Weekend in bullets and a few links

Typical weekend of "stuff" here:

• Friday night was Celebrate Recovery. Brian wasn't here, but was in the air on his way home from a trip to the Washington, D.C., area (left Thursday morning, landed back in Sacramento at 11pm Friday). Because he is usually the in charge of running PowerPoint for the worship/lesson portion, he had to find a replacement. That was an easy task. But then I arrive to find out that this week's worship leader was sick and the other worship leader was taking over for him. Only problem was, he was the one who was going to run PowerPoint. So I wound up getting recruited to do that. Ordinarily, I would be singing with him, as I am on his worship team (a fairly new assignment I just accepted this week).
  
• The other glitch in Friday night occurred because this was the last Friday of the month, meaning we were having our monthly CR dinner beforehand (beginning at 5:30 instead of the usual 6:30). It's normally not a big deal, especially when there isn't a parental unit missing from the equation. But this week, Emily had rehearsal for Annie until 5pm. I had to pick her up, drop off my food at the church, take her back home, and then drive back to the church. I didn't make it there until 6. To say I was feeling a little stressed would be slightly understating things.
• Saturday was filled with our usual ball games. Thankfully , the boys' games overlapped so that we were only at the field for a little over 2 hours instead of the typical 4. I still managed to get too much sun on my face. One of these days I will remember the sunblock.
• In addition to the games, our neighborhood was also having a garage sale. There really was no way for us to get ready for it or really participate, but one of my neighbors did let me stick a few things I had in the garage over at her place. Someone bought the kennel that Rory was shipped to us in, and that was the extent of my luck. Halle sold one of her GameCube games and a doll stroller/playpen.
• Brian and I went shopping for things for the RV and house late yesterday evening. We bought some string lights for the back patio (need to go back and get one more set) and some indoor/outdoor carpet for it. Didn't have as much luck with the RV stuff. We may try to get to Camping World tomorrow if we have time. We're planning on doing another overnighter this weekend after Noah's ball game Saturday, so really do need to work on getting the motorhome more fully stocked.
  
• We went to Fenton's Creamery for lunch after church today. Mmmm, mmmm. Thankfully I remembered from our last trip how huge the ice cream portions are and ordered a "small" rather than a "regular" scoop of ice cream.
  
• After we got back, I made a trip to the commissary. While I was gone, Brian was washing his truck and using the power washer on the house and back patio. I pulled into the driveway to see Noah and his friend Beth giving Campbell a bath in the front yard. (Yes, it is warm enough to bathe the dogs outside... in the 80s.) I convinced Emily that Rory needed a bath as well. I will try to post some pictures of that tomorrow or one day this week.
• Laundry was the other main chore of the day. I have some needing to be switched around right now, in fact.

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And now for the links:

1. I may be the last person in the blogosphere to mention this blog, but just in case you've somehow missed it... You *must* read the story of Angie and Todd Smith's baby, Audrey. (Todd is one of the guys from the group Selah.) Just go back to the first post in January and read all the way up to now. It's only 38 posts, but I guarantee you will not be the same person when you finish. The latest post from Friday has a beautiful slideshow set to a song that Angie and her husband wrote. I challenge anyone to watch it and listen and have a dry eye when she/he is done. Of course, if all their story does is just make us cry, then we've completely missed the point.
   
2. Anyone else love Pioneer Woman's recipes?? I must have a list a mile long of her recipes that I want to try. The latest is her risotto. I don't think I've ever had risotto before, but her recipe sounds just delicious. I also am dying to try Marlboro Man's Favorite Sandwich.
   

The unbearable lightness of being random

Just random observations and happenings for you today:

• I think the grocery stores are employing some kind of aversion therapy (aside from rising prices... youch!). At the commissary the other day, every single time I reached for an item, I got shocked. Too bad it didn't stop me from buying the stuff... I guess the aversion therapy didn't work. Just annoyed the heck outta me.
  
