Short (and Weepy) Trip

Tomorrow at 4:00 AM we're leaving for NC, hoping to arrive by noon. By "we" I mean Second to the Youngest Child, Youngest Child, and myself. Only Son has already given up his apartment so we'll be staying on base in the noncom officers barracks...that ought to be interesting.



Once we arrive and check in on base, we really don't have alot of time to do much. We tried to plan a low key, no stress day of things that Only Son wanted to do. First he wants to go somewhere and have coffee, then to the ex wife's to see his children. There is a seafood place where they catch their own seafood that he wants to have dinner at, then he wants to spend the evening on the beach-Youngest Child is thrilled about that!



We have to get back to the barracks room fairly early because his plane takes off at 5:00 AM and he has to be there an hour before take off, we have to be completely ready to go then too because we're not authorized to be on base w/o him. So I'm thinking we'll be getting up 15 minutes after we go to bed.



Not only will we be tired but I'm sure this is going to be an emotionally draining weekend. I'm going to try not to go all mom on him, but I probably will right before he boards the plane, especially if I'm sleep deprived. I know that I'm going to be worried about his safety the entire time that he's gone. I can't help it, it's what moms do.

The Slumber Party

The slumber party was a success. I asked the parents to drop their children off at 4 PM so that we could make it to the theatre by 4:30. I thought that it was very brave of me to take 5 "10ish" little girls to the movies by myself! We made it through the ticket line and then concessions with just 5 minutes before show time. Our movie was showing in Theatre 9 (read up 5 flights of stairs!) and Youngest Child is afraid of elevators, so we had to RUN up those stairs to make it on time...it was 5 minutes later before I could talk w/o gasping.

The movie was good, we saw Race to Witch Mountain...think violent sci fi comic book adventure with The Rock. It was "clean violence", lots of non gory explosions, the girls liked it. And the Rock makes nice eye candy. Something for everyone :)

After the movie we went to Maggie Moos for ice cream, everyone liked that! Then we went home for presents, dinner, and birthday cake.

Close to midnight everyone put on their pjs and spread out their sleeping bags. I set out the bowls of snacks and cans of soda, then I went upstairs to bed.

To make a long story short those girls were still raising the roof at 3:30 AM. In retrospect I know why...I had let Youngest Child choose the soda and she had chosen Mountain Dew, an entire case of it. Those girls couldn't have slept even if I'd rocked them to sleep and used big rocks.

Three of the girls were being picked up early Sunday morning because their parents were taking them to church. My favorite part of the slumber party was waking these children up who'd only been asleep for about 90 minutes...yes I have a mean streak in me, especially when I haven't had any sleep.

Some Weeks You Just Hug Your Surf Board and Ride The Insanity Wave

And this has been one of those weeks. Put simply, there just hasn't been enough of me to go around.

At the end of this week, Thursday, was Youngest Child's birthday, today is Second to the Youngest Child's birthday. Tonight is Fish Fry night at Youngest Child's school, after which we have to go shopping to finish up the goodie bags for her slumber party tomorrow night. We have to finish up the goodie bags because the ones we started out with aren't enough now because someone kept adding to the original guest list.

Did I mention that I became ill at the beginning of the week, or that I've been watching my 11 month old grandson from 7 am to 6 pm all week, while trying to clean this house and do mounds of backed up laundry?

Like black storm clouds on the horizon are the phone calls from Only Son...he leaves for Afghanistan next weekend and we can no longer pretend that it's not happening, now our discussions are serious, ie in the event of his death what church he wants his funeral Mass at, where he wants to be buried. Sometimes the calls are trips down memory lane, at any rate they are coming more frequent with a sense of urgency. And still life goes on... the baby cries, the laundry piles up, meals need cooked and cleaned up after, birthday girls are needy, colds demand attention, slumber parties need planned and chaperoned, and the house work never ends.

This week I've been hugging that surf board very tight, next week I'm sure that I'll leave my handprints on it.

New Toy

My new toy is a brand spanking new laptop with all the bells and whistles. It wasn't a Christmas gift, even though I practically spray painted "I want a new laptop for Christmas" on our living room wall. All of my hints fell on (Better Half's) deaf ears. My Christmas gifts from him were an odd assortment of objects that I don't recall ever asking for or even thinking I wanted. Not being ungrateful, just stating fact. Sometimes it would just be best not to buy someone something.
Anyway, my laptop was a surprise appreciation gift from Second to Youngest Daughter and Son-In-Law for the "great job you do watching Little Man." Little Man is my 9 month old grandson, he's also my little buddy Mon-Fri.
But I digress, for some reason I was unable to use this new computer to post on Blogger until today. Far be it for me to understand why it decided to let me post today, computers are a vast mystery to me.
Today Youngest Child's godmother, Little Man and I went to Youngest Child's School to have lunch with her. Not only is it Catholic School's Week, but it was also Family Hot Dog Day. We enjoyed a tasty lunch and a good time was had by all.

You won't want to miss this!

Stay tuned, tonight I'm going to drink wine and post about my traumatic Christmas vacation. It's my story and I'll be drunk, so it's bound to have some humor in it.

Serious discussion with a 6 yr old

I have several granddaughters, but some crack me up more than others. Chloe is one of those who do. I overheard a conversation between she and Oldest Child about Chloe leaving the house Saturday without underpants on. Then Chloe and I had a conversation about the same topic...

Me: Chloe, how did you forget to put on underpants?

Chloe: I didn't forget, I meant to not put them on.

Me: Why didn't you want to put them on?

Chloe: I don't like underpants.

Me: Why not?

Chloe: They give you wedgies.

Me: Why did you wear them today, because it's Sunday?

Chloe: No, because it was a little cold this morning.

I really wanted to laugh during this entire conversation, but I managed not to even crack a smile. Chloe just turned 6, and she's very serious and has this very deep voice for a child. It was just too funny.

I must quit living in denial.

My family went to Mass w/o me this morning because I feel pretty lousy...I feel lousy because my fasting BG is 210. If that wasn't bad enough, my asthma is making it very hard for me to breathe recently. These 2 chronic illnesses are like vicious circles, and most of the time I just choose not to think about them. Unfortunately, it's that choice that leads me to days like today-sick and gasping for air.

I can no longer pretend that I don't have an illness. I can no longer pretend that I can eat whatever I want to. I can no longer ignore the fact that I need to lose alot of weight, and I have to accept that it's going to be a very difficult challenge. My only other option is to accept that I'm going to die alot sooner than I'd wanted to, alot sooner than Youngest Child would want me to. I don't want to do that to her, or to the rest of my family. Nor to me! So that means that the denial has got to go, and that the hard work must begin! Starting today!