checked the shipping and FedEx delivered it the day before Thanksgiving...ya, it looks like it was stolen. So its a great start to a week that is obviously going to be a little stressful...can't wait.

I'm off to relax and attempt to recover from the frustrations and day of traveling. Scout looks like he's up for a snuggle.

Oh Army...

So the Army/Navy game just ended. Despite donning all of our Army attire and watching and cheering them on, they lost miserably to Navy. Booo! I had a little hope that Army would win this year since their season was decent, and I know it would've been a huge morale boost for Nick. But alas, not so much. Oh well. It was still fun to watch and yell at the TV. And Army's Spirit Videos were way better than Navy's, of course! I mean, who else could get Chuck Norris to jump out of an airplane, ha ha!

I still have lots of Army pride and spirit and am really proud of my husband and all of the other current and future officers. And I guess Navy is alright too, although they don't kick nearly as much butt.

Anyway, I did get to go to one Army/Navy game while Nick was at West Point in 2006 (his senior year). It was sooo much fun and apparently I picked a good one to go to, because it was only 40 degrees in Philly that year. My favorite memory was walking up the stairs with a fellow West Point girlfriend. We noticed the Corps of Cadets lining up to march on the field, and she made the awesome suggestion that we scream "Go Army, Beat Navy!". The entire Corps got riled up and started cheering. It was pretty awesome.

Like Nick said though, this can't go on forever. One day, Army will start winning again. Maybe next year...

Cookie Recipe

So I just made Christmas cookies with my sisters-in-law, and thought that some of you might like my cookie recipe! I used it to make cookies with Nick a few weeks ago too. Its a family recipe (I think it comes from you Gram?) and is delicious! They're called Butter Cookies and they work either with cookie cutters or a cookie press. Keep in mind though, they're called Butter Cookies for a reason...the recipe calls for 1/2 pound butter. Here is the super easy recipe:

1/2 lb Butter
1 Egg
1/2 cup Sugar
1 1/2 tsp. Vanilla
2 1/2 cups Flour

Preheat oven to 325. Cream butter & sugar. Add egg & vanilla. Add flour slowly (I usually add about a 1/2 cup at a time). Bake for 8-10 minutes.

And thats it! I usually put sprinkles on before I bake them when I use a cookie press. Or they can be frosted if you use cookie cutters. YUM! Enjoy!

Still in CA...

At the behest of my grandmother, I realized I'm probably overdue for an update. We're still at the in-laws and having a great time relaxing and hanging out. The fact that its already Thursday is kind of hanging over my head (we're leaving on Saturday), but so far we've been enjoying ourselves.

On Monday we reached our In-n-Out Burger record from last year and have now been 5 times on this trip! We also got to have a fun snack and movie night. On Tuesday, we went and saw Marlee (one of Nick's sisters) graduate from DARE. That night, we celebrated our 1.5 year anniversary (since Nick will be gone for our 2 year) at the hotel where we got married in Pismo Beach :) It was kind of weird being in the restaurant where we had our reception, but it was pretty cool too. I had some delicious seafood which we don't get too much of in Texas. And then we walked on the beach and just enjoyed being on a date. We ate around sunset too, so we got some pretty sweet pictures.

Yesterday we hung out in a local town called Cambria and went to a beach overlooking Hearst Castle. It was absolutely gorgeous. Then we went wine tasting (a must in Central California), which was tons of fun. I'm thinking I might have to splurge a little on wine when Nick is gone because the wine we had last night didn't even compare to the $6 wine I usually get from the grocery store. Mmmmmm. Finally, we went to Nick's sisters' 4-H meeting because they're going to be sending stuff to Nick's platoon while they're deployed.

Like I said before, the fact that we're going home soon is kind of looming over me. And then of course, its not too much longer before Nick actually leaves. I'm trying not to focus too much on it, but at the same time, its hard not to. And I'm trying to make the most of our time left together, so the fact that he's leaving has to at least be in the back of my mind. So its kind of a catch-22. I'm still kind of in denial about the whole thing, but am definitely aware of the approximate week before he leaves. Good times.

I can't say I really want to go back home and have Nick leave, but I definitely miss the dogs and I even kind of miss my crazy job. One of my friends is subbing for me, so I know "my kids" are taken care of, but its weird to not be at work. This has definitely been a nice, long overdue, relaxing vacation though. And I get another one in two weeks, wow!

Definitely excited for the Army/Navy football game on Saturday! GO ARMY, BEAT NAVY!