• It was a crazy busy week of running back and forth and here and there last week. This week promises to be more of the same. Between baseball practices, Emily's play rehearsals, AWANA, and music lessons, there is always somewhere to be and go.
  
• Tonight we have the chance to see Trout Fishing in America here on base (FREE!). Just have to get Noah away from his baseball practice early enough.
• Major spring cleaning around here this past weekend. Brian and I worked on the garage together and it is SPIFFY. Our back porch/patio area is rockin', too. Still need to take a backhoe to the boys' room, but not sure how to get it in the house and up the stairs. I don't even want to think about a certain teenager's room.
  
• Trying to plan a major road trip back east (Missouri/Alabama) for June... experienced RVers tell us we won't be able to drive as many miles in a day as we would like to. They say no more than 3-400 miles a day. That will mean almost 6 days of driving each way with no time for sightseeing. :( Oh well, perhaps later on in the year we will be able to do a sightseeing kind of trip.
• Halle and I went to see Nim's Island yesterday. It was a pretty good movie. I'd like to read the book now and see how it compares. I have heard the movie was fairly true to it. Jodie Foster was fun to watch as an agoraphobic adventure novelist, and Gerard Butler was quite endearing as a widowed marine biologist raising his 11yo daughter (played by the always-adorable Abigail Breslin) on a remote island in the South Pacific.
• I wish someone would invent a dust-repellent I could spray over my entire house. I cannot get rid of the stuff. It is back 10 seconds after I wipe it away.

Challenges ahead

I had thoroughly intended to post before this, but it has been an unusual week here. On Tuesday, Brian stayed home from work sick, and then on Wednesday, I was the bedridden one. (Thankfully, he was up to snuff and handled the house and kids for me.) I have no idea what I had, but I was just sapped of all energy and felt like I was drifting in and out of consciousness for the first half of the day. Ran a fever of 2-3 degrees, but by Thursday, I was pretty much OK. Good thing, because Brian had to go back to work!

Now with those challenges met, I have new ones to face. Brian leaves for San Antonio tomorrow and won't be back till the 8th. This leaves me to juggle baseball practices, choir practice, AWANA, etc. alone all week. Not usually that big of a deal, but we have something new thrown into the mix next week. Emily's choir instructor has called additional rehearsals in the evening to prepare the choir for Musicale, a big chorale event held up in Sac on Thursday and Friday. She has rehearsals on Mon/Tue from 5:30-7:30 and Wed. 4:30-6:30. Noah has moved to a new baseball team and his practices have shifted to 1/2 hour later, starting at 5:30 and ending at 6:30 now. Here's a picture of what my days look like next week, courtesy of my Entourage calendar (click to biggify):


What the schedule doesn't show is that Thursday and Friday, Emily is in Sac all day and I will need to pick her up from school in the evenings at some point. Most likely it will be after 7 on Thursday and then probably near the end of my Friday night commitment (which is very near the school, anyway).

I think I have all the conflicts worked out... just need to check with the neighbors whose son is on the same team as Noah, and with a coupla folks from church who could help get Halle to/from AWANA just to help life slow down a bit for me and save a little gas. (Now *there's* another post... gas prices here have jumped over 30 cents in the last week!) Still planning next week's menu, but have figured out what night will need to be a fast food night and which nights eating at home will be most doable.

I have a feeling by the time the week is over, I'll be wishing I had a hot tub (spa) to climb into.

What a weekend

This past weekend was no different than most of our weekends, plenty of things to keep us occupied. It began Friday afternoon with Noah's ball practice at 5 (for which he only stayed 40 minutes or so because of our regular Fri-night CR engagement that starts around 6), and ended with falling asleep to HGTV around 10:30 last night.

We had AWANA pinewood derby on Saturday (saw some very cool and original designs... Halle is already thinking of hers for next year), followed by a quick lunch at Wendy's. We got home around 3 and around 30 minutes later were reminded by neighbors of their daughter's birthday party at 4 at one of the local "jump houses" (for those not familiar with the term, they are large rooms filled with inflatable bounce houses/slides/mazes). Thankfully, we did already have a present and wrapping paper, so we were able to get ready to go and were on time for the festivities. All the families on our street with children under 13 were there, plus a few extra. I was able to get in a little visiting with the other moms, something I really don't do very often. We got home in time to put dinner in the oven.... Paula Deen's Baked French Toast. Joel said he gave it an "A." Guess that means I'll need to make it again. Watched Mr. Bean's Holiday with the kids and Brian before bedtime (it was as much torture for me the second time as the first) and ended the evening falling asleep while watching Two Weeks with Brian. The fact that I fell asleep had *nothing* to do with the movie; I was just too tired by that time to stay awake. I was up early enough yesterday morning to finish watching it before getting out of bed.

I cannot say enough about Two Weeks. I can not imagine a person who could watch it and not be affected by it. It is amazing the range of emotions one movie can provoke. The basic storyline surrounds four adult siblings whose mother is dying of ovarian cancer and what happens when they come together in her home for what they believe will be her last few days (turning into two weeks... thus the title). There are moments that will make you laugh, cry, feel like slapping someone... and make you think. Watch it. Let me know how it affected you.

Yesterday we went to church and then out for lunch at Tahoe Joe's. Brian and I split a ribeye (really, should anyone eat a 14 oz. steak?). Halle and Noah both ordered the kids' steak, which has always been very good in the past. Unfortunately, the same could not be said yesterday. Apparently they changed the cut of meat they use for it and instead of a small sirloin, it was a big thick unidentifiable chunk of meat. Halle's was so tough I couldn't cut it, and Noah's was so tasteless, he barely ate 1/4 of it. Our server disappeared on us after serving the food so that we couldn't even tell her to take it back.... we had to ask the hostess to tell our server about it. Saw her do that, but the server never came back to the table (she even walked right past us to start chatting up a new table full of guys). Everyone else finished eating, and we finally asked to talk to the manager. We politely and calmly explained our dissatisfaction with the food and service (Brian's glass sat empty for 20 minutes). The manager wound up comping us the entire meal, plus gave us a card good for 3 free kids' meals on our next visit. We *will* go back, mostly because yesterday was quite atypical for that restaurant, and also because of the way the manager responded. There have been times we have had issues or questions in a restaurant and the managerial staff has responded defensively or made excuses; he did neither of those, but just apologized and asked for a chance to make it right. I appreciated that.

Came home and finished making this week's menu/shopping list, then headed to the commissary. Came home, put away groceries, then folded a couple of loads of laundry while watching the Oscars. There will be MUCH more laundry to do today. Brian helped the boys clean their room while I was shopping (and after I got back... and they still aren't done) and discovered a huge amount of clothing that hadn't been making its way to the laundry.

On the agenda this week in the evenings:

• a ball practice every evening from 5-6ish Mon-Fri, plus at least one on Saturday morning.
• Easter choir rehearsal for me tonight
  
• play rehearsals for Emily after school a couple days (not sure which)
• Tuesday night AWANA for Halle, growth group meeting for me and Brian
• Brian's regular Wed. evening group meeting
• Fri. night CR
  

Thursdays are happy nights; only Joel's ball practice to worry about (unless I have praise choir rehearsal...)

The mother of all bulleted lists

My infrequency of posting has left many to wonder if I am still alive. The answer is unequivocally yes.... although with the schedule we'll be keeping this spring, that may not hold true for long! There is much I haven't mentioned here, but not for lack of wanting to; I just haven't found the time. But here I sit, hubby out of town, oldest daughter spending the night away, and the other three happily entertaining themselves a few steps away. This may just be the perfect time to get everything all out in the open. What better way to do it than with bullets???

• We joined the ranks of Wii owners this Christmas. It was the surprise hit of the day. As a testimony to its appeal, I saw more of Emily in the 3 days following Christmas Day than I did in the 3 weeks prior! Favorite games are Wii Sports (Joel has actually bowled a perfect 300!), Wii Play, and Carnival Games. Emily is lobbying to get Guitar Hero III after playing it on a friend's PlayStation; she says she RULES it. That probably means I would *not* rule it. I would like to wait and see if Rock Band is going to be made for Wii; my sister says it is a lot of fun. According to Wikipedia, EA announced plans for a Wii version on Jan. 31, so we'll have to wait and see if that plays out.
  
• I think I mentioned that the boys will be playing baseball this spring. Noah started practice this week. He had practice Monday and Wednesday from 5-6, Friday for about 1/2 of that, but only because we had to leave early for Celebrate Recovery, and today from 9-11. So far, it looks like the same schedule for next week, but it may change. Got the call from Joel's coach today, and his first practice is this Thursday from 5-6, with a 15-min parent meeting before that. This will be very interesting, having 2 in sports at the same time; it's a first for us. No word yet on what days the actual games will be. To complicate matters, Noah's team will have to travel to some surrounding towns 30 minutes or so away to play, and possibly even to one about 2 hours away. And then there is coordinating all this with Emily's play rehearsals, which for now are on Tuesdays and Wednesdays after school until around 4. Thankfully, many of Noah's team members live here in our neighborhood, less than a block away, even.
  
• During the sports physicals the boys had to prepare for Little League, we found out Noah needed a more thorough vision exam. So now he is sporting glasses. Overall, his vision isn't too bad, but it seems that his right eye had been doing most of the work.
• 
• Halle finished up her first AWANA book this past week. She is starting on the second one now. She probably won't be able to finish it this year, but should get far enough along in it so that she will be able to get through both it and book 3 next year, which will put her right on track with where she should be.
• Still making it to the movies on occasion. Emily and I went to see 27 Dresses a few weeks ago. Just goes to show I cannot listen to any professional movie reviewers. I loved it. Don't want to give anything away for those who haven't seen it, but for those who have, I totally was in tears in the bridal shop scene with the sister. I was feeling Jane's pain.
  
• Halle and I went to see the Hannah Montana 3D movie. I actually missed the Super Bowl to take her. We got home just moments after the last play. Ah well, I think it was worth it.
  
• Tonight, the kids and I went to the base theater to catch The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything. Halle hadn't been all that keen on seeing it, but even she said it was better than she thought it would be. I appreciated the message of the story: Heroes don't have to be the biggest, bravest, or strongest. They just have to do what's right, even when it isn't easy. Good lesson for our kids to learn, and I can think of a lot of us adults who would do well to learn it as well.
• The dog training is going well. What I find almost inconceivable is how much the dogs actually like wearing their training collars/leashes. This training is not the typical food reward kind of training, so they aren't acting all happy because they know they're getting treats, that's for sure. But when they see me go get the leashes from the leash rack, they both get very excited. One thing we are working on right now is the down stay. They're both pretty good with it; one funny thing is that when I am working with Rory, Campbell will often put himself in a down stay at the same time. Then when he hears me give her the "clear" signal, he'll get up as well. What I really like doing is seeing how softly I can give the command and get a response. I can really almost whisper it. What we really need to work on now is practicing in places away from home (the park, stores... there are a few around here that are dog-friendly, like Home Depot/Lowes). I took Rory to the duck pond park here on base a few days ago and she was quite distracted by the sea gulls! the ducks! the geese! She actually pulled on the leash for the first time in literally months. She was acting more like a Pointer (not June, Anita, or Ruth) than a Great Dane.
• We have a family outing planned for Monday to go to Sacramento to see the Bodies Revealed exhibit. Unfortunately, no picture-taking is allowed. Bummer. I think it is going to be very cool. Halle really doesn't want to see it ("Mom, I'm a girl... I don't want to see dead bodies!"), but she is still coming along; Emily just plain doesn't want to go anywhere with her family unless it is to buy stuff for her, so we'll see if she goes or not.
  
• I never wrote a wrap-up post for the fall reading challenge. Suffice it to say that I did manage to read all that was on my list with the exception of one book that I traded in early on, plus several more. Since the end of the challenge, I haven't had as much opportunity to read; I'm missing it.
• To that end, I am looking forward to the unified study we are starting at church this week. As a church, we will be reading a book by Bill Hybels, Just Walk Across the Room: Simple Steps Pointing People to Faith. This will continue through to Easter; the sermons will relate to the book, as will our small group meetings. I've read the first chapter so far and liked what I read.
• Speaking of Easter, rehearsals for Easter choir started this past Monday night. Oops, one more thing to juggle on baseball practice night.
  

There... that's about it, I think. Hopefully you are still awake after all that. If I've left anything of importance out, it will probably come to me around 2am.

Sunday night stuff

Hard to believe the weekend is actually ending; harder still to believe that I'm actually ready for it to end. It was no day of rest today. Everybody worked in some way or fashion (although the kids finished up much quicker than the adults). The younger ones cleaned up their rooms and I worked on the living room. I managed to get my desk cleaned up and also ran the carpet cleaner. Brian worked outside, picking up the back yard and weedeating/edging, and Emily mowed. Brian also mowed and edged our neighbor's yard (her husband is deployed).

We had the above-mentioned neighbor and her kids over for dinner tonight as well. Brian grilled a tri-tip that we'd been marinating for a couple of days. Mmmmmm. It was delish.

Said friend is helping me figure out a new way to rearrange the furniture in the living room. Hopefully we'll have time to get it done next weekend.... it's possible that we could work on it in stages during the week. One idea actually involves moving the piano out of here and onto the landing between the two floors, while moving the bookcase that currently occupies that space to the upstairs landing. That would free up one wall in here. And now that we have the Macs, which are both wireless, we aren't tied down to keeping the computer desk next to the cable modem and router. That gives us a bit more flexibility with where we place them.

This week is going to be rather interesting... tomorrow afternoon the kids have an "enrichment" class with our church homeschool group in order to prepare for a field trip to Sutter's Fort next week. This event just got added into my plans today; I'd originally written off the whole field trip idea because the logistics of going to Sacramento and being back in time to pick Emily up from school were nigh impossible. However, I just found out that Emily won't have school the day of the field trip. So YAY... we get to go somewhere! (You wouldn't believe the cool field trips we miss out on because we have to be here to get Emily from school.)

This is getting so long, I'll bullet the rest of the agenda for the week:

• Monday night: Christmas choir rehearsal for me; kids' musical rehearsal for Halle.
• Tuesday: piano/guitar lessons in the afternoon (Halle and Noah), AWANA for Halle, small group meeting for me and Brian.
• Wednesday: base field trip for the kids where they will get a taste of what it is like to deploy; orthodontist appointment for Halle immediately following.
• Thursday: Base homeschool meeting in the evening.
• Friday: Celebrate Recovery in the evening... I am supposed to be part of the worship team.
  

I have a newsletter to finish up before that homeschool meeting Thursday night. All that and trying to get the week's schoolwork done.... I sure do understand why some folks advocate "better living through chemistry!"

Mac mama

I know... where have I been? It has been crazier than usual around here. The end of last week was fairly busy, what with Emily gone to her school retreat from Wednesday till Friday. Then Brian and I had the Celebrate Recovery kickoff at church on Friday night. We got there early to help set up, so we were basically there about 4 1/2- 5 hours.

Saturday was Joel's 7th birthday. We had a great time at the base bowling alley with a few of the neighbor kids, a couple of friends from church, and a couple of kids from our "backyard neighbor" family from the first house we lived in out here. Joel said it was the "best birthday ever." He even rated it higher than the one he spent at Disney World!

In news almost as big as Joel's birthday.... my IMac arrived yesterday! It is up and running with no trouble at all and I've managed to get my bookmarks and email addresses all transferred quite easily (thank goodness for Plaxo). I kinda miss my "right-click," but have begun learning the Mac way of doing things. I have so much more space on my desk now. Hopefully I can keep it uncluttered.

Monday night, Halle and I both went up to the church for rehearsals for the Christmas program for church. She is going to be part of the kids' musical and I will be singing in the adult Christmas choir. I missed the first rehearsal last week, but it won't be difficult to catch up. Thankfully, I don't have to learn it all by ear; we all have songbooks with musical notation. That certainly makes it easier for me, especially since I sing alto.

Tonight, Halle attended her first AWANA meeting while Brian and I attended a "growth group" from church. Our group is made up of about 6 couples... not too big and not too small. I'm looking forward to getting to know people better. Halle had a blast at AWANA and is busy working on learning her memory verses so she can get her first book and t-shirt. She has several "checkpoints" to complete, each with 2 verses to learn.

Tomorrow is hump day and means we will be on the downswing.... Brian has a meeting tomorrow night, though. Thursday will be Emily's early-out day at school (1:45), I may be attending worship team rehearsal that night, and then it will be Friday and time for Celebrate Recovery again. Oh yeah... no shortage of things to do here. Hopefully I won't put off blogging for another week!

Oh, I just remembered more news... Emily was chosen for Daybreak, the select choir at her school! Yay, Emily!

She writes

Sorry it has been so long. My mom even called a couple of days ago to make sure we were still alive out here. Still alive; still running to and from Em's school; still trying to keep up with laundry, housework, grocery shopping, and music lessons; still working on honing our home school routine. In other words, not much has been happening worth writing about.

Until now. Don't take that to mean I have something earth-shattering or mind-blowing. It's just that I finally have something to say that isn't just a blow-by-blow of our day. (OK; you can pick yourselves up off the floor now. And quit checking the forecast for hell.)

Item Number One: If you have the opportunity to go see No Reservations, grab it. Emily and I went earlier tonight and it was so worth the time. It won't solve the world hunger situation, but it really was a good time. Aaron Eckhart was a treat to watch (when isn't he?) and his scenes with Catherine Zeta Jones were great. The soundtrack was awesome as well. Michael Buble's rendition of Sway, plus lots of the late great Luciano Pavarotti, including Nessun Dorma.

Item Number Two: I came across a blog post a couple of days ago that really struck me. What's funny is that it's one of those passages that conjures up a lot of different emotions. Have you ever read anything that both convicted you and made you kinda mad?? I suppose the whole mad thing is just because it forced me to admit all kinds of unpleasant things about myself... and who likes to admit those kind of things?? I don't want to copy and paste it here; you can find this passage on any number of blogs, so I think it would be redundant for me to do that. I'll just give you the link where I read it. Please go read it, especially if you are a mom. And if you're not a mom, I still think you will take something away from it. Even though the person who wrote it was referring to the job of motherhood, I think it applies to us all... whatever we do in life.

Now, for those of you who tune in because you love hearing about our days, weeks, and months... Brian is gearing up for yet another TDY, this time to Virginia. He leaves in the morning and will be gone until Thursday. Emily leaves for her high school retreat on Wednesday and returns on Friday. The rest of us aren't going anywhere (unless crazy counts as a destination... no, wait; Scratch that. I can't go there and leave the kids alone.).

Wednesday ramblings

Ah, Hump Day, lovely Hump Day! It's all downhill from here. Although I suppose that's technically not true, since we have as many things planned for the last 2 days of the week as we had for the first 2-3.

Not even sure where to start today; I've had several topics/thoughts simmering somewhere in the back of my grey matter and I'm afraid if I don't try to pluck them out today, I will totally forget them. My short-term memory has been like a sieve lately... as in handing the tv remote to a child and then no less than 10-15 seconds later, looking for it as if I thought I still had it. On that note, I submit to you this video, emailed to me by my friend Rick (I swear, I thought he had bugged our house after I watched this!):

Guess I will get the TV stuff out of the way next. Heroes is getting better and better. I cannot believe there are only 2 episodes left. I am loving the twists and turns in the plot so close to the end. I am just hoping the ending isn't too much of a cliffhanger. Dancing with the Stars had some great dancing this week. I am totally shocked that Joey was in the bottom two. Does not make me happy one bit! And I felt bad for Billy Ray Monday night. He knows he can't dance. It really wasn't necessary for Bruno to call his dancing "crap." After weeks of enduring their criticism, that was the last straw for Billy Ray and he let Bruno have it. I think he was really hurt and I have a feeling he also regretted letting his temper get the best of him. Lastly... American Idol. Very interesting choice of Barry Gibb night. Should have made it easy for the ladies, since Barry usually sang in their range anyhow! Jordin was my favorite of the night. I thought she sounded great on both of her songs. Kiki didn't do it for me with either of hers. Hated both of them. Melinda sounded great on both of hers, but eh... she always does. I'm with Paula: she needs to give us something else to make us love her more. And despite the fact that I'm not really a beat box kind of person, I really got into Blake's You Should Be Dancin'. His second song was "a'ight," but would probably have been more enjoyable if he'd done something we all knew. I'm looking for Kiki to get the boot, but I guess Blake is vulnerable as well. I won't be happy if he goes this soon.

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I don't think I've mentioned on here that we are planning on moving into base housing as soon as something is available. That could be as early as next month or it might be the fall. From what I am hearing from folks I know on base, based on our position in the list and anecdotal references about who is moving out and when, the June/July timeframe sounds very possible. It is becoming increasingly expensive to live off base around here; we spend at least $1000 over our housing allowance each month to cover the rent and utilities. Of course, there will be trade-offs. We'll be downsizing from around 3400 sq. ft. to about 1400 sq. ft. Can you say "garage sale?" I knew you could. Thankfully, anything we don't want to part with but can't fit into the house will be kept in climate-controlled storage for us. Oh, and we don't have to move ourselves. Glory Hallelujah! There's nothing I enjoy less than packing and moving my own household goods. (OK, maybe there are a few things....)

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Today we have an orthodontist appointment in the morning for Noah. Then tomorrow morning, Halle gets her second tooth pulled. She already pulled the one that was loose, so that means she will be done with the extractions. Tomorrow evening is piano lessons for her and Noah. Then Friday morning we have a homeschool group activity on base. I have to remember to get to the store for some items I need for it before then. No new movies this week, so we should have a nice evening home on Friday night!

Air miles

The calendar, she is filling up. Of course, not for me... other than running kids to school, orthodontist, and gymnastics. No, yesterday my beloved sat a few feet away from me at his laptop and read off the schedule of all his flights for the upcoming weeks.

Trip #1: Next week he heads back to St. Louis for 3 days to meet with his siblings and the nursing home people to discuss his mom's care. He'll leave shortly after midnight Monday night and get home after midnight Thursday.

Trip #2: Thankfully, this is a short one. In the middle of April he will have to fly to Vancouver, BC for an evening meeting. He leaves one morning and returns the next.

Trip #3: This is the one that stinks. He is heading to Wichita Falls on April 22 and doesn't return until late evening May 2. During the time he is gone, Emily will leave and return from her choir trip to Chicago and I will miss the quarterly "Coffee and Tea with Mrs. P" hosted by Em's principal. There will probably be at least one orthodontist appointment in there as well, along with the usual gymnastics and piano lessons.

Oh, there will be a trip to San Antonio in June for him probably as well. Another required thing for him. He'd like it if the family could go along (the kids have wanted to see the Alamo for a long time), but who knows if we will have the finances for that. As much fun as it would be, I'd probably feel guilty we weren't somewhere else more important. I guess time will tell whether we sit at home for that trip or not.

So, anyone up for a trip to CA next month